Extensive coverage on using Microsoft Outlook to manage and organize your day As the number one e-mail client and personal information manager, Microsoft Outlook offers a set of uncomplicated features that maximize the management of your e-mail, schedule, and general daily activities, with the least amount of hassle possible. Comprised of ten minibooks in one and packed with more than 800 pages, this All-in-One For Dummies reference walks you through the convenience of Microsoft Outlook and introduces you to the newest features of the 2010 version. After a description of how to get started with Outlook 2010, youll get complete coverage on e-mail basics, advanced e-mail features, working with the calendar, managing contacts, and working with Business Contact Manager. Youll learn how to track tasks, take notes, and record items in the journal, as well as customize and manage Outlook and get mobile with Outlook. Offers soup-to-nuts coverage of Microsoft Outlook 2010, the newest version of the number one most popular e-mail manager Walks you through getting started with Outlook and e-mail basics, and gradually progresses to more advanced features and capabilities of e-mail Explains how to work with the Outlook 2010 calendar and manage your contacts Addresses tracking tasks, taking notes, recording items in the journal, and working with Business Contact Manager Shows you how to customize your Outlook, manage all the information within Outlook, and take Outlook on the road Get a whole new outlook on Outlook 2010 with this complete guide!


In this essay I revisit and expand upon George Smith's landmark article, "Political Activist as Ethnographer" (1990). Political activist ethnography (PAE) is a specialized form of institutional ethnography (IE) that has not received nearly enough attention in the twenty years since the original publication of Smith's article. In an effort to revisit and bolster this research approach, I provide an overview of IE/PAE and critically engage with three recent commentaries on PAE, and along the way I offer a novel interpretation of this approach as well as an example of its application from my own ongoing research.


Confidentiality, integrity, and availability are often listed as the three major requirements for achieving data security and are collectively referred to as the C-I-A triad. Confidentiality of data restricts the data access to authorized parties only, integrity means that the data can only be modified by authorized parties, and availability states that the data must always be accessible when requested. Although these requirements are relevant for any computer system, they are especially important in open and distributed networks. Such networks are able to store large amounts of data without having a single entity in control of ensuring the data's security. The Semantic Web applies to these characteristics as well as it aims at creating a global and decentralized network of machine-readable data. Ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of this data is therefore also important and must be achieved by corresponding security mechanisms. However, the current reference architecture of the Semantic Web does not define any particular security mechanism yet which implements these requirements. Instead, it only contains a rather abstract representation of security. This thesis fills this gap by introducing three different security mechanisms for each of the identified security requirements confidentiality, integrity, and availability of Semantic Web data. The mechanisms are not restricted to the very basics of implementing each of the requirements and provide additional features as well. Confidentiality is usually achieved with data encryption. This thesis not only provides an approach for encrypting Semantic Web data, it also allows to search in the resulting ciphertext data without decrypting it first. Integrity of data is typically implemented with digital signatures. Instead of defining a single signature algorithm, this thesis defines a formal framework for signing arbitrary Semantic Web graphs which can be configured with various algorithms to achieve different features. Availability is generally supported by redundant data storage. This thesis expands the classical definition of availability to compliant availability which means that data must only be available as long as the access request complies with a set of predefined policies. This requirement is implemented with a modular and extensible policy language for regulating information flow control. This thesis presents each of these three security mechanisms in detail, evaluates them against a set of requirements, and compares them with the state of the art and related work.


In recent years evidence has emerged that the amount of isoprene emitted from a leaf is affected by the CO2 growth environment. Many – though not all – laboratory experiments indicate that emissions increase significantly at below-ambient CO 2 concentrations and decrease when concentrations are raised to above-ambient. A small number of process-based leaf isoprene emission models can reproduce this CO2 stimulation and inhibition. These models are briefly reviewed, and their performance in standard conditions compared with each other and to an empirical algorithm. One of the models was judged particularly useful for incorporation into a dynamic vegetation model framework, LPJ-GUESS, yielding a tool that allows the interactive effects of climate and increasing CO 2 concentration on vegetation distribution, productivity, and leaf and ecosystem isoprene emissions to be explored. The coupled vegetation dynamics-isoprene model is described and used here in a mode particularly suited for the ecosystem scale, but it can be employed at the global level as well. Annual and/or daily isoprene emissions simulated by the model were evaluated against flux measurements (or model estimates that had previously been evaluated with flux data) from a wide range of environments, and agreement between modelled and simulated values was generally good. By usCorrespondence to: A. Arneth (firstname.lastname@example.com) ing a dynamic vegetation model, effects of canopy composition, disturbance history, or trends in CO 2 concentration can be assessed. We show here for five model test sites that the suggested CO 2-inhibition of leaf-isoprene metabolism can be large enough to offset increases in emissions due to CO 2stimulation of vegetation productivity and leaf area growth. When effects of climate change are considered atop the effects of atmospheric composition the interactions between the relevant processes will become even more complex. The CO2-isoprene inhibition may have the potential to significantly dampen the expected steep increase of ecosystem isoprene emission in a future, warmer atmosphere with higher CO2 levels; this effect raises important questions for projections of future atmospheric chemistry, and its connection to the terrestrial vegetation and carbon cycle.


Corporate lawyers traditionally viewed themselves - and were viewed by the managers who hired them - as advocates, confidents, and advisors, not as gatekeepers like auditors. In fact, however, lawyers often play a reputational intermediary role not dissimilar to that of an auditor. A very high profile general counsel or law firm partner, for example, can give a client in trouble the benefit of the lawyer's reputation for probity and upstanding ethics.Usually, of course, counsel play a more behind the scenes role, but it is still a gatekeeping role. Specifically, transactional counsel and in-house lawyers are well positioned to intervene by blocking the effectiveness of a defective registration statement or prevent the consummation of a transaction, to cite but two examples. In many recent financial crises, however, lawyers all too often failed to be effective gatekeepers. In the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), Congress directed the Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt rules of ethics governing lawyers who appear or practice before the Commission. As adopted, the post-SOX rules give lawyers what purports to be a very "simple" up-the-ladder reporting obligation. As one proponent explained counsel's duty: "You report the violation [to top management]. If the violation isn't addressed properly, then you go to the board of directors."Despite SOX's many strictures in this and other areas, however, a new and even more devastating financial crisis came in 2008 when the subprime mortgage market's troubles nearly brought the entire banking system to its knees. Once again, questions are being asked about the role lawyers played in this crisis. A reassessment of SOX's legal ethics rules thus is in order.This essay is adapted with permission from the author's book Corporate Governance After the Financial Crisis (Oxford University Press 2012). The first decade of the new millennium was bookended by two major economic crises. The bursting of the dotcom bubble and the extended bear market of 2000 to 2002 prompted Congress to pass the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was directed at core aspects of corporate governance. At the end of the decade came the bursting of the housing bubble, followed by a severe credit crunch, and the worst economic downturn in decades. In response, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act, which changed vast swathes of financial regulation. Among these changes were a number of significant corporate governance reforms. Corporate Governance After the Financial Crisis asks two questions about these changes. First, are they a good idea that will improve corporate governance? Second, what do they tell us about the relative merits of the federal government and the states as sources of corporate governance regulation? Traditionally, corporate law was the province of the states. Today, however, the federal government is increasingly engaged in corporate governance regulation. The changes examined in this work provide a series of case studies in which to explore the question of whether federalization will lead to better outcomes. The author analyzes these changes in the context of corporate governance, executive compensation, corporate fraud and disclosure, shareholder activism, corporate democracy, and declining US capital market competitiveness.


Cloud data centers host diverse applications, mixing in the same network a plethora of workflows that require small predictable latency with others requiring large sustained throughput. In this environment, today's state-of-the-art TCP protocol falls short. We present measurements of a 6000 server production cluster and reveal network impairments, such as queue buildup, buffer pressure, and incast, that lead to high application latencies. Using these insights, propose a variant of TCP, DCTCP, for data center networks. DCTCP leverages Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) and a simple multibit feedback mechanism at the host. We evaluate DCTCP at 1 and 10Gbps speeds, through benchmark experiments and analysis. In the data center, operating with commodity, shallow buffered switches, DCTCP delivers the same or better throughput than TCP, while using 90% less buffer space. Unlike TCP, it also provides hight burst tolerance and low latency for short flows. While TCP's limitations cause our developers to restrict the traffic they send today, using DCTCP enables the applications to handle 10X the current background traffic, without impacting foreground traffic. Further, a 10X increase in foreground traffic does not cause any timeouts, thus largely eliminating incast problems.


Tithe was practised in the Old Testament, but the New Testa- ment emphasises the attitude of the giver. Giving money is about relationships and goodwill. It is important that church members value their churches and commit themselves as con- stant givers. Tithing can be traced throughout the Old Testa- ment to the New Testament (cf. Heb.). This article will begin with an introduction that offers the practical situation that com- pelled the institution of the tithe, followed by the Biblical background of tithing and an explanation of the goods or produce that was subject to the tithe. This will be followed by an investigation of the Old Testament perspective on tithing, including a consideration of the first fruits, the offering and the theological implications. Subsequent to this, the New Testa- ment perspectives will receive attention. The NIV translation will be used as it is accepted as a good and reliable translation.


