ABSTRACT
Development crisis in Nigeria is traceable to the colonial era. Devastating colonial legacies
were inherited by the emerging Nigerian elites. The seed of development crisis which has today
spread like wildfire in Nigeria was laid during the period of colonialism, the period that was
characterized by different crises such as marriage of inconvenience (Amalgamation of 1914),
disarticulation of the economy, the colonial economic structure also created a fertile ground for
public corruption through the imposition of tax system as well as exploitative scheme of the
European that was highly institutionalized, and leadership question in the country. However,
Nigeria is one of the countries that has been experiencing violence of various magnitudes such
as civil war; coups and counter coups as well as political instability that characterized Nigerian
political system since independence. Development crisis in Nigeria has become a recurring
phenomenon and despite the atmosphere of crisis created during the colonial era, the leadership
problem has become a major issue in the post-colonial Nigeria. The fundamental question is this,
since Nigeria's predicament cannot be attributed to colonialism alone, what are the other factors
responsible for the country's development crisis? In line with this question, this paper examines
different development crisis in Nigeria ranging from colonial period to post colonial era.
Nigeria's predicament cannot be absolutely attributed to colonialism alone, the leadership
problem and corruption of the highest order that have become Nigerian political culture in the
post colonial era will continue to fuel the fire of development crisis and even the recent Boko-
Haram insurgency that marked the new phase of development crisis in the country is one of the
justification for leadership failure.
Keywords: Corruption; Colonialism; Crisis; Decolonization; Development; Nigeria.


ABSTRACT Tauranga Harbour is a major economic centre and home to New Zealand's largest port. Despite the importance of the harbour basin, and especially of the shipping channel, the subsurface stratigraphy of this area has not been studied in detail. We use sediment cores retrieved in support of a recent dredging campaign to characterise the subsurface stratigraphy and interpret the sediments in terms of paleoenvironment. Four main facies (volcanic sand, lithic silt, coarse sand and pumiceous sand) were identified using textural, mineralogical and geochemical characteristics. They represent distinct depositional environments at different stages of the Holocene marine transgression (HMT). The oldest facies, deposited prior to the HMT (volcanic sand and lithic silt facies), represent the channel and overbank deposits of an aggrading river system with rapidly migrating channels. During the deposition of this facies, a change in sediment source is evident from geochemical data. This preceded a transition to a predominantly offshore sediment source (coarse sand facies), likely supplied by longshore drift from the Kaituna River, which was associated with the development of Mt Maunganui tombolo and Matakana barrier island. During the Holocene stillstand, the barrier island and tombolo restricted sediment input from offshore, resulting in the deposition of a predominantly locally derived unit (pumiceous sand facies), which still dominates sedimentation in the harbour today.


We estimate the firm-level rate at which working capital accruals convert into future cash flows. These conversion rates determine the expected cash value of a dollar of working capital accruals. For firms whose accrual innovations reverse within one year, we find that, on average, a one dollar innovation to accruals translates into 95 cents of cash flow in the subsequent fiscal year. We find that the relation between working capital accruals and annual returns increases with the rate at which accrual innovations convert to cash flows, as does the relation between accruals and annual bonus pay to the CEO. Moreover, when accrual innovations convert more quickly and completely to cash flows, firms are less likely to receive an Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Release (AAER) from the SEC.


The definitive volumes celebrating the collections of the Hermitage Museum. For nearly 250 years the State Hermitage has been one of Europe's most palatial museums. It encompasses more than three million works of art and artifacts displayed within a spectacular architectural ensemble, the heart of which is the famed Winter Palace. The two volumes of "The Hermitage Collections" capture the masterpieces and discuss the history that make this world-famous institution a cultural destination and a global treasure. Many of its rarely reproduced works are included in these two volumes, such as The Raphael Loggias (as copied from the Vatican), Michelangelo's Crouching Boy, The Gonzaga Cameo, Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna with a Flower (The Benois Madonna), and Titian's St. Sebastian. The Hermitage collections were developed beginning in 1764 by Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. Today, the Hermitage collections constitute one of the great art museums of the world.


Investor sentiment and attention are often linked to the same non-economic events making it
difficult to understand why and how asset prices are affected. This thesis disentangles these
two potential drivers of market behaviour by studying how investors react to sports outcomes,
weather conditions and merger and acquisition announcements.
Firstly, a new dataset of medals for major participating countries and sponsor firms over
four Summer Olympic Games is analysed. Results show that although Olympic success does
not lead to abnormal stock returns, subsequent market activity is reduced substantially. In
the US, for example, trading volume (realised volatility) during Olympics is over 24% (46%)
lower than usual while gold medal awards lead to a further decrease over the next trading day.
These findings are in line with recent theories and evidence related to investor inattention but
cannot easily be explained on the basis of sentiment. Analysis of data from online search
volumes and surveys measuring investor sentiment, also suggest that the market impact of
the Olympics is linked to changes in attention. I demonstrate that the statistical regularities
can be exploited by simple volatility trading strategies in the US to produce significant risk
adjusted profits.
Secondly, I study the relationship between weather and stock market activity using a
new perspective that does not rely solely on investor mood. I argue that bad weather can
increase the productivity of investors by making them more focused on trading and less
concerned about other leisure activities. This allows me to explain the empirical finding
of higher trading activity on rainy days for a sample of 33 international stock markets. In
line with previous literature, I confirm that particularly bad weather conditions which create
inconvenience to market participants, such as snow, have the opposite effect by reducing
productivity and trading volume. Finally, I find evidence that weather has a nonlinear effect
on market activity.
Thirdly, I explore if the market reaction to M&As in the US is governed by attention
or sentiment. I find that attention, as proxied by online abnormal search volume, decreases
significantly before announcements and then increases dramatically on the event date. The
high level of attention diminishes shortly after. I also investigate whether the abnormal search
volume surrounding the event date affects stock prices. The results suggest that the resolved
uncertainty before the announcement date is incorporated into price discovery shortly after
the announcement as the learning capacity of investors constrains the information processing
speed in a bid to adjust the investment decisions.


The fever that is college basketball on Tobacco Road started from a small outbreak in Raleigh, North Carolina, when Indiana basketball legend Everett Case became the coach at N.C. State University. He restarted the dormant construction of Reynolds Coliseum, and for fifty years, it was one of the most important basketball arenas in the country. Through the years, the Wolfpack has won two NCAA championships and ten Atlantic Coast Conference championships while giving the sport of college basketball some of its brightest color, from the plaid jackets worn by Norm Sloan to the unbelievable athletic ability of David Thompson to the mouth of Jim Valvano, who spewed one-liners at the speed of hummingbird wings. There have also been dark days during State's sixty-year history as a member of the ACC. N.C. State basketball has a long history of producing stars, comebacks, and even a few villains, all of which of are detailed by Tim Peeler in this reissue of Legends of N.C. State Basketball. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports--books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.


We introduce ASPiRe (Adaptive Skill Prior for RL), a new approach that leverages prior experience to accelerate reinforcement learning. Unlike existing methods that learn a single skill prior from a large and diverse dataset, our framework learns a library of different distinction skill priors (i.e., behavior priors) from a collection of specialized datasets, and learns how to combine them to solve a new task. This formulation allows the algorithm to acquire a set of specialized skill priors that are more reusable for downstream tasks; however, it also brings up additional challenges of how to effectively combine these unstructured sets of skill priors to form a new prior for new tasks. Specifically, it requires the agent not only to identify which skill prior(s) to use but also how to combine them (either sequentially or concurrently) to form a new prior. To achieve this goal, ASPiRe includes Adaptive Weight Module (AWM) that learns to infer an adaptive weight assignment between different skill priors and uses them to guide policy learning for downstream tasks via weighted Kullback-Leibler divergences. Our experiments demonstrate that ASPiRe can significantly accelerate the learning of new downstream tasks in the presence of multiple priors and show improvement on competitive baselines.


Background Arterial stiffness, an intermediate pre-clinical marker of atherosclerosis, has been associated with an increased risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease. The metabolic syndrome and its components are established cardiovascular disease risk factors and may also increase arterial stiffness; however, data regarding this are limited. Aim The goal of this study was to determine the association between the metabolic syndrome and carotid artery stiffness in an elderly multi-ethnic cohort. Methods Carotid artery stiffness was assessed by carotid ultrasound as part of the Northern Manhattan Study, a prospective population-based cohort of stroke-free individuals. Carotid artery stiffness was calculated as [In (systolic BP/diastolic BP)/strain], where strain was [(systolic diameter diastolic diameter)/diastolic diameter]. Metabolic syndrome was defined by the National Cholesterol Education Program: Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. LogSTIFF was analysed as the dependent variable in linear regression models, adjusting for demographics, education, current smoking, presence of carotid plaque and intima-media thickness. Results Carotid artery stiffness was analysed in 1133 Northern Manhattan Study subjects (mean age 65 ± 9 years; 61% women; 58% Hispanic, 22% Black and 20% Caucasian). The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome was 49%. The mean LogSTIFF was 2·01±0·61 among those with the metabolic syndrome and 1·90 ± 0·59 among those without the metabolic syndrome (P = 0·003). The metabolic syndrome was significantly associated with increased logSTIFF in the final adjusted model (parameter estimate β = 0·100, P = 0·01). Among individual metabolic syndrome components, waist circumference and elevated blood pressure were most significantly associated with a mean increase in logSTIFF (P < 0·01). Conclusion The metabolic syndrome is significantly associated with increased carotid artery stiffness in a multiethnic population. Increased carotid artery stiffness may, in part, explain a high risk of stroke among individuals with the metabolic syndrome.


