Tracking Systems provide an important analysis technique that can be used in many different areas of science. A Tracking System can be defined as the estimation of the dynamic state of moving objects based on 'inaccurate' measurements taken by sensors. The area encompasses a wide range of subjects, although the two most essential elements are estimation and data association. Tracking systems are applicable to relatively simple as well as more complex applications. These include air traffic control, ocean surveillance and control sonar tracking, military surveillance, missile guidance, physics particle experiments, global positioning systems and aerospace. This thesis describes an investigation into state-of-the-art tracking algorithms and distributed memory architectures (Multiple Instructions Multiple Data systems - "MIMD") for parallel processing of tracking systems. The first algorithm investigated is the Interacting Multiple Model (IMM) which has been shown recently to be one of the most cost-effective in its class. IMM scalability is investigated for tracking single targets in a clean environment. Next, the IMM is coupled with a well-established Bayesian data association technique known as Probabilistic Data Association (PDA) to permit the tracking of a target in different clutter environments (IMMPDA). As in the previous case, IMMPDA scalability is investigated for tracking a single target in different clutter environments. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of these new parallel techniques, standard languages and parallel software systems (to provide message-passing facilities) have been used. The main objective is to demonstrate how these complex algorithms can benefit in the general case from being implemented using parallel architectures.


This paper estimates the extent to which changing environmental standards have altered patterns of international investment. Our analysis goes beyond the existing literature in three ways. First, we avoid comparing regulations in different countries by using data on inward foreign direct investment (FDI) to the U.S. and on differences in the regulatory stringency of U.S. states. This approach has the advantage that data on environmental stringency in U.S. states are more comparable than that for different countries, and that U.S. states are more similar than countries in other difficult-to-measure dimensions. Second, our measure of environmental stringency accounts for differences in states' industrial compositions for earlier studies. Third, we employ a panel of annual measures of relative regulatory stringency from 1977 to 1994, allowing us to control for unobserved state characteristics that may be correlated with both FDI and compliance costs. We find some evidence of small deterrent effects of environmental regulations in particularly pollution-intensive industries large or widespread effects. While the broad conclusions are consistent with the existing literature, this paper does address three important concerns with that literature.


This article critically examines the relationship of contemporary "public meaning" originalism to the legal achievement of the Reconstruction Amendments. It identifies an influential "optimistic" trend in recent originalist scholarship. A growing number of scholars contend that public meaning originalism can successfully address constitutional issues in light of the Reconstruction amendments. They argue that rightly understood, the Fourteenth Amendment's original meaning aligns precisely with contemporary case outcomes, especially with respect to providing broad antidiscrimination rights to African Americans and women.

In this article I challenge originalism's optimistic turn by examining it through a historical lens. Based on a wide-ranging review of recent historical scholarship, I argue that the theory of original public meaning in effect gives scholars permission to be optimists about Reconstruction by allowing them to sidestep its full historical context. This avoids the reality that relative to the point of view of Americans today, the constitutional law of the nineteenth century, which contained doctrines that both predated and outlasted Reconstruction, was unfortunate in many ways.

The argument presented in this article concerning the extent to which the Reconstruction amendments changed prior law has significance beyond the confines of the debate over originalism. The questions raised concerning the cogency of optimistic originalism suggests we should reassess the role of Reconstruction in contemporary legal scholarship. Many constitutional scholars are similarly "optimistic" about the Reconstruction amendments even though they do not count themselves as originalists. I have come to doubt whether the legacy of Reconstruction is as uniformly constructive as it is often represented – at least by legal scholars as opposed to historians.

I argue that the limits of Reconstruction become clearer once we focus on the question of whether there were constitutional reasons for its failure, reasons that were only later addressed, however incompletely, in the Second Reconstruction of the civil rights movement. My account suggests that if we are interested in understanding how constitutional law changes legitimately both inside and outside Article V, revisiting Reconstruction through the use of sound methods based in the practice of historians should steer us away from originalism and toward historicist theories of constitutional change.

The article proceeds in four parts. Because the debate between originalism and nonoriginalism is ongoing and multifaceted, Part I provides a necessary orientation to the debate and roadmap of the arguments and themes pursued in the rest of the article. Parts II and III are the heart of the article. Part II reboots the discussion of Reconstruction for legal scholarship by describing its historical context in a way that reveals its constitutional limits. I then use this context to critique prominent optimistic originalist accounts of the Fourteenth Amendment in Part III. I first present what I call the "sequencing argument," detailing a problem that arises only for public meaning originalism. The remainder of Part III discusses two central issues for optimistic originalism: racial equality, especially with respect to school desegregation, and equal rights for women. Part IV draws on the historical discussion in the previous parts and the idea of "constitutional change as state building" to provide an overview of the failure of the First Reconstruction and show why the Second Reconstruction was legally necessary.


Haa Leelk'w Has Aani Saax'u / Our Grandparents' Names on the Land presents the results of a collaborative project with Native communities of Southeast Alaska to record indigenous geographic names. Documenting and analyzing more than 3,000 Tlingit, Haida, and other Native names on the land, it highlights their descriptive force and cultural significance. With community maps, tables, and photographs, this book will be invaluable for those seeking to understand Alaska Native geographic perspectives. As Tlingits from the Hoonah Indian Association explain in the book: "Long before Russian, French, Spanish, and British explorers mapped and named the mountains and bays of the Huna Tlingit homeland, we identified special places in our own vibrant, descriptive ways. Tlingit place names reflect important natural resources, ancestral stories, sacred places, and major geological and historic events. Our place names describe more than just inanimate locations for we perceive the mountains, glaciers, and streams to be as alive and aware as ourselves. Rather, they capture the history, emotions, and stories of our enduring relationship with a living, evolving landscape."


Few-shot learning is a central problem in meta-learning, where learners must quickly adapt to new tasks given limited training data. Recently, feature pre-training has become a ubiquitous component in state-of-the-art meta-learning methods and is shown to provide significant performance improvement. However, there is limited theoretical understanding of the connection between pre-training and meta-learning. Further, pre-training requires global labels shared across tasks, which may be unavailable in practice. In this paper, we show why exploiting pre-training is theoretically advantageous for meta-learning, and in particular the critical role of global labels. This motivates us to propose Meta Label Learning (MeLa), a novel meta-learning framework that automatically infers global labels to obtains robust few-shot models. Empirically, we demonstrate that MeLa is competitive with existing methods and provide extensive ablation experiments to highlight its key properties.


The high temperature plastic deformation of (Ti, V)C alloys was studied by load relaxation experiments. The deformation experiments were performed at 1200 to 1600~ on fully dense, single phase, polycrystalline TiC, TIC-25% VC, TIC-50% VC and TIC-75% VC, prepared by hot-pressing. The analysis of log a-log ~ data along with the evaluation of strain rate sensitivity ,,~ 0.9 to 1.5 and the grain size dependence ,,~ 2.6 indicates that the high temperature plastic deformation of these carbides occurs by grain-boundary diffusion, which is in accordance with hot-pressing results. Also, transmission electron microscopy of deformed samples, revealing little evidence for dislocation activity, supported this conclusion. The diffusion coefficients obtained in this study are in good agreement with those obtained for boundary diffusion, with the activation energy ~ 390 kJ mo1-1 for TiC and ~ 307 + 13 kJ mo1-1 for other compositions. A sharp decrease in the strength of (Ti, V)C alloys with the addition of VC is associated with the softening and/or melting of second phase material accumulated along the grain boundaries.


Immunoreactive arginine vasopressin (irAVP) was measured in seminal fluid with and without extraction using a specific radioimmunoassay (RIA). A large fraction of irAVP was re moved after extraction on octadecasilylsilica cartridges. The measured amount of irAVP corresponded to the levels found in blood plasma. Dilutions of seminal plasma extracts were parallel with the RIA standard curve. On reversed phase HPLC the extracted material coeluted with synthetic AVP. These findings suggest an identity of this immunoreactive material with intact AVP. During incubations of synthetic AVP and its analogue 8-D-arginine vasopressing (8-DAVP) in seminal plasma, immunoreactivity decreased considerably with the former peptide, while the concentration of 8-DAVP was not significantly altered.


In this study, we examined the mechanisms that control attention in natural scenes. We asked whether familiarity with the environment makes subjects more sensitive to changes or novel events in the scene. Previous investigation of this issue has been based on viewing 2-D images of simple objects or of natural scenes, a situation that does not accurately reflect the challenges of natural vision. We found that familiarity with the environment significantly increased the time spent fixating regions in the scene where a change had occurred. Together with previous work (Brockmole & Henderson, 2005a, 2005b), our results support the hypothesis that we learn the structure of natural scenes over time, and that attention is attracted by deviations from the stored scene representation. Such a mechanism would allow deployment of attention to objects or events that were not explicitly on the current cognitive agenda.


