Markov decision processes are of major interest in the planning community as well as in the model checking community. But in spite of the similarity in the considered formal models, the development of new techniques and methods happened largely independently in both communities. This work is intended as a beginning to unite the two research branches. We consider goal-reachability analysis as a common basis between both communities. The core of this paper is the translation from Jani, an overarching input language for quantitative model checkers, into the probabilistic planning domain definition language (PPDDL), and vice versa from PPDDL into Jani. These translations allow the creation of an overarching benchmark collection, including existing case studies from the model checking community, as well as benchmarks from the international probabilistic planning competitions (IPPC). We use this benchmark set as a basis for an extensive empirical comparison of various approaches from the model checking community, variants of value iteration, and MDP heuristic search algorithms developed by the AI planning community. On a per benchmark domain basis, techniques from one community can achieve state-ofthe-art performance in benchmarks of the other community. Across all benchmark domains of one community, the performance comparison is however in favor of the solvers and algorithms of that particular community. Reasons are the design of the benchmarks, as well as tool-related limitations. Our translation methods and benchmark collection foster crossfertilization between both communities, pointing out specific opportunities for widening the scope of solvers to different kinds of models, as well as for exchanging and adopting algorithms across communities.


Studies regarding the interrelation of perceived and physiological stress indices have shown diverging results. Using a population sample of adolescents (N=715, 50.9% girls, mean age 16.11 years, SD=0.59), we tested three hypotheses: (1) perceived responses during social stress covary with concurrent physiological stress responses; (2) high pretest levels of perceived stress predict large physiological responses; and (3) large physiological responses to social stress predict low posttest perceived stress levels. Perceived arousal, unpleasantness, and dominance were related to heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, and cortisol responses to a laboratory social stress test. Although effect sizes were small, the results suggest covariation of perceived stress and concurrent physiological stress responses in both the ANS and the HPA axis, as well as inverse associations between heart rate responsiveness and the subsequent appraisal of stress.


We present the first algorithm to approximate the medial axis $M_{\gamma}$ of a smooth, closed curve $\gamma \subset \mathbb{R}^3$ in near-linear time. Our algorithm works on a sufficiently dense \eps-sample and comes with a convergence guarantee for the non-discrete, but continuous approximation object.  As our approach also works correctly for a set of curves, we discuss the following application of the medial axis: The medial axis of two curves $\gamma_1$ and $\gamma_2$ can be applied to compute piecewise-linear simplifications of $\gamma_1$ and $\gamma_2$. In particular, a controllable tradeoff between the degree of simplification and the degree of falsification of the summed Fr\'{e}chet distance between $\gamma_1$ and $\gamma_2$ is obtained. Finally, we show that for simplifying $\gamma_1$ and $\gamma_2$, our approximation, instead of $M_{\gamma}$, can be applied while guaranteeing the same result.


Various Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods are being commonly used in the area of construction risk management to deal with decisions that are subjected to several factors affecting the selection of the best possible choice in the projects. There are many techniques developed to provide assistance to decision-makers during decision-making process, each having different advantages and disadvantages. This study discusses some of the most frequently applied MCDM methods in construction risk management such as: AHP, ANP, TOPSIS, VIKOR, and DEMATEL, with their own application principles. It aims to introduce a meta-analysis about the use of MCDM methods within the last two decades and provide an extensive literature review study about construction risk management. It is expected to assist practitioners and researchers to suggest effective methods for specific type of risks to be addressed in construction projects. The discussion of pros and cons of each method will also provide some insights to get use of multiple MCDM methods rather than a single means to enhance the analysis outputs.


Energy security has been an important global policy issue for more than 4 decades. Transport biofuels like bioethnol have been receiving increased attention in recent years as a solution to heavy dependence on imported petroleum fuels, which brings destabilizing price effects on the economy and causes serious environmental problems like climate change. India's biofuel policy proposes an ambitious target of replacing 20% of petrol by blending bioethanol by 2017. This paper examines the economic feasibility of sugarcane bioethanol in India while considering food security as a competing policy priority. The analyses show that 20% blending of bioethanol cannot be achieved without affecting food production in India at the current level of productivity. Moreover, the cost of sugarcane bioethanol production exceeds the social benefits, hence use of sugarcane bioethanol cannot be justified on economic grounds. Molasses, a byproducts of sugar manufacturing, can support up to 5% blending on bioethanol without compromising food production while improving social welfare. Given that first-generation bioethanol has limited scope in the country, India's ambitions to enhance energy security should rely on second-generation bioethanol technologies, which require improvements to become commercially viable.


Background : This study focused on whether there are clear indications of seat belt use to be found at autopsy, evaluating the sensitivity and specificity of seat belt marks (SBM), and whether use of seat belt and seating location affects the type and severity of injuries sustained. Methods : Information on the type of injuries sustained and seatbelt use was retrieved from autopsy reports and police reports respectively, for cases of fatal motor vehicle collisions occurring in Sydney, Australia over a 5 year period. Results : A SBM was only found on restrained occupants. The proportion of restrained occupants with evidence of a SBM was 36% (sensitivity), whilst unrestrained occupants showed no evidence of a SBM (100% specificity). A SBM was also found to reliably reflect seating position of occupant. Conclusion : Restrained occupants can be expected to show evidence of the seat belt in just over 1/3 of cases. A spurious SBM is very unlikely to be present if the occupant was unrestrained.


Delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) is a life-threatening complication after subarachnoid hemorrhage. There is a strong association between cerebral vessel narrowing and DCI. Alpha calcitonin gene-related peptide (αCGRP) is a potent vasodilator, which may be effective at reducing cerebral vessel narrowing after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Here, we report a meta-analysis of data from nine in vivo animal studies identified in a systematic review in which αCGRP was administered in SAH models. Our primary outcome was change in cerebral vessel diameter and the secondary outcome was change in neurobehavioral scores. There was a 40.8 ± 8.2% increase in cerebral vessel diameter in those animals treated with αCGRP compared with controls (p < 0.0005, 95% CI 23.7–57.9). Neurobehavioral scores were reported in four publications and showed a standardized mean difference of 1.31 in favor of αCGRP (CI −0.49 to 3.12). We conclude that αCGRP reduces cerebral vessel narrowing seen after SAH in animal studies but note that there is insufficient evidence to determine its effect on functional outcomes.


611 Abstract. Conscientious objection in the health care field—that is, refusal on the part of a medical professional to perform or cooperate in a procedure when it violates his or her conscience—is a growing concern for international legislators and a source of contentious debates among ethicists and the general public. Recognizing a general right to conscientious objection based on individual liberty, and thus a subjective right, could have negative consequences. Conscientious objection in health care settings should be fully protected, however, when the objection is based on principles that are fundamental to the medical profession and the legal system. Examples from Italy and other nations show how protections there safeguard conscientious objection when a health professional objects to taking a human life. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 12.4 (Winter 2012): 611–620.


The major cause of cancer mortality is the metastatic spread of tumor cells that can occur via multiple routes, including the vascular system and the lymphatic system. In this study, we developed an IgG-like fusion protein molecule [vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor 31-immunoglobulin (VEGFR31-Ig)] which could simultaneously bind the angiogenic growth factor VEGF-A and the lymphangiogenic growth factor VEGF-C. Importantly, VEGFR31-Ig exhibited VEGF-A-binding affinity similar to that of VEGFTrap, the most potent VEGF-A binder, and VEGF-C-binding affinity comparable with that of the soluble fusion protein VEGFR3-Ig (sVEGFR3). Pharmacokinetic analysis in mice showed that VEGFR31-Ig had improved pharmacokinetic properties compared with either VEGFTrap or sVEGFR3. In a highly metastatic human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCCLM3) model in severe combined immunodeficient mice, VEGFR31-Ig potently blocked both tumor angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, effectively inhibiting primary tumor growth and metastasis to lungs and lymph nodes. In contrast, VEGFTrap only suppressed primary tumor growth and metastasis to lungs by inhibiting tumor angiogenesis, whereas VEGFR3 was only effective in suppressing tumor metastasis to lymph nodes by blocking tumor lymphangiogenesis. Although a combination of VEGFTrap (25 mg/kg twice weekly) and sVEGFR3 (25 mg/kg twice weekly) can achieve the same therapeutic effect as VEGFR31-Ig (25 mg/kg twice weekly) in the HCCLM3 xenograft mouse model, developing two separate receptor-Ig fusion proteins for clinical use as combination therapy is impractical, mainly owing to regulatory hurdles and cost. Taken together, the VEGFR31-Ig fusion protein presented here has been suggested to have great potential for the treatment of metastatic cancer.


The purpose of this academic review of TESS-India activity in three states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha) was to seek evidence for change brought about by TESS-India in teacher education in each of these states. The findings offer informed guidance on future trajectories for TESS-India activity and support discussions with key stakeholders in each of these states.

The overarching goal of TESS-India is to support delivery of quality pedagogic change in teacher education and school classrooms. TESS-India activity is designed to meet identified professional development needs of teachers and teacher educators in each state. Thus it takes a slightly different form in each state, appropriate to local priorities and conditions. The Review focus was similarly differentiated in each state to align to TESS-India activity in that state.

The review field work was carried out by academics from the Open University UK and the Head Academic, TESS-India Country Office, between 30 January and 4 February 2017. It adopted an essentially qualitative approach to understand educators' (trainee teachers, teachers, local teacher educators and DIET faculty) experiences with the TESS-India resources and the influence of this engagement on their pedagogic practice. Data was generated from multiple sources including analysis of key documentation, semi-structured interviews with teachers, teacher educators and policy makers, and classroom observation. Teachers, teacher educators and SRG members were sampled at different locations within each state.

