By use of a radiometric assay transglutaminase activity was demonstrated for the first time in human jejunal mucosa. The activity is similar to that in other tissues, with a pH optimum of 9.0, an absolute requirement for Ca2+ and an apparent Km for putrescine of 0.15 mmol/l. Assay of jejunal transglutaminase activity with a variety of dietary proteins as acceptors showed high activity with gliadin, comparable with that of the standard substrate, dimethylcasein. Deamidation of the gliadin markedly reduced its acceptor activity. Collagen, ovalbumin, elastin and zein exhibited very low acceptor activities. Increased transglutaminase activity was demonstrated in jejunal biopsies from four patients with untreated coeliac disease compared with 14 control subjects and eight patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Eight patients with coeliac disease in remission, with normal levels of brush border alpha-glucosidase, showed elevated transglutaminase activities compared with those of controls. It is postulated that intestinal transglutaminase activity may be important in gliadin binding to tissues and thus in the pathogenesis of coeliac disease.


First published in 1950, this is the story of one of the USA's most enduring golfers. More than a sports autobiography, it includes Sarazen's thoughts about golf technique, his golfing contemporaries, his family and friends. Born in New York state, Sarazen was the son of a poor Italian immigrant family who began his career as a caddie and went on to win the American Open (twice), the British Open, the PGA Championships (three times) and the Masters. In addition, he was elected honorary member of the Royal and Ancient Club at St Andrews. All of these sporting moments are covered in detail.


This research aimed to evaluate how the plant extracts and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can alleviate the salinity negative impacts on rootstocks growth. Targeting on this, two experiments were carried out in a greenhouse. In the first one 3 levels of NaCl (0, 75 and 150 mM) and 3 treatments (no inoculation, inoculation with AMF, and AMF with millet root extracts MRE) were evaluated. The trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata Raf.) was used as host plant and Gigaspora margarita as inoculum. The AMF colonization, total fresh weight (TFW) and root fresh weight (RFW) of trifoliate orange roots were benefited by the addition of MRE. The second experiment was carried out in the same conditions, except for NaCl levels (0, 300 and 600 mM), and the treatments (no inoculation, inoculation with AMF, and AMF with bahiagrass root extracts BRE). The alleviation effects of BRE were observed in the TFW and RFW at 0 and 300 mM of NaCl. A third experiment was carried out in vitro to evaluate the effect of these extracts on the hyphal growth of AMF under salinity conditions. The petri dishes contained 3 treatments (agar only, with MRE and with BRE) with 3 levels of NaCl (0, 75, and 150mM). Increases in NaCl concentration induced decreases in the hyphal growth. Treatment with MRE and BRE, however, alleviated the effects of NaCl on the inhibition of AMF hyphal growing.


Abstract:The epithelium of the gastrointestinal tract is one of the most versatile tissues in the organism, responsible for providing a tight barrier between dietary and bacterial antigens and the mucosal and systemic immune system while maintaining efficient digestive and absorptive processes to ensure adequate nutrient and energy supply. Inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis) are associated with a breakdown of both functions, which in some cases are clearly interrelated. In this updated literature review, we focus on the effects of intestinal inflammation and the associated immune mediators on selected aspects of the transepithelial transport of macronutrients and micronutrients. The mechanisms responsible for nutritional deficiencies are not always clear and could be related to decreased intake, malabsorption, and excess losses. We summarize the known causes of nutrient deficiencies and the mechanism of inflammatory bowel disease–associated diarrhea. We also overview the consequences of impaired epithelial transport, which infrequently transcend its primary purpose to affect the gut microbial ecology and epithelial integrity. Although some of those regulatory mechanisms are relatively well established, more work needs to be done to determine how inflammatory cytokines can alter the transport process of nutrients across the gastrointestinal and renal epithelia.


The Indiana Department of Transportation implements maximum soil fill covers to ensure the safe installation and operation of buried pipes. Historically, fill cover tables are provided by INDOT, but the methodology for calculating these covers is not well documented. The finite element method enables a comprehensive analysis of the soil-pipe system taking into account soil conditions, pipe type and geometry, and conditions on the pipe-soil interface. This thesis discusses the calculation of maximum fill covers for corrugated and structural plate pipe-arches using the finite element software CANDE and compares the results with previous estimates provided by INDOT. The CANDE software uses the Finite Element Method, and the Load and Resistance Factored design based on a two-dimensional culvert installation in a soil-pipe model. The model is set up under plain strain conditions and is subjected to factored dead and live load, and provides an analysis of the structure based on safety measures against all factored failure modes associated with the structural material.Significant issues were encountered when calculating the maximum fill covers for pipe-arches in CANDE, including the inability of standard CANDE (Level 2 mesh) to model pipe-arches, lack of convergence for nonlinear analysis, and fill cover results higher than expected. To solve these issues, the pipe-arches were modeled using Level 3 solution in CANDE. The CANDE analyses were run using small-deformation analysis after buckling was eliminated as a governing failure mode using parallel simulations in Abaqus. Numerical results were compared to analytical solutions following ASTM standards.The results showed that CANDE and INDOT calculations differ significantly, with the CANDE results yielding higher fill covers than those provided in INDOT specifications. These differences are attributed to the assumed loading pattern at failure. While the CANDE results assume that the maximum fill cover height is defined by the failure of the pipe considering the radial pressure (Pv), the INDOT results are consistent with results obtained by limiting the bearing capacity of the soil around the corner radius (Pc).


The purpose of this study was to investigate the management behaviours of six top performing sheep and beef farmers from the South Island of New Zealand. Information was obtained through interviews using grounded theory qualitative research methodology. All six farmers were found to be information rich. They source information widely and with a discriminating behaviour. They read widely, typically about one hour per day. They participate in discussion groups but only when relevant information can be obtained. They regularly visit other farms and tend to associate with other high-performing people. They have well developed networks. They have challenging, relevant and achievable goals and targets. All six farmers plan well ahead but with a strong focus on flexibility. They are early adopters rather than first movers in relation to new technologies. Having decided that an innovation has merit they usually test it in a small way before making any major commitment that cannot be reversed. All were benchmarking their operations against other top operators, both formally and informally. They were particularly interested in the reasons why other farmers were achieving success, and hence liked to have direct contact with these people. All of them were interested in the financial benchmark comparisons obtained from their accountant. These top performing farmers have well developed management frameworks such that the process of planning, implementation, monitoring and reflection occurs on a daily basis. Farming is a passion as well as a career.


low sleep quality and delirium in hospitalized patients is common and occurs at the same time but their relationship is unclear. The aim of this study is "to determine the relationship between sleep and the prevalence of delirium in patients undergoing cardiac surgery". This analytical-descriptive study was conducted on patients undergoing cardiac surgery in educational hospital affiliated to Medical Sciences University of Tehran in 2014. 44 patients were studied by available method. The incidence of delirium in patients was assessed twice daily on the second to fifth day after surgery through the CAM-ICU scale (Confusion Assessment Method -ICU).Also sleep of patients on the second day after surgery was assessed using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality scale. Data were analyzed using statistical tests of Chi-square, Mann-Whitney and Fisher's exact test under16 SPSS software. There is a significant relationship between demographic characteristics and the prevalence of delirium. (52.5%) of patients had good sleep quality. The results of Fisher's exact test showed there was a significant difference between the sleep disorder and the prevalence of delirium (P=0.007). Due to the significant relationship between sleep quality and prevalence of delirium, the need to use a program of prevention from sleep deprivation in the clinical nursing instructions in hospitals is essential particularly critical and surgery wards.


This paper proposes a robust decoding algorithm in delivery of network coded data which is in particular correlated and delay-sensitive. We consider ad-hoc sensor network topologies, where a correlated data is delivered based on network coding techniques in conjunction with approximate decoding algorithm in order for efficient and robust data delivery. The approximate decoding algorithm has been developed as a decoding solution to ill-posed problems for network coded correlated data sources. In this paper, we improve the performance of approximate decoding algorithm by explicitly considering more information, which is used to additionally refine the recovered data. The information includes potential results that are from finite field operations and the set of such information is referred to as position information matrix in this paper. We deploy the position information matrix into approximate decoding algorithm and investigate its corresponding properties. We then analytically show that this improves the performance of approximate decoding algorithm. Our simulation results confirm the properties of the proposed approximate decoding algorithm with position information matrix and improved performance.


