Technical education in classical fields like electrical engineering is confronted in western countries with on one side a high demand for engineers coming from industry and on the other side by the reduced interest from younger generation, whose interest is highly polarised by information and communication technologies. A linear motor demo-track has been set up, in order to reinforce the demonstrative aspects of modern technology as a contribution to the motivation of students for the industrial world. It is also an alternative example to the too classical rotating asynchronous motor in the field of education on variable speed drive.


A robust debate amongst coastal geomorphologists as to the processes by which beach-ridge plains around Australia have formed was initiated by a former President of the Institute of Australian Geographers. This review gives special consideration to the work of Jack L. Davies, whose academic contributions to coastal geomorphology in Australia have not always been appropriately acknowledged when explaining how similar plains have evolved elsewhere in the world. Davies recognised that relatively steep storm waves caused erosion (cut) on beaches, whereas less steep long-period swell waves returned sand (fill). He considered the beach berm to be the nucleus on which a beach ridge formed, which could subsequently develop into a foredune, in contrast to cobble ridges that were deposited during storms. Offshore conditions regulate supply of sand to the shoreline, partly through effects on wave refraction, with higher rates of supply where the nearshore is shallow. It was apparent to Davies that the elevation of successive ridges might, but not necessarily, provide evidence of past changes of sea level, despite adornment by variable amounts of windblown dune sand. Morphodynamic understanding of long-term coastal evolution, based on radiocarbon dating chronologies, has demonstrated that Australian coastal plains formed over the past ~6000 years when sea level has been close to its present level, in contrast to several documented locations in the northern hemisphere where the sea has been rising for the past few millennia. Particularly insightful were observations by Davies that ridge formation could be influenced by a range of factors including changes in sea level, storminess, or sediment supply. These factors acting singly or in combination seem likely to change in the future. Understanding such responses remains a high priority and can be addressed by new technologies, such as light detection and ranging, optically stimulated luminescence dating, ground-penetrating radar, and computer simulation.


This paper compares board and director characteristics of reverse leveraged buyout (LBO) firms controlled by LBO specialists to those of an industry- and size-matched comparison sample. We consider the boards of the reverse LBOs to be value-maximizing because of the strong incentives the LBO specialists have to structure those boards in a way that maximizes shareholder value. Relative to the comparison firms, we find that the boards of the reverse LBOs are smaller, control larger equity stakes, and meet less frequently. Relative to directors of the comparison firms, directors of the reverse LBOs are younger, have shorter tenures, are less likely to be women, and are at least as likely to serve on other boards.


The stage of neurogenesis can be divided into three steps: proliferation, migration, and differentiation. To elucidate detailed relations between these three steps after ischemia, the authors evaluated the three steps in the adult gerbil dentate gyrus (DG) after 5 minutes of transient global ischemia using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), highly polysialylated neural cell adhesion molecule (PSA-NCAM), and neuronal nuclear antigen (NeuN) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) as markers for proliferation, migration, and differentiation, respectively. Bromodeoxyuridine-labeled cells increased approximately sevenfold, and PSA-NCAM–positive cells increased approximately threefold in the subgranular zone (SGZ) with a peak 10 days after ischemia. Bromodeoxyuridine-labeled cells with PSA-NCAM expression were first detected both in the SGZ and the granule cell layer (GCL) 20 days after ischemia and gradually decreased after that, whereas BrdU-labeled cells with NeuN gradually increased in the GCL until 60 days after ischemia. A few BrdU-labeled cells with GFAP expression were detected in DG after ischemia; no PSA-NCAM–positive cells with GFAP expression were detected, but the radial processes of glial cells were partly in contact with PSA-NCAM–positive cell bodies and dendrites. These results suggest that neural stem cell proliferation begins at the SGZ, and that the cells then migrate into the GCL and differentiate mainly into neuronal cells. The majority of these three steps finished in 2 months after transient global ischemia.


We propose to demonstrate that Heidegger's Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics attempts to think the unthought unity of ontology and theology, or metaphysics, by staging a confrontation between transcendental philosophy and empirical science. Since this topic is a central concern of contemporary continental philosophy, this way of reading Heidegger's text may prove important for the light it sheds on the deconstruction of this opposition. Heidegger's own unique way of understanding the relation between philosophy and science involves philosophy in a relation with poetry, and science in a relation with theology.


Localized surface plasmon resonances occurring within subwavelength apertures are accompanied by an aperture-geometry-dependent phase shift that can be utilized for beam manipulation. Here we demonstrate two-dimensional, planar, converging and diverging plasmonic lenses, formed by an array of nanometric spatially varying cross-shaped apertures in a silver film. The performance of lenses with different design configurations was evaluated at two different wavelengths using a confocal scanning optical microscope.


An improved name disambiguation method based on atom cluster. Aiming at the method of character-related properties of similarity based on information extraction depends on the character information, a new name disambiguation method is proposed, and improved k-means algorism for name disambiguation is proposed in this paper. The cluster analysis cluster is introduced to the name disambiguation process. Experiment results show that the proposed method having the high implementation efficiency and can distinguish the different people with the same name.


New geochronological data from the Albera Massif confirm the presence of an Early – Mid Ordovician igneous event (472 - 465Ma) recorded in the pre-Variscan rocks of the Pyrenees. This event resulted in the emplacement of a large granitic body in the lower part of the pre-Upper Ordovician metasedimentary succession and in the intrusion of a series of metric sized dykes in the middle and upper parts of it. The two types of igneous rocks were gneissified during subsequent Variscan deformation. The geochronological data confirm the occurrence of the gneiss as having derived from an Ordovician intrusive sheet, as in other Pyrenean massifs. The dykes are considered to be the subvolcanic equivalent of the intrusive sheet. The data also provide insight into the age of the metasedimentary series of the massif and enable us to correlate the dated rocks with other gneissic and subvolcanic bodies of the Variscan massifs of the Pyrenees and Iberia. 1


Since the end of the eighties, many researchers have been investigating the automatic identification and recognition of modulated communication signals. Recently, many algorithms have been proposed to automatically identify and recognize the digitally modulated signals. Such types of signals have been used in many applications such as: Electronic warfare, surveillance and threat analysis, control of communication quality etc. In this paper we outline the major problems, approaches and some algorithms to recognize automatically the type of the modulated signals. First of all, some algorithms to estimate some important features of the modulated signals, as the wave carrier frequency, have been discussed and simulated. At the second part, we propose a modified version of the well-known algorithm DMRA (Digital Modulation Recognition Algorithm) proposed by Azzouz and Nandi. Finally, many experiments and simulations have been conducted and presented.


This is a submission for the degree of PhD by Publication. The submission presents five linked research studies concerned with long-term foster care, and their associated
publications. There is a three-part commentary on the research and publications. Part 1 of the commentary reviews the literature relevant to the research and publications. Firstly, the policy background to the studies is outlined. Then, the literature concerned with the
family processes and outcomes of long-term foster care is considered. Placement stability and developmental outcomes are included, and also the risk and protective
factors that contribute to these processes and outcomes. Literature concerning foster and birth family membership is then highlighted, and also that which addresses the
professionalisation of foster care, and the implications of this for long-term foster care. This is followed by a summary of some relevant attachment based research and, finally, there is reference to the literature concerning professional systems associated with longterm
foster care in England and Wales.
Part 2 of the commentary provides an outline of each of the research studies undertaken and summarises their aims, methods, findings and methodological issues. The studies spanned a period of fifteen years, between 1997 and 2011. They explored the experiences and meanings of building a family life within the context of foster care
systems in England and Wales. These two closely interwoven discourses - the relationships that are formed in long-term foster families and the professional systems
that surround them - were of central importance in the body of work and form the core of this submission.
Part 3 of the commentary covers the contribution that the research and publications have made to knowledge in the field of long-term foster care. Firstly, from the
exploration of family processes in long-term foster care, key aspects of caregiving that appear to create a sense of security and permanence for long-term foster children are
identified. These are: secure base caregiving, bonding and commitment, flexible role identities and managing the child's dual family membership. Each of these aspects of
caregiving, as illuminated by the research and publications, is explored in turn. Secondly, there is a summary of the contribution that the body of work has made to identifying
iii the extent of regulation and the nature of practice that is required to safeguard longterm foster children, whilst at the same time promoting their sense of security and
permanence in their foster families. The commentary concludes with an overview of the implications of the research and publications for social work practice and some suggestions for further research.
At Appendix A is a statement from Professor Gillian Schofield, lead investigator of one of the studies, co-investigator of two of the studies, and lead author of ten of the publications. Appendix B contains a collection of the published works (articles and a book chapter) that represent the studies. The books and a research report are presented separately.


Thomas Ignatius Ferreira (c.1743-c1814), pioneer on the Eastern Frontier and ""British"" officer in command at Fort Frederick Thomas Ferreira initially farmed in the region of Mossel Bay and afterwards on a farm east of Langkloof, before he moved to Papenkuilsfontein in Algoa Bay in 1776, thus becoming one of the first Afrikaner pioneers in this area. In 1782 he was a member of the expedition which set out to look for survivors of the shipwrecked Grosvenor. In 1799 the British garrison erected Star Fort on his farm. This became the first official structure of defence on the Eastern Frontier. After having learned that the Cape was to become a colony of the Batavian Republic in 1803, the Acting British Governor appointed Thomas Ferreira as commanding officer at Fort Frederick. During a visit by Governor J.W.Janssens to Algoa Bay in 1803, Thomas was accused of cruelty towards non-whites and of being partly responsible for the unrest on the Eastern Frontier. In order to maintain peace and order he and some of his relatives, inter alia his daughter, the later notorious ""Kwaade Martha"" Ferreira of the Black Circuit ( 1812-1813), were banned from Algoa Bay. Thomas resettled on a farm in the Mossel Bay region.


