Over the past quarter century the sex ratio at birth (SRB) has risen above natural levels in a number of countries, mostly in Asia. This rise has been made possible in populations with strong son preference by the increasing availability of safe, effective, and inexpensive technologies to determine the sex of a fetus and to end unwanted pregnancies. This article documents levels and trends in the sex ratio at birth, in preferences for male offspring (using information on desired number of girls and boys), and in the implementation of these preferences. DHS surveys from 61 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and for Indian states are the main source of data. A comparison of desired with actual SRBs finds large gaps in most populations, implying a substantial pent-up demand for male offspring and the technology to implement this preference. Two types of actions to implement preferences are considered: the practice of contraception to stop childbearing after the desired number of sons has been born and the use of sex-selective abortion to avoid female births. The second part of the article discusses factors that could influence the SRB, including the promotion of gender equality, and the implications of these factors for future trends.


Recent concern has risen among forestry professionals that forest landowners are unaware of federal income tax provisions available to them that make forest management more cost effective. This concern specifically focuses on nine provisions. These nine provisions are: the treatment of timber income as capital gain, the deduction of annual management costs, depreciation of tangible property, the section 179 deduction, recovery of investment through depletion, the reforestation tax credit, amortization of reforestation costs over eight years, the exclusion of cost-share payments from gross income and deductions for casualty losses. The publication is divided into three major parts. In Part I the specifics of the nine provisions are covered in detail according to the current Internal Revenue Code. Current income tax rates are examined. The Passive Activity Loss Rules (PALS) are reviewed in terms of how they affect landowner eligibility to use the nine provisions for current loss deductions. PALS limitations incurred by holding forestland as a passive trade or business, or active trade or business are examined. Advantages and disadvantages to holding forestland as an investment are also examined. ii In Part II, the effects of timber income taxes on forestland investments are explored. Examples of taxes incurred (including the alternative minimum tax) when timber is sold are given. Tax calculations are based on a typical southern landowner iii involved with the management of a loblolly pine plantation. In Chapter 6, effects of using the nine income tax provisions on the land expectation value (LEV) of a typical forestland tract are examined for a high-income forest landowner and a low-income forest landowner engaged in both intensive and non-intensive loblolly pine management in the South. Cumulative effects of using or not using the nine income tax provisions in each regime are shown to dramatically influence LEV, and the importance of tax provision awareness is emphasized. In Chapter 7, the complexity of complying with timber tax law is examined. This chapter's purpose is to provide an example of the detail involved in taking advantage of the tax laws. A demonstration of tax complexity is made with income tax calculations for the medium-income landowner in Chapter 6. The landowner first thins his 120-acre plantation in tax year 2003, and forms required by the IRS to use the tax provisions are identified and discussed. Although use of the provisions is essential for maximum economic returns, their complexity can discourage landowners from electing to use them. Part III presents the results and discussion of a mail survey sent to members of the American Tree Farm System (ATFS). In the survey questionnaire, landowners were asked if they were aware of the nine tax provisions, and if they used them where applicable. They were also asked why they failed to use certain provisions when they know about them. Various hypotheses are tested in Chapter 13. The demographics of ATFS members are compared with the demographics of the general U.S. forest landowner population as described by Birch (1996). The ATFS population was more timber production as well as more land investment oriented. ATFS members have significantly more harvesting experience than the general landowner. Tree Farmers iv typically own larger parcel sizes than the average landowner. ATFS members belong to a forestry organization, and ATFS members are more motivated in terms of forest management than the typical landowner. The results show that ATFS awareness and use of the tax provisions are low. Thus, increased efforts by natural resource professionals to inform landowners of their tax options are indicated. Caution should be used when interpreting survey results, because over 70% of ATFS members use tax professionals to file their income taxes. Consequently, actual use of tax provisions could be higher than predicted if the tax professionals are well versed in dealing with timber income.


This study uses an event study methodology to empirically examine share price reaction to financial restatement announcements resulting from investigations or recommendations by the GAAP Monitoring Panel and tests, in semi-strong form, the efficiency of the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE). The results indicate that companies making such financial restatement announcements experience significant negative standardised abnormal returns ten days before and five days subsequent to the announcement. As evidenced by the significant negative standardised abnormal returns, it would appear that the announcements convey new information to the market. Although the lack of consecutive negative standardised abnormal returns around the announcement date would suggest that the JSE is efficient in semi-strong form, the five-day time lag between the announcement date and the significant negative standardised abnormal return supports the rejection of semi-strong form efficiency of the JSE.


Preface. Contributors. Oceanography. Air-Sea Interaction. NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. Laboratory Experiments On Bivalve Excretion Rates of Nutrients. Temporal Scaling of Benthic Nutrient Regeneration in Bivalve-Dominated Tidal Flat. Breakwaters. The Ocean in Climate. Coastal Waters. Marine Colloids. Deep Water Corals. Marine Debris Abatement. Larvae and Small Species of Polychaetes in Marine Toxilogical Testing. El Nino: The Interannual Prediction Problem. Renewable Energies from the Ocean. Estuarian Waters. NOS/NMFS Cooperative Research on Coastal Fisheries and Habitats at the Beaufort Laboratory. Distribution and Dynamics of Gas Hydrates in the Marine Environment. Oceanographic Environment of Glacier Bay. NOS Sanctuaries Protect Nation's Maritime History. Quantification of Anoxia and Hypoxia in Water Bodies. Floating Ice. Technology Development: Hardware Development-Marine Instrumentation Laboratory (MIL). Seasonal Coupling Between Intertidal Macrofauna and Sediment Column Porewater Nutrient Concentrations. Mapping the Sea Floor of the Historic Area Remediation Site (HARS) Offshore of New York City. NOAA and University Scientists Study Methyl Bromide Cycling in the North Pacific. Tidally Mediated Changes in Nutrient Concentrations. The Role of Oceans in the Global Cycles of Climatically-Active Trace-Gases. Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory-30 Years of Observing The Ocean. Seawater Temperature Estimates in Paleoceanography. Physical Oceanography. Coastal Water Pollutants. Trace Element Pollution. Coral Reefs and Your Coastal Watershed. Sea Level and Climate. The Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level. Marine and Estuarine Microalgal Sediment Toxicity Tests. Marine Stock Enhancement Techniques. Physical and Chemical Variability of Tidal Streams. Black Water Turns the Tide on Florida Coral. Shallow Water Waves. Water Waves. Woods Hole: The Early Years. An Analysis of the International Maritime Organization-London Convention Annual Ocean Dumping Reports. Marine Sources of Halocarbons. Food Chain/Foodweb/Food Cycle. Plankton. Major Ions in Seawater. Tsunami. Meteorology. Ballooning and Meteorology in the Twentieth Century. Barometric Efficiency. CERES: Understanding The Earth's Clouds and Climate. Chinook. Global Climate Change. Observations of Climate and Global Change from Real-Time Measurements. Overview: The Climate System. Climate and Society. What is Climatology? Cloud Seeding. Condensation. Cosmic Water. The Water Cycle. Cyclones. Water Cycle. Degree Day Method. Desertification. Dew. Dew Deserts. Dew Point. Droughts. Drought Indices. The Earth Observing System: Aqua. Entropy Theory For Hydrologic Modeling. Evaporation. Evapotranspiration. Fog. Coastal Fog Along the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Rain Forests. Frost. Frost Damage. The Global Water Cycle. Ground-Based GPS Meteorology at FSL. Climate and Water Balance on the Island of Hawaii. Heat of Vaporization. Hydrologic History, Problems, and Perspectives. Humidity-Absolute. Relative Humidity. Hurricanes: Modeling Nature's Fury. Hydrologic Cycle. Hydrosphere. Hydrologic Cycle, Water Resources, and Society. Isohyetal Method. What About Meteorology? Basic Research for Military Applications. Uncertainties in Rainfall-Runoff Modeling. Monsoon. African Monsoons. Permanent Frost. Radar Use in Rainfall Measurements. Rainfall. Rainfall and Runoff. Remote Sensing of Applications in Hydrology. Atmospheric Scientists. Rain Simulators. Snow Density. Flattop Mountain Snotel Snowpack: Water Year 2004. Snow and Snowmelt. Snow Surveys. A Statistical Approach to Critical Storm Period Analysis. Sublimation. Transpiration. Waterspout. United States Weather Bureau. Weather Forecasting Through The Ages. Overview of Weather Systems. Unit Hydrograph Theory. Weather and the Atmosphere. Vapor Pressure. Adiabatic Cooling. Rain and Rocks: The Recipe for River Water Chemistry. Physics and Chemistry of Water. Acid Rain and Society. Adsorption Capacity of Activated Carbon for Water Purification. Adsorption of Organic Compounds. Age Dating Old Groundwater. Ammonia. Beryllium in Water. Dissolved Organic Carbon. Mechanisms of Water Adsorption on Carbons. The Effect of Carbon Surface Chemical Composition on the Mechanism of Phenol Adsorption from Aqueous Solutions. Carbonate Geochemistry. Carbonate in Natural Waters. Chlorine-36 and Very Old Groundwaters. Chloroflurocarbons (CFCs). Coagulation and Flocculation. Conductivity-Electric. Conservation and the Water Cycle. Defluroidation. Deuterium. Distilled Water. Electricity as a Fluid. Analysis of Aqueous Solutions Using Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (esi ms). Fenton's Reaction and Groundwater Remediation. Where Water Floats. Freshwater. Dissolved Gases. Hard Water. An Analysis of The Impact of Water on Health and Aging: Is All Water The Same? Heavy Water. Henry's Law. Hofmeister Effects. Clathrate Hydrates. Hydration. The Mirage of The H2 Economy. Hydrogen Ion. The Hydronium Ion. Infiltration and Soil Moisture Processes. Ion Exchange and Inorganic Adsorption. Iron. Isotopes. Isotope Fractionation. Mariotte Bottle-Use in Hydrology. Mars Exploration Rover Mission. Removal of Organic Micropollutants and Metal Ions from Aqueous Solutions by Activated Carbons. Molecular Network Dynamics. In Situ Chemical Monitoring. Nitrogen. Osmosis-Diffusion of Solvent or Caused by Diffusion of Solutes? Partitioning and Bioavailability. Physical Properties. Environmental Photochemistry in Surface Waters. Isotope Exchange in Gas-Water Reactions. Radon in Water. Silica in Natural Waters. Sodium in Natural Waters. Soft Water. Solubility of Chemicals in Water. Solubility of Hydrocarbons in Salt Water. Solubility of Hydrocarbons and Sulfur Compounds in Water. Sorption Kinetics. Sound in Water. Water on the Space Station. Strontium Isotopes in Water and Rock. Technetium in Water. Water-Nature's Magician. Freezing and Supercooling of Water. Chemical Precipitation. Antimony in Aquatic Systems. Water Law and Economics. The Clean Water Act. Clean Water Act, Water Quality Criteria/Standards, TMDLs, and Weight-of-Evidence Approach for Regulating Water Quality. The Constitution and Early Attempts at Rational Water Planning. Economic Value of Water: Estimation. Water Supply Planning-Federal. Flood Control Act of 1994. Great Lakes Governors' Agreement. U.S./Canadian Boundary Waters Treaty and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Great Lakes Water Quality Initiative. Quantitative GroundWater Law. Islamic Water Law. Transboundary Waters in Latin America: Conflicts and Collaboration. United States-Mexico Border Waters: Conventions, Treaties, and Institutions. Negotiating between Authority and Polluters: An Approach to Managing Water Quality. Water Resource Organizations. A Brief History of the Water Pollution Control Act in the U.S.. The National Pollution Discharge Elimination System. Legal Protection for In-stream Flow. Water Quality. Interface between Federal Water Quality Regulation and State Allocation of Water Quantity. Regulatory Issues and Remediation: Risk, Costs, and Benefits. The Safe Drinking Water Act. Representing Geopolitics of (Hydro) Borders in South Asia. Water Transfers. Reserved Water Rights for Indian and Federal Lands. Wetlands Policy in the United States: From Drainage to Restoration. Water History, Art, and Culture. Curious Uses of AgriculturalWater in the World. Water Between Arabs and Israelis: Researching Twice-Promised Resources. The Myth of Bad Cholesterol: Why Water Is A Better Cholesterol-Lowering Medication. Early Clocks. Water Clocks. Our Evolving Water Consciousness. Effective Water Education Strategies in a Nontraditional Setting. Evolution. History of Pond Fisheries in Poland. Water: The Key to Natural Health And Healing. Water in History. Hoover Dam History. Hydropsychology. Jacob's Well. Jaubert de Passa: The First World History of Irrigation in 1846. Benjamin Franklin: From Kite to Lightning Rod. Water and the History of Man. Water, Bacteria, Life on Mars, and Microbial Diversity. Canals in the Mekong Delta: A Historical Overview from 200 C.E. to the Present. Conflict and Water Use in the Middle East. Benjamin Franklin's Armonica: A Water Music Instrument. Water Transportation Occupations. A Concise Glimpse of Water in the History of Photography. Water as a Human Right. Ancient Water and Soil Conservation Ecosystems of Sri Lanka. Ben Franklin's Gulf Stream Weather and Swim Fins. Water Symbolism. Gordon and Franklin Rivers and the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The Mistake of Waiting to Get Thirsty. Water and Well-Being. Free Flowing Water: A Source of Wisdom. The Medicinal Properties of the Waters of Saratoga Springs. A History of Hawaiian Freshwater Resources. Index.


