Abstract The polyetiological syndrome of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is characterized by changes in patients' hemostasis. The aim of the current research was to elucidate the main factors for the development of DIC syndrome during canine babesiosis, and to assess their correlation level. Dogs included in this study were of various breeds and sex, weighing 10-40 kg and aged 2-7 years. They were separated in two groups (n=50) according to their diagnosis to babesiosis. Oscillometry (blood pressure, pulse rate), vascular-platelet hemostasis, coagulogram, hematological, biochemical (fibrinogen, fibrin degradation product, soluble fibrin-monomer complex) and hemodynamic (circulating blood volume) assessment methods were used. The group of dogs positive on Babesia spp., had clear manifestation of DIC with 5-7% of the erythrocyte population being affected. DIC was manifested by a significant increase in soluble fibrin-monomer complex and fibrin degradation product (p<0.001), hypofibrinogenemia (p<0.001), thrombocytopenia (p<0.001), and an increase in indicators of spontaneous aggregation ability of platelets and red blood cells (p<0.001). Significant hemodynamic disorders were observed: a decrease in circulating blood volume, circulating erythrocytes volume (p<0.05), specific circulating blood volume and hematocrit value (p<0.001). The average blood pressure was reduced (p<0.001), and the Allgöwer's shock index was increased 2 times (p<0.05). A shock of II degree (medium, subcompensated) was confirmed. Therefore, it can be concluded that acute spontaneous dogs' babesiosis can be characterized by the occurrence of DIC in a consumption coagulopathy form, and shock of II degree. This condition renders the patients for emergency admission.


In this searing polemic, Lee Edelman outlines a radically uncompromising new ethics of queer theory. His main target is the all-pervasive figure of the child, which he reads as the linchpin of our universal politics of "reproductive futurism." Edelman argues that the child, understood as innocence in need of protection, represents the possibility of the future against which the queer is positioned as the embodiment of a relentlessly narcissistic, antisocial, and future-negating drive. He boldly insists that the efficacy of queerness lies in its very willingness to embrace this refusal of the social and political order. In No Future , Edelman urges queers to abandon the stance of accommodation and accede to their status as figures for the force of a negativity that he links with irony, jouissance , and, ultimately, the death drive itself.

Closely engaging with literary texts, Edelman makes a compelling case for imagining Scrooge without Tiny Tim and Silas Marner without little Eppie. Looking to Alfred Hitchcock's films, he embraces two of the director's most notorious creations: the sadistic Leonard of North by Northwest , who steps on the hand that holds the couple precariously above the abyss, and the terrifying title figures of The Birds , with their predilection for children. Edelman enlarges the reach of contemporary psychoanalytic theory as he brings it to bear not only on works of literature and film but also on such current political flashpoints as gay marriage and gay parenting. Throwing down the theoretical gauntlet, No Future reimagines queerness with a passion certain to spark an equally impassioned debate among its readers.


Powdery scab, a root and tuber disease caused by the pathogen Spongospora subterranea f.sp. subterranea (Sss), poses a major problem to potato producers worldwide because it affects potato quality. Inoculum can be seed-borne or originate from contaminated growing media or contaminated equipment. During 2006, a potato mini-tuber production facility in Ceres in the Western Cape Province of South Africa had an outbreak of powdery scab. The purpose of this study was to detect Sss in the production facility and identify the source or sources of contamination so that corrective measures could be taken to eradicate the pathogen. Swab samples were taken from numerous points in the facility in 2009 and Sss-specific primers (Sps1 and Sps2) were used in a polymerase chain reaction to detect Sss. Of 11 surfaces tested, 6 were positive for Sss. A second set of swab samples was taken after efforts were made to eradicate the pathogen through improved facility hygiene measures to determine whether these corrective measures were efficient . Corrective measures resulted in a disease-free harvest from 2009 onwards. This novel study has value for the mini-tuber industry as production tunnels can be tested for the presence of Sss and other pathogens before planting to ensure that, where suitable control measures are available, disease-free mini-tubers are produced.


In this groundbreaking work, Sara Ahmed demonstrates how queer studies can put phenomenology to productive use. Focusing on the "orientation" aspect of "sexual orientation" and the "orient" in "orientalism," Ahmed examines what it means for bodies to be situated in space and time. Bodies take shape as they move through the world directing themselves toward or away from objects and others. Being "orientated" means feeling at home, knowing where one stands, or having certain objects within reach. Orientations affect what is proximate to the body or what can be reached. A queer phenomenology, Ahmed contends, reveals how social relations are arranged spatially, how queerness disrupts and reorders these relations by not following the accepted paths, and how a politics of disorientation puts other objects within reach, those that might, at first glance, seem awry.Ahmed proposes that a queer phenomenology might investigate not only how the concept of orientation is informed by phenomenology but also the orientation of phenomenology itself. Thus she reflects on the significance of the objects that appear—and those that do not—as signs of orientation in classic phenomenological texts such as Husserl's Ideas. In developing a queer model of orientations, she combines readings of phenomenological texts—by Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Fanon—with insights drawn from queer studies, feminist theory, critical race theory, Marxism, and psychoanalysis. Queer Phenomenology points queer theory in bold new directions.


The Flexible Array Concentrator Technology (FACT) is a lightweight, high-performance reflective concentrator blanket assembly that can be used on flexible solar array blankets. The FACT concentrator replaces every other row of solar cells on a solar array blanket, significantly reducing the cost of the array. The modular design is highly scalable for the array system designer, and exhibits compact stowage, good off-pointing acceptance, and mass/cost savings. The assembly s relatively low concentration ratio, accompanied by a large radiative area, provides for a low cell operating temperature, and eliminates many of the thermal problems inherent in high-concentration-ratio designs. Unlike other reflector technologies, the FACT concentrator modules function on both z-fold and rolled flexible solar array blankets, as well as rigid array systems. Mega-ROSA (Mega Roll-Out Solar Array) is a new, highly modularized and extremely scalable version of ROSA that provides immense power level range capability from 100 kW to several MW in size. Mega-ROSA will enable extremely high-power spacecraft and SEP-powered missions, including space-tug and largescale planetary science and lunar/asteroid exploration missions. Mega-ROSA's inherent broad power scalability is achieved while retaining ROSA s solar array performance metrics and missionenabling features for lightweight, compact stowage volume and affordability. This innovation will enable future ultra-high-power missions through lowcost (25 to 50% cost savings, depending on PV and blanket technology), lightweight, high specific power (greater than 200 to 400 Watts per kilogram BOL (beginning-of-life) at the wing level depending on PV and blanket technology), compact stowage volume (greater than 50 kilowatts per cubic meter for very large arrays), high reliability, platform simplicity (low failure modes), high deployed strength/stiffness when scaled to huge sizes, and high-voltage operation capability. Mega-ROSA is adaptable to all photovoltaic and concentrator flexible blanket technologies, and can readily accommodate standard multijunction and emerging ultra-lightweight IMM (inverted metamorphic) photovoltaic flexible blanket assemblies, as well as ENTECHs Stretched Lens Array (SLA) and DSSs (Deployable Space Systems) FACT, which allows for cost reduction at the array level.


John Muir was a prominent figure in the North American conservation movement who advocated for the preservation of wilderness throughout his life. Muir's writings depict a wealth of assigned values to some of North America's most wild places. The topic of "place" is one area of contemporary research that can be applied to Muir's writings on wilderness to examine how his ideas might hold currency in modern times. It is from a conceptual framework of place that this study responds to the following research questions through a qualitative approach utilizing text analysis: What are the connections and disconnections between Muir's writings on wilderness and contemporary place attachment literature? How might contemporary place attachment literature benefit from John Muir's writings? Results of this study highlight the historical and contemporary importance within Muir's writings on preserving and exploring wilderness areas to encourage place attachment. Implications are discussed.


This paper presents an algorithm that predicts with very high accuracy which Web search result a user will click for one sixth of all Web queries. Prediction is done via a straightforward form of personalization that takes advantage of the fact that people often use search engines to re-find previously viewed resources. In our approach, an individual's past navigational behavior is identified via query log analysis and used to forecast identical future navigational behavior by the same individual. We compare the potential value of personal navigation with general navigation identified using aggregate user behavior. Although consistent navigational behavior across users can be useful for identifying a subset of navigational queries, different people often use the same queries to navigate to different resources. This is true even for queries comprised of unambiguous company names or URLs and typically thought of as navigational. We build an understanding of what personal navigation looks like, and identify ways to improve its coverage and accuracy by taking advantage of people's consistency over time and across groups of individuals.


In an era of increased reliance on private regulatory bodies and globalised economic activity, standardisation is the field where politics, technical expertise and strategic behaviour meet and interact. International standard-setting bodies exemplify the rise of transnational governance and the challenges that it brings about relating to institutional choice, legitimacy, procedural and substantive fairness or transparency. This book takes a more empirical-based approach focusing on the mechanics of international standard-setting. It constitutes a multidisciplinary inquiry into the foundations of international standard-setting, an empirically under-researched yet important area of international informal lawmaking. Contributors expertly examine the peculiarities of international standardisation in selected issue-areas and legal orders and shed light on the attributes of international standard-setters, allowing comparisons among standard-setting bodies with a view to identifying best practices and improve our understanding about standardisation processes.


