With the advent of the European Monetary Union on January 1, 1999, historical fixed-income management results became irrelevant. To asses the potential of value–added strategies, this article simulates various European bond management strategies using historical returns from a market that is likely to be similar to the new market – the U.S. bond market. The model assesses the ability of an active manger to add value by successfully selecting between different asset classes, represented by indexes. With successful forecasts 55% of the time, both active–duration management and sector rotation strategies add value. The results also provide some ideas for manager risk control and portfolio monitoring.


This paper deals with the open source method practiced within the new media art context. I present a case study on an international festival, PixelACHE 2005, which was organized by and for new media artists and served as a platform for demonstrations of new media projects and as a meeting place for experimental new media artists. In this article I discuss how new media artists adapted the open source ideology. Open source is seen both as a more liberal method of distribution and as an open joint creative process. I was particularly interested in what kind of motives the new media artists had for taking part in the PixelACHE festival and the joint artistic creative process. In my analysis, I found four different groups that have diverse motives for participating in open source art projects. One group contains the key persons who use the open source network as an important reference in their professional image. Members of the second and third group are new media artists who earn their main income in either the public or corporate sector and use open source projects as a learning platform. The fourth group comprises young enthusiasts who are seeking jobs and professional networking opportunities in the open source network.


The following paper discusses the occurrence of the demographic dividend in Eastern and Central European countries (ECE). The data used is extracted from the World Bank and provides with descriptive statistics in addition to empirical analyses of fertility and mortality rates, and the significant causal links between the change in the demographic composition and unemployment, economic development, expenditure, education, and female participation variables. This is throughout regression analysis process with robust standard error and Granger causality tests. Empirical findings indicate that both the fertility rates and mortality rates of infants have decreasing trends in these countries. Further analysis indicates that the demographic dividend already occurred in these countries and has ended except for Estonia, Hungary and Romania. The last part of the results indicates that the change of the demographic composition of the populations of ECE countries have causalities that differ from an economy to another.


From the author of "Uncle Tom s Cabin," a domestic comedy that examines slavery, Protestant theology, and gender differences in early America.First published in 1859, Harriet Beecher Stowe s third novel is set in eighteenth-century Newport, Rhode Island, a community known for its engagement in both religious piety and the slave trade. Mary Scudder lives in a modest farmhouse with her widowed mother an their boarder, Samuel Hopkins, a famous Calvinist theologian who preaches against slavery. Mary is in love with the passionate James Marvyn, but Mary is devout and James is a skeptic, and Mary s mother opposes the union. James goes to sea, and when he is reportedly drowned, Mary is persuaded to become engaged to Dr. Hopkins.With colorful characters, including many based on real figures, and a plot that hinges on romance, "The Minister s Wooing" combines comedy with regional history to show the convergence of daily life, slavery, and religion in post-Revolutionary New England. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators."


Quantum interference (QI) phenomena between electronic states in molecular circuits offer a new opportunity to design new types of molecular devices such as molecular sensors, interferometers, and thermoelectric devices. Controlling the QI effect is a key challenge for such applications. For the development of single molecular devices employing QI effects, a systematic study of the relationship between electronic structure and the quantum interference is needed. In order to uncover the essential topological requirements for the appearance of QI effects and the relationship between the QI-affected line shape of the transmission spectra and the electronic structures, we consider a homogeneous toy model where all on-site energies are identical and model four types of molecular junctions due to their topological connectivities. We systematically analyze their transmission spectra, density of states, and thermoelectric properties. Even without the degree of freedom for on-site energies an asymmetric Fano peak could be realized in the homogeneous systems with the cyclic configuration. We also calculate the thermoelectric properties of the model systems with and without fluctuation of on-site energies. Even under the fluctuation of the on-site energies, the finite thermoelectrics are preserved for the Fano resonance, thus cyclic configuration is promising for thermoelectric applications. This result also suggests the possibility to detect the cyclic configuration in the homogeneous systems and the presence of the QI features from thermoelectric measurements.


Preservation and protection of the head segment is of upmost importance due to the criticality of the functions entailed in this section of the body by the brain and the nervous system. Numerous events in daily life situations such as transportation and sports pose threats of injuries that may end or change a person's life.In the European Union, statistics report that almost 4.2 million of road users are injured non-fatally, out of which 18% is represented by motorcyclist and 40% by cyclists, being head injuries 34% for bicyclists, and 24% for two-wheeled motor vehicles. Not only vehicles, are a source of injuries for the human head according to the injury report, 6,1 million people are admitted in hospitals for sports related injuries, where sports such as hockey, swimming, cycling presented head injuries up to 28%, 25% and 16% respectively (European Association for Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, 2013). According to records the vast majority of head crashes result in an oblique impact (Thibault & Gennarelli, 1985). These types of impacts are characterized for involving a rotation of the head segment which is correlated with serious head injuries. Even though there is plenty of evidence suggesting the involvement of rotational forces current helmet development standards and regulations fail to recognize their importance and account only for translational impact tests.This thesis contains an evaluation for a different developed method for testing oblique impacts. In consequence a new test rig was constructed with basis on a guided free fall of a helmeted dummy head striking an oblique (angled) anvil which will induce rotation.The results obtained are intended to be subjected to a comparison with another oblique test rig that performs experiments utilizing a movable sliding plate which when impacted induces the rotation of a dropped helmeted dummy head. The outcome will solidify the presence of rotational forces at head-anvil impact and offer an alternative testing method.After setting up the new test rig; experiments were conducted utilizing bicycle helmets varying the velocities before impact from 5m/s to 6m/s crashing an angled anvil of 45°. Results showed higher peak resultant values for rotational accelerations and rotational velocities in the new test rig compared to the movable plate impact test, indicating that depending on the impact situation the "Normal Force" has a direct effect on the rotational components. On the other hand a performed finite element analysis predicted that the best correlation between both methods is when the new angled anvil impact test is submitted to crashes with a velocity before impact of 6 m/s at 45° and the movable sliding impact test to a resultant velocity vector of 7,6m/s with an angle of 30° .In conclusion the new test method is meant to provide a comparison between two different test rigs that will undoubtedly have a part in the analysis for helmet and head safety improvements.


Much research has been devoted to the story of Taiwan's post-war economic
development. The neo-classical economists argue that its government created a free
market economy which led to rapid economic growth. The revisionists, Robert Wade
and Alice Amsden, address the role of the state in formulating and leading the
economic miracle. One of the characteristics of the Taiwanese economy was that the
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were found in great numbers (around
90%) in Taiwanese manufacturing industry. These SMEs were export-oriented and
contributed greatly to the export growth in the 1970s and the 1980s. The success of
the Taiwanese manufacturing SMEs was usually attributed to the market and the
development policies which the state established and enforced.
However, the existing literature ignores (1) the further development of the
SMEs after the late 1980s; (2) the role which Taiwanese society played in the rise and
the development of the SMEs. This ignorance over-estimates the role of the state in
the development of the SMEs in the post-war era. The present dissertation reexamines the argument of the neo-classical economists and the revisionists by finding
a historical pattern and tracing the further development of the SMEs after the late
1980s. To what extent did the market established by the state and the state
development policy supported the rise and the development of the Taiwanese
manufacturing SMEs from 1950 to 1980? What puts into question the influences of
the state on the SMEs after the late 1980s? Why did the state have limited influences
on the SMEs after the late 1980s?
The dissertation finds that Wade and Amsden over-estimated the role of the
state in the rise and development of the SMEs by explaining the limited influences of
the state on the SMEs after the late 1980s. The research, by clarifying the relation of
the state, market and social institutions from the historical pattern, demonstrates that
the social institutions are adapted to the changing environment and continuously
provided important financial sources to facilitate the SMEs' business operations from
1950 to 2000.


Based on the theory of social representations, the thesis explores how mental health professionals understand mental illness. The principle data source for this investigation is semi-structured interviews conducted with sixty mental health professionals in Britain and France, two countries currently moving towards community-based care for the mentally ill. Systematic qualitative analysis of these interviews (using QSR-NUDIST) is both grounded in the data and guided by previous research findings, theoretical considerations, and other data sources (policy documents and observations). Research explores how the nature, causes and treatment of mental ill health are represented by professionals, and provides an empirical test of the concept of 'professional social representations'. These are conceived as professional practitioners' representations of the object of their work, which consist of five inter-related elements: practice, theory, professional identities, organisational factors and lay representations. Analysis highlights how, despite their 'expert' status, mental health professionals adopt an agnostic stance and their representations are fraught with uncertainty, questioning and debate. Mental illness is understood as a polymorphous category, broadly divided into 'neuroses' and 'psychoses' and understood in essentially social terms. Thus, various forms of difference, distress and disruption are central themes. Professional practice is conceptualised as a social rather than medical endeavour, which involves eclectic interventions in many aspects of clients' daily lives. The dominant role in France of psychodynamic theories and practices is the only major difference between professionals in France and Britain. With contemporary shifts towards community-based care, practitioners experience added uncertainties and difficulties in renegotiating professional working relationships. The findings suggest that professional social representations serve important compromise functions, helping the practitioner community to reconcile the tensions and conflicting agendas of mental health work, and reflecting the unique role of professionals in the development and circulation of social knowledge. This research extends the scope of application and the conceptualisation of the theory of social representations.


