For the exhibition Art of Glass at the National Museum Scotland and the National Centre for Craft and Design, Brachlow has created three new works focussing specifically on the colour grey. The predominant colouring agent in grey glass, nickel, has two interesting characteristics: it subtly changes hue in different types of illumination, and it strongly changes in both colour density and hue if the physical thickness of the glass varies. Continuing her exploration of the interaction of colour, form and light in glass solids, Brachlow conducted extensive visual research, drawing on Czech glass sculpture, particularly the work of Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova, in combination with extensive colour and form testing. This resulted in elongated shapes with pronounced thick-thin variations, emphasised by the appropriate colour density for each form, aiming to achieve multiple shades and sometimes multiple hues within the work. A combination of surface finishes is used to selectively reveal and obscure views inside the glass, and to focus and diffuse light. The forms, base on a concept called D-forms, can be exhibited in different orientations and transform depending on the viewing angle.


We demonstrate the ability of atmospheric radon concentrations to reliably and unambiguously identify local and remote terrestrial influences on an air mass, and thereby the potential for alteration of trace gas composition by anthropogenic and biogenic processes. Based on high accuracy (lower limit of detection 10-40 mBq m^(-3)), high temporal resolution (hourly) measurements of atmospheric radon concentration we describe, apply and evaluate a simple two-step method for identifying and characterising constituent mole fractions in baseline air. The technique involves selecting a radon-based threshold concentration to identify the "cleanest" (least terrestrially influenced) air masses, and then performing an outlier removal step based on the distribution of constituent mole fractions in the identified clean air masses. The efficacy of this baseline selection technique is tested at three contrasting WMO GAW stations: Cape Grim (a coastal low-altitude site), Mauna Loa (a remote high-altitude island site), and Jungfraujoch (a continental high-altitude site). At Cape Grim and Mauna Loa the two-step method is at least as effective as more complicated methods employed to characterise baseline conditions, some involving up to nine steps. While it is demonstrated that Jungfraujoch air masses rarely meet the baseline criteria of the more remote sites, a selection method based on a variable monthly radon threshold is shown to produce credible "near baseline" characteristics. The seasonal peak-to-peak amplitude of recent monthly baseline CO_2 mole fraction deviations from the long-term trend at Cape Grim, Mauna Loa and Jungfraujoch are estimated to be 1.1, 6.0 and 8.1 ppm, respectively.


Extracted from text ... DEBATE PIECE
The politics of science and imperialism
Pieter Fourie*
They are landing with rulers, squares, compasses, Sextants
White skin fair eyes, naked word and thin lips
Thunder on their ships.
? Le?opold Senghor, Ethiopiques
INTRODUCTION
A discussion concerning the economic, social or political position of any one state or
group of states vis-a?-vis others is historically bound. In saying this, a dialectic in
terms of political historicism is implicitly stated. In this article, I will delineate such a
political history of the interaction between science and imperialism. The concepts
central to the discussion ? `science' and `imperialism' ? ..


To get readers of international news stories interested and engaged, it is important to show how a piece of far-away news relates to them and how it might affect their own country. As a step in this direction, we have developed a tool to automatically create textual relations between news articles and readers. To produce such connections, the first step is to detect the countries mentioned in the article. Many news sites, including Al Jazeera (http://www.aljazeera.com), use automated tools such as OpenCalais (http://opencalais.com) to detect place references in a news article and list those as a list of countries in a dedicated section at the bottom (say, List A: [Syria, Germany]). If not already included, relevant countries could be detected using existing tools and dictionaries. The second step is to use the reader's IP address to infer the country they are currently located in (say, Country B: Qatar). Knowing this country gives us a "bridge" to the reader as now we can try relate the countries from List A, to the reader's country, Country B. Finally, we have to decide which type of contextual bridges to build between the pairs of countries. Currently, we are focusing on four aspects: 1) Imports & Exports: this section displays imports and exports between the Country B and List A, if any. For instance: "Qatar exports products worth $272m every year to Germany, 0.27% of total exports." Upon clicking on this information, it will redirect the user to another website, showing a breakdown of these imports and exports. 2) Distances: this simply states the direct distance in kilometers from Country B to every country in List A. For instance: "Syria is 2,110km away from Qatar." Upon clicking on this information, it will navigate to a Google Maps display, showing this distance. 3) Relations: this provides a link to the designated Wikipedia page between Country B and every country in List A. For instance, "Germany - Qatar Relations (Wikipedia)." It also shows a link relating the countries using Google News: "More on Qatar - Germany (Google News)" 4) Currencies: this shows the currency conversions between Country B's currency and every other country in List A, for instance: "1 QAR = 0.21 EUR (Germany's currency)." Our current tool, which will be demonstrated live during the poster presentation, was built using JavaScript. With the use of tools such as Greasemonkey, this allowed us to test and display the results of the project on Al Jazeera (http://www.aljazeera.com), without having site ownership. We believe that the problem of making connections between countries explicit is of particular relevance to small countries such as Qatar. Whereas usually a user from, say, Switzerland, might not be interested in events in Qatar, showing information regarding trade between the two could change their mind.


In the traditional family law and child protection litigation where the court is asked to make determinations based on the best interests of a minor, the adversarial, rights-based model often fails to serve the interests of children and families and may be more harmful than beneficial to children relative to other possible methods of dispute resolution. This article examines the shortcomings of such an adversarial, rights-based model; briefly highlights the literature on dispute resolution systems design; and then proposes a new approach to better serve the interests of children in family law and child protection cases.


This publication is a strategic tool that aims at supporting both the Public and Private Sector in achieving a better engagement with the civil society in Latin American and the Caribbean as regards public consultations. It provides information about universal good practices, how to draw up public consultation plans and legal frameworks applicable in each of the 26 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, where the IDB operates. For this purpose, methodologies are suggested, and figures are provided for operations which costs have been impacted due to social conflicts and where public consultations have the potential to develop an important role in avoiding or mitigating said conflicts.


ABSTRACT The "humanitarian border" that emerged at the Aegean Islands of Chios and Lesbos during the so called "refugee crisis" arose out of various engagements with care and control. A humanitarian border can be said to consist of the entanglements between humanitarianism and securitization. But how do care and control materialize in practice and how can they move from one place to another? By combining the notion of the "humanitarian border" with the concept of "viapolitics" and an actor-network lens, and based on interviews with state authorities, volunteers and NGOs, this article brings in three claims. First, by studying the "missing masses", the humanitarian border can be said to arise out of "conjoint actions" that concern engagement with peoples and objects of all sorts. Second, the humanitarian border is not only of a composite nature but of a mobile nature as well. Third, the interstructure of the humanitarian border is generated by a productive relationship between the fluidity of network configurations on the one hand and emerging frictions on the other. By studying the situated tensions between humanitarianism and securitization and focusing on the circulation of materialities of all sorts the movements that make up a humanitarian border can be displayed.


A new multi-decade national-wide coarse-resolution data set of leaf area index (LAI) over the Republic of Kazakhstan has been developed based on data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and in situ measurements of vegetation structure. The Kazakhstan-wide LAI product has been retrieved using an algorithm based on a physical radiative transfer model establishing a relationship between LAI and given patterns of surface reflectance, view-illumination conditions and optical properties of vegetation at the per-pixel scale. The results revealed high consistencies between the produced AVHRR LAI data set and ground truth information and the 30-m resolution Landsat ETM+ LAI estimated using the similar algorithm. Differences in LAI between the AVHRR-based product and the Landsat ETM+-based product are lower than 0.4 LAI units in terms of RMSE. The produced Kazakhstan-wide LAI was also compared with the global 8-km AVHRR LAI (LAI_PAL_BU_V3) and 1-km MODIS LAI (MOD15A2 LAI) products. Results show remarkable consistency of the spatial distribution and temporal dynamics between the new LAI product and both examined global LAI products. However, the results also revealed several discrepancies in LAI estimates when comparing the global and the Kazakhstan-wide products. The discrepancies in LAI estimates were outlined and discussed.


The sex hormones dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS), oestradiol, and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) were measured in 185 postmenopausal women (aged 45-65 years) with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and related to assessments of bone mineral density at the spine and proximal femur. Compared with 518 postmenopausal control women (aged 45-65 years), DHEAS levels were below normal in the 120 patients with RA who had never taken corticosteroids and levels were further depressed in 39 patients currently using steroids. Twenty six patients who had completed steroid treatment also had lower DHEAS levels, suggesting a delayed recovery of adrenal androgen secretion. Oestradiol and SHBG levels were similar in all groups. There was no correlation between sex hormones and disease activity. Oestradiol correlated with bone mineral density at all sites. Although oestradiol correlated with DHEAS, there was no relation between DHEAS and bone mineral density. The cause of below normal levels of DHEAS in RA is unclear, whether a consequence of chronic illness, immune dysfunction, or a defect of adrenal androgen synthesis.


