Entrepreneurial capital has recently emerged as an important facet of entrepreneurship and new venture creation. Much of the evidence to validate such claims emerged from research that focussed upon large businesses and multinational corporations. Despite this newly acquired status and the rise of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to the top of the socio-economic and political agendas of policy makers in both industrially developed and developing nations, there exists a marked paucity of empirically rigorous research on entrepreneurial capital and convertibility dynamics in SMEs, with a focus on the practical measurement and management of owner-manager experience and knowledge. Fairchild (2002) notes that the practical management objectives of measuring owner-managers' knowledge are to find out how well an SME can convert human capital like individual learning/team capabilities to structural capital like organizational knowledge or aspects like documented processes and knowledge bases and thereby moved from tacit to explicit knowledge, and reduced the risk of knowledge lost with the constant changes in such businesses. To bridge this knowledge gap, this research study investigates the dynamics of entrepreneurial capital convertibility in UK SMEs.

For the purpose of this thesis, an innovative mixed-method approach was developed, to include 17 face-to-face interviews capturing both quantitative and qualitative data with owner-managers and eight case studies of SMEs located in the West Midlands region of the United Kingdom. The quantitative data generated was analysed using SPSS. This was harmonized with qualitative data obtained from focussed case studies. Developing results presents a rich and in-depth insight into entrepreneurial capital convertibility in SMEs, specifically from the owner-manager's perspective. The role and centrality of owner-managers in the process of entrepreneurial capital convertibility in SMEs was illustrated and confirmed.

The results suggest that a mixed approach provides an informative and powerful method to explore entrepreneurial capital convertibility dynamics in SMEs, reflecting owner-managers' capital in terms of knowledge management development, strategic thinking, design thinking, leadership styles and entrepreneurial types. Thus, an owner-manager's personality is mostly shaped by their environment (ba) and past and/or shared experiences which, in turn, influences the way SMEs are disposed to entrepreneurial capital convertibility.

An original model of entrepreneurial capital convertibility dynamics is outlined, that reflects perceptions of SME owner-managers' mental 'mind maps'. Suggestions are made to extend and validate the entrepreneurial capital convertibility model in future research in a national and international context. Through a process of testing and validating the model, knowledge audits may aid SMEs in adopting knowledge management practices leading to strategic thinking. A process of continuous reflection, experimentation and organising to withstand environmental turbulence is also recommended. Furthermore, if SME owner-managers adopt knowledge management practices and their implications in terms of flexibility and adaptation, they will be better positioned to interact, learn and co-produce with strategic stakeholders, re-design internal and external business processes and survive in a dynamic environment.


How did the kangaroo transform from a bizarre curiosity to an internationally recognised symbol of Australia? How did Vegemite, a waste product of beer, come to be the most popular spread in the country? How did the Opera House survive early controversy to become a national symbol equal to the Pyramids or the Taj Mahal? And does the pavlova belong to Australia or New Zealand? Australia is a land of symbols. From the curious, the folkloric, the official, the ancient, the inspiring, the commercial, the lovable, the feared, even the edible, these symbols make the abstract concept of the nation tangible and give us an identity by representing Australia to itself and the world. But how are national symbols created? What makes them popular? Do they unite or divide the nation? And what do they really mean? Symbols of Australia uncovers the stories behind Australia's best-loved symbols. Entertaining, provocative and often surprising, it proves that while some may seem quirky or frivolous and others get taken for granted, they all have significance that goes beyond the surface.


Patterns of food use and of social support and alliance are significant for the constitution of boundaries between religious and ethnic groups and the status hierarchies within them. Food and social support are also significant for health. In the case of British Asian communities, control of food intake has been identified as the key to overcoming their current epidemic of heart disease. Level of stress and social support have also been thought important for understanding levels of psychological distress among British Asians.

The present study focuses on young British Asian women with ancestry in the Indian subcontinent, their patterns of food use and social support and how their choice of cultural strategies affects the likelihood of change to these patterns. The rationale for concentrating upon young women is twofold. First, middle aged women appear to suffer from a number of health disadvantages, including aspects of coronary risk and psychological distress. By focusing on a younger generation of women, factors involved in the biographical development of these problems might be ascertainable. Second, in terms of the sociology of ethnic boundaries, young women are in a pivotal position with regard of the continuation of the culture, occupying a role as daughters of migrants on the one hand, and as the first generation of British role models for British Asian children on the other. Comparison with the majority ethnic group is treated as a question about how respondents view with similarities and differences between themselves and the general population.

The study addresses a range of research questions from health-related issues at one extreme to issues about the social construction of ethnic groups at the other. The first group of questions concerns the role that health plays in food choice: how health is conceptualised, how far folk ideas (possibly) deriving from biomedical, Unani and Ayurvedic conceptualisations are integrated with one another, and in what social contexts health concerns are overridden by the symbolism of ethnic identity.


Martin Buber is well-known for his seminal book I and Thou and his philosophy of dialogue. Although he is often characterized as an existentialist, Buber referred to himself as a philosophical anthropologist, given his study of the wholeness and uniqueness of human being. Buber viewed human existence as grounded in relationships. However, in spite of his view of human being as fundamentally relational, his ideas have received relatively little attention in family theory and research. As part of the special issue on qualitative family scholarship and innovative theories in the interpretive tradition, this article first examines the intersection of Buber's philosophy with the interpretive tradition in social science research. It then presents an overview of Buber's relational constructs I–It and I–Thou and his philosophy of dialogue. Finally, the implications of Buber's ideas for the process of qualitative family research, particularly qualitative interviewing, are discussed, followed by a presentation of several potential qualitative studies that draw on Buber's theoretical framework of dialogue and way of being.


This study explores the role that animal-assisted interventions (AAI) can play in antioppressive social work practice. A review of relevant literature has shows that while AAI have been demonstrated over time to have many benefits for service users, these types of interventions remain neglected by social work scholarship, and the relationship between AAI and antioppressive practice (AOP) has yet to be explored through research. Engaging a critical, AOP, and ecofeminist approach, this study uses qualitative methodology to explore the research question, "What role can animal-assisted interventions play in anti-oppressive social work practice?" Ultimately, this study confirms that AAI practitioners have found their approaches to be congruent with an anti-oppressive approach to social work practice. Data and themes which support this finding, as well as implications for the field of social work and recommendations for future research, are explored.


Trees are the most important structural element of any garden. Tree Gardens is the first book focusing on their importance in garden design and landscape architecture. Tree Gardens features both important historical and contemporary landscape design projects ranging from ten to thousands of trees; including works by such well-known designers as Frederick Law Olmsted, Andre Le Notre, C.Th. Sorensen, Daniel Kiley, Peter Walker and Michael Van Valkenburgh, among others. Each case study explains how the scale, context, species and spaces of trees on a particular site establish the expressive structure of the tree garden. Author Gina Crandell makes a fascinating case for the active management of designed forests, including preservation strategies, such as replacement of trees over time. We expect this book to fill a niche in the discourse on contemporary landscape design and to be an important resource for students, landscape architects and horticulturalists alike.


The construction industry worldwide is moving towards more collaborative working practices, such as integrated project delivery (IPD). The era of the Master Builder has passed; modern construction projects are too complex for one person to understand all aspects.  New specialist disciplines are emerging, with experts engaged at earlier stages of the design process. However, this collaborative approach is not reflected in the current education of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professionals. Students of the separate disciplines are generally educated in isolation from the others. On graduation, they are then expected to be able to work in integrated teams without prior training in multidisciplinary teamwork. This contributes to the poor levels of trust and inadequate information sharing that plague the industry and prevents it from fully embracing the productivity savings that BIM (building information modelling) and IPD promise. Academics of the AEC disciplines also work in isolation, and the same courses are developed from scratch every time a new academic arrives at an institution. This paper proposes an integrated approach to the teaching of AEC subjects, including a framework to assist academics in adapting their existing curricula, and reports on some initial trials carried out in three Australian Universities.


Sideroblastic anemia, comprising of acquired and congenital forms, is a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by the presence of ring sideroblasts in the bone marrow. Congenital sideroblastic anemia is a rare condition which is mostly X-linked, caused by mutations of delta-aminolevulinic acid synthase 2. We describe two cases of congenital sideroblastic anemia, one of them indicating an autosomal recessive inheritance, with their clinico-hematological profile. It is important to recognize this entity early in life as a significant percentage of cases respond to pyridoxine thus avoiding any long-term complications.


Sintering of light aluminium alloys powder has been investigated as a way to substitute steels in automotive and aerospace industries. Premix Al-5.5Zn-2.5Mg-0.5Cu composite powder called Alumix 431D was analyzed in this research. Sintering was carried out under ultra high purity nitrogen gas and before reaching sintering temperature, green samples were delubricated at 400°C for 30 min. The powder possesses high sinterability by reaching 96% relative density at 580°C sintering temperature. Formation of liquid phase seems to support achieving high sintering density. Optimum mechanical properties also were obtained under those conditions. T6 heat treatment was done to improve the mechanical properties by formation of precipitation strengthening, and MgZn2 appears to be dominant strengthening precipitate. X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy, and SEM-EDS were used to characterize powder, and sintered and heat treated samples.


