Assessment (an immediate evaluation of significance or performance) and reflection (a lengthy, deep consideration) should be important components of adaptive management leading to learning. In this paper we use a prototype adaptive cycle and feedback framework, which are related to some aspects of learning theory, to examine the extent to which assessment and reflection were applied in a series of studies and initiatives in the Kruger National Park. In addition to evaluating assessment and reflection, we also considered how the various contributing components of each case were inter-related to provide a holistic view of each initiative. Two other studies in the Kruger National Park, which have examined learning specifically, are also discussed. One of them suggests that in a complex environment, learning necessarily has a dual nature, with each component of seven contrasting pairs of the aspects of learning in partial tension with the other. We use these dualities to further probe assessment, reflection, inter-relatedness and learning in the cases presented. Each contrasting aspect of a 'learning duality' turns out to emphasise either assessment or reflection, which reinforces the idea that both are needed to facilitate sufficient learning for successful adaptive management. We hope this analysis can act as a springboard for further study, practice and reflection on these important and often underrated components of adaptive management. Conservation implications: The better understanding of assessment and reflection as being largely separate but complementary actions will assist adaptive management practitioners to give explicit attention to both, and to relate them better to each other.


This report describes a survey of current practice as well as analysis performed to develop guidelines for agencies which need load restrictions during spring thaw periods. The results show for a range of locations in the U.S. and Canada that the average load restrictions applied is about 44 percent. The analysis performed in the study tends to confirm that level of load restriction. Further, it was found for the assumed conditions that a minimum load restriction level (if any load reduction is needed) is about 20 percent. Load restrictions greater than 60 percent are generally not warranted for the range of cases studied. An air temperature based criterion (Thawing Index) was developed which can be used to estimate when to apply and remove load restrictions.


The proposed Anthropocene epoch is understood geologically as a time when the collective actions of humans began influencing earth systems in marked, unprecedented ways. Some claim that the Anthropocene could have started in the year 1610 with "colonialism, global trade and coal" (Lewis and Maslin 177). Scientists and environmental ethicists often characterize futures in the Anthropocene in additional ways, one of the most common being as a future involving climate destabilization that will likely threaten the very existence of certain ecosystems, plants, and animals (Kolbert; Thompson and Bendik-Keymer; Vaidyanathan; Sandler). Ever-expanding human economic activities and consumer lifestyles are major drivers of climate destabilization through their dependence on burning fossil fuels and certain kinds of land-use such as deforestation. Some conservationists argue that we will inevitably have to learn to live with these changes, make careful decisions about conservation priorities, and, in some cases, learn to let go of certain ecosystems and species (Kareiva and Marvier). Yet others in the conservation community take an adamant position that these changes, especially extinctions, are morally dreadful (Vaidyanathan; Cafaro and Primacy). As a Neshnabe (Potawatomi) and scholar-activist at a U.S. university working on indigenous climate justice, I was initially struck by what seemed to be some similarities between the dystopian Anthropocene views and the views motivating quite a few indigenous projects to conserve and restore native species. Indeed, indigenous peoples have long advocated that the conservation and restoration of native species, the cultivation of first foods, and the maintenance of spiritual practices require the existence of plants and animals of particular genetic parentage whose lives are woven with ecologically, economically and culturally significant stories, knowledges and memories. I wondered whether indigenous peoples share the same dread of species extinction in an Anthropocene dystopian future. While surface similarities are present, it is perhaps more accurate to say that indigenous conservationists and restorationists tend to focus on sustaining particular plants and animals whose lives are entangled locally — and often over many generations — in ecological, cultural and economic relationships with human societies and other nonhuman species. We try to learn from, adapt, and put in practice these relationships, ancient as some may be, to address the conservation challenges we face today and in the future, especially the environmental destruction of settler colonialism in North America.


Business groups are an organizational model in which collections of legally independent firms bounded together with formal and informal ties use collaborative arrangements to enhance their collective welfare. Among the different varieties of business groups, diversified business groups that exhibit unrelated product diversification under central control, and often containing chains of publicly-listed firms, are the most studied type in the management literature. The reason is that they challenge two traditionally-held assumptions. First, that broad and especially unrelated diversification have a negative impact on performance, and thus business groups should focus on a narrow scope of related businesses. Second, that such diversification is only sustainable in emerging economies in which market and institutional underdevelopment are more common and where business groups can provide a solution to such imperfections. However, a historical perspective indicates that diversified business groups are a long lived organizational model, and are present in emerging and advanced economies, illustrating how business groups adapt to different market and institutional settings. This evolutionary approach also highlights the importance of going beyond diversification when studying business groups, and redirecting studies toward the evolution of the group structure, their internal administrative mechanisms and other strategic actions beyond diversification such as internationalization.


CLAVIER is a case-based reasoning (CBR) system that assists in determining efficient loads of composite material parts to be cured in an autoclave. CLAVIER's central purpose is to find the most appropriate groupings and configurations of parts (or loads) to maximize autoclave throughput yet ensure that parts are properly cured. CLAVIER uses CBR to match a list of parts that need to be cured against a library of previously successful loads and suggest the most appropriate next load. clavier also uses a heuristic scheduler to generate a sequence of loads that best meets production goals and satisfies operational constraints. The system is being used daily on the shop floor and has virtually eliminated the production of low-quality parts that must be scrapped, saving thousands of dollars each month. As one of the first fielded CBR systems, CLAVIER demonstrates that CBR is a practical technology that can be used successfully in domains where more traditional approaches are difficult to apply.


In spite of soaring tuition costs, more and more students go to college every year. A bachelor's degree is now required for entry into a growing number of professions. And some parents begin planning for the expense of sending their kids to college when they're born. Almost everyone strives to go, but almost no one asks the fundamental question posed by Academically Adrift: are undergraduates really learning anything once they get there? For a large proportion of students, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa's answer to that question is a definitive no. Their extensive research draws on survey responses, transcript data, and, for the first time, the state-of-the-art Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test administered to students in their first semester and then again at the end of their second year. According to their analysis of more than 2,300 undergraduates at twenty-four institutions, forty-five percent of these students demonstrate no significant improvement in a range of skills - including critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing - during their first two years of college. As troubling as their findings are, Arum and Roksa argue that for many faculty and administrators they will come as no surprise - instead, they are the expected result of a student body distracted by socializing or working and an institutional culture that puts undergraduate learning close to the bottom of the priority list. Academically Adrift holds sobering lessons for students, faculty, administrators, policy makers, and parents - all of whom are implicated in promoting or at least ignoring contemporary campus culture. Higher education faces crises on a number of fronts, but Arum and Roksa's report that colleges are failing at their most basic mission will demand the attention of us all.


A coastal exposure of the Staffin Shale Formation at Flodigarry, Staffin Bay, Isle of Skye, Scotland, UK fulfils the criteria for definition as the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Kimmeridgian Stage (Upper Jurassic). This marine shale succession was deposited during a long-term transgression, and is part of a complete, relatively well-expanded stratigraphic succession. A rich fauna of ammonites above and below the Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian boundary allows recognition of the Evoluta Subzone (Pseudocordata Zone) and Rosenkrantzi Subzone (Rosenkrantzi Zone) of the Subboreal and Boreal uppermost Oxfordian, and the Densicostata Subzone (Baylei Zone) and the Bauhini Zone of the Subboreal and Boreal lowermost Kimmeridgian). A suitable level for the boundary is thus marked by the replacement of the Subboreal Ringsteadia (M)/Microbiplices (m) by Pictonia (M)/Prorasenia (m), and by the first appearance of Boreal Amoeboceras (Plasmatites). Detailed study of the microfossils reveals an excellent dinoflagellate succession. A variety of stratigraphically important dinoflagellates are found, the assemblages being intermediate in character between Boreal and Subboreal ones. The magnetostratigraphic data, though rather troublesome to extract, shows a polarity pattern which can be confidently correlated to other UK boundary sections. The upper boundary of a normal magnetozone falls at, or very near, the proposed Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian boundary. The 87Sr/86Sr ratio at the boundary, based on an analysis of belemnites, lies between 0,70689 and 0,70697, averaging 0.70693. Matching worldwide trends, no distinct change in the ratio is seen across the boundary. A lack of variations in the carbon isotope composition of belemnites across the Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian boundary does not indicate perturbation in the global carbon cycle. However, high δ13C values and their scatter suggest the influence of local fractionation affecting isotope composition of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in the partly isolated Boreal sea. A fall in the belemnite δ18O values in the Upper Oxfordian and Lower Kimmeridgian compared to the Mid Oxfordian suggests a slight rise in seawater temperature.


In 1923, Eduard Helly published his celebrated theorem, which originated the well known Helly property. A family of subsets has the Helly property when every sub-family thereof, formed by pairwise intersecting subsets, contains a common element. Many generalizations of this property exist which are relevant to some fields of mathematics, and have several applications in computer science. In this work, we survey complexity aspects of the Helly property. The main focus is on characterizations of several classes of graphs and hypergraphs related to the Helly property. We describe algorithms for solving different problems arising from the basic Helly property. We also discuss the complexity of these problems, some of them leading to NP-hardness results.


