The 5th International Workshop on "NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE" (NLPCS 2008)

12-13 June, 2008 - Barcelona _ Spain

In conjunction with the 10th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2008), http://www.iceis.org/

Co-Chairs
Bernadette Sharp, Staffordshire University, United Kingdom,
email@example.com
Michael Zock, CNRS, LIF, Marseille, France, email@example.com

BACKGROUND

Realising that no single discipline will ever suffice to reveal the functioning of the human mind, cognitive science was born. The idea was to analyse complex behaviour (speaking, thinking, problem-solving) from different angles or levels and to build models that could account for them.

GOALS

While ambitious and intriguing, the idea looked promising enough to attract numerous researchers, and there were plenty of opportunities then to present this kind of work. Alas, the situation has changed, the discipline has lost speed during the last decade. And if the reasons for this are multiple, ranging from lack of results to unkept promises (« cognitive science » remaining wishful thinking rather than a widely shared way of doing research), the fact is that funding has become more and more scarce, and so have the opportunities to present work done within this framework.

In the meantime statistical approaches have gained in popularity, and evaluation has become an obligatory feature for presentation of work in the arena of computational linguistics. While there is no doubt that evaluation has certain qualities, it does not guarantee progress or insights per se. A broader perspective is needed. To get the necessary insights and to get the big picture, we probably need to get back to the framework in which we worked in those days, which means, we should adopt and integrate multiple viewpoints, that is, take a cognitive science approach. This is the goal of this workshop.

JUSTIFICATION OF THE NEW NAME AND RELATION TO THE TOPICS

The workshop used to be called NLUCS (Natural Language Understanding and Cognitive Science), yet, realising that this is too restrictive, we decided to rename it NLPCS (Natural Language Processing and Cognitive Science), as NLP is obviously more than just natural language understanding. Information Retrieval, Information Extraction, Machine Translation, Question Answering, Text Summarization, Text Generation,etc. are all part of NLP or HLT (Human Language Technology), and they all go clearly beyond language understanding. This being so, it might be a valuable proposition to integrate them into the debate. In other words, we would like to widen the scope and provide a forum for all researchers of NLP working within the CS paradigm.

Also, while certain components (dictionaries, grammars, or ontologies)are very general, the way they are used varies considerably with the task. Hence it is important to show how the task reflects in the use of a given resource.
The goal of this workshop is to provide a forum for researchers working within the paradigm of cognitive science

TOPICS OF INTEREST INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:

• Computational Models of NLP
• Cognitive and Psychological Models of NLP
• Evolutionary NLP
• Situated (embodied) NLP
• Multimodality in speech / text processing
• Text Summarization and Information Extraction
• Natural Language Interfaces and Dialogue Systems
• Computer Assisted Language Learning
• Multi-Lingual Processing
• Pragmatics and NLP
• Speech Processing
• Tools and Resources in NLP
• Ontologies
• Text Mining
• Electronic Dictionaries
• Evaluation of NLP Systems

These topics can be addressed from any of the following perspectives:
full automation by machines for machine (traditional NLP or HLT), semi-automated processing, i.e. machine-mediated processing (programs assisting people in their tasks), simulation of human cognitive process.

SUBMISSION OF PAPERS

Prospective authors are invited to submit papers for oral presentation in any of the areas listed above. Only full papers in English will be accepted, and the length of the paper should not exceed 10 pages (5000
words). Instructions for preparing the manuscript (in Word and Latex format) are available at the ICEIS web site.
http://www.iceis.org/paper_template.htm Postscript/RTF versions of the manuscript should be submitted through ICEIS web-based paper submission procedure: http://www.iceis.org/paper_submission.htm

WORKSHOP FORMAT

The workshop will comprise of invited talks and oral presentations of previously submitted papers that went through a double peer review process. The proceedings of the workshop will be published in the form of a book.

IMPORTANT DATES

Paper Submission: March 3, 2008
Author Notification: April 4, 2008
Final Camera-Ready and Registration: April 14, 2008

WHORKSHOP PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Aretoulaki, M. (Germany), Intervoice Ltd., UK
Barnden, J. (UK), Birmingham University
Cristea, D. (Romania), University "A.I.Cuza" of Iasi, Romania
Day, C. (UK) , Keele University, UK
Delmonte, R. (USA), University of Texas
Endres-Niggemeyer, B. (Germany), Fachochschule Hanover, Germany
Helmreich, S.(USA), New Mexico State University, USA
Higgins, C. A. (UK), Nottingham University
Hinrichs, E. W. (Germany), University of Tuebingen
Mladenic, D. (Slovenia), J. Stefan Institute, Slovenia
Molla, D. (Australia), Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Mota, C. (Portugal), L2F (INESC-ID) & Instituto Superior Tecnico, Portugal
Mothe, J. (France), Universite de Toulouse, France
Narayanan, S. (USA), University of California, Berkeley
Nunes, M. G. (Brasil), Instituto de Ciencias Matematicas e da Computacao
- USP/Sao Carlos, Brasil
Rayson, P. (UK), Lancaster University, UK
Ren, F. (Japan), University of Tokushima, Japan
Roche, C. (France), Universite de Savoie
Russell, S. (USA), University of New Hampshire
Schwitter, R. (Australia), Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Sedes, F. (France), Universite de Toulouse, France
Sharp, B. (Bahrain, UK), Royal University for Women, Staffordshire
University
Sheremetyeva, S. (Denmark), LanA Consulting ApS
Soule-Dupuy, C. (France), Universite de Toulouse, France
Thompson, G. (UK), Liverpool University
Tufis, D. (Romania), University "A.I.Cuza" of Iasi, Romania
Wilks, Y. (UK), Sheffield University
Windridge, P. (UK), Staffordshire University
Zock, M. (France), CNRS-LIF, Marseille

WORKSHOP LOCATION

The workshop will take place in conjunction with the 10th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2008) in Barcelona - Spain.


Small area estimates provide a critical source of information used to study local populations. Statistical agencies regularly collect data from small areas but are prevented from releasing detailed geographical identifiers in public-use data sets due to disclosure concerns. Alternative data dissemination methods used in practice include releasing summary/aggregate tables, suppressing detailed geographic information in public-use data sets, and accessing restricted data via Research Data Centers. This research examines an alternative method for disseminating microdata that contains more geographical details than are currently being released in public-use data files. Specifically, the method replaces the observed survey values with imputed, or synthetic, values simulated from a hierarchical Bayesian model. Confidentiality protection is enhanced because no actual values are released. The method is demonstrated using restricted data from the 2005-2009 American Community Survey. The analytic validity of the synthetic data is assessed by comparing small area estimates obtained from the synthetic data with those obtained from the observed data.


Potassium channels are essential for the regulation of cell proliferation. As reported, HERG protein is overexpressed in a wide range of human tumors, including colon carcinoma. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of antibacterial agents sparfloxacin (SPFX), a blocker of HERG channel, on HERG K+ channel highly expressing colon cancer cells. Expression of HERG and apoptosis correlative proteins was examined by Western blotting. The MTT assay was used to detect the cytotoxicity of drugs and drug combination in vitro. Gene transfection was used to examine the changes in herg-related chemosensitivity. Cell apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry. The migration and invasion capacity of tumor cells by SPFX was determined by gelatin zymography assay and Boyden chamber. The in vivo efficacy of SPFX was assessed in murine colon carcinoma C26 in BALB/c mice and human colon carcinoma HCT116 xenografts in nude mice. High expression of HERG protein was detected in colon cancer C26, HCT116 and HT-29 cells. The cell viability of the colon cancer cells was inhibited by SPFX in a dose-dependent manner. SPFX induced apoptosis and inhibited migration and invasion of colon cancer HCT116 cells. The increase in apoptosis was associated with a decrease in procaspase-3 and Bcl-2 protein expression. Study with herg-transfected HEK293 cells and siRNA-knock down HCT116 cells confirmed that the cell viability inhibition by SPFX was correlated with HERG expression. When combined with 5-fluorouracil, SPFX showed synergistic anti-proliferation activity in HCT116 and HT-29 cells. Furthermore, SPFX inhibited the growth of human colon carcinoma HCT116 xenografts and showed synergistic effect with 5-fluorouracil in vivo. Our finding suggested that SPFX could be a biochemical modulator in treatment of colon cancer with chemotherapeutic drugs.


