Abstract Ontogeny of diving and foraging behavior in marine top predators is poorly understood despite its importance in population recruitment. This lack of knowledge is partly due to the difficulties of monitoring juveniles in the wild, which is linked to high mortality early in life. Pinnipeds are good models for studying the development of foraging behaviors because juveniles are large enough to robustly carry tracking devices for many months. Moreover, parental assistance is absent after a juvenile departs for its first foraging trip, minimizing confounding effects of parental input on the development of foraging skills. In this study, we tracked 20 newly weaned juvenile southern elephant seals from Kerguelen Islands for up to 338 days during their first trip at sea following weaning. We used a new generation of satellite relay tags, which allow for the transmission of dive, accelerometer, and location data. We also monitored, at the same time, nine adult females from the colony during their post‐breeding trips, in order to compare diving and foraging behaviors. Juveniles showed a gradual improvement through time in their foraging skills. Like adults females, they remarkably adjusted their swimming effort according to temporal changes in buoyancy (i.e., a proxy of their body condition). They also did not appear to exceed their aerobic physiological diving limits, although dives were constrained by their smaller size compared to adults. Changes in buoyancy appeared to also influence their decision to either keep foraging or return to land, alongside the duration of their haul outs and choice of foraging habitat (oceanic vs. plateau). Further studies are thus needed to better understand how patterns in juveniles survival, and therefore elephant seal populations, might be affected by their changes in foraging skills and changes in their environmental conditions.


The arrangement of liturgical space influences the conduct and experience of worship in a great many ways. A style of preaching that is effective in a cathedral may not be appropriate in a country church. Music that sounds warm and rich in one room may seem thin and dull in another. What a congregation sees, how well it listens, how friendly or awed or expectant it feels, how it passes the peace, how readily it responds to humor, how long it can sit still, all these depend in part on architecture, furniture, lighting, and decoration. In most churches, liturgical space remains largely the same for years or decades on end, and leaders and congregations may not notice how deeply it is shaping their worship. But occasionally a church burns down, or requires major repairs, or becomes too small for growing numbers, or becomes too large for declining numbers, and as a result, issues of space are forced to the agenda, often with far-reaching implications for liturgy. One of the oldest churches in the Episcopal Church of Scotland faced such a crisis a generation ago. It decided on a radical change in space, and then found itself moving towards a radical change in liturgy. A visitor to this church in 2003 learned from its example that the relation between space and liturgy was more complicated than he had assumed. He had often visited beautiful church buildings with dying congregations and unconvinced worship. But here he was perhaps unjustifiably surprised to find the opposite, a remarkably drab room in which was gathered a happy, clear-sighted, and growing congregation, celebrating Christ in a sacred liturgy that was both recognizably Anglican and highly creative. Leith, which was amalgamated into Edinburgh in 1920, is a historic port town on the Firth of Forth, about two miles north of Edinburgh Castle. It was the principal way into and out of Scotland until 1707, when the Act of Union simplified overland traffic with England. From then until the advent of the railways in the nineteenth century Leith reaped prosperity from British imperialism and Scottish industrialization. Leith is divided into north and south by the river called the Water of Leith. The docklands of north Leith were notoriously seedy until the 1980s, when the area began to be reclaimed with civil service office buildings, a large shopping center, upscale restaurants, and the royal yacht Britannia, now permanently docked as a tourist attraction. South Leith, by contrast, was residential, with parks, squares, and villas. Its most famous parkland is Leith Links, where, according to locals, the rules of golf were first established in 1744, ten years earlier than at St. Andrew's. After the Napoleonic wars the Links were surrounded by comfortable housing in Georgian style for the well-to-do. The highlights of the ecclesiastical history of South Leith are summarized visually in one short block of its high street, which is called Constitution Street (named in protest against Roman Catholic Emancipation). Here stand South Leith Parish Kirk (Church of Scotland), St. Mary's Roman Catholic, and St. James' Episcopal. The last was built in 1862-65 by Sir Gilbert Scott, the indefatigable champion of the Gothic, the architect of St. Paneras Station and hundreds of other British churches and public buildings. It was modelled on Dunblane Cathedral in the style of the Scottish Gothic revival, and it received a fine 160-foot steeple with a chime of bells. But now it bears the sign "T.D. Jenkinson, Joinery Manufacturers," and is sadly dilapidated. The congregation sold the building around 1970, unable to afford the costs of heating and repairs. It then began meeting for worship in the old church hall, which was closed off from the church grounds and must be accessed from the next street east. It was a hard time for a church with a proud tradition. St. James' claims to date from 1694, and in Scotland no Episcopal church can be much older. InJuIy 1689 the Scottish Episcopal Church was legally disestablished, and in April 1690 the Episcopal clergy were ordered removed from their churches, manses, and glebes, so that they could be replaced by Presbyterians. …


Process control systems consist of numerous control loops, linked together in producing a particular product to be used for carrying out experiments or to be sold. For each of these loops, they are designed to ensure that significant flow parameters such as temperature, velocity, pressure, level, flow, etc. operate within a set range to ensure end product quality. Signal and disturbances for external control loops are sent to these control loops, or sometimes, generate their own internal disturbances, adversely affecting these variables. After measurement, comparison and calculation, the strategy that has been selected by the specific controller such as (Proportional, Proportional Integral, Proportional Integral Derivative, etc.) must be implemented by a final control element.

One common FCE (final control element) largely used in the industry for process control is the control valve. The manipulation of the flowing fluid, such as water, chemical compounds, steam, gas, etc., are done by the control valve for load disturbance to be compensated, and ensure that the process variable and the desired set point are as close as possible. Due to its importance in a flow loop, it is very important to know the control valve flow characteristics. Because of the fast development in simulating flow and using numerical technique for flow diagnostics, understanding flow inside the valve has become possible for the valve performance to be estimated.

This thesis investigates methods for diagnosing flow for both single phase and multiphase flow under various flow conditions and probe designs.

This thesis reports the results of experiments on the control valve flow characteristics using a range of statistical parameters obtained from: airborne acoustic signal microphone, vibration signal from an accelerometer on the valve body and fivehole multihole probes (MHP) placed ingeniously inside the valve at different sections of the valve inlet and outlet. An assessment on the behaviour of the fluid using these three methods has been presented.

For the multihole probe (MHP), different probe lengths and heights have been used to obtain local flow parameters and analyse how these parameters vary at different sections from inlet to outlet.

Detailed experimental investigations were conducted for diagnosing the valve flow behaviour. The signatures from these sensors (vibration and acoustic) have been analysed by making use of different statistical parameters including peak amplitude, kurtosis, RMS (root mean square), variance and Peak-to-Peak. In addition, both signals from the vibration and acoustic sensors were then transformed to frequency domain and analysed using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and mean frequency. Analyses for both signals in frequency domain were also carried out under various ranges of frequency. The results revealed that vibration technique gives a clearer picture into how the signal changes with different flow and valve behaviour. This research also found that frequency range between 0 to 1 KHz was more sensitive in determining the valve behaviour at various conditions. Concerning this research, it can be suggested that lower frequency range sensors (vibration and accelerometer) can be used to capture the behaviour of the control valve and detect any form of fault, which are cheaper than higher frequency range sensors.

The results also reveal that the combination of all of these techniques could be applied to increase the reliability of the valve and fault detection. The combination of all experimental methods can be considered robust, providing detailed information about the valve performance and flow diagnostics, hence, assisting in prolonging the valve life and protect the control system from any emergency shutdown.


: Bridges as structures, but also as a symbol, draw the best out of a human, because by connecting two sides, they certainly always connect rather than separate, unite without dividing. The tasks of builders of primal bridges were limited to pedestrian crossings. Those were the first natural or constructed crossings made of fallen trees that were used for the needs of the then users. Today, pedestrian bridges are gaining importance by being constructed not only for communication but also as a modern way of healthy living. Construction of any structure, including a pedestrian bridge, requires its control. All bridges, regardless of their length, width and purpose, have in common that they must be tested. The Regulation on load testing of bridges (JUS U.M1.046) is one of the parts of legislation that must be adhered to. This Regulation defines the test procedures and evaluation of the results of tests on structures. In addition to a brief insight into modern pedestrian bridges, this paper presents practical examples of load testing of pedestrian bridges conducted by the staff of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Mostar.