Genotype X environment (G X E) interactions can be a major impediment to genetic progress in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) breeding for Argentina. Previous studies revealed that northern and central environments show repeatable differences in genotype discrimination, suggesting some G X E interactions could be accommodated by selecting for specific adaptation. In this study, a trial dataset of 10 hybrids grown over 46 environments was used to validate this megaenvironment definition, to determine the value of division of the sunflower region of Argentina, and to define optimal testing strategies to balance resources between subregions. Pattern analysis confirmed the northern and central megaenvironments. Subdivision of the target region and the testing resources increased the within-subregion genotype to G X E interaction ratios and did not decrease trial repeatabilities. The genetic correlation between target region and its subregions was 0.36. In contrast to studies for barley in Canada, the calculated ratios of correlated response in a subregion to indirect selection in the undivided target region relative to direct response in the subregion demonstrate that division of the sunflower region is 3X more effective than selecting for broad adaptation to the undivided target region. The unpredictable G X E interactions within subregions should be accommodated by selecting for broad adaptation. In the northern subregion, there is scope to redefine testing strategies by replacing years with locations with no cost in performance predictability. Testing resources can be balanced based on the market value of the two subregions.


Photochemical reactions are an attractive foundation for the synthesis of radiolabelled antibodies, immunoglobulin fragments and other proteins/peptides. The synthesis, 68Ga-radiochemistry and photochemical reactivity of three macrocyclic chelates functionalised with an arylazide group is described. Experiments with trastuzumab confirmed that photoradiochemistry facilitates fast, one-pot synthesis of radiolabelled proteins.


Professionalism: (i) the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person; (2) the following of a profession (as athletics) for gain or livelihood. (Merriam-Webster Online). Professionalism in the workplace is expected, but what is it? What do you think professionalism is? What about the staff and colleagues you work with: How would they answer this question? Do we assume that everyone knows what the code of conduct is, or do we believe it is self-evident ? We hear all too often of our leaders' (not to mention our politicians') ignoring the principles and expectations of character associated with their professions. Teachers and administrators may invest years in their careers only to have a moment of indiscretion undermine all they have gained. Whether you are just starting out in the field of education or have been in it for years, it is important to be reminded often of what the rules of engagement are. Remember: It only takes a bit of carelessness to start a forest fire. Our behavior, our speech, and our attitude can act as matches to ignite situations we later may regret; it may take years to rebuild our credibility. This article focuses on how we act and how we treat people. In essence, we are talking about professional etiquette, which can be described as "conforming to the standards of skill, competence, or character normally expected of a properly qualified and experienced person in a work environment" (Merriam-Webster Online). So what is our role? As leaders and part of the community, we need to keep an ever-watchful eye out for smoldering situations or those which may give rise to negative attitudes. When we say a potential problem is "not our problem" - perhaps a student is upset with a faculty member - or we respond by saying, "Oh, that doesn't surprise me," we fuel the problem. Ignoring a problem only fans the flames; ultimately, the fire is likely to extend to politically sensitive areas of the institution. What am I saying? Only you can prevent forest fires! FORCEFUL: Being overly forceful sends potential friends and allies running. Although we may not say it, people sense it. "My idea is the right one! I will raise my voice and pound my fist, letting others know to back off. It is my agenda or no agenda!" The forceful person is readily apparent in meetings. He forgets to listen, and, though often the "loyal" opposition, he lacks tact and savvy at soliciting support for what actually may be a good idea. How do people demonstrate forcefulness in your institution? Is it a supervisor who comes from the old-school way of "My way or the highway" or "Ours is but to obey"? This is the boss who becomes paranoid and who wonders whom he can trust. At Grand Rapids Community College we work in teams whenever possible; we consider the impacts on others; and we solicit ideas from the community. "Who else should be at this meeting?" is a frequently asked question. This is what has made us an NCA Vanguard school. OUTSPOKEN: The outspoken quickly can become the outcast. She dismantles efforts to work together. And although groupthink is not the desired result, she seems to have an opinion on everything. Though she may mean well, she dominates conversations, igniting brush fires of animosity and gossip. Think before you speak: Don't be more confident than the facts warrant. It can be very easy to make statements that sound true but that upon closer reflection or more current information may prove not to be. What a quick way to ruin credibility! In a recent legal situation, a subpoena requested items not normally requested; having spoken with more authority than an attorney, I quickly realized that my statements were not consistent with legal interpretations. To correct the situation, I had to clarify everything with the attorney. It is OK to be wrong; just don't be wrong for long. RAGE: Off-road rage is the most glaring sign of a lack of professionalism. …


Background: Septic shock remains a major cause of multiple organ failure and is associated with a high mortality rate. In 1994, direct hemoperfusion using a polymyxin B-immobilized fiber column (PMX; Toray Industries Inc., Tokyo Japan) was developed in Japan and has since been used for the treatment of septic shock arising from endotoxemia. Materials and Method: We treated 36 patients with septic shock using direct hemoperfusion with PMX. The patients were analyzed in two groups based on whether they had undergone surgery prior to DHP-PMX treatment (surgical group: surgical treatment before DHP-PMX, medical group: no surgical treatment). In surgical group, DHP-PMX was started within three hours after the surgical treatment. Various factors were measured before and after DHP-PMX. Results: The mean Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score was 27.4 ± 8.8, and the mean sepsis-related organ failure assessment (SOFA) score was 11.8 ± 4.9 before DHP-PMX. The SOFA score was significantly higher (P = 0.0091) and the PaO2/FiO2 ratio (P/F ratio) was significantly lower (P = 0.0037) in medical group than in surgical group prior to DHP-PMX. A chi-square test showed that the survival rate in surgical group was significantly better than in medical group (P = 0.0027). The survival rate of surgical group (84.2%) was judged to be very good because the predicated survival rate based on the APACHE II score (25.0) was only 46.5%. On the other hand, the survival rate of medical group (35.3%) was almost equal to that predicted by the APACHE II score (30.6; predicted survival rate, 27.4%). Conclusion: The results of this study suggest the utility of early DHP-PMX in surgical group.


