Classically, an approach to the policy learning in multiagent systems supposed that the agents, via interactions and/or by using preliminary knowledge about the reward functions of all players, would find an interdependent solution called "equilibrium". Recently, however, certain researchers question the necessity and the validity of the concept of equilibrium as the most important multiagent solution concept. They argue that a "good" learning algorithm is one that is efficient with respect to a certain class of counterparts. Adaptive players is an important class of agents that learn their policies separately from the maintenance of the beliefs about their counterparts' future actions and make their decisions based on that policy and the current belief. In this paper we propose an efficient learning algorithm in presence of the adaptive counterparts called Adaptive Dynamics Learner (ADL) which is able to learn an efficient policy over the opponents' adaptive dynamics rather than over the simple actions and beliefs and, by so doing, to exploit this dynamics to obtain a higher utility than any equilibrium strategy can provide. We tested our algorithm on a big set of the most known and demonstrative matrix games and observed that ADL agent is highly efficient against Adaptive Play Q-learning (APQ) agent and Infinitesimal Gradient Ascent (IGA) agent. In self-play, when possible, ADL is able to converge to a Pareto optimal strategy that maximizes the welfare of all players instead of an equilibrium strategy.


Voice messaging is traditionally addressed using telephone number
addressing. This document describes two techniques for routing voice
messages based on a telephone number. The complete service uses the
Voice Profile for Internet Mail (VPIM) Directory service to lookup a
VPIM email address with a telephone number and confirm that the
address is both valid and associated with the intended recipient.
However, this service will take time to become widely deployed in the
near term. This document also describes a basic send-and-pray service
that routes and delivers messages using only the ENUM telephone number
resolution service and the existing DNS mail routing facilities.
[STANDARDS-TRACK]


'Death of the Redcaps' was a documentary focusing on the violent deaths of six Royal Military Policemen on active service in Iraq in 2003. The soldiers' deaths drew particular scrutiny in the media and Parliament because of surrounding circumstances: the failure of supplied equipment, the close proximity of a Parachute Brigade patrol who were unable to intervene, and a series of mistakes attributable to the British Army.

The duration of the documentary was 40 minutes. It was screened on BBC Two on the 10th of February, 2005. Gary Horne was both producer and director.

The research was undertaken over a six month investigation and involved original interviews to camera with eyewitnesses in Iraq, members of the deceased's families and the acquisition of restricted Army documents and off-the-record interviews with members of the armed forces. This diverse range of source material was investigated in order to verify evidentially a series of interpretations of the events in Iraq. The "triangulated", verifiable interpretations developed by the researcher from the primary sources enabled a series of revelatory claims to be made that addressed: malfunctioning equipment (that was known at the time to be malfunctioning and had not been supplemented by an alternative arrangement); the failure of specific Coalition military units to observe local agreements with Iraqi civilians; the subsequent riot during in which several Iraqis were killed in shooting begun by a solider who had been involved in an uninvestigated unlawful shooting in the Kosovo conflict; the breakdown of cooperation between different military units; and dissimulation to the deceased's families.


Covert spatial attention is the mechanism by which humans select a location for more elaborate cognitive processing without moving the eyes. Human and animal electrophysiology, studies of humans with brain damage, and other methods suggest that the movement, capture, and release of covert spatial attention involves a widely distributed network of cortical and subcortical structures. These structures include, most prominently, parts of the frontal and parietal lobes, and the superior colliculus, although their precise roles are not completely clear. The premotor theory of attention suggests that shifts of covert attention arise from plans for eye movements even when no eye movement occurs. Evidence for this theory, based on electrophysiological recording in monkey frontal eye fields (FEFs), regions implicated in generating plans for eye movements, has been controversial. Much of the evidence originates from tasks that involve eye movements, raising concerns about whether overt and covert attention could be properly dissociated. In their recent paper in The Journal of Neuroscience, Thompson et al. (2005) provide compelling evidence that covert spatial attention is dissociable from eye movement planning in the FEFs.

To direct spatial attention to a location, Thompson et al. used a visual search task. While fixating centrally, two macaque monkeys viewed displays with one item (the target) that popped out from a homogeneous set of distractor items [Thompson et al. (2005), their Fig. 1 (http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/25/41/9479FIG1)]. In such a paradigm, attention is generally thought to be automatically and covertly directed toward the target. Unlike previous investigations requiring a saccadic response, Thompson et al. trained the monkeys to respond manually in an effort to diminish influences of saccade planning on FEF activity. During the task, they recorded from three types of FEF cells. Movement cells display above baseline activity related to the production of a saccade, whereas visual cells display above baseline activity in the presence of a visual target. Visuomovement cells display properties of both. The authors found greater activity in visual and visuomovement cells when an attended target appeared in the receptive field of the cell than when an unattended distractor was in the receptive field [Thompson et al. (2005), their Figs. 3 (http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/25/41/9479/FIG3) and 6 (http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/25/41/9479/FIG6)]. Because there were no eye movements during the task, this activity cannot be attributed to motor execution. To address the possibility that this activity reflected unrealized motor plans to move the eyes to the target location, the authors examined eye movements after each trial. They reasoned that if FEF activity reflected a plan to move the eyes toward the target, this plan should be executed after the end of the trial when the animals were allowed to move their eyes. Because post-trial saccades were not biased toward the target location [Thompson et al. (2005), their Fig. 2 (http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/25/41/9479/FIG2)], Thompson et al. concluded that the target-related activity in visual neurons could not be attributed to saccade planning. Furthermore, Thompson et al. found no evidence of saccade-planning activity in movement neurons from which they recorded [Thompson et al. (2005), their Figs. 4 (http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/25/41/9479/FIG4), 5 (http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/25/41/9479/FIG5), and 6 (http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/25/41/9479/FIG6)]. Previous electrophysiological studies have shown that FEF movement neurons are active when a saccade is planned toward a visual search target, regardless of whether it is actually executed. Thompson et al. likely achieved these clear results because of their saccade-free task and by testing monkeys who had never been trained to make saccades in a visual search task.

The evidence presented in this paper is consistent with evidence from human neuroimaging studies and other nonhuman electrophysiology studies. The FEFs are part of the distributed covert attention network, and activity in the FEFs does not necessarily rely on eye movement commands. But what role do the FEFs play in the attention network? A key issue is whether the FEFs generate the commands that actually cause shifts of attention or whether the target-selective FEF activity is a consequence of attentional commands generated elsewhere in the brain. Discriminating between these interpretations can be difficult (perhaps impossible) using electrophysiological recordings because there is no indication of whether the observed activity is necessary for the behavior.

Neuropsychological studies of patients, brain area inactivation, and human transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can be used to establish the role of a brain area in a cognitive process (Chambers and Mattingley, 2005). Damage or temporary inactivation of a brain area will disrupt any cognitive functions in which that area plays a necessary role. A series of studies have examined various nodes in the attention network using these methods (Fig. 1). For instance, inactivation of monkey lateral intraparietal (LIP) area increases reaction time for detection of contralateral features and conjunctions of features in visual search (Wardak et al., 2004). Similar effects are observed in human patients with parietal lobe damage (Eglin et al., 1991). These findings, along with neuroimaging data, support the notion that the parietal lobe serves a necessary role in the deployment of covert spatial attention. Although researchers have used TMS to disrupt visual search by stimulating the FEFs (Muggleton et al., 2003), we are not aware of lesion or chemical inactivation studies of the FEF during visual search. Thompson et al. provide excellent groundwork for such a study. Importantly, patients with frontal damage sparing the FEFs show contralateral deficits in visual search (Eglin et al., 1991). These results emphasize the necessity of areas outside the FEF, in frontal and parietal cortices, for attentional allocation.

Figure 1

The results of Thompson et al. fit nicely into ongoing work in understanding the distributed network of attention involved in visual search. The frontal eye fields (highlighted in yellow) and the posterior parietal lobe (highlighted in blue) have been ...

Another issue to consider is whether the role of the FEFs in attention may differ as a function of the type of attentional deployment. Covert attention comes in at least two forms. It can be exogenously driven by a salient target, or it can be controlled by the animal intentionally (endogenous). Thompson et al. characterize their search task as an exogenously driven movement of attention. It will be interesting to see whether the FEFs play a necessary role in both automatic and controlled attention, perhaps by comparing feature and conjunction searches [as did Wardak et al. (2004) in the LIP area].

Thompson et al. provide strong evidence for attention-related modulation of activity in subsets of FEF neurons. This solidifies the FEFs as a node in the distributed network for attention. What remains to be resolved is whether the distinct areas of the network are functionally redundant or whether more precise roles can be defined.


Numerous studies provide evidences that motor skill learning changes the activity of some brain regions during task as well as some resting networks during rest. However, it is still unclear how motor learning affects the resting-state default-mode network (DMN). Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, this study investigated the alteration of the DMN after motor skill learning with mental imagery practice. Fourteen participants in the experimental group learned to imagine a sequential finger movement over a two-week period while twelve control participants did not undergo motor imagery learning. For the experimental group, interregional connectivity, estimated by the graph theory method, between the medial temporal lobe, lateral temporal, and lateral parietal cortex within the DMN was increased after learning, whereas activity of the DMN network, estimated by the independent component analysis method, remained stable. Moreover, the experimental group showed significant improvement in motor performance after learning and a negative correlation between the alteration of the execution rate and changes in activity in the lateral parietal cortex. These results indicate that the DMN could be sculpted by motor learning in a manner of altering interregional connectivity and may imply that the DMN plays a role in improving behavioral performance.