Abstract. Aerosol light scattering, absorption and particulate matter (PM) concentrations were measured at Montseny, a regional background site in the Western Mediterranean Basin (WMB) which is part of the European Supersite for Atmospheric Aerosol Research (EUSAAR). Off line analyses of 24 h PM filters collected with Hi-Vol instruments were performed for the determination of the main chemical components of PM. Mean scattering and hemispheric backscattering coefficients (@ 635 nm) were 26.6±23.2 Mm−1 and 4.3±2.7 Mm−1, respectively and the mean aerosol absorption coefficient (@ 637 nm) was 2.8±2.2 Mm−1. Mean values of Single Scattering Albedo (SSA) and Angstrom exponent (a) (calculated from 450 nm to 635 nm) at MSY were 0.90±0.05 and 1.3±0.5 respectively. A clear relationship was observed between the PM1/PM10 and PM2.5/PM10 ratios as a function of the calculated Angstrom exponents. Mass scattering cross sections (MSC) for fine mass and sulfate at 635 nm were 2.8±0.5 m2 g−1 and 11.8±2.2 m2 g−1, respectively, while the mean aerosol absorption cross section (MAC) was 10.4±2.0 m2 g−1. The variability in aerosol optical properties in the WMB were largely explained by the origin and ageing of air masses over the measurement site. The MAC values appear dependent of particles aging: similar to the expected absorption cross-section for fresh emissions under Atlantic Advection episodes and higher under aerosol pollution episodes. The analysis of the Angstrom exponent as a function of the origin the air masses revealed that polluted winter anticyclonic conditions and summer recirculation scenarios typical of the WMB led to an increase of fine particles in the atmosphere (a = 1.5±0.1) while the aerosol optical properties under Atlantic Advection episodes and Saharan dust outbreaks were clearly dominated by coarser particles (a = 1.0±0.4). The sea breeze played an important role in transporting pollutants from the developed WMB coastlines towards inland rural areas, changing the optical properties of aerosols. Aerosol scattering and backscattering coefficients increased by around 40 % in the afternoon when the sea breeze was fully developed while the absorption coefficient increased by more than 100 % as a consequence of the increase in the equivalent black carbon concentration (EBC) observed at MSY under sea breeze circulation.


An art and design university is a particular kind of "semiotic landscape," comprised of teachers and students heavily invested in the difference that non-linguistic modes of expression make to meaning and human experience. Here both experienced and emerging creative practitioners experiment with the signifying possibilities of, for example, wood, light, movement, paint, clay, or digital media. Written English, as a mode of inquiry, research, and composition finds itself somewhat of an outsider in this landscape--at least more so than in a conventional university. It is from this outside territory of a writing pedagogue at an art and design university that the author's inquiry emerges. In this research, the author aims: (1) to identify, analyze, and assess models of multimodal pedagogy that have the potential for developing composition skill learning within the context of a liberal arts curriculum in a Canadian art and design university; and (2) to determine the contribution of art and design university-specific, multimodal pedagogy models to recent research in the fields of multimodal literacy, language and literacy education, and postsecondary writing pedagogy. The author juxtaposes an analysis of a sample of recently published American and Canadian composition instruction books that encourage multimodal literacy in the context of a postsecondary, language-based curriculum with an analysis of how multimodality is manifest in one area of the art and design curriculum at the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD), a Canadian art and design university. With respect to this juxtaposition, the author aims to discover how her sample multimodal curricula fits--or doesn't--with OCAD as a specific "semiotic landscape." By looking at student thesis work, the author tries to develop a provisional sketch of the nature of her home institution's "semiotic landscape." (Contains 5 figures and 5 endnotes.)


This paper looks at some implications of data uncertainty for monetary policy. We combine national accounts data revisions with optimal control and filtering experiments on a calibrated model to discuss policy implications of price-versus-volume data uncertainty in GDP data for the United Kingdom. We find some degree of negative correlation between revisions to real GDP and GDP deflator data. We develop a methodology for estimating the output gap which takes account of the benefit of hindsight and decreasing measurement errors through time. Our optimal control experiments reveal that monetary policy makers would be led to place greater weight on nominal GDP data and correspondingly less weight on separate, uncertain estimates of prices and volume growth. However, estimates of real growth and also the output gap matter even when there is much uncertainty of this type. Our results also suggest that estimates of the level of inflationary pressure and nominal GDP data become more important when the economy is prone to inflationary overreactions to shifts in technological progress


Abstract. In this study we quantify the evaposublimation and the energy balance of the seasonal snowpack in the Mediterranean semiarid region of Sierra Nevada, Spain (37° N). In these kinds of regions, the incidence of this return of water to the atmosphere is particularly important to the hydrology and water availability. The analysis of the evaposublimation from snow allows us to deduct the losses of water expected in the short and medium term and is critical for the efficient planning of this basic and scarce resource. To achieve this, we performed 10 field campaigns from 2009 to 2015, during which detailed measurements of mass fluxes of a controlled volume of snow were recorded using a modified version of an evaporation pan with lysimeter. Meteorological data at the site of the snow control volume were extensively monitored during the tests. With these data, a point energy balance snowmelt model was validated for the area. This model, fed with the complete meteorological data set available at the Refugio Poqueira Station (2500 m a.s.l.), let us estimate that evaposublimation losses for this site can range from 24 to 33 % of total annual ablation. This ratio is very variable throughout the year and between years, depending on the particular occurrence of snowfall and mild weather events, which is generally quite erratic in this semiarid region. Evaposublimation proceeds at maximum rates of up to 0.49 mm h−1, an order of magnitude less than maximum melt rates. However, evaposublimation occurs during 60 % of the time that snow lies, while snowmelt only takes up 10 % of this time. Hence, both processes remain close in magnitude on the annual scale.


In 1905, Albert Einstein wrote five papers which marked a watershed between classical and modern physics. These papers dealt with the problem of 'Reality of Atoms'; 'Theory of Special Relativity', which overthrew Newtonian conceptions of space and time; and his most revolutionary 'Light-Quantum Hypothesis', which together with Planck's work on black body radiation started the Quantum Revolution. The year 2005 was celebrated by UNESCO as 'International Year of Physics' commemorating the centenary of the Relativity Principle.

To celebrate this landmark, Nehru Centre, Mumbai organized a Lecture Series. Projecting the influence that Einstein's work has had on fundamental issues in physics, these lectures were delivered by eminent scientists and researchers. This volume includes the nine lectures delivered on the occasion. The first lecture by Virendra Singh highlights Einstein's novel contribution in 1905. Then Arvind Kumar elaborates on the route that Einstein took to resolve the problems of black body radiation. While Jayant Narlikar presents a historical account of how cosmology has developed since Einstein's 1917 paper, S.M. Chitre elaborates on how relativity has played a crucial role in solving the central problem concerning the source of energy for stars. While T. Padmanabhan writes on Einstein's role in shaping our understanding of astronomy and cosmology, Sandip Trivedi shows that Einstein had a quest, a central focus that increasingly dominated his scientific life after 1915. Abhay Ashtekar writes on how, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Einstein revolutionized the notions of space and time, and Naresh Dadhich narrates that in his monumental discoveries, the driving force for Einstein was consistency of concept and principle rather than conflict with experiment. The final lecture by B.N. Jagtap discusses one of the most fascinating topics associated with two great scientists of the twentieth century, Albert Einstein and Sathyendra Nath Bose.


The overall goal of the FARMAF project is to improve food security and livelihoods of the rural poor in Africa. The project focuses on smallholder farmers in target African countries, namely Burkina Faso, Tanzania and Zambia. The specific objective is to enhance access to and promote the use of effective farm risk management tools. It is expected that this will reduce exposure of smallholder farmers to downward shocks, improve access to credit, and increase the capacity to invest in yield-enhancing technology, as well as strengthen farmers' capacity to better manage the marketing of agricultural produce. The overall impact on farm output and household income and food security will be positive, reducing poverty in rural households. In this policy paper we provide more insight into the impact assessment framework and address related policy issues. First, we elaborate on the current state of affairs of three risk management tools analysed within the FARMAF project, namely insurance in Zambia and Burkina Faso, warehouse receipt systems in Tanzania and Burkina Faso, and market information systems in all three countries. Subsequently, methodological approaches fostering lesson-sharing, challenges encountered and related policy issues are discussed. (Resume d'auteur)


Teenage girls are at increasing risk of depression, suicide, pregnancy, eating disorders, and substance abuse. One cause, says social historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg, is the interaction between the declining age of menarche and the influences of popular culture. What's needed is a new strategy of girl advocacy. For more than two years now, Reviving Ophelia, a clinical psychologist's warning of the dangers facing adolescent girls, has been on the New York Times bestseller list. The popularity of this much-talked about book is a sign that Americans are finally waking up to the jeopardy their daughters are in. As well they should be, says historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg, professor of human development and Stephen J. Weiss Presidential Fellow. The evidence Brumberg points to is clear: adolescence is a dangerous time for girls growing up today. Compared with boys of the same age, adolescent girls are at greater risk of depression and suicide attempts. They are more likely to develop eating disorders, abuse drugs and alcohol, and drop out of school. Each year the educational and economic future of more than a million teenage girls is cut short by pregnancy. Shamefully, the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the developed world. Psychologists who study adolescence, including Ophelia author Mary Pipher and Harvard's Carol Gilligan, have shown that between the ages of eleven and sixteen, heretofore physically and mentally hardy girls lose their self-confidence, their self-esteem crumbles. Brumberg, who specializes both in the social history of medicine and in the history of American families, women, and adolescent girls, set out to see why. She read hundreds of middle-class adolescent girls' diaries written from the early nineteenth century to the present to see how they described the experience of growing up. In addition, she combed the copious advice literature of the day: the writings of physicians and other women directing mothers how to raise their daughters. "When examining the factors that contribute to the crisis of confidence that Gilligan, Pipher, and others describe, the effect of biology is typically overlooked," Brumberg says. "My research strongly suggests that the declining age at menarche is central to understanding why adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable today." It's startling to realize that when Cornell University first admitted women 100 years ago it was not that unusual for them to have not yet begun menstruating. For those sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds, sexual awakening could occur while in college. Today, for the typical girl who experiences menarche at age twelve, this hormonal (and its consequent emotional and social) upheaval begins in middle school. In her latest book, The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls (Random House, 1997), Brumberg explains how this new biological timetable contributes to putting teenage girls in jeopardy. "Although girls are healthier and mature earlier, there has been no parallel acceleration in their emotional and cognitive skills, such as the capacity to think abstractly, make judgments, or move beyond egocentric - that is, self-centered - thinking," Brumberg observes. "Many young women today may look mature at age twelve or thirteen, but they still think in ways that are essentially childlike. "In addition, our society makes no special effort to help girls deal with the lag between their biological and their intellectual development. Although early maturation is known to increase vulnerability to all kinds of psychological and social problems, such as depression and association with older age groups (a tendency that leads to early sexual activity as well as to drug and alcohol abuse), young women are less protected and less nurtured than they were a century ago." In the nineteenth century, Brumberg points out, there were many more years of girlhood than teens experience today. …