By the middle of the 20th century, pundits and intellectuals in the West generally took it for granted that secularism was the coming ideology and that religion would never again play a major role in public life. However, within a few years, it became clear that a militant piety had erupted in every major faith, dragging God and religion back to center stage from the sidelines to which they had been relegated. The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran showed the potential of this new form of faith. Western observers were astonished to see an obscure mullah overturning what had appeared to be one of the most progressive countries in the Middle East. "Who ever took religion seriously?" cried a frustrated official in the US State Department shortly after the revolution. But the United States itself had recently witnessed the rise of Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority, and a radical religiosity fueled the Arab-Israeli conflict on both sides. Despite these symptoms, the secularist establishment struggled to understand what was happening, even though it was clear that this so-called "fundamentalism" was becoming ever more extreme. The atrocities of September 11, 2001, showed that the West can no longer afford the old secularist disdain for religiously inspired politics, and that scholars must now study fundamentalism as attentively as any other ideology. "Fundamentalism" is an unsatisfactory word. Conservative Protestant theologians coined it in the early 20d: century to describe their reform movement: they wanted to go back to the "fundamentals" of the faith. But people in other religious traditions complain when this Christian term is applied to their own movements. Protestant fundamentalists, they argue, were chiefly concerned about dogma and theological belief, while Jewish or Muslim traditionalists have different priorities. Nevertheless, despite its inadequacy, the term fundamentalism has become a shorthand way of referring to a broad band of religious movements in all the major faiths that bear a strong family resemblance. While this short survey shall be confined to fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it is important not to forget the fundamentalism that has erupted in Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. There is also a form of secular fundamentalism, which opposes all forms of faith as belligerently as religious fundamentalists attack secularism. Religious fundamentalism represents a widespread rebellion against the hegemony of secularist modernity. Wherever a modern, Western-style society has been established, a religious counterculture has developed alongside it in conscious rebellion. Despite the arguments of politicians and intellectuals, people all over the world have demonstrated that they want to see more religion in public life. The various fundamentalist ideologies show a worrying disenchantment with modernity and globalization. Indeed, every single fundamentalist movement that I have studied in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is rooted in a profound fear of annihilation. All are convinced that the modern, liberal, secular establishment wants to wipe out religion. Each fundamentalist group has sprung up independently; each even differs significantly from other fundamentalists within their own faith tradition. But at the root of all these movements is the same visceral dread that is rapidly being transformed in some quarters into ungovernable rage. This should not surprise us; culture is always contested, and the proud secularism of Western modernity was almost bound to inspire a strong religions reaction. Not all religious conservatives are fundamentalists. The US evangelist Billy Graham, for example, is not a fundamentalist; he would not describe himself as such, nor would he be accepted in fundamentalist circles as one of their own. Graham has always been prepared to work with other Christians, while fundamentalists are more radical separatists. Fundamentalist movements usually follow a similar pattern in all three faiths. …


Information Technology is one of the fastest growing fields in regards to career vacancies so why is the Wake County Public School System not taking advantage of an opportunity to prepare their students for these in-demand jobs? The Wake County Public School System's Career and Technical Education high school programs reach over 40 000 students a semester. Only a small portion of that population is pursuing a course of instruction that prepares for employment opportunities in the Information Technology field. The job market for Wake County and the surrounding counties is filled with Information Technology opportunities so why isn't Wake County Public School System preparing their students to fill the vacancies? The goal of Career and Technical Education is to prepare students for high paying highly skilled and highly-demanded career possibilities. Information Technology is one field that fits this description. CTE has shown the importance of the field by creating a branch aptly named Business and Information Technology Education but how much of this department is actually geared toward the IT field? The county enrollment practices are a mismatch for the current available jobs in the local area. The Wake County Public School System has a very small portion of students who enroll in their Information Technology courses even though it is one of the bigger needs in the job market. In some cases school are not offering any IT courses for the students which is a large population of students who are never extended the opportunity to jump into a field within which they would have a great chance to become employed. With a plethora of IT companies that exist in the Triangle Area it seems that the Wake County Public School System would be able to work with employers to help develop a program that would effectively provide skilled employees for the businesses. The companies lack of involvement in the IT area of Wake County Public School System's BITE department shows disconnect between the employers and the school system. How feasible is it for the school system to create their own curricula that will prepare their students for these local and in demand job opportunities? Some of the IT curricula dates back as far as 1997. Most of the curricula were created within a year of 2005. Information Technology is an ever changing field and the curricula must address the changes or it is not meeting the needs of its students. The curriculum is not up-to-date enough to provide the students with a relevant education in the field. This research takes a look at solutions to this problem. The issues that limit Wake County Career and Technology will be discussed.


Time series data is used in many areas of research and various ways to represent this kind of data is available. However not a lot of research has been done to determine which kind of data representations leads to the best results when performing automated analysis of time series data. Five different neural networks have been tested with three different types of data representation as input in order to determine which of them leads to the best results. In order to further improve network performance four different kinds of data augmentations have also been tested in order to show which of these is most effective in improving network performance. The dataset used contains data from various earthquakes in the Groningen seismological region. Using spectrograms as input leads to a small performance increase in all cases when compared to the other data representations. Thus, spectrograms should be the first data representation to look at when deciding which data representation to use for analysing time series data. Keywords—[Time series, waveform, spectrogram, CNN, earthquake]


More than 60 years ago, Prof. S. Rusck introduced a coupling model to take into account the interaction of lightning-generated electromagnetic fields with overhead power transmission and distribution lines. The model which assumes that the ground is perfectly conducting has served the power system research community for many decades. Recently, it was found that this model is not complete because some of the forcing terms in the relevant transmission line equations, which are based purely on the scalar and vector potentials, were missing. In the present paper, the correct transmission line equations pertinent to the interaction of external electromagnetic fields with overhead lines, described in terms of scalar and vector potentials, are derived by incorporating the effects of a finitely conducting ground. The model presented in this paper can be considered as a correction and an extension of the Rusck model to account for a finitely conducting ground.


Volunteer supply is widespread, yet without a price inefficiencies occur due to suppliers' inability to coordinate with each other and with demand. For these contexts, we propose a market clearinghouse mechanism that improves efficiency if supply is altruistically provided. The mechanism, a registry, combines aggregate demand information with supplier's willingness to help, and invites volunteers to help only when excess demand occurs. We experimentally study three registries that include stochastic high-stakes demand and heterogeneous supplier costs. We find that all three registries improve efficiency dramatically; they eliminate unneeded costly help when demand is unexpectedly low and significantly increase supply (reduce shortages) otherwise. Further, two registries that invite exactly one registry member to help for each person needing help, rather than the third registry that continues asking members to help until someone helps, result in fewer people joining the registry, but those who join are more likely to help.


The group of contributors in this book come from academia and international organizations in Europe and the USA. They focus on trade unions, which affect real-wage flexibility and the provision of training to workers. They also concentrate on employment protection legislation, which discourages firms from firing old workers and also from hiring new ones. The structure of housing market imperfections that can greatly affect regional mobility is also discussed.


The design of a programmable receiver for an ultra wideband (UWB) communication is presented. The receiver is using a fast analog to digital converter (ADC) and a field programmable gate array (FPGA) allowing a rapid performance evaluation for various system architectures and signal processing algorithms. To demonstrate the performance and the versatility of the receiver, a simple communication system and a localization system are implemented. The accuracy of the latter is presented for an indoor environment.


In this book, the authors of "Improving Goverment Performance: An Owner's Manual"(Brookings, 1993) join with other public management experts for a look at both the practice and theory of reinventing government. In examining the movement's driving ideas, relationships with the government's workforce, and connections with the broader political community, they take stock of the boldest governmental reform movement in a generation. The authors assert that Vice President Gore's National Performance Review has sparked remarkable innovations by operating managers in federal agencies. The NPR, however, has unleashed broad changes throughout the federal government without building the new capacity in the Executive Office of the President required to manage the changing burdens of federal programs. The book appraises the many positive management reforms that federal managers have created, assesses the central political and administrative support that the White House must provide if the NPR is to be successful in the long run, and examines the lessons about the president's role in governmental management that the NPR's experiment in decentralised administration teaches. The contributors are Carolyn Ban, State University of New York (SUNY), Albany; Christopher H. Foreman, Jr., Brookings; Gerald J. Garvey, Princeton; Constance Homer, Brookings; and Beryl Radin, SUNY, Albany.


We describe a serial bideposition technique in which a tilted substrate is rotated stepwise by half a turn about a normal axis during the evaporation of a metal oxide from a single electron-beam source. Coatings formed by the new method develop a columnar nanostructure that is perpendicular to the substrate and has greatest width or bunching perpendicular to the common deposition plane. With appropriate choice of deposition parameters, the method produces biaxial films with large birefringence, principal axes aligned parallel and perpendicular to the substrate, and improved uniformity. Measured phase retardances for light incident normally on the films are double the corresponding values for tilted-columnar films.


