The Summer 2015 issue of Ploughshares, guest-edited by Lauren Groff. Ploughshares, a journal of new writing, is guest-edited serially by prominent writers who explore different and personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles. Acclaimed novelist and short-story writer Lauren Groff (The Monsters of Templeton, Delicate Edible Birds) guest-edits this all-fiction issue. As Groff writes in her introduction, "I am searching for work that is written with blood or bile or choler, not necessarily sweat alone." Featuring narratives that range from a woman falling in love with a dead man ("In the Flesh, We Shone" by Alex Shakar) to the effect a traveling circus has on an entire town ("The Miracle Years of Little Fork" by Rebecca Makkai), these stories explore humanity through the bizarre and unexpected. This issue includes new work from Lydia Davis, Daniel Peña, Helen Oyeyemi, Fiona Maazel, and more. The Summer 2015 issue also features Thomas Pruiksma's Plan B essay about his first love of magic, a look at the prolific author Peter De Vries, and an interview with Nick Arvin, the Alice Hoffman Prize Winner.


Summary Mitotane (o,p′-DDD) is the standard treatment for advanced adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC). Monitoring of plasma mitotane levels is recommended to look for a therapeutic window between 14 and 20mg/L, but its positive predictive value requires optimization. We report the case of an ACC patient with a history of dyslipidemia treated with mitotane in whom several plasma mitotane levels >30mg/L were found together with an excellent neurological tolerance. This observation led us to compare theoretical or measured o,p′-DDD and o,p′-DDE levels in a series of normolipidemic and dyslipidemic plasma samples to explore potential analytical issues responsible for an overestimation of plasma mitotane levels. We demonstrate an overestimation of mitotane measurements in dyslipidemic patients. Mitotane and o,p′-DDE measurements showed a mean 20% overestimation in hypercholesterolemic and hypertriglyceridemic plasma, compared with normolipidemic plasma. The internal standard p,p′-DDE measurements showed a parallel decrease in hypercholesterolemic and hypertriglyceridemic plasma, suggesting a matrix effect. Finally, diluting plasma samples and/or using phospholipid removal cartridges allowed correcting such interference. Learning points Hypercholesterolemia (HCH) and hypertriglyceridemia (HTG) induce an overestimation of plasma mitotane measurements. We propose a routine monitoring of lipidemic status. We propose optimized methodology of measurement before interpreting high plasma mitotane levels.


Summary We report the association of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) and Klinefelter's syndrome (KS) in a 22-year-old male complaining of worsening fatigue. PHPT was asymptomatic at the diagnosis, but the patient had worsening hypercalcemia and osteoporosis, and developed acute renal colic. He then underwent parathyroidectomy with resection of a single adenoma and normalization of calcium and parathyroid hormone levels. Clinical and therapeutic implications of this rare association are discussed. Learning points The coexistence of KS and PHPT is very uncommon. Patients with mild PHPT often have nonspecific symptoms that may be confused and superimposed with those of hypogonadism. KS patients, especially when young and already osteoporotic at diagnosis, should be screened for other causes of secondary osteoporosis, in particular PHPT.


Delegates recently convened in Kampala, Uganda to lay the groundwork for the International Criminal Court's eventual prosecution of the crime of aggression. This achievement caps decades of negotiations that began in the post-World War II period. From virtually the beginning of the negotiations, it was argued that an aggression prosecution should not go forward absent some definitive showing that a state had committed a predicate act of aggression. Delegations diverged on which body — the Security Council or the court itself — should be empowered to determine whether a predicate act of aggression had occurred and whether it was necessary for the putative aggressor state(s), the victim state(s), or both, to have consented to the court's jurisdiction before a prosecution could proceed. The end product was an unimpeachable regime of state consent that completely insulates the nationals of non-party states from prosecution and allows States Parties to opt out of the crime entirely. The results achieved in Kampala have subtly eroded the primacy of the Security Council, as states revealed a preference for a consent-based regime and a willingness to extend international criminal jurisdiction to their own nationals and over their own foreign policies. Indeed, the aggression amendments may have actually diminished the efficacy of the Council's pre-existing referral power and created the potential for greater conflict between the Council and the court. The outcome in Kampala thus presents a microcosm of the continual thinning of state sovereignty and the indelible shift in the balance between power and law in international relations. This Article examines the aggression amendments and the process by which they were adopted, concluding with a discussion of the way in which the negotiations and the final amendments invoked and rebalanced the central themes of power politics, state consent and judicial independence within public international law.


Objective To assess the sex difference in hospital mortality following ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in China. Design Observational study of patients enrolled into a large trial, adjusting for age, presenting characteristics and hospital treatments using logistic regression. Settings 1250 hospitals in China during 1999–2005. Patients 42 683 STEMI patients, including 31 309 men and 11 374 women. Intervention In the original trial, all patients received 162 mg of aspirin plus 75 mg of clopidogrel daily or matching placebo and metoprolol (15 mg intravenous then 200 mg oral daily) or matching placebo. All other aspects of patients' treatments were at the discretion of responsible doctors. Major outcomes Hospital mortality from any cause during the scheduled trial treatment period (ie, up to 4 weeks in hospital). Results Overall, 8% of the patients died in hospital, with the crude hospital mortality being twice as high in women as in men (12.6% vs 6.3%). After adjusting for age, the sex difference in hospital mortality attenuated but remained highly significant (OR 1.54; 95% CI 1.43 to 1.66). Further adjustment for other baseline characteristics and for the treatments given in hospital had little effect on the sex difference in hospital mortality (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.38 to 1.62). The difference in hospital mortality was greater at a younger age, with the adjusted ORs being 2.14, 1.70, 1.48 and 1.18, respectively, for ages <55, 55–64, 65–74 and ≥75 years (p=0.0001 for trend). Conclusion Compared with men of the same age, women had approximately a 50% higher mortality following hospital admission for STEMI, with a particularly higher excess risk at age <55 years.


All educational programs conducted by Ohio State University Extension are available to clientele on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, gender, age, disability or Vietnam-era veteran status. Keith L. Smith, Associate Vice President for Ag. Adm. and Director, OSU Extension TDD No. 800-589-8292 (Ohio only) or 614-292-1868 Fact Sheet


Most people would like to be more creative, more persuasive and more attractive. For years, gurus and 'life coaches' have urged people to improve their lives by changing the way they think and behave, but scientific research has revealed that many of their techniques, from group brainstorming to visualization, are ineffective. Fortunately, psychologist Richard Wiseman is on hand to provide fast-acting, myth-busting scientific answers to a huge range of everyday problems. From job-hunting to relationships, and from parenting to self-esteem, personal and professional success may be less than a minute away ...Find out why putting a pencil between your teeth instantly makes you feel happier. Discover why even thinking about going to the gym can help you keep in shape. Learn how putting just one thing in your wallet will improve the chance of it being returned if lost.


Let $4n^2$ be the order of a Bush-type Hadamard matrix with $q=(2n-1)^2$ a prime power. It is shown that there is a weighing matrix $$ W(4(q^m+q^{m-1}+\cdots+q+1)n^2,4q^mn^2) $$ which includes two symmetric designs with the Ionin–type parameters $$ \nu=4(q^m+q^{m-1}+\cdots+q+1)n^2,\;\;\; \kappa=q^m(2n^2-n), \;\;\; \lambda=q^m(n^2-n) $$ for every positive integer $m$. Noting that Bush–type Hadamard matrices of order $16n^2$ exist for all $n$ for which an Hadamard matrix of order $4n$ exist, this provides a new class of symmetric designs.


"DasaPasanta" Sundanese leadership style, particularly, focuses on a certain way of giving orders in which the person commanded can follow the orders properly. DasaPasanta consists of the following aspects: 1) guna, 2) ramah, 3) ho'okeun, 4) pesok/reueus, 5) asih, 6) karunia, 7) mukpruk, 8) ngulas, 9) nyecep, and 10) ngalaangen. Those aspects are rich in leadership values that can be adopted by a school principal in performing school management. "DasaPasanta" is a method of governing employed in asserting Sundanese leadership. In my opinion, there are ethics or codes of practice that can be adopted and implemented by a school principal in performing school management. The implementation of Sundanese leadership values embodied in DasaPasanta in education leadership is a positive attitude every school principal should nurture in order to successfully perform education management, despite being faced by difficulties. A school principal should upholdsSundanese noble values in exercising his leadership with a great consistency so that the education process works productively. The impact of implementation of Sundanese leadership value 'DasaPasanta' on educational and management process is evident in the impact of development of 8 national education standards. The principal in the context of Sundanese leadership is demanded to be more creative in carrying out his duties and tasks. When implemented in the principal's leadership, the DasaPasantaSundanese leadership values can take the school in a direction to success with unique characters while still serving as the agent of change. This can be comprehended since the principal who understands DasaPasanta will manage the school into Sundanese local culture-oriented, and it will become a school with Sundanese (kasundaan) image. Although filled with local nuances, the school can still follow and adjust to the constant updates and developments especially in terms of education.