Many indigenous Hawaiian men have felt profoundly disempowered by the legacies of colonization and by the tourist industry, which, in addition to occupying a great deal of land, promotes a feminized image of Native Hawaiians (evident in the ubiquitous figure of the dancing hula girl). In the 1990s a group of Native men on the island of Maui responded by refashioning and reasserting their masculine identities in a group called the Hale Mua (the "Men's House"). As a member and an ethnographer, Ty P. Kāwika Tengan analyzes how the group's mostly middle-aged, middle-class, and mixed-race members assert a warrior masculinity through practices including martial arts, woodcarving, and cultural ceremonies. Some of their practices are heavily influenced by or borrowed from other indigenous Polynesian traditions, including those of the Māori. The men of the Hale Mua enact their refashioned identities as they participate in temple rites, protest marches, public lectures, and cultural fairs.

The sharing of personal stories is an integral part of Hale Mua fellowship, and Tengan's account is filled with members' first-person narratives. At the same time, Tengan explains how Hale Mua rituals and practices connect to broader projects of cultural revitalization and Hawaiian nationalism. He brings to light the tensions that mark the group's efforts to reclaim indigenous masculinity as they arise in debates over nineteenth-century historical source materials and during political and cultural gatherings held in spaces designated as tourist sites. He explores class status anxieties expressed through the sharing of individual life stories, critiques of the Hale Mua registered by Hawaiian women, and challenges the group received in dialogues with other indigenous Polynesians. Native Men Remade is the fascinating story of how gender, culture, class, and personality intersect as a group of indigenous Hawaiian men work to overcome the dislocations of colonial history.


We used a combination of immunohistochemistry and carbocyanine dye tracing to study neurons and their processes in the human embryonic forebrain, 4-7 weeks after conception, before the onset of synaptogenesis. We discovered a widespread network of precocious MAP2 (microtubule-associated protein 2)-immunoreactive cells, with long, nonaxonal processes, before the appearance of the cortical plate and the establishment of thalamocortical connectivity. Dye tracing revealed that the processes of these precocious cells form tangential links between intermediate zones of the thalamus, ganglionic eminence, hypothalamus, and cortical preplate. The spatiotemporal distribution and morphology of the precocious neurons in the cortical preplate suggest that they are generated outside the cerebral wall rather than in the local ventricular zone. The first thalamocortical axons and axons of preplate cells extend across diencephalo-telencephalic and striatocortical boundaries before the arrival of the first cortical plate neurons. Precocious cells may provide initial communication between subdivisions of the embryonic brain as well as guidance cues for navigation of growing axons and/or transverse neuronal migration.


The livelihood concept remains consistently utilised within a number of research fields, including development studies, political ecology and conservation. Although there are differences in theory and application, these fields draw upon livelihood frameworks to understand how political and economic structures impact decisionmaking and present opportunities for social actors. Several themes have emerged from livelihoods research, including the importance of institutional frameworks and examinations of the conflicts surrounding resource access. While these have been valuable contributions, there has been less attention directed to the reciprocal relationships between space and livelihood. This article draws upon insights from human geography to show how the production and reproduction of livelihoods are interlinked with the processes producing and reproducing space. In order to accomplish this, the article details research completed in South Africa that examines the diversified resources individuals and households combine to generate livelihoods. It is argued that historical and contemporary geographies shape particular livelihood trajectories and social networks for rural residents, thereby making an explicitly spatial analysis necessary for understanding the processes driving social and environmental change. This article asserts that spatialising livelihoods is critical for understanding multiple issues central to livelihood studies, including the significance of diversification, intra-community differentiation, the structure and agency of livelihoods, and the effects of decisionmaking upon social and environmental systems.


The economic growth of the Dodecanese islands in Greece has been based solely on tourism and the electricity production is very critical in sustaining this economic growth. The electricity production is solely done with the use of diesel and heavy fuel oil. Even though there have been some efforts in introducing renewable energy of various forms, the results remain dismal. Due to this situation, it becomes necessary that the growth of energy demand must be given primary consideration. In the present work the energy system of Dodecanese islands is divided in the seven economic sectors in order to be evaluated.


In case of a product innovation firms start producing a new product. While doing so, such a firm should decide what to do with its existing product after the firm has innovated. Essentially it can choose between replacing the established product by the new one, or keep on producing the established product so that it produces two products at the same time. The aim of this paper is to design a theoretical framework to analyze this problem. Due to technological progress the quality of the newest available technology, and thus the quality of the innovative product that can be produced by this technology, increases over time. The implication is that a later innovation enables the firm to produce a better innovative product. So, typically the firm faces the tradeoff between innovating fast, which boosts its profits soon but only by a small amount, or innovating later, which leads to a larger payoff increase. The drawback here is that the firm is stuck with producing the established product for a longer time. We fund that a highly uncertain economic environment makes the firm delay abolishing the old product market. But if the innovative market is more volatile, the firm enters the market sooner, provided it will be active on the old market, at least for some time. Moreover, the smaller the initial demand for the innovative product market, the better the quality of the innovative product needs to be for the product innovation to be optimal.


When survey respondents rate the quality of life (QoL) associated with a health condition, they must not only evaluate the health condition itself, but must also interpret the meaning of the rating scale in order to assign a specific value. The way that respondents approach this task depends on subjective interpretations, resulting in inconsistent results across populations and tasks. In particular, patients and non-patients often give very different ratings to health conditions, a discrepancy that raises questions about the objectivity of either groups' evaluations. In this study, we found that the perspective of the raters (i.e., their own current health relative to the health conditions they rated) influences the way they distinguish between different health states that vary in severity. Consistent with prospect theory, a mild and a severe lung disease scenario were rated quite differently by lung disease patients whose own health falls between the two scenarios, whereas healthy non-patients, whose own health was better than both scenarios, rated the two scenarios as much more similar. In addition, we found that the context of the rating task influences the way participants distinguish between mild and severe scenarios. Both patients and non-patients gave less distinct ratings to the two scenarios when each were presented in isolation than when they were presented alongside other scenarios that provided contextual information about the possible range of severity for lung disease. These results raise continuing concerns about the reliability and validity of subjective QoL ratings, as these ratings are highly sensitive to differences between respondent groups and the particulars of the rating task.


The fabrication process of integrated circuits (ICs) is complex and requires the use of off-shore foundries to lower the costs and to have access to leading-edge manufacturing facilities. Such an outsourcing trend leaves the possibility of inserting malicious circuitry (a.k.a. hardware Trojans) during the fabrication process, causing serious security issues. Hardware Trojans are very hard and expensive to detect and can disrupt the entire circuit or covertly leak sensitive information. In this paper, we propose a formal model for assessing the security of ICs whose fabrication has been outsourced to an untrusted off-shore manufacturer. We assume that the IC specification and design are trusted but the fabrication facility(ies) may be untrusted. Our objective is to stop Trojans from releasing sensitive information to the outside while still using its circuitry for day-to-day operations. We also provide two different methodologies for constructing compilers relying on verifiable computation (VC) schemes and secure multiparty computation (MPC) protocols with certain properties. Suitable VC schemes, with the properties we require, were recently constructed, e.g., by Parno et al. (Oakland '13), and by Fiore, Gennaro, and Pastro (CCS '14). Similarly, many MPC protocols readily comply (or can be easily adapted to comply) with our requirements. By allowing manufacturers to use off-shore fabrication facilities, we ensure a high degree of competition among suppliers, thus providing lower cost without hindering innovation or access to leading-edge microelectronics.


In today's western society childbirth takes place mainly in hospital settings and is under the
control of doctors (Kirkham, 2003). More recently there have been concerns about
increasingly high caesarean section rates (ref), the decreasing number of practising midwives
(Ball et al. 2002) and the worryingly small number of women experiencing a natural birth
(Page, 2003).
Maternity services at The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust provide for a social, cultural
and ethnically diverse community and manage 3,600 births per year. Following
reconfiguration in February 2002, including the relocation of hospital maternity services, the
trust decided to implement some of the Department of Health's Action Plan and open a standalone
Birth Centre in Wakefield.
Birth centres are facilities that provide individualised and family centred maternity care, with
an emphasis on skilled, sensitive and respectful midwifery care. They provide a relaxed and
informal environment where women are encouraged to labour at their own pace. Birth
Centres seek to promote physiological childbirth by recognising, respecting and safeguarding
normal birth processes. This philosophy enables women and their families to experience a
positive start to parenthood (Shallow, 2001, Kirkham, 2003). Midwives are also able to
practise "real midwifery" (Kirkham, 2003, p.14).
The overall aim of this research was therefore to evaluate the impact and outcomes of the
implementation of the Wakefield Birth Centre.
The research was funded by the Centre for Health and Social Care Research (CHSCR) at the
University of Huddersfield. Ethical advice was sought through School Research and Ethics
Panel (SREP) at the university of Huddersfield and ethical approval was granted by the Local
Research Ethics Committee (LREC) and the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust Research
and Development.


Smart beta has become the flavor of the decade in the investment world with its low fees, easy access to rewarded risk premiums, and appearance of providing good investment results relative to both traditional passive benchmarks and actively managed funds. Although we consider it well documented that smart beta investing probably will do better than passive market capitalization investing over time, we believe many are coming to a conclusion too quickly regarding active managers. Institutional investors are able to guide managers through benchmarks and risk frameworks toward the same well-documented smart beta risk premiums and still motivate active managers to avoid value traps, too highly priced small caps, defensives, etc. By constructing the equity portfolios of active managers that resemble the most widely used risk premiums, we show that the returns and risk-adjusted returns measures are not only superior to the common capitalization weighted index but also to their smart beta benchmark, even after cost for value, size, and low volatility funds. We encourage investors to increase the use of smart beta as benchmarks while still obtaining extra performance through active management—a concept we call smart alpha.


