The best way to learn is by having a good teacher and the best language learning takes place when the learner is immersed in an environment where the language is natively spoken. 3D multi-user virtual worlds have been claimed to be useful for learning, and the field of exploiting them for education is becoming more and more active thanks to the availability of open source 3D multi-user virtual world development tools. The research question we wanted to respond to was whether we could deploy an engaging learning experience to foster communication skills within a 3D multi-user virtual world with minimum teacher's help. We base our instructional design on the combination of two constructivist learning strategies: situated learning and cooperative/collaborative learning. We extend the capabilities of the Open Wonderland development toolkit to provide natural text chatting with non-player characters, textual tagging of virtual objects, automatic reading of texts in learning sequences and the orchestration of learning activities to foster collaboration. Our preliminary evaluation of the experience deems it to be very promising.


Pressures of population growth, rapid urbanization, industrialization, and stress on natural resources provide new challenges to the Asian Development Bank as it strives to set forth environmental issues as an important element of sustainable economic development in the Asian and Pacific region. While the Bank can provide policy and technical guidance, the governments themselves must take the lead in providing the resources and policies needed to address effectively the rapidly changing environmental condition. How we measure the effectiveness of governmental performance in meeting the environmental challenge in Asia and the Pacific is the subject of this book. By drawing on experiences in six Asian and Pacific countries, the authors have developed a series of methodological tools to assist others in assessing the environmental quality of air, water, soil, and biological diversity in developing countries. These tools can then be used to determine the financial resources needed to achieve the quality of life characteristic of a sustainable development path.


Abstract Children around the world have been observed to assume caregiving responsibilities when a parent or other family members fall ill. Whilst the circumstances surrounding caregiving children in Anglophone countries have been looked at in detail, we know relatively little about how children in Africa experience young caregiving. This paper seeks to further our understanding of caregiving children in Africa by looking at how local constructions of childhood can facilitate their agency and resilience, paying particular attention to the role of identity and recognition. The study involved 48 caregiving children from Western Kenya who through individual interviews, photography and draw-and-write compositions articulated their experiences. The views of ten local adults have also been included. A thematic analysis revealed that caregiving children in Kenya are active participants in community life. Their participation is encouraged by local understandings of childhood and recognition of their efforts, enabling the children to construct positive identities that enhance their resilience. The paper argues that the way in which caregiving children in Kenya respond to their circumstances is influenced by a social recognition of their activities and agency. This recognition, mediated by local representations of childhood, allows the children to construct positive social identities that facilitate resilience. We conclude that there is a need for policy and practice on young caregiving, in all countries and contexts, to consider the role of social recognition and local constructions of childhood in shaping the resilience of caregiving children.


OBJECTIVES. Small size at birth is linked with metabolic and cardiovascular disease. There is increasing evidence that it is also linked with physiologic stress responses and abnormal behavior, in particular, symptoms of hyperactivity. Therefore, we investigated associations between size at birth and motor activity during psychosocial stress. METHODS. In 123 children aged 7 to 9 years, we examined the relations of birth weight, head circumference, length, and ponderal index at birth with motor activity on exposure to both stress and nonstress situations. Videos were recorded while the children performed a story and a math task in front of an audience (stress) and watched a movie (nonstress); motor activity was defined as lifting or tilting of a foot. RESULTS. Children who had had a smaller head circumference at birth demonstrated greater motor activity during the stress test. There were marked gender differences in the results. In boys, lower birth weight, head circumference, and ponderal index were associated with greater motor activity during the stress test but not associated with motor activity during the nonstress situation. The findings remained significant when potential confounding variables were controlled for. There were no associations in girls. CONCLUSIONS. The findings suggest long-term effects of an adverse fetal environment on the behavioral stress response in boys and parallel similar gender-specific effects on different stress response systems in humans and animals. The results could reflect permanent alterations of dopaminergic neurotransmission and have implications for the etiology of clinical hyperactivity.


Pseudomonas aeuroginosa is a motile, gram negative, oxidase positive bacteria, grows well on MacConkey agar media. It is a rod shaped bacteria occurring singly or in short chains, microscopically, margins of the colonies are having hook like projections. The organism is a strict aerobe, also grows readily on other common bacteriological media. The bacteria usually produces a water soluble green pigment composed of fluorescent and pyocyanin with a characteristics fruity odor. The organism is ubiquitous, often associated with soil, water and humid environment. In this case study, the organism was isolated from young chickens and dead embryos. The disease causes high mortality in newly hatched chickens and mass death of embryo at later stage. Our bacteriological results were consistence with the published literature. The experimental trial on different age groups has showed that the isolated causative agent (P. aeuroginosa) was found to be highly virulent to the young chickens (1 - 10 day old) and less pathogenic to chickens of 11 - 20 day old. The older chickens (>20 days) were found to be resistant to the infection. The agent more likely invades the host organism through wound and/or respiratory route. The organism was found to be resistant for the most common antibiotics, but it was found highly sensitive to Polymixin B and Amicacin which gave wide growth inhibition zone of 1.5 and 2 cm, respectively. Prevention of the Pseudomonas infection in the farm can be achieved by taking all the necessary bio-security measures.

 Key words:  Pseudomonas aeuroginosa, embryos, hook like projection colonies.


In India jyotiṣa, which includes mathematics, astronomy, astrology, and divination, is one of the six vedāṅgas, ancillary branches of the Vedas necessary for understanding them. The technical tradition visible today has recognisable roots in Vedic hymns and calendars dating from the late second to mid-first millennium bce. In the second century ce, however, the use of horoscopes (planetary positions at the moment of birth) to portend the fate of the individual was introduced from the classical west, thus integrating with the Vedic tradition to form a uniquely Indian astrology. Today, astrology is invariably concerned with questions of destiny, serving a variety of functions designed for people to manage the present and inquire into the future. Oftentimes, there are corresponding rituals, intended to facilitate harmonisation with the flow of time, or to amend a predicted future. This article highlights the history of astrology in India (from the Vedas through the introduction of horoscopes); its technical and interpretative procedures in light of Vedic tradition; planetary deities; temple ritual; concepts of soul, karma and time; pilgrimage (especially the Kumbha Mela); philosophical contexts (including those articulated in, and inherited from, the classical and Hellenistic world); archaeoastronomy (city design and temple architecture related to the stars); sociological contexts, political functions, and notions of world ages. Finally, it will consider colonial dynamics and the modern western adoption of Indian astrology in the context of theories of enchantment, and the postmodern in western 'alternative' spiritualities and New Age ideology.


River systems in remote environments are of- ten challenging to monitor and understand where traditional gauging apparatus are difficult to install or where safety con- cerns prohibit field measurements. In such cases, remote sensing, especially terrestrial time-lapse imaging platforms, offer a means to better understand these fluvial systems. One such environment is found at the proglacial Isortoq River in southwestern Greenland, a river with a constantly shift- ing floodplain and remote Arctic location that make gaug- ing and in situ measurements all but impossible. In order to derive relevant hydraulic parameters for this river, two true color (RGB) cameras were installed in July 2011, and these cameras collected over 10 000 half hourly time-lapse images of the river by September of 2012. Existing approaches for extracting hydraulic parameters from RGB imagery require manual or supervised classification of images into water and non-water areas, a task that was impractical for the volume of data in this study. As such, automated image filters were de- veloped that removed images with environmental obstacles (e.g., shadows, sun glint, snow) from the processing stream. Further image filtering was accomplished via a novel auto- mated histogram similarity filtering process. This similarity filtering allowed successful (mean accuracy 79.6 %) super- vised classification of filtered images from training data col- lected from just 10 % of those images. Effective width, a hy- draulic parameter highly correlated with discharge in braided rivers, was extracted from these classified images, producing a hydrograph proxy for the Isortoq River between 2011 and 2012. This hydrograph proxy shows agreement with historic flooding observed in other parts of Greenland in July 2012 and offers promise that the imaging platform and processing methodology presented here will be useful for future moni- toring studies of remote rivers.


We used estimates of yield loss from 1995 to 1999 and the reported costs and effectiveness of available control methods to provide a basis for developing a cost-effective management strategy for Belding's ground squirrels in alfalfa in northern California. Mean annual losses varied between US$110/ha and US$300/ha of alfalfa. Growers usually spend less than US$25/ha on control methods that are implemented haphazardly and provide poor control. We suggest that growers can afford to spend more on control methods such as burrow fumigation or exclusion fencing that previously have been viewed as being too expensive. Control efforts should be focused on new fields supporting low-density populations.


In this paper, three different unit cells are designed on the basis split-ring-cross resonators, and each unit cell has an absorption rate greater than 90% at incident angles of 0°, 30°, and 45°, respectively. They are non-periodically placed in three different zones on the curved surface. Therefore, the proposed conformal metamaterial absorber can achieve a high absorption rate. The performance of the proposed absorber is compared with that of a metallic curved surface and a conformal metamaterial absorber with the same unit cells.


