Summary In this paper, the outcomes of a consultative meeting on non-timber forest products are reported and discussed. The meeting was organised by CIFOR and IUCNOs Eastern Africa Regional Office on 15 and 16 September 1995 in Nairobi, Kenya, with the aim of discussing research priorities and information gaps related to non-timber forest products. The workshop brought together 11 people, representing forest research institutions, NGOs and other organisations involved in research related to non-timber forest products. The countries represented were Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. During the meeting priority themes and issues were identified. These relate to management systems, policy and institutions, and community roles and social dimensions. Priority constraints include lack of personnel with appropriate expertise, inadequate financial resources, and insufficient data and information. A large number of solutions to overcome these constraints was discussed. It is concluded that since the main relevance of non-timber forest products in Southern and East Africa is at the local and subsistence level, an elaboration of the results of the meeting into workable research questions and methods should be defined at that level in an iterative process of action research, involving researchers and local users and managers of the forest. The meeting can be considered as a first, though authoritative, approximation of the needs in research on non-timber forest products in the region. It was agreed that elaboration of the findings of the meeting into specific action would be the only useful next step.


In this article I describe the status quo in the area of foreign judgment recognition, with attention to the tension between domestic interests and international cooperation. Precisely because the future of the status quo is in doubt, I then consider current proposals for change, particularly the effort to implement the Hague Choice of Court Convention in the United States. Prominent among the normative questions raised by my account is whose interests, in addition to the litigants' interests, are at stake – those of the United States, those of the several states, or those of interest groups waving a federal or state flag. A related question is whether, if the uniformity we seek is to be found in state rather than federal law, we can be, and be seen by other countries to be, serious about international cooperation. I describe in some detail the sequence of events that led to the Uniform Law Commissioners ("ULC") becoming involved in the process of drafting legislation to implement the Choice of Court Convention. I also explore reasons why the ULC has been successful in securing the lion's share of attention for its preferred approach to implementation, which the ULC calls "cooperative federalism," but which has come to resemble cooperative redundancy. Recounting how, and offering suggestions why, the ULC ultimately rejected a package of compromises proposed by the State Department's Legal Adviser, even though almost all compromises were in favor of the ULC, I conclude with observations about the ULC's ambitions in the international arena. My argument is that, if the ULC were successful in taking over the negotiation or implementation of private international law treaties, international cooperation would be if not a fortuity, then not a priority, because we would have regressed to a position of privileging not just federal but state law uniformity over international uniformity. And the state law we privileged would be anything but "indigenous."


The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the role of Hope Village Society (HVS) in Egypt in the provision of education to street children in order to establish its strengths and weaknesses to serve as lessons for other providers of education to street children. Data were collected using interview schedule and document analysis. Interviews were prepared conducted with eight of the management staff of HVS. The findings of the study reveal that HVS plays a major role in providing education for street children in Egypt. Since the establishment of HVS's education programs in1995, it has recorded fluctuating enrolment rates. The participation of government organizations (GOs), non-government organizations (NGOs) and community at HVS' education programs is less than expected. Like any other educational enterprise, HVS's education programs are faced with quite a number of problems. The study recommends that the Egyptian government should offer more financial contributions to organizations that provide education to street children. There is also an immediate need to engage other possible partners of HVS's education programs. Moreover, more research should be carried out in the area of pedagogy of street children.


This publication looks at current data trends and differentials in universal access to reproductive health the second target of Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG5.b). Focusing on the three indicators within that target (adolescent fertility contraceptive prevalence and the unmet need for family planning) the report clearly demonstrates that intensified efforts are needed to extend reproductive health to all and that quality data are essential to monitor progress and identify priorities for action. While acknowledging the continuing challenge of measuring key indicators for this target the report finds that earlier progress has slowed. Moreover disparities in access based on wealth education and rural or urban residence have widened.


It is now widely agreed that mainstream macroeconomics is irrelevant and that there is need for a more useful and realistic economic analysis that can provide a better understanding of the ongoing global financial and economic crisis. Lance Taylor's book exposes the unrealistic assumptions of the rational expectations and real business cycle approaches and of mainstream finance theory. It argues that in separating monetary and financial behavior from real behavior, they do not address the ways that consumption, accumulation, and the government play in the workings of the economy. Taylor argues that the ideas of J.M. Keynes and others provide a more useful framework both for understanding the crisis and for dealing with it effectively. Keynes's basic points were fundamental uncertainty and the absence of Say's Law. He set up machinery to analyze the macro economy under such circumstances, including the principle of effective demand, liquidity preference, different rules for determining commodity and asset prices, distinct behavioral patterns of different collective actors, and the importance of thinking in terms of complete macro accounting schemes. Economists working in this tradition also worked out growth and cycle models. Employing these ideas throughout Maynard's Revenge, Taylor provides an analytical narrative about the causes of the crisis, and suggestions for dealing with it.


Leading scholars in the field of social networks from diverse disciplines present the first systematic and comprehensive collection of current theories and empirical research on the informal connections that individuals have for support, help, and information from other people. Expanding on concepts originally formulated by Pierre Bourdieu and James Coleman, this seminal work will find an essential place with educators and students in the fields of social networks, rational choice theory, institutions, and the socioeconomics of poverty, labor markets, social psychology, and race. The volume is divided into three parts. The first segment clarifies social capital as a concept and explores its theoretical and operational bases. Additional segments provide brief accounts that place the development of social capital in the context of the family of capital theorists, and identify some critical but controversial perspectives and statements regarding social capital in the literature. The editors then make the argument for the network perspective, why and how such a perspective can clarify controversies and advance our understanding of a whole range of instrumental and expressive outcomes. Social Capital further provides a forum for ongoing research programs initiated by social scientists working at the crossroads of formal theory and new methods. These scholars and programs share certain understandings and approaches in their analyses of social capital. They argue that social networks are the foundation of social capital. Social networks simultaneously capture individuals and social structure, thus serving as a vital conceptual link between actions and structural constraints, between micro- and macro-level analyses, and between relational and collective dynamic processes. They are further cognizant of the dual significance of the "structural" features of the social networks and the "resources" embedded in the networks as defining elements of social capital.


The popularity of wireless networking has grown exponentially over the past few years, despite a general downward trend in the telecommunications industry. More and more computers and users worldwide communicate via radio waves every day, cutting the tethers of the cabled network both at home and at work. Wireless technology changes not only the way we talk to our devices, but also what we ask them to do. With greater flexibility, broader range, and increased mobility, wireless networks let us live, work, and think differently. Wireless networks also open up a vast range of tasty new hack possibilities, from fine-tuning network frequencies to hot-rodding handhelds. The second edition of Wireless Hacks, co-authored by Rob Flickenger and Roger Weeks, brings readers more of the practical tips and tricks that made the first edition a runaway hit, selling nearly 30,000 copies. Completely revised and updated, this version includes over 30 brand new hacks, major overhauls of over 30 more, and timely adjustments and touchups to dozens of other hacks introduced in the first edition. From passive network scanning to aligning long-distance antennas, beefing up wireless network security, and beyond, Wireless Hacks answers real-life networking needs with direct solutions. Flickenger and Weeks both have extensive experience in systems and network administration, and share a passion for making wireless more broadly available. The authors include detailed coverage for important new changes in specifications and in hardware and software, and they delve deep into cellular and Bluetooth technologies. Whether you need your wireless network to extend to the edge of your desk, fit into your backpack, or cross county lines, the proven techniques in Wireless Hacks will show you how to get the coverage and functionality you're looking for.


Promotion of adherence to healthy-eating norms has become an important element of nutrition policy in the United States and other developed countries. We assess the potential consumption impacts of adherence to a set of recommended dietary norms in the United States using a mathematical programming approach. We find that adherence to recommended dietary norms would involve significant changes in diets, with large reductions in the consumption of fats and oils along with large increases in the consumption of fruits, vegetables, and cereals. Compliance with norms recommended by the World Health Organization for energy derived from sugar would involve sharp reductions in sugar intakes. We also analyze how dietary adjustments required vary across demographic groups. Most socio-demographic characteristics appear to have relatively little influence on the pattern of adjustment required to comply with norms. Income levels have little effect on required dietary adjustments. Education is the only characteristic to have a significant influence on the magnitude of adjustments required. The least educated rather than the poorest have to bear the highest burden of adjustment. Our analysis suggests that fiscal measures like nutrient-based taxes may not be as regressive as commonly believed. Dissemination of healthy-eating norms to the less educated will be a key challenge for nutrition policy. Copyright 2007 International Association of Agricultural Economists.