A wave rotor is a shock-driven pressure exchange device that, while relatively rarely studied or indeed, employed, offers significant potential efficiency gains in a variety of applications including refrigeration and gas turbine topping cycles. This paper introduces a quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) wave action model implemented in matlab for the computation of the unsteady flow field and performance characteristics of wave rotors of straight or cambered channel profiles. The purpose here is to introduce and validate a rapid but reliable method of modeling the performance of a power-generating wave rotor where little such insight exists in open literature. The model numerically solves the laminar one-dimensional (1D) Navier–Stokes equations using a two-step Richtmyer time variation diminishing (TVD) scheme with minmod flux limiter. Additional source terms account for viscous losses, wall heat transfer, flow leakage between rotor and stator endplates as well as torque generation through momentum change. Model validation was conducted in two steps. First of all, unsteady and steady predictive capabilities were tested on three-port pressure divider rotors from open literature. The results show that both steady port flow conditions as well as the wave action within the rotor can be predicted with good agreement. Further validation was done on an in-house developed and experimentally tested four-port, three-cycle, throughflow microwave rotor turbine featuring symmetrically cambered passage walls aimed at delivering approximately 500 W of shaft power. The numerical results depict trends for pressure ratio, shaft power, and outlet temperature reasonably well. However, the results also highlight the need to accurately measure leakage gaps when the machine is running in thermal equilibrium.


There has been an increasing interest in the use of unconventional materials and morphologies in robotic systems because the underlying mechanical properties (such as body shapes, elasticity, viscosity, softness, density and stickiness) are crucial research topics for our in-depth understanding of embodied intelligence. The detailed investigations of physical system-environment interactions are particularly important for systematic development of technologies and theories of emergent adaptive behaviors. Based on the presentations and discussion in the Future Emerging Technology (fet11) conference, this article introduces the recent technological development in the field of soft robotics, and speculates about the implications and challenges in the robotics and embodied intelligence research. © Selection and peer-review under responsibility of FET11 conference organizers and published by Elsevier B.V.


The end-Permian mass extinction has been envisaged as the nadir of biodiversity decline due to increasing volcanic gas emissions over some 9 million years. We propose a different tempo and mechanism of extinction because we recognize two separate but geologically abrupt mass extinctions on land, one terminating the Middle Permian (Guadalupian) at 260.4 Ma and a later one ending the Permian Period at 251 Ma. Our evidence comes from new paleobotanical, paleopedological, and carbon isotopic studies of Portal Mountain, Antarctica, and comparable studies in the Karoo Basin, South Africa. Extinctions have long been apparent among marine invertebrates at both the end of the Guadalupian and end of the Permian, which were also times of warm-wet greenhouse climatic transients, marked soil erosion, transition from high- to low-sinuosity and braided streams, soil stagnation in wetlands, and profound negative carbon isotope anomalies. Both mass extinctions may have resulted from catastrophic methane outbursts to the atmosphere from coal intruded by feeder dikes to flood basalts, such as the end-Guadalupian Emeishan Basalt and end-Permian Siberian Traps.


Introduction If one thinks that an understanding of scrap metal recycling is not important, consider the following: Recycling is a 65 billion dollar-per-year industry. Scrap metal recycling saves 74% or more of the energy it takes to smelt metal from ore (Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, 2007). That represents a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Scrap metal recycling (and other forms of recycling) is not very glamorous, but it might help save the planet. Recycling has been a significant industry in the United States for more than 200 years. For primitive cultures in the copper, bronze, and iron ages, recycling existing metal was much less labor-intensive than mining and smelting metal from ore. That is still the case today. Iron ore is a naturally occurring element found in the earth's crust. It is mined by digging it out of large pits with large excavating equipment. In its natural state, iron ore is a metallic-looking rock that usually has other types of nonmetallic rock clinging to it. When ore is fired or heated to its melting point in a blast furnace, a great deal of air pollution is created by the burning of coal. Refining ore into metal is called smelting. It takes significantly larger volumes of coal to smelt ore than it does to simply melt down recycled iron and steel. Thus, air pollution can be reduced by recycling metals. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] While iron ore is plentiful in the United States and many countries around the world, the process of smelting iron ore into steel is energy-intensive. Iron ore is placed into a huge container that can hold about 20 tons or more of ore. A fire melts the ore so that the liquid iron separates from the rocky, non-iron materials. Coke is used to more efficiently heat the ore in the smelting process. To understand what coke is, consider charcoal. Common charcoal is the solid char leftover when wood is burned. Charcoal is useful because it ignites quickly and burns hot. Coke is like charcoal; it is what is left after partially burning coal It has the same advantages of charcoal but has much more energy. Steel is most effectively refined when coke is used in blast furnaces. So, to fully smelt iron and produce steel with it, the manufacturer must fire coal to make coke, and then it must fire the coke to make steel. This is an energy-intensive process, and in the process, tons of greenhouse gases and toxic elements and compounds are released into the atmosphere annually. Recyclable Materials Consumers are aware of some recyclable materials but are less familiar with others. Consumers are familiar with the recycling of aluminum cans, paper, and some plastics because many communities encourage consumer recycling through local programs. It is not unusual for some forms of glass and steel cans to be accepted in consumer-level recycling programs. However, entire automobiles can be recycled for steel and aluminum and, in some cases, glass and plastics. Building demolitions also produce structural steel for recycling. Consumers are less aware of automobile recycling and structural steel recycling. Lead-acid automobile batteries are also recycled, as are the components of electronic hardware. The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (2007) reports the following statistics on recycling volumes in the United States annually. (Table 1.) Environmental Implications Land use is a big issue around the world. Landfills are filling to capacity at alarming rates, and consumers do not realize the extent to which municipal waste is dumped directly into the oceans. Equally alarming is the rate at which municipal waste is being incinerated, thus adding to the air pollution problem and global warming. The Environmental Protection Agency (2007) estimates that in 2005, 79 million tons of waste was recycled--an increase of 64 million tons since 1980. This figure does not include automobile and structural steel recycling. …


By the early 1990s, it was becoming clear that carriage of H. pylori increased risk for peptic ulcer disease and for gastric cancer, where both are consequences of the Helicobacter pylori induced gastric inflammation, although in separate ways. In recent years, using more sophisticated analytical techniques, there has come greater support for the notion that H. pylori has colonized humans since before the out-of-Africa migrations of about 58,000 years ago, and that as humans migrated to all parts of the world, they brought their H. pylori strains with them. It has been hypothesized that for H. pylori and humans, there are actually a series of equilibria, nested in one another, that create the governing boundaries at each level. Postulated benefits for humans for early-life carriage of H. pylori include resistance to colonization by exogenous pathogens (through manipulation of gastric pH and gastric immunity, as well as direct competition), as well as close regulation of metabolism, through gastric leptin (5 to 10% of body total) and ghrelin (60 to 80% of body total). In summary, H. pylori has evolved over a long period of time as a highly interactive member of the human gastrointestinal microbiota. There is extensive evidence that H. pylori coevolved with its human hosts, enabling its nearly universal gastric persistence. The interaction had little or no cost (and possible some benefit) to its early-in-life hosts, but also conferred certain late-in-life disease costs, including gastric cancer.


If you need a book that relates the core principles of quantum mechanics to modern applications in engineering, physics, and nanotechnology, this is it. Students will appreciate the book's applied emphasis, which illustrates theoretical concepts with examples of nanostructured materials, optics, and semiconductor devices. The many worked examples and more than 160 homework problems help students to problem solve and to practice applications of theory. Without assuming a prior knowledge of high-level physics or classical mechanics, the text introduces Schrodinger's equation, operators, and approximation methods. Systems, including the hydrogen atom and crystalline materials, are analyzed in detail. More advanced subjects, such as density matrices, quantum optics, and quantum information, are also covered. Practical applications and algorithms for the computational analysis of simple structures make this an ideal introduction to quantum mechanics for students of engineering, physics, nanotechnology, and other disciplines. Additional resources available from www.cambridge.org/9780521897839.


TRANSCENDING SUBJECTS: HEGEL AFTER AUGUSTINE, AN ESSAY ON POLITICAL THEOLOGY Geoffrey J. D. Holsclaw, B.A., M.Div. Marquette University, 2013 From where do political reformers and radicals come who are willing and prepared to challenge the status quo? Where are people formed who are capable of initiating change within a political system? Some worry belief in transcendence closes off authentic political engagement and processes of transformation. Others think that a transcendent orientation is the only means to protect and promote a more free and just society. Some see a positive commitment to transcendence as inimical to democratic practices, while others see such a commitment as indispensible for such a project. These general issues concern transcendence, immanence, and subjectivity as they bear on the question of political transformation. Explaining the differences between these fundamental orientations prompts an investigation of the philosophical and theological systems of Hegel and Augustine. Examining Hegel and Augustine around the issues of transcendence and freedom offers a way to understand these more localized disagreements between political philosophers and theologians, and even between theologians. This dissertation examines Hegel, because after the recent demise of Kantian liberalism in the forms of Rawls and Habermas, many are returning to Hegel as the original critic of Kantian philosophy specifically, and of Enlightenment secularism generally. This return to Hegel has produced a larger amount of research that dislodges the easily caricaturized Hegel of dialectical monism and political conservativism, creating the possibility of a more positive deployment of Hegel within philosophy and politics. Concerning Augustine, in one sense his theology is perennial for theology, whether accepted or rejected. But in addition to this, just as with Hegel many are beginning to question the received Augustine, mining his texts within his own cultural and theological milieu rather than merely as the beginning of supposedly unfavorable theological developments. The time is ripe for an engagement between these two stalwarts of theology and philosophy in order to illuminate the similarities and differences and make clear their contemporary relevancy. This dissertations will argue that Hegel best represents a philosophy of 'selftranscending immanence' that promotes freedom by standing in opposition to transcendence, and that Augustine best respresents a theology of 'self-immanenting transcendence' as the only possible hope for the true freedom.