This paper analyzes interactions between the tracks and the stairs, as well as those between the tracked mobile robot and the onboard manipulator for tracked mobile manipulators (TMMs) climbing stairs. Combining a tracked mobile robot, which has the ability to climb stairs, with an onboard manipulator, a TMM extends the workspace and scope of applications of the robot dramatically. However, this combination gives rise to complex track-stair and vehicle-manipulator interactions, because the configuration of the onboard manipulator affects load distribution, which will further influence the track-stair interactive forces. Unlike the wheeled mobile robots, which are normally assumed to obey the nonholonomic constraints, slippage is unavoidable for a tracked mobile robot, especially when climbing stairs. The track-stair interactive forces are complicated, which may take the forms of grouser-tread hooking force, track-stair edge frictional force, grouser-riser clutching force, and even their compositions. In this paper, the track-stair and vehicle-manipulator interactions are analyzed systematically, which are essential for tip-over prediction and prevention, as well as for automatic control of TMMs in autonomous and semi-autonomous stair-climbing. Simulations for a TMM being developed in our laboratory have demonstrated the usefulness of the presented analysis results.


Preface Original numbering Part III. Wadge Degrees and Pointclasses: Introduction to Part III Alessandro Andretta and Alain Louveau 1. Wadge degrees and descriptive set theory Robert Van Wesep 2. A note on Wadge degrees Alexander S. Kechris 3. Some results in the Wadge hierarchy of Borel sets Alain Louveau 4. The strength of Borel Wadge Determinacy Alain Louveau and Jean Saint-Raymond 5. Closure properties of pointclasses John R. Steel 6. The axiom of determinacy and the prewellordering property Alexander S. Kechris, Robert M. Solovay and John R. Steel 7. Pointclasses and wellordered unions Steve Jackson and Donald A. Martin 8. More closure properties of pointclasses Howard S. Becker 9. More measures from AD John R. Steel 10. The Borel degrees William W. Wadge Part IV. Projective Ordinals: Introduction to Part IV Steve Jackson 11. Homogeneous trees and projective scales Alexander S. Kechris 12. AD and projective ordinals Alexander S. Kechris 13. A DELTA 1/3 coding of the subsets of omegaomega Robert M. Solovay 14. AD and projective ordinals Steve Jackson 15. Projective sets and cardinal numbers: some questions related to the continuum problem Donald A. Martin 16. Regular cardinals without the weak partition property Steve Jackson Bibliography.


A key ingredient of the data taking strategy used by the LHCb experiment at CERN in Run-II is the novel realtime detector alignment and calibration. Data collected at the start of the fill are processed within minutes and used to update the alignment, while the calibration constants are evaluated hourly. This is one of the key elements which allow the reconstruction quality of the software trigger in Run-II to be as good as the offline quality of Run-I. The most recent developments of the real-time alignment and calibration paradigm enable the fully automated updates of the RICH detectors' mirror alignment and a novel calibration of the calorimeter systems. Both evolutions improve the particle identification performance stability resulting in higher purity selections. The latter leads also to an improvement in the energymeasurement of neutral particles, resulting in a 15% better mass resolution of radiative b-hadron decays. A large variety of improvements has been explored for the last year of Run-II data taking and is under development for the LHCb detector upgrade foreseen in 2021.These range from the optimisation of the data samples selection and strategy to the study of a more accurate magnetic field description. Technical and operational aspects as well as performance achievements are presented, focusing on the new developments for both the current and upgraded detector.


Current literature on the effect of cannabis use on sleep quality is mixed, and few studies have used objectively-measured sleep measures or real-time sampling of cannabis use to examine this relationship. The prevalence of cannabis use among older adults and persons living with HIV has increased in recent years, and poor sleep quality is elevated in these populations as well. However, research examining cannabis-sleep relationships in these populations is lacking. Thus, we aimed to examine the relationship between daily cannabis use and subsequent objectively-measured sleep quality in middle-aged and older adults with and without HIV. In this pilot study, seventeen (11 HIV+, 6 HIV-) adults aged 50-70 who consumed cannabis completed four daily smartphone-based surveys for 14 days, in which they reported their cannabis use (yes/no) since the last survey. Participants also wore actigraphy watches during the 14-day period to objectively assess sleep quality (i.e., efficiency, total sleep time, and sleep fragmentation). In linear mixed-effects models, cannabis use was significantly associated with greater subsequent total sleep time (β=0.56; p=0.046). Cannabis use was not related to a change in sleep efficiency (β=1.50; p=0.46) nor sleep fragmentation (β=0.846, p=0.756) on days with cannabis use versus days without cannabis use. These preliminary results indicate cannabis use may have a positive effect on sleep duration in middle-aged and older adults. However, future studies with larger sample sizes that assess cannabis use in more detail (e.g., route of administration, dose, reason for use) are needed to further understand this relationship.


Given the cost of content, the under-resourcing of universities and the scattered nature of expertise in Africa, the collaborative development of open content seems like a useful way to get high-quality, locally-relevant content for using to enhance teaching-and-learning. However, there is currently no published operational model to guide institutions or individuals in creating collaborative open content projects. This paper examines lessons learned from open source software development and uses these lessons to build the foundations of a process model for the collaborative development of open content.


Ozone therapy forms part of a group of complementary and alternative medical treatments that are often preferred above conventional medical treatments and surgery. Although it seems as if 03-therapy can be used to treat various medical conditions, there is some concern regarding the toxicity and effectiveness of 03therapy. The strong oxidative nature of O3 gives it the ability to cause severe damage to lung tissue when it is inhaled and it may also cause oxidative DNA damage in cells when it is used in therapy. On the other hand, it is believed that O3 may exert a stimulatory effect on the antioxidant defence and immune systems. Therefore, controlled clinical studies are necessary to assess the safety and effectiveness of 03-therapy. We assessed the effect of O3 autohaemotherapy (AHT) with relatively high 0 3 concentrations on the oxidanUantioxidant status in baboons by evaluating serum hydroperoxides, glutathione redox status, antioxidant capacity and antioxidant enzyme activity. We also assessed the genotoxicity of O3 by measuring DNA damage and DNA repair capacity in lymphocytes using the Comet assay. 03-AHT was performed on the baboons by using 5% of their total blood volume. Blood samples were taken before reinfusion and again 0.5-48 hours following reinfusion of the ozonated blood. 03-AHT caused an increase in the level of oxidative stress in baboons, but did not deplete cellular antioxidants such as GSH. Although catalase activity was not altered by 03-AHT, SOD activity was slightly increased. Serum antioxidant capacity was elevated after 03-AHT, however, we are not sure to what extent the ketamine hydrochloride that was used as anaesthetic influenced the results. DNA damage was induced 24 hours after 03-AHT was performed but this was not significant and the effect was eliminated after 48 hours. DNA repair was up-regulated within four hours following 03-AHT but returned to control levels after 24 hours. In general, it appears as if 03-AHT may have a beneficial, though transient, effect without causing cellular damage.


Abstract. In the 1970s, the mechanism of vibrational energy transfer from chemically produced OH(ν) in the nighttime mesosphere to the CO2(ν3) vibration, OH(ν) ⇒ N2(ν) ⇒ CO2(ν3), was proposed. In later studies it was shown that this "direct" mechanism for simulated nighttime 4.3 µm emissions of the mesosphere is not sufficient to explain space observations. In order to better simulate these observations, an additional enhancement is needed that would be equivalent to the production of 2.8–3 N2(1) molecules instead of one N2(1) molecule in each quenching reaction of OH(ν) + N2(0). Recently a new "indirect" channel of the OH(ν) energy transfer to N2(ν) vibrations, OH(ν) ⇒ O(1D) ⇒ N2(ν), was suggested and then confirmed in a laboratory experiment, where its rate for OH(ν = 9) + O(3P) was measured. We studied in detail the impact of the "direct" and "indirect" mechanisms on CO2(ν3) and OH(ν) vibrational level populations and emissions. We also compared our calculations with (a) the SABER/TIMED nighttime 4.3 µm CO2 and OH 1.6 and 2.0 µm limb radiances of the mesosphere–lower thermosphere (MLT) and (b) with ground- and space-based observations of OH(ν) densities in the nighttime mesosphere. We found that the new "indirect" channel provides a strong enhancement of the 4.3 µm CO2 emission, which is comparable to that obtained with the "direct" mechanism alone but assuming an efficiency that is 3 times higher. The model based on the "indirect" channel also produces OH(ν) density distributions which are in good agreement with both SABER limb OH emission observations and ground and space measurements. This is, however, not true for the model which relies on the "direct" mechanism alone. This discrepancy is caused by the lack of an efficient redistribution of the OH(ν) energy from higher vibrational levels emitting at 2.0 µm to lower levels emitting at 1.6 µm. In contrast, the new  indirect  mechanism efficiently removes at least five quanta in each OH(ν ≥ 5) + O(3P) collision and provides the OH(ν) distributions which agree with both SABER limb OH emission observations and ground- and space-based OH(ν) density measurements. This analysis suggests that the important mechanism of the OH(ν) vibrational energy relaxation in the nighttime MLT, which was missing in the emission models of this atmospheric layer, has been finally identified.