This Marketing Guide on "Components for Unmanned Vehicles" is a companion volume to a recently published "UAV Marketing Directory" which was devoted to aerial systems. In addition, this report includes not only aerial but also ground, maritime, submarine, and satellite unmanned systems. Over 1,000 companies, organizations such as educational, research, development and testing and economic development organizations are included covering 100 different categories. An index is provided which places companies in various categories. The majority of companies included are component, materials, and subsystems equipment suppliers but also includes companies providing services, consulting, training, publishing, and other infrastructure suppliers. It is essentially a complete source of information on unmanned systems. Since there is no market study on all the unmanned systems types, a Foreword is included in the report which is taken from the latest version of the DOD Roadmap on Unmanned Systems. This is the only estimate of the unmanned systems market available today. Even though the sequestration and recent budget cuts are now being implemented, the Roadmap does provide a good indication of market trends at least for the government markets. The data collected and included in this report have been obtained by Information Gatekeepers, Inc. (IGI) from the best sources available. The index of products has been prepared based on company descriptions provided. Placement of companies in the various categories has been assigned by IGI. Corrections or additions should be forwarded to firstname.lastname@example.com. Being the first directory of its kind, it has included data presented at trade shows, in publications, company reports, and press releases but many companies probably have been missed. To remedy this situation, Information Gatekeepers plans periodic updates. If your company has been omitted and you would like to be included, send product descriptions, including contact information to firstname.lastname@example.com.


The emergence of agile methods and practices has not only changed the development processes but might also have affected how companies conduct software process improvement (SPI). Through a set of complementary studies, we aim to understand how SPI has changed in times of agile software development. Specifically, we aim (a) to identify and characterize the set of publications that connect elements of agility to SPI, (b) to explore to which extent agile methods/practices have been used in the context of SPI, and (c) to understand whether the topics addressed in the literature are relevant and useful for industry professionals. To study these questions, we conducted an in‐depth analysis of the literature identified in a previous mapping study, an interview study, and an analysis of the responses given by industry professionals to SPI‐related questions stemming from an independently conducted survey study. Regarding the first question, we identified 55 publications that focus on both SPI and agility of which 48 present and discuss how agile methods/practices are used to steer SPI initiatives. Regarding the second question, we found that the two most frequently mentioned agile methods in the context of SPI are Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP), while the most frequently mentioned agile practices are integrate often, test‐first, daily meeting, pair programming, retrospective, on‐site customer, and product backlog. Regarding the third question, we found that a majority of the interviewed and surveyed industry professionals see SPI as a continuous activity. They agree with the agile SPI literature that agile methods/practices play an important role in SPI activities but that the importance given to specific agile methods/practices does not always coincide with the frequency with which these methods/practices are mentioned in the literature.


Part One (Matthew 9:35-38) "And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest."


What do we mean by legal justice, as opposed to distributive, or social, or political justice; what is the justice, that is, we hope law promotes? What is the justice that lawyers and judges, peculiarly, are professionally committed to pursue? What is the virtue around which, arguably, this profession, and the individuals within it, have defined their public lives?Justice – and more particularly legal justice – is a badly under-theorized topic in jurisprudence; perhaps surprisingly, there is little written on it. The paucity of writing of course has a history. It can be traced to the turn of the last century – formative years of legal pedagogy and legal curriculum – when legal formalists and legal realists, who disagreed on virtually everything else regarding law, oddly enough agreed on the need to sever law from moral philosophy and more generally from high culture. Formalists, so as to render law autonomous, deductively pure, "scientific," and resting on its own bottom, so to speak, and realists, so as to tie law to the prestige, aspirations, and methods of the then nascent but ascending social sciences. Both realists and formalists, albeit for different reasons, sought to disassociate law from the demands of religion, morals, or culture, generally from the Toquevillian aristocratic norms within which law had been nested in the pre-Classical era. Justice, the great formalist Christopher Langdell thought, was not a fit subject of thought for a rigorous and professional and scientific law school curriculum. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the father of legal realism, quite famously, was even harsher. "I hate justice," Holmes wrote. "I know that if a man begins to talk about that, for one reason or another he is shirking thinking in legal terms." At least in the legal academy, we have indeed taken the Holmesian admonition to heart. Fearful of appearing sentimental, childish, or, worst of all, ignorant of the law, twentieth century lawyers and legal scholars, with only a few exceptions, have forsook the work of elucidating the concept of legal justice.Holmes and Langdellian skepticism notwithstanding, one can quite easily discern a conventional, and largely uncriticized, turn-of-the-century understanding of legal justice, inside the academy and the profession. It finds oratorical expression in law day and graduation day speeches, in the major unspoken premises of countless conventional legal arguments, and in some, although again not much, jurisprudential scholarship. That conception – call it the dominant or conventional conception-I will argue below, is seriously flawed. More specifically, I want to suggest that it is seriously flawed in a way that directly and negatively affects feminist and progressive efforts at achieving political reform. Feminists and progressives need to take up the task of criticizing our conventional understanding of legal justice. More importantly, we need to take up the task of crafting alternatives.


Fire is an important factor controlling the composition and thickness of the organic layer in the black spruce forest ecosystems of interior Alaska. Fire that burns the organic layer can trigger dramatic changes in the underlying permafrost, leading to accelerated ground thawing within a relatively short time. In this study, we addressed the following questions. (1) Which factors determine post-fire ground temperature dynamics in lowland and upland black spruce forests? (2) What levels of burn severity will cause irreversible permafrost degradation in these ecosystems? We evaluated these questions in a transient modeling–sensitivity analysis framework to assess the sensitivity of permafrost to climate, burn severity, soil organic layer thickness, and soil moisture content in lowland (with thick organic layers, ∼80 cm) and upland (with thin organic layers, ∼30 cm) black spruce ecosystems. The results indicate that climate warming accompanied by fire disturbance could significantly accelerate permafrost degradation. In upland black spruce forest, permafrost could completely degrade in an 18 m soil column within 120 years of a severe fire in an unchanging climate. In contrast, in a lowland black spruce forest, permafrost is more resilient to disturbance and can persist under a combination of moderate burn severity and climate warming.


Letter from Thelma Rice to members of The Links, Inc. in the western United States. Rice has enclosed three important documents to be shared among the members of every chapter: the new Western Area Handbook, the revised and updated Western Area By-Laws, and a copy of Rice's reply to a letter about concerns related to expenditures for a gala at the upcoming National Assembly.


We present a sensitivity analysis of the tropospheric NO2 retrieval from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) using measurements from the Dutch Aerosol and Nitrogen Dioxide Experiments for Validation of OMI and SCIAMACHY (DANDELIONS) and Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment-B (INTEX-B) campaigns held in 2006. These unique campaigns covered a wide range of pollution conditions and provided detailed information on the vertical distribution of NO2. During the DANDELIONS campaign, tropospheric NO2 profiles were measured with a lidar in a highly polluted region of the Netherlands. During the INTEX-B campaign, NO2 profiles were measured using laser-induced fluorescence onboard an aircraft in a range of meteorological and polluted conditions over the Gulf of Mexico and the east Pacific. We present a comparison of measured profiles with a priori profiles used in the OMI tropospheric NO2 retrieval algorithm. We examine how improvements in surface albedo estimates improve the OMI NO2 retrieval. From these comparisons we find that the absolute average change in tropospheric columns retrieved with measured profiles and improved surface albedos is 23% with a standard deviation of 27% and no trend in the improved being larger or smaller than the original. We show that these changes occur in case studies related to pollution in the southeastern United States and pollution outflow in the Gulf of Mexico. We also examine the effects of using improved Mexico City terrain heights on the OMI NO2 product.


In 1914 Vera Brittain was eighteen and, as war was declared, she was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later her life - and the life of her whole generation - had changed in a way that was unimaginable in the tranquil pre-war era. TESTAMENT OF YOUTH, one of the most famous autobiographies of the First World War, is Brittain's account of how she survived the period; how she lost the man she loved; how she nursed the wounded and how she emerged into an altered world. A passionate record of a lost generation, it made Vera Brittain one of the best-loved writers of her time.


There has recently been considerable international interest in the possibility of building second generation expert systems as groups of co-operating problem solvers. In this paper we relate our experiences with such a system. FELINE is a co-operating expert system composed of five autonomous intelligent agents. These agents co-operate through communication to identify the causes of anaemia in cats. The paper addresses three key issues: development methodologies for building co-operating expert systems, making expert systems co-operative, and inter-agent problem solving techniques. We propose a tentative development methodology for co-operating expert systems and describe how it was applied in FELINE. We also present a detailed, domain independent account of the inter-agent problem solving paradigm devised for use in FELINE. We conclude with a brief critical assessment of our work.


This volume is written for anyone who--for whatever reason--is drawn to the New Testament. It is also for those who are not so drawn, for it is written out of the conviction that good readers need to be formed. Anyone can read the Bible; no particular level of education is required, but readers need to learn what to look for in stories that may seem distant and strange. The long tradition of reading the Scriptures in the church is not the enemy in such an enterprise, but audiences change, and the Bible must be heard and wrestled with in each new situation. This volume focuses on the Gospel according to Mark, probably the first of the four Gospels to be written. It has received the least attention of the four in the history of the church. The explosion of Markan scholarship in the last decades tells a fascinating story that is not the focus of this study but informs it. The result of intense engagement with Mark within and outside the academic community has not achieved a meeting of the minds. Mark s Gospel does not easily yield its secrets. It is the case, however, that conversing about Mark has been enormously interesting and productive for the church as well as the academy. This volume is written to open readers to its remarkable story. Where engagement will finally lead remains as unpredictable and as promising as the Gospel itself."


