Abstract. In this work, the effect of the observing geometry on the tomographic reconstruction quality of both a regularized Least Squares (LSQ) and a Compressive Sensing (CS) approach for neutrospheric water vapor tomography is compared based on synthetic Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Slant Wet Delay (SWD) estimates. In this context, the term observing geometry mainly refers to the number of GNSS sites situated within a specific study area subdivided into a certain number of volumetric pixels (voxels) and to the number of signal directions available at each GNSS site. The novelties of this research are 1) the comparison of the observing geometry's effects on the tomographic reconstruction accuracy when using LSQ resp. CS for the solution of the tomographic system and 2) the investigation of the effect of the signal directions' variability on the tomographic reconstruction. The tomographic reconstruction is performed based on synthetic SWD data sets generated, for many samples of various observing geometry settings, based on wet refractivity information from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The validation of the achieved results focuses on a comparison of the refractivity estimates with the input WRF refractivities. The results show that the recommendation of Champollion et al. (2004) to discretize the analyzed study area into voxels with horizontal sizes comparable to the mean GNSS inter site distance represents a good rule of thumb for both LSQ and CS based tomography solutions. In addition, this research shows that CS needs a variety of at least 15 signal directions per site in order to estimate the refractivity field more accurately and more precisely than LSQ. Therefore, the use of CS is particularly recommended for water vapor tomography applications for which a high number of multi-GNSS SWD estimates are available.


Set against the backdrop of war, revolution, and regicide, and moving from London to Venice, Mantua, Madrid, Paris and the Low Countries, Jerry Brotton's colourful and critically acclaimed book explores the formation and dispersal of King Charles I's art collection. Following a remarkable and unprecedented Parliamentary Act for 'The sale of the late king's goods', Cromwell's republican regime sold off nearly 2,000 paintings, tapestries, statues and drawings in an attempt to settle the dead king's enormous debts and raise money for the Commonwealth's military forces. Brotton recreates the extraordinary circumstances of this sale, in which for the first time ordinary working people were able to handle and own works by the great masters. He also examines the abiding relationship between art and power, revealing how the current Royal Collection emerged from this turbulent period, and paints its own vivid and dramatic picture of one of the greatest lost collections in English history. "A rip-roaring slice of seventeenth-century England ...Readable history at its best" - Kate Mosse, author of "Labyrinth".


Edwardsiella tarda is a gram-negative bacterium causing significant economic losses to aquaculture. E. tarda possesses NanA sialidase which removes sialic acids from a2-3 sialo-glycoprotein of host cells. However, the relationship between NanA sialidase activity and E. tarda invasiveness remains poorly understood. Furthermore, the pathway of sialic acid metabolism in E. tarda remains to be elucidated. We studied sialidase activity in several E. tarda strains and found that the pathogenic strains exhibited higher sialidase activity and greater up-regulation of the NanA mRNA level than non-pathogenic strain. Pathogenic strains also showed higher rates of infection in GAKS cells, and the infection was drastically suppressed by sialidase inhibitor. Additionally, NanA gene over-expression significantly increased infection and treatment of E. tarda with free sialic acid enhanced the rate of infection in GAKS cells. Sialic acid treatment enhanced mRNA levels of two N-acetylneuraminate lyases and one N-acetylneuraminate cytidylyltransferase. E. tarda uses sialic acid as a carbon source for growth via N-acetylneuraminate lyases. The strains with high N-acetylneuraminate cytidylyltransferase level showed greater sialylation of the lipopolysaccharides and glycoproteins. Our study establishes the significance of desialylation by E. tarda sialidase in the regulation of its invasiveness.


Object discovery and modeling have been widely studied in the computer vision and robotics communities. SLAM approaches that make use of objects and higher level features have also recently been proposed. Using higher level features provides several benefits: these can be more discriminative, which helps data association, and can serve to inform service robotic tasks that require higher level information, such as object models and poses. We propose an approach for online object discovery and object modeling, and extend a SLAM system to utilize these discovered and modeled objects as landmarks to help localize the robot in an online manner. Such landmarks are particularly useful for detecting loop closures in larger maps. In addition to the map, our system outputs a database of detected object models for use in future SLAM or service robotic tasks. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the approach's ability to detect and model objects, as well as to improve SLAM results by detecting loop closures.


We propose a novel experimental method using a single-photon avalanche diode and time-to-digital convertor (SPAD-TDC) array that, for the first time, enables simultaneous measurement of the spatial and time dependence of the arrival of optical photons in a scintillation pulse with high resolution (tunable between 55 and 100 ps in time, 50 µm in space). By registering all available timing information contained in a scintillation pulse, this method should make it possible to study and develop new time-stamping techniques based on experimental data. In this paper, we present a proof-of-concept of the method including the first results obtained with a 3 mm × 3 mm × 5 mm LYSO:Ce crystal. The crystal is placed on a SPAD-TDC array consisting of 160 × 128 micropixels in total. Every micropixel consists of a SPAD and a 10 bit TDC, thus each individual avalanche (triggered by a photon) can be time-stamped. A fs-UV-laser is used to excite the crystal at a wavelength of 360 nm with a pulse repetition rate of 1.9 MHz. Scintillation photons are measured with a TDC resolution of 84 ps (1 LSB). The overall single-photon timing resolution, or jitter, was found to be equal to 265 ps FWHM. Our first results indicate the potential of this setup in delivering insight into scintillation counting statistics, both in space and time.


Airflows in the cutting/collection/discharge system of a professional lawn care system were studied numerically and experimentally in this thesis. Various three-dimensional and two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics models were developed in order to investigate the complex airflow created by a pair of counter-rotating blades. The three-dimensional models were used to study the actual flows; the two-dimensional models were developed to investigate the optimal shapes of the rotating blades using the mass flow rate per unit power consumption as the objective function. Experiments were carried out mainly to validate the computer models developed in this study for airflow velocity and power usage for an actual cutting system.

Airflows in the cutting/collection/discharge system of a professional lawn care system were studied numerically and experimentally in this thesis. Various three-dimensional and two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics models were developed in order to investigate the complex airflow created by a pair of counter-rotating blades. The three-dimensional models were used to study the actual flows; the two-dimensional models were developed to investigate the optimal shapes of the rotating blades using the mass flow rate per unit power consumption as the objective function. Experiments were carried out mainly to validate the computer models developed in this study for airflow velocity and power usage for an actual cutting system.Vibrations of a cutting blade were studied using the finite element method and experiments. It was found that the blades will experience resonance under normal operating conditions.


Summary The main features of the fold and fault geometry of the Helvetic nappes and Chaînes Subalpines of Switzerland and France have been determined by the construction of tie lines between outcropping hinge points of folds and cut-off points of strata against thrusts. Longitudinal correlation of these structures is now possible. Folds are very persistent along their hinge lines and can often be followed for tens of kilometres. Fold hinges and thrust plane cut-off lines are extremely regularly oriented. The Alpine structures developed in the external massifs are obliquely superposed on previously emplaced nappes. The overall structural pattern is attributed to a progressive change of the relative displacement directions between the northern (European) plate and southern (Apulian) plate from N-S, through NW-SE, concluding with movements in an E-W sense. The well known structural culminations and depressions are interpreted as the result of the latest shortening in an E-W direction and not to complex ramp geometry or to duplex stacking.


A transdisciplinary collaboration among ethnologists, linguists, and archaeologists, this book traces the emergence, expansion, and decline of cultural identities in indigenous Amazonia. Hornborg and Hill argue that the tendency to link language, culture, and biology -- the notion of essentialist ethnic identities -- is a Eurocentric bias that has characterised largely inaccurate explanations of the distribution of ethnic groups and languages in Amazonia. The evidence, however, suggests a much more fluid relationship among geography, language use, ethnic identity, and genetics. In in Ancient Amazonia, leading linguists, ethnographers, ethnohistorians, and archaeologists interpret their research from a unique non-essentialist perspective to form a more accurate picture of the ethnolinguistic diversity in this area. Revealing how ethnic identity construction is constantly in flux, contributors show how such processes can be traced through different ethnic markers such as pottery styles and languages. Scholars and students studying lowland South America will be especially interested, as will anthropologists intrigued by its cutting-edge, interdisciplinary approach.


The aim of the paper is to evaluate the miss probability of a Least Recently Used (LRU) cache, when it is offered a non-stationary request process given by a Poisson cluster point process. First, we construct a probability space using Palm theory, describing how to consider a tagged document with respect to the rest of the request process. This framework allows us to derive a general integral formula for the expected number of misses of the tagged document. Then, we consider the limit when the cache size and the arrival rate go to infinity proportionally, and use the integral formula to derive an asymptotic expansion of the miss probability in powers of the inverse of the cache size. This enables us to quantify and improve the accuracy of the so-called Che approximation.