Notwithstanding adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change, mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions appears unlikely to achieve the stated goal of limiting the mean global temperature increase to 2°C. Under many scenarios, achieving this goal would require not only vigorous mitigation efforts, but also the deployment of carbon dioxide removal technologies or solar geoengineering. While serious consideration of solar geoengineering remains fraught with peril, the use of carbon dioxide removal to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it elsewhere appears increasingly likely. Carbon dioxide removal techniques generally would have to be undertaken on a massive scale to be effective. However, the techniques are not ready for deployment, and their widespread use would impact land use, biodiversity, food security, water availability, and other resources. Such impacts demand greater attention to managing carbon dioxide removal efforts and their effects. The Paris Agreement does not directly mention carbon dioxide removal, however, and relatively little attention has been directed toward carbon dioxide removal governance thus far. This Article explores key issues of carbon dioxide removal governance, such as promoting the generation of information, mainstreaming carbon dioxide removal into public and policy discussions, and furthering carbon dioxide removal development while avoiding lock-in of suboptimal technologies.


Single-cell genomics is a powerful tool for determining the genetic structure of complex communities of unicellular organisms. Patients infected with the malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, often carry multiple, genetically distinct parasites. Little is known about the diversity and relatedness of these lineages. We have developed an improved single-cell genomics protocol to reconstruct individual haplotypes from infections, a necessary step in uncovering parasite ecology within the host. This approach captures singly-infected red blood cells (iRBCs) by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) prior to whole genome amplification (WGA) and whole genome sequencing (WGS). Here, we demonstrate that parasites in late cell cycle stages, which contain increased DNA content, are far superior templates for generating high quality genomic data. Targeting of these cells routinely generates near-complete capture of the 23Mb P. falciparum genome (mean breadth of coverage 90.7%) at high efficiency. We used this approach to analyze the genomes of 48 individual cells from a polyclonal malaria infection sampled in Chikhwawa, Malawi. This comprehensive dataset enabled high-resolution estimation of the clonality and the relatedness of parasite haplotypes within the infection, long-standing problems in malaria biology.


The recent IEEE 802.15.4 standard offers a promising platform for wireless sensor networks. Among the main problems in many sensor network applications is the problem of ensuring the desired quality of service, expressed as the mean data rate obtained from a specific spatial area, while simultaneously maximizing the lifetime of the network. In this work we consider the feasibility of duty cycle management as the vehicle to achieve these goals. We consider the IEEE 802.15.4 network in beacon enabled mode, and analyze its performance under two duty cycle management algorithms. Both algorithms are fully distributed, i.e., the nodes autonomously control their sleep period according to local information only. In the first algorithm, the sleep period is a geometrically distributed random variable with a given mean value; in the second, the sleep period is inversely proportional to the most recent duration of the packet service time. We model and evaluate both policies using the theory of discrete time Markov chains and M/G/1/K queues with vacations, where geometrically distributed sleep periods are modeled as server vacations. We found that both policies are capable of achieving almost 100% reliability and less than 1% utilization under a wide range of packet arrival rates and network size.


This article reviews the operative provisions of Part IIIA and examines their implementation to date. The article begins by tracing the development of the 'essential facilities doctrine' (a judicial response to the essential facilities problem) in the United States. With that discussion as background, Australia's decision to enact a separate regime to govern access to essential facilities is then explained. This is followed by a detailed consideration of the legislative requirements of Part IIIA, together with an analysis of recent access proceedings. The article ends on a positive note, concluding that, with some streamlining of regulatory function, the access regime is set to fulfil its intended role in National Competition Policy.


Aim: To report the clinical profile of non-strabismic binocular vision anomalies (NSBVA) in patients with asthenopia in North-East India. Materials and methods: A hospital based study was conducted on 131 patients from age group 10-40 years attending the vision therapy clinic. Patients were divided into the age groups 10-20 years, 21-30 years and 31-40 years. A detailed orthoptic evaluation was carried out including sensory and motor testing and a diagnosis was made comparing various orthoptic parameters of the particular patients. Results: Of the 131 patients, 81 were female and 50 were male. The number of patients was 62 in the 10-20 years age group, 49 in 21-30 years age group and 20 in 31-40 years age group. The prevalence of NSBVA in age group 10-20 years was 69.35%, 21-30 years was 67.35% and 31-40 years was 50.00%. It was observed that the most common NSBVA was convergence insufficiency across all age groups followed by accommodative insufficiency and convergence excess. Conclusion: Early detection of NSBVA is important because these deviations may decompensate without treatment and become strabismic resulting in loss of stereopsis and development of suppression. Early detection and treatment provides best opportunity for academic success in school going age groups.


By contemplating on the Eigenchair project, we ponder upon strategies and concepts of designing by using information technologies. What are the potentials of data driven design? What happens with objects when they are abstracted and reduced to a set of data? The emphasis is no longer on the creation of physical objects, but on conceiving meta-objects in the possibility space. Furthermore, this enables us to manipulate with a whole population of objects, instead of a single object. How do we get this abstract system to relate to the real world? Information technologies have opened up a number of new ways of thinking about the world and the object and they, by far, surpassed the formally simplified expression in design and architecture. Based on intellectual heritage of history and culture, information technologies can, by utilizing and recycling various elements and information, explore the 21st century object.


In this classic work of American religious history, Robert Middlekauff traces the evolution of Puritan thought and theology in America from its origins in New England through the early eighteenth century. He focuses on three generations of intellectual ministers - Richard, Increase, and Cotton Mather - in order to challenge the traditional telling of the secularization of Puritanism, a story of faith transformed by reason, science, and business. Delving into the Mathers' private papers and unpublished writings as well as their sermons and published works, Middlekauff describes a Puritan theory of religious experience that is more creative, complex, and uncompromising than traditional accounts have allowed. At the same time, he portrays changing ideas and patterns of behavior that reveal much about the first hundred years of American life.


Literature data on the effect of water radiolysis products on spent-fuel oxidation and dissolution are reviewed. Effects of gamma radiolysis, alpha radiolysis, and dissolved O2 or H2O2 in unirradiated solutions are discussed separately. Also, the effect of carbonate in gamma-irradiated solutions and radiolysis effects on leaching of spent fuel are reviewed. In addition, a kinetic model for calculating the corrosion rates of UO2 in solutions undergoing radiolysis is discussed. The model gives good agreement between calculated and measured corrosion rates in the case of gamma radiolysis and in unirradiated solutions containing dissolved oxygen or hydrogen peroxide. However, the model fails to predict the results of alpha radiolysis. In a recent study, it was shown that the model gave good agreement with measured corrosion rates of spent fuel exposed in deionized water. The applications of radiolysis studies for geologic disposal of used nuclear fuel are discussed.


To improve the dynamic performances of the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drive, a novel implementation of speed controller based on adaptive fuzzy logic is presented in this paper. Using the output of the fuzzy speed controller (FC), the quadrature axis current reference value can be obtained. At the same time, the outputs of the current controller can be corrected by the disturbance voltage observer's outputs. Results of simulation are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme under the occurrence of parameter variations and external disturbance.


The story of Central Europe is anything but simple. As the region located between East and West, it has always been endowed with a rich variety of migrants, and has repeatedly been the scene of nomadic invasions, mixed settlements and military conquests. In order to present a portrait of Central Europe, Norman Davies and Roger Moorhouse have made a case study of one of its most colourful cities, the former German Breslau, which became the Polish Wroclaw after the Second World War. The traditional capital of the province of Silesia rose to prominence a thousand years ago as a trading centre and bishopric in Piast Poland. It became the second city of the kingdom of Bohemia, a major municipality of the Habsburg lands, and then a Residenzstadt of the kingdom of Prussia. The third largest city of nineteenth-century Germany, its population reached one million before the bitter siege by the Soviet Army in 1945 wrought almost total destruction. Since then Wroclaw has risen from the ruins of war and is once again a thriving regional centre. The history of Silesia's main city is more than a fascinating tale in its own right. It embodies all the experiences which have made Central Europe what it is - a rich mixture of nationalities and cultures; the scene of German settlement and of the reflux of the Slavs; a Jewish presence of exceptional distinction; a turbulent succession of imperial rulers; and the shattering exposure to both Nazis and Stalinists. In short, it is a Central European microcosm.


Living in a town overrun with arsonists, the good but naive Gottlieb Biedermann simply wants to live an ordinary life, bother no one and stay clear of issues. But things veer from the ordinary when he and his doltish wife let in a couple of strangers who have spurious credentials and rather crude personalities. When the "guests" suspiciously start filling the attic with petrol drums, Biedermann, attempting to avoid the issue, even helps them wire the fuse. The Arsonists is a witty and dazzling parable about accommodating the very thing that will destroy you.


We present a study of the spatial distribution of the stellar cluster populations in the star-forming galaxy NGC 628. Using Hubble Space Telescope broadband WFC3/UVIS UV and optical images from the Treasury Program LEGUS (Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey), we have identified 1392 potential young ( ≲ 100 ?> Myr) stellar clusters within the galaxy using a combination of visual inspection and automatic selection. We investigate the clustering of these young stellar clusters and quantify the strength and change of clustering strength with scale using the two-point correlation function. We also investigate how image boundary conditions and dust lanes affect the observed clustering. The distribution of the clusters is well fit by a broken power law with negative exponent α. We recover a weighted mean index of &agr; ∼ − 0.8 ?> for all spatial scales below the break at 3.″3 (158 pc at a distance of 9.9 Mpc) and an index of &agr; ∼ − 0.18 ?> above 158 pc for the accumulation of all cluster types. The strength of the clustering increases with decreasing age and clusters older than 40 Myr lose their clustered structure very rapidly and tend to be randomly distributed in this galaxy, whereas the mass of the star cluster has little effect on the clustering strength. This is consistent with results from other studies that the morphological hierarchy in stellar clustering resembles the same hierarchy as the turbulent interstellar medium.


