Abstract— The percentage of pigmented to total bacteria in the outdoor atmospheric population was studied in the field and in controlled laboratory experiments to evaluate the effects of solar radiation (SR) on bacterial survival. The field experiments showed that the percentage of pigmented bacteria positively correlated with SR activity during clear summer days. The percentage was lowest during darkness before dawn and around midnight (ca 33%) and as the SR increased during the day, gradually increased to a maximum of ca 50–60% at noontime to early afternoon and decreased thereafter. In the laboratory the ambient outdoor atmospheric bacteria impacted on culture plates were exposed to simulated SR and a germicidal light. With increased exposure, more nonpig‐mented bacteria were killed and the percentage of pigmented bacteria gradually increased. These observations suggest an inverse relationship between the atmospheric bacterial survival and the percentage of pigmented bacteria contained therein, thus supporting the notion that pigmentation might provide protection for outdoor atmospheric bacteria from sunlight damage. As a consequence, viable pigmented bacteria (and other UV‐resistant forms) in the atmosphere could be enriched under areas of stratospheric ozone depletion.


Decreased major histocompatibility class II (MHCII) expression is associated with poor survival in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Immune-privileged site DLBCL (IP-DLBCL) patients reportedly have frequent large deletions at the MHCII locus whereas the mechanism of decreased expression in non-IP-DLBCL is unknown. Gene expression profiling data were used for correlation analyses between expression levels of MHCII genes with each other and their transcriptional regulator, CIITA. Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) assessed chromosomal alterations at MHCII-related loci. Finally, a map was created of expression of genes that are telomeric, within, or centromeric to the MHCII locus. Correlation coefficients among MHCII genes ranged from 0.73 to 0.92, whereas those between adjacent and intervening genes were lower (-0.12 to 0.49). Correlations between MHCII and CIITA expression were higher (0.53 to 0.60) than between CIITA and neighboring genes (-0.05 to 0.22). In 23 MHCII(-) cases, CGH detected 2 losses and 2 gains at MHCII loci. Expression of genes telomeric, within, and centromeric to MHCII loci were near normal in most MHCII(-) cases. Large deletions of the MHCII locus are uncommon in non-IP-DLBCL, implicating altered transcription as the operative mechanism for decreased expression.


In this paper, we study the Empirical Risk Minimization (ERM) problem in the non-interactive Local Differential Privacy (LDP) model. Previous research on this problem \citep{smith2017interaction} indicates that the sample complexity, to achieve error $\alpha$, needs to be exponentially depending on the dimensionality $p$ for general loss functions. In this paper, we make two attempts to resolve this issue by investigating conditions on the loss functions that allow us to remove such a limit. In our first attempt, we show that if the loss function is $(\infty, T)$-smooth, by using the Bernstein polynomial approximation we can avoid the exponential dependency in the term of $\alpha$. We then propose player-efficient algorithms with $1$-bit communication complexity and $O(1)$ computation cost for each player. The error bound of these algorithms is asymptotically the same as the original one. With some additional assumptions, we also give an algorithm which is more efficient for the server. In our second attempt, we show that for any $1$-Lipschitz generalized linear convex loss function, there is an $(\epsilon, \delta)$-LDP algorithm whose sample complexity for achieving error $\alpha$ is only linear in the dimensionality $p$. Our results use a polynomial of inner product approximation technique. Finally, motivated by the idea of using polynomial approximation and based on different types of polynomial approximations, we propose (efficient) non-interactive locally differentially private algorithms for learning the set of k-way marginal queries and the set of smooth queries.


The editors of PLOS Medicine, together with guest editors Timothy Walsh, Ramanan Laxminarayan and Ana Cristina Gales, announce a forthcoming Special Issue dedicated to bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Research submissions are now being invited. The emergence of pathogenic bacteria which cannot be effectively treated with existing drugs has been prioritised by the World Health Organization as one of the top ten global public health threats facing humanity [1]. Drug-resistant infections are associated with substantial morbidity and mortality, and were estimated to contribute to 4.95 million deaths globally in 2019 [2]. The burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is disproportionately observed in lowand middleincome countries (LMICs), particularly sub-Saharan Africa [2]. Without intervention, it has been estimated that global deaths attributable to AMR could reach 10 million annually by 2050 [3]. AMR is a One Health problem and its causes lie in human, animal and environmental domains. The overuse and misuse of antibiotics, and the potential for transmission within and between these domains is responsible for the rapid global spread of drug-resistant pathogens. Use of antibiotics increased by 65% globally between 2000 and 2015, and more than doubled in LMICs over the same period [4]. Pathogen AMR evolution can limit the effectiveness of available antibiotics and far outpaces our ability to develop new drugs. Of the 32 antibiotics in clinical development to tackle priority pathogens in 2019, only six were classified as innovative [5]. Action to impede the development of drug-resistance is urgently required. The guest editors and PLOS Medicine editors seek high-quality and high-impact research submissions related to the main drivers, surveillance and prevention of bacterial antimicrobial resistance, particularly in lowand middle-income settings. Areas of particular interest include the prevalence and clinical challenges of drug-resistant bacteria, interventions to reduce disease transmission, diagnostics informing antimicrobial prescribing, misuse and overuse of antimicrobials, economics of antimicrobial access and use, and One Health interventions to reduce AMR. Submission of articles related to pathogens of highest concern and highest global burden (excluding Mycobacterium tuberculosis) are strongly encouraged. Please see plos.io/AMR for more detailed information. To submit your manuscript for consideration, please visit http://journals.plos.org/ plosmedicine/s/submit-now, indicating your interest in the Special Issue in your cover letter. Questions about the Special Issue can be directed to firstname.lastname@example.com. The submission deadline is July 15 2022.


Current screening test for celiac disease involves blood test in centralized pathology laboratories, typically performing enzyme-linked immune-sorbent assays (ELISA) to detect specific celiac disease antibodies. Most of the current available celiac disease antibody tests detect anti-gliadin (AGA), anti-endomysial (EMA), anti-transglutaminase (tTG), or deamidated gluten peptide (DGP) antibodies from serum or whole blood samples. It requires blood collection from untreated celiac patients, which is often invasive and inconvenient. There is a rapid growth in demand for noninvasive celiac tests for the early and fast diagnosis of celiac disease to help potential celiac patients obtain results and take corresponding actions. Over the last decade, several point-of-care tests (POCT) have been introduced to the market, but these tests have not been widely accepted by clinicians. Moreover, the 2009 NICE guideline CG 86 recommended that self-tests and/or POCT for celiac disease should not be used as a substitute for laboratory-based tests. Here, we provide a background on the evolution of POCT for celiac disease. We discuss general principle of operation for the known commercial kits as well as the use of various antigens and antibodies in different tests developed over the years. Finally, we discuss challenges for future research directions in celiac disease POCTs.


: In the present study 84 patients with the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis were identified as living in Navarra on the date of prevalence (December 31, 1986). The raw yearly incidence rate was 0.49/100000, which is similar to that in Mediterranean countries. A significant increase of this rate was found between 1951 and 1986, which was interpreted as a consequence of higher economic status and/or progressive industrialization. The raw prevalence rate was 16.4/100000 and age-specific prevalence was 26.5. Therefore, Navarra is a medium risk area for MS. Mean age at onset was 29.3 years, with a significant female predominance. In addition, MS presented earlier in females. The relationship between MS and latitude of the residence area was confirmed. The most common presenting symptoms were motor (paresia) and sensory (paresthesia). Cerebrospinal fluid was abnormal in 86.5% of patients, evoked potentials (mostly visual) in 85.9%, and magnetic resonance in 100%. Demyelinizing signs were detected with CT in 29.4% of patients. The diagnostic criteria of the Boston University Workshop were highly reliable. The most common evolutive pattern was the pure remitting one. The mean degree of disability was 3.6 in Kurtzke's scale. The evolutive form and the duration of the disease were identified as predictive of disability. 43.5% of benign forms and 13.1% of late onset forms were identified.


Abstract Effects of inputs of organic matter were studied on bioavailability and cycling of hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) in benthic ecosystems of the Baltic and Kattegat Seas. In laboratory experiments, effects of microalgae additions were studied on the bioaccumulation of HOCs (PCBs and PAHs) by the blue mussel Mytilus edulis, the brittle star Amphiura filiformis, and the polychaete Nereis diversicolor. Contrary to the equilibrium partitioning theory, bioaccumulation was proportional to the concentrations of algae and organic carbon. This was attributed to the high nutritional quality of the algal organic carbon and suggests that feeding rather than equilibrium partitioning governed bioaccumulation in these species. In the field, annual mass fluxes of PCBs in blue mussels and in brittle stars were estimated, as well as contaminant transfer to higher trophic levels. Our results suggest that: i) Eutrophication processes may contribute to increase HOC accumulation in benthic species. ii) Temporal variation in the quantity and quality of organic carbon needs to be considered when assessing contamination of benthic systems. iii) Macrofaunal feeding activities are important for the benthic-pelagic coupling of HOCs. iv) Bioturbation enhances the release of HOCs from sediment to overlying water.