SUMMARY Climate change is now unequivocal, particularly in terms of increasing temperature, increasing CO2 concentration, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea level, while the increase in the frequency of drought is very probable but not as certain. However, climate changes are not new and some of them have had dramatic impacts, such as the appearance of leaves about 400 million years ago as a response to a drastic decrease in CO2 concentration, the birth of agriculture due to the end of the last ice age about 11 000 years ago and the collapse of civilizations due to the late Holocene droughts between 5000 and 1000 years ago. The climate changes that are occurring at present will have – and are already having – an adverse effect on food production and food quality with the poorest farmers and the poorest countries most at risk. The adverse effect is a consequence of the expected or probable increased frequency of some abiotic stresses such as heat and drought, and of the increased frequency of biotic stresses (pests and diseases). In addition, climate change is also expected to cause losses of biodiversity, mainly in more marginal environments. Plant breeding has addressed both abiotic and biotic stresses. Strategies of adaptation to climate changes may include a more accurate matching of phenology to moisture availability using photoperiod-temperature response, increased access to a suite of varieties with different duration to escape or avoid predictable occurrences of stress at critical periods in crop life cycles, improved water use efficiency and a re-emphasis on population breeding in the form of evolutionary participatory plant breeding to provide a buffer against increasing unpredictability. ICARDA, in collaboration with scientists in Iran, Algeria, Jordan, Eritrea and Morocco, has recently started evolutionary participatory programmes for barley and durum wheat. These measures will go hand in hand with breeding for resistance to biotic stresses and with an efficient system of variety delivery to farmers.


"I have never read such a stimulating short guide to art. It should be issued as a set text in every school." (Lynn Barber, Sunday Times Now). Grayson Perry is a fully paid-up member of the art establishment, he wants to show that any of us can appreciate art (after all, there is a reason he's called this book Playing to the Gallery and not 'Sucking up to an Academic Elite'). Based on his hugely popular BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures and full of pictures, this funny, personal journey through the art world answers the basic questions that might occur to us in an art gallery but seem too embarrassing to ask.


Not one of the currently available medications has, so far, unequivocally demonstrated its ability to fully prevent the occurrence of new vertebral or peripheral osteoporotic fractures once osteoporosis is established. Therefore, several new therapies are currently under development to optimize the risk/benefit ratio of osteoporosis treatment. Strontium ranelate is composed of an organic moiety (ranelic acid) and of two atoms of stable nonradioactive strontium. In vitro, strontium ranelate increases collagen and noncollagenic proteins synthesis by mature osteoblast enriched cells. The effects of strontium ranelate on bone formation were confirmed as strontium ranelate enhanced pre-osteoblastic cell replication. The stimulation by strontium ranelate of the replication of osteoprogenitor cell and collagen, as well as noncollagenic protein synthesis in osteoblasts, provides substantial evidence to categorize strontium ranelate as a bone-forming agent. In the isolated rat osteoclast assay, a pre-incubation of bone slices with strontium ranelate induced a dose- dependent inhibition of the bone resorbing activity of treated rat osteoclast. Strontium ranelate also dose-dependently inhibited, in a chicken bone marrow culture, the expression of both carbonic anhydrase II and the alpha-subunit of the vitronectin receptor. These effects showing that strontium ranelate significantly affects bone resorption due to a direct and/or matrix-mediated inhibition of osteoclast activity and also inhibits osteoclasts differentiation, are compatible with the profile of an anti-resorptive drug. In normal rats, administration of strontium ranelate induces an improvement in the mechanical properties of the humerus and/or the lumbar vertebra associated with a commensurate increase in bone dimension, shaft and volume. Strontium ranelate was administered in 160 early postmenopausal women, in a 24-month, double-blind, placebo-controlled, prospective randomized study. Daily oral dose of 125 mg, 500 mg and 1 g of strontium ranelate were compared with a placebo. At the conclusion of the study, the percent variation of lumbar-adjusted bone mineral density from baseline was significantly different in the group receiving 1 g/day of strontium ranelate compared with placebo (+1.41% vs. -0.98%, respectively). Increase in total hip and neck bone mineral density averages, respectively, 3.2% and 2.5%. Strontium ranelate does not induce any significant adverse reaction compared with those observed in women receiving a placebo for the same duration. In a phase II study, the effect of strontium ranelate in postmenopausal women with vertebral osteoporotic fractures was assessed during a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Doses of 500 mg, 1 g and 2 g daily of strontium ranelate or placebo were given to 353 Caucasian women with prevalent osteoporosis. At the conclusion of this 2-year study, the annual increase in lumbar-adjusted bone mineral density of the group receiving 2 g of strontium ranelate was + 2.97%. This result was significantly different compared with placebo. A significant increase in bone alkaline phosphatase and, over a 6-month period, a significant decrease in urinary-pyridium crosslinks (NTX) were evidenced. During the second year of treatment, the dose of 2 g was associated with a 44% reduction in the number of patients experiencing a new vertebral deformity. Bone histomorphometry showed no mineralization defects. The same percentage of withdrawals following an adverse effect was observed for patients receiving placebo and for those receiving 2 g of strontium ranelate. The compound was further investigated in a large phase III program that included two extensive trials for the treatment of severe osteoporosis, one assessing the effects of strontium ranelate on the risk of vertebral fractures (SOTI) and one evaluating its effects on peripheral (nonspinal) fractures (TROPOS). The primary analysis of the SOTI study, evaluating the effect of 2 g of strontium ranelate on vertebral fracture rates, revealed a 41% reduction in the relative risk of expein the relative risk of experiencing a first new vertebral fracture with strontium ranelate, throughout the 3-year study, compared with placebo. The TROPOS study, showed a significant (p = 0.05) reduction in the relative risk of experiencing a first non-vertebral fracture in the group treated with strontium ranelate throughout the 3-year study compared with placebo in the intention-to-treat population. A 41% reduction in the relative risk of experiencing a hip fracture was demonstrated in the per protocol population. All these results imply that strontium ranelate is a new, effective and safe treatment for vertebral and nonvertebral osteoporosis, with a unique mode of action.


We explore a sample of 148 solar-like stars to search for a possible correlation between the slopes of the abundance trends versus condensation temperature (known as the Tc slope) with stellar parameters and Galactic orbital parameters in order to understand the nature of the peculiar chemical signatures of these stars an d the possible connection with planet formation. We find that the Tc slope significantly correlates (at more than 4σ) with the stellar age and the stellar surface gravity. We als o find tentative evidence that the Tc slope correlates with the mean galactocentric distance of t he stars (Rmean), suggesting that those stars that originated in the inner Galaxy have fewer refractory elements relative to the volatiles. While the average Tc slope for planet-hosting solar analogs is steeper than that of their counterparts without planets, this difference probably reflects the di fference in their age and Rmean. We conclude that the age and probably the Galactic birth place are determinant to establish the star's chemical properties. Old stars (an d stars with inner disk origin) have a lower refractory-to-volatile ratio.


Asian countries have introduced major reforms and new institutional mechanisms in recent years to promote the engagement of elected local governments, civil society, and the private sector. This book examines emerging issues in democratic local governance and factors that influenced the impetus for and the substance of reforms. It asks the following questions: * What have been the challenges in designing and implementing decentralization policies and programs? * What are the constraints on strengthening citizen participation? * Can reforms promote gender and rights perspectives in local governance? * What is the role of local government in service delivery and access? * How effective are the mechanisms for accountability and transparency in local governance? * What are the driving forces influencing democratic local governance reform? The book addresses these questions as it discusses studies from theoretical and comparative perspectives on specific issues as well as myriad cases across Asia, often dealing with country-specific reforms.


A molecularly imprinted polymer for the selective solid-phase extraction of clothianidin was prepared using the analyte as a template, methacrylic acid and styrene as functional monomers, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the cross-linker, acetonitrile as a porogen, and 2,2-azobisisobutyronitrile as an initiator. The polymer was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and infrared spectroscopy. Adsorption measurements indicated that the molecularly imprinted polymers exhibited good recognition ability and fast dynamics toward clothianidin. Using this imprinted polymer as a sorbent, a new method of molecularly imprinted solid phase extraction coupled to high performance liquid chromatography for the determination of clothianidin residues was developed. The molecularly imprinted solid phase extraction procedure was optimized to purify and enrich clothianidin residues in river water, soil, tomatoes, grapes, and Chinese cabbage. The average recoveries of clothianidin spiked at 0.005 to 0.05 mg/L were 84.32 to 89.49% in river water with a relative standard deviation 2.22 to 4.79% (n = 3). The average recoveries of clothianidin spiked at 0.05 to 0.5 mg/kg were 85.49 to 96.36% in soil, grapes, Chinese cabbage, and tomatoes, with a relative standard deviation of 2.40 to 6.02% (n = 3). Overall, this study provides a sensitive and effective method for the accurate determination of clothianidin residues in environmental samples.