High-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) are linked to positive developmental outcomes for children. Systems have been created to define, measure and promote high-quality ECEC. National accreditation status is deemed the gold standard of a high-quality program, yet many centers are unable to achieve this without assistance. With the help of Accreditation Facilitation Projects (AFPs), many low-income centers are able to achieve accreditation. Centers collaborating with an AFP reap many benefits including financial support, ongoing training and mentoring, and guidance through the accreditation process. AFPs invest greatly in the centers they collaborate with and the longer the center takes to achieve accreditation, the more resources an AFP must expend. The purposes of this study were to understand if the educational level of center director, the total enrollment of a center, or the percentage of children receiving government subsidies could predict the time it takes for a center to complete the accreditation process while receiving assistance from an AFP, and to determine if there are differences in attitudes about program accreditation between center directors and early learning specialists who serve as accreditation mentors to the directors. Findings revealed that a) the higher educational level of program directors is associated with a quicker time to program accreditation, b) both the total enrollment of the center and the percentage of children receiving government subsidies do not predict time to accreditation, c) the number of total staff in a center is associated with a quicker time to accreditation, and d) there is no significant difference between the directors' attitudes and early learning specialists' attitudes toward accreditation and accreditation facilitation projects. AFPs looking to streamline their accreditation process and provide accountability to their stakeholders regarding their investments over time can use these findings to choose to collaborate with centers that have directors who have at least a bachelor's degree in order to shorten the time to accreditation.


While the Supreme Court's decision in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC has been hailed as an unequivocal victory for religious liberty, the Court's holding in footnote four – that the ministerial exception is an affirmative defense and not a jurisdictional bar – undermines decades of conventional thinking about the relationship between church and state. For some time, a wide range of scholars had conceptualized the relationship between religious institutions and civil courts as "jurisdictional" – that is, scholars converged on the view that the religion clauses deprived courts of subject-matter jurisdiction over religious claims. In turn, courts could not adjudicate religious disputes even at the request of the parties. In stark contrast, footnote four rejected this jurisdictional approach to the religion clauses; according to the Court's logic, the ministerial exception – like other affirmative defenses – could be waived by the parties; and with such waiver, courts could adjudicate religious claims that had previously been deemed beyond the authority of the judicial system. Far more than a procedural nicety, footnote four signaled a radical rejection of the prevailing paradigm. However, the Court's decision failed to explicitly provide a new vision of the relationship between church and state. To replace the discarded jurisdictional approach, this Article contends that the kernels of such a vision can be found in the Supreme Court's early church property cases, which understood the autonomy of religious institutions as a constitutionalized version of arbitration. Thus, the authority of religious institutions – like the authority of arbitrators – was derived from the implied consent of its members and the decisions of religious institutions were subject to judicial review for misconduct. While the Supreme Court's later church property cases rejected this approach, returning to these core principles – consent and judicial review – provides the doctrinal foundations for the Court's new framework for the relationship between church and state. And, applying this new framework can help resolve some of the pressing litigation questions left unresolved by the Supreme Court's decision in Hosanna-Tabor.


The Qur��an has been preserved in its original form and language without even a minute change as revealed to the Prophet of Islam. This is highly in contrast with other religious scriptures that lost their original contents â�� in some cases even the languages.At the moment of revelation or shortly after, each passage was recited by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) before the friends or followers who happened to be present, and was generally committed to writing by some one amongst them, at the time or afterwards, upon palm-leaves, leather, stones, or such other material as conveniently came to hand. There were several scribes in his following, the most famous of whom, Zaid Ibn ThA¢bit, has left his name to posterity.These scattered and confused materials were within two or three years reduced to the order and sequence in which we now find them. So carefully, indeed, has the Quran been preserved, that there are no variations to be found in the innumerable copies scattered throughout the world. But this is not surprising, for it is God Himself who has undertaken the task of preserving His Final Message to the humanity.When one looks into the history of the New Testament scriptures, one finds the following facts: The words and teachings of Jesus (peace be upon him) remained in oral tradition for at least 40 to 50 years, passing orally from one generation to the next. Then the Four Gospels, as we know them today, were written in a period of 45 years â�� between 70 A.D. and 115 A.D.The four Gospels were written in Greek. The original words spoken by Jesus (peace be upon him) are lost, for he and his disciples spoke Aramaic, a language that is now extinct. We do not even have the original manuscripts of the Greek gospels available today. Though the four gospels bear the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John who were supposedly disciples of Jesus (peace be upon him), they are not the actual authors, for nothing was written during forty to fifty years after Jesus.Unlike the Qurâ��an which is the direct words of God, written down immediately as they came, the gospels are the third-party historical narrations of the life and teachings of Jesus. Thus they do not contain Godâ��s own and direct words, but those of the narrators who described the events. The four gospels did not become canonical until the fourth century.The deviations from the original teachings of Jesus started with St. Paul when he converted into Christianity. It was he who introduced the divinity of Jesus, the doctrine of original sin, and of Jesus dying for the sins of mankind.The person of Jesus or Isa in Arabic (peace be upon him) is of great significance in both Islam and Christianity. However, there are differences in terms of beliefs about the life and the occurrences of this noble Messenger.Muslims take their information about Jesus from two main sources: the Quran, the direct word of God, as revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Christians take their information about Jesus from Bible, which for them includes the Old and New Testaments.This includes four biblical narratives covering the life and death of Jesus. They are placed at the beginning of the New Testament and comprise close to half of it.Encyclopedia Britannica notes that "none of the sources of his life and work can be traced to Jesus himself; he did not leave a single known written word. Also, there are no contemporary accounts written of his life and death. What can be established about the historical Jesus depends almost without exception on Christian traditions, especially on the material used in the composition of the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, which reflect the outlook of the later church and its faith in Jesus."Like Christians, Muslims believe Mary, Maria in Spanish, or Maryam as she is called in Arabic, was a chaste, virgin woman, who miraculously gave birth to Jesus. They believe the Prophet Jesus performed miracles by the will and permission of Allah, Who has all power and control over all things.Muslims believe in the Absolute Oneness of God, Who is a Supreme Being free of human limitations and wants. He has no partners in His Divinity. He is the Creator of everything and is completely separate from His creation. It is above His Majesty and Glory to take a son, partner or associate. He is independent of everyone and everything, while on the other hand, everyone and everything is dependent on Him.According to the Christian belief, Prophet Jesus died to save mankind form sin. However, this is not stated explicitly in the four gospels which form the primary source texts of Christianity. It was Paul of Tarsus, considered the real father of Christianity, who came up with this idea. Muslims believe Jesus was not killed on the cross and then resurrected. "And because of their saying, â��We killed Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but the resemblance of Jesus was put over another man (and they killed that man), and those who differ therein are full of doubts. The have no knowledge, they follow nothing but conjecture. For surely they killed him not (Jesus, son of Mary). But Allah raised him (Jesus) up (with his body and soul) unto Himself (and he is in the heavens). And Allah is ever All-Powerful, All-Wise" (Quran 4:157-158).With the exception of Unitarian Christians, most Christians now believe in the Divinity of Prophet Jesus, which is connected to the belief in Trinity. The four Gospels and the Epistles of St. Paul are the main sources of Christianity which discuss the Resurrection of Jesus after his crucifixion. According to Christian belief, Resurrection is a manifestation of Godâ��s justice, who exalted Christ to a life of glory, as Christ had humbled Himself unto death.