Scholarly and scientific communication has a long history, while the Open Access (OA) movement began to take part in this communication with the emergence of Internet in the late 1960s and the web that emerged in mid-1990s. OA is beneficial for sharing knowledge because the OA movement demands scholarly literature freely available on the internet and it is free of most licensing restriction copyright. OA will close the barrier of access to knowledge. The OA movement in Indonesia may be considered slow. So far, only 33 academic libraries have registered their repositories with OpenDOAR, which is still small compared to the total number of HE institutions in Indonesia. Those 33 OARs vary in the stages of development. Some have already had large size of contents, while others are still developing. Using Weiner's theory of organizational readiness for change, this mixed method investigates the readiness of academic librarians for Open Access Repository implementation. The results show that academic librarians in Indonesia are somewhat familiar with OA and OAR. However, their understanding of OA is still limited to the technical nature of it. They also know the benefits of OA in relation to scholarly communication and are ready to implement OAR, but the implementation was mostly based on the goal of achieving a specific rank in the world-class university ranking and Webometrics. They implemented Open Access Repositories with limited technological infrastructure, skills, and limited knowledge of OA.


Introduction: MIF is an inflammatory cytokine which has a remarkable array of functions, including immune, metabolic and angiogenic effects. There is substantial evidence linking MIF to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functions, with MIF hypothesised to counter-regulate the anti-inflammatory actions of glucocorticoids (GC) at least partially by reducing the GC-sensitivity of immune cells. There is also evidence that changes in MIF are part of the well-established bidirectional links between psychological stress factors and dysregulation of inflammatory systems and HPA function. In professional athletes there is a unique combination of both physical and psychosocial stress which has been hypothesised to include immune dysfunction. The current study examined the association between indicators of physical and psychosocial stress on changes in MIF across a competitive season in professional rugby league players. Methods: Players (n=29) from a Sydney National Rugby League club participated in the study from February – August 2012. MIF was analysed in resting blood samples taken at least 24 hrs after the most recent exercise bout on six occasions approximately 1 month apart, with the first (baseline) sample taken prior to season start. From the same time points, data from standardised wellness questions was extracted from player diaries. Results: A significant effect of Time was observed in MIF levels (p<.001), with a nadir at time 4 (May), and no difference between baseline and final samples (Feb-Aug). To determine salient associations, change in MIF from baseline to time 4 was calculated, and found to be negatively associated with the change over the same time period in stress/mood, sleep and muscle soreness, such that better mood, sleep quality and less muscle soreness were associated with lower levels of MIF. Conclusion: The current findings provide evidence that in a highly physically fit cohort, inflammatory markers are associated with indicators of both physical and psychosocial stress. MIF appears to be a reactive marker associated with stress and deserves further attention. Further, it may be important for athlete preparation to determine sleep and psychosocial stress influences on the homeostasis of inflammatory stress through GC function.


Recovering from the recent death of his wife in a cliff fall, Tony Sheridan goes to stay with her sister and her husband at their house in Rutland. The house, called Otherways, is in some senses a character in the story: a strange, circular, moted construction dating from Edwardian times. Disturbed by memories of his wife and a growing attraction to her sister, and troubled by vivid dreams, Sheridan learns that a murder committed at the house in 1939 still has resonances for those living in the neighbourhood, including the sister of the murdered woman. There is a scandal surrounding the murderer's brother, and enough hints of other mysteries to forewarn Sheridan of impending disaster as he embarks on a secret affair. But that disaster is far worse than a friendship betrayed. Its nature is revealed by the ghosts that have haunted Otherways over the years - of whom he comes to fear that he may be one himself.


Abstract : The purpose of this report is to communicate status, progress, lessons learned, and results on a joint collaboration between the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) and Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). The collaboration is referred to as Team Software Process Integration (TSPI). This report describes the progress and performance of extending the Team Software Process (TSP) to systems engineering as a pilot project with the AV8B Systems Engineering Team. Early results of applying TSPI suggest some encouraging trends. The motivation for assembling this report is to share lessons and experiences with other industry and government organizations interested in applying TSP in a non-software setting. The TSPI effort leverages the SEI Personal Software ProcessSM (PSPSM) and Team Software ProcessSM (TSPSM) research and body of practice. Projects that have adopted these methods have shown a dramatic increase in product quality as well as increased fidelity to their schedule and effort estimates. The methods are supported by a doctrine that trains and sustains performance and quality improvement in organizations.


This thesis is concerned with problems of variable selection, influence of sample size and
related issues in the applications of various techniques of exploratory multivariate
analysis (in particular, correspondence analysis, biplots and canonical correspondence
analysis) to archaeology and ecology. Data sets (both published and new) are used to
illustrate these methods and to highlight the problems that arise - these practical
examples are returned to throughout as the various issues are discussed. Much of the
motivation for the development of the methodology has been driven by the needs of the
archaeologists providing the data, who were consulted extensively during the study.
The first (introductory) chapter includes a detailed description of the data sets examined
and the archaeological background to their collection. Chapters Two, Three and Four
explain in detail the mathematical theory behind the three techniques. Their uses are
illustrated on the various examples of interest, raising data-driven questions which
become the focus of the later chapters. The main objectives are to investigate the
influence of various design quantities on the inferences made from such multivariate
techniques. Quantities such as the sample size (e.g. number of artefacts collected), the
number of categories of classification (e.g. of sites, wares, contexts) and the number of
variables measured compete for fixed resources in archaeological and ecological
applications. Methods of variable selection and the assessment of the stability of the
results are further issues of interest and are investigated using bootstrapping and
procrustes analysis. Jack-knife methods are used to detect influential sites, wares,
contexts, species and artefacts.
Some existing methods of investigating issues such as those raised above are applied and
extended to correspondence analysis in Chapters Five and Six. Adaptions of them are
proposed for biplots in Chapters Seven and Eight and for canonical correspondence
analysis in Chapter Nine. Chapter Ten concludes the thesis.


Oligopeptides and low molecular weight polypeptides play central roles as effectors and signal transducers acting as hormones, neurotransmitters, growth factors, toxins, and antimicrobial factors that are important for the survival of the organism. Owing to the ubiquitous involvement of peptides in many key regulatory processes, we have been interested to identify native peptides in different cells and tissues and understand their functions. To conduct our studies, we used avian macrophages and heterophils as models of specialized cells which constitute central components of innate immunity. These studies involved (a) qualitative identification and characterization of the peptides associated with high intensity mass spectral peaks in macrophage and heterophil and (b) the quantitative changes in those peptides under immunomodulating effects of toll-like receptor (TLR) activators. The work presented here describes the identification of thymosin beta 4 (Tβ4), an actin binding peptide, in macrophages and its modulation under TLR activation. This dissertation also includes identification of mature avian beta defensin 2 (AvBD2), an antimicrobial peptide in heterophils of 4 different avian species (chicken, turkey, pheasant and quail) and its modulation in chicken heterophils under


In 1891, Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) traveled to Tahiti in an effort to live simply and to draw inspiration from what he saw as the island's exotic native culture. Although the artist was disappointed by the rapidly westernizing community he encountered, his works from this period nonetheless celebrate the myth of an untainted Tahitian idyll, a myth he continued to perpetuate upon his return to Paris. He created a travel journal entitled Noa Noa (fragrant scent), a largely fictionalized account that recalled his immersion into the spiritual world of the South Seas. To illustrate his text, Gauguin turned for the first time to the woodcut medium, creating a series of ten dark and brooding prints that he intended to publish alongside his journal-a publication that was never realized. The woodcuts crystallized important themes from his work and are the focus of this major new study. Gauguin's Paradise Remembered addresses both the artist's representation of Tahiti in the woodcut medium and the impact these works had on his artistic practice. Through its combined sense of immediacy (in the apparent directness of the printing process) and distance (through the mechanical repetition of motifs), the woodcut offered Gauguin the ideal medium to depict a paradise whose real attraction lay in its remaining always unattainable. With two insightful essays, this book posits that Gauguin's Noa Noa prints allowed him to convey his deeply Symbolist conception of his Tahitian experience while continuing his experiments with reproductive processes and other technical innovations that engaged him at the time.


Abstract This study used self-report data from 4642 adult male jail inmates to test the hypothesis that inmates with co-occurring serious mental illnesses (SMIs) and substance use disorders (SUDs) (i.e. co-occurring disorders) would report having been officially charged for assaulting staff or inmates more often than inmates without co-occurring disorders. Negative binomial regression indicated that relative to inmates with neither SMI nor SUDs, assault charges were most likely to be reported by inmates with co-occurring SMI and substance abuse, co-occurring SMI and substance dependence, and only substance abuse, respectively (ps ≤ .01). Having been charged with assault was also strongly associated with assault victimization before and while incarcerated (ps ≤ .05). This article concludes with recommendations for jail policies and future research.