The government of Egypt recently stated that external financial assistance is necessary in the present economic situation and has expressed a strong preference for receiving it in part via debt relief. Williamson and Khan explore whether there is a case for debt relief and if so what form this relief should take. They review the cases of Egypt in an earlier era and other middle-income countries—Iraq, Argentina, and Nigeria—that benefited from debt relief, as well as the loan guarantees provided by the United States to Israel, to draw out the lessons and implications for Egypt. In terms of reducing debt service payments, debt relief was certainly successful in each of the countries reviewed. The authors conclude with recommendations for a new debt relief program for Egypt. The traditional approach to debt relief would be through a Paris Club debt rescheduling. The United States could call for the Paris Club to meet to consider Egyptian debt, use its influence to persuade the Egyptians to request a meeting, and then call on its partners to make offers similar to those that President Obama already made in his speech on May 19, 2011. A more promising approach might be for the United States to use its convening power to persuade other countries ("Friends of Egypt") to make debt relief arrangements similar to those that the United States has already offered to Egypt. Complementary to this process, the United States could also urge its partners to make loan guarantees similar to those that it itself has offered.


Abstract In recent years sub-Saharan Africa, notwithstanding the global financial crisis, has increased its share in global trade and investment flows. This has led to an appreciable improvement in development levels, albeit off a small base. However, these patterns are still dominated by commodity flows and investment, and remain marginal on the global stage. Increased trade and investment flows, particularly related to network services, would be of great benefit to the sub-continent. Yet many domestic regulatory constraints remain. Furthermore, substantial international market distortions, particularly in agricultural trade, inhibit economic diversification into more value-adding activities. The Doha development round could, if concluded, go a long way towards addressing these barriers. Ultimately it could prove more consequential to the sub-continent's development trajectory than regional economic integration. The latter, whilst important, is shallow and too reliant on institution-intensive forms mimicking the European Union. Overall therefore this paper motivates for an African trade agenda focused on concluding the Doha round.


Following modernization paradigm and some local dynamics conducive to development, some Asian countries emerged as economic tigers in the world. Conversely, other Asian countries including Bangladesh failed to taste economic development despite having monetary and technological aids from some developed nations. Drawing on some social and historical trajectories of the divergent contours of Asian development/ underdevelopment, the paper examines the state of development in Bangladesh. The study has found that Japan is the first country in Asia to achieve modernization, and it was followed by other Asian tigers such as Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and currently China and India. We found that all these Asian tigers exert a developmental model which is characterized by 'endogenous' modernity and economic nationalism largely driven by, among other things, long-term economic vision and strong political leadership. While the history of Bangladesh has witnessed various cultural nationalisms, the nation has failed to generate any unified economic nationalism since its independence in 1971. We suggest that Bangladesh needs a long-term development vision—a key thrust for economic nationalism—focusing more on some socioeconomic and legal aspects that have historically become major impediments for development.


Typical scientific software designs make rigid assumptions regarding programming language and data structures, frustrating software interoperability and scientific collaboration. Component‐based software engineering is an emerging approach to managing the increasing complexity of scientific software. Component technology facilitates code interoperability and reuse. Through the adoption of methodology and tools developed by the Common Component Architecture Forum, we have developed a component architecture for molecular structure optimization. Using the NWChem and Massively Parallel Quantum Chemistry packages, we have produced chemistry components that provide capacity for energy and energy derivative evaluation. We have constructed geometry optimization applications by integrating the Toolkit for Advanced Optimization, Portable Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation, and Global Arrays packages, which provide optimization and linear algebra capabilities. We present a brief overview of the component development process and a description of abstract interfaces for chemical optimizations. The components conforming to these abstract interfaces allow the construction of applications using different chemistry and mathematics packages interchangeably. Initial numerical results for the component software demonstrate good performance, and highlight potential research enabled by this platform. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 14: 1717–1725, 2004


The African Economic Outlook 2015 analyses Africa's growing role in the world economy and predicts the continent's two-year prospects in crucial areas: macroeconomics, financing, trade policies and regional integration, human development, and governance. This 14th edition analyses regional development and spatial inclusion challenges faced by the continent. A section of one-page notes summarises recent economic growth, forecasts gross domestic product for 2015 and 2016, and highlights the main policy issues facing each of the 54 African countries. A statistical annex compares country-specific economic, social and political variables.


This thesis explores the mid-size American city and examines the deeply nuanced relationship between city form, landscape and culture. Using Springfield Missouri as a representative case study, the city is viewed as a process of transformation, a reading which is used to build a layered spatial comprehension, interpreting the terrain as a set of limits, cultural production, and space of collective desire; and the city as a negotiation between global economic development and local specificity. The thesis is comprised of two parallel inquiries, one into a city type-the mid-size American city, the second about methods of observation and analysis as tools for city planning and urban design. Springfield, Missouri is a typical low density, poly-centered American city. Incorporated in 1838, it has never been a big city-instead Springfield has spent the past 174 years slowly transitioning from rural to urban, weaving broad stages of American urbanity with the Ozark plateaus and hills. The present city is experienced as heightened contrasts between strips, open fields, tranquil gardens, and the open space of the periphery, magnifying the ironic, poetic, bittersweet, and exhilarating state of the American town's transition to new metropolisthe beauty of the ideal wilderness has been paired with the strips and squares of a generic city. It is the type of city which rests uncomfortably within normative planning/design idealsnot traditional or with a large downtown, it is often relegated to sprawl, geographically and economically it functions as a metropolitan region, but with considerably less density; it has accumulated gradually overtime, a piecemeal process that is the result of many contributors, with the informal guide of the survey grid, and the market economy. Springfield shares with other American cities the suburban motivations of everyday life centered around access, jobs, home ownership, school systems, and affordability). It faces the economic challenges of de-industrialization, the conundrum of the downtown and how to view form-how to define the collective identity of the expanded polycentric metropolis and how to grow in the future. In response this thesis suggests that In Springfield, the wilderness offers an identity more powerful and resilient than that of the downtown or a commercial shopping center, that to understand the city's form (and its future), its spatial terms must be re-conceptualized to consider form and terrain as interrelated systems that are associated with collective meaning and cultural function. The following thesis is structured as a layered dialogue between modes of inquiry exploring Springfield and the transformation of the ideal wilderness as a historical, theoretical, experiential, and spatial process. And each section explores the concept of wilderness as both a physical and psychological/cultural space, and each imparts an insight as to the spatial structure of the city. The goal of this succession has been to generate a layering of spatial comprehension that synthesizes across scales, using drawings to project abstract concepts and empirical data into concrete representations of space. The drawings are presented as both exploratory and revelations, each one considering the relationship between city form and terrain as an ongoing dialogue. Simultaneously these representations project a method for reading the mid-size city and how we might begin to view its form, not as a centralized polarity, but as a connective net that is ordered by the concrete fact and cultural ideal of the wilderness. Thesis Reader: Alan Berger Thesis Advisor: Brent D. Ryan Professor of Urban Design and Landscape Assistant Professor of Urban Design and Architecture Public Policy Thesis Co-Advisor: Shun Kanda Senior Lecturer Department of Architecture


Can techniques traditionally thought to be outside the scope of literature, including word processing, databasing, identity ciphering, and intensive programming, inspire the reinvention of writing? The Internet and the digital environment present writers with new challenges and opportunities to reconceive creativity, authorship, and their relationship to language. Confronted with an unprecedented amount of texts and language, writers have the opportunity to move beyond the creation of new texts and manage, parse, appropriate, and reconstruct those that already exist. In addition to explaining his concept of uncreative writing, which is also the name of his popular course at the University of Pennsylvania, Goldsmith reads the work of writers who have taken up this challenge. Examining a wide range of texts and techniques, including the use of Google searches to create poetry, the appropriation of courtroom testimony, and the possibility of robo-poetics, Goldsmith joins this recent work to practices that date back to the early twentieth century. Writers and artists such as Walter Benjamin, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, and Andy Warhol embodied an ethos in which the construction or conception of a text was just as important as the resultant text itself. By extending this tradition into the digital realm, uncreative writing offers new ways of thinking about identity and the making of meaning.


We have determined the solar spectral absorption optical depth of atmospheric aerosols for specific case studies during several field programs (three cases have been reported previously; two are new results). We combined airborne measurements of the solar net radiant flux density and the aerosol optical depth with a detailed radiative transfer model for all but one of the cases. The field programs (SAFARI 2000, ACE Asia, PRIDE, TARFOX, INTEX-A) contained aerosols representing the major absorbing aerosol types: pollution, biomass burning, desert dust and mixtures. In all cases the spectral absorption optical depth decreases with wavelength and can be approximated with a power-law wavelength dependence (Absorption Angstrom Exponent or AAE). We compare our results with other recent spectral absorption measurements and attempt to briefly summarize the state of knowledge of aerosol absorption spectra in the atmosphere. We discuss the limitations in using the AAE for calculating the solar absorption. We also discuss the resulting spectral single scattering albedo for these cases.


