THE HISTORY OF SPRINGER PUBLISHING COMPANY Ursula Springer New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2008, 224 pp., $70.00 An external observer of the passing scene may assume that a successful business runs itself and is impervious to human forces. If you believe that, and want to grasp reality instead, read this book. ROOTS IN GERMAN HISTORY In this work, Ursula Springer, who stepped down after 25 years as President of Springer Publishing Company (the publisher of this very Journal) in 2004, offers us readers a complex historical tale. Issues dealt with include, for example, a compact history of Germany from the mid-19th century through two world wars and to the postwar era and the pernicious forces that demanded of middle-class German Jews in the business world of 19th century Germany that they "convert" to Christianity. Intense, often bitter, family dynamics of the Springer family are offered, straightforwardly. For those curious about the differences today between Springer and Springer-Verlag, this is where you can read all about it. In summary, the modest publishing empire of the Springers grew and divided several times over multiple generations and included business wars between brothers. This set of issues was harshly exaggerated by the distances (not only geographical) between Germany and the United States. Bernhard Springer established the present company, which is based in New York City in 1950. THE AUTHOR'S TALE Much of the interest for readers flows from the author's own story. Dr. Springer, prior to marrying Bernhard Springer in 1963, had created a highly successful career in academia. After receiving her PhD from Columbia University, she became a tenured professor at Brooklyn College and was a recognized authority in the field of education. The following is a characteristic of the author's particular style, with her personal touch, pride, and sensitivity: One year I was head of the City University's Teacher Education Group. I had to give a formal speech that I prepared well. I brought a new white dress for the occasion . . . I largely read from my notes (they were quite good). At the end, I stepped away from the lectern toward the few steps to the main floor. Bernhard rose from his chair-the first row- walked toward me to help me down the steps, and kissed my hand in a European tradition of grace. I was touched by pride and joy. And many a colleague would remind me later of that scene-women saying they envy me for a husband who kissed my hand. (p. 59) BERNHARD SPRINGER'S DEATH: 1970; THE FATE OF THE COMPANY Bernhard died in 1970 of glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor. They had been married for 7 years. Ursula, faced with the emotional consequences of the death of her husband, also was forced to deal with a major business decision regarding the fate of the company, and without delay. In addition, should she abandon her hard earned and distinguished academic position? Readers of this review, think about the challenge. Ursula was now the sole owner. There were several inquiries about whether I would sell the company, accompanied by invitations to lunch. My answer was, "You can buy me lunch, but not Springer Publishing Company" (p. 75). . . . A new phase of life started for me. …


Can Capitalism as a system cope creatively with unfolding calamities and absorb sudden shocks? Is there a need to critically and creatively challenge prevailing economic assumptions? These questions, among others, have been frequently asked in recent months. These questions are vital and deserve appropriate answers. This is not only because the current financial crisis is severe and has led to unexpected catastrophe, but also because after the collapse of the Soviet Union, some voices within the capitalist world assertively claimed that capitalism was the only unflawed economic system. These voices blindly and aggressively glorified selfishness and subsequently placed it ahead of any social or moral considerations. The catastrophic consequences of the current financial crisis and its dramatic rapid engulfing of the world have induced experts, within the capitalistic camp, to rethink their assumptions and challenge certain economic pillars. Indeed, at least three major voices within the proponents of the free market economy have emerged. There are those who believe that corruption and deficiencies are embodied in capitalism itself and that either there is nothing that can be done about it or vigorous regulatory mechanisms must be put in place to deter or punish wrongdoing. Gordon Brown (2009), Britain's Prime Minister, vividly expressed this opinion stating, "As we have discovered to our cost, the problem of unbridled free markets in an unsupervised marketplace is that they can reduce all relationships to transactions, all motivations to self-interest, all sense of value to consumer choice and all sense of worth to a price tag." Others question the ability of capitalism to cope with emerging challenges resulting from globalization, fierce competition, and the complexity of a larger market. Those voices, including Alan Greenspan's, seem to imply that there is a need for revolutionary changes in the fundamentals of capitalism. That is, the principles of a free market may sound fine but in practice and in a complex world they lead not only to wide-spread deception but to outcomes which are inherently contradictory to their primary assumptions. The third stream of thought calls for a new partnership between government and the private sector. The nationalization of banks and other financial institutions which took place, for example, in the U.S. and Britain in late 2008 and the infusion of huge public funds in an ailing economy and in institutions are just the beginning of this trend. The advocates of this approach underscore the severity of the crisis and suggest that nationalization is a short-term strategy and by no means a substitute for a vital and fruitful cooperation between the state and the private sector. The validity of any of the mentioned approaches is impossible to verify without applications. Nevertheless, it is certain that these approaches, despite their sound perspectives, ignore one fact; capitalism and socialism systems, in their variations, have all produced outcomes contrary to their professed intentions, and in practice both systems have led to disappointments, be they inefficient distribution of wealth, concentration and abuse of power, limited access to opportunities, or thriving corruption and fraud. Worse, in many situations, like in Russia, Indonesia, Thailand, and some democracies, this has led to the emergence of powerful groups who have influence and can pull strings; the oligarchs (Johnson, 2009). Handy (1999) rightly recognized that under both capitalism and socialism there is always uncertainty. He argued that socialism has a 'heart' but lacks mechanism, while capitalism has mechanism but lacks purpose. This proposition, though controversial, has its merit. Proponents of both systems claim that their corresponding system optimally serves mankind and provides workable mechanisms for allocation of resources. Do these claims practically produce fruitful results? …


This paper reports on a recent collaboration between the Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts at Middlesex University and the BBC Radio Drama Department, which was designed to investigate the narrative possibilities of locative media in a drama context. The locative drama Scratch is the first outcome of an ongoing research project, Locating Drama, whose aim is to investigate and develop narrative strategies that take full advantage of the current generation of GPS enabled portable computing devices for audio drama. In particular, we are exploring content and modes of interaction, which, while based on location awareness are not in any way site-specific allowing users to experience the drama in a location of their choice. We will refer to this approach as translocational as it allows the translation of locative media experiences to a wide variety of spaces. The translocational approach is of particular interest to broadcasters as it is more scalable than a site-specific paradigm, opening the possibility of downloadable location-aware podcasts featuring professionally authored content for a wide audience.


The man has always wanted to be able to fly. The dream or although it has achieved, has not been reached yet fully. The fuse of the flight today is much higher than in the past, but is not yet complete. Although they have carried out the steps in the increase of the safety of a ship in flight, there are still many steps to do. For our passengers, but also for our pilots, these brave people and beautiful, it's time to do something in addition, something more. All those who are to get into a ship must be confident that they will fly absolutely without any problems, regardless of the weather, time, climate, brightness, weather conditions, temperature, altitude... In order to achieve a flight higher quality, it is first necessary to know the history of the flight of the man from its inception up today. The present paper wants to present history human flight, as she was in a vision as realistic as possible. The paper is addressed to in the first place to all those who contributed or still contribute to the achievement of this beautiful dream of the man, the flight. According to Aulus Gellius, Archytas philosopher of the old Greek, a mathematician, astronomers, law and political strategist, was considered that has designed and built around 400 B.C., first artificial device of the flight is self-propelled, a model in the form of bird propelled by an steam boost (an engine with the steamer) used as the reactor with steam, about whom they say he flew effectively to about 200 m altitude. This machine, named by its inventor "The Dove", could be suspended on a wire to fly securely on a path of feed. The inventor of the berbers from the ninth century, Abbas Ibn Firnas, is considered by John Harding to be the first attempt of the flight heavier than air in the history of aviation. In 1010 AD, a British (English) monk, Eilmer of Malmesbury, assumed the piloting of a primitive sliding boat from the Malmesbury Abbey tower. It is said that Eilmer flew over 200 m (180 m) before landing and breaking his legs. He later remarked that the only reason he did not fly further was that he forgot to design his flight instrument and a queue, for which he redesigned his aircraft more technically, but his ancestor took Forbidden any other experiments on the grounds that they are bad (Satanic inspiration) and lead to serious accidents.


We analyze and overview some of the different types of unconventional quantum criticalities by focusing on two origins. One origin of the unconventionality is the proximity to first-order transitions. The border between the first-order and continuous transitions is described by a quantum tricritical point (QTCP) for symmetry breaking transitions. One of the characteristic features of the quantum tricriticality is the concomitant divergence of an order parameter and uniform fluctuations, in contrast to the conventional quantum critical point (QCP). The interplay of these two fluctuations generates unconventionality. Several puzzling non-Fermi-liquid properties in experiments are taken to be accounted for by the resultant universality, as in the cases of Y bRh2Si2, CeRu2Si2 and β-Y bAlB4. Another more dramatic unconventionality appears again at the border of the first-order and continuous transitions, but in this case for topological transitions such as metal–insulator and Lifshitz transitions. This border, the marginal quantum critical point (MQCP), belongs to an unprecedented universality class with diverging uniform fluctuations at zero temperature. The Ising universality at the critical end point of the first-order transition at nonzero temperatures transforms to the marginal quantum criticality when the critical temperature is suppressed to zero. The MQCP has a unique feature with a combined character of symmetry breaking and topological transitions. In the metal–insulator transitions, the theoretical results are supported by experimental indications for V2 − xCrxO3 and an organic conductor κ-(ET)2Cu[N(CN)2]Cl. Identifying topological transitions also reveals how non-Fermi liquid appears as a phase in metals. The theory also accounts for the criticality of a metamagnetic transition in ZrZn2, by interpreting it as an interplay of Lifshitz transition and correlation effects. We discuss the common underlying physics in these examples.


