My practice is a means of dealing with distance and desire— desire for intimacy and understanding, for clarity in communication, longing to get closer, to see further, to be near the ocean, to touch the horizon, desire for something certain, longing to let it go. The objects and videos I make are metaphors for a relationship between landscape and longing— gestures of reaching, stretching and trying to span a distance, trying to embody the intangible. Longing is often still present even at close proximity. I want the objects and videos I make to instill an urge to touch, to transgress or press against the boundary between beings. Through these gestures I'm thinking of ways to communicate touch across distance— how to feel presence through absence.


In recent years, a flexure hinged micro-displacement platform driven by piezoelectric actuator is being widely used in vibration suppression and micro positioning applications for its fast response, nanometer resolution, no backlash, no friction and bigger driving force. This kind of precision micro positioning system with a high displacement resolution and wide motion range has been required for industrialized applications for a long time. This paper discusses the design and the characteristics of a flexure hinge-based micro-displacement platform driven by piezoelectric actuator, a four-bar parallel mechanism and a monolithic symmetrical mechanism are adopted in the design. An analytical model is presented and a series of formulae for the static behavior of the platform are derived. Based on the theoretical analysis, the optimum design schema is put forward. The experimental demonstration to study the performance of the platform is described, and the method for reducing nonlinearity errors is proposed. The experimental results are in close agreement with those predicted by the theoretical analysis.


ABSTRACT Yun, W., 2020. Design of cross-platform communication software design based on a marine underwater acoustic communication network. In: Gong, D.; Zhang, M., and Liu, R. (eds.), Advances in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 106, pp. 638–641. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. With increasing ocean exploitation and use from various countries, there is a growing demand for marine acoustic-communication technology, especially cross-platform communication. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to study the design of communication software in the underwater acoustic communication network. This research first analyzed the embedded software design of the underwater acoustic-communication network node and then studied the display and control software design of the data acquisition device of the underwater acoustic communication node. Finally, this research designed a display and control platform for an underwater acoustic-communication network node and tested and analyzed the software of the underwater acoustic-communication network node and obtained good results.


BACKGROUND
Microphthalmia (reduced eye size), generally accompanied by vision defects, is a hallmark of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) in humans. In zebrafish, embryonic ethanol exposure over the time of retinal neurogenesis also results in microphthalmia. This microphthalmia is in part the consequence of reduced retinal cell differentiation, including photoreceptors. Here we pursue 2 signaling pathways implicated in other aspects of FASD pathogenesis: retinoic acid (RA) and Sonic hedgehog (Shh).

METHODS
We evaluated markers for RA and Shh signaling within the eyes of embryos treated with ethanol during the period of retinal neurogenesis. We also performed rescue experiments using administration of exogenous RA and microinjection of cholesterol, which augments Shh signaling.

RESULTS
Using sequential or co-treatments, RA did not rescue ethanol-induced microphthalmia at any concentration tested. In addition, RA itself caused microphthalmia, although the underlying mechanisms were distinct from those of ethanol. Interestingly, RA treatment appeared to recover photoreceptor differentiation in a concentration-dependent manner. This may be an independent effect of exogenous RA, as ethanol treatment alone did not alter RA signaling in the eye. Cholesterol injection also did not rescue ethanol-induced microphthalmia at any concentration tested, and ethanol treatments did not alter expression of shh, or of ptc-2, which is normally regulated by Shh signaling.

CONCLUSIONS
Together these findings indicate that, during the time of retinal neurogenesis, effects of ethanol on eye development are likely independent of the RA and Shh signaling pathways. These studies suggest that FASD intervention strategies based upon augmentation of RA or Shh signaling may not prevent ethanol-induced microphthalmia.


Most discussions of blood transfusion cover risks and side effects, while the daily benefits of donor systems and transfusion concepts for modern medicine are taken for granted. Even though in this report side effects are a major part of the content, we should be aware that today's component concept leads to a remarkable quality level of blood products. After a historical introduction we present a patient with transfusion transmitted anti-hepatitis A IgM antibodies and a delayed type hemolytic transfusion reaction induced by a boostered anti-Fyb alloantibody. This case demonstrates that the safety of transfusions depends on both the blood product and the patient's transfusion history. In the second part we summarize side effects from transfused blood products: (1) transmission of infectious diseases and the risk of blood products testing falsely negative, (2) immune mediated side effects, (3) immuno-modulations by blood transfusions, (4) side effects caused by human error. Minimizing transfusion risks is not only the task of the doctors specialized in transfusion medicine, but can only be achieved by close cooperation between all the persons associated with each step, from motivating unpaid blood donors, evaluation of donors, phlebotomy, viral testing, preparation of components, storage, and transportation conditions, to adequate indications and transfusions for the patients.


Many research groups developed bifurcation diagrams, Poincare maps and computed Feigenbaum constants for passive walkers. Very few attempts have been made for performing nonlinear time-series analyses of these complex dynamical systems. Besides, Garcia's et al.'s the simplest walking model, the compass-gait biped model is the most commonly used passive dynamic walking (PDW) biped robot by the biomechanists, robotics engineers and chaos theorists. We accomplished nonlinear analysis of a time-series generated by the compass-gait biped and aimed to examine its dynamical behavior. The walking gait time-series data presented chaotic dynamics as fractal dimensions and positive Lyapunov exponents were found.


This article restores the context of political action to Burke's thinking about politics. It begins with the specific case of his interventions in the parliamentary debate over the Quebec Bill in 1774, and proceeds from this focal point to establish the centrality of the theme of conquest to his political motivation and understanding in general. Burke's preoccupation with conquest drove him to examine eighteenth-century British politics within a set of comparative historical frameworks. These frameworks encompassed the trajectories of both modern European and imperial politics and ancient historical development. The objective of Burke's politics of conquest was to overcome the destructive influence of the spirit of conquest. That objective involved deciding upon and justifying courses of action with reference to these comparative historical frameworks of understanding. Careful investigation shows that while Burke's approach to this task was powerfully influenced by Montesquieu, his arguments invariably entailed serious criticism of Montesquieu's conclusions. Properly understood, these criticisms show that Burke himself did not endorse the political principles that were later taken to constitute "Burkian conservatism". The article draws the conclusion that a thorough grasp of the politics of conquest in Burke's thinking will force us to reposition him in the history of political theory.


The present study focuses on the performance of precast concrete beam-column dowel connections subjected to cyclic loading by conducting experiments. In this study, one-third scale model of two types of precast and a monolithic beam-column connection were cast and tested under reverse cyclic loading. The precast connections considered for this study is a beamcolumn connection where beam is connected to column with corbel using (i) dowel bar and (ii) dowel bar with cleat angle. The experimental results of the precast specimens have been compared with that of the reference monolithic connection. The subassemblage specimens have been subjected to reverse cyclic displacement-controlled lateral loading applied at the end of the beam. The performance of the precast connections in terms of the ultimate load carrying capacity, post- elastic strength enhancement factor, load-displacement hysteresis behaviour, moment-rotation hysteresis behaviour, energy dissipation capacity, equivalent viscous damping ratio and ductility factor were compared with that of the monolithic beam-column connection. The monolithic specimen was found to perform better when compared to the precast specimens in terms of strength and energy dissipation. In terms of ductility, the precast specimen using dowel bar and cleat angle showed better behaviour when compared to the reference monolithic specimen.


High cutting slopes with nearly horizontal soft-hard alternant strata are widely distributed in three gorges reservoir area, the soft and hard rocks are mainly mud stone and sandstone of Jurassic system. Sliding failure of this kind of slope is also the main geo-hazards in this area. Firstly, this paper analyzed the impact of topography, water as well as the differential weathering and combination characteristics of soft and hard rocks etc. on the sliding failure of slopes; secondly, sliding failure modes of this kind of slope were classified into four types including circular sliding, sliding along the extroversion structural surface, sliding along the mudded intercalation and wedge sliding, they were analyzed combined with case study. And lastly, support methods against the certain failure mode were put forward. The research results are significant to the support and treatment of high cutting slopes in Three gorges area.


Chewing or mastication is one of the main functions of the stomatognathic system. The use of devices for quantitatively measuring mandibular motion has recently become more common in scientific and clinical use. Often, the goal has been to provide an objective basis for diagnosing musculoskeletal disorders of the jaws, to monitor the progress of active treatment methods or to evaluate prosthodontic treatment functional results. To better understand differences between various systems to record mandibular motion a review of recording methods presented over the years was made. To give fundamental description for development of existing methods review was divided in three parts. Part I includes analyses of methods using mechanical devices, photographic methods and roentgenographic methods, describing not only technologies by themselves, but also analyzing essential limitations, possible direction of the functional improvement and, specially, their scientific and clinical significance.


