Nonlinear predictors for systems with bounded trajectories and delayed measurements

Novel nonlinear predictors are studied for nonlinear systems with delayed measurements without assuming globally Lipschitz conditions or a known predictor map but requiring instead bounded state trajectories. The delay is constant and known. These nonlinear predictors consists of a series of dynamic filters that generate estimates of the state vector (and its maximum magnitude) at different delayed time instants which differ from one another by a small fraction of the overall delay

Report on the Status of Payday Lending in California

Provides an overview of storefront and Internet payday lending in California, its effects, state and federal laws and regulations, and reform efforts. Includes recommendations for state and local policy, banking access, and consumer education

Perceived professional development among mental health practitioners in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Arts in Psychology at Massey University

Study of psychotherapy processes and outcomes has far outweighed study of its practitioners. New methodological advances in psychotherapy research have led to an increased emphasis on the role of therapist factors in ensuring successful psychotherapy outcome. Implicit in these methodological advances is the suggestion that the treatment procedures, and not the therapists delivering them, are ultimately the main determinants of successful treatment outcome. Although researchers have incorporated therapist years of practice or extent of training when evaluating psychotherapy, this is often misleading as it fails to consider what is actually done during those training and practice years of professional development. Unfortunately, only a few studies have examined mental health professionals' professional development, and little is currently known about the process of development over the course of a practitioner's career. This thesis is an extension of the Collaborative Research Network's study of mental health professionals' professional development to New Zealand. This thesis starts with a description of some recent advances in psychotherapy research, and how they have refocused the field's attention towards the role of the practitioner in influencing treatment outcomes. This is followed by a description of the existing theoretical and empirical work on practitioners' professional development, and an overview of existing methods of assessment. An outline of the CRN study aims and methods are then overviewed, before presenting and discussing the results of the New Zealand practitioner survey

Role of cobalt, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, platinum, selenium, and titanium in carcinogenesis.

The possible carcinogenicity of cobalt, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, platinum, selenium, and titanium is reviewed, taking into account epidemiological data, the results of animal experimental studies, data on mutagenic effects and on other in vitro test systems. Of the great variety of occupations where exposure to one of these metals may occur, only haematite mining has been clearly shown to involve an increased human cancer risk. While the possibility that haematite might in some way act as a carcinogen has to be taken into consideration it is more likely that other carcinogens are responsible. Certain platinum coordination complexes are used in cancer chemotherapy, are mutagenic, and likely to be carcinogenic. Cobalt, its oxide and sulfide, certain lead salts, one organomanganese, and one organotitanium compound have been shown to have a limited carcinogenic effect in experimental animal studies, and except for titanium appear to be mutagenic. Certain mercury compounds are mutagenic but none have been shown to be carcinogenic. The presently available data are inadequate to assess the possible carcinogenicity of selenium compounds, but a few observations suggest that selenium may suppress the effect of other carcinogens administered to experimental animals and may even be associated with lower cancer mortality rates in man. Epidemiological observations are essential for the assessment of a human cancer risk, but the difficulty in collecting past exposure data in occupational groups and the complexity of multiple occupational exposures with changes over time, limits the usefulness of retrospective epidemiological studies

Novel mission concepts for polar coverage : An overview of recent developments and possible future applications

The paper provides a survey of novel mission concepts for continuous, hemispheric polar observation and direct-link polar telecommunications. It is well known that these services cannot be provided by traditional platforms: geostationary satellites do not cover high-latitude regions, while low- and medium-orbit Sun-synchronous spacecraft only cover a narrow swath of the Earth at each passage. Concepts that are proposed in the literature are described, including the pole-sitter concept (in which a spacecraft is stationary above the pole), spacecraft in artificial equilibrium points in the Sun-Earth system and non-Keplerian polar Molniya orbits. Additionally, novel displaced eight-shaped orbits at Lagrangian points are presented. For many of these concepts, a continuous acceleration is required and propulsion systems include solar electric propulsion, solar sail and a hybridisation of the two. Advantages and drawbacks of each mission concept are assessed, and a comparison in terms of high-latitude coverage and distance, spacecraft mass, payload and lifetime is presented. Finally, the paper will describe a number of potential applications enabled by these concepts, focusing on polar Earth observation and telecommunications