[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Teaching the anatomy of the muscle system to high school students can be challenging. Students often learn about muscle anatomy by memorizing information from textbooks or by observing plastic, inflexible models. Although these mediums help students learn about muscle placement, the mediums do not facilitate understanding regarding integration of the skeletal and muscular systems. To make learning about muscle origins, insertions, and movement an interactive experience, we created a lab in which students construct full-size muscle models out of plastic skeletons, nylon stockings, and various types of tape. Active participation Working in groups to construct muscles encourages students to collaborate and actively participate in learning. Students learn better and remember more when they are active participants (Springer, Stanne, and Donovan 1999). Edgar Dale proposed a "Cone of Experience" that categorized different learning techniques based on the level of student participation (1969). According to Dale's model, students who participate in active-learning exercises, with the greatest student involvement, remember 70-90% of what they say, write, or do after two weeks; students who learn with passive techniques (hearing or reading) only recall 10-30% of the lesson after two weeks (Dale 1969). In addition, learning is more effective when the teacher works as a facilitator and students learn with their peers. "The best answer to the question, 'What is the most effective method of teaching?' is that it depends on the goal, the student, the content, and the teacher. But the next best answer is, 'students teaching other students'" (McKeachie 1998). Lab framework Focus and materials This lab requires students to construct nine leg muscles on their skeleton, which is enough to cement the ideas of origin, insertion, and action (Figure 1). It also teaches the concepts of antagonistic muscles (muscles that work in opposition to each other). Although we focused on the muscles of the leg, there is no reason the activity could not be extended to other skeletal muscles such as those of the shoulder and arm. The muscle-construction activity takes one, two-hour class period to complete (see clarification on time under "Background information"). Materials needed include: one skeleton for each group, nylon stockings, several types of tape (e.g., masking or painter's, duct, double-sided, cellophane, electrician's, and lab tape), and scissors. (Note: This lab works equally well with full-sized or small articulated skeletons. Each group of four to six students works with one full-sized skeleton. Smaller group sizes are preferred when smaller skeletons are used.) Early in the year, students use skeletons to learn about bones; reusing these skeletons reinforces the integral relationship between the skeletal and muscular systems. Nylon stockings have the muscle characteristic of elasticity, are inexpensive, and can be reused. Students use tape to attach the nylon muscles to the skeletons. Background information Several days before the lab, to introduce students to leg muscle anatomy and terms, we provide students with a prelab worksheet (Figure 1). Using their textbooks or other sources, such as the internet, students fill in information on muscle origins, insertions, and actions, and define terms associated with muscle movement. Doing research to complete this worksheet ensures students have the basic vocabulary needed to participate in the lab. During the lab, students have access to the freely available "Get Body Smart" website (www.getbodysmart.com). This interactive medium provides details helpful to the construction of muscle models, such as muscle origin, insertion, action, and animated movement. On the website, the origin and insertion of each muscle are clearly described and shown in relation to bone. …


Background: The potential benefits of using ultrasound guidance for regional blocks include the visualization of the surrounding structures (pleura, axillary artery and vein) and the real-time control of the needle movement. Objectives: to assure the introduction of ultrasonography to improve the ability to perform these blocks with greater ease and precision. Patients and methods: Forty pediatric patients of both sexes (ASA physical status I or II )who were scheduled for upper limb surgery at or below elbow.The ages of the patients were ranging from 5 to 15 years and their body weights from 15 to 55 kg,they were randomly allocated into two equal groups (20 patients each) by sealed envelope. These groups were: Infraclavicular group ( groupI) and Axillary group (A) in which both blocks was performed using ultrasound technique. All patients received oral midazolam 0.25 : 0.33 mg/kg as apremedication. All blocks were performed by US-guidance with a Mindray Sonoline unit (DP1100 china), a 5–9 MHz 35 mm linear probe and a short-bevelled needle with extension tube (25–22 G/35–50 mm), All patients were received a sleeping dose of ketamine 1mg/kg with oxygen mask applied then the block was performed. Maintenance of anesthesia was carried out with Isoflurane 1MAC in 50% oxygen/air until the end of the surgery an increase in heart rate or blood pressure ≥10% or an increase in respiratory rate ≥20% and this was considered failed block. Postoperative analgesia was evaluated using modified objective pain score in children from 5 to 10 years old and a numeric pain scale in older children. The following parameters were detected and recorded in each group: Block performance time, The success rate, The duration of sensory and motor blockade, Post-operative analgesia and associated side effects, Results: There were no statistically significant results as regard to intra and post-operative analgesia, duration of sensory and motor blockade, however infraclavicular block was quicker to perform compared with the axillary block (7.7±2.3 vs 8.6±3.5) ,higher success rate although non-significant for infraclavicular block compared to axillary block 95.5 vs 90.9 . there was one case of vascular puncture in the infraclavicular group and no vascular puncture in the axillary group. Conclusion: Ultrasound-guided infraclavicular BPB can reduce the performance time compared to ultrasound-guided axillary block and there was no significant difference in the success rate, duration of sensory and motor blockade and complications for both blocks.


Ozone treatment of drinking waters has been applied for a range of purposes including taste and odour control, inactivation of protozoan parasites, degradation of cyanotoxins, 'enhanced coagulation', 'enhanced biodegradation' and oxidative degradation of recalcitrant organics. Molecular ozone reacts at unsaturated sites of natural organic matter (NOM) to produce smaller oxygenated molecules including carbonyl compounds such as aldehydes, ketones, and carboxylic acids. The elucidation of the nature and precise identity of these ozonation by-products is hindered by two complicating factors. The first is the inherent aqueous solubility of many of these compounds, which renders their efficient extraction from water difficult to achieve. Second is the lack of established identity of specific potential by-products, which complicates targeted analytical approaches. To address these challenges, we have approached the task of by-product identification by methods involving aqueous functional group-specific derivatisation reactions. A range of carbonyl byproducts were identified during laboratory-scale testing. These ranged in size from formaldehyde up to 7-carbon species with multiple carbonyl and hydroxyl functional groups.


I present a model of mortality and income that integrates the 'gradient,' the negative relationship between income and mortality, with the Wilkinson hypothesis, that income inequality poses a risk to health. Individual health is negatively affected by relative deprivation within a reference group, defined as the ratio to group mean income of the total 'weight' of incomes of group members better-off than the individual. I argue that such a model is consistent with what we know about the way in which social status affects health, based on both animal and human models. The theory predicts: (a) within reference groups, which may be as large as whole populations, mortality declines with income, but at a decreasing rate; the mortality to income relationship is monotone decreasing and convex. (b) If the upper tail of the income distribution is Pareto then, among the rich, there will be a negative liriear relationship between the logarithm of the probability of death and the logarithm of income, whose slope is larger the larger is Pareto's constant, itself often interpreted as a measure of equality. (c) A mean-preserving increase in the spread of incomes raises the risk of mortality for everyone. Between reference groups (e.g. states or countries) mortality is independent of the level of average income, but depends on the gini coefficient of income inequality, as does actual aggregate mortality across US states. Individual data from the National Longitudinal Mortality Study show that the relative deprivation theory provides a good account of the mortality gradient within states, but actually fails to account for interstate correlation between mortality and income inequality. Further analysis of the aggregate data shows that the effect of income inequality is not robust to the inclusion of other controls, particularly the fraction of blacks in the population. The fraction black is positively associated with white (male) mortality in both the individual and aggregate data and, once the fraction black is controlled for, there is no effect of income inequality on either male or female mortality. No explanation is offered for why white mortality should be higher in states with a higher proportion of blacks in the population.


In dogs, the social and spatial restriction associated with living in a kennel environment could lead to chronic stress and the development of abnormal behaviors ("kennel-dog syndrome"). However, little is known about how kenneled dogs differ from their conspecifics living as pets in human families. In the current study, using a test battery exposing the dogs to novel stimuli, we compared the behavior of three groups of beagles: (1) kenneled dogs living in a restricted environment with limited human contact (N = 78), (2) family dogs living in human families as pets (N = 37), and (3) adopted dogs born in the kenneled population but raised in human families (N = 13). We found one factor comprising most of the test behaviors, labeled as Responsiveness. Family dogs and adopted dogs scored higher in Responsiveness than kenneled dogs. However, 23% of the kenneled dogs were comparable to family and adopted dogs based on a cluster analysis, indicating a similar (positive) reaction to novel stimuli, while 77% of the kenneled dogs were unresponsive (mostly immobile) in at least part of the test. To assess if the behavioral difference between the family and kenneled dogs could be due to genetic divergence of these two populations and/or to lower genetic diversity of the kenneled dogs, we analyzed their genetic structure using 11 microsatellite markers. We found no significant difference between the populations in their genetic diversity (i.e., heterozygosity, level of inbreeding), nor any evidence that the family and kenneled populations originated from different genetic pools. Thus, the behavior difference between the groups more likely reflects a G × E interaction, that is, the influence of specific genetic variants manifesting under specific environmental conditions (kennel life). Nevertheless, some kenneled individuals were (genetically) more resistant to social and environmental deprivation. Selecting for such animals could strongly improve the welfare of kenneled dog populations. Moreover, exploring the genetic background of their higher resilience could also help to better understand the genetics behind stress- and fear-related behaviors.


We studied the effect of electric field orientation on the point-spread function (PSF) of a 4Pi microscope. We show that in a standard 4Pi arrangement the orientation of the field can be used for changing between constructive- and destructive-mode 4Pi microscopy. The effect is counteracted by introduction of a phase shift of pi into one of the half-arms. This compensation is compulsory during illumination with unpolarized or circularly polarized light. By performing our experiments with 1.2-N.A. water-immersion lenses, we demonstrate that water immersion is suitable for 4Pi confocal microscopy. At a two-photon excitation wavelength of 1064 nm, the water 4Pi confocal PSF features an axial lobe of 40% above and below the focal plane, which, by linear filtering, can be unambiguously removed. The measured axial full width at half-maximum of the PSF is 240 nm. This is 4.3 times narrower than its single-lens confocal counterpart. The 4Pi confocal microscope sets a new resolution benchmark in three-dimensional imaging of watery samples.


The continuous band spectrum of mercury vapor was observed (1) when a drop of mercury-was kept rolling in a heated cylindrical quartz tube by means of a horizontal to and fro motion of the tube; (2) when the same tube in an electric oven was excited to luminosity by a high frequency electrodeless discharge. By the electrodeless method, with temperatures ranging from 160°C to over 200°C, and a controlling spark-gap of the order of 1 cm conditions were favorable for the continuous emission, while a greater temperature range was permissible in the first method. In each case the three well-known continuous bands with maximum intensities in the neighborhood of λ4600, λ3300, λ2536, were observed, while in addition, on one or two plates taken by the second method, a fourth band with maximum at about λ2650 was obtained. No evidence was found of the two continuous spectra observed by Balasse and ascribed by him to recombination,—in the one case, of the doubly ionized, in the other, of the singly ionized atom.A discussion concerning the origin of the continuous spectrum considers the relative merits of a recombination theory, in which the atom is the ultimate source, and one according to which radiation is from excited molecules. The authors conclude that the evidence is all in favor of the latter.


