Over the past four decades, violence against women (VAW) has come to be seen as a violation of human rights and an important concern for social policy. Yet government action remains uneven. Some countries have adopted comprehensive policies to combat VAW, whereas others have been slow to address the problem. Using an original dataset of social movements and VAW policies in 70 countries over four decades, we show that feminist mobilization in civil society—not intra-legislative political phenomena such as leftist parties or women in government or economic factors like national wealth—accounts for variation in policy development. In addition, we demonstrate that autonomous movements produce an enduring impact on VAW policy through the institutionalization of feminist ideas in international norms. This study brings national and global civil society into large-n explanations of social policy, arguing that analysis of civil society in general—and of social movements in particular—is critical to understanding progressive social policy change.


Fred Foldvary reviews the recent book by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict. Foldvary commends the book for its assembly of both the budgeted and implicit costs of the war, and its analysis of the economic impact of the war. The review posits that the better knowledge and accounting of the war costs as provided by this work will aid in establishing a more coherent dialog on policy for dealing with this and future conflicts abroad.


The research reported in this paper is aimed at developing knowledge on organizing NPD systems to optimize their contribution to performance. To this end, a systems approach to fit is used to explain the context-structure-performance relationships for NPD performance, specifically in terms of fit with market demands of the product concept and fit with time constraints of the development process. From a sample of 164 US firms, the top 15 % performers in terms of both fit with market demands and fit with time constraints have been identified. An optimized 'Ideal Profile' for the organization of NPD systems, formed by a consistent pattern of: NPD Process, NPD Project Structure and Management, Innovation Climate, and NPD Goal Setting and Portfolio Management, followed from the analysis of the NPD configuration of these top performers. For the calibration sample (the other 85%) significant deviation from the ideal profile on all elements of the configuration was found, the correlations between NPD Performance Fit with Market Demands and Fit with Time Constraints and total Euclidean distance are also significant. Overall, these results provide evidence for the proposition that (1) new product success is a function of a set of NPD development system decisions and (2) to truly understand the impact of those decisions, they must be considered as a holistic system. The contribution of this research is in the empirical validation of the internal consistency of an ideal organizational profile for NPD systems achieving both a high NPD performance in terms of market acceptance of their new products as well in terms of the satisfactory level of the development times of those products. By also examining ideal profiles for each of these NPD performance dimensions separately, the conflicting demands created by multiple performance metrics are highlighted as well as the organizational trade-offs necessary for optimal performance. In terms of managerial implications, this also gives direction for organizational redesign to firms either wanting to maximize their product concept (Fit with Market Demands) or development process (Fit with Time Constraints) performance.


If there is any group that really needs to understand the concept of natural rights, it is professors of constitutional law. The document they teach was written by a generation who uniformly believed in natural rights, used the concept to justify a violent revolution from their mother country, and professed their continued commitment to natural rights long after the separation - a commitment that only intensified in the years that culminated in the Civil War and the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. Yet few constitutional law professors know much, if anything, about this fundamental concept even as a historical matter, much less as a concept worthy of continued application in today's world. The prime evidence of their lack of knowledge is the fact that they use the terms "natural rights" and "natural law" interchangeably despite the historical and theoretical distinctness of these terms. In this paper prepared for a panel sponsored by the Political Economy of the Good Society held at the 2003 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, I provide what I hope will be viewed as a readily accessible explication of these concepts that has as much practical application today as it did in the days of John Locke or James Madison. Although this is decidedly my take on natural law and natural rights, I think it is true to the heart of the concept and can be used to make sense of historical materials that are otherwise inexplicable to modern constitutional scholars. And this vision of natural rights is as important today as it was in 1776 or 1868.


The Slovenian National Human Development Report, prepared by the Slovenian Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development (UMAD), focuses on general human development trends in 2002-2003, with special attention paid to health and the health care system. The Report identifies trade-offs between social solidarity and individual responsibility in the health care system, emphasizing social solidarity as the key organizing principle for the health care system. On the other hand, the Report points to the growing role of behavioral and life-style factors behind Slovenia\'s remaining health care challenges, indicating that health and well-being have a lot to do with individual responsibility. The Report also points to the growing role of private enterprise in the health care sector, apparent in both the growth of private health care establishments and incresaing shares of household incomes spent on supplementary insurance. This does not bode well for the poor, who do not have the income to pay for private health care services. Furthermore, due to an aging population, growing shares of GDP will be devoted to keeping elderly people healthy, meaning fewer public and private sector resources will be available to meet other health care needs. The Report\'s final aim is not to indicate how these future challenges might be met, but rather to stimulate contributions to alternative policy proposals and recommendations.


College graduation rates often lag behind college attendance rates. One theory as to why students do not complete college is that they lack key information about how to be successful or fail to act on the information that they have. We present evidence from a randomized experiment which tests the effectiveness of individualized student coaching. Over the course of two separate school years, InsideTrack, a student coaching service, provided coaching to students attending public, private, and proprietary universities. Most of the participating students were nontraditional college students enrolled in degree programs. The participating universities and InsideTrack randomly assigned students to be coached. The coach contacted students regularly to develop a clear vision of their goals, to guide them in connecting their daily activities to their long-term goals, and to support them in building skills, including time management, self-advocacy, and study skills. Students who were randomly assigned to a coach were more likely to persist during the treatment period and were more likely to be attending the university 1 year after the coaching had ended. Coaching also proved a more cost-effective method of achieving retention and completion gains when compared with previously studied interventions such as increased financial aid.


Aliens. Thematic issue of Granta: The Magazine of New Writing . 114 (Spring 2011) Granta is a quarterly magazine of new writing from both established and emerging writers; although aimed primarily at adult audiences, it could easily be considered as a journal with appeal to young adults particularly due to its diverse content and style, offering readers a greater scope of choice. Granta could often, I suspect, serve to pique the interest of older adolescents  due in part to the periodical's contemporary approach to cover design, and its integration of visual art and poetry with prose, along with the obvious diversity and strength of the writing in general. An issue organized around the theme of 'Aliens' seems tailor-made to easily cross over from an adult to an adolescent audience. The black and silver cover with the hovering planet suggests science fiction; however, on closer look, the figures walking towards the planet wear suits and head coverings, and suggest displacement in earthly realms rather than within the final frontier. Indeed, most of the writings in this issue speak to feelings of alienation and alien environments. While stories are united by the emotional impacts of the characters' strangeness in new environments, the works cover a broad scope; compare, for example, Chris Dennis' fiction piece on a young drug addict facing life in prison, with Ann Patchett's observations of a nun who taught her in childhood, who is now facing life outside the convent.  The writing in this issue is strong, and at times, explicit in its sexuality and violence, although not gratuitously so. Librarians and teachers may feel some hesitation in subscribing to Granta for their students due to restrictions around students' reading materials; this would be unfortunate, as such a publication provides students exposure to such important contemporary writers as Roberto Bolano, Madeleine Thien, and Paul Theroux. Recommended: 2 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Allison Sivak Allison Sivak is the Assessment Librarian at the University of Alberta Libraries. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Library and Information Studies and Elementary Education, focusing on how the aesthetics of information design influence young people's trust in the credibility of information content.


In "The Power of Habit", award-winning "New York Times" business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation. Along the way we learn why some people and companies struggle to change, despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. We visit laboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work and where, exactly, they reside in our brains. We discover how the right habits were crucial to the success of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. We go inside Procter & Gamble, Target superstores, Rick Warren's Saddleback Church, NFL locker rooms, and the nation's largest hospitals and see how implementing so-called keystone habits can earn billions and mean the difference between failure and success, life and death. At its core, "The Power of Habit" contains an exhilarating argument: the key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. Habits aren't destiny. As Charles Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.


Although it is well established that prior experience with faces determines their subsequent social-emotional evaluation, recent work shows that top-down inhibitory mechanisms, including response inhibition, can lead to social devaluation after even a single, brief exposure. These rapidly induced effects indicate interplay among perceptual, attentional, response-selection and social-emotional networks; yet, the brain mechanisms underlying this are not well understood. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural mechanism mediating the relationship between inhibitory control and emotional devaluation. Participants performed two tasks: (i) a Go/No-Go task in response to faces and (ii) a trustworthiness rating task involving the previously seen faces. No-Go faces were rated as significantly less trustworthy than Go faces. By examining brain activations during Task 1, behavioral measures and brain activations obtained in Task 2 could be predicted. Specifically, activity in brain areas during Task 1 associated with (i) executive control and response suppression (i.e. lateral prefrontal cortex) and (ii) affective responses and value representation (i.e. orbitofrontal cortex), systematically covaried with behavioral ratings and amygdala activity obtained during Task 2. The present findings offer insights into the neural mechanisms linking inhibitory processes to affective responses.


