Colleges and universities across the country are struggling with the issue of accountability, especially with regard to student learning. One attempt to revitalize undergraduate education and to respond to the calls for change is defined by a shift in the dominant pedagogy to a learner-centered focus. If academic administrators are to promote and facilitate learner-centered education, they must understand the current research on how students learn and the resulting changes that that knowledge brings to the classroom. One of the many issues related to this paradigm shift for academic administrators is the question of faculty evaluation. How will the evaluation of teaching faculty evolve in this new paradigm? Of the many facets of faculty evaluation that are part of the administrator's responsibility, classroom observation provides numerous challenges in the new paradigm. In this article, the authors consider how academic administrators might approach classroom observation in the new paradigm. Keywords: Learner-Centered; Faculty Evaluation; Classroom Observation The Shift to Learner-Centered Colleges and universities across the country are struggling with the issue of accountability, especially as it regards student learning. In The Future of Higher Education (Newman, Couturier, and Scurry, 2004), a report on the Futures Project conducted by Brown University, the authors reported on a four-year examination of the major forces impacting the future of higher education. The Futures Project investigated the impact of competition and market values on higher education, targeting three specific areas: autonomy and accountability; responsibility for student learning; and access and attainment. The authors called for institutional responsibility with regard to student learning. They claimed that, at most institutions, "there is an unspoken, comfortable conspiracy between faculty and students not to bother each other too much; mediocrity reigns." (p. 136) A similar claim was made in the collection of essays and accompanying documentary that comprised the PBS production, Declining By Degrees: Higher Education at Risk (Hersh and Merrow, 2005), which exposed a lack of accountability for student learning and an unhealthy focus on research and athletics as well as other prestige factors that had little to do with educating students. Even more candid was Lewis' (2006) indictment of undergraduate education, in which he claimed that universities have forgotten their purpose; namely, creating educated adults who will take responsibility for their society. In the same vein, Bok's (2005) critique of higher education's shortcomings focused both on the failure of universities to prepare citizens and the need to improve teacher quality because not enough attention is paid to pedagogy. These numerous critiques of the state of higher education have clarified the issues at hand; what is now needed are concrete mechanisms for effecting change. One attempt to revitalize undergraduate education and to respond to the calls for change is by shifting the dominant pedagogy to a learner-centered focus and supporting an emphasis on the scholarship of teaching and learning. Efforts to refocus undergraduate education to be more learner-centered have been driven by a new understanding about how humans learn; this understanding is drawn from neuroscience, biology, and cognitive psychology. We know more than ever before about how people learn, what inhibits learning, and different kinds of learning. One of the oddities of the tradition of higher education is that professors are rarely provided any instruction or professional development in the role that represents a major element of their responsibility: teaching. Likewise, tenure, promotion, and merit have historically been tied to activities other than teaching as some hold the belief that teaching is not valued as much as research and that good teaching can't be measured or, conversely, that everyone's teaching is equally acceptable. …


This paper reviews the potential for the use of new low-cost Virtual Reality (VR) technology for conducting medical simulation training in lowand middle-income countries (LMICs). VR has been used in medical simulation training for many years but has traditionally been very expensive and requiring large machines that would be difficult to set up and maintain in LMICs. However, new advances in computer technology have enabled a new generation of consumer-focused VR hardware that offers the potential for implementation in LMICs. Our research team based in Oxford and Kenya developed a VR training scenario for the Life Saving Instruction for Emergencies (LIFE) project. We tested LIFE:VR with healthcare workers in Kenya to establish the potential feasibility and acceptability of low-cost VR for medical simulation training. We found that healthcare workers were enthusiastic about the approach but the systems we tested had a number of technical limitations such as requiring powerful laptop computers and the installation of laser tracking base-stations that would limit scale up. However, newly announced hardware from major VR manufacturers appear to address these technical issues and will continue to reduce the costs of devices increasing the potential for wider adoption in LMICs.


Aqueous dispersions of lignocellulosic materials are used in such fields as papermaking, pharmaceuticals, and preparation of cellulose-based composites. The present review article considers published literature dealing with the ability of cellulosic particle dispersions (fiber, fines, nanorods, etc.) to either remain well dispersed or to agglomerate in response to changes in the composition of the supporting electrolyte solution. In many respects, the colloidal stability and coagulation of lignocellulosics can be understood in terms of well-known concepts, including effects due to osmotic pressure arising from overlapping electrostatic double layers at the charged surfaces. Details of the morphology and surface properties of lignocellulosic materials give rise to a variety of colloidal behaviors that make them unique. Adjustments in aqueous conditions, including the pH, salt ions (type and valence), polymers (charged or uncharged), and surfactants can be used to control the dispersion stability of cellulose, lignin, or wood-extractive materials to serve a variety of applications.


"The Massachusetts Constitution affirms the dignity and equality of all individuals. It forbids the creation of second-class citizens.... [I]t may demand broader protection for fundamental rights; and it is less tolerant of government intrusion into the protected spheres of private life." (1) I. INTRODUCTION Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, the first female chief justice of the oldest continuously-functioning appellate court in the Western Hemisphere, is an iconic figure. (2) From her political activism against apartheid in her native South Africa as a young adult, to her most recent accomplishments as the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Chief Justice Marshall has earned a reputation as of one of the nation's most eminent jurists. (3) This paper will examine Chief Justice Marshall's voting trends during her tenure as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (October 1999 to November 2010). In Part II, the Chief Justice's upbringing and career path will be discussed. (4) Part III will provide a brief overview of the ideological composition of the Court. (5) Then, in Part IV, Chief Justice Marshall's voting patterns will be studied in three important ways. (6) First, divided cases will be analyzed to reveal any patterns that emerge. (7) Additionally, these decisions will be reviewed to determine when, and regarding what matters, Chief Justice Marshall joined an associate justice's dissent. Second, cases authored by Chief Justice Marshall will be reviewed. (8) Here, split decisions will be scrutinized more closely, especially those of a controversial nature. (9) Third, dissents authored by Chief Justice Marshall will be evaluated, and data will be examined to illustrate the number of times these opinions were joined by associate justices on the bench. (10) The methodology for each portion will be explained in the footnotes. An emphasis will be placed on cases that most accurately depict areas where the Chief Justice has a particular interest, instead of those where the Court reached a unanimous decision. Finally, Part V will present the findings of the voting analysis, as well as potential explanations for the results reached. (11) II. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Before examining Chief Justice Marshall's voting patterns, it is important to understand her background and career path. Marshall was born in Newcastle, South Africa in 1944. (12) Her mother, Hilary A.D. Marshall, was born in Richmond, England, and her father, Bernard Charles Marshall, was native to Johannesburg, South Africa. (13) Mr. Marshall was a chemist as well as a production manager at African Metals Corporation. (14) In 1948, shortly after Chief Justice Marshall's birth, the Nationalist Government in South Africa came to power and enacted laws that enforced segregation throughout society. (15) Known as apartheid laws, this legislation had the power of institutionalizing discrimination. (16) Some of these laws included the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949, which prohibited marriage between people of different races, and the Immorality Act of 1950, which forbade all sexual relations between whites and non-whites. The political landscape of South Africa during this time played a vital role in the development of Marshall's principles and beliefs. Chief Justice Marshall attended the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa where she majored in English and art history. (17) From 1966 to 1968, she was her school's president of the National Union of South African Students, and led her fellow classmates in protests against apartheid. (18) At the time, the National Union of South African Students was the only multiracial national group in the entire country. (19) In 1968, Chief Justice Marshall immigrated to the United States in order to pursue a graduate education. (20) She studied at Harvard University, where she was awarded a graduate scholarship by the Ernest Oppenheimer Trust, and received her master's degree in education. …


This thesis describes the deployment of a free-space quantum key distribution system across the University of Waterloo campus. The quantum key distribution system has the ability to provide unconditionally secure communication between two parties: Alice and Bob. The system exploits the quantum mechanical property of entanglement in order to generate a key. Security is then guaranteed by the No-Cloning theorem and the laws of quantum mechanics which prevent a quantum system from being measured without disturbing it. Polarization-entangled photon pairs are created using the non-linear optical process of type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion. A free-space link of approximately 580 m is used to distribute one-half of the pairs to Alice at a distant location, while the other half of the pairs are locally detected by Bob. The details of the detection apparatus necessary to measure the polarization of the photons and the software used to process the measurement data according to the BBM92 protocol are described. An experimental violation of the CHSH inequality (a derivative of the original Bell inequality) is demonstrated to show that polarization-entangled photon pairs are in fact being distributed to the two parties. Finally, the full BBM92 protocol is performed using the entangled photon pairs to generate a secure key and transmit an encrypted message between Alice and Bob. Currently, the system can only be operated at night because background light saturates the detectors during the day; however, future work will focus on making daylight operation feasible.


In his splendid volume Geology of the Himalayas (1964; reviewed in this Number, p. 86), Professor Augusto Gansser refers (p. 164) to the rock specimens brought back from the summit of Mount Everest by the successful Swiss climbers in 1956, and also by the American team in 1963. All the various summit specimens, Professor Gansser states, are lithologically quite identical. They consist of fine-grained, thin-bedded grey calc-schists or platy limestones. The calcites are elongated conformably with the schistosity, which seems to parallel the bedding. The detrital grains are mostly quartz, acid plagioclases and some microline, together with fine sericite lamellae, paralleling the calcites. Gansser continues: "Of special interest is the fact that both samples contain crinoidal fragments. Their large uniform calcite crystals contrast with the otherwise much finer crystalline matrix. In one elongated stem-fragment the segmentation is visible (Photo. 46), while one small plate still shows the well-preserved perforation (Photo. 47)." Moreover, he observes: "These remnants, representing the highest fossils in the world, are unfortunately not sufficiently well-preserved to allow an age-determination of the top Everest limestone. They do, however, support rather than contradict the Carboniferous (to Lower Permian) age generally assigned to the Everest limestones, on the grounds that they are overlain by the (Upper) Permian Lachi Series (Odell, 1943; Wager, 1939)."