Research into continuing professional education (CPE) has been a constant for many professionals, including those pastors and clergy who work in religious organizations. Continuing education for lay ministers (non-ordained) in churches, however, generally has not been given this close scrutiny or attention. This article reports on research conducted with 35 leaders of lay ministry education programs in Canada, to provide information on their (a) demographics as a group (b) attitudes toward church and church bodies, and the amount of support they received from the community, and (c) programs and their participants. This study contributes to an understanding of continuing education for lay ministry.


This is the worldwide bestselling autobiography of iconic entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, featuring his take on his latest business ventures, personal achievements and intrepid adventures. In Losing my Virginity, you'll discover how Sir Richard is committed to building a better world through responsible, holistic business practices and ventures such as the Virgin Health Bank, which is contributing to regenerative medicine, Virgin Fuels, which has pledged GBP200 million to renewable energy projects, and his company's charitable arm, Virgin Unite. You'll also learn about how Sir Richard and his company are reaching for the stars in a new era of commercial space travel with Virgin Galactic. With insights into this very public figure's personal life as well as his business successes and the lessons he's learned along the way, this is an amazing memoir, motivational business guide and inspiring story that will capture your imagination.


In this work, sample losses of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) in asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) have been systematically investigated with the main focus on instrumental conditions like focusing and cross-flow parameters as well as sample concentration and buffer composition. Special attention was drawn to the AF4 membrane. For monitoring possible silver depositions on the membrane, imaging laser ablation coupled to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) was used. Our results show that the sample residue on the membrane was below 0.6% of the total injected amount and therefore could be almost completely avoided at low sample concentrations and optimized conditions. By investigation of the AF4 flows using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), we found the recovery rate in the detector flow under optimized conditions to be nearly 90%, while the cross-flow, slot-outlet flow and purge flow showed negligible amounts of under 0.5%. The analysis of an aqueous ionic Ag standard solution resulted in recovery rates of over 6% and the ionic Ag content in the sample was found to be nearly 8%. Therefore, we were able to indicate the ionic Ag content as the most important source of sample loss in this study.


Cervical remodeling is a complex biological process, characterized in part by vascular leakage, an increase in edema, and epithelial growth. Here, we examined the effects of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) primarily on cervical epithelial growth. Both timed-pregnant and non-pregnant mice were treated with either recombinant VEGF164 protein, vehicle only or VEGF blocker. The tissues were analyzed using a variety of techniques, including scanning electron microscopy, confocal immunofluorescence, BrdU, and quantitative real-time PCR. From these studies, we show that VEGF induces cervical epithelial cell, edema, and inter-epithelial immune cell migration into cervical lumen, possibly by altering expression of a tight junction molecule (claudin-5) and expression of itself (VEGF) and its receptors (KDR and Flt-1). These results demonstrate that VEGF is an important regulator in cervical remodeling, notably by altering various events in the cervical epithelial cells.


Qualitative research designs provide future-oriented plans for undertaking research. Designs should describe how to effectively address and answer a specific research question using qualitative data and qualitative analysis techniques. Designs connect research objectives to observations, data, methods, interpretations, and research outcomes. Qualitative research designs focus initially on collecting data to provide a naturalistic view of social phenomena and understand the meaning the social world holds from the point of view of social actors in real settings. The outcomes of qualitative research designs are situated narratives of peoples' activities in real settings, reasoned explanations of behavior, discoveries of new phenomena, and creating and testing of theories.
 A three-level framework can be used to describe the layers of qualitative research design and conceptualize its multifaceted nature. Note, however, that qualitative research is a flexible and not fixed process, unlike conventional positivist research designs that are unchanged after data collection commences. Flexibility provides qualitative research with the capacity to alter foci during the research process and make new and emerging discoveries.
 The first or methods layer of the research design process uses social science methods to rigorously describe organizational phenomena and provide evidence that is useful for explaining phenomena and developing theory. Description is done using empirical research methods for data collection including case studies, interviews, participant observation, ethnography, and collection of texts, records, and documents.
 The second or methodological layer of research design offers three formal logical strategies to analyze data and address research questions: (a) induction to answer descriptive "what" questions; (b) deduction and hypothesis testing to address theory oriented "why" questions; and (c) abduction to understand questions about what, how, and why phenomena occur.
 The third or social science paradigm layer of research design is formed by broad social science traditions and approaches that reflect distinct theoretical epistemologies—theories of knowledge—and diverse empirical research practices. These perspectives include positivism, interpretive induction, and interpretive abduction (interpretive science). There are also scholarly research perspectives that reflect on and challenge or seek to change management thinking and practice, rather than producing rigorous empirical research or evidence based findings. These perspectives include critical research, postmodern research, and organization development.
 Three additional issues are important to future qualitative research designs. First, there is renewed interest in the value of covert research undertaken without the informed consent of participants. Second, there is an ongoing discussion of the best style to use for reporting qualitative research. Third, there are new ways to integrate qualitative and quantitative data. These are needed to better address the interplay of qualitative and quantitative phenomena that are both found in everyday discourse, a phenomenon that has been overlooked.


Lesbians and gay men are frequent subjects for modern news, politics, and court opinions. From marriage for same-sex couples to Congressional hearings on the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" regulation, decision-makers are setting policy based on their ideas about how gay people are and how they fit into society. But what are those perceptions and how do they interact with law? We ordinarily think of lesbians and gay men as predominantly childless, urban residents of cities like San Francisco, New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles or as inhabitants of the Northeastern or Pacific Coast states. However, data from the 2000 census demonstrate that same-sex couples are located in virtually every county in each of the 50 states. Moreover, many of the states with the highest proportion of same-sex couples raising children are not those with the highest concentrations of lesbian or gay couples; rather they tend to be states in which all couples tend to have children. If these data are unexpected, our surprise is attributable to the dissonance between what we think we know about lesbians and gay men and accurate data.This phenomenon is less puzzling than it first appears. Psychologists have demonstrated that our perceptions of the world are shaped by schemas, a set of beliefs about people, events or situations that we use as guides in our interaction with these things. Thus, we are able to treat that person or object in what we perceive to be an appropriate manner, that is, consistent with our schema. We quickly develop models which ascribe a range of characteristics to others corresponding to their skin color, sex, other physical attributes as well as sexual orientation. We can quickly identify some major characteristics of the popular schema about gay people: (1) That lesbians and gay men exhibit "cross-gender" or gender atypical behavior, behavior traditionally associated with the opposite sex. (2) That gay identity is solely about sexual behavior and that lesbians and gay men experience sexuality and sexual activity different from heterosexuals. This is the crux of schema theory to this article. The schema of lesbians and gay men used by some judges has prevented them from appropriately interpreting legal doctrine and precedent, and has led to anomalous results. Moreover, the relatively non-rigorous nature of schema-matching, which is a feature of both legal and non-legal reasoning, has exacerbated this tendency for inaccuracy and distorted legal doctrine where lesbians and gay men are involved.Some of the most glaring examples have occurred under the sex discrimination prohibitions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, specifically those cases involving same-sex sexual harassment. While significant commentary exists on same-sex sexual harassment, this article differs from that commentary because it does not seek to explain or revise that doctrine through theoretical or jurisprudential constructs. Rather it uses same-sex sexual harassment as one example of how law can employ the insights of social science, particularly cognitive schema models. The article explores how social cognition theories inform and misinform judicial decisions and those of the participants in the cases.


Information on rural water supply issues is of vital importance to community development throughout the Pacific, but the exchange of knowledge is hampered by the great distances, the limited institutional capacity, and the many natural climatic and geological hazards that characterize the region. Reliable historical records are limited, and systematic monitoring of water resources is simply non-existent in many rural areas.
In early 2003, with the help of the European Development Fund, the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) launched a project to address these problems. The initiative, ´Reducing the vulnerability of Pacific ACP States´, aims to improve communications among stakeholders in three areas that are of particular concern to Pacific Island states: the extraction of aggregates for construction (sand extraction can cause permanent damage to coastlines, lagoons or reefs), hazard mitigation and risk assessment, and water resources, supply and sanitation.
Following on-site data collection and comprehensive studies, one of the project´s principal ´enabling tools´ is the establishment of a comprehensive ICT centre in each island state, with training courses for local capacity building. Among the many ICT aspects of the project are regular e-newsletters for information exchange among stakeholders, and, in particular, the use of geographical information systems (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) applications.
In implementing the project, SOPAC will build on a decade of experience in developing and promoting local knowledge of GIS and RS applications. For years, the Commission has encouraged local staff to map and inventory their assets, ranging from typical water utility applications such as distribution networks in Tonga, to the coverage of roof rainwater collection systems in Tuvalu.
SOPAC´s GIS and RS-generated information has already directly benefited farmers because it encourages entire communities to improve their agricultural practices. For example, excessive logging and other poor watershed management practices on the larger islands have altered drainage characteristics, with adverse impacts on agriculture and fisheries. Once vegetation is removed the topsoil is not retained and flushes out into streams and lagoons, resulting in excessive soil erosion, and silt-laden, nutrient-rich runoff. To counter these developments, SOPAC has used high-quality satellite imagery to demonstrate to landowners the need to inventory their forest resources and monitor any changes due to logging.
A particularly successful application has been the Fiji Forestry Export Market System (FFEMS), in which all logging activities are recorded and mapped, and each tree is labelled and tracked until it is exported. Accurate monitoring supports sustainable forestry practices, enabling landowners to take advantage of ´green labelling´, a scheme that promotes environmentally friendly products.
For the FFEMS, a distributed database system was developed using an SQL replication server and an MS Access and MapInfo interface. Divisional Forestry Office (DFO) staff enter data for their area into the database, and the information is subsequently transmitted to the Forestry Office HQ over standard telephone lines. Thus, each DFO has a complete view of their own area, while the headquarters have an overview of the whole of Fiji. This setup improves management decision-making processes and guarantees a faster return of information - and of royalties when the trees are sold - to the landowners.
The SOPAC project will draw upon this regional experience to provide a comprehensive range of integrated planning and Island Systems Management (ISM) services. The provision of web-based map servers (i.e. web servers connected to a remote GIS database) in each country will enable a much larger section of the population, particularly in rural areas, to access and analyze information without having to purchase new software. Of course, the lack of Internet connectivity in some countries is a challenge that the project will need to address. In the long run, however, the Internet is likely to provide the best outreach system at the lowest cost.
For more information, visit

