This book is an intellectual tour de force: a comprehensive Darwinian interpretation of human development. Looking at the entire range of human evolutionary history, Melvin Konner tells the compelling and complex story of how cross-cultural and universal characteristics of our growth from infancy to adolescence became rooted in genetically inherited characteristics of the human brain. All study of our evolution starts with one simple truth: human beings take an extraordinarily long time to grow up. What does this extended period of dependency have to do with human brain growth and social interactions? And why is play a sign of cognitive complexity, and a spur for cultural evolution? As Konner explores these questions, and topics ranging from bipedal walking to incest taboos, he firmly lays the foundations of psychology in biology. As his book eloquently explains, human learning and the greatest human intellectual accomplishments are rooted in our inherited capacity for attachments to each other. In our love of those we learn from, we find our way as individuals and as a species. Never before has this intersection of the biology and psychology of childhood been so brilliantly described. 'Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution,' wrote Dobzhansky. In this remarkable book, Melvin Konner shows that nothing in childhood makes sense except in the light of evolution.


ABSTRACT:Today, nearly 2,000 Filipinos consider themselves members of the "Children of Noah," a new Judaic faith that is growing into the tens of thousands worldwide as ex-Christians encounter forms of Jewish learning online. Under the tutelage of Orthodox Jewish rabbis, Filipino "Noahides," as they call themselves, study Torah, observe the Sabbath, and passionately support a form of messianic Zionism. Filipino Noahides believe that Jews are a racially superior people, with an innate ability to access divinity. According to their rabbi mentors, they are forbidden from performing Jewish rituals and even reading certain Jewish texts. These restrictions have necessitated the creation of new, distinctly Noahide ritual practices and prayers modeled after Jewish ones. Filipino Noahides are practicing a new faith that also affirms the superiority of Judaism and Jewish biblical right to the Land of Israel, in line with the aims of the growing messianic Third Temple Movement in Jerusalem.


In this PhD thesis I address important topics in the debate on and the organisation of the Anti-Money Laundering efforts, which are related to the legitimacy and the effectiveness of the Anti-Money Laundering policies. First of all, this thesis provides a reflection on the assessments of concern that trigger policy makers in the field of crime fighting. Secondly, it provides an assessment of the effectiveness of the agencies entrusted with fighting money laundering at a national level and, of the country blacklisting practices of the Financial Action Task Force. This thesis adheres to the literature of law and economics, while trying to approach the analysis of money laundering from a concept of choice that reflects human behaviour as real as possible. Essentially, this thesis builds on the premises that Anti-Money Laundering policies are socially embedded, that a money launderer's sentiment is socially founded and psychologically bounded and that our understanding of the effectiveness of Anti-Money Laundering efforts will benefit from an explicit consideration of these premises. Four independent studies compose this PhD thesis. The first study looks at one of the core methods to estimate the underground economy, and argues for a behavioural change in the theoretical micro-foundations of this method. The study contends that by recognizing the psychophysical limitations of tax payers we are in a better position to measure the cash based underground economy and explain why, in some cases, the seminal measurement method of Tanzi (1983) is not applicable. Subsequently, the second study explores how the value of information is modified when transmitted hierarchically among institutions that play a role in the fight against money laundering. The study argues that by recognizing the role of institutional distance in the framing of communication between law enforcement organizations, we can enhance our capacity to measure and address the issue of effective cooperation. The third study is built on the behavioural finding that individuals perform badly at generating random numbers and maintains that international evaluations on performance may trigger strategic tampering with national statistics on money laundering. The study reflects on the effectiveness and legitimacy of the naming and shaming strategy that countries are subject to, when statistics are not objective representations of the truth. Finally, the fourth study looks at what may be the future of money laundering in the age of anonymous digital currencies. This study argued that if we recognize that individuals address uncertainty by relying on the common pool of experiential knowledge, then, the dynamics of the wisdom of the crowds may help us better anticipate future social outcomes, among which the global usage of BITCOINs for criminal purposes.


Aim: Four medicinal plants of Trigonella foenum-graecum, Zhumeria majdae, Achillea wilhelsii and Viola tricolor are traditionally used in Iran as analgesic and for treatment of inflammatory disorders. At the present atudy, the antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects of these plants have been studied.
Methods: The antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activity of methanol extracts of tested plants were evaluated using hot-plate and carrageenan-induced edema methods respectively. The plant extracts were studied by i.p administration at three doses of 100, 200 and 400mg/kg.
Results: In the hot-plate test, the extracts of T. foeunm-graecum (100 mg/kg) and Z. majdae (200 and 400m g/kg) significantly increased the tolerance to pain in female albino mice in comparison to control. The administration of T. foenum-graecum at doses of 100 and 200mg/kg and V. tricolor (400mg/kg) significantly reduced the paw edema in male rat which measured in all the times of observation after carrageenan administration in comparison to control and reference (Ibuprofen, 400mg/kg).
Conclusions: The present work comparatively demonstrated considerable antinociceptive and anti inflammatory effect of all of the tested plants especially T. foeunm-graecum. The results here confirm traditional uses of T. foeunm-graecum both as analgesic or anti inflammatory agents.


Background/Aims: The present study aims to explore the protective role and mechanism of ginsenoside Rg1 combined with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) transplantation for cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury (CIRI) in rat brain. Methods: One hundred twenty male SD rats were randomly divided into a sham group, an Ischemia Reperfusion (IR) group, an IR group treated with BMSC transplantation(IR+BMSCs), an IR group treated with Rg1 (IR+Rg1), and an IR group treated with BMSC transplantation and Rg1 (IR+Rg1+BMSCs). To establish a CIRI model, right middle cerebral artery embolization was used. The neurological score, 2,3,5-triphenyltet-razolium chloride monohydrate (TTC) staining and brain water content were detected to assess the treatment efficiency. HE staining and TUNEL were used to explore the pathologic changes and apoptosis. To explore the protein levels of neuronspecific enolase (NSE) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), immunofluoresence was utilized. Western blotting was used to explore apoptosis-related proteins such as Bcl-2 and Bax. Results: Compared with the sham group, the IR group demonstrated obvious ischemic changes, such as significant neurologic defects and enhanced brain water content. The Rg1 treatment resulted in an obvious decrease in cell apoptosis and improved ischemic conditions. By BMSC transplantation, the transplanted cells could be differentiated into neurons and glial cells, which also improved cerebral ischemia. More importantly, the IR+Rg1+BMSCs group D ow nl oa de d by : 54 .7 0. 40 .1 1 10 /6 /2 01 7 8: 33 :5 0 P M Cell Physiol Biochem 2015;37:901-910 DOI: 10.1159/000430217 Published online: September 18, 2015 © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel www.karger.com/cpb 902 Bao et al.: Combination of Rg1 and BMSC Transplantation in CIRI Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry showed the best treatment efficiency with reduced cell apoptosis and better cerebral recovery. Conclusions: The Rg1 treatment resulted in an obvious decrease in cell apoptosis, while the transplanted cells could be differentiated into neurons and glial cells, which also improved cerebral ischemia.


This paper presents the features of a new type of low profile grade control structure, the chevron weir rock ramp. As the name infers, the planform of the structure is in the shape of a chevron. The weir crest angles with the vertex of the angle pointing upstream. The constituent material is angular rock, sized according to standard riprap sizing criteria. Downstream of the rock weir crest is a ramp of rock, angling the flow towards the center of the structure at its toe. The first implementation of this type of grade control structure is by Reclamation on the Muddy Creek Demonstration Stream Restoration Research Project. After two seasons in place, nine grade control structures are performing within expectations. In late 1995 Reclamation installed two grade control structures using an evolved design based upon observations and performance of the original design.


Given the recent progress in language modeling using Transformer-based neural models and an active interest in generating stylized text, we present an approach to leverage the generalization capabilities of a language model to rewrite an input text in a target author's style. Our proposed approach adapts a pre-trained language model to generate author-stylized text by fine-tuning on the author-specific corpus using a denoising autoencoder (DAE) loss in a cascaded encoder-decoder framework. Optimizing over DAE loss allows our model to learn the nuances of an author's style without relying on parallel data, which has been a severe limitation of the previous related works in this space. To evaluate the efficacy of our approach, we propose a linguistically-motivated framework to quantify stylistic alignment of the generated text to the target author at lexical, syntactic and surface levels. The evaluation framework is both interpretable as it leads to several insights about the model, and self-contained as it does not rely on external classifiers, e.g. sentiment or formality classifiers. Qualitative and quantitative assessment indicates that the proposed approach rewrites the input text with better alignment to the target style while preserving the original content better than state-of-the-art baselines.


This study attempts to analyze comparatively marital satisfaction and quality of life in mothers with exceptional children and mothers with normal children. Methodology in present study is comparative. For sample, it selects 40 mothers with normal children in nursery school and preschool located in Ahvaz, 40 mothers with exceptional children under education and care in daily sanatorium, and 30 mothers with exceptional children hospitalized (nightly) in Ahvaz. They are tested by a enrich questionnaire of short form with 47 questions and 36 questions of quality of life. Statistical model of one-way variance analysis is used for data analysis. Findings indicate that there is no significant difference in marital satisfaction between mothers with exceptional children in caring centers and mothers with normal children, yet there is a significant difference in quality of life (mental-physical) between mothers with exceptional children and mothers with normal children. Results of study indicate that mental quality of life as dependent variable is influenced by factors such as children with mental or physical disability as independent variables. Birth of an exceptional child reduces mental quality of life. Results show that not presence of exceptional child for full-time is highly effective on physical quality of life.