Abstract We explore the signal flow graph as a setup for visualizing and analyzing interconnected systems. Two operations for facilitating interpretation of signal flow graphs are defined. These are hiding of unimportant nodes and elimination of self-references and it is shown that the operations commute under some conditions and that the hiding operation preserves the physical structure of the system in a certain sense. Also, the Loop Gain Index (LGI) is introduced as a measure of the relative importance of the edges in terms of dynamic behavior of the interconnected system. The LGI is illustrated with a numerical example.


We propose a universal and efficient compressive sampling strategy based on the use of a spread spectrum technique. The method essentially consists in a random pre-modulation of the signal of interest followed by projections onto randomly selected vectors of an orthonormal basis. The effectiveness of the technique is induced by a decrease of coherence between the sparsity and the sensing bases. The sensing scheme is universal for a family of sensing bases in the sense that the number of measurements needed for accurate recovery is optimal and independent of the sparsity matrix. It is also efficient as sensing matrices with fast matrix multiplication algorithms can be used. These results are confirmed experimentally through analyses of the phase transition of the l1-minimization problem.


Glauconitic minerals, as peloids, are widespread in the arkosic and subarkosic sandstones of the three Proterozoic units of the Pranhita-Godavari Valley, South India. These minerals grew at the expense of detrital feldspars on a scale so far unknown, and the process offers a viable alternative model for origin of the glauconitic peloids, particularly in the Proterozoic and some unfossiliferous Phanerozoic rocks as well. Conversion in situ is testified inter alia by the presence of feldspar relics within the peloids. Replacement of the peloids by all other authigenic phases and evidence of their compaction and high precement porosity of the host sandstones point to preburial authigenesis of these minerals near the depositional surface. Glauconitization was entirely inorganic, and the morphology of the peloids is dictated by that of the precursor grains. Occurrence in rapidly deposited sediments under semiarid to arid conditions with extensive development of current and wave features suggests formation under conditions of warm, open circulation with high sediment influx and therefore modifies existing ideas about the physical constraints on glauconitization.


Molybdenum phosphide (MoP), a well-documented catalyst for applications ranging from hydrotreating reactions to electrochemical hydrogen evolution, has yet to be mapped from a more fundamental perspective, particularly in the context of transition-metal scaling relations. In this work, we use periodic density functional theory to extend linear scaling arguments to doped MoP surfaces and understand the behavior of the phosphorus active site. The derived linear relationships for hydrogenated C, N, and O species on a variety of doped surfaces suggest that phosphorus experiences a shift in preferred bond order depending on the degree of hydrogen substitution on the adsorbate molecule. This shift in phosphorus hybridization, dependent on the bond order of the adsorbate to the surface, can result in selective bond weakening or strengthening of chemically similar species. We discuss how this behavior deviates from transition-metal, sulfide, carbide, and nitride scaling relations, and we discuss potential applica...


This paper discusses the development of a simulation model to mimic a return to work phenomenon of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) enrollees in the United States. Agent Based and Bayesian Network methods are used within a multi-method simulation model to capture system conditions and enrollee behavior. Bayesian Network is used within an agent to represent enrollee's decision to work. A developed simulation model can be used to investigate many aspects of the return to work phenomenon. The model is used to answer a sample research query that examines how the perception of an enrollee on work incentives related to health improvements, money, and vocational assistance can affect the return to work phenomenon for 18 to 39 year old SSDI enrollees (at enrollment). This is measured as the total percentage of population with benefits terminated for work.


Abstract The pedagogical value of role-play in second language acquisition has theoretically long been acknowledged. However, here, it is intended to look at this type of interaction with a more practical approach, ie., considering the role-play as an interaction by itself. A micro-interactional analysis is conducted, based on a corpus of spontaneously performed role-plays by young Chinese adults in a class of French as a Foreign Language in Hong Kong. Various individual and collective learning strategies are shown, thus confirming the idea that it is possible to learn while role-playing. 1. Introduction The pedagogical value of role-play has long been acknowledged by English-speaking scholars (Maley & Duff 1978; Jones 1982; Livingston 1983; Porter Ladousse 1987; Van Ments 1989) as well as by French practitioners (Care & Debyser 1978; Ancelin Schutzenberger 1981 ; Dufeu 1983). Only a handful of authors analysed classroom role-play as a verbal interaction in itself: Cicurel (1990) conducted a study on stereotypes in role-plays whereas Tabensky (1997) dealt with the feature of spontaneity. Yet, to my knowledge, no studies, so far, have closely examined, through an interactional analysis, how the learning process practically takes place in classroom role-plays. 2. Research objectives and method The purpose of this study is to observe whether role-play is an interaction which can effectively trigger the learning process in the foreign language and to see how the learning occurs by looking at the various learning strategies students use while role-playing. 3. Data and setting-up of the role-play The data comprised of a set of role-plays video-taped in a French class in a university in Hong Kong. Participants are all learners of French at different levels: beginners and intermediate (around 350 hours of French). All are Hong Kong Chinese, aged between 19 and 21. The role-plays are improvised in class: students agree with the teacher upon a common situation to role-play, randomly allocate roles and have a few minutes to imagine the characters. Depending on the situation, the participants' group size varies between 2 to 6 students. The role-play is performed in front of an audience (the non-playing classmates and the teacher). The teacher is video-taping and informs students beforehand that she will not intervene during the role-play. 4. Conclusions of the study The interactional analysis of the data highlighs learning mecanisms which occur during the role-play. Indeed, participants do not only monitor their own speech, but also assist each other in making the communication more effective, by using various individual as well as collective strategies. 4.1. Individual learning strategies The data being an oral discourse and speakers having limited competency in the foreign language, the data reflects abundant indicators (ie., hesitations, self-repetitions, self-corrections) showing their difficulties in communicating and their efforts to put their thoughts into words. Moreover, participants introduce in the role-play elements learnt previously in class or outside the class. Below are some examples of how these individual learning strategies occur: 4.1.1. Self-repetitions Example 1 (Situation: a young couple tell their parents they intend to travel with 3000 F of savings) la mere TROIS MILLE FRANCS ? NON::: c'est: trois mille francs ? c'est quatre mille euh::: cinq cent:: (rires des autres) cinq cent Hong Kong dollars ce n'est pas assez::: (rites des autres) euh ce n'est pas assez pour le:::: (rires des autres) pour:: pour le bilet euh:: / d'avion The mother THREE THOUSAND FRANCS ? NO::: it is: three thousand francs? it is four thousand hum::: five thousand:: (laughter of the others) five thousand Hong Kong dollars it is not enough::: (laughter of the others) hum it is not enough for the::: (laughter of the others) for the:: for the ticket hum:: / for the plane ticket Despite the fact that Janet's numerous hesitations trigger laughter among the other participants, she remains serious and involved in her part as well as in the learning process. …


This enlarged edition of the most significant and celebrated slave narrative completes the Jacobs family saga, surely one of the most memorable in all of American history. John Jacobs' short slave narrative, "A True Tale of Slavery", published in London in 1861, adds a brother's perspective to Harriet Jacobs' autobiography. It is an exciting addition to this now classic work, as John Jacobs presents further historical information about family life so well described already by his sister. Once more, Jean Yellin, who discovered this long-lost document, supplies annotation and authentication. This is the standard edition of "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl", reissued here in the John Harvard Library and updated with a new bibliography.


This paper deals with a new theoretic approach to a specific interaction of continuous and discrete dynamics in switched control systems known as a Zeno dynamics. We study executions of switched control systems with affine structure that admit infinitely many discrete transitions on a finite time interval. Although the real-world processes do not present the corresponding behavior, mathematical models of some interconnected engineering systems may be Zeno due to the corresponding formal abstraction. We propose a useful approximative approach to Zeno dynamics, namely, a projection based characterization of this phenomena. A resulting trajectory associated with the Zeno dynamics can finally be described as a result of a specific dynamic projection procedure applied to the original model. We use here the projected dynamic systems methodology. The obtained formal description provides an effective theoretic basis for a constructive treatment of the Zeno behaviour. We also discuss an application of the proposed technique to the conventional sliding mode control processes.


Whilst the primary focus for the creation and preservation of digitally based artwork in hardcopy has relied in recent years on the gradual refinement of digital printing devices, reference points for their development often appear to follow a strictly linear route. To broaden the current possibilities for permanent, accurate digital hardcopy, Thirkell and the Centre for Fine Print Research has been engaged in the re-assessment of some early photomechanical printing processes which were eclipsed by the mainstream printing approaches long before the advent of the digital era.

Thirkell's paper drew on a three-part methodology surveying printing techniques through historical and current literature, examining actual printed examples and testing findings through practice. The paper re-evaluated the high resolution and archival qualities of three unique 19th century printing processes in the context of current digital practice. Although in mainstream terms such techniques have become redundant, this re-assessment identified and demonstrated valuable principles such as lightfast ink qualities and continuous tone image rendering which has once again renewed currency in the rapidly expanding field of museum quality digital imaging and printing. As a result of this research a small AHRC grant was awarded to create The Woodburytype Database ISBN-10-0.9547025.3.0 ISBN-13-978.0.9547025.3.3. A web-based database of all articles in English relating to the process and production of the Woodburytype. UWE is only one of three centres in the world who have tried to recreate this process. This process died out in the early C20th but as the only truly continuous tone printing process ever invented has been accepted internationally by companies such as Hewlett Packard, Ricoh and Kodak as a benchmark against which current digital output can be viewed.