The purpose of this article is to examine multiculturalist cultural policies in northern Europe. Almost all societies are multicultural in the sense that they contain two or more languages or religions, and people there live according to many value systems and traditions. Few countries, however, can be labeled as ideologically multiculturalist societies. This multiculturalism implies a positive or at least a neutral government attitude towards cultural diversity, public support for the maintenance of cultural practices and identities, and public efforts to overcome social inequalities based on cultural backgrounds or markers. This article focuses on cultural policy development in Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands. According to the Multiculturalism Policy Index, these countries are, or at least have been, multiculturalist regarding the cultural rights of immigrants and they also share other common features. The main objective is to describe cultural policy evolution in these countries, to search for continuity and change in this development and to trace similarities and differences. Special attention is given to the relation between integration policy and cultural policy, to the incorporation of diversity issues into regular arts policy, and to the implementation of laws and policy objectives. The analysis shows that cultural policy has responded relatively slowly to societal changes caused by immigration. This delay has many reasons but it is obviously difficult to integrate group-specific multiculturalism into a field that has been accustomed to work in terms of universal values, quality-based assessment, individual creativity and national interest. Another finding is the notion that despite numerous efforts to incorporate diversity perspective into mainstream cultural policy, it has actually been much easier to establish special arrangements for immigrant groups and minority communities. Furthermore, the implementation of policy actions shows that activities are often quite modest in relation to formal objectives and the resources available are usually meager.


Acoustic emission (AE) is high-frequency noise (>10kHz) generated by deforming materials. AE is widely used in many industries for non-destructive testing and evaluation; however, it is seldom used in geotechnical engineering, despite evidence of the benefits, because AE generated by particulate materials is highly complex and difficult to measure and interpret. This paper demonstrates that innovative AE instrumentation and measurement can enhance insights into geotechnical element tests. Results from a programme of triaxial compression and shear, large direct-shear and large permeameter experiments show that AE can be used to characterise mechanical and hydromechanical behaviour of soils and soil-structure interaction, including: dilative shear behaviour; transitions from pre- to post-peak shear strength; changes in strain rates; isotropic compression; unload-reload cycles of compression and shear; and seepage-induced internal instability phenomena.


Polarized positrons can be created through electron-positron pair creation from circularly polarized gamma-rays. Laser–Compton scattering is an efficient method to generate circularly polarized gamma-rays. A high finesse 2-mirror optical stacking cavity had been installed on the straight section of the electron storage ring at KEK-ATF. A 1064 nm circularly polarized pulsed laser beam was stacked in the cavity. Polarized gamma-rays with a maximum energy of 28.3 MeV were produced via inverse Compton scattering of the enhanced laser pulse off an electron beam of 1.28 GeV. The number of generated gamma photons per collision was estimated by a photon detector. It was found that the experimental result was in agreement with the simulated value.


Internal combustion spark ignition engine management systems regulate the fuel, spark, and idle air subsystems to achieve sufficient engine performance at acceptable fuel economy and tailpipe emission levels. Engine control units also monitor other engine processes, using a suite of sensors, and periodically check the system actuators' operation to satisfy legislated onboard diagnostics. The majority of production engines regulate the air-to-fuel ratio using a speed-density, or air-flow, control strategy. In this approach, the mass of air drawn into a given cylinder is calculated using the engine speed, manifold absolute pressure, and inlet air temperature. Based on the air mass, appropriate fuel amounts are injected to achieve stoichiometric operation. However, the wide range of operating conditions, inherent induction process nonlinearities, and gradual component degradations due to aging have prompted research into model-based algorithms. In this paper, a nonlinear model-based control strategy will be proposed for simultaneous air-to-fuel ratio control and speed tracking in hybrid electric vehicles. The motivation for engine speed management resides in the integrated control of the engine and a continuously variable transmission for increased efficiency. The proposed backstepping controller uses an observer to reduce the inputs to manifold air mass (e.g., manifold absolute pressure and inlet air temperature) and engine speed. The underlying engine model describes the air intake, fuel injection, and rotational dynamics. For comparison purposes, an existing multisurface sliding mode controller and an integrated speed-density air-to-fuel controller with attached engine speed regulation have been implemented. The performance of each controller is studied using an analytical engine model with representative numerical results presented and discussed to provide insight into the overall performances.


Mycotoxins are fungal toxic metabolites which naturally contaminate food and feed. Aflatoxins are listed as Group I carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a body of the World Health Organization. Aflatoxins are one of the most important toxic metabolite which contaminates feed during storage. Consuming of these contaminated feed by the dairy cattle may result in decreasing milk yield, blindness, photosensitive dermatitis and some other reproductive problems. Various physical and chemical methods of reducing mycotoxins have been recommended, but only few have been accepted for practical use. In this study aflatoxin was extracted from contaminated paddy straw and groundnut with the help of The Association of analytical communities (AOAC) method and confirmed by High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Basidiomycetous fungus Pleurotus sajor-caju and laccase enzyme was used to degrade or transform aflatoxin into less toxic metabolites.


High-dimensional data analysis has been an active area, and the main focus areas have been variable selection and dimension reduction. In practice, it occurs often that the variables are located on an unknown, lower-dimensional nonlinear manifold. Under this manifold assumption, one purpose of this article is regression and gradient estimation on the manifold, and another is developing a new tool for manifold learning. As regards the first aim, we suggest directly reducing the dimensionality to the intrinsic dimension d of the manifold, and performing the popular local linear regression (LLR) on a tangent plane estimate. An immediate consequence is a dramatic reduction in the computational time when the ambient space dimension p ≫ d. We provide rigorous theoretical justification of the convergence of the proposed regression and gradient estimators by carefully analyzing the curvature, boundary, and nonuniform sampling effects. We propose a bandwidth selector that can handle heteroscedastic errors. With reference to the second aim, we analyze carefully the asymptotic behavior of our regression estimator both in the interior and near the boundary of the manifold, and make explicit its relationship with manifold learning, in particular estimating the Laplace–Beltrami operator of the manifold. In this context, we also make clear that it is important to use a smaller bandwidth in the tangent plane estimation than in the LLR. A simulation study and applications to the Isomap face data and a clinically computed tomography scan dataset are used to illustrate the computational speed and estimation accuracy of our methods. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


The aim of this paper is to investigate and optimize surface quality and geometrical characteristics in drilling process of AISI H13 steel, because they are critical items for precision manufacturing. After conducting the experiments, two regression models are developed to extensively evaluate the effect of drilling parameters on process outputs. After that, evolutionary multi-objective optimization algorithm is employed to find the optimal drilling conditions. Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-ІІ) is developed and regression functions are taken into account as objective functions of algorithm to simultaneously optimize the surface roughness and deviation of circularity. The optimization results are successfully in agreement with experimental findings and finally the set of optimal drilling conditions is reported that can be selected by process engineer according to the priority and application. It is shown that, an increase in Cutting speed and liquid coolant intensity decreases the surface quality, while higher depth of cut, tool diameter and reed rate improve it. It is also found that tool diameter and depth of cut are the most effective input parameters on deviation of circularity. Finally, it can be concluded that, the implemented approach in this research provides an efficient method for other manufacturing processes to increase the performance and reduction of production costs.


The separation of xenon (Xe) and krypton (Kr) becomes increasingly important due to the industrial significance of high-purity Xe gas and the concern with reprocessing radioactive isotopes of Xe and Kr at parts per million concentrations from the off-gas of used nuclear fuel. Current separation processes mainly rely on energy and capital intensive cryogenic distillation. Thus, more economical and energy-efficient alternatives, such as physisorptive separation, using porous materials are needed to be developed. Herein, we present a microporous metal–organic framework (MOF-Cu-H) in which the suitable pore/cage-like structure with a precise size matching with the xenon atom leads to its commensurate adsorption phenomenon of Xe under ambient conditions and superior performance for Xe capture and separation. MOF-Cu-H exhibits by far the highest Xe Henry coefficient, remarkable Xe/Kr selectivity and significantly high Xe adsorption capacity at very low partial pressures relevant to nuclear fuel reprocessing. Temperature dependent isotherms, adsorption kinetics experiments, single column breakthrough curves and molecular simulation studies collaboratively support the claim, underlining the potential of this material for energy and cost-effective removal of xenon from nuclear fuel reprocessing plants compared with cryogenic distillation.


Hepatic encephalopathy occurs as a complication of alcoholic liver disease may require methods of dialysis available in intensive care units. There is described the case of a 27-year-old patient with jaundice and hepatic encephalopathy with long history of alcohol dependence and substance abuse. The patient was successfully treated using liver dialysis method (Prometheus® system). Basing on this case it is possible to conclude that use of dialysis liver with Prometheus® may be beneficial in patients with severe course of alcoholic liver disease.


In this article the author argues that Sweatt v. Painter (1950) deserves greater prominence in legal history and the history of integration. Sweatt is the first case in which the Supreme Court articulated that under some circumstances "separate but equal" could never pass constitutional muster because the institution created for blacks could never be equal to the institution for whites. Here the Court held that no matter what the State of Texas create for blacks, it could never create an law school that was "equal" to the law school at the University of Texas at Austin. Significantly, the unanimous Court that decided this case include a graduate of the University of Texas Law School, Justice Tom Clark. Thus, this article argues that Sweatt set the stage for Brown v. Board of Education by sending a clear message to the South that in important ways segregation could never create equal institutions.