We describe and demonstrate a neuromorphic, analog VLSI chip (termed F-LANN) hosting 128 integrate-and-fire (IF) neurons with spike-frequency adaptation, and 16,384 plastic bistable synapses implementing a self-regulated form of Hebbian, spike-driven, stochastic plasticity. The chip is designed to offer a high degree of reconfigurability: each synapse may be individually configured at any time to be either excitatory or inhibitory and to receive either recurrent input from an on-chip neuron or AER-based input from an off-chip neuron. The initial state of each synapse can be set as potentiated or depressed, and the state of each synapse can be read and stored on a computer.


Online environments can cultivate what have been referred to as 21 st century skills and capabilities, as youth contribute, pursue, share, and interact around work and ideas. Such environments also hold great potential for addressing digital divides related to the development of such skills by connecting youth in areas with fewer resources and opportunities to social and material supports for learning. However, even as there is an increasing attention to the importance of 21 st century skills for productive participation in education and the workforce and as online environments for K-12 learning are escalating in both their design and their adoption into formal and informal education spaces, there is still relatively little known about how to effectively measure these sorts of competencies and how to interpret learning activity in K12 online systems. In this paper, we offer a generalizable approach for looking at learning activities related to twenty-first century skills within an online environment, specifically focusing on evidence of creative production, self-directed learning, and social learning. Our framework of analysis was developed with empirical data from mixed ethnographic and learning analytics methodologies. We share our methods for operationalizing log data to look at youth activity in these three areas at a system level using automated log data, then provide results from a unique classroom context alongside self-report survey data, and finally explore the individual level through teacher and learner case studies from the cohort that identify these learners and their use of the system in more personal and contextual focus. We close with a discussion of limitations to this approach, but also why this exploratory work is necessary in order to build better systems that can support opportunities for the development of twenty-first century skills for all young people, and to provide educators, designers, and district decision-makers language to discuss and select networked systems that best match their learning goals and individual learner communities.


Dairy farmers have been identified having high risk for knee pain. Squatting position when milking cows create awkward knee posture and high compression on knee joint that could lead to knee injury and degenerative diseases on knee joint. This study aims to identify the prevalence of knee pain among dairy farmers and the association of squatting position and other factors with knee pain among dairy farmers in West Java. A cross sectional study on 117 respondents was conducted at Unit Pelaksana Teknis Daerah (UPTD) Balai Pengembangan Ternak Sapi Perah dan Hijauan Makanan Ternak (BPT-SP HPT) Cikole, Lembang from May through June 2017 (total population). Instruments used were standardized interview form and Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) questionnaire. Working position was observed. Chi Square and Logistic Regression was conducted with SPSS Statistics 20.0 program. In this study, 88% dairy farmers had knee pain, mostly with mild knee pain. Association was found between knee pain and squatting (ORc=7.36). Determinants for knee pain are working period 6-10 years with ORA=7.35 (95% CI 1.25-42.95, p=0.027) and working period >10 tahun with ORA= 26,09 (95% CI 1.24-547.59, p=0.036). Prevalence of knee pain among dairy farmers was 88%. The study suggests that knee pain among dairy farmers had association with squatting position. Working period >5 years was identified as determinant factor. It is necesary to improve dairy farmers working condition to reduce exposure of risk factors during working period.


Marijuana has long remained one of the most commonly used illicit drugs in the United States and other countries. Recently, it has been estimated that 55 million Americans use this psychoactive drug, with growing usage being attributed to the legalization of marijuana in several states. A concerning implication of increased marijuana use is the alarming number of individuals who report driving under the influence of the drug. It is estimated that nearly 12 million people in the US alone have driven a vehicle while being under the influence of marijuana. To counterbalance the growing use of marijuana and potential associated dangers, it is imperative to develop detection technologies for marijuana usage. An electrochemical-based detection technology, akin to the alcohol breathalyzer, would provide an attractive solution to this growing societal problem. The first step toward this goal is to develop a fundamental reaction that converts tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive substance in marijuana, to a derivative with diagnostic spectroscopic changes. We report the development of a mild electrochemical method for the oxidation of THC to its corresponding p-quinone isomer. The photophysical and electrochemical properties of the resultant quinone show a dramatic shift in comparison to THC. This exceedingly simple protocol provides a foundational step toward the development of an electrochemical-based marijuana breathalyzer.


From 1889 to 1910, while serving on the United States Supreme Court, the first Justice John Marshall Harlan taught at the Columbian College of Law, which became the George Washington University School of Law. For two decades, he primarily taught working-class evening students, in classes as diverse as property, torts, conflicts of law, jurisprudence, domestic relations, commercial law, evidence — and most significantly — constitutional law. Harlan's lectures on constitutional law would have been lost to history, but for the enterprising initiative — and remarkable note-taking — of one of Harlan's students, George Johannes. During the 1897-98 academic year, George Johannes and a classmate transcribed verbatim the twenty-seven lectures Justice Harlan delivered on constitutional law. In 1955, Johannes sent the transcripts to the second Justice Harlan. The papers were ultimately deposited in the Library of Congress. Though much attention has been given to the life and jurisprudence of Justice Harlan, his lectures have been largely ignored. Harlan's lectures are a treasure trove of insights into his jurisprudence, as well as the state of constitutional law at the turn of the 20th century. They provide the unique opportunity to listen in as one of our greatest Justices lectures on the precipice of a constitutional revolution that he helped create. In this article, we use the lectures to paint a picture of who Justice Harlan was, what he believed, how he sought to impart that knowledge to the future lawyers of America, and how he predicted many of the changes in constitutional law that occurred during the 20th century.This article, along with the annotated transcript of all twenty-seven lectures (http://ssrn.com/abstract=2003116), written on the centennial of Justice Harlan's death, is a tribute to one of the giants of the law, and his contribution to legal education.


Background: Mental problems in children are widespread and cannot be reduced through treatment only. Prevention is therefore urgently needed although it is unclear how effective such strategies may be, particularly in the long term. Aim: Can a parent-centered universal prevention program that is effective in the short term also yield effects after 10 years? Method: According to their preschool location, N = 477 families were randomly assigned to the parent training prevention program (Triple P Positive Parenting Program, TP; Sanders, 2012) or the control group (CG). In all, 77% accepted the TP offer (T+), while 23% declined it (T‐). The 10-year effectiveness of the program was established with self-report measures of mothers, fathers, and adolescents from N = 361 families. Results: The intention-to treat analysis (comparison TP vs. CG) yielded negligible findings. By contrast, the differential analysis from the T+ mothers' perspective found long-term improvements in Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) internalizing and externalizing behavior and relationship satisfaction in comparison with CG and T- mothers. At 10 years, compared with pre-assessment, T+ mothers reported the smallest increase in the CBCL sum score of internalizing and externalizing behaviors, 5%, while CG (20%) and T- (33%) mothers reported far higher rates. Contrary to the hypotheses, parenting behavior did not change over time. T+ fathers reported improvements in parenting behavior, while adolescents reported negligible outcomes. Conclusion: The results support the long-term effectiveness of the TP program as a universal prevention intervention, at least from the T+ mothers' perspective. More research should be conducted with the T- families because they showed worse outcomes than the control group.


Introduction: The use of implants is steadily increasing. Reports have been published of implants in the subglandular, subfascial, total, and partial submuscular positions each with its indications, limitations, and complications. Methods: This study presents a technique to cover the implant and support it using two muscle flaps. Between November 2009 and April 2012, 80 patients who submitted to inclusion of implants in the submuscular position in double pocket were analyzed, regardless of the access route, the degree of flaccidity, and ptosis. Results: The versatility of this maneuver allows it to be used in a wide variety of breasts, from breast augmentation without flaccidity to mastopexy with implant, and may be carried out via the periareolar, inframammary, or open access routes. It was used in primary and secondary surgeries, with or without the use of breast tissue flap and removal of skin. Conclusions: The coverage of the implant with the pectoral muscle by the double pocket technique displayed excellent results, with a low rate of complications and reinterventions. This technique is being studied in a larger sample with a longer follow-up to confirm the results obtained so far. ■ ABSTRACT


Due to their potentially harmful consequences, the detection of mismatched DNA is a subject of high interest. In order to probe DNA mismatches by means of luminescent sensitive Ru(II) complexes, "elbow-shaped" extended planar ligands based on an acridine or phenazine core have been synthesized (npp = naphtho[1,2-b]pyrido[3,2-f][1,7]phenanthroline and bdppz = benzo[h]dipyrido[3,2-a:2′,3′-c]phenazine). The photophysical studies revealed that [Ru(bpy)2npp]2+ (bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine) allows emission from a 3MLCTbpy/npp excited state, while the lowest 3MLCT for [Ru(bpy)2bdppz]2+ shifts from a bright 3MLCTbpy/pz state towards a poorly luminescent 3MLCTbdp state, probably due to the formation of H-bonds with water molecules in the excited state. Studies of the complexes in the presence of DNA demonstrate that they strongly bind to polynucleotides. In the presence of single base mismatched hairpin oligonucleotides, while [Ru(bpy)2npp]2+ does not show remarkable sensitivity to the nature of the mismatch site, [Ru(bpy)2bdppz]2+ exhibits noticeably differential luminescence behavior correlated to the nature and stability of the mismatch compared to the well-matched sequence. Photooxidant analogues of these complexes were prepared, replacing bpy ancillary ligands by bpz (2,2′-bipyrazine). A photo-induced electron transfer from dGMP and polynucleotides to the excited states of [Ru(bpz)2npp]2+ and [Ru(bpz)2bdppz]2+ is observed. These results emphasized the role of "elbow-shaped" Ru(II) complexes as promising candidates for the development of mismatch-sensitive DNA photoprobes.