The rising cost of textbooks for students has been highlighted as a major concern in higher education, particularly in the US and Canada. Less has been reported, however, about the costs of textbooks outside of North America, including in Europe. We address this gap in the knowledge through a case study of one Irish higher education institution, focusing on the cost, accessibility, and licensing of textbooks. We report here on an investigation of textbook prices drawing from an official college course catalog containing several thousand books. We detail how we sought to determine metadata of these books including: the formats they are available in, whether they are in the public domain, and the retail prices. We explain how we used methods to automatically determine textbook costs using Google Books API and make our code and dataset publicly available.


The duty of loyalty has been a bedrock principle of trust law for hundreds of years. More recently, it has been applied outside the traditional trust sphere to a widening array of fiduciary relationships in the wealth management business. Questions concerning the nature and scope of the duty have arisen with increasing frequency and are affecting how wealth management services are delivered. New and emerging iterations of the duty of loyalty have not departed from the fundamental trust law principle that the interests of the fiduciary must be subordinated to those of the client. Nevertheless, subtle distinctions in the way the duty is interpreted may result in significant differences in the way it is applied in specific contexts. To assist in efforts to clarify the nature and scope of the duty of loyalty, this paper examines the duty in its strictest form as it currently exists in trust law as a baseline for analysis. As modern revisions of trust law indicate, the duty of loyalty is not absolute and may accommodate a wide range of fiduciary relationships and activities necessary for trustees and other wealth managers to serve their customers effectively and efficiently. The trust law duty of loyalty thus remains an important guidepost for the application of fiduciary standards in the broader wealth management business.


We present a nonparametric adaptive surrogate test that allows for the differentiation of statistically significant T-wave alternans (TWA) from alternating patterns that can be solely explained by the statistics of noise. The proposed test is based on estimating the distribution of noise-induced alternating patterns in a beat sequence from a set of surrogate data derived from repeated reshuffling of the original beat sequence. Thus, in assessing the significance of the observed alternating patterns in the data, no assumptions are made about the underlying noise distribution. In addition, since the distribution of noise-induced alternans magnitudes is calculated separately for each sequence of beats within the analysis window, the method is robust to data nonstationarities in both noise and TWA. The proposed surrogate method for rejecting noise was compared to the standard noise-rejection methods used with the spectral method (SM) and the modified moving average (MMA) techniques. Using a previously described realistic multilead model of TWA and real physiological noise, we demonstrate the proposed approach that reduces false TWA detections while maintaining a lower missed TWA detection, compared with all the other methods tested. A simple averaging-based TWA estimation algorithm was coupled with the surrogate significance testing and was evaluated on three public databases: the Normal Sinus Rhythm Database, the Chronic Heart Failure Database, and the Sudden Cardiac Death Database. Differences in TWA amplitudes between each database were evaluated at matched heart rate (HR) intervals from 40 to 120 beats per minute (BPM). Using the two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, we found that significant differences in TWA levels exist between each patient group at all decades of HRs. The most-marked difference was generally found at higher HRs, and the new technique resulted in a larger margin of separability between patient populations than when the SM or MMA were applied to the same data.


Our paper examines the challenge of coordinating flexible performance during everyday work. We draw on routine dynamics and ethnomethodology to examine how intensive care unit (ICU) physicians coordinate their actions—flexibly yet intelligibly—as they handoff patients at change of shift. Through our analysis of interview and video data, we demonstrate how physicians use the sequential features of the handoff routine—i.e., the expected moves and their expected sequence—to adapt each performance of the routine to the unique needs of each patient. We show the need for ongoing coordinating despite a strongly shared ostensive pattern and we illustrate how participants use the sequential nature of the ostensive pattern of the routine as a resource for flexible performance, to manage sequential variation and the sufficiency of moves at transitions. Our findings contribute to the routine dynamics and coordination literatures by providing a more nuanced understanding of how mutual intelligibility is achieved through coordinating, whereby participants create the conditions to move forward with a common project.


What explains the spectacular increases in inequality of disposable income in transitional economies of Central and Eastern Europe? There are at least two possible explanations. First, the pre-tax distribution of income became more unequal because of the shift to a market economy. Second, the degree of progressivity of the income tax system declined. But each of these factors is in turn determined by other structural changes associated with transition-notably, the decrease in public provision of key public goods, the decrease in non income tax revenue sources such as profits from public production, and perhaps a decline in society's inequality aversion. This paper develops a framework in which these different forces on inequality can be assessed. Using a simple two-type and two-sector optimal income tax model with endogenous wages, we first of all show that a decrease in the provision of public goods could indeed lead to increasing "inherent" inequality, in other words inequality in market incomes. It then deploys the Mirrlees model of optimal non- linear taxation to assess the relative impacts of this increase in inherent inequality, the decreasing sources of non income tax revenue, and possible declines in inequality aversion; to get a numerical feel for their possible impacts on inequality.


Chinese authorities are reconsidering legal reforms they enacted in the 1980s and 1990s. These reforms had emphasized law, litigation, and courts as institutions for resolving civil grievances between citizens and administrative grievances against the state. But social stability concerns have led top leaders to question these earlier reforms. Central Party leaders now fault legal reforms for insufficiently responding to (or even generating) surging numbers of petitions and protests.Chinese authorities have now drastically altered course. Substantively, they are de-emphasizing the role of formal law and court adjudication. They are attempting to revive pre-1978 Maoist-style court mediation practices. Procedurally, Chinese authorities are also turning away from the law. They are relying on political, rather than legal, levers in their effort to remake the Chinese judiciary. This Article analyzes the official Chinese turn against law. These Chinese developments are not entirely unique. American courts have also experienced a broad shift in dispute resolution patterns over the last century. Litigation has fallen out of favor. Court trials have dropped in number. Alternative dispute resolution mechanisms have increased in number. Observing such long-term patterns, Marc Galanter concluded that the United States experienced a broad "turn against law" over the 20th century. China's shift also parallels those in other developing countries. In recent decades, nations such as India, Indonesia, and the Philippines have resuscitated or formalized traditional mediative institutions. This is part of a global reconsideration of legal norms and institutions imported or transplanted from the West.Despite these similarities with global trends, this Article argues that Chinese leaders' shift against law is a distinct domestic political reaction to building pressures in the Chinese system. It is a top-down authoritarian response motivated by social stability concerns. This Article also analyzes the risks facing China as a result of the shift against law. It argues that the Chinese leadership's concern with maintaining social stability in the short term may be leading them to take steps that are having severe long-term effects of undermining Chinese legal institutions and destabilizing China.Last, this Article argues for rethinking the trajectory of Chinese legal studies. Scholars need to shift away from focusing on formal Chinese law and legal institutions in order to understand how the Chinese legal system actually operates and the direction it is heading.


This paper suggests a comprehensive engineering framework for software design for component-based distributed industrial automation based on the combination of UML with the function block concept of the newly emerging international standard IEC61499. Four UML diagram types have been used, namely: class, sequence, cooperation and state-chart diagrams. The UML design is transformed then to the executable function block specification following the IEC61499.


The present work shows a simple way to design a process scale-up, for an adsorber, from laboratory to industrial level using breakthrough curves in fixed beds developed through the continuous detection of the Pb(II) ion concentration in the effluent of the bed. This procedure was developed in order to examine its efficiency and to be compared with an experimental method developed in the laboratory, which produced similar results. The feasibility of this design lies on the fact that neither tedious calculations nor mass transfer coefficients are required in order to plot the mentioned curves. The procedure was developed by applying concepts such as mass transfer zone (MTZ) and length of unused bed (LUB), which are the dynamic basis of the adsorption process in fixed beds. As a complement to the experimentation, within a pilot plan scale, a filter was developed to handle the most important adsorption parameters and to control the variables that change the operating conditions during the process.


This article examines the religious significance of the New Yams Festival (Iri Ji Ohuru) among the Igbo of south-eastern Nigeria. Secondary data for the study was collected from ethnographical information on the origin of the custom by some well-known Igbologists. An analysis of a major extant etiological myth about the revelation of yams in Igboland is provided. A phenomenological description of the Emume (festival), the primary datum as it directly presented itself to my consciousness when I observed one such festival in my village of birth, Umueze, Uzoagba in the Ikedururu Local Government Area of Imo State, Nigeria, in 2004 is presented. Interview schedules with some elders and a ritual master of this kind of traditional custom was conducted in the village on 12 April 2004 and 1–7 February 2006. To anchor the findings on the place of yams on solid ethno-history, a brief sketch of the migrations of the Igbo people, their religion and the legend about their progenitor, Eri, is discussed. The aim is to provide the socio-religious background for understanding the divine origin and the sacred nature of yams in the traditional belief of the Igbo people. Popular views on the value of yams as principal staple in Igbo gastronomic life as attested in contemporary literary works are related. Matters of great interest to phenomenologists such as the descriptive account of the festival, its ritual acts, the oral nature of the incantations, and the age of the participants are discussed. An effort is made to suspend critical judgment on the phenomenon's value and truth claims from the perspectives of my own present religious experience and tradition. In other words, I have permitted the structure and morphology of the ritual acts of the ceremony to manifest themselves for possible comparisons and contrasts by other Black and African scholars of a religious phenomenon like this in their own areas. In addition, the iconoclastic attitude of Western missionaries in nineteenth-century Igboland to customs and practices as Iri Ji Ohuru is discussed. The study counsels the Igbo to regard the cultivation of yams, even be it potatoes for those in the diaspora to work their gardens annually as a religious obligation. The socio-religious lessons of the ritual acts of the festival call upon leaders of Igbo Christianity to welcome the ritual stages of the rite in the Church's effort in contemporary liturgy as a means to boost the inculturation of African customs in the Church.