The Reconstruction Amendments are justly celebrated for transforming millions of recent slaves into voting citizens. Yet this legacy of egalitarian enfranchisement had a flip side. In arguing that voting laws should not discriminate on the basis of morally insignificant statuses, such as race, supporters of the Reconstruction Amendments emphasized the legitimacy of retributive disenfranchisement as a punishment for immoral actions, such as crimes. Former slaves were not just compared with virtuous military veterans, as commentators have long observed, but were also contrasted with immoral criminals. The mutually supportive relationship between egalitarian enfranchisement and punitive disenfranchisement — between voting and vice — motivated and shaped all three Reconstruction Amendments. Counterintuitively, the constitutional entrenchment of criminal disenfranchisement facilitated the enfranchisement of black Americans. This conclusion complicates the conventional understanding of how and why voting rights expanded in the Reconstruction era.Criminal disenfranchisement's previously overlooked constitutional history illuminates four contemporary legal debates. First, the connection between voting and vice provides new support for the Supreme Court's thoroughly criticized holding that the Constitution endorses criminal disenfranchisement. Second, Reconstruction history suggests that the Constitution's endorsement of criminal disenfranchisement extends only to serious crimes. For that reason, disenfranchisement for minor criminal offenses, such as misdemeanors, may be unconstitutional. Third, the Reconstruction Amendments' common intellectual origin refutes recent arguments by academics and judges that the Fifteenth Amendment impliedly repealed the Fourteenth Amendment's endorsement of criminal disenfranchisement. Finally, the historical relationship between voting and vice suggests that felon disenfranchisement is specially protected from federal regulation but not categorically immune to challenge under the Voting Rights Act.


PURPOSE
Mild cognitive impairment with depression (MCID) is common and associated with disability and cognitive impairment, with high probability of relapse. Hypothesize that 1) a sign of WM disintegration would be observed in MCID than MCI nondepression (MCIND), especially in frontal and limbic regions and patients with depression would show reduced GM density in the hippocampus, amygdala, anterior gyrus cingulate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) 2) the abnormalities of long association fiber tracts integrity are correlated with geriatric depression.

METHODS
Forty-two subjects (20 nondepressed, 22 depressed) underwent DTI and cognitive assessment. Depression was initially assessed by means of the Korean version of the 30-item Geriatric Depression Scale (K-GDS). All patients scoring 19 or higher on the K-GDS were screened as depressed. An automated tract-based statistical analysis method was used to derive estimates of fractional anisotropy (FA) for each subject. Group effects and correlations with clinical features on DTI parameters were examined.

RESULTS
We found cross-sectional differences in WM tract disintegration on posterior cingulum, splenium of corpus callosum, uncinate fasciculus, genu, thalamus, internal and external capsule of limbic in MCID. These results support changes in the structural integrity of neuronal cells in these specific important brain regions constituting a fronto-limbic-cerebellar network during depressive and in particular during the course of depression. The different parts of the frontal lobes have afferent and efferent connections with other neocortical, limbic, and subcortical regions and participate in the limbic-cortico-striatal-pallidal-thalamic circuits.

CONCLUSIONS
Findings are suggestive of loss of integrity in WM fiber within frontal, temporal and limbic regions, increasing the evidence that implicates disruptions to the limbic-orbitofrontal networks in the pathogenesis of MCID. These neuroanatomical circuits play an important role in the regulation and modulation of affect and emotion, and contribute to the pathogenesis of late-life depression.


America s story from 1898 to 1945 is nothing less than the triumph of American exceptionalism over liberal progressivism, despite a few temporary victories by the latter. Conservative historian Larry Schweikart has won wide acclaim for his number one "New York Times "bestseller, "A Patriot s History of the United States." It proved that, contrary to the liberal biases in countless other history books, America had not really been founded on racism, sexism, greed, and oppression. Schweikart and coauthor Michael Allen restored the truly great achievements of America s patriots, founders, and heroes to their rightful place of honor.Now Schweikart and coauthor Dave Dougherty are back with a new perspective on America s half-century rise to the center of the world stage. This all-new volume corrects many of the biases that cloud the way people view the Treaty of Versailles, the Roaring Twenties, the Crash of 1929, the deployment of the atomic bomb, and other critical events in global history.Beginning with the Spanish-American War which introduced the United States as a global military power that could no longer be ignored and continuing through the end of World War II, this book shows how a free, capitalist nation could thrive when put face-to-face with tyrannical and socialist powers. Schweikart and Dougherty narrate the many times America proved its dominance by upholding the principles on which it was founded and struggled on the rare occasions when it strayed from those principles.The authors make a convincing case that America has constantly been a force for good in the world, improving standards of living, introducing innovations, guaranteeing liberty, and offering opportunities to those who had none elsewhere. They also illustrate how the country ascended to superpower status at the same time it was figuring out its own identity. While American ideals were defeating tyrants abroad, a constant struggle against progressivism was being waged at home, leading to the stumbles of the Great Depression, the New Deal, and the attack on Pearl Harbor.Despite this rocky entrance on the world stage, it was during this half century that the world came to embrace all things American, from its innovations and businesses to its political system and popular culture. The United States began to define what the rest of the world could emulate as the new global ideal."""A Patriot s History of the Modern World "provides a new perspective on our extraordinary past and offers lessons we can apply to preserve American exceptionalism today and tomorrow."


This study compiles and updates the findings of 16 comprehensive state climate action plans and extrapolates the results to the nation. The study then takes those results and using a widely accepted econometric model projects the national impact of these policies on employment, incomes, gross domestic product (GDP) and consumer energy prices. Finally, using the bottom-up data developed by the states and aggregated here, the study models the national impact of major features of the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill under consideration in Congress in 2010. These state action plans and supporting assessments were proposed by over 1,500 stakeholders and technical work group experts appointed by 16 governors and state legislatures to address climate, energy and economic needs through comprehensive, fact-based, consensus-driven, climate action planning processes conducted over the past five years with facilitative and technical assistance by the Center for Climate Strategies. Findings show potential national improvements from implementation of a top set of 23 major sector-based policies and measures drawn from state plans.


Electrochemistry is found to be a difficult topic to learn due to its abstract concepts that involve three representation levels. Research showed that animation and simulation using Information and Communication Technology can help students to visualize and thus enhance students' understanding in learning abstract chemistry topics. As a result, an interactive multimedia module with a pedagogical agent (IMMPA) named EC Lab was developed to assist students in the learning of Electrochemistry. There were 35 students and seven experts involved in this formative evaluation to test the usability and effectiveness of the module developed. Instruments involved were module evaluation questionnaire, module reliability questionnaire, module validity questionnaire, pretest, post-test and motivation questionnaire. Results showed that the students and experts rated the module developed as high (M = 3.94) and very high quality (M = 4.45). Besides, the respondents also see the module as reliable (M = 3.87) and valid (M = 4.51). Students have higher scores on their post-test and have gained higher motivation level after learning with the IMMPA EC Lab. However, some corrections and modifications have been made based on feedback and suggestions from the respondents to improve the quality of IMMPA EC Lab.


Since the 1950s, Sundaland (Borneo, Java, Sumatra and their surrounding islands) was thought to be inhabited by a single slow loris species, the greater slow loris Nycticebus coucang. Early taxonomies as well as recent morphological and genetic studies, however, point to at least three species native to this region: N. coucang, N. menagensis, and N. javanicus. In the light of this taxonomy, all Sundaland slow lorises, previously considered Least Threatened, have been listed as Vulnerable or Endangered. Of particular concern is the fact that slow lorises are the most common protected primate species in the rampant Southeast Asian pet trade, resulting in their recent transferral to CITES Appendix I precluding all international commercial trade. Due to lack of knowledge regarding morphological differences between the three species, they are still managed as one, with potential serious affects to wild populations, as hard-release of individuals of unknown geographic origin is common. This paper examines morphological variability of 34 live slow lorises, all of which were rescued from the wildlife trade in Java, Indonesia. Morphometric data and diagnostic images were collected, various species descriptions were considered and statistical analyses were conducted and compared with other taxonomists' classifi cations. A discriminant function analysis provided support for four distinct groupings: Nycticebus coucang and N. javanicus, as well as evidence for two new taxa that correspond closely to N. hilleri and N. ornatus. The morphological traits that varied signifi cantly and the external characteristic trends described in this study that contributed to these groupings might provide a baseline to classify Nycticebus taxa. This information is pertinent for appropriate captive management and specifi c designation of rescued individuals and for designing proper in-situ and ex-situ conservation strategies.


Results are presented on event-by-event electric charge fluctuations in central Pb+Pb collisions at 20A,30A,40A,80A, and 158A GeV. The observed fluctuations are close to those expected for a gas of pions correlated by global charge conservation only. These fluctuations are considerably larger than those calculated for an ideal gas of deconfined quarks and gluons. The present measurements do not necessarily exclude reduced fluctuations from a quark-gluon plasma because these might be masked by contributions from resonance decays.


When contemporary Africans express nostalgia for the colonial past, how are we to make sense of such sentiments? Anthropologists have tended to ignore colonial nostalgia, reacting with dismissal or distaste. This article seeks to account for this avoidance, exploring nostalgia as a crucial source for anthropology and a constitutive feature of Western modernity. Nostalgic sentiments of loss and longing are shaped by specific cultural concerns and struggles; like other forms of memory practice, these desires must be engaged with in ethnographic terms and located within the changing contours of a contested social landscape. In urban Zanzibar, I argue that colonial nostalgia has emerged in a postrevolutionary context and is best understood as a diverse set of responses to neoliberal policies of urban restructuring.