Online Web-scale services are being increasingly used to handle critical personal information. The trend towards storing and managing such information on the "cloud" is extending the need for dependable services to a growing range of Web applications, from emailing, to calendars, storage of photos, or finance. This motivates the increased adoption of fault-tolerant replication algorithms in Web-scale systems, ranging from classic, strongly-consistent replication in systems such as Chubby [Bur06] and ZooKeeper [HKJR10], to highly-available weakly-consistent replication as in Amazon's Dynamo [DHJ+07] or Yahoo!'s PNUTS [CRS+08]. This thesis proposes novel algorithms to make fault-tolerant replication more efficient, available and cost effective. Although the proposed algorithms are generic, their goals are motivated by fulfilling two major needs of Web-scale systems. The first need is tolerating worst-case failures, which are also called Byzantine in the literature after the definition of [LSP82a], in order to reliably handle critical personal information. The second need is investigating proper weak consistency semantics for systems that must maximize availability and minimize performance costs and replication costs without relaxing consistency unnecessarily. Byzantine-Fault Tolerance: There has been a recent burst of research on Byzantine-Fault Tolerance (BFT) to make it have performance and replication costs that are feasible and comparable to the fault-tolerance techniques already in use today. BFT is typically achieved through state-machine replication, which implements the abstraction of a single reliable server on top of multiple unreliable replicas [Sch90]. This line of research ultimately aimed at showing the feasibility of this approach for Web-scale systems [CKL+09] to protect these critical systems from catastrophic events such as [Das]. This thesis proposes novel algorithms to reduce the performance and replication costs of BFT. First, the thesis shows how to reduce the cost of BFT without assuming trusted components. After the seminal PBFT algorithm [CL99], a number of fast BFT algorithms, as for example [MA06; DGV04; KAD+07], have been proposed. These papers show the existence of an inherent tradeoff between optimal redundancy and minimal latency in presence of faulty replicas. This is problematic in Web-scale systems, where Byzantine faults are very rare but where unresponsive (benign) replicas are commonplace. This thesis proposes a novel algorithm, called Scrooge, which reduces the replication costs of fast BFT replication in presence of unresponsive replicas. Scrooge shows that the additional replication costs needed for being fast in presence of faulty replicas are only dependent on the number of tolerated Byzantine faults, and not on the number of tolerated crashes. As an implication of this result, Scrooge is optimally resilient when it is configured to tolerate one Byzantine fault and any number of crashes. Such a configuration is quite common since Byzantine faults are relatively unlikely to happen. This thesis then explores the advantages of using trusted components. It shows that these can lead to significant latency and redundancy costs in practical asynchronous systems [SS07]. This dispelled the belief that trusted components need to be combined with synchronous links to achieve cost reductions, as hinted by previous work [CNV04; Ver06] . This additional assumption makes previously proposed algorithms unpractical in many settings, including Web-scale systems. In three-tiered Web-scale systems, for example, one could just leverage the fact that servers in the first tier (the Web-servers) are typically more stable, standardized and less prone to vulnerabilities than application servers. The HeterTrust protocol, which is presented in this thesis, uses trusted components without assuming synchronous links. It protects data confidentiality using a number of replicas that is linear in the number of tolerated faults and has a constant time complexity. This is a significant improvement over existing approaches which do not rely on trusted component but entail quadratic redundancy costs and linear latency [YMV+03]. Furthermore, different from existing work on confidential BFT, HeterTrust uses only symmetric-key cryptography instead of public-key signatures. HeterTrust features some interesting ideas related to speculation [KAD+07] and tolerance to denial-of-service attacks [ACKL08; CWA+09] that have been further developed by work published immediately after [SS07]. In parallel to this thesis' work, the use of trusted components in asynchronous systems was also independently explored in [CMSK07]. Weak consistency: Some replicated Web-scale applications cannot afford strong consistency guarantees such as Linearizability [HW90]. The reason is the impossibility of implementing shared ob jects, as for example databases, that are available in presence of partitions or asynchrony [GL02]. With few exceptions, however, all these systems relax Linearizability even in periods when there are no partitions nor asynchrony and no relaxation is needed to keep the system available. Since this relaxation is problematic for many applications, recent research is focusing on stronger consistency guarantees which can be combined with high availability. This thesis introduces a novel consistency property, called Eventual Linearizability, which allows Linearizability to be violated only for finite windows of time. This thesis also describes Aurora, an algorithm ensuring Linearizability in periods when a single leader is present in the system. Aurora is graceful ly degrading because it uses a single failure detector and obtains different properties based on the actual strength of this failure detector, which is not known a priori. For Eventual Linearizability, a S failure detector is needed. In periods of asynchrony when links are untimely and no single leader is present, Aurora gracefully degrades to Eventual Consistency [FGL+96; Vog09] and Causal Consistency [Lam78]. For these property, Aurora only relies on a strongly complete failure detector C . In order to complete strong operations, which must be always linearized, a P failure detector is used. This is stronger than S , the weakest failure detector needed to implement consensus [CHT96], and thus linearizable shared objects. This thesis shows that there exists an inherent cost in combining Eventual Linearizability with Linearizability.


"The Rough Guide to Canada" is the ultimate guide to this vast and varied land. Now in full colour throughout, this travel guide features clear maps, suggested itineraries and regional highlights. With plenty of recommendations for hotels, restaurants, cafes and bars, from Toronto and Montreal to Vancouver, and from the east coast to the far north, you'll discover all the best this country has to offer. The guide is packed full of practical advice on exploring Canada's great outdoors, from hiking or skiing in the Rockies to canoeing through British Columbia's lakes, and from whale watching to looking out for grizzly bears. Whether you're camping in one of the many beautiful national parks, heli-skiing in the mountains or going in search of the northern lights, this book will give you all the practical advice you need for an amazing adventure. Make the most of your time with "The Rough Guide to Canada".


Designed for intermediate Web designers and developers with no previous experience with programming or server-side technology.i¾ Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 with ASP, ColdFusion and PHP: Training from the Source has been fully-updated, not just for the latest version of Dreamweaver but for today's Web. It's now standards--compliant, with a site created using one of Dreamweaver's brand-new CSS templates, that includes Ajax elements in the dynamic site design. Users ready to take the next step and make their Web sites interactive will find the same easy-to-read, logical, well-constructed projects, but with a site based on the latest Web technology.


Nowadays, big sport events such as Olympic Games are not only an exciting carnival for sports enthusiasts, but also a good opportunity for the host country/city to accelerate its economic development. After more than 40 years of development, Computable General Equilibrium has been proved to be a very powerful tool to analyze the impact of big sports events on host country/city. In this paper, 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will be used as the target case to study the impact on the economy. A Supply model and a demand model will be established according to CGE theory to describe the case. This paper is not focused on the detail but the whole picture of Beijing's economy by analyzing the industrial structure changes under the influences of hosting the Olympic. Beijing's industrial structure development will also be analyzed in this paper.


The emergence of strange new diseases is a frightening problem that seems to be getting worse. In this age of speedy travel, it threatens a worldwide pandemic. We hear news reports of Ebola, SARS, AIDS, and something called Hendra killing horses and people in Australia-but those reports miss the big truth that such phenomena are part of a single pattern. The bugs that transmit these diseases share one thing: they originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. David Quammen tracks this subject around the world. He recounts adventures in the field-netting bats in China, trapping monkeys in Bangladesh, stalking gorillas in the Congo-with the world's leading disease scientists. In Spillover Quammen takes the reader along on this astonishing quest to learn how, where from, and why these diseases emerge, and he asks the terrifying question: What might the next big one be?


Throw out everything you think you know about history. Close the approved textbooks, turn off the corporate mass media, and whatever you do, don't believe anything you hear from the government. The Rise of the Fourth Reich reveals the truth about American power. In this explosive expose, the legendary Jim Marrs explores the frighteningly real possibility that today, in the United States, an insidious ideology thought to have been vanquished more than a half century ago is actually flourishing. At the end of World War II, ranking Nazis, along with their young and fanatical proteges, used the loot of Europe to create corporate front companies in many countries, worming their way into corporate America. They brought with them miraculous weapons technology that helped win the space race. But they also brought their Nazi philosophy based on the authoritarian premise that the end justifies the means-including unprovoked wars of aggression and curtailment of individual liberties-which has since gained an iron hold in the "land of the free." Jim Marrs has gathered compelling evidence of the effort that has been under way for the past sixty years to bring a form of National Socialism to modern America, creating in essence a new empire-or "Fourth Reich"!


This study investigated the Gender Role Conflict Scale-Adolescent Version  (GRCS-A) and its relationship with the Gender Role Conflict Scale (GRCS), the measure from which it was adapted. Significant correlations between the adult and adolescent versions provided support for the concurrent validity of the GRCS-A. Further analyses revealed that two other measures of male masculinity, the Adolescent Masculinity Ideology in Relationships Scale (AMIRS) and Male Role Attitudes Scale (MRAS), are also significantly related to the GRCS-A. Implications for future research and clinical use are discussed.


The current instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) can be traced back to late former President Mobutu Sese Seko's rule during the late 1980s. The countryâ??s economic depression was exacerbated by the end of the Cold War in 1991, leading to disengagement with the international economic and political system. The DRC has been the source of numerous conflicts over many years. The 1990s saw the country's peace and security degenerate further, creating challenges that continue to preoccupy the world today. In recent times, the epicentre of the violence in the DRC has been North and South Kivu (the Kivus). The dynamics in the two provinces are complex, causing the Great Lakes region to be characterised by huge human security challenges. This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the linkage between the conflicts in the Kivus and persistent periodic instability in the DRC. It delves into and critiques post-crisis recovery efforts implemented in the country since the end of the Second Congo War. The paper concludes that, among other strategies, resolving the various conflicts in the DRC depends on understanding the causes of specific clashes, such as those in the Kivus, as this can contribute to the uncovering of sustainable solutions to armed confrontation. The paper offers proposals which, if implemented, could contribute to moving the Kivus, and by extension the DRC, beyond intractability.