We reconsider perturbative unitarity in quantum field theory and upgrade several arguments and results. The minimum assumptions that lead to the largest time equation, the cutting equations and the unitarity equation are identified. Using this knowledge and a special gauge, we give a new, simpler proof of perturbative unitarity in gauge theories and generalize it to quantum gravity, in four and higher dimensions. The special gauge interpolates between the Feynman gauge and the Coulomb gauge without double poles. When the Coulomb limit is approached, the unphysical particles drop out of the cuts and the cutting equations are consistently projected onto the physical subspace. The proof does not extend to nonlocal quantum field theories of gauge fields and gravity, whose unitarity remains uncertain.


This paper examines the association between monetary policy and stock market booms and busts in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany during the 20th century. Booms tended to arise when output growth was rapid and inflation was low, and end within a few months of an increase in inflation and monetary policy tightening. Latent variable VAR analysis of post-war data finds that inflation has had a particularly strong impact on market conditions, with disinflation shocks moving the market toward a boom and positive inflation shocks moving the market toward a bust. We conclude that central banks can contribute to financial market stability by minimizing unanticipated changes in inflation.


In the earlier monograph Pseudo-reductive Groups, Brian Conrad, Ofer Gabber, and Gopal Prasad explored the general structure of pseudo-reductive groups. In this new book, Classification of Pseudo-reductive Groups, Conrad and Prasad go further to study the classification over an arbitrary field. An isomorphism theorem proved here determines the automorphism schemes of these groups. The book also gives a Tits-Witt type classification of isotropic groups and displays a cohomological obstruction to the existence of pseudo-split forms. Constructions based on regular degenerate quadratic forms and new techniques with central extensions provide insight into new phenomena in characteristic 2, which also leads to simplifications of the earlier work. A generalized standard construction is shown to account for all possibilities up to mild central extensions. The results and methods developed in Classification of Pseudo-reductive Groups will interest mathematicians and graduate students who work with algebraic groups in number theory and algebraic geometry in positive characteristic.


Screening programs for hemoglobinopathies target different population groups such as neonates, students, pregnant women, military personnel, recruits, and blood donors. The fea- sibility and efficiency of these programs basically depend on the population's receptivity, which in turn is related to highly complex economic, psychological, and sociocultural factors. The pur- pose of this study was to evaluate the population of Braganca Paulista, Sao Paulo, based on re- sults from the blood donors' group and to compare these results with those previously obtained in a group of students from the same city. The sample consisted of 1,846 donors who had given blood at the Sao Francisco University Hematology Center, Braganca Paulista, Sao Paulo, from October 1998 to April 1999. Analysis of the 1,846 donors identified 31 individuals who were he- moglobinopathy carriers (1.68%). The result was quite similar to that obtained in the group of students and demonstrated that the two methods are similar in relation to detection of hemoglo- binopathies; however, the blood donor approach is more practical.


One of the most important events of the 2000s was the wave of popular uprising that swept across North Africa and the Middle East. These popular uprisings were the public manifestation of a deeply rooted civil movement that started long before. But the struggle for human rights is not dependent on big, revolutionary events. It can take place in the context of small steps.


This paper presents a health monitoring method using measured hysteretic responses. Acceleration and infrequently measured displacement are integrated using a multirate Kalman filtering method to generate restoring force-displacement hysteresis loops. A linear/nonlinear regression analysis based two-step method is proposed to identify nonlinear system parameters. First, hysteresis loops are divided into loading/unloading half cycles. Multiple linear regression analysis is applied to separate linear and nonlinear half cycles. Preyielding stiffness and viscous damping coefficient are obtained in this step and used as known parameters in the second step. Then, nonlinear regression analysis is applied to identified nonlinear half cycles to yield nonlinear system parameters and two damage indicators: cumulative plastic deformation and residual deformation. These values are closely related to structural status and repair costs. The feasibility of the method is demonstrated using a simulated shear-type structure with different levels of added measurement noise and a suite of ground motions. The results show that the proposed SHM method effectively and accurately identifies physical system parameters with up to 10% RMS added noise. The resulting damage indicators can robustly and clearly indicate structural condition over different earthquake events.


[1] The advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) data acquired from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites have been widely applied to a variety of environmental research. A single AVHRR scene is seldom completely cloud-free. Maximum value compositing (MVC) to create a single image from multiple orbits and dates has become the most valuable method to minimize cloud contamination. Composite images are not absolutely cloud-free. Postcomposite cloud screening of the composite aggregates was developed to overcome the residual cloud contamination problem, but this is not possible for real-time delivery of composite data or not suitable for compositing based on AVHRR data from multiple NOAA satellites. Another approach is to detect and remove cloud-contaminated pixels from daily AVHRR scenes prior to applying the MVC method to provide real-time composite images. This study developed an automated cloud detection method for daily NOAA 16 AVHRR scenes over the state of Texas and Mexico. The accuracy of the cloud detection algorithm was greater than 93% based on a random test sample from 36 images. Unidentified cloud shadow pixels as well as misidentified barren land pixels and water pixels contributed to more than 5% of the accumulated errors. The error from misidentification of water pixels can be reduced by assigning different threshold values for channel 4 brightness temperature according to the geographical latitude of the data. The resulting daily cloud-free AVHRR data can be used to construct short-time period composite images valuable for detecting subtle but critical environment changes. In addition, compositing methods other than MVC, such as multidate averaging or minimum value selection, can be applied for various research purposes, once the daily AVHRR data are cloud-free.


Rural students located on the Northwest Coast of Tasmania are less likely to participate in higher education than their urban counterparts (ABS, 2011a). Despite considerable research, and reforms in education systems and in schools to overcome discrepancies between urban and rural higher education participation rates, the participation gap remains. A growing body of work indicates family attitudes are the dominant influence on young people's academic success and aspirations for further education. This research employed the methodology of multiple case studies to construct a comprehensive picture of the influence of characteristics of social capital in the family unit on the learning process of students on the Northwest Coast of Tasmania.
Drawing on theories of social and cultural capital, this study has two main findings. First, that a young student's bonding social capital - specifically, the presence or absence of an academically successful role model in the family - plays a significant role in shaping their embodied cultural capital through their knowledge and beliefs, agency and self-efficacy, and post-secondary expectations via a complex interplay of processes. Second, it was possible to access bridging social capital and to intervene in the processes of the accumulation of embodied cultural capital. Through the use of in-depth interviews and a Year 12 student questionnaire (n = 6) and parent/guardian questionnaire (n = 6), the research explores young people's pre-existing knowledge of, beliefs about, and aspirations towards learning and further education, and identifies the key influences on their habitus.
Bonding social capital emerged as an important factor on the construction of a student's attitude and focus towards learning and future tertiary education. The causes of these phenomena were multiple and interconnected, with interaction with academically successful role models, access to accurate information and life all having an encouraging effect.


The International Criminal Court's jurisdiction is complementary to that of national criminal jurisdictions. While most agree that complementarity is a cornerstone principle, debate continues as to what precisely it should mean for the ICC's relationship to national criminal justice actors. "Positive complementarity," a view many commentators hold, suggests that the ICC should use its power to educate, persuade, and prod states parties to undertake international criminal law investigations. For positive complementarity's more optimistic proponents, the future holds promise for a coordinated system of global justice in which the ICC plays a secondary role to national courts in vindicating international criminal law violations. In this essay, based on remarks presented at the Emory International Law Review's 2013 Symposium on the ICC's future, I argue that a robust regime of positive complementarity will require that the ICC deftly navigate a post-colonial landscape — i.e., widespread underdevelopment, political and social fragmentation, and epistemic heterogeneity. Doing so effectively will require tools the ICC does not have and a willingness to make political judgments that may seem unbecoming of a court. These limitations raise more profound questions about whether the ICC can speak to those who inhabit the globe's most desperately marginal spaces. While I am skeptical that it can, it is also unclear that domestic criminal justice actors are better equipped to do so. I conclude by suggesting that it may be more constructive to analyze complementarity through a descriptive lens rather than in grand normative terms. In this vein, I suggest that a "governmentality" framework that focuses on the development of bureaucratic culture may be useful for future research on complementarity.


This thesis describes a general framework for parameter estimation, which is suitable for computer vision applications. The approach described combines 3D modelling, animation and estimation tools to determine parameters of objects in a scene from 2D grey-level images. The animation tool predicts images using a 3D model of the scene (virtual reality), describing components like cameras, light sources and objects, and their parameters. The 3D modelling, using primitives like quadrics enables the handling of occlusion. A least squares estimator in combination with the modelling tool is used to estimate the selected parameters from real or animated grey-level images. The non-linear relation between the measurements and the set of parameters is coped with by the iterative application of the linear estimator. The least squares estimation paradigm is applied in a standardised way to the grey-level images of objects by considering the pixels as measurements of the object parameters. Two or more images, even when taken from different points of view, can be included simply by extending the measurement vector. Also the inclusion of a Gaussian filter, to increase the estimator performance by improving the image properties, can be carried out in a natural way.


