AFTER reading the responses to my initial article, it is clear that I'll be devoting the lion's share of my space to continuing the conversation with Jesus Garcia. But I do have to at least address Robert Bain's disappointing response in some limited way. With Mr. Bain's A response, I was struck by how apparently indignant a person can become by reading an article from which he could not correctly isolate a single key point. His sideswiping attack made clear only that he disapproved of how I wrote the original piece, without really making a counteroffer of his own ideas. His response reminded me of a neophyte art critic complaining about brushstroke technique without ever recognizing the subject of the painting. When he attempts to craft an argument, he first reframes what I wrote into points I did not make, fashioning for himself some straw men. Then he attacks only them. Even in his assault on those straw men, though, the most disappointing part is that Mr. Bain never makes the readers an offer. I do not mind what he thinks of me personally, although I was surprised at how personal his attack was. However, I think it might have been useful if someone of his experience had chosen to argue the ideas put forth in my article. Instead, he attacks me for using an anecdote about Jay Leno. Like many successful teachers, I was using humor to teach and to illustrate a point. Meanwhile, he opens his response with a glib quote from the admirable Daniel Dennett. Instead of discussing my suggested solutions to the problem, Mr. Bain spends his ink telling us there are and have been no problems in social studies education, that our citizens are well prepared, and that history is not just historical facts. Ironically, he does this in part by using an anecdote. He tells us that all of the other social sciences that are used to give context to history and to aid in the analysis of history are in fact just part of history. This simply demonstrates how right I was about how cocksure historians can be about their role in teaching social studies. I found it useful that, although he missed and ignored the points I made, he managed to prove one of them by accident. I believe most readers will know my position after reading my initial piece, even if they disagree. With Mr. Bain, all that is clear about his position is that he agrees with some small part of his misinterpretation of my position but hates how I shared my ideas. He attempts to discredit my use of sources, but two of his footnotes source his own experience or writing, and in a third he confesses a lack of comprehension. At least this last was both candid and revealing. In summing up my response to Mr. Bain, I would say only that I wish he had actually focused on what I wrote. I will devote no time or effort to defending the straw men he created, as these were not my points or positions. If he would like to reread my article and wants to try discussing my ideas, he can always send me an e-mail. Jesus Garcia's response was far more worthy. While he does not agree with everything I wrote, he makes the reader an offer of his own. He agrees that history has long enjoyed primacy within the social studies curriculum. Even today, it serves as the framework from which the other social sciences are suspended. My suggestion has always been to do away with history survey courses, teach the social sciences as courses themselves, and add a bit of their unique histories to those courses, rather than trying to force every other social science into our history courses. While some might confuse what history is and refer to the analysis done during history courses as historical work, such work has always been anthropology, sociology, psychology, economics, philosophy, civics, or something else. Historians call it "history" only because they still cannot see or admit that history is a list of occurrences. Any and all analysis of any historical event or fact requires using the lens of another social science. …


We investigate two new distributed routing algorithms for data networks based on simple biological "ants" that explore the network and rapidly learn good routes, using a novel variation of reinforcement learning. These two algorithms are fully adaptive to topology changes and changes in link costs in the network, and have space and computational overheads that are competitive with traditional packet routing algorithms: although they can generate more routing traffic when the rate of failures in a network is low, they perform much better under higher failure rates. Both algorithms are more resilient than traditional algorithms, in the sense that random corruption of routing state has limited impact on the computation of paths. We present convergence theorems for both of our algorithms drawing on the theory of non-stationary and stationary discrete-time Markov chains over the reals. We present an extensive empirical evaluation of our algorithms on a simulator that is widely used in the computer networks community for validating and testing protocols. We present comparative results on data delivery performance, aggregate routing traffic (algorithm overhead), as well as the degree of resilience for our new algorithms and two traditional routing algorithms in current use. We also show that the performance of our algorithms scale well with increase in network size-using a realistic topology.


Anemia a common blood disorder occurs when the level of healthy red blood cells (RBCs) in the body becomes too low. This can lead to health complications because red blood cells contain hemoglobin, which pass through oxygen to the body's tissues. Anemia causes a variety of complications, including fatigue and stress on bodily organs. Anemia status can be affected by nutritional deficiencies, infectious diseases, genetic disorders, reproductive complications, and poverty. Anemia affects approximately 2 billion people at worldwide but disproportionately affects women and children. Women of reproductive age (15-49) in Pakistan are 68 million and 50 percent of them are anemic. Children under 5 years are 18 % of population and 45-60 percent are anemic due to poor diet. This study has identified factors of anemia, and its effect on mother and child health. The main objective was to investigate mother and child anemia conditions within sociocultural, demographic and nutritional context and effect of anemia on mother child health.
Cross-Sectional study was conducted in rural areas of District Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan. Both quantitative and qualitative methods (Triangulation) were used to get meaningful detailed information. For capturing maximum variation on socio-cultural, demographic and nutritional aspects, the study was conducted in all four rural towns of the district Faisalabad. This research design enhances the scope of study regarding generalization of research findings. A random sample of 400 (25 women from each village) mothers aged 18-49 with at least one child (under five year) was taken to explore the research objectives through pre-designed interviewing schedule with open and closed ended questions. In qualitative study detailed information through 8 focus group discussion of 4-12 women were collected. A blood sample was obtained from mothers and their last child to determine hemoglobin levels.
Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis demonstrate that education, family type, income, attitudes towards health facilities, violence, smoking, pre and postnatal care, blood loss during abortion, pica and calories intake were found to be associated with symptoms of anemia and level of hemoglobin of mother and child. The prevalence of anemia was found 33.3 (hemoglobin >9.0g/dl), 42.3 (hemoglobin 9.0-11.0 g/dl) and 11.1 (hemoglobin 8.5g/dl), 41.8 (hemoglobin 8.6-10.0 g/dl) and 38.8 (hemoglobin <10.1g/dl) percent of children had mild, moderate, and severe anemia. With the increase of education of mother, family income symptoms of anemia decreased and level of hemoglobin increased both for the mother and child. Gender preferences, attitudes towards health facilities, smoking and violence were also found significant.Among these variables effect of violence on reproductive health caused a severe increase in symptoms of anemia and with decreasing level of hemoglobin. Age at marriage, prepostnatal care was negatively associated with symptoms of anemia and positively associated with level of hemoglobin. Whereas blood loss and communicable variables were positively associated with symptoms of anemia and negatively associated with level of hemoglobin in both of mother and child. Consumption of calories intake per day and pica habits were marginally associated with both of the symptoms of anemia and level of hemoglobin. Education, pregnancy history, iron supplementation, information on nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and practice and dietary history regarding usual food intake per day were poorly appeared in study. Moreover, through focus group discussion,mostly women expressed that "they had no money, no proper food, no proper shelter, no permission for prenatal and postnatal care and husbands unquestioning loyalty create threatening environment and you (me researcher) are talking about health, think it yourself that you can find the answer, you can not find the answer". In short it resulted in poor health condition of mothers and their children with moderate to sever anemia.
It is suggested that provision of female education, income generating opportunities and utilization of health facilities and awareness about causes of consequences of anemia, knowledge and preventive measures of anemia and importance of balanced diet are appropriate measures to enhance health status of mothers and children. Awareness about suitable age at marriage, adequate adoption of pre-postnatal care, immediate attention towards heavy blood loss (abortion, menstruation), provision of iron supplements and adverse complications of pica need special attention to control over anemia status of mother and child. Government should provide proper attention to eradicate widespread prevalence of communicable diseases especially, TB, diarrhea and acute respiratory infection. Sensitization of gender issue need special attention that husband should be make aware about the health complications of different types of violence against females and children.


Traditional flow monitoring techniques where the sensors are immersed in the flow are costly, and often need frequent maintenance. Non-contact measurement techniques can be used to determine the hydraulic conditions of free surface flows based on a characterisation of the air-water interface. They are robust, relatively cheap, and can be safely operated, but their applications in shallow turbulent flows such as rivers and open channels are limited by the limited understanding of the free surface roughness behaviour. This research aims at characterising the rough moving surface of shallow turbulent water flows and its interaction with airborne acoustic waves. The purpose of this work is to facilitate the development of accurate and reliable non-contact sensors that can measure the mean surface velocity of shallow turbulent flows from the Doppler spectrum of airborne backscattered ultrasonic waves. The dynamics of the free surface were characterised experimentally in a laboratory flume with a homogeneously rough flat bed, over a range of subcritical flow conditions. The three-dimensional patterns on the free surface can be represented by a model of gravity-capillary waves with random phase. These patterns and their statistics are dominated by the spatial and temporal scales of the stationary waves generated by the interaction with the rough bed in all conditions where the mean surface velocity is larger than the minimum phase velocity of gravity-capillary waves. When the mean surface velocity is smaller than the minimum phase velocity of gravity-capillary waves, the surface shows patterns that travel at the mean surface velocity and can be generated by the non-resonant interaction with turbulence inside the flow. In these conditions, the effects of coherent turbulent structures on the surface dynamics are negligible. A simplified linear model of the free surface dynamics was implemented in two different models of acoustic scattering based on the Kirchhoff approximation. The numerical predictions of the acoustic Doppler spectra in the backscattering and in the forward scattering configuration were compared with the experimental measurements in the same flow conditions. The comparison allows the rigorous interpretation of the measured Doppler spectra, and helps to identify the factors that link them to the behaviour of the free surface. The results can inform the design of more reliable non-contact measurement sensors with applications in shallow turbulent flows. There are important implications for modelling of the interaction between a homogeneously rough bed and the free surface, and for the study of transport and mixing phenomena near the interface.


Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a revolutionary technology and process which has led to new ways of thinking and working in construction project delivery. Governments around the world are promoting BIM capacity to eliminate waste on public projects and even mandating its use as part of the reform of the public construction sector and cost-saving strategy. In the UK, the government has declared that no public projects can be accepted without using BIM by 2016. Evidence shows that BIM adoption among small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is currently lagging behind and they are losing out in wining publicly funded projects. There are existing sets of frameworks and matrixes developed to assist BIM implementation. However, guidance and frameworks for SMEs are lacking at the present time. This paper reports on criteria and framework as a part of an ongoing study that seeks to develop a web-based Decision Support System (DSS) to assist SMEs to broker risks and rewards of adopting BIM in project delivery. The paper presents the framework and its criteria of the proposed DSS assists SMEs to make informed decisions about whether or not use BIM to deliver building projects, according to specific criteria and queries. This includes tradeoff risks and rewards, broken down into several criteria such as BIM readiness, involvement stage, project value, funding and procurement route.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the population structure and genetic diversity among 66 sweet cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) traditional accessions collected in Maringa, Parana, Brazil, using microsatellite molecular markers. Population structure was analyzed by means of genetic distances and probabilistic models; allelic frequencies were used in order to assess the genetic diversity indexes (Ht, Ho, PIC, % polymorphism and number of alleles) for each locus studied. All evaluated loci were polymorphic and the average was highly heterozygote. The number of alleles per locus was low, suggesting that restrict genetic base is a consequence of accession exchange and a reduced number of ancestors in the population. The polymorphic information content (PIC) values showed considerable genetic diversity with a mean value of 0.5076 and peak of 0.5707 for locus GA140. The microsatellites markers revealed a wide genetic variability among the traditional accessions evaluated. Moreover, the sweet cassava populations were separated in two groups using two analytical methods (probabilistic and genetic distances). The most divergent accessions were BGM 17, BGM 20, BGM 51 and BGM 95. On the other hand, the most similar accessions were BGM 25, BGM 33, BGM 37, BGM 59 and BGM 214. Hybrid combinations formed by the most divergent combinations, especially between BGM 51 × BGM 296, BGM 95 × BGM 222 and BGM 20 × BGM 12, are the most promising ones for future sweet cassava breeding programs. Keywords : Genetic diversity, Manihot esculenta Crantz, microsatellite markers African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(10), pp. 1040-1048, 6 March, 2013


A remarkably simple, yet powerful, algorithm termed Coherence Pursuit for robust Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is presented. In the proposed approach, an outlier is set apart from an inlier by comparing their coherence with the rest of the data points. As inliers lie in a low dimensional subspace, they are likely to have strong mutual coherence provided there are enough inliers. By contrast, outliers do not typically admit low dimensional structures, wherefore an outlier is unlikely to bear strong resemblance with a large number of data points. As Coherence Pursuit only involves one simple matrix multiplication, it is significantly faster than the stateof-the-art robust PCA algorithms. We provide a mathematical analysis of the proposed algorithm under a random model for the distribution of the inliers and outliers. It is shown that the proposed method can recover the correct subspace even if the data is predominantly outliers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first provable robust PCA algorithm that is simultaneously noniterative, can tolerate a large number of outliers and is robust to linearly dependent outliers.


The matter of the pathogen- and cancer-associated ligands recognized by the Natural Cytotoxicity Receptors (NCRs) has been a subject of intense research ever since the identification of the NCRs more than 12 years ago by Alessandro and Lorenzo Moretta: NKp46 in 1997, NKp44 in 1998, and finally NKp30 in 1999. Expression patterns recognized by NCRs include pathogen-derived, pathogen-induced, and cancer-associated cellular 'self' ligands. Pathogen-exposed cells may exhibit both types of pathogen-associated ligands. Transformed cells, in contrast, exhibit only 'self' ligands which are derived from both the intracellular- and membrane-associated milieu of self molecules. These expression patterns allow for NCR-based NK cell discrimination between healthy and affected cells, in the realms of both pathogenic infection and potential tumorigenesis. The focus of this review is on the current knowledge regarding the identities of NCR ligands and the type of target cells expressing these ligands.


Consider user fees and regulatory caps on veterinary use The large and expanding use of antimicrobials in livestock, a consequence of growing global demand for animal protein, is of considerable concern in light of the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Use of antimicrobials in animals has been linked to drug-resistant infections in animals (1) and humans (2). In September 2016, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly recognized the inappropriate use of antimicrobials in animals as a leading cause of rising AMR. In September 2018, the interagency group established by the UN Secretary General will report on progress in the global response to AMR, including antimicrobial consumption in animals. We provide a baseline to monitor efforts to reduce antimicrobial use and assess how three global policies might curb antimicrobial consumption in food animal production: (i) enforcing global regulations to cap antimicrobial use, (ii) adherence to nutritional guidelines leading to reduced meat consumption, and (iii) imposing a global user fee on veterinary antimicrobial use.


Glutathione, as the chief nonprotein intracellular sulfhydryl, affects the efficacy and interactions of a variety of antineoplastic interventions, mainly through nucleophilic thioether formation or oxidation-reduction reactions. Thus, glutathione plays a role in the detoxification and repair of cellular injury by such diverse agents as mechlorethamine, melphalan, cyclophosphamide, nitrosoureas, 6-thiopurine, 4'-(9-acridinylamino)methanesulfon-m-anisidide, the quinone antibiotics (including Adriamycin, daunorubicin, and mitomycin C), the sesquiterpene lactones (such as vernolepin), and other sulfhydryl-reactive diterpenes (like jatrophone). Glutathione may play a similar role in host and tumor cell responses to radiation, hyperthermia, and the reactive reduction products of oxygen secreted by inflammatory cells. Further, glutathione participates in the formation of toxic metabolites of such chemotherapeutics as azathioprine and bleomycin and may affect the cellular uptake of other agents, such as methotrexate. It seems likely that alterations in glutathione metabolism of tumor or host as a result of one therapeutic intervention may affect the outcome of concurrent treatments. Knowledge of these interactions may be useful in designing combination therapy for neoplastic disease.


Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have potential antimicrobial activity against bacteria and fungi. The synthesis of AgNPs have been reported using several chemical and physical methods which are not friendly environment. Therefore, our technique has focused on the synthesis of AgNPs by natural compounds. The aim of this study has been to synthesis AgNPs by safe nontoxic method using Egyptian honey (EH) as reducing and capping agents and to investigate its ability to reduce the mycelial growth and the production of aflatoxins (AFs) and ochratoxin A (OTA) by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus ochraceus, respectively. AgNPs have been characterized by UV-Visible Spectrophotometer, Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). The obtained results indicated that the synthesis of honey AgNPs depends on the concentration of bulk metal (AgNO3) used in the synthesis process. The TEM image has revealed the formation of spherical well dispersed AgNPs, while the main size of AgNPs detected by DSL is 9.9 nm. Our results have indicated that 3 mg -100 ml media of honey derived AgNPs have reduced the aflatoxin (AF) G1, G2, B1 and B2 production by A. parasiticus to 77.55, , 62.91, 58.76 and 66.56%, respectively and ochratoxin A (OTA) by A. ochraceus to 79.85 % with significantly inhibitory effect on mycelial growth. The percentage of reduction depends on the AgNPs concentration.


Political leadership has become a much more explicit and widespread feature of English urban governance than it was 20 years ago. It has become particularly high profile since the Labour Government came into power in 1997 and sponsored legislation (Local Government Act 2000) which required all English local authorities to replace or modify the existing committee system of decision-making by adopting one of four prescribed options, the thrust of which was to strengthen executive governance. This article considers the legislative drivers for change against the backdrop of long-established cultural traditions, most notably the continued dominance of the party group which, in many ways, is inimical to the exercise of individual political leadership. It is argued that the way local authorities develop new models of executive governance reflects the local political culture. In other words the 'locality effect' assumes considerable importance when considering new patterns of executive governance in urban England. This article explores the interplay between the changing operational and institutional context and the resilient traditions of party group behaviour. It concludes that, while over a period of time there is likely to be considerable change in the patterns of urban political leadership, the rate of progress to that end will be highly differential. Copyright Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2004.