Introduction: Melasma is a great challengefor a dermatologist as its treatment is unsatisfactory and recurrence is high.Treatment of melasma using oral tranexamic acid is a novel concept.
Objectives: To compare the efficacy of oral tranexamic acid with routine topical therapies for the treatment of melasma.
Materials and Methods: This prospective, interventional, randomized controlled trial was conducted among 130 melasma patients in the Department of Dermatology, Combined Military Hospital, Cumilla from June 2016 to June 2017. The patients were divided into two groups consisting of 65 patients each. The first group (Group A) was given routine treatment measures and oral Tranexamic Acid while the second group (Group B) was treated only with routine topical measures. Capsule Tranexamic Acid was prescribed at a dose of 250 mg twice a day for three months and cases were followed during the course of treatment. The response was evaluated on the basis of Melasma Assessment Severity Index (MASI).
Results: Astatistically significant decrease in the mean Melasma Assessment Severity Index from baseline to 8th and 12th weeks was observed among group A patents (11.08±2.91 vs 8.95±2.08 at week 8 and vs. 7.84±2.44 at week 12; (p<0.05 for both). While among group B patients the decrease in mean score was significant at 8 weeks and insignificant at 12 weeks follow up (11.60±3.40 vs 9.9±2.61 at 8 weeks and vs. 9.26±3 at 12 weeks; p<0.05 for former but p>0.05 for later).
Conclusion: Oral Tranexamic acid provides rapid and sustained improvement in the treatment of melasma.
Journal of Armed Forces Medical College Bangladesh Vol.14 (2) 2018: 148-151


Nosocomial transmission of hepatitis C virus (HCV) to haemodialysed patients, strongly suspected in epidemiological studies, has recently been unequivocally demonstrated by molecular virology reports. Potential transmission mechanisms include staff hands, dialysis monitors, and equipment items shared between patients. The respective involvement of each of these vectors in HCV transmission has not been determined. There is no conclusive data on the reality of HCV transmission by dialyser re-use. Prevention of HCV transmission relies on the use of erythropoietin, blood donor screening for anti-HCV antibodies and the application of 'Universal Precautions' (Atlanta CDC). In contrast, isolation of anti-HCV-positive dialysed patients does not appear to be warranted by prospective studies, as it might increase the risk of co-infection by different HCV strains, would entail additional costs and be at best partially effective. Recent data have shown that HCV transmission may be prevented by the observance of the 'Universal Precautions' without having to isolate HCV+ patients.


This article is a short biography of journalist Norma Adams-Wade, based on an oral history discussing her childhood, education, and career.


A genetic construct consisting of the synthetic gene coding for human muscle acylphosphatase linked to the gene for glutathione S-transferase has been prepared. This gene was transformed into and expressed by the Escherichia coli strains DB1035 and TB1, respectively. The fusion protein was purified by affinity chromatography and subsequently cleaved to the fully active acylphosphatase, which was further purified by gel filtration chromatography. Such a purification procedure is very rapid and suitable for obtaining considerable amounts of enzyme at a very high yield. The purified human muscle acylphosphatase was fully active and showed structural features, as well as kinetic and stability parameters, identical to those of the native enzyme.


This paper discusses the dependence of microstructure and mechanical properties of sintered biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) on sintering temperature and compacting pressure of BCP dense bodies. BCP nanopowders were prepared via hydrothermal method using eggshell as the calcium source, followed by compaction into circular disc shape at various pressure and sintered pressureless in air at various sintering temperatures. X-ray diffraction analysis of nanopowders revealed the existences of hydroxyapatite (HA) as the main phase, with β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) and calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) as the second phases. Morphological evaluation by scanning electron microscopy showed BCP exhibited uniform microstructure at low temperature and coalescence of pores and exaggerated grain growth at increasing temperature. Mechanical strength tests shown by compression strength and Vickers' hardness test revealed an increase of strength with increasing temperature of up to 1100°C, after which it dropped. Mechanical strength also proved to be better with higher compacting pressure.


Introduction: Households with teenagers use significantly more electricity than households without teenagers (Peter & Gram-Hansen, 2005). Therefore, energy conservation among this age group is important. The present research aimed to identify which barriers teenagers' felt were the most potent in inhibiting energy saving behaviours, and also examine gender and age and differences.

Design: 57 males and 45 females, aged between 12 and 15 rated 11 potential barriers identified in previous research; knowledge, responsibility, lifestyle, habit, detached from the problem, financial responsibility, time, inconvenient appliances, cool, role models and information to energy conservation according to how important they perceived them to be and to confirm that they existed.

Results: Lack of financial responsibility for household electricity consumption was found to be the most important barrier to teenagers' energy saving behaviour, whereas knowledge about negative environmental consequences of electricity consumption was identified as not being a barrier to this age group. Gender differences in perceived importance of barriers were found, in that males rated lifestyle as a significantly more important barrier than females. Males also rated information as a significantly more important barrier than females. Age-related differences in the perceived importance of financial responsibility as a barrier was found, as younger adolescents were more likely to rate this as more important than older adolescents. In contrast, older adolescents rated having poor role models (i.e. parents who did not engage in energy saving behaviour) to be more important in prohibiting energy saving than younger adolescents.

Discussion: The present research has implications for the development of strategies for the reduction of energy consumption amongst teenagers.


The general thermodynamic analysis of the quantum vacuum, which is based on our knowledge of the vacua in condensed‐matter systems, is consistent with the Einstein earlier view on the cosmological constant. In the equilibrium Universes the value of the cosmological constant is regulated by matter. In the empty Universe, the vacuum energy is exactly zero, λ=0. The huge contribution of the zero point motion of the quantum fields to the vacuum energy is exactly cancelled by the higher‐energy degrees of freedom of the quantum vacuum. In the equilibrium Universes homogeneously filled by matter, the vacuum is disturbed, and the energy density of the vacuum becomes proportional to that of matter, λ=ρvac∼ρmatter. This consideration applies to any vacuum in equilibrium irrespective of whether the vacuum is false or true, and is valid both in Einstein's general theory of relativity and within the special theory of relativity, i.e. in a world without gravity.


In order to calculate mud transport rate, two forms of transport should be considered, which are (1) mud mass transport in mud layer, and (2) suspended mud transport in water layer. The first type of transport (mass transport in mud layer) is greater than the second one in quantity under soft mud or fluid mud condition, therefore the first type of transport is mainly considered. The previously proposed methods to calculate the first type of transport are summarized and discussed. Then a new transport model called visco-elastic-plastic model is derived and some of the results of the model are shown. The model is based on the assumption that the fluid mud layer can be assumed to be viscoelastic fluid and when the magnitude of stress in mud layer exceeds the value of yield stress, the mud layer is modeled as visco-plastic fluid. Results of the new numerical model are compared with laboratory results and some discussions are given.


Guided-mode grating resonance filters have many practical applications. The design of the optical devices presents a challenging computational problem. In this letter, the problem of determining the resonance frequency is formulated as an eigenvalue problem. A local optimization approach based on Newton's method is proposed to solve the optimal design problem. Our numerical example indicates that the approach is fast and accurate.


If you required an organ transplant and a donor was not currently available, would you be willing to buy the organ you needed? That was the question that Mohamed Sayegh (Figure (Figure1),1), director of the Transplantation Research Center at Harvard Medical School, posed in a session entitled "No to organ trafficking and tourism: an in-depth discussion regarding the Declaration of Istanbul" at Renal Week 2008, the American Society of Nephrology Annual Meeting.

Figure 1

Mohamed Sayegh is a member of the steering committee that drafted the Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism.

Although no one in the room answered in the affirmative, all four members of the discussion panel — physician-scientists based in the United States and Canada — said that they see patients who have traveled abroad to be transplanted with kidneys that they have purchased. All the panel members agreed that they would now be very vocal in telling patients that this is not something they should consider. However, they all admitted that before they got involved with the Declaration of Istanbul, this might not have been the case. As Sayegh put it, before he learned more about the subject and became a member of the Steering Committee of the Istanbul Summit, he had always thought, so what? The recipient gets a kidney and the donor gets much-needed money.

The Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism (1) is the result of a summit in Istanbul convened by The Transplantation Society and the International Society of Nephrology to discuss organ trafficking, transplant tourism, and transplant commercialism. Although organ transplantation has prolonged and improved the lives of many people throughout the world, there is a widespread shortage of donors, which is one of the main factors that has led to the global problems of organ trafficking and transplant tourism. The WHO has estimated that approximately 10% of organ transplants performed throughout the world involve these practices. However, this percentage is much higher in many developing countries: one study indicates that by 2006, two-thirds of the 2,000 kidney transplants performed in Pakistan were for foreign recipients, most of whom came from the Middle East and South Asia, as well as some from Europe and North America (2).

Organ vendors mainly come from vulnerable populations, and particularly from impoverished populations in developing countries such as Pakistan, the Philippines, and Colombia. Sayegh said that in drafting the Declaration of Istanbul, members of the steering committee had paid utmost attention to the concerns and issues raised by representatives from the countries most affected by the problem. Ultimately, the Declaration was agreed upon by consensus among the 150 participants in the summit — individuals (physicians and scientists, representatives of governmental and social agencies, social scientists, legal scholars, and ethicists) from all but one of the 79 countries that perform kidney transplants.

Key to the Declaration are its definitions of the activities it seeks to combat: organ trafficking, transplant commercialism, and transplant tourism (1). However, Sayegh told the JCI that the most important issues raised in the Declaration are those that address how to implement it, and that central to implementation is communication with the many groups involved, including physicians, medical societies, government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and funding bodies. Sayegh stressed that much of the work that has been going on in the months since the Declaration was finalized has been to ensure that there is a defined strategy to implement it.

