This paper, presented at the Conference Plenary, is devoted to the problem of formation of values and value orientations of a personality in mountain regions. The author asserts that value orientation in mountain regions is a complex formation, which includes different levels and forms of interaction of public and individual personality. The article also regards and analyzes the hierarchy of values. It is mentioned that the personality value orientations in mountain regions don't only determine the motivation of individual behavior but also forms his world outlook. The special attention is also devoted to the pseudo-values. The author points out that they do not contribute to human self-realization. The article also analyzes the reasons of forming of the value orientation in mountain regions and gives the classification of people in accordance with the commitment to certain values. The author touches the problem of cultural values of modern youth, the influence of electronic mass media and comes to the conclusion that classical culture begins to lose value and attractiveness. In conclusion the author says that the valued orientations in mountain regions occupy the central place in the psychical adjusting of man's behavior. That is why considerable attention is spared to the study of valued-semantic sphere of personality on the modern stage of development of pedagogical science.


In this study of low-cycle fatigue, the following steels were evaluated: (1) two reference steels used in pressure vessel construction, A 543, Grade B (200 mm thickness) and St 52-3 (50 mm thickness); these steels were also studied after heat treatments simulating heat-affected zones of weldments with heat inputs ranging from 10 to 150 kJ/cm; (2) one structural steel, St E47 (50 mm thickness), after either normalization or quench-tempering treatment in order to compare two characteristic values of the yield strength/ultimate tensile strength ratio; and (3) fifteen experimental steels (28 mm thickness) in a thermal condition simulating the water quenching at the core of a plate 200 mm thick, this quenching being followed by a tempering. Smooth and notched specimens were fatigue tested at 20 and 350°C under completely reversed tension-compression. The imposed diametral strain range was controlled to a constant value throughout each test. Results were compared with ASME design curves and showed sufficient performances in all cases, so that the choice of the steel may be based upon another use property or economical argument. Nevertheless, differences between steel fatigue properties were studied by statistical methods as a function either of the tensile properties or of the chemical composition in the case of quenched and tempered steels. Concerning these last correlations, the influence of chromium at 350°C was particularly noted.


Purpose

This paper aims to analyse the similarities and differences in the methodologies adopted by corporate social responsibility (CSR) rating agencies.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors gather secondary and primary evidences of practices from selected agencies on the methodologies and criteria they rely upon to assess a firm's CSR performance.

Findings

The authors find not only evidence of similarities in the methodologies adopted by the CSR rating agencies (e.g. the use of environment, social and governance themes, exclusion criteria, adoption of positive criteria, client/"customised" input, quantification) but also several elements of differences, namely, in terms of the thresholds for exclusion, transparent vs confidential approach, industry-specific ratings and weights for each dimension. Drawing from Sandberg et al.'s (2009) conceptualisations, the authors tentatively argue that this mixed picture may reflect competing organisational pressures to adopt a differentiation approach at the strategic and practical levels whilst recognising, and incorporating, the "globalising" tendencies of the CSR business at the terminological levels.

Social implications

Although these data are based on a relatively small number of agencies, the findings and analysis convey some implications for users of CSR ratings and policymakers, particularly in light of the recent Paris 2016 Agreement on Climate Change and the increased emphasis on the monitoring of social, environmental and governance performance.

Originality/value

The authors contribute to the literature by highlighting how key intermediate rating organisations operationalise notions of CSR.


Objectives: The proposed security model is specifically designed to increase the level of the security by implementing the node integrity verification and data encryption service over the wireless ad-hoc networks. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The proposed security and authentication model has been defined using the 8 bytes to 16 bytes length based variable key length authentication scheme, which is difficult to predict and cryptanalysis attacks, as there is no uniform mechanism to perform the cryptanalysis attack over the authentication data during the exchange or propagation in the wireless ad-hoc networks. Findings: In this paper, we have proposed the public cryptosystem based encryption for light and secure authentication scheme, which utilizes the RSA encryption as the public cryptosystems. The proposed security and authentication model has been deeply analyzed to protect against the variety of attacks using the primary parameter of authentication delay and data loss. This model has been analyzed over the three primary attacks for the resource jamming, which includes the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), selective jamming, and black hole attacks for the data dropping and jamming attacks. The proposed authentication and security model for wireless ad-hoc routing has been analyzed for its performance on the basis of the specific performance parameters. The robust and flexible performance of security and authentication based proposed model has been deeply observed from the versatile results obtained from the all paradigms of the simulation. Application/Improvements: The light weight and robust authentication based security mechanism has been proposed for the higher order suitability to serve the specific purpose of security against the attacks over the wireless networks.


The advantages of wavelets when used in neural networks and fuzzy are well known. The new notion is to combine wavelet networks and neuro-fuzzy models. In this paper two models namely summation wavelet neural network (SWNN) and multiplication wavelet neural network (MWNN) are proposed. These two generalized wavelet neural network (WNN) models are used in neuro-fuzzy model are tested by using time series prediction


Organizing for big data and open data, in our highly digitized world, is a necessity. Extant literature focuses on open collaboration in the context of business ecosystems and science. However, little attention has been paid to the kind of governance open data specifically requires, in a context of big data. We conduct a case study of the structuration of the oceanography ecosystem's governance. Oceanography is an exemplar case of open and big data with an advanced governance of the ecosystem initiated more than 30 years ago. Our paper reveals a paradox, namely that efficient open data needs highly structured coalitional governance. This governance involves three coordination mechanisms: data foundation (by actors that produce the data), global piloting (of public and private actors' interests), and implementation (of open data platforms with their extension markets).


This investigation is part of the project Effect models for road traffic installations (EMV) which is financed by the Swedish Road Administration. The aim has been to explain and predict, with models and empirically, the risk levels of groups of road users on street links. Risk levels refer to being injured or killed in a traffic accident. The data obtained by local authorities in the traffic network analyses performed according to the procedure described in the planning handbook "Lugna gatan" have been used as the basis. Among other things, the results highlight the strong relationship that exists between death rate and injury rate and the speeds of motor vehicles. The empirical results are in good agreement with the relationship between the probability of fatal injury and collision speed according to the probability of pedestrian injury - impact speed curve. The results of the investigation are interesting and capable of development, and there are therefore strong reasons to do further work on a more refined model that explains and predicts the risk levels in the street system in urban areas in a more flexible manner (A). This document is also available at http://www.vti.se/EPiBrowser/Publikationer/R524.pdf.


Thoracic compliance measurements by use of readily available equipment were determined to be practical and safe in dogs. Twenty healthy dogs (age 1 to 16 years, weight 2.3 to 49.5 kg) were anesthesized for routine procedures such as dentistry or neutering. The animals were first hyperventilated to reduce pulmonary atelectasis, to check for leakage at the endotracheal tube cuff, and to induce mild hypocarbia, thus minimizing voluntary respiratory efforts. Total thoracic compliance measurements were calculated as the difference between exhaled volumes at static inspiratory pressures of 15 and 20 cm of H2O, divided by the pressure difference, and expressed as a function of body weight. The procedure was easy, took 5 to 10 minutes, and caused no recognizable ill effects in any of the dogs studied. Mean total thoracic compliance was 42.25 +/- 32 ml/cm of H2O. There was a significant correlation with weight, but no significant relationship was seen between compliance and age, or gender. The mean weight-adjusted total thoracic compliance was 1.85 +/- 0.56 ml/cm of H2O/kg. In studies in a small group of dogs with documented respiratory tract disease, 4 of 7 had a mean compliance greater than 2 SD below the normal range. Thus, this test may become part of the routine workup of any animal being anesthetized for procedures such as bronchoscopy to evaluate respiratory tract disease. Routine monitoring of animals on ventilators could provide early warning of complications such as pneumonia, pleural effusion, or pulmonary edema.


Given the trend towards a user-centric concept in mobile communications, body area networks have received increasing attention within the wireless personal and body area networks community. In this paper, an experimental investigation is presented to derive suitable radio propagation models for ultra wideband (UWB) body-centric wireless communications. The performance of the body-centric UWB radio channel is investigated by considering several on-body links, including different body postures. System-level modeling of potential multiband orthogonal frequency-division multiplexed UWB system has been conducted and system performance is measured using bit error rate (BER) and signal-to-noise ratio. The conducted system analysis demonstrated that for 78% in the static case and 75% and 61% for stable and unstable transmitter locations in the pseudodynamic in-motion scenarios (respectively) of the specified on-body radio links, the BER is equal to or less than 0.1%. This demonstrates promising applications of the proposed UWB body-centric radio system. Based on these results, clear recommendations are given for best on-body locations leading to optimal system performance.


Obesity and being overweight are known contributors to ill health and are subject to growing concern from health professionals and policy makers. The prevalence of obese and overweight adults is higher in the learning disability population than in the general population for reasons that are unclear. Food choice is influenced by many social and environmental factors. Constructions of health may also affect food choice, influencing the extent to which individuals believe it is worth acting upon healthy eating messages.

This thesis examines the attitudes towards food of adults with learning disabilities and the meanings they attached to health, to healthy eating and to food. Using data gathered from interviews with 23 people with learning disabilities in the Greater Glasgow area, it demonstrates the multiple meanings ascribed to food and the many barriers to food choice people with a learning disability experience. The data found that participants held complex, often competing ideas about health. Many did not believe that it was something over which they could exert any meaningful control and this negatively impacted on their actions to improve their health.

Choice and control were found to be the two most important elements in construction of food choice. Although almost all participants had a good basic knowledge of healthy eating guidelines, decisions about food and food choice were often taken by support workers, parents, family members or other gatekeepers. This lack of choice and control over food was reflected in their opportunities in their wider lives and impacted on their attitudes towards their general health. Participants became disengaged from the processes associated with food and some believed that they were not capable of developing their skills or implementing their dietary knowledge. Further, health was viewed as being subject to luck or the intervention of others. Without a sense of self-efficacy in their wider lives, people with learning disabilities might struggle to make positive changes for their health.