Ameloblastoma is a slow growing, locally invasive epithelial odontogenic tumor
and high rate of recurrence. Mechanisms involving ameloblastoma invasiveness are poorly understood,
and no definitive treatment procedures for individual variants are mentioned in the literature. Matrix
metalloproteinases (MMPs) especially MMP-2 causes degradation of the matrix thereby promoting
invasion and also in the induction of angiogenesis. Therefore, in this study we aimed to evaluate
immunohistochemical expression of MMP-2 in intraosseous multicystic, unicystic and peripheral
ameloblastoma.
Materials & Methods: In this study, paraffinized blocks including 10 multicystic ameloblastoma (5
pelxiform type, 5 follicular type), 10 mural unicystic, 10 unisystic (5 luminal type, 5 intraluminal type)
and 10 peripheral were used. After preparing 4 micrometer blocks, the samples were stained by
immunohistochemistry method for marker MMP-2.
Result: All samples showed positive MMP-2 expression. Multicystic ameloblastoma and mural
unicystic ameloblastoma showed strong expression, significantly different with peripheral and luminal,
intraluminal unicystic types (p<0.05).
Conclusion: According to higher rate of MMP-2 expression in solid ameloblastoma and mural unicystic
type, more aggressive clinical behavior and treatment is expected in these types. In contrast peripheral
and luminal, intra luminal unicystic types by lower expression of this protease are more likely to have
benign clinical behavior and respond to more conservative treatment.


Alcohol abuse and alcoholism are major and yet surprisingly unacknowledged worldwide causes of brain damage, cognitive impairment, and dementia. Chronic abuse of alcohol is likely to elicit significant changes in essential polyenoic fatty acids and the membrane phospholipids (PLs) that covalently contain them in brain membranes. Among the fatty acids of the omega-3 polyenoic class, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which is relatively concentrated in mammalian brain, has proven particularly important for proper brain development as well as neurosurvival and protection. DHA losses in brains of chronic alcohol-treated animals may contribute to alcohol′s neuroinflammatory and neuropathological sequelae; indeed, DHA supplementation has beneficial effects, including the possibility that its documented augmenting effects on cerebral circulation could be important. The neurochemical mechanisms by which DHA exerts its effects encompass several signaling routes involving both the membrane PLs in which DHA is esterified as well as unique neuroactive metabolites of the free fatty acid itself. In view of indications that brain DHA deficits are a deleterious outcome of human alcoholism, increasing brain DHA via supplementation during detoxification of alcoholics could potentially fortify against dependence-related neuroinjury.


Abstract Mirkko Stehn: Zum Sterben schon. Ein Versuch uber den Umgang von Filmmusik mit dem Tod, magisteruppsats 30hp, Uppsala universitet (Institutionen for musikvetenskap), 2008 The ambition of this treatise aims on finding answers to the question why scenes connected to the death of a hero in Hollywood movies are commonly accompanied by pieces of music of the softest and aesthetically most appealing kind. One could say that the visual staging of such scenes, which appear to be very explicit in many cases, sharply contradicts the musical information. Wondering about the roots and reasons for this habit led to the trial to search for historical contexts in which death appears to be linked to pleasing and emotive music. One explanation for this phenomenon might be found in the tradition of Requiem masses, especially considering the compositions of the 19th century. Through theories of transcendence and a philosophically influences discussion about death itself, the romantic picture of a life after death also affected the compositions of that time. Some of those ideas and principles survived. They are to be found in today's cinema. By means of a historical inquiry combined with the analysis of relevant movies published during the past five years, interesting similarities, as well as problems of the theory, are at this juncture discussed.


Background/aims To investigate the association between serum ferritin levels and glaucoma in a South Korean population. Methods This retrospective cross-sectional study included 164 029 subjects who underwent screening at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital Health Screening Center between August 2012 and July 2013. All subjects underwent a physical examination, answered sociodemographic and behavioural questions, and provided samples for laboratory analyses. A digital fundus photograph of both eyes was taken, and all photographs were reviewed by ophthalmologists. The ophthalmologists determined if an eye had glaucoma based on criteria set forth by the International Society of Geographical and Epidemiological Ophthalmology and the appearance of the retinal nerve fibre layer and optic disc. Results The mean serum ferritin level was 56.98 ng/mL in women and 223.82 ng/mL in men. After adjusting for age, serum iron, total iron-binding capacity (TIBC), transferrin saturation, white blood cell (WBC) count, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (HsCRP) and total vitamin D level, males in the highest quartile for serum ferritin level had a higher OR for glaucoma than males in the lowest quartile (OR=1.176, 95% CI 1.030 to 1.342, p=0.016); we did not observe this relationship among women. Other markers of iron metabolism, such as iron level, transferrin saturation and TIBC, and inflammation measures, including WBC, HsCRP and total vitamin D, were not associated with glaucoma. Conclusions High serum ferritin level was associated with a high risk of glaucoma in men, but not in women. Because serum ferritin is related to oxidative stress and inflammation, it might play a role in glaucoma development.


Today the key to the unworkability of tort liability as applied to personal injury is the complexity of the insured event. Tort liability insurance calls for payment of economic and noneconomic (i.e., mostly pain and suffering) damages in lawsuits based on fault. The determination of both fault and the value of pain and suffering is especially complex in medical malpractice litigation. Consequently, the liability insurance system is fraught for both sides with uncertainty that causes long delays and huge costs, including huge transaction costs. The result is not an insurance system for promptly paying needy injury victims, but an insurance system for prolonged and hugely expensive fighting about payments to both deserving and undeserving claimants — to the great detriment of both patients and health care providers.


One of the major goals of the Cambridge English Profile Programme is to identify 'criterial features' for each of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) proficiency levels as they apply to English, and to assess the impact of different first languages on these features (through 'transfer' effects). The present paper defines what is meant by criterial features and proposes an initial taxonomy of four types. Numerous illustrations are given from our collaborative research to date on the Cambridge Learner Corpus. The benefits and challenges posed by these features for corpus linguistics and for theories of second language acquisition are briefly outlined, as are the benefits and challenges for language assessment practices and for publishing ventures that make use of them as supplements to the current CEFR descriptors.


Multiferroics are materials in which ferroelectric and magnetic e.g., ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic orders co-exist. Some of these show the magnetoelectric effect which is the coupling between electric and magnetic degrees of freedom leading to induction of electric polarization by an applied magnetic field and also induction of magnetic polarization by an applied electric field. Multiferroic substances have attracted attention in recent times as they are expected to show relatively larger magnetoelectric effect than others. TbMnO3 and DyMnO3 are prototypical magnetoelectric multiferroics where ferroelectricity develops due to a magnetic phase transition to a spiral magnetic ordered phase. Cu2OSeO3 is another magneto-electric material and is the only one in which magnetoelectric (ME) susceptibility dM/dE (i.e. the change in magnetization by the application of an AC electric field) measurements have been performed to successfully map the magneto-electric phase diagram. During this work, dM/dE measurements were used to map the phase di- agram of Cu2OSeO3 for directions of applied magnetic and electric fields different from that reported so far. This success in Cu2OSeO3 thus became the motivation to make similar attempts on TbMnO3 and DyMnO3. The samples were first oriented to identify the crystallographic axes, then DC magnetic susceptibility and AC mag- netoelectric susceptibility measurements were carried out. The DC magnetization measurements for TbMnO3 showed clear signatures of phase transitions and thus subsequently dM/dE measurements were performed with an AC applied electric field in order to perform a sensitive probe of the phase diagram. But for TbMnO3, dM/dE response could not be observed in any portion of the phase diagram i.e. at ifferent magnetic field and temperature. This entire procedure from Cu2OSeO3 to he manganates have been presented here in this report.


This research is intended to determine the role of riparian vegetation in stream morphology. This experiment examined the effects of riparian vegetation on boundary shear stress (BSS) by completing the following objectives: (1) evaluating the effects of streambank vegetation on near-bank velocity and turbulence; (2) determining a method for measuring BSS; and, (3) examining the effects of streambank vegetation on BSS using an existing model. A second order prototype stream, with individual reaches dominated by the three vegetation types (trees, shrubs, and grass) was modeled using a fixed-bed Froude-scale modeling technique. One model streambank of the prototype stream was constructed for each vegetation type in addition to one bank with only grain roughness. Velocity profiles were measured using an acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV) and a miniature propeller (MP). A flush-mounted Dantec MiniCTA system was used to measure shear stress at the streambank wall. The addition of vegetation on a sloping streambank increased the streamwise free stream velocity and decreased the near-bank streamwise velocity. The turbulence caused by the upright shrub treatment increased turbulent kinetic energy and Reynolds stresses near the streambank toe, an area susceptible to fluvial erosion. The presence of dense, semi-rigid vegetation may encourage the formation of a wider channel with a vertical streambank. The small range of CTA shear stress measurements (0.02–2.14 Pa) suggested that one estimate can describe a streambank. The law of the wall technique is not appropriate because the velocity profiles did not follow the necessary logarithmic shape. Vegetative roughness present in channels created secondary flow; turbulence characteristics more appropriately estimated BSS. The BSS model predicted velocity fields in similar distribution to that measured by the ADV and MP. BSS calculated using the ray-isovel method for both velocity measurement devices were different than the measured BSS values, likely due to distortions in the measured velocity field. In general, the predicted BSS distribution increased with water depth and decreased with increasing vegetation density. The predicted BSS at the shrub toe indicated a spike in shear stress consistent with TKE estimates.


