Changes underway in the global economy have changed the governance of cities where private and public partnerships plays a central role in planning the city. Cities must market themselves in order to attract investments, tourism and not least, the creative class. Public spaces in the city centres are increasingly seen as integral parts of regeneration strategies focused on developing positive images. One of the most obvious changes is the turn towards so-called cultural strategies that range from the promotion of cultural gentrification to the implementation of various "quality-of-life projects." All of these strategies attach great importance to design and visual symbols. For former industrial cities bigger events such as for example sports championships play an important role in the transformation to post-industrial cities. This article discusses how public space of the city centre of Goteborg was used during the European Athletic Championship 2006 to market Goteborg as a city. The article ends up with a discussion of the meaning of public space in the age of entrepreneurialism.


Driving assistance and safety systems are based on data processing of different sensor information. The environment of a vehicle is detected by these sensing elements for accident avoidance or reduction of the accident severity. Due to package size and cost reasons, only selective sensors are used for standard-production of a vehicle. These integrated sensors have to fulfill several tasks at once and to serve different applications. Especially the processed data of a grayscale camera is used for parking assistant or lane detection system. But known from computer vision, a three-dimensional reconstruction of feature elements is possible by analyzing image sequences. This research considers corner detection to create point clouds in space. But the dominant elements of an urban environment, more precisely buildings, are characterized by edges. With this paper we focus on the robust tracking and three-dimensional reconstruction of line-based features. In this context we present our algorithm, defining and analyzing edge tolerances, which is called Tube Principle. The accuracy of this approach is determined by comparing the three-dimensional lines with landmarks of high-precise maps.


Reading is a compulsory subject in Faculty of Literature, Culture and
Communication Ahmad Dahlan University. The emphasis is on academic reading.
So far, the English achievement of students in this faculty. The low achievement
may be caused by (1) low input quality, (2) the weakness of English basic ability,
(3) unrelevant syllabus, (4) the conventional of learning method, and (5) students'
attitude toward the difficulty of English. Starting from the problems and the
causes mention above, the writer proposes a solution, that is learning English
reading academic by using TBL. The problems of the research are (1) Can the use
of TBL improve the achievement of academic reading of Faculty of Literature,
Culture and Communication Ahmad Dahlan University? If yes, how far is the
improvement?, (2) How is the study intensity of the students while the lecturers
teach them by using TBL?, (3) What are the benefit and the weakness of TBL
method toward the learning of academic reading in Faculty of Literature, Culture
and Communication Ahmad Dahlan University?.
This research is a classroom action research which was done in Faculty of
Literature, Culture and Communication Ahmad Dahlan University from 8th May
2013 up to 31th December 2013. This classroom action research was done by a
three cycles performed by (1) planning, (2) preventative steps of performance, (3)
observation, and (4) reflection. Each cycle had five times meeting. To get the data
researcher did some activities such as observing, interviewing, asking for
fullfilling form, giving test, giving questioner, and analyzing document. Data
resource triangulation and method triangulation were used to know the validity of
the investigation technique. Informant review was also used in data validity test.
Reliability estimation to guarantee realibility of data was found by test and
observation. To analyze the data researcher used the result of observation which
was reflected and the learning result the students which was achieved. The
technique of analyzing the data was descriptive statistic technique and critical
analysis to know the improvement of the situation in detail and precisely
according to the improving of the treatment in each cycle.
The result shows the application of TBL can improve the achievement of
English academic reading of the students of Faculty of Literature, Culture and
Communication Ahmad Dahlan University in some aspect and dimensions, such
as (1) aspects of reading ability, (2) aspects of RAP, and (3) aspects of English: vocabulary, grammar, and pronounciation, and improving the dimensions of (1)
attitude, (2) profesionalism, (3) motivation and interest, (4) communication, (5)
ability of cooperation, colaboration, socialization, sharing ideas, opinion, and
suggestion, (6) discipline and timing value ability, (7) reading analysis ability, (8)
TBL and its processes can be used as an emotional medium. How far is the
improvement can be described as follow: the result of pre-test increased (1st cycle
is 57,41, 2nd cycle is 62,41, and 3rd cycle is 66,62) and the result of post-test
increased (1st cycle is 65,22, 2nd cycle is 66,27, and 3rd cycle is 75,30). The
result of learning also inreased, cognitive aspect is 89,19% (33-37 students got the
score above (66). Afective aspect is 89,19%. Psycomotor aspect is 91,89% (34
students got good score above 4). The improvement of students learning intensity
such as (1) students interest in learning English, (2) learning enthusiasm, (3)
responsibility toward doing the tasks, (4) learning result on cognitive, affective,
and psycomotor aspects, (5) speaking effort in English, (6) using time effectively,
(7) professionalism awarness, (8) social attude and socialization, (9) leadership,
model, and moral value. The weakness are (1) need a long time, (2) must be done
at that moment, and moral value. The weakness are (1) need a long time, (2) must
be done at that moment together, (3) the result of doing the tasks must be
collected at the sama time together, (4) making the weak students become lazy,
bored, desperate, and mysterious passanger of success, (5) task is not well and
right done, (6) all the answers are not well discussed, (7) egoism makes others
emotional, (8) the use of dictionary conliscates learning time, (9) the difficulty of
sharing idea becomes discussion blocks, (10) ashamed becomes communication
blocks, (11) making bad atmosphere and not so relax.


Introduction: Although limited information is available about the pathophysiology of knee osteoarthritis (OA) disease in relation with oxidative stress, there is a paucity of satisfactory explanation regarding the alteration in the level of antioxidant enzymes and lipid peroxidation with severity of knee OA. Aim: To estimate the levels of antioxidant enzymes and malondialdehyde (MDA) in the knee OA patients of different KL grade and to determine the variation in their levels with severity of disease. Materials and Methods: Antioxidant enzyme status (superoxide dismutase and ceruloplasmin) and malondialdehyde levels were measured in 150 knee OA patients (35-65 years), by using standard methods. On the basis of KL grading scale Knee OA patients were categorized into three groups (n=50 in each group) and statistically compared it with that of 50 healthy controls by using student's t-test. Results: Erythrocyte superoxide dismutase activity was significantly low in Group II (P = <0.05) and Group III (P = <0.001) subjects as compared to healthy controls whereas serum ceruloplasmin level was increased significantly only in Group II (P = <0.05) and Group III (P = < 0.001) subjects. Similarly, serum MDA level was increased significantly in Group II (P = < 0.05) and Group III (P = <0.001) subjects as compared to healthy controls. Conclusion: Study findings indicate that alteration in antioxidant enzyme status and increased production of MDA are excellent marker of oxidative stress in different grades of knee OA patients. Thus, the diet rich in antioxidant or antioxidant supplementation could be beneficial in delaying the progressive destruction of articular cartilage process and serve as a preventive strategy in field of knee OA management.


Major social and political transformations such as the shift towards neoliberal urban policies have widely altered the contemporary structuring of metropolitan areas in Spain and Latin America. One key consequence is the recapture of city centres by wealthy tenants and the eviction of poorer households, a phenomenon usually designated by the term gentrification. In comparison to the comprehensive documentation of gentrification in the Anglophone environment, few scholars have paid attention to this phenomenon in this area of the world so far. This article responds to this gap, providing an exhaustive revision of the debates about gentrification occurring in Spain and Latin America during the last decade and tracking two theoretical motivations. First, it stresses the necessity of characterizing gentrification discourses in Spain and Latin America, preparing a conceptual appropriation and contextualization of the term itself. Second, it confirms that gentrification in Spain and Latin America varies substantially from processes observed in the Anglophone world. As a result, the review develops insights into emancipating and challenging debates that remain useful for the mainstream gentrification discourse too. Addressing this, it proposes a reconsideration and repoliticization of gentrification through the territorial and linguistic lens of Spanish and Latin American researchers.


An experimental study on the instability of a detached Stewartson layer, using an annular, rotating tank with flat, rigid upper and lower boundaries, showed an instability to steady vortices at a critical Reynolds number, arranged in a global mode structure along the shear layer. Increasing the Reynolds number resulted in successive transitions to lower modes where time-dependent behaviour was only found for flows with three or less vortices. Previous numerical simulations of a related experiment, using a two-dimensional spectral model of the quasi-geostrophic vorticity equation incorporating Ekman forcing and viscous dissipation, suggested that the boundary conditions at the inner cylinder of the domain could significantly affect the interior flow by the generation and shedding of vorticity at this inner boundary. A comparison of the numerical results with experimental data suggests that the rise of time-dependent behaviour is due to vorticity generation at the inner domain boundary.


In this paper, we present an optical imaging tool, the Overlay Imaging Aligner (OIA), developed to aid in the mechanical alignment of antenna components in the mm-wave and low-THz frequency regimes (50-500 GHz). In these regimes, the millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths pose significant challenges for alignment. The OIA uses a polarization-selective, machine-vision approach to generate two simultaneous and overlaid real-time digital images along a common axis. This allows for aligning two antenna components to within fractions of a wavelength in the mm-wave and THz frequency regimes. The overall concept, optical design, function, performance characteristics, and application examples are presented. Preliminary data at specific frequencies in the WR-2.2 band are presented that compare the alignment achieved with the OIA to an electrical alignment.


