In recognizing the changing nature and scope of fragility, conflict and violence (FCV), the World Bank (WB) is taking a new and differentiated approach to addressing the full spectrum of FCV situations. This includes action in fragile situations in middle-income countries, not just in the least-developed countries and considering regional conflicts and spillovers, not just national-level fragility. This also includes tackling FCV risks and long-term drivers, not just the adverse development outcomes of conflict. By targeting potential socio-economic fault lines in vulnerable countries, the WB seeks to contribute to the avoidance of wide-scale crises and their significant human and economic costs. The new International Development Association (IDA) 18 'Risk Mitigation Regime (RMR)' pilots development interventions as a prevention tool—scaling up financial support that proactively targets FCV risks and reinforces sources of resilience. Tajikistan is included as one of four pilot countries under the RMR. This Risk and Resilience Report (RRA) identifies the multi-dimensional risks that increase Tajikistan's vulnerability to violence and instability, as well as sources of resilience, and makes recommendations on potential areas of World Bank programming. The RRA has been part of a range of supporting diagnostics and preparatory studies informing the Tajikistan Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for the period of FY19-23 (discussed by the WBG Board of Executive Directors in May 2019). The CPF covers the RMR-funded interventions based on the findings of the RRA as part of the WBG Tajikistan country program.


Investigating the impact of variations in particle size on heat flow from chaparral fires into soils using a laboratory based wildfire simulator. ABSTRACT It has been well established that under certain circumstances wildfire is capable of producing water repellent or hydrophobic soils. Hydrophobic soils can dramatically alter runoff and erosion processes and as such have been the subject of considerable research activity. Wildfires in chaparral vegetation are recognized as being particularly susceptible to hydrophobic soil development. A comparison of chaparral fire soil heat profiles from DeBano (1989) and Weirich (unpublished) indicates that under higher fire intensity situations in chaparral a different soil heating mechanism other than just conduction heating may be at work. In contrast to the slow moving low temperature increases expected in conduction heating a much faster heat pulse resulting in more rapid temperature rises and higher temperatures at depth can also occur in chaparral wildland fires. This suggests that a better understanding of the heat transfer processes that occur at extreme fire intensities is both important and is needed. The specific aim of this study was to observe heat flow under a variety of particle sizes using a laboratory based wildfire simulator operating at intensities and durations similar to those experienced in chaparral wildfires. The wildfire simulator system consisted of a propane burner array, an array of thermocouples to measure temperatures at varying locations and depths, and a data logging system to record the results of the heating experiments. Using the simulator homogenous sand, silt, clay, and heterogeneous clay loam were subjected to 600ºC, 900ºC, and 1200ºC peak intensities with two different heating durations or treatments (H1 and H2). The heating levels and durations used were based on data from field based chaparral fire experimental temperature data previously collected by Weirich (unpublished). The system design allowed the user to control the intensity and duration of the heat treatments and the thermocouple sensor arrays measured temperatures at the flame to a soil depth of 15cm. The apparatus and experimental treatments allowed for the iii investigation of peak heat intensity, heat duration, slope, and most importantly particle size on heat transfer processes. The higher soil temperatures at depth, shorter times to peak temperatures at depth, and observed temperature spiking seen during some of the simulator experimental runs (specifically with respect to larger particle sizes such as sand) call into question the view that slow moving conduction may not be …


Background: Outcomes after transtibial pull-out repair for posterior meniscal root tears remain underreported, and factors that may affect outcomes are unknown. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to compare patient-centered outcomes after transtibial pull-out repair for posterior root tears in patients <50 and ≥50 years of age. We hypothesized that improvement in function and activity level at minimum 2-year follow-up would be similar among patients <50 years of age compared with patients ≥50 years and among patients undergoing medial versus lateral root repairs. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: Inclusion criteria were patients aged 18 years or older who underwent anatomic transtibial pull-out repair of the medial or lateral posterior meniscus root by a single surgeon. All patients were identified from a data registry consisting of prospectively collected data in a consecutive series. Cohorts were analyzed by age (<50 years [n = 35] vs ≥50 years [n = 15]) and laterality (lateral [n = 15] vs medial [n = 35]). Patients completed a subjective questionnaire preoperatively and at minimum of 2 years postoperatively (Lysholm, Tegner, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index [WOMAC], 12-Item Short Form Health Survey [SF-12], and patient satisfaction with outcome). Failure was defined as revision meniscal root repair or partial meniscectomy. Results: The analysis included 50 knees in 49 patients (16 females, 33 males; mean age, 38.3 years; mean body mass index, 26.6). Of the 50 knees, 45 were available for analysis. Three of 45 (6.7%) required revision surgery. All failures were in patients <50 years old, and all failures underwent medial root repair. No significant difference in failure was found based on age (P=.541) or laterality (P = .544). For age cohorts, Lysholm and WOMAC scores demonstrated significant postoperative improvement. For laterality cohorts, all functional scores significantly improved postoperatively. No significant difference was noted in postoperative Lysholm, WOMAC, SF-12, Tegner, or patient satisfaction scores for the age cohort or the laterality cohort. Conclusion: Outcomes after posterior meniscal root repair significantly improved postoperatively and patient satisfaction was high, regardless of age or meniscal laterality. Patients <50 years had outcomes similar to those of patients ≥50 years, as did patients who underwent medial versus lateral root repair. Transtibial double-tunnel pull-out meniscal root repair provided improvement in function, pain, and activity level, which may aid in delayed progression of knee osteoarthritis.


Establishing a bridge between research on accountability and user-need research in nonprofit accounting, this dissertation explores the phenomenon of financial accountability of human rights organizations (HROs). It does this by examining how financial reporting mechanisms are being employed to satisfy growing accountability demands and by studying how the distinct pressures from stakeholders and financial reporting regulation interact to shape the accountability practices of HROs. Relying on a socio-constructivist perspective on accounting, this dissertation applies several empirical and methodological approaches, including netnography, analysis of Internet-based discussions, and the use of real-life constructs that are embedded in interview sessions. The dissertation consists of three essays.
The first essay explores the main accountability concerns of HRO professionals within the nonprofit community. It argues that HROs face the highest level of financial accountability demands among non-profit organizations (NPOs) due to the attention they must pay to the propriety of their donors and their own concerns for public expectations and scrutiny. The essay shows a linkage between the complexities in performance measurement and accounting and the difficulties for organizations to demonstrate legitimacy and accountability. The essay advances a significant argument for the development of a special accounting framework for NPOs.
The second essay reveals the accounting information needs of institutional donors and examines their reasoning and their motives for high financial accountability demands. It demonstrates that as they supplement accounting standard setters, powerful stakeholders might create alternative reporting systems using their own patterns of governance. Exercising a great deal of influence over the settings in which HROs operate and by demanding not only financial accounting, but also management accounting information, donors interfere significantly with the operationalization of HROs. This challenges the independence of the missions of HROs and affects the practical aspects of their working agendas.
The third essay explores the role of financial reporting and accounting regulation in the foreign funding restrictions of HROs in selective settings. The study contributes to critical accounting literature by examining the spectrum of governing purposes for which accounting mechanisms could be applied, and by considering the interplay between accounting and various notions of justification, politics and power.


Building scientific databases is extremely difficult and expensive. Costs could be reduced if the experts who curate the deposited data, are provided with data that are reviewed by other experts at lower levels for accuracy and consistency. Since expertise is distributed around the world, a common platform that implements a well-accepted work process is needed to support such community curation. The workflow is complicated because there are many different types of biochemical data and the relationships among the data are complex; different data types need different kinds of checks; procedures to deposit, review, revise, and accept data; and the volume of data is very large. We have automated the workflow used in curating several types of biochemical data. This model is flexible enough to accommodate additional processes idiosyncratic to particular groups of curators, such as those for enzymatic reactions, biochemical terms, and molecular structures. This work demonstrates the application of workflow technology to intellectually complex, geographically distributed, multidisciplinary scientific processes.


Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) refers to the conversion of carbonaceous resources into oily substances in hot pressurized liquid water. During this process, constitutive biomass molecules decompose into thousands of organic compounds, following complex reaction mechanisms. The chemistry behind HTL processes is highly complex and still poorly understood to date, in spite of many research efforts. After a detailed analysis of a wet bioresource, blackcurrant pomace, a selection of representative model compounds was subjected to hydrothermal liquefaction conditions (300 C, 60 min), either alone or as binary, ternary and quaternary mixtures: glucose, xylose, and microcrystalline cellulose were chosen to represent carbohydrates; guaiacol and alkali lignin for native lignin; glutamic acid for proteins; and linoleic acid for lipids. The results show that the reaction products mainly arise from degradation of individual compounds. The main reactions that can be identified are decarboxylation, dehydration, and condensation reactions producing heavy compounds found in the bio oil and the char. Some binary interactions have been identified such as the Maillard reaction between carbohydrates and proteins, and also a strong interaction between carbohydrates and lipids for bio oil formation. Comparative experiments showed that HTL of the real resource (blackcurrant pomace) could be qualitatively represented by model mixtures, in terms of the molecular composition of the products, especially when model fibres were used. The quantitative representativeness of the simulating monomers is lower than that obtained by using model polymers.