Human exposure to hyperbaric pressure occurs while diving and during hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Hypobaric exposures occur on commercial plane flights where the cabin pressure equals about 2438.4 meters (8000 feet); however, professional aviators, particularly military personnel, mountain climbers, research subjects, and astronauts are exposed to much greater extremes in low-pressure environments. The two main concerns about hypobaric exposure relate to absolute pressure upon the human body and the total oxygen available to the body.An understanding of the gas laws is foundational to understanding how pressure changes affect humans. The gas laws describe the relationship between temperature, volume, and pressure for a given amount of gas. For example, Charle's law states that for a given pressure, the volume is proportional to the temperature. Therefore, a gas expands when heated as long as the pressure is allowed to remain the same. However, if gas cannot expand such as when trapped inside the middle ear or a nasal sinus, the pressure will increase. For a given volume the pressure will vary with the temperature of the gas. The thermoregulatory system in the human body does not typically allow for more than a few degrees Celcius variance in body temperature. Boyle's law states that for a given temperature the volume is inversely proportional to the pressure. This law explains why sinuses or middle ear (which are normally fixed volume gas-filled spaces) may hurt when during altitude or pressure changes. Finally, Dalton's law notes the total pressure of a mixture of gases equals the partial pressure exerted by each gas. This concept is important given that the air humans breathe is a mixed gas of nitrogen (approximately 78%), oxygen (approximately 21%), and trace other gases.If the human body is exposed to a low enough absolute pressure, then surface fluids (tear film, saliva, and the air-exposed surface of alveoli) will begin to boil at normal body temperature. This occurs at around an altitude of 60,000 feet (approximately 11.4 miles or 18.3 kilometers) depending on exact atmospheric conditions. This altitude has been named "Armstrong's limit" or "Armstrong's line" and is named after an early American aerospace medicine physician, Harry G. Armstrong. When blood boils, this is called "ebullism" and is the trapping of gases released from blood under the skin. Ebullism is painful but recoverable to full function as human experience has shown.Reduced oxygen levels in the body can occur for various reasons. Hypoxia is the general term for low oxygen content in the blood or at the tissue level. Hypoxic hypoxia is hypoxia secondary to low alveolar oxygen exchange in the lungs and can be caused by either a low oxygen availability or due to low surface area for the gas exchange. In this article, "hypoxia" means hypoxic hypoxia due to low oxygen availability in the environment. While the percentage of oxygen remains a constant 21% as one increases in elevation, the total pressure of oxygen decreases because the total pressure of all gases combined decreases. The barometric pressure at sea level is around 760 mm Hg with some variation depending on the weather. Therefore at sea level, oxygen is only 21% of that total or 160mm Hg. Inside the lungs and alveoli, the temperature remains approximately 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit). As one ascends in altitude, the total atmospheric pressure goes down which necessarily means the oxygen available for breathing goes down as well.While there is some variation from person to person, the effects of hypoxia are accepted to begin at 3048 meters (10,000 feet). These effects include reduced light reception and decreased ability to distinguish colors. As a person ascends in altitude, their body compensates with increased depth of respiration, increased rate of respiration, and increased heart rate in an attempt to maintain oxygen delivery to the tissues. Further ascent leads to extreme fatigue and reduced mental capacity. Exposure to atmospheric conditions in approximately 7620 to 10,363 meters (25,000 to about 34,000 feet) results in death if supplemental oxygen is not used. Under 34,000 ft 100% oxygen in a tight-fitting mask will deliver near ground level oxygen to the tissues. Pressure suits or pressurized cockpits must be used beyond this level to maintain near sea level oxygenation to the tissues.


Nonpoint or diffuse pollutants represent a major cause of water-quality degradation of rivers, estuaries, lakes, and reservoirs and have become increasingly significant in countries where point sources of pollution are largely controlled. Nonpoint sources cause eutrophication, oxygen depletion, sedimentation, acidification, and salinization in receiving water bodies, introduce pathogenic organisms and other pollutants, and through shock loads of pollutants, cause mortality and morbidity of aquatic organisms. The major sources of nonpoint pollution include agriculture, silviculture, construction, and urban runoff.

The potential effects of nonpoint source pollutants on receiving water may be evaluated using water-quality models. A recommended procedure is to: 1) establish study objective and constraints; 2) determine pollutant interactions; 3) perform a screening analysis; and 4) select a water-quality model and complete the analysis. In the screening analysis, simple analytical tools are used to evaluate the potential severity of impacts and the time scales at which impacts occur. We describe a screening-level model that evaluates the response to a conceptual spike load of unit strength. Water-quality models may be either relatively simple analytical models or more complex numerical models. For many situations, an analytical model will provide sufficient analysis of a problem and no further evaluation is required. For more complex problems, numerical water-quality models can provide a detailed and rigorous analysis.

Analytical models are available to describe a variety of pollutant and receiving water situations. We describe models for the following: streams and rivers -- simple conservative and nonconservative pollutant inflows, probabilistically described conservative pollutant inflows, biochemical oxygen demand and dissolved oxygen, suspended sediment, and adsorptive micropollutants; lakes and reservoirs -- nutrient loading (eutrophication), and micropollutant loading; and estuaries -- nonconservative pollutant inflows. A table of available numerical models and their applicability and capabilities is also provided.

A case study of Lake Balaton, Hungary -- which formed the subject of a major policy oriented research of IIASA and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences at the late seventies, early eighties -- illustrates the procedure for assessing nonpoint source pollutant impacts. Lake Balaton is a large but shallow lake which is experiencing water-quality degradation due to nutrient inflows and consequent eutrophication. Approximately 70% of the nutrient load comes from nonpoint sources. The largest single load is the inflow from the Zala River which varies over time with precipitation. Analysis of historical data shows that a monthly time scale should be used to capture the effects of this variability on the response in the most western, hypertrophic basin of Lake Balaton. Analysis with the unit-load screening model illustrates that short time scales must be considered to evaluate the response to nonpoint source loads of the Zala River itself while much longer time scales, on the order of a year, suffice for evaluating the response of the entire lake.


The level of interest and participation in voluntourism has progressively become a major sector in contemporary tourism. The notion of combining a novel and pleasurable tourism experience with the fulfillment of contributing a worthwhile cause whilst on vacation has drawn voluntourists towards a myriad of volunteer tourism programs and sites around the world. This study investigates the profile of wildlife voluntourists, based on the dimensions of volunteerism habits and experiences, volunteer activity and site selection criteria, pre-trip preparations and expectations, evaluation of satisfaction, depth of transformative learning and experience. Roo Gully Wildlife Sanctuary in Boyup Brook, Western Australia and its international volunteers were the focus-population utilized in this study. The study revealed several key issues and dimensions of wildlife voluntourism that were prevalent yet divergent from other studies on voluntourism. In particular, the discussion focuses on elements and constituents conducive to transformative learning and suggests an enhanced conceptual model of transformative learning that may be applied for future research and suggestions for more effectual learning outcomes and experiences for volunteers.


Monte Carlo sampling for Bayesian posterior inference is a common approach used in machine learning. The Markov chain Monte Carlo procedures that are used are often discrete-time analogues of associated stochastic differential equations (SDEs). These SDEs are guaranteed to leave invariant the required posterior distribution. An area of current research addresses the computational benefits of stochastic gradient methods in this setting. Existing techniques rely on estimating the variance or covariance of the subsampling error, and typically assume constant variance. In this article, we propose a covariance-controlled adaptive Langevin thermostat that can effectively dissipate parameter-dependent noise while maintaining a desired target distribution. The proposed method achieves a substantial speedup over popular alternative schemes for large-scale machine learning applications.


Background: Welsh onion belongs to genus allium. Although its medicinal benefit such as cold prevention is well known by tradition, the underlying mechanism and active components have never been elucidated. The recent study revealed that Welsh onion mucus enhances tumor necrosis factor-α and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 production from RAW 264 cells and natural killer (NK) cell activity in murine spleen cells. This mucilage was abundant in the leaf blade of Welsh onion. Thus, we investigated the effect of Welsh onion green leaf extract (GLE) on immune competence in the human clinical trial. Methods: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted. Fifty-five healthy subjects were enrolled after the screening based on NK cell activity, and each sample (placebo, low-dose GLE or high-dose GLE) was supplemented for four weeks. The immune competence activity was evaluated through the primary endpoints that were NK cell activity and the score of immunological vigor (SIV). The SIV was calculated from lymphocyte subset analysis by flow cytometry method.Results: NK cell activity was enhanced in all supplemented groups including placebo, especially, it was significant in both GLE groups. The result of immune score showed that the immunity of high-dose GLE group did not change although it was significantly lowered in placebo group (p<0.01), suggesting that GLE ameliorated the immunity suppression. In addition, when SIV was compared between pre- and post-intake, the ratios of the improved subjects in two GLE groups were higher than that of placebo group while those of the aggravated subjects showed the opposite result. In particular, they were remarkable in high-dose GLE group.Conclusion: These results suggest that the intake of low- or high-dose GLE might positively regulate immune competence.Keywords: welsh onion, immunity, natural killer cell, clinical trial


Introduction: Intravenous (IV) iron which is a potent pro-oxidant may decrease the phagocytic function of neutrophils and subsequently leads to repeated bacterial infections in patients on chronic regular hemodialysis (HD).Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the effect of IV iron dextran versus iron sucrose on oxidative burst activity of neutrophils in HD patients.Patients and Methods: A crossover study was included 20 prevalent HD patients were randomly divided into two groups; 10 patients each. Each group received a single dose of 100 mg iron sucrose or iron dextran then shifted to the other type after 4 weeks as a washout period. Patients with evidence of acute infections, diabetes mellitus, chronic liver disease, active collagen disease or any other acquired immune deficiency diseases were excluded. Patients on immunosuppressive drugs or with hypersensitivity to iron therapy or evidence of iron overload (TSAT > 50% and/or ferritin > 800 ng/mL) were also excluded. Erythropoietin maintenance dose was given to all patients. Urea reduction ratio (URR %), C-reactive protein (CRP) titer, complete blood picture and iron study were conducted. Neutrophil oxidative burst test was performed by flow-cytometry with an estimation of stimulation index before and after IV iron dosage. Results: Twenty patients (9 males, 11 females; mean age 49.40 ± 9.02 years) on chronic HD for a mean time of 10 ± 7.32 years. After 100 mg of IV iron infusion in HD patients, a highly significant difference in oxidative burst test of neutrophil cells before and after administration of iron regardless of its type was detected (P < 0.01). This change over time is not significantly different between two types of iron (P > 0.05). However, a significant increase in CRP titer after administration of iron dextran was seen (P = 0.016). Conclusion: Maintenance dosage of either IV iron sucrose or iron dextran (100 mg) had a hazardous effect on the neutrophilic phagocytosis demonstrated by the significant rise in the oxidative burst index in HD patients.


