This paper presents a meta-analysis of recent microeconometric evaluations of active labor market policies. Our sample contains 199 separate "program estimates" - estimates of the impact of a particular program on a specific subgroup of participants - drawn from 97 studies conducted between 1995 and 2007. For about one-half of the sample we have both a short-term program estimate (for a one-year post-program horizon) and a medium- or long-term estimate (for 2 or 3 year horizons). We categorize the estimated post-program impacts as significantly positive, insignificant, or significantly negative. By this criterion we find that job search assistance programs are more likely to yield positive impacts, whereas public sector employment programs are less likely. Classroom and on-the-job training programs yield relatively positive impacts in the medium term, although in the short-term these programs often have insignificant or negative impacts. We also find that the outcome variable used to measure program impact matters. In particular, studies based on registered unemployment are more likely to yield positive program impacts than those based on other outcomes (like employment or earnings). On the other hand, neither the publication status of a study nor the use of a randomized design is related to the sign or significance of the corresponding program estimate. Finally, we use a subset of studies that focus on post-program employment to compare meta-analytic models for the "effect size" of a program estimate with models for the sign and significance of the estimated program effect. We find that the two approaches lead to very similar conclusions about the determinants of program impact.


Water stress occurring during the early phase of the reproductive growth stage may influence plant reproduction
success. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the responses of pollen and seed yield components to
water stress during anthesis in cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) varieties and weedy rice strains. Studies were
conducted in 2007 using three cultivated rice varieties; MR 84, MR 219 and MR 232. In 2008 three weedy rice
strains were obtained from Seberang Perak, Kuala Pilah and Tanjung Karang areas. Studies were conducted in
the field where plants were grown in polybags and submerged in polyethylene tanks. Prior to anthesis, plants
were subjected to water stress by taking the plants out of the polyethylene tanks for five days. Flag leaf relative
water content (RWC) and relative injury (RI) were measured daily during the stressed period. Pollen production
and pollen viability were measured upon re-watering. Seed yield components measured were grain number
per panicle, 100-grain weight, percentage filled grain and percentage spikelet sterility at harvest. Water stress
caused a 13 – 34% decline in the number of pollen grains per anther in cultivated varieties but increased pollen
production in weedy strains. Percentage pollen viability declined by 40 – 45% in MR 219 and MR 232, but
increased by 15% in MR 84 when plants were water-stressed. Percent pollen viability in weedy strains never
exceeded 52% and significantly declined with water stress. For cultivated varieties, water stress increased
total number of grain per panicle by 31%. In weedy strains, only Seberang Perak increased in the number of
grain per panicle due to water stress. Spikelet sterility was relatively higher in cultivated varieties (16 – 50%)
compared with weedy strains (10 – 23%). The 100-grain weight was not affected by water stress in both
cultivated varieties and weedy strains. This study indicated that weedy rice strains would gain a competitive
advantage by producing more filled grains when water deficit occurs during anthesis.


Intuitively, music has both predictable and unpredictable components. In this paper, we assess this qualitative statement in a quantitative way using common time series models fitted to state-of-the-art music descriptors. These descriptors cover different musical facets and are extracted from a large collection of real audio recordings comprising a variety of musical genres. Our findings show that music descriptor time series exhibit a certain predictability not only for short time intervals, but also for mid-term and relatively long intervals. This fact is observed independently of the descriptor, musical facet and time series model we consider. Moreover, we show that our findings are not only of theoretical relevance but can also have practical impact. To this end we demonstrate that music predictability at relatively long time intervals can be exploited in a real-world application, namely the automatic identification of cover songs (i.e., different renditions or versions of the same musical piece). Importantly, this prediction strategy yields a parameter-free approach for cover song identification that is substantially faster, allows for reduced computational storage and still maintains highly competitive accuracies when compared to state-of-the-art systems.


Abstract Background: Aegle marmelos (commonly known as Bael, golden apple) was formerly described to have anti-hyperglycemic activity. The present study aimed to explore the possible effects, in depth, of A. marmelos extracts on carbohydrate absorption, glucose utilization, and α-amylase inhibition and insulin content in pancreases of type 2 diabetic rats. Methods: This research begins with fasting blood glucose and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) to evaluate the primary anti-hyperglycemic effect in chemically induced type 2 diabetic rats. Furthermore, the plasma insulin concentration and serum glucose level were studied, which include measuring the sucrose content in six different segments of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of the rats following oral sucrose feeding. An in situ, perfused, intestinal model in rats and glucose-fiber binding assay were conducted to find the effects of A. marmelos extracts on glucose absorption. Extract effects on carbohydrate breakdown, intestinal disaccharidase enzyme activity, and α-amylase inhibition were assessed. Effect on GI motility was evaluated using BaSO4 milk traverse test. Results: Treatment of extracts suppressed blood glucose elevation after oral sucrose (2.5 g/kg) administration and significantly (p<0.05) improved oral glucose tolerance in type 2 diabetic rats. Aegle marmelos extracts showed remarkable (p<0.05) changes in plasma insulin secretion at 30 min and 60 min, respectively. A noticeable reduction in glucose absorption was observed in the in situ perfused rat intestinal model at two different doses (250 and 500 mg/kg). The extract was also found to inhibit the action of both α-amylase and intestinal disaccharidase enzyme, and this study was affirmed again by the sucrose malabsorption test, where sucrose digestion was inhibited throughout the length of the GI tract. During this chronic study, body mass of rats became normal and their polydipsic and polyphagic conditions were ameliorated also. Conclusions: The findings demonstrate that anti-hyperglycemic activity of A. marmelos is mediated by the inhibition of carbohydrate digestion and absorption, and improvement of insulin action to uptake glucose in peripheral tissue. Additional study is required to correlate A. marmelos extracts' specific mechanism of glucose-fiber binding capacity and glucose transporters.


Net farm income for all representative farms in 2018 is projected to be lower than in 2008. Low-profit farms, which comprise 20% of the farms in the study, may not have financial resiliency to survive without off-farm income. Commodity prices are expected to fall from current levels however the final level is unknown. Commodity yields are projected to increase at historical trend-line rates and production expenses are expected to return to normal growth rates after 2009. Debt-to-asset ratios for all farms except for the low profit farm will decrease slightly throughout the forecast period. Debt-to-asset ratios for the low-profit farms are expected to increase to about 0.50.


This paper presents an ensemble-based speaker recognition using unsupervised data selection. Ensemble learning is a type of machine learning that applies a combination of several weak learners to achieve an improved performance than a single learner. A speech utterance is divided into several subsets based on its acoustic characteristics using unsupervised data selection methods. The ensemble classifiers are then trained with these non-overlapping subsets of speech data to improve the recognition accuracy. This new approach has two advantages. First, without any auxiliary information, we use ensemble classifiers based on unsupervised data selection to make use of different acoustic characteristics of speech data. Second, in ensemble classifiers, we apply the divide-and-conquer strategy to avoid a local optimization in the training of a single classifier. Our experiments on the 2010 and 2008 NIST Speaker Recognition Evaluation datasets show that using ensemble classifiers yields a significant performance gain.


This thesis is a critical edition of the Judeo-Arabic
commentary on the Hebrew text of the Book of Job by one of
the greatest Karaites of his age (second half of the tenth
century A. D.), Yefet Ben 'Ali the Karaite.
An examination of the photocopies and microfilms of the
original Manuscripts of Yefet Ben 'Ali written in the XIth,
XIV-XVIIth, XVth and XVIth centuries resulted in a delimitation
of the number of chapters in this edition i.e. chapters I-X.
None of the four Manuscripts is complete and I have tried to
complete the presentation of the first ten chapters of Yefet's
commentary on the Book of Job by filling in the gaps of the
master copy which I used (Ms. A., Or. 2509 B. M. ) from the other
Manuscripts. I used it as a main text because it is almost
a complete copy compared with the others, as far as the first
ten chapters are concerned. The four Manuscripts which I used
are housed in the British Library in London.
This edition is prefaced by an introduction, comprising
a discussion of the information we possess about Yefet's life
in Basrah and Jerusalem, with reference to his works in general
and the authenticity of his work on the Book of Job in particular.
This is followed by a description and analysis of the commentary,
discussing the method used by the commentator, and how he made
it possible for large numbers of Jews in non-Arabic speaking
countries to make free use of his interpretations of biblical
texts allied to the Karaite theological viewpoint and its
relationship to Mu'tazilite views. There follows an analysis
of the language used by Yefet in his text and exegesis, i.e.
morphology, orthography and so on.
A comparison is then made with Saadia Gaon, including a brief
discussion of the language and exegesis of the two scholars which
deals with the fundamental characteristics of Judeo and classical
Arabic; in addition, notes on the text are appended in which attention
will be drawn to Yefet's characteristic vagueness in interpreting
the Hebrew text of the Book of Job.
Special attention is paid to the vowels in each of the Manuscripts, and
differences between the Manuscripts are footnoted throughout the
text of this edition.
The appendix takes cognisance of M. E., i.e. Opp. Add. 4.165
of the Bodleian Library, listing fully the differences between it and
the printed text of this edition.