A major challenge to the chiral $p$-wave hypothesis for the pairing symmetry of the unconventional superconductor Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ is the null result of sensitive scanning magnetometry experiments designed to detect the expected spontaneous charge currents. Motivated by junction tunneling conductance measurements which indicate the quenching of superconductivity at the surfaces of even high-purity samples, we examine the spontaneous currents in a chiral $p$-wave superconductor near a normal metal / superconductor interface using the lattice Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations and Ginzburg-Landau theory, and find that the edge current is suppressed by more than an order of magnitude compared to previous estimates. These calculations demonstrate that interface details can have a quantitatively meaningful effect on the expectations for magnetometry experiments.


Our group is developing a scanner that combines x-ray, single gamma, and optical imaging on the same rotating gantry. Two functional modalities (SPECT and optical) are included because they have different strengths and weaknesses in terms of spatial and temporal decay lengths in the context of in vivo imaging, and because of the recent advent of multiple reporter gene constructs. The effect of attenuation by biological tissue on the detected intensity of the emitted signal was measured for both gamma and optical imaging. Attenuation by biological tissue was quantified for both the bioluminescent emission of luciferace and for the emission light of the near infrared fluorophore cyanine 5.5, using a fixed excitation light intensity. Experiments were performed to test the feasibility of using either single gamma or x-ray imaging to make depth-dependent corrections to the measured optical signal. Our results suggest that significant improvements in quantitation of optical emission are possible using straightforward correction techniques based on information from other modalities. Development of an integrated scanner in which data from each modality are obtained with the animal in a common configuration will greatly simplify this process.


The rich data produced by the second phase of the Human Microbiome Project (iHMP) offers a unique opportunity to test hypotheses that interactions between microbial communities and a human host might impact an individual's health or disease status. In this work we describe infrastructure that integrates Metaviz, an interactive microbiome data analysis and visualization tool, with the iHMP Data Coordination Center web portal and the R/Bioconductor package. We describe HMP2Data integrative statistical and visual analyses of two datasets from iHMP using Metaviz along with the R/Bioconductor package for metagenomeSeq statistical analysis of differential abundance analysis. These use cases demonstrate the utility of a combined approach to access and analyze data from this resource.


Numerous scholars have noted the disproportionately high number of gay and lesbian workers in certain occupations, but systematic explanations for this type of occupational segregation remain elusive. Drawing on the literatures on concealable stigma and stigma management, we develop a theoretical frame-work predicting that gay men and lesbians will concentrate in occupations that provide a high degree of task independence or require a high level of social perceptiveness, or both. Using several distinct measures of sexual orientation, and controlling for potential confounds, such as education, urban location, and regional and demographic differences, we find support for these predictions across two nationally representative surveys in the United States for the period 2008-2010. Gay men are more likely to be in female-majority occupations than are heterosexual men, and lesbians are more represented in male-majority occupations than are heterosexual women, but even after accounting for this tendency, common to both gay men and lesbians is a propensity to concentrate in occupations that provide task independence or require social perceptiveness, or both. This study offers a theory of occupational segregation on the basis of minority sexual orientation and holds implications for the literatures on stigma, occupations, and labor markets.


Aims Since 2008, in England, all unexpected infant deaths must be investigated jointly by police, health and social services aiming to establish the full cause and relevant contributory factors for the death. This study aims to learn of bereaved parents' experiences of this joint agency approach (JAA) and their understanding of the cause and contributory factors for their infant's death. Methods Bereaved parents, whose unexpected infants' deaths were investigated by a JAA were eligible to participate in the study. Case records from all agencies were analysed, JAA professionals were interviewed and parents were invited to complete questionnaires or have in-depth interviews. Qualitative data were analysed using a Framework Approach. Results There were 101 eligible families of whom 23 were recruited, 16 families had in-depth interviews, 5 completed questionnaires and 2 allowed case note access only. 27 Professionals were interviewed. The median time between infants' deaths and interview or questionnaire completion was 33 weeks; all interviews took place between 2011–3. 7 cases had a medical cause for death, 16 cases were classified as SIDS or unascertained. The JAA determined modifiable contributory factors in 15/16 SIDS or unascertained deaths but in only 1 medically explained death. Learning the cause for the death was very important to most families. While most parents understood medical causes for the death; the concept of SIDS or unascertained deaths was more difficult. Despite this, several parents did have a good understanding of the relevant modifiable contributory factors for their infant's death even when these related to parental actions such as co-sleeping. However, often parents seemed to either not understand the role of these actions or failed to disclose them. Some parents blamed themselves for the death, blamed health care professionals or felt blamed by professionals. Self–blame was not related to cause of death or parental understanding of contributory factors but associated with parental anxiety and depression. Conclusion After SIDS or unascertained deaths, parents do not always understand the cause of death and relevant contributory factors. When parents understand these issues, professionals can be reassured that this does not result in parents blaming themselves.


: Periventricular white matter hemorrhages were diagnosed by ultrasound in 9/376 (2.4%) of premature infants. The most frequent site of such a hemorrhagic event is the area immediately posterolateral to the trigone of the lateral ventricle. These bleedings probably represent hemorrhagic infarcts into areas of periventricular leukomalacia. Porencephalic cysts developed at 12/14 hemorrhagic sites. In 2 infants follow-up studies showed progressive brain necrosis exceeding the area of initial hemorrhage.


Background DNA chips allow simultaneous measurements of genome-wide response of thousands of genes, i.e. system level monitoring of the gene-network activity. Advanced analysis methods have been developed to extract meaningful information from the vast amount of raw gene-expression data obtained from the microarray measurements. These methods usually aimed to distinguish between groups of subjects (e.g., cancer patients vs. healthy subjects) or identifying marker genes that help to distinguish between those groups. We assumed that motifs related to the internal structure of operons and gene-networks regulation are also embedded in microarray and can be deciphered by using proper analysis. Methodology/Principal Findings The analysis presented here is based on investigating the gene-gene correlations. We analyze a database of gene expression of Bacillus subtilis exposed to sub-lethal levels of 37 different antibiotics. Using unsupervised analysis (dendrogram) of the matrix of normalized gene-gene correlations, we identified the operons as they form distinct clusters of genes in the sorted correlation matrix. Applying dimension-reduction algorithm (Principal Component Analysis, PCA) to the matrices of normalized correlations reveals functional motifs. The genes are placed in a reduced 3-dimensional space of the three leading PCA eigen-vectors according to their corresponding eigen-values. We found that the organization of the genes in the reduced PCA space recovers motifs of the operon internal structure, such as the order of the genes along the genome, gene separation by non-coding segments, and translational start and end regions. In addition to the intra-operon structure, it is also possible to predict inter-operon relationships, operons sharing functional regulation factors, and more. In particular, we demonstrate the above in the context of the competence and sporulation pathways. Conclusions/Significance We demonstrated that by analyzing gene-gene correlation from gene-expression data it is possible to identify operons and to predict unknown internal structure of operons and gene-networks regulation.


We compared the performance of 9 cm diameter green spheres and red spheres and Pherocon AM traps, all baited with the same mixture of ammonium acetate and protein hydrolysate, in attracting blueberry maggot flies, Rhagoletis mendax Curran, of different reproductive maturity stages and sex. We also evaluated the effect of trap placement in relation to bush canopy (within the top 15 cm of the canopy, or near the base of the bush, 25 cm above ground, within a row) on attraction to these classes of flies. Results of this study showed that captures of flies on red or green spheres were better than on Pherocon AM traps, irrespective of maturity status or sex. Captures of flies were similar among traps placed in the top or the base of the bush, in the case of small bushes (1.2 m high). Traps placed within the top of the canopy captured more flies than those at the base, in the case of larger bushes (1.5-2.0 m high). At both positions, capture patterns were also not dependent on reproductive maturity or sex. Regression analysis between capture ratio of mature females on Pherocon AM/Spheres and time revealed a significant inverse relationship, which might have been caused by differential aging of these traps. These data show that sphere traps capture more immature flies than Pherocon AM traps, and therefore can be deployed early in the season, when most flies present are immature females. The combination of more effective sphere traps and correct placement strategy depending on bush characteristics can further optimize blueberry maggot monitoring programs.


Author(s): Cavanaugh, Daniel | Advisor(s): Basbaum, Allan I | Abstract: Noxious stimuli are detected by primary afferent neurons of the dorsal root ganglia (DRG). Such neurons, known as nociceptors, can be divided into several distinct populations based on the heterogeneous distribution of receptors, ion channels, and neurotransmitters, however, functional correlates of these anatomical differences are yet unidentified. The work in this thesis further examines the neurochemical and functional segregation of nociceptor subtypes through a genetic and pharmacological investigation of neurons that express the heat and capsaicin receptor, TRPV1.TRPV1 is activated by noxious heat stimuli (g43 oC), and is robustly expressed by primary afferent nociceptors. In addition, some have argued that TRPV1 is widely distributed in cells outside of the DRG, although there is considerable disagreement as to the extent and localization of this expression. To address this question, we generated a line of mice in which TRPV1+ cells co-express two reporter genes: placental alkaline phosphatase and nuclear lacZ. These enzymes allow for the sensitive and accurate identification of TRPV1+ cells and processes. Using this approach, we observed that, in contrast to numerous previous reports, TRPV1 expression in the nervous system is largely limited to peptidergic, primary afferent neurons. We additionally found evidence for TRPV1 in arteriolar smooth muscle cells, highlighting an important substrate for the actions of heat, protons, and other TRPV1 agonists on vascular tone.We then investigated the relative contribution of TRPV1+ and TRPV1- nociceptors to the behavioral responses to stimuli of different pain modalities. Surprisingly, despite the fact that most nociceptors show polymodal response properties in electrophysiological assays, we found that pharmacological ablation of the central branches of TRPV1+ nociceptors selectively abolished heat pain sensitivity without altering behavioral responses to mechanical or cold stimuli. Conversely, we found that genetic ablation of nociceptors expressing the G protein-coupled receptor, MrgprD, which marks a large subset of TRPV1- DRG neurons, selectively reduced behavioral sensitivity to noxious mechanical stimuli. This double-dissociation suggests that the brain can distinguish different noxious stimulus modalities from the earliest stages of sensory processing as a result of distinct contributions from molecularly-defined nociceptor subtypes.


