Homologs of the Meis homeobox-containing gene family (myeloid ecotropic leukemia virus integration site) have been identified in all animals studied. The products of the Meis genes appear to function as cofactors, interacting with other transcription factors and DNA facilitating transcriptional regulation. Most notably, they appear to act as co-factors of Hox proteins and have also been described as acting with other homeobox genes. The vertebrate Meis homeobox-containing gene family consists of at least three members, and while little to nothing is known about their regulation, they are expressed in conserved patterns throughout the embryonic development of those vertebrates that have been examined. Using comparative genomics/phylogenetic footprinting to search for regulatory elements associated with the Meis family of homeobox-containing genes, 4 highly conserved elements located downstream of the Meis2 gene have been identified. They are well-conserved in sequence and relative position amongst the genomes of all vertebrates examined, including human, mouse, chicken, zebrafish and the pufferfish Takifugu rubripes. All elements, named m2de1 (Meis 2 Downstream Element), m2de2, m2de3, and m2de4, contain several putative transcription factor binding sites. Conservation in sequence and position indicate the m2de1, m2de2, m2de3, and m2de4 elements most likely play some important role in animals as cis-regulatory elements.


Northern Sydney Central Coast Health and The University of Newcastle, Australia, are proud to introduce Libraries Using Evidence – eblip.net.au , a new Australian site being developed to support library practitioners from all sectors adopt the theory of evidence-based library and information practice (EBLIP). The site will include a directory of current evidence-based research, projects and activities; a current awareness feed; a gateway to support from the international evidence-based library and information practice community; and pathways to help put the theory into practice including, the EBLIP Toolkit (October 2006) and PEBL – a Project methodology for Evidence-Based Libraries (early 2007).


Emotion Recognition, Emotion Regulation, and Callous-Unemotional Traits in Incarcerated Male Youth Jessica L. Linick Youth with Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits represent an important subgroup of antisocial youth whose behavioral, affective, and cognitive functioning appear sharply different from other youth with conduct problems. However, few, if any studies have examined the interaction of cognitive control and emotion recognition among youth with CU traits, an important aspect of anti-social behavior. The current study examined the performance of adolescent males with Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits using an Emotional Go/Nogo task (EGNG), a measure of emotion recognition, cognitive control, and emotional regulation, with a specific focus on the recognition and regulation of responses to negative facial expressions. Participants included 268 male, sentenced or detained youth (ages 16-18 years), from a large correctional facility in New York City. On the EGNG, youth were presented with a series of facial expressions (angry, happy, sad, fearful, and neutral) and were asked to respond to a particular facial expression ("Go" trials) while inhibiting their response to a neutral expression ("Nogo" trials), or vice versa. CU traits were measured via the Inventory of CallousUnemotional Traits (ICU), a 24-item self-report instrument assessing levels of Callousness, Uncaring, and Unemotional traits. With regard to the main research question, emotion recognition, results indicated that this sample of antisocial youth with CU traits did not demonstrate deficits in recognizing fear or any other emotion faces in the EGNG task. However, youth with higher CU traits appeared more susceptible to emotional interference from negative emotional faces (Fear, Angry, Sad), evidencing difficulties in both behavioral inhibition and emotional reactivity within these conditions. In addition, analyses revealed unpredicted associations among EGNG performance, reading level, and race/ethnicity, suggesting a role of cultural, contextual, and individual level factors influencing emotional regulatory ability in these youth. Compared to studies that have examined the ability to label fearful affect, these findings suggest that discriminating fear from neutral faces may not be as deficient in youth with CU traits as previously reported. This is consistent with research that has found that CU traits may improve adolescents' ability to label the expression of fear and may facilitate antisocial behavior. Importantly, this study highlights the utility of examining CU traits in antisocial youth, and has important theoretical and clinical implications. Future research should continue to examine the regulation of responses to fear and other negative emotions in youth with CU traits, as well as relationships among these variables and behavioral characteristics (e.g., propensity to violence).


The rules of "Bulgarian solitaire" are considered as an operation on the set of partitions to induce a finite dynamical system. We focus on partitions with no preimage under this operation, known as Garden of Eden points, and their relation to the partitions that are in cycles. These are the partitions of interest, as we show that starting from the Garden of Eden points leads through the entire dynamical system to all cycle partitions. A primary result concerns the number of Garden of Eden partitions (the number of cycle partitions is known from Brandt). The same operation and questions can be put in the context of compositions (ordered partitions), where we give stronger results.


Summary Programmed cell death protein 1/programmed cell death protein ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4/B7 (CTLA-4/B7) pathways are key regulators in T-cell activation and tolerance. Nivolumab, pembrolizumab (PD-1 inhibitors), atezolizumab (PD-L1 inhibitor) and ipilimumab (CTLA-4 inhibitor) are monoclonal antibodies approved for treatment of several advanced cancers. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs)-related hypophysitis is described more frequently in patients treated with anti-CTLA-4; however, recent studies reported an increasing prevalence of anti-PD-1/PD-L1-induced hypophysitis which also exhibits slightly different clinical features. We report our experience on hypophysitis induced by anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1 treatment. We present four cases, diagnosed in the past 12 months, of hypophysitis occurring in two patients receiving anti-PD-1, in one patient receiving anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 combined therapy and in one patient receiving anti-PD-L1. In this case series, timing, clinical presentation and association with other immune-related adverse events appeared to be extremely variable; central hypoadrenalism and hyponatremia were constantly detected although sellar magnetic resonance imaging did not reveal specific signs of pituitary inflammation. These differences highlight the complexity of ICI-related hypophysitis and the existence of different mechanisms of action leading to heterogeneity of clinical presentation in patients receiving immunotherapy. Learning points: PD-1/PD-L1 blockade can induce hypophysitis with a different clinical presentation when compared to CTLA-4 blockade. Diagnosis of PD-1/PD-L1 induced hypophysitis is mainly made on clinical grounds and sellar MRI does not show radiological abnormalities. Hyponatremia due to acute secondary adrenal insufficiency is often the principal sign of PD-1/PD-L1-induced hypophysitis and can be masked by other symptoms due to oncologic disease. PD-1/PD-L1-induced hypophysitis can present as an isolated manifestation of irAEs or be in association with other autoimmune diseases


During the recent years, multiobjective evolutionary algorithms have matured as a flexible optimization tool which can be used in various areas of reallife applications. Practical experiences showed that typically the algorithms need an essential adaptation to the specific problem for a successful application. Considering these requirements, we discuss various issues of the design and application of multiobjective evolutionary algorithms to real-life optimization problems. In particular, questions on problem-specific data structures and evolutionary operators and the determination of method parameters are treated. As a major issue, the handling of infeasible intermediate solutions is pointed out. Three application examples in the areas of constrained global optimization (electronic circuit design), semi-infinite programming (design centering problems), and discrete optimization (project scheduling) are discussed.


We propose a novel approach to estimating the impact of an attack using a data model and an impact model on top of an attack graph. The data model describes how data flows between nodes in the network -- how it is copied and processed by softwares and hosts -- while the impact model models how exploitation of vulnerabilities affects the data flows with respect to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the data. In addition, by assigning a loss value to a compromised data set, we can estimate the cost of a successful attack. We show that our algorithm not only subsumes the simple impact estimation used in the literature but also improves it by explicitly modeling loss value dependencies between network nodes. With our model, the operator will be able to use less time when comparing different security patches to a network.


Dr Agatha Gijzen (Rotterdam *9 October 1904, Merksem/Belgium †19 February 1995) was a remarkable zoologist in more than one respect. Although her professional career, spanning more than three and a half decades, was largely spent as a staff zoologist in the service of the famous Antwerp/ Planckendael zoological gardens complex in Belgium (1947-1974), she had already made her name as a zoologist/historian by obtaining her Ph.D. degree in 1938 on an extensive first study of the history of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in Leiden, the national museum of natural history of The Netherlands. She properly organized the archives of the museum for the very first time and her published doctoral thesis (unfortunately only available in Dutch; summary in English) covers the history from the museum's beginnings in 1820 (and its predecessors) until 1915, when the museum was completely settled in its then new and revolutionary building under the guidance of its fourth director. This means that she reviews the period of the first three directors (Dr C.J. Temminck, 1820-1858; Dr H. Schlegel, 1858-1884; Dr F.A. Jentink, 1884- 1913) completely (Dr E.D. van Oort, acting director 1913-1915, took over the reins in 1915, so that his tenure is hardly touched upon). Apart from the directors, the scientific staff is very fully covered. Another part of the book describes the collectors who contributed material from all over the world, but particularly from the then Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). The book is concluded with an annotated alphabetical index of correspondents in the period 1820-1915. Gijzen's treatise is a basic work on the museum, its policies and history; it is still consulted almost daily by all who have to refer to material obtained before 1915. The second and longest part of Agatha Gijzen's professional career was devoted to the management, care and breeding of exotic animals in zoological gardens. After almost a decade at the Rotterdam Zoological Gardens (1938-1947, with an interruption during World War II), she enjoyed the exciting times of rebuilding the almost totally destroyed Antwerp Zoo (Belgium) after the war and the opening and first development of its outstation Planckendael in Muizen near Mechelen. In the course of supervising the management of the mammals, she became an expert on the okapi [Okapia johnstoni (Sclater)], the at that time still elusive forest giraffid of Zaire, initiating the international studbook of specimens in captivity and publishing some authoritative papers on the subject. Finally she was appointed part-time professor of animal behaviour at the Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1970-1975) besides her duties as senior scientist at the Antwerp/Planckendael zoos. The obituary lists her publications, many of which were of a semipopular nature in the context of the educational duties of a non-commercial zoological gardens. The zoo journal destined for a wider public was published in two editions, in Dutch and in French. Agatha Gijzen originally wrote her contributions in Dutch, but (almost) all are also available in French - these articles are marked with an *. The edition in French was the one distributed in exchange by the Antwerp Zoo and referred to in the Zoological Record.