www.sopac.org/Projects/SOPAC-ISM-EDF/index.html

the project website.

mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com

Franck Martin and

mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com

Stephen Booth are SOPAC/EU ISM project members.


In 1882, Emily Dickinson's brother Austin began a passionate love affair with Mabel Todd, a young Amherst faculty wife, setting in motion a series of events that would forever change the lives of the Dickinson family. The feud that erupted as a result has continued for over a century. Lyndall Gordon, an award-winning biographer, tells the riveting story of the Dickinsons, and reveals Emily as a very different woman from the pale, lovelorn recluse that exists in the popular imagination. Thanks to unprecedented use of letters, diaries, and legal documents, Gordon digs deep into the life and work of Emily Dickinson, to reveal the secret behind the poet's insistent seclusion, and presents a woman beyond her time who found love, spiritual sustenance, and immortality all on her own terms. An enthralling story of creative genius, filled with illicit passion and betrayal, "Lives Like Loaded Guns" is sure to cause a stir among Dickinson's many devoted readers and scholars.


The properties of these carbon nanostructures are determined by the structure and orientation of the graphitic domains during pyrolysis of carbon precursors. In this work, we investigated systematically the impact of creep stress during the stabilization process on the cyclization and molecular orientation of polyacrylonitrile as well as the graphitized structure after high temperature carbonization. Therefore, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is electrospun and then stabilized with and without application of creep stress at different temperatures. The effect of creep stress on cyclization was monitored via Fourier transform IR spectroscopy (FTIR) and it was found that the degree of cyclization varies with the application of creep stress during the initial stages of cyclization at low temperatures (190°C and 210°C) in contrast to cyclization done at higher temperature (230°C). Herman molecular orientation factor was evaluated by polarized FTIR for PAN nanofibers cyclized with and without creep stress at 230°C-10 h. Subsequently, carbonization was performed at 1000°C and 1200°C for nanofibers cyclized at 230°C-10 h. Our results from XRD and Raman spectroscopy shows that the degree of graphitization and ordering of graphitic domains was enhanced for PAN nanofibers that were creep stressed during the cyclization process, even though both PAN nanofibers cyclized with creep stress and without creep stress showed the same amount of cyclized material. This increased degree of graphitization can be tracked to application of creep stress during the stabilization process which obviously favors the formation of sp2-hybridized carbon planes in the carbonization process. This finding highlights the impact of mechanical stress linking the cyclization of PAN nanofibers to graphitization.
Our results will pave the way for a deeper understanding of mechano-chemical processes to fabricate well-aligned graphitic domains which improves the mechanical and electrical properties of CNFs.


The sports world's near universal moratorium in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was abrupt and unprecedented. From professional leagues to youth sports, doors were closed to competitions and events to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. The hiatus began at one of the busiest times on the calendar for sport, with the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League seasons concluding; the Women's National Basketball Association and National Football League drafts taking place; Major League Baseball's spring training nearing its conclusion; the Professional Golf Association and Ladies Professional Golf Association Tours starting their seasons; and the National Collegiate Athletic Association's marquee events, the Division-I men's and women's basketball tournaments, set to begin. The suddenness of the interruption was met with a need by the various sport entities to engage their public with information about their respective responses. The statements that emerged on or after March 12—"the day the sports world stopped"—were not all the same. Many of the statements, in fact, were quite different. That was especially the case with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, whose governance structure and messaging practices hindered their ability to have a uniform response. The purpose of this essay was to examine the public messaging of sport leagues and organizations and to discuss the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of those public statements.


We consider the two-player game defined as follows. Let $(G,L)$ be a graph $G$ with a list assignment $L$ on its vertices. The two players, Alice and Bob, play alternately on $G$, Alice having the first move. Alice's goal is to provide an $L$-colouring of $G$ and Bob's goal is to prevent her from doing so. A move consists in choosing an uncoloured vertex $v$ and assigning it a colour from the set $L(v)$. Adjacent vertices of the same colour must not occur. This game will be called game list colouring . The game choice number of $G$, denoted by ch$_g(G)$, is defined as the least $k$ such that Alice has a winning strategy for any $k$-list assignment of $G$. We characterize the class of graphs with ch$_g(G)\le 2$ and determine the game choice number for some classes of graphs.


BACKGROUND
PFAPA syndrome (periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis and cervical adenitis syndrome) is a rare clinical syndrome of unknown cause usually identified in children.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the efficacy of tonsillectomy (with or without adenoidectomy) in children with PFAPA.

SEARCH STRATEGY
We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library, 2010 Issue 1); MEDLINE (PubMed); EMBASE; CINAHL; mRCT (metaRegister of clinical trials, including ClinicalTrials.gov); NRR (National Research Register); LILACS; KoreaMed; IndMed; PakMediNet; China Knowledge Network; CAB Abstracts; Web of Science; BIOSIS Previews; ICTRP (International Clinical Trials Registry Platform) and Google. The date of the last search was 21 January 2010.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomised studies comparing adeno-/tonsillectomy with non-surgical treatment.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data.

MAIN RESULTS
Two trials involving 67 children were included. One high quality study demonstrated a dramatic benefit of adenotonsillectomy in children with PFAPA diagnosed according to rigid, standard criteria with a relative 'risk' (RR) of symptom resolution after 18 months of 12.63 (95% CI 1.81 to 87.98) and a lower rate of episodes per patient-month (rate ratio 0.07; 95% CI 0.04 to 0.13). A less methodologically rigorous study enrolled some children with PFAPA, but probably included others with alternative types of recurrent pharyngitis, and performed tonsillectomy alone. This also demonstrated a significant benefit for surgery at six months: RR 1.93 (95% CI 1.11 to 3.36); rate ratio episodes per patient-month 0.10 (95% CI 0.04 to 0.28). The pooled relative risk of symptom resolution was 3.25 (95% CI 1.78 to 5.92) and the resulting number needed to treat (NNT) 2 (95% CI 1 to 3).

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
The trials included in this review reported follow up at 18 and six months respectively but it is well-established that children with PFAPA recover spontaneously and treatment can be administered to try and reduce the severity of individual episodes. Therefore, the parents and carers of children with PFAPA must weigh the risks and consequences of surgery (hospitalisation, a predictable period of time postoperatively away from school/nursery, the risks of surgery) against the alternative of a finite period of recurrent episodes of disease at predictable intervals, potentially requiring time off school and the regular use of medication. It is uncertain whether adenoidectomy combined with tonsillectomy adds any additional benefit to tonsillectomy alone.


With financial and other personal information about us in countless databases, and with companies such as Facebook and Google collecting data about their users to drive profits and satisfy expectations of shareholders, there is a pervasive concern that we have little control over access to potentially harmful uses of that information. Moreover, many consumers believe that little can be done to address the problem except to give out as little information as possible and try our best to monitor our credit reports and financial accounts in an effort to detect unexpected activity if it occurs. By not enacting strong information privacy laws in the non-governmental sector, the U.S. Congress and the fifty states have effectively defaulted to a market-based model of privacy protection that relies heavily on individual self-policing and market incentives as the primary means of information control. A self-policing privacy protection model could be effective if a market for information privacy were possible — if well informed individuals could shop their privacy preferences effectively. This book-length paper (the book itself will be available in 2013) examines the reasons why this is highly unlikely and why privacy laws in the United States (or the lack thereof) will not protect legitimate consumer interests in the years to come. Part 1 shows why information privacy is a social or societal value and not just an individual concern. Part 2 examines in more detail why individualist, market approaches to privacy protection are destined to fail. Part 3 continues this theme and examines research in behavioral sciences about how consumers make decisions in market transactions. Part 4 concludes by critiquing the "new" privacy framework released by the Federal Trade Commission. While the framework contains hopeful rhetoric calling for greater emphasis on societal solutions to privacy concerns, most of the framework continues to rely heavily on individual notice and choice in transactions that involve exchanges of personal information.