The focus of TESS-India activity to date has been to strengthen the existing government (state) educational system at the elementary stage - SCERT, SSA, DIETS, DEO, DPC (SSA), BEO, BRP, BRC, CRCC, HT, Teacher, Child – in alignment with national policies, frameworks and the RTE Act. The project aims at supplementing and complementing GoI and State specific efforts and activities. Although TESS-India has produced original Open Educational Resources (OER) to support educators working in the secondary stage, as yet there is very little evidence of sustained TESS-India activity with this phase of schooling or with the TESS-India School Leader OER. The review findings are therefore focussed on activity at the elementary stage and are reported at different levels of the system in line with the TESS-India theory of change.

The report found that use of TESS-India OER is contributing to quality change in classrooms with students and trainee teachers.
• SRG members met by the review team were using the TESS-India OER and described how this use was prompting them to experiment with more interactive and participatory practices.
• Teachers observed and / or interviewed by the review team were drawing on TESS-India OER to inform their lesson planning and subsequent teaching.

Evidence seen by the review team (learning journals and learning plans) indicates that the practices being developed by these teachers are shared by other teachers in the cohort of teachers participating in TESS-India focus district activity.

However the innovation in practice and transformation in pedagogy promised by TESS-India OER is still in the early stages and the evidence is highly emergent. But, critically, through engagement with the MOOC and other TESS-India learning resources, policy makers and lead teacher educators (for example SCERT Directors) are changing their thinking about teacher professional development, moving away from cascade models to a focus on continuous professional development and learning of teachers in their classrooms with support from teacher educators/ experts, either virtually or face-to face.


This article analyses some less explored structural parts of the phenomenological method as it was construed by Husserl in order to validate a twofold thesis. First, the application of phenomenological notions such as the neutrality modification, the distinction between the positional, transcendental, and imaginative ego, body-consciousness, etc. stimulates the deconstruction of a "spiritual" quest in any traditional and/or modern sense. On the other hand, this approach offers some new possibilities for the quest for "transcendental absolution" which is illustrated here by Valéry's creative approach. Husserl's and Valéry's distinct but complementary projects represent several major intellectual shifts in early contemporary Western philosophy and literature.


The shortages of cytotechnologists in the state of South Carolina are 43 percent, representing an extreme urgency to fill these vacant positions (national average 28 percent). Furthermore, the shortage is expected to rise (52 percent) thereby demanding a solution to the problem.


This work focuses on the most common and cheapest face spoofing methods, i.e., photo attacks (including the printed photo on a paper or a photo demonstrated on an electronic screen). Many previous works [3-6] propose to classify genuine and fake samples based on frontal face images and achieve good performance on several face spoofing databases. However, in real applications, the imposter will try his best to fool the system and the texture difference between the genuine and fake samples is usually very small. In order to achieve robust face anti-spoofing performance, other cues like 3D face structure and motion pattern can be incorporated. In this work, we propose to detect spoofing photo attacks based on a sequence of rotated face images. Both the structure and texture information from the rotated face sequence are exploited. In practice, the users are only asked to take simple movement (i.e., rotate their faces). As pointed in [7], this head rotation requirement is much simpler than traditional challenge-response-based face anti-spoofing method, in which a combination of multiple movements is usually necessary. The proposed anti-spoofing method is applicable to face recognition applications such as face access control and remote authentication on mobile devices. The simple head rotation requirement is acceptable in these applications.


: The immunological aspects of pemphigus vulgaris and bullous pemphigoid are reviewed in this article. In the last few years, the immunoiogical research on these blistering diseases has contributed to a better understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms of these diseases.


The design scheme of machine product can be newly explained by applying the black box theory, this design pattern is a combination of functional and structure design method. The method was finally expanded into black box theory and gray box theory. With the help of black box-gray box theory, the design outlines were made, the transform elements of mechanism were programmed, and then the technical process and functional structure of machine were realized. The black box graph, the grayed black box graph, and gray box graph were used to describe the design process in sequence. The scheme design was changed to be a gradually improved process. If the design methods of black box-gray box theory were deepened, the next system design can be called the design of the white box which was the concrete implementation of scheme design. In this work, the black box-gray box theories were successfully applied to investigate the machine design scheme for the projection model of customer's requirements.


In chronic experiments on cats ACTH facilitated the development of behavioral responses to gradually increasing electric stimulation of the medial hypothalamus, hippocampus and the midbrain reticular formation as well as potentiated the reticulo-hypothalamic influence. The effect of hydrocortisone was opposite. The reciprocal reticular and hormonal influences on the basal and anterior amygdala were revealed as well as some hormonal changes due to unspecific thalamic effects upon the limbic structures. The revealed systemic hormonal effect on the state and interaction of cerebral structures seems to be the base for integration of neural and hormonal mechanisms of some behavioral responses.


INTRODUCTION
Emotional processes play a role in both suicide risk and eating disorders (EDs), which are often comorbid. However, limited research has explored how emotional processes relate to suicide risk in EDs and the prognostic value of suicide risk for ED treatment. Thus, the current study examined associations between emotion dysregulation and reactivity with suicide risk in patients with EDs, and determined if suicide risk predicts ED treatment outcomes.

METHODS
Participants (n = 201) were adults in an ED partial hospitalization program who completed measures at admission, 1-month post-admission, and discharge.

RESULTS
When controlling for depressive symptoms, limited access to adaptive emotion regulation strategies, difficulties engaging in goal-oriented behaviors, and engaging in impulsive behavior when experiencing negative emotions (i.e., emotion dysregulation) were associated with suicide attempt frequency. Depressive symptoms were associated with suicide risk severity, while emotion dysregulation and reactivity were not. Importantly, patients with elevated suicide risk at admission improved comparably to other risk categories across treatment, despite presenting with greater ED symptoms at admission.

CONCLUSION
Emotion dysregulation and depression are salient factors when examining suicide risk in patients with EDs. Suicide risk and attempt history may not negatively impact ED treatment outcomes when using emotion-focused treatment.


Analyzing changes in vibration properties (e.g. natural frequencies) of structures as a result of damage has been heavily used by researchers for damage detection of civil structures. These changes, however, are not only caused by damage of the structural components, but they are also affected by the varying environmental conditions the structures are faced with, such as the temperature change, which limits the use of most damage detection methods presented in the literature that did not account for these effects. In this article, a damage detection method capable of distinguishing between the effects of damage and of the changing environmental conditions affecting damage sensitivity features is proposed. This method eliminates the need to form the baseline of the undamaged structure using damage sensitivity features obtained from a wide range of environmental conditions, as conventionally has been done, and utilizes features from two extreme and opposite environmental conditions as baselines. To allow near real-time monitoring, subsequent measurements are added one at a time to the baseline to create new data sets. Principal component analysis is then introduced for processing each data set so that patterns can be extracted and damage can be distinguished from environmental effects. The proposed method is tested using a two-dimensional truss structure and validated using measurements from the Z24 Bridge which was monitored for nearly a year, with damage scenarios applied to it near the end of the monitoring period. The results demonstrate the robustness of the proposed method for damage detection under changing environmental conditions. The method also works despite the nonlinear effects produced by environmental conditions on damage sensitivity features. Moreover, since each measurement is allowed to be analyzed one at a time, near real-time monitoring is possible. Damage progression can also be given from the method which makes it advantageous for damage evolution monitoring.


part of USAID's work. USAID staff and implementing partners have always sought ways to better understand the development process and USAID's contribution to it, to collaborate in order to speed and deepen results, to share the successes and lessons of USAID's initiatives, and to institute improvements to programs and operations. Through this case competition, USAID and its LEARN mechanism seek to capture and share the stories of those efforts. To learn more about the CLA Case Competition, visit the USAID Learning Lab at usaidlearninglab.org/cla-casecompetition.


The pathology of joint destruction is associated with elevated production of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and matrix metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13). In osteoarthritic joint disease, expression of bFGF and MMP-13 in chondrocytes and their release into the synovial fluid are significantly increased. We have previously found that the capacity for cartilage repair in human adult articular chondrocytes is severely compromised by minimal exposure to bFGF because bFGF reduces responsiveness to bone morphogenetic protein-7 and insulin-like growth factor-1 and induces MMP-13 through protein kinase Cδ-dependent activation of multiple mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways. Here we show using biochemical and molecular approaches that transcription factor Elk-1, a direct downstream target of MAPK, is a critical transcriptional activator of of MMP-13 by bFGF in human articular chondrocytes. We also provide evidence that Elk-1 is a direct target of NFκB and induces MMP-13 expression upon activation of the NFκB signaling pathway. Taken together, our results suggest that elevated expression of MMP-13 occurs through Elk-1 activation of both MAPK and NFκB signaling pathways, thus revealing a two-pronged biological mechanism by which bFGF controls the production of catabolic enzymes that are associated with excessive degradation of the cartilage matrix in degenerative joint diseases such as osteoarthritis.