The standard police procedural, even including great dramas like NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues, adheres to time-honored narrative conventions. It focuses on good if sometimes imperfect cops trying to find the real bad guys - the perpetrators - and bring them to justice. A crime had ruptured the social fabric, and at the end of the episode, guilt is determined and things are put to right. The standard procedural is concerned mainly with individual fault and heroism. It does not raise disquieting questions about the criminal justice system, the legal system, or the social and political arrangements that lead to a permanent underclass. There are eight million stories in the Naked City, and in the police procedural, every one of them stands on its own. The Wire is a different kind of television. It aims not to reassure but to unsettle, or as David Simon once put it, "to pick a fight." Unlike the standard police procedural, which resolves a discrete problem every week, The Wire keeps widening its lens to reveal the context in which crime and policing take place. Although the show begins as a description of an actual wiretap, the series soon turns out to be about a series of interlocking systems, wired for dysfunction. The Wire is deeply concerned with institutions, how they constrain the shape of individual lives, and how they perpetuate themselves, often at the expense of achieving their legitimate goals. However, although the show's most cherished subject is the institutional roadblocks to good policing, The Wire defies the standard paradigm in this regard as well. It is not one of those cop shows that reflexively portray constitutional rights as annoying hindrances to law enforcement. Other shows tell us that cops need free rein; that we ought to trust their instincts and keep the government and the Constitution off their backs. This show vividly demonstrates that those instincts are sometimes misguided or self protective and that the right kinds of limits can play an important role in good police work. This essay is an exploration and appreciation of The Wire's remarkable portrait of the criminal justice system, with particular attention to its insights about policing and criminal procedure. It uses the chess lesson scene from Season One, "The King Stay the King," as a starting point.


The use of cell cultures in large numbers of samples to test agents has become commonplace in today's HTS/HCS environments. Screening assays that utilize cells grown in culture often requires one or more wash steps to remove unwanted substances or solutions. For example, prior to microscopic examination of fluorescently stained cells, the media needs to be replaced with an inert buffer such as PBS. After fixation, excess formaldehyde is removed prior to antibody staining, after which the unbound labeled antibody is removed by a washing step. These steps require the addition and removal of buffer solution without disruption of the monolayer of cells present in the wells of the microplate. While the many cultured cells do not present a problem when they are washed, loosely adherent cells often do. Loosely adherent cells do not attach to the microplate substrate strongly and in many instances will form loose aggregates or piles rather than a uniform monolayer. As a result, they are often dislodged when fluid is dispensed at too high a pressure by the plate washer, resulting in their loss with subsequent aspiration of the fluid present in the well. To address these problems with washing loosely adherent cells, BioTek Instruments has developed the ELx405 Select™ CW microplate washer. Here we describe the use of the ELx405 Select CW microplate washer to wash the loosely adherent HEK293T cells with PBS in both 96- and 384-well microplates and compare its performance to a standard microplate washer.


Our feminist project is to actualize a forum for undergraduate students to publish research in Women's and Gender Studies and feminist research within other disciplines. We aimed, in short, to take the feminist killjoy seriously: to wield the power of critique along a radical anti-oppression trajectory. This aim materializes in these first pages of our inaugural issue and will continue to do so in our future publications. We thank you for taking the time to read our collective efforts, and give many thanks to our wonderful contributors for their excellent and creative thinking. We hope that you will be inspired to kill some joy yourself.


A field experiment was carried out in the Experimental Research Station at Nubaria, ARC representing newly reclaimed areas during two successive seasons of 2005/06 and 2006/07 to evaluate 16 barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) genotypes grown under water stress and calcareous soil conditions. The evaluation included yield and its components, growth attributes, earliness and kernel protein content. A randomized complete block design was used with three replications. Only two irrigations, i.e. at sowing and heading were applied to expose plants to water stress. Results showed that there are significant differences among the 16 barley genotypes for most of the characteristics. Four barley genotypes; Malouk//Aths/Linee686,Alanda-02/4/Arizona5908, Alanda/3/CI08887/CI05761//Lignee640, and Alanda/ Harma//Alanda01out yielded the check cultivars in grain and biological yield with some other advantages such as earliness, harvest index, leaf area index, and higher protein content. It is suggested that those genotypes could have more genetic stability studies to be grown in such calcareous soils. Kewwords: Hordeum vulgare, Leaf area index, Harvest index, Evaluation


The suffix array of a string is a permutation of all starting positions of the string's suffixes that are lexicographically sorted. We present a practical algorithm for suffix array construction that consists of two easy‐to‐implement components. First it sorts the suffixes with respect to a fixed length prefix; then it refines each bucket of suffixes sharing the same prefix using the order of already sorted suffixes. Other suffix array construction algorithms follow more complex strategies. Moreover, we achieve a very fast construction for common strings as well as for worst case strings by enhancing our algorithm with further techniques. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Identification of flaws in structures is a critical element in the management of maintenance and quality assurance processes in engineering. Nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques based on a wide range of physical principles have been developed and are used in common practice for structural health monitoring. However, basic NDT techniques are usually limited in their ability to provide the accurate information on locations, dimensions and shapes of flaws. One alternative to extract additional information from the results of NDT is to append it with a computational model that provides detailed analysis of the physical process involved and enables the accurate identification of the flaw parameters. The aim here is to develop the strategies to uniquely identify cracks in two-dimensional 2D) structures under dynamic loadings.
A local NDT technique combined eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) with dynamic loading in order to identify the cracks in the structures quickly and accurately is developed in this dissertation. The Newmark-b time integration method with Rayleigh damping is used for the time integration. We apply Nelder-Mead (NM)and Quasi-Newton (QN) methods for identifying the crack tip in plate. The inverse problem is solved iteratively, in which XFEM is used for solving the forward problem in each iteration. For a timeharmonic excitation with a single frequency and a short-duration signal measured along part of the external boundary, the crack is detected through the solution of an inverse time-dependent problem. Compared to the static load, we show that the dynamic loads are more effective for crack detection problems. Moreover, we tested different dynamic loads and find that NM method works more efficient under the harmonic load than the pounding load while the QN method achieves almost the same results for both load types.
A global strategy, Multilevel Coordinate Search (MCS) with XFEM (XFEM-MCS) methodology under the dynamic electric load, to detect multiple cracks in 2D piezoelectric plates is proposed in this dissertation. The Newmark-b method is employed for the time integration and in each iteration the forward problem is solved by XFEM for various cracks. The objective functional is minimized by using a global search algorithm MCS. The test problems show that the XFEM-MCS algorithm under the dynamic electric load can be effectively employed for multiple cracks detection in piezoelectric materials, and it proves to be robust in identifying defects in piezoelectric structures. Fiber-reinforced composites (FRCs) are extensively applied in practical engineering since they have high stiffness and strength. Experiments reveal a so-called interphase zone, i.e. the space between the outside interface of the fiber and the inside interface of the matrix. The interphase strength between the fiber and the matrix strongly affects the mechanical properties as a result of the large ratio of interface/volume. For the purpose of understanding the mechanical properties of FRCs with functionally graded interphase (FGI), a closed-form expression of the interface strength between a fiber and a matrix is obtained in this dissertation using a continuum modeling approach according to the ver derWaals (vdW) forces. Based on the interatomic potential, we develop a new modified nonlinear cohesive law, which is applied to study the interface delamination of FRCs with FGI under different loadings. The analytical solutions show that the delamination behavior strongly depends on the interphase thickness, the fiber radius, the Young's moduli and Poisson's ratios of the fiber and the matrix. Thermal conductivity is the property of a material to conduct heat. With the development and deep research of 2D materials, especially graphene and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), the thermal conductivity of 2D materials attracts wide attentions. The thermal conductivity of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) is found to appear a tendency of decreasing under tensile strain by classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Hence, the strain effects of graphene can play a key role in the continuous tunability and applicability of its thermal conductivity property at nanoscale, and the dissipation of thermal conductivity is an obstacle for the applications of thermal management. Up to now, the thermal conductivity of graphene under shear deformation has not been investigated yet. From a practical point of view, good thermal managements of GNRs have significantly potential applications of future GNR-based thermal nanodevices, which can greatly improve performances of the nanosized devices due to heat dissipations. Meanwhile, graphene is a thin membrane structure, it is also important to understand the wrinkling behavior under shear deformation. MoS2 exists in the stable semiconducting 1H phase (1H-MoS2) while the metallic 1T phase (1T-MoS2) is unstable at ambient conditions. As it's well known that much attention has been focused on studying the nonlinear optical properties of the 1H-MoS2. In a very recent research, the 1T-type monolayer crystals of TMDCs, MX2 (MoS2, WS2 ...) was reported having an intrinsic in-plane negative Poisson's ratio. Luckily, nearly at the same time, unprecedented long-term (>3months) air stability of the 1T-MoS2 can be achieved by using the donor lithium hydride (LiH). Therefore, it's very important to study the thermal conductivity of 1T-MoS2.
The thermal conductivity of graphene under shear strain is systematically studied in this dissertation by MD simulations. The results show that, in contrast to the dramatic decrease of thermal conductivity of graphene under uniaxial tensile, the thermal conductivity of graphene is not sensitive to the shear strain, and the thermal conductivity decreases only 12-16%. The wrinkle evolves when the shear strain is around 5%-10%, but the thermal conductivity barely changes.
The thermal conductivities of single-layer 1H-MoS2(1H-SLMoS2) and single-layer 1T-MoS2 (1T-SLMoS2) with different sample sizes, temperatures and strain rates have been studied systematically in this dissertation. We find that the thermal conductivities of 1H-SLMoS2 and 1T-SLMoS2 in both the armchair and the zigzag directions increase with the increasing of the sample length, while the increase of the width of the sample has minor effect on the thermal conductions of these two structures. The thermal conductivity of 1HSLMoS2 is smaller than that of 1T-SLMoS2 under size effect. Furthermore, the temperature effect results show that the thermal conductivities of both 1H-SLMoS2 and 1T-SLMoS2 decrease with the increasing of the temperature. The thermal conductivities of 1HSLMoS2 and 1T-SLMoS2 are nearly the same (difference <6%) in both of the chiral orientations under corresponding temperatures, especially in the armchair direction (difference <2.8%). Moreover, we find that the strain effects on the thermal conductivity of 1HSLMoS2 and 1T-SLMoS2 are different. More specifically, the thermal conductivity decreases with the increasing tensile strain rate for
1T-SLMoS2, while fluctuates with the growth of the strain for 1HSLMoS2. Finally, we find that the thermal conductivity of same sized 1H-SLMoS2 is similar with that of the strained 1H-SLMoS2 structure.