This project was part of a larger research project aimed at researching and supporting the development of a new postgraduate qualification in general veterinary practice. It arose in the beginning from the establishment of an MSc group of 8 experienced veterinary general practitioners in 2001, who researched various aspects of the question 'what are the postgraduate educational needs of the GP vet in the UK?' After completing the original work, 5 of the group continued their research into their Doctorates, and this project was the one in the subject of consultation skills.
The subject was very largely unexplored in the veterinary world, but extensive research had been done in the medical field. There were the challenges of formulating methods of collecting primary data in the veterinary field, and looking at the medical field to see if the methodologies were transferable.
The choice of methodologies was strongly influenced by fear factors, in which the researcher had to make choices based on what methods of data collection the veterinary practitioners accepted.

Research instruments were found and developed to explore aspects of the consultation. Key performance indicators were explored firstly separately, and then the research explored possible links between consultation skills and KPI's. Significant links were found, which lead to a greater understanding of the importance of consultation skills and how they might be analysed in ways that had potential for veterinary surgeons to see ways of identifying their skills and improving them.
The results were of high impact value.


Purpose: This study aimed to identify and investigate the reasons for failures and delays in R&D projects with an organizational productivity approach. Research methodology: In order to identify the most influential factors in the research area, a questionnaire with a Likert spectrum of five options was designed and distributed among the stakeholders of research projects. The questionnaire results were analyzed and 10 more effective factors were identified and solutions were used to improve the situation. Result: In the present study, after reviewing the background of the subject and reviewing previous studies, 149 factors affecting the failure and delay of projects were identified and after aggregating and summarizing the factors, a model was designed to classify the causes of delay in which 55 effective factors in two general categories. Intra-organizational and extra-organizational factors were examined. Limitations: This research only described Research-oriented organizations. Contribution: According to the analysis results regarding the more effective causes, problems and challenges related to each of the factors were studied and to reduce the impact of existing factors, various solutions and suggestions in the field of research variables using Expert opinion was provided.


In this study, we contribute to existing literature on momentum strategies by assessing a modified version of risk-return ratio based security selection criterion in an untested market – the KOSPI 200 over June 2006 to June 2012. Besides conventional risk-return ratios such as the Sharpe ratio, we also employ the use of risk-return ratio based ranking criterion first introduced in Biglova et al. (2004) when ranking securities to form portfolios for these strategies. These ratios take into account the non-normality and kurtosis that are ubiquitous in equity time series returns. In contrast to their approach however, we invert the ordinal ranking of negative risk-return ratios to be consistent with the interpretation of negative ratios presented in Sharpe (1994). Applying these methods, this study quantifies and compares the performance of returns based and risk-return ratio based momentum strategies while estimating the transaction costs involved in implementing such strategies. For return based momentum strategies, we show that most strategies involving a 3 or 6 month formation period exhibit statistically significant positive returns, while those with a 9 or 12 month formation period do not. In addition, all risk-return ratio based strategies failed to generate returns that are significantly greater than zero.


Interactive analysis of 3D relational data is challenging. A common way of representing such data are node‐link diagrams as they support analysts in achieving a mental model of the data. However, naïve 3D depictions of complex graphs tend to be visually cluttered, even more than in a 2D layout. This makes graph exploration and data analysis less efficient. This problem can be addressed by edge bundling. We introduce a 3D cluster‐based edge bundling algorithm that is inspired by the force‐directed edge bundling (FDEB) algorithm [ HvW09b ] and fulfills the requirements to be embedded in an interactive framework for spatial data analysis. It is parallelized and scales with the size of the graph regarding the runtime. Furthermore, it maintains the edge's model and thus supports rendering the graph in different structural styles. We demonstrate this with a graph originating from a simulation of the function of a macaque brain.


We consider a hierarchical network that consists of mobile users, a two-tiered cellular network (namely small cells and macro cells) and central routers, each of which follows a Poisson point process (PPP). In this scenario, small cells with limited-capacity backhaul are able to cache content under a given set of randomized caching policies and storage constraints. Moreover, we consider three different content popularity models, namely fixed content popularity, distance-dependent and load-dependent, in order to model the spatio-temporal behavior of users' content request patterns. We derive expressions for the average delay of users assuming perfect knowledge of content popularity distributions and randomized caching policies. Although the trend of the average delay for all three content popularity models is essentially identical, our results show that the overall performance of cached-enabled heterogeneous networks can be substantially improved, especially under the load-dependent content popularity model.


Rats were trained on an automated delayed nonmatching-to-position (DNMP) task. They then received cytotoxic lesions in either the medial prefrontal cortex (n = 13) or the cingulate and retrosplenial cortices (n = 8), or radiofrequency lesions in either the fornix (n = 6) or the cingulum bundle (n = 8). Twelve animals served as surgical controls. Only the fornical and medial prefrontal lesions disrupted DNMP performance, both groups showing a loss of accuracy and an increase in bias. The rats were then trained on a lever discrimination and reversal task, the medial prefrontal and fornical groups showing evidence of an increase in bias when compared with the cingulate cortex group. Finally, the rats were trained on a forced alternation task in a T- maze. Marked deficits were observed in the fornix and cingulum bundle groups, but the medial prefrontal and cingulate groups were unimpaired. The double dissociation between the effects of the prefrontal and cingulum bundle lesions highlights the very different nature of the two spatial tasks (DNMP and T-maze alternation), even though both involved a nonmatching rule. These findings may reflect the involvement of divergent outputs from the fornix-anterior thalamic pathway. One possibility is that anterior thalamic projections to the medial prefrontal cortex are concerned with processing egocentric information, while anterior thalamic projections to temporal regions via the cingulum bundle are concerned with allocentric information. The results also indicate that the effects of conventional lesions in the cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex may be compromised by additional damage to the cingulum bundle.


Sweet corn is one of the crops that has a fairly large role in provide the nutritional needs of the people. One of the effort that can  be do to improve the growth and production of sweet corn is fertilization. The aim of this research are to determine the effect of interaction of cocoa peel's compost and Urea, TSP and KCl fertilizer on growth and yield of sweet corn and get the best dose of treatment. This research was conducted experimentally by using Randomized Design Group (RDG) factorial with two factors namely cocoa peel's compost treatment consist of 4 levels namely 0 ton/ha (K0); 2,5 tons/ha (K1); 5 tons/ha (K2);            7,5 tons/ha (K3) and Urea, TSP and KCl fertilizer treatment consist of 4 levels namely        (50 kg Urea; 37,5 kg TSP; 25 kg KCl)/ha (P1); (100 kg Urea; 75 kg TSP; 50 kg KCl)/ha (P2); (150 kg Urea; 112,5 kg TSP; 75 kg KCl)/ha (P3); (200 kg Urea;150 kg TSP; 100 kg KCl)/ha (P4) with 3 replications. The parameters focus on plant height, the ratio of editorial root, cob length without cornhusk, the number of rows and cob weight without cornhusk/plot.            The result of this research shows that the interaction of cocoa peel's compost and Urea, TSP and KCl fertilizer there is no real effect to all the parameters. Giving cocoa peel's compost  7.5 tons/ha and fertilizer (200 g Urea, 150 g TSP and 100 g KCl)/ha is the best dose of treatment. Key word : Sweet corn, cocoa peel's compost, Urea, TSP, KCl  fertilizer


Abstract. The Czech Technical University in Prague in the cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences in Dresden (Germany) work on the Nasca Project. The cooperation started in 2004 and much work has been done since then. All work is connected with Nasca lines in southern Peru. The Nasca project started in 1995 and its main target is documentation and conservation of the Nasca lines. Most of the project results are presented as WebGIS application via Internet. In the face of the impending destruction of the soil drawings, it is possible to preserve this world cultural heritage for the posterity at least in a digital form. Creating of Nasca lines map is very useful. The map is in a digital form and it is also available as a paper map. The map contains planimetric component of the map, map lettering and altimetry. Thematic folder in this map is a vector layer of the geoglyphs in Nasca/Peru. Basis for planimetry are georeferenced satellite images, altimetry is created from digital elevation model. This map was created in ArcGis software.


The fabrication of magnetically functionalized core/shell microspheres by using the microfluidic flow‐focusing (MFF) approach is reported. The shell of each microsphere is embedded with magnetic nanoparticles, thereby enabling the microspheres to deform under an applied magnetic field. By encapsulating a drug, for example, aspirin, inside the microspheres, the drug release of the microspheres is enhanced under the compression–extension oscillations that are induced by an AC magnetic field. This active pumping mode of drug release can be controlled by varying the frequency and magnitude of the applied magnetic field as well as the time profile of the magnetic field. UV absorption measurements of cumulative aspirin release are carried out to determine the influence of these factors. The drug release behavior is found to be significantly different depending on whether the applied field varies sinusoidally or in a step‐function manner with time.


We have investigated the effects of TCPOBOP (1,4-bis[2-(3,5- dichloropyridyloxy)]benzene), a potent cytochrome P-450-inducing agent [Poland, Mak, Glover, Boatman, Ebetino and Kende (1980) Mol. Pharmacol. 18, 571-580], on cytochrome P-450 isoenzyme expression in the mouse. Hepatic cytochrome P-450s from several distinct gene families were strikingly induced by a single dose of 75 micrograms of the compound. Northern-blot analysis demonstrated that this induction was almost certainly due to transcriptional activation of the cytochrome P-450 genes. The potency of this inductive effect was further reflected in the finding that cytochrome P-450 levels were still increased 12 weeks after a single injection of 75 micrograms of this compound. Interestingly, the mRNA levels of certain other genes, including those of metallothionein and the mouse major urinary proteins, were also induced. In view of the similarity in the effects of TCPOBOP and the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone on mouse hepatic gene expression, we determined whether TCPOBOP acts through the glucocorticoid receptor. This did not, however, appear to be the case. Experiments with hypophysectomized animals demonstrated that TCPOBOP action was not regulated indirectly via the pituitary. In addition, induction of mouse Cyp2b protein by TCPOBOP in a primary culture of mouse hepatocytes suggests that the compound has a direct action on mouse liver. The above findings demonstrate that TCPOBOP is one of the most potent modulators of cytochrome P-450 gene expression described to date. It is not inconceivable that a single dose of this compound may alter hepatic gene expression for the majority of the lifespan of a mouse.