The problem of allergy to decorative plants is still poorly known. Reports on occupational allergy to flowers are scarce and usua lly concern gardeners, greenhouse workers and florists. The handling, smel ling and caring of flowers may cause rhinoconjunctivitis, asthm a, urticaria and also contact dermatitis. Plants of the Compositae family that includes many different species have been frequently described. Chrysanthemum flowers, the strongest sensitizer among ornamental Compositae plants, especially contribute to the develo pment of contact dermatitis. Allergy to Liliaceae, mostly to tulips, hyacinths, lilies and crocuses has quite often been reported as well as sensitization to rose pollen in rose planters. Occupational sensitization to flowers of other families, among which spathe flo wers, primulas, weeping fig or Stephanotis floribunda should be mentioned, is less frequent. Exposure to ornamental flowers is common in the general population. Persons occupationally involved in cultivation of flowers and who demonstrate allergic symptoms are often forced to change their jobs. Candidates to these occupations with diagnosed atopy should be informed about the risk of developi ng allergy to flowers, which could make them unable to perform the job. Med Pr 2006;57(4):359–64


Criticism of Cattell's Motivation Analysis Test (MAT) partly on the basis of a quasi-higher-order factor analysis of the MAT subscales on a sample of 109 subjects is untenable, given the methodological weaknesses inherent in the procedural application of the method by Cooper and Kline (1982). Cattell's (1982) response to the Cooper/Kline critique did not address these methodological issues directly, but instead concentrated on the controversy pertaining to intra-scale item-homogeneity. The debate over the structure of the MAT requires consideration of the factor analytic issues per se. The present reconsideration of the Cooper/Kline critique attempts to do this, and to provide a fuller perspective on the issues raised by Cooper and Kline. A series of articles recently published in the. British Journal of Educational Psychology concerning the internal structure of the Motivation Analysis Test (MAT) has left the reader with a less than adequate account of the reliability and validity of the instrument. Cooper and Kline (1982) criticized both the low item-homogeneities and also the factor structure of the MAT. Cattell (1982) responded to the Cooper/Kline critique and addressed the issue of intra-scale item-homogeneity. However the question of the factor structure of the MAT remained unresolved, and subsequently, Kline and Cooper (1982) reiterated their belief that the factor structures of the MAT were not stable across different samples. As Cattell did not address this issue in his response, it is germane to reconsider the evidence provided in the paper by Cooper and Kline. In particular, the present discussion focuses on (1) the validity of the MAT, (2) the number of subjects required, (3) the number of factors extracted, and (4) the question of simple structure. Finally, conclusions regarding the adequacy of the Cooper/Kline critique of the MAT are presented.


Planktonic larvae were captured above a shallow coral reef study site on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) around spring-summer new moon periods (October-February) using light trap or net capture devices. Larvae were identified to the genus or species level by comparison with a phylogenetic tree of tropical marine fish species using mtDNA HVR1 sequence data. Further analysis showed that within-species HVR1 sequence variation was typically 1-3%, whereas between-species variation for the same genus ranged up to 50%, supporting the suitability of HVR1 for species identification. Given the current worldwide interest in DNA barcoding and species identification using an alternative mtDNA gene marker (cox1), we also explored the efficacy of different primer sets for amplification of cox1 in reef fish, and its suitability for species identification. Of those tested, the Fish-F1 and -R1 primer set recently reported by Ward et al. (2005) gave the best results.


An optophoresis system based on surface plasmons in a simple microfluidic environment is proposed, which introduces new functionalities, including three -dimensional trapping of particles, bidirectional manipulation, controllable sorting, and in situ sensing. Its operating principle is based on plasmonic field, which is excited by the Kretschmann configuration on a gold stripe. In this system, trapping, manipulating, and sorting mechanisms are based on the balance of two oppositely exerted scattering forces induced by two counter-propagating surface plasmons. Moreover, for detecting particle's intrinsic properties and in situ position monitoring, we take advantage of the particle's lens-like behavior and stripe's edge effects. The proposed low-power functional system that can be simply and inexpensively integrated into lab-on-a-chip devices is a promising candidate for biological applications and developing integrated optical manipulation chips.


SIR,-Dr. K. B. Rogers is to be congratulated on his careful experiments (May 24, p. 1109), which confirm the suggestion of Lehmann (1948) that cells of low mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (M.C.H.C.) have a lower specific gravity than normal cells, and also the findings of Poole and. Summers (1952) that such anaemic cells sediment more slowly in both anaemic and normal plasma than do normal cells. But he is hardly justified in deducing that the reduced specific gravity is the cause of the slower sedimentation, cr in inferring-by omission-that other factors are of little importance. Bunting (1939) showed that in sickle-cell anaemia rouleaux formation and sedimentation were almost abolished by increasing the sickling above 50% by exposure to carbon dioxide, and it seems likely that the anisocytosis and poikilocytosis of iron-deficiency anaemia interfere with rouleaux formation in similar fashion and are more important than reduced specific gravity in retarding sedimentation. If specific gravity were the essential factor, high E.S.R.s in symptomatic hypochromic anaemias would not be so commonplace, and it would be difficult to explain the normal E.S.R. one sees in some normochromic anaemias.


To estimate the global burden of nontyphoidal Salmonella gastroenteritis, we synthesized existing data from laboratory-based surveillance and special studies, with a hierarchical preference to (1) prospective population-based studies, (2) "multiplier studies," (3) disease notifications, (4) returning traveler data, and (5) extrapolation. We applied incidence estimates to population projections for the 21 Global Burden of Disease regions to calculate regional numbers of cases, which were summed to provide a global number of cases. Uncertainty calculations were performed using Monte Carlo simulation. We estimated that 93.8 million cases (5th to 95th percentile, 61.8-131.6 million) of gastroenteritis due to Salmonella species occur globally each year, with 155,000 deaths (5th to 95th percentile, 39,000-303,000 deaths). Of these, we estimated 80.3 million cases were foodborne. Salmonella infection represents a considerable burden in both developing and developed countries. Efforts to reduce transmission of salmonellae by food and other routes must be implemented on a global scale.


Objective To explore the psychological consequences of experiencing symptomatic pulmonary embolism (PE). Design Qualitative interview-based study using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Setting Outpatients who attended an anticoagulation clinic in a district general hospital. Participants Patients attending an anticoagulation clinic following hospital admission for symptomatic PE were approached to participate. A total of 9 (4 women, 5 men) of 11 patients approached agreed to be interviewed. Participants were aged between 26 and 72 years and had previously experienced a PE between 9 and 60 months (median=26 months, mean=24 months). Intervention Audiotaped semistructured qualitative interviews were undertaken to explore participants experiences of having a PE and how it had affected their lives since. Data were transcribed and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis to identify emergent themes. Results Three major themes with associated subthemes were identified. Participants described having a PE as a life-changing experience comprising initial shock, followed by feeling of loss of self, life-changing decisions and behaviour modification. Features of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were described with flashbacks, hypervigilance and intrusive thoughts being most prevalent. Participants identified several areas of support needed for such patients including easier access to support through information giving and emotional support. Conclusions Long-term consequences of venous thromboembolism go beyond the physical alone. Patients describe experiencing symptomatic PE to be a life-changing distressing event leading to behaviour modification and in some PTSD. It is likely that earlier psychological intervention may reduce such long-term sequelae.


ABSTRACT Appalachian Carboniferous stratigraphy remains controversial partly because of unclear petrogenetic, depositional, and stratigraphic relationships displayed by Pottsville sandstones, which have been interpreted as being of either alluvial or barrier-beach origin. Two associated sandstones of the New River Formation of southern West Virginia provide the setting for a detailed examination of this problem. The Lower Raleigh lithic arenite consists of elongate and lobate, dip-oriented bodies which display erosional bases, interfinger laterally with shales, fine upward at the top, and are unidirectionally trough cross-bedded basinward. The Upper Raleigh quartz arenite consists of elongate, dip-oriented bodies updip in the basin and elongate and lobate, strike-oriented bodies downdip. The q artz arenites display erosional bases, interfinger laterally with shales, fine upward at the top, and are unidirectionally planar cross-bedded basinward. Evidence suggests that Lower Raleigh detritus was derived from a southeasterly metamorphic-sedimentary source terrane and deposited in high-constructive lobate deltas. Upper Raleigh quartzose detritus may have been derived from coarse grained alluvial facies equivalents of Lower Raleigh deltaic facies and deposited in deltas whose margins were modified by marine processes. It appears that the Lower and Upper Raleigh sandstones are not deltaic and barrier-tidal facies equivalents, thus negating gross regional stratigraphic relationships implied by the barrier model. Additionally, these conclusions suggest that use of quartz arenite as a unique lithogenetic rock type for predictive purposes is prone to serious error.


Nowadays, looking at the path between two points on a city map has become a simple task using any modern tablet, smartphone or laptop. However, when exploring maps with different information across multiple layers and scales, users experience information discontinuity. Bancada is a multi-display system developed to investigate the exploration of geospatial information using multiple mobile devices in a multi-display environment. In Bancada, tablets are Zoomable Magic Lenses that augment, through specific geospatial layers, an overview map displayed on a tabletop or on a wall display. Users interact with lenses using touch gestures to pan and zoom; and multi-layer maps can be built by overlapping different lenses. Currently, Bancada is being used to research user interfaces separated across multiple devices and interactions with high-resolution mobile devices. Future work with Bancada includes (i) evaluating the user performance when using one tablet or multiple tablets to control all lenses; (ii) exploring what and how interactions can be performed on an overview map; and (iii) exploring how lenses can be changed.