Introduction Gummatous syphilis presenting as nasal septal perforation is well described in the classic literature, but rarely encountered in the current antibiotic era. We present a man with a destructive nasal process with a delayed diagnosis of tertiary (late benign) syphilis. Case Description A 45 year old Eritrean gentleman presented with an ulcero-nodular lesion of the left nares, progressive over the previous six months. He denied trauma or illicit drug inhalation. Exam was remarkable for left nasal cavity with an eroding destructive lesion perforating through the nasal septum and left nasal ala. He had no clinical signs or symptoms of neurosyphilis. Multiple biopsies revealed acute-on-chronic inflammation with focal necrosis and no evidence of malignancy. Fungal, treponemal and routine bacterial stains were negative, and tissue cultures were negative. Imaging indicated no bony destruction. The patient was treated for presumed cellulitis with multiple courses of oral antibiotics (cephalexin, amoxicillin) with no improvement in symptoms. At follow up, the patient tested negative for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and negative for anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA). Serologic tests for syphilis were ultimately performed, revealing a rapid plasma reagin (RPR) titer of 1:512 with a reactive florescent treponemal antibody absorption test (FTA-ABS). A CSF evaluation was normal, with no pleocytosis and normal protein and glucose. Treatment was initiated with benzathine penicillin G, three doses of 2.4 million units each at one-week intervals. Clinical response to treatment is pending at the time of this report. Discussion Gummatous syphilis is of clinical importance because of its potential for local destruction and disfigurement of the nasal structures. Early recognition and management has important individual and public health implications and this case would remind contemporary physicians that "the great imitator" could lurk behind unusual presentations.


We examined breakfast consumption patterns and trends between 1965 and 1991 for children (1-10 y old) and adolescents (11-18 y old) in the United States. The analysis was undertaken by pooling nationally representative samples obtained from the Nationwide Food Consumption Surveys of 1965 and 1977-1978 and the 1989-1991 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals. Breakfast consumption, defined as the consumption of food, beverage, or both between 0500 and 1000, was the focus of the trends analysis. Descriptive results indicated a decline in breakfast consumption between 1965 and 1991, particularly for older adolescents aged 15-18 y; the rates for boys and girls declined from 89.7% and 84.4%, respectively, in 1965 to 74.9% and 64.7%, respectively, in 1991. Multivariate results indicated that breakfast consumption declined predominantly because of behavioral changes and not the population's changing sociodemographic patterns. The nutritional quality of foods consumed at breakfast has improved since 1965, with significant shifts toward consumption of lower-fat milk and smaller changes in other food groups. The improvement over time in the quality of food consumed at breakfast, however, is offset by the large percentage of persons aged > or = 11 y who do not presently consume breakfast. Given the association of obesity with less frequent breakfast consumption and the rise in obesity among persons of this age group, a renewed emphasis on the importance of breakfast is warranted.


In this paper, we argue to learn dissimilarity for interactive search in content based image retrieval. In literature, dissimilarity is often learned via the feature space by feature selection, feature weighting or by adjusting the parameters of a function of the features. Other than existing techniques, we use feedback to adjust the dissimilarity space independent of feature space. This has the great advantage that it manipulates dissimilarity directly. To create a dissimilarity space, we use the method proposed by Pekalska and Duin, selecting a set of images called prototypes and computing distances to those prototypes for all images in the collection. After the user gives feedback, we apply active learning with a one-class support vector machine to decide the movement of images such that relevant images stay close together while irrelevant ones are pushed away (the work of Guo ). The dissimilarity space is then adjusted accordingly. Results on a Corel dataset of 10000 images and a TrecVid collection of 43907 keyframes show that our proposed approach is not only intuitive, it also significantly improves the retrieval performance.


Agricultural mechanization refers to the use of different power sources as well as enhanced farm tools and equipment to decrease human and draught animal labor, improve cropping intensity, precision, and timeliness of crop input usage, and reduce losses at various phases of crop production. This research tried to assess paddy farmers' knowledge, views, and contentment with the use of agricultural machinery in the districts of Jhapa, Kapilbastu, and Kailali using a multistage purposive sample technique. The survey research method was used for the investigation. Descriptive statistics and properly constructed scales were used to analyze the data. According to the findings, respondents had only a hazy understanding (0.50) of the critical roles of agricultural machinery in rice production. The total amount of machinery on hand is moderate (0.43). The most frequent piece of machinery possessed by respondents was a tractor (0.65), followed by a knapsack sprayer (0.61). Over one fourth of the respondents (0.28) had a good image of agricultural machinery and were satisfied with its use (0.4). While respondents indicated a high amount of restriction (0.7) when it came to utilizing agricultural machinery. As a result, adopting a varied range of farm machinery should be seen positively in order to increase the commercialization of paddy farming. Farmers would be more inclined to use farm machinery if farm machinery information and skills were spread, as well as supported with grants.


A central challenge of sustainable development is to provide material sufficiency for the human population while preserving the integrity of Earth's biosphere. Current modes of economic production and consumption accomplish neither of these ethical imperatives. Institutions of higher education must show leadership in the transition to sustainable ways of life. The Earth Charter is a people's declaration of ethical principles for securing a just, peaceful, humane and sustainable future. The document can serve as a valuable resource for tertiary educators. The Earth Charter provides an inclusive definition of sustainability, emphasising the interrelated concepts of ecological integrity; social and economic justice; and democracy, nonviolence and peace. It can help us resolve the tension between educating for sustainability while creating learning spaces for contestation and critical inquiry. The Earth Charter also valorises the principle of intergenerational equity, challenging us to create human livelihoods that secure the continued full flourishing of all life for generations to come.


In the history of British art, Mary Beale's was the earliest documented professional studio led by a woman artist. There were other female painters, but only Beale(1633-1699) established a successful business and maintained it for over twenty years, all without benefit of formal training, guild affiliation or court patronage. Mary's surviving body of work comprises self-portraits, likenesses of family and friends painted for love, and portraits painted on cash commission from 'persons of quality'. Gentlewoman Beale was also a writer whose works include the manuscript Observations by MB in her painting of Apricots (1663), the earliest known guide to painting with oils by an artist practising in Britain. Mary's work as a portraitist in London's fashionable West End supported her 'middling' family of four, with husband Charles (d.1705) acting as her studio manager. Their friends were courtiers, tradespeople, intellectuals, clergymen, artists and lawyers, and included figures obscure and prominent within and beyond the metropolis. Despite her exceptional role in art and history, and a wealth of largely unpublished primary source material, studies to date are limited to brief exhibition catalogues. In examining Beale, her career, family and circle, I ask whether she was an
aberration, or truly a woman of her time. Does Mary's example suggest that gentlewomen's lives were not wholly dictated by domestic duties and the rhetorical expectation of female modesty, reclusiveness and silence? Her experience certainly
calls into question current sociological distinctions between 'private' and 'public' spheres in women's lives, and blurs the line between what was amateur and professional in their work. My research poses new questions about this particular artist and, in answering them, the thesis sheds important light on Restoration women's contribution to commercial, intellectual and cultural life, while challenging our understanding of gender roles, families and class in early modern London.


Temporally extended goals (TEGs) refer to properties that must hold over intermediate and/or final states of a plan. The problem of planning with TEGs is of renewed interest because it is at the core of planning with temporal preferences. Currently, the fastest domain-independent classical planners employ some kind of heuristic search. However, existing planners for TEGs are not heuristic and are only able to prune the search space by progressing the TEG. In this paper we propose a method for planning with TEGs using heuristic search. We represent TEGs using a rich and compelling subset of a first-order linear temporal logic. We translate a planning problem with TEGs to a classical planning problem. With this translation in hand, we exploit heuristic search to determine a plan. Our translation relies on the construction of a parameterized nondeterministic finite automaton for the TEG. We have proven the correctness of our algorithm and analyzed the complexity of the resulting representation. The translator is fully implemented and available. Our approach consistently outperforms TLPLAN on standard benchmark domains, often by orders of magnitude.


We discuss general nonholonomic systems on manifolds in the setting of both continous and discrete mechanics, before focusing on systems with symmetry that enable a reduction of the equations of motion to a quotient space of the conguration manifold. In particular systems where the conguration manifold is a Lie group are considered, and among those we focus on a rigid body that rotates under a nonholonomic constraint. Both methods for the nonholonomic rigid body that originate from discretizing the reduced Lagrange-d'Alembert principle and a reduced discrete Lagrange-d'Alembert principle are considered. The methods from the rst approach are s-stage Gauss methods of order 2s that combine a Gauss SRK-DAE2 method with a Gauss Magnus method. Among the second kind we look at a reduced nonholonomic integrator for the rigid body by McLachlan and Perlmutter in and a modied version with a symmetric projection. The methods are compared in terms of order, error growth, reversibility, energy conservation and how well they satisfy the nonholonomic constraint. Our results for this system indicate that preservation of energy is strongly connected to the geometric properties of the solutions. In long time integration energy-conservation is seen to be the dominating factor in determining accuracy. Our results indicate that all methods, with the exception of the unmodied nonholonomic integrator preserve energy well. In the test problem we have considered reversibility and the preservation of the nonholonomic constraint important for energy conservation. However it has been observed that the symmetry of the method alone can not always guarantee good energy behavior, so a satisfactory explanation of what can cause good geometric performance for an integrator applied to a nonholonomic system is still missing.


