Guiding optical energy in metal–dielectric nanostructures by the use of plasmon excitations known as surface plasmons has received much attention over the past few decades. The diverse applications of this technology span many areas in modern science, including scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM), bio-medical imaging and sensing, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and the realization of nanophotonic circuit elements. Plasmonic waveguides play a prominent role in the efficient operation of these devices, which are responsible for carrying optical signals in subwavelength dimensions. The guided optical modes suffer from propagation losses that arise due to various factors, such as scattering from surface imperfections in waveguides, absorption losses in dielectrics, and ohmic heating in metals. Even though scattering losses may be minimized by employing cutting-edge fabrication techniques that stem from the rapid advancements in material engineering, and dielectric losses are often negligibly small, the metal losses are high in magnitude and thus cannot be overlooked. Since metals are essential to sustain and guide the plasmonic modes, metal losses cannot be entirely eliminated. However, these losses may be compensated by doping the dielectric with rare-earth ions and providing optical gain via pumping. Since the amount of optical gain that can be supplied is practically limited, it is vital that waveguides are designed in such a way that the detrimental effects of metal losses are minimal. Waveguides of different geometrical shapes and arrangements have been identified as candidates for plasmonic waveguides, such as planar waveguides, circular cylinders, waveguides with square and triangular cross-sections, metal wedges and grooves, and linear chains of metal and metal–dielectric composite particles. These geometries have their own merits and demerits, in terms of the propagation losses and mode confinement. In this dissertation, the focus is on planar and circularly cylindrical geometries, and a number of both active and passive multi-layer structures are examined numerically, as well as analytically, for the efficient propagation of plasmonic modes. The effect of the geometrical parameters of the waveguide on propagation characteristics is investigated below the plasmon resonance frequency. Considering a planar waveguide consisting of a finite dielectric layer on a thick metal, it is shown that the guided mode experiences maximal modal gain at a particular thickness of the optically pumped dielectric layer. The threshold gain required to fully compensate for the losses (critical gain) in a metal–dielectric– metal (MDM) waveguide of infinite extent is estimated analytically, and an exact analytical expression for the confinement factor is derived. The more realistic case of an MDM structure with finite metal layers is also investigated, and it is revealed that thicknesses of metal/dielectric layers can be adjusted to ensure the furthest propagation of the guided mode. When the dielectric region is pumped to provide optical gain, the losses may be suppressed by minimal pump power at a particular choice of geometrical parameters. Additionally, it is shown that the gain experienced by the mode also becomes minimal, depending on the waveguide geometry. An exact analytical expression for the confinement factor is also presented. For a dielectric–metal–dielectric waveguide capped with metal, an approximate analytical solution for the dispersion equation is derived. The optimal geometrical parameters that yield the furthest propagation of the mode and compensation of losses with minimal optical gain are estimated analytically. Furthermore, approximate analytical expressions for the critical gain and the confinement factor are derived. Several composite cylindrical nanowire structures are also investigated for plasmonic guiding. For a nanowire consisting of a dielectric core and a metal cladding, it is shown that the critical gain becomes minimal at a particular cladding thickness. Similarly, the geometrical parameters of metal-core dielectricclad nanowires can also be chosen to lower the material gain requirement. Cylindrical MDM nanowires are also investigated, and it is shown that the guided mode can be strongly confined within the dielectric layer. The existence of optimal nanowire geometry that enables maximum propagation length of the mode and compensation of metal losses with minimal material gain is found.


Background: In 2002, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) introduced a new requirement: residents must demonstrate competency in Practice-Based Learning and Improvement (PBLI). Training in this domain is still not consistently integrated into programmes, with few, if any, adequately going beyond knowledge of basic content and addressing all components of the requirement. Aim: To summarise the implementation of a PBLI curriculum designed to address all components of the requirement and to evaluate the impact on the practice system. Methods: A case-study approach was used for identifying and evaluating the steps for delivering the curriculum, along with the Model for Improvement's successive Plan–Do–Study–Act (PDSA) cycles (July 2004–May 2006). Data source: Notes from curriculum development meetings, notes and presentation slides made by teams about their projects, resident curriculum exit evaluations curriculum and interviews. Results: Residents reported high levels of comfort by applying PBLI-related knowledge and skills and that the curriculum improved their ability to do various PBLI tasks. The involvement of multiple stakeholders increased. Twelve of the 15 teams' suggestions with practical systems-relevant outcomes were implemented and sustained beyond residents' project periods. While using the traditional PDSA cycles was helpful, there were limitations. Conclusion: A PBLI curriculum that is centred around practice-based quality improvement projects can fulfil the objectives of this ACGME competency while accomplishing sustained outcomes in quality improvement. A comprehensive curriculum is an investment but offers organisational rewards. We propose a more realistic and informative representation of rapid PDSA cycle changes.


Model-free and model-based reinforcement learning are two ends of a spectrum. Learning a good policy without a dynamic model can be prohibitively expensive. Learning the dynamic model of a system can reduce the cost of learning the policy, but it can also introduce bias if it is not accurate. We propose a middle ground where instead of the transition model, the sensitivity of the trajectories with respect to the perturbation of the parameters is learned. This allows us to predict the local behavior of the physical system around a set of nominal policies without knowing the actual model. We assay our method on a custom-built physical robot in extensive experiments and show the feasibility of the approach in practice. We investigate potential challenges when applying our method to physical systems and propose solutions to each of them.


This is the first book to address the clinical and neurobiological interface between schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). There is growing evidence that obsessive-compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia are prevalent, persistent and characterized by a distinct pattern of familial inheritance, neurocognitive deficits and brain activation. This text provides guidelines for differential diagnosis of schizophrenic patients with obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and patients with primary OCD alongside poor insight, psychotic features or schizotypal personality. Written by a leading expert in the coexistence of obsessive-compulsive and schizophrenic phenomena, Schizo-Obsessive Disorder uses numerous case studies to present diagnostic guidelines and to describe a recommended treatment algorithm, demystifying this complex disorder and aiding its effective management. The book is essential reading for psychiatrists, neurologists and the wider range of multidisciplinary mental health practitioners.


A micro-level numerical tool, based on an explicit digital element approach (DEA), is developed to simulate impact and penetration of textiles using projectiles of arbitrary shapes. In this approach, the projectile surface is discretized into surface triangle elements and the fabric is discretized into digital elements. A special algorithm is employed to search contacts between digital elements of the fabric and surface elements of the projectile of arbitrary shape. In each simulation step, forces applied to projectile surface elements and digital elements are calculated. Then, projectile motions, such as velocity and acceleration, can be calculated based on the resultant force applied to projectile surface elements and the fabric deformation can be calculated based upon the force applied to digital elements. In the previous DEA analysis, the projectile was simplified as a rigid body particle. As such, only spherical and cylindrical projectiles could be modeled. The new Algorithm proposed in this paper expands the capability of the DEA to simulate ballistic impact using projectiles with arbitrary shapes. In this paper, the contact search algorithm and the contact force calculation between the solid body projectile and the fibrous fabric are explained in detail. Firstly, the surfaces of spherical and RCC projectiles are discretized into triangle meshes. Ballistic strength V50 derived from the discretized surface mesh are compared to results derived from the previous approach in order to verify the accuracy of the method. Then, the new algorithm is applied to simulate the ballistic impact using FSP the projectile. The numerical results are compared to real scale standard ballistic tests using FSP.


Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a bioactive polyphenol in green tea, may augment metabolic and vascular actions of insulin. Therefore, we investigated effects of EGCG treatment to simultaneously improve cardiovascular and metabolic function in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR; model of metabolic syndrome with hypertension, insulin resistance, and overweight). In acute studies, EGCG (1-100 microM) elicited dose-dependent vasodilation in mesenteric vascular beds (MVB) isolated from SHR ex vivo that was inhibitable by N(omega)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME; nitric oxide synthase antagonist) or wortmannin [phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase inhibitor]. In chronic studies, 9-wk-old SHR were treated by gavage for 3 wk with EGCG (200 mg.kg(-1).day(-1)), enalapril (30 mg.kg(-1).day(-1)), or vehicle. A separate group of SHR receiving L-NAME (80 mg/l in drinking water) was treated for 3 wk with either EGCG or vehicle. Vasodilator actions of insulin were significantly improved in MVB from EGCG- or enalapril-treated SHR (when compared with vehicle-treated SHR). Both EGCG and enalapril therapy significantly lowered systolic blood pressure (SBP) in SHR. EGCG therapy of SHR significantly reduced infarct size and improved cardiac function in Langendorff-perfused hearts exposed to ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. In SHR given L-NAME, beneficial effects of EGCG on SBP and I/R were not observed. Both enalapril and EGCG treatment of SHR improved insulin sensitivity and raised plasma adiponectin levels. We conclude that acute actions of EGCG to stimulate production of nitric oxide from endothelium using PI 3-kinase-dependent pathways may explain, in part, beneficial effects of EGCG therapy to simultaneously improve metabolic and cardiovascular pathophysiology in SHR. These findings may be relevant to understanding potential benefits of green tea consumption in patients with the metabolic syndrome.