A GIS multi-component module was developed within the ArcView GIS environment for processing and analysing weather radar precipitation data. The module is capable of: (a) reading geo-reference radar data and comparing it with rain-gauge network data, (b) estimating the kinematics of rainfall patterns, such as the storm speed and direction, and (c) accumulating radar-derived rainfall depths. By bringing the spatial capabilities of GIS to bear this module can accurately locate rainfall on the ground and can overlay the animated storm on different geographical features of the study area, making the exploration of the storm9s kinematic characteristics obtained from radar data relatively simple. A case study in the City of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada is used to demonstrate the functionality of the module. Radar comparison with rain gauge data revealed an underestimation of the classical Marshal & Palmer Z–R relation to rainfall rate.


The following letters are in response to the Point:Counterpoint series "In health and in a normoxic environment, Vo2 max is/is not limited primarily by cardiac output and locomotor muscle blood flow" that appeared in the February issue (vol 100: 744–748, 2006; http://jap.physiology.org/


1. The effects of glucose on the electrophysiological properties of rat hypothalamic arcuate nucleus (ARC) neurones were investigated. Neurones were recorded in 10 mM (hyperglycaemic) and 2 mM (euglycaemic) glucose-containing aCSF. The major findings were that input resistance increased in 10 mM glucose, there was an increase in the activity of neurones in 2 mM glucose and there were a greater percentage of neurones expressing lh in 10 mM glucose. Subthreshold active conductances were differentially expressed in ARC neurones including: anomalous inward rectification Q. ), time- and voltage-dependent inward rectification 00, A-like transient outward rectification (IA) and T-type calcium-like conductance. Characterisation of the differential expression of these conductances may represent one way of functionally classifying ARC neurones.
2. Whole-cell patch clamp recording techniques were used in isolated hypothalamic brain slice preparations to investigate the effects of 5-HT on ARC neurones. Bath application of 5-HT induced a membrane depolarisation in a sub-population of ARC neurones (30%), a response that persisted in the presence of TTX indicating a direct effect. 5-HT excited ARC neurones through three potential mechanisms: closure of one or more resting potassium conductances; activation of a non-selective cation channel, or a combination of the two; or activation of a pump in the membrane. This response was mediated through the 5-HT2A. 5-HT2B and/or 5-HT2C receptors revealed using a range of 5-HT receptor agonists and antagonists. 5-HT was shown to excite CART-expressing neurones suggesting an anorexigenic role for 5-HT, via 5-HT2 receptors at the level of the ARC.
3.5-HT induced a membrane hyperpolarisation in a sub-population of ARC neurones (37%). The 5-HT-induced hyperpolarisation persisted in the presence of TTX indicating a direct effect on ARC neurones. 5-HT inhibited ARC neurones most likely through the activation of one or more potassium conductances,including an inwardly rectifying potassium conductance. Potential roles for 5-HTIA, 5-HTIB and 5-HT7 receptors were suggested from studies utilising 5-HT receptor agonists and antagonists. 5-HT inhibited orexigenic NPY/AgRP neurones, identified by their response to ghrelin and by their electrophysiological properties, suggesting an anorexigenic role for 5-HT, acting via 5-HTI and 5-HT7 receptors on NPY/AgRP neurones at the level of the ARC.
4. The effects of feeding-related signals on hypothalamic neuropeptide expression were investigated using real-time-PCR. A new protocol measuring gene expression from hypothalamic explants was developed. Effects of GABA and AMPA on c-fos expression were investigated and subsequent studies showed leptin and glucose modulated the expression of NPY, POMC and AgRP, in fed and fasted animals. Further work is required to validate this novel approach to studying the central control of energy balance.


A satellite performing hyperspectral image processing requires high storage capacity and larger communication bandwidth. Compression algorithms, like the CCSDS 123, have been proposed to mitigate these requirements. Considering the constraints associated to satellites, single-purpose processors have been developed to run these algorithms in Systems-on-Chip (SoC). In this work, we evaluate alternatives to integrate a CCSDS 123 compressor with an embedded processor based on RISC-V and ARM-based architectures.


The era of powerful technology progress raises the question of digital literacy of population. The lack of knowledge and basic skills within the majority of potential users among common people slows down the development of the IT industry as whole as far as their products are focused on consumers. It is impossible to educate IT specialists, engineers or any other highly qualified professionals without paying appropriate attention to digital literacy of population. Due to "mass start" of daily IT usage among the population of different age group it comes to influence the informational sphere as well as the learning process as it is the significant part of the education. So there appears a special category of users that may be called as a digital-mass-consumer-user. This category of users is mainly oriented on consuming digital services but is not aware of digital competence. Thus, while developing modern consumer-oriented technologies, it is necessary to improve the level of general public's digital literacy. Extend Centres could conduct such type of courses for general public. The aim of the article is to study the digital literacy as a significant component for modern education process and in particular for specialists in engineering. There were used the method of analysis, interview survey and comparison. Special attention is given to digital etiquette and digital security. These components of digital literacy acquire far too much concern while digital literacy as a phenomenon of both modern digital and social environments affects industrial, economical, social and other areas of life.


The majority of processors produced nowadays are targeted at dedicated computing systems that execute either a single application or a small set of previously known applications. In contrast to generic computing systems, these dedicated systems have very specific run-time support requirements, which are not properly fulfilled by general-purpose operating systems. The impossibility to anticipate which applications will be executed results in generic operating systems being forced to provide an extensive set of services targeted at making all resources available to all applications. The standardization of such generic system services locked general-purpose operating system inside a hard shell that prevents innovations from reaching applications. With regard to dedicated computing, these generic operating system provide uncountable services that are not used by individual applications, and yet fail to fulfill application demands.


Axisymmetric dust rings are a ubiquitous feature of young protoplanetary disks. These rings are likely caused by pressure bumps in the gas profile; a small bump can induce a traffic-jam-like pattern in the dust density, while a large bump may halt radial dust drift entirely. The resulting increase in dust concentration may trigger planetesimal formation by the streaming instability (SI), as the SI itself requires some initial concentration of dust. Here we present the first 3D simulations of planetesimal formation in the presence of a pressure bump modeled specifically after those seen by Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. We place a pressure bump at the center of a large 3D shearing box, along with an initial solid-to-gas ratio of Z = 0.01, and we include both particle back-reaction and particle self-gravity. We consider millimeter-sized and centimeter-sized particles separately. For simulations with centimeter-sized particles, we find that even a small pressure bump leads to the formation of planetesimals via the SI; a pressure bump does not need to fully halt radial particle drift for the SI to become efficient. Furthermore, pure gravitational collapse via concentration in pressure bumps (such as would occur at sufficiently high concentrations and without the SI) is not responsible for planetesimal formation. For millimeter-sized particles, we find tentative evidence that planetesimal formation does not occur. If this result is confirmed at higher resolution, it could put strong constraints on where planetesimals can form. Ultimately, our results show that for centimeter-sized particles planetesimal formation in pressure bumps is extremely robust.


Summary Some aspects of sampling raw wool sale lots are examined. In particular, the importance of within-bale variance to the design of sampling schedules and sampling precision is considered, and the most recent estimates of this parameter are reviewed. The estimate of within-bale variance of wool-base used in IWTO and Australian core-sampling standards is likely to be exceeded by around one-third of the Australian clip, especially non-fleece types. The importance of sampling variance to overall test precision is reviewed, and the effect of altering the sampling schedule on the precision of the combined certificate for consignments is determined. Increased sampling results in only a modest improvement in precision at both the lot and consignment level. The relevance of specifying a minimum sampling precision for sale lots is discussed, and it is argued that regular monitoring of all components of testing variance would be desirable.


This work is devoted to the study of fixed-point conversion of algorithms for a MC-CDMA system, which has become a promising access technique for 4G-air interface. The float to fixed-point conversion will allow an optimised implementation of algorithms on DSP and/or FPGA, by making adequate trade-offs between functional performance and corresponding complexity. The fixed-point conversion is first all presented. Then, the performances of two fixed-point interference cancellation techniques are given. It is shown that the fixed ORC detection technique provides better performances than MMSE, with less complexity.


The purpose of the study was to determine the role of school environment on aggression among adolescence. School environment can be defined as an environment where students experiences caring relationship with and healthy expectations from school staff and take part in school and class activities.Aggression can be defined as behaviour aimed at causing harm and pain, psychological harm, personal injury or physical distraction. K.S Misra school environment inventory and Buss and Perry aggression scale was used to measure school environment and aggression on adolescence respectively.The sample consisted of 60 children with age range of 12-16 years.Regression analysis was used to analyze the data. Significant results were obtained.The findings will be discussed in the light of relevant literature.


The free movement of goods and services are central to the functioning of the Internal Market of the European Union (EU). While many scholars have devoted their attention to analysing those circumstances and the way in which they have been articulated in the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU (Court of Justice), considerably less attention has been paid to the exact consequences in private law of the application of the free movement of goods and services. Does such application to private law relationships create, modify or extinguish rights and obligations, does it affect existing private law remedies, and if so, how? If we remember that trade in goods and services typically takes place based on private law arrangements, namely contracts, we must admit that the decisions rendered by the Court of Justice will also have an impact on underlying contracts and related private law rights and obligations of individuals. It means that all judgements of the Court of Justice in the area of goods and services (may) have implications on pre-existing private law rights or have created new rights for private parties wanting to contract with others in the Internal Market. Taking this fact as the point of departure, this Chapter provides a systematic analysis of private law implications of the application of the freedom of goods and services. It is argued in this Chapter that the impact of these freedoms on private law rights and remedies, and the underlying relationships that are governed by them, is pervasive and multi-faceted, yet not well understood in legal scholarship and practice. The Chapter assesses via which doctrines these freedoms create, modify or extinguish rights and obligations in 'horizontal' relations (i.e. relations governed by private law) and whether and how private law remedies are affected in that process as well. Anticipating those consequences is important for legal practice as they may offer genuine and powerful arguments to solve the underlying private law dispute.