Responsiveness is one of the ideal propositions of democracy. Regarding Taiwan's political studies, scholars have long concentrated on democratization, the unification-independence issue, national identity, and cross-Strait relations. Only a few have paid attention to the relationship between public opinion and policy output. This article evaluates the responsiveness of Taiwan's local governments by examining the relationship between public opinion and policy output across three policy domains between 2006 and 2007. In addition, to analyze opinion survey data and local governments' expense records, this research interviews officials of two local governments and councilors to support the empirical findings drawn from the quantitative analysis. Indeed, public opinion has a great impact on determining a local government's expenditure on environmental policy, and the presidential election result has an effect on the expenditure on transportation policy. This research not only provides empirical evidence of responsiveness, but it also provides an example of a mixed research method.


This paper examines the connection between Buddhist essential teachings and human communication in the East Asian context. The essential Buddhist essential teachings, including the perception of reality, living the present moment and mindfulness, compassion, the four noble truths, and the six paramitas are first delineated. The paper then analyzes how these Buddhist teachings influence East Asian communication behaviors from five perspectives: ontological assumptions, communication ethics, communication behaviors, relationship development, and rhetorical communication. It is concluded that although Buddhist teachings show great impact on the life of East Asians, the influence of other religions and thoughts should not be ignored. Recent research on Asian communication has provided insights into the concepts of yuan, dependent origination, (Chang & Holt, 1991a, 2002; Ishii, 1998), guanxi, relationship and networking, (Chang & Holt, 1991b; Chen, 2001) and facework (e.g., Hwang, 1997; Jia, 2001). Taoist perspectives, such as acceptance and wu-wei (non-action) on conflict and persuasion, as well have drawn communication scholars' attention (Chen & Holt, 2002; Crawford, 1996, 1997, 2002). In addition, in studying Taoist and Buddhist perspectives on conflict and emotional adversities, Chuang (2002) unveils the spiritual and philosophical roots of Asian values through Buddhist teachings. This paper extends Chuang's study by further examining the connection between Buddhist essential teachings and human communication in the East Asian context.


A water-soluble, rigid backbone oligomer is claimed which has a mol.wt. less than 10,000 and comprises recurring units coupled by carbonyl linking moieties, the oligomer having anionic gps. and predominantly linear geometry such that regular spacing between anionic gps. exists in an aqs. medium. The oligomer may be (A) a polyurea of formula (I) R-(NH-CO)m-(NH-X-NH-CO)n-NH-R3. (R = H, 1-4C alkyl, phenyl or phenyl substd. with 1-2 R' gps. and up to 3 substits. selected from Cl, Br or 1-4C alkyl; R1 = SO3R2, CO2R2, PO3(R2)2 or OPO3R2; R2 = H or a cation; m = 0 or 1, provided that when m = 0 R = H; X = a gp. (i)-(xii) where Y = CO2, -C-C-; -N=N-, -CO-NH-, -N(O)=N- or -CR=N-N=CR-; n = 3-50; R3 = R or XNH2. (B) a polycarbonate of formula (II) X1-O-(CO-O-X-O)-nX2 (II) (X1 = HO-X, 1-4C alkyl, phenyl, phenyl substd. with 1-2 R1 and up to 3 substits. selected from Cl, Br and 1-4C alkyl; X2 = H or CO2X1). (C) a polyester of formula (III) R4O-(CO-X3-CO-O-X-O)-nR5 (III) (R4 = as for R2 or X1; R5 = R41O-CO-X3-CO-; R41 = as for R4 or R2; X3 = a gp. of formula (viii) or (xiii)-(xxii), or (D) a polyamide of formula (IV) R6-(CO-X3-CO-NH-X-NH)n-R7 (IV). (where R6 = H2N-X-NH, R2O, RNH or R-CO-NH-X-NH-; R7 = H, R2O-CO-X3-CO-, R-CO- or RNH-CO-X3-CO-).


The Complete Guide to Abdominal Training replaces Abdominal Training 2nd edition. Fully updated, in full colour, this new book is packed with exercises and colour photographs to help coaches, fitness trainers and athletes improve their abdominal training programme. This book will be the abdominal training bible for all those in the fitness industry. Written by an experienced physiotherapist,and best-selling author, it also covers the background physiology and theory. Includes sections on improving posture, and the science and clinical conditions of abdominal training.


Motorcyclists in Australia have been found to be 30 times more likely to be killed per kilometre travelled than car occupants and 40 times more likely to be seriously injured. One approach to preventing motorcycle-related injury is through training and education. While there is traditionally a major focus on developing riding skills during training for motorcyclists, there is also a need for training to promote safe riding to reduce subsequent risk taking. The Transtheoretical Model, commonly known as the "Stages of Change" model, provides a rationale to support incremental behaviour change for risky riding that may be facilitated through motorcycle rider training and education. A sample of 438 learner motorcyclists attended a rider training program in Queensland, Australia, with the stages of change to adopt a safe riding mindset and safe riding practices being measured upon commencement of the course (Time 1) and then again upon completion (Time 2). A small subset of the original sample (n=45) responded at follow up 24 months post training (Time 3). Consistent with the aims of training, results showed a significant shift from the contemplation stage to the subsequent stages of change for participants between Time 1 and Time 2. Progression to the later stages in the model was found for the subset of participants that responded at the Time 3 follow up. Issues of questionnaire design and the utility of the Transtheoretical Model for motorcycle rider training are discussed.


Background: Juvenile-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE) is a multi-system autoimmune disease characterised by severe disease and poorer prognosis compared to adult-onset disease. Currently, its aetiopathogenesis is unknown but is postulated to be a result of a loss of peripheral tolerance. T helper 17 (Th17) cells produce pro-inflammatory cytokines Interleukin-17A (IL-17A) and IL-21 and are upregulated by IL-23. These cytokines have been shown to factor in the inflammatory manifestations of adult SLE. Six members of the IL-17 family have been identified so far, as well as IL-17 receptor subtypes. Although research on IL-17 family members is scarce, existing studies have implicated IL-17B, IL-17C and IL-17 receptor E (IL-17RE) in autoimmune pathology.

Objective: To optimise the measurement of the IL-17 family (IL-17A, IL-17B, IL-17C and IL-17RE) and Th17-related cytokines (IL-21 and IL-23) in order to investigate their roles in the pathogenesis of JSLE.

Methods: Peripheral blood components were isolated from JSLE, healthy paediatric control and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) patients. Spike-and-recovery validation experiments were conducted using JSLE and control serum and plasma in an IL-17A single plex and IL-17A, IL-21 and IL-23 ELISAs. mRNA expression of IL-17A was analysed by qPCR in CD4+ T cells from JSLE and control patients. Western blot analysis of IL-17A protein was optimised and measured in the PBMCs, CD4+ T cells and neutrophils of JSLE, control and JIA patients. JSLE and control PBMC mRNA expression of IL-17B, IL-17C and IL-17RE were quantified using qPCR, then mRNA expression of IL-17C and IL-17RE in CD3/CD28 stimulated JSLE and control PBMCs were analysed.

Results: 102 patients (JSLE: n=31; healthy controls: n=66; JIA: n=4; lupus nephritis: n=1) were involved in this study, with multiple episode samples from JSLE and JIA patients. Poor recovery and matrix interference were detected in all IL-17A, IL-21 and IL-23 immunoassays. Protein IL-17A expression of neutrophils was significantly decreased in JSLE patients (p=0.03). IL-17A neutrophil expression was validated using purified neutrophils from healthy adult donors. IL-17B was not expressed in any samples. No significant differences were found between JSLE and control CD4+ cells or PBMCs at an mRNA and protein level for IL-17A, IL-17C or IL-17RE expression. IL-17RE expression was significantly decreased in stimulated JSLE PBMCs (p=0.007), with fold decreases in IL-17C and IL-17RE of JSLE relative to controls. Western blotting of IL-17C and IL-17RE protein expression was optimised in JSLE and control CD4+ T cells.

Conclusions: Findings show IL-17A is not significantly increased in the peripheral blood of JSLE patients and that IL-17A is expressed by neutrophils. IL-17B is not expressed in human PBMCs while IL-17C and IL-17RE are, but are not significantly increased in JSLE PBMCs. Future immunoassays must be validated for recovery potential and existing data should be interpreted with caution. This study involved the validation and rigorous optimisation of novel methods investigating the IL-17 family and Th17-related cytokines, contributes significantly to limited research in the context of paediatric autoimmune disease, Th17 and the IL-17 family, and opens up new avenues for future directions in these fields.


Across the EU, there is a groundswell of public administrations that use open source for their ICT solutions. Evidence of its benefits as well as practical examples are steadily piling up at the European Commission's Open Source Observatory. The areas where this type of solution can be found most include, in random order, content management (CMS), document management (DMS), database applications, all kinds of online e-government services geo-information systems (GIS) and in most if not all publicly provided applications built to use open data.