Vertebrate frugivores play an important role in forests by dispersing seeds and helping improve germination through gut passage. Some frugivores may also be seed predators, where the seed is destroyed through gut passage. On the island of Saipan, the native frugivores are birds, bats, and crabs. This experiment focused on purple hermit crabs, Coenobita brevimanus, which are known to consume fruits, but it is unknown whether purple hermit crabs disperse or predate the seeds they consume. A maximum of ten purple hermit crabs, ranging in size from medium to large individuals, were captured from the forest and kept in captivity. In captivity, they were fed native fruits including Premna (Premna mariannarum or Premna paulobarbata), Ficus (Ficus prolixa), Aglaia (Lansium parasiticum), and Guamia (Guamia mariannae) and non-native fruits including papaya (Carica papaya) collected in the wild. The cage was inspected to see if fruits were consumed but the seeds were not ingested, and the fecal matter was searched for damaged seeds (crushed or in pieces) or undamaged seeds (whole or intact). Analysis of predation or dispersal was done using logistic regression. It was hypothesized that purple hermit crabs are beneficial seed dispersers, passing most seeds unharmed for both native and non-native fruiting tree species. As beneficial frugivores, purple hermit crabs could play a significant role in dispersing seeds in the forests of Saipan.


The aim of this study was to determine the effects of smoking on pyridinoline concentrations in crevicular fluid collected from around dental implants. Samples of crevicular fluid were collected from 4 sites around each implant and tooth, if present, for a group of 16 patients using methylcellulose strips. Samples were collected from 104 implants and 49 teeth. Eight of the 16 patients were current smokers. Crevicular fluid samples were eluted from methylcellulose strips using phosphate-buffered saline containing 0.1% bovine serum albumin and centrifugation. Pyridinoline was quantified using a competitive enzyme immunoassay. Results showed that there were statistically insignificant differences between the amounts of pyridinoline (mean ± standard deviation [SD]) around teeth of nonsmokers versus smokers (0.011 ± 0.003 and 0.014 ± 0.006 nmol/L, respectively). However, the mean (± SD) pyridinoline levels around the implants of nonsmokers (0.012 ± 0.018 nmol/L) were significantly (P <0.01) less than that of smokers (0.030 ± 0.006 nmol/L). These results demonstrate that pyridinoline levels are specifically elevated in the crevicular fluid associated with endosseous dental implants of smokers and suggest that smoking may affect implant success in part through alterations in the levels of bone resorption.


Mining and mineral operations have been associated with exposures of Naturally occurring radioactive materials. A study was carried out to assess the activity concentration of naturally occurring radionuclides in iron mining, processing and waste materials by means of high resolution gamma ray spectrometry using a 109 HPGe detector. A total of 12 sampling points were sampled for the Buchwa's Ripple creek Mine, Buchwa Limestone mine and ZISCO Steelworks damp site. The samples were measured in the laboratory with respect to their gamma radioactivity for a counting time of 60000 seconds each. From the obtained spectra, activity concentrations were determined. The mean activity concentrations of 238U, 232Th, 226Ra, 210Pb and 40K in the soil samples were, 220.95, 32.99, 181.60, 112.99 and 276.24 Bq/kg respectively. The study also highlighted the potential hazards of alpha, beta and gamma emissions on human body and their mechanisms for inhalation and ingestion. The total effective dose was 0.4275 mSv per annum. The results in this study compared well with the average worldwide average values. The results indicate an insignificant exposure of public to technologically enhanced NORM.


Densification is recommended to achieve urban sustainable development through road and building construction as well as expanding environmental elements. Continuously, the urban areas increase in the number of inhabitants as well as in size. An urban environmental element provided by urban green spaces, water bodies and good environmental quality create the economic and recognized the positive impacts to the surrounding property. Generally, people seem to be able to appreciate the natural and designed landscape as well as the recreational benefits. However, speedy urbanization process overwhelmed the living space thus incur the damage in social relationships. The land use pressures are interrelated internally for fiscal benefits and externally for creating the preserve land for habitat. For urban residents, the creation, preservation and maintenance of urban environmental elements and greened areas must be considered along with the other essential services as we move into the rapid growth of urbanization. Unfortunately, such environmental elements are too often the first budget item cut when there are trade-offs to be made. Accordingly, this research is conducted through quantitative method by distributing the questionnaire to residents in an urban area in order to gather information on the preferences of residents about the urban environmental elements specifically. This study is expected to reveal all of the aspects that have to be collectively considered in expanding the benefits of urban environmental elements as well as to show the connections that can influence a city's image and urban planning positively.


A new analysis technique for infinite phased array antennas was developed and demonstrated. It consists of the finite element method (FEM) in combination with integral equation radiation conditions and a novel periodic boundary condition for 3-D FEM grids. Accurate modeling of rectangular, circular and circular-coaxial feeds is accomplished by enforcing continuity between the FEM solution and several waveguide modes across an aperture in the array's ground plane. The radiation condition above the array is enforced by a periodic integral equation in the form of a Floquet mode summation, thus reducing the solution to that of a single array unit cell. The periodic boundary condition at unit cell side walls is enforced through a matrix transformation that mathematically "folds" opposing side walls onto each other with a phase shift appropriate to the array lattice and scan angle. The unit cell electric field is expanded in vector finite elements. Galerkin's method is used to cast the problem as a matrix equation, which is solved by the conjugate gradient method. A general-purpose computer code was developed and validated for cases of open-ended waveguides, microstrip patches, clad monopoles and printed flared notches, showing that the analysis method is accurate and versatile.


Technological advances and new architectural techniques have enabled processor performance to double almost every two years. However, these performance improvements have not resulted in comparable speedups for all applications, because the memory system performance has not kept pace with processor performance in modern systems. In this dissertation, by concentrating on the interface between the processors and memory, the memory controller, we propose novel solutions to all three aspects of the memory problem, that is bandwidth, latency, and power.
To increase available bandwidth between the memory controller and DRAM, we introduce a new scheduling approach. To hide memory latency, we introduce a new hardware prefetching technique that is useful for applications with regular or irregular memory accesses. And finally, we show how memory controllers can be used to improve DRAM power consumption.
We evaluate our techniques in the context of the memory controller of a highly tuned modern processor, the IBM Power5+. Our evaluation for both technical and commercial benchmarks in single-threaded and simultaneous multi-threaded environments show that our techniques for bandwidth increase, latency hiding, and power reduction achieve significant improvements. For example, for single-threaded applications, when our scheduling approach and prefetching method are implemented together, they improve the performance of the SPEC2006fp, NAS, and a set of commercial benchmarks by 14.3%. 13.7%, and 11.2%, respectively.
In addition to providing substantial performance and power improvements, our techniques are superior to the previously proposed methods in terms of cost as well. For example, a version of our scheduling approach has been implemented in the Power5+, and it has increased the transistor count of the chip by only 0.02%.
This dissertation shows that without increasing the complexity of neither the processor nor the memory organization, all three aspects of memory systems can be significantly improved with low-cost enhancements to the memory controller.


A general methodology has been developed for the design of a robust control law for a family of lightly damped second order problems. In this research effort, the passivity approach has been extended to systems having non-collocated input/output pairs by introducing an observer that incorporates the nominal dynamical model of the plant. The developed passive observer-based control law emulates numerous dynamic vibration absorbers which are tuned to a targeted frequency using classical methods and the tuning ratios are time-invariant. However, the uniqueness of this approach is that the damping parameters of the emulated absorbers are continuously varied by means of a fuzzy logic control algorithm to provide near minimum-time suppression of vibration. The developed approach is applied to both several benchmarks in the field of structural dynamics as well as experiments using piezo-ceramic sensors and actuators. Results show that this methodology provides stability and performance robustness on the one hand as well as requiring relatively low amount of actuation authority for desired nominal plant close-loop behavior.


Dynamic structural changes during creep tests for about 103 hours at 600 and 650oC were investigated in a P92-type 9%Cr martensitic heat resistant steel. The structural changes are characterised by the development of relatively large equiaxed subgrains with relatively low dislocation densities in place of initial martensite laths. The coarsening of substructure was accompanied by a growth of second phase precipitates. The final grain/subgrain sizes and dislocation densities evolved after the creep tests were in rough correlation with applied stresses, i.e. larger (sub)grains developed under lower stresses. The structural mechanism responsible for microstructure evolution was considered as a kind of continuous dynamic recrystallization.