In the coming decades, robots will continue to change the way space is explored. Robots will be used in all mission phases: as independent explorers operating in environments too distant or hostile for humans, as precursor systems operating before crewed missions, as crew helpers working alongside and supporting humans, and as caretakers of assets left behind. As humans continue to work and live in space, they will increasingly rely on intelligent and versatile robots to perform mundane activities, freeing human and ground control teams to tend to more challenging tasks that call for human cognition and judgment.


Young feminists use social media in order to respond to rape culture and to hold accountable the purveyors of its practices and ways of thinking when mainstream news media, police and school authorities do not. This article analyzes how social networks identified with young feminists take shape via social media responses to sexual violence, and how those networks are organized around the conceptual framework of rape culture. Drawing on the concept of response-ability, the article analyzes how recent social media responses to rape culture evidence the affective and technocultural nature of current feminist network building and the ways this online criticism re-imagines the position of feminist witnesses to rape culture.


This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Please check back later for the full article.

 Victims of trafficking, once they are released from their captors, need psychological and educational intervention to achieve their recovery and integration. For this, it is important to design and develop educational programs that foster language learning, professional training, and good habits of nutrition and higiene, and that provide alternatives for leisure and free time.
 These education programs, designed for adults, should be initiated in the shelter houses where the victims are released. They are developed by multidisciplinary teams formed by professionals in education, psychology, nursing, and social work. The final objective is to provide competences to the people included in the program so that they can leave the shelters and be able to live autonomously and independently in the host society.


This paper summarizes the findings from the past 3 year's research on the effects of environmental noise on sleep and identifies key future research goals. The past 3 years have seen continued interest in both short term effects of noise on sleep (arousals, awakenings), as well as epidemiological studies focusing on long term health impacts of nocturnal noise exposure. This research corroborated findings that noise events induce arousals at relatively low exposure levels, and independent of the noise source (air, road, and rail traffic, neighbors, church bells) and the environment (home, laboratory, hospital). New epidemiological studies support already existing evidence that night-time noise is likely associated with cardiovascular disease and stroke in the elderly. These studies collectively also suggest that nocturnal noise exposure may be more relevant for the genesis of cardiovascular disease than daytime noise exposure. Relative to noise policy, new effect-oriented noise protection concepts, and rating methods based on limiting awakening reactions were introduced. The publications of WHO's ''Night Noise Guidelines for Europe'' and ''Burden of Disease from Environmental Noise'' both stress the importance of nocturnal noise exposure for health and well-being. However, studies demonstrating a causal pathway that directly link noise (at ecological levels) and disturbed sleep with cardiovascular disease and/or other long term health outcomes are still missing. These studies, as well as the quantification of the impact of emerging noise sources (e.g., high speed rail, wind turbines) have been identified as the most relevant issues that should be addressed in the field on the effects of noise on sleep in the near future.


Many polynomially solvable combinatorial optimization problems (COP) become NP when we require solutions to satisfy an additional cardinality constraint. This family of problems has been considered only recently. We study a newproblem of this family: the k-cardinality minimum cut problem. Given an undirected edge-weighted graph the k-cardinality minimum cut problem is to find a partition of the vertex set V in two sets V 1 , V 2 such that the number of the edges between V 1 and V 2 is exactly k and the sum of the weights of these edges is minimal. A variant of this problem is the k-cardinality minimum s-t cut problem where s and t are fixed vertices and we have the additional request that s belongs to V 1 and t belongs to V 2 . We also consider other variants where the number of edges of the cut is constrained to be either less or greater than k. For all these problems we show complexity results in the most significant graph classes.


Our lab is interested in exploring insect lipid transporting genes and the lipoproteins they produce within Drosophila melanogaster. We want to study lipid transporting genes in insects because several labs have demonstrated that components necessary for the synthesis and secretion of insect lipoproteins are similar to those required for production of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) in humans. This is of particular importance given that elevated LDL concentration in human plasma is known to lead to atherosclerosis and heart disease. It is our lab's intent to develop models for the exploration of lipoprotein biogenesis using D. melanogaster in expectation that our findings may contribute to further understanding of human LDL production. At present, our interest centers on the production of insect apolipophorin II/I, named retinoid and fatty acid binding glycoprotein (RFABG) in D. melanogaster. RFABG is a homolog of the major structural protein on human LDLs, apolipoprotein B, and is known to transport fatty acids to insect flight muscle during extended flights. As a result we have chosen to subclone an N-terminal portion of RFABG, which constitutes about 30% of the entire DNA sequence (RF30). Through sequential digests and purification procedures, our lab successfully transferred the entire RF30 sequence into the insect expression vector, pRmHa-3. We have also appended a short, engineered sequence to RF30 that encodes the FLAG epitope tag and a termination codon. Future efforts may now explore expression of this FLAG-tagged RF30 construct in Schneider's S2 cells to determine whether these cells are capable of producing lipoproteins.


Differentiated instruction has been promoted as a sound educational approach in
meeting the needs of increasingly diverse student populations. This study examines the
differentiation strategies used by middle school teachers in heterogeneously grouped
classrooms. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected by means of a questionnaire
and classroom observations. This study analyzed the frequency with which middle school
teachers implement differentiation in their classrooms. It also analyzed which contextual
or educational factors, if any, influence their frequency of use of these strategies to meet
the needs of their diverse learners. The setting for the study was a middle school in
southeastern North Carolina. Teachers in the study were asked questions about how
frequently they use differentiation in their classrooms and were also observed in their
classrooms while delivering instruction. Results of the study indicate that there are two
groups of teachers: those who differentiate frequently and those who differentiate with
little frequency. The findings in this study also indicate that factors such as years of
teaching experience and staff development have little impact on how often teachers
implement differentiation strategies in their classrooms.


Combined ATLAS and CMS measurements of the Higgs boson production and decay rates, as well as constraints on its couplings to vector bosons and fermions, are presented. The combination is based on the analysis of five production processes, namely gluon fusion, vector boson fusion, and associated production with a W or a Z boson or a pair of top quarks, and of the six decay modes H → ZZ,WW , γγ, ττ, bb, and μμ. All results are reported assuming a value of 125.09 GeV for the Higgs boson mass, the result of the combined measurement by the ATLAS and CMS experiments. The analysis uses the CERN LHC proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS and CMS experiments in 2011 and 2012, corresponding to integrated luminosities per experiment of approximately 5 fb−1 at √ s = 7 TeV and 20 fb−1 at √ s = 8 TeV. The Higgs boson production and decay rates measured by the two experiments are combined within the context of three generic parameterisations: two based on cross sections and branching fractions, and one on ratios of coupling modifiers. Several interpretations of the measurements with more model-dependent parameterisations are also given. The combined signal yield relative to the Standard Model prediction is measured to be 1.09±0.11. The combined measurements lead to observed significances for the vector boson fusion production process and for the H → ττ decay of 5.4 and 5.5 standard deviations, respectively. The data are consistent with the Standard Model predictions for all parameterisations considered.


The only complete interlinear Bible available in English-and it's keyed to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance! Thousands of pastors, students, and laypeople have found The Interlinear Bible to be a time-saving tool for researching the subtle nuances and layers of meaning within the original biblical languages. Featuring the complete Hebrew and Greek texts with a direct English rendering below each word, it also includes The Literal Translation of the Bible in the outside column. But what truly sets this resource apart are the Strong's numbers printed directly above the Hebrew and Greek words. Strong's numbers enable even those with no prior knowledge of Greek or Hebrew to easily access a wealth of language reference works keyed to Strong's-Greek/Hebrew dictionaries, analytical lexicons, concordances, word studies, and more.The Hebrew is based on the Masoretic Text and the Greek is from the Textus Receptus. The sources of the texts are documented in the preface, and are essentially the same (with some minor variations) to the Hebrew and Greek texts used by the KJV translators.Only a small minority of Bible students ever achieve the ability to read the original biblical languages. This resource offers a non-threatening tool for those lacking language training to begin exploring the languages of Scripture. Conveniently includes the entire Hebrew and Greek text of the Bible in one placeOffering a concise, literal translation of each Greek and Hebrew word, it's a great jumping off point for in-depth Bible study and text analysis.


This is the tenth year that the paying taxes indicator has been part of the World Bank Doing Business project. The journey over the period of the study has been an eventful and interesting one and the economic backdrop continues to present a challenging environment for governments as they consider their future fiscal policies. Globalization, the march of technological change, changing demographic patterns and the persistent challenges that continue around climate change and the environment all come together to generate a turbulent mix of issues which have a significant impact on fiscal policy and the associated tax systems. Against this backdrop, this year the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has put forward proposals for changing the international tax rules to modernize them for today's globalized business and to address concerns over base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). It is apparent that these proposals are already changing the way some tax authorities apply existing rules, leading to new and increased uncertainty for business, at least in the short term. Alongside all of this however there are two simple, mutually supportive objectives for governments; to ensure that there are sufficient public revenues for the future, to lay a foundation for sustained improvements in productivity, while at the same time incentivising investment and economic growth. This year the authors have also focused more on the compliance aspects of the information that authors collect through the study. Stable tax systems and strong tax administrations are important for businesses, helping them to operate in an environment where the tax treatment of transactions is predictable, and where governments operate transparently. The paying taxes study provides an unrivalled global database which supports an ongoing research program.