Summary Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is commonly encountered in clinical practice. The current case is a unique and rare presentation of DKA as the initial manifestation of Cushing's disease secondary to ACTH-secreting pituitary adenoma. Appropriate management as elaborated in the article led to total remission of diabetes as well as the Cushing's disease. Learning points: DKA is a serious and potentially life-threatening metabolic complication of diabetes mellitus. Some well-known precipitants of DKA include new-onset T1DM, insulin withdrawal and acute illness. In a patient presenting with DKA, the presence of a mixed acid–base disorder warrants further evaluation for precipitants of DKA. We present a rare case of DKA as an initial manifestation of Cushing's disease secondary to ACTH-producing pituitary adenoma.


In Vibrant Matter the political theorist Jane Bennett, renowned for her work on nature, ethics, and affect, shifts her focus from the human experience of things to things themselves. Bennett argues that political theory needs to do a better job of recognizing the active participation of nonhuman forces in events. Toward that end, she theorizes a "vital materiality" that runs through and across bodies, both human and nonhuman. Bennett explores how political analyses of public events might change were we to acknowledge that agency always emerges as theeffect of ad hoc configurations of human and nonhuman forces. She suggests that recognizing that agency is distributed this way, and is not solely the province of humans, might spur the cultivation of a more responsible, ecologically sound politics: a politics less devoted to blaming and condemning individuals than to discerning the web of forces affecting situations and events.

Bennett examines the political and theoretical implications of vital materialism through extended discussions of commonplace things and physical phenomena including stem cells, fish oils, electricity, metal, and trash. She reflects on the vital power of material formations such as landfills, which generate lively streams of chemicals, and omega-3 fatty acids, which can transform brain chemistry and mood. Along the way, she engages with the concepts and claims of Spinoza, Nietzsche, Thoreau, Darwin, Adorno, and Deleuze, disclosing a long history of thinking about vibrant matter in Western philosophy, including attempts by Kant, Bergson, and the embryologist Hans Driesch to name the "vital force" inherent in material forms. Bennett concludes by sketching the contours of a "green materialist" ecophilosophy.


Over the past twenty years, rectangle visibility graphs have generated considerable interest, in part due to their applicability to VLSI chip design. Here we study unit rectangle visibility graphs, with fixed dimension restrictions more closely modeling the constrained dimensions of gates and other circuit components in computer chip applications. A graph $G$ is a unit rectangle visibility graph (URVG) if its vertices can be represented by closed unit squares in the plane with sides parallel to the axes and pairwise disjoint interiors, in such a way that two vertices are adjacent if and only if there is a non-degenerate horizontal or vertical band of visibility joining the two rectangles. Our results include necessary and sufficient conditions for $K_n$, $K_{m,n}$, and trees to be URVGs, as well as a number of general edge bounds.


The microbead packing is the critical element required in the success of on-chip microfabrication of critical microfluidic components for in-situ analysis and detection of chiral amino acids. In order for microliquid chromatography to occur, there must be a stationary phase medium within the microchannel that interacts with the analytes present within flowing fluid. The stationary phase media are the microbeads packed by the process discussed in this work. The purpose of the microliquid chromatography is to provide a lightweight, low-volume, and low-power element to separate amino acids and their chiral partners efficiently to understand better the origin of life. In order to densely pack microbeads into the microchannels, a liquid slurry of microbeads was created. Microbeads were extracted from a commercially available high-performance liquid chromatography column. The silica beads extracted were 5 microns in diameter, and had surface coating of phenyl-hexyl. These microbeads were mixed with a 200- proof ethanol solution to create a microbead slurry with the right viscosity for packing. A microfilter is placed at the outlet via of the microchannel and the slurry is injected, then withdrawn across a filter using modified syringes. After each injection, the channel is flushed with ethanol to enhance packing. This cycle is repeated numerous times to allow for a tightly packed channel of microbeads. Typical microbead packing occurs in the macroscale into tubes or channels by using highly pressurized systems. Moreover, these channels are typically long and straight without any turns or curves. On the other hand, this method of microbead packing is completed within a microchannel 75 micrometers in diameter. Moreover, the microbead packing is completed into a serpentine type microchannel, such that it maximizes microchannel length within a microchip. Doing so enhances the interactions of the analytes with the microbeads to separate efficiently amino acids and amino acid enantiomers.


Action against torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is a key focus in the ICRC's work on behalf of persons deprived of their liberty. On the basis of its profound conviction that such practices are absolutely unacceptable, the ICRC implements a global response the primary objective of which is to ensure protection and assistance for victims and contribute to their rehabilitation, and help to establish and/or strengthen a normative, institutional and ethical environment conducive to the prevention of this phenomenon. Accordingly, the ICRC relies on its own experience, on its in-depth knowledge of this practice, on its privileged access to victims and on its confidential bilateral dialogue with the authorities and other actors. It also knows that it can rely on the normative, institutional and ethical developments that have taken place in recent years with regard to these issues. Aware of the immense challenge that action against torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment represents and of its importance for present and future victims and for their families, communities and societies, the ICRC seeks to reaffirm clearly and publicly the scope and depth of its commitment to its work in this sphere. Volume 93 Number 882 June 2011


Short Retraction Notice

 This article has
been retracted to straighten the academic record. In making this decision the
Editorial Board follows COPE's Retraction Guidelines. Aim is to promote the circulation of scientific research by offering an ideal
research publication platform with due consideration of internationally
accepted standards on publication ethics. The Editorial Board would like to
extend its sincere apologies for any inconvenience this retraction may have
caused.

 The full retraction notice in PDF is preceding the original paper, which is marked "RETRACTED".


Abstract Learning and teaching are quite interrelated. Teaching can't take place unless the students learn. Teaching is a bi-polar activity. Learning barriers or causes of learning difficulties are quite natural phenomenon in an educational setting. But, when it comes to exert a very adverse effect it becomes crucial. Thus, it is unavoidable to ignore those factors which adversely affect the entire learning process. It is found that the following barriers are some of those that are very influential: social, cultural, parental, attitudinal, motivational, psychological, personal and pedagogical factors that include teacher, action research, teaching strategies, teaching resource, administration etc. The present paper is going to focus on the following: motivation of the students, motivation of the teachers, dedication and commitment, teacher's role, teachers' preparedness, teaching strategies, training and professional development etc. The case of Saudi Arabia is very important for many reasons. The government is spending a lot of money on education. But, the achievement of learning is not up to the mark. Therefore, it is important to study the effect of such factors on academic achievement. Keywords: Barriers, socio cultural factors, psychological factors, pedagogical factors, the teacher , motivation.


We develop a new protocol for merging in situ measurements with 3-D model simulations of atmospheric chemistry with the goal of integrating over the data to identify the most reactive air parcels in terms of tropospheric production and loss of the greenhouse gases ozone and methane. Presupposing that we can accurately measure atmospheric composition, we examine whether models constrained by such measurements agree on the chemical budgets for ozone and methane. In applying our technique to a synthetic data stream of 14,880 parcels along 180 W, we are able to isolate the performance of the photochemical modules operating within their global chemistry-climate and chemistry-transport models, removing the effects of modules controlling tracer transport, emissions, and scavenging. Differences in reactivity across models are driven only by the chemical mechanism and the diurnal cycle of photolysis rates, which are driven in turn by temperature, water vapor, solar zenith angle, clouds, and possibly aerosols and overhead ozone, which are calculated in each model. We evaluate six global models and identify their differences and similarities in simulating the chemistry through a range of innovative diagnostics. All models agree that the more highly reactive parcels dominate the chemistry (e.g., the hottest 10 % of parcels control 25–30 % of the total reactivities), but do not fully agree on which parcels comprise the top 10 %. Distinct differences in specific features occur, including the regions of maximum ozone production and methane loss, as well as in the relationship between photolysis and these reactivities. Unique, possibly aberrant, features are identified for each model, providing a benchmark for photochemical module development. Among the 6 models tested here, 3 are almost indistinguishable based on the inherent variability caused by clouds, and thus we identify 4, effectively distinct, chemical models. Based on this work, we suggest that water vapor differences in model simulations of past and future atmospheres may be a cause of the different evolution of tropospheric O 3 and CH 4 , and lead to different chemistry-climate feedbacks across the models.