Low voltage organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) using solution-processed cyanoethyl cellulose (CEC) and CEC-based nanocomposites as the gate dielectric are demonstrated. Barium strontium titanate (BST) nanoparticles are homogeneously dispersed in CEC to form the high-k (18.0  ±  0.2 at 1 kHz) nanocomposite insulator layer. The optimised p-channel DPPTTT OFETs with BST-CEC nanocomposite as the gate dielectric operate with minimal hysteresis, display field-effect mobilities in excess of 1 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 3 V, possess low subthreshold swings (132  ±  8 mV dec−1), and have on/off ratios greater than 103. Addition of a 40–50 nm layer of cross-linked poly(vinyl phenol) (PVP) on the surface of the nanocomposite layer significantly decreases the gate leakage current (<10−7 A cm−2 at  ±3 V) and the threshold voltage (<  −0.7 V) enabling operation of the OFETs at 1.5 V. The presented bilayer BST-CEC/PVP dielectrics are a promising alternative for the fabrication of low voltage, solution-processed OFETs that are suitable for use in low power, portable electronics.


The forty-first meeting of the Association was held on Friday, December 14, 1945, at the London School of Hygiene, Dr. W. Blood in the chair. Before the business commenced, at the request of the chairman members stood in silent tribute to the memory of Dr. W. D. Jenkins, one of the original members of the Association, who died in London on November 10, 1945. Following the private business, papers were read as follows: 'The medical officer and accident prevention,' by Dr. J. A. A. Mekelburg (London); ' Silicosis in the haematite iron ore industry in West Cumberland,' by Dr. J. Craw (Whitehaven); 'Strikes,' by Dr. T. A. Lloyd Davies (Nottingham); ' Some observations on analysis of certified sick absence,' by Dr. J. Tarsh (Liverpool). On Saturday morning, December 15, the meeting was continued at St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington, where Sir Alexander Fleming, F.R.S., addressed the Association on the discovery and preparation of penicillin. Dr. M. Y. Young described its use in common industrial conditions. Mr. Dickson Wright spoke on the surgical application of penicillin and demonstrated various pharmaceutical preparations.


Regulatory elements that lie outside the basal promoter of a gene may be revealed by local changes in chromatin structure and histone modifications. The promoter of the CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) gene is not responsible for its complex pattern of expression. To identify important regulatory elements for CFTR we have previously mapped DHS (DNase I-hypersensitive sites) across 400 kb spanning the locus. Of particular interest were two DHS that flank the CFTR gene, upstream at -20.9 kb with respect to the translational start site, and downstream at +15.6 kb. In the present study we show that these two DHS possess enhancer-blocking activity and bind proteins that are characteristic of known insulator elements. The DHS core at -20.9 kb binds CTCF (CCCTC-binding factor) both in vitro and in vivo; however, the +15.6 kb core appears to bind other factors. Histone-modification analysis across the CFTR locus highlights structural differences between the -20.9 kb and +15.6 kb DHS, further suggesting that these two insulator elements may operate by distinct mechanisms. We propose that these two DHS mark the boundaries of the CFTR gene functional unit and establish a chromatin domain within which the complex profile of CFTR expression is maintained.


Purpose The European Men who have sex with men Internet Survey looked over the characteristics and needs of men who have sex with men (MSM) across Europe. Our objective was to estimate the prevalence of HIV testing and its associated factors among MSM younger than 25 years old participating in the EMIS-2017 in Spain. Methods Multivariable regression model was used to compare those who had been tested for HIV within the last 12 months and those that had not. Results Of 2313 participants, 1070 (46.3%) had been tested for HIV in the past 12 months. Increased age (age 19–21 years, aOR=3.38 (95% CI 2.57 to 4.44); age 22–24 years, aOR=5.26 (4.06 to 6.92) compared with age 16–18 years); being migrant (Latin America: aOR=1.34 (0.98 to 1.84); Europe, North America and Mediterranean countries (aOR=1.56 (0.98 to 2.51) compared with those from Spain); living more openly with one's sexuality (out to some people (aOR=1.53 (1.19 to 1.96)); out to all or almost all people (aOR=2.24 (1.75 to 2.87) compared with those out to none or a few people); having had one condomless steady partners in the las year ((aOR=1.59 (1.26 to 2.02)); having had condomless non-steady partners in the last year (one: aOR=1.76 (1.35 to 2.29)); two or more partners: aOR=2.37 (1.84 to 3.04)); and having practised sex work in the past year (aOR=1.52 (1.07 to 2.13)) were associated with increased odds of HIV testing. Living in a smaller city was associated with less likelihood of HIV testing (<1 00 000 inhabitants: aOR=0.51 (95% CI 0.41 to 0.64); 100 000–500 000: aOR=0.68 (95% CI 0.54 to 0.86) compared with more than 500 000). Conclusion Young MSM showed low HIV testing rate. Future programming specifically targeting this population, especially those middle adolescents, living in a medium-small city and having less 'outness', can help increase HIV testing and prevent access barriers.


In this paper, we present an optimal shape design method for a dielectric microlens which is used to focus an incoming infrared plane wave in wideband, by exploiting the finite difference time domain (FDTD) technique and the topology optimization technique. Topology optimization is a scheme to search an optimal shape by adjusting the material properties, which are design variables, within the design space. And by introducing the adjoint variable method, we can effectively calculate a derivative of the objective function with respect to the design variable. To verify the proposed method, a shape design problem of a dielectric microlens is tested when illuminated by a transverse electric (TE)-polarized infrared plane wave. In this problem, the design variable is the dielectric constant within the design space of a dielectric microlens. The design objective is to maximally focus the incoming magnetic field at a specific point in wideband.


The term "critical", as used by scholars writing under the banner of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), is in need of review in a new global intellectual environment in which diverse philosophical and political traditions are increasingly in contact with one another. This essay is particularly concerned with the question of how a shared understanding of the concept of the critical can be developed among Western and Chinese scholars. To this end the paper gives an overview of notions of critique in the historical traditions of China and the West, addressing issues of conceptualisation, discourse practice and translation. This leads us to consider, from a "critical" point of view, what the appearance of the "critical" approach may mean in the Chinese context. The need for continued dialogue oriented to a deepened understanding of existing ideas and approaches is highlighted.


Traceability systems offer strong incentives to livestock and meat exporting countries by altering their productive and industrial processes in order to access premium meat markets globally. Kenya, whilst acknowledged as one of the countries within the horn of Africa with a reasonably credible veterinary service, has very limited access to beef and livestock markets in importing countries due to perceived risk or suspicions of presence of trans-boundary animal diseases (TADs) such as Rift Valley Fever (RVF) and Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), lack of capacity to prove the absence of TADs and absence of an effective traceability system that acts as proxy for quality assurance. The objective of this study was to report on the processes through which a model traceability system was designed for pastoral production systems of Northeastern Kenya. The study reports that industry-wide consultation is a critical ingredient in the design process that encompassed simple drop down menus, low price and phased process of implementation. The use of a single central database reduced considerably the cost of implementation and minimized response time for impact analysis.


Sleep disorders encompass pathology of very diverse origin with clinical expressions as varied as insomnia, hypersomnia, breathing disorders, complex motor disorders, etc. Some of these processes can be diagnosed clinically, while for the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of others a battery of tests are required that are carried out in a sleep laboratory. Given the complexity and the cost of these tests, their indication must be based on a suitable evaluation and clinical exploration of the subject. Besides establishing the pertinence of the indication of the study, such evaluation must establish the type of test to be carried out. We review the different diagnostic tests available in the sleep units: polysomnography, respiratory poligraphy, multiple sleep latency test, maintenance of wakefulness test, Osler test, video- EEG for sleep and actigraphy. We comment on basic aspects of these, both theoretical and practical.


Activation of the type III secretion apparatus (T3SA) of Shigella flexneri, upon contact of the bacteria with host cells, and its deregulation, as in ipaB mutants, specifically increases transcription of a set of effector-encoding genes controlled by MxiE, an activator of the AraC family, and IpgC, the chaperone of the IpaB and IpaC translocators. Thirteen genes carried by the virulence plasmid (ospB, ospC1, ospD2, ospD3, ospE1, ospE2, ospF, ospG, virA, ipaH1.4, ipaH4.5, ipaH7.8 and ipaH9.8) and five genes carried by the chromosome (ipaHa-e) are regulated by the T3SA activity. A conserved 17-bp MxiE box is present 5′ of most of these genes. To characterize the promoter activity of these MxiE box-containing regions, similar ∼67-bp DNA fragments encompassing the MxiE box of 14 MxiE-regulated genes were cloned 5′ of lacZ in a promoter probe plasmid; β-galactosidase activity detected in wild-type and ipaB strains harboring these plasmids indicated that most MxiE box-carrying regions contain a promoter regulated by the T3SA activity and that the relative strengths of these promoters cover an eight-fold range. The various MxiE boxes exhibiting up to three differences as compared to the MxiE box consensus sequence were introduced into the ipaH9.8 promoter without affecting its activity, suggesting that they are equally efficient in promoter activation. In contrast, all nucleotides conserved among MxiE boxes were found to be involved in MxiE-dependent promoter activity. In addition, we present evidence that the 5′ UTRs of four MxiE-regulated genes enhance expression of the downstream gene, presumably by preventing degradation of the mRNA, and the 5′ UTRs of two other genes carry an ancillary promoter.