The Learning Management System (LMS) of the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences has been in operation since 2004 when it was developed for the studying purposes according to the German Fachhochschule study concept and according to the then specific characteristics of studying in the Republic of Croatia. The system consists of five own developed modules (DMS, SAN, e-Student, SMSCentar and FPZmobile) which in synergy form the Faculty LMS. The Document Management System (DMS) is a system of managing documents and processes used for authorized access of the Faculty staff members to the modules that control the work of computer laboratories, e-Learning system administration (publishing of teaching materials, control and assessment of seminar papers, etc.), as well as the module for managing documents and processes within the Faculty (orders for equipment, reports on malfunctions, updated on- line directory, etc.). The authorization and supervision system (SAN) is a set of technologies and applications that allow supervision of students' work on computers in computer classrooms of the Faculty, and personalization of the working environment in the Windows operating system, regardless of the particular computer the student is using. The e-Student system allows students authorized access to the teaching materials, tasks, exercises and instructions. Apart from this the system provides support in applying and producing seminar papers and various forms of knowledge testing (e-Blic, e-Test, e-Kviz). The SMSCentar and SAN system with smsCRM application (Customer Relationship Management via SMS) open up the possibilities for a number of information services for students and Faculty staff members based on interactive communication by means of SMS messages. Some three years ago, the m-Learning module was added to the e-Learning system of the Faculty in the form of interactive application for real-time information of students via mobile terminal devices, called FPZmobile. The basic idea was to develop an application that will provide accurate and up-to-date information related to the Faculty and the students' achievements (seminars, exercises, quizzes, etc.) during their studying, in a form suitable for browsing on the mobile terminal devices interface, such as mobile phones, PDA devices or Smartphones. The modularity of such a system allows fast implementation of the new services according to the ideas and suggestions expressed both by the teaching and the non- teaching staff, and the students. In its five academic years of application, the e- Student module of the Faculty LMS has shown substantial positive shifts in the quality of studying. However, it also indicated substantial drawbacks both in the very processes of the system and in the technological obsoleteness and impossibilities of high-quality support of the Bologna Process and the program "Ishodi ucenja na Sveucilistu u Zagrebu" (eng. "Learning Results at the University of Zagreb"). Currently the system is used at all Faculty courses, 509 of them for 7489 students and 362 Faculty staff members. In the previous years the students used the system somewhat less than 850, 000 times and the teaching staff somewhat less than 50, 000 times. A large number of published teaching materials, as many as 5645 files, is still substantially lower than the files created and published the most important system users: the students! They published as many as 16, 000 topics for seminar papers and more than 15, 000 seminar papers. The freedom that they have in using the LMS is being slowly accepted by the students and it has been noted that the students have started to use LMS more and more in the period from midnight till 8 o'clock in the morning, and less and less in the period from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. as presented in Table 1. Table 1: Percentage of accessing LMS system per times of day The negative sides of applying the Faculty LMS system and the drawbacks in the operation of the current system have to be reduced or completely eliminated in order to realize the desired level of studying quality. Therefore, a completely new system is to be designed and developed, based on the model presented in this paper. The new system will be adapted to the needs of studying according to the Bologna Process, harmonized with the project "Learning Results at the University of Zagreb", the ISVU system, but also with the present trends in the technology of learning and communication among the students and between the students and the teachers. Moreover, the model proposed in this paper will provide guidelines for the development of the system according to the e- Learning 2.0 paradigm which encompasses all Web 2.0 tools in its operation such as Wiki, Blog, forums, social networking and others.


CONTEXT
Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) have been implicated to have higher levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) because of the high prevalence of obesity.

OBJECTIVE
Our aim was to investigate the relationship between elevated ALT and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activity and characteristic hyperandrogenism in women with PCOS.

DESIGN AND SETTING
We conducted a cross-sectional case-control study in a reproductive endocrinology clinic and voluntary annual medical health check-up program of the health management center in a tertiary medical center.

PATIENTS
A total of 279 women with PCOS and 279 age-frequency-matched healthy women were studied.

INTERVENTIONS
There were no interventions.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
All subjects underwent anthropometric measurement, clinical history recorded by questionnaires, and biochemical tests after an overnight fast.

RESULTS
The prevalence of elevated ALT and AST levels was significantly higher in women with PCOS than healthy control subjects. Multivariate regression analysis for women revealed that the presence of PCOS was significantly associated with elevated ALT but not AST after adjustment for age, obesity, and dyslipidemia. The level of androgenicity represented by free androgen index in women with PCOS was significantly related to elevated ALT and AST levels in multivariate regression models. Women with PCOS who had the highest quartile of free androgen index level had the highest risk of elevated ALT level after adjustment for age, obesity, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia.

CONCLUSIONS
The risk of elevated ALT level is significantly higher in women with PCOS than those without, independent of obesity. The elevated ALT levels in women with PCOS were associated with the increased androgen levels, independent of obesity, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia.


Producing a fresh water supply by converting non-potable water is an attractive solution when water is scarce. According to the energy strategies of different countries, various seawater purification techniques such as distillation and reverse osmosis (RO) are used to produce fresh water. Due to the selective separation capability and cost-effective properties, membrane based methods such as RO, electrodialysis, and ultra/micro/nano/filtration are prevalent, especially in Europe. Recently, innovative desalination technologies have been investigated by researchers. Among them, pervaporative separation, in which non-porous membranes are used, appears to be an emerging and promising method. The key part of the system is the membrane. Hence, scientific investigations are focused on the production of high-performance membranes. In this study, non-porous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) blend membranes were prepared in different PVDF/PVP ratios and Marmara seawater was desalinated using the pervaporation method at different temperatures. Desalination performance was evaluated as a function of flux and salt retention. The highest salt retention of 99.90% and flux of 1.60 kg/m 2 .h were obtained at 60 °C when the PVDF/PVP ratio was 1.5.


We reassess the empirical effect of income and employment on self-reported well-being. Our analysis makes use of a novel two-step estimation procedure that allows applying instrumental variable regressions with ordinal observable data. As suggested by the theory of incomplete markets, we differentiate between the effects of persistent and transitory income shocks. In line with this theory, we find that persistent shocks have a significant impact on happiness while transitory shocks do not. This has consequences also for inference about the happiness effect of employment. We find that employment per se is rather associated with a decline in happiness.


The identification of MUC1 tumor-associated Tn antigen (αGalpNAc1-O-Ser/Thr) has boosted the development of anticancer vaccines. Combining microarrays and saturation transfer difference NMR, we have characterized the fine-epitope mapping of a MUC1 chemical library (naked and Tn-glycosylated) toward two families of cancer-related monoclonal antibodies (anti-MUC1 and anti-Tn mAbs). Anti-MUC1 mAbs clone VU-3C6 and VU-11E2 recognize naked MUC1-derived peptides and bind GalNAc in a peptide-sequence-dependent manner. In contrast, anti-Tn mAbs clone 8D4 and 14D6 mostly recognize the GalNAc and do not bind naked MUC1-derived peptides. These anti-Tn mAbs show a clear preference for glycopeptides containing the Tn-Ser antigen rather than the Tn-Thr analogue, stressing the role of the underlying amino acid (serine or threonine) in the binding process. The reported strategy can be employed, in general, to unveil the key minimal structural features that modulate antigen-antibody recognition, with particular relevance for the development of Tn-MUC1-based anticancer vaccines.


Some group-living animals show conciliatory tendencies towards specific group members after conflicts, referred to as post-conflict affiliation (PC-affiliation). PC-affiliation with a former opponent and a third-party bystander is classified as 'reconciliation' and 'third-party affiliation', respectively. PC-affiliation is assumed to be mediated by high-quality social relationships between individuals. Recently, studies assessing lifelong monogamous birds, such as corvids, have found PC-affiliation as a case of convergent evolution with regard to primates. Nevertheless, PC-affiliation divergence in birds is still poorly understood. Here, we report that pair-bonds of budgerigars, a lifelong-monogamous small parrot, engage in both reconciliation and third-party affiliation. We also found that males initiated both types of PC-affiliation more often than females. However, during reconciliation, this skewed affiliation pattern was unlikely specific to the PC-context but could also stem from sex differences in basic social-behavioural features (i.e., female dominance over males and males' primary role in initiating affiliation with females), which are common outside the PC-context. Conversely, the third-party PC-affiliation pattern was significantly different from the basic affiliation pattern: affiliations were initiated more often by combatant winners, by bystander males toward defeated females, and less often by defeated males. These results suggest specific signal and stress reduction functions related to PC-affiliation among budgerigar pair-bonds. The present study supports the view that PC-affiliations, based on high-quality relationships, did not only evolve in mammals but also in birds, with species-specific forms associated with social behavioural tendencies.


The introductory piece attempts to set forth as objectively as possible the economic legacy of the Reagan Administration, with emphasis on its international aspects, and thereby to provide the background for the other articles. Gilpin charts the shift in the 1980s from a supply-side, laissez-faire style policy to one that acknowledges a need for cooperation between the United States and its economic partners. While this has been a responsible and productive change, it has also generated ambiguity as to what the U.S. stance on economic international activity should be.


The Sec23p/Sec24p complex functions as a component of the COPII coat in vesicle transport from the endoplasmic reticulum. Here we characterize Saccharomyces cerevisiae SEC24, which encodes a protein of 926 amino acids (YIL109C), and a close homologue, ISS1 (YNL049C), which is 55% identical to SEC24. SEC24 is essential for vesicular transport in vivo because depletion of Sec24p is lethal, causing exaggeration of the endoplasmic reticulum and a block in the maturation of carboxypeptidase Y. Overproduction of Sec24p suppressed the temperature sensitivity of sec23-2, and overproduction of both Sec24p and Sec23p suppressed the temperature sensitivity of sec16-2. SEC24 gene disruption could be complemented by overexpression of ISS1, indicating functional redundancy between the two homologous proteins. Deletion of ISS1 had no significant effect on growth or secretion; however, iss1Delta mutants were found to be synthetically lethal with mutations in the v-SNARE genes SEC22 and BET1. Moreover, overexpression of ISS1 could suppress mutations in SEC22. These genetic interactions suggest that Iss1p may be specialized for the packaging or the function of COPII v-SNAREs. Iss1p tagged with His(6) at its C terminus copurified with Sec23p. Pure Sec23p/Iss1p could replace Sec23p/Sec24p in the packaging of a soluble cargo molecule (alpha-factor) and v-SNAREs (Sec22p and Bet1p) into COPII vesicles. Abundant proteins in the purified vesicles produced with Sec23p/Iss1p were indistinguishable from those in the regular COPII vesicles produced with Sec23p/Sec24p.