The majority of the soil macrofauna biomass in temperate terrestrial ecosystems comprises earthworms. Mainly anecic earthworm species, such as Lumbricus terrestris, contribute significantly to organic matter turnover by ingesting and fragmenting large quantities of litter and incorporating it into the mineral soil. Endogeic species, such as Octolasion tyrtaeum, turn over large quantities of mineral soil and induce major structural changes in soil with important consequences for soil development. Earthworms are major drivers of the decomposition of plant litter in many terrestrial ecosystems but knowledge of the factors influencing mobilisation and stabilisation of soil organic matter in soils processed by earthworms is incomplete. This study investigates the role of different factors which influence the effects of earthworms on soil organic matter stability. Six experiments were performed studying the effects of (1) sand on the microbial community structure and (2) the stability of organic matter in casts of L. terrestris; (3) the quality of the litter and (4) the availability of deeper mineral on the effects of O. tyrtaeum on C and N stabilisation; (5) of O. tyrtaeum on the mobilisation of stable carbon pools and (6) of size and quality of the soil organic matter pool on O. tyrtaeum. (1) The effects of the availability of sand particles on changes of the microbial community structure of forest soils processed by the anecic earthworm L. terrestris were studied. The analysis of phospholipids fatty acid profiles (PLFAs) was used to differentiate microbial communities in the bulk as well as in particle size fractions of soil and casts. Comminution of litter during the gut passage through earthworms increased the biomass and activity of fungi in the silt fraction. Soil organic matter in the coarse and fine sand fraction primarily is decomposed by fungi. Incorporation of litter into these fractions by the earthworms increased the biomass of fungi. Organic matter of forest soil is stabilised in cast aggregates of L. terrestris, predominantly by increasing the soil organic matter content in the clay fraction where it becomes protected against microbial attack. By mechanical disruption of casts physically protected soil organic matter becomes available for microbial decay. (2) The effects of sand on the decomposition of soil organic matter in arable and forest soils were compared with those in ageing casts of L. terrestris. Increasing sand content increased carbon mineralisation in soil but also enhanced the palatability and comminution of litter by L. terrestris. In soils with high clay content sand affected the decomposition of organic matter only little, however, in general sand stimulated carbon mineralisation in soil and earthworm casts. The results suggest that soil characteristics, such as the clay content and nutrient concentrations determine whether organic matter is stabilised or mobilised in casts of earthworms. (3) The influence of the quality of litter materials on the effects of the endogeic earthworm O. tyrtaeum on C and N mineralisation from arable and forest soil was studied. Effects of O. tyrtaeum varied with the type and the quality of the litter added; N immobilisation of low quality litter is counteracted by the earthworms. Low quality litter facilitates O. tyrtaeum probably by a continuous supply of easily available carbon. Carbon mineralisation was little whereas nitrogen mobilisation and immobilisation was strongly affected by the litter type and interaction with earthworms. (4) The role of O. tyrtaeum and the availability of deeper mineral soil on the process of C, N and lignin mineralisation was analysed. Intimate mixing of organic material with deeper mineral soil, which functioned as a C-unsaturated inorganic matrix, during the gut passage of O. tyrtaeum increased the stability of carbon in the casts. In the long-term the pool of stabilised carbon increases slightly until the mineral matrix of the soil is saturated due to mixing of soil and organic matter by endogeic earthworms. This ultimately leads to the formation of organic rich mull soils. (5) The ability of O. tyrtaeum to mobilise stable pools of soil organic matter was investigated. The results suggest that endogeic earthworms contribute to the mobilisation of old carbon pools in soil but further experiments are necessary to finally proof this conclusion. (6) The effects of the size and quality of the soil organic matter pool on the growth of juvenile O. tyrtaeum were studied. The results showed that labile organic matter pools in arable soil are essential for soil microorganisms as well as for endogeic earthworms. Earthworms and soil microorganisms compete for food resources derived from labile organic matter pools. The amount and origin of soil organic matter in arable soils is crucial for the establishment of endogeic earthworm populations and their activity beneficially feeds back to nutrient mineralisation and therefore to soil fertility and plant productivity.


Abstract. Much of the large uncertainty in estimates of anthropogenic aerosol effects on climate arises from the multi-scale nature of the interactions between aerosols, clouds and dynamics, which are difficult to represent in conventional general circulation models (GCMs). In this study, we use a multi-scale aerosol-climate model that treats aerosols and clouds across multiple scales to study aerosol indirect effects. This multi-scale aerosol-climate model is an extension of a multi-scale modeling framework (MMF) model that embeds a cloud-resolving model (CRM) within each vertical column of a GCM grid. The extension allows a more physically-based treatment of aerosol-cloud interactions in both stratiform and convective clouds on the global scale in a computationally feasible way. Simulated model fields, including liquid water path (LWP), ice water path, cloud fraction, shortwave and longwave cloud forcing, precipitation, water vapor, and cloud droplet number concentration are in reasonable agreement with observations. The new model performs quantitatively similar to the previous version of the MMF model in terms of simulated cloud fraction and precipitation. The simulated change in shortwave cloud forcing from anthropogenic aerosols is −0.77 W m−2, which is less than half of that (−1.79 W m−2) calculated by the host GCM (NCAR CAM5) with traditional cloud parameterizations and is also at the low end of the estimates of other conventional global aerosol-climate models. The smaller forcing in the MMF model is attributed to a smaller (3.9 %) increase in LWP from preindustrial conditions (PI) to present day (PD) compared with 15.6 % increase in LWP in stratiform clouds in CAM5. The difference is caused by a much smaller response in LWP to a given perturbation in cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations from PI to PD in the MMF (about one-third of that in CAM5), and, to a lesser extent, by a smaller relative increase in CCN concentrations from PI to PD in the MMF (about 26 % smaller than that in CAM5). The smaller relative increase in CCN concentrations in the MMF is caused in part by a smaller increase in aerosol lifetime from PI to PD in the MMF, a positive feedback in aerosol indirect effects induced by cloud lifetime effects from aerosols. The smaller response in LWP to anthropogenic aerosols in the MMF model is consistent with observations and with high resolution model studies, which may indicate that aerosol indirect effects simulated in conventional global climate models are overestimated and point to the need to use global high resolution models, such as MMF models or global CRMs, to study aerosol indirect effects. The simulated total anthropogenic aerosol effect in the MMF is −1.05 W m−2, which is close to the Murphy et al. (2009) inverse estimate of −1.1±0.4 W m−2 (1σ) based on the examination of the Earth's energy balance. Further improvements in the representation of ice nucleation and low clouds in MMF are needed to refine the aerosol indirect effect estimate.


The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action. The University of Michigan is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, height, weight, or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the Senior Director for Institutional Equity, and Title IX/Section 504/ADA Coordinator, Office of Institutional Equity, 2072 Administrative Services Building, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1432, 734-763-0235, TTY 734-647-1388. For other University of Michigan information call 734-764-1817.


Orientation: The mechanism facilitating the development of organisational commitment and performance of citizenship behaviours is of research interest to scholars. Recent research trends suggest that job satisfaction can mediate the development of employee commitment and citizenship behaviours. Research purpose: The present study hypothesised that job satisfaction mediated the relationships between the predictors (perceived organisational support and protestant work ethics) and outcomes (organisational citizenship behaviours and organisational commitment). Motivation for the study: There is paucity of literature on the mediating influence of job satisfaction on predictors-outcomes linkages amongst agriculture workers in Nigeria. Available studies either examined the main effect of perceived organisational support on citizenship behaviours or the mediating influence of satisfaction on citizenship behaviours and not the proposed model. Research design, approach and method: The present study was survey-correlational in design. Data were obtained from 223 heterogeneous samples from different organisations (such as ministry of agriculture, parastatals, banks, private agro-allied companies, and insurance companies). Main findings: Results showed that job satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between perceived organisational support and citizenship behaviours and partially mediated the relationship between perceived organisational support and organisational commitment. Further, employee satisfaction partially mediated the relationships between protestant work ethics and citizenship behaviours and organisational commitment. Practical/managerial implications: This study indicated that both protestant work ethics and perceived organisational support are important in motivating employees to engage in cooperative behaviours and exhibit greater commitment through job satisfaction. Contribution/value-add: The present study showed that job satisfaction is a mediator linking both perceived organisational support and protestant work ethics to organisational commitment and citizenship behaviours.


An index of indoor chemical pollution has been developed on the basis of more than 1200 surveys in dwellings conducted by the Regional Unit for Indoor Pollution Intervention (French acronym CRIPI) in the BrusselsCapital Region. This tool is intended for giving assistance in medical diagnosis. It provides a rapid evaluation of the contamination level by volatile organic compounds of a dwelling. It is also useful in cases where one of the most frequently found compound shows a particularly high concentration. The index has been developed for benzene, toluene, pinene, limonene, triclorethylene, tetrachlorethylene and formaldehyde. It allows for facing the lack of reference standard in Belgium.


Activist hedge funds merit the attention of corporate directors, as the value of the assets under management increases and activist funds' targets expand well beyond small capitalization companies. This report reviews the tactics used by two prominent activist hedge fund managers to create change in 13 companies in their portfolio and highlights four perceived governance failures at target companies that attracted activist funds' attention. This release also includes a review of characteristics of activist hedge funds, the incentives their managers have to generate positive returns, and current research investigating whether and how hedge fund activism affects target companies.


Abstract New options are needed to reduce the impact of motor vehicles on climate change and declining fossil fuel resources. Cars which are fueled by hydrogen could be a sustainable method of transportation if suitable technologies can be devised to produce hydrogen in an environmentally benign manner along with the provision of the necessary fueling infrastructure. This paper assesses size, space, and cost requirements of bioreactors as a decentralized option to supply hydrogen powered cars with biohydrogen produced from algae or cyanobacteria on a theoretical basis. Decentralized supply of biohydrogen could help to reduce the problems that hydrogen cars face regarding market penetration. A feasibility study for decentralized biohydrogen production is conducted, taking the quantity of hydrogen which is needed to fuel current hydrogen cars into account. While this technology is, in theory, feasible, sizes, and costs of such reactors are currently too high for widespread adoption. Thus, more R&D is needed to close the gap and to approach marketability.