Telecenters take on a prominent role within the current information and communications technology (ICT) ecosystem in Brazil. They are seen by a great many as a key means to foster the digital inclusion of the older population in the country. This paper draws upon a rapid ethnographic study conducted with 78 older people in a center that teaches computer classes to seniors in Brazil. The results show that providing older people with technological infrastructures is not enough to strengthen their digital inclusion if their basic and non-instrumental needs are not taken into consideration in defining educational activities to be carried out in public centers. Participants' basic needs when it comes to interacting with ICT, such as coping with accessibility issues, were dynamic, whilst non-instrumental needs, fulfilled by using these technologies, such as interacting with relevant others, remained fairly constant throughout the study. Drawing on the results of the study, strategies for fostering the digital inclusion and well-being of older people in Brazil that go beyond telecenters are suggested.


As a result of globalization, the number of people living outside of their countries of origin is on the rise. Among them are children of primary and secondary school age of varying socio-economic backgrounds. This article addresses the education-related challenges that children in such circumstances face. I first identify two principles – an educational adequacy principle and a presumption of responsibility on the part of a host country for meeting children's educationalneeds – which are widely employed to guide national policy decisions on educational content and the distribution of educational resources. I then discuss a number of problems that students living abroad face which, I argue, policies devised on the basis of these principles either systematically overlook or, in some cases, exacerbate. Finally, I offer two alternative principles – a cosmopolitan revision of the first and a replacement for the second with a focus on collective responsibility – designed to promote education policies better suited to a globalized world which might help to alleviate the barriers to success commonly encountered by children learning abroad.


Reform of the international monetary system is under discussion after three decades of apathy. Tectonic shifts in the balance of international power have made reform more urgent. However, in the short term, there is little chance of a grand redesign of the international monetary system.

Nevertheless, concrete steps should be taken. First, consensus is needed on exchange rates, capital flows and reserves. Second, financial safety nets must be improved so that countries do not have to self-insure by accumulating reserves or rely on possible bilateral swap lines to access liquidity.

Third, a change in the composition of the Special Drawing Right should be planned for, to strengthen the multilateral framework.

The most workable short-term deliverables seem to be (i) guidelines on and surveillance of capital controls; (ii) a new regime for deciding on SDR allocations that would facilitate more frequent use of this instrument; and (iii) the inclusion of the renmimbi in the SDR basket. These reforms would be a partial move, preparing the ground for further developments.


In this article we aim to utilise and apply ethnomethodological and interactionist principles to the analysis of members' situated accounts of regenerated urban space. With reference to previous empirical studies we apply membership categorization analysis and the concept of mundane reason to data gathered from situated street level interviews carried out as part of a programme of ethnographic research into the regenerated setting of Cardiff Bay. The article demonstrates that these data yield sociological insight into social actors' interpretive and interactional reasoning in relation to the negotiation, navigation and comprehension of space and place. Through this work the patterned signatures of the urban interactional order can be identified. Furthermore, we illustrate the forms of emic rationality associated with the everyday and ubiquitous constitution of urban space as a meaningful, and thence cultural, milieu. It is our claim that an appreciation of these urban forms of reasoning is important in the ethnographic, sociological and geographical analysis of space and place.


gonadal axis DTU Orbit (02/10/2019) Population pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modelling of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis The present thesis deals with different aspects of population pharmacokinetic/ pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) modelling of the male hypothalamic-pituitary-go-nadal (HPG) axis. The thesis consists of a summary report and five scientific research papers. An overview of the main topics covered in the thesis is provided in the summary report including PK/PD modelling in drug development, the pathological, physiological, and pharmacological aspects of the male HPG axis, and a detailed description of the methodology behind non-linear mixed-effects modelling based on stochastic differential equations (SDEs). The main objective of the work underlying this thesis was to develop mechanism-based population PK/PD models of the HPG axis. The HPG axis is a multivariate closed-loop control system consisting of regulatory hormonal feedback mechanisms. The number and complexity of the physiological mechanisms involved in such models makes them difficult to develop and are often too complex to be conveniently described by empirical models. Hence, the use of SDEs in population PK/PD modelling was used as a tool to systematically develop a mechanism-based model of the HPG axis following treatment with gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist triptorelin and GnRH antagonist degarelix in a combined model. The use of SDEs in non-linear mixed-effects modelling was investigated by implementing the Extended Kalman Filter in the NONMEM software. Non-linear mixed-effects models based on SDEs extend the first-stage model of the hierarchical structure by decomposing the intra-individual variability into two types of noise, i.e. a system noise term representing unknown or incorrectly specified dynamics and a measurement noise term accounting for uncorrelated errors such as assay error. This setup makes identification of structural model mis-specification feasible by quantifying the model uncertainty, which subsequently provides the basis for systematic population PK/PD model development. To support the model building process, the SDE approach was applied to clinical PK/PD data and used as a tool for tracking unexplained variations in parameters, identifying complicated non-linear dynamic dependencies, and deconvolving the functional feedback relationships of the HPG axis. The developed mechanism-based model of the HPG axis consisted of four compartments where the secretion of readily releasable LH from a pool compartment was stimulated and inhibited by the plasma triptorelin and degarelix concentrations, respec-tively. Circulating LH stimulated the testosterone secretion while the delayed testosterone feedback on the non-basal LH synthesis and release was modelled through a receptor compartment where testosterone stimulates the production of receptors. The derived mechanism-based model of the HPG axis was able to account for the observed LH and testosterone concentration-time profiles following treatment with both GnRH agonist triptorelin and GnRH antago-nist degarelix thereby indicating that the model is sufficient at mimicking the underlying physiology of the endocrine system.


Leukocyte Ig-like receptors (LIRs) are a newly discovered family of immunoreceptors expressed on monocytes and B cells and at lower levels on dendritic cells and NK cells. The amino acid sequences in the extracellular regions of eight of these receptors show between 63 and 84% identity to the prototypic LIR-1 sequence. LIRs contain either two or four Ig domains and fall into three classes: those with cytoplasmic domains containing two, three, or four immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motif-like motifs; those with a short cytoplasmic domain and no immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motif-like motifs; and those with no transmembrane domain represented by a single LIR molecule that is presumably secreted. The LIRs are structurally related to the human Fc(alpha)R and the killer inhibitory receptors and map to the same region of chromosome 19 as these genes. Like killer inhibitory receptors, at least two LIRs bind to MHC class I Ags, but their different cellular distribution suggests a distinct role in immune system modulation.


A2, a capsid protein of RNA phage Qβ, is also responsible for host lysis. A2 blocked synthesis of murein precursors in vivo by inhibiting MurA, the catalyst of the committed step of murein biosynthesis. An A2-resistance mutation mapped to an exposed surface near the substrate-binding cleft of MurA. Moreover, purified Qβ virions inhibited wild-type MurA, but not the mutant MurA, in vitro. Thus, the two small phages characterized for their lysis strategy, Qβ and the small DNA phage φX174, effect host lysis by targeting different enzymes in the multistep, universally conserved pathway of cell wall biosynthesis.


CEOs are often cited as a key factor in determining the success of a firm. However, direct evidence on the behavior of corporate leaders is scant. To fill this gap, we record in detail the activities undertaken by 354 CEOs of listed Indian manufacturing firms over an exogenously chosen work week. We observe substantial heterogeneity in total hours worked ("labor supply") and the allocation of time across activities ("style"). In particular, CEOs can be divided in two groups. The CEOs in the first group (Style 1) are more likely to plan in advance, interact mostly with employees of the firms who are their direct reports, especially in production, and are more likely to meet with many people, and different functions, at the same time. The second group of CEOs (Style 2) is less likely to plan, more likely to meet with outsiders in one-to-one meetings. CEOs who work longer hours and that fall in the Style 1 category are associated with higher firm-level productivity and profitability. CEO labor supply and style are strongly associated with firm level characteristics. In particular, family CEOs work fewer hours and are less likely to adopt the more productive style. To investigate the source of these differences between family and non-family CEOs, we study the effect of two sources of shocks to the disutility of work: extreme weather and televised cricket matches. Controlling for other factors, family CEOs are more likely to decrease their labor supply in response to these shocks. Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Nick Bloom, Luis Garicano, Antoinette Schoar, Scott Stern, John Van Reenen, Julie Wulf and participants at seminars in Bocconi, Duke, MIT and NBER for useful comments. Our partnership with Renata Lemos and the support of Anjali Reina and Tanya Bijlani from the HBS India Research Center have been particularly important in the development of the project. We would like to thank the International Growth Center and Harvard Business School for their financial support.