Liquid chromatography was initially discovered as an analytical technique in the early twentieth century and was first used as a method of separating colored compounds. This is where the name chromatography chroma means color, graphy means writing, was derived. A Russian botanist named Mikhail S. Tswett used a rudimentary form of chromatographic separation to purify mixtures of plant pigments into the pure constituents. He separated the pigments based on their interaction with a stationary phase, which is essential to any chromatographic separation. The stationary phase he used was powdered chalk and aluminia, the mobile phase in his separation was the solvent. After the solid stationary phase was packed into a glass column (essentially a long, hollow, glass tube) he poured the mixture of plant pigments and solvent in the top of the column. He then poured additional solvent into the column until the samples were eluted at the bottom of the column. The result of this process most crucial to his investigation was that the plant pigments separated into bands of pure components as they passed through the stationary phase. Modern high performance liquid chromatography or HPLC has its roots in this separation, the first form of liquid chromatography. The chromatographic process has been significantly improved over the last hundred years, yielding greater separation efficiency, versatility and speed.


The presence of sea ice leads in the sea ice cover represents a key feature in polar regions by controlling the heat exchange between the relatively warm ocean and cold atmosphere due to increased fluxes of turbulent sensible and latent heat. Sea ice leads contribute to the sea ice production and are sources for the formation of dense water which affects the ocean circulation. Atmospheric and ocean models strongly rely on observational data to describe the respective state of the sea ice since numerical models are not able to produce sea ice leads explicitly. For the Arctic, some lead datasets are available, but for the Antarctic, no such data yet exist. Our study presents a new algorithm with which leads are automatically identified in satellite thermal infrared images. A variety of lead metrics is used to distinguish between true leads and detection artefacts with the use of fuzzy logic. We evaluate the outputs and provide pixel-wise uncertainties. Our data yield daily sea ice lead maps at a resolution of 1 km2 for the winter months November– April 2002/03–2018/19 (Arctic) and April–September 2003–2019 (Antarctic), respectively. The long-term average of the lead frequency distributions show distinct features related to bathymetric structures in both hemispheres.


Smoking represents a serious worldwide public health problem because of its close association with the development of chronic disease and cancer. Acupoint stimulation has been used as treatment mode for smoking cessation but its efficacy remains controversial. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine the effects of acupoint stimulation on smoking cessation rate and daily cigarette consumption. Electronic literature searches in eight electronic databases up to March 2011 were performed to identify acupoint stimulation for smoking cessation. The outcomes assessed were smoking cessation rate and cigarette consumption. We assessed abstinence from smoking at the earliest and last measured time points, and at the 3- and 6-month follow-ups. Meta-analysis was performed using CMA software. A total of 20 RCTs were included in the meta-analysis. A significant effect of acupoint stimulation was found in smoking cessation rates and cigarette consumption at immediate, 3- and 6-month follow-ups, with effect sizes 1.24 (95%CI = 1.07 ~ 1.43, p = 0.003), -2.49 (95%CI = -4.65 ~ -0.34, p = 0.02), 1.70 (95%CI = 1.17 ~ 2.46, p = 0.01), and 1.79 (95%CI = 1.13 ~ 2.82, p = 0.01), respectively. Multi-modality treatments, especially acupuncture combined with smoking cessation education or other interventions, can help smokers to eschew smoking during treatment, and to avoid relapse after treatment.


Most animals suffer from predators. Besides killing prey, predators can affect prey physiology, morphology and behaviour. Spiders are among the most diverse and frequent predators in terrestrial ecosystems. Our behavioural arena experiments revealed that behavioural changes under spider predation risk are relatively scarce among arthropods. Wood crickets (Nemobius sylvestris), in particular, changed their behaviour in response to cues of various spider species. Thereby, more common and relatively larger spider species induced stronger antipredator behaviour in crickets.

Behavioural changes under predation risk are expected to enhance predator avoidance, but they come at a cost. Crickets previously confronted with cues of the nursery web spider (Pisaura mirabilis) were indeed more successful in avoiding predation. Surprisingly, crickets slightly increased food uptake and lost less weight under predation risk, indicating that crickets are able to compensate for short-term cost under predation risk. In a following plant choice experiment, crickets strongly avoided plants bearing spider cues, which in turn reduced the herbivory on the respective plants.

Similar to spiders, ants are ubiquitous predators and can have a strong impact on herbivores, but also on other predators. Juvenile spiders increased their propensity for long-distance dispersal if exposed to ant cues. Thus, spiders use this passive dispersal through the air (ballooning) to avoid ants and colonise new habitats.

In a field experiment, we compared arthropod colonisation between plants bearing cues of the nursery web spider and cue-free plants. We followed herbivory during the experimental period and sampled the arthropod community on the plants. In accordance with the plant choice experiment, herbivory was reduced on plants bearing spider cues. In addition, spider cues led to changes in the arthropod community: smaller spiders and black garden ants (Lasius niger) avoided plants bearing spider cues. In contrast, common red ants (Myrmica rubra) increased the recruitment of workers, possibly to protect their aphids.

Although behavioural changes were relatively rare on filter papers bearing spider cues, more natural experimental setups revealed strong and far-reaching effects of predation risk. We further suggest that risk effects influence the spatial distribution of herbivory, rather than reduce overall herbivory that is expected if predators kill herbivores. Consequently, the relative importance of predation and risk effects is crucial for the way predators affect lower trophic levels.


To examine PG production in estrogen deficiency, we studied effects on cultured neonatal mouse calvariae of bone marrow supernatants (MSup) from sham-operated (SHAM), ovariectomized (OVX), or 17 beta-estradiol (OVX+E)-treated mice. MSups were obtained 3 wk after OVX when bone density had decreased significantly. 10-60% MSup increased medium PGE2 and levels of mRNA for inducible and constitutive prostaglandin G/H synthase (PGHS-2 and PGHS-1) and cytosolic phospholipase A2 in calvarial cultures. OVX MSups had twofold greater effects on PGHS-2 and medium PGE2 than other MSups. IL-1 receptor antagonist and anti-IL-1 alpha neutralizing antibody decreased MSup-stimulated PGHS-2 mRNA and PGE2 levels and diminished differences among OVX, sham-operated, and OVX+E groups. In contrast, antibodies to IL-1 beta, IL-6, IL-11, and TNF alpha had little effect. There were no significant differences in IL-1 alpha concentrations or IL-1 alpha mRNA levels in MSups or marrow cells. PGHS-2 mRNA in freshly isolated tibiae from OVX mice was slightly greater than from sham-operated. We conclude that bone marrow factors can increase PG production through stimulation of PGHS-2; that OVX increases and estrogen decreases activity of these factors; and that IL-1 alpha activity, together with additional unknown factors, mediates the differential MSup effects.


The subject of forensic specialists' work with human remains in the aftermath of conflict has remained largely unexplored within the existing literature. Drawing upon anthropological fieldwork conducted from 2009–10 in three mortuary facilities overseen by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), this article analyses observations of and interviews with ICMP forensic specialists as a means of gaining insight into their experiences with the remains of people who went missing during the 1992–95 war in BiH. The article specifically focuses on how forensic specialists construct and maintain their professional identities within an emotionally charged situation. Through analysing forensic specialists' encounters with human remains, it is argued that maintaining a professional identity requires ICMP forensic specialists to navigate between emotional attachment and engagement according to each situation.


While it is often argued that police torture is institutionalised in India, the only authoritative government-backed study of the practice in the history of modern India is the Madras Torture Commission Report of 1855. In the context of the silence that surrounds present-day police violence in India, the rather curious phenomenon of an investigative Commission, instituted by a colonial state, over a hundred and fifty years ago, is particularly interesting. In this article, I attempt a textual analysis of this Report, and an investigation of its ideological and historical context. I argue that the Report primarily served to discursively "manage" the issue of torture, by erasing the complicity of the colonial state in its practice, and that the reforms it suggested resulted in the institutionalisation of a specifically colonial model in the restructuring of the Indian police, a structure that substantially survives to this day.


In order to study rigorously object-oriented languages such as Java or C, a common practice is to define lightweight fragments, or calculi, which are sufficiently small to facilitate formal proofs of key properties. However many of the current proposals for calculi lack important language features. In this paper we propose Middleweight Java, MJ, as a contender for a minimal imperative core calculus for Java. Whilst compact, MJ models features such as object identity, field assignment, constructor methods and block structure. We define the syntax, type system and operational semantics of MJ, and give a proof of type safety. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of MJ to reason about operational features, we consider a recent proposal of Greenhouse and Boyland to extend Java with an effects system. This effects system is intended to delimit the scope of computational effects within a Java program. We define an extension of MJ with a similar effects system and instrument the operational semantics. We then prove the correctness of the effects system; a question left open by Greenhouse and Boyland. We also consider the question of effect inference for our extended calculus, detail an algorithm for inferring effects information and give a proof of correctness.


The study has been on the impact of security expenditure on the level of economic growth in Nigeria. Using data covering the period between 1980 and 2010, the ECM result shows that the expenditure on defence has a negative impact on the level of economic growth. An indication of flawed expenditure budgeting and implementation in the defence sector. Expenditure on internal security played important role in generating the desired level of economic growth in Nigeria. The low elasticity indicates that the significance was below expectations. The result of the variance decomposition shows that the shocks to expenditure on defense did not significantly explain the changes in the level of economic growth in Nigeria. Expenditure on internal security however played a role in influencing the level of economic growth in Nigeria. The result of the Johansen cointegration test shows a long run relationship among the variables and the error correction result shows a satisfactory speed of adjustment. It is thus recommended that government should reassess the content of her defense expenditure and make it more transparent and growth oriented.


