This review discusses whether gender inequality still exists within medical, scientific and engineering academia, with regards to the career development of academic staff. In the 1970s it was suggested that women who are talented and educated with family responsibilities tend to come across problems of self-confidence and identity when attempting to enhance their professional careers, and although many are successful in doing so, others find it more challenging. By the 1990s, it was indicated that the main gender inequality mechanism in academia is the commonly known fact that women's career development in the academic hierarchy is slower than that of men. In the past 50 years, laws and attitudes of many societies, industries and countries, have changed to promote gender equality. What is the impact of these changes, does inequality still exist and what mechanisms exist to address these issues? This review looks in depth at the links between gender equality and continuing personal and professional development (CPPD), in which individuals at work are educated more about the workplace environment and their job roles and performance. The different types, requirements and success rates of CPPD within the scientific (especially medical) academic community is discussed with an emphasis on gender equality.


Natural bond orbital (NBO) methods encompass a suite of algorithms that enable fundamental bonding concepts to be extracted from Hartree‐Fock (HF), Density Functional Theory (DFT), and post‐HF computations. NBO terminology and general mathematical formulations for atoms and polyatomic species are presented. NBO analyses of selected molecules that span the periodic table illustrate the deciphering of the molecular wavefunction in terms commonly understood by chemists: Lewis structures, charge, bond order, bond type, hybridization, resonance, donor–acceptor interactions, etc. Upcoming features in the NBO program address ongoing advances in ab initio computing technology and burgeoning demands of its user community by introducing major new methods, keywords, and electronic structure system/NBO communication enhancements. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Higher education institutions have been obliged to work extremely hard to ensure their sustainability and growth to meet the ever-increasing demands of university students, parents, and stakeholders. Universities have been under great pressure to remain competitive with a great deal of emphasis placed on being innovative, building auxiliary structures, and acquiring qualified academics. The concept of service delivery of academic departments in universities of technology has received minimal attention. This study explored student expectations and perceptions of service quality provided by academic support departments with the intention of enhancing the level of student satisfaction and experience. A quantitative research approach was employed using questionnaires. A nonprobability convenience sampling was adopted to identify 260 students. Data were coded and analyzed for descriptive analysis using SPSS Version 23.0. The findings revealed that many students were not content with various services provided by the academic departments within the university and that the academic departments did not offer students the services that they expected. The SERVQUAL dimensions displayed a negative gap in services provided by academic administrative staff. On the basis of these findings, it is recommended that the university attends to the identified key areas of concern, particularly administrative staff competency.


In my last editorial, I explained that in order to cope with the large number of papers that were being submitted to Proc. R. Soc. A, every paper we received would be pre-assessed by a member of the Editorial Board, and referees for papers that passed this hurdle were asked to apply stringent quality standards. These procedures, initiated by my predecessor Trevor Stuart, have now proved successful in several ways. Referees no longer waste time reporting on papers that have no chance of being accepted—sometimes because they are poor, but more often because although they contain good science their content is deemed suitable for a more specialist journal. Publication has been greatly accelerated: the current receipt to acceptance time is 90 days. Moreover, the rejection rate has been brought down from an unrealistic height of more than 80 per cent to a more reasonable 72 per cent (getting the right rate is delicate: with 100 per cent, nobody would submit papers; with 0 per cent, we would be publishing trash). These improvements would not have occurred without the efforts of Joanna Harries and Louise Gardner in the journal office, the Society's publications production staff and, of course, indispensable advice from the Editorial Board. Proc. R. Soc. A aims to publish papers across the whole of the physical sciences. I am interpreting this very widely. Recently, we have published serious scientific studies of a painting by Monet (interpreting the position of the sun to determine where and when it was painted; Baker & Thornes 2006), Viking navigation (to determine whether they could have used the polarization of skylight; Hedegus et al. 2007), erasing toner on office paper (to enable it to be re-used; Counsell & Allwood 2009), stability of the Millennium bridge (MacDonald 2009), dynamics of golf swings (Sharp 2009), efficiency of gaits (Srinivasan & Ruina 2007), stresses (in the cork) during the opening of wine bottles (De Pascalis et al. 2007), etc. These outliers supplement our core papers, reporting substantial, occasionally seminal, advances in quantum physics, engineering, information science, materials science, pure and applied mathematics, and chemistry (for which we are at last starting to attract papers in numbers commensurate with the scientific importance of that subject). A curse of researchers, publishers and editors is the fashionable emphasis on bibliometric indicators. Chief among these evils is the impact factor. Ours is increasing but still rather low (currently 1.7). But the impact factor is a measure only of short-term success (citations over the preceding 2 years); for Proc. R. Soc. A, a better indicator is the citation half-life. Ours is off-scale: greater than ten years, reflecting our aim of publishing slow-burning, long-lasting, papers. In this anniversary year, celebrating 350 years since the foundation of the Royal Society, we plan to publish a series of invited articles, contributed by world-leading authorities across the range of subjects that we cover. The first


The current study investigates the use of conceptual metaphors in the glorious Qur'an, focusing on four abstract concepts represented in the Qur'an through metaphors. These concepts are REWARD, HUMILITY, HYPOCRISY, and ARROGANCE, which recur in many positions in the Qur'an. The researcher takes up selected Qur'anic verses that carry these abstract concepts and analyzes them at two levels: linguistic and conceptual. The study's main theoretical contribution is to show how a linguistic approach can be transformed into a conceptual one and how this enriches our understanding of abstraction. The linguistic analysis of the verses is supported by translations of Qur'anic meanings, interpretation of the verses, and cultivating the use of Arabic and English dictionaries. To perform the cognitive analysis, the researcher uses Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), which examines metaphor from two domains: the target domain, which is the abstract concept to be explained and the source domain, which is the mental mapping that helps us understand that abstract concept. The study finds that metaphors in the Qur'an are meant to be understood not only linguistically but conceptually too. It concludes by emphasizing the significance of a conceptual approach to the study of metaphor in the Qur'an not only for conceptual metaphor theory but also for the interpretation of the Qur'an and for Arabic linguistics.


We exploit the bilateral and skill dimensions from recent data sets of international migration to test for the existence of Zipf's and Gibrat's Laws in the context of aggregate and high-skilled international immigration and emigration using graphical, parametric and non-parametric analysis. The top tails of the distributions of aggregate and high-skilled immigrants and emigrants adhere to a Pareto distribution with an exponent of unity i.e. Zipf's Law holds. We find some evidence in favour of Gibrat's Law holding for immigration stocks, i.e. that the growth in stocks is independent of their initial values and stronger evidence that immigration densities are diverging over time. Conversely, emigrant stocks are converging in the sense that countries with smaller emigrant stocks are growing faster than their larger sovereign counterparts. Lastly, high skilled immigration and emigration stocks expressed in levels or as densities all exhibit signs of convergence. We conclude by discussing some competing mechanisms that could be driving the observed patterns including: differing fertility rates, reductions in emigration restrictions, migrant sorting and selective immigration policies, immigrant networks and persisting wage differentials.


The 120 countries have committed to set the UNCCD sustainable development goal on achieving the land degradation neutrality by 2030 including India. The target has to be accomplished in a synergistic and cost-effective manner in accordance with countries' specific national contexts and development priorities. Globally, the ravine landscapes are considered among the world's most degraded ecosystems. Therefore, restoring ravines is considered a high priority item in the natural resource management programs. The vegetation cover augmented with appropriate conservation measures is the most sought restoration strategy. The engineering measures are prerequisite for slope stabilization and sustainable productive utilization in ravine ecosystem. The several methods for slope stabilization are available but only few are applied in ravine land. Therefore, in this chapter, we have covered only those slope stabilization techniques which were successfully applied for the restoration of ravine land.


Though the existence of free will seems to be a background assumption in Western life, very little research has examined the belief, and the handful of studies that have done so suggest only a modest endorsement and unclear relationships to other variables. However, methodological flaws in the earlier studies likely produced an underestimation of the strength of the belief among the general population. The current study developed and then administered a new measure of belief in free will to samples of senior high school and college students under conditions where demand characteristics were controlled. Both age groups endorsed the belief in free will to a much stronger extent than seen in previous research. Further, adults associated belief in free will with three purposes of punishment (rehabilitation, retribution, and deterrence) but adolescents only related the belief to retribution. Adults produced a negative correlation between the belief in free will and locus of control whereas adolescents evidenced no association between the variables. Both age groups demonstrated significant correlations between the belief and self-esteem. Finally, adolescents evidenced no correlation between the belief and religious conviction while adults produced a negative correlation between the two variables. In addition, the new free will instrument demonstrated extraordinary factor consistency between both samples. The results are discussed in the context of competing behavior analytic views regarding the origin of the belief in free will (cultural conditioning versus evolutionary adaptation) and the implications the origin has for progressive social and cultural change.


This paper uses new data available from a school census in Togo to analyze differences in primary school performances across regions. Our results, obtained from a stochastic frontier analysis, suggest that differences in efficiency explain only part of the observed variation, while resource availability is the most important driver of performance differences. In addition to this, the paper notes that resources are distributed quite unevenly among regions and schools. By improving access to inputs, particularly in the underserved schools, performance can be expected to go up considerably.