As part of the way forward, Sayegh said that the steering committee is in the process of forming a Custodian Group that will oversee the implementation of the Declaration. There are also a number of task forces being convened, which will communicate with medical societies, pharmaceutical companies, and funding bodies to develop rules by which each entity should abide and to determine the consequences of not adhering to the rules. The goal is to ensure that those involved in organ trafficking are no longer accepted by their respective communities and will therefore find it much harder to continue the practice. Sayegh also noted that the Custodian Group is hoping to connect with journals to further develop ethical policies that have the same effect.

Other task forces have already been deployed to talk to government agencies in areas that are known hotspots for organ trafficking and transplant tourism. Sayegh said that through the strong local networks that are being built, they have received feedback about the activities going on in these regions, and that in some instances the individuals involved have been sanctioned by the medical societies to which they belong.

Despite the achievements so far, Sayegh was keen to point out to the JCI that the Declaration of Istanbul is not going to make organ trafficking disappear. He likened it to drug trafficking, saying that because money is involved it is impossible to eradicate. However, he promised that the Custodian Group will do everything it possibly can to curb the practice and make life hard for those involved.


In this paper we propose a convolutional autoencoder to address the problem of motion infilling for 3D human motion data. Given a start and end sequence, motion infilling aims to complete the missing gap in between, such that the filled in poses plausibly forecast the start sequence and naturally transition into the end sequence. To this end, we propose a single, end-to-end trainable convolutional autoencoder. We show that a single model can be used to create natural transitions between different types of activities. Furthermore, our method is not only able to fill in entire missing frames, but it can also be used to complete gaps where partial poses are available (e.g. from end effectors), or to clean up other forms of noise (e.g. Gaussian). Also, the model can fill in an arbitrary number of gaps that potentially vary in length. In addition, no further post-processing on the model's outputs is necessary such as smoothing or closing discontinuities at the end of the gap. At the heart of our approach lies the idea to cast motion infilling as an inpainting problem and to train a convolutional de-noising autoencoder on image-like representations of motion sequences. At training time, blocks of columns are removed from such images and we ask the model to fill in the gaps. We demonstrate the versatility of the approach via a number of complex motion sequences and report on thorough evaluations performed to better understand the capabilities and limitations of the proposed approach.


This thesis explores two aspects of the renormalization group (RG) in quantum field theory (QFT). In the first part we study the structure of RG flows in general Poincare-invariant, unitary QFTs, and in particular the irreversibility properties and the relation between scale and conformal invariance. Within the formalism of the local Callan--Symanzik equation, we derive a series of results in four and six-dimensional QFTs. Specifically, in the four dimensional case we revisit and complete existing proofs of the $a$-theorem and of the equivalence between scale and conformal invariance in perturbation theory. We then present an original derivation of similar results in six-dimensional QFTs. In the second part we present the Hamiltonian Truncation method and study its applicability to the numerical solution of non-perturbative RG flows. We test the method in the Phi^4 model in two dimensions and show how it can be used to make quantitative predictions for the low-energy observables. In particular, we calculate the numerical spectrum and estimate the critical coupling at which the theory becomes conformal. We also compare our results to previous estimates. The main original ingredient of our analysis is an analytic renormalization procedure used to improve the numerical convergence. We then adapt the method in order to treat the strongly-coupled regime of the model where the Z2 symmetry is spontaneously broken. We reproduce perturbative and non-perturbative observables and compare our results with analytical predictions.


This paper describes the applicability of subcarrier mul- tiplexing to lightwave multiple-access networks. It is shown how cur- rently available microwave and lightwave components can be used, by using subcarrier multiplexing, to provide high-capacity networks. For example, the proposed multiple-access network can support 1024 users at a continuous bit rate of 1.5 Mbit/s, per user.


In January 2015, the New Mexico Supreme Court implemented major revisions to the procedural rules governing petitions for habeas corpus and post-conviction relief. These changes clarified the limits on post-conviction relief, expanded and altered the process, and adopted a new rule to clarify the relief available to petitioners who have completed their sentence. This Article, written by the Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Habeas Corpus, describes the changes to assist judges and lawyers in implementing the new rules. The amendments have three major components. First, the rules now include a clear path for petitioners seeking to vacate their conviction after their sentence is complete. Second, the rule amendments expanded the case processing options for district judges presented with post-conviction petitions and also provide increased discovery rights to litigants in these cases. Third, the rules codify and clarify the exhaustion rules, the time limitations, and the preclusion doctrines for such petitions. Taken together, these changes are designed to simplify and expedite the resolution of post-conviction challenges in New Mexico.


A 25 year old male presented to us with history of diminution of vision in Right eye noticed 1 month ago, when he went to ophthalmologist for regular examination.

On examination best corrected visual acuity was 20/120 in Right eye & 20/20 in Left eye. Anterior segment examination was essentially normal in both eyes. Fundus examination revealed punched out defect at posterior pole with disc inside the defect (Figure 1). After careful examination it was noticed to be punched out defect in macular area with normal disc (Figure 2). Left eye fundus was normal. Pre-natal history was not significant. Investigations did not support any inflammatory cause.

Absence of ocular tissue resulting from fetal fissure to close is called Ocular coloboma. It's defined atypical, when it involves the areas not originating from embryonic cleft.

Macular coloboma is an atypical coloboma, which should be differentiated from inflammatory causes like ocular toxoplasmosis. Histological evidence of lack of choriocapillaries & RPE in coloboma area is evaluated in a case.


By CRISTINA BOCIRNEA MD Diabetes and heart failure are common chronic conditions in the elderly. The purpose of this study is to determine if an association exists between diabetic control, as evidenced by HgbA1c levels, and the presence and type of diastolic dysfunction (DD) in patients over the age of 65 with type 2 diabetes. Patients who had an echocardiogram showing an EF over 45% were included. The presence and severity of diastolic dysfunction, and HgbA1c levels within 3 months of the echocardiogram were recorded. Of the 654 patients evaluated with an echocardiogram, diastolic dysfunction (DD) was present in 40%; half of the patients with DD had grade I dysfunction, with only a small percentage having type III dysfunction. A logistic regression model of overall presence of diastolic dysfunction did not show a statistically significant correlation with HgbA1c; higher HgbA1c may be associated with type I DD, compared with higher grades.


ABSTRACT:This article explores the question "what does the future hold for the globalization of law?" In analyzing the future of legal globalization, I suggest that analyzing the recent rise of authoritarianism, both at the national as well as transnational plane, offers significant insights. I make three related observations regarding the rise of authoritarian politics. First, the rise of authoritarian and semi-authoritarian regimes and the blend of populism with authoritarianism at the national contexts seems to obstruct globalization of law. This is likely due to the fact that the power of authoritarian politics mostly comes from their populist appeal to the masses who stand to lose from globalization. For such appeal to continue, authoritarian politicians cultivate antiglobalization rhetoric and practices. The end result is a move away from globalized relations and institutional connectedness between different national legal systems. The similarity of the grammar out of which such authoritarianism is produced in various different national contexts, however, urges us to reflect on the globalized relations that structure such similarity. Second, the rise of authoritarian tendencies in domestic and supranational institutions, particularly in the name of political and economic emergency, may bring about a level of legal uniformity and thus globalization of law. I suggest, however, that what globalizes in such context is an essentially instrumentalized version of law, and a deeper reflection on "what globalizes?" is required as well as whether it could properly be called "law." Third, as an extension of the second point, this article focuses on neoliberalism as the broad political economic background that informs the globalization of law in the post-1980 period. I suggest that the instrumentalization of law, both domestically and internationally, is rendered possible by the fact that, under a neoliberal economic way of thinking and practice, economization spreads to all spheres of life and renders other institutional settings adjunct to itself. Such instrumentalization also includes the law and takes away from the power of this institutional field.


The concept of "community" is ubiquitous in the way we talk and think about life in the twenty-first century. Political and economic projects from rainforest conservation to urban empowerment zones focus on "the community" as the appropriate vehicle and target of change. Some scholars see a decline of community and predict dire social consequences; others criticize the concept itself for its ideological baggage and lack of clear definition. Moving the debate to a deeper level, the contributors to this volume aspire to understand the various ways "community" is deployed and the work it performs in different contexts. They compare the many cases where scholars and activists use "community" generically with instances in which the notion of community is less pervasive or even non-existent. How does a community facilitate governance or capital accumulation? In what ways does it articulate these two forces in local and translocal contexts? What are the unintended consequences of deploying the concept--and what, too, are the potential consequences of criticizing our fascination with it? The essays demonstrate the critical value of using community as the focus of analysis, rather than simply an empty category of heuristic or descriptive convenience.


Essential oils (EO) is a substance extracted from a botanical material and always in high demanded. Steam distillation is a widespread method to isolate the essential oil from aromatic plants. The steam distillation method is most preferable due to factors of operational cost, cleanliness, system cost, high productivity and maintenance cost. However, some disadvantages of this method is loss of some volatile compounds, which will be diluted with boiling water within the distillation tank. The issue of steam distillation has not been given sufficient treatment in literature. The hydro-diffusion system was implemented as a viable alternative to overcome these setback. In the extraction process, the temperature will influence the final product of the extraction. The extraction temperature gives large effect on the percentage yield and quality of the oils. Almost all compounds of essential oils are unstable at high temperature and should be regualted below the saturated temperture throughout the extraction process. In order to regulate the temperature, a suitable controller is required. Three controllers namely PID, HFPID and STFPID are proposed and integrated to hydro-diffusion system to control the steam temperature. All developed controllers are expected to improve system performance in both transient and steady state dynamics. The ARX structure has been used to represent the system dynamic and successfully implemented in the simulation studies. Real-time implementation of the simulated controllers have been carried out on the real extraction process. The performance of the proposed controllers were evaluated. All the controllers have shown their ability to track the set point change and curb the disturbance in real-time. However, the STFPID with 5 membership controller is the most preferable, and demonstrated better performance compared to the HFPID and PID controller. By applying the proper temperature control during extration process give better quality and preventing quality degradation of the essential oils.