Over the last decade, studies of the Cold War have mushroomed globally. Unfortunately, work on Latin America has not been well represented in either theoretical or empirical discussions of the broader conflict. With some notable exceptions, studies have proceeded in rather conventional channels, focusing on U.S. policy objectives and high-profile leaders (Fidel Castro) and events (the Cuban Missile Crisis) and drawing largely on U.S. government sources. Moreover, only rarely have U.S. foreign relations scholars engaged productively with Latin American historians who analyze how the international conflict transformed the region's political, social, and cultural life. Representing a collaboration among eleven North American, Latin American, and European historians, anthropologists, and political scientists, this volume attempts to facilitate such a cross-fertilization. In the process, In From the Cold shifts the focus of attention away from the bipolar conflict, the preoccupation of much of the so-called new Cold War history, in order to showcase research, discussion, and an array of new archival and oral sources centering on the grassroots, where conflicts actually brewed.

The collection's contributors examine international and everyday contests over political power and cultural representation, focusing on communities and groups above and underground, on state houses and diplomatic board rooms manned by Latin American and international governing elites, on the relations among states regionally, and, less frequently, on the dynamics between the two great superpowers themselves. In addition to charting new directions for research on the Latin American Cold War, In From the Cold seeks to contribute more generally to an understanding of the conflict in the global south.

Contributors . Ariel C. Armony, Steven J. Bachelor, Thomas S. Blanton, Seth Fein, Piero Gleijeses, Gilbert M. Joseph, Victoria Langland, Carlota McAllister, Stephen Pitti, Daniela Spenser, Eric Zolov


Solid organ transplantation is often life-saving. Transplanting a different genetic graft determines the immune response of the recipient, which detects the graft as a non-self, and tries to eliminate it. Immunosuppressive therapy is essential to prevent allograft rejection. Immunosuppression begins with induction therapy, followed by maintenance therapy. If hyperacute or acute rejections occur, they are reversed with certain immunosuppressive intensive care regimens. Immunosuppression is realized with glucocorticosteroids and other drugs that diminish T lymphocytes response or interfere with other stages of the immune response to the graft. Marked toxicity of individual immunosuppressants, as well as the risks associated with immunosuppression make it imperious to use minimal effective doses of immunosuppressants to maintain graft maintenance. Therefore, synergic drug combinations are commonly used, which allow for the smaller doses of each drug. Immunosuppressants are frequently involved in drug interactions and drug-food interactions, making treatment surveillance more challenging.


Enterprises rely more on Information Systems (IS) and software than ever before. However the issue of maintaining a vendor-supplied IS, in particular standard packaged software, has been poorly represented within academic literature. This paper presents a conceptual study that synthesises the current state of research concerning the deferral or execution of vendor-supplied maintenance by the purchasing organisation. Based on a systematic review process that adopts the purchasers viewpoint, a series of fears and triggers emerge and are captured from the literature. Fears are articulated as reasons for the purchasing organisation deferring the installation of vendor-supplied maintenance, whereas triggers are events that upset the equilibrium of the purchasing organisations IS or software and require the installation of the vendor-supplied maintenance to proceed. Although prevalent in literature, fears and triggers have not previously been recognised as an area of focus for academic research.


In New Zealand's 2014 general election, a series of opinion polls demonstrated that the public was greatly concerned about inequality, poverty and "the wealth gap". Other work conducted that year indicated significant support for raising the minimum wage. In the actual election, however, the parties who campaigned most strongly on those issues (Labour, the Greens and Mana) achieved historically horrific results. Clearly, even when such issues are seen as important, other factors remain salient as people make their political choices. This paper offers insights into some of those "other factors". Drawing on survey, interview and focus group work conducted in 2014, and adopting Boltanski and Thevenot's (2006) typology of the 'grammars of justification' employed in public debates, it focuses on the structures of argumentation that elite and lay actors draw on as they advance claims. The paper concludes that New Zealand's pragmatic-positivist political culture privileges arguments that appeal to 'market forces' and the constraints imposed by 'external forces'.


Objective: The products of the hypothalamic - pituitary - adrenal axis (HPA) and the autonomic nervous system as a result of stressful life events are closely related to the occurrence of chronic insomnia. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether a stress management intervention program can reduce the subjective reactions which are associated with stress and the symptoms of insomnia in a sample of 40 lawyers of Athens Bar Association.
Methods: This was a two-armed, parallel group, randomized controlled study with about a 1:1 allocation ratio of lawyers with primary insomnia to the intervention and the wait-list control group and afollow up period of 8-weeks. The stress management technique program, included progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), relaxation breathing technique, autogenic training, Guided Imagery and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). Validated scales were used to measure variables (AIS, PSS 14, Dass-21, ΗLC, Rosenberg Self-esteem scale and Greek PSQI).
Results: A total of 40 people were selected to enter the study and were randomly allocated into two groups, intervention group and control group (21 and 19 respectively). Individuals in the intervention group experienced a statistical significant improvement in sleep parameters. There was a statistically significant reduction in depression (p=0.015) and stress levels (p=0.029) pre- and postintervention in the stress management group. Furthermore, we recorded amoderate amelioration in insomnia and sleep quality (effect sizes 0.3 and 0.32 respectively).
Conclusion: We provide evidence that stress management may merit some benefits at improving sleep, by means of both insomnia and quality of sleep improvement.


Computational techniques for fitting a 3-D rotation to 3-D data are recapitulated in a refined form as minimization over proper rotations, extending three existing methods-the method of singular value decomposition, the method of polar decomposition, and the method of quaternion representation. Then, we describe the problem of 3-D motion estimation in this new light. Finally, we define the covariance matrix of a rotation and analyze the statistical behavior of errors in 3-D rotation fitting. >


Research in the social sciences and psychology has shown that the persuasiveness of an argument depends not only the language employed, but also on attributes of the source/communicator, the audience, and the appropriateness and strength of the argument's claims given the pragmatic and discourse context of the argument. Among these characteristics of persuasive arguments, prior work in NLP does not explicitly investigate the effect of the pragmatic and discourse context when determining argument quality. This paper presents a new dataset to initiate the study of this aspect of argumentation: it consists of a diverse collection of arguments covering 741 controversial topics and comprising over 47,000 claims. We further propose predictive models that incorporate the pragmatic and discourse context of argumentative claims and show that they outperform models that rely only on claim-specific linguistic features for predicting the perceived impact of individual claims within a particular line of argument.


A digital computer model of a diesel engine and load is developed
which takes into account in cycle calculations the input temperature and
pressure, mass of fuel injected, angle of injection, and cylinder temperature
and pressure, and gives as outputs the average torque and speed. A
typical heat release curve from a practical engine test is used with
ignition delay considered constant in time. Results from the program are
validated by comparison with data taken from laboratory engine tests.
This model is subsequently linearized to obtain the transfer function
matrix relating input manifold pressure, mass of fuel injected, and angle
of advance to output torque and speed.
The design of a feedback controller is then investigated using pole
and zero placement techniques, the system inputs and outputs being demanded
and achieved torque and speed .


The origin and early evolution of South American rodents are ongoing subjects of debate. The caviomorphs of the Peruvian localities of Santa Rosa and Contamana are the oldest South American rodents so far known. The Santa Rosa rodents are abundant and diverse, but dating was based on biostratigraphy (?Eocene), whereas in various Contamana sites radiometric dates, vertebrate biochronology and palynostratigraphy suggest an age of 41.6–40.94 Ma (late middle Eocene). Previous faunal comparisons between the localities have identified few shared taxa. Here we studied new and previously described rodent fossils from Santa Rosa and analysed their biochronological and biogeographical implications. We recognize five new taxa and three genera for Santa Rosa, four of them previously known only from the Eocene Contamana region. Thus, the Santa Rosa and the late middle Eocene Contamana assemblages appear to be chronologically closer than previously thought. An ?Eocene age for Santa Rosa is substantiated by other mammals reported from Santa Rosa. With 11 named genera and 15 species, the Santa Rosa rodents represent the most species‐rich South American Palaeogene rodent assemblage known. The Eocene radiation in the Neotropics that gave rise to this diversity was not associated with an immediate geographical dispersion to higher latitudes, perhaps because different biogeographical barriers or factors of competition delayed their dispersal. Evidence suggests that replacement, rather than a persistence of conservative long‐lasting lineages, was the dominant process among Palaeogene tropical caviomorph rodents.


This paper presents the Averaged CVB (ACVB) inference and oers convergence-guaranteed and practically useful fast Collapsed Variational Bayes (CVB) inferences. CVB inferences yield more precise inferences of Bayesian probabilistic models than Variational Bayes (VB) inferences. However, their convergence aspect is fairly unknown and has not been scrutinized. To make CVB more useful, we study their convergence behaviors in a empirical and practical approach. We develop a convergence-guaranteed algorithm for any CVB-based inference called ACVB, which enables automatic convergence detection and frees non-expert practitioners from the difficult and costly manual monitoring of inference processes. In experiments, ACVB inferences are comparable to or better than those of existing inference methods and deterministic, fast, and provide easier convergence detection. These features are especially convenient for practitioners who want precise Bayesian inference with assured convergence.