It is well-known that acting in an individually rational manner, according to the principles of classical game theory, may lead to sub-optimal solutions in a class of problems named social dilemmas. In contrast, humans generally do not have much difficulty with social dilemmas, as they are able to balance personal benefit and group benefit. As agents in multi-agent systems are regularly confronted with social dilemmas, for instance in tasks such as resource allocation, these agents may benefit from the inclusion of mechanisms thought to facilitate human fairness. Although many of such mechanisms have already been implemented in a multi-agent systems context, their application is usually limited to rather abstract social dilemmas with a discrete set of available strategies (usually two). Given that many real-world examples of social dilemmas are actually continuous in nature, we extend this previous work to more general dilemmas, in which agents operate in a continuous strategy space. The social dilemma under study here is the well-known Ultimatum Game, in which an optimal solution is achieved if agents agree on a common strategy. We investigate whether a scale-free interaction network facilitates agents to reach agreement, especially in the presence of fixed-strategy agents that represent a desired (e.g. human) outcome. Moreover, we study the influence of rewiring in the interaction network. The agents are equipped with continuous-action learning automata and play a large number of random pairwise games in order to establish a common strategy. From our experiments, we may conclude that results obtained in discrete-strategy games can be generalized to continuous-strategy games to a certain extent: a scale-free interaction network structure allows agents to achieve agreement on a common strategy, and rewiring in the interaction network greatly enhances the agents' ability to reach agreement. However, it also becomes clear that some alternative mechanisms, such as reputation and volunteering, have many subtleties involved and do not have convincing beneficial effects in the continuous case.


Background Safety culture has been identified as having a major impact on how safety is managed in healthcare. However, it has not received much attention in general practices. Hence, no instrument yet exists to assess safety climate—the measurable artefact of safety culture—in this setting. This study aims to evaluate psychometric properties of a newly developed safety climate questionnaire for use in German general practices. Methods The existing Safety Attitudes Questionnaire, Ambulatory Version, was considerably modified and enhanced in order to be applicable in general practice. After pilot tests and its application in a random sample of 400 German practices, a first psychometric analysis led to modifications in several items. A further psychometric analysis was conducted with an additional sample of 60 practices and a response rate of 97.08%. Exploratory factor analysis with orthogonal varimax rotation was carried out and the internal consistency of the identified factors was calculated. Results Nine factors emerged, representing a wide range of dimensions associated with safety culture: teamwork climate, error management, safety of clinical processes, perception of causes of errors, job satisfaction, safety of office structure, receptiveness to healthcare assistants and patients, staff perception of management, and quality and safety of medical care. Internal consistency of factors is moderate to good. Conclusions This study demonstrates the development of a patient safety climate instrument. The questionnaire displays established features of safety climate and additionally contains features that might be specific to small-scale general practices.


One of the most urgent challenges in African economic development is to devise a strategy for improving statistical capacity. Reliable statistics, including estimates of economic growth rates and per-capita income, are basic to the operation of governments in developing countries and vital to nongovernmental organizations and other entities that provide financial aid to them. Rich countries and international financial institutions such as the World Bank allocate their development resources on the basis of such data. The paucity of accurate statistics is not merely a technical problem; it has a massive impact on the welfare of citizens in developing countries.Where do these statistics originate? How accurate are they? Poor Numbers is the first analysis of the production and use of African economic development statistics. Morten Jerven's research shows how the statistical capacities of sub-Saharan African economies have fallen into disarray. The numbers substantially misstate the actual state of affairs. As a result, scarce resources are misapplied. Development policy does not deliver the benefits expected. Policymakers' attempts to improve the lot of the citizenry are frustrated. Donors have no accurate sense of the impact of the aid they supply. Jerven's findings from sub-Saharan Africa have far-reaching implications for aid and development policy. As Jerven notes, the current catchphrase in the development community is "evidence-based policy," and scholars are applying increasingly sophisticated econometric methods—but no statistical techniques can substitute for partial and unreliable data.


From Mark Bowden, the preeminent chronicler of our military and special forces, comes "The Finish," a gripping account of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. With access to key sources, Bowden takes us inside the rooms where decisions were made and on the ground where the action unfolded. After masterminding the attacks of September 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden managed to vanish. Over the next ten years, as Bowden shows, America found that its war with al Qaeda--a scattered group of individuals who were almost impossible to track--demanded an innovative approach. Step by step, Bowden describes the development of a new tactical strategy to fight this war--the fusion of intel from various agencies and on-the-ground special ops. After thousands of special forces missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the right weapon to go after bin Laden had finally evolved. By Spring 2011, intelligence pointed to a compound in Abbottabad; it was estimated that there was a 50/50 chance that Osama was there. Bowden shows how three strategies were mooted: a drone strike, a precision bombing, or an assault by Navy SEALs. In the end, the President had to make the final decision. It was time for the finish.


Private law subjects like tort, contract, and property are traditionally taken to be at the core of the common law tradition, yet statutes increasingly intersect with these bodies of doctrine. This Article draws on recent work in private law theory and statutory interpretation to consider afresh what courts should do with private law in statutory gaps. In particular, it focuses on statutes touching on tort law, a field at the leading edge of private law theory.This Article's analysis unsettles some conventional wisdom about the intersection of private law and statutes. Many leading tort scholars and jurists embrace a regulatory conception of private law while also advocating courts' independent judgment in statutory gaps. Much public law theory on statutory interpretation, however, challenges this preference for background law over legislative policy, at least when private law is understood primarily as public regulation. By contrast, the more a court views private law as a coherent practice autonomous from public regulation, the more justification it has to develop that doctrine amid legislative silence. This space for creativity can be most pronounced for statutory formalists like textualists, a counterintuitive implication given the latter approach's association with judicial restraint.Finally, the analysis illuminates the larger question of whether private law adjudication and scholarship need an intervention from public law theory in statutory interpretation. If, as much law and scholarship presumes, private law is simply public regulation by adjudicative means, most every question at the junction of private law and legislation concerns statutory interpretation broadly understood. In that case, private law scholars' indifference about public law scholarship in legislation is difficult to defend. By comparison, private law's innocence of statutory interpretation theory is more easily justified on noninstrumental assumptions about background doctrine.


Allegations of religious intolerance push courts to deliberate on questions that are constitutive of the problem space of secularism. In addition to legal opinions on the character and scope of religious freedom vis-à-vis conflicting rights, these arbitrations result in authoritative statements on what constitutes religion, how it may inhabit public space, and, ultimately, what interests and values underpin the national collective. This article analyzes three high-profile court cases alleging religious intolerance against Afro-Brazilian religions that were tried in Brazil during the first two decades of the 2000s. It demonstrates how at this time of rapid religious transformation the adjudication of such cases acted as a key site for the Brazilian legal establishment to redefine the place of religion in the broader context of rights and laws that regulate religion in public spaces.


One of the first woman authors, Julian of Norwich produced in "Revelations of Divine Love" a remarkable work of revelatory insight, that stands alongside "The Cloud of Unknowing" and "Piers Plowman" as a classic of Medieval religious literature. This "Penguin Classics" edition is translated from Middle English by Elizabeth Spearing, with an introduction and notes by A.C. Spearing. After fervently praying for a greater understanding of Christ's passion, Julian of Norwich, a fourteenth-century anchorite and mystic, experienced a series of divine revelations. Through these 'showings', Christ's sufferings were revealed to her with extraordinary intensity, but she also received assurance of God's unwavering love for man and his infinite capacity for forgiveness. Written in a vigorous English vernacular, the Revelations are one of the most original works of medieval mysticism and have had a lasting influence on Christian thought. This edition of the Revelations contains both the short text, which is mainly an account of the 'showings' themselves and Julian's initial interpretation of their meaning, and the long text, completed some twenty years later, which moves from vision to a daringly speculative theology. Elizabeth Spearing's translation preserves Julian's directness of expression and the rich complexity of her thought. An introduction, notes and appendices help to place the works in context for modern readers. Julian of Norwich (c. 1342 after 1416) was the first woman writer in English. Nothing is known of her background or even her real name, simply that she believed she was a messenger to all Christians because of her 'showings' from God. If you enjoyed "Revelations of Divine Love", you might like "The Cloud of Unknowing", also available in "Penguin Classics".


Powerful and unsettling. . . . As memorable an introduction to the subject as "The Diary of Anne Frank." "USA Today" Berlin, 1942: When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move to a new house far, far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people in the distance. But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different from his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences. "From the Hardcover edition.""


This Article examines the import of the life's work of Saul Alinsky — arguably the most prominent founder of contemporary organizing—to the content and methodologies of today's legal education. I review the community organizing theory and practice of Saul Alinsky for its synergies and lessons on two approaches by legal theorists and educators working in law schools today — "community lawyering" and "social justice"education. These approaches embrace the special responsibility of the legal profession for the quality of justice in society[1] by extending the traditional conceptions of lawyers' relationships with clients in ways that are informed by the insights of community organizers, such as Alinsky. Rather than "justice" or the confrontation so often associated with the Industrial Areas Foundation (the "IAF"), Alinsky's true touchstone was democratic participation. The quality of democracy is everybody's business; and more to the point of this Article, democracy is not the central concern of the legal academy. Alinsky's prescription for his country was that we practice democracy seriously. His democratic vision turned on his faith in the potential of ordinary people to partake in democratic practices of inclusion, information sharing, deliberation, collective assessment, strategy, joint action, and mutual accountability. the several strands of rebellious lawyering, cause lawyering, community lawyering, and mobilization lawyering join to form an emerging practice of "lawyering for democracy," as co-citizens. This frame shapes the relationships of lawyer and community, and of law and organizing, as to the ends and means of the collaborative work and of the agency of the participants in that work. To lawyers working within this frame, clients are active partners in working to solve their problems. These lawyers work alongside clients — individuals, organized groups, and informal associations — and the allies they enlist, in multidimensional efforts to advocate for justice.