Background: Biodiversity is perceived to decline from lowlands towards mountain peaks and away from the Equator towards the Poles, but supporting data for most groups of organisms are lacking, especially at the local scale. Aims: Elevational gradients of fern species richness in tropical forest habitats were analysed to test the hypotheses that fern species composition patterns were similar between elevational gradients, that total species richness of complete elevational gradients gradually declined due to changing climatic conditions with increasing distance from the Equator, and that the elevation of highest species richness gradually declined with increasing latitude. Methods: We used plot-based elevational fern species richness surveys compiled from recent field work and own published studies, between 18° N and 18° S along the Andean mountain range, and compared the transects of patterns of species richness and composition, and distribution of taxa. Results: Taxonomic composition was highly similar among tropical regions. Elevational richness patterns were symmetrically hump-shaped and overall richness was virtually equal along most of the tropical latitudinal gradient. In contrast, the subtropical localities at the edges of our study area, ca. 18° N and 18° S, showed strikingly different patterns from those in the tropical zone. Conclusions: Within the tropics, there appears to be no latitudinal diversity gradient of ferns at the local scale. We suggest that, in tropical habitats, species richness of ferns at the local scale is limited by the number of species that can co-occur and that the available niche space is saturated.


Within Africa, as well as outside the continent, the writings and videocassettes of Ahmed Deedat have been, and still are, most influential. In this article, Deedat's great interest in religious polemics, especially against Christianity, has been interpreted primarily as an apologetical endeavour influenced largely by the marginal and exposed situation of the small minority of Muslims in the strongly Christiandominated South Africa. Deedat's main task was to provide Muslims with theological tools for defending themselves against the intense missionary strivings of many Christian denominations. He spoke and wrote for the Muslim masses rather than for learned scholars, and the fact that he used English instead of Arabic or some other 'Muslim' language further increased the availability of his writings among, for instance, Muslim minorities in Europe and North America.


A circuit for a hot-wire anemometer for the measurement of fluctuating flow is presented in the present report. The principal elements of the circuit are a Wheatstone bridge, one branch of which is the hot wire; and an electronic amplifier and a current regulator for the brief current which in combination maintain the bridge balance constant. Hence the hot wire is kept at practically constant resistance and temperature, and the time lag caused by thermal inertia of the wire is thereby reduced. Through the addition of a nonlinear amplifying stage the reading of the instrument has been rendered proportional to the velocity. A discussion of certain characteristics of the circuit and the results of related calibrating tests are given.


Purpose: To evaluate the adequacy and efficiency of training programs of ophthalmology residency in Iran for achieving the planned objectives in their program, as well as to evaluate the proficiency of such programs in preparing residents to enter independent clinical practice as a general ophthalmologist. Methods: A closed-ended questionnaire was distributed between 89 residents or recently graduated ophthalmologists of Farabi Eye Hospital in Iran to measure their level of satisfaction about outpatient clinics and training in the operating rooms and scientific programs in the four-year long course of residency. Results: Subjects generally expressed high amount of satisfaction with their programs in the residency era. The most frequently expressed weakness in their training was in the field of didactic and intellectual teaching. Most of the subjects proclaimed that the time for didactic teaching should be increased in nearly all subspecialty fields. All of the subjects declared to have plans for a post-residency fellowship. In the aspect of number of surgical procedures, and suitability of course duration for different subspecialty fields, subjects were satisfied in all fields but retina, that some of them believed it is longer than needed.


Increasing anthropogenic CO2 concentration in the atmosphere is altering seawater carbonate chemistry with unknown biological and ecological consequences. Whereas some reports are beginning to emerge on the effects of ocean acidification (OA) on fish, very little is known about the impact of OA on jellyfish. Especially the benthic stages of metagenetic species are virtually unstudied in this context despite their obvious importance for bloom dynamics. Hence we conducted tri-trophic food chain experiments using the algae Rhodomonas salina as the primary producer, the copepod Acartia tonsa as the primary consumer and the benthic life stage of the scyphozoans Cyanea capillata and Chrysaora hysoscella as secondary consumers. Two experiments were conducted examining the effects of different levels of CO2 and food quality (Exp 1) and the effect of food quality and quantity (Exp 2) on the growth and respiration of scyphozoan polyps. Polyp growth and carbon content (μg polyp-1) were not affected by the CO2 treatments, but were significantly negatively affected by P-limitation of the food in C. capillata but not in Ch. hysoscella. Growth and carbon content were reduced in low food treatments but increased with decreasing P-limitation in high and low food treatments in C. capillata. Respiration was not significantly influenced by food quality and quantity in C. capillata. We conclude that phosphorus can be a limiting factor affecting the fitness of scyphopolyps and that P-limited food is of poor nutritional quality. Furthermore, OA, at least using realistic end-ofcentury scenarios, will have no direct effect on the growth of scyphistomae.


In urban contexts, the use of energy in buildings is one of the main causes of greenhouse gas emissions. The reduction of energy-use in buildings could be one of the main drivers to improve the sustainability, livability and quality of urban environment, together with the production of energy from the available renewable sources. To achieve energy sustainability in the most critical high-density urban contexts, it is necessary to optimize: the energy consumptions compatibility of different users; the distribution of heat, for example through the district heating network; the use of all urban spaces, such as building envelopes and urban surfaces, to produce energy from the available renewable sources. The energy models at urban scale are a complex issue as they should be simplified to be applied on a vast territory. Indeed, detailed information are not given at territorial scale and short time of simulation are preferable; however, information should be detailed enough to describe properly the energy consumption of the whole urban environment from building to urban scale. Therefore, energy models should take into account also the urban morphology, people's behavior, social and economic conditions, local and national regulation, and the use of outdoor public spaces. The challenge of this work is to present three different energy-use models, to compare their characteristics and to find the best features of an "optimum" model to analyze and represent energy resources, future scenarios, energy efficiency solutions and best energy policies. The aim is to drive a smarter use of energy, matching it with the available and more efficient energy sources to help also public administrations in defining policies adapted to the real buildings heritage. The urban energy models can also be applied in future climatic scenarios, to evaluate the impact of climate change in the energy demand/supply of buildings, as well as in the potential of retrofit scenarios.


Laser characteristics have been evaluated for mid-infrared quantum-cascade (QC) lasers operating in a continuous mode at cryogenic temperatures. These tests were performed to determine the suitability of QC lasers for use in various spectroscopic applications, including Doppler-limited molecular absorption spectroscopy and pressure-limited LIDAR instrumentation. Using rapid-scanning techniques, direct absorbance measurements of nitric oxide, ammonia and nitrous oxide have been performed with QC lasers, operating at either 5.2 or 8.5 micrometers . Measured Doppler-limited absorption profiles show no distortion with increased averaging (up to 103 - 104 samples averaged), thereby minimizing the need for sophisticated data acquisition systems which re- register successive data streams to accommodate for laser frequency jitter and drift. Additionally, the high tuning rates (2.5 cm-1 in 0.6 milliseconds; 5 - 10 kHz sweep repetition rate) achieved with the QC lasers allow for the measure of relatively rapid transient phenomena or a high degree of signal averaging in a short time. Noise- equivalent absorbances of 3 X 10-6 have also been obtained without optimizing the optical arrangement.


P-glycoprotein (MDR-1) is a well-known transporter that mediates efflux of chemotherapeutic agents from the intracellular milieu and thereby contributes to drug resistance. MDR-1 also is expressed by nonmalignant cells, including leukocytes, but physiologic functions for MDR-1 are poorly defined. Using an initial screening assay that included >100 mAbs, we observed that neutralizing mAbs MRK16, UIC2, and 4E3 against MDR-1 specifically and potently blocked basal-to-apical transendothelial migration of mononuclear phagocytes, a process that may mimic their migration into lymphatic vessels. Antagonists of MDR-1 then were used in a model of authentic lymphatic clearance. In this model, antigen-presenting dendritic cells (DC) migrate out of explants of cultured human skin and into the culture medium via dermal lymphatic vessels. DC and T cells derived from skin expressed MDR-1 on their surfaces. Addition of anti-MDR-1 mAbs MRK16, UIC2, or the MDR-1 antagonist verapamil to skin explants at the onset of culture inhibited the appearance of DC, and accompanying T cells, in the culture medium by approximately 70%. Isotype-matched control mAbs against other DC molecules including CD18, CD31, and major histocompatibility complex I did not block. In the presence of MDR-1 antagonists, epidermal DC were retained in the epidermis, in contrast to control conditions. In summary, this work identifies a physiologic function for MDR-1 during the mobilization of DC and begins to elucidate how these critical antigen-presenting cells migrate from the periphery to lymph nodes to initiate T lymphocyte-mediated immunity.