Importance Recent health care reforms aim to increase patient access, reduce costs, and improve health care quality as payers turn to payment reform for greater value. Cardiologists need to understand emerging payment models to succeed in the evolving payment landscape. We review existing payment and delivery reforms that affect cardiologists, present 4 emerging examples, and consider their implications for clinical practice. Observations Public and commercial payers have recently implemented payment reforms and new models are evolving. Most cardiology models are modified fee-for-service or address procedural or episodic care, but population models are also emerging. Although there is widespread agreement that payment reform is needed, existing programs have significant limitations and the adoption of new programs has been slow. New payment reforms address some of these problems, but many details remain undefined. Conclusions and Relevance Early payment reforms were voluntary and cardiologists' participation is variable. However, conventional fee-for-service will become less viable, and enrollment in new payment models will be unavoidable. Early participation in new payment models will allow clinicians to develop expertise in new care pathways during a period of relatively lower risk.


The problem of finding the angular 3-dB beamwidth for a wideband Griffiths-Jim adaptive beamformer is discussed. Approximate analytic expressions are presented and their relation to the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) is considered. Results on the CRB in direction of arrival estimation for a sinusoidal signal are extended to narrowband and broadband signals, together with simple interpretations of their behavior. Superresolution results with a five-element array for three target signal bandwidths (400-2000, 800-1600, and 1120-1280 Hz) are presented.<<ETX>>


ABSTRACT The International Law Commission of the United Nations has recently presented a set of Rules on the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses to the General Assembly for approval. This article evaluates the potential implications of this new legal regime for the unusual but important case of the Nile River; which is dominated by the strength and control of its furthest downstream state, Egypt. The relationship between upstream and downstream riparian states is critical in determining the applicability of any new legal regime as is shown by the Nile River example. This article begins with a presentation and evaluation of the International Law Commissions new legal framework for international watercourses with primary focus on the General Principles. Following an evaluation of these general principles, the international situation of the Nile River is described, illuminating the need for new legal solutions to historically troublesome water conflicts. The article concludes with an evaluati...


The purpose of this article is to explore how legislation and common law can be creatively interpreted in the light of the Constitution, soft law and international law so as to create legal duties on the part of employers to implement gender-specific policies and practices in the fight against HIV/AIDS, thereby helping to achieve equality and dignity. However, it is acknowledged that the law, even if imaginatively interpreted in the interests of equality and dignity, cannot alone bring about these ideals. Sexual, cultural and economic transformation can only be achieved in the light of a profound understanding of the fundamental causes of gender inequality so that pro- active strategies to eliminate them can be devised and implemented. Fundamental rights such as the right to equality and the right to dignity can form the foundational basis upon which to ground these strategies and programmes. This foundation must serve as a premise for a society where altered roles related to gender can be learned by society in general. Since commonly accepted expectations with regard to male and female behaviour are of prime importance in the spread of HIV/Aids, changes in these accepted gender roles is where the potential for the elimination of the spread of HIV/AIDS lies.


The chemical master equation is a powerful theoretical tool for analyzing the kinetics of complex multiwell potential energy surfaces in a wide range of different domains of chemical kinetics spanning combustion, atmospheric chemistry, gas-surface chemistry, solution phase chemistry, and biochemistry. There are two well-established methodologies for solving the chemical master equation: a stochastic "kinetic Monte Carlo" approach and a matrix-based approach. In principle, the results yielded by both approaches are identical; the decision of which approach is better suited to a particular study depends on the details of the specific system under investigation. In this Article, we present a rigorous method for accelerating stochastic approaches by several orders of magnitude, along with a method for unbiasing the accelerated results to recover the "true" value. The approach we take in this paper is inspired by the so-called "boxed molecular dynamics" (BXD) method, which has previously only been applied to accelerate rare events in molecular dynamics simulations. Here we extend BXD to design a simple algorithmic strategy for accelerating rare events in stochastic kinetic simulations. Tests on a number of systems show that the results obtained using the BXD rare event strategy are in good agreement with unbiased results. To carry out these tests, we have implemented a kinetic Monte Carlo approach in MESMER, which is a cross-platform, open-source, and freely available master equation solver.


Significance How does the "mind" (brain) influence the "body" (internal organs)? We identified key areas in the primate cerebral cortex that are linked through multisynaptic connections to the adrenal medulla. The most substantial influence originates from a broad network of motor areas that are involved in all aspects of skeletomotor control from response selection to motor preparation and movement execution. A smaller influence originates from a network in medial prefrontal cortex that is involved in the regulation of cognition and emotion. Thus, cortical areas involved in the control of movement, cognition, and affect are potential sources of central commands to influence sympathetic arousal. These results provide an anatomical basis for psychosomatic illness where mental states can alter organ function. Modern medicine has generally viewed the concept of "psychosomatic" disease with suspicion. This view arose partly because no neural networks were known for the mind, conceptually associated with the cerebral cortex, to influence autonomic and endocrine systems that control internal organs. Here, we used transneuronal transport of rabies virus to identify the areas of the primate cerebral cortex that communicate through multisynaptic connections with a major sympathetic effector, the adrenal medulla. We demonstrate that two broad networks in the cerebral cortex have access to the adrenal medulla. The larger network includes all of the cortical motor areas in the frontal lobe and portions of somatosensory cortex. A major component of this network originates from the supplementary motor area and the cingulate motor areas on the medial wall of the hemisphere. These cortical areas are involved in all aspects of skeletomotor control from response selection to motor preparation and movement execution. The second, smaller network originates in regions of medial prefrontal cortex, including a major contribution from pregenual and subgenual regions of anterior cingulate cortex. These cortical areas are involved in higher-order aspects of cognition and affect. These results indicate that specific multisynaptic circuits exist to link movement, cognition, and affect to the function of the adrenal medulla. This circuitry may mediate the effects of internal states like chronic stress and depression on organ function and, thus, provide a concrete neural substrate for some psychosomatic illness.


The unknown nature of the future requires us to question our decisions and seek reliable methods. The artificial neural networks approach, which is one of the methods used to best predict the future and one that is important for decision making has been thought of, particularly in recent years, as a method with a high level of validity in the fields of economy and financial prediction. The Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE), at which millions of national and international investors operate, is among the developed stock exchanges of the world. The ISE has the attributes of being appropriate for making predictions regarding financial returns, without any sector differentiation, as a whole. In this study, it was aimed to predict monthly stock yields of 14 different paper companies dealing with the ISE (Istanbul Stock Exchange) by using artificial neural network. Four different variables (the gold price, ISE daily trading volume, exchange rate purchase-sale average, and monthly deposit interest rates by utilizing) and 127 months data were used. Results show that the monthly stock yields of the paper sector can be predicted correctly to account for 95% of the variability of data with the artificial neural network model, and the average absolute percentage failure value was 6.85%.


Implementation of a more sensible energy-environmental policy should include a 'green alliance of biomass and coal to pursue eco-friendly technologies for co-utilizing biomass and other opportunity fuels with coal or natural gas'. This article discusses two parallel cases of copyolysis of coal with biomass or wastes. In the first case, smokeless fuel briquettes are prepared with a low-rank coal and biomass byproducts such as olive stones and sawdust. Additives to improve the mechanical properties and the sulfur retention in ash are used. The briquettes showed good mechanical properties and slow, uniform, smokeless combustion. In the second case, petroleum residua and waste lubrication oils are used to produce chemicals and energy by co-pyrolysis with coal. It has been shown that co-pyrolysis in the presence of coal char selectively promotes transfer of hydrogen from the parent material to the gas and liquid products, concentrating carbon in the remaining char. Split-off hydrogen from carbon is enhanced when the primary co-pyrolysis products are submitted to thermocatalytic decomposition in a subsequent catalytic step. This process represents an attractive route for the production of carbon dioxide free hydrogen from hydrocarbons, whatever their origin. 34 refs., 5 figs., 4 tabs.


This report reviews different international good practices in introducing and implementing fiscal incentives for supporting science, technology, and innovation (STI) and provides policy recommendations relevant to the implementation of such incentives in Ukraine. It focuses on tax incentives as an indirect financial support mechanism for the private sector's research and development (R&D) and innovation activity. It identifies the costs and benefits of a variety of fiscal incentives (six different regimes) to support STI that have been widely used worldwide. It is important to note that the good practice examples outlined in this report have all been implemented as part of a broader agenda for strengthening the science and technology base of the countries in which they were put in place. Each of the policies, in isolation, would not have been sufficient to achieve the objectives of the government. The report describes the Ukrainian context, focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of Ukraine's science and technology base, followed by a discussion of the recent developments in its corporate tax system as they relate to the private sector's R&D and innovation efforts. It also lays out a framework that maps government objectives to the economic justification for intervention in areas related to STI and suggests suitable fiscal incentives that may address some of the market failures discussed in it. The report concludes that Ukraine should invests in capacity building to implement fiscal incentives in the future, which involves developing a suitable skill set within the Ministry of Finance to work on (a) cost-benefit analysis of possible future implementation, (b) reliable data collection on private R&D and innovation efforts, and (c) specialization on evaluating projects related to science, technology, and innovation.