This article reports the results from a series of laboratory auction markets in which consumers bid on meat characteristics. The characteristics examined include meat traceability (i.e., the ability to trace the retail meat back to the farm or animal of origin), transparency (e.g., knowing the meat was produced without added growth hormones, or knowing the animal was humanely treated), and extra assurances (e.g., extra meat safety assurances). This laboratory study provides non-hypothetical bid data on consumer preferences for a sample of consumers in Logan, Utah, for traceability, transparency, and assurances (TTA) in red meat at a time when the United States currently lags other countries in development of TTA meat systems. Results suggest these consumers would be willing to pay for such TTA meat characteristics, and the magnitude of the consumer bids reveals that a profitable market for development of TTA systems in the United States might exist.


One of the most remarkable phenomena in international law during the past fifteen years has been the extraordinary increase in the number of agreements concluded relating to the protection or liberalization of foreign investment. More than 2500 such agreements now exist, with the great majority having been concluded since 1990. This number includes almost 2400 bilateral investment treaties (BITs) as well as more than 200 trade agreements that contain investment provisions. Although the number of agreements has accelerated remarkably in recent years, international agreements relating to investment have a long history. Provisions relating to the protection of property abroad may be found in international agreements dating back to the late Eighteenth Century.This essay traces the history of these international investment agreements. It finds that the history thus far comprises three separate eras. The first, the Colonial Era, began in the late Eighteenth Century and continued until the end of the Second World War. The second, the Post-Colonial Era, began with the end of the war and continued until approximately 1990, with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The third, the Global Era, began in approximately 1990 and continues until the present.


Persistently activated or tyrosine-phosphorylated STAT3 (pSTAT3) is found in 50% of lung adenocarcinomas. pSTAT3 is found in primary adenocarcinomas and cell lines harboring somatic-activating mutations in the tyrosine kinase domain of EGFR. Treatment of cell lines with either an EGFR inhibitor or an src kinase inhibitor had no effect on pSTAT3 levels, whereas a pan-JAK inhibitor (P6) blocked activation of STAT3 and inhibited tumorigenesis. Cell lines expressing these persistently activated mutant EGFRs also produced high IL-6 levels, and blockade of the IL-6/gp130/JAK pathway led to a decrease in pSTAT3 levels. In addition, reduction of IL-6 levels by RNA interference led to a decrease in tumorigenesis. Introduction of persistently activated EGFR into immortalized breast epithelial cells led to tumorigenesis, IL-6 expression, and STAT3 activation, all of which could be inhibited with P6 or gp130 blockade. Furthermore, inhibition of EGFR activity in multiple cell lines partially blocked transcription of IL-6 and concurrently decreased production and release of IL-6. Finally, immunohistochemical analysis revealed a positive correlation between pSTAT3 and IL-6 positivity in primary lung adenocarcinomas. Therefore, mutant EGFR could activate the gp130/JAK/STAT3 pathway by means of IL-6 upregulation in primary human lung adenocarcinomas, making this pathway a potential target for cancer treatment.


Exertional heat stroke (EHS) is among the leading causes of sudden death during sport and physical activity. However, previous research has shown that EHS is 100% survivable when rapidly recognized and appropriate treatment is provided. Establishing policies to address issues related to the prevention and treatment of EHS, including heat acclimatization, environment-based activity modification, body temperature assessment using rectal thermometry, and immediate, onsite treatment using cold-water immersion attenuates the risk of EHS mortality and morbidity. This article provides an overview of the current evidence regarding EHS prevention and management. The transfer of scientific knowledge to clinical practice has shown great success for saving EHS patients. Further efforts are needed to implement evidence-based policies to not only mitigate EHS fatality but also to reduce the overall incidence of EHS.


Contents: Introduction to the Volume. Part I: Literacy Acquisition in Different Writing Systems. J. Pind, Evolution of an Alphabetic Writing System: The Case of Icelandic. B.E. Hagtvet, T. Helland, S-A.H. Lyster, Literacy Acquisition in Norwegian. C. Elbro, Literacy Acquisition in Danish: A Deep Orthography in Cross-Linguistic Light. H. Lyytinen, M. Aro, L. Holopainen, M. Leiwo, P. Lyytinen, A. Tolvanen, Children's Language Development and Reading Acquisition in a Highly Transparent Orthography. A. Lehtonen, Sources of Information Children Use in Learning to Spell: The Case of Finnish Geminates. J. Jaffre, M. Fayol, Orthography and Literacy in French. R. Job, F. Peressotti, C. Mulatti, The Acquisition of Literacy in Italian. K. Landerl, V. Thaler, Reading and Spelling Acquisition and Dyslexia in German. A.M.T. Bosman, S. de Graaff, M.A.R. Gijsel, Double Dutch: The Dutch Spelling System and Learning to Spell in Dutch. J.S. Sainz, Literacy Acquisition in Spanish. C. Cardoso-Martins, Beginning Reading Acquisition in Brazilian Portuguese. C.D. Porpodas, Literacy Acquisition in Greek: Research Review of the Role of Phonological and Cognitive Factors. T. Nunes, A. Aidinis, P. Bryant, The Acquisition of Written Morphology in Greek. A.Y. Durgunoglu, How Language Characteristics Influence Turkish Literacy Development. V. Csepe, Literacy Acquisition and Dyslexia in Hungarian. A.A. Reid, Developmental Dyslexia: Evidence From Polish. A. Janyan, E. Andonova, Word Reading in Bulgarian Children and Adults. I. Sprugevica, I. Paunina, T. Hoien, Early Phonological Skill as a Predictor of Reading Acquisition in Latvian. E.L. Grigorenko, If John Were Ivan, Would He Fail in Reading? S. Abu-Rabia, H. Taha, Reading in Arabic Orthography: Characteristics, Research Findings, and Assessment. D. Ravid, Hebrew Orthography and Literacy. B. Baluch, Persian Orthography and Its Relation to Literacy. J. Kim, C. Davis, Literacy Acquisition in Korean Hangul: Investigating the Perceptual and Phonological Processing of Good and Poor Readers. P. Karanth, The Kagunita of Kannada--Learning to Read and Write an Indian Alphasyllabary. K.J. Alcock, Literacy in Kishwahili. H. Cheung, C. McBride-Chang, B. Wing-Yin Chow, Reading Chinese. Part II: Literacy Acquisition From Cross-Linguistic Perspectives. P.H.K. Seymour, Theoretical Framework for Beginning Reading in Different Orthographies. U. Goswami, Orthography, Phonology, and Reading Development: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective. N. Akamatsu, Literacy Acquisition in Japanese-English Bilinguals. M. Caravolas, Learning to Spell in Different Languages: How Orthographic Variables Might Affect Early Literacy. K. Landerl, Reading Acquisition in Different Orthographies: Evidence From Direct Comparisons. M. Aro, Learning to Read: The Effect of Orthography. P.G. Aaron, R.M. Joshi, Learning to Spell From Print and Learning to Spell From Speech: A Study of Spelling of Children Who Speak Tamil, a Dravidian Language. R.M. Joshi, T. Hoien, X. Feng, R. Chengappa, R. Boulware-Gooden, Learning to Spell by Ear and by Eye: A Cross-Linguistic Comparison. Part III: Literacy Acquisition: Instructional Perspectives. R. Treiman, Knowledge About Letters as a Foundation for Reading and Spelling. P. Bryant, H. Deacon, T. Nunes, Morphology and Spelling: What Have Morphemes to Do With Spelling? W.E. Tunmer, J.W. Chapman, Metalinguistic Abilities, Phonological Recoding Skill, and the Use of Context in Beginning Reading Development: A Longitudinal Study. T. Nicholson, G.L. Ng, The Case for Teaching Phonemic Awareness and Simple Phonics to Preschoolers. L.C. Ehri, Alphabetics Instruction Helps Students Learn to Read. R.S. Johnston, J.E. Watson, The Effectiveness of Synthetic Phonics Teaching in Developing Reading and Spelling Skills in English-Speaking Boys and Girls. R.K. Olson, Genetic?? and Environmental Influences on the Development of Reading and Related Cognitive Skills. D. Aram, O. Korat, I. Levin, Maternal Mediation in a Young Child's Writing Activity: A Sociocultural Perspective. R.L. Venezky, Foundations for Studying Basic Processes in Reading.


The Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training (known as FIRST) is dedicated to make running more accessible and limit overtraining and burnout while producing faster race times. FIRST is one of the foremost experts in the world on the science of running; its authority is unmatched and the promise of training less and accomplishing more has made the first two editions of "Run Less, Run Faster "a solid and steady seller. With 50 percent updated content, this new edition of "Runner's World Run Less, Run Faster "by Bill Pierce, Scott Murr, and Ray Moss continues to promise the same tantalizing results: Readers can get stronger, faster, and better by training less. It will also include more sections for novice runners, broadening the audience appeal, as well as training plans tailored to the new qualifying times for the Boston Marathon. The quality-over-quantity approach optimizes training time and yields better performance results runners will love no matter what distance they are racing."


The Arthurian legend has been part of history through different mediums ranging from art to film. Though no one text can be identified as the origin of the Arthurian legend, several texts have come to the forefront of the Arthurian canon. The "English tradition" consists of texts Britain and America recognize as versions of the Arthurian legend: Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur, Lord Alfred Tennyson's The Idylls of the King, and T.H. White's The Once and Future King. All three texts have caused different subsequent adaptations of the Arthurian legend as each portrays the Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot love triangle differently. As film became introduced to popular culture, Arthurian legends have been frequently presented on the silver screen. Three films in particular, Richard Thorpe's Knights of the Round Table (1953), Joshua Logan's Camelot (1967), and John Boorman's Excalibur (1981), have not only presented the Arthurian legend differently based on the interpretations of the director, but also focused on the love triangle in varying ways. By analyzing these select texts and films, an understanding of how, why, and to what purpose the Arthurian love triangle has been presented to audiences since the fifteenth century can be gained.