This study examined relationship between external reserves and economic growth in Nigeria from 1981 to 2014. The study used the Ordinary least squares econometric method of analysis. The result of the study showed that external reserves had positive and significant influence on the economic growth in Nigeria. Based on the major finding of this study, it was concluded that external reserve in Nigeria has over the period of study contributed positively and significantly to the growth of the economy. Thus, the study recommended the need for prudent management of Nigerian's external reserves to ensure more growth and also that government should put in more policies that will enhance increased accumulation of external reserves. Research paper Keywords: External reserves, economic growth, OLS, Nigeria Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Nwosa, P. I. (2017). External Reserves on Economic Growth in Nigeria, Journal of Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics , 5 (2), 110–126.


Large classroom variance of student age is prevalent in developing countries, where achievement tends to be low. This paper investigates whether increased classroom age variance adversely affects mathematics and science achievement. Using exogenous variation in the variance of student age in ability-mixing schools, the author finds robust negative effects of classroom age variance on fourth graders' achievement in developing countries. A simulation demonstrates that re-grouping students by age in the sample can improve math and science test scores by roughly 0.1 standard deviations. According to past estimates for the United States, this effect size is similar to that of raising expenditures per student by 26 percent.


Recent advances in wireless technologies have given rise to the emergence of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). In such networks, the limited coverage of WiFi and the high mobility of the nodes generate frequent topology changes and network fragmentations. For these reasons, and taking into account that there is no central manager entity, routing packets through the network is a challenging task. Therefore, offering an efficient routing strategy is crucial to the deployment of VANETs. This paper deals with the optimal parameter setting of the optimized link state routing (OLSR), which is a well-known mobile ad hoc network routing protocol, by defining an optimization problem. This way, a series of representative metaheuristic algorithms (particle swarm optimization, differential evolution, genetic algorithm, and simulated annealing) are studied in this paper to find automatically optimal configurations of this routing protocol. In addition, a set of realistic VANET scenarios (based in the city of Málaga) have been defined to accurately evaluate the performance of the network under our automatic OLSR. In the experiments, our tuned OLSR configurations result in better quality of service (QoS) than the standard request for comments (RFC 3626), as well as several human experts, making it amenable for utilization in VANET configurations.


The existing rhetoric surrounding tribal civil jurisdiction over non-Indians often leaves out the historical foundations to that jurisdiction. This article compares the tribal economies of the 18th and 19th centuries with the current environment of gaming and economic development on tribal lands. Though non-Indians and nonmembers occasionally object to tribal jurisdiction, the long history of tribal governance and economic regulation demonstrates that nonmembers have received and continue to receive the benefit of a bargain that places them under considerable tribal regulation in exchange for access to tribal markets. Through a detailed survey of treaties, tribal statutes, and federal laws covering pre-1970's tribal economic regulation, this article reveals that non-Indians have continually consented to tribal jurisdiction to access these tribal markets, making outliers of the non-Indians attempting to access tribal markets without consenting to tribal market regulations. Analyzing the laws surrounding the federal and tribal licensing of Indian traders; the Great Lakes fur trade; the marriage laws of the Five Civilized Tribes; and the procedures established for dealing with intruders on Indian lands in the 18th and 19th centuries demonstrates the vast historical underpinnings of the current efforts to retain civil jurisdiction over non-Indians.


Many parts of the world have experienced frequent and severe droughts during the last few decades. Most previous studies examined the effects of specific drought events on vegetation productivity. In this study, we characterized the drought events in China from 1982 to 2012 and assessed their effects on vegetation productivity inferred from satellite data. We first assessed the occurrence, spatial extent, frequency, and severity of drought using the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). We then examined the impacts of droughts on China's terrestrial ecosystems using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). During the period 1982–2012, China's land area (%) experiencing drought showed an insignificant trend. However, the drought conditions had been more severe over most regions in northern parts of China since the end of the 1990s, indicating that droughts hit these regions more frequently due to the drier climate. The severe droughts substantially reduced annual and seasonal NDVI. The magnitude and direction of the detrended NDVI under drought stress varied with season and vegetation type. The inconsistency between the regional means of PDSI and detrended NDVI could be attributed to different responses of vegetation to drought and the timing, duration, severity, and lag effects of droughts. The negative effects of droughts on vegetation productivity were partly offset by the enhancement of plant growth resulting from factors such as lower cloudiness, warming climate, and human activities (e.g., afforestation, improved agricultural management practices).


The purpose of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive account and detailed analysis of the forces that led to the emergence and consolidation of the Syrian-Iranian alliance during a turbulent decade in the modern history of the Middle East. The alliance between the two states, which has now lasted over twenty years, has proved to be an enduring feature of the political landscape of this troubled region. Moreover, since its inception, it has had a significant impact in terms of moulding events and bringing about major changes in the contemporary Middle East. The thesis sets out to demonstrate that, contrary to prevailing views (due in large part to the authoritarian nature of the Syrian and Iranian regimes and their unpopularity in the West), the alliance between them has been essentially defensive in nature. It emerged in response to acts of aggression orchestrated by Iraq (1980) and Israel (1982), in both cases with the tacit support and prior knowledge of the United States. As a result of the research undertaken for this thesis, three distinct phases in the evolution and institutionalization of the Damascus-Tehran axis can be discerned. One chapter is devoted to each of these phases, constituting the three core sections of the thesis. A brief introduction sets out to provide a conceptual framework for understanding the genesis and evolution of the Syrian-lranian nexus. The first core chapter, covering the emergence of the alliance between 1979 and 1982, demonstrates that, while the initial impetus for the birth of the relationship came from the overthrow of Iran's conservative, pro-Western monarchy in 1979, the Iraqi invasion of Iran in September 1980 served as a major catalyst in bringing Syria and Iran closer together, with Syria providing valuable diplomatic and military assistance to help Iran stave off defeat. The second core chapter covers the period between 1982 and 1985, when Israel launched an invasion of Lebanon and challenged Syria in its backyard. Here, Iran lent its support to Syria to drive out Israeli and Western forces during the period 1983-1985. The third core chapter deals with a critical, and perhaps the most problematic, phase in the development of the alliance. By the mid-1980's, both parties had developed conflicting agendas, contributing to tensions between them. However, continued consultations between the two allies, and their ability to prioritize their respective interests and redefine the parameters for cooperation, led by the late 1980s to the maturation and consolidation of their relationship. Finally, the conclusion looks at the reasons why the alliance lasted beyond the 1980's.


This thesis explores the potential of mental elaboration as a means of decreasing risky driving among young male drivers. Around 600 young male drivers participated in the three studies. First, in order to clarify the mental background of risky driving behaviour and to construct a framework for interventions, speeding drivers were interviewed in-depth to explore mental representations of crashes and their consequences (Study I). In Study II, two interventions based on imagining personal consequences of causing a serious traffic crash were developed and tested experimentally. One was based on stimulating the participant himself to generate a crash scenario, while the other used a video in which a little girl was knocked down at a pedestrian crossing by a young male speeding driver as a stimulus for imagining. In Study 3, effects of simply responding to a questionnaire on personal risky driving behaviour were examined. Results indicate that young male drivers do not spontaneously think of serious negative personal consequences as a potential aftermath of crash involvement, but no long-term effects of the interventions tested could be demonstrated. Answering a questionnaire regarding driving behaviour resulted in a decrease in self-reported risky driving behaviour some five weeks later. This result was replicated three times and indicates that answering questions on personal risky driving behaviour may elicit an elaborative process in respondents' minds, leading to a more cautious driving style. The conclusion is that methods based on mental elaboration on personal driving behaviour may have a role to play in persuading young male drivers to adopt a safer driving style and should be explored further as a means of increasing traffic safety. An advantage is that such methods may elicit "self-persuasion", which does not evoke reactance. Self-persuasion works by making people discover their own motivation for change.


Was 'modernity' in the Middle East merely imported piecemeal from the West? Did Ottoman society really consist of islands of sophistication in a sea of tribal conservatism, as has so often been claimed? In this groundbreaking new book, Martha Mundy and Richard Saumarez Smith draw on over a decade of primary source research to argue that, contrary to such stereotypes, a distinctively Ottoman process of modernisation was achieved by the end of the nineteenth century with great social consequences for all who lived through it. Modernisation touched women as intimately as men: the authors' careful work explores the impact of Ottoman legal reforms, such as granting women equal rights to land. Mundy and Saumarez Smith have painstakingly recreated a picture of such processes through both new archival material and the testimony of surviving witnesses to the period. This book will not only affect the way we look at Ottoman society, it will change our understanding of the relationship between East, West and modernity.


Individually measured head‐related‐transfer functions were used to simulate different acoustic environments in order to see how listener experience influences auditory distance perception. Three environments were simulated: an anechoic space, a classroom with the listener in the room center, and the same classroom with the listener in the room corner. Each subject completed two series of trials consisting of 360 trials in each environment. Each series consisted of six experimental sessions, with only one session performed per day. In the fixed‐room series, one environment was tested in each session (ordered randomly). In the mixed‐room series, trials from the three environments were intermingled within each session. Listeners were divided into two groups: Group A performed the fixed‐room series followed by the mixed‐room series, while Group B did the reverse. Sources were simulated from ahead and to the right of the listener at distances ranging from 0.15 to 1.7 m. Preliminary analysis indicates that perf...