Aims: To compare prevalence, reasons, motivations, initiation, perceived helpfulness, and communication of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use between two tertiary children's hospitals. Methodology: A study, using a face-to-face questionnaire, of 500 children attending the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, UK was compared to an identical study of 503 children attending the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. Results: One year CAM use in Cardiff was lower than Melbourne (41% v 51%; OR = 0.67, 95% CI 0.52–0.85), reflected in non-medicinal use (OR = 0.41, 95% CI 0.29–0.58) and general paediatric outpatients (OR = 0.38, 95% CI 0.21–0.67). Compared to Melbourne, factors associated with lower CAM use in Cardiff included families born locally (father: OR = 0.58, 95% CI 0.44–0.77) or non-tertiary educated parents (mother: OR = 0.54, 95% CI 0.38–0.77). Cardiff participants used less vitamin C (OR = 0.31, 95% CI 0.18–0.51) and herbs (OR = 0.49, 95% CI 0.34–0.71), attended less chiropractors (OR = 0.25, 95% CI 0.06–0.37) and naturopaths (OR = 0.08, 95% CI 0.02–0.33), but saw more reflexologists (OR = 3.33, 95% CI 1.08–10.29). In Cardiff, CAM was more popular for relaxation (OR = 1.92, 95% CI 1.03–3.57) but less for colds/coughs (OR = 0.4, 95% CI 0.27–0.73). Most CAM was self-initiated (by parent) in Cardiff and Melbourne (74% v 70%), but Cardiff CAM users perceived it less helpful (OR = 0.46, 95% CI 0.31–0.68). Non-disclosure of CAM use was high in Cardiff and Melbourne (66% v 63%); likewise few doctors/nurses documented recent medicinal CAM use in inpatient notes (0/21 v 2/22). Conclusions: The differences in CAM use may reflect variation in sociocultural factors influencing reasons, motivations, attitudes, and availability. The regional variation in use and poor communication highlights the importance of local policy development.


A new technique, photochromism-induced photoacoustic spectrometry, has been developed for the determination of mercury(II) as mercury(II) dithizonate in the solid state. A special photoacoustic cell was designed for inducing a photochromic reaction in mercury(II) dithizonate and detecting the resultant photoacoustic signal from its excited state. Interferences from all other metal ions are absent because only mercury(II) dithizonate can exhibit photochromism in the solid state. A linear standard calibration graph for Hg(II) was obtained in the quantity range from 1.5 to 450 pmol. The relative standard deviations determined at 15 and 150 pmol were 6% and 3%, respectively. When the technique is applied to water analysis with dithizone extraction, a detection limit of 3 pptr (parts per trillion) Hg(II) is easily achievable.


ABSTRACT Objective: We aimed to investigate the change in bone mineral density (BMD) in the first postoperative year in patients that underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA) due to primary osteoarthritis of the knee. Methods: Preoperative and first postoperative year dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry measurements of 76 patients with knee osteoarthritis, who undergone surgery between 2016 and 2018 due to the recommendation for TKA, were statistically evaluated in the study. Results: Of the 19 patients with a normal BMD in the preoperative period, 73.7% (n = 14) continued to have a normal BMD in the postoperative period. Of the 34 patients with a low BMD (osteopenia) in the preoperative period, 91.2% (n = 31) did not show any change, whereas osteoporosis was observed in two patients (5.9%) in the postoperative period. Of the 23 patients with osteoporosis in the preoperative period, 95.7% (n = 22) did not show any change, whereas osteopenia was observed in one patient (4.3%) in the postoperative period. Both the T and Z scores of the spine (L1-L4) and proximal femur showed a slightly positive trend, however, with an insignificant statistical difference (p ≥ 0.05). Conclusion: Patients that underwent TKA experienced a statistically insignificant bone gain at the spine and proximal femur twelve months after the surgery.Level of Evidence III, Therapeutic Studies Investigating the Results of Treatment.


Religion has historically played a central role in motivating rulers to start and individuals to participate in war. However, the decline of religion in international politics following the Peace of Westphalia and the inception of the modern nation-state system, which built and highlighted a sense of national identity, undermined the contribution of religion to politics and consequently, conflict. The case of the Iran−Iraq War, however, shows a different pattern in which religion did play a crucial role in motivating individuals to participate in war. Although the evidence suggests that religious motivations by no means contributed to Saddam's decision to launch the war, an overview of the Iranian leaders' speeches and martyrs' statements reveals that religion significantly motivated people to take part in the war. While Iraqi leaders tried to mobilize the population by highlighting the allegedly Persian-Arab historical antagonism and propagating an Iraqi-centered form of Arab nationalism, Iranian leaders exploited religious symbols and emotions to encourage war participation, garner public support, alleviate the suffering of the people, and build military morale. The Iranian leadership painted the war as a battle between believers and unbelievers, Muslims and infidels, and the true and the false. This strategy turned out to be an effective tool of mobilization during wartime.


This study aimed at the evaluation of urgency/emergency hospital units and recorded the relations of emergency units with users, other hospital services and the healthcare network and approached the size of the teams, the relations among the professionals, their qualification and income. It further describes the infrastructure of these services including basic organizational aspects. The aspect care was one component in this broader object. It is a descriptive study applying a questionnaire to the heads of the emergency services of a sample of 30 hospitals.The statements suggest the overcrowding of emergency services (in 80% of hospitals) deteriorating the work and care conditions to be due to the inefficiency of primary care and the healthcare network. The deficit of human resources was found larger than the lack of technology. The precarious employment relations were considered a factor hampering the qualification and retention of professionals. The most favorably evaluated items were: relationship with service heads, trust and expectations with regard to the service. The worst items were: wages, team size and labor medicine. The nvestment in human resources is indispensable. There is a need for public policies that articulate more efficient interventions given that those in force are defining the configuration of territories with their hierarchized and solidary networks.


Since established in 1963, Sacred Heart University has accumulated tens of thousands of photographs that have recorded the significant moments or important occasions in the university's history. Over the years, more and more photos have been taken but the effort to preserve the valuable information has not been up to the pace of the photo accumulation. Realizing some photos started to deteriorate due to the physical space in which these images were stored and the university was about to lose the visual data, the Office of University Advancement (OUA) began to seek a long-term solution that would help them manage the data in 2008. After discussing with OUA, the library took over the project because the library had the expertise to implement the project, and the project would resonate with the library's digital strategy. This paper focuses on the significance of planning strategically when partnership and collaboration across divisions occur. It also examines the outreach strategies that would get various interested constituents from in and outside the university involved in this project. In addition, the paper discusses how the archival project has naturally triggered sub-projects such as using Yahoo Flickr to bulk load photos and getting information about the photos through the users' contribution. Nevertheless, the ultimate goal of the paper is to instigate further discussions from peers about the project's sustainability and best practices of managing such projects.


This paper takes a 3-UPS Parallel Machine Tool (PMT) as the object to study, and it mainly analyzed the singularity of machine in the workspace. Firstly the kinematics of this machine is analyzed on the basis of introducing the structure of PMT, the kinematics equation of PMT is established, and further the Jacobian matrix of PMT is obtained. Then the workspace of PMT is carried on the solution and the analysis. Finally the degree of operability is taken as the measure index to analyze the singularity of PMT within the workspace, and the results show that this PMT does not have singular position. The analysis results of this paper have laid the theoretical foundation for the position control of this PMT.


The capturing of tail events, especially those that incur severe loss at rare chance, is one of the important objectives for modern risk analysis. However past behavior in financial data is not necessarily a correct reflection of the possible scenarios in the future. The economic turmoils in the recent years have called for a more forward looking approach to financial risk management that integrates expert knowledge on plausible future scenarios with classical risk management models calibrated on past behavior. As a complementary risk analysis tool, stress testing is getting more and more attention from both regulators and practioners. Nevertheless, classical risk analysis models, such as VaR models, based on historical data and stress testing are often disconnected. This disconnection can prevent a comprehensive view of the risk profile of a financial institution. This paper proposes a multi-period switching simulation based method for integrated stress testing risk analysis that incorporate plausible events that are not necessarily captured in history or in historical stressed calibration of risk models. An integrated risk model and stress testing framework not only leads to forward-looking tail risk measurement that mitigates the "Black Swan" effect, but also takes stress testing into advanced risk management decision making analysis like scenario based portfolio optimization.


Flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) are an option to mitigate the problem of overloaded lines due to increased electric power transmission by controlling power flows and voltages. To avoid mutual influences among several devices placed in the same grid, a coordinated control is indispensable. In this paper, a supervisory controller based on optimal power flow (OPF) with multiple objectives is derived in order to avoid congestion, provide secure transmission and minimize active power losses. The contributions of SVC, TCSC and TCPST in this coordinated control and the achieved improvements compared with the case where no FACTS devices are in operation are demonstrated.


Abstract. The need for accurate assessment of the geomagnetic hazard to power systems is driving a requirement to model geomagnetically induced currents (GIC) in multiple voltage levels of a power network. The Lehtinen–Pirjola method for modelling GIC is widely used but was developed when the main aim was
to model GIC in only the highest voltage level of a power network. Here we present a modification to the Lehtinen–Pirjola (LP) method designed to
provide an efficient method for modelling GIC in multiple voltage levels. The LP method calculates the GIC flow to ground from each node. However,
with a network involving multiple voltage levels, many of the nodes are ungrounded, i.e. have infinite resistance to ground, which is numerically inconvenient. The new modified Lehtinen–Pirjola (LPm) method replaces the earthing impedance matrix [Ze] with the corresponding earthing admittance matrix
[Ye] in which the ungrounded nodes have zero admittance to ground. This is combined with the network admittance matrix [Yn] to give a combined matrix ([Yn] + [Ye]), which is a sparse symmetric
positive definite matrix allowing efficient techniques, such as Cholesky decomposition, to be used to provide the nodal voltages. The nodal voltages
are then used to calculate the GIC in the transformer windings and the transmission lines of the power network. The LPm method with Cholesky
decomposition also provides an efficient method for calculating GIC at multiple time steps. Finally, the paper shows how software for the LP method
can be easily converted to the LPm method and provides examples of calculations using the LPm method.