We may imagine the digital cloud as placeless, mute, ethereal, and unmediated. Yet the reality of the cloud is embodied in thousands of massive data centers, any one of which can use as much electricity as a midsized town. Even all these data centers are only one small part of the cloud. Behind that cloud-shaped icon on our screens is a whole universe of technologies and cultural norms, all working to keep us from noticing their existence. In this book, Tung-Hui Hu examines the gap between the real and the virtual in our understanding of the cloud. Hu shows that the cloud grew out of such older networks as railroad tracks, sewer lines, and television circuits. He describes key moments in the prehistory of the cloud, from the game "Spacewar" as exemplar of time-sharing computers to Cold War bunkers that were later reused as data centers. Countering the popular perception of a new "cloudlike" political power that is dispersed and immaterial, Hu argues that the cloud grafts digital technologies onto older ways of exerting power over a population. But because we invest the cloud with cultural fantasies about security and participation, we fail to recognize its militarized origins and ideology. Moving between the materiality of the technology itself and its cultural rhetoric, Hu's account offers a set of new tools for rethinking the contemporary digital environment.


In this paper we propose a finite volume discretization for the threedimensional Biot poroelasticity system in multilayered domains. For the stability reasons, staggered grids are used. The discretization accounts for discontinuity of the coefficients across the interfaces between layers with different physical properties. Numerical experiments, based on the proposed discretization showed second order convergence in the maximum norm for the primary as well as flux unknowns of the system. A certain application example is presented as well. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 65M06;74S10;74L10;76S05.


Vietnam's strong performance on the 2012 and 2015 PISA assessments has led to interest in what explains the strong academic performance of Vietnamese students. Analysis of the PISA data has not shed much light on this issue. This paper analyses a much richer data set, the Young Lives data for Ethiopia, India (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), Peru and Vietnam, to investigate the reasons for the strong academic performance of 15-year-olds in Vietnam. Differences in observed child and household characteristics explain 37-39% of the gap between Vietnam and Ethiopia, while observed school variables explain only about 3-4 additional percentage points (although an important variable, math teachers' pedagogical skills, is not available for Ethiopia). Differences in observed child and household characteristics explain very little of the gaps between Vietnam and India and between Vietnam and Peru, yet one observed school variable has a large explanatory effect: primary school math teachers' pedagogical skills. It explains about 10-12% of the gap between Vietnam and India, raising the overall explained portion to 14-21% of the gap. For Peru, it explains most (65-84%) of the gap.


The performance of an optical imaging system is fundamentally limited by the wave nature
of light. More specifically the lateral resolution of an image has traditionally been dictated
by Abbe's limit, to be approximately one-half of the wavelength. The pursuit of exceeding
this limit is a growing interest in several research areas. The goal of these pursuits
is to achieve super-resolution imaging, as in breaking what have long been thought of as
insurmountable restrictions. There have been several methods proposed and demonstrated
to overcome Abbe's limits. Some of the aforementioned methods include the perfect lens
made from negative refractive index materials and Structured Illumination Microscopy
(SIM). This paper highlights a novel approach to achieving super-resolution imaging. In
this case the means to obtaining super-resolution imaging will be through optical gain by
using an active objective lens. This gain will allow for the retention of spatial frequencies
beyond Abbes limit, by the conversion of evanescent waves into sustainable propagating
waves. An optical assembly was constructed to verify the theory of optical gain assisted
evanescent wave conversion. The experimental results show that for two specific situations, where one (Pump angle A) provides the possibility of optical gain assisted evanescent
wave conversion and one (Pump angle C) does not, Pump angle A position allows for
the detection of higher spatial frequency information than Pump angle C position in the
far-field pattern. This confirms the hypothesis and the theory of evanescent wave conversion
via optical gain, providing the potential for far-field super-resolution.


Hidden somewhere, in nearly every major city in the world, is an underground seduction lair. And in these lairs, men trade the most devastatingly effective techniques ever invented to charm women. This is not fiction. These men really exist. They live together in houses known as Projects. And Neil Strauss, the bestselling author, spent two years living among them, using the pseudonym Style to protect his real-life identity. The result is one of the most explosive and controversial books of the year -- guaranteed to change the lives of men and transform the way women understand the opposite sex forever. On his journey from AFC (average frustrated chump) to PUA (pick-up artist) to PUG (pick-up guru), Strauss not only shares scores of original seduction techniques but also has unforgettable encounters with the likes of Tom Cruise, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Heidi Fleiss, and Courtney Love. And then things really start to get strange -- and passions lead to betrayals lead to violence. The Game is the story of one man's transformation from frog to prince -- to prisoner in the most unforgettable book of the year.


Denman, K.L. Agent Angus. Victoria: Orca Book Publishers, 2012. Print. An Orca Currents book for reluctant middle school readers, the story follows Angus and his best friend Shahid on their mission to solve a mysterious theft. Canadian author K.L. Denman writes in her usual first-person narrative style with characteristic elements of mystery, science and romance. The story takes place at a school where a stink bomb incident has led to all the students gathering on the front lawn. Right from the book's introduction ("I'm not a lucky guy. Today luck has chosen to place me next to the one and only Ella Eckles"), readers are taken inside Angus' head and will be rooting for him along the way. When his crush's cherished sketchbook goes missing, Angus poses as a mentalist who can solve the crime by reading people. He 'proves' his abilities to Ella by pointing out the shifty stink bomb perpetrator right before he is nabbed by the principal. Humorous elements run throughout such as when the boys consider various spy devices (Gordon the 'too obvious' robot, a rocket pack launched from a plane, pricey video cameras hidden in smiley face buttons or baseball hats which are not allowed in school, and affordable but oversized rear view sunglasses). Suspense builds as the various suspects are considered. Is the thief their fellow classmate, their art teacher or someone they least suspected? And what could their motive be? This quick read full of spying and intrigue will have readers flipping pages to solve the mystery of the sketchbook and find out if Angus will finally confront the truth. The fluid writing style with varying sentence lengths adds to the drama and pace of the story. This light-hearted story makes a great choice for reluctant readers but lacks deep meaning. It may not appeal to readers who are looking to be challenged. Those looking for a light, easy read will find it enjoyable. Recommended: 3 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Lori Williams Lori Williams has been teaching at Forest Grove School in British Columbia for the past 6 years and feels lucky to be part of a wonderful team of colleagues and students. This year she is teaching grade 5 at Forest Grove and is also a graduate student in the University of Alberta's Teacher-Librarianship by Distance Learning program.


Many birds in breeding seasons engage in vigorous dawn singing that often turns to a prominent chorus. We examined dawn chorus variation of avian assemblages in a tropical montane forest in Taiwan and tested the hypothesis that onset sequence is affected by eye sizes, foraging heights, and diet of birds. Chorus onset and duration varied between sampling months, but generally peaked in the prime breeding season. Overall dawn chorus length increased with, but mean duration per species was negatively correlated with, species richness. The inter-correlation among trait variables in phylogenetic independent contrasts was calculated and examined. Both foraging height and relative eye size were selected as positively explanatory factors, but no dietary effects were detected, for chorus onsets. Dawn singing onsets also tended to delay as decreasing log (eye sizes) that, however, was not selected with enough explanatory power. The positive relationship of chorus onsets versus relative eye sizes contradicts our prediction, yet the negative correlation of relative eye sizes with log (eye sizes) indicates an allometric constraint on eye sizes along with increasing body sizes. Lowerlayer species initiated singing earlier than upper-layer species, which complies with the positive correlation of onsets with foraging heights and supports our prediction. This pattern may be condition-specific and more likely occurs in forests lacking a sufficient canopy height and layering and a distinct light difference among forest layers. Foraging heights were additionally found negatively correlated with canopy coverage and slightly positively correlated with ground coverage of perches. Our results concord that foraging height is a relevant factor as eye size in determining the onset and sequence of dawn chorus, yet, suggest that forest settings and vegetation structure may likely complicate the prediction.


The capacity to think about our own thinking may lie at the heart of what it means to be both human and intelligent. Philosophers and cognitive scientists have investigated these matters for many years. Researchers in artificial intelligence have gone further, attempting to implement actual machines that mimic, simulate, and perhaps even replicate this capacity, called metareasoning. In this volume, leading authorities offer a variety of perspectives--drawn from philosophy, cognitive psychology, and computer science--on reasoning about the reasoning process. The book offers a simple model of reasoning about reason as a framework for its discussions. Following this framework, the contributors consider metalevel control of computational activities, introspective monitoring, distributed metareasoning, and, putting all these aspects of metareasoning together, models of the self. Taken together, the chapters offer an integrated narrative on metareasoning themes from both artificial intelligence and cognitive science perspectives.