This study used two survey instruments to investigate the status of computer usage in public and secondary schools in the five cities of Fayoum government (Etsa ,Tamia, Senaores, Abshaway and Fayoum . The sample of the study consisted of 700 male and female students who were selected in a stratified random way, and all 48 male and female teachers. To find the reliability of the questionnaires, the Cronbach Alpha co-efficient was computed and found to be 0.70 and 0.73 respectively. The study pointed out that there was a list of linguistic advantages of computer usage in teaching Arabic Language. There were some negative and positive aspects that affect the use of computers in the schools. The major negative aspects found to be: weakness in the textbook used, unsuitability of software used, deficiency in teachers' educational competencies, shortages of computers, and software used not updated. Based on the findings of this study, some recommendations were drawn for decision- makers at the Ministry of Education such as: providing schools with additional computers to cover the actual needs of the students; some modifications in the textbook and software used should take place; and in-service programs should be offered. It is hoped that the findings of this study might provide comprehensive and initial database for computer usage in Egypt. This may enable decision- makers in the Ministry of Education to take accurate and effective decisions. Findings might reveal the deterrents affecting the use of computers in schools and serve as guidelines for further studies to evaluate the extent of the success of the Ministry of Education in implementing the recommendations of the Educational Development Conference relating to the integration of computers into public schools


In Plato's Camera, eminent philosopher Paul Churchland offers a novel account of how the brain constructs a representation -- or "takes a picture" -- of the universe's timeless categorical and dynamical structure. This construction process, which begins at birth, yields the enduring background conceptual framework with which we will interpret our sensory experience for the rest of our lives. But, as even Plato knew, to make singular perceptual judgments requires that we possess an antecedent framework of abstract categories to which any perceived particular can be relevantly assimilated. How that background framework is assembled in the first place is the motivating mystery, and the primary target, of Churchland's book. Unexpectedly, this neurobiologically grounded account of human cognition also provides a systematic story of how such low-level epistemological activities are integrated within an enveloping framework of linguistic structures and regulatory mechanisms at the social level. As Churchland illustrates, this integration of cognitive mechanisms at several levels has launched the human race on an epistemological adventure denied to all other terrestrial creatures.


Antiplatelet treatment has a pivotal role in modern management of coronary artery disease, and use of clopidogrel has facilitated the emergence of intravascular stenting as common cardiological practice. However, clopidogrel responsiveness is heterogeneous within the population, with a sizeable proportion seemingly unresponsive to its antiplatelet effects and at higher risk of cardiovascular events as a result.1 2

Clopidogrel is a pro-drug that is metabolised by cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes (including the 3A4 and 2C19 isoforms) to an active thiol metabolite that antagonises the platelet adenosine diphosphate (ADP) receptor P2Y12. Carriers of loss-of-function polymorphisms in the genes coding for CYP2C19 have lower levels of the active metabolite, reduced clopidogrel-induced platelet inhibition and are at increased risk of cardiovascular events and stent thrombosis, compared with non-carriers.3 Drugs that inhibit hepatic CYP450 enzymes might be expected to reduce clopidogrel activation in a similar way with similar adverse clinical results. Calcium-channel blockers (CCBs) are frequently used in patients with cardiovascular disease; both non-dihydropyridine and dihydropyridine CCBs are metabolised by, and inhibit, the 3A4 isoform of CYP450 and have potential for interaction with other drugs in this way.4

In this issue of Heart , Gremmel and colleagues describe a prospective observational study of the influence of …


The purpose of this study to compare the long‐term clinical outcome of early versus delayed rasagiline treatment in early Parkinson's disease (PD). Subjects (N = 404) were randomly assigned to initial treatment with rasagiline (early‐start group) or placebo for 6 months followed by rasagiline (delayed‐start group) in the TEMPO study. Subjects who chose to participate in an open‐label extension (N = 306) continued to receive rasagiline as well as other PD medications as needed. Average (±SD) duration in the study was 3.6 ± 2.1 years; 177 subjects received rasagiline for ≥5.0 years. Over the entire 6.5‐year follow‐up period, the adjusted mean difference in change from baseline in total UPDRS scores was 2.5 units (SE 1.1; P = 0.021) or 16% (SE 5.7; P = 0.006) in favor of the early‐start versus delayed‐start rasagiline group. Although the interaction between treatment and time was significant, values for the early‐start group were better than the delayed‐start group across all time points. Significantly less worsening (percent change) in total UPDRS scores was observed in the early‐start group at the time points 0.5, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, 4.5, 5.0, and 5.5 years (P < 0.05). Compared to delayed start, early initiation of rasagiline provided long‐term clinical benefit, even in the face of treatment with other dopaminergic agents. This might reflect enduring benefits due to neuroprotection or effects on compensatory mechanisms in early PD. © 2008 Movement Disorder Society


We present a lamellar grating interferometer realized with microelectromechanical system technology. It is used as a time-scanning Fourier-transform spectrometer. The motion is carried out by an electrostatic comb drive actuator fabricated by silicon micromachining, particularly by silicon-on-insulator technology. For the first time to our knowledge, we measure the spectrum of an extended white-light source with a resolution of 1.6 nm at a wavelength of 400 nm and of 5.5 nm at 800 nm. The wavelength accuracy is better than 0.5 nm, and the inspected wavelength range extends from 380 to 1100 nm. The optical path difference maximum is 145 microm. The dimensions of the device are 5 mm x 5 mm.


ABSTRACT Intra-group social stability is important for the long-term productivity and health of social organisms. We evaluated the effect of group size on group stability in the face of repeated social perturbations using a cooperatively breeding fish, Neolamprologus pulcher. In a laboratory study, we compared both the social and physiological responses of individuals from small versus large groups to the repeated removal and replacement of the most dominant group member (the breeder male), either with a new male (treatment condition) or with the same male (control condition). Individuals living in large groups were overall more resistant to instability but were seemingly slower to recover from perturbation. Members of small groups were more vulnerable to instability but recovered faster. Breeder females in smaller groups also showed greater physiological preparedness for instability following social perturbations. In sum, we discover both behavioral and physiological evidence that living in larger groups helps to dampen the impacts of social instability in this system. Summary: Social stability is vital for group productivity and long-term persistence. Here, both behavioral and physiological evidence conveys that larger groups are less susceptible to social disturbance.


A GENERAL THEORY OF EMERGENCE IN ENGINEERED SYSTEMS John J. Johnson IV Old Dominion University, 2016 Director: Andres Sousa-Poza Engineered systems are designed to satisfy specific needs and produce explainable/predictable results. But despite this intent, engineered systems don't always do what they are designed to do once they are implemented. Some engineered systems produce properties and behaviors that are not clearly explainable or predictable by the properties of their components. This is a problem recognized in government and private sectors as having broad ranging financial and security consequences. It is also the essence of the emergence phenomena. A review of the literature reveals two significant gaps in the current body of knowledge on emergence as it pertains to engineered systems: 1) no conceptual model that reconciles conflicting aspects of emergence; and 2) no explanation of system factors and their relationships that affect the occurrence of emergence. The gaps are addressed in this dissertation through research using a methodology that incorporates rationalist inductive methods with modeling & simulation frameworks. Where other research and models of emergence focus on entity or agent behavior; the research in this dissertation takes place from a systems perspective. The focus is on system level behaviors and system factors as they pertain to the occurrence of emergent effects. Generally accepted thermodynamic principles and axioms for chemical reactions are used to develop scientific analogies for factors in engineered systems. A theory is derived consisting of six factors that are determinants in a mathematical model of a tipping point at which emergent effects will occur in engineered systems: 1) interoperability; 2) concentration of components; 3) component degrees of freedom; 4) variety of system regulators; 5) rate of information received vs transmitted by the system; and 6) relative amount of information received by the system vs a threshold for change in the system configuration. The theory and its implications are explored in simulation experiments. Other products and contributions of the research include: a) an ontology of emergence concepts; b) a unifying definition of emergence; and c) a system dynamics model of emergence in engineered systems.


The flow and near acoustic fields of a supersonic round free jet are explored using a compressible large eddy simulation. At the exit of a straight pipe nozzle, the jet is underexpanded, and is characterized by a Nozzle Pressure Ratio of 4.03 and a Temperature Ratio of 1. It has a fully expanded Mach number of 1.56, an exit Mach number of 1, and a Reynolds number of 6×104. Flow snapshots, mean flow fields and convection velocity in the jet shear layers are consistent with experimental data and theoretical results. Furthermore, two screech tones are found to emerge in the pressure spectrum calculated close to the nozzle. Using a Fourier decomposition of the pressure fields, the two screech tones are found to be associated with anticlockwise helical oscillation modes. Besides, the frequencies of the screech tones and the associated oscillation modes both agree with theoretical predictions and measurements. Moreover, pressure fields filtered at the screech frequencies reveal the presence of hydrodynamic-acoustic standing waves. In those waves, the regions of highest amplitude in the jet are located in the fifth and the sixth cells of the shock cell structure. The two screech tones therefore seem to be linked to two different loops established between the nozzle and the fifth and sixth shock cells, respectively. In the pressure fields, three other acoustic components, namely the low-frequency mixing noise, the high-frequency mixing noise and the broadband shock-associated noise, are noted. The directivity and frequency of the mixing noise are in line with numerical and experimental studies. A production mechanism of the mixing noise consisting of sudden intrusions of turbulent structures into the potential core is discussed. Then, the broadband shock-associated noise is studied. This noise component is due to the interactions between the turbulent structure in the shear layers and the shocks in the jet. By analyzing the near pressure fields, this noise component is found to be produced mainly in the sixth shock cell. Finally, using the size of this shock cell in the classical theoretical model of this noise component, a good agreement is found with the simulation results.