This paper describes how the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision uses labs as a structured but flexible instrument to experiment with different solutions that are required for the realisation of a new visitor experience at an early stage. They allow us to assess the functional performance, user experience and practicalities involved with implementing different technological solutions for the many challenges involved with our ambitious vision for the new museum. The labs are partly conducted 'in the wild' on the museum floor, with test subjects representing the new prospective museum visitor. In the coming years these labs will allow us to fail early, make informed choices, and build internal knowledge on key aspects of our new museum experience and the mechanisms required to realise our vision. The Media Experience at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum celebrated its 11th birthday in December 2017. Although this personalized visitor experience, filled with interactive exhibitions, still proves to be an example for a lot of colleague institutions, we are now on the cusp of a large scale transformation into an Institute for Media Culture. This transformation comes with significant technological challenges to bring the vision for this museum to reality. In reaction to a sea change in the global media landscape, the storyline for the new museum is based on the notion that everyone fulfils a significant role in the world of media. This paper will describe the topics we identified for potential labs related to our new museum concept and the rationale behind them. It will also describe how we've structured the labs as an agile instrument to inform the development process and how they are implemented in the larger structure of the programme that delivers the new museum. All of this will be illustrated with the first two labs we've run, on facial recognition and personal data profiling respectively.


Abstract Cu3(As,Sb)S4 minerals commonly contain structurally disordered crystals of intergrown enargite and the luzonite-famatinite series (Pósfai and Sundberg 1998). Here we discuss the relationships between the fine-scale structural variations and the Sb/As ratios of these minerals. Although luzonite typically contains more Sb than enargite, individual layers of luzonite within Sb-bearing enargite are not associated with higher Sb/As ratios. Defectfree enargite can also contain Sb. We develop a ''structure-composition'' diagram in which both the structural enargite-luzonite and the compositional luzonite-famatinite solid solutions can be represented. Compositions plotted in this diagram reveal that Sb-bearing enargite and luzonite contain only a relatively small number of defects, whereas Sb-free crystals can be heavily disordered. Coexisting enargite and famatinite and zoning in luzonite- famatinite indicate fluctuations in the Sb-content of the fluid during ore deposition. On the other hand, assemblages of Sb-free enargite and luzonite probably reflect thermal oscillations; heavily disordered, intermediate structures may have formed near the transition temperature of low-temperature luzonite to high-temperature enargite. Our results suggest that characteristic microstructures in enargite, luzonite, and famatinite can be useful for constraining fluid composition and temperature during ore deposition.


This thematic issue of Studies in the Literary Imagination brings together both established and emerging scholars in the field of Carlyle Studies to address Carlyle's paradoxical and often controversial politics from a variety of angles. A reconsideration of the political and ideological views permeating Carlyle's work--ranging from his early aesthetic and social criticism to his historiographies and biographies--presents itself as a highly timely intervention, not only in the field of Carlyle studies, but in the study of nineteenth-century literature as such. Far from a belated attempt at apologetic restoration, the issue results from a shared conviction among the contributors that there is at present an acute need to re-examine critically Carlyle's politics after the often uncritical assumption of his adherence to a totalitarian ideology that dominated the twentieth-century reception of his work. The articles included in the volume span Carlyle's career from his earliest writings to his biography of Frederick the Great and re-examine Carlyle's politics from rhetorical, historical, biographical, discursive, and philosophical/theoretical angles. The narrative that has persistently determined Carlyle's twentieth-century reception is that of the degeneration of a promising "Romantic" prophet into an altogether tragic and ultraconservative "Victorian" sage. This narrative is familiar enough and was most economically articulated by Harold Bloom in his introduction to the 1986 volume of Modern Critical Views on Carlyle: In his profound anxiety to overturn the empirical view of the cosmos as a vast machine, Carlyle divinised nature and debased man. It is Carlyle, and not his critic Nietzsche, who is the forerunner of twentieth-century fascism, with its mystical exaltation of the state and its obliteration of compassion and the rights of the individual. That shadow cannot be removed from the later Carlyle, author of such efforts as "The Nigger Question" (1849) and "Shooting Niagara: and After?" (1867), and uncritical idolater of those iron men, Oliver Cromwell and Frederick the Great. It is the Carlyle who wrote during the fifteen years from 1828 to 1843 who still matters to us. The author of "Signs of the Times" (1829) and "Characteristics" (1831), of Sartor Resartus (completed 1831) and Past and Present (1843) remains the sage who fathered Ruskin, inspired Emerson, and stimulated the social prophecy of William Morris. If time has darkened Carlyle, it has shown also that there is a perpetual remnant of vision in him, a voice that still rises out of the wilderness. (14-15) This "perpetual remnant of vision" has consistently been located in Carlyle's early critical engagement with German Romanticism and idealism, from which he derived the poetic insights and rhetorical means to effect his own highly singular late-Romantic critique of British utilitarianism. In his History of Modern Criticism, for example, Rene Wellek claimed that From a strictly literary-critical perspective, one must deplore that Carlyle chose the path of virtue: the shift to biography, didacticism, moralism, and the criterion of "sincerity" have not advanced the cause of criticism. Carlyle's temporary adoption of the creed of historicism and of German romantic symbolism brought him much closer to an understanding of poetry. But on the other hand, one should recognise that Carlyle's moralism was basic to his personality.... Carlyle's harsh dualism between good and evil in man, his recognition of catastrophes and cataclysms in history, and even his worship of lived experience as "fact" represents a view of the world (and thus of art) that must be faced in order to be refuted. (110) A brief look at the history of Carlyle's reception since the early twentieth century demonstrates that his work has been systematically refuted on the basis of ideological bias or too hasty reading, rather than critically examined or, for that matter, "faced. …


Abstract. The formation of oxalic acid and its mixing state in atmospheric particulate matter (PM) were studied using a single-particle aerosol mass spectrometer (SPAMS) in the summer and winter of 2014 in Heshan, a supersite in the rural area of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region in China. Oxalic-acid-containing particles accounted for 2.5 and 2.7 % in total detected ambient particles in summer and winter, respectively. Oxalic acid was measured in particles classified as elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), elemental and organic carbon (ECOC), biomass burning (BB), heavy metal (HM), secondary (Sec), sodium-potassium (NaK), and dust. Oxalic acid was found predominantly mixing with sulfate and nitrate during the whole sampling period, likely due to aqueous-phase reactions. In summer, oxalic-acid-containing particle number and ozone concentration followed a very similar trend, which may reflect the significant contribution of photochemical reactions to oxalic acid formation. The HM particles were the most abundant oxalic acid particles in summer and the diurnal variations in peak area of iron and oxalic acid show opposite trends, which suggests a possible loss of oxalic acid through the photolysis of iron oxalato-complexes during the strong photochemical activity period. In wintertime, carbonaceous particles contained a substantial amount of oxalic acid as well as abundant carbon clusters and BB markers. The general existence of nitric acid in oxalic-acid-containing particles indicates an acidic environment during the formation process of oxalic acid. The peak areas of nitrate, sulfate and oxalic had similar temporal change in the carbonaceous type oxalic acid particles, and the organosulfate-containing oxalic acid particles correlated well with total oxalic acid particles during the haze episode, which suggests that the formation of oxalic acid is closely associated with the oxidation of organic precursors in the aqueous phase.


Arakawa and Gins, radical philosophers of the future, desire to construct life
beyond the human condition. Their unique and original contribution to
philosophy can be discerned most evidently in their concept of reversible
destiny, an innovative response to our mortal condition. 'We have decided
not to die', their ultimate declaration, is a testament not only to their
architecture – an architecture predicated on the notion that death must be
combated – but also, and perhaps most importantly, to its ability to teach us
to think differently about the future. Even, and perhaps especially, the most
fundamental and basic assumptions of our species are deliberately and
evocatively called into question. It is this resistance to the present – in
learning how not to die, in educating life differently – that will be addressed
in this dissertation. The claim made here is that the highly instructive
architectural philosophy of Arakawa and Gins produces a positive and useful
philosophy of life, which orients us towards a new century of philosophy
that operates beyond the human condition.


Indigenous students enrol in vocational education and training (VET) programs because they provide a viable pathway into the workplace or further education. However, most high school VET programs use mainstream teaching methodologies which already assume that students speak the Standard Australian English required for the workplace. This approach can disadvantage Indigenous students, particularly those from remote communities who speak a traditional Aboriginal language as a home language. This paper describes a case study of a second language Task-Based Needs Analysis (TBNA) undertaken at a residential high school specialising in VET for Indigenous students, most of whom come from Western Australia's remote communities and speak English as an Additional Language (EAL). The study used naturalistic data collection methods (non-participant observation, unstructured interviews and document collection) to identify the actual language and literacy tasks that students are likely to encounter in various workplace settings. The main findings are presented in relation to work-oriented tasks, work-life tasks and cross-cultural interactions. The research described here provides a potential guide for undertaking a TBNA as the starting point for designing and implementing task-based language teaching programs, especially for Indigenous VET students (and others from non-Western cultures) who speak EAL.


We perform transition path sampling simulations to determine two of the key quantities in solidification, the solid-liquid interface energy and velocity, in a Lennard-Jones system. Our approach is applicable to a wide range of temperature and pressure conditions, at the melting temperature and out-of-equilibrium. We show that small system sizes are sufficient for good values of interface energies and velocities. The transition path sampling method thus offers an attractive and robust alternative for the evaluation of solid-liquid interface properties.