In this paper I analyze epistemological externalism and its adequacy as a response to skepticism. Externalism is defined by denial of accessibility: a subject can know if a particular condition beyond truth and belief is satisfied, even if the subject has no reflective access to the satisfaction of the condition. It hence has quick responses to skepticism. Three sorts of skepticism are differentiated and discussed: high standards skepticism, Cartesian-style skepticism, and Pyrrhonism. If we decouple high standards and Cartesian-style skepticism, a simple fallibilism is a superior response to the first and externalism is an unsatisfying response to the second. Pyrrhonism reveals what it is missing in externalism. Pyrrhonism targets belief and so redefinitions of knowledge are insufficient as a reply. Externalism assumes we have beliefs and asks what must be added to achieve knowledge, but if we look at the epistemic situation the externalist puts us in, it is not clear we would form or retain beliefs. In similar circumstances the Pyrrhonist suspends judgment. Once we are clear how Pyrrhonism actually challenges externalism it provides a direct and more revealing critique, making clear what is given up and pointing the way for further epistemological inquiry.


For many consumers, the modern food label serves as the sole source of information regarding any individual food product. While it may be considered informative in some respects, it is often enigmatic in others. The present debate regarding the creation of a federal regulation to define use of the term "healthy" exemplifies the difficulties associated with seemingly subjective food labeling claims.The law requires manufacturers to include certain facts on food labels. However, they are permitted to include additional voluntary statements related to the healthfulness of the food product, the presence or absence of certain ingredients, and information related to production and growing methods, among other things. These claims have the potential to cause consumers a great deal of confusion, particularly with regard to their veracity. Many scholars have analyzed First Amendment limits on the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) ability to restrict specific types of claims, yet few have addressed the issue of whether the agency can and should restrict claims unable to be supported by significant scientific agreement due to the inherent subjectivity of the claim. This Essay proposes FDA adopt such an approach as a means of effectuating the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act's purpose of protecting consumers from false or misleading food product labels. As an alternative, if FDA is unwilling to restrict those claims altogether, this Essay suggests the agency could require curative disclaimers on labels, as they do for qualified health claims, that are not supported by significant scientific agreement.


Though it was not always so, the phrase "antidiscrimination" today refers equally to cases challenging affirmative action as to cases challenging "traditional" discrimination. We refer to cases challenging affirmative action as "reverse discrimination" cases, but they are antidiscrimination cases just the same.1 As such, the body of law that we call "antidiscrimination law" is developing and growing rapidly. One of these developments is that recently some federal courts have implicitly recognized that in a certain class of antidiscrimination cases, the "sincerity" with which the plaintiff brings the claim can affect the court's determination of standing to sue. In this Article, I dub this developing principle "the norm of sincerity" and assert that the norm helps courts evaluate whether a plaintiffs claimed constitutional injury is sufficiently concrete and personal to invoke federal jurisdiction. Further, in this Article, I assert that because the norm of sincerity helps courts evaluate injury in fact, courts should recognize the norm of sincerity and give it a rightful place in the developing antidiscrimination jurisprudence. At the outset, let me define terms. In all discrimination cases, a plaintiff complains that the government unconstitutionally denied her the ability to access a process or to compete for a benefit on the basis of race or national origin. In some of these cases, the alleged discrimination cuts off the plaintiff's access to benefits that are finite, or limited, in number. For instance, two common examples of limited-resources cases include cases challenging racial or ethnic preferences in municipal contracting and cases challenging racial or ethnic preferences in university admissions. In the municipal contracting context, there are typically a finite number of contracts to be awarded; in university admissions, there are a finite number of seats in a class. Because there are only a finite number of benefits to be awarded in these cases, I think of them as "limited-resources" cases, and will refer to them that way. Another definition: by "sincerity" I mean that why a particular plaintiff is the one to bring an antidiscrimination claim matters to the injury-in-fact piece of the standing analysis. As will be shown infra, to state injury in fact in this class of discrimination cases, a plaintiff must show that she was, essentially, prepared to compete for the benefit at stake. A plaintiff meets this standard by offering objective evidence that she was "able and ready" to compete for the benefit.2 If the court suspects that the plaintiff has not met this showing, some courts have required that the plaintiff offer additional evidence. In my observation, what these courts are looking for in this more searching review is evidence that the plaintiff subjectively intended either to compete for or to use the benefits at stake. In other words, if and when a court suspects that the plaintiff was not, in fact, prepared to compete, the court then questions whether the plaintiff sincerely intended to compete at all. If she cannot demonstrate that she sincerely intended to compete, then she lacks injury in fact. If she lacks injury in fact, then she lacks standing to sue for the alleged discrimination. Thus, in this Article, I will show that the norm of sincerity is an implicit norm that helps courts evaluate injury in fact in limitedresources discrimination cases. In other words, I will show that, for standing in this class of cases, a plaintiff may not merely aver that she has been discriminated against by a certain preference in a competitive process. Rather, she must be able to show the court, in some relevant and meaningful way, that she was in fact prepared to compete, which is in some cases an objective proxy for her subjective intent to compete. As I will demonstrate infra, the norm of sincerity is most observable when a transparent process governs the competition for the limited resources at stake. …


The accuracy of instrumented indentation data relies heavily on the evaluation of experimental errors such as displacement drift. In spite of its importance, little attention has been given to the magnitude of an acceptable displacement drift rate, its relationship to a given set of test conditions, and how errors manifest themselves in force-displacement data. In this work we explored how drift rates that were acceptable for short-term tests caused artificial "abnormal" behavior that could have been interpreted as a true material response for a longer-term test. A critical review of the drift behavior of the nanoindentation system revealed that a useful metric for screening data quality was the nominal accumulated system drift as a fraction of the maximum penetration depth. Additionally, suggestions for drift management during nanoindentation tests were given.


This paper utilises Hall's (1977) 'encoding-decoding' theory in the context of critical political economy theories of the media and cultural studies to explain the political, economic and cultural factors that influence media operation and content both at a macro and micro level. While political economy provides the setting in which the Kenyan media operates, cultural studies show how media content is not only shaped by the political and economic environments comprising those in power positions. Audiences are also actively engaged in the process of meaning construction. Considering Hall's (1977) encoding-decoding theory, the audiences can reject, negotiate or accept media content based on their own value systems and cultural orientation. Meaning, therefore, becomes a product of continual struggle between different discourses and power cannot be located in a top down manner as to who influences meaning as seen in a propaganda model. This is due to the fact that texts are diffused in different locations in society. The 2008 Kenya Communication Bill is utilised as an example to trace briefly the political and historical developments of policy issues that have influenced the Kenyan media. The Bill, furthermore, indicates how a weak socio-economic, political and cultural environment is marred by ineffectual policies meant to safeguard and guarantee the freedom of the press as an extension of individual freedom of expression as enshrined in the Kenyan constitution. This weak policy context has ensured the Kenyan media remains subject to easy political manipulation and control. However, the paper concludes by showing how citizen journalism is growing out of a regulated mainstream media through internet technology.


When the exhaust valve of a conventional spark ignition engine opens at the end of the expansion stroke, a large quantity of high pressure exhaust gas is freed to the atmosphere, without using its availability. An engine that could use this lost energy should have a better efficiency. The equations for an over-expanded cycle (Miller cycle) are developed in this paper, together with equations for the Otto cycle, diesel cycle and dual cycle, all at part load, so they can be compared. Furthermore, indicated cycle thermodynamical comparisons of a S.I. engine at part load (Otto cycle at half load), a S.I. engine at WOT (with half displacement) and two over-expanded S.I. engines (with different compression strokes) are examined and compared, with the aim of extending the referred theoretical cycle comparisons.


OBJECTIVE Surgery for brain aneurysms is technically demanding. In recent years, the process to learn the technical skills necessary for these challenging procedures has been affected by a decrease in the number of surgical cases available and progressive restrictions on resident training hours. To overcome these limitations, surgical simulators such as cadaver heads and human placenta models have been developed. However, the effectiveness of these models in improving technical skills is unknown. This study assessed concurrent and predictive validity of brain aneurysm surgery simulation in a human placenta model compared with a "live" human brain cadaveric model. METHODS Two human cadaver heads and 30 human placentas were used. Twelve neurosurgeons participated in the concurrent validity part of this study, each operating on 1 human cadaver head aneurysm model and 1 human placenta model. Simulators were evaluated regarding their ability to simulate different surgical steps encountered during real surgery. The time to complete the entire aneurysm task in each simulator was analyzed. The predictive validity component of the study involved 9 neurosurgical residents divided into 3 groups to perform simulation exercises, each lasting 6 weeks. The training for the 3 groups consisted of educational video only (3 residents), human cadaver only (3 residents), and human placenta only (3 residents). All residents had equivalent microsurgical experience with superficial brain tumor surgery. After completing their practice training, residents in each of the 3 simulation groups performed surgery for an unruptured middle cerebral artery (MCA) aneurysm, and their performance was assessed by an experienced vascular neurosurgeon who watched the operative videos. RESULTS All human cadaver heads and human placentas were suitable to simulate brain aneurysm surgery. In the concurrent validity portion of the experiment, the placenta model required a longer time (p < 0.001) than cadavers to complete the task. The placenta model was considered more effective than the cadaver model in simulating sylvian fissure splitting, bipolar coagulation of oozing microvessels, and aneurysm neck and dome dissection. Both models were equally effective in simulating neck aneurysm clipping, while the cadaver model was considered superior for simulation of intraoperative rupture and for reproduction of real anatomy during simulation. In the predictive validity portion of the experiment, residents were evaluated for 4 tasks: sylvian fissure dissection, microvessel bipolar coagulation, aneurysm dissection, and aneurysm clipping. Residents trained in the human placenta simulator consistently had the highest overall performance scores when compared with those who had trained in the cadaver model and those who had simply watched operative videos (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS The human placenta biological simulator provides excellent simulation for some critical tasks of aneurysm surgery such as splitting of the sylvian fissure, dissection of the aneurysm neck and dome, and bipolar coagulation of surrounding microvessels. When performing surgery for an unruptured MCA aneurysm, residents who had trained in the human placenta model performed better than residents trained with other simulation scenarios/models. In this age of reduced exposure to aneurysm surgery and restrictions on resident working hours, the placenta model is a valid simulation for microneurosurgery with striking similarities with real surgery.