Two different sludge pretreatments were investigated in an attempt to improve the management and performance of processes for the co-digestion of biosolids with fats, oils, and grease (FOG). The mechanisms of long chain fatty acids (LCFA) degradation in thermal hydrolysis pretreatment and the influence of pH on LCFA degradation in two-phase co-digestion systems were studied. LCFA thermal hydrolysis was investigated at different temperatures (90-250 °C) and reaction times (30 minutes and 8 hours). Approximately 1% of saturated fatty acids were degraded to shorter chain fatty acids at 140 and 160 °C (8-hr thermal hydrolysis). Only 1% or less of unsaturated fatty acids were degraded from 90 to 160 °C (8-hr thermal hydrolysis). Little degradation (< 1%) of both saturated and unsaturated LCFAs was observed at a 30-min reaction time. Both groups of LCFAs were stable up to 250 °C (30-min hydrolysis). The use of chemicalthermal treatments was also investigated. Only unsaturated LCFAs, C18:1 and C18:2, were degraded when thermally hydrolyzed with hydrogen peroxide coupled with activated carbon or copper sulfate. Semi-continuous, acid-phase digesters (APDs) under different pH conditions were studied in order to understand the effects of pH on FOG degradation. Increases in soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) were observed in all APDs. However, the APDs with pH adjustment appeared to perform better than the controls in terms of solubilizing organic compounds. Approximately 38% and 29% of total COD (TCOD) was solubilized, and maximum volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations of 10,700 and 7,500 mg/L TCOD were achieved at pH 6 and 7, respectively; It is useful to note that the feed sludge had a VFA concentration of 2,700 mg/L COD. Higher pH (6.07.0) showed less accumulation of LCFA materials and more soluble LCFAs in the APDs. This indicates that the lower pH in the APDs was most likely the cause of precipitation and accumulation of LCFAs due to saturation of unsaturated LCFAs.


Several inequivalent definitions of the geometric measure of entanglement (GM) have been introduced and studied in the past. Here we review several known and new definitions, with the qualifying criterion being that for pure states the measure is a linear or logarithmic function of the maximal fidelity with product states. The entanglement axioms and properties of the measures are studied, and qualitative and quantitative comparisons are made between all definitions. Streltsov et al. [New J. Phys 12 123004 (2010)] proved the equivalence of two linear definitions of GM, whereas we show that the corresponding logarithmic definitions are distinct. Certain classes of states such as "maximally correlated states" and isotropic states are particularly valuable for this analysis. A little-known GM definition is found to be the first one to be both normalized and weakly monotonous, thus being a prime candidate for future studies of multipartite entanglement. We also find that a large class of graph states, which includes all cluster states, have a "universal" closest separable state that minimizes the quantum relative entropy, the Bures distance and the trace distance.


ABSTRACT Soils contain complex ecosystems with a diverse micro- and macrofauna including arthropod predators. Our knowledge of arthropod predators in ancient soil ecosystems, however, is limited. This project involved the laboratory study of Mastigoproctus giganteus, or giant whip scorpion, to describe its burrowing behaviors and resulting burrow morphologies to aid the recognition of their burrows in the fossil record. Specimens were placed in sediment-filled terrariums for 14–60 days. Experiments were run with variations in sediment density and moisture to evaluate the effects of environmental conditions. The burrows were cast, described qualitatively and quantitatively, and then compared to each other and to scorpion burrows using nonparametric statistical methods. Six different burrow architectures were produced by the whip scorpions including vertical shafts, subvertical ramps, J-, U-, and Y-shaped burrows, and mazeworks. Despite these different architectures, the whip scorpion burrows possessed statistically similar properties that allowed them to be distinguished from burrows produced by scorpions. Sediment density and moisture had little influence on burrow properties but did affect the diversity of architectures produced. The greatest diversity of burrow architectures occurred in low-density sediment with moderate moisture levels. Results from this study show that whip scorpions produce unique biogenic structures possessing architectural and surficial properties that can be used to distinguish them from the burrows of other soil organisms. Data collected from these and similar experiments can be applied to ichnofossil assemblages found in middle Paleozoic to Pleistocene paleosols in order to better interpret the paleobiology and paleoecology of ancient soil ecosystems.


This paper addresses a nanoengineering approach to create a fully three-dimensional (3D) network of living cells, providing an advanced solution to in vitro studies on either neuronal networks or artificial organs. The concept of our work relies on stackable scaffolds composed of microcontainers designed and dimensioned to favor the geometrically constrained growth of cells. The container geometry allows cells to communicate in the culture medium and freely grow their projections to form a 3D arrangement of living cells. Scaffolds are fabricated using two-photon polymerization of IP-L 780 photoresist and are coated with collagen. They are stacked by mechanical micromanipulation. Technical details of the proposed nanofabrication scheme and assembly of the modular culture environment are explained. Preliminary in vitro results using PC12 cells have shown that this structure provides a good basis for healthy cell growth for at least 16 days. Our approach is envisioned to provide tailor-made solutions of future 3D cell assemblies for potential applications in drug screening or creating artificial organs.


Cornell University is a private university with a public mission. With a student body of about 25,000, Cornell is the federal land-grant institution of New York State, a private endowed university, a member of the Ivy League/Ancient Eight, and a partner of the State University of New York. Cornell Library supports the university's mission with 20 different physical and digital libraries, a collection of 8.5 million volumes and 1.7 million e-books, and about 400 staff.
After 20 years using the vended application Voyager by Ex Libris as the Library's integrated library system (ILS), on July 1, 2021 Cornell Library completed our migration to the open-source platform, FOLIO.


Choking is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children, especially those aged 3 years or younger. Food, coins, and toys are the primary causes of choking-related injury and death. Certain characteristics, including shape, size, and consistency, of certain toys and foods increase their potential to cause choking among children. Childhood choking hazards should be addressed through comprehensive and coordinated prevention activities. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) should increase efforts to ensure that toys that are sold in retail store bins, vending machines, or on the Internet have appropriate choking-hazard warnings; work with manufacturers to improve the effectiveness of recalls of products that pose a choking risk to children; and increase efforts to prevent the resale of these recalled products via online auction sites. Current gaps in choking-prevention standards for children9s toys should be reevaluated and addressed, as appropriate, via revisions to the standards established under the Child Safety Protection Act, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, or regulation by the CPSC. Prevention of food-related choking among children in the United States has been inadequately addressed at the federal level. The US Food and Drug Administration should establish a systematic, institutionalized process for examining and addressing the hazards of food-related choking. This process should include the establishment of the necessary surveillance, hazard evaluation, enforcement, and public education activities to prevent food-related choking among children. While maintaining its highly cooperative arrangements with the CPSC and the US Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration should have the authority to address choking-related risks of all food products, including meat products that fall under the jurisdiction of the US Department of Agriculture. The existing National Electronic Injury Surveillance System–All Injury Program of the CPSC should be modified to conduct more-detailed surveillance of choking on food among children. Food manufacturers should design new foods and redesign existing foods to avoid shapes, sizes, textures, and other characteristics that increase choking risk to children, to the extent possible. Pediatricians, dentists, and other infant and child health care providers should provide choking-prevention counseling to parents as an integral part of anticipatory guidance activities.


The aim of this thesis is to study four important determinants for the prognosis of prosthodontic treatment, namely the patients expectations, personality traits, and satisfaction with treatment. The fourth aim is to relate the technical quality of the treatment to the patient's opinion about it. A specially designed questionnaire to explore expectations of treatment was sent to 489 patients awaiting extensive prosthodontic rehabilitation. The group was found to only differ significantly from the general population in regard to educational level, which was lower. The study indicated that patients expected treatment to enhance their general well-being. Their expectations could also be be linked to personality traits, three different groups being identified. It was concluded that certain personality indicators were related to clinically relevant factors. After treatment was completed, a second questionnaire was distributed to the same group of patients to explore their level of general satisfaction and different aspect of this. The general level of satisfaction was very high, although several different dimensions of satisfaction were identified. The various dimensions were summated to obtain a comprehensive measure, one found to possess adequate discriminatory ability. In a clinical follow-up study, 42 patients were selected in accordance with the index, a group of "fully satisfied" and a group of "less satisfied" individuals being formed. Their appliances were classified in terms of the C.D.A. quality assessment system. It was concluded that patient satisfaction was associated with the technical quality of the prosthodontic reconstruction's. It could be concluded that expectations and satisfaction with prosthodontic treatment are multidimensional phenomena, influenced by the patient's personality as well as the technical performance of the treat- ment. (Less)


Objectives: To examine the nature of previously unexplained, severe language impairments in some children using a cochlear implant (CI). Design: Six prelingually deaf children with unexplained, "disproportionate" language problems (DLI group) were matched to Control children on etiology, age at implantation, and CI experience. All children completed a test battery used to identify specific language impairment in normally hearing children. Results: Despite equivalent performance IQ, significant differences were found between the DLI and Control children on all five language tests. Conclusions: Language difficulties experienced by some children using a CI seem to be additional to those produced by their deafness and may reflect the same, predominantly inherited basis as specific language impairment.