Methods for the identification of gas chromatographic
separated components of essential oils have been investigated.
The use of relative retention data was found to be of value
for identification only when known standards are available for
comparison. Tabulated Kovats indices, available from references,
were found to be unreliable for the identification of unknown
compounds. These techniques may be of value for preliminary
identification of some compounds, however it was found that
spectroscopic and chemical reaction data were necessary in order
to postively identify unknown compounds.
Combined gas chromatography - mass spectrometry computer
techniques enabled the rapid identification of the majority of
compounds present in these complex mixtures. Compounds identified
by this technique were found to be in agreement with many previously
identified by retention data. There were limitations in the
identification of compounds with similar spectra and the spectra
of unknown compounds not being included in the data base.
Where other spectroscopic data was necessary for identification
purposes, an off-line gas chromatographic sampling device was
constructed which enabled the collection of nanogram amounts of
compounds eluting from a gas chromatographic column. Compounds
collected this way were able to have their Raman spectra recorded
without any further sample manipulation. The technique was also
used for the recording of infrared, and nuclear magnetic resonance
spectra enabling positive identification of some compounds.
Techniques of reaction gas chromatography mass spectrometry
were developed. Hydrogenation techniques were found useful for the determination of the number of double bonds in a compound whilst
carbon skeleton chromatography - mass spectromatry was used for the
identification of the hydrocarbon skeleton of unidentified compounds.
Subtraction gas chromatography enabled the tentative identification
of the alcohol functional group in some compounds.
It was concluded that, due to the complex nature of the essential
oils investigated, a single technique is not available that enables
complete identification of all components. A combination of all
these methods must often be used for the complete identification of
components in essential oils.


In this study, plasma treatment using Ar and H2 and plasma polymerization with trimethylsilane (TMS), were carried out to create the interface film systems with a structure of Mg/plasma interlayer/cathodic electrophoretic coating (E-coat) for a magnesium (Mg) alloy AZ31B. The interface adhesion of the coating system was evaluated using N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP) paint removal test and ASTM tape test conducted under dry and wet conditions. Plasma TMS film could stick the Mg substrate more strongly than E-coat.The surface of samples with different interlayer treatment after NMP test has been observed by SEM. The potentiodynamic study performed on the E-coated samples showed a noticeable reduction of corrosion current, three orders of magnitude less than bare Mg. Salt spray test also was done to confirm the resistance corrosion of E-coat. It was found that plasma interface treatment has the ability of increasing the adhesion of E-coat on Mg alloy more or less, thus restrict access to damaging species that exist in Cl- aqueous environments.


We study approximations of optimization problems with probabilistic constraints in which the original distribution of the underlying random vector is replaced with an empirical distribution obtained from a random sample. We show that such a sample approximation problem with a risk level larger than the required risk level will yield a lower bound to the true optimal value with probability approaching one exponentially fast. This leads to an a priori estimate of the sample size required to have high confidence that the sample approximation will yield a lower bound. We then provide conditions under which solving a sample approximation problem with a risk level smaller than the required risk level will yield feasible solutions to the original problem with high probability. Once again, we obtain a priori estimates on the sample size required to obtain high confidence that the sample approximation problem will yield a feasible solution to the original problem. Finally, we present numerical illustrations of how these results can be used to obtain feasible solutions and optimality bounds for optimization problems with probabilistic constraints.


Introduction The development and deployment of a web-based, self-triage tool for severe respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (COVID-19 disease) aimed at preventing surges in healthcare utilization could provide easily understandable health guidance with the goal of mitigating unnecessary emergency department (ED) and healthcare visits. We describe the iterative development and usability testing of such a tool. We hypothesized that adult users could understand and recall the recommendations provided by a COVID-19 web-based, self-triage tool. Methods We convened a multidisciplinary panel of medical experts at two academic medical schools in an iterative redesign process of a previously validated web-based, epidemic screening tool for the current COVID-19 pandemic. We then conducted a cross-sectional usability study over a 24-hour period among faculty, staff, and students at the two participating universities. Participants were randomly assigned a pre-written health script to enter into the self-triage website for testing. The primary outcome was immediate recall of website recommendations. Secondary outcomes included usability measures. We stratified outcomes by demographic characteristics. Results A final sample of 877 participants (mean age, 32 years [range, 19–84 years]; 65.3% female) was used in the analysis. We found that 79.4% of the participants accurately recalled the recommendations provided by the website. Almost all participants (96.9%) found the website easy to use and navigate. Conclusion Adult users of a COVID-19 self-triage website, recruited from an academic setting, were able to successfully recall self-care instructions from the website and found it user-friendly. This website appears to be a feasible way to provide evidence-based health guidance to adult patients during a pandemic. Website guidance could be used to reduce unnecessary ED and healthcare visits.


This paper explores the consequences of Japan's refugee policy for Burmese refugees living in Tokyo by examining refugees' livelihoods and responses to the immigration/ refugee legal system. It begins with a description of Japan's legal framework as it pertains to immigrants and refugees, then examines four elements of refugees' livelihoods in Tokyo: employment, housing, health care and education. Tokyo's urban environment enables Burmese refugees from all backgrounds to generate income and make a living. Finding a place to live is possible with the help of the Burmese community, both legal and illegal. Education is only partially successful, but will prove more challenging as the refugee population grows. The present system is woefully inadequate to meet the health needs of asylum seekers. While refugees manage adequately, this is largely due to the Burmese community's strength and to some extent the response of Japanese civil society in the form of volunteer organizations. This success is in spite of Japan's rusty immigration and refugee system, which, slow to recognize that its temporary population is gradually becoming more permanent, is in need of more than a cosmetic makeover.


A vast literature exists on teaching reflection and reflective practice to trainees in small groups, yet with few exceptions the literature does not address the benefits of these interactions to faculty. Like multiculturalism or cultural competency, the literature assumes that faculty have themselves "achieved" these propensities and that trainees are the only recipients of the benefits of such inquiry. One of the noticeable exceptions is Arno Kumagai and colleagues' article, "The Impact of Facilitation of Small Group Discussions on Psychosocial Topics in Medicine on Faculty Growth and Development," which found that small group teaching stimulated not only students' personal and professional growth, but also that of the faculty themselves. Our intent is to continue and enlarge the questions posed in this important article. Specifically, this inquiry focuses on the meanings that clinical faculty derive from teaching medical students in discussion- and reflection-driven small group formats. Why do faculty leave the comfort zone of clinical teaching and take time away from income-generating patient care activities? What is it about this teaching experience that calls them back each year? In answering these questions, we conducted a qualitative study consisting of interviews and focus groups with 11 clinical faculty participants who teach in Reflections on Doctoring, a required, longitudinal course for medical students. The data of our study provides insight into the thoughts, attitudes, and motives of our faculty who not only view themselves as teachers and mentors, but also as co-learners who engage personally with the medical humanities content being taught. They confront, reveal and resolve challenges presented by literary perspectives and find enjoyment and sense of purpose in teaching non-jaded medical students. Furthermore, what emerged from our study was a deeper understanding of what inspires our faculty to sacrifice their time and effort to facilitate medical humanities discussions with young medical students and how this experience contributes to the ongoing development of their own professional identities.


We consider the problem of minimizing the differential delay in a virtually concatenated Ethernet over SONET (EoS) system by suitable path selection. The link capacity adjustment scheme (LCAS) enables network service providers to dynamically add STS-n channels to or drop them from a virtually concatenated group (VCG). A new STS-n channel can be added to the VCG provided that the differential delay between the new STS-n channel and the existing STS-n channels in the VCG is within a certain bound that reflects the available memory buffer supported by the EoS system. We model the problem of finding such a STS-n channel as a constrained path selection problem where the cost of the required (feasible) path is constrained not only by an upper bound but also by a lower bound. We propose two algorithms to find such a path. Algorithm I uses the well-known k-shortest-path algorithm. Algorithm II is based on a modified link metric that linearly combines the original link weight (the link delay) and the inverse of that weight. The theoretical properties of such a metric are studied and used to develop a highly efficient heuristic for path selection. Simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of both algorithms in terms of the miss rate and the execution time (average computational complexity)


Recently, various Deep Neural Network (DNN) models have been proposed for environments like embedded systems with stringent energy constraints. The fundamental problem of determining the ro-bustness of a DNN with respect to its energy consumption (energy robustness) is relatively unexplored compared to accuracy-based ro-bustness. This work investigates the energy robustness of Adaptive Neural Networks (AdNNs), a type of energy-saving DNNs proposed for many energy-sensitive domains and have recently gained traction. We propose EREBA, the first black-box testing method for determining the energy robustness of an AdNN. EREBA explores and infers the relationship between inputs and the energy con-sumption of AdNN s to generate energy surging samples. Extensive implementation and evaluation using three state-of-the-art AdNNs demonstrate that test inputs generated by EREBA could degrade the performance of the system substantially. The test inputs gener-ated by EREBA can increase the energy consumption of AdNN s by 2,000% compared to the original inputs. Our results also show that test inputs generated via EREBA are valuable in detecting energy surging inputs.