We present a novel anisotropic Spherical Gaussian (ASG) function, built upon the Bingham distribution [Bingham 1974], which is much more effective and efficient in representing anisotropic spherical functions than Spherical Gaussians (SGs). In addition to retaining many desired properties of SGs, ASGs are also rotationally invariant and capable of representing all-frequency signals. To further strengthen the properties of ASGs, we have derived approximate closed-form solutions for their integral, product and convolution operators, whose errors are nearly negligible, as validated by quantitative analysis. Supported by all these operators, ASGs can be adapted in existing SG-based applications to enhance their scalability in handling anisotropic effects. To demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of ASGs in practice, we have applied ASGs in two important SG-based rendering applications and the experimental results clearly reveal the merits of ASGs.


Global increases in sea temperatures and atmospheric concentrations of CO2 may affect
the health of calcifying shellfish. Little is known, however, about how competitive inter actions
within and between species may influence how species respond to multiple stressors. We experimentally
assessed separate and combined effects of temperature (12 or 16°C) and atmospheric CO2
concentrations (400 and 1000 ppm) on the health and biological functioning of native (Ostrea edulis)
and invasive (Crassostrea gigas) oysters held alone and in intraspecific or inter specific mixtures. We
found evidence of reduced phagocytosis under elevated CO2 and, when combined with increased
temperature, a reduction in the number of circulating haemocytes. Generally, C. gigas showed
lower respiration rates relative to O. edulis when the species were in intraspecific or interspecific
mixtures. In contrast, O. edulis showed a higher respiration rate relative to C. gigas when held in an
interspecific mixture and exhibited lower clearance rates when held in intraspecific or interspecific
mixtures. Overall, clearance rates of C. gigas were consistently greater than those of O. edulis. Collectively,
our findings indicate that a species' ability to adapt metabolic processes to environmental
conditions can be modified by biotic context and may make some species (here, C. gigas) competitively
superior and less vulnerable to future climatic scenarios at local scales. If these conclusions
are generic, the relative role of species interactions, and other biotic parameters, in altering the outcomes
of climate change will require much greater research emphasis.


OF DISSERTATION THE AMERICAN DIME MUSEUM: BODILY SPECTACLE AND SOCIAL MIDWAYS IN TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE The freak played a significant role in late-nineteenthand early-twentieth-century entertainment, but its significance extended beyond such venues as sideshows and minstrel shows. This dissertation examines the freak as an avatar emblematic of several issues, such as class and race, traditionally focused on in studies of Turn-of-the-Century American literature and culture. Disability and freakishness are explored as central to late-nineteenthand earlytwentieth-century Americans' identity. Freakishness is applied to a series of ways in which Americans in this period constructed their identity, including race, gender, and socioeconomic class, showing the dual role that the freak played for many white, ablebodied, upper-class American men. Freaks threatened such men's sense of their own disability, triggering such complexes as Wounded Southernness or white masculinity. But contrasting themselves with freaks also solidified their visions of themselves as models of American normalcy. Besides freak shows, they encountered freakishness in a variety of arenas, including lynchings, slums, and early horror films. The late nineteenth and early twentieth century's fascination with freakishness is situated as an outgrowth of that period's eugenics movement, showing how the entwined concepts of eugenics and normalcy traversed ground that went much further than studies of physical aberration and chronic illness. This extended notion of the freak is discussed by analyzing various literary texts, especially the novels of William Dean Howells and Jack London. The autobiographies of Booker T. Washington and Helen Keller exemplify how double consciousness can serve as a means of enfreakment. Further, all these texts are situated culturally by medicalizing a series of historical events, including specific lynchings, as well as laws that reconfigured urban landscapes. The final chapter focuses on early horror film, arguing that film became the new American sideshow and in the process changed the definition of freak to something far more monstrous. In short, this dissertation demonstrates how the freak show pervaded America at the turn of the twentieth century and turned the country into one large dime museum.


This perspective presents some recent results concerning ultrafast intramolecular relaxation processes in metal-based molecular complexes. Ultrafast electronic/vibrational relaxation at sub-vibrational time scales, ultrafast intersystem crossing processes and ultrafast structure changes are discussed, stressing the questions that still need to be solved in order to arrive at a rationale that describes these processes. We will also discuss some new techniques, based on core-level spectroscopies that can provide new insights into the ultrafast intramolecular relaxation in these systems.


Recent years have seen a dramatic change in the composition of the workforce of schools in England and Wales. Policy initiatives associated with inclusion, tackling teacher workloads and the reformation of children and young people's services have resulted in a proliferation and diversification of roles in schools with the creation of new 'associate professional' roles such as 'higher level teaching assistants', 'cover supervisors', 'learning mentors' and 'parent support advisors'. The 'extended schools agenda' has also seen groups such as counsellors, mental health workers and social workers brought into schools. In a context of modernisation and workforce remodelling there has also been a blurring of boundaries between previously distinct roles. This paper provides an analysis of these developments and considers the implications for notions of expertise and professionalism in the children and young people's workforce, and for pastoral care in schools in particular. Professional development and accreditation for these roles present a mixed picture in which foundation degrees have an important part to play, but for which there is equivocal government support. The use of 'professional standards' premised on a model of competence deriving from work‐based learning raises important questions about the nature of professional expertise in professional practice relating to pastoral issues. At the same time as it is proposed to raise the status of teaching to 'masters' level, the neediest and most problematic children in schools are increasingly likely to be working with lower paid, lower status staff who may have no formally recognised qualifications. The implications of this for the pastoral care function in schools are explored.


Several econometric studies have concluded that technical progress embodied in equipment is a major source of manufacturing productivity growth. Other research has suggested that, over the long run, growth in the U.S. economy's 'health output' has been at least as large as the growth in non-health goods and services. One important input in the production of health pharmaceuticals is even more R&D- intensive than equipment. In this paper we test the pharmaceutical-embodied technical progress hypothesis the hypothesis that newer drugs increase the length and quality of life and estimate the rate of progress. To do this, we estimate health production functions, in which the dependent variables are various indicators of post-treatment health status (such as survival, perceived health status, and presence of physical or cognitive limitations), and the regressors include drug vintage (the year in which the FDA first approved a drug's active ingredient(s)) and indicators of pre-treatment health status. We estimate these relationships using extremely disaggregated prescription- level cross-sectional data derived primarily from the 1997 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. We find that people who used newer drugs had better post-treatment health than people using older drugs for the same condition, controlling for pre-treatment health, age, sex, race, marital status, education, income, and insurance coverage: they were more likely to survive, their perceived health status was higher, and they experienced fewer activity, social, and physical limitations. The estimated cost of the increase in vintage required to keep a person alive is lower than some estimates of the value of remaining alive for one month. One estimate of the cost of preventing an activity limitation is $1745, and the annual rate of technical progress with respect to activity limitations is 8.4%. People consuming newer drugs tend to experience greater increases (or smaller declines) in physical ability than people consuming older drugs. Most of the health measures indicate that the effect of drug vintage on health is higher for people with low initial health than it is for people with high initial health. Therefore in contrast to equipment-embodied technical progress economic inequality, pharmaceutical-embodied technical progress has a tendency to reduce inequality as well as promote economic growth, broadly defined.


Students and researchers have come to rely on computer-based reference management software to organize their growing collections of reading material and to properly format citations and references in research papers, grant applications, and other documents. It is no longer adequate just to store these collections on a desktop or laptop computer. Users need access to their personal digital libraries on the go, on smartphones as well as tablets. This column provides an overview of mobile citation management software. Citation management applications and mobile-friendly websites are described.


We address the problem of deploying a reinforcement learning (RL) agent on a physical system such as a datacenter cooling unit or robot, where critical constraints must never be violated. We show how to exploit the typically smooth dynamics of these systems and enable RL algorithms to never violate constraints during learning. Our technique is to directly add to the policy a safety layer that analytically solves an action correction formulation per each state. The novelty of obtaining an elegant closed-form solution is attained due to a linearized model, learned on past trajectories consisting of arbitrary actions. This is to mimic the real-world circumstances where data logs were generated with a behavior policy that is implausible to describe mathematically; such cases render the known safety-aware off-policy methods inapplicable. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach on new representative physics-based environments, and prevail where reward shaping fails by maintaining zero constraint violations.