This thesis outlines two Recoil Distance Doppler-Shift (RDDS) experiments to determine the mean-lifetimes of excited states in 103Pd and 106,107 Cd. The first experiment was performed at the Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory, Yale University (WNSL). This utilised the ESTU Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator, the New Yale Plunger Device (NYPD) and a variety of HpGe detectors to measure the reaction mu rays. Initially, a backed target experiment was undertaken to determine the level schemes of these nuclei. This fusion-evaporation experiment consisted of a 60 MeV 12C beam impinging on a 0.5mg/cm2 98Mo target with a 9mg/cm2 197Au backing. Thereafter, a RDDS experiment consisting of the same beam impinging on a 1.05mg/cm2 98Mo target with a separate 10mg/cm2 197Au 'stopper' at ten separate target-stopper distances of 11mum, 14mum, 18mum, 23mum, 28mum, 41mum, 56mum, 127mum, 330mum and 2008mum was performed. Prom an offline sort of the data, a series of angle versus angle, two dimensional matrices containing correlated prompt gamma-ray energies were created for each separate distances of the RDDS set. Analysis of these data yielded mean lifetimes of 11.4(17) ps, 8.2(6) ps, 0.89(25) ns and 1.7(6) ps for the Ipi=12+, 11-, 9- and 8- states in 106Cd, at excitation energies of 5418 keV, 4324 keV, 3678 keV and 3507 keV respectively. In addition, mean lifetimes of 31.2(44) ps and 31.4(17) ps were obtained for the states in 103Pd (at Ex = 1360 keV) and 107Cd (at Ex = 1262 keV), respectively. Finally, an upper limit of 4.3(6) ps has been deduced for the mean lifetime of the at Ex = 2168 keV in 107Cd. Prom these measurements, an associated beta2 deformation of 0.135(12) and 0.136(20) have been determined for the Ipi=12+ and 11- states in 106Cd, respectively (assuming axial symmetry). The value for the Ipi=12+ state in 106Cd compares well with predictions of Total Routhian Surface (TRS) calculations. The associated beta2 deformation of 0.12(1) for the state in 103Pd also agrees reasonably with TRS calculations. A second RDDS experiment was performed at the Institut fur Kernphysik, Universitat zu Koln. This utilised the Koln FN Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator, the Koln plunger and a selection of HpGe detectors to measure the reaction gamma rays. This experiment consisted of a 43 MeV 13C beam, impinging on a selection of 96Mo targets with a 6mg/cm2 197Au stopper. In total, measurements of gamma rays at twenty three different target-stopper distances were performed. Prom the subsequent analysis, a mean-lifetime of 17.0(9) ps for the Ipi=2+1 state in 106Cd was determined. Assuming axial symmetry, the associated beta2 deformation of this state is 0.13(1) is in agreement with the TRS prediction of 0.14. The value for the static quadrupole moment agrees with Projected Hartree-Pock-Bogoliubov (PHFB) calculations but deviates from the value reported by Raghavan.


Fluorescence microscopy is indispensable in many areas of science, but until recently, diffraction has limited the resolution of its lens-based variant. The diffraction barrier has been broken by a saturated depletion of the marker's fluorescent state by stimulated emission, but this approach requires picosecond laser pulses of GW/cm2 intensity. Here, we demonstrate the surpassing of the diffraction barrier in fluorescence microscopy with illumination intensities that are eight orders of magnitude smaller. The subdiffraction resolution results from reversible photoswitching of a marker protein between a fluorescence-activated and a nonactivated state, whereby one of the transitions is accomplished by means of a spatial intensity distribution featuring a zero. After characterizing the switching kinetics of the used marker protein asFP595, we demonstrate the current capability of this RESOLFT (reversible saturable optical fluorescence transitions) type of concept to resolve 50-100 nm in the focal plane. The observed resolution is limited only by the photokinetics of the protein and the perfection of the zero. Our results underscore the potential to finally achieve molecular resolution in fluorescence microscopy by technical optimization.


For much of the twentieth century, streets were designed to accommodate the ever increasing traffic flow, but it has become apparent that streets have many social and recreational functions which are severely impaired by fast car traffic. There is plenty of research on conditions for non-motorized transport and development of design measures on the streetscape to protect pedestrians and cyclists, but how places are made in the street is less studied and seldom implemented. In order to create more humanistic space in the street, we need to take consideration of people first, figure out how space can turn into a good place and which physical conditions will improve social life. This paper starts with pointing out the problems of ignoring social life in urban streets, and investigating the main theories and applications in contemporary western countries. After that, the thesis introduces literature on improving street life, including the books of Gehl: Cities for People (2010), New City Life (2006), and Burton and Mitchell: Inclusive Urban Design - Streets for life (2006), etc. Moreover, to see how these theories can be applied on a specific case, three streets in the town of Kristianstad are studied. This thesis is conducting an investigation on characteristics of these streets, observing social life in each street, and trying to figure out under which conditions does a street change from subduing social life to enhancing it. The theoretical tools and observation results of social life are all taken into the case study for practice, aiming at creating lively streets. My conclusions concern the primary factors for creating lively streets: location and role of the comparable streets in the overall traffic network, the characteristics of these streets and adjacent buildings, and the relationships between the physical conditions and the observed social life.


This paper links brand love and sports management, with the intention to identify the relationship of brand love with their constructs antecedents (self-expression, performance satisfaction and relationship satisfaction) and consequent (behavioral loyalty, attitudinal loyalty and positive word of mouth) and see if the soccer team is a moderating factor in these relationships . The theoretical model was based on Santana (2009) used in a survey with 270 fans of soccer rival teams: Sport Club Internacional and Gremio Football Portoalegrense. The results were analyzed by Structural Equation Modeling. It was identified that the soccer team is a moderating factor in the relations proposals. Thus, it is concluded that the study showed that sports management should be customized, as each team represents something different for their fans. Managers of sports marketing need first to know what image the team presents and what are the feelings involved.


From the Publisher:
The most up-to-date introduction to the field of computer networking, this book's top-down approach starts at the application layer and works down the protocol stack. It also uses the Internet as the main example of networks. This all creates a book relevant to those interested in networking today. By starting at the application-layer and working down the protocol stack, this book provides a relevant introduction of important concepts. Based on the rationale that once a reader understands the applications of networks they can understand the network services needed to support these applications, this book takes a "top-down" approach that exposes readers first to a concrete application and then draws into some of the deeper issues surrounding networking. This book focuses on the Internet as opposed to addressing it as one of many computer network technologies, further motivating the study of the material. This book is designed for programmers who need to learn the fundamentals of computer networking. It also has extensive material making it of great interest to networking professionals.


This is the third paper in a three-part series analyzing early impacts of California's 2013 adoption of the watershed Local Control Funding Formula. The state's move effectively shifted control over spending decisions from the state legislature to local school districts and eliminated a slew of state-imposed spending rules that many local districts saw as impediments to doing the most with their dollars. At the heart of California's initiative is a weighted student funding model, designed to allocate funds on the basis of students and student needs and to let districts (WSF) and schools drive decisions about how to use their funds. California has undertaken one of the nation's largest WSF overhauls to date. As such, its experience is of national interest as more states move toward—or consider moving toward—weighted student funding.


Section 84(2)(j) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 ("the Constitution") explicitly vests the power to pardon in the President and when exercised it sometimes unravels the outcome or result of a judicial process. Setting aside the decision of the judges made in terms of the law may be incompatible with the supremacy of the Constitution and with the independence of the judiciary. The issue is how can the pardon power be reconciled with the independence of the judiciary and related provisions.
This paper argues that the pardon power is constrained by the broader objectives and visions of the Constitution. Given its impact on the judicial process, it must be exercised in a manner that advances the public interest or good as opposed to the interests of the beneficiary of the pardon. It argues that the exercise of the pardon power is not administrative action and therefore not susceptible to review under section 33 of the Constitution and under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000 ("PAJA"). However, it is subject to review under the principles of legality. The paper tracks the development of the jurisprudence in this regard. It submits that it would be imprudent given the pronounced shift that appears to have occurred in Albutt v Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation 2010 5 BCLR 391 (CC), for presidential advisors to rely on the reasoning of the majority in Masetlha v President of the RSA 2008 1 BCLR 1 (CC) that the duty to act procedurally fairly is not a requirement under legality. After reviewing the cases on legality the paper argues that, in addition to incorporating a process so as not to irrationally exclude the victims, legality review requires the President to act lawfully, in a bona fide manner, and rationally. This would require justifying the decision to pardon. Rationality review under legality is a generic category which is capable of accommodating most, if not all, the grounds of review listed in PAJA. It concludes by submitting that the terrain regarding the control of executive power has most decidedly changed in the last few years and the new rules must be taken cognisance of in order not to create further unnecessary tension between the executive and the judiciary.


This dissertation examines the way in which techno-mediated communication technologies, such as social media, text messaging, and virtual communities are used to negotiate, establish and maintain interpersonal relationships among college students. Using indepth interview and online participant observation, I explore the relationship between technological communication and social behavior, interpersonal relationships and social networks. I focus on three broad questions: how do developments and structures of technological communication allow for the emergence of new social expectations and behaviors in the realm of connectivity and social interaction? How do individuals experience social pressures for connectivity and how do such pressures shape relationships? How is technology implicated in the way in which participants experience intimacy, relationships and individual identity? My findings suggest that there is a strong connection between the corporatizing discourse of rational labor practice that defines speed and efficiency as inherently valuable and the increased use of technology to provide a faster and more efficient form of interpersonal communication among participants. One unexpected consequence of this development has been the normalized hyper-connection between the students I studied. The incorporation of technological devices, such as smartphones, in interpersonal relationships combined with the high social value of speed is connected with the increased expectations about frequency of contact within friendships and sexual relationships. This desire for immediate contact, as well as increasing availability of information about potential relationship partners, contributes to a transformation of the experience of intimacy among participants. The Real Virtual World: Connectivity and Techno-mediation in the Lives of College Students.


This research examines the temporal range of subliminal priming effects on complex behavior. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants were subliminally primed with words either related or unrelated to intelligence before completing a practice exam, administered 1 to 4 days before an actual course midterm. Results revealed that the intelligence primes increased performance on the midterm compared to neutral primes. Experiment 1 demonstrated that being told that the priming task was designed to help exam performance moderated the effect of the intelligence primes. In Experiment 2, practice test performance mediated the effect of the primes on midterm performance. These experiments demonstrated that subliminal priming may have long-term effects on real-world behavior, and demonstrates one means by which long-term priming effects may occur.