The Kepler Mission is designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-sized and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone. The Kepler photometer is an array of 42 CCDs (charge-coupled devices) in the focal plane of a 95-cm Schmidt camera onboard the Kepler spacecraft. Each 50x25-mm CCD has 2,200 x 1,024 pixels. The CCDs accumulate photons and are read out every six seconds to prevent saturation. The data is integrated for 30 minutes, and then the pixel data is transferred to onboard storage. The data is subsequently encoded and transmitted to the ground. During End-to-End Information System (EEIS) testing of the Kepler Mission System (KMS), there was a need to verify that the pixels requested by the science team operationally were correctly collected, encoded, compressed, stored, and transmitted by the FS, and subsequently received, decoded, uncompressed, and displayed by the Ground Segment (GS) without the outputs of any CCD modules being flipped, mirrored, or otherwise corrupted during the extensive FS and GS processing. This would normally be done by projecting an image on the focal plane array (FPA), collecting the data in a flight-like way, and making a comparison between the original data and the data reconstructed by the science data system. Projecting a focused image onto the FPA through the telescope would normally involve using a collimator suspended over the telescope opening. There were several problems with this approach: the collimation equipment is elaborate and expensive; as conceived, it could only illuminate a limited section of the FPA (.25 percent) during a given test; the telescope cover would have to be deployed during testing to allow the image to be projected into the telescope; the equipment was bulky and difficult to situate in temperature-controlled environments; and given all the above, test setup, execution, and repeatability were significant concerns. Instead of using this complicated approach of projecting an optical image on the FPA, the Kepler project developed a method using known defect features in the CCDs to verify proper collection and reassembly of the pixels, thereby avoiding the costs and risks of the optical projection approach. The CCDs composing the Kepler FPA, as all CCDs, had minor defects. At ambient temperature, some pixels look far brighter than they should. These ghot h pixels have a higher rate of charge leakage than the others due to manufacturing variations. They are usually stable over time, and appear at temperatures above 5 oC. The hot pixels on the Kepler FPA were mapped before photometer assembly during module testing. Selected hot pixels were used as target gstars h for the purposes of EEIS testing. gDead h pixels are permanently off, producing a permanently black pixel. These can also be used if there is some illumination of the FPA. During EEIS testing, Dark Current Full Frame Images (FFIs) taken at room temperature were used to create the hot pixel maps for all 84 Kepler photometer CCD channels. Data from two separate nights were used to create two hot pixel maps per channel, which were cross-correlated to remove cosmic ray events which appear to be hot pixels. These hot pixel maps obtained during EEIS testing were compared to the maps made during module testing to verify that the end-to-end data flow was correct.


We present a novel training framework for neural sequence models, particularly for grounded dialog generation. The standard training paradigm for these models is maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), or minimizing the cross-entropy of the human responses. Across a variety of domains, a recurring problem with MLE trained generative neural dialog models (G) is that they tend to produce 'safe' and generic responses ("I don't know", "I can't tell"). In contrast, discriminative dialog models (D) that are trained to rank a list of candidate human responses outperform their generative counterparts; in terms of automatic metrics, diversity, and informativeness of the responses. However, D is not useful in practice since it cannot be deployed to have real conversations with users.
Our work aims to achieve the best of both worlds -- the practical usefulness of G and the strong performance of D -- via knowledge transfer from D to G. Our primary contribution is an end-to-end trainable generative visual dialog model, where G receives gradients from D as a perceptual (not adversarial) loss of the sequence sampled from G. We leverage the recently proposed Gumbel-Softmax (GS) approximation to the discrete distribution -- specifically, an RNN augmented with a sequence of GS samplers, coupled with the straight-through gradient estimator to enable end-to-end differentiability. We also introduce a stronger encoder for visual dialog, and employ a self-attention mechanism for answer encoding along with a metric learning loss to aid D in better capturing semantic similarities in answer responses. Overall, our proposed model outperforms state-of-the-art on the VisDial dataset by a significant margin (2.67% on recall@10). The source code can be downloaded from this https URL


With only one victory away from advancing to the city tournament, Seishun Academy fields the Prince of Tennis, Ryoma Echizen, to compete against the mysterious and mumbling Shinji of the Fudomine Team. As the punishing battle of skills unfolds, Ryoma develops a muscle paralysis called "Spot," which leaves him with barely enough strength to grip the racket, much less swing it. Refusing to go down without a fight, Ryoma unleashes a "two-sword fighting style" technique that only talented, ambidextrous players are able to execute. Will Ryoma have the strength to pull himself out of the ditch and beat Shinji? And what awaits his ex-pro tennis player father, Nanjiro, when a reporter tracks him down? Find out in the next volume of this intense sports manga!


Background and purpose: Arterial blood gases ( Arterial blood gas [ABG] ) One of the most important Laboratory tests to determine the status PH the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide blood levels of bicarbonate. Also, hemoglobin and serum lactate and electrolytes and also won the Test . Height and air pressure can vary on ABG and its surface, low pressure conditions at high altitude pilots place on arterial blood gases are subject to change, this can important steps to investigate the relationship of these changes are in line with the compilcations may occur in different organs pilots during flight. Materials and Methods: This AD research and in terms of the S mode using content analysis ( Content Analysis ) And took note of the material used in several papers to prove the correctness of the opinion of the clay, and only ten The theory is or not. The method of collection and compilation of information via the library resources, the Internet and text of the H-point Military Medicine (Aerospace Medicine) the analysis are discussed. Results: Arterial blood gases (ABG) show variations in different conditions. ABG include: PH , HCO 3- , PO 2 , Base exces, sPCO 2 , SO 2 is. SBCe rate also (Bicarbonate concentration in the blood) and And Total also acquired the ABG. Discussion And conclusions: ABG and changes in their altitude and conditions Haypvbar few studies have been conducted. Most of these studies examined people who have climbed mountains, and changes in the elevation of arterial blood gases is limited. Similar studies in Chambr Haypvbar conditions or when flying in an airplane took place on arterial blood gas changes, but the research done altitudes Like Somogy and colleagues examined the Mountaineers to a metabolic alkalosis due to the hypoxia caused by Hypo ventilated with Kmvrsptvr stimulation was observed.


The paper investigates specialization and agglomeration trends in EU-27 NUTS2 regions over 1991-2011 by means of two versions of the relative Theil indicator that use employment data. The paper's main focus is on Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) regions. As a legacy of central planning, in the early 'Nineties these regions presented significantly above-average specialization and agglomeration. The paper shows that over 1991-2011 these features change very little; moreover, while disproportions fall in the other EU members, they rise in CEECs, implying growing divergence among the two groups in real terms, notwithstanding EU emphasis on real convergence. Indicators disaggregated by sectors show that for CEECs specialization/agglomeration change most in agriculture, market services and manufacturing. The paper focuses on the last two sectors. It argues that performance in the service sector is largely due to capital regions catching up on previous underdevelopment in the sector, therefore getting closer to Western regions. Non-capital regions instead lag behind, moving away from the EU sectoral average. As far as manufacturing is concerned, CEECs regions continue to specialize in the more traditional lines of production, for which also agglomeration remains extremely high. Consideration of the changes over time gives a partially different picture and shows that the higher specialization in overall manufacturing results from the development of a small but dynamic medium-high technology sub-sector that is significantly disseminated across regions, thus appearing to result from successful industrial restructuring and reconversion. JEL Classification: O18, O52, P25, R11, R12


Understanding cooperation is a central challenge in biology, because natural selection should favor "free-loaders" that reap benefits without reciprocating. For interspecific cooperation (mutualism), most approaches to this paradox focus on costs and benefits of individual partners and the strategies mutualists use to associate with beneficial partners. However, natural selection acts on lifetime fitness, and most mutualists, particularly longer-lived species interacting with shorter-lived partners (e.g., corals and zooxanthellae, tropical trees and mycorrhizae) interact with multiple partner species throughout ontogeny. Determining how multiple partnerships might interactively affect lifetime fitness is a crucial unexplored link in understanding the evolution and maintenance of cooperation. The tropical tree Acacia drepanolobium associates with four symbiotic ant species whose short-term individual effects range from mutualistic to parasitic. Using a long-term dataset, we show that tree fitness is enhanced by partnering sequentially with sets of different ant symbionts over the ontogeny of a tree. These sets include a "sterilization parasite" that prevents reproduction and another that reduces tree survivorship. Trees associating with partner sets that include these "parasites" enhance lifetime fitness by trading off survivorship and fecundity at different life stages. Our results demonstrate the importance of evaluating mutualism within a community context and suggest that lifespan inequalities among mutualists may help cooperation persist in the face of exploitation.