This paper describes and evaluates a concurrent mapping and localization (CML) algorithm suitable for localizing an autonomous underwater vehicle. The proposed CML algorithm uses a sidescan sonar to sense the environment. The returns from the sonar are used to detect landmarks in the vehicle's vicinity. These landmarks are used, in conjunction with a vehicle model, by the CML algorithm to concurrently build an absolute map of the environment and to localize the vehicle in absolute coordinates. As the vehicle moves forward, the areas covered by a forward-look sonar overlap, whereas little or no overlap occurs when using sidescan sonar. It has been demonstrated that numerous reobservations by a forward-look sonar of the landmarks can be used to perform CML. Multipass missions, such as sets of parallel and regularly spaced linear tracks, allow a few reobservations of each landmark with sidescan sonar. An evaluation of the CML algorithm using sidescan sonar is made on this type of trajectory. The estimated trajectory provided by the CML algorithm shows significant jerks in the positions and heading brought about by the corrections that occur when a landmark is reobserved. Thus, this trajectory is not useful to mosaic the sea bed. This paper proposes the implementation of an optimal smoother on the CML solution. A forward stochastic map is used in conjunction with a backward Rauch-Tung-Striebel filter to provide the smoothed trajectory. This paper presents simulation and real results and shows that the smoothed CML solution helps to produce a more accurate navigation solution and a smooth navigation trajectory. This paper also shows that the qualitative value of the mosaics produced using CML is far superior to those that do not use it.


The aim of this article is to explore the use of categories and aspects of technical knowing which have been identified in specific contexts and related to specific learning objects to identify technical knowing and technical content in another teaching context. In this way, we want to contribute to the understanding of technical knowing within primary technology education, as well as to the development of analytical tools to help teachers in selecting and designing the content of technology teaching. Previous findings from two Learning Studies focusing on evaluating and constructing technical solutions were used to identify technical knowing in video material generated within a particular classroom practice (students aged 7-8 years old). The results suggest that the former categories and aspects can be used in different ways to identify and specify technical knowings related to technical content in the primary technology classroom.


Erotic dance is one of the most contentious issues in feminist debates today and a source of fascination in media and popular cultural representations. Yet, why is it that we currently know so little about those who perform erotic dance for female customers, or the experiences of these spectators themselves?

The result of a unique investigation within two of the UK's leisure venues, Erotic Performance and Spectatorship seeks to rectify the aforementioned lack of insight. Through vivid ethnographies of a lesbian leisure venue and a male strip show, Pilcher's research advances key debates about the gender and sexual politics of erotic dance, whilst simultaneously relating these to debates about the sex industry more widely. This book also subverts previous assumptions that only women perform erotic dance and only men spectate. Thus, this book stands out amongst other academic accounts, developing the debate beyond the established focus on erotic dance as either empowering or degrading.

This new contribution to the study of erotic dance – which provides a fresh theoretical perspective combining queer and feminist theorising, in addition to rich empirical evidence – will appeal to academic researchers and both undergraduate and postgraduate students within the fields of sociology, gender studies, sexuality studies, gay & lesbian studies, feminism and other neighbouring disciplines. It will also be of interest to feminist and sex work activists, policy makers, and practitioners


When a chance encounter makes him a witness to the abduction of a child, private detective Lew Archer can't help but be drawn into the case, pursuing a trail that leads all too quickly to murder. While forest fires rage in the hills around Los Angeles, threatening the homes of some of the city's wealthiest families, Archer unearths a hidden history of failed marriages, runaway children, and a man's life consumed by a search for the father who abandoned him. Ross Macdonald's "Lew Archer" mysteries rewrote the conventions of the detective novel with their credible, humane hero, and with Macdonald's insight and moral complexity won new literary respectability for the hardboiled genre previously pioneered by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. They have also received praise from such celebrated writers as William Goldman, Jonathan Kellerman, Eudora Welty and Elmore Leonard.


This PhD is a qualitative case study investigating the development and implementation of a new 'English as an International Language' (EIL) course in a large university in Melbourne, Australia. Grounded in and informed by recent debates about the theory and pedagogy of EIL curricula (Alsagoff et al.,2012; Matsuda, 2012a; Wee, 2013), I explore (1) how EIL educators over a period of three years at a particular institution in Australia engaged their students in learning about and learning to appreciate the diverse forms, users, and cultures of English through their curricula; and (2) how students responded to the values, beliefs or perceptions advocated by these curricula.

To explore the above, I examine and inquire into the curricula (syllabus materials and pedagogical practices) of an undergraduate EIL program at Urban University (pseudonym), and the experiences of three teachers and five students (three first year and two third year students, two of whom were born and raised in Australia; the others were born overseas). Data were collected through classroom observations, artefact analysis, and interviews. Since I also developed and taught the EIL program in question, my research design included ongoing critical reflections on my own experiences and practices, some of which I present in the form of reflexive narratives.

Drawing on detailed accounts of lecturers and students who taught and learned in the program, the study investigates the ways in which the teaching of EIL in this setting was grounded in the diverse experiences, cultures and existing knowledge of the students. Since there were little commercially available materials to teach EIL, the lecturers in the EIL program at Urban University used a wide range of sources and resources to expose students to diverse forms, users, and cultures of English, to engage them in understanding the nature of language variation, and to engage them in learning to be metaculturally competent. I show how debates concerning the politics of difference were incorporated in the curricula at Urban University, and in that respect the study shows how the teaching of EIL at Urban University has a strong social justice agenda. The accounts of students learning in the EIL program reveal that students have been prompted to challenge (for some) their self-deprecating perceptions and (for others) their native-speakerist and/or ethnocentric perceptions. Additionally, they have been inspired to advocate for certain values and perspectives associated with the EIL paradigm outside classrooms, and to continue learning and updating their knowledge of the English language in all its diversity. To some extent, the study is describing and evaluating the new EIL curriculum and the worth of these particular approaches, and it finds them to be successful in many respects. However it also critiques areas of the curriculum that are still somewhat problematic.

For instance, my study presents accounts of teachers and students grappling with some of the values or beliefs advocated by the EIL paradigm. Some students, regardless of their duration of engagement in the EIL curricula, sometimes express views that could be interpreted as native-speakerist, and/or they may be uncertain about taking the values or perspectives advocated by the EIL curriculum outside classrooms where diversity is not always understood or celebrated. By drawing attention to some of these problematic responses, the study does not suggest that the EIL curriculum is failing. Instead, I argue and propose that some of the value of an EIL curriculum is realised when those struggles, tensions, or uncertainties are conceptualised and approached differently.

The study presents these kinds of tensions and struggles as a consequence of students (and their teachers) being invited into a 'discourse battle arena' in which they are cognitively debating with a range of conflicting discourses on the subject matter with which they are dialogically engaging. In light of this, this study revises and proposes an alternative framework or set of principles for teaching EIL which emphasises the importance of engaging students in learning about diverse forms, users, and cultures of English; recognising the influence of the 'the political evils and ideological temptations' (Canagarajah, 1999b) on the teaching and learning of EIL; providing a space for inquiring into the struggles and tensions prompted by those temptations; and envisaging versions of a more just world for the future.


Amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques and tau protein tangles in the brain are now widely recognized as the defining hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD), followed by structural atrophy detectable on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. One of the particular neurodegenerative regions is the hippocampus to which the influence of Aβ/tau on has been one of the research focuses in the AD pathophysiological progress. This work proposes a novel framework, Federated Morphometry Feature Selection (FMFS) model, to examine subtle aspects of hippocampal morphometry that are associated with Aβ/tau burden in the brain, measured using positron emission tomography (PET). FMFS is comprised of hippocampal surface-based feature calculation, patch-based feature selection, federated group LASSO regression, federated screening rule-based stability selection, and region of interest (ROI) identification. FMFS was tested on two ADNI cohorts to understand hippocampal alterations that relate to Aβ/tau depositions. Each cohort included pairs of MRI and PET for AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and cognitively unimpaired (CU) subjects. Experimental results demonstrated that FMFS achieves an 89x speedup compared to other published state-of-the-art methods under five independent hypothetical institutions. In addition, the subiculum and cornu ammonis 1 (CA1 subfield) were identified as hippocampal subregions where atrophy is strongly associated with abnormal Aβ/tau. As potential biomarkers for Aβ/tau pathology, the features from the identified ROIs had greater power for predicting cognitive assessment and for survival analysis than five other imaging biomarkers. All the results indicate that FMFS is an efficient and effective tool to reveal associations between Aβ/tau burden and hippocampal morphometry.


The applicability of wave-front correction by means of a bimorph mirror in conjunction with a curvature sensor is described. We use Zernike polynomials to describe the quality of the atmospheric-turbulence correction analytically. The match is limited by boundary conditions of the mirror and by the discreteness of the electrodes. The correction is limited by coupling of lower- and higher-order Zernike polynomials and necessitates an interfacing computer between the wave-front sensor and the bimorph mirror.


Introduction The Internet has brought together a group of chemists who are driven by wanting to do things better, but are frustrated with the Closed systems that chemists currently have to work with. They share a belief in the concepts of Open Data, Open Standards and Open Source. And they express this in software, data, algorithms, specifications, tutorials, demonstrations, articles and anything that helps get the message across.