This article offers a cultural-narrative analysis of key texts in postwar consumer protection law. It posits that reform-minded courts, treating the consumer as feminized and in need of protection, offered an alternative (or augmentation) to the standard analysis, which attributes the heightened consumer protection of the postwar era as a functionalist response to changing manufacturing and marketing conditions. The premise of the article is that gendered nuances emerged in consumer protection doctrine based on the stereotypical postwar image of the consumer as a suburban-stay-at-home-mother-nurturer, who, though disempowered in the larger culture in relation to men, nonetheless managed the consumption for the family. With the mass production and mass advertising that intensified in the postwar era, the theory of caveat emptor shifted to an ideology that saw the feminized consumer as too susceptible to advertising and helplessly unable to have command of the complexities of modern products to buy intelligently, and thus, in need of protection within the marketplace. The article tracks this shift from knowledgeable buyer to disempowered and feminized consumer as seen through three early 1960s New Jersey Supreme Court decisions that spearheaded a substantial expansion of legal protection for consumers nationally - Henningsen v. Bloomfield Motors, Schipper v. Levitt & Sons, Inc., and Santor v. A & M Karagheusian. This legal shift, the article argues, reflected and reinforced ideas about women and gender roles that were circulating in postwar culture.


In this text we survey some large deviation results for diffusion processes. The first chapters present results from the literature such as the Freidlin-Wentzell theorem for diffusions with small noise. We use these results to prove a new large deviation theorem about diffusion processes with strong drift. This is the main result of the thesis. In the later chapters we give another application of large deviation results, namely to determine the exponential decay rate for the Bayes risk when separating two different processes. The final chapter presents techniques which help to experiment with rare events for diffusion processes by means of computer simulations.


Ant colonies regulate activity in response to changing conditions without using centralized control. Harvester ant colonies forage in the desert for seeds, and their regulation of foraging manages a tradeoff between spending and obtaining water. Foragers lose water while outside in the dry air, but the colony obtains water by metabolizing the fats in the seeds they eat. Previous work shows that the rate at which an outgoing forager leaves the nest depends on its recent experience of brief antennal contact with returning foragers that carry a seed. We examine how this process can yield foraging rates that are robust to uncertainty and responsive to temperature and humidity across minutes to hour-long timescales. To explore possible mechanisms, we develop a low-dimensional analytical model with a small number of parameters that captures observed foraging behavior. The model uses excitability dynamics to represent response to interactions inside the nest and a random delay distribution to represent foraging time outside the nest. We show how feedback of outgoing foragers returning to the nest stabilizes the incoming and outgoing foraging rates to a common value determined by the "volatility" of available foragers. The model exhibits a critical volatility above which there is sustained foraging at a constant rate and below which there is cessation of foraging. To explain how the foraging rates of colonies adjust to temperature and humidity, we propose a mechanism that relies on foragers modifying their volatility after they leave the nest and get exposed to the environment. Our study highlights the importance of feedback in the regulation of foraging activity and points to modulation of volatility as a key to explaining differences in foraging activity in response to conditions and across colonies. Our results present opportunities for generalization to other contexts and systems with excitability and feedback across multiple timescales. Author Summary We investigate the collective behavior that allows colonies of desert harvester ants to regulate foraging activity in response to environmental conditions. We develop an analytical model connecting three processes: 1) the interactions between foragers returning to the nest and available foragers waiting inside the nest, 2) the effect of these interactions on the likelihood of available foragers to leave the nest to forage, and 3) the return of foragers to the nest after finding seeds. We propose a mechanism in which available foragers modify their response to interactions after their first exposure to the environment. We show how this leads to colony foraging rates that adjust to environmental conditions over time scales from minutes to hours. Our model may prove useful for studying resilience in other classes of systems with excitatory dynamics.


This article reviews research in the development of plan generation systems. Our goal is to familiarize the reader with some of the important problems that have arisen in the design of planning systems and to discuss some of the many solutions that have been developed in the over 30 years of research in this area. In this article, we broadly cover the major ideas in the field of AI planning and show the direction in which some current research is going. We define some of the terms commonly used in the planning literature, describe some of the basic issues coming from the design of planning systems, and survey results in the area. Because such tasks are virtually never ending, and thus, any finite document must be incomplete, we provide references to connect each idea to the appropriate literature and allow readers access to the work most relevant to their own research or applications.


The phenomenon of pro-anorexia websites is beginning to receive attention within the academy following its increasing visibility in popular media. Pro-Ana is vibrant, yet subversive online community, with membership purportedly comprised of girls in their mid to late teens. This article draws on an Honours research project that explored discursive representation on two such websites. It draws on post-structuralist feminist theoretical resources, and discourse analysis to explore the constructions of identity and bodily inscriptions within the Pro-Ana community. We include a brief statement on historical constructions of anorexia, as well as more contemporary medical and lay representations. Our main analysis focuses on a generic logo of the websites, which reads "anorexia is a lifestyle not a disease". We argue that members of the Pro-Ana community (Anas) display agency by both resisting and conforming to dominant discursive representations of anorexia, problematizing dominant constructions of the gendered body. We posit that this performativity is a critical reply to the medical and public responses to the anorexic body and the phenomenon of Pro-Ana.


Abstract Comparative measurements of elder dementia patients using multiple choice auditory graphic interactive check (MAGIC) and standard audiometry Setting Considering the demographic change of Germany (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2011) and the accordingly increasing risk of age-related diseases (Neubauer, et al., 2011), this research analyzes the measurement of deafness of probands who suffer from dementia, aged between 69 and 95 years with an average age of 86,3 years. One characteristic of dementia disease is communication problems (Alzheimer, 1911; Richter, 2003), which can be intensified by an eventually coexisting deafness (Lin, et al., 2011). Object of investigation The investigation, informing this research, engages in the question, wether an established audiometry for children can simplify the screening of hearing of elder people suffering from dementia and to what extent an additional loss of hearing can be detected. Research method The measurements were performed with a standard audiometry and compared to a multiple choice auditory graphic interactive check (MAGIC) (PATH, 2011) to analyze the grade of deafness of 18 nursing home residents (72 % female, 28 % male) who were diagnosed with dementia beforehand. The used ranges of frequencies in this measurement were 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz, and 4000 Hz. Results Out of this group of probands 7 persons could be tested with the standard audiometry and 6 persons could be tested with the MAGIC. 5 persons could be tested also with the standard audiometry and the MAGIC. It was noticeable, that more probants were diagnoseable with the standard audiometry than there were with the MAGIC. During conducting the measurements it was often difficult for the probands to follow the sequence of the MAGIC. Conclusions The utilisation of the MAGIC in its current design is only restricted recommendable related to people suffering from dementia at present and often must be replaced by a the standard audiometry. The measurements performed in the context of this rersearch show the importance and necessity to diagnose a loss of hearing, since all probands showed signs of deafness. Keywords: demographic progress - dementia – MAGIC – standard audiometry


In the discussion of architecture, there is a prevailing sentiment that, since 1968, cultural production in its traditional sense can no longer be understood to rise spontaneously, as a matter of social course, but must now be constructed through ever more self-conscious theoretical procedures. The development of interpretive modes of various stripes -- post-structuralist, Marxian, phenomenological, psychoanalytic, as well as others dissenting or eccentric -- has given scholars a range of tools for rethinking architecture in relation to other fields and for reasserting architectures general importance in intellectual discourse. This anthology presents forty-seven of the primary texts of architecture theory, introducing each with an explication of the concepts and categories necessary for its understanding and evaluation. It also presents twelve documents of projects or events that had major theoretical repercussions for the period. Several of the essays appear here in English for the first time. ContributorsDiana Agrest, Stanford Anderson, Archizoom, George Baird, Jennifer Bloomer, Massimo Cacciari, Jean-Louis Cohen, Beatriz Colomina, Alan Colquhoun, Maurice Culot, Jacques Derrida, Ignasi de Sola-Morales, Peter Eisenman, Robin Evans, Michel Foucault, Kenneth Frampton, Mario Gandelsonas, Frank Gehry, Jurgen Habermas, John Hejduk, Denis Hollier, Bernard Huet, Catherine Ingraham, Fredric Jameson, Charles A. Jencks, Jeffrey Kipnis, Fred Koetter, Rem Koolhaas, Leon Krier, Sanford Kwinter, Henri Lefebvre, Daniel Libeskind, Mary McLeod, Alberto Perez-Gomez, Jose Quetglas, Aldo Rossi, Colin Rowe, Massimo Scolari, Denise Scott Brown, Robert Segrest, Jorge Silvetti, Robert Somol, Martin Steinmann, Robert A. M. Stern, James Stirling, Manfredo Tafuri, Georges Teyssot, Bernard Tschumi, Anthony Vidler, Paul Virilio, Mark Wigley.