Abstract The majority of Chinese Christians can be considered to be theologically conservative. One distinctive feature of conservative theology is Biblicism, according to which Scripture occupies a central role. The Reformation principle of sola scriptura legitimises this conservative stance and calls for a stern application of this principle. As Biblicists, they are discontented with the 'unbiblical' practices and ministries of missionaries. On the other hand, missionaries have put forward the Union Version translation project on the basis of the principle of sola scriptura. This article investigates how Watchman Nee (1903–72) and Wang Mingdao (1900–91) were discursively influenced by the missionaries' Union Version Bible translation project through their different understandings of sola scriptura. For missionaries, sola scriptura required the translation of a faithful and popular Chinese Bible, and Mandarin was deemed an appropriate language for the task. While Nee and Wang did not appreciate the missionary enterprise, for sola scriptura they valued the Chinese Union Version as an outstanding and up-to-date translation of the Scripture. For Nee and Wang, sola scriptura was not only a translation principle, but also a principle underpinning religious life. Conservative Christians' devotional practice emphasises the memorising of biblical texts and verbalising them throughout the day. This practice resulted in the Union Version, which is written in eloquent modern Chinese, becoming an integral part of Chinese Christian practice rather than a mere translation. Though Nee and Wang accused missionaries of having betrayed the Reformation principle, they were still under its influence thanks to the Chinese Union Version Bible. Also, their teaching on biblical reading had similarities with the medieval monastic practice of lectio divina. In this sense, the Chinese Union Version Bible reveals an interesting integration of Chinese conservative Christian faith, missionary enterprise, sola scriptura, and a monastic style of spiritual practice within the Chinese Church.


In this work, magnetic fluorescence molecularly imprinted microspheres were prepared for recognition and separation of 4-nonylphenol. The prepared composite was evaluated and characterized in detail by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, fluorescence microscopy, vibrating sample magnetometry, and X-ray diffraction analyses. The results showed that the composite exhibited a uniform spherical shape and a core–shell structure. Moreover, this hybrid had a saturation magnetization value of 4.79 emu g−1, which provided an efficient way to separate toxic pollutants from extreme environments. And, the hybrid had the recognition ability for 4-nonylphenol by the changes of fluorescence signals, owning to the intrinsic fluorescent properties. Furthermore, the imprinting factor (IF) reached 2.37, which proved that many specific recognition sites with respect to the template were generated on the surface of MIPs and outstanding binding affinity and recognition selectivity towards 4-nonylphenol over competitive phenolic compounds.


Abstract. Positive matrix factorisation (PMF) analysis was applied to PM10 chemical composition and particle number size distribution (NSD) data measured at an urban background site (North Kensington) in London, UK, for the whole of 2011 and 2012. The PMF analyses for these 2 years revealed six and four factors respectively which described seven sources or aerosol types. These included nucleation, traffic, urban background, secondary, fuel oil, marine and non-exhaust/crustal sources. Urban background, secondary and traffic sources were identified by both the chemical composition and particle NSD analysis, but a nucleation source was identified only from the particle NSD data set. Analysis of the PM10 chemical composition data set revealed fuel oil, marine, non-exhaust traffic/crustal sources which were not identified from the NSD data. The two methods appear to be complementary, as the analysis of the PM10 chemical composition data is able to distinguish components contributing largely to particle mass, whereas the number particle size distribution data set – although limited to detecting sources of particles below the diameter upper limit of the SMPS (604 nm) – is more effective for identifying components making an appreciable contribution to particle number. Analysis was also conducted on the combined chemical composition and NSD data set, revealing five factors representing urban background, nucleation, secondary, aged marine and traffic sources. However, the combined analysis appears not to offer any additional power to discriminate sources above that of the aggregate of the two separate PMF analyses. Day-of-the-week and month-of-the-year associations of the factors proved consistent with their assignment to source categories, and bivariate polar plots which examined the wind directional and wind speed association of the different factors also proved highly consistent with their inferred sources. Source attribution according to the air mass back trajectory showed, as expected, higher concentrations from a number of source types in air with continental origins. However, when these were weighted according to their frequency of occurrence, air with maritime origins made a greater contribution to annual mean concentrations.


The overall goal of this project was to provide baseline data on amphibian species richness, relative abundance, and habitat use for a long-term landscape ecology study on MeadWestvaco industrial forest in the Allegheny Highlands of West Virginia. From results of area-constrained daytime searches (10 m x 10 m plots) across the landscape, I developed 9 regression models to predict amphibian relative abundance. I constructed models for each year for all plots on all habitat types, plots that were in a Stream Management Zone (SMZ), and plots that were in upland, or non-SMZ, habitat. Distance to perennial or ephemeral streams or perennial ponds (SMZ classification), the amount of available rocks along transects, and site index were the 3 most important habitat variables in models for all plots combined and were responsible for 24-32% of the inherent variation in population relative abundance. Other habitat variables that were significant in models were year, % canopy cover, the amount of available woody debris of decomposition classes 3-5 along transects, % woody stems (<7.5 cm DBH), soil pH, and % herbaceous vegetation. R 2 PRESS values for all 9 models ranged from 0.08 to 0.35. Amphibian relative abundance showed positive relationships with all significant habitat variables with the exception of year and % woody stems. In natural cover object use/availability analyses, I discovered salamanders preferred rocks over woody debris, relative to the amount available of each. Salamanders preferred flat rocks to any other shape, flagstones to any other type of rock, and rock lengths in the 31-40 cm class. Preferred wood widths were in class 5-10 cm, while preferred wood lengths were in class <50 cm; salamanders exhibited strong preferences for wood in higher states of decomposition (class 3-5). I provided baseline, preharvest data for 28-acre reference areas on 9 forest compartments scheduled for clearcuts. I sampled all 9 reference areas preharvest and sampled 3 during year 1 postharvest using coverboard and night plot surveys. On these 3 areas, species richness declined from preharvest to postharvest, but species diversity showed little change. Overall relative abundance declined significantly preharvest to postharvest with coverboard sampling (p=0.0172) and night plot sampling (p=0.0113). At coverboard stations, relative abundance declined significantly from preharvest to postharvest at a distance of 5-10 m (p=0.0163) and 40-50 m (p=0.0193) away from adjacent mature forest.


In this project we studied the effect of different parameters on heat transfer in two-dimensional microchannels, microtubes and also tube-in-block heat exchangers for various engineering applications. These included the use of flow restrictions to enhance local heat or mass transfer rate, enhancement of conjugate heat transfer with discrete heating and magnetic coolers (or heaters) associated with magnetic refrigeration system. The results of this research will help in designing the heating or cooling systems and selection of their appropriate geometrical dimensions and materials for specific applications. Types of problems studied in this project are: steady state analysis of forced convection around a restricted flow passage in a micro channel, effect of protrusions in a microtube or microchannel for conjugate heat transfer with uniform or discrete heating and transient analysis of heat transfer in trapezoidal microchannels under time varying heat source. For each of these problems a numerical simulation model was developed. The mass, momentum, and energy conservation equations were solved in the fluid region and energy conservation in the sold region to arrive at the velocity and the temperature distributions. Detailed parametric study was carried out for each problem. The parameters were shape and size of the restriction/protrusion, number of restrictions/protrusions, wall thickness, Reynolds number, solid materials and working fluids. The results showed that xiii in microtubes the local value of Nusselt number increases at the restriction/protrusion and the global value for the whole tube is somewhat lower. For a two-dimensional microchannel, both the local Nusselt number at the restriction/protrusion as well as the global Nusselt number for the entire channel is higher. In the trapezoidal channels the results showed that with the increase in Reynolds number, the outlet temperature decreased and the average heat transfer coefficient increased. With an increase in magnetic field there was an increase in the solid fluid interface temperature and in turn the average heat transfer coefficient increased. With a decrease in the channel height and width there was an increase in the average Nusselt number in the channel.