Multiple imputation of missing data continues to be a topic of considerable interest and importance to applied researchers. In this article, the ice package for multiple imputation by chained equations (also known as fully conditional specification) is further updated. Special attention is paid to categorical variables. The relationship between ice and the new multiple-imputation system in Stata 11 is clarified.


This paper reviews eleven publications that I submit for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Three themes are identified that together constitute major strands running through the publications:
a) promoting and making the systemic approach accessible and relevant in the field of learning disabilities;
b) challenges and opportunities in working systemically with people affected with learning disabilities;
c) raising the question of who and what in the system needs to change.
Following discussion of the three themes the analytical commentary moves on to highlight four areas entitled 'rich learnings' that emerged from reviewing fifteen years of publications and practice. The areas include: a consideration of the knowledge that emerge in relationship and dialogue; learning from difference and diversity; and the learning that can develop from teaching, transmission and partnership working.
The central argument of the analytical commentary is that taken as a whole body of work, the publications and the associated practices demonstrate that I have made an original contribution to the field of systemic psychotherapy in the area of learning disabilities, and that I have played a significant role in transmitting the approach to others.


Increasing penetration of intermittent energy sources in power systems has been requiring higher operational flexibility and cross-border transmission capacity. Intermittent generation, especially wind and solar power, has grown significantly in the Iberian Peninsula during the last decade and it will keep growing in the next year. Owing to limited interconnection capacity with the French and the Moroccan power systems, generation intermittency has been dealt with mostly within Spain and Portugal, helped by a flexible generation mix. Despite the relatively high flexibility of the Iberian system, in some situations, renewable generation output had to be curtailed. In general, renewable energy curtailment is an emergency action taken in case of network constraints or in case of generation surplus at single node. This emergency action is expected to be more common in the near future if no additional operating measures are taken. This study focuses on the expansion of interconnection capacity that would be required in order to integrate intermittent generation surplus in the Iberian Peninsula in the period 2020-2050. For this purpose, the trade-off between transmission investment costs and the costs of renewable energy curtailment is analysed. Results for different intermittent generation levels and price scenarios are presented and discussed.


Thixoextrusion process has been developed for improving productivity, reducing extrusion pressure, extending die life and even cost saving due to low energy consumption compared with conventional extrusion process. The present study focuses on AZ31 Mg wrought alloy to investigate the potential industrial applications of thixoextrusion process. The maximum extrusion pressures of thixoextrusion process were very lower than that of hot extrusion process. The average grain sizes of thixoextruded specimens were bigger than average grain sizes of hot extruded specimens. However, the grains of the thixoextruded specimens did not show any asymmetry. Also, the microstructures of thixoextruded specimens did not show any dendrites or rosette-like structures. The values of tensile strength and hardness of thixoextruded specimens were lower than that of hot extruded specimens. The specimens manufactured by the thixoextrusion were usually rather soft and their tensile strength was lower than those of hot extruded specimens. If necessary, their low tensile strength can be improved through appropriate heat.


Designing agricultural transformation strategies that modernize small-scale farming in Africa require actions built upon solid, holistic baselines and proven, affordable technical intervention. A study was conducted in west Kenya to characterize the farming operations and household condition among smallhold farmers. The assessment consisted of a structured survey among 291 randomly selected households and compiled onto a single spreadsheet with rows as household cases and 98 descriptors as columns. Overall summary statistics were calculated, and then stratified by three criteria; household resource endowment, agro-ecological zone and sex of household head. A farming systems diagram was inferred from these results. Overall average farm size is 0.87 ha, family size is 6.8 persons and majorities of those interviewed were household heads (68% of respondents) and women (58% of respondents). A simple parameter of resource endowment describes weighted per capita field area per household member of about 1800m2. Household income is $466 per year, food shortfalls last 110 days per year, and households produce 819 kg cereals, 211 kg grain legumes and 74 kg root crops per year. These households raised 2.5 cattle, 1.4 goats or sheep and 13 chickens, deriving annual incomes of $78 from animal enterprise. The 39% of households with lowest resource endowment (< 1000m2 per capita) operate on only 0.34 ha per farm, earn only $155 per year, suffer food shortfalls of 122 days per year, and households produce 326 kg cereals and 119 kg grain legumes. Of the three agro-ecological zones within the study area, the Midlands offers the greatest opportunity for interventions as the Lake Victoria Basin is drier and the Upper Midlands is becoming peri-urban. Large contrasts were observed between women- and men-led households, with the former on farms 0.4 ha smaller, annual income $168 less, 18 additional days of hunger per year and producing 248 kg less cereals and 94 kg less grain legumes. Organic resource availability was approximately 3.3 tons per year and allocated in a variety of ways, with women allocating three-fold more manure to grain legumes, and most palatable crop residues being passed through livestock. These findings compare favorably to the four key entry points independently identified by the Humidtropics Program for its West Kenya Action Site; Legume Integration, Striga Elimination, Crop Diversity and Animal Enterprise, and interactions between these entry points offer promising lines to farming systems research in the future.


The new manager of the North American Flight Center of a global firm faces a number of problems including an opening for the director of flight operations, internal interpersonal strife, resentment against his chief pilot, a senior pilot who seems to be poisoning the culture, and a new computer system. This composite but true case presents common issues faced in managing a North American corporate flight center. Names have been disguised.


Outcome of urgent reoperation for major regional complication after removal of intracranial tumor was evaluated retrospectively in 100 consecutive patients treated since 1983. Urgent reoperation was performed from 3 to 240 hours (mean 74 hours) after primary surgery for 32 meningiomas, 23 pituitary adenomas, 22 gliomas, 13 vestibular schwannomas, and 10 other intracranial neoplasms. Mean Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score before reoperation was 8. Brain edema was the most frequent operative finding at reoperation (31 patients), followed by extradural hematoma (25) and brain ischemia (24). Removal of various types of intracranial hematomas was the most common surgical procedure at reoperation (47 cases). Final outcome was considered favorable in 54 patients, who were discharged without major neurological deficit, and unfavorable in 46, with severe disability or vegetative state in four and death in 42. Multivariate analysis showed statistically significant association with the outcome for histological type of the tumor (p o 0.0001), clinical state at admission (p o 0.001), GCS score before urgent reoperation (p = 0.001), time interval between primary surgery and urgent reoperation (p o 0.01), and patient age (p o 0.05). Therefore, the outcome after urgent reoperation due to major regional complications after removal of intracranial tumor is determined mainly by the clinical condition of the patient and characteristics of the tumor, and less influenced by the type of complication.


OBJECTIVE
Individuals with eating disorders are known to have higher rates of insecure attachment compared to community controls, but the factors underlying this finding are poorly understood. We conducted the first meta-analysis comparing attachment in eating disorder samples compared to community controls that included quality assessment, publication bias and moderation analysis.

METHOD
We pre-registered our meta-analysis (CRD42019146799) and followed PRISMA guidelines. We searched PsychINFO, Embase, Medline, CINAHL, and Scopus for publications. Attachment scores were extracted, and Cohen's d calculated for each study using a random effects model.

RESULTS
In total, 35 studies were included in the meta-analysis and six studies were summarized in a narrative review. Eating disorder samples showed higher rates of insecure attachment compared to community controls, with a large effect size, across measurement methods and different attachment dimensions. Blinding of assessors moderated effect sizes for attachment interview studies, but no other moderators were significant.

DISCUSSION
Risk of insecure attachment is elevated in individuals with eating disorders, albeit heterogeneity is high and largely unexplained. Clinicians may need to take this into account in their work, particularly given the association between attachment insecurity and challenges to therapeutic alliance. Future studies comparing eating disorder samples with community samples should control for general psychopathology.

PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE
Attachment is a broad concept referring to a person's thoughts, feelings and behaviors in relation to close others. This systematic review and meta-analysis found that individuals with eating disorders are lower in attachment security than community controls, regardless of attachment construct or measurement approach. Attachment may be relevant in influencing eating disorder recovery, the development of therapeutic alliance, and potentially clinical outcomes, although more research is needed.


Taylor Valley is a cold, polar desert located in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, the largest ice-free area in Antarctica. For six to ten weeks a year, glacial meltwater streams flow through unconsolidated boulders and pebbles to perennially ice-covered closed-basin lakes. Because there is no overland flow or groundwater input, most chemical weathering reactions are restricted to the stream channels. Despite these limiting conditions, chemical weathering rates in the stream channels are similar to or higher than those in temperate-climate watersheds. These high rates in Taylor Valley suggest that temperature and precipitation are not the primary controls on chemical denudation. In this case, high stream discharges, high rates of physical weathering (e.g., frost action, salt weathering), and/or the interaction between the stream and hyporheic zone contribute to the high chemical denudation rates in the Taylor Valley stream channels.


The connection between rights and the concept of human dignity works, basic but not exclusively, in the scope of founding the rights and in the development of a theory of justice. This paper addresses the difficulties of the concept of dignity and the need to avoid seeing it as an empty formula. The connection with the Kantian autonomy is an essential reference. From there, within the framework of a secular and anthropocentric discourse, are identified some consequences that a particular understanding of the meaning of dignity for the theory of rights has currently, such as those related to animal rights, bioethics, disability rights or the concept of universality of rights.