Bestselling author Deborah Harkness (A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night) explores the streets, shops, back alleys, and gardens of Elizabethan London, where a boisterous and diverse group of men and women shared a keen interest in the study of nature. These assorted merchants, gardeners, barber-surgeons, midwives, instrument makers, mathematics teachers, engineers, alchemists, and other experimenters, she contends, formed a patchwork scientific community whose practices set the stage for the Scientific Revolution. While Francis Bacon has been widely regarded as the father of modern science, scores of his London contemporaries also deserve a share in this distinction. It was their collaborative, yet often contentious, ethos that helped to develop the ideals of modern scientific research. The book examines six particularly fascinating episodes of scientific inquiry and dispute in sixteenth-century London, bringing to life the individuals involved and the challenges they faced. These men and women experimented and invented, argued and competed, waged wars in the press, and struggled to understand the complexities of the natural world. Together their stories illuminate the blind alleys and surprising twists and turns taken as medieval philosophy gave way to the empirical, experimental culture that became a hallmark of the Scientific Revolution.


A study of the herring gull Larus argentatus emphasising interrelationships of population ecology, social behaviour and breeding biology was undertaken on the Isle of May, Scotland, with some comparative work in a moorland gull colony on Mallowdale Fell in the Pennines. A cull of the herring gull population, which had hitherto been increasing at 13% per annum, has been practised by the Nature Conservancy Council on the Isle of May yearly since 1972, and special attention was given in this study to the biological effects of culling. The population trends were followed in detail up to 1977, and it was shown that the annual, recruitment rate has been very variable since 1972 and there has been a shortfall in the number of young gulls predicted to join the breeding population. These have presumably moved and some ringed gulls were located breeding in other colonies. The population has been held at about 20-25% of its 1972 level since 1975. With many of the older gulls having been culled, the average age of the population had been reduced, so that by 1977 about 50% of the population was breeding for the first time. Despite a strong correlation between parental age and percentage breeding success, the average number of chicks fledged per pair in control areas was 0.82, which was as high as that recorded in a previous study by Parsons (1971, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Durham University) on the Isle of May in the late 1960s. In addition, it was found that the median date of laying was the same as that estimated by Parsons, and that egg size (positively correlated with chick survival) had increased significantly. Experiments on recruitment by manipulating breeding density showed that at the highest densities recorded the annual recruitment rate was close to the average annual mortality rate. In areas where density had been greatly reduced, the recruitment rate was insufficient to replace annual adult mortality, and in some areas no recruitment was recorded. There was a broad, optimal breeding density of between 2 and 10 nests/l00m(^2) where highest recruitment rates took place. Much of the Isle of May was found to be at this density as a result of culling. Birds which spread their nests most uniformly were the most successful breeders, and the majority of nests were thus spaced. Aggression was found to increase with density. The rationale of gull culling has been discussed for the Isle of May, together with recommendations for future culls on the island and elsewhere.


There are several technical and operational measures available to improve the fuel efficiency of truck fleets, but many of these measures are currently not universally implemented. Even cost-effective measures (i.e., measures which can be implemented with net fuel savings that outweigh the initial technology costs and potentially at a net profit) are often not adopted. The main barrier is the lack of information on the fuel savings of individual technical measures for trucks and especially on trailers. While many transport companies and all original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), are aware that certain technologies exist, few respondents believed that these technologies are cost-effective. As a result of this belief, the supply of fuel-saving technologies from OEMs is limited. This report aims to better understand the reasons for the limited adoption of cost-effective fuel-saving technologies and to inform the policy-making process in the European Union and abroad, and specifically to provide input to the European Commissionrs strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from heavy duty vehicles (HDVs). The primary goal of the study is to identify the barriers to the implementation of technologies that improve fuel efficiency in the European road freight transport sector. For this report, the existence and importance of barriers were analyzed through surveys and interviews of transport companies, OEMs, shippers, and logistics service providers.


The article describes EU initiatives on Horizon 2020, a EU Framework Program based on Research and Innovation, which will be created to redefine cooperation in funding and scientific research of EU countries. Horizon 2020 is one of the main pillars of the so-called Innovation Union – one of the Flagship Initiatives of Europe 2020, which aims to increase Europe's competitiveness in the world. The article defines types of strategic choices that strengthen support for technological innovation, investigate societal communication and foster excellence level in research through the support of scientists, coordination and development of an improved infrastructure of research resources and facilities in EU. The article also discusses the main economic aspects in correlation with political approach of the program. Horizon 2020 provides immediate stimulus to the economy and scientific and technology base and industrial competitiveness in the future, so that the UE society will function in a more intelligent and balanced way, and is also conducive to societal exclusion. The quantity based research will show, which out of 5 main strategic choices (business level, corporate level, internationalization, innovation & entrepreneurship, mergers & acquisitions) the companies in EU will follow to provide best results of the program in the EU countries. The funds of the Horizon 2020 will be used for three main purposes: support EU leadership in science with a budget of €24.6 billion (comprising 77 percent. increase resources to the European Research Council); provide European businesses at the forefront of industrial innovation (€17.9 billion) – this includes a significant investment of €13.7 billion EUR in key technologies, as well as better access to capital and support for SMEs; €31.7 billion will be spent on important issues relating to all Europeans, which is divided into six main issues: (1) health, demographic changes, welfare, (2) food safety, sustainable agriculture, marine research and environmental management, (3) environmental safety and efficient energy, (4) intelligent, organic and integrated transport, (5) climate actions, effective management of resources and raw materials, (6) integration, innovative and safe society. The main outcomes of the article show that most of the European companies consider Horizon 2020, the part of the Europe 2020, as one of the most important funding program of this century. This funding will also serve to promote international cooperation, which will enhance the attractiveness of the EU's research, and enable the joint addressing global issues and to promote EU external policy. The analysis of possible synergy with funds awarded under the EU cohesion policy will be made in order to provide the greater number of participants across Europe. The weaker regions will identify potential centers of excellence, which will propose a strategic advisory and financial support under the program Horizon 2020, and the EU Structural Funds will be spent on upgrading infrastructure and equipment. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.6.1426


The amplification of spontaneous fluorescence in a planar layer of a nematic liquid crystal doped with a DCM dye is experimentally studied in a waveguide mode of light propagation. The optical pumping threshold of the superfluorescence is 0.65 MW/cm2. The gain value reaches 0.0014 μm-1 at a pumping intensity of 1.38 MW/cm2. Full Text: PDF ReferencesLiquid Crystal Microlasers, Eds. L. M. Blinov, R. Bartolino (Kerala India, Transworld Research Network 2010). DirectLink H. Kogelnik, C. V. Shank, "Coupled‐Wave Theory of Distributed Feedback Lasers", J. Appl. Phys. 43, 2327 (1972). CrossRef I. P. Il'chishin, E. A. Tihonov, V. G. Tishchenko, M. T. Shpak, "Generation of a tunable radiation by impurity cholesteric liquid crystals", JETP Lett. 32, 25 (1980). DirectLink A. Yariv, M. Nakamura, "Periodic structures for integrated optics", IEEE Quant. Electr. 13, 233 (1977). CrossRef N. M. Shtykov, M. I. Barnik, L. M. Blinov B. A. Umanskii, S, P. Palto, "Amplification of the emission of a liquid-crystal microlaser by means of a uniform liquid-crystal layer", JETP Lett. 85, 602 (2007). CrossRef


This paper outlines the production of 270 meter grid‐scale maps for 14 climate and derivative hydrologic variables for a region that encompasses the State of California and all the streams that flow into it. The paper describes the Basin Characterization Model (BCM), a map‐based, mechanistic model used to process the hydrological variables. Three historic and three future time periods of 30 years (1911–1940, 1941–1970, 1971–2000, 2010–2039, 2040–2069, and 2070– 2099) were developed that summarize 180 years of monthly historic and future climate values. These comprise a standardized set of fine‐scale climate data that were shared with 14 research groups, including the U.S. National Park Service and several University of California groups as part of this project. The paper presents three analyses done with the outputs from the Basin Characterization Model: trends in hydrologic variables over baseline, the most recent 30‐year period; a calibration and validation effort that uses measured discharge values from 139 streamgages and compares those to Basin Characterization Model‐derived projections of discharge for the same basins; and an assessment of the trends of specific hydrological variables that links historical trend to projected future change under four future climate projections. Overall, increases in potential evapotranspiration dominate other influences in future hydrologic cycles. Increased potential evapotranspiration drives decreasing runoff even under forecasts with increased precipitation, and drives increased climatic water deficit, which may lead to conversion of dominant vegetation types across large parts of the study region, as well as have implications for rain‐fed agriculture. The potential evapotranspiration is driven by air temperatures, and the Basin Characterization Model permits it to be integrated with a water balance model that can be derived for landscapes and summarized by watershed. These results show the utility of using a process‐based model with modules representing different hydrological pathways that can be interlinked.


This paper discusses trends in and patterns of trade in agricultural and food products in Central Asia. The analysis shows that these products' exports lose and imports increase its importance for all economies of Central Asia. Trade policies with regards to agricultural and food products vary greatly in the region from very liberal to quite protectionist. No correlation is observed between the type of trade regime and performance of agricultural production and trade. The paper also provides an overview of the recent changes in trade policies including those related to the creation of the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russian Federation and their potential impact on agricultural and food trade in the region.