This work is concerned with the relation between structural and dinamic personal characteristics of teachers and classroom management styles.
Classroom management is related with all teacher's actions, aimed to create safe and stimulative learning environment, that could be covered by three broad dimensions. The first of them includes teacher's actions related with students' personal growth and establishing of psychological atmosphere in the classroom. The second dimension consists of all that teacher undertakes to ensure the performance of the learning process in the classroom: the use of space, equipment and learning materials, organization of time, the choice of teaching forms, methods and techniques, variety of activities, involvement of students into learning activities and maintenance of their activity during the classes, instructions, learning content structuring. The third dimension is related to procedures that teacher undertakes to establish and maintain discipline in tne classroom.
It is clear, therefore, that the concept of classroom management involves a number of roles that a teacher performs working with students, and competences that are necessary for their successful performance, but it is also associated with teachers' personality characteristics which largely determine the way in which the teacher controls the situation in the classroom, ie. the dominant classroom management style he applies. This paper examines the three styles: interventionist, non-interventionist and interactionist. The first two are located at the ends of the continuum that represents the distribution of power and control over the situation in the classroom between teacher and students. At one end it is a style that is characterized by the complete control of the teacher (interventionist), and at the opposite end of the continuum it is the style of teacher who completely passes responsibility for the situation in the classroom to students (non-interventionist). Between these two extremes it is the interactionist style that implies the distribution of responsibility and of control over the situation in the classroom between teacher and students.
Given that classroom management styles are shown as different successful when their effectiveness is measured by the quality of classroom climate and through students' academic achievement, the question is whether it is possible to identify those personality traits that characterize the profile of teachers who use various styles of classroom management. Therefore, a total of 273 class teachers and subject teachers from several primary schools
265
were examined by Personality Inventory NEO PI-R, Inventory of personal orientation POI, Scale of authoritarian worldview AP 2, and Inventory of classroom management styles ICMS. Also, two independent evaluators observed two classes of each teacher in the sample and, using the Protocol for teachers' classroom management styles assessment PPSNUR (instrument developed through this research), evaluated the level of expression of each of these three styles and the style that every teacher predominantly uses. Every teacher and all students of visited classes assessed the quality of classroom climate during the lessons held by observed teacher in that class. In order to collect data about the control variables, each teacher completed the questionnaire about demographic variables and the variables related to teacher's professional status, working motivation, professional development and working environment, and Working climate questionnaire WCQ.
The results show that, among the studied variables in the domain of structural and dynamic teachers' personality traits, the most significant predictor of classroom management styles is one of the two major dimensions of self-actualization, Time competence. Among examined basic personality dimensions, Extraversion, Openness to experience and Agreeableness were identified as significant predictors of teachers' classroom management styles. In addition to these dimensions, it was shown that teacher's experience with the quality of the working climate, in terms of the degree of autonomy that he realizes in his work, is important predictor of classroom management styles as well. The research results also confirmed that the interactionist classroom management style is the most effective approach. Both students and teachers were the most satisfied with the quality of classroom climate when the teacher uses it as the predominantly style, ie. when interactionist style is more expressed in his work in the classroom. Also, in comparison with the other two styles, interactionist style is advantageous to improving students' academic achievement.
In addition to shedding light on the very concept of classroom management through the analysis of its relationship with teachers' personality characteristics and to reconsideration of the effectiveness of various classroom management styles, research results have practical implications, because they suggest the possibility of supporting development of those personal characteristics of future and in-service teachers that could contribute to use interactionist style. Such support could be provided through programs of basic teachers' education and in-service teachers' trainings, as well as through establishing appropriate working climate in schools. The final effect would be further improving the quality of education in our schools.


Nonstationary signal modeling is a research topic of practical interest. In this thesis, we adopt a time-varying (TV) autoregressive (AR) model using the basis function (BF) parameter estimation method for nonstationary process identification and instantaneous frequency (IF) estimation. The current TVAR model in direct form (DF) with the blockwise least-squares and recursive weighted-least-squares BF methods perform equivalently well in signal modeling, but the large estimation error may cause temporary instabilities of the estimated model. To achieve convenient model stability monitoring and pole tracking, the TVAR model in cascade form (CF) was proposed through the parameterization in terms of TV poles (represented by second order section coefficients, Cartesian coordinates, Polar coordinates), where the time variation of each pole parameter is assumed to be the linear combination of BFs. The nonlinear system equations for the TVAR model in CF are solved iteratively using the Gauss-Newton algorithm. Using the CF, the model stability is easily controlled by constraining the estimated TV poles within the unit circle. The CF model shows similar performance trends to the DF model using the recursive BF method, and the TV pole representation in Cartesian coordinates outperforms all other representations. The individual frequency variation can be finely tracked using the CF model, when several frequency components are present in the signal. Simulations were carried on synthetic sinusoidal signals with different frequency variations for IF estimation. For the TVAR model in DF (blockwise), the basis dimension (BD) is an important factor on frequency estimation accuracy. For the TVAR model in DF (recursive) and CF (Cartesian), the influences of BD are negligible. The additive white noise in the observed signal degrades the estimation performance, and the the noise effects can be reduce by using higher model order. Experiments were carried on the real electromyography (EMG) data for frequency estimation in the analysis of muscle fatigue. The TVAR modeling methods show equivalent performance to the conventional Fourier transform method. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I Nonstationary Signal Modeling and Analysis 1 1.


The evolution of personal income distribution (PID) in four countries: Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA follows a unique trajectory. We have revealed precise match in the shape of two age-dependent features of the PID: mean income and the portion of people with the highest incomes (2 to 5% of the working age population). Because of the U.S. economic superiority, as expressed by real GDP per head, the curves of mean income and the portion of rich people currently observed in three chasing countries one-to-one reproduce the curves measured in the USA 15 to 25 years before. This result of cross country comparison implies that the driving force behind the PID evolution is the same in four studied countries. Our parsimonious microeconomic model, which links the change in PID only with one exogenous parameter - real GDP per capita, accurately predicts all studied features for the U.S. This study proves that our quantitative model, based on one first-order differential equation, is universal. For example, new observations in Canada, New Zealand, and the UK confirm our previous finding that the age of maximum mean income is defined by the root-square dependence on real GDP per capita.


The Anthropocene is an uneven phenomenon. Accelerated shifts in the functioning of the Earth System are mainly driven by the production and consumption of wealthy economies. Social, environmental and health costs of such industrialization, however, bear on low‐income communities inhabiting severely degraded territories by polluting activities (i.e., sacrifice zones). How global, national and local socio‐economic and governance processes have interacted in perpetuating socio‐environmental inequalities in these territories has been rarely explored. Here, we develop an historical quantitative approach integrating a novel chemostratigraphic record, data on policy making, and socio‐economic trends to evaluate the feedback relationship between environmental injustice and Anthropocene in sacrifice zones. We specifically outline a case study for the Puchuncaví valley ‐one of the most emblematic sacrifice zones from Chile‐. We verify an ever‐growing burden of heavy metals and metalloids over the past five decades paced by the staggering expansion of local industrial activities, which has ultimately been spurred by national and transnational market forces. Local poverty levels have declined concomitantly, but this path toward social equality is marginal as costs of pollution have grown through time. Indeed, national and international pollution control actions appear insufficient in mitigating the cumulative impact brought by highly toxic elements. Thus, our sub‐decadal reconstruction for pollution trends over the past 136 years from a sediment record, emerges as a science‐based tool for informing the discussion on Anthropocene governance. Furthermore, it helps to advance in the assessment of environmental inequality in societal models that prioritize economic growth to the detriment of socio‐environmental security.


Following September 11, 2001, there was a challenge to the role of law as a regulator of military action and executive power. Government lawyers produced legal interpretations designed to authorize, legitimize, and facilitate interrogation tactics widely considered to be illegal. This raises a fundamental question: how should law respond to such flawed interpretation and its consequences, even if the ends might have seemed necessary or just? This Symposium examines deep tensions between competing visions of the rule of law and the role of lawyers. Spurred by a controversy over the selection of then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey as commencement speaker, the goal was to examine such basic and challenging questions. What is the optimal relationship among policy, legal interpretation, and ethics? What ethical norms should guide government lawyers? Attorney General Mukasey agreed to publish his commencement address as part of the Symposium. Participants were asked to read it and, if they wished, to use it as a touchstone for their analyses of the questions


Sample preparation has a critical role as a first step in analytical processes, especially in bioanalysis and environmental analysis. A good sample preparation technique should be robust and stable, regardless of the sample matrix.The aim of this thesis is to design and synthesize molecularly imprinted polymers that can be used in various sample preparation techniques, such as on-line MEPS, on-line SPE and on-line monolithic pre-columns used for the extraction of drugs, hormones, and cancer biomarkers from human plasma and urine samples. Additional aim was to provide full automation, on-line coupling, short sample preparation time and high-throughput.In this thesis MIP in MEPS was used on-line with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) for the determination of sarcosine in human urine and plasma samples. The method was fully automated and the packed sorbent could be used for about hundred extractions. In additional work a coated needle with MIP-Sol-Gel as thin layer was prepared and used for the microextraction of bilirubin from human plasma and urine. Small sample volumes could be handled and the validation of the method showed that the method was robust and selective.In a further work MIP-SPE on-line with HPLC was used for the extraction and determination of dextromethorphan in human plasma samples. MIP-SPE showed a good selectivity and high recovery (87% - 92%). On-line MIP monolithic pre-column was prepared and used in a coupled system for the extraction of tramadol in human plasma and urine samples. The MIP monolithic pre-column showed good selectivity and high extraction recovery was obtained (91-96%). The extraction and analysis of human insulin in plasma and pharmaceutical formulation solutions were carried out using MIP-SPE on-line with HPLC. The validation of the method showed that the method was accurate and robust.