A Modified Robbins Device (MRD) was installed in a full-scale water distribution system to investigate biofouling and metal depositions on concrete, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and stainless steel surfaces. Bulk water monitoring and a KIWA monitor (with glass media) were used to offline monitor biofilm development on pipe wall surfaces. Results indicated that adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and metal concentrations on coupons increased with time. However, bacterial diversities decreased. There was a positive correlation between increase of ATP and metal deposition on pipe surfaces of stainless steel and HDPE and no correlation was observed on concrete and glass surfaces. The shared bacterial diversity between bulk water and MRD was less than 20% and the diversity shared between the MRD and KIWA monitor was only 10%. The bacterial diversity on biofilm of plumbing material of MRD however, did not show a significant difference suggesting a lack of influence from plumbing material during early stage of biofilm development.


As a figure of appropriation, recovery, and reinterpretation, Mary Magdalene illuminates the need to examine how rhetorical practices inscribe and misrepresent historical women in public memory. Analyzing sites of public memory, such as mass media, helps feminist scholars account for not only women who have been forgotten, but also for the ways that women have been misremembered. Using Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Ron Howard's film adaptation of the novel as sites of public memory, the article demonstrates how historical women like Magdalene are constructed and sustained as "facts" that support ideological paradigms and subvert alternative interpretations, or what Michel Foucault describes as "counter-memory." Despite Brown's intention to remember Magdalene in a new way, his contribution to public memory re-inscribes a gendered view that truncates her agency as a woman and leader in early Christianity.


Reliable and robust methods of extreme value based hurricane surge prediction, such as the Joint Probability Method (JPM), are critical in the coastal engineering profession. The JPM has become the preferred surge hazard assessment method in the United States; however, it has a high computational cost: one location can require hundreds of simulated storms, and more than ten thousand computational hours to complete. Optimal sampling methods that use physics based surge response functions (SRFs), can reduce the required number of simulations. This study extends the development of SRFs to bay interior locations at Panama City, Florida. Mean SRF root-mean-square (RMS) errors for open coast and bay interior locations were 0.34 m and 0.37 m, respectively; comparable to expected ADCIRC model errors (~0.3 m—0.5 m). Average uncertainty increases from open coast and bay SRFs were 10% and 12%, respectively. Long-term climate trends, such as rising sea levels, introduce nonstationarity into the simulated and historical surge datasets. A common approach to estimating total flood elevations is to take the sum of projected sea-level rise (SLR) and present day surge (static approach); however, this does not account for dynamic SLR effects on surge generation. This study demonstrates that SLR has a significant dynamic effect on surge in the Panama City area, and that total flood elevations, with respect to changes in SLR, are poorly characterized as static increases. A simple adjustment relating total flood elevation to present day conditions is proposed. Uncertainty contributions from these SLR adjustments are shown to be reasonable for surge hazard assessments.


Merida was founded in the years immediately preceding the birth of Christ on the Roman crossroads linking Toledo and Lisbon, with Salamanca and Seville. Known at its peak as a miniature Rome, its monuments, temples, and public works make it the site of some of the most celebrated Roman remains in Spain. In this work, the author studies the theatre and amphitheatre from the point of view of construction and, in particular, the phases of wall building. The result is a detailed, course-by-course, picture ofthese two famous structures and their wider contexts, offering a new archaeological basis for the history of the city of Merida.


A record of oxygen isotopes in biogenic silica from a deep-sea sediment core from the Southern Ocean reveals that marine diatoms retain their primary isotopic composition after burial. As a result, the marine diatom record can be combined with data on coexisting planktonic foraminifera to monitor past surface temperature and isotopic composition of seawater. The coupling of these two records allows the solution of two paleotemperature equations for each core interval. Data from a South Atlantic core show that the average δ18O during the glacial period at this site was higher by about 1.3 per mil than average Holocene values, and that average glacial-age temperatures were not significantly different from average Holocene values.


Epilepsy is a neurological disorder classified as the second most serious neurological disease known to humanity, after stroke. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is performed to localize the epileptogenic zone in the brain. However, the detection of epileptic spikes requires the visual assessment of long MEG recordings. This task is time-consuming and might lead to wrong decisions. Therefore, the introduction of effective machine learning algorithms for the quick and accurate epileptic spikes detection from MEG recordings would improve the clinical diagnosis of the disease. The efficiency of machine learning based algorithms requires a good characterization of the signal by extracting pertinent features. In this paper, we propose new sets of features for MEG signals. These features are based on a Semi-Classical Signal Analysis (SCSA) method, which allows a good characterization of peak shaped signals. Moreover, this method improves the spike detection accuracy and reduces the feature vector size. We could achieve up to 93.68% and 95.08% in average sensitivity and specificity, respectively. We used the 5-folds cross-validation applied to a balanced dataset of 3104 frames, extracted from eight healthy and eight epileptic subjects with a frame size of 100 samples with a step size of 2 samples, using Random Forest (RF) classifier.


Maritime transport is an important aspect of the economy of every maritime state and this needs safety and efficiency. It is well known that one of the major factors of accident prevention is perfect theoretical and practical knowledge, which can help reduce accidents at sea and in harbours, ship collisions and sinking and loss of human lives and protects the environment. There are many different tools and systems used to satisfy these demands. Our forefathers have sailed using paper charts and sextants; today we use radar, Automatic Radar Plotting Aid (ARPA), Global Positioning System (GPS), nautical charts and publications. This study provides an experience of teaching graduate students how new technologies and techniques (Petri nets, genetic algorithms) have been applied. All these are very effective for improving engineers' and officers' management experiences and operational skills in emergency situations. But the cadets who lack practical experience have to spend most of their time learning theoretical courses on land. To meet the challenge of modern maritime development, the responsibility of education is to produce a great number of talents with ideas and work abilities. This paper's conclusion is that the use of interactive computer simulations in maritime education results in increased emergency preparedness, which consequently leads to hazard mitigation and reduces the risk of human error in the operation and maintenance of marine equipment.


An algorithm is described whereby the thickness of polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) films on oxidized silicon substrates may be determined from the magnitude and wavelength positions of extrema in the visible reflectance spectra. The underlying layer structure, which can consist of two or more layers, is combined mathematically with the silicon into an effective homogeneous substrate to facilitate analysis. Polysilicon layers from about 20 nm to about 1 μm in thickness are measurable for underlying layers in approximately the same range. Proper account is taken of absorption in the polysilicon layer, and interference effects in the underlying layers when they are sufficiently thick. Reflectance lowering caused by scattered light is corrected with the aid of the measured reflectance at 400-nm wavelength, where the polysilicon is opaque. The algorithm is practically insensitive to overlying oxide layers up to 55 nm in thickness, so that buried polysilicon layers are also measurable. When implemented on an automated spectrophotometer, the algorithm provides thickness values in essentially real time, with a precision of about 0.1 nm.


A 3 channel HD video and 4 channel audio installation commissioned by New Art Exchange, Nottingham, with an accompanying single channel HD video piece.

Not Necessarily in the Right Order is a video installation that responds to the UK's diverse multi-cultural demographic, exploring the social significance of 'carnival' and 'festival' as one of the few public opportunities to celebrate cultural diversity. Using these observations as a starting point, the work evolved to become an exploration of what it means to be British in the 21st century.

The work explores the relationship between identity and a sense of place, borrowing conventions from science-fiction (and science-fiction based musical alter-egos) to foreground issues of belonging and exclusion. The work plays with different narrative voices, musical styles and subject positions in order to disrupt familiar assumptions of identification.


Viruses are common causative agents of ocular infection among humans. Epidemic keratoconjuntivitis (EKC) is a severe and contagious ocular disease with reported outbreaks worldwide. It is estimated that this disease affects 20-40 million individuals every year, which leads to huge socioeconomic costs for the affected countries. EKC is characterized by keratitis and conjunctivitis but is also associated with pain, edema, lacrimation, and decreased vision that can prolong for months after the infection and in rare cases years. This disease is caused by human adenoviruses (HAdVs), which belong to the family of Adenoviridae. Currently, there is no available treatment against EKC.EKC is mainly caused by HAdV-8, HAdV-19, HAdV-37, HAdV-53, HAdV-54, and HAdV-56, which belong to species D HAdVs. HAdV-8, HAdV-19 and HAdV-37 have previously been shown to use sialic acid (SA)-containing glycans as cellular receptors to bind to and infect human corneal epithelial (HCE) cells. To characterize the receptor in more detail, we performed a glycan array, which included SA-containing glycans. A branched hexasaccharide terminating with SA in each arm was identified as a candidate receptor. This glycan corresponds to the glycan motif found on a ganglioside, GD1a. By performing a series of biological and biochemical experiments we confirmed the function of the GD1a glycan as a cellular receptor for EKC-causing HAdVs. However, the glycan used as a receptor was linked to plasma membrane protein(s) through O-glycosidic bonds, rather than to a lipid (as in the ganglioside). X-ray crystallography analysis showed that the two terminal SA:s interacted with two of the three previously identified SA-binding sites on the knob domain of the HAdV-37 capsid protein known as the fiber.Based on the structural features of the GD1a:HAdV-37 knob interaction, we assumed that a three-armed molecule with each arm terminating with SA would be an efficient inhibitor. Such molecules were designed, synthesized and found to efficiently prevent HAdV-37 binding to and infection of corneal cells. These results indicate that trisialic acids-containing compounds may be used for treatment of EKC.After binding to its primary receptor, most HAdVs have been shown to interact with αVβ3 and αVβ5 integrins to enter human cells. This interaction occurs through the RGD (arginine-alanine-aspartic acid) motif in the capsid protein known as the penton base. However, it was not clear if corneal epithelial cells express αVβ3 and αVβ5 integrins. Thus, to better understand additional early steps of infection by EKC-causing HAdVs, we performed binding and infection competition experiments using human corneal epithelial cells and siRNA, integrin specific antibodies, peptides and RGD-containing ligands indicating that α3, αV, β1 affected HAdV-37 infection of but not binding to HCE cells. We could also see that HAdV-37 co-localize with α3 and αV at after entry into HCE cells. In situ histochemistry confirmed that the expression of α3 and αV in human corneal tissue. Overall, our results suggest that αV and α3 integrins are important for HAdV-37 infection of corneal cells.Altogether, these results provide further insight into the biology of HAdVs and open up for development of novel antiviral drugs.