Background There is a tremendous opportunity for innovative mental health care solutions such as psychiatric care through videoconferencing to increase the number of people who have access to quality care. However, studies are needed to generate empirical evidence on the use of psychiatric outpatient care via videoconferencing, particularly in low- and middle-income countries and clinically unsupervised settings. Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of home-based treatment for mild depression through psychiatric consultations via videoconferencing. Methods A randomized controlled trial with a 6- and 12-month follow-up including adults with mild depression treated in an ambulatory setting was conducted. In total, 107 participants were randomly allocated to the videoconferencing intervention group (n=53) or the face-to-face group (F2F; n=54). The groups did not differ with respect to demographic characteristics at baseline. The F2F group completed monthly follow-up consultations in person. The videoconferencing group received monthly follow-up consultations with a psychiatrist through videoconferencing at home. At baseline and after 6 and 12 months, in-person assessments were conducted with all participants. Clinical outcomes (severity of depression, mental health status, medication course, and relapses), satisfaction with treatment, therapeutic relationship, treatment adherence (appointment compliance and dropouts), and medication adherence were assessed. Results The severity of depression decreased significantly over the 12-month follow-up in both the groups. There was a significant difference between groups regarding treatment outcomes throughout the follow-up period, with better results in the videoconferencing group. There were 4 relapses in the F2F group and only 1 in the videoconferencing group. No significant differences between groups regarding mental health status, satisfaction with treatment, therapeutic relationship, treatment adherence, or medication compliance were found. However, after 6 months, the rate of dropouts was significantly higher in the F2F group (18.5% vs 5.7% in the videoconferencing group, P<.05). Conclusions Psychiatric treatment through videoconferencing in clinically unsupervised settings can be considered feasible and as effective as standard care (in-person treatment) for depressed outpatients with respect to clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, therapeutic relationship, treatment adherence, and medication compliance. These results indicate the potential of telepsychiatry to extend access to psychiatric care to remote and underserved populations. ClinicalTrial Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01901315; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01901315 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6jBTrIVwg)


This note presents the solvability conditions of the dynamic output feedback Hinfin control problem for linear neutral systems with time- varying state delays in the delay-dependent case, where the delay is assumed to be time-varying continuous or differentiable uniformly bounded function, but no restriction on the derivative of the delay is needed, which means that the delay may be the fast time-varying function. An improved delay-dependent bounded real lemma (BRL) for a closed-loop system is established. Based on the obtained BRL, the dynamic output feedback Hinfin controller is designed in terms of the linear matrix inequalities with inverse constraints. An iterative algorithm involving convex optimization methods is used to satisfy these constraints. The proposed results are illustrated in the examples.


The neonatal Fc receptor for IgG (FcRn) is a distant member of the MHC class I protein family. It binds IgG and albumin in a pH-dependent manner and protects these from catabolism by diverting them from a degradative fate in lysosomes. In addition, FcRn-mediated IgG transport across epithelial barriers is responsible for the transmission of IgG from mother to infant and can also enhance IgG-mediated antigen uptake across mucosal epithelia. We now show a previously undescribed role for FcRn in mediating the presentation of antigens by dendritic cells when antigens are present as a complex with antibody by uniquely directing multimeric immune complexes, but not monomeric IgG, to lysosomes.


During HIV-1 particle formation, the requisite plasma membrane curvature is thought to be solely driven by the retroviral Gag protein. Here, we reveal that the cellular I-BAR protein IRSp53 is required for the progression of HIV-1 membrane curvature to complete particle assembly. Partial gene editing of IRSp53 induces a decrease in viral particle production and a viral bud arrest at half completion. Single molecule localization microscopy at the cell plasma membrane shows a preferential localization of IRSp53 around HIV-1 Gag assembly sites. In addition, we observe the presence of IRSp53 in purified HIV-1 particles. Finally, HIV-1 Gag protein localizes preferentially to IRSp53 I-BAR domain induced curved membranes on giant unilamellar vesicles. Overall, our data reveal a strong interplay between IRSp53 I-BAR and Gag at membranes during virus assembly. This highlights IRSp53 as a crucial host factor in HIV-1 membrane curvature and its requirement for full HIV-1 particle assembly.


Corporate service providers supply the shell companies that are commonly used to launder illicit funds, including the proceeds of corruption. Effectively regulating these service providers is one important way to limit money laundering and therefore make corruption less profitable. Governments and international organisations must look beyond their current preoccupation with formal laws and regulations to concentrate on practical effectiveness and implementation. The case of the Seychelles provides useful insights and lessons learned for both developing countries and development practitioners.


THIS is a good translation in pleasant English, with eleven pages of introduction and occasional footnotes. It is an admirable presentation of the dialogue for the general reader, and a worthy addition to the Penguin Classics series. Minor criticisms: (i) The introduction may give the impression (p. 15) that the Gorgias was written soon after 399 B.C., rather than about 387. (ii) The idea that the body is a tomb was not (cf. Crat. 400 c) 'characteristic both of the Pythagorean philosophy and of the Orphic mystery religion' (p. 92), though the Orphic soulprison idea was probably similar, (iii) The author of the Myth of the Water-carriers is described not as a philosopher but as a teller of myths: hence we should probably not (p. 92) take 'Sicilian' as a reference to Empedocles. (iv) The notes on pp. 62—63 scarcely reveal the nature of Socrates' argument at 474-5, for which see Dodds, ad loc., and Adkins, Merit and Responsibility, pp. 266—7. (v) There is no inconsistency (p. 147) in the remarks about Aristides, who is praised not as a true statesman, but for his fairness, (vi) Thrasymachus in Rep. i is hardly 'Callicles under another name' (p. 14), for Callicles does not, like him {Rep. 348 e), admit that what he approves of is really unjust.


Aquatic sediments are the sink for thousands of chemical pollutants. Among them, EDCs encompass a wide diversity of chemical classes from natural and anthropogenic origins, acting on various signaling pathways, and the use of in vitro bioassays is now widely accepted as an integrative method for their detection in complex samples. However, the diversity of EDC chemical properties makes difficult their common extraction and validation of extraction method for bioanalysis is still weakly documented. Hence, the aim of this study was to optimize and validate a method allowing a rapid and efficient extraction of a broad range of active chemicals. A mixture of 12 EDCs (i.e. estrone, 17beta-estradiol, bisphenol A, o,pDDT, 4-tert-octylphenol, fenofibrate, triphenyl phosphate, clotrimazole, PCB-126, 2,3,7,8 TCDD, Benzo[k]fluoranthene and dibenzo[a,h]anthracene) with wide range of polarity (2 80 %) whereas the heptane was the less efficient (50-60 %). First results obtained with chemical analyses were in accordance with bioassay data. Finally, similar results were obtained in natural sediment. In conclusion, this study reports a comprehensive assessment of extraction conditions before application in different in vitro bioassays, which has been rarely studied. Although there was no marked differences between extraction solvant, mixture of polar and non-polar solvent were shown to offer the best extraction of a wide range of active EDCs.


The abundant spatial and contextual information provided by the advanced remote sensing technology has facilitated subsequent automatic interpretation of the optical remote sensing images (RSIs). In this paper, a novel and effective geospatial object detection framework is proposed by combining the weakly supervised learning (WSL) and high-level feature learning. First, deep Boltzmann machine is adopted to infer the spatial and structural information encoded in the low-level and middle-level features to effectively describe objects in optical RSIs. Then, a novel WSL approach is presented to object detection where the training sets require only binary labels indicating whether an image contains the target object or not. Based on the learnt high-level features, it jointly integrates saliency, intraclass compactness, and interclass separability in a Bayesian framework to initialize a set of training examples from weakly labeled images and start iterative learning of the object detector. A novel evaluation criterion is also developed to detect model drift and cease the iterative learning. Comprehensive experiments on three optical RSI data sets have demonstrated the efficacy of the proposed approach in benchmarking with several state-of-the-art supervised-learning-based object detection approaches.


In this paper, we present and analyze the most fundamental constraint of RFID systems, power rectification. This issue plays an important role in development of long-range RFID systems. Rectifiers are the key components in power rectifications and efficiency of an RFID system. Therefore this paper is concentrated in investigating this major issue. To tackle this problem a novel Schottky Barrier Diode (SBD) has been proposed. The proposed SBD provides good power conversion rate and switching properties.


A cytochemical staining method for acid phosphatase combined with electron microscopy was applied to the islets of Langerhans of adult normal rats. In addition to dense bodies, some Golgi cisternae as well as a varying number of secretory granules of β cells were found to contain acid phosphatase. In view of the paucity of the knowledge concerning the role of acid phosphatase, the possible functional significance of its presence in the secretory granules of pancreatic β cells cannot be denned at the present time.


Abstract. In many urban areas the population is exposed to elevated levels
of air pollution. However, real-time air quality is usually only measured at
few locations. These measurements provide a general picture of the state of
the air, but they are unable to monitor local differences. New low-cost
sensor technology is available for several years now, and has the potential
to extend official monitoring networks significantly even though the
current generation of sensors suffer from various technical issues. Citizen science experiments based on these sensors must be designed carefully
to avoid generation of data which is of poor or even useless quality. This
study explores the added value of the 2016 Urban AirQ campaign, which focused
on measuring nitrogen dioxide ( NO2 ) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Sixteen low-cost air quality sensor devices were built and distributed among
volunteers living close to roads with high traffic volume for a 2-month
measurement period. Each electrochemical sensor was calibrated in-field next to an air monitoring
station during an 8-day period, resulting in R2 ranging from 0.3 to 0.7.
When temperature and relative humidity are included in a multilinear
regression approach, the NO2 accuracy is improved significantly,
with R2 ranging from 0.6 to 0.9. Recalibration after the campaign is
crucial, as all sensors show a significant signal drift in the 2-month
measurement period. The measurement series between the calibration periods
can be corrected for after the measurement period by taking a weighted average of the calibration
coefficients. Validation against an independent air monitoring station shows good
agreement. Using our approach, the standard deviation of a typical sensor
device for NO2 measurements was found to be
7  µg m−3 , provided that temperatures are below
30  ∘C . Stronger ozone titration on street sides causes an
underestimation of NO2 concentrations, which 75 % of the time
is less than 2.3  µg m−3 . Our findings show that citizen science campaigns using low-cost sensors based
on the current generations of electrochemical NO2 sensors may
provide useful complementary data on local air quality in an urban setting,
provided that experiments are properly set up and the data are carefully
analysed.