My Ph.D. examines women's writing in the interwar period through a questioning of the boundaries between the public and private sphere as traditional masculine forms of power based on a system of sovereignty and law enter the domestic realm. I also consider how power might be reimagined abroad. I juxtapose works of popular fiction from E.M. Hull, Agatha Christie and Marie Belloc Lowndes with the modernist writers Sylvia Townsend Warner, Katherine Mansfield and Rebecca West. Like much popular fiction of the early twentieth century, the bestsellers I explore exist in a complex relationship with that of their "other" - modernism. Section One looks at the modernist short story writer Mansfield alongside Christie, the Queen of Crime. The conception of home, for both Christie and Mansfield, is always somewhat uncanny. My readings of sovereignty in Mansfield and Christie are very much underpinned by a notion of the domestic space which becomes permeable to the political sphere at certain times of crisis. By using Giorgio Agamben's theory of bare life within the state of exception, I unpack the notion of how the public and private become conflated. In the uncanny domesticity which haunts the pages of both Mansfield and Christie, the category of femina sacra offers a more gender specific reading than that of homo sacer or bare life within which I examine the paradoxical notion of legalised murder. The two chapters of Section Two juxtapose Warner's modernist fantasy novels with the popular desert romance novel of Hull. This section examines ways in which colonialism and imagined representations of colonial lands and the colonial "other" impacts on understanding of sovereignty and representations of power. Though apparently from two dissimilar literary worlds, Hull and Warner share a surprising affinity: I look at Warner's imagined representations of colonial lands and the colonial other in terms of how these may impact on understandings of sovereignty and representations of power. I consider how the imagined space of her early novels is broadened to include the historical spaces of her later fictions. In the chapter on Hull I argue that representations of androgynous and cross-dressing women, a theme also apparent in Warner's novels, allow for her heroines to inhabit positions of relative power in relation to their male counterparts. Section Three contrasts the modernist West with popular romance/psychological thriller writer Lowndes. Both writers also have a deep-seated concern with the domestic and its complex relationship with power and rule. Though neither of these authors are consciously writing within the Gothic tradition I draw on notions of this genre to explore the uncanny in relation to images of domesticity that find themselves tainted by the threat of murder. In this section I draw on Freudian psychoanalytic notions, both of the death drive and of das unheimliche, to unravel parallels between the works of these two authors specifically examining how representations of death and the recurrent notions of the opposing life and death drives can be read as enactments of the grand-narrative of sovereignty. Although my thesis is concerned with authors who were writing in and around the literary innovations characterised by the modernist movement, this is not a project about modernism in a straightforward sense; rather, I read somewhat marginal modernist figures alongside popular fiction writers who seem to function as auxiliary modernists. Whilst I am comparing the low-brow with the modernist I do not seek to place any value laden judgements on the relative literary merits of these works; though, on the whole, the popular fiction I examine takes a more conservative approach than that of its more innovative modernist counterparts, it still, at moments, disrupts expectations with its critical stance towards conceptions of sovereignty and law. (Less)


We study the effect of a state-level mandate on renewable heating technologies on the housing market. The mandate requires a minimum share of 10% renewable energy sources when changing the heating system in the existing building stock. The mandate could lower the relative price of homes in the existing building stock. We implement a two-stage difference-in-differences nearest neighbor matching approach to identify the effect on prices taking advantage of differences in regulation by location and vintage of the building stock. We find no evidence of a negative effect of the mandate on housing prices.


Past research has revealed significant abnormal ex-date returns for stock dividends even though the ex-date is known in advance and the distribution contains no new information. Various researchers have suggested that odd-lot transaction costs faced by certain investors are the key driver in the abnormal returns. However, no study to date has directly compared the ex-date price reaction of stock dividends distributed when odd-lot trade costs were charged to those issued when odd-lot costs were not evident. A further tax-based argument has also been put forward to explain the price reaction to stock dividends when those dividends carry imputation tax credits. New Zealand stock dividends present a unique opportunity to directly test the odd-lot cost argument as well as examine the impact of New Zealand's imputation tax regime on stock dividend ex-dates. We find evidence to support the odd-lot transactions cost argument and also show that imputation tax credits have a value greater than zero.


The European Court of Justice, the ECJ, has the governing function in the Union as a guardian of law and justice. Even today, with a Union of 15 memberstates, statistics show that the ECJ and the Court of First Instance have increasing difficulties in fulfilling their tasks. This situation is chiefly a cause of an increasing number of cases raised. Due to this, profound changes have to be made in order to preserve common lawagreements in a future expansion of the Union. The purpose of this paper is to exam which changes the Courts have to make in order to meet an increased amount of cases that an enlarged Union would mean.


To meet the varied needs and desires of customers, the selection of materials for industrially manufactured products requires careful balancing of functional and expressive material requirements. However, the majority of material selection advice and resources continues to be oriented to functional and technical considerations. This paper provides a review and comparison of recently assembled research into user-centred materials selection, which seeks not only to bolster industrial designers' expertise in the area of expressively driven materials decisions, but also to find a more confident place alongside utilitarian decisions. Five principal themes are identified from a collection of journal articles invited by the author for inclusion in a special file on materials and industrial design education: (1) development of a sensorial-expressive language of materials; (2) generation of materials knowledge via samples and product exemplars; (3) consideration of materials as a user interface; (4) awareness of contextual considerations; and (5) availability of new material selection tools. The intention is to inform design educators about how to shift materials teaching from a predominantly technical subject to one that has product experience at its core.


We examine the impact of new medical information on drug safety on preventive health behavior. We exploit the release of the findings of the Women's Health Initiative Study (WHIS) – the largest randomized controlled trial of women's health – which demonstrated in 2002 that long-term Hormone Replacement Therapy increases the risk of heart attacks, stroke, blood clots and breast cancer among healthy post-menopausal women. Because hormone replacement is a therapy exclusive to women, we estimate the spillover effects of the WHIS findings on health behavior by means of a difference-in-differences methodology using men of similar ages as the control group. Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for 1998-2007, we find statistically significant small negative spillovers on post-menopausal women's likelihood of having an annual checkup and choice of a healthy diet, as proxied by daily fruit consumption. Our results also indicate that the observed spillover effects of drug safety on health behavior were entirely driven by the less educated. These findings suggest that policies aimed at raising awareness on the safety of medications may have unintended spillover effects on health behavior and that these spillovers may contribute to the existing health disparities by education.


Building water-wise cities is a pressing need nowadays in both developed and developing countries. This is mainly due to the limitation of the available water resources and aging infrastructure to meet the needs of adapting to social and environmental changes and for urban liveability. This is the first book to provide comprehensive insights into theoretical, systematic, and engineering aspects of water-wise cities with a broad coverage of global issues. The book aims to (1) provide a theoretical framework of water-wise cities and associated sustainable water systems including key concepts and principles, (2) provide a brand-new thinking on the design and management of sustainable urban water systems of various scales towards a paradigm shift under the resource and environmental constraints, and (3) provide a technological perspective with successful case studies of technology selection, integration, and optimization on the "fit-for-purpose" basis.


Preventive Cardiology: How can we reduce CVD risk? An understanding of the importance of teaching preventive cardiology is essential if we wish to reduce the global incidence of CVD. We must be able to recognise and manage individuals at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease. We can then attempt to reduce their risk by lifestyle modification and use of appropriate medication. We need also to consider health inequalities & social determinants of health which are linked to poorer population outcomes. Currently, more than 36 million people worldwide die from NCDs each year. A number of NCDs, including CVD, cancer of lung, stomach, colon & possibly breast, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease (COPD) share one or more common predisposing risk factors, all related to lifestyle to some degree. The global financial burden of NCDs is staggering, with an estimated 2010, global cost of $6.3 trillion (US dollars) that is projected to increase to $13 trillion by 2030. The long term aim is to reduce the huge burden of cardiovascular disease in the UK, Europe & Worldwide in both developed and developing countries. How can we help people to change their behaviour & encourage them to modify their lifestyles? (Revised edition November 2016)


We consider a continuous-time simple symmetric branching random walk on multidimensional lattices  under the condition that at the initial time there is only one particle on the lattice. Such models have different applications. For instance, M.Cranston et al.  (2009)  considered a model of a continuous homopolymer in a potential field with the Brownian motion instead of a random walk. In this work it is proved, in particilar, the existence of a critical value of temperature such that  when the temperature trespasses this value the transition between globular and extended phase occurs. The approach proposed  by M.Cranston et al. (2009) is based on the resolvent analysis of the evolution operator but does not take into account the case of a simple symmetric branching random walk on multidimensional lattices. In our work, the underlying random walk is determined by the discrete Laplace operator on the multidimensional lattice. In this case the related Green's function coincides with the Laplace transform of the transition probability of random walk. The process of branching in the source situated in one point of the lattice is defined by the infinitesimal generating function. One of important characteristics of the process is the parameter beta defined as the value of the first derivative of this function at the point 1. The offsprings of the initial particle walk, die and reproduce themselves under the same law independently from each other. As is known (see, Molchanov and Yarovaya, 2012), in this case the evolution operator of mean number of the particles is the discrete Laplace operator with one-point perturbation, and the asymptotic behaviour of the process is dependent on the intensity of the source, and therefore the value of beta (see, Bogachev and Yarovaya, 1998,  Yarovaya, 2007). It is found that, there exists the critical value beta_cr such that when beta > beta_cr the evolution operator has a positive isolated eigenvalue lambda given by the values of beta and Green's function. This eigenvalue defines the exponential rate of growth of the number of particles (see, Yarovaya, 2010). The main goal of our work is to analyse the asymptotic behaviour of the  eigenvalue lambda when beta converges to beta_cr. The behaviour of the branching random walk with beta converging to beta_cr is offered to call the weakly supercritical. The key moment in this problem is the analysis of the properties of Green's function  with small lambda (Molchanov and Yarovaya, 2012). Based on the investigation of the properties of the Green's function we classify the asymptotic behaviour of lambda when beta converges to beta_cr with respect to dimension of the space of walk. In conclusion we should mention the actuality of the solution of this problem for a finite set of sources of branching on the lattice. This work was partly supported by RFBR grant 13-01-00653. [ ] -


This journal issue contain abstracts of the 13th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Institute of Cardiovascular Science and Medicine 2009


Amalia is a generator framework for constructing analyzers for operationally defined formal notations. These generated analyzers are components that are designed for customization and integration into a larger environment. The customizability, and efficiency of Amalia analyzers owe to a computational structure called an inference graph. This paper describes this structure, how inference graphs enable Amalia to generate analyzers for operational specifications, and how we build in assurance. On another level, this paper illustrates how to balance the need for assurance, which typically implies a formal proof obligation, against other design concerns, whose solutions leverage design techniques that are not (yet) accompanied by mature proof methods. We require Amalia-generated designs to be transparent with respect to the formal semantic models upon which they are based. Inference graphs are complex structures that incorporate many design optimizations. While not formally verifiable, their fidelity with respect to a formal operational semantics can be discharged by inspection.