During neural
activity, action potentials travel down axons, generating effective charge
current pulses, which are central in neuron-to-neuron communication. Consequently, said current pulses generate
associated magnetic fields with amplitudes on the
order of picotesla (pT) and femtotesla (fT) and durations of 10's of ms.
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a technique used to measure the cortical magnetic
fields associated with neural activity. MEG limitations include the inability
to detect signals from deeper regions of the brain, the need to house the
equipment in special magnetically shielded rooms to cancel out environmental
noise, and the use of superconducting magnets, requiring cryogenic temperatures,
bringing opportunities for new magnetic sensors to overcome these limitations
and to further advance neuroscience. An extraordinary magnetoresistance (EMR)
tunable graphene magnetometer could potentially achieve this goal. Its
advantages are linear response at room temperature (RT), sensitivity
enhancement owing to combination of geometric and Hall effects, microscale size
to place the sensor closer to the source or macroscale size for large source
area, and noise and sensitivity tailoring. The magnetic sensitivity of EMR
sensors is, among others, strongly dependent on the charge mobility of the
sensing graphene layer. Mechanisms affecting the carrier mobility in graphene
monolayers include interactions between the substrate and graphene, such as
electron-phonon scattering, charge impurities, and surface roughness. The
present work reviews and proposes a material set for increasing graphene mobility,
thus providing a pathway towards pT and fT detection. The successful
fabrication of large-size magnetic sensors employing CVD graphene is described,
as well as the fabrication of trilayer magnetic sensors employing mechanical
exfoliation of h-BN and graphene. The magneto-transport response of CVD
graphene Hall bar and EMR magnetic sensors is compared to that obtained in
equivalent trilayer devices. The sensor response characteristics are reported,
and a determination is provided for key performance parameters such as current
and voltage sensitivity and magnetic resolution. These parameters crucially
depend on the material's intrinsic properties. The Hall cross magnetic sensor
here reported has a magnetic sensitivity of ~ 600 nanotesla (nT). We find that
the attained sensitivity of the devices here reported is limited by
contaminants on the graphene surface, which negatively impact carrier mobility
and carrier density, and by high contact resistance of ~2.7 kΩ
µm at the metallic contacts. Reducing the contact
resistance to < 150 Ω µm and eliminating surface contamination, as
discussed in this work, paves the way towards pT and ultimately fT sensitivity
using these novel magnetic sensors. Finite
element modeling (FEM) is used to simulate the sensor response, which agrees with
experimental data with an error of less than 3%. This enables the prediction and
optimization of the magnetic sensor performance as a function of material
parameters and fabrication changes. Predictive studies indicate that an EMR
magnetic sensor could attain a sensitivity of 1.9 nT/√Hz employing graphene with
carrier mobilities of 180,000 cm2/Vs, carrier densities of 1.3×1011 cm-2 and a
device contact resistance of 150 Ω
µm. This
sensitivity increments to 443 pT/√Hz if the mobility is 245,000 cm2/Vs,
carrier density is 1.6×1010 cm-2, and a
lower contact resistance of 30 Ω
µm. Such
devices could readily be deployed in wearable devices to detect biomagnetic signals originating from the
human heart and skeletal muscles and for developing advanced human-machine
interfaces.


HCMV infection is usually asymptomatic in immunocompetent hosts, but serious disease can occur in immunocompromised individuals and in congenitally infected newborns. The importance of virus fitness determinations became evident in 1976, when it was proposed that the infecting strain of HCMV is important for clinical outcome, along with the intensity and duration of viral replication. HCMV strains exhibit different levels of virulence in vivo, depending on their passage history in cell culture. High and low passage HCMV strains exhibit tropism differences in vitro, suggesting that different tissue tropism may occur in vivo. In addition, approximately 13kb of novel DNA sequences located near the right edge of the unique long component of the genome has been identified in Toledo and clinical strains. This region (UL/b') encodes several open reading frames, which are missing from the high passage laboratory-adapted variants of Towne and AD 169 and are thought to play important roles in pathogenesis. One of the aims of this thesis was to determine the replication dynamics of different HCMV strains in vitro as well as compare their ability to bind to cells and mediate cell-to-cell spread of infection using pair-wise competition experiments in cell culture. AD 169 was shown to replicate better than Toledo in fibroblasts. Furthermore, assessment of the replication of Toledo in a different cell type, HUVEC, indicated that the virus replicated to higher levels in fibroblasts. Towne was found to bind to HEL cells with higher affinity compared to AD 169. The results showed phenotypic differences between high and low passaged HCMV variants and also illustrated that fitness differences between them are variable and highly dependent upon the status of the virus inoculum. To begin to understand the complex relationship between tissue tropism, virulence and HCMV genome composition, a DNA microarray approach was developed to examine host and HCMV gene expression during the productive infection of two distinct cell lines, fibroblasts and endothelial cells. The results showed that genes wifrojn tye fPSIPp were expressed in a cell type-specific fashion. Ip the context of host cell gene expression, cell type-specific host gene transcriptional changes were observed, reflecting different viral modulation of distinct cell type environments. The results provided potential insight into the function of genes encoded in the UL/b' region. Of particular note was that transcriptional changes frequently occurred in genes associated with pathways involved in the pathology of HCMV in the human host.


Digital printing technique is used for a wide variety of substrates, one of which are PVC foils. Samples used in this research were printed by digital ink jet printing technique using Mimaki JV22 printing machine and J-Eco Subly Nano inks. As printing substrates, two different types of materials were used (ORACAL 640 - Print Vinyl and LG Hausys LP2712). A test card consisting of fields of CMYK colours was created and printed, varying the number of ink layers applied. Samples were exposed to light after the printing process. Spectrophotometric measurements were conducted before and after the light treatment. Based on spectrophotometricaly obtained data, colour differences ΔE2000 were calculated. Results showed that increasing number of layers, as well as the right choice of substrates, can improve the behaviour of printed product during exploitation.


The United States of America's educational system came under fire in 1983 when the National Committee on Excellence in Education published its report "A Nation at Risk" critiquing the system's failings and calling for a raising of standards (Goldberg & Harvey, 1983). Since the report, the nation has seen wide-sweeping attempts at educational reform such as No Child Left Behind and the Common Core State Standards. Despite more school accountability and increased rigor there are districts, counties, and states that are witnessing a decline or lack of improvement in student achievement (Betts, Young, Zau, & Bachofer, 2016). A multitude of studies discussed in this paper have found that engaged students generally perform better academically, and that motivation is a key factor in student engagement. This study utilized a quasi-experimental quantitative design using the six subscales related to student motivation on the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ; Pintrich, 1991) to measure the effectiveness of the WhyTry intervention ("WhyTry Resilience Education", 2017) for a control and treatment group of 9 grade English classes. WhyTry ("WhyTry Resilience Education", 2017) is a modular program designed to help students over obstacles in life and raise their academic motivation ("WhyTry Resilience Education", 2017). Independent and paired t-tests were conducted to determine if the intervention was successful in improving the motivation of the treatment group. Ultimately the results were inconclusive. This study reinforces the call for more research on interventions aimed at raising student academic motivation and thus their level of academic achievement.


Recursive subdivision schemes have been extensively used in computer graphics, computer-aided geometric design, and scientific visualization for modeling smooth surfaces of arbitrary topology. Recursive subdivision generates a visually pleasing smooth surface in the limit from an initial user-specified polygonal mesh through the repeated application of a fixed set of subdivision rules. We present a new dynamic surface model based on the Catmull-Clark subdivision scheme, a popular technique for modeling complicated objects of arbitrary genus. Our new dynamic surface model inherits the attractive properties of the Catmull-Clark subdivision scheme, as well as those of the physics-based models. This new model provides a direct and intuitive means of manipulating geometric shapes, and an efficient hierarchical approach for recovering complex shapes from large range and volume data sets using very few degrees of freedom (control vertices). We provide an analytic formulation and introduce the "physical" quantities required to develop the dynamic subdivision surface model which can be interactively deformed by applying synthesized forces. The governing dynamic differential equation is derived using Lagrangian mechanics and the finite element method. Our experiments demonstrate that this new dynamic model has a promising future in computer graphics, geometric shape design, and scientific visualization.


Advances in language modeling architectures and the availability of large text corpora have driven progress in automatic text generation. While this results in models capable of generating coherent texts, it also prompts models to internalize social biases present in the training corpus. This paper aims to quantify and reduce a particular type of bias exhibited by language models: bias in the sentiment of generated text. Given a conditioning context (e.g., a writing prompt) and a language model, we analyze if (and how) the sentiment of the generated text is affected by changes in values of sensitive attributes (e.g., country names, occupations, genders) in the conditioning context using a form of counterfactual evaluation. We quantify sentiment bias by adopting individual and group fairness metrics from the fair machine learning literature, and demonstrate that large-scale models trained on two different corpora (news articles, and Wikipedia) exhibit considerable levels of bias. We then propose embedding and sentiment prediction-derived regularization on the language model's latent representations. The regularizations improve fairness metrics while retaining comparable levels of perplexity and semantic similarity.


Ring Enlargement of 1,2-Thiazol-3(2H)-one-1,1-dioxides and 3-Amino-2H-azirines to 4H-1,2,5-Thiadiazocin-6-one-1,1-dioxides

Reaction of 3-amino-2H-azirines 2 with the 1,1-dioxides 4 and 7 of 1,2-thiazol-3(2H)-ones and 1,2-thiazoli-din-3-ones, respectively, in i-PrOH at room temperature leads to 4H-1,2,5-thiadiazocin-6(5H)-one-1,1-dioxides 5 (Scheme 2, Table) and the corresponding 7,8-dihydro derivatives 8 (Scheme 4), respectively. The structure of some of the new 8-membered heterocycles as well as the structure of the minor by-product 6 (Scheme 3) have been established by X-ray crystallography (Chapt. 4). The proposed reaction mechanism for the ring expansion to 5 and 8 (Scheme 2) is in accordance with previously published results of reactions of 2 and NH-acidic heterocycles and is further supported by the results of the reaction of 4a and the (1-15N)-labelled aminoazirine 2a*.


A letter to the editor. Meals on Wheels (MOW) is a community-based not-forprofit organisation that delivers nutritious meals to vulnerable clients in the community, to enable them to maintain their health and independence within their own home. MOW meals aim to provide at least one-third of the recommended dietary intake (RDI) for energy, fibre and calcium, and one-half of the RDI for protein, vitamins and minerals.1 A variety of options are provided to their clients to allow self-selection from a large menu choice of soups, main meals and desserts and a range of meal delivery options, ranging from 1 to 5 days per week. MOW also provides variation in types of meals provided (hot, chilled or frozen), as well as being able to support special dietary meal requirements, such as texture modified variations. Studies from Australia and other countries have demonstrated that even with the provision of home-delivered meals, some MOW clients still have a poor nutritional status because of their multiple medical and social risk factors.