In order to plan operations where knowledge of significant elements is imprecise and uncertain, a means of characterizing the situation in terms of the various factors that may influence those operations must be provided. In this paper we discuss an approach to that characterization that uses evidential reasoning to handle the uncertainty, imprecision, and incompleteness typical of sources of real-world information and knowledge, to support planning routes for military helicopters. Evidential reasoning is a maturing collection of inference techniques for reasoning with uncertain information. Based on the Shafer-Dempster theory of evidence, evidential reasoning uses a non-Bayesian updating scheme to combine evidence provided by multiple diverse knowledge sources. Knowledge sources in an evidential reasoning system are not required to attribute their belief to a universe of discourse comprised solely of mutually exclusive, exhaustive, singleton events, as required by a classical probability approach. Rather, they may express levels of ignorance explicitly by allocating belief to disjunctions of propositions, thereby leading directly to an interval measure of belief; ignorance is expressed by the width of this interval. Evidential reasoning evolved from consideration of appropriate models for reasoning about information acquired from sensors, and therefore seems natural for drawing conclusions from sensor data and prestored maps regarding the degree to which a selected geographic area will support certain activities. Here, we discuss evidential reasoning and illustrate the utility of the technology for classifying geographic areas by describing our current map-and-sensor-based research in which we estimate the utility of land areas for concealing helicopter operations.


Computer games are an increasingly popular application for Artificial Intelligence (AI) research, and conversely AI is an increasingly popular selling point for commercial digital games. AI for non playing characters (NPC) in computer games tends to come from people with computing skills well beyond the average user. The prime reason behind the lack of involvement of novice users in creating AI behaviors for NPC's in computer games is that construction of high quality AI behaviors is a hard problem. There are two reasons for it. First, creating a set of AI behavior requires specialized skills in design and programming. The nature of the process restricts it to certain individuals who have a certain expertise in this area. There is little understanding of how the behavior authoring process can be simplified with easy-to-use authoring environments so that novice users (without programming and design experience) can carry out the behavior authoring task. Second, the constructed AI behaviors have problems and bugs in them which cause a break in player experience when the problematic behaviors repeatedly fail. It is harder for novice users to identify, modify and correct problems with the authored behavior sets as they do not have the necessary debugging and design experience. The two issues give rise to a couple of interesting questions that need to be investigated: (a) How can the AI behavior construction process be simplified so that a novice user (without programming and design experience) can easily conduct the authoring activity and (b) How can the novice users be supported to help them identify and correct problems with the authored behavior sets?
In this thesis, I explore the issues related to the problems highlighted and propose a solution to them within an application domain, named Second Mind(SM). In SM novice users who do not have expertise in computer programming employ an authoring interface to design behaviors for intelligent virtual characters performing a service in a virtual world. These services range from shopkeepers to museum hosts. The constructed behaviors are further repaired using an AI based approach. To evaluate the construction and repair approach, we conduct experiments with human subjects.
Based on developing and evaluating the solution, I claim that a design solution with behavior timeline based interaction design approach for behavior construction supported by an understandable vocabulary and reduced feature representation formalism enables novice users to author AI behaviors in an easy and understandable manner for NPCs performing a service in a virtual world. I further claim that an introspective reasoning approach based on comparison of successful and unsuccessful execution traces can be used as a means to successfully identify breaks in player experience and modify the failures to improve the experience of the player interacting with NPCs performing a service in a virtual world. The work contributes in the following three ways by providing: (1) a novel introspective reasoning approach for successfully detecting and repairing failures in AI behaviors for NPCs performing a service in a virtual world.; (2) a novice user understandable authoring environment to help them create AI behaviors for NPCs performing a service in a virtual world in an easy and understandable manner; and (3) Design, debugging and testing scaffolding to help novice users modify their authored AI behaviors and achieve higher quality modified AI behaviors compared to their original unmodified behaviors.


The Coasean insight that transaction costs stand between the world as we know it and an ideal of perfect efficiency has provided generations of law and economics scholars with an analytic north star. But for legal scholars interested in the efficiency implications of property arrangements, transaction costs turn out to constitute an unhelpful category. Transaction costs are related to property rights in unstable and contested ways, and they comprise a heterogeneous set of impediments, not all of which are amenable to cost-effective reduction through law. Treating them as focal confuses the cause of our difficulties in structuring access to resources (positive transaction costs) with the solution to the problem presented by a world featuring scarce resources and positive transaction costs. A broader notion of resource access costs, appropriately subdivided, can correct problems of overinclusion, underinclusion, and insufficient specification in the transaction cost concept. The resulting analytic clarity will allow property theorists to contribute more usefully to solving resource problems.Note: This paper previously circulated under the title "Resource Access Costs"


This piece provides an in-depth review and analysis of two recent books about Supreme Court law clerks, Courtiers of the Marble Palace: The Rise and Influence of the Supreme Court Law Clerk, by Todd C. Peppers, and Sorcerers' Apprentices: 100 Years of Law Clerks at the United States Supreme Court, by Artemus Ward and David L. Weiden. In addition, the essay addresses a question so obvious that it is rarely asked – why is there so much curiosity about Supreme Court law clerks in the first place? In the essay, I analyze a widespread concern – and one discussed in both books – that law clerks have "too much" influence or even that they are the real decisionmakers on the Court. I argue that in fact this concern is a proxy for two important questions: how does the Court decide what cases to take and what role does (and should) ideology play in the work of the Supreme Court.With respect to the process of selecting cases to review on the merits – the certiorari (cert) process – I argue that a careful analysis of the process reveals that the likelihood is quite low that the Court denies cert petitions the justices would grant if they reviewed the petitions themselves instead of relying largely on their law clerks. I also argue that with respect to the cert process, the Court's extreme secrecy does not serve it well. More information about how the process works and why the Court denies or grants cert in particular cases or types of cases would benefit the not only the bar and the public, but also the Court itself.Second, I argue that concern about undue ideological influence by law clerks is really a displaced anxiety about the much thornier question of the appropriate role of ideology in Supreme Court judging. This anxiety arises in part from mixed messages about whether the Court is a political entity making important decisions about subjects on which there may not be social consensus or whether it is, as Chief Justice Roberts put it at his confirmation hearings, a neutral umpire calling balls and strikes. People seek to alleviate their anxiety by trying to figure out how the justices do their work – leading to the intense curiosity about what law clerks do. More candor about the inherently political nature of at least some of the Court's work might not entirely eliminate the anxiety, but it would refocus it from the largely tangential question of law clerk influence onto difficult but crucial questions about the relationship between Supreme Court jurisprudence and ideology and about the proper role of the Court in our democracy.


The poor state of quality education in South Africa is confirmed by the weak performance of South African students on international tests, even when compared to countries with comparatively poorer education systems. This paper aims to shed light on this issue through the use of the PIRLS 2006 dataset and education production function techniques. A unique feature of this dataset is that schools were able to choose the language in which the test was conducted. This provided a proxy for former school department, a feature that has not been captured in international survey datasets. A clear distinction between the historically black and the historically white, coloured and Indian school systems is needed in order to identify the different data generating processes at work. The regression model results reveal that family and student characteristics are undoubtedly important for performance within both school samples. At the level of the school, quite divergent school factors and classroom processes were found to have significant impacts on student performance across the two school systems. It is concluded that a lack of enabling conditions such as effective leadership, flexibility and autonomy, and a capable teaching force may contribute to certain school and classroom processes not playing a significant role in determining performance in the less affluent black school system.


Are you possessed by the urge to invent, design, and make something that others enjoy, but don't know how to plug into the Maker movement? In this book, you'll follow author David Lang's headfirst dive into the Maker world and how he grew to be a successful entrepreneur. You'll discover how to navigate this new community, and find the best resources for learning the tools and skills you need to be a dynamic maker in your own right. Lang reveals how he became a pro maker after losing his job, and how the experience helped him start OpenROV - a DIY community and product line focused on open source undersea exploration. It all happened once he became an active member of the Maker culture. Ready to take the plunge into the next Industrial Revolution? This guide provides a clear and inspiring roadmap. Take an eye-opening journey from unskilled observer to engaged maker-entrepreneur Enter the Maker community to connect with experts and pick up new skills Use a template for building a maker-based entrepreneurial lifestyle Learn from the organizer of the first-ever Maker Startup Weekend Be prepared for exciting careers of the future


[1] Measurements of NO2 were taken at Cornelia Fort Airpark in Nashville, TN, during the 1999 Southern Oxidant Study using three different techniques: photolysis to NO followed by chemiluminescence (PCL), laser-induced fluorescence (LIF), and differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS). This was an informal comparison of these techniques conducted during the 1999 Southern Oxidant Study. The PCL and LIF instruments were connected to a common manifold that sampled at the top of a 10-m-walkup tower. The DOAS instrument sampled over a 1.37-km-long light path with end points at 2 and 35 m above ground. The range of NO2 mixing ratios measured was 0.75 ppbv to over 60 ppbv and the median value was nearly 3 ppbv. While preliminary data analysis showed overall agreement between the LIF and PCL instruments to within 1% (least squares slope = 0.99; r2 = 0.98), subsequent analysis revealed a discontinuous shift of about 12% in the PCL data, which was confirmed by comparison to the DOAS data. A leak in the PCL inlet system was the likely cause. After adjustment of the affected PCL data, a comparison of all the coincident measurements showed high correlation (r2 > 0.99) and overall agreement to within 5%. Analysis of the ratios of PCL NO2 to LIF NO2 showed that greater than 90% of individual data points agree to within the total combined instrumental uncertainties. However, the comparison over short time periods is more precise than the average over the campaign. We attribute this to the need for improved PCL instrument data reduction procedures. The two in situ instruments were also operated side by side a year later in Houston, TX, with similar results.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the current statin use among high-risk patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases in Chinese large hospitals.