Macedonia receives at least 4% of GDP as cash remittances per year while a third of the population faces poverty. The study has two objectives: first, to investigate if and to what extent remittances improve individual social indicators; and ii) to devise and ex-ante simulate the effects of Remittances' Voucher policy for transforming their potentially sheltering role into a formal mechanism for social protection. To that end, we rely on the DotM 2008 Remittances' Survey and a conditional mixed process estimator. We devise the Remittances' Voucher providing each remittance receiver who obtains the money through financial institution the right to a health protection equal to the average health expenditure if he/she sets 6% of the remitted money on a pension account. We find that remittances have a significant effect onto consumption and, hence, contribute to reducing poverty. This finding lends support to the claim that remittances serve an informal social protection in the country. We also find that the Remittances' Voucher policy may play a crucially positive impact on remittance receivers, as it improves poverty and the health condition, especially for females, rural dwellers and Macedonian recipients of remittances. The bold recommendation is for the government to introduce this policy into the array of social policies as means of framing remittances into more formal social protection.


Proceedings of the 14th International Business Information Management Association Conference (14th IBIMA), 23 - 24 June 2010, Istanbul, Turkey. (Business Transformation through Innovation and Knowledge Management: An Academic Perspective, edited by Khalid S. Soliman. On CD: ISBN: 978-0-9821489-3-8)


Family businesses contribute significantly to the growth of any nation. Many multinational corporations started as family businesses and so there is need to ensure family businesses continue to grow. The continued existence and growth of the businesses depend on the strategies that are in place and one of the key concerns for a family business is to retain the entrepreneurial spirit across generations and overcome retardation or avoid demise as the business grows.The business vision needs to be developed, implemented and changed by successive generations to accommodate growth and give a sense of ownership to the business. Family businesses have the potential to grow and become multinationals. A good example is Mabati Rolling Mills which started in 1961 in Nairobi's industrial area by the Chandaria family and is today a global player. This family business has propelled upwards due to the growth strategies they have continued to adopt.Mabati Rolling Mills has over the years adopted various growth strategies such as mergers, exporting, new product development, modernization, product differentiation and innovation and market research. These growth strategies have led to the growth and expansion of the company.


ABSTRACT.My paper contributes to the literature by providing evidence on the discrepancies in corporate criminal liability, the development of intergovernmental regimes to secure compliance and enforcement of corporations with international norms, the possibility of holding corporations responsible under investment agreements, and adequate mechanisms for treating corporations as subjects of international law. This study is grounded in the considerable body of scholarship examining the scope of corporate criminal liability, the development of international corporate responsibility, international regimes that are of particular interest to corporate responsibility, the role of corporate actors in the commission of international crimes, and the role of corporations in the commission of international crimes in conflict zones.Keywords: corporate criminal liability, responsibility, comparative law1. IntroductionMy analysis complements the growing literature on the concept of corporate criminal liability, the need for international regulation of corporate behavior, the liability and accountability of corporations for international crimes, and the prosecution of corporations for complicity in genocide. In this paper I am particularly interested in exploring the correlation between the development of corporate criminal liability and the growing influence of corporations, the increasingly important role that corporations play internationally, the blurring of the roles between states and corporations, and the ever-increasing economic and social influence that corporations have internationally.2. The Correlation between the Development of Corporate Criminal Liability and the Growing Influence of CorporationsSlawotsky claims that states have outsourced public functions and services1 to private entities such as corporations, assuming the role of private actor by becoming active participants in private markets. Large global corporations are at the epicenter of multifaceted governance systems. Large corporations share similar characteristics with state actors on the global stage, whereas traditionally state actors are operating in the arena of private corporate actors. A consequence of globalization is the rise of the state-like role of the large corporation.The above discussion indicates that large global corporations can be treated as actors similar to sovereigns. Ownership of large transnational enterprises constitutes authority. Slawotsky explains that in today's global economy, states are private market actors in the private realm, whereas private corporations engage in public actor functions.Global corporations engage in misconduct that can cause severe harm in the nations those private entities operate in. Immunization from legal liability may play a role in the decision to conduct business in a foreign state. [...] To treat the large global corporation as not being subject to international law will potentially allow multinationals to engage in liability arbitrage. Such corporations can transfer litigation risk by selecting jurisdictions to engage in misconduct known for weak sovereign power.2Kyriakakis examines the proposal for a non-criminal corporate liability regime under the ICC Statute. Many states do not delineate between natural persons and legal persons for the purpose of criminal law. The ICC Statute may have avoided the question of corporate liability for international crimes by limiting the Court's jurisdiction to natural persons, does not demand that states adopt criminal laws for the purpose of prosecuting perpetrators of international crimes, and envisages that states will primarily apply their criminal law to conduct proscribed by the Treaty.In sum, there is considerable theoretical support for the notion that both criminal and non-criminal corporate liability3 may be sufficient to achieve the outcomes sought by international criminal justice. Kyriakakis argues that civil liability regimes are more efficient and effective in terms of deterring unlawful conduct in the corporate context than criminal regimes. …


Artefacts, Technicity and Humanisation industrial design and the problem of anoetic technologies Stephen james Thompson This thesis concerns the intellectual heritage and autonomy of West European and American industrial design as a discourse community at a moment when biotechnological developments are challenging the certainty of what it means to be human. Proceeding from the assumption that industrial design is an autonomous intellectual engagement played out through the interpretation of technology as an artefact, the thesis identifies how this is a critical moment for industrial designers, who appear to be unable to respond to a problem of the apparent disconnection and the progressive displacement of the human in reference to technology. The thesis identifies the cause of this as the understanding of the artefact, which has conventionally been placed at the centre of its analysis. The way that this has been constructed has not only impacted on design solutions but has led to a particular understanding of technology. lt is this understanding of the artefact that has ceased to be sustainable and has precipitated the crisis. The thesis argues that, by revisiting the artefact as a mutable consequence of culture, it is possible to relieve the problem by opening up the scope for finding new methodological approaches. These can be used to develop design strategies that are sufficiently subtle and coherent in their terms to engage with the open complexity of future discussions of the distributed and enacted human.


Here you will find resources from Mental Health Matters, which we are now giving them a home on our website. If you are interested in finding out more about mental health or Mental Health Matters, please email email@example.com [1] or click here [2]. The Resources Chester Pack 1 in 4 [3] : a pastoral resource commissioned originally by the Diocese of Chester. Understanding Mental Health [4] : a guide by Oxford Diocese. Prayers on a Mental Health theme [5] Poems and Reflections on Mental Health [6] Bible Readings on a Mental Health theme [7] Worship Resources for World Mental Health Day [8] Hymns, songs and chants [9]from Mental Health Matters Hymns for World Mental Health Day [10] Mental Health, Healing and Faith [11]by Revd Christopher Newell, Chaplain in the Dept of Spiritual and Pastoral Care, Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Social Issue: Mental Health [12]


The kouprey is one of the most endangered species of mammals in the world. This Action Plan has been developed by IUCN in collaboration with the Governments of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, and a number of zoos and conservation organisations. The plan forms the basis of the collaborative Kouprey conservation programme coordinated by IUCN.


Melanoma is deadly, physically impairing, and has ongoing treatment deficiencies. Current treatment regimens include surgery, targeted kinase inhibitors, immunotherapy, and combined approaches. Each of these treatments face pitfalls, with diminutive five-year survival in patients with advanced metastatic invasion of lymph and secondary organ tissues. Polyphenolic compounds, including cannabinoids, terpenoids, and flavonoids; both natural and synthetic, have emerging evidence of nutraceutical, cosmetic and pharmacological potential, including specific anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and palliative utility. Cannabis sativa is a wellspring of medicinal compounds whose direct and adjunctive application may offer considerable relief for melanoma suffers worldwide. This review aims to address the diverse applications of C. sativa's biocompounds in the scope of melanoma and suggest it as a strong candidate for ongoing pharmacological evaluation.


The objective of this study is to study the removal of phosphate (PO43− ) and fluoride (F−) by using calcite from the thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) manufacturing wastewater. The highest phosphate adsorption capacity of 40.65 mg/g calcite was found at pH 6.5. It is proposed that both adsorption and precipitation were involved in the removal of phosphate and fluoride. Solid characterisation inferred the evidence of calcium phosphate precipitations, mainly brushite (CaHPO4 • 2H2O) and HAP (Ca10(PO4)6(OH) 2) at pH around 5. The presence of fluoride tends to inhibit the removal of phosphate. Fluoride removal, as high as 85.2%, was obtained at pH 6.5 and calcite dosage of 10 g/L, and the main mechanism was through fluorite (CaF2) precipitation, and adsorption onto brushite and HAP. Results show that calcite is an effective adsorbent for phosphate and fluoride removal from TFT-LCD wastewater.