Santayana's Life of Reason, published in five books from 1905 to 1906, ranks as one of the greatest works in modern philosophical naturalism. Acknowledging the natural material bases of human life, Santayana traces the development of the human capacity for appreciating and cultivating the ideal. It is a capacity he exhibits as he articulates a continuity running through animal impulse, practical intelligence, and ideal harmony in reason, society, art, religion, and science. The work is an exquisitely rendered vision of human life lived sanely. In this first book of the work, Santayana provides an account of how the human animal develops instinct, passion, and chaotic experience into rationality and ideal life. Inspired by Aristotle's De Anima, Darwin's evolutionary theory, and William James's The Principles of Psychology, Santayana contends that the requirements of action in a hazardous and uncertain environment are the sources of the development of mind. More specifically, instinct and imagination are crucial to the emergence of reason from chaos. Separating himself from the typical thought of the time by his recognition of the imagination, Santayana in this volume offers extensive critiques of various philosophies of mind, including those of Kant and the British empiricists. This Critical Edition, volume VII of The Works of George Santayana, includes a chronology, notes, bibliography, textual commentary, lists of variants, and other tools useful to Santayana scholars. The other four books of the volume include Reason in Society, Reason in Religion, Reason in Art, and Reason in Science.


Twayne's United States Authors, English Authors, and World Authors Series present concise critical introductions to great writers and their works. Devoted to critical interpretation and discussion of an author's work, each study takes account of major literary trends and important scholarly contributions and provides new critical insights with an original point of view. An Authors Series volume addresses readers ranging from advanced high school students to university professors. The book suggests to the informed reader new ways of considering a writer's work. Each volume features: -- A critical, interpretive study and explication of the author's works -- A brief biography of the author -- An accessible chronology outlining the life, the work, and relevant historical context -- Aids for further study: complete notes and references, a selected annotated bibliography and an index -- A readable style presented in a manageable length


This chapter integrates from cognitive neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and social psychology the basic science of bias in human judgment as relevant to judgments and decisions by forensic mental health professionals. Forensic mental health professionals help courts make decisions in cases when some question of psychology is relevant to the legal issue, such as in insanity cases, child custody hearings, and psychological injuries in civil suits. The legal system itself and many people involved, such as jurors, assume mental health experts are "objective" and untainted by bias. However, basic psychological science from several branches of the discipline suggest the law's assumption about experts' protection from bias is wrong. Indeed, several empirical studies now show clear evidence of (unintentional) bias in forensic mental experts' judgments and decisions. In this chapter, we explain the science of how and why human judgments are susceptible to various kinds of bias. We describe dual-process theories from cognitive neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and social psychology that can help explain biased judgments. We review the empirical evidence to date specifically about cognitive and social psychological biases in forensic mental health judgments, weaving in related literature about biases in other types of expert judgment with hypotheses about how forensic experts are likely affected by these biases. We close with a discussion of directions for future research and practice.


In the thirty years after the Civil War, the United States blew by Great Britain to become the greatest economic power in world history. That is a well-known period in history, when titans like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J.P. Morgan walked the earth. But as Charles R. Morris shows us, the platform for that spectacular growth spurt was built in the first half of the century. By the 1820s, America was already the world's most productive manufacturer, and the most intensely commercialized society in history. The War of 1812 jumpstarted the great New England cotton mills, the iron centers in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and the forges around the Great Lakes. In the decade after the War, the Midwest was opened by entrepreneurs. In this beautifully illustrated book, Morris paints a vivid panorama of a new nation buzzing with the work of creation. He also points out the parallels and differences in the nineteenth century American/British standoff and that between China and America today.


The American press, it's been said, is freer to invade personal privacy than perhaps any other in the world. The tort law of privacy, as a shield against unwanted media exposure of private life, is very weak. The usual reason given for the weakness of U.S. privacy law as a bar on the publication of private information is the strong tradition of First Amendment freedom. But "freedom of the press" alone cannot explain why liberty to publish has been interpreted as a right to print truly intimate matters or to thrust people into the spotlight against their will. Especially in our time of heightened concerns with privacy and internet overexposure, we need a better explanation of why the law has struck the balance between media exposure and privacy in the way that it has. One answer can be found in the case of William James Sidis. The Second Circuit case Sidis v. F.R. Publishing (1940) represents a foundational moment in the development of American privacy law. In Sidis, one of the most famous privacy cases in U.S. history, an eccentric former child genius unsuccessfully sued the New Yorker magazine for invasion of privacy when it published information about his private life. Sidis was the first case to address the conflict between the right to privacy and freedom of the press and to come out on the side of free expression. The Second Circuit held that the loss of Sidis' privacy was an inevitable sacrifice to be made for the New Yorker's right to publish freely, and the public's "right to know." In its conclusion that the public's ability to obtain facts of all kinds through the mass media, from serious news to gossip about private affairs, is the prerogative of a democratic people, the Sidis court articulated what have become, in many ways, the ground rules for the modern information society.


This article refers to the concepts of the community of interests and the responsible leadership present in Hans J. Morgenthau's political thought. The author analyses both ideas in a broader context of Morgenthau's understanding of power and politics and the need to master the destructive potential of politics. The second aim of the article, however, is to indicate the community of interest and the responsible leadership as two interesting points of reference while analyzing the process of European integration and its current problems. The article concludes that both concepts remain the useful tools in this analysis and without the reference to the community of interests it would be difficult to talk about the effectiveness of the mechanisms aimed at limiting the presence of power in Europe. The case of the responsible leadership is a bit more problematic in this regard yet the responsible leadership remains the indispensable element of the regional strategy to master the destructive potential of politics in Europe. Finally the author refers to possible consequences following the collapse of the mechanisms that Europe has so far developed to tame and limit the struggle for power on the continent.


The ancient inhabitants of a region are often regarded as ancestral, and hence genetically related, to the modern dwellers (for instance, in studies of admixture), but so far, this assumption has not been tested empirically using ancient DNA data. We studied mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation in Sardinia, across a time span of 2,500 years, comparing 23 Bronze-Age (nuragic) mtDNA sequences with those of 254 modern individuals from two regions, Ogliastra (a likely genetic isolate) and Gallura, and considering the possible impact of gene flow from mainland Italy. To understand the genealogical relationships between past and present populations, we developed seven explicit demographic models; we tested whether these models can account for the levels and patterns of genetic diversity in the data and which one does it best. Extensive simulation based on a serial coalescent algorithm allowed us to compare the posterior probability of each model and estimate the relevant evolutionary (mutation and migration rates) and demographic (effective population sizes, times since population splits) parameters, by approximate Bayesian computations. We then validated the analyses by investigating how well parameters estimated from the simulated data can reproduce the observed data set. We show that a direct genealogical continuity between Bronze-Age Sardinians and the current people of Ogliastra, but not Gallura, has a much higher probability than any alternative scenarios and that genetic diversity in Gallura evolved largely independently, owing in part to gene flow from the mainland.


Emissions of sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), one of the strongest greenhouse gases on a per molecule basis, are targeted to be collectively reduced under the Kyoto Protocol. Because of its long atmospheric lifetime (estimated as 800 to 3200 years), the accumulation of SF6 in the atmosphere is a direct measure of its global emissions. Examination of our extended data set of globally distributed high-precision SF6 observations shows an increase in SF6 abundance from near zero in the 1970s to a global mean of 6.7 ppt by the end of 2008. In-depth evaluation of our long-term data records shows that the global source of SF6 decreased after 1995, most likely due to SF6 emission reductions in industrialised countries, but increased again after 1998. By subtracting those emissions reported by Annex I countries to the United Nations Framework Convention of Climatic Change (UNFCCC) from our observation-inferred SF6 source leaves a surprisingly large gap of more than 7080% of non-reported SF6 emissions in the last decade. This suggests a strong under-estimation of emissions in Annex I countries and underlines the urgent need for independent atmospheric verification of greenhouse gases emissions accounting.


We examine the consumer-welfare implications of Google's project to scan a large proportion of the world's books into digital form and to make these works accessible to consumers through Google Book Search (GBS). In response to a class action alleging copyright infringement, Google has agreed to a settlement with the plaintiffs, which include the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. A federal district court must approve the settlement for it to take effect. Various individuals and organizations have advocated modification or rejection of the settlement, based in part on concerns regarding Google's claimed ability to exercise market power. The Antitrust Division has confirmed that it is investigating the settlement. We address concerns of Professor Randal Picker and others, especially concerns over the increased access to "orphan books," which are books that retain their copyright but for which the copyright holders are unknown or cannot be found. The increased accessibility of orphan books under GBS involves the creation of a new product, which entails large gains in consumer welfare. We consider it unlikely that Google could exercise market power over orphan books. We consider it remote that the static efficiency losses claimed by critics of the settlement could outweigh the consumer welfare gains from the creation of a valuable new service for expanding access to orphan books. We therefore conclude that neither antitrust intervention nor price regulation of access to orphan books under GBS would be justified on economic grounds.