Whereas melancholy (or 'acting out') entails a complete repression of all trauma-related memory, mourning (or 'working through') is an endeavour to remember the traumatic event and fit it into a coherent whole. In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, these two ways of reacting to and dealing with trauma are embodied respectively by the protagonist's paternal grandfather and by his paternal grandmother, both survivors of the Allied firebombing of Dresden in 1945. Foer ties up this 'old' trauma with a fresh one – 11 September 2001 – by having the Schells lose their only son, the protagonist's father, in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Aspects of both acting out and working through are in turn synthesised in the protagonist himself – Oskar Schell. In his behaviour, the boy displays characteristics of both a melancholic and a mourner.


Between 1871 and 1919, the population of Berlin quadrupled and the city became the political center of Germany, as well as the turbulent crossroads of the modern age. This was reflected in the work of artists, directors, writers and critics of the time. As an imperial capital, Berlin was the site of violent political revolution and radical aesthetic innovation. After the German defeat in World War I, artists employed collage to challenge traditional concepts of art. Berlin Dadaists reflected upon the horrors of war and the terrors of revolution and civil war. Between 1924 and 1929, jazz, posters, magazines, advertisements and cinema played a central role in the development of Berlin's urban experience as the spirit of modernity took hold. The concept of the "Neue Frau"-the modern, emancipated woman-helped move the city in a new direction. Finally, Berlin became a stage for political confrontation between the left and the right and was deeply affected by the economic crisis and mass unemployment at the end of the 1920s.This book explores in numerous essays and illustrations the artistic, cultural and social upheavals in Berlin between 1918 and 1933 and places them in a broader historical framework. Published in association with Neue Galerie New York.


Highly selective cellulose acetate (CA) blend imprinted membranes for salicylic acid (SA) removal were synthesized by phase inversion technique with chitosan as a functional polymer and chitosan-wrapped multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CHI-wrapped MWCNTs) as the additives. The surface and cross-sectional morphology of membranes were strongly affected by the amount of CHI-wrapped MWCNTs. As compared to M1-MIM, M2-MIM, and M4-MIM, the M3-MIM with 2.0 wt % CHI-wrapped MWCNTs showed higher membrane flux, faster kinetic, binding capacity and better selectivity for SA. The experimental data of adsorption kinetic were well fitted to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model by multiple regression analysis. The M3-MIM had the maximum adsorption capacity for SA. The selectivity coefficients of SA to p-hydroxybenzoic acid (p-HB) and acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) over M3-MIM were 6.3090 and 6.0019, respectively, showing that M3-MIM had excellent binding affinity and selectivity for separation of SA from SA-contained aqueous solution. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 42654.


Sustainable water management relies on the ability to control operating cost which relies in turn on a working knowledge of factors which can affect this ability. The impact of water volume on operating cost is investigated for water utilities using data from the International Benchmarking Network for Water and Sanitation Utilities (IBNET) online database. Econometric models are estimated for water utilities located in Albania, Moldova, Brazil, Zambia, Kazakhstan, and Russia. Estimations provide similar quantitative findings and identical qualitative findings across locales. Results suggest that expected operating cost is inelastic with respect to water volume and that operating cost variability increases with water volume. Implications of these findings are that (1) current world-wide strategies to promote water conservation may necessitate an increase in the expected per unit cost of water supply and (2) policies framed as incentives for short-run cost efficiency may need to recognize the difficulty of reducing expected operating cost at existing output levels and that utility managers may face added difficulty in controlling cost if efficiency is pursued by expanding volume.


Hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer (HLRCC) is a tumour predisposition syndrome caused by heterozygous germline mutations in the fumarate hydratase (FH) gene. The condition is characterised by predisposition to benign leiomyomas of the skin and the uterus, renal cell carcinoma (RCC), and uterine leiomyosarcoma (ULMS). To comprehensively examine the cancer risk and tumour spectrum in Finnish FH mutation positive families, genealogical and cancer data were obtained from 868 individuals. The cohort analysis of the standardised incidence ratios (SIR) was analysed from 256 individuals. FH mutation status was analysed from all available individuals (n = 98). To study tumour spectrum in FH mutation carriers, loss of the wild type allele was analysed from all available tumours (n = 22). The SIR was 6.5 for RCC and 71 for ULMS. The overall cancer risk was statistically significantly increased in the age group of 15–29 years, consistent with features of cancer predisposition families in general. FH germline mutation was found in 55% of studied individuals. Most RCC and ULMS tumours displayed biallelic inactivation of FH, as did breast and bladder cancers. In addition, several benign tumours including atypical uterine leiomyomas, kidney cysts, and adrenal gland adenomas were observed. The present study confirms with calculated risk ratios the association of early onset RCC and ULMS with FH germline mutations in Finns. Some evidence for association of breast and bladder carcinoma with HLRCC was obtained. The data enlighten the organ specific malignant potential of HLRCC.


Background: Internationally, many children and adults with intellectual disabilities are continually being supported by their family members to live within their family home. However, as a consequence of the ageing process some family members can struggle to continue to care because of their failing physical and/or mental ill-health. This has resulted in a shift in the parameters of the relationship for some adults with intellectual disabilities with their formerly dependent role evolving into a caregiving one. This had become known as " reciprocity " or " mutual support . " Limited information exists about these " hidden carers " and what services are available to support them. Aim: This article explored the lived experiences of nine adults with intellectual disabilities who provided emotional and tangible support to an ageing family member. Method: A qualitative methodology was employed using semi-structured interviews. Nine participants with mild-to-moderate intellectual disabilities were interviewed within one region of the United Kingdom. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings: Five themes emerged within these narrative accounts: natural transition to caring; the health needs of the ageing family member; support; impact of caregiving and future planning. Discussion: The needs of these unknown hidden carers, and also ageing family members, are immediate and urgent. Policy makers, commissioners and service providers need to examine the type of " in-house " support provided to these new carers if they are to continue living within their family home with their ageing family member, who will also need additional support. Neglecting both cohorts will lead to greater costs to services in the longer term and seriously threaten the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities and their family carers.


Challenging and complementing the existing literature on the Italian refugee crisis, this working paper develops an actor-centred approach to open the 'black box' of asylum governance processes, showing the constitutive effects of governance on the asylum issue. The approach developed is applied to the case of the Veneto region in Italy during the recent "refugee crisis", a heuristic case-study that shows the value of the approach developed. The paper, first, investigates the cognitive and environmental mechanisms that shape key actors' asylum policy decisions. Drawing concepts and ideas from framing and sensemaking theories, it shows that, while there is certainly a strategic element that shapes actors' policy preferences, there is also a meaningful cognitive component in asylum governance. The analysis reveals, indeed, that actors' strategies are powerfully shaped by political actors' (different) understandings of public attitudes on migration, rather than by attitudes per se. Secondly, SNA is applied to examine how such understandings are located within and depend upon network relations and to investigate actors' agency, power and interactions. The analysis shows that local asylum policy outcomes are deeply influenced by the "politics of policy-making", i.e. by power dynamics and how powerful actors position themselves, behave and mobilise their understandings. Ultimately, the paper sheds light on the interplay between the "regulatory" and the "public reaction" dimensions of the Italian asylum crisis, illustrating the politicisation of asylum governance and the relationship between public attitudes on migration, frame emergence, policy-making, politics and public mobilisations in the active constitution of the Italian asylum crisis.


John Wesley insisted that a good theologian must be a good textuary (student of biblical texts). This essay surveys his model as a textuary, highlighting insights from recent secondary studies and providing some new evidence from just-released sources. The first section focuses on what Bible Wesley read, probing his assumptions about canon and his emphasis on studying Scripture in the original languages. The second section details several dimensions of how Wesley read the Bible, with particular attention to his "theological" reading of Scripture and the identification of his distinctive "working canon." The final section turns to why Wesley read the Bible, stressing that he valued Scripture for more than just a guide to Christian faith. His strongest emphasis was on Scripture as a "means of grace" for nurturing Christian life, and his life-long practice of immersion in Scripture served to sustain and broaden his sense of the Christian hope.


Pyracantha crenulata (D. Don) M. Roem. (Rosaceae) is distributed in the northern Himalayas and China as a perennial shrub. The leaves are used to prepare herbal teas, sun burn creams and facial creams and taken as a nervine tonic. An air-dried leaf powder of P . crenulata was exhaustively extracted with methanol. The concentrated leaf extract was adsorbed on silica gel (60-120 mesh) for the preparation of a slurry. The dried slurry was chromatographed over silica gel column packed in petroleum ether. The column was eluted with petroleum ether, chloroform and methanol successively in order of increasing polarity to isolate β-sitosterol, cis -3,4-dioxyethylene-5-methoxycinnamic acid and lanost-54-en-2β,3β-diol 26-oic acid (cranulanostenoic acid). The structures of all the isolated phytoconstituents have been established on the basis of spectral data analysis and chemical reactions.