The objective of optimal experimental design is to determine the values of the predictor variables at which to take observations in order to maximize the quality of data obtained by the experiment. When the response variable is, at least approximately, independent and normally distributed with a constant variance, an optimal design can be obtained by accessing the prolific body of established classical design techniques. When these assumptions are not satisfied, the design solution is not easily obtainable. The difficulty in designing an experiment for a response with a nonlinear model is that the optimal design depends upon the values of the unknown parameters of the model, but the model parameters are estimated from the results obtained after running the experiment. This has been a major factor contributing to the complexity, and hindering the development, of design methodology for nonlinear models. As a consequence, the majority of results, including those in this thesis, are obtained utilizing numerical techniques. We examine two design methods for a multinomial response, utilizing the generalized linear model framework. One technique, D-optimality, is based on minimizing the volume of the confidence ellipsoid of the parameter estimates and the other, IMSE-optimality, is based on minimizing the mean squared error of the estimated probabilities of occurrence of the possible responses. These methods are developed using point estimates of the parameters of the linear iii predictor. When estimates are unavailable, we use partial knowledge about the parameters to make designs more robust to uncertainty in the parameter values. We also develop designs which allow for some uncertainty in the model by examining different types of predictors. The experimental design space is shown to play an important role, especially in IMSE-optimality, and a quantitative method is presented to determine the design space based on the limits of the underlying multinomial probabilities. Although the two design methods examined are based on different criteria, our simulations strongly suggest that they are asymptotically equivalent. The Doptimal design algorithm is shown to be faster to implement, compared to the IMSE-optimal design algorithm, and is free to determine the number of support points. The IMSE-optimal approach requires more computation as it requires taking expected values of estimated probabilities and specifying the number of observations at each support point. These design techniques are applied to a practical example, a dose response experiment, and we develop design methods allowing for some uncertainty in the form of the predictor and the values of the parameter estimates.


The article focuses on the experience of Lithuania in international bibliological conferences organized by the Department of Book Science at the Faculty of Communication of Vilnius University in the light of research and knowledge. The analysis of geographical and thematic coverage as well as of organizational issues shows that these conferences have their specific characteristics and can be treated as a phenomenon of scientific and social communication.


This thesis presents AEINS, Adaptive Educational Interactive Narrative System, that supports teaching ethics for 8-12 year old children. AEINS is designed based on Keller's and Gagne's learning theories. The idea is centered around involving students in moral dilemmas (called teaching moments) within which the Socratic Method is used as the teaching pedagogy. The important unique aspect of AEINS is that it exhibits the presence of four features shown to individually increase effectiveness of edugames environments, yet not integrated together in past research: a student model, a dynamic generated narrative, scripted branched narrative and evolving non-player characters. The student model aims to provide adaptation. The dynamic generated narrative forms a continuous story that glues the scripted teaching moments together. The evolving agents increase the realism and believability of the environment and perform a recognized pedagogical role by helping in supplying the educational process.

AEINS has been evaluated intrinsically and empirically according to the following themes: architecture and implementation, social aspects, and educational achievements. The intrinsic evaluation checked the implicit goals embodied by the design aspects and made a value judgment about these goals. In the empirical evaluation, twenty participants were assigned to use AEINS over a number of games. The evaluation showed positive results as the participants appreciated the social characteristics of the system as they were able to recognize the genuine social aspects and the realism represented in the game. Finally, the evaluation showed indications for developing new lines of thinking for some participants to the extent that some of them were ready to carry the experience forward to the real world. However, the evaluation also suggested possible improvements, such as the use of 3D interface and free text natural language.


Abstract Little, M. P., Tawn, E. J., Tzoulaki, I., Wakeford, R., Hildebrandt, G., Paris, F., Tapio, S. and Elliott, P. A Systematic Review of Epidemiological Associations Between Low and Moderate Doses of Ionizing Radiation and Late Cardiovascular Effects, and Their Possible Mechanisms. Radiat. Res. 169, 99–109 (2008). The link between high doses of ionizing radiation and damage to the heart and coronary arteries is established. In this paper, we systematically review the epidemiological evidence for associations between low and moderate doses (<5 Gy) of ionizing radiation and late-occurring cardiovascular disease. Risks per unit dose in epidemiological studies vary over at least two orders of magnitude, possibly a result of confounding factors. An examination of possible biological mechanisms indicates that the most likely causative effect of radiation exposure is damage to endothelial cells and subsequent induction of an inflammatory response, although it seems unlikely that this would extend to low-dose and low-dose-rate exposure. However, a role for somatic mutation has been proposed that would indicate a stochastic effect. In the absence of a convincing mechanistic explanation of epidemiological evidence that is less than persuasive at present, a cause-and-effect interpretation of the reported statistical associations cannot be reliably inferred, although neither can it be reliably excluded. Further epidemiological and biological evidence will allow a firmer conclusion to be drawn.


In the big data era, a wide amount of data has been generated in different domains, from social media to news feeds, from health care to genomic functionalities. When addressing a problem, we usually need to harness multiple disparate datasets. Data from different domains may follow different modalities, each of which has a different representation, distribution, scale and density. For example, text is usually represented as discrete sparse word count vectors, whereas an image is represented by pixel intensities, and so on.
Nowadays plenty of Data Mining and Machine Learning techniques are proposed in literature, which have already achieved significant success in many knowledge engineering areas, including classification, regression and clustering. Anyway some challenging issues remain when tackling a new problem: how to represent the problem? What approach is better to use among the huge quantity of possibilities? What is the information to be used in the Machine Learning task and how to represent it? There exist any different domains from which borrow knowledge?
This dissertation proposes some possible representation approaches for problems in different domains, from text mining to genomic analysis. In particular, one of the major contributions is a different way to represent a classical classification problem: instead of using an instance related to each object (a document, or a gene, or a social post, etc.) to be classified, it is proposed to use a pair of objects or a pair object-class, using the relationship between them as label. The application of this approach is tested on both flat and hierarchical text categorization datasets, where it potentially allows the efficient addition of new categories during classification. Furthermore, the same idea is used to extract conversational threads from an unregulated pool of messages and also to classify the biomedical literature based on the genomic features treated.


The impact of the relationship between supervisors and local government employees post the implementation of NPM: A social capital perspective This paper uses social capital theory as the lens to examine local government employee's satisfaction with different types of communication with supervisors because the implementation of NPM (particularly, the duo of cost-cutting and increased control) may have affected overall organisational effectiveness in the longer term. The official reason for implementing NPM was to improve efficiency and effectiveness, however, the way it has been implemented has changed the relationship between employees and supervisors - and as a result, it has probably eroded social capital. These findings suggest that the employee's communication relationship with supervisors does significantly affect organisational outcomes. In particular, the findings suggest that it not only negatively affects the level of ambiguity that employees experience in relation to customers, supervisors, promotion and ethical issues, it also significantly affects job satisfaction and productivity and these findings have implications for the longer term organisational effectiveness. These findings suggest that the social capital that should develop based on the quality of organisational relationships has been compromised for local government administrative employees.


To investigate perception and attitude toward Group Health Management and Service System for Small and Medium Industries, a survey using self-administered questionnaire was conducted to a part of industries in Inchon, at October 1992. Major dependent variables were perception, attitude, and practice related with Group Health Management and Service System; these variables were measured by 3-point Likert like scale consisted of 7, 5, and 5 items, respectively. Data were collected in 149 industries,72.7% out of 205. Perception nab slightly high, 1.25; attitude was some positive, 1.46; and practice was some passive,0.94. Major determinants of perception, attitude, and practice were sex and age of industry's health manager; perception influenced upon attitude, and perception and attitude had positive effect upon practice. To activate Group Health Management and Service System, it is necessary to develop education and promotion programs for industry's health managers of small and medium industries.


Galectins (gals) are s-galactoside binding lectins, involved in many processes at the fetomaternal interface where they can exert their roles both in and out of cells. The aim of this work was to explore the extracellular presence/release of HTR-8/SVneo extravillous trophoblast cell line galectins. To that end, conditioned medium (CM) from HTR-8/SVneo cell culture was fractionated into a high molecular mass fraction (HMF) and low molecular mass fraction (LMF) using 100 kDa cut-off concentrators. In addition, extracellular vesicles (EVs) were isolated from CM by ultracentrifugation. Size and shape of the EVs were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy and their galectin mRNA content was determined by real-time PCR. The presence of galectins in fractions of HTR-8/SVneo CM and EVs was detected by western blot. All three galectins expressed by HTR-8/SVneo cells (gal-1, gal-3, and gal-8) were detected in the CM, HMF, and EVs, while only gal-1 was found in the LMF. In addition, EVs contained all three galectin mRNAs. These results reveal that free, complexed, and EV-associated forms of galectins were released from extravillous trophoblast cells, suggesting their potential to exert extracellular functions both in their immediate vicinity at the fetomaternal interface and distant locations.


On the First Paper, a relevant point not mentioned by Nixon is the existence of 'consciousness without experience'. This is the domain of the emergence of the primary mind or 'cognition'. On the Second Paper, I agree with Greg Nixon that Being, Awareness is unexplainable, but this does not imply that it is impossible to 'describe' mind--->matter and matter---> transformation in a 'relatively' closed inter-individual (interobjects-intersubjects) loop. On the Third Paper, I agree with Nixon that God in absolute sense is hidden and objectively unknown but definitely not beyond existence. This touches also the issue of the compatibility of evolutionism-creationism and has to do with the 'mental chemistry' of disconnection-connection.


To better understand home energy consumption, it is important to study the behaviours of occupants in their homes, especially in relation to their comfort needs. A mixed methods study comprising of a questionnaire, interviews, indoor environmental parameters monitoring, and energy consumption readings was performed to group home occupants based on their behavioural patterns. The TwoStep cluster analysis produced five clusters of home occupant with the data from 761 questionnaire respondents. The clustering model comprised of 28 variables including constructs of emotions, comfort affordances, and locus of control. Then, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted and IEQ monitoring and energy readings were taken with 15 of the questionnaire respondents. The results of the field study were used to substantiate the findings of the questionnaire. The combination of the statistical clusters with the data from the field study resulted in five archetypes: five distinct types of home occupants, differing in their behavioural motivations towards achieving comfort, and their use of energy when doing so. This study shows that a mixed methods approach is valuable for better understanding energy consumption and implementing archetype-customized lines of action to reduce energy use and maintain comfort.