at least 168 large hydroelectric projects set to majorly alter the riverscape, large dams are emerging as a major issue of conflict in the region. Although the current scale of dam-related developments far outstrips anything which took place in the past, the region has been no stranger to dam-related conflicts. For example, the Kaptai dam, built in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in the 1960s, submerged the traditional homelands of the Hajong and Chakma indigenous communities, and forced them to migrate into parts of Northeast India. Over the years, this has led to serious conflicts between the refugees and local communities in Arunachal Pradesh. In the 1970s, the Gumti dam in Tripura submerged large tracts of arable land in the Raima Valley and displaced the local tribal population, leading to unrest. Projects such as the Loktak hydroelectric project commissioned in the 1980s have impacted the wetland ecology of the Loktak lake in Manipur, seriously affecting the habitat of the endangered Sangai (the brow-antlered deer) and the livelihoods of local people. The impending loss of home, land and livelihood has led to many years of opposition to the Pagladiya project in Assam and the Tipaimukh project in Manipur on the Barak river. More recent times have seen major conflicts emerge in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh over the individual and cumulative impacts of over 100 dams planned in upstream Arunachal. Dam-induced floods from projects such as the 405 MW Ranganadi hydroelectric project in Arunachal and the intense people's opposition to the under-construction 2,000 MW Lower Subansiri hydroelectric project on the Assam – Arunachal Pradesh border have been major triggers for what has now emerged as a major political debate on the downstream impacts of dams in the region. Meanwhile, in the uplands of Sikkim and Arunachal, minority indigenous communites such as the Lepchas and Idu Mishmis have expressed concern about the impacts of multiple mega projects in their homelands. The large dams' juggernaut promises to be the biggest 'development' intervention in this ecologically and geologically fragile, seismically active and culturally sensitive region in the coming days.


A reliable and flexible model of a low-level processing stage is one of the most crucial requirements in the development of an image understanding system (IUS). In this thesis, a model for the low-level processing stage based on a new scheme of prime component decomposition is proposed. This model is then used to develop a knowledge-based image understanding system that is capable of solving many image processing problems without employing complex algorithms. A scheme for the prime component decomposition that utilizes the maximum size geometrical polygons is devised. It is shown that the optimal decomposition element in the continuous metric space has a circular shape. The decomposition operator is also optimized in the discrete metric space to deal with the actual implementation of the prime component decomposition operator, yielding square decomposition elements. The derived decomposition operator is used to extract shape elements of the objects contained in input scenes and to produce their intermediate object descriptions. In the proposed approach of shape extraction, the prime component decomposition technique is used to partition the object's interior, while a modified Sobel operator is used to detect the object's edges. The typical errors of a shape extraction process such as noise sensitivity, description errors of diagonal objects and the description errors caused by a small sampling frequency are reduced using a shape equalization approach that is based on Fourier descriptors and nonlinear interpolation. In the development of an image understanding system, a hierarchical approach of constructing the intermediate object representation is used to represent the knowledge within the system. The knowledge base of the IUS is developed as a relational multidimensional tree structure that dynamically changes the relational links among its elements. The dynamical process of creating and transforming the knowledge base is controlled by a feedback with the low-level processing stage that reduces the memory requirements of the IUS. The traditional data type definitions are extended to include the base and derived data types. These extensions effectively represent and process the time-varying knowledge of the system and increase its overall efficiency. The high-level processing stage of the IUS is implemented based on the black-board architecture with a specialized control mechanism--the agenda-based control. This control mechanism reduces the number of computational steps within the high-level processing stage by employing a selective focusing mechanism. The functional behaviour of the proposed prime component decomposition scheme and the model of the image understanding system is experimented with several application examples including the isolation and identification of stationary and time-varying objects.


The study of silicon nanowire-FET-based electronic biosensor applications is an emerging scientific field. These biosensors have the benefit of being theoretically extremely sensitive and reports of down to femtomolar (fM) levels of biomolecule detection have been reported. This thesis is written from a biotechnological perspective on the development of a silicon nanowire-FET biosensor. The thesis project was oriented towards developing a novel affinity-based silicon nanowire-FET biosensor based on small (2-3 nm) protein affinity-binders denoted Affibody molecules. The hypothesis was that a smaller biological detector element would reduce the effect of Debye screening of the charged biomarker. This hypothesis was neither proved nor disproved, and a substantial amount of time and effort was spent on improving the function of the different biosensor components. In paper I, a study on the effect of the redox state and pH at solvent-to-surface interfaces of the reference gate electrodes was done by using solutions with alternating pH and varying ratios of the Fe(CN)63-/ Fe(CN)64- redox pair. These experiments showed that the selection of reference gate electrode has major implications on the signal readout in terms of false response and current instability. While a current drop due to potential change on the surface of a platinum reference electrode was observed, no such thing was observed using a silver/silver chloride reference gate electrode. The conclusion is that it is critical for performance to use a reference gate electrode that has a stable electrode potential such as silver/silver chloride. In paper II, a discovery was made when intending to use nanowire joule heating to lyse HT-29 and MCF-7 cells. Using fringing electric fields irreversible electroporation of a cell on top of a nanowire was achieved at 600-1200 mVpeak-to-peak at 10 MHz for 2 ms. The process was monitored using a 3,3´-dihexyloxacarbocyanine iodide (DiOC6(3)) and Propidium Iodide (PI) live-dead dye kit. The nanowire-mediated electroporation method releases the cell content without the risk of heat denaturation and it is ultra-localized. To address the concern on how to control and monitor organosilane monolayer formation in the surface functionalization of silicon nanowires, a microwave-assisted method was evaluated in paper III. Using ellipsometry, AFM, ATR-FTIR and fluorescence scanning it was shown that less than 10 minutes of incubation in 1% (v/v) APTES in toluene at 75⁰C is needed for formation of a 0.7 nm monolayer. In paper IV, surface functionalization was further explored by using microdispensing of solutions of capture probes for localized functionalization of individual devices for a multiplexed silicon nanowire-FET biosensor application. Besides showing by fluorescent scanning that oligonucleotide or protein spots of ~ 100 μm diameters could be deposited on individual silicon nanowires, the functionalization chemistry was validated by using the same protocol for immobilization of the Z domain from Staphylococcus aureus Protein A (SpA) on silicon dioxide-coated SPR sensor chips, followed by real-time detection of the binding of immunoglobulin G. The immunoglobulins as affinity-binders have a drawback due to large size and the importance of having the binding event near the device in silicon nanowire-FET biosensor due to the effect of Debye screening. In paper V, in an effort to further minimize the size of affinity-binders of potential value as capture probes in silicon nanowire-FET applications, a backbone-cyclized, minimized 2-helix affibody-molecule (ZHER2:342min) was designed and produced by Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis(SPPS). The 2-helix affibody-molecule was evaluated for in vivo molecular imaging of HER2-expressing tumours, which was demonstrated in mice carrying SKOV-3 xenografts.


UZUN, S., O. UZUN, M. KAPLAN and A. I. ILBAS, 2013. Response of bitter vetch lines to salt stress. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 19: 1061-1067 This research was carried out in a greenhouse to evaluate the response of bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia (L.) Willd) to increasing salinity levels. Saline irrigation waters with NaCl concentrations of 0, 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10 dS m -1 were applied to investigate the salt tolerance of the plants. Shoot and root length (cm), shoot and root fresh and dry weight (g/plant), Na + , K + , Cl - (%) content of dry matter and Na + :K + ratio, crude protein, Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF) and Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF) parameters were investigated. Research results revealed reduced growth parameters with elevated salt levels. While Na + , Cl - contents of shoot and root dry matter, crude protein and crude ash percentage increased with elevated NaCl concentrations, a decrease was observed in ADF and NDF.


This introduction to a special issue focuses on the complex and contradictory relationships of empires and nation-states. It contests the traditional views that posit nation-states and empires as the mutually exclusive forms of state organization. The paper identifies the key features of these two ideal types and then briefly reviews the current developments in this field. This introduction also provides a summary overview of the nine contributions that compose the special issue.


Walter Bagehot asserted the necessity for British government to investigate as well as act: '[t]he great maxim of modern thought is not only the toleration of everything but the examination of everything'. Royal commissions have done just that: examining subjects ranging from spontaneous combustion of coal in ships, to copyright law, to the condition of framework knitters, to the practice of vivisection. This article suggests that the examiners also warrant examining; a thorough inquiry into a royal commission can be a valuable contribution to legal historical scholarship. Royal commission reports are known to be a rich resource for historians but are not often themselves the subject of study, individually or collectively. Yet, their presence and impact on the political and legal landscape has been profound. In the nineteenth century, law reformers with the goal of codification found royal commissions particularly well-suited to their objectives, initiating inquiries into criminal, property, and evidence laws, among others. Direct legislation, however, may not always be the benchmark of a successful royal commission. This article provides background on the nature and history of royal commissions generally as a quasi-governmental institution and dispels some common misconceptions. It then considers some of the challenges to examination of royal commissions and analyses previous studies. Finally, it proposes evaluative criteria and methodologies for the study of such commissions, calling for close study of individual royal commissions as a means of gauging their effectiveness and influence on subsequent legal development.


Distributed systems like multi-agent systems, complex adaptive systems, or artificial immune systems use lots of small entities in order to reach the goals of the system, e.g. optimisation problems or network security. In all of these systems, lightweight entities exist and perform tasks autonomously in order to solve the problems. In addition, one of the main problems is the communication between these entities, which is mostly implemented using central servers. In this article, we introduce a novel approach for communication that uses the cell communication of the human body as archetype. The communication is reliable, efficient, and does not use central entities. We show that the artificial cell communication has several advantages compared to common used communication protocols.