The availability of high power (~1 MW), long pulse length (effectively cw), high frequency (>100 GHz) gyrotrons has created the opportunity for enhanced scientific results on magnetic confinement devices for fusion research worldwide. This has led to successful experiments on electron cyclotron heating, electron cyclotron current drive, non-inductive tokamak operation, tokamak energy transport, suppression of instabilities and advanced profile control leading to enhanced performance. The key development in the gyrotron community that has led to the realization of high power long pulse gyrotrons is the availability of edge cooled synthetic diamond gyrotron output windows, which have low loss and excellent thermal and mechanical properties. In addition to the emergence of reliable high power gyrotrons, ancillary equipment for efficient microwave transmission over distances of hundreds of metres, polarization control, diagnostics, and flexible launch geometry have all been developed and proved in regular service.


Despite a growing literature on the climate response to solar geoengineering—proposals to cool the planet by increasing the planetary albedo—there has been little published on the impacts of solar geoengineering on natural and human systems such as agriculture, health, water resources, and ecosystems. An understanding of the impacts of different scenarios of solar geoengineering deployment will be crucial for informing decisions on whether and how to deploy it. Here we review the current state of knowledge about impacts of a solar‐geoengineered climate and identify the major research gaps. We suggest that a thorough assessment of the climate impacts of a range of scenarios of solar geoengineering deployment is needed and can be built upon existing frameworks. However, solar geoengineering poses a novel challenge for climate impacts research as the manner of deployment could be tailored to pursue different objectives making possible a wide range of climate outcomes. We present a number of ideas for approaches to extend the survey of climate impacts beyond standard scenarios of solar geoengineering deployment to address this challenge. Reducing the impacts of climate change is the fundamental motivator for emissions reductions and for considering whether and how to deploy solar geoengineering. This means that the active engagement of the climate impacts research community will be important for improving the overall understanding of the opportunities, challenges, and risks presented by solar geoengineering.


In April 2008, more than 80 attendees from across the United States and Canada participated in the fourth research retreat focused on the gender bias in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. The retreat was cofounded by Irene Davis, PhD, PT, and Mary Lloyd Ireland, MD, who hosted the 3 previous research retreats in Lexington, Kentucky, in April of 2001, 2003, and 2006. In the first year (2001), a consensus document of what we know, don't know, and still need to know related to this problem was developed.1 Each subsequent retreat has revisited and updated the previous consensus statement as new evidence has emerged.2,3 Over the past 6 years, the number of attendees has grown, and the retreats have attracted some of the foremost nationally and internationally known clinicians and scientists with a common interest in ACL injury. We were pleased to continue this important work by hosting Research Retreat IV in Greensboro, North Carolina.The meeting featured an opening presentation from ACL Retreat cofounder Mary Lloyd Ireland, MD; invited keynote presentations by Scott McLean, PhD, and Bruce Beynnon, PhD — expert scientists well known for their research into factors associated with the gender bias in ACL injury; and 31 fifteen-minute podium presentations of recently completed research relating to the gender bias in ACL injuries. The opening presentation set the stage for the meeting by providing a historical perspective of what research has taught us about the ACL injury gender bias over the past 20 years, and the keynote presentations focused on the current knowledge and theories associated with neuromuscular, biomechanical, anatomical, and hormonal risk factors. The podium presentations were organized into thematic sessions centered on sagittal-plane landing mechanics, sex comparisons in landing and cutting, fatigue and perturbation studies in landing and cutting, anatomical and hormonal factors, and risk factor screening and prevention. Significant time was provided for group discussion after each keynote and each group of podium presentations. At the conclusion of the meeting, participants revisited and updated the consensus statement from the 2006 retreat.2 Following are the consensus statement, keynote presentation summaries, and abstracts organized by topic and presentation order.


To address the challenges in critical care monitoring, we present a multi-modality bio-signal modeling and analysis modeling framework for real-time human state classification and predication. The novel bioinformatic framework is developed to solve the human state classification and predication issues from two aspects: a) achieve 1:1 mapping between the bio-signal and the human state via discriminant feature analysis and selection by using probabilistic principle component analysis (PPCA); b) avoid time-consuming data analysis and extensive integration resources by using Dynamic Bayesian Network (DBN). In addition, intelligent and automatic selection of the most suitable sensors from the bio-sensor array is also integrated in the proposed DBN.


Background. The chronological age of the ordinary Ghanaian has often been difficult to verify as registration at birth is not compulsory. Consequently, an accurate method of age determination is needed in competitive age-restricted sports. Objective. To evaluate the age of Ghanaian soccer players who are aspiring to play for the national under-17 (U17) team, using the degree of fusion of the distal radius on magentic resonance imaging (MRI) and comparing it with the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) MRI grading. Methods. MRI scans of the left wrists of 86 players aspiring to play for the national U17 football team were recruited for the study during a 'justify your inclusion tournament' organised by the Ghana Football Association between June and August 2012. The study was conducted in a diagnostic centre in Accra using a 0.35T MRI scanner. The images were analysed using the previously published FIFA grading system. Results. The mean chronological age of the players was 15.4 years (standard deviation ±0.7; range 12 - 17). The study showed that 43.0% of the MRI images were grade 6 (≥17 years) in relation to the degree of fusion of the distal radius, and 93.0% of the grade 6 players were aged 15 - 16 years chronologically. There was no significant correlation between the chronological age and the degree of fusion (r=0.075; p=0.493). Conclusion. Ghanaian U17 soccer players seem to be more biologically mature than a normative population of the same age category. The lack of correlation between age category and degree of fusion supports the suspicion that most Ghanaian players may not know their true age.


Ever-expanding media coverage, scholarship, and popular publications discussing the difficulty of combining work and family suggest that this issue is now the essential locus for gender debate in the United States. The essence of the debate is the meaning of equality — whether it carries the same meaning for women and men, whether biological and sociological differences should impact the understanding of equality, and whether law and social policy should reflect or encourage these differences. Privileged but Equal details the theory of sex equality that is embodied in Israeli employment law and contrasts it with the U.S. approach. The Article suggests that the Israeli system employs an "equality through difference" model, which approves of special treatment for women in the form of privileges, options, and exemptions so that women who maintain primary responsibility for family and home have greater opportunities to enter and succeed in the workplace. The Article explores the historical circumstances, societal needs, and cultural predispositions that have shared in creating the Israeli conception of sex equality in an effort to determine whether Israel's approach or any of its parts would be palatable, appropriate, or vastly unworkable in the United States.


Background: Somatostatin (SST) and its receptors (SSTR1-5) may have a role in prostate cancer by influencing the IGFI hormone axis or through direct effects on prostate epithelia. We have investigated if genetic variation in the SST and SSTR1-5 genes influences prostate cancer risk and/or circulating IGFI and IGFBP3 hormone levels. Materials and Methods: We analyzed 28 haplotype tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms in the SST and SSTR1-5 genes in a case-control/genetic association study to investigate the association between genetic variation and prostate cancer risk. The study included 2863 cases and 1737 controls from the Cancer Prostate in Sweden (CAPS) study. To investigate the genetic influence on circulating hormone levels, plasma concentrations of IGFI and IGFBP3 were analyzed in 874 controls of the CAPS study and 550 male subjects from the Northern Sweden Health and Disease Cohort (NSHDC). Results: No clear association between prostate cancer risk and genetic variation of the SST and SSTR1-5 genes was identified. The SSTR5 missense single nucleotide polymorphism rs4988483 was associated with circulating IGFI (P = 0.002) and IGFBP3 (P = 0.0003) hormone levels in CAPS controls, with a per allele decrease of ∼11%. This decrease was replicated in NSHDC for circulating IGFBP3 (P = 0.01) but not for IGFI (P = 0.09). Combining CAPS and NSHDC subjects indicated evidence of association between rs4988483 and both IGFBP3 (P = 2 × 10−5) and IGFI (P = 0.0004) hormone levels. Conclusions: Our results suggest that genetic variation in the SSTR5 gene and, particularly, the rs4988483 single nucleotide polymorphism influence circulating IGFI and IGFBP3 hormone levels with no measurable effect on prostate cancer risk. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(5):1644–50)


We give a formal definition of generalized planning that is independent of any representation formalism. We assume that our generalized plans must work on a set of deterministic environments, which are essentially unrelated to each other. We prove that generalized planning for a finite set of environments is always decidable and EXPSPACE-complete. Our proof is constructive and gives us a sound, complete and complexity-wise optimal technique. We also consider infinite sets of environments, and show that generalized planning for the infinite "one-dimensional problems," known in the literature to be recursively enumerable when restricted to finite-state plans, is EXPSPACE-decidable without sequence functions, and solvable by generalized planning for finite sets.