Washington, DC—The most common form of job piracy—among neighboring localities in the same metro area—can be ended, as agreements in the Denver and Dayton metro areas have proved for decades. The agreements prohibit active recruitment within the metro area, and they require communication and transparency between affected development officials if a company signals it might move. Those are the main conclusions of a new study released today by Good Jobs First. "Ending Job Piracy, Building Regional Prosperity," is online at www.goodjobsfirst.org . The study finds that even regions like the Twin Cities, with revenue-sharing systems intended to deter job piracy, have rampant job piracy because they lack the procedural safeguards Denver and Dayton have. Multi-state metro areas like Kansas City suffer the problem on steroids because state subsidies fuel the problem. Career economic development professional staff—not elected officials—are best suited to institute anti-piracy systems, although politicians and the public generally should be educated about the value of such agreements. Information-sharing about companies considering relocation is also key. And states need to amend incentive codes to stop requiring local subsidies to match state awards, to deny state monies for intra-state relocations, and to deny eligibility for such relocations to locally administered tax increment financing (TIF) districts. These changes will deter job piracy and promote regionalism, the study concludes. "The anti-piracy agreements we describe focus on economic development professionals communicating openly with each other in a transparent system," said Leigh McIlvaine, GJF research analyst and lead author of the study. "When local officials cooperate for the benefit of the metro area, they can better focus on attracting investment and jobs that are truly new." "We know from previous studies that intra-regional job piracy fuels job sprawl, harming older areas, communities of color and transit-dependent workers," said GJF executive director Greg LeRoy. "By favoring retention, anti-piracy agreements help stabilize


The Bread Bible gives bread bakers 150 of the meticulous, foolproof recipes that are Rose Levy Beranbaum's trademark. Her knowledge of the chemistry of baking, the accessibility of her recipes, and the incomparable taste of her creations make this book invaluable for home cooks and professional bakers alike. "Understanding" and "Pointers for Success" sections explain in simple, readable language the importance of various techniques and ingredients demonstrated in a recipe, providing a complete education in the art of baking, with thorough sections on types of flour, equipment, and other essentials. Easy-to-use ingredient tables provide both volume and weight, for surefire recipes that work perfectly every time. Recipes include bread made with yeast starters, quick breads, flatbreads, brioche, and much more. From ciabatta, semolina, rye, and sourdough breads to bagels, biscuits, crumpets, and pizza dough, The Bread Bible covers all the baking bases. Winner of the 2003 Gourmand World Cookbook Award, Best Bread Book


As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting-house, and his banner over me was love. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, tilt he please.


EVOLUTION IS OFTEN PRESENTED AS A STRICTLY COMPETITIVE ENDEAVOR. This point of view has had serious implications for the way we see the mechanics of both science and culture. But scientists have long wondered how societies could have evolved without some measure of cooperation. And if there was cooperation involved, how could it have arisen from nature "red in tooth and claw"? Martin Nowak, one of the world's experts on evolution and game theory, working here with bestselling science writer Roger Highfield, turns an important aspect of evolutionary theory on its head to explain why cooperation, not competition, has always been the key to the evolution of complexity. He offers a new explanation for the origin of life and a new theory for the origins of language, biology's second greatest information revolution after the emergence of genes. "SuperCooperators "also brings to light his game-changing work on disease. Cancer is fundamentally a failure of the body's cells to cooperate, Nowak has discovered, but organs are cleverly designed to foster cooperation, and he explains how this new understanding can be used in novel cancer treatments. Nowak and Highfield examine the phenomena of reciprocity, reputation, and reward, explaining how selfless behavior arises naturally from competition; how forgiveness, generosity, and kindness have a mathematical rationale; how companies can be better designed to promote cooperation; and how there is remarkable overlap between the recipe for cooperation that arises from quantitative analysis and the codes of conduct seen in major religions, such as the Golden Rule. In his first book written for a wide audience, this hugely influential scientist explains his cutting-edge research into the mysteries of cooperation, from the rise of multicellular life to Good Samaritans. With wit and clarity, Nowak and Highfield make the case that cooperation, not competition, is the defining human trait. "SuperCooperators "will expand our understanding of evolution and provoke debate for years to come.


Farmers throughout the developing world face multiple sources of uninsured risk to agricultural production and household assets. In this paper, we present results from an experimental demand-elicitation exercise in rural Bangladesh to shed light on smallholder farmers' interest in formal insurance products. We propose a suite of insurance and savings products, and we randomly vary the price of one insurance option (area-yield insurance) and the presence of one of the savings options (group savings). Consistent with economic theory, farmers buy more of the insurance products that cover the risks they primarily face. However, because farmers are subject to a variety of risks, they do not focus on only one type of insurance; instead, they evenly split their endowment between life and disability insurance and agricultural insurance. Demand for area-yield insurance falls with price; we also observe important cross-price elasticities with other insurance products. The presence of group savings does not alter demand for insurance, though group savings is found to be a particularly popular risk management tool, especially when decisions are made in groups.


The problem of finding small unsatisfiable cores for SAT formulas has recently received a lot of interest, mostly for its applications in formal verification. However, propositional logic is often not expressive enough for representing many interesting verification problems, which can be more naturally addressed in the framework of Satisfiability Modulo Theories, SMT. Surprisingly, the problem of finding unsatisfiable cores in SMT has received very little attention in the literature.

In this paper we present a novel approach to this problem, called the Lemma-Lifting approach. The main idea is to combine an SMT solver with an external propositional core extractor. The SMT solver produces the theory lemmas found during the search, dynamically lifting the suitable amount of theory information to the Boolean level. The core extractor is then called on the Boolean abstraction of the original SMT problem and of the theory lemmas. This results in an unsatisfiable core for the original SMT problem, once the remaining theory lemmas are removed.

The approach is conceptually interesting, and has several advantages in practice. In fact, it is extremely simple to implement and to update, and it can be interfaced with every propositional core extractor in a plug-and-play manner, so as to benefit for free of all unsat-core reduction techniques which have been or will be made available.

We have evaluated our algorithm with a very extensive empirical test on SMT-LIB benchmarks, which confirms the validity and potential of this approach.


This paper presents a method for optimization design of an engine mounting system subjected to some constraints. The engine center of gravity, the mount stiffness rates, the mount locations and/or their orientations with respect to the vehicle can be chosen as design variables, but some of them are given in advance or have limitations because of the packaging constraints on the mount locations, as well as the individual mount rate ratio limitations imposed by manufacturability. A computer program, called DynaMount, has been developed that identifies the optimum design variables for the engine mounting system, including decoupling mode, natural frequency placement, etc.. The degree of decoupling achieved is quantified by kinetic energy distributions calculated for each of the modes. Several application examples are presented to illustrate the validity of this method and the computer program.


This chapter takes as its starting point the question of how otherwise experienced and principled lawyers can make blatantly unethical decisions. As recent research has shown, lawyers can become involved in legitimizing inhuman conduct just as they can in perpetuating accounting fraud or hiding client scandal. To an outsider looking at these circumstances, it invariably appears that the lawyers involved consciously acted immorally. Within the common framework of deliberative action, we tend to see unethical behaviour as the result of conscious and controlled mental processes. Whilst awareness is always part of our actions, this chapter challenges the pervasiveness of assumptions about the power of conscious processes in ethical decision making. Drawing on a range of psychological research, it focuses on two important findings: first, that automatic mental processes are far more dominant in our thinking than most of us are aware; and second, that because we do not generally have introspective access to these processes, we infer from their results what the important factors in our decision making must be. These findings challenge the notion that individuals can be fully aware of what influences them to act ethically or unethically. It also suggests that we need to concentrate upon those conscious processes that we do know influence decision making in deepening our understanding of how to improve ethical awareness.


Abstract. We describe the challenges associated with the interpretation of extinction coefficient measurements by the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE II) in the presence of clouds. In particular, we have found that tropospheric aerosol analyses are highly dependent on a robust method for identifying when clouds affect the measured extinction coefficient. Herein, we describe an improved cloud identification method that appears to capture cloud/aerosol events more effectively than early methods. In addition, we summarize additional challenges to observing the Asian Tropopause Aerosol Layer (ATAL) using SAGE II observations. Using this new approach, we perform analyses of the upper troposphere, focusing on periods in which the UTLS (upper troposphere/lower stratosphere) is relatively free of volcanic material (1989–1990 and after 1996). Of particular interest is the Asian monsoon anticyclone where CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar Pathfinder Satellite Observations) has observed an aerosol enhancement. This enhancement, called the ATAL, has a similar morphology to observed enhancements in long-lived trace gas species like CO. Since the CALIPSO record begins in 2006, the question of how long this aerosol feature has been present requires a new look at the long-lived SAGE II data sets despite significant hurdles to its use in the subtropical upper troposphere. We find that there is no evidence of ATAL in the SAGE II data prior to 1998. After 1998, it is clear that aerosol in the upper troposphere in the ATAL region is substantially enhanced relative to the period before that time. In addition, the data generally supports the presence of the ATAL beginning in 1999 and continuing through the end of the mission, though some years (e.g., 2003) are complicated by the presence of episodic enhancements most likely of volcanic origin.