Amaryllis belladonna is an indigenous bulb endemic to the southwestern Cape of South Africa and one of two members of the Cape genus. It is closely linked to the Brunsvigia and Nerine bulbous species. This bulb has a hysteranthous nature of showcasing the arrival of white to different shades of pink scented trumpet-shaped flowers in late summer to early autumn. By losing its leaves and going into dormancy in the height of summer, it conserves its resources making it a drought-tolerant summer blooming perennial found in nutrient-poor soils. In the wild the specie is well adapted to the fire-prone fynbos environment only after which it sends out blooms in abundance. In cultivation it requires minimum attention and considered to be an impressive and reliable garden landscape and rocky roadside ornamental. A. belladonna has proven to be a popular plant that has become naturalized in Mediterranean climates throughout the world. This review could enhance the use and design of A. belladonna in the urban landscape.


Currently in Russia and the world due to the depletion of old highly productive deposits, the role of hard-to-recover and unconventional hydrocarbons is increasing. Thanks to scientific and technical progress, it became possible to involve in the development very low permeable reservoirs and even synthesize oil and gas in-situ. Today, wells serve not only for the production of hydrocarbons, but also are important elements of stimulation technology, through which the technogenic effect on the formation is carried out in order to intensify inflows. In this context, the reservoir itself can be considered as a raw material for the application of stimulation technologies, and the set of wells through which it is technologically affected is a plant or a fabric whose intermediate product is the stimulated zone of the formation and the final product is reservoir hydrocarbons. Well-established methods for studying hydrocarbon deposits are limited to the definition of standard geological parameters, which are commonly used for reserves calculations (net pay, porosity, permeability, oil and gas saturation coefficient, area), but they are clearly insufficient to characterize the development possibilities using modern stimulation technologies. To study objects that are promising for the production of hydrocarbons, it is necessary to develop fundamentally new approaches that make it possible to assess the availability of resources depending on the technologies used, and to improve the methods for forecasting and evaluating the properties of the stimulated zone of the formation. «In-situ reservoir fabric» is a collective term that combines a combination of technologies, research and methodological approaches aimed at creating and evaluating a stimulated zone of the formation by applying modern methods of technogenic impact on objects containing hard-to-recover and «unconventional» hydrocarbons in order to intensify inflows from them hydrocarbons. In 2015, the company LLS Gazprom Neft adopted a corporate standard regulating a set of studies in the ideology of the «in-situ reservoir fabric» for methodological support of the pilot projects related to development of low-permeability rocks of the Bazhenov formation by creating artificial permeable zones by multi-stage hydraulic fracturing in horizontal wells. In 2016 the first wells were built and put into operation, the results of the works confirmed the expediency of transition to a new methodological basis. After two years, we can state with certainty that the new approaches have proved their effectiveness.


Apatite-polymer hybrid has attractive features as novel bone substitutes such as both ability of bone-bonding and mechanical performances analogous to those of natural bone, i.e. high strength and high flexibility. As a method for development of such hybrids, biomimetic process has been proposed, where apatite formation is induced on the surfaces of organic substrates at ambient conditions in simulated body fluid (SBF) with ion concentrations similar to those of human extracellular fluid, or related solutions supersaturated with respect to the apatite. In this process, heterogeneous nucleation of apatite is triggered by specific functional groups. This apatite nucleation is enhanced by release of calcium ions (Ca2+) from the materials which increases degree of supersaturation of surrounding fluid with respect to apatite. In the present study, we attempted to prepare apatite-polyamide hybrids by biomimetic process. Polysaccharides and natural polypeptides containing carboxyl group (-COOH) were used as a starting material, and apatite formation ability was compared. It was found that the apatite formation was governed by not only content of the carboxyl group but also ionic interaction with Ca2+.


Retributivist accounts of punishment maintain that it is right to punish wrongdoers, even if the punishment has no future benefits. Research in experimental economics indicates that people are willing to pay to punish defectors. A complementary line of work in social psychology suggests that people think that it is right to punish wrongdoers. This work suggests that people are retributivists about punishment. However, all of the extant work contains an important potential confound. The target of the punishment is expected to be aware of the punitive act. Thus, it's possible that people punish because they want to communicate something to the wrongdoer, e.g. disapproval, the presence of a norm, etc. In three studies, we examine whether people will punish even when the punishee will be ignorant. We find that people are no less likely to punish when the punishee will be ignorant. This finding emerges both in a survey study and in a monetized behavioural decision study.


The moves that Carlson Gracie has taught to such stars as Vitor Belfort, Amauri Bitteti, Murilo Bustamante, Wallid Ismael, Mario Sperry, Kevin Costner, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Mickey Rourke are revealed in this book on the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu style of martial arts. One hundred and one positions that provide a complete game of guards, sweeps, and submissions are detailed. Students will find more aggressive techniques that expand their game in all directions, and advanced practitioners will learn the tips and secrets that make the difference between competence and greatness.


Previous studies have demonstrated the ability of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) to promote chondrogenic differentiation in vitro. However, the in vivo role of BMP signaling during chondrogenesis has been unclear. We report here that BMP signaling is essential for multiple aspects of early chondrogenesis. Whereas mice deficient in type 1 receptors Bmpr1a or Bmpr1b in cartilage are able to form intact cartilaginous elements, double mutants develop a severe generalized chondrodysplasia. The majority of skeletal elements that form through endochondral ossification are absent, and the ones that form are rudimentary. The few cartilage condensations that form in double mutants are delayed in the prechondrocytic state and never form an organized growth plate. The reduced size of mutant condensations results from increased apoptosis and decreased proliferation. Moreover, the expression of cartilage-specific extracellular matrix proteins is severely reduced in mutant elements. We demonstrate that this defect in chondrocytic differentiation can be attributed to lack of Sox9, L-Sox5, and Sox6 expression in precartilaginous condensations in double mutants. In summary, our study demonstrates that BMPR1A and BMPR1B are functionally redundant during early chondrogenesis and that BMP signaling is required for chondrocyte proliferation, survival, and differentiation in vivo.


Background Small and medium businesses (SME) are important elements in the strategies of economic growth and improvement. The SME have played a great role in regional and global economic recovery during many years and thus they are very desirable. Small business leaders have to fulfil a wide range of roles and responsibilities however, the most important role being the leader role. Valdiserri (Valdiserri and Wilson, 2010) stated that poor leadership is one of the main failure reasons for small businesses. Furthermore, different countries may have different leadership styles and culture. Aim The purpose of this thesis is to identify the differences between the leadership styles in small technical companies in Sweden, an industrialized country, and Jordan, a developing country Method We adopted the study case method to study the leadership style in small companies. Through pre-defined questionnaire surveys, the leaders of eight small businesses (four companies in Sweden and four in Jordan) were asked to answer multifactor questions. We then studied the answers based on three situational leadership models. The situational methods used in our study were the Fiedler model, the normative model and the SLII model. The answers were then analysed in order to determine the current as well as the appropriate leadership style based on the models. Results In brief, our study identified several examples of different leadership styles in various situations in small companies and presented the most suitable leadership in those situations. The thesis also shed light on differences in small technical company leadership in Sweden and Jordan. The analysis of the case studies of the studied companies showed that the situational leadership methods could be used in small companies. The study concluded that in order to identify the leadership style, more than one model had to be used. In general, the leadership style in the Swedish companies matched the recommended leadership style. The Jordanian companies' leadership style however did not match the recommended leadership style. The models in our framework also revealed the reasons behind and also proved to be valuable tools in recommending the suitable leadership style for all companies. The used models in our thesis however lacked the appropriate tools to explain the differences between the Swedish and Jordanian companies. The differences are thought to be due to cultural aspects, however, these models does not take in account the cultural aspect nor the size of the companies, an issue pointed out by Gary (Yukl, 2002). Conclusion The situational leadership style model was shown to be fully applicable in our case study as in previous literature. The conducted study suggested that more than one model had to be used in order to identify the suitable leadership style. Interestingly, the models used were clearly applicable in Middle East companies. This was, to our knowledge, the first time these models were used in Middle East countries when studying leadership style. Furthermore, the studied situational leadership style showed a clear difference in leadership between Sweden and Jordan. The models recommended a participative style in the small technical companies both in Sweden and Jordan. However, the current practiced leadership style in the Jordan companies were not exhibiting the recommended leadership style. Interviewing the leaders in the Jordanian companies gave us a hint that this difference could be due to cultural differences. The cultural differences must thus be born in mind when interpreting the data and trying to understand the reasons behind the results when studying these models. The Jordanian companies used more power leadership (telling leadership) than their Swedish counterparts who exhibited a participating leadership. According to (Hofstede, 1991) leadership in Arab culture show higher power distance than in Nordic companies. Our results thus coincide with previous studies. However more studies need to be made in order to draw conclusions on whether this is a common phenomenon in all Jordanian or Middle East companies and our thesis present an interesting pilot study in this regard.


A 75-year-old Japanese man with type 2 diabetes mellitus suffered from unresectable pancreatic head cancer and was admitted to our institution due to acute cholangitis. A partially covered metal stent was placed at that time. 11 months later, he was readmitted for acute cholangitis. Upper endoscopy revealed complete stent distal migration and a small hole on the oral side of the ampulla. While attempting cannulation into the hole, an upstream biliary tract was revealed. Accordingly, we diagnosed the patient to have a choledochoduodenal fistula. After metal stent removal and balloon dilation, we placed two 7 Fr plastic stents, which successfully relieved the patient's cholangitis.