Thematic report for the 2016 update of the European inventory on validation This thematic report focuses on validation of learning acquired through open educational resources (OER), such as participation in massive open online courses. Based on a review of the literature and data collected for the European inventory, the report explores how validation may relate to the use of OER. It explores relevant main types of validation mechanism and provides an overview of validation practices, with particular focus on assessment and certification; it also outlines a range of conclusions and recommendations. These recommendations emphasise the importance of knowledge-sharing and spreading good practice on validation of OER-derived learning, including awarding full qualifications, raising stakeholder awareness, strengthening measures that link OER-derived learning to more generic systems for validation, and further investing in high-quality assessment systems. Validation and open educational resources (OER)


It is well-known that katabatic winds can be detected as warm signatures in the surface temperature over the slopes of the Antarctic ice sheets. For appropriate synoptic forcing and/or topographic channeling, katabatic surges occur, which result in warm signatures also over adjacent ice shelves. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) ice surface temperature (IST) data are used to detect warm signatures over the Antarctic for the winter periods 2002–2017. In addition, high-resolution (5 km) regional climate model data is used for the years of 2002 to 2016. We present a case study and a climatology of wind-induced IST anomalies for the Ross Ice Shelf and the eastern Weddell Sea. The IST anomaly distributions show maxima around 10–15K for the slopes, but values of more than 25K are also found. Katabatic surges represent a strong climatological signal with a mean warm anomaly of more than 5K on more than 120 days per winter for the Byrd Glacier and the Nimrod Glacier on the Ross Ice Shelf. The mean anomaly for the Brunt Ice Shelf is weaker, and exceeds 5K on about 70 days per winter. Model simulations of the IST are compared to the MODIS IST, and show a very good agreement. The model data show that the near-surface stability is a better measure for the response to the wind than the IST itself.


The interaction of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with water at both ambient and elevated temperatures has been studied. The diffusion of water, at ambient temperatures, into PET films, of the order of 10 pm thick, has been followed using Fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflectance, FT-IR ATR, spectroscopy. Films of differing degrees of ciystallinity were prepared using two different methods. One method involved the annealing of the cast films at 85-90° C for different lengths of time, to obtain a range of crystallinities. The other method involved the incorporation of different amounts of an /sophthalate group, to obtain a range of ciystallinities. The rate of water diffusion with time was then measured as a function of ciystallinity. The diffusion was shown to be classically Fickian in nature and the diffusion coefficients decreased with increased polymer crystallinity for both sets of films. The perturbation of the v(OH) band of the water in the polymer matrix was studied as both a function of time (i.e. concentration) and crystallinity. The water band was shown to be decoupled at low concentrations within the polymer matrix, indicating a breaking up of the water hydrogen bonding network. At higher concentrations, longer times, the v(OH) band gained more 'pure water' like character, but remained at higher frequency than pure water even at equilibrium water content, suggesting clustering of the water molecules, but an overall weakening of the hydrogen bonding network relative to the pure water spectrum.The study of the interactions of water at elevated temperatures including the degradative hydrolysis of PET at 90° C was undertaken using reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS). Films of < 150 nm were immersed in pure water at 52, 62, 70, 80 and 90° C and the effect on the polymeric structure was examined. At temperatures below 90° C the effects noted, on the time scales studied, were annealing effects, resulting in an increase in crystallinity. Estimations of the apparent activation energy of the gauche to trans isomerisation, for different degrees of crystallinity, were calculated and were found to be lower than those reported in the literature in air. This difference was thought to be a result of the plasticisation effects of water.At 90° C, during several days of immersion, the polymer was found to undergo hydrolysis. Complex changes in the RAIRS spectrum were related to changes in the polymeric structure, resulting from degradation. The autocatalytic nature of the degradation was highlighted, as was the loss of (small) mobile species from the polymer matrix. A mechanism involving the preferred site of hydrolysis being a terminal ester group was proposed. Comparisons with hot alkaline hydrolysis were made. This occurred much faster and with more random chain scission.The diffusion of two organic liquids, methanol and ethylene glycol, into PET was studied. The diffusion was shown to be non-Fickian in nature due to the swelling and crystallisation that accompanied the diffusion. For the amorphous PET films, diffusion was accompanied by swelling and crystallisation for both molecules and was fitted to a dual sorption model. There was spectroscopic evidence for both a 'bound' alcohol - PET moiety and a 'free' alcohol species within the polymer matrix. For methanol in PET, the proportion of the sorbed alcohol which was 'bound' was found to increase with crystallinity, but for ethylene glycol the reverse was true. For methanol diffusion, increasing the crystallinity was shown to have a drastic effect on both the rate of diffusion and degree of swelling. For ethylene glycol diffusion, the degree of crystallinity appeared to affect the rate of swelling and the initial rate of sorption of penetrant, but the rate of the subsequent diffusion seemed to be unaffected by morphology.The interface between two layers of 20 and 30 pm co-extruded PET laminates of PET and PET with an /.sophthalate comonomer, were examined using confocal Raman microscopy. The methods of confocal depth profiling through the polymer laminate and scanning, step-wise, along a cut edge were compared. The interface was examined using the carbonyl band width of PET as an indicator of crystallinity. The interface was shown to be 2 - 3 pm thick, independent of film thickness and contain a gradient of [equation] v(C=0) band width, indicating either interdiffusion or a trans-esterification reaction between the two polymer layers during co-extrusion.


This book challenges the dominant 'employability skills' discourse by exploring socially connected and networked perspectives to learning and teaching in higher education. Both learning and career development happen naturally and optimally in ecologies, informal communities and partnerships. In the digital age, they are also highly networked. This book presents ten empirical case studies of educational practice that investigate the development of learner capabilities, teaching approaches, and institutional strategies in higher education, to foster lifelong graduate employability through social connectedness.


In today's world, yesterday's methods just don't work. In "Getting Things Done," veteran coach and management consultant David Allen shares the breakthrough methods for stress-free performance that he has introduced to tens of thousands of people across the country. Allen's premise is simple: our productivity is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve effective productivity and unleash our creative potential. In "Getting Things Done" Allen shows how to: Apply the "do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it" rule to get your in-box to emptyReassess goals and stay focused in changing situationsPlan projects as well as get them unstuckOvercome feelings of confusion, anxiety, and being overwhelmedFeel fine about what you're not doingFrom core principles to proven tricks, "Getting Things Done" can transform the way you work, showing you how to pick up the pace without wearing yourself down.


Digital technology has changed the way we interact with everything from the games we play to the tools we use at work. Designers of digital technology products no longer regard their job as designing a physical object—beautiful or utilitarian—but as designing our interactions with it. In Designing Interactions, award-winning designer Bill Moggridge introduces us to forty influential designers who have shaped our interaction with technology. Moggridge, designer of the first laptop computer (the GRiD Compass, 1981) and a founder of the design firm IDEO, tells us these stories from an industry insiders viewpoint, tracing the evolution of ideas from inspiration to outcome. The innovators he interviews—including Will Wright, creator of The Sims, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, and Doug Engelbart, Bill Atkinson, and others involved in the invention and development of the mouse and the desktop—have been instrumental in making a difference in the design of interactions. Their stories chart the history of entrepreneurial design development for technology. Moggridge and his interviewees discuss such questions as why a personal computer has a window in a desktop, what made Palms handheld organizers so successful, what turns a game into a hobby, why Google is the search engine of choice, and why 30 million people in Japan choose the i-mode service for their cell phones. And Moggridge tells the story of his own design process and explains the focus on people and prototypes that has been successful at IDEO—how the needs and desires of people can inspire innovative designs and how prototyping methods are evolving for the design of digital technology. Designing Interactions is illustrated with more than 700 images, with color throughout. Accompanying the book is a DVD that contains segments from all the interviews intercut with examples of the interactions under discussion. Interviews with: Bill Atkinson, Durrell Bishop, Brendan Boyle, Dennis Boyle, Paul Bradley, Duane Bray, Sergey Brin, Stu Card, Gillian Crampton Smith, Chris Downs, Tony Dunne, John Ellenby, Doug Englebart, Jane Fulton Suri, Bill Gaver, Bing Gordon, Rob Haitani, Jeff Hawkins, Matt Hunter, Hiroshi Ishii, Bert Keely, David Kelley, Rikako Kojima, Brenda Laurel, David Liddle, Lavrans Løvlie, John Maeda, Paul Mercer, Tim Mott, Joy Mountford, Takeshi Natsuno, Larry Page, Mark Podlaseck, Fiona Raby, Cordell Ratzlaff, Ben Reason, Jun Rekimoto, Steve Rogers, Fran Samalionis, Larry Tesler, Bill Verplank, Terry Winograd, and Will Wright


For most countries, security today is primarily measured in non-military terms and threats to security are non-military in nature. These threats include incompetent government, corruption, organized crime, insecure borders, smuggling (weapons, drugs, contraband, people), illegal migration, ethnic and religious conflict, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, shortage of natural resources (e.g., water) and, of course, terrorism.As security is no longer just a military concern, it is no longer just the preserve of MODs and MFAs which have, to date, been the main ministries involved in security cooperation. It is no longer possible to draw a clear distinction between external security and internal security. Security henceforth requires the coordination of the 'external' ministries (i.e., MOD and MFA) and their agencies (armed forces, intelligence services) with those of the 'interior' ministries: internal affairs, education, finance, overseas development, transport, environment, health, etc., with their agencies (policing forces, security services, disaster relief agencies, etc.).Security today takes in social development and demands the involvement of all elements of society in a way which security in the Cold War days did not. Meeting these new security requirements demands fundamental reform of national structures, patterns of investment, and systems of government. Likewise it demands the evolution of international institutions on a truly radical scale.