Ocean waves represent an untapped source of renewable energy which can significantly contribute
to the energy transition towards a sustainable energy mix. Despite the significant potential of this
energy source and the multiple solutions suggested for the extraction of energy from ocean waves,
some of which have demonstrated to be technically viable, no commercial wave energy farm has
yet been connected to the electricity grid. This means that none of the technologies suggested in
the literature has achieved economic viability.
In order to make wave energy converters economically viable, it is essential to accurately understand
and evaluate the holistic behaviour and performance of wave energy converters, including
all the different conversion stages from ocean waves to the electricity grid. This can be achieved
through wave tank or open ocean testing campaigns, which are extremely expensive and, thus,
can critically determine the financial sustainability of the developing organisation, due to the risk
of such large investments. Therefore, precise mathematical models that consider all the important
dynamics, losses and constraints of the different conversion stages (including wave-structure
hydrodynamic interaction and power take-off system), known as wave-to-wire models, are crucial
in the development of successful wave energy converters. Hence, a comprehensive literature review
of the different mathematical approaches suggested for modelling the different conversion
stages and existing wave-to-wire models is presented, defining the foundations of parsimonious
wave-to-wire models and their potential applications.
As opposed to other offshore applications, wave energy converters need to exaggerate their
motion to maximise energy absorption from ocean waves, which breaks the assumption of small
body motion upon which linear models are based. An extensive investigation on the suitability of
linear models and the relevance of different nonlinear effects is carried out, where control conditions
are shown to play an important role. Hence, a computationally efficient mathematical model
that incorporates nonlinear Froude-Krylov forces and viscous effects is presented. In the case
of the power take-off system, mathematical models for different hydraulic transmission system
configurations and electric generator topologies are presented, where the main losses are included
using specific loss models with parameters identified via manufacturers' data. In order to gain
confidence in the mathematical models, the models corresponding to the different conversion stages
are validated separately against either high-fidelity well-established software or experimental
results, showing very good agreement.
The main objective of this thesis is the development of a comprehensive wave-to-wire model.
This comprehensive wave-to-wire model is created by adequately combining the subsystems corresponding
to the different components or conversion stages. However, time-step requirements
vary significantly depending on the dynamics included in each subsystem. Hence, if the time-step
required for capturing the fastest dynamics is used in all the subsystems, unnecessary computation
is performed in the subsystems with slower dynamics. Therefore, a multi-rate time-integration
scheme is implemented, meaning that each subsystem uses the sample period required to adequately
capture the dynamics of the components included in that conversion stage, which significantly
reduces the overall computational requirements. In addition, the relevance of using a high-fidelity
comprehensive wave-to-wire model in accurately designing wave energy converters and assessing
their capabilities is demonstrated. For example, energy maximising controllers based on excessively
simplified mathematical models result in dramatic consequences, such as negative average
generated power or situations where the device remains stuck at one of the end-stops of the power
take-off system.
Despite the reasonably high-fidelity of the results provided by this comprehensive wave-towire
model, some applications require the highest possible fidelity level and have no limitation
with respect to computational cost. Hence, the simulation platform HiFiWEC, which couples a
numerical wave tank based on computational fluid dynamics to the high-fidelity power take-off
model, is created. In contrast, low computational cost is the main requirement for other applications
and, thus, a systematic complexity reduction approach is suggested in this thesis, significantly
reducing the computational cost of the HiFiWEC platform, while retaining the adequate fidelity
level for each application. Due to the relevance of the nonlinearity degree when evaluating
the complexity of a mathematical model, two nonlinearity measures to quantify this nonlinearity
degree are defined. Hence, wave-to-wire models specifically created for each application are generated
via the systematic complexity reduction approach, which provide the adequate trade-off
between computational cost and fidelity level required for each application.


Aim/Purpose: The purpose of the current study is to explore positive and negative aspects of teacher-teacher communication via Facebook, as perceived by teachers in secondary education.

Background: Teacher-student relationship is key to teachers' wellness and professional development and may contribute to positive classroom environment. In recent years, as social networking sites (e.g., Facebook) became popular, these connections have extended to such platforms. However, most studies of the use of social networking sites in the school context are pedagogically-driven, and research on the ways teacher-student relationship is facilitated by these platforms is meager.

Methodology: We utilized a qualitative approach, analyzing responses to open-ended questions about this topic by middle- and high-school teachers' all across Israel (N=180). We used both top-down and bottom-up analyses.

Contribution: This study contributes to the growing literature about the overall impact of using social networking sites on the educational milieu. Specifically, it contributes by shedding light on teachers' perspectives of that phenomenon. Insights from this study are important for educators and education policy makers.

Findings: Overall, teachers who were connected to their students de facto, as well as teachers who expressed a wish to be connected to their students, acknowledged the advantages of befriending their students on Facebook, in terms of both teacher- and student benefits. Teachers' overall viewpoint on the negative aspects of Facebook-connections with students is multifaceted. As such, our findings highlight the complexity of using social networking sites by teachers.

Recommendations for Practitioners: We recommend that educators who wish to extend the relationship with their student to online platforms do so wisely, taking advantage of the benefits of using these platforms, and being aware of (and cautious about) potential draw-backs. We encourage educators to learn more about the potential uses of social networking sites and instant messaging services, and then to examine whether these uses may fit their educational agenda. We recommend that education policymakers make evidence-based decisions regarding the use of social networking sites by teachers and encourage school communities to discuss these issues together.

Recommendation for Researchers: As technology develops rapidly, we recommend that researchers examine the topics raised in the current research with regards to other platforms, in order to better understand the technological aspects that may affect students' perceptions of the use of social networking sites and instant messaging services to communicate with their students. The issues studied here should also be studied in different cultural contexts. We recommend broadening the research and making results available to policymakers when making decisions regarding social media in educational contexts.

Impact on Society: Understanding teachers' perspectives of their relationship with their students in today's digital, networked world gives us a better understanding of the changing role of teachers; hence, it may assist in planning teacher training and professional development, with the ultimate goal of realizing a better educational system.

Future Research: Future studies should focus on other social networking sites and instant messaging services, as well as on other countries and cultures.


The functioning of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin relies on the open availability of the entire history of its transactions. This makes it a particularly interesting socio-economic system to analyse from the point of view of network science. Here we analyse the evolution of the network of Bitcoin transactions between users. We achieve this by using the complete transaction history from December 5th 2011 to December 23rd 2013. This period includes three bubbles experienced by the Bitcoin price. In particular, we focus on the global and local structural properties of the user network and their variation in relation to the different period of price surge and decline. By analysing the temporal variation of the heterogeneity of the connectivity patterns we gain insights on the different mechanisms that take place during bubbles, and find that hubs (i.e., the most connected nodes) had a fundamental role in triggering the burst of the second bubble. Finally, we examine the local topological structures of interactions between users, we discover that the relative frequency of triadic interactions experiences a strong change before, during and after a bubble, and suggest that the importance of the hubs grows during the bubble. These results provide further evidence that the behaviour of the hubs during bubbles significantly increases the systemic risk of the Bitcoin network, and discuss the implications on public policy interventions.


In nearly all machine learning, decisions must be made given current knowledge. Surprisingly, making what is believed to be the best decision is not always the best strategy, even when learning in a supervised learning setting. An emerging body of work on learning under different rules applies perturbations to decision and learning procedures. These methods provide simple and highly efficient learning rules with improved theoretical guarantees. This book describes perturbation-based methods developed in machine learning to augment novel optimization methods with strong statistical guarantees, offering readers a state-of-the-art overview. Chapters address recent modeling ideas that have arisen within the perturbations framework, including Perturb & MAP, herding, and the use of neural networks to map generic noise to distribution over highly structured data. They describe new learning procedures for perturbation models, including an improved EM algorithm and a learning algorithm that aims to match moments of model samples to moments of data. They discuss understanding the relation of perturbation models to their traditional counterparts, with one chapter showing that the perturbations viewpoint can lead to new algorithms in the traditional setting. And they consider perturbation-based regularization in neural networks, offering a more complete understanding of dropout and studying perturbations in the context of deep neural networks.


We experimentally investigate the generation and synchronization of bandwidth-enhanced chaos in a semiconductor laser (drive laser) that is subject to optical injection from another chaotic semiconductor laser (injection laser) with optical feedback. Effective bandwidth enhancement is achieved over 12 GHz, under the condition in which the optical wavelength of the drive laser is positively detuned with respect to that of the injection laser, outside the injection locking range. The bandwidth-enhanced chaotic signal of the drive laser is injected into a third semiconductor laser (response laser) for synchronization. Synchronization of chaos with a bandwidth greater than 12 GHz is observed between the drive and response lasers, under the condition in which the optical wavelength of the response laser is negatively detuned with respect to that of the drive laser, satisfying the injection locking condition. High-quality chaos synchronization is observed within the injection locking range between the drive and response lasers and under the condition of a low relaxation oscillation frequency of the response laser.


Dominant social classes have often used scientific arguments to explain their privileged status. With the development of intelligence quotient (IQ) tests and the founding of the field of genetics, some researchers explained racial differences in behaviours such as IQ test performance as due to genetic differences. Recent discoveries in molecular genetics have provided evidence that human variation at the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) level is slight; much more variation exists within the members of any single group than between two different population groups. However, as the DNA of populations worldwide has been further characterised, some have assumed that racial differences in intelligence or other social behaviours can be ascribed to those slight interracial genetic differences. Scientists must remain vigilant and expose misrepresentations of scientific data that overemphasise the genetics of group differences and that support genetically deterministic explanations for complex behaviours, such as intelligence.

Key Concepts

Science, through measurements of brain size and IQ test scores, has been misused to support the idea of presumed racial hierarchies in intelligence.
Identical twin studies yield heritability numbers for various traits such as intelligence. However these heritability numbers do not give any information on the strength of genetic contributions to the trait under study. Furthermore, questionable assumptions that are made in carrying out these studies raise issues about the validity of the numbers themselves.
The search for gene variants with strong influences on complex behavioural traits, including intelligence, has been largely unsuccessful.
Environment plays a major role in the manifestation of most genetic traits.
Recent discoveries in molecular genetics have shown that most of the genetic variation that is found among human beings around the world is found in all racial and ethnic groups, and only a small amount is found in specific groups.
Using large numbers of genetic variants that differ only slightly in proportion between population groups, researchers can assort individuals into major continental geographic clusters with a high degree of accuracy.
Aside from a small fraction of genes influencing apparent, visible physical features distinguishing people, the distribution of genetic variation does not support a biological basis for the concept of human races.
Preliminary and faulty scientific studies on issues relating to race and intelligence are often rapidly and unjustifiably translated into calls for changes in social policy.
Scientists have a responsibility to help ensure that studies on the genetics of group differences are not misused and misrepresented to support racist theories regarding human behaviours.