Drinking to excess has been a striking problem for industrial and post-industrial societies – who is responsible when a 'free' individual opts for a slow suicide? The causes of such drinking have often been blamed on heredity, moral weakness, 'disease' (addiction), hedonism, and Romantic illusion. Yet there is another reason which may be more fundamental and which has been overlooked or dismissed, and it is that the drinker may act with sincere philosophical intent. The Existential drinker looks at the convergence of a new kind of excessive, habitual drinking, beginning in the nineteenth century, and a new way of thinking about the self which in the twentieth century comes to be labelled 'Existential'. A substantial introduction covers questions of self, will, consciousness, authenticity and ethics in relation to drinking, while introducing aspects of Existential thought pertinent to the discussion. The Existential-drinker canon is anchored in Jack London's 'alcoholic memoir' John Barleycorn (1913) where London claims he can get at the truth of existence only through the insights afforded by excessive and repeated alcohol use. The book then covers drinker-texts such as Jean Rhys's interwar novels, Malcolm Lowry's Under the volcano, Charles Jackson's The lost weekend and John O'Brien's Leaving Las Vegas, along with less well-known works such as Frederick Exley's A fan's notes, Venedikt Yerofeev's Moscow-Petushki, and A. L. Kennedy's Paradise. The book will appeal to anybody with an interest in drinking and literature, as well as those with more specialised concerns in drinking studies, Existentialism, twentieth-century literature, and medical humanities.


This paper uses a value chain lens to examine the prospects for competition and cooperation between Europe and China in the global wind power sector. Drawing on insights from fieldwork conducted in 2010 combined with secondary industry data, we find that Chinese and European industries are developing distinct models of industrial technological organisation. The usual headlines emphasising Sino-European competition or conflict fail to capture the complexity of current reality. While competition among lead firms is increasing, there are also considerable prospects for increased collaboration between firms across the value chains. China, Europe and the world can benefit from such collaboration to drive down the costs of the technology, improve quality, enhance innovation capabilities and make wind power a more credible energy option for the world. Policy initiatives in and between China and Europe have a big role to play in securing mutually beneficial relationships for the future.


In this paper we present a simple, stochastic-geometric model of a wireless access network exploiting the LoRA (Long Range) protocol, which is a non-expensive technology allowing for long-range, single-hop connectivity for the Internet of Things. We assume a space-time Poisson model of packets transmitted by LoRA nodes to a fixed base station. Following previous studies of the impact of interference [8, 10], we assume that a given packet is successfully received when no interfering packet arrives with similar power before the given packet payload phase. This is as a consequence of LoRa using different transmission rates for different link budgets (transmissions with smaller received powers use larger spreading factors) and LoRa intra-technology interference treatment. Using our model, we study the scaling of the packet reception probabilities per link budget as a function of the spatial density of nodes and their rate of transmissions. We consider both the parameter values recommended by the LoRa provider, as well as proposing LoRa tuning to improve the equality of performance for all link budgets. We also consider spatially non-homogeneous distributions of LoRa nodes. We show also how a fair comparison to non-slotted Aloha can be made within the same framework.


Background: Patients with breast cancer (BC) need to be supported in all aspects of their lives. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the impacts of nurse-led telephone-based support on supportive care needs (SCNs) in women with BC. Methods: This two-group randomized clinical trial was conducted on 62 women with BC who were randomly assigned to two groups to either receive telephone-based support (n = 31) or conventional care routinely provided to patients with BC (n = 31). Patients' SCNs were assessed before, 2 weeks, and 1 month after the intervention onset using the SCNs Survey -Short Form 34 The data were analyzed through the repeated-measures analysis of variance and the Bonferroni's, Chi-square, Fisher's exact, independent-sample t, and Mann–Whitney U-tests. Results: Significant decreases were observed in the mean scores of SCNs in both groups (P < 0.001), though the decrease in the intervention group was much greater than the control group (39.08 vs. 2.87). Baseline mean score of SCNs in the intervention group was significantly greater than the control group (P = 0.008); however, 2 weeks and 1 month after the intervention onset, the mean score in the intervention group was significantly lower than the control group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Telephone-based support is effective in addressing and reducing SCNs among patients with BC.


Concentration of metals (Zn, Cu and Pb) in the edible portion of commercially important blood cockle (Anadara granosa) collected from Langkawi Island, Malaysia was analyzed. Samples were collected from 3 different stations namely Kuah (KU), Kuala Triang (KT) and Pantai Kok (PK) during 2009. Heavy metal concentrations were detected using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) with respect to the total body burden (ie., the observed concentration multiplied with total flesh weight). The observed mean concentration of Zn, Cu and Pb at Kuah station was 110.75 µg/g, 12.35 µg/g and 1.73 µg/g respectively followed by Kuala Triang station with mean Zn, Cu and Pb concentration of 62.16 µg/g, 6.72 µg/g and 0.06 µg/g respectively. The lowest concentration of selected metals was observed in the samples collected from Pantai Kok station with mean Zn, Cu and Pb concentrations of 77.50 µg/g, 8.56 µg/g and 0.04 µg/g respectively. The calculated Bio-concentration Factor Value (BCF sample-sediment ) showed the resisting the entry of metals or limited ability of A.granosa in accumulating selected metals from their environment as indicated by the BCF sa-se value (< 1) except the Zn accumulation from Kuah station (BCF sa-se value = 2.21). However, the observed metal concentration in the sample tissue was lower than the national and International permissible standard limit for human consumption.


The main purpose of this research on Turkish foreign policy and its security measures is to analyze various paradigms of international politics in which our current understanding of the phenomena of a new international system is cognizabled and, from the point of perspective of political science, is valid and justified. The subject is about the development and -vice versa- the capacities and potentials for development of Turkey´s foreign policy and its fundamental doctrines. Since the end of the Cold War (1990/1991) Turkish foreign policy, which had been anchored upon the strategic doctrine of NATO (main items: deterrence and mutual assured destruction) and the particular and globally scaled interests of the USA, has undergone a transformation. The hypothesis of my research on Turkish policy (1990-2007) is that the regional standing and influence of Turkey has increased and will increase in the coming years. The new situation which is depending on various parameters of the international system has affected Turkey´s relations not only with the direct neighbours, but also with Central Asia and Islamic World. Today, in Turkey´s foreign policy the main principle is its multi-dimensional character. The essential point of Turkish foreign policy is to establish a regional balance of power under the guideline of developing bilateral and, as many as possible, multilateral relationship to its neighbours. Turkish foreign policy can be described as a reiteration and intensification of political scopes by promoting the goal of `a new regional system´. Turkey´s foreign policy can be analyzed as a so-called `regional power policy´ based on non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries. Bilateral or multilateral cooperation is accepted as corroboration, but there are counterarguments which are depending on the various parameters of the international system and the particular conditions of the so-called `most dangerous triangle of the world´. Threat perceptions are sets of beliefs about the nature of insecurity and what constitutes challenges to instability. To understand how Turkey perceives security and -vice versa- insecurity (or insecurity threats) is to know the value priorities Turkey projects onto its security environment. In this context and under these conditions, it is frequently argued that the parameters of the international system and world politics have been changed by refocusing American foreign policy, redefining transatlantic relations, and not at least, increasing the scope of NATO (`Out-of-area-Concepts´, for example). Comparing EU threat perceptions with Turkish perspectives poses at least two challenges. The first obstacle is the difference between the two decision-making systems in the field of foreign security policy. Turkish Military (General Staff as elite) makes foreign policy decisions not only, but also at the national level. The EU, on the other hand, is a system of multi-level governance in which member states retain autonomy in foreign and security policy, an autonomy that has to be negotiated toward a common position in intergovernmental negotiations foccused and mediated by the EU. Turkey is a single actor-only mediated by NATO´s policy and by particular interests of the USA. The end of the Cold War led to fundamental changes in Turkey´s foreign policy in general:
1. Turkey began to exert influence in Central Asia, the Black Sea region, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and the Balkans. This was a major shift from Ankara´s previous policies of non-involment. But there was no other way. Contrary to the Cold War period, during which Turkey´s foreign and security policy was relatively defined and circumscribed because of its role in the containment of the USSR power, in the post-Cold War era, Turkey has experienced an enlargement of its external horizons. That´s why Turkey began to pay particular attention to regional cooperation, cooperative security and bi-or multilateralism in foreign, but also economic etc. affairs. In this regard, Turkey initiated the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), and started to expand its political, cultural, and economic ties with the newly established Turkish republics.
2. But there are two constants of turkish foreign policy: Turkey´s western orientation (EU) and security integration (NATO, USA).
Although Turkey´s western orientation and security integration are first policy priority objectives, the end of the Cold War and the bipolar world opened new opportunities to Ankara in further fields, and its relations with the neighboured countries have been developed. Turkish foreign policy in the post-Cold War area provides a striking example of the linkage between domestic and foreign policy. So, one simply cannot adequately analyse contemporary Turkish foreign and security policy without an explicit multiple explanatory model. There is every indication that Turkey´s role can be clarified from the perspective of an explicit multiple explanatory model.


Abstract The isometrically coiled mollusc Eobucania Kobayashi, 1955 is described from the Peltura scarabaeoides Zone (Furongian; late Cambrian) of Kinnekulle, southern Sweden, representing the oldest record of the genus and the first from the Cambrian of Sweden. While originally described from the Lower Ordovician strata within the McKay Group of British Columbia, Canada, additional species of Eobucania have been reported from the Lower Ordovician of Mexico, France and the Czech Republic, and ostensibly from the Lower Devonian of China. Eobucania has been widely interpreted as a bellerophontoidean gastropod, but placement within the monoplacophoran Class Tergomya is possible.