Abstract: [This document has been captured as part of the JMID-section for Grey-literature. Grey (or gray) literature refers to informally published written material that may be difficult to trace via conventional databases and/or journals as it is not formally published or is not widely accessible. However, Grey literature may still be an important source of information. Examples of grey literature include e.g: patents, reports, working documents or unpublished manuscripts] This second document provides some further information about activities conducted in 1998 during the oral health care project 'Operation Smile' in the Liberian refugee camp, Gomoa Buduburam (supported by the German NGO: Deutsch-Afrikanische Gesellschaft (DAFRIG) ) is given.


The current study was done to investigate the potential of the systemic growth regulatory effects of various neem seeds products against immature stages of desert locust infesting potted millet plants in Sudan. The tests also covered the stability of the systemic action of neem seed powder (NSP) under conditions of water stress. Some (33-80%) of the exposed nymphs developed to the third stage without further moulting. Medium lethal time for neem seed water extracts (NSWE), neem seed organic extract (NSOE) and NSP ranged from 166 to 248 hours. All neem seed product induced significant systemic antifeedant activity, ranging from 52 to 99% against the immatures. Based on these findings, NSP, the simplest form, was found to possess systemic activity comparable to complicated forms of neem products. NSP was stable under conditions of delayed watering up to 10 days and the latter had effects on development, mortality and feeding comparable to immediate watering. All aspects studied indicated the superior systemic activity of various neem seed products. The fact that they were able to delay development, prevent further moulting of instars, stabilize under conditions of delayed watering, enabled them to confine the desert locust to their breeding sites as immatures without threat of swarm formation and limited damage to local growers.

 Key words: Desert locust, neem seed products, pearl millet, Sudan.


Data on individuals' private shopping choices are often used to draw conclusions about their desires for food policies. The purpose of this paper is to test this often-implicit assumption using data from a nationwide survey about animal cloning. We find that although individuals' private choices indicate a strong desire to avoid meat and milk from cloned cattle, public choices predict that only 40.29% have a positive WTP for such a ban. The results suggest caution is necessary when inferring public preferences from private choices.


In our study we focus on improving our understanding of possible interactions between the open water and sea ice and the surface ocean biogeochemistry under the recently observed sea ice decline in the Arctic. In particular, the analysis of changes in phytoplankton functional types (PFTs) over 2002 to 2012 based on long-term time series of satellite retrievals and supported by a modeling study is presented. The phytoplankton dynamics as well as phytoplankton diversity in response to Arctic Amplification is simulated with the DARWIN biogeochemical model (Follows et al., 2007, Dutkiewicz et al., 2015) coupled to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm) with a configuration based on a cubed‐sphere grid (Menemenlis et al. 2008). The model results are complemented with information on phytoplankton compositions retrieved with PhytoDOAS (Bracher et al. 2009, Sadeghi et al. 2012) from available hyper-spectral optical satellite measurements (SCIAMACHY and OMI), which are synergistically combined via an optimal interpolation technique with multi-spectral optical satellite data (OC-CCI).


Objective To assess the effectiveness of lymphadenectomy at primary debulking surgery (PDS) on the survival of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Methods We searched PubMed, Ichushi, and the Cochrane Library. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and retrospective cohort studies comparing survival of women with EOC undergoing lymphadenectomy at PDS with that of women without lymphadenectomy were included. We performed a meta-analysis of overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and adverse events. Results For advanced-stage EOC, 2 RCTs including 1,074 women and 7 cohort studies comprising 3,161 women were evaluated. Meta-analysis revealed that lymphadenectomy was associated with improved OS (hazard ratio [HR]=0.80; 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.70–0.90). However, meta-analysis of 2 RCTs revealed no significant difference in OS between the lymphadenectomy and no-lymphadenectomy groups (OS: HR=1.02; 95% CI=0.85–1.22). For early-stage EOC, 1 RCT comprising 268 women and 4 cohort studies comprising 14,228 women were evaluated. Meta-analysis showed that lymphadenectomy was associated with improved OS (HR=0.75; 95% CI=0.68–0.82). A RCT of early-stage EOC reported that lymphadenectomy was not associated with improved OS (HR=0.85; 95% CI=0.49–1.47). Surgery-related deaths were similar in both groups (risk ratio [RR]=1.00; 95% CI=0.99–1.01); however, blood transfusion was required less frequently in the no-lymphadenectomy group (RR=0.74; 95% CI=0.63–0.86). Conclusions Meta-analysis of RCTs and observational studies suggest that lymphadenectomy was associated with improved OS in advanced- and early-stage EOC. However, results from RCTs demonstrate that lymphadenectomy was not associated with improved OS in advanced- and early-stage EOC.


When Congress passed the nation's first comprehensive tobacco bill in 2009, it replaced the familiar Surgeon General's warnings, last updated in 1984, with nine blunter warnings. The law also directed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ('FDA') to require color graphics to accompany the textual warnings. By law, the warnings would cover the top fifty percent of the front and back of tobacco packaging and the top twenty percent of print advertisements, bringing the United States closer to many peer countries that now require graphic warnings. Tobacco companies challenged the requirement on First Amendment grounds, arguing that the compelled disclosures violated their free speech rights. In 2012, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals treated the challenge as a facial attack and upheld the law in Discount Tobacco City & Lottery v. United States; five months later, the D.C. Circuit vacated the graphic warnings selected in the FDA's final rule in R.J. Reynolds v. FDA. Although many expected the Supreme Court to resolve the apparent circuit split, the government withdrew the rule and opposed Supreme Court review. As such, the FDA will reinitiate the lumbering rulemaking process and propose new graphic warnings. And when it does, the tobacco industry most likely will challenge the graphic warnings again on First Amendment grounds. This Article considers several ambiguities that these cases have left unresolved and suggests how the FDA and courts should confront these questions during the next round of rulemaking and litigation. The Supreme Court will probably have another chance to resolve these ambiguities and its decision could have significant consequences for future government efforts to catch our attention at the point of sale.


The main objective of this investigation was to find out the effect of yoga selected physiological variables (blood pressure and pulse rate) among hypertensive men. Subjects included in this study were equally divided into three major groups comprised of 30 per group. The detailed description are Group I under Group III acted as control. The study was formulated by the random design, consisting of a pre test and post test. Pre test were conducted for all the 90 subjects on selected physiological variable including blood pressure (both systolic and diastolic) and pulse rate. The experimental groups participated in their respective yoga and brisk walking exercises for a period of twelve weeks. The post tests were conducted for all the subjects again after e exercises. The data obtained were analyzed by Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) to assess the significant difference among the groups on post test for physiological variables. It is concluded that regular practices of middle aged men than the control group. Brisk walking also reduced effectively blood pressure and pulse rate among hypertension middle aged men than the control group. It is found slightly effective than brisk walking on systolic blood pressure whereas yogic practices and walking both are equally effective in diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate.


Complete with colour illustrations and written in a conversational style, biochemist William Elliott unravels the mystery of life while revealing its majesty. How do chemical reactions occur? How do genes hold information? Why do our bodies age? What happens when someone gets cancer? How Life Works provides the inside word for those who are curious about the workings of the microscopic world inside us.

Biochemistry not only explains what DNA is and how it forms the blueprint for who you are, it also explains how the food you eat is broken down, supplying the energy to run a marathon. It shows the intricate structures of proteins and describes their amazing functions. With millions of interactions and reactions all taking place in accord, biochemistry is the science of how life works.


Bayer colour filter arrays (CFA) are commonly used to obtain digital colour imagery from a single-chip CCD or CMOS camera. Colour information is captured via a regular array of colour filters placed over the image sensor, and the full colour image is reconstructed in a demosaicing process. Colour imagery derived in such a way is prone to visual artefacts including false colours, poor edge definition and a loss of image and colour sharpness. Such artefacts are suspected of degrading the quality of photogrammetric measurements made from demosaiced images. An approach to demosaicing based on the use of tuneable Gaussian filters is proposed. The new approach is designed to minimise image artefacts and is specifically aimed at improving the quality of photogrammetric measurements made with the demosaiced imagery. Results are given for a specific application of Bayer CFA cameras to underwater stereo length measurement of fish. The results show a reduction in visual artefacts and an improvement in the quality of stereo measurements.


This paper reports work aimed at improving performance and welfare of cattle during live export for long periods aboard ship. Roughage quality was manipulated in pellet diets to promote better nutritional performance and reduced nitrogen excretion. The type of pellet binder us manipulated to decrease urinary pH and consequent ammonia volatilisation. Rooms were established to simulate heat and humidity loads during live export, and feed and water intake and liveweight of Bos taurus and Bos indicas cattle were monitored in these conditions. Good quality roughage decreased estimated total nitrogen excretion and still maintained cost—effective liveweight gain. Lime produced alkaline urinary pH. Use of gypsum instead of lime, or addition of acid salts such as ammonium chloride or calcium chloride to lime, acidified urinary pH. These dietary manipulations of roughage quality and acid salts reduced atmospheric ammonia under simulated export environments but lucerne diets produced high atmospheric ammonia. Nutritional performance of cattle can be improved cost-effectively by diets containing good quality roughage instead of straw. Atmospheric ammonia can be reduced by addition of acidifying salts such as calcium chloride to export diets. Under high heat and humidity loads the feed intake of B. Taurus decreased, the feed intake of B. indicus did not change, but the water intake of both species increased. B. indicas rapidly recovered any liveweight lost under high heat and humidity within six days of recovery but B. Taurus cattle did not. B. indicas cattle cope significantly better with high heat and humidity loads than B. taurus cattle.