Abstract Megalencephaly capillary malformation polymicrogyria (MCAP) syndrome is characterized by the sporadic occurrence of congenital and progressive megalencephaly, brain malformations including polymicrogyria, pre- and postnatal overgrowth with body asymmetry, cutaneous vascular malformations (including capillary malformation and cutis marmorata), digital anomalies connective tissue dysplasia (including skin and joint laxity), and developmental delay. In the past 10 years, the specific cause of the disease has been found in gain-of-function mutations of PIK3CA gene, mostly somatic/postzygotic but in rare cases also de novo germline. Such gene encodes for PI3K, a critical member of the PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway: genetic changes lead to an over-activation of this signaling system, with increased vascular, limb, and brain cell development, progression, and survival. Interestingly, mutations in the same gene can cause other clinically heterogeneous syndromes, including CLOVE syndrome, macrodactyly, focal adipose overgrowth, epidermal nevi, facial infiltrating lipomatosis: all these syndromes (even if heterogeneous) are now considered a unique spectrum, known as PIK3CA-related overgrowth syndrome. On the contrary, a disease strictly similar to MCAP, characterized by megalencephaly, polymicrogyria, polydactyly, and hydrocephalus has been found to be caused by mutations in two other PI3K-AKT-mTOR-releted genes, AKT3 and PIK3R2, and for this reason is not included in the upper mentioned group of syndromes. With the exception of neurosurgery strategies for hydrocephalus and posterior fossa overcrowding, therapeutic options are nowadays limited, even if gene-targeted treatment protocols have been proposed and protocols with such agents (i.e., Arq092) are currently ongoing in small groups of patients with promising results.


In Israel as in other parts of the world, families, parenthood, and relations between parents and children have changed dramatically over the past few decades. So, too, developments in modern medicine have enhanced the ability to separate sexuality from fertility and parenthood. Many researchers feel that the legal system has not kept pace with these changes, and that traditional models of familial relationships no longer provide adequate tools for dealing with them. In order to bridge the gap between a desired social status and current law, a growing number of parents seek to regulate the status, rights, and obligations of parenthood by means of agreements and contracts. This study surveys the process of defining and determining legal parenthood in Israeli law, focusing on dominant trends in family law in general, an in the law of prents and children in particular. The article identifies a clear if slow trend to abandon Jewish law in favour of civil law. One expression of this trend is a change in the definition of legal parenthood: the idea of natural parenthood, influenced by Jewish Halakah, is being replaced by socio-psychological parentage that is, by nature, civil and secular. This article seeks to contribute a further element to this normative, civil arrangement: determining legal parenthood by agreement. After establishing the theoretical foundation and examining the main practical aspects of the normative model, we briefly review its potential advantages and attempt to deal with objections that might arise. We then examine its application in determining the legal parenthood of children born as a result of fertility treatments. We then examine the current judicial and administrative mechanisms, and the changes that need to be made to apply the model in Israel. Finally, we discuss the more complex idea of appplying this model to the definition of legal parenthood of all children.


This document is the outcome of a joined working group setup between the two European Technology Platforms, New European Media (NEM) and Networld2020. The objective was to combine expertise from the media sector which brought application requirements and the network domain which brought expertise in 5G. Nine media&content use cases have been identified by the group that cover most of the common media&content situations from production to consumption.
From these 9 use cases the group has identified 12 parameters that should be used to adapt the network to the application requirements, such as: Latency, Reliability, Data rate, Mobility, User density, Positioning, User Equipment speed.
Looking to the 5G network capabilities and parameters that could be activated, the last section provides a description of 5G Media Slices. There is a "s" because one of the main conclusions of the paper is that the media chain encompasses a number of functionalities and operations such as content creation, service composition, service aggregation, content distribution, devices, user
interaction and interfaces, which requires different slices. Additionally, 5G requirements will be different for production which needs mostly uplink capacities and distribution which needs mostly downlink capacities.
For each of the 9 use cases, there is a proposal to allocate 1 or 2 slices, detailed in the conclusion of this paper. The objective of this paper is to provide proposals and reference material to standardisation organisations in order to contribute to the design and specification of 5G Media Slices.


OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the usefulness of a microelectronic tablet-dispenser for monitoring adherence to preventive therapy for tuberculosis infection in adolescents.

METHODOLOGY
Twenty-one patients with positive Mantoux tests were treated with isoniazid (INH), dispensed in a microelectronic tablet-dispenser that recorded the date, time and duration that the container was opened. Other measures of adherence included attendance at clinic, patient self-report, tablet count, and measurement of urinary INH metabolites.

RESULTS
The mean adherence rates were: 83% using attendance at clinic, 91% using tablet counts, 79% using urine assays, and 66% using the electronic tablet-dispenser. Self-reporting appeared to over-estimate adherence.

CONCLUSION
Adherence to 6 months of INH calculated using different measures is higher in this study than in previous reports. Microelectronic tablet-dispensers are an effective method to objectively measure adherence on a daily basis. Other measures are less helpful.


When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts 1:6–11)


The field of active origami explores the incorporation of active materials into origami-inspired structures in order to serve as a means of actuation. Active origami-inspired structures capable of folding into complex three-dimensional (3D) shapes have the potential to be lightweight and versatile compared to traditional methods of actuation. This paper details the finite element analysis and experimental validation of unimorph actuators. Actuators are fabricated by adhering layers of electroded dielectric elastomer (3M VHB F9473PC) onto a passive substrate layer (3M Magic Scotch Tape). Finite element analysis of the actuators simulates the electromechanical coupling of the dielectric elastomer under an applied voltage by applying pressures to the surfaces of the dielectric elastomer where the compliant electrode (conductive carbon grease) is present. 3D finite element analysis of the bending actuators shows that applying contact boundary conditions to the electroded region of the active and passive layers provides better agreement to experimental data compared to modeling the entire actuator as continuous. To improve the applicability of dielectric elastomer-based actuators for active origami-inspired structures, folding actuators are developed by taking advantage of localized deformation caused by a passive layer with non-uniform thickness. Two-dimensional analysis of the folding actuators shows that agreement to experimental data diminishes as localized deformation increases. Limitations of using pressures to approximate the electromechanical coupling of the dielectric elastomer under an applied electric field and additional modeling considerations are also discussed.


The discrete skewed Laplace distribution is a flexible distribution with integer domain and simple closed form that can be applied to model count data. Parameters are estimated under empirical Bayes (EB) analysis and comparison are made between the Bayesian parameter estimation and classical parameter estimation, i.e. the maximum likelihood (ML) approach. The results show that the Bayesian parameter estimations are preferable.


Three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship methods, the comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and the comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA), were applied using a training set of 45 ligands of the (alpha4)2(beta2)3 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR). All compounds are related to (-)-epibatidine, (-)-cytisine, (+)-anatoxin-a, and (-)-ferruginine, and additionally, novel diazabicyclo[4.2.1]nonane- and quinuclidin-2-ene-based structures were included. Their biological data have been determined by utilizing the same experimental protocol. Statistically reliable models of good predictive power (CoMFA r2 = 0.928, q2 = 0.692, no. of components = 3; CoMSIA r2 = 0.899, q2 = 0.701, no. of components = 3) were achieved. The results obtained were graphically interpreted in terms of field contribution maps. Hence, physicochemical determinants of binding, such as steric and electrostatic and, for the first time, hydrophobic, hydrogen bond donor, and hydrogen bond acceptor properties, were mapped back onto the molecular structures of a set of nAChR modulators. In particular, changes in the binding affinity of the modulators as a result of modifications in the aromatic ring systems could be rationalized by the steric, electrostatic, hydrophobic, and hydrogen bond acceptor properties. These results were used to guide the rational design of new nAChR ligands such as 48-52 and 54, which were subsequently synthesized for the first time and tested. Key steps of our synthetic approaches were successfully applied Stille and Suzuki cross-coupling reactions. Predictive r2 values of 0.614 and 0.660 for CoMFA and CoMSIA, respectively, obtained for 22 in part previously unknown ligands for the (alpha4)2(beta2)3 subtype, demonstrate the high quality of the 3D QSAR models.