From the 1970s to the early 2000s, the United States experienced an epochal wave of low-skilled immigration. Since the Great Recession, however, U.S. borders have become a far less active place when it comes to the net arrival of foreign workers. The number of undocumented immigrants has declined in absolute terms, while the overall population of low-skilled, foreign-born workers has remained stable. We examine how the scale and composition of low-skilled immigration in the United States have evolved over time, and how relative income growth and demographic shifts in the Western Hemisphere have contributed to the recent immigration slowdown. Because major source countries for U.S. immigration are now seeing and will continue to see weak growth of the labor supply relative to the United States, future immigration rates of young, low-skilled workers appear unlikely to rebound, whether or not U.S. immigration policies tighten further.


Background: Women leaders within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in South Africa have increased in numbers over the past years and they have changed the dynamics in these institutions. Yet, it is a subject that has hardly been explored from the perspective of women leaders. Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of women leaders in HEIs from a systems psychodynamic perspective using the conflict, identity, boundaries, authority, roles, task (CIBART) model, a well-researched model to analyse systems psychodynamics and to gain a deeper understanding of (un)conscious dynamics within organisations. Methods: This qualitative study is based on Dilthey's modern hermeneutics. Interviews were conducted with 23 women leaders from the Higher Education Resource Services South Africa, network across 8 HEIs. Observations were conducted in one organisation to support the data analysis and interpretation. Data were analysed through content analysis. Findings: Findings show that women leaders re-evaluate and reconstruct themselves constantly within organisations. This continuous re-evaluation and reconstruction become visible through the constructs of the CIBART model. The findings reveal deeper insights into systems psychodynamics, which considers anxiety within the system where women leaders seem to contain such anxiety by mobilising specific defence mechanisms. Certain diversity markers, such as race, gender, mother tongue, position within the organisation and generational belonging play a role in creating the dynamics. Women leaders' experience of de-authorisation and role confusion impacts significantly on women leadership and their action towards ownership. Practical implications: The study provides new, valuable and context-specific insights into women leadership seen through the lens of the CIBART model, highlighting unconscious dynamics that need practical attention in the HEIs to empower women leaders for gender-specific leadership training. Originality or value: Findings provide a foundation for future research on women leaders and applied solutions to empower women leaders, whilst reducing anxiety within the system. The study provides complex insights, which should create increasing awareness in women leaders towards being containers of anxiety and creating new ways of empowered women leadership.


Social Cognitive Theory can address appropriate health and wellness change initiatives via the education of groups. Individualized and group action plans can be created and developed to address the overall health and wellness needs of families. This model and theory can assist in the education of preventing disease through health promotion and education and from a naturopathy perspective. In addition, this model can assist in the development of health educational programs to understand and explain health behaviors and choices families make. The model can guide useful strategies and educational tools with in-person or online instructional modules.


For students eagerly planning their debutante fling in that great ballroom called Academic Research, it is important to know something about the varied dance steps that they will encounter-everything from the measured solemnity of the social science minuet to the Duncanesque mysteries of feminist free-form. It is wise for neophytes to be nimble on their toes, for an awkward dancer risks social disgrace. The editors have done us all a favor by including certain dances and excluding others. In particular, there is the glaring absence of the unbalanced gyrations of the deconstructionists, critical theorists and other postmodern dervishes. And, as Gilbert and Sullivan have it, "They'll none of them be missed." Especially not in a book of this sort, which must have novice researchers in mind as part of its readership. It is always good educational practice to initiate learners into a field with the most typical and coherent instances of whatever one is studying. When studying mammals it is sensible to save the platypus until last. The contents of this book will be useful to anyone wishing to do research in art education. With only a few exceptions the prose style of the essays is of good quality. What emerges from a reading is the absence of an over-arching strategy for art education research and the lack of a consensus as to what vital questions the field must address. But this lack of consensus is not a unique feature of research in art education. For example a comparable lack can be observed in the allied field of psychological research into creativity (Pariser, 1993). I will give the flavor of this collection by touching on a couple of key chapters. For beginning researchers, a logical starting point might be Koroscik and Kowalchuk's very helpful chapter on decoding and critiquing journal articles. The authors give broad outlines of four sorts of scholarly articles and then they offer a methodical analysis of two empirical studies. (Both studies are found in full in an appendix). I used this chapter as a text in a graduate research methods class and most students found it very helpful. Two comments: The authors analyze research projects with which they are closely connected (the work of Koroscik is referred to in both projectsand she is a co-investigator in one of them). As the world of research in art education is small, it was probably wise rather than simply self-serving for the authors to choose work with which they are associated. Obviously, they stand behind their own research and in dissecting it, they run no risk of offending anyone. The analysis offered is balanced, without being either scathing or lopsidedly laudatory. A second point: Among the several helpful charts dealing with types of research, the authors present one on p.83 that distinguishes between "descriptive studies" (naturalistic) and "predictive studies"(experimental). The authors identify descriptive studies as those that ask the question "What is?" while predictive studies supposedly ask "What could be?" When members of my class read this we felt that this distinction was not helpful. For surely both experimental and naturalistic studies are concerned with investigating "What is." Both named approaches have, as their goal the creation of an articulated and credible representation of some piece of the world. Thus, the identified goals of these two sorts of research suggest a difference in objectives where none exists. This is not to deny the very real differences between naturalistic and experimental studies-it is just to suggest that both sorts of research do have at least one aim in common; namely the description of "what is." Wilson's introductory chapter on research as a "second search" is a stimulating, if less methodical essay. Wilson makes it clear that, above all else, research should be driven by questions, not methodologies. This observation alone constitutes an important guidepost to novice researchers who all too often may be dazzled by the techniques and methods that they have learned to use, without formulating a question worthy of the name. …


Abstract. Small, aerial objects are now being utilised in many areas of civil object capture and monitoring. As a rule, the standard application of a simple GPS receiver with code solutions serves the 3D-positioning of the trajectories or recording positions. Without GPS correction information, these can be calculated at an accuracy of 10–20 metres. Corrected code solutions (DGPS) generally lie in the metre range. A precise 3D-positioning of the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) trajectories in the centimetre range provides significant improvements. In addition, the recording time of each sensor can be synchronized with the exact time stamp of the GNSS low-cost system. In recent years, increasing works on positioning from L1 GPS raw data have been published. Along with this, the carrier phase measurements with the established evaluation algorithms are analysed in the post processing method to centimetre-exact positions or to high-precision 3D trajectories [e.g. Schwieger and Glaser, 2005 or Korth and Hofmann 20011]. The use of reference information from local reference stations or a reference network serves the purpose of carrier phase ambiguity resolution. Furthermore, there are many activities worldwide in the area of PPP techniques (Precise Point Positioning). However, dual frequency receivers are primarily used in this instance. Moreover, very long initialisation times must be scheduled for this. A research project on the subject of low-cost RTK GNSS was developed for real-time applications at the Beuth Hochschule fur Technik Berlin University of Applied Sciences [Stempfhuber 2012]. The overall system developed for the purpose of real-time applications with centimetre accuracy is modularly constructed and can be used for various applications ( http://prof.beuthhochschule.de/stempfhuber/seite-publikation/ ). With hardware costing a few hundred Euro and a total weight of 500–800 g (including the battery), this system is ideally suited for UAV applications. In addition, the GNSS data processed with the RTK method can be provided in standardised NMEA format. Through the reduced shadowing effects of the aerial objects, GNSS external factors such as multipath cause few problems. With L1 carrier phase analysis, the baseline computation must nevertheless remain limited at the range of a few kilometres. With distances of more than 5 kilometres between the reference station and the rover station position, mistakes arise in the decimetre area. The overall modular system consists of a low-cost, single-frequency receiver (e.g. uBlox LEA4T or 6T receiver), a L1 antenna (e.g. the Trimble Bullet III), a developed data logger including an integrated WLAN communication module for storage and securing of the raw data as well as a power supply. Optimisation of the L1 antenna has shown that, in this instance, many problems relating to signal reception can be reduced. A calibration of the choke-ring adaptors for various antenna calibration facilities results in good and homogeneous antenna parameters. In this situation, the real-time algorithm from the Open Source project RTKLib [Takasu, 2010] generally runs on a small computer at the reference station. In this case, the data transfer from the L1 receiver to the PC is realisable through a serial cable. The rover station can transfer the raw data to the computing algorithm over a WLAN network or through a data radio. Of course, this computational algorithm can also be adapted to an integrated computing module for L1 carrier phase resolutions. The average time to first fix (TTFF) amounts to a few minutes depending on the satellite constellation. Different test series in movement simulators and in moving objects have shown that a stable, fixed solution is achieved with a normal satellite constellation. A test series with a Microdrones quadrocopter could also be conducted. In comparison of the RTK positions with a geodetic dual frequency receiver, differences are in millimetre ranges. In addition, reference systems (based on total stations) are present for the precise examination of the kinematically captured positioning [Eisenbeiss et al. 2009].