This prospective, longitudinal study examined peer rejection and aggression in childhood as predictors of the severity and type of delinquency during adolescence. Sociometric surveys were completed at third grade for a predominantly low-socioeconomic status, urban sample of African American boys and girls, and youth reports of delinquency were gathered at Grades 6, 8, and 10. Patterns of association between childhood peer rejection and aggression and delinquency severity varied by gender. For boys, the additive effect of childhood peer rejection and aggression was a strong predictor of more serious delinquency, whereas for girls only aggression predicted more serious delinquency. For boys, the combination of peer rejection and aggression was associated with felony assaults, and aggression was associated with a wide diversity of offenses during adolescence, whereas for girls only peer rejection predicted involvement in minor assault. Results are discussed in terms of the early starter pathway of antisocial behavior as it relates to peer rejection and aggression for boys, differing predictive patterns for girls, and implications for intervention with children with emotional and behavioral disorders.


Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature is a pioneering study of African-Canadian literary creativity, laying the groundwork for future scholarly work in the field. Based on extensive excavations of archives and texts, this challenging passage through twelve essays presents a history of the literature and examines its debt to, and synthesis with, oral cultures. George Elliott Clarke identifies African-Canadian literature's distinguishing characteristics, argues for its relevance to both African Diasporic Black and Canadian Studies, and critiques several of its key creators and texts. Scholarly and sophisticated, the survey cites and interprets the works of several major African-Canadian writers, including Andre Alexis, Dionne Brand, Austin Clarke, Claire Harris, and M. Nourbese Philip. In so doing, Clarke demonstrates that African-Canadian writers and critics explore the tensions that exist between notions of universalism and black nationalism, liberalism and conservatism. These tensions are revealed in the literature in what Clarke argues to be - paradoxically - uniquely Canadian and proudly apart from a mainstream national identity. Clarke has unearthed vital but previously unconsidered authors, and charted the relationship between African-Canadian literature and that of Africa, African America, and the Caribbean. In addition to the essays, Clarke has assembled a seminal and expansive bibliography of texts - literature and criticism - from both English and French Canada. This important resource will inevitably challenge and change future academic consideration of African-Canadian literature and its place in the international literary map of the African Diaspora.


Radiation gastritis has rarely been reported [1]. In this study, radiation gastritis was defined on endoscopy as a red lesion, usually larger than 2cm, that was sharply demarcated from the surrounding normal mucosa, and was found in a focal area of the stomach when erosive gastritis had been excluded. Overall, 31 patients were diagnosed as having radiation gastritis. Of these, 22, 13, and 3 also developed gastroduodenal ulcers, radiation duodenitis, and radiation colitis, respectively. The predominant lesionwas in the antrum in 30 patients; the prepyloric antrum was involved in27patients. A total of 59 endoscopies were used to study the color and morphology of the gastritis lesions. Of the eight endoscopies performed within 90 days of initiating radiotherapy (acute period), four demonstrated red lesions and four faint or dark red lesions (●" Fig.1a); four showed petechiae (●" Fig.1a), three had patchy lesions (●" Fig.1b), and one showed telangiectasia. Of the other 51 endoscopies performed thereafter (late period), 47 demonstrated red lesions and four faint or dark red lesions; 38 demonstrated patchy lesions (●" Fig.2a), 10 showed petechiae (●" Fig.2b), and three showed telangiectasia (●" Fig.2c,d). Acute gastrointestinal radiation toxicity arises from direct irradiation damage to the mucosa [2] and capillaries [3]. In this study, acute radiation gastritis often appeared as petechiae and inflammatory lesions of varying degrees of redness. Late gastrointestinal radiation toxicity primarily arises from chronic obliterative endarteritis due to radiation damage to the endothelial cells of the arteriole [4,5]. Irradiation indirectly leads to ischemic injuries (ulcers) and angiogenesis. Angiogenesis, instead of inflammation and petechiae, predominates in late radiation gastritis, whichmay explain the red (often bright red) lesions of radiation gastritis in this period (●" Fig.2a– c). In this study, radiation gastritis usually involved the prepyloric antrum, which was probably due to the characteristic anatomy of the irradiated area (predominantly celiac and portal vessels) and the differing radiosensitivity of the tissues [2].


The scope of this study is to get knowledge about the relationship between norms and helping behavior.
Norms in the context of the family system refer to parent-child obligations and role behavior. In
subsequent, this scope necessitates understanding the extent of family's commitment to its normative
arrangements and the way in which fulfillment of norms affect helping behavior as part of family life
that is subject to request under varying conditions. Following this idea, research questions address the
extent of impact of each normative aspect on helping behavior and the way other relevant aspects such
as privacy and family solidarity may take effect. In order to empirically deal with the problem, survey
methodology is the best way to yield the maximum findings. In addition, since the focal point of this
project is on the relationships of family members, an analysis grounded in rational choice theory
provides knowledge about the normative actions of family and the consequent social outcomes. In
sequence, findings indicate in a theory developed by G. S. Becker, obligation of feeling at the collective
level serves as an input factor in the production of helping behavior. At the individual level, parentchild
obligations of attitude and material need are variant by family position as part of division of labor
at home as well as instrumental reasoning. These fulfillments will eventually provide utility of positive
relations with friends and relatives. In another theory developed by D. Chong, obligations of feeling
and attitude are part of rationality that parents have acquired in the past as a variety of values, while
parents are concerned about attitude its only the mothers who show this concern when the data is
separated. These values are taken into account when determining helping behavior. Although role
behavior is widely practiced by parents, interdependent social factors at home and at work predispose
only employed mothers to helping behavior. In so doing, mothers in general and employed mothers
specifically are mainly responsible for the organization of life at home and have more opportunity to
coordinate relationships with familiar others. Role identity, which predominantly emerges after
marriage, increases informed knowledge of one's role but is not the reason to involve in helping
behavior. Empirical evidence also indicates that married parents versus non-married parents have
conspicuous understanding of a given role. Family members may also request solidarity upon those
affairs which they cannot afford personally. Fulfillment of one's obligation of feeling by members is
positively related to family solidarity. In other words, those who have internalized values and beliefs
about one's obligations of feeling will also take actions which are beneficial to other members, but the
relation between obligation and solidarity varies upon one's position. Finally, the above relationships
take place at home where affairs are under the influence of normative arrangements like availability of
amenities. An analysis of effects of levels of access to housing amenities on privacy shows that, there is
no firm impact on dimensions of privacy. The amenities as resources also have no effects on solidarity.


Using matched worker-firm data from three waves of the Vietnam Small and Medium Enterprises data, we examine whether workers are compensated with higher wages for working in vulnerable jobs and unfavourable working conditions. Wage equations indicate that there are no clear compensating mechanisms for working in poor conditions, for having an informal contract, and for having few financial benefits. Quantile regressions show that workers in the upper tail of the wage distribution are more likely to be penalized for working in adverse working conditions. Employees recruited through official hiring channels with an informal contract earn less than employees hired through social networks. Upon estimating mean decompositions of wage gaps based on working conditions, we find that the gap is almost entirely explained by the conjunction of worker, job, and firm characteristics in 2015, in contrast to the previous survey year of 2013.


The purpose of this essay is to contribute with further knowledge to why woman have a hard time making a career to a top postition. Our main focus is to examine and explain how inclusion and exclusion of individuals are present at an organizational level and within in the relationships among people within and between organisations. By studying inclusion and exclusion we hope to understand how these can work as difficulties and how they're present when woman proceed to a top position within organizations. Our results helps us understand that exclusion at the organizational level is due to the fact that there is someone else who has the authority to promote you. We also found a tendency that networking within and between organizations can make it difficult for women due to the fact that most of our woman must develop relationsships to men who are more likely to be in a top position. Within the relationship aspect we find tendencies that show that there has been a great deal of men with the power to promote others and men are more likely to choose other men in to leading positions.


Combined with chemical synthesis, the use of biocatalysts holds great potential to open the way to novel molecular diversity. We report in vitro chemoenzymatic pathways that, for the first time, take advantage of enzyme engineering to produce complex microbial cell-surface oligosaccharides and circumvent the chemical boundaries of glycochemistry. Glycoenzymes were designed to act on nonnatural conveniently protected substrates to produce intermediates compatible with a programmed chemical elongation. The study was focused on the synthesis of oligosaccharides mimicking the O-antigen motif of Shigella flexneri serotypes 1b and 3a, which could be used for the development of multivalent carbohydrate-based vaccines. A semirational engineering approach was successfully applied to amylosucrase, a transglucosidase that uses a low cost sucrose substrate as a glucosyl donor. The main difficulty was to retain the enzyme specificity toward sucrose, while creating a new catalytic function to render the enzyme able to regiospecifically glucosylate protected nonnatural acceptors. A structurally guided library of 133 mutants was generated from which several mutants with either completely new specificity toward methyl alpha-l-rhamnopyranoside or a tremendously enhanced one toward allyl 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-alpha-d-glucopyranoside acceptors were isolated. The best variants were used to synthesize glucosylated building blocks. They were then converted into acceptors and potential donors compatible with chemical elongation toward oligosaccharide fragments of the O-antigens of the two targeted serotypes. This is the first report of a successful engineering of an alpha-transglycosidase acceptor binding site that led to new specificities. It demonstrates the potential of appropriate combinations of a planned chemoenzymatic pathway and enzyme engineering in glycochemistry.