The application of heterogeneous catalysis in biomass thermochemical conversion is considered as one of the most promising methods to improve biofuel production by minimizing its undesirable properties and producing renewable fuels and high-value chemicals. However, the catalyst used in practical industrial reforming application undergoes deactivation inevitably, which is a problem of great and continuing concern. In this study, molecular dynamics simulation with reactive force field is performed to gain atomic insights into the thermal stability of Ni nanocrystal and the effect of coke deposition on catalyst deactivation


The first 100 years of modern art witnessed the popularization of photography, the decline of traditional patronage, and an increasing emphasis on abstraction in painting, all of which threatened the survival of portraiture as a genre. It continued to flourish because modern painters - Picasso foremost amongst them - sought and found meaningful new ways to portray the human face. This book focuses on this part of the artist's oevre, reproducing works in oil, gouache, pastel, charcoal and other media to illustrate the solutions Picasso invented to solve the "problem" of the modernist portrait. Published to accompany an exhibition to be shown at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1996, the book contains eight essays examining different periods and aspects of Picasso's career. The personal relationships between Picasso and his subjects are clarified. Contributions come from Anne Baldassari, Pierre Daix, Michael Fitzgerald, Brigitte Leal, Marilyn McCully, Robert Rosenblum, William Rubin, Helene Seckel and Kirk Varnedoe.


For pt.I see ibid., vol.25, no.6, p.4443-8 (1989). An algorithm is developed for the calculation of surface currents and melt geometry for electromagnetic casters in three dimensions. The algorithm is shown to yield computed surface currents matching an analytical equation for the surface currents in a somewhat simpler geometry. The nonequilibrium meniscus shapes yielded computed surface currents that were fully three-dimensional. The induced surface currents produced by a horizontal inductor appear to have negligible vertical components provided the meniscus is at equilibrium. Computed meniscus shapes are presented for two inductor geometries, and the results appear reasonable in terms of the height and curvature of the molten metal pool. >


Objectives To evaluate the relationship between the pass rate of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) certifying exam and the characteristics of residency programs. Methods The study used a retrospective, cross-sectional design with publicly available data from the ABIM and the Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database. All categorical residency programs with reported pass rates were included. Using univariate and multivariate, linear regression analyses, I analyzed how 69 factors (e.g., location, general information, number of faculty and trainees, work schedule, educational environment) are related to the pass rate. Results Of 371 programs, only one region had a significantly different pass rate from the other regions; however, as no other characteristics were reported in this region, I excluded program location from further analysis. In the multivariate analysis, pass rate was significantly associated with four program characteristics: ratio of full-time equivalent paid faculty to positions, percentage of osteopathic doctors, formal mentoring program, and on-site child care (OCC). Numerous factors were not associated at all, including minimum exam scores, salary, vacation days, and average hours per week. Conclusions As shown through the ratio of full-time equivalent paid faculty to positions and whether there was a formal mentoring program, a highly supervised training experience was strongly associated with the pass rate. In contrast, percentage of osteopathic doctors was inversely related to the pass rate. Programs with OCC significantly outperformed programs without OCC. This study suggested that enhancing supervision of training programs and offering parental support may help attract and produce competitive residents.


In an effort to better understand the damage that develops in filament-wound composite structures when they are subjected to low velocity impact loads, a series of low velocity impact experiments was performed on small (146 mm (5.75 in.) diameter) filament wound pressure bottles. Three different material systems, IM7/3501-6ATL, IM7/X8553-45, and IM7/977-2, were evaluated. Three impact energy levels, 4.07 J (3.0 ft-lb), 6.78 J (5.0 ft-lb), and 9.49 J (7.0 ft-lb), were applied. Dye penetrant enhanced X-ray radiography was used to assess the damage that resulted from the impact loading. The through-the-thickness location of damage was assessed by means of stereo radiography. The two material systems with toughened epoxy matrices (X8553-45, 977-2) generally developed smaller damage zones than the system with a standard epoxy matrix (3501-6ATL). Two distinct types of fiber fracture were observed. All of the systems exhibited a tendency to develop fiber fracture in the interior helical layers, usually at locations removed from the impact site. Some of the specimens fabricated from the material systems with the toughened epoxy matrices also developed fiber fracture in the exterior hoop layers. This second fiber fracture mode appeared to originate at the point of contact between the impacting tup and the specimen.


Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is of significance in the pathophysiology and prognosis of pulmonary hypertension (PHT). Bosentan, an endothelin-receptor antagonist, currently plays a central role in the treatment of PHT, because it improves exercise capacity, hemodynamics, clinical symptoms and right ventricular function, achieving a survival duration of 2- 3 years. Bosentan causes an increase of transaminases in about 10% of patients, but this effect is reversible on dosage reduction or discontinuing the medication. However, transaminases should be measured every 4 weeks while patients are on bosentan. Almost all current guidelines list bosentan as of equal value to sildenafil or prostacyclin analogues in the first-line treatment of patients in NYHA functional class III and also, with narrower indications, of those in class IV.


ABSTRACT Herringbone calcite is a previously undescribed carbonate cement and sea-floor precipitate that is common in Archean carbonates but rare in Proterozoic and Phanerozoic rocks. It is abundant in the 2520 Ma Campbellrand-Malmani platform, South Africa, where field relationships, such as erosional truncation of layers of herringbone calcite and interbedding of herringbone calcite with grainstones, demonstrate that it precipitated from ambient marine water. This interpretation is supported by depositional relationships in the >= 2.6 Ga Huntsman Limestone of the Bulawayo greenstone belt, Zimbabwe; the 2.6 Ga Carawine Dolomite, Australia; the 1.90 Ga Rocknest Formation and the 1.8-1.2 Ga Dismal Lakes Group, Canada; the Ordovician Porterfi ld carbonate buildup, Virginia; and various Silurian carbonate buildups in the Midcontinent, United States. Each of these occurrences is associated with anaerobic depositional environments or organic-rich sediments. Herringbone calcite consists of alternating light and dark crenulated bands; each light-dark pair is 0.5-1.0 mm thick. Microscopically, each pair of bands consists of a row of elongate crystals with their long axes aligned perpendicular to banding and along the growth direction of the cement. The bases of the crystals are optically unoriented, but upwards in each crystal, the optical c axis rotates until it is perpendicular to crystal elongation. The tops of the elongate crystal are thus optically aligned and length slow. The light bands of herringbone calcite correspond to the optically oriented parts of the elongate crystals, whereas the dark bands correspond to the optically unoriented, lower parts of the elongate crystals. Microspar crystals are also present in some dark ba ds. A Mg-calcite precursor for herringbone calcite, now preserved as low-Mg calcite or dolomite, is supported by the presence of micro-dolomite inclusions and textural differences between herringbone calcite and textures interpreted as neomorphosed former aragonite or low-Mg calcite. Precipitation of herringbone calcite may be consistent with a diffusionally controlled growth model involving branching growth of fibrous crystals and diffusion of a precipitation inhibitor away from the crystallization surface. Since herringbone calcite is associated with anaerobic depositional environments, the inhibitor promoting precipitation of herringbone calcite may be present only in poorly oxygenated sea water. Thus, the stratigraphic distribution of herringbone calcite may be an important indicator of the abundance of oxygen in carbonate depositional environments through time.


Highly conductive porous media have recently been considered for enhanced cooling applications due to their large internal contact surface area, which promotes convection at the pore level. In this paper, graphite foams that possess high thermal conductivity but low permeability are investigated for convection heat transfer enhancement using air as coolant. Two novel heat sink structures are designed to reduce the fluid pressure drop. Both experimental and numerical approaches are adopted in the study. The experimental data show that the designed structures significantly reduce flow resistance in graphite foams while maintaining relatively good heat removal performance. The numerical results obtained based on the local thermal nonequilibrium model are validated by experimental data and show that the inlet air flow partially penetrates the structured foam walls, while the remaining air flows tortuously through slots in the structure. Flow mixing, which is absent in the block graphite foam, is observed in the freestream area inside the designed structure. It can be concluded that graphite foams with appropriately designed structures can be applied as air-cooled heat sinks in thermal management applications.


This paper extends the empirical research strategy adopted for modeling demand for M1 in Nigeria in Teriba (2006a) to one of its two sub-components, demand deposits (DD). All of our findings for M1 stand up for DD, with one important addition: demand deposits respond significantly to foreign interest differentials in both the long run and the short run. Foreign deposits are therefore substitutes to domestic deposits in Nigerian money-holders' portfolio. Again, as with M1, we establish the strong relevance of interest rates in Nigerian DD demand models. The rate of inflation had no place in the long run demand for DD models recovered in this study. The exchange rate or its rate of depreciation also plays no role whatsoever in models. We recover economically sensible, econometrically sound, and policy relevant long run and short run empirical models of the demand for DD in Nigeria. We find that the assumed long run relations hold between DD, total domestic expenditure, its deflator, two domestic interest rates, and a foreign interest differential. We establish that domestic absorption, not gross domestic product, is the relevant measure of transactions in the model for DD in Nigeria. We also confirm that the deflator for domestic absorption, not consumer price index, is the relevant proxy for the general price level in the DD model. We document significant 'own' and 'cross' price effects in the long run relations. The two domestic interest rates that entered the relations were the three-month time deposit rate and the Treasury bill rate. The time deposit rate mimicked the 'own-rate' of money in the equation, while the treasury bills rate captured the domestic 'cross-price effect', representing the domestic opportunity cost of money holding. The foreign interest differential enters the model to capture the foreign cross-price effect, or foreign opportunity cost for money holding. Deletion of any of the two domestic interest rates in the long run models led to loss of the cointegrating relationships. Not only is a meaningful cross rate effect recovered only when the own rate is allowed for, both must be included for cointegration to occur. Deletion of the foreign interest differential similarly led to a loss of the cointegrating relationships. To be valid, therefore, empirical models for DD in Nigeria must not only include two domestic interest rates, as proxies for the own-rate and the opportunity costs, but also one foreign interest differential, to capture the cross border asset substitution effect that is evidently pervasive in Nigeria.


