I first provide an analysis of the main premises involved in the core of the metaethical debate about the acceptance of an emotional or a cognitive nature of moral judgments and its implications in relation to moral motivation. In order to accomplish this, I start by sketch- ing the main points of the argumentation of Linda Zagzebski (2003) and Kyle Swan (2004). Secondly I suggest that one of the main problematic points of the paradox detected by those authors lays in the assumption of emotions as intrinsically motivating and I develop a critic of a reduced conceptualization of motivation as well as I try to redefine the processes involved in moral motivation, as emotion and cognition, by showing the converging points of view from moral philosophy and psychology. Eventually, I conclude proposing an integral and non- compartmentalized conceptualization of moral motivation and its relation to emotions and cognition, for it could shed some light on the metaethical debate about the nature of moral judgments, externalism and internalism.


PENCHEV, P., Y. ILIEVA and K. DIMOV, 2014. Effect of season of birth on season of calving and age at first calving in buffalo heifers. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 20: 447-451 Records for 589 Bulgarian Murrah heifers from the buffalo herd of Agricultural Institute – Shumen, borne within the period 1982-2010, were processed using the software products LSMLMW and MIXMDL (Harvey, 1990) with the aim to study the effect of season of birth on season of calving and age at first calving (AFC). The operational model also included the factors period of birth, season of conception, and period of conception. It was established that the factor season of birth has significant effect on the variation of the trait AFC (P=0.0025), expressed in lower calving age in the heifers borne in summer and autumn. The influence of season of calving on AFC has shown to be more pronounced in the winter-borne heifers, the age of the au tumn calvers being significantly lowest; as well as in the spring-borne ones, where the age of the summer calvers is highest. The heifers borne in summer are characterized by the typical for the breed spring-summer seasonality of calving, those borne in spring calve chiefly in spring, while the calvings of those borne in autumn and winter are mostly in summer.


Wikis are becoming popular with business and academia as a way to harvest, archive, and manage knowledge. One of the most popular and well-known wikis is Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia started by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001. Since its inception, much has been written (both pro and con) about Wikipedia; however, Wikipedia is one of the most popular sites on the Internet today. As its popularity increases, more and more "net generation" students will be utilizing its articles as reference sources for academic work. This paper explores the emerging "wiki way" of Web 2.0 tools and highlights the good, the bad, and the management of Wikipedia as an academic reference. Further, this paper benchmarks how faculty and students are using Wikipedia, as well as exploring their viewpoint on using this information in the academic environment.


User involvement in software engineering has been researched over the last three decades. However, existing studies concentrate mainly on early phases of user-centered design projects, while little is known about how professionals work with post-deployment end-user feedback. In this paper we report on an empirical case study that explores the current practice of user involvement during software evolution. We found that user feedback contains important information for developers, helps to improve software quality and to identify missing features. In order to assess its relevance and potential impact, developers need to analyze the gathered feedback, which is mostly accomplished manually and consequently requires high effort. Overall, our results show the need for tool support to consolidate, structure, analyze, and track user feedback, particularly when feedback volume is high. Our findings call for a hypothesis-driven analysis of user feedback to establish the foundations for future user feedback tools.


The study of the chemical evolution of stars is of crucial importance since they play a major role in the enrichment of the chemistry of the universe. Throughout their lifetime, stars undergo several processes that can alter their chemistry. Gradually, the nucleosynthesis products from the interior of the star are radiatively and convectively levitated and mixed with the upper layers of the atmosphere. In the later stages of their evolution, low to intermediate mass stars (0.8-8.0 M⊙) eject a significant fraction of these nucleosynthesis products, resulting in a circumstellar envelope of gas and dust around the central star with a very different and intriguing chemical composition. Through radiation pressure, this material will sail into the interstellar medium. We offer the first extensive study concerning the atmospheric abundance determination using ultraviolet spectra, for two slow rotating non-magnetic early A-type (HD72660) and Btype (iota Herculis) stars. We carry out spectrum synthesis of the available UV spectra using the program ZEEMAN followed by a detailed abundance analysis. We find lines of several previously unstudied elements in the atmospheres of the two stars under study, implying the activity of phenomena such as radiative levitation against gravity. In addition to finding new elements, we demonstrate that spectrum synthesis using ZEEMAN in the ultraviolet is indeed a reliable source for abundance determination. This study is followed by a very careful and detailed infrared spectroscopy of a sample of evolved AGB stars in the final stages of their evolution. The sample is unique in a sense that properties such as distance, metallicity, initial mass of the parent star are comparable while the only variable is the age on the AGB phase. Throughout this study we shed light on the significance of interstellar extinction and its previously under-acknowledged influence on the infrared spectra. We introduce tools and methods that will allow us to separately model the spectrum of the photosphere and the molecular layers alone. We extract the dust spectra and present a qualitative analysis of the intriguing peculiarities.


We introduce a new nonparametric clustering model which combines the recently proposed distance-dependent Chinese restaurant process (dd-CRP) and non-linear, spectral methods for dimensionality reduction. Our model retains the ability of nonparametric methods to learn the number of clusters from data. At the same time it addresses two key limitations of nonparametric Bayesian methods: modeling data that are not exchangeable and have many correlated features. Spectral methods use the similarity between documents to map them into a low-dimensional spectral space where we then compare several clustering methods. Our experiments on handwritten digits and text documents show that nonparametric methods such as the CRP or dd-CRP can perform as well as or better than k-means and also recover the true number of clusters. We improve the performance of the dd-CRP in spectral space by incorporating the original similarity matrix in its prior. This simple modification results in better performance than all other methods we compared to. We offer a new formulation and first experimental evaluation of a general Gibbs sampler for mixture modeling with distance-dependent CRPs.


OBJECTIVE
Peyronie's disease (PD) is a fibrotic wound-healing condition of the tunica albuginea that results in penile deformity, curvature, hinging, narrowing and shortening, penile pain, and in some cases, erectile dysfunction (ED). Surgery remains the gold standard treatment option, ensuring the faster and trustworthy treatment. For those patients who have erectile dysfunction and PD, penile prosthesis placement with straightening procedure is the best method to solve both diseases. The aim of this article is to present the use of hydraulic penile prostheses AMS CX with Momentary Squeeze associated with a complete isolation of the neurovascular bundle in a complex case after removal of two previously implanted prostheses in a man suffering from Peyronie's disease and erectile dysfunction.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
A 50 year-old patient underwent two previous prosthetic implants in another hospital. The first implantation was performed using an infrapubic approach followed by placement of a three-component hydraulic penile prosthesis. After six months the prosthesis was removed using an infra-pubic approach and two soft prosthesis Virilis II were implanted during the same surgery. One year after the second operation we implanted a hydraulic penile prosthesis AMS CX with Momentary Squeeze after complete isolation of the neurovascular bundle, fixing the two crural tips at the same level of albuginea of the two corpora cavernosa.

RESULT
Twelve months after surgery the penis was completely straight without penile shortening and the patient was fully satisfied with his sexual life.

CONCLUSION
The procedure enabled a perfect alignment of the cylinders along the longitudinal axis and penile prosthetic symmetry to obtain a good penile rigidity and a perfect penile straightening.


The present study is focused on the simulation of turbulent bubbly flows by utilizing the two-fluid model (TFM) in conjunction with advanced near-wall Reynolds-stress models (RSMs) within the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) framework. Such anisotropy-resolving turbulence models, employed in combination with the TFM, have been rarely used so far for two-phase flow computations. The presently adopted RSMs are based on the formulations initially proposed by Jakirlic and co-workers for incompressible single-phase flows. Two essentially different RSM versions are selected to be applied in the present work. One model version is formulated within the conventional RANS framework, whereas the second one resembles an instability-sensitized RSM variant, capable of adequately resolving the fluctuating turbulent motions in accordance with the scale-adaptive simulation (SAS) proposal by Menter and Egorov.
The necessary modifications of both Reynolds-stress models to be used within the TFM computational framework, also in conjunction with different model formulations accounting for the bubble-induced turbulence, require an appropriate coupling algorithm, which, independent of the geometrical complexity of the flow configurations considered, represents by itself a challenging task. The three reference flow configurations, chosen for the model validation, are the turbulent bubbly flows in a straight and suddenly-expanded vertical pipe over a range of Reynolds numbers and a square cross-sectioned bubble column. In addition, due to sake of comparative evaluation, the available corresponding single-phase flows are investigated by using both RSMs.
The presently realized numerical investigations demonstrate a successful employment of both Reynolds-stress models for bubbly flow computations. In all three flow configurations the results obtained with the conventional RSM exhibit a high level of qualitative and quantitative agreement with the available reference data. The novel scale-resolving RSM reveals its high potential, representing a promising approach for further investigations.


The vast majority of charities in the United States operate in a regulatory blind spot, as they are neither meaningfully evaluated when they apply for charitable status nor substantively monitored after they receive charitable status. Driven by severe budget constraints, the IRS decided to essentially ignore any charity that claims it will realize less than $50,000 in annual gross receipts. From a practical perspective, the IRS's decision makes sense. To the extent smaller charities are less likely to cause harm, it is reasonable (perhaps even preferable) to subject them to less scrutiny. This type of prioritization, known as risk-based regulation, has become increasingly popular as regulatory budgets have continued to shrink. But however intuitive, reasonable, or widespread, the fact remains that the IRS has effectively absolved itself of the duty to oversee the majority of charities.