In this paper, performance of two high rate technologies, upflow anaerobic fixed-film reactor and fluidized bed laboratory-scale, treating distillery wastewater (wine vinasses ) at anaerobic thermophilic conditions have been compared. The results obtained show that the stationary packed bed, with a corrugated plastic support, operated under stable conditions at organic loading rates (OLR0) around 20 kgCOD/m 3 /d, gives maximal total CODr of 76% at OLR0 of 6.29 kgCOD/m 3 /d; the fluidized bed reactor, operated on open pore sintered-glass media, gives total CODr of 96% at OLR0 of 5.88 kgCOD/m 3 /d. The anaerobic fluidized bed technology is more effective than the upflow anaerobic fixed-film technology due, fundamentally, to this technology favouring the transport of microbial cells from the bulk to the surface and enhancing the contact between the microorganism-substrate phases. In this sense, the stationary packed bed technology is adequate for the treatment of easily biodegradable wastewater, or for the cases where elevated percentages of CODr removal are not required, while the fluidized bed technology is especially suitable for treatment of hazardous wastes with recalcitrant compositions. Keywords Anaerobic digestion; fixed film reactor; fluidized bed reactor; thermophilic; support media; wine vinasses


Two of the main limitations of integral imaging are the crosstalk and the narrow viewing angle. In this paper, a crosstalk free integral imaging display with wide viewing angle is proposed. A layer of transparent high refractive index packing medium is padded onto a display panel to enhance the viewing angle, and then a periodic black mask is coated on the top surface of the medium layer to avoid the crosstalk and image flipping. The proposed integral imaging display can provide us with crosstalk free 3D images within a wide viewing angle. Experiments are carried out and good results finally verify the feasibility of the proposed method.


Less than three years ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") adopted investment crowdfunding regulations ("Reg. CF") to facilitate small companies' efforts to raise capital and jumpstart employment, providing companies potentially one of the most disruptive transformations in capital markets.

As the lion share of securities are offered under public offerings or Reg. D safe harbor exemptions, outcomes and impacts of Reg. CF offerings are not studied or monitored to the same extent. One line of inquiry is the scope of Reg. CF, including questions about the level of company participation, the types of businesses seeking capital formation, and the quality of the investments offered. This article seeks to answer to what extent Reg. CF investment crowdfunding has facilitated company capital formation and provided a means for investors to purchase suitable investments. Towards that end, the author retrieved data from SEC Form C notice filings and other SEC filings completed by companies beginning with Reg. CF's adoption date through June 30, 2018. To illustrate the findings, this article proceeds in five succeeding substantive parts:

Part II provides a brief history of the Reg. CF exemption law and the research findings about investment crowdfunding, generally and digital tokens, more specifically;

Part III provides insights of the current state of offering blockchain based digital tokens to unsophisticated investors and the silver linings in the data;

Part IV provides recommendations towards a path forward in Reg. CF. First, the SEC should re-evaluate its regulatory policy in light of the proliferation of blockchain based token offerings, gaps in funding portals and provide additional warnings to unsophisticated investors who may be taking on enhanced investment risk. The uncertainty and risk of digital tokens reliant on blockchain technology foretells a troubling high risk of investment loss, which may be in addition to the expected high risk of loss for startup tech companies. Second, companies, particularly idealistic tech startups, that are considering the offer of digital tokens, should thoughtfully consider alternatives to these offerings. There remains a level of uncertainty and risk in these offerings, which could result in greater risk and liability than the alternative financing available to them. Last, economic development organizations should consider developing their role in attracting, designing and implementing funding portals to provide the support that tech and other startup companies need to raise capital for their business;

Part V provides concluding remarks.


Objective: Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have become a key enabler to improving patient safety, improving healthcare quality, and increasing healthcare efficiency. Governments in various countries have moved beyond the local implementation of EHRs in different healthcare organizations to the national implementation and integration of EHRs. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has lagged behind significantly in this regard, with only few hospitals have implemented the EHR. The purpose of this study is to identify barriers to the adoption of EHRs in the KSA using a systematic literature review. Methods: We searched for relevant articles using six search engines (PubMed, EBSCO Host, Web of Science, ACM, IEEE and Google Scholar). The search criteria focused on peer reviewed, empirical studies conducted in the KSA. The final set that met the inclusion criteria was twelve studies. The authors extracted, analyzed, summarized, and categorized empirical results related to EHR barriers in these studies. Results: After categorization and analysis, we identified the following twelve main barriers to EHR adoption: lack of computer experience by healthcare professionals (18%), lack of perceived usefulness by healthcare professionals (15%), lack of perceived ease of by healthcare professionals (15%), technical limitations of the software system (15%), lack of user support (9%), confidentiality concerns (9%), user resistance to change (6%), lack of quality in patients' information (3%), lack of EHR standards (3%), uncertainty about EHR vendors (3%), hospital size (3%), and hospital's level of care (3%). Conclusion: The findings of this study will be of great potential to policy makers and EHR vendors in the KSA. They can inform strategies to design systems and tailor implementation strategies toward factors that motivate adoption. A second important contribution of this study is that it provides evidence that the extant technology adoption theories like the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) are not sufficient in explaining EHR adoption, as only 30% of identified barriers could be categorized according to TAM. There is a need for creating a new model for EHR adoption.


The human leukocyte antigen class II genes DRB1, DQB1, and DQA1 are associated with Graves disease (GD), but, because of strong linkage disequilibrium within this region, the primary etiological variant(s) remains unknown. In the present study, 871 patients with GD and 621 control subjects were genotyped at the DRB1, DQB1, and DQA1 loci. All three loci were associated with GD (P=1.45 x 10(-12), P=3.20 x 10(-5), and P=9.26 x 10(-12), respectively). Stepwise logistic-regression analysis showed that the association could be explained by either DRB1 or DQA1 but not by DQB1. To extend previous results, the amino acid sequence of the exon 2-encoded peptide-binding domain of DRB1 was predicted for each subject, and, by use of logistic regression, each position was analyzed for association with GD. Of 102 amino acids, 70 were uninformative; of the remaining 32 amino acids, 13 were associated with GD (P values ranged from 2.20 x 10(-4) to 1.2 x 10(-12)). The strongest association was at position beta 74. This analysis is consistent with the possibility that position beta 74 of exon 2 of the DRB1 molecule may have a specific and central role in autoantigen presentation by DRB1 to T lymphocytes. However, we cannot yet exclude a primary role for DQA1 or for other polymorphisms that affect DRB1 function or expression.


This chapter deals with institutions and states. Institutions are essentially regular patterns of behaviour that provide stability and predictability to social life. Some institutions are informal, with no formally laid down rules such as the family, social classes, and kinship groups. Others are more formalized, having codified rules and organization. Examples include governments, parties, bureaucracies, legislatures, constitutions, and law courts. The state is defined as sovereign, with institutions that are public. After discussing the concept of institutions and the range of factors that structure political behaviour, the chapter considers the multi-faceted concept of the state. It then looks at the history of how the European type of state and the European state system spread around the world between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. It also examines the modern state and some of the differences between strong states, weak states, and democratic states.


of a dissertation at the University of Miami. Dissertation supervised by Professor Douglas Crawford. No. of pages in text. (147) This research focuses on the mitochondrial Complex I (EC. 126.96.36.199), the genes that encode this enzyme complex, the pattern of enzyme activity within and among populations, and how mRNA expression covaries with Complex I activity. Complex I is found in nearly every organism and has diversified from a core complex of 14 subunits to the 45 subunit complex found in vertebrates. The appearance of subunits over time is characterized by a large gain of subunits by multicellular animals and only 5 vertebrate specific subunits. Subunit sequences are generally well conserved suggesting that these subunits are performing essential functions. Human disease has been associated with 21 Complex I subunits, though the function of most of the noncatalytic subunits is unclear. Correlation analysis of mRNA abundance in four taxa (humans, Mus musculus, Drosophila melanogaster and Fundulus heteroclitus) show that correlations among basal subunits (those that are found in bacteria) are shared more frequently among taxa, suggesting functional importance of these correlations. Variation in Complex I activity in Fundulus heteroclitus collected along the latitudinal thermocline of its range was measured. Individuals from southern populations—F. heteroclitus from Georgia and F. grandis from Louisiana had significantly higher Complex I activity per wet weight than F. heteroclitus individuals from Rhode Island or Maine. Individuals from northern populations had higher mitochondrial density, but this did not compensate entirely for the disparities in Complex I activity among populations. The increased similarity in Complex I activity between individuals from sister species relative to individuals from the same species suggests that Complex I activity is evolving by natural selection in Fundulus. The difference in environmental temperature between northern and southern populations, as well as the known importance of temperature on enzyme function makes it likely that temperature affects divergence among Fundulus populations. The effect of temperature on Complex I activity was investigated by acclimating individuals from two populations of F. heteroclitus (ME, GA) and one population of F. grandis to three temperatures for six weeks (12°, 20° and 28°) and then assaying Complex I activity at each temperature. Acclimation to higher temperatures caused Complex I to be insensitive to acute changes in temperature and increased mitochondrial specific activity at lower assay temperatures. Individuals acclimated to 12° show the opposite response, suggesting that Complex I is more sensitive to cold temperatures. Abundance of mRNA in five populations of F. heteroclitus and one population of F. grandis was measured using microarray methodology. One Complex I subunit, NDUFA5, showed patterns of expression consistent with directional selection. Complex I subunit mRNA abundance was regressed with Complex I activity to identify genes with expression patterns that may affect Complex I mitochondrial specific activity. Among F. heteroclitus populations, the genes that explained variance in Complex I activity were not the same. Each population had a different model for Complex I activity and mRNA abundance, suggesting that the effect of variation in mRNA expression on Complex I activity is population specific.