Caffeine is the most-used psychoactive substance in the world. About 80% of the world's population consumes caffeine every day, including athletes and lifestyle users. Thus, it is important to understand the consumer drivers of caffeine-containing beverages and food. This research study aims to explore consumers' behaviors, perceptions, attitudes, and drivers towards caffeine-containing products to enhance sports performance. The research applies the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in order to understand consumers' behavior, extended with utilitarian aspects for a comprehensive understanding of consumers' behavior and attitudes. We interviewed consumers with the support of Qualtrics online software. The data were then processed with SPSS (statistical analysis software). The data elaboration includes a multivariate linear regression model to analyze the consumers' intention to consume caffeine to enhance the sports performance, and to explore consumers' preference of marketing leverages for this product category. The results contribute to an understanding of consumers' consumption and purchasing behavior towards caffeine, and support the validity of the extended TPB to develop a more comprehensive picture of consumer behavior. Consumers have a positive attitude towards caffeine-containing products to enhance sports performance. The main consumer behavior drivers are subjective norms and utilitarian aspects. The present research results may support companies in the development of caffeine-containing products to enhance sports performance.


We extend the Tobit (censored) linear equation system procedure to utility-theoretic demand functions, along with a mapping mechanism to impose the adding-up restriction implied by consumer utility maximization theory—a theoretical restriction very often ignored in previous empirical studies with censored demand systems. In this context, the Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) procedure is applied to the censored linear approximate almost ideal demand system (LAIDS) for 12 food products, using data from the Turkish Household Expenditure Survey. All own-price elasticities are negative and expenditure elasticities positive. Uncompensated own-price elasticities for rural households are generally much higher than those for their urban peers, though demand for most food products are own-price elastic for both types of households. The differential patterns in demand elasticities between urban and rural households become even more evident (almost twice) as relatively more expensive foodstuffs are consumed, showing that accessibilities to alternative products have made rural Turkish households more cognizant toward price changes in foods. Household characteristics play a key role in food expenditures, notably so in urban areas, and regional and seasonal differences are also present.


In dense wireless environments a large number of WLANs may overlap and interfere with one another. This paper reports on two wireless measurement experiments designed to study access point (AP) interference. The first experiment shows that using only non-overlapping channels may not be optimal. The second experiment examines the relationship between access point transmission power and throughput in relation to adjacent wireless networks.


Earlier experiments have shown that listeners are very poor at detecting frequency modulation (FM) imposed on the fundamental frequency (F0) of complex tones consisting only of unresolved harmonics. In the first experiment, the detection of 5 Hz FM was measured for a complex tone with a 62.5 Hz F0 and harmonics bandpass filtered between 1375 and 1875 Hz. These results were compared to performance on a task in which listeners were required to detect an F0 difference between two 50‐ms bursts of the complex separated by 50 ms. It was shown that performance on the two tasks (measured in terms of maximum F0 deviation at threshold) was similar. A subsequent experiment showed that, in a two interval discrimination task, there was a dramatic deterioration in F0 discrimination for complexes composed of unresolved harmonics as the interstimulus interval was reduced from 500 to 100 ms. It seems, therefore, that poor performance on the FM detection task was due to difficulties in comparing F0s over short time interva...


Listeriosis is one of the most notable foodborne diseases and is characterized by high rates of mortality. L. monocytogenes is the main cause of human listeriosis outbreaks, however, there are isolated cases of disease caused by other species of the genus Listeria. The aim of this study was to evaluate strains of L. monocytogenes (n = 7), L. innocua (n = 6), and L. welshimeri (n = 2) isolated from fish and shrimps for their virulence based on the presence of virulence genes and the in vivo Danio rerio (zebrafish) larvae models. A total of 15 strains were analyzed. The zebrafish larvae model showed that the larvae injected with L. monocytogenes strains were characterized by the lowest survival rate (46.5%), followed by L. innocua strains (64.2%) and L. welshimeri (83.0%) strains. Multiplex PCRs were used for detection of selected virulence genes (luxS, actA2, prfA, inlB, rrn, iap, sigB, plcB, actA, hlyA), the majority of which were present in L. monocytogenes. Only a few virulence-related genes were found in L. welshimeri, however, no correlation between the occurrence of these genes and larval survival was confirmed. This research highlights the importance of the potential impact that Listeria spp. strains isolated from fish and shrimps may have on consumers.


When the common European GSM standard was introduced, operators used it to promote roaming between European countries and then later worldwide. By offering transmission over a continuous connection, the GPRS standard has significantly increased speeds for data transmission. Until GPRS was introduced, mobile operators had only partially installed bridges between their switched networks and data networks. The purpose of this document is to illustrate architectures for GPRS roaming and aims to provide a standardised view on how GPRS networks can interwork in order to provide GPRS roaming capabilities when users roam onto foreign networks.


BACKGROUND: The effect of vaccination against the influenza virus on the mortality due to cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remains controversial. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the mortality by CVD before and after the start of the vaccination against the Influenza virus in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. METHODS: We analyzed the mortality due to ischemic heart diseases (IHD), cerebrovascular diseases (CbVD) and external causes (EC) in the population of the metropolitan region of the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, aged > 60 years, before and after the start of the vaccination program against Influenza. The population estimates and mortality data were obtained, respectively, from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE; www.ibge.gov.br) and from the Brazilian Ministry of Health (www.datasus.gov.br) for the period between 1980 and 2006. The risk of death was adjusted by the direct method, using the 1960 world standard population. RESULTS: The comparisons between the inclinations of the regression lines were similar for CbVD (p = 0.931) and EC (p = 0.941); however, for IHD (p = 0.022), a significant decrease was observed in the regression line of the post-vaccination period, when compared to the pre-vaccination period. A change in the tendency towards mortality after 1996 was significant only for the IHD (p=0.022), remaining unaltered for the CbVD (p=0.931) and EC (p=0.941). CONCLUSION: The vaccination against the Influenza virus was associated with a significant decrease in the mortality due to IHD.


Belfius has always consistently adhered to a long-term strategy, driven by its entrepreneurship and determination to create added value for the Belgian community. The foundations of that strategy? Strict financial and risk management, aimed at achieving sustainable long-term solvency and liquidity, as well as a balanced ratio between income, costs and investments. The driving forces for achieving this aim? Ongoing focus on customer and employee satisfaction, based respectively on a strong local affinity with customers and an attractive HR policy that focuses on growth opportunities for Belgian talent. The development of a strong brand based on a new banking culture. Single-minded innovation – using tech-players as the benchmark – resulting in greater efficiency and unprecedented convenience for customers. And how is this put into effect? By evolving from a traditional bank, focusing mainly on Retail customers and the public sector, into a fully-fledged diversified bank-insurer that is positioned successfully in every segment of the Belgian economy and is a leading European digital provider. The result? An increase in net profit for the eighth year in a row and total equity capital approaching 10 billion euro for the first time. Belfius is ready for the future.


To establish the green laser ablation process more accurately, a detailed knowledge of the exact value of ablation threshold is of great importance. Therefore, the presented paper has investigated the single pulse ablation threshold using four different methods, namely, fitting method via diameter square, fitting method via depth, micro-topography method and the one-dimensional heat conduction model. Through this research, the well-defined threshold in term of laser fluence (J/cm2) is obtained, and the comparison among different methods casts a light on the effective way to determine the ablation threshold. Also, the underlying laser-material interaction mechanism is analyzed.


We demonstrate that ultrafast nonlinear dynamics gives rise to reciprocity breaking in a random photonic medium. Reciprocity breaking is observed via the suppression of coherent backscattering, a manifestation of weak localization of light. The effect is observed in a pump-probe configuration where the pump induces an ultrafast step change of the refractive index during the dwell time of the probe light in the material. The dynamical suppression of coherent backscattering is reproduced well by a multiple scattering Monte Carlo simulation. Ultrafast reciprocity breaking provides a distinct mechanism in nonlinear optical media, which opens up avenues for the active manipulation of mesoscopic transport, random lasers, and photon localization.


The top quark pair production $\sigma_{t\bar{t}}$ is measured in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The analyzed data have been collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 27.4 /pb. The measurement is performed by analyzing events with at least one charged lepton. The measured cross section is 69.5 $\pm$ 8.4 pb. The result is in agreement with the expectation from the standard model. The impact of the presented measurement on the gluon distribution function is illustrated through a quantum chromodynamic analysis at next-to-next-to-leading order.


This work describes a general method for the encapsulation of enzymes with albumin as wall material and the enzyme catalase as prime example. Care was taken for the preparation of biochemically active sub-micrometer particles in order to prevent oxygen toxicity induced by artificial oxygen carriers of any type. In cell culture experiments, capsules containing catalase did not exhibit any harmful activities in the absence of peroxides. In the presence of hydrogen peroxide application of low and medium dosed capsules below 0.05 vol% (final concentration 0.001 vol%) even increased the cell damaging process. However, a higher dosage of capsules (> 0.05 vol%) prevented completely cellular disruption induced by 5 mM hydrogen peroxide and decreased up to 90% of cellular damage at higher peroxide concentrations. These results demonstrated that encapsulated catalase was enzymatically active and the over-all activity of prepared catalase capsules was determined to be > 1000 U ∙ mL−1 ∙ vol%−1.