This paper presents the technical and architectural issues associated with automating Demand Response (DR) programs. The paper focuses on a description of the Demand Response Automation Server (DRAS), which is the main component used to automate the interactions between the Utilities and their customers for DR programs. Use cases are presented that show the role of the DRAS in automating various aspects of DR programs. This paper also describes the various technical aspects of the DRAS including its interfaces and major modes of operation. This includes how the DRAS supports automating such Utility/Customer interactions as automated DR bidding, automated DR event handling, and finally real-time pricing.


The first edition of the Library Publishing Directory provides a snapshot of the publishing activities of 115 academic and research libraries, including information about the number and types of publications they produce, the services they offer authors, how they are staffed and funded, and the future plans of institutions that are engaged in this emerging field. In documenting the breadth and depth of activities in this field, this resource aims to articulate the unique value of library publishing; establish it as a significant and growing community of practice; and to raise its visibility within a number of stakeholder communities, including administrators, funding agencies, other scholarly publishers, librarians, and content creators. Specifically it is hoped that this Directory will: • Introduce all readers to the emerging field of library publishing and help articulate its unique characteristics as a distinctive "publishing field." • Facilitate collaboration among library publishers and other publishing entities, especially the university presses and learned societies that share their values. • Alert authors of scholarly content to a range of potential publishing partners dedicated to supporting their experimentation with new forms of scholarly communication and open access business models. The Directory is also available Open Access in several electronic formats through www.librarypublishing.org.


There is growing interest on payments for ecosystem services (PES) in developing countries including the Philippines. Watersheds have been degraded through deforestation and subsequent conversion to other land cover, principally for agriculture. In the last decade, several Payments for Watershed Services schemes have been implemented and this paper is an attempt to assess the form of incentives or rewards that have been provided to upland communities in a number of sites under different management leadership in the Philippines. We reviewed four cases specifically related to watershed services in the: 1) Bakun Watershed, 2) Maasin Watershed, 3) Sibuyan Watershed, and 4) Baticulan Watershed. The case studies of varying stages of implementation has shown that the chances of success of PES schemes in promoting watershed conservation and rehabilitation as well as in improving the livelihoods of upland communities is constrained by incomplete information and knowledge about the interaction between ecosystem properties and provision of services, and the difficulty in establishing voluntary participation and conditionality of payments. In this paper, we argued that institutions may enable or hinder the successful implementation of PES. The role of the local government as intermediaries is crucial in the process of establishing PES more particularly in the information dissemination and education of the key stakeholders. The case studies also showed how PES programs are reinforced by the presence of non-government organizations.


The Islamic State is one of the most lethal and successful jihadist groups in modern history, surpassing even al-Qaeda. Thousands of its followers have marched across Syria and Iraq, subjugating millions, enslaving women, beheading captives, and daring anyone to stop them. Thousands more have spread terror beyond the Middle East under the Islamic State's black flag. How did the Islamic State attract so many followers and conquer so much land? By being more ruthless, more apocalyptic, and more devoted to state-building than its competitors. The shrewd leaders of the Islamic State combined two of the most powerful yet contradictory ideas in Islam-the return of the Islamic Empire and the end of the world-into a mission and a message that shapes its strategy and inspires its army of zealous fighters. They have defied conventional thinking about how to wage wars and win recruits. Even if the Islamic State is defeated, jihadist terrorism will never be the same. Based almost entirely on primary sources in Arabic-including ancient religious texts and secret al-Qaeda and Islamic State letters that few have seen - William McCants' "The ISIS Apocalypse" explores how religious fervor, strategic calculation, and doomsday prophecy shaped the Islamic State's past and foreshadow its dark future.


Purpose To systematically review articles reporting on depression, anxiety, and burnout among U.S. and Canadian medical students. Method Medline and PubMed were searched to identify peer-reviewed English-language studies published between January 1980 and May 2005 reporting on depression, anxiety, and burnout among U.S. and Canadian medical students. Searches used combinations of the Medical Subject Heading terms medical student and depression, depressive disorder major, depressive disorder, professional burnout, mental health, depersonalization, distress, anxiety, or emotional exhaustion. Reference lists of retrieved articles were inspected to identify relevant additional articles. Demographic information, instruments used, prevalence data on student distress, and statistically significant associations were abstracted. Results The search identified 40 articles on medical student psychological distress (i.e., depression, anxiety, burnout, and related mental health problems) that met the authors' criteria. No studies of burnout among medical students were identified. The studies suggest a high prevalence of depression and anxiety among medical students, with levels of overall psychological distress consistently higher than in the general population and age-matched peers by the later years of training. Overall, the studies suggest psychological distress may be higher among female students. Limited data were available regarding the causes of student distress and its impact on academic performance, dropout rates, and professional development. Conclusions Medical school is a time of significant psychological distress for physicians-in-training. Currently available information is insufficient to draw firm conclusions on the causes and consequences of student distress. Large, prospective, multicenter studies are needed to identify personal and training-related features that influence depression, anxiety, and burnout among students and explore relationships between distress and competency.


The new international capital standard for credit institutions ("Basel II") allows banks to use internal rating systems in order to determine the risk weights that are relevant for the calculation of capital charge. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a system that enfolds the main practices and methods existing in the context of credit rating. The aim of this thesis is to give a suggestion of setting up a credit rating system, where the main techniques used in practice are analyzed, presenting some alternatives and considering the problems that can arise from a statistical point of view. Finally, we will set up some guidelines on how to accomplish the challenge of credit scoring. The judgement of the quality of a credit with respect to the probability of default is called credit rating. A method based on a multi-dimensional criterion seems to be natural, due to the numerous effects that can influence this rating. However, owing to governmental rules, the tendency is that typically one-dimensional criteria will be required in the future as a measure for the credit worthiness or for the quality of a credit. The problem as described above can be resolved via transformation of a multi-dimensional data set into a one-dimensional one while keeping some monotonicity properties and also keeping the loss of information (due to the loss of dimensionality) at a minimum level.


Written by a leading activist in the transgender movement, Becoming a Visible Man is an artful and compelling inquiry into the politics of gender. Jamison Green combines candid autobiography with informed analysis to offer unique insight into the multiple challenges of the female-to-male transsexual experience, ranging from encounters with prejudice and strained relationships with family to the development of an FTM community and the realities of surgical sex reassignment. For more than a decade, Green has provided educational programs on gender-variance issues for corporations, law-enforcement agencies, social-science conferences and classes, continuing legal education, religious education, and medical venues. His comprehensive knowledge of the processes and problems encountered by transgendered and transsexual people - as well as his legal advocacy work to help ensure that gender-variant people have access to the same rights and opportunities as others - enable him to explain the issues as no transsexual author has previously done. Brimming with frank and often poignant recollections of Green's own experiences - including his childhood struggles with identity and his years as a lesbian parent prior to his sex-reassignment surgery - the book examines transsexualism as a human condition, and sex reassignment as one of the choices that some people feel compelled to make in order to manage their gender variance. Relating the FTM psyche and experience to the social and political forces at work in American society, Becoming a Visible Man also speaks consciously of universal principles that concern us all, particularly the need to live one's life honestly, openly, and passionately.


This text offers a comprehensive treatment of VHDL and its applications to the design and simulation of real, industry-standard circuits. It focuses on the use of VHDL rather than solely on the language, showing why and how certain types of circuits are inferred from the language constructs and how any of the four simulation categories can be implemented. It makes a rigorous distinction between VHDL for synthesis and VHDL for simulation. The VHDL codes in all design examples are complete, and circuit diagrams, physical synthesis in FPGAs, simulation results, and explanatory comments are included with the designs. The text reviews fundamental concepts of digital electronics and design and includes a series of appendixes that offer tutorials on important design tools including ISE, Quartus II, and ModelSim, as well as descriptions of programmable logic devices in which the designs are implemented, the DE2 development board, standard VHDL packages, and other features. All four VHDL editions (87, 93, 2002, and 2008) are covered. This expanded second edition is the first textbook on VHDL to include a detailed analysis of circuit simulation with VHDL testbenches in all four categories (nonautomated, fully automated, functional, and timing simulations), accompanied by complete practical examples. Chapters 19 have been updated, with new design examples and new details on such topics as data types and code statements. Chapter 10 is entirely new and deals exclusively with simulation. Chapters 1117 are also entirely new, presenting extended and advanced designs with theoretical and practical coverage of serial data communications circuits, video circuits, and other topics. There are many more illustrations, and the exercises have been updated and their number more than doubled.