In Graev v. Commissioner, the Tax Court decided whether the taxpayers' donations of a facade easement and cash contributions were conditional gifts and therefore disallowable as charitable deductions under the requirements of the regulations. The court reviewed the facts to determine whether the condition was allowed because it was "so remote as to be negligible." The taxpayers argued that case law at the time of the donation allowed for a donation of between 10 and 15 percent of the value of the property, and that they had deducted a value constituting 11 percent of the property's appraised value; that the example provided in Notice 2004-41 did not apply to the specific transaction at issue; that there was no possibility that the charity would return the property; that when the easement deed was recorded, the doctrine of merger extinguished the charity's refund letter; and that the letter was a nullity under Commissioner v. Procter.


Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major public health problem with significant clinical, societal, and psychosocial burdens. Nutrition therapy has been an integral part of the medical management of patients with CKD for more than a century, with the main goals of preserving kidney function and preventing complications. Nutrition abnormalities may emerge well before dialysis therapy is initiated and are associated with poor outcomes. It is therefore important to revisit nutrition management in the advanced stages of CKD to gain a broader insight into its role and effect on patient outcomes. Traditionally, nutrition recommendations have focused on the prescription of energy (calories) and macro- and micronutrients. Today, dietary modeling also focuses on the evidence for food consumption on health. This review argues that advanced non-dialysis-dependent CKD nutrition requirements to a large extent align with healthy eating guidelines for the general population and should not be based on deprivation or be unusually restrictive. The best currently available evidence for the CKD diet is likely to be derived from CKD nutrition prescriptions in conjunction with evidence underpinning national dietary guidelines and evidence of healthy dietary patterns, such as Mediterranean-style and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)-style eating. Positive messages from these dietary patterns should improve acceptance of CKD dietary interventions among patients.


A new pipe-routing method for aero-engines is proposed in this article. Careful consideration of the spatial characteristics and the primary engineering constraints of aero-engines yielded a new space representation method as well as a space diving method for the aero-engine surface, which simplify the searching space. A genetic algorithm, along with certain modified strategies, including the 'initiation' and 'direction guideline', is also developed for pipe-routing in the sub-spaces. Simulation experiments in the context of various scenes have been carried out to explore the applicability and performance of the propose method. Simulation results showed that this novel method can quickly deliver the optimal routes for any aero-engine of large space and with complex mechanical components while avoiding convergence into local optimal value in comparison with some existing published methods.


The Arab media is in the midst of a revolution that will inform questions of war and peace in the Middle East, political and societal reform, and relations between the West and the Arab World. Drawing on the first broad cross-border survey of Arab journalists, first-person interviews with scores of reporters and editors, and his three decades' experience reporting from the Middle East, Laurence Pintak examines how Arab journalists see themselves and their mission at this critical time in the evolution of the Arab media. He explores how, in a diverse Arab media landscape expressing myriad opinions, journalists are still under siege as governments fight a rear-guard action to manage the message. This innovative book breaks through the stereotypes about Arab journalists to reveal the fascinating and complex reality - and what it means for the rest of us.


Alcoa of Australia Limited mines bauxite from the Darling Range in south-west Western Australia. They have a goal to replace >80% of plant species indigenous to the surrounding jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata Donn ex Smith) forest in their 15 month old rehabilitation by 1997.

Annual monitoring of the 15 month old rehabilitation has identified some plant species that germinate well in glasshouse and laboratory trials but were not returning to the rehabilitated areas m expected numbers. It was hypothesized that Phytophthora cinnamomi Rands and Phytophthora citricola Sawada, which had been recovered from soil and diseased vegetation in the pits may have been reducing establishment of these species. This project aimed to determine whether P . cinnamomi and P. citricola could cause damping-off of native plant species in bauxite pit rehabilitation.

To achieve this aim five preliminary experiments, followed by a glasshouse experiment and an experiment based in a rehabilitated bauxite pit, were undertaken. The preliminary glasshouse and laboratory experiments determined mean percentage germination, as well as isolating seed testa fungi, for six native plant species identified as not returning in expected numbers to the rehabilitation. The plant species chosen were Clematis pubescens Huegel ex Endl., Cyathochaeta avenacea Benth., E. marginata. H akea lissocarpha R.Br., H ovea chorizemifolia (Sweet) DC. and Xanthorrhoea preissii Endl.

Soil from rehabilitated pits was also shown to not cause suppression of P. cinnamomi and P. citricola. An appropriate density of millet seed for use in the main glasshouse experiment was determined and the process of soil solarization was investigated to determine whether it could be used to eradicate phytophthora species from soil in rehabilitated bauxite pits. The method of soil solarization used in this project was found to not be effective in eradicating Phytophthora species from the rehabilitated areas.

The two main experiments tested the pathogenicity of P . cinnamomi and P. citricola on seed and seedlings of the six native plant species chosen for this study, in the glasshouse and rehabilitated bauxite pit environments. Both P. cinnamomi and P. citricola were found to cause post-emergent damping-off of E. rna r gina ta in the glasshouse, with P. cinnamomi also causing damping-off of X. preissii seedlings in this environment. An introduced isolate, as well as indigenous isolates of P. citricola caused pre and post-emergent damping-off of E. marginata in the field. P. citricola also caused pre-emergent damping-off of H. lissocarpha in the rehabilitated trial areas.

The P. cinnamomi inoculum did not cause disease in the field due to sub-optimum ambient temperatures which inhibited sporangia! formation and mycelial growth (Shearer and Tippett, 1989). However, P. cinnamomi has been shown to cause damping-off in regenerating areas (Mwanza and Kellas, 1987) and probably causes damping-off in Alcoa's rehabilitated areas when conditions are more favourable, in autumn and spring. P. cinnamomi and P. citricola therefore probably reduce the biodiversity of Alcoa's rehabilitated pits by reducing the establishment of susceptible species.

Topics requiring further research are discussed.


The purpose of this study was to test the benefits of a forest site quality map, when applying satellite image based forest inventory. By combining field sample plot data from national forest inventories with satellite imagery and forest site quality data, it is possible to estimate forest stand characteristics with higher accuracy for smaller areas. The reliability of the estimates was evaluated using the data from a standwise survey for area sizes ranging from 0.06 ha to 300 ha. When the mean volume was estimated, a relative error of 14 per cent was obtained for areas of 50 ha; for areas of 30 ha the corresponding figure was below 20 per cent. The relative gain in interpretation accuracy, when including the forest site quality information, ranged between 1 and 6 per cent. The advantage increased according to the size of the target area. The forest site quality map had the effect of decreasing the relative error in Norway spruce volume estimations, but it did not contribute to Scots pine volume estimation procedure.


This study examines business groups and their impact on corporate governance in Pakistan. We use non-financial firms listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange of Pakistan for 1998-2002 periods in order to select group and non-group samples. Our analysis find that group firms have higher liquidity/short-term debt paying ability, and lower financial leverage than those of the non-group firms in each of the five years and when averaged over five-years. More importantly, we find that for the group firms, the five-year mean values of revenues and the five-year mean values of total assets grew faster than those of the non-group firms. Based on mean values of ROA, we find that group firms are more profitable than non-group firms in each year and over all five-years combined. In contrast, Tobins Q results (a market valuation measure) show that the mean values for each year and for all five-years combined are lower than those of the non-group firms. Our industry-level results are roughly consistent with those of the full samples. The divergence between ROA and Tobins Q suggests that external shareholders perceive firms affiliated with business groups to have relatively lower transparency and weaker corporate governance mechanisms than firms not affiliated with business groups. As a consequence, the market participants appear to discount the value of group firms even though these firms are more profitable than non-group firms. We interpret this evidence to indicate that investors view the business-group as a mechanism to expropriate minority shareholders. On the other hand, the comparative financial performance results suggest that business groups in Pakistan are efficient economic arrangements that substitute for missing or inefficient outside institutions and markets. We feel that our preliminary work substantially contributes to our understanding of business groups and their relationship to corporate governance and economic development in Pakistan.


The theory of insect population dynamics has shown that heterogeneity in natural‐enemy attack rates is strongly stabilizing. We tested the usefulness of this theory for outbreaking insects, many of which are attacked by infectious pathogens. We measured heterogeneity among gypsy moth larvae in their risk of infection with a nucleopolyhedrovirus, which is effectively heterogeneity in the pathogen's attack rate. Our data show that heterogeneity in infection risk in this insect is so high that it leads to a stable equilibrium in the models, which is inconsistent with the outbreaks seen in North American gypsy moth populations. Our data further suggest that infection risk declines after epidemics, in turn suggesting that the model assumption of constant infection risk is incorrect. We therefore constructed an alternative model in which natural selection drives fluctuations in infection risk, leading to reductions after epidemics because of selection for resistance and increases after epidemics because of a cost of resistance. This model shows cycles even for high heterogeneity, and experiments confirm that infection risk is indeed heritable. The model is very general, and so we argue that natural selection for disease resistance may play a role in many insect outbreaks.