This Article explores, on both a micro- and macro-level, the negative consequences of the IRS's decision to leave smaller charities unregulated. On the micro-level, the lack of regulation impacts virtually every person who interacts with the charitable sector, including donors, beneficiaries of charities, and private actors in the market. On the macro-level, as an increasing number of charities operate without proper regulation, the public will lose faith in the charitable sector and hasten the erosion of the "halo effect" enjoyed by all charitable organizations, large and small.

This Article is the first to identify and discuss the harms associated with the IRS's failure to apply either front-end or back-end scrutiny to smaller charities. To address this regulatory failure, this Article argues that the IRS should require a more robust retrospective regulatory tool for all charities, regardless of size. This solution represents a cost-effective means for the IRS to meet its regulatory burden in a manner that will help restore public faith in the charitable sector.


Asking effective questions is a powerful social skill. In this paper we seek to build computational models that learn to discriminate effective questions from ineffective ones. Armed with such a capability, future advanced systems can evaluate the quality of questions and provide suggestions for effective question wording. We create a large-scale, real-world dataset that contains over 400,000 questions collected from Reddit "Ask Me Anything" threads. Each thread resembles an online press conference where questions compete with each other for attention from the host. This dataset enables the development of a class of computational models for predicting whether a question will be answered. We develop a new convolutional neural network architecture with variable-length context and demonstrate the efficacy of the model by comparing it with state-of-the-art baselines and human judges.


In recent years, there has been a major increase in activities related to improving highway safety in the U.S. Much of the emphasis has been placed on driver behavior (e.g., addressing aggressive, distracted, and impaired driving and the neglected use of seat belts) and roadway design (e.g., geometrics, roadside, and traffic control features), and this has led to updated FHWA regulations and guidance regarding the Highway Safety Improvement Program and major research publications, such as the NCHRP 500-series reports (Guidance for Implementation of the AASHTO Strategic Highway Safety Plan) and the 2010 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Highway Safety Manual (first edition). A similar upswing in activities has taken place with regard to the safety of pavement surfaces. Following efforts in the mid-1990s to comprehensively examine pavement surface characteristics (PSCs) (e.g., texture, friction, noise, hydroplaning potential), FHWA has developed policy guidance for Surface Texture for Asphalt and Concrete (Technical Advisory T5040.36) (2005), AASHTO has published the Guide for Pavement Friction (2008), and FHWA has developed policy guidance on Pavement Friction Management (Technical Advisory T5040.38) (2010). Building off these and other PSC-related technical advancements, and recognizing the need to apply pavement friction management (PFM) concepts and technologies in the U.S., the FHWA has sponsored a major, multi-year study to develop and demonstrate PFM programs at four state highway agencies (SHAs) using guidance contained in the AASHTO Guide for Pavement Friction. In Phase 1 of the two-phase study, a review of past efforts of quantifying the relationship between friction/texture and crashes was done, along with a review of both U.S. and International pavement safety programs/practices. In addition, a detailed evaluation of currently available friction/texture measurement equipment was performed to identify those best suited for the PFM programs to be developed in Phase 2 of the study. This paper discusses the examination of past studies investigating the friction/texture– crash relationship and the review of pavement safety programs/practices. It presents the main conclusions of these two research activities, as they relate to the planned development of PFM programs in four states (yet to be identified).


ABSTRACT The French state expropriated an enormous quantity of cultural property from across Europe during the Wars of the Revolution and Napoleon, but much was returned in 1815 after the fall of the Empire. This article examines contemporary attitudes to the displacement of works of art, antiquities, scientific specimens, and rare books. The seizures were controversial: since they occurred at a time when plundering the vanquished was already considered questionable behaviour, they attracted opposition and needed to be justified. The article identifies the resulting repertoire of attitudes, arguing that this repertoire evolved with changing circumstances and was more varied than hitherto maintained. By situating this repertoire in a larger historical context, the article also reassesses the extent to which attitudes were derivative and innovative. It contends that the disputation as a whole did not amount to a decisive rupture in the treatment of foreign cultural property during wartime, but that it was nevertheless remarkable in two respects: concepts from hitherto unrelated subjects were applied to considerations about cultural property; and the perceived conditions under which cultural property could be legitimately transferred were revised.


Intensive land use is a driving force for biodiversity decline in many ecosystems. In semi-natural grasslands, land-use activities such as mowing, grazing and fertilization affect the diversity of plants and arthropods, but the combined effects of different drivers and the chain of effects are largely unknown. In this study we used structural equation modelling to analyse how the arthropod communities in managed grasslands respond to land use and whether these responses are mediated through changes in resource diversity or resource quantity (biomass). Plants were considered resources for herbivores which themselves were considered resources for predators. Plant and arthropod (herbivores and predators) communities were sampled on 141 meadows, pastures and mown pastures within three regions in Germany in 2008 and 2009. Increasing land-use intensity generally increased plant biomass and decreased plant diversity, mainly through increasing fertilization. Herbivore diversity decreased together with plant diversity but showed no response to changes in plant biomass. Hence, land-use effects on herbivore diversity were mediated through resource diversity rather than quantity. Land-use effects on predator diversity were mediated by both herbivore diversity (resource diversity) and herbivore quantity (herbivore biomass), but indirect effects through resource quantity were stronger. Our findings highlight the importance of assessing both direct and indirect effects of land-use intensity and mode on different trophic levels. In addition to the overall effects, there were subtle differences between the different regions, pointing to the importance of regional land-use specificities. Our study underlines the commonly observed strong effect of grassland land use on biodiversity. It also highlights that mechanistic approaches help us to understand how different land-use modes affect biodiversity.


BACKGROUND
The long allele of a functional promoter polymorphism in the serotonin transporter (SERT) is associated with an increased risk of some forms of pulmonary arterial hypertension. We hypothesized that the long allele or other polymorphisms in SERT would be associated with an increased risk of portopulmonary hypertension (PPHTN) in patients with advanced liver disease.

METHODS
We performed a multicenter case-control study. Subjects undergoing liver transplant evaluation at seven centers were prospectively screened for the presence of PPHTN using transthoracic echocardiography. PPHTN was confirmed by right heart catheterization using standard criteria.

RESULTS
The study sample included 30 case patients with PPHTN and 109 control subjects with advanced liver disease. There was no significant association between the long allele and case status in an adjusted additive model (odds ratio, 0.63; 95% confidence interval, 0.33 to 1.21; p = 0.17). If anything, LL genotype tended to be associated with a lower risk of PPHTN. There were no associations between other SERT polymorphisms and PPHTN.

CONCLUSIONS
SERT polymorphisms are not associated with the risk of PPHTN in patients with advanced liver disease. Other clinical or genetic risk factors may play a role in this complication of portal hypertension.


Purpose – Mobile computing research has been focused on developing technologies for handheld devices such as mobile phones, notebook computers, and mobile IP. Today, emphasis is increasing on context-aware computing, which aims to build the intelligence into mobile devices to sense and respond to the user's context. The purpose of this paper is to present a context-aware mobile computing model (ContextAlert) that senses the user's context and intelligently configures the mobile phone alert mode accordingly.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper proposes a three-step approach in designing the model based on the embedded sensor data (accelerometer, GPS antenna, and microphone) of a G1 Adriod phone. As adaptivity is essential for context-aware computing, within this model a new learning mechanism is presented to maintain a constant adaptivity rate for new learning while keeping the catastrophic forgetting problem minimal.

Findings – The model has been evaluated in many aspects using data collected from human subjects. The experiment results show that the proposed model performs well and yields a promising result. Originality/value – This paper is distinguished from other previous papers by: first, using multiple sensors embeded in the mobile phone, which is more realistic for detecting the user's context than having various sensors attached to different parts of user's body; second, by being a novel model that uses sensed contextual information to provide a service that better synchronizes the user's daily life with a context-aware alert mode. With this service, the user can avoid the problems such as forgetting to switch to vibrate mode while in a meeting or a movie theater, and taking the risk of picking up a phone call while driving, and third, being an adaptive learning algorithm that maintains a constant adaptivity rate for new learning while keeping the catastrophic forgetting problem minimal.


Caitrin Lynch's book Retirement on the Line: Age, Work, and Value in an American Factory explores the meanings of work for employees of Vita Needle, a family-owned stainless steel needle factory on the outskirts of Boston, Massachusetts. The book is based on intensive ethnographic research undertaken by the author during 2006–2011. Working on Vita's shop floor, side by side with factory employees, enabled the author to produce a rich, nuanced, and insightful piece of anthropological writing that not only explores "what work means for people … of conventional retirement age" (3), but also touches upon broader social issues such as aging, productivity, and work ethic in the contemporary United States. The book also includes a discussion of the place of anthropologists in the field that is extensively covered by the media—Vita Needle has been of interest to multiple journalists—and their role in producing and reproducing knowledge.


Persona-based design (PBD) has become a popular method for enabling design teams to reason and communicate about user-centered design issues and trade-offs. There is a growing body of literature that describes different ways in which personas have been applied by researchers and practitioners. Despite this diversity in practice the debates about the usefulness of PBD as a method treat it as a single design method that is either good or bad. As a result, the present authors feel it is important to look more critically at what different authors are doing when claiming to use the persona concept, and to develop a theoretical distinction between various persona kinds and their attributes, as well as different characteristics which individual personas may exhibit. This method of analyzing the creation of personas, they believe, can be applied to other design techniques, in order to gain a better understanding of how they work, and how different methods of application can have different consequences for the resultant designs.