Purpose People who stutter (PWS) have more unstable speech motor systems than people who are typically fluent (PWTF). Here, we used real-time magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the vocal tract to assess variability and duration of movements of different articulators in PWS and PWTF during fluent speech production. Method The vocal tracts of 28 adults with moderate to severe stuttering and 20 PWTF were scanned using MRI while repeating simple and complex pseudowords. Midsagittal images of the vocal tract from lips to larynx were reconstructed at 33.3 frames per second. For each participant, we measured the variability and duration of movements across multiple repetitions of the pseudowords in three selected articulators: the lips, tongue body, and velum. Results PWS showed significantly greater speech movement variability than PWTF during fluent repetitions of pseudowords. The group difference was most evident for measurements of lip aperture using these stimuli, as reported previously, but here, we report that movements of the tongue body and velum were also affected during the same utterances. Variability was not affected by phonological complexity. Speech movement variability was unrelated to stuttering severity within the PWS group. PWS also showed longer speech movement durations relative to PWTF for fluent repetitions of multisyllabic pseudowords, and this group difference was even more evident as complexity increased. Conclusions Using real-time MRI of the vocal tract, we found that PWS produced more variable movements than PWTF even during fluent productions of simple pseudowords. PWS also took longer to produce multisyllabic words relative to PWTF, particularly when words were more complex. This indicates general, trait-level differences in the control of the articulators between PWS and PWTF. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14782092


Europeana Travel is a targeted project for cultural content in the target area digital libraries of the eContentplus 2008 Work Programme funded by the European Commission. Its overall objective is to digitise content on the theme of travel and tourism for use in Europeana as requested by the EDL Foundation. The themed content will come from the wonderful collections of major university libraries and national libraries. The project is supported by CENL and LIBER, two founder members of the EDL Foundation, and by the Foundation itself. A secondary objective of the project is further to strengthen collaboration between CENL and LIBER by extending their experience of joint working, thus increasing human interoperability in support of Europeana. Other objectives include creating a LIBER closed access aggregation service to aggregate material from LIBER members for Europeana, continuing to mobilise support for Europeana amongst university libraries in a systematic way, and supporting the spread of best practice in digitisation by libraries. The consortium's 19 members include 17 library members providing content from 16 countries drawn roughly equally from the membership of CENL and LIBER and from all European regions. The project will run for two years and work closely and flexibly with the Europeana team. The EuropeanaTravel project was launched in Tallinn on 11 May 2009 and this article has been compiled to celebrate that event.


In this paper we investigate the physical spectrum of the gravitational theory based on the Poincaré group with terms that are at most quadratic in tetrad and spin connection, allowing for the presence of parity-even as well as parity-odd invariants. We determine restrictions on the parameters of the action so that all degrees of freedom propagate and are neither ghosts nor tachyons. We show that the addition of parity non-conserving invariants extends the healthy parameter space of the theory. To accomplish our goal, we apply the weak field approximation around flat spacetime and in order to facilitate the analysis, we separate the bilinear action for the excitations into completely independent spin sectors. For this purpose, we employ the spin-projection operator formalism and extend the original basis built previously, to be able to handle the parity-odd pieces.


Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the incremental cost-effectiveness of on-demand versus prophylactic hemophilia therapy in Iran from a third-party payers' perspective. Methods: A retrospective chart review of twenty-five type A hemophiliacs who were treated in three hemophilia treatment centers was conducted. The patients were boys 0–9 years old receiving one of two treatments: (i) prophylaxis with concentrate at clinic; (ii) concentrate at clinic as on-demand. Fourteen boys received on-demand infusions for bleeding events, and eleven boys received infusions prophylaxis. Data were extracted from documents in the hemophilia treatment centers during a period of approximately 6 months. Results: The patients receiving prophylactic treatment had fewer bleeding events each month (mean, 0.26 versus 2.74) but used more concentrate (225.31 versus 87.20 units/kg per month). Average monthly cost per patient in the prophylaxis group was approximately 1.9 times higher than in the on-demand group. Compared with on-demand infusion, prophylaxis costs 3,201,656 Rials (€213.45) per bleeding event prevented. Conclusion: Prophylactic care markedly reduces the number of bleeding episodes, but at considerable cost.


There is a great need for standards in the orthology field. Users must contend with different ortholog data representations from each provider, and the providers themselves must independently gather and parse the input sequence data. These burdensome and redundant procedures make data comparison and integration difficult. We have designed two XML-based formats, SeqXML and OrthoXML, to solve these problems. SeqXML is a lightweight format for sequence records-the input for orthology prediction. It stores the same sequence and metadata as typical FASTA format records, but overcomes common problems such as unstructured metadata in the header and erroneous sequence content. XML provides validation to prevent data integrity problems that are frequent in FASTA files. The range of applications for SeqXML is broad and not limited to ortholog prediction. We provide read/write functions for BioJava, BioPerl, and Biopython. OrthoXML was designed to represent ortholog assignments from any source in a consistent and structured way, yet cater to specific needs such as scoring schemes or meta-information. A unified format is particularly valuable for ortholog consumers that want to integrate data from numerous resources, e.g. for gene annotation projects. Reference proteomes for 61 organisms are already available in SeqXML, and 10 orthology databases have signed on to OrthoXML. Adoption by the entire field would substantially facilitate exchange and quality control of sequence and orthology information.


We consider the problem of finding "backbones" in multihop wireless networks. The backbone provides end-to-end connectivity, allowing nonbackbone nodes to save energy since they do not have to route nonlocal data or participate in the routing protocol. Ideally, such a backbone would be small, consist primarily of high capacity nodes, and remain connected even when nodes are mobile or fail. Unfortunately, it is often infeasible to construct a backbone that has all of these properties; e.g., a small optimal backbone is often too sparse to handle node failures or high mobility. We present a parameterized backbone construction algorithm that permits explicit trade-offs between backbone size, resilience to node movement and failure, energy consumption, and path lengths. We prove that our scheme can construct essentially best possible backbones (with respect to energy consumption and backbone size) when the network is relatively static. We generalize our scheme to build more robust structures better suited to networks with higher mobility. We present a distributed protocol based upon our algorithm and show that this protocol builds and maintains a connected backbone in dynamic networks. Finally, we present detailed packet-level simulation results to evaluate and compare our scheme with existing energy-saving techniques. Our results show that, depending on the network environment, our scheme increases network lifetimes by 20 percent to 220 percent without adversely affecting delivery ratio or end-to-end latency.


Guanylyl cyclases are a family of enzymes that catalyze the conversion of GTP to cGMP. The family comprises both membrane-bound and soluble isoforms that are expressed in nearly all cell types. They are regulated by diverse extracellular agonists that include peptide hormones, bacterial toxins, and free radicals, as well as intracellular molecules, such as calcium and adenine nucleotides. Stimulation of guanylyl cyclases and the resultant accumulation of cGMP regulates complex signaling cascades through immediate downstream effectors, including cGMP-dependent protein kinases, cGMP-regulated phosphodiesterases, and cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channels. Guanylyl cyclases and cGMP-mediated signaling cascades play a central role in the regulation of diverse (patho)physiological processes, including vascular smooth muscle motility, intestinal fluid and electrolyte homeostasis, and retinal phototransduction. Topics addressed in this review include the structure and chromosomal localization of the genes for guanylyl cyclases, structure and function of the members of the guanylyl cyclase family, molecular mechanisms regulating enzymatic activity, and molecular sequences coupling ligand binding to catalytic activity. A brief overview is presented of the downstream events controlled by guanylyl cyclases, including the effectors that are regulated by cGMP and the role that guanylyl cyclases play in cell physiology and pathophysiology.


In the genome of Drosophila melanogaster, four genes coding for aldehyde oxidases (AOX1–4) were identified on chromosome 3. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the AOX gene cluster evolved via independent duplication events in the vertebrate and invertebrate lineages. The functional role and the substrate specificity of the distinct Drosophila AOX enzymes is unknown. Two loss-of-function mutant alleles in this gene region, low pyridoxal oxidase (Polpo) and aldehyde oxidase-1 (Aldox-1n1) are associated with a phenotype characterized by undetectable AOX enzymatic activity. However, the genes involved and the corresponding mutations have not yet been identified. In this study we characterized the activities, substrate specificities and expression profiles of the four AOX enzymes in D. melanogaster. We show that the Polpo-associated phenotype is the consequence of a structural alteration of the AOX1 gene. We identified an 11-bp deletion in the Polpo allele, resulting in a frame-shift event, which removes the molybdenum cofactor domain of the encoded enzyme. Furthermore, we show that AOX2 activity is detectable only during metamorphosis and characterize a Minos-AOX2 insertion in this developmental gene that disrupts its activity. We demonstrate that the Aldox-1n1 phenotype maps to the AOX3 gene and AOX4 activity is not detectable in our assays.


Positioning and mapping can be conducted accurately by state-of-the-art state estimation methods. However, reliability of these methods is largely based on avoiding degeneracy that can arise from cases such as scarcity of texture features for vision sensors and lack of geometrical structures for range sensors. Since the problems are inevitably solved in uncontrived environments where sensors cannot function with their highest quality, it is important for the estimation methods to be robust to degeneracy. This paper proposes an online method to mitigate for degeneracy in optimization-based problems, through analysis of geometric structure of the problem constraints. The method determines and separates degenerate directions in the state space, and only partially solves the problem in well-conditioned directions. We demonstrate utility of this method with data from a camera and lidar sensor pack to estimate 6-DOF ego-motion. Experimental results show that the system is able to improve estimation in environmentally degenerate cases, resulting in enhanced robustness for online positioning and mapping.