Mangroves provide valuable ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, pollution filtration, and protection from tsunamis, tropical storms, and coastal erosion. They also supply coastal communities with important natural resources like firewood, medicine, timber, honey, and fodder for livestock. Unfortunately, the world's mangroves are rapidly degrading due to rising coastal population, climate change, and destruction for coastal development, agriculture, and aquaculture. Considering their value for the environment and coastal communities, mangrove conservation should become a priority and effort must be invested to find new and successful methods for conserving mangrove ecosystems. As it has proven effective in other conservation contexts, a gendered perspective on mangrove conservation should be adopted. Through review and synthesis of existing literature on gender and mangrove conservation, this paper will show the extent to which gender analysis has been used to examine mangrove conservation and coastal resource management. It will describe the following trends in literature: a) a lack of research focusing on gender's role in mangrove conservation, b) confusion about the practical applications of a gender, environment, and development (GED) conceptual framework c) little effort to evaluate the success of programs that integrate gender and mangrove conservation. It will make suggestions for future research and encourage further use of a gendered outlook on mangrove conservation and resource management.


The Academic Encounters Second edition series uses a sustained content approach to teach skills necessary for taking academic courses in English. There are two books for each content area. Academic Encounters Level 3 Student's Book Reading and Writing Life in Society engages students with authentic academic readings, photos, and charts on stimulating topics from the field of sociology. Topics include peer pressure, the influence of the media, and balancing home and work. Students develop important skills, such as reading critically, examining graphic material, note-taking, and preparing for a quiz. By completing writing assignments, students build academic writing skills and incorporate what they have learned. The topics correspond with those in Academic Encounters Level 3 Listening and Speaking Life in Society. The books may be used independently or together.


In the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster, the four male specific lethal (msl) genes are required to achieve dosage compensation of the male X chromosome. The MSL proteins are thought to interact with cis-acting sites that confer dosage compensation to nearby genes, as they are detected at hundreds of discrete sites along the length of the polytene X chromosome in males but not in females. The histone H4 acetylated isoform, H4Ac16, colocalizes with the MSL proteins at a majority of sites on the D. melanogaster X chromosome. Using polytene chromosome immunostaining of other species from the genus Drosophila, we found that X chromosome association of MSL proteins and H4Ac16 is conserved despite differences in the sex chromosome karyotype between species. Our results support a model in which cis-acting regulatory sites for dosage compensation evolve on a neo-X chromosome arm in response to the degeneration of its former homologue.


ABSTRACT Idaho National Laboratory's Test Area North is the site of a trichloroethene (TCE) plume resulting from waste injections. Previous investigations revealed that TCE was being attenuated relative to two codisposed internal tracers, tritium and tetrachloroethene, with a half-life of 9 to 21 years. Biological attenuation mechanisms were investigated using a novel suite of assays, including enzyme activity probes designed for the soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO) enzyme. Samples were analyzed for chlorinated solvents, tritium, redox parameters, primary substrates, degradation products, bacterial community methanotrophic potential, and bacterial DNA. The enzyme probe assays, methanotrophic enrichments and isolations, and DNA analysis documented the presence and activity of indigenous methanotrophs expressing the sMMO enzyme. Three-dimensional groundwater data showed plume-wide aerobic conditions, with low levels of methane and detections of carbon monoxide, a by-product of TCE cometabolism. The TCE half-life attributed to aerobic cometabolism is 13 years relative to tritium, based on the tracer-corrected method. Similarly, a half-life of 8 years was estimated for cis-dichloroethene (DCE). Although these rates are slower than most anaerobic degradation processes, they can be significant for large plumes. This investigation is believed to be the first documentation of intrinsic aerobic TCE and DCE cometabolism in an aquifer by indigenous methanotrophs.


Study Design. Retrospective case series of surgically treated patients with adult spine deformity (ASD). Objective. To report the incidence of proximal junctional failure (PJF), characterize PJF and evaluate the outcome of revision surgery for PJF. A modified classification is also proposed. Summary of Background Data. Although recent reports have shown the catastrophic results of PJF, few reports have shown the incidence, characteristics, and clinical outcomes of PJF in ASD. Methods. This retrospective analysis reviewed data entered prospectively into a multicenter database. Surgically treated patients with ASD with a minimum 2-year follow-up were included. PJF was defined as any type of symptomatic proximal junctional kyphosis (PJK) requiring surgery. On the basis of our previous classification, the following modified PJK classification was established: grade A, proximal junctional increase of 10° to 19°; grade B, 20° to 29°; and grade C, 30° or more. Three types of PJK were also defined: ligamentous failure (type 1), bone failure (type 2), and implant/bone interface failure (type 3). An additional criterion was added for the presence or absence of spondylolisthesis above the upper instrumentation vertebra (UIV). Results. PJF developed in 23 of the 1668 patients with ASD. The incidence of PJF was 1.4%. The mean age was 62.3 ± 7.9 years, and the mean follow-up was 4.0 ± 2.3 years. Seventeen patients had undergone prior surgical procedures. Six patients had UIV above T8, and 17 had UIV below T9. Six patients had associated spondylolisthesis above the UIV (PJF-S), whereas 17 patients did not (PJF-N). The radiographical data show a significant difference in the preoperative sagittal vertical axis between the PJF-S and PJF-N groups, whereas no significant difference was observed in the preoperative sagittal parameters (5.2 ± 3.9 cm vs. 11.4 ± 6.0 cm, P = 0.04). The most common type of PJF was type 2N. The PJF symptoms consisted of intolerable pain (n = 17), neurological deficits (n = 6), and progressive trunk deformity (n = 1). Eleven patients had additional PJK/PJF and 9 required additional revision surgical procedures. Conclusion. The incidence of PJF among surgically treated patients with ASD was 1.4%. The most common type of PJF was 2N. Preoperative large sagittal vertical axis change and large amount of correction was a causative factor for spondylolisthesis above the UIV. After the revision surgery, further PJF was a commonly occurred event. Level of Evidence: 3


Alexithymia has been associated with poor outcomes in psychotherapy. This association has been attributed to a difficulty in patients expressing emotions, engaging in emotional tasks and also poor therapeutic alliances. This study aims to better understand alexithymic patients in psychotherapy. A multiple case study design was used. Cases were selected from a larger research project considering their alexithymia level and outcome status, based on the reliable change index and the client perspective on change. Four cases are presented: with and without alexithymia with good and poor outcome. The therapeutic alliance was included as a process measure, evaluated from both client and therapist. At the end a semi structured interview was conducted with both participants, individually. The analysis concerned the integration and triangulation of the therapist and client experience for each case. Each patient was briefly presented and then a focus was made regarding the perception of both participants on the therapeutic alliance and the emotional processing and change process of the client. Both alexithymic cases and the non-alexithymic poor outcome case showed difficulties in the therapeutic alliance, especially from the perspective of the therapist. In these cases, emotional impairments may have contributed to a poor therapeutic alliance, impacting on the outcome. We suggest that a great focus on the therapeutic alliance with alexithymic patients may increase the quality of treatment and it may be more useful for case conceptualization to consider each feature of the alexithymia construct individual.


Purpose: Development of effective disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies for communities at risk of being affected by natural disasters is considered essential, especially in the wake of devastating disaster events reported worldwide. As part of a wider research study investigating community perspectives on existing and potential strategies for enhancing resilience to natural disasters, community perspectives on infrastructure and structural protection requirements were investigated. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach: Patuakhali region in South-Western Bangladesh is a region significantly at risk of multiple natural hazards. In order to engage local communities and obtain their perspectives, focus group discussions were held with local community leaders and policy makers of at-risk communities in Patuakhali region, South-Western Bangladesh. Findings: Infrastructure and structural protection requirements highlighted included multi-purpose cyclone shelters, permanent embankments and improved transport infrastructure. Much of the discussions of focus group interviews were focused on cyclone shelters and embankments, suggesting their critical importance in reducing disaster risk and also dependence of coastal communities on those two measures. Originality/value: The research design adopted sought to answer the research questions raised and also to inform local policy makers on community perspectives. Local policy makers involved in DRR initiatives in the region were informed of community perspectives and requirements, thus contributing to community engagement in implementing DRR activities.


The sustainable development and management of groundwater resources in coastal aquifers is complex and, historically, challenging to accomplish. Groundwater models play an essential role in addressing these complexities and providing the basis for planning future sustainable development. For more than 25 years, the authors have applied three-dimensional groundwater models to manage large scale coastal aquifers.

The paper will present case studies demonstrating the application of groundwater models to evaluate conditions in complex coastal environments and to develop sustainable groundwater management strategies. These studies include Long Island, a sole source aquifer system in New York serving nearly 3 million people; aquifers in Southern California where injection barriers are used to prevent saltwater intrusion; and Savannah, Georgia in the southeastern US, where concentrated groundwater pumping has contributed to saltwater intrusion at a nearby resort island, and planning is underway to ensure a sustainable groundwater supply to both local industries and municipalities.