The Eighth Circuit case of United States v. Liddell established a broader perspective of the 'public safety exception' to the Miranda requirement, which should be adopted universally. In Liddell, the court decided the Miranda requirement did not apply and allowed statements made by a suspect prior to his Miranda warning into evidence. The Liddell court held a sufficient public safety basis existed when there was a risk of police officers being injured from the mishandling of unknown firearms or drug paraphernalia. Specifically, the Liddell court allowed the police to ask a suspect, who had been arrested and secured, whether there were weapons or contraband in the car or apartment the police were about to search. In determining the outcome, the court broadened the existing exception to Miranda as established by the United States Supreme Court 28 years ago in the case of New York v. Quarles.One controversial aspect of the Liddell case is whether broadening the exception created by the plurality opinion of Quarles violates Miranda's constitutional requirements. Recently noted by the District of New Jersey case of United States v. Fautz, the 8th Circuit is the only federal circuit to expressly hold such an exception exists. An additional aspect of this case is whether the circuit split developing among the federal circuits makes this issue likely to be addressed by the Supreme Court. The current split involves the 8th, 9th, and 1st Circuits taking a broad approach to the public safety exception, while the 3d, 4th and 5th Circuits take a narrow approach.This Article provides an analysis of the issues in Liddell and concludes the 8th Circuit arrived at a constitutionally permissible holding. The Supreme Court should follow the 8th Circuit broad approach to the public safety exception. Three points support the broad approach to the public safety exception: the necessity for public safety; the long-standing precedent set forth by Quarles over 28 years ago; and the rationale for police action during a kidnap scenario.The Supreme Court should adopt the 8th Circuit's broad approach to the public safety exception. Specifically, the Court should hold the Miranda requirement does not apply when there is a risk of police officers being injured from the mishandling of unknown firearms or drug paraphernalia, and the risk provides a sufficient public safety basis to ask a suspect who has been arrested and secured whether there are weapons or contraband in a car or apartment the police are about to search.


As Hurricane Katrina vividly revealed, disaster policy in the United States is broken and needs reform. What can we learn from past disasters - storms, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, and wildfires - about preparing for and responding to future catastrophes? How can these lessons be applied in a future threatened by climate change?In this bold contribution to environmental law, Robert Verchick argues for a new perspective on disaster law that is based on the principles of environmental protection. His prescription boils down to three simple commands: Go Green, Be Fair, and Keep Safe. "Going green" means minimizing exposure to hazards by preserving natural buffers and integrating those buffers into artificial systems like levees or seawalls. "Being fair" means looking after public health, safety, and the environment without increasing personal and social vulnerabilities. "Keeping safe" means a more cautionary approach when confronting disaster risks.Verchick argues that government must assume a stronger regulatory role in managing natural infrastructure, distributional fairness, and public risk. He proposes changes to the federal statutes governing environmental impact assessments, wetlands development, air emissions, and flood control, among others. Making a strong case for more transparent governmental decision-making, Verchick offers a new vision of disaster law for the next generation.


Since the early 2010s, political science has seen a rise in the use of physiological measures in order to inform theories about decision-making in politics. A commonly used physiological measure is skin conductance (electrodermal activity). Skin conductance measures the changes in levels of sweat in the eccrine glands, usually on the fingertips, in order to help inform how the body responds to stimuli. These changes result from the sympathetic nervous system (popularly known as the fight or flight system) responding to external stimuli. Due to the nature of physiological responses, skin conductance is especially useful when researchers hope to have good temporal resolution and make causal claims about a type of stimulus eliciting physiological arousal in individuals. Researchers interested in areas that involve emotion or general affect (e.g., campaign messages, political communication and advertising, information processing, and general political psychology) may be especially interested in integrating skin conductance into their methodological toolbox. Skin conductance is a particularly useful tool since its implicit and unconscious nature means that it avoids some of the pitfalls that can accompany self-report measures (e.g., social desirability bias and inability to accurately remember and report emotions). Future decision-making research will benefit from pairing traditional self-report measures with physiological measures such as skin conductance.


We explored the recent cementation of modern beachrock on the seaward margin of the Durban Bluff, central KwaZulu-Natal. The low latitude and subtropical climatic setting is a unique context compared to the more commonly documented contemporary beachrock formation in the tropics. Geological field mapping was carried out and here we present results based on sedimentary facies of a clastic shoreline and carbonate diagenesis of interstitial cements using transmitted light microscopy. The beachrock was cemented by micrite and aragonite, and iron oxide infilled voids. The presence of human artefacts within the deposit showed evidence for cementation within the last century. The elevation (at Mean Low Water) and correlation to rates of sea level change for the east coast of South Africa showed that the beachrock is less than 72 years in age. In contrast to older local Pleistocene deposits, beachrocks have cemented along this stretch of coast during successive sea level highstands with similar climatic regimes - the last Interglacial, the Holocene High and the present. Here we report the most southerly documentation of modern beachrock in KwaZulu-Natal, which, to our knowledge, represents the youngest deposit reported in southern Africa.


This manuscript responds to Income Tax Discrimination: Still Stuck in a Labyrinth of Impossibility by Professors Michael Graetz and Alvin Warren (121 Yale L.J. 1118). In that article, Professors Graetz and Warren challenge many of the arguments we made in our own article entitled, "What is Tax Discrimination?" (121 Yale L.J. 1014). In our earlier article, we set out to accomplish two goals. First, we sought to identify the principle behind the doctrine of tax discrimination as that doctrine is applied by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) and to translate that principle into economic terms. Second, we sought to describe how courts can advance that principle through case law. Part I of this article defends our argument that the courts interpret the tax nondiscrimination principle to require "competitive neutrality," a concept closely related both to the colloquial notion of a "level playing field" between domestic and cross-border economic actors and to the formal economic concept of capital ownership neutrality (CON). Among other topics covered in Part I, we defend our focus on efficiency as the principal decision-making criterion used by courts for deciding tax discrimination cases, explain how we translated the concept of CON into the labor context, defend our focus on cross-border workers as the only group of workers who are legally relevant to the tax nondiscrimination question, provide some preliminary thoughts on the differences between "restriction" cases and tax "discrimination" cases, and provide further discussion of our interpretive sources. Part II fleshes out our argument that in the absence of cross-border harmonization of tax rates and bases competitive neutrality requires two conditions. The first condition is that all states must agree on one of two methods of avoiding double taxation on interstate commerce. The two alternative methods are worldwide taxation with unlimited foreign tax credits and what we call "ideal deduction", which includes territorial taxation as one instantiation. The second condition is that all taxes must be uniform on either a source or residence basis. A source tax is uniform if it applies in the same manner to all income from the same source state without regard to the residence of the taxpayer who earns that income; a residence tax is uniform if it applies in the same manner to all income earned by a resident regardless of source. In our original article, we noted that both the ECJ and the U.S. Supreme Court disclaim authority to force states to agree on a method of avoiding double taxation. Accordingly, because it would not be possible for courts to enforce both conditions required to achieve competitive neutrality, we argued that if, as it appears, the courts desire to promote competitive neutrality through the doctrine of tax discrimination, they can do so by enforcing the uniformity requirement. Among other topics covered in Part II, we provide responses to specific questions and challenges raised by Graetz and Warren, including how ideal deduction would work with graduated tax rates and variations in national tax bases and whether ideal deduction could achieve competitive neutrality in the absence of fixed residence In Part II, we also provide resolutions for three factual scenarios that Graetz and Warren posed and for which they claim that a competitive neutrality interpretation of tax discrimination provides no resolution.


No one has failed to notice that the current generation of youth is deeply-some would say totally-involved with digital media. Professors Howard Gardner and Katie Davis name today's young people The App Generation, and in this spellbinding book they explore what it means to be "app-dependent" versus "app-enabled" and how life for this generation differs from life before the digital era. Gardner and Davis are concerned with three vital areas of adolescent life: identity, intimacy, and imagination. Through innovative research, including interviews of young people, focus groups of those who work with them, and a unique comparison of youthful artistic productions before and after the digital revolution, the authors uncover the drawbacks of apps: they may foreclose a sense of identity, encourage superficial relations with others, and stunt creative imagination. On the other hand, the benefits of apps are equally striking: they can promote a strong sense of identity, allow deep relationships, and stimulate creativity. The challenge is to venture beyond the ways that apps are designed to be used, Gardner and Davis conclude, and they suggest how the power of apps can be a springboard to greater creativity and higher aspirations.