This paper aims at showing how to classify driving patterns in terms of primitives such as acceleration, deceleration and turning, using neural networks. In particular a multilayer perceptron with back-propagation learning algorithm is used. The considered feature space is reduced to a very restricted couple of sensors: accelerometer and GPS receiver, which characterize many commercial low-cost inertial navigation systems (INS). Sensor-driven input patterns are used for classification over output driving primitives. The ease of this approach holds true since GPS data coupled with forward and lateral accelerations are sufficient for describing much of the semantics of driving scenarios. This argument is supported by real observations on different types of vehicles and different types of drivers. These measurements show that, in normal conditions, the road geometry implies a vehicle to adopt a well-defined behaviour, which can therefore straightforwardly be characterized.


In recent years, writing instructors have started to adopt pedagogies that integrate classroom writing with happenings outside the classroom (see Weisser, 2001; Flower, 2008; Mathieu, 2005). The goal of writing instruction is no longer limited to competence in terms of language, style and techniques, but is expanded to encompass civic literacy. This orientation of writing especially at university level intertwines with the aim of higher education to produce individuals who are empowered to contribute towards a better world through participation in public discourse. In a study conducted at Universiti Putra Malaysia, 1,400 students were required to write publicly in an online forum on issues that affect the lives of the students and the community in which they belong. At the end of the course, the students completed a survey aimed at identifying the extent to which the writing course that adopted a public orientation was effective in socialising students towards becoming independent participants of online discussion. Specifically, the study sought to uncover the students' perceptions on whether they had improved in their writing skills, their confidence to write in English in the public sphere, the effect of audience on their writing, the value of participation in online public discussions, their intention to participate in the future, and the reasons for future participation or non-participation. This paper presents the results of the study and discusses the contribution of a public orientation in ESL writing instruction in fostering ability and motivation to participate in public discourse among university students.


Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a psychiatric condition and form of child abuse in which a caregiver, usually a mother, induces illness in a child to gain attention for herself. Here, we reported an 8-month-old girl who presented with spontaneous bleeding from ear, eye and gastrointestinal system. The girl was investigated thoroughly by pediatricians for all possible bleeding disorders, but there was no conclusive diagnosis. Munchausen syndrome by proxy was diagnosed with a multidisciplinary approach. For dinscriptive diagnosis of these patients, thinking about the Munchausen syndrome by proxy will decrease unnecessary examinations and it will prevent threated exploitation of lives of these children. J Med Cases. 2014;5(7):385-387 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/jmc1289w


Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have enabled the technology to contribute significantly to the development of patentable inventions. These advances, which allow AI to augment inventors' problem solving capabilities, or perhaps even create inventions autonomously, have raised concerns regarding whether existing patent laws can adequately address the increasing role that AI plays in developing inventions. This tension comes to a head with patent law's obviousness doctrine, which addresses the critical question: What constitutes a patentable invention? Is human ingenuity the sole province of patent worthy invention? Should patentability be negated to the extent that AI contributes to a claimed invention? Current obviousness analysis allows patents on inventions created with AI assistance, requiring only that an invention appear nonobvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA). Although agreeing with this result in theory, some commentators argue that existing doctrine fails to account for the increasing role that AI plays in the process. Under the current doctrinal paradigm, if courts and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office fail to account for AI's role in the inventive process, this could result in too low of an obviousness standard, as they would not endow the PHOSITA with AI capabilities even when this technology is commonly used within a field. If the PHOSITA does not possess the capabilities indicative of the average skilled person in the art, then arguably patents will issue for undeserving inventions. This Note addresses these issues and argues that, despite some commentators' concerns, the current obviousness test is appropriately structured to accommodate AI's increasing role in developing inventions. Further, it challenges recent proposals intended to address perceived deficiencies in the obviousness doctrine.


Prominence of Computer Science (CS) research articles in journals and conferences has been a topic of research. Major issues regarding these publications are pros. and cons. of review process and scientometric data which is sub-fields specific. Therefore, we adopt a different approach, we define metrics based on authors and their affiliations and study the patterns of different publications. We consider publication data of key CS journals and conferences in three sub-fields of past five years, during which that publication patterns have been stabilized. We calculate distinct institutions, occurrences of repeated authors and also examine the overlap of authors and institutions in consecutive years. Thus, we show diversity of CS publications in terms of authors and institutions. We have observed that in conferences 60-80% authors have participated from repeating institutions while this range is 40-60% for journals. Further, the maximum repeating frequency of authors is 28% in conferences, while it is 15% in journals. In addition, overlapping percentage of authors and institutions is also lesser in journals than that of conferences. Hence, journal publications are more diverse in nature in terms of participating authors and institutions. Moreover, cross comparison of conferences and journals in same sub-field indicates the mutual exclusiveness of these mediums.


In 2011, Arizona Cooperative Extension implemented Externships in Sustainability, a program in which undergraduate students conduct community-based sustainability projects. In contrast to internships, in which students shadow a professional, externship students apply their skills to community outreach. Extension faculty proposed projects and recruited undergraduates from within their communities to execute the projects. Students were given responsibility for planning, implementation, and Extension. Agents, students, and communities have benefited from improved relationships between the university and communities, and through rainwater harvesting, community gardens, and other projects to increase resilience. Extension programs in other states could adopt this model to reap similar benefits.


Marketing has successfully used the postmodern turn in conceptualisations of the human subject and incorporated contemporary theorising of identities and self into its understanding of the key drivers of consumption. Such developments clearly converge in alcohol marketing practices that target young people, where commercialised youth identities available for consumption and engagement are a significant element. This article reports data from young people that reflect the uptake of such identities and considers the challenges that these developments represent for public health and the well-being of young people.


Coconut fibers or coir was examined to determine its potential value for pulp and papermaking. Alkali pulping was investigated by using caustic soda on a laboratory scale and then the pulp was beaten in a PFI mill at 0, 750, 1500, 3000 and 10000 revs. Projection microscope and SEM detected the fiber parameters. While, the main mechanical properties of hand sheet produced from soda processes were evaluated on 60 g/m test sheets as functions of the following parameters: tensile index and tear index. The results showed at a PFI mill revolution number of 1500 revs, the properties of hand sheet reached the optimum values.


The down regulation of constitutive hepatic microsomal cytochromes P-450 (P450) by interferons has been well described in experimental animals and humans, however the down regulation of induced forms of P450 has not been documented clearly. Differential down regulation of constitutive and induced P450 could alter the proportions of P450 enzymes and, hence, the relative bioactivation/detoxification of xenobiotics. We investigated the effects of polyinosinic acid-polycytidylic acid, a potent stimulator of interferon alpha/beta production on CYP1A and CYP2E induction in the rat. Polyinosinic acid-polycytidylic acid down regulated the constitutive and pyridine-induced expression of CYP2E1 and the pyridine- and beta-naphthoflavone-induced expression of CYP1A1 as demonstrated by metabolic activity and immunoblot analyses. Depression of CYP2E1 and CYP1A1 protein expression by polyinosinic acid-polycytidylic acid was accompanied by a corresponding decrease in mRNA encoding these proteins. Induction of CYP1A2 mRNA also was depressed. Therefore, interferon alpha/beta down regulated induction of members of the CYP1A and CYP2E subfamilies at a pretranslational level independent of the mechanism of induction. Induction of the CYP1A and CYP2E subfamilies did not confer resistance to down regulation by interferon, although the magnitude of down regulation by interferon appeared to be influenced by the magnitude of P450 induction. The potential significance of down regulation of induced P450 in the clearance of certain therapeutic agents and in xenobiotic bioactivation and detoxification is discussed.


Of the seven currently known botulinum neurotoxin-producing species of Clostridium, C. parabotulinum, or C. botulinum Group I, is the species associated with the majority of human botulism cases worldwide. Phylogenetic analysis of these bacteria reveals a diverse species with multiple genomic clades. The neurotoxins they produce are also diverse, with over 20 subtypes currently represented. The existence of different bont genes within very similar genomes and of the same bont genes/gene clusters within different bacterial variants/species indicates that they have evolved independently. The neurotoxin genes are associated with one of two toxin gene cluster types containing either hemagglutinin (ha) genes or orfX genes. These genes may be located within the chromosome or extrachromosomal elements such as large plasmids. Although BoNT-producing C parabotulinum bacteria are distributed globally, they are more ubiquitous in certain specific geographic regions. Notably, northern hemisphere strains primarily contain ha gene clusters while southern hemisphere strains have a preponderance of orfX gene clusters. OrfX C. parabotulinum strains constitute a subset of this species that contain highly conserved bont gene clusters having a diverse range of bont genes. While much has been written about strains with ha gene clusters, less attention has been devoted to those with orfX gene clusters. The recent sequencing of 28 orfX C. parabotulinum strains and the availability of an additional 91 strains for analysis provides an opportunity to compare genomic relationships and identify unique toxin gene cluster characteristics and locations within this species subset in depth. The mechanisms behind the independent processes of bacteria evolution and generation of toxin diversity are explored through the examination of bacterial relationships relating to source locations and evidence of horizontal transfer of genetic material among different bacterial variants, particularly concerning bont gene clusters. Analysis of the content and locations of the bont gene clusters offers insights into common mechanisms of genetic transfer, chromosomal integration, and development of diversity among these genes.


An exploration of the meaning of 'code quality' for introductory programming courses has led to a model that brings together teacher feedback and suggestions from professional handbooks. We translated this model into a rubric for giving feedback to students in their first courses. Using this rubric in teaching has encouraged us to reflect on the intent of programming language features and how these can be used appropriately. We now propose future work: how can 'approriate use' be more systematically integrated into the model? Furthermore, we propose that using the derived rubric in teaching may very well confront students with unnoticed misconceptions and help them eliminate these. Is this a reasonable assumption? How can we test it?