Gouy phase anomaly of the coaxial focus array generated by a Dammann zone plate (DZP) was investigated. Based on Debye vectorial diffraction theory, the longitudinal-differential (LD) phase profile was presented in the focal region of a high numerical aperture aplanatic objective with a DZP located before as the pupil filter. The numerical simulations show that there is a Gouy phase shift exactly located at the position of every diffraction order along the axial direction. Besides the well-known Gouy phase, a type of extra irregular phase shift among some diffraction orders is demonstrated. This interesting phenomenon of the extra phase shift, physically, is attributed to transversal confinement inside the pupil aperture of the focusing system, which is induced by the discontinuities in phase retardation between any two adjacent zones of DZPs. These extra irregular phase shifts are very different for different kinds of DZPs, and thus this extra phase shift effect can be seen as a characteristic of certain DZPs. In addition, the 3D differential phase maps are presented for investigation of the subtle phase evolution in the off-axis volume.


Sparked by the #metoo movement, we are once again having an important national discussion about the prevalence of sexual harassment in America. The conversation is a necessary starting point, but it's focus on high-status workplaces overlooks other contexts in which sexual harassment occurs. This Article focuses on one such area: the sexual harassment and exploitation of low-income women by their landlords. Although it is a significant national problem, there have been no reliable empirical studies about its nature and prevalence.
The lack of information causes difficulties. Policymakers and legislators cannot address sexual harassment in housing if they do not know basic facts about it such as how common it is, who is likely to experience and perpetrate it, and what form it takes. The law, much of which is borrowed from the employment context, remains underdeveloped and unresponsive to the unique challenges presented by housing harassment.
This Article and the Pilot Study upon which it is based seek to remedy this situation. The Study involved detailed interviews of one hundred randomly selected low-income women. These interviews reveal important insights into who is most at risk for housing harassment, the characteristics of the landlords who engage in it, the form it is likely to take, and how women respond to it.
The Study results both challenge and improve upon assumptions made by more theoretical scholarship, and lead to suggestions for changes to both law and policy. In particular, the results underscore the argument for treating sexual harassment in housing as a phenomenon that is entirely different from employment harassment, with a new framework that recognizes the economic reality of low-income housing. From a policy perspective, the results reveal the need for greater regulation of the landlord-tenant relationship, and the necessity of providing more resources to the most vulnerable renters.


The rising globalization of terrorist organizations and their ever more sophisticated abilities to reach people throughout the world has deepened the threat of terrorist activities in the United States and abroad. In light of these growing threats, both at home and overseas, the United States must ensure that our country has the necessary legal authorities to anticipate and counter them. One such vehicle for providing the United States with these critical legal tools is through strengthening Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA). The FAA, including Section 702, is scheduled to sunset in December 2017. Some advocates contend that Section 702 should be renewed with tighter constraints placed upon executive branch authorities. Others emphasize the vital contribution that Section 702 has made in preventing "terrorist attacks inside the United States and around the world," and advocate for the renewal of Section 702. In this paper, an alternative view is proposed: Section 702 should be strengthened. Specifically, this paper proposes that certain executive branch authorities should be restored to include the collection of foreign intelligence information on individuals overseas, including U.S. persons, with additional safeguards for information collected on U.S. persons. Moreover, this paper recommends against placing further constraints on the government's ability to query its own databases that may include Section 702 information.
The paper is divided into five parts. Part I traces the evolution of Section 702. Part II provides an overview of the constitutional parameters for the collection of foreign intelligence information. It highlights the tension between the President's constitutional mandate under Article II of the U.S. Constitution, e.g., protecting U.S. national security interests, and the Fourth Amendment's requirement of prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures by our government. Part III provides a framework for strengthening Section 702 and restoring certain executive branch authorities to where they had been prior to the 2008 FAA. Part III also analyzes how the suggested changes to Section 702 are consistent with the mandates of the Fourth Amendment and protect U.S. person privacy interests. Part IV addresses a recently proposed change to Section 702, namely placing constraints on the government's ability to query data collected under Section 702. Part IV contends that current safeguards for querying information are adequate and recommends against placing further constraints on the government's querying capabilities. Finally, Part V applies the concepts set forth in Parts III and IV of this paper to a hypothetical scenario. In doing so, Part V endeavors to show the national security value of these recommendations and how U.S. privacy interests remain protected.


The five-star luxury Hotel Ritz in Madrid is currently under refurbishment. The works include the construction of a new large skylight above the main hall inspired on the original design. This paper focus on the design and construction of this skylight which consist of 2 different parts, the Hall Bajo with a vault shape, and the Hall Alto which is a trapezoidal dome crowned by a pyramid roof. The structure consists in slender steel welded T profiles and small rectangular plates which connects the main beams. The connections between the structural members are welded in order to obtain a rigid connection. The perimeter consists in a welded RHS beam which creates a stiff tension ring which is completed by a visible cable. The pyramid roof performs as a compression ring for the in-plane loads and as a Vierendeel beam for the vertical loads. The cladding is composed of flat and cylindrical insulating glass panes. A geometric study is carried out in order to define the cylindrical surface that better fits a spherical frame. Some panes are structural, providing stability to the slender profiles. To guarantee the tight geometric tolerances required the structure is divided into modules, which also facilitates the transport.


The rapid evolution of information and communication technology in recent years has seen knowledge management become a key tool for the success of a variety of institutions. Many international organizations have developed knowledge management programs as key to their future development strategies. The number of international organizations that have identified knowledge management as one of their core management tools or formed a new knowledge management department is growing every day. Thus, the IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies), ILO (International Labour Office), United Nations and IMF (International Monetary Fund) have now created knowledge management divisions within their structures. Yet despite its growing popularity, knowledge management in international organizations remains a complex and challenging task. It calls for the management and integration of knowledge bases across national boundaries, in diverse cultural settings, and within organizations that may possess distinct values and sets of priorities. This study attempts to explicate the importance of including an information professional in all the systematic processes of knowledge management. The objective of the study is accomplished through a case study of the IFRC. It explicitly identifies the roles through which the librarians' professional training can be leveraged for knowledge capturing, organization, and dissemination in an organization such as the IFRC.


Fire is a major driver of community composition and habitat structure and is extensively used as an ecological management tool in flammable landscapes. Interactions between fire and other processes that affect animal distributions, however, cause variation in faunal responses to fire and limit our ability to identify appropriate fire management regimes for biodiversity conservation. Bayesian networks (BNs) have not previously been used to examine terrestrial faunal distributions in relation to fire, but offer an alternative statistical framework for modeling complex environmental relationships as they explicitly capture interactions between predictor variables. We developed a conceptual model of the interactions between drivers of faunal distributions in fire-affected landscapes, and then used a non-parametric BN modeling approach to describe and quantify these relationships for a suite of terrestrial native mammal species. We also tested whether BNs could be used to predict these species' distributions using only remote-sensed or mapped variables. Data were collected at 113 sites across 47,000 ha of continuous eucalypt forest in the Otway Ranges, southeastern Australia; time-since-fire (TSF) ranged from six months to 74 yr. Habitat complexity increased with TSF and forest wetness. Critical-weight-range (35–5500 g) marsupials and rodents were generally more likely to occur at long unburnt sites with high habitat complexity, and in wetter forest types. In contrast, large grazers and browsers preferred less complex habitats and younger or drier forest. Species occurrences were more strongly affected by habitat complexity than TSF, coarse woody debris cover, or invasive predator (Vulpes vulpes or Felis catus) occurrence. Bayesian network models effectively discriminated between the presence and absence of most native mammal species, even when only provided with data on remote-sensed or mapped variables (i.e., without field-assessed data such as habitat complexity). Non-parametric BNs are an effective technique for explicitly modeling the complex and context-dependent influence of fire history on faunal distributions, and may reduce the need to collect extensive field data on habitat structure and other proximate drivers.


Two supplemental pictures and five supplemental tables. The pictures exhibit the Nd-Hf isotopic spatial distribution of the Gangdese belt magmatic rocks, southern Tibet, by using the average isotopic values of per 0.5 longitude (Fig. S1) and two additional magma mixing models related to the Jurassic and Cretaceous Gangdese belt magmatic rocks, southern Tibet (Fig. S2). The talbes contain all the data used in this research and their references.


Volume changes of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets constitute the largest source of uncertainty to explain the current rate of sea-level rise and have the potential to significantly increase this rate in future warmer climates. Crucial aspects are how climatic changes will affect the ice sheet's mass balance and how ice dynamics will react to the imposed environmental forcing. This is in addition to the longer-term background trend from adjustments as far back as the last glacial period and the possibility of unexpected ice-dynamic responses related to contemporary climate changes or not. In this review talk these questions are highlighted from a modeling point of view. Results will be discussed from 3-D thermomechanical ice sheet/ice shelf models coupled with climate models of varying complexity. It is found that the polar ice sheets may contribute more negatively to sea-level in the 21st century than previously thought, but would become dominant for sea-level rise after a few centuries, with the most important effect coming from the Greenland ice sheet. For the higher end of the range of currently available climate scenarios, the Greenland ice sheet is found to almost completely disappear within a period of about 1000 years, raising sea level by about 7 m. Furthermore, with the Greenland ice sheet removed, it would not regrow to its present state for present climate conditions, indicating hysteresis. There exists a point-of-no-return once Greenland ice sheet disintegration has set in beyond which complete removal of the ice sheet becomes irreversible, even if climatic conditions were to revert to present-day conditions. This point may already be reached after 250 years of ice-sheet melting under a medium greenhouse warming scenario. Model sumulations on the Antarctic ice sheet exhibit a more stable behaviour. A collapse of the marine West Antarctic Ice Sheet is considered unlikely during the coming centuries, not even for large warming and melting rates below the ice shelves of 10 m/year. For moderate warmings below some 5°C, the Antarctic ice sheet is found to grow as increases in snow accumulation outweigh the effects of increased runoff.