Studies indicate that very few teachers entering disadvantaged contexts feel prepared academically or professionally to teach effectively. This study focuses on the impact of a model for professional learning, the RoleM Professional Learning model (RPL), situated in a disadvantaged context over a three-year period. The participating teachers (n = 12) in this study taught in the first three years of school (Foundation to Year 2). To ascertain the effectiveness of RPL, teachers were interviewed three times a year and students' pre and posttest scores were also considered. The results indicate that quality teaching is related to the establishment of quality resources and quality professional learning. Additionally, students demonstrated significant gains between the pre and post-test scores. Furthermore, as teachers move towards exhibiting the characteristics of expert teachers they progress through five stages and it takes at least two years for this progression to occur.


The impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on development is a much debated topic. International financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the IMF, as well as the OECD and its member states, have increasingly promoted FDI because it creates new jobs, spreads best-practice social and environmental standards, and stimulates the transfer of technology, finally leading to economic growth. On the other hand, many NGOs, labour unions and civil society groups have emphasised the negative effects of FDI, illustrated by detailed case studies documenting human rights violations, harmful environmental practices, and tax evasion by Transnational Companies (TNCs) in developing countries. This briefing paper provides an academic literature review on the relationship between FDI and development which may serve as background to the debate on these issues.


Ag receptors used for cancer immunotherapy are often directed against tumor-associated Ags also expressed in normal tissues. Targeting of such Ags can result in unwanted autoimmune attack of normal tissues or induction of tolerance in therapeutic T cells. We used a murine model to study the phenotype and function of T cells redirected against the murine double minute protein 2 (MDM2), a tumor-associated Ag that shows low expression in many normal tissues. Transfer of MDM2-TCR–engineered T cells into bone marrow chimeric mice revealed that Ag recognition in hematopoietic tissues maintained T cell function, whereas presentation of MDM2 in nonhematopoietic tissues caused reduced effector function. TCR-engineered CD8 + T cells underwent rapid turnover, downmodulated CD8 expression, and lost cytotoxic function. We found that MDM2-TCR–engineered CD4 + T cells provided help and restored cytotoxic function of CD8 + T cells bearing the same TCR. Although the introduction of the CD8 coreceptor enhanced the ability of CD4 + T cells to recognize MDM2 in vitro, the improved self-antigen recognition abolished their ability to provide helper function in vivo. The data indicate that the same class I–restricted TCR responsible for Ag recognition and tolerance induction in CD8 + T cells can, in the absence of the CD8 coreceptor, elicit CD4 T cell help and partially reverse tolerance. Thus MHC class I–restricted CD4 + T cells may enhance the efficacy of therapeutic TCR-engineered CD8 + T cells and can be readily generated with the same TCR. The Journal of


Recently an excellent book on lignocellulosic-based biomass has been published. The book can be expected to profoundly impact research and development for sustainable science and engineering. For this reason we have decided to provide our readers with a review of this new ACS Press book entitled "Materials, Chemicals & Energy from Forest Biomass" edited by Dimitris S. Argyropoulos from NC State University. The book features unique, peer-reviewed chapters that were submitted to the American Chemical Society's Pacifi-Chem 2005 Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. It presents a timely and focused review of research efforts encompassing work from the most pertinent derivatives of wood and related resources that include new polymers, composites, niche chemicals, and biofuels. This book will ultimately serve a number of disciplines and promises to focus the discussion of biomass for new avenues of chemicals, fuels, and materials.


The effectiveness of taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages to reduce obesity: a systematic review Purpose: Use of taxes on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) can contribute to reducing the prevalence of obesity. However, how much effectiveness needs to be proven. Method: A systematic review was carried out on articles published between 2013-2018, which examined the effectiveness of the SSBs tax to prevent obesity. Results. Five relevant studies were included in this review. One study discussed the effectiveness of SSBs tax to provide benefits for saving health care costs. Two studies concluded that the tax for consumption and the purchase of SSBs decreases and had an impact on weight loss. Finally, two other studies reported the effectiveness of SSBs tax in more detail to decreasing DALYs and increasing QALYs, which can save health care costs. Conclusion: The application of a 20% SSBs tax is effective for reducing excess weight, increasing QALYs, and decreasing DALYs. SSBs tax should consider different countries consumer behavior in substituting and complementing other beverage products containing sweeteners.


The two European Courts (the European Court of Human Rights, ECtHR and, to a lesser degree, the European Union Court of Justice, EUCJ) have contributed greatly to the development of a legal framework for surveillance by either law enforcement agencies in the criminal law area or by secret services. Both courts put great emphasis on a system of control ex ante and post hoc by independent supervisory authorities. A complex and controversial issue remains whether the human rights to privacy, respect of communications, and to an effective remedy (enshrined in Article 8 and 13 of European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)), requires judicial review as a necessary safeguard for secret surveillance or alternatively, at which conditions, parallel systems of non-judicial review can be accepted as adequate safeguards against illegitimate interference in citizens' private life.
The European Courts have not yet established a clear doctrine in determining suitable thresholds and parameters. In particular, the ECtHR has a flexible approach in interpreting article 8 and 13 ECHR, depending on several factors ("vital" interests at stake, political considerations, etc.). In general terms, the Court has shown a preference towards judiciary oversight, but in the European legal order there are several examples of alternative oversight systems assessed positively by the Court, such as the quasi-judiciary systems (where the independency of the supervisory body, its wide jurisdiction, its power to data access and its power to effective reactions are proved) or the system of oversight set by Data Protection Authorities in the EU member states. However, in recent judgements of the ECtHR and the EUCJ we see an increasing emphasis on declaring the necessity of a "good enough" judicial (ex ante or post hoc) control over surveillance, meaning not simply a judicial control, but a system of oversight (judicial, quasi-judicial, hybrid) which can provide an effective control over surveillance, supported by empirical checks in the national legal system at issue.


Non-invasive brain-computer interfaces are traditionally based on mu rhythms, beta rhythms, slow cortical potentials or P300 event-related potentials. However, there is mounting evidence that neural oscillations up to 200 Hz play important roles in processes such as attention, perception, motor action and conscious experience. In this preliminary study we propose to extend the investigations to the complete frequency spectrum and to compare the high frequency bands with the usual low frequencies. It appears that the 70-130 Hz band and the 170-230 Hz band performs better than the traditional 2-40 Hz band. In a second step we applied the same analysis to the estimated local field potentials from the scalp EEG. The same frequency bands show the best performances, and the use of eLFP leads to an increase of performances of  5%.


Accuracy is an important concern for suppliers of artificial intelligence (AI) services, but considerations beyond accuracy, such as safety (which includes fairness and explainability), security, and provenance, are also critical elements to engender consumers' trust in a service. Many industries use transparent, standardized, but often not legally required documents called supplier's declarations of conformity (SDoCs) to describe the lineage of a product along with the safety and performance testing it has undergone. SDoCs may be considered multi-dimensional fact sheets that capture and quantify various aspects of the product and its development to make it worthy of consumers' trust. Inspired by this practice, we propose FactSheets to help increase trust in AI services. We envision such documents to contain purpose, performance, safety, security, and provenance information to be completed by AI service providers for examination by consumers. We suggest a comprehensive set of declaration items tailored to AI and provide examples for two fictitious AI services in the appendix of the paper.


Author(s): Modi, Vijay | Abstract: The potential for innovative designs for last-mile distribution and/or stand-alone systems for electricity access in low income settings is explored. The last decade has seen innovations and scaling of off-grid technologies such as solar/battery home systems and minigrids. While still expensive per kWh compared to grid tariffs, they offer the possibility of a lower capex, faster execution times, and institutional flexibility particularly if planning for the first few kWhs/month of service. Their viability for immediate first access to lighting and small DC loads is becoming clear, but that of providing pathways to larger consumption and economic growth is less clear. The paper articulates research questions surrounding the emergence of demand, data based expansion of grid coverage, ensuring cost-effectiveness of resources, and pros/cons of time horizons in planning and addressing non-residential demands. What role do sectors-specific (e.g. residential, transport, agriculture, industry) needs and policies have on the prioritization of grid roll-out and minigrid deployments? The paper describes lessons learnt from several minigrids deployed in Africa and an example of agriculture-sector specific provision of electricity for irrigation. Some of the lessons from these innovations on smart metering and payments apply equally well to grid customers as well and the implications are discussed.


This paper develops a dynamic general equilibrium model to highlight the role of human capital accumulation of agents differentiated by skill type in the joint determination of social mobility and the skill premium. We first show that our model captures the empirical co-movement of the skill premium, the relative supply of skilled to unskilled workers and aggregate output in the U.S. data from 1970-2000. We next show that endogenous social mobility and human capital accumulation are key channels through which the effects of capital tax cuts and increases in public spending on both pre- and post-college education are transmitted. In particular, social mobility creates additional incentives for the agents which enhance the beneficial effects of policy reforms. Moreover, the dynamics of human capital accumulation imply that, post reform, the skill premium is higher in the short-to medium-run than in the long-run.


Islam is a religion, but it is also a philosophy. An analysis of surveys in the Arab world, Indonesia and Pakistan reveals that the mission and values of journalists in those Muslim-majority regions closely track Islamic obligations to tell the truth, seek justice and work toward the public interest. This article provides empirical data to bolster the argument that the values of Islam are the prism through which journalists in Muslim-majority countries approach their profession. Those findings add to the body of research supporting the theory that journalistic norms are contextual, shaped by a hierarchy of influences that include global standards and local values such as culture, political climate and religion. But the findings also indicate that in regions where a professional journalistic culture is in the process of emerging, the influence of personal versus professional values is in reverse proportion to those found in more mature journalistic markets.