The applicability of an online preconcentration technique, large-volume sample stacking with an electroosmotic flow pump (LVSEP), to microchip zone electrophoresis (MCZE) for the analysis of oligosaccharides was investigated. Since the sample stacking and separation proceeded continuously without polarity switching in LVSEP, a single "straight" channel microchip could be employed. In the MCZE analysis of oligosaccharides, sample adsorption onto the channel surface should be suppressed, so the straight microchannel was modified with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). So far, the mechanism of LVSEP in the polymer-coated capillary or microchannel has not been reported, and thus, the LVSEP process in the PVA-coated channel was investigated by fluorescence imaging. Although it is well-known that the PVA coating can suppress the electroosmotic flow (EOF), an enhanced EOF with a mobility of 4.4 x 10(-4) cm(2)/(V x s) was observed in a low ionic strength sample solution. It was revealed that such temporarily enhanced EOF in the sample zone worked as the driving force to remove the sample matrix in LVSEP. To evaluate the analytical performance of LVSEP-MCZE, oligosaccharides were analyzed in the PVA-coated straight channel. As a result, both the glucose ladder and oligosaccharides obtained from bovine ribonuclease B were well enriched and separated with up to 2200-2900-fold sensitivity enhancement compared to those in a conventional MCZE analysis. The run-to-run repeatabilities of the migration time and peak height were good with relative standard deviations of 1.1% and 7.2%, respectively, which were better than those of normal MCZE. By applying the LVSEP technique to MCZE, a complicated voltage program for fluidic control could be simplified from four channels for two steps to two channels for one step.


Cold-start recommendation has been a challenging problem due to sparse user-item interactions for new users or items. Existing efforts have alleviated the cold-start issue to some extent, most of which approach the problem at the data level. Earlier methods often incorporate auxiliary data as user or item features, while more recent methods leverage heterogeneous information networks (HIN) to capture richer semantics via higher-order graph structures. On the other hand, recent meta-learning paradigm sheds light on addressing cold-start recommendation at the model level, given its ability to rapidly adapt to new tasks with scarce labeled data, or in the context of cold-start recommendation, new users and items with very few interactions. Thus, we are inspired to develop a novel meta-learning approach named MetaHIN to address cold-start recommendation on HINs, to exploit the power of meta-learning at the model level and HINs at the data level simultaneously. The solution is non-trivial, for how to capture HIN-based semantics in the meta-learning setting, and how to learn the general knowledge that can be easily adapted to multifaceted semantics, remain open questions. In MetaHIN, we propose a novel semantic-enhanced tasks constructor and a co-adaptation meta-learner to address the two questions. Extensive experiments demonstrate that MetaHIN significantly outperforms the state of the arts in various cold-start scenarios. (Code and dataset are available at https://github.com/rootlu/MetaHIN.)


A Thesis in The Department of Teacher Education Submitted to the Faculty of Education in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) of the University Of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria


For raising the antigenicity of Mycobacterium bovis single antigen, fusion protein of two genes was acquired. The DNA fragments of ag85b and mpb64 were fused by splicing by overlapping extension (SOE) polymerase chain reaction(PCR), and the fusion gene ag85b-mpb64 were cloned into pMD-18-T vector, then we got the recombinant plasmid pMD-85b-64. pMD-85b-64 and pET28a(+) were digested by BamH I and EcoR I double enzymes. The purified pMD-85b-64 fusion gene was subcloned into the expression vector pET28a(+), and the prokaryotic expression vector pET-85b-64 was constructed. Plasmid containing pET-85b-64 was transformed into competence Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). The bacterium was induced by isopropyl-β-D-thiogalactopyranoside(IPTG) and its lysates were loaded directly onto sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), approximately 58 ku exogenous protein was observed on the SDS-PAGE. The protein was analyzed by using Western blotting, the results indicated that the protein was of antigenic activity of Mycobacterium bovis. These results could serve as a basis for further studies on the usefulness of the fusion gene and its expression product in the development of subunit vaccine and DNA vaccine against bovine tuberculosis.


In the framework of a PhD thesis at the University of Bologna and the University of Savoie (France), and in collaboration with the University of Melbourne (Australia), an ambitious scientific project is being carried out with the aim of finding palaeoclimatic records in speleothems sampled in caves of Italy and the Dinaric Karst. In this first sampling phase, thanks to the collaboration with local cavers, already broken stalagmites and flowstones have been taken in caves of Apulia, Emilia-Romagna, Trieste, Slovenia, and Bosnia Erzegovina. The samples have been cut along their length and polished. The bottom and top of the most promising samples (with well visible growth layers, clean primary calcite, without evident signs of recrystallization) has been dated to get their age of growth. The following microdrill sampling has allowed to take powders to be analysed at Mass Spectrometer for the stable isotopes of oxygen and carbon. These studies will allow to reconstruct the climate of the past in the areas of these caves, delivering a valid contribution to the palaeoclimate studies in the Central Mediterranean.


Nauclea orientalis L. is widely distributed in Indonesia. Secondary metabolites such as flavonoids, polyphenols, and saponins are abundant in the bark of N. orientalis L. These compounds have the potential to act as antioxidants. Endophytic fungi, through genetic transfer and coevolution, can produce the same metabolites as their host plant. As a result, understanding the potential of endophytic fungi from N. orientalis L. to produce antioxidant compounds that can be developed is critical. According to the findings of this study, twelve isolates have the potential to produce secondary metabolites with antioxidant properties. Three isolates had high antioxidant activity: DB2 was identified as Aspergillus minisclerotigenes with an IC50 of 21 g/mL containing tannins, terpenes, and flavonoids, AB3 as Colletotrichum perseae with an IC50 of 31 g/mL containing tannins and terpenoids, and AB1 as Diaporthe tulliensis with an IC50 of 48 g/mL containing tannins. The secondary metabolite group has the potential to be developed into an antioxidant agent


This study investigated the effects of concept mapping strategy on secondary school students' achievement on difficult chemistry concepts. It also examined the differential effect on the achievement of male and female chemistry students. Two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the research. The study used a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest on group design. Data were collected from 1,357 SS2 chemistry students using a stratified random sampling procedure from two schools in two local government Areas of Benue State of Nigeria. One instrument for data collection developed by the researcher and validated by experts was Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT), on structure of matter and energy changes. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation scores, while the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 significance level using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Students taught using concept mapping strategy achieved higher and significantly better than those taught using conventional method. There was also a better performance in favour of female students compared to their male counterparts using this method. The study recommended among other things, adequate training of chemistry teachers on the use of concept mapping strategy in teaching chemistry at the secondary school level.


Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), equipped with camera sensors can facilitate enhanced situational awareness for many emergency response and disaster management applications since they are capable of operating in remote and difficult to access areas. In addition, by utilizing an embedded platform and deep learning UAVs can autonomously monitor a disaster stricken area, analyze the image in real-time and alert in the presence of various calamities such as collapsed buildings, flood, or fire in order to faster mitigate their effects on the environment and on human population. To this end, this paper focuses on the automated aerial scene classification of disaster events from on-board a UAV. Specifically, a dedicated Aerial Image Database for Emergency Response (AIDER) applications is introduced and a comparative analysis of existing approaches is performed. Through this analysis a lightweight convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture is developed, capable of running efficiently on an embedded platform achieving ~3x higher performance compared to existing models with minimal memory requirements with less than 2% accuracy drop compared to the state-of-the-art. These preliminary results provide a solid basis for further experimentation towards real-time aerial image classification for emergency response applications using UAVs.


The structure and thermodynamics of strongly coupled dusty plasmas are investigated with the soft mean spherical approximation. This integral theory approach is analytically solvable for Yukawa pair interactions yielding a closed-form solution for the direct correlation function. The pair correlation function, the structure factor, and basic thermodynamic quantities are calculated for a wide range of parameters. Exact consistency between the "energy"-"virial" thermodynamic routes and approximate consistency between the "energy"-"compressibility" paths is demonstrated. Comparison with extensive molecular dynamics results is carried out and a remarkable agreement from the Coulomb limit to the strongly screened limit is revealed. The soft mean spherical approximation is concluded to be particularly well suited for the study of dusty plasma liquids, uniquely combining simplicity and accuracy.


The effect of multiple internal reflections on the (apparent) phase retardation exhibited by an electro-optic prism or plate is considered, along with the consequences of this effect on electro-optic measurements based on the measurements of retardation. The corresponding multiple-reflection errors are calculated and then thoroughly studied in the case of measurements of electro-optic coefficients r and half-wave voltages Vλ/2. Emphasis is given to the maximum values and upper bounds of these errors, and their maximization or minimization conditions are examined with respect to the testing voltage, the biasing voltage, and the optical thickness of the sample. Finally, the case of propagation along directions that ensure zero or canceled initial differential retardation (Γso = ±kπ) is treated distinctively and proves to present reduced mutliple-reflection errors.