According to the Frank-Starling mechanism, as the heart is stretched, it increases its contraction force. Reconstitution of the Frank-Starling mechanism is an important milestone for producing functional heart tissue constructs. Spontaneously contracting engineered heart tissues (EHTs) were reconstituted by growing dissociated chicken embryo cardiomyocytes in collagen matrices. Twitch and baseline tensions were recorded at precisely controlled levels of tissue strain. The EHTs showed a steep increase in twitch tension from 0.47 +/- 0.02 to 0.91 +/- 0.02 mN/mm2 as they were stretched at a constant rate (2.67% per min) from 86% to 100% of the length at which maximum twitch force was exerted. In response to a sudden stretch (3.3%), the twitch tension increased gradually (approximately 60 s) in a Gd3+-sensitive manner, suggesting the presence of stretch-activated Ca2+ channels. A large difference in baseline tension between lengthening (loading) and shortening (unloading) was also recorded. Disruption of nonsarcomeric actin filaments by cytochalasin D and latrunculin B decreased this difference. A simple mechanical model interprets these results in terms of mechanical connections between myocytes and nonmuscle cells. The experimental results strongly suggest that regulation of twitch tension in EHTs is similar to that of natural myocardium.


This book explains how librarians can capitalize on the growing interest and need of patrons for help with technology by expanding their library's tech services to build community engagement and support.
 Keeping up with technology is more critical and difficult than ever. This challenge exists not only for library staff but for their patrons as well. Today's librarians are often barraged with increasingly complex questions from their patrons about technology—from loading eBooks onto their readers to helping resurrect dead laptops. Why not capitalize on this opportunity and transform your library into a first-stop, go-to resource for your community's tech needs?
 Raising the Tech Bar at Your Library: Improving Services to Meet User Needs demonstrates a variety of ways to expand library services to better serve your community, including how to establish tech bars and tech centers, provide tech training and one-on-one tech help, host drop-in demos, and create a coding "dojo." The book covers after-school programs, makerspaces, and embedded librarianship as well. The authors draw on their personal experience to offer a practical blueprint for launching your tech initiative, starting with the preliminary steps of evaluating community needs and getting administrative and public buy-in to obtaining funding, training non-tech staff, setting up and launching your program, and evaluating the services you've established. The book ends with a look to the future that supplies provocative and exciting ideas of how libraries with innovative, tech-focused leadership can push the edge even further. This book serves a wide audience—all public librarians as well as library administrators, those who work in IT departments as well as adult or youth services, and reference librarians who are interested in expanding into this important and exciting area.


Background: Dietary fiber (DF) and its fermentation metabolites play an important role in establishing and maintaining intestinal health. Objective: This study investigated the effects of fermentable DF, guar gum (GG), and partially hydrolyzed GG (PHGG) on the epithelial tight junction (TJ) barrier and inflammation in a murine model of dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)– induced colitis. Methods: In Expt. 1, male, 7-wk-old BALB/c mice weighing ; 21 g were fed diets with 0%, 5%, and 10% GG for 12 d and administered distilled water with 2% DSS for 7 d beginning 5 d after the start of feeding. In Expt. 2, mice were provided diets with or without 10% PHGG and GG for 13 d and administered distilled water with 2% DSS for 8 d from 5 d after the start of feeding. In Expt. 3, mice were provided diets with or without 10% PHGG and GG for 14 d without DSS administration. Colitis score, colon TJ proteins, and fecal SCFA concentrations were analyzed. Results: In Expts. 1 and 2, the clinical score in the DSS group was ; 100% greater than that in the DSS+10% GG and PHGG groups on days 12 and 13 ( P < 0.01). The DSS+10% GG and PHGG groups showed ; 110%, 60%, 120%, and 110% greater ( P < 0.05) expression of occludin and claudin 3, 4, and 7, respectively, in the colon than did the DSS group. The DSS+10% GG and PHGG groups had greater total fecal SCFA concentrations (25.1 and 12.0 mmol/L) than did the DSS group (3.3 mmol/L) on day 9 ( P < 0.01). TJ protein expression did not differ between groups in Expt. 3. Conclusion: These findings suggest that microbial metabolites of PHGG and GG, and possibly SCFAs, reduce intestinal barrier defects and inflammation in colitic mice. J Nutr 2016;146:1970–9.


Over the last decade, scientific research has been increasingly focused on the third dimension in all fields and especially in sciences related to geographic information, the visualization of natural phenomena and the visualization of the complex urban reality. The field of 3D visualization has achieved rapid development and dynamic progress, especially in urban applications, while the technical restrictions on the use of 3D information tend to subside due to advancements in technology. A variety of 3D modeling techniques and standards has already been developed, as they gain more traction in a wide range of applications. Such a modern standard is the CityGML, which is open and allows for sharing and exchanging of 3D city models. Within the scope of this study, key issues for the 3D modeling of spatial objects and cities are considered and specifically the key elements and abilities of CityGML standard, which is used in order to produce a 3D model of 14 buildings that constitute a block at the municipality of Kaisariani, Athens, in Level of Detail 2 (LoD2), as well as the corresponding relational database. The proposed tool is based upon the 3DCityDB package in tandem with a geospatial database (PostgreSQL w/ PostGIS 2.0 extension). The latter allows for execution of complex queries regarding the spatial distribution of data. The system is implemented in order to facilitate a real-life scenario in a suburb of Athens.


Thin diamond foils are needed in many particle accelerator experiments regarding nuclear and atomic physics, as well as in some interdisciplinary research. Particularly, nanodiamond texture is attractive for this purpose as it possesses a unique combination of diamond properties such as high thermal conductivity, mechanical strength and high radiation hardness; therefore, it is a potential material for energetic ion beam stripper foils. At the ORNL Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), the installed set of foils must be able to survive a nominal five-month operation period, without the need for unscheduled costly shutdowns and repairs. Thus, a single nanodiamond foil about the size of a postage stamp is critical to the entire operation of SNS and similar sources in U.S. laboratories and around the world. We are investigating nanocrystalline, polycrystalline and their admixture films fabricated using a hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) system for H- stripping to support the SNS at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Here we discuss optimization of process variables such as substrate temperature, process gas ratio of H2/Ar/CH4, substrate to filament distance, filament temperature, carburization conditions, and filament geometry to achieve high purity diamond foils on patterned silicon substrates with manageable intrinsic and thermal stresses so that theymore » can be released as free standing foils without curling. An in situ laser reflectance interferometry tool (LRI) is used for monitoring the growth characteristics of the diamond thin film materials. The optimization process has yielded free standing foils with no pinholes. The sp3/sp2 bonds are controlled to optimize electrical resistivity to reduce the possibility of surface charging of the foils. The integrated LRI and HFCVD process provides real time information on the growth of films and can quickly illustrate growth features and control over film thickness. The results are discussed in the light of development of nanodiamond foils that will be able to withstand a few MW proton beam and hopefully will be able to be used after possible future upgrades to the SNS to greater than a 3MW beam.« less


Antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella and Shigella are emerging global challenges. There are no studies conducted on the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of Salmonellaand Shigella in eastern Ethiopia. This study aims to investigate antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of these microbes. A total of 244 diarrheic stool specimens were collected and cultured for screening of microbes using standard methods. Afterwards, the isolates were confirmed as Salmonella or Shigella by using a battery of biochemical reactions. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed using six selected drugs (ampicillin, amoxicillin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, norfloxacin, and gentamicin). 28 (11.5%) Salmonella and 17 (6.7%) Shigella organisms were isolated from 244 stool samples. Sensitivity of the Salmonella isolates were 0.0% to ampicillin; 0.0% to amoxicillin; 14.2% to tetracycline; 28.6% to chloramphenicol; 89.3% to norfloxacin; and 92.8% to gentamicin. Shigella had sensitivities of 0.0% to ampicillin; 0.0% to amoxicillin; 11.8% to tetracycline; 41.2% to chloramphenicol; 88.2% to norfloxacin; and 94.1% to gentamicin. A high level of antimicrobial resistance was detected in both Salmonella andShigella isolates. The organisms developed complete resistance to ampicillin and amoxicillin. The results of the study demonstrated that gentamicin and norfloxacin are drugs of choice for treating diarrhea caused by these microbes.

 Key words: Infection, shigella, salmonella, diarrhea, drug resistance.