In the rural countryside of the Southern Appalachians, a trend of land-use change from agriculture to exurban development continues to alter the landscape at multiple spatial scales. This research seeks to answer how such land-use trends alter species richness, habitat structure and landscape patterns of the Southern Appalachians. By combining GIS analysis with field data collection, this study specifically addresses the following questions: (1) What are the overall patterns of habitat composition and spatial structure of the landscapes surrounding farms and subdivisions? (2) What are the patterns of habitat composition and spatial structure of agricultural and subdivided sites? (3) How do farms and low-density residential development maintain or differ from the broader landscape in habitat composition and spatial structure. (4) How do farms and low-density residential development compare in terms of floristic biodiversity? Using ArcGIS® I mapped and classified various habitat patches (forest, field, shrub, riparian, built and crop) within four farms and four subdivisions and documented plant species composition, cover, and structure in two 100m2 plots within each habitat patch at all sites. Results from this study revealed that as land-use changes from agriculture to exurban development, habitats become more fragmented and complex, especially within forest areas.


Introducing a major literary talent, "The White Tiger" offers a story of coruscating wit, blistering suspense, and questionable morality, told by the most volatile, captivating, and utterly inimitable narrator that this millennium has yet seen. Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life -- having nothing but his own wits to help him along. Born in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break when he is hired as a driver for his village's wealthiest man, two house Pomeranians (Puddles and Cuddles), and the rich man's (very unlucky) son. From behind the wheel of their Honda City car, Balram's new world is a revelation. While his peers flip through the pages of "Murder Weekly" ("Love -- Rape -- Revenge!"), barter for girls, drink liquor (Thunderbolt), and perpetuate the Great Rooster Coop of Indian society, Balram watches his employers bribe foreign ministers for tax breaks, barter for girls, drink liquor (single-malt whiskey), and play their own role in the Rooster Coop. Balram learns how to siphon gas, deal with corrupt mechanics, and refill and resell Johnnie Walker Black Label bottles (all but one). He also finds a way out of the Coop that no one else inside it can perceive. Balram's eyes penetrate India as few outsiders can: the cockroaches and the call centers; the prostitutes and the worshippers; the ancient and Internet cultures; the water buffalo and, trapped in so many kinds of cages that escape is (almost) impossible, the white tiger. And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn't create virtue, and money doesn't solve every problem -- but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations. Sold in sixteen countries around the world, "The White Tiger" recalls "The Death of Vishnu" and "Bangkok 8" in ambition, scope, and narrative genius, with a mischief and personality all its own. Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international publishing sensation -- and a startling, provocative debut.


This essay sets out the main elements of the revisionary and philosophical interpretation of the jurisprudence of American Legal Realism that I have developed in a series of articles over the last decade. This reading emphasizes the commitment of all the Realists to a core descriptive claim about adjudication (judges respond primarily to the underlying facts of the cases, rather than to legal rules and reasons); shows how the Realists divide in to two camps over the correct interpretation of this "core" claim (the Idiosncyrasy Wing of Frank, and the Sociological Wing of Llewellyn, Oliphant, Moore, Green, and the vast majority of Realists); demonstrates the connection of the Sociological Wing of Realism to the Realist project of law reform, including the work of the American Law Institute; examines and distinguishes the Realist arguments for the indeterminacy of law from Critical Legal Studies arguments; and shows how the Realists lay the foundation for the program of a "naturalized" jurisprudence, in opposition to the dominant "conceptual" jurisprudence of Anglophone legal philosophy. The revisionary reading also debunks certain popular myths about Legal Realism, like the following: the Realists believed "what the judge ate for breakfast determines the decision"; a critique of the public/private distinction was a central part of Realist jurisprudence; and the Realists were committed to an incoherent form of rule-skepticism.


We present a novel approach to characterize and graphically represent the spatiotemporal evolution of ensembles using a simple diagram. To this aim we analyze the fluctuations obtained as differences between each member of the ensemble and the control. The lognormal character of these fluctuations suggests a characterization in terms of the first two moments of the logarithmic transformed values. On one hand, the mean is associated with the exponential growth in time. On the other hand, the variance accounts for the spatial correlation and localization of fluctuations. In this paper we introduce the MVL (Mean-Variance of Logarithms) diagram to intuitively represent the interplay and evolution of these two quantities. We show that this diagram uncovers useful information about the spatiotemporal dynamics of the ensemble. Some universal features of the diagram are also described, associated either with the nonlinear system or with the ensemble method and illustrated using both toy models and numerical weather prediction systems.


For Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, controversies pitting personal conflicts — whether actual or merely alleged — against the constitutional commitment to the rule of law increasingly form the basis of a caustic and circular national dialogue that generates substantially more heat than light. While the profile of these controversies is undoubtedly waxing, the underlying tensions stretch back at least to Marbury v. Madison. For all its seminal import, in Marbury, Chief Justice John Marshall adjudicated a case involving the validity of judicial commissions Marshall had himself signed and sealed. Equally remarkably, one of those judicial commissions belonged to Marshall's own brother James. In the centuries since, issues of actual and/or alleged Supreme Court conflicts have colored the context of landmark decisions, as well as the legacies of jurisprudential giants. Exploring many of the most compelling and controversial recusal sagas in the Court's history, this Article trains attention on the factually-intensive real-world relationships that Supreme Court Justices have with issues and individuals. In today's statutory disqualification terminology, these relationships fall — if anywhere — solely into the 28 U.S.C. § 455 nebulous catch-all provision in which a judge must disqualify himself or herself whenever their impartiality "might reasonably be questioned." The study yields a layered picture that is rich in historical imagery, anecdote, and analytically-critical context. In this respect, the Article includes, but is not limited to, treatments of the midnight Justices in Marbury; the Steel Seizure case and the "damned fool" whom Truman felt was the "biggest mistake he had made" as President; Thurgood Marshall's long arc with the NAACP; perhaps the best-known duck-hunting trip of all time; Justice O'Connor's election night outburst preceding Bush v. Gore; profound matters of issue identification involving Justices Ginsburg and Breyer; and finally the controversies surrounding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, including the undisclosed income related to Virginia Thomas's work opposing the health care legislation and Justice Kagan's ill-advised e-mails including the memorable "I hear they have the votes, Larry!!" The exploration serves as a navigational guide to the difficult but necessary task of separating the shrill cries from the serious constitutional concern of genuine Supreme Court conflict. The Article situates the analysis of Supreme Court disqualification practice, and particularly the circumstances involving Justices Thomas and Kagan vis-a`-vis the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, within the broader, enduring legal dichotomy of rules as opposed to standards. Pointing to Chief Justice Roberts's recent, relatively bare assertion that when it comes to disqualification, the Supreme Court is simply constitution- ally and pragmatically different, the Article asserts that while the Chief Justice's argument is neither emotionally nor intellectually satisfying, in an imperfect world, his argument is also entirely correct. Finally, and in light of constitutional structure and historical norms, the Article asserts that it was entirely appropriate for both Justices Thomas and Kagan not to recuse themselves from the legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act. That said, the Article asserts that the controversies represent an important teachable moment — a moment in which the justices and the academy alike have the opportunity to elevate, rather than further denigrate, the national dialogue pertaining to high court conflicts.


This study empirically tests the proposition that law students adopt different conceptions of the judge's role in adjudication based on whether they first study intentional torts, negligence, or strict liability. The authors conducted an anonymous survey of more than 450 students enrolled in eight law schools at the beginning, mid-point, and end of the first semester of law school. The students were prompted to indicate to what extent they believed the judge's role to be one of rule application and, conversely, to what extent it was one of considering social, economic, and ideological factors. The survey found that while all three groups of students shifted toward a belief that judges consider social, economic, and ideological factors, the degree of the shift differed in a statistically significant way depending on which torts their professors taught first. These differences persisted throughout the semester, even after they studied other torts. Further, these differences were observed even when the analysis controlled for law school ranking and were more pronounced among students attending the highest ranked schools. In interpreting the survey results, the authors employ sociologist Erving Goffman's theory of "frame analysis" and the work of cognitive psychologists including Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman on "anchoring." The Article concludes that the category of tort liability to which students are first exposed affects the "frame" or "lens" through which they view the judicial process. This frame becomes anchored and persists throughout the study of other tort categories. The lessons about the nature of the judging process learned implicitly through the professor's choice of topic sequence may be even more important than the substantive topics themselves.