The Stirling Range National Park lies within the south west Botanical Province of Western Australia, which is an acknowledged center of biodiversity and endemism of international significance. It is an important conservation reserve, genetic resource and nature based tourism destination. The mountain scenery and diverse array of wildflowers attract up to 100,000 visitors a year. Biologically the park contains a diverse flora, with 500 plant species, which includes 82 endemics and constitutes 20% of the flora of Western Australia. The health of the Stirling Range ecosystem is being compromised by the spread of an exotic fungus (Phytophthora cinnamomi) accidentally introduced when the road network was expanded through the national park. The fungus has since been spread along roads and fire-control corridors by infected soil being carried on the wheels of vehicles. More recently it has become apparent that walkers, by carrying infected soil on their boots, have spread the disease along mountain pathways. In south Western Australia up to 2000 of the indigenous plants are susceptible to the pathogen. Ecosystem response to the infection has resulted in reduced biodiversity and altered structural composition of the plant communities. Widespread loss of dominant or keystone plant species is likely to impact on dependent faunal populations. This study highlights the role of exotic organisms in degrading ecosystem health and the need for active management in tourism centered protected areas.


Using data collected from eight bank branches in India, this study examines how the trust between branch manager and loan officer begins and develops in multiple stages over a period of time. It seeks to fill an important gap in the academic literature on the development of trust between trustor and trusted over a period of time by empirically examining the trust relationship between branch manager and loan officer in a bank. The results of the cross case qualitative analysis conducted on stages of trust development using pattern matching technique suggest that trust relationship between branch manager and loan officer follows the threestage model of Lewicki and Bunker (1996) with certain deviations applicable only to describe the relationship examined in this study. This study contributes to the literature by exploring the mechanism of trust development between branch manager and loan officer of bank branches in India through a case study and enriching the model of Lewicki and Bunker (1996).


Trios, quartets, quintets; reeds, brass, singers, poets. Each setting serves as fertile environment in which we perform compositions by Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joe Henderson, and other references of Afrological improvised music. You'll hear inflections of bass-n-drum, hip-hop, funk, samba, modifying and yet paying homage to melodies and chord progressions devised by masters of modern music. These masters embody an esthetic of liberation, a tradition of struggle. Our respectful and sometimes unconventional approaches recognize this tradition and draw inspiration from it. The music is a moment in collective dreams beyond our various plantations. As serious as our lives, sometimes fast, sometimes hurried, sometimes lazy, sometimes frenzied, transed, the collective performs with the urgency of our times. No peace. http://www.myspace.com/3jazzcollective


Sir Nevill Mott was Britain's last Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics. This is a tribute to the life and work of Nobel Laureate Nevill Mott, a hugely admired and appreciated man, and one of this countries greatest ever scientists. It includes contributions from over 80 of his friends, family and colleagues, full of anecdotes and appreciations for this collossus of modern physics.


We study a classical Λ-type three-level system based on three high-Q micromechanical beam resonators embedded in a gradient electric field. By modulating the strength of the field at the difference frequency between adjacent beam modes, we realize strong dynamic two-mode coupling, via the dielectric force. Driving adjacent pairs simultaneously, we observe the formation of a purely mechanical "dark" state and an all-phononic analog of coherent population trapping—signatures of strong three-mode coupling. The Λ-type micromechanical system is a natural extension of previously demonstrated "two-level" micromechanical systems and adds to the toolbox for engineering of all-phononic micromechanical circuits and arrays.


This paper provides a discussion on the development of standard negation in Quechua languages. The analysis of the current variation leads to the detection of at least three main standard patterns across Quechua varieties. The diversification of the standard pattern is assumed to be due to the introduction of the non-factual clitic - chu in the negative sentence. I suggest that this was the beginning of a cycle of negation in the Quechua language family. The negative cycle, called the Jespersen Cycle, then followed the next phases with the grammaticalization of the new incomer allowing first bipartite negation and finally single negation again. Notably, this negative cycle involved no weakening of the sort assumed by Jespersen to have played an important role in such changes. Keywords: single negation; bipartite negation; Jespersen Cyclel standard negation


ABSTRACT The assessment rubric is increasingly gaining recognition as a valuable tool in teaching and learning in higher education. While many studies have examined the value of rubrics for students, research into the lecturers' usage of rubrics is limited. This article explores the lecturers' perceptions of rubrics, in particular, its use and design, the role it can play in informing one's teaching practice and in curriculum review and development. The data shows that many lecturers use the rubric in a very mechanical and unconscious manner and view it mostly as a grading tool with limited instructional value. While acknowledging the rubric as a reflective tool for students, lecturers do not perceive it as having the same benefits for them. The findings, therefore suggest more conversations around the role that rubrics can play in informing one's teaching practice and course design. It also suggests further research into this area.


Superabsorbent polymers are obtained by the graft copolymerization of 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesul- fonic acid (AMPS) monomer onto collagen, using ammonium persulfate as a free radical initiator in the presence of methylene bisacrylamide as a crosslinker. Infrared spectroscopy and TGA thermal analysis were carried out to confirm the chemical structure of the hydrogel. Moreover, morphology of the samples was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The effect of reaction variables on swelling capacity was investigated to achieve a hydrogel with improved water absorbency. Under the optimized conditions concluded, maximum capacity of swelling in distilled water was found to be 268 g/g. The swelling ratio in various salt solutions was investigated in detail. Since this hydrogel exhibited a very high absorptivity in saline, it may be referred to as a low salt-sensitive superabsorbent. The collagen-g-AMPS hydrogel also showed cation exchange properties. The swelling kinetics of the synthesized hydrogels with various particle sizes was also preliminarily investigated.


With decreased funding and personnel reductions in many libraries across the United States, local librarians are searching for innovative methods to create sustainable partnerships in the community. Using Mississippi State University's Day One Leadership Community as a case study, this article illustrates how service-learning provides a dynamic connection between a public library and a local university. Establishing such a partnership proved beneficial for student learning, helpful in accomplishing projects in a local library, and through the resulting publicity provided greater interest in and access to library materials for the local community. Program components, personal experiences, and ideas for program replication are shared. ********** Higher education institutions are often described as ivory towers because their work is conducted away from what is happening in their local environments. Students who attend these institutions of higher learning are kept busy with academic coursework and may have neither time nor opportunity to learn about the surrounding community in which they live. This being the case, some students may graduate from college with a lack of understanding of the greater world they inhabit or even a failure to appreciate the local community. Administrators within higher education institutions are seeking ways to link students with their local communities. Some students, including the majority of first-year students coming to campus, are more civically involved than their predecessors. The Corporation for National and Community Service found that "the number of college students volunteering grew by nearly 600,000 from 2.7 million in 2002 to 3.3 million in 2005." (1) These incoming students are more likely to continue community service activities when given opportunities to do so in their classes or via university-sponsored activities. Service-learning provides a link between community needs and academic objectives. Survey data from the Corporation for National and Community Service indicates that the creation of service-learning projects is on the rise. In fact, "at least a quarter of all higher education institutions and more than half of all community colleges have adopted service-learning programs." (2) A number of researchers have shown that service-learning is beneficial for college students both in the short and the long term. (3) Students who participate in service-learning may reap many benefits including enhanced personal skills, increased awareness of global issues, and motivation to learn. (4) Astin, Sax, and Avalos found that these short-term effects of service became long-term effects that continue to benefit students as much as nine years after the service has been conducted. (5) Further, a study conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) in 2000 confirmed these findings and added that service-learning particularly benefits students when conducted as part of an academic course that includes reflection of some type. (6) Accordingly, service-learning creates connections between the "ivory towers" of higher education and the surrounding community. Additional research has been conducted comparing students who take service-learning courses with those who do not. (7) Armstrong compared various types of service-learning, including service-learning linked to an academic course, service-learning as part of an alternative spring break trip, cocurricular service-learning, and a control group of students who did not participate in service-learning. From the study, Armstrong determined that there were different effects on the students' psychosocial development. Of note were the students who participated in the more intensive service-learning experience of the spring break activity--they exhibited greater increases in psychosocial development as compared with the other types of service-learning experiences and the control group. Armstrong's study in particular gave way to understanding that students who are participating in an intensive program have more intimate relationships with the community and are truly engaged in the experience. …


Understanding the global meteor flux at Earth requires the measurement of meteor velocities. While several radar methods exist for measuring meteor velocity, they may be biased by plasma reflection mechanisms. This paper presents a new method for deriving meteoroid velocity from the altitudinal extent of non-specular trails. This method employs our recent discoveries on meteor trail plasma instability. Dyrud et al. (2002) demonstrated that meteor trails are unstable over a limited altitude range, and that the precise altitudes of instability are dependent on the meteoroid that generated the trail. Since meteor trail instability results in field aligned irregularities (FAI) that allow for radar reflection, non-specular trail observations may be used to derive velocity. We use ALTAIR radar data of combined head echos and non-specular trails to test non-specular trail derived velocity against head echo velocities. Meteor velocities derived from non-specular trail altitudinal width match to within 5 km/s when compared with head echo range rates from the same meteor. We apply this technique to Piura radar observations of hundreds of non-specular trails to produce histograms of occurrence of meteor velocity based solely on this non-specular trails width criterion. The results from this study show that the most probable velocity of meteors seen by the Piura radar is near 50 km/s, which is comparable with modern head echo studies.