Since its inception, the skyscraper has served as an icon of American innovation, modernity, and freedom. Upholding this image has erased the racial thinking and racist practices foundational to this born-and-bred American architectural form. This essay restores the import of race to the skyscraper by reading formalist theories by the father of modern architecture, Louis Sullivan, alongside a work of African American modernist fiction, Nella Larsen's Passing (1929). Reading Sullivan alongside Larsen explains how skyscrapers and blackness together have defined what gets seen as modern. The unexpected pairing reveals the visual racial logics built into skyscraper aesthetics and adds an architectural thread to the well-established scholarship on Larsen's novel.


The article discusses the challenges contemporary history has to face due to the changing nature of its sources in the digital age. It argues that so far, historians have not done enough to prepare themselves for this new situation that will force the discipline to rethink established routines and standards. Moreover, it proposes concrete directions into which historiography should develop.


We propose a new GAN-based unsupervised model for disentangled representation learning. The new model is discovered in an attempt to adapt the Information Bottleneck (IB) framework to the optimization of GAN, thereby named IB-GAN. The architecture of IB-GAN is partially similar to that of InfoGAN but has a critical difference; an intermediate layer of the generator is leveraged to constrain the mutual information between the input and the generated output. The intermediate stochastic layer can serve as a learnable latent distribution that is trained with the generator jointly in an end-to-end fashion. As a result, the generator of IB-GAN can harness the latent space in a disentangled and interpretable manner. With the experiments on dSprites and Color-dSprites dataset, we demonstrate that IB-GAN achieves competitive disentanglement scores to those of state-of-the-art β-VAEs and outperforms InfoGAN. Moreover, the visual quality and the diversity of samples generated by IB-GAN are often better than those by β-VAEs and Info-GAN in terms of FID score on CelebA and 3D Chairs dataset.


Crystalline optical whispering gallery mode resonators made from alkaline earth fluorides can achieve exceptionally large optical finesse, and are used in a variety of applications, from frequency stabilization and narrow linewidth lasers, to low-noise microwave generation or soliton Kerr frequency combs. Here we demonstrate an efficient coupling method to resonators of these materials, which employs photonic integrated waveguides on a chip based on silicon nitride. By converting a mode from silicon nitride to a free-hanging silica waveguide on a silicon chip, coupling to a crystalline resonator is achieved with a high extinction, while preserving a quality factor exceeding 200 million. This compact, heterogeneous integration of ultra-high Q-factor crystalline resonators with photonic waveguides provides a proof of concept for wafer scale integration and robust, compact packaging for a wide range of applications.


The current work represents a new routing protocol considering the environment of wireless sensor network with dynamic mobility. The approach addresses the issues for both real time and non-real time data dissemination from the mobile sensors to the sink. The prime target of this approach is to resolve the issues of QoS, mobility, and heavily congested area that are identified by considering the framework of running competition. The technique used is aimed to provide a superior route quality along with mitigation of network traffic congestion. The approach uses node-to-node routing phenomenon for selecting an optimal mobile node for forwarding the data packet. The performance evaluation is done considering packet delivery ratio and deadline miss ratio to show that proposed system outperforms the existing routing policy. Keywords-component; Mobile wireless sensor network, Geographical routing, network condition.


Objectives: The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate clinically the success and esthetic result (soft-tissue and hard-tissue changes) of immediate implant placement after 1 year. Materials and Methods: Eighteen patients with 23 titanium screw-shaped implants (13–16-mm length and 4.3–5-mm diameters) were placed in the extraction sockets. The jumping distance after implant placement was filled up with G bone synthetic hydroxyapatite granules and platelet-rich fibrin. It was again reevaluated at second-stage surgery. Clinical parameters of the peri-implant conditions were assessed after 1-year follow-up. Statistical Analysis: Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows, Version 22.0. released 2013. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp, was used to perform statistical analyses. Descriptive Statistics: It includes expression of the study variables with categorical data regarding number and percentage whereas in mean and standard deviation for continuous data. Results: The cumulative implant survival and success rate were determined after 1-year observation period. The analysis of the esthetic result, papillary index, interdental bone, gingival biotype, modified plaque index, and modified bleeding index was analyzed. Conclusion: This study determines us the success rate and esthetics of immediate implant placement after tooth extraction.


SummaryIn the diplomatic canon, where the field has been demarcated by a central distinction drawn between suzerain and parity-based state relations, Imperial China has squarely been designated to the former category, and thereby as inherently alien to the diplomatic tradition. However, this image of a monolithic 2000-year-long rigid, hierarchical system betrays a too shallow assessment of Chinese history, and fails to acknowledge a noteworthy strain of parity-based relations running through Imperial Chinese foreign policy. This strain was at its most pronounced during the four centuries of the Song Dynasty, where China's relations with a set of important neighbouring states were handled on egalitarian terms that were far more reminiscent of a full-fledged diplomatic multi-state system than what is popularly acknowledged. Based on a case study of the diplomatic relations of the Song Dynasty, this article argues that Imperial Chinese foreign policy on a set of occasions showed itself to adhere to principles immanent to classical diplomacy, and that these eras thus should naturally, and beneficially, belong to the historical canon of diplomacy.


[Extract] Executive Summary

1.The Centre for Social Science Research at Central Queensland University has conducted a research project funded by the Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP) from March 2004 to March 2006.

2. The broad aim of this project was to assist coal mining companies develop effective processes for engaging with their communities and developing impact assessment and planning processes that can be agreed by their stakeholders. The focus of the project has been in three key areas: (a) demonstrating that assessment of social and economic impacts can occur at any stage during the life of mine operations, (b) developing new tools for the assessment of social and economic impacts, and (c) comparing the impacts from mining between mining-focus and rural-focus towns.

3. Social and economic impact assessment is an important component of environmental planning and project approvals processes in Australia. While the EIS process remains important for the assessment of new projects, it does not cover all the economic and social impacts of mining on regional communities. Key deficiencies include the lack of assessment for: (a)Economic and social impacts that occur after the approvals stage, (b)The economic and social impacts of changes in the scale of operations, such as those influenced by commodity cycles, (c)The cumulative impacts of multiple operations on communities, and (d)The impacts of wind-down or closure of mines on communities.

4. Other issues with impact assessment relate to the potential lack of consistency between different studies, and the failure to follow-up and check many of the predictions that are made.

5. The development of sustainability indicators and annual reporting mechanisms that many companies are voluntarily adopting are welcome. However, there are opportunities to better align these with more comprehensive assessments of economic and social impacts, and to use regular social and economic impact assessment procedures as inputs into sustainability reporting.

6. The traditional approaches to social and economic impact assessment are to use stakeholder analysis for the former and economic impact modelling (input output analysis) for the latter. Social impact assessment is enhanced with the involvement of communities in negotiation and decision making stages, but these stages are often not included. In a similar way, economic impact assessment rarely goes beyond a desktop analysis of impacts into a consideration of either net welfare effects or opportunities to increase economic development. The outcomes of most impact assessment exercises are separate assessments of social and economic impacts that are limited and not congruent.

7. Opportunities exist to develop new tools for assessing impacts and gaining involvement with communities. Two key mechanisms that have been identified are choice modelling and experimental workshops.

8. Choice modelling can be applied by giving community members sets of options for different development outcomes or mining impacts on their community, where there are typically some offsetting influences. Analysis of the choices that people make gives insights into both preferences for community development and trade offs between different social and economic impacts from mining.

9. Experimental workshops can be applied with small groups of community people where they might be asked to participate in small 'games' or experiments. These might be focused on different development options for communities or different mixes of social and economic impacts from mining. The analysis of choices that people make provides some indication of both preferences for community development and trade offs between different social and economic impacts from mining.

10.The choice modelling and experimental workshop tools share some elements of social impact assessment in that they involve participation from community members, focus on a number of demographic and social impacts, and provide feedback about participants' preferences. They also share some elements of economic impact assessment in that they give more quantitative feedback about the strength of preferences and often evaluate them in monetary terms.

11. The choice modelling and experimental workshop tools do not replace the traditional impact assessment approaches of structured interviews and economic modelling. Instead, they are better viewed as complements to the existing set of tools.

12. The use of choice modelling has been demonstrated with an analysis of workforce mobility associated with residents of Blackwater. The results identify the contribution of different factors to choices about where people might locate to, and the salary premiums that might be involved in moving them to different locations.

13. The use of four different impact assessment tools has been demonstrated in two case study applications in this project. One case study has focused on assessing the impacts of mining on Blackwater, a predominantly mining service town. The other case study has focused on assessing the impacts of mining on the Bauhinia Shire, a predominantly agricultural shire where mining activities are just starting up. Each case study involved the application of stakeholder analysis, input output modelling, choice modelling and experimental workshop assessment tools.

14. There is a great deal of consistency in the results from the different techniques. For example, the positive impacts of mining on employment and economic growth was consistently identified, as was the importance of health services in future community development.

15. Each of the tested techniques provided different insights into the types of impacts on communities. As expected, stakeholder analysis provided a rich data set about the variety of impacts but little guidance about the priorities or strength of community preferences, while the economic modelling provided some understanding about the changes in economic activity without much understanding of community impacts.