Abstract The construction industry influences and accelerates national growth and development, but it, however, contributes to unsustainable and eco-unfriendly development which impacts on the economy and environment. To encourage investment in sustainable construction, this study made a case for green building materials (GBM) products and services market in the construction industry of developing countries, through an assessment of the benefits of GBM incorporation in construction projects. The study adopted an internet-mediated questionnaire survey approach and snowball sampling techniques to gathered data from clients, consultants, professionals, and contractors/sub-contractor in the southeast geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Frequency, Percentile, Shapiro-Wilk test, Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett's tests, relative importance index (RII) and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to analyse the collected data. The study revealed that the green construction market is unsaturated and under-tapped. With high awareness and low adoption levels of GBM, it was concluded that the most important benefits of GBM that will trigger demand and supply of GBM products and services are improved daylight and reduced need for artificial lighting, improves the quality of life, Increase employees productivity and reduced absenteeism, improve occupants health and comfort, higher profit and return on investment, leads to construction professionals specialisation, reducing greenhouse gas emission from building, reduces toxicity in the internal environment, low operating and maintenance cost, and creates new job opportunities. The uniqueness of this study lies in the assessment of the views of construction stakeholders' in the five states that make up the South-eastern geo-political zone of Nigeria, regarding the key benefits that could trigger the uptake and incorporation of GBM in construction. Developers and Investors in the industry could invest in green construction since there is a ready and unsaturated market for it.


This article describes, exemplifies and discusses the use of the philosophical hermeneutic interview and its distinguishing characteristics. Excerpts of interviews from a philosophical hermeneutic study are used to show how this particular phenomenological tradition is applied to research inquiry. The purpose of the article is to lay out the foundational background for philosophical hermeneutics in a way that clarifies its unique approach to interviewing and its usefulness for advancing health care knowledge. Implications for health care research and practice are addressed.


In the present paper the design process of a stabilizer fin is presented. Different computational tools were adopted: a two-dimensional panel-code was used to design the twodimensional airfoil candidates and an optimizer based on genetic algorithms was used to choose the optimum airfoil. A panel-code and a Navier- Stokes solver were successively adopted to verify the three-dimensional design. The two codes showed similar results at low angle of attacks, but differences enlarged when the angle of attack increased. The fins are also adopted as zero-speed stabilizing fins. The torque moment at the fin axis was computed for a constant angular velocity of the fin and zero boat speed. Finally, free surface computations modelling the boat free to sink and trim, and different fin trims, were performed and compared with experimental data.


Over the past three decades, Web has evolved from an information medium to an intricate economic ecosystem. Initially focused on supporting the transition from traditional business practices to e-commerce, the Web has given rise to new, purely Web based businesses. Aligned with the original vision and expectations of the 'free Web', they have provided free services but, over time, developed business models that leverage the user digital footprints and the user generated content to create economic value. With the use of computing technologies to analyze, aggregate, and share such data, individuals' privacy has been undermined and, with that, the their ability to shape their role in the digital society and beyond. The purpose of this paper is to instigate the dialogue around the critical societal issues that arise from the current Web economy and motivate research initiatives to assist with addressing them. We present three case studies that quantify the extent, rate, and pervasiveness of the user tracking on the Web. We use them to illustrate the determining aspects of the Web that have to be taken into account by the Web Science community. As researchers we aspire to understand the nature of the Web in depth and, based on that, propose designs and policies that are required to ensure that the Web is fit to be the underpinning of our societies and our digital future.


Gunnar Myrdal urged economists to disclose their ideological sensibilities, to mitigate asymmetric-information problems in scientific discourse and to reduce the hazard of bias. Myrdal's plea informs us of the importance of frank discussion of ideological sensibilities, including investigations of the ideological character of people involved in the American Economic Association. This paper reviews the results of several such investigations, including new results on rates of AEA membership by voter category.


Rachel and Kirsty are visiting Kirsty's grandmother by the sea for their spring break. One morning they spot a very sparkly shell on the beach and it whisks them away to Fairyland! It's the occasion of the yearly Ocean Gala, where Shannon the Ocean Fairy plays her Magical Golden Conch Shell to ensure that the seas and oceans remain peaceful and ordered for the year ahead. But Jack Frost is there to ruin things for everyone! His pesky goblins break the Magical Golden Conch Shell into seven pieces as they try to steal it and the pieces are whisked away into the oceans of the human world. Queen Titania uses her magic to send seven magical sea creatures to guard the pieces of the shell, but the Ocean Fairies, and Rachel and Kirsty must get the pieces back before chaos takes over the oceans! Can they outwit Jack Frost and his goblins and make the oceans a safe and happy place for everyone once again...? In this first story in the series, Ally the Dolphin Fairy must find her creature, Echo, and the first piece of the missing shell...


This report discusses the development of recommended and alternative systems for monitoring the use of HOV lanes and compliance with HOV occupancy regulations in the Seattle metropolitan area. The report includes a state-of-the-art review of techniques for monitoring HOV lane use and the results of tests of the most promising of these techniques. In addition, the report presents a review of the existing HERO (HOV violation reporting hotline) program, including the results of a 500-person telephone survey on the public's awareness of and attitude toward the HERO program and HOV facilities in general. Finally, the report describes software written to ease the storage of HERO data and improve the reporting of HERO statistics.


Nationally, K–12 schools are increasingly relying on police officers and criminalized security measures like metal detectors and random searches in an attempt to make schools safer. In New York City, officers patrolling prison-like schools have acutely harmful effects, leading the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) to file a class action lawsuit in 2010 alleging the systemic violations of students' Fourth Amendment rights. The reality of the harm, though, is far deeper than the law is presently capable of recognizing. In New York City, the vast majority of students harmed by school police practices attend highly racially segregated schools, including the named plaintiffs in the NYCLU lawsuit, all of whom attend schools comprised of at least 98 percent students of color. In addition to the racial disparity in the numbers of children exposed to harmful school police practices, the nature of the harm is disproportionately severe and uniquely far-reaching for nonwhite students. In this Comment, I explore the many layers of this harm through the lenses of the school-to-prison pipeline, psychological effects, citizenship, and the economic system. I then examine the ways in which federal antidiscrimination law fails to recognize such harm as discrimination, foreclosing lawsuits like the NYCLU's from discussing race and confining them to tell obscured and incomplete stories. Ultimately, the law's blindness to the reality of the harm compels lawsuits that only scratch the surface while limiting the voices of their class members. Though such lawsuits are essential for immediate, if partial, relief, significant reform for students harmed by school police officers will only come when antidiscrimination law recognizes the full racial nature of the harm.


This paper compares and contrasts emerging forms of social action in urban domestic water supply in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Both countries represent transitional societies that are facing challenges of providing clean and safe domestic water to the black majority population, which for decades was denied basic social services because of a racist ideology. In the first instance the paper assesses whether there exists a constitutional provision that guarantees the right to water. It then turns to how that is enforced, and what happens in its absence. Lastly the paper examines whether the various interventions lead to improved access to safe water. In South Africa an awareness of the constitutional right to water backed by a supportive legislative framework, which engendered a strong sense of entitlement, caused residents to resort to the courts and direct action such as street protests. Similar initiatives were also observed in Zimbabwe. However, the absence of a conducive legal environment, and disenchantment with the state as a provider of social services, led residents to resort to self reliance in order to access water. In both countries social action was not organic –it tended to be championed if not sponsored either by civil society or party political actors. There was no evidence of improved access to safe water as a consequence of social action. The paper concludes that social action in the urban domestic water supply faces the common challenges of social mobilization in particular and social movements in general.


Beginning Java 8 APIs, Extensions and Libraries completes the Apress learning Java journey and is a comprehensive approach to learning the Java programming language extensions and available APIs and libraries, including the new JavaFX APIs. This book covers the key extensions of the Java programming language such as Swing, JavaFX, network programming, and JDBC. Each topic starts with a discussion of the topic's background. A step-by-step process, with small snippets of Java code, provides easy-to-follow instructions. At the end of a topic, a complete and ready-to-run Java program is provided. This book contains over 130 images and diagrams to help you visualize and better understand the topics. More than 130 complete programs allow you to practice and quickly learn the topics. The Swing chapters discuss various aspects of working with a GUI, from the very basic concepts of developing a Swing application, to the most advanced topics, such as decorating a Swing component with a JLayer, drag-and-drop features, Synth Skinnable L&F, etc. The chapter on network programming covers the basics of network technologies first, and then, the advanced topics of network programming, using a Java class library. It covers IPv4 and IPv6, addressing schemes, subnetting, supernetting, multicasting, TCP/IP sockets, UPD sockets, asynchronous socket I/O, etc. The chapter on JDBC provides the details of connecting and working with databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, DB2, Java DB (Apache Derby), Sybase, Adaptive Server Anywhere, etc. It contains a complete discussion on processing a Result Set and a Row Set. It discusses how to use the Row Set Factory, to obtain a Row Set object of a specific type. Working with Large Objects (LOBs), such as Blob, Clob, and NClob, is covered in detail with Java code examples and database scripts. What youll learn How to extend your Java skills beyond the fundamental object oriented concepts and core language features How to apply Java Swing for building Java front ends or user interfaces (UIs) How to build small Java applications called applets How to do Java network programming How to connect with databases using JDBC APIs How to work with JavaFX, RMI (Remote Method Invocation), and JNI (Java Native Interface) How to use scripting in Java, including coverage of the Nashorn engine Who this book is for This tutorial is for Java programmers who are familiar with the fundamentals of the Java language and Java programming, who are now ready to call upon the power of extended Java functionality available from the huge array of Java APIs, extensions and libraries.