This paper presents the notion of error-tolerant recognition with finite-state recognizers along with results from some applications. Error-tolerant recognition enables the recognition of strings that deviate mildly from any string in the regular set recognized by the underlying finite-state recognizer. Such recognition has applications to error-tolerant morphological processing, spelling correction, and approximate string matching in information retrieval. After a description of the concepts and algorithms involved, we give examples from two applications: in the context of morphological analysis, error-tolerant recognition allows misspelled input word forms to be corrected and morphologically analyzed concurrently. We present an application of this to error-tolerant analysis of the agglutinative morphology of Turkish words. The algorithm can be applied to morphological analysis of any language whose morphology has been fully captured by a single (and possibly very large) finite-state transducer, regardless of the word formation processes and morphographemic phenomena involved. In the context of spelling correction, error-tolerant recognition can be used to enumerate candidate correct forms from a given misspelled string within a certain edit distance. Error-tolerant recognition can be applied to spelling correction for any language, if (a) it has a word list comprising all inflected forms, or (b) its morphology has been fully described by a finite-state transducer. We present experimental results for spelling correction for a number of languages. These results indicate that such recognition works very efficiently for candidate generation in spelling correction for many European languages (English, Dutch, French, German, and Italian, among others) with very large word lists of root and inflected forms (some containing well over 200,000 forms), generating all candidate solutions within 10 to 45 milliseconds (with an edit distance of 1) on a SPARCStation 10/41. For spelling correction in Turkish, error-tolerant recognition operating with a (circular) recognizer of Turkish words (with about 29,000 states and 119,000 transitions) can generate all candidate words in less than 20 milliseconds, with an edit distance of 1.


The authors have studied daily decision-making processes in groups under uncertainty, with an exploratory field study in the medical domain. The work follows the tradition of naturalistic decision-making (NDM) research. It aims to understand how groups in this high reliability context conceptualize and internalize uncertainties, and how they handle them in order to achieve effective decision-making in their everyday activities. Analysis of the survey data shows that uncertainty is thought of in terms of issues and sources (as identified by previous research), but also (possibly a domain-specific observation) as a lack of personal knowledge or skill. Uncertainty is accompanied by emotions of fear and shame. It arises during the diagnostic process, the treatment process and the outcome of medical decision making. The most frequently cited sources of uncertainty are partly lacking information and inadequate understanding owing to instability of information. Descriptions of typical group decisions reveal that the individual himself is a source of uncertainty when a lack of knowledge, skills and expertise is perceived. The group can serve as a source of uncertainty if divergent opinions in the decision making group exist. Three different situations of group decisions are identified: Interdisciplinary regular meetings (e.g. tumor conferences), formal ward meetings and ad hoc consultations. In all healthcare units concerned by the study, only little use of structured decision making procedures and processes is reported. Strategies used to handle uncertainty include attempts to reduce uncertainty by collecting additional information, delaying action until more information is available or by soliciting advice from other physicians. The factors which ultimately determine group decisions are hierarchy (the opinion of more senior medical staff carries more weight than that of junior staff), patients' interest and professional competence. Important attributes of poor group decisions are the absence of consensus and the use of hierarchy as the predominant decision criterion. On the other hand, decisions judged to be effective are marked by a sufficient information base, a positive discussion culture and consensus. The authors identify four possible obstacles to effective decision making: a steep hierarchy gradient, a poor discussion culture, a strong need for consensus, and insufficient structure and guidance of group decision making processes. A number of intervention techniques which have been shown in other industries to be effective in improving some of these obstacles are presented.


This article presents observations, questions, and commentary focusing on present and future copyright and patent paradigms. Part I addresses the expansion of substantive content rights, the dramatic extension of term duration of copyright, and the revolutionary expansion of new technologies that are core to fundamental objectives and benefits of copyright. It notes the escalating fixation of Congress and the courts on protection of intellectual, "property," rights when often it appears in contravention of constitutional purpose. Part II addresses the tension created by Google's adventures in information technologies, particularly those at the fringe of private rights and constitutional purpose. While Google's search engine, data collection, use of data, presentation of data, forays in operating systems, and smart devices present copyright, patent, privacy, and social issues, the catalyst for a copyright paradigm shift is likely inherent in Google's Book project and litigation stemming from their growing stable of smart devices built on the Android Operating System. The tension is created by Google's global presence, ubiquity, and incessant technological innovation, factors collectively setting the stage for a fundamental shift in the distribution, and use of intellectual content. These activities are consistent in purpose with constitutional purpose but, in current contexts, incompatible with and, "rivalrous," to exclusive rights granted under current copyright and patent regimes.


This paper studies the within-model-year pricing and production of new automobiles. Using new monthly data on U.S. transaction prices, we document that for the typical new vehicle, prices typically fall over the model year at a 9.2 percent annual rate. Concurrently, both sales and inventories are hump shaped. To explain these time series, we formulate a market equilibrium model for new automobiles in which inventory and pricing decisions are made simultaneously. On the demand side, we use micro-level data to estimate time-varying aggregate demand curves for each vehicle. On the supply side, we solve a dynamic programming model of an automaker that, while able to produce only one vintage of a product at a time, may accumulate inventories and consequently sell multiple vintages of the same product simultaneously. The profit maximizing pricing and production strategies under a build-to-stock inventory policy imply declining prices and hump-shaped sales and inventories of the magnitudes observed in the data. Further, roughly half of the price decline is driven by inventory control considerations, as opposed to decreasing demand.


Britain is famous all over the world for its gardens. In this book Helena Attlee focuses on twenty of the finest gardens in the country. Her choice encompasses a rich selection of sites all over England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, ranging from famous eighteenth-century landscapes such as Stourhead to quirky modern gardens such as Charles Jencks' Garden of Cosmic Speculation in the Scottish borders. Her lively text provides a brief history of each garden combined with a vivid account of its main features. Alex Ramsay's dazzling photographs reveal the gardens at their best. Gardens include: Crathes (Inverness), Crarae (Argyll & Bute), Garden of Cosmic Speculation (Dumfries), Little Sparta (Lanarkshire), Alnwick (Northumberland), Levens (Cumbria), Scampston (Yorkshire), Mount Stewart (Co. Down), Bodnant (Clwyd), Powis Castle (Powys), Stourhead (Wiltshire), Hidcote (Gloucestershire), Great Dixter (Sussex), East Rushton (Norfolk), Beth Chatto's Garden (Essex), Kew (London), Wisley (Surrey), Sissinghurst (Kent), Eden Project (Cornwall), Tresco (Scilly Isles).


'…in one minute I was a star and in three minutes I hit superstardom…you can't have a big career unless you play in competitions… I do five hours [practice] a day if possible, but it's getting more and more difficult with my engagements. For me the best practice is when I have a practical task to accomplish. If I manage to fulfil it, then I've had a good day's work…When I first looked at Ravel's 'Scarbo', from Gaspard, I could hardly read the text and I thought, "I have to have a third hand to accomplish this!" (Pogorelich in Dubal, 1997).

It is well-known that, during the course of their lives, successful performing instrumentalists spend thousands of hours in the privacy of their studios, practising. It is, therefore, impossible to overestimate the importance of practice for the developing musician. However, for some, practice can be monotonous, repetitive and arduous, while they would rather be doing something else; and for others, it can be motivating, varied, and lead to very high-level performances. What accounts for such differences in achieving success? What does practice involve at different stages of learning to be a successful musician? What are the differences between experts and less developed instrumentalists? What else besides attaining technical fluency or learning repertoire is involved in achieving expertise? Research in music performance has long been interested in the study of expertise and the development of skills necessary for successful careers in instrumental playing. The main focus has been on the training of instrumentalists in terms of the development of technical and musical skills, through practice. However, to become successful, there may be yet further skills not commonly integrated in the training of instrumentalists but which are equally important for developing and sustaining a performing career, be it as a soloist, orchestral player, chamber musician, or an amateur instrumentalist.


Today, the reflection about the potential of ICT for language learning and teaching unfolds in several directions. To the contribution of multimodality in learning environments is now added that of the new devices for communication and collaboration. We examine these contributions in a systematic manner in relation to the specific position of the foreign language (L2) writer as well as to his/her activity and production. After clarification of the concepts of writing and of learning how to write, and of our definitions of a few terms, I present the key concepts and factors that I believe should be taken into account in analyzing the ICT resources supporting the learning of L2 writing, then I present the devices themselves and their functionalities, in order to establish how they meet the criteria that have been outlined.


As the relentless scaling of conventional Si CMOS transistors continues, it becomes more and more challenging to further increase device drive current and reduce leakage current and power consumption. III-V multigate non-planar channel transistors have emerged as a promising contender in the post-Si era due to its high carrier mobility and superior electrostatic control of the non-planar structure. For device design, current Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) modeling, however, fails to accurately predict device behaviors in decananometer dimensions. Further, for the analog/RF applications, parasitics engineering plays a determining role in an ultrathin body structure but the conventional symmetric source (S) / drain (D) architecture restricts design and optimization versatility. Moreover, for III-V transistors fabrication, the device-level co-integration capability is crucial but still not mature in current technology.In this work, a systematic methodology is developed to calibrate TCAD hydrodynamic model against Monte Carlo (MC) simulation in the quasi-ballistic regime. Good fits of both IDS-VGS and IDS-VDS curves have been demonstrated at various device dimensions. This methodology facilitates an accurate and time-efficient device simulation. Secondly, we explore a GaAs accumulation mode vertical transistor for asymmetric S/D design and optimization. Separate control of S/D spacer thickness and underlap length can be implemented and their individual impact on analog performance is discussed. Device design guidelines for different analog/RF metrics improvement are presented. Thirdly, we develop a VLSI-compatible top down process with co-integration capability in III-V multigate non-planar channel transistor fabrication. Nanowires are patterned by photolithography and etching of a source substrate and transferred to another receiving substrate by transfer stamping. A VLSI cleanroom tool is used in the transfer process to accurately position nanowires. This technique yields large arrays of aligned GaAs nanowires, and facilitates device-level co-integration of III-V multigate non-planar channel transistors on the same substrate with close proximity and overlay accuracy.