Life at the end of the twentieth century presents us with a disturbing reality. Otherness, the simple fact of being different in some way, has come to be defined as in and of itself evil. Miroslav Volf contends that if the healing word of the gospel is to be heard today, Christian theology must find ways of speaking that address the hatred of the other. Reaching back to the New Testament metaphor of salvation as reconciliation, Volf proposes the idea of embrace as a theological response to the problem of exclusion. Increasingly we see that exclusion has become the primary sin, skewing our perceptions of reality and causing us to react out of fear and anger to all those who are not within our (ever-narrowing) circle. In light of this, Christians must learn that salvation comes, not only as we are reconciled to God, and not only as we "learn to live with one another," but as we take the dangerous and costly step of opening ourselves to the other, of enfolding him or her in the same embrace with which we have been enfolded by God. Is there any hope of embracing our enemies? Of opening the door to reconciliation? Miroslav Volf, a Yale University theologian, has won the 2002 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his book, Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Abingdon, 1996). Volf argues that exclusion of people who are alien or different is among the most intractable problems in the world today. He writes, It may not be too much to claim that the future of our world will depend on how we deal with identity and difference. The issue is urgent. The ghettos and battlefields throughout the world in the living rooms, in inner cities, or on the mountain ranges testify indisputably to its importance. A Croatian by birth, Volf takes as a starting point for his analysis the recent civil war and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, but he readily finds other examples of cultural, ethnic, and racial conflict to illustrate his points. And, since September 11, one can scarcely help but plug the new world players into his incisive descriptions of the dynamics of interethnic and international strife. Exclusion happens, Volf argues, wherever impenetrable barriers are set up that prevent a creative encounter with the other. It is easy to assume that exclusion is the problem or practice of barbarians who live over there, but Volf persuades us that exclusion is all too often our practice here as well. Modern western societies, including American society, typically recite their histories as narratives of inclusion, and Volf celebrates the truth in these narratives. But he points out that these narratives conveniently omit certain groups who disturb the integrity of their happy ending plots. Therefore such narratives of inclusion invite long and gruesome counter-narratives of exclusion the brutal histories of slavery and of the decimation of Native American populations come readily to mind, but more current examples could also be found. Most proposed solutions to the problem of exclusion have focused on social arrangements what kind of society ought we to create in order to accommodate individual or communal difference? Volf focuses, rather, on what kind of selves we need to be in order to live in harmony with others. In addressing the topic, Volf stresses the social implications of divine self-giving. The Christian scriptures attest that God does not abandon the godless to their evil, but gives of Godself to bring them into communion. We are called to do likewise whoever our enemies and whoever we may be. The divine mandate to embrace as God has embraced is summarized in Paul s injunction to the Romans: Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you (Romans 15:7). Susan R. Garrett, Coordinator of the Religion Award, said that the Grawemeyer selection committee praised Volf s book on many counts. These included its profound interpretation of certain pivotal passages of Scripture and its brilliant engagement with contemporary theology, philosophy, critical theory, and feminist theory. Volf s focus is not on social strategies or programs but, rather, on showing us new ways to understand ourselves and our relation to our enemies. He helps us to imagine new possibilities for living against violence, injustice, and deception. Garrett added that, although addressed primarily to Christians, Volf's theological statement opens itself to religious pluralism by upholding the importance of different religious and cultural traditions for the formation of personal and group identity. The call to embrace the other is never a call to remake the other into one s own image. Volf who had just delivered a lecture on the topic of Exclusion and Embrace at a prayer breakfast for the United Nations when the first hijacked plane hit the World Trade Center will present a lecture and receive his award in Louisville during the first week of April, 2002. The annual Religion Award, which includes a cash prize of $200,000, is given jointly by Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and the University of Louisville to the authors or originators of creative works that contribute significantly to an understanding of the relationship between human beings and the divine, and ways in which this relationship may inspire or empower human beings to attain wholeness, integrity, or meaning, either individually or in community. The Grawemeyer awards given also by the University of Louisville in the fields of musical composition, education, psychology, and world order honor the virtue of accessibility: works chosen for the awards must be comprehensible to thinking persons who are not specialists in the various fields. "


A brilliant writer and a fiery social critic, Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) was perhaps the most famous American woman of her generation. Outspoken and quick-witted, idealistic and adventurous, she became the leading female figure in the transcendentalist movement, wrote a celebrated column of literary and social commentary for Horace Greeley's newspaper, and served as the first foreign correspondent for an American newspaper. While living in Europe she fell in love with an Italian nobleman, with whom she became pregnant out of wedlock. In 1848 she joined the fight for Italian independence and, the following year, reported on the struggle while nursing the wounded within range of enemy cannons. Amid all these strivings and achievements, she authored the first great work of American feminism: Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Despite her brilliance, however, Fuller suffered from self-doubt and was plagued by ill health. John Matteson captures Fuller's longing to become ever better, reflected by the changing lives she led.


Double blind is the term researchers frequently use, and readers frequently accept, as a key marker of validity of a randomised controlled trial (RCT). Clinical trial experts and clinicians, when asked, all claim to "know" what double blind means; unfortunately it means diverse things to those questioned. The term lacks consistency in its use and interpretation — a critical flaw for any technical term if it is to be understood. In this editorial, we advocate abandoning the current blinding lexicon (ie, single, double, and triple blinding) and recommend transparent reporting of the blinding status of each group involved in the execution, monitoring, and reporting of clinical trials. Blinding (or masking) in RCTs is the process of withholding information about treatment allocation from those who could potentially be influenced by this information. Blinding has long been considered an important safeguard against bias. Benjamin Franklin, in 1784, was probably the first to use blinding in scientific experimentation. Louis XVI commissioned Franklin to evaluate mesmerism, the most popular unconventional "healing fluid" of the eighteenth century. By applying a blindfold to participants, Franklin removed their knowledge of when mesmerism was and was not being applied. Blinding eliminated the intervention's effects and established mesmerism as a sham. From this work, the scientific community recognised the power of blinding to enhance objectivity and it quickly became, and remains, a commonly used strategy in scientific research. The groups who can potentially introduce bias into an RCT through knowledge of the treatment allocation are shown in the table. Individuals in the 7 groups in the table are likely to have or to develop opinions about the efficacy of the intervention being investigated. Because of these opinions, unblinded individuals can systematically bias trial findings through conscious or unconscious mechanisms. When unblinded, participants may introduce bias through use of other effective interventions, differential reporting of symptoms, psychological or biological effects of receiving a placebo (although recent studies show conflicting evidence), 5 or dropping out. Unblinded healthcare providers can distort trial results if they differentially administer effective co-interventions, influence compliance with follow up, or influence patient reports. Unblinded data collectors can introduce bias through differential encouragement during performance testing, differential timing or frequency of outcome measurements, and variable recording of outcomes. 7 Unblinded judicial assessors may introduce bias in their assessments of outcomes, this being most likely during assessment of subjective outcomes. Unblinded data analysts have the potential to introduce systematic bias through decisions on patient withdrawals, post hoc selection of outcomes or analytic approaches, selection of time points that show the maximum or minimum effects, and many other decisions. Unblinded members of the data safety and monitoring committee may introduce bias at the time of interim analyses through their recommendations to stop or continue a study. Blinding of authors, although seldom done, 9 may reduce the biases in the presentation and interpretation of results. Case reports document individual examples of the biases described above. 8 10 11 However, no high quality methodological studies have been done to evaluate whether blinding of individual groups systematically affects the estimate of effect in RCTs. Investigators have published 2 high quality methodological studies (ie, studies that assessed RCTs from meta-analyses, thereby controlling for the confounders of disease state and intervention), but they assessed the influence of investigators' statements that the trials were double blinded on the estimate of effect. 13 Although 1 study showed lower estimates of effect in RCTs reported as double blinded, the other study did not find any association between the reporting of double blinding and the estimate of effect. Who was actually blinded in these studies probably varied and is certainly open to question. Heterogeneity in who was blinded in the studies reported as double blinded may be responsible for these discrepant findings. Although the true magnitude of bias introduced by unblinding remains (and is likely to remain) uncertain, clinicians should consider the blinding status of each group in assessing study validity. Unfortunately, the suboptimal reporting of blinding status in full text publications and secondary journals has hindered readers. 15 Authors have commonly relied on conventional blinding terminology (single, double, and triple blinding) to convey blinding status. We have shown great variability in physician interpretations and textbook definitions of these terms. It is for this reason that we recommend, and the editors of Evidence-Based Nursing have adopted, a strategy of abandoning the current blinding terminology for transparent reporting of the blinding status of the groups listed in the table.


This article considers pottery sherds from three sites in the Makarauci Valley, Niger, dating from AD 1300-1650, with particular focus on tempering practices. The sherds represented two main types: plain vessels with minerals providing a natural temper, and decorated (mainly pleated strip roulette) vessels tempered with vegetal fibres, now burnt out. There is a very strong correlation between this fibre-tempered fabric and decoration. As the contemporaneity of dates suggests both types of clay were available to the potters, the question arises as to why they used fibre-tempered clays for the manufacture of decorated vessels. We consider evidence for fibre-tempering from around the world and suggest that the answer lies in a combination of cultural and technological factors. Decoration served as the marker of a vessel designed for water storage and carrying, and the decoration disguised the pitted and blemished surface of fibre-tempered pots; the porous fabric meant the vessels were lighter to carry and therefore better suited for water transport.