METHODS
Clinical history and current medication were recorded in 11 783 patients with a history of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) from 39 highest-ranking hospitals in 10 Chinese cities.

RESULTS
Indication for statin use was given for all screened patients and statin was not prescribed in up to 59.6% (7022) patients. For patients with statin use, medication time was shorter than their atherosclerotic CVD history in 1120 (23.5%) patients. The proportion of statin use among patients with ischemic stroke was 19.6%, among patients with coronary heart disease without ischemic stroke was 59.2%.

CONCLUSION
Statin is underused in secondary prevention among patients with atherosclerotic CVD in China. There is a large gap between guideline recommended statin use and in practice. Thus, it remains a major challenge for healthcare professionals and policy makers to resolve this problem rapidly.


We introduce a generalization of the classical game of Nim by placing the piles on the vertices of a simplicial complex and allowing a move to aect the piles on any set of vertices that forms a face of the complex. Under certain conditions on the complex we present a winning strategy. These conditions are satised, for instance, when the simplicial complex consists of the independent sets of a binary matroid. Moreover, we study four operations on a simplicial complex under which games on the complex behave nicely. We also consider particular complexes that correspond to natural generalizations of classical Nim.


A NASA DC-8 research aircraft penetrated tropospheric gas and aerosol plumes sourced from active volcanoes in Ecuador and Colombia during the Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC^4) mission in July–August 2007. The likely source volcanoes were Tungurahua (Ecuador) and Nevado del Huila (Colombia). The TC^4 data provide rare insight into the chemistry of volcanic plumes in the tropical troposphere and permit a comparison of SO_2 column amounts measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite with in situ SO_2 measurements. Elevated concentrations of SO_2, sulfate aerosol, and particles were measured by DC-8 instrumentation in volcanic outflow at altitudes of 3–6 km. Estimated plume ages range from ~2 h at Huila to ~22–48 h downwind of Ecuador. The plumes contained sulfate-rich accumulation mode particles that were variably neutralized and often highly acidic. A significant fraction of supermicron volcanic ash was evident in one plume. In-plume O_3 concentrations were ~70%–80% of ambient levels downwind of Ecuador, but data are insufficient to ascribe this to O_3 depletion via reactive halogen chemistry. The TC^4 data record rapid cloud processing of the Huila volcanic plume involving aqueous-phase oxidation of SO_2 by H_2O_2, but overall the data suggest average in-plume SO_2 to sulfate conversion rates of ~1%–2% h^(−1). SO_2 column amounts measured in the Tungurahua plume (~0.1–0.2 Dobson units) are commensurate with average SO_2 columns retrieved from OMI measurements in the volcanic outflow region in July 2007. The TC^4 data set provides further evidence of the impact of volcanic emissions on tropospheric acidity and oxidizing capacity.


This paper examines whether complying with U.S. financial reporting requirements impacts non-U.S. firms' cross-listing decisions and listing choices. Using two constructs (reconciliation and disclosure) established at the firm level to proxy for foreign firms' U.S. GAAP compliance costs, I find that compliance is a significant cost factor when non-U.S. firms consider whether they should issue or list their shares in the U.S. However, the importance of compliance costs diminishes when foreign firms decide whether they should cross-list on an organized U.S. stock exchange. The reduced significance of compliance costs is likely attributed to the various benefits associated with exchange-listing, which potentially outweigh the compliance costs. The study extends prior research by measuring a major cross-listing cost directly at the firm level. It offers a new perspective on the cost and benefits analyses and contributes to the understanding of the role accounting plays in foreign firms' cross-listing activities.


Objective. To examine the association between region of origin and severe illness bringing a mother close to death (near‐miss). Design. Retrospective cohort study. Setting. Maternity units in Lower Saxony, Germany. Population. 441 199 mothers of singleton newborns in 2001–2007. Methods. Using chi‐squared tests, bivariate and multivariable logistic regression we examined the association between maternal region of origin and near‐miss outcomes with prospectively collected perinatal data up to seven days postpartum. Main outcome measures. Hysterectomy, hemorrhage, eclampsia and sepsis rates. Results. Eclampsia was not associated with region of origin. Compared to women from Germany, women from the Middle East (OR 2.24; 95%CI 1.60–3.12) and Africa/Latin America/other countries (OR 2.17; 95%CI 1.15–4.07) had higher risks of sepsis. Women from Asia (OR 3.37; 95%CI 1.66–6.83) and from Africa/Latin America/other countries had higher risks of hysterectomy (OR 2.65; 95%CI 1.36–5.17). Compared to German women, the risk of hemorrhage was higher among women from Asia (OR 1.55; 95%CI 1.19–2.01) and lower among women from the Middle East (OR 0.66, 95%CI 0.55–0.78). Adjusting for maternal age, parity, occupation, partner status, smoking, obesity, prenatal care, chronic conditions and infertility showed no association between country of origin and risk of sepsis. Conclusion. Region of origin was a strong predictor for near‐miss among women from the Middle East, Asia and Africa/Latin America/other countries. Confounders mostly did not explain the higher risks for maternal near‐miss in these groups of origin. Clinical studies and audits are required to examine the underlying causes for these risks.


The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a scientific technique in molecular biology to amplify a single or a few copies of a piece of DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence. Developed in 1983 by Kary Mullis, PCR is now a common and often indispensable technique used in medical and biological research labs for a variety of applications. These include DNA cloning for sequencing, DNA-based phylogeny, or functional analysis of genes; the diagnosis of hereditary diseases; the identification of genetic fingerprints (used in forensic sciences and paternity testing); and the detection and diagnosis of infectious diseases. In 1993, Mullis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on PCR. The method relies on thermal cycling, consisting of cycles of repeated heating and cooling of the reaction for DNA melting and enzymatic replication of the DNA. Primers (short DNA fragments) containing sequences complementary to the target region along with a DNA polymerase (after which the method is named) are key components to enable selective and repeated amplification. As PCR progresses, the DNA generated is itself used as a template for replication, setting in motion a chain reaction in which the DNA template is exponentially amplified. PCR can be extensively modified to perform a wide array of genetic manipulations. Almost all PCR applications employ a heat-stable DNA polymerase, such as Taq polymerase, an enzyme originally isolated from the bacterium Thermus aquaticus. This DNA polymerase enzymatically assembles a new DNA strand from DNA building blocks, the nucleotides, by using single-stranded DNA as a template and DNA oligonucleotides (also called DNA primers), which are required for initiation of DNA synthesis. The vast majority of PCR methods use thermal cycling, i.e., alternately heating and cooling the PCR sample to a defined series of temperature steps. These thermal cycling steps are necessary first to physically separate the two strands in a DNA double helix at a high temperature in a process called DNA melting. At a lower temperature, each strand is then used as the template in DNA synthesis by the DNA polymerase to selectively amplify the target DNA. The selectivity of PCR results from the use of primers that are complementary to the DNA region targeted for amplification under specific thermal cycling conditions. PCR principles and procedure ANNALS of the ORADEA UNIVERSITY. Fascicle of Management and Technological Engineering, Volume X (XX), 2011, NR1


Named one of the best books of 2017 by The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, & VoxThe father of virtual reality explains its dazzling possibilities by reflecting on his own lifelong relationship with technologyBridging the gap between tech mania and the experience of being inside the human body, Dawn of the New Everything is a look at what it means to be human at a moment of unprecedented technological possibility. Through a fascinating look back over his life in technology, Jaron Lanier, an interdisciplinary scientist and father of the term virtual reality, exposes VRs ability to illuminate and amplify our understanding of our species, and gives readers a new perspective on how the brain and body connect to the world. An inventive blend of autobiography, science writing, philosophy and advice, this book tells the wild story of his personal and professional life as a scientist, from his childhood in the UFO territory of New Mexico, to the loss of his mother, the founding of the first start-up, and finally becoming a world-renowned technological guru. Understanding virtual reality as being both a scientific and cultural adventure, Lanier demonstrates it to be a humanistic setting for technology. While his previous books offered a more critical view of social media and other manifestations of technology, in this book he argues that virtual reality can actually make our lives richer and fuller.


The effects of chronic hypoxia on properties of oxygen supply and demand were
investigated in mice found to have inherited differences in hypoxic exercise tolerance
(43). Previous results demonstrated that two major loci and an unknown number of
modifying genes were associated with the differences in hypoxic exercise performance
following 8 weeks exposure to hypobaric hypoxia in two inbred strains of mice,
BALB/cByJ (C) and C57BL/6J (B6), and their F1 hybrid (43). The three strains had
similar capacities for hypoxic exercise following exposure to normoxia. After 8 weeks of
hypoxic exposure, C mice showed little improvement in hypoxic exercise performance
while B6 mice had a significant improvement in fatigue resistance compared to normoxic
mice. Acclimated F1 mice, however, had a hypoxic exercise tolerance that far exceeded
that of either of the two parental strains. In the present study, all of the mouse strains
responded to hypoxia by elevating the hematocrit, hemoglobin, and BPG concentrations;
although, hypoxia-intolerant C mice had lower hematocrit and hemoglobin
concentrations following acclimation than both B6 and F1 mice. Mitochondrial densities
and distributions, as well as COX activities did not differ among strains or treatments,
suggesting that the muscles within the three strains have comparable oxygen demands.
F1 mice did, however, have very low concentrations of BPG relative to the other two
strains, and reduced concentrations of myoglobin in both skeletal and cardiac muscle
following hypoxic exposure. This suggests that the superior exercise performance of the
F1 mice may result from a relatively higher rate of oxygen supply to the muscles, such
that high concentrations of BPG and myoglobin are not required to keep up with oxygen
demand.