16.There was a tendency with stakeholder analysis for negative impacts to be emphasised, while the economic modelling focused on net positive impacts. In contrast, the alternative assessment provided more guidance about prioritization and how communities viewed trade offs for future development, but without the rich detail of the stakeholder analysis or the predictions of net economic impacts available from economic modelling.

17. The application of the choice modelling technique revealed some particular benefits not available with the other options. The use of a survey allowed data to be collected from large (and random) sample of community members, gaining input from many more people. In many cases, the application of this technique was more inclusive. As well, it was possible in the survey format to collect data on a very wide range of issues in ways that allowed more quantitative analysis. This was particularly the case for the results of the choice modelling analysis, where the priority trade offs for key issues could be expressed in monetary terms.

18. The experimental workshops had particular value in understanding how group feedback might change priority setting, and allowing participants to get feedback about how their preferences or allocations to future community development might contribute to a pool of community preferences. The combination of a group workshop setting with experimental feedback loops made this technique more appropriate to work through potential options for community development and understanding how individual preferences may change with information feedback.

19. The analysis in the two case studies identified some significant differences between the two communities. While mining was generally viewed in positive terms because of the economic and demographic impacts, there were varying levels of concern about different economic and social impacts. The differences between the two communities indicates that dealing with impacts needs to be tailored to specific community characteristics and issues.


This paper examines the economic and regulatory challenges that must be faced by potential investors in new nuclear power plants in the United States. The historical development of the existing fleet of over 100 nuclear plants and their recent performance history are discussed. The pattern of re-licensing of existing plants and the implications for the role of the extended operation of the existing fleet in the overall electricity supply portfolio over the next 50 years is examined. The economic competitiveness of investments in new nuclear power plants compared to investments in alternative base load technologies is discussed under a variety of assumptions about construction costs, fuel costs, competitive and economic regulatory environments and various levels of carbon emissions prices affected competing fossil-fueled technologies. Federal government efforts to facilitate investment in new nuclear power plants, including streamlined licensing procedures and financial incentive provided by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 are discussed. These regulatory changes and financial incentives improve the economic competitiveness of nuclear power. First mover plants that can benefit from federal financial incentives are most likely to be built in states that continue to regulate generating plants based on cost-of-service principles, transferring construction cost and operating performance risks to consumers, and where there is room on existing sites to build additional nuclear capacity. Once federal financial incentives come to an end lower and more stable construction costs combined with carbon emissions charges are likely to be necessary to make investments in new nuclear plants significantly more attractive than investments in pulverized coal plants. Unresolved waste disposal policies and local opposition to new nuclear plants are likely to represent barriers to investment in new nuclear power plants in some areas of the country.


To minimize the production time is a key success leading to lower the entire production cost and reduce the time for a product to a market. One of the time-waste according to the lean manufacturing concept is the installation of forming dies to a press. Many methodologies are being developed to solve this problem, such as a Single Minute Exchange Die System (SMED) which considers only the technique to minimize the installation of forming dies to almost 25–30 percent, but it does not consider the minimization of the forming process or sequence. Most of the time, the automotive industries reduce the time to install the die problem by standardizing some of the die components. These parts are centralized the function for different car models. However, this technique cannot reduce the time in development of the forming processes/dies, but the number of the forming dies still remains unchanged. Therefore, in this research, Common Single-Die Exchange Technique (C-SDET) integrated with Finite Element Modeling was proposed to develop generalized common dies by utilizing the same part configurations/shapes but difference in dimensions at some areas. This technique was applied and validated with different pulley models. The results show that almost 60 percent of the forming dies can be reduced.


Mixtures containing spores of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis and its δ-endotoxins – referred to as pesticide crystal protein (PCP) – are very well known to be effective against several insects and pests. In this work, three factors, namely medium pH, inoculum size and sugar concentration from molasses, that were found to be highly significant for the production of PCP were optimised of their levels using a combination of artificial intelligence techniques – artificial neural network (ANN) and genetic algorithm (GA). Earlier results, expressed in terms of the culture optical density at 600 nm wavelength (OD600), were first modelled by ANN based on back propagation algorithm, which was highly accurate in predicting the system with coefficient of determination (R²) value greater than 0.99 in both training and validation of the network. Optimum values of 3.65 for pH, 6.009% for inoculum size and 1.61 g/L for sugar concentration were obtained using GA based on the developed ANN model. At these optimised settings of the factors, a predicted maximum (OD600) value of 0.5764 was achieved, which was 9.17% more than the previously obtained maximum experimental value.


Prior to the introduction of equal wages for Aboriginal Australians in 1968, it was not unusual for Aboriginal workers in the Northern Territory to be paid in kind: in basic food, clothing, and tobacco. Some workers received a few shillings a week, but even this wage could be withheld completely or placed in a trust fund. In keeping with a supposedly humanitarian protectionist ethos, clothing was encouraged as a substitute for cash wages. But in practice employers rarely equated clothing with wages. Within the exploitative colonial context of Northern Territory few employers believed that any form of payment was owed to Aboriginal workers. This paper explores the perspectives of pastoralists, employers of domestic servants, and the army, considering how clothing primarily catered for the employers' needs. Aboriginal workers and indeed most government officials had the expectation that Aboriginal people would be given clothes as a form of remuneration but in practice this was rarely the case.


Wheat is one of the most important crops in the world and a strategic crop in Iran. The Fars province (south of Iran) is ranked first in the production of Iranian wheat. As the predominant climate of this province is warm and dry and water resources are limited, therefore, identifying suitable areas with the aim of cultivating on dry land and maximizing the utilization of rainfall can significantly optimize the water usage for irrigation. The present study was conducted to investigate the zoning of Fars Province with regard to rain-fed wheat cultivation in autumn. In most previous researches, in order to identifying suitable areas for rain-fed cultivation, only rainfall and no morphological factors such as altitude, slope, soil type and land use of the area have been considered, although these factors play as an important role in water infiltration to the soil and the amount of soil water holding capacity for plants. In the present study, in addition to precipitation, morphological factors were also considered. Also, the use of GIS software to integrate geographic information with high precision has been used in this study. Data of precipitation pertained to 10 years (2003-2013) and were collected from 24 synoptic stations in the province. The SMADA software was applied for the relevant calculations at 50% and 75% probability levels. Maps of elevation and slope angles were obtained by the Digital Elevation Map (DEM), accompanied by a visional resolution of 90 meters. Results showed that the areas located in North and west parts of Shiraz, are suitable for rain-fed wheat cultivation. However, the eastern southeastern and southern regions of the province are placed in unfavorable conditions for rain-fed wheat cultivation. According to the rain-fed wheat map established in this study, it is concluded that the total area suitable for rain-fed cultivation is 1796000 hectares (which counts the good and very good classes at 75% probability level) in the Fars province. This is while statistics provided by the State Institute of Agriculture reported that the average area under rain-fed wheat cultivation has been only 118102 hectares for the past 13 years, which is indicated as non-optimal for dry land cultivation in this province.


In the gothic literary tradition, the home is often a site of terror. While L. M. Montgomery's fiction for girls is known for its idyllic settings, the terrors of home are evoked in the landscape adjacent to the domestic sphere. Tracing the pattern of dangerous, retentive natural sites throughout her work, this essay explores how Montgomery adapts the gothic trope of the unhomely house to reflect the restrictive domestic choices available to adolescent girls in early twentieth-century Canada. Montgomery's underexplored magazine stories experiment with social critique, showcasing a society that, while ostensibly outgrowing distinctions of class and gender, transferred working-class girls on their arrival at womanhood from one powerless position to another. In particular, "The Waking of Helen" (1901), "The Magical Bond of the Sea" (1903), and "Fancy's Fool" (1943) demonstrate how the prehensile place in the landscape can be read as a "shadow home," a device used to interrogate the institutions of marriage and the family.


Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) incidence is growing among general population and especially in elderly patients. Recent development in surgical technique, surgical equipment, interventional radiology, and radiotherapy (hadrontherapy) allows us to use different techniques and approaches in order to treat this cancer. Patients are con ventionally considered disease-free after a 10-year recurrence-free period. Commonly, patients remain into a lifelong follow-up and recurrences are treated as they show. In this chapter, we will give description and indications of different curative techniques, especially hepatic resections and Radio-frequency thermal ablation (RFTA). We will also describe and give indications to palliative care techniques such as transarterial che- moembolization (TACE), Selective Internal Radio-Therapy (SIRT), hadrontherapy, and supportive care. The aim of this chapter is to give information to clinicians and special- ists dealing with the disease about the most effective approach to treat HCC, taking into account not only biological age, but also "physiological age," performance status, comorbidities, and number of liver operative treatments. This chapter highlights that patients advanced in age are in particular need of a tailored medicine, where benefits are well weighted against invasivity of treatment and its side effects, in spite of assuring the best QoL and survival.