The C case concerns the challenges of postmerger integration. The cultural differences of the two companies and the style differences of the two leaders become issues for the new company, which now has a monopoly in the in-building advertising market, and questions about cultural integration take center stage. See also the A (UVA-OB-0910) and B (UVA-OB-0911) cases.


The expansion of agrofuel crops challenges us to rethink policies, territories, human agency, and the paradigms used to explain them. In Brazil, policies supporting the expansion of agrofuel crops and the intensification of agrofuel production are reorganising rural land use and undermining some forms of participation in the capitalist and family modes of production. To reflect on this new reality, we study peasant movement reactions, proposals, and territorial disputes with agribusiness. Using the Pontal do Paranapanema region of São Paulo state as a case in point, the paper analyses territorial disputes between expanding sugarcane plantations and agrarian reform settlements as well as biodiesel production projects developed by the Landless Workers Movement (MST) and the Western São Paulo Federation of Settlement and Family Farmer Associations (FAAFOP). It also analyses the agrofuel policies of other peasant organisations, including Via Campesina. The production of agrofuels has changed the processes of land acquisition and use by both agribusiness and the peasantry, provoking new insights into the nature of territorial conflicts and thereby stimulating the need to revise perspectives on the agrarian question in Brazil.


Registration of diffusion weighted datasets remains a challenging task in the process of quantifying diffusion indexes. Respiratory and cardiac motion, as well as echo-planar characteristic geometric distortions, may greatly limit accuracy on parameter estimation, specially for the liver. This work proposes a methodology for the non-rigid registration of multiparametric abdominal diffusion weighted imaging by using different well-known metrics under the groupwise paradigm. A three-stage validation of the methodology is carried out on a computational diffusion phantom, a watery solution phantom and a set of voluntary patients. Diffusion estimation accuracy has been directly calculated on the computational phantom and indirectly by means of a residual analysis on the real data. On the other hand, effectiveness in distortion correction has been measured on the phantom. Results have shown statistical significant improvements compared to pairwise registration being able to cope with elastic deformations.


The emission spectra of photonic-quantum-ring lasers can be explained by a three-dimensional Rayleigh-Fabry-Perot cavity resonance model. The proposed model for the emission spectral peaks fits well with the observed blueshift of the emission spectrum envelope as a function of the view angle. Furthermore, we observe that the emission spectra with the high-order mode index showed blueshift behaviors as functions of the injection current, whereas those with the low-order mode index showed redshift behaviors. These phenomena might result in lowering the effective refractive index by the carrier inhomogeneity in the active disk.


Schema mappings are syntactic specifications of the relationship between two database schemas, typically called the source schema and the target schema. They have been used extensively in formalizing and analyzing data inter-operability tasks, especially data exchange and data integration. There is a growing body of research on deriving schema mappings from data examples, that is, pairs of source and target instances that depict the behavior of the unknown schema mapping. One of the approaches used in this endeavor casts the derivation of a schema mapping from data examples as a learning problem. Earlier work has shown that GAV mappings (global-as-view schema mappings) are learnable in Angluin's model of exact learning with membership queries and equivalence queries. Here, we validate the practical applicability of this theoretical result by designing and implementing an active learning algorithm, called GAV-Learn that derives a syntactic specification of a GAV mapping from a given set of data examples and from a "black-box" implementation. We analyze the properties of GAV-Learn and, among other results, we show that it produces a GAV mapping that has minimal size and is a good approximation of the unknown GAV mapping. Furthermore, we carry out a detailed experimental evaluation that demonstrates the effectiveness of GAV-Learn along different metrics. In particular, we compare GAV-Learn with two earlier approaches for deriving GAV mappings from data examples, and establish that it performs significantly better than the two baselines.


Based on the appearance of the term within the academic literature, it would appear that transdisciplinarity (TD) approaches are receiving increased research attention. However, the literature suggests a lack of consensus over how TD is defined and classified. This could give rise to inconsistency and papers that claim to be TD which are not, and alternatively papers that fail to mention TD but which might be classified as such. This is significant and creates a challenge in identifying the true level of TD research. This work contributes towards understanding the state of TD within engineering. Explicitly, we address the research question: Is the engineering academic literature claiming to be TD, actually TD? Within this study we operationalise the work of Jantsch and use this as a means to classify the disciplinarity of 177 engineering journal papers which reference TD within their abstract. The results show only 24% to be TD. The majority (64%) are classified as interdisciplinary. Conclusions find that to improve consistency, a clear definition and rules for differentiation between TD and ID research are required. Future work calls for: (1) comparative studies which apply different methods for assessing disciplinarity across the dataset used within this study and which use the method employed within this study across different fields. (2) Research to analyse whether TD working is being undertaken in engineering without it being referenced within the paper.


The operation of optical networks requires information on the physical
characterization of optical network elements, subsystems, devices, and
cabling. These physical characteristics may be important to consider
when using a GMPLS control plane to support path setup and
maintenance. This document discusses how the definition and
characterization of optical fiber, devices, subsystems, and network
elements contained in various ITU-T recommendations can be combined
with GMPLS control plane protocols and mechanisms to support
Impairment Aware Routing and Wavelength Assignment (IA-RWA) in optical
networks.


Rolling is extensively used metal forming process. Almost 90% of cast iron or steel products pass through rolling process at least once in its life cycle. Rolling products are most extensively used in daily life. Use of these products can be seen in bridges, towers, leaf springs, boilers, constructional structural parts and also in daily life products like knives pipes etc. In today's era, quality of products is one of most important factor considered for its use. Quality of a product can either be controlled or improved by changing in composition or by using heat treatment processes. In rolling products composition is not only the factor which improve the quality of product but temperature plays a vital role in maintaining and improving quality. By changing temperature of rolling we can change grain structure and its mechanical properties without changing its composition.


Abstract The referendum vote for Remain in Scotland and Northern Ireland and the small majority for Leave in Wales immediately attracted much attention to the position of the devolved governments on Brexit negotiations and to the impact of Brexit on their jurisdictions. As the core of devolved powers relate to social policy, identifying the impact of leaving the EU on aspects of social policy is highly significant. This article examines the impact of EU programmes, funding, directives and regulations as delivered in recent years, noting the nature of the participation of the devolved administrations in EU decision making. The post-referendum concerns of the devolved governments and their approaches to Brexit and Brexit negotiations are explained. Also discussed are the likely major changes as well as possible changes that will take place in the operation of devolution after Brexit.


Anthropogenic influence on surroundings has induced anthropogenic or technogenic biogeochemical anomalies, where sharp a increase in the content of chemical elements has been established. Due to technogenic contamination, the amount of microelements in soils comes close to the level of macroelements that negatively affect plants, soil qualities and biota. Appearance of technogenic biogeochemical anomalies depends on such activities as mining and manufacturing, exploitation of mines, metallurgical and chemical industries, which, through the air and sewage, contaminate soils, the atmosphere, storage pools, the vegetational cover and other components of nature. The extent of technogenic pollution depends on industrial capacities of contaminating enterprises, the time of their exploitation and the working effectiveness of purifying constructions. Regions considerably contaminated with chemical elements have been found to cover the area within a radius of 10-15 km, whereas in the direction of the dominating winds it has even reached 20-30 km. The zone is referred to as a technologically vastly polluted area where dominating chemical contaminants in the soil threaten the entire soil biota as well as its agrophysical and agrochemical properties. Our observations revealed that heavy metals from open-cast mines of the Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise were scattered by the prevailing winds throughout the environment within a radius of 8-12 km, and transferred, via irrigating waters, to agricultural arables dozens of kilometers away.


The Otago Schist in the South Island of New Zealand is a Mesozoic-aged accretionary belt comprised predominately of metaturbiditic graywackes and argillites, with subordinate metabasic horizons and ultramafic slices. A complete crustal section is exposed from prehnite-pumpellyite facies on the flanks to upper greenschist facies (biotite-garnet-albite) in the center of the belt. Quartz veins are abundant throughout the schist, some of which are enriched in a variety of metals including W, Au, As, Ag, Hg, and Sb. Historically, W (scheelite; CaWO4) has been exploited from some of these veins, with in excess of 3,000 tons of scheelite concentrate having been produced.

Previous research on metal sources for these deposits has defined the sources for most of these metals. Sources are well-constrained for Au, As, Ag, Hg, and Sb, with the metamorphic recrystallization of sedimentary pyrite (to metamorphic pyrrhotite) having been shown to mobilize these metals. The source for W, however, has not been constrained.

The primary aim of this thesis is to investigate the source of W (scheelite) in the turbidite-hosted orogenic Au deposits of the Otago Schist. Major lithologies have been sampled and analyzed from the lowest metamorphic grade to the highest metamorphic grade observed in the Otago Schist. Combined laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) traverses, images, and spot analyzes, show that detrital rutile is the most important host mineral for W in the subgreenschist facies rocks, and that its prograde metamorphic recrystallization to titanite releases significant amounts of W. Mass balance calculations indicate that this mineral reaction has potential to mobilize over 1,100 tons of W from every 1 km3 (0.41 g of W per ton of rock) of subgreenschist facies rock metamorphosed to greenschist facies conditions. Scheelite development closely follows the progression of this W-liberating reaction, with early formation of scheelite micrograins within the fabric of the rock evolving to locally and regionally sourced scheelite-bearing veins. Scheelite is present in the Otago Schist in two major vein forms, that is, synmetamorphic and late-metamorphic veins. Syn-metamorphic veins sampled at Fiddlers Flat and Lake Hāwea show distinct differences in chemical composition to scheelite from late metamorphic veins at the Macraes Mine, with the Macraes scheelite being enriched in REEs, Y, and Sr. This enrichment in the Macraes scheelite is likely sourced from the breakdown of the Ca-silicate minerals epidote and titanite by the ore forming fluid.