With new food technologies such as cloning or added artificial growth hormones, consumers face complex and conflicting information related to the quality, safety, nutrition, and ethical outcomes associated with food choices. Economics has partially addressed the challenge of predicting people's choices and willingness-to-pay for new food technologies by using experimental methods, but thus far has offered little to explain why choices are made. The emerging field of neuroeconomics, which integrates the findings of economics, psychology, and neuroscience, can provide unique insights into consumer preferences. The purpose of this research is to enhance understanding of consumers' preferences for new food technologies by capitalizing on recent developments in economics and neuroscience. Specifically, this research seeks to determine how the human brain responds to the controversial newer food technologies as compared to standard, "rational" food attributes such as product price.


The fifteenth century saw the evolution of a distinct and powerfully influential European artistic culture. But what does the familiar phrase Renaissance Art actually refer to? Through engaging discussion of timeless works by artists such as Jan van Eyck, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo, and supported by illustrations including color plates, Tom Nichols offers a masterpiece of his own as he explores the truly original and diverse character of the art of the Renaissance.


2 Now at Shell of Norway ABSTRACT: Mitigation measures against natural catastrophes, such as rapid gravity mass flows and rock falls, have been built in Norway for centuries. Over the last few decades the number of new constructions has been increasing due to stricter safety requirements and increased population in exposed areas. The Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) initiated a project in early 2011 to investigate the condition of mitigation measures, and to suggest improved methods for maintaining them. Our study revealed that most mitigation measures were left without any plans for control or maintenance. Additional field work also revealed that many of the structures required repairs. An increasing number of mitigation measures are being built every year, and there is an urgent need to establish plans for controlling and maintaining these measures in the near future. For such plans to be established, we found that a system for maintaining information about the measures is required. The system should involve the following processes: 1) acquiring consistent information about all mitigation measures, both planned and built, 2) registering the need for maintenance for each measure an d 3) making a plan for future maintenance and/or rebuilding of structures. Based on these findings, we established a GIS-based pilot database in 2011, and started the initial registration of known measures. This pilot system was successful, and we are continuing the work throughout 2012. The results have been presented and discussed with three governmental agencies in charge of mitigation measures against different natural hazards, which has allowed the work to be continued in the NIFS project.


Abstract Metaphors are cognitive and linguistic tools that allow reasoning. They enable the understanding of abstract domains via elements borrowed from concrete ones. The underlying mechanism in metaphorical mapping is the manipulation of concepts. This article proposes another view on what concepts are and their role in metaphor and reasoning. That is, based on current neuroscientific and behavioural evidence, it is argued that concepts are grounded in perceptual and motor experience with physical and social environments. This definition of concepts is then embedded in the Structure-Mapping Theory (SMT), a model for metaphorical processing and reasoning. The blended view of structure-mapping and embodied cognition offers an insight into the processes through which the target domain of a metaphor is embodied or realised in terms of its base domain. The implications of the proposed embodied SMT model are then discussed and future topics of investigation are outlined.


Assurance services include independent professional services that improve the quality of information. Once such service is the collection of confidential information from participating firms on behalf of an industry association and the release of summarized information to investors. An example of this type of service is the collection of industry-wide information for the Semiconductor Industry Association. The primary output from this process is the monthly release of a ratio of new orders received to chips shipped, known as the book-to-bill ratio. We evaluate the association between book-to-bill disclosures and common stock prices. Statements in the financial press suggest that the book-to-bill index is an important indicator of future demand in the semiconductor industry. Because changes in the book-to-bill ratio signal impending changes in sales, the index may be relevant information for firm valuation. Our results suggest that investors in semiconductor firms utilize the book-to-bill ratio in revising their expectations of future cash flows. Specifically, we find (1) that eight of the 36 monthly book-to-bill announcements occurring during 1994 through 1996 produced share price reactions significant at the 10 percent level, and (2) that the price response across the subset of "good news" disclosures is positively related to the change in the book-to-bill ratio.


Existing literature on interpersonal trust in work relationships has largely focused on trust as an independent variable. This study examined trust as a dependent variable by investigating its dimensions and predictors. Four dimensions of trust were hypothesized: open communication, informal agreement, task reliance, and surveillance. A survey measure of willingness to trust was developed. Confirmatory factor analysis using data from 305 management representatives and 293 labor representatives showed the convergent and discriminant validity of the measure. Fishbein and Ajzen's theory of reasoned action served as the theoretical basis for a model of the predictors of trust. Regression analyses found that the past trustworthiness of the focal person and the attitude toward trusting the focal person were the most important predictors. Implications for research and practice are discussed.


In order for a municipality to effectively service and engage its constituency, it must understand the composition of the communities within it. Up to the present, such demographic estimates for target populations have been obtained largely from census data or expensive, time-intensive surveys. In this paper, we use Twitter microblog content to estimate the gender makeup of commuting populations using different modes of transportation (cars, public transportation, and bikes) in Toronto, Canada. We apply a demographic inference algorithm to 33,215 public Twitter accounts that follow one of three popular transportation-related Twitter-based news feeds (one for traffic, one for public transportation updates, and one for bicycling). Recent census data provides ground truth against which to compare the estimates we derive from Twitter. We find that, for all three communities (car drivers, public transport users, and bicyclists), the estimates obtained from Twitter reflect the majority-minority relationships between genders reported in census data. This provides preliminary, but compelling evidence that Twitter may be a platform that can go beyond simply signaling the presence of physical communities to actually measure their compositions.


Feminists' opposition to a state trial judge in a retention election provided an opportunity to explore important issues about legal consciousness and dif ferences between negative and affirmative resistance. Three questions about legal consciousness and resistance are addressed: What effect does an encounter with an allegedly bad judge have on people's legal consciousness? Under what circumstances will people engage in negative or affirmative resistance against a legal encounter they perceive as unjust? What instrumental effects on institutional practices and what constitutive effects on legal consciousness can such resistance have? The article draws on narrative analysis to explore the conditions for transformation of legal consciousness and mobilization of political action in a judicial retention election. Storytelling pervades the legal process, as much scholarship has observed (e.g., Brooks & Gewirtz 1996). Despite the traditional view of law as a "logico-scientific" form of discourse that makes truth claims falsifiable through logic (Bruner 1986:11), the legal fact-finding process is clearly based on narrative forms of discourse. Parties and witnesses give testimony, and truth arises from assessing the verisimilitude of the stories. Another way in which storytelling enters the legal system is in the processes for selecting and retaining judges. Stories about competence and character are told the public or the appointing authority. For example, the Senate confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas could be viewed as a contest between the stories of Thomas as a sexual harasser and Thomas as an up-by-thebootstraps, self-made man. After his appointment an African American feminist complained that Anita Hill's story fell on deaf ears because black women have no story that resonates with the American public as much as Thomas's narrative of a "high-tech lynching" (Crenshaw 1992). Elections, including those for judgeships, can be seen as stories told to voters. One argument for partisan over nonpartisan election of judges is that the former invokes a story that voters can relate to (namely, Democrats versus Republicans) and therefore generates more voter interest than the latter (Dubois 1986). In uncontested retention elections judges in theory run on the story of their records, but in reality there is usually no story at all and the voters know virtually nothing about the judge (Hall & Aspin 1987).1 In recent years the occasional exceptions tend to be ideologically charged retention elections in which organized interest groups challenge judges because they made the "wrong" decisions on hot-button issues such as capital punishment in California (Wold & Culver 1987) and abortion in Florida (Webster 1995:36-37). Here the challengers' story is typically about the bad, "activist" judge imposing his or her views on the public. This article tells the story of a retention election that became a two-sided story when a grassroots group of women organized a challenge to a state trial court judge. In the summer of 1994 complaints suddenly burst on the public scene about a judge who had served for seven years and seemed to have at least an average, if not better, career on the bench to that point. His opponents charged the judge with prejudging issues and displaying bias on the basis of gender, religion, and sexual orientation. In response to these charges, organized support emerged for him that emphasized the importance of judicial independence. In the election the judge narrowly retained his seat with 50.4% of the vote. This relatively rare challenge to a judge in a retention election provides the opportunity to examine important issues about legal consciousness. Legal consciousness, as Michael McCann (1994:7) defines it, is "the ongoing, dynamic process of constructing one's understanding of, and relationship to, the social world through use of legal conventions and discourses." Legal consciousness is revealed in and shaped by the conventions and discourses occurring in courtrooms, judicial opinions, everyday talk about rights and other legal topics, and also in judicial elections. …


This Special Report aims to contribute to the debate on the Market Stability Reserve (MSR), which was introduced by the European Commission in a legislative proposal of January 2014. The MSR would introduce a degree of supply management into the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). This report is the result of various meetings with ETS-stakeholders throughout 2014. It discusses the MSR's rationale and reviews the different options available for its design, governance and timing, as well as its consequences for the functioning of the EU ETS and the EU's climate and energy policy.


The free-surface impact of solid objects has been investigated for well over a century. This canonical problem is influenced by many physical parameters, including projectile geometry, material properties, fluid properties, and impact parameters. Through advances in high-speed imaging and visualization techniques, discoveries about the underlying physics have improved our understanding of these phenomena. Improvements to analytical and numerical models have led to critical insights into cavity formation, the depth and time of pinch-off, forces, and trajectories for myriad different impact parameters. This topic spans a wide range of regimes, from low-speed entry phenomena dominated by surface tension to high-speed ballistics, for which cavitation is important. This review surveys experimental, theoretical, and numerical studies over this broad range, utilizing canonical images where possible to enhance intuition and insight into the rich phenomena.