Abstract This paper investigates the consistency of outcome framing effects on choice across two arenas of outcome: human life and money. Past research has yielded notable variability in the magnitude of framing effects. One possible contributor to the variation in magnitude is outcome arena. Past research has varied along this dimension without systematically assessing its effects. Undergraduates ( N = 297) responded to three decision scenarios involving either human lives or money in which outcomes were framed either positively or negatively. Based on prospect theory, an interaction between framing and arena was predicted, such that a greater framing effect was expected in the human life arena (i.e., more risky choices were expected when outcomes involved human life than money in the negative frame and the reverse in the positive frame). Results were only partly consistent with this prediction. Regardless of frame, subjects made riskier choices when outcomes involved human lives rather than money. This was not expected for the positive frame. Even though human lives presumably have greater utility than dollars, subjects in the positive framing condition made riskier choices regarding human life than money. Additionally, no overall framing effect was observed. There was a significant sex by frame interaction such that only women exhibited framing effects on choice. This extends the finding of sex differences in framing to the monetary arena. This has important implications for the conduct of future studies on framing as well as for the interpretation of past and future framing research.


This research can provide useful information about the importance of personal selling in building customer knowledge against the products offered by the company (product knowledge), which in turn implies an increase in consumer purchasing decisions. Research using multistage area sampling which combined between cluster random sampling and systematic random sampling done on the consumers car dealer shops in the city of Bandung, as many as 400 respondents as samples. This research using survey method with the quantitative approach. While this research type is descriptive research and verificative explanatory research. To test the hypothesis of research statistical methods used path analysis. Test results found a significant relationship between sales personnel with knowledge of the product, other than that of the test results found no significant influence between the personal selling and product knowledge of the consumer buying decisions either partially or simultaneous. Keywords: Personal Selling, Product Knowledge, Consumer Buying Decision


The evaluation of the self-help program "Le groupe d'entraide Amorce" for pedophilic men showed they were progressing regarding certain pedophilic characteristics, particularly with respect to a better integration of their adult sexuality. However, nobody in this program claimed to be "treating" pedophilia directly. In fact, all of them relied upon the sharing and supporting dynamics of a self-help group to face other related problems and to reach the preliminary but necessary steps for deeper changes. The beneficial effect of the program was felt regarding mainly stopping withdrawal, changing attitudes, increasing empathy, motivating for change, improving communication skills, discharging emotions, clarifying immediate problems, repositionning as adults, supporting when depressed or decreasing anxiety. The triangulation of the points of view of facilitators, external parties, and participants did confirm these results both regarding pedophilia and other problems. Beyond these effects, the evaluation showed that the main strengths of the program were: the support and sharing of experiences between participants ; the motivation and availability of those involved ; the openness to external critics, novelty, uniqueness, pro-gressiveness, communal, non-medical, and preventive approach of pedophilia ; and the respect for and "responsibilisation" of the participants. Some aspects of the program also needed to be improved and specific recommendations were provided to the administrators.


Positive pressure ventilation in children is associated with problems similar to those in the adults: development of atelectasis and barotrauma. During anesthesia atelectasis develop in up to 90% of patients, requiring the use of higher inspiratory pressure to recruit the collapsed lung regions. Especially in the preterm, newborn and younger infants, prolonged ventilation disturbs the anatomical structure of the soft and vulnerable immature airways and their subsequent growth and development, leading to tracheomegaly, tracheal collapse, and bronchopulmonary dysplasia and predisposing to bronchial obstruction. On the basis of pathophysiologic knowledge and studies of ventilation in children, protective modes of ventilation have evolved. They allow to reopen atelectatic lung regions without overdistension. Through solid knowledge of the underlying pediatric physiology and pathophysiology, the required ventilation management can be optimally adjusted to the young patients in order to achieve the best long-term outcomes.


Digital signal processing algorithms with multiple shift-invariant dependence graphs (DGs) can be mapped to field programmable gate array hardware in many different types of systolic processor arrays. Because of the finite amount of hardware resources, the problem is to use a "right" amount of hardware in a specific configuration so to maximize the processing speed. In this paper, the problem of finding the right processor array configuration is formulated as a constrained optimization problem where the cost function includes not only the cost of individual processor arrays but also the cost of interfacing circuits. Three heuristic algorithms are presented for the optimization problem. Among them, both the Lth axial neighbor algorithm and the simulated annealing algorithm produce good results on a test case. Simulation results on the test case also indicate that the initial configuration is important in getting a good configuration for both algorithms. The Lth axial neighbor algorithm has the extra advantage of requiring less amount of performance tuning.


In the Caribbean, hurricanes are common and can result in the loss of a large compo- nent of the epiphytic community as a result of felled tress; the re-establishment of such epiphytic communities is a slow process. Consequently, it is important to determine whether the management of endangered epiphytic plants could include the relocation of individuals from felled to standing trees after hurricanes. If plants can be successfully re-established on standing trees, can new viable populations be established? In this study, ecological correlates and the immediate effect of relocation of a rare endangered epiphytic orchid post Hurricane Georges are examined. Seedlings, juveniles and adults of the protected orchid Lepanthes eltoroensis Stimson were relocated from felled trees onto standing trees along a 5 km stretch of elfin forest and surveyed after 6 and 12 mo. Plants were relocated onto trees that had or were adjacent to trees with con-specific orchids. The effect of this manipulation on survivorship and growth of orchids was evaluated, and the effect of relocating the orchids on occupied and un-occupied phorophytes was compared. L. eltoroensis is preferentially dis- tributed at elevations of 800 to 900 m above sea level, and no preference for specific species of trees was observed. Orchid population size was not correlated with percent moss cover on standing trees. Relocation of orchids from felled trees to standing trees as a management tool for this species was positive, as most individuals (73%) survived the first year; however, this was significantly less than non-relocated plants on standing trees (94%). Management should include re-locating orchids as soon as possible after a hurricane to maximize individual survivorship of this endangered species.


This paper summarizes the trends in device structures for low power (voltage) operation. Product driving forces and the expected evolution of standard CMOS are described to provide context for the presentation. Alternatives to CMOS to achieve enhanced performance-cost objectives include engineered CMOS, thin-film SOI, BiCMOS, and complementary GaAs. An assessment of the status, advantages, and limitations of each is offered.<<ETX>>


To meet the requirements of the 5G mobile network, a new innovative approach called centralized radio access network (C-RAN) architecture is introduced. In CRAN architecture, the fronthaul network must provide high capacity, high availability, and low latency to be able to transmit massive traffic between remote radio heads (RRHs) and baseband processing units. In this paper, two joint transceiver placement and resource allocation schemes are proposed for redirected cooperative hybrid free-space optics (FSO)/millimeter-wave (mmW) fronthaul networks. The schemes aim to obtain the optimal FSO/ mmW transceiver placement that optimizes reliability, average transmitted power, average bit error rate (BER), and number of disrupted links of redirected cooperative hybrid FSO/mmW fronthaul networks in various weather conditions. The schemes are formulated as multiobjective and bilevel integer linear programming problems and solved by using an exhaustive search method to obtain optimal solutions. The numerical results reveal that improvements are obtained in the network reliability, average transmitted power, and average BER by implementing the optimal placement, especially at low visibility and/or high rainfall rate conditions.


Experiments are performed in a partially premixed bluff body-stabilized turbulent combustor by varying the mean flow velocity. Simultaneous measurements obtained for unsteady pressure, velocity, and heat release rate are used to investigate the dynamic regimes of intermittency (10.1 m/s) and thermoacoustic instability (12.3 m/s). Using wavelet analysis, we show that during intermittency, modulation of heat release rate occurring at the acoustic frequency fa by the heat release rate occurring at the hydrodynamic frequency fh results in epochs of heat release rate fluctuations where the heat release rate is phase locked with the acoustic pressure. We also show that the flame position during intermittency and thermoacoustic instability are essentially dictated by saddle point dynamics in the dump plane and the leading edge of the bluff body.


Circuit--level simulation of ΔΣ modulators is a time--consuming task (taking one or more days for meaningful results). While there are a great variety of techniques and tools that speed up the simulations for discrete--time (DT) ΔΣ modulators, there is no rigorous methodology implemented in a tool to efficiently simulate and design the continuous--time (CT) counterpart. Yet, in todays low--power, high--accuracy and/or very high--speed demands for A--to--D converters, designers are often forced to resort to the use of CT ΔΣ topologies. In this paper, we present a method for the high--level simulation of continuous--time ΔΣ modulators that is based on behavioral models and which exhibits the best trade--off between accuracy, speed and extensibility compared to other possible techniques that are reviewed briefly in this work. A user--friendly tool, implementing this methodology, is then presented. Nonidealities such as finite gain, finite GBW, output impedance and also nonlinearities such as clipping, harmonic distortion and the important effect of jitter are modeled. Finally, experiments were carried out using the tool, exploring important design trade--offs.