Abstract "Judicial Decisions" are abstracts of recent federal and state court decisions addressing issues of importance to the land use lawyer and planner, such as zoning, inverse condemnation, growth management, signs and billboards, vested rights, and many more.


The authors analysed comparative advantage of Canada, Mexico and the United States in the context of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The authors found that there is empirical evidence as expected that the United States of America has a large number of products in which it has a comparative advantage in, followed by Canada. Mexico is the least competitive with fewer products compared to the United States of America and Canada. The authors have also concluded that having comparative advantage is not synonymous with trade performance in intra-regional trade as Mexico tends to benefit much more in spite of having a very few products in which it has comparative advantage as demonstrated by huge trade surpluses over Canada and the United States.


A method to correct the elastic stress tensor at a fixed point of an elastoplastic body, which is subject to exterior loads, is presented and analysed. In contrast to uniaxial corrections (Neuber or ESED), our method takes multiaxial phenomena like ratchetting or cyclic hardening/softening into account by use of Jiang's model. Our numerical algorithm is designed for the case that the scalar load functions are piecewise linear and can be used in connection with critical plane/multiaxial rainflow methods in high cycle fatigue analysis. In addition, a local existence and uniqueness result of Jiang's equations is given.


Banks play a special role as providers of informative signals about the quality and value of their borrowers. Such signals, however, may have a quality of their own as the banks' selection and monitoring abilities may differ. Using an event study methodology, we study the importance of the geographical origin and organization of the banks for the investors' assessments of firms' credit quality and economic worth following loan announcements. Our sample comprises 986 announcements of bank loans to US firms over the period of 1980–2003. We find that investors react positively to such announcements if the loans are made by foreign or local banks, but not if the loans are made by banks that are located outside the firm's headquarters state. Investor reaction is, in fact, the largest when the bank is foreign. Our evidence suggest that investors value relationships with more competitive and skilled banks rather than banks that have easier access to private information about the firms. These results are applicable also to the European markets where regulatory and economic borders do not coincide and bank identities and reputation seem to matter a great deal.


Charles R. Morris's The Trillion Dollar Meltdown (2008) was the first book to warn of the impending financial crash in all its horrific scale and speed. Now, with Comeback, Morris reveals that the United States is on the brink of a strong recovery that could last for twenty years or more. The great economic boom times in American history have come because of fortuitous discoveries. Natural resources (coal first, then oil) fueled vast economic and industrial expansions, which in turn helped create and supply new markets. The last genuine economic game changer was the technology boom of the 1990s, which gave the U.S. a global competitive advantage for a while based on electronics and silicon. One of the first writers and analysts in the U.S. to predict that the tech boom would lead to a period of sustained economic growth was Charles Morris. In defiance of the recessionary times (in 1990), he saw the coming boom. Now, in 2013, he sees the threshold of another. This time the gift is natural gas. The amount and distribution of gas in American shale is so vast that it has the potential to transform the manufacturing economy, creating jobs across the country, and requiring a new infrastructure that will benefit the nation as a whole. Because of fracking, jobs that once would have been outsourced abroad will return home, America can become a net exporter of energy, and cheap energy will provide the opportunity for innovation and competition. In light of this new opportunity, and other complementary developments Morris explores in this book, the U.S. ought to be approaching the future with a robust self-confidence it has not experienced in a while. But we could fumble it away. The gold-rush style of shale boom companies does not make them good neighbors. A counter-reaction could put their industry, and the new era of national prosperity, at risk. We also have a political system that has the capacity to spoil the benefits of this huge boon. If the wealth locked in the continental shelf is not shared for the general economic good, but is instead exploited in short-term profiteering, then many of the opportunities that exist will be choked off by a few very rich corporations. Managing the great bonus of the vast store of cheap energy is going to become a defining political challenge in the years ahead. At the threshold of a thrilling opportunity, Morris is a brilliantly perceptive guide.


Modern Internet services are often implemented as complex, large-scale distributed systems. These applications are constructed from collections of software modules that may be developed by different teams, perhaps in different programming languages, and could span many thousands of machines across multiple physical facilities. Tools that aid in understanding system behavior and reasoning about performance issues are invaluable in such an environment. Here we introduce the design of Dapper, Google's production distributed systems tracing infrastructure, and describe how our design goals of low overhead, application-level transparency, and ubiquitous deployment on a very large scale system were met. Dapper shares conceptual similarities with other tracing systems, particularly Magpie [3] and X-Trace [12], but certain design choices were made that have been key to its success in our environment, such as the use of sampling and restricting the instrumentation to a rather small number of common libraries. The main goal of this paper is to report on our experience building, deploying and using the system for over two years, since Dapper's foremost measure of success has been its usefulness to developer and operations teams. Dapper began as a self-contained tracing tool but evolved into a monitoring platform which has enabled the creation of many different tools, some of which were not anticipated by its designers. We describe a few of the analysis tools that have been built using Dapper, share statistics about its usage within Google, present some example use cases, and discuss lessons learned so far.


Retired and happily in love, Kirk believes his adventuring days are over. But as he returns to Earth for the first time since his apparent "death" upon the Enterprise-B, events elsewhere in the galaxy set in motion a mystery that may provide Kirk with his greatest challenge yet. The Enterprise-E, under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, is exploring an unstable region of space on a scientific mission of vital concern to Starfleet when they discover the last thing they ever expected to find: a lonely, battle-scarred vessel that is instantly recognizable to every member of Picard's crew. Five years after being lost with all hands in the Delta Quadrant, the Starship Voyager has come home! The commander of Voyager, one Tom Paris, explains that Captain Kathryn Janeway and half of the original crew is dead, but if that is true, who is the mysterious woman who has kidnapped Kirk back on Earth, pleading with him to assist her against a threat to the entire Federation? All is not as it seems, and soon Kirk is forced to confront the hideous consequences of actions taken more than a hundred years prior, as well as his own inner doubts. After years of quiet and isolation, does he still have what it takes to put things right-and join with Captain Picard to save the lives of everyone aboard a brand-new Enterprise? An unforgettable saga peopled by old friends and ancient enemies, "Star Trek: Spectre" propels Kirk on a journey of self-discovery every bit as harrowing as the cataclysmic new adventure that awaits him.


With the stages completion of the office buildings at the Government Office Precincts, staff have been relocating themselves from the previous office complex in Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya and tend to let themselves as full time Putrajaya residents. Thus, with the careful planning of having sufficient housing units to cater the influx Government staff, Precinct 9 is among the few pioneer sections of Putrajaya's new Malaysia Federal Government Administrative Center to reside such an important administrators of the nations. Specially designed high rise apartment and link houses been formulated to cater the need of the Government staff with the millennium concept of garden city's 'live-work' environment. The completion of the terrace double storey garden houses with the nation's first fenceless housing concept create a unique identity to this new millennium planned community. The study will just simply to study the impact of the designed houses that can be as a model where we think that the initiative of the Malaysian Federal Government in creating the new concept of borderless housing with such a high class accommodation just to cater their Government servants.


Description: The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) are responsible for monitoring global progress towards water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets. The global effort to achieve sanitation and water for all by 2030 is extending beyond the household to include institutional settings, such as schools, healthcare facilities and workplaces. This joint report is the first comprehensive global assessment of WASH in schools and establishes a baseline for the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) period.


Timothy and Linda O'Leary Microsoft Office 2013: A Case Approach Making Office Relevant Timothy and Linda O'Leary and the Computer Information Technology Team at McGraw-Hill Higher Education offer your students a fully integrated learning program with time-tested quality and reliability. Office 2013: A Case Approach offers a running case study throughout the text to help students understand the material in a consistent, relevant environment. Through the theme "Making Office Relevant, this text helps students understand why they need this course and skills. Updated for Office 2013, student success is assured through clear step-by-step instruction, plentiful screen captures, and conceptual explanations. Each lab, designed to be covered in 1 hour of class time, combines conceptual coverage with detailed software-specific instructions. The labs opens with a running case study that highlights real-world applications of each software program and leads students from problem to solution. The O'Leary Series helps students learn specific applications skills along with skills that cross all Office applications, which is especially important in mastering this version of Office. The O'Leary Series correlates with SIMnet Online, McGraw-Hill's online training and assessment program for Microsoft Office skills and basic computer concepts. Projects, however, are 1:1 within the SIMgrader component and allow students to practice their skills live in the Office application to receive immediate feedback via autograding. This integration with SIMnet helps meet the diverse needs of students and accommodate individual learning styles. Additional textbook resources can be found on the text's Online Learning Center: www.mhhe.com/olearyoffice2013. For more information on OLeary; Microsoft Office 2013: A Case Approach and SIMnet Online for Office 2013, please visit www.simnetkeepitsimple.com or contact your McGraw-Hill representative.