In a series of cases beginning in the 1960s and extending through the present time, the Supreme Court has struggled with determining the extent to which the First Amendment's protection for freedom of expression applies to the gathering of information for the purpose of engaging in speech. The resulting First Amendment "information-gathering" jurisprudence is anomalous in the general scheme of free speech law in that it generally disfavors "flows of information" of an inherently political nature, and the protection that is extended to information-gathering activities tends to be applied to one select type of information-"news." Professor McDonald argues that such a jurisprudence is inadequate to facilitate a "free flow of information and ideas" that is the hallmark of a society which places a premium on information and knowledge. Increasingly, the First Amendment is being invoked not only to protect the gathering of news by the institutional press, but also to protect academic and scientific research, information gathering by private research and policy organizations, and the collection and dissemination of information over the Internet. A logical extension of the "structural" theory of the First Amendment-which the Court has endorsed and which provides protection to the "essential processes" of communication necessary to facilitate an informed public discussion of important societal matters-would justify the recognition of a more uniform, but limited, First Amendment right to gather many different types of information of public concern. This right could be invoked only by those individuals and groups whom our society recognizes as performing an important and valued information-gathering and dissemination function as evidenced by certain objective criteria suggested in this Article.


This dissertation addresses the challenge of maintaining the correctness of transactional memory programs, while improving its parallelism with small transactions and relaxed isolation levels. The efficiency of the transactional memory systems depends directly on the level of parallelism, which in turn depends on the conflict rate. A high conflict rate between memory transactions can be addressed by reducing the scope of transactions, but this approach may turn the application prone to the occurrence of atomicity violations. Another way to address this issue is to ignore some of the conflicts by using a relaxed isolation level, such as snapshot isolation, at the cost of introducing write-skews serialization anomalies that break the consistency guarantees provided by a stronger consistency property, such as opacity. In order to tackle the correctness issues raised by the atomicity violations and the write-skew anomalies, we propose two static analysis techniques: one based in a novel static analysis algorithm that works on a dependency graph of program variables and detects atomicity violations; and a second one based in a shape analysis technique supported by separation logic augmented with heap path expressions, a novel representation based on sequences of heap dereferences that certifies if a transactional memory program executing under snapshot isolation is free from writeskew anomalies. The evaluation of the runtime execution of a transactional memory algorithm using snapshot isolation requires a framework that allows an efficient implementation of a multi-version algorithm and, at the same time, enables its comparison with other existing transactional memory algorithms. In the Java programming language there was no framework satisfying both these requirements. Hence, we extended an existing software transactional memory framework that already supported efficient implementations of some transactional memory algorithms, to also support the efficient implementation of multi-version algorithms. The key insight for this extension is the support for storing the transactional metadata adjacent to memory locations. We illustrate the benefits of our approach by analyzing its impact with both singleand multi-version transactional memory algorithms using several transactional workloads.


Abstract— The aim of this study is to know the improvement of learning by using Brain-Based Learning (BBL) model based on scientific approach with Cabri 3D againts student's mathematical communication ability. This research is an experimental Quasi Experimental with Design Nonequivalent Control Group Design, which is research subjects were not randomly grouped with the provision of preliminary and final tests. The population of this research is all students of class X SMA Negeri 1 Karang Baru, Aceh Tamiang. Two classes were selected as research samples, namely experimental class and control class. The instrument in this research is a test of Mathematical Communication Skill. The research data was analyzed by using T test. The result of this research indicates that learning by using Brain-Based Learning (BBL) model based on scientific approach with 3D Cabri is better than using scientific learning for improving mathematical communication ability for students.


The author of this article investigated, described, and interpreted the ways in which primary-grade children interacted with informational texts and wrote their own informational texts. In a qualitative study of informational writing in the primary grades, 24 first and second graders worked in pairs over a period of two weeks to research self-selected topics and to produce written work suitable for (classroom) publication. Analysis of the students' written text, together with the transcripts of their conversations, showed that while the students wrote their new texts, their talk centered around the following topics: content suggestion, generating ideas, syntax negotiation, spelling, concern for conventions, organizing and categorizing information, rereading the writing, and revision. Results suggest that common instructional practices in the primary grades may underestimate the ability of these students to comprehend (age-appropriate) informational texts and to produce informational writing of their own.


In recent years, neural architecture search (NAS) has received intensive scientific and industrial interest due to its capability of finding a neural architecture with high accuracy for various artificial intelligence tasks such as image classification or object detection. In particular, gradient-based NAS approaches have become one of the more popular approaches thanks to their computational efficiency during the search. However, these methods often experience a mode collapse, where the quality of the found architectures is poor due to the algorithm resorting to choosing a single operation type for the entire network, or stagnating at a local minima for various datasets or search spaces. To address these defects, we present a differentiable variational inference-based NAS method for searching sparse convolutional neural networks. Our approach finds the optimal neural architecture by dropping out candidate operations in an over-parameterised supergraph using variational dropout with automatic relevance determination prior, which makes the algorithm gradually remove unnecessary operations and connections without risking mode collapse. The evaluation is conducted through searching two types of convolutional cells that shape the neural network for classifying different image datasets. Our method finds diverse network cells, while showing state-of-the-art accuracy with up to 3× fewer parameters.


The fatty acyl profile of phospholipids (PL) determines the fluidity of cell membranes and affects cell function. The degree to which long-chain fatty acid (LCFA) composition of PL and triacylglycerols (TG) in liver and total lipids in adipose tissue can be altered by prepartum nutrition in peripartal dairy cows is unclear. Multiparous Holsteins (n = 25) were assigned to 1 of 4 prepartal diets: 1) CA, the control diet fed to meet 120% of energy requirements; 2) CR, a control diet fed to meet 80% of requirements; 3) S, a diet supplemented with mostly saturated free fatty acids (47% 16:0, 36% 18:0, 14% cis-18:1) and fed to meet 120% of requirements; or 4) U, a diet similar to S except that cows were abomasally infused with soybean oil so that the diet plus infused fat would meet 120% of requirements. Diets were fed for 40 d prepartum; all cows received a lactation diet postpartum. Groups CR and U had lower prepartum intakes of dry matter and net energy, but glucose concentrations in plasma were similar among treatments. Cows fed S, U, or CR had greater nonesterified fatty acids in plasma prepartum, but cows fed U had decreased beta-hydroxybutyrate postpartum. Postpartal concentrations of total lipids and glycogen in liver tissue were similar among treatments. Cows in group U had a greater percentage of 18:2 but less 16:0, 18:0, and 20:4 in plasma total lipids than cows fed S. Treatment U increased 18:2 and 18:3 and decreased 18:1 in subcutaneous adipose tissue at 1 d postpartum. Across diets, percentages of 16:0 and trans-18:1 were increased, and 18:0, 20:3, and 20:5 were decreased, in hepatic PL at d 1 postpartum. Significant treatment x time interactions indicated that treatment U increased 18:2 in hepatic PL at the expense of 18:1, 20:3, 20:4, 22:6, and 24:0 on d 1 postpartum, but changes were normalized by d 65 postpartum. The unsaturation index of hepatic PL was lower at d 1 than at d -45 or 65, which implies that hepatic membrane fluidity decreased around parturition. The unsaturation index at d 1 was greater for cows fed S than those fed CA or U. Percentages of 16:0, 18:1, and 22:0 were increased, and 18:0, 20:3, 20:4, 20:5, 24:0, and 26:0 were decreased, in hepatic TG at d 1. Prepartal feed restriction modestly affected tissue LCFA profiles. The LCFA profile of adipose tissue, liver PL, and liver TG can be altered by dietary LCFA supply prepartum; changes in liver are normalized by 65 d postpartum.


Background: Hymenolepis nana is the most common cestode in humans, rats and mice. It is not clear whether H. nana found in humans is the same species found in rodents or whether they are two distinct species morphologically identical yet genetically distinct. Objective: To identify the genomic diversity of H. nana human isolates in Sohag, to determine their transmission patterns and to construct the phylogenetic tree to assess the evolutionary relationship of H. nana human and rodent isolates. Methods: 20 H. nana positive stool samples were collected from outpatients' children referred to Sohag hospitals. Genomic DNA was extracted from stool samples. Mitochondrial cytochrome C Oxidase subunits 1 (COX1) gene of H. nana human isolates were amplified, sequenced and analyzed phylogenetically. The phylogenetic trees were reconstructed by neighbor joining and maximum likelihood methods based on COX1 gene of H. nana human isolates obtained in this study and the known H. nana human and rodent isolates published in GenBank. Results: All 20 H. nana isolates were successfully amplified and sequenced at the COX1 and produced 5 different COX1 gene sequences. The NJ and ML phylogenetic tree showed almost similar topology which suggested that H. nana human isolates of present study were closely related which means they came from the same origin, were more related to H. nana infecting human especially Latin America due to migration, differed notably from rodent isolates of previous studies which support that rodent to human is less likely to happen and were different from human isolate of Australia. This is explained by evolution in Australian isolates due early separated from rest of the world. Genetic differences were found 0.6% to 4% between human isolates of present study and rodent isolates of previous studies. The annotated sequences of our Egyptian isolates were deposited in GenBank of NCBI under the following accession number; MT093851, MT093852, MT093853, MT093854 and MT093855. Conclusions: The Phylogeny of the COX1 suggested that H. nana is a species complex or cryptic species (morphologically identical yet genetically distinct) and the life-cycle of H. nana that exists in Sohag is likely to Involve mainly human to human transmission.