Despite universal recognition that environmental policy should be informed by robust scientific evidence, this is frequently (and perhaps increasingly) not the case, even in wealthy countries such as Australia. How can the scientific community respond to this fundamental problem? While acknowledging that many constructive actions can be taken, and that scientists have a direct responsibility to inform the policy-making process and advocate for sound policy positions, we contend that such responses are insufficient unless the wider community is better informed and engaged. We agree with those who believe that a broader democratization of the policy-making process is essential to improving this situation, and that an expanded application of scenario planning, augmented with targeted public-opinion surveys, has considerable potential. Used in this way, scenario planning can help scientists engage with and inform citizens about the kind of world they want to live in, while incorporating the best science about possible futures.


Transient unsaturated horizontal column experiments were conducted to assess clay mineralogy impacts on electrostatic processes affecting nitrate (NO3−) mobility. Replicated tests were conducted on quartz sand, mixtures of the sand and kaolinite, illite, and montmorillonite, and two natural soils with organic matter removed. In each test, a 200 mg L−1 nitrate–nitrogen (NO3−–N) solution was injected at the inlet of dry soil columns. Comparison of corresponding NO3−–N concentration and volumetric water content profiles from the column tests provided valuable information regarding soil mineral composition impacts on NO3− transport. With the exception of a small peak at the wetting front, NO3−–N concentrations for the quartz sand were consistently near the 200 mg L−1 injection level within the wetted portion of the columns, indicating that NO3− electrostatic interactions were negligible. Anion adsorption processes in the 25% kaolinite–75 % sand mixture produced a result in which the NO3−–N concentrations adjacent to the inlet of the columns were approximately 20% greater than that of the injected solution. Anion exclusion was the dominant electrostatic interaction affecting NO3− mobility in the 25% illite–75% sand, 25% montmorillonite–75% sand, and 15% kaolinite–7.5% illite–7.5% montmorillonite–70% sand mixtures and in the two natural soils. Evidence of anion exclusion in these artificial and natural soils includes NO3−–N concentrations near the column inlet that were 11 to 19% less than the injected solution concentration, and NO3−–N concentrations near the wetting front that were greater than the injected solution concentration by factors of 1.7 to 5.4. These results indicate that anion adsorption is an important process affecting NO3− mobility in low pH soils, with limited amounts of organic matter, and having a clay‐size fraction dominated by kaolinite, while anion exclusion is a key electrostatic interaction influencing NO3− mobility in near‐neutral to high pH soils, especially if significant amounts of montmorillonite are present.


The article discusses the excitation of transient induced polarization responses using current and voltage sources. The first method has found a wide application in induced polarization surveys and—directly or indirectly—in the theory of the induced polarization method. Typically, rectangular current pulses are injected into the earth via grounding electrodes, and decaying induced polarization voltage is measured during the pauses between pulses. In this case, only the secondary field is recorded in the absence of the primary field, which is an important advantage of this method. On the other hand, since the current injected into the ground is fully controlled by the source, this method does not allow studying induced polarization by measuring the current in the transmitter line or associated magnetic field. When energising the earth with voltage pulses, the measured quantity is the transient induced polarization current. In principle, this method allows induced polarization studies to be done by recording the transmitter line current, the associated magnetic field, or its rate of change. The decay of current in a grounded transmitter line depends not only on the induced polarization of the earth but also on the polarization of the grounding electrodes. This problem does not occur when induced polarization transients in the earth are excited inductively. A grounded transmitter line is a mixed‐type source; hence, for a purely inductive excitation of induced polarization transients, one should use an ungrounded loop, which is coupled to the earth solely by electromagnetic induction.


The problem of estimating a pdf from measurements has been widely studied by many researchers. However, most of the work was focused on estimating a probability density function of continuous random variables, especially in the absence of noise. In this paper, we consider a model for representing discrete probability density functions based on multirate dsp models. Using this model, we propose an efficient and stable scheme for pdf estimation when the measurements are corrupted by independent additive noise. This approach makes use of well-known results from multirate dsp theory, especially that of biorthogonal partners. Simulation results are given, which clearly show the advantage of the proposed method.


The constructivist research agenda on norms has been dominated by international norms research with studies only rarely focusing on domestic norms. The research agenda on domestic norms, however, is dominated by the use of norms in explaining the domestic construction of foreign policies. Domestic norms' internationalisation and functioning in an overseas setting has thus been a neglected research domain. This research note, based on the experience of the author in his doctoral research on domestic norms, has been written to shed some light on domestic norms research and to encourage more studies in the field. Accordingly, the paper, while reflexively visiting the relevant literature, brings about answers to the issues debated around the following questions: 'How could an existent norm that is guiding a foreign policy practice be identified'? And 'how can the overseas diffusion and implications of a domestic norm be traced and reported'? The responses to these questions will show the reader where to start a domestic norm-guided foreign policy enquiry and how to trace internationalisation of domestic norms thus the functioning of foreign policyguiding domestic norms in an overseas setting.


Language and emotions are closely linked. However, previous research suggests that this link is stronger in a native language (L1) than in a second language (L2) that had been learned later in life. The present study investigates whether such reduced emotionality in L2 is reflected in changes in emotional memory and embodied responses to L2 in comparison to L1. Late Spanish/English bilinguals performed a memory task involving an encoding and a surprise retrieval phase. Facial motor resonance and skin conductance (SC) responses were recorded during encoding. The results give first indications that the enhanced memory for emotional vs. neutral content (EEM effect) is stronger in L1 and less present in L2. Furthermore, the results give partial support for decreased facial motor resonance and SC responses to emotional words in L2 as compared to L1. These findings suggest that embodied knowledge involved in emotional memory is associated to increased affective encoding and retrieval of L1 compared to L2.


In this paper I shall examine aspects of discourse construction in 17th-centurycrime reports. To this purpose I shall select four news genres which circulatedin the 17th-century news market, reaching a heterogeneous cross-section ofsociety: news broadside ballads, occasional news pamphlets, newsbooks, andThe London Gazette as an example of an early newspaper. The news genres willbe compared in terms of structure and lexis so as to highlight similarities anddifferences in their murder presentation and reporting. By referring to vanDijk's (1988) categories of news discourse, I shall focus on the layout, the lead(which will be called "proto-lead") and the body of the news. In particular, theproto-lead and the body of the news will be inspected for authorial comments,factuality and metadiscourse, their distribution and realisation being indicativeof the news values and ideology behind the news report. Frequent instances ofdiscourse interrelatedness among the news genres testify to a certain degree ofcontinuity in terms of authorial intrusion, blending of factuality and sensationalism,and Puritan stance. At the same time, however, forms of discoursevariation – especially from the second half of the century – highlight changesin the direction of objectivity, impersonalisation and brevity. The analysis willshow how authorial commentaries and metadiscourse progressively withdrawfrom the murder account with a consequential foregrounding of factuality asthe major ingredient of a high-quality report.


Large scale coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations of rubber-filler composite systems which are models of rubber compositions have been conducted on the K-computer. Different structures of filler aggregates are modeled by reverse Monte Carlo method from a part of USAXS data of rubber compounds obtained in the large synchrotron radia-tion facility SPring-8. The difference of experimental stress-strain curves between end-modified SBR and non-modi-fied SBR has been reproduced qualitatively by simulation. Behaviors of large strain region of experimental stress-strain curves can be explained by the difference of maximum elongation of network chains due to the difference of numbers of bonds between fillers in end-modified SBR and non-modified SBR. Difference of small strain region of experimental SS curves between end-modified SBR and non-modified SBR can be reproduced qualitatively by models that filler aggregates are defined. This result suggests that filler aggregates play an important role for behavior of small strain region of stress-strain curves of filled rubbers.


This article explores the relationship between Roman school texts and the socialization of the student into an elite man. I argue that composition and declamation communicated social values; in fact, the rhetorical education of the late republic and the empire was a process of socialization that produced a definite subjectivity in its elite participants. I treat two genres of Roman school texts: the expansions on a set theme known as declamation and the bilingual, Greek and Latin, writing exercises known as the colloquia amid the collections of hermeneumata. This article is more broadly concerned with the attitudes toward language use that are learned along with specific literacy skills. Habits of reading and writing and speaking are learned in scenes and contexts that contribute to concepts of the self and more widely of gender and social roles. The encounters and verbal interactions recurrently plot a deviation from violence or a return to civil and familial order through the proper verbal display of the elite speaker. The student speaker9s assumption of roles, his training in fictio personae, is a strong training in memory and imagination-pretending to be someone else, pretending to talk like someone else, or pretending to talk on behalf of someone else. That someone else is most important as the schoolboy becomes the voice of or for prostitutes, the raped, slaves, freedmen, women. His was not a neutral ventriloquism in the styles of Latin but a training in the master9s mode toward the ready conviction that the speaker can and must speak for others, his subordinates. Roman rhetorical education was a process of persona building, shaping the schoolboy in his future role while excluding others from the very right to become speaking subjects.