Tungsten enrichments (in the form of scheelite) are common in Archean to Cenozoic aged turbidite-hosted orogenic Au deposits, worldwide. The source model developed for the W-bearing turbidite-hosted orogenic deposits of the Otago Schist was evaluated through investigating the source and mobilization mechanism in two additional turbidite-hosted orogenic Au provinces, one containing orogenic Au mineralization with associated subordinate W (Meguma Terrane, Canada) and the other containing orogenic Au mineralization without associated W (Bendigo-Ballarat Terrane, Australia). Similar to the Otago Schist, in both of these terranes, detrital rutile is the most important host mineral for W in the lowest metamorphic grade rocks, and its prograde metamorphic recrystallization (to ilmenite) releases significant amounts of W (1.9 g and 0.18 g of W per ton of rock, Meguma Terrane and Bendigo-Ballarat Terrane, respectively). This release of W in the Meguma Terrane is likely the source of W in the orogenic Au deposits. The lack of W in the orogenic Au deposits of the Bendigo-Ballarat Terrane possibly reflects the Au in these deposits as being sourced from lower greenschist facies metasediments (Castlemaine metasediments), and further potentially precludes previous models that have suggested source rocks for Au in these deposits as being either Castlemaine metasediments at the upper greenschistamphibolite transition or underlying Cambrian metavolcano-sedimentary rocks. However, the lack of scheelite in the Bendigo-Ballarat Terrane could also result from other factors, such as variations in the conditions of formation of the mineralized veins (P, T, pH, redox, host-rock composition) that may not favor the transport and/or precipitation of W. These factors were unable to be resolved in this study.

The results presented within this thesis support recent models for turbidite-hosted orogenic Au mineralization, whereby prograde metamorphic recrystallization of diagenetic or detrital metal-rich mineral phases [pyrite to pyrrhotite, Au, As, Ag, Hg, and Sb; rutile to titanite or ilmenite (this study), W] can release significant amounts of these metals into the concurrently developing metamorphic fluids that can be subsequently focused into regional structures and form orogenic Au ± W deposits.


Many courts around the world have either asserted or exercised the power to invalidate a constitutional amendment. But we should not take the increasing prevalence of the doctrine of unconstitutional constitutional amendment as evidence of its appropriateness for all constitutional states. It is imperative that constitutional actors know that there is another answer to the question whether an amendment can be unconstitutional. We have three purposes in this Article, and we seek to fulfill each of them with reference to three jurisdictions in particular—France, Georgia and Turkey—whose constitutions and attendant constitutional practices have expressly rejected the doctrine in a way that reflects what we describe as their shared formalist resistance to the doctrine of unconstitutional constitutional amendment. We seek first to demonstrate that the doctrine of unconstitutional constitutional amendment has not yet matured into a global norm of constitutionalism. We seek also to explain how a jurisdiction that expressly rejects the idea of an unconstitutional constitutional amendment operates in the face an amendment that would otherwise be invalidated as unconstitutional in a jurisdiction that has adopted the doctrine. We finally seek to evaluate what is gained and lost in a constitutional state by rejecting the doctrine of unconstitutional constitutional amendment. We find that there are both democracy-enhancing and democracy-weakening features that follow from the choice to reject the doctrine outright. Our larger purpose is inherent in the project itself: to diversify our thinking about what risks becoming seen as a necessary feature of constitutionalism but that design and practice show plainly is not.


The present study traces recent trends in cultural policy concerning "cities of culture" in South Korea. The paper is a case study of the city of Gwangju, known as the birthplace of modern democracy in Korea. Currently, public input from below into the urban regeneration project for Gwangju is almost nonexistent, while most urban regeneration policies have been implemented from the top by elites who enjoy exhibiting their performances through constructing massive edifices rather than encouraging the preservation of such intangibles as historical significance through cultural participation from below. The government's policy of promoting Gwangju as the "city of culture" in order to make it a hub of Asian cultural industry and tourism in the global economy is closely allied to its policy of economic reductionism of culture. The study suggests that Gwangju and its unique heritage would instead benefit from an urban regeneration policy aimed at establishing it as the city of art and culture for human rights and democracy and as part of a collaborative network with the heritage initiatives of international bodies.


The anatomical and morphological structure of vegetative organs Adenium obesum of different ages of the preregenerative period were investigated. It is known that plants of this type are included in the list of CITEC, as their numbers in nature is constantly decreasing. The representatives of Adenium obesum is a popular ornamental plant, and characterized by broad medical and biological characteristics (antibacterial, anti–cancer, antiviral, antioxidant, etc.). The plants of this type belong to the succulents by thickening of the basal part of the stem. However, scientific information regarding the anatomical and morphological researches, characteristics and formation of thickened basal part of the stem is not enough known. As a result of investigations it was found, that after germination the hypocotyl part of plants constantly increase and thickens to form a thickened basal part of the stem. The thickening occurs of the cortical–medullary type. The upper part of the stem and general root significantly thickening only in border areas of the basal part. The periderm formation in the early stages of ontogenesis of A. obesum probably caused by adaptation to life in the arid climate conditionsIt also became known that the representatives of this type are well developed the excretory tissue as non–articulate lactiferous vessels, which, our opinion, are, synthesized most biologically active substances. Confirmed that succulent, woody plant Adenium obesum is caudiciform plant and in the growth process forming «caudex».


By a complex and little understood mechanism, segment polarity genes control patterning in each segment of the Drosophila embryo. During this process, cell to cell communication plays a pivotal role and is under direct control of the products of segment polarity genes. Many of the cloned segment polarity genes have been found to be highly conserved in evolution, providing a model system for cellular interactions in other organisms. In Drosophila, two of these genes, engrailed and wingless, are expressed on either side of the parasegment border, wingless encodes a secreted molecule and engrailed a nuclear protein with a homeobox. Maintenance of engrailed expression is dependent on wingless and vice versa. To investigate the role of other segment polarity genes in the mutual control between these two genes, we have examined wingless and engrailed protein distribution in embryos mutant for each of the segment polarity genes.In embryos mutant for armadillo, dishevelled and porcupine, the changes in engrailed expression are identical to those in wingless mutant embryos, suggesting that their gene products act in the wingless pathway. In embryos mutant for hedgehog, fused, cubitus interruptus Dominant and gooseberry, expression of engrailed is affected to varying degrees. However wingless expression in the latter group decays in a similar way earlier than engrailed expression, indicating that these gene products might function in the maintenance of wingless expression. Using double mutant embryos, epistatic relationships between some segment polarity genes have been established. We present a model showing a current view of segment polarity gene interactions.


Shrinking budgets and high equipment, fuel, and labor costs have raised the importance of workforce planning and efficient deployment of available workforce for county-level winter maintenance operations. This project focused on developing methodologies for the estimation workforce requirements, and economic evaluation of the impact of using contract employees, split shifts and staggered shifts. In order to achieve these goals, a fundamental question that needed to be addressed was the determination of the amount of work induced by different types of storms that occur in Saint Louis County, Minnesota. Researchers obtained relevant storm data from a variety of weather reporting sources and extracted parameters relevant for determining plow speeds and sand/salt consumption. These parameters were used to determine optimal workforce deployment strategies that balance overtime and delay costs, which in turn provided estimates of the amount of plowing time needed for the goal of clearing roads within 24 hours after the end of snow fall. Plowing time calculations were subject to rules concerning when call outs can occur during off-shift hours. Plow time estimates were subsequently used to develop efficient algorithms to calculate workforce requirements.


W/Mo-oxides of the hexagonal tungsten bronze (HTB) type have been investigated by X-ray absorption spectroscopy to obtain detailed insight into the substitution process of W by Mo that leads to mixed HTB frameworks. Both the morphology of the nanostructured W/Mo-HTBs as well as the oxidation state of Mo are significantly influenced through the incorporation of different alkali cations into the hexagonal channels of this open structure. A variety of complementary analytical methods, including TG, in situ and ex situ XRD, SEM, and solid-state NMR analyses, were applied to determine the thermal stability of the obtained W/Mo-HTB materials with respect to their alkali cation and NH4+ contents. A strong correlation between composition and stability was found with the Rb-W/Mo-HTBs exhibiting the highest structural and morphological resistance among the series (up to 580 °C). The NH3-sensing properties of selected W/Mo-oxides in test atmospheres furthermore point to promising features of the Rb-stabilized hexago...