In this paper, we discuss the ``Galapagos syndrome" in the Japanese mobile phone industry from the perspective of organizational institutionalism. In general, the Galapagos syndrome emerged because the Japanese companies ignored the international standards and focused on domestic markets for product development. Organizational institutionalism explains the diffusions of technology-related international standards to achieve social legitimacy, rather than the mere compliance with technical requirements. However, Japanese firms were active in obtaining international standards. To explain this situation, we reviewed the studies on diffusion in organizational institutionalism. During the review process, there was confusion with the idea of isomorphism and this led to two ways of understanding it: isomorphism as homogeneity and as the origin of competition. By revisiting the pioneering theory of organizational institutionalism by Weber, we can explain the Galapagos syndrome on the basis of the latter understanding of isomorphism; that is, the incorporation of international standards creates competitive relationships between the Japanese firms. By rearranging the logical implications to explain isomorphism and standards, we can conclude that the Galapagos syndrome results from differentiated practices related to the incorporation of international standards.


In The Bowery in two inadequate descriptive systems (1974–75), Martha Rosler bridged the concerns of art with those of political documentary. The artwork, a series of twenty-one black-and-white photographs, twenty-four text panels and three blank panels, embraces the codes of the photo-text experiments of the period and applies them to the social reality of New York's Lower East Side. This artwork has played a key role in debates on contemporary art and aesthetics, but it has not been the object of careful scrutiny or analysis.

In this illustrated book, Steve Edwards offers three distinct approaches to the art work. First, he engages in a work of ekphrasis - a careful description of Rosler's The Bowery. Edwards considers both the photographs and the text panels attending to the oddities and overlooked characteristics of the work. Secondly, the author contextualises the project in relation to the work of the San Diego Group, examines the prevailing view of the work as a critique of documentary photography and studies its relation to Jean-Luc Godard and other examples of political modernism. Here he also provides an overview of Rosler's career and the place within her oeuvre of The Bowery. Thirdly, he offers a speculative reading of The Bowery within the pastoral tradition. In the process, this unlikely artwork is positioned in the long tradition of western poetics.

The book makes an original contribution to the discussion of contemporary art and political aesthetics through a meticulous study of one art work and an historical reconstruction of the cultural materials from which it was constructed. This study combines careful looking, historical research and draws extensively on critical theory to provide a model for approaching artworks.


This PhD thesis investigates the causal long-term economic effects of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and the armed conflict in Aceh, Indonesia (chapters 2, 3 and 4). It also contains an analysis of land use change and the consequences for soil-organic carbon (SOC) in Eastern Panama that is unrelated to previous chapters. Chapter 2 stands at the core of my PhD thesis; it is the equivalent of a job market paper.
In chapter 1, I provide an introduction to and summary of my PhD thesis. In particular, I describe why I believe that I make original contributions to knowledge that are significant and rigorous.
In chapter 2, I carry out a quasi-experimental analysis investigating the causal effects of Tsunami flooding on long-term per capita economic output. The existing literature suggests that natural disasters are growth depressing in the short-term, and in the longterm, natural disasters either cause a continued shortfall of economic output, or an eventual convergence to the pre-disaster counterfactual trend. I picked the Indian Ocean Tsunami in Aceh as a case study for this PhD thesis, because I posit that if there is one case for which there is evidence that goes against the conventional wisdom, namely in the form of increased economic output in the long run, it probably is Aceh. The reason why I expect to see creative destruction is that Aceh received a windfall of aid and was the stage of the largest reconstruction effort the developing world has ever seen. I conclude that natural disasters are not necessarily the cause of output reductions and that they can be windows of opportunity for the economy.
In chapter 3, I investigate the reasons behind the creative destruction, and take a closer look at different sectors and subcomponents of the economy. I examine three channels through which the Tsunami may have affected per capita economic output. First, I find that the Tsunami causally accelerated the structural transformation process, a process through which people and the economy move out of agriculture, and into more productive sectors such as services. Second, I show that the Tsunami brought with it a windfall of aid and other funds, which allowed for a building back better of physical capital and increased capital formation. Third, I show that aggregate private consumption not only was smoothed in a reaction to the Tsunami, but even boosted to sustainably higher levels, compared to the no-Tsunami counterfactual.
In chapter 4, I investigate whether the 30 years long armed conflict in Aceh left any negative economic legacy effects, once the fighting stopped and the peace agreement was signed. The separatist war took a toll on the Acehnese economy. Even though the conflict has ended, did the negative economic effects also end? Aceh's economy has higher per capita growth rates in times of peace than in times of war, which can be either a sign of a peace dividend or creative destruction from the Tsunami. But does the armed conflict leave a negative legacy for future growth rates, even after peace has officially been declared? I find that that peacetime growth rates are negatively affected by the wartime conflict intensity. Using violence data on the incidence of killings, injuries, and other 'measurable human suffering', I assess whether districts that were heavily affected by armed conflict grew systematically differently from those that were spared from the brunt of the violence. I find that there are severe negative economic legacy effects of violence, and the more violence occurred in a district during the separatist war, the slower it was growing during times of peace.
Chapter 5, topically unrelated to the previous chapters, is looking at land use change in Eastern Panama and the consequences for soil organic carbon (SOC). In this chapter, I compare SOC concentrations of primary forests to two competing land use alternatives: Forest-to-pasture conversion for cattle grazing versus indigenous forest-to-crop conversion. I find that both land use changes reduce SOC concentrations significantly, yet the pasture land use has lower levels of SOC than indigenous crop cultivation. The soil carbon levels of secondary forests are not statistically different from primary forests, implying that the forest conversions are reversible, in terms of their impact on SOC, which suggests that allowing secondary forests to re-grow in former cultivated areas in the Eastern part of Panama holds promise for climate change mitigation.
In the concluding chapter 6, I present a summary of the main findings and an outline for future research.


The purpose of this article is to elaborate conceptually on the user–market relationship. Existing research reports a limited user–market relationship, which simultaneously exaggerates and underplays user influence on markets. Assuming a constructivist market studies (CMS) perspective, we argue that the scope of the user–market relationship is broader than developing offers and uses. We conceptualize market shaping as five interrelated subprocesses in which users may be involved as agents: qualifying goods, fashioning modes of exchange, configuring actors, establishing market norms and generating market representations. The extent of user influence in these subprocesses is likely to vary both within a specific market and across markets. By identifying conditions conducive to user involvement in each subprocess, we lay the foundation for empirical research into how users shape markets.


This book is the result of a long and fruitful conversation among practitioners of two very different fields: ancient history and political theory. The topic of the conversation is classical Greek democracy and its contemporary relevance. The nineteen contributors remain diverse in their political commitments and in their analytic approaches, but all have engaged deeply with Greek texts, with normative and historical concerns, and with each others' arguments. The issues and tensions examined here are basic to both history and political theory: revolution versus stability, freedom and equality, law and popular sovereignty, cultural ideals and social practice. While the authors are sharply critical of many aspects of Athenian society, culture, and government, they are united by a conviction that classical Athenian democracy has once again become a centrally important subject for political debate.The contributors are Benjamin R. Barber, Alan Boegehold, Paul Cartledge, Susan Guettel Cole, W. Robert Connor, Carol Dougherty, J. Peter Euben, Mogens H. Hansen, Victor D. Hanson, Carnes Lord, Philip Brook Manville, Ian Morris, Martin Ostwald, Kurt Raaflaub, Jennifer Tolbert Roberts, Barry S. Strauss, Robert W. Wallace, Sheldon S. Wolin, and Ellen Meiksins Wood.


Several methods have been developed recently for the analysis of the spatial motion of the scapula and the arm, whereby the spatial position of shoulder bones is determined in static conditions by interrupting motion. The authors have developed a 3D motion analysis method recording scapular motion in progress with appropriate accuracy in the course of arm movements of various degrees. The objective of this study is to explore the applicability of the method developed, as well as to compare it with and verify it by other methods developed earlier.


In the last decade, the number of living labs focusing on environmental sustainability has risen in order to cope with the need for environmentally sustainable innovation. Although these multi-actor approaches allow for innovation, this alone does not suffice a society's transition to becoming environmentally sustainable. Organizations should focus on innovation internally as well, but in practice, this lacks often because environmentally sustainable values are not integrated into the organizational policy. Living labs could influence the organization's policy regarding environmental sustainability. Qualitative findings based on eight interviews, observations, and additional relevant documents from a living lab gave insights into this process. Overall, this study found that organizations take part in living labs for several reasons. First, firms wish to stabilize their business model in the long-term and lower risk on future claims. Second, the living lab's aim for collaboration in order to implement environmentally sustainable approaches in the supply chain attracts firms. Finally, firms expect to gain business and market demand in the living labs. Additionally, the embeddedness and proximity of firms in the living lab makes participating in the living lab more attractive when firms consider joining a living lab based on the previously mentioned reasons. Once participating in the living lab, team dynamics, and knowledge sharing practices change firm representatives' perceptions regarding their attitudes towards environmental sustainability and the feasibility to implement environmentally sustainable practices. This change in perception is translated to the firm of the participant, where firms' policies are adjusted. Based on this research, implications for organizations, governmental policymakers, and living lab facilitators are provided as well as suggestions for future research.