Keywords:

racism;
race;
ethics;
behaviour genetics;
IQ;
eugenics


RELATING METHANOGEN COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION IN ANAEROBIC DIGESTERS Benjamin T.W. Bocher Marquette University, 2012 A deeper understanding of how microbial community structure relates to process function would help improve anaerobic digester design. This dissertation describes both qualitative and quantitative relationships between anaerobic digester function and microbial community structure. Community structure was characterized using banding pattern intensities from denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) for the mcrA gene of methanogenic Archaea. The first project compared a single-stage continuously mixed stirred tank reactor (CSTR) and staging with an acidogenic CSTR followed by a methanogenic CSTR. After seeding with the same biomass, these unique process configurations exhibited different function and qualitatively different methanogen communities. Compared to a single-stage CSTR, staging increased the maximum rate of methane production by 41, 26, and 57% with propionate, acetate, and hydrogen, respectively. Additionally, the staged digester produced 10% more methane and achieved 10% greater volatile solids (VS) destruction. The second project also provided a qualitative relationship: methanogen community structure impacted digester function upon bioaugmentation. Specific methanogenic activity (SMA) with propionate statistically increased (up to 57%) in six of nine bioaugmented anaerobic cultures. These increases correlated to methanogen community structure above the 98% level (rs = 0.770) using Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient (two-tailed). In the third project, a quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) was established between methanogen community structure and two activities using multiple linear regression (MLR). Two different QSARs were predictive of SMA values with propionate (q2 = 0.52) and with glucose (q2 = 0.56), respectively. A MLR model may be applicable to other biological communities when trophic redundancy and a ubiquitous gene are present and when a linear model is appropriate. Greater understanding of anaerobic digester microbial communities is possible using these QSARs. This research serves as a template that can be used to construct additional QSARs for other complex microbial communities in engineered systems.


The port city of Hong Kong has played a very crucial role in facilitating a whole host of commercial and financial interactions between East Asia and the greater Middle East region over the past several decades. Even after the strategic city became an integral part of China in 1997, the Special Administrative Region (SAR) continued to oil the wheels of the multifaceted relationship between East Asian countries, China in particular, and their partners in the Middle East. Besides its conventional function of smoothing the way for an array of economic and financial ties, the SAR is increasingly contributing to various cultural and recreational activities involving the two regions.


This thesis evaluates the combined use of multispectral remotely sensed data from the 0.45-2.35µm and 8µm-12µm wavelength regions for lithological mapping and mineral exploration in weathered, vegetated terrain. The area studied is located in N. E. Queensland, Australia, and consists of a mixture of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. The extrusive and intrusive igneous rocks of acid to intermediate composition are currently the focus of active exploration for gold mineralisation. The results from this study indicate data from the 0.45-2.35µm wavelength region are of more use for mineral exploration than data from the 8-12µm wavelength region in this terrain. Evaluation of data from the 0.45-2.35µm wavelength region resulted in the discovery of an area of epithermal alteration with potential for gold mineralisation at Blackfellow Mountain. Data from both wavelength regions proved useful for litholgical mapping but certain lithological units could only be discriminated with the data from the 8-12µm wavelength region. In order to obtain these results the data were reduced to physically meaningful parameters (reflectance, temperature and emittance). This necessitated the removal of radiometric and geometric distortions. The techniques used to remove these distortions are outlined, including two new methods for the removal of atmospheric effects from data from the 8-12µm wavelength region. After correction, the data from the 0.45-2.35µm wavelength region were analysed by a variety of techniques to extract the relevant reflectance information. These included compositing, channel ratios, log residuals, directed principal components and least squares fit residuals (LRES). The log residual and LRES techniques proved most effective for lithological mapping and mineral exploration respectively. The corrected data from the 8-12µm wavelength region were also analysed by several techniques for extracting emittance and temperature information. These techniques were the decorrelation stretch, model emittance calculation and thermal log residuals. The latter technique, developed during this study, proved most effective for lithological mapping.


This thesis seeks to open up a professional context in relation to practice around teaching bilingual children to seek further insights for myself and other educational professionals. It can be argued that the only differences between bilingual or monolingual children are those of linguistic and cultural repertoire. Therefore understandings were sought about how these differences were understood within education. This qualitative study loosely adopted a grounded theory approach, involving note taking and observations within a large multi ethnic primary school in the North West of England where the large majority of children were developing their English as an additional language. To gain further insights into the basis of educational practice, six primary school teachers were interviewed in relation to their teaching of bilingual children. The researcher also reflexively engaged with the inquiry throughout so that there was a relational engagement with the data and knowledge construction. The usefulness of Foucauldian insights into power being dispersed and embedded in discourse became evident and this was explored within the teachers' discourses using generative rather than reductive theorising. It was realised that language was integral to the social construction of any perceived reality around bilingual children. The study became to centre upon discursive contexts and the social, political and historical aspects that were implied. Within these contexts I was able to situate my own professional experience alongside those of the teachers in a critical exploration of practice.
The emergence of the themes of invisibility and inaudibility of the languages of bilingual children became evident in the school discourses. Within a further level of poststructural analysis, Ricoeur's wider and philosophical understandings of language together with Ranciere's insightful link of sensory perception to politics, leads to a new interpretation. This is one that depicts how perceptions of those involved in education may coalesce to avoid genuine linguistic and cultural encounters within school and education. It is suggested that many perceptions are upheld by questionable assumptions. These assumptions include notions such as language separation which are inscribed within narrow curricula with limited educational aims.
The thesis concludes by indicating that a broader social acceptance is consequent upon meaningful linguistic and cultural encounters within the school experience, including special educational contexts, which seek to help children to translate (in a philosophical sense) their home and school identities. Innovative use of theory supports a reappraisal of pedagogy around bilingual learners that seeks to reconnect professionals to a research-based pedagogy that perceives children in local, national and international contexts.


In this paper we present a system that uses Time-of-Flight (ToF) technology to correct the position of a patient in respect to a previously acquired reference surface. A ToF sensor enables the acquisition of a 3-D surface model containing more than 25,000 points using a single sensor in real time. One advantage of this technology is that the high lateral resolution makes it possible to accurately compute translation and rotation of the patient in respect to a reference surface. We are using an Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm to determine the 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) vector. Current results show that for rigid phantoms it is possible to obtain an accuracy of 2.88 mm and 0.28° respectively. Tests with human persons validate the robustness and stability of the proposed system. We achieve a mean registration error of 3.38 mm for human test persons. Potential applications for this system can be found within radiotherapy or multimodal image acquisition with different devices.


In this paper we propose a distributed structure learning algorithm for the recently introduced multi-agent causal Models (MACMs). MACMs are an extension of causal Bayesian networks (CBN) to a distributed domain. In this setting it is assumed that there is no single database containing all the information of the domain. Instead, there are several sites holding non-disjoint subsets of the domain variables. At each site there is an agent capable of learning a local causal model. We study the possibility of combining the information of the local models into one globally consistent model. We propose an algorithm that yields the possibility to learn new local structures that can be combined to perform globally consistent causal inference.


During the Late-Ordovician glacial period, the upper ~50 m of the quartz arenite Peninsula Formation (Table Mountain Group) was subject to a large-scale, soft-sediment deformation event, forming ellipsoidal synforms with wavelengths of up to 150 m. The de Balie locality in the Western Province, South Africa, provides clear 3D exposures into the morphology of these folds. Comparisons with experimental soft-sediment deformation and modern observations of periglacial environments suggest a single deformation event during which large-scale fluidization and gravitational instabilities (load casts) were triggered by thermal destabilisation. The fold morphology is inconsistent with previous interpretations that the folds were formed by ice contact shearing.


A deterministic algorithm for calculating polymer properties is presented. It is based on a variational approach where the bond and Coulomb potentials are approximated by a quadratic trial energy. The parameters, which describe average atom positions and Gaussian uctuations, are the solutions of matrix equations. By a judicious choice of parameter representations and the use of incremental matrix inversion, an eecient iterative algorithm is constructed that is several orders of magnitude faster than MC methods. The method is explored numerically at realistic temperatures with results that agree within 5% with those of MC calculations.


The NE-SW striking Møre-Trøndelag Fault Complex (MTFC) is a key element in the structuring of Mid Norway. Studies of remote sensing data show that the fault complex has a width that exceeds 50 km. Within this zone, characteristic structures include folded, mylonitic km-wide sinistral detachment zones, truncative, steep, discrete fault strands and numerous smaller fracture-lineaments. Repeated reactivation is revealed through a range of fault rocks, spanning from mylonites to unconsolidated breccias and gouge. Brittle structures fall in two categories, (i) major fault strands, and (ii) wider, intervening damage zones hosting fracture-lineaments that, by field checking, are confirmed to be smaller faults. In the coastal region of Fosen and Vikna, major fault trends that relate to the MTFC are approximately NE-SW striking, whereas smaller faults are seen as three main sets with E-W, N-S, and NW-SE orientations. Outcrop studies show that steeply dipping to vertical NW-SE faults of the Fosen Peninsula (Osen area) are characterised by c. 1-km regular spacing. They host mylonites found as clasts in cataclasites and a late overprint of tensile fractures. These fault rocks probably relate to the latest Caledonian, extensional denudation and unroofing of the region. Studies of N-S faults reveal similar characteristics. Resolved movement on NW-SE faults divides into dextral horizontal separation of some tens of metres at the most, and an additional dip-slip component. In contrast, one studied NE-SW fault strand of the MTFC, the Drag fault of Vikna, reveals extensive deformation in a broad zone of mylonites and cataclasites. These rocks are cut by dm-scale layers of non-cohesive breccia and gouge. The latter fault products likely relate to Jurassic or even later faulting and associated, near-shore basin formation. We conclude that major NE-SW fault strands of the MTFC have experienced multiphase reactivation in the Phanerozoic, which is in contrast to the intervening, broad damage zones. They are basically unaffected by late to post-Caledonian deformation events.