Over the past decade, the Korean dairy industry has been affected by considerable reductions in non-tariff barriers as a result of trade liberalisation. The dairy marketing system in particular has had many regulations and barriers removed. The question arises as to the effect of trade liberalisation and reductions in protection on imported dairy product marketing margins in Korea. This study determined imported dairy product marketing margins in Korea and assessed how they had changed over the past 15 years. The most important factors responsible for the trends and fluctuations observed in those margins were identified and estimated. An attempt at a product-focused method was made on cheese and skim milk powder (SMP), which are generally representative of dairy products as a whole. Descriptive and econometric methods were both used to identify the most important determinants of the aggregate cost of processing and distributing imported dairy products. A cheese (MMCHE) model and a SMP (MMSMP) model were developed and estimated. The two models estimated cheese and SMP marketing margins respectively as functions of exchange rates, trade liberalisation, wage rates and transportation costs. Both models were estimated using standard and stepwise regressions. Results obtained from this analysis suggest that changes in earnings (wages) were the strongest influence on imported dairy product marketing margins during the past 15 years. However, these results cannot explain the fall in cheese and SMP marketing margins after 1995 as this coincided with a rise in wage rates. The increase in CIF (Cost of Insurance and Freight) prices for these products was largely responsible for the smaller margins. Because exchange rates are a large element of CIF price, it is believed that marketing margins were closely associated with the value of the exchange rate. Conclusions are based on descriptive indicators and an econometric analysis that examined the relationships between economic factors and marketing margins. The impact of trade liberalisation on imported dairy product marketing margins was mixed with other economic factors. This study concludes that trade liberalisation has not in general been associated with tower imported dairy product marketing margins in Korea. Labour costs (wages) appear to have been the most important influence on those margins during the period 1985-98.


BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS
Routine colorectal cancer screening, utilizing optical colonoscopy, has been shown to reduce the incidence and mortality rate of colorectal cancer. Despite its prevalence as the "gold standard" for neoplasia detection, the quality of colonoscopy screening is hindered by missed, undiagnosed lesions that may go undetected when located on the proximal aspect of haustral folds, rectal valves, the ileocecal valve, and/or flexures. The aim of this phase I feasibility trial is to assess the safety and efficacy of a new retrograde auxiliary imaging device, Third Eye Retroscope (Avantis Medical Systems, Inc., Sunnyvale, California, USA), used with optical colonoscopy to improve diagnostic yield.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
A total of 29 consecutive patients were enrolled in this phase I single-institution prospective series. Primary efficacy endpoint was identification of polyps in the retrograde image that were not identified in the antegrade image during colonoscope withdrawal.

RESULTS
Of the 29 patients enrolled, 24 patients were treated and 34 out of a total of 38 polyps (classified as either adenoma or hyperplasia) were identified in the antegrade image. An additional four polyps, three hyperplastic and one adenoma, were identified in the retrograde image, and were detected on the proximal aspect of haustral folds during the colonoscope withdrawal, resulting in an 11.8% increase in diagnostic yield. No adverse events were encountered during the study.

CONCLUSION
A retrograde auxiliary imaging device used in conjunction with a standard optical colonoscope proved to be safe, technically feasible, and clinically promising. A phase II multi-institutional study is currently underway to further evaluate this device.


Although the technology of fixed optical interconnects has shown rapid progress, the programmability requirements remain a difficulty that has not yet been definitively solved. A new configuration of diffractive optical elements is presented that takes full advantage of the progress made in the field of fixed elements and also offers the possibility of programmability. The idea consists of serially combining a few elementary diffractive elements that might be spatially separated. One or some of these elements should be programmable. Configurations that make use of the assets of fixed elements are proposed that overcome the limitations, such as low resolution, that are associated with programmable elements. For illustration, an experiment is described.


Background Since the onset of standards-based reform and its continuation in the form of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and now Race to the Top, debates have continued about whether such policies foster desirable change in states, districts, schools and classrooms. Research Question The study asks: How do state and district administrators, principals, and teachers describe their responses to standards-based reform, in terms of beliefs, understanding, and attitudes, as well as behavior? Participants The analysis uses interview data from 32 schools in 10 districts in 5 states. Data are from 60 fourth- and seventh-grade mathematics teachers, 32 principals, 14 district administrators, and 7 state officials. Research Design The overarching five-state study identified a representative probability sample of districts for each state. From those districts, two in each state were chosen for the case study, based on size and poverty. Data Collection and Analysis Interviews were transcribed, then coded both inductively and deductively to identify patterns and elicit major themes. Findings This study provides evidence that standards-based reform has elicited positive change in four areas: attention to struggling learners, teaching to the test, responsibility for student learning, and classroom content and pedagogy. Respondents said that as a result of standards-based reform policies, they focused more on struggling students, trying new approaches to reach them, and increasing their expectations for them. Respondents also reported increasing their personal and group responsibility for student learning, while at the same time feeling stress and pressure from the testing regime. Respondents reported worrying that teaching to the test was narrowing the curriculum, but they also praised the system for eliciting needed improvements in the curriculum. Some teachers said the new state standards required them only to change the order of topics they taught, but other teachers said the standards required them to cover different content and to focus more on student understanding and knowledge retention. Conclusions The findings here of constructive and positive responses stand in stark contrast to a substantial literature that documents negative reactions to NCLB. One explanation might be that earlier attempts at standards-based reform and accountability, such as those documented in this analysis, were much more closely aligned with the theoretical vision of standards-based reform than were later manifestations as codified under NCLB, which have (a) moved away from local discretion, (b) emphasized rewards and sanctions rather than authority (buy-in), and (c) changed the target from standards to focusing on test results, often exclusively.


Purpose. The purpose of the article is to define the role of Buddhism in shaping the political order and to model this process in the states of the Theravada school of thought of Southeast Asia. Methodology and Approach. Using the systemic method, the event analysis and the genealogical method in the interpretation of M. Foucault, the author investigated the genesis and generalized the experience of the establishment of the institution of the monarchy in Buddhist states, as well as analyzed the forms of interaction between the head of state and the Buddhist community (sangha). In the course of the research Buddhism was presented not as religious (sacral), but as a value-philosophical category, which allowed to consider it as an ideological basis of the studied national states. This, in turn, led us to relate the postulates declared in Buddhism to their practical embodiment in state and national construction, using the example of Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar/Burma, and Laos. Results. The author proposes a justification for the sustainability of monarchist statehood in several countries of the region based on Buddhism and its values, which allows speaking generally about its effectiveness as an ideological setting. An indicator of the success of Buddhist statehood and its head the well-being of sangha, due to the economic potential of monasteries, which in turn provided political stability, has been proposed. The theoretical significance of the study lies in the fact that for the first time in domestic science the category of regional political order is examined through the prism of Buddhism, and Buddhism itself is considered as one of the complex and determining factors in the formation of statehood in the region under study. Practical significance is expressed in the potential ability of the foreign ministry and other state and non-state organizations operating in the region to adjust their policies taking into account the identified patterns and the data provided.


We attempt to describe the rank 2 vector bundles on a curve C which are
specializations of the trivial bundle. We get a complete classifications when C
is Brill-Noether generic, or when it is hyperelliptic; in both cases all limit
vector bundles are decomposable. We give examples of indecomposable limit
bundles for some special curves.

 Comment: Final version, published in Epiga


This paper numerically investigated the influences of pin-fin size and layout on the flow characteristics of cooling air in the trailing edge of a real low pressure turbine blade. The discussion was given first for the baseline model without pin fins (denoted as M0) under a turbine design condition and two off design conditions. Then a comparison of the flow fields in the turbine blade especially in the trailing edge region was performed with three more trailing edge models, with the purpose of discovering the benefits of using pin fin configurations in a real low pressure turbine blade. The other three models (denoted as M1, M2, M3) have pin fins in different diameters and arrangements. The M1 model has a row of 13 pin fins with a diameter of 2mm, and the M2 and M3 models have two rows of pin fins arranged in a staggered pattern with a diameter of 1.2mm. Compared to the baseline model M0, it is shown that an addition of pin fin configurations helps greatly to improve cooling flow distributions and to mitigate the blockage of coolant in trailing slots. Meanwhile, the adoption of pin fins has not only affected significantly the flow field in the trailing passage but also has moderately affected flow fields in the middle and forward cooling passages. Increasing pressure ratio can increase total mass flow rate with no significant change in flow patterns. The baseline blade Model M0 shows a high value of 6 for a friction loss related performance function at the turbine design condition. However, only a moderate increase in the value of the performance function is discovered for all the three blades with pin fins.