Background TNF blockers have demonstrated their efficacy in inflammatory rheumatic diseases (IRD) and are now widely used. A moderate but indubitable increase in bacterial infectious events is known in patients treated with these drugs but little is known about the potential risk of reactivation of herpes zoster infections. Objectives To assess the risk of herpes zoster infections in patients with IRD treated with TNF blockers based on available reported data in the literature. Methods A systematic literature search was performed to January 2011, in Medline, Embase, Cochrane library and abstracts from ACR and EULAR congresses 2006-2010. Studies were included for meta-analysis if they reported the respective incidences of herpes infections in anti-TNF and conventional DMARDs-treated patients. The Mantel-Haenszel method was used to provide a pooled odds-ratio (OR) estimate and a 95% confidence interval (CI) in anti-TNF versus conventional DMARDs. Statistical heterogeneity was assessed on the basis of the Q test (Chi2), using a significance level of 0.05. Incidence of severe herpetic infections (multidermatomal lesions, requiring hospitalization or intravenous treatment) was extracted and reported when available. Results The literature search identified 655 articles and 134 congress abstracts, and the additional manual search considered 11 national registries and 2 articles. Finally, 22 articles and 28 abstracts met selection criteria and were included in the study. Among these, 3 articles (1,2,3) and 2 abstracts (4,5) allowed a meta-analysis to estimate the relative risk of herpes infections, with a total follow up of 124,966 patient-years (PY) (74,198 PY in biologics group and 50,768 PY in conventional DMARDs group). Based on these 5 registries, the pooled OR was 1.75 [95%CI 1.50–2.04] without significant heterogeneity (I2=52%, p=0.08). Proportions of severe herpes infections, reported in the US and German populations were respectively 4.9% and 20.9% (1,2). In the British registry, the respective rates were 6% and 0.02% with biologics and conventional DMARDs. Conclusions This meta-analysis of registries shows a significant increased risk of herpes zoster infections up to 75% in patients with IRD treated with TNF blockers. These data raise the issue of a systematic prophylactic treatment in patients with a known history of herpetic infections, or vaccination in naïve patients. References McDonald JR et al, Clin Infect Dis. 2009 ;48(10):1364-71. RABBIT: Strangfeld et al, JAMA. 200918;301(7):737-44. CORRONA: Greenberg JD et al, Ann Rheum Dis. 2010;69(2):380-386. BSRBR: Galloway et al, Abstract 421. ACR 2010. Perez-Zafrillaand al, FRI0129. Ann Rheum Dis 2008;67(Suppl II):327. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


A multiflow transponder in flex-grid optical networks has recently been proposed as a transponder solution to generate multiple optical flows (or subcarriers). Multiflow transponders support high-rate super-channels (i.e., connection composed of multiple corouted subcarriers contiguous in the spectrum) and sliceability; i.e., flows can be flexibly associated to the incoming traffic requests, and, besides composing a super-channel, they can be directed toward different destinations. Transponders supporting sliceability are also called sliceable transponders or sliceable bandwidth variable transponders (SBVTs). Typically, in the literature, SBVTs have been considered composed of multiple laser sources (i.e., one for each subcarrier). In this paper, we propose and evaluate a novel multirate, multimodulation, and code-rate adaptive SBVT architecture. Subcarriers are obtained either through multiple laser sources (i.e., a laser for each subcarrier) or by exploiting a more innovative and cost-effective solution based on a multiwavelength source and micro-ring resonators (MRRs). A multiwavelength source is able to create several optical subcarriers from a single laser source. Then, cascaded MRRs are used to select subcarriers and direct them to the proper modulator. MRRs are designed and analyzed through simulations in this paper. An advanced transmission technique such as time frequency packing is also included. A specific implementation of a SBVT enabling an information rate of 400 Gb¿s is presented considering standard 100 GbE interfaces. A node architecture supporting SBVT is also considered. A simulation analysis is carried out in a flex-grid network. The proposed SBVT architecture with a multiwavelength source permits us to reduce the number of required lasers in the network.


In the context of discussions regarding the relevance of innovation to the task of building new economic models that foster sustainable development, this paper focuses on clarifying and specifying the term "ecosystem", which is typically used as a metaphor. Taking into account research concerning biological ecosystems, the article describes the components, structures and dynamics that biological ecosystems share in common with business, entrepreneurial, and innovation ecosystems, which together form one aspect of economic ecosystems as a whole. The paper utilizes primary data that were collected through a mixed methodology involving participatory workshops and an online survey instrument that involved members of innovation-oriented entrepreneurial ecosystems in eight cities throughout Europe and Latin America from June 2019 through February 2020. Drawing on complex system theory as a unifying approach to describe and explain the components and structural conditions of any ecosystem, whether biological or economic, this paper proposes a theoretical approach and metrics that can be used to attain a better understanding of the social dynamics of ecosystems. Based on observations from the field of biology, it is proposed that such structural conditions tend toward equilibrium when they are constructed mainly through collaborative mechanisms. The results are shown graphically based on the data collected, utilizing metrics taken from complex network analysis and mathematical modeling from the perspective of complex system theory. This paper finds that the ecosystemic approach is more than a metaphor and can functionally describe how an ecosystem is structured and how it works by opening a wider path toward comprehending the dynamics underlying the interactions among components of economic ecosystems and their environment. The paper concludes by proposing that collaboration relationships among actors provide the required characteristics to increase balance and resilience in economic ecosystems.


This thesis deals with the atmospheric distribution of the cosmogenic isotopes 7Be (half-life 53 days) and 10Be (half-life 1.51 million years) as well as the anthropogenic isotope 137Cs (half-life 30 years) in aerosols and precipitation. Samples covering continuous or selected parts of the period 1972-2005 in Sweden and Europe are evaluated with respect to production, air mass transport and fallout processes. Such information is valuable in assessing the potential of these isotopes as indicators of air mass mixing and solar modulation factors that affect climate change. The results of 7Be and 10Be show seasonal variability and an 11-year cyclic pattern which is anti-correlated with the solar activity. Variations in seasonal trends of 7Be and 137Cs in aerosols during the post- and pre-Chernobyl period reflect tropospheric influence from 137Cs-heavily contaminated regions. A clear latitude dependence is observed in our beryllium isotope data where highest fallout is found in mid-latitudes compared to high and low latitude regions in the Northern hemisphere. This pattern reflects the general air mass circulation in the troposphere. However, stratospheric air mass influence was also identified in mainly single events and through tropopause folding during spring-summer seasons. The ratio of 10Be/7Be is used to estimate effects of air mass transport on production signal. The results show ratios between 1 and 3, much higher than the theoretically predicted value (0.6) in the atmosphere, which suggests contribution from 7Be-depleted (old) air masses. The relationship between monthly 7Be atmospheric activity and Total Fractional Cloud Cover (TFCC), collected from satellite imagery, over Sweden for the years (1991-2000) indicates a negative seasonal correlation. This observation can be related to depletion of aerosol from the atmosphere due to trapping in clouds.


The analysis of the food web of an algal belt in Kongsfjorden is based on the investigation of 3 transects at Hansneset. The transsects are located in the same place as during a study in 1996-1998 allowing the demonstration of possible alterations in community structure due to global climate changes. Species composition of plants and animals, abundance and biomass have been studied. Samples were taken quantitatively by divers and were further processed in the Marine Lab. Data on basic ecological processes and parameters of the dominant components of the system as biomass, production, respiration and excretion have been measured. Diet analysis of heterotrophs has been done via analysis of stable isotope ratios C and N, and analysis of fatty acids. In a synthesis of the existent data on Kongsfjorden and the additionally gathered new data on the bentho-pelagic system of the habitats on hard bottom, a first model of the food web has been constructed with the "Ecological Network Analysis (ENA)". ENA gives an analysis of the food web interactions and a characterization of the system in respect of stability, sensitivity to disturbance, with respect to energy flow and material cycling. Since climate warming is changing coastal arctic systems, the changing functioning of these ecosystems are discussed.


The authors examine the optimal combination of time-series (absolute) and cross-sectional (relative) momentum in a pure trend-following strategy. They show that the solution depends on two main inputs: (1) the signal (trend) strengths of and (2) the covariances between the different instruments in the investment universe. Time-series momentum leads to superior results when all instruments have similar trends and correlations are low. Conversely, cross-sectional momentum (relative momentum) is preferable in periods in which the correlations are high and the dispersion in the signals is large. The authors construct an (ex ante) optimal momentum portfolio and provide empirical evidence that an (ex ante) optimal dynamic allocation to absolute and relative trends outperforms (ex post) the pure time-series and cross-sectional strategies. Based on data for 59 futures covering all major asset classes between 2000 and 2018, they find that the average optimal allocation to time-series (cross-sectional) momentum is around 80% (20%). TOPICS: Quantitative methods, statistical methods, portfolio construction, performance measurement Key Findings ▪ A trend follower should dynamically amend the allocation to time-series and cross-sectional trends to adapt to the changing market conditions. ▪ The ex ante optimal allocation to time-series and cross-sectional trends depends on the trend strengths of and the covariances between the instruments traded. ▪ The higher the trend dispersion and the correlation between the instruments the more a trend follower should weight cross-sectional trend bets ceteris paribus.