Once plastics objects are registered in museum collections, the institution becomes responsible for their long term preservation, until the end of their useful lifetime. Plastics appear to deteriorate faster than other materials in museum collections and have a useful lifetime between 5 and 25 years. Preventive or inhibitive conservation involves controlling the environments in which objects are placed during storage and display, with the aim of slowing the major deterioration reactions. Once in progress, degradation of plastics cannot be stopped or reversed, so the aim of preventive conservation is to 'buy time' for the object. Inhibitive conservation of plastics involves the removal or reduction of factors causing or accelerating degradation including light, oxygen, acids, relative humidity and acidic breakdown products. Specific approaches to conservation have been developed for cellulose nitrate, cellulose acetate, PVC and polyurethanes by considering the most effective action to inhibit their major degradation pathways. The purpose of this article is to outline the main factors causing degradation of the least stable plastics in museum collections and present an overview of the conservation treatments established to date. Recent research has suggested that some of the conservation practices to slow the rate of deterioration in use today, particularly those for cellulose nitrate and acetate, are poorly effective and that alternatives should be evaluated. One alternative is low temperature storage.


A Griffiths phase has recently been observed by Monte Carlo simulations in the 2D $q$-state Potts model with strongly correlated quenched random couplings. In particular, the magnetic susceptibility was shown to diverge algebraically with the lattice size in a broad range of temperatures. However, only relatively small lattice sizes could be considered so one can wonder whether this Griffiths phase will not shrink and collapse into a single point, the critical point, as the lattice size is increased to much larger values. In this paper, the 2D eight-state Potts model is numerically studied for four different disorder correlations. It is shown that the Griffiths phase cannot be explained as a simple spreading of local transition temperatures caused by disorder fluctuations. As a consequence, the vanishing of the latter in the thermodynamic limit does not necessarily imply the collapse of the Griffiths phase into a single point. In contrast, the width of the Griffiths phase is controlled by the disorder strength. However, for disorder correlations decaying slower than $1/r$, no cross-over to a more usual critical behavior could be observed as this strength is tuned to weaker values.


Title of dissertation: AN ALL-SKY, THREE-FLAVOR SEARCH FOR NEUTRINOS FROM GAMMA-RAY BURSTS WITH THE ICECUBE NEUTRINO OBSERVATORY Robert E. Hellauer III, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Dissertation directed by: Professor Gregory Sullivan Department of Physics Ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), defined by energy greater than 10 eV, have been observed for decades, but their sources remain unknown. Protons and heavy ions, which comprise cosmic rays, interact with galactic and intergalactic magnetic fields and, consequently, do not point back to their sources upon measurement. Neutrinos, which are inevitably produced in photohadronic interactions, travel unimpeded through the universe and disclose the directions of their sources. Among the most plausible candidates for the origins of UHECRs is a class of astrophysical phenomena known as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). GRBs are the most violent and energetic events witnessed in the observable universe. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, located in the glacial ice 1450 m to 2450 m below the South Pole surface, is the largest neutrino detector in operation. IceCube detects charged particles, such as those emitted in high energy neutrino interactions in the ice, by the Cherenkov light radiated by these particles. The measurement of neutrinos of 100 TeV energy or greater in IceCube correlated with gamma-ray photons from GRBs, measured by spacecraft detectors, would provide evidence of hadronic interaction in these powerful phenomena and confirm their role in ultra high energy cosmic ray production. This work presents the first IceCube GRB-neutrino coincidence search optimized for charged-current interactions of electron and tau neutrinos as well as neutral-current interactions of all neutrino flavors, which produce nearly spherical Cherenkov light showers in the ice. These results for three years of data are combined with the results of previous searches over four years of data optimized for charged-current muon neutrino interactions, which produce extended Cherenkov light tracks. Several low significance events correlated with GRBs were detected, but are consistent with the background expectation from atmospheric muons and neutrinos. The combined results produce limits that place the strongest constraints thus far on models of neutrino and UHECR production in GRB fireballs. AN ALL-SKY, THREE-FLAVOR SEARCH FOR NEUTRINOS FROM GAMMA-RAY BURSTS WITH THE ICECUBE NEUTRINO OBSERVATORY by Robert Eugene Hellauer III Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 Advisory Committee: Dr. Gregory Sullivan, Chair/Advisor Dr. Erik Blaufuss Dr. Kara Hoffman Dr. Peter Shawhan Dr. Cole Miller c © Copyright by Robert Eugene Hellauer III 2015


Support vector machines utilizing the 1-norm, typically set up as linear programs (Mangasarian, 2000; Bradley and Mangasarian, 1998), are formulated here as a completely unconstrained minimization of a convex differentiable piecewise-quadratic objective function in the dual space. The objective function, which has a Lipschitz continuous gradient and contains only one additional finite parameter, can be minimized by a generalized Newton method and leads to an exact solution of the support vector machine problem. The approach here is based on a formulation of a very general linear program as an unconstrained minimization problem and its application to support vector machine classification problems. The present approach which generalizes both (Mangasarian, 2004) and (Fung and Mangasarian, 2004) is also applied to nonlinear approximation where a minimal number of nonlinear kernel functions are utilized to approximate a function from a given number of function values.


In this study, it was aimed to determine the performance of Awassi sheep and their lambs in different season within the scope of the national breeding project carried out in Gaziantep. For this purpose, a total of 23490 heads of ewes and its lambs reared in different herds and under natural conditions were used in Gaziantep. The study covers the period between 2014 and 2017. The preliminary descriptive statistics showed that 35.24% and 25.47% of the ewes gave birth in January and December, respectively. Furthermore, the lamb survival rate at the weaning age was calculated to be 97.54% in February and 97.52% in December. The highest and the lowest birth weights were detected as 4.2 ± 0.01 kg and 2.7 ± 0.09 kg in January and May, respectively (P<0.01). On the other hand, the highest and lowest mean values for weaning weight (60th day live weight) were determined as 21.1 ± 0.11 kg and 15.4 ± 0.45 kg in lambs respectively born in October and May (P<0.01). As a result, it can be stated that the most appropriate mating period for Awassi sheep reared in Gaziantep province is between August and September considering the reproductive characteristics and lamb growing.


Dispersants are a preapproved chemical response agent for oil spills off portions of the U.S. coastline, including the Texas—Louisiana coast. However, questions persist regarding potential environmental risks of dispersant applications in nearshore regions (within three nautical miles of the shoreline) that support dense populations of marine organisms and are prone to spills resulting from human activities. To address these questions, a study was conducted to evaluate the relative toxicity of test media prepared with dispersant, weathered crude oil, and weathered crude oil plus dispersant. Two fish species, Cyprinodon variegatus and Menidia beryllina, and one shrimp species, Americamysis bahia (formerly Mysidopsis bahia), were used to evaluate the relative toxicity of the different media under declining and continuous exposure regimes. Microbial toxicity was evaluated using the luminescent bacteria Vibrio fisheri. The data suggested that oil media prepared with a chemical dispersant was equal to or less toxic than the oil‐only test medium. Data also indicated that continuous exposures to the test media were generally more toxic than declining exposures. The toxicity of unweathered crude oil with and without dispersant was also evaluated using Menidia beryllina under declining exposure conditions. Unweathered oil‐only media were dominated by soluble hydrocarbon fractions and found to be more toxic than weathered oil‐only media in which colloidal oil fractions dominated. Total concentrations of petroleum hydrocarbons in oil‐plus‐dispersant media prepared with weathered and unweathered crude oil were both dominated by colloidal oil and showed no significant difference in toxicity. Analysis of the toxicity data suggests that the observed toxicity was a function of the soluble crude oil components and not the colloidal oil.


Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the role of histopathological examination of paraffin embedded marrow clot sections in the diagnosis of different neoplastic and non-neoplastic marrow diseases, and whether these sections can replace the need for performing bone marrow trephine biopsy. Methods: Patients included in the study are those with clinical manifestations of hematological disorders who were subjected to peripheral blood examination, marrow aspirate cytology with complimentary bone marrow trephine and marrow clot biopsy. Along with marrow aspiration, the blood left behind after preparing marrow smears, was used to prepare paraffin embedded histological clot sections. The results for 114 patients were analyzed simultaneously for their concordance to highlight the usefulness of marrow clot sections in the diagnosis of different diseases affecting the bone marrow. Immunohistochemical stains were used whenever indicated to obtain additional diagnostic information. Results: Marrow clot sections were diagnostic and concordant with the complete blood count, marrow aspirates and trephines in 63% of the cases. While trephines were unconvincing in another 15.7% of the cases, the clot sections were diagnostic. In 1.7% of the cases, the clot sections and trephines were diagnostic while marrow aspirates were inconclusive, thus in 81% of the cases, marrow clot sections provided the diagnosis and replacing the need for performing trephine biopsy. However, trephine biopsy is still considered necessary in 19 % of the cases in whom the clot sections are of poor quality and unconvincing Conclusion: In most of the cases clot sections can replace the need for trephine biopsy, but trephine biopsy is still required in other cases. The clot sections are useful as an adjuvant procedure to increase the diagnostic yield in marrow studies. Because it is difficult to expect which patients will be diagnosed by clot sections and which will need trephine biopsy, it is advisable to perform both trephine and clot biopsy together with the marrow aspirates.