Conventional build-then-test practices are making todays embedded, software-reliant systems unaffordable to build. In response, more than thirty leading industrial organizations have joined SAE (formerly, the Society of Automotive Engineers) to define the SAE Architecture Analysis & Design Language (AADL) AS-5506 Standard, a rigorous and extensible foundation for model-based engineering analysis practices that encompass software system design, integration, and assurance. Using AADL, you can conduct lightweight and rigorous analyses of critical real-time factors such as performance, dependability, security, and data integrity. You can integrate additional established and custom analysis/specification techniques into your engineering environment, developing a fully unified architecture model that makes it easier to build reliable systems that meet customer expectations. Model-Based Engineering with AADL is the first guide to using this new international standard to optimize your development processes. Coauthored by Peter H. Feiler, the standards author and technical lead, this introductory reference and tutorial is ideal for self-directed learning or classroom instruction, and is an excellent reference for practitioners, including architects, developers, integrators, validators, certifiers, first-level technical leaders, and project managers. Packed with real-world examples, it introduces all aspects of the AADL notation as part of an architecture-centric, model-based engineering approach to discovering embedded software systems problems earlier, when they cost less to solve. Throughout, the authors compare AADL to other modeling notations and approaches, while presenting the language via a complete case study: the development and analysis of a realistic example system through repeated refinement and analysis. Part One introduces both the AADL language and core Model-Based Engineering (MBE) practices, explaining basic software systems modeling and analysis in the context of an example system, and offering practical guidelines for effectively applying AADL. Part Two describes the characteristics of each AADL element, including their representations, applicability, and constraints. The Appendix includes comprehensive listings of AADL language elements, properties incorporated in the AADL standard, and a description of the books example system.


ABSTRACT Various authors, including Friedrich Nietzsche and George Steiner, have argued that the tragic worldview, as we find it expressed in Greek tragedy, has become an entirely incomprehensible phenomenon for (post)modern man. The claim defended in this article radically opposes this view. It is argued that tragedy can still teach us something today, and maybe even more so now than in the many intervening centuries that separate us from her days of glory in the fifth century BCE. The tragic reveals itself once more in (post) modern society, and nowhere more clearly than in technology, the domain in which we believed the tragic had been domesticated or even eliminated. Referring to the tragic humanism in Michel Houellebecq's novels The Elementary Particles and The Possibility of an Island it is argued that it is precisely in (post)modern (bio)technologies that we experience the rebirth of the tragic.


Is civil procedure political? In May of 2009, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, which explicitly extended the "plausibility standard," first articulated in Bell Atlantic v. Twombly two years earlier, to all civil pleadings. That standard requires that pleadings, in order to satisfy Rule 8(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, must state a plausible claim for relief. For many, these rulings represented a sea change in civil pleading standards. Where prior Supreme Court precedent had provided that a pleading should not be dismissed "unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim," the new standard requires that judges utilize their own "judicial experience and common sense" to determine whether claimants have set forth facts sufficient to "nudge their claims across the line from conceivable to plausible." In the years since their issuance, this standard has provoked many questions. One such question, which lurks behind all otherwise neutral rules of procedure is the following: could this apparently neutral principle of procedure be subject to political manipulation? After Twombly, and again after Iqbal, many expressed fears that the new plausibility standard offered judges too much discretion; a judge could dismiss a case where a plaintiff's claims did not comport with that judge's experience and common sense. There was a particular fear that this discretion would have a disparate and adverse impact on civil rights cases: i.e., if members of the federal bench were predisposed to disfavor such claims, they might use these precedents to dismiss civil rights cases too readily. Several years have now passed since the Court issued these decisions, and the district courts have compiled a body of thousands of decisions citing these precedents. As a result, it is now possible to assess the impact of these decisions on practice in the lower courts, particularly their effect on civil rights cases. The study described here attempted to do just that by looking at outcomes and trends in motions challenging the specificity of the pleadings in over 500 employment and housing discrimination cases over a period of six years (including decisions issued both before and after Twombly and Iqbal). This research reviewed the outcomes in such cases based on a number of metrics, including, most importantly, the political affiliation of the president who appointed the judge issuing each decision reviewed.The study revealed a statistically significant relationship between the outcomes in civil rights cases and time period (i.e. pre-Twombly, post-Twombly but pre-Iqbal, and post-Iqbal) where the political affiliation of the president who appointed the judge reaching the decision in each case was Republican. For cases decided by judges appointed by Democrat-affiliated presidents, no such relationship was observed. This paper reports on the findings of this study and discusses their implications.


Significance The metabolic costs of brain development are thought to explain the evolution of humans' exceptionally slow and protracted childhood growth; however, the costs of the human brain during development are unknown. We used existing PET and MRI data to calculate brain glucose use from birth to adulthood. We find that the brain's metabolic requirements peak in childhood, when it uses glucose at a rate equivalent to 66% of the body's resting metabolism and 43% of the body's daily energy requirement, and that brain glucose demand relates inversely to body growth from infancy to puberty. Our findings support the hypothesis that the unusually high costs of human brain development require a compensatory slowing of childhood body growth. The high energetic costs of human brain development have been hypothesized to explain distinctive human traits, including exceptionally slow and protracted preadult growth. Although widely assumed to constrain life-history evolution, the metabolic requirements of the growing human brain are unknown. We combined previously collected PET and MRI data to calculate the human brain's glucose use from birth to adulthood, which we compare with body growth rate. We evaluate the strength of brain–body metabolic trade-offs using the ratios of brain glucose uptake to the body's resting metabolic rate (RMR) and daily energy requirements (DER) expressed in glucose-gram equivalents (glucosermr% and glucoseder%). We find that glucosermr% and glucoseder% do not peak at birth (52.5% and 59.8% of RMR, or 35.4% and 38.7% of DER, for males and females, respectively), when relative brain size is largest, but rather in childhood (66.3% and 65.0% of RMR and 43.3% and 43.8% of DER). Body-weight growth (dw/dt) and both glucosermr% and glucoseder% are strongly, inversely related: soon after birth, increases in brain glucose demand are accompanied by proportionate decreases in dw/dt. Ages of peak brain glucose demand and lowest dw/dt co-occur and subsequent developmental declines in brain metabolism are matched by proportionate increases in dw/dt until puberty. The finding that human brain glucose demands peak during childhood, and evidence that brain metabolism and body growth rate covary inversely across development, support the hypothesis that the high costs of human brain development require compensatory slowing of body growth rate.


Immune activation is a hallmark of disease progression in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 (HIV-1) and HIV type 2 (HIV-2) infection. However, the relationship between viremia and systemic immune activation is unclear. We assessed the relationship between HIV-2 plasma virus load and immune system activation in a cross-sectional study in a community cohort of HIV-1-positive, HIV-2-positive, and HIV-negative patients, in which many HIV-2-positive patients had nonprogressing infection. HLA-DR and CD38 expression on CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells was measured, as were plasma beta(2)-microglobulin levels. These markers were related to clinical (virus load and CD4(+) cell count) and immunological (HIV-2-specific interferon gamma secretion) correlates of delayed disease progression. A consistent positive correlation was identified between the level of HIV-2 viremia and immune activation. We propose that increasing virus load may contribute to systemic immune activation in HIV-2 infection.


The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between misogyny and the actions of Tamora and Lavinia in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. The argument being that Tamora and Lavinia rebel against their society because of the misogyny and oppression that they suffer. The primary document is the play and secondary sources include criticism and Early Modern texts on women. The paper argues that Titus Andronicus is a difficult play for modern audiences to enjoy because of the violence and the apparent lack of positive female figures. By carefully examining the actions of Tamora and Lavinia and looking at recent criticism I place these two characters in a more positive and feminist-friendly position. In relation to Lavinia the paper argues that beneath her passivity lies a strong and active female character who asserts herself verbally and physically throughout the play. The second part of the paper examines how Tamora's actions can be viewed in a less negative light by looking at them in relation to Titus' actions and by taking her circumstances into consideration. This paper acts as a new reading of the play which will help modern audiences enjoy the play with less guilt in relation to the female characters, the violence and oppression that they suffer, and their ultimate deaths.
This paper examines four Early Modern revenge dramas - The Spanish Tragedy, Titus Andronicus, Women Beware Women, and The Tragedy of Miriam - which feature female avengers. The paper argues that the way the female avengers in these plays use certain tools and skills enables them to not only be effective avengers, but in some cases to be more effective than the male avengers in the plays. The tools the women use are their sexuality, their linguistic skills both written and verbal, their manipulation of a proxy, and the creation of a masque or masque-like persona. By examining the plays and feminist criticism, it is possible to view these female avengers as positive and effective characters in their genre. In addition, this allows women in revenge tragedy to serve as active instead of passive characters. The paper examines each play individually and the way that the female avenger or avengers use the various tools to achieve their vengeance. The conclusion to the paper argues that it is important to examine these plays from this viewpoint to promote alternative readings and to help modern readers approach femininity and womanhood during the Early Modern period in a more positive manner. The readings proposed in this paper encourage readers and future editors to look more closely at these plays and to become more aware of female characters as primary literary protagonists instead of secondary characters who act only to motivate the male characters.