Abstract This article studies the ideological reactions of communist regimes to the advent of a post-communist world. It examines two cases of reformed communist regimes (China and Vietnam) with two relatively unreformed cases (North Korea and Cuba) to understand different legitimation strategies employed during and after the downfall of the Soviet Union. Theoretically, the article compares two ideal-type approaches to ideology in autocratic regimes. The first approach emphasizes semantic 'freezing' over time. The consistency and coherence of ideology is underlined. The second approach argues that the success of an ideology lies in its ability to be a dynamic, adaptive force that can react with changing circumstances. Four parameters help to distinguish the freeze-frame end from the adaptation pole: (1) the autonomy over semantic changes, (2) the timing, (3) the velocity and (4) the distance that an ideology moves. Using qualitative case-based analysis that is enriched with quantitative text analysis of communist party documents, this article compares these contending conceptions of ideology with each other in the four cases. Sharing similar starting conditions in the 1970s, the article shows how China and Vietnam harnessed a flexible legitimation strategy while North Korea and Cuba adopted a comparatively rigid legitimation approach.


thy province [is] not large, A bounded field, nor stretching far. --Tennyson, In Memoriam XLVI The greatest development in the field of Victorian poetry studies over the past fifteen years has been the renewal of interest in women poets, both those who were already familiar but not yet sufficiently acknowledged, like Christina Rossetti, and those who had been all but forgotten by twentieth-century readers. Among the latter perhaps the most intriguing "newcomer" is Michael Field, the pen-name and poetic persona used by Katherine Bradley and her niece Edith Cooper. Field had already begun to draw the attention of queer criticism in the 1980s, (1) but her life and poetry were brought to the notice of most critics of Victorian poetry only with the publication in 1992 of Angela Leighton's crucial study Victorian Women Poets: Writing Against the Heart. (2) I wish to look briefly at the decade of criticism that has followed, which shows trends that are typical of the study both of Victorian women's poetry and of Victorian poetry as a whole, in order to suggest what direction these studies may take in the future. Leighton dedicates to Field one chapter out of the eight that comprise her book, each concerned with a different woman poet, from Felicia Hemans to Charlotte Mew. Field first broke into the pages of this journal in articles by Holly Laird and Yopie Prins which formed part of a 1995 special issue dedicated to "Women Poets." (3) In both cases, then, the setting for the discussion of Field's poetry was the same. And yet as Leighton points out, "Michael Field, in many ways, belongs altogether outside the tradition of Victorian women's verse. As poets, they lack both the sociopolitical commitment of Barrett Browning and Webster and the sentimental attitudes of desire and repression which characterise Hemans, L.E.L. and Rossetti" (p. 204). For all their extensive reading, Bradley and Cooper seem to have paid relatively little attention to these precursors, as they "very rarely mention other women poets in their journal" (p. 211). Nevertheless, Leighton does frequently compare Field's poetry to that of the other authors she discusses in her study, if only to differentiate them. This makes perfect sense: Leighton is introducing this poet to her readers and wishes to explore Field's relation to her immediate context. An investigation of the wider contexts of Field's poetry--a lengthy discussion of Greek poetry, or of Renaissance painting--would clearly have been out of place in Leighton's book. And yet as much as any poet, Michael Field demands to be read against a large and varied artistic background. The first two books of lyrics to be published under the name "Michael Field" (4) both parade their participation in age-old traditions. The first, Long Ago (1889), consists of translations and expansions of the fragments of Sappho, one of which (in Greek) heads each of the poems. The second volume, Sight and Song (1892), consists of a series of ekphrases: each lyric describes a single Old Master painting and is headed by the title of the painting, the name of the painter, and the museum that houses it. Both of these interests, in Sappho and in Renaissance painting, are typically late Victorian; but they also implicate the work of these Victorian women poets into artistic traditions that are not solely Victorian--nor solely female, nor solely poetic. The next step in the critical history of Michael Field has therefore been to expand the contexts in which her poetry is discussed. Several writers have pursued the analysis of Field's poetry in the context of queer writing or of literary collaborations over the centuries. (5) In Victorian Sappho (1999), Yopie Prins situates Long Ago in an extensive tradition beginning with the Sapphic fragments themselves. (6) And in a recent article, Ana I. Parejo Vadillo has begun to perform the same service for Sight and Song, reminding us that this volume, as much as its predecessor, presents itself as a "translation" of antique artworks. …


The goal of the research is to identify and assess parameters of physical development, actual nutrition, energy expenditure and energy requirement of the young adult males. The research was conducted in 2008–2010 and students (n=84) of biology, physical education and psychology specialties at Vilnius Pedagogical University participated in it. Height and weight measurements were taken by electronic medical scales with the height measuring equipment. We analysed an average energy value of a daily food ration; the intake of carbohydrates, protein, and fat; physical activity and energy requirement by using 7-day nutrition and physical activity diaries filled out by the students participating in the research (20.35±0.99 years old). The body weight of the majority of the young adult males was normal (69.05 per cent), 26.19 per cent of them had the body weight above the normal range, and the body weight of 4.76 per cent of the students was insufficient. Physical activity ratio of the future teachers is 1.79±0.382. An average energy value of nutrition ration corresponds to energy expenditure (p=0.684) but is lower than energy requirement (p<0.001). The ratio of the main nutrients (protein, fat, and carbohydrates) in the nutrition of the young adult males is unbalanced; 27.38 per cent of them consume too much protein, and 1.19 per cent exceeds the recommended daily intake of protein more than twice. According to our data, only 7.14 per cent of the students get enough fat, 36.91 per cent of them consume too much fat, and 55.95 percent of the respondents get too little fat although close to the norm. Our research demonstrated that there is a deficiency of carbohydrate in a daily ration food of 95.24 per cent of the young adult males, and the carbohydrate content in the nutrition of 34.52 per cent of the young men is more than twice lower than the norm. In comparison with the individual norms of these nutrients (considering the respondent's body weight, age, and physical activity), protein intake of the young adult males is too high (p<0.001), the received fat content corresponds to the recommended intake (p=0.663), and there is carbohydrate deficiency in a daily food ration (p<0.001).


Research in English language teaching has highlighted the importance of teaching communication skills in the language classroom. Against the backdrop of extensive research in everyday communication, the goal of this research was to explore whether current discourse analytic research is reflected in the lessons and communication examples of five English language teaching textbooks, by using spoken requests as the subject of investigation. The textbooks were evaluated on five criteria deriving from research on politeness, speech act theory and conversation analysis. These included whether and the extent to which the textbooks discussed the cultural appropriateness of requests, discussed the relationship of requests and other contextual factors, explained pre-sequences and re-requests and provided adequate practice activities. This study found that none of the coursebooks covered all of the criteria and that some coursebooks actually had very inadequate lessons. The results of the textbook analysis demonstrate that teachers using these five coursebooks and designers of future coursebooks must improve their lessons on requests by using pragmatics research and authentic examples as a guide.


The triple gene block proteins (TGBp1-3) and coat protein (CP) of potexviruses are required for cell-to-cell movement. Separate models have been proposed for intercellular movement of two of these viruses, transport of intact virions, or a ribonucleoprotein complex (RNP) comprising genomic RNA, TGBp1, and the CP. At issue therefore, is the form(s) in which RNA transport occurs and the roles of TGBp1-3 and the CP in movement. Evidence is presented that, based on microprojectile bombardment studies, TGBp1 and the CP, but not TGBp2 or TGBp3, are co-translocated between cells with viral RNA. In addition, cell-to-cell movement and encapsidation functions of the CP were shown to be separable, and the rate-limiting factor of potexvirus movement was shown not to be virion accumulation, but rather, the presence of TGBp1-3 and the CP in the infected cell. These findings are consistent with a common mode of transport for potexviruses, involving a non-virion RNP, and show that TGBp1 is the movement protein, whereas TGBp2 and TGBp3 are either involved in intracellular transport or interact with the cellular machinery/docking sites at the plasmodesmata.


Abstract:Our academic identities are constructed performatively through writing. In this article, I use the concept of citationality to examine two literacy autobiographies: one by a published writer and one written by a student of mine. My reading of these narratives exposes a connection between the citing of academic sources and the mechanisms that underlie the construction of new identities.


The authors study the macroeconomic consequences of large military buildups using a New Neoclassical Synthesis (NNS) approach that combines nominal rigidities within imperfectly competitive goods and labour markets. They show that the predictions of the NNS framework generally are consistent with the sign, timing, and magnitude of how hours worked, after-tax real wages, and output actually respond to an upsurge in military purchases. The key factors leading to these findings are: (i) variations in the ratio of price to marginal cost resulting from nominal-price inflexibilities, (ii) staggered nominal-wage setting, and (iii) time-varying marginal tax rates. Unlike the standard neoclassical model, the NNS framework successfully explains the macroeconomic effects of military buildups when taxes are distortionary.


The mission of the community college is to increase access to higher education for all students. Low retention and completion rates make achieving this mission difficult. This qualitative case study explored the Students Using Core Completion to Excel with Support Strategies (SUCCESS) program, a retention improvement initiative developed at a small, two-year college in Montana. The program was offered during the 2016-2017 academic year in a trial phase to determine which parts of the program were most effective. This research project sought to understand the program through the experience of the four major groups of participants: students, faculty, staff, and administration. From a pragmatic perspective, the goal was gaining understanding to inform efforts to modify and improve future versions of the program. Initial categorization of data examined the benefits, challenges, and recommendations for improvement of the program; as well as participants' thoughts on reasons for leaving or staying in school. Analysis showed that offering accelerated courses, scheduling courses in an efficient manner, and providing a mechanism for students to form relationships were major benefits to participating in the program. Faculty, staff, and administration also saw the value of the process as an opportunity to try new things and to develop relationships with peers across campus. Communication and lack of developed policies were highlighted as the biggest challenges, but were also offered with specific recommendations as areas for improvement.