Abstract. A reliable and precise in situ CO2 and CO analysis system has been developed and deployed at eight sites in the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory's (ESRL) Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network. The network uses very tall (> 300 m) television and radio transmitter towers that provide a convenient platform for mid-boundary-layer trace-gas sampling. Each analyzer has three sample inlets for profile sampling, and a complete vertical profile is obtained every 15 min. The instrument suite at one site has been augmented with a cavity ring-down spectrometer for measuring CO2 and CH4. The long-term stability of the systems in the field is typically better than 0.1 ppm for CO2, 6 ppb for CO, and 0.5 ppb for CH4, as determined from repeated standard gas measurements. The instrumentation is fully automated and includes sensors for measuring a variety of status parameters, such as temperatures, pressures, and flow rates, that are inputs for automated alerts and quality control algorithms. Detailed and time-dependent uncertainty estimates have been constructed for all of the gases, and the uncertainty framework could be readily adapted to other species or analysis systems. The design emphasizes use of off-the-shelf parts and modularity to facilitate network operations and ease of maintenance. The systems report high-quality data with > 93% uptime. Recurrent problems and limitations of the current system are discussed along with general recommendations for high-accuracy trace-gas monitoring. The network is a key component of the North American Carbon Program and a useful model for future research-grade operational greenhouse gas monitoring efforts.


Book synopsis: Decolonizing Sexualities brings together creative, activist and scholarly contributions on the diverse ways in which sexuality, race and religion intersect in different national settings and transnationally. Contributors address the ways in which categories, theories and knowledge travel across locations or fail to do so and consider the political implications of such processes for differently situated sexual subjectivities. Queer of color critique emerges as a set of key analytical tools to deconstruct intersectional forms of oppression against and within marginalized communities such as processes of racialization and as a means to repoliticize 'queer' and build coalitions among communities of color, in particular in Europe (including Southern and Eastern Europe). The volume asks how the kind of knowledges dubbed as 'minoritarian' from (disciplinary) mainstream perspectives, such as 'ethnic studies', 'queer studies', 'postcolonial studies', 'intersectionality' intersect, travel and generate critical interventions for understanding a range of complex dynamics. These include for example, how multicultural manifestations are reined in to legitimate (homo)nationalist structures that draw upon long-standing histories of colonialism, and how a critical discussion of transphobia unsettles assumptions about the status of community and belonging.

Decolonizing Sexualities brings together a plurality of situated forms of activist analysis and intervention that address a range of cross-cutting challenges. The volume asks: What tactics are queer activists pursuing in terms of formal rights vs other understandings of activism? What are the possibilities, as well as the tensions in activist endeavors in different locations and transnationally? Drawing on diverse experiences of organizing at the intersections of sexual and racial identities, how can transnational solidarity networks and points of exchange be developed and strengthened? How can African viewpoints on LGBTI identities in the diaspora and issues of immigration and displacement from home communities be best addressed? What are the disconnections? Is transnational organizing viable and if so what are the challenges of organizing around queer/LGBTI concerns? How can discourses of victimhood be countered, while at the same time acknowledging the realities of violence against those perceived as LGBT/queer in the "Global South"? How do we strike a balance? How can a decolonizing analysis render more visible some of the impact of discrimination and violence against LGBT people in 'the West', as well as the intersections between Islamophobia, the war on terror, and the gay international? How can these matrices be countered? In what ways can feminist and LGBT struggles be bridged? Can a 'sexual rights' umbrella be useful for this? How can alternative discourses and organizing practices be fostered? How can we build broader and more effective coalitions?

The collection foregrounds lesbian of color activism and an intersectional analysis that connects sexism, lesbophobia and racism in feminist and LGBT contexts. Contributors also address the relationship between Queer Muslim activism and mainstream gay activism as well as mainstream Muslim communities. It draws on experiences of organizing and activism on the interplay of multiple identities to reflect upon the decolonizing practices, strategies and struggles.


Recent significant agricultural growth without rural poverty reduction in Zambia is causing concern to policy makers, development specialists, and other sector stakeholders. It is generally agreed that agricultural growth is the most powerful tool out of poverty for developing countries where the majority of the population is in agriculture. Zambia's policy focus since the pre- and post-independence period has been on a single crop, maize, for which it has in the past decade spent over 60% of the annual public expenditure in the sector through maize input and output subsidies.


In the present paper, we introduce an efficient method for the estimation in the multidimensional case. The key idea is based on a good assessment of the error without using confidence intervals. The consistency of the proposed estimate is established. Consequently, we discuss the estimation in statistical tests corresponding to parametric context, and prove that this kind of estimators ensures the optimality of statistical tests. We partially extend the scope of our study to some processes. In order to examine the performance of our methodology, finite sample results are performed. This work completes and extends in nontrivial way the results obtained by Lounis (2017).


This article presents preliminary findings from a qualitative empirical study of patent litigators. Part of a larger and ongoing project studying intellectual property lawyers in patent, trademark, and copyright enforcement and litigation actions, this article focuses on ethical decision-making by patent litigators in the pretrial discovery process. The article is based on data from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with fifty-five patent litigators and from a detailed case study of the infamous Qualcomm patent sanctions case. The article critically examines how patent litigators perceive of and respond to ethical issues that arise in the discovery process. It also analyzes the structural and cultural factors that influence ethical decision-making, as patent litigators navigate the multiple and often conflicting demands made throughout the discovery process by clients, firms, colleagues, and ethical rules. A significant finding from this study is that the threat of Qualcomm-like discovery sanctions is largely irrelevant to the everyday practice of patent litigators and has had little effect on their ethical decision-making. To-date there are few empirical studies of intellectual property lawyers or of legal ethics "in action." This study begins to fill that gap.


Writing a correct operating system kernel is notoriously hard. Kernel code requires manual memory management and type-unsafe code and must efficiently handle complex, asynchronous events. In addition, increasing CPU core counts further complicate kernel development. Typically, monolithic kernels share state across cores and rely on one-off synchronization patterns that are specialized for each kernel structure or subsystem. Hence, kernel developers are constantly refining synchronization within OS kernels to improve scalability at the risk of introducing subtle bugs. We present NrOS, a new OS kernel with a safer approach to synchronization that runs many POSIX programs. NrOS is primarily constructed as a simple, sequential kernel with no concurrency, making it easier to develop and reason about its correctness. This kernel is scaled across NUMA nodes using node replication, a scheme inspired by state machine replication in distributed systems. NrOS replicates kernel state on each NUMA node and uses operation logs to maintain strong consistency between replicas. Cores can safely and concurrently read from their local kernel replica, eliminating remote NUMA accesses. Our evaluation shows that NrOS scales to 96 cores with performance that nearly always dominates Linux at scale, in some cases by orders of magnitude, while retaining much of the simplicity of a sequential kernel.


Conodont animals were early jawless vertebrates equipped with a feeding apparatus composed of several tooth‐like elements. The P1 elements, at the rear of the apparatus, were characterized by a robust shape and rapid morphological evolution. Occlusion occurred between paired right and left P1 elements, occasioning some bilateral asymmetry, which, together with allometric growth, may partially obliterate the temporal differences. The present study aims to disentangle these different components of morphological variation in Late Devonian Polygnathus P1 conodont elements. An extensive 2D geometric morphometric analysis of the platform shape was performed through the Famennian record of two outcrops. This analysis was completed by a 3D study on a subset of conodont elements. The 2D and 3D morphometric quantifications provided highly congruent results, showing that the 2D shape constitutes a good approximation of the element geometry. The 3D analysis delivered further insights into the relationship between the geometry of the elements and the constraints related to occlusion. The 2D analysis allowed a quantitative assessment of the variation among species and through time. Allometry and bilateral asymmetry were differently expressed depending on the species considered, suggesting that constraints imposed on pairing by the morphology of the elements varied even among related species. The within‐species variation was so important that it largely obliterated temporal trends; a relationship of Polygnathus shape and conodont biofacies variations through the Famennian nevertheless suggested an evolution driven by ecological interactions between conodont genera.


The federal public lands contain places with both religious and secular value for American people. American Indians, in particular, hold certain natural features to be sacred, and visit them for ceremonies and worship. Simultaneously, non-Indians use the same places for economic, recreation, and many other purposes - and conflicts arise between these groups. In the past twenty years, a body of constitutional jurisprudence has developed to address questions of religious freedoms and public access rights on these lands that are owned and managed by the federal government. This article outlines the relevant First Amendment framework as well as recent statutes that apply in sacred sites cases. Acknowledging that the law fails to satisfy parties on all sides of the dispute, it also suggests new directions for scholarship and advocacy in the sacred sites realm.