The aim of this study is to investigate the current status of the capitals of the Baltic States according to the Creative Class Theory. With increasing role of knowledge, creativity and innovation in the today's economy, the role of the Creative Capital increases. Riga, Tallinn, and Vilnius are the capitals of the Baltic States, experiencing dynamic growth. Therefore, such a study would add to the assessment of the current status and identification of the possible improvements. The Creative Class Theory suggests that knowledge or creativity of people is the main driving force of the economic growth. Thus, for the economic development, a place needs combination of three factors, 3Ts – Talent, Technology, and Tolerance. Each of them is necessary, but not sufficient factor. In order to examine Talent, the authors use three measures of the Creative Class, the Human Capital, and the Scientific Talent. The findings indicate that all three cities have competitive level of the Creative Class in comparison with the other EU countries; however, low level of the Scientific Talent. The authors conclude that the Scientific Talent is an important part of the Creative Class; thus, the cities must find the means to develop it. By comparing the three capitals, Vilnius is the most competitive in terms of the Talent indicator; Tallinn has the second position, and Riga is the least competitive among the capitals of the Baltic States. The second component, Technology, is measured by the Innovation Activity Index and E-commerce Index. These measures indicate that the three cities are rather uncompetitive in comparison with the leading EU countries. Among the capitals of the Baltic States, Tallinn is the most developed according to Technology; Vilnius is the second, and Riga is lagging behind in the Technology measures. To summarize, all three cities need to put an important emphasis on developing Technology. Lastly, Tolerance is measured by using three different indicators of the values and attitudes. According to these measures, Tallinn is the most tolerant city among the three capitals, but the level of Tolerance is rather similar in Riga and Vilnius. From the study of literature, the authors find that the level of Tolerance is related with the economic development; thus, an increase in the income level in the three cities might increase the level of the tolerance. The authors conclude that despite the fact that the Creative Class Theory suggests the need to build people's climate for the economic development, the three capitals of the Baltic States still need to build the business climate in order to increase the level of Technology, as it is currently the missing component of the 3Ts.


In The Rule of the Clan, legal historian Mark Weiner confronts the paradox that freedom requires law. He takes aim at one common assumption of libertarian political theory: a strong state is a threat to individual freedom. He warns that nostalgia for earlier, simpler societies is a deluded fantasy.Weiner examination of traditional societies throughout the world and across history show that they share a single broad organizational structure that belies their facial diversity: the clan. Within the clan, man, and even more strikingly, woman, is neither free nor an individual. She is subordinate to her function within the group – in the case of woman, reproduction. In the clan, there are no individual rights protected by law, only the honor of the extended family to be avenged by feud. Adopting the terminology of "founding father of legal history and legal anthropology, Henry Sumner Maine", Weiner argues that individual rights only come into being with the development of the state when Status relations are superceded by Contract.Surprisingly, in his defense of the classical liberal ideal of individual rights and equality, Weiner implicitly rejects one of liberalism's founding propositions: a vision of the free individual in the state of nature. Weiner's thesis is more consistent with the speculative tradition of Continental theory than with American liberalism.


This article determines the overall purpose of the Antitrust statutes in two very different ways. First, it performs a traditional analysis of the legislative history of the Antitrust laws by analyzing relevant legislative debates and committee reports. Second, it undertakes a textualist or "plain meaning" determination of the purpose of the Antitrust statutes, using Justice Scalia's methodology. It does this by analyzing the meaning of key terms as they were used in contemporary dictionaries, legal treatises, common law cases, and the earliest U.S. Antitrust cases, and it does this in light of the history of the times. Both approaches demonstrate that the overriding purpose of the Antitrust statutes is to prevent firms from stealing from consumers by charging them supracompetitive prices. When firms use their market power to raise prices to supracompetitive levels, consumers pay more for their goods and services, and these overcharges constitute a taking of consumers' property. Economic efficiency was only a secondary concern. In addition, the textualist approach leads to the surprising conclusion that neither the Sherman Act nor the Clayton Act contain an exception for monopolies attained through efficient business conduct. The Antitrust laws are supposed to prevent and condemn all privately created monopolies.


A new problem for the automated off-line programming of industrial robot application is investigated. The Multi-Goal Path Planning is to find the collision-free path connecting a set of goal poses and minimizing e.g. the total path length. Our solution is based on an earlier reported path planner for industrial robot arms with 6 degrees-of-freedom in an on-line given 3D environment. To control the path planner, four different goal selection methods are introduced and compared. While the Random and the Nearest Pair Selection methods can be used with any path planner, the Nearest Goal and the Adaptive Pair Selection method are favorable for our planner. With the latter two goal selection methods, the Multi-Goal Path Planning task can be significantly accelerated, because they are able to automatically solve the simplest path planning problems first. Summarizing, compared to Random or Nearest Pair Selection, this new Multi-Goal Path Planning approach results in a further cost reduction of the programming phase.


The purpose of the current study is to examine the association between the higher-order
scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Second Edition, Restructured
Form (MMPI-2-RF) and the DSM-oriented scales of the Achenbach System of
Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA), Adult Self-Report with physical child abuse
potential, as measured by the Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAP). Abuse and neglect
has been shown to have serious and long-lasting negative effects on children's mental
health. Current research has identified a variety of predictors of child abuse potential.
However, no previous studies could be found that have examined the correlation between
scores on the MMPI-2-RF and the ASEBA with child abuse potential. The participants
were 177 parents and caregivers who were court-ordered by the Georgia Division of
Family and Children Services to receive a psychiatric evaluation in north Atlanta.
Results show that males and females significantly differed on several of the predictor
variables, and CAP scores were significantly correlated with all of the variables except
the Drug and Alcohol Use Scales. The results of a multiple regression analysis indicate that the overall model did significantly predict CAP score [F(10,61) = 27.50, p < .001]
with an R2 of .844. However, only Depressive Problems (Beta = .300, p < .05) and
Emotional/Internalizing Dysfunction (Beta = .620, p < .001) were significantly predictive
of child abuse potential. Findings of this study suggest that depression and other
emotional disorders could be used as a "red flag" when assessing child abuse potential.
In addition, it may be that internalizing disorders such as depression may be more
predictive of child abuse potential than externalizing disorders (e.g., substance use).


The advent of ever more sophisticated molecular manipulation techniques has made it clear that cellular systems are far more complex and dynamic than previously thought. At the same time, experimental techniques are providing an almost overwhelming amount of new data. It is increasingly apparent that linking molecular and cellular structure to function will require the use of new computational tools. This book provides specific examples, across a wide range of molecular and cellular systems, of how modeling techniques can be used to explore functionally relevant molecular and cellular relationships. The modeling techniques covered are applicable to cell, developmental, structural, and mathematical biology; genetics; and computational neuroscience. The book, intended as a primer for both theoretical and experimental biologists, is organized in two parts: models of gene activity and models of interactions among gene products. Modeling examples are provided at several scales for each subject. Each chapter includes an overview of the biological system in question and extensive references to important work in the area.


The political economy of aid agencies is driven by incomplete information and multiple competing objectives and confounded by principal-agent and collective-action problems. Policies to improve aid rely too much on a planning paradigm that tries to ignore, rather than change, the political economy of aid. A considered combination of market mechanisms, networked collaboration, and collective regulation would be more likely to lead to significant improvements. A "collaborative market" for aid might include unbundling funding from aid management to create more explicit markets; better information gathered from the intended beneficiaries of aid; decentralized decision-making; a sharp increase in transparency and accountability of donor agencies; the publication of more information about results; pricing externalities; and new regulatory arrangements to make markets work. The aid system is in a political equilibrium, determined by deep characteristics of the aid relationship and the political economy of aid institutions. Reformers should seek to change that equilibrium rather than try to move away from it. The priority should be on reforms that put pressure on the aid system to evolve in the right direction rather than on grand designs.


A method for efficiently handling associativity and commutativity (AC) in implementations of (equational) theorem provers without incorporating AC as an underlying theory will be presented. The key of substantial efficiency gains resides in a more suitable representation of permutation-equations (such as f(x,f(y,z))=f(y,f(z,x)) for instance). By representing these permutation-equations through permutations in the mathematical sense (i.e. bijective func- tions :{1,..,n} {1,..,n}), and by applying adapted and specialized inference rules, we can cope more appropriately with the fact that permutation-equations are playing a particular role. Moreover, a number of restrictions concerning application and generation of permuta- tion-equations can be found that would not be possible in this extent when treating permu- tation-equations just like any other equation. Thus, further improvements in efficiency can be achieved.


The prominent role of monetary policy in the U.S. interwar depression has been conventional wisdom since Friedman and Schwartz [1963]. This paper presents evidence on both the surprise and the systematic components of monetary policy between 1929 and 1933. Doubts surrounding GDP estimates for the 1920s would call into question conventional VAR techniques. We therefore adopt the FAVAR methodology of Bernanke, Boivin, and Eliasz [2005], aggregating a large number of time series into a few factors and inserting these into a monetary policy VAR. We work in a Bayesian framework and apply MCMC methods to obtain the posteriors. Employing the generalized sign restriction approach toward identification of Amir Ahmadi and Uhlig [2008], we find the effects of monetary policy shocks to have been moderate. To analyze the systematic policy component, we back out the monetary policy reaction function and its response to aggregate supply and demand shocks. Results broadly confirm the Friedman/Schwartz view about restrictive monetary policy, but indicate only moderate effects. We further analyze systematic policy through conditional forecasts of key time series at critical junctures, taken with and without the policy instrument. Effects are again quite moderate. Our results caution against a predominantly monetary interpretation of the Great Depression.