All countries face the challenge of finite health resources, and therefore the need to limit expenditure on medicines. Post-apartheid South Africa developed a National Drug Policy in 1996, which signaled a multi-faceted series of interventions to reduce medicines prices and also improve prescribing and dispensing practices. Implementing this policy has not been without challenges, including legal challenges by the pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical practitioners and pharmacists. While a policy of mandatory offer of generic substitution has been implemented successfully, improving the quality of medicines use in the private sector has not been as easily addressed. A single exit price mechanism for all medicines in the private sector has been introduced, with regulated maximal annual increases. However, the greatest difficulty has been encountered in determining a reasonable and enforceable dispensing fee. This element of the pricing intervention remains highly contested. South Africa's experience has also highlighted the need for clear legal drafting when attempting medicine pricing interventions. Other elements which still need addressing are the selection of medicines in the private sector, an enforceable code of marketing practice, and a more transparent way of indicating which medicines can be substituted, based on suitable bioequivalence and other data. South Africa's National Drug Policy is expected to be reviewed in the near future, and these issues will need urgent attention if the country is to realize its goal of introducing a National Health Insurance system.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to measure the dose distributions for different Radiation Oncology Physics and Engineering Services, Australia (ROPES) type eye plaques loaded with I-125 (model 6711) seeds using GafChromic R EBT3 films, in order to verify the dose distributions in the Plaque SimulatorTM (PS) ophthalmic 3D treatment planning system. The brachytherapy module of RADCALC R was used to independently check the dose distributions calculated by PS. Correction factors were derived from the measured data to be used in PS to account for the effect of the stainless steel ROPES plaque backing on the 3D dose distribution. Methods: Using GafChromic R EBT3 films inserted in a specially designed Solid WaterTM eye ball phantom, dose distributions were measured three-dimensionally both along and perpendicular to I125 (model 6711) loaded ROPES eye plaque's central axis (CAX) with 2 mm depth increments. Each measurement was performed in full scatter conditions both with and without the stainless steel plaque backing attached to the eye plaque, to assess its effect on the dose distributions. Results were compared to the dose distributions calculated by Plaque SimulatorTM and checked independently with RADCALC R . Results: The EBT3 film measurements without the stainless steel backing were found to agree with PS and RADCALC R to within 2% and 4%, respectively, on the plaque CAX. Also, RADCALC R was found to agree with PS to within 2%. The CAX depth doses measured using EBT3 film with the stainless steel backing were observed to result in a 4% decrease relative to when the backing was not present. Within experimental uncertainty, the 4% decrease was found to be constant with depth and independent of plaque size. Using a constant dose correction factor of T = 0.96 in PS, where the calculated dose for the full water scattering medium is reduced by 4% in every voxel in the dose grid, the effect of the plaque backing was accurately modeled in the planning system. Off-axis profiles were also modeled in PS by taking into account the three-dimensional model of the plaque backing. Conclusions: The doses calculated by PS and RADCALC R for uniformly loaded ROPES plaques in full and uniform scattering conditions were validated by the EBT3 film measurements. The stainless steel plaque backing was observed to decrease the measured dose by 4%. Through the introduction of a scalar correction factor (0.96) in PS, the dose homogeneity effect of the stainless steel plaque backing was found to agree with the measured EBT3 film measurements.


ABSTRACT The genus Phaeomegaceros R.J.Duff, J.C.Villarreal, Cargill & Renzaglia (Dendrocerotaceae J.Haseg.), represented by the species P. fimbriatus (Gottsche) R.J.Duff, J.C.Villarreal, Cargill & Renzaglia is recorded for the first time in Mexico, North America, extending its distribution range considerably to the North. Recording distribution ranges could aid to better understand ecological and biogeographical patterns, and detailed population level descriptions of wide-range distributing hornworts could be helpful in determining intraspecific variation, which in turn would aid to define species limits, nowadays poorly understood in Anthocerotophyta Stotler & Crandall-Stotler. Anatomical and morphological characters of collected plants are described in details and illustrations in light microscopy and SEM are provided. P. fimbriatus can be distinguished from other Mexican hornwort species by spore ornamentation, antheridial number per chamber, number of layers of spore tissue in the sporophyte and presence of band-like thickenings in cells of gametophyte thallus. Mexican plants of P. fimbriatus presented smaller spores (28-36 µm in diameter, average 34 µm) than those previously reported (32-43 µm in diameter) for this species, which extends the species variation range of this character and might be pointing out geographical variation.


Physical fitness demands repetition. Achieving a bodily ideal compels the subject to return day after day to the same designated place and repeat the same set of movements. For this reason, the practice of fitness, especially in regards to the participation of male-identifying subjects, has often been read as a form of discipline, surveillance, and ideological interpellation. In this article, I offer an alternative understanding of this repetition by reading fitness as a deeply performative practice. My focus is physical culture, a movement that emerged at a crucial transitional moment of Western modernity and which systematized men's fitness as we know it today through a popular media apparatus of magazines, postcards, books, film, and theatre where the male body could be viewed, examined, and. Exposing the entwined histories of fitness and theatre in the 'body of work' of the Edwardian strongman, wrestler, and physical culturist George Hackenschmidt, I argue that the performative repetitions of physical culture actually reveal the incomplete inscription of ideology upon the site of the body by demonstrating how a certain masculine norm must be continually re-cited. The performance of the built up and stripped down male body is thus an anxious performance of masculinity during a period of great industrial transformation. Hackenschmidt's body of work, both as a performer of built masculinity on the vaudeville stage and the wrestling ring, and as an author of numerous books, suggests that when men today re-enact the moves and lifts of physical culture in their fitness practices, they are (to adapt Freud's phrase) remembering, repeating, and working out, though perhaps not working through, the contradictions of modernity.


The intergenerational reproduction of values and lifestyles has been at the centre of attention for the social sciences for several decades. However, only rarely has this topic been examined from the perspective of environmentally friendly lifestyles. In this article, we build on unique longitudinal research that includes generations of parents and children from Czech 'voluntarily simple' families. Drawing on sociological theories of consumption and the Bourdieusian concept of habitus, we deal with the question of whether and how the intergenerational transmission of eco-habitus emerges. The original research with the parents – called 'the Colourful' – was conducted by the Czech sociologist Hana Librová in 1992, 2002 and 2015. We participated in the third wave, conducting 12 in-depth interviews with the Colourful and supplementing it with 21 interviews with their adult children, focusing on how they look back on their childhood and in what respect their lifestyles and attitudes differ from those of their parents. We describe the reproduction of the Colourful's habitus and identify the main lines of influence that may play a role in this process: positive reflections on a non-affluent childhood, awareness of the values behind simplicity, a liberal model of upbringing, the higher cultural capital of the families, the family atmosphere, religiosity and diverse experiences among siblings related to their birth order. We show that while for the Colourful it was typical to revolt against parents, their own habitus has been reproduced relatively successfully.


At the end of the nineteenth century Japanese collectors began to put together Impressionist collections of outstanding quality. This development began with the industrialist Kojiro Matsukata, who was a close friend of Claude Monet. Today there are several distinguished collections that are shown in renowned public and private museums. A selection of exquisite works from these Japanese museums now returns exclusively to Europe. At the heart of the exhibition and the book are masterpieces by French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, among them Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Gauguin, Bonnard, Pissarro, Renoir, Signac, Sisley and van Gogh. Their paintings are complemented by a selection of works by Japanese artists from the period before 1920 that laid the foundation for modern, Western-inspired Japanese art. Together, they tell the story of the interaction and two-way artistic influence between Europe and Japan from a new perspective.


Several species of prawns, including juveniles of Penaeus merguiensis, will move into mangrove forests when the forests are inundated by flood tides. However, we do not know how extensively the prawns use the forests or whether some parts of the forests are more valuable to the prawns than others. We assessed the distribution of juvenile prawns in 3 different mangrove communities in intertidal forests adjacent to a small creek and a river in northern Australia between December 1993 and February 1995. The 3 mangrove communities were dominated, respectively, by the structurally complex Rhizophora stylosa, and the more open Ceriops tagal and Avicennia marina. We used stake nets (100 m long, 2 mm mesh) to sample discrete areas of the mangrove forests, and fyke nets (2 mm mesh) to sample prawns moving through the forests. The area of each stake net site ranged from 430 to 650 m2 and the distance of the midpoint of each site inland from the creek or river mangrove fringe ranged from 13 to 225 m. A large size range of juvenile P. merguiensis (2 to 21 mm carapace length, CL) was caught in the mangroves and prawns were caught as far as 200 m into the forests. In the creek forest, there was no clear relationship between mangrove community type and prawn catches. The highest densities of P. merguiensis were recorded in the creek and were 28.1 and 27.6 prawns 100m-2 in Rhizophora sp. and Ceriops sp. forest respectively. The highest mean catches were taken 59 m from the creek mangrove fringe. In contrast to the creek, in the river mangrove forest, there was a clear pattern of catches: the number of P. merguiensis caught decreased with distance into the mangroves and at shallower water depths. We have hypothesised that the distribution of juvenile P. merguiensis inside the mangroves depends largely on the local topography and pattern of water currents within each forest. Large numbers of unidentified Metapenaeus spp. and smaller numbers of M. ensis and P. monodon were also recorded from the samples inside the mangrove forests.