Aim: Simple, precise and accurate UV-spectrophotometric methods for estimation of Dapagliflozin were developed and validated as per ICH guidelines. Experimental and Results: These methods includes Calibration curve, Area under curve (AUC), First and Second order derivative method based on measurement of absorbance at a selected wavelengths using UV-visible spectrophotometer with 1 cm matched quartz cell and methanol with water as a solvent. All developed methods obeyed Beer's-lambert's law in the concentration range of 5-40 μg/mL, with correlation coefficient value less than 1. The percent amount of drug estimated by these methods was nearly 100%, found to be in good agreement with label claim of marketed tablet formulation. The recovery study was carried out at five different levels and results were found to be satisfactory. Conclusion: The results of estimation and validation parameters like accuracy, precision, ruggedness, linearity and range were studied for all the developed methods and were found to be within limits. The proposed method can be adopted for routine quality control for estimation of drug in formulation.


This study compared the effects of two annotation modalities on the reading comprehension of Iranian intermediate level EFL learners. The two experimental groups under study received treatment on 10 academic L2 reading passages under one of two conditions: One group received treatment on key words in the reading passages through a multimedia environment providing textual annotations. The second group received treatment under a similar environment but received compound glosses. The control group, however, received no treatment and was encouraged to use contextual guessing. The findings revealed that the experimental group who received treatment through compound glosses outperformed the other two groups on the comprehension test, and the group who used textual annotations obtained a higher mean on the post-test than the control group. One explanation is that compound glosses might help learners better decipher the meanings of key words in L2 passages, thus contributing to their deeper understanding of the texts.


Knowledge Graphs are an emerging form of knowledge representation. While Google coined the term Knowledge Graph first and promoted it as a means to improve their search results, they are used in many applications today. In a knowledge graph, entities in the real world and/or a business domain (e.g., people, places, or events) are represented as nodes, which are connected by edges representing the relations between those entities. While companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have their own, non-public knowledge graphs, there is also a larger body of publicly available knowledge graphs, such as DBpedia or Wikidata. In this chapter, we provide an overview and comparison of those publicly available knowledge graphs, and give insights into their contents, size, coverage, and overlap.


We measured total serum bile acids on a fluorescence-light-scattering micro centrifugal analyzer by the direct enzymatic method with 3 alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (EC 22.214.171.124) and with resazurin as a fluorogenic electron acceptor. We found that serum protein has an inhibitory effect on the measurement of bile acids, but this effect was eliminated by adding bovine serum albumin to the reaction mixture in a final protein concentration (12.2 g/L) that was high compared with that contributed by a normal serum specimen. The assay is a sensitive method that reaches equilibrium in 5 min. The method is microscale (5 microL of sample, 150 microL of working reagent), is easy to perform, and is accurate (analytical recovery = 104.1%) and precise (CV = 11.1 and 5.7% on specimens with bile acid concentrations of 7.6 and 35.4 mumol/L, respectively). Normal values are 1-12 and less than 9 mumol/L on nonfasting and fasting individuals, respectively. Pure 3 alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase must be used: we found several enzyme preparations that gave falsely high values for bile acid.


Selenium (masses 74, 76, 77, 78, 80, and 82; Table 1⇓) and chromium (masses 50, 52, 53 54; Table 1⇓) are treated together in this chapter because of their geochemical similarities and similar isotope systematics. Both of these elements are important contaminants in surface and ground water. They are redox-active and their mobility and environmental impact depend strongly on valence state and redox transformations. Isotope ratio shifts occur primarily during oxyanion reduction reactions, and the isotope ratios should serve as indicators of those reactions. In addition to environmental applications, we expect that there will be geological applications for Se and Cr isotope measurements. The redox properties of Se and Cr make them promising candidates as recorders of marine chemistry and paleoredox conditions.

View this table:

 Table 1.
Compositions of natural Se and Cr and currently used double spikes (atom %).

There are only about a dozen published studies on Se isotopes and only two on Cr isotopes. This chapter summarizes what has been learned thus far, and almost all of this work concentrates on aqueous reactions at earth surface temperatures. It also attempts to provide some geochemical background and reviews some relevant points from the sulfur isotope literature, which provides insight into the isotopic systematics of Se and Cr.

### Se geochemistry

Se is chemically similar to sulfur, which is immediately above it in the periodic table. Its concentration in the earth's crust is small, with most rocks containing less than 0.1 ppm Se except for shales, which span a wide range of concentration and average roughly 1ppm (Faure 1991). Coal is also relatively rich in Se, averaging 3 ppm (Cooper et al. 1974). Se can substitute extensively for S in pyrite (Coleman and Delevaux 1957). However, Se concentrations of many sulfide minerals are quite small, suggesting strong decoupling of Se from S in some systems. …


Background: Ibuprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication of drugs that is used for relieving pain. However, this drug has proven effects, such as the production of free radicals and interfering with cellular events. Thus, it is necessary to find suitable antioxidants to reduce the side effects of this drug. In this study the antioxidant effects of cinnamon extract on the inhibition induced hepatoxicity of ibuprofen has been investigated.
Materials and Methods: 48 rats in six groups, S group received saline solution, C200 group received cinnamon extract 200mg per kg body weight (200mg/kg b.w), I group ibuprofen 400mg/kg b.w, IC50 group ibuprofen together with cinnamon extract 50mg/kg b.w, IC100 group ibuprofen together with cinnamon extract 100mg/kg b.w, IC200 group ibuprofen together with cinnamon extract 200mg/kg b.w intraperitoneally. The activity of liver enzymes were measured in the end of the experimental period. Liver tissue sample was prepared and after staining with hematoxylin-eosin, was studied.
Results: The activity of Pyruvate transaminase, oxaloacetate transaminase and alkaline phosphatase in I group in comparison with S group were significantly increased. The activity of these enzymes in IC50, IC100 and IC200 groups in comparison with I group were significantly decreased nearly in a dose dependent manner. Examining the liver tissue indicate tissue damage caused by ibuprofen, and cinnamon consumption was reduced tissue destruction.
Conclusion: Cinnamon extract has antioxidant properties and reduces the ibuprofen induced hepatoxicity.
Keywords: Ibuprofen, Cinnamon, Pyruvate transaminase, Oxaloacetate transaminase, Alkaline phosphatase.


This paper proposes an approach to scaling UNIX-like operating systems for many cores in a backward-compatible way, which still enjoys common wisdom in new operating system designs. The proposed system, called Cerberus, mitigates contention on many shared data structures within OS kernels by clustering multiple commodity operating systems atop a VMM, and providing applications with the traditional shared memory interface. Cerberus extends a traditional VMMwith efficient support for resource sharing and communication among the clustered operating systems. It also routes system calls of an application among operating systems, to provide applications with the illusion of running on a single operating system.
 We have implemented a prototype system based on Xen/Linux, which runs on an Intel machine with 16 core and an AMD machine with 48 cores. Experiments with an unmodified MapReduce application, dbench, Apache Web Server and Memcached show that, given the nontrivial performance overhead incurred by the virtualization layer, Cerberus achieves up to 1.74X and 4.95X performance speedup compared to native Linux. It also scales better than a single Linux configuration. Profiling results further show that Cerberus wins due to mitigated contention and more efficient use of resources.


This paper focuses on demands for reparations for colonial slavery and their public reception in France. It argues that this bottom-up, context-sensitive approach to theorising reparations enables us to formulate a critical republican theory of international racial justice. It contrasts the critical republican perspective on reparations with a nation-state centred approach in which reparations activists are accused of threatening the French republic's sense of homogeneity and unity, thus undermining the national narrative on the French identity. It also rejects the liberal egalitarian perspective, which itself rejects reparations in favour of focusing on present disadvantages. In so doing, this paper illustrates how the notion of non-domination offers a superior way of conceptualising global racial injustices compared to more traditional distributive outlooks.


Basic processes responsible for the formation of quantum dot (QD) nanostructures occur on a large range of length and time scales. Understanding this complex phenomenon requires theoretical tools that span both the atomic-scale details of the first-principles methods and the more coarse-scale continuum approach. By discussing the time scale hierarchy of different elementary kinetic processes we emphasize several levels of constraint equilibrium of the system and elucidate pathways to reach corresponding stable or metastable states. Main focus is given to the InAs/GaAs material system which is the most advanced one for applying QDs in optoelectronics. First principles calculations of the potential energy surfaces by the density functional theory (DFT) gain the knowledge about potential minima corresponding to the preferred adsorption sites and barriers that govern the rates of diffusion, desorption, and island nucleation in both unstrained and strained systems. Based on these ab initio parameters, kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) simulations have allowed a detailed theoretical description of GaAs/GaAs and InAs/InAs homoepitaxial growth and elucidated the nucleation and evolution of InAs islands on GaAs. A hybrid approach combining DFT calculations of the surface energies and continuum elasticity theory for the strain relaxation energy has given the equilibrium shape of InAs/GaAs QDs as a function of volume and explained the observed shape transitions. For the ensembles of strained QDs, the Fokker-Planck evolution equation has explained the formation of different types of metastable states in sparse and dense arrays, and the kMC simulations have proposed a tool to distinguish kinetically controlled and thermodynamically controlled QD growth. By continuum elasticity theory in elastically anisotropic semiconductor systems, transitions between vertically correlated and vertically anticorrelated growth of QD stacks has been explained, and yet another approach has been proposed to control the formation of complex nanoworlds. 2 V. Shchukin et al.