Learning a goal-oriented dialog policy is generally performed offline with supervised learning algorithms or online with reinforcement learning (RL). Additionally, as companies accumulate massive quantities of dialog transcripts between customers and trained human agents, encoder-decoder methods have gained popularity as agent utterances can be directly treated as supervision without the need for utterance-level annotations. However, one potential drawback of such approaches is that they myopically generate the next agent utterance without regard for dialog-level considerations. To resolve this concern, this paper describes an offline RL method for learning from unannotated corpora that can optimize a goal-oriented policy at both the utterance and dialog level. We introduce a novel reward function and use both on-policy and off-policy policy gradient to learn a policy offline without requiring online user interaction or an explicit state space definition.


Time-series modeling has shown great promise in recent studies using the latest deep learning algorithms such as LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory). These studies primarily focused on watershed-scale rainfall-runoff modeling or streamflow forecasting, but the majority of them only considered a single watershed as a unit. Although this simplification is very effective, it does not take into account spatial information, which could result in significant errors in large watersheds. Several studies investigated the use of GNN (Graph Neural Networks) for data integration by decomposing a large watershed into multiple subwatersheds, but each sub-watershed is still treated as a whole, and the geoinformation contained within the watershed is not fully utilized. In this paper, we propose the GNRRM (Graph Neural Rainfall-Runoff Model), a novel deep learning model that makes full use of spatial information from high-resolution precipitation data, including flow direction and geographic information. When compared to baseline models, GNRRM has less over-fitting and significantly improves model performance. Our findings support the importance of hydrological data in deep learning-based rainfall-runoff modeling, and we encourage researchers to include more domain knowledge in their models.


This paper investigates architectural students' 'year-out' learning experiences in architectural offices after completing RIBA Part I study within a UK university. By interviewing and analysing their reflections on the experience, the study examines how individual architecture students perceive and value their learning experience in architectural offices and how students understand and integrate what they have learned through two distinct elements of their training: in university and in offices.
The architectural offices that students worked with vary in terms of workforce size and projects undertaken. The students' training experience is not unified. The processes of engaging with concrete situations in real projects may permit students to follow opportunities that most inspire them and to develop their differing expertise, but their development in offices can also be restricted by the vicissitudes of market economics.
This study has demonstrated that architectural students' learning and development in architectural offices continued through 'learning by doing' and used drawings as primary design and communicative media. Working in offices gave weight to both explicit and tacit knowledge and used subjective judgments. A further understanding was also achieved about what architects are and what they do in practice. The realities of their architectural practice experience discouraged some Part I students from progressing into the next stage of architectural education, Part II, but for others it demonstrated that a career in architecture was 'achievable'.
This study argues that creative design, practical and technical abilities are not separate skill-sets that are developed in the university and in architectural offices respectively. They are linked and united in the learning process required to become a professional architect. The study also suggests that education in the university should do more to prepare students for their training in practice.
Yun Gao is an architect and Senior Lecturer in the School of Art, Design, and Architecture at the University of Huddersfield. After earning a PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1998, she practiced architecture in Bristol. Her research has explored teaching and learning in architectural education.
Kevin Orr has been Senior Lecturer in the School of Education and Professional Development at the University of Huddersfield since 2006 where his research has mainly focused on work-based learning and professional development of teachers in the lifelong learning and skills sector.


Abstract:Founded in New York City in 1990, the Clit Club was a nightclub and performance venue that offered a sex-positive, racially, economically, and culturally-mixed queer space of encounter for self-identified lesbian, gay, and trans people for over twelve years. Drawing from archival material and responses to a questionnaire previously sent to Clit Club staff, this article provides an introduction to the space, affect, and practices at the Club, and riffs on Stefano Harney and Fred Moten's concept of the undercommons, and the improvisational and renegade space it opens up. We posit the Clit Club as a sexual "undercommons" that, through the care of its dedicated staff, created a landscape of open possibilities for sexual play and social intimacy in its tiny, hot, crowded spaces. The polyvocality of this coauthored article mirrors the Clit Club's own expression and negotiation of multiple and at times divergent perspectives among its staff and extended family. Returning to the Clit Club today also entails naming the structures that contributed to its absence from queer history, while recognizing the nuanced ways in which the Club resisted the glare of visibility and capture.


The proposed publication was prepared by five Georgian think tanks analyzing Georgia-EU relations. The initiative was backed and coordinated by EU Integration Program of Open Society Georgia Foundation. This is the united effort of representatives of Georgian think tank community to respond to Eastern Partnership Structural consultation launched by European Union in 2019. The views, opinions and statements expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs only and do not necessarily reflect the position of Open Society Georgia Foundation. Therefore, the Open Society Georgia Foundation is not responsible for the content of the information material.


A continuing programme of NPM reforms, grounded in quasi-market modes of governance and private sector best practice, have been applied to English NHS hospitals over the last thirty years in response to concerns about their performance efficiency and accountability. However, in the transition to market modes of governance, the retention of hierarchical features gave rise to a multi-layering of accountability. From 2001-02 balanced scorecard inspired performance measurement systems (PMS), were introduced into the NHS, aimed at improving service standards through improved cost efficiency. Study 1 in this thesis finds that, in this context, the relationship between service standards and cost efficiency is positive and that, consistent with it being a more effective PMS, this was stronger for the 'Annual Health Check', a PMS characterised by features aimed at reducing manipulation, than the Star ratings, its predecessor. The approach to the manipulation of financial breakeven, a key accountability measure, was however more relaxed, particularly when service standards were under threat. The system of 'financial support' had its roots in previous hierarchical relationships and acted to shift revenue across the NHS in order to allow Trusts in financial difficulty to meet their financial objectives without damaging service standards. These transfers, which were effected through the revenue account, were generally reversed out in future years with the result that financial support accelerated revenue recognition in Trusts receiving it. In Study 2, the receipt of financial support by Trusts in financial difficulty was found to be associated with an improvement in service standards and in future financial performance but, in an increasingly demanding performance regime and multi-layered accountability, evidence was also found of opportunistic exploitation of the system. Financial support had a considerable impact on the accountability of both NHS Trusts and the wider NHS because of the limited transparency around financial support transactions.


We describe a type system with mixed linear and non-linear recursive types called LNL-FPC (the linear/non-linear fixpoint calculus). The type system supports linear typing which enhances the safety properties of programs, but also supports non-linear typing as well which makes the type system more convenient for programming. Just like in FPC, we show that LNL-FPC supports type-level recursion which in turn induces term-level recursion. We also provide sound and computationally adequate categorical models for LNL-FPC which describe the categorical structure of the substructural operations of Intuitionistic Linear Logic at all non-linear types, including the recursive ones. In order to do so, we describe a new technique for solving recursive domain equations within the category CPO by constructing the solutions over pre-embeddings. The type system also enjoys implicit weakening and contraction rules which we are able to model by identifying the canonical comonoid structure of all non-linear types. We also show that the requirements of our abstract model are reasonable by constructing a large class of concrete models that have found applications not only in classical functional programming, but also in emerging programming paradigms that incorporate linear types, such as quantum programming and circuit description programming languages.


It is widely accepted that the effects of rotational motions on seismic waves can be neglected when ground motion is small and might be underestimated in near-fault and/or with extremely large ground motions. However, quantitative validation of these assumptions is still needed. During the 2012 Wutai earthquake in Taiwan (6.4 ML), a set of small rotation ratestrong motion velocity data was recorded at the HWLB (Hualien) seismographic station. This station is 161 km away from the epicenter and the recorded peak ground acceleration and rotation rate are about 7 cm s -1 s -1 and 0.1 mrad s -1 , respectively. This data set is useful for evaluating the lower bound of ground motion that can be neglected regarding the effects of rotational motions. In this study, we apply the algorithm developed by Chiu et al. (2012) and derive the time histories of the rotation angle, the centrifugal acceleration and the gravity effect due to the rotational motions. The results show that all three-component rotation angles are less than 3 × 10 -4 degrees. The maximum centrifugal acceleration and effect of gravity are about 5 × 10 -5 and 5 × 10 -3 cm s -1 s -1 , respectively. Although the amount of induced ground motions due to the rotational motions is small, the effect on the waveforms is significant; the maximum waveform difference before and after rotation-motion correction is about 10% of the Peak Ground Acceleration. We also found that the effects of rotational motions are always present and are proportional to the ground acceleration except that centrifugal acceleration and the vertical component of gravity effect decrease faster compared to the decrease in ground accelerations.


Filarial nematode infections remain a significant threat of morbidity in the Tropics. Collectively known as filariasis, these helminth infections can result in gross inflammatory pathology of the infected host. However, more commonly, the host remains relatively asymptomatic, exhibiting a somewhat suppressed, non-inflammatory immune response to the parasite, permitting the longevity of infection commonly seen with many helminth infections. In addition to promoting parasite survival, such immunomodulatory actions appear conducive to host health by limiting development of pathological lesions resulting from aggressive, pro-inflammatory responses. This can prove to be advantageous for humans, as although nematode infection can result in severe pathology, the majority of infected people exhibit little evidence of an inflammatory response or overt tissue destruction/disruption commonly associated with autoimmune disorders. Consistent with this, there is increasing evidence supporting an inverse relationship between worm infection and Th1/17-based inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, type-1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Moreover, in the developed world, there has been an alarming increase in these inflammatory diseases, coincident with recent improvements in hygiene; a trend not observed in parasite-endemic countries. Therefore, the "hygiene hypothesis" proposes that these trends are directly associated, by predicting that in the absence of helminth infection, there is a lack of parasite-induced immunoregulation that can result in an over-active immune response in susceptible individuals, resulting in the development of autoimmunity.