Existing unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings, many of which have historical and cultural importance, constitute a significant portion of existing buildings around the world. Recent earthquakes have shown the vulnerability of such URM buildings. This thesis investigates the in-plane seismic behavior of URM walls retrofitted using composites. The thesis includes an extensive dynamic and static cyclic tests followed with development of an analytical model. For the dynamic tests, five half-scale single wythe URM walls were built using either strong or weak mortar and half-scale hollow clay brick units. These five walls were dynamically tested as reference specimens. Then, these reference specimens were retrofitted on single side only using composites and retested. As consequence a total of eleven specimens were tested on the earthquake simulator at ETHZ. For the static cyclic tests, five half-scale single wythe URM walls were built using weak mortar and half-scale hollow clay brick units. Of them, three specimens were tested as reference specimens. Then, two specimens of these three reference specimens were retrofitted using composites and tested again. The third reference specimen was retrofitted using post-tensioning and tested; then, the post-tension forces were released and the specimen was retrofitted using composites and retested. Finally, two virgin specimens were retrofitted directly after construction and tested. As consequence a total of nine specimens were tested in the Structural Laboratory at EPFL. For analytical models, an innovative shear model is developed. In addition, a simple flexural model is developed. For shear analysis, masonry, epoxy, and composites in a URM wall retrofitted using composites (URM-FRP) were idealized as different layers with isotropic homogenous elastic materials. Then, using principles of theory of elasticity the governing differential equation of the system is formulated. A double Fourier sine series was used as the solution for the differential equations. The solution can be used to model the linear shear behavior of URM-FRP. To take into consideration material nonlinearity, step-by-step stiffness degradation has been implemented in a computer program. For flexural analysis, a simple model using linear elastic approach with the well-known assumptions of Navier-Bernoulli and Whitney's equivalent stress block is developed. The experimental work shows that the retrofitting technique improved the lateral resistance of the URM walls by a factor ranged from 1.3 to 5.9 depending on the applied normal force, the reinforcement ratio, and mode of failure. However, improvement in lateral drift was less significant. Moreover, no uneven response was observed during tests due to single sided retrofitting. Several phenomena and relationships have been correctly determined by the model. These phenomena and relationships are originally observed in the literature during tests on reinforced concrete beams that were retrofitted using composites. This includes the relationship between strains in FRP and reinforcement ratio as well as the interaction between masonry lateral resistance and FRP contribution to the lateral resistance of URM-FRP. In addition, effects of epoxy ductility and allowable shear stresses as well as masonry ductility and allowable shear stresses have been studied. Such development is of interest to the structural engineering community and material producers. Regarding flexural analysis, the simple model leads to unconservative designs. Correlation analysis of the test data show that the ratio between the experimental lateral resistance to the estimated flexural lateral resistance is proportional to reinforcement mechanical ratio times the square of the effective moment/shear ratio up to a certain limit. Within the limits of experimental testing, a correlation factor is proposed.


This study focuses on the morning commute problem with explicit consideration of cruising-forparking, and its adverse impacts on traffic congestion. The cruising-for-parking is modeled through a dynamic aggregated traffic model for networks: the Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD). Firstly, we formulate the commuting equilibrium in a congested downtown network where travelers have to cruise for curbside parking spaces. The cruising-for-parking would yield longer trip distance and smaller network outflow, and thus can induce severe congestion and lengthen the morning peak. We then develop a dynamic model of pricing for the network to reduce total social cost, which includes cruising time cost, moving time cost (moving or in-transit time, which is the duration during which vehicles move close to the destination but do not cruise for parking yet), and schedule delay cost. We show that under specific assumptions, at the system optimum, the downtown network should be operating at the maximum production of its MFD. However, the cruising effect is not fully eliminated. We also show that the timedependent toll to support the system optimum has a different shape than the classical fine toll in Vickrey's bottleneck model. In the end, analytical results are illustrated and verified with numerical experiments. Keyword: morning commute; cruising-for-parking; MFD; pricing


PigC and HapC catalyse the condensation of 4-methoxy-2,2′-bipyrrole-5-carbaldehyde (MBC) with 2-methyl-3-amylpyrrole (MAP) to give the bright red tripyrrolic prodigiosin, which has potent anticancer activity. We have cloned and over-expressed both enzymes and characterised their enzymic activity in vitro using both the natural substrates, MBC and MAP, and analogues of these substrates. Thus a range of prodigiosin analogues have been produced. Both PigC and HapC are membrane-associated enzymes and attempts to fully solubilise them using detergents led to inactivation. The enzymes are ATP-dependent but, unlike the enzymes to which they show the greatest similarity, the by-product is ADP not AMP. Two different slowly interconverting rotamers of prodigiosin exist and the spectral changes with time are consistent with isomerisation of the E,Z (or α) rotamer to the Z,Z (or β) rotameric form.


Chair, Hot Topics Editorial Board Dr Rachel Standish Over 50 Australian crops depend on insect pollination. The ubiquity of the European honey bee has led to complacency over the need for pollinator conservation in Australia. Yet, globally, honey bee colonies are in severe regional decline due to multiple stressors, including intensive management, widespread pesticide use, and pests and pathogens that spread easily through stressed colonies. Relying on a single pollinator species poses a significant risk for food production. Wild insect pollinator taxa can be equally or more efficient pollinators than honey bees and both wild and managed pollinators are needed for optimal fruit set. Wild pollinators enhance farm productivity when honey bee numbers or activity are limited, potentially providing pollination "insurance" in the event of honey bee declines, but also face similar environmental stressors. Australia has a diverse and unique insect pollinator fauna. Native bee, fly, beetle and moth species are known pollinators or flower visitors in a number of crop systems, particularly tropical and subtropical fruits, vegetables and nuts. Social stingless bees pollinate macadamia and other crops, and a small number of colonies are managed for pollination services in eastern states. Limited historical data on regional pollinator communities, particularly in temperate and arid regions, makes it difficult to identify if pollinator declines are occurring in Australia. Recent studies from natural and modified landscapes show that landscape homogenisation, isolation from natural vegetation and lack of within-farm plant diversity negatively affect wild pollinator communities in Australian agroecosystems, and pollinator species richness, especially of native bees, is generally greater in native remnants than modified systems. Identifying our wild pollinator taxa and understanding how land use change and management impacts them is vital to Australia's agricultural future.


Sleep is a critical behavior shared by most higher animals. Sleep disturbances are comorbid with numerous psychiatric disorders, most notably symptoms of depression. Twin studies have suggested that genetic influences partially underlie the variation seen for numerous sleep‐related traits across individuals. Recently, two Genome‐Wide Association Studies (GWAS) conducted for sleep traits have revealed new candidate genes for sleep‐related measures. We attempted to replicate the two most significant associations from these two studies, CACNA1C (a l‐type calcium channel) with sleep latency and quality and ABCC9 (an ATP‐sensitive potassium channel) with sleep duration, using the G1219 British population sample. We genotyped single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for each of the two different sleep GWAS loci. Linear regression analyses were conducted to assess main effects of these SNPs on their corresponding sleep measures, as well as for depressive symptoms. We successfully replicated an association of a genetic variant in the CACNA1C gene (rs16929277) with sleep quality using an additive model of inheritance. A significant association of the ABCC9 gene (rs11046209) with sleep duration was seen only in a recessive models based upon a rare homozygous genotype (n = 2). There was also a significant association between a different ABCC9 gene variant (rs11046205) and depressive symptoms. These findings add further support for the involvement of calcium channels in the mechanisms regulating sleep function and suggest a possible role of the ABCC9 gene in depression. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


This article proposes a way forward in the debate about law and new governance in the contemporary European Union. Migration management is used a prism through which we can see what is happening in a significant area of EU activity and re-evaluate new governance, both in terms of its opportunities, but also crucially, its dangers. A rethink on new governance and its application to external migration implies an alteration of the lenses by which we see migration, by uncoupling new governance from its synergy with ?good? governance and to instead consider that new governance may offer policy-makers opportunities to meet goals beyond legislative processes. The article does not argue that new governance should be used in migration management. Rather, by using governance as an explanatory concept and providing a critique, the contribution of the article is to highlight the potential dangers that new modes of governance may pose to transparency and legitimacy in the contemporary EU, especially if they are used to bypass legislative processes and avoid civic involvement.


Objectives: Primary osteoarthritis (OA) and Kashin–Beck disease (KBD) exhibit similar clinical manifestations and common articular cartilage lesions. Revealing the pathogenetic differences between OA and KBD is helpful for differential diagnosis and may provide new insights into the pathogenesis of OA and KBD. In this study, we compared the genome-wide gene ontology (GO) and pathway expression patterns of articular cartilage derived from both OA and KBD patients. Methods: Total RNA was isolated, amplified, labelled, and hybridized using Agilent whole genome microarray analysis. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to identify differentially expressed genes and pathways between OA and KBD. Nine differentially expressed GO categories and 85 differentially expressed pathways were identified by this study. Results: The reactive oxygen species (ROS)-related HOUSTIS_ROS pathway and the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-related ABE_VEGFA_TARGETS_2HR pathway were significantly up-regulated in OA compared to KBD. Higher expression levels of the collagen-related COLLAGEN GO, EXTRACELLULAR_MATRIX_PART GO, and nitric oxide (NO)-related BIOCARTA_NO1_PATHWAY pathways were detected in KBD than in OA. Conclusions: ROS-induced cartilage lesions seem to be more involved in the pathogenesis of OA whereas NO-mediated chondrocyte apoptosis contributes more to the development of KBD.


CURES is a database of Schedule II, III and IV controlled substance prescriptions committed to the reduction of prescription drug abuse without affecting legitimate medical practice or patient care. Given a subset of data from California's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, we are focusing our efforts on Ventura County. With general patient information such as age, zip code of pharmacy where the prescription is filled as well as the prescription itself, we are analyzing our dataset in order to spot potential drug abuse. We are interested in finding a correlation, if it exists, between age, zip of pharmacy, or gender and how this relationship may affect prescriptions provided within our county. Through creating classification targets in order to simplify our given attributes of zip code of pharmacy, prescriptions provided, and drug strength, we aim to fit a set of attributes to a linear regression model.


The Drosophila genus is a unique group containing a wide range of species that occupy diverse ecosystems. In addition to the most widely studied species, Drosophila melanogaster, many other members in this genus also possess a well-developed set of genetic tools. Indeed, high-quality genomes exist for several species within the genus, facilitating studies of the function and evolution of cis-regulatory regions and proteins by allowing comparisons across at least 50 million years of evolution. Yet, the available genomes still fail to capture much of the substantial genetic diversity within the Drosophila genus. We have therefore tested protocols to rapidly and inexpensively sequence and assemble the genome from any Drosophila species using single-molecule sequencing technology from Oxford Nanopore. Here, we use this technology to present high-quality genome assemblies of 15 Drosophila species: 10 of the 12 originally sequenced Drosophila species (ananassae, erecta, mojavensis, persimilis, pseudoobscura, sechellia, simulans, virilis, willistoni, and yakuba), four additional species that had previously reported assemblies (biarmipes, bipectinata, eugracilis, and mauritiana), and one novel assembly (triauraria). Genomes were generated from an average of 29x depth-of-coverage data that after assembly resulted in an average contig N50 of 4.4 Mb. Subsequent alignment of contigs from the published reference genomes demonstrates that our assemblies could be used to close over 60% of the gaps present in the currently published reference genomes. Importantly, the materials and reagents cost for each genome was approximately $1,000 (USD). This study demonstrates the power and cost-effectiveness of long-read sequencing for genome assembly in Drosophila and provides a framework for the affordable sequencing and assembly of additional Drosophila genomes.