Machine transliteration is a method for automatically converting words in one language into phonetically equivalent ones in another language. Machine transliteration plays an important role in natural language applications such as information retrieval and machine translation, especially for handling proper nouns and technical terms. Four machine transliteration models - grapheme-based transliteration model, phoneme-based transliteration model, hybrid transliteration model, and correspondence-based transliteration model - have been proposed by several researchers. To date, however, there has been little research on a framework in which multiple transliteration models can operate simultaneously. Furthermore, there has been no comparison of the four models within the same framework and using the same data. We addressed these problems by 1) modeling the four models within the same framework, 2) comparing them under the same conditions, and 3) developing a way to improve machine transliteration through this comparison. Our comparison showed that the hybrid and correspondence-based models were the most effective and that the four models can be used in a complementary manner to improve machine transliteration performance.


DART (Driver Analysis – Reading Trends) is a new approach developed by the author to organizing and developing intuition in the research and development phase of a creative process within the field of fashion and design. At its current stage, the model has been targeted teaching at design schools. The method is based on the author's Ph.D. dissertation ("On the Nature of Trends: A Study of Trend Mechanisms in Contemporary Fashion", 2010), teaching experience at design schools and methods from fashion forecasting. DART is intended to support design students on two levels: 1. To qualify the students' sensibility or hunch when preparing a collection or other design projects. 2. To prepare them for working on the still more unpredictable fashion and design markets. The DART model suggests that the task of identifying and organizing trends often outsourced to trend forecasting agencies may be better placed within each individual designer or brand. The model has so far been tested on fashion and design students at all the major design schools in Denmark: The Danish Design School, Designskolen Kolding, TEKO Design and Management College, and The Copenhagen School of Design and Technology (KEA).


While discussions of data protection have focused on the larger, more established organisations, startups also warrant attention. This is particularly so for tech startups, who are often innovating at the 'cutting-edge' – pushing the boundaries of technologies that typically lack established data protection best-practices. Initial decisions taken by startups could well have long-term impacts, and their actions may inform (for better or for worse) how these technologies are implemented, deployed and perceived for years to come. Ensuring that the innovations and practices of tech startups are sound, appropriate and acceptable should therefore be a high priority.

This paper explores the attitudes and preparedness of tech startups to issues of data protection. We interviewed a series of UK-based emerging tech startups as the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect, which revealed areas in which there is a disconnect between the approaches of the startups and the nature and requirements of the GDPR. We discuss the misconceptions and associated risks facing innovative tech startups, and offer a number of considerations for the firms and supervisory authorities alike. In light of our discussions, and given what is at stake, we argue that more needs to be done in order to help ensure that emerging technologies (and indeed, the practices of the companies that operate them) better align with the regulatory obligations. We conclude that tech startups warrant increased attention, support, and scrutiny in order to raise the standard of data protection for the benefit of us all.


The odontogenic keratocyst (OKC) is a benign intraosseous lesion that derives from remnants of the dental lamina. General practitioners usually use panoramic radiograph and cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) as radiography examination of a suspected OKC lesion in the mandible or maxilla. Evaluation of post marsupialization could be assessed by using fractal dimension (FD) analysis of trabecular bone in panoramic radiograph and CBCT. In the present case, we use panoramic radiograph and CBCT for the treatment evaluation of OKC. The aim of this case report is to describe a case of OKC and evaluation of treatment progress by using FD analysis on panoramic radiograph and CBCT. A 40-year-old female patient came with a complaint of slowly enlarged swelling on the left mandible for 10 years. Low-grade pain occasionally happened to that women. Panoramic radiographs revealed multi-locular radiolucency extending from anterior of the mandible body to ascending ramus. Coronoid and condyloid process, and inferior border of the mandible were intact. OKC was confirmed based on biopsy of the lesion from extraction site of left lower third molar tooth. We did marsupialization from tooth extraction socket and let it open as a window to apply obturator. The researchers did a serial panoramic radiograph to evaluate treatment, showing reduction of radiolucency size and increasing of FD in lesion peripheral, it means that there was an osseous healing process. One year after marsupialization, the researchers did CBCT examination to evaluate bone regeneration and density. The result of CBCT showed the size reduction of the lesion in sagittal, coronal, and axial planes. CBCT also revealed bone formation from the periphery of the lesion. CBCT assessment and FD analysis of trabecular bone on panoramic radiograph is a reliable imaging method for the treatment evaluation of OKC and determination of ossification as well.


ABSTRACT Despite many clinical psychology training programmes utilising reflective practice groups (RPGs) to develop reflective practice (RP) skills, there remains little research examining how trainees experience these groups. This study uses interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore the experiences of eight qualified clinical psychologists who attended RPGs on one United Kingdom (UK) clinical psychology training programme. A purposive sample was recruited for single, semi-structured interviews. Five superordinate themes were identified: 'The process: there were so many layers'; 'The impact: an ongoing process'; 'Commitment: I hated it, but I still went'; 'The facilitator: a presence who was not always present'; and 'Getting through it: finding ways to cope'. The findings illustrate the varied and complex experiences of the participants. Whilst the experience was often difficult, the participants were committed to attending and sought out ways to navigate it. The results are conceptualised in terms of existing psychological theory and literature. A critique of the research and suggestions for future studies are offered, including exploring the views of group facilitators and comparing how groups are utilised within different training programmes. Recommendations are made on the development of future RPGs, which include consideration of the facilitation style and the groups' frequency and size.


Patient engagement is increasingly recognized as a critical component in improving health care. Yet, there remains a gap in our understanding of the intricacies of rural patient engagement in health-related research. This article describes the process of engaging rural patients, caregivers and broader stakeholders to actively participate in an exploratory effort to understand rural perspectives around the patient-centered medical home model. Highlights of the project's engagement activities demonstrate how giving voice to rural residents can have a significant impact. Lessons learned point to the importance of six factors for successful engagement of rural residents as partners in health care research: building relationships, defining expectations, establishing communication guidelines, developing shared understanding, facilitating dialogue, and valuing contributions.


Simulation as a teaching/learning tool has evolved at an unprecedented pace which some believe has occurred despite a lack of research into pedagogies appropriate to guide this technology-based learning tool. There seems to be some confusion as to what simulation actually is. Some have called simulation a pedagogy, which is incorrect. Simulation is not a pedagogy, but an immersive teaching/learning platform which is a representation of a functioning system or process. Simulation has been used in undergraduate nursing education in a focused manner for nearly 20 years. Its effectiveness in improving clinical reasoning and critical thinking is not certain if overall instructional design principles do not reflect suitable philosophical paradigms. Simulation as a teaching/learning platform is maximized when instructional design includes the inspiration of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. Behaviorist design principles include rote learning, repetition, modular learning, stimulus-response, and conditioning. Cognitivist design principles include observational techniques, bootstrapping, and equilibration in the form of assimilation and accommodation. Constructivist design principles include new habit formation through experience and interaction with a "mature social medium" in the form of a simulation facilitator. All of these philosophical underpinnings have the potential to maximize simulation when used as underpinnings in the overall design.


Naturally occurring splice variants of human constitutive androstane receptor (hCAR) exist, including hCAR-SV23 (insertion of amino acids SPTV), hCAR-SV24 (APYLT), and hCAR-SV25 (SPTV and APYLT). An extract of Ginkgo biloba was reported to activate hCAR-SV24 and the wild type (hCAR-WT). However, it is not known whether it selectively affects hCAR splice variants, how it activates hCAR isoforms, and which chemical is responsible for the effects of the extract. Therefore, we evaluated the impact of G. biloba extract on the functionality of hCAR-SV23, hCAR-SV24, hCAR-SV25, and hCAR-WT and compared it with that of phenobarbital, di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP), 6-(4-chlorophenyl)imidazo[2,1-b][1,3]thiazole-5-carbaldehyde O-(3,4-dichlorobenzyl)oxime (CITCO), and 1,4-bis-[2-(3,5-dichloropyridyloxy)]benzene (TCPOBOP) in cell-based reporter gene assays. Among the hCAR splice variants investigated, only hCAR-SV23 was activated by G. biloba extract, and this required cotransfection of a retinoid X receptor α (RXRα) expression plasmid. The extract activated hCAR-SV23 to a lesser extent than hCAR-WT, but ginkgolide A, ginkgolide B, ginkgolide C, ginkgolide J, and bilobalide were not responsible for the effects of the extract. CITCO activated hCAR-SV23, hCAR-SV24, and hCAR-WT. By comparison, phenobarbital activated hCAR-WT, whereas DEHP activated hCAR-SV23, hCAR-SV24 (with exogenous RXRα supplementation), and hCAR-WT. TCPOBOP did not affect the activity of any of the isoforms. G. biloba extract and phenobarbital did not bind or recruit coactivators to the ligand-binding domains of hCAR-WT and hCAR-SV23, whereas positive results were obtained with the controls (CITCO for hCAR-WT and DEHP for hCAR-SV23). In conclusion, G. biloba extract activates hCAR in an isoform-selective manner, and hCAR-SV23, hCAR-SV24, and hCAR-WT have overlapping, but distinct, sets of ligands.


Measurements are presented by the CMS Collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of the higher-order harmonic coefficients that describe the azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles emitted in sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV PbPb collisions. Expressed in terms of the Fourier components of the azimuthal distribution, the n = 3-6 harmonic coefficients are presented for charged particles as a function of their transverse momentum (0.3 < pt < 8.0 GeV), collision centrality (0-70%), and pseudorapidity (abs(eta) < 2.0). The data are analyzed using the event plane, multiparticle cumulant, and Lee-Yang zeros methods, which provide different sensitivities to initial-state fluctuations. Taken together with earlier LHC measurements of elliptic flow (n = 2), the results on higher-order harmonic coefficients develop a more complete picture of the collective motion in high-energy heavy-ion collisions and shed light on the properties of the produced medium.