The topic of the
 study was Developing a Model for Student Support Services at Allama
 Iqbal Open University
 The objectives of the study were to evaluate the existing facilities
 available in student support services at AIOU, review various models
 used in developing and developed countries and to develop student
 support services model for AIOU.
 The population of the study was the students, tutors, RDs, DRDs,
 ARDs, academicians, and policy makers of AIOU, UKOU and OUSL. The
 sample comprised of 200 students of AIOU, 200 of UKOU and 200 OUSL
 semester Spring 2003 of B.Ed programme. 50 tutors of AIOU, UKOU and
 OUSL, 20 RDs, DRDs, ARDs of AIOU, 20 OUSL and 20 RDs of UKOU, 10
 policy makes of AIOU, UKOU and 10 OUSL, 50 academicians of AIOU,
 UKOU and OUSL.
 To achieve the objectives of the study, five questionnaires were
 constructed for students, tutors, RDs/DRDs/ARDs, policy makers and
 academicians of AIOU and UKOU, consisting of four parts: (i) general
 services (ii) tutorial services (iii) counselling services and (iv)
 library services. All questions were designed at five point rating
 scale; however, one last question was open ended.
 The score on each item was analyzed by applying chi square,
 percentage and mean score formula to determine the objectives of the
 study.
 The major findings were, (i) Regional campuses of UKOU worked
 independently as mini university while AIOU regional centre/ campus
 worked under the main campus, (ii) UKOU students enjoyed the
 facility of Open University Student Association while AIOU did not
 form such an association, (iii) UKOU Regional Campuses provided
 number of better quality student support services than AIOU.
 On the basis of data analysis, it was found that in general AIOU,
 UKOU and OUSL cumulatively, resembled in their student support and
 they had attained great popularity by dint of their broadcast TV and
 radio programmes. Also, most of the students were highly satisfied
 with the media support services. However, AIOU exceeded in half of
 the categories of facilities in establishment and administration as
 regards enrollment in comparison to UKOU and OUSL. There was no
 significant difference in the performance of tutors, quality of face
 to face meetings, standard of resource centers and techniques of
 media support, but AIOU could not show high standards of counseling
 as compared to UKOU. Three universities could not achieve some of
 their claimed targets and needed improvement in order to maintain
 the  quality of their education through effective training of
 their personnel and evaluating the provisions presently made.
 The findings of the study have led the researcher to recommend that
 (i) regional campuses should be made independent like UKOU (ii)
 counselling and guidance cell should be established in every
 regional campus (iii) modern communication faculties like toll free
 phones or auto answer should be provided at AIOU regional campus
 (iv) Allama Iqbal Open University Student Association should be
 founded on the lines of Open University Student Association of UKOU.
 After analyzing and interpretation of data and document, the main
 conclusions were; UKOU, OUSL and AIOU provide a number of student
 support services through their regional campuses but UKOU regional
 campuses work independently like mini university. However, OUSL and
 AIOU regional campuses work under the main campus.
 For the contact facilities, OUSL and AIOU students rely only upon
 mail and telephone, while UKOU students enjoy a number of different
 facilities, for example, toll free phones and voice e-mail etc.
 The major recommendations of the study are that the AIOU regional
 centres should appoint tutors on merit and should intimate tutors in
 time. There may be arrangements for comprehensive training of tutors
 for the betterment of tutorial support system. It was also
 recommended that AIOU may be affiliated with all the public and
 institutional libraries in big districts for the facilitation of the
 students. The tutors may be trained effectively for solving the
 problems clientele as counselors more considerately and
 sympathetically. Assignments may be given specific and encouraging
 remarks to ensure the improvement on part of the students. Computer
 assisted learning programmes may be introduced on higher level
 courses and media support may be made interactive for getting
 opinions from students.


In the past few years, two important trends have evolved that could change the shape of computing: multimedia applications and portable electronics. Together, these trends will lead to a personal mobile-computing environment, a small device carried all the time that incorporates the functions of the pager, cellular phone, laptop computer, PDA, digital camera, and video game. The microprocessor needed for these devices is actually a merged general-purpose processor and digital-signal processor, with the power budget of the latter. Yet for almost two decades, architecture research has focused on desktop or server machines. We are designing processors of the future with a heavy bias toward the past. To design successful processor architectures for the future, we first need to explore future applications and match their requirements in a scalable, cost-effective way. The authors describe Vector IRAM, an initial approach in this direction, and challenge others in the very successful computer architecture community to investigate architectures with a heavy bias for the future.


Three late Elizabethan progress entertainments are being discussed: Cowdray (August
1591), Elvetham (September 1591), and Harefield (July 1602).
The Elvetham entertainment has received some critical attention and is comparatively
well known due to the extraordinary preparations undertaken for the royal visit, and the
fact that a woodcut of an artificial crescent-shaped lake, especially dug for the occasion,
has survived. The other two entertainments have been somewhat neglected, and
Harefield survives only in fragmentary form. To my knowledge, its text has never been
printed in toto, and the thesis will include a transcript of the original manuscript housed
in Warwickshire County Record Office.
The traditional view that progress entertainments were pastoral tales whose main
purpose was to consolidate and confirm existing class structures is challenged.
Entertainments are rather complex fictions that serve not merely to establish and
preserve the `beautiful relation' between Queen and her subjects, highborn as well as
lowly. These occasions were also very much sites for the exercise of power, by monarch
and hosts alike. When examining these festivities in their historical and political
contexts and illuminating their hosts' backgrounds, significant new interpretations, or at
least possible alternative readings, may be found. Most importantly, the entertainments
have to be viewed holistically, as events rather than as the texts that have come down to
us.
The hosts of the first two entertainments were powerful peers who were politically
suspect from the regime's point of view. Both these lords, on the other hand, had little
reason to love the regime because they had been harassed. Despite this state of affairs,
traditional interpretations still maintain that both entertainments were submissive in
tenor; that their hosts regarded the royal visit as an honour, and tried to (re)gain the
Queen's favour through the spectacles that they were putting on. I would claim that
these pageants are far more complex affairs and have to be read on different levels of
signification. Far from being submissive, these fetes can be interpreted as challenging
the existing order, if not indeed actively trying to subvert it.
Having said that, there are country welcomes that seem to conform to the more
traditional view of progress entertainments. The third pageant at Harefield was offered
by a top-ranking Elizabethan official whose relationship with the Queen was
presumably more amicable. Her visit to him was probably intended as a sign of favour,
and his motivation in hosting the entertainment may well have been the consolidation of
his own position within her close circle of councillors. He would have aimed at
maintaining the existing order rather than challenge it; at establishing a `beautiful
relation' between all classes. These conclusions can only be drawn, however, once the
event as a whole has been studied as well as the surviving fragments of text.


Nep1 (Emg1) is a highly conserved nucleolar protein with an essential function in ribosome biogenesis. A mutation in the human Nep1 homolog causes Bowen–Conradi syndrome—a severe developmental disorder. Structures of Nep1 revealed a dimer with a fold similar to the SPOUT-class of RNA-methyltransferases suggesting that Nep1 acts as a methyltransferase in ribosome biogenesis. The target for this putative methyltransferase activity has not been identified yet. We characterized the RNA-binding specificity of Methanocaldococcus jannaschii Nep1 by fluorescence- and NMR-spectroscopy as well as by yeast three-hybrid screening. Nep1 binds with high affinity to short RNA oligonucleotides corresponding to nt 910–921 of M. jannaschii 16S rRNA through a highly conserved basic surface cleft along the dimer interface. Nep1 only methylates RNAs containing a pseudouridine at a position corresponding to a previously identified hypermodified N1-methyl-N3-(3-amino-3-carboxypropyl) pseudouridine (m1acp3-Ψ) in eukaryotic 18S rRNAs. Analysis of the methylated nucleoside by MALDI-mass spectrometry, HPLC and NMR shows that the methyl group is transferred to the N1 of the pseudouridine. Thus, Nep1 is the first identified example of an N1-specific pseudouridine methyltransferase. This enzymatic activity is also conserved in human Nep1 suggesting that Nep1 is the methyltransferase in the biosynthesis of m1acp3-Ψ in eukaryotic 18S rRNAs.


History and collective memories influence a nation, its culture, and institutions; hence, its domestic politics and foreign policy. That is the case in the Intermarium, the land between the Baltic and Black Seas in Eastern Europe. The area is the last unabashed rampart of Western Civilisation in the East, and a point of convergence of disparate cultures. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz focuses on the Intermarium for several reasons. Most importantly because, as the inheritor of the freedom and rights stemming from the legacy of the Polish-Lithuanian/Ruthenian Commonwealth, it is culturally and ideologically compatible with American national interests. It is also a gateway to both East and West. Since the Intermarium is the most stable part of the post-Soviet area, Chodakiewicz argues that the United States should focus on solidifying its influence there. The ongoing political and economic success of the Intermarium states under American sponsorship undermines the totalitarian enemies of freedom all over the world. As such, the area can act as a springboard to addressing the rest of the successor states, including those in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Russian Federation. Intermarium has operated successfully for several centuries. It is the most inclusive political concept within the framework of the Commonwealth. By reintroducing the concept of the Intermarium into intellectual discourse the author highlights the autonomous and independent nature of the area. This is a brilliant and innovative addition to European Studies and World Culture.


In this paper, we deploy binary stochastic neural autoencoder networks as models of infant language learning in two typologically unrelated languages (Xitsonga and English). We show that the drive to model auditory percepts leads to latent clusters that partially align with theory-driven phonemic categories. We further evaluate the degree to which theory-driven phonological features are encoded in the latent bit patterns, finding that some (e.g. [+-approximant]), are well represented by the network in both languages, while others (e.g. [+-spread glottis]) are less so. Together, these findings suggest that many reliable cues to phonemic structure are immediately available to infants from bottom-up perceptual characteristics alone, but that these cues must eventually be supplemented by top-down lexical and phonotactic information to achieve adult-like phone discrimination. Our results also suggest differences in degree of perceptual availability between features, yielding testable predictions as to which features might depend more or less heavily on top-down cues during child language acquisition.