This is a review on entropy in various fields of mathematics and science. Its
scope is to convey a unified vision of the classical entropies and some newer,
related notions to a broad audience with an intermediate background in dynamical
systems and ergodic theory. Due to the breadth and depth of the subject, we
have opted for a compact exposition whose contents are a compromise between
conceptual import and instrumental relevance. The intended technical level and
the space limitation born furthermore upon the final selection of the topics,
which cover the three items named in the title. Specifically, the first part
is devoted to the avatars of entropy in the traditional contexts: many
particle physics, information theory, and dynamical systems. This
chronological order helps present the materials in a didactic manner. The
axiomatic approach will be also considered at this stage to show that, quite remarkably,
the essence of entropy can be encapsulated in a few basic properties.
Inspired by the classical entropies, further akin quantities have been
proposed in the course of time, mostly aimed at specific needs. A common
denominator of those addressed in the second part of this review is their
major impact on research. The final part shows that, along with its profound
role in the theory, entropy has interesting practical applications beyond
information theory and communications technology. For this sake we preferred
examples from applied mathematics, although there are certainly nice
applications in, say, physics, computer science and even social sciences. This
review concludes with a representative list of references.


The influence of presbyacusis on distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) was studied on 180 ears of 96 normal-hearing subjects. The subjects' ages were distributed equally and ranged from 14 to 82 years. It was shown that there is a highly significant decrease in DPOAE amplitudes during the ageing process. By means of special statistical procedures, such as partial correlation and multiple regression, it was proved that the main reason for this is deterioration in pure-tone thresholds. However, other age-related effects were determined and were also found to lead to a further decrease in DPOAE amplitudes. The latter might be due to middle ear alterations in elderly people. Knowledge of the influence of presbyacusis on DPOAE is important if DPOAEs are to be used in expert assessment of inner ear disorders, for example, occupational noise-induced hearing loss.


This chapter presents a comparative study of speech emotion recognition (SER) systems. Theoretical definition, categorization of affective state and the modalities of emotion expression are presented. To achieve this study, an SER system, based on different classifiers and different methods for features extraction, is developed. Mel-frequency cepstrum coefficients (MFCC) and modulation spectral (MS) features are extracted from the speech signals and used to train different classifiers. Feature selection (FS) was applied in order to seek for the most relevant feature subset. Several machine learning paradigms were used for the emotion classification task. A recurrent neural network (RNN) classifier is used first to classify seven emotions. Their performances are compared later to multivariate linear regression (MLR) and support vector machines (SVM) techniques, which are widely used in the field of emotion recognition for spoken audio signals. Berlin and Spanish databases are used as the experimental data set. This study shows that for Berlin database all classifiers achieve an accuracy of 83% when a speaker normalization (SN) and a feature selection are applied to the features. For Spanish database, the best accuracy (94 %) is achieved by RNN classifier without SN and with FS.


Neural networks are used to predict the drape coefficient (DC) and circularity (CTR) of many different kinds of fabrics. The neural network models used were the multilayer perceptron using backpropagation (BP) and the radial basis function (RBF) neural network. The BP method was found to be more effective than the RBF method but the RBF method was the fastest when it came to training. Comparisons of the two models as well as comparisons of the same models using different parameters are presented. It was also found that prediction for CIR was less accurate than for DC for both neural network architectures.


Cyberbullying is an ongoing and devastating issue in today's online social media. Abusive users engage in cyber-harassment by utilizing social media to send posts, private messages, tweets, or pictures to innocent social media users. Detecting and preventing cases of cyberbullying is crucial. In this work, I analyze multiple machine learning, deep learning, and graph analysis algorithms and explore their applicability and performance in pursuit of a robust system for detecting cyberbullying. First, I evaluate the performance of the machine learning algorithms Support Vector Machine, Naı̈ve Bayes, Random Forest, Decision Tree, and Logistic Regression. This yielded positive results and obtained upwards of 86% accuracy. Further enhancements were achieved using Evolutionary Algorithms, improving the overall results of the machine learning models. Deep Learning algorithms was the next experiment in which efficiency was monitored in terms of training time and performance. Next, analysis of Recurrent Neural Networks and Hierarchical Attention Networks was conducted, achieving 82% accuracy. The final research project used graph analysis to explore the relation among different social media users, and analyze the connectivity and communities of users who were discovered to have posted offensive messages.


ABSTRACT This article explores how game jams, a rapid collaborative game production format, can work to support the revitalisation of Indigenous self-narratives in the context of Sámi culture. The study focuses on the Sami Game Jam, an event designed and carried out in the Northern Finish Sámi community in Utsjoki, in February 2018. Using an ethnographic method including participatory observation, video interviews with Sámi participants, and textual video game analysis, the study first discusses the event design, and how the creation of Sámi themes and priorities created constraints for game design. The variety of themes selected for the jam reflects the diversity of concerns present in contemporary Sámi society, and the need to reflect them in media. Secondly, we address the process of collaborative game development to explore current Sámi experience in a dialogic, open-ended way. Finally, we discuss the games created during the game jam, and how their design translate Sámi themes into playable artefacts. Based on the findings, we conclude how game jamming as a cultural practice can be appropriated for the purpose of sustaining intangible cultural heritage.


Abstract : The Department of Defense (DoD) recognizes that today's ever-increasing use of information technology to conduct routine business makes protecting automated information essential. Security labels are one type of computer security mechanism used to facilitate controlled access to information in a shared resource environment. The purpose of this report is to recommend how computer security label standards should be pursued in light of existing labeling technology and the new security architecture being developed for DoD. Label standards are necessary to facilitate the integration, interoperability, and cost-effective implementation of protection in information systems. The authors of the report examined existing label implementations, leveraged and synthesized related work, and studied existing and emerging label standardization efforts to gain a better understanding of the successes and failures of labeling technologies and standards. As this work progressed, the authors discovered that the DoD Goal Security Architecture (DGSA) was an emerging architecture that could significantly change how information will be protected by the DoD in the foreseeable future. Therefore, the report presents a brief description of the DGSA and formalizes its fundamental security concepts and principles before making recommendations about pursuing security label standardization.


Peacebuilding supports the emergence of stable political community in states and regions struggling with a legacy of violent conflict. This then raises the question of what political community might mean in the state in question. International peacebuilding operations have answered that question in terms of the promotion of conventional state-building along the lines of the Western Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) model as the best path out of post-conflict state fragility and towards sustainable development and peace. This article argues for peacebuilding beyond notions of the liberal peace and constructions of the liberal state. Rather than thinking in terms of fragile states, it might be theoretically and practically more fruitful to think in terms of hybrid political orders, drawing on the resilience embedded in the communal life of societies within so-called fragile regions of the global South. This re-conceptualization opens new options for peacebuilding and for state formation as building political community.


The most commonly repeated adage in U.S. criminal justice is the presumption of innocence: defendants are deemed innocent until proven guilty. Historically, this presumption carried important meaning both before and during trial. However, in light of state and federal changes in pretrial practice, as well as Supreme Court precedent restricting the presumption's application to trial, the presumption of innocence no longer protects defendants before trial. These limitations on the presumption are fundamentally inconsistent with its constitutional roots. The results of the presumption's diminution are also troubling as the number of defendants held pretrial has steadily increased such that the majority of people in our nation's jails have not been convicted of any crime. Few contemporary legal scholars have focused on the dwindling pretrial presumption, let alone its constitutional implications. This article fills the void by examining how the Due Process Clause provides the constitutional basis for the presumption of innocence and how that presumption secures at least one pretrial right: the right to release on bail, absent serious flight risk. For the first time, this article introduces three rules to ensure that the pretrial presumption of innocence remains true to its constitutional roots. Returning the presumption to its constitutional foundation and ensuring its application in ways that are consistent with that foundation will result in less confusion by courts and a more consistent manner to make pretrial decisions.