In this article, we will describe how the enterprise serviceoriented-architecture (SOA) scope is stretched with the advent of cloud computing. With the help of the case study of a fictitious global retailer, we will demonstrate the process for identifying cloud scenarios. Also, we will come across an emerging breed of distributed applications—both on-premise and in the Cloud—and discuss the integration considerations for building them.


This thesis explores the relationship between the political philosophy of Leo Strauss and neoconservative cultural politics. Arguing against claims that Straussian philosophy explicitly informs neoconservatism, I instead suggest that both Strauss and the neoconservatives share a common intellectual lineage that is a response to a pessimistic conception of modernity. Strauss is a neoconservative, but neoconservatives should not necessarily be considered Straussians.
Both Strauss and the neoconservatives became notorious in the aftermath of the US led invasion of Iraq in March, 2003. Contra to the narrative that suggests that Strauss inspired the invasion or that neoconservative foreign policy presents a radical break in US history, I argue that the neoconservative project of the Bush era should be understood as a continuation of US expansionism as an inevitable effect of capitalist growth.
Beyond foreign policy, my research considers the neoconservative understanding of cultural politics in particular relation to the social changes of the post war era. This thesis details the neoconservative attempt to move beyond the contradiction surrounding a distrust of modernity and the embrace of virulently nihilist capitalism. This is read through the Straussian idea that it is essential to practice care when speaking publicly.
This thesis concludes that neoconservatism is an explicitly moral discourse and not a particular set of policies or strategies. Neoconservatism recognises the necessity of moral discourse and the importance of the construction of such discourses for the establishment of the community. It is argued that the neoconservative attempt to re-impose discredited moral orders has led to the exacerbation of America's contradictions and to decline in American power. Beyond this, it is also argued that Strauss does make a contribution to political philosophy in terms of the relationship between city and man; this contribution to political philosophy is used to interpret elements of post-war American history.


Offline reinforcement learning (RL) is challenged by the distributional shift between learning policies and datasets. To address this problem, existing works mainly focus on designing sophisticated algorithms to explicitly or implicitly constrain the learned policy to be close to the behavior policy. The constraint applies not only to well-performing actions but also to inferior ones, which limits the upper bound of the learned policy. Instead of aligning the densities of two distributions, aligning the supports gives a relaxed constraint while still being able to avoid out-of-distribution actions. Therefore, we propose a simple yet effective method to boost offline RL algorithms based on the observation that resampling a dataset keeps the distribution support unchanged. More specif-ically, we construct a better behavior policy by resampling each transition in an old dataset ac-cording to its episodic return. We dub our method ReD (Return-based Data Rebalance), which can be implemented with less than 10 lines of code change and adds negligible running time. Ex-tensive experiments demonstrate that ReD is effective at boosting offline RL performance and orthogonal to decoupling strategies in long-tailed classification. New state-of-the-arts are achieved on the D4RL benchmark.


Abstract. Transportation corridors such as roadways are often subjected to both natural
instability and cut-slope failures, with substantial physical damage to the
road infrastructure and threats to the circulating vehicles and passengers. In
the early 2000s, the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council of the Basque Country in
Spain noted the need for assessing the risk related to the geotechnical
hazards of its road network, in order to assess and monitor their safety for
road users. The quantitative risk assessment (QRA) was selected as a tool
for comparing the risk of different hazards on an objective basis. Few
examples of multi-hazard risk assessment along transportation corridors
exist. The methodology presented here consists of the calculation of risk, in
terms of probability of failure and its respective consequences, and it was
applied to 84 selected points of risk (PoR) over the entire road network
managed by the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council. The types of encountered slope
instabilities that are examined are rockfalls, retaining-wall failures, and
slow-moving landslides. The proposed methodology includes the calculation of
the probability of failure for each hazard based on an extensive collection
of field data, and its association with the expected consequences.
Instrumentation data from load cells and inclinometers were used for the anchored walls
and the slow-moving landslides, respectively. The expected road damage was
assessed for each hazard level in terms of a fixed unit cost (UC). The results
indicate that the risk can be comparable for the different hazards. A total of 21 % of
the PoR in the study area were found to be of very high risk.


Climate accounting for financial portfolios has seen growing prominence in the past years, thanks to both private and public sector initiatives. Over 200 financial institutions have conducted some form of portfolio analysis. In the context of this growing prominence, the academic and practitioner's discussion of climate accounting has largely focused on questions of climate data quality and choices for estimation models. Missing in this debate is an analysis of the underlying accounting principles related to climate data. There is no overview of the climate accounting principles and the implications of choosing different principles and rules. This article provides a taxonomy of key accounting choices currently applied for climate accounting of financial portfolios, notably regarding units of accounting, boundaries of accounting, normalization rules, and allocation rules. Based on a review of data providers accounting approaches in practice, as well as sample applications of different accounting principles, it distills key accounting categories and highlights the potential sensitivity of the ultimate results to these choices. The article concludes that climate assessments of portfolios may be equally sensitive to accounting choices as to the quality of underlying data, suggesting more attention and standards are needed.


This paper describes an exploratory outcome evaluation of War Child Holland's psychosocial support intervention I DEAL, a life skills intervention aimed at improving the ability of children and young people affected by armed conflict in the Republic of South Sudan to 'deal' with their daily lives. The specific objectives were to assess whether I DEAL is consistent with local perceptions of wellbeing, and to explore the outcomes, as well as the factors that influence outcomes of this intervention. The research was conducted using mixed methods, with a focus on qualitative and participatory methods: group exercises, individual goal setting (N = 110) and interviews (N = 62). To triangulate findings from children, interviews were held with teachers (N = 7), facilitators (N = 5), and parents (N = 11). It was found that the content of the intervention was consistent with children's perceptions of wellbeing. Specific outcomes that were reported by children and confirmed by facilitators, teachers and parents included decreased fighting and improved relationships with peers and parents. Findings suggest that I DEAL positively affect children's social coping skills and has the potential to improve children's emotional coping skills and classroom performance.


Scalp avulsion is a devastating injury that affects the patient esthetically, functionally, and psychologically. The advent of microsurgery and the first reimplant performed by Miller in 1976 improved the treatment of scalp avulsion, making reimplant the first choice whenever possible. With modern techniques and the equipment available in specialized centers, scalp avulsion can be adequately treated using microsurgical reimplantation. This method achieves better results as compared to previously employed procedures. We report the reconstruction of the scalp of a 4-year-old boy after the avulsion of approximately two-thirds of the scalp area due to a dog bite. We focused on covering the skull with microsurgical latissimus dorsi and serratus muscles, and performing subsequent surgeries to completely cover the alopecic areas.


The drug market has become very competitive with the development of existing companies and the emergence of new companies. The emergence on the market of so-called generic drugs makes the speed of development of new drugs a prime target. The pharmaceutical industry has until now focused on speeding-up drug development by focusing on the chemistry aspects with very little attention given to potential engineering solutions. When looking at the engineering side of the pharmaceutical industry, and more particularly to the design side of equipment like chemical reactors, the pharmaceutical industry has restricted itself to using stirred tank reactors to analyse, develop and produce products. This type of reactor is perceived as flexible and easy to operate for batch operations. Chemical engineering research has opened up the route for new potential reactor designs, which can offer effective solutions to the problems of reaction scale-up. This work aims to develop an automated comparison of different types of chemical reactors in accordance with their ability to scale-up bulk pharmaceutical products. It looks at the engineering side of drug scale-up in order to provide a reliable and fast evaluation procedure for the selection of a reactor which facilitates reaction scale-up. In this piece of research, indicators of success in the scale-up and assessment of quality of process design is centred around yields (or selectivity), capital expenditures and costs and regulatory compliance. Due to the complexity of the reactions i.e. the number of components or the number of steps involved in the synthesis of a compound, side reactions occur undermining the production of a targeted compound. This problem can be solved in some cases by changing the chemistry of the synthesis of the product. This procedure tends to be very time consuming as each possible route has to be first developed at bench scale. Then each promising route is scaled-up over increasing sizes of stirred tank reactor. The different engineering factors involved within the reaction are commonly neglected, so is the possibility of using different types of reactor. In this study, the level of selectivity achieved, i.e. how much product is generated for the amount of reactant used, is simulated by mathematical models. Selectivity is then used to evaluate profit generated or cost (capital or running) endorsed and reflect on the efficiency of the process design. Regulatory compliance is also looked at through the impact that parameter uncertainty can have on the process design. The influence of mixing on product selectivity is shown in this work as being critical. A comparison of the mixing efficiency of various types of reactors is studied through the influence of mixing on selectivity. Mass transfer is also of prime importance in organic synthesis with the emergence of catalysts. This aspect has also been given particular attention in this work, and various types of reactor have been evaluated against their potential to scale-up a mass transfer sensitive reaction. The comparison of the different types of chemical reactor is carried out through the use of an optimisation procedure. The optimisation is done over the different variables which represent inherent characteristics of each reactor type e.g. energy dissipation rate, mass transfer achievable in a reactor. Uncertainty analysis is also used through the Fourier Amplitude Sensitivity Test (FAST), a global sensitivity analysis method, to evaluate the impact that parameter uncertainty or parameter tolerance has on the process design. The FAST method is a global sensitivity analysis method which offers the advantage that a limited number of sampling points are necessary to evaluate the parameter sensitivity analysis of a model. The selection is then based on a multi-objective optimisation procedures. This allows us to trade-off uncertainty and annualised costs. The advantages of this methodology are the speed of evaluation, the ease of use as well as the versatility and generic aspect. It permits to evaluate the impact that parameter uncertainty has on each type of reactor as well as the identify the equipment which generate the best profit. The mathematical model is able to incorporate dynamic behaviour with out having to resort to the level of detail required for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and have been implemented in gPROMS.