This thought-piece article was developed as part of an international expert forum review for ports planning and maritime logistics. We examine some of the key ways in which seaports have developed from a position of direct competition to increasing collaboration in order to remain competitive in a fast-changing world. Strategic port cooperation is considered through a new conceptual cooperation/competition matrix, which can be used to evaluate the response strategies of ports to inter-port rivalry and changing maritime competitive dynamics. We address key discussion questions: What are the major types of cooperation in which ports are now engaged? What are the major maritime competitive dynamics? How should port authorities cooperate and plan moving forward towards 2030? The cooperation/competition matrix is not meant to be prescriptive, but rather offers a useful tool for holistic evaluation, to identify the way in which port strategy has changed over recent decades and indicate a direction for ports and regional planning in the twenty-first century.


The Forming Limit Diagrams (FLD) are widely used in the formability analysis of sheet metal to determine the maximum strain, which gives the Forming Limit Curve (FLC). It is well known that these curves depend on the strain path during forming and hence on the test method used to calculate them. In this paper, different stretching tests such as the Nakajima and the Marciniak tests were performed, with different sample geometries to obtain points in different areas of the FLD. An optical analysis system was used, which allows following the strain path during the test. The increasing use of advanced high-strength steels (AHSS) has created an interest in determining the mechanical properties of these materials. In this work, FLCs for a TRIP steel were determined using Nakajima and Marciniak tests, which revealed different strain paths depending on the type of test. Determination of the FLCs was carried out following the mathematical calculations indicated in the ISO 12004 standard and was also compared with an alternative mathematical method, which showed different FLCs. Finally, the tests were verified by comparing the strain paths of the Nakajima and Marciniak tests with a well-known mild steel.


Complex flow processes exist in the primary convergent-divergent nozzle of a transcritical CO2 ejector because of the rapid expansion of supercritical CO2 flow, which has a significant influence on the performance of a transcritical CO2 ejector expansion refrigeration system. A visualization experiment with the direct photography method was carried out to investigate the phase change phenomena in the primary convergent-divergent nozzle of a transcritical CO2 ejector. The visualization transcritical CO2 ejector was designed as a rectangular cross-section to minimize the optical distortion. In order to better interpret the phase change phenomena of CO2 flow, four pressure measurement points were lumped in the convergent-divergent nozzle to get the pressure distribution along the convergentdivergent nozzle for various operating conditions. The results revealed that the phase change position in the convergent-divergent nozzle was closely related to the primary flow inlet conditions and the suction flow inlet pressure. The results showed that the phase change could start after or before the nozzle throat, and the phase change position moved upstream by decreasing the primary flow inlet pressure and temperature simultaneously. As keeping the primary flow inlet pressure constant, the phase change position also moved upward by decreasing the suction flow inlet pressure. In addition, the measured pressure results indicated that the pressure differences in the convergent section of the primary convergent-divergent nozzle increased as the CO2 suction flow inlet pressure decreased because of more adequate expansion of the primary flow.


Changing demographics and labour market structures are placing increased pressure on identifying work/life balance solutions, while global competition is forcing companies to look beyond traditional solutions to search for competitive advantage. Recent rapid technology developments facilitate a strategic application of teleworking, which, in suitable organisations, would appear to alleviate both of these issues. Despite this, the limited evidence that exists in the telework literature indicates a dearth of telework in Irish companies, and recent research on the reasons for this, form a gap in the literature.This study, empirically examines the key factors that influence the extent of telework in Ireland. Qualitative data has been gathered from thirteen semi-structured (eleven face-to-face) interviews with a combination of current and part-time teleworkers and managers. The exploratory approach employed, provides the opportunity to gain an invaluable perspective from participants with personal experience of working from home. The data gathered during this current study, offers some unique insights into teleworking in Ireland and highlights challenges which appear to be particular to the Irish context. While telework is seen in a positive light, by the respondents in this study, socio-cultural barriers to telework are identified. A recurring theme, emerging from this research, highlights the pervasiveness of a traditional management style, and an Irish culture of mistrust, which poses a particular challenge to those wishing to engage in telework. This current research also reveals a particular Irish need for social affiliation, through workplace interactions, which may account for the prevalence of 'part-time' teleworking in Ireland.Given the attitudinal challenges to telework within Irish organisations, the research findings suggest that there would be clear merit in piloting telework initiatives with carefully selected candidates. Multinationals and young dynamic businesses which remain open to innovative work practices, particularly in the services and technology sectors, are ideally positioned for such an initiative. Coupled with the extension of broadband, a successful outcome, with government sponsored PR, could pave the way for expanding the practice of teleworking in Ireland. This research would be of particular benefit to organisations and individuals considering the option of telework in the future.


The objective of our paper is to determine the effect of piracy advice from various sources on the behavior of the music consumer. Specifically, does it matter if the source of advice has a stake in the outcome of the piracy decision? Does it matter if the source of advice has a social tie with the advisee? Accordingly, we conduct a laboratory experiment using teenagers and their parents as subjects, increasing the realism of the context by sampling potential pirates and their parents. Treatments represent various sources of piracy advice (e.g., the teen's parent, a record label, or an external regulator). Subjects make decisions playing our new experimental game—The Piracy Game—extended from the volunteer's dilemma literature. Interestingly, subjects respond negatively to advice from record labels over time, purchasing fewer songs as compared to other sources such as the subject's parent. The existence of a social tie between the adviser and the subject assists in mitigating piracy, especially when a parent is facing potential penalties due to his or her child's behavior. An external regulator, having no social tie or stake in the decision, provides the least credible source of advice, leading to the greatest amount of piracy. Our analyses not only provide managerial insights but also develop theoretical understanding of the role of social ties in the context of advice.


We propose a superconducting spin-triplet valve of a new type. This spin valve consists of a bilayer that involves a superconductor and an itinerant magnetic material, with the magnet showing an intrinsic non-collinear magnetic order characterized by a wave vector Q that may be aligned in a few equivalent preferred directions under control of a weak external magnetic field. Re-orienting the direction of Q allows one to controllably modify long-range spin-triplet superconducting correlations in the magnetic material, leading to spin-valve switching behavior. This new type of superconducting spin valve may be used as a magnetic memory element for cryogenic nanoelectronics. It has the following advantages in comparison with superconducting spin valves proposed earlier: (i) it contains only one magnetic layer, which may be more easily fabricated and controlled; (ii) its ground states are separated by a potential barrier, which solves the "half-select" problem of the addressed switch of such memory elements.


The supply of water to the anode from the cathode through the electrolyte membrane is a critical factor for the operation of vapor feed DMFC at high methanol concentrations. A comparative study in a passive vapor feed DMFC employing a PCP on the anode surface had been carried out with and without a hydrophobic cathode filter. Compact and a noncompact cells were fabricated and used. The noncompact cell could be operated with high methanol concentrations of even 100 wt%, while the compact one could not be operated with 90 wt% methanol. This was related to the deficiency of water at the anode surface in the compact cell design, where heat dissipation was not enhanced. For the supply of water to the anode surface, the employment of a hydrophobic filter on the cathode surface was necessary, especially for the compact cell.


Rationale: Necrotizing fasciitis (NF) is defined as a rare, life-threatening, rapidly spreading soft tissue infection resulting from a polymicrobial origin, with a predominance of anaerobic organisms that presents with necrosis of the muscle, fascia, and surrounding soft tissue. Patient concerns and diagnoses: A 64-year-old male who sustained tibia fracture caused by falling from a height underwent a tibia surgery with minimally invasive plate osteosynthesis technique in another institution. Postoperatively, the patient had development of a very uncommon NF at the site of the tibia procedure. When the patient was transferred to our unit, he rapidly processed to toxic shock and coagulopathy. Interventions and outcomes: Although the patient underwent antibiotics treatment in the emergency room and was transferred to the operating room for surgery promptly, the patient's condition deteriorated rapidly and he died of septic shock and multiple organ failure unfortunately. Lessons: Our study aims to highlight the risk of NF in the elderly with diabetes during the perioperative period even if the injury is a simple closed fracture. Physicians must be vigilant to early inflammatory signs and pain in immunosuppressed patients.


Video scene detection is the task of dividing a video into semantic sections. We propose a novel and effective method for temporal grouping of scenes using an arbitrary set of features computed from the video. We formulate the task of video scene detection as a general optimization problem and provide an efficient solution using dynamic programming. Our unique formulation allows us to directly obtain a temporally consistent segmentation, unlike many existing methods, and has the advantage of being parameter-free. We also present a novel technique to estimate the number of scenes in the video using Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) as a low-rank approximation of a distance matrix. We provide detailed experimental results, showing that our algorithm outperforms current state of the art methods. In addition, we created a new Open Video Scene Detection (OVSD) dataset which we make publicly available on the web. The ground truth scene annotation was objectively created based on the movie scripts, and the open nature of the dataset makes it available for both academic and commercial use, unlike existing datasets for video scene detection.