This paper studies efficient insurance arrangements in village economies when there is complete information but limited commitment. Commitment is limited because only limited penalties can be imposed on households which renege on their promises. Any efficient insurance arrangement must therefore take into account the fact that households will renege if the benefits from doing so outweigh the costs. We study a general model which admits aggregate and idiosyncratic risk as well as serial correlation of incomes. It is shown that in the case of two households and no storage the efficient insurance arrangement is characterized by a simple updating rule. An example illustrates the similarity of the efficient arrangement to a simple debt contract with occasional debt forgiveness. The model is then extended to multiple households and a simple storage technology. We use data from the ICRISAT survey of three villages in southern India to test the theory against three alternative models: autarky, full insurance, and a static model of limited commitment due to Coate and Ravallion (1993). Overall, the model we develop does a significantly better job of explaining the data than does any of these alternatives:


Interpolation of data in smart city architectures is an eminent task for the provision of reliable services. Furthermore, it is a key functionality for information validation between spatiotemporally related sensors. Nevertheless, many existing projects use a simplified geospatial model that does not take the infrastructure, which affects events and effects in the real world, into account. There are various available algorithms for interpolation and the calculation of routes on infrastructure based graphs and distances on geospatial data. This work proposes a combined approach by interconnecting detailed geospatial data whilst regarding the underlying infrastructure model.


In the modeling of biological phenomena, in living organisms whether the measurements are of blood pressure, enzyme levels, biomechanical movements or heartbeats, etc., one of the important aspects is time variation in the data. Thus, the recovery of a \smooth" regression or trend function from noisy time{varying sampled data becomes a problem of particular interest. Here we use non{linear wavelet thresholding to estimate a regression or a trend function in the presence of additive noise which, in contrast to most existing models, does not need to be stationary. (Here, nonstationarity means that the spectral behaviour of the noise is allowed to change slowly over time). We develop a procedure to adapt existing threshold rules to such situations, e.g., that of a time{varying variance in the errors. Moreover, in the model of curve estimation for functions belonging to a Besov class with locally stationary errors, we derive a near{optimal rate for the L 2 {risk between the unknown function and our soft or hard threshold estimator, which holds in the general case of an error distribution with bounded cumulants. In the case of Gaussian errors, a lower bound on the asymptotic minimax rate in the wavelet coeecient domain is also obtained. Also it is argued that a stronger adaptivity result is possible by the use of a particular location and level dependent threshold obtained by minimizing Stein's unbiased estimate of the risk. In this respect, our work generalizes previous results, which cover the situation of correlated, but stationary errors. A natural application of our approach is the estimation of the trend function of nonstationary time series under the model of local stationarity. The method is illustrated on both an interesting simulated example and a biostatistical data{ set, measurements of sheep luteinizing hormone, which exhibits a clear nonstationarity in its variance.


Contents Preface Chapter 1: The Benefit of Asking the Right Questions Introduction Critical Thinking to the Rescue The Sponge and Panning for Gold: Alternative Thinking Styles An Example of the Panning-for-Gold Approach Panning for Gold: Asking Critical Questions The Myth of the "Right Answer" The Usefulness of Asking the Question, "Who Cares?" Weak-Sense and Strong-Sense Critical Thinking The Satisfaction of Using the Panning-for-Gold Approach Effective Communication and Critical Thinking The Importance of Practice The Right Questions Chapter 2: Critical Thinking Is a Social Activity Values and Other People The Primary Values of a Critical Thinker Thinking and Feelings Keeping the Conversation Going Avoiding the Dangers of Groupthink Chapter 3: What Are the Issue and the Conclusion? Kinds of Issues Searching for the Issue Searching for the Author's or Speaker's Conclusion Using This Critical Question Clues to Discovery: How to Find the Conclusion Critical Thinking and Your Own Writing and Speaking Practice Exercises Fred von Lohmann, "Copyright Silliness on Campus" Chapter 4: What Are the Reasons? Reasons + Conclusion = Argument Initiating the Questioning Process Words That Identify Reasons Kinds of Reasons Keeping the Reasons and Conclusions Straight Critical Thinking and Your Own Writing and Speaking Practice Exercises David Horowitz, "College Professors Should Be Made to Teach, Not Preach" Chapter 5: What Words or Phrases Are Ambiguous? The Confusing Flexibility of Words Locating Key Terms and Phrases Checking for Ambiguity Using This Critical Question Determining Ambiguity Context and Ambiguity Using This Critical Question Ambiguity, Definitions, and the Dictionary Ambiguity and Loaded Language Limits of Your Responsibility to Clarify Ambiguity Ambiguity and Your Own Writing and Speaking Summary Practice Exercises New York Times editoriall, "Juvenile Injustice" Chapter 6: What Are the Value and Descriptive Assumptions? General Guide for Identifying Assumptions Value Conflicts and Assumptions From Values to Value Assumptions Typical Value Conflicts The Communicator's Background as a Clue to Value Assumptions Consequences as Clues to Value Assumptions More Hints for Finding Value Assumptions Avoiding a Typical Difficulty When Identifying Value Assumptions Finding Value Assumptions on Your Own Using This Critical Question Values and Relativism Identifying and Evaluating Descriptive Assumptions Illustrating Descriptive Assumptions Using this Critical Question Clues for Locating Assumptions Avoiding Analysis of Trivial Assumptions Assumptions and Your Own Writing and Speaking Practice Exercises Religion News Blog, "Should We Legalize Marijuana?" Chapter 7: Are There Any Fallacies in the Reasoning? A Questioning Approach to Finding Reasoning Fallacies Evaluating Assumptions as a Starting Point Discovering Other Common Reasoning Fallacies Looking for Diversions Sleight of Hand: Begging the Question Using This Critical Question Summary of Reasoning Errors Expanding Your Knowledge of Fallacies Fallacies and Your Own Writing and Speaking Practice Exercises Jacob Sullum, "Gun Control Non Sequiturs" Chapter 8: How Good Is the Evidence: Intuition, Personal Experience, Testimonials, and Appeals to Authority? The Need for Evidence Locating Factual Claims Sources of Evidence Intuition as Evidence Dangers of Appealing to Personal Experience as Evidence Testimonials as Evidence Appeals to Authority as Evidence Problems with Citers Citing Other Citers Using This Critical Question Summary Practice Exercises Isabel Lyman, "Homeschooling Comes of Age" Chapter 9: How Good Is the Evidence: Personal Observation, Research Studies, Case Examples, and Analogies? Personal Observation Research Studies as Evidence Generalizing from the Research Sample Biased Surveys and Questionnaires Critical Evaluation of a Research-Based Argument Case Examples as Evidence Analogies as Evidence Identifying and Comprehending Analogies Evaluation Analogies Summary Practice Exercises Neela Banerjee, "Americans Change Faiths as Rising Rate, Report Finds" Chapter 10 Are There Rival Causes? When to Look for Rival Causes The Pervasiveness of Rival Causes Detecting Rival Causes The Cause or A Cause Rival Causes and Scientific Research Rival Causes for Differences Between Groups Confusing Causation with Association Confusing "After this" with "Because of this" Explaining Individual Events or Acts Evaluating Rival Causes Using This Critical Question Evidence and Your Own Writing and Speaking Summary Practice Exercises Cathy Arnst, "The World According to Disney" Chapter 11: Are the Statistics Deceptive? Unknowable and Biased Statistics Confusing Averages Concluding One Thing, Proving Another Deceiving by Omitting Information Risk Statistics and Omitted Information Summary Practice Exercises Buddy T, About.com Guide, "College Drinking, Drug Use Grows More Extreme" Chapter 12: What Significant Information Is Omitted? The Benefits of Detecting Omitted Information The Certainty of Incomplete Reasoning Questions that Identify Omitted Information The Importance of the Negative View Omitted Information That Remains Missing Using This Critical Question Practice Exercises Radley Balko, "Back to 18?" Chapter 13: What Reasonable Conclusions Are Possible? Assumptions and Multiple Conclusions Dichotomous Thinking: Impediment to Considering Multiple Conclusions Two Sides or Many? Searching for Multiple Conclusions The Productivity of If-Clauses Alternative Solutions as Conclusions The Liberating Effect of Recognizing Alternative Conclusions All Conclusions Are Not Created Equal Summary Practice Exercises Maryann Bird, "Should We Stop Eating Meat to Help the Planet?" Chapter 14: Overcoming Obstacles to Critical thinkingOvercoming Obstacles to Critical Thinking Reviewing Famnilair Obstacles Mental Habits That Betray Us The Seductive Quality of Personal Experience Belief in a Just World Stereotypes The Urge to Simplify Belief Perseverance Availability Heuristic Wishful Thinking Chapter 15: Should We Protect Children from Advertising? Rebecca A. Clay, "Advertising to Children: Is It Ethical?" Dale Kunkel and Brian Wilcox, "Television Advertising Leads to Unhealthy Habits in Children Say APA Task Force" Cam Beck, "Taking Responsibility for Our McActions" Lisa Tiffin, "How to Inoculate Your Children Against Advertising" Susan E. Linn, "Food Marketing to Children in the Context of a Marketing Maelstrom" Essay Questions Chapter 16: What Is the Proper Role of Government in Improving the Quality of Families in Our Culture? Stephanie Coontz, "Taking Marriage Private" "Swedish Top Lawyer Wants to Legalize Polygamy..." Peg Tittle, "We License Plumbers and Pilots - Why Not Parents?" Lizette Alvarez, "Jens and Vita, but Molli? Danes Favor Common Names" Malcolm Potts, "China's One Child Policy: The Policy That Changed the World" RIchard Posner, "The Regulation of the Market in Adoption" Essay Questions Chapter 17: What is the Secret to Happiness? Arthur Max and Toby Sterling, "Researchers: Choices Spawn Happiness" Matthew Herper, "Money Won't Buy You Happiness" Steve Ross and Olivia Rosewood, "How to Find True Happiness" Jonathon Clements, "Down the Tube: The Sad Stats on Happiness, Money and TV" William R. Mattox, Jr., "Does Faith Promote Happiness?" John Lanchester, "Pursuing Happiness: Two Scholars Explore the Fragility of Contentment" Essay Questions Chapter 17: In What Ways Can the Media Influence Society and What Can We Do About It? Carrie McLaren, "The Media Doesn't Influence Us...Except When It Does" Geena Davis, "Children's Media Skew Gender" Katie Strickland, "Media Isn't Feeding Social Ills" Ross Gelbspan, "Snowed: Why Is the US News Media Silent on Global Warming?" Dan Gainor and Amy Menefee, "CNN's Global Warming Special Typifies Liberal Bias of Climate Coverage" Elmar Etzersdorfer and Gernot Sonneck, "Preventing Suicide by Influencing Mass-Media Reporting: The Viennese Experience 1980-1996" Essay Questions Chapter 18: What role does physical appearance play in our lives? Keith Morrison, "Face Value Hidden Camera Investigation: Do Looks Really Matter?" Daniel Schweimler, "Argentina: Ugly People Strike Back" Maggie Stehr, "Study Credits Attractive People with Longer Life" Susan Kane, "Preparing Children for Plastic Surgery" Scott Reeves, "Good Looks, Good Pay?" Henry Wijsbek, "The Pursuit of Beauty" Essay Questions Credits Index