Filarial nematodes are known to secrete immunomodulatory excretory-secretory products during infection, which act to modulate inflammatory host immune responses and thus, protect the parasite from elimination. ES-62, a phosphorylcholine-containing glycoprotein secreted by the rodent filarial nematode, Acanthocheilonema viteae, has previously been shown to modulate the responses of several innate cells to promote anti-inflammatory immune responses in vitro and in vivo. Indeed, this laboratory demonstrated that ES-62 exhibited anti-inflammatory properties that extended to potential therapeutic action in autoimmune inflammatory diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). This was evidenced by studies demonstrating that ES-62 not only reduced severity of disease in the murine model of collagen induced arthritis (CIA), but also acted to reduce pro-inflammatory cytokine and auto-antibody production from blood and synovial cultures derived from human RA patients. Perhaps rather surprisingly therefore, ES-62 was subsequently found not to offer any protection in some other models of inflammation, including the NOD mouse model of Type 1 Diabetes, the Plasmodium chabaudi model of malaria and the Toxoplasma gondii model of toxoplasma, all of which have been linked with Th1-like pathology. However, given the recent reassessment of CIA as a Th17-, rather than Th1-, mediated disease, it has been hypothesised that ES-62 exhibits therapeutic potential in models, such as CIA, which reflect Th17- rather than Th1 mediated pathology. As the previous CIA/RA studies did not address the role of the Th17 family of pro-inflammatory cytokine mediators, which have been implicated as orchestrating much of the pathology seen in CIA, the core aim of this thesis was to define whether ES-62 was mediating its therapeutic action in autoimmune inflammatory disorders by targeting this Th17 population. Indeed, in chapter 3 of this thesis, it was found that the significant inhibition of disease scores in ES-62-treated CIA mice was accompanied by a significant reduction in levels of IL-17-producing cells, as detected by flow cytometry. Moreover, such analysis revealed that ES-62 reduced IL-17 production from both CD4+ (Th17) cells and γδ cells, which were the two major IL-17-producing populations in the LN of CIA mice. By contrast, ES-62 was not found to modulate the levels of IFNγ-producing cells, either in terms of CD4 or CD8 T cells, which constitute the major cellular compartments generating this cytokine in CIA, supporting the hypothesis that ES-62 targets Th17/IL-17-, rather than Th1-associated inflammation.

In addition to suppressing CIA, pilot studies had shown that prophylactic treatment with ES-62 significantly inhibited the development of glomerulonephritis and articular inflammation in MRL/lpr mice, two pathologies commonly associated with SLE in humans. The anti-inflammatory actions of ES-62 were evidenced by a reduction of proteinuria levels and footpad swelling, respectively, but were not associated with modulation of lymphadenopathy, splenomegaly or hypergammaglobulinemia occurring in tandem with autoimmune pathology in such MRL/lpr mice. Studies in chapter 4 of this thesis characterised the cytokine profile of MRL/lpr lupus prone mice, in comparison to congenic MRL/MP control mice, throughout the course of disease induction and progression. These studies showed that IL-17 production was detected in the lymph nodes and serum of MRL/lpr mice, before the onset of lupus pathology. Furthermore, γδ T cells were the major IL-17 producing cell type examined in these mice. Prophylactic treatment with ES-62 resulted in reduced cytokine (IL-17 and IFNγ) release by lymph node cells and splenocytes in response to ex vivo stimulation with the mitogen, ConA, although this did not prove to be significant. As IL-17 was one of the cytokines targeted, this suggested that, as with the CIA model, ES-62 mediated its anti-inflammatory effects through modulation of this cytokine. Consistent with this, it was also found that exposure to ES-62 in vivo reduced the levels of IL-17-producing cells, particularly the γδ T cell population at the earliest time-point examined. By contrast, again as with the CIA model, there was no reduction in the levels of IFNγ-producing cells in ES-62 treated mice, confirming that ES-62 was not acting directly on these Th1 cells.

One of the hallmarks of the MRL/lpr model of lupus is the accumulation of B220+CD3+ Double Negative (DN) T cells, which account for much of the lymphadenopathy observed. These cells, which would otherwise have been deleted during development, are known to survive and accumulate due to the lpr (lymphoproliferative) mutation of the Fas gene in these mice. Despite being the predominant LN cell population following onset of disease in MRL/lpr mice, DN T cells have not generally been considered to be pathogenic in this model, but rather proposed to exhibit an anergic-like phenotype. However, some studies have suggested that they can produce cytokines, such as IFNγ and more recently it has been shown that they are a source of IL-17 [1, 2]. Moreover, DN T cells producing IL-17 have been found in the kidneys of SLE patients, suggesting they might indeed play a pathogenic role in lupus-like inflammation [3]. The data presented here established that such DN T cells are capable of producing a range of cytokines, including IL-10, IL-17 and IFNγ and indeed, the most novel finding of these studies was that DN T cells are capable of producing IL-22, a cytokine generally associated with Th17 cells. While the function of this IL-22 production is unclear, it was seen that the percentage of DN T cells producing IL-22 were significantly inhibited by exposure to ES-62 in vivo and hence, whilst ES-62 did not appear to influence the expansion of these cells, it did modulate their effector function by suppressing their capacity to produce this cytokine, although the absolute numbers of cells was not significant reduced.

In summary, the novel findings presented in this thesis support the theory that parasite-derived products such as ES-62 may protect against development of the autoimmune inflammatory diseases prevalent in developed society. The highly evolved anti-inflammatory mechanisms designed to beneficially maintain the host-parasite relationship could therefore potentially be exploited to design novel safe therapies for numerous inflammatory diseases. The precise mechanisms by which ES-62 mediates its anti-inflammatory effects have yet to be fully delineated, but it appears to target a variety of cells including IL-17- and IL-22-producing cells (γδ T cells, DN T cells and Th17 cells) in the inflammatory models examined. Importantly, the pilot studies testing the use of synthetic derivatives of ES-62, which showed promise with respect to modulation of inflammatory cytokine production from RA and SLE patient samples, highlight the potential for translating these results into a clinical setting.


ABSTRACT Aim: Patients with metastatic colorectal cancer may be cured with multimodality therapy. The goal of this subset analysis is to determine the characteristics and the long-term outcome of patients enrolled on this first-line treatment study for metastatic disease but who underwent surgery following chemotherapy. Methods: Pts with KRAS wt (codons 12 and 13) MCRC and performance status 0-1 received FOLFIRI or mFOLFOX6 (MD/patient choice at enrollment) and randomized to either CET 400 mg/m2 X 1, then 250 mg/m2 qw or BV 5 mg/kg q2w. At enrollment, the goal of therapy was chosen by the MD: palliative or as neoadjuvant therapy as part of a curative treatment plan. Rx continued until progression, death, unacceptable toxicity, surgery with curative intent; treatment holidays of 4 weeks permitted but patients in general came off study if they underwent surgery. Subsequent Rx not mandated. Accrual goal was 1142 pts. 1° endpoint was overall survival (OS). Results: Between 11/2005 and 3/2012, 3058 unselected pts enrolled, 2334 KRAS wt pts randomized; final N =1137 (333 pre-amend eligible retrospective KRAS test, 804 post-amend), median follow-up = 32 mos; Median age–59 y; 61% male. At some point after chemotherapy, 179 patients (15.7%) went to surgery, median age 54, 62% male. 24.6% with intact primary, 36.9% with curative intent, 80% FOLFOX, and 58% CET. 130 of the 179 pts were NED immediately post-surgery (104 (58%) of these pts stopped protocol treatment to pursue surgery; 20 (11%) pts due to adverse events; 18 (10%) had surgery after progressing on study treatment. ) Median time between study entry and surgery was 6.8 mos and median OS from randomization was 60 mos; 95% CI (49, 69). DFS from surgical resection among NED pts was 16.1 mos; 95%CI (10.5, 22.2) and from randomization was 26 mos; 95% CI (21, 34). 96 pts are alive post-surgery (50 remain NED) after a median of 37 mos post-surgical f/u. Conclusions: 130 of 1137 pts enrolled on study reached NED after chemotherapy and surgery. The median OS in these patients was 60 months although many have recurred. We anticipate all-RAS status and plan on analyzing the subset of patients who underwent surgery to identify possible predictive characteristics and also to determine if there is an explanation for the fact that more patients on CET went to surgery than did pts on BV. Disclosure: A. Venook: Research support from Genentech/Roche, BMS, Lilly, Novartis; H. Lenz: Consulting, advisory boards and research support from Genentech/Roche, BMS and Merck; H. Hochster: Consultant to BMS and Genentech; R. Goldberg: Payments to me from Eli Lilly for service on a DSMB and payments from Sanofi-Aventis for speaking at meetings. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


Small developing countries have for long acquired significant benefits through preferential trading arrangements. However, these benefits have led to a proliferation of inefficient industries in the recipient countries. With the recent changes in the GAIT, these inefficient industries may close and thus lead to major economic and social problems in the recipient countries. This paper utilizes the frontier production function approach to examine the efficiency status of Fiji's sugar industry. The analysis reveals that a significant level of inefficiency exists at the farm level of Fiji's sugar industry. Some of the factors that were found to affect the level of efficiency are farming status, land class and ethnicity. These factors are then used to derive policy implications.