Topological materials have become the focus of intense research in recent years, since they exhibit fundamentally new physical phenomena with potential applications for novel devices and quantum information technology. One of the hallmarks of topological materials is the existence of protected gapless surface states, which arise due to a nontrivial topology of the bulk wave functions. This review provides a pedagogical introduction into the field of topological quantum matter with an emphasis on classification schemes. Both fully gapped and gapless topological materials and their classification in terms of nonspatial symmetries, such as time reversal, as well as spatial symmetries, such as reflection, are considered. Furthermore, the classification of gapless modes localized on topological defects is surveyed. The classification of these systems is discussed by use of homotopy groups, Clifford algebras, K theory, and nonlinear sigma models describing the Anderson (de)localization at the surface or inside a defect of the material. Theoretical model systems and their topological invariants are reviewed together with recent experimental results in order to provide a unified and comprehensive perspective of the field. While the bulk of this article is concerned with the topological properties of noninteracting or mean-field Hamiltonians, a brief overview of recent results and open questions concerning the topological classifications of interacting systems is also provided.


We propose a method to combine the interpretability and expressive power of firstorder
logic with the effectiveness of neural network learning. In particular, we introduce
a lifted framework in which first-order rules are used to describe the structure of a given
problem setting. These rules are then used as a template for constructing a number of
neural networks, one for each training and testing example. As the different networks corresponding
to different examples share their weights, these weights can be efficiently learned
using stochastic gradient descent. Our framework provides a flexible way for implementing
and combining a wide variety of modelling constructs. In particular, the use of first-order
logic allows for a declarative specification of latent relational structures, which can then be
efficiently discovered in a given data set using neural network learning. Experiments on 78
relational learning benchmarks clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework.


Abstract : Software product line practice is an effective strategy for developing families of software-intensive products. Business modeling is a fundamental practice that provides input into a number of decisions that are made by organizations using or considering using the product line strategy. This report presents the Structured Intuitive Model of Product Line Economics (SIMPLE), a general-purpose business model that supports the estimation of the costs and benefits in a product line development organization. The model supports decisions such as whether to use a product line strategy in a specific situation, the specific strategy to apply, and the appropriateness of acquiring or building specific assets. This report illustrates the model's scope by presenting several scenarios as well as its usefulness by integrating it into several product line practice patterns. The report ends with a description of future work aimed at making the model usable by product line practitioners.


To faithfully simulate ITER and other modern fusion devices, one must resolve electron and ion fluctuation scales in a five-dimensional phase space and time. Simultaneously, one must account for the interaction of this turbulence with the slow evolution of the large-scale plasma profiles. Because of the enormous range of scales involved and the high dimensionality of the problem, resolved first-principles global simulations are very challenging using conventional (brute force) techniques. In this thesis, the problem of resolving turbulence is addressed by developing velocity space resolution diagnostics and an adaptive collisionality that allow for the confident simulation of velocity space dynamics using the approximate minimal necessary dissipation. With regard to the wide range of scales, a new approach has been developed in which turbulence calculations from multiple gyrokinetic flux tube simulations are coupled together using transport equations to obtain self-consistent, steady-state background profiles and corresponding turbulent fluxes and heating. This approach is embodied in a new code, Trinity, which is capable of evolving equilibrium profiles for multiple species, including electromagnetic effects and realistic magnetic geometry, at a fraction of the cost of conventional global simulations. Furthermore, an advanced model physical collision operator for gyrokinetics has been derived and implemented, allowing for the study of collisional turbulent heating, which has not been extensively studied. To demonstrate the utility of the coupled flux tube approach, preliminary results from Trinity simulations of the core of an ITER plasma are presented.


In Japan, a lot of elderly housing types have been developed in order to meet various needs of the older person and the change of social situations. Elderly housings can be divided into three categories elderly housings for healthy older persons, elderly care homes for the healthy and elderly care facilities for the unhealthy. Elderly housings include public and private rental housings. Sometimes they can be designated only for the elderly. Elderly care homes for the healthy elderly include full fee charging elderly housing, elderly homes, low fee charging elderly homes and care houses. Elderly care facilities for the unhealthy elderly consist of full fee charging elderly care homes, group homes for the dementia, elderly health facilities, nursing homes, elderly hospitals, and so on. However "elderly care facilities" have been proved not to be efficient for the delivery of elderly welfare services nor satisfactory to the frail older person. Therefore, based on the concept of the "Normalization", daily services have been provided for the elderly in order that they can live at their own home in the community for themselves. As a result, Japan aims not only to reduce elderly welfare expenses but also to increase elderly users' satisfaction. Emphasis on non-institutionalization and in-home services, regional characterization, harmony between Hard and Soft, user oriented services, substantiality, universal design and so on are sought for the sake of those goals.


This thesis describes the synthesis and properties of systems of the general type ML(_x)-bridge- ML(_x), and related 'mixed-valence' derivatives. The efficacy of the l.l'-ferrocenediyl unit (Fc') as a bridge between two redox-active metal centres, is investigated by examination of the properties of a series of complexes, 1,1'-{Cp'(PP)RuC=C}(_2)Fc', and the related binuclear model systems Ru(C=CFc)(PP)Cp'. Whilst interactions through an ethyndiyl bridge occur between one Ru(PP)Cp' moiety and a ferrocenyl centre, in the l,l'-{Cp'(PP)RuC=C}(_2)Fc' systems no interaction between the terminal Ru(PP)Cp' groups is observed. A comparative study of the redox and spectroscopic properties of the family of complexes [{Ru}(_2)(u-C≡CXC≡C)](^n+) [{Ru} = Ru(PPh(_3))(_2) Cp, Ru(dppe)Cp*; X = 1,4- C(_6)H(_4), l,4-C(_10)H(_6), 9,10-C(_14)H(_8); n = 0, 1, 2] is presented, together with those of the related mononuclear compounds. Comparison of the results with DFT calculations of the electronic structure allows the properties of the diethynylaryl-bridged, bimetallic complexes to be rationalised in terms of a significant contribution of the diethynylaryl bridging ligand to the SOMO. The electronic properties of the 1,12-diethynyl carborane-bridged species 1,12- {Ru(dppe)Cp*}(_2)(u-C≡C-CB(_10)H(_10)C-C≡C), and the related mononuclear complex Ru(C≡C-CB(_10)H(_10)H)(dppe)Cp*, are assessed by a combination of electrochemical and spectroscopic techniques. The results allow a comparison of the 'three-dimensional' aromatic spacer l,12-C(_2)BH(_10) with the phenylene analogue. Explorations of the acetylide chemistry of the Fe(dppe)'_n' fragment are described. The resulting air stable complexes provide a convenient entry point to the acetylide chemistry of the octahedral iron fragment. The details of additional crystal structures obtained by single crystal X-ray diffraction methods, together with a brief description of the chemistry associated with them, are presented in the appendix.


Mutations in the leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) gene cause late-onset, autosomal dominant familial Parkinson's disease (PD) and also contribute to idiopathic PD. LRRK2 mutations represent the most common cause of PD with clinical and neurochemical features that are largely indistinguishable from idiopathic disease. Currently, transgenic mice expressing wild-type or disease-causing mutants of LRRK2 have failed to produce overt neurodegeneration, although abnormalities in nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurotransmission have been observed. Here, we describe the development and characterization of transgenic mice expressing human LRRK2 bearing the familial PD mutations, R1441C and G2019S. Our study demonstrates that expression of G2019S mutant LRRK2 induces the degeneration of nigrostriatal pathway dopaminergic neurons in an age-dependent manner. In addition, we observe autophagic and mitochondrial abnormalities in the brains of aged G2019S LRRK2 mice and markedly reduced neurite complexity of cultured dopaminergic neurons. These new LRRK2 transgenic mice will provide important tools for understanding the mechanism(s) through which familial mutations precipitate neuronal degeneration and PD.


Purpose: To describe wedge-shaped subretinal hyporeflectivity, a peculiar spectral domain optical coherence tomography finding in geographic atrophy (GA) areas of atrophic age-related macular degeneration. Methods: We reviewed the charts of consecutive patients with GA who presented between January 2012 and December 2013. A standardized imaging protocol was performed in all patients, which included blue fundus autofluorescence, and spectral domain optical coherence tomography. Results: Wedge-shaped subretinal hyporeflective lesions were found in 12 of 161 included eyes (11 of 94 consecutive patients, 6 males/5 females, mean age 79.6 ± 9.3 years). On spectral domain optical coherence tomography, regions immediately adjacent to the wedge-shaped subretinal hyporeflective lesions were characterized by absence of the hyporeflective outer nuclear layer, the hyperreflective external limiting membrane, the ellipsoid zone, the interdigitation zone, and the retinal pigment epithelium. On "en face" images, they appeared as round-oval hyporeflectivities delimited by hyperreflective borders, which we interpreted as the outer plexiform layer. Mean GA area was significantly larger in eyes with as compared with eyes without wedge-shaped subretinal hyporeflective lesions. Overall, the dimensions of the wedge-shaped subretinal hyporeflective lesions did not change after a mean of ∼15 months. Conclusion: Wedge-shaped subretinal hyporeflectivity, a previously unreported peculiar finding in GA areas of atrophic age-related macular degeneration eyes, appears delimited internally by the hyperreflective outer plexiform layer and externally by the hyperreflective Bruch membrane. These lesions, which are detected in eyes with large GA (even though stable over time), should be recognized and distinguished from subretinal fluid (and other exudative signs of age-related macular degeneration) because their presence should not require prompt treatment.