In adolescent sex education, the contemporary debate has developed into two camps: the paternalistic view and the liberal view. I argue that both sides of the camp have been too focused on actions and behavior and are assuming a heteronormative background. This dissertation argues that the way to take care of the self is through exercises, techniques, self-discipline, and self-cultivation—what the ancient Greeks called askēsis. By applying askēsis to sex education, students will gain the character of taking care of the sexual self and have a robust outlook of themselves via sexuality.After looking at countless syllabi, I reduce three different moral foundations that underlie existing sex education programs. The first are paternalistic sex education programs. However, empirical research shows that gender discrepancies andheteronormativity are presented as inevitable.The second model is what I call liberal-consequentialist sex education, which emphasizes avoiding negative consequences such as unwanted pregnancies and STIs. This model is an improvement since it empowers students with essential knowledge such as anatomy and sexual mechanics. But this model is still limited because it fails to discuss many forms of sexuality and gender while embracing heteronormativity.The third model is what I call liberal-deontological sex education, which teaches sexual consent. While this model definitely improves on the previous two models, there is still something lacking. Most importantly, this model fails to address the gender inequality at the root of the problematic power dynamics. For example, if to receive consent is to garner a yes, then all men have to do is manipulate woman to get that yes.These three models focus on a person's behavior, but sexuality is much deeper. Therefore, we need another model that implements askēsis. For simplicity, I analyze askēsis to three components: the sexual emotions, the sexual mind, and the sexual body. A comprehensive sex education program helps students train the moral sexual character by disciplining whether those components are coming from their authentic character, or if these ideas were simply societal expectations. This model, thereby, helps students question their own social mores and help formulate their sexual subjectivity.


A Private Information Retrieval (PIR) protocol enables a user to retrieve a data item from a database while hiding the identity of the item being retrieved. In a t-private, k-server PIR protocol the database is replicated among k servers, and the user's privacy is protected from any collusion of up to t servers. The main cost-measure of such protocols is the communication complexity of retrieving a single bit of data. This work addresses the information-theoretic setting for PIR, in which the user's privacy should be unconditionally protected from collusions of servers. We present a unied general construction, whose abstract components can be instantiated to yield both old and new families of PIR protocols. A main ingredient in the new protocols is a generalization of a solution by Babai, Kimmel, and Lokam to a communication complexity problem in the so-called simultaneous messages model. Our construction strictly improves upon previous constructions and re- solves some previous anomalies. In particular, we obtain: (1) t-private k-server PIR protocols with O(n 1=b(2k 1)=tc ) communication bits, where n is the database size. For t> 1, this is a substantial asymptotic im- provement over the previous state of the art; (2) a constant-factor im- provement in the communication complexity of 1-private PIR, providing the rst improvement to the 2-server case since PIR protocols were in- troduced; (3) ecient PIR protocols with logarithmic query length. The latter protocols have applications to the construction of ecient families of locally decodable codes over large alphabets and to PIR protocols with reduced work by the servers.


In the recent past, there has been an increasing trend of using Blind Signal Separation (BSS) or Independent Component Analysis (ICA) algorithm for bio medical data, especially in prosthesis and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) applications. This paper reviews the concept of BSS and demonstrates its usefulness and limitations in the context of surface electromyogram related to hand movements and vowel classification. In the first experiment ICA has been used to separate the electrical activity from different hand gestures. The second part of our study considers separating electrical activity from facial muscles during vowel utterance. In both instances surface electromyogram has been used as an indicator of muscle activity. The theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate that ICA is suitable for identification of different hand gestures using SEMG signals. The results identify the unsuitability of ICA when the similar techniques are used for the facial muscles in order to perform different vowel classification. This technique could be used as a pre-requisite tool to measure the reliability of sEMG based systems in HCI.


From the Sasanian to the Safavid Empire, and from Qajar Iran to the current Islamic Republic, the history of Iran is one which has been colored by a rich tradition of myths and narratives and shaped by its wealth of philosophers, cultural theorists and political thinkers. Perceptions of Iran dissects the construction of Iranian identity, to reveal how nationalism has been continually re-formulated and how self-perceptions have been carried by Iran's literary past, in particular the mystical love poetry of Rumi, Sa'adi and Hafez. It traces a long history of encounters with the Western world and tracks Iranian thought from Herodotus' representation of Cyrus to the Constitutional Movement of the early twentieth century. This book ties together the diverse threads of Iranian intellectual activity that have underpinned social and political movements, spanning Kermani's writing on ancient Persian history and liberal nationalism, through to the strident anti-Westernism of figures such as Sayed Jamal Al-Afghani and Ayatollah Khomeini.


We consider the problem of multi-objective (MO) blackbox optimization using expensive function evaluations, where the goal is to approximate the true Pareto-set of solutions by minimizing the number of function evaluations. For example, in hardware design optimization, we need to find the designs that trade-off performance, energy, and area overhead using expensive simulations. We propose a novel approach referred to as Max-value Entropy Search for Multi-objective Optimization (MESMO) to solve this problem. MESMO employs an output-space entropy based acquisition function to efficiently select the sequence of inputs for evaluation for quickly uncovering high-quality solutions. We also provide theoretical analysis to characterize the efficacy of MESMO. Our experiments on several synthetic and real-world benchmark problems show that MESMO consistently outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms.


In mobile ad hoc networks, nodes have the inherent ability to move. Aside from conducting attacks to maximize their utility and cooperating with regular nodes to deceive them, malicious nodes get better payoffs with the ability to move. In this paper, we propose a game theoretic framework to analyze the strategy profiles for regular and malicious nodes. We model the situation as a dynamic Bayesian signaling game and analyze and present the underlining connection between nodes' best combination of actions and the cost and gain of the individual strategy. Regular nodes consistently update their beliefs based on the opponents' behavior, while malicious nodes evaluate their risk of being caught to decide when to flee. Some possible countermeasures for regular nodes that can impact malicious nodes' decisions are presented as well. An extensive analysis and simulation study shows that the proposed equilibrium strategy profile outperforms other pure or mixed strategies and proves the importance of restricting malicious nodes' advantages brought by the flee option.


Is there a universal hierarchy of the senses, such that some senses (e.g., vision) are more accessible to consciousness and linguistic description than others (e.g., smell)? The long-standing presumption in Western thought has been that vision and audition are more objective than the other senses, serving as the basis of knowledge and understanding, whereas touch, taste, and smell are crude and of little value. This predicts that humans ought to be better at communicating about sight and hearing than the other senses, and decades of work based on English and related languages certainly suggests this is true. However, how well does this reflect the diversity of languages and communities worldwide? To test whether there is a universal hierarchy of the senses, stimuli from the five basic senses were used to elicit descriptions in 20 diverse languages, including 3 unrelated sign languages. We found that languages differ fundamentally in which sensory domains they linguistically code systematically, and how they do so. The tendency for better coding in some domains can be explained in part by cultural preoccupations. Although languages seem free to elaborate specific sensory domains, some general tendencies emerge: for example, with some exceptions, smell is poorly coded. The surprise is that, despite the gradual phylogenetic accumulation of the senses, and the imbalances in the neural tissue dedicated to them, no single hierarchy of the senses imposes itself upon language.


Interspecific and intraspecific differentiation of the picarel in Turkish coastal waters were examined using partial 16S rRNA (1021 bp) and whole cytochrome b gene (1141 bp) sequences of 244 samples from 7 picarel populations across their geographical distribution. Genetic distances and phylogenetic tree topologies revealed that three Spicara species were distinctly separated from each other and S. flexuosa and S. maena are genetically more closely related than S. smaris. Lowlevel genetic diversity and a star-like haplotype network can be attributed to the founder effect associated with demographic bottleneck in late Pleistocene Mediterranean basin. AMOVA of the genetic substructure for S. flexuosa does not support any grouping in the Turkish waters. The divergence time between the Mediterranean and Black Sea populations (0.015%, cyt b) of S. flexuosa estimated based on the mtDNA clock calibration of 2% sequence per million years suggests that the Mediterranean samples with reduced genetic diversity has colonized into the Black Sea through straits during the early Holocene (about 7500 kya). The current distribution and demographic pattern of Spicara species in the Eastern Mediterranean basin are shaped by climatic events during late Pleistocene and mid-Holocene (about 25-5 kya) and the biological and ecological characteristics specific to Spicara species.


AIMS
To determine the effect of nicotine, cotinine and cigarette smoke extract (CSE) on the neutrophil respiratory burst and their effect on activation of the nuclear factor-κB (NFκB) pathway in oral epithelium.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Neutrophils from periodontally healthy individuals were treated with nicotine, cotinine and CSE before stimulation with Fusobacterium nucleatum, IgG-opsonized Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide. Total and extracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation was determined by luminol/isoluminol chemiluminescence. Activation of NFκB in oral epithelial cells was determined by immunocytochemistry.

RESULTS
Smoke extract alone caused increased neutrophil extracellular isoluminol-dependent chemiluminescence, not detectable with luminol. However, pre-treatment with smoke extract reduced both total and extracellular ROS generation in response to all stimuli. Nicotine and cotinine had no effect on the neutrophil respiratory burst. Smoke extract, nicotine and cotinine did not induce oral epithelial cell NFκB activation.

CONCLUSIONS
These data demonstrate that smoke extract reduces the ability of neutrophils to generate ROS after stimulation with F. nucleatum and IgG-opsonized S. aureus but, at high concentrations, stimulates extracellular ROS generation. During periodontitis, cigarette smoking may differentially affect neutrophil function, generally preventing elimination of periodontal pathogens but, in heavy smokers, also stimulating ROS release and oxidative stress mediated tissue damage.


Objective
Oral focal mucinosis an oral counterpart of cutaneous focal mucinosis, is a rare disease of unknown etiology. Its pathogenesis may be due to the overproduction of hyaluronic acid by a fibroblast, at the expense of collagen production, resulting in focal myxoid degeneration of the connective tissue, primarily affecting the mucosa overlying the bone. Oral focal mucinosis occurs predonderantly in adults during the fourth and fifth decade of life, although it has been reported sparingly in children and adolescents. It has no distinctive clinical features, as the diagnosis is solely based on the histopathological features and treatment involves complete surgical excision. Recurrence is unreported. This case report put forward the clinical and histological presentation and consequent management of Oral focal mucinosis in an adolescent female patient.