Cerebral Vasculer Accident (CVA) or stroke is a partial destruction of the brain that can cause residual symptoms, one of which is muscle weakness in the upper extremity that can affect the patient's self care ability (SCA). These problems could be solved by CIMT (Constraint Induced Movement Therapy). CIMT is a movement rehabilitation technique in upper limbs that improve muscle weakness by small steps activity using daily tools. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of CIMT on changes of muscle strength in upper extremities and SCA post CVA patients. This research used pre experimental design with one group pre-post test design. CIMT was given to 14 days with a sample size of 32 respondents which taken by purposive sampling. The data analysed by Wilcoxon sign rank test with the result showed p = 0.001 (muscle strength) p = 0.004 (self care ability). There was an effect of CIMT (on upper extremity muscle strength and self care ability of post-CVA patient). An improvement of muscle strength and self-care ability before and after CIMT intervention. Improving muscle strength was sufficient category to be good category and self care ability from mild to moderate category. The ohter factors : age, sex, last education level, occupation, history of past disease and history of post CVA were associated with improvement of muscle strength in upper limb and self care ability after CIMT .The results of this study were expected to be the basis of CIMT as an independent and innovative nursing intervention in post-CVA nursing care.
 Keywords: CIMT (Constraint Induced Movement Therapy), Self care ability, Muscle strength, Cerebral Vasculer Accident


The first cosmological results from the ESSENCE supernova survey (Wood-Vasey and coworkers) are extended to a wider range of cosmological models including dynamical dark energy and nonstandard cosmological models. We fold in a greater number of external data sets such as the recent Higher-z release of high-redshift supernovae (Riess and coworkers), as well as several complementary cosmological probes. Model comparison statistics such as the Bayesian and Akaike information criteria are applied to gauge the worth of models. These statistics favor models that give a good fit with fewer parameters. Based on this analysis, the preferred cosmological model is the flat cosmological constant model, where the expansion history of the universe can be adequately described with only one free parameter describing the energy content of the universe. Among the more exotic models that provide good fits to the data, we note a preference for models whose best-fit parameters reduce them to the cosmological constant model.


A slew of tech developments give banks more options than ever, and maybe banks work smarter as a result Cell phones, PDAs, XML, and internet payment gateways. PDF, e-CRM interfaces, IVR systems, and VRU systems. Business rules. Relational databases, thin-clients, and web-based ATMs. Straight through processing. Transactional websites, middleware, and ERPs. Knowledge management systems. Digital signatures and PKI security. Whatever else we know about technology and the new economy, it's clear that neither is short on acronyms or new computing paradigms." In evidence, too, are profound new ambitions. Instead of simply selling products or services, banks are directed to give retail and corporate customers the "experience" of financial control, of easy to use channels, of advice, and personalized care. But there's another experience that most brush under the rug. That's the daily grind of working with the systems at your bank. Tellers, call center agents, and middle management might well snicker at the organization described at the board table or in the annual report, knowing full well that they resort to all methods of workaround to get the job done. Meanwhile, bank management keeps adding to the complexity and institutions are spending more than ever. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young says that last year's discretionary spending on technology for e-commerce alone topped off at 27% of total budget among banks surveyed for a report it recently published. That figure is projected to rise to 34% in 2000. In light of that, it may be time to stop and evaluate. So, ABABJ asked the question, is the technology a diligent silent partner or a high maintenance source of distraction? Querying professionals -- that install, integrate, purchase, or consult about, systems--about various forms of automation on their technology "picks and pans," shows a mixed, but by no means negative, track record for the automation revolution. Why we're better off The sheer volume of gadgets and systems in banking begs the question, are banking organizations working better, smarter, more profitably? "I think it's a good question, and I think the answer is, 'yes, absolutely,'" says Sandy Devine, managing director of the financial services business unit with Sapient, a consulting firm in Washington, D.C. Then why the griping you hear--at least some of the time? "Most of us are perfectionists that measure today's activity against [our vision of] the possibilities for the future," she says matter of factly. She explains that the excess capacity predicted for banking has largely come to pass, making it tough for consolidation's survivors to make further efficiency gains. "But there is a countervailing force in the industry having to do with providing personalized service. To the extent banks can capitalize on customer need in an individualized way, they can grow grow the top line." And regarding efficiencies, Devine points to loan application processing (including credit scoring) as one area where she sees less paper in the banking offices she visits, radically faster processing times, and less redundant processes. Andrew Wickey, vice-president of consulting firm Martin Progressive, New York City, agrees that there's proof of progress. "We're too productive," he jokes, pointing out that the advent of thin-client computing is one example of technology's enhancement to operations. Because it effectively recentralized data and applications for easier deployment, financial institutions can make easier upgrades. "For a recent upgrade at Salomon Smith Barney, we [essentially] pushed Microsoft SMS-based sales applications from the Long Island City-based office out to 400 retail branches [for their consultants] in a weekend. That you can accomplish that kind of work in IT is amazing." But, admittedly, not everyone, or every aspect of technology, is so positive. One favorite target of derision, at least off the record, is the data warehouse. …


This is the first study to measure the performance of public franchisors. Shareholder return, shareholder risk, and company characteristics are analyzed in an effort to model higher performing public franchisor companies. Enhanced growth and scale provides a superior return to shareholders. By examining the characteristics of 91 public franchisors we develop a descriptive and predictive model of the superior public franchisor performer. Our study covers a 10-year period from January 1990 to December 1999. Cumulative shareholder return for public franchisors is favorably compared to the Standard and Poor's 500 for all but the last year of the study. Also, there are clearly described characteristics of superior franchisor performers. The implication for the practitioner is that a strategy of concept development through franchising and public capital acquisition can provide superior returns. For scholars, this study extends our understanding of the theoretical advantages and limitations of franchising.


Summary

1
Global positioning system (GPS) technology enables researchers to evaluate wildlife movements, space use and resource selection in detail for extended periods of time. Two types of errors, missed location fixes and location error, are inherent to GPS telemetry and can bias location data sets. Habitat characteristics can influence both types of errors, but no studies have reported how continuous ranges of canopy cover and terrain simultaneously affect location error at different positional dilution of precision (PDOP) and signal quality levels. This information can assist in developing a protocol for removing large location errors from GPS data sets.

2
The objectives of this study were to quantify how canopy cover and terrain affected GPS collar performance within a mountainous region of northern Idaho, USA, and evaluate different data-screening options for GPS location data sets from stationary test collars and free-ranging black bears Ursus americanus.

3
The fix rate for test collars was very high in all habitats (mean 99·5%, SE 0·14, range 97·9–100%) and was not related to canopy cover or terrain obstruction. However, habitat variables strongly influenced location error, PDOP values and proportion of three-dimensional (3-D) fixes. The 95% circular error probable (CEP) equalled 106·8 m for locations at all test sites, and varied substantially with canopy cover, terrain obstruction and signal quality categories, ranging from 14·3 m to 557·0 m. Location errors for two-dimensional (2-D) fixes were more variable at higher PDOP values and were significantly larger compared with 3-D fixes.

4
Data screening increased the accuracy of test collar location data sets by removing large location errors that were associated with high PDOP values. Data-screening options that focused on screening 2-D locations were most effective in reducing location error and retaining the greatest number of locations. For black bear data sets, the four data screening options resulted in data reduction ranging from 8% to 35%.

5
Synthesis and applications. We have demonstrated how location data can be analysed and screened based on 2-D and 3-D fixes in relation to PDOP values to eliminate locations with potentially large location errors. This information can be applied to GPS location data for individual animals to increase data accuracy for analyses.


A superb tribute to theatrical pioneers"The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy" is required reading for both theatre scholars and gay/lesbian/bisexual history aficionados. A fascinating journey awaits them all in this highly recommended volume. "Broadside: Newsletter of the Theatre Library Association""""The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy "collects in a single volume biographies of more than one hundred notable figures whose careers flourished in the years before the 1969 Stonewall Riots marked the beginning of the gay and lesbian civil rights movement in the United States. The leading lights in American theater have included innumerable individuals whose sexualities have deviated from prevailing norms, but this history has until recently been largely unwritten and unknown. This book contributes" "significantly to the recovery of this history, fashioning a much fuller, more nuanced portrait of American theater as it evolved and shedding light on the influence that sexual desire may have had on professional choices, relationships, and artistic achievements."The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy "collects biographies and portraits of influential actors, playwrights, composers, directors, designers, dancers, producers, managers, critics, choreographers, and technicians who made their mark on the American theater. Its broad coverage provides an extended glimpse into lives and careers that intersected and into networks of affiliation that made theatrical history and, by extension, social and cultural history.The late Billy J. Harbin was Professor of Theater, Louisiana State University. Kim Marra is Associate Professor of Theater, University of Iowa. Robert A. Schanke is Professor of Theater Emeritus, Central College, Pella, Iowa."