Research has suggested that Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) may be effective in facilitating meaningful change for those living with chronic pain. This study aimed to further this understanding through exploring the experiences of people living with chronic pain, who had attended an 8-week solution-focused pain management programme. The design of this study was conducted in consultation with a service-user advisory group, and employed a qualitative and interpretative design rooted in critical community psychology, participatory research frameworks and emancipatory disability research. Five participants opted-in to the study following an opportunity sampling method of persons who had attended a programme in the last 18 months. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Five main themes were identified: 'Accessing the pain management programme', 'A solution-focused group', 'The solution-focused clinician', 'Solutions and changes' and 'Challenges and improvements'. Clinical and research implications of the findings are discussed. Summary points There has been an international proliferation of pain management programmes (PMPs) aimed at helping those with chronic pain to live well, despite an unremitting condition. Arguably, the most popular psychological approaches used within PMPs are informed by cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Despite a supportive evidence base for psychological approaches in pain management, there is a recognised need for further research into alternative approaches and their effectiveness. Emerging research and policy recommendations are beginning to value the expertise of those living with chronic conditions, particularly how these perspectives can be used to develop effective treatments and services. SFBT is an approach aimed at achieving a patient's goals or 'preferred future' through identifying and utilising their expertise. SFBT may have significant efficacy in helping those with chronic conditions to live improved, meaningful lives.


Despite many advances in technology, interaction and colocated collaboration, there is little knowledge of how children communicate around interactive tables. Key to the success of peer collaborations is the extent to which children communicate and the nature of the talk that contributes towards successful learning. Our work examines the communication patterns of children across various conditions of table-based interaction for different types of educational activities. We present two studies to investigate the communication patterns. Our findings provide insights into the design of interactive tables to support particular forms of social interaction towards understanding how the next generation of HCI will impact our children's education in the future.


In recent years, mobile communication traffic has continuously been shifting from being dominated by voice-call traffic with symmetric uplink / downlink capacity requirements to burst-like traffic with strongly fluctuating capacity requirements depending on instantaneous file upload / download activities by mobile users. Consequently, LTE, which was originally designed with fixed FDD or TDD modes with little flexibility for varying the capacity split between uplink and downlink, is being augmented with features that allow for more flexible use of radio resources. One of these features is "enhanced Interference Mitigation and Traffic Adaptation" (eIMTA) which notably allows for very dynamic adaptation of the TDD pattern e.g. in response to varying capacity requirements in uplink and downlink. eIMTA was standardized in LTE-A Release 12 and eIMTA-like functionality is considered to be one of the key enablers for 5G technologies. The purpose of this paper therefore is to shed some light on eIMTA, its main characteristics and capabilities and to illustrate its behaviour by means of system-level simulations.


Psychologically motivated, lexicon-based text analysis methods such as LIWC (Pennebaker et al., 2015) have been criticized by computational linguists for their lack of adaptability, but they have not often been systematically compared with either human evaluations or machine learning approaches. The goal of the current study was to assess the effectiveness and predictive ability of LIWC on a relationship goal classification task. In this paper, we compared the outcomes of (1) LIWC, (2) machine learning, and (3) a human baseline. A newly collected corpus of online dating profile texts (a genre not explored before in the ACL anthology) was used, accompanied by the profile writers' self-selected relationship goal (long-term versus date). These three approaches were tested by comparing their performance on identifying both the intended relationship goal and content-related text labels. Results show that LIWC and machine learning models correlate with human evaluations in terms of content-related labels. LIWC's content-related labels corresponded more strongly to humans than those of the classifier. Moreover, all approaches were similarly accurate in predicting the relationship goal.


The Precautionary Principle enjoys widespread international support. But what does the principle mean or require? There are numerous definitions, and they are not all compatible with one another. We can imagine a continuum of understandings. At one extreme are weak versions to which no reasonable person could object; at the other extreme are strong versions that would appear to call for a fundamental rethinking of regulatory policy. ll over the world, there is increasing interest in a simple idea for the regulation of risk: the Precautionary Principle. Simply put, the principle counsels that we should avoid steps that will create a risk of harm; until safety is established through clear evidence, we should be cautious. In a catchphrase: Better safe than sorry. In ordinary life, pleas of this kind seem quite sensible. People buy smoke alarms and insurance. They wear seatbelts and motorcycle helmets, even if they are unlikely to be involved in an accident. Should rational regulators not follow the same approach as well? Many people believe so. In many ways, the Precautionary Principle seems quite sensible , even appealing. To justify regulation, a certainty of harm should not be required; a risk, even a low one, may well be enough. It makes sense to expend resources to prevent a small chance of complete disaster; consider the high costs, pecuniary and otherwise, that are spent to reduce the risk of terrorist attack. On reasonable assumptions, the costs are worth incurring even if the probability of harm — in individual cases or even in the aggregate — is relatively low. The Precautionary Principle might well be seen as a plea for a kind of regulatory insurance. Certainly the principle might do some real-world good, spurring us to attend to neglected problems. Nonetheless, the principle cannot be fully defended in those ways, simply because risks are on all sides of social situations. Any effort to be universally precautionary will be paralyzing, forbidding every imaginable step, including no step at all.


n this paper, four unique information sources of the Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS) onboard the Project for On-Board Autonomy (PROBA-1) are exploited, namely, the spectral, directional, spatial, and temporal dimensions. Based on the results of three case studies in Switzerland, the use of multi-angular CHRIS-PROBA data for monitoring complex and dynamic vegetation canopies of forests and agricultural crops is demonstrated. We conclude that simultaneous exploitation of the spectrodirectional and temporal behaviours of various vegetation canopies allows for assessing the biochemical and biophysical properties on the one hand and provides additional information on canopy structure via the directional component on the other hand. The study cases focus on various aspects of combining these information dimensions for improved retrieval of vegetation characteristics, namely, (i) the vegetation heterogeneity measurements that use the Minnaert function parameter k, (ii) an improved assessment of foliar water content (CW) and nitrogen concentration (CN) based on multi-angular data, and (iii) continuous leaf area index (LAI) time-profiles lead to more accurate estimates of ecosystem processes and inventorying studies. The first study's assessment of canopy structure and heterogeneity from multi-angular data using Minnaert's k successfully demonstrates the distinction between closed and medium-density canopies. The second case study shows that the assessment of plant biochemistry from remotely sensed data profits from the information gained from multi-angular datasets. A synergistic approach that integrates multiple sources of information for the estimation of LAI over the season produces promising results for crop growth monitoring in the third case study. CHRIS-PROBA's multi-angular observations at the regional scale, while having a comparable spatial resolution of Landsat satellites, can significantly contribute to a better understanding of regional surface anisotropy. This strengthens the link between field observations and canopy scale applications. The results of the three case studies clearly demonstrate the potential and value of spectrodirectional Earth observations at regional scales for ecological monitoring and modeling studies.


This article describes the evolution of social dialogue and collective bargaining in Poland between 2008 and 2012, arguing that the effects of the crisis have been asymmetrical in two ways. First, while Poland is the only EU country to have avoided recession in macroeconomic terms, the crisis has actually disproportionately affected labour through higher unemployment and worsening employment conditions. Secondly, in a decentralized system like the Polish one, effects of the crisis have differed by sector. Sectors exposed to international competition such as the automotive and steel sectors have suffered from job losses and major restructuring, while services and construction have withstood better. While social dialogue has been temporarily re-legitimized during the crisis, it plays only a sporadic role.


The solar spectral irradiance outside the earth's atmosphere was determined by Langley's method of extrapolation to zero air mass, from measurements taken on Mount Lemmon at an elevation of 8025 ft near Tucson, Arizona, during October, 1951. The spectrum was produced and the energy scanned by a Leiss quartz double-monochromator, detected by a 1P21 photomultiplier, amplified, and presented on a strip chart recorder. About twenty-five spectra were recorded from sunrise to noon, with band widths ranging from 10 A at 3030 A to 170 A at 7000 A. The equipment was calibrated frequently by recording the spectrum of a standard tungsten lamp. Compared with earlier work performed in this field, our results agree best with those of Pettit. There is good agreement with the direct measurements from a rocket obtained by Purcell and Tousey in 1954 and with the Sacramento Peak ultraviolet observations by Stair and Johnston in 1955. The change of solar intensity with air mass showed that the attenuation of the atmosphere above Mount Lemmon was approximately 15% higher than that for a Rayleigh atmosphere in the region 3400 A to 4650 A, where there is no absorption due to ozone. A discussion is included which emphasizes the importance of clear and constant atmospheres which are necessary to obtain accurate values of solar spectral irradiance outside the earth's atmosphere by the Langley method. The solar illuminance computed from spectral data was 12 700 lumens/ft2.


This paper presents the development and use of an interactive, microcomputer-based model for project planning and scheduling. The model is general enough to handle both deterministic (CPM-based) and probabilistic (PERT-based) networks. In the deterministic mode, the model (CPMPERT) performs routine critical path analysis, as well as a time-cost optimization of the network for linear time-cost activity functions. In the probabilistic mode, CPMPERT essentially performs a Monte Carlo simulation of the network, with activity durations taken as random deviates from either the beta, triangular or normal distributions. Up to 50 network simulations may be performed in this case. CPMPERT runs on an IBM PC or compatible, requires 64k RAM and one disk drive. Options include additional memory, a parallel printer for hard copying of the output and an extra disk drive to store data files separately from the program disk.