For renowned sociologist and writer Laurel Richardson, a broken foot led to a month as a patient in an extended care facility. In this compelling description of her lived experience in one of these institutions, she addresses key questions of health delivery and behavior: nurses who can be angelic or cruel, institutional policies often structured to maximize income over care, and patients whose behavior often does not mirror the severity of their condition. She points to inequality of treatment of patients of different ethnicities, genders, and classes, and to an underclass of health workers-often poor immigrants-whose own personal and familial problems mirror those of their patients. Enfolded in a captivating narrative of life in the facility, Richardson's book is a revealing literary autoethnography designed for social scientists, health care professionals, and students alike.


Silence lies between forgetting and remembering. This book explores the ways in which different societies have constructed silences to enable men and women to survive and make sense of the catastrophic consequences of armed conflict. Using a range of disciplinary approaches, it examines the silences that have followed violence in twentieth-century Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. These essays show that silence is a powerful language of remembrance and commemoration and a cultural practice with its own rules. This broad-ranging book discloses the universality of silence in the ways we think about war through examples ranging from the Spanish Civil War and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the Armenian Genocide and South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Bringing together scholarship on varied practices in different cultures, this book breaks new ground in the vast literature on memory, and opens up new avenues of reflection and research on the lingering aftermath of war.


An important issue for solving multistage stochastic programs consists in the approximate representation of the (multivariate) stochastic input process in the form of a scenario tree. In this paper, forward and backward approaches are developed for generating scenario trees out of an initial fan of individual scenarios. Both approaches are motivated by the recent stability result in [15] for optimal values of multistage stochastic programs. They are based on upper bounds for the two relevant ingredients of the stability estimate, namely, the probabilistic and the filtration distance, respectively. These bounds allow to control the process of recursive scenario reduction [13] and branching. Numerical experience is reported for constructing multivariate scenario trees in electricity portfolio management.


In international politics, intergovernmental treaties provide the rules of the game. Similar to private law, treaty designers face a trade-off between flexibility to adjust to unforeseen contingencies and the danger that the binding nature of the treaty and hence, the level of commitment by treaty members, is being undermined if the treaty can be amended too easily. In this paper, we address this problem in the analytical framework of institutional economics, drawing in particular on the incomplete contracts literature. Furthermore, we derive preliminary hypotheses and operational concepts for the measurement of flexibility in international treaties. Based on 400 treaties and supplementary agreements from the field of international environmental law, we provide new insights into the combined application of rules for adoption and entry into force of amendments, as well as provisions for conflict resolution and interpretative development. Using correspondence analysis, we show that treaty provisions can be represented in a two-dimensional property space, where treaties can be arrayed according to the degree of institutionalisation as well as along a flexibility dimension.


This paper proposes an improved wavelet with approximating function which is symmetric in nature is proposed for compression technique. Multi-application smart cards are fast replacing the conventional cards such as driving license, health insurance card, identity card, credit card with a single card. Thus, the amount of data stored in the smart card is high, requiring methods to compress the data for effective usage of the cards. Segmentation of Region of Interest (ROI) is explored to achieve higher compression rate. The images are segmented by an extension of active contour segmentation model based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to optimize the segmentation as proposed in our previous work. The ROI and Non-ROI obtained is compressed using lossless and lossy compression respectively, using the proposed wavelet technique.


Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are rare stromal tumors found throughout the GI tract, but most commonly located in the stomach (mainly fundus and cardia) (50%), small bowel (25%) and less common in the colon (10 %), omentum/mesentery (7%), and esophagus (5%). Although the true incidence of GISTs is unknown, some reports have stated it to be about 0.68/100,000. They arise from the interstitial cells of Cajal, an intestinal pacemaker cell with characteristics of both neural and smooth muscle differentiation and are distinct from leiomyoma and leiomyosarcoma, which arise from smooth muscle. Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrates that nearly all GISTs express c-KIT protein (CD117) (95%), protein kinase C theta (80%) and CD34 (60-70%), and smooth muscle actin (30-40%) ; almost all smooth muscle tumours express actin and desmin. These markers can often be detected by specimens obtained by fine needle aspiration. This differentiation is crucial given that GISTs have a more aggressive clinical course when compared with other GI mesenchymal tumors, Gross differentiation between benign and malignant GISTs can be difficult, but the subset of GISTs that have a high likelihood of malignant behavior are generally identified by increased mitotic activity and larger tumor size. However, the prediction of malignant behavior may be difficult because even small tumors with low mitotic activity may still metastasize. Nearly one-third of GISTs are asymptomatic, and even if symptomatic, symptoms are often vague and nonspecific. Asymptomatic GISTs are often found incidentally at the time of radiographic, endoscopic or surgical evaluation, but the true incidence may be higher, as incidental cases may go unreported. Surgery is the mainstay of therapy for primary GISTs with the goal of achieving negative microscopic margins. Lymphadenectomy is unnecessary because lymph node metastases are rare. Next to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) guidelines, GISTs 2 cm in size or greater should be resected. Management of incidentally encountered small GISTs less than 2 cm in size remains controversial in the literature, whereas the Canadian guidelines indicate that even small GISTs <1 cm should be resected because of the risk of metastasis. Due to the worldwide epidemic of obesity, bariatric procedures are increasing and are among the most commonly performed gastrointestinal operations today. In a study done in 2014, LSG was found to be the more common bariatric procedure, with very good results in short terms as compared to Laparoscopic RYGB. Increasing data is being published on Minigastirc Bypass (MGB) surgery and has been reported to be give equivalent results to RYGB in the long run as well as being a safe and effective procedure. The incidence of GIST has been suspected to be more in obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery (0.6-0.8 %) in comparison to the general population (0.0006 to 0.0015%). The bariatric surgeon has to inspect the stomach during laparoscopy for such tumors and manage the incidentally encountered during a laparoscopic bariatric operation.


Abstract The present study examined the relationship between perceived emotional intelligence, selfesteem and life satisfaction in a sample of 316 Spanish adolescents (179 females and 137 males), ranging in age from 14 to 18. Demographic information was collected, along with data through the use of three self-report measures: the Trait Meta-Mood Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. As expected, perceived emotional dimensions, particularly mood clarity and repair, showed positive associations with life satisfaction. Self-esteem also correlated significantly and positively with levels of adolescents satisfaction with life. More interestingly, results of structural equation modeling indicated that mood clarity and emotional repair had a significant direct and indirect link (via selfesteem) with life satisfaction in adolescents. The present study contributes to an emerging understanding of the underlying process between perceived emotional intelligence and life satisfaction. Our findings encourage moving beyond the examination of direct association between perceived emotional intelligence and life satisfaction and focusing on the role of potential mechanisms such as self-esteem involved in the link between perceived emotional intelligence and life satisfaction in adolescents. Implications of the present findings for future research are discussed, as well as potential interventions for increasing subjective well-being in adolescents.


Our environment is coming in for the menace of negative influence caused by the large-scale exploitation of underground space in city, it is of great importance more and more to study such kind of problems. To achieve the exploitation of underground space in harmony with environment and optimize the underground-spaceenvironment system. In this paper, we put forward the scientific meaning of exploitation of underground space in harmony with environment. Study the design method, scheme selection, subsidence forecast and damage evaluation exploringly that aim at decreasing the damage caused by underground space exploitation. At last, analysis and demonstrate the application take Qingdao sub-sea tunnel project as an example. 


Now in its Sixth Edition, this text provides nurses with a comprehensive overview of the evolving marketplace, emphasizing the need to develop and maintain sound professionalism. The book discusses the nurse's role in public policy and management of patient care. This edition includes new material on professional nursing roles, nursing management and leadership theories, quality improvement processes, and working in diverse and international communities. Each chapter includes clinical vignettes representing real-life practice situations, thought-provoking questions to stimulate critical thinking, research briefs to promote the use of research in practice, and critical thinking exercises. Internet exercises are included to familiarize students with online resources.


The research topic of this paper is exploring different teachers ideals and how the constitute different conditions for students' participating in class room talks. The theoretical framework is built up through different traditions. Firstly, teachers' ideals are understood as creating certain teachers' and students subject positions from a foucaudian perspective. Teachers' and students' ideals are also understood as something that creates its own shadow, in other words at the same time as the enable certain action and ways of participating in the classroom, they also hinders other ways of acting and participating. Secondly, schools communicative practices where classroom talks take place in are understood as institutional settings from a curriculum theoretical perspective where researchers as Lundgren and Englund are included. Thirdly, classroom talks and communication are understood as comprising interactional patterns, a perspective built up from the findings of classrooms researchers such as Dysthe, Nystrand, Cazden, Mehan as well as from the cultural and linguistic theorist Bakhtin.A combination of ethnographical and text analytical approaches is used methodologically in the project. The ethnographic part of the study comprises of videotaped observations of classroom talks in order to study how a teaching practices practises and their imbedded interactional patterns generates certain communicative norms and ideals for teachers and students. The curriculum part of the study comprises of analyses of curriculum and syllabuses in order to understand how these institutional frames constitute conditions for participation in the classroom talks studied.The findings of the research show four different teachers' ideals connected to different ways of organising classroom talks, which in turn bring four different students' ideals: 1) The Good Teacher as a moderator for a The Teaching Examination, 2) The Good Teacher as a moderator of a Text Oriented Talk, 3) The Good Teacher as a moderator of a Culturally Oriented Talk, and 4) The Good Teacher as a moderator of an Informal Book Talk.In the paper a discussion is carried out how these teachers ideals not only creates students' ideal, but also their shadows that enable certain ways of participating but at the same time hinders other ways of participating. These teachers' and students' ideals, generated from school practices, are also compared with ideals for teachers generated from pedagogical research, especially the Good Teacher as a deliberative Teacher and the Good Teacher as a Dialogic Teacher.The question of how ideals, teachers and students, are generated in classroom practices and how the enable respectively hinders ways of participation has a clear relevance for Nordic and international educational research as the ideals found in this study could be understood as expressions of teaching traditions that are deeply rooted in all Nordic countries.