Natural gas is a growing energy source in the US for various end-uses, and its potential future as a transportation fuel has been the focus of recent policy discussions. Nationally, ethanol is blended with gasoline up to 10% for conventional vehicles, and up to 85% (E85) for use in Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs). Federal mandates require increasing ethanol use in the transportation sector. Meeting the mandates could mean increasing the blend in conventional gasoline, or increasing the use of E85 in FFVs. This dissertation explores the economic, environmental and policy effects from producing ethanol from natural gas, and generally expanding access to ethanol as a transportation fuel (feedstock agnostic). Three processes are considered for producing ethanol from natural gas: (1) autothermal reforming (ATR) with catalytic conversion, (2) TCX, a process that produces intermediate products of methanol and acetic acid, developed by Celanese Corp., and (3) a fermentation process developed by Coskata Inc. I first estimate the cost of producing ethanol from natural gas to power light-duty FFVs in Pennsylvania (PA). Relying on production cost estimates provided by developers and assuming recent natural gas and gasoline prices are good proxies for future prices, I conclude that the cost of producing ethanol with either the Coskata or ATR processes would more likely than not be cheaper than gasoline and corn-based ethanol. However, capital costs from these emerging processes and future natural gas and gasoline prices are highly uncertain. The NGLF ethanol must also have acceptable greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, for which an estimate is not currently available in the literature. I find the average life cycle GHG emissions for a 100-yr global warming potential (GWP) are 137 g CO2-eqiuv/MJ (ATR Catalytic), 119 g CO2-eqiuv/MJ (Celanese TCX) and 156 g CO2-eqiuv/MJ (Coskata fermentation), given the uncertainty in some parameters the estimate could be slightly higher or lower. All processes have life cycle emissions well above gasoline, and the 20% reduction from gasoline required by the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2). Even in the unlikely scenario of zero emissions from the upstream processes, NGLF ethanol process and combustion emissions are still larger than gasoline, although with more overlap in the error bars. More detailed life cycle assessments with process modeling could refine the emissions estimates. Existing policies incentivize ethanol produced from renewable sources, but no current policy provisions specifically incentivize the use or production of ethanol produced from natural gas. I conclude the dissertation with estimates of additional refueling costs for an FFV driver and infrastructure costs for expanding E85 access in Pennsylvania. The state recently received government grants for biofuels infrastructure. I find that even with a subsidy to cover average infrastructure costs of $0.03 to $1.48 per gasoline gallon equivalent (gge) for the retailer, the consumer would still incur additional costs for refueling more often with E85. A refueling cost subsidy of $3.60/gge to cover the additional costs is also higher than historical ethanol subsidies. Additionally, a subsidy to encourage E85 use could reduce emissions at a cost equivalent to $1,320/metric ton CO2, which is approximately two orders of magnitude above the average social cost of carbon. Therefore, reducing emissions through more ethanol fuel use is not a cost-effective mitigation strategy.


Diagnosis of children within the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) category varies significantly but children with Asperger Syndrome (AS) are typically diagnosed at a much older age than those with Autism (AD). The late childhood diagnosis of AS means a possible lapse in years that the child receives appropriate intervention and support. The purpose of this retrospective study was to gain further insight into what early communication and behavior characteristics can be identified in children from birth to three years who are later diagnosed with AS. Parents of ten children with AS and under nineteen-years old were identified to participate in the study. The subjects' parents answered The Rossetti Parent Questionnaire and participated in face-to-face, open ended question interviews regarding their children from birth to age three. Parents were encouraged to share early memories about their child's communication and behavior. The results of this investigation indicate that evaluating behavioral and communication characteristics of infants and toddlers may constitute a viable screening tool for AS. In particular, assessment of communication characteristics, (e.g., speech and language development, interaction/communication and comprehension/ understanding) as well as behavioral characteristics, (e.g., anxiety/energy levels, sensory issues, transitions, and fine/gross motor skills) are important areas to evaluate. Earlier screening tools could result in earlier diagnosis and the provision of needed appropriate services at a far earlier age than has typically been the case for children with Asperger Syndrome.


I INTRODUCTION Studies dedicated to European administration reveal a recurring tendency to draw analogies between the constitutional structure of the European Union (EU) and that of federal orders (the United States, in particular). In both types of structure, powers are separated rather than concentrated, thereby constituting a guarantee against an abuse of power, according to Alexis de Tocqueville's famous thesis. However, of the numerous differences between nation states (including federal ones) and the European Union, (1) one concerns precisely the subject of executive power. The "Tableau sommaire de la constitution federale" (2) sketched by de Tocqueville is helpful to the work of identifying this difference, as it emphasized that the attributes of early American government were divided, including its executive function. That is to say, the executive function in the United States was not an exclusive prerogative of the several states, as had been the case in the pre-existing confederation. It was divided, in the sense that "le gouvernement des Etats resta le droit commun, le gouvernement federale fut l'exception." (3) This opinion has also long prevailed in studies of the constitutional structure of the European Community (EC) and of the European Union. (4) Its basis was two-fold. The Treaty of Rome does not confer the power to execute European laws on European administration: except in certain cases such as competition, execution is remitted to the national public authorities. In line with this choice, judicial review is within the jurisdiction of national judges. Nevertheless, as illustrated by the procedure for preliminary references, national court systems and the European judicial system are not functionally separate. (5) Over the years, administrative power, too, has moved away from the initial model of European lawmaking and national implementation. To give just well-known examples, the European Commission in collaboration with committees composed of national government representatives have adopted countless pieces of administrative rules. (6) Moreover, the EU's decisions regarding national public budgets are taken within the framework of the multilateral surveillance procedure, which means that estimates and forecasts are submitted not only to the Commission, but also to all the national governments represented on the Council of the European Union. Another trend in the administration of EU policies is that when making decisions in the traditional areas of EC intervention (like agriculture) and in the new ones (including the licensing of genetically modified organisms and the licensing of drugs), both national authorities and either the Commission or EU agencies take part in multiphase processes. These sequences of activities may be characterized more precisely as mixed administrative proceedings. (7) They do not mirror a constitutional structure based on separated powers but, rather, highlight the powers' interaction. They also raise new questions as far as judicial protection of individual interests is concerned. This became clear at the beginning of the 1990s, when an Italian agricultural firm challenged the validity of a Commission decision revoking the subsidies previously given to it. Unexpectedly, the Court of Justice of the European Communities (ECJ) refused to review the decision, arguing that the "real" decision lay in the initial opinion of the Italian agency, in favor of revocation. (8) The ECJ may be criticized for risking one of the fundamental principles of western constitutionalism: the right to judicial protection. (9) However, the underlying problem of the change in the way public powers are exercised within the EU must not be overlooked. A primary aim of this Article, therefore, is to shed some light on administrative powers through an examination of mixed administrative proceedings. Another aim is to try to identify the common features of mixed administrative proceedings and, at the same time, those which differentiate them from other types of proceedings. …


Objective: Guidelines suggest using bronchial provocation testing (BPT), which is hard to attain, in patients with asthma-like symptoms presenting with nondiagnostic spirometric tests. To eliminate the risk of over/underdiagnosing asthma, we aimed to evaluate the predictive value of not only fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) but also other easily accessible clinical indices for ruling in/out asthma. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included adults presenting to our clinic with respiratory symptoms suggestive of asthma but with normal spirometric values and negative reversibility test, who underwent FeNO and methacholine BPT (MchBPT). Medical records were used to obtain descriptive characteristics, clinical history, allergy screening, eosinophils in peripheral blood, and spirometry. Results: Among 51 patients, 19 were diagnosed with asthma. Body mass index and blood eosinophils were significantly higher in patients with positive MchBPT (p=0.042 and p=0.037, respectively). No significant difference was found in other indices, including FeNO (p=0.293). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed the best diagnostic cutoff level for FeNO as 14 ppb and blood eosinophil as 150/μl for the prediction of positive MchBPT (with 63.16%-62.5% and 80%-61% sensitivity-specificity, respectively). These two indices were the only independent predictors of positive BHR, and the model of FeNO>14ppb combined with eos>150/μl showed 100% specificity with a 100% negative predictive value. Conclusion: Our results suggest using the combination of FeNO with blood eosinophil count as a rule-out test, adding a new step in the algorithmic diagnosis of asthma. This might avoid an unnecessary BPT procedure, reduce the risk of over/under-diagnosis of asthma, and hasten the correct diagnosis.


Much attention has been drawn to the new applications and opportunities afforded by high-resolution satellite imagery, such as IKONOS and QuickBird. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which high-resolution change detection can be performed using a combination of high and medium-resolution satellite imagery. This combination is important for detecting changes during the time before and after the high-resolution satellite imagery was made available. In particular, the analysis is oriented towards smaller cities and municipalities. Many change detection algorithms and methods have been evaluated. The post-classification change detection algorithm was deemed to be the most suitable technique for this project. Landsat 5 TM and IKONOS MS images of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, were used as source data for the change detection. The results tend to suggest that it is possible to extract reliable change detection information pertaining to small streets, and new rows of residential housing with a medium-resolution benchmark. However, the detection of change in individual houses and small buildings proved to be beyond the capabilities of this procedure.