Any language policy (and even the absence of a formal language policy constitutes, in effect, a language policy) reflects the social, political, and economic context of public education. At the same time, the effect of that policy on society extends beyond the generation receiving direct services under it, for it influences what that generation brings to the task of educating its children. The current study explores the relationship between language policy and non-linguistic, non-educational issues in two case studies, both set in Hawaii. The first involves the loss of Hawaiian, the indigenous language, to English, an immigrant language during the Nineteenth Century. The second involves the linguistic assimilation of the Japanese during the first half of the Twentieth Century. While both involve language loss, the long-term effects in each situation have been quite different. The two case studies provide a historical backdrop for understanding the contemporary setting. The second part of the paper examines several current issues in language policy and language planning in Hawaii, especially as they relate to programs of bilingual education. This article is available in Working Papers in Educational Linguistics (WPEL): http://repository.upenn.edu/wpel/vol1/iss1/6 Language Education Policy in Hawaii: Two Case Studies and Some Current Issues Thom Huebner University of Pennsylvania


Abstract Objective: To assess the role of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) insertion, and its timing, on ALS survival, and to study prognostic factors of survival before and after PEG placement in a population-based setting. Methods: In this observational population-based, registry study, we enrolled patients with newly- diagnosed ALS, according to the El Escorial revised criteria, who were resident in the Emilia Romagna Region, and who developed severe dysphagia needing enteral nutritional support. The primary outcome measure was tracheostomy-free survival after PEG recommendation. Results: There were 210 patients needing PEG, out of an incident cohort of 545 patients from the Emilia Romagna Registry for ALS, who were diagnosed between 2009 and 2013. One hundred and ninety-three patients were included in the study, and 17 were excluded because they were already tracheostomized at the time of PEG placement. Of the 193 patients included in the study, 152 underwent PEG, whereas 41 did not undergo the procedure. Patients who did not undergo PEG, among the eligible ones, had the same tracheostomy-free survival from onset as patients who did (25 vs. 32 months, p = 0.21). Tracheostomy-free survival from PEG recommendation was greater in patients who underwent PEG placement than in patients who did not (6 vs. 2 months, p = 0.008). Median tracheostomy-free survival from PEG insertion was eight months (95% CI5–12); 30 days after PEG placement, survival was 89.60%. At Cox multivariable analysis, the hazard of death or tracheostomy after PEG insertion was significantly influenced by the difference between BMI at the time of the PEG procedure and BMI at diagnosis (HR 1.05, 95% CI 1.02–1.08; p = 0.002). The hazard of death or tracheostomy was not affected by the timing of PEG insertion. Conclusions: The present study, although it has some limitations, suggests a gain of tracheostomy-free survival from the time of PEG recommendation for patients who undergo PEG placement, and, among patients who undergo PEG, a greater survival if PEG is inserted before a significant weight loss occurs, and if nutritional support avoids further weight loss. Should this association between prevention of weight loss and better clinical outcome be confirmed by further studies, it would have important implications for disease management.


Abstract In this paper I issue a call for a primary focus on expanding and strengthening alternative, community-based justice systems, as a strategy for securing the full benefits of legal agency to indigenous and other culturally distinct groups. I do so because what lies within the formal justice system – the very system to which so many well-meaning programmes promise access – is, for these groups and their members, often partial justice at best. Efforts to increase the space governed by autochthonous justice are more likely to produce true legal agency for both the communities and their members, although they raise important issues for included subgroups, such as women or culturally nonconforming groups. Somewhat paradoxically, indigenous groups' engagement with the very apex of formal systems, through constitutional litigation, has been one avenue for increasing that space, thus reflecting the exercise of collective legal agency in the pursuit of collective and individual legal agency.


Pleading requirements are the keys to the courthouse. Nowhere is this more true than with rule 10b-5 class action securities fraud claims. Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 impose special pleading burdens upon plaintiffs regarding the scienter element and bar them from discovery when defendants file a motion to dismiss. This Article begins with a doctrinal history of the scienter element of a rule 10b-5 claim that indicates that many key legal questions remain unsettled and that application of legal rules to specific factual allegations regarding a particular type of defendant—external auditors—is extraordinarily muddled. To determine whether the impression arising from this extensive but nonsystematic examination of the case law is accurate, we also empirically examine rule 10b-5 claims against auditors and confirm that few facts are consistently viewed by the courts as indicating the presence (or absence) of scienter. This lack of clarity in the law and its application makes it difficult for either plaintiffs or defendants to evaluate the settlement value of claims. Furthermore, the law's excessive vagueness affords judges virtually untrammeled discretion. The literature of behavioral psychology and related fields indicates that excessive discretion exacerbates problems that arise from unconscious judicial bias. † Assistant Professor, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin. ‡ Professor, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin. Case Western Reserve Law Review·Volume 63·Issue 2·2012 Scienter Pleading and Rule 10b-5


Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by a single-celled protozoan parasite known as Toxoplasma gondii. It infects approximately one-third of the world's population. The definitive hosts of this obligate intercellular parasite are feline family members; but it is
widespread in human and many warm-blooded animals, particularly farm animals. The disease causes critical symptoms in infants, pregnant women, and fetuses and there is still an urgent need new more effective therapeutic, diagnostic and bioimaging compounds as well as affordable production methods amenable to upscaling. A plant-based recombinant antibody against Toxoplasma antigen may offer a potential approach
in developing strategies to produce such molecules. The antibody was designed to specifically target surface protein of the T.godii tachyzoites can be further developed as targeting antibodies or diagnostic reagents against the organism. Thus, in this study,
anti-Toxoplasma scFv antibody genes were introduced into the pCambia1304 vector and transformed into Musa acuminata cv. Berangan and Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. SR1 leaf discs through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. In addition, a KDEL retention sequence and Bowman-birk Serine proteinase inhibitor genes were added into
the construct to stabilize and enhance the scFv antibody production. The transgene was successfully integrated into the tobacco genome. Unfortunately, the desired gene failed
to integrate into banana genome despite many attempts and the possible constrains are discussed. Molecular analysis including PCR and Real-time PCR were used to confirm
the integration of transgene into the plant genome. From Real-time PCR results, the average mRNA level for the leaves transformed with the construct pToxo130BBI based
on the RT-qPCR of three transgenes elements was 4.4 fold when compared to non-transformed tobacco whereas for the construct pToxo130BBIKDEL, it was 3.58 fold higher. The unexpected lower level of mRNA for pToxo130BBIKDEL compared to III pToxo130BBI (0.82 fold) in Real-time PCR may not reflect the actual protein accumulation level in plant cell. Further studies need to be carried out to examine the effectiveness of adding KDEL retention sequence and Bowman-birk Serine proteinase inhibitor genes in the constructs through quantitative analysis of the tobacco-expressed protein. Overall, the study proposes a potentially useful expression platform for production of anti-Toxoplasma scFv antibodies.


1. SUMMARY The Overview Report of the joint ACM, IEEE-CS, and AIS series on the Computing Curricula was published in 2006. It can be accessed at http://www.acm.org/education/. Its goal is to provide perspective for those in academia who need to understand what the major computing disciplines are and how the respective undergraduate degree programs compare and complement each other. Subsequently, the report has been used as the basis for the production of a brochure to be sent to all US high schools and a web site to support the brochure at which further information relevant to potential students will be found. The aim of both the brochure and supporting web site is to aid recruitment of students in to undergraduate programs in the Computing disciplines. The special session will present both the brochure and the web site, with the intention of seeking feedback to inform future developments, both in the US and UK.


This in-depth study shows how Personal Construct Theory (PCT) can be used to investigate the bipolar constructs of teaching and the role of the teacher held by five university undergraduates from a range of subject disciplines. The approach adopted was developed from that devised by George Kelly (1905 -1967) which was originally applied to psychotherapy. As a phenomenological approach, PCT draws out the perceptions that individuals hold about the world rather than trying to impose a pre-existing theory or psychological framework.In this study, the participants' constructs of teaching and the role of the teacher originally derived from their experiences as pupils in school were elicited. The contention is that when 'real-world' classroom experiences are offered, prior to making career decisions, undergraduates have the opportunity to develop or change their views related to teaching. The study employed PCT pre and postexperience conversations which were analysed for changes in these views and reported as individual case studies. PCT pre and post-experience conversations provide evidence that time spent in a classroom does change the views of undergraduates about teaching and the role of the teacher. In this case, all five participants agreed that teaching was a career they would be pursuing either immediately or in the near future, which represents a significant change for two of the participants who had not previously planned to pursue a teaching career. The study provides evidence that a practical classroom experience (practicum) changes an individual's views of the teaching from a previously held view that teaching was not a career option to teaching becoming a career choice. This study argues that this type of practicum should precede a full-time teacher training course to allow any candidate unsure about embarking on the training to 'try-out' teaching first. This detailed study provides evidence for the validity of the PCT conversation as an effective approach for eliciting personal constructs and identifying any changes around the issues of teaching and the role of a teacher as a result of a school placement.


The Analyzer of Space Plasma and Energetic Atoms (ASPERA) on board the Mars Express spacecraft found that solar wind plasma and accelerated ionospheric ions may be observed all the way down to the Mars Express pericenter of 270 kilometers above the dayside planetary surface. This is very deep in the ionosphere, implying direct exposure of the martian topside atmosphere to solar wind plasma forcing. The low-altitude penetration of solar wind plasma and the energization of ionospheric plasma may be due to solar wind irregularities or perturbations, to magnetic anomalies at Mars, or both.