Background - Lean paradigm has been successfully employed in the manufacturing sector in past decades, however in the engineering services sector its application has unfortunately not received the same attention both from academia and industry. Problem Discussion – The negligence of Lean in the engineering services sector rendered this sector deprived from Lean's proven benefits in the manufacturing sector. The reason for this negligence can be traced back to the fact that Lean's implementation is not a straightforward task and additionally its direct translation from the manufacturing sector into the engineering services sector may impede innovative capabilities of the engineering services sector that are crucial for its sustainable growth. Problem Formulation - In addressing the aforementioned issues, this thesis investigates the following key research question: "Whether and how Lean Innovation can be implemented in the engineering services sector?" Purpose - This work explores and employs different modern theoretical concepts from literature to promote Lean Innovation in the engineering services sector by first developing a theoretical framework in terms of nine propositions and then examining them through a qualitative empirical research. Methodology - The qualitative empirical research is conducted by first gathering empirical data through expert interviews and then analysing it employing the directed content analysis technique in order to examine the nine propositions promoting Lean Innovation. Findings - This study concludes that Lean Innovation in the engineering services sector is achievable by employing modern theoretical concepts like open innovation, the systems approach to problem solving and transformational leadership in a thoughtful and planned manner. Limitations - The lack of depth of the theoretical as well as empirical research focus in terms of the sample size and quality stemming from the challenge of finding enough experts with versatile knowledge in the thesis' timeframe can be considered as limitations on the quality of this research.


The increasing concern for the environmental impact of human activities stimulates the development of new methods for the analysis and design of industrial processes. It is generally admitted that the considerations of environmental and other life cycle factors as early as possible in the design can contribute to a reduction of overall costs. This is illustrated by the so- called fish diagram (fig 1) which shows the evolution of the freedom of design and the corresponding evolution of the overall costs during the design process. Increased freedom of design allows the consideration of process integration alternatives like, for example, those based on energy integration. Knowledge of life cycle parameters from cradle to grave (fig 2), in particular for the choice of materials considered, generates a coherent environmental picture for a holistic evaluation of alternatives. An earlier consideration of these factors favors a cost effective evaluation of trade-offs between internal process improvements and post-treatments of effluents. For processes with significant time dependence of the major input and output parameters additional important questions for the designer are where and when to invest, in particular when staged or deferred cost investments are worth considering. Move towards more sustainable processes is favored by the improvement of: • design methodologies (holistic life cycle design and other process integration methods such as those who will be exposed in this paper) and • technologies or combination of technologies (integration of technologies) to achieve a given production. Process technologies are not fixed but, like living bodies, they tend to adapt to the decision making environment, which at present is mainly based on economic factors and regulatory issues. Ideally assessments at all levels (company, national, international) should be made in a coherent framework where all technology options can freely compete particularly when a major departure from present day economics can be envisaged, at least for sensitivity analyses.


Exploiting local variation in state capacity within Rwanda I investigate the link between state capacity and violence. Using a disaggregated measure of the intensity of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, I establish that greater local state capacity led to greater conflict intensity. I proxy modern state capacity with its precolonial counterpart, measured by the total time a district was incorporated in the precolonial kingdom. This 'duration of incorporation' measures the cumulative effect of the centralizing forces in the kingdom and acts as a proxy for state capacity. Since the kingdom expanded through conquest and consolidated through patronage relations revolving around cattle, I instrument the duration of incorporation with the geographical suitability for cattle. This strategy confirms the main result. State capacity, while usually associated with greater public good provision and higher GDP, played a central role in the mass killings in Rwanda.


The Department of Education and Skills operates a programme of inspection to evaluate the quality of education provision in schools and to contribute to school improvement. The whole-school evaluation (WSE) process is designed "to monitor and assess the quality, economy, efficiency and effectiveness of the education system provided in the state by recognised schools and centres for education" (Education Act 1998, section 7 (2)(b)). This study set out to hear directly from principals, teachers, parents and students how they had experienced a whole-school evaluation and their perceptions of its usefulness for the school. The research approach adopted was qualitative, rooted in social constructivism. A basic tenet was that the same WSE experience could be understood from multiple perspectives, each equally valid and worth engaging with.

The data set emerged from the talk of the principals, teachers, students and parents who participated in seven focus group discussions. By examining the way that these groups talk about WSE, the study identifies themes Purposiveness and Relationships that shape the participants' perceptions of WSE. Two additional themes, specific to particular groups of respondents, were also uncovered. The Implementation theme arose from the principals' talk and Disenfranchisement from the discussions of parents and students. The study confirmed much of what is already known about how principals and teachers perceive school evaluation. However, while recent changes to school inspection address some of the concerns expressed by the participants, this research indicates that further work needs to be done by the Inspectorate to adequately engage with parents and students particularly.


This is the biography of a set of rare Buddhist statues from China. Their extraordinary adventures take them from the Buddhist temples of fifteenth-century Putuo – China's most important pilgrimage island – to their seizure by a British soldier in the First Opium War in the early 1840s, and on to a starring role in the Great Exhibition of 1851. In the 1850s, they moved in and out of dealers' and antiquarian collections, arriving in 1867 at Liverpool Museum. Here they were re-conceptualized as specimens of the 'Mongolian race' and, later, as examples of Oriental art. The statues escaped the bombing of the Museum during the Second World War and lived out their existence for the next sixty years, dismembered, corroding and neglected in the stores, their histories lost and origins unknown.

As the curator of Asian collections at Liverpool Museum, the author became fascinated by these bronzes, and selected them for display in the Buddhism section of the World Cultures gallery. In 2005, quite by chance, the discovery of a lithograph of the figures on prominent display in the Great Exhibition enabled the remarkable lives of these statues to be reconstructed.


Human CAG repeat diseases manifest themselves through the common pathology of neurodeneration. This pathological link is attributed to the property shared by all nine of these diseases: an expanded polyglutamine (polyQ) tract. The most evident result of polyQ expansion is protein aggregation, and it is believed that this phenomenon is partly responsible for conferring cytotoxic properties on the mutated protein. Apart from sequestering the mutated protein, cellular aggregates are able to incorporate native proteins via polyQ-mediated aggregation, thus disrupting important cellular pathways. Using Drosophila melanogaster as a disease model, researchers have been able to compile collections of these so-called disease modifiers for most of the CAG repeat diseases. Moreover, a recently characterized Drosophila gene, Dikar, appears to synergistically react with polyQ-expanded proteins in an especially strong fashion, causing a synthetic lethal phenotype. One potential mechanism by which Dikar causes synthetic lethality involves the genetic construct used to achieve ectopic gene expression: the Gal4-UAS system in conjunction with the Drosophila eye-specific transcription factor Glass and its enhancer sequence GMR. A suspected chromatin remodelling complex, Dikar may create a feedback loop involving GMR that would result in increased polyQ expression and thus cell death. To test whether this phenomenon was responsible for synthetic lethality, a (GFP) reporter gene assay was carried out using two versions of GMR: longGMR and shortGMR. The findings of this study demonstrated that Dikar did not affect GMR-driven expression levels of the GFP reporter. Therefore, it was concluded that synthetic lethality is not the result of a self-perpetuating circuit but rather involves either direct or indirect interactions between Dikar and the polyQ protein.


This review proposes a comparative research agenda on center-right parties in advanced democracies, bringing together research in American and comparative politics. Political scientists have recently closely examined the decline of the center-left and the rise of the radical right but have paid less attention to the weakening of center-right parties. Yet cohesive center-right parties have facilitated political stability and compromises, while their disintegration has empowered radical challengers. After presenting an overview of right-wing politics in Western democracies and weighing different definitions of the electoral right, we discuss two factors that shape variations in center-right cohesion: organizational robustness of center-right partisan institutions and the (un)bundling of conservative mass attitudes on different policy dimensions. Last, we argue that a full account of the rise of the radical right cannot focus solely on the strategies of the center-left but must incorporate also the choices, opportunities, and constraints of center-right parties.


Despite the potential of online sharing economy platforms such as Uber, Lyft, or Foodora to democratize the labor market, these services are often accused of fostering unfair working conditions and low wages. These problems have been recognized by researchers and regulators but the size and complexity of these socio-technical systems, combined with the lack of transparency about algorithmic practices, makes it difficult to understand system dynamics and large-scale behavior. This paper combines approaches from complex systems and algorithmic fairness to investigate the effect of algorithm design decisions on wage inequality in ride-hailing markets. We first present a computational model that includes conditions about locations of drivers and passengers, traffic, the layout of the city, and the algorithm that matches requests with drivers. We calibrate the model with parameters derived from empirical data. Our simulations show that small changes in the system parameters can cause large deviations in the income distributions of drivers, leading to a highly unpredictable system which often distributes vastly different incomes to identically performing drivers. As suggested by recent studies about feedback loops in algorithmic systems, these initial income differences can result in enforced and long-term wage gaps.