Variants resistant to compounds specifically targeting HCV are observed in clinical trials. A multi-variant viral dynamic model was developed to quantify the evolution and in vivo fitness of variants in subjects dosed with monotherapy of an HCV protease inhibitor, telaprevir. Variant fitness was estimated using a model in which variants were selected by competition for shared limited replication space. Fitness was represented in the absence of telaprevir by different variant production rate constants and in the presence of telaprevir by additional antiviral blockage by telaprevir. Model parameters, including rate constants for viral production, clearance, and effective telaprevir concentration, were estimated from 1) plasma HCV RNA levels of subjects before, during, and after dosing, 2) post-dosing prevalence of plasma variants from subjects, and 3) sensitivity of variants to telaprevir in the HCV replicon. The model provided a good fit to plasma HCV RNA levels observed both during and after telaprevir dosing, as well as to variant prevalence observed after telaprevir dosing. After an initial sharp decline in HCV RNA levels during dosing with telaprevir, HCV RNA levels increased in some subjects. The model predicted this increase to be caused by pre-existing variants with sufficient fitness to expand once available replication space increased due to rapid clearance of wild-type (WT) virus. The average replicative fitness estimates in the absence of telaprevir ranged from 1% to 68% of WT fitness. Compared to the relative fitness method, the in vivo estimates from the viral dynamic model corresponded more closely to in vitro replicon data, as well as to qualitative behaviors observed in both on-dosing and long-term post-dosing clinical data. The modeling fitness estimates were robust in sensitivity analyses in which the restoration dynamics of replication space and assumptions of HCV mutation rates were varied.


This book examines the role of the international community in the handover of the Dutch colony of West Papua/Irian Jaya to Indonesia in the 1960s and questions whether or not the West Papuan people ever genuinely exercised the right to self-determination guaranteed to them in the UN-brokered Dutch/Indonesian agreement of 1962. Indonesian, Dutch, US, Soviet, Australian and British involvement is discussed, but particular emphasis is given to the central part played by the United Nations in the implementation of this agreement. As guarantor, the UN temporarily took over the territory's administration from the Dutch before transferring control to Indonesia in 1963. After five years of Indonesian rule, a UN team returned to West Papua to monitor and endorse a controversial act of self-determination that resulted in a unanimous vote by 1022 Papuan 'representatives' to reject independence. Despite this, the issue is still very much alive today as a crisis-hit Indonesia faces continued armed rebellion and growing calls for freedom in West Papua.


Greer, Daphne Maxed Out. Victoria: Orca Book Publishers, 2012. Print. In this cleverly-titled high interest low level novel, Max wants nothing more than to have the freedom to play a game of ice hockey with his friends. The trouble is that his mother is still in mourning after his father's death and Max is left in charge of his special needs brother, Duncan. Max can't take his eyes off Duncan without some kind of trouble starting. Readers will sympathize with Max and his good intentions. Despite his best efforts, everything he does seems to go wrong and he consistently disappoints his mom. Max is torn between the responsibilities placed upon him much too young and playing the game he loves that brings him closer to his father. The surmounting pressures of responsibility are made worse when he simultaneously has to deal with a bully on top of everything else. The character of Duncan, who believes he is Spiderman or Batman depending on the day, is entertaining. Other likeable characters in the story include Max's caring friend Ian and the friendly neighbour Mr. Cooper. Kids with feelings of neglect or overwhelming pressure in their lives will relate to Max. The author's notes emphasizing that "asking for help is a sign of true strength" may provide that bridge for children to seek help through the Kids Help Phone. The cover will attract young hockey fans. The escalating conflicts and intriguing family dynamics will sustain readers to seek out the story's resolution. This quick read with a simplistic storyline and sentence structure will appeal to boys who are reluctant readers. Recommended: 3 out of 4 stars. Reviewer: Lori Williams Lori Williams has been teaching at Forest Grove School in British Columbia for the past 6 years and feels lucky to be part of a wonderful team of colleagues and students. This year she is teaching grade 5 at Forest Grove and is also a graduate student in the University of Alberta's teacher-librarianship distance learning program.


Procedure Appropriateness Category Relative Radiation Level Radiography trauma series Usually Appropriate ☢☢☢ US FAST scan chest abdomen pelvis Usually Appropriate O CT whole body with IV contrast May Be Appropriate ☢☢☢☢ CT whole body without IV contrast May Be Appropriate ☢☢☢☢ MRI abdomen and pelvis without and with IV contrast Usually Not Appropriate O MRI abdomen and pelvis without IV contrast Usually Not Appropriate O


"An insiders guide to translating the creative techniques of jazz to the business world. Scott Berkun, author of The Myths of Innovation What Can Your Team Learn From Jazz Musicians? Experienced jazz musicians apply specific principles to collaborate, execute, and manage change in real time--delivering extraordinary innovation in the face of non-stop pressure and risk. Now, jazz musician and collaboration expert Adrian Cho shows how you can use the same principles to dramatically improve any teams performance. Cho systematically introduces the Jazz Process and demonstrates how it can help cross-functional teams improve teamwork, innovation, and execution. Youll learn new ways to encourage and integrate strong individual contributions from passionate and committed practitioners, and give them maximum autonomy while making sure your projects music never degenerates into chaotic noise. Through multiple case studies, Cho shows you how high-performance teams achieve their success. Master five core principles of working in teams: use just enough rules, employ top talent, put the team first, build trust and respect, and commit with passion Establish a realistic framework for effective, continuous execution Collaborate more effectively with team members, consumers, customers, partners, and suppliers Master the essentials of team execution: listening for change, leading on demand, acting transparently, and making every contribution count Reduce the friction associated with collaboration--and increase the synergy Use form, tempo, pulse, and groove to maintain constructive momentum Learn about the importance of healthy projects and teams Innovate by exchanging ideas and taking the right measured risks For every practitioner, leader, and manager interested in getting better results


New social and political movements from radically different political positions are emerging across Europe using social media, posing a new challenge to existing political parties and structures. The Pirate Party in Germany and the Occupy movement are examples of movements that have employed social media to grow rapidly and create a significant political and social impact – all in the last three years.

Beppe Grillo, the Italian comedian and blogger, is one of the first political figures to have embraced this change. He has used social media to communicate, recruit and organise, growing the Moviment 5 Stelle from practically nothing to a major political force in Italy in the space of three years, with it expected to play a crucial role in the 2013 Italian elections. His anti-establishment message has resonated with many against a backdrop of declining trust in political institutions, falling political party membership and ever-lower voter turnout.

This report presents the results of a survey of 1,865 Facebook fans of Beppe Grillo and the Movimento 5 Stelle. It includes data on who they are, what they think, and what motivates them to shift from virtual to real-world activism. It also compares them with other similar parties in Western Europe and their attitudes to those of the Italian population. This report is the seventh in a series of country specific briefings about the online support of populist parties across Europe.


A letter is shown here (dated November 27, 2002) from R. B. Shiflet to Bob Bellamy, concerning the Mineral Wells High School graduating classes of 1953 and 1954. It states that the move to the "new" campus occurred during the Christmas holidays of 1953. The letter also describes classroom conditions during this period. Houston School faculty members are mentioned, as well. They included R. B. Shiflet, Mrs. D. R. (Ferne) Hudson and Mrs. Mildred Burnham.


A straightforward formulation of a mathematical problem is mostly not ad-equate for resolution theorem proving. We present a method to optimize suchformulations by exploiting the variability of first-order logic. The optimizingtransformation is described as logic morphisms, whose operationalizations aretactics. The different behaviour of a resolution theorem prover for the sourceand target formulations is demonstrated by several examples. It is shown howtactical and resolution-style theorem proving can be combined.


This IBM Redbook is a comprehensive guide to setting up, maintaining, and troubleshooting the advanced auditing and accounting features on AIX 5L systems. It goes through the steps to develop, monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize best practices for auditing and accounting in your environment. We provide an overview of what auditing and accounting can do for you, how to set up an auditing system, procedures for creating the right accounting system for your environment, and a summary of available third-party accounting systems that can plug into the AIX suite. Learn to decide how much accounting and auditing you need to do on your system and how to size subsystems to handle your requirements, and find a list of rules to help prevent and fix common mistakes. We also present the new AIX 5L V5.3 feature Advanced Accounting, which is based on mainframe technology such as interval accounting and transaction accounting. Advanced Accounting supports LPAR (logical partitioning), WLM (Workload Management), and Micro-Partitioning. This book is useful for system administrators, system security officers, companies needing to bill clients for system resource use, and anyone else looking for a flexible system to monitor system resources.


New records of Callicebus cinerascens (Spix, 1823) with an extension of its geographical distribution. The ashy black titi monkey (Callicebus cinerascens; Pri- mates; Pitheciidae) is one of the least known Neotropical primate species occurring in the Aripuana-Roosevelt and Tapajos-Juruena interfluves in Brazilian Amazonia. Its distribution limits, especially those to the east and south, remain imprecise. In this paper, based on four independent primate field sampling, we present several new occurrences in the south of the C. cinerascens' geographic distribution. The knowledge of existing primates in this area is entirely absent and these recently discovered populations are under severe threat, since the remaining habitats are highly fragmented due to the historical deforestation rates of this area. The results of this study significantly increased the number of records known to C. cinerascens, indicating a considerable extension of the geographical distribution of this taxon. Palavras-chave. Amazonia. Inventario. Novos registros. Primates. Pitheciidae.


Lactation is a time of rapid bone loss due to hyperprolactinemia, amenorrhea, and increased bone turnover, especially in the lumbar spine and hip. Childbearing may be one of the causes for the high prevalence (59%) of overweight and obesity among women. Exercise, combined with a modest restriction in energy intake, has been shown in non-lactating women to improve body composition and protect bone during periods of weight loss. However, there is a paucity of research on exercise and dietary interventions in lactating women aimed at promotion of bone health and weight loss. Therefore, the primary objectives of the two studies in this dissertation were: 1) to describe the changes in dietary intake, bone turnover markers, and hormones related to lactation and exercise, as well as predict changes in bone mineral density (BMD) during lactation in women whom had undertaken resistance exercise, and 2) to promote lifestyle changes through a home-based nutrition and exercise intervention targeting overweight lactating postpartum women. The first study concluded exercise and a higher dietary calcium intake were inversely related to bone loss during lactation, when controlling for parity. Additionally, an increase in bone formation markers predicted an increase of lumbar spine BMD, whereas increased levels of estradiol and IGF-1 were positively related to total body BMD. The second study results suggest moderate energy restriction and resistance training are safe methods for weight loss in overweight fully breastfeeding women with no adverse affects on BMD and infant growth. Additionally, the use of MyPyramid Menu Planner appeared to be a novel tool to aid in weekly individual dietary counseling and weight loss. This dissertation research was the first to examine the effects of an exercise and weight loss intervention on attenuation of lactation-induced bone loss in overweight women. The results suggest moderate energy restriction, walking, and resistance training are safe methods for weight loss in overweight fully breastfeeding women with no adverse affects on BMD and infant growth.