Preface. 1. Supply chain management. 1.1 What do we mean by logistics? 1.1.1 Plan of the chapter. 1.2 Structure of production/distribution networks. 1.3 Competition factors, cost drivers, and strategy. 1.3.1 Competition factors. 1.3.2 Cost drivers. 1.3.3 Strategy. 1.4 The role of inventories. 1.4.1 A classical model: Economic Order Quantity. 1.4.2 Cycle vs. capacity-induced stock. 1.5 Dealing with uncertainty. 1.5.1 Setting safety stocks. 1.5.2 A two-stage decision process: Production planning in an assemble-to-order environment. 1.5.3 Inventory deployment. 1.6 Physical flows and transportation. 1.7 Time horizons and hierarchical levels. 1.8 Decision approaches. 1.9 Information flows and decision rights. 1.10 Quantitative models and methods. 1.11 For further reading. References. 2. Network Design and Transportation. 2.1 The role of intermediate nodes in a distribution network. 2.1.1 The risk pooling effect: reducing the uncertainty level. 2.1.2 The role of transit points in transportation optimization. 2.2 Location and flow optimization models. 2.2.1 The transportation problem. 2.2.2 The minimum cost flow problem. 2.2.3 The plant location problem. 2.2.4 Putting it all together. 2.3 Models involving nonlinear costs. 2.4 For Further Reading. References. 3. Forecasting. 3.1 Introduction. 3.2 The variable to be predicted. 3.2.1 The forecasting process. 3.3 Metrics for forecast errors. 3.3.1 The Mean Error. 3.3.2 Mean Absolute Deviation. 3.3.3 Root Mean Square Error. 3.3.4 Mean Percentage Error and Mean Absolute Percentage Error. 3.3.5 ME , MAD , RMSE . 3.3.6 U Theil's statistic. 3.3.7 Using metrics of forecasting accuracy. 3.4 A classification of forecasting methods. 3.5 Moving Average. 3.5.1 The demand model. 3.5.2 The algorithm. 3.5.3 Setting the parameters. 3.5.4 Drawbacks and limitations. 3.6 Simple exponential smoothing. 3.6.1 The demand model. 3.6.2 The algorithm. 3.6.3 Setting the parameter. 3.6.4 Initialization. 3.6.5 Drawbacks and limitations. 3.7 Exponential Smoothing with Trend. 3.7.1 The demand model. 3.7.2 The algorithm. 3.7.3 Setting the parameters. 3.7.4 Initialization. 3.7.5 Drawbacks and limitations 125. 3.8 Exponential smoothing with seasonality. 3.8.1 The demand model. 3.8.2 The algorithm. 3.8.3 Setting the parameters. 3.8.4 Initialization. 3.8.5 Drawbacks and limitations. 3.9 Smoothing with seasonality and trend. 3.9.1 The demand model. 3.9.2 The algorithm. 3.9.3 Initialization. 3.10 Simple linear regression. 3.10.1 Setting up data for regression. 3.11 Forecasting new products. 3.11.1 The Delphi method and the committee process. 3.11.2 Lancaster model: forecasting new products through products features. 3.11.3 The early sales model. 3.12 The Bass model. 3.12.1 Limitations and drawbacks. References. 4. Inventory management with Deterministic Demand. 4.1 Introduction. 4.2 Economic Order Quantity. 4.3 Robustness of EOQ model. 4.4 Case of LT > 0: the (Q,R) model. 4.5 Case of finite replenishment rate. 4.6 Multi-item EOQ. 4.6.1 The case of shared ordering costs. 4.6.2 The multi-item case with a constraint on ordering capacity. 4.7 Case of nonlinear costs. 4.8 The case of variable demand with known variability. References. 5. Inventory control: the stochastic case. 5.1 Introduction. 5.2 The newsvendor problem. 5.2.1 Extensions of the Newsvendor problem. 5.3 Multi-period problems. 5.4 Fixed quantity: the (Q,R) model. 5.4.1 Optimization of the (Q,R) model in case the stockout cost depends on the size of the stockout. 5.4.2 (Q,R) system: case of constraint on the type II service level. 5.4.3 Optimization of the (Q,R) model in case the cost of a stock-out depends on the occurrence of a stockout. 5.4.4 (Q,R) system: case of constraint on type I service level. 5.5 Periodic review: S and (s, S) policies. 5.6 The S policy. 5.7 The (s, S) policy. References. 6. Managing inventories in multiechelon supply chains. 6.1 Introduction. 6.2 Managing multi-echelon chains: Installation vs. Echelon Stock. 6.2.1 Features of Installation and Echelon Stock logics. 6.3 Coordination in the supply chain: the Bullwhip effect. 6.4 A linear distribution chain with two echelons and certain demand. 6.5 Arborescent chain with two echelons: transit point with uncertain demand. 6.6 A two echelon supply chain in case of stochastic demand. References. 7. Incentives in the supply chain. 7.1 Introduction. 7.2 Decisions on price: double marginalization. 7.2.1 the first best solution: the vertically integrated firm. 7.2.2 The vertically disintegrated case: independent manufacturer and retailer. 7.2.3 A way out: designing incentive schemes. 7.3 Decision on price in a competitive environment. 7.3.1 the vertically disintegrated supply chain: independent manufacturer and retailer. 7.4 Decision on inventories: the Newsvendor problem. 7.4.1 The first best solution: the vertically integrated firm. 7.4.2 The vertically disintegrated case: independent manufacturer and retailer. 7.4.3 A way out: designing incentives and re-allocating decision rights. 7.5 Decision on effort to produce and sell the product. 7.5.1 The first best solution: the vertically integrated firm. 7.5.2 the vertically disintegrated case: independent retailer and manufacturers. 7.5.3 The case of efforts both at the upstream and downstream stage. 7.6 Concluding remarks. References. 8. Vehicle Routing. 8.1 Network routing problems. 8.2 Solution methods for symmetric TSP. 8.2.1 Nearest-neighbor heuristic. 8.2.2 Insertion-based heuristics. 8.2.3 Local search methods. 8.3 Solution methods for basic VRP. 8.3.1 Constructive methods for VRP. 8.3.2 Decomposition methods for VRP: cluster first, route second. 8.4 Additional features of real-life VRP. 8.4.1 Constructive methods for the VRP with time windows. 8.5 Final remarks. 8.6 For further reading. References. Appendix A: A Quick Tour of Probability and Statistics. A.1 Sample space, events, and probability. A.2 Conditional probability and independence. A.3 Discrete random variables. A.3.1 A few examples of discrete distributions. A.4 Continuous random variables. A.4.1 Some continuous distributions. A.5 Jointly distributed random variables. A.6 Independence, covariance, and conditional expectation. A.6.1 Independent random variables. A.6.2 Covariance and correlation. A.6.3 Distributions obtained from the normal and the central limit theorem. A.6.4 Conditional expectation. A.7 Stochastic processes. A.8 Parameter estimation. A.8.1 Sample covariance and correlation. A.8.2 Confidence intervals. A.9 Hypothesis testing. A.9.1 An example of non-parametric test: The chi-square test. A.9.2 Testing hypotheses about the difference in. the mean of two populations. A.10 Simple linear regression. A.10.1 Best fitting by least squares. A.10.2 Analyzing properties of regression estimators. A.10.3 Confidence intervals and hypothesis testing for regression estimators. A.10.4 Performance measures for linear regression. A.10.5 Verification of the underlying assumptions. A.10.6 Using linear regression to model nonlinear relationships. A.11 For further reading. References. Appendix B: An even Quicker Tour in Mathematical Programming. B.1 Role and limitations of optimization models. B.2 Optimization models. B.3 Convex sets and functions. B.4 Nonlinear programming. B.4.1 The case of inequality constraints. B.4.2 An economic interpretation of Lagrange multipliers: shadow prices. B.5 Linear programming. B.6 Integer linear programming. B.6.1 Branch and bound methods. B.6.2 Model building in integer programming. B.7 Elements of multi-objective optimization. B.8 For further reading. References. Index.


The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effect of somatic cell count (SCC) on functional longevity and to estimate the heritability of functional longevity using survival analysis in Valle del Belice dairy sheep. A total of 4,880 lactations of 2,190 ewes from 11 flocks were used. In this study, SCC was considered as an indication of subclinical mastitis. In case of clinical cases, identified by the technicians at milking time, test-day weights and milk samples of those ewes were not considered. Somatic cells were analyzed as counts, without any transformation, and were grouped in 3 classes based on the observed SCC maximum (mxSCC). The mxSCC classes, expressed as 10(3) cells/mL, were classified as 1 if mxSCC <or= 500, 2 if 500 < mxSCC < 1,000, and 3 if mxSCC >or= 1,000. An increase in SCC was associated with an increased hazard of being culled. Ewes in the highest class of SCC on a test-day had a 20% higher hazard of being culled than those in the lowest class. Therefore, SCC played a role in culling decisions of Valle del Belice dairy sheep farmers. The heritability estimate for functional longevity was 7% on the logarithmic scale and 11% on the real scale, indicating that selection for this trait is possible in sheep. The flock-year-season effect explained 19% of the variation on the logarithmic scale and 27% of the variation on the real scale.


During the past 40 years, there have been 14 major accidents of oil spill in Indonesia, mostly as results of ship collisions. There are several methods in handling oil spill accident, in which the most effective methods are using mechanical oil skimmer with disc plate. The effectiveness of the oil skimmer on handling oil spills is influenced by various factors, such as the depth of the disk submerged or the disk surface area dipped into the oil spill, the area of the wiper sweep, the thickness of the oil on the disk surface, and the rotation speed of the disk. This paper presents the results of laboratory scale experiment of mechanical oil skimmer. The oil samples used are diesel engine oil with 15W-40 SAE and the water sample used is sea water. The experiment was conducted with variation of 27 mm and 55 mm of disc submersion depth or equal to dipped surface area of 31.35 cm2 and 88,832 cm2. The duration of the test for 3 data is 5 minutes. Based on theoretical calculations, the increase of rotation speed of the disk, the result of spill transport will also be higher. This is proved by the experimental results. The lifting process of oil spill is more effective with low rotation speed, because the result of oil spill transported will be more dominated by oil than water. In this test, the higher the rotation speed of the disk, the higher the water produced.


ABSTRACT The present study examined the effectiveness of a substance abuse prevention program in preventing tobacco and alcohol use among elementary school students in grades 3 through 6. The prevention program teaches social resistance skills and general personal and social competence skills. Rates of substance use behavior, attitudes, knowledge, normative expectations, and related variables were examined among students (N = 1090) from 20 schools that were randomly assigned to either receive the prevention program (9 schools, n = 426) or serve as a control group (11 schools, n = 664). Data were analyzed at both the individual-level and school-level. Individual-level analyses controlling for gender, race, and family structure showed that intervention students reported less smoking in the past year, higher anti-drinking attitudes, increased substance use knowledge and skills-related knowledge, lower normative expectations for smoking and alcohol use, and higher self-esteem at the posttest assessment, relative to control students. School-level analyses showed that annual prevalence rate was 61% lower for smoking and 25% lower for alcohol use at the posttest assessment in schools that received the prevention program when compared with control schools. In addition, mean self-esteem scores were higher in intervention schools at the posttest assessment relative to control schools. Findings indicate that a school-based substance abuse prevention approach previously found to be effective among middle school students is also effective for elementary school students.


In present day Social systems administration framework Data security is the most extreme basic issue in guaranteeing safe transmission of data through the web. Web has turned out to be increasingly across the board, if an unapproved individual can gain admittance to this system, he can keep an eye on us as well as he can without much of a stretch chaos up our lives. System Security and Cryptography is an idea to ensure system and information transmission over remote system. Today information correspondence for the most part relies on computerized information correspondence. The insurance of sight and sound information, delicate data like charge cards, banking exchanges and interpersonal organization security numbers is winding up significant. The security of this classified information from unapproved access should be possible with numerous encryption strategies. Likewise organize security issues are presently getting to be significant as society is moving towards computerized data age. As an ever increasing number of clients associate with the web it pulls in a great deal of digital offenders. The errand of system security not just requires guaranteeing the security of end frameworks however of the whole arrange. In this paper, an endeavor has been made to present the different Network Security and Cryptographic ideas.