Let us not waste our time in idle discourse! Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. Not indeed that we personally are needed. Others would meet the case equally well, if not better. To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late! Let us represent worthily for once the foul brood to which a cruel fate consigned us! What do you say? It is true that when with folded arms we weigh the pros and cons we are no less a credit to our species. The tiger bounds to the help of his congeners without the least reflection, or else he slinks away into the depths of the thickets. But that is not the question. What are we doing here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in the immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come – Samuel Beckett


In this fresh, provocative, and profound book, LeCain presents a cogent explication of neo-materialist history, an approach that regards all organic and inorganic things as historical actors. He first offers his own neomaterialist theory and then shows us what it looks like in practice. Arguing against anthropocentric thinking that sets humans apart from or against nature, LeCain asserts that a dynamic, creative, powerful material environment of nonliving elements and other organisms has "helped to create humans and their thoughts, ideas, culture and history" (11). LeCain opens by considering the Human Microbiome Project's findings that much of the human body consists of independent bacteria, microbes, and viruses in constant interaction with the surrounding environment, leading some scholars to suggest that humans are not unitary beings but a collection of organisms that resemble a coral reef. He develops these and other findings to contend that humans are "thoroughly and entirely natural" (17), embedded in the environment with embodied minds. The next chapter explores the roots of the opposing concept of the immaterial mind and human exceptionalism. LeCain examines how materialism has been problematical in the past, explains how neo-materialism differs from Marxian determinism as well as, importantly, biological, environmental, and technological determinism, and critiques the abstractions of modernist and postmodernist thought. He reviews the work of environmental historians, historians of technology, animal historians, anthropologists, evolutionary biologists, philosophers, and others in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. The third chapter provides what he considers the key concepts for this methodology—the centrality of the natural environment, the power of things, the proper place of culture, and the rejection of anthropocentrism. In the following three chapters, LeCain sets neo-materialist history in motion by means of three impressive case studies. He examines cattle ranching and copper mining in Montana, and sericulture and copper mining in Japan, considering along the way geology, grass, biochemistry, the physiology of human touch, the molecular structure of silk, the Silk Road, the biochemistry of arctic cod and spiders, the chemistry of copper pollution, and the deep co-evolutionary history of cattle, silkworms, and humans. The third chapter in this group intertwines these two histories as he discusses the material worlds from which Japanese and American industrial societies emerged so that they became "copper people" (272). LeCain demonstrates how neo-materialist methodology reinterprets historical events and problems. It is also a demanding interdisciplinary methodology, as LeCain ranges through a wide array of topics and draws on many disciplines.


Marine world comprises of varied fauna and flora. They are of immense utility to humans and related organism. Large number of bioactive compounds have been elucidated and studied so far. Most of the compounds are bioactive and are proved to have anti-cancer, anti- bacterial and anti-fungal properties. Some of them are also effective in curing diabetes and autoimmune diseases. The mechanism of action of these compounds is still under investigation. However, several potent drugs are isolated from marine organisms. Clinical trials have shown that they have good results of success as compared to contemporary drugs available in the market. Today marine bioactive compounds pave way to studies at molecular level in understanding drug action in organism. This is a yet to be explored area of study. Improved methodology and instrumentation help studies to be carried out in a more co-ordinated and time bound fashion. In this context, the present article provides an update on the plethora of natural marine compounds, their source and also their potential application in healing diseases.


The proliferation of digital evidence and discovery has raised serious questions about litigation fraud in recent years. Legal tabloids are often headlined with the latest example of discovery abuse that resulted in multi-million dollar sanctions. But what about the cases of serious discovery abuse or perjury that neither the opposing party nor the court ever catch? These abuses may very well lead to judgments that do not reflect a result based on the true merits of the case. If a party seeks relief based on fraud within one year from the entry of judgment, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b) gives the trial court plenary power to vacate the judgment. For fraud discovered outside of one year, however, the district court's powers are more limited, and relief is often contingent upon whether the fraud is deemed intrinsic or extrinsic. Indeed, a majority of the circuits hold that after one year a party cannot obtain post-judgment relief based on perjury or discovery abuse because these frauds are intrinsic. This article contends that the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic fraud should be abolished because Twombly and Iqbal have created an effective pleading-stage screening mechanism to prevent the meritless re-litigation of cases. This article proceeds in five parts. Part II examines the origins and history of modern post-judgment relief before and after the adoption of Rule 60. Next, Part III explores the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic fraud in the context of independent actions. Part IV of this article addresses the rise of plausibility pleading in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal. In these cases, the Supreme Court overruled Conley v. Gibson, announcing a new pleading paradigm that applies to all civil actions filed in federal court, including a judgment-relief action. In a move away from notice-pleading, the Court held that a civil complaint must plausibly allege a cause of action. Finally, Part V of this article contends that this increased pleading scrutiny serves as a better screening mechanism for post-judgment fraud claims than the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic fraud does. By screening fraud claims individually, a court can better assess whether the claim could have been raised in the original litigation. Screening cases for this trait results in a better balance between the often-competing values of judgments that reflect truth and judgments that are final.


This book critically discusses missionary Christianity and colonization in Africa as twin enterprises with a common ambition. While the colonialist set out to invest capital and reap profit, the missionary desire was to tend and turn African souls from damnation. It was this desire that drove the missionaries into the interior, propelled by the belief that no land was too remote to escape their attention and vigilance. It equally kept missionary zeal buoyant. The clarification of the concept of salvation within the Roman Catholic Church during the Vatican II Council set in motion the current lethargy that has in some places crippled the mission itself. In retrospect, one can begin to wonder why Africans became Christians. What reasons motivated the early adherents to cling to this foreign religion? Were there some internal deficiencies in African traditional religions, which the Africans hoped to remedy by joining the new religion? Or was it just part of the wholesale flirting with whatever was foreign and perceived to be modern? What baits were used by the missionaries to entice Africans? Christianity posed a danger to many of the time-honoured answers to African problems. These were the "values" Africans converting to Christianity were expected to abandon. Why have Christians continually returned to their abandoned roots in time of crisis? This moving, well argued, richly documented and empirically substantiated study concludes by cautioning against the stubborn drive at radical conversion to Christianity with scant regard to the imperatives of enculturation.


Concern over retention of boys as well as poor academic performance and behaviour, in a New Zealand co-educational primary school, led the school to trial, a "boys-only class". This case study reports interview and questionnaire commentary obtained at the beginning and end of the year from the principal, the teacher, pupils and parents, to consider outcomes for male pupils at this school, in regard to learning and social behaviour. The commentary was generally positive, with an emphasis on the gains made in reading and social skills. Findings also suggest that a significant feature in learning progress of children was the teacher a committed teacher delivering a classroom programme and environment to meet the particular needs of boys


Extreme hydro-meteorological events usually have a large impact on our society. For safety standards regarding life and property and for design purposes of large structures extreme events with return periods between 100 and 10 000 years are often required. A practical difficulty in determining such rare events is due to the fact that our instrumental meteorological records are typically not longer than about 100 years. We are thus interested in extreme events that may never have occurred in the instrumental history. Such extremes are therefore usually estimated by extrapolating a fitted probability distribution. The results obtained with statistical extrapolation methods, however, strongly depend on the assumed probability distribution. An attractive alternative to these classical methods is resampling of historical meteorological time series. Resampling is attractive since it is a nonparametric technique, which means that no assumptions about the underlying distributions of the data have to be made. In addition, resampling offers the opportunity to simulate different meteorological variables (multivariate) for different locations (multi-site) simultaneously, while the cross-correlations (between variables) and the spatial correlations (between locations) are automatically preserved. Resampling, finally, makes it possible to simulate much longer time series than the historical records from which is resampled. Such very long time series usually contain many unprecedented extreme events which can serve in a frequency analysis of the extremes. In short, resampling is a very suitable nonparametric technique to simulate multi-site multivariate meteorological time series that are much longer than those from the instrumental records. With specific hydrological applications in mind such very long resampled time series are used to determine the size and probabilities of occurrence of extremely wet periods in the Rhine basin (that may result in river flooding) and of extreme droughts in the Netherlands (leading to economic losses in agriculture and shipping). Resampling techniques are further used to determine the statistical uncertainty of extreme hydro-meteorological events and of other properties of (hydro-)meteorological data.


This study examines the first observations from the Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) as the Juno spacecraft arrived at Jupiter. JADE observations show that Juno crossed the bow shock at 08:16 UT on 2016 day of year (DOY) 176 and magnetopause at 21:20 on DOY 177, with additional magnetopause encounters until 23:39 on DOY 181. JADE made the first detailed observations of the plasma environment just inside the dawn flank of the magnetopause. We find subcorotational ions and variable electron beaming, with multiple flux tubes of varying plasma properties. Ion composition shows a dearth of heavy ions; protons dominate the plasma, with only intermittent, low fluxes of O+/S++, along with traces of O++ and S+++. We also find very little H3+ or He+, which are expected for an ionospheric plasma source. A few heavy ion bursts occur when the radial field nears reversal, but many other such reversals are not accompanied by heavy ions.