Introduction: Multiple lines of evidence have attested that decreased numbers of platelets may serve as a surrogate marker for poor prognosis in a wide range of infectious diseases. Thus, to provide a well-conceptualized viewpoint demonstrating the prognostic value of thrombocytopenia in COVID-19, we performed a meta-analysis of pertinent literature. Methods: The keywords "platelet" OR "thrombocytopenia" AND "COVID-19" OR "coronavirus 2019" OR "2019-nCoV" OR "SARS-CoV-2" were searched in National Library of Medicine Medline/PubMed and Scopus between December 30, 2019, and May 9, 2020 in English without any restriction. The initial search results were first screened by title and abstract, and then full texts of relevant articles representing information on the platelet count (main outcome) with a clinically validated definition of COVID-19 severity were finally selected. To assess the existence of bias in the included studies, the funnel plot and egger plot along with egger tests were used. Also, the heterogeneity among the included studies was tested using the Chi-square test. Results: The results of our meta-analysis of 19 studies, totaling 3383 COVID-19 patients with 744 (21.9%) severe cases, revealed that non-severe cases have a significantly higher number of platelets and showed that the probability of the emergence of thrombocytopenia is significantly higher in the severe cases with the pooled mean difference of -21.5 (%95 CI: -31.57, -11.43). Conclusion: Decreased number of platelets more commonly associates with severe COVID-19; however, whether the emergence of thrombocytopenia may result in diseases severity or the severity of the disease may decrease platelets, is open to debate.


Abstract. Daily air concentrations and dry deposition fluxes of seven metal species were monitored at five sites in central Taiwan for five or six days every month from September 2009 to August 2010. Annual average concentrations at the five sites were in the range of 2.8 to 3.6 ng m−3 for As, 25 to 82 ng m−3 for Mn, 1900 to 2800 ng m−3 for Fe, 69 to 109 ng m−3 for Zn, 18 to 33 ng m−3 for Cr, 60 to 110 ng m−3 for Cu, and 25 to 40 ng m−3 for Pb. Annual average dry deposition fluxes were on the order of 3, 20, 400, 50, 25, 50, and 50 μg m−2 day−1 for As, Mn, Fe, Zn, Cr, Cu, and Pb, respectively. Annual average dry deposition velocities (Vd) for the seven metal species ranged from 0.18 to 2.22 cm s−1 at these locations. Small seasonal and geographical variations, e.g. from a few percent to a factor of 2 for different species and/or at different locations, were found in the measured concentrations, fluxes, and Vds. The measured fluxes and air concentrations had moderate to good correlations for several of the species at several of the sites (e.g. Fe, Zn, and Mn at most of the sites), but had either weak or no correlations for the other species or at the other sites (e.g. As at Sites I and III, Zn and Cr at Site IV, and Cu at most of the sites). The latter cases were believed to have large uncertainties in the flux measurements using surrogate surfaces. Sensitivity tests were conducted for particle Vds using a size-segregated particle dry deposition model, assuming various combinations of three lognormal size distributions representing fine particles (PM2.5), coarse particles (PM2.5–10), and super-sized particles (PM10+), respectively. It was found that the measured dry deposition fluxes can be reproduced reasonably well using the size-segregated particle dry deposition model if the mass fractions of the metal species in PM2.5, PM2.5–10 and PM10+ were known. Significant correlations between the modeled and the measured daily fluxes were found for those cases that were believed to have small uncertainties in the flux measurements.


Recurrent and convolutional neural networks comprise two distinct families of models that have proven to be useful for encoding natural language utterances. In this paper we present SoPa, a new model that aims to bridge these two approaches. SoPa combines neural representation learning with weighted finite-state automata (WFSAs) to learn a soft version of traditional surface patterns. We show that SoPa is an extension of a one-layer CNN, and that such CNNs are equivalent to a restricted version of SoPa, and accordingly, to a restricted form of WFSA. Empirically, on three text classification tasks, SoPa is comparable or better than both a BiLSTM (RNN) baseline and a CNN baseline, and is particularly useful in small data settings.


This paper looks at the notion of "material injury" when used as a condition for levying antidumping duties. Using a standard geometric model, we argue that the material injury suffered by import-substituting industries is only one side of the dumping coin; it is necessary also to consider the possible benefits that other stakeholders, including consumers and other domestic producers, may derive from lower import prices. The decision whether to introduce antidumping duties should ideally be based on the net effect that dumping has on the social welfare of the broader community. Copyright 2005 Economic Society of South Africa.


This paper addresses the question "Why do WH phenomena occur with the particular cluster of properties observed across languages -- long-distance dependencies, WH-in situ, partial movement constructions, reconstruction, crossover etc." These phenomena have been analysed by invoking a number of discrete principles and categories, but have so far resisted a unified treatment.

The explanation proposed is set within a model of natural language understanding in context, where the task of understanding is taken to be the incremental building of a structure over which the semantic content is defined. The formal model is a composite of a labelled type-deduction system, a modal tree logic, and a set of rules for describing the process of interpreting the string as a set of transition states. A dynamic concept of syntax results, in which in addition to an output structure associated with each string (analogous to the level of LF), there is in addition an explicit meta-level description of the process whereby this incremental process takes place.

This paper argues that WH-related phenomena can be unified by adopting this dynamic perspective. The main focus of the paper is on WH-initial structures, WH in situ structures, partial movement phenomena, and crossover phenomena. In each case, an analysis is proposed which emerges from the general characterisatioan of WH structures without construction-specific stipulation.Article


Effective professional learning is acknowledged as a key lever to improve teacher practice. However, many studies report significant variation in the effectiveness of the types of programs on offer. Recently, there has been a move from the traditional singleevent, passive approach to more collaborative and ongoing forms of professional learning. Interestingly, researchers have paid little attention to understanding the experience of professional learning from the teachers' viewpoint. This research sought to develop this understanding by following the attitudes and behaviours of a group of secondary teachers as they participated in an ongoing professional learning program. This professional learning program tracked teachers as they participated in workshops and then applied the learning to their classrooms. Our results suggest five interacting characteristics that contributed to improvements in teaching practice. These findings underpin the development of a process model of professional learning, that we call the Iterative Model of Professional Learning (IMPL).


With the proliferation of Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) such as Intel SGX, a number of cloud providers will soon introduce TEE capabilities within their offering (e.g., Microsoft Azure). The integration of SGX within the cloud considerably strengthens the threat model for cloud applications. However, cloud deployments depend on the ability of the cloud operator to add and remove application dynamically; this is no longer possible given the current model to deploy and provision enclaves that actively involves the application owner. In this paper, we propose ReplicaTEE, a solution that enables seamless commissioning and decommissioning of TEE-based applications in the cloud. ReplicaTEE leverages an SGX-based provisioning service that interfaces with a Byzantine Fault-Tolerant storage service to securely orchestrate enclave replication in the cloud, without the active intervention of the application owner. Namely, in ReplicaTEE, the application owner entrusts application secret to the provisioning service; the latter handles all enclave commissioning and decommissioning operations throughout the application lifetime. We analyze the security of ReplicaTEE and show that it is secure against attacks by a powerful adversary that can compromise a large fraction of the cloud infrastructure. We implement a prototype of ReplicaTEE in a realistic cloud environment and evaluate its performance. ReplicaTEE moderately increments the TCB by approximately 800 LoC. Our evaluation shows that ReplicaTEE does not add significant overhead to existing SGX-based applications.


The federal sentencing guidelines have been controversial and widely-criticized since they became effective in 1987. One core problem with the guidelines is that there are too many (at least 31) distinct policy mandates from Congress directed at the Sentencing Commission. Many of the principles embodied by these mandates are in direct conflict. Much like the Pointless Man in Harry Nilsson's The Point (a character created while Nilsson was on an acid trip, who has arrows pointing in every direction and thus no point at all), sentencing policy has so many directives that it has no moral basis at all. This article argues for starting over with the sentencing guidelines from scratch, in a project that can take advantage of state and federal experience over the past 20 years, the scholarship that has developed around sentencing, and can begin with a few understandable directive principles. Though such a project would likely result in a system which allows more judicial discretion, it is our best hope for a federal sentencing system that can combine principle and action with real moral authority.


This study investigated the effect of biochar amendments on the retention and availability of plant nutrients and Al in seven acidic tropical soils from Zambia and Indonesia. The experiments carried out investigated whether the adsorption capacity of NH4+ in the soils increased upon the addition of biochar and which effect biochar had on available concentrations of NO3-, K+, Mn2+, Mg2+, PO43-, and Al3+. These nutrients were selected as they represent those important to plant growth and soil quality. No significant increases or decreases in aqueous NH4+-N concentration with additions of biochar were detected. The Gaines-Thomas model was used in order to calculate selectivity coefficients for NH4+ exchange (K-gt values). Following the addition of biochar to soil, K-gt values decreased showing a reduction in the selective binding of NH4+ in the biochar amended soil compared to the control. The concentration of NO3- increased following the addition of biochar to the soils. The addition of 5 and 10% biochar to the Indonesian soil did not significantly alter (t-test confidence level 0.05) the sorption of PO43- to the soil-biochar mixtures as compared to the soil alone. However, the addition of biochar to the soil from Zambia increased the sorption of PO43- compared to the soil alone. The concentrations of K+ and Mg2+ were significantly increased for almost all soils (t-test at the 0.05 confidence level) following the addition of biochar. Addition of biochar to all but two soils significantly decreased (t-test confidence level 0.05) Mn2+ concentrations. The concentration of Al3+ in the soils decreased exponentially significantly (t-test confidence level 0.05) following the amendment of biochar in accordance with the increase in pH observed when biochar was added to the soil. These results show that biochar has the ability to release essential plant growth nutrients as well as alleviate Al toxicity in these soils.