Developing optical detection techniques for discriminating particular phytoplankon species in mixed assemblages has long been a goal of aquatic scientists. Previously, a processing algorithm for phytoplankton absorption spectra was reported that suggested detection of the red tide dinoflagellate Gymnodinium breve was possible. The algorithm evaluated the fourth derivative of the particulate absorption spectrum of an unknown sample and compared it to a standard fourth derivative spectrum for G. breve using a similarity index. We report here the first‐time application of this technique to the detection of G. breve in natural, mixed phytoplankton communities. Pigment and spectral absorption data were collected from natural blooms of G. breve in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. This dinoflagellate is the only species of phytoplankton in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico observed to contain the pigment gyroxanthin‐diester, and it appears in constant proportion to cellular chlorophyll a (Chl a) in G. breve. The in vitro absorption spectrum of gyroxanthin‐diester is nearly identical to other xanthophylls (including diadinoxanthin, lutein, and 199‐hexanoyloxyfucoxanthin) and is not singularly responsible for imparting a unique absorption signature. Quantifying gyroxanthin‐diester and Chl a allowed us to estimate the fraction of the biomass in mixed populations associated with G. breve. Subsequent regression of the G. breve similarity indexes to the G. breve biomass fractions yielded a significant linear correlation. Finally, the liquid waveguide capillary cell appears to be a promising technology for automating this technique.


Bugs can often be hard to identify and developers spend a large amount of time locating and fixing them. Bug prediction strives to identify code defects using machine learning and statistical analysis and therefore decreasing time spent on bug localization. With bug prediction, awareness of bugs can be increased and software quality can be improved in significantly less time. Machine learning models are used in most modern bug prediction tools and with recent advances in machine learning, new models and possibilities have arisen that further improve the possibilities and performance in bug prediction. In our studies, we test the performance of "Doc2Vec" – a current model that is used to vectorize plain text – on source code to perform classification. Instead of relying on code metrics, we analyze and vectorize plain-text source code and try to identify bugs based on similarity to learned paragraph vectors. Testing two different implementations of the Doc2Vec model, we find that no usable results can be achieved by using plain text classification models for bug prediction. Even after abstracting the code and applying parameter tuning on our model, all experiments deliver a constant 50% accuracy, so no learning can be achieved by any of the models. The experiments clearly show that code should not be treated as plain text and should instead contain more code-specific information like metrics about the code. Our second setup of experiments consists of a 3-layer feed forward neural network that performs classificationand regressionbased approaches on code metrics, using datasets that contain a discrete number of bugs as a response variable. There have already been many successful experiments using metrics to perform classification based on code metrics. In our studies we compare the performance of a standard regression and standard multi-class classification model to the models "classification by regression" (CbR) and "regression by classification" (RbC). In the RbC model, we use the output from classification to predict an accurate number of bugs and then calculate the root-mean-square error (RMSE). In the CbR model we use the output of regression to perform binary classification and calculate area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC AUC) to compare the results. In our experiments we find that a neural network delivers better results when using the CbR model on an estimated defect count compared to the results using standard multi-class classification. We also suggest that the RMSE can significantly be decreased by using the RbC model compared to standard regression.


This illuminating book broadly addresses the emerging field of 'diversity of capitalism' from a comparative institutional approach. It explores the varied patterns for achieving coordination in different economic systems, applying them specifically to China, Japan and South Korea. These countries are of particular interest due to the fact that they are often considered to have developed their own peculiar blend of models of capitalism.


The AAAI-2000 Workshop Program was held Sunday and Monday, 3031 July 2000 at the Hyatt Regency Austin and the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. The 15 workshops held were (1) Agent-Oriented Information Systems, (2) Artificial Intelligence and Music, (3) Artificial Intelligence and Web Search, (4) Constraints and AI Planning, (5) Integration of AI and OR: Techniques for Combinatorial Optimization, (6) Intelligent Lessons Learned Systems, (7) Knowledge-Based Electronic Markets, (8) Learning from Imbalanced Data Sets, (9) Learning Statistical Models from Rela-tional Data, (10) Leveraging Probability and Uncertainty in Computation, (11) Mobile Robotic Competition and Exhibition, (12) New Research Problems for Machine Learning, (13) Parallel and Distributed Search for Reasoning, (14) Representational Issues for Real-World Planning Systems, and (15) Spatial and Temporal Granularity.


[1] Anomalous vertical profiles of ozone were observed in the subtropical lower stratosphere (near south Florida) in July 2002 during the NASA-sponsored Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers-Florida Area Cirrus Experiment measurement campaign. It is shown that there is an enhancement of ozone (initially >150%) above the tropopause extending up to ∼410 K potential temperature. This ozone increase is the result of recent transport of middle-and high-latitude lower stratospheric air into the subtropics. This meridional transport was a consequence of a geostrophic flow pattern established by a quasi-stationary anticyclone centered over the south central United States that persisted for much of July 2002. We show the spatial and temporal extent of meridional isentropic transport into the subtropics by examining the ozone vertical profiles in combination with the NOy:O3 correlations as well as isentropic back trajectory calculations. The anomalous ozone profiles are also reproduced in a global chemical transport model.


Abstract The authors performed a comprehensive time series segmentation study on the 36 Nikkei Japanese industry indices from 1 January 1996 to 11 June 2010. From the temporal distributions of the clustered segments, we found that the Japanese economy never fully recovered from the extended 1997–2003 crisis, and responded to the most recent global financial crisis in five stages. Of these, the second and main stage affecting 21 industries lasted only 27 days, in contrast to the two-and-a-half-years acrossthe- board recovery from the 1997–2003 financial crisis. We constructed the minimum spanning trees (MSTs) to visualize the Pearson cross correlations between Japanese industries over five macroeconomic periods: (i) 1997–1999 (Asian Financial Crisis), (ii) 2000–2002 (Technology Bubble Crisis), (iii) 2003–2006 (economic growth), (iv) 2007–2008 (Subprime Crisis), and (v) 2008–2010 (Lehman Brothers Crisis). In these MSTs, the Chemicals and Electric Machinery industries are consistently hubs. Finally, we present evidence from the segment-to-segment MSTs for flights to quality within the Japanese stock market.


Griffins, Cyclopes, Monsters, and Giants - these fabulous creatures of classical mythology continue to live in the modern imagination through the vivid accounts that have come down to us from the ancient Greeks and Romans. But what if these beings were more than merely fictions? What if monstrous creatures once roamed the earth in the very places where their legends first arose? This is the arresting and original thesis that Adrienne Mayor explores in "The First Fossil Hunters". Through careful research and meticulous documentation, she convincingly shows that many of the giants and monsters of myth did have a basis in fact - in the enormous bones of long-extinct species that were once abundant in the lands of the Greeks and Romans. As Mayor shows, the Greeks and Romans were well aware that a different breed of creatures once inhabited their lands. They frequently encountered the fossilized bones of these primeval beings, and they developed sophisticated concepts to explain the fossil evidence, concepts that were expressed in mythological stories. The legend of the gold-guarding griffin, for example, sprang from tales first told by Scythian gold-miners, who, passing through the Gobi Desert at the foot of the Altai Mountains, encountered the skeletons of Protoceratops and other dinosaurs that littered the ground. Like their modern counterparts, the ancient fossil hunters collected and measured impressive petrified remains and displayed them in temples and museums; they attempted to reconstruct the appearance of these prehistoric creatures and to explain their extinction. Long thought to be fantasy, the remarkably detailed and perceptive Greek and Roman accounts of giant bone finds were actually based on solid paleontological facts. By reading these neglected narratives for the first time in the light of modern scientific discoveries, Adrienne Mayor illuminates a lost world of ancient paleontology.


In recent years increasingly consideration has been given to the lifetime extension of existing structures. This is based on the fact that a growing percentage of civil infrastructure as well as buildings is threatened by obsolescence and that due to simple monetary reasons this can no longer be countered by simply re-building everything anew. Hence maintenance interventions are required which allow partial or complete structural rehabilitation. However, maintenance interventions have to be economically reasonable, that is, maintenance expenditures have to be outweighed by expected future benefits. Is this not the case, then indeed the structure is obsolete - at least in its current functional, economic, technical, or social configuration - and innovative alternatives have to be evaluated. An optimization formulation for planning maintenance interventions based on cost-benefit criteria is proposed herein. The underlying formulation is as follows: (a) between maintenance interventions structural deterioration is described as a random process; (b) maintenance interventions can take place anytime throughout lifetime and comprise the rehabilitation of all deterioration states above a certain minimum level; and (c) maintenance interventions are optimized by taking into account all expected life-cycle costs (construction, failure, inspection and state-dependent repair costs) as well as state- or time-dependent benefit rates. The optimization is performed by an evolutionary algorithm. The proposed approach also allows to determine optimal lifetimes and acceptable failure rates. Numerical examples demonstrate the importance of defining benefit rates explicitly. It is shown, that the optimal solution to maintenance interventions requires to take action before reaching the acceptable failure rate or the zero expected net benefit rate level. Deferring decisions with respect to maintenance not only results, in general, in higher losses, but also results in overly hazardous structures.