It was the best of times, it was the worst of times -- a year marked by genuine progress in public procurement law in some nations, and partial paralysis in others. This article presents the experience of Sweden (as part of the European Union), the United Kingdom (which is slated soon to depart from the EU, via "Brexit"), and the United States (in the first year of the Trump administration). While Sweden and other members of the European Union continue to develop a vital and evolving body of public procurement law, the United Kingdom has been distracted by Brexit, and the United States made, in 2017, almost no regulatory progress at all -- though stasis itself yielded some interesting insights. This piece proceeds in three parts, prepared primarily by Andrea Sundstrand (Part II, on Sweden and the European Union), Michael Bowsher (Part III, on the United Kingdom) and Christopher Yukins (Introduction, Part IV on the United States, and Conclusion).


Herein, we designed a hydrophobic–hydrophilic phase-separated poly(arylene ether ketone sulfone) (PAEKS) random copolymer-based di-quaternized stable and highly conductive alkaline membrane (AM). These membranes were prepared by bromination and mono- and di-quaternization using bi-functional 1,4-diazabicyclo[2,2,2]octane (DABCO) as the quaternization agent, which showed improved ion clusters. The reported method avoids the use of hazardous choloromethyl methyl ether (CMME), and the hydrophilic–hydrophobic blocks were responsible for the formation of OH− conductive channels. Furthermore, steric hindrance (due to methyl bonded second functional group) and the micro-phase separated structure were responsible for the improved alkaline resistance and formation of ion-clusters. The structure of PAEKS was confirmed by 1H NMR and FTIR spectroscopy, whereas the molecular weight was determined by gel permeation chromatography (GPC). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images showed well phase-separated ionic clusters. The well optimized di-quaternized alkaline membrane with a 68% degree of bromination (di-DQP-OH (DB: 68%)) exhibited a significantly improved ion-exchange capacity (2.45 meq g−1), hydroxide ion conductivity (4.68 × 10−2 S cm−1), and activation energy (6.61 kJ mol−1) along with good thermal, mechanical, and dimensional stabilities. These properties of the AMs confirm their potential applications in alkaline fuel cells.


Signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) proteins become tyrosine phosphorylated and dimerize before transport to the nucleus, where they activate the transcription of specific genes. What signals are required for STAT localization into the nucleus, however, has remained a mystery. Two reports provide some insight into this process. Begitt et al. showed that interferon-γ (IFN-γ)-stimulated cells treated with the nuclear export inhibitor leptomycin B (LMB) had reduced cytoplasmic levels of STAT1, suggesting that a nuclear export signal (NES) might exist in STAT1. Potential NES motifs were examined, and a functional motif (as measured by fluorescence assays) was identifed at residues 302 to 314, within the fourth helix of the STAT1 coiled-coil domain. Disruption of the NES, in a STAT1 mutant, strongly reduced cytoplasmic accumulation of mutant STAT1 in response to IFNγ treatment. Nuclear accumulation of STAT1 did not result in increased transcription of a STAT1-responsive reporter gene, implying that the transcription-enhancing integrity of accumulated STAT1 was diminished. Although it was not proven, it was suggested that the weakened transcriptional activity may be due to dephosphorylation of Tyr701. Thus, after Tyr701 phosphorylation and dimerization, STAT1 translocates to the nucleus to affect gene transcription, STAT1 becomes dephosphorylated, and an intact NES shuttles STAT1 back to the cytoplasm. Mowen and David also identify a NES motif in STAT1; however, it is located at residues 197 to 205. Nuclear translocation of STAT1 depended on the presence and kinase activity of Jak1. However, even when the EGF receptor phosphorylated STAT1, Jak1 was still necessary for the nuclear accumulation of STAT1. LMB-treated Jak1-/- cells accumulated nuclear STAT1, suggesting that Jak1's role in STAT1 nuclear accumulation is most likely due to nuclear retention (and blocking export) rather than translocation to the nucleus. One caveat exists, that mutation of possible NES motifs may cryptically activate nonphysiological NESs. Mowen, K., and David, M. (2000) Regulation of STAT1 nuclear export by Jak1. Mol. Cell. Biol. 20: 7273-7281. [Abstract] [Full Text] Begitt, A., Meyer, T., van Rossum, M., and Vinkemeier, U. (2000) Nucleocytoplasmic translocation of Stat is regulated by a leucine-rich export signal in the coiled-coil domain. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97: 10418-10423. [Abstract] [Full Text]


Introduction There is currently little professional literature for high school English teachers teaching their own students how to use an online catalog. Based on my conversations with library staff, scholarly research into the subject, and my own experience, most "information literacy" articles are aimed at the trained librarian, the information specialist. For example, in the academic database Library Literature and Info Science Full Text, one finds that there are only 11 articles, using the key words "teaching" and "high school" and "English." Other subject/keyword combinations produce little else relevant to English teacher search ability, and one even finds that the English teacher may be considered a junior partner to the "Teacher Librarian," (O'Sullivan, p. 5) the actual school librarian conducting classes for students. English teachers need their own information literacy, the ability to use online databases skillfully to gather data quickly, accurately, and relevantly. This skill is a supplement - not a replacement - to the certified librarian. Librarians offer full lectures, but on a tight schedule; English teachers can initiate brief in-class sessions to help students to be "better searchers." Teachers can build their own information literary skill, pass them on as the class engages in literature searches and writing projects. Effective search strategy will help students get pertinent information quicker, allowing for more time to be spent on the writing of term papers. Search skills can be used in the student's home, at a personal computer, if the student logs into the school library. The result will be a student who absorbs sound search strategy, what it takes to make a faster, complete search, when preparing an argument for the paper. Below is a sample search at the Guyer High School Library in Denton, Texas. This multi-word strategy, which can be used at any catalog, requires "subject" and "keyword" searching. Teachers should emphasize that a search can be narrowed quickly once the student identifies the correct subject area and prime words that needs to be searched. Many researchers, including, O'Sullivan, argue for this dual approach: Using the keywords/search terms from their research question, the teacher librarian stresses the importance of developing a comprehensive, dynamic list of related keywords or synonyms, and in identifying the appropriate subject headings for the key concepts in their research question. (p. 7) Bastone and others have recognized the need for students to go beyond simple "keyword" searching, those with inconclusive or overwhelming results (numerically, that is). I prefer encouraging the subject heading strategy for students' "critical thinking skills" (Bastone, p. 10), speeding up and improving the search, but the search style is yours to make. A high school English teacher should be able to teach the following 10 step, 10-minute mini-session, either as a prelude to a formal class with a librarian or as a reminder to class after a basic but formal introduction has been given. Notice that the emphasis is on isolating the subject heading by using an initial keyword search. In the instance below, students are taught to research literary theory, in particular, critics who have written about an author, including Hawthorne, from a documented perspective. The quick search method can be demonstrated by an overhead connected to the Internet within the classroom, a technology that most high schools have today. Note that the teacher will go through a number of connected sets, repeating, reviewing and even reversing, allowing students to build research skills slowly. Materials should be located as circulating or reference, emphasizing the accessibility of material in either case. 1) The search begins at the Guyer Library Home Page, located at the following site, http://www.dentonisd. …


An important challenge within the offshore industry and sea traffic preparedness is how to plan and optimise the positioning of a fleet of vessels in a dynamic, everchanging environment such that operating costs and risks related to health, the environment, and safety are reduced, whilst services and profit are improved. In Norway, the Norwegian Coastal Adminstration runs a vessel traffic service centre in the town of Vardø that is responsible for a fleet of tugs patrolling the northern coastline of Norway. Tug fleet optimisation algorithms can be designed to solve the problem of dynamically positioning such a fleet of tugs in order to mitigate the risk of oil tanker drifting accidents. In this project, we modelled the tug fleet optimisation problem in both 1D and 2D and developed new methods for solving it, including 14 different variants of a receding horizon genetic algorithm as well as several variants of a receding horizon mixed integer programming algorithm. We also developed two evaluation heuristics for measuring the performance, or merit, of such algorithms. The algorithms were tested for a large number of simulation scenarios. Extending the original project description, we also re-implemented the receding horizon genetic algorithm in a more suitable programming language and studied parallelisation of genetic algorithms and pseudo-random number generators. The work resulted in several conference presentations and seven publications, far exceeding the target of two publications. Research on fleet optimisation has continued after the project ended through the work of a PhD candidate expected to complete his work late 2016. In addition, the knowledge, skills, and methods gained and developed during the project have led to further research funding in other research areas as well as integration in research-based education both at the bachelor and master level at Aalesund University College.


In recent years, wireless mesh network (WMN) is a compelling topic to many network researchers due to its low cost in deployment, simplicity in installation and robustness in operation. However, existing routing protocols designed for MANET can not work efficiently in WMN because backbone in WMN formed by Mesh Router has very low mobility and are not put under power and memory constraint. In addition, they just concentrate on finding single path from the source to the destination while the characteristics of robustness of WMN require that every intermediate Mesh Router should establish several paths from itself to its desired destination. In our paper, we design a routing protocol that permits each MR to quickly discover multiple paths based on Hop Count metric to the Internet Gateways. Unfortunately, Hop Count does not take packet loss or bandwidth into account. It results in low throughput of a flow that follows the shortest path. A bandwidth estimation technique has been proposed to apply at each Mesh Router to allow it to predict congestion risk over its connected links and to select high available bandwidth link for forwarding packets. A detailed performance evaluation shows that the throughput increases greatly compared to pure AODV and AOMDV in high-loaded traffic scenario.