We present LogiGAN, an unsupervised adversarial pre-training framework for improving logical reasoning abilities of language models. Upon automatic identifying logical reasoning phenomena in massive text corpus via detection heuristics, we train language models to predict the masked-out logical statements. Inspired by the facilitation effect of reflective thinking in human learning, we analogically simulate the learning-thinking process with an adversarial Generator-Verifier architecture to assist logic learning. LogiGAN implements a novel sequential GAN approach that (a) circumvents the non-differentiable challenge of the sequential GAN by leveraging the Generator as a sentence-level generative likelihood scorer with a learning objective of reaching scoring consensus with the Verifier; (b) is computationally feasible for large-scale pre-training with arbitrary target length. Both base and large size language models pre-trained with LogiGAN demonstrate obvious performance improvement on 12 datasets requiring general reasoning abilities, revealing the fundamental role of logic in broad reasoning, as well as the effectiveness of LogiGAN. Ablation studies on LogiGAN components reveal the relative orthogonality between linguistic and logic abilities and suggest that reflective thinking's facilitation effect might also generalize to machine learning.


We present a complete scenario driven component based analytic model of 802.11 MAC and OLSR routing protocols in MANETs. We use this model to provide a systematic approach to study the network performance and cross-layer analysis and design of routing, scheduling, MAC and PHY layer protocols. The routing protocol is divided into multiple components. Componentization is a standard methodology for analysis and synthesis of complex systems. To provide a component based design methodology, we have to develop a component based model of the wireless network that considers cross-layer dependency of performance. The component based model enable us to study the effect of each component on the overall performance of the wireless network, and to design each component separately. For the MAC layer, we use a fixed point loss model of 802.11 protocol that considers effects of hidden nodes and finite retransmission attempts. We have also considered simple models for PHY and scheduling. The main focus of this paper is on integration of these models to obtain a complete model for wireless networks. In several scenario driven studies, with user-specified topologies and traffic demands, we study the performance metrics - throughput and delay. By analyzing the performances under varying network scenarios, we are able to identify a few sources of performance degradation. We also study the effect of certain design parameters on the network performance. Thus, demonstrating the ability of the model to quickly identify problem components and try alternative design parameters.


The language of democracy has become common in international law, the legal system that regulates relations between nation states. This interest in democracy has however largely ignored democracy at the international level and focused instead on national democratic standards. In this paper, I start by sketching the threadbare debates about democracy beyond political borders in international law and then turn to the way that international institutions have developed this concept, particularly in the peace and state-building boom associated with the end of the Cold War. The two contexts for democracy have taken different directions. In the case of democracy at the international level, the discussion has become polarised between global North and South, with democracy being promoted by the South as an omnibus agenda to remedy economic and political inequalities. In the case of democracies within states, international lawyers have taken democracy to have a fixed form, associated with specific institutional practices and structures, limiting its capacity for transformation.


"Head-to-head" terpene synthases catalyze the first committed steps in sterol and carotenoid biosynthesis: the condensation of two isoprenoid diphosphates to form cyclopropylcarbinyl diphosphates, followed by ring opening. Here, we report the structures of Staphylococcus aureus dehydrosqualene synthase (CrtM) complexed with its reaction intermediate, presqualene diphosphate (PSPP), the dehydrosqualene (DHS) product, as well as a series of inhibitors. The results indicate that, on initial diphosphate loss, the primary carbocation so formed bends down into the interior of the protein to react with C2,3 double bond in the prenyl acceptor to form PSPP, with the lower two-thirds of both PSPP chains occupying essentially the same positions as found in the two farnesyl chains in the substrates. The second-half reaction is then initiated by the PSPP diphosphate returning back to the Mg2+ cluster for ionization, with the resultant DHS so formed being trapped in a surface pocket. This mechanism is supported by the observation that cationic inhibitors (of interest as antiinfectives) bind with their positive charge located in the same region as the cyclopropyl carbinyl group; that S-thiolo-diphosphates only inhibit when in the allylic site; activity results on 11 mutants show that both DXXXD conserved domains are essential for PSPP ionization; and the observation that head-to-tail isoprenoid synthases as well as terpene cyclases have ionization and alkene-donor sites which spatially overlap those found in CrtM.


This essay reviews the book Rescuing Business: The Making of Corporate Bankruptcy Law in England and the United States, by Bruce G. Carruthers and Terence C. Halliday, and applies their lessons to the current bankruptcy reform debate. Part I of the essay provides an overview and discussion of their book. The book is divided into three parts. The first part lays out their sociological model of legislative reform. The second part comprises an extended historical study of the various factors at work in the fashioning of the 1978 Bankruptcy Code. The third part studies the unique role played by bankruptcy professionals in the bankruptcy reform process. The essay commends them for their careful and voluminous historical research. Nonetheless, crippled by an unworkable and unpersuasive analytical model, they are unable to shed much light on the dynamics of bankruptcy reform. Flaccid appeals to equity are shown to be little more than covers for rent-seeking behavior by powerful interest groups. Saddled with their sociological model, they are unable to diagnose whether the pivotal role played by bankruptcy professionals exerts an overall positive or negative influence on the process of bankruptcy reform. Armed with a more persuasive model of the legislative process, Part II of the essay applies the insights of Rescuing Business to understand the current bankruptcy reform process. In particular, the essay highlights the powerful role played by bankruptcy academics and professionals, and the power they exert over the process.


Confident and robust, Jubilee Hitchhiker is an comprehensive biography of late novelist and poet Richard Brautigan, author of Troutfishing in America and A Confederate General from Big Sur, among many others. When Brautigan took his own life in September of 1984 his close friends and network of artists and writers were devastated though not entirely surprised. To many, Brautigan was shrouded in enigma, erratic and unpredictable in his habits and presentation. But his career was formidable, an inspiration to young writers like William Hjortsberg trying to get their start. Brautigan's career wove its way through both the Beat-influenced San Francisco Renaissance in the 1950s and the "Flower Power" hippie movement of the 1960s; while he never claimed direct artistic involvement with either period, Jubilee Hitchhiker also delves deeply into the spirited times in which he lived. As Hjortsberg guides us through his search to uncover Brautigan as a man the reader is pulled deeply into the writer's world. Ultimately this is a work that seeks to connect the Brautigan known to his fans with the man who ended his life so abruptly in 1984 while revealing the close ties between his writing and the actual events of his life. Part history, part biography, and part memoir, Jubilee Hitchhiker etches the portrait of a man destroyed by his genius.


The study abroad home stay is often credited with particular value for language and culture learning. While living with host families, students are believed to observe and to participate in a wide range of everyday practices while upgrading their language proficiency and intercultural awareness. However, in quantitative studies of college-aged students abroad, the putative home stay advantage has been notoriously difficult to prove, perhaps in part because these students are interpreted by all parties (including themselves) as relatively independent young adults whose goals need not align with those of their hosts. Research examining the experiences of high school students has to date relied largely on self-report data suggesting that younger students are likely to be received as temporary family members, although this reception does not guarantee a productive language-learning environment. Based on field notes, audio recordings of conversational interactions, and interviews with both students and host family members, in this article we present three case studies, grounded in sociocultural theory and illustrating a range of experiences in a short-term summer homestay immersion program for American high school students in China. Our findings suggest that relatively advanced initial proficiency offers many advantages for interaction with hosts, but that students with modest initial proficiency can also develop warm and cordial relationships in the homestay if all parties are so predisposed. The inclusion of host family perspectives, heretofore relatively rare in the literature, also permits consideration of the homestay as a context for learning for all parties.


Abstract The characteristics of core electron-root confinement (CERC) in helical devices are illustrated using results from four different experiments: the Compact Helical System, Large Helical Device, TJ-II, and Wendelstein 7-AS. Common features include strongly peaked electron temperature profiles and large positive radial electric fields Er in the core region for discharges with sufficient central electron cyclotron heating (ECH). Such observations are consistent with a transition to the electron-root solution of the ambipolarity condition for Er, a feature of neoclassical theory that is unique to nonaxisymmetric configurations. The magnetic topology of the configuration plays a role in this transition, and thresholds are found for the particle density and ECH power, in accordance with neoclassical expectations. Neoclassical theory alone cannot explain all observations, however, as CERC formation can also be influenced by ECH-driven convective fluxes of localized electrons and by the presence of magnetic islands in the core region. This is the first report describing collaborative activities within the framework of the International Stellarator Profile Data Base.