The nature of adaptation to climate variability in the Southwest US is explored using the Middle San Pedro River Valley in southern Arizona as a case study. An integrated vulnerability assessment focuses on the dynamic interaction of natural climatic and hydrological systems with socio-economic systems. This approach reveals that residents in the study region do not perceive short-term or long-term vulnerability to climate variability or climate change. The paper uses an ethnographic field approach to examine the technical and organizational factors that constitute the adaptation process and reduce vulnerability to climate in the valley. It concludes by discussing the potential dangers of ignoring climate in a rapidly growing, semi-arid environment.


As part of an ongoing investigation, the influence of in-cylinder charge density, and injector nozzle geometry on the behavior of diesel sprays were examined using high-speed imaging. Both liquid and vapor penetration profiles were investigated in operating conditions representative of a modern turbocharged after-cooled HSDI diesel engine. These conditions were achieved in an optical rapid compression machine fitted with a common-rail fuel injection system.

Differences in spray liquid and vapor penetrations were observed for different nozzle geometries and in-cylinder conditions over a range of injection fuelling representative of those in a typical engine map. Investigation into the differences in spray structure formed by multi-hole and single-hole injections were also undertaken. The results of the spray penetration profiles from the experiments were compared to empirical correlations in the literature and differences observed were attributed to flow structures within the nozzle, which are not taken into account by these correlations.


MapReduce systems face enormous challenges due to increasing growth, diversity, and consolidation of the data and computation involved. Provisioning, configuring, and managing large-scale MapReduce clusters require realistic, workload-specific performance insights that existing MapReduce benchmarks are ill-equipped to supply. In this paper, we build the case for going beyond benchmarks for MapReduce performance evaluations. We analyze and compare two production MapReduce traces to develop a vocabulary for describing MapReduce workloads. We show that existing benchmarks fail to capture rich workload characteristics observed in traces, and propose a framework to synthesize and execute representative workloads. We demonstrate that performance evaluations using realistic workloads gives cluster operator new ways to identify workload-specific resource bottlenecks, and workload-specific choice of MapReduce task schedulers. We expect that once available, workload suites would allow cluster operators to accomplish previously challenging tasks beyond what we can now imagine, thus serving as a useful tool to help design and manage MapReduce systems.


Recently, much work has been done on extending the scope of online learning and incremental stochastic optimization algorithms. In this paper we contribute to this effort in two ways: First, based on a new regret decomposition and a generalization of Bregman divergences, we provide a self-contained, modular analysis of the two workhorses of online learning: (general) adaptive versions of Mirror Descent (MD) and the Follow-the-Regularized-Leader (FTRL) algorithms. The analysis is done with extra care so as not to introduce assumptions not needed in the proofs and allows to combine, in a straightforward way, different algorithmic ideas (e.g., adaptivity, optimism, implicit updates) and learning settings (e.g., strongly convex or composite objectives). This way we are able to reprove, extend and refine a large body of the literature, while keeping the proofs concise. The second contribution is a byproduct of this careful analysis: We present algorithms with improved variational bounds for smooth, composite objectives, including a new family of optimistic MD algorithms with only one projection step per round. Furthermore, we provide a simple extension of adaptive regret bounds to practically relevant non-convex problem settings with essentially no extra effort.


This study examined whether multimodal trip planners can be developed using open‐source software and open data sources. OpenStreetMap (OSM), maintained by the non‐profit OpenStreetMap Foundation, is an open, freely available international repository of geographic data that individuals contribute about their communities. In the transit industry, Google's offer of a free online transit trip planner based on the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) has made GTFS a de facto standard for describing transit systems and a platform for many other Web and mobile applications. Over 125 public transportation agencies in the U.S. have put their data into GTFS format. Bus stop locations can link OSM and GTFS data. OpenTripPlanner is an open‐source multimodal trip planning software system with an active developer community. The study team set up an instance of OpenTripPlanner for Tampa, Florida, using biking and walking data from OSM, and GTFS data from local transit agencies, to examine the tool's ability to route using multimodal data. The study team also recorded multimodal data for the Tampa region in OSM to examine the current OSM coding conventions and determine the coding system's ability to support functions required of a multimodal trip planner, such as providing information on access to transit, wheelchair accessibility, or conditions that could affect the safety of a trip (e.g., intersection crossings). This study also investigated the use of opensource software to quickly increase the amount of multimodal data available in OpenStreetMap. The research team created GTFS‐OSM‐Sync (GO_Sync), a framework and open‐source software tool for synchronizing transit data between the transit agency's official GTFS dataset and OSM. GO_Sync connects the wealth of data from GTFS datasets to the ability of the OSM community to augment and improve the data. During a test deployment of GO_Sync in Tampa, OSM users corrected 173 bus stop locations. The project demonstrated that it is feasible to implement a multimodal trip planner using open‐source software and open data sources. Based on existing practices regarding GTFS and OpenTripPlanner, transit schedule and route data are best obtained directly from transit agencies' GTFS files. Data on infrastructure for walking and cycling can be obtained from OSM or from other locally available public‐domain data. This report suggests a few changes to the OSM coding conventions that would improve OSM's ability to meet the needs of a multimodal trip planner. The principal barrier to developing a multimodal trip planner remains the availability of data and, when using OSM as a source of data, the relatively low participation of U.S. residents in the project, compared to Europe. The OSM community recognizes this as a problem, but additional research is needed on how best to overcome it. Additional research also is needed on how best to communicate results from a trip planner to users who may have varying skill and comfort levels when it comes to bicycling and walking.


Twitter is a popular micro-blogging service on theWeb, where people can enter short messages, which then become visible to some other users of the service. While the topics of these messages varies, there are a lot of messages where the users express their opinions about some companies or their products. These messages are a rich source of information for companies for sentiment analysis or opinion mining. There is however a great obstacle for analyzing the messages directly: as the company names are often ambiguous (e.g. apple, the fruit vs. Apple Inc.), one needs first to identify, which messages are related to the company. In this paper we address this question. We present various techniques for classifying tweet messages containing a given keyword, whether they are related to a particular company with that name or not. We first present simple techniques, which make use of company profiles, which we created semi-automatically from external Web sources. Our advanced techniques take ambiguity estimations into account and also automatically extend the company profiles from the twitter stream itself. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods through an extensive set of experiments. Moreover, we extensively analyze the sources of errors in the classification. The analysis not only brings further improvement, but also enables to use the human input more efficiently.


There has been tremendous emphasis in unmanned aerial vehicles, both of fixed (airplanes) and rotary wing (vertical take off and landing, helicopters) types over the past ten years. Applications span both civilian and military domains, the latter being the most important at this stage. This edited book provides a solid and diversified reference source related to basic, applied research and development on small and miniature unmanned aerial vehicles, both fixed and rotary wing. As such, the book offers background information on the evolution of such vehicles over the years, followed by modeling and control fundamentals that are of paramount importance due to unmanned aerial vehicle model complexity, nonlinearity, coupling, inhirent instability and parameter values uncertainty. Aspects of navigation, including visual-based navigation and target tracking are discussed, followed by applications to attitude estimation on micro unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomous solar unmanned aerial vehicle, biomimetic sensing for autonomous flights in near-earth environments, localization of air-ground wireless sensor networks, decentralized formation tracking, design of an unmanned aerial vehicle for volcanic gas sampling and design of an on-board processing controller for miniature helicopters.


The atomic-scale dynamics of the glass-to-liquid transition are, in general, poorly understood in inorganic materials. Here, two-dimensional magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectra collected just above the glass transition of K2Si4O9 at temperatures as high as 583�C are presented. Rates of exchange for silicon among silicate species, which involves Si—O bond breaking, have been measured and are shown to be closely related in time scale to those defined by viscosity. Thus, even at viscosities as high as 1010 pascal seconds, local bond breaking (in contrast to the cooperative motion of large clusters) is of major importance in the control of macroscopic flow and diffusion.


The field of transitional justice has faced several challenges in its relatively short life span. The latest of these challenges is the claim for broadening its scope to incorporate social justice– and development-related matters. And in just a few years, the possibility and adequacy of thicker or more holistic conceptions of transitional justice have become mainstream. Nonetheless, since their beginnings these new approaches have been subject to criticism from both within and outside the field. This article describes the trajectory of the scholarly debate on expanding transitional justice to encompass socioeconomic concerns, as well as its main limitations. It starts by exploring the main reasons that led to the historical marginalization of socioeconomic concerns in transitional justice theory and practice. It then considers the rationale for the implementation of broader approaches to transitional justice and closes with a discussion of the main challenges and limitations these proposals face.


Frequently designers of computer systems have few (if any) convenient means of investigating system per- formance during actual operation. This kind of analy- sis must, of course, take into account user demands and characteristics of the host system's hardware/software complement. Moreover such studies are complicated because they typically involve a large number of variables which, because of their random nature, do not exhibit unique values. The problem is not only to identify criteria which characterize the manner in which the system is used but also to select parameters which are readily measurable. This presentation describes the approaches employed in characterizing and instrumenting the usage and servicing capacity of two operating systems designed for use on Xerox Sigma computer systems. These operating systems are the Batch Time-sharing Monitor (BTM) and the Universal Time-sharing System (UTS). The performance monitors are designed with emphasis on sampling, sorting and ordering of statistical data. Examples of performance monitoring data are presented which were obtained from actual measurements.