Carbon-centered radicals are interesting alternatives to otherwise commonly used nitroxide spin labels for dipolar spectroscopy techniques because of their narrow ESR linewidth. Herein, we present a novel BDPA biradical, where two BDPA (α,α,γ,γ-bisdiphenylene-β-phenylallyl) radicals are covalently tethered by a saturated biphenyl acetylene linker. The inter-spin distance between the two spin carrier fragments was measured using double quantum coherence (DQC) ESR methodology. The DQC experiment revealed a mean distance of only 1.8 nm between the two unpaired electron spins. This distance is shorter than the predictions based on a simple modelling of the biradical geometry with the electron spins located at the central carbon atoms. Therefore, DFT (density functional theory) calculations were performed to obtain a picture of the spin delocalization, which may give rise to a modified dipolar interaction tensor, and to find those conformations that correspond best to the experimentally observed inter-spin distance. Quantum chemical calculations showed that the attachment of the biphenyl acetylene linker at the second position of the fluorenyl ring of BDPA did not affect the spin population or geometry of the BDPA radical. Therefore, spin delocalization and geometry optimization of each BDPA moiety could be performed on the monomeric unit alone. The allylic dihedral angle θ1 between the fluorenyl rings in the monomer subunit was determined to be 30° or 150° using quantum chemical calculations. The proton hyperfine coupling constant calculated from both energy minima was in very good agreement with literature values. Based on the optimal monomer geometries and spin density distributions, the dipolar coupling interaction between both BDPA units could be calculated for several dimer geometries. It was shown that the rotation of the BDPA units around the linker axis (θ2) does not significantly influence the dipolar coupling strength when compared to the allylic dihedral angle θ1. A good agreement between the experimental and calculated dipolar coupling was found for θ1 = 30°.


Background Medical male circumcision (MMC) reduces the risk of genital ulcer disease (GUD) in men by 50%. In Ugandan and Kenyan trials, a sexually transmissible agent was not identified in 50–60% of GUD specimens by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. We sought to better define the etiology of GUD in men participating in the Kenyan trial and examine how MMC affects GUD etiology. Methods We defined GUD of unknown etiology as negative for HSV (type 1 and type 2), T. pallidum, and H. ducreyi by PCR, and negative for HSV-2 and T. pallidum by serology. We identified bacterial microbiota in a subset of 59 GUD specimens using multitag pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, and compared results by unknown vs. STI-associated etiology. Statistical analysis employed Bray-Curtis similarity measure of bacterial community by etiology, hierarchical clustering and logistic regression. Results In 59 GUD specimens from 59 men, 23 (39%) had unknown etiology. Bacterial diversity was greater in GUD of unknown than STI etiology (p = 0.01). Fusobacteria (Fusobacterium spp. and Sneathia spp.) were more commonly detected in men with GUD of unknown etiology [adjusted OR = 5.67; 95% CI: 1.63–19.8] as were Oxobacter spp. and Anaerovorax spp. [adjusted OR = 3.12; 95% CI: 0.83–11.7]. Sequences from these four anaerobic bacterial taxa were more often detected in uncircumcised men than circumcised men (p<0.05). Conclusions Anaerobic bacteria are more common in genital ulcers of uncircumcised men. The specific anaerobic bacteria associated with GUD of unknown etiology have cytotoxic properties that can exacerbate epithelial disruptions leading to ulcer-like appearance. MMC may reduce GUD through a reduction in these anaerobic bacteria.


The paper discusses why the financial system is not as resilient as policymakers currently claim - despite extensive regulatory reforms from a very weak starting point.The paper discusses different policy strategies for making some of the debt of some banks "information-insensitive", so that they it would be treated as safe in all but the most stressed circumstances. For the current prudential strategy, which is centred on minimum equity requirements, the paper argues that central banks and other agencies should start publishing annual staff reports on where regulatory and supervisory policy has been surreptitiously tightened or loosened.The paper aims to spark and contribute to the debate on the second phase of stability reforms that will be needed. It sets out an alternative policy strategy based on 100% liquidity cover for the short-term debt of banks (and shadow banks), and for the creditor hierarchy of operating banks and holding companies. In this proposal, the haircut policy of central banks would become the key instrument in determining bank equity requirements and the terms on which they could borrow in secured money markets. As such, this strategy would operationalise the theoretical and empirical work of Bengt Holmstrom and Gary Gorton.


This collection presents a new perspective on the role of culture in shaping the ambivalent attitude towards economic development of many marginalized people. The strength of this volume lies in how the essays provide examples from both within India and without, to illuminate old Dalit/Savarna and also Hindu/Muslim dynamics specific to India. The volume clearly defines how asymmetrical complementary relationships between Dalits and Savarnas are being replaced by short-term contractual labour relations that no longer involve long-term intergenerational reciprocal obligations. The essays draw attention to the non-modern, non-Western agents that have rendered invisible the dynamics of cyclicity, bio-cultural regeneration, and social and ecological reproduction (SER). What the volume achieves is an understanding of the specifics of Western modernism and modernism in India. Also, through specific examples in India, the US, and elsewhere, it clarifies some of the profound differences between modern, capitalist processes of marginalization as well as non-modern ones.


The mid-twentieth century witnessed nations across Africa fighting for their independence from colonial forces. By examining black Americans' attitudes toward and responses to these liberation struggles, James Meriwether probes the shifting meaning of Africa in the intellectual, political, and social lives of African Americans. Paying particular attention to such important figures and organizations as W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., and the NAACP, he renders a remarkably nuanced portrait of African American opinion. Meriwether builds the book around seminal episodes in modern African history, including nonviolent protests against apartheid in South Africa, Ghana's drive for independence under Kwame Nkrumah, and Patrice Lumumba's murder in the Congo. Viewing these events within the context of their own changing lives, especially in regard to the U.S. civil rights struggle, African Americans have continually reconsidered their relationship to contemporary Africa and vigorously debated how best to translate their concerns into action in the international arena. Grounded in black Americans' encounters with Africa, this transnational history sits astride the leading issues of the twentieth century: race, civil rights, anticolonialism, and the intersections of domestic race relations and U.S. foreign relations.


Terrestrial biosphere models can help identify physical processes that control carbon dynamics, including land-atmosphere CO2 fluxes, and have great potential to predict the terrestrial ecosystem response to changing climate. The skill of models that provide continental-scale carbon flux estimates, however, remains largely untested. This paper evaluates the performance of continental-scale flux estimates from 17 models against observations from 36 North American flux towers. Fluxes extracted from regional model simulations were compared with co-located flux tower observations at monthly and annual time increments. Site-level model simulations were used to help interpret sources of the mismatch between the regional simulations and site-based observations. On average, the regional model runs overestimated the annual gross primary productivity (5%) and total respiration (15%), and they significantly underestimated the annual net carbon uptake (64%) during the time period 2000- 2005. Comparison with site-level simulations implicated choices specific to regional model simulations as contributors to the gross flux biases, but not the net carbon uptake bias. The models performed the best at simulating carbon exchange at deciduous broadleaf sites, likely because a number of models used prescribed phenology to simulate seasonal fluxes. The models did not perform as well for crop, grass, and evergreen sites. The regional models matched the observations most closely in terms of seasonal correlation and seasonal magnitude of variation, but they have very little skill at interannual correlation and minimal skill at interannual magnitude of variability. The comparison of site vs. regional-level model runs demonstrated that (1) the interannual correlation is higher for site-level model runs, but the skill remains low; and (2) the underestimation of year-to-year variability for all fluxes is an inherent weakness of the models. The best-performing regional models that did not use flux tower calibration were CLM-CN, CASA-GFEDv2, and SIB3.1. Two flux tower calibrated, empirical models, EC-MOD and MOD17þ, performed as well as the best process-based models. This suggests that (1) empirical, calibrated models can perform as well as complex, process-based models and (2) combining process- based model structure with relevant constraining data could significantly improve model performance.


The relative importance of various human leukocyte antigen (HLA) loci and the resolution level at which they are matched has not been fully defined for unrelated donor transplantation. To address this question, National Marrow Donor Program data from 3857 transplantations performed from 1988 to 2003 in the United States were analyzed. Patient-donor pairs were fully typed for HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1, -DQB1, -DQA1, -DPB1, and -DPA1 alleles. High-resolution DNA matching for HLA-A, -B, -C, and -DRB1 (8/8 match) was the minimum level of matching associated with the highest survival. A single mismatch detected by low- or high-resolution DNA testing at HLA-A, -B, -C or -DRB1 (7/8 match) was associated with higher mortality (relative risk, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.13-1.38; P < .001) and 1-year survival of 43% compared with 52% for 8/8 matched pairs. Single mismatches at HLA-B or HLA-C appear better tolerated than mismatches at HLA-A or HLA-DRB1. Mismatching at 2 or more loci compounded the risk. Mismatching at HLA-DP or -DQ loci and donor factors other than HLA type were not associated with survival. In multivariate modeling, patient age, race, disease stage, and cytomegalovirus status were as predictive of survival as donor HLA matching. High-resolution DNA matching for HLA-A, -B, -C, and -DRB1 alleles is associated with higher rates of survival.