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Department of the Interior has responsibility for most of our nationally owned public lands and natural resources. This includes fostering the wisest use of our land and water resources, protecting our fish and wildlife, preserving the environmental and cultural values of our national parks and historical places, and providing for the enjoyment of life through outdoor recreation. The Department assesses our energy and mineral resources and works to assure that their development is in the best interests of all our people. The Department also has a major responsibility for American Indian reservation communities and for people who live in Island Territories under U.S. administration. U.S. Department of the Interior/Geological Survey


The scientific aim of this work was to synthesize and characterize new bidentate and tridentate phosphine ligands , their corresponding palladium complexes and to examine their application as homogenous catalysts. Later on, a part of the obtained palladium catalysts was immobilized and used as heterogonous catalyst.
Pyrimidinyl functionalized diphenyl phosphine ligands were synthesized by ring closure of [2-(3-dimethylamino-1-oxoprop-2-en-yl)phenyl]diphenylphosphine with an excess of substituted guanidinium salts. Furthermore to increase the electron density at phosphorous centre the two aryl substituents on the phosphanyl group were exchanged against two alkyl substituents. Electron rich pyrimidinyl functionalized dialkyl phosphine ligands were synthesized from pyrimidinyl functionalized bromobenzene in a process involving lithiation followed by reaction with a chlorodialkylphosphine.
Starting from the new synthesized diaryl phosphine ligands, their corresponding palladium complexes were synthesized. I was able to show that slight changes at the amino group of [(2-aminopyrimidin-4-yl)aryl]phosphines lead to pronounced differences in the stability and catalytic activity of the corresponding palladium(II) complexes. Having a P,C coordination mode, the palladium complex can catalyze rapidly the Suzuki coupling reaction of phenylbronic acid with arylbromides even at room temperature with a low loading.
Using the NH2 group of the aminopyrimidine as a potential site for the introduction of an other substituent, bidentate and tridentate ligands containing phosphorous atoms connected to the aminopyrimidine group and their corresponding palladium complexes were synthesized and characterized.
Two ligands [2- and 4-(4-(2-amino)pyrimidinyl)phenyl]diphenylphosphine (containing NH2 group) functionalized with a ethoxysilane group were synthesized. The palladium complexes based on these ligands were prepared and immobilized on commercial silica and MCM-41. Using elemental analysis, FT-IR, solid state 31P, 13C and 29Si CP–MAS NMR spectroscopy, XRD and N2 adsorption the success of the immobilization was confirmed and the structure of the heterogenized catalyst was investigated.
The resulting heterogeneous catalysts were applied for the Suzuki reaction and exhibited excellent activity, selectivity and reusability.


According to Portin, Schneider, DeArmond, and Gundlach (2003), "understanding what the school needs and then delivering what is required is the core job of the principal" (p. 9). This research study seeks to tell the story of young female principals practicing in the twenty-first century. Autoethnography served as the primary qualitative approach utilized in the study, with additional focused interviews and document analysis with other young female principals serving as secondary data sources. Structural corroboration including data triangulation and methods triangulation contribute to the trustworthiness of the autoethnographic data. Presentation of findings is reported in a constructed narrative by weaving together data from all corroborated sources. Harry Wolcott's 1973 study examining Ed Bell's work as a middle-aged, male principal served as the foundation for this conceptual framework, borrowing two specific categories from that book: (a) A Day in the Life, and (b) The Annual Cycle of the Principalship. These categories are discussed in the current study, portraying the 2010 reality and drawing comparisons with Wolcott's (1973) descriptions. Key factors impacting the daily work of principals, including the context of the twenty-first century (i.e., educational law and policy, technology, and socio-cultural factors), and individual personal influences, are also presented in an attempt to better understand the daily work of these young, female school leaders. The intent of this study is to benefit educational leaders and preparation programs by providing an alternative lens of the various responsibilities that define the principalship.


Long-term power system planning is beset by a trade-off between detail and scope: The chosen approach usually lies somewhere between modeling a great many generation portfolios coarsely and very few in a more detailed manner. This paper seeks to argue that the performance of generation portfolios is influenced by a sufficiently large number of variables, of varying uncertainties, such that the long-term investment problem can only be effectively tackled with very many runs of computationally light models that capture the most essential features of the problem. Taking a linear optimization program as the intended computational core, this paper describes two algorithms to build constraints for the linear program which capture many of the effects that are difficult or impossible to capture directly in non-chronological models, namely: unit starts, unit ramping, unit average output and adequate total system capacity. An application of these methods is also presented.


In its present state, the corpus of knowledge constituting our understanding of the Chrysococcyx 'malayanus' group is too unorganized to be used directly as the foundation for a modern systematic appraisal. A n attempt is here made to rectify this by overhauling the available facts. Stemming from this exercise, a few simple preliminary adjustments to the nomenclature and taxonomy of the group are suggested. The taxa here recognized are C. minutillus (with subspecies peninsularis subsp. nov., albifrons, cleis subsp. nov., minutillus and barnardi), C. russatus (subspecies aheneus, jungei, misoriensis and russatus), C. rufomerus, C. crassirostris and C. ruficollis. The type description of Cuculus malayanus Raffles, 1822 being recognizable as a femalephase Chrysococcyx x. xanthorhynchus (Horsfield, 1821), C. 'malayanus' becomes known as C. minutillus Gould, 1859, the next available name. Chalcococcyx niewenhuisi Vorderman, 1898 is transferred from the synonymy of C. crassirostris to that of C. minutillus. Chalcococcyx poecilurus Gray, 1862 is disassociated from the populations currently under this name (hereafter called C. russatus misoriensis) and held in abeyance as a nominal taxon whose reality and relationship to misoriensis require further investigation. The records of 'malayanus' from Cambodia and Cochinchina are questioned. Those from the Philippines are also examined: whereas the extant specimens are all referable to the Bornean form C. russatus aheneus, most of the unsupported records are judged from their descriptions to have been based on female-phase C. xanthorhynchus amethystinus. A n aheneus-like indivudual netted on the crest of the Main Range in Malaya indicates a situation requiring further study. C. m. minutillus is not known to breed outside northern Australia. Records of this form from the Lesser Sundas, the Moluccas, Celebes (Peleng I.) and southern New Guinea (Utanata R.) are here regarded as being of non-breeding visitors; the holotype of niewenhuisi from Halmahera is presumed to have been one such. C. m. barnardi and the southern populations of C. r. russatus are also migratory ; one specimen of the former and several of the latter are here reported from southern New Guinea, to which region they are doubtless non-breeding visitors. A russatus-like form from Timor requires further study. The ranges of C. rufomerus and C. crassirostris are possibly largely governed by the distribution of their putative host Gerygone dorsalis; old, poorly documented records of crassirostris from Sorong, Halmahera, Ternate, Ambon and Gorong, whence no species of Gerygone has been reported, are considered to require confirmation. Attention is drawn to the interesting relationship between C. minutillus and C. russatus as these species are here construed. In Borneo they appear to enjoy breeding sympatry without hybridizing (C. m. cleis, C. r. aheneus), whereas in Australia they appear to be hybridizing on secondary contact (C. m. minutillus, C. r. russatus). Such a situation has parallels elsewhere in zoology. Finally, it is suggested that the colour of the bare periophthalmic ring or eyerim of adult females is of taxonomic significance within the group; however, for females of several forms the colour of this character remains unrecorded.


There is a growing call for a "New Legal Realism," that, among other things, takes a "bottom-up" approach to studying the effects of rules of law on the people to whom they actually apply on a day-to-day basis. The New Legal Realism movement spans across various fields and disciplines related to law. The movement is particularly evident in the area of criminal law where there is an increasing effort to ensure reliability and accuracy in the system's results. The recent move of some states to require racial impact statements for pending legislation as well as the advocacy and findings of the innocence movement exemplify this effort. Even more compelling are the recent lawsuits filed by public defenders in several states, citing their inability to represent their clients in a constitutionally effective manner and demanding to have their caseloads reduced until they can be adequately funded. This Article aids in the effort to improve our justice system's reliability, taking a New Legal Realist approach to the area of evidence law as applied in the criminal setting. I explore the interrelationship between plea bargaining and the use of prior convictions to impeach criminal defendants at trial, two of the most controversial practices in the criminal justice system. The prior conviction impeachment rule is a classic and deeply entrenched evidentiary rule. In this Article, I rename the Rule, dubbing it the "untried conviction" impeachment rule, to reflect the reality of its application. Indeed, the reality – overlooked by evidence and criminal law scholars – is that prior convictions used in later proceedings to "impeach" criminal defendants are most often untried convictions, having resulted from the plea bargaining system. I propose a fundamental shift in the application of Rule 609 to reflect this reality. Plea bargaining has rightly come under much scrutiny of late and is considered a prominent feature of our current system that processes defendants in an assembly-line fashion. I propose that, as long as we continue to impeach defendants with their untried convictions, Congress and state legislatures should act to exclude from Rule 609's applicability the use of untried convictions. Alternatively, until lawmakers act, courts, who are charged with protecting the fundamental rights of criminal defendants, must vigilantly scrutinize the practice of impeaching criminal defendants with untried convictions, thus utilizing Rule 609 as an additional check on plea bargaining instead of as a rubber stamp.


The credit channel of monetary policy transmission operates through changes in lending. To examine this channel, we explore how movements in the real federal funds rate affect bank lending. Using data on individual loans from the Survey of Terms of Bank Lending, we are able to differentiate two ways the credit channel can work: by affecting overall bank lending (the bank lending channel) and by affecting the allocation of loans (the balance sheet channel). We find evidence consistent with the operation of both internal credit channels. During periods of tight monetary policy, banks adjust their stock of loans by reducing the maturity of loan originations and they reallocate their short-term loan supply from small firms to large firms. These results are stronger for large banks than for small banks.