Infection with influenza A virus (IAV) leads to acute lung injury and possibly fatal complications, especially in immunocompromised, elderly, or chronically infected individuals. Therefore, it is important to study the factors that lead to pathology and mortality in infected hosts. In this report, we analyze immune responses to infection at a sublethal (0.1 LD(50)) and lethal (1 LD(50)) dose of the highly pathogenic IAV A/Puerto Rico/8/34 (PR8). Our experiments revealed that infection with a 1 LD(50) dose induced peak viral titers at day 2 compared to day 4 in the 0.1 LD(50) dose. Moreover, early cytokine dysregulation was observed in the lethal dose with significantly elevated levels of IFN-α, TNF-α, CXCL9, IL-6, and MCP-1 produced at day 2. Early inflammatory responses following infection with 1 LD(50) correlated with a greater influx of neutrophils into the lung. However, depletion of neutrophils enhanced morbidity following IAV infection. Though no differences in CD8+ cell function were observed, CD4+ effector responses were impaired in the lungs 8 days after infection with 1 LD(50). Histological analysis revealed significant pathology in lethally infected mice at day 2 and day 6 postinfection, when viral titers remained high. Treating lethally infected mice with oseltamivir inhibited viral titers to sublethal levels, and abrogated the pathology associated with the lethal dose. Together, these results suggest that early cytokine dysregulation and viral replication play a role in pulmonary damage and high mortality in lethally infected mice.


In this article, the authors investigate the performance sensitivity of private equity real estate (PERE) funds to capital deployment speeds, investment horizons, management fees, and investor opportunity costs from uncalled capital. The authors first provide a series of simulation scenarios demonstrating the significant effects of these factors on PERE performance and then use PERE fund data to empirically investigate their performance effects. Using a comprehensive dataset from Cambridge Associates covering a large sample of 497 funds sponsored by 201 managers with aggregate assets under management of $383.9 billion from 2000–2013, the authors find that capital deployment speeds vary significantly across funds and over time and that very little of this variation is incorporated in traditional performance metrics. Importantly, the dilutive effects of management fees are positively related to the time over which capital is deployed and negatively related to the percentage of net capital called from investors and deployed by the fund manager. The authors also model the significant opportunity cost investors incur when reserving funds for uncertain capital calls. This cost of maintaining dry powder for the manager is ignored in reported performance metrics. Taken together, the authors' results show the importance of accounting for capital deployment speeds, investment horizons, management fees, and uncalled capital in determining PERE fund performance.


Despite claims by many developing countries that they have adopted sustainable forest policies in return for bilateral and multilateral donor grants, deforestation rates are still
quite high. In order to understand this problem, it has been suggested that forest policies of individual countries should be critically examined. Yet there is no comprehensive
theoretical framework for analysing, in an integrated way, forest policy formulation and implementation in the developing world. To help fill this gap, an integrated policy network model is devised. This addresses the main weaknesses of the existing policy network approach, especially its negligence of power differentials and failure to analyse micro-interactions. The new model also provides a framework for analysing the influence of complex power relations and informal networks on actual forest policy outcomes.

In order to test the robustness of the new model, it is applied to analyse forest policy formulation and implementation in Ghana. The analysis reveals that actual forest policy in Ghana has historically been exploitative. In response to international pressures, a new
Forest Policy, with sustainable and participatory goals, was formulated in 1994. However, this has been poorly implemented, due to complex interdependencies and
informal networks between state officials and forest exploitative groups. While local communities are marginalised, patronage networks among the political elite, top forestry officials and "big timber men" negatively affect revenue collection and checking illegal logging. Similarly, complex interdependencies and networks among
guards, small-scale chainsaw operators and some farmers contribute to poor implementation of forest protection policies in the countryside.

Based on these findings, it has been suggested that strengthening of the Forestry Department must be accompanied by social change and greater transparency on the part of state officials, if forest policy could ever be well implemented in Ghana. Donor pressures alone cannot ensure sustainable resource management, due to the ability of the executive to contest such pressures through the use of policy ambiguities. A change driven by civil society, and a strong local media should help improve governance and
forest management in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa.


. Mobile phones have become one of the most unsustainable consumer goods. Social and environmental risks are found throughout the whole lifecycle of mobile phones. This chapter introduces the notion of lifecycle thinking to take sustainability beyond the product towards the larger product-system. Design can play a central role creating sustainable product lifecycles, but is constraint by other modes of regulation, such as law, social norms, and market. This paper explores the opportunities and limitations of design as regulation. The relational concepts of script and affordance help to provide a non-deterministic account of design as regulation. The particular case of the Fairphone 2, a smartphone designed with social and environmental values, will be discussed to investigate design as regulation. The notions of regulatory ecology and regulatory patching are introduced as tools to explore opportunities for constructing a more desirable regulatory regime


A central processing unit (CPU), also referred to as a central processor unit, is the hardware within a computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program by performing the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The term has been in use in the computer industry at least since the early 1960s.The form, design, and implementation of CPUs have changed over the course of their history, but their fundamental operation remains much the same. A computer can have more than one CPU; this is called multiprocessing. All modern CPUs are microprocessors, meaning contained on a single chip. Some integrated circuits (ICs) can contain multiple CPUs on a single chip; those ICs are called multi-core processors. An IC containing a CPU can also contain peripheral devices, and other components of a computer system; this is called a system on a chip (SoC).Two typical components of a CPU are the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), which performs arithmetic and logical operations, and the control unit (CU), which extracts instructions from memory and decodes and executes them, calling on the ALU when necessary. Not all computational systems rely on a central processing unit. An array processor or vector processor has multiple parallel computing elements, with no one unit considered the "center". In the distributed computing model, problems are solved by a distributed interconnected set of processors.


Abstract This paper investigates how masturbation, as one form of non-coital sexual practice, is interpreted and experienced by young married women in contemporary Vietnam. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 20 professional women aged 25–40 living in Hanoi. Thematic analysis suggests that by embracing the pursuit of pleasure and aspiring to achieve this goal, many women stake a claim for modernity by promoting the idea that they are no longer traditional in this particular domain of social life. However, wider social forces associated with traditional Vietnamese gender ideology and sexual values remain firmly rooted, impacting on their everyday lives as working wives and mothers, and stalling their pursuit of pleasure and thus 'wellbeing' in its fullest sense. Indeed, among participants in this study, sex was interpreted as being almost exclusively organised around penile-vaginal intercourse. Even when sex was conceptualised as involving more than penetration, penile-vaginal intercourse was still viewed as its most essential component, without which a sexual transaction could not be seen as complete. The normality of penetrative sex was sometimes coupled with the stigma and discrimination associated with other non-coital sexual practices, positioning women firmly within conventional discourses of naturalness and health in regard to sex.


Two phases of local and regional development policies in Europe (and particularly in Italy and France) are analyzed: the decentralization phase starting in the 1980s and prevailing in the 1990-2000 decade, and the recentralization phase characterizing the second part of the 2000-2010 decade and ongoing. Reasons for, and weaknesses of, both trends are taken into account and analysis of main policies at local, urban and regional level is carried on. The current crisis asks for new alternative approach: a typology of three kinds of local and regional development policies is sketched and a strong preference towards new «glocal» policies oriented to produce network and functional goods is finally proposed.


We study, for the first time in a statistically significant and well-defined sample, the relation between the outer-disk ionized-gas metallicity gradients and the presence of breaks in the surface brightness profiles of disk galaxies. Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) g′- and r′-band surface brightness, (g′ – r′) color, and ionized-gasoxygen abundance profiles for 324 galaxies within the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey are used for this purpose. We perform a detailed light-profile classification, finding that 84% of our disks show down- or up-bending profiles (Type II and Type III, respectively), while the remaining 16% are well fitted by one single exponential (Type I). The analysis of the color gradients at both sides of this break shows a U-shaped profile for most Type II galaxies with an average minimum (g′ − r′) color of ~0.5  mag and an ionized-gas metallicity flattening associated with it only in the case of low-mass galaxies. Comparatively, more massive systems show a rather uniform negative metallicity gradient. The correlation between metallicity flattening and stellar mass for these systems results in p-values as low as 0.01. Independent of the mechanism having shaped the outer light profiles of these galaxies, stellar migration or a previous episode of star formation in a shrinking star-forming disk, it is clear that the imprint in their ionized-gas metallicity was different for low- and high-mass Type II galaxies. In the case of Type III disks, a positive correlation between the change in color and abundance gradient is found (the null hypothesis is ruled out with a p-value of 0.02), with the outer disks of Type III galaxies with masses ≤10^10 M_⊙ showing a weak color reddening or even a bluing. This is interpreted as primarily due to a mass downsizing effect on the population of Type III galaxies that recently experienced an enhanced inside-out growth.


This chapter discusses pre-service teachers' views about the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child and how teachers perceive their connection to the educational context and their work. The authors argue that pre-service teachers' perceptions determine how successfully human rights education is implemented in practice. The data were collected from workshops and focus group discussions conducted with 82 primary school pre-service teachers in Northern Finland. The participants noted that children's rights are important and deeply connected to their work. However, they were insufficiently familiar with HRE concepts, and they were uncertain about whether it was acceptable to physically restrain children to protect them or others, as this could undermine a child's rights. To adhere to the principles in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the topic must be included in the pre-service study syllabus, more clearly added to the curriculum, and implemented in teacher practice


Abstract : The Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System (MPSMS) is a national surveillance project aimed at identifying the rates of specific adverse events within the Medicare population. Created under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services' Patient Safety Task Force, this surveillance system identifies adverse events from randomly selected inpatient Medicare discharges and administrative data. This system is immense in scope and provides national rates of adverse events by employing explicit review criteria for all patient safety topics. The MPSMS explicit review is a patient-centered process focusing on patient harm rather than provider or system error, and has the following features: normalized inter-rater reliability; lower cost-per-chart reviewed than the traditional clinical expert-based implicit review; and the potential for comparative analysis across time and health care systems. A limitation to our approach is the reliance on administrative data to complete any post-discharge surveillance required. This paper explores the precepts behind the MPSMS review process. Three principles-intent, relevance, and transparency-describe the conceptual underpinnings for our approach.