Purpose: This study investigated barriers of the management accounting application in Vietnamese public universities. In line with the trend of rapid transformation in higher education, Vietnamese public universities have gradually been given autonomy in their operations, shifting from being managed by the government to operating more independently. Design/Methodology/Approach: Data for this research were collected through surveying 53 Vietnamese public universities on a 5-point Likert scale, using SPSS software with descriptive statistics, analysis, and comparison to achieve research objectives. Findings: The research results show that there are barriers to the application of management accounting in Vietnamese public universities: (i) Documents guiding the implementation of management accounting, (ii) Awareness of university managers about the role of management accounting, (iii) Human personnel in charge of management accounting, and (iv) Accounting management software. Practical Implications: These findings not only help managers to assess the impact of barriers in applying management accounting but also provide solutions for managers to enhance management accounting, contributing to the provision of quality accounting information in Vietnamese public universities. Originality/Value: The application of management accounting helps public universities better utilize the information for decision making and ensure operational efficiency and quality of training.


1.1 This specification 2 covers several grades of carbon and low-alloy steel forged or ring-rolled flanges, forged fittings and valves intended primarily for low-temperature service and requiring notch toughness testing. They are made to specified dimensions, or to dimensional standards, such as the ASME and API Specifications referenced in Section 2. Although this specification covers some piping components machined from rolled bar and seamless tubular materials (see 5.3.3), it does not cover raw material produced in these product forms. 1.2 No limitation on size is intended beyond the ability of the manufacturer to obtain the specified requirements. However, Class 3 of Grade LF787 is only available in the quenched-and-precipitation heat treated condition. 1.3 Supplementary requirements are provided for use when additional testing or inspection is desired. These shall apply only when specified by the purchaser in the order. 1.4 This specification is expressed in both inch-pound units and in SI units. However, unless the order specifies the applicable "M" specification designation (SI units), the material shall be furnished to inch-pound units. 1.5 The values stated in either inch-pound units or SI units are to be regarded separately as standard. Within the text, the SI units are shown in brackets. The values stated in each system are not exact equivalents; therefore, each system must be used independently of the other. Combining values from the two systems may result in nonconformance with the specification.


Feature selection is an important part of contemporary QSAR analysis. In a recently published paper, we investigated the performance of different feature selection methods in a large number of in silico experiments conducted using real QSAR datasets. However, an interesting question that we did not address is whether certain feature selection methods are better than others in combination with certain learning methods, in terms of producing models with high prediction accuracy. In this report we extend our work from the previous investigation by using four different feature selection methods (wrapper, ReliefF, MARS, and elastic nets), together with eight learners (MARS, elastic net, random forest, SVM, neural networks, multiple linear regression, PLS, kNN) in an empirical investigation to address this question. The results indicate that state-of-the-art learners (random forest, SVM, and neural networks) do not gain prediction accuracy from feature selection, and we found no evidence that a certain feature selection is particularly well-suited for use in combination with a certain learner.


To develop the understanding of consumer behavior is considered as an important element for the producers and marketing managers. The buying behavior of consumers is highly dependent on their lifestyle. This research strives to examine the effect of lifestyle on the female buying decisions. For this reason, 150 close ended questionnaires were distributed among the female buyers of Karachi followed by convenient sampling approach. Out of 150, 120 questionnaires were received for the further analysis. The sample portrays that majority of the women belong from the upper middle class. Most of them are working women and students and belong from the age group of 18 years to 50 years. The findings of the study highlights that majority of the women prefer to buy imported brands rather than local ones. In line with this, they prefer to go through the reviews regarding the newly launched brand before making any purchase. With respect to the findings, it is recommended that local producers should improve their quality so that they can capture the large market of female buyers.


In this study, a model of generalized epilepsy was used to investigate the role of extrinsic inhibition of the inferior colliculus (IC) during audiogenic seizures (AGS). There is evidence to suggest that a deficiency of inhibition within the IC plays a major role in AGS; however, the importance of extrinsic inhibition of the IC is not as well understood. To investigate this, neurotoxin lesions of dorsal nucleus of the lateral lemniscus (DNLL) were made, therefore eliminating the main source of extrinsic inhibition to the IC. Long-Evans rats (N = 18) were primed for AGS susceptibility via acoustic insult on post-natal day (pnd) 18, tested for susceptibility on pnd 32, and then subjected to a series of inductions on seven occasions over 14 days beginning on pnd 35. Seizure-susceptible rats were divided into three groups (n = 6). One group received a neurotoxic injection in the DNLL, a second group was prepared for surgery, but did not receive the injection, and a third group experienced no aspects of the surgical procedure. Subjects then followed a post-surgery induction schedule to evaluate differences across three measures: latency to enter a wild-running phase, latency to enter clonus, and duration of the seizure. The hypotheses that subjects in the lesion group would have a shorter latency to enter a wild running phase in post-surgery inductions (p = .5289) and would exhibit a shorter latency to enter clonus in post inductions (p = .1713) were not supported by the data. The hypothesis that subjects in the lesion group would exhibit longer AGS post-surgery approached statistical significance (p = 0.0584); however, rats in the lesion group exhibited shorter AGS than controls. While a lack of intrinsic inhibition of the IC plays an important role in AGS, the data from this study suggest that a lack of extrinsic inhibition to the IC does not have a significant role in inhibiting the initiation and propagation of AGS activity in rats, but may aid in decreasing the duration of clonic seizures.


Odour emissions from industrial plants affect air quality and are consequently cause of a growing number of public complaints. The control of odour represents a key issue in plant management. The starting point for an effective odour control is their objective measurement. The electronic nose represents probably the odour monitoring technique with the greatest potential, but currently there is not a universally recognized procedure for their application in the continuous characterization of environmental odours. The paper aims to present a novel procedure for training electronic noses in order to maximize their capability of operating a qualitative classification and estimating the odour concentration of ambient air. This novel approach reduces the uncertainty and increases the reliability of the continuous odour measures. The Electronic Nose (E.Nose) seedOA realized by the Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division (SEED) of the University of Salerno was applied to a real case in a large wastewater treatment plant. The papers highlights the characterization of the odour concentrations from the different treatment units and the identification of the principal odour sources.


The discovery of transcription factor binding site (TFBS) motifs remains an important and challenging problem in computational biology. This thesis presents MITSU, a novel algorithm for TFBS motif discovery which exploits stochastic methods as a means of both overcoming optimality limitations in current algorithms and as a framework for incorporating relevant prior knowledge in order to improve results. The current state of the TFBS motif discovery field is surveyed, with a focus on probabilistic algorithms that typically take the promoter regions of coregulated genes as input. A case is made for an approach based on the stochastic ExpectationMaximisation (sEM) algorithm; its position amongst existing probabilistic algorithms for motif discovery is shown. The algorithm developed in this thesis is unique amongst existing motif discovery algorithms in that it combines the sEM algorithm with a derived data set which leads to an improved approximation to the likelihood function. This likelihood function is unconstrained with regard to the distribution of motif occurrences within the input dataset. MITSU also incorporates a novel heuristic to automatically determine TFBS motif width. This heuristic, known as MCOIN, is shown to outperform current methods for determining motif width. MITSU is implemented in Java and an executable is available for download. MITSU is evaluated quantitatively using realistic synthetic data and several collections of previously characterised prokaryotic TFBS motifs. The evaluation demonstrates that MITSU improves on a deterministic EM-based motif discovery algorithm and an alternative sEM-based algorithm, in terms of previously established metrics. The ability of the sEM algorithm to escape stable fixed points of the EM algorithm, which trap deterministic motif discovery algorithms and the ability of MITSU to discover multiple motif occurrences within a single input sequence are also demonstrated. MITSU is validated using previously characterised Alphaproteobacterial motifs, before being applied to motif discovery in uncharacterised Alphaproteobacterial data. A number of novel results from this analysis are presented and motivate two extensions of MITSU: a strategy for the discovery of multiple different motifs within a single dataset and a higher order Markov background model. The effects of incorporating these extensions within MITSU are evaluated quantitatively using previously characterised prokaryotic TFBS motifs and demonstrated using Alphaproteobacterial motifs. Finally, an information-theoretic measure of motif palindromicity is presented and its advantages over existing approaches for discovering palindromic motifs discussed.


In his Vita Anskarii, Rimbert describes the Christian mission to the port of the Swedes in the 830s. He mentions two churches there, one built on the family estate of the port bailiff, the other built in the seaport itself by Bishop Gautbert. The locations of these churches have long been discussed. Thanks to archaeological research excavations it is now possible to offer a new suggestion regarding the church of Gautbert. It is argued that the hillfort of Birka, Borg, may be the site of this church and the bishop's fortified precinct. This would make Birka structurally similar to a number of coeval cities on the Continent, where there was a fortified cathedral hill and a market town at its foot. 9th century finds on and around Borg open up for such a possibility.


Bringing together a truly international spread of contributors from across the UK, US, South America, Mexico and Australia, this Handbook charts the field of television studies from issues of ownership and regulation through to reception and consumption.

Separate chapters are dedicated to examining the roles of journalists, writers, cinematographers, producers and manufacturers in the production process, whilst others explore different formats including sport, novella and soap opera, news and current affairs, music and reality TV. The final section analyses the pivotal role played by audiences in the contexts of gender, race and class, and spans a range of topics from effects studies to audience consumption.

The SAGE Handbook of Television Studies is an essential reference work for all advanced undergraduates, graduate students and academics across broadcasting, mass communication and media studies.