Christensen, Bonnie. I, Galileo . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. Print. I, Galileo is a factual biography presented in narrative style. Told from the first person perspective of Galileo Galilei as an old man, the story briefly recounts the significant moments in his life from education, to scientific discoveries and inventions, and to his accusation of heresy by the Catholic Church in Rome for being a proponent of the heliocentric model of the solar system. Told in a simple straightforward style, it is remarkable how much information about Galileo's life is so eloquently packed into such a short work without seeming merely like an account of facts. This makes the content accessible to children without making it seem too much like a history lesson. At the end, the text is accompanied by a chronology of historical moments, listings of Galileo's most famous experiments, inventions, and discoveries, as well as a short glossary. For those interested in learning more about Galileo there is a brief bibliography and a list of recommended websites, though the documentary and sites for which links are provided are not aimed at the same age level as the book. Author Bonnie Christensen is also the illustrator. The artistic oil paintings have an historic feel that complement the text nicely and aid in its comprehension. For instance, reference to Galileo's compass could have been misinterpreted as a different type of tool were it not for its depiction on the opposing page. Colour was used very effectively, particularly with the symbolic darkening of the background on the page where Galileo was sentenced to life imprisonment. Young readers will learn a lot from this book, and hopefully will be as inspired Galileo was to explore, discover, and challenge existing ideas along the way. Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Trish Chatterley Trish is a Public Services Librarian for the John W. Scott Health Sciences Library at the University of Alberta. In her free time she enjoys dancing, gardening, and reading books of all types.


An important aspect of knowledge management is the implementation of methods to share the unstructured knowledge of expert practitioners within an organization. The existence of unstructured and dynamic knowledge represents a challenge to experts due to the dynamic and non-sequential nature of such knowledge. In order to make such knowledge sharable, it is necessary to have both an effective elicitation method and a useful representation toolkit. In this paper we describe a Dynamic Knowledge Toolkit (DKT) that is used in knowledge elicitation and representation based upon Knowledge maps. Knowledge Maps content is different from the more general information in typical reference material and that is organized quite differently than standard textbook knowledge or mainstream hypermedia learning systems. These knowledge models tend to be large and complex with interwoven themes and rich interconnections of the concepts based on the expert's highly articulated mental model of the domain. Knowledge Maps have been used in all facets of education, training and business. With the fundamental goal of fostering learning and knowledge sharing they have been shown to be an effective tool for displaying prior knowledge, summarizing, planning, scaffolding for understanding, consolidating experiences, improving affective conditions for critical thinking, decision making, supporting cooperation and collaboration, and organizing unstructured knowledge content. We describe the use of the toolkit in a case study on the capture and representation of local weather forecasting knowledge. We also show how Knowledge maps can be used to support activities such as the preservation of institutional memory, the "recovery" of expertise that might reside in less accessible forms such as archived documents, for performance support, and for other knowledge-intensive pursuits such as weather forecasting or crisis management.


This paper presents a search for massive charged long-lived particles produced in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV at the LHC using the ATLAS experiment. The dataset used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb$^{-1}$. Many extensions of the Standard Model predict the existence of massive charged long-lived particles, such as $R$-hadrons. These massive particles are expected to be produced with a velocity significantly below the speed of light, and therefore to have a specific ionization higher than any Standard Model particle of unit charge at high momenta. The Pixel subsystem of the ATLAS detector is used to measure the ionization energy loss of reconstructed charged particles and to search for such highly ionizing particles. The search presented here has much greater sensitivity than a similar search performed using the ATLAS detector in the $\sqrt{s}=$ 8 TeV dataset, thanks to the increase in expected signal cross-section due to the higher center-of-mass energy of collisions, to an upgraded detector with a new silicon layer close to the interaction point, and to analysis improvements. No significant deviation from Standard Model background expectations is observed, and lifetime-dependent upper limits on $R$-hadron production cross-sections and masses are set. Gluino $R$-hadrons with lifetimes above 0.4 ns and decaying to $q\bar{q}$ plus a 100 GeV neutralino are excluded at the 95% confidence level, with lower mass limit ranging between 740 GeV and 1590 GeV. In the case of stable $R$-hadrons the lower mass limit at the 95% confidence level is 1570 GeV.


When deciding whether to share information, firms consider their private welfare. Discrepancies between social and private welfare may lead firms excessively to share information to anti-competitive ends - in facilitating of cartels and other harmful horizontal practices - a problem both antitrust scholarship and case law have paid much attention to. On the other hand, legal scholars have paid far less attention to the opposite type of inefficiency in information sharing among competitors - namely, the problem of sub-optimal information sharing. This phenomenon can generate significant social costs and is of special importance in network industries because the maintenance of compatibility, a key to producing positive network effects, typically requires information sharing. Understanding the hitherto neglected impact of sub-optimal information sharing is important not only for many areas of antitrust law, but also for developing effective policies towards network industries and critical infrastructures more generally, as well as for improving those procedural rules that concern information exchange among litigating parties. This paper therefore advances the legal analysis of impediments to efficient information sharing in a number of significant ways: First, it shows that the strategic behavior of competitors may erect an economic barrier to information sharing that has not been previously addressed in the literature - the fear of degradation. This form of strategic behavior involves the strategic refusal to share information when the refusal inflicts a greater harm on one's rivals than on oneself, and thus generates a competitive advantage. Second, the paper reveals a hitherto unrecognized set of behavioral impediments to information sharing, wherein rivalry norms and managers' risk attitudes bias competitors' judgments of the prospects of information sharing and the status-quo bias and ambiguity aversion lead these decision makers to avoid such arrangements. Third, it integrates these economic and behavioral insights with the findings of the extant literature to create a new framework for predicting when private information sharing will be suboptimal. Finally, we suggest how the alignment of private information sharing with social optimality may be promoted, based on the framework developed here.


The main goal of the Project Experiment@Portugal is to produce a complete survey of Portuguese developments in remote and virtual labs. This knowledge will provide the conditions for joining forces in order to organize a well structured national website integrating a database of available remote and virtual experiments, categorized for sharing purposes, and looking for delivering valuable contents for high schools and for higher education. It is expected that the final result will bring up a solid team able to offer in this domain a Portuguese partner at international level.


The interplay of charmonium production and suppression in In+In and Pb+Pb reactions at 158 AGeV and in Au+Au reactions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV is investigated with the HSD transport approach within the `hadronic comover model' and the `QGP melting scenario'. The results for the J/Psi suppression and the Psi' to J/Psi ratio are compared to the recent data of the NA50, NA60, and PHENIX Collaborations. We find that, at 158 AGeV, the comover absorption model performs better than the scenario of abrupt threshold melting. However, neither interaction with hadrons alone nor simple color screening satisfactory describes the data at sqrt(s)=200 GeV. A deconfined phase is clearly reached at RHIC, but a theory having the relevant degrees of freedom in this regime (strongly interacting quarks/gluons) is needed to study its transport properties.


EXAM PREP GUIDE Ace your preparation for the skills measured by Exam 70-462and on the jobwith this official Microsoft study guide. Work at your own pace through a series of lessons and reviews that fully cover each exam objective. Then, reinforce and apply what youve learned through real-world case scenarios and practice exercises. Maximize your performance on the exam by mastering the skills and experience measured by these objectives:Install and configure SQL Server Maintain instances and databases Optimize and troubleshoot SQL Server Manage data Implement security Implement high availability PRACTICE TESTS Assess your skills with the practice tests on CD. You can work through hundreds of questions using multiple testing modes to meet your specific learning needs. You get detailed explanations for right and wrong answersincluding a customized learning path that describes how and where to focus your studies.


It is well-known that Sturmian sequences are the non ultimately periodic sequences that are balanced over a 2-letter alphabet. They are also characterized by their complexity: they have exactly $(n+1)$ distinct factors of length $n$. A natural generalization of Sturmian sequences is the set of infinite episturmian sequences. These sequences are not necessarily balanced over a $k$-letter alphabet, nor are they necessarily aperiodic. In this paper, we characterize balanced episturmian sequences, periodic or not, and prove Fraenkel's conjecture for the special case of episturmian sequences. It appears that balanced episturmian sequences are all ultimately periodic and they can be classified in 3 families.


Background: Pediatric obesity is associated with lower physical activity levels and a decrease in cardiac autonomic modulation. Physical activity contributes cardiovascular improvements via increases in heart rate variability. However involvement in regular physical activity decreases during summer vacation for adolescent children. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness four and eight weeks of supervised summer play-based activity versus eight weeks of unsupervised activity in adolescent children during summer vacation on resting heart rate variability (HRV). Methods: Twenty-two 8 to 12 year-old children were divided into 4 wk and 8 wk activity or control groups. 4 wk and 8 wk treatment groups met 5 days per week, took part in play-based activities for 6 hours each day. Control subjects were instructed to maintain their regular summer break plans with no intervention by the study team. Results: Total power (TP) increased at rest and with tilt following 8 weeks of activity. The significant differences between the 8 wk activity group and the control group supported the idea that routine play-based activity can increase heart rate variability positively and enhance sympathovagal balance in children over summer vacation.