Digitization in the energy sector is a necessity to enable energy savings and energy efficiency potentials. Managing decentralized corporate energy systems is hindered by a nonexistence. The required integration of energy objectives into business strategy creates difficulties resulting in inefficient decisions. To improve this, practice-proven methods such as Balanced Scorecard, Enterprise Architecture Management and the Value Network approach are transferred to the energy domain. The methods are evaluated based on a case study. Managing multidimensionality, high complexity and multiple actors are the main drivers for an effective and efficient energy management system. The underlying basis to gain the positive impacts of these methods on decentralized corporate energy systems is digitization of energy data and processes.


Abstract: Background : Male circumcision is a removal of the foreskin of the glans penis. There are medical, ritual and religious reasons for male circumcision. The purpose of this study is to explore the current practices, perceptions, future recommendations and health seeking behavior during and after performing male circumcision in a Muslim community of western Nepal. Method : A total of 64 households were sampled by a simple random sampling method. Information was collected using semi-structured questionnaires and focus group discussions. Result : Circumcision was practiced among all Muslim households and the main reason was religious rite and ritual. It was the traditional circumciser, locally known as hazam, who circumcised all male children in the community. Interestingly, in only 5 % of the household children had been circumcised using modern medicines. The rest of the households, i.e. 95%, relied on traditional healing systems, the use of local herbs and homemade ointments (mainly the suspension of ghee and ash).A Non-sterilized knife was the main surgical instrument used during circumcision. The wound healing after circumcision was much longer, even up to 90 days or more. Conclusions : Circumcision is a practice that is still largely carried out outside the domain of the formal health care system in this community. It demands a design of service delivery models from health policy makers in the Ministry of Health, thus bringing circumcision within formal health care systems in those communities. It deserves an urgent attention to provide safe, culturally acceptable and sustainable services from health institutions.


"Solid Foundation" is the definitive history of Jamaican reggae, from the earliest pioneers of the 1940s to the new stars of the 21st century. Drawing on more than 300 first-hand interviews, this landmark book tells the fascinating story of some of the most compelling characters in popular music. It features a diverse range of reggae pioneers, such as the Skatalites, the Wailers, Jimmy Cliff, and Lee 'Scratch' Perry, dub legends such as Augustus Pablo, Prince Jammy, and Scientist, as well as dancehall giants like Elephant Man, Beenie Man, and Buju Banton. It details the entire evolution of Jamaican popular music, including ska, rock steady, roots reggae, dub, dancehall, ragga, and more. First published in 2004, "Solid Foundation" was widely praised as a cracking read and a necessary work. This fully revised and updated edition brings the story into the 21st century with new chapters on the key performers of recent times and extensive additions throughout.


Industry observers have raised the possibility that European network neutrality regulations may obstruct the deployment of 5G. To assess those claims, this Chapter describes the key technologies likely to be incorporated into 5G, including millimeter wave band radios, massive multiple input/multiple output (MIMO), ultra-densification, multiple radio access technologies (multi-RAT), and support for device-to-device (D2D) and machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity. It then reviews the business models likely to be associated with 5G, including network management through biasing and blanking, an emphasis on business-to-business (B2B) communications, and network function virtualization/network slicing. It then lays out the network neutrality regulations created by the EU in 2015 as well as the nonbinding interpretive guidelines issued by the Body of Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communication (BEREC) in 2016 and assesses how they will be applied to 5G. Network neutrality's impact on 5G will likely to be determined by the way that the exceptions for reasonable traffic management and specialised services are interpreted. A broad interpretation should accommodate network slicing and other new business models needed to support the deployment of 5G, while a narrow interpretation could restrict innovation and investment.


Abstract A simplified coupled atmosphere-ocean model is used to explore the influence of evolving midlatitude sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies on the theoretical extended-range predictability of the atmospheric wintertime circulation in the Northern Hemisphere. After approximately two weeks, SST anomalies begin to significantly influence the overlying atmospheric flow, compared to flow over the climatological SST field. If the evolving sea surface temperature field is specified from model "observed" flows, then predictions of atmospheric time-averaged flow, for one month and longer averages, are significantly enhanced over predictions based on the atmospheric model with climatological SST. Predictions using the coupled model, however, are not significantly different from predictions using the atmospheric model with persistent SST anomalies, because SST anomalies are forced increasingly erroneously by atmospheric variables that rapidly lose their predictability.


First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically believes he can set the time-table for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.


Information Technology (IT) is very much an enabler, and there are many perceived benefits from its successful implementation within an organisation, including time savings, reduced waste, better information exchange, and even cost savings. However, the rapid changes taking place in this area are potentially problematic for the many small businesses involved in what is essentially a very fragmented construction industry. A series of five recent workshops, held at South Bank University in collaboration with the Construction Industry Council, the Department of the Environment, Transport and Regions, and the Information Technology Construction Best Practice programme, aimed to deal with this issue, and to solicit the opinions of those most closely involved.
Attendees were invited from a number of professions, including engineers, architects, building surveyors, and quantity surveyors, all of whom were from consultancy practices which can be considered to be small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) within the construction industry. The IT knowledge of the attendees varied from novices who realised their computing skills were lacking, to IT managers and directors whose knowledge of systems and support issues was considerable. Presentations were made on the future of IT within the construction industry, and by professionals with considerable experience of implementing IT strategies in construction organisations. The ensuing discussions covered many areas of concern, including: the problems and difficulties associated with implementing a successful IT strategy within a construction SME; the merits and flaws of moving away from document-driven models to a data-repository-driven central project model; the potential for E-commerce and the use of the Internet within construction; the rise of construction web portals, and the use of web-based collaboration; problems and concerns associated with interoperability and standards within the construction software domain; and the role of other technologies, such as virtual reality, within the industry.
There were many concerns from the attendees regarding the current use of IT in construction. It was generally seen as something which was necessary – even vital – to the success of organisations, but many felt that, as a consequence, they were being forced to deal with issues which shouldn't exist ideally (such as the lack of computer-aided drawing (CAD) standards, and the multiple vendors in the CAD software market.) Also, some felt that they were being pushed down IT routes they wouldn't have previously considered due to the requirements of clients. Indeed, a number of attendees felt that something which was sold as being greatly beneficial to many organisations seemed to consume vast quantities of resources in some cases, yet there was still very much a feeling of a need to 'be in there.'
Details of the demographics of the attendees are presented, and the subjects of greatest concern during the discussions are detailed thoroughly. The paper aims to provide a snapshot of the IT concerns of SMEs in the construction industry as it enters the 21st century.


This paper uses a schemata-theoretic conception of reading in an assessment of ESL reader recall of unstated levels of meaning in narrative prose. Schemata theory suggests that the skilled reader selects one of a finite number of text schemata to use in the decoding, retention and recall of a particular text, and it has been demonstrated that better knowledge of the schematic structure makes possible better recall. Here, reader recall of two types of unstated meaning in narrative prose is assessed for a group of advanced learners of ESL, who use Chinese as L1. Evidence is presented of poor recall of unstated meaning, concomitant with a lack of knowledge of the requisite schematic structure. It is therefore suggested that formal instruction on the requisite structure will enhance learner recall of unstated meaning.


Responsibility as a leader is the ability to respond quickly to a complex and changing business environment. It means using values to make decisions that not only affect brand trust and corporate reputation, but impact upon employees and the wider community. In today's increasingly interconnected world, it is more important than ever that managers can achieve goals and desired results while still maintaining a degree of authenticity, ethics and stewardship. The Responsible Leader identifies what it means to be an authentic leader, taking in intra-organizational relationships, role modelling and ethical practice.Addressing the practical challenge of implementing a framework of corporate social responsibility in an organization that may embrace thousands of people, The Responsible Leader sets out what this strategy looks like in practice and advises on creating a new and hopeful narrative for the future. Drawing on in-depth case studies from HSBC, PwC, Oasis and Marks and Spencers that chart the journey to responsible and sustainable management in challenging environments, it presents a fresh vision for leadership success that goes beyond simple compliance.


Ridging is a serious problem which occurs in ferritic stainless steel after tensile deformation in the rolling direction, and steel makers are attempting to respond to the surface deterioration caused by this phenomenon. Many authors have suggested that a long distance order in the lattice orientation of a sheet could be responsible for ridging. In this study, the authors performed local orientation measurement on two samples of type 430 stainless steel using orientation imaging microscopy, and analyzed the grain orientations of the RD and ND planes. Data on areas covering more than 5mm2 are presented here for the first time in the literature. The experimental resu!ts prove the existence of grain bands in the ND plane of samples with severe ridging, However, the texture maps for the RD planes are in disagreement with many previously proposed theories. Therefore, a new mathematical model is introduced. The simulated ridging profiles of the samples calculated with this new model agree with the experimental results. Finally, a method of amelioration that can significantly improve the theoretical model is proposed.


The aim of this study is to examine consumers' perception of the products considering animal welfare and to establish the factors which affect consumers' willingness to pay the premium price for the animal-friendly products. In addition, four consumers' profiles according to their attitudes towards farm animals' welfare are distinguished and their features are elaborated. The research has been undertaken in Belgrade, comprising 198 participants. The face-to-face interview technique has been adopted, while for the analysis of the results regression and cluster analyses have been performed. The findings suggest that food sector stakeholders should put more efforts in providing information and education to the consumers regarding the importance of animal welfare and that there is a significant market potential for the introduction of the label for animal-friendly products. The implications for policy makers are proposed and discussed too.