The enzyme carbonic anhydrase isoform II (CAII), catalysing the hydration and dehydration of CO2, enhances transport activity of the monocarboxylate transporter isoform I (MCT1, SLC16A1) expressed in Xenopus oocytes by a mechanism that does not require CAII catalytic activity (Becker et al. (2005) J. Biol. Chem., 280). In the present study, we have investigated the mechanism of the CAII induced increase in transport activity by using electrophysiological techniques and a mathematical model of the MCT1 transport cycle. The model consists of six states arranged in cyclic fashion and features an ordered, mirror-symmetric, binding mechanism were binding and unbinding of the proton to the transport protein is considered to be the rate limiting step under physiological conditions. An explicit rate expression for the substrate °ux is derived using model reduction techniques. By treating the pools of intra- and extracellular MCT1 substrates as dynamic states, the time dependent kinetics are obtained by integration using the derived expression for the substrate °ux. The simulations were compared with experimental data obtained from MCT1-expressing oocytes injected with di®erent amounts of CAII. The model suggests that CAII increases the e®ective rate constants of the proton reactions, possibly by working as a proton antenna.


Normal 0 It is well recognised that the period of time in which digital research may remain accessible is likely to be short in comparison to the period in which it will continue to hold intellectual value. Although many digital preservation strategies are effective for simple resources, it is not always possible to confirm that all of the significant properties - the characteristics that contribute to the intended meaning - have been maintained when stored in different formats and software environments. The paper outlines methodologies being developed by InterPARES, PLANETS and other projects in the international research community to support the decision-making process and highlights the work of four recent JISC-funded studies to specify the significant properties of vector images, moving images, software and learning objects.


Here we report measurements of iron and aluminum in surface and subsurface waters during late March and late May of 2001 on transects between central California and Hawaii. A large cloud of Asian dust was detected during April 2001, and there was a clear signal in surface water iron due to aerosol deposition on the May transect. Iron and aluminum concentrations increased synchronously by 0.5 and 2 nM along the southern portion of the transect, which includes the Hawaii Ocean Time series (HOT) station, from background values in March (0.1 to 0.2 nM Fe). These changes occurred in a ratio that is close to the crustal abundance ratio of the metals, which indicates a soil aerosol source. A vertical profile of dissolved iron was also measured at the HOT station in late April and this profile also shows a large increase near the surface. Direct observations of aerosol iron concentration at Mauna Loa Observatory on Hawaii indicate that aerosol concentrations were significantly lower than climatological values during this period. Soil aerosol concentrations along the transect were estimated using the real‐time Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS). The NAAPS results show a large meridional gradient with maximum concentrations in the boundary layer north of 30°N. However, the deposition of iron and aluminum to surface waters was highest south of 25°N, near Hawaii. There were only weak signals in the ecosystem response to the aerosol deposition.


Fraud on the market is at the core of contemporary securities law, permitting 10b-5 class actions to proceed without direct proof of investor reliance on a misrepresentation. Yet the ambiguities of this idea have fractured the Supreme Court from its initial recognition of the doctrine in Basic v. Levinson to its recent decision in Amgen, Inc. v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds. Amidst divergent views of the coherence and advisability of liability for fraud on the market a fundamental question lurks: is a suit for damages that invokes the fraud-on-the-market theory a claim for common law deceit, such that liability is properly limited by requirements such as scienter and loss causation, or is it an indirect regulatory enforcement action that should be unconstrained by these requirements so that liability can better serve its deterrent and compensatory purposes? Rejecting both of these options, we argue for a third way. Fraud-on-the-market claims are not private attorney general actions; they are genuine tort claims through which victims seek redress for having been wronged. Yet the wrong differs fundamentally in substance from the wrong of deceit. Building on a careful analysis of Dura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Broudo, Basic v. Levinson, and common law, we articulate the unique character of the fraud-on-the-market tort. Rooted not in deceit but instead in the Congressionally recognized right of investors to trust in the integrity of securities markets, it does not protect investors from being deceived, but rather protects them against economic loss caused by intentional distortions of market prices. This simultaneously explains why fraud-on-the-market plaintiffs are properly freed from having to prove reliance and why the Supreme Court was perhaps justified in imposing restrictions on liability that are foreign to the common law.


1120 Old Pines Trail Penn Yan (315) 536-7329 Edith Kerby Mann, L.C.S.W. Counselor Sand Tray Therapist Serving All Ages of Individuals & Families Since 1987 Specializing In Healing Work For: • Abuse & Trauma • Life Transitions • Grief & Loss Unique Sand Tray Therapy Experience Available to All Clients By Appointment Only There isn't a cure for dementia or Alzheimer's disease yet, but early detection is vital for proper treatment. Doctors say memory screenings can help diagnose dementia — or provide peace of mind for people who don't have the disease. People who are concerned about memory loss should ask their doctor for a screening, a test that measures memory and evaluates other cognitive abilities, experts say. Even though the tests don't provide a diagnosis, they're the starting point for evaluating people with memory concerns, doctors say. "It's one small part of our whole assessment — an important piece, but a small piece," said Dr. Lakshmi Rangaswamy, a geriatrician with OhioHealth's Gerlach Center for Senior Health. There are different types of memory evaluations. Some ask you to identify what is in a picture, write down the day's date or answer how many nickels are in 60 cents. If you take a test and score normal, it should put the immediate worry to rest. If you don't score well, doctors will investigate the results further, Rangaswamy said. It doesn't automatically mean you have dementia. The memory problems caused by some conditions can be reversed with the right treatment. "If you do all that and don't find something reversible, then you ask whether this might be a sign of something more," said Dr. Ronald Petersen, director of the Mayo Clinic's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. After further evaluation and testing, the problem might be revealed as dementia or Alzheimer's — undoubtedly a monumental diagnosis but one that is beneficial to learn about as early as possible. "The sooner you understand what you're facing, the quicker you can treat and be proactive about your care," said Tricia Bingham, director of programs and services for the central Ohio chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. Most of the medication used to slow Alzheimer's disease works best when the disease is at its earliest stages, Bingham said. That's also the case with other types of dementia. Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's, dementia or mild cognitive impairment, which is the step between normal aging and more serious dementia, also could make you eligible to enroll in a clinical trial for experimental medications, Petersen said. "It helps that person be involved in managing their own care and getting their financials in order and their advanced directives in order, where they have more control in the decision-making process in their care," Bingham said. "That would obviously be much harder later when they're in the middle of the disease or toward the end, where people have to make an assumption of care for someone because they didn't know what they wanted." Petersen and other health-care professionals do have some reservations about memory screenings. For Petersen, it comes down to where the screening is being given. He said he doesn't recommend them outside a formal medical environment and expressed concerns about mass screenings for the public. "We don't want people to put up kiosks in malls and say, 'Come on in here and let's test your memory,'" Petersen said. Those results might not be interpreted correctly — like when someone actually has memory loss due to an underlying condition such as sleep apnea or when someone scores "in the gray zone." "Do you have the right data to interpret that result and might people become worried or obsessed if they don't remember as much as they think they ought to?" Petersen said. Dr. Douglas Scharre, a dementia expert at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center's Neurological Institute, developed a test that he feels avoids some of the concerns while also increasing access to memory screenings. It's called the SAGE test, and it's a self-administered evaluation that can be downloaded online. After taking the test, you're advised to take it to your physician, who can score and properly interpret the results, Scharre said. Scharre said it's not the same thing as a general-population screening because people have to choose to download the test. "People seek it out because there is probably some reason for concern," Scharre said. More people should undergo memory screenings, Bingham said, citing data that nearly half of people who have Alzheimer's don't know it. "I understand that it's a common reaction not to have your memory tested because you're afraid of the results. There's a lot of fear and a lot of stigma," she said. "It's not necessarily that people are going out and getting evaluated all the time. It's under-evaluation." email@example.com By Kevin Stankiewicz More Content now Online memory screening