Since the early 1990s, transnational adoptions have increased at an astonishing rate, not only in the United States, but worldwide. In "Belonging in an Adopted World", Barbara Yngvesson offers a penetrating exploration of the consequences and implications of this unprecedented movement of children, usually from poor nations to the affluent West. Yngvesson illuminates how the politics of adoption policy has profoundly affected the families, nations, and children involved in this new form of social and economic migration. Starting from the transformation of the abandoned child into an adoptable resource for nations that give and receive children in adoption, this volume examines the ramifications of such gifts, especially for families created through adoption and, later, the adopted adults themselves. Bolstered by an account of the author's own experience as an adoptive parent, and fully attuned to the contradictions of race that shape our complex forms of family, "Belonging in an Adopted World" explores the fictions that sustain adoptive kinship, ultimately exposing the vulnerability and contingency behind all human identity.


The relationship between the flux of exotic benthic foraminiferal tests (i.e. tests which are supplied from open-sea sources alone) in a tidal inlet and that of bulk sediment was analysed, which can be expressed as two first-order linear equations. According to this relationship, in order to determine net sediment transport directions in the entrance, the test concentration in surficial sediments of the tidal basin can be compared against a ' critical level '. The critical level is determined for the conditions that no net transport of bulk sediment is present within the entrance. If the observed concentration (averaged over the tidal basin) is higher than the simulated critical level, then the net sediment transport is directed to landward. This method is applied to the analysis of net sand transport at Christchurch Harbour, a tidal inlet system located in southern England. In this investigation, concentrations of exotic foraminiferal tests in the surficial sediments of the tidal basin and ebb tidal delta area were obtained from the analysis of sea-bed sediment samples. A series of probable critical levels were calculated based upon the data sets with regard to: (1) sediment discharge from the rivers; (2) magnitude of sediment discharge within the entrance during the ebb; (3) the test concentration outside the harbour; (4) the thickness of the moving layer; and (5) two parameters associated with dispersive processes. The results show that the concentration in the tidal basin sediment is higher than a number of simulated critical concentrations for representative cases. Consequently, the high level of the concentration of exotic benthic foraminiferal tests within the harbour should be explained as a result of landward net transport of sands within the entrance.


Good journalism remains central to the needs of the Pacific and her people. Good journalism education is central to this issue of Pacific Journalism Review , which features a selection of papers on journalism education in the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. Drawn mostly from the papers presented to the Fourth World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC16), and the preconference organised by the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) and the Pacific Media Centre with the Media Educators Pacific (MeP) at the Auckland University of Technology in July, they all reflect the importance of good journalism and good journalism education. Speaking at the opening of the preconference, University of Auckland Associate Professor Toeolesulusulu Damon Salesa said the profession was vital for bringing the Pacific community together. Dr Salesa, director of the newly founded New Zealand Institute for Pacific Research, which sponsored five Pacific media educators to attend the conferences, said journalism helped people engage in the public sphere.


While most studies of low-carbon transitions focus on green niche-innovations, this paper shifts attention to the resistance by incumbent regime actors to fundamental change. Drawing on insights from political economy, the paper introduces politics and power into the multi-level perspective. Instrumental, discursive, material and institutional forms of power and resistance are distinguished and illustrated with examples from the UK electricity system. The paper concludes that the resistance and resilience of coal, gas and nuclear production regimes currently negates the benefits from increasing renewables deployment. It further suggests that policymakers and many transition-scholars have too high hopes that 'green' innovation will be sufficient to bring about low-carbon transitions. Future agendas in research and policy should therefore pay much more attention to the destabilization and decline of existing fossil fuel regimes.


The synthesis and evaluation of multi-fingered grasps on complex objects is a challenging problem that has received much attention in the robotics community. Although several promising approaches have been developed, applications to real-world systems are limited to simple objects or gripper configurations. The paradigm of Independent Contact Regions (ICRs) has been proposed as a way to increase the tolerance to grasp positioning errors. This concept is well established, though only on precise geometric object models. This work is concerned with the application of the ICR paradigm to models reconstructed from real-world range data. We propose a method for increasing the robustness of grasp synthesis on uncertain geometric models. The sensitivity of the ICR algorithm to noisy data is evaluated and a filtering approach is proposed to improve the quality of the final result.


China's credit boom is one of the largest and longest running ever recorded. Similar credit booms have typically preceded crises in other countries. This article provides an updated assessment of how a shock to the Chinese economy could affect the UK economy via standard transmission channels - such as trade and financial linkages. It then considers how amplification mechanisms, which could plausibly operate in the event of a particularly large shock, could further increase the impact on the UK from an economic crisis within China. We find that the effects via standard channels from a modest fall in Chinese GDP are larger than our previous estimates, primarily due to China's increasing role in global trade. A more extreme shock which triggers amplification mechanisms - such as a larger financial market reaction - could potentially double the effects from the standard channels alone.


Estimating the lateral depth variations of the Earth's crust from gravity data is a non-linear ill-posed problem. The ill-posedness of the problem is due to the presence of noise in the data, and also the non-uniqueness of the problem. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a stochastic population-based optimizer, originally inspired by the social behavior of fish schools and bird flocks. PSO is a global search method, meaning that it has the ability to escape local minima. In addition, PSO is an iterative method, wherein an initial solution is chosen randomly and then improved iteratively until the algorithm finds a solution close enough to the global minimum. Herein, the inverse problem of estimating the thickness of the crust from gravity anomalies is formulated as a single objective optimization problem and is solved by PSO. The method is first tested on a realistic synthetic crustal model both with and without the presence of white Gaussian noise (WGN). Then it is applied to the gravity data from EIGEN-6c4, the latest combined global gravity model, in order to find the base of the crust in the Zagros Mountains (Iran) and compare the results with those of other geophysical methods. The assumed crustal model is one with a linear density gradient in which the densities at both the surface and the base of the crust are fixed. Results agree well with the previously published works including both seismic and potential field studies.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of blood flow-restricted training (BFRT) on jump performance in relation to changes in muscle strength. Seventeen untrained young men were assigned into either BFRT or normal training (NORT) groups and performed low-intensity [30-40% of one-repetition maximum (1RM)] resistance exercise (horizontal squat, 3-4 sets × 15-30 repetitions) twice a week for 10 weeks. The BFRT performed the exercise with their proximal thighs compressed by air-pressure cuffs for the purpose of blood flow restriction. Squat 1RM, muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) of quadriceps femoris, and countermovement jump (CMJ) height were measured before and after the 10-wk training period. Squat 1RM increased greater in BFRT than in NORT (19.3% vs. 9.7%, P < 0.01). Although the CSA increase was independent of groups, it tended to be larger in BFRT than in NORT (8.3% vs. 2.9%, P = 0.094). On the other hand, CMJ height did not change after the training (P = 0.51). In conclusion, the present study showed that BFRT induced muscle hypertrophy and strength increase, whereas it did not increase CMJ height in previously untrained young men. It is suggested that BFRT is ineffective in improving jump performance.


"It is stunningly thorough and takes readers meticulously through the design, conguration and operation of IPv6-based, low-power, potentially mobile radio-based networking." Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google This book provides a complete overview of IPv6 over Low Power Wireless Area Network (6LoWPAN) technology In this book, the authors provide an overview of the 6LoWPAN family of standards, architecture, and related wireless and Internet technology. Starting with an overview of the IPv6 Internet of Things, readers are offered an insight into how these technologies fit together into a complete architecture. The 6LoWPAN format and related standards are then covered in detail. In addition, the authors discuss the building and operation of 6LoWPAN networks, including bootstrapping, routing, security, Internet ingration, mobility and application protocols. Furthermore, implementation aspects of 6LoWPAN are covered. Key Features: Demonstrates how the 6LoWPAN standard makes the latest Internet protocols available to even the most minimal embedded devices over low-rate wireless networks Provides an overview of the 6LoWPAN standard, architecture and related wireless and Internet technology, and explains the 6LoWPAN protocol format in detail Details operational topics such as bootstrapping, routing, security, Internet integration, mobility and application protocols Written by expert authors with vast experience in the field (industrial and academic) Includes an accompanying website containing tutorial slides, course material and open-source code with examples (http://6lowpan.net ) 6LoWPAN: The Wireless Embedded Internet is an invaluable reference for professionals working in fields such as telecommunications, control, and embedded systems. Advanced students and teachers in electrical engineering, information technology and computer science will also find this book useful.


During the last few years mobile phones have been being replaced by new devices called smartphones. A more ``intelligent'' version of a mobile phones, smartphones combine usual ``phoning'' facilities with the functionality and performance of personal computers. Moreover, they are equipped with various sensors, such as camera and GPS, and are open to third-party applications. Being almost all the time with their users, it is not surprising that smartphones have access to very sensitive private data. Unfortunately, these data are of particular interest not only to the device owners. Developers of third-party applications embed data collection functionality either to feed advertising frameworks or for their own purposes. Moreover, there are also adversaries aiming at gathering personal user information or performing malicious actions. In this situation the users have a strong motivation to safeguard their devices from being misused and want to protect their privacy.Among all operating systems for mobile platforms, Android developed by Google is the recognized leader. This operating system is installed on four out of five new devices. In this thesis we propose a set of improvements to enhance security of the Android ecosystem and ensure trustworthiness of the applications installed on the device. In particular, we focus on the application ecosystem security, and research the following key aspects: identification of suspicious applications; application code analysis for malicious functionality; distribution of verified applications to end-user devices; and enforcing security on the device itself. It was previously shown that adversaries often relied on app repackaging to burst the proliferation of malicious applications. As the first contribution, this dissertation proposes a fast approach to detect repackaged Android applications. If a repackaged application is detected, it is necessary to understand whether it is malicious or not. Today Android malware conceal their malicious nature using dynamic code update techniques, thus, static analyzers cannot detect this vicious behavior. The second contribution of this work is a static-dynamic analysis approach to discover and analyse apps in the presence of dynamic code updates routines. To increase the user's confidence in the installed apps, as the third contribution we propose the concept of trusted stores for Android. Our approach ensures that a user can install only the applications vetted and attested by trusted stores. Finally, the forth contribution is the design and implementation of a policy-based framework for enforcing software isolation of applications and data that may help to improve the security of end-user devices.