Residential high-rises find more and more often their place in central parts of the big British cities. Due to intrinsic characteristics of the typology, they are bound to be observed, evaluated and discussed. Therefor the purpose of this research is through observation of nine prominent high-rise buildings in Manchester, Birmingham and London, subjected to rigorous analysis, to evaluate their ability to maintain identity and to be decisive part of the lived spaces around them. The research achieves this goal through four research questions: how is the design addressing the creation of strong identity of the researched buildings; are the identity-creating features of the design contradicting major placemaking principles; what characteristics have the lived spaces around the residential high-rises; what messages send the design of the lived spaces? The methodology relies on observational survey of the researched areas with the help of structured questions, to evaluate the external qualities of the residential high-rises and their surroundings. Visual information can construct the basis to identify the shortcomings and the downsides of the examined project examples. It can provide insight on how can be improved imageability, legibility and the sense of place. In this connection, the results show that even though it was found that the high-rises with their abstract form, memorable design and creative use of materials and architectural techniques maintain strong identity, the functional quality of the lived spaces around them is low, there are missing squares, gardens and playgrounds in close proximity and the only experience provided for the users is street life, which however exciting is too limited to only few activities such as eating, drinking, shopping or just walking and looking at limited typology of spaces. The implications of this research are that the British planners will address these problems and future projects will have better placemaking component.


The Military Commissions Act of 2006 expressly removed the Geneva Conventions as a source of rights for any person litigating against the United States or its agents. For General Manuel Noriega, the Geneva Conventions provided him with his sole opportunity for relief from what is, in his opinion, a grave injustice; without it, he has no hope of returning to his home country any time in the near future. Thus, Noriega petitioned the Supreme Court and asked the Court to find this restriction to be an unconstitutional suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. To perform this analysis, the Supreme Court would have had to delve into territory previously unexplored and narrowly avoided. Ultimately, the Court declined to accept certiorari, over a strong objection by Justice Thomas, joined by Justice Scalia. This Comment argues that the Supreme Court has avoided the issue long enough, and should have settled the matter once and for all by accepting General Noriega's challenge.


We examined the serum LH response to LRH in 40 normal men and 38 men with various forms of gonadal dysfunction in an attempt to determine whether the LH response to LRH was more useful than the basal LH level alone for categorizing pathophysiological subgroups of gonadal dysfunction. The subgroups studied included hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, delayed puberty, idiopathic oligospermia, and primary hypogonadism. Log transformation of all values was done in order to normalize the data. Spearman's correlation analysis showed that increased basal LH was associated with increased incremental LH responses. However, our preliminary analysis of LRH response data suggested that the changes in LH were smaller in the secondary hypogonadal and delayed puberty groups then could be accounted for by the differences in basal LH level. Accordingly, we used various statistical techniques to test whether, and under what conditions, LRH testing provides information beyond that evident from examination of basal LH values. We found that the relationship between basal LH and the LH response to LRH differs in men with and without hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunction and that this difference can be exploited to improve the discrimination of men with pituitary hypogonadism from normals.


Public attention towards HIV/AIDS has shifted away from Western democracies in recent decades towards the global South. AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs) in the West, who were among the first in the world to respond to the epidemic, face increasing competition in relation to accessing nearly all of their traditional sources of funding. Within this thesis, the dynamics of competition for funding among ASOs operating in the province of Alberta is explored. Using Hilgartner and Bosk's (1988) public arenas model, I assume that the processes governing a social problem's rise and fall on the public agenda can be similarly applied to the study of non-profit funding. I introduce the concept of funding arenas to describe the location of financial resources available to ASOs in Alberta, and the social processes that influence successful competition therein. Seventeen interviews were conducted (N=17) with Executive Directors and other development staff from all thirteen ASOs operating in the province of Alberta. Content analyses of relevant ASO's funding documents are analyzed in conjunction with interview data. Two broad categorizations of five funding arenas are explored: government arenas and arenas of diverse competition. Cultural factors surrounding HIV/AIDS, including stigma, present various influences on the fund-seeking process in distinct funding arenas. In a critique of the public arenas model, I challenge the assumption that the objective conditions of a social problem bear little impact on the amount of attention it receives.


Managing research data has always been challenging but the recent availability of multi-gigabyte and larger datasets from major aggregators has created new problems, especially for individual and small institution researchers. A recent collaboration between the Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) and the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) called Global Unified Open Data Access (GUODA) aims to bring new techniques and resources for working with large biodiversity datasets to the widest community of researchers possible. GUODA is both a computing infrastructure built and hosted by iDigBio and a community for collaboration in using the infrastructure. Our collaboration focuses on developing tools and workflows using Apache Spark for highly parallelized data analysis, a repository of pre-formatted and ready to use biodiversity datasets, and a resource management system capable of exposing these resources to the full skill range of software developers and data analysts. This presentation will outline the software and hardware used in GUODA, the process and formats for transforming common biodiversity data such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), iDigBio, and the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) into computable data structures, and demonstrate the Jupyter Notebook interface to GUODA that is designed for researchers to interact with directly.


Integrating variable energy resources, notably solar and wind, requires better understanding of where, when and how much of variable resources are available. China's ambitious solar energy development goal will be greatly facilitated by the resources assessment at higher spatial and temporal resolution. We utilized 10-year hourly solar irradiation data from 2001 to 2010 from 200 representative locations to develop provincial solar availability profiles. We found that China has a potential stationary solar capacity from 4700 GW to 39300 GW, distributed solar about 200 GW, and the annual solar output could reach 6900 TWh to 70100 TWh. Resources are most concentrated in northwest provinces, topped by Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Gansu. The challenge of solar development in China is integration rather than resources. The spatial and temporal variation of the solar resource show an efficient, robust, and interconnected national grid and sound energy planning would be necessary to facilitate the integration of these vastly available but variable solar resources. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Many pathogenic bacteria have evolved mechanisms for evading host immune systems. One evasion mechanism is manifest by the surface layer (S-layer), a paracrystalline protein structure composed of S-layer proteins (SLPs). The S-layer, possessed by 2 Campylobacter species (C. fetus and C. rectus), is external to the bacterial outer membrane and can have multiple functions in immune avoidance. C. fetus is a pathogen of ungulates and immunocompromised humans, in whom it causes disseminated bloodstream disease. In C. fetus, the S-layer is required for dissemination and is involved in 2 mechanisms of evasion. First, the S-layer confers resistance to complement-mediated killing in non-immune serum by preventing the binding of complement factor C3b to the C. fetus cell surface. S-layer expressing C. fetus strains remain susceptible to complement-independent killing, utilizing opsonic antibodies directed against the S-layer. However, C. fetus has also evolved a mechanism for avoiding antibody-mediated killing by high-frequency antigenic variation of SLPs. Antigenic variation is accomplished by complex DNA inversion events involving a family of multiple SLP-encoding genes and a single SLP promoter. Inversion events result in the expression of antigenically variant S-layers, which require distinct antibody responses for killing. C. rectus is implicated in the pathogenesis of periodontal disease and also possesses an S-layer that appears to be involved in evading the human system. Although studied less extensively than its C. fetus counterpart, the C. rectus S-layer appears to confer resistance to complement-mediated killing and to cause the down-regulation of proinflammatory cytokines.


Canada is profoundly at risk, most importantly because of the English Canada/Quebec conundrum. But the risk does not just derive from that -- this is not "the Quebec problem," this is "the Canada problem." I was reminded of just how bad things have become when our federal transportation minister announced in the Calgary Herald that "the National Dream is dead" as he warned Canadians that the $1.6 billion we spend each year on transportation subsidies -- the St. Lawrence Seaway, passenger train service, the Crow Benefit, the ferries of Atlantic Canada, the Coast Guard -- are on the chopping block.(f.1) If we end our national policy of a forced and subsidized east - west transportation system, and substitute the free market and private enterprise, another stake will have been driven into the heart of Canada's federal system.What is most deeply disturbing is that English Canadians have not yet awakened -- though we are on the edge of the abyss -- have not yet realized the enormity of the risk facing Canada. Indeed, the mood abroad in English Canada is so cavalier that I fear we may stumble thoughtlessly through a series of crises and urgent events, and suddenly wake up to find that this great federal experiment we call Canada has failed before its 130th anniversary. And it will have been a failure that could have been averted had we had sufficient political will to concede, compromise, and innovate.Quebec and English CanadaI am one of the large block of English Canadians -- ranging from 30 to 40 percent depending on which Gallup Poll in which year you consult -- who believe that the only road out of the English Canada/Quebec impasse is to negotiate "special status" for Quebec in our constitution.(f.2) I have believed this for over 30 years, ever since the beginning of the Quiet Revolution. Indeed, since the emergence of the Rassemblement pour l'Independance Nationale in the 1966 Quebec election I have been convinced that the Quebecois have presented English Canada with a starkly clear option: special status or sovereignty.(f.3) Ironically, the choices amount to the same thing in the final analysis -- sovereignty will inevitably lead to some form of intimate association not dissimilar from the European Union (unless English Canada goes completely mad). What English Canada faces, then, is a choice between a very long and messy road to special status in some form of negotiated sovereignty - association on the one hand, and the shorter road to the same reality via negotiation leading to harmonious and voluntary constitutional change, on the other.But despite the fact that at 30 or 40 percent we special status advocates are a significant minority in English Canada, really on the threshold of majority status with the right leadership and commitment, the rest of English Canada, most importantly all our prominent political leaders, have exhibited a growing cranky unwillingness even to discuss the option. And in Quebec, the strong nationalists and committed separatists insist that it is too late, that only Quebec sovereignty will now suffice to realize that nation's dreams and securities. Hence, the Quebecois today face narrow and hard choices -- to accept federalism as it has evolved or to choose sovereignty. One need not belabour history's lesson that presenting an aggrieved population such a zero - sum choice can be very, very risky.Political analysts and commentators appear profoundly puzzled as they try to understand and explain why Canadian politics and political debates have reached such a parlous state: dominated by the business lobby; an absence among established political and economic elites of a commitment to the project of the Canadian federation's survival; a separatist party as the Official Opposition in Ottawa;(f.4) a western - based protest party of the extreme right funded by oil and natural resource interests as the only other contender for the status of Official Opposition;(f. …