Welcome to our University Library Guide. In this guide, you will be able to find valuable and vetted sources related to topics in English, History, Music, Political Science, Psychology, and Religious Studies


Gas hydrates are a potential energy resource and hazard for drilling and infrastructure, yet estimates of global volume vary by over three orders of magnitude. Hydrates are electrically resistive compared to water saturated sediment and so electromagnetic methods provide an additional tool to seismic surveys and drilling for determining hydrate saturations. A marine electromagnetic survey was carried out at Hydrate Ridge, Oregon, USA, with the aim of testing the use of controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM) and magnetotelluric (MT) methods to map gas hydrate and free gas below the gas hydrate stability zone. A 2-D CSEM inversion supports the scenario deduced from previous seismic and drilling results, which indicate two mechanisms of hydrate emplacement: a transport-dominated and reaction-dominated regime. A prominent resistive region of 2.5–4 ?m at a depth of about 130 mbsf, near the seismic bottom simulating reflector (BSR), suggests that 27 to 46 per cent of the bulk volume is filled with hydrate, depending on whether Archie's Law or the Hashin-Strikman bounds are used. This is representative of a reaction-dominated regime for hydrate emplacement, and where a significant low velocity zone exists based on a seismic tomography inversion, suggests large quantities of free gas below the BSR. Electrical resistivity logging while drilling (LWD) data show general agreement with the CSEM inversion model except for a CSEM-derived resistive region at seismic horizon A, known to transport free gas into the gas hydrate stability zone. Inversion of MT data collected simultaneously during the CSEM survey provides a complimentary low-resolution image of the shallow sediments and shows folding in the accretionary complex sediments similar to that imaged by a tomographic seismic velocity model.


I summarize the Randall-Sundrum braneworld scenario, and its application to solving the hierarchy problem in the Standard Model of elementary particles. A generalized Randall-Sundrum scenario is presented, which includes the presence of string-inspired massless Kalb-Ramond and dilaton fields, and includes their backreaction on the metric. It is shown that in such a scenario, solutions exist which can achieve the desired warping on the Standard Model brane, and which stabilize the modulus corresponding to the radius of the extra dimension.


In cloud computing, data generated in electronic form are large in amount. To maintain this data efficiently, there is a necessity of data recovery services. To cater this, in this paper we propose a smart remote data backup algorithm, Seed Block Algorithm (SBA). The objective of proposed algorithm is twofold, first it help the users to collect information from any remote location in the absence of network connectivity and second to recover the files in case of the file deletion or if the cloud gets destroyed due to any reason. The time related issues are also being solved by proposed SBA such that it will take minimum time for the recovery process. Proposed SBA also focuses on the security concept for the back-up files stored at remote server, without using any of the existing encryption techniques.


Process improvement projects depend on the active participation of managers and senior engineers. At the telecom company Ericsson, change agents were frustrated that requests to participate in improvement projects often precipitated behavior from colleagues that hampered progress. However, rather than accepting slowdowns, the change agents started to ask why managers and senior engineers reacted this way even though Ericsson is highly committed to process improvement. In this article, we show how to analyze slowdown behavior, increase commitment and reinforce progress.


Contact sensitivity (CS) is one of the primary in vivo models of T cell-mediated inflammation. The presence of CS-initiating CD4 T lymphocytes at the time of challenge is essential for transfer and full development of the late phase CS inflammatory response. From this observation investigators have speculated that early recruitment of CD4 T cells to the site of challenge must occur. Moreover, there must be rapid synthesis/release and disappearance of an important mediator during the first hours after hapten challenge. Using spinning disk confocal microscopy, we observed the very early effector events of the immune response. Simultaneous, real-time visualization of predominant neutrophil and extremely rare CD4 T cell trafficking in the challenged skin vasculature was noted (one rolling CD4 T cell for every 10–18 rolling and adherent neutrophils). We demonstrate that neutrophil adhesion during the early CS response was reduced in C5a receptor-deficient (C5aR−/−) mice or leukotriene B4 receptor antagonist-treated mice, whereas CD4 T cell recruitment was only inhibited in C5aR−/− mice. In line with these observations, leukocyte infiltration and the associated tissue damage were significantly reduced in C5aR−/− mice but not in leukotriene B4 receptor antagonist-treated wild-type mice 24 h after challenge. C5a receptor expression on T cells and not on tissue resident cells was important for the development of a CS response. Thus, by using spinning disk confocal microscopy we visualized the early events of an adaptive immune response and identified the rare but essential recruitment of CD4 T cells via the complement pathway.


Currently deployed grids gather together thousands of computational and storage resources for the benefit of a large community of scientists. However, the large scale, the wide geographical spread, and at times the decision of the rightful resource owners to commit the capacity elsewhere, raises serious resource availability issues. Little is known about the characteristics of the grid resource availability, and of the impact of resource unavailability on the performance of grids. In this work, we make first steps in addressing this twofold lack of information. First, we analyze a long-term availability trace and assess the resource availability characteristics of Grid'5000, an experimental grid environment of over 2,500 processors. The average utilization for the studied trace is increased by almost 5%, when availability is considered. Based on the results of the analysis, we further propose a model for grid resource availability. Our analysis and modeling results show that grid computational resources become unavailable at a high rate, negatively affecting the ability of grids to execute long jobs. Second, through trace-based simulation, we show evidence that resource availability can have a severe impact on the performance of the grid systems. The results of this step show evidence that the performance of a grid system can rise when availability is taken into consideration, and that human administration of availability change information results in 10-15 times more job failures than for an automated monitoring solution, even for a lowly utilized system.


This collection is intended to serve as a thematic textbook on the institutions and procedures devoted to the national implementation of human rights and to the international monitoring of State performance. Albeit not exhaustive, the coverage extends to most of the monitoring instances available at intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations: complaints, fact-finding and investigative procedures, State reporting obligations, good offices actions, dialogue functions, human rights education, dissemination of human rights information, letter campaigns, and technical co-operation. The target audience of the book is students of international human rights law, but the book can also serve as a guide for both officials and activists involved in the realization of human rights. http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=18&pid=22296 (Less)


Introduction In the bachelor program in IT and information systems at University of Agder (UiA) we have had a drop out rate up to more than 60% during the three year program. On this background a project was started to find the reason for drop out and implement actions to increase learning and reduce the dropout rate among our students. According to a survey carried out among bachelor students in Information Systems at UiA, lack of motivation, mismatch between expectations and content in the study programme in addition to ineffective study-strategies were the most important reasons for dropping out (Nilsen, 2006). Since motivation, self-efficacy, and value-expectancy are the most influencing factors on students' academic performance (Bandura, 1997; Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002), these constructs and the mechanisms behind them need a thorough understanding. Then actions aimed at influencing motivation, self-efficacy and value-expectancy can be implemented. This is what the rest of this paper is about. Background I started working at the University of Agder (UiA) in 1997 after ten years in consulting, because I wanted to teach and to work with students. The first years I did a lot of teaching and participated in several projects, which I really enjoyed. In addition I did some research, which I mostly liked. What I struggled with was academic writing. At this time our school applied to be a full university, with much focus on research and publishing. I found when I was "pushed" to publish, to produce a certain number of publications, it reduced my motivation and joy in my work. After some negative feedback I started to believe I could not write academic papers. Then I decided to follow my intrinsic motivation, to focus on the things that were the reason for me to be at the University. I asked myself about my job: Why do I work at a University,--what gives me meaning? The answer was the same as my initial reason for entering the University, namely to work with students. The last two years I have worked almost 100% with student-related tasks: teaching, implementing actions to increase motivation and decrease dropout rate, and to learn more about student motivation. The work with students has inspired me to undertake research on student motivation; I have even published some of it. Publishing is not a goal, but a result of work I find interesting and valuable. My motivation and commitment at UiA was in the beginning very high, then lower, and now increasing, because I now do what I believe is important. I enjoy my work more and believe I contribute to something important. This made me think of our students. When I was an Associate Professor, with a high degree of freedom and possibilities to influence my own work, I lost much of my motivation; how is it then for our students? When someone enters a job or a study program, they will mostly be motivated because of expectation of a new situation. Let's assume students that enter our bachelor program in Information Systems are motivated and, hopefully, mostly intrinsically motivated. This motivation may be based on unrealistic or wrong expectation, but nevertheless, let's assume most students that enter the program are motivated. But it seems like this initial enthusiasm disappears for many students. Some researchers suggest "something or someone is decreasing the high levels of motivation" that students and employees bring with them to the classroom and workplace (Bowman, 2007; Sirota, Mischkind, & Meltzer, 2005). Instead of asking how we can motivate students we could ask "how educators can be deterred-from diminishing--even destroying--student motivation and morale through their policies and practices? " (Bowman, 2007; Sirota et al., 2005) The key question then is, "How can lecturers maintain student's initially high motivation?" The goal in my work at UiA is to maintain and increase motivation, self-efficacy and value-expectations among bachelor students in IT and Information Systems. …


Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) contain intertwined and distributed software, hardware, and physical components to control complex physical processes. They find wide application in industrial systems, such as smart grid protection systems, which face increasingly complex communication and computation needs. Due to the scale and complexity of the interactions that occur within CPS, tracing requirements through to the system components and software code that implement them is often hard. Existing requirements management systems do not scale well, and traceability is difficult to implement and maintain in highly heterogeneous systems. However, the information trace that links provide is crucial for supporting testing and certification activities in safety-critical environments such as smart grids. The well-formed models of power systems provided by the IEC 61850 standard and the software design structure provided by the IEC 61499 Function Blocks standard can be leveraged to automate many traceability operations. We present Traceability of Requirements Using Splices (TORUS), a novel traceability framework for the development of large-scale safety-critical CPS. TORUS introduces splices, autonomous graph-based data structures that automatically create and manage trace links between requirements and components through the inevitable changes that occur during system development. The formal, graph-based structure of TORUS lends itself well to the development of sophisticated algorithms to automate the extraction of useful traceability information such as historical records and metrics for requirements coverage and component coupling. By capturing not only the current state of the system but also historical information, TORUS allows project teams to see a much richer view of the system and its artifacts. We apply TORUS to the development of a protection system for smart grid substations. In addition, through a number of experiments in splice creation, modification, and application of automated algorithms, we show that TORUS scales easily to large systems containing hundreds of thousands of requirements and system components and millions of possible trace links.


We explored why social-ecological memory (SEM) is a source of inertia and path dependence, as well as a source of renewal and reorganization in social-ecological systems (SESs). We have presented two case studies: the historical case of the Norse settlement on Greenland and an empirical case from contemporary southern Madagascar. The cases illustrate how SEM is linked to specific pathways of development and a particular set of natural resource management practices. We have shown that in each case, a broader diversity of SEM is present in the SESs, but not drawn upon. Instead, SEMs are part of what explains community coherence and the barriers to adoption of more diverse practices. We have elaborated on how specific SEMs are linked to specified resilience, and we have shown that this fits existing notions of resilience, robustness, inertia, and path dependence. We have proposed that to change the dynamics of development pathways that do not produce desired results, it is necessary for managers to shift from specific to general SEM, which would also mirror the shift from specified to general resilience. The challenge lies in the interplay between the specified and the general. In this critical work, it is important to recognize that the valued diversity of SEM necessary for general resilience might actually reside in a different community.


Background When an uncontrollable fire is detected in a building there may be a 2–3 minutes window for the occupants to move to safety. Poor physical function and cognition may become critical factors in an evacuation situation. In this study a novel functional scale measuring emergency evacuation capacity of home care clients is presented. Methods A fire security expert visited about 250 home care clients assessing their evacuation capacities. For the evacuation capacity three categories were used: 1) is able to evacuate; 2) may be able; 3) unable to evacuate. This data was linked to comprehensive assessments of clients functional and health status performed by home care nurses using the interRAI Home Care Assessment Instrument (RAI-HC). The goal was to investigate whether the evacuation capacity classification can be explained in terms of RAI-HC variables. As the mathematical method we have employed "classification and regression trees" (CART). Results A fire evacuation capacity scale "EVAC" was developed using four levels of cognitive function as major categories. These categories were split into final groups based on performance in physical function. For each group we calculated the average capacity score ranging from 0 to 1 based on the dependent variable. Conclusions The evacuation scale gives an estimate of a client's ability to get out in case of a fire. The scale can be used to single out high risk persons for which compensatory safety technology may be required. The scale could reduce costs in assessing evacuation capacity of home care clients.


AIM
To assess the blockade by CPU 86017 on the L-type calcium channels in the myocardium and on the Ca(2+)-related contractions of vascular smooth muscle.

METHODS
The whole-cell patch-clamp was applied to investigate the blocking effect of CPU 86017 on the L-type calcium current in isolated guinea pig myocytes and contractions by KCl or phenylephrine (Phe) of the isolated rat tail arteries were measured.

RESULTS
Suppression of the L-type current of the isolated myocytes by CPU 86017 was moderate, in time- and concentration-dependent manner and with no influence on the activation and inactivation curves. The IC(50) was 11.5 micromol/L. Suppressive effect of CPU 86017 on vaso-contractions induced by KCl 100 mmol/L, phenylephrine 1 micromol/L in KH solution (phase 1), Ca(2+) free KH solution ( phase 2), and by addition of CaCl(2) into Ca(2+)-free KH solution (phase 3) were observed. The IC(50) to suppress vaso-contractions by calcium entry via the receptor operated channel (ROC) and voltage-dependent channel (VDC) was 0.324 micromol/L and 16.3 micromol/L, respectively. The relative potency of CPU 86017 to suppress vascular tone by Ca(2+) entry through ROC and VDC is 1/187 of prazosin and 1/37 of verapamil, respectively.

CONCLUSION
The blocking effects of CPU 86017 on the L-type calcium channel of myocardium and vessel are moderate and non-selective. CPU 86017 is approximately 50 times more potent in inhibiting ROC than VDC.


The 3rd edition of the Montreal AI Ethics Institute's The State of AI Ethics captures the most relevant developments in AI Ethics since October 2020. It aims to help anyone, from machine learning experts to human rights activists and policymakers, quickly digest and understand the field's ever-changing developments. Through research and article summaries, as well as expert commentary, this report distills the research and reporting surrounding various domains related to the ethics of AI, including: algorithmic injustice, discrimination, ethical AI, labor impacts, misinformation, privacy, risk and security, social media, and more. In addition, The State of AI Ethics includes exclusive content written by world-class AI Ethics experts from universities, research institutes, consulting firms, and governments. Unique to this report is"The Abuse and Misogynoir Playbook,"written by Dr. Katlyn Tuner (Research Scientist, Space Enabled Research Group, MIT), Dr. Danielle Wood (Assistant Professor, Program in Media Arts and Sciences; Assistant Professor, Aeronautics and Astronautics; Lead, Space Enabled Research Group, MIT) and Dr. Catherine D'Ignazio (Assistant Professor, Urban Science and Planning; Director, Data + Feminism Lab, MIT). The piece (and accompanying infographic), is a deep-dive into the historical and systematic silencing, erasure, and revision of Black women's contributions to knowledge and scholarship in the United Stations, and globally. Exposing and countering this Playbook has become increasingly important following the firing of AI Ethics expert Dr. Timnit Gebru (and several of her supporters) at Google. This report should be used not only as a point of reference and insight on the latest thinking in the field of AI Ethics, but should also be used as a tool for introspection as we aim to foster a more nuanced conversation regarding the impacts of AI on the world.


Recommending media objects to users typically requires users to rate existing media objects so as to understand their preferences. The number of ratings required to produce good suggestions can be reduced through collaborative filtering. Collaborative filtering is more difficult when prior users have not rated the same set of media objects as the current user or each other. In this work, we describe an approach to applying prior user data in a way that does not require users to rate the same media objects and that does not require imputation (estimation) of prior user ratings of objects they have not rated. This approach is applied to the problem of finding good equalizer settings for music audio and is shown to greatly reduce the number of ratings the current user must make to find a good equalization setting.


Background: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a set of physical, emotional and behavioural changes that appear in the late luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Given the high prevalence of this syndrome among women, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of Pilates Exercise and vitamin E consumption on symptoms of PMS. Methods: In this semi-experimental study, 40 non-athletic female students with diagnosed moderate to severe PMS were selected from the University of Ayatollah Boroujerdi. The students were randomly divided into four groups of "Pilates, Pilates along with vitamin E, vitamin E and controls". Pilates workouts were performed for 4 weeks, three session a week with consumption of one vitamin E tablet a day. Subjects were analysed using the PMS symptoms screening questionnaire before and after the intervention. Analysis of variance and t-test were performed to compare the obtained data at significance level of P<0.05. Results: There was no significant difference between the four groups before the intervention. In the Pilates group and vitamin E group, the intensity of mood symptoms (P=0.0001) and physical symptoms (P=0.002), and the impact of these symptoms on individuals' lives (P=0.0001) reduced significantly in comparison with data before the intervention and the control group. Conclusion: Pilates along with vitamin E consumption improves the symptoms of PMS among the participants of this study.


Using a social constructivist perspective and narrative analysis, the purpose of this paper is to illustrate how an understanding of self-presentation in interactions may inform health care interventions. We examine how a single African American mother, living in poverty, presents her sense of self in the context of obtaining and providing asthma care for her children. By analyzing four separate encounters--two interviews with the children's mother, the clinical encounter between the mother and her children's doctor, and an interview with the doctor, we gain an understanding of the mother's self-presentation and identity and the doctor's view of the mother. The analyses reveal the mother's consistent desire to protect her children in an unpredictable social world. By examining self-presentation, behavior that is typically construed as non-adherence is reframed as resilience, one mother's attempt to assert control. We argue that an understanding of identity production may enable practitioners and patients to create collaborative interventions. The analysis presented in this paper points to the need for a co-constructed intervention that allows for choice and control and honors the mother's sense of self.