A facile co-precipitation approach combined with spray-drying and high-temperature calcinations was developed to synthesize LiMn0.8Fe0.2PO4/C microspheres on a large scale. With an open porous structure, these microspheres are composed of nanoparticles coated with a carbon layer. The electrochemical performances of a LiMn0.8Fe0.2PO4/C cathode were investigated with a water-soluble adhesive, polyacrylic latex (LA133), and compared with the commercial polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF). The results show that LA133 makes better distribution between the microspheres and acetylene black with a larger and closer contact and stronger adherence. The testing results show that the LiMn0.8Fe0.2PO4/C demonstrates a reversible capacity of 161 mA h g−1. The electrodes with the LA133 adhesive attain higher discharge capacities than the electrodes with PVDF at a large current density, and deliver a long cycle life of 500 cycles at 5C with an excellent capacity retention ratio of 70.5% at room temperature. Even at a low temperature of 0 °C, the LiMn0.8Fe0.2PO4/C electrodes with LA133 retain a capacity of 117 mA h g−1 and stability.


It turns out that where homoeroticism is granted full social sanction, as it was in Rome, it flourishes ... Men, we learn from ancient Rome, will enjoy sex with other men, if there is no social censure ... And so now we come back to the idyllic day of free choice and tolerance envisioned by the gay and lesbian movement. Joshua Berman Without dispute, the understood schemata for sexual relations in the ancient world significantly diverge from those of the modern world, especially those that mediated behavior in same-sex sexual or social relations. Same-sex relations in ancient Rome--and in fact, all sexual relations--were largely predicated on notions of power, of domination and submission, and of social class. (1) As Marilyn Skinner notes, "Sex relations were structured hierarchically, in contrast to our ideal of equality between the partners, and the gender roles of active and passive partner were not tied to sex--for the person in the submissive role, at least, structural 'femininity' was the consequence of lower status, not sex" (19). (2) As far as a male Roman citizen's reputation (3) was concerned, the biological gender of his sex partner(s) did not establish his identity--it was his role as the active or submissive sexual partner that legitimated or damaged his public identity as a masculine subject (see Miller and Platter; Wray 59-61). Despite what is often believed, there was not "homosexual identity" in ancient Rome per se (Wray 171-72). (4) There was no word for "sexual" or "sexuality" in Greece or Rome, but rather we find ta aphrodisia ("matters of Aphrodite") in Greek or terms limited to body parts or specific sexual acts in Latin (Skinner 3; See Parker 48-50). (5) Despite the wide acceptance among scholars of the ancient world that erotic behavior was dictated by social rules and notions of power rather than biology, contemporary writers and human rights activists who discuss homosexual identity continue to situate its beginning in the ancient world and, often, present this presumed foundational point of homosexual identity as a "lost" utopia in which a homosexual was accepted publicly, rather than pushed into the confines of a closet. Simultaneously, radical opponents of gay rights appeal to this same historical vision as a warning of the potential consequences were full civil equality for gay people granted. Both contemporary and ancient writers often appeal to a prelapsarian golden age/utopia to mediate the struggle for the constitution of their identities. Contemporary male homosexual identity, the defining characteristic of which, according to society, is physical same-sex acts, (6) often seeks to legitimate itself by citing a past, lost sense of a publicly accepted homosexual identity; however, same-sex acts in ancient Greece and Rome did not establish a homosexual identity but rather an assertion or disavowal of a masculine identity. Although same-sex relations are widely depicted in the ancient world, we find few texts that depict modern same-sex "relationships." Indeed, the idea that we can pin down exactly what same-sex relationships were like in the ancient world has been contested by more than one scholar (see for example, Drinkwater; James 6 (7); Nikoloutsos, "Beyond Sex," esp. 55, 76 and "The Boy as Metaphor" 27). (8) I do not wish to discount these arguments, particularly in the realm of the aesthetically rigid genre of Latin elegy, in which the poems are heavily constructed, interconnected, and often not about what the "surface level" dialog or action a particular poem contains. This paper aims to show, through Tibullus 1.4, a concrete example of an articulation of masculine identity grounded in an appeal to the past that exemplifies not only the same-sex freedom appealed to by the gay community, but also the anxiety over the supposed seductive, overpowering, and dangerous force of male same-sex behavior opponents of human rights point to in order to deny these rights to the GLBT community. …


The 21st century has emerged as an era of accountability and standardisation for the teaching profession (Mikulec & Miller, 2012). The current research is comprised of 4 interrelated empirical studies which measure and explore individual differences in perceptions of teacher-student boundaries in the secondary school context from an ethical perspective. This research is timely given it has been 8 years since the Teacher Code of Conduct was introduced in Victoria (The Institute, 2008). While the relationship between teachers and their students has been recognised as a powerful contributor to learning, engagement, and development, the professional limitations of teacher-student interactions have been relatively unexplored. Further, technological advances in the last decade have created new environments that potentially expose teachers to new possibilities and vulnerabilities such as Social Networking Sites (SNS). Within a contingency framework for ethical decision-making (Ferrell & Gresham, 1985) the current research employs a mixed-methods approach and a cross-sectional design. Participants were preservice secondary teachers (N = 288) enrolled at a Victorian university and early career secondary teachers (N = 227) registered in Victoria. All participants completed a questionnaire during class time (preservice) or online (early career) which took approximately 40 minutes. In the absence of a measure of attitudes towards teacher-student interactions and behaviours, the Professional Interactions and Behaviours Scale (PIBS) was developed and validated in Study A. Based upon the Victorian Teacher Code of Conduct, (The Institute, 2008), 5 types of teacher-student interactions were educed from the items; emotional support, physical support, teacher disclosure, connectivity, and befriending. Although average endorsement was modest, early career teachers reported higher endorsement of teacher disclosure and preservice teachers provided greater approval of connectivity and befriending. An opportune international collaboration enabled further comparisons with preservice secondary teachers in Norway (N = 227), who demonstrated greater endorsement of the provision of physical support to students than Victorian preservice teachers. Differences in reported ethical training provided during teacher education are also noted and considered as a context for the development of attitudes toward professional behaviour. Utilising a person-centred approach, Study B explored profiles of trait-like characteristics among the Victorian preservice teachers through cluster analysis. This study proposed that individual differences in personality (Mc Crae & Costa, 2003) and attachment style as defined by Bartholomew (1990) may relate to other personal characteristics such as the need for popularity, domains of contingent self-worth and perceptions of professional behaviour as measured by the PIBS. Preservice teachers described as "responsive resilient" in personality were more likely than "curious & sensitive ambiverts" to endorse teacher provision of emotional support to students. Further, securely attached individuals were more likely to endorse the provision of physical support than dismissive individuals. Study C utilised a mixed-methods approach to explore profiles of teacher-student interactions styles in early career secondary teachers and their responses to ethical dilemmas relating to teacher-student boundaries. Four profiles emerged; "sparing investors", "reserved professionals", "relational enthusiasts", and "supportive ambitious" and in terms of interpersonal goals, professional expectancies and values, burnout, career satisfaction and career aspirations. Few quantitative differences were observed between profiles in terms of ethical decision-making, yet thematic analysis highlighted contextual considerations and protective behaviours as key considerations of early career teachers. Study D explored current and prospective social networking behaviour and found both preservice and early career teachers were highly engaged with SNS, with preservice teachers reporting greater usage. Almost half of participants in both the preservice and early career samples reported negative experiences as a result of online social networking such as bullying or workplace issues. In relation to connecting with students, early career teachers were more likely to accept a friend request from a past student than preservice teachers. Taken together, these studies explore individual differences in teacher-student boundaries as they are perceived by preservice and early career teachers in Victoria. The PIBS is presented as a valid contemporary measure of perceptions towards teacher-student interactions, and differences of experience and culture considered. Implications of the findings are considered in relation to teacher selection processes, the ethics curriculum in teacher education, and regulation of the teaching profession in Australia.


The knowledge on the use of plants of the order Zingiberales by the Malaipandaram tribe inhabited in South India was documented. The data was recorded through questionnaires after proper consultation with the traditional healers and others. The informant consensus factor and use value were analysed. Taxonomic studies were carried out and herbarium specimens were preserved at Catholic Volege Herbarius (CATH) herbarium and live specimens were conserved in the Catholicate College Botanical Garden. A total of 17 ethnobotanically important species were identified in Zingiberales distributed under 5 families, viz., Zingiberaceae, Costaceae, Musaceae, Marantaceae and Cannaceae. The plants were listed with scientific name, local name, family, parts used, preparation methods and use. The commonly used taxa was Curcuma longa with 52 use reports and highest use value of 1.62. In the investigation, endocrinal disorders and tooth pain reported highest Fic of 1. The information collected will be the baseline data for future phytochemical and pharmacological research to develop new drugs and service.


In the Canadian Traveler Problem (CTP) a traveling agent is given a weighted graph, where some of the edges may be blocked, with a known probability. The agent needs to travel to a given goal. A solution for CTP is a policy, that has the smallest expected traversal cost. CTP is intractable. Previous work has focused on the case of a single agent. We generalize CTP to a repeated task version where a number of agents need to travel to the same goal, minimizing their combined travel cost. We provide optimal algorithms for the special case of disjoint path graphs. Based on a previous UCT-based approach for the single agent case, a framework is developed for the multi-agent case and four variants are given - two of which are based on the results for disjoint-path graphs. Empirical results show the benefits of the suggested framework and the resulting heuristics. For small graphs where we could compare to optimal policies, our approach achieves near optimal results at only a fraction of the computation cost.