In the most general terms, "civilization" relates to the unique constitution of a "life-world", defined by a coherent "worldview" (Weltanschauung) on the basis of continuity. This includes a community's religious beliefs and metaphysical views, its social organization, value system, esthetical perceptions, etc. These factors also determine specific notions of dignity and societal behavior. Civilization in this multidimensional sense may comprise a variety of different cultures as sub-sections, mainly on the basis of different languages. In today's global environment, the constant encounter and interaction between different – often incompatible – worldviews and value systems has an entirely new potential for conflict – with one humanity, whose members are constantly aware of their living in one "global village," but with more than one, indeed a multitude, of competing global civilizations. Culture-driven conflicts – or conflicts where antagonists use culture as a tool of legitimation – are much more difficult to resolve or contain compared to conflicts where diverging (economic) interests are clearly defined and not hidden behind "ideals". Values are not a field for realpolitik whereas interests are negotiable. The rapid development of technology, in tandem with the global pursuit of economic interests, has made interaction (encounter) with the "other" a structural fact of society. One of the major challenges of our time will be whether civilizations can agree on a set of meta-values on the basis of mutuality (such as tolerance, non-interference, etc.). Only this will enable them to avoid confrontation at the level of values of the first order ("material" values). This could also open the field for a new dialogue of civilizations in the spirit of Enlightenment, transcending the traditional missionary paradigm. Such a "meta-dialogue of civilizations" would also fit into a new approach of realpolitik towards issues of cultural identity.


Judith Fetterley has famously argued that Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Birthmark" is a story about "how to murder your wife and get away with it" (22). The protagonist of Hawthorne's story, a scientist named Aylmer, comes out of his lab long enough to marry a beautiful woman with a birthmark on her cheek - a "bloody hand," as some called it (1 19). Strangely, although he "thought little or nothing of the matter before" (119), after the wedding, Aylmer becomes obsessed with removing the birthmark, thus rendering his otherwise flawless wife perfect. In his attempt to remove nature's defect, however, Aylmer ends up killing his wife, demonstrating not only how to murder your wife, but also why. In Aylmer, Hawthorne brilliantly embodies a man devoted to the life of the mind - to the transcendence of nature - and he shows how such a man becomes gripped with revulsion when confronted with the female body. And while many readers have perceived some sympathy for Aylmer on Hawthorne's part, it is also clear that Hawthorne not only sketches the dynamics of a man's dread of a woman's corporeality, but that he also condemns it. Hawthorne is indisputably a moralist, concerned with the ethical implications of his characters' intentions and actions, so it may seem odd to pair him with a writer, Neil LaBute, who has been accused of being anything but. In a review of LaBute's shortstory collection, Seconds of Pleasure, Jonathan Dee argues that there is a fundamental "vacuum" in the "moral dimension" of LaBute's work - that he evades the difficult job of showing human motivation, "human beings choosing, whether nobly or foolishly, from a range of potential actions and in the face of some sort of internal or external opposition." LaBute's characters, Dee writes, do "things for no reason at all" (89). I argue, on the contrary, that LaBute, like Hawthorne, is deeply concerned with the often-buried reasons for people's actions and with the moral nature and consequences of those actions. Indeed, LaBute grapples with the same moral issues that Hawthorne does, including the origins and the consequences of men's often violent fear of women's fundamentally different bodies.1 In "Perfect," a story that directly references Hawthorne and "a short story of his that had to do with some flaw in an otherwise lovely woman" (12), LaBute describes a man who, like Aylmer, becomes obsessed with an imperfection in his wife - an imperfection, moreover, that, also like Aylmer, he did not notice before marriage: "I swear I never saw it when we first met [. . .] I had no idea that it even existed then, back in our courting days" (5). The physical intimacy of marriage ushers in his obsession, and her "skin thing" becomes not only visible but perpetually haunting (5) - and finally so disgusting to him that he wants to "throw up" when he sees it (10). Indeed, the protagonist states that the "wart cluster on my wife's flesh is slowly, methodically killing me" [G). The story ends with the protagonist confessing his fantasy of pinning his wife on the floor "as I plunge a potato peeler or something else suitably sharp into the offending mound and tear it from her body" (15). As in "The Birthmark," then, a far-less-than-perfect man's desire to perfect his wife, to remove a fetishized flaw that ultimately stands in for an inevitably sexualized and inherently abject female body, leads to fantasies of violence: behind the desire to perfect lies the "need to eliminate" (Fetterley 24). Both Hawthorne and LaBute illuminate how this seeming paradox works - how the urge to perfect an imperfect woman masks an aggression directed at the intolerable fact of women's material presence. Although the most explicit, "Perfect" is not the only work of LaBute's to echo Hawthorne's fictional preoccupations. First performed in London in 2001, The Shape of Things, written and directed by LaBute, was released as a film in 2003. Evoking Hawthorne in its exploration of the attempt to conquer nature, The Shape of Things is about a woman who is obsessed with her lover's perfection, and her raw material, the object of her experiment, is a man. …


Leaf area estimate may contribute to understand the relationships of interference among weeds and crops. The objective of this research was to obtain a mathematical equation to estimate the leaf area of Euphorbia heterophylla based on linear measures of the leaf blade. Correlation studies were carried out using the real leaf area and leaf length (C) and the maximum leaf width (L) of 200 leaf blades which were collected from several agroecosystems at Universidade Estadual Paulista in Jaboticabal, SP, Brazil. The evaluated statistic models were: linear Y = a + bx; simple linear Y = bx; geometric Y = axb; and exponential Y = abx. All of the evaluated models can be used for E. heterophylla leaf area estimation. The simple linear regression model is suggested using C*L and taking the linear coefficient equal to zero. Thus, an estimate of the leaf area of E. heterophylla can be obtained using the equation Af' = 0.6816*(C*L).


Student Participation in the Distribution of Instructional Leadership Janeel M. Juncker Department of Instructional Psychology and Technology, BYU Master of Science This explorative study offers much needed perspective on students' role and development as instructional leaders (Halverson & Clifford, 2013) through answering the following questions: (a) How can students be involved in distributions of instructional leadership in a studio learning environment; (b) What is the value of their contribution; and (c) What patterns of distributed instructional leadership (DIL) facilitate student involvement? I chose an animation studio at a large western university for the setting, on account of its collective-leadership structure involving students. I randomly sampled a pre-recorded data set of participants' studio interactions and participant interviews to use for the study; participants involved students, faculty, and industry mentors involved in studio productions during qualitative data collection of studio interactions. My method of data analysis involved pairing the DIL framework with additional approaches, per analysis focus: An ethnographic approach (Merriam, 2002) for a birds-eye overview of the setting influencing studio interactions, Interaction analysis (Jordan & Henderson, 1995) for in-depth exploration of studio interactions, and Spradley's (1980) recommendations for qualitative analysis ensuring trustworthiness of codes and themes. The study's findings answered each of the three exploratory questions, revealing that students voluntarily took ownership for their learning, and engaged in an instructional leadership capacity over support for their needs and interests. They were valuable in negotiating mutually beneficial compromises as contributed to member capacity and organizational development in academia and industry. Studio leadership and policies facilitated students' interdependent development as instructional leaders through providing guided autonomy in their supportive and formal roles in the studio. More specifically, the studio's deliberate focus on students' development of leadership virtues shaped students' experience and approach toward interpersonal and technical problem solving as contributed to studio production and overall development. Pairing the DIL framework with additional methods per analysis focus was a useful approach in exploring in exploring the study questions. Future research should replicate the study in different contexts to add perspective to the questions asked. It should also assess the verity of patterns DIL that this study delineates as contributing to individual and organizational capacity, and school development.


OBJECTIVE: The objective of this selective EBM review is to determine whether or not Finasteride is effective in reducing/reversing the symptoms of androgenic alopecia. STUDY DESIGN: Reviewed three English primary studies published in 2006, 2008, and 2009. DATA SOURCES: All Studies were randomized controlled trials comparing Finasteride to placebo or other hair loss treatments were found using PubMED, EBSCO, MEDLINE, and Cochrane research databases. OUTCOME MEASURED: Overall reduction in size of balding area based on measurements of total hair counts. Measurements were based on macrographical analysis of test subjects' balding area, as well as global photographical analysis carried out by the investigators of each trial study. Test subjects were given self assessment questionnaires to gather subjective views of the treatment. RESULTS: All three randomized controlled trials included in this review indicated that oral Finasteride therapy of 1-5mg demonstrated measurable reversal of hair loss in men suffering androgenic alopecia. CONCLUSION: Based on the three RCT's reviewed in this study, there is measurable evidence to indicate the use of Finasteride in the reduction and reversal of androgenic alopecia. This review only analyzed the effect of Finasteride on test subjects before and after treatment. Further tests would need to be done to determine if Finasteride is a medication that must be taken daily as preventative therapy, or if it can be discontinued once hair regrowth is obtained.