I. INTRODUCTION Between 2008 and 2009, two investigations into the bribery of foreign officials culminated in settlements that dwarfed the previous record of $44 million.1 After a joint investigation by German and U.S. authorities, Siemens AG, the German engineering conglomerate, agreed to pay fines totaling $1.3 billion to the two countries. 2 Similarly, Halliburton/KBR, the oil and gas services corporation, agreed to a settlement of $579 million with the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 3 These are just two highly visible examples of the consistently (some might even say dramatically) elevating scrutiny and prosecution of foreign bribery offenses.4 This is seen not only in the growth of investigations and prosecutions around the world, but also in the proliferation of anti-bribery regimes within the United Nations, African Union, Organization of American States, Asian Development Bank, Council of Europe, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The first of these anti-bribery regimes, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), was enacted in 1977 by the United States to combat bribery of foreign officials by corporations and creates an expansive jurisdictional reach.6 For the first twenty years after enactment, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice largely left their FCPA enforcement powers dormant.7 However, since 2002, the government's powers have been used much more aggressively; the U.S. Department of Justice currently investigates more than 100 cases a year.8 In 1997, the OECD adopted the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (Convention).9 The Convention's adoption followed ten years of pressure from the United States, driven by concerns about corruption generally, and especially about the competitive disadvantage U.S. companies faced internationally in the absence of such a convention.10 The Convention, whose signatories are required to make it a crime to bribe foreign public officials in international business transactions, includes thirty-four original signatories and four subsequent signatories, who represent most of the world's major economic powers.11 The global perception and understanding of bribery's effects has shifted significantly as it has become clearer that bribes are not negligible, benign costs of doing business in foreign transactions, but are instead inefficient and costly to the suppliers of bribes (often large corporations) as well as harmful to the development and growth in the countries where the bribes are paid (often referred to as demand countries).12 As scholarly and empirical data on the effects of bribery has grown, bribery has become increasingly disfavored by all stakeholders for its many pernicious effects.13 This Note will evaluate the OECD's success in achieving uniform implementation and effective application of its anti-bribery provisions through enforcement in the countries who are party to the Convention. It will argue that after ten years the Convention boasts significant successes in implementation through its peerreview process, but that there are considerable challenges remaining to achieving full compliance. First, this Note will examine the background of the Convention, specifically the FCPA, followed by an examination of the Convention itself and each of its provisions, including the 2009 Recommendations, with particular emphasis on how compliance is monitored and enforced. This Note will critique the effectiveness of these monitoring provisions and will then turn to assessing the success of the Convention's implementation and identifying reasons for both the Convention's successes and failures. While acknowledging the notable achievements of the Convention, this Note will show that the Convention still has a considerable distance to travel to achieve full compliance and has weaknesses that will make it difficult to get there. …


We demonstrate that mitogen-activated protein kinase–activated kinase-2 (MK2) is essential for localized Th2-type inflammation and development of experimental asthma. MK2 deficiency does not affect systemic Th2 immunity, but reduces endothelial permeability, as well as adhesion molecule and chemokine expression. NF-κB regulates transcription of adhesion molecules and chemokines. We show that MK2 and its substrate HSP27 are essential for sustained NF-κB activation. MK2 and HSP27 prevent nuclear retention of p38 by sequestering it in the cytosol. As a result, MK2 precludes excessive phosphorylation of MSK1. By reducing MSK1 activity, MK2 prevents p65 NF-κB hyperphosphorylation and excessive IκBα transcription. IκBα mediates nuclear export of p65. By reducing IκBα level, MK2 prevents premature export of NF-κB from the nucleus. Thus, the MK2–HSP27 pathway regulates the NF-κB transcriptional output by switching the activation pattern from high level, but short lasting, to moderate-level, but long lasting. This pattern of activation is essential for many NF-κB–regulated genes and development of inflammation. Thus, the MK2–HSP27 pathway is an excellent target for therapeutic control of localized inflammatory diseases.


Understanding how calcium interacts with silica sources and influences their polycondensation in aqueous solutions is of central importance for the development of more effective biomaterials by sol-gel approaches. For this purpose, the atomic-scale evolutions of a calcium-containing precursor solution corresponding to a typical sol-gel bioactive glass and of a corresponding Ca-free solution were compared using reactive molecular dynamics simulations. The simulations highlight a significantly faster rate of condensation when calcium is present in the initial solution, resulting in the formation of large and ramified silica clusters within 5 ns, which are absent in the Ca-free system. This different behavior has been analyzed and interpreted in terms of the Ca-induced nanosegregation in calcium-rich and silica-rich regions, which promotes the condensation reactions within the latter. By identifying a possible mechanism behind the limited incorporation of calcium in the silica nanoclusters formed in the early stages of the sol-gel process, these results could guide further studies aimed at identifying favorable experimental conditions to enhance initial calcium incorporation and thus produce sol-gel biomaterials with improved properties.


A total of 55 gastric ulcer patients and 1045 healthy persons were investigated for 36 HLA antigens (A, B, C loci). The study revealed that HLA B12, B15, B35, Cw4 were more common in the patients (34.55, 18.18, 27.27 and 25.45%, respectively). HLA A3 (10.9% in the patients and 25.74% in those healthy) is found to be protective against gastric ulcer. The data obtained are considered with regard to heterogeneity of the disease.


The grain elevator, an ordinary industrial building of American origin, has over the
years emerged as a popular symbol of Canadian life, albeit one that is now vanishing
from the landscape. Both the tall, wooden country elevators in Prairie towns and the
concrete terminal elevators of port cities have taken on this symbolic role, although
praise for "the grain elevator" has often not differentiated the two. The reason for
their iconic status is somewhat elusive. The admiration expressed by European
architects and historians was the foremost reason that Canadian architects and
architectural historians began to identify the terminal elevator as an important element
of Canadian architecture. Wooden country elevators have evoked description
as "prairie sentinels" or "prairie cathedrals". The appearance of both types on
Canadian stamps and currency has given formal recognition to their symbolic value.
As part of Canada's economic and agricultural histories, as well as the country's
architectural and cultural histories, grain elevators not only are tied to the special
knowledge relevant to their use, but also generate shared meaning.


The NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) represents the largest public repository of microarray data. However, finding data in GEO can be challenging. We have developed GEOmetadb in an attempt to make querying the GEO metadata both easier and more powerful. All GEO metadata records as well as the relationships between them are parsed and stored in a local MySQL database. A powerful, flexible web search interface with several convenient utilities provides query capabilities not available via NCBI tools. In addition, a Bioconductor package, GEOmetadb that utilizes a SQLite export of the entire GEOmetadb database is also available, rendering the entire GEO database accessible with full power of SQL-based queries from within R. Availability: The web interface and SQLite databases available at http://gbnci.abcc.ncifcrf.gov/geo/. The Bioconductor package is available via the Bioconductor project. The corresponding MATLAB implementation is also available at the same website. Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com


The financial crisis of 2008 not only started the Great Recession, but also set off fundamental changes in production processes, government fiscal practices, and housing. Technological progress has enabled firms to outsource and offshore parts of the production process, leading to a fragmentation of global value chains. We briefly discuss this "second unbundling," global versus regional fragmentation and some of the consequences that became visible during the Great Recession's trade collapse. We discuss the consequences for some local clusters, both from a theoretical and empirical perspective, and some consequences for government fiscal health and housing from an American perspective.


Nuclear power is a non-carbon emitting energy resource generating 18% of electricity to the UK. As with any type of industrial process the waste management strategy is an important step to define considering the environmental, economic and political factors. However, the nuclear industry faces ongoing challenges to underpin a well-defined waste treatment strategy due to the high heat load and the radioactive nature of the products produced. Reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel produces a highly active liquor (HAL) waste stream. HAL is currently stored in a number of highly active storage tanks (HASTs). Within the HASTs, solid materials are known to have precipitated from the HAL over time. Particle simulants provide a route for understanding the physical behaviour, it is the synthesis of the particle simulants and the characterisation of these solid-liquid systems that are the interest of this study.
An understanding of the HAL waste properties is required for its safe transport, storage and eventual disposal of the HASTs are to be safely emptied and decommissioned. Collaboration with the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL), at Sellafield UK, provided the opportunity to manufacture the HAL simulants, caesium phosphomolybdate (CPM) and zirconium molybdate (ZM), on larger scale. Manipulation of the aspect ratio of ZM particles is also investigated. The initial step of the synthesis produces spherical CPM which leads to the production of cubic ZM, the final step requires the addition of an organic additive, citric acid, where cuboidal zirconium citratomolybdate (ZMCA) is formed. Molecular modelling analysis revealed growth inhibition of the {2 0 0}, {-2 0 0}, {0 2 0} and {0 -2 0} faces, due to greater number of Zr sites for citratomolybdate complex affiliation. Distinct particle properties are established for CPM, ZM and ZMCA and compared to a common oxide particle material titanium dioxide (TiO2).
The results of this study highlight the influence of key aspects of the HAL particulates, such as size and shape, on relevant solid-liquid properties such as sedimentation and rheology. The influence of bulk liquid properties such as electrolyte concentration and pH were also investigated. Sedimentation behaviour was characterised by fitting the experimental data to the Richardson-Zaki model, yielding a fitting parameter n (cognate to particle size and shape) and thus demonstrated a settling relationship with particle shape, sphere > cubic > cuboidal.
The rheological behaviour explored was categorised into four groups: (i) flow behaviour data was fitted to a simplified Cross model yielding two parameters K (related to viscosity) and n (extent of shear-thinning); (ii) dependency of viscosity on particle volume fraction was characterised using the Krieger-Dougherty model yielding fitting parameter [µ] (particle's contribution to suspension viscosity) and maximum packing fraction m, this demonstrated the relationship, cuboidal > sphere > cube; (iii) yield stress was characterised using an empirical model derived by Heymann et al (2002) yielding a fitting parameter σ^* (cognate to particle shape and size) and demonstrating a relationship, sphere > cuboidal > cubic; (iv) characterisation of compressive yield stress demonstrated the relationship, cuboidal > cubic > sphere.
The results indicate various possible behaviours within the tanks which may impact the storage, remobilisation and pipeline transport of this class of nuclear waste. Ultimately, it is of importance to establish the effect of solid-liquid properties on the behaviour of HAL for current processing, post operational clean out (POCO) and life-time assessment.