Potentiostatic current oscillations observed during the anodic dissolution of an iron electrode in a sulfuric acid electrolyte are considered. This behavior has been experimentally characterized with respect to its potential dependence. A new mechanism has been developed that is consistent with observed behaviors and trends. This mechanism combines previously developed ideas concerning periodic behavior and passivation of iron with a new interpretation of precipitated salt-film behavior. The salt film is taken to be nonporous, serving as both a necessary precursor to oxide passivation as well as an effective passivating species itself. The mechanism is well corroborated by results from a mathematical model which also highlights the necessity of salt-film precipitation for the development of periodic behavior. Additionally, the issue of coherence is explicitly considered.


Adequate integration of sensory information from different modalities is essential for standing balance. Inadequate and/or incongruent information inputs cause sensory conflict which endangers equilibrium. That is even more expressed during dynamic suprapostural tasks, such as functional reach (FR). Our aim was to study the influence of sensory conflict on FR performance and dynamic standing balance steadiness. Ten healthy right-handed adults performed FR standing on a pedobarographic platform in four sensory conditions: eyes-open (EO), eyes-closed (EC), head in maximal extension and eyes open or closed (EO-HE/EC-HE), adding conflict of vestibular origin. Data were analyzed by Two-Way RM Anova and paired t-test. Factor vision was significant, while only a tendency for head position was found for FR, which shortens in EC, EO-HE and especially EC-HE. For center of pressure (COP) sway path both vision and head position were significant factors. Sway path increased in both EC conditions compared to EO, respectively. Head extension also increased sway path, differences were found between EC and EC-HE. The longest sway path was in EC-HE. Only vision was significant for medio-lateral (M-L) COP sway, which increased in EC compared to EO, respectively. Again, the greatest sway was in EC-HE. The increased COP sway path and M-L sway correspond with decreased FR performance. All these results suggest that absence of vision and/or inadequate vestibular information input, deteriorate dynamic standing balance and task performance, which is expressed the most when both sensory modalities are affected. Factor head position was significant for forward and backward COP velocities (when subjects reach forward and return to initial position). For forward velocity there was significant diminution only between ECHE and EO, for backward velocity – between EO and both HE conditions. These results suggest that altered vestibular information probably causes velocity decrease. Accuracy of return from FR to initial COP position was greater in EC than in EO. This may be explained by increased weight of proprioception in absence of visual information and/or increased confidence in its presence. Our study suggests a correlation between balance steadiness and suprapostural task performance during sensory conflict. Absence of vision has more impact than altered vestibular information in all cases but for the decrease in FR task dynamics.


Fenders are a key element of float-over topsides installations protecting the vessel and jacket legs by absorbing impact energy. Fender capacity is defined in accordance with expected vessel motions, vessel hull strength, and anticipated impact energy. Translating those dependencies from full-scale float-over scenarios to model-scale experiments provides added challenges when devising experimental approaches.This paper describes the design and development of model-scale fenders and their application in float-over topsides installation experiments. Current model fenders use multi-stage cantilevered leaf springs to develop the required non-linear stiffness curve which is calculated from full-scale fender data. Spring material and geometry, relative position, and loading location are key variables used to match the target fender stiffness as changes in these parameters directly affect the force-deflection characteristics of the model-scale fenders.The force-deflection characteristics (stiffness) of the model-scale fenders were checked before, during, and after wave experiments, using both isolated bench tests and in situ verifications. Multiple iterations of stiffness checks were completed during the stiffness curve matching process prior to the experimentation. The achieved load-deflection characteristics of the fender units were within 2% of the target stiffness curve. The damping characteristics of the fenders were not specifically modeled, but were measured for each of the stiffness stages. The model fenders have successfully been used in multiple float-over experimental campaigns.© 2012 ASME


Hernández-Calva, L. M., He, M., Juárez, M., Aalhus, J. L., Dugan, M. E. R. and McAllister, T. A. 2011. Effect of flaxseed and forage type on carcass and meat quality of finishing cull cows. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 91: 613-622. Sixty-two cull cows were fed one of four diets in a 2×2 factorial arrangement, consisting of barley silage or grass hay with or without flaxseed to influence fatty acid composition. After slaughter, carcass grade, meat quality and sensory data were collected. Silage increased live (P=0.002) and carcass (P=0.001) weights of the cows as compared with hay. Muscle width (P=0.013) and score (P=0.010) and rib-eye area (P=0.002) were enhanced when silage was included in the diet, whereas supplementation with flaxseed increased (P=0.003) grade fat depth by 29%. Most subjective and objective retail evaluation traits in steaks from the left longissimus thoracis and ground meat were negatively affected (P<0.05) by the length of the retail display time. Moreover, dietary hay increased (P=0.015) the lean colour values in steaks and ground beef, which was corroborated by lower L* (P=0.009) and higher hue (P=0.010) in steaks and lower L* (P=0.049), chroma (P=0.005) in ground beef as compared with cows fed silage. A significant interaction between forage type and flax inclusion for thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) (P=0.050) was observed. After sensory evaluation, steaks from cows fed silage had an increase (P=0.030) in beef flavour intensity when compared with cows fed hay, whereas inclusion of flaxseed in the diet decreased (P<0.001) beef flavour intensity in steaks from cows fed both forage sources. Sensory evaluation of ground beef found that hay-fed cows with flaxseed supplementation had decreased (P=0.03) beef flavour intensity, while the same effect was not observed in ground beef from cows fed silage with flaxseed. Results from this study show that inclusion of flaxseed in the diet reduced off-flavours in steak, but for ground beef this response depended on the source of forage in the diet.


The Scaling Humanitarian ICTs Network (SHINE) funded by Sida, set out with the theory of change that the quality and efficiency of humanitarian aid can be improved in a variety of contexts through the adoption of Information Communications Technologies (ICTs). With applications in Ethiopia, DRC, Mali, Indonesia and Iraq, ICTs were introduced to enable digital registrations, mobile data collection, cash/voucher programming and systems for accountability. While ICTs hold promise for saving time, money and improving accuracy, this learning report sets out to unpack these benefits and identify the conditions that need to be in place in order for ICTs to significantly add value to humanitarian response.


For the development of educational software for beginning readers, including the use of digitized speech, it is important among other things to know how auditory feedback has to be incorporated. Therefore an experiment was conducted in which sixty first graders were requested to read thirty relatively difficult words over three consecutive days. Under the first condition (control condition) children had to read t hirty words aloud without feedback. Under the second cOlldition, children had to perform the same task, but the word sound was provided by a computer system whenever a reading error was made or the child did not read the word at all (whole-word condition). The third condition was similar to the whole-word condition, the only difference being the fact that the word was produced phoneme by phoneme (segmented feedback coudition). At a pre and post-test, children had to read the same words while reading times and error! were recorded. The results of training over three sessions showed that, under the whole-word condition, children learned significantly more than under the segmented-feedback condition. There was no significant difference between the segmented-feedback condition and the control condition.


In recent years, many adult returning students go back to school for college degree and retooling. Many of them are struggling with computer literacy skills. In this study, we try to understand the computer related challenges that adult returning students are facing. We identify the difficulties they encounter through direct observations in classroom. We also use informal conversations with students to help us understand why they have the challenges. Next, we conduct critical analysis by taking the conceptual lens of empathetic thinking and disruptive information technology (IT) innovation. We discover several factors that may contribute to adult returning students' struggles with computer literacy. Furthermore, we suggest several ways that may help adult returning students overcome the adversity. This research will contribute to our general understanding of the computer literacy challenges faced by adult returning students. The research findings also have important implications for Information Systems (IS) educators and college administrators.


The National Institute of General Medical Sciences has as its mission the support of research and research training in the basic biomedical sciences. Grantees of the Institute have made major discoveries about cell structure and function, the synthesis and transport of body proteins, drug actions in the body, and the body's responses to severe trauma and burns. Advances in the field of genetics--including the development of recombinant DNA technology, in which Institute grantees have been leaders--are beginning to pay off in scientists' ability to understand the growth, differentiation, and development of cells, tissues, and organs; the regulation of gene activity; and the bases of certain genetic diseases. But while much has been learned, the cellular and molecular mechanisms of many illnesses are only beginning to be understood. For this reason, the Institute's support of studies of life processes at their most fundamental levels is expected to continue to produce findings of great importance to the understanding, prevention, and treatment of human disease.


BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY
Percutaneous valve insertion is an emerging treatment for aortic stenosis (AS). To date, no large animal model exists that replicates human calcific AS; moreover, the absence of any valve pathology in currently available animal models prevents their use in any realistic assessment of percutaneous aortic valve therapy. Hence, the aim of the present study was to create an acute large animal model in which human calcific AS could be simulated.

METHODS
Ten domestic swine underwent open-heart surgery utilizing cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and cardioplegic arrest. The aortic valve annulus and leaflets were injected with cyanoacrylate, after which epicardial echocardiography was used to assess the creation of AS. At the time of animal sacrifice, the hearts were harvested for gross and histopathological examination.

RESULTS
The leaflet and annular injections were performed successfully in all animals. Subsequently, seven animals were weaned from CPB and underwent post procedural echocardiographic evaluations, whereby the treated valves were harvested for gross and histological examination.