Technical standards that are agreed within a Standard Development Organization (SDO) often cover several 'essential' patents for the implementation of a standard (i.e., Standard Essential Patents, SEPs). In order to allow for the standard implementation, the SEP holder commits to license its patents to any potential licensee on the basis of Fair and Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) conditions. In view of the recent ruling of the UK Supreme Court in Unwired Planet and the judgement of the German Bundesgerichtshof in Sisvel v. Haier, the paper assumes that the FRAND commitment implies a 'range' rather than a 'single' royalty rate. On the other hand, a royalty rate 'beyond the outer boundary of the range' should be considered 'unfair', and thus incompatible with the FRAND commitment. Besides representing a breach of the FRAND commitment, an 'unfair' royalty rate might also be considered an abuse of a dominant position by the SEP holder, in breach of Art. 102(a) TFEU. This paper analyses whether, and under what circumstances, Art. 102(a) TFEU can be relied upon by a competition authority in Europe to sanction a case where an 'unfair' royalty rate has been set by the SEP holder. To this regard, the paper provides a detailed analysis of the EU Court of Justice's jurisprudence on Art. 102(a) TFEU. In particular, the latter jurisprudence is relied as a 'yardstick' to assess 'when' competition policy should sanction a request of unfair royalty rate by the SEP holder, 'how' a competition agency should assess the case and, eventually, 'what' remedies the competition authority might adopt.

Economists have elaborated a number of 'filters' to define 'when' EU competition policy should sanction unfair pricing cases. In particular, antitrust intervention would be justified only in markets that are characterized by high and stable entry barriers, in which a firm enjoys a super-dominant position. Due to the phenomenon of over-declaration, not every SEP is indeed 'essential'; the market power of the SEP holder thus requires a case-by-case analysis of the 'essentiality' of every SEP. A number of authors have also argued that excessive pricing cases should not be sanctioned in industries characterized by dynamic efficiencies. The paper argues that innovation considerations could be considered as efficiency defences in the context of antitrust investigations, rather than in excluding a priori competition policy enforcement in this field.

The paper argues that a competition agency should rely on the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Art. 102(a) TFEU to analyse a case of unfair royalty rate. In particular, United Brands cost/price test is not suitable for assessing an unfair royalty rate requested by the SEP holder, since it is de facto impossible to determine the 'costs of production' of individual SEPs. On the other hand, in accordance with the CJEU case law, the competition agency might rely on a number of benchmark methods with which to assess the alleged unfairness of the rate. In particular, the agency should verify its findings under multiple benchmark tests, in order to minimize the risk of false negative errors. Finally, the SEP holder could argue that the requested royalty rate is justified by its past R&D investments.

In terms of remedies, the paper argues that a competition agency could require the SEP holder to license its 'essential' patent; such behavioral remedy is well established in the practice of the European Commission. In light of the recent Broadcom interim decision, if the competition authority was confident about its preliminary findings of unfair pricing, the agency might require the SEP holder to license its 'essential' patents via an interim decision; the scope, duration and exact obligations of such a duty would later be refined in the final commitment decision.


This research focuses on the comparison of the traffic noise levels that are calculated from
prediction models, and the noise levels from actual traffic noise measurement. The research
was conducted on Regent Street, Sandy Bay Road and the Tasman Highway, Hobart. At each
site, the traffic noise measurement was operated seven days continuously, with site
topography and at least 10 hours of traffic volume studies. Repeat measurements were taken
at each site. Three prediction models: T-Noise, STAMSON4.1 and ITFNS1.1 were used for
predictng traffic noise levels at each study site.
The study showed that in day-time, all recorded noise levels under normal conditions
exceeded both NSW road traffic noise criteria and Tasmanian road noise guideline
(Leq 15 hr = 60 dB(A)) and (L10 18 hr = 63 dB(A), respectively), and most of the night-time noise
levels exceeded both night-time criteria of NSW and Tasmania (Leq 9hr = 55 dB(A) and
Leq 1 hr = 55 dB(A), respectively).
Traffic volume studies showed that there were approximately 850 veh/hr with 11 % trucks on
Regent Street, 1600 veh/hr with 13% trucks on Sandy Bay Road and 3200 veh/hr with 6%
trucks on the Tasman Highway.
The comparison studies showed that, within the absolute noise levels comparison, on Regent
Street and Sandy Bay Road, T-Noise showed the greatest accuracy with the smallest
variation, an average of 0.76 dB over prediction on Regent Street and 1.12 dB under
prediction on Sandy Bay Road. STAMSON4.1 provided less accuracy than T-Noise, with an
average under prediction of 1.86 dB on Regent Street and 2.51 dB under prediction on Sandy
Bay Road. ITFNS1.1 exhibited unreliable predictions for all study sites. None of the models
presented reliable results for the Tasman Highway study site.
The results from correlation tests on predicted and actual noise levels showed that T-Noise
and STAMSON4.1 provided no significant difference in the correlation coefficient values. At
the urban road sites T-Noise provided the greatest correlation of R2 = 0.57, while
STAMSON4.1 provided R2 = 0.43, with only R2 = 0.006 gained from ITFNS1.1. For
highway conditions, T-Noise provided the greatest correlation of R2 = 0.64, while R2 = 0.43
was offered by STAMSON4.1. However, in correlation tests of urban and highway conditions combined, both models showed poor results with R2 = 0.08 and R2 = 0.27 from
T-Noise and STAMSON4.1 respectively. These results provide an indication of the accuracy
of these models for this application. In the case of correlation between traffic volumes and
the accuracy of noise level predictions; only T-Noise shows a correlation between these two
factors indicating a propensity for improvement in its accuracy for this application.


Objective: Correlation of white matter microstructure with various cognitive processing tasks and with overall intelligence has been previously demonstrated. We investigate the correlation of white matter microstructure with various higher-order auditory processing tasks, including interpretation of speech-in-noise, recognition of low-pass frequency filtered words, and interpretation of time-compressed sentences at two different values of compression. These tests are typically used to diagnose auditory processing disorder (APD) in children. Our hypothesis is that correlations between white matter microstructure in tracts connecting the temporal, frontal, and parietal lobes, as well as callosal pathways, will be seen. Previous functional imaging studies have shown correlations between activation in temporal, frontal, and parietal regions from higher-order auditory processing tasks. In addition, we hypothesize that the regions displaying correlations will vary according to the task because each task uses a different set of skills. Design: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data were acquired from a cohort of 17 normal-hearing children aged 9 to 11 yrs. Fractional anisotropy (FA), a measure of white matter fiber tract integrity and organization, was computed and correlated on a voxelwise basis with performance on the auditory processing tasks, controlling for age, sex, and full-scale IQ. Results: Divergent correlations of white matter FA depending on the particular auditory processing task were found. Positive correlations were found between FA and speech-in-noise in white matter adjoining prefrontal areas and between FA and filtered words in the corpus callosum. Regions exhibiting correlations with time-compressed sentences varied depending on the degree of compression: the greater degree of compression (with the greatest difficulty) resulted in correlations in white matter adjoining prefrontal (dorsal and ventral), whereas the smaller degree of compression (with less difficulty) resulted in correlations in white matter adjoining audiovisual association areas and the posterior cingulate. Only the time-compressed sentences with the lowest degree of compression resulted in positive correlations in the centrum semiovale; all the other tasks resulted in negative correlations. Conclusions: The dependence of performance on higher-order auditory processing tasks on brain anatomical connectivity was seen in normal-hearing children aged 9 to 11 yrs. Results support a previously hypothesized dual-stream (dorsal and ventral) model of auditory processing, and that higher-order processing tasks rely less on the dorsal stream related to articulatory networks and more on the ventral stream related to semantic comprehension. Results also show that the regions correlating with auditory processing vary according to the specific task, indicating that the neurological bases for the various tests used to diagnose APD in children may be partially independent.


Predicting the most likely route from a source location to a destination is a core functionality in mapping services. Although the problem has been studied in the literature, two key limitations remain to be addressed. First, our study reveals that a significant portion of the routes recommended by existing methods fail to reach the destination. Second, existing techniques are transductive in nature; hence, they fail to recommend routes if unseen roads are encountered at inference time. In this paper, we address these limitations through an inductive algorithm called N EURO MLR. N EURO MLR learns a generative model from historical trajectories by conditioning on three explanatory factors: the current location, the destination, and real-time traffic conditions. The conditional distributions are learned through a novel combination of Lipschitz embeddings with Graph Convolutional Networks (GCN) using historical trajectory data. Through in-depth experiments on real-world datasets, we establish that N EURO MLR imparts significant improvement in accuracy over the state of the art. More importantly, N EURO MLR generalizes dramatically better to unseen data and the recommended routes reach the destination with much higher likelihood than existing techniques.


In classification, machine learning algorithms can suffer a performance bias when data sets are unbalanced. Data sets are unbalanced when at least one class is represented by only a small number of training examples (called the minority class), while the other class(es) make up the majority. In this scenario, classifiers can have good accuracy on the majority class, but very poor accuracy on the minority class(es). This paper proposes a multiobjective genetic programming (MOGP) approach to evolving accurate and diverse ensembles of genetic program classifiers with good performance on both the minority and majority of classes. The evolved ensembles comprise of nondominated solutions in the population where individual members vote on class membership. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of two popular Pareto-based fitness strategies in the MOGP algorithm (SPEA2 and NSGAII), and investigates techniques to encourage diversity between solutions in the evolved ensembles. Experimental results on six (binary) class imbalance problems show that the evolved ensembles outperform their individual members, as well as single-predictor methods such as canonical GP, naive Bayes, and support vector machines, on highly unbalanced tasks. This highlights the importance of developing an effective fitness evaluation strategy in the underlying MOGP algorithm to evolve good ensemble members.