We propose a new approach for combining acoustic and visual measurements to aid in recognizing lip shapes of a person speaking. Our method relies on computing the maximum likelihoods of (a) HMM used to model phonemes from the acoustic signal, and (b) HMM used to model visual features motions from video. One significant addition is the dynamic analysis with features selected by AdaBoost, on the basis of their discriminant ability. This form of integration, leading to boosted HMM, permits AdaBoost to find the best features first, and then uses HMM to exploit dynamic information inherent in the signal.


Author(s): Gadberry, Andrea Lauren | Advisor(s): Kahn, Victoria | Abstract: This dissertation studies the history of intimacy from late humanism through the Enlightenment by examining how the abstract concept of attachment becomes both a primary preoccupation and a crucial stumbling block in imagining subjectivity throughout the period. Examining a series of authors (Shakespeare, Descartes, Milton, and Rousseau) who ask what it would mean to be essentially without social ties, this project reveals the early modern period's ongoing conflict between a primary solitude associated with autonomy, isolation, and detachment and a primary sociality that assumes a natural order of attachments, bonds, and interdependence. This dissertation challenges the conventional story of the birth of "interiority" or "the invention of the human" with Shakespeare (or even Montaigne) by revealing a resistance to a conception of attachment that assumes inwardness; instead, it uncovers a more gradual historical shift in models of primary attachment from external to internal bonds, from attachments understood to occur outside the subject to those forged by an immanent or internal principle of relationship. Chapter one argues that Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and King Lear reveal a commitment to exteriority rather than the interiority so often attributed to Shakespeare as it attempts to conceal the fragility of social bonds and the ease with which they - and social life - can be destroyed. Chapter two examines Descartes' Meditations and locates in the defensive strategies of the meditator an attempt to evade the threats of attachment through a negotiation with poetics that leaves dependency precariously outside the self. Chapter three finds in Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained a turn to an immanent sociality in the figure of the Son; in Milton's monism, a principle of relation inheres in all matter, suggesting that even total isolation is attended by this principle of relation. Chapter four studies Rousseau's Emile and shows how the autonomy and even the solitude of the subject is secured by placing a relational principle around the subject's soul. Finally, a speculative coda turns to Kant to consider the legacy of solitude and autonomy in the Enlightenment's most famous moral philosopher.


Portfolio managers claim to be able to generate abnormal returns through either superior asset selection or market timing. The Treynor and Mazuy (TM) model is the mostly used return-based approach to isolate market timing skills, but all existing corrections of the regression intercept can be manipulated by a manager who can trade derivatives. We revisit the TM model by applying the original option replication approach proposed by Merton. We exploit both the linear and the quadratic coefficients of the TM regression to assess the replicating cost of the cheapest option portfolio with the same convexity. The application of the new correction on two samples of market timing funds delivers particularly encouraging empirical results. The portfolio replication approach reveals that the performance of market timing funds increases with their convexity level, and the effect is larger and significant for positive market timers. All other classical corrections of the TM model underestimate the necessary adjustment for the fund's convexity, leaving positive timers with negative performance and vice-versa. This bias explains the converging conclusion of most studies based on the TM model that market timers do not outperform the market. Furthermore, inadequate correction methods weaken the link between the magnitude of market timing and the associated performance. Such results suggest that a correction of alpha based on an arbitrage argument clarifies the role of market timing in the generation of performance.


Abstract In April 2011 a group of young male Australian Defence Force Academy Cadets conspired to prey upon an unsuspecting female colleague. Their plan was to broadcast one of their mates having consensual sex with an unsuspecting female cadet colleague for their viewing pleasure and fratriarchal bonding. The incident generated a strong and heated public debate about military culture and the ways soldiers behave. But it also marked a long end enduring history of such scandals that have developed into a reputation for the Australian Defence Forces (ADF) as obdurate and resistant to reform. Indeed, the ADF has consistently neutralised their responsibility for such practices by naming bad behaviour as merely the practices of a few bad apples. This paper unpacks the technologies of camouflage that the ADF and its military subjects' use to justify the role and place of militarism in contemporary Australian cultural relations. The paper focuses on the ideal of brotherhood and the way in which the Skype men, and the ADF as an institution, engage in forms of homosociality to naturalise the inherently violent disposition of the military. The practices and forms of fratriarchal bonding are implicated in the desire to generate and sustain a totalising masculinist economy that seeks wholeness and certainty at the expense of difference and otherness. These concerns are explored through the investigation of the sexual predation of six cadets and the manner in which the ADF accounts for its cultural practices.


In a research context, the very nature of how one defines technology and technology integration into an early childhood (EC) classroom takes on different meanings that can complicate the national discussion. In an early childhood education (ECE) context, there are multiple concerns about technology integration that go beyond access and classroom management of student use. McMannis, Nemeth, and Simon (2013) point out that lack of research on technology integration in EC classrooms could be contributing to common misconceptions in the discussions about affordances and translation of theory into practice.In order to keep with the changing educational landscape of preparing pre-service teachers (PSTs) to effectively integrate technology into classrooms, institutions of higher education have previously required standalone educational technology courses. However, due to changing accreditation requirements or programmatic restructuring, there is migration toward the elimination of the standalone course in favor of technology integration into methods and content courses.Technology integration in an EC classroom is critical to prepare and provide students with the evolving 21st-century skills that are recommended and essential for operational success in a technology-reliant society.  While technology standards for both students and teachers (ISTE Standards, 2008) have been identified, standards for teacher educators who model initial knowledge and application necessary for PSTs to carry out those standards are still in development. Without national standards and with many teacher education programs no longer providing a specific course on technology integration to instruct PSTs on how to navigate working, learning, and teaching in an increasingly connected digital society, the questions then become --- What do PSTs know and believe about ECE technology integration? How well are instructors effectively modeling the knowledge PSTs need? And, if there is no room in programs for a standalone technology integration course, what messages about technology integration are PSTs receiving and how is instructionally appropriate technology integration being modeled by faculty instruction?


This book is based on an experiment carried out by the author with the aim of analyze and explore trends and experiences on MOOC development. Despite the intention of the author is to initiate a discussion in which massive open online courses were neither a panacea to the crisis in education nor the terrifying threat condemned by doomsayers, his point of view is generally optimistic. The author experiment started to complete the same number of courses one would take to obtain a four-year liberal arts degree in just twelve months using only MOOCs and other forms of free learning.


Existing autonomous robot navigation systems allow robots to move from one point to another in a collision-free manner. However, when facing new environments, these systems generally require re-tuning by expert roboticists with a good understanding of the inner workings of the navigation system. In contrast, even users who are unversed in the details of robot navigation algorithms can generate desirable navigation behavior in new environments via teleoperation. In this letter, we introduce appld, Adaptive Planner Parameter Learning from Demonstration, that allows existing navigation systems to be successfully applied to new complex environments, given only a human-teleoperated demonstration of desirable navigation. appld is verified on two robots running different navigation systems in different environments. Experimental results show that appld can outperform navigation systems with the default and expert-tuned parameters, and even the human demonstrator themselves.


Entrepreneurship is a way for people for selecting that in what way they want to pursue their life, it's either to start their own business or going for other ways of earning. Entrepreneurial education has gone through different phases during past two decades. The significance of entrepreneurial education is now becoming a vital part of different countries as it is playing an important role in accelerating countries economic growth. Entrepreneurship is now a well-known subject especially among the students, who are willing to start up their career with launching the business of their own choice. Studies say that entrepreneurial studies through different techniques and courses have good impacts on student's intentions and their perceived planned behavior to become entrepreneurs. The variable opportunity identification perception has an effect on the intention of a person to recognize an area obtainable for introducing the business of her/his own choice. This research initiated to learn and understand the impact of entrepreneurial education on student's entrepreneurial intentions and to understand this, some variables are selected through which relationship among the students and their entrepreneurial career are explained. The research focused on fundamental question as to why an individual prefer to be an entrepreneur and what factors motivates his intentions was considered an important question in the research? Entrepreneurship courses are now a part of university's course schema and many researchers have focused this topic conducted, this research aims to identify the importance and relevance of entrepreneurial studies of Pakistani institutions and their effects on the entrepreneurial intentions of the students. The scale method has been to develop an instrument based on Likert Scale method; the reliability has been checked and found up to the mark. Four leading universities of Pakistan has been taken as a sample, the sample size was of 400 students. The survey covers the questions based on student's perception, intentions, behavioral control and other important factors, responsible for making an entrepreneur of future. The statistical techniques used to study the variables were ANOVA, MLR and Correlation and the results suggested that the entrepreneurial education has a positive effect on students entrepreneurial intentions and the universities and other Business Schools must offer such kind of Entrepreneurial education courses for motivating the students for bringing new ideas of earning in the society as entrepreneurship education emphasis increasing antecedents of intentions and planned behavior.


Background: In recent publications, several mechanisms have been implicated in gentamicin (GM) nephrotoxicity. Reactive oxygen species have been proposed as one of the causative factors of the drug renal side effects. This study was designed to evaluate the protective effects of the antioxidant vitamins against GM-mediated nephropathy in insitu isolated rat kidneys.
Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to one of the following groups of seven rats: Group 1 (control) was tyrode perfused kidneys. Group 2 (GM), 200µg/ml gentamicin was added to the perfusate. Group 3 (GM + Vit C), the same as group 2 but vitamin C (200 mg/L) was added to the drinking water for 3 days and 100 mg/L to the perfusate. Group 4 (GM + Vit E), the same as group 2 but vitamin E (100 mg/100 g BW, ip) was injected 12 h before experiments. Group 5 (GM + Vit C + Vit E) the same as group 2 but Vit E and C were co-administered (same as Group 3 & 4). Urinary N-acetyle-B-D-glucosaminidas (NAG) and renal cortex superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels were measured and tissue histological evaluations were performed.
Results: Gentamicin caused a significant nephrotoxicity demonstrated by increase in urinary NAG. Decline in SOD contents were observed comparing to controls. Vit C or Vit E inhibited the gentamicin-induced increased releases of NAG into urine but did not show a significant effect on the SOD levels.
Conclusion: Co-administration of VitC&E significantly prevented the GM nephrotoxicity demonstrating by preservation of SOD levels and prevention of increase in urinary enzyme activities. Histological studies of renal tissues provided additional evidences for protective effects of antioxidant vitamins. We concluded that moderate doses of Vit C & E have protective effects in gentamicin nephrotoxicity and co-administration of these vitamins have additional beneficial effects.