This thesis offers a critique of the present literature on development in Malaysia, It argues that the present analyses have generally revolved around a state-centric perspective; hence, neglecting companies as a vital unit of analysis or even a foci of societal transformation. Although numerous studies have focused on ethnicity, few have examined ethnicity within companies, much less the impact of globalisation on companies' practices vis-a-vis ethnicity. Therefore, the objectives of the present research are four-fold: (1) to assess the general state of globalisation and ethnic integration among public-listed companies in the Klang Valley and Penang; (2) to examine the perceptions of executives with regards to globalisation and ethnic integration; (3) to examine the possible connection between globalisation and ethnic integration; and (4) to explore the underlying social dynamics of the connection between globalisation and ethnic integration. Companies are classified into foreign transnational corporations, Malaysian transnational corporations and local corporations, followed by comparative analyses of their globalising tendencies and ethnic integration practices. The thesis employs Granovetter's social embeddedness argument as a basis in formulating its analytical framework. The research findings show that most of these companies and their managers support globalisation and most of them have formal plans to go global. The research also found that most of these corporations show low degree of ethnic integration. However, when globalising tendencies are factored in, it is revealed that the companies scoring high on globalising tendencies also scored high on ethnic integration and vice-versa, with few exceptions. Finally, the qualitative findings strongly suggest company embedded relationships play a pivotal role in shaping the paradigms and practices of ethnic integration within the company. By showing the relevance and significance of ethnic elements in companies' embedded relationships, the findings call into question the assertions about the thinning of ethnic preference among managers and companies.


A high power continuous-wave (CW) 914-nm Nd:YVO4 laser at room temperature is presented. Using an end-pumped structure and employing an 808-nm diode-laser as the pump source, the maximum output power of 15.5 W of the 914-nm laser is achieved at the absorbed pump power of 40.2 W, with a corre-sponding average slope efficiency \mathrm s=65.6%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output power of diode-pumped 914-nm laser. A beam quality factor M2=2.8 at the output power of 15 W is measured by using the traveling knife-edge method.


The Academic Learning Center at the University of Northern Iowa provides tutoring and advising services to enrolled students at the university. As Iowa legislatures consider performance based funding, having accurate and timely student usage data is imperative for the Academic Learning Center as the data is used in making funding decisions. The purpose of this research is to improve the student usage verification process and increase the accuracy of data collected by a math and science tutoring center located in the Academic Learning Center. An Access database was designed to record and track the math and science tutoring services provided and verify the usage data maintained by the AccuTrack system. The Six Sigma DMAIC methodology was used to improve the verification process and the DMADV method was applied when testing the reliability of the database. The Six Sigma DMAIC process improvement methodology improved the efficiency of the learning center's AccuTrack verification process. The DMADV methodology is an effective tool for testing the reliability of the new database in verifying the center's usage data. The cycle time for completing the verification process improved by 63% from an average of 44 days to 16 days. Before the process, the number of errors per report ranged between 25 and 111 with an average of 60 errors per report. After the process was improved, errors per report ranged between 0 and 32 with the average number of errors per report being 8. Applying the Six Sigma techniques can refine existing processes and increase the efficiency of a learning center. Accurate usage data assist in acquiring funding and validating request for increased staffing, expanding services, and evaluating the effectiveness of learning centers. The Six Sigma process improvement techniques have not been applied in a tutoring or learning center. The research validates using the Six Sigma DMADV and DMAIC methodologies in these settings.


Operating universities under pandemic conditions is a complex undertaking. The Artificial University (TAU) responds to this need. TAU is a configurable, open-source computer simulation of a university using a contact network based on publicly available information about university classes, residences, and activities. This study evaluates health outcomes for an array of interventions and testing protocols in an artificial university of 6,500 students, faculty, and staff. Findings suggest that physical distancing and centralized contact tracing are most effective at reducing infections, but there is a tipping point for compliance below which physical distancing is less effective. If student compliance is anything short of high, it helps to have separate buildings for quarantining infected students, thereby gracefully increasing compliance. Hybrid in-person and online classes and closing fitness centers do not significantly change cumulative infections but do significantly decrease the number of the infected at any given time, indicating strategies for "flattening the curve" to protect limited resources. Supplementing physical distancing with centralized contact tracing decreases infected individuals by an additional 14%; boosting frequency of testing for student-facing staff yields a further 7% decrease. A trade-off exists between increasing the sheer number of infection tests and targeting testing for key nodes in the contact network (i.e., student-facing staff). There are significant advantages to getting and acting on test results quickly. The costs and benefits to universities of these findings are discussed. Artificial universities can be an important decision support tool for universities, generating useful policy insights into the challenges of operating universities under pandemic conditions.


The consumption of natural resources (e.g. raw material, water & energy) in the industries is bringing welfare to the society but per unit of product from the industry is linked with the generation of environmental pollutants and emissions. Resource constraints and climate crisis have come into focus globally; particularly it has become one of the major concerns in the Asia Pacific region. At present, the countries in the Asia Pacific use resources three times greater than the rest of the world to generate one unit of GDP. These countries are more vulnerable to the impacts of resource constraints and climate change. Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP) has come as a preventive environmental measure to facilitate pollution prevention and reduce carbon intensity per unit of products along with financial profit of the industry. Bangladesh has been considered as one of the transition economies in the South Asia. Industrial sector supports second largest share to the GDP of Bangladesh. The industrial productivity in the country is solely dependent on the locally available natural gas and imported raw materials. Energy Efficiency (EE) and Cleaner Production (CP) measures in the industry can facilitate the promotion of low carbon industrial development through pollution prevention and energy conservation. The main objective of this research is to identify the policy instruments for the promotion of low carbon industrial development in Bangladesh within RECP framework. In this research, ceramics sector has been taken as a research unit. Based on the research objective, three research strategies have been followed which are: 1) review of the existing Environmental Policy, Industrial Policy and Energy Policy of Bangladesh, 2) review of the relevant measures adopted in the regional countries, and 3) case study in a ceramic industry. Stakeholder consultation has been conducted to identify appropriate policy instruments based on multi-criteria evaluation. Through this research, eleven policy instruments have been identified in connection with the promotion of RECP measures in the country with the target of developing low carbon industrial operation. Among the eleven policy instruments seven policy instruments have been identified as prioritized policy instruments based on multi-criteria evaluation through stakeholder consultation. Apart from the prioritized policy instruments the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has to make realistic sector wise policies and specific policy targets to be achieved within timeline. The GoB has to increase consistency among the policies, strengthen coordination among the relevant institutions, and apply mix of policy instruments.


Low use efficiency has frequently been observed when N fertilizers, particularly those containing urea, are applied directly on the surface residue in no-till corn (Zea mays L.) production systems. A portion of this low use efficiency has been attributed to volatilization of NH₃. Field experiments were conducted at two locations in Indiana to make direct measurements of NH₃ volatilization from granular urea, cogranulated urea-urea phosphate (UUP), urea-ammonium nitrate solutions (UAN) and prilled ammonium nitrate (AN). The fertilizers were applied directly on corn residue at a rate of 168 kg N ha⁻¹. On a Lyles sandy loam soil (Typic Haplaquolls) 50.9 kg of the 168 kg N ha⁻¹ applied as granular urea was lost in 120 h, with essentially all that loss occurring in the first 50 h after application. Peak loss rates of 3.0 kg N ha⁻¹h⁻¹ occurred 23 h after application. No significant volatilization loss occurred with AN, while 26.0 kg N were lost through volatilization with UUP and 14.6 kg N lost from UAN. Peak loss rates at 23 h after application were 1.83 and 0.37 kg N ha⁻¹h⁻¹ for UUP and UAN, respectively. A 25-mm rain shower effectively stopped volatilization approximately 50 h after application. On a Bedford silt loam soil (Typic Fragiudalfs) volatilization losses were considerably lower than those found on the lower cation exchange capacity Lyles soil. Though overall losses were lower, relative losses from the different N fertilizers were similar to those found on the Lyles soil.


Problem. Parenting is a process which requests a great deal of flexibility and understanding. Both parents and child are engaged in the human developmental process; in most cases parents reach the midlife crisis more or less at the same time when the child reaches the adolescence phase. In most cases neither the parents nor the adolescent understand what is really happening in their lives. They begin to dislike each other and a conflictual atmosphere exists in the home. This lack of understanding brings about the breakdown in the relation parent adolescent. On the other hand parents usually have certain goals for their children and ideas about how these goals should be achieved, but the children in the adolescence phase have goals and intentions of their own as well. Thus when there is a great difference between what the children do and what the parents expect them to do, this also causes a breakdown in the relationship between parents and adolescents. This project intends to elucidate some of the causes of this breakdown in the parent-adolescent relation and to propose certain elements of solution in order to help parents understand better their adolescents and maintain a more harmonious relationship with them. Method. The research method adopted for this project was the survey. This was conducted among the parents of a number of churches in the Ontario Conference including my former congregation, the Woodbridge Seventh-day Adventist Church, to ascertain the problems they experienced with their adolescents and what information would be most helpful in developing and maintaining a good relationship with their adolescents. A variety of churches were selected because of the cultural-ethnic background of the membership in the Ontario Conference. The adolescents were surveyed as well, in order to obtain their perspectives on the problem. The general findings from the survey and general insights gained from the literature review were used to develop seminars geared towards addressing these specific findings. These seminars were held in the Filipino-Canadian Church and were presented to parents and adolescents. A process of evaluation was used to verify the learning experience of the participants and the level of their understanding of issues during the adolescence stage in order to ascertain the pertinence of the content of the seminars and the usefulness of the information shared. Results. The parents who attended these seminars had their level of understating of the issues of adolescence increased and it is hoped that they are better equipped to deal with their adolescents and thus maintain a harmonious atmosphere in the family. We found that the level of understanding on the issues about the adolescence phase has increased for a number of parents who attended the seminars. Conclusion. Three seminars have been prepared in the context of this project, a survey has been administered to the participants before the presentation, and the same survey has been administered to participants after the presentation. A comparison of the pre- and the post-survey helped me to ascertain that education through seminars among the churches in the Ontario Conference can make a positive impact in the relations between the parent and adolescent. Nonetheless these three alone cannot address all the aspects of the dynamic of the relationship between parents and adolescents. This project opened the pathway for more work in this orientation. It is hoped that parents will benefit from the seminars and a harmonious relationship will be fostered in many families within the church.