Health care systems and providers have rapidly adapted to virtual care delivery during this unprecedented time. Clinical programs initiated a variety of virtual care delivery models to maintain access to care, preserve personal protective equipment, and minimize infectious disease spread. Herein, we first describe the context within paediatric health delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada that fueled the rise of virtual care delivery. We then summarize the development, implementation, and beneficial impact of the innovative virtual care delivery programs currently in use at Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) for both inpatient and outpatient care, specifically in our ambulatory clinics, emergency department, and mental health program. We highlight the transferable unique ways CHEO has integrated virtual care delivery through our governance structure, stakeholder engagement including patient, caregivers and health care providers and staff, development, and use of eHealth tools and novel approaches for patient care requiring physical assessment. We conclude with our vision for the future of virtual care, one component of paediatric care delivery in the post-COVID-19 era, which requires a common framework for virtual care evaluation. Importantly, rapid implementation of a primarily virtual care model at CHEO sustained high volume quality paediatric care. We believe many of these programs should and will remain in the post-pandemic era. A comprehensive, unified approach to evaluation is essential to yield meaningful results that inform sustainable care delivery models that integrate virtual care, and ultimately help ensure the best health outcomes for our patients.


Hydraulic concrete is a versatile and most popular construction material. Its long-term performance depends on the interactions with the service condition, in which the penetration of deleterious substances is highly significant. Based on the practical application environments of hydraulic concrete, this paper reviews the mechanism and research achievement from the freeze-thaw cycle, concrete carbonization, sea water corrosion, wear abrasion, cavitations damage of hydraulic structure. This is followed by a discussion on various experiments in an attempt to improve the concrete durability, which is relevant to each mechanism of deterioration. Finally, the measures to enhance durability are put forward as a prospect for future hydraulic engineering.


This paper presents a study of two copolymers, maleic anhydride and methylmethacrilate/maleic anhydride and vinyl benzyl chloride, functionalised with polar chromophoric groups such as 2,4 dinitroaniline. Thin films have been prepared by vacuum evaporation and spin coating methods on silicon and glass substrates. UV-VIS, FTIR, XRD and Photoluminescence Spectroscopy have been used to comparatively investigate the effect of the preparation method on the properties of the thin films obtained with functionalized copolymer. SEM has evidenced differences in the morphologies of the layers suggesting a degradation of the polymeric chain during the evaporation process to fragments that conserve unchanged the chromophoric group. This explains the presence of two types of non-linear phenomena, the second harmonic emission and two-photon luminescence emissions for both vacuum evaporated and spin coated films.


To resolve the problems aroused by G code in manufacturing industry, a plan for NC system based on STEP-NC is proposed. The whole system is designed into two parts: system software and system architecture. With modularized design thinking, the control software includes five modules: interpreting module, man-machine interface, task coordinator, axis group module and axis module. For the system architecture, an open architecture is used which adopts different products from different manufacturers, being connected together by softSERCANS bus. By a machining test, the expected machining features are realized, proving that the NC system designed is reliable.


In this paper, a kind of domain decomposition time-domain finite-element method (TDFEM) discretized by discontinuous Galerkin method is presented. Hierarchical vector basis functions are used to improve the accuracy of the results obtained using sparse mesh with fewer unknowns. The Crank-Nicolson algorithm is also complemented for the time derivatives, which leads to an unconditional stable scheme for domain-decomposition hierarchical TDFEM. In each subdomain, matrices for both electric and magnetic fields are assembled together and the multifrontal sparse direct solver is used at the subdomain level. Compared to the original single-domain problem, the size of each subdomain is reduced, as well as the overall computational time.


Abstract This paper reviews the movement among multiple health plan options between 1994 and 1998 for Minnesota state employees whose work site was located in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. During this period the employer contribution was based on the lowest family premium bid from a qualified plan in the county of the employee's work site. In 1995 the largest individual practice association model HMO in the state, Medica, reduced its state premium by 25%, becoming the lowest-priced option. This resulted in massive transfers of enrollees between plans. The point of this study was to estimate the risk changes that resulted from these movements between plan options. We obtained enrollment data by age and gender from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross) and applied age/gender risk weight factors derived from actuarial rate tables to the Blue Cross cells. Annual changes in risk weights by 10-20% were common in a number of Blue Cross subpopulations, and in one case, by more than 50%. The Blue Cross POS plan experienced increases in risk and went into a death spiral, while a second Blue Cross plan with a more restrictive provider network started with low risk, but experienced increases in risk when the Medica plan was withdrawn. Similar demographic data were not available from other plans offered by the state and claim costs were confidential, so the results pertain only to Blue Cross risks. The question is raised as to whether managed competition can work without some means of adjusting premium rates to the expected cost level of the enrollees of a particular health plan. All carriers seemed reluctant to guarantee premium rates after the 1994-1998 experience, and the state soon became self-insured.


This thesis offers an alternative understanding of the Controversial Discussions and reframes its stalemate by centring on the question of internal demarcation in psychoanalysis. The Controversial Discussions took place in London during the Second World War, in the aftermath of Sigmund Freud's death. It was an in-depth discussion concerning the validation, expansion, and status of psychoanalytic knowledge, wherein Melanie Klein's formulations were measured in relation to Freud's work, and challenged by a hostile audience captained by Freud's daughter, Anna. These two most prominent psychoanalysts of their time arguably stood for tradition versus change, and never reconciled their views.
This work investigates the similarities between the Controversial Discussions and scientific controversies, according to a sociology of associations and Actor Network Theory (ANT). In working systematically with defining aspects of scientific controversies, this thesis shows how it is possible to approach the dynamics of the Controversial Discussions using a knowledge production rationale. Investigating the criteria of internal demarcation, it is argued that the Controversies' participants relied mainly on phylogenetic and ontogenetic criteria to the validation of Klein's views. This is contextualised within the emergence of phylogenesis in psychoanalysis and is discussed according to its articulation in Freud's work on the theory of the Oedipus complex.
This thesis argues that Freud's use of phylogenesis was a relevant aspect of knowledge production in psychoanalysis, since it is an important aspect for psychoanalytic truth to be produced as fact. Thus, this work considers the use of biology in the Controversial Discussions as a criterion of internal demarcation between accepted views in psychoanalysis and those to be regarded as outside the psychoanalytic realm. Drawing on this process of knowledge production, this thesis argues that psychoanalysts should think about their differences by considering their conflicting views, the need for coherence, and a sense of crisis that ignores the constitutive process of facts in psychoanalysis.
Connecting phylogenesis with knowledge production and biology, this thesis offers new understandings of old problems where clashes among different schools of thought need no longer be entrenched, where psychoanalytic truth as fact may be revisited, and where the stalemate at the end of the Controversial Discussions can inform the question of psychoanalytic plurality.


: The species belonging to the Lamiaceae family have been useful tools for many years as a folk remedy. In the present study, a microemulsion system was developed with extract of Scutellaria salviifolia Benth (endemic), Sideritis libanotica Labill. subsp. linearis (Bentham) Bornm (endemic), and Ziziphora clinopodioides Lam. Both and related microemulsion formulations were also investigated for their potential biological activities. Pseudo-ternary phase diagrams of formulations were constructed consisting of oil/ mixed surfactant/water emulsion system and a quaternary component. Antioxidant activity was determined by using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging method. For antimicrobial activity determination, on the other hand, microdilution method was performed with Escherichia coli 25922, Staphylococcus aureus 29213, Candida albicans 14053, and Candida krusei 6258 standard strains. Tested extracts showed S. aureus-specific antibacterial activity with MIC values 64 µg/mL, 256 µg/mL, and 512 µg/mL for S. libanotica subsp. linearis, S. salviifolia, and Z. clinopodioides, respectively. For any other tested strain, considerable antimicrobial activity was not observed (MIC values > 1024 µg/mL). Related formulations were not superior to extracts in terms of antimicrobial activity. All extracts and related formulations appear to have antioxidant activity, and the antioxidant capacity of all formulations is higher than the extracts. When compared to ascorbic acid, formulation of S. libanotica subsp. linearis extract has stronger antioxidant activity. Sideritis libanotica subsp. linearis extract had a remarkable antibacterial activity against S. aureus. It also had a stronger antioxidant capacity than ascorbic acid. Besides, all formulations developed from extracts had antioxidant activity enhancing properties, although they did not contribute to antimicrobial activity. In conclusion, considering the potential antiinflammatory activity due to antioxidant activity, it is predicted that especially the formulation developed with Sideritis libanotica subsp. linearis extract is worth exploring with further studies for topical treatment of S. aureus-infected wounds and burns.