htmlabstractInheritance is an important mechanism in object oriented languages. Quite some research effort is invested in inheritance until now. Most of the research work about inheritance (if not all) is done
about the inheritance relationship between the types (namely, classes and interfaces). There is also some debate about if inheritance is good or bad, or how much inheritance is useful. Tempero et al. raised another important question about inheritance. Given the inheritance relationships dened, they wanted to know how much of these relationships were actually used in the system. To answer this question, they developed a model for inheritance usage in Java and analysed the byte code of 93 open source Java projects from Qualitas Corpus (which is a curated collection of Java open source
projects). The conclusion of the study was that inheritance was actually used a lot in these projects - in about two thirds of the cases for subtyping and about 22 percent of the cases for (what they call) external reuse. They report about 2 % of internal reuse. Moreover, they found out that down-call (late-bound self-reference) was also used quite frequently, about a third of inheritance relationships
included down-call usage. They also report that there are other usages of inheritance, but these are not significant. In this study, we replicate the study of Tempero et al. with one major difference: we analyse the source code of the projects and not the byte code. We use the inheritance model of the original study as-is. We also analyse the same projects, however we obtain them from a different source, namely the compiled version of Qualitas Corpus: Qualitas.class Corpus. Our analysis program is written in the Rascal meta-programming language.
In some cases we obtained similar results as the original study. We conclude that at least 60 % of the cases involve subtyping. We have similar results in total reuse. In some other cases, we have
different results. We report a lower median of external reuse than the original study (only 3 %). On the contrary, our internal reuse median is higher than theirs (20 %). Our down-call percentage median is also lower (27 % vs. 34 %). For the other possible uses of inheritance, most of our results are similar to the ones of the original study.
We discuss the possible reasons for the differences elaborately and come up with four major causes: First of all, the content of the analysed projects is different in our case, which may affect the results in all usages of inheritance. For one third of the projects in the Corpus, we analysed different versions. Moreover, the source code distribution contains often different set of types than byte code packages. This does not mean reporting fewer or more cases, but simply a different percentage. We believe that this has the largest impact on results among all the differences in our study set-up. Secondly, the
byte code analysis can be misleading when detecting some particular cases of down-call and external reuse, and we suspect that the original study reports more cases for down-call and external-reuse than
it should. Thirdly, our technical limitation about analysis of non-system methods may cause a fewer number of reported cases in subtype and external reuse attributes. As the last cause, we suspect
the difference in interpretations of some inheritance definitions. Although we communicated with the authors for clarification and got satisfactory answers in many cases, we can not be totally certain that
we have the right understanding of each definition without doing an extensive case study together with the authors.


This is a fascinating insight into the life and works of Eve Arnold, with many personal accounts and a vivid history of her work shown through her photography. Eve Arnold is an American photojournalist. She joined Magnum Photos agency in 1951, and became a full member in 1957. Her interest in becoming a photographer began in 1946, when she worked for a photo-finishing plant in New York City. She briefly learned photographic skills in 1948 from Harper's Bazaar art director Alexei Brodovitch. She may be best known for her images of actress Marilyn Monroe on the set of Monroe's last (1961) film, "The Misfits", but she took many photos of Monroe from 1951 onwards. Arnold photographed Queen Elizabeth II, Malcolm X, and Joan Crawford, and also traveled around the world, photographing in China, Russia, South Africa and Afghanistan. Arnold left the United States in the early 1960s moving to England, which eventually became her adopted home. In England, while working for the UK "Sunday Times", she began to seriously use colour as a medium for photography. In her adopted homeland, she was later appointed a member of the Advisory Committee of the National Media Museum formerly the Museum of Photography, Film & Television in Bradford in 1997.


SCOPE
Indole-3-carbinol (I3C), a derivative abundant in cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, is well known for its various health benefits such as chemo-preventive and anti-obesity effects. I3C is easily metabolized to 3,3'-diindolylmethane (DIM), a more stable form, in acidic conditions of the stomach. However, the anti-obesity effect of DIM has not been investigated clearly. We sought to investigate the effect of DIM on diet-induced obesity and to elucidate its underlying mechanisms.

METHODS AND RESULTS
High-fat diet (HFD)-fed obese mouse and MDI-induced 3T3-L1 adipogenesis models were used to study the effect of DIM. We observed that the administration of DIM (50 mg/kg BW) significantly suppressed HFD-induced obesity, associated with a decrease in adipose tissue. Additionally, we observed that DIM treatment (40 and 60 μM), but not I3C treatment, significantly inhibited MDI-induced adipogenesis by reducing the levels of several adipogenic proteins such as PPAR-γ and C/EBPα. DIM, but not I3C, suppressed cell cycle progression in the G1 phase, which occurred in the early stage of adipogenesis, inducing post-translational degradation of cyclin D1 by inhibiting ubiquitin specific peptidase 2 (USP2) activities.

CONCLUSION
Our findings indicate that cruciferous vegetables, which can produce DIM as a metabolite, have the potential to prevent or treat chronic obesity.


In this paper, solar irradiance short-term forecasts were performed considering time horizons ranging from 5 min to 30 min, under a 5 min timestep. Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) and Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) were computed using Deep Neural Networks with One-Dimensional Convolution (CNN-1D), Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM) and CNN-LSTM layers on the benchmarking dataset FOLSOM, which is formed by predictors obtained by recursive functions on the clear sky index time series and statistical attributes extracted from images collected by a camera pointed to the zenith, characterizing endogenous and exogenous variables, respectively. To analyze the endogenous predictors influence on the accuracy of the networks, the performance was evaluated for the cases with and without them. This analysis is motivated, to our best knowledge, by the lack of works that cite the FOLSOM dataset using deep learning models, and it is necessary to verify the impact of the endogenous and exogenous predictors in the forecasts results for this specific approach. The accuracy of the networks was evaluated by the metrics Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Bias Error (MBE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), Relative root-mean-squared error (rRMSE), Determination Coefficient (R2) and Forecast Skill (s). The network architectures using isolated CNN-1D and LSTM layers generally performed better. The best accuracy was obtained by the CNN-1D network for a horizon of 10 min ahead reaching an RMSE of 36.24 W/m2, improving 11.15% on this error metric compared to the persistence model.


Pierson's highly-regarded book, Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of Retrenchment suffers from a serious methodological drawback. The author draws his conclusions about welfare state resilience by scrutinizing what happened to social policy structure during and at the end of the two governments selected, ending up by falling into the well-known 'post hoc ergo propter hoc' fallacy. The present paper sets out to replicate Pierson's analysis in a counterfactual framework of causal inference. Adopting the synthetic control method, the trajectories of several UK and US welfare-state measures, observed in the presence of Thatcher and Reagan's administration, were contrasted with corresponding trajectories reconstructed in the absence of neo-conservative governments. This exercise confirmed Pierson's substantive conclusion: the neo-conservative revolution of the 1980s did not significantly alter the UK or USA welfare state.


The widespread success of charter school legislation has fostered a perception that charter schooling is apolitical and has clouded our understanding of the politics of the issue. In a case study of Virginia's charter school program, we suggest that three important political variables have been largely overlooked to date. The "weak" form of Virginia's charter school legislation can be attributed in large part to: (1) the schism between the educationally privileged communities of Northern Virginia and those of the rest of the state, (2) the lack of a perceived educational crisis, and (3) the vocal presence of minority opposition. Teacher organizations did not strongly oppose charter school legislation, but they worked to ensure that legislation would be mild. In examining the political gestation of Virginia's "weak" charter school law, this study complements existing work that has generally concentrated on "strong" laws in states like Arizona, Colorado, and Michigan. The struggle for passage in Virginia illuminates many tensions less evident in states where charter schooling passed more easily.


Viral infections are responsible for a large proportion of pneumonias in preschool children. However, little is known about the prevalence of X-ray detected pneumonia in different viral LRTI, which sometimes result in unnecessary treatment. With the availability of the viral detection diagnostics it becomes possible to characterize the clinical pictures of different respiratory pathogens. The aim of our study was to find the prevalence of pneumonia in different viral LRTI. Nasopharyngeal swab was taken from 278 preschool children with signs or symptoms of LRTI and the genome of 10 most common respiratory viruses was detected with the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) based diagnostics. Altogether 198 (71.2%) of samples were positive. Frequencies of isolates is shown in . X-ray detected pneumonia was present in 71.4% of coronavirus infections, 70% of metapneumovirus infections, 38.9% of parainfluenza infections, 33.3% of respiratory syncytial virus infections, 23.1% of adenovirus infections, 13.6% of bocavirus infections and 7.7% of rhinovirus infections (p Some respiratory viruses, such as coronavirus and metapneumovirus are typically associated with the presence of pneumonia, which does not mean the bacterial cause of infection. Further studies are necessary for characterization of different viral LRTI.