Abstract. Air pollution is of concern in many parts of California and is impacted by both local emissions and also by pollution inflow from the North Pacific Ocean. In this study, we use the regional chemical transport model WRF-Chem V3.2 together with the global Model for OZone and Related Chemical Tracers to examine the CO budget over California. We include model CO tracers for different emission sources in the models, which allow estimation of the relative importance of local sources versus pollution inflow on the distribution of CO at the surface and in the free troposphere. The focus of our study is on the 15 June–15 July 2008 time period, which coincides with the aircraft deployment of the NASA Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) mission over California. Model simulations are evaluated using these aircraft observations as well as satellite retrievals and surface observations of CO. Evaluation results show that the model overall predicts the observed CO fields well, but points towards an underestimate of CO from the fires in Northern California, which had a strong influence during the study period, and towards a slight overestimate of CO from pollution inflow and local anthropogenic sources. The analysis of the CO budget over California reveals that inflow of CO explains on average 99 ± 11 ppbV of surface CO during the study period, compared to 61 ± 95 ppbV for local anthropogenic direct emissions of CO and 84 ± 194 ppbV for fires. In the free troposphere, the average CO contributions are estimated as 96 ± 7 ppbV for CO inflow, 8 ± 9 ppbV for CO from local anthropogenic sources and 18 ± 13 ppbV for CO from fires. Accounting for the low bias in the CO fire emission inventory, the fire impact during the study period might have been up to a factor 4 higher than the given estimates.


The ability of intellectual property owners to earn monopoly rents and the inability of horizontal competitors to price fix legally are two propositions that are often taken as givens. This article challenges the wholesale adoption of either proposition within the context of buyer price-fixing in intellectual property markets. More specifically, it examines antitrust law's role in protecting patent holders' rents through its condemnation of otherwise ostensibly efficient buyer price fixing. Using basic economic analysis, this article refines the legal standards applicable at this point of intersection between antitrust and patent law. In particular, the author recommends the limited abandonment of per se condemnation of buyer price-fixing within pure intellectual property contexts. As an alternative, a coarse screen which accounts for both price and innovation effects is proposed. This recommendation represents one example of how antitrust law can better account for the complicated and imperfectly understood effects of the patent system on social welfare.


Recent EU-frameworks enforce the implementation of risk mitigation measures for nonpoint-source pesticide pollution in surface waters. Vegetated surface flow treatments systems (VTS) can be a way to mitigate risk of adverse effects in the aquatic ecosystems following unavoidable pollution after rainfall-related runoff events. Studies in experimental wetland cells and vegetated ditch mesocosms with common fungicides, herbicides and insecticides were performed to assess efficiency of VTS. Comprehensive monitoring of fungicide exposure after rainfall-related runoff events and reduction of pesticide concentrations within partially optimised VTS was performed from 2006-2009 at five vegetated detention ponds and two vegetated ditches in the wine growing region of the Southern Palatinate (SW-Germany).
Influence of plant density, size related parameters and pesticide properties in the performance of the experimental devices, and the monitored systems were the focus of the analysis. A spatial tool for prediction of pesticide pollution of surface waters after rainfall-related runoff events was programmed in a geographic information system (GIS). A sophisticated and high resolution database on European scale was built for simulation. With the results of the experiments, the monitoring campaign and further results of the EU-Life Project ArtWET mitigation measures were implemented in a georeferenced spatial decision support system. The database for the GIS tools was built with open data. The REXTOX (ratio of exposure to toxicity) Risk Indicator, which was proposed by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), was extended, and used for modeling the risk of rainfall-related runoff exposure to pesticides, for all agricultural waterbodies on European scale. Results show good performance of VTS. The vegetated ditches and wetland cells of the experimental systems showed a very high reduction of more than 90% of pesticide concentrations and potential adverse effects. Vegetated ditches and wetland cells performed significantly better than devices without vegetation. Plant density and sorptivity of the pesticide were the variables with the highest explanatory power regarding the response variable reduction of concentrations. In the experimental vegetated ditches 65% of the reduction of peak concentrations was explained with plant density and KOC. The monitoring campaign showed that concentrations of the fungicides and potential adverse effects of the mixtures were reduced significantly within vegetated ditches (Median 56%) and detention ponds (Median 38%) systems. Regression analysis with data from the monitoring campaign identified plant density and size related properties as explanatory variables for mitigation efficiency (DP: R²=0.57, p<0.001; VD:
R²=0.19, p<0.001). Results of risk model runs are the input for the second tool, simulating three risk mitigation measures. VTS as risk mitigation measures are implemented using the results for plant density and size related performance of the experimental and monitoring studies, supported by additional data from the ArtWET project. Based on the risk tool, simulations can be performed for single crops, selected regions, different pesticide compounds and rainfall events. Costs for implementation of the mitigation measures are estimated. Experiments and monitoring, with focus on the whole range of pesticides, provide novel information on VTS for pesticide pollution. The monitoring campaign also shows that fungicide pollution may affect surface waters. Tools developed for this study are easy to use and are not only a good base for further spatial analysis but are also useful as decision support of the non-scientific community. On a large scale, the tools on the one hand can help to compute external costs of pesticide use with simulation of mitigation costs on three levels, on the other hand feasible measures mitigating or remediating the effects of nonpoint-source pollution can be identified for implementation. Further study of risk of adverse effects caused by fungicide pollution and long-time performance of optimised VTS is needed.


This paper aims to evaluate the usability of the Trinidad and Tobago Virtual Health Library (TTVHL) website based upon opinions of employees, students and 'walk-ins' in health care environments. Questionnaires were administered either in person or via e-mail to 122 persons who agreed to comment on the TTVHL website. All 122 responses were usable, resulting in a response rate of 100%. Data were generated using coded or classified responses and the findings were derived from data analysis. Respondents represented three categories of participants, viz.: health care personnel; library/information personnel; and persons operating outside of the biomedical or library/information fields. Their overall opinion of the website was favourable. Limitations of time, research personnel, and Internet access curtailed the administration of the survey at some locations where eligible respondents were present. The method employed can readily be applied to other VHL websites. Research on virtual health libraries within Latin America and the Caribbean is still in the early stages.


Because the risk of ill health is part of the human condition, there is a universal interest in providing access to high-quality healthcare while controlling the sacrifices that are necessary to obtain it – after all, the funds used for healthcare cannot be allocated to alternative uses. Affordability is therefore an important consideration that is closely linked to access. Quality determines the health value of the treatment provided. Arriving at a social consensus on how to achieve these goals is difficult, however, which in most countries leads to intense debate on healthcare, as the contributions to this book regarding the US, South Africa, Colombia and the Netherlands all illustrate. Unsurprisingly, there is no one particular healthcare system that meets all three of the needs identified above perfectly. Instead, there is a wide variety of such systems, each with different advantages, disadvantages and trade-offs. Hence it is important that data on the problems encountered are collected and analysed, and that learning occurs between different health systems. This is a practical as well as a scientific challenge, because hitherto most studies on healthcare regulation have not taken a comparative perspective based on comparable data. In fact, in many respects, no such data yet exists. This book charts hospital financing across the three dimensions of access, affordability and quality. It does so based on an international comparison spanning four different continents. For the purpose of our project, we have collected 11 country reports, compiled by national experts according to a standard structure. In addition, six thematic chapters are included that explore specific questions. The invited authors include academics and practitioners (primarily, but not exclusively, policymakers). We have focused on hospital financing for the following reasons.


Brenda Ueland, a free-lance writer, journalist, mother, teacher and feminist, lived for nearly a century. During her life, Ueland wrote two books: If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit , published in 1938, and an autobiography, Me: Brenda Ueland , published in 1939. In 1987, American composer Libby Larsen chose excerpts from Ueland's autobiography to serve as texts for a cycle of eight songs that represent episodic periods of Ueland's life. This study compares Ueland's autobiography to that of Libby Larsen's song cycle Me (Brenda Ueland) . The order in which the text appeared in the song cycle was quite different from that of the memoir, and pivotal areas of Ueland's life are not included, most significantly, her daughter Gaby, and the life and death of Ueland's sister-in-law Julie. These and other discrepancies are discussed, as well as the instances in which the song cycle complements the book. A few examples are cited regarding the ways in which knowing the autobiography in its complete form may affect the dramatic presentation of the song cycle.


In many African countries, English is the medium of instruction in higher education even though students may not always be entirely familiar with "standard" English. This study aimed at investigating the relevance of English language competencies for teaching and learning from the perspective of students and lecturers. The study was carried out in Namibia and guided by the conceptual framework of implicit theories. Through a self-administered questionnaire, data were collected from a sample of 286 undergraduate students and 34 lecturers. Students and lecturers differed statistically significantly in all their views on the topic under investigation. While most of the lecturers (85.3%) believed that their students would not have good English language competencies, the majority of students (87.8%) rated their English between good and excellent. Most lecturers believed that insufficient English language competencies would cause a variety of problems for students such as having difficulty expressing themselves in English, following lectures, taking good notes during lectures, understanding academic texts, and writing coherent essays; in contrast, the majority of students believed that they had no such problems. The results are discussed with regard to practical implications for teaching and learning in higher education.


Background: The prevalence of childhood obesity has been increasing rapidly and there is general consensus that good nutritional practices and physical activity should be encouraged as early as possible in life. The aim of this study was to describe and to compare the current lifestyle and dietary pattern of normal weight (NW) and overweight + obese (OW+OB) male adolescents who are physically active.