Implementing online learning can pose serious pedagogical challenges particularly when programs contain work-integrated learning (WIL) components. One such component is the site visit, where student groups are led by subject matter experts through an authentic environment. These WIL experiences help students relate the theory learnt in classrooms to practice. Construction management students particularly benefit from repeated visits to the same building site to appreciate the spatial and temporal constraints and how they change over the life of the building project. Unfortunately, logistics and occupational health and safety concerns have increasingly limited the inclusion of site visits in school and university curricula. Online construction management students are widely dispersed and therefore it is impractical to include shared physical site visits in the curriculum, although students are able to observe locally-based construction sites and report back their findings. In response, universities have collaborated with construction companies and, using significant federal funding, created an interactive learning environment that follows the construction of an eight-storey building over time. This high quality resource is a type of virtual WIL that has been primarily used in face-to-face teaching. In this case study we implement this resource in a fully online construction management course and create three comparatively low-cost environments that demonstrate the construction of residential, industrial, and multi-storey building construction sites, for implementation in another two online construction courses. As an enhancement, within these new environments are embedded images, explanatory videos and documents which students can interact with to create a virtual tour that can be embedded directly alongside the concepts being studied in their weekly learning materials. In addition, these tours are linked to specific online learning activities designed to motivate students to reflect on and refine their understandings based on the authentic context they are experiencing. To better understand the processes involved in this collaboration between school academics, staff from a central teaching innovation unit, and two construction companies, the business processes employed were modelled using a swimlane diagram. Insights into the practicalities of implementing these virtual tours are shared. The experiential learning outcomes of students using virtual WIL are comparable to traditional site visits. Initial online student feedback of small cohorts of online students has been overwhelmingly positive and encouraging for the development of more interactive virtual tours. The implementation of virtual tours and activities, blended with independent face-to-face site visits and assessment, forms an authentic, supported and constructively-aligned WIL experience for students undertaking fully online courses.


BACKGROUND
 Robot-assisted therapy has become a promising technology in the field of rehabilitation for poststroke patients with motor disorders. Motivation during the rehabilitation process is a top priority for most stroke survivors. With current advancements in technology there has been the introduction of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), customizable games, or a combination thereof, that aid robotic therapy in retaining, or increasing the interests of, patients so they keep performing their exercises. However, there are gaps in the evidence regarding the transition from clinical rehabilitation to home-based therapy which calls for an updated synthesis of the literature that showcases this trend. The present review proposes a categorization of these studies according to technologies used, and details research in both upper limb and lower limb applications.

 OBJECTIVE
 The goal of this work was to review the practices and technologies implemented in the rehabilitation of poststroke patients. It aims to assess the effectiveness of exoskeleton robotics in conjunction with any of the three technologies (VR, AR, or gamification) in improving activity and participation in poststroke survivors.

 METHODS
 A systematic search of the literature on exoskeleton robotics applied with any of the three technologies of interest (VR, AR, or gamification) was performed in the following databases: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Science Direct & The Cochrane Library. Exoskeleton-based studies that did not include any VR, AR or gamification elements were excluded, but publications from the years 2010 to 2017 were included. Results in the form of improvements in the patients' condition were also recorded and taken into consideration in determining the effectiveness of any of the therapies on the patients.

 RESULTS
 Thirty studies were identified based on the inclusion criteria, and this included randomized controlled trials as well as exploratory research pieces. There were a total of about 385 participants across the various studies. The use of technologies such as VR-, AR-, or gamification-based exoskeletons could fill the transition from the clinic to a home-based setting. Our analysis showed that there were general improvements in the motor function of patients using the novel interfacing techniques with exoskeletons. This categorization of studies helps with understanding the scope of rehabilitation therapies that can be successfully arranged for home-based rehabilitation.

 CONCLUSIONS
 Future studies are necessary to explore various types of customizable games required to retain or increase the motivation of patients going through the individual therapies.


We examined changes in the spectral composition of the low frequency (LF) subionospheric signals from the NRK transmitter (37.5 kHz) in Iceland that were received in Bari (Italy) relative to the earthquake that occurred in L'Aquila on April 6, 2009. In our previous studies, we have reported the occurrence of preseismic night-time anomalies using observations from three receivers located in Bari, Graz (Austria) and Moscow (Russia). The strongest anomalies in the signals were observed in the NRK-Bari propagation path during the period 5-6 days before the L'Aquila earthquake, as well as during the series of aftershocks. During this period, similar very low frequency (VLF)/LF amplitude anomalies were also observed along several other propagation paths that crossed the L'Aquila seismogenic zone. Spectral analysis of the LF signals filtered in the frequency range 0.28 mHz to 15 mHz shows differences in the spectra for seismo-disturbed days when compared to those for either quiet or geomagnetically disturbed days. These spectral anomalies, which are only observed in the propagation path between NRK and Bari, contain signals with periods of about 10 min to 20 min. These periodic signals are absent both in the spectra of the undisturbed signals for the control paths, and in the spectra of the signals received during geomagnetic storms. The same changes in the spectral composition were observed in the analysis of LF (40 kHz) signals from the JJY transmitter in Japan that were received in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (Russia) during the occurrence of three strong earthquakes with M ≥7.0. The results of this study support the theoretical prediction that the possible mechanism for energy penetration from the origin of an earthquake through the atmosphere and into the ionosphere is based on the excitation and upward propagation of internal gravity waves.


Teaching ethical aspects in the social sciences has always been a challenge, both for the professors and students involved. Ethical values and dilemmas can be presented through educational movies, examples from clinical, organizational or pedagogical practice, or even through personal disclosures offered with 'pros' and 'cons' arguments. In the past few years we took over this challenge, when conducting classes and seminaries at the disciplines "Educational Psychology" and "Foundations of Pedagogy" with first and second year students enrolled in the Teachers' Training Module, at the University "POLITEHNICA" of Bucharest. Several themes for applications (e.g., designing and conducting a social experiment; naive subjects; cooperation and empathy; obedience and authority; manipulation of external variables in a social context, e.g. a laboratory or a classroom) tackled the concept of how the moral values develop from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. For their exemplification we chose from time to time to present the series of experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram. In this classical, yet impossible to repeat nowadays experiment, he concluded that people- from various walks of life- obey either out of fear or out of a desire to appear cooperative, even when acting against their own better judgment, moral values and desires. Discussing with the students about the results of this experiment left us, almost every time, with a controversial state- students divided themselves into 'those who obey' vs. 'rebels', with some of them situating in between ("obeyed but blames themselves') (exactly as the participants in the original experiments!) In the long run, due to this extraordinary reaction we had from our students, these applications used for educational purpose became more complex. Thus, we translated a topic for an essay used by us in a Master of Bioethics program in the USA (2014-2015) and we reframed it for educational purpose. The topic refers to "Death and dying" and presents 6 types of killing which are legally sanctioned in the United States, including, for example, killing in self-defence or the capital punishment. The initial task we had in the Master program was, leaving legality aside and focusing only on morality, to rank each six of the categories in order--most immoral (#1) to least immoral (#6) according to our personal values. In doing so, we were also asked to provide a moral argument to justifying our ranking. Also, we were told that for the purposes of this essay, religious or legal arguments are not acceptable. This essay presents in extenso a personal exemplification of a possible ranking of these categories, the results of the exercise performed with the students, and proposes furthermore an educational framework- ready to be used by them. Thus, we hope to offer a relevant and actual application for teaching ethical issues in an university setting, which goes beyond a mere description of theoretical concepts and provides ethical tools for understanding the social life.


A total of 352 animals (cattle-182; buffalo-170) from Cabacan, Matalam and Ma-a abattoir slaughter house in Davao City [Philippines] were used in this study. Approximately 6 mL was collected for serological examination using Card Agglutination Test for Trypanosoma evansi (CATT/T. evansi). A wet mount examination was performed to detect the presence of T. evansi in the blood. Fecal samples were collected to determine the presence of liver fluke, roundworms, giardia, cryposporidia and coccidian. Nasopharyngeal swabs collected from the animals slaughtered at the Ma-a abbatoir was used in an attempt to isolate Pasteurella multocida. Overall result showed that the prevalence of surra in animals raised in Kabacan was higher (20%) compared to Matalam (13%). Risk assessment analysis revealed that a surra positive buffalo was six times more likely to be infected with P. multocida than surra negative buffalo. The surra positive buffaloes were two times more likely to be infected with roundworms and liverfluke than surra negative buffaloes. Interestingly, surra positive buffaloes were more susceptible to pasteurellosis and parasitic infection, than surra positive cattle. The calculated risk for age on the seropositivity indicated that cattle ages up to two-years old are three times more likely to get infected with T. evansi. On the contrary, the age of buffaloes did not influence seropositivity. All animals examined were positive with coccidian however; both giardia and cryptosporidia were not detected.


The factors that affect the urban/suburban residential location choice has long been of interest to the field of urban planning as it explains the distribution of both population and income in metropolitan areas. This study provides empirical evidence on whether the urban-centralization trends of population exist and how household income and urban opportunities are associated with urban/suburban locational choice in the Seattle metropolitan area in order to draw policy implications for urban revitalization. Descriptive statistics show that the net-flow of urban population is negative during the study period. Two sets of binomial logistic models are employed based on origins in order to understand the mechanisms underlying urban/suburban residential location choice. The role of income in explaining urban/suburban residential location choice becomes modest after controlling for other independent variables. Only high-income households are more likely to choose an urban-to-urban move over urban-to-suburban move as compared to middle-income households. In addition, increases in job and retail/services opportunities, as well as the median built-year of neighborhood structure, are positively all related to the log odds of choosing urban over suburban areas regardless of origins. Throughout the study, the classification of urban versus suburban neighborhood is based on the residents' perceptions of their neighborhood type as opposed to census criteria. Findings suggest that redistribution of population and income back to urban areas does not exist within the Seattle metropolitan area. Policies and programs creating more employment opportunities as well as higher retail/service land use in urban areas will help to increase the proportion of the urban population in the Seattle metropolitan area. Furthermore, solutions for urban revitalization should include strategies to provide newer housing in better condition in urban areas, which will keep both urban and suburban inhabitants from moving to the suburbs for better housing conditions.


As a family law practitioner, I have realised that when entering into marriage, most people are not aware of the laws that have direct effect on their estates and only get to be conscious of them when they divorce. The aim of this article is to highlight different matrimonial regimes in South Africa, but more particularly to discuss an option available to those whose marriage is subject to an accrual system as far as protecting their claim to the growth of their spouses' estates is concerned. I will show that the Matrimonial Property Act 88 of 1984 (the Act) does provide for the division of the growth of the marriage without the parties thereto actually instituting divorce proceedings.