This volume contains the proceedings of the conference 'Law and Private Life in the Middle Ages' held on 29 April - 1 May 2009 at the Carlsberg Academy in Copenhagen. An international group of scholars present their work on a wide range of aspects of the impact of law upon the private life of individuals and communities in medieval societies. Offering a collection of essays that combine the approaches of several historical disciplines within the frame of legal history, the anthology covers a multitude of topics ranging from sexuality, gender, identity formation, marriage, age groups, and domestic violence, to categories of citizens in urban communities, the practice of law courts, and the place of the laity within canon law. Students and scholars of European legal culture, medieval cultural, social, and economic history, and of the history of European societies in general, should find this collection of essays a valuable contribution to the continuing discussion about law and the social order, legal practice versus ideology, and the distinction between public and private spheres in pre-modern societies.


MAT2a is a methionine adenosyltransferase that synthesizes the essential metabolite S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) from methionine and ATP. Tumors bearing the co-deletion of p16 and MTAP genes have been shown to be sensitive to MAT2a inhibition, making it an attractive target for treatment of MTAP-deleted cancers. A fragment-based lead generation campaign identified weak but efficient hits binding in a known allosteric site. By use of structure-guided design and systematic SAR exploration, the hits were elaborated through a merging and growing strategy into an arylquinazolinone series of potent MAT2a inhibitors. The selected in vivo tool compound 28 reduced SAM-dependent methylation events in cells and inhibited proliferation of MTAP-null cells in vitro. In vivo studies showed that 28 was able to induce antitumor response in an MTAP knockout HCT116 xenograft model.


This paper introduces positive psychology in general and Positive Psychology in particular, and argues that legal education may benefit from utilisation of positive psychology. Positive Psychology is a self-declared movement will be referred to as Positive Psychology below: positive psychology will be taken to include Positive Psychology. However, it argues that legal educators need to be cautious in how and why they adopt the findings of positive psychology into the curriculum and practice of legal education. Specifically, Positive Psychology is problematic, due in large part to its limited and unreflective epistemology, an epistemology it has used to exclude factors important for delivering legal education from consideration. However, positive psychology including Positive Psychology is far too valuable a potential source of understanding to forgo. Therefore, the nature and impact of the epistemological problems are discussed, illustrated, and placed within a jurisprudential frame of reference which will be more familiar to lawyers.


Adiabatic quantum computation is a form of computation that acts by slowly interpolating a quantum system between an easy to prepare initial state and a final state that represents a solution to a given computational problem. The choice of the interpolation schedule is critical to the performance: if at a certain time point, the evolution is too rapid, the system has a high probability to transfer to a higher energy state, which does not represent a solution to the problem. On the other hand, an evolution that is too slow leads to a loss of computation time and increases the probability of failure due to decoherence. In this work, we train deep neural models to produce optimal schedules that are conditioned on the problem at hand. We consider two types of problem representation: the Hamiltonian form, and the Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) form. A novel loss function that scores schedules according to their approximated success probability is introduced. We benchmark our approach on random QUBO problems, Grover search, 3-SAT, and MAX-CUT problems and show that our approach outperforms, by a sizable margin, the linear schedules as well as alternative approaches that were very recently proposed.


Expansion work recovery by two-phase ejector is known to be beneficial to vapor compression cycle performance. However, one of the biggest challenges with ejector vapor compression cycle is that the ejector cycle performance is sensitive to working condition changes which are common in real world applications. Different working conditions require different ejector geometries to achieve maximum performance. Slightly different geometries may result in substantially different COPs under the same conditions. Ejector motive nozzle throat diameter (motive nozzle restrictiveness) is one of the key parameters that can significantly affect COP. This paper presents a new motive nozzle restrictiveness control mechanism for two-phase ejectors used in vapor compression cycles, which has the advantages of being simple, potentially less costly and less vulnerable to clogging. The new control mechanism can possibly avoid the additional frictional losses of previously proposed ejector control mechanisms using adjustable needle. The redesigned ejector utilizes an adjustable vortex at the motive inlet to control the nozzle restrictiveness on the flow expanded in the motive nozzle. An adjustable nozzle based on this new control mechanism was designed and manufactured for experiments with R134a. The experimental results showed that, without changing the nozzle geometry, the nozzle restrictiveness on the two-phase flow can be adjusted over a wide range. Under the same inlet and outlet conditions, the mass flow rate through the nozzle can be reduced by 36% of the full load. This feature could be very useful for the future application of ejector in mobile or stationary systems under changing working conditions.


IL-7 and TSLP as therapeutic targets for rheumatoid arthritis Interleukin (IL)-7 is a potent immunostimulatory cytokine. In this thesis we demonstrate that IL-7 and a IL-7-related cytokine thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) stimulate inflammatory responses that can aggravate rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The persistence of IL-7 activity and levels upon TNF-alpha blockade in patients with RA suggests that blockade of the IL-7 pathway is a potential target in treatment-refractory RA. IL-7 activity is dependent on signaling through the IL-7R. Increased IL-7R expression was found in RA synovial tissue. CD4 T cells from RA synovial fluid and tissue strongly expressed IL-7R, as well as a percentage of B cells and macrophages. IL-7R+ T cells lacking FoxP3-expression strongly proliferated, compared to non-proliferating IL-7R- T cells with high levels of FoxP3. In line with this, blockade of IL-7R signaling by soluble human IL-7R inhibited IFN-gamma production by cells from RA patients. To further support the importance of IL-7/IL-7R-mediated inflammatory responses in RA the role of this inflammatory pathway was studied in experimental arthritis. Increased IL-7 in serum and inflamed paws of arthritic mice was demonstrated. Comparable to RA patients, local IL-7 levels in mice correlated with arthritis severity. Neutralization of IL-7 inhibited joint inflammation, demonstrating an important role for IL-7-driven immunity in experimental arthritis. Furthermore, prophylactic and therapeutic IL-7R blockade decreased severity of experimental arthritis, associated by reduced T-cell numbers, T-cell cytokines (IFN-gamma, IL-5 and IL-17), and many proinflammatory mediators, including IL-1-beta and TNF-alpha. Since TSLP, in conjunction with the TSLP receptor, also utilizes the IL-7R for signaling, blockade of IL-7R-driven immunity might also influence TSLP-induced immune activation. Therefore, the role of TSLP in arthritis was also addressed. TSLP and IL-7 strongly increased arthritis severity, but only IL-7 increased radiological joint destruction, associated with increased intensity of cell infiltrates, cartilage damage, bone erosions, and osteoclast activity. Both IL-7 and TSLP administration induced expansion of memory T cells, associated with increased numbers of IFN-gamma- and IL-17-producing T cells by IL-7, and increased IL-4-producing T cells by TSLP. Both, IL-7 and TSLP increased several proinflammatory mediators, such as CD40L and chemokine MDC. Thus, IL-7 and TSLP enhanced arthritis by differential regulation of arthritogenic responses. In support of the role of TSLP in arthritis we documented that arthritis severity was strongly down-regulated in TSLPR-deficient mice. This was associated with unchanged thymic and splenic cellnumbers, but strongly reduced radiological joint damage, and reduced inflammation, cartilage erosions, periosteal exostosis, bone erosions and numbers of TRAP+ osteoclasts. Mediators of T-cell activation, chemokines, vascular activation and angiogenesis factors, and tissue destructive factors were all reduced in TSLPR-deficient mice. Furthermore, interruption of both IL-7R and TSLPR pathways resulted in additive disease suppression almost completely preventing immunopathology. The data presented in this thesis reveal the capacity of IL-7 and TSLP and their receptors to strongly promote arthritis and joint destruction, and demonstrates the distinct arthritogenic contributions of both cytokines. These data indicate that targeting of IL-7 and TSLP and their receptors might be new strategies to control (rheumatoid) arthritis.


We enhance existing and introduce new social network privacy management models and we measure their human effects. First, we introduce a mechanism using proven clustering techniques that assists users in grouping their friends for traditional group-based policy management approaches. We found measurable agreement between clusters and user-defined relationship groups. Second, we introduce a new privacy management model that leverages users' memory and opinion of their friends (called example friends) to set policies for other similar friends. Finally, we explore different techniques that aid users in selecting example friends. We found that by associating policy temples with example friends (versus group labels), users author policies more efficiently and have improved perceptions over traditional group-based policy management approaches. In addition, our results show that privacy management models can be further enhanced by utilizing user privacy sentiment for mass customization. By detecting user privacy sentiment (i.e., an unconcerned user, a pragmatist or a fundamentalist), privacy management models can be automatically tailored specific to the privacy sentiment and needs of the user.


"Publish or perish" is an admonition that academics learn early in their careers. In this essay—a guest column—the author, a young academic, argues instead that publishing is a means of dignifying the discontinuity of the self. One both publishes and perishes in a single act. Publishing, it is suggested, resembles leavetaking: it is a way of saying good-bye to who you are.