CONCLUSION
Cyanoacrylate can be injected into the porcine aortic valve and annulus to create a model that resembles human calcific AS in the acute setting. Additional long-term follow up studies must be conducted, however, before this model can be utilized in the development of percutaneous valve therapy.


This paper presents a new method for signal reconstruction by leveraging sampled-data control theory. We formulate the signal reconstruction problem in terms of an analog performance optimization problem using a stable discrete-time filter. The proposed performance criterion naturally takes intersample behavior into account, reflecting the energy distributions of the signal. We present methods for computing optimal solutions which are guaranteed to be stable and causal. Detailed comparisons to alternative methods are provided. We discuss some applications in sound and image reconstruction.


This paper develops one-dimensional and two-dimensional models for bending, coupled bending and extension of isotropic beams/plates with induced strain actuators. The adhesive layer between the actuator and the structure is considered in the Bernoulli-Euler formulation and the results for various models are compared with the uniform strain model which includes the shear lag effects with assumption of a finite thickness of adhesive layer. The reduction in actuation as a result of strain distribution inside the actuator is considered to improve the prediction ability of the existing model based on the Bernoulli-Euler formulation. The FEM model is also developed to study the strain transfer in the beam. Finally, an experimental test employing a macro fiber composite (MFC) actuator is carried out to evaluate the accuracy and limitations of the developed models. The models are in good agreement with the experimental results.


Time management in university learning environments can be different from that in the professional workplace or at school. Students are required to learn independently, many learning activities take place outside the formal teaching timetable, and students might require additional motivation to embark on learning tasks. In this paper, we present the design of a time management system prototype addressing these special requirements. Our system incorporates social networking features, enhanced social presence with location awareness, and motivational techniques. Individual learning task progress data is disclosed to associated students, enabling them to assess their own progress and seek help from their peers if necessary. Furthermore, their current geographical position and that of their peers is shown on a virtual map. We use this prototype in an experiment involving 55 students studying on a computer science or information technology in organisations undergraduate degree in their first year. Our research objectives are to test the effects of the system on academic performance, and to evaluate whether system use affects personal stress and learner motivation.


This month's edition of the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport has continued consideration of the impact of heat on sport. As summer in the southern hemisphere is now predicted to last a month longer, we lead off with an editorial examining Australian community sport extreme heat policies by Dr Ollie Jay, Associate Professor in Thermoregulatory Physiology, and Director of the Thermal Ergonomics Laboratory, in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney. In the first of the feature articles, Schermann and colleagues describe the value of using heat tolerance testing in reducing the risk of exertional heat illness related injury. In the second feature article, Peeters' group outline results from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health on the relationship between physical activity, medical costs and hospitalisations. In the final feature article, Katica and co-workers report on the impact of upper body precooling during warm up on cycling time trials in the heat.


This article intends to describe the contemporary dynamic situation of Yoga as a new "fitness" under the conditions of globalization, based on case studies in modern India. Particular attention will be paid to the question of how Yoga is relished and consumed by different people in different contexts, such as urban, rural, tourist spots and ascetic training places, called ashrams in modern society. Yoga, which was originally an ascetic training, including deeply religious ideas and practices, regards the body as a miniature version of the universe. Throughout its long history, Yoga training has tried to unite this universe by controlling the body. Even though Yoga was introduced to the Western world in connection with the counter-cultural movement, during the 1970's, its practice had been mostly confined to the Indian subcontinent. However, since the 1990's, people from Hollywood and the fashion industry, i.e. those who are the trendsetters in the world, have begun to give themselves up to Yoga. At the same time, there has been a general increase in the attention being paid to health and nature in the West. This has made Yoga popular as a 'new' fitness and its practice has spread dramatically all over the world. Today, due to the global Yoga boom, Yoga has been brought back from the West to India, where it has been reevaluated as the latest fitness trend. Consequently, it is now becoming popular in modern Indian society. An example of this popularity is the number of fitness clubs which have been established in urban areas, and whose Yoga classes are some of the most popular among many others. Furthermore, some Yoga journals, which are published in the West, are now available in bookshops, and many icons based on Yoga have been used for advertising in the commercial market. In addition, a Yoga camp organized by some religious leaders and held in a stadium attracts thousands of participants. At the same time, many yoga practitioners from around world come to India to learn Yoga deeply, under a Yoga Master, so as to obtain a Yoga teacher's license. This article will examine the flourishing movement of Yoga as a case study in the global flow of culture in multiple contexts in modern Indian society. The aim of this paper is, firstly, through a description of how local people enjoy and consume Yoga in urban areas, to deconstruct the monolithic image of the relationship between India and Yoga and to illuminate the flourishing of Yoga in modern Indian society, on the horizon of global movements. Secondly, with special attention to the enjoyment of Yoga in rural society and at tourist spots, this paper will clearly point out the situation of Yoga being enjoyed as a health practice and consumable good. Thirdly, while Yoga business and industry in post-industrial societies, including Japan, began to emphasize the connection of Yoga to India in terms of 'authenticity' and 'legitimacy', this paper will explore how Yoga is taught to the foreigners who take a Yoga teacher-training course at one of the most influential and popular yoga ashrams in India, namely Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashram, and how they enjoy the way of learning yoga and its process.


We previously found that a significant underestimation of respiratory mechanical impedance (Zrs) at high frequency may result from the upper airway artefact in children, when pressure is directly varied at the mouth. To determine the importance of this artefact in estimating lung response to bronchomotor agents with the forced oscillation technique, input respiratory mechanical impedance was measured using 6-32 Hz pseudorandom pressure oscillations applied directly to the mouth (standard generator (SG)) and around the subject's head (head generator (HG)) in 35 children aged 2.5-13 yrs. Changes in resistance were generally larger with HG than SG. The mean +/- SEM changes in resistance of the respiratory system (Rrs) at 20 Hz induced by acetylcholine or allergen challenge were 15 +/- 4% for SG and 67 +/- 12% for HG, and changes induced by bronchodilators were -25 +/- 2% for SG, and -46 +/- 4% for HG (p < 0.01). Challenge induced negative frequency dependence of Rrs with SG and positive frequency dependence with HG. There was significant increase in inertance after salbutamol with SG, but no significant change occurred with HG. With both methods, respiratory compliance decreased significantly after challenge. Computer simulations showed that the difference in change in Rrs induced by airway challenge with HG and SG could be explained by the effect of the upper airway wall impedance (Zuaw). Zuaw could also account for the change in inertance and compliance observed with SG, but not for the change in compliance with HG. The latter could be reproduced by simulating unequal distribution of mechanical time constants within the lung, increased peripheral lung resistance with compliant central airways.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


A new kind of 3-d.o.f. vibration platform is introduced, which may be used in active vibration control, presion manufacturing, and other precision positioning fields. The platform is mainly comprised of four parts: the top board of the platform, flexure hinges, amplification mechanisms and gaint magnetostrictive actuators (GMAs). Among them, finite element analysis is taken on flexure hinges; the constitutive model of GMA is described. Eventually, the dynamic model of the system is established. According to the model, a simulation system based on SIMULINK is carried out. The simulation results verify the model, and may serve for the active control analysis of the platform system.


Immune evasion strategies are thought to contribute essentially to the life cycle of persistent viruses by delaying the elimination of the infected cell long enough to enable the virus to replicate. Exemplary in this context are the herpesviruses, large DNA viruses that are carried as a persistent and largely asymptomatic infection by the vast majority of adults. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), the prototypic gamma-herpesvirus, is the causative agent of infectious mononucleosis and of post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders and is associated with Burkitt's lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and Hodgkin's lymphoma. EBV-specific immune responses are present in infected individuals, yet the virus cannot be cleared. EBV resides in B cells, mostly in a latent state with limited viral gene expression. In contrast, over eighty viral proteins are expressed during the replicative phase that is required for virus production and transmission to other hosts. At this stage,immune evasion strategies are important to avoidelimination of virus-producing cells. This thesis describes the identification and characterization of a new and very powerful EBV-encoded immune evasion protein, the TAP inhibitor BNLF2a. Furthermore, it was investigated how BGLF5, another recently discovered EBV immune evasion protein, blocks host protein synthesis. During productive EBV infection, the immune evasion protein BNLF2a inhibits transport of antigenic peptides into the ER via the Transporter associated with Antigen Processing (TAP). As a consequence, antigen presentation via HLA class I molecules is impaired and T cell recognition is avoided. In virus-producing B cells, the timing of BNLF2a expression allows for immediate interference with the presentation of viral antigens by HLA class I molecules. BNLF2a is highly expressed early upon EBV reactivation and declines during progression of viral replication. BNLF2a displays characteristics of a tail-anchored (TA) protein: we find the viral protein to be inserted into membranes post-translationally, with its hydrophobic C-terminal domain functioning as a membrane anchor. This topology leaves BNLF2a's N-terminal domain exposed in the cytosol, where it inhibits TAP function. Expression of the EBV lytic phase protein BGLF5 results in a general block in the synthesis of cellular proteins, including HLA class I molecules. This host shutoff activity of BGLF5 relies on its ability to induce degradation of mRNA. Originally, BGLF5 was identified as a DNase, being involved in viral replication. More recently, BGLF5 was demonstrated to have RNase activity as well. When analysing various mutants of BGLF5, we found, on the one hand, that a point mutation destroying DNase function also blocked RNase activity, implying both nuclease activities to share a catalytic site. On the other hand, other mutations were more selective affecting either DNA degradation or host shutoff, pointing towards separation of these two functions. In conclusion, the EBV lytic phase proteins BNLF2a and BGLF5 contribute to the obstruction of HLA class I-restricted antigen presentation to cytotoxic T cells. Interference with T cell recognition during productive EBV infection is anticipated to create a window for the generation of viral progeny in the face of memory T cell immunity.