Extending molecular systems into chain networks is a unique method with which to orient magnetic molecules into well-ordered arrays along one dimension, and study their resulting properties. Complexes of the formula Na[Ln(EDTA)(H2O)3]n$5H2O are presented, where Ln 1⁄4 Y (1), Eu (2), Tb (3), Dy (4). EDTA chain-like architectures were obtained in water by adding Na as a bridging ion. Structures were characterized using single crystal X-ray diffraction, and X-ray powder diffraction. Infrared spectroscopy and elemental analysis were performed on all samples in order to confirm bulk purity of the products. Direct current and alternating current magnetic susceptibility measurements were carried out on all paramagnetic complexes in order to investigate any potential magnetic interactions between ions, as well as potential dynamic magnetic properties. Tb (3) and Dy (4) compounds were confirmed to exhibit slow relaxation of the magnetization under an optimized applied dc field. Energy barriers to magnetic relaxation and pre-exponential factors differed dramatically between the lanthanide analogues, thus, magnetostructural correlations were performed using shape analysis techniques, which explained the presence of multiple relaxation processes. Furthermore, the trajectory of the anisotropy axes of the Dy ions in 4 was modelled and compared with our previously studied Gd system.


Cube textured Ni substrate were fabricated for YBCO coated conductors from the initial specimens prepared by powder metallurgy (P/M) and casting and the effects of annealing temperature and reduction ratio on texture formation and microstructural evolutio were evaluated. The initial specimens were rolled by 98.6% and 99.2% reduction ratio and then annealed in the temperature range of 600°C to 1200°C. The microstructure and texture were evaluated by optical microscopy and X-ray pole-figure analysis. We observed that microstructure of the initial specimen varied with preparation methods.Texture analysis indicated that a strong cube texture formed for substrate made by P/M, and the degree of texture did not significantly vary with annealing temperature of 600°C~1100°C. On the other hand, the texture of substrate made by casting was more dependent on the annealing temperature and twin texture ({221}<221>) and several minor texture components started to form at 1000°C. In addition, the texture of substrate made by P/M was significantly dependent on the reduction ratio.


The year 2000 represents the 10th anniversary of the Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), and the third year for the Minority RCS and Small Employer Retirement Survey (SERS). Key RCS findings over the past 10 years include: The fraction of workers saving for retirement has trended upward, and today 80 percent of households report that they have begun to save. The fraction of workers who have attempted to calculate how much they need to save for retirement has risen noticeably over the past several years. Today, 56 percent of households report that they have attempted the calculation. One-half of workers who have attempted such a calculation report that it has changed their behavior, such as saving more and/or changing where they invest their retirement savings. Workers who have done the calculation appear to be in better shape regarding their retirement finances. Worker confidence in the ability of Social Security to maintain benefit levels bottomed out in 1994 and 1995. Workers today are just as confident as they were in 1992, although the majority remain not confident in Social Security. Regarding overall retirement confidence, Hispanic-Americans tend to be the least confident among the surveyed minority groups that they will have enough money to live comfortably throughout their retirement years. Key SERS findings include: While cost and administrative issues do matter to small employers, they are not the primary reasons for low plan sponsorship rates. Employee-related reasons are most often cited as the most important factor for not offering a retirement plan. Business-related reasons, such as profitability, are also a main decision-driver. It is important to note what small employers without plans do not know about plan sponsorship. Small employers that do sponsor a retirement plan report that offering a plan has a positive impact on both their ability to attract and retain quality employees and the attitude and performance of their employees. The survey results indicate that many small company nonsponsors may not be aware of such potential business benefits from plan sponsorship. In addition, many nonsponsors are unaware of the plan options available to them, in particular the ones created specifically for small employers, such as SIMPLE and SEP retirement plans. Therefore, some small employers may be making a premature decision not to sponsor a plan based on incomplete information.


Using data drawn from the Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. Censuses, we find a numerically comparable and statistically significant inverse relation between immigrant-induced shifts in labor supply and wages in each of the three countries: A 10 percent labor supply shift is associated with a 3 to 4 percent opposite-signed change in wages. Despite the similarity in the wage response, the impact of migration on the wage structure differs significantly across countries. International migration narrowed wage inequality in Canada; increased it in the United States; and reduced the relative wage of workers at the bottom of the skill distribution in Mexico.


[1] The influence of the Po plume on the northern Adriatic Sea was observed during two seasons in 2003 under distinct physical forcing regimes. During the winter, the plume was cool, low in both salinity and chlorophyll, but with higher chlorophyll concentrations occurring along the plume boundary. The plume mixed deeply in the water column in response to the strong wind forcing. The northern Adriatic and the Po plume cooled significantly during the observational period, and therefore salinity alone was the best discriminator of water mass variability. In contrast to the strong forcing of the winter period, the late spring was characterized by weak wind forcing, and below-average Po River discharge (∼600 m3/s) which was about one third of the typical discharge for this period. As in winter, salinity was again the best discriminator of water mass variability. The Po plume advected southward along the Italian coast and in some locations portions of the coastal plume were transferred offshore in filament-like features. However, theone observed filament was quite low in chlorophyll and was quite thin vertically, extending downward less than 5 m from the surface. The spring observations provide a distinct contrast in the effects of the physical forcings of river flow and wind stress from two different seasons. The strong winter forcing resulted in deep mixing of the plume despite its low salinity and buoyancy, whereas the weak summer flow under weak winds resulted in a very shallow plume (<5 m) that was high in chlorophyll.


Emerging concerns about undergraduate pedagogy in universities present new opportunities for us as academics to strengthen our programs, to enhance our role in shaping education, and to improve the quality of that education. These concerns are not new; they have emerged in one form or another, from early reform efforts by John Dewey, Alfred Whitehead, and Jean Piaget, to the experimental colleges of the 1960s and the work of Benjamin Bloom and more recently David Kolb. However, in the last few years, the level of concern has intensified and the flood of reports and position papers has crested at an alarmingly high level. On the contrary, for many decades design studio pedagogy continued to be a taboo, un-debatable and untouchable. Only in the late 1970s few scholars started to discuss design education. Such discussions culminated in a comprehensive report titled Architectural Education Study by the Consortium of East Coast Schools of Architecture, published by MIT School of Architecture and Planning in 1981. Since then few efforts have emerged to explore the rituals of design pedagogy and the ills of studio teaching practices in a systematic, visionary, and research based manner. While efforts on discussing design pedagogy and on developing constructive criticisms on its underlying teaching practices are really few, those that have emerged over the past fifteen years generated some lively discussions in the literature. Currently, emphasis is placed on issues central to our own mission, as design educators, which simply involves the development of skills and critical thinking abilities for future shapers of the built environment that, in turn, respond to demands placed on design professions by society.


This essay discusses the politics of affect in post-1967 Arabic literary and cultural production. It argues that melancholia's underappreciated swerve from normative structures of power and mourning is a threshold moment of critical and cultural enablement in the Arab world, where the nexus between proxy and settler colonialisms continues to produce and reproduce almost all aspects of literature and culture.


Existing research has largely relied on employee surveys to measure organisational culture despite the significant shortcomings of this approach. We use multiple, unobtrusive sources of data to gain rich insights into bank culture without ever having to ask employees to 'show us your culture'. Our measure is based on 20 individual indicators from six different sources, including information on internal fraud cases, customer complaints, and the quality of regulatory submissions. We use this data to investigate the hypothesised relationship between organisational culture and bank risk. We find robust evidence that poor culture leads to substantially higher risk, demonstrating the importance of bank culture for prudential outcomes.


Desmoglein 3 chimeric autoantibody receptor T-cells (DSG3-CAART) expressing the pemphigus vulgaris (PV) autoantigen DSG3, fused to CD137-CD3ζ signaling domains, represent a precision cellular immunotherapy approach for antigen-specific B-cell depletion. Here, we present definitive preclinical studies enabling a first-in-human trial of DSG3-CAART for mucosal PV. DSG3-CAART specifically lysed human anti-DSG3 B-cells from PV patients and demonstrated activity consistent with a threshold dose in vivo, resulting in decreased target cell burden, decreased serum and tissue-bound autoantibodies, and increased DSG3-CAART engraftment. In a PV active immune model with physiologic anti-DSG3 IgG levels, DSG3-CAART inhibited antibody responses against pathogenic DSG3 epitopes and autoantibody binding to epithelial tissues, leading to clinical and histologic resolution of blisters. DSG3 autoantibodies stimulate DSG3-CAART IFNγ secretion and homotypic clustering, consistent with an activated phenotype. Toxicology screens using primary human cells and high-throughput membrane proteome arrays did not identify off-target cytotoxic interactions. These preclinical data guided the trial design for DSG3-CAART and may help inform CAART preclinical development for other antibody-mediated diseases.


Star-forming galaxies can in principle be transformed into passive systems by a multitude of processes that quench star formation, such as the halting of gas accretion (starvation) or the rapid removal of gas in AGN-driven outflows. However, it remains unclear which processes are the most significant, primary drivers of the SF-passive bimodality. We address this key issue in galaxy evolution by studying the chemical properties of 80 000 local galaxies in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. In order to distinguish between different quenching mechanisms, we analyse the stellar metallicities of star-forming, green valley, and passive galaxies. We find that the significant difference in stellar metallicity between passive galaxies and their star-forming progenitors implies that for galaxies at all masses, quenching must have involved an extended phase of starvation. However, some form of gas ejection also has to be introduced into our models to best match the observed properties of local passive galaxies, indicating that, while starvation is likely to be the prerequisite for quenching, it is the combination of starvation and outflows that is responsible for quenching the majority of galaxies. Closed-box models indicate that the duration of the quenching phase is 2–3 Gyr, with an e-folding time of 2–4 Gyr, after which further star formation is prevented by an ejective/heating mode. Alternatively, leaky-box models find a longer duration for the quenching phase of 5–7 Gyr and an e-folding time of ∼1 Gyr, with outflows becoming increasingly important with decreasing stellar mass. Finally, our analysis of local green valley galaxies indicates that quenching is slower in the local Universe than at high redshift.


Hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings have been used to improve biological and mechanical fixation of metallic prosthesis. Because of extraordinary features of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), they have a lot of facilities, such as extremely strong nanoreinforcement materials for composites. HA powders were synthesized and mixed with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) by a hydrothermal process. Calcium acetate (Ca (CH(3)COO)(2)) and phosphoric acid (H(3)PO(4)) were used as starting materials for synthesizing nano-HA powders. HA-MWCNTs were treated together hydrothermally at 200 °C for 2 h to synthesize nano-HA powders mixed homogeneously with MWCNTs. Cathodic deposits were obtained on Ti-based alloys using suspensions containing nano-HA and MWCNTs dispersed in n-butanol solvent. It was shown that MWCNTs interacted with HA powders during hydrothermal processing, and therefore, they can easily be dispersed within aqueous-based suspensions. It was also shown that hydrothermal surface modification of MWCNTs with functional groups was achievable, which was a significant step toward eliminating nonwetting surface behavior of MWCNTs, resulting in obtaining homogeneous dispersion of them in liquids.


The year 2015 marks the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),1 which prohibits disability-based discrimination and requires reasonable accommodation in employment, public accommodations, and public services. Many physicians, however, have been protected from disability-based discrimination since 1973 under the Rehabilitation Act,2 which has comparable provisions but less comprehensive coverage and remedies for physicians. This Viewpoint explores disability discrimination law in the context of impaired physicians. Although the term "impaired physician" is often used to refer to a disability from psychiatric illness, alcoholism, or drug dependence, the legal definition based on the ADA is much broader and includes the full range of physical, mental, and behavioral limitations. Because there have been relatively few cases involving physicians, instructive cases involving nurses and other health professionals also will be discussed.


The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center hosts the "Places: One After Another" exhibition, which is the main event of the session IV of Viktor Misiano's "The Human Condition". "In Search of a Place". Home. Homelessness. Travel. Refugeeness project. The large-scale interdisciplinary project, launched in 2015, is held by the National Center for Contemporary Arts, which is part of ROSIZO together with the Jewish Museum and the Tolerance Center and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.

The exhibition "Places: One After Another" showcases works by contemporary Russian and international artists including Pedro Carbida Reyes, Marjetica Potrch, Leonid Tishkov, Luca Vitone, Deimantas Narkevicius, Ergin Cavusoglu, Haim Sokol, Elena and Victor Vorobyov, Vadim Fishkin and Aslan Gaysumov. The exhibited works come into dialogue with the space and content of the Museum, reacting to events from the history of the Jewish people and the Museum itself as a place. Pieces will be placed not only in the exhibition area but will also be integrated into the permanent exposition of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center.

The name of the exhibition refers to the work of the American art historian Miwon Kwon "Places: One After Another". This book is the first thoughtful and detailed account of how modern art interprets the phenomenon of place. And if in the past the art has sought to recreate the images of various locations, now it asks the question: "What is the place?". Philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists and urbanists attempt to analyse this concept.

Unlike space, a place is defined not by geographical coordinates, but by what it means for a person. The German philosopher Martin Heidegger said that in order to create a place, it is necessary "to build, to live, to think". It is created by man and not so much by the literal construction, as through the experience of his thought and existence in it. That is why in order for a space to become a place, it should become inseparable from the person, and the person, in turn, must find himself in a certain place.

A public programme will run as part of the "Places: One After Another" exhibition, where the subjects of home, travel, migration, cultural identity and the search for a place in the modern world will be brought to attention.


Five male patients with the persistent generalized lymphadenopathy syndrome also had a sicca complex. Salivary gland biopsy specimens showed diffuse lymphocytic infiltration of the glandular parenchyma. Serum autoantibodies and rheumatoid factor were not detected. All patients had IgG antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus and IgG to the viral capsid antigen of Epstein-Barr virus. These five patients had benign lymphocytic infiltrates in other organs (lung, liver, and kidneys). Sicca complex may be one of the various manifestations of the lymphoid hyperplasia noted in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients. In these patients, the sicca complex showed specific features related to male predominance, lack of serum autoantibodies, and peripheral-blood T-lymphocyte subset distribution.


We report magnetophotoluminescence measurements of stacked layers of self-assembled InP quantum dots. With a magnetic field applied in the growth direction we have determined the exciton reduced mass from the field dependence of the photoluminescence energy. By applying a magnetic field perpendicular to the growth direction, we have analyzed the spatial confinement of the dots in the growth direction. We observe a large increase in the shift of the exciton energy between 0 and 50 T when the thickness of the GaInP spacer layer between the dots is reduced from 8 to 4 nm. This indicates a decrease in spatial confinement in the growth direction which we attribute to strong electronic coupling between vertically stacked dots.


Nigeria has experienced bouts of violent conflict in different regions over the last few decades leading to significant loss of life. In this paper, we explore the potential short and accumulated long term effects of such conflict on labor supply of agricultural households. Using a nationally representative panel dataset for Nigeria in combination with armed conflict data, we estimate the effect of violent conflict on a farm household members labor supply. Our findings suggest that exposure to violent conflict significantly reduces the total number of hours the farm household head works and also deceases total family labor supply for agricultural households.


The Indian social context is marked by gender bias which has resulted in differentials in health status that disadvantage women at all stages of their lives and by a prohibition against open discussion of sexual health or sexuality. Thus there is an urgent necessity to devise gender-based interventions to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS. One such program is the Swasthya Community Health Partnership which is the joint effort of an international student group the Sharanda Dhanvantari Charitable Hospital and local women. The Partnership relied on local participation during the planning and implementation stages to ensure that its goals met community health priorities. The Partnership team is composed of five specially trained public health nurses who 1) organize small group sessions on health-related issues for women adolescent girls and entire villages; 2) provide basic medical care and counseling; and 3) conduct research on local health issues. Each nurse has established a village-based outreach center that will eventually become a resource center for health information and supplies. Each week a team from the hospital including a physician visits each center. The Partnership intends to continue its efforts to provide rural communities with the resources needed to affect their lives. Goals include developing male-specific modules implementing prenatal counseling and expanding the adolescent health education program.


This work presents experimental investigation of 14 different alloys with differential scanning calorimetery (DSC), scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM/EDS) analysis, quantitative electron probe micro-analysis (EPMA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques to identify the phases in the Mg-Al-Sr system and to determine their compositions. DSC has permitted real time measurement of the phase changes involved in these systems. The temperature ranges for the phase transformations and enthalpy of melting and enthalpy of formation of the compounds are reported. Comparison between these results and the thermodynamic findings has been discussed. The microstructure of the Mg-Al-Sr-based alloys is primarily dominated by (Mg) and (Al4Sr). The plate-like structure has been identified as Al4Sr. A new ternary intermetallic with chemical composition of 69.9 ± 1.5 at.% magnesium, 19.3 ± 2.0 at.% aluminum and 8.7 ± 0.6 at.% strontium has been identified in three different alloys. This phase was characterized as a large precipitate. Three ternary solid solutions have been observed. The solubility ranges of Al in Mg38Sr9 and Mg17Sr2 are 12.5 and 8.5 at.%, respectively, whereas the solubility of Mg in Al4Sr compound is found to be 23 at.% in the investigated samples. Further, Mg was found to dissolve 11.4 at.% Al at room temperature.


One of the key challenges in designing a Wave Energy Converter (WEC) farm is geometrical layout, as WECs hydrodynamically interact with one another. WEC positioning impacts both the power output of a given wave-energy project and any potential effects on the surrounding areas. The WEC farm developer must seek to optimize WEC positioning to maximize power output while minimizing capital cost and any potential deleterious effects on the surrounding area. A number of recent studies have shown that a potential solution is placing WECs in dense arrays of several WECs with space between individual arrays for navigation. This innovative arrangement can also be used to reduce mooring and cabling costs. In this paper, we apply a novel one-way coupling method between the NEMOH BEM model and the MILDwave wave-propagation model to investigate the influence of WEC array separation distance on the power output and the surrounding wave field between two densely packed WEC arrays in a farm. An iterative method of applying the presented one-way coupling to interacting WEC arrays is used to compute the wave field in a complete WEC farm and to calculate its power output. The notion of WEC array 'independence' in a farm from a hydrodynamic point of view is discussed. The farm is modeled for regular and irregular waves for a number of wave periods, wave incidence angles, and various WEC array separation distances. We found strong dependency of the power output on the wave period and the wave incidence angle for regular waves at short WEC array–array separation distances. For irregular wave operational conditions, a large majority of WEC array configurations within a WEC farm were found to be hydrodynamically 'independent'.