In many works Deirdre McCloskey criticizes professional economics for too readily representing man as a maximizing agent—Mr. Maximum Utility, or Max U. McCloskey says that economic activities are not the machinations of robots or mathematical functions, but rather affairs among human beings. She prefers to approach the human being as a complex of virtues (or lack thereof). In all this, I basically concur. But McCloskey says that the Max U approach represents man in terms of one virtue: prudence. She calls the Max U approach "Prudence Only." My concern is that associating Max U with prudence does not do justice to prudence. In treating of prudence, I draw exclusively from Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments. Smith makes many statements about prudence. It is by no means clear that they add up to a well defined notion of prudence, but it is clear that most of Smith's important statements about prudence do not fit the Max U approach. My paper aims to correct and avoid any notion that Smithian prudence may be thought of as maximization or optimization.


Polar research both on land and in the sea cannot achieve the needed progress without novel and state of the art technologies and infrastructure. In addition we have the obligation to equip the upcoming young and courageous generation of polar researchers with the most modern and safest research platforms the 21st century can provide. This effort will require major investments, both in terms of generating new tools, as well as maintaining/renovating existing infrastructure. There are many different novel tools presently being developed for polar research to be addressed, but in the following we will concentrate on the presently largest one, namely the planning for a new research icebreaker the AURORA BOREALIS, with an all season capability of endurance in permanently ice-covered waters and with the possibility to carry out deep-sea drilling in ice-covered deep-sea basins.AURORA BOREALIS will be the most advanced Polar Research Vessel in the world with a multi-functional role of drilling in deep ocean basins and supporting climate/environmental research and decision support for stakeholder governments for the next 35-40 years. The vessel will be a powerful research icebreaker with 44,000 tons displacement and a length of 196 m, with 50 Megawatt azimuth propulsion systems. The new technological features will include azimuth propulsion systems, satellite navigation and ice-management support and the deployment and operation of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) from the twin moon-pools. The most unique feature of the vessel is the deep drilling rig, which will enable sampling of the ocean floor and sub-sea up to 5000 m water and 1000 m penetration at the most inhospitable places on earth. The possibility to flexibly equip the ship with laboratory and supply containers, and the variable arrangement of other modular infrastructure (in particular, winches, cranes, etc.), free deck-space and separate protected deck areas, will allow the planned research vessel to cover the needs of most disciplines in marine research.


Once thought to be just a messenger that allows genetic information encoded in DNA to direct the formation of proteins, RNA (ribonucleic acid) is now known to be a highly versatile molecule that has multiple roles in cells. It can function as an enzyme, scaffold various subcellular structures, and regulate gene expression through a variety of mechanisms, as well as act as a key component of the protein synthesis and splicing machinery. Perhaps most interestingly, increasing evidence indicates that RNA preceded DNA as the hereditary material and played a crucial role in the early evolution of life on Earth. This volume reviews our understanding of two RNA worlds: the primordial RNA world before DNA, in which RNA was both information store and biocatalyst; and the contemporary RNA world, in which mRNA, tRNA, rRNA, siRNA, miRNA, and a host of other RNAs operate. The early chapters of the book analyze the role of RNA in the first life forms and the appearance of cells. Subsequent chapters examine riboswitches and ribozymes, establishing what the RNA molecule is capable of alone. The book goes on to discuss the evolution of ribosomes and the functions of RNPs, before reviewing the recent work that has revolutionized our understanding of gene regulation by non-coding RNAs, including miRNAs and siRNAs. Also covered are viral RNAs, telomerase RNA, and tools for scientists who work on RNA. The book is thus essential reading for all molecular biologists and biochemists, as well as chemists interested in RNA technology, information storage, or enzyme catalysis.


Policymakers of the United States have long been vocal supporters of the notion of self-determination, though they have been unable to agree on an operational definition or a consistent application of policy. Two of the most recent and most salient challenges to the United States foreign policy on self-determination movements abroad have been Kosovo and Palestine. These movements are both characterized by territorial, ethnic, and religious elements. They both have achieved a degree of political autonomy within the borders of an existing state. They have both declared independence from said state. The glaring difference is that the United States recognized the independence of Kosovo instantly, and has yet to recognize Palestine. The rhetoric of the United States maintains that its recognition of Kosovo is justified by its status as "unique" and "a special case." Elementally, Kosovo and Palestine are the same. However, the United States and its policymakers have perceived it as different, and not for the reasons that that are emphasized. There are two "real" reasons that the United States has recognized Kosovo. The first reason, quite simply, is that with its vociferous praise of the United States, Kosovo has played to America's egoistic streak, and it is being handsomely rewarded. Secondly, U.S. policymakers have made it evident in public speech that the state's proximity to a resurgent Russia has played a critical role in garnering American support of Kosovar independence.


WHAT ARE THE ODDS YOU'LL WIN THE LOTTERY? How long will your kids wait in line at Disney World? Who decides that "standardized tests" are fair? Why do highway engineers build slow-moving ramps? What does it mean, statistically, to be an "Average Joe"? NUMBERS RULE YOUR WORLD In the popular tradition of eye-opening bestsellers like Freakonomics, The Tipping Point, and Super Crunchers, this fascinating book from renowned statistician and blogger Kaiser Fung takes you inside the hidden world of facts and figures that affect you every day, in every way. These are the statistics that rule your life, your job, your commute, your vacation, your food, your health, your money, and your success. This is how engineers calculate your quality of living, how corporations determine your needs, and how politicians estimate your opinions. These are the numbers you never think about-even though they play a crucial role in every single aspect of your life. What you learn may surprise you, amuse you, or even enrage you. But there's one thing you won't be able to deny: Numbers Rule Your World..."An easy read with a big benefit." -Fareed Zakaria, CNN "For those who have anxiety about how organization data-mining is impacting their world, Kaiser Fung pulls back the curtain to reveal the good and the bad of predictive analytics." -Ian Ayres,Yale professor and author of Super Crunchers: Why Thinking By Numbers is the New Way to Be Smart "A book that engages us with stories that a journalist would write, the compelling stories behind the stories as illuminated by the numbers, and the dynamics that the numbers reveal." -John Sall, Executive Vice President, SAS Institute "Little did I suspect, when I picked up Kaiser Fung's book, that I would become so entranced by it - an illuminating and accessible exploration of the power of statistical analysis for those of us who have no prior training in a field that he explores so ably." -Peter Clarke, author of Keynes: The Rise, Fall, and Return of the 20th Century's Most Influential Economist "A tremendous book...If you want to understand how to use statistics, how to think with numbers and yet to do this without getting lost in equations, if you've been looking for the book to unlock the door to logical thinking about problems, well, you will be pleased to know that you are holding that book in your hands. " -Daniel Finkelstein, Executive Editor, The Times of London "I thoroughly enjoyed this accessible book and enthusiastically recommendit to anyone looking to understand and appreciate the role of statistics and dataanalysis in solving problems and in creating a better world." -Michael Sherman, Texas A&M University, American Statistician


Background: Oral cancer is among the top three types of cancers in India. Severe alcoholism, use of tobacco in the form of cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and betel nut chewing are the most common risk factors for oral cancer. Often individuals with pre cancer even notice the alterations, such as reduced mouth opening in oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF), but they are not aware about the causes and consequences of these changes. Awareness about causes and features of oral cancers can be very helpful in prevention, control and early diagnosis of oral cancer.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among students from Mumbai University, India during May-June 2017. Five hundred students were approached to participate in the study of which 400 agreed to participate. Pretested questionnaire was distributed and collected data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23.Results: There were 199 (49%) males and 201 (50%) females in the study and response rate was (80%). Respondents had good knowledge about oral cancer. Seventy four percent (268/362) respondents correctly identified smoking, and tobacco chewing as possible causes of oral cancer. Almost all (96%; 348/362) respondents correctly responded that oral cancer does not spread from person to person through touch or speaking. Seventy two percent (260/362) respondents believed that oral cancer is curable. Significantly higher number of male (98%) compared to female participants answered correctly to questions regarding spread of disease and occurrence of oral cancer in AIDS patients.Conclusions: Participants showed good knowledge about oral cancer. Female participants showed lesser knowledge compared to male counterparts. Details about oral cancer should be incorporated in the undergraduate curriculum and periodic awareness programs should be organized for students.


As typically employed, the contract provision known as the right of first refusal provides the grantee with a contingent option to purchase an asset if the grantor elects to sell. Conventional wisdom teaches that rights of first refusal are employed to avoid a costly future breakdown in bargaining between the grantor and the grantee and to guard against a sale to an undesirable party. In this Article I argue that the traditional justification is faulty. Because the provision deters potential buyers, the right of first refusal is costly for the contracting parties, and, if the sole aim of the contracting parties is to eliminate a future breakdown in bargaining, that goal can be achieved at a lower cost by committing to a paper auction. Having rejected the traditional justification, I go on to argue that the real motivation behind the adoption of rights of first refusal, at least in co-venturing relationships, must be a desire to inhibit the unilateral departure of a participant. I also argue that the use of rights of first refusal in other relationships, such as the lessor/lessee relationship, may be explained as an example of suboptimum standardization of contract terms. I conclude with a few thoughts concerning the implication of this analysis for private contracting and for legislatures that are considering mandating rights of first refusal.