The next generation of space-and ground-based solar missions aim to study the magnetic properties of the solar chromosphere using the infrared Ca II lines and the He I 10830 angstrom line. The former seem to be the best candidates to study the stratification of magnetic fields in the solar chromosphere and their relation to the other thermodynamical properties underlying the chromospheric plasma. The purpose of this work is to provide a detailed analysis of the diagnostic capabilities of the Ca II 8542 angstrom line, anticipating forthcoming observational facilities. We study the sensitivity of the Ca II 8542 angstrom line to perturbations applied to the physical parameters of reference semi-empirical 1D model atmospheres using response functions and we make use of 3D magnetohydrodynamics simulations to examine the expected polarization signals for moderate magnetic field strengths. Our results indicate that the Ca II 8542 angstrom line is mostly sensitive to the layers enclosed in the range log tau = [0, -5.5], under the physical conditions that are present in our model atmospheres. In addition, the simulated magnetic flux tube generates strong longitudinal signals in its centre and moderate transversal signals, due to the vertical expansion of magnetic field lines, in its edge. Thus, observing the Ca II 8542 angstrom line we will be able to infer the 3D geometry of moderate magnetic field regions.


Introduction:
 Telemedicine for Acute Stroke Evaluation and Treatment has been widely used for providing expert stroke neurology advice for patients presenting to rural hospitals. Iv-TPA administration rates in these experiences are high (20-25%). However, national iv-tPA administration rates still are below this level. In addition, less than 30% of patients are receiving iv-tPA in less than 60 minutes. We describe a novel telemedicine network that augments existing on-call neurological support to decrease door to needle times for iv-tPA administration.

 Methods:
 Data from 6 metropolitan hospitals in the Denver area were collected to assess rapidity of iv-tPA administration for Acute Ischemic Stroke. All hospitals had existing acute stroke protocols, on-call board certified neurologists, board certified Emergency Room Physicians (EDP) available on a 24/7 basis. Stroke Program leaders including Emergency Room Physicians, Neurologists, and administrators from these hospitals were invited to participate in an initiative to decrease door to needle times. Through this committee, consensus was reached that the arrival of a neurologist be less than 15 minutes from arrival of the patient to the Emergency Room. At times and places where this could not be achieved by physical presence, telemedicine technology was employed. This Telemedicine Intiative (TI) was instituted on May 1st, 2011. Time data regarding patient arrival, time to CT scan, time in CT scan, arrival of neurologist, first Emergency Room physician evaluation, tPA administration will be tracked.

 Results:
 Prior to institution of the Telemedicine Initiative, average door to needle times for the six hospital network was 86 minutes. In the first month of institution of TI, average door to needle times decreased to 67 minutes across the network. 102 telemedicine consultations have been performed to date. All telemedicine consultations were instituted within 10 minutes of arrival of the patients to the emergency room.

 Conclusions:
 Employing Telemedicine in a metropolitan hospital setting with exisiting neurological coverage, acute stroke protocols and board certified ED Physicians may decrease the time needed to administer iv-TPA in acute ischemic stroke patients.


Cutaneous T cell lymphoma is a lymphoproliferative disorder typically characterized by skin invasion of clonally derived malignant CD4+ lymphocytes that phenotypically resemble mature Th cells. Sezary syndrome (SzS) represents an advanced form of cutaneous T cell lymphoma associated with generalized erythroderma and involvement of the peripheral blood by the malignant cell population. We have previously demonstrated aberrant cytokine production by PBMC in SzS characterized by increased IL-4 and deficient IL-2 and IFN-gamma production, as well as increased expression of mRNA for IL-4 and IL-5 within active skin lesions, suggesting that the clonal T cell population is derived from the Th 2 subset of helper T lymphocytes. These findings have been associated with a constellation of immune abnormalities that have been attributed to the cytokine abnormalities. Because IL-12 is a potent inducer of IFN-gamma production, and causes the activation of cytotoxic lymphocytes, we examined the production of IL-12 by PBMC from SzS patients and whether IL-12 could alter the unfavorable cytokine balance typical of SzS and thus lead to correction of immune defects. Despite normal numbers of peripheral blood monocytes and normal TNF-alpha production, mean Staphyloccus aureus and LPS-induced IL-12 p40 and p70 production by SzS PBMC was significantly decreased compared with PBMC from normal controls. Mean IFN-gamma production by patient PBMC in response to PHA alone was depressed, but increased to levels comparable with normal after addition of 1 ng/ml IL-12. Pretreatment of PBMC for 24 h with IL-12, IFN-alpha, or both together resulted in a decrease in PHA-stimulated IL-4 production from a base line of 1818 pg/ml to 1520, 1350, and 1058 pg/ml, respectively. Lastly, culture of patient PBMC with IL-12 for 24 h also resulted in significant increases in NK activity against K562 cells. These results indicate that PBMC from patients with SzS manifest a defect in IL-12 production and that the cytokine abnormalities associated with SzS can be favorably altered by IL-12.


The ability to use, in a single query, both similarity and traditional select operators inside a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) has proven to be a valuable tool, which provides a strong capability for better contextualizing queries involving complex data. However, the integration of both query operator classes is still in its early stages, as most works on similarity queries focus on the data structures and operations required to execute just the similarity retrieval operation, but few of them target problems on the integration itself. Among them, the k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) comparison operator gives ground to conflicting interpretations when composed with others. In this article we present a novel approach to remove dubiety when similarity-selections based on k-NN are embedded into a RDBMS, formalize the possible interpretations, and show how to resolve implementation issues that occur when executing them on database relations that include attributes queried by similarity. We also implemented a prototype for a RDBMS that also supports queries employing k-NN predicates and evaluated the proposed interpretations, measuring the performance of their respective operators, as well as the semantic implications. The proposed solution is versatile, being able to handle queries combining similarity-based and traditional predicates.


The sensitivity of the climate to CO2 forcing depends on spatially varying radiative feedbacks that act both locally and nonlocally. We assess whether a method employing multiple regression can be used to estimate local and nonlocal radiative feedbacks from internal variability. We test this method on millennial-length simulations performed with six coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs). Given the spatial pattern of warming, the method does quite well at recreating the top-of-atmosphere flux response for most regions of Earth, except over the Southern Ocean where it consistently overestimates the change, leading to an overestimate of the sensitivity. For five of the six models, the method finds that local feedbacks are positive due to cloud processes, balanced by negative nonlocal shortwave cloud feedbacks associated with regions of tropical convection. For four of these models, the magnitudes of both are comparable to the Planck feedback, so that changes in the ratio between them could lead to large changes in climate sensitivity. The positive local feedback explains why observational studies that estimate spatial feedbacks using only local regressions predict an unstable climate. The method implies that sensitivity in these AOGCMs increases over time due to a reduction in the share of warming occurring in tropical convecting regions and the resulting weakening of associated shortwave cloud and longwave clear-sky feedbacks. Our results provide a step toward an observational estimate of time-varying climate sensitivity by demonstrating that many aspects of spatial feedbacks appear to be the same between internal variability and the forced response.


The Galileo system introduces an extremely wideband civil E5 signal for high precision navigation. The structure of the receiver for the E5 signal is complicated due to the signal complexity and the large bandwidth. It is possible to process the whole E5 signal or process separately E5a and E5b parts combining obtained results afterwards (we call here such method as piece-wise processing). The second procedure has three times worse standard deviation of the pseudorange then first one. The main goal of the paper is to present a design of an E5 receiver which we will call the economic E5 receiver (ecoE5). It is built from jointly controlled correlators for the processing of the E5a and E5b signals which are parts of the E5 signal. Control of these partial E5a and E5b correlators is realized by only one delay and one phase lock loops. The performance, i.e. the pseudorange noise and multipath errors, of the receiver equipped with the ecoE5, is only slightly worse (the standard deviation of the pseudorange noise is 10 20% larger) than the performance of the optimal E5 receiver and it is much better than the performance of the receiver combining the piecewise (E5a and E5b) measurements. The ecoE5 receiver hardware demands are about one quarter of the hardware demands of the classical E5 receiver.


This paper presents a method to integrate the Dynamic Late Merge with a merge metering via wireless communication at the downstream taper area of a work zone, termed as Dynamic Merge Metering Traffic Control System (DMM-Tracs) for highway work-zone bottlenecks. The architecture and communication system for the DMM-Tracs, including system components, communication technologies and operation mechanism, are introduced. With this system, the merge metering control will be activated depending on the volume detected at an upstream location of the work-zone bottleneck. If the thresholds of control parameters are met, a merge metering signal installed at the taper area will be activated and approaching vehicles will be informed of the metering situation through flashing signage or changeable message sign installed in the advance areas of the work zone. To reduce enforced merges and potentials of merge conflicts, the control scheme will be adjusted on the real-time basis depending on the detected traffic conditions. This potentially increases the efficiency with which the traffic is discharged into the open lane inside the work zone. A portable controller is the brain" of the DMM-Tracs System to receive data from detectors, process the data, and control the merge metering signal via wireless communications. The efficacy of the DMM-Tracs is evaluated via a micro-simulation test bed with the state-of-the-art microscopic simulation software VISSIM. Meanwhile, the volume threshold values are also determined via the simulation. The simulation results indicate that higher closure percentage of the bottleneck, more applicable the DMM-Tracs.


This study explores the question of girls in school mathematics through gendered subjectivity. Its theoretical and empirical approach provides a different analysis and sketches an alternative politics for girls in mathematics, not only in its vision but also in the level and style of intervention it advocates. Using ideas drawn from poststructuralist theory and linking these ideas to the political agendas of feminism, it examines, in the first place, how the girl became an historical problem for mathematics education. Its point of departure then shifts the focus of the girl away from an epistemological account of identity to one which constitutes the girl within practices and discourses. Following from this, and by describing how gender is enacted around school mathematics, an alternative approach to knowledge of gendered schooling is developed and new spaces are created for political work in the field.