Spaceflight exploration presents environmental stressors including microgravity-induced cephalad fluid shift and radiation exposure. Ocular changes leading to visual impairment in astronauts are of occupational health relevance. The effect of this complex environment on ocular morphology and function is poorly understood. Female 10-12 week-old BALB/cJ mice were assigned to a flight (FLT) group flown on shuttle mission STS-133, Animal Enclosure Module (AEM), or vivarium (VIV) ground controls. Eyes were collected at 1, 5 and 7 days after landing and were fixed for histological sectioning. The contralateral eye was used for gene expression profiling by qRT-PCR. Sections were visualized by hematoxylin/eosin stain and processed for 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), caspase-3, and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and β-amyloid double-staining. 8-OHdG and caspase-3 immunoreactivity was increased in the retina in FLT samples at return from flight (R+1) compared to ground controls, and decreased at day 7 (R+7). β-amyloid was seen in the nerve fibers at the post-laminar region of the optic nerve in the flight samples (R+7). Expression of oxidative and cellular stress response genes was upregulated in the retina of FLT samples upon landing, followed by lower levels by R+7. These results suggest that reversible molecular damage occurs in the retina of mice exposed to spaceflight and that protective cellular pathways are induced in the retina and optic nerve in response to these changes.


There is uncertainty about whether biological and anthropometric measures that are clinical risk factors for disease are universally associated with chronological age, or whether these correlations vary depending on the social and economic context. The answer to this question has implications for the malleability of biological aging. To examine this issue, we use population-based data on individuals aged 60 and older from the Costa Rican Study on Longevity and Healthy Aging, and temporally consistent data from the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the United States Health and Retirement Study. Our analysis focuses on 12 biomarkers that have been shown in the literature to have an association with age, and that occur prior to the clinical manifestation of disease. We find that there are few consistent patterns of association with age when these biomarkers are stratified by gender, country, and level of education. This result suggests that these measures of biological aging are highly context-dependent, and that none of the 12 biomarkers we examined are universal biomarkers of aging. Future research that investigates composite measures of biological age should test newly proposed measures across gender, social class, and country.


Genetic data collected from surveys such as the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) enable researchers to investigate the association between wide varieties of health factors and genetic variation for the US population. Tests for trend in disease with increasing number of alleles have been developed for simple random samples. However, surveys such as the NHANES III have complex sample designs involving multistage cluster sampling and sample weighting. These types of sample designs can affect Type I error and power properties of statistical tests based on simple random samples. In order to address these issues, we have derived tests of trend based on Wald and quasi-score statistics, with and without assuming a genetic model, that account for the complex sampling design. The finite-sample properties of the proposed test procedures are evaluated via Monte Carlo simulation studies. We make recommendations about the choice of the test statistic depending on whether or not the underlying genetic model is known. Proposed test statistics are applied to NHANES III data to test for associations between the locus ADRB2 (rs1042713) and obesity, between VDR (rs2239185) and high blood lead level, and between TGFB1 (rs1982073) and asthma.


According to Ljungqvist and Sargent (1998), high European unemployment since the 1980s can be explained by a rise in economic turbulence, leading to greater numbers of unemployed workers with obsolete skills. These workers refuse new jobs due to high unemployment benefits. In this paper we reassess the turbulence-unemployment relationship using a matching model with endogenous job destruction. In our model, higher turbulence reduces the incentives of employed workers to leave their jobs. If turbulence has only a tiny effect on the skills of workers experiencing endogenous separation, then the results of Ljungqvist and Sargent (1998, 2004) are reversed, and higher turbulence leads to a reduction in unemployment. Thus, changes in turbulence cannot provide an explanation for European unemployment that reconciles the incentives of both unemployed and employed workers.


For over 200 years, slow sand filtration (SSF) has been an effective means of treating water for the control of microbiological contaminants in both small and large community water supplies. However, such systems lost popularity to rapid sand filters mainly due to smaller land requirements and less sensitivity to water quality variations. SSF is still a particularly attractive process because its operation does not require chemicals or electricity. It can achieve a high level of treatment, which is mainly attributed to naturally-occurring, biochemical processes in the filter. Several microbiologically-mediated purification mechanisms (e.g. predation, scavenging, adsorption and bio-oxidation) have been hypothesised or assumed to occur in the biofilm that forms in the filter but these have not yet been comprehensively verified. Thus, SSFs are operated as 'black boxes' and knowledge gaps pertaining to the underlying ecology and ecophysiology limit the design and optimisation of the technology. The objective of this review is to outline the biological aspects of SSF in to the context of recent developments in molecular microbial ecology.


Since the introduction of the KiwiSaver scheme in New Zealand in 2006, several countries have implemented, or are in the process of implementing, voluntary funded pension systems with automatic enrollment features. Since most of the literature has focused on countries with the common law tradition, including the United Kingdom and the United States, this note analyzes cases of countries with the civil code tradition, including Turkey, Poland, the Russian Federation, Chile, Brazil, and the Province of Quebec in Canada. This sample includes mostly emerging economies, with reforms at different stages, from those that have already been completed to those that are about to start discussions in their parliaments. Although they are not a substitute for necessary parametric reforms, automatic enrollment schemes offer the possibility of improvements in future retirement income for a significant part of the labor force. This note stresses that the paternalistic approach of automatic enrollment schemes imposes a great degree of responsibility on governments and requires careful consideration of the design of the system, including the industrial organization of the pension fund industry and default investment strategies. Sufficient time and resources for preparing communication and educational campaigns has played a key role in achieving high rates of participation.


This book provides an integrated approach to crop growth and development and the technical aspects of greenhouse cultivation and climate management. It combines an analysis of the relationship between crop production and ambient climate with an explanation of the processes that determine the climate in a protected environment. With the ability to modify the environment comes the need for growers to strike a balance between the costs and benefits of technology. This book outlines the methods and gives several examples of how to make 'optimal' choices about technology. Sustainable management of shoot and root environment is discussed, as well as the pros and cons of vertical farming. The processes addressed in this book, like crop growth, energy balance and mass exchange, apply to any kind of greenhouse. Therefore, in spite of the word 'technology', this is not a book about high-tech greenhouses only. 'Greenhouse horticulture' is an easy-to-read textbook for all those interested in protected cultivation, from university students and teachers to professional advisers in the field and managers of horticultural companies.


This study examines the relationship between service provision and innovation in international professional service firms (IPSFs). Through an extended study in one IPSF, we find that innovation stems from the provision of services in the past and present. Different service provisions offer different learning opportunities which influence the modification, renewal, and creation of service concepts, service processes, technologies, and relationships. In order to take advantage of the learning opportunities, certain operational and dynamics capabilities are identified as important. With regard to operational capabilities, understanding customer needs, internal learning, formalization, external and relational learning, integration, and commercialization are identified as important capabilities. Further, two dynamic capabilities driving innovation are identified: learning and knowledge accumulation and scaling and expanding the service portfolio. The learning and knowledge accumulation capability is grounded in the efficient provision of standardized-provided services. By providing these services, insights into customer's needs are gained, specialized expertise is developed, and reputation and legitimacy for solving novel and complex problems increase. The scaling and expanding capability enables the IPSF to develop customized–co-produced services into standardized-provided services over time with global outreach. Our study shows that careful management of the service portfolio is of utmost strategic importance for the sustainable competitive advantage of IPSFs.


The maxim nemo iudex in sua causa – no man should be judge in his own case – is widely thought to capture a bedrock principle of natural justice and constitutionalism. The U.S. Supreme Court calls it "a mainstay of our system of government" and regularly invokes it in diverse contexts, and the principle has venerable roots in the common law. I will argue that the nemo iudex principle is worse than an outright falsehood; it is a misleading half-truth. Sometimes rulemakers in public law do and should design institutions to respect the value of impartiality that underlies nemo iudex principle. In other cases, however, they do not and should not. In many settings, public law makes officials or institutions the judges of their own prerogatives, power or legal authority. Officials or institutions may determine their own membership, award their own compensation, rule on the limits of their own jurisdiction, or adjudicate and punish violations of rules they themselves have created.I will attempt to identify the general conditions under which rule-designers sensibly depart from, override or qualify the nemo iudex principle. In some cases there is no impartial official or institution in the picture, so that wherever decision-making authority is lodged, someone or other will have to be the judge in his own case. In other cases, even where it would be feasible to respect the nemo iudex principle, the costs of doing so will exceed the benefits. In general, this will be so when and because impartiality trades off against one of several competing considerations: the benefits of expertise, the value of institutional autonomy and independence, or the motivation and activity level of officials or institutions. The upshot is that it is never sufficient to argue that a proposed institution, or a proposed interpretation of ambiguous constitutional rules or practices, would violate the nemo iudex principle or would "put the fox in charge of the henhouse." One must go on to ask whether the conflict is avoidable or unavoidable, and if it is avoidable, whether it would be good or bad overall to avoid it.