Recombination is one of the essential genetic processes for sexually reproducing organisms, which can happen more frequently in some regions, called recombination hotspots. Although several factors, such as PRDM9 binding motifs, are known to be related to the hotspots, their contributions to the recombination hotspots have not been quantified, and other determinants are yet to be elucidated. Here, we develop a computational method, RHSNet, based on deep learning and signal processing, to identify and quantify the hotspot determinants in a purely data-driven manner, utilizing datasets from various studies, populations, sexes, and species. In addition to being able to identify hotspot regions and the well-known determinants accurately, RHSNet is sensitive to the difference between different PRDM9 alleles and different sexes, and can generalize to PRDM9-lacking species. The cross-sex, cross-population, and cross-species studies suggest that the proposed method has the potential to identify and quantify the evolutionary determinant motifs. Teaser RHSNet can accurately identify and quantify recombination hotspot determinants across different studies, sexes, populations, and species.


Objective To study vestibular function in deaf children. Material and Methods In 36 deaf children the function of the semicircular canals, saccules and utricles was measured by means of caloric testing, recordings of vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs) and measurements of the subjective visual horizontal (SVH) at different body tilts, respectively. Results In total, 30% of subjects had caloric hypo- or areflexia and 24% had a caloric asymmetry. VEMPs were weak or absent bilaterally in 22% of cases, and asymmetric in 19%. Regarding the utricle, 17% of subjects had a pathologically reduced perception of roll tilt to both sides and 25% had an asymmetry. In total, 30% of subjects were pathologic in all 3 tests and 30% were completely normal. Semicircular canal function correlated best with the function of the saccule. If hearing was better than 90 dB (pure-tone average of 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 kHz) vestibular function was often normal. For hearing levels of 100–120 dB, otolith function declined significantly. Conclusions Vestibular function tends to be preserved up to a point where hearing is nearly extinct. Hearing level correlates more closely with otolith function, especially that of the utricle, than with semicircular canal function.


Scattering data taken at 0.6328, 3.39, and 10.6 μm are compared with theoretical calculations based on vector and scalar theories of scattering. Methods are described for obtaining the rms surface height using various degrees of dependence on the models of scattering.


The perceived problematics that envelop foundational status of epistemic justification informed some non foundationalists to suggest coherentism and reliabilism as necessary alternatives to foundationalism. This work observes that such suggestion is based on our idea of what knowledge is and not on what knowledge does. And so, the structure of epistemic justification should not be based on propositional structure as widely proposed, but on moral ground. If our knowledge is justified based on the moral value of its content to the benefit of all the component units of our world, then we do not need any alternative to foundationalism, but to moralized foundationalism. It is in this connection that this work supports moral foundationalism as the epistemic basis for justification.


Investigations were made to study the changes in the leaf nutrient status, total chlorophyll content and photosynthetic efficiency of banana (Musa sp.) due to Meloidogyne incognita alone and in association with Pasteuria penetrans. Significant reduction of M. incognita infestation, in terms of gall index, number of egg masses and nematode population in soil, was recorded when more P. penetrans spores were added to the soil in which the plants were growing. The infestation of M. incognita decreased the nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium levels in the leaves of banana and increased the calcium level. The total chlorophyll content and photosynthetic efficiency were reduced by up to 7.2 and 13 percent, respectively, in banana inoculated with M. incognita alone. Application of P. penetrans induced changes in the opposite direction and the reactions were more pronounced when greater quantities of P. penetrans were applied.


Background: Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common intraocular tumor in adults. Ferroptosis is a newly recognized process of cell death, which is different from other forms of cell death in terms of morphology, biochemistry and genetics, and has played a vital role in cancer biology. The present research aimed to construct a gene signature from ferroptosis-related genes that have the prognostic capacity of UM. Methods: UM patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were taken as the training cohort, and GSE22138 from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) was treated as the validation cohort. A total of 103 ferroptosis-related genes were retrieved from the GeneCards. We performed Kaplan–Meier and univariate Cox analysis for preliminary screening of ferroptosis-related genes with potential prognostic capacity in the training cohort. These genes were then applied into an overall survival-based LASSO Cox regression model, constructing a gene signature. The discovered gene signature was then evaluated via Kaplan–Meier (KM), Cox, and ROC analyses in both cohorts. The Pearson correlation coefficient examined the correlations between risk score and UM common mutations and autophagy. The analyses of GSEA and immune infiltrating were performed to better study the functional annotation of the gene signature and the character of each kind of immune cell in the tumor microenvironment. Results: A seven-gene signature was found from the training cohort and validated in all cohorts by Kaplan–Meier and Cox regression analyses, revealing its independent prognosis value in UM. Moreover, ROC analysis was conducted, confirming the strong predictive ability that this signature had for UM prognosis. A total of 52.24% (256/490) autophagy-related genes were significantly correlated with risk scores. Analyses of GSEA and immune infiltrating detailed exhibited specific pathways associated with the seven-gene signature, also confirming the crucial role that Mast cells resting played in the prognosis of the seven-gene signature. Conclusions: In this study, a novel ferroptosis-related seven-gene signature (ALOX12, CD44, MAP1LC3C, STEAP3, HMOX1, ITGA6, and AIFM2/FSP1) was built. It could accurately predict UM prognosis and was related to Mast cells resting, which provides the potential for personalized outcome prediction and the development of new therapies in the UM population.


Many traditional, international diversification approaches do not address the influence of economic integration and corresponding market correlations across countries. The authors develop a trade-adjusted weighting methodology that reduces the effect of economic integration on portfolio performance. Results demonstrate that the trade-adjusted portfolio outperforms a GDP-weighted portfolio in terms of risk-adjusted returns. Likewise, the trade-adjusted portfolio's performance exceeds that of an equally weighted portfolio in most risk-adjusted measures. These results provide a strong argument for investment managers to use trade-adjusted weightings in forming portfolios and developing financial products.


The gut microbiota plays a critical role in chronic kidney disease (CKD) and hypertension. Trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) and trimethylamine (TMA) are gut microbiota-derived metabolites, and both are known uraemic toxins that are implicated in CKD, atherosclerosis, colorectal cancer and cardiovascular risk. Therefore, the detection and quantification of TMAO, which is a metabolite from gut microbes, are important for the diagnosis of diseases such as atherosclerosis, thrombosis and colorectal cancer. In this study, a new "colour-switch" method that is based on the combination of a plasma separation pad/absorption pad and polyallylamine hydrochloride-capped manganese dioxide (PAH@MnO2) nanozyme was developed for the direct quantitative detection of TMAO in whole blood without blood sample pretreatment. As a proof of concept, a limit of quantitation (LOQ) of less than 6.7 μM for TMAO was obtained with a wide linear quantification range from 15.6 to 500 μM through quantitative analysis, thereby suggesting potential clinical applications in blood TMAO monitoring for CKD patients.


sults. Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the results of a knee rehabilitation program after knee surgery, based on an isokinetic pulley System (Moflex®, Recotec/Bernina, Switzerland). Method: In this prospective study, 73 patients participated in a standardized rehabilitation program (ACL reconstruction, ACL/all: n =;51; patellar tendon, ACL/P: n = 30; semitendinosus tendon, ACL/S: n = 21; arthroscopic meniscus resection: n = 22). The major aspect of the program was an isokinetic pulley system with an implemented, linearly working knee device. Results: Isokinetic training with the used device affords strict monitor feed-back to avoid critical torque values. Concentric training strength and workload which were attained without relevant pain were increased by about 130% within a mean of 16 rehabilitation days. At the end of the rehabilitation program, the maximum concentric strength of the affected knee measured by a rotating isokinetic system (Cybex®, Kaphingst, Lahntal) increased by about 69% and amounted to about 90% of that of the unaffected knee. Conclusion: These first results demonstrate the value of the isokinetic pulley system in the rehabilitation after knee surgery as described above. The equipment may be used already in an early postoperative stage by the use of a passive or active-assistive mode. First results of strength increases using an isokinetic pulley system in knee reabilitation are presented.


This paper presents StopWatch , a system that defends against timing-based side-channel attacks that arise from coresidency of victims and attackers in infrastructure-as-a-service clouds. StopWatch triplicates each cloud-resident guest virtual machine (VM) and places replicas so that the three replicas of a guest VM are coresident with nonoverlapping sets of (replicas of) other VMs. StopWatch uses the timing of I/O events at a VM's replicas collectively to determine the timings observed by each one or by an external observer, so that observable timing behaviors are similarly likely in the absence of any other individual, coresident VM. We detail the design and implementation of StopWatch in Xen, evaluate the factors that influence its performance, and address the problem of placing VM replicas in a cloud under the constraints of StopWatch so as to still enable adequate cloud utilization.