Objective: Medical equipment plays an effective and vital role in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Each society dedicates a plethora of health resources to these facilities. Since prioritizing and resource allocation are crucial in low-income countries with limited health resources, understanding and improving the purchase management of medical equipment in hospitals is a primary key for preparing high-quality health services. The aim of this study was to design a model for medical equipment purchase management at hospitals affiliated with the Tehran University of Medical Sciences.
Methods: The statistical population for the present applied study, consisted of 623 people and the research sample was comprised of 420 people, which was selected using the stratified random sampling method. Data was collected using a researcher-made questionnaire whose variables were extracted from comparative studies and whose validity was measured by the relative content validity coefficient, content validity index and Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The SPSS 18 and AMOS were employed for analyses.
Results: The most and the least effective aspects of medical equipment purchase management in the studied hospitals were found to be decision-making (path coefficient of 1.244) and organization respectively (path coefficient of 0. 845).
Conclusion: It is crucial to take factors into consideration when using the facilities and capacities available in health and treatment centres. The proposed model can best guide buyer institutions to move towards efficient purchase mentioned in upstream policy documents.


Pulsewidth modulation (PWM) strategies have been the subject of many years of research effort, and the merits of the various alternatives investigated have been argued extensively. In general, it is now accepted that natural or asymmetrical regular sampled PWM with a third harmonic injected or a space-vector centered reference waveform gives the best harmonic performance, with discontinuous modulation having some advantages for higher modulation ratios. This paper uses a general analytical solution for carrier-based PWM to mathematically identify the harmonic cancellation that occurs in various PWM implementations and converter topologies. This solution provides a formal justification for the superiority of natural and asymmetrical regular sampling techniques in eliminating half of their sideband harmonics simply by virtue of their phase leg switching. Then, the use of fundamental reference phase shifting between phase legs to create single- and three-phase 1-1 output voltages is reviewed, and the harmonic cancellation that occurs is identified. One significant result from this analysis is the realization that an odd/triplen carrier/fundamental ratio has no intrinsic harmonic benefit, contrary to the generally accepted wisdom. Finally, opportunities for harmonic elimination in multilevel cascaded inverter systems by carrier phase shifting are investigated, and the optimum phase shift is identified.


Professional development can be achieved by interacting with the abundance of learning materials provided by Internet-based services and by collaborating with other learners. However, knowledge sources are scattered across the Internet, while suitable co-learners are hard to find. Learning professionals require strong self-direction powers to fully benefit from these resources. However, these are not readily available in all learners. Based on social-constructivist/connectivist collaborative learning theory and team formation theory, a model is presented for the effective formation of teams engaging in structured collaborative learning. The model describes the creation knowledge domain representations by centralising learning materials from various sources. It allows learners to define structured learning tasks and provides an answer to the question whether a particular learning task can be addressed sufficiently well in the knowledge domain. Based on team formation theory, it provides the means to form teams of mutual learners and peer-teachers based on bridgeable knowledge differences (an interpretation of Vygotsky's "zone of proximal development") and personality aspects. The model also allows recommending suitable learning materials to the teams. A selection of tools is presented to afford an implementation of the model. These consist of an implementation of the method of Latent Semantic Analysis, a validated learning team formation algorithm and the Big Five personality test. The model is subsequently tested. The results of this test indicate that representations of knowledge domains can be successfully created and that the fit of learning tasks to the learning materials in the domain can be assessed. An experiment with learners (n=64) shows that the implementation can successfully assess prior knowledge and that collaborations based on prior knowledge differences do lead to knowledge gains. Furthermore, learners highly appreciate the learning materials suggested. However, the evidence for a level of knowledge difference between learners at which learning becomes most effective is currently limited. The results are discussed, and conclusions and directions for future research are included.


Background. The demand for time-consuming psychotherapy of phobia/panic exceeds the supply of trained therapists. Delegating routine therapy aspects to a computer might ease this problem. Method. Ninety-three out-patients with phobia or panic disorder were randomized in a 2[ratio ]2[ratio ]1 ratio to have self-exposure therapy guided either mainly by a stand-alone computer system (FearFighter) or entirely face-to-face by a clinician, or to have mainly computer-guided self-relaxation as a placebo. Both computer groups (FearFighter and relaxation) had brief back-up advice from a clinician. Primary outcome measures were self- and blind-assessor ratings of Main Problem and Goals, and Global Phobia. Results. Drop-outs occurred significantly more often in the two self-exposure groups (43% if mainly computer-guided, 24% if entirely clinician-guided) than with self-relaxation (6%); the difference between the two self-exposure groups was not significant. Even with all drop-outs included, the mainly computer-guided exposure group and the relaxation group had 73% less clinician time per patient than did the entirely clinician-guided exposure group. The two self-exposure groups had comparable improvement and satisfaction at post-treatment and at 1-month follow-up, while relaxation was ineffective. Mean improvement on the primary outcome measures (self- and assessor-rated) was 46% computer, 49% clinician, 9% relaxation at post-treatment (week 10) and 58% computer, 53% clinician and −4% relaxation at 1-month follow-up (week 14). Mean effect sizes on the primary outcome measures were 2·9 computer, 3·5 clinician and 0·5 relaxation at post-treatment; and 3·7 computer, 3·5 clinician and 0·5 relaxation at 1-month follow-up. The assessor did not rate patients at follow-up. Conclusions. Despite its (non-significantly) higher dropout rate, self-exposure therapy for panic/phobia cut clinician time per patient by 73% without losing efficacy when guided mainly by a computer rather than entirely by a clinician. The finding needs confirmation at a follow-up that is longer and includes a blind assessor. Self-relaxation had the highest rate of completers but was ineffective.


The liB),:[ lf~2() O,[~)(t 1) pe r forms its add i t i on by a u t o m a t i c table iook*11) to a table s t o r e d in core s to rage . Since the c o n t e n t s ,d ~he t ab le m a y be changed under prograq~ control , severa l iweres t ing and power fu l ope ra t ions m a y be ,.,i)tained in a s imple mariner [! O~e such class of ope ra t ions is the 16 Boo lean connec t ives of two variat)les. Assume the s imples t r ep re sen t a t i on of o p e r a n d bits-each ope rand bit is s t o r ed as one IBM 1620 digit (extens ion of the pr incip les d i scussed here to more dense pack ing of up t<:) d+ree bi ts per digit is s t r a i g h t f o r w a r d ) . Any of the 16 Boolean connectives .,)f tw<) va r i ab l e s m a y l)e r ep re sen t ed as a fou r -b i t string which gives the t r u t h table for the connect ive. l"or example , tim connec t ive XOR can be r ep re sen t ed b y the t r u t h tab le .


Polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) adhesion to activated platelets is important for the recruitment of PMN at sites of vascular damage and thrombus formation. We have recently shown that binding of activated platelets to PMN in mixed cell suspensions under shear involves P-selectin and the activated β2-integrin CD11b/CD18. Integrin activation required signaling mechanisms that were sensitive to tyrosine kinase inhibitors.1 Here we show that mixing activated, paraformaldehyde (PFA)-fixed platelets with PMNs under shear conditions leads to rapid and fully reversible tyrosine phosphorylation of a prominent protein of 110 kD (P∼110). Phosphorylation was both Ca2+ and Mg2+ dependent and was blocked by antibodies against P-selectin or CD11b/CD18, suggesting that both adhesion molecules need to engage with their respective ligands to trigger phosphorylation of P∼110. The inhibition of P∼110 phosphorylation by tyrosine kinase inhibitors correlates with the inhibition of platelet/PMN aggregation. Similar effects were observed when platelets were substituted by P-selectin–transfected Chinese hamster ovary (CHO-P) cells or when PMN were stimulated with P-selectin–IgG fusion protein. CHO-P/PMN mixed-cell aggregation and P-selectin–IgG–triggered PMN/PMN aggregation as well as P∼110 phosphorylation were all blocked by antibodies against P-selectin or CD18. In each case PMN adhesion was sensitive to the tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein. The antibody PL-1 against P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1) blocked platelet/PMN aggregation, indicating that PSGL-1 was the major tethering ligand for P-selectin in this experimental system. Moreover, engagement of PSGL-1 with a nonadhesion blocking antibody triggered β2-integrin–dependent genistein-sensitive aggregation as well as tyrosine phosphorylation in PMN. This study shows that binding of P-selectin to PSGL-1 triggers tyrosine kinase–dependent mechanisms that lead to CD11b/CD18 activation in PMN. The availability of the β2-integrin to engage with its ligands on the neighboring cells is necessary for the tyrosine phosphorylation of P∼110.