Novel functionalised absorbents have been synthesized by immobilization of triethanolamine on synthetic mesoporous silica for CO2 capture. Mesoporous silica material with a uniform pore size of 20-50nm and a surface area of 200~300 m2/g was used as loader for capturing agents. The capture of carbon dioxide from simulated flue gas streams has been achieved by using triethanolamine immobilized mesoporous silica. Preliminary attempts have also been made to determine the CO2 adsorption capacities of these newly developed materials. The results revealed that maximum adsorption capacities was 28.01mg/g for immobilized triethanolamine mesoporous silica at room temperature,and the rate of desorption is 99% at 90°C.Recycle of adsorption-desorption have many times,and the ability of capturing CO2 was stable. The results suggest that immobilized triethanolamine have a good affinity for the capture of carbon dioxide from simulated flue gas streams.The performance of these immobilized and triethanolamine-mesoporous silica solid sorbents decreased with regeneration.


At the end of 2015, Northern Ireland's (NI) High Court of Justice ruled that NI abortion legislation breaches Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights—the right to respect for private and family life. The law breaches the Convention as it does not enable women to seek abortion for:

At the time of writing, it was not known if NI's Department of Justice and Executive would appeal the decision or bring forward legislation to reflect the judgment.

In November 2015, the High Court handed down a judgment in a case involving the recording of a do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) decision for a 28-year-old man who lacked capacity.2 The judgment has raised a number of interesting questions about when it would not be 'practical and appropriate' to 'consult' those close to the patient of a DNACPR decision, and what might be a 'compelling obstacle' to consultation. In the case, a DNACPR decision was made at 3:00 in the morning as the doctor believed that cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) would have no chance of success. The doctor did not think there was imminent risk of a cardiopulmonary arrest but wished to avoid the possibility of nursing staff being obliged to attempt CPR. At the time the decision was made and documented, no one close to the patient was consulted or informed, instead "DNAR. Speak to family in the morning" was recorded.

In the judgment, The Honourable Mr Justice Blake concluded that there had been a breach of section 4(7) duty to consult under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and there had been a violation of the procedural duty under …


The growing number of biogas plants in Europe has resulted in increased production of nutrient-rich digestate, which has potential as fertiliser on arable land. Many different organic materials can be degraded in the anaerobic digestion process, with most macronutrients and micronutrients retained in the digestate. Depending on the ingoing organic substrate and management of the biogas process, the nutrient content of digestate varies widely. It can also contain compounds such as heavy metals and organic pollutants that are potentially toxic to soil microorganisms. Previous studies on the effect of digestate on soil microorganisms and crop yield have yielded contradictory results, so further investigations are needed to determine its true fertiliser value. In this thesis, the fertiliser effect of different types of digestate originating from biogas plants operating with various substrates and operating parameters was determined by measuring: 1) general and specific soil microbial activity, 2) bacterial and archaeal community composition, 3) crop growth and 4) chemical and physical composition of different digestates. Soil respiration generally displayed a positive response to digestate addition, but soil respiration curves revealed differences in quality and quantity of organic carbon between digestate, pig slurry and cow manure. However, the total utilisation rate of the organic carbon in digestate, pig slurry and cow manure did not differ. Moreover, digestate showed both stimulatory and inhibitory effects on potential ammonia oxidation, while pig slurry and cow manure had a more consistent inhibitory effect. Addition of digestate to soil resulted in increased wheat yield compared with control soil and mineral fertiliser, but final yield was not as high as that from pig slurry. Digestate was also generally characterised by a higher content of ammonium and lower content of organic carbon than pig slurry and cow manure. Addition of digestate to soil resulted in changes in the microbial community structure, with less pronounced effect in sandy soils, but no change in diversity was detected.

It can be concluded that the digestate from biogas plants has great potential as a fertiliser in crop production and does not seem to pose a greater risk of disturbing soil microorganisms than pig slurry and cow manure when spread on arable land.


Researchers have found that low and moderate levels of mobility are independently associated with greater functional decline in activities of daily living (ADLs) at discharge (Zisberg et al., 2011) and that bedrest promotes declines in muscle mass and muscle strength (Coker et al., 2014; Dirks et al., 2016). The negative effects of low mobility and immobility are recognized by nurses, yet most acute care nurses do not prioritize the mobilization of their patients. Interventions to increase mobilization of hospitalized patients may be more effective if they are barrier targeted. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to identify nurses' perceived barriers to mobilizing patients on a medical-surgical unit in a community hospital. The project used a 26-item 5-point Likert style survey adapted from the Overall Provider Barriers survey; a validated self-administered survey developed by Hoyer et al. (2015). The survey identified nurses' perceived barriers in three domains: knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. A convenience sample of 28 nurses participated in the survey. Results demonstrated that three of the four most reported perceived barriers were in the behaviors domain, which assessed external factors that could influence the respondent's decision to mobilize or to not mobilize a patient. The highest barriers in the behaviors domain were inadequate staffing, lack of time, and patient resistance to being mobilized. The third highest overall barrier was the perception that increasing patient mobilization would be more work for nurses. This item was in the attitudes domain, which assessed the respondent's perception of patient safety, needs, and outcomes of mobilization and perception of available time, workload, and ability to mobilize patients. Results were consistent with previous studies that explored barriers to mobilization. Practical implications of the findings are discussed.


Small cell carcinoma of the endometrium (SCCE) is extremely rare. Previous reports indicate that SCCE frequently shows systemic spread and has a poor prognosis. Beta-catenin has been shown to be a key downstream effector of the Wnt signaling pathway, which regulates cell growth and survival. Decreased membranous expression of beta-catenin in cancers correlates with poor prognosis and is associated with dissemination of tumor cells and the formation of metastases. Recently, some different investigators demonstrated aberrant beta-catenin accumulation in neuroendocrine tumors arising in different organs, suggesting a role for the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway during neuroendocrine tumorigenesis. Here, we report a new case of SCCE associated with peritoneal spreading and aggressive course; the patient died one month after surgery. This study also aimed at assessing the involvement of the Wnt signaling pathway in this rare neuroendocrine tumor. Interestingly, both intense nuclear beta-catenin accumulation and cyclin D1 immunoreactivity were restricted to carcinoma cells invading lymphatic vessels. However, mutation analysis failed to demonstrate any mutation in exon 3 of the beta-catenin gene or exon 15 of the APC gene in the present case. Although the mechanism of nuclear accumulation of beta-catenin is still unknown, the heterotopic nuclear localization of beta-catenin may play a role in the tumor invasion process and, subsequently, may be associated with the aggressive behavior of SCCE.


Hospital work environments that support the professional practice of nurses are critical to patient safety. Nurse managers are responsible for creating these professional practice environments for staff nurses, yet little is known about the environments needed to support nurse managers. Domains of nurse managers' practice environment have recently been defined. This is a secondary analysis of 2 cross-sectional studies of organizational characteristics that influence nurse manager practice. Content analysis of the free text comments from 127 nurse managers was used to illustrate the 8 domains of nurse managers' practice environments. Nurse managers valued time spent with their staff; therefore, workloads must permit meaningful interaction. Directors demonstrated trust when they empowered nurse managers to make decisions. Administrative leaders should build patient safety cultures on the basis of shared accountability and mutual respect among the health care team. The expectations of nurse managers have greatly expanded in the volume and complexity of direct reports, patient care areas, and job functions. The nurse managers in this analysis reported characteristics of their practice environments that limit their role effectiveness and may negatively impact organizational performance. Further research is needed to understand the effects of nurse managers' practice environments on staff and patient outcomes.


Layout is an important issue in designing sensor networks. This paper brings a new idea for the positioning of nodes in a wireless sensor network. The sensors communicate with each other to transmit their data to a high energy communication node which acts as an interface between data processing unit and sensors. Optimization of sensor locations is essential to provide communication for a longer duration. An energy efficient layout with good coverage based on Genetic algorithm is proposed here. During the process of optimization, sensors move to form a uniformly distributed network. The two objectives taken into consideration are coverage and lifetime. Basically a set of network layouts are obtained. The simulation results also exhibit improvement of performance with increase in number of generations in the algorithm.


Abstract The processes of brittle-ductile shear zone evolution and fault initiation by the coalescence of en echelon arrays of tensile cracks are quantitatively analysed in terms of displacement and temperature conditions at which they took place in very low-grade, well bedded micritic limestones from the southern Apennines, Italy. Three different types of structures are distinguished: (i) conjugate arrays of en echelon, calcite-filled tension gashes, showing extensional shear offsets; (ii) en echelon vein arrays showing incipient development of discontinuous shear-parallel fractures cutting through the tension gashes; and (iii) faulted vein arrays, in which vein array breaching by a continuous, discrete normal fault has occurred. Fluid inclusion microthermometry from vein calcite sampled from the different sets of structures (i) to (iii) above indicates that environmental conditions remained roughly constant during the different stages of vein array evolution and fault development, with average homogenization temperatures from primary fluid inclusions being in the range 130–140°C. Our results show how displacement accumulation and shear strain essentially control vein array evolution by rotation of en echelon tension gashes, fracture linkage and, eventually, fault nucleation, at approximately constant temperature.