Covering: 2009 up to the end of 2017 There has been a recent eruption in the number of known marine sesterterpenoids which have been isolated from Pacific Rim marine organisms. These compounds have novel and unusual structures that exhibit incredibly potent and varied bioactivities. This review details the isolation, biological testing and prospects for this exciting new family with discussion of their potential biogenetic origins.


Planning problems deal with finding a sequence of actions that transfer the initial state of the world into a desired state. Frequently such problems are solved by dedicated algorithms but there exist planners based on translating the planning problem into a different formalism such as constraint satisfaction or Boolean satisfiability and using a general solver for this formalism. The paper describes how to enhance existing constraint models of planning problems by using techniques such as symmetry breaking (dominance rules), singleton consistency, and lifting.


This paper investigates when trade could cause the selection effect. Since the increased average real wage induced by trade triggers the selection effect in Melitz (2003), the main issue is the labor market conditions under which trade raises the average real wage. To identify the labor market conditions for the selection effect, this paper employs worker heterogeneity with respect to abilities in Blanchflower, Oswald, and Sanfey's (1996) rentsharing framework. This simple model plays a crucial role in building estimation equations that use the residual wage in order to reflect worker heterogeneity. According to the results of regressions of the average and 10 percentile of residual wages, this paper shows that with high union density, low job destruction, and low job creation, the effect of trade on the average residual wage is likely to be negative because the impact of imports exceeds that of exports. Moreover, the impact of trade on the average wage must work through the residual wage because this study does not find a significant impact of trade on the average predicted wage. As a result, the more rigid the labor market is, the less likely trade is to raise the average industrial wage and the less likely the selection effect in Melitz (2003) is to occur. JEL Classification: F16; J31; C23


This paper is a conceptual study that attempts to analyse the possible effects of the development of the Kra Isthmus Canal on ASEAN relations. The Kra Canal would constitute a mega-project, a passageway that would connect the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand at the Isthmus of Kra, Thailand. Although the proposed Kra Canal is projected to provide many economic and trade benefits to Thailand, and to the region as a whole, steps toward its development have yet to be taken. There has been much debate over the costs for trade, the costs for the environment, national and regional security concerns, as well as major concerns related to political and economic relations in the region. Therefore, one of the main purposes of this study is to contribute to the debate on the possible impact of the development of the Kra Canal on ASEAN's regional relations. In particular, it proposes that the development of the Kra Canal could threaten regional solidarity as it would physically divide maritime Southeast Asia from mainland Southeast Asia, which would ultimately result in an economic, cultural and political divide of ASEAN itself.


This essay concerns the following question: can s 39(2) of the South African Constitution be justified by Ronald Dworkin's notion of 'political integrity'?
To understand this question one must know what s 39(2) of the South African Constitution says and what Dworkin's notion of political integrity entails. Section 39(2) holds that 'when developing the common law ... every court ... must promote the spirit, purport and objects of the Bill of Rights'. Dworkin's notion of political integrity, most fully developed in his Law's Empire, can be summarised in four points. First, political integrity is a property that a community's legal rules possess to a smaller or larger degree. Legal rules must here be understood as legal rules still in force: thus precedents that have not been overruled and statutes that have not been repealed. Secondly, a community's legal rules possess political integrity in so far as they are 'consistent in principle'. The more consistent in principle the rules are, the more political integrity they possess, and the converse. Thirdly, a community's rules are consistent in principle in so far as it is possible to justify them by principles that form a consistent set. As Dworkin puts it: a community lacks integrity if 'it must endorse principles to justify part of what it has done that it must reject to justify the rest'. Fourthly, according to Dworkin, political integrity (in the sense explained) is a political virtue besides justice and fairness. In other words, it matters that a community's legal rules are just and fair (fair in the sense that they were produced by procedures that distribute power in the right way). But that is not all that matters. It also matters that the rules possess political integrity, that the rules are consistent in principle.


In this cyber age, information plays a pivotal role in different spheres of human endeavors such as education, research and development, decision and policy making. The role of library and information centers in providing information for these endeavors is well documented. The generators and users of information play a key role in information transfer and utilization process. The information required by the users is available in a variety of sources, primary, secondary and tertiary sources and in different formats. The present article lights on the use of e-resource information and its impact on P.G. Students and faculty members of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Patnagar, Uttarakhand, India. The study focuses on e-resource information provided and the dependency level of users, gender-wise analysis in using ICT information by the respondents.


Cuba is often perceived in starkly black and white terms—either as the site of one of Latin America's most successful revolutions or as the bastion of the world's last communist regime. The Cuba Reader multiplies perspectives on the nation many times over, presenting more than one hundred selections about Cuba's history, culture, and politics. Beginning with the first written account of the island, penned by Christopher Columbus in 1492, the selections assembled here track Cuban history from the colonial period through the ascendancy of Fidel Castro to the present.

The Cuba Reader combines songs, paintings, photographs, poems, short stories, speeches, cartoons, government reports and proclamations, and pieces by historians, journalists, and others. Most of these are by Cubans, and many appear for the first time in English. The writings and speeches of Jose Marti, Fernando Ortiz, Fidel Castro, Alejo Carpentier, Che Guevera, and Reinaldo Arenas appear alongside the testimonies of slaves, prostitutes, doctors, travelers, and activists. Some selections examine health, education, Catholicism, and santeria; others celebrate Cuba's vibrant dance, music, film, and literary cultures. The pieces are grouped into chronological sections. Each section and individual selection is preceded by a brief introduction by the editors.

The volume presents a number of pieces about twentieth-century Cuba, including the events leading up to and following Castro's January 1959 announcement of revolution. It provides a look at Cuba in relation to the rest of the world: the effect of its revolution on Latin America and the Caribbean, its alliance with the Soviet Union from the 1960s until the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989, and its tumultuous relationship with the United States. The Cuba Reader also describes life in the periodo especial following the cutoff of Soviet aid and the tightening of the U.S. embargo.

For students, travelers, and all those who want to know more about the island nation just ninety miles south of Florida, The Cuba Reader is an invaluable introduction.


We study the problem of active learning with the added twist that the learner is assisted by a helpful teacher. We consider the following natural interaction protocol: At each round, the learner proposes a query asking for the label of an instance $x^q$, the teacher provides the requested label $\{x^q, y^q\}$ along with explanatory information to guide the learning process. In this paper, we view this information in the form of an additional contrastive example ($\{x^c, y^c\}$) where $x^c$ is picked from a set constrained by $x^q$ (e.g., dissimilar instances with the same label). Our focus is to design a teaching algorithm that can provide an informative sequence of contrastive examples to the learner to speed up the learning process. We show that this leads to a challenging sequence optimization problem where the algorithm's choices at a given round depend on the history of interactions. We investigate an efficient teaching algorithm that adaptively picks these contrastive examples. We derive strong performance guarantees for our algorithm based on two problem-dependent parameters and further show that for specific types of active learners (e.g., a generalized binary search learner), the proposed teaching algorithm exhibits strong approximation guarantees. Finally, we illustrate our bounds and demonstrate the effectiveness of our teaching framework via two numerical case studies.


This investigation was carried out by the Langley Field Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics for the purpose of measuring the accelerations along the three principal axes of an airplane while it was maneuvering. The airplane selected for this purpose was the fairly maneuverable SE-5A and the instruments used were the NACA three component accelerometer and the NACA recording airspeed meter. The results showed that the normal accelerations did not exceed 4.000 G. While the lateral and longitudinal accelerations did not exceed 0.60 G.


Currently, array acoustic logging data processing is mainly achieved by calculating only the velocity variation of each component wave. This provides a little formation information; thus, it is difficult to identify all fractures. We have analyzed the array acoustic logging signals by combining their times, frequencies, or amplitudes. First, we decomposed the array acoustic logging signals into main and secondary signals by improving the singular value decomposition. We then analyzed the characteristics of the array acoustic logging signals in fractured formations and compared them using three multidimensional analysis methods: the 2D Fourier transform, the 2D wavelet transform, and the Choi-Williams distribution. The results showed that the frequency characteristics of the compressional waves (P-waves), shear waves (S-waves), and Stoneley waves in the [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] domain of the fracture formations can be obtained by the 2D Fourier transform method. The multiresolution time characteristics of these waves can be realized by the 2D wavelet transform method, and their time-frequency characteristics can be observed via the Choi-Williams distribution. The times, frequencies, and amplitudes of the P-waves, S-waves, and Stoneley waves change from the tight formation to the fractured formation. The three methods introduced here can comprehensively use eight arrays, time, frequency, or amplitude to improve the information usage rate of array acoustic logging and provide new ways to interpret it.


The quantum capacitance of graphene can be negative when the graphene is placed in a strong magnetic field, which is a clear experimental signature of positional correlations between electrons. Here we show that the quantum capacitance of graphene is also strongly affected by its dielectric polarizability, which in a magnetic field is wave vector-dependent. We study this effect both theoretically and experimentally. We develop a theory and numerical procedure for accounting for the graphene dielectric response, and we present measurements of the quantum capacitance of high-quality graphene capacitors on boron nitride. Theory and experiment are found to be in good agreement.