Objectives Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) affect one in ten pregnancies and often persist postpartum when complications can occur. We aimed to determine the effectiveness and safety of pharmacological interventions, other interventions and different care models for postpartum hypertension management. Design A systematic review was undertaken. Nine electronic databases, including Medline, were searched from inception to 16 March 2017. After duplicate removal, 4561 records were screened. Two authors independently selected studies, extracted study characteristics and data, and assessed methodological quality. Setting Randomised controlled trials, case–control studies and cohort studies from any country and healthcare setting. Participants Postnatal women with HDP. Interventions Therapeutic intervention for management of hypertension, compared with another intervention, placebo or no intervention. Primary and secondary outcome measures Outcome data were collected for maternal mortality and severe morbidity; systolic, diastolic and mean arterial blood pressure (BP) control; and safety data. Secondary outcome data collected included the length of postnatal hospital stay and laboratory values. Results 39 studies were included (n=2901). Results were heterogeneous in terms of intervention, comparison and outcome requiring a narrative approach. There were insufficient data to recommend any single pharmacological intervention. 18 studies reported calcium-channel blockers, vasodilators and beta-blockers lowered BP postpartum. 12 of these reported safety data. Limited data existed regarding management in the weeks following hospital discharge. Neither loop diuretics (three studies) nor corticosteroids (one study) produced clinical benefit. Uterine curettage significantly reduced BP over the first 48 hours postpartum (range 6–13 mm Hg) compared with standard care (eight studies), with safety data only reported by four of eight studies. Conclusion There was insufficient evidence to recommend a particular BP threshold, agent or model of care, but three classes of antihypertensive appeared variably effective. Further comparative research, including robust safety data, is required. Curettage reduced BP, but without adequate reporting of harms, so it cannot currently be recommended.


In the present paper a list is given of the species of two families of spiders, the Micryphantidae and the Linyphiidae, as far as they are known from our country. The list is the result of a revision of the existing records, which date back to 1858, when G. A. Six published a list of spiders collected by him in the province of Utrecht, which was followed in 1863 by a supplementary list. Becker (1879a) republished the records of Six, and moreover mentioned the results of his own collecting in our country (1879b, c). I do not know whether the specimens concerned have been lost, or that the collectors did not consider it worth while to preserve the material on which their records are based. Because I have not seen their specimens, I have entered their records with a question-mark. It is possible that Six has given part of his material to A. W. M. van Hasselt, because the type-specimens of Linyphia henricae Six are still in the Collection Van Hasselt. Van Hasselt himself has published a catalogue of spiders in 1885, with supplementary lists in 1886, 1890 and 1898. He has preserved a few specimens only of each species, but together they constitute the first collection of spiders from our country still in existence, at present forming part of the collections of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie at Leiden. In an earlier paper (van Helsdingen, 1961) I published the results of a revision of the Micryphantidae and Linyphiidae of this collection. In the present paper van Hasselt's records are not repeated, but reference is made to my revision. I have attempted to trace the material of the more recent publications, viz., those by Chrysanthus (1951a, b, 1953, 1954, 1955a' b, 1957a, b, 1958 1961), Chrysanthus, van Damme and Naaktgeboren (1959a, b), van der Drift


Deciphering the functioning of biological networks is one of the central tasks in systems biology. In particular, signal transduction networks are crucial for the understanding of the cellular response to external and internal perturbations. Importantly, in order to cope with the complexity of these networks, mathematical and computational modeling is required. We propose a computational modeling framework in order to achieve more robust discoveries in the context of logical signaling networks. More precisely, we focus on modeling the response of logical signaling networks by means of automated reasoning using Answer Set Programming (ASP). ASP provides a declarative language for modeling various knowledge representation and reasoning problems. Moreover, available ASP solvers provide several reasoning modes for assessing the multitude of answer sets. Therefore, leveraging its rich modeling language and its highly efficient solving capacities, we use ASP to address three challenging problems in the context of logical signaling networks: learning of (Boolean) logical networks, experimental design, and identification of intervention strategies. Overall, the contribution of this thesis is three-fold. Firstly, we introduce a mathematical framework for characterizing and reasoning on the response of logical signaling networks. Secondly, we contribute to a growing list of successful applications of ASP in systems biology. Thirdly, we present a software providing a complete pipeline for automated reasoning on the response of logical signaling networks.


This invention is a new approach to designing foil bearings to increase their load capacity and improve their reliability through passive thermal management. In the present case, the bearing is designed in such a way as to prevent the carryover of lubricant from the exit of one sector to the inlet of the ensuing sector of the foil bearing. When such passive thermal management techniques are used, bearing load capacity is improved by multiples, and reliability is enhanced when compared to current foil bearings. This concept has recently been tested and validated, and shows that load capacity performance of foil bearings can be improved by a factor of two at relatively low speeds with potentially greater relative improvements at higher speeds. Such improvements in performance with respect to speed are typical of foil bearings. Additionally, operation of these newly conceived bearings shows much more reliability and repeatable performance. This trait can be exploited in machine design to enhance safety, reliability, and overall performance. Finally, lower frictional torque has been demonstrated when operating at lower (non-load capacity) loads, thus providing another improvement above the current state of the art. The objective of the invention is to incorporate features into a foil bearing that both enhance passive thermal management and temperature control, while at the same time improve the hydrodynamic (load capacity) performance of the foil bearing. Foil bearings are unique antifriction devices that can utilize the working fluid of a machine as a lubricant (typically air for turbines and motors, liquids for pumps), and as a coolant to remove excess energy due to frictional heating. The current state of the art of foil bearings utilizes forced cooling of the bearing and shaft, which represents poor efficiency and poor reliability. This invention embodies features that utilize the bearing geometry in such a manner as to both support load and provide an inherent and passive cooling mechanism. This cooling mechanism functions in such a way as to prevent used (higher temperature) lubricant from being carried over from the exit of one sector into the entry of the next sector of the foil bearing. The disclosed innovation is an improved foil bearing design that reduces or eliminates the need for force cooling of the bearing, while at the same time improving the load capacity of the bearing by at least a factor of two. These improvements are due to the elimination of lubricant carryover from the trailing edge of one sector into the leading edge of the next, and the mixing of used lubricant with the surrounding ambient fluid.


The children and nature movement is fueled by this fundamental idea: the child in nature is an endangered species, and the health of children and the health of the Earth are inseparable. Richard Louv, from the new edition In his landmark work "Last Child in the Woods, "Richard Louv brought together cutting-edge studies that pointed to direct exposure to nature as essential for a child s healthy physical and emotional development. Now this new edition updates the growing body of evidence linking the lack of nature in children s lives and the rise in obesity, attention disorders, and depression. Louv s message has galvanized an international back-to-nature campaign to Leave No Child Inside. His book will change the way you think about our future and the future of our children. [The] national movement to leave no child inside . . . has been the focus of Capitol Hill hearings, state legislative action, grass-roots projects, a U.S. Forest Service initiative to get more children into the woods and a national effort to promote a green hour in each day. . . . The increased activism has been partly inspired by a best-selling book, "Last Child in the Woods, " and its author, Richard Louv. "The Washington Post" "Last Child in the Woods, " which describes a generation so plugged into electronic diversions that it has lost its connection to the natural world, is helping drive a movement quickly flourishing across the nation. "The Nation s Health" This book is an absolute must-read for parents. "The Boston Globe" Now includesA Field Guide with 100 Practical Actions We Can Take Discussion Points for Book Groups, Classrooms, and Communities Additional Notes by the Author New and Updated Research from the U.S. and Abroad"


Authorized by the 2008 Farm Act, the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program is the first revenue-based, income-support program that calculates payments using recent market prices and a producer's actual plantings. The payments are triggered when a farm's revenue and State revenue (price multiplied by yield per planted acre) fall below a calculated guarantee for a crop. By contrast, other income-support programs are based on legislated rates and support levels, computed using a farm's base acres and payment yields. Had the ACRE program been available during crop years 1996-2008, this report shows that farmers would have benefited more from participating in 2002 Farm Act programs than in the hypothetical ACRE program. The report further suggests that, for 2009-12, producers of corn, soybeans, wheat, and rice are likely to benefit more from the ACRE program than from the price-based, income-support programs. Initial enrollment data suggest that factors aside from expected market prices and yields entered into the enrollment decision such as producer risk preferences and initial learning and negotiation costs. Data indicate that about 8 percent of farms with almost 13 percent of eligible base acres elected to participate in ACRE, which is less than might be expected given price-and yield-based analysis alone.


World-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, in decades of research on achievement and success, has discovered a truly groundbreaking idea-the power of our mindset. Dweck explains why its not just our abilities and talent that bring us success-but whether we approach them with a fixed or growth mindset. She makes clear why praising intelligence and ability doesnt foster self-esteem and lead to accomplishment, but may actually jeopardize success. With the right mindset, we can motivate our kids and help them to raise their grades, as well as reach our own goals-personal and professional. Dweck reveals what all great parents, teachers, CEOs, and athletes already know: how a simple idea about the brain can create a love of learning and a resilience that is the basis of great accomplishment in every area.