What We Already Know about This TopicRecent efforts to identify new sedative-hypnotics are based on activity in established molecular targets of anesthetics, mostly &ggr;-aminobutyric acid type A receptors. However, strategies focusing on specific targets may overlook potentially useful compounds that act through other or multiple mechanisms.A mechanism-independent screening approach that is also inexpensive and efficient is needed to accelerate discovery of new potent sedative-hypnotics. What This Article Tells Us That Is NewA screening approach that detects sedative-hypnotic drug activity in zebrafish larvae, based on inhibition of movements in response to brief bright light stimuli (photomotor responses), was established and used to screen several hundred organic compounds with drug-like biophysical properties. Two novel compounds were found to potently produce reversible sedative-hypnotic effects, one of which demonstrated hypnotic activity in rodents.The results suggest that testing photomotor responses in zebrafish larvae is a mechanism-independent approach for efficient discovery of novel sedative-hypnotics. Further testing of the newly discovered drugs in mammals is needed. Background: Many general anesthetics were discovered empirically, but primary screens to find new sedative-hypnotics in drug libraries have not used animals, limiting the types of drugs discovered. The authors hypothesized that a sedative-hypnotic screening approach using zebrafish larvae responses to sensory stimuli would perform comparably to standard assays, and efficiently identify new active compounds. Methods: The authors developed a binary outcome photomotor response assay for zebrafish larvae using a computerized system that tracked individual motions of up to 96 animals simultaneously. The assay was validated against tadpole loss of righting reflexes, using sedative-hypnotics of widely varying potencies that affect various molecular targets. A total of 374 representative compounds from a larger library were screened in zebrafish larvae for hypnotic activity at 10 µM. Molecular mechanisms of hits were explored in anesthetic-sensitive ion channels using electrophysiology, or in zebrafish using a specific reversal agent. Results: Zebrafish larvae assays required far less drug, time, and effort than tadpoles. In validation experiments, zebrafish and tadpole screening for hypnotic activity agreed 100% (n = 11; P = 0.002), and potencies were very similar (Pearson correlation, r > 0.999). Two reversible and potent sedative-hypnotics were discovered in the library subset. CMLD003237 (EC50, ~11 µM) weakly modulated &ggr;-aminobutyric acid type A receptors and inhibited neuronal nicotinic receptors. CMLD006025 (EC50, ~13 µM) inhibited both N-methyl-D-aspartate and neuronal nicotinic receptors. Conclusions: Photomotor response assays in zebrafish larvae are a mechanism-independent platform for high-throughput screening to identify novel sedative-hypnotics. The variety of chemotypes producing hypnosis is likely much larger than currently known.


Wireless fair queueing algorithms have been extensively studied recently. However, a major drawback in existing approaches is that the channel model is overly simplified - a two states (good or bad) channel is assumed. While it is relatively easy to analyze the system using such a simple model, the algorithms so designed are of a limited applicability in a practical environment, in which the level of burst errors are time-varying and can be exploited by using channel adaptive coding and modulation techniques. In this paper, we first argue that the existing algorithms cannot cater for a more realistic channel model and the traditional notion of fairness is not suitable. We then propose a new notion of fairness, which bounds the actual throughput normalized by channel capacity of any two sessions. Using the new fairness definition, we propose a new fair queueing algorithm called CAFQ (channel adaptive fair queueing), which, as indicated in our numerical studies, outperforms other algorithms in terms of overall system throughput and fairness among error prone sessions.


In this study, we examine how the transparency of securities affects herding among security analysts, measured in terms of the prevailing consensus and recent revisions by other analysts. Prior literature suggests a relationship between market information and analysts herding behavior, with the likelihood of herding increasing with the strength of prior public information (Graham, 1999). When aggregate public information is strongly held and reinforced by the actions of the market leader, an individual analyst is less likely to take an opposing view based on private information. Welch (2000) finds that herding toward consensus among analysts is more prevalent in up-markets than in down-markets. Welch argues that there is less independent information in the market (poor information aggregation) when conditions are bullish. Bikhchandani et al. (1992), describe such a consequence of poorer information aggregation as ifragilityi, associated with more ificklei markets. An examination of this literature suggest a question: if greater transparency in a security makes the analystis task easier, is herding toward the prevailing consensus less likely? To investigate this question, we develop the research hypotheses that analyst herding towards consensus will occur less with REIT stocks than non-REIT stocks, and that the positive influence of analysts on the recommendations of other analysts is less when analyzing REIT stocks as compared to non-REIT stocks. Following Emery and Li (2009), we will use data primarily from the Institutional Brokers Estimate System (IBES). IBES provides each analyst's name, brokerage affiliation, earnings forecasts, investment recommendations, and a unique code that allows tracking of analysts even if they change affiliations. Following Welch (2000), we consider a parsimonious parametric specification which examines whether herding does or does not occur and how the transition from one category to another is affected by the prevailing consensus and recent revisions by analysts.


We discuss the latest findings regarding the therapy of acute herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia. Aside from the conventional modes of treatment. We especially refer to the therapy with aciclovir. In addition, we present the techniques of transcutaneous electrostimulation and neurosurgery.


A morphism h is called ambiguous for a string s if there is another morphism that maps s to the same image as h; otherwise, it is called unambiguous. In this paper, we examine some fundamental problems on the ambiguity of erasing morphisms. We provide a detailed analysis of so-called ambiguity partitions, and our main result uses this concept to characterise those strings that have a morphism of strongly restricted ambiguity. Furthermore, we demonstrate that there are strings for which the set of unambiguous morphisms, depending on the size of the target alphabet of these morphisms, is empty, finite or infinite. Finally, we show that the problem of the existence of unambiguous erasing morphisms is equivalent to some basic decision problems for nonerasing multi-pattern languages.


Abstract. The experiment was conducted to assess the use of Abelmoschus esculentus leaves powder as binders in the production of fish feed pellets. Six experimental diets were formulated with three containing starch as binder while the other three contained A. esculentus as binder. Each diet contained maize or wheat individually or in combination as energy source. The diets were designated as MAI (Maize only), WHE (Wheat only), MAW (Maize and Wheat only), MAA (Maize and A. esculentus), WHA (Wheat and A. esculentus) and MWA (Maize, Wheat and Abelmoscus esculentus). Physical properties and dietary effects of the diets were assessed using Oreochromis niloticus fingerlings. There was significant difference (P<0.05) in the sinking rate (cm.sec-1), thickness strength (mm), water absorption index, hardness (mm) and water stability (%) and bulk density (g.cm-3) of experimental diets. Diet MAI (Maize only with corn starch) had a significantly slower sinking rate of 6.77±0.10 cm.sec-1 when compared to the other diets. Diets MAA (Maize only with A. esculentus) and MAW (Maize and Wheat with corn starch) had the highest water stability (88.90±0.46%) while the lowest was diet MAI (85.20±0.10%). Crushing load value for the diet MWA (Maize and wheat with A. esculentus) of 357.00±0.00N was the highest and 119.00±0.00 N for diet MAI was the least. There was significant difference (P<0.05) in the friability of experimental diets at different revolution speed. There were no significant differences (P>0.05) in the mean final weight, mean weight gain, specific growth rate, feed conversion ratio, and feed efficiency of experimental fish fed with the experimental diets. Fish fed diet MAA had a significantly higher (P<0.05) mean weight gain, specific growth rate, feed efficiency ratio compared to the fish fed other diets. The results from this experiment showed that A. esculentus leaf soaked for 24 hours can be used as binder in fish feed production.


This thesis explores the experiences of typically developing siblings (TD-Sibs) who have grown up with a brother or sister with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC). The first chapter presents a systematic review of the literature, using an Interactive Factors Framework (IFF) approach (a framework that is used to guide Educational Psychology practice), to consider TD-Sibs' experiences from a holistic perspective. A total of 22 studies were identified from the systematic search process. The review highlights many inconsistencies in findings, and methodological limitations. Within the sampled research, the quantitative studies tended to focus on potential behavioural, social and emotional difficulties for TD-Sibs, however, there is currently insufficient, consistent evidence to conclude that TD-Sibs, as a group, will experience difficulties in these areas. Through eliciting sibling voice directly, qualitative studies revealed positive aspects for TDSibs, as well as, previously unconsidered challenges. The review identifies gaps in the research base and concludes with an IFF diagram to visually represent and synthesise the positive and challenging experiences from the 22 studies as a whole. The empirical paper explores the views of young adult siblings, who have grown up with a brother or sister with ASC, to gain a greater understanding of their lived experience and how this may interact with their education. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants (aged 19 to 21), and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Five super-ordinate themes were identified: Striving to do well; Sense of responsibility; Self-Management; Voice and Acceptance. These exploratory findings identified some positive aspects of being a TD-Sib, however participants predominantly recounted a number of struggles and hidden challenges, which influenced some aspects of their educational experiences. Practical implications and avenues for future research are discussed.


There is a need for a better method to image hair as the current methods involve embedding the hair in resin, which may produce artefacts, or using dyes which are limited in their depth of penetration into the hair. The research performed in this thesis endeavours to characterise the cellular structure of human hair with label-free imaging using autofluorescence and fluorescence lifetime imaging. Wavelengths were shown to selectively excite the hair cuticle, cortex and medulla, and subcellular compartments. Development of an optical transverse imaging method enabled discoveries including different fluorescence lifetimes across the cuticle cell layers and suggests the cuticle layers possess differing chemical environments. A new method was developed to distinguish between eumelanin and pheomelanin using 405nm and 633nm wavelengths. The newly developed methods were additionally used in the characterisation of an unidentified hair and skin disorder, which found poorly differentiated cuticle cells and showed differences in the fluorescence lifetimes of the hair compared to control hairs.

The hair care industry needs more efficacious chemical depilatories and information into their action. This was elucidated using the developed methods and a new dynamic imaging method. Potassium thioglycolate was shown to cause drastic expansion of the hair which was amplified by the addition of guanidine carbonate, creating fissures through the cuticle and into the cortex. Other experimental depilatory formulations were tested and were found to have varying effects upon the structure of the hair.