Recently, vertigo or dizziness has been linked to abnormal serotonin regulation in the hippocampus. According to the DSM-VI and ICD-10, vertigo or dizziness is a common symptom of anxiety disorder, somatoform disorder, and depression. In today's stressful society, we are now observing record increases in the number of patients with depression. Because of this increase, otolaryngologists are now encountering an increasing number of patients with depression-related dizziness or vertigo. We treated 41 patients with depression-related vertigo or dizziness with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI: paroxetine or fluvoxamine) or a selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI: milnacipran). We graded the effects of treatment according to three levels: outstanding, effective, or not effective. Besides dizziness, the chief complaints of patients we treated were problems with sleep, headache, heavy headedness, shoulder stiffness, and loss of motivation. Drug effectiveness or the overall recovery rate was defined as the ratio of the number of patients showing outstanding and effective improvements to the total number of patients treated with a particular drug. The overall recovery rate for patients treated with paroxetine was 82% (14/17), for patients treated with fluvoxamine it was 90% (10/11), and for patients treated with milnacipran it was 62% (8/13). Side effects were observed in 22% (9/41) of the patients. Symptoms disappeared in about 2 weeks after drug treatment began. SSRIs and SNRIs are now the drugs-of-choice for treating anxietyor depressionrelated vertigo because they are associated with fewer adverse effects than traditional antidepressants. Moreover, when compared to tranquilizers, SSRIs and SNRIs tend to be less habit-forming. As an adjunct to psychological counseling, dizziness associated with psychiatric disorders can also be treated in otolaryngological outpatient clinics


Efforts to account for corporate law using economic analysis do not address the pervasive professional concern with the production of legal text. For this reason, analysis of Delaware corporate law as sub-optimal because it permits inefficient litigation does not acknowledge or analyze the collaboration among Delaware corporations, Delaware lawyers, and Delaware judges to produce corporate text. The collaboration produces a socially valuable product - sophisticated writing about the corporation fed by rich cultural sources - for which there is a set of readers willing to pay a premium. Moreover, these readers use the texts to produce the re-readings that active readers provide for texts, and new writings, that enhance the social and legal understanding and functioning of the corporation by situating it in a body of expert text. The Caremark case, and its echoes in Disney, are the exemplars of this phenomenon. Both are widely read and discussed as a source of moral and practical insight, even though neither produced a legal outcome imposing a penalty on corporate directors. This Article discusses the contested status of demands for text in corporate law and reviews failures in readership associated with financial disclosure by corporations. In contrast with text that experiences such readership failures, Delaware law stands out as an editorial site for the creation of corporate law as text that commands a wide readership. The engagement of a community of readers is a large factor in the creation and influence of Delaware law. It is not clear that audiences such as those embedded in the reading and writing of corporate legal text produced in Delaware, and contending over time for its interpretation and recovery, would exist and thereby recreate a comparably rich collaboration of readers and collective authors in another editorial site.


The authors detail their work with Chain Reaction, a Chicago-based participatory action research and popular education project working to spark conversations about alternatives to calling the police on young people. As volunteers for Chain Reaction, we facilitated a series of workshops an LGBTQ youth center in which youth used digital audio recorders to interview each other about their experiences with police, then curated the stories for a toolkit on alternatives to policing. As the stories consistently reflect, when young people become involved with the police, it often sets off a chain reaction that can result in dropping out of school, losing jobs, and ongoing contact with state systems. The goal of Chain Reaction is to support community-based strategies for stopping these cycles. We explore the theoretical frameworks and the limitations and successes of the project, and offer suggestions for those interested in doing similar projects.


Hedge Fund Governance: Evaluating Oversight, Independence and Conflicts summarizes the fundamental elements of hedge fund governance and principal perspectives on governance arguments. An authoritative reference on governance, it describes the tools needed for developing a flexible, comprehensive hedge fund governance analysis framework. Case studies and interviews with professional fund directors shine a bright light of pragmatism on this framework. The author's global analysis of more than 5,000 hedge fund governance structures enables him to draw realistic conclusions about best practices. He also explores the value consequences of good vs. bad governance, estimating the actual dollar losses that can result from bad governance, as well as the operational and investment performance benefits of certain governance practices. * Presents methods for evaluating qualifications, conflicts of interests, fees, obligations and liabilities of hedge fund Boards of Directors.* Explains techniques for developing a hedge fund governance assessment program, including analyzing legal documentation analysis and financial statements for governance related information. * Uses case studies and example scenarios in hedge fund governance successes and failures to explore investor governance rights and fund manager responsibilities in onshore and offshore jurisdictions.


Due to severe nutrient and light limitation, the central Arctic Ocean has been characterized as a region of low primary productivity, with high retention of carbon in the surface waters. Using an in‐depth analysis of published and new measurements of turbulent microstructure and high‐resolution profiles of nitrate concentration, we reassess the vertical supply of nitrate to the Polar Mixed Layer and the associated export of particulate organic matter across the nitracline. We estimate annual export production to be approximately 1.5–3 g C m−2, but regional differences in both current and future potential of export production are large, with the eastern Arctic being least constrained by vertical nutrient supply and the western Arctic the most. Future changes in export production are assessed using a 1‐D budget model; increases in the Atlantic sector are possibly compensated by decreases in the rest of the central Arctic Ocean such that the net change might be insignificant.


The complex evolutionary process of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is marked by a high level of genetic variation. It has been shown that the HIV-1 genome is characterized by variable and more constant regions, unequal nucleotide frequencies, and preference for G-to-A substitutions. However, this knowledge has largely been neglected in phylogenetic analyses of HIV-1 nucleotide sequences, even though these analyses are applied to a number of important biological questions. The purpose of this study was to identify a realistic model of HIV-1 evolution and to statistically test if the application of such a model significantly improves the accuracy of phylogenetic analyses. A unique and recently reported HIV-1 transmission cluster consisting of nine infected individuals, for whom the direction and time for each transmission were exactly known, formed the basis for the analyses which were performed under a general model of nucleotide substitution using population sequences from the env V3 and p17gag regions of the HIV-1 genome. Examination of seven different substitution models by maximum-likelihood methods revealed that the fit of the general reversible (REV) model was significantly better than that of simpler models, indicating that it is important to account for the asymmetric substitution pattern of HIV-1 and that the nucleotide substitution rate varied significantly across sites. The shape parameter alpha, which describes the variation across sites by a gamma distribution, was estimated to be 0.38 and 0.25 for env V3 and p17gag, respectively. In env V3, the estimated average transition/transversion rate ratio was 1.42. Thus, the REV model with variable rates across sites (described by a gamma distribution) provides the best description of HIV-1 evolution, whereas simple models are unrealistic and inaccurate. It is likely that the accuracy of phylogenetic studies of HIV-1 and many other viruses would improve substantially by the use of more realistic nucleotide substitution models. This is especially true when attempts are made to estimate the age of distant viral ancestors from contemporary viral sequences.


In this work, we present a new planning formalism called Expectation-Aware planning for decision making with humans in the loop where the human's expectations about an agent may differ from the agent's own model. We show how this formulation allows agents to not only leverage existing strategies for handling model differences like explanations (Chakraborti et al. 2017) and explicability (Kulkarni et al. 2019), but can also exhibit novel behaviors that are generated through the combination of these different strategies. Our formulation also reveals a deep connection to existing approaches in epistemic planning. Specifically, we show how we can leverage classical planning compilations for epistemic planning to solve Expectation-Aware planning problems. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed formulation is the first complete solution to planning with diverging user expectations that is amenable to a classical planning compilation while successfully combining previous works on explanation and explicability. We empirically show how our approach provides a computational advantage over our earlier approaches that rely on search in the space of models.


A compact, two-dimensional scanning laser slope gauge has been developed for measuring ocean ripples, leading to the determination of their directional slope spectrum in the wavelength range of 4.5-81 mm. A telecentric scanning mechanism is used to enhance the dynamic range of slope measurements and to eliminate constraints caused by water-surface undulations associated with long waves. Successful laboratory tests and field trials have been performed; sample results are provided.