In previous work, we have argued that it is beneficial to find confidence measures (CM's) that are not dependent on use of "side information" from a specific recogniser. Here, we extend this philosophy to include the use of semantic information in estimating the confidence that a word is correct. We are motivated by the observation that sometimes the recogniser outputs a word which can easily be spotted (by humans) as incorrect, because it bears no relation to the semantics of the rest of the decoded sentence. Latent semantic analysis (LSA) was used as a method for estimating semantic "semantic similarity" between words in a text corpus. From these scores, an average semantic similarity of each decoded word to the other decoded words in an utterance could be estimated, and by thresholding this similarity measure, words were tagged as CORRECT or INCORRECT. We benchmarked the performance of this semantic CM against a tried-and-tested CM, the N-best CM. The precision of the semantic CM was inferior to that of N-best when the recall (the number of words considered) was high, but it out-performed N-best for low recall, and a combined classifier showed the benefits of using both techniques. An interesting and unexpected result was that the semantic CM was better at identifying correct words than incorrect words.


Isolation and Characterization of Stem Cells Sub Populationwithin the Human Fetal Liver
Human fetal liver is the potential source of both hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic stem cells which can be identified using phenotypic markers. Isolation of homogenous populations of hepatic progenitor cells and their sub-populations is an essential prerequisite for investigating specific markers and appropriate cell types for their possible clinical applications. Several studies have demonstrated the presence of a variety of stem cell populations within the fetal liver. The present study was undertaken to identify specialized cell populations, their valuable growth potential and bi-potential differentiation capability derived from human fetal liver using CD133.


The authors describe a learning exercise for an English composition information literacy instruction session that merges technology with active learning and is fun and engaging. Librarians introduced digital cameras into library instruction. Students filmed one another as they searched the online catalog to locate call numbers, investigate subject headings, and find books on the shelves. This active learning exercise infused technology and fun with the important skill of using the library's catalog to locate sources of information. Students gained comfort with using the library, they enjoyed the experience, and they interpreted the exercise in creative ways.


This study is an analysis of the changes to the institutions and doctrines of French
development aid between 1998 and 2002, and specifically the reforms announced by
Prime Minister Jospin in February 1998. This includes analysis of institutional
reorganisation and of new policy doctrines. The study considers the implications of
these changes for the relations between France and former French colonies of sub-
Saharan Africa, including detailed analysis of the aid relationship between France and
Cote d'Ivoire. Using qualitative data, especially personally conducted interviews in
Paris and Cote d'Ivoire and analysis of official documents, this is the first major study
of these reforms that puts them into historical and theoretical perspective. It thereby
contributes to the wider debate over continuity and change both in French aid policy
and in France's relations with sub-Saharan Africa. It also furthers understanding of the
mechanisms and dynamics of reform within French state administration.
This study compares French development aid policy and institutional
architecture from the 1960s up to the mid 1990s with the new institutions and policies
put in place in the 1998–2002 period. Chapter 1 looks at the creation of French aid
policy in the late 1950s and early 1960s and considers its imperial origins. Chapter 2
examines French aid from 1960 to 1995 and places it in the context of the global
politics of development aid and the policies of other donors, in order to highlight the
specificities of the French case. The French reaction to the emergence of the structural
adjustment and later good governance agendas is considered. Chapter 3 examines the
content of the reforms put in place by Jospin and associated changes in the 1998–2002
period, including the reactions of officials and critics. Chapter 4 is a case study of the
changes made to the aid relationship between France and Cote d'Ivoire and the effects
of instability in Cote d'Ivoire on French policy. The impact on French policy of the
growing role of multilateral donors in Cote d'Ivoire is also considered. Chapter 5
examines the evolutions in French doctrine which have run in parallel to the Jospin
reforms, looking at French attitudes to major development issues, particularly the
relationship between the state and the market.
French development aid is part of the long-term continuities of French foreign
policy, and especially France's desire to demonstrate the universal validity of its
cultural and political achievements. In this study French aid is analysed as an extension
of these foreign policy aims within the specific post-colonial relations with sub-Saharan
Africa. French aid has helped to maintain a protected environment within which the
French have sought not only to support close political allies, but also to reproduce a
"model" of society and politics. This study asks whether the French can continue to use
aid in this way in the light of the Jospin reforms and the events of the 1998–2002
period.
This study asks whether the changes of this period can be seen as a convergence
between French aid and the policies, practices and norms of other aid donors. To this
end, the notion of an aid donor "regime" is used. This helps to show that reform of
French policy occurs in a context of interaction with other aid donors, and to show how
that interaction affects French policy


During the previous 10 years, global R&D expenditure in the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sector has steadily increased, without a corresponding increase in output of new medicines. To address this situation, the biopharmaceutical industry's greatest need is to predict the failures at the earliest possible stage of the drug development process.
A major key to reducing failures in drug screenings is the development and use of preclinical models that are more predictive of efficacy and safety in clinical trials. Further, relevant animal models are needed to allow a wider testing of novel hypotheses. Key to this is the developing, refining, and validating of complex animal models that directly link therapeutic targets to the phenotype of disease, allowing earlier prediction of human response to medicines and identification of safety biomarkers. Morehover, well-designed animal studies are essential to bridge the gap between test in cell cultures and people.

Zebrafish is emerging, complementary to other models, as a powerful system for cancer studies and drugs discovery.
We aim to investigate this research area designing a new preclinical cancer model based on the in vivo imaging of zebrafish embryogenesis.

Technological advances in imaging have made it feasible to acquire nondestructive in vivo images of fluorescently labeled structures, such as cell nuclei and membranes, throughout early Zebrafishsh embryogenesis.
This In vivo image-based investigation provides measurements for a large number of features at cellular level and events including nuclei movements, cells counting, and mitosis detection, thereby enabling the
estimation of more significant parameters such as proliferation rate, highly relevant for investigating anticancer drug effects.

In this work, we designed a standardized procedure for accessing drug activity at the cellular level in live zebrafish embryos.
The procedure includes methodologies and tools that combine imaging and fully automated measurements of embryonic cell proliferation rate.
We achieved proliferation rate estimation through the automatic classification and density measurement of epithelial enveloping layer and deep layer cells.
Automatic embryonic cells classification provides the bases to measure the variability of relevant parameters, such as cell density, in different classes of cells and is finalized to the estimation of efficacy and selectivity of anticancer drugs.

Through these methodologies we were able to evaluate and to measure in vivo the therapeutic potential and overall toxicity of Dbait and Irinotecan anticancer molecules.
Results achieved on these anticancer molecules are presented and discussed;
furthermore, extensive accuracy measurements are provided to investigate the robustness of the proposed procedure.

Altogether, these observations indicate that zebrafish embryo can be a useful and cost-effective alternative to some mammalian models for the preclinical test of anticancer drugs and it might also provides, in the near future, opportunities to accelerate the process of drug discovery.


On November 4, 2011, in United States ex rel. Batiste v. SLM Corp., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that the False Claims Act's "first-to-file" bar does not require that a first-filed complaint plead allegations of fraud with particularity to bar subsequent complaints alleging the same material elements of fraud. In so doing, the D.C. Circuit created a circuit split with the Sixth Circuit regarding the pleading standards required by the first-to-file rule. This Comment argues that the D.C. Circuit's interpretation better comports with the first-to-file rule's twin policies of encouraging parties to promptly alert the government of fraud and of discouraging parasitic complaints that merely allege the same material elements of fraud as earlier-filed complaints. This Comment further argues that future courts should follow the D.C. Circuit's interpretation of the pleading standards required by the first-to-file rule.


Abstract. A global climatology of tropospheric and stratospheric column ozone is derived by combining six years of Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) ozone measurements for the period October 2004 through December 2010. The OMI/MLS tropospheric ozone climatology exhibits large temporal and spatial variability which includes ozone accumulation zones in the tropical south Atlantic year-round and in the subtropical Mediterranean/Asia region in summer months. High levels of tropospheric ozone in the Northern Hemisphere also persist in mid-latitudes over the eastern part of the North American continent extending across the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern part of the Asian continent extending across the Pacific Ocean. For stratospheric ozone climatology from MLS, largest column abundance is in the Northern Hemisphere in the latitude range 70° N–80° N in February–April and in the Southern Hemisphere around 40° S–50° S during August–October. Largest stratospheric ozone lies in the Northern Hemisphere and extends from the eastern Asian continent eastward across the Pacific Ocean and North America. With the advent of many newly developing 3-D chemistry and transport models it is advantageous to have such a dataset for evaluating the performance of the models in relation to dynamical and photochemical processes controlling the ozone distributions in the troposphere and stratosphere. The OMI/MLS gridded ozone climatology data are made available to the science community via the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ozone and air quality website http://ozoneaq.gsfc.nasa.gov/ .