New chemical depilatories require development because existing depilatories can cause irritation in the skin. Potassium thioglycolate and guanidine carbonate were tested on HaCaT cells, isolated cornified envelopes, and HEKn cells in a 3D epidermal model. An investigation into the differentiation, proliferation and acute stress response of the cells showed that the treatments had no significant effect on these markers. However, the chemicals negatively affected HaCaT cell viability and damaged the cornified envelopes. Despite this, the viability and structural integrity of the living cells of the epidermal model were maintained through the protection provided by the stratum corneum.


Study Objectives: Narcolepsy is caused by selective loss of the orexin/hypocretin-producing neurons of the hypothalamus. For patients with narcolepsy, chronic sleepiness is often the most disabling symptom, but current therapies rarely normalize alertness and do not address the underlying orexin deficiency. We hypothesized that the sleepiness of narcolepsy would substantially improve if orexin signaling were restored in specific brain regions at appropriate times of day. Design: We used gene therapy to restore orexin signaling in a mouse model of narcolepsy. In these Atx mice, expression of a toxic protein (ataxin-3) selectively kills the orexin neurons. Interventions: To induce ectopic expression of the orexin neuropeptides, we microinjected an adeno-associated viral vector coding for prepro-orexin plus a red fluorescence protein (AAV-orexin) into the mediobasal hypothalamus of Atx and wild-type mice. Control mice received an AAV coding only for red fluorescence protein. Two weeks later, we recorded sleep/wake behavior, locomotor activity, and body temperature and exam ined the patterns of orexin expression. Measurements and Results: Atx mice rescued with AAV-orexin produced long bouts of wakefulness and had a normal diurnal pattern of arousal, with the longest bouts of wake and the highest amounts of locomotor activity in the first hours of the night. In addition, AAV-orexin improved the timing of rapid eye movement sleep and the consolidation of nonrapid eye movement sleep in Atx mice. Conclusions: These substantial improvements in sleepiness and other symptoms of narcolepsy demonstrate the effectiveness of orexin gene therapy in a mouse model of narcolepsy. Additional work is needed to optimize this approach, but in time, AAV-orexin could become a useful thera peutic option for patients with narcolepsy. Orexin gene therapy restores the timing and maintenance of wakefulness in narcoleptic mice.


ABSTRACT The Exxon sequence models of Posamentier and coworkers incorporate two concepts which I question. They suggest that rivers grade to a "bayline", but evidence from modern major rivers indicates that they do not. They also proposed that fluvial sedimentary accomodation space is generated by the seaward shift in equilibrium profiles during sea-level fall, but this is too simplistic a model, based on the use of schematic continental margin configurations which do not incorporate real slope and relief data. In most cases, a fall in base level leads to deltaic progradation and upstream fluvial incision. Most coastal plain fluvial wedges result from two processes: sea-level rise, with the drowning and filling of estuaries, and active source-area tectonism. Major tectonic events adjacent to foreland basins, such as terrane collisions, lead to the development of sequences of third-order type (duration approximately 1-15 m.y.). Changes in intraplate stress regimes resulting from changes in regional plate kinematics have a similar episodicity and can be shown to be responsible for some third-order cycles on extensional continental margins. Examination of the chronostratigraphic basis of the Mesozoic-Cenozoic Cycle Chart of Haq and coworkers reveals internal inconsistencies and an unrealistic downplaying of the built-in potential for error. This chart is not an approved global standard, and it should be used with extreme caution.


In this progress report on climate change, I examine the growing literature dealing with the proposal to engineer global climate through the deliberate injection of aerosols into the stratosphere. This is just one of a wide range of technology proposals to geoengineer the climate, but one in particular which has gained the attention of Earth System science researchers and which is attracting wider public debate. I review the current status of this technology by exploring a number of different dimensions of the proposal: its history and philosophical and ethical implications; how it is framed in public discourse and perceived by citizens; its economic, political and governance characteristics; and how the proposed technology is being researched through numerical modelling and field experimentation. Unlike many other geoengineering interventions, stratospheric aerosol injection has no additional societal co-benefits: its sole raison d'etre would be to offset planetary heating caused by rising concentrations of greenhouse gases. The deployment of such a technology would have profound implications for the view humans have of themselves in relation to the non-human world.


OF DISSERTATION POWER SYSTEM STATE ESTIMATION USING PHASOR MEASUREMENT UNITS State estimation is widely used as a tool to evaluate the real time power system prevailing conditions. State estimation algorithms could suffer divergence under stressed system conditions. This dissertation first investigates impacts of variations of load levels and topology errors on the convergence property of the commonly used weighted least square (WLS) state estimator. The influence of topology errors on the condition number of the gain matrix in the state estimator is also analyzed. The minimum singular value of gain matrix is proposed to measure the distance between the operating point and state estimation divergence. To study the impact of the load increment on the convergence property of WLS state estimator, two types of load increment are utilized: one is the load increment of all load buses, and the other is a single load increment. In addition, phasor measurement unit (PMU) measurements are applied in state estimation to verify if they could solve the divergence problem and improve state estimation accuracy. The dissertation investigates the impacts of variations of line power flow increment and topology errors on convergence property of the WLS state estimator. A simple 3-bus system and the IEEE 118-bus system are used as the test cases to verify the common rule. Furthermore, the simulation results show that adding PMU measurements could generally improve the robustness of state estimation. Two new approaches for improving the robustness of the state estimation with PMU measurements are proposed. One is the equality-constrained state estimation with PMU measurements, and the other is Hachtel's matrix state estimation with PMU measurements approach. The dissertation also proposed a new heuristic approach for optimal placement of phasor measurement units (PMUs) in power system for improving state estimation accuracy. In the problem of adding PMU measurements into the estimator, two methods are investigated. Method I is to mix PMU measurements with conventional measurements in the estimator, and method II is to add PMU measurements through a post-processing step. These two methods can achieve very similar state estimation results, but method II is a more time-efficient approach which does not modify the existing state estimation software.


Heuristic search algorithms employ evaluation functions that utilize heuristic knowledge of the given domain. We call such functions static evaluation functions when they only make use of knowledge applied to the given state but not resuIts of any search in this state space - neither the search guided by the evaluation nor extra search like look-ahead. Static evaluation functions typically evaluate with some error. An approach to improve on the accuracy of a given static evaluation function is to utilize results of a search. Since this involves dynamic changes, we call resulting functions dynamic evaluation functions. We devised a new approach to dynamic improvements that we named difference approach. It utilizes differences of known costs and their heuristic estimates from a given evaluation function to improve other heuristic estimates from this function. This difference approach can be applied in a wide variety of known search algorithms. We show how it fits into a unifying view of dynamic improvements, that also covers already existing approaches as viewed from this perspective. Finally, we report experimental data for two different domains that represent significant improvements over previously published results.


The quest to 'green' the built environment has been ongoing since the early 1970s and has intensified as the threat of exceeding 450 ppm of atmospheric carbon dioxide has become more real. As a result of this, many contemporary residential high-rise buildings are designed with hopes of achieving carbon emission reductions, while not sacrificing occupant satisfaction, or property value. Little is known about how the occupants of these buildings contribute to the energy and water consumed therein, nor the effects that these design aspirations have on occupant satisfaction. The present study relies on data collected in four recently built, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design [LEED] certified, high-rise, residential buildings in Ontario, Canada. Using various sources of data (i.e., from energy and water submeters, questionnaire responses, interviews, and physical data relating to each suite) the extent to which physical, behavioural, and demographic variables explain suite-level energy and water consumption was explored. Energy use intensity differed by a factor of 7 between similar suites, electricity by a factor of 5, hot water by a factor of 13, cooling by a factor of 47, and heating by a factor of 67. Results show that physical building characteristics explain 43% of the heating variability, 16% of the cooling variability, and 40% of electricity variability, suggesting that the remainders could be a result of occupant behaviour and demographics. It was also discovered that 52% of respondents were not using their energy recovery ventilators [ERV] for the following reasons: acoustic dissatisfaction, difficulty with accessibility of filters, occupant knowledge and preferences, and a lack of engagement with training materials. Results suggest that abandoning mechanical ventilation in favour of passive ventilation could actually lead to greater satisfaction with indoor air quality and to decreased energy consumption. Using content analysis of questionnaire comments, the utility of contextual factors in understanding energy use and satisfaction in the study buildings, as well as their value in producing feedback for designers and managers, was explored. Combining quantitative and qualitative datasets was an effective approach to understanding energy use in this understudied building type.


In the framework of the high-luminosity upgrade of the large hadron collider, the U.S. LARP collaboration and CERN are jointly developing a 150-mm aperture Nb3Sn quadrupole for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) interaction regions. Due to the large beam size and orbit displacement in the final focusing triplet, MQXF has challenging targets for field quality at nominal operation conditions. Three short model magnets have been tested and around 30 coils have been built, allowing a first analysis of the reproducibility of the coil size and turns positioning. The impact of the coil shimming on field quality is evaluated, with special emphasis on the warm magnetic measurements and the correlation to field measurements at cold and nominal field. The variability of the field harmonics along the magnet axis is studied by means of a Monte-Carlo analysis and the effects of the corrective actions implemented to suppress the low-order unallowed multipoles are discussed.