Abstract We report the occurrence of a previously unidentified mineral in lunar samples: a Cl-,F-,REE-rich silico-phosphate identified as Cl-bearing fluorcalciobritholite. This mineral is found in late-stage crystallization assemblages of slowly cooled high-Ti basalts 10044, 10047, 75035, and 75055. It occurs as rims on fluorapatite or as a solid-solution between fluorapatite and Cl-fluorcalciobritholite. The Cl-fluorcalciobritholite appears to be nominally anhydrous. The Cl and Fe2+ of the lunar Cl-fluorcalciobritholite distinguishes it from its terrestrial analog. The textures and chemistry of the Cl-fluorcalciobritholite argue for growth during the last stages of igneous crystallization, rather than by later alteration/replacement by Cl-, REE-bearing metasomatic agents in the lunar crust. The igneous growth of this Cl- and F-bearing and OH-poor mineral after apatite in the samples we have studied suggests that the Lunar Apatite Paradox model (Boyce et al. 2014) may be inapplicable for high-Ti lunar magmas. This new volatile-bearing mineral has important potential as a geochemical tool for understanding Cl isotopes and REE chemistry of lunar samples.


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From the Proceedings of the 1996 Meetings of the Hydrology Section - Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science - April 20, 1996, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona


Duct losses have a significant effect on the efficiency of delivering space cooling to U.S. homes. This effect is especially dramatic during peak demand periods where half of the cooling equipment's output can be wasted. Improving the efficiency of a duct system can save energy, but can also allow for downsizing of cooling equipment without sacrificing comfort conditions. Comfort, and hence occupant acceptability, is determined not only by steady-state temperatures, but by how long it takes to pull down the temperature during cooling start-up, such as when the occupants come home on a hot summer afternoon. Thus the delivered tons of cooling at the register during start-up conditions are critical to customer acceptance of equipment downsizing strategies. We have developed a simulation technique which takes into account such things as weather, heat-transfer (including hot attic conditions), airflow, duct tightness, duct location and insulation, and cooling equipment performance to determine the net tons of cooling delivered to occupied space. Capacity at the register has been developed as an improvement over equipment tonnage as a system sizing measure. We use this concept to demonstrate that improved ducts and better system installation is as important as equipment size, with analysis of pull-down capability as a proxy for comfort. The simulations indicate that an improved system installation including tight ducts can eliminate the need for almost a ton of rated equipment capacity in a typical new 2,000 square foot house in Sacramento, California. Our results have also shown that a good duct system can reduce capacity requirements and still provide equivalent cooling at start-up and at peak conditions.


One of the most important philosophers of recent times, Morton White has spent a career building bridges among the increasingly fragmented worlds of the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. From a Philosophical Point of View is a selection of White's best essays, written over a period of more than sixty years. Together these selections represent the belief that philosophers should reflect not only on mathematics and science but also on other aspects of culture, such as religion, art, history, law, education, and morality. White's essays cover the full range of his interests: studies in ethics, the theory of knowledge, and metaphysics as well as in the philosophy of culture, the history of pragmatism, and allied currents in social, political, and legal thought. The book also includes pieces on philosophers who have influenced White at different stages of his career, among them William James, John Dewey, G. E. Moore, and W. V. Quine. Throughout, White argues from a holistic standpoint against a sharp epistemological distinction between logical and physical beliefs and also against an equally sharp one between descriptive and normative beliefs. White maintains that once the philosopher abandons the dogma that the logical analysis of mathematics and physics is the essence of his subject, he frees himself to resume his traditional role as a student of the central institutions of civilization. Philosophers should function not merely as spectators of all time and existence, he argues, but as empirically minded students of culture who try to use some of their ideas for the benefit of society.


When the National Party was elected in the 1948 South African general election and apartheid became official government policy, South African Jewry was already familiar with racial discrimination. Not only had apartheid-like conditions already existed for South Africa's non-European majority for decades before 1948, but the Jewish community itself had experienced racial discrimination that had mirrored the rise of German anti-Semitism beginning in the 1930s. For the mainstream Jewish community, the biggest concern was that after their election victory, the Nationalists would use their electoral mandate to begin legislatively enshrining anti-Semitism. However, in the months following the election Prime Minister Daniel Francois Malan initiated a rapprochement with the Jewish community. Having determined that white solidarity was needed to ensure the survival of apartheid, the government chose to make peace with the Jewish community, instead turning its attention to white rule over the "Bantu". Complicating the implementation of apartheid policies was resistance not only from the non-European majority, but a minority of whites who similarly opposed the racialised nature of the State. These dissidents took advantage of their white skin, using it to aid their attempts to undermine the apartheid system. The government's attention quickly turned to combating this threat, and in 1950 the Suppression of Communism Act was passed to help control extra-parliamentary opposition to apartheid. Unfortunately for the Jewish community, a significant proportion of white anti-apartheid activists were also Jewish. This threatened the community's rapprochement with the government and threatened a return to the "bad old days" of widespread anti-Semitism. In contrast, many Jewish antiapartheid activists were critical of the mainstream community for accepting the fruits of apartheid with little official inclination toward opposing its inherent injustice. This thesis examines the circumstances within which the mainstream Jewish community, Jewish radicals and the apartheid government acted, and seeks to address the divided historiographies that have developed around the historical narratives of the two segments of South African Jewry. Each "side" puts forward an interpretation of history firmly embedded within its own perspective and, in so doing, attempts to undermine the other. This thesis proposes a limited contribution, suggesting a way forward can be found between the two historical discourses by moving beyond the political aspects and reassessing the role of both the mainstream community and the Jewish radicals in light of the circumstances which existed and how they influenced the decisions of each group. Chapters one and two examine the circumstances of the mainstream established community and the Jewish anti-apartheid activists respectively, while the third chapter analyses the role of the apartheid government as an actor and influence upon both groups using the case study of the Rivonia Trial.


Objective The aims of this study were (1) to characterise the type of patient prescribed MP-AzeFlu (Dymista, a novel formulation of azelastine hydrochloride, fluticasone propionate and excipients in a single spray) in real life in the UK and physicians' reasons for prescribing it and (2) to quantify the personal and societal burden of allergic rhinitis (AR) in the UK prior to MP-AzeFlu prescription. Design, setting and participants This multicentre, non-interventional study enrolled patients (n=193) with moderate-to-severe AR and acute symptoms who were eligible to receive treatment with MP-AzeFlu according to its licensed indications. Information was gathered on patient demographics, AR history and symptom severity, symptomatology and AR treatments in the previous calendar year (prior to MP-AzeFlu prescription). Physicians also recorded the number of previous AR visits, specific reasons for these visits and their reason for prescribing MP-AzeFlu. Results Most patients had seasonal AR either alone (10.4%) or in combination with perennial AR (35.2%), but many had AR of unknown origin (35.8%). Prior to MP-AzeFlu prescription, patients reported troublesome symptoms (78.2%) and sleep disturbance (64.8%), with congestion considered the most bothersome (54.4%) and ocular symptoms reported by 68.4% of patients. The most frequent reason for MP-AzeFlu prescription was that other therapies were not sufficient in the past (78.8%) or not sufficient to treat acute symptoms (16.1%). 79.3% of patients reported using ≥2 AR therapies in the past year. An average of 1.6 (SD 1.9) doctor visits due to AR were reported prior to MP-AzeFlu prescription. Conclusions In the UK, MP-AzeFlu was prescribed for individuals (≥12 years) with moderate/severe AR irrespective of (1) previous AR treatment (mono or multiple), (2) previous or likely treatment failure, (3) phenotype, (4) number of previous physician visits for AR and (5) for the relief of both acute symptoms and in anticipation of allergen exposure.


This largely conceptual thesis explores the epistemological nature of students' engagement with disciplinary knowledge, primarily in further education contexts. The disciplinary nature of students' engagement is frequently obscured by concerns relating to their engagement with educational processes. A model which distinguishes between different forms of knowledge and which places disciplinary knowledge at the centre of the educational context is proposed. This model serves as an organising idea throughout the thesis. Approaches to theorising educational knowledge, including social realist, sociocultural and situated theories of learning as well as Bernstein's work, are analysed, critiqued and in some cases adapted. A case study of the school science curriculum and scientific literacy explores the principles of recontextualisation of disciplinary knowledge and a key debate concerning the nature of 'authentic learning' is identified. It is argued that while Bernsteinian and social realist theories are useful in elaborating the role of forms of knowledge within the curriculum, these theories tend to neglect social relations to knowledge in different epistemic contexts. An alternative view which recognises the function of mythological disciplinary narratives is proposed. This conceptualisation acknowledges that disciplinary discourses are only fully meaningful in their authentic contexts and emphasises the role of pedagogy in bridging the meaning that is made between agential participants in the different contexts. The fully elaborated model for forms of knowledge within the educational context locates a realist theory of knowledge within sociocultural theory and provides an epistemological account of students' relationships with disciplinary knowledge. It provides a theoretical tool for practitioners and those engaged in curriculum development for thinking about students' engagement with disciplinary knowledge. Implications for aspects of policy and practice are discussed, as are opportunities for further research.