Legislative changes in Great Britain in the 1980s introduced a competitive, quasi-market in
education (Woods, Bagley and Glatter, 1998) in which parents are able to exercise choice
about the school they wish their child to attend. Parents specify (and sometimes rank) their
preferred schools and places are allocated on the basis of those preferences, if school
capacity permits (Woods et al, 1998). In order to thrive in this educational market, schools
must appeal to parents and will use a variety of means to make a positive impression. This
study asks three questions about school choice.
1. To what extent do parents and school staff agree which are the most important
factors parents consider when choosing a school for their child?
2. To what extent do parents and school staff have a shared understanding of the
concept of 'school reputation,' and what is the relative importance both place on it as a
factor when choosing a school?
3. What are the implications for schools?
The study is based in an all-through (educates children aged 4-18) Academy Trust of three
schools (two primary and one secondary) in a socially and economically diverse town in
the East of England. The inquiry paradigm adopted is one of pragmatism with the
utilization of two data collection methods within a case study methodology. Quantitative
data were collected from parents and school staff using a 'card sort' of eighteen choice
criteria that were placed in order of relative importance. The card sort task was taken home
by pupils for completion and returned for collation and analysis using a predesigned 'Data
Analysis Plan'. Fifty-two cards sorts were completed by staff groups and thirty-nine card
sorts were returned by parents / families. Of the eighteen criteria for school choice, twelve
indicate an extremely significant or very significant difference between what parents say
they rank most highly, and what school staff think parents rate most highly. School staff
believe parents place greater emphasis on school reputation than parents say they do
Qualitative data was collected from ten semi-structured interviews (six parents and four
staff) and thematically analysed to elicit a deeper understanding of parental choice in this
community. The meaning of 'school reputation' is understood in different ways between,
and within, groups of parents and school staff.
Three implications for practice in the Trust schools arise from the study:
1. School leaders need to understand the social makeup and therefore the likely
motivations of the people in the locality from which the intake is drawn.
2. School leaders must recognize the importance of academic achievement in school
choice.
3. School reputation can be managed by improving the quality of teaching and
learning.
I expect my 'particularized' study to be of tangible use to the Academy Trust in which it is
based, but as this is an issue of contemporary strategic relevance to all school leaders, the
findings are likely to be transferable to other settings.


Title of dissertation: The Multivariate Variance Gamma Process and Its Applications in Multi-asset Option Pricing Jun Wang, Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 Dissertation directed by: Professor Dilip B. Madan Department of Finance Dependence modeling plays a critical role in pricing and hedging multi-asset derivatives and managing risks with a portfolio of assets. With the emerge of structured products, it has attracted considerable interest in using multivariate Lévy processes to model the joint dynamics of multiple financial assets. The traditional multidimensional extension assumes a common time change for each marginal process, which implies limited dependence structure and similar kurtosis on each margin. In this thesis, we introduce a new multivariate variance gamma process which allows arbitrary marginal variance gamma (VG) processes with flexible dependence structure. Compared with other multivariate Lévy processes recently proposed in the literature, this model has several advantages when applied to financial modeling. First, the multivariate process built with any marginal VG process is easy to simulate and estimate. Second, it has a closed form joint characteristic function which largely simplifies the computation problem of pricing multi-asset options. Last, it can be applied to other time changed Lévy processes such as normal inverse gaussian (NIG) process. To test whether the multivariate variance gamma model fits the joint distribution of financial returns, we compare the model performance of explaining the portfolio returns with other popular models and we also develop Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)-based methods in pricing multi-asset options such as exchange options, basket options and cross-currency foreign exchange options. THE MULTIVARIATE VARIANCE GAMMA PROCESS AND ITS APPLICATIONS IN MULTI-ASSET OPTION PRICING


Between April and September 2004, Indonesian voters went three times to the polls, first to elect members of legislative bodies, then in two rounds to elect directly a president and vice-president. There were two starkly different views on the elections. For most observers, they were a triumphant affirmation of Indonesia's reform effort; for some, however, they offered little substantive choice between candidates, and merely confirmed in power Indonesia's old political establishment. This essay suggests that both views are right. The legislative, and especially the presidential elections of 2004, were simultaneously the crowning achievement of the reformasi movement that overthrew president Suharto in 1998, as well as its ultimate frustration. Elections have been crucial for demobilizing and domesticating the political energies of the reformasi upsurge and in confirming elite dominance. The 2004 polls were an important step in a process of 'normalization' of politics, and can be viewed as marking the end of Indonesia's tumultuous political transition. They also demonstrate how closely Indonesia is aligning with the experiences of other post-authoritarian states in South East Asia, especially Thailand and the Philippines. The dominance of media, money and machine politics that characterized Indonesia's 2004 elections is typical of broader patterns of post-democratization reorganization of political power. Indonesia is broadly distinguished from these countries, however, by the continuing influence of resilient socio-cultural identities (aliran) in voting behaviour. Even here, however, there are signs that the institutionalization and normalization of electoral competition are beginning to erode aliran loyalties.


Interconnections between Eurozone and United States booms and busts and among major Eurozone economies are analyzed using a Panel Markov-Switching VAR model. The model accommodates changes in low and high data frequencies and incorporates endogenous time-varying transition matrices of country-specific Markov chains. These country-specific Markov chains depend on their own past history and the history of other chains, thus allowing for interconnections between cycles, and an endogenous common Eurozone cycle is derived by aggregating the country-specific cycles. The model is estimated using a simulation based Bayesian approach in which an efficient multi-move sampling algorithm is defined to draw time-varying Markov-switching chains. Using industrial production growth and credit spread data for all countries, several empirical results have emerged. Recession, slow gro wth and expansion are empirically identified as three regimes with slow growth becoming persistent in the Eurozone in recent years different from the US. The Eurozone and the US regimes appear not fully synchronized, with evidence of more recessions in the Eurozone. Second, turning point analysis indicates larger synchronization at the beginning of the Great Financial Crisis: this shock affects the US first, leading the Eurozone cycle, and spreads then rapidly among these economies. Third, amplification effects influence recession probabilities for Eurozone countries when shocks occur. The evidence is different for the US where this reinforcement does not exist. In recent years there are more imbalances among regimes in Eurozone countries. Fourth, a credit shock results in substantial negative industrial production growth for several months in Germany, Spain and the US.


From town halls to public forums, disadvantaged neighborhoods appear more "participatory" than ever. Yet increased participation has not necessarily resulted in increased influence. This article, drawing on a four-year ethnographic study of redevelopment politics in Boston, presents an explanation for the decoupling of participation from the promise of democratic decision-making. I find that poor urban residents gain the appearance of power and status by invoking and policing membership in "the community"—a boundary sometimes, though not always, implicitly defined by race. But this appearance of power is largely an illusion. In public meetings, government officials can reinforce their authority and disempower residents by exploiting the fact that the boundary demarcating "the community" lacks a standardized definition. When officials laud "the community" as an abstract ideal rather than a specific group of people, they reduce "the community process" to a bureaucratic procedure. Residents appear empowered, while officials retain ultimate decision-making authority. I use the tools of cultural sociology to make sense of these findings and conclude with implications for the study of participatory governance and urban inequality.


We conducted one-dimensional and two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of post-shock revival evolutions in core-collapse supernovae, employing the simple neutrino light bulb approximation to produce explosions rather easily. In order to estimate the explosion energy, we took into proper account nuclear recombinations and fusions consistently with the equation of state for matter not in statistical equilibrium in general. The methodology is similar to our previous work, but is somehow improved. In this paper, we studied the influence of the progenitor structure on the dynamics systematically. In order to expedite our understanding of the systematics, we constructed six parametric progenitor models, which are different in masses of Fe iron core and Si+S layer, instead of employing realistic models provided by stellar evolution calculations, which are sometimes of stochastic nature as a function of stellar mass on the main sequence. We found that the explosion energy is tightly correlated with the mass accretion rate at shock revival irrespective of dimension and the progenitors with light iron cores but with rather high entropies, which have yet to be produced by realistic stellar evolution calculations, may reproduce the canonical values of explosion energy and nickel mass. The mass of the Si+S layer is also important in the mass accretion history after bounce, on the other hand; the higher mass accretion rates and resultant heavier cores tend to hamper strong explosions.


Territorial individuals often respond less aggressively to intrusions by their neighbours than to intrusions by unfamiliar individuals. This commonly observed strategy, the dear-enemy phenomenon, is thought to minimise the costs associated with territory defence. This study determined whether an insular population of territory-holding buff-banded rails (Gallirallus philippensis) exhibits dear-enemy relationships and whether males and females differ in their responses to neighbours and non-neighbours. Playback techniques were used to examine and compare the vocalisations and movements of focal individuals in response to the territorial advertisement calls of their neighbours and of unfamiliar individuals (non-neighbours). Results showed that focal birds did not respond differently to the calls of neighbours and non-neighbours; thus, no evidence for the dear-enemy phenomenon was found in this species. We suggest that this result is due to the significant threats posed by neighbours to territory owners in this territorial system, in addition to a high level of territorial instability in the population. Males and females were shown to differ qualitatively in their general territorial response to intruders but not in their relative responses to neighbours and non-neighbours, suggesting that the relative threats posed by neighbours and non-neighbours do not differ between the sexes.


The Economic Payoff of Name Americanization We examine the impact of the Americanization of names on the labor market outcomes of migrants. We construct a novel longitudinal data set of naturalization records in which we track a complete sample of migrants who naturalize by 1930. We find that migrants who Americanized their names experienced larger occupational upgrading. Some, such as those who changed to very popular American names like John or William, obtained gains in occupation-based earnings of at least 14%. We show that these estimates are causal effects by using an index of linguistic complexity based on Scrabble points as an instrumental variable that predicts name Americanization. We conclude that the tradeoff between individual identity and labor market success was present since the early making of modern America. JEL Classification: J61, J62, Z1, N32