I conduct an event study of an exogenous pollution shock-smog in the winter of 2013 to examine how the market values of firms in polluting industries and environmental protecting industries, respectively, responded in "the world's worst polluter": China. I first show that politically connected polluters, defined by having at least one board member who was a former local bureaucrat, are more likely to be state owned and in debt. During the 21 days of the smog, polluters experienced a cumulative abnormal return of −5.38%, while protectors had a cumulative abnormal return of 3.50%. However, politically connected polluters were less susceptible to the shock: they experienced a 1% greater positive abnormal return than unconnected polluters. Connected protectors also benefited from a greater 1% abnormal return than unconnected protectors. The findings imply that environmental disasters have distributional effects, and support a theory that links rent-seeking behavior to pollution.


Gesture use is a precursor to spoken language, and children who exhibit frequent use of gesture have higher rates of speech comprehension and production when tested between 13 and 15 months of age (Bates et al, 1989). The purpose of this study was to learn more about caregivers' perceptions of the use and benefits of sign to their children. Fifty-three caregivers were recruited for the study, and 33 (62%) of these caregivers reported that they had used or were currently using baby signs with one of their children. Six (18%) of these caregivers also reported that their children presented developmental delays, whereas the others reported that their children were developing language typically. Information about these caregivers' perceptions of signs was collected through a survey. Results indicated that no significant demographic differences existed between those who used baby signs and those who did not. The child's gender and childcare setting also did not influence a caregiver's use of sign. Results also showed that caregivers began introducing baby signs to their children around 8 months of age, and the average number of different signs produced by these children was 17. The most common signs reported by the caregivers were "more," "eat," "milk," "thank you" and "all done." Perceived benefits of sign use included the facilitation of their children's communication skills (40%), reduction of child frustration (32%), caregiver-child enjoyment (15%), and caregiver-child bonding (13%). The clinical status of the children minimally influenced the results; however, caregivers of children with developmental delays reported that they used signs more frequently and for a longer period of time than caregivers of children without developmental delay.


This case study presents an investigation of disturbing noises emanating from the curtain wall system of a multi-story office building located in the southeastern United States. Shortly after the initial construction of the building, building occupants complained of loud popping noises emanating from the exterior building facade. These noises were of a frequency and magnitude to negatively influence the work environment in adjacent office space. The cause of the noises was investigated by several groups with conflicting results. At the request of the building's general contractor, an investigation was undertaken to determine the cause of the disturbing noises and to develop remedial recommendations. This investigation included a detailed review of the curtain wall shop drawings and on-site observations to identify questionable details possibly responsible for the noises. The most probable cause of the noises was identified as diurnal solar gain that produced unaccommodated movements in the curtain wall system. The orientation and curvature of the wall combined to allow a thermal expansion that progressed along the wall. The details of the curtain wall construction restrained the movement, leading to sudden release of confining stress. To confirm this hypothesis, affected areas of the curtain wall were instrumented with accelerometers and deflection gages strategically located to pinpoint the origin of the noises. To further confirm the point-of-origin identified by the accelerometers, a series of exploratory openings were made to review curtain wall details. After the source of the noise was positively identified, remedial recommendations to mitigate the disturbance were implemented by the building owner.


We present a simple context-free grammatical inference algorithm, and prove that it is capable of learning an interesting subclass of context-free languages. We also demonstrate that an implementation of this algorithm is capable of learning auxiliary fronting in polar interrogatives (AFIPI) in English. This has been one of the most important test cases in language acquisition over the last few decades. We demonstrate that learning can proceed even in the complete absence of examples of particular constructions, and thus that debates about the frequency of occurrence of such constructions are irrelevant. We discuss the implications of this on the type of innate learning biases that must be hypothesized to explain first language acquisition.


Abstract The use of insect pathogenic fungi is a promising alternative to chemical control against mosquitoes. Among the Hyphomycetes isolated from insects for mosquito control, the genus Aspergillus remains the least studied. In September 2005, four fungi were isolated from the Senegalese locust, Oedaleus senegalensis Kraus (Orthoptera: Acrididae), collected in Dakar, Senegal. One of these fungi, identified as Aspergillus clavatus, Desmazières (Eurotiales: Trichocomaceae) was highly pathogenic against larvae of the mosquitoes Aedes aegypti L., Anopheles gambiae s.l. Giles and Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae). An application of 1.2 mg/ml dry conidia yielded 100% mortality after 24 hours against both Ae. aegypti and Cx. quinquefasciatus while with An. gambiae it was 95%. With unidentified species in the genus Aspergillus, mortality after 24 h was <5% against all the larval species. Application of A. clavatus produced in a wheat powder medium using doses ranging between 4.3 to 21×107 spores/ml, caused 11 to 68% mortality against Cx. quinquefasciatus at 24h, and 37 to 100% against Ae. aegypti. Microscopic observations showed fungal germination on both Ae. aegypti and Cx. quinquefasciatus larvae. Histological studies revealed that A. clavatus penetrated the cuticle, invaded the gut and disintegrated its cells. Some Cx. quinquefasciatus larvae, treated with A. clavatus reached the pupal stage and produced infected adults. However, the infection was mainly located on the extremity of their abdomen. These results suggest that A. clavatus could be an effective tool to manage mosquito proliferation.


In thermoacoustic devices, an acoustic wave interacts with internal solid structures such as thermoacoustic stacks (regenerators), to either produce acoustic power due to an imposed temperature gradient, or to produce a heat pumping effect by an acoustic excitation. A cold and hot heat exchangers are usually placed on either side of these internal solid structures to enable heat communication between the thermoacoustic devices and their surroundings. Heat exchangers of various geometries have been extensively studied in steady flows and results are available from a collection of published articles and handbooks. However, there is still a lack of data for heat exchangers in an oscillatory flow, because the interaction of oscillatory flow with the solid boundary is governed by complicated fluid flow and heat transfer processes that are not fully understood. This work is a step towards a better understanding of the heat transfer mechanisms in the acoustically induced oscillatory flow within thermoacoustic systems, in particular obtaining the quantitative description of the heat transfer between heat exchangers and the stack. The assembly of a stack and heat exchangers is replaced by a simplified "stack-less" pair of heat exchangers, in order to focus on the generic heat transfer processes rather than the intricacies of practical thermoacoustic systems. The fins of the hot and cold heat exchangers are kept at constant temperatures by virtue of resistive heating and water cooling, respectively. Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) are used to obtain the temperature and velocity fields around the fins. The heat flux between the heat exchanger fins and the fluid is analyzed phase-by-phase. The time dependent local heat transfer coefficient is obtained from the temperature gradient in the thermal boundary layer. The measurements are conducted at various levels of acoustic excitation in order to study the correlation between the non-dimensional heat transfer coefficient Nu and the Reynolds number. The effect of the flow behaviour at the end of the plates on the temperature field in the region is also studied. It is hoped that this work could lead to a better understanding of heat transfer on short plates in the acoustically induced oscillatory flows.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


There are various reasons for the burgeoning interest in detailed research into the determinants of social well-being among older immigrants in this country. As a result of shifting federal government policies, the total volume of immigrants has increased significantly, the countries from which they migrate have changed, and more immigrant families have brought their parents into the United States than ever before. Consequently, the older adult population is becoming more diverse due in part to the aging-in-place of younger immigrants and an increasing number of immigrants who are older upon arrival in the United States. These trends create challenges for social service providers, who are encountering language and cultural differences among their clients for which they are unprepared. This report provides an overview of research about older adult immigrants in the United States that my colleagues and I have conducted over the past few years. Various demographic and cultural aspects of today's immigrants that differ from the past are described. The importance of social integration to older immigrants' well-being is considered. Then some intriguing research about the "new immigrants" is summarized and additional areas for future research are suggested.


Introduction: Hypocalcemia is a common complication of thyroidectomy. We aimed to assess compliance with a targeted calcium and calcitriol supplementation protocol and hypothesized that it would allow safe early discharge without an increase in readmissions. Materials and methods: In 2009, we instituted a targeted early postoperative calcium and calcitriol supplementation protocol based on postoperative parathyroid hormone (PTH). We retrospectively reviewed all patients who had a total or completion thyroidectomy over a 4-year period prior to protocol implementation (group I: 2005–2008) and over a 5-year period after protocol implementation (group II: 2010–2014), as well as all patients operated on in the private setting with the senior author over a 1-year period (group III: 2013). Endpoints for analysis were clinically significant hypocalcemia, protocol compliance, hospital length of stay (LOS), and readmission for hypocalcemia. Results: Compliance with the protocol was high; however, the accuracy of supplementation prescription was significantly lower in group II than in group III (p < 0.0001). Mean corrected calcium on postoperative day 1 was significantly higher in groups II (2.29 mmol/L) and III (2.27 mmol/L) compared with group I (2.15 mmol/L; p < 0.0001). Forty (30.5%) patients had clinically significant hypocalcemia in group I, compared with 21 (10.8%) in group II, and 2 (3.3%) in group III (p < 0.0001). The LOS was significantly decreased after protocol introduction (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: Selective prophylactic calcium supplementation reduces LOS after total thyroidectomy. Clinical significance: Introducing a new management protocol in the public hospital system poses challenges with compliance; however, it was successful in lowering rates of symptomatic hypocalcemia and LOS without an increase in the readmission rate.