Abstract. Can we read a Rorschach test without betraying the epistemological systemic premises? The systemic theoretical framework generally does not accept the use of testing, but we find confirmation of its use in some American publications in the late 1950s. In this period, family therapy was born and the Rorschach provided joint administration of the test. The interpretation of the test was prevalently pragmatic: co-administration helped to bring out relationship patterns and styles of communication. This article presents a possible integration to the pragmatic interpretation of the joint Rorschach, through the adoption of a constructivist and semantic theoretical framework. The author believes that subjects are active constructors of their own responses; the investigation of this process offers useful elements to the understanding of neurotic or psychotic levels of functioning. Furthermore, the responses should be read as a story, and the projected meanings can define personality organization. The method is adopted in individual and joint Rorschach testing: From a constructivist perspective, linked to the construction of the image, the pragmatic level overlaps with the semantic nuances of the individual stories in the joint administration. Consequently, systemic theory finds the way of approaching the test coherently with its own premises.


Abstract Background Handoffs or care transitions from the operating room (OR) to intensive care unit (ICU) are fragmented and vulnerable to communication errors. Although protocols and checklists for standardization help reduce errors, such interventions suffer from limited sustainability. An unexplored aspect is the potential role of developing personalized postoperative transition interventions using artificial intelligence (AI)-generated risks. Objectives This study was aimed to (1) identify factors affecting sustainability of handoff standardization, (2) utilize a human-centered approach to develop design ideas and prototyping requirements for a sustainable handoff intervention, and (3) explore the potential role for AI risk assessment during handoffs. Methods We conducted four design workshops with 24 participants representing OR and ICU teams at a large medical academic center. Data collection phases were (1) open-ended questions, (2) closed card sorting of handoff information elements, and (3) scenario-based design ideation and prototyping for a handoff intervention. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Card sorts were further tallied to characterize handoff information elements as core, flexible, or unnecessary. Results Limited protocol awareness among clinicians and lack of an interdisciplinary electronic health record (EHR)-integrated handoff intervention prevented long-term sustainability of handoff standardization. Clinicians argued for a handoff intervention comprised of core elements (included for all patients) and flexible elements (tailored by patient condition and risks). They also identified unnecessary elements that could be omitted during handoffs. Similarities and differences in handoff intervention requirements among physicians and nurses were noted; in particular, clinicians expressed divergent views on the role of AI-generated postoperative risks. Conclusion Current postoperative handoff interventions focus largely on standardization of information transfer and handoff processes. Our design approach allowed us to visualize accurate models of user expectations for effective interdisciplinary communication. Insights from this study point toward EHR-integrated, "flexibly standardized" care transition interventions that can automatically generate a patient-centered summary and risk-based report.


Heidi Campbell deals with an important aspect of "lived religion" and the Internet. In her contribution Spiritualising the Internet: Uncovering Discourses and Narratives of Religious Internet Usage, she focuses on how spiritual or religious worldviews shape the use and study of the Internet. Individuals and groups typically employ one of a range of conceptual models (such as the Internet as an information tool, identity workshop, common mental geography, social network or spiritual space) to frame their understanding of Internet technology and how it should be used. Narratives about the nature of this technology are often embedded within these discourses. Of particular interest to Campbell is the identification of narratives used to shape religious or spiritual Internet usage. Some of these can be described as offering a religious identity, support network, spiritual network or worship space. According to Campbell, religious narratives describe the religious group's motivations and beliefs about acceptable use of technology in spiritual pursuits. They also highlight a process of negotiation and framing that is often undertaken in order to justify religious Internet usage. Campbell introduces Katz and Aakhus's Apparageist theory of the social use of mobile technology, which provides one way to discuss this religious apologetic process related to the Internet. She is convinced that it also helps to uncover how technological selection can be linked to the spiritual worldviews to which individuals and/or groups ascribe.


significantly correlated with androgen levels. At the consensus this measure was considered not easy for the routine practice. In order to verify the feasibility of this determination in the routine and to confirm the ability of S/A to predict hyperandrogenism in PCOS, we realized a multicenter study with 5 Italian groups. Subjects in fertile age, presenting oligomenorrhea or secondary amenorrhea, enlarged ovaries with > 10 cm 3 and/or more than 12 follicles measuring 2–9 mm in diameter participated in the study. Transvaginal pelvic ultrasound was performed on each patient using a 6.5 MHz endovaginal probe The hormonal study included a baseline plasma determination of LH, FSH, Estradiol (E2), Androstenedione (A), Testosterone (T), Dehydroepiandrosteronesulphate (DHEAS), 17 hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP), and Sex-hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). Receiver operator curves (ROC) were constructed to examine the diagnostic test performance, i.e., the ability to discriminate between subjects with normal or high androgen levels. The Youden indexes were calculated to find the significant S/A cut-off values in relation to A and T levels. The S/A resulted the better significant predictor for elevated A and T levels. The S/A cut-off identification obtained for both A and T indicate in 0.33 the best cut-off for the S/A ratio. This value could permit to identify the hyperandrogenic subjects by the US scan. In conclusion this work supports the importance of stroma evaluation in US diagnosis of PCOS.


Cephalometry is an important branch of anthropometry which involves the morphological study of structures present in the human head or scientific measurement of the dimensions of the head. Some of the most important cephalometric parameters include the length/height and breadth/width of the head, the face and the nose as well as their respective indices. These cephalometric parameters are vital in the description of variation which is a common phenomenon that characterizes human physiognomy. They are also useful in the description of human inter-racial and intra-racial  similarities both within and across gender. This study involved 450 Bini children (235 males and 215 females) between ages 5-12 years. The length and width of the head and face of each subject was measured between the appropriate anatomical landmarks using spreading and sliding calipers. The measurements were used to calculate the cephalic and facial indices for each subject. The result showed sexual variation in both cephalic and facial indices among the Bini children with the males having higher values than the females. Also, the result of this study showed that prevalence of brachycephalic head type among both male (51.1%) and female (49.8%) Bini children. The mesoproscopic face type was the most prevalent face type among both male (62.6%) and female (47.4%) Bini children. The cephalo-facial indices are vital in demonstrating similarity and variation in physical morphologies of individuals or group of people of different ethnicity, races, gender and geographical locations. Keywords: Cephalometry, Cephalic index, facial index, Bini children, Nigeria


Industrial policy has often done more harm than good. The time is right for Latin America and the Caribbean to explore a new way of thinking about productive development policy that will help accelerate growth in the region and improve the wellbeing of its citizens. This issue of IDEA provides a taste of the varied menu of productive development policies in the region as well as some of the analytical issues related to the policymaking process. It is based on the IDB's latest edition of its flagship Development in the America's series entitled Rethinking Productive Development: Sound Policies and Institutions for Economic Transformation.


This study presents a Gaussian noise removal method using the improved trace-based approach for color images. The presented method employs partial differential equations (PDEs)-based approach including both smoothing (regularization) term and fidelity (data) term in the energy functional. So, the structure of the input image is well preserved during noise removal processes. Also, we estimate the standard deviation of Gaussian noise in the wavelet domain. In addition, due to the fact that the type of Gaussian noise is easily perceived via a selected block in a flat (homogeneous) region of the noisy input image, the presented method is considered as a semi-automated noise removal approach. The validity of the presented method is depicted via experimental results.


High-frequency coils are widely used in medical applications, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) systems. A typical medical MRI includes a local radio frequency transmit/receive coil. This coil is designed for maximum energy transfer or wave transfer through magnetic resonance. Mutual inductance is a dynamic parameter that determines the energy quantity to be transferred wirelessly by electromagnetic coupling. Thus, it is essential to analyze the self and mutual inductances of this coil. Other parameters, including electromagnetic shielding, frequency, and distance, which influence voltage and power transfer are investigated here. Theoretical formulas and simulation models proposed in the present paper are implemented by using MATLAB and ANSYS MAXWELL and ANSYS SIMPLORER Finite Element (FE) packages for determining the performance and properties of the coil. So, the main goal is evaluating of software steps that simplify the design of RF resonance circuits. Also, experimental results are given for the validation of the proposed method. Consequently, Safety and efficiency are automatically maximized by following the best design considerations.


This paper argues that given the complexities and contested nature of contemporary higher education, induction programmes for new academics should move beyond generic approaches to teaching and learning and engage academics in considering the contexts in which they are practising, focusing on developing their agency in these complex contexts. A sociocultural approach that explicitly engages new academics in reflecting on the possibilities and limitations of their agency in the context of a range of structural opportunities and constraints can empower them to become more critical agents as they develop their identities as academics. However, the value of such centralised interventions also depends on the quality of departmental and institutional cultures, and their capacity to create an environment that supports creative engagement by new academics in aligning their own philosophies of teaching with their department and institution.