Even to experts,
 Colombia is one of the most confusing countries in the Americas. Its democratic
 tradition is among the richest and most long-standing in the hemisphere, with
 only eleven years of military rule during its 200 some years of independence.
 Except for the United States and Canada, Colombia has had the highest growth
 rate in the Americas over the last 75 years. It is widely seen as having some of
 the continent's best universities and deep intellectual traditions along with a
 dazzling array of fine and industrial arts and now globally-popular tropical
 music. But despite these admirable achievements, Colombia has also experienced
 what its Nobel laureate Gabriel García Marquez once called "a biblical
 holocaust" of human savagery. Along with the scourge of politically-motivated
 assassinations (averaging 30 per day in the 1990s) have been drug-related
 massacres, widespread disappearances, rapes and kidnappings, and even the
 signature defilement of murder victims. The relentless dynamics of the illegal
 drug industry raises a puzzling question: how did Colombia capture and control
 that enormously-lucrative industry and then leverage its status as America's No.
 1 drug supplier into a $7 billion military partnership with the world's
 superpower? The answer to that question is something everyone needs to know. To
 unravel the enigma, Richard D. Mahoney links historical legacies with key
 periods in the post-World War II era and then sets forth overarching cultural
 features--land violence, the Church, race, the Spanish language, and magical
 culture-that run through Colombia's history, distinguish its national
 experience, and fuel its unquenchable creativity.


This paper presents an innovative wing profile featuring an internal truss-like structure of chiral topol-ogy. The chiral design is selected because of its unique deformation characteristics, which produce a theoretical, in-plane Poisson's ratio of −1. Such a Poisson's ratio yields a very high shear modulus, which in principle does not require the wing profile to be defined by a closed section or stressed-skin configuration. In addition, the peculiar deformation mechanism of the chiral configuration allows large decambering deflections to occur, with all the members of assembly behaving within the linear range of the material. Hence the proposed design combines large chordwise compliance and large in-plane shear stiffness. Such conflicting mechanical properties can be achieved through the proper selection of a limited number of geometric parameters defining the core configuration. The objective of the paper is to investigate the compliance characteristics of the airfoil. Two-dimensional profiles, designed according to results from previous investigations, are manufactured and tested to assess compliance and evaluate decambering deflection limits. The experimental analysis is guided by numerical models that account for deviations from the ideal configuration due to manufacturing limitations. Numerical and experimental results demonstrate the influence of core geometry on the compliance and confirm the ability of chiral-core airfoils to sustain large deflections while not exceeding yield strain limits.


Report of a whole-day joint meeting of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy and the British Geomorphological Research Group held at Burlington House, 15 November 1984. The meeting was organized by Professor F. K. G. Hosking, Dr Ian Reid, Dr D. G. Sutherland and Professor M. F. Thomas, and convened by Drs Reid and Sutherland. At this joint meeting, some 160 participants explored those areas where process geomorphology is instrumental in the identification of metalliferous palaeosediments. Water transport and reworking of debris are fundamental controls on placer concentration by mechanical processes, and chemical deepweathering of land surfaces is a feature of environments where residual enrichments are concentrated. The initial session, chaired by K. F. G. Hosking, was an immediate reminder of the global span and regional diversity of the topic. D. G. Sutherland's overview featured the main areas in the world of placer deposits. He examined the fundamental role of chemical deep weathering in releasing minerals from the host rock, noting the temperature and moisture conditions required. Climate is also important and controls the volume of runoff, which then determines the amount of debris moved. The climatic changes of the past, particularly during the last 2 Ma, were emphasized. T. K. Smith's talk featured an area of former hydraulic mining in the Sierra Nevada in the San Juan placer gold deposits. The significance of the unlikely name of his study area, the Red Dog–You Bet district, was only explained during the informal discussions, which were a conspicuous feature of


This memo estimates the impact on children and the cost to the State of Florida of the current prohibition on adoption by gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) individuals and same-sex couples. We use data about the number of children adopted each year as a way to estimate the number of GLB individuals and same-sex couples who would be likely to serve as adoptive parents if the ban were not in place. Prohibiting GLB individuals and same-sex couples from adopting means that 165 children must remain in foster care or must have alternative adoptive homes recruited for them. As a result, we estimate that the ban costs the State of Florida over $2.5 million in per year. As explained below, this estimate is conservative since some likely additional costs are difficult to quantify. In addition, because of the current prohibition on GLB individuals and same-sex couples adopting children in Florida, it is possible that more GLB individuals and same-sex couples would be interested in adopting if the ban were lifted. We estimate that if the ban were lifted, both adoption and foster care by GLB individuals and same-sex couples would increase to the average United States level, leading to 219 children being adopted, and saving the State of Florida $3.4 million dollars in the first year.


Models are fundamental for estimating the possible costs and effectiveness of different policies for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There is a wide array of models to perform such analysis, differing in the level of technological detail, treatment of technological progress, spatial and sector details, and representation of the interaction of the energy sector to the overall economy and environment. These differences impact model results, including cost estimates. More fundamentally, these models differ as to how they represent fundamental processes that have a large impact on policy analysis--such as how different models represent technological learning and cost reductions that come through increasing production volumes, or how different models represent baseline conditions. Reliable estimates of the costs and potential impacts on the United States economy of various emissions reduction and other mitigation strategies are critical to the development of the federal climate change research and development portfolio. At the request of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Academies organized a workshop, summarized in this volume, to consider some of these types of modeling issues.


Cocaine is a powerful stimulant of the sympathetic nervous system by inhibiting catecholamine reuptake, stimulating central sympathetic outflow, and increasing the sensitivity of adrenergic nerve endings to norepinephrine (NE). It is known, from numerous studies, that cocaine causes irreversible structural changes on the brain, heart, lung and other organs such as liver and kidney and there are many mechanisms involved in the genesis of these damages. Some effects are determined by the overstimulation of the adrenergic system. Most of the direct toxic effects are mediated by oxidative stress and by mitochondrial dysfunction produced during the metabolism of noradrenaline or during the metabolism of norcocaina, as in cocaine-induced hepathotoxicity. Cocaine is responsible for the coronary arteries vasoconstriction, atherosclerotic phenomena and thrombus formation. In this way, cocaine favors the myocardial infarction. While the arrhythmogenic effect of cocaine is mediated by the action on potassium channel (blocking), calcium channels (enhances the function) and inhibiting the flow of sodium during depolarization. Moreover chronic cocaine use is associated with myocarditis, ventricular hypertrophy, dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure. A variety of respiratory problems temporally associated with crack inhalation have been reported. Cocaine may cause changes in the respiratory tract as a result of its pharmacologic effects exerted either locally or systemically, its method of administration (smoking, sniffing, injecting), or its alteration of central nervous system neuroregulation of pulmonary function. Renal failure resulting from cocaine abuse has been also well documented. A lot of studies demonstrated a high incidence of congenital cardiovascular and brain malformations in offspring born to mothers with a history of cocaine abuse.


A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of
the degree of Master of Business Administration [Corporate Management]
of Mzumbe University


A test method was developed to identify those variables important for assessing the performance of ultrasonic surgical devices in ex vivo ligature sealing of porcine carotid and uterine arteries. Ruggedness testing using a small sample size in pilot experiments was conducted using a newly developed test method in an effort to assess the usefulness of this methodology and to identify test variables that might warrant further testing. The development of this test method included the use of a custom-designed prototypic tension device for load-controlled ex vivo vessel stretching during saline perfusion and subsequent seal and transection of porcine arteries with an advanced energy surgical device. The quality of the seal was evaluated as a burst pressure (mmHg). The experimental set-up allowed for either monitoring or controlling specific test conditions, including blood vessel tension during cutting and sealing, saline infusion rate, cutting time, pressure generated in the vessel during cutting, and burst pressure. Both muscular-type uterine and elastic-type carotid arteries were investigated, since energy based devices are most frequently used on muscular-type arteries but are developed and tested using elastic-type arteries. Although confounded with the age of the animal, in the ruggedness test pilot, it was observed that porcine carotid arteries yielded a comparatively lower burst strength seal as compared to porcine uterine arteries. The data generated during ruggedness testing suggests that the artery type and saline infusion rate during transection may be important variables in ex vivo vessel seal testing.