Olive growing is expanding rapidly in many countries around the world in which olives have not previously been widely cultivated. Pruning olive trees is quite different from pruning other fruit trees of the temperate zone, because of their biological peculiarities. Errors in pruning may result in yield losses or higher cultivation costs. Pruning also determines the training system which, in turn, is one of the major factors for successful tree performance and orchard profitability.

Pruning and Training Systems for Modern Olive Growing summarises the information available on current pruning techniques and training systems. It specifically addresses the problems faced by growers, professionals and students who are new to olive growing and provides information previously not available in English.

The fundamental aim of this book is to explain the basic concepts at a practical level. It will allow the reader, whether experienced horticulturalist or beginner, to develop his or her own skills and pruning strategy.


Wifi, WiMAX, and Cellular Multihop Networks presents an overview of WiFi-based and WiMAX-based multihop relay networks. As the first text to cover IEEE 802.16j multihop hop relay technology, this revolutionary resource explores the latest advances in multi-hop and ad-hoc networking. Not only does this reference provide the technological aspects, but also the applications for the emerging technology and architectural issues. Ranging from introductory material to advanced topics, this guidebook, plus PowerPoint slides, is essential for engineers, researchers, and students interested in learning more about WiFi and WiMAX multihop relay networks.


Advocacy organisations have traditionally played a prominent role in shaping corporate social responsibility (CSR) management and reporting practices through organisational-level and institutional-level engagement. Recent years have seen advocacy organisations expand the nature and content of their engagement interactions by (1) endeavouring to influence the emergence of institutional-level CSR frameworks and (2) placing enhanced emphasis on challenging the nature of companies' implementation of CSR frameworks through direct engagement processes. Together, these actions have sought to guide companies' adoption of CSR management and reporting mechanisms in order to ensure greater accountability is discharged for the social and environmental impact of their economic activities. This thesis comprises three research papers and two case studies that examine how two influential advocacy organisations sought to shape the nature and content of the CSR management and reporting mechanisms implemented by companies in the United Kingdom and The Netherlands. The research papers are interpreted and theoretically framed using aspects of Bourdieu's theory of practice, the concepts of strategic frames and frame resonance, and institutional work. The thesis provides several empirical contributions that deepen our understanding of the role advocacy organisations play during processes of organisational-level and institutional-level engagement and the role forms of accounting play therein. The thesis also offers a number of theoretical contributions by advancing the application of the three aforementioned theoretical framings within the accounting and organisational studies literature streams.


The non hydrostatic convection resolving model MOLOCH is employed in order to evaluate its capability to realistically simulate the evolution of the mesoscale convective system responsible for an episode of extremely heavy rainfall and flood over southeastern France (Gard event, 2002). Numerical experiments indicate large sensitivity of modelled precipitation amounts and distribution, due to different cell organization and propagation, to the specification of the initial conditions. Among different experimented initialization times (00, 06 and 12 UTC, September 8) the run starting at 06 UTC is able to predict the development and the almost stationary behaviour of the convective system, at least in the early stage of the event. Additional experiments, aimed at studying the role played by the orography in triggering the convection and controlling its evolution, have been performed in order to characterize sensitivity to ambient wind and orography. Simulations demonstrate that the presence of the orographic barrier is crucial for both triggering and maintaining the mesoscale convective system. Moreover, the location and intensity of precipitation turns out to be sensitive to variations of the mountain height and of the mean meridional wind component. A partial explanation of this behaviour in terms of the Froude number is suggested.


Purpose: To explore the possible correlation between programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1)/tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) status and clinical factors in non-small cell lung (NSCLC). Materials and Methods: A total of 126 surgical NSCLC samples with stage I to IIIA were retrospectively collected and analyzed. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) assays were used to detect PD-L1 protein expression. PD-L1 positivity on tumor cells was defined by positive tumor cell (TC) percentage using 5% cutoff value. Results: Thirty-seven patients (29.4%), thirty patients (23.8%), six patients (4.8%) and fifty-three patients (42%) were classified as type I (PD-L1+, TIL+), type II (PD-L1-, TIL-), type III (PD-L1+, TIL-) and type IV (PD-L1-, TIL+) tumor environments according to PD-L1/TIL status, respectively. Statistical differences could be observed in factors including gender (P<0.001), smoking status (P<0.001), age (P=0.002), histological types (P<0.001), EGFR mutation (P=0.008) and KRAS mutation (P=0.003) across the four type tumors. Type I tumors were associated with ever smoking, non-adenocarcinoma histological types and KRAS mutation. Type II tumors were associated with female gender, never-smoking, adenocarcinoma histological types and EGFR mutation. Type III tumors were associated with ever smoking and type IV tumors were associated with female gender and EGFR mutation. Conclusion: Clinical factors associated with NSCLC microenvironment types based on PD-L1/TIL differed a lot across different types. The findings of this study may help to facilitate the understanding of the relationship between tumor microenvironment and clinical factors, and also the selecting of patients for combination immunotherapies.


This thesis addresses the response of the Antarctic ice sheet to changes in environmental conditions, both on the longer palaeoclimatic time scale (104-105 y)as on the shorter time scale (102 y) associated with future greenhouse warming. The Antarctic ice sheet is of large interest because changes in its elevation andextent have an important role in modulating global atmospheric and oceanographic processes, and because these fluctuations contribute significantly toworld-wide sea levels. The possibility of a surge of the marine-based West Antarctic ice sheet is often mentioned as an important aspect.In a first part a qualitative description is given of the role of the ice sheet in the global environmental system and the possible modes of interaction arediscussed. An overview is also presented of the ice sheet's glacial history and of available field evidence of ice sheet expansion during the last glacial cycle.Subsequently, the Antarctic ice sheet is investigated using a high-resolution 3-D flow model covering the entire ice domain. This model incorporates acoupled ice shelf, grounding-line dynamics, basal sliding and isostatic bed adjustment. It has a full coupling between thermal field and ice flow and the icesheet geometry is freely generated in response to specified environmental conditions. The model is driven by changes in sea level, surface temperature andmass balance.A simulation of the present ice sheet reveals that the model is able to yield realistic results. A series of climatic experiments are then performed, in which themodel is used to examine the ice sheet during the last glacial-interglacial cycle. This involves a sensitivity study with respect to changing environmentalconditions and a time-dependent simulation of the last glacial cycle. In line with glacial-geological evidence, the most pronounced changes occur in the WestAntarctic ice sheet configuration. These fluctuations are essentially controlled by variations in eustatic sea level, whereas typical glacial-interglacial changes intemperature and ice deposition rates tend to balance one another.On the shorter greenhouse warming time scale, the model's response is determined by changes in the mass balance. It is found that as long as the temperaturerise is below 5iC, the Antarctic ice sheet will probably grow, because melting at the ice sheet edge can still be offset by higher deposition rates on the plateau.The hypothesis of a catastrophic collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet is not supported by the model results presented in this thesis.


OBJECTIVE
The authors sought to explore how conduct, hyperactivity/inattention, and emotional symptoms are associated with neural reactivity to social-emotional stimuli, and the extent to which psychosocial stress modulates these relationships.

METHOD
Participants were community adolescents recruited as part of the European IMAGEN study. Bilateral amygdala regions of interest were used to assess the relationship between the three symptom domains and functional MRI neural reactivity during passive viewing of dynamic angry and neutral facial expressions. Exploratory functional connectivity and whole brain multiple regression approaches were used to analyze how the symptoms and psychosocial stress relate to other brain regions.

RESULTS
In response to the social-emotional stimuli, adolescents with high levels of conduct or hyperactivity/inattention symptoms who had also experienced a greater number of stressful life events showed hyperactivity of the amygdala and several regions across the brain. This effect was not observed with emotional symptoms. A cluster in the midcingulate was found to be common to both conduct problems and hyperactivity symptoms. Exploratory functional connectivity analyses suggested that amygdala-precuneus connectivity is associated with hyperactivity/inattention symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS
The results link hyperactive amygdala responses and regions critical for top-down emotional processing with high levels of psychosocial stress in individuals with greater conduct and hyperactivity/inattention symptoms. This work highlights the importance of studying how psychosocial stress affects functional brain responses to social-emotional stimuli, particularly in adolescents with externalizing symptoms.


BACKGROUND
Type VII collagen gene (COL 7 Al) mutations are the cause of dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB), but most mutations are specific to individual families and there is limited data on the nature of COL 7 Al mutations in certain ethnic populations.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the molecular basis of DEB in Mexican patients and describe the most frequent mutation among this ethnic population.

METHODS
Most subjects were approached at FUNDACION DEBRA MEXICO AC. Molecular analysis was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of genomic DNA using COL 7 A l-specific primers, heteroduplex analysis, and direct nucleotide sequencing.

RESULTS
Fifty nine of 67 COL 7 Al possible mutations (88%) were identified; 36 individuals (31 recessive, five dominant) from 21 families. Recessive mutations included six frameshift mutations, four silent glycine substitutions and two splice site mutations.