Having lived through both World Wars, Jung was aware of the dangers of what he termed "psychic epidemics." He discussed the spontaneous manifestation of an archetype within collective life as indicative of a critical time during which there is a serious risk of a destructive psychic epidemic.  Currently, we appear to be experiencing a significant psychic epidemic that is manifesting as children and young people coming to believe that they are the opposite sex, and in some cases taking drastic measures to change their bodies. Of particular concern to the author is the number of teens and tweens suddenly coming out as transgender without a prior history of discomfort with their sex. "Rapid-onset gender dysphoria" is a new presentation of a condition that has not been well studied. Reports online indicate that a young person's coming out as transgender is often preceded by increased social media use and/or having one or more peers also come out as transgender. These factors suggest that social contagion may be contributing to the significant rise in the number of young people seeking treatment for gender dysphoria. Current psychotherapeutic practice involves immediate affirmation of a young person's self-diagnosis, which often leads to support for social and even medical transition. Although this practice will likely help small numbers of children, there may also be many false positives.


Statistical sampling theory offers several sampling designs that are well-suited to geophysical research. Simple random sampling is the most commonly used formal methodology, in which the probability that any unit is sampled is known. Generally, units to be sampled are selected using a random number generator so that each unit has an equal chance of selection. In stratified sampling, the sampling frame is partitioned so that similar observed variable measurements are in each stratum. Systematic sampling attempts to capture the full variability within an area by obtaining samples at some predetermined interval. Adaptive cluster sampling is a relatively new methodology that allows additional units to be sampled, based on preceding sampling observations. The systematic adaptive sampling method applies adaptive cluster sampling to a systematic design. Selecting an appropriate design requires an understanding of the variability in the parameter of interest as well as the spatial covariance structure. This paper addresses such critical issues as sampling density, number of samples to collect, and assessment of the dimensions of a subregion to be sampled. While many researchers use the sampling designs presented herein, it is possible that inappropriate estimating equations were used. Formulae required to calculate unbiased, precise estimators for each of the designs are presented. The collection of CO2 flux degassing measurements from the Mud Volcano area, Yellowstone during the 1997 field season is used as a case study to outline the logical steps in selecting a sampling design. Although the case study used a stratified adaptive cluster sampling design, simpler designs can be developed based on the theory presented herein.


The eukaryotic cell cycle primarily consists of five phases, namely a resting state, G0, and four cycling phases G1, S, G2 and M phase, with cells progressing in this order before dividing into two cells back in phase G1. Understanding how a drug affects the cell cycle can give insight into the drug's mechanism of action and may assist research into potential treatment strategies. The pentacyclic acridinium salt RHPS4 (3,11-difluoro-6,8,13-trimethyl-8H-quino[4,3,2-kl] acridinium methosulfate) is an attractive agent because it is potentially cell-cycle specific and inhibits the activity of telomerase, an enzyme known for its role in cellular immortalisation in human cancer. The precise mechanism of action of the drug on the cell cycle dynamics, however, remains unclear.

We have devised experiments, collected experimental data and formulated a mathematical model describing the cell cycle dynamics of cancer cells and their time- and dose-dependent modulation by RHPS4 to investigate how the compound affects cells in each stage of the cell cycle. In addition to a control case, in which no drug was used, we treated colorectal cancer cells with three different concentrations of the drug and fitted simulations from our models to experimental observations. We have shown that the model is "identifiable", meaning that, at least in principle, the parameter values can be determined from observable quantities. Our fitting procedure also generates information on the sensitivity of parameters in the model. We found that RHPS4 caused a marked concentration-dependent cell death in treated cells, which is well modelled by allowing the rate parameters corresponding to cell death to be sigmoidal functions of time. Since the drug uptake into the nucleus is rapid (saturation within 5 hours), the observed delay effect of 5 days of the compound is unexpected and is a novel finding of our research into this compound. Our results show that, at low concentrations, RHPS4 primarily affects the cells in the G2/M phase, and that the delay decreases at larger doses. We propose that secondary effects lead to the induction of observed cell death and that changes in the molecular structure of the non-coding DNA sequences at chromosome ends, called telomeres, might be a precursor of delayed cell death.

We therefore investigated the dynamics of telomere length in different conformational states, that is, t-loops, G-quadruplex structures and those being elongated by telomerase. By formulating differential equation models we studied the effects of various levels of telomerase and RHPS4 concentrations on the distribution of telomere lengths and analysed how these effects evolve over large numbers of cell generations. As well as calculating numerical solutions, we use quasicontinuum methods to approximate the behaviour of the system over time, and predict the shape of the telomere length distribution. We showed that telomere length maintenance is tightly regulated: too high levels of telomerase lead to continuous telomere lengthening, and large concentrations of RHPS4 lead to progressive telomere erosion. Our results suggest different effects of RHPS4 dependent on the drug concentration used: low concentrations reduce telomere length, but do not impair the equilibrium of the system, and high concentrations destabilise the system leading to chromosome degradation and senescence and/or cell death. Moreover, our models predict a positively skewed distribution of telomere lengths at equilibrium, and our model predictions are in good agreement with experimental data.


This paper provides a quantitative investigation of the strength of the potential relationship between entrepreneurial activity and religious affiliation. The relationship between religion and economic development has attracted recent attention. A positive association may indicate that religion raises the social acceptability of entrepreneurial activity, by inculcating incentives to accumulate wealth and acquire personal responsibility, as well as providing social capital and may be particularly effective where state governance systems are weak. Institutionalist perspectives suggest that religious institutions may support definition of property rights. Economic benefits flow through reduced transactions costs. This paper engages these discussions in order to present a preliminary empirical investigation of the relationships which may exist across national boundaries between religion and entrepreneurship. Definitions of entrepreneurship are taken from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) studies for 2011 and 2012, focusing on the individual rather than on the business venture. Recent data on religious affiliation across countries are used to construct various measures of religious activity and diversity. Preliminary findings suggest, in particular, a significant association between GEM indicators and evangelical-pentecostal-charismatic Christian affiliation. The strength of these associations is offset by state regulation of religion. These findings suggest that attention needs to be paid to the potentially important role that certain forms of religion might play is providing a supportive cultural environment for entrepreneurship. They also suggest that policy-makers may wish to pay closer attention to the potentially supportive role that certain religious organizations might play in new business formation.


Relativistic quantum information theory uses well-known tools coming from quantum information and quantum optics to study quantum effects provoked by gravity and to learn information about the spacetime. One can take advantage of our knowledge about quantum optics and quantum information theory to analyse from a new perspective the effects produced by the gravitational interaction. I will present some results and new ideas in this topic: two experimental proposals for the detection of the Unruh and Hawking effects and a quantum simulation of general relativistic settings.


The sense of taste is one of the most important factors in regulating ingestive decisions. This is central to a number of disease conditions including but not limited to obesity, diabetes, anorexia, hypertension, coronary artery diseases and malnutrition. The detection of the molecules eliciting taste qualities in food is mediated by the coordinated actions of distinct types of taste sensory cells (TSCs) housed in taste buds within specialized papillae throughout the oral cavity. Taste receptors in the taste sensory cells that detect food molecules are the key players in selecting dietary nutrients. One such example is L-amino acids, a critical part of one's diet. L-glutamate is the prototypical umami compound and is known to increase palatability of food. A unique characteristic of umami taste is the response potentiation of glutamate by 5' ribonucleotide monophosphates, such as inosine 5' monophosphate (IMP), which is also capable of eliciting an umami taste. Candidate receptors for umami taste include a heterodimer T1r1+T1r3, brain variants of mGluR1 and mGluR4, and the truncated variants of mGluR1 and mGluR4. Studies using heterogeneous expression of T1r1+T1r3 suggest it is an umami and a broadly tuned L-amino acid receptor. While much attention is devoted to understanding glutamate transduction, the detection mechanisms for other L-amino acids by TSCs are less well understood. Here calcium imaging of isolated TSCs and taste cell clusters from the circumvallate and foliate papillae of C57BL/6J and T1r3 knockout mice was performed to determine if other receptors are involved in the detection of L-amino acids and IMP. Ratiometric imaging with Fura-2 was used to study calcium responses to IMP and four L-amino acids (monopotassium L-glutamate, L-serine, L-arginine, and L-glutamine) with and without IMP. The results of these experiments showed that the response patterns elicited by L-amino acids varied significantly across TSCs. Only a small subset of cells responded to all stimuli. Interestingly, L-amino acids other than glutamate elicited synergistic responses in a subset of TSCs. Additionally IMP alone elicited a response in a large number of TSCs. Our data indicate that synergistic and non-synergistic responses to L-amino acids and IMP are mediated by multiple receptors or possibly a receptor complex. Next the roles of mGluR1 and mGluR4 in the detection of the IMP and L-amino acids were investigated. Selective agonists for mGluR1, (RS)-3, 5-dihydroxyphenylglycine (DHPG; a group I mGluR agonist), and mGluR4, L-(+)-2-amino-4-phosphonobutyric acid (L-AP4; a group III mGluR4 agonist) elicited responses in TSCs. In addition, TSCs responsive to these agonists were also responsive to L-amino acids and IMP. More importantly, selective antagonists against different mGluRs such as (RS)-1-aminoindan-1,5-dicarboxylic acid (AIDA; a group I mGluR antagonist), and (RS)-α-methylserine-O-phosphate (MSOP; a group III mGluR antagonist) significantly suppressed L-amino acid- and IMP-mediated responses in TSCs of T1r3…