The Tlokwe Local Municipality (Potchefstroom) (secondary node) is located on the N12 corridor between Johannesburg as (primary node) through Kimberley (secondary node) to Cape Town (primary). This location reality implies that some 65% of the inter traffic consists of heavy motor vehicles transporting freight that is passing through the Central Business District (CBD) of Potchefstroom based on origin and destination movement patterns between the high order nodes within the national spatial system. These traffic movement patterns result in traffic congestion that impacts negatively on the intra-traffic flows within the CBD of Potchefstroom and its spatial land use development, consolidation, growth, urban renewal, internal movement patterns and local accessibility. The research includes a literature overview of land use and transportation integration; study of inter-traffic movement patterns (regional) and traffic volumes for intra-traffic movements in terms of modal split; detailed land use and parking surveys within the study area. Inclusive in the research methodology is a quantitative research approach supported by a qualitative research survey as to identify local experience, patterns and perceptions related to the research problem. This elementary modeling and simulation output is supported in the demarcation of the CBD boundary based on land use and transportation integration considerations and related tendencies within the study area. The devised elementary technique will be used to project the future land use patterns.


The transfer of the plasma current from thermal to relativistic electrons is a threat to ITER achieving its mission. This danger is significantly greater in the nuclear than in the non-nuclear phase of ITER operations. Two issues are pivotal. The first is the extent and duration of magnetic surface breaking in conjunction with the thermal quenches. The second is the exponential sensitivity of the current transfer to three quantities: (1) the poloidal flux change required to e-fold the number of relativistic electrons, (2) the time τa after the beginning of the thermal quench before the accelerating electric field exceeds the Connor-Hastie field for runaway, and (3) the duration of the period τop in which magnetic surfaces remain open. Adequate knowledge does not exist to devise a reliable strategy for the protection of ITER. Uncertainties are sufficiently large that a transfer of neither a negligible nor the full plasma current to relativistic electrons can be ruled out during the non-nuclear phase of ITER. Tritium decay can provide a sufficiently strong seed for a dangerous relativistic-electron current even if τa and τop are sufficiently long to avoid relativistic electrons during non-nuclear operations. The breakup of magnetic surfaces that is associated with thermal quenches occurs on a time scale associated with fast magnetic reconnection, which means reconnection at an Alfvénic rather than a resistive rate. Alfvénic reconnection is well beyond the capabilities of existing computational tools for tokamaks, but its effects can be studied using its property of conserving magnetic helicity. Although the dangers to ITER from relativistic electrons have been known for twenty years, the critical issues have not been defined with sufficient precision to formulate an effective research program. Studies are particularly needed on plasma behavior in existing tokamaks during thermal quenches, behavior which could be clarified using methods developed here.


Multiple-access interference (MAI) in a code-division multiple-access (CDMA) system plays an important role in performance analysis and characterization of fundamental system limits. We study the behavior of the output MAI of the minimum mean-square error (MMSE) receiver employed in the uplink of a direct-sequence (DS)-CDMA system. We focus on imperfect power-controlled systems with random spreading, and establish that in a synchronous system (1) the output MAI of the MMSE receiver is asymptotically Gaussian, and (2) for almost every realization of the signatures and received powers, the conditional distribution of the output MAI converges weakly to the same Gaussian distribution as in the unconditional case. We also extend our study to asynchronous systems and establish the Gaussian nature of the output interference. These results indicate that in a large system the output interference is approximately Gaussian, and the performance of the MMSE receiver is robust to the randomness of the signatures and received powers. The Gaussianity justifies the use of single-user Gaussian codes for CDMA systems with linear MMSE receivers, and implies that from the viewpoints of detection and channel capacity, signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) is the key parameter that governs the performance of the MMSE receiver in a CDMA system.


Highly ordered arrays of Fe antidot films were fabricated by thermal vapor deposition technique using nanoporous alumina templates. The film thickness varies from 20 up to 100 nm, and the antidots array has about 50 nm in diameter and 105 nm of periodic interspacing. Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy measurements confirmed that the Fe antidots film retains the well-ordered hexagonal structure of the nanoporous alumina template. Meanwhile, the micromagnetic structure was studied by magnetic force microscopy and SQUID measurements. A stripe magnetic domain pattern featuring a large out-of-plane magnetization component is found in the films. Noteworthily, the magnetic domains are not pinned by the nanopores but, on the contrary, several antidots are included in each magnetic domain. According to the magnetic measurements, the easy magnetization axis of the Fe antidot array remains in the film plane, while the hard one lies perpendicular to the plane, which can be explained on the basis of the different contributions of the nanoholes to the total magnetic anisotropy of the antidots film.


The emerging field of toxicoproteomics has been greatly advanced by quantitative proteomic technologies and their increasing applications in toxicology. The discipline is focused on the proteomic study of toxicity caused by toxic substances, including but not limited to drugs, toxins, environmental stressors, chemicals and any other materials that induce significant pathological responses. Drug safety is a major point of concern during the development phase and clinical application. Identification of toxicity biomarkers, potential drug targets and characterization of toxicity mechanisms represent major research areas for quantitative toxicoproteomics during drug development and evaluation. Further development and application of quantitative proteomic approaches would significantly facilitate the realization of personalized medicine.


© Katedra antropologických a historických v ěd FF ZČU v Plzni, Sedlá čkova 15, 301 25 Plze ň 59 Abstract: The article deals with the topic of family, marriage and kinship in "Roma/Gypsy" groups in Europe and North America and offers an overall overview of the scholarly literature on this topic. The basic themes, theoretical concepts and perspectives in anthropological and sociological literature on "Roma/Gypsy" kinship, marriage and family are discussed in the text. The distinction is made between the Czech and Slovak academic writings (with the focus on individual scholars and topics developed in their texts) and the foreign literature (here the overview is mostly confined to works and texts published in English). The aim of the text is to provide to students the basic facts and summary of the texts published in this field and the most important topics (domestic units, character of kinship, marriage alliances, endogamy, brideprice, etc.) that have been discussed in the last several decades. Special attention is paid to the modern approaches discussing kinship and family in their connection to the concepts of locality, identity, ethnicity and gender. Keyworlds: roma/gypsy groups, family, marriage, kinship


Provided is a method of identifying an unknown nucleic acid comprising the steps of combining the unknown polynucleic acid with known nucleic acid reagents in a reaction chamber; producing a first quantity of protons from a polymerisation reaction when bases of one or more of the unknown nucleic acids are complementary to the bases of one or more known nucleic acids comprised within the known reagents; producing a second quantity of protons from a hydrolysis reaction of by-products of the polymerisation reaction with one or more enzymes; monitoring an electrical output signal derived from an ISFET exposed to the reaction chamber; and correlating changes in an output signal with said reactions between the unknown polynucleic acid and said known reagents to thereby identify the unknown nucleic acid.


Unilateral or bilateral femoral nerve functional deficiency deficit occurs as a rare iatrogenic complication of gynaecological abdominal or vaginal surgery. Self-retaining abdominal retractors, that exert a constant pressure on the femoral nerve during the operation, are the most frequent cause. This situation occurs especially, if retractors of unsuitable size are used on very slender patients with thin abdominal walls. The favourable prognosis of the femoral nerve sensory and motor deficiencies can be complicated by damage to the knee joint resulting from leg muscle paresis. A personal observation and a literary review on sensomotor paresis after gynaecological abdominal surgery are discussed.


We investigate in-situ cleaning of GaSb surfaces and its effect on the electrical performance of p-type GaSb metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitor (MOSCAP) using a remote hydrogen plasma. Ultrathin HfO2 films grown by atomic layer deposition were used as a high permittivity gate dielectric. Compared to conventional ex-situ chemical cleaning methods, the in-situ GaSb surface treatment resulted in a drastic improvement in the impedance characteristics of the MOSCAPs, directly evidencing a much lower interface trap density and enhanced Fermi level movement efficiency. We demonstrate that by using a combination of ex-situ and in-situ surface cleaning steps, aggressively scaled HfO2/p-GaSb MOSCAP structures with a low equivalent oxide thickness of 0.8 nm and efficient gate modulation of the surface potential are achieved, allowing to push the Fermi level far away from the valence band edge high up into the band gap of GaSb.


As one of the leading architectural practices in the UK, Wilkinson Eyre Architects have designed buildings and bridges that have caught the imagination of people throughout the world. Their work shows an innovative approach to design which challenges new technology and materials while retaining an artist's perspective. This book looks at the philosophy and inspiration behind the work of this architectural practice. Rich in visual images, the book is complemented by perceptive essays written by Chris Wilkinson and James Eyre, which explore themes as diverse as identity, geometry, sustainability, lightness through form, and responsivity. Passionate about what their buildings look like and how they feel inside, the authors review in their entirety 27 projects that range from cultural, corporate and educational spaces to bridges and transport projects - a fascinating insight into the key issues that are driving the architecture of today.


Abstract The German Historical Institute in Rome (DHI Rome) is the only one among the Humanities Institutes of the Max Weber Foundation abroad to have its own music department, the importance of which in the German-speaking world is demonstrated by the close and structurally anchored connection with the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung (German Musicological Society), among other things, which has been in place since the beginning. The 60th anniversary of the Music History Department at the DHI Rome (after the focus on the historical reappraisal of its founding history on the occasion of its 50th anniversary) now provides an opportunity to focus on the question of the methodological conditions of the relationship between historically active musicology and historical studies. In the end, the question will not only be what opportunities lie today in the connection of the two disciplines, but also why this should continue to be done within the framework of research humanities institutes abroad.