One of the key challenges in Cosmology today is to probe both statistical isotropy and Gaussianity of the primordial density perturbations, which are imprinted in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. While single-field slow-roll inflation predicts the CMB to fulfil these two characteristics, more complex models may give rise to anisotropy and/or non-Gaussianity. A detection or non-detection allows therefore to discriminate between different models of inflation and significantly improves the understanding of basic conditions of the very early Universe.
In this work, a detailed CMB non-Gaussianity and isotropy analysis of the five- and seven-year observations of the WMAP satellite is presented. On the one hand, these investigations are performed by comparing the data set with simulations, which is the usual approach for this kind of analyses. On the other hand, a new model-independent approach is developed and applied in this work. Starting from the random phase hypothesis, so- called surrogate maps are created by shuffling the Fourier phases of the original maps for a chosen scale interval. Any disagreement between the data and these surrogates points towards phase correlations in the original map, and therefore – if systematics and foregrounds can be ruled out – towards a violation of single-field slow roll inflation.
The construction of surrogate maps only works for an orthonormal set of Fourier functions on the sphere, which is provided by the spherical harmonics exclusively on a complete sky. For this reason, the surrogate approach is for the first time combined with a transformation of the full sky spherical harmonics to a cut sky version. Both the single surrogate approach as well as the combination with the cut sky transformation are tested thoroughly to assess and then rule out the effects of systematics. Thus, this work not only represents a detailed CMB analysis, but also provides a completely new method to test for scale- dependent higher order correlations in complete or partial spherical data sets, which can be applied in different fields of research.
In detail, the applications of the above methods involve the following analyses: First, a detailed study of several frequency bands of the WMAP five-year data release is accomplished by means of a scaling index analysis, whereby the data are compared to simulations. Special attention is paid to anomalous local features, and ways to overcome the problem of boundary effects when excluding foreground-influenced parts of the sky. After this, the surrogate approach is for the first time applied to real CMB data sets. In doing so, several foreground-reduced full sky maps from both the five- and seven-year WMAP observations are used. The analysis includes different scale intervals and a huge amount of checks on possible systematics. Then, another step forward is taken by applying the surrogate approach for the first time to incomplete data sets, again from the WMAP five- and seven-year releases. The Galactic Plane, which is responsible for the largest amount of foreground contribution, is removed by means of several cuts of different sizes. In addition, different techniques for the basis transformation are used.
In all of these investigations, remarkable non-Gaussianities and deviations from statistical isotropy are identified. In fact, the surrogate approach shows by far the most significant detection of non-Gaussianity to date. The band-wise analysis shows consistent results for all frequency bands. Despite a thorough search, no candidate for foreground or systematic influences could be found. Therefore, the findings of these analyses have so far to be taken as cosmological, and point on the one hand towards a strong violation of single-field slow-roll inflation, and question on the other hand the concept of statistical isotropy in general. Future analyses of the more precise measurements of the forthcoming PLANCK satellite will yield more information about the origin of the detected anomalies.


Oxygen consumption after exercise is frequently plotted as a function of time and then the area under the curve (AUC) is calculated. Subsequently, this AUC is further manipulated and thus, differences between these manipulations may impact the interpretation of changes in oxygen consumption after exercise. The purpose of this study was to determine if the method of calculating AUC influences the interpretation of changes in post-exercise oxygen consumption in response to long-term aerobic exercise. Forty-three moderately obese, sedentary participants volunteered to participate in this study (26 women and 17 men). All participants performed verified supervised exercise during the study. Supervised treadmill exercise was initially conducted for 3 d/week at 60 % of heart rate reserve (HRR) for 30 min and progressed to 5 d/week at 75 % of HRR for 45 min across the first 4 months. Pre-exercise, exercise, and post-exercise oxygen consumption was measured at baseline and 9 months. AUC was calculated by three methods; total, incremental, and positive incremental. Descriptive statistics and dependent T-tests were calculated for each method of calculating the AUC. In addition, the intra-individual coefficient of variation was determined for each individual for each AUC method. A pearson product moment correlation was calculated for each method to determine the strength of the relationship between pre- and post-training values. The change in post-exercise oxygen AUC after nine months of training was 5.36+/-10.90 L, 2.17+/-7.61 L, and 1.74+/-9.10 L for the total, incremental, and positive incremental methods, respectively. There was significant change in post-exercise total AUC from baseline to 9-months (5.36 +/- 10.90 L), while there was no significant change in incremental or positive incremental AUC. There was a moderately high correlation (r=0.67, p <0.05) between baseline and 9-months for the total AUC method, while there was no significant correlation for incremental and positive incremental AUC methods. These results suggest that the method used to calculate AUC can lead to a different interpretation of the effects of training on post-exercise oxygen consumption. From this data, it appears that analyzing post exercise oxygen consumption with the total area under the curve method has a greater ability to detect a change from aerobic training, than either the positive or incremental area under the curve methods.


ABSTRACT The only long term trend data on trust in the American press comes from the General Social Survey (GSS). The erosion of trust in the press as measured by the GSS indicator is indisputable, but its implications for the functioning of American democracy depend on what, precisely, is being measured. In this study we use an experimental design embedded in a representative national probability sample to shed light on what people are thinking of when they say they trust or distrust the American press. Are they thinking about the sources they themselves use for news? The sources that are most popular with the population at large? An average of all possible media sources? We find that individuals express much greater trust in the press when they are asked to consider specific news sources than when they are asked to evaluate a generic news media. Our results suggest that an accessibility bias combined with the proliferation of news sources in recent years may lead individuals to think of distrusted sources when asked to answer generic media trust questions. We therefore argue that different measurement strategies are needed to successfully address trust in the press in the current news environment.


E-learning has become a prominent and effective role in recent years. The factor of place and time became ineffective in the educational process. So that anyone can learn anywhere in the world. The educational services that benefit the learner during the educational process as well as the factors of assistance are important elements that help in the success of the educational process in the environment of e-learning. The more these services, the greater the benefit from e-learning. But its way of reviewing electronic content is still ineffective. Therefore it was necessary to create a suitable environment for the learner is similar to the real reality. Through which the learner feels the integration and concentration in the academic content as if it were realistic. So, the trend was to take advantage of the virtual reality technology that have become effective in all fields. The use of this technology will help the learner gain more realism and make full use of the electronic content. This study reviews the effect of the use of virtual reality technology in the review of the learner's electronic content, as well as the attitudes and opinions of the students of the Business Information Systems program at the Faculty of Commerce, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt, about the use of this technology and to what extent will effect on change and effectiveness in the quality of educational process


Tunable broadband white upconversion (UC) luminescence has been demonstrated in Yb3+/Tm3+/Mn2+ tri-doped KZnF3 nanocrystals from the excitation of a 976 nm laser diode (LD). The white light is composed of three sharp band peaks at 480, 650 and 700 nm, originating from the UC emissions of Tm3+ ions, and one broad band centered at 585 nm, originating from exchange-coupled Yb3+–Mn2+ dimers. The effects of the concentration, pump power and temperature on the UC luminescence properties of KZnF3:Yb3+,Tm3+,Mn2+ nanocrystals have been investigated. By changing the Mn2+/Tm3+ content ratio, various colors of the UC luminescence can be easily obtained in KZnF3:Yb3+,Tm3+,Mn2+ nanocrystals, which gives these nanocrystals potential applications in the fields of lighting, displays and lasers.


Abstract Self-efficacy is a perceived judgment that one has the ability to execute a course of action that brings about a desired result. Principal self-efficacy describes a set of beliefs that enable a principal to enact policies and procedures that promote the effectiveness of a school. Principal self-efficacy beliefs are also important because they guide the leader's actions and behaviors that affect expectations for students as well as teachers' motivation and school improvement processes. In this qualitative case study, we sought to understand teachers' perceptions of how the self-efficacy beliefs and actions of the principal contributed to the school's collective efficacy. The study featured a single embedded case design highlighting one high poverty rural middle school with very high levels of achievement. While collective efficacy was developed through fidelity to instructional initiatives and relationship building among staff, the efficacy beliefs and actions of the principal influenced the school's collective efficacy by creating a steadfast instructional focus, developing teacher leaders, and leading by example.


This work is the only current, single volume coverage of the the latest EU energy legislation and its application on the context of the rules of the EU Treaties. Providing a comprehensive account of EU energy law following the adoption of the third energy package in 2009 this book focuses on internal market issues and the applicable rules and developments in energy law. It covers key issues such as environmental and contractual matters, and the roles and responsibilities of regulatory authorities, including the new Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER).As well as the Third Package Directives in the Electricity and Gas Internal market, the work covers a wealth of other recent legislative material, including the accompanying Regulations on cross-border trade in gas and electricity, the ACER Regulation, the Regulation on Energy Market Integrity and Transparency, the Second Renewables Directive, the Gas Security of Supply Regulation, the Carbon Capture and Storage Directive, as well as proposals for the new Energy Efficiency Directive.Relevant case law from the free movement and competition fields is integrated into the substantive analysis of particular topics including detailed analysis of Preussen Elektra, cases on security of supply, and various competition law decisions and cases concerning, for example, essential facilities and long-term contracts (involving capacity reservation and destination clauses etc).In addition to discussing energy contracts generally, the work also analyses regulatory problems relating to energy contracts which are not covered by other books in the field. Pre-existing long-term contracts raise problems relating to investment law (under the Energy Charter Treaty, bilateral investment treaties, etc) and fundamental rights law (property rights protection). New long-term contracts raise both regulatory and competition law questions which are also discussed.Coverage also includes the evolution of the EU's energy legislation, the liberalization of energy markets after the third package, security of supply, energy sources, and energy efficiency.


In recent years there has been massively increased demand for the services of the private security industry, which has now assumed a far greater role in policing areas that were once the sphere of the police --for example, shopping malls, leisure parks and transportation terminals. This book provides a detailed account of the developments in urban planning, public policy and the commercial world which have promoted the development of private security, and provides a unique examination of security teams in operation in three very different environments --a shopping mall, a retail and leisure complex, and an arts centre. The study is set within a broader context that considers changes in retail and leisure patterns that have promoted the development of large, multi-purpose developments, shifts in town centre planning to create more secure high street retail and leisure facilities, and the promotion of CCTV and security patrols. Finally, the book considers the ethical issues that arise with the massively increased use of private security, and the broader policy issues which arise.