This research study of case for production company PT Jaya Atap Sejati with the title ?The influence of fixed assets revaluation treatment for tax planning in finance report.? To PT Jaya Atap Sejati Probolinggo. The purpose of research to know how the behavior of accounting to dispute revaluation fixed assets suitable by regularly of tax and to know how far the influence revaluation fixed assets to tax planning. Research that the instrument is needed by writer is fixed assets of detail data. Acquirement price fixed assets the accounting policy to fixed asset like decrease method acquirement year the finance report. The data that got by the result of research like the finance report and the detail note about fixed assets will be analyze suitable with regularly of tax. An analyze of instrument used to knew, what there are the difference and how far the influence by use revaluation fixed assets suitable the regularly of tax. To determine that there are difference that profit. They are increase to fixed assets that if comparing about exchange rate of rupiah that caused the changing of moneter. While to see that after revaluation is more profit that if comparing income tax before revaluated by income tax after revaluated. The result of calculated by use revaluated of fixed assets that do, so there are the different between balance, and loss profit there is the changing to value of fixed assets to be Rp. 1.264.995.789 and capital employed changes to be Rp. 22.214.171.1241. While for administration and general change to be Rp. 44.072.779, so the profit that got after revaluation are Rp. 17.340.323,40. The result of analysis using revaluation of fixed assets suitable by measuring that used, so fixed assets is bigger income tax after revaluation be more profit. Based on hypotesis above, see writer can give suggestion that PT Jaya Atap Sejati should be often do revaluation for fixed assets in the influence that more profit to tax planning. Keyword : PENGARUH PERLAKUAN AKUNTANSI Link Terkait : http://skripsi.umm.ac.id/files/disk1/343/jiptummpp-gdl-s1-2009-irmasuryan-17104-PENDAHUL-N.pdf


The oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere allowed for the diversification of metabolisms to include those that rely on oxygen and its derivatives. For example, chemolithotrophic oxidation of sulfide and iron both require oxygen or nitrate as terminal electron acceptors. A growing number of oxygen-utilizing chemolithotrophs are known to accumulate intracellular polyphosphate as an energy reserve that allows them to adapt to the fluctuating redox conditions in their distinctive-gradient habitats. Polyphosphate is also thought to play an important role in the formation of phosphatic mineral deposits. Here we present fossil evidence of iron-oxidizing bacteria preserved as filamentous iron oxides within phosphatic Paleoproterozoic stromatolites. The filaments include twisted stalks similar to those produced by modern iron-oxidizing bacteria that are known to metabolize polyphosphate and inhabit steep redox gradients. Fossil iron-oxidizing bacteria preserved within some of the oldest known phosphorites serve as indicators of O 2 -Fe(II) gradients that may have supported microbially mediated phosphogenesis via polyphosphate metabolism and/or an active iron redox pump.


We introduce a network growth model based on complete redirection: a new node randomly selects an existing target node, but attaches to a random neighbor of this target. For undirected networks, this simple growth rule generates unusual, highly modular networks. Individual network realizations typically contain multiple macrohubs—nodes whose degree scales linearly with the number of nodes N. The size of the network 'nucleus'—the set of nodes of degree greater than one—grows sublinearly with N and thus constitutes a vanishingly small fraction of the network. The network therefore consists almost entirely of leaves (nodes of degree one) as N→∞.


ABSTRACT In recent years, research has increasingly pointed toward the universality of three linguistic constraints on code-switching: (1) an equivalence of structure constraint, (2) a size-of-constituent constraint, and (3) a free morpheme constraint. The evidence derived from this study challenges the universality of the first two of these constraints, and argues instead that their claim to universality is largely a function of the coincidental relative similarity in the syntactic structure of Spanish and English, the two languages upon which most code-switching studies have been based. The present study breaks out of the Spanish-English mold and draws upon data from a language contact situation in which the two languages are syntactically very different from each other, namely, Spanish and Hebrew. The evidence presented also challenges the frequently made assertion that type of code-switching, namely, intra- versus intersentential code-switching, is correlated with degree of bilingualism of the speaker. Finally, the evidence suggests that intrasentential code-switching ability cannot, as some have argued, universally be considered a measure of bilingualism nor a mark of the balanced bilingual. (Code-switching, Spanish, Hebrew, bilingualism, syntactic constraints)


Demand for renewable energy is booming. Scholars often attribute this success to feed-in tariffs (FITs), which mandate that energy utilities pay a premium to renewable electricity producers and guarantee grid access for them. Why have so many countries, including least developed ones, adopted these policies? We hypothesize that democratic governments have political incentives to adopt the FIT because it improves environmental quality, promotes rural development, and distributes electricity generation profits from large utilities to independent producers. We analyze global data on FIT adoption, 1990-2012, and find that the association between democratic regime type and FIT adoption overwhelms all other covariates. The effect is specific to the FIT and does not exist for renewable portfolio standards or public competitive bidding for renewable energy contracts. Consistent with theories of distributive politics, among democracies, institutional malapportionment in favor of rural political constituencies favors FIT adoption.


Music transcription refers to the process of listening to a piece of music and generating the underlying musical score. This is a task that has traditionally required a musician trained in transcription. A robust automated music transcription system would have applications to the music information retrieval (MIR) community, such as automated indexing of musical recordings and query by humming, for example. Good results on the automated music transcription problem might also carry over to the related problem of automated speech recognition. An automated transcription system would also be a useful component in software that teaches one how to play an instrument by allowing the software to transcribe performances and then provide feedback. Other applications include transcription of improvised performances and automated score following.
The problem of polyphonic transcription with instrument identification is a topic that has not been explored in the literature. In this thesis, we propose and implement dynamic graphical models (DGMs) for multi-instrument polyphonic transcription. The graphical models formalism provides for families of probability distributions to be modeled in a concise, modular, and intuitive manner. This thesis is concerned with making some progress on the problem of automated polyphonic multi-instrument music transcription. By multi-instrument transcription, we mean a system capable of listening to a recording in which two or more instruments are playing, and identifying the notes played by each instrument.
Our transcription system models both the musical signal behavior as well as some musical structure. We use an instrument-specific timbre model for musical signals that models both the spectral behavior and the variation in the overall sound intensity with time within a note event. We also illustrate the modularity of the graphical models approach by making some modifications to our multi-instrument transcription system to create a system for guitar transcription.


A common way of calculating the life cycle cost (LCC) of building renovation measures is to approach it from the building side, where the energy system is considered by calculating the savings in the form of less bought energy. In this study a wider perspective is introduced. The LCC for three different energy renovation measures, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery and two different heat pump systems, are compared to a reference case, a building connected to the district heating system. The energy system supplying the building is assumed to be 100% renewable, where eight different future scenarios are considered. The LCC is calculated as the total cost for the renovation measures and the energy systems. All renovation measures result in a lower district heating demand, at the expense of an increased electricity demand. All renovation measures also result in an increased LCC, compared to the reference building. When aiming for a transformation towards a 100% renewable system in the future, this study shows the importance of having a system perspective, and also taking possible future production scenarios into consideration when evaluating building renovation measures that are carried out today, but will last for several years, in which the energy production system, hopefully, will change.


These two volumes present empirical studies that have permanently altered professional debates over investment and productivity as sources of postwar economic growth in industrialized countries. The distinctive feature of investment is that returns can be internalized by the investor. The most straightforward application of this idea is to investments that create property rights, but these volumes broaden the meaning of capital formation to include investments in education and training. Postwar US Economic Growth traces the outstanding postwar performance of the US economy to investments in tangible assets and human capital. This volume provides the starting point for a new consensus on policies to generate growth by stimulating and rewarding investments. These policies will focus on returns that can be internalized by investors, ending the fruitless search for "spill overs" that can generate substantial growth without providing incentives for capital formation.


This work had three objectives to improve an EIT-based, solid-state memory for light. First, we set up a solid-state-laser system for radiation at the wavelength λ = 606nm, i.e., the optical transition in our storage medium, the rare-earth-ion doped crystal PrYSO. Second, we implemented efficient rephasing of optically driven coherences after EIT-based light storage by means of rapid adiabatic passage (RAP) pulses. Last but not least we implemented a novel coherence population mapping (CPM) protocol in order to shelve fragile atomic coherences in robust and long-lived populations in PrYSO.

Solid-State-Laser System: We developed a solid-state-laser system based on two nonlinear processes, optical parametric oscillation (OPO) and intra-cavity sum-frequency generation (SFG). The system is designed to generate continuous wave output in the orange part of the visible spectrum. OPO and SFG are implemented on a periodically poled lithium niobate crystal (PPLN). The crystal is divided into sections with appropriate poling periods for quasi phase matching of OPO and SFG. In addition, the poling period changes along the crystal height to allow tuning of the OPO-SFG output wavelength. The system provides output in a range between λ = 605nm and λ = 616nm with an output power P > 1W. For light storage experiments, we operate the OPO-SFG at λ = 606nm with a maximum available output power of P = 1.3W. An external Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) frequency stabilization reduces the laser linewidth to Δν ≈ 60 kHz on a time scale of 100 ms. The OPO-SFG provides stable output for more than 30 hours with a root-mean-square power jitter below 2%.
In comparison to a previously used dye laser, the OPO-SFG requires less maintenance, performs more robust against external temperature fluctuations and vibrational noise and allows easier (re-) alignment. It performs slightly better in terms of frequency stability and the two systems are comparable in terms of output power. Dye lasers on the other hand provide a larger tuning range. Future work should include a revised crystal design, i.e., a reversed section order of OPO and SFG on the PPLN crystal. This has been suggested to yield higher efficiency and output stability. In addition, we use three discrete poling periods in the SFG section, whereas the OPO section consists of a fanned poling structure. A double-fanned structure could provide enhanced tunability and help to partially suppress power fluctuations for different output wavelength. In addition, it should be possible to further reduce the laser-frequency linewidth by revising the locking loop or using a higher finesse cavity for the PDH stabilization.

Adiabatic Rephasing of Atomic Coherences: We experimentally implemented rephasing of optically driven coherences in PrYSO by RAP pulses. As a feature of adiabatic pulses, the parameters for RAP are defined in loose boundaries given by the adiabaticity criterion. This makes RAP potentially robust to parameter fluctuations. We experimentally verified this property and showed that rephasing with RAP provides superior performance compared to rephasing with π pulses. In particular, RAP provides enhanced robustness against variations in the Rabi frequency, pulse detuning and spatial inhomogeneity of the driving field. In our specific (3 mm long) PrYSO crystal and for standard experimental parameters, RAP yielded a factor of 1.15 higher rephasing efficiency compared to rephasing with π pulses. This value further increased when we artificially increased experimental imperfections or performed experiments with lower maximum Rabi frequencies. Concluding, RAP provides higher efficiency and more robust performance than π pulses in inhomogeneously broadened media, in the case of low available driving field power and for driving field inhomogeneities. However, RAP pulses typically require longer pulse durations than π pulses. This can cause heating or prevent the use of RAP when fast rephasing is required. An alternative to adiabatic pulses are, e.g., composite pulses or single-shot-shaped pulses. These are investigated in the context of another Ph.D thesis.