Age-related medical conditions such as Parkinson's disease (PD) compromise driver fitness. Results from studies are unclear on the specific driving errors that underlie passing or failing an on-road assessment. In this study, we determined the between-group differences and quantified the on-road driving errors that predicted pass or fail on-road outcomes in 101 drivers with PD (mean age = 69.38 ± 7.43) and 138 healthy control (HC) drivers (mean age = 71.76 ± 5.08). Participants with PD had minor differences in demographics and driving habits and history but made more and different driving errors than HC participants. Drivers with PD failed the on-road test to a greater extent than HC drivers (41% vs. 9%), χ²(1) = 35.54, HC N = 138, PD N = 99, p < .001. The driving errors predicting on-road pass or fail outcomes (95% confidence interval, Nagelkerke R² =.771) were made in visual scanning, signaling, vehicle positioning, speeding (mainly underspeeding, t(61) = 7.004, p < .001, and total errors. Although it is difficult to predict on-road outcomes, this study provides a foundation for doing so.


The Cabinet of Horribly Violent Glove Puppets project required indepth research into the evolution of the Punch and Judy tradition, from its Commedia Dell'arte foundations, through its 19th Century heyday, to its present day incarnations. For the origins and background of the characters, a key text was Punch in the Italian Puppet Theatre by Michael Byrom (London: Centaur Press, 1983).

I also spent a great deal of time studying and cross-referencing published scripts from past Punch and Judy shows, beginning with the earliest printed version (JP Collier, 1827). The fluctuations in tone from the earliest scripts to the relatively innocuous ones of today proved fascinating. The script I wrote was culled predominantly from the older and more explicit sources, intercut with Brechtian interventions. For example, the crocodile (an Italian accented outsider who offers a running commentary on his own role) was based partly on Franko B, the critically acclaimed artist known for bleeding in his intense performances.

Interviews with Sue Leech (a rare female 'professor'), Amnesty International reports on violence against women, and James Twitchell's Preposterous Violence: Fables of Aggression in Modern Culture (Oxford University Press, 1989) all provided me with further impetus to write and perform this one-woman-show in an unabashedly violent way. There is no feminine triumph, as some previewers tried to suggest. My Punch is an amoral, comic villain. He was born out of the research, and his voice was learned from recordings of the beachside bastard and his famous swazzled yap.


Edwin Meléndez is a Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at Hunter College. He was appointed as the Director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies in 2008. An economist by training, he has conducted considerable research in the areas of Puerto Rican and Latino studies, economic development, labor markets, and poverty. In addition to numerous scientific papers and other publications, he is the author or editor of ten books. Professor Melendez has an extensive record of community and public service, including numerous appointments to government and community boards, and has worked as a consultant to numerous government, community, and philanthropic foundations. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Education, 2011, from the New York League of Puerto Rican Women, the 2010 Educational Leadership Honoree award from the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, New York, and El Diario El Awards 2009, New York.


Among the tools available to enhance the rationality of policy formulation, Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) has captured the attention of many scholars for its potential to enhance the accountability and transparency of regulatory governance. Although almost all EU and OECD member states have adopted RIA, only a subset of small-n case comparative studies on institutional, political and administrative impact have been conducted. By filling this gap in the literature and proposing the rigorous operationalisation of concepts such as adoption, extent of implementation, and learning, this thesis ascertains the extent of interdependency among governments in their choices concerning an innovation of regulatory governance. Methodologically, the dissertation draws on a multi-method approach, consisting of qualitative analysis to track the process of institutionalisation, as well as event history analysis, based on a dataset covering thirty-eight countries from 1968 to 2006. The empirical findings show that diffusion is a multi-faceted process. In the decision to adopt RIA, the role of the OECD in translating, packaging, and promoting such administrative innovation coexists with previous innovations and other administrative variables. Yet the impact of interdependency is marginal in the successive phases of implementation and evaluation. Earliness of adoption is the major predictor of the extent of implementation. There is little evidence of interaction and communication among adopters on the subject of their learning experience. On balance, this regulatory governance innovation is a domain of symbolic and rhetorical meanings that is not adequately supported by administrative capacity.


A signal-processing method is proposed in the fully interferometric three-dimensional (3D) imaging spectrometry. This processing computes a 3D interferogram, in which recorded fringe patterns do not directly reflect wavefront forms propagated from a polychromatic light source under measurement. This paper presents a procedure for signal processing including a synthesis of the 3D interferogram and retrieval of a set of spectral components of 3D images. We demonstrate retrieving 3D images for spectral components of two planar light sources by means of the proposed method. The procedure to synthesize the 3D interferogram in this method suggests the possibility of direct measurement of the 3D interferogram.


A new explanation of the relation between schooling and work in the democratic, advanced industrial state emerges from this study that rejects both traditional views and the more recent Marxian perspective. Traditional views consider schools as autonomous institutions that are able to pursue the goals of equality and social mobility irrespective of the inequalities of capitalist society; the Marxian perspective views schools as serving the role of producing wage-labor for capitalistic exploitation. The authors suggest that the shortcomings of both views are rooted in the fact that they do not recognize the true functions of the democratic, capitalist state. The state is seen as an arena for struggle between forces pushing for egalitarian, democratic reforms and those seeking to use the resources of the state for private capital accumulation. Depending on which side has primacy at the moment, schools will reflect one set of goals over the other. However, victory is never complete, and the tide of battle has shifted back and forth historically. The authors develop this theory through interpreting the dynamic relation between U.S. schools and the workplace. Based on this approach, they predict changes in both schooling and work as well as the forms that future conflicts between the contending forces are likely to take.


A method of obtaining optimal investment strategies for shrimp fishermen is developed and illustrated in this report. The method is designed to enable a shrimp fisherman having a given amount of physical and money capital to obtain guidelines for investment and financial decision-making. The basis for the method is a deterministic optimal control model of a shrimp fishing firm. This model is derived and explained. Then the parameter values and initial state values which characterize the environment in which the shrimp fishing firm is assumed to be operating are defined and discussed. Once the model has been completely delineated by specifying the parameter values and initital state values, the determination of an optimal investment strategy becomes a mathematical programming problem which can be solved by any of the commercial mixed integer programming computer programs. Three numberical examples are presented and discussed. The method may be used to obtain guidelines for the shrimp fishing industry in general or an individual firm. The computer costs to an individual seeking guidelines for his specific environment and initital asset position should generally be less than $25 per year.


In this paper, we analyze the operative limits and the conditions characterizing low frequency magnetic metasurfaces used in practical Wireless Power Transfer applications. In the literature, the analytical modeling of similar structures, allowing a control over their frequency response, has been already demonstrated. By starting from this point, practical aspects and differences between a purely theorical approach and real scenario constraints are highlighted and discussed. In particular, accurate and representative numerical simulations are conceived, by firstly analyzing and quantifying the effect on the metasurface performance of the resistive losses characterizing its constitutive conductive material. Then, the metasurface performance deviations produced by the interactions with additional radiofrequency coils, as in Wireless Power Transfer arrangements, are considered. In the latter case, the loading condition at the receiving coil was specifically studied. For both the considered scenarios, detailed conditions and possible solutions to alleviate these detrimental effects, which deviate the metasurface response from the desired behavior, are derived. This work can be useful to guide the design process of low frequency magnetic metasurfaces in a practical environment, achieving the best performance possible for Wireless Power Transfer applications.


The utilization of AI provides insights for legal clients, future-proofs careers for attorneys and law librarians, and elevates the status of the information suite. AI training in law schools makes students more practice-ready in an increasingly tech-centric legal environment; Access to Justice initiatives are embracing AI's capabilities to provide guidance to educational resources and legal services for the under-represented. AI's presence in the legal community is becoming so common that it can no longer been seen as an anomaly, or even cutting edge. Some even argue that its absence in law firms will eventually be akin to malpractice.

This chapter explores some practical uses of AI in legal education and law firms, with a focus on professionals who have gone beyond the role of AI consumers to that of AI developers, data curators and system designers.


MiBoard (Multiplayer Interactive Board Game) is an online, turnbased board game that was developed to assess the integration of game characteristics (point rewards, game-like interaction, and peer feedback) and how that might affect student engagement and learning efficacy. This online board game was designed to fit within the Extended Practice module of iSTART (Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking). Unfortunately, preliminary research shows that MiBoard actually reduces engagement and does not benefit the quality of student self-explanations when compared to the original Extended Practice module. Consequently the MiBoard framework has been revamped to create Self-Explanation Showdown, a faster-paced, less analytically oriented game that adds competition to the creation of self-explanations. Students are evaluated on the quality of their self-explanations using the same assessment algorithms from iSTART Extended Practice module (this includes both word-based and LSA-based assessments). The technical issues involved in development of MiBoard and Self- Explanation Showdown are described. The lessons learned from the MiBoard experience are also discussed in this paper.