The overall aim of this thesis was to provide knowledge on the one handSomalian-born immigrants´ experiences of living with diabetes mellitus (DM)in a new cultural environment, on the other hand their encounter with Swedishdiabetic care – this from both their own point of view and that of the health-care professionals. There was an endeavour to describe methodological aspectsof the interpreter´s role in respect of the trustworthiness of research performedin multicultural societies. A descriptive design was used, involving threequalitative interview studies with an interpreter (Studies II-IV) and onesystematic literature review (Study I). The latter served as a foundation forconducting the interviews with an interpreter and the Matrix Method was used.The same 19 patients with diabetes of Somalian origin participated in StudiesII-IV, joined by five health-care professionals in Study IV. The interviews weresubjected to qualitative content analysis in the case of Studies II and III, and to phenomenograpic analysis in the case of Study IV. In Study I, 13 empirical cross-cultural interview studies with aninterpreter involved were scrutinized. The findings showed that the interpreter'srole in the research process was given little attention. There was usually noaccount either of the style of interpreting, the interpreter's previous experienceor the seating arrangements for the interviews. On the other hand most of thestudies offered direct or indirect information about the interpreter's knowledgeof the aim of the research or participation in the transcription of the text or data analysis. The most frequent techniques used to established trustworthiness were prolonged engagement and member checks. A prominent problem for the participants in Study II was to give uptraditional eating habits. Difficulty in managing everyday life was mentionedespecially by women in connection with the need to keep to the diet regimebecause of a lack of understanding and support from family and friends. Tochanging lifestyle was considered as a hard work and a number of barriers wasmentioned especially when it comes to eating habits. The findings showed avariation how the participants managed the fasting month of Ramadan. Thosewho fasted did not see the diabetes as an obstacle, others did so and indicated that fasting was not compulsory for a sick person. In study III the findings showed that women used more supernaturalbeliefs than men when they described their experiences in connection with thediagnosis and their health beliefs. Most of the experiences of receiving thediagnosis consisted of ways of managing this information. Commonlymentioned by the participants, irrespective of gender, when they receiving thediagnosis was a attempt to find some advantages, or positive comparison. Other participants tried to repress the diagnosis and doubted it. Most of theparticipants, irrespective of gender, did not immediately respond with shock orother strong emotion when they received the diagnosis. In study IV the patients conceived the diabetes care as being of highquality but they also conceived limitation with the care. They conceived unmetneeds such as too long waiting times for appointments, not encountering thesame physician every time, lack of contact with specialists and failure toculturally adapt dietary advice. Health-care professionals conceived severalcultural challenges in the encounter such as managing language barriers,illiteracy and traditions such as fasting during Ramadan. In conclusion, this thesis generate knowledge which can serve as afoundation to securing the quality of diabetes care for this patient group andcontribute to working out local diabetic programmes for patients with anotherbackground than the Swedish. In addition the thesis can contribute to makingimprovements when it comes to working with an interpreter in qualitativeinterview studies as well as in clinical settings.


The article presents the results of the proximal small intestine parietal microbiocenosis research in patients with chronic pancreatitis by polymerase chain reaction in real time. The study includes an assessment of the pharmacological correction's efficiency in this category of patients.


This research aims to analyze location based twitter data to measure the popularity of the products/persons or any given user parameter. For this purpose this work has integrated sentimental analysis, location based system and ontology. An application with a novel user interface has been developed to search and visualize the data on Google map. This research work uses publicly available and location enabled twitter data. This work also has the capability to process tweet data without user's locations.
The main contribution of this research is the integration of sentimental analysis on location based Twitter data. Another significant contribution is the development of a novel user interface, which allows the user to search on a map interactively with multi-focusing features on Google map. This integrated sentiment analysis work efficiently performs location based popularity scaling on products, persons, brands or any given topic.


The first 5 years (from 1980 to 1985) of total solar irradiance observations by the first Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (ACRIM I) experiment on board the Solar Maximum Mission spacecraft show a clearly defined downward trend of -0.019% per year. The existence of this trend has been confirmed by the internal self-calibrations of ACRIM I, by independent measurements from sounding rockets and balloons, and by observations from the Nimbus-7 spacecraft. The trend appears to be due to unpredicted variations of solar luminosity on time scales of years, and it may be related to solar cycle magnetic activity.


The work presented here describes two methods to incorporate viable illumination models into Fourier Volume Rendering (FVR). The lack of adequate illumination has been one of the impediments for the wide spread acceptance of FVR. Our first method adapts the Gamma Corrected Hemispherical Shading (GCHS) proposed by Scoggins et al. (2001) for FVR. We achieve interactive rendering for constant diffusive light sources. Our second method operates on data transformed by spherical harmonic functions. This latter approach allows for illumination under varying light directions. It should be noted that we only consider diffuse lighting in this paper. We demonstrate and compare the effect of these two new models on the rendered image and document speed and accuracy improvements.


Despite advances in T-cell immunotherapy against EBV-infected lymphomas that express the full EBV latency III program, a critical barrier has been that most EBV+ lymphomas express the latency I program, in which the single Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen (EBNA1) is produced. EBNA1 is poorly immunogenic, enabling tumors to evade immune responses. Using a high-throughput screen we identified decitabine as a potent inducer of immunogenic EBV antigens including LMP1, EBNA2 and EBNA3C. Induction occurs at low doses and persists after removal of decitabine. Decitabine treatment of latency I EBV+ Burkitt lymphoma sensitized cells to lysis by EBV-specific cytotoxic T-cells (EBV-CTLs). In latency I Burkitt lymphoma xenografts, decitabine followed by EBV-CTLs results in T-cell homing to tumors and inhibition of tumor growth. Collectively, these results identify key epigenetic factors required for latency restriction and highlight a novel therapeutic approach to sensitize EBV+ lymphomas to immunotherapy.


In this article we analyze the 3D interaction of children (using gestures made with whole body) using depth cameras (ie, Microsoft Kinect). It should be noted that there are few research studies in the academic literature that investigates the interactions that children made with whole body through gesture acquisition systems using Kinect sensor, which translates into lack of level design recommendations regarding prototypes involving this type of interaction for children.
Natural interfaces, such as those favored by Kinect sensor tend to be intuitive and to require little knowledge from users. Gestures commonly preferred by users are likely to be easier to perform than gestures proposed by designers - which often requires a sustained practice from user. There are few recommendations on specific child gesture interaction with a depth chamber as Microsoft Kinect.
As the current market related to Kinect games for children continues to grow, there are still few informations about the ways in which young users interact with these interfaces. Children performance in gestural command execution performance may be different from adults. Children are a unique group of users that require special consideration.
We did a study in children aged 3 to 6 years to identify how children perform gestures in working with interfaces that require interaction with the whole body when they were faced with various tasks but common in preschool activities. Gestures and body movements were videotaped, arranged by category and coded for the purpose of comparison by age, sex and degree of experimentation with Kinect interfaces. In the same study parents answered a questionnaire to provide data on the degree of motor development of their children. We correlated the data obtained and we analyzed opportunities to use Kinect type deep cameras for motor development of preschool children.


Is Astra ready to accept her destiny? A gripping novel for 'Hunger Games fans of all ages' says Library Journal.

War is breaking out in Kadingir. Still struggling to accept her role as a long prophesied icon of unification between Is-Land and Non-Land, Astra Ordott is on a journey across the wind sands to join her father and his people – the mystics of Shiimti, who claim to hold the secret of truly healing the damaged relationship between human beings and the Earth.

Astra's desperate to get there quickly, but when her guide and companion, the shepherd Muzi, leads her off course into the path of a vicious sandstorm, she is forced to confront what the gods of their devastated world might be telling her: that there will be no refuge from her destiny.


A mechanistic model is presented describing the clearance of a compound in a precision-cut liver slice that is incubated in a culture medium. The problem of estimating metabolic rate constants in PBPK models from liver slice experiments is discussed using identifiability analysis. From the identifiability problem analysis, it appears that in addition to the clearance, the compound's free fraction in the slice and the diffusion rate of the exchange of the compound between culture medium and liver slice should be identified. In addition, knowledge of the culture medium volume, the slice volume, the compound's free fraction, and octanol-water-based partition between medium and slice is presupposed. The formal solution for identification is discussed from the perspective of experimental practice. A formally necessary condition for identification is the sampling of parent compound in liver slice or culture medium. However, due to experimental limitations and errors, sampling the parent compound in the slice together with additional sampling of metabolite pooled from the medium and the slice is required for identification in practice. Moreover, it appears that identification results are unreliable when the value of the intrinsic clearance exceeds the value of the diffusion coefficient, a condition to be verified a posteriori.