In rural China and India, a fragmented commercial distribution system and the lack of online shopping can significantly limit the range of consumer choice. In this paper, we look at the role that mobile phone shopkeepers—the middlemen—play in influencing what users can and will buy, but also in training them in using and understanding technology.


This paper explores the performance of a system of economic instruments designed to facilitate the reduction of hydroclimatologic variability‐induced impacts on stakeholders of shared water supply. The system is composed of bulk water option contracts between urban water suppliers and agricultural users and insurance indexed on reservoir inflows. The insurance is designed to cover the financial needs of the water supplier in situations where the option is likely to be exercised. Insurance provides the irregularly needed funds for exercising the water options. The combined option contract – reservoir index insurance system creates risk sharing between sectors that is currently lacking in many shared water situations. Contracts are designed for a shared agriculture – urban water system in Metro Manila, Philippines, using optimization and Monte Carlo analysis. Observed reservoir inflows are used to simulate contract performance. Results indicate the option – insurance design effectively smooths water supply costs of hydrologic variability for both agriculture and urban water.


In 1986 The Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) introduced new certificates for stillbirths and neonatal deaths. This allowed certifiers more flexibility in the completion of the certificate, and the number and ordering of the causes given. Tabulations have been published of the fetal and maternal causes of death mentioned on the certificates for every year from 1986 to 1991 in annual reference volumes. It has not been possible either to derive a single cause group for each death, however, or to compare the information available on neonatal deaths with that on postneonatal deaths, which are still derived from the standard death certificate. The aim of the work described here was to adapt previous classifications to derive a single cause grouping for stillbirths and infant deaths which would provide the maximum information about preventability and yet meet the national and international responsibilities of OPCS. The methods used and the tests carried out on the validity and consistency of the chosen classification are described.


Reversible assembly of plasmonic nanoparticles can be used to modulate their structural, electrical, and optical properties. Common and versatile tools in nanoparticle manipulation and assembly are optical tweezers, but these require tightly focused and high-power (10-100 mW/μm2) laser beams with precise optical alignment, which significantly hinders their applications. Here we present light-directed reversible assembly of plasmonic nanoparticles with a power intensity below 0.1 mW/μm2. Our experiments and simulations reveal that such a low-power assembly is enabled by thermophoretic migration of nanoparticles due to the plasmon-enhanced photothermal effect and the associated enhanced local electric field over a plasmonic substrate. With software-controlled laser beams, we demonstrate parallel and dynamic manipulation of multiple nanoparticle assemblies. Interestingly, the assemblies formed over plasmonic substrates can be subsequently transported to nonplasmonic substrates. As an example application, we selected surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy, with tunable sensitivity. The advantages provided by plasmonic assembly of nanoparticles are the following: (1) low-power, reversible nanoparticle assembly, (2) applicability to nanoparticles with arbitrary morphology, and (3) use of simple optics. Our plasmon-enhanced thermophoretic technique will facilitate further development and application of dynamic nanoparticle assemblies, including biomolecular analyses in their native environment and smart drug delivery.


With the continuing empirical successes of deep networks, it becomes increasingly important to develop better methods for understanding training of models and the representations learned within. In this paper we propose Singular Vector Canonical Correlation Analysis (SVCCA), a tool for quickly comparing two representations in a way that is both invariant to affine transform (allowing comparison between different layers and networks) and fast to compute (allowing more comparisons to be calculated than with previous methods). We deploy this tool to measure the intrinsic dimensionality of layers, showing in some cases needless over-parameterization; to probe learning dynamics throughout training, finding that networks converge to final representations from the bottom up; to show where class-specific information in networks is formed; and to suggest new training regimes that simultaneously save computation and overfit less.


This investigation highlights the role of on-farm stores on the rural/urban fringe near Vancouver, Canada. Operators achieve higher economic return by targeting populations interested in local food and in agritourism, including customers from towns in the fringe and from the larger nearby urban center. The farm stores catered to a rural idyll that reflects cultural conceptions of farm life. We suggest the multifunctional landscape of the farm store provides economic and cultural benefits, and should be considered as sustaining agriculture. The study revealed that farm store operators in particular share the rural idyll of urban consumers, though agritourism operators are more consciously including rural elements in their operations.


Objective. The aim of this prospective study was to identify latent phase predictors of active labor duration. Design. Prospective clinical study. Setting. Two delivery units in Sweden. Sample. Healthy nulliparous women with a normal pregnancy, spontaneous onset of active labor at term, and a cervical dilatation of 4 cm or more on admission to the delivery ward (n = 2,072). Methods. The women were asked to answer questions concerning their food and fluid intake, amount of rest and sleep during the preceding 24 hours and to assess their labor pain, sense of security and expectations of the childbirth on a visual analog scale (VAS). Duration and intervals of contractions, cervical dilatation, and position of the fetal head were noted by the midwife. A multiple regression analysis was performed with active labor duration as the outcome variable. Main outcome measure. Predictive factors of active labor duration. Results. Normal food intake during the preceding 24 hours was associated with short labor duration. A long latent phase, low levels of assessed labor pain and few hours of rest and sleep during the preceding 24 hours were significant independent predictors of extended active labor duration, when high birth weight, long contraction intervals, slight cervical dilatation, intact membranes within 2 hours of admission, high maternal age and malposition of the fetal head were controlled for. Conclusion. New findings are that latent phase duration as well as food intake and the amount of rest and sleep during the preceding 24 hours are independent predictors of labor duration.


The ruling African National Congress has been an overwhelming presence in the politics of post-apartheid South Africa. To date, the ANC government has enjoyed considerable success in satisfying its supporters' material expectations. As long as it continues to do so, it is reasonable to expect policy continuity. This may be long enough for the constitutionalism that at the moment may still be a matter of expediency for ANC leaders to become entrenched as a public and popular political value. Paradoxically, dominant-party politics may provide a protected space to nurture a more competitive system.


Web stores tend to differentiate themselves from competitors by relying on hedonic aspects, such as colour. This study focusses on web store colour and emotions in the online shopping process. Preferences of Western and Asian consumers are compared when exposed to a web store with specific colour values of red. This was done in the context of an online booking web store for hotels. An online experimental survey was conducted with two conditions, viz., dark red and light red. A total of 220 participants (130 Dutch and 90 Vietnamese) completed the questionnaire. Contrary to expectation, the results showed no direct effect of colour: the light red web store did not induce the highest booking intentions, though an indirect colour effect was found through the pleasure emotion. The light red web store induced more pleasure, which in turn induced higher booking intentions. Cultural differences (indulgent vs. restricted), influenced the relationship between colour and the arousal emotion. Participants from the more indulgent culture were more induced by the light colour web store.


This paper provides evidence of heterogeneity in the returns to higher education in the UK. Attending the most prestigious universities leads to a wage premium of up to 6% for males. The rise in participation in higher education also led to a greater sorting of students and an increase in the returns to quality. These results somehow justify the recent introduction of top-up fees. Additionally, identification strategy matters and OLS estimates may be severely biased. However, our estimates, based on propensity score matching, are imprecise due to the thinness of the common support.


A residential water demand equation is estimated using a panel data sample of 5 Portuguese local communities and 72 months, corresponding to a total number of 360 observations. Because of the presence of multi-part tariffs, we use as explanatory variables the two common price-related variables: marginal price and difference. To prevent the simultaneity bias from using observed quantities to determine the values of marginal price and difference directly from the rate schedule, we use an instrumental variable approach to create a constant marginal price and difference parameters for each rate structure. The price elasticity value obtained fall within the range of those found in other case studies. Thus, although presenting weak elasticity, price seems to play a role in water demand management. However, we do not confirm the expected influence of difference on residential water demand. This can be a consequence of the complexity of the Portuguese water tariffs and the confusing signs that come from the simultaneous use of fixed quotas and increasing block tariffs. So, it is imperative to clarify water tariffs objectives by reviewing the Portuguese water tariffs design processes.


Cancer therapeutics frequently lead to symptomatic adverse events (AE) that can affect treatment tolerability. The NCI has developed the Patient-Reported Outcomes version of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (PRO-CTCAE) to assess symptomatic AEs by direct patient self-report. Although longitudinal assessment of patient-reported symptomatic AEs holds promise to better inform treatment tolerability, using patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures to assess symptomatic AEs has raised several regulatory and good clinical practice issues among those who conduct cancer clinical trials. These include concerns regarding trial monitoring, clinical review of PRO results by investigators and delegated clinical staff, whether PRO data on symptomatic AEs require investigational new drug (IND) safety reporting, and how the trial conduct and resultant PRO data will be assessed during clinical investigator site inspections. This article addresses current thinking regarding these issues in cancer clinical trials from the FDA, the NCI, and the Office for Human Research Protections. PRO measures, such as PRO-CTCAE, that assess symptomatic AEs in cancer trials are considered similar to other PRO assessments of symptoms, function, and health-related quality of life and can generate complementary data that may inform tolerability. Clarity on operational concerns related to incorporating PRO measures to inform tolerability is critical to continue the advancement of rigorous PRO assessment in cancer clinical trials. Clin Cancer Res; 24(8); 1780–4. ©2017 AACR. See related commentary by Nipp and Temel, p. 1777


This Article explores the lessons that we can learn from social psychology regarding a lawyer's willingness to comply with authority figures, such as senior partners or deep-pocketed clients, when they make unlawful or unethical demands. The Article reviews some of the basic literature in social psychology regarding conformity and obedience, much of which emphasizes the importance of context as a primary factor in predicting people's behavior. The Article then contends that lawyers frequently find themselves in the kinds of contexts that produce high levels of conformity and obedience and low levels of resistance to illegal or unethical instructions. The result is that subordinate lawyers will find it difficult to resist a superior's commands in circumstances that should produce forceful dissent. Finally, the Article proposes several changes to existing law in light of these insights, including giving lawyers the benefit of whistleblower protection, strengthening a lawyer's duty to report the misconduct of other lawyers, and enhancing a subordinate lawyer's responsibilities upon receiving arguably unethical instructions from superiors.