Reduced height (Rht) genes are used in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) breeding throughout the world. Fusarium head blight (FHB) is one of the most destructive wheat diseases caused by Fusarium graminearum (Schwabe) and F. culmorum (W.G. Sm.) Sacc. Objectives of this study were to analyze the effects of (i) specific Rht dwarfing genes on FHB reaction using two sets of near-isogenic lines (NILs) and (ii) genetic background and environment on FHB reaction. We inoculated NILs carrying Rht-B1b, Rht-B1d, Rht-D1b, Rht8c, and Rht-D1b+Rht8c in the background of the British winter wheat cultivar Mercia possessing medium height and moderate resistance, and NILs carrying Rht-B1b, Rht-B1c, Rht-D1b and Rht-B1b+Rht-D1b in the background of the rather tall, generally more resistant British cultivar Maris Huntsman, as well as three German check cultivars ('Toras', 'Certo', 'Travix') carrying the Rht-D1b allele. Entries were tested in eight (Mercia) and four (Maris Huntsman) environments, respectively, by inoculation with F. culmorum. In the Mercia data set, Rht-B1d and Rht-D1b significantly increased mean FHB rating by 35 and 52%, respectively. Rht-B1b and Rht8c increased FHB rating only by 19%, being not significantly different to the wild-type line (rht). Rht8c affected heading date due to its linkage with the photoperiod insensitive Ppd1 allele. In the Maris Huntsman data set, FHB rating was increased by 22 to 83%, but only the very short Rht-B1c and Rht-B1b+Rht-D1b lines showed significance. Although the mutant Rht alleles increased FHB susceptibility, the checks show that these negative effects can be largely counteracted by a more resistant genetic background.


We identify local and global factors across international bond markets that are poorly spanned by the cross-section of yields but have strong forecasting power for future bond excess returns. Local and global factors are jointly significant predictors of bond returns, where the global factor is closely linked to US bond risk premia and international business cycles. Motivated by our results, we estimate a no-arbitrage affine term structure model for each country in which movements in risk premia are driven by one local and one global factor. Yield loadings for the two factors are estimated to be close to zero while shocks to risk premia account for a small fraction of yield variance. This suggests that the cross-section of yields conveys little information about the return-forecasting factors. We show that shocks to global risk premia cause offsetting movements in expected returns and expected future short-term interest rates, leaving current yields little affected. Furthermore, correlations between international bond risk premia have increased over time, indicating an increase in integration between markets.


The Standard Model of particle interactions triumphed when the discovery of the Higgs boson was announced by the CMS and ATLAS collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider July 4th, 2012. The Standard Model has been very successful, but has limitations as well as some aesthetic problems. Many of these problems are related to the Higgs field. By replacing the Higgs sector of the Standard Model with a new strongly coupled sector some of these problems can be solved. These new strong interactions are referred to as Technicolor interactions. In this thesis we present results from lattice studies of two concrete Technicolor models, the SO(4) fundamental Minimal Walking Technicolor (MWT) model and the SU(3) sextet MWT. After motivating this type of models by discussing some experimental constraints, we present results from our numerical investigations of their spectra. Our results disfavor the existence of an infrared fixed point in either model. This thesis also contain a presentation of our attempt to accelerate Monte Carlo simulations of lattice gauge theories, by performing the calculations on graphics processing units (GPUs). We discuss several optimizations and test the performance using as test cases SU(2) gauge theories with Wilson fermions transforming in the fundamental and adjoint representation.


Field observations were supplemented with laboratory experiments to reveal patterns of salinity selection and preference for grey snapper Lutjanus griseus (c. 21 cm total length, L T), an ecologically and economically important species in the southeastern U.S.A. Fish abundance data were examined from a long-term field survey conducted in the mangrove habitats of Biscayne Bay, Florida, where salinities ranged from <1 to 40. First, regression analyses indicated significant, positive linear relationships with salinity for both L. griseus frequency of occurrence and concentration (density when present). These patterns are inconsistent with physiological expectations of minimizing energetic osmoregulatory costs. Next, the salinity preference and swimming activity of 11 L. griseus (ranging from 18 to 23 cm L T) were investigated using a newly developed electronic shuttlebox system. In the laboratory, fish preferred intermediate salinities in the range of 9–23. Swimming activity (measured in terms of spontaneous swimming speed) followed a parabolic relationship with salinity, with reduced activity at salinity extremes perhaps reflecting compensation for higher osmoregulatory costs. It is suspected that the basis of the discrepancy between laboratory and field observations for size classes at or near maturity ultimately relates to the reproductive imperative to move towards offshore (high-salinity) coral-reef habitats, a necessity that probably overrides the strategy of minimizing osmoregulatory energetic costs.


ABSTRACT This article examines the role of India's states in shaping the implementation and framing of social policy within India's federal system. Since the 2000s, the central government has overseen a substantial expansion of social welfare policies partly through a new push toward rights-based social provision. Yet, it is India's states that are both responsible for an increasing proportion of total public expenditure on social welfare provision as well as determining the nature and effectiveness of that provision across space. Drawing on a comparative research program across pairs of Indian states, three critical factors explaining how state-level political environments shape social policy are identified: the role of policy legacies in shaping policy frames; the role of social coalitions underpinning political party competition; and the role of political leaders in strengthening state capacity to achieve program goals.


Misericord carvings present a fascinating corpus of medieval art which, in turn, complements our knowledge of life and belief in the late middle ages. Subjects range from the sacred to the profane and from the fantastic to the everyday, seemingly giving equal weight to the scatological and the spiritual alike. Focusing specifically on England - though with cognisance of broader European contexts - this volume offers an analysis of misericords in relation to other cultural artefacts of the period. Through a series of themed "case studies", the book places misericords firmly within the doctrinal and devotional milieu in which they were created and sited, arguing that even the apparently coarse images to be found beneath choir stalls are intimately linked to the devotional life of the medieval English Church. The analysis is complemented by a gazetteer of the most notable instances. Paul Hardwick is Professor in English, Leeds Trinity University College.


The authors use data from a résumé audit to estimate the impact of unemployment and underemployment on the employment prospects of recent college graduates. They find no statistical evidence linking unemployment spells of different durations to employment opportunities. By contrast, college graduates who are underemployed have callback rates that are 30% lower than those of applicants who are adequately employed. The null effects associated with unemployment and the adverse effects associated with underemployment are robust across cities with relatively tight and loose labor-market conditions. Internship experience obtained while completing one's degree substantially reduces the negative effects of underemployment. The data support the proposition that employers view underemployment as a strong signal of lower expected productivity.


Background: Tuberculosis is remains to be a major public health problem. Lifestyle factors that have been shown to influence the burden of tuberculosis. The aim of this study is to determine association of lifestyle with pulmonary tuberculosis among hospitals patients in Asir region of Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: It is a Case- control study which was conducted in the tertiary care hospital of from April 2019 to July 2019. Total 135 participants were selected through simple random sampling and sample was divided into 67 cases and 68 controls. Cases were included from hospital database and controls were selected from outpatient department of same hospital with respiratory disease other than tuberculosis. Lifestyle Factors associated with tuberculosis were analyzed using logistic regression. Results: After adjustment of covariates, the resulting factors were significant: patient with overweight and obese [OR=4.40, 95% CI 1.27-15.25 and 2.38 (1.61-9.22)], Smoker [OR=1.34, 95% CI-0.52-3.43], abnormal sleep at night ( 3 day/week) [OR=1.75, 95% CI 1.01-3.01], Besides hunger other reason (s) do you eat [OR=2.08, 95% CI-1.02-5.27], physical exercise < 3 days/week [OR= 1.41, 95% CI 1.21-3.47]. Conclusion: The result of study was found that strong association of lifestyle factors with pulmonary tuberculosis. There is need of interventions which focused on improving the quality of life of tuberculosis patients by removing the lifestyle risk factors.


Objective: To estimate the effect of 2 years of treatment with ultralow-dose transdermal estradiol (E2) on incontinence in postmenopausal women. METHODS: Ultra Low Dose Transdermal estRogen Assessment (ULTRA) was a multicenter, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of unopposed ultralow-dose (0.014 mg/d) transdermal E2 for prevention of osteoporosis in 417 postmenopausal women aged 60 to 80 years. Frequency of incontinence episodes was assessed at baseline and after 4 months and 2 years of treatment using a self-reported questionnaire. We used an intention-to-treat analysis to compare change in incontinence frequency, improved (decreased 2 or more episodes per week), unchanged (increased or decreased no more than 1 episode per week), or worsened (increased 2 or more episodes per week) between the E2 and placebo groups among women with and without at least weekly incontinence at baseline. RESULTS: At baseline, the prevalence of at least weekly incontinence was similar between E2 and placebo groups (43%). After 2 years, there was no difference between groups in the proportions of women with incontinence at baseline whose incontinence improved, worsened, or was unchanged. The odds ratio for worsening incontinence in the E2 compared with placebo group was 1.35 (95%confidence interval 0.75-2.42. In women without incontinence at baseline, the odds ratio of developing at least weekly incontinence after 2 years in the E2 compared with placebo group was not significant (odds ratio 1.2, 95%confidence interval 0.7-2.2). CONCLUSION: Two years of treatment with unopposed ultralow-dose transdermal E2 did not substantially change the frequency of incontinence symptoms or alter the risk of developing at least weekly inconti nence.