Today, legal and political actors argue that sex equality does not require society to share the costs of pregnancy, childbirth, and childrearing with individual women and private families. Courts interpret the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 ("PDA"), amending Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to prohibit only market-irrational discriminatory animus. Political pundits oppose paid parental-leave legislation as a mandate that unfairly subsidizes private reproductive choice by shifting its costs onto the larger public.This Article uses novel historical research to deconstruct the boundaries between cost sharing and sex equality. I recover the redistributive dimensions of the vision for sex equality that legal feminists articulated from the 1960s through the 1980s. Legal feminists' challenge to the family-wage system entailed efforts to redistribute the costs of reproduction between women and men within the home and between the family and society. The history of feminist mobilization, anti-feminist counter-mobilization, and norm evolution in law and policy, illustrates the overlap in the normative purpose and cost effects of antidiscrimination and cost-sharing mandates. To realize women's right to social and economic independence, feminists pursued classic antidiscrimination mandates, the accommodation of pregnancy in the workplace, and affirmative social-welfare entitlements related to caregiving. All of these reforms, moreover, shifted the costs of reproduction from individual women to the larger society.The history related in this Article holds significant implications for contemporary legal and political debates. The history suggests that courts adopt an artificially narrow perspective when they interpret the PDA to fall short of requiring structural change in the workplace. It also suggests that Congress might build upon an evolving commitment to cost sharing as a critical component of sex equality by augmenting the entitlements created by the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 ("FMLA").


The Irish Travellers are an itinerant group in Ireland that has been socially isolated. Two hypotheses have been proposed concerning the genetic origin of the Travellers: (1) they are genetically related to Roma populations in Europe that share a nomadic lifestyle or (2) they are of Irish origin, and genetic differences from the rest of Ireland reflect genetic drift. These hypotheses were tested using data on 33 alleles from 12 red blood cell polymorphism loci. Comparison with other European, Roma, and Indian populations shows that the Travellers are genetically distinct from the Roma and Indian populations and most genetically similar to Ireland, in agreement with earlier genetic analyses of the Travellers. However, the Travellers are still genetically distinct from other Irish populations, which could reflect some external gene flow and/or the action of genetic drift in a small group that was descended from a small number of founders. In order to test the drift hypothesis, we analyzed genetic distances comparing the Travellers to four geographic regions in Ireland. These distances were then compared with adjusted distances that account for differential genetic drift using a method developed by Relethford (Hum Biol 68 (1996) 29-44). The unadjusted distances show the genetic distinctiveness of the Travellers. After adjustment for the expected effects of genetic drift, the Travellers are equidistant from the other Irish samples, showing their Irish origins and population history. The observed genetic differences are thus a reflection of genetic drift, and there is no evidence of any external gene flow.


The objectives of this work were to evaluate ultrafine particle (UFP) exposures during aluminium smelting in Soderberg and prebake potrooms. Particle concentrations were monitored using the P-Trak 8525 and aerosol particle size distributions were monitored with the electrical low pressure impactor (ELPI). UFP samples were analyzed for chemical composition by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Workers who accomplished tasks in the Soderberg cell environment were more exposed to UFP than those who worked in the prebake; however, the specific task of anode shift in the prebake process was an important source of UFPs. More than 92 % and 98 % of particles had aerodynamic diameters less than 98 nm in the Soderberg and prebake processes, respectively. TEM/EDS analysis suggests that workers are exposed to short fibrous aluminium particles with a nanometric aerodynamic diameter. Overall, this study suggests that occupational hygiene practices aimed at evaluating UFP exposures should include monitoring of the particle number concentration, monitoring of the particle size distribution, and characterization of the nanoscale fraction of the aerosol.


The United States has the most expensive health care system in the world, yet its system produces inferior outcomes relative to those in other countries. This brief examines the health care reform debate and argues that the basic structure of the health care system is unlikely to change, because "reform" measures actually promote the status quo. The authors believe that the fundamental problem facing the U.S. health care system is the unhealthy lifestyle of many Americans. They prefer to see a reduced role for private insurers and an increased role for government funding, along with greater public discussion of environmental and lifestyle factors. A Medicare buy-in ("public option") for people under 65 would provide more cost control (by competing with private insurance), help to solve the problem of treatment denial based on preexisting conditions, expand the risk pool of patients, and enhance the global competitiveness of U.S. corporations—thus bringing the U.S. health care system closer to the "ideal" low-cost, universal (single-payer) insurance plan.


CISSP Study Guide - fully updated for the 2018 CISSP Body of Knowledge CISSP (ISC)2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional Official Study Guide, 8th Editionhas been completely updated for the latest 2018 CISSP Body of Knowledge. This bestselling Sybex study guide covers 100% of all exam objectives. You'll prepare for the exam smarter and faster with Sybex thanks to expert content, real-world examples, advice on passing each section of the exam, access to the Sybex online interactive learning environment, and much more. Reinforce what you've learned with key topic exam essentials and chapter review questions. Along with the book, you also get access to Sybex's superior online interactive learning environment that includes: Six unique 150 question practice exams to help you identify where you need to study more. Get more than 90 percent of the answers correct, and you're ready to take the certification exam. More than 1400 Electronic Flashcards to reinforce your learning and give you last-minute test prep before the exam A searchable glossary in PDF to give you instant access to the key terms you need to know for the exam Coverage of all of the exam topics in the book means you'll be ready for: Security and Risk Management Asset Security Security Engineering Communication and Network Security Identity and Access Management Security Assessment and Testing Security Operations Software Development Security


Researchers have endeavored to increase understanding of the relationships between investments in information systems (IS), competitive advantage, and firm performance. While the extant IS literature provides important insights on information systems and competitive strategy, the answer to how information systems contribute to competitive advantage and firm performance remains unclear. This dissertation examines, from a managerial interpretive perspective, how information systems contribute to firms' specific competitive actions and responses, and the resultant impacts upon firm performance. The findings from this research suggest that the answer may well lie within the role of information systems in firms' competitive dynamics or the specific competitive actions and/or responses in which firms engage. This dissertation comprises two studies. Study I examines managerial interpretations of the role played by information systems in firms' competitive dynamics and firm performance. Study II examines the role of social computing and communication technologies in intrafirm social networks and digitally-mediated aggregate cognitive maps at each stage of a competitive dynamics process. The results of Study I in this dissertation suggest a process model, grounded in data from in-depth interviews with executive- and operational-level organizational managers, industry experts and from relevant organizational and industry documents. The relationships inherent in a firm's information systems, competitive dynamics and firm performance can be traced through four interrelated grounded theoretical categories –IT-
enhanced Organizational Information Processing and Competitive Action, Information-driven Competitive Action Decision, Execution/Abandonment, and Firm Performance. Thus, the first study contributes to understanding how information systems enable a process of knowledge dissemination and sharing among managerial decision-makers, how information systems enable a collective and rational competitive action decision-making process, how information systems facilitate and create message channeling systems and create the platform toward competitive actions enactment, and thus, how firm performance is impacted by information systems. This study shows the way in which information systems impact firm performance through the competitive actions and reactions undertaken by a dominant firm. Dominant firms have shown the ability to attain and retain superior performance and exhibit sustained competitive advantage. Thus, the study of the role of information systems in the context of the competitive activity of a dominant firm should be of value to both academics and practitioners. The research methodology employed in Study I of this dissertation is grounded theory. Grounded theory was chosen, as it is an appropriate method for studying complex, little understood phenomena. However, this study goes beyond many existing grounded theory studies, as each category is supported by and related toward prevailing theory and existing literature. In doing so, this dissertation builds upon existing work by emphasizing both the strengths and weaknesses inherent in extant research, thus encouraging a cumulative tradition. Specifically, this research makes significant and important contributions to the areas of cognition, information processing, decision-
making, information systems and firm performance in the context of competitive dynamics. The second study in this dissertation examines the role of social computing and communications technologies in intrafirm social networks and digitally-mediated aggregate cognitive maps embedded within the process of conceiving, enacting and executing firms' competitive actions and responses and resulting impacts upon firm performance. The role of information systems in this context raises important new issues that have not been addressed by current information systems research. By examining the role of internal managerial social networks formed around social computing and communications technologies that are used in the conception, enactment and execution of firms' competitive dynamics, it is possible to unearth a more complex and integrated role of information systems in organizations. Study II builds upon the literature in the following areas of research: information systems and firm performance, competitive dynamics in the specific context of the awareness-motivation-capability perspective, social computing, social network theory, and organizational communication in the specific areas of collective and distributed cognition, information seeking and sharing, and organizational memory and learning. the general role of
information systems in competitive actions and firm performance. In Study II, Social Network Analysis and Centering Resonance Analysis have been used to build upon Grounded Theory by examining the collective and interactive nature of organizational communication and decision-making in the context of social computing. Specifically, social relationships and organizational communication processes are examined in this research in the context of social computing and communications technologies embedded within the conception, enactment, and execution of competitive actions and responses toward impacts on firm performance. The two studies are synthesized to provide a novel perspective about a very complex and multifaceted phenomenon: understanding the impact of information systems on firm performance through the lens of competitive dynamics. Specifically, the findings from this dissertation suggest that to account for the impact of information systems upon firm performance, researchers should consider the organizational context, the intentions and actions of key players, and the process of conceiving, enacting and executing competitive actions or responses carried out by the organization. Findings also suggest that practitioners will be better able to leverage IT investments if they understand the embedded role of information systems within the competitive actions or responses undertaken by the firm to maintain or improve relative performance.