A quantitative and qualitative identification of the nitrogenous constituents of unfermented and final fermented wort has been performed for five industrial yeast strains. Results highlight the importance of three key amino acids in yeast fermentation performance. Supplementation of wort using individual amino acids and ammonia clearly demonstrate lysine and arginine to be marker nitrogen wort constituents. Synergistic effects of individual wort free amino acids and ammonia on yeast fermentation efficiency were also examined. Further analysis of nitrogeneous wort constituents included examination of oligopeptides with a molecular weight of less than 500 Daltons and the influence of yeast proteases on the availability of small peptides during fermentation. Both lager and ale yeast can simultaneously use amino acids and small peptides as sources of assimilable nitrogen. Laboratory malt and mash analysis of 28 malt types revealed that 80-95% of total free amino nitrogen originates during malting and the remaining 5-20% during mashing.


A is for seed, B is for eggs, C is for milk -- what's going on here? The seed is tomorrows Apple, the eggs are tomorrows Birds, the milk is tomorrows Cheese! Explore a wonderful world of possibility with an imaginative alphabet puzzle that encouraged young readers to look beyond the obvious.


This study explores the ways in which the introduction of technology-enhanced task design may affect the motivation of students to read in English and encourage more autonomous approaches to reading in English in an Anatolian High School. The subjects investigated were Grade 9 students whose level of English was between A2 and B 1 according to the criteria set out in the Common European Framework of Reference for Language Learning. Seventy participants engaged with specifically designed reading tasks. This case study draws on several theoretical frameworks: Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory (1985), Gardner's socio-educational model with regard to motivation (1985), imd notions of learner autonomy (Kohonen, 1992; Little, 1991; Ho1ec, 1981). Furthermore, the approach to designing the reading tasks was informed by Hampel's comprehensive expansion (2006) of Chapelle's theoretical framework (2000). Data collection and processing followed an exploratory case study approach applying mixed-method design using questionnaires (N = 70) given before and after use of specially designed, technology-enhanced tasks, pre-task interviews (N = 2), post-task interviews (N = 6), class blog discussions, and a researcher journal. Quantitative data were summarised and reported as average percentages. The differences in median scores for pre- and post- introduction of technology enhanced tasks were statistically tested using a Mann-Whitney U test. Thematic analysis was used in order to identify, analyse and report themes in qualitative data collected for this study. The qualitative data were transcribed and then imported into the qualitative data analysis software package NVivo 10, which allowed for the data from the transcripts to be coded to the main themes and sub-themes. Analysis of the results indicates that despite the prevailing traditional behaviourist approach to teaching, these particular Turkish Anatolian High School students were able and willing to exercise control over the learning of English, and that their intrinsic motivation to engage in reading tasks was increased through technology-enhanced, task-based language learning. This study contributes to the knowledge and understanding of learners ' motivation and autonomy when technology enhanced language learning tasks are introduced into a traditional learning context.


This dissertation introduces novel approaches to develop a comprehensive model to address situation awareness in the Internet of Cars, called Attention Assist Framework (AAF). The proposed framework utilizes both Low-Level Data Fusion (LLDF), and High-Level Information Fusion (HLIF) to implement traffic entity, situation, and impact assessment, as well as decision making. The Internet of Cars is the convergence of the Internet of Things and Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs). In fact, VANETs are the communication platforms that make possible the implementation of the Internet of Cars, and has become an integral part of this research field due to its major role to improve vehicle and road safety, traffic efficiency, and convenience as well as comfort to both drivers and passengers. Significant amount of VANETs research work has been focused on specific areas such as safety, routing, broadcasting, Quality of Service (QoS), and security. Among them, road safety issues are deemed one of the most challenging problems of VANETs. Specifically, lack of proper situational awareness of drivers has been shown to be the main cause of road accidents which makes it a major factor in road safety. The traffic entity assessment relies on a LLDF framework that is able to incorporate various multi-sensor data fusion approaches with means of communication links in VANETs. This is used to implement a cooperative localization approach through fusing common data fusion methods, such as Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and Unscented Transform (UT), and vehicle-to-vehicle communication in VANETs. Furthermore, traffic situation assessment is based on a fuzzy extension to the Multi-Entity Bayesian Networks (MEBNs), which exploit the expressiveness of first-order logic for semantic relations, and the strength of the Fuzzy Bayesian Networks in handling uncertainty, while tackling the inherent vagueness in the soft data created by human entities. Finally, the impact assessment and decision making is realized through incorporating notions of game theory into Fuzzy-MEBNs, and introducing Active Fuzzy-MEBN (ATFY-MEBN), which is capable in hypothesizing future situations by assessing the impact of the current situation upon taking the actions indicated by an optimal strategy. In fact, such strategies are achieved through solving the games that are generated through a novel situation-specific normal form games generation algorithm that aims to create games based on the given context. In general, ATFY-MEBN presents the concepts of players and actions, and includes new game components, along with a 2-tier architecture, to efficiently model impact assessment and decision making. To demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed framework, a collision warning system simulator is developed, which evaluates the likelihood of a vehicle being in a near-collision


The conserved Aurora B protein kinase (Ipl1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is essential for ensuring that sister kinetochores become attached to microtubules from opposite spindle poles (bi-orientation) before anaphase onset. When sister chromatids become attached to microtubules from a single pole, Aurora B/Ipl1 facilitates turnover of kinetochore-microtubule attachments. This process requires phosphorylation by Aurora B/Ipl1 of kinetochore components such as Dam1 in yeast. Once bi-orientation is established and tension is applied on kinetochores, Aurora B/Ipl1 must stop promoting this turnover, otherwise correct attachment would never be stabilised. How this is achieved remains elusive: it might be due to dephosphorylation of Aurora B/Ipl1 substrates at kinetochores, or might take place independently, for example because of conformational changes in kinetochores. Here, we show that Ipl1-dependent phosphorylation at crucial sites on Dam1 is maximal during S phase and minimal during metaphase, matching the cell cycle window when chromosome bi-orientation occurs. Intriguingly, when we reduced tension at kinetochores through failure to establish sister chromatid cohesion, Dam1 phosphorylation persisted in metaphase-arrested cells. We propose that Aurora B/Ipl1-facilitated bi-orientation is stabilised in response to tension at kinetochores by dephosphorylation of Dam1, resulting in termination of kinetochore-microtubule attachment turnover.


Adaptation in e-learning has been an important research topic for the last few decades in computer-based education. In adaptivity the behaviour of the user triggers some actions in the system that guides the learning process. In adaptability, the user makes changes and takes decisions. Progressing from computer-based training and adaptive hypermedia systems, adaptation in e-learning today involves new technologies and ways of expression. In this context, IMS Learning Design (IMS LD) is an e-learning specification that allows for modelling learning experiences including adaptation and personalized learning. IMS LD fulfills many of the requirements for realizing adaptive and adaptable units of learning/courses. In this paper we review several approaches to adaptation and e-learning. In addition. we give an overview of adaptation and its main characteristics. In the second section we identify how adaptive features and elements can be modelled in IMS LD, detailing a number of example units of learning which illustrate different forms of adaptation. In the final section we discuss issues in attaining the right balance between effort invested and results acquired while modelling IMS LD adaptive Units of Learning.


Arctic tundra ecosystems have been major carbon sinks throughout the Holocene. However, during the past decades the Arctic has been observed to warm faster than lower latitudes in the context of global climate change. Large uncertainties about the actual and consequently also the future contribution of these environments to the global carbon cycle remain especially with regard to methane emissions. In order to address this uncertainty, landscape-scale measurements (1-1000 m) as well as investigations of the small-scale variability of methane emission are necessary in different arctic ecosystems. Eddy covariance measurements of methane flux were carried out in northern Siberian wet polygonal tundra during 41 days in July/August of 2005 and during 122 days covering the entire growing season from end of May until end of September in 2006. Additionally, closed chamber measurements of methane fluxes were conducted daily at 15 plots (50x50 cm) in four different types of depressed polygon centers and a polygon wall during August 2005 and from July through September in 2006. Floating chambers were used to investigate the contribution of water-filled cracks and thermokarst lakes. This study adds significant findings on methane emission at different scales in an area that is seriously underrepresented in current efforts to quantify carbon emissions from high latitude environments. Our study site was located in the zone of continuous permafrost in the southern part of the Lena River Delta (72°N, 126°E). On the ecosystem scale we found relatively low fluxes and identified near-surface turbulence, air pressure and air temperature as the main driving parameters of methane emission. Fluxes varied strongly between different micro-sites. We present the 2006 growing season methane budget as determined by eddy covariance and closed chamber methods, the driving parameters for methane emission on the different scales, as well as robust statistical models for the different scales based on the identified variables.