Thirty years ago, although sports medicine certainly existed, it was still on the sidelines of medical activity. The leaders of the sports world, less than receptive to this kind of activity, happily affirmed that sports teams needed nothing more than a "team doctor." A costly figure who often got in the way, the team physician fought against the empiricism of coaches and ruined their credibility with his scientific theories, the value of which none of the sports leaders could understand. Sport was governed by the rules of a romantic amateurism that frowned on the professional strictness of a new generation of scientists. Sports medicine was regarded as a costly and pointless activity. The extraordinary improvement in human performance reflected in a fabulous number of records, the increasing media focus on sports events, and the medical problems that have accompanied the sporting expansion of recent years have led sports leaders to


Wood packaging represents a pathway for the introduction and spread ofpests. In March 2002, the Food and Agriculture Organization (F.A.O.) issued regulations describing globally approved phytosanitary measures that significantly reduce the risk provoked by most pests. The main purpose of this work is to describe the disinfesting system of pallets through microwave treatment.


Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence algorithms have gained considerable scrutiny in recent times owing to their propensity towards imitating and amplifying existing prejudices in society. This has led to a niche but growing body of work that identifies and attempts to fix these biases. A first step towards making these algorithms more fair is designing metrics that measure unfairness. Most existing work in this field deals with either a binary view of fairness (protected vs. unprotected groups) or politically defined categories (race or gender). Such categorization misses the important nuance of intersectionality - biases can often be amplified in subgroups that combine membership from different categories, especially if such a subgroup is particularly underrepresented in historical platforms of opportunity. In this paper, we discuss why fairness metrics need to be looked at under the lens of intersectionality, identify existing work in intersectional fairness, suggest a simple worst case comparison method to expand the definitions of existing group fairness metrics to incorporate intersectionality, and finally conclude with the social, legal and political framework to handle intersectional fairness in the modern context.


This study has the purpose of aligning the teacher education program of Holy Cross of Davao College with the CHED's prescribed National Competency-Based Teacher Standards (NCBTS). The paper made use of the descriptive-comparative research design. A questionnaire based on the said standards was utilized to gather data. Full-time teachers along with some of their students were the respondents. The teachers express that their strengths on instructional competencies center on three domains – curriculum, diversity of learning, and learning environment. On the other hand, their weaknesses revolve around the four domains of planning, assessing and reporting; community linkages; personal growth and professional development; and social regard for learning. Students see that the teachers are quite low in some instructional competencies specifically in the areas of curriculum making, planning, assessing, reporting and community linkages. They perceive that their mentors' instructional competencies are predominantly manifested in their mastery of the subject matter; in providing students with an adequate learning environment; and in the efficient and effective handling of diversity among students, learning approaches and instructional materials. The study recommends that the NCBTS be made as guideposts and guidelines in the preparation of a program for recruitment and retention of young teachers with aptitude and potentials for the teaching profession. In-service trainings and workshops must be centered on these standards specifically in planning, assessing and reporting. Community linkages and networking of teachers should be well defined. Teachers should strive for more engagement in educational researches.


This thesis concerns two aspects of movement and performancein percussion playing, First, the playing of an accent, asimple but much used and practised element in drumming, andsecond; the perception and communication of specific emotionalintentions through movements during performances onmarimba.Papers I and II investigated the execution andinterpretation of an accent performed for different playingconditions. Players' movements, striking velocities and timingpatterns were studied for different tempi, dynamic levels andstriking surfaces. It was found that the players used differingmovement strategies when playing and that they interpreted theaccent differently, something that was reflected in theirmovement trajectories. Strokes at greater dynamic levels wereplayed from a greater height and with higher strikingvelocities. All players initiated the accented strokes from agreater height, and delivered the accent with increasedstriking velocity compared to unaccented strokes. The intervalbeginning with the accented stroke was also prolonged,generally by delaying the following stroke. Recurrent cyclicpatterns were found in the players' timing performances. In alistening test listeners perceived the strokes groupedaccording to the cyclic patterns.Paper III studied how emotional intent was conveyed toobservers through the movements of a marimba player. Apercussionist was filmed when playing a piece with theexpressive intentions Happiness, Sadness, Anger and Fear onmarimba. Observers rated the emotional content and movementcues in the videos clips shown without sound. Results showedthat the observers were able to identify the intentionsSadness, Anger, and Happiness, but not Fear. The rated movementcues showed that an Angry performance was characterized bylarge, fast, uneven and jerky movements, Happy performances bylarge, somewhat fast movements, and Sad performances by small,slow, even, and smooth movements.Keywords:drumming, percussion, movement strategies,instrument interaction, timing, accent, movement cues emotionalexpression, gesture.


A segmented, and possibly multistage, principal components transformation (PCT) is proposed for efficient hyperspectral remote-sensing image classification and display. The scheme requires, initially, partitioning the complete set of bands into several highly correlated subgroups. After separate transformation of each subgroup, the single-band separabilities are used as a guide to carry out feature selection. The selected features can then be transformed again to achieve a satisfactory data reduction ratio and generate the three most significant components for color display. The scheme reduces the computational load significantly for feature extraction, compared with the conventional PCT. A reduced number of features will also accelerate the maximum likelihood classification process significantly, and the process will not suffer the limitations encountered by trying to use the full set of hyperspectral data when training samples are limited. Encouraging results have been obtained in terms of classification accuracy, speed, and quality of color image display using two airborne visible/infrared imaging spectrometer (AVIRIS) data sets.


Within the framework of ab initio electronic structure calculations we study a mechanism for the recently discovered pressure induced metamagnetic transition in Fe3C—cementite. It is shown that the transition occurs between a high moment ferromagnetic state and a non-magnetic (non-spin-polarized) state without stabilization of any intermediate antiferromagnetic-like state, which may explain the experimentally observed difference in character of the transitions in Fe3C and fcc Fe–Pt. Although both materials are Invar-type systems we find considerable differences between their electronic structures and the degrees of localization, or itinerancy, of the Fe magnetic moments. The possibilities for describing the thermal expansion anomaly in Fe3C within existing approaches to the Invar problem are discussed in detail.


The type I X-ray-bursting low-mass X-ray binary KS 1731-260 was recently detected for the first time in quiescence by Wijnands et al. following a τob ≈ 13 yr outburst, which ended in 2001 February. We show that the emission area radius for a H atmosphere spectrum (possibly with a hard power-law component that dominates the emission above 3.5 keV) is consistent with that observed from other quiescent neutron star transients, R∞ = 23 km and examine possible IR counterparts for KS 1731-260. Unlike all other known transient neutron stars, the duration of this recent (and the only observed) outburst is as long as the thermal diffusion time of the crust. The large amount of heat deposited by reactions in the crust will have heated the crust to temperatures much higher than the equilibrium core temperature. As a result, the thermal luminosity currently observed from the neutron star is dominated not by the core but by the crust. This scenario implies that the mean outburst recurrence timescale found by Wijnands et al. (~200 yr) is a lower limit. Moreover, because the thermal emission is dominated by the hot crust, the level and the time evolution of quiescent luminosity is determined mostly by the amount of heat deposited in the crust during the most recent outburst (for which reasonable constraints on the mass accretion rate exist) and is only weakly sensitive to the core temperature. Using estimates of the outburst mass accretion rate, our calculations of the quiescent flux immediately following the end of the outburst agree with the observed quiescent flux to within a factor of a few. In this paper, we present simulations of the evolution of the quiescent light curve for different scenarios of the crust microphysics and demonstrate that monitoring observations (with currently flying instruments) spanning from 1 to 30 yr can measure the crust cooling timescale and the total amount of heat stored in the crust. These quantities have not been directly measured for any neutron star. This makes KS 1731-260 a unique laboratory for studying the thermal properties of the crust by monitoring the luminosity over the next few years to decades.


Spiking neural networks (SNNs) with leaky integrate and fire (LIF) neurons, can be operated in an event-driven manner and have internal states to retain information over time, providing opportunities for energy-efficient neuromorphic computing, especially on edge devices. Note, however, many representative works on SNNs do not fully demonstrate the usefulness of their inherent recurrence (membrane potential retaining information about the past) for sequential learning. Most of the works train SNNs to recognize static images by artificially expanded input representation in time through rate coding. We show that SNNs can be trained for practical sequential tasks by proposing modifications to a network of LIF neurons that enable internal states to learn long sequences and make their inherent recurrence resilient to the vanishing gradient problem. We then develop a training scheme to train the proposed SNNs with improved inherent recurrence dynamics. Our training scheme allows spiking neurons to produce multi-bit outputs (as opposed to binary spikes) which help mitigate the mismatch between a derivative of spiking neurons' activation function and a surrogate derivative used to overcome spiking neurons' non-differentiability. Our experimental results indicate that the proposed SNN architecture on TIMIT and LibriSpeech 100h speech recognition dataset yields accuracy comparable to that of LSTMs (within 1.10% and 0.36%, respectively), but with 2x fewer parameters than LSTMs. The sparse SNN outputs also lead to 10.13x and 11.14x savings in multiplication operations compared to GRUs, which are generally considered as a lightweight alternative to LSTMs, on TIMIT and LibriSpeech 100h datasets, respectively.