A possible sighting of Majorana states Nearly 80 years ago, the Italian physicist Ettore Majorana proposed the existence of an unusual type of particle that is its own antiparticle, the so-called Majorana fermion. The search for a free Majorana fermion has so far been unsuccessful, but bound Majorana-like collective excitations may exist in certain exotic superconductors. Nadj-Perge et al. created such a topological superconductor by depositing iron atoms onto the surface of superconducting lead, forming atomic chains (see the Perspective by Lee). They then used a scanning tunneling microscope to observe enhanced conductance at the ends of these chains at zero energy, where theory predicts Majorana states should appear. Science, this issue p. 602; see also p. 547 Scanning tunneling microscopy is used to observe signatures of Majorana states at the ends of iron atom chains. [Also see Perspective by Lee] Majorana fermions are predicted to localize at the edge of a topological superconductor, a state of matter that can form when a ferromagnetic system is placed in proximity to a conventional superconductor with strong spin-orbit interaction. With the goal of realizing a one-dimensional topological superconductor, we have fabricated ferromagnetic iron (Fe) atomic chains on the surface of superconducting lead (Pb). Using high-resolution spectroscopic imaging techniques, we show that the onset of superconductivity, which gaps the electronic density of states in the bulk of the Fe chains, is accompanied by the appearance of zero-energy end-states. This spatially resolved signature provides strong evidence, corroborated by other observations, for the formation of a topological phase and edge-bound Majorana fermions in our atomic chains.


Zambia is a country on the brink. One in 5 people are infected with HIV, life expectancy has dropped to 33 years and young people aged 20-25 actually have less education than their parents' generation. Therefore, the achievement of Zambia's new government in getting more children into school holds out a critical glimmer of hope. Yet in order to qualify for long-delayed debt relief, Zambia been forced to stop hiring the teachers and health workers it desperately needs – placing its education success story in jeopardy, and threatening to plunge the country into political crisis. At their meetings in Washington this week, the governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank can end this charade by announcing full cancellation of outstanding debt, ensuring macroeconomic targets don't contradict poverty reduction needs, and urging rich countries to replace stop/start engagement with the predictable, long-term commitments needed to hire the teachers and health workers that countries like Zambia so desperately need to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).


In this paper, we analyze the distribution of the brain drain in the LAC region (Latin America and the Caribbean), Asia and Africa. We rely on an original data set on international migration by educational attainment for 1990 and 2000. Our analysis reveals that the brain drain is strong in Eastern, Middle and Western Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. However, the Kernel approach suggests that the dispersion and the intradistribution dynamics of skilled migration rates strongly differ across regions. We then tautologically disentangle the brain drain into two multiplicative components, the global migration rate and the selection bias. Among the most affected countries, LAC countries suffer from high migration rates whilst most African countries suffer from high selection biases. Finally, exploratory Moran's tests reveal strong spatial, political and cultural autocorrelations in migration rates and selection biases. The latter result suggests that skilled workers react differently than unskilled workers to a large set of variables.


Nitrate leaching loss from urine patches is predicted using a number of variables including urine N concentration, number of urine patches produced, and urine patch size however, there is a lack of quantitative data on the variability of urination events. A study was conducted using two wintering systems at Ashley Dene, Lincoln, between June and July 2014. Wintering systems were either kale (KA) fed at an allowance of 14 kg DM/cow/day plus barley straw (3 kg DM/cow/day) (n=5), or fodder beet (FB) fed at an allowance of 8 kg DM/cow/day, plus ryegrass baleage (6 kg DM/cow/day) (n=7). Twelve pregnant, non-lactating Holstein-Friesian x Jersey cows were fitted with calibrated urine meters which measured volume and frequency of urination events. The meters were worn for 24-hour periods. A calibration equation was used to calculate urine patch coverage from measured urine patch areas in the field and urine volumes. There was large variation between animals for urination behaviour. Average urination volume was similar for KA and FB (2.37 L/event; P>0.1 SEM=0.29), however urination frequency (12 vs. 8 events/day; P<0.1 SEM=2.25) and daily total urine volume (30 vs. 18 litres; P<0.03, SEM=4.56) were greater for KA. Average urine patch area was also 1.8 times larger on KA than on FB (0.47 vs. 0.25 m 2). This information will be used to help predict nitrate leaching losses from grazing systems.


EXAMINING THE MEASUREMENT INVARIANCE OF THE MINNESOTA MULTIPHASIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY-2-RESTRUCTURED FORM INTERNALIZING SPECIFIC PROBLEM SCALES IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND CAUCASIAN MEN Megan Anne Brokenbourgh Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology, 2015 Director: Dr. Richard W. Handel Test bias has long been an area of investigation in the personality assessment literature, including the MMPI-2-RF. Research on previous versions of the MMPI and MMPI-2-RF has pointed to mixed results. The current study aims to examine test bias on the MMPI-2-RF's nine Internalizing Specific Problem Scales by examining measurement invariance using MIMIC modeling and investigating differential item functioning (DIF). After removal of invalid protocols, the first sample consisted of 2,980 protocols from various settings requested from Pearson (255 African American and 2,755 Caucasian protocols). The second sample consisted of 1,379 valid protocols from psychiatric inpatient settings (1,245 Caucasian and 133 African American protocols). MIMIC modeling was conducted using delta parametrization and the WLSMV estimator in Mplus (Muthen and Muthen, 1998-2012). Latent continuous response variables and threshold estimates were used to accommodate categorical indicators. Results of the MIMIC modeling pointed to latent mean differences in four of the nine and two of the nine scales in the Pearson and inpatient samples, respectively. In both samples, latent mean differences were found between African Americans and Caucasians on the Multiple Specific Fears scale. Evidence of DIF was seen in seven of the nine scales in both the Pearson and inpatient samples. However, only a total of four items were found to functioning differently on the Inefficacy and Multiple Specific Fears scales across both samples. These results have implications for the MMPI-2-RF's invariance across African American and Caucasian test takers and overall psychological assessment standards involving fairness in testing.


Huntington's disease is an autosomal dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive motor dysfunction, dementia, psychiatric symptoms, and weight loss, eventually leading to death. Postmortem analysis of the brains of HD patients reveals marked striatal and cortical atrophy, and decreased levels of key neuronal signaling proteins including BNDF. The HD-causing mutation was identified in 1993 as an expanded trinucleotide CAG repeat in the gene encoding the huntingtin protein (htt). Sixteen years have now passed since the identification of the HD-causing gene mutation and the achievements in understanding HD pathology have been numerous. However, there is still no consensus as to which molecular or cellular pathway impairments are the principal drivers of neuronal dysfunction. The need for effective therapies for Huntington's disease motivated us to combine studies of disease etiology with unbiased molecular screens in order to widen the possibilities for identifying new therapeutic agents. We employed a relevant in vitro HD model comprising lentiviral vector (LV)-mediated overexpression of mutant htt in primary striatal cultures. The molecular features of this model reproduce many of the pathological mechanisms previously implicated in HD. Our group has been centrally involved in the discovery of HD-related changes in gene expression; the transcriptiomic signature of HD contains candidate targets for potential therapeutic strategies. Thus, we tested the benefits of restoring the expression levels of HD-downregulated mRNAs. The results, of these studies, provide evidence that the transcriptomic HD signature contains compensatory RNA expression responses that protect neurons against mutant htt's effects. Additional tests of in vitro neuroprotection in primary striatal models of HD included previously identified and novel neuroprotectants. Such compounds not only serve as candidates for drug development but also provide opportunities for gaining improved insights into neuroprotective and neurodegenerative mechanisms in HD. Changes in cerebral cortical function and cortical neuron survival are also major clinical and pathologic aspects of HD. However, there are few models available to assess the specific effects of mutant htt on cortical neuron function, activity, connectivity and viability. We therefore established an in vitro cortical model of HD and assessed the effect of mutant htt expression on neuronal network activity using multielectrode arrays (MEAs). This enabled us to non-invasively monitor the electrical activity from multiple independent sites and to characterize spontaneous firing activity in both HD model and control cells. Our results show that mutant htt causes severe cortical network dysfunction consisting of a decreased occurrence of synchronized burst firing attributable to synaptic impairment. The neurotrophic factor BDNF is believed to be an important regulator of striatal neuron survival, differentiation, and plasticity. Moreover, reduction of BDNF delivery to the striatum has been implicated in the pathophysiology of HD. Nevertheless, many essential aspects of BDNF responses in striatal neurons remain to be elucidated. Therefore, we assessed the relative contributions of multipartite intracellular signaling pathways to the short-term induction of striatal gene expression by BDNF. Striatal genes regulated by BDNF were first identified by DNA microarray analysis, followed by subsequent dissection of signal transduction pathways underlying gene induction using pharmacological agents and quantitative real-time PCR. Our studies have shown that mutant htt may wield striatal effects at multiple levels of the BDNF signaling pathway. These include decreased basal TrkB mRNA expression, decreased Akt activation and complex changes in BDNF-induced gene expression. Increasing Akt activation by expression of a constitutively active form of Akt1 (Myr-Akt1) in striatal neurons not only prevented mutant htt toxicity, but also increased neuronal counts in control cultures, supporting a critical role of Akt1 in neuronal survival. Mutant htt expression has been previously reported to alter Bdnf production in cortical neurons. Here we demonstrated that cortical cultures expressing mutant htt have lower BDNF protein levels and show impaired activity-dependent regulation of Bdnf transcription. Our results indicate that mutant htt can impair signaling pathways controlling both cortical Bndf production and striatal BDNF effects. These altered signaling pathways provide potential therapeutic targets for HD and suggest new mechanisms for decreased neurotrophic support in HD.