There are many function optimization algorithms based on the collective behavior of natural systems - Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) are two of the most popular. This paper presents a new adaptation of the PSO algorithm, entitled Roach Infestation Optimization (RIO), that is inspired by recent discoveries in the social behavior of cockroaches. We present the development of the simple behaviors of the individual agents, which emulate some of the discovered cockroach social behaviors. We also describe a ldquohungryrdquo version of the PSO and RIO, which we aptly call Hungry PSO and Hungry RIO. Comparisons with standard PSO show that Hungry PSO, RIO, and Hungry RIO are all more effective at finding the global optima of a suite of test functions.


Introduction: During COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, mental health of students was highly pregnable to the loss of social connectedness, disarray of normal pattern of activities as well as academic issues. Adopted coping mechanisms may have played a significant role in surmounting the challenges related to the pandemic. The main aim of the survey is to evaluate the prevalence of depression, its determinants, and association with coping mechanisms among college students during COVID-19 lockdown. Materials and Methods: College students were invited during lockdown to participate in a nationwide cross-sectional e-survey using Snowball sampling technique (dated October 6th–30th, 2020). A total sample size of 920 was calculated. A self-administered questionnaire regarding sociodemographic characteristics, COVID-19 related experiences along with two scales (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 [PHQ-9], and Carver Brief-Coping Orientation to the Problem Experienced -28) for assessment of depression and adopted coping mechanisms was applied to participants. Chi-square test, independent t-test, Pearson's correlation, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis were used to investigate the determinants of depression and its association with coping mechanisms in college students. Results: On analysis of 884 qualified participants, it was revealed that 402 (45.5%) participants have depressive symptoms ranging from moderate to severe level. The mean score of PHQ-9 was 9.82 ± 6.61. Nearly 85% students were lagging behind in studies. Around 5%–10% of students initiated/increased the consumption of substances. The main determinants of depression in this study were age group of 21–24 years, thought of lagging behind in studies and family members/friends/relatives diagnosed with COVID-19. Adaptive coping mechanisms (emotional support, religion, and humor) were significantly associated with lower depressive symptoms and maladaptive coping mechanisms (self-distraction, denial, behavioral disengagement, and venting) were significantly associated with higher depressive symptoms among students. Conclusions: This survey revealed multiple determinants of depression, mainly including academic worries among college students. The college staff should provide a well-structured pedagogical framework to encourage them and alleviate the unpleasant psychological effects of pandemic on students.


The use of biofuels is becoming more and more common because of both environmental and economical concerns. Several attempts have been made for the substitution of fossil fuels with other alternative fuels. An important feedstock for the production of biofuels fully adapted to modern engine technology is ester molecules derived from refined or crude vegetable oils and animal fats. Two distinct techniques have been applied for the transformation of the vegetable oil's esters into molecules compatible with petroleum diesel that is transesterification of ester molecules for the production of lighter esters by using an alcohol and hydrogenation of ester bonds for the production of linear hydrocarbons. The way both biofuels are produced is discussed in this work. Raw materials tested, production methods and systems investigated, feasibility of production of these fuels in plant and industrial scale and the main characteristics of the two fuels are included. WIREs Energy Environ 2014, 3:3–23. doi: 10.1002/wene.78


Recent advances in the fields of digital photography, networking and computing, have made it easier than ever for users to store and share photographs. However without sufficient metadata, e.g., in the form of tags, photos are difficult to find and organize. In this paper, we describe a system that recommends tags for image annotation. We postulate that the use of low-level global visual features can improve the quality of the tag recommendation process when compared to a baseline statistical method based on tag co-occurrence. We present results from experiments conducted using photos and metadata sourced from the Flickr photo website that suggest that the use of visual features improves the mean average precision (MAP) of the system and increases the system's ability to suggest different tags, therefore justifying the associated increase in complexity.


In recent years, reporting under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) became mandatory in many countries. The capital-market effects around this change have been extensively studied, but their sources are not yet well understood. This study aims to distinguish between several potential explanations for the observed capital-market effects. We find that, across all countries, mandatory IFRS reporting had little impact on liquidity. The liquidity effects around IFRS introduction are concentrated in the European Union (EU) and limited to five EU countries that concurrently made substantive changes in reporting enforcement. There is little evidence of liquidity benefits in IFRS countries without substantive enforcement changes even when they have strong legal and regulatory systems. Moreover, we find similar liquidity effects for firms that experience enforcement changes but do not concurrently switch to IFRS. Thus, changes in reporting enforcement or (unobserved) factors associated with these changes play a critical role for the observed liquidity benefits after mandatory IFRS adoption. In contrast, the change in accounting standards seems to have had little effect on market liquidity.


Streetcars are the latest urban planning fad, stimulated partly by the Obama administration's preference for funding transportation projects that promote "livability" (meaning living without automobiles) rather than mobility or cost-effective transportation. Toward that end, the administration wants to eliminate cost-effectiveness requirements for federal transportation grants, instead allowing non-cost-effective grants for projects promoting so-called livability. In anticipation of this change, numerous cities are preparing to apply for federal funds to build streetcar lines. The real push for streetcars comes from engineering firms that stand to earn millions of dollars planning, designing, and building streetcar lines. These companies and other streetcar advocates make two major arguments in favor of streetcar construction. The first argument is that streetcars promote economic development. This claim is largely based on the experience of Portland, Oregon, where installation of a $103-million, 4-mile streetcar line supposedly resulted in $3.5 billion worth of new construction. What streetcar advocates rarely if ever mention is that the city also gave developers hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure subsidies, tax breaks, and other incentives to build in the streetcar corridor. Almost no new development took place on portions of the streetcar route where developers received no additional subsidies. The second argument is that streetcars are "quality transit," superior to buses in terms of capacities, potential to attract riders, operating costs, and environmental quality. In fact, a typical bus has more seats than a streetcar, and a bus route can move up to five times as many people per hour, in greater comfort, than a streetcar line. Numerous private bus operators provide successful upscale bus service in both urban and intercity settings. Streetcars cost roughly twice as much to operate, per vehicle mile, as buses. They also cost far more to build and maintain. Streetcars are no more energy efficient than buses and, at least in regions that get most electricity from burning fossil fuels, the electricity powering streetcars produces as much or more greenhouse gases and other air emissions as buses. Based on 19th-century technology, the streetcar has no place in American cities today except when it functions as part of a completely self-supporting tourist line. Instead of subsidizing streetcars, cities should concentrate on basic — and modern — services such as fixing streets, coordinating traffic signals, and improving roadway safety.


Certain analyses have studied gender differences in entrepreneurial activity, but, in general, the lack of specific controls may have led to biased results. In this paper, we analyze whether male or female individuals have a higher probability of becoming entrepreneurs in developing regions (Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, South-East Asia, and Africa). Using GEM data from 2009 to 2014, we avoid the potential confounding problems arising from the definition of entrepreneurship. We find that the descriptive statistics show constant gender gaps in entrepreneurial activity in favor of males, for all the regions. However, when individual and environmental entrepreneurial characteristics are taken into account, these gaps diminish significantly in Eastern Europe, disappear in Asia and Africa, and are reversed in Latin America.


The use of probiotics has gained acceptance in aquaculture, particularly in maintaining water quality and enhancing growth in organisms. This study analyzed the effect of the commercial (EM, Japan) natural product composed by (Rhodopseudomonas palustris, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus casei and Saccharomyces cerevisiae) added to the water, in order to determine its effect in water quality, sediment and growth of L. vannamei under intensive culture. The evaluation included three treatments with a weekly addition of EM: i) tanks without probiotics (C), ii) tanks with a dose of 4 L/ha (EM1) and iii) tanks with a dose of 10 L/ha (EM2). The treatment C was carried out three times, while treatments EM1 and EM2 were carried out four times. A total of 4 350 shrimps were measured for total length and weight, to calculate total and porcentual weight gain, daily weight gain, specific growth rate (TCE), and food conversion factor (FCA); besides, the survival rate was estimated. The use of probiotics allowed a shorter harvest time in treatments EM1 (90 d) and EM2 (105 d) with relation to the treatment C (120d). Treatments EM1 and EM2 were within the recommended intervals for culture, with respect to treatment C. The use of probiotic bacteria significantly regulated pH (EM1, 8.03 +/- 0.33; EM2, 7.77 +/- 0.22; C, 9.08 +/- 0.35) and reduced nitrate concentration (EM1, 0.64 +/- 0.25 mg/L; EM2, 0.39 +/- 0.26 mg/L; C, 0.71 mg/L). Water pH mostly explained the variance with respect to the treatments. Treatment EM2 presented the greatest removal of organic matter (1.77 +/- 0.45%), whereas the contents of extractable phosphorus increased significantly in treatment EM1 with 21.6 +/- 7.99 mg/kg and in treatment EM2 with 21.6 +/- 8.45 mg/kg with control relation (14.3 +/- 5.47). The shrimp growth was influenced by dissolved oxygen, salinity and pH in the sediment, establishing that salinity was the most important variable in the weight with a negative association. Treatment EM1 recorded an improved TCE (2.69 +/- 0.35%/d) and FCA (1.46 +/- 0.20) with relation to the control treatment (TCE, 1.88 +/- 0.25%/d; FCA, 2.13 +/- 0.48). Survival was significantly greater in treatments containing probiotics with 61 +/- 8.76% and 60 +/- 10.5% for EM1 and EM2, respectively. This study indicated the positive effect obtained with the use of this commercial probiotic, to improve culture conditions and growth parameters in an intensive culture of L. vannamei.