Coherence Population Mapping: We implemented a novel CPM protocol to store atomic coherences in long-lived populations in PrYSO. CPM works in any three-state system and does not require complex setups beyond a radiation source to generate a short write and read sequence. As an important feature, CPM stores arbitrary coherences equally well in the populations of a three-state system, i.e., CPM does neither require inhomogeneous broadening, nor is the storage efficiency dependent on the phase of the initial coherence. To our best knowledge, this exhibits a unique feature, which no other coherence population mapping protocol provides. Thus, CPM is an alternative to the stimulated photon echo (SPE), which requires inhomogeneous broadening to map an arbitrary initial coherence onto populations. However, the maximum retrieval efficiency with CPM is 1/3 of the initial coherence amplitude (and 1/2 with SPE). We experimentally verified the main characteristics of both protocols with RF driven mapping sequences and RF induced initial coherences. Our results confirm phase-insensitive storage with CPM and storage times reaching the minute regime, i.e., the population relaxation time.
We also tested CPM in combination with EIT-based light storage. However, we obtained retrieval efficiencies below 1% and we observed reduced storage durations (for both SPE and CPM) compared to our previous experiments with RF induced coherences. A major contribution to the reduced efficiency is due to the fact that light storage works in a specific ensemble in the inhomogeneously broadened optical line in PrYSO. Our specific CPM (and SPE) pulses on the other hand couple to more ensembles and cause enhanced absorption for the retrieved signal. Future work should thus focus on the implementation of optical CPM to address only the ensemble used for light storage. Regarding a reduced storage duration, we could not yet find an explanation and suggest to implemented CPM in different storage media to further investigate the limitation of storage duration.


The pending American presidential election, culminating a period of extreme political partisanship in our national government generally, gives point to an essay on politics and agencies in the American regulatory state. In our two-party system, it has often been the case in recent times, including the last six years, that the President comes from one of our two major political parties and one or both houses of Congress are controlled by the other. All American agencies (including, in the American case, the so-called independent regulatory bodies) are associated with the President in the executive branch, yet dependent on the Senate for confirmation of their heads and other important officers and on the agreement of both houses for their budgets. So, with constitutional structure as a focus, one might ask what, if any, necessary structural relationship do bodies within the executive have to the legislature? Must there be a connection? What kind of a connection, and how assured? What, if any, work is excluded from their purview because it is necessarily the work of a legislature? Alternatively, one might ask, more descriptively: what are the actual relationships; how do executive and legislative politicians influence the administrative state, either before or after it takes action? These are large subjects for inquiry, whose dimensions can only be sketched here. More extensive treatment of these subjects and other matters can be found at length in the just published Third Edition of my Administrative Justice in the United States (Strauss 2016).


When the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in United States v. Windsor, it eliminated a categorical barrier to immigration for thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) families. Yet Windsor was not an immigration case, and the Court's opinion did not address at least three resulting immigration questions: What if a same-sex couple legally marries in one jurisdiction but resides in a state that does not recognize the marriage? What if the couple is in a legally-recognized "civil union" or "registered partnership"? Will children born to spouses or registered partners in same-sex couples be recognized as "born in wedlock" for immigration and/or citizenship purposes? This essay describes and supports the Obama administration's adoption of a uniform place-of-celebration rule in response to the first question. It then briefly discusses the questions of legal marriage alternatives and of parent-child relationship recognition, suggesting possible solutions.


Governments in Australia are increasingly relying on private sector service providers to increase efficiency in public services delivery and entering into various business partnerships with those providers. This paper examines the effectiveness of public-private partnership models used in delivering public services and suggests that partnership initiatives have increased efficiency at the micro management level but have not been able to establish trust among the partners as public servants determine the performance criteria and the means of control and accountability. Community participation in policy formulation and in building trust among the clients and the providers has not been given due emphasis as an important factor for developing a sustainable partnership model. The concept of public value has not been used as a useful way of setting out public service goals. This tentative conclusion rests on an examination of two cases where partnerships have affected operating and management practices.


The current economic system relies on the exploitation, or over exploitation, of limited natural resources, without regard to a moderate use of raw materials or the recycling of end-of-life products. With such a system, described as "linear", how could we consider more growth without menacing the survival of Humanity? Shouldn't we favor a more "circular" approach of economy, based on a more frugal use of resources and an improved recyclability of products? The article highlights the emergence of a logistics view of degrowth that opens new perspectives for researchers as well as practitioners. The major issue is to consider new shapes of economic growth integrating societal criteria as well as managerial criteria. The authors introduce a societal approach of logistical practices by insisting on the challenge of frugality and its consequences. It also places an emphasis on the central question of the stakeholders' behavior faced with frugal supply chains, by broadening the analysis to a consumer perspective and a public management perspective.


Augmentation of circulating noradrenaline concentration stimulates ventilation during the initial stages of exercise and this is accompanied by an increased sensation of dyspnoea and exertion. This previous study [Clark, Galloway, MacFarlane, Henderson, Aitchison and McMurray (1997) Eur. Heart J. 18, 1829-1833] suggested a link between dyspnoea, which commonly limits exercise tolerance in heart failure patients, and high circulating noradrenaline concentration in these patients. The present study investigated this relationship further using sympathetic inhibition. Ten healthy normotensive males performed 10 min of submaximal cycling exercise at approx. 70% of maximal oxygen uptake per min (VO2max) on three occasions one week apart. The first of these sessions was a familiarization session and the other two were experimental study days. On each of the study days, subjects attended the laboratory in the morning after an overnight fast and, following a resting blood sample, were administered placebo or moxonidine (0.4 mg) in a double blind cross-over design. After a 90-min absorption period, subjects undertook the exercise task. Blood was drawn, expired gas was analysed breath by breath, blood pressure, heart rate and ratings of perceived dyspnoea and exertion were obtained. Moxonidine treatment significantly reduced plasma noradrenaline concentration (P < 0.01), mean arterial pressure (P < 0.01), and blood glycerol concentration (P < 0.05), but no differences were observed in heart rate, the ventilatory response to exercise or subjective ratings of dyspnoea and exertion. This study indicates that reducing sympathetic activity does not affect ventilation, perceived dyspnoea or perceived exertion in normotensive males. Therefore it can be concluded that reducing sympathetic activity may not be an appropriate strategy to help reduce perceived dyspnoea.


Determining an appropriate set of indicators to show that a water supply is not impacted by wastewater is critical for watershed protection and for potable reuse projects. In 2010 the California State Water Resources Control Board (CA SWRCB) Blue Ribbon Panel issued a set of recommendations for a very short list (7) of compounds to be monitored for re-use projects. In 2009/10 the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority (SAWPA) developed a separate list of potential wastewater indicator compounds (11) based on a consensus panel, with the intention of sampling all dischargers to the Santa Ana River to determine occurrence. In 2009, the Water Research Foundation (WaterRF) funded project 4167, which examined analytical performance for 22 potential compounds of interest for assessing drinking water. In 2010, a NWRI report suggested primidone as a tracer. In 2009 Buerge et al. demonstrated the effectiveness of artificial sweeteners as conservative wastewater tracers. There is some overlap among these lists but there are also some potential key indicators that are only on a single proposed list and the potential that some are on 'none' of the lists. MWH developed a direct online extraction/analysis method using LC-MS-MS for nearly 90 target analytes that covers all of the compounds listed in the projects above. This method has reporting limits for most of the analytes in the 5–10 ng/L range. In 2010 and again in 2011, this technique was used for a SAWPA effluent monitoring project to assess the relative amount of information obtained from the different lists. Samples from 17 wastewater effluents and the downstream receiving water were tested for ∼90 analytes. We compared (a) frequency of detection in the effluent samples (b) concentration range and (c) variability among dischargers. Data were compared to other locations collected across the country and to municipal drinking water sources and distribution system samples to determine the most persistent compounds (and therefore best indicators). The ideal generic tracer should be relatively abundant and show minimal concentration variation. It is apparent that none of the existing lists (SAWPA, SWRCB, WaterRF, primidone, sucralose/acesulfame-K) is a 'perfect' list and greater discerning power is obtained by looking at long lists. Specifically the SAWPA list suffers because only one compound, TCEP was detected in all effluent samples, and concentration varied by a factor of 10 among dischargers. The CA SWRCB list suffers because only sucralose was detected in all samples; iopromide was only detected in about 50% of the samples and gemfibrozil in an even smaller number of effluents. Primidone, while occurring in 100% of samples varies by five fold among local sources and thus may not be the ideal tracer. Many of the compounds in the WaterRF list are not even among the most commonly detected analytes in effluents. Taking advantage of the power of a long list covering various classes of compounds it becomes possible to identify both generic (sucralose, acesulfame-K, TCEP, primidone) and specific (iohexal, atenolol, butalbital, caffeine degradates such as theobromine and 1, 7-dimethylxanthine, triazine and degradates) tracers to not only determine the presence of wastewater, but also potential specific primary wastewater sources. Several of the compounds seen most frequently that also have less than ten fold variation include ones not commonly measured (Dehydronifedipine, dilantin, meprobamate). Once the appropriate target analytes are identified for a given set of dischargers, future monitoring can then use a smaller set, but a-priori determination of a short list of indicators may eliminate significant important potential tracer compounds.