STKE
Parkinson's disease, which results from degeneration of dopaminergic neurons projecting to the striatum, is treated with the dopamine precursor L-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA). Although this treatment initially alleviates many of the motor symptoms, prolonged therapy leads to serious side effects, including dyskinesias. Picconi et al. used 6-hydroxydopamine to lesion dopaminergic neurons in a rat model of Parkinson's disease and administered therapeutic doses of L-DOPA. About half the rats recovered from the motor deficits produced by the lesion; the rest developed dyskinetic effects, meaning their motor performance actually worsened. Striatal long-term potentiation (LTP) was not seen in lesioned rats, but was rescued by chronic L-DOPA administration in both dyskinetic and nondyskinetic rats. Low-frequency stimulation reversed striatal LTP ("depotentiation") in nondyskinetic rats but not in dyskinetic rats. Pharmacological analysis indicated that depotentiation could be blocked by stimulation of the D1 dopamine receptor. Thus, the development of L-DOPA-dependent dyskinesias appears to reflect an abnormal persistence of striatal LTP.— EA

Nature Neurosci. 6 , 501 (2003).


Sodium ion batteries (NIBs) and potassium ion batteries (KIBs) are promising candidates for large‐scale energy storage systems, with a similar "rocking chair" working principle to lithium ion batteries due to their earth abundance and lower cost. One of the major challenges in NIB research is the search for suitable anode materials with long lifetimes and high specific capacities. The research on KIBs is still in its infancy. Titanium‐based anodes present low lattice strain, high safety, and overall stability during cycling, which make them promising for large‐scale systems, especially for stationary batteries. In this review, the latest progress on titanium‐based anodes for NIBs and KIBs is summarized, including titanium dioxide and its composite, Na x TiO2 systems, NaTi2(PO4)3, titanates, and MXenes. The synthesis methods, modification methods, and sodium or potassium ion storage mechanisms of titanium‐based anodes are detailed; also the current challenges and future opportunities are discussed.


Lymphocyte reliance on 4E-BP2 and eIF4E for growth and proliferation underlies their exquisite sensitivity to the drug rapamycin. 4E-BP, the key to lymphocyte sensitivity In most cells, the mammalian (mechanistic) target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) regulates cell growth through the ribosomal S6 kinases (S6Ks) and cell proliferation through translation-regulating proteins of the eIF4E-binding protein (4E-BP) family, respectively. Although mTORC1 is present in all cells, the mTORC1 inhibitor rapamycin is an effective immunosuppressant that blocks lymphocyte proliferation (see the Focus by Abraham). But, why are lymphocytes so exquisitely sensitive? So et al. found that lymphocytes did not depend on S6K signaling to promote growth or proliferation in response to antigen receptor stimulation. Instead, these cells relied on 4E-BP proteins for both processes. Unlike in nonlymphoid cells, the 4E-BP2 isoform was more abundant than the 4E-BP1 isoform in lymphocytes, and its phosphorylation by mTORC1 was more sensitive to rapamycin. These data suggest that the exquisite sensitivity of lymphocytes to rapamycin may be due to their complete reliance on 4E-BP2 for both growth and proliferation. Rapamycin has been used as a clinical immunosuppressant for many years; however, the molecular basis for its selective effects on lymphocytes remains unclear. We investigated the role of two canonical effectors of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR): ribosomal S6 kinases (S6Ks) and eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E)–binding proteins (4E-BPs). S6Ks are thought to regulate cell growth (increase in cell size), and 4E-BPs are thought to control proliferation (increase in cell number), with mTORC1 signaling serving to integrate these processes. However, we found that the 4E-BP–eIF4E signaling axis controlled both the growth and proliferation of lymphocytes, processes for which the S6Ks were dispensable. Furthermore, rapamycin disrupted eIF4E function selectively in lymphocytes, which was due to the increased abundance of 4E-BP2 relative to that of 4E-BP1 in these cells and the greater sensitivity of 4E-BP2 to rapamycin. Together, our findings suggest that the 4E-BP–eIF4E axis is uniquely rapamycin-sensitive in lymphocytes and that this axis promotes clonal expansion of these cells by coordinating growth and proliferation.


This book deals with various computational procedures for multiple repeated analyses (reanalysis) of structures, and presents them in a unified approach. It meets the need for a general text covering the basic concepts and methods as well as recent developments in this area. Reanalysis is common to numerous analysis and design tasks such as nonlinear analysis, structural optimization, damage analysis, and probabilistic analysis. The book discusses various analysis models, including linear and nonlinear analysis, static and dynamic analysis, and design sensitivity analysis. It demonstrates how various concepts and methods are integrated to achieve effective solution procedures. The approach presented has several advantages in terms of generality, efficiency of the calculations, accuracy of the results and ease of implementation. Efficiency and accuracy considerations are discussed and illustrated. To clarify the presentation, many illustrative examples and numerical results are demonstrated. The text is related to a wide range of applications in such fields as Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Naval Architecture. This should prove useful to students, researchers, analysts and consultants involved in analysis and design of structures. Previous books on structural analysis do not cover most of the material presented in the book.


The UN and the WTO were each the brainchild of one ideal: the ideal of building a peaceful liberal world order. Establishing the rule of law in international relations and openness are indispensable elements of this new world order. By providing a rules-based system for international trade, and by increasing the openness of its Members' economies, the WTO contributes to the realization of this ideal The WTO cannot fulfill this function without the commitment of its Member States. Good international citizens are those who support the Organization in its objectives. Good citizens are those who pursue open policies, and who actively and constructively participate in the legislative, executive and judicial functions of the Organization. Through its increasingly open trade regime, full commitment to the Doha Development Agenda negotiations, and its respect for, and contribution to the decisions of WTO judicial organs, Turkey is increasingly fulfilling its duties towards the international society as a good international citizen.


Share of distributed generation in grid system is increasing in time. In conventional generation, rotating mass provides inertia to the grid. Distribution generation causes reduction in inertia of grid system and this inertia reduction is one of the challenges that needs to be addressed in the energy transition phase. The number of challenges related to grid stability will proliferate in the future. Research and Development to solve these challenges is ongoing but the developed solutions need to be tested in real time since the performance of new technology in power scale, would be different from mathematical simulation results. Field tests of future grid solution are cost and time intensive while considering construction of a power system. This challenge can be solved by a concept called Power Hardware-in-the-Loop (PHIL). In PHIL, simulated power system can be emulated in real time using power interface. So, new technology can be connected with an emulated power system for testing in power scale.
Since PHIL is an emerging concept, a detailed strategy was formulated for development of PHIL experiment. Frequency Response of a Grid was selected as the focus of power system. In this work frequency response of a power system is emulated in real time using a Real Time System, resistive loads and a power interface with a Motor-Generator set. Triphase interfacing technology is used to interface real time system with hardware. A loop comprising of simulated power system, physical generator and physical resistive load was designed. Real time system and generator mimics emulated power system and the resistive load acted as hardware in the loop. A basic PHIL experiment was successfully completed, in which the change in power of hardware in the loop, affected the emulated power system. Experimental result proves the success of PHIL experiment.
Based on experience and knowledge obtained in a basic PHIL experiment, the conceptual design of a more advanced PHIL experiment of a micro grid that includes virtual power plant is developed. Limitations of the Power Hardware in the Loop experiment is found and reported.


ABSTRACT There is a growing body of scientific evidence supporting the existence of emotions in nonhuman animals. Companion-animal owners show a strong connection and attachment to their animals and readily assign emotions to them. In this paper we present information on how the attachment level of companion-animal owners correlates with their attribution of emotions to their companion cat or dog and their attribution of mirrored emotions. The results of an online questionnaire, completed by 1,023 Dutch-speaking cat and/or dog owners (mainly in the Netherlands and Belgium), suggest that owners attribute several emotions to their pets. Respondents attributed all posited basic (anger, joy [happiness], fear, surprise, disgust, and sadness) and complex (shame, jealousy, disappointment, and compassion) emotions to their companion animals, with a general trend toward basic emotions (with the exception of sadness) being more commonly attributed than complex emotions. All pet owners showed strong attachment to their companion animal(s), with the degree of attachment (of both cat and dog owners) varying significantly with education level and gender. Owners who ascribed human characteristics to their dog or cat also scored higher on the Pet Bonding Scale (PBS). Finally, owners who found it pleasant to pet their dog or cat had a higher average PBS score than those who did not like to do so. The relationship between owners' attributions of mirrored emotions and the degree of attachment to dogs was significant for all emotions, whilst for cats this relationship was significant only for joy, sadness, surprise, shame, disappointment, and compassion.


Estimates of annual survival rates of birds are valuable in a wide range of studies of population ecology and conservation. These include modelling studies to assess the impacts of climatic change or anthropogenic mortality for many species for which no reliable direct estimates of survival are available. We evaluate the performance of regression models in predicting adult survival rates of birds from values of demographic and ecological covariates available from textbooks and databases. We estimated adult survival for 67 species using dead recoveries of birds ringed in southern Africa and fitted regression models using five covariates: mean clutch size, mean body mass, mean age at first breeding, diet and migratory tendency. Models including these explanatory variables performed well in predicting adult survival in this set of species, both when phylogenetic relatedness of the species was taken into account using phylogenetic generalized least squares (51% of variation in logit survival explained) and when it was not (48%). Two independent validation tests also indicated good predictive power, as indicated by high correlations of observed with expected values in a leave-one-out cross validation test performed using data from the 67 species (35% of variation in logit survival explained), and when annual survival rates from independent mark–recapture studies of 38 southern African species were predicted from covariates and the regression using dead recoveries (48%). Clutch size and body mass were the most influential covariates, both with and without the inclusion of phylogenetic effects, and a regression model including only these two variables performed well in both of the validation tests (39 and 48% of variation in logit survival explained). Our regression models, including the version with only clutch size and body mass, are likely to perform well in predicting adult survival rate for southern African species for which direct survival estimates are not available.