Currently sculptural design is one of the most discussed themes in architecture. Due to their light weight, easy transportation and assembly, as well as an almost unlimited structural variety, parameterised spatial structures are excellently suited for constructive realisation of free formed claddings. They subdivide the continuous surface into a structure of small sized nodes, straight members and plane glass panels. Thus they provide an opportunity to realise arbitrary double-curved claddings with a high degree of transparency, using industrial semi-finished products (steel sections, flat glass). Digital design strategies and a huge number of similar looking but in detail unique structural members demand a continuous digital project handling. Within a research project, named MYLOMESH, a free-formed spatial structure was designed, constructed, fabricated and assembled. All required steps were carried out based on digital data. Different digital connections (scripts) between varying software tools, which are usually not used in the planning process of buildings, were created. They allow a completely digital workflow. The project, its design, meshing, constructive detailing and the above-mentioned scripts are described in this paper.


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Ancient DNA recovered from 57 individuals excavated by Hiram Bingham at the rural communities of Paucarcancha, Patallacta, and Huata near the famed Inca royal estate and ritual site of Machu Picchu was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction, and the results were compared with ancient and modern DNA from various Central Andean areas to test their hypothesized indigenous highland origins. The control and coding regions of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of 35 individuals in this group were sequenced, and the haplogroups of each individual were determined. The frequency data for the haplogroups of these samples show clear proximity to those of modern Quechua and Aymara populations in the Peruvian and Bolivian highlands, and contrast with those of pre-Hispanic individuals of the north coast of Peru that we defined previously. Our study suggests a strong genetic affinity between sampled late pre-Hispanic individuals and modern Andean highlanders. A previous analysis of the Machu Picchu osteological collection suggests that the residents there were a mixed group of natives from various coastal and highland regions relocated by the Inca state for varied purposes. Overall, our study indicates that the sampled individuals from Paucarcancha and Patallacta were indigenous highlanders who provided supportive roles for nearby Machu Picchu.


Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Cezanne, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt. Though they were often ridiculed or ignored by their contemporaries, today astonishing sums are paid for the works of these artists, whose paintings are celebrated for their ability to capture the moment, not only in the fleeting lights of a landscape but in scenes of daily life. Their dazzling pictures are familiar—but how well does the world know the Impressionists as people? The Private Lives of the Impressionists tells their story. It is the first book to offer an intimate and lively biography of the world's most popular group of artists.

In a vivid and moving narrative, biographer Sue Roe shows the Impressionists in the studios of Paris, rural lanes of Montmartre and rowdy riverside bars as Paris underwent Baron Haussmann's spectacular transformation. For more than twenty years they lived and worked together as a group, struggling to rebuild their lives after the Franco-Prussian War and supporting one another through shocked public reactions to unfamiliar canvases depicting laundresses, dancers, spring blossoms and boating scenes.

This intimate, colorful, superbly researched account takes us into their homes and studios, and describes their unconventional, volatile and precarious lives, as well as the stories behind the paintings.


The gradual disappearance of paper and its familiar evidential qualities affects almost every dimension of contemporary life. From health records to ballots, almost all documents are now digitized at some point of their life cycle, easily copied, altered, and distributed. In Burdens of Proof, Jean-Franois Blanchette examines the challenge of defining a new evidentiary framework for electronic documents, focusing on the design of a digital equivalent to handwritten signatures.From the blackboards of mathematicians to the halls of legislative assemblies, Blanchette traces the path of such an equivalent: digital signatures based on the mathematics of public-key cryptography. In the mid-1990s, cryptographic signatures formed the centerpiece of a worldwide wave of legal reform and of an ambitious cryptographic research agenda that sought to build privacy, anonymity, and accountability into the very infrastructure of the Internet. Yet markets for cryptographic products collapsed in the aftermath of the dot-com boom and bust along with cryptography's social projects.Blanchette describes the trials of French bureaucracies as they wrestled with the application of electronic signatures to real estate contracts, birth certificates, and land titles, and tracks the convoluted paths through which electronic documents acquire moral authority. These paths suggest that the material world need not merely succumb to the virtual but, rather, can usefully inspire it. Indeed, Blanchette argues, in renewing their engagement with the material world, cryptographers might also find the key to broader acceptance of their design goals.


This letter from the Charles B. Moore collection is written by Bob Landers and is addressed to C.B. Moore. In his letter, Landers details for Moore news about his family and their health, news about his crops and the cold spring weather, and news from his community. In the closing remarks, Landers sends his respect to Moore's family. It is dated May 23, 1875.


Develop JSF, Struts, Seam, Hibernate, jBPM, ESB, web services, and portal applications faster than ever using JBoss Tools for Eclipse and the JBoss Application Server Develop complete JSF, Struts, Seam, Hibernate, jBPM, ESB, web service, and portlet applications using JBoss Tools Tools covered in separate chapters so you can dive into the one you want to learn Manage JBoss Application Server through JBoss AS Tools Explore Hibernate Tools including reverse engineering and code generation techniques In Detail JBoss Tools consist of the best Java frameworks and technologies placed together under the same "roof". Discovering JBoss Tools is like exploring a cave; at first everything seems unknown and complicated, but once you become familiar with the main features of the Tools, you will start to feel at home. This is the first book in the market on JBoss Tools, waiting to assist you to throw away all the tiny, dedicated tools you have used earlier, thus helping you to reduce the time you spend on developing a Java application. This book will explore the tools that will help you to build Hibernate, Seam, JSF, Struts, Web Services, jBPM, ESB, and so on and show you how to use them through screenshots, examples, and source code. JBoss Tools comes with a set of dedicated wizards, generators, editors, reverse engineering capabilities, configuration files, templates, syntax highlighting, and more for each of these technologies. Just choose the technologies, and JBoss Tools will glue them together in amazing Java web applications. This book will show you how to develop a set of Java projects using a variety of technologies and scenarios. Everything is described through JBoss Tools "eyes". After we settle the project (or scenario) that will be developed, we configure the proper environment for the current tool (the selected projects cover the main components of a web application, with regard to the backstage technology). We continue by exploring the tool to accomplish our tasks and develop the project's components. A cocktail of images, theoretical aspects, source code, and step-by-step examples will offer you a complete insight into every tool. At the end, we deploy and test the project. In addition, every chapter is rich with pure notions about the underlying technology, which will initiate into you or remind you of the basic aspects of it. It will also show you complete and functional applications, and get you familiar with the main aspects of every tool. By the end you will have enough information to successfully handle your own projects with JBoss Tools. What you will learn from this book? Develop Java web applications through JBoss Tools perspective, using powerful technologies, like JSF, Seam, Struts, jBPM ,and so on Configure different JBoss AS distributions under Eclipse Ganymede Download and install Eclipse Ganymede Learn how to use the JBoss AS Tools to configure, start, stop, and monitor the JBoss AS directly from Eclipse IDE. Customize JBoss Tools Palette and learn how to use it to develop text files that contain tags Explore Web Services Tools for writing WSDLs, generating web services, and publishing web services based on UDDI (jUDDI) and WSIL Create projects with Portlet Facets, Java Portlet wizard, and JSF/Seam Portlet wizard using the Portal Tools wizard Learn to develop JBossESB Services using ESB Tools Generate a complete web service from a WSDL document and from a Java bean using WS Tools wizards Approach Since these technologies covered are different from each other, they are covered in separate chapters that are not interdependent; therefore you can learn to use whichever tool you want, without exploring the previous chapters. This approach sustains the learning per example paradigm and helps you to use the book as a quick guide for your favorite technologies. Who this book is written for? This book is recommended for Java developers who use at least one of the covered technologies (JSF, Struts, Hibernate, Seam, and so on). It is for all Java developers who are looking for a powerful, unitary tool, especially designed to increase the speed of development and quality of Java web applications. No matter how much (or how little) experience they have, developers of all levels will benefit as their use of JBoss Tools is directly proportional to the complexity of their application. Since JBoss Tools covers all levels of experience, you can use it at your own level for your own applications, without involving unnecessary features. All you need is to be familiar with the Eclipse environment and Java core, and to have some expertise in the technology for which you want to use the JBoss Tools. Basic expertise for each technology is provided in the book, but for more complete and detailed aspects you should read dedicated specifications, tutorials, and articles.


Abstract The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that, for the case of Italy, ceteris paribus, tourist areas tend to have a greater amount of crime than non-tourist ones in the short and long run. Following the literature of the economics of crime à la Becker (Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach, 1968) and Enrlich (Participation in Illegitimate Activities: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation, 1973) and using a System GMM approach for the time span 1985–2003, the authors empirically test whether total crime in Italy is affected by the presence of tourists. Findings confirm the initial intuition of a positive relationship between tourism and crime in destinations. When using the level rather than the rate of total crime and controlling for the equivalent tourists (i.e. the number of tourists per day in a given destination) the effect of the tourist variable is confirmed. Overall results indicate however that the resident population has a greater effect on crime than the tourist population. Therefore, the main explanation for the impact of tourism on crime seems to be agglomeration effects.