Background: The board of directors is a key player in corporate governance. Their role is to ensure that the corporations are run with the interest of the shareholders as the main focus. In the beginning of the 21st century, a survey was made about the confidence of the Swedish business community and in which criticism was directed to the board of directors. The boards were deemed inadequate in their function and were often solely composed by members with similar experiences and competence, therefore lacking in diversity. In order to improve the competence and work of the board of directors, the Swedish code of corporate governance was introduced and its recommendations comprehend the boards' size and composition. The recommendations are based on "comply or explain" and are therefore not enforced. It is, thus, possible to question the extent to which the recommendations are adhered to and whether the code's introduction has affected the composition of the boards of directors and, consequently, their competence.Aim: This master thesis aims to explain the board composition of Swedish company boards during the years 1999, 2008 and 2011 and to analyze how this composition differs between the years. By studying the factors that are the basis of the composition, we also intend to discuss if, there has been a change of competence on the company boards.Completion: This thesis is of qualitative nature and its main focus is based on an analytical model that has been composed out of laws, regulation and theories. The analytical model has been the starting point for the gathering of information as well as for the analysis of the information. The empirical material is based on a study of annual reports and reports on corporate governance in ten companies as well as interviews with three members of nomination committees.Results: The thesis identifies several competence factors whose relevance varies according to the regulations or theory you take into consideration. The nomination committee's views on competence covers most of these factors. The thesis shows that the information available to shareholders does not completely capture the nomination committee's view on competence. Furthermore, the thesis finds that the competencies of the board of directors are due to the unique company and its specific situation and an argumentation over whether a change incompetence has occurred can thus not be made without taking this into consideration.


Crowdsourcing has gained increasing attention from scholars in a broad range of fields such as computer science, engineering, information system, business, and economics. However, few crowdsourcing studies are conducted from the bibliometric perspective. This paper conducts document co-citation, author co-citation, journal co-citation, and keyword co-word analysis in the crowdsourcing research field by using CiteSpace and Web of Science TM Core Collection database, aiming to identify highly cited articles and journals and influential authors in the crowdsourcing research field during the time span from 2008 to 2016 and to find out current hot research topics and future directions in the crowdsourcing research field.


Transplantation of human fetal CNS tissue is a promising therapy for neurodegenerative conditions such as Huntington's disease (HD), but its widespread adoption is limited by restricted tissue availability. One method of overcoming this problem would be to store the tissue in hibernation medium, an approach that we reported previously for human fetal striatal tissue stored for up to 24 h. We now demonstrate the feasibility of storing such tissue for up to 8 days in hibernation medium. When either fresh or 8-day hibernated striatal cells were cultured under standard conditions for 4 days, the proportion of DARPP-32-positive neurons did not differ significantly, although the total number of cells was significantly less from tissue that had been hibernated. Six weeks after transplantation into cyclosporin A-immunosuppressed unilateral quinolinic acid-lesioned rats, there was no significant difference between fresh and hibernated grafts, both in terms of graft volume and extent of striatal phenotypic markers. This study therefore clearly demonstrates that hibernation of human fetal striatal tissue for up to 8 days is not deleterious to its differentiation in culture or survival following transplantation, and is therefore an appropriate method of storage for this tissue.


features summary of articles published in Indian and international journals with special emphasis on India and other emerging markets Abstracts is sponsored by thes is sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi and is intended to facilitate Indian management research. Management Research in Emerging Economies


Evidence of the adsorption of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) residuals on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) is shown using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The adsorption of SDS on semiconducting SWNTs (s-SWNTs) is believed to result in deposition and alignment of s-SWNTs between predefined electrode pairs using ac dielectrophoresis. However, the presence of SDS on SWNTs degrades electrical properties of the fabricated devices. Attempts at surface cleaning, aimed at removal of the SDS residuals and formation of an improved contact between the SWNTs and the metal, are described.


Abstract: Despite the importance of assessing the reliability of evaluative measures, there is a confusing array of conceptual schemes and coefficients for calculating "the reliability" of an item or scale. In particular, reliability may be conceived of and estimated from a true-score model or a sampling precision perspective. The former model is associated with such estimates as parallel or alternate forms reliability, split-half reliability, and coefficient alpha, the latter with standard error, coefficient of variation, and confidence intervals for observed scores. This review clarifies the distinction between two models. The basic theoretical models for each approach are developed and illustrated using data from the author's work on measuring organizational climate. As a result, evaluators should be better able to judge the meaning of the reliability information provided in reports and to calculate reliability in situations requiring some assessment of the quality of their data.


Since the 1980s the United States has faced growing disinterest and high attrition from STEM majors. Over the same period, foreign-born enrollment in U.S. higher education has increased steadily. This paper examines whether foreign-born peers affect the likelihood American college students graduate with a STEM major. Using administrative student records from a large public university in California, we exploit idiosyncratic variation in the share of foreign peers across introductory math courses taught by the same professor over time. Results indicate that a 1 standard deviation increase in foreign peers reduces the likelihood native-born students graduate with STEM majors by 3 percentage points–equivalent to 3.7 native students displaced for 9 additional foreign students in an average course. STEM displacement is offset by an increased likelihood of choosing Social Science majors. However, the earnings prospects of displaced students are minimally affected as they appear to be choosing Social Science majors with equally high earning power. We demonstrate that comparative advantage and linguistic dissonance may operate as underlying mechanisms.


Local adaptation to climate in temperate forest trees involves the integration of multiple physiological, morphological, and phenological traits. Latitudinal clines are frequently observed for these traits, but environmental constraints also track longitude and altitude. We combined extensive phenotyping of 12 candidate adaptive traits, multivariate regression trees, quantitative genetics, and a genome-wide panel of SNP markers to better understand the interplay among geography, climate, and adaptation to abiotic factors in Populus trichocarpa. Heritabilities were low to moderate (0.13–0.32) and population differentiation for many traits exceeded the 99th percentile of the genome-wide distribution of FST, suggesting local adaptation. When climate variables were taken as predictors and the 12 traits as response variables in a multivariate regression tree analysis, evapotranspiration (Eref) explained the most variation, with subsequent splits related to mean temperature of the warmest month, frost-free period (FFP), and mean annual precipitation (MAP). These grouping matched relatively well the splits using geographic variables as predictors: the northernmost groups (short FFP and low Eref) had the lowest growth, and lowest cold injury index; the southern British Columbia group (low Eref and intermediate temperatures) had average growth and cold injury index; the group from the coast of California and Oregon (high Eref and FFP) had the highest growth performance and the highest cold injury index; and the southernmost, high-altitude group (with high Eref and low FFP) performed poorly, had high cold injury index, and lower water use efficiency. Taken together, these results suggest variation in both temperature and water availability across the range shape multivariate adaptive traits in poplar.


Previous studies have failed to detect an iatrogenic effect of assessing suicidality. However, the perception that asking about suicide may induce suicidality persists. This meta-analysis quantitatively synthesized research concerning the iatrogenic risks of assessing suicidality. This review included studies that explicitly evaluated the iatrogenic effects of assessing suicidality via prospective research methods. Thirteen articles were identified that met inclusion criteria. Evaluation of the pooled effect of assessing suicidality with regard to negative outcomes did not demonstrate significant iatrogenic effects. Our findings support the appropriateness of universal screening for suicidality, and should allay fears that assessing suicidality is harmful.


Within the framework of the Lanzhou quantum molecular dynamics model, the deep subthreshold antiproton production in heavy-ion collisions has been investigated thoroughly. The elastic scattering, annihilation and charge exchange reactions associated with antiproton channels are implemented in the model. The attractive antiproton potential extracted from the G-parity transformation of nucleon selfenergies reduces the threshold energies in meson-baryon and baryon-baryon collisions, and consequently enhances the antiproton yields to some extent. The calculated invariant spectra are consistent with the available experimental data. The primordial antiproton yields increase with the mass number of the colliding system. However, annihilation reactions reduce the antiproton production which becomes independent of the colliding partners. Anti-flow phenomena of antiprotons correlated with the mean field potential and annihilation mechanism is found by comparing them with the proton flows. Possible experiments at the high-intensity heavy-ion accelerator facility (HIAF) in China are discussed.


Perception, planning, and control are three enabling technologies to achieve autonomy in autonomous driving. In particular, planning provides vehicles with a safe and collision-free path towards their destinations, accounting for vehicle dynamics, maneuvering capabilities in the presence of obstacles, traffic rules, and road boundaries. Existing path planning algorithms can be divided into two stages: global planning and local planning. In the global planning stage, global routes and the vehicle states are determined from a digital map and the localization system. In the local planning stage, a local path can be achieved based on a global route and surrounding information obtained from sensors such as cameras and LiDARs. In this paper, we present a new local path planning method, which incorporates a vehicle's time-to-rollover model for off-road autonomous driving on different road profiles for a given predefined global route. The proposed local path planning algorithm uses a 3D occupancy grid and generates a series of 3D path candidates in the s-p coordinate system. The optimal path is then selected considering the total cost of safety, including obstacle avoidance, vehicle rollover prevention, and comfortability in terms of path smoothness and continuity with road unevenness. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed path planning method for various types of roads, indicating its wide practical applications to off-road autonomous driving.