For the pulsed injection of liquid ethanol into supercritical CO(2) inside an optically accessible chamber, for the first time to the best of our knowledge the spatially and temporally resolving linear Raman scattering technique was used to simultaneously determine the mole fraction and the corresponding phase state in the ethanol jet. The mole fraction was identified by calculating the ratio of the C-H band Raman signal (2950 cm(-1)) of ethanol and the CO(2) Raman signal. The magnitude of this ratio was found to be phase state sensitive. Thus, the phase state of the mixture of ethanol and CO(2) could be classified as being homogeneous liquid, homogeneous supercritical or not yet homogeneously mixed.


Imagine this scenario. A legal historian from Mars (shall we say?) is interested in finding out what the human race thinks of lawyers. He has heard that Shakespeare is the world's greatest playwright, so naturally he thinks his works are an obvious place to look for an opinion. He hacks into one of the electronic databases of the plays, and types in 'lawyer'. He finds eleven instances of the word. What impression would he get – would we all get – of the profession which is the focus of this Globe Education series? If we run through the instances, I don't think you'll have too much trouble reaching a conclusion about the matter.


According to UN research data, by 2030 half of the world's population will be living in slums. Meanwhile, in Durban, residents of Forman and Kennedy Road settlements risk arrest and police violence to protest forced eviction and demand clean drinking water and sanitation. The statistics are not supposed to talk back. This issue of Mute, largely sparked by Mike Davis' claim that in the megaslums Muhammad and the Holy Ghost have superceded Marx, considers another view of the world's burgeoning 'naked cities'. Where the populace are refugees without rights or basic amenities, are new forms of political action emerging? Texts by: Amita Baviskar, Iain Boal, Anna Dezeuze, Michael Edwards, Melanie Gilligan, Anthony Iles, Demetra Kotouza, Penny Koutrolikou, Josaphat Robert Large, Felix Morisseau-Leroy, Kevin Pina, Richard Pithouse, Benedict Seymour and Rachel Weber


Optical communication with high photon-efficiency (many bits/photon) and high spectral efficiency (SE) (many bits/s-Hz) cannot be achieved unless multiple spatial modes are employed. For vacuum propagation, it is known that achieving 10 bits/photon and 5 bits/s-Hz requires 189 low-loss spatial modes at the ultimate Holevo limit and 4500 such modes at the Shannon limit for on-off keying with direct detection. For terrestrial propagation paths, however, atmospheric turbulence corrupts multiple spatial-mode operation. This paper derives power-transmissivity bounds and average intermodal crosstalks for the turbulent channel that depend solely on the mutual coherence function of the atmospheric Green's function. These statistics are then evaluated for ~ 200 spatial-mode systems whose transmitters use either focused-beam, Hermite-Gaussian (HG), or Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) modes and whose receivers either do or do not employ adaptive optics. It is shown that: (1) adaptive optics are not necessary for achieving both high photon information efficiency (PIE) and high SE; (2) systems employing HG or LG modes achieve the same capacities through turbulence; and (3) the orbital angular momentum carried by LG modes does not provide turbulence immunity. In the companion paper [N. Chandrasekaran, J. H. Shapiro, and L. Wang, "Photon Information Efficient Communication Through Atmospheric Turbulence-Part II: Bounds on Ergodic Classical and Private Capacities," J. Lightw. Technol., vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 1088-1097, Mar. 2014], the transmissivity bounds are used to quantify the turbulence-induced loss in PIE versus SE performance for these mode sets.


The Reginald Taylor Essay Prize, fi rst awarded in 1934, was originally awarded on an annual basis, more recently biennially, for the best unpublished essay submitted on any subject of arthistorical, archaeological or antiquarian interest within the period from the Roman era to ad 1830, whenever such an essay was adjudged of suffi cient merit. With the aid of a bequest from the late Lord Fletcher, the prize was re-established in 1996 as the Reginald Taylor and Lord Fletcher Essay Prize with a bronze medal, and now carries a prize of £500. Details of the competition, which is not restricted to members of the Association, can be obtained from the Honorary Editor (please enclose a stamped addressed envelope). The winning essay may be read at a meeting of the Association and will be considered for publication in the Journal at the discretion of the Editorial Committee.


A systematic approach is presented for the assessment of (i) bacterial growth-controlling factors in drinking water and (ii) the impact of distribution conditions on the extent of bacterial growth in full-scale distribution systems. The approach combines (i) quantification of changes in autochthonous bacterial cell concentrations in full-scale distribution systems with (ii) laboratory-scale batch bacterial growth potential tests of drinking water samples under defined conditions. The growth potential tests were done by direct incubation of water samples, without modification of the original bacterial flora, and with flow cytometric quantification of bacterial growth. This method was shown to be reproducible (ca. 4% relative standard deviation) and sensitive (detection of bacterial growth down to 5 µg L−1 of added assimilable organic carbon). The principle of step-wise assessment of bacterial growth-controlling factors was demonstrated on bottled water, shown to be primarily carbon limited at 133 (±18) × 103 cells mL−1 and secondarily limited by inorganic nutrients at 5,500 (±1,700) × 103 cells mL−1. Analysis of the effluent of a Dutch full-scale drinking water treatment plant showed (1) bacterial growth inhibition as a result of end-point chlorination, (2) organic carbon limitation at 192 (±72) × 103 cells mL−1 and (3) inorganic nutrient limitation at 375 (±31) × 103 cells mL−1. Significantly lower net bacterial growth was measured in the corresponding full-scale distribution system (176 (±25) × 103 cells mL−1) than in the laboratory-scale growth potential test of the same water (294 (±35) × 103 cells mL−1), highlighting the influence of distribution on bacterial growth. The systematic approach described herein provides quantitative information on the effect of drinking water properties and distribution system conditions on biological stability, which can assist water utilities in decision-making on treatment or distribution system improvements to better control bacterial growth during water distribution.


This Article discusses the limits of how end of life law can address threats to patient autonomy. The reluctance of physicians, patients and family to discuss end of life matters and to confront the certainty of death, together with a culture that actively denies the aging process itself, interferes with a patient's ability to exercise choice as death approaches. Thus, patients often suffer needlessly from the continuation of treatments and life-supportive measures that they would choose to decline if better informed about their choices and the importance of choosing. Advance directives, as a legal mechanism, often fail fully to protect a patient's choices; however, they have inherent value in that they encourage patients to confront the dying process and to have meaningful conversations with their physicians, attorneys, and relatives. The Author concludes that, although advance directives often have minimal impact on decision making at the end of life, they should still be used to direct a patient's attention to exercising his or her choice over how to die and how to enhance remaining life.


Research on schools' work environment highlights socioeconomic conditions (SES) as primary drivers of work environment, but evidence to date is primarily limited to cross-sectional samples. Research on school competition has revealed important effects on educational outcomes, but effects on work environment are largely unknown. We bridge these literatures by studying the work environment in all Swedish junior high schools and high schools using detailed data on complaints and incidences of disorder, including violence. Comparing educational levels to gauge differences in degree of choice made possible by competition, we overall find more adverse work environment in junior high schools facing stronger school competition and with many low-SES students in either the school or the region. Conversely, we find better work environment in high schools facing stronger school competition, and in high schools with a large share of students with foreign background. To assess causal effects of competition on work environment we compare regions that introduced competition versus those that have not in a difference-in-difference framework. In such regions only complaints in high schools decrease after competition is introduced. We highlight the importance of including multiple measures of both competition and work environment.


Listeria monocytogenes is an important foodborne pathogen that continues to be a serious problem for the food industry. This pathogen contaminates food primarily during post-harvest in the food-processing environment. Its ecology in the food-processing environment is not well understood but previous research has demonstrated the ability of L. monocytogenes to survive on food contact surfaces after cleaning and disinfection. The current study explored the attachment of three lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains, Lactobacillus animalis , Lb. amylovorus and Pediococcus acidilactici, their combination in a cocktail, and their influence to prevent the attachment of L. monocytogenes at room temperature by examining their cell surface hydrophobicity, total carbohydrates production and adherence capability to stainless steel coupons made from a deli slicer. Subsequently, the study evaluated the influence of L. innocua on the attachment of L. monocytogenes on stainless steel, and on aluminum surfaces. The hydrophobicity tests were performed according to microbial adhesion to solvent (MATS). Extracellular carbohydrates were quantified using a colorimetric method. Based on these tests, Lb. animalis exhibited the greatest hydrophobicity (26.3 %) and its adherence increased sharply from 24 to 72 hr, whereas Lb. amylovorus yielded the lowest hydrophobicity 3.86 % and was only weakly adherent. P. acidilactici with a hydrophobicity of 10.1 % adhered strongly. The attached LAB strains produced significantly (P < 0.05) higher total carbohydrates than their planktonic counterparts, which is an important characteristic for attachment. Three separate conditions, LAB first, LAB and L. monocytogenes concurrently and L. monocytogenes inoculated first then LAB, were simulated to evaluate the ability of the LAB cocktail (10 CFU/ml) to competitively exclude L. monocytogenes (10 CFU/ml) on the surface of the stainless coupons. In all the three comparisons, the LAB cocktail was able to reduce the attachment of L. monocytogenes significantly (P < 0.05). Thus, the LAB cocktail indicated attachment on stainless steel and bacteriostatic activity against L. monocytogenes attached on stainless steel. These properties may be used in manufacturing a bio-sanitizer geared to prevent the formation L. monocytogenes biofilm on food contact surfaces. Preliminary data showed L. innocua had a positive effect on the attachment of L. monocytogenes on stainless steel or aluminum surfaces. This thesis is approved for recommendation to the Graduate council.