ABSTRACT Composites formed from wood fibers and man-made cellulosic fibers in PLA (polylactic acid) matrix, manufactured using sheet forming technique and hot pressing, are studied. The composites have very low density (due to high porosity) and rather good elastic modulus and tensile strength. As expected, these properties for the four types of wood fiber composites studied here improve with increasing weight fraction of fibers, even if porosity is also increasing. On the contrary, for man-made cellulosic fiber composites with circular fiber cross-section, the increasing fiber weight fraction (accompanied by increasing void content) has detrimental effect on stiffness and strength. The differences in behavior are discussed attributing them to fiber/ fiber interaction in wood fiber composites which does not happen in man-made fiber composites, and by rather weak fiber/matrix interface for man-made fibers leading to macro-crack formation in large porosity regions.


Whitford (2009) in her analysis of event policy discusses how the popularity of events and the positive association attached to them means they are coveted by Governments around the worldwide. The tourism potential of events is one of the main economic reasons why Governments are so keen to support them. This is summed up by Roberts (2004) who discusses how towns, cities and counties bid for and host events primarily because they attract visitors and their money. In fact, Roberts (2004) goes as far as to state that the economy of most cities and holiday resorts would stutter without a stream of major and minor events. However, it would be naive for a destination to simply jump on the 'event tourism bandwagon' and assume that an event will generate tourism benefits. To maximise the tourism potential of an event it is essential that tourism impacts are planned properly. In this chapter the authors will discuss why the host destination must adopt a strategic approach to event tourism and will use Northern Ireland as a case study.


Non-empirical law school study advice that emphasizes reading and briefing cases, memorizing rules, and outlining without frequent self-testing and formative self-assessment is contrary to cognitive science and leads to a "law school learning trap." Law students fall into a "law school learning trap" by focusing on memorization of cases and rules for "class prep," putting off practice application of the law as "exam prep." Law students and legal educators misjudge the power of testing as a learning tool, instead relying on non-empirical, anecdotal resources to guide law student study methods.
Empirical research from a Law Student Study Habit Survey shows that practice application of the law through self-testing, self-quizzing, and elaborative strategies positively correlates with academic success in law school, while reading and briefing cases, weak critical reading skills, and rote memorization of rules without practice applying the law negatively correlates with academic success in law school.
Both legal educators and law students need to incorporate testing and formative assessment as a study and learning strategy to learn each new topic, not just exam prep. Self-testing and formative assessment are not only critical for success in law school, but help students develop successful learning strategies for the bar exam and as lifelong learners in law practice.


This paper presents a new approach to real options. The current options-based models have provided new insights into capital-budgeting decisions. Unfortunately they are not widely used by corporate managers and practitioners as they are formally complex, rather difficult to understand and rest on strong implicit assumptions that considerably limit their scope of application. We propose a possible alternative by using a fuzzy expert system, on the basis of Mastroleo, Facchinetti and Magni (2001). We draw up a decision tree with multiple uncertain variables affecting the value of an investment opportunity, consisting of a defer option, a growth option, an abandonment option. Some simulations are conducted to test the economic soundness of the model as well as its consistency with the current models in the literature. A rather refined study can be accomplished by showing how inputs and outputs of the model interrelate one another.


Abstract. Hypothetical reductions in future emissions of ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) and N2O are evaluated in terms of effects on equivalent effective stratospheric chlorine (EESC), globally-averaged total column ozone, and radiative forcing through 2100. Due to the established success of the Montreal Protocol, these actions can have only a fraction of the impact on ozone depletion that regulations already in force have had. If all anthropogenic ODS and N2O emissions were halted beginning in 2011, ozone is calculated to be higher by about 1–2% during the period 2030–2100 compared to a case of no additional restrictions. Direct radiative forcing by 2100 would be about 0.23 W/m2 lower from the elimination of anthropogenic N2O emissions and about 0.005 W/m2 lower from the destruction of the chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) bank. Due to the potential impact of N2O on future ozone levels, we provide an approach to incorporate it into the EESC formulation, which is used extensively in ozone depletion analyses. The ability of EESC to describe total ozone changes arising from additional ODS and N2O controls is also quantified.


Eukaryotic microorganisms are an essential component of the Earth's global diversity. It is believed that the number of protistan taxa far outnumbers the one of viruses and bacteria. The taxonomic classification of these organisms, which also represent the major part of the total eukaryotic diversity, is still not very well known. It is only lately that the main phylogenetically consistent eukaryotic super assemblages (also called "kingdoms") have been defined. Inside these kingdoms, lateral branches represent the main multicellular taxa, the plants, animals and fungi. Protists are present in virtually all environments; in this thesis, attention was focused on the soil as habitat for the eukaryotic microorganisms. The communities inhabiting soil are characterized by adaptations to drought (the capacity to form cysts). Moreover, certain groups are found exclusively in this environment, to which they are morphologically adapted, whereas others are absent and exclusively found in aquatic systems. Detailed studies on the ecology of certain groups have been performed, and it is possible to define amongst them typical fast reproducing, early colonizers for new environments (r-specialists), whereas others can be found only in stable and highly productive habitats (K-specialists). All these organisms are distributed in a heterogeneous manner in the soil, being usually more frequent in the top horizon and around hotspots such as, for instance, root tips. Prokaryotes have drawn most of the attention of microbial ecologists, who almost neglected the eukaryotic microbes with the exception of fungi. Ecologists usually define four categories ("guilds") of protists in soil: Flagellates, naked amoebae, testate amoebae and ciliates. The importance of protistan activity in soil ecosystems has been shown with the concept of microbial loop: nutrients, produced by autotrophic organisms, are taken up by decomposers (bacteria and fungi) to produce their own biomass. Heterotrophic protists, by preying on them, release these compounds in a form which can be directly used by the autotrophs ("mineralization"), thus closing the loop. This phenomenon is of major significance, because protistan grazing controls the composition and activity of the prokaryotic community, and also the growth of the autotrophs. In soil, this phenomenon takes mainly place at the tip of the roots of vascular plants, where exudates are released. When soils are exposed to an organic pollution, the protistan communities and thus also their impact on the microbial loop, are influenced in two different ways: either by the direct toxic effects of the pollutant and or the indirect effects on their bacterial preys. A detailed study on the negative effects of environmental pollution, however, requires reliable methods to study protists. Molecular approaches offer the possibility to study protists in situ without the limitations inherent to cultivation dependent approaches. The aim of this thesis was to develop molecular methods and to apply these in combination with classical approaches for the characterization of protistan communities in a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon contamined and a non-contaminated control soil (PAH). The eukaryotic communities in a PAH polluted and a non-polluted control soil were first compared by amplifying total soil DNA with eukaryotic domain-specific primers targeting the 18S rRNA genes, cloning and sequencing the resulting PCR products. Using non-specific eukaryotic primers proved to be non-applicable for a reliable analysis of the 18S rRNA gene pools in soil, since protistan 18S rRNA gene sequences were (with the exception of the genus Acanthamoeba) underrepresented in the clone libraries obtained.. The biased picture obtained in the first chapter of the thesis was clearly shown when protist were cultivated from both soils: enrichment and cultivation of protists confirmed that members of the genus Acanthamoeba were indeed the most common protists in polluted soils, whereas they were completely absent from the control soil. Additionally, a diverse protistan community was recovered, which could not be detected by the molecular 18S rRNA-based approach. Twenty-two isolates of flagellates and naked amoebas were obtained, and characterised morphologically as well as by 18S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The diversity of cultivated organisms from the polluted soil was lower as compared to the control soil; however, the total number of protists was higher. Some of the cultures obtained in this cultivation dependant approach were used for further detailed studies; a jakobid isolate was described using light and electron microscopy, thus providing new insights into the knowledge of a relatively unknown group of excavates, i.e. the group of Jakoba incarcerata. Other cultures belonging to the kineoplastea were used to design a set of 18S rRNA-targeting fluorescently labelled oligonucleotide probes for fluorescence in situ hybridization. These probes are specific for the detection of the class Kinetoplastea and four genera within the class, i.e. Bodo, Parabodo, Rhynchomonas and Dimastigella and were applied to pure cultures and to environmental samples obtained by the so-called coverslip method. The effect of the PAH-pollution on a selected soil protistan guild, the ciliates, was further analyzed by applying ciliate-specific PCR based techniques. A specific primer set was used to amplify ciliate 18S rRNA genes from the environment and to conduct comparative sequence analysis of environmental clone libraries. This study indicated that the ciliate 18S rRNA gene pools present in the polluted soil were less diverse than those of the control soil. They contained mainly representatives of the class Colpodea, a clade of r-selected ciliates, typical for unstable environments. The control soil was characterized by a variety of trophic specialists, including carnivores, cyanobacteria and diatom feeders, in contrast to the polluted soil, which harboured mainly sequences affiliating to bacterivores and generalists. Based on these results, we could deduce that the trophic webs are less complex in a PAH polluted soil in comparison to a pristine control. This observation was further confirmed when we studied a larger number of samples using a fingerprinting technique, i.e. denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) with ciliate specific PCR primers. The profiles obtained showed again a dominance of the members of the class Colpodea in polluted soils.