Site selection of logistics park is a crucial tache in the logistics park planning. Scientific methods should be adopted and various factors should be considered comprehensively for the reasonable and scientific construction site selection. According to characteristics of AHP and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation methods, the paper adopted AHP to determine weight of indexes in the comprehensive evaluation method and applied it in the decision of logistics park site selection. Analysis on example shows that the method is feasible as well as more simple and adaptable than AHP and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, which is help for improving the scientificity and effectivity of the logistics park site selection.


This article considers the gaps and obstacles in current law faced by the pregnant woman whose job duties may conflict with pregnancy's physical effects. While there is no inherent conflict between pregnancy and work, women in physically strenuous or hazardous occupations, from nursing to law enforcement, routinely confront situations in which they are physically unable to perform aspects of their job or, though physically able, they seek to avoid certain tasks or situations because of the potential risks to maternal or fetal health. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (PDA) broadly protects against "pregnancy discrimination," but it provides absolute rights only to the extent a pregnant woman is able to work at full capacity, uninterrupted by pregnancy's physical effects. To the extent that the law grants the pregnant worker with temporary physical limitations "affirmative" rights, such as the right to workplace accommodation, it is only on a comparative basis - that is, only to the extent those rights already are provided to "similarly situated" temporarily disabled employees. In this way, pregnancy continues to inhibit equal employment opportunity for millions of women, three decades after the PDA's passage. After briefly examining the medical literature documenting the conflicts between pregnancy and certain kinds of work, as well as the law as applied to pregnant workers who are fully capable or fully incapable due to the effects of pregnancy or childbirth, we consider the predicament of women in physically demanding fields whose work capacity is partially diminished by pregnancy. We focus here on the problem of access to "light-duty" work - temporary alternative job assignments that accommodate the pregnant worker's limitations. Without such accommodation, the pregnant firefighter or home health care aide whose doctor directs her to avoid heavy lifting or other tasks is faced with a Hobson's choice: ignore medical advice and continue to perform all job duties, or stop working altogether, usually sacrificing wages and other benefits for several months. We describe the limits of the existing PDA framework for protecting these pregnant workers, and suggest litigation strategies for maximizing pregnant workers' rights under current law. These include re-framing the "similarly situated" analysis for disparate treatment challenges to light-duty policies, and exploring the untapped potential of the disparate impact theory in the light-duty context.


Degos disease DD is a rare obstructive vasculopathy characterized by distinctive skin lesions. Involvement of the soles, palms and genitalia is rare. In most cases, disease has an unfavorable course and involves gastrointestinal tract, central nervous system and occasionally other organs. Pleural and pericardial involvements are usually minor manifestations with prolonged course. Death occurs in approximately 50% of the patients usually due to intestinal perforation or central nervous system bleeding. We describe a 48-year-old man of lethal systemic DD. Widespread skin lesions with involvement of palmoplantar surfaces, genitalia and scalp were ignored for 3 years, whereas the disease revealed own malignant nature. The disorder progressed to nervous, gastrointestinal and cardiopulmonary system that led to death after 5 months from onset of systemic involvement as severe restrictive cardio-pulmonary insufficiency. Autopsy showed diffuse fibrotic changes in serosal membranes and internal organs.


Cyclic 39,59-AMP and cyclic 39,59-GMP elevations in response to various receptor agonists are reduced upon repeated stimulation in rat parotid. The concentration of cyclic AMP in rat parotid is elevated upon stimulation with either beta adrenergic or muscarinic receptor agonists, although the cholinergic receptor agonist carbachol produces only 1% of the maximal response to the beta adrenergic receptor agonist isoproterenol. In both cases the cyclic AMP elevation is transient, and readdition of the agent used to produce the stimulation does not lead to additional cyclic AMP accumulation, showing that the tissue has become refractory. Removal of extracellular calcium does not prevent elevations of cyclic AMP or refractoriness after stimulation with either norepinephrine or carbachol. The simultaneous addition of carbachol and norepinephrine in the presence and absence of calcium does not produce as great an elevation of cyclic AMP as can norepinephrine alone. Carbachol also produces a time- and calcium-dependent, nonspecific refractoriness to norepinephrine-mediated cyclic AMP accumulation. Cyclic AMP accumulation in the parotid therefore shows receptor-nonspecific refractoriness, since stimulation by any agent capable of elevating cyclic AMP leads to cyclic AMP accumulation refractory to all agonists. Cyclic GMP refractoriness can also be observed in the parotid. Carbachol and norepinephrine are able to stimulate the accumulation of cyclic GMP through muscarinic and alpha adrenergic receptors, respectively, while sodium azide stimulates its accumulation through a different mechanism. Extracellular calcium is required for carbachol or norepinephrine to stimulate cyclic GMP accumulation, although azide is effective in its absence. Unlike the interaction of carbachol and norepinephrine toward cyclic AMP concentration, the simultaneous addition of these drugs produces a cyclic GMP accumulation no different from the maximal response to either agent alone. Both carbachol and norepinephrine produce refractoriness to readdition of the same agent, but neither is capable of producing that state in response to drugs acting through receptors not originally involved. Extracellular calcium is not required for the induction of cyclic GMP refractoriness, and thus refractoriness is not triggered by the accumulation of cyclic GMP. Cyclic GMP refractoriness is receptor-specific in the same tissue in which cyclic AMP elevation exhibits a receptor-nonspecific refractory pattern.


"Mating stacks" have been widely documented in calyptraeid slipper limpets, which are protandric and exhibit sequential hermaphroditism. Gigantopelta is a genus of peltospirid snails endemic to deep-sea hydrothermal vents containing two species, one distributed on the East Scotia Ridge in the Southern Ocean and another on the Southwest Indian Ridge in the Indian Ocean. Here, we report the observation that both species form extensive (often >15 individuals) "snail chains". These chains are potentially analogous to 'mating stacks' of calyptraeids, or alternatively, maybe a behaviour to facilitate spermatophore transfer. Both Gigantopelta species apparently have separate sexes and are sexually mature at a small size. However, it remains unclear whether they undergo sex change during their life.


The purpose of this work was to determine if subjects initially trained to use a handgrip dynamometer could learn to perform the exercises at the same relative level of effort with a considerably less expensive substitute device. All subjects trained (4, 2-minute contractions, 30% maximal effort) 3 times per week for 12 weeks. In Study I, Group 1 (n = 13) trained using only the dynamometer while Group 2 (n = 14) trained using both the dynamometer and an egg-shaped substitute item for the first 6 weeks. All subjects then trained using only the egg-shaped item. Grip effort was evaluated every 2 weeks using the dynamometer. Group 2 subjects gripped at a level consistently closer to the desired level of effort. Study II investigated the importance of the substitute item's shape. Group 3 (n = 10) trained using the egg-shaped item while Group 4 (n = 10) trained using an item that was similar in shape to the dynamometer. Group 4 subjects gripped at a level consistently closer to the desired level of effort. These results suggest that gradual introduction of a substitute item similar in shape to the dynamometer can significantly improve the transfer of handgrip exercise to a less expensive substitute item by increasing retention of desired level of effort.


Objective Autoinflammatory type I interferonopathies, chronic atypical neutrophilic dermatosis with lipodystrophy and elevated temperature/proteasome-associated autoinflammatory syndrome (CANDLE/PRAAS), stimulator of interferon genes (STING)-associated vasculopathy with onset in infancy (SAVI) and Aicardi-Goutières syndrome (AGS) are rare and clinically complex immunodysregulatory diseases. With emerging knowledge of genetic causes and targeted treatments, a Task Force was charged with the development of 'points to consider' to improve diagnosis, treatment and long-term monitoring of patients with these rare diseases. Methods Members of a Task Force consisting of rheumatologists, neurologists, an immunologist, geneticists, patient advocates and an allied healthcare professional formulated research questions for a systematic literature review. Then, based on literature, Delphi questionnaires and consensus methodology, 'points to consider' to guide patient management were developed. Results The Task Force devised consensus and evidence-based guidance of 4 overarching principles and 17 points to consider regarding the diagnosis, treatment and long-term monitoring of patients with the autoinflammatory interferonopathies, CANDLE/PRAAS, SAVI and AGS. Conclusion These points to consider represent state-of-the-art knowledge to guide diagnostic evaluation, treatment and management of patients with CANDLE/PRAAS, SAVI and AGS and aim to standardise and improve care, quality of life and disease outcomes.