The controversial question of whether machines may ever be conscious must be based on a careful consideration of how consciousness arises in the only physical system that undoubtedly possesses it: the human brain. We suggest that the word "consciousness" conflates two different types of information-processing computations in the brain: the selection of information for global broadcasting, thus making it flexibly available for computation and report (C1, consciousness in the first sense), and the self-monitoring of those computations, leading to a subjective sense of certainty or error (C2, consciousness in the second sense). We argue that despite their recent successes, current machines are still mostly implementing computations that reflect unconscious processing (C0) in the human brain. We review the psychological and neural science of unconscious (C0) and conscious computations (C1 and C2) and outline how they may inspire novel machine architectures.


In computer system design, we distinguish between closed and open systems. A closed system is a system whose behavior is completely determined by the state of the system. An open system is a system that interacts with its environment and whose behavior depends on this interaction. The ability of temporal logics to describe an ongoing interaction of a reactive program with its environment makes them particularly appropriate for the specification of open systems. Nevertheless, model-checking algorithms used for the verification of closed systemsare not appropriate for the verification of open systems. Correct verification of open systems should check the systemwith respect to arbitrary environments and should take into account uncertainty regarding the environment. This is not the casewith current model-checking algorithms and tools. Module checking is an algorithmic method that checks, given an open system (modeled as a finite structure) and a desired requirement (specified by a temporal-logic formula), whether the open system satisfies the requirement with respect to all environments. In this paper we describe and examine module checking problem, and study its computational complexity. Our results show that module checking is computationally harder than model checking.


Placement, both in university and in the civil service, according to performance in competitive exams is the norm in much of the world. Repeat taking of such exams is common despite the private and social costs it imposes. We develop and estimate a structural model of exam retaking using data from Turkey's university placement exam. We find that limiting retaking, though individually harmful given the equilibrium, actually increases expected welfare across the board. This result comes from a general equilibrium effect: retakers crowd the market and impose negative spillovers on others by raising acceptance cutoffs.


Interaction of Azobenzene (AB), 4-Hydroxyazobenzene (HAB) and 2,4-dihydroxyazobenzene (or) Sudan Orange G (SOG) with BSA and DNA base (adenine) were investigated by UV-Visible, fluorescence and ATR-IR spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and molecular docking methods. With on addition of azo dyes into the BSA and adenine molecules different emission spectral shifts observed, i.e. (i) Upon increasing the concentration of AB molecule, red shifted quenching is noticed in the BSA molecule (338-367 nm), (ii) No significant spectral shifts noticed in the HAB molecule and (iii) Blue shift (338-320 nm) is observed in the SOG molecule. Azo dyes can bind to BSA with stoichiometric ratio of 1:1 and the protein-ligand complexes are stabilized mainly by hydrophobic and van der Waals interaction. IR spectral analysis shows, the azo group (N=N) stretching frequency for AB, HAB and SOG molecules were shifted in the BSA complex. In cyclic voltammetry, the concentration of the dyes added to the BSA solution, a reductive peak appeared in AB, but this peak is not noticed in HAB and SOG. Molecular docking studies specify that the dyes are located within the binding pocket of sub-domain IIIA in BSA and hydrophobic force play a major role in the binding. As a consequence of this study, the addition of a hydroxyl group to the aromatic ring resulted in a decrease in the binding affinity.


Minimum distance estimation (MDE) gained recent attention as a formulation of (implicit) generative modeling. It considers minimizing, over model parameters, a statistical distance between the empirical data distribution and the model. This formulation lends itself well to theoretical analysis, but typical results are hindered by the curse of dimensionality. To overcome this and devise a scalable finite-sample statistical MDE theory, we adopt the framework of smooth 1-Wasserstein distance (SWD) $\mathsf{W}_1^{(\sigma)}$. The SWD was recently shown to preserve the metric and topological structure of classic Wasserstein distances, while enjoying dimension-free empirical convergence rates. In this work, we conduct a thorough statistical study of the minimum smooth Wasserstein estimators (MSWEs), first proving the estimator's measurability and asymptotic consistency. We then characterize the limit distribution of the optimal model parameters and their associated minimal SWD. These results imply an $O(n^{-1/2})$ generalization bound for generative modeling based on MSWE, which holds in arbitrary dimension. Our main technical tool is a novel high-dimensional limit distribution result for empirical $\mathsf{W}_1^{(\sigma)}$. The characterization of a nondegenerate limit stands in sharp contrast with the classic empirical 1-Wasserstein distance, for which a similar result is known only in the one-dimensional case. The validity of our theory is supported by empirical results, posing the SWD as a potent tool for learning and inference in high dimensions.


Pasture biomass is an important quantity globally in livestock industries, carbon balances, and bushfire management. Quantitative estimates of pasture biomass or total standing dry matter (TSDM) at the field scale are much desired by land managers for land-resource management, forage budgeting, and conservation purposes. Estimates from optical satellite imagery alone tend to saturate in the cover-to-mass relationship and fail to differentiate standing dry matter from litter. X-band radar imagery was added to complement optical imagery with a structural component to improve TSDM estimates in rangelands. High quality paddock-scale field data from a northeastern Australian cattle grazing trial were used to establish a statistical TSDM model by integrating optical satellite image data from the Landsat sensor with observations from the TerraSAR-X (TSX) radar satellite. Data from the dry season of 2014 and the wet season of 2015 resulted in models with adjusted r2 of 0.81 in the dry season and 0.74 in the wet season. The respective models had a mean standard error of 332 kg/ha and 240 kg/ha. The wet and dry season conditions were different, largely due to changed overstorey vegetation conditions, but not greatly in a pasture 'growth' sense. A more robust combined-season model was established with an adjusted r2 of 0.76 and a mean standard error of 358 kg/ha. A clear improvement in the model performance could be demonstrated when integrating HH polarised TSX imagery with optical satellite image products.


Abstract It has been proposed that Bcl-x is a key survival factor in many cell types, and that the bcl-x gene is activated by the transcription factor Stat5 through cytokine signals. In support of this, it has been demonstrated that the survival of mouse primordial germ cells during embryogenesis depends on the presence of Bcl-x. We have now investigated whether, in the mouse, Bcl-x is required for the postnatal maintenance of follicles and luteal cells, and whether Stat5 activates the bcl-x gene. The bcl-x gene was deleted in these cells within the mouse using Cre-loxP recombination. Loss of the bcl-x gene did not affect the numbers of primordial, primary, and antral follicles. Furthermore, expression of the bcl-x gene in the ovary was independent of Stat5 and its activating hormone, prolactin. To determine whether the prolactin receptor (PrlR), Stat5, and Bcl-x were required for establishment and maintenance of the corpus luteum, we induced pseudopregnancies in the respective gene-deletion mice. Whereas luteal cells underwent apoptosis in the absence of the PrlR, no changes were observed in the absence of Stat5 or Bcl-x.


Genetic and geological studies reveal that following the melting of snows 22,000 years ago, the post Ice-age Sundaland peoples' migrations as well as other peoples' migrations spread the ancestors of the two distinct ethnic groups Austronesian and Austroasiatic to various East and South–East Asian countries. Some of the Austroasiatic groups must have migrated to Northeast India at a later date, and whose descendants are today's Munda-speaking people of Northeast, East and Southcentral India. Language is the store-house of one's ancestral knowledge, the community's history, its skills, customs, rituals and rites, attire and cuisine, sports and games, pleasantries and sorrows, terrain and geography, climate and seasons, family and neighbourhoods, greetings and address-forms and so on. Language loss leads to loss of social identity and cultural knowledge, loss of ecological knowledge, and much more. Linguistic hegemony marginalizes and subdues the mother-tongues of the peripheral groups of a society, thereby the community's narratives, histories, skills etc. are erased from their memories, and fabricated narratives are created to replace them. Each social-group has its own norms of extending respect to a hearer, and a stranger. Similarly there are social rules of expressing grief, condoling, consoling, mourning and so on. The emergence of nation-states after the 2nd World War has made it imperative for every social group to build an authentic, indigenous narrative with intellectual rigour to sustain itself politically and ideologically and progress forward peacefully. The present essay will attempt to introduce variants of linguistic-anthropology practiced in the West, and their genesis and importance for the Asian speech communities. An attempt shall be made to outline a Khymer narrative with inputs from Khymer History, Art and Architecture, Agriculture and Language, for the scholars to take into account, for putting Cambodia on the path to peace, progress and development.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is a major neurodegenerative condition with several rare Mendelian forms. Oxidative stress and mitochondrial function have been implicated in the pathogenesis of PD but the molecular mechanisms involved in the degeneration of neurons remain unclear. DJ-1 mutations are one cause of recessive parkinsonism, but this gene is also reported to be involved in cancer by promoting Ras signaling and suppressing PTEN-induced apoptosis. The specific function of DJ-1 is unknown, although it is responsive to oxidative stress and may play a role in the maintenance of mitochondria. Here, we show, using four independent methods, that DJ-1 associates with RNA targets in cells and the brain, including mitochondrial genes, genes involved in glutathione metabolism, and members of the PTEN/PI3K cascade. Pathogenic recessive mutants are deficient in this activity. We show that DJ-1 is sufficient for RNA binding at nanomolar concentrations. Further, we show that DJ-1 binds RNA but dissociates after oxidative stress. These data implicate a single mechanism for the pleiotropic effects of DJ-1 in different model systems, namely that the protein binds multiple RNA targets in an oxidation-dependent manner.