Archaeologists working in Northwestern Morocco (former Roman province of Mauritania Tingitania) were often struck by the ubiquitous association of pre-Islamic archaeological sites and Muslim shrines. Although several studies have been devoted to maraboutism as a form of popular piety in Morocco, Muslim shrines found at archaeological sites were rarely if ever studied in connection to their archaeological context. This research ) revisits saints and sainthood in Morocco, and more importantly, ) examines six case studies in Northwestern Morocco (Lixus, Zilil, Thamusida, Chella, Banasa and Hajar al-Nasr) in order to shed light on how the active devotional layer, i.e. the shrines, relates spatially and architecturally to the archaeological remains beneath and around them.


This study aims to explore game backgrounds and content generation using motion graphics. Motion graphics can be utilized to generate contents in various fields including games, cartoons, movies, animations, characters, advertisements, etc. This study identifies how game backgrounds and game scenes are simply generated by utilizing motion graphics. And synthesizing techniques are used to generate game backgrounds and game scenes. Also, for game backgrounds and characters, motion graphics are applied to simply express special effects such as various flames, blazes, thunderbolts, etc. On the subject of secondary school students, this study evaluates their game background and character generation competencies with two methods to develop game industry and improve content personnel. Evaluation results of 88 points and 85 points are shown from the evaluation of the last results for evaluation items according to the standard of 100 points, and it suggests that game development personnel and character content production personnel be reserved with professional education and support in the future.


Offshore floating hybrid wind and wave energy is a young technology yet to be scaled up. A way to reduce the total costs of the energy production process in order to ensure competitiveness in the sustainable energy market is to maximize the farm's efficiency. To do so, an energy generation and costs calculation model was developed with the objective of minimizing the technology's Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of the P80 hybrid wind-wave concept, designed by the company Floating Power Plant A/S. A Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm was then implemented on top of other technical and decision-making processes, taking as decision variables the layout, the offshore substation position, and the export cable choice. The process was applied off the west coast of Ireland in a site of interest for the company, and after a quantitative and qualitative optimization process, a minimized LCOE was obtained. It was then found that lower costs of ~73% can be reached in the short-term, and the room for improvement in the structure's design and materials was highlighted, with an LCOE reduction potential of up to 32%. The model serves usefully as a preliminary analysis. However, the uncertainty estimate of 11% indicates that further site-specific studies and measurements are essential.


Balancing the privacy-utility tradeoff is a crucial requirement of many practical machine learning systems that deal with sensitive customer data. A popular approach for privacy- preserving text analysis is noise injection, in which text data is first mapped into a continuous embedding space, perturbed by sampling a spherical noise from an appropriate distribution, and then projected back to the discrete vocabulary space. While this allows the perturbation to admit the required metric differential privacy, often the utility of downstream tasks modeled on this perturbed data is low because the spherical noise does not account for the variability in the density around different words in the embedding space. In particular, words in a sparse region are likely unchanged even when the noise scale is large. In this paper, we propose a text perturbation mechanism based on a carefully designed regularized variant of the Mahalanobis metric to overcome this problem. For any given noise scale, this metric adds an elliptical noise to account for the covariance structure in the embedding space. This heterogeneity in the noise scale along different directions helps ensure that the words in the sparse region have sufficient likelihood of replacement without sacrificing the overall utility. We provide a text-perturbation algorithm based on this metric and formally prove its privacy guarantees. Additionally, we empirically show that our mechanism improves the privacy statistics to achieve the same level of utility as compared to the state-of-the-art Laplace mechanism.


Properties of the unusual sour cherry strain of plum pox potyvirus (PPV-SoC) were investigated by sequencing its 3'-terminal 1,360 nt and examining its serological reactivity with several monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to PPV. A significantly low degree of identity of the sequenced region has been found between PPV-SoC and other isolates of PPV. This is due to the high nucleotide divergence between the 5'-terminal region of the coat protein (CP) coding region of PPV-SoC and that of other isolates. Most nucleotide substitutions in the sequenced region are not silent and result in amino acid changes, especially near the N terminus of the CP. The unique 5' terminus of the PPV-SoC CP coding sequence has been utilized to develop a cRNA probe that hybridizes to PPV-SoC but not to other isolates/members of the D or M subgroups of PPV. The N-terminal region of the PPV-SoC CP contains the recognizable DAG motif that determines aphid transmissibility of potyviruses. Aphid transmission of PPV-SoC to herbaceous and woody hosts has been confirmed experimentally. Serological reactivity of PPV-SoC with 10 MAbs of PPV suggest that PPV-SoC represents a new serotype of PPV that does not fall into the conventional D or M serotypes/subgroups. We propose that PPV-SoC represents a new subgroup of PPV strains, termed PPV-cherry (PPV-C), and that PPV-SoC is its prototype member.


Districtwide effects of the implementation of block scheduling were investigated in a large urban school district. This study contrasted ten high schools with block scheduling and 13 high schools utilizing a seven period rotator schedule on key indicators of student achievement and behavior. In addition, surveys elicited the observations and perceptions of classroom teachers, guidance counselors, and school principals on the changes associated with a switch to block scheduling. Results indicated that students in block scheduling schools earned more A's, fewer C's, D's, and F's, and higher grades in advanced mathematics courses. On no measure did non-block schools outperform block schools. The findings also provided confirmation that block scheduling models are perceived as successful by staff. The majority of teachers reported that they implemented a variety of new teaching techniques, increased the number of learning activities, experimented with different student evaluation techniques, and provided more individualized attention. Guidance counselors agreed that students do better concentrating on fewer subjects, have time to do more in-depth study, have been able to enroll in the classes needed to graduate on time, and are able to pursue the electives that interest them. Principals indicated that the provision of leadership and professional development opportunities for staff was crucial for successful implementation. Broward County Public Schools will encourage other high schools in the district to explore the option of adopting block scheduling, expand distance learning and other strategies to support test review sessions, and increase support to staff at schools with block scheduling through significant professional development opportunities. As educators across the nation face the challenge of school reform, the most common and significant transformations underway are structural modifications to the traditional school day such as block scheduling. Rather than having students change classroom locations, subjects, teachers, and activities six or seven times each day, many high schools are offering students and teachers the opportunity for in-depth concentration on fewer subjects each semester by using longer blocks of instructional time. Although block scheduling is not a novel concept, this and other alternative scheduling models are receiving renewed interest as mechanisms to support the delivery of teaching and learning methods associated with improved student performance. As schools and districts search for effective schoolwide reforms, evidence supporting the utility of various models of block scheduling is rapidly accumulating as evaluations of the processes and outcomes associated with various scheduling changes are conducted. Broward County's Philosophy Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) is a large, linguistically and ethnically diverse, urban school district located in Southeast Florida. As the fifth largest school district in the United States with over 200,000 students, 11,000 teachers, and 23 high schools, BCPS has responded to some significant challenges. Large pockets of poverty, high student mobility, an increasingly diverse population of limited English-speaking students, and severe overcrowding are among the increasing challenges that continue to face our school system, fueling the desire for transformation and the need to press for broader changes. One of this district's major system priorities is to improve student achievement and school effectiveness. Other priorities address growth, diversity, security, technology, and training. To address these priorities, a comprehensive system of school improvement and accountability based upon the performance of students and educational programs was established. Utilizing this framework, the School Board and the Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Frank Petruzielo, expressed their commitment to improving the delivery of educational programs in the district's schools by determining those methods that best support student achievement and school effectiveness. …


Ovarian follicle development is a complex and well-orchestrated biological process of great economic significance for poultry production. Specifically, understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying follicular development is essential for high-efficiency follicular development can benefit the entire industry. In addition, domestic egg-laying hens often spontaneously develop ovarian cancer, providing an opportunity to study the genetic, biochemical, and environmental risk factors associated with the development of this cancer. Here, we provide high-quality RNA sequencing data for chicken follicular granulosa cells (GCs) across 10 developmental stages, which resulted in a total of 204.57 Gb of clean sequencing data (6.82 Gb on average per sample). We also performed gene expression, time-series, and functional enrichment analyses across the 10 developmental stages. Our study revealed that SWF (small while follicle), F1 (F1 hierarchical follicles) and POFs (postovulatory follicles) best represent the transcriptional changes associated with the prehierarchical, preovulatory and postovulatory stages, respectively. We found that the preovulatory stage F1 showed the greatest divergence in gene expression from the POFs stage. Our research lays a foundation for further elucidation of egg-laying performance of chicken and human ovarian disease.


Zero energy Majorana fermion states (Majoranas) can arise at the ends of a semiconducting wire in proximity with a superconductor. A first generation of experiments has detected a zero bias conductance peak in these systems that strongly suggests these Majoranas do exist; however, a definitive demonstration of the long-ranged entanglement that is crucial for potential applications in quantum computing has yet to be carried out. This work discusses two possible measurement schemes to detect this long-ranged entanglement in a wire system with two coupled pairs of Majoranas, by varying the coupling between one pair while measuring the fermion parity of the second pair. First, in a system with two coupled pairs of Majoranas, we discuss how varying the coupling of one pair in time, while measuring temporal fermion parity correlations of the second pair, allows for an experimental probe of long-ranged Majorana entanglement. Second, we show that the power spectrum of the charge noise (fermion parity noise) of one pair contains signatures of these correlations, as well as allowing one to infer the parity relaxation rate.