Traditionally and for practical reasons, skeleton structure has been the main source of taxonomic characters for scleractinian systematics, whereas information from soft tissues has been comparatively neglected. However, skeleton variability may leave species identification uncertain. The use of characters from soft tissues (e.g. polyp anatomy, cnidae size) is routine in the study of other ("soft") hexacorallian orders. This contribution aims to determine whether cnidae characters are useful in taxonomic studies of scleractinians. The cnidae composition of two congeneric species— Balanophyllia europaea (Risso, 1826) and Balanophyllia regia Gosse, 1860 have been studied throughout a wide geographical area. The data obtained show consistent qualitative and quantitative differences between the two species. This study shows that the cnidae characters can be useful taxonomic criteria for distinguishing congeneric species.


Cell fate and patterning during development are controlled by gene expression. Pre-initiation complex (PIC) formation at promoters is crucial to recruit the transcriptional machinery. The PIC has mainly been studied in vitro, and little is known about its composition and function during development. TAF10 is a subunit of TFIID and of the transcriptional co-activator SAGA. Here we characterized TFIID and SAGA's composition during mouse development. Our data indicate that TAF10 is required for TFIID and SAGA stability. To analyse TAF10-dependent gene regulation during development, we conditionally deleted Taf10 in the mesoderm. Our results provide evidence for a time window during which Taf10 loss in the presomitic mesoderm (PSM) does not prevent cyclic gene transcription or PSM patterning while lateral plate differentiation is profoundly altered. During this period, global steady state mRNA levels are not significantly affected in the PSM although the expression of a subset of specific genes is dysregulated. Together, our data demonstrate a differential sensibility of mesodermal tissues to the lack of TAF10. This supports a differential requirement for TAF10 by the general transcriptional machinery during different developmental processes.


Background/Context The current national debate over the purposes of civic education is largely tied to outdated notions of citizenship that overlook its changing nature under globalization. Civic education is based on a legalistic understanding of citizenship that emphasizes patriotism and the structures and functions of government. This study examined adolescents' civic beliefs and affiliations, drawing on theories of transnational and global citizenship. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose was to examine diverse adolescents' vocabularies of citizenship, a concept that captures the tensions in their civic beliefs and affiliations. Their vocabularies were explored in terms of two topics at the intersection of national and global affiliations: universal human rights and global citizenship. The central question asked was: How do adolescents from immigrant backgrounds understand the tensions between national and global civic affiliations, and do they differ from dominant-culture adolescents' understandings? Setting The research setting was the Pennsylvania Governor's School for International Studies, a 5-week summer program for high school students that emphasizes current scholarship and skills in international affairs, cultural studies, and foreign language. Research Design A mixed-method case study design was employed to collect detailed and rich data on the students' beliefs about citizenship. Findings/Results The findings showed that the students from immigrant backgrounds favored universal positions and were the only students to call attention to national economic inequalities. In contrast, a majority of the dominant-culture students gave a more central role to national affiliations. However, over half of the students switched between universal and nationally oriented positions for the issues of global citizenship and human rights. It is argued that these switches represent a strong indication of the tensions in civic affiliations in light of globalization. Conclusions/Recommendations The findings presented here suggest that the question of either national- or global-oriented civic education makes little sense. This research suggests that differentiated forms of civic education are needed if all youth will have access to full citizenship and the range of civic affiliations needed in the world. Two approaches for reconceptualizing civic education are proposed: Civic education curricula should focus on the intersection of national with global issues and affiliations, and civic education should address, in addition to civic attitudes, skills, and knowledge, a conscious effort to help adolescents build flexible and multiple civic identities.


Does a dysfunction in the mirror neuron system (MNS) underlie the social symptoms defining autism spectrum disorder (ASD)? Research suggests that the MNS matches observed actions to motor plans for similar actions, and that these motor plans include directions for predictive eye movements when observing goal-directed actions. Thus, one important question is whether children with ASD use predictive eye movements in action observation. Young children with ASD as well as typically developing children and adults were shown videos in which an actor performed object-directed actions (human agent condition). Children with ASD were also shown control videos showing objects moving by themselves (self-propelled condition). Gaze was measured using a corneal reflection technique. Children with ASD and typically developing individuals used strikingly similar goal-directed eye movements when observing others' actions in the human agent condition. Gaze was reactive in the self-propelled condition, suggesting that prediction is linked to seeing a hand–object interaction. This study does not support the view that ASD is characterized by a global dysfunction in the MNS.


The Fuegian thrust-fold belt has been subjected to significant shortening during the Cenozoic. Although contemporaneous shortening and uplift was also recognized in the Fuegian Andes central belt (hinterland), previous studies stated that most of that deformation developed out-of-sequence with the thrust-fold belt and hence did not contribute to its shortening. Therefore, no suitable geometric and kinematic model has been proposed for the mechanism that links deformation in both domains. Here we address the style and timing of the younger (Late Cretaceous-Paleogene) structures of the central belt and the structural evolution of the thrust-fold belt, based on published and own data. We reinterpret the style of the central belt structures, proposing a new model in which basement thrusting in the central belt caused all the shortening in the foreland cover. We postulate that the basement was involved in a regional-scale duplex whose roof thrust was the decollement of the thin-skinned thrust-fold belt. Therefore, the total slip transferred through the roof thrust accounted for the shortening in the cover rocks. The basement duplex incorporated the underthrust crust from the footwall of the orogenic wedge through forward propagation, in sequence with the thrust-fold belt, from the Late Cretaceous to the Miocene.


When all-time pitching great Christy Mathewson died of tuberculosis in 1925 at the age of 45, it touched off a wave of national mourning that remains without precedent for an American athlete. The World Series was underway, and the game the day after Mathewson's death took on the trappings of a state funeral: officials slowly lowered the flag to half-mast, each ballplayer wore a black armband, and fans joined together in a chorus of "Nearer My God to Thee." Newspaper editorials recalled Mathewson's glorious career with the New York Giants, but also emphasized his unstinting good sportsmanship and voluntary service in World War I. The pitcher known to one and all as "Matty" or "Big Six" was as beloved for the strength of character he brought to the national pastime, as for his stunning 373 career victories. "I do not expect to see his like again," said his best friend and former manager, John McGraw. "But I do know that the example he set and the imprint he left on the sport that he loved and honored will remain long after I am gone." In Matty, Ray Robinson tells the story of a man who became America's first authentic sports hero. Until Mathewson, Robinson reveals, Americans loved baseball, but looked down on ballplayers and other athletes as hard-drinking, skirt-chasing ne'er-do-wells. Deprived of real-life role models, millions of readers followed the serialized exploits of Frank Merriwell, a fictional hero who excelled at sports from baseball to billiards and never drank, smoke, or swore. Robinson shows how an eager public greeted Mathewson as a flesh-and-blood version of Merriwell from his first year at Bucknell University, where he shone as star pitcher, premier field-goal kicker, and class president. Lured into the big leagues before he could graduate, the tall, handsome pitcher soon won over men, women and children with his sense of fair play and his arsenal of blazing fastballs, sweeping curves, and infamously deceptive fadeaway pitches. Robinson skillfully details the highlights of Mathewson's career, including his showdowns against the great batters of his day and his encounters with the young Brooklyn, Chicago, Pittsburgh and St. Louis teams. Here are the six remarkable days in October, 1905 when Mathewson became the only pitcher ever to hurl three straight shutouts in a World Series, and the afternoon at West Point when he won $50 in a bet that he could throw 20 of his best pitches to exactly the same spot. Robinson does not underplay Mathewson'soccasional failings, but the most surprising aspect of this fascinating portrait is just how close America's first Hall of Fame pitcher came to living up to his image. Drawing on rare interviews, press clips, and long overlooked eyewitness accounts, Matty brings baseball's golden age to life--not only the great teams and the early superstars, but the long train trips between games, with cramped berths and no air conditioning; the small town ballplayers let loose amidst big city vice; and the two-bit gambling that eventually led to the infamous Black Sox Scandal of the 1919 Series (a scandal that might have escaped detection if the sportswriters in the press box with Mathewson had not been able to rely on his experienced eye for clues to how ballplayers might throw games). Offering rare insight into the making of an early twentieth century American hero, Matty is must reading for anyone who loves baseball.


This essay uses the context of the Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB) tripartite collaboration meetings between the Caribbean's civil society groups, governments and international development partners (IDPs) to discuss the role of public scholarship in a country's pursuit of modern development. We define public scholarship as collaborative knowledge-making with, for and about various publics and communities. It derives its importance from the appreciation that meeting the challenges of modern national development requires holistic, comprehensive and synergistic collaboration between differently-experienced and endowed stakeholders, and between formal disciplines and experiential knowledge and knowledge-makers. Its utilization encourages modern development thinking to reach beyond the wisdom of conventional thoughts and approaches, and to become grounded in societal issues such as justice, equity, democratic inclusiveness and community empowerment. This approach and framework are necessary if the aspirational goals of various publics and communities are to meaningfully influence national development in the face of internal dislocations resulting from the pressures of globalization, rapid technological change and demands for sustained improvements in citizens' well-being.


Gumono, Cipto. 2008. geology of Kaliwaru, Singorojo district, Kendal regency, Central Java province. Geological Mapping Report, Unpublished, Geological Engineering Department, Engineering Faculty, Diponegoro University, Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia.