In the aftermath of a financial crisis marked by bank-friendly bailouts and loosening campaign finance restrictions, a chorus of critics warns that business leaders have too much influence over American politics. Mark Mizruchi worries about the ways they exert too little. The Fracturing of the American Corporate Elite advances the surprising argument that American CEOs, seemingly more powerful today than ever, have abrogated the key leadership role they once played in addressing national challenges, with grave consequences for American society. Following World War II, American business leaders observed an ethic of civic responsibility and enlightened self-interest. Steering a course of moderation and pragmatism, they accepted the legitimacy of organized labor and federal regulation of the economy and offered support, sometimes actively, as Congress passed legislation to build the interstate highway system, reduce discrimination in hiring, and provide a safety net for the elderly and needy. In the 1970s, however, faced with inflation, foreign competition, and growing public criticism, corporate leaders became increasingly confrontational with labor and government. As they succeeded in taming their opponents, business leaders paradoxically undermined their ability to act collectively. The acquisition wave of the 1980s created further pressures to focus on shareholder value and short-term gain rather than long-term problems facing their country. Today's corporate elite is a fragmented, ineffectual group that is unwilling to tackle the big issues, despite unprecedented wealth and political clout. Mizruchi's sobering assessment of the dissolution of America's business class helps explain the polarization and gridlock that stifle U.S. politics.


In the present contribution, a general framework for the completely consistent integration of nonlinear dissipative dynamics is proposed, that essentially relies on Finite Element methods in space and time. In this context, fully flexible structures as well as hybrid systems which consist of rigid bodies and inelastic flexible parts are considered. Thereby, special emphasis is placed on the resulting algorithmic fulfilment of fundamental balance equations, and the excellent performance of the presented concepts is demonstrated by means of several representative numerical examples, involving in particular finite elasto-plastic deformations.


We present a modeling study of the troposphere-to-stratosphere transport (TST) of pollution from major biomass burning regions to the tropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UT/LS). TST occurs predominately through 1) slow ascent in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) to the LS and 2) quasi-horizontal exchange to the lowermost stratosphere (LMS). We show that biomass burning pollution regularly and significantly impacts the composition of the TTL, LS, and LMS. Carbon monoxide (CO) in the LS in our simulation and data from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) shows an annual oscillation in its composition that results from the interaction of an annual oscillation in slow ascent from the TTL to the LS and seasonal variations in sources, including a semi-annual oscillation in CO from biomass burning. The impacts of CO sources that peak when ascent is seasonally low are damped (e.g. Southern Hemisphere biomass burning) and vice-versa for sources that peak when ascent is seasonally high (e.g. extra-tropical fossil fuels). Interannual variation of CO in the UT/LS is caused primarily by year-to-year variations in biomass burning and the locations of deep convection. During our study period, 1994–1998, we find that the highest concentrations of CO in the UT/LS occurred during the strong 1997–1998 El Nino event for two reasons: i. tropical deep convection shifted to the eastern Pacific Ocean, closer to South American and African CO sources, and ii. emissions from Indonesian biomass burning were higher. This extreme event can be seen as an upper bound on the impact of biomass burning pollution on the UT/LS. We estimate that the 1997 Indonesian wildfires increased CO in the entire TTL and tropical LS (>60 mb) by more than 40% and 10%, respectively, for several months. Zonal mean ozone increased and the hydroxyl radical decreased by as much as 20%, increasing the lifetimes and, subsequently TST, of trace gases. Our results indicate that the impact of biomass burning pollution on the UT/LS is likely greatest during an El Nino event due to favorable dynamics and historically higher burning rates.


A continuing controversy in copyright law is the exemption of copyright from First Amendment scrutiny. The Supreme Court has justified the exemption based on history and the intentions of the Framers, but this explanation is unpersuasive on the historical facts.There is an alternative explanation: copyright is property, and private property is generally exempt from scrutiny under standard First Amendment doctrine. Many scholars have noted this theory, but they have been uniformly dismissive towards it. For example, Mark Lemley and Eugene Volokh view the property theory as so clearly wrong as to be a "non sequitur," because it supposedly implies that Congress can declare anything to be property and thereby circumvent the First Amendment.This Article aims to rehabilitate the property theory. Contrary to its critics, the property theory does not say that anything labeled "property" is exempt, but rather contains two internal limits. First, the government-created rules of the property system must be neutral towards speech, though the private enforcement of those rules can be viewpoint-motivated. Second, even within the context of private enforcement, there must still be some protection against excessive ownership power. Understanding the property theory, including its internal limits, then provides a powerful legal justification for the Court's treatment of copyright law — one that is far better than what the Court has itself articulated.


From the Publisher:
Going Wireless delivers the unexpected by showing how wireless is transforming every type of enterprise from micro-businesses to multi-national conglomerates.Award-winning technology journalist Jaclyn Easton begins with an in-depth look at owning your customers and clients through mobile commerce — whether your company focuses on consumers or business-to-business.
From there you will learn about the advantages of wirelessly fortifying your mobile workforce of itinerant executives, sales personnel, and field service technicians as well as how wireless is dramatically redefining customer service, marketing, and advertising.
Going Wireless also delves deep inside the corporation. First you'll find out why most companies are "handsizing" in addition to deploying wireless technology to rejuvenate warehouses, supply chains, procurement procedures, data collection, competitive intelligence, and much more. The best part is that these scenarios are supported by over 40 brand-name success stories, including:How Sears saves millions by wirelessly enabling 100 percent of their appliance repair technicians;How the Gap proved that by sewing wireless technology in their clothing they could reduce labor distribution costs by 50 percent; How McKessanHBOC — a Fortune 40 corporation — used mobile technology to entirely eliminate all their manifest imaging costs.
While most people associate wireless with cell phones and Palm handhelds, you'll also learn that wireless has been around for over 100 years and has spawned mobile options you've never heard of and is being used in ways you've never imagined.This makes Going Wireless the perfect book for executivesand managers who need a comprehensive overview of the wireless options that can make their companies more competitive, more productive, and more profitable.


We investigate the existence of edge-magic labellings of countably infinite graphs by abelian groups. We show for that for a large class of abelian groups, including the integers ${\Bbb Z}$, there is such a labelling whenever the graph has an infinite set of disjoint edges. A graph without an infinite set of disjoint edges must be some subgraph of $H + {\cal I}$, where $H$ is some finite graph and ${\cal I}$ is a countable set of isolated vertices. Using power series of rational functions, we show that any edge-magic ${\Bbb Z}$-labelling of $H + {\cal I}$ has almost all vertex labels making up pairs of half-modulus classes. We also classify all possible edge-magic ${\Bbb Z}$-labellings of $H + {\cal I}$ under the assumption that the vertices of the finite graph are labelled consecutively.


One of the most important numerical quantities that can be computed from a graph G is the two-variable Tutte polynomial. Specializations of the Tutte polynomial count various objects associated with G, e.g., subgraphs, spanning trees, acyclic orientations, inversions and parking functions. We show that by partitioning certain simplicial complexes related to G into intervals, one can provide combinatorial demonstrations of these results. One of the primary tools for providing such a partition is depth-first search.


The United States, long the beneficiary of talented immigrants, needs to act quickly to keep these valuable workers from leaving to pursue expanding opportunities in their home countries.Although most of the national immigration debate originates with those who want to limit immigration, U.S. policymakers should be focusing on the more important task of attracting and keeping more highly skilled foreign-born scientists and engineers. The future strength of the nation's economy will depend on the creation of vibrant new companies, and the development of innovative products and services will be produced by well-paid workers. In recent years, immigrants have been playing a rapidly expanding role as high-tech entrepreneurs and inventors, providing an essential service to the country.The danger is that the United States is taking this immigrant contribution for granted at a time when changes in the global economy are providing alternative career opportunities for the most talented people. In the past, the United States was clearly the best place for the most talented scientists and engineers to work, and there was no need to do anything special to attract them. Those days are gone, and the United States must begin paying more attention to what is necessary to attract foreign talent and taking steps to eliminate barriers to immigration.This paper, is a summary of work by a team which includes Gary Gereffi of Duke University, AnnaLee Saxenian of University of California at Berkeley, Richard Freeman of Harvard University, Ben Rissing of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Guillermina Jasso of New York University. They spent three years conducting multiple surveys of thousands of technology and engineering start-up companies, interviewed hundreds of company founders, surveyed more than 1,000 foreign students and more than 1,000 returnees, and made several trips to India and China to understand the on-the-ground realities in those countries.


Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet Angkor Wat & Siem Reap Encounter is your passport to all the most relevant and up-to-date advice on what to see, what to skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Witness the sunrise over Angkor Wat, explore the expressive monuments of Angkor Thom, or walk on water in the floating villages; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of the best of Angkor Wat and Siem Reap and begin your journey now! Inside Lonely Planet Angkor Wat & Siem Reap Encounter: *Full-colour maps and images throughout *Highlights and itineraries show you the simplest way to tailor your trip to your own personal needs and interests *Insider tips save you time and money and help you get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots *Essential info at your fingertips - including hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, and prices *Honest reviews for all budgets - including eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, and hidden gems that most guidebooks miss *Over 14 colour neighbourhood maps *User-friendly layout with helpful icons, and organised by neighbourhoods to help you determine the best spots to spend your time *Coverage of Siem Reap, Siem Reap Centre, Angkor, Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Around Siem Reap, Around Angkor Thom, and more The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet Angkor Wat & Siem Reap Encounter is a handy guide that literally fits in your pocket, providing on-the-go assistance to travellers who seek only the can't-miss experiences. Colourful and easy-to-use, this neighbourhood-focused guide includes unique local recommendations to maximise your quick trip experience. * Looking for more extensive coverage? Check out Lonely Planet's Cambodia guide for a comprehensive look at all the country has to offer. Authors: Written and researched by Lonely Planet and Nick Ray. About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves in. TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Awards 2012 and 2013 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)


Life in the woods. Creative cabin architecture. Ever since Henry David Thoreau's described his two years, two months, and two days of cabin existence at Walden Pond, Massachusetts in Walden or, Life in the Woods (1854), the idea of a refuge dwelling has seduced the modern psyche. In the past decade, as our material existence and environmental footprint has grown exponentially, architects around the globe have become particularly interested in the possibilities of the minimal, low-impact, and isolated abode. This new TASCHEN title, combining insightful text, rich photography and bright, contemporary illustrations by Marie-Laurc Cruschi, explores how this particular architectural type presents special opportunities for creative thinking. In eschewing excess, the cabin limits actual spatial intrusion to the bare essentials of living requirements, while in responding to its typically rustic setting, it foregrounds eco-friendly solutions. As such, the cabin comes to showcase some of the most inventive and forward-looking practice of contemporary architecture, with Renzo Piano, Terunobu Fujimori, Tom Kundig and many fresh young professionals all embracing such distilled sanctuary spaces. The cabins selected for this publication emphasize the variety of the genre, both in terms of usage and geography. From an artist studio on the Suffolk coast in England to eco-home huts in the Western Ghats region of India, this survey is as exciting in its international reach as it is in its array of briefs, clients, and situations. Constant throughout, however, is architectural innovation, and an inspiring sense of contemplation and coexistence as people return to nature and to a less destructive model of being in the world.


This paper extends previous work on the identification of search models in which observed worker productivity is imperfectly observed. In particular, it establishes that these models remain identified even when employment histories are left-censored (i.e. we do not get to follow workers from their initial job out of unemployment), as well as when workers set different reservation wages from one another. We further show that allowing for heterogeneity in reservation can affect the empirical estimates we obtain, specifically estimates of the rate at which workers receive job offers.


Summary X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD) is a rare genetic condition caused by mutations in the ABCD1 gene that result in accumulation of very long chain fatty acids (VLCFAs) in various tissues. This leads to demyelination in the CNS and impaired steroidogenesis in the adrenal cortex and testes. A 57-year-old gentleman was referred for the assessment of bilateral gynaecomastia of 6 months duration. He had skin hyperpigmentation since 4 years of age and spastic paraparesis for the past 15 years. Physical examination findings included generalised hyperpigmentation (including skin, buccal mucosa and palmar creases), blood pressure of 90/60 mmHg, non-tender gynaecomastia and bilateral hypoplastic testes. Lower limb findings were those of a profoundly ataxic gait associated with significant paraparesis and sensory loss. Primary adrenal insufficiency was confirmed and investigations for gynaecomastia revealed normal testosterone with mildly elevated luteinising hormone level and normal prolactin. The combination of primary adrenal insufficiency (likely childhood onset), partial testicular failure (leading to gynaecomastia) and spastic paraparesis suggested X-ALD as a unifying diagnosis. A serum VLCFA panel was consistent with X-ALD. Subsequent genetic testing confirmed the diagnosis. Treatment with replacement doses of corticosteroid resulted in improvement in blood pressure and increased energy levels. We have reported the case of a 57-year-old man with a very late diagnosis of X-ALD manifested by childhood onset of primary adrenal insufficiency followed by paraparesis and primary hypogonadism in adulthood. Thus, X-ALD should be considered as a possibility in a patient with non-autoimmune primary adrenal insufficiency and neurological abnormalities. Learning points Adult patients with X-ALD may be misdiagnosed as having multiple sclerosis or idiopathic spastic paraparesis for many years before the correct diagnosis is identified. Screening for X-ALD with a VLCFA panel should be strongly considered in male children with primary adrenal insufficiency and in male adults presenting with non-autoimmune primary adrenal insufficiency. Confirmation of a genetic diagnosis of X-ALD can be very useful for a patient's family as genetic testing enables detection of pre-symptomatic female heterozygotes who can then be offered pre-natal testing to avoid transmission of the disease to male offsprings.


When we think of the Italian Mafia, we think of Marlon Brando, Tony Soprano, and the Corleones--iconic actors and characters who give shady dealings a mythical pop presence. Yet these sensational depictions take us only so far. The true story of the Mafia reveals both an organization and mindset dedicated to the preservation of tradition. It is no accident that the rise of the Mafia coincided with the unification of Italy and the influx of immigrants into America. The Mafia means more than a horse head under the sheets--it functions as an alternative to the state, providing its own social and political justice. Combining a nuanced history with a unique counternarrative concerning stereotypes of the immigrant, Salvatore Lupo, a leading historian of modern Italy and a major authority on its criminal history, has written the definitive account of the Sicilian Mafia from 1860 to the present. Consulting rare archival sources, he traces the web of associations, both illicit and legitimate, that have defined Cosa Nostra during its various incarnations. He focuses on several crucial periods of transition: the Italian unification of 1860 to 1861, the murder of noted politician Notarbartolo, fascist repression of the Mafia, the Allied invasion of 1943, social conflicts after each world war, and the major murders and trials of the 1980s. Lupo identifies the internal cultural codes that define the Mafia and places these codes within the context of social groups and communities. He also challenges the belief that the Mafia has grown more ruthless in recent decades. Rather than representing a shift from "honorable" crime to immoral drug trafficking and violence, Lupo argues the terroristic activities of the modern Mafia signify a new desire for visibility and a distinct break from the state. Where these pursuits will take the family adds a fascinating coda to Lupo's work.


In this paper the author proposes a new qualitative method for building conceptual frameworks for phenomena that are linked to multidisciplinary bodies of knowledge. First, he redefines the key terms of concept, conceptual framework, and conceptual framework analysis. Concept has some components that define it. A conceptual framework is defined as a network or a "plane" of linked concepts. Conceptual framework analysis offers a procedure of theorization for building conceptual frameworks based on grounded theory method. The advantages of conceptual framework analysis are its flexibility, its capacity for modification, and its emphasis on understanding instead of prediction.


The field of medicine and medical practice requires the use of computers for support in information processing, decision making and records keeping. The success of information and communications technology applications in health is dependent on the level of computer use by health professionals especially doctors. This questionnaire-based study assessed the level of computer and internet use by doctors in a Nigerian Teaching Hospital as well as their perception of the medical recording system in their place of practice. The study is planned to be carried out similarly in other centres across Africa; this survey will serve as a pilot.


A key characteristic of any trade bloc is its "flexibility" – the extent to which it can be modified or augmented by existing members. This paper investigates how prospective trade bloc members value the flexibility of proposed trade agreements in a changing trading environment. We demonstrate that country characteristics as well as the nature of the trade shock influence a nation's desire for trade bloc flexibility. Our model of endogenous coalition formation yields predictions that are consistent with three stylized facts which characterize regionalism: (i) overlapping trade agreements, (ii) the popularity of free trade areas relative to customs unions and (iii) renegotiation or disbandment of existing trade agreements is rare. Finally, for the first time in the literature, we provide clear predictions about the identity of "hub" and "spoke" trade bloc members when overlapping free trade areas arise in equilibrium.


This paper deals with the handling of deformable linear objects (DLOs), such as hoses, wires or leaf springs. It investigates the a priori knowledge about the 6-dimensional force/torque signal for a changing contact situation between a DLO and a rigid polyhedral obstacle. The result is a complete list, containing for each contact change the most significant combination of force/torque signal components together with a description of the expected signal curve. This knowledge enables the reliable detection of changes in the DLO contact situation and with it the implementation of sensor-based manipulation skills for all possible contact changes.


Background/Context Researchers have proposed a number of lenses for analyzing teacher professional communities in recent years. These lenses have been useful in describing key dynamics of professional communities; however, none provides a compelling approach to how to integrate data from the school as a whole with case study data on individual interactions to create a coherent account of the structure and dynamics of teacher professional communities. Objective Our objective was to present and illustrate the application of social capital theory for analyzing the role of formal and informal teacher interactions in helping teachers enact changes to instruction associated with ambitious school reforms. Social capital theory posits that valued resources and expertise are embedded within social networks and that it is through social ties that one gains access to and can make use of resources to effect change. The network perspective directs researchers to focus simultaneously on the overall social structure of a school and on the expertise and resources exchanged through interactions among teachers that take place in meetings, staff rooms, hallways, and classrooms. Setting Our illustrations are contrasting cases of teacher communities in two elementary schools in California. In both school communities, the principals were committed to the idea of fostering greater interaction among colleagues as a strategy to improve literacy instruction. Both schools had similar levels of resources to support their goals through external funding from the state, but the schools had had different levels of success in implementing their reforms at the time of the study. Research Design We used an explanatory case study methodology that relied on social network, survey, and interview methods as sources of evidence for several alternative hypotheses relating to how the distribution of resources and expertise may have contributed to these schools' different levels of success in implementing their reforms. Conclusions/Recommendations The comparative case analysis of the two schools provided evidence that analyzing the internal structure of the school community was necessary to help account for the distribution of access to resources and expertise in these two schools. Moreover, there was some evidence from survey and network data that the distribution of valued resources and expertise was related to the level of change observed in each school.