In March 2014, an interdisciplinary research team travelled to New Zealand to study issues related to Canterbury's recovery from the 2010-2011 earthquake sequence. One goal of the overall project is to evolve the practice of earthquake reconnaissance from immediate post-disaster investigations to learning about community recovery from earthquakes over the long-term. Towards this end, the aim of the New Zealand case study described here is to understand how stakeholders in New Zealand are measuring, monitoring, and acting upon data-driven indicators of recovery after the Canterbury earthquakes. The research team interviewed a wide range of decision-makers and researchers in the Christchurch region. A broad cross-section of organizations are represented in the qualitative data collected for the study, including Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, Christchurch City Council, and Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team, as well as 22 other organizations. Initial evaluation of the study data shows that a large variety of data are being collected as part of the recovery, for example a region-wide survey of wellbeing, but it does not appear the available data contributed significantly to ongoing decision making. The large volume of data made it challenging for organizations to analyze and interpret it for decision-making. The public health sector, however, seems to be an exemplar for using data for recovery decision-making. Data describing social vulnerability, homelessness, out-migration, business recovery, and the rental market were found to be less well documented. And while the disaster motivated unprecedented levels of data sharing within and between public and private organizations, privacy concerns and siloes still presented challenges. For future disasters, a possible role for outside experts typically involved in earthquake reconnaissance could be the facilitation of analysis of existing data, promoting access to data that can be compared across disasters, and specific guidance on what data should be collected by researchers to be archived for future cross case study comparison.


Recently a number of researchers have found that asking participants to imagine engaging in unlikely childhood events can increase their estimation that those events actually took place. This "imagination inflation" effect has been assumed to result from the process of imagination. However, this conclusion may be premature since prior studies investigating imagination have been confounded with repetition; i.e., participants receive more exposure to the "target" items (i.e., those items which are imagined) than to the "non-target" items (i.e., those items which are not imagined). Research on the referential validity effect reveals that estimations of the truth of propositions is increased for repeated items relative to items that are presented for the first time. Based on unpublished work investigating the potency of imagination inflation, and on the inherent similarities between the multiple exposures to target items in the imagination inflation paradigm and repetition utilized in studies investigating the validity effect, the current study tested the effects of imagining an item against those of simply being exposed to multiple repetitions of it. Results provided initial support for the hypothesis that repetition is the driving force between differences between targets and non-targets, and that they do not depend on the act of extensive imagination. However, a limitation in the design of this study (whereby control subjects engaged in some imagination, albeit far less that imagination subjects) suggests that the present findings must be viewed with caution. The implications of this limitation are discussed, and potential ways of honing the experimental design are offered.


The success of the state-of-the-art video deblurring methods stems mainly from implicit or explicit estimation of alignment among the adjacent frames for latent video restoration. However, due to the influence of the blur effect, estimating the alignment information from the blurry adjacent frames is not a trivial task. Inaccurate estimations will interfere the following frame restoration. Instead of estimating alignment information, we propose a simple and effective deep Recurrent Neural Network with Multi-scale Bi-directional Propagation (RNN-MBP) to effectively propagate and gather the information from unaligned neighboring frames for better video deblurring. Specifically, we build a Multi-scale Bi-directional Propagation (MBP) module with two U-Net RNN cells which can directly exploit the inter-frame information from unaligned neighboring hidden states by integrating them in different scales. Moreover, to better evaluate the proposed algorithm and existing state-of-the-art methods on real-world blurry scenes, we also create a Real-World Blurry Video Dataset (RBVD) by a well-designed Digital Video Acquisition System (DVAS) and use it as the training and evaluation dataset. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed RBVD dataset effectively improve the performance of existing algorithms on real-world blurry videos, and the proposed algorithm performs favorably against the state-of-the-art methods on three typical benchmarks. The code is available at https://github.com/XJTU-CVLAB-LOWLEVEL/RNN-MBP.


BACKGROUND
Although the published literature on alcohol beverage taxes, prices, sales, and related problems treats alcoholic beverages as a simple good, alcohol is a complex good composed of different beverage types (i.e., beer, wine, and spirits) and quality brands (e.g., high-, medium-, and low-quality beers). As a complex good, consumers may make substitutions between purchases of different beverage types and brands in response to price increases. For this reason, the availability of a broad range of beverage prices provides opportunities for consumers to mitigate the effects of average price increases through quality substitutions; a change in beverage choice in response to price increases to maintain consumption.

METHODS
Using Swedish price and sales data provided by Systembolaget for the years 1984 through 1994, this study assessed the relationships between alcohol beverage prices, beverage quality, and alcohol sales. The study examined price effects on alcohol consumption using seemingly unrelated regression equations to model the impacts of price increases within 9 empirically defined quality classes across beverage types. The models enabled statistical assessments of both own-price and cross-price effects between types and classes.

RESULTS
The results of these analyses showed that consumers respond to price increases by altering their total consumption and by varying their brand choices. Significant reductions in sales were observed in response to price increases, but these effects were mitigated by significant substitutions between quality classes.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest that the net impacts of purposeful price policy to reduce consumption will depend on how such policies affect the range of prices across beverage brands.


Abstract. The communication architecture required to provide a bidirectional communication between a central command node and a full set of fiber positioners feeding a spectrograph is studied. Six different architectures have been analyzed in terms of communication time and power consumption. These architectures are the result of the combination of three different communication protocols: transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) over ethernet, interintegrated circuit (I2C), and controller area network. The design of communication architecture must prioritize between communication time and power consumption. The fastest architecture is the hybrid TCP/IP over ethernet-I2C. This architecture requires the least time to provide a full set of coordinates to every fiber positioner less than 50 ms. The most power efficient solution is the I2C—I2C with demultiplexers. This architecture solves a bidirectional communication between a central node and a full set of fiber positioners requiring only an addition of 27 mW.


Lithium niobate (LN) devices have been widely used in optical communication and nonlinear optics due to its attractive optical properties. The emergence of thin-film lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) improves performances of LN-based devices greatly. However, a high-efficient fiber-chip optical coupler is still necessary for the LNOI-based devices for practical applications. In this paper, we demonstrate a highly efficient and polarization-independent edge coupler based on LNOI. The coupler, fabricated by standard semiconductor process, shows a low fiber-chip coupling loss of 0.54 dB/0.59 dB per facet at 1550 nm for TE/TM light respectively, when coupled with ultra-high numerical aperture fiber (UHNAF) of which mode field diameter is about 3.2 micrometers. The coupling loss is lower than 1dB/facet for both TE and TM light at wavelengths longer than 1527nm. A relatively large tolerance for optical misalignment is also proved. The coupler shows a promising stability in high optical power and temperature variation.


Background: Tobacco industry funding was instrumental in creating and financing the Consumer Tax Alliance in 1989 as an organisation that relied upon extensive media outreach to build opposition to excise taxes as a regressive form of taxation. By obscuring its own role in this effort, the tobacco industry undermined the public's reasonable expectations for transparency in the policy-making process. Aim: To examine the formation and activities of the Consumer Tax Alliance as a "hybrid" form of interest group in order to provide tobacco control and public health advocates with a better understanding of unanticipated tobacco industry coalitions and facilitate appropriate countermeasures. Methods: Document searches through the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library and through Tobacco Documents Online and review of background literature. Results: The Tobacco Institute actively sought liberal allies beginning in the mid-1980s in seeking to build public opposition to cigarette excise tax increases by promoting them as a regressive form of taxation. The creation of the Consumer Tax Alliance in 1989 was expressly intended to turn labour and middle-class opinion against prospective excise tax increases in federal budget deficit negotiations, without divulging the tobacco industry's role in its formation. Conclusion: It is important to understand the dynamic by which trusted organisations can be induced to alter their agendas in response to funding sources. Advocates need to understand this form of interest group behaviour so that they are better able to negotiate the policy arena by diagnosing and exposing this influence where it occurs and, by doing so, be better prepared to take appropriate countermeasures.


Evidence-based medicine (EBM) originated in the 1990s (1). It has become the current development trend and direction of clinical medicine. Decision-making in medicine must be based on the current best evidence, which is the key point of EBM, has been accepted by more and more people (2). "Evidence" is the key and core of EBM, while after nearly 20 years of development, the classical definition of evidence can not summarize the whole content of EBM (3,4). If we do not establish an evidence focused system, it will cause the misunderstanding and misuse of EBM (5,6), and will be a large drag on the development of EBM.


The authors present the results of using inactivated cultural rabies vaccine from the Vnukovo-32 strain in combination with rabies gamma-globulin for the treatment of 39 persons; of this number 28 were bitten by rabid wolves (the diagnosis was confirmed by laboratory methods), 25 had wounds of dangerous localization, and 3 were children from 7 to 15 years of age. In examining the sera of all the 39 bitten persons it was found that the scheme of combined vaccinations with inactivated cultural ribies vaccine and rabies gamma-globulin, officially acting in the USSR, in case of bites of dangerous localization led to formation of early continuous and lengthy passive and active immunity of adequate intensity.