Cercospora and ramularia leaf spot are the most damaging fungal diseases of sugar beet in Europe. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the severity of fungal diseases and the efficacy of various fungicides and their doses in sugar beet crops in Lithuania. A short-term field experiment was carried out in 2012 and 2013 at Rumokai Experimental Station, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry on a moderately heavy loam HapliEpihypogleyic Luvisol (LVg-p-w-ha). Fungicides Impact (a.i. flutriafol), Opus (a.i. epoxiconazole), Artea (a.i. propikonazole + cyproconazole), Folicur (a.i. tebuconazole), Opera N (a.i. pyraclostrobin + epoxiconazole) were applied as a single application at the beginning of the disease occurrence (in August) and as a double application, with one spray at the beginning of the disease occurrence (in August) plus a second spray one month later (in September). The experimental results showed that the main fungal diseases in the sugar beet crops tested were Cercospora beticola and Ramularia beticola. Erysiphe betae was of minor severity. The application of fungicides significantly decreased the severity of cercospora and ramularia leaf spots by on average 19.8–81.8% and 71.8–91.8%, respectively. The most effective fungicides were Opus (a.i. epoxiconazole) and Impact (a.i. flutriafol). A single or double application of all the investigated fungicides had essentially the same effect. The most effective against powdery mildew was fungicide Opus, treated twice. Various active ingredients of the fungicides had insignificant effect on sugar beet yield and sucrose content in the roots. A single application of the fungicide Artea 0.5 L ha-1 (a.i. propiconazole + cyproconazole) and a double application Opus 1.0 L ha-1 (a.i. epoxiconazole) and Folicur 1.0 L ha-1 (a.i. tebuconazole) significantly decreased the content of impurities (potassium, sodium, alpha amino nitrogen) in the sugar beet roots compared with the untreated control treatment.


In life insurance business, longevity risk, i.e. the risk that the insured population lives longer than the
expected, represents the heart of the risk assessment, having significant
impact in terms of solvency capital requirements (SCRs) needed to front the
firm obligations. The credit crisis has shown that systemic risk as longevity
risk is relevant and that for many insurers it is actually the dominant risk.
With the adoption of the Solvency II directive, a new area for insurance in
terms of solvency regulation has been opened up. The international guidelines
prescribe a market consistent valuation of balance sheets, where the solvency
capital requirements to be set aside are calculated according to a modular
structure. By mapping the main risk affecting the insurance portfolio, the
capital amount able to cover the liabilities corresponds to each measured risk.
In Solvency II, the longevity risk is included into underwriting risk
module. In particular, the rules propose that companies use a standard model
for measuring the SCRs. Nevertheless, the legislation under consideration
allows designing tailor-made internal models. As regards the longevity risk
assessment, the regulatory standard model leads to noteworthy inconsistencies.
In this paper, we propose a stochastic volatility model combined
with a so-called coherent risk measure as the expected shortfall for measuring
the SCRs according to more realistic assumptions on future evolution of
longevity trend. Finally empirical evidence is provided.


Circular arrays of log-periodic (LP) antennas are designed and their operational properties are investigated in a sophisticated simulation environment that is based on the recent advances in computational electromagnetics. Due to the complicated structures of the trapezoidal-tooth array elements and the overall array configuration, their analytical treatments are prohibitively difficult. Therefore, the simulation results presented in this paper are essential for their analysis and design. We present the design of a threeelement LP array showing broadband characteristics. The directive gain is stabilized in the operation band using optimization by genetic algorithms. We demonstrate that the optimization procedure can also be used to provide beam-steering ability to LP arrays.


Sexual dichromatism is common in lizards, and may play an important role in sex recognition and mating systems. Nonetheless, relatively few published papers provide quantitative analyses of colour, deal with Australian taxa or are based on large-bodied species. Water dragons Physignathus lesueurii (Agamidae) from eastern Australia are very large (upto 1 m total length) and sexually dichromatic, with conspicuous red ventral coloration in adult males. We quantified coloration in three ventral regions (throat, chest and abdomen) of males and females using a spectroradiometer and looked for associations of colour with sex and with morphological traits predicted to correlate with fitness (body size, body condition, relative head size and asymmetry of femoral pores). Among adult males, larger individuals showed less red on the abdomen than did smaller animals, and males with relatively large heads had darker, less red abdomens than did males with smaller heads. Among adult females, larger animals had darker chests, and less red on the abdomen and chest, than did smaller females. The similarity in these trends between the sexes, and the location of the sexually dichromatic and size-sensitive colours in an area (under the abdomen) where they presumably are not visible to other lizards cast doubt on their utility as sexual or dominance signals. Hence, although we documented significant sex and body-size effects on ventral coloration, our results suggest that ventral colours in water dragons do not function in sex-specific displays.


This paper reports the results of statistical analysis conducted on the weld data obtained from friction stir welding of aluminium and copper. The welds were produced by varying the process parameters; the rotational speed was varied between 600 to 1200 rpm and the welding speed varied between 50 and 300 mm/min. The Statistica (version 9.0) statistical analysis software package was used to generate the scatter and surface plots relative to the experimental results obtained from the tensile testing and the FSW data. Regression analysis was also done on the weld data. It was found that the downward vertical force has a significant effect on the Ultimate Tensile Strength of the weld and a strong relationship exist between the heat input into the welds and the measured electrical resistivities of the welds.


This theory regards intentions as mental states, e.g., attitudes, which, typically, have causal power. But we do not speak of our intentions as having such powers. Instead, we speak of a person's resolve, determination, or his anxiety, eagerness, and so forth, as the 'powers' that move us. Of course, one desires for various reasons to carry out his various intentions but that desire is not a component of the intentions. An intention is, roughly, the course of action that one has adopted, so it has no such components. There are other characteristics of intentions which the mental state idea of intentions does not share. Intentions do not have the temporal characteristics that mental states have, or share the curious context dependency that intentions have. And since, according to the theory, mental states operate causally, it would not be possible for a person to commit himself to a course of action as we ordinarily do when we make a promise or sign an agreement or contract.


The purpose of this article was to provide an overview of early childhood intervention and early childhood special education (ECI/ECSE) services and practices in Turkey by using the Developmental System Approach (M. J. Guralnick, 2001). After pointing out the history of early childhood and ECI/ECSE services and current legislations with regard to ECI/ECSE in Turkey, the article focuses on ECI/ECSE practices in Turkey. Although ECI/ECSE legislative acts have been in place since 1980s, there are critical issues regarding the provision of systematic ECI/ECSE both to young children with developmental delays or at risk for developmental delays and to their families. These issues include lack of a model system approach, lack of assessment tools and curricula, and lack of qualified personnel. Future recommendations for ECI/ECSE are provided.


An overview of the call numbers and classification schemes you might encounter at the Marriott Library and where to find them.


The increasing amount of data to be processed on edge devices, such as cameras, has motivated Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration at the edge. Typical image processing methods performed at the edge, such as feature extraction or edge detection, use convolutional filters that are energy, computation, and memory hungry algorithms. But edge devices and cameras have scarce computational resources, bandwidth, and power and are limited due to privacy constraints to send data over to the cloud. Thus, there is a need to process image data at the edge. Over the years, this need has incited a lot of interest in implementing neuromorphic computing at the edge. Neuromorphic systems aim to emulate the biological neural functions to achieve energy-efficient computing. Recently, Oscillatory Neural Networks (ONNs) present a novel brain-inspired computing approach by emulating brain oscillations to perform auto-associative memory types of applications. To speed up image edge detection and reduce its power consumption, we perform an in-depth investigation with ONNs. We propose a novel image processing method by using ONNs as a Heterogeneous Associative Memory (HAM) for image edge detection. We simulate our ONN-HAM solution using first, a Matlab emulator, and then a fully digital ONN design. We show results on gray scale square evaluation maps, also on black and white and gray scale 28x28 MNIST images and finally on black and white 512x512 standard test images. We compare our solution with standard edge detection filters such as Sobel and Canny. Finally, using the fully digital design simulation results, we report on timing and resource characteristics, and evaluate its feasibility for real-time image processing applications. Our digital ONN-HAM solution can process images with up to 120x120 pixels (166 MHz system frequency) respecting real-time camera constraints. This work is the first to explore ONNs as hetero-associative memory for image processing applications.


In this paper, we propose a method to exploit waveform agility in modern radars to improve performance in the challenging task of detecting small targets on the ocean surface in heavy clutter. The approach exploits the compound-Gaussian model for sea clutter returns to achieve clutter suppression by forming an orthogonal projection of the received signal into the clutter subspace. Waveform scheduling is then performed by incorporating the information about the clutter into the design of the next transmitted waveform. A simulation study demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach.


LXX to Gen 48,7 refers to a hippodrome in the vicinity of Rachel's Tomb. This cannot be satisfactorily explained as an exegetical creation of the translator's imagination and probably refers to a genuine structure. This is also true of the stadium or hippodrome mentioned in Tg. Onq. to Gen 14,17, as the meeting place of Abram, the king of Sodom, and Melchizedek. Since 1QapGen locates the same meeting in the Valley of Beth Hakerem, which should be identified as the valley between Ramat Rahel and Bethlehem, it is reasonable to assume that both versions refer to the same hippodrome. There is no textual justification for assuming a late interpolation in LXX and no geographical or archeological justification for explaining these passages as allusions to a Herodian hippodrome. LXX may attest to a case of profound Hellenistic influence in Judea already under Ptolemaic rule.