Veldram performance testing has been conducted over a period of 14 years (1988 to 2002) at Kalahari Research Station in Namibia. During this period 2660 Dorper rams participated in 22 tests. Rams that met growth and breed standards were put up for auction at the completion of each test. The popularity of these auctions for performance tested rams (89.4 % of rams sold) indicate that Veld tested rams were sought after by buyers. The sale price of 296 Veld tested Dorper rams sold between 1994 and 2001, covering seven different tests, were compared with their measured and observed performances. Multiple regression and analysis of variance were carried out to determine which of the factors that were available to buyers significantly influenced price, as well as its contribution towards ram prices fetched. The contributing factors that had the biggest effect on price were Breed Classification (BC), Selection Index (SI), Average Daily Gain (ADG) and End test Mass (EM). This indicates that buyers did recognize the importance of performance data in selecting breeding rams and but most emphasis was on Breed standards (visual appearance). Although Breed Classification is the industry standard used by buyers, top ranking rams (stud) did not perform consistently/significantly better than flock rams. S.Afr. Tydskr. Landbouvoorl./S. Afr. J. Agric. Ext ., Vol. 39 Nr. 2, 2011: 1 – 14


This paper reviews South African water sector life-cycle assessments (LCAs) and develops a position on how this tool could be strategically employed in the future. It summarises the studies undertaken, highlighting the significant findings and the lessons learnt. In addition, international trends and their implications for the local LCA community and the water sector are presented and strategic recommendations for the future are included. The various LCA studies undertaken in the local water industry have shown that the abstraction of water from the environment (in a country where it is a limited resource) and the use of energy for treating and pumping water and wastewater have the highest environmental burdens. These studies have also demonstrated the versatility of LCA as a decision-making tool in the water industry by comparing technologies and scenarios, identifying improvement opportunities and prioritising interventions and their consequences in complex water systems. Recent international work has confirmed the usefulness of a life-cycle approach also for water footprinting. Therefore, in South Africa it is important to promote the use of LCAs for the water sector in order to improve efficiency of processes and systems, but also to promote life-cycle based water footprinting and to include differentiated water consumption data into life-cycle inventories to make more efficient use of water as a resource.


Two of the main environmental problems of today's society are the continuously increasing production of organic wastes as well as the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the related green house effect. A way to solve these problems is the production of biogas. Biogas is a combustible gas consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and small amounts of other gases and trace elements. Production of biogas through anaerobic digestion of animal manure and slurries as well as of a wide range of digestible organic wastes and agricultural residues, converts these substrates into electricity and heat and offers a natural fertiliser for agriculture. The microbiological process of decomposition of organic matter, in the absence of oxygen takes place in reactors, called digesters. Biogas can be used as a fuel in a gas turbine or burner and can be used in a hybrid solar tower system offering a solution for waste treatment of agricultural and animal residues. A solar tower system consists of a heliostat field, which concentrates direct solar irradiation on an open volumetric central receiver. The receiver heats up ambient air to temperatures of around 700°C. The hot air's heat energy is transferred to a steam Rankine cycle in a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). The steam drives a steam turbine, which in turn drives a generator for producing electricity. In order to increase the operational hours of a solar tower power plant, a heat storage system and/ or hybridization may be considered. The advantage of solar-fossil hybrid power plants, compared to solar-only systems, lies in low additional investment costs due to an adaptable solar share and reduced technical and economical risks. On sunny days the hybrid system operates in a solar-only mode with the central receiver and on cloudy days and at night with the gas turbine only. As an alternative to methane gas, environmentally neutral biogas can be used for operating the gas turbine. Hence, the hybrid system is operated to 100% from renewable


This paper evaluates the Canadian and the European Union's (EU) implementation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) General Council Decision of 2003, which resolved that developed nations could export patented pharmaceutical drugs to member states in order to address public health challenges such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics, such states including Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The author makes a primarily textual appraisal of how and to what extent the Canada Access to Medicine Regime (CAMR) and European Union (EU) Regulations benefit, for instance, SSA countries in the WTO in their quest to make essential medicine more accessible. The author argues that although there are identifiable complexities inherent in the Canadian and the EU's access to pharmaceutical product regimes, there are far more important incentives and benefits that can be reaped in taking advantage of the respective systems. The author recommends that countries facing public health crises/emergencies, such as SSA countries, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) take advantage of the regulatory flexibilities of Canada and the EU in their efforts to provide their communities with essential HIV/AIDS treatment, and treatment for other diseases such as malaria. The author dismisses the arguments against TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property) flexibilities-inspired legislation and similar measures as mostly mere rhetoric and hair-splitting, because they sometimes unwarrantedly dismiss a workable solution to public-health problems.


There is a firestorm of political and cultural conflict around environmental issues, including but running well beyond climate change. Legal scholarship is in a bad position to make sense of this conflict because the field has concentrated on making sound policy recommendations to an idealized lawmaker, ignoring the deeply held and sharply clashing values that drive, or block, environmental lawmaking. This Article sets out a framework for understanding and engaging the clash of values in environmental law and, by extension, approaching the field more generally. Americans have held, and legislated based upon, four distinct ideas about why the natural world matters and how we should govern it. Each of these conceptions persists in a body of environmental law, a network of interest and advocacy groups, the attitudes and even identities of ordinary citizens, and even the American landscape. The first, Providential Republicanism, treats nature as intended for productive human use, and gives high status to its users: this idea justified the European claim to North America, defined public debates about nature in the Early Republic and persists in important aspects of private and public land-use law. The second conception, Progressive Management, arose in the later nineteenth century as part of a broader legal reform movement, and gave its shape to much of federal lands policy, notably creation of the national forests and national parks. In this idea, nature's productive use requires extensive management by public-spirited experts, whom reformers imagined as steering the environmental policy of the administrative state. The third conception, Romantic Epiphany, concentrates on the aesthetic and spiritual value of nature, and has defined both national parks policy and the creation of the national wilderness system, and lent essential support to the Endangered Species Act. This idea entered environmental politics at the turn of the last century, with the efforts of the Sierra Club and other innovators. The most recent conception of nature, Ecological Interdependence, arose in the middle of the twentieth century and shaped much of the environmental law of the 1970s and thereafter. This conception treats nature as an intensely inter-permeable web, which humans are unavoidably part of, to our benefit and hazard. Because all these ideas persist today in environmental law and politics, they provide a map of our existing statutes and doctrines and the conflicts around those laws and emerging issues such as climate change.


The DNA exoneration cases of the past two decades have provided a window into what hasn't been working in the criminal justice system and an agenda for criminal justice reform. The challenge currently facing the innocence reform community is to translate this agenda into concrete reforms that institute and sustain best practices for the investigation and prosecution of crimes, while allowing flexibility for the understanding of best practices to continue to evolve. In 2005, Wisconsin underwent a breathtaking course of legal reform in two of the problem areas that have plagued wrongful convictions: mistaken eyewitness identification and false confession. The Wisconsin reforms in both areas allow - and in the area of eyewitness identification require - local agencies to adopt and periodically revisit the policies that govern their own practices in light of social scientific theory and in light of models developed in other jurisdictions. Because of this institutional structure that delegates rule-making authority to local police agencies, Wisconsin's innocence reforms fit well within a new paradigm of regulatory jurisprudence called democratic experimentalism, which eschews top-down regulation in favor of allowing general norms to be articulated and informed from the bottom up through a combination of benchmarking best practices and encouraging local experimentation within a regime of public accountability based on measurable outcomes. This article explores the Wisconsin experience as a case study within this new regulatory framework. It concludes that although Wisconsin's innocence reforms are promising, they lack an adequate institutional structure to sustain continued reform. In particular, their reliance on enforcing the new regulatory structure through the exclusionary rule in individual criminal cases will be inadequate to meet the goals of continuous improvement. However, the prospect of invoking the elaborate accountability structures of experimentalism faces similar challenges. A careful analysis of the process of legislative reform in Wisconsin - and the national reform networks within which it occurred - demonstrates that incremental reform designed to gain genuine buy-in among diverse criminal justice stakeholders on a local level may ultimately be a more fruitful approach. Although more ambitious experimentalist accountability structures may be counterproductive in the context of regulating police investigations, the experimentalist focus on information-pooling and cross-jurisdictional learning may prove important in a more incremental and loosely-structured reform process.


A rainbow subgraph of an edge-colored graph is a subgraph whose edges have distinct colors. The color degree of a vertex $v$ is the number of different colors on edges incident to $v$. Wang and Li conjectured that for $k\geq 4$, every edge-colored graph with minimum color degree at least $k$ contains a rainbow matching of size at least $\left\lceil k/2 \right\rceil$. We prove the slightly weaker statement that a rainbow matching of size at least $\left\lfloor k/2 \right\rfloor$ is guaranteed. We also give sufficient conditions for a rainbow matching of size at least $\left\lceil k/2 \right\rceil$ that fail to hold only for finitely many exceptions (for each odd $k$).