Based on the data obtained, it is known that the mapping can be divided into 3 units of geomorphology of erosional forces steep hilly, hilly undulating erosional forces and floodplain units. While in Stratigraphy consists of 4 units of lithology. Lithology units of the oldest unit is interlayer between napal and carbonaceous sandstone and claystone, batupasir carbonatceous sandstone units interlayered with claystone, interlayered sandstone units with claystone and breccia units. Geological history in this area began at the end of the Miocene (N 10 - N 13) are indicated by presipitation of interlayered napal unit with carbonaceous sandstone and claystone. Then on top followed by the precipitation unit of sandstone interlayered with carbonaceous claystone unit. Both units deposited on the outer shelf environment to lower slope. Then there is a process of appointment of tectonics, followed by the deposition of sandstone unit with interlayered carbonaceous claystone (N 18 - N 20) in the Pliocene in the transition environment. Tectonic processes occur that alter the environment back into the environment of land subsidence. End of sedimentation is breksi units (N 22 - N 23) in the Pleistocene is not aligned on unit interlayered sandstone with claystone unit. Sedimentation was followed by a directional process of faulted northeast - west daya. Georesources this area are a thick soil potential and the potential for spring. While the negative potential of landslide potential. There are areas that have been happening there landslides and potential landslide.

Key words: Stratigraphy, Litologi, geomorphology


The Ancient Greek perfect tense poses an interesting empirical puzzle involving reduplication. While consonant-initial roots display a phonologically regular alternation based on cluster type, vowel-initial roots display two distinct patterns whose distribution is not phonologically predictable. The reduplicative grammar that generates the consonantinitial patterns is directly compatible with the productive vowel-initial pattern, vowel lengthening. The minority vowel-initial pattern, "Attic reduplication," both its shape and its distribution, can be explained as a phonotactic repair that operated at a prior stage of the language. This pattern was later reanalyzed, such that Attic reduplication is retained not as a phonotactic repair but through lexical indexation.


It is well known that Japanese banks increased their exposure to land assets and the real estate sector in the latter half of the 1980s, and that this became a primary factor in the non-performing loan problem that emerged in the 1990s. What is less clear is whether this increased exposure was the result of active risk taking, and whether banks and other market participants regarded land and real estate assets as "risky" during the period of land price appreciation. To address this issue, we rely on the real estate data contained in corporate balance sheets to extract an estimate of the market sentiment toward land assets during the 1985-89 period. We find that the systematic risk of manufacturing companies increased with their real estate holdings but not with holdings of other balance sheet assets. This result indicates that market participants regarded real estate assets as riskier than the main operations of manufacturing companies during the "bubble period", even if they may not have foreseen the subsequent crash in real estate prices.


In the present investigation, am attempt has been made to investigate the in vitro antioxidant potential of aqueous extract of Terminalia belerica bark (TBB). The nitric oxide assay method has been performed at different doses (100-500 mg). The total phenolic contents and total flavonoid contents have also been determined. The results of the present study shows that the aqueous extract of TBB possess antioxidant activity through the DPPH free radical scavenging activity. The preliminary phytochemical investigation indicates the presence of flavonoids and polyphenols. The results are found to be significant when compared with the standard ascorbic acid. Further studies are required to determine the mechanism and isolation of active constituents involved in the antioxidant activity.


Photograph of a street scene in Ft. Worth, Texas. Inlaid in the brick road are trolley tracks and on the road are a few people and horse-drawn buggies. On either side of the road are large business buildings and sidewalks lined with railings. There is a sign on the left side of the road that reads, "Majestic Theatre, Moder Vaudeville, 2 Performances Daily." There are also many telephone and electric poles and wires.


This paper investigates an insurance market with adverse selection, moral hazard and across-contract endogeneity, under monopoly and perfect competition. We characterize the equilibrium in a market without endogeneity and study how the introduction of across-contract endogeneity into the model distorts the optimal contracts. The across-contract endogeneity can be viewed as a second source of endogeneity, in addition to moral hazard, that further reduces insurance coverage if the insurer considers its implication when choosing contracts. We show that a monopolist internalizes the externality exerted by the contracts and offers contracts with less coverage, which induce a lower level of average risk. Competitive insurers fail to account for the interdependence of risks and do not adjust accordingly. They offer excessive insurance, which leads to a higher level of average risk and creates inefficiency. Our analysis suggests that there is a trade-off between monopoly and perfect competition.


Rulemaking procedures provide interest groups two opportunities to persuade regulators: ex parte meetings and public comments. Regulated entities use both avenues more extensively than other groups, but how much do they gain by doing so? By analyzing changes in the stock price of firms in the hours following rule announcements, I study the effect of lobbying on Dodd–Frank implementation at the Federal Reserve Board. I find that meetings and comments were associated with abnormal returns in the tens of billions, yet meetings were worth more. Returns of firms that met or commented were excessive in comparison to baseline expectations and the performance of all their disengaged competitors. When comparing firms that lobby with their most similar competitors, however, only meetings are associated with excess returns. By comparing comment requests to rule texts, I show that policy concessions were both pervasive and correlate with market outcomes. I connect these findings to contemporary debates about the design of administrative procedures and regulatory inequality.


Mobile devices contain different levels of data and applications such as photos, text messages, emails and mobile banking applications. Each process within each application has a different level of sensitivity; thus, protection needs to be considered in this context after initial access to the mobile device. The main aim of this research is to investigate when to authenticate the mobile user by focusing on the sensitivity level of each intra-process (within the application) and understanding whether a certain user action in a process may require protection. To accomplish this, the 10 most popular mobile categories were analysed to gain a comprehensive understanding of how to categorise the applications in terms of their sensitivity level. Building upon this analysis, the results show that 78% of 125 user actions are considered sensitive processes. This paper also demonstrates that existing authentication systems lack adequate security solutions to unauthorised access to the mobile device. Consequently, this indicates the need for a robust and usable access control approach to establish a transparent and a continuous authentication system.


Commercial aircraft are subject to noise regulations imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration. Currently, the FAA limits overland flight of supersonic airplanes due to the negative effect of the sonic boom on communities. The annoyance produced by the impulsive signature of sonic booms, particularly indoors, cannot exceed that of the broadband, lowoverpressure noise produced by subsonic airplanes for the restriction to be lifted. Therefore, the ability to understand and accurately reproduce the acoustic response of a sonic boom is important for psychoacoustic classification of their tolerability within residences. This thesis presents and interprets results of the propagation and transmission of simulated sonic booms incident on wood-framed structures. The testing environment, sonic boom simulation method, and associated instrumentation are described. The effects of the traveling blast on the structure are investigated through pressure loading and structural response measurements. The ensuing interior acoustic responses for several different configurations are presented, including the effects of room cavity interaction and exposure of the room cavities to the traveling wave through an open door. Calculated transfer functions between the interior acoustic response and the free-field incident wave are computed to assess the extent to which wood-framed buildings transmit energy to their cavities. In all cases tested, significant transmission of the sonic boom's low frequency content into the structures was apparent through direct apertures and the excitation of structural components. The data show that sonic booms provide significant excitation of structural and acoustic modes that drives the interior acoustic response in residential structures.


Rational Discovery of T Helper Epitopes Specific for Bovine Infections with Mycobacterium avium ssp paratuberculosis Paratuberculosis, a chronic wasting disease in ruminants, is causing significant losses to both EU dairy and meat producers, due to a decreasing milk yield, loss of body weight and early replacements. The absence of adequate diagnostic tools for early detection of subclinically infected livestock severely interferes with animal welfare and effective eradication initiatives. Currently three strains of M. bovis and one MAP strain (K10) have been fully sequenced and deposited in NCBI genbank. We have sequenced a Danish clinical isolate, Ejlskov2007, which is not yet published. State of the art bioinformatics tools has been used to identify peptides in the MAP genome, which are predicted to bind to bovine MHC (BoLA) class II antigen presenting molecules. Comparative genomics tools has been used to further select MAP specific peptides 100% conserved in the two MAP strains and with low similarity to peptides from any of the M. bovis strains according to available sequence data. Unique MAP specific predicted epitopes is selected and is to be synthesized as 15–20 aa peptides. In addition we will select peptides specifically from antigens, which have previously shown to induce a CD4+ T cell response, again with the emphasis of avoiding similarities to M. bovis sequences. Blood from cattle experimentally infected with MAP will be used for proliferation and cytokine assays to determine if and which of the selected peptides that will be recognized specifically by CD4+ T cells from infected cattle. The goal is to combine positive responding peptides with new promising adjuvants in order to develop effective bovine MAP vaccines which do not cross react with traditional skin tests for M. bovis infections.


Medicinal plants have been used to prevent and treat various health problems. Several African and Asian nations are now encouraging traditional medicines as an internal component of their public healthcare programmes. Indigenous medicines are relatively inexpensive and locally available and readily accepted by local population. Ethiopia has an enormous resource of plant species that are used in traditional medicine. Among the 7,000 higher plant species that are known to exist, about 800 of them are employed in the traditional healthcare and 60% of pants are said to be indigenous with their healing potential. Majority of Ethiopians depend on medicinal plants as their only source of healthcare. Vast knowledge on the traditional uses of these plants is not fully documented and most of the knowledge is conveyed from one generation to the text generation through words of mouth. The survey conducted during February-May 2006 was undertaken to explore the traditional systems of medicine in Asendabo region of Ethiopia.


A double-tip coupler that comprises two inversely and laterally tapered waveguides is experimentally demonstrated for efficient light coupling between a fiber and a sub-micron silicon nitride waveguide. The coupling efficiency of the fabricated double-tip coupler can be improved by as much as over 2 dB per coupling facet, compared with that of a single-tip one with the same tip width of 180 nm. The effect of the gap width of the double tips on the coupling efficiency is studied both in experiment and simulation.