The elastic stability problems that develop when a concentrated load is applied to a frictionless joint of a framed triangulated dome were studied. They were found to be of two types: (1) bar stability problems; and (2) joint stability problems. The solutions to the first are given by the Euler critical load. The latter were investigated by developing a general expression for the axial deformation of any component member and by taking the vanishing of the first order variation of the total potential of the system as the criterion for equilibrium. The force-radial displacement relationship at the loaded joint was found to be nonlinear and the critical load was defined to be the maximum force the system can support before the loaded joint snaps-through. A general theory is proposed and two approaches to the solution, one iterative and the other involving a parabolic approximation, are presented. A method for checking the results from the snap-through problem against bar stability and against yielding, is also suggested.


Crowdsourcing is widely adopted in many domains as a popular paradigm to outsource work to individuals. In the machine learning community, crowdsourcing is commonly used as a cost-saving way to collect labels for training data. While a lot of effort has been spent on developing methods for inferring labels from a crowd, few work concentrates on the theoretical foundation of crowdsourcing learning. In this paper, we theoretically study the cost-saving effect of crowdsourcing learning, and present an upper bound for the minimally-sufficient number of crowd labels for effective crowdsourcing learning. Our results provide an understanding about how to allocate crowd labels efficiently, and are verified empirically.


We propose a new method for embedding graphs while preserving directed edge information. Learning such continuous-space vector representations (or embeddings) of nodes in a graph is an important first step for using network information (from social networks, user-item graphs, knowledge bases, etc.) in many machine learning tasks. Unlike previous work, we (1) explicitly model an edge as a function of node embeddings, and we (2) propose a novel objective, the graph likelihood, which contrasts information from sampled random walks with non-existent edges. Individually, both of these contributions improve the learned representations, especially when there are memory constraints on the total size of the embeddings. When combined, our contributions enable us to significantly improve the state-of-the-art by learning more concise representations that better preserve the graph structure. We evaluate our method on a variety of link-prediction task including social networks, collaboration networks, and protein interactions, showing that our proposed method learn representations with error reductions of up to 76% and 55%, on directed and undirected graphs. In addition, we show that the representations learned by our method are quite space efficient, producing embeddings which have higher structure-preserving accuracy but are 10 times smaller.


Theory predicts that mandated employment protections may reduce productivity by distorting production choices. Firms facing (non-Coasean) worker dismissal costs will curtail hiring below efficient levels and retain unproductive workers, both of which should affect productivity. These theoretical predictions have rarely been tested. We use the adoption of wrongful-discharge protections by U.S. state courts over the last three decades to evaluate the link between dismissal costs and productivity. Drawing on establishment-level data from the Annual Survey of Manufacturers and the Longitudinal Business Database, our estimates suggest that wrongful-discharge protections reduce employment flows and firm entry rates. Moreover, analysis of plant-level data provides evidence of capital deepening and a decline in total factor productivity following the introduction of wrongful-discharge protections. This last result is potentially quite important, suggesting that mandated employment protections reduce productive efficiency as theory would suggest. However, our analysis also presents some puzzles including, most significantly, evidence of strong employment growth following adoption of dismissal protections. In light of these puzzles, we read our findings as suggestive but tentative.


In 1995, John Maynard Smith and Eors Szathmary published their influential book The Major Transitions in Evolution. The "transitions" that Maynard Smith and Szathmary chose to describe all constituted major changes in the kinds of organisms that existed but, most important, these events also transformed the evolutionary process itself. The evolution of new levels of biological organization, such as chromosomes, cells, multicelled organisms, and complex social groups radically changed the kinds of individuals natural selection could act upon. Many of these events also produced revolutionary changes in the process of inheritance, by expanding the range and fidelity of transmission, establishing new inheritance channels, and developing more open-ended sources of variation. Maynard Smith and Szathmary had planned a major revision of their work, but the death of Maynard Smith in 2004 prevented this. In this volume, prominent scholars (including Szathmary himself) reconsider and extend the earlier book's themes in light of recent developments in evolutionary biology. The contributors discuss different frameworks for understanding macroevolution, prokaryote evolution (the study of which has been aided by developments in molecular biology), and the complex evolution of multicellularity.


The purpose of the article is to characterize the development and specific features of inflation in Russia on the basis of its theoretical justification and practical analysis. The article discusses the monetarist and Keynesian approaches to the characterization of inflation. The paper shows that the equation of exchange from the quantity theory of money, which is the basis of the monetarist theory of inflation, does not allow to make an unambiguous conclusion about the direct relationship between money supply and price level in the economy. The authors give the theoretical substantiation of cost-push inflation from the position of microeconomic theory, which is denied by the representatives of the monetarist school. We characterize the specific features of inflation in the period of market transformations in Russia. The article shows the considerable role of the cost factors of cost-push inflation: the monopolization of the economy, rise in the prices of energy and raw materials. There is an absence of the direct relationship between inflation and money supply growth in large part of the period of the 2000. The authors determine the dependence between the exchange rate and inflation in the Russian economy, which is most evident during periods of significant devaluation of the national currency, as a rule, associated with a significant increase in world oil prices. The paper notes that the significant decline in aggregate demand that occurred in Russia in recent years have reduced the level of inflation in 2016. Despite this, the reduction of inflation and its transformation to slow cost-push inflation was combined with negative consequences for the economy: the decrease of investments and production development, reduction of the living standards of the population. The authors conducted the analysis of inflation on the level of the subjects of the Russian Federation, which has confirmed the significant role of causes of cost-push inflation in the economy. The research has led to the conclusion about the appropriateness of measures on the stimulation of aggregate demand and the development of the national economy by reducing interest rates, increasing investment activity, developing competition and efficiency of antitrust regulation.


The last two volumes of Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer series are concerned with developing a theory of use. This article offers a critical assessment of the two concepts, use and form-of-life, that form the heart of this theory: how do these two notions offer a solution to the problem of bare life that forms the core of the Homo Sacer series? First, the author describes how the original problem of bare life is taken up in The Use of Bodies and how the notion of use offers an important additional characteristic of bare life. Second, inspired by Foucault's analysis of ancient Cynicism, the author discusses in which sense the type of 'solution' Agamben offers to the problem of bare life might be seen as an heir to ancient Cynicism and how this interpretation clarifies his connection of form-of-life and exile. Third, the author critically assesses the different usages of use that we can find in Agamben, by comparing how Franciscan usus, Pauline chrēsis and Platonic chrēsis are taken up in his analysis. Fourth, following Foucault, the author deepens the Platonic sense of use and its relation to taking care of justice. The article concludes with a critical assessment of Agamben's reading of Plato's myth of Er, in which the motifs of use, exile, and care are gathered.


In this article, Professor Michael Pinard observes that the recent attention devoted to the collateral consequences of criminal convictions has overlooked the ways in which these consequences impact juvenile offenders. The article recognizes the emergent arguments for informing adult defendants of these consequences as part of the guilty plea or sentencing process, and argues that juvenile defendants should also be informed of the collateral consequences that attach to their adjudications. However, the article asserts that there are ethical and logistical questions unique to the juvenile justice process that would pose difficulties in conveying this information to juveniles. These issues (or questions) include the extent to which juveniles could be expect to understand the long-term effects of these consequences, as well as the extent to which families should be involved in assessing plea bargains and other strategies in light of these consequences, some of which would possibly disrupt familial relationships. The article calls for detailed examination and analyses of these complex issues, particularly within the context of our client-focused representational system.


A prominent strain of argument and assessment in ancient texts places stones and words side-by-side for evaluation. I call this strain "the mock rock topos," exploiting the ambiguity of mock (mimic/taunt) to capture a common ancient attitude toward verbal representations, written especially: that they share certain qualities with stone and stonework but outperform them, too. The mock rock topos consists of four main sub-topoi—masterpiece, mimêsis, movement, and memory—whereby graphic rhetors assert the superiority of their products. Detractors of writers and writing often use lithic language in their criticisms as well. The practice of pairing busts of representative authors with their book-rolls in ancient libraries complicated the representation competition between stone and scroll and enhanced the cultured and cultural experience of readers in those spaces.


The aim or purpose of this study is to determine the injury profile of gymnasts in the greater Durban area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; and to compare it with the international data that are available. Factors that should be considered regarding differences in the injury profile of South African gymnasts as compared with international gymnasts include: 1. Difference in standard of gymnastics (Cameron-Smith, 2005) 2. Sudden increase in the standard of South African gymnastics in an attempt to match that of other countries, which may lead to an increase in training hours, and attempts at more risky new manoeuvres. This, in turn, may increase the risk of injury (Cameron-Smith, 2005). For the purpose of this study, the following information was gathered in terms of: - Demographics of South African gymnasts - The participants' gymnastics history - The presence of any past or current injuries, and - If present, factors relating to these injuries were investigated. This information mentioned above was gathered with the aim of helping to identify any problems that may exist, quantifying the extent of these problems and identifying to some extent the potential risk factors. This would be beneficial to South African gymnasts if recommendations for prevention of potential injuries were made, should any common injuries, or possible risk factors or associations be discovered/identified (Chadwick, 2004).