Touches of History: An Entry into "May Fourth" China, by Chen Pingyuan, translated by Michel Hockx, with Maria af Sandeberg, Uganda Sze Pui Kwan, Christopher Neil Payne and Christopher Rosenmeier. Leiden: Brill, 201 1. ? + 437 pp. euro133.00/US$ 182.00 (hardcover).Touches of History is a translation of Chen Pingyuans award-winning book, Chumo lishi yujinru Wu Si (Beijing: Peking University Press, 2005). A professor in the Department of Chinese at Peking University, Chen is one of China's leading scholars of modern Chinese literature and culture. In this book, Chen seeks to provide "a thorough understanding of the historical context, the political stances, the cultural tastes, and the academic directions of the 'May Fourth' generation" (p. 3). He does this by first linking the May Fourth generation of literary figures with the earlier 1898 generation of late-Qing intellectuals. There were overlapping elements between the two generations; together they created what is referred to as the "New Culture" of the early Republican period. Chen shuttles back and forth between them, viewing New Culture through historical texts. For him, touching history means reconstructing historical events in some detail, unearthing ideologies from historical texts and illuminating events through case studies and sometimes fragmented materials. Instead of focusing on the central issues, Chen elects to delve into the "margins of history", the "tiny places and the deep parts" (p. 6), which strike him as equally pertinent to a thorough understanding of the May Fourth Movement.Chen's detailed description in Chapter 1 of the events of 4 May 1919 provides a fascinating narrative of the movement. He reconstructs what happened, based on later reminiscences of events that we did not know much about, such as the Beijing students' humiliation at East Jiaomin Alley, the burning down of the Zhaojiaolou and the detention of some of the students overnight in the police station. Chen takes us to the "actual scenes", without providing his interpretation or assessment of the events.Chen is at his best looking at literature from the perspective of history. In the chapter on studies of New Youth, he locates the magazine in the context of the numerous periodicals of the late Qing and early Republican periods, arguing that the thinking of the New Youth writers was inextricably interwoven with that of writers for the other periodicals. He points out that New Youth, as it developed, had its internal editorial and personal differences. What began as a group journal morphed into one containing differing political views expressed individually. From the outset, New Youth had no common cause apart from the muchcelebrated slogan "Mr Democracy and Mr Science", nor did it have a "concrete academic standpoint" (p. 83) to unite the diverse reformist intellectuals. Instead, it accommodated a variety of ideologies and explored a wide array of social and cultural issues. Even after the "Manifesto of the Journal" rejecting party politics was published in December 1919, politics remained a contentious issue among the Afe w Youth writers. Meanwhile, Hu Shi and his likes kept the focus on philosophy and literature, spearheading the vernacular movement and the Literary Revolution to which there was much opposition from cultural conservatives.On the vernacular movement, Chen devotes an entire chapter to Hu Shi's "New Poetry" contained in his anthology Experiments (1920), which went through four editions, two of them revised and each with a new preface by Hu himself. …


Wang et al. engineered Fut8 knockout mice lacking the α1,6-fucosyltransferase that catalyzes the addition of fucose to the sugar core of glycoproteins. These mice exhibited increased postnatal mortality, and surviving pups showed retarded growth and had emphysema-like changes to the lung. Loss of core fucosylation decreased signaling by several receptors. The lung phenotype--increased expression of the genes encoding metalloproteinases MMP-12, MMP-13, and the mouse homolog of MMP-1 (resulting in their increased activity in lung tissue and fibroblasts) and decreased expression of genes encoding elastin--was consistent with a loss of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling. Binding of TGF-β1 to Fut8–/– fibroblasts was reduced compared with that in wild-type cells, and TGF-β1 failed to inhibit increased secretion of MMP-12 in response to interleukin-1β (IL-1β). Lectin-binding assays confirmed that TGF-β type II receptor fucosylation was decreased in Fut8–/– cells and phosphorylation of Smad2 in the lung tissue of Fut8–/– mice was decreased compared with that in lungs of wild-type mice. Finally, the emphysema-like phenotype was rescued by injection of the newborn mice with TGF-β1. Schachter discusses these results and the importance of glycosylation in human diseases. X. Wang, S. Inoue, J. Gu, E. Miyoshi, K. Noda, W. Li, Y. Mizuno-Horikawa, M. Nakano, M. Asahi, M. Takahashi, N. Uozumi, S. Ihara, S. H. Lee, Y. Ikeda, Y. Yamaguchi, Y. Aze, Y. Tomiyama, J. Fujii, K. Suzuki, A. Kondo, S. D. Shapiro, C. Lopez-Otin, T. Kuwaki, M. Okabe, K. Honke, N. Taniguchi, Dysregulation of TGF-1 receptor activation leads to abnormal lung development and emphysema-like phenotype in core fucose-deficient mice. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 102, 15791-15796 (2005). [Abstract] [Full Text] H. Schachter, The search for glycan function: Fucosylation of the TGF-β1 receptor is required for receptor activation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 102, 15721-15722 (2005). [Full Text]


We describe the Snob program for unsupervised learning as it has evolved from its beginning in the 1960s until its present form. Snob uses the minimum message length principle expounded in Wallace and Freeman (Wallace, C.S. and Freeman, P.R. (1987) Estimation and inference by Compact coding. J. Roy. Statist. Soc. Ser. B, 49, 240– 252.) and we indicate how Snob estimates class parameters using the approach of that paper. We will survey the evolution of Snob from these beginnings to the state that it has reached as described by Wallace and Dowe (Wallace, C.S. and Dowe, D.L. (2000) MMM mixture modelling of multi-state, Poisson, Von Mises Circular and Gaussian distributions. Stat. Comput., 10, 73–83.) We pay particular attention to the revision of Snob in the 1980s where definite assignment of things to classes was abandoned.


Competition law's vertical agreement requirement is widely regarded to be perplexing and to offer a fairly limited unilateral action defense. These views prove to be understated. The underlying distinction is incoherent on a number of levels and difficult to reconcile with pertinent statutes, precedent, and practice. The requirement has little nexus with competition policy, and its satisfaction may even be associated with less, not more, anticompetitive danger. Furthermore, reflection on the thinness or nonexistence of the vertical agreement requirement renders problematic a central feature of competition law: the aim to subject myriad everyday actions of countless firms to more lenient scrutiny than that applicable to agreements, which on reflection are ever-present.


We present results for the matrix elements relevant for proton decay in Grand Unified Theories (GUTs), using two methods. In the indirect method, we rely on an effective field theory description of proton decay, where we need to estimate two low energy constants. We then relate these low energy constants to the proton decay matrix elements using leading order chiral perturbation theory. In the direct method, we calculate the required matrix elements directly; this is computationally more expensive, but the calculation has no systematic error from the use of chiral perturbation theory. The calculations are performed with 2+1 flavors of domain wall fermions on lattices of size 163 × 32 and 243 × 64 with a fifth dimension of length 16. We work at fixed inverse lattice spacing, a−1 = 1.73(3) GeV, leading to physical volumes of (1.8 fm)3 and (2.7 fm)3 for the 163 × 32 and 243 × 64 lattices respectively. In the first four chapters we present the background theory. We start with a brief review of the standard model and the motivation for GUTs. We show that GUTs must lead to proton decay, and that the proton lifetime is an experimentally testable prediction which can be used to constrain GUT parameters, or rule out classes of GUT which predict a minimum lifetime shorter than the experimental minimum bound. We then review continuum and lattice QCD, including outlines of the lattice methods used to calculate the proton decay matrix elements. In the last three chapters we present the results and analysis. We calculate the nucleon and pion two–point correlation functions, and determine their ground state masses and amplitudes. These quantities will then be used to calculate the matrix elements using the indirect and direct methods outlined above. The matrix elements can then be combined with experimental bounds on the proton lifetime to bound parameters of individual GUTs.


The mission of Wageningen UR (University & Research centre) is 'To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life'. Within Wageningen UR, nine specialised research institutes of the DLO Foundation have joined forces with Wageningen University to help answer the most important questions in the domain of healthy food and living environment. With approximately 30 locations, 6,000 members of staff and 9,000 students, Wageningen UR is one of the leading organisations in its domain worldwide. The integral approach to problems and the cooperation between the various disciplines are at the heart of the unique Wageningen Approach. Lan Ge and Yuca Waarts Let the numbers speak


Abstract Archetypal phosphine/borane frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) are famed for their ability to activate small molecules. The mechanism is generally believed to involve two‐electron processes. However, the detection of radical intermediates indicates that single‐electron transfer (SET) generating frustrated radical pairs could also play an important role. These highly reactive radical species typically have significantly higher energy than the FLP, which prompted this investigation into their formation. Herein, we provide evidence that the classical phosphine/borane combinations PMes3/B(C6F5)3 and PtBu3/B(C6F5)3 both form an electron donor–acceptor (charge‐transfer) complex that undergoes visible‐light‐induced SET to form the corresponding highly reactive radical‐ion pairs. Subsequently, we show that by tuning the properties of the Lewis acid/base pair, the energy required for SET can be reduced to become thermally accessible.