In this article, we defend the traditional rule that legislative entrenchment, the practice by which a legislature insulates ordinary statutes from repeal by a subsequent legislature, is both unconstitutional and normatively undesirable. A recent essay by Professors Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule disputes this rule against legislative entrenchment and provides the occasion for our review of the issue. First, we argue that legislative entrenchment is unconstitutional, offering the first comprehensive defense of the proposition that the original meaning of the Constitution prohibits legislative entrenchments. We show that a combination of textual, historical, and structural arguments make a very compelling case against the constitutionality of legislative entrenchment. In particular, the Framers incorporated into the Constitution the traditional Anglo-American practice against legislative entrenchment, as evidenced by early comments by James Madison - comments that have not been previously discussed in this context. Moreover, legislative entrenchment essentially would allow Congress to use majority rule to pass constitutional amendments. On the normative issue, we offer a new theory of the appropriate scope of entrenchment: the theory of symmetric entrenchment. Under our theory, there is a strong presumption that only symmetric entrenchments - entrenchments that are enacted under the same supermajority rule that is needed to repeal them - are desirable. The presumption helps to distinguish desirable entrenchments that would improve upon government decisions from undesirable ones that simply involve legislatures protecting their existing preferences against future repeal. To be desirable entrenchments must generally be symmetric, because the supermajority rule that is applied to the enactment of entrenched measures would improve the quality of these measures and therefore compensate for the additional dangers that entrenchments pose. This theory steers a middle path between a strict majoritarian position, which would prohibit all legislative entrenchments, and a position that would allow legislative majorities to entrench measures.


As a spectroscopic method, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) has seen spectacular growth over the past two decades, both as a technique and in its applications. Today the applications of NMR span a wide range of scientific disciplines, from physics to biology to medicine. Each volume of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance comprises a combination of annual and biennial reports which together provide comprehensive of the literature on this topic. This Specialist Periodical Report reflects the growing volume of published work involving NMR techniques and applications, in particular NMR of natural macromolecules which is covered in two reports: "NMR of Proteins and Acids" and "NMR of Carbohydrates, Lipids and Membranes". For those wanting to become rapidly acquainted with specific areas of NMR, this title provides unrivalled scope of coverage. Seasoned practitioners of NMR will find this an in valuable source of current methods and applications. Specialist Periodical Reports provide systematic and detailed review coverage in major areas of chemical research. Compiled by teams of leading authorities in the relevant subject areas, the series creates a unique service for the active research chemist, with regular, in-depth accounts of progress in particular fields of chemistry. Subject coverage within different volumes of a given title is similar and publication is on an annual or biennial basis.


COLUMBUS, Ohio – During a five-hour surgery last October at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Kathy Sanford became the first Alzheimer's patient in the United States to have a pacemaker implanted in her brain. She is the first of up to 10 patients who will be enrolled in an FDA-approved study at Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center to determine if using a brain pacemaker can improve cognitive and behavioral functioning in patients with Alzheimer's disease. The study employs the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS), the same technology used to successfully treat about 100,000 patients worldwide with movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease. In the study, researchers hope to determine whether DBS surgery can improve function governed by the frontal lobe and neural networks involved in cognition and behavior by stimulating certain areas of the brain with a pacemaker. Dr. Douglas Scharre, neurologist and director of the division of cognitive neurology, and Dr. Ali Rezai, neurosurgeon and director of the neuroscience program, both at Wexner Medical Center, are conducting the study. ''If the early findings that we're seeing continue to be robust and progressive, then I think that will be very promising and encouraging for us,'' says Rezai, who also directs the Center for Neuromodulation at Ohio State. ''But so far we are cautiously optimistic." The deep brain stimulation implant is similar to a cardiac pacemaker device with the exception that the pacemaker wires are implanted in the brain rather than the heart. ''Basically, the pacemakers send tiny signals into the brain that regulate the abnormal activity of the brain and normalize it more,'' says Rezai. ''Right now, from what we're seeing in our first patient, I think the results are encouraging, but this is research. We need to do more research and understand what's going on." The study, which will enroll people with mild or early-stage Alzheimer's disease, will help determine if DBS has the potential to improve cognitive, behavioral and functional deficits. Sanford continues to be evaluated to determine the effectiveness of the technology, says Rezai. She says she volunteered for the study to help others avoid the angst she has suffered as Alzheimer's slowly disrupted her life. ''I'm just trying to make the world a better place,'' says Sanford. ''That's all I'm doing." Her father, Joe Jester, says he is proud that his daughter is participating in the study, and is pleased to see her showing improvements. ''This study seemed to just give us hope,'' said Jester. ''I guess we were at the place where you just don't do anything and watch the condition deteriorate over the years, or try to do something that would give us hope and might stop the progression of this disease." Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of degenerative dementia, afflicting about 5.5 million Americans and costing more than $100 billion per year, ranking it the third costliest disease in terms of health care expenditures in the United States. Alzheimer's disease – which has no cure and is not easily managed – becomes progressively disabling with loss of memory, cognition, worsening behavioral function, in addition to a gradual loss of independent functioning, says Scharre. The Ohio State neurology team is nationally renowned for expertise in dementia and Alzheimer's care and research. In addition, the neuromodulation team at Ohio State are pioneers in the use of DBS to treat Parkinson's disease, as well as exploring the use of DBS for other neurological and neurobehavioral conditions. Researchers at the Neuromodulation Center are completing a study of DBS in patients with traumatic brain injuries, and have initiated a study of DBS for treating obesity. The Alzheimer's study is scheduled to be completed in 2015. (Source: EurekAlert! A service of AAAS and Ohio State Wexner Medical Center).


This paper presents a preliminary analysis of online information services that examines the intersection of two areas of research: Virtual Reference Services (VRS) and Social Q&A (SQA). This project embraces the idea of a synergic collaboration within and between VRS and SQA to provide higher quality content to information seekers and a higher level of sustainability. Preliminary findings are described that emanate from a grant-funded project: Cyber Synergy: Seeking Sustainability through Collaboration between Virtual Reference and Social Q&A Sites, which is being supported by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Early stages of the grant project activities include VRS transcript analysis and interviews with online Q&A end users (students) and experts (university librarians). Analysis reveals that VRS questions address a broad range of subjects, predominantly social sciences and technology. Largest numbers of question types are Procedural and Ready Reference. An analysis of accuracy for the subset of Ready Reference questions was found to be high, 90 percent correct, although only 75 percent were found to be correct with citation cited. Interviews with information seekers and providers in both VRS and SQA environments revealed important differences in how experts and end-users perceive online Q&A services, leaving clues as to how it may be possible to start bridging these systems.


The best-selling introduction to Cocoa, once again updated to cover the latest Mac programming technologies, and still enthusiastically recommended by experienced Mac OS X developers. Aarons book is the gold standard for Mac OS X programming booksbeautifully written, and thoughtfully sculpted. The best book on Leopard development. Scott Stevenson, www.theocacao.com This is the first book Id recommend for anyone wanting to learn Cocoa from scratch. Aarons one of the few (perhaps only) full-time professional Cocoa instructors, and his teaching experience shows in the book. Tim Burks, software developer and creator of the Nu programming language, www.programming.nu If youre a UNIX or Windows developer who picked up a Mac OS X machine recently in hopes of developing new apps or porting your apps to Mac users, this book should be strongly considered as one of your essential reference and training tomes. Kevin H. Spencer, Apple Certified Technical Coordinator If youre developing applicati ons for Mac OS X, Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X, Third Edition, is the book youve been waiting to get your hands on. If youre new to the Mac environment, its probably the book youve been told to read first. Covering the bulk of what you need to know to develop full-featured applications for OS X, written in an engaging tutorial style, and thoroughly class-tested to assure clarity and accuracy, it is an invaluable resource for any Mac programmer. Specifically, Aaron Hillegass introduces the three most commonly used Mac developer tools: Xcode, Interface Builder, and Instruments. He also covers the Objective-C language and the major design patterns of Cocoa. Aaron illustrates his explanations with exemplary code, written in the idioms of the Cocoa community, to show you how Mac programs should be written. After reading this book, you will know enough to understand and utilize Apples online documentation for your own unique needs. And you will know enough to write your own stylish code. Updated for Mac O S X 10.4 and 10.5, this revised edition includes coverage of Xcode 3, Objective-C 2, Core Data, the garbage collector, and CoreAnimation.


The tertiary current distributions on the wafer in a plating cell are studied in this work. An acid copper sulfate electrolyte composed of CuSO45H2O of 2.4 g/L and H2SO4 of 90 g/L is taken into account for copper deposition on the wafer. The solution of shearplate agitating fluid dynamics is coupled into the calculation of tertiary current distributions. The obtained distributions of tertiary current densities and ion concentrations on the wafer present an oscillating wave form, indicating the strong effect of shear-plate agitation on the current distributions. The distance between the wafer and shear plate is analyzed, which determines the oscillating breadth of the tertiary current distributions on the wafer.