CONCLUSIONS
The present study informs a different kind of mutation observed in our patient population. Only two mutations informed in this study had been described earlier among another ethnic group. The most frequent mutation was 2470insG, affecting 21 (58.3%) out of 36 patients with DEB. These new data will be helpful in facilitating the accurate diagnosis of an DEB subtype, and will add further insight into the pathophysiology of this mechanobullous disease.


While SLA studies on the acquisition of sociolinguistic variation have primarily illuminated the impact of social and socio-biographic factors on such development, this paper is a response to the need for studies of the relationship between sociolinguistic development and other components of the learner's L2 linguistic repertoire, such as grammatical development, which is the focus of this study. With the aim of exploring the hypothesis that grammatical development is a pre-requisite to sociolinguistic development, the study presents quantitative findings which compare longitudinal development on a number of grammatical and sociolinguistic features in the case of Irish university learners of French. Findings suggest that while grammatical development may be important, it may be not enough, such that it is naturalistic exposure which provides the necessary impetus for such sociolinguistic development. Moreover, the extent of grammatical development in terms of the range of grammatical features which are productively used within the learner's linguistic repertoire is a further factor which complexifies the issue.


Lactic acid bacteria produce pediocin-like bacteriocins designated as Class Ha. These antimicrobial peptides are antagonistic against Listeria monocytogenes and other closely related Gram-positive bacteria Self-protection of the producer organism is attributed to the immunity proteins, encoded by genes that are eo-transcribed with the structural gene that encode the bacteriocin. The lactic acid bacterium, Leuconostoc gelidum UAL 187-22 is immune to its own bacteriocin, leucocin A. This is accredited to its immunity protein and the possible absence of a receptor on its cytoplasmic membrane. Leucocin A was purified from the supernatant of1. gelidum to 90% purity by ion-exhange chromatography and C18 reverse phase High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC) eluted with an acetonitrile, 0.1% Triflouroacetic acid (TFA) gradient. The immunity gene was isolated from the same producer using the polymerase chain reaction from the recombinant plasmid pJF 5.5 using primers EAL-2 and EAL-3. The amplicon was truncated into versions A and B by removing the Cand N-terminals, with HaeIII and ClaI restriction enzymes, respectively. The amplicon and the truncated fragments A and B were cloned into pMALc2 to construct recombinant plasmids pKPl, pKPIA and pKPIB, correspondingly, which were transformed into Escherichia coli (E. coli) strain JMI03. Clones were confirmed by colony PCR and Southern blot hybridization. The recombinant clones were subsequently expressed as MBP-IP, MBP-IPA and MBP-IPB fusion proteins that were verified by Western blot using the anti-MBP antibody. Factor Xa protease was used to cleave MBP from the proteins of interest. The resulting pure immunity protein versions had an approximate molecular weight of slightly more that 10 kDa. The binding interactions of the purified immunity protein constructs and leucocin A were compared on the Biacore 2000 instrument with surface plasmon resonance. None of the immunity constructs interacted with leucocin A, however, the N-terminal region of the immunity protein interacted with the cytoplasmic extract.


"The starting point for this study was the consideration of future climate change scenarios and their uncertainties. The paper presents the global projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) and compares them with regional scenarios (downscaling) developed by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais?INPE), with a focus on two main IPCC scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) and two main global models (MIROC and Hadley Centre) for the periods 2011?2040 and 2041?2070. It aims to identify the main trends in terms of changes in temperature and precipitation for the North and Northeast regions of Brazil (more specifically, in the Amazon, semi-arid and cerrado biomes)."(?)


Decentralization can take many forms, depending on the nature of the functions which are decentralized, at the level of the control exerted by the local authorities on these functions and the type of institution to which the responsibilities are transferred. In the developing countries, the objectives of the decentralization process are, in general, focused on improving efficiency, equity, accessibility and the quality of the services supplied, as well as of the extent to which they cover the local needs. In fact, decentralization is very clearly linked to the economic development, as well as to the democratic government systems.

Through decentralization one seeks the improvement of the performances of a certain service, by changing the authority and responsibility between key-actors, the improvement of the informational flux for fundamenting decisions and assessing performance, the establishing of the accountability mechanisms and the modalities of motivating all actors to be responsible in the fulfillment of their duties (Paul L. Hutchinson, Monitoring and Evaluation of Decentralization Reforms, 2004). A mechanism for assessing changes with respect to accountability is represented by the "accountability frame" (Brinkerhoff 2003, Aucoin and Heintzman 2000). These changes, applied in a consistent and coherent manner, will lead, implicitly, to the reduction of the level of corruption in the public system. Political decentralization (devolution) - the only actual one, as considered by analysts - presupposes the transfer of attributions and afferent decisional power to the local levels of government and the implicit limitation of the central intervention capacity. This being the case, decentralization constitutes an important change in the plan of the formal institutions in a state. Fiscal decentralization presupposed the creation of mechanisms for the transfer of the financial resources to the local level. It often, but not always, goes in parallel with political decentralization. To attempt to measure the degree of political decentralization solely through the percentage of public resources spent at the local level is deceiving, because many times the local administrations simply receive mandates to execute, from the center, namely precise duties, sometimes accompanied by resources with this well indicated destination, but this does not mean in any case that their decisional power has increased. Decentralization (promoted in parallel with a certain dosage of administrative deconcentration of the central government) proved it can sometimes solve local decision problems, has eased access to the information of local nature, has certain services more efficient and made the citizens feel better represented politically. However, sometimes it has proven to be a source of new problems in its turn: The increase of the discrepancies between rich and poor communities, heavy coordination, fiscal indiscipline (Manor, 1999; Tanzi, 2001). But, especially, since through decentralization the centers of political decision are multiplied, it raised concerns related to the possibility of aggravating corruption by the local elites capturing the public institutions.

In fact, the impact on the level of corruption is one of the most interesting aspects of the decentralization process, still insufficiently researched. The promoters of decentralization usually place the limitation of corruption among the benefits to be expected, this being for them an argument in favour of expediting the process. Many times, it is believed that the simple transfer of attributions and resources from the center to the other government levels will solve the problem. However, reality has proven a lot more complicated - many times, decentralization seems to be accompanied by a multiplication of the cases of corruption, at least as it is shown by anecdotic testimonies, as well as by an increase of the public concern towards this phenomenon. Some comparative studies in the latest period even reached the conclusion that, in total, more decentralization actually means more corruption (Treisman, 1999). In short, a long list of factors which can act on the relationship between corruption and decentralization, in both directions (Treisman, 2002). On the one hand, decentralization may lead to the reduction of corruption, because:
 • The local electives know better than the central ones the real needs of the community; therefore, it is less likely for them to act only as assignees for duties directed from the center, whose utility they doubt (fertile terrain for cynicism and corruption).
 • Inversely, in certain conditions, the citizens know more about the decision making process and they involve themselves more.
 • Competition occurs between the local administrations: Through the quality of the package of taxes and services supplied (in principle, the citizens thus being able to move, in order to opt for the package they agree most with); through the image of local government, more or less clean, moral pressure is created in order for the most corrupt administrations to act for the remedying of the situation.
 • Promotes, in judicious combination with deconcentration (but most often, to the detriment of the ladder), decentralization may lead to the limitation of the power of action of the bureaucratic extensions of the central government in the territory - usually, the most opaque and non-responsive part of the central administration. On the other hand, decentralization may lead to the proliferation of corruption, because:
 • Where the costs of civic information and participation are high, and the tradition in this sense is weak, the citizens may know more about what is happening at the center than at the local level; the few civic competences which exist concentrate in this direction.
 • The multiplication of the decision centers, correlated with the non-existence or weakness of the horizontal control mechanisms between the public institutions (horizontal accountability), may encourage discretionary behaviour and the breach of the law by the local political elites.
 • Where there are several levels of intermediary governance between the center and the local communities (regions, district, etc), it is difficult to achieve an adequate balance of power between the state's administrative levels, such as the intermediary to not abusively exercise the newly-gained powers to the detriment of the local basic administration (the actual local authority).
 • Where a chamber of the national parliament is elected on explicitly territorial principles (in order to represent regions, districts, etc), and these constituencies coincide with strong intermediary governance levels, there are great chances for the emergence of obscure interests coalitions between the regional leaders and the central representatives. Taking into consideration all these aspects, the paper aim to make a analysis of the impact of the impact of decentralization on the corruption phenomenon.


Dissatisfaction with the governance of public companies is as old as the public company itself, but public concern about corporate governance is spasmodic. Prior reforms did not cure the ills of corporate governance, and there is little reason to think that the recent spate of reforms will be any more effective. The fundamental problem of corporate governance remains what it has always been: the separation of ownership and control. No reform can succeed unless it overcomes this contradiction. Corporate executives determined to preserve their privileges and a number of scholars deny this claim; in effect, these Panglosses consider the status quo the best of all possible worlds. Others recognize that corporate governance is broken and that initiatives recently instituted or proposed are inadequate. Several have proposed changes, some of which would be beneficial, but none promises to eliminate the separation of ownership and control. After a survey of the current debate over corporate governance, this article explains why the separation of ownership and control is the central problem of corporate governance and why past reforms have failed. The article then discusses the reforms instituted and proposed after the recent scandals and why they too will fail. The article concludes by urging a means of finally solving the problem of corporate governance by having the corporation's nominees for the board chosen by a committee of the largest shareholders.