This textbook is an introduction to the tourism and hospitality industry in British Columbia, and is written with a first year college and university audience in mind. It is a collaborative work with input from educators, industry leaders, employers, and past graduates of BC's tourism and hospitality management programs. All chapters have been reviewed by experts in the field. Each chapter is organized thematically moving from a global, then national, and finally provincial context. Chapters contain "Spotlight On" boxes that highlight an organization, business, or other key component and "Take a Closer Look" features that encourage further reading on particular subjects. Key terms, exercises and case studies can be found at the end of each chapter.


On March 28, 2011, The New York Times website became a restricted site where most of the content was protected behind a "paywall." Users who exceeded the limit of 20 free articles per month were required to pay for either a digital or print subscription. The newspaper industry had been suffering from revenue declines over the past decade, and the transition to digital media was difficult to navigate. Revenues from online advertising were not sufficient to replace the loss of print revenue, and many publishers had explored charging readers for content, with mixed success, where specialized sources like The Wall Street Journal successfully using the model, but several other general news sites had failed. Newspapers and content creators in general were very interested in understanding whether transitioning to the paywall at the most popular news website would succeed, and whether it could become a blueprint for future success as a sustainable business model. There were several difficult issues to examine in determining the digital strategy for The Times. Would consumers remain as engaged with a site protected by a paywall? Would advertisers react positively to such a move that walled off readers? Would readers value both the print and digital versions of the content, or would it become necessary to create new content? The Times had several choices in designing the paywall, including determining the digital content, pricing, as well as how to interface with readers of secondary news websites like blogs that posted links to news articles. Should they design a "leaky" paywall where determined users could easily slip through, or a "bulletproof" paywall like the Financial Times had done, where users had to pay before they could access any content? What choices would provide the foundation for a successful business model?Learning Objective:The purpose of this case is to help understand the key issues in transitioning a content business from the current print medium to the future digital medium. It will involve a deep exploration of how managers must understand product strategy to align the value creation process with the characteristics of the medium or channel, while keeping in mind the landscape of collaborators and competitors has been altered significantly by digital technology. How should a manager determine the content across multiple media? Should they design the product for complementary value creation across media, or are they best thought of as substitutes? Should the company accelerate the transition to digital or try and bolster the value for both media? This case has been taught in the Digital Marketing elective course at Harvard Business School. It would also fit well in elective courses on Product Strategy or Technology Strategy.


Report compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Mines including statistics on fatalities in coal mines located in the United States as well as data regarding the various operations (e.g., number of miners employed and average production). The information is organized into tables for comparison and the text draws some overall conclusions in the summary.


We want to create forms of non institutional follow up on mental health. we intend to transcend the areas focused omnipotently in professionals, commercial, hospital and scientism. In order to achieve this we are producing clinitaria, conceived as fluid and liquid searches that can be harmonized with the community as complex processes, incompatible with the rigid. Here we share some of this transit lived in different parts of Paraguay in the second half of the first decade of the XXI century: notions that we have been producing, theoretical horizon open to new contributions, our experiences in and with communities and what emerge from them. Here goes an unjust synthesis, wishing you find it useful, to elaborate yourself about it.


Cycling Fast is the best resource for any rider with a firm grasp on biking basics and a desire for the thrill of competition. Armed with advice, insights, and instruction from renowned coach and cyclist Robert Panzera, you'll be ready for every race and every challenge.
 From bike preparation to competitive tactics, Cycling Fast provides the essential information you'll need in order to master each event:
 • Choosing the right race for your skills, talent, and experience
 • Preparing your body and preparing your mind
 • Nutrition for training, racing, and recovery
 • Bike-handling skills for various conditions, environments, and terrains
 • Race-day strategies
 Cycling Fast also includes the latest information on new high-tech racing frames, training with a power meter and heart rate monitor, and coordinating your tactics as part of a team.
 Whether you're in a criterium, a time trial, or a stage race or simply looking to ride faster, Cycling Fast is packed with training plans, tips, charts, and checklists that will translate to success at the finish line.


This thesis seeks to expose and discredit a perceived misconception that understood the Negritude movement as one, relatively uniform concept. An oversimplified, homogeneous view of Negritude at times appears to contradict itself, leading critics to dismiss the movement's relevance and/or standing in diaspora studies. The extensive intellectual relationship and personal friendship between Aime Cesaire and Leopold Sedar Senghor underscores many of the similarities that allowed for the collaboration that started the movement. A detailed analysis of Cesaire and Senghor's relationships to Negritude, however, illustrates significant differences in each poet's perception of the movement. I examine the conditions in early twentieth-century Paris that marked it as a cross-cultural center of diasporic literary production. Many critiques of Negritude do not take into account the importance of the historical and cultural contexts surrounding the birth of the movement, when in fact, context is the essence of Negritude's formation. I analyze the conceptions of Negritude found in Cesaire's Cahier d'un retour au pays natal and Senghor's Chants d'Ombre and Hosties noires and discuss the reasons behind their intrinsic differences, which are also contextually centered. I argue that Negritude not only bears a historical importance, but also continues to carry significance in present-day Francophone and diaspora studies. The movement led to a growing unrest over colonization and Western supremacy that eventually resulted in independence movements in Africa and departmentalization in the Antilles. It remained a point of contention after decolonization and endures as a present force in the background of both spaces.


Technological developments in devices and storages have made large volumes of data collections more accessible than ever. This transformation leads to optimization problems with massive data in both volume and dimension. In response to this trend, the popularity of optimization on high performance computing architectures has increased unprecedentedly. These scalable optimization solvers can achieve high efficiency by splitting computational loads among multiple machines. However, these methods also incur large communication overhead. To solve optimization problems with millions of parameters, communication between machines has been reported to consume up to 80% of the training time. To alleviate this communication bottleneck, many optimization algorithms with data compression techniques have been studied. In practice, they have been reported to significantly save communication costs while exhibiting almost comparable convergence as the full-precision algorithms. To understand this intuition, we develop theory and techniques in this thesis to design communication-efficient optimization algorithms. In the first part, we analyze the convergence of optimization algorithms with direct compression. First, we outline definitions of compression techniques which cover many compressors of practical interest. Then, we provide the unified analysis framework of optimization algorithms with compressors which can be either deterministic or randomized. In particular, we show how the tuning parameters of compressed optimization algorithms must be chosen to guarantee performance. Our results show explicit dependency on compression accuracy and delay effect due to asynchrony of algorithms. This allows us to characterize the trade-off between iteration and communication complexity under gradient compression. In the second part, we study how error compensation schemes can improve the performance of compressed optimization algorithms. Even though convergence guarantees of optimization algorithms with error compensation have been established, there is very limited theoretical support which guarantees improved solution accuracy. We therefore develop theoretical explanations, which show that error compensation guarantees arbitrarily high solution accuracy from compressed information. In particular, error compensation helps remove accumulated compression errors, thus improving solution accuracy especially for ill-conditioned problems. We also provide strong convergence analysis of error compensation on parallel stochastic gradient descent across multiple machines. In particular, the error-compensated algorithms, unlike direct compression, result in significant reduction in the compression error. Applications of the algorithms in this thesis to real-world problems with benchmark data sets validate our theoretical results.


This paper describes ongoing research conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to evaluate the potential of safety restraints on large school buses. School bus transportation is one of the safest forms of transportation in the United States. Large school buses provide protection because of their visibility, size, and weight, as compared to other types of motor vehicles. Additionally, they are required to meet minimum Federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) mandating compartmentalized seating, emergency exits, roof crush and fuel system integrity, and minimum bus body joint strength. For the covering abstract see ITRD E111577.