For the twenty-first century life, there cannot be a real, long-term and sustained progress, without insurance. Let's only consider the avalanche of natural disasters and acts of terrorism in recent years that have affected many parts of the world, brought suffering to millions of people and caused huge economic losses. The common knowledge that a country's economic strength lays in banking and insurance needs no arguments. It is not accidental that the most stable economies, where even population's prosperity is remarkable, are found in countries where insurance is well represented in economic life. In a modern economy, insurances play an important role due to its contribution to financial stability, by promoting effective control of various risk categories and mobilizing people's savings. This paper plans to identify the main characteristics, trends and developments of life insurance products and their market, as well as the interactions between the insurance sector, banks and financial markets and to highlight some of the determinants of insurance demand. Also, another topic addressed is the current economic context, and the effects of inflation and economic recession on this sector. Finally, this paper contains a short observation of the evolution of this particular market, striving to make a "prediction" of the immediate prospects of this activity.


The theory and use of a laser sensor designed to provide arrays of registered intensity and range data for three-dimensional scene analysis are described in this paper. Equations are derived to relate the mean and variance of both the intensity and the range data to the physical properties of the target and the parameters of the sensor. Experimental results that verify these equations are given. Adaptive data smoothing and normalization procedures are presented. These procedures reduce photon noise and correct the intensity data for inverse square-law effects. The resulting intensity data give the product of the diffuse surface reflectance and the cosine of the angle of incidence for each picture element in the scene. Simple procedures are given for finding outlines of occluding objects, obtaining normal views of obliquely sensed planar surfaces, and extracting the images of horizontal surface regions from a scene. These procedures demonstrate the advantages of having registered reflectance and range data for scene analysis.


Caloric Restriction (CR) is the only intervention proven to retard aging and extend maximum lifespan in mammalians. A possible mechanism for the beneficial effects of CR is that the mild metabolic stress associated with CR induces cells to express stress proteins that increase their resistance to disease processes. In this article we therefore model the retardation of aging by dietary restriction within a mathematical framework. The resulting model comprises food intake, stress proteins, body growth and survival. We successfully applied our model to growth and survival data of mice exposed to different food levels.


The port of Tangier is about to become one of the most dynamic ports across the Euro-Mediterranean area. The valuing of exceptional locational qualities as maritime crossroads between international shipping routes (Gibraltar Straits) occurs in a context of exacerbated rivalries among Mediterranean transhipment hubs (e.g. Algeciras, Valencia, Cagliari, Gioia Tauro, Taranto, and Marsaxlokk). Locally and regionally, it is made possible through the physical separation between the port city of Tangier and the new multifunctional site of Tangier Med, located 30 km eastwards. This paper recalls briefly the main historical steps of Tangier's development since its origins. Then, it reviews its recent evolution on three different geographic levels: the one of maritime flows and international port competition, the one of regional integration of Tangier in the Moroccan and Maghreb transport systems, and the local issues of port-city redevelopment both within the traditional city and at the new site of Tangier Med. Some concluding remarks aim at linking together these three levels of analysis in terms of the possible futures of this ambitious project.


Abstract. Ship-based measurements of aerosol and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) properties are presented for 2 weeks of observations in remote marine regions of the South China Sea/East Sea during the southwestern monsoon (SWM) season. Smoke from extensive biomass burning throughout the Maritime Continent advected into this region during the SWM, where it was mixed with anthropogenic continental pollution and emissions from heavy shipping activities. Eight aerosol types were identified using a k-means cluster analysis with data from a size-resolved CCN characterization system. Interpretation of the clusters was supplemented by additional onboard aerosol and meteorological measurements, satellite, and model products for the region. A typical bimodal marine boundary layer background aerosol population was identified and observed mixing with accumulation mode aerosol from other sources, primarily smoke from fires in Borneo and Sumatra. Hygroscopicity was assessed using the κ parameter and was found to average 0.40 for samples dominated by aged accumulation mode smoke; 0.65 for accumulation mode marine aerosol; 0.60 in an anthropogenic aerosol plume; and 0.22 during a short period that was characterized by elevated levels of volatile organic compounds not associated with biomass burning impacts. As a special subset of the background marine aerosol, clean air masses substantially scrubbed of particles were observed following heavy precipitation or the passage of squall lines, with changes in observed aerosol properties occurring on the order of minutes. Average CN number concentrations, size distributions, and κ values are reported for each population type, along with CCN number concentrations for particles that activated at supersaturations between 0.14 and 0.85 %.


Evidence suggests that magnetoencephalogram (MEG) data have characteristics with non-Gaussian distribution, however, standard methods for source localisation assume Gaussian behaviour. We present a new general method for non-Gaussian source estimation of stationary signals for localising brain activity in the MEG data. By providing a Bayesian formulation for linearly constraint minimum variance (LCMV) beamformer, we extend this approach and show that how the source probability density function (pdf), which is not necessarily Gaussian, can be estimated. The proposed non-Gaussian beamformer is shown to give better spatial estimates than the LCMV beamformer, in both simulations incorporating non-Gaussian signal and in real MEG measurements.


Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we calculate the relationship between socio-economic status and a utility based measure of annuity value. We find considerable variation between groups once we take account of not only socio-economic differences in mortality, but also pre-annuitized wealth and longevity risk pooling in marriage. Using HRS data on subjective survival probabilities, we then construct a subjective life table for each individual in the HRS. We show that these tables vary appropriately between groups and aggregate closely to group level averages. We calculate the value each household would place on annuitization, based on the husband and wife's subjective life tables, and the household's degree of risk-aversion and proportion of pre-annuitized wealth. A significant minority would perceive themselves as suffering a net loss from mandatory annuitization.


Surrogate-based optimization and nature-inspired metaheuristics have become the state of the art in solving real-world optimization problems. Still, it is difficult for beginners and even experts to get an overview that explains their advantages in comparison to the large number of available methods in the scope of continuous optimization. Available taxonomies lack the integration of surrogate-based approaches and thus their embedding in the larger context of this broad field.
This article presents a taxonomy of the field, which further matches the idea of nature-inspired algorithms, as it is based on the human behavior in path finding. Intuitive analogies make it easy to conceive the most basic principles of the search algorithms, even for beginners and non-experts in this area of research. However, this scheme does not oversimplify the high complexity of the different algorithms, as the class identifier only defines a descriptive meta-level of the algorithm search strategies. The taxonomy was established by exploring and matching algorithm schemes, extracting similarities and differences, and creating a set of classification indicators to distinguish between five distinct classes. In practice, this taxonomy allows recommendations for the applicability of the corresponding algorithms and helps developers trying to create or improve their own algorithms.


We compute the vacuum polarization correction to the binding energy of nuclear matter in the Walecka model using a nonperturbative approach. We first study such a contribution as arising from a ground-state structure with baryon-antibaryon condensates. This yields the same results as obtained through the relativistic Hartree approximation of summing tadpole diagrams for the baryon propagator. Such a vacuum is then generalized to include quantum effects from meson fields through scalar-meson condensates which amounts to summing over a class of multiloop diagrams. The method is applied to study properties of nuclear matter and leads to a softer equation of state giving a lower value of the incompressibility than would be reached without quantum effects. The density-dependent effective \ensuremath{\sigma} mass is also calculated including such vacuum polarization effects.


Innovation is a hallmark of the consumer electronics industry as firms compete to capture greater shares in a competitive market. The culmination of such innovation recently promoted a trend toward digital convergence within the industry as products from the consumer electronics and computer industries incorporate similar characteristics and capabilities. As such, consumer electronics offers a unique perspective on the role of innovation and national systems of innovation within a technologically motivated industry. National systems of innovation are those systems within a state that promote innovation through educational institutions, technical or scientific institutions, cultural traditions, and government policies. Innovation's link to economic prosperity and the knowledge base associated with innovative behavior confers a highly valuable
competitive advantage for nations in an increasingly globalized world. Thus, the
incorporation and promotion of national systems of innovation and the trend toward a digital convergence oriented market within the consumer electronics industry could allow American consumer electronics and computer firms the ability to level the balance of power in this heavily Japanese dominated industry. An industry innovation award is used to illustrate differences between Japanese and American firms as well as note the innovative capability of American firms.


This paper presents a new recursive information consensus filter for decentralized dynamic-state estimation. No structure is assumed about the topology of the network and local estimators are assumed to have access only to local information. The network need not be connected at all times. Consensus over priors which might become correlated is performed through Covariance Intersection (CI) and consensus over new information is handled using weights based on a Metropolis Hastings Markov Chains. We establish bounds for estimation performance and show that our method produces unbiased conservative estimates that are better than CI. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated and compared with competing algorithms on an atmospheric dispersion problem.


In this article we give a sufficient condition that a simply connected flexible body does not penetrate itself, if it is subjected to a continuous deformation. It is shown that the deformation map is automatically injective, if it is just locally injective and injective on the boundary of the body. Thereby, it is very remarkable that no higher regularity assumption than continuity for the deformation map is required. The proof exclusively relies on homotopy methods and the Jordan-Brouwer separation theorem.