As reproduction is seen as central to kinship and the biological link as the primary bond between parents and their offspring, Western perceptions of kin relations are primarily determined by ideas about "consanguinity," "genealogical relations," and "genetic connections." Advocates of cultural constructivism have taken issue with a concept that puts so much stress on heredity as being severely biased by western ideas of kinship. Ethnosociologists in particular developed alternative systems using indigenous categories. This symbolic approach has, however, been rejected by some scholars as plagued by the problems of the analytical separation of ideology from practice, of largely overlooking relations of domination, and of ignoring the questions of shared knowledge and choice. This volume offers a corrective by discussing the constitution of kinship among different communities in South Asia and addressing the relationship between ideology and practice, cultural models, and individiual strategies.


Abstract. Estimating area of impervious land cover is the most useful and one of the ecological assessment indexes of urban and regional environment. Global land cover maps are inevitably misclassified, which affects the quality and application of the data. Statistical approach for assessing the accuracy is critical to understand the global change information and area estimation is usually based on sample data with a probability-based estimator. However, research on evaluation of multi-temporal global impervious land cover maps has not been implemented. In this study, spatial characteristics of the data are considered to assess the thematic map accuracy with a two-stage stratified random sampling plan. The first stage of stratification is determined by the global urban ecoregion and the second one is determined by land cover classes. Additionally, sample size of both map stage and pixel stage are calculated using a probability sampling model. A response design is constructed for a per-pixel accuracy assessment and blind interpretation is implemented using sample pixels and its surrounding area. Our method is applied to the multi-temporal global impervious land cover maps between 2000 and 2010 with a time interval of 5 years and the estimated area in different epoch are listed in detail. The main contribution of our research is illustrating the details for calculating the proportion area of impervious land cover and corresponding confidence intervals based on the reference classification. The experimental results show that the increasing area of the impervious surface according to the sample unit shows good agreement with the urbanization and descriptive accuracy assessments by user's, producer's and overall accuracy are shown respectively.


This thesis examines the political marketing of the African National Congress (ANC) around seminal political events between 1955 and 2009, and the relationship between such marketing and its strategic behaviour in the political sphere. Further, the analysis examines the means by which these techniques located the ANC at the centre of liberation and post-independent political narratives and explores and posits a basis for understanding the behaviour of the ANC and leading actors in the political sphere. The thesis explicates the nature of the continuities and discontinuities in the ANC discursive forms of political exchange and interaction and problematises the theoretical underpinnings of political marketing through the case of the ANC in South Africa. The thesis employs a broad understanding of political marketing to include such activities as publicity, promotion and propaganda. It extends its theoretical and conceptual remit beyond purely scientific and positivist approaches to understanding political persuasion and endows marketing with a strongly 'cultural' aspect. In doing so, greater consideration is afforded to the complex of influences that over time have come to inform the discursive and representational registers of the ANC. Drawing on a range of archival sources obtained during fieldwork in South Africa, this thesis contributes to the study of South African politics by reconceptualising the politics of the ANC through the lens of political marketing. It contributes to the theory of political marketing by using the South African case to address the theoretical blind-spots and challenge its western-centric notion of the political market. Centred on the themes on of liberation, political culture and spectacle, the thesis enriches the understanding of each through the case of the ANC. As such, the thesis provides a deeper understanding of the social and cultural bases of political change in a post-colonial and post-apartheid setting.


Summary

1. Bioassessment has evolved significantly from a method of deciding whether an ecosystem exposed to stressors should 'pass' or 'fail' (or how badly it fails). Society wants some notion of what has caused any observed degradation of ecosystems, and what management strategies might improve degraded ecosystems. Managers also want to predict what negative or positive effects different land use strategies will have on the component ecosystems of a landscape, including lakes and streams.

2. Here we illustrate an approach to providing these tools to managers with data from a bioassessment study of streams in the Fraser River Basin of British Columbia, Canada.

3. Landscape scale descriptors of both the natural (e.g. catchment size, surficial geology) and stressor (e.g. hard rock mines, forest harvest) environment of each site were used to define the natural and stressor environments of each of the 242 stream sites.

4. We classified 206 reference (relatively unexposed to human activity) sites using their benthic macroinvertebrate community composition, and then discriminated among the faunally defined groups with landscape scale descriptors of the natural environment of the sites.

5. This discriminant function model allowed us to predict which group each of the test sites would be in if it were in reference condition, and then measure the relationship between the amount of human activity and the biota in each of these groups.

6. These relationships were turned into projections of what will happen to a stream ecosystem's biota if the stressor environment is either improved or degraded. These projection models form the basis of evidence-based land use planning that takes into account the health of freshwater ecosystems.


Birds can cause extensive crop damage in the United States. In some regions, depredating species comprise a substantial portion of the total avian population, emphasizing their importance both economically and ecologically. We used the National Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count data from the south-central United States and mixed-effects models to identify habitat factors associated with population trend and abundance for 5 species: red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula), rusty blackbird (Euphagus carolinus), Brewer's blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus), and European starling (Sturnus vulgaris). Overall, we found positive associations between bird abundance and agricultural land-cover for all species. Relationships between abundance and other land-cover types were species-specific, often with contrasting relationships among species. Likewise, we found no consistent patterns among abundance and climate. Of the 5 species, only red-winged blackbirds had a significant population trend in our study area, increasing annually by 2.4%. There was marginal evidence to suggest population increases for rusty blackbirds, whereas all other species showed no trend in population size within our study area. Our study provides managers who are interested in limiting crop damage in the south-central United States with novel information on habitat associations in the region that could be used to improve management and control actions.


This program builds an overlapping class system from an unweighted simple graph G=(V,E). Let |V|=n and |E|=m. It is essentially a hierarchical ascending algorithm joining two classes at each step. The optimized criterion is the modularity. It can be either the average gain or the total gain.
The initial overlapping class system can be : - the set of all maximal cliques (it can take a long time to establish) - the set of edges (many initial classes (m) implying many steps (O(m)) - the set of "centered cliques" (at most n), giving a fast solution for large graphs.
Two class systems can be calculated, the one maximazing the modularity, or the final one. In that case, the expected minimum number of clusters and the maximum caldinality of the final clusters are required. Fusion of classes are realized until one of these conditions is fullfiled. When no more class fusion can be realized the algorithm stops. Let p be the number of initial classes. The complexity is this algorithm is O(p^3).


Given the importance of phonological awareness in development of literacy skills, it is essential to consider the possible differences of phonological awareness (PA) among pre-school children to plan for training programs in these courses. For this purpose, two groups of pre-school children at the ages of 5- to 6- years old who were Kurdish-Persian bilinguals and Persian monolinguals were selected in order to investigate the possible differences among pre-school bilinguals and the monolinguals in terms of phonological awareness. Soleymani and Dastjerdi's (2002) Phonological Awareness Test was used as the instrument. Furthermore, application of the independent samples t-tests indicated a higher ability of Kurdish-Persian compared to the Persian monolingual pre-school children regarding some aspects of phonological awareness. Findings of the study could have implications for children second learning language, second language teachers and teacher trainers, task designers and curriculum developers to be more familiar with the factors influencing the phonological achievement.


We consider the numerical solution of the inhomogeneous Cauchy-Navier equations of elastodynamics, assuming time-harmonic variation for the displacement field U(x;t) = u(x)e i!t of an isotropic material with Lam´ e constants and and density: The resulting elliptic PDE, posed in a bounded simply connected domain is coupled with Dirichlet boundary conditions and solved trough a meshfree method, based on the Method of Fundamental Solutions (MFS). ( u + ( + )r(r u) +! 2 u = f in u = g on In particular, an extension, from the scalar [1, 2] to the vector case, of the MFS is applied and the displacement field u is approximated in terms of a linear combination of fundamental solutions (Kupradze tensors) of the corresponding homogeneous PDE with different source points and test frequencies. The applicability of the numerical method is justified in terms of density results [3]. The high accuracy and the convergence of the proposed method will be illustrated through 2D numerical simulations. Convex and non-convex domains and different sets of boundary data and body forces will be considered. Interior elastic wave scattering problems will also be addressed.


Microblogging websites, such as Twitter, provide seemingly endless amount of textual information on a wide variety of topics generated by a large number of users.Microblog posts, or tweets in Twitter, are often written in an informal manner using multi-lingual styles. Ignoring informal styles or multiple languages can hamper the usefulness of microblogging mining applications.In this paper, we present a statistical method for processing tweets according to users perceptions of topics and hashtags. Based on the non-classical notion of relatedness of vocabulary terms to topics in a corpus,which is quantified by discriminative term weights, our method builds a ranked list of terms related to hashtags.Subsequently, given a new tweet, our method can suggesta ranked list of hashtags. Our method allows enhanced understanding and normalization of users perceptionsfor improved information retrieval applications.We evaluate our method on a dataset of 14 million tweets collected over a period of 52 days. Results demonstrate that the method actually learns useful relationships between vocabulary terms and topics, and that the performance is better than a Naive Bayes suggestion system.