Cooperative diversity techniques exploit the spatial characteristics of the network to create transmit-diversity, in which the same information can be forwarded through multiple paths towards a single destination or a set of destination nodes. In this paper, we study the integration of cooperative diversity into wireless routing protocols by developing distributed cooperative MAC (C-MAC) and routing protocols. The proposed protocols employ efficient relay selection-coordination and power allocation techniques to maximize the cooperation benefits in the network. Simulation results show that the energy-saving performance of the minimum-energy routing protocols can be significantly improved when they are implemented together with the proposed C-MAC protocol (%50). We also show that the performance of the C-MAC protocol can be further enhanced when the initial path is selected using the cooperation characteristics of the network (%11 more energy-savings compared to the previous case, i.e., C-MAC with minimum-energy routing)


The Leipzig physicist Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801–88) is best known for his introduction of psychophysics, an exact, empirical science of the relations between mind and body and a crucial part of nineteenth-century sensory physiology and experimental psychology. Based on an extensive and close reading of Fechner's diaries, this article considers psychophysics from the vantage of his everyday life, specifically the experience of taking a walk. This experience was not mere fodder for his scientific practice, as backdrop, object, or tool. Rather, on foot, Fechner pursued an investigation of the mind-body parallel to his natural-scientific one; in each domain, he strove to render the mind-body graspable, each in its own idiom, here everyday and there scientific. I give an account of Fechner's walks as experiences that he both undertook and underwent, that shaped and were shaped by the surrounding everyday cacophony, and that carried a number of competing meanings for Fechner himself; the attendant analysis draws on his major scientific work, Elemente der Psychophysik (1860; Elements of Psychophysics), as the thick context that renders the walks legible as an everyday investigation. What results are three modes of walking—physiopsychical, interpersonal, and universal—each engaging the mind-body at a different level, as also engaged separately in Elemente's three major sections, outer psychophysics, inner psychophysics, and general psychophysics beyond the human. This analysis ultimately leads to a new view of Fechner's belief in a God who was "omnipresent and conscious in nature" and whom Fechner encountered daily on his walks in the budding of new blooms and rustling of the wind. More broadly, I aim to bring the analysis of everyday experiences as experiences into the historiography of science.


Writers as diverse as Schumpeter (1943), Habermas (1976), Daniel Bell (1976) and Fred Hirsch (1977) have suggested that the ideal of a market-based and voluntaristic society, while perhaps attractive, is fundamentally flawed (see Hirschman 1982). Such a society, they admit, can generate material well-being and allow all of its members a kind of formal freedom and personal independence, in marked contrast to what is available in local communities of less commercially developed societies. Yet individual freedom and personal independence carry with them the seeds of the destruction of the society that makes them possible. If a market-based society is to function, it is argued, its members must behave decently towards one another. They must be able to rely upon one another to respect property rights and to keep their promises, even in dealings with people with whom they do not have face-to-face or frequent relations. Critics of market-based societies have suggested that, although in the early stages of market societies, good behavior may indeed be found, it is an inheritance from earlier forms of social organization. Market-based societies are living upon moral capital - capital that they cannot themselves replenish. This moral capital is eroded by some of the very factors that seem to make such societies so attractive. Formal freedoms and growing wealth allow people to flee the oppressive constraints of family, local community, or figures of petty authority, for the anonymity - and anomie? - of life in large metropolitan areas. Schumpeter and the other critics would have to admit that, in recent years, some interesting work has explored whether good behavior can in fact survive based solely on self-interest. We mean in particular the growing literature on repeated and evolutionary games (Axelrod 1984; Kandori 1992). The critics could note, however, that such simulations of prudence typically seem to be limited in scope - limited to reciprocal relations within relatively small groups, to interactions that are iterated, and to interactions with partners who can be recognized (see Shearmur 1992). This seems a far cry from a great society, in the Smith-Lippmann-Hayek sense,(1) where many people meet but do not have established relations. Adam Smith was an early commentator upon both the advantages and disadvantages of what he called commercial society (or the great society of mankind). Smith identified problems similar to those identified by modern theorists, and we can say that he was of two minds on the issue of good conduct in a great society (see Shearmur 1991). Within the setting of commerce he identified the essential logic of repeated-game thinking, and claimed that commercial society promotes probity and punctuality, at least in commercial relationships. Yet elsewhere Smith argues that, more broadly speaking, the extended society will carry moral maladies so severe that they call for coercive state intervention. Coercive state intervention is not, to say the least, a pleasing outcome for those who favor voluntaristic society. It so happens that Max Weber, when reporting upon an experience that he had in connection with a religious sect, perceived aspects of it which not only suggest a voluntaristic resolution of Smith's doubts about good behavior, but also a way in which Smith's own ideas about commercial reputation might be extended beyond the area of repeated commercial interaction. We aim to argue for the viability of good conduct in a voluntaristic great society by arguing that Smith's optimism about good conduct in the extended economic order can be carried over to the extended social order; that which fosters trustworthy behavior in the economic realm also fosters it in the social realm.


Image processing techniques have been used in processing of potential fields data in order to delineate the edges of the anomalous sources. In this research, firstly the 2D Gabor filter was introduced. Then its operation was investigated on the three magnetized prisms which were at the three different depths and orientations. The effects of body wavelength, standard deviation and body orientation in the Gabor filter on the detection of edge bodies were studied. Investigations showed that the Gabor filter is a low pass filter. Afterwards, the Gabor filter was applied on the aeromagnetic data of Khoram Abad region in the southwest and ground magnetic data from Kashmar region in the northeast of Iran. The results show that the trend of geological structures is NW-SE which is in concordance to those obtained from other filters as well as geological map of the region. 1 2D Gabor filter The boundary of the geological structures can be determined by processing of potential field spectrums .Most filters which have been used for edge detection are based on the different degree of derivatives. The derivatives cause noises and signals amplify together which decrease resolution of edges. Therefore, using filters without any derivative terms is a prime objective. The Gabor filter has not any derivative terms in its mathematical structure. Denis Gabor first introduced the filter for image processing. This filter is linear and has been used for analyzing details of an image or its texture. The characteristics of the Gabor filter is to obtain special frequencies in a certain point or a region. Mostly this filter has been used for analyzing human vision system. The Gabor filter has two parts, real and imaginary in exponential forms which are multiplied with a Gaussian function. The real part has been used for data filtering. The Gabor filter response in spatial domain is defined by convolution of data in the Gabor matrix. The Gabor filter is a low pass filter which attenuates noises while it detects the edges of the deep anomalies in a certain direction. The Gabor filter in mathematics is in the group of filter transformation. On this basis, this filter can process images in different directions and frequencies. The Gabor filter has many applications in image processing such as texture analysis, fingerprint detection, edge detection, document processing and so on. The 2D Gabor filter was also used for identification of the edges of the geological structures and faults. For determination of the geological trends and faults, we must apply the Gabor filter in different directions and frequencies and standard deviations. In this article, we first introduce the Gabor filter and its characteristics. Afterwards this filter is applied on the aeromagnetic data from Khoram Abad and ground magnetic from an iron mine at Kashmar regions in the the southwest and northeast of Iran respectively.  2 The real data We prepared the following maps from the real data in Khoram Abad region: the map of the total magnetic intensity, the reduction to the pole of aeromagnetic map and the map resulted from the application of the Gabor filter on the residual aeromagnetic map of the region. From the latter map, the trend and edges of the geological structures were identified. The other trends may be detected by changing the various parameters of the filter specially its direction. The trend of the geological structures which is revealed by the Gabor filter is northwest- southeast. If the Gabor filter is applied with the other edge filters such as derivative of tilt angle, analytic signal filters, we can identify the boundaries better. The Gabor filter on the data from Kashmar region, delineates the boundary of the iron ore body at the studied area.


Multiplayer, real-time games have become a huge commercial service. Because of this success, the need exists for a more efficient and reliable game server solution. Such games are a kind of soft real-time systems because a game server has to respond to requests from many clients, compute the action of a non-player character (NPC), and filter the data from each client within specified time constraints. Some client and server tasks are periodic and some are not. To meet these timing constraints, we propose a task scheduling policy. Our solution includes two approaches: (1) the STU segment queue approach to convert sporadic events from game clients into serialized periodic event groups; and (2) the spatial domain approach to reduce queuing delay caused by the network outgoing event queue. To implement our solution on the JAVA framework with the non-real-time JAVA virtual machine, we propose a new client/server architecture for a scalable game server that in addition, will reduce the frequency of garbage collection by reusing server resources.


ABSTRACT Pathogens secrete effector proteins to suppress host immune responses. Recently, we showed that an aggressive plant fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea can also deliver small RNA effectors into host cells to suppress host immunity. B. cinerea sRNAs (Bc-sRNAs) translocate into host plants and hijack the plant RNAi machinery to induce cross-kingdom RNAi of host immune responsive genes. Here, we functionally characterized another Bc-sRNA effector Bc-siR37 that is predicted to target at least 15 Arabidopsis genes, including WRKY transcription factors, receptor-like kinases, and cell wall-modifying enzymes. Upon B. cinerea infection, the expression level of Bc-siR37 was induced, and at least eight predicted Arabidopsis target genes were downregulated. These target genes were also suppressed in the transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing Bc-siR37, which exhibited enhanced disease susceptibility to B. cinerea. Furthermore, the knockout mutants of the Bc-siR37 targets, At-WRKY7, At-PMR6, and At-FEI2, also exhibited enhanced disease susceptibility to B. cinerea, giving further support that these genes indeed play a positive role in plant defense against B. cinerea. Our study demonstrates that analysis of pathogen sRNA effectors can be a useful tool to help identify host immunity genes against the corresponding pathogen.