Zooarchaeological analysis of the earlier Mid Upper Paleolithic (MUP) (Pavlovian) assemblages from Dolni Vĕstonice II and Pavlov I, southern Moravia, have yielded 11 additional remains from Dolni Vĕstonice II (five of which may be associated) and 20 remains from Pavlov I (16 of which come from a pair of hands, Pavlov 31). These remains are those of early modern humans, albeit with a few generally archaic features. At least two of them represent very tall individuals, among the tallest known for the Upper Paleolithic. These remains also raise the question, previously posed, as to the nature of differential treatment of the dead among MUP humans, given the presence of ritual burials, isolated bones and (with Pavlov 31) selected associated anatomy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


A variety of vertebrates and at least one invertebrate exhibit "true navigation", i.e., the ability to home over distances of tens to hundreds of kilometers without relying on familiar landmarks or information about the direction of displacement to the testing site. These remarkable feats of orientation are thought to involve positional ("map") information obtained from environmental gradient(s) of olfactory or magnetic cues that can be extrapolated beyond an individual's area of experience. We review the evidence for large-scale gradient maps, and contrast these with maps of spatial position used to orient in familiar surroundings (place maps, bearing maps, mosaic maps, etc.). The available evidence suggests that true navigation involves a patchwork of mechanisms, the use of which depends on the local environment (e.g., characteristics of local gradients), scale of movement, and individual age/experience. Chapter Outline & Navigation


For centuries, post-and-beam construction has proved to be one of the most durable building techniques. It is being enthusiastically revived today not only for its sturdiness but because it can be easily insulated, it is attractive, and it offers the builder the unique satisfaction of working with timbers. "Building the Timber Frame House" is the most comprehensive manual available on the technique. In it you will find a short history, of timber framing and a fully illustrated discussion of the different kinds of joinery, assembly of timbers, and raising of the frame. There are also detailed sections on present-day design and materials, house plans, site development, foundation laying, insulation, tools, and methods.


Policymakers aiming to tackle any environmental problem have a diverse tool chest of policy instruments at their disposal, including command and control regulations, taxes, marketable allowance, and liability entitlements. Scholars of public health and safety have been debating the effectiveness of tort law as a regulatory tool for decades. The legal literature on this topic, though, is muddled because the field has failed to adopt a set of criteria by which to compare tort law to public regulation. Heightened clarity on the usefulness of tort law as a complementary policy instrument to public regulations may have legal and policy implications. This article therefore adopts evaluation criteria from the policy analysis and public policy fields — equity, legitimacy, efficiency, organizational competence, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness — to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of tort law as an environmental policy instrument relative to public regulation.


This second edition of volume 3 in the Thieme Atlas of Anatomy series now covers anatomy of the neck as well as anatomy of the head and neuroanatomy. It includes over 200 stunning new anatomic illustrations as well as a substantial number of additional clinical correlations. Descriptions of anatomic structures and their relationships to one another, along with information on the development of the structures, anomalies, and common pathologies, appear in every chapter. Key Features: * More than 1300 exquisite, full-color illustrations for the head, neck, and neuroanatomy accompany the clear, concise text* An innovative, user-friendly format in which each two-page spread presents a self-contained guide to a specific topic* Summary tables, ideal for rapid review, appear throughout the text* Access to head, neck, and neuroanatomy images on Winking Skull.com PLUS, featuring labels-on, labels-off functionality and timed self-tests This atlas connects the basic science of anatomy to the clinical practice that students are embarking upon while taking anatomy courses. The THIEME Atlas of Anatomy series also includes two additional volumes, General Anatomy and Musculoskeletal System and Neck and Internal Organs. All volumes of the Thieme Atlas of Anatomy are available in softcover English/International Nomenclature and in hardcover with Latin nomenclature.


Data Integration has become increasingly important with today's rapid growth of information available on the web and in electronic form. In the past several years, extensive work has been done to make use of the available data from different sources, particularly, in the scientific and medical fields. In our work, we are interested in integrating data from different uncertain sources in which data are stored in semistructured databases, markedly XML-based data. This interest in XML-based databases came from the flexibility it provides for storing and exchanging data. Furthermore, we are concerned with reliability of different query answers from various sources and on specifying the source where the data came from (the provenance). In essence, our work lies among three areas of interest, data integration, uncertain databases and lineage or provenance in databases. This thesis extends previous work on information integration to accommodate integration of uncertain data from multiple sources.


F. Murnaghan observed a long time ago that the computation of the decompositon of the Kronecker product $\chi^{(n-a, \lambda_2, \dots )}\otimes \chi^{(n-b, \mu_2, \dots)}$ of two irreducible characters of the symmetric group into irreducibles depends only on $\overline\lambda=(\lambda_2,\dots )$ and $\overline\mu =(\mu_2,\dots )$, but not on $n$. In this note we prove a similar result: given three partitions $\lambda$, $\mu$, $\nu$ of $n$ we obtain a lower bound on $n$, depending on $\overline\lambda$, $\overline\mu$, $\overline\nu$, for the stability of the multiplicity $c(\lambda,\mu,\nu)$ of $\chi^\nu$ in $\chi^\lambda \otimes \chi^\mu$. Our proof is purely combinatorial. It uses a description of the $c(\lambda,\mu,\nu)$'s in terms of signed special rim hook tabloids and Littlewood-Richardson multitableaux.


Horvath, Polly. One Year in Coal Harbour. Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2012. Print. In this sequel to the multiple award winning, Everything on a Waffle , Horvath's signature quirky humour and insights into human nature emerge once more as we follow 12-year-old Primrose Squarp's attempts at matchmaking, at finding a best friend, and at generally trying to make life turn out right. The lovable Evie and Bert, who took Primrose in when her parents were lost at sea, sensible Uncle Jack, the entrepreneur who returned to Coal Harbour to look after Primrose, and fiercely independent Miss Bowzer, Primrose's confidant and owner of The Girl on the Red Swing where everything is served on a waffle, return from the first book to help Primrose navigate life as a 'tween' in Coal Harbour.  In one year, Primrose learns about defending what she cares about, letting people make their own choices, and accepting the flaws in herself as well as others.  Primrose faces some hard lessons but readers will be glad to know that everything turns out, if not perfectly, then as it should, in the end. Horvath broaches issues related to foster children, unfit parents, environmental protests, relationships, and grieving, with honesty and empathy, showing real respect for her young readers' ability to understand the nuances of these situations. Her characters embody the quirkiness and wisdom of small town life, making them even more believable. Each chapter begins with "What Happened..." or "What Didn't Happen..." leading the reader along through the traumatic events of Primrose's year in Coal Harbour, and ends with a recipe Primrose collects for the local cookbook she is writing bringing the tale back to the comfort zone of mundane details.  With this marvelous glimpse of the world from the eyes of a 12-year-old girl, peppered with high hopes, frustration, insight and humour, Horvath has done it again. She has left me wanting more. Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Kathy Inglis Kathy Inglis is a teacher-librarian and kindergarten teacher at South Park Family School in Victoria, BC and a Masters student in the Teacher-Librarianship through Distance Learning Program at the University of Alberta. Her favourite part of the job is seeing the excited look on the faces of students who have found that perfect book.


This programme of work has been aimed at developing novel annulation reactions in order to furnish a variety of carbocyclic and heterocyclic ring systems: In all of the examples investigated the key cyclisation step was achieved using a Nicholas reaction, that is, the reaction of a dicobalt hexacarbonyl stabilised propargylic carbonium ion with an intramolecular nucleophile.

After an initial review of both cyclisation reactions and the chemistry of organocobalt clusters, the results of these investigations are detailed.

In the initial investigations a range of 1,2-disubstituted cycloalkanes were synthesised that contained a dicobalt hexacarbonyl complexed propargyl ether at the a-carbon atom and a pendant silyl enol ether at the s-carbon atom. These molecules were successfully cyclised, using boron trifluoride diethyl etherate followed by decomplexation of the dicobalt cluster, to afford a bicyclo[4:3:0]nonane, two bicyclo[3:3:0]octanes and a bicyclo[5:3:0]decane. The relative stereochemistry at the fused ring junction for all these molecules was determined on the basis of their corresponding =c NMR spectra. An analogous reaction was successfully achieved between a dicobalt hexacarbonyl complexed prop argyl ether and a terminal alkene, using titanium (IV) chloride, to afford a cis fused bicyclo[3:3:0]octane into which a chlorine atom had been incorporated.

A subsequent investigation led to the development of a novel benzopyran synthesis. In this approach two benzopyran derivatives were produced from the one key cyclisation precursor. It was observed that they not only contained different functionalities but that the relative stereochemistry at the newly formed carbon-carbon bonds was different. A benzopyran, that possessed the isopropenyl group, exhibited a trans stereochemistry, whereas the stereochemistry for a second fluorinated derivative appeared, from the magnitude of the coupling constant (6 Hz), to exhibit a cis stereochemistry.

The concluding investigation focused upon the intramolecular cyclisation of a precursor derived from S-C - )-citronellal. Both a silyl enol ether derivative andan allyl silane derivative were successfully cyclised, using the Nicholas reaction, to affordtrisubstituted cycloalkanes in low but unoptimised yields. An additional investigation using a dicobalt hexacarbonyl complexed derivative possessing a pendant trisubstituted alkene underwent a novel cyclisation reaction to furnish, upon decomplexation, two trisubstituted cycloalkane derivatives. For one of the cycloalkanes produced, the relative stereochemistry of the ring substituents at the newly formed carbon-carbon bond was found to be trans.


The selective production of platform chemicals from thermal conversion of biomass-derived carbohydrates is challenging. As precursors to natural products and drug molecules, anhydrosugars are difficult to synthesize from simple carbohydrates in large quantities without side products, due to various competing pathways during pyrolysis. Here we demonstrate that the nonselective chemistry of carbohydrate pyrolysis is substantially improved by alkoxy or phenoxy substitution at the anomeric carbon of glucose prior to thermal treatment. Through this ring-locking step, we found that the selectivity to 1,6-anhydro-β-D-glucopyranose (levoglucosan, LGA) increased from 2% to greater than 90% after fast pyrolysis of the resulting sugar at 600 °C. DFT analysis indicated that LGA formation becomes the dominant reaction pathway when the substituent group inhibits the pyranose ring from opening and fragmenting into non-anhydrosugar products. LGA forms selectively when the activation barrier for ring-opening is significantly increased over that for 1,6-elimination, with both barriers affected by the substituent type and anomeric position. These findings introduce the ring-locking concept to sugar pyrolysis chemistry and suggest a chemical-thermal treatment approach for upgrading simple and complex carbohydrates.