Since 2008, Russia has been conducting special surveys on the occupational structure of employed in the form of a federal statistical observation «On the number and needs of organisations for employees by professional groups». The present study aims to assess the data obtained from this observation for 2008–2018, as well as to compare the methodologies of Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) and the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08). The impact of such relevant skills as emotional intelligence and data literacy on vocational training and the emergence of new professions associated with information economy is discussed. The comparative analysis demonstrated that the economy demands highly-qualified specialists in all Russian regions. Simultaneously, the research revealed the impossibility of considering the specificity of regional structures due to the insufficiency of information for predictive assessments of structural changes and the lack of data on occupations in small business and financial and social insurance sectors. According to the analysis of the dynamics of vacancies for various groups of occupations, the linear trend in the total amount of vacancies tends to decrease. The absence of relevant regional data prevents an in-depth analysis of regional differences and the construction of econometric models to identify the reasons for these differences. Additionally, it is impossible to assess the determinants of the lack of qualified staff by professional groups in Russian regions without these data. The study concludes that researchers and experts, using the Rosstat methodology, should not synonymise the concepts of occupation, speciality and type of activity. The research results can be used to expand Rosstat's survey of occupations, in particular, its database for Russian regions, as well as to improve the methodology for statistical observation of occupational structure of the employed.


The paper proposes one more key to interpreting the Venetian Cinquecento paintings representing the music-making. These highly characteristic compositions of early sixteenth-century Serenissima, considered the embodiment of Venetian early Renaissance spirit, might be the testimony to musical improvisations, and these practices can be key to the interpretation of the canvases. Venice has been the musical capital of sixteenth century Europe and the Venetian musical paintings were based on authentic musical practice of the period. This musical practice was vast and music was one of the typical pastimes of educated classes of Serenissima.
Western history of music has always concentrated on the most obvious representations of music, namely the score. However, there existed areas of music, not only ethnic or folk, but also classical music, which did not have written form. It was this kind of music that was strongly present in the culture of Northern Italian Renaissance, namely improvised music.
Improvisational practice, seemingly totally free, was actually subordinated to fixed models: typical cadences, rhythmical and ornamental formulae, constituted strictly defined or even indispensible element of the prevailing style of the period.
The visible attempt at producing the appearance of masterful spontaneity and capturing the moment is an essential component of early sixteenth-century Venetian concerts. The interest that Venetian painters took in the improvisational style of making music (often humorous and capricious) corresponds with the tradition of praising colour and an instinctive, spontaneous technique ascribed to Venetian painting. Venetian Concerts can be seen as a type of paragone, i.e. competition between painting and music for the lead in the art of improvisation. Attaining lightness, creating the impression of negligence and haste (prestezza), and at the same time concealing technical difficulties was considered an expression of mastery in Venice. This is how the sixteenth-century notion of sprezzatura referring to painting technique can be understood: a refined seeming negligence and nonchalance in executing a work of art. Art theorists and great glorifiers of Serenissima: Lodovico Dolce, Francesco Sansovino and Pietro Aretino in the sixteenth century, as well as Ridolfi and Boschini in their seventeenth-century works saw this improvisational technique as a distinctive feature and a signature of Venetian painters.


The extraction of reliable range data from images is investigated, considering, as a possible solution, the integration of different sensor modalities. Two different algorithms are used to obtain independent estimates of depth from a sequence of stereo images. The results are integrated on the basis of the uncertainty of each measure. The stereo algorithm uses a coarse-to-fine control strategy to compute disparity. An algorithm for depth-from-motion is used, exploiting the constraint imposed by active motion of the cameras. To obtain a 3D description of the objects, the motion of the cameras is purposefully controlled, in such a manner as to move around the objects in view while the gaze is directed toward a fixed point in space. This egomotion strategy, which is similar to that adopted by the human visuomotor system, allows a better exploration of partially occluded objects and simplifies the motion equations. When tested on real scenes, the algorithm demonstrated a low sensitivity to image noise, mainly due to the integration of independent measures. An experiment performed on a real scene containing several objects is presented. >


Estimating the spatial position of organisms is essential to quantify interactions between the organism and the characteristics of its surroundings, for example, predator–prey interactions, habitat selection, and social associations. Because marine mammals spend most of their time under water and may appear at the surface only briefly, determining their exact geographic location can be challenging. Here, we developed a photogrammetric method to accurately estimate the spatial position of marine mammals or birds at the sea surface. Digital recordings containing landscape features with known geographic coordinates can be used to estimate the distance and bearing of each sighting relative to the observation point. The method can correct for frame rotation, estimates pixel size based on the reference points, and can be applied to scenarios with and without a visible horizon. A set of R functions was written to process the images and obtain accurate geographic coordinates for each sighting. The method is applied to estimate the spatiotemporal fine-scale distribution of harbour porpoises in a tidal inlet. Video recordings of harbour porpoises were made from land, using a standard digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera, positioned at a height of 9.59 m above mean sea level. Porpoises were detected up to a distance of ∽3136 m (mean 596 m), with a mean location error of 12 m. The method presented here allows for multiple detections of different individuals within a single video frame and for tracking movements of individuals based on repeated sightings. In comparison with traditional methods, this method only requires a digital camera to provide accurate location estimates. It especially has great potential in regions with ample data on local (a)biotic conditions, to help resolve functional mechanisms underlying habitat selection and other behaviors in marine mammals in coastal areas.


An assembly that contains a sensor, sensor-signal-conditioning circuitry, a sensor-readout analog-to-digital converter (ADC), data-storage circuitry, and a microprocessor that runs special-purpose software and communicates with one or more external computer(s) has been developed as a prototype of "smart" sensor modules for monitoring the integrity and functionality (the "health") of engineering systems. Although these modules are now being designed specifically for use on rocket-engine test stands, it is anticipated that they could also readily be designed to be incorporated into health-monitoring subsystems of such diverse engineering systems as spacecraft, aircraft, land vehicles, bridges, buildings, power plants, oilrigs, and defense installations. The figure is a simplified block diagram of the "smart" sensor module. The analog sensor readout signal is processed by the ADC, the digital output of which is fed to the microprocessor. By means of a standard RS-232 cable, the microprocessor is connected to a local personal computer (PC), from which software is downloaded into a randomaccess memory in the microprocessor. The local PC is also used to debug the software. Once the software is running, the local PC is disconnected and the module is controlled by, and all output data from the module are collected by, a remote PC via an Ethernet bus. Several smart sensor modules like this one could be connected to the same Ethernet bus and controlled by the single remote PC. The software running in the microprocessor includes driver programs for operation of the sensor, programs that implement self-assessment algorithms, programs that implement protocols for communication with the external computer( s), and programs that implement evolutionary methodologies to enable the module to improve its performance over time. The design of the module and of the health-monitoring system of which it is a part reflects the understanding that the main purpose of a health-monitoring system is to detect damage and, therefore, the health-monitoring system must be able to function effectively in the presence of damage and should be capable of distinguishing between damage to itself and damage to the system being monitored. A major benefit afforded by the self-assessment algorithms is that in the output of the module, the sensor data indicative of the health of the engineering system being monitored are coupled with a confidence factor that quantifies the degree of reliability of the data. Hence, the output includes information on the health of the sensor module itself in addition to information on the health of the engineering system being monitored.


We empirically analyze how outside directors and firms choose each other in a sample of 40,585 unique directors associated with 5,246 unique U.S. listed firm. We first provide stylized facts on outside directors and the successful ones. We find that gender, qualifications (MBA), work experience (especially S&P500 firm experience and CEO experience), social network size, experience on board committees, all impact the likelihood of becoming a successful director. Directors of large, complex, volatile and qualitatively reputable firms and of firms with higher levels of institutional ownership are also more likely to become successful directors. Being a member of a more independent board or obtaining the first directorship during a recession act against obtaining a second directorship. Second, we find that firms search for candidates for directorship from older, larger, more complex, more transparent, better governed, and well-performing companies. Third, we document and quantify the impact of five most important factors that determine the two-sided firm-director matching process, namely firm size, firm risk (return and operating performance volatility), stock performance, firm age, and institutional holdings. Overall, our evidence is informative for the workings of the labor market for outside directors.


Determination of the reliability of particular ENSO forecasts is of particular importance to end users. Theoretical arguments are developed that indicate that the amplitudes of slowly decaying (or growing) normal modes of the coupled system provide a useful measure of forecast reliability. Historical forecasts from a skillful prediction model together with a series of ensemble predictions from a ''perfect model'' experiment are used to demonstrate that these arguments carry over to the practical prediction situation. In such a setting it is found that the amplitude of the dominant normal mode, which strongly resembles the observed ENSO cycle, is a potentially useful index of reliability. The fact that this index was generally lower in the 1970s than the 1980s provides an explanation for why many coupled models performed better in the latter decade. It does not, however, explain the low skill of some coupled models in the early 1990s as the index defined here was then moderate.


The rapid adoption of mobile phones, particularly in developing countries, has led a number of researchers to investigate their impact on socioeconomic activity in the developing world. However, until the recent advent of smart communication devices, mobile phones were primarily a relations management technology that enabled people to stay connected with each other. In this article, we focus on this basic function and analyze how people use this technology as a tool to expand their social capital. We use a dataset containing more than three billion call detail records from Rwanda's largest telecommunication operator, covering the whole country during the period from 1 July 2014 to 31 March 2015, and combine these records with data from the fourth Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey conducted by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda in 2015. We found that people's calling patterns significantly correlated with the income level of their region, which also dictated the destinations of their calls, with middle-income regions acting as a link between the richest and the poorest regions. From these results, we propose a framework for understanding the role of mobile phones in the development of social capital.