A q-query Locally Decodable Code (LDC) encodes an n-bit message x as an N-bit codeword C(x), such that one can probabilistically recover any bit xi of the message by querying only q bits of the codeword C(x), even after some constant fraction of codeword bits has been corrupted.
 We give new constructions of three query LDCs of vastly shorter length than that of previous constructions. Specifically, given any Mersenne prime p = 2t − 1, we design three query LDCs of length N = exp(O(n1/t)), for every n. Based on the largest known Mersenne prime, this translates to a length of less than exp(O(n10 − 7)) compared to exp(O(n1/2)) in the previous constructions. It has often been conjectured that there are infinitely many Mersenne primes. Under this conjecture, our constructions yield three query locally decodable codes of length N = exp(nO(1/log log n)) for infinitely many n.
 We also obtain analogous improvements for Private Information Retrieval (PIR) schemes. We give 3-server PIR schemes with communication complexity of O(n10 − 7) to access an n-bit database, compared to the previous best scheme with complexity O(n1/5.25). Assuming again that there are infinitely many Mersenne primes, we get 3-server PIR schemes of communication complexity nO(1/log logn)) for infinitely many n.
 Previous families of LDCs and PIR schemes were based on the properties of low-degree multivariate polynomials over finite fields. Our constructions are completely different and are obtained by constructing a large number of vectors in a small dimensional vector space whose inner products are restricted to lie in an algebraically nice set.


This article explores the tension between Pope Francis as a 'trickster' and as a much-needed reformer of the Catholic Church at large. He is an exemplar of the longue durée of an embodied 'Atlantic Return' from the Americas to the 'heart' of Catholicism (Rome and the Vatican), with its ambivalent, racialized history. Through the mobilization of material religion, sensuous mediations, and the case of the Lampedusa crosses in particular, I engage with an anthropological analysis of Francis as a Criollo and the first-ever Jesuit pope. Examining Francis's papacy overlapping racial and ethico-political dimensions, I identify coordinates around which the rhetorical, affective, and charismatic force of Francis as a Criollo has been actualized—between, most crucially, proximity and distance, as well as pastoral versus theological impulses. This article advances an understanding of Francis that emerges from a study of the conjuncture of affective fields, political theology, racialized aesthetics, and mediatic interface.


Over the past 30 years, scholars and activists have called on the Chinese government to ease the registration and oversight rules governing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and to increase funding for such organizations by, among other things, broadening the charitable deduction. While China has made significant progress in this regard, the government continues to throw up roadblocks for NGOs, suggesting that it has not fully embraced this path. This article considers the extent to which the justifications for a broad charitable deduction adduced in the West make sense in China. The goal is to develop a normative basis consistent with Chinese values and interests that Chinese authorities would find compelling and which might lead to additional efforts to develop China's civil sector. This article also considers the extent to which China's political and social culture may affect such efforts, concluding that, even if China were to adopt Western-style laws governing NGOs and provide for a broad charitable deduction, China's culture would shape both how government officials implement the laws and how the Chinese people respond to them, leading to a system of charity, but one with Chinese characteristics.


Wiseman, Eva. The Last Song . Toronto, ON: Tundra Books, 2012. Print. Set in Inquisition-era Spain, Wiseman tells us the story of Isabel, a young woman about to be married to a villainous young man from a wealthy and well-established Catholic family. Isabel has lived a life of privilege in the historically tolerant Spain until, in the late 15 th Century, the monarchy embraces Catholicism and seeks to eradicate all other religions by any means necessary. As the Inquisition, led by the truly evil Torquemada, storms into Toledo, Isabel thinks she is impervious to the violence she passively witnesses on the streets, believing her family to be devoutly Catholic. In an unsurprising twist, we discover that Isabel's family has converted to Catholicism from Judaism, yet surreptitiously practices their faith. Isabel does not have the crisis of conscience that one might expect, and begins to adopt Judaism immediately. Disguised as a boy, she sneaks into to the Juderia to attend Torah classes and learn about the religion she previously scorned. Although the theme of self-discovery would generally welcome such dedication, it is not written in such a way that it is compelling or believable. As her malicious fiancee, Luis seeks to destroy her family and family friends begin to abandon them, Isabel and her parents search for a means of survival in a town torn apart by hate, greed, and ignorance. The characters, even the protagonist, are static with minimal development. The majority of the Catholics are depicted as cold and heartless, while the Jews are kind and generous. Although one might assume that people in Spain were, at the time, terrified of being falsely accused of punishable crimes and therefore were predominately on the offensive, this was not explained in the book and someone unfamiliar with the time period may not arrive at those conclusions. Isabel has the potential to be a truly great protagonist, yet she falls flat. I appreciate Wiseman's ability to build tension, however a series of contrived coincidences underpins the plot. The story tackles a brutal historical period, but does so only superficially. It gently introduces the reader to the Inquisition and to dealing with blind hate, but does not delve into the depths of the animosity that tore apart 800 years of peace. The root of the issue is barely addressed, and not in any meaningful way. An opportunity to raise awareness about this incredibly significant and tragic time was lost. After reading Wiseman's previous novel, Puppet , I expected more from this book. It held so much promise, but failed to deliver. I would recommend this novel for early teens interested as a safe introduction into the Inquisition and the history of Judaism in Europe. Recommended with reservations: 2 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Jorden Smith Jorden Smith joins the team as a book reviewer. Jorden is a Public Services Librarian in Rutherford Humanities and Social Sciences Library at the University of Alberta.  She is an avid fiction reader and subscribes to Hemingway's belief that "there is no friend as loyal as a book."


Quantitative abnormalities of the von Willebrand factor–factor VIII (VWF-FVIII) complex associate with inherited bleeding or thrombotic disorders. Receptor-mediated interactions between plasma VWF-FVIII and phagocytic or immune cells can influence their hemostatic and immunogenic activities. Genetic association studies have demonstrated that variants in the STAB2 gene, which encodes the scavenger receptor stabilin-2, associate with plasma levels of VWF-FVIII. However, the mechanistic basis and pathophysiological consequences of this association are unknown. We have demonstrated that stabilin-2–expressing cells bind and internalize human VWF and FVIII in a VWF-dependent manner, and stabilin-2–deficient mice displayed prolonged human VWF-FVIII half-life compared with controls. The stabilin-2 variant p.E2377K significantly decreased stabilin-2 expression and impaired VWF endocytosis in a heterologous expression system, and common STAB2 variants associated with plasma VWF levels in type 1 von Willebrand disease patients. STAB2-deficient mice displayed a decreased immunogenic response to human VWF-FVIII complex, while coinfusion of human VWF-FVIII with the stabilin-2 ligand hyaluronic acid attenuated the immune response to exogenous FVIII. Collectively, these data suggest that stabilin-2 functions as both a clearance and an immunoregulatory receptor for VWF-FVIII, making stabilin-2 a novel molecular target for modification of the half-life of VWF-FVIII and the immune response to VWF-FVIII concentrates.


This paper reports on a 2004 follow-up study conducted in partnership with the University of Manitoba Continuing Education Division and local senior's organizations. The partnership was formed in 2002–03 to promote applied research on lifelong learning and older adults, develop new and complement existing educational activities, and explore new program models and instructional methods to meet the educational needs of retirees. The partnership involved the develop- ment of a number of activities: University in May started in 2002, a mini medical series began in 2003, and a survey was completed in 2003 to identify the learning interests, motivations, and barriers among active older adults who participate in learning activities. The 2004 follow-up study compared barriers to participation, learning interests, and motivation to those of a similar population of older adults who held membership with the organizations but had not participated in educational activities for the past two years. The results indicate that the non-active respondents are older, less healthy, less active, less educated, and have lower incomes. Time and motivation to participate may be affected by their socioeconomic standing, health, and sense of well being; that is, their perception of their social reality. Further study to explore the definition of barriers to participation and life long learning for older adults is warranted. Recommendations for program models to facilitate participation in educational opportunities should also be explored.


This landmark volume captures three millennia of Greek poetry-more than 1,000 poems and 200 poets. From the epics of Homeric Greece to the historical and erotic ironies of Cavafy, from the romances, hymns, and bawdy rhymes of Byzantium to the innovative voices of a resurgent twentieth century, this anthology brings together the diverse strands of the Greek poetic tradition. The favorites are all here-raging Achilles, restless Odysseus, strong-hearted Penelope-but The Greek Poets also presents neglected eras, from the rise of Constantinople to the end of the Ottoman occupation. In offering canonical poets such as Sappho and Pindar, and the modern Nobel laureates Seferis and Elytis, the renowned editors give us their new translations and bring together other masterful translators, including Robert Fagles, James Merrill, and W. S. Merwin, along with a younger generation that includes Anne Carson, Paul Muldoon, and Alicia Stallings. This is an essential companion to the Western literary tradition.