Background: The purpose of establishing integrated counseling and testing center (ICTC) is to detect HIV at the earliest time, providing information on modes of transmission and prevention of HIV by promoting behavioral change and reducing vulnerability, and informing individuals on HIV prevention, care, and treatment services. Objective: To know the awareness of the clients about ICTC before pretest counseling. Methods: This facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 105 pretest counseling clients who visited ICTC for the first time in 3 ICTCs of tertiary care hospitals attached to a medical college in Mangalore. Result: Majority of the clients were pregnant women (n = 57, 54.30%), and most of the clients were referred by the treating doctor (n = 91, 86.7%). Most of the clients, being unaware of ICTC, are not aware of its functions and activities. Conclusion: Although ICTCs have been functional for nearly a decade, the awareness of ICTC and its functions among the people is poor.


School bullying is an important concern for children, parents, schools and policy makers and it has received a huge amount of research and media interest. Whilst there is growing knowledge obtained from empirical work about the nature, extent and effects of bullying, there are areas of complexity in the findings. We propose that one of the issues with bullying research is a lack of emphasis on the theoretical underpinnings which might go some way to explain these complexities. In this paper we will develop our thinking on the phenomenon of bullying using a sociocultural theoretical framework. In order to explicate this, we will provide a review of existing literature on school bullying around five main themes: 1) The problem of defining bullying; 2) The relational aspects of bullying 3) Evolution of bullying with cultural shifts 4) Bullying as a normalised practice; and 5) Bullying as part of someone's life trajectory. We will review some empirical findings to highlight key issues, and present arguments from relevant sociocultural theories which could add insight in each case. We will also show how varying strands of research into bullying can be integrated together through adopting a sociocultural approach and provide explanations for findings identified in research literature. In the course of our paper, we will draw on three theoretical frameworks in order to justify and support our premise that bullying needs to be viewed in relation to social, cultural and historical factors: (i) Bronfenbrenner's ecological model (1979); (ii) Community of Practice (Wenger, 1998); and (iii) the concept of leading activities (Beach, 1995). We will conclude by suggesting some implications for practice which arise from taking a sociocultural view of bullying


In rat hepatoma x fibroblast somatic cell hybrids, extinction of rat alpha1-antitrypsin (alpha1AT) gene expression is accompanied by the loss of liver-enriched transcription factors hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 (HNF1alpha) and hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 (HNF4). Previous analysis showed that forced expression of functional HNF1alpha failed to prevent extinction of the rat alpha1AT locus in cell hybrids. Here I show that ectopic co-expression of HNF1alpha plus HNF4 fails to prevent extinction of either rat or human alpha1AT genes in cell hybrids. A 40 kb human alpha1AT minilocus integrated into the rat genome is fully silenced in cell hybrids in the presence of transacting factors. The integrated alpha1AT promoter, but not a viral or ubiquitously active promoter, is repressed 35-fold in the cell hybrids. In addition, position effects also contributed to extinction of many integrated transgenes in a cell type-dependent manner. Finally, internal DNA sequences within the human alpha1AT gene contributed dramatically to the extinction phenotype, resulting in a further 10- to 30-fold reduction in alpha1AT gene expression in cell hybrids. Thus, multiple mechanisms contribute to silencing of tissue-specific gene expression of the alpha1AT gene in cell hybrids.


During Qianlong's fifth imperial southern inspection tour, a Zhejiang resident named Jin Deyu presented the emperor with an one-hundred-leaf album titled Taiping huanle tu (The Album of Happiness in a Peaceful Age). The paintings featured figures holding various occupations as a way of showing the native products and customs of the Zhejiang region, thus representing the Qianlong reign as one of great peace. Historians have praised its detailed depiction of everyday life, while art historians have pointed out that the representations of the figures' occupations, based on cityscapes and fengsu hua (genre paintings), held political implications. But how could various occupations symbolize a peaceful regime? How did the album differ from the so-called fengsu hua of the time which also featured figures engaging in different livelihoods? Precisely what kind of "peaceful regime" was constructed by Jin Deyu? Did he as a result of commissioning the album succeed in advancing his official career? By contextualizing Jin's presentation of the album to the emperor and comparing the album to other related paintings, this article argues that the making and reception of Taiping huanle tu as well as its construction of "a peaceful regime" drew from Jin's personal experience, his circle, the Zhejiang region as well as the inter-relationship between the empire, provinces and the frontiers. This case study further explores the differences among the so-called fengsu hua of late imperial China and their meanings.


The objective of this study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of prophylactic plating of the donor radius after harvest of a radial osteocutaneous flap. Costs were measured from a Ministry of Health perspective, and effectiveness in terms of quality adjusted life years (QALYs.) A literature search identified 22 studies reporting complications of radial osteocutaneous free flaps, and nine studies reporting complications of radius plating. The rates of the various complications were pooled to provide the probability of each clinically important complication. A decision analytic model was used to determine the total costs, and QALYs for each of the treatment options. The expected direct costs for prophylactic plating and treatment after fracture were $2071 and $140, respectively. The expected QALYs for prophylactic plating and treatment after fracture were 8.55 and 9.92, respectively. It was concluded that prophylactic plating of the donor radius is not a cost-effective approach when compared to the treatment of donor radius fractures after they occur.


ABSTRACT The purpose of this work was to evaluate the potential of a white rot fungi (P. ostreatus) immobilized on bentonite, in a continuous flow removal of trace heavy metals. The procedure is based on the biosorption of Cd(II) and Pb(II) ions on a column of bentonite loaded with dried, dead fungi components prior to their determination by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Cd(II) and Pb(II) were determined with a relative error of less than 5%. Various parameters such as "pH, amount of adsorbent, eluent type and volume, flow rate of the solution and matrix interference effect" on the retention of the metal ions were investigated. This procedure was applied to Cd(II) and Pb(II) determination in aqueous solutions, including tap water system. The optimum experimental parameters were determined to be pH 5, concentration of 10 mg/L, contact time of 30 min and 0.2 g of adsorbent for a quantitative adsorption of the metals. The optimum flow rate was found to be 2.5 mL/min for all metal ions. Each column can be used up to 20 successive analyses without considerable change in recoveries of metal ions. The proposed method is excellent as regards simplicity, sensitivity, selectivity, precision, accuracy and column stability.


Total Factor Productivity (TFP) may indicate the long-term economic growth of a country. In addition, it is also a comprehensive measure of the level of productivity in the economy. Therefore, these study attempts to investigate the TFP for Malaysia paddy sub-sector. The study was conducted in four Muda Agricultural Development Authorities (MADA) regions and employed a seasonal the series of data from 1996 to 2011. Result has found that the actual TFP growth is below than 5 percent for each season. The study also found that the actual TFP trend has been volatile over time. Study has further investigated the factors affecting TFP growth in the Malaysian paddy industry for the entire period. Seven selected factors are found to be associated with striking TFP growth. The result has discovered that all the selected factors are important in influencing the paddy production in Malaysia. However, the magnitude is different for each region.


Regulatory failures have been a significant contributor to the financial crisis, but that does not automatically mean more regulation is called for. The crisis happened because fi nancial institutions and the whole economy used seemingly infi nite amounts of cheap credit to create an asset price bubble. The banks played their part by creating all these complex structured products that continue causing difficulties. They did this under direct regulatory oversight. Such excessive credit expansion is how most financial crises have played out throughout history. The exact same process can be prevented from happening in the future, but surely the next crisis will take a different form. It will be something completely unforeseen. One cannot regulate against such unforeseen events. The crisis has its roots in the most regulated parts of the financial system, the banks, whilst the least regulated part, the hedge funds, are mostly innocent. Is the problem lack of regulation? Or is the problem lack of understanding on how to regulate financial institutions properly? Depending upon the answer to the question, the correct approach to future financial regulations will be very different. The unique element this time around has been the extensive use of statistical models to forecast prices, and risk as well as to price complex assets. It was the models that failed. Such models embed an assumption of risk being exogenous; market participants react to the financial system but do not change it. In practice, this is nonsense. Market participants, especially in a crisis, receive the same signals and react in a similar way; they exert significant price impact resulting in risk being endogenous. This implies financial risk models are the least reliable when we need them the most and that regulation by risk sensitivity, such as risk sensitive bank capital, may increase financial instability. The root causes of the crisis are the same as in most financial crises throughout history. These crises have happened under a wide range of regulatory mechanisms. Blaming the crisis on a narrow set of obvious regulatory causes, such as bonuses, hedge funds, universal banking, shadow banking, structured credit, lack of regulations, inadequate risk management is attacking a straw man. It takes the focus away from the necessary detailed examination of the causes of fi nancial instability, which is the only way to design effective regulatory mechanisms. We do not clearly understand what went wrong, and know even less how to design regulations to prevent such episodes from happening in the future, whilst maintaining the effi ciency of the financial system. This is why it would be preferable to study what went wrong and then in a few years carefully change regulations at a time when we know more. There is no hurry, we still haven't solved this crisis and the next one will not come immediately after the current crisis. The costs of inappropriate regulations are high and we do have the time to wait.