It was hypothesized that the relation between early anxious solitude and subsequent peer relations would be moderated by early relational (maternal sensitivity) and individual factors (child school readiness). Participants were 1364 children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Anxious solitude was assessed by child care providers from 2 to 4.5 years, maternal sensitivity was observed during mother–child interactions from 2 to 4.5 years, school readiness was tested at 3 years, children's interactions with a friend were observed at 4.5 years, and friendship quantity and peer rejection were assessed by first grade teachers. Results indicate that anxious solitary children who had experienced high versus low early maternal sensitivity contributed significantly more actively to positive interaction and less actively to negative interaction with a friend at 4.5 years (these results were contingent on school readiness), and had more friends and were less rejected by peers in first grade. Although high school readiness predicted interactive competency and positive peer relationships in children low in anxious solitude, these benefits were suppressed in anxious solitary children.


We examine the effects of 3 interventions designed to support Grades 2–5 children's growth in measuring rectangular regions in different ways. We employed the microgenetic method to observe and describe conceptual transitions and investigate how they may have been prompted by the interventions. We compared the interventions with respect to children's learning and then examined patterns in observable behaviors before and after transitions to more sophisticated levels of thinking according to a learning trajectory for area measurement. Our findings indicate that creating a complete record of the structure of the 2-dimensional array—by drawing organized rows and columns of equal-sized unit squares—best supported children in conceptualizing how units were built, organized, and coordinated, leading to improved performance.


Sustained growth depends on innovation, whether it's cutting-edge software from Silicon Valley, an improved assembly line in Sichuan, or a new export market for Swaziland's leather. Developing a new idea requires money, which poses a problem of trust. The innovator must trust the investor with his idea and the investor must trust the innovator with her money. Robert Cooter and Hans-Bernd Schafer call this the "double trust dilemma of development." Nowhere is this problem more acute than in poorer nations, where the failure to solve it results in stagnant economies. In Solomon's Knot, Cooter and Schafer propose a legal theory of economic growth that details how effective property, contract, and business laws help to unite capital and ideas. They also demonstrate why ineffective private and business laws are the root cause of the poverty of nations in today's world. Without the legal institutions that allow innovation and entrepreneurship to thrive, other attempts to spur economic growth are destined to fail.


India is home to a quarter of the world's hungry people. Since the Green Revolution, the country has produced enough food to feed itself, but it has not yet been able to wipe out mass hunger. Currently, 40 per cent of the population is malnourished – a decline of only 10 per cent in the past three decades.

Stellar economic growth has not delivered on its promise for poverty reduction and food security. Following a series of neoliberal economic reforms in 1991, India's GDP has doubled, but despite this, 53 million more people now go to bed hungry every night.

To make matters worse, food prices have recently soared. Poor families, who spend more than 60 per cent of their incomes on food, are increasingly struggling to stretch their meagre household budgets.

Unfortunately, small-scale producers have not benefited from high retail prices for food either, as they usually low prices for their produce. Clearly, the country is in the midst of both an agrarian crisis and a nutrition crisis.


In 2002, a math-science partnership (MSP) program was initiated by a national science grant. The purpose of the MSP program was to promote the development, implementation, and sustainability of promising partnerships among institutions of higher education, K-12 schools and school systems, as well as other important stakeholders. One of the funded projects included a teacher-scientist collaborative that instituted a professional development system to prepare teachers to use inquiry-based instructional modules.
The MSP program mandated evaluations of its funded projects. One of the teacher-scientist collaborative project's outcomes specifically focused on teacher and student science content and process skills. In order to provide annual evidence of progress and to measure the impact of the project's efforts, and because no appropriate science tests were available to measure improvements in content knowledge of participating teachers and their students, the project contracted for the development of science tests.
This dissertation focused on the process of test development within an evaluation and examined planned (i.e., expected) and actual (i.e., observed) test development, specifically concentrating on the factors that affected the actual test development process. Planned test development was defined as the process of creating tests according to the well-established test development procedures recommended by the AERA/APA/NCME 1999 Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Actual test development was defined as the process of creating tests as it actually took place.
Because case study provides an in-depth, longitudinal examination of an event (i.e., case) in a naturalistic setting, it was selected as the appropriate methodology to examine the difference between planned and actual test development. The case (or unit of analysis) was the test development task, a task that was bounded by the context in which it occurred--and over which this researcher had no control--and by time. The purpose for studying the case was to gain a more in-depth, holistic understanding of the real-life test development task that took place within a project evaluation context. In particular, this case study investigated how the actual test development process was affected by: 1. the national and state (i.e., NC) science standards, 2. the NSF's definition of "evidence" in a project evaluation, 3. the MSP project's understanding of the role of the to-be-developed tests in their project evaluation, 4. the MSP project's understanding of the test development process, and 5. the MSP project's participants (e.g., teacher item-writers and scientists).
From an investigation of this case, it was concluded that: constructing psychometrically sound tests within an evaluation is not easy, sufficient time and resources to construct such measures properly are seldom provided, and test construction--at least within an evaluation--is not routine and unproblematic.
Based upon the results from this case study, it was recommended that stakeholders (i.e., program managers, project directors, and evaluators) be familiar with the steps and standards used to develop psychometrically sound tests. Additionally, it was recommended that, for future research, a meta-analysis that examines only the test development process be conducted of all other MSP projects.
A second suggested future research area was to establish a protocol that provides a systematic means by which to examine an existing or proposed MSP project for alignment with state science standards. Such a protocol would be cost-effective in that demonstrated alignment with state science standards would enable projects to use existing state science assessments, which must be in place, according to NCLB, by the 2007-2008 school year, to demonstrate student achievement. In this way, project directors and evaluators, typically with limited familiarity with the steps and standards by which psychometrically sound assessments are created, would not be placed in the role of test developer."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.


Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science provides an authoritative single source for understanding and applying the concepts of complexity theory together with the tools and measures for analyzing complex systems in all fields of science and engineering. The science and tools of complexity and systems science include theories of self-organization, complex systems, synergetics, dynamical systems, turbulence, catastrophes, instabilities, nonlinearity, stochastic processes, chaos, neural networks, cellular automata, adaptive systems, and genetic algorithms. Examples of near-term problems and major unknowns that can be approached through complexity and systems science include: The structure, history and future of the universe; the biological basis of consciousness; the integration of genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics as systems biology; human longevity limits; the limits of computing; sustainability of life on earth; predictability, dynamics and extent of earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters; the dynamics of turbulent flows; lasers or fluids in physics, microprocessor design; macromolecular assembly in chemistry and biophysics; brain functions in cognitive neuroscience; climate change; ecosystem management; traffic management; and business cycles. All these seemingly quite different kinds of structure formation have a number of important features and underlying structures in common. These deep structural similarities can be exploited to transfer analytical methods and understanding from one field to another. This unique work will extend the influence of complexity and system science to a much wider audience than has been possible to date.


Within this thesis a series of molecular species has been studied, with focus on hydrogen bonded species and on (solvated) transition metal complexes. Experimental techniques such as FT-ICR-MS and IRMPD were combined with ab initio calculations for the determination of structure and reactivity of the aforementioned types of systems. On the basis of high level electronic structure calculations of neutral water clusters (H2O)n with n = 17-21 a transitional size regime has been determined, where a structural stabilization between all-surface and interior configurations alternates with the addition or removal of a single water molecule. Electronic structure calculations suggested that for n = 17 and 19 the interior configuration would be energetically more stable than the all-surface one. The gas phase infrared spectrum of the singly hydrated ammonium ion, NH4+(H2O), had previously been recorded by photodissociation spectroscopy of mass selected ions and interpreted by means of ab initio calculations. The present work provides additional information on the shape of the potential energy curves of NH4+(H2O) along the N-H distance on MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ level of theory yielding an anharmonic potential shape. Calculation of potential energy curves of the O-H mode of the intramolecular hydrogen bond of various dicarboxylic acids (oxalic to adipic acid) revealed that the shapes of the potentials directly correlate to the size of the system and the resulting ring strain The shape of the potential is also influenced by the charge of the system. Calculation of anharmonic frequencies based on the VPT2 approach lead to reasonable results in all systems with narrow potentials. IRMPD spectra of complexes in the gas phase have been recorded for a series of cationic vanadium oxide complexes when reacted with acetonitrile, methanol and ethanol. The experimental spectra are compared to calculated absorption spectra. The systematic DFT study identifies potential candidates for reductive nitrile coupling in cationic transition metal acetonitrile complexes. On the basis of the calculations, the formation of metallacyclic structures in group 3 through 7 complexes can be ruled out. Solvation of the transition metal cation by five acetonitrile ligands leads to a reductive nitrile coupling reaction in three types of complexes, namely those containing either niobium, tantalum or tungsten.