This thesis aimed to investigate whether eleven-year olds can benefit from concept cartoons supported and self-explanation prompts. The basic assumption was that the combination of these two support measures would enhance children"s scientific reasoning, in particular their ability to differentiate between tentative hypothesis and solid experimental data.
Concept cartoons aspire to elicit conceptual change through the visual and textual presentation of conflicting but apparently plausible scientific ideas. The conflicting ideas in the cartoons are designed to elicit a cognitive conflict, whereby the participant is tempted to think about the ideas and maybe form a new theory. However, according to Stephenson & Warwick (2002), it needs to be supported with encouragement and open-ended questions for it to be effective in teaching. This support could be found in self-explanations. Its constructive nature, with encouragement of integrating new knowledge into existing knowledge and the continuous, on-going and piecemeal fashion in which it is used, could be a suitable complement to the concept cartoon method.
A physics task was used in which children had to experiment with different balls to figure out which factors influence drop speed (weight, size and colour). This task was built upon two principles: the common misconception that weight has influence on drop speed, and literature showing that children have problems using data that contradict their initial hypothesis. This study investigated if the combination of concept cartoons and self-explanation could enhance children"s ability to correctly interpret data and draw valid conclusions based on that data rather than on their initial beliefs. Three conditions were used; a control condition (N = 14), a concept cartoon condition (N = 15), and a concept cartoon plus self-explanation prompts condition (N = 16). Three variables were investigated: cognitive conflict, data reading, and theory revision.
Results showed no significant difference between the three conditions with regard to the elicitation of cognitive conflict and theory revision. There was also no significant effect on correct data reading. However, the combination of concept cartoons and self-explanation prompts did elicit a more efficient use of data: children in this condition needed less comparisons to draw a conclusion than children from the other two conditions, regardless of correctness.


Atherosclerosis is a multifactorial process that develops over decades, underlying the majority of cardiovascular diseases. Because of its slow progression, studying the natural history of atherosclerosis requires serial examinations, thus complicating the design of studies in humans. Most research on biological mechanisms of atherosclerosis has been performed in genetically modified mice, eliminating these challenges faced in human studies. Thus, genetically modified mice elegantly allow the study of atherosclerosis in, arguably, the best-controlled model system possible. The most commonly used atherosclerotic murine models are apolipoprotein E (ApoE) or low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) gene knockouts. These mice clearly display an accelerated atherosclerotic phenotype with human-like vascular lesions. Experimental modifications of


Minnesota economic indicators include a wide variety of current statistical series prepared in various state and federal agencies and reported periodically in agency publications. The focus of this report is the organization of the various statistical series into a set of state and local economic indicators for Minnesota, including a monthly index of leading economic indicators. The index would serve in an important way in signalling turning points in economic activity, specifically, in Minnesota and its substate regions.


: A detailed study of the behaviour of DNA in water-salt-ethanol mixtures has been carried out. We have made a diagram of DNA states in these mixtures and established the ranges of ethanol and salt concentrations corresponding to A and B conformations of DNA. We have also identified the ranges of strong DNA aggregation characterized by intense psi + and psi- CD spectra.


A holy grail of component-based software engineering is write-once, reuse everywhere. However, in modern distributed, component-based systems supporting emerging application areas such as service-oriented e-business (where Web services are viewed as components) and peer-to-peer computing, this is difficult. Non-functional requirements (related to quality-of-service (QoS) issues such as security, reliability, and performance) vary with deployment context, and sometimes even at run-time, complicating the task of re-using components. In this paper, we present a middleware-based approach to managing dynamically changing QoS requirements of components. Policies are used to advertise non-functional capabilities and vary at run-time with operating conditions. We also provide middleware enhancements to match, interpret, and mediate QoS requirements of clients and servers at deployment time and/or runtime.


Flexible road pavements are important transport infrastructure in Australia for providing an all weather road network for a population of 22 million people with land size of about 7 million square kilometres. Between the surfacing types, sprayed seal and thin asphalt are most commonly used by State and Local Governments for rural road construction. Asphalt fatigue and subgrade deformation from repeated loading over time are the most common failure mechanisms and these in turn are the major attributors to the pavement maintenance and rehabilitation cost. Thin surfacing pavements with a weak road base and foundation often exhibit plastic deformation in the base and subgrade layers. Linear Elastic Theory (LET) and Finite Element Method (FEM) based numerical analyses have been widely used in research to develop pavement models and replicate realistic vehicular loadings. The thin surfacing pavement is modelled using LET and FEM with three-dimensional (3D) ideal elastic layered system and two-dimensional (2D) axisymmetrical elements, respectively. The vertical displacements at the top of the asphalt layer are determined using both LET and FEM and the findings compared to the measured field data. Results show that the deflections generated by the FEM are in closer agreement with the field data. At a horizontal distance of 700 to 1500mm from the loading significant displacement variances from the field data are found for both LET and FEM.


Libya is one of the most important loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta nesting grounds in the Mediterranean Sea, but data on its genetic diversity and demographic connection to adjacent Mediterranean nesting sites are scarce. Here we investigated mitochondrial diversity in adult females from 2 nesting locations along the Libyan coasts, Misurata and Sirte, by analysing both the commonly used 380 bp mtDNA fragment and a longer 800 bp fragment that completely encompass the shorter region. No genetic differentiation was detected between the Libyan sites using the shorter sequences (Φst = −0.005, p = 0.54, Exact p = 0.67). However, significant population structuring was found among sites in Libya and other Mediterranean nesting areas (Φst = 0.242, p < 0.01). The analysis of the longer sequence revealed more haplotypes than the shorter fragment and uncovered genetic differentiation between Misurata and Sirte (Φst = 0.13, p = 0.02, Exact p = 0.01), suggesting fine-scale homing behaviour of loggerhead nesting females along the Libyan coast. Because only a few Atlantic and Mediterranean loggerhead turtle rookeries have been genetically surveyed using the longer sequence, we used information from the short mtDNA fragment to investigate dispersal patterns of Libyan loggerhead turtles. Mixed stock analysis estimates suggested that during the oceanic developmental phase, Libyan juveniles remain preferentially in the eastern Mediterranean while after the transition to the neritic phase, they favour the south Tunisian coastal areas while avoiding the north-central Adriatic Sea. This study highlights the unique nature of the Libyan nesting population, making it an important management unit. The protection of this nesting stock is fundamental to managing the Mediterranean loggerhead turtle assemblage.


Sorption isotherms of pancreatic lipase on solid supports were studied. It was shown that the enzyme adsorption can be described by Langmuir equation for hydrophobic surface and by the equation which takes into account reversible dimerization of the protein in the absorption layer for hydrophilic surface. The catalytic properties of adsorbed lipase depend on the nature of solid support. The significant role of the structure of adsorption layer in heterogeneous activation of the enzyme on hydrophobic surface was suggested.


Many realizations of foliage around a hard target are run to obtain the statistical variations of foliage and target responses. This is accomplished by using a hybrid target-foliage model, developed for the investigation of the scattering behavior of metallic targets embedded inside a forest canopy. This model is based on the coherent scattering theory of wave propagation through the foliage and an iterative physical optics approximation of scattering from the target. The model is capable of accounting for the first-order near-field interactions between the hard target and the foliage. Fully polarimetric simulation results of a foliage-camouflaged metallic target having complex geometry are generated at 2 GHz, and a polarization synthesis optimization method for improving signal-to-clutter ratio is carried out by applying genetic algorithms.


Generating multiple categories of texts is a challenging task and draws more and more attention. Since generative adversarial nets (GANs) have shown competitive results on general text generation, they are extended for category text generation in some previous works. However, the complicated model structures and learning strategies limit their performance and exacerbate the training instability. This paper proposes a category-aware GAN (CatGAN) which consists of an efficient category-aware model for category text generation and a hierarchical evolutionary learning algorithm for training our model. The category-aware model directly measures the gap between real samples and generated samples on each category, then reducing this gap will guide the model to generate high-quality category samples. The Gumbel-Softmax relaxation further frees our model from complicated learning strategies for updating CatGAN on discrete data. Moreover, only focusing on the sample quality normally leads the mode collapse problem, thus a hierarchical evolutionary learning algorithm is introduced to stabilize the training procedure and obtain the trade-off between quality and diversity while training CatGAN. Experimental results demonstrate that CatGAN outperforms most of the existing state-of-the-art methods.


This new book brings together 100 images that represent the idea of active resistance. Inspired by Vivienne Westwood's manifesto (which was first published in 2008) from 8th September 2010 for 100 days the public were asked to send in artworks, slogans and photographs that best represented her idea of Active Resistance. Each day one artwork was showcased online before the entire collection was showcased in an exhibition and this accompanying publication. As Westwood herself puts it: 'The principle idea of Active Resistance is that you get out of life what you put in and that real experience of the world involves thinking. It is not enough to follow world politics, see films and read the prize-winning best sellers. This is superficial, you need to go deep in order to understand who you are, what the world is and how things could be better. This involves culture which can only be acquired by self-education: human beings should mirror the world.'


Conservation groups often piece together their parcel selections by combining funds from multiple sources. When applying multiple-knapsack optimization, substantial increases in conservation benefits, acreage, and number of parcels preserved can be achieved. Specifically, we show that multiple-knapsack optimization substantially outperforms benefit targeting, cost-effectiveness analysis, and sequential binary integer programming. This study uses data from the first known cost-effective land conservation program in the United States—in Baltimore County, Maryland—and shows that multiple-knapsack optimization can deliver additional benefits. (JEL D61, Q24)


Online remote visualization and steering of critical weather applications like cyclone tracking are essential for effective and timely analysis by geographically distributed climate science community. A steering framework for controlling the high-performance simulations of critical weather events needs to take into account both the steering inputs of the scientists and the criticality needs of the application including minimum progress rate of simulations and continuous visualization of significant events. In this work, we have developed an integrated user-driven and automated steering framework InSt for simulations, online remote visualization, and analysis for critical weather applications. InSt provides the user control over various application parameters including region of interest, resolution of simulation, and frequency of data for visualization. Unlike existing efforts, our framework considers both the steering inputs and the criticality of the application, namely, the minimum progress rate needed for the application, and various resource constraints including storage space and network bandwidth to decide the best possible parameter values for simulations and visualization.