A significant but little studied aspect of life in rural Afghanistan is the restriction of certain specialized occupations to particular ethnic groups. Many communities of artisans, tradesmen and entertainers form their own descent groups - settled, nomadic or semi-nomadic. This work describes the lives and work of migrating Musalli threshers, Shaykh Mohammadi pedlars and Ghorbat sievemakers, detailing their social and historical background, as well as their interaction with settled communities. While the Musallis and the Ghorbat are specialist workers who share common descent, of Indian and probable Iranian origin respectively, the Shaykh Mohammadis have emerged as a spiritual body in Afghanistan, which over time has absorbed a number of unrelated occupational groups. All three share a low social position, economic marginality and a roving lifestyle. Their flourishing traditions of myths and legends reflect general West Asian religious folklore, and the inspiration of the Sufi mystics in traditional craft guild organization. The volume concludes with a discussion of the social structure and characteristics of nomadism.


Trachoma is caused by Chlamydia trachomatis, a bacterium transmitted by direct spread of infected ocular material from one person to another. The spread of trachoma is by flies (Musca sorbens), fingers and formites. The environmental risk factors that facilitate transmission include dry environment, dirty home environment and discharge (on face, eyes, nose & ears) from the infected individual. Trachoma is a disease of poverty particularly affecting children and their mothers. This disease remains the principal cause of preventable blindness globally. With the establishment of the Global Elimination of Blinding Trachoma by 2020 (GET 2020) goal, the World Health Organization (WHO) has set an ambitious target for country programs. SAFE strategy which is currently recommended and stands for; surgery for trichiasis, antibiotics for active disease, facial cleanliness, and environmental change to reduce tmnsmission targets all key elements believed to be necessary for a shortand long-term intervention program. Even with those things on the ground, the prevalence of trachoma is still high. The study's general objective will be to determine the barriers to effective trachoma control among children aged 1-9 years. The Specific objectives will be to determine socio cultural barriers to latrine coverage and usage in Kajiado County, to explore hygiene practices among caregivers to children 1-9 years old in Kajiado and to determine access and utilization of water by households in Kajiado County. In order to conduct this study, a descriptive cross-sectional study will be conducted. Therefore, 310 children who meet the study criteria will be randomly sampled for study but their mothers or guardians will be the reference persons. Kajiado County is selected because the prevalence rates for infectious and blinding trachoma are 28.1% and 3.3% respectively and WHO defines trachoma as a district wide public health problem when the active infection and blinding trachoma are 10% and 1% respectively. Kajiado County will be sampled using multi stage cluster sampling; sub-location will be the cluster. Sample size will be distributed among the clusters Data will be collected using interviewer administered questionnaire, FGDs and IDIs. Quantitative data will be managed using SPSS version 20 which will be triangulated using qualitative data. Qualitative data will be in vivo coded for thematic mentioned. Data will be analyzed for relationships and exploratory constructs, The study results will be used to by the Ministry of health, AMREF, JCTC and key health sector partners in designing of interventions in the prevention and control of trachoma to strengthen guidance for health policy formulation and emphasize on all the key components of the SAFE strategy.


The transition of pea embryos from pre-storage to maturation is partially controlled by abscisic acid (ABA). Immunomodulation in pea embryos specifically reduces free ABA levels during transition stages. Such seeds are, therefore, suitable models for studying ABA deficiency by global transcript and metabolite analysis. Compared with the wild type, anti-ABA seeds are smaller, contain fewer globulins and show lower dry matter accumulation and delayed differentiation. Free sugars are decreased, indicating lower uptake and/or elevated mobilisation. Lower levels of trans-zeatins suggest that ABA reduction influences rates of cytokinin synthesis and/or its level of accumulation. Abscisic acid deficiency leads to a general downregulation of gene expression related to transcription and translation. At the transcriptional level, anti-ABA embryos reveal a wide-range repression of carbohydrate oxidation, downregulated sucrose mobilisation, glycolysis and the tricarboxylic acid cycle/Krebs cycle (TCA cycle). Genes related to starch, amino acid and storage protein biosynthesis are downregulated, indicating a general decrease in metabolic fluxes. We conclude that during embryo differentiation ABA triggers broad upregulation of gene activity and genetic reprogramming, involving regulated protein degradation via the ubiquitin/proteasome system. Abscisic acid deficiency affects gene expression associated with transport processes and stimulation of membrane energisation. Our study identified mediators and downstream signalling elements of ABA during embryo differentiation, such as the transcription factor FUSCA3, SnRK1 kinase and Ca(2+) signalling processes. This suggests that ABA interacts with SnRK1 complexes, thus connecting SnRK1, sugar and stress signalling with ABA. Certain protein kinases/phosphatases known to negatively respond to ABA are upregulated in the modulated line, whilst those which respond positively are downregulated, pointing to a highly coordinated response of the gene network to ABA levels.


We study how news coverage of immigrant criminality impacts voting in one of the most controversial referendums in recent years – the 2009 Swiss minaret ban. We combine a comprehensive crime detection dataset with detailed information on newspaper coverage. We first document a large upward distortion in media reporting of immigrant crime during the prereferendum period. Exploiting quasi-random variations in crime incidence, we find a positive first-order effect of news coverage on support for the ban. Quantification shows that, in absence of the media bias, pro-ban vote would have decreased from 57.6% to 53.5% at the national level.


The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of lactating propylthiouracil (PTU) on the thyroid-neural development in newborns. PTU was administered to female rats in drinking water (0.1% w/v) from birth to lactation day (LD) 30. A hypothyroid state was recorded at LDs 20 and 30 in both dams and their offspring where a marked depression (P<0.01) was observed in serum thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) levels, while a reverse pattern was noticed in serum thyrotropin (TSH) level as compared to a control group. Also, the maternal administration caused a highly significant decrease in the level of neonatal growth hormone (GH) at postnatal days (PNDs) 20 and 30. This hypothyroid condition produced inhibitory effects on 5'-monodeiodinase (5'-DI), and on cholinergic enzymes (butyrylcholinesterase (BuchE) and acetylcholinesterase (AchE)) in the neonatal cerebellum at the studied PNDs. This may also delay partially the development of the cerebellar Purkinje cells (PCs) via altering the dendritic morphology at both examined PNDs. All tested parameters in the control group followed a synchronized course of development, and their progress may depend, largely on thyroid state. Thus, PTU may act as a developmental thyroid-neural disruptor, causing dyshormonogenesis and cerebellum dysgenesis.


expected if tetracycline were teratogenic it is on balance more likely that the tetracycline could have been responsible. 5. It is possible that only a proportion of limb malformations in this country were due to thalidomide, even during the " thalidomide era "-see, for example, references 7 and 8. It is obvious that other drugs must be under suspicion also. This letter is concerned only with the tetracycline group, though doubts about the phenothiazine derivatives commonly used for pregnancy sickness8 9 deserve mention en passant. In conclusion, we put forward a strong plea that until the case against tetracycline has been investigated further any doctor about to prescribe a drug of this group for a woman of child-bearing age should (a) ask when her last period was, and (b) if there is any likelihood of pregnancy consider whether any other antibiotic can possibly be used instead.-We are, etc.,


Benzotriazole (BT) is an anticorrosive agent well known for its use in aircraft deicing and antifreeze fluids but also used in dishwasher detergents. It is highly persistent in the environment; therefore, BT is frequently found in runoff emanating from large airports as well as in the surrounding groundwater. In addition, BT has recently been found to be ubiquitous in Swiss wastewater treatment plant effluents and their receiving waters; however, very little chronic toxicity data is available on which to base a sound ecological risk assessment of this chemical. In vitro assays conducted using a recombinant yeast (anti-) estrogen assay indicated that BT possessed clear antiestrogenic properties. This chemical was approximately 100-fold less potent than Tamoxifen, which was used as a positive control. A subsequent in vivo study, however, involving analysis of vitellogenin induction and somatic indices in adult fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) exposed to BT at concentrations of 10, 100, and 1,000 mug/L for two weeks showed no evidence of antiestrogenic activity by this compound. The possibility exists that higher concentrations of BT may yet induce the type of activity observed in vitro, although the concentrations used here already far exceed those reported in surface-water samples. Furthermore, adverse effects may be observed in fish or other organisms exposed to BT for a longer period than employed here, although such studies are costly and unlikely to be included in standard risk assessment procedures. A rigorous investigation of the chronic toxicity of BT is imperative.


With the advent of big data and the birth of the data markets that sell personal information, individuals' privacy is of utmost importance. The classical response is anonymization, i.e., sanitizing the information that can directly or indirectly allow users' re-identification. The most popular solution in the literature is the k-anonymity. However, it is hard to achieve k-anonymity on a continuous stream of data, as well as when the number of dimensions becomes high.In this paper, we propose a novel anonymization property called z-anonymity. Differently from k-anonymity, it can be achieved with zero-delay on data streams and it is well suited for high dimensional data. The idea at the base of z-anonymity is to release an attribute (an atomic information) about a user only if at least z − 1 other users have presented the same attribute in a past time window. z-anonymity is weaker than k-anonymity since it does not work on the combinations of attributes, but treats them individually. In this paper, we present a probabilistic framework to map the z-anonymity into the k-anonymity property. Our results show that a proper choice of the z-anonymity parameters allows the data curator to likely obtain a k-anonymized dataset, with a precisely measurable probability. We also evaluate a real use case, in which we consider the website visits of a population of users and show that z-anonymity can work in practice for obtaining the k-anonymity too.