CONTEXT
Arterial grafts are thought to be better conduits than saphenous vein grafts for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) based on experience with using the left internal mammary artery to bypass the left anterior descending coronary artery. The efficacy of the radial artery graft is less clear.

OBJECTIVE
To compare 1-year angiographic patency of radial artery grafts vs saphenous vein grafts in patients undergoing elective CABG.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Multicenter, randomized controlled trial conducted from February 2003 to February 2009 at 11 Veterans Affairs medical centers among 757 participants (99% men) undergoing first-time elective CABG.

INTERVENTIONS
The left internal mammary artery was used to preferentially graft the left anterior descending coronary artery whenever possible; the best remaining recipient vessel was randomized to radial artery vs saphenous vein graft.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The primary end point was angiographic graft patency at 1 year after CABG. Secondary end points included angiographic graft patency at 1 week after CABG, myocardial infarction, stroke, repeat revascularization, and death.

RESULTS
Analysis included 733 patients (366 in the radial artery group, 367 in the saphenous vein group). There was no significant difference in study graft patency at 1 year after CABG (radial artery, 238/266; 89%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 86%-93%; saphenous vein, 239/269; 89%; 95% CI, 85%-93%; adjusted OR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.56-1.74; P = .98). There were no significant differences in the secondary end points.

CONCLUSION
Among Veterans Affairs patients undergoing first-time elective CABG, the use of a radial artery graft compared with saphenous vein graft did not result in greater 1-year patency.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00054847.


Objective: To describe the prevalence and determinants of psychological problems in European children with hemiplegia. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: Home visits in nine European regions by research associates who administered standard questionnaires to parents. Patients: 279 children with hemiplegia aged 8–12 years were recruited from population-based case registers. Outcome measure: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire comprising emotion, conduct, hyperactivity, peer problems and prosocial domains. An "impact score" (IS) measures the social and psychological impact of the child's difficulties. Results: Children with hemiplegia had higher mean scores on the total difficulties score (TDS) compared with a normative sample (p<0.001). 48% and 57% of children, respectively, had borderline–abnormal TDS and IS. Significant, independent associations were observed between intellectual impairment and an increased risk for hyperactivity (odds ratio; OR 8.4, 95% CI 3.4 to 20.8), peer problems (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.7 to 5.5), psychological and social impact (OR 3.0, 95% CI 1.6 to 5.6) when children with an intellectual quotient (IQ) <50 were compared with those with an IQ >70. Boys had an increased risk for conduct (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.7) and hyperactivity disorders (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.4 to 4.6). Poor self-esteem was associated with an increased risk for peer problems (OR 5.8, 95% CI 2.5 to 13.4) and poor prosocial skills (OR 7.5, 95% CI 2.4 to 23.2) compared with those with high self-esteem. Other determinants of psychological adjustment were impaired communication, severe pain and living with a single parent. Conclusions: Many of the psychological problems identified are amenable to treatment. Special attention should be given to those at highest risk of developing psychological difficulties.


OBJECTIVES
To explore rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patient treatment preferences, their decision-making and the treatment choices they would make when faced with three anti-tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) therapy options.

METHODS
Two methods of enquiry were used: postal questionnaire and one-to-one interviews. RA patients not taking anti-TNF-alpha medications were asked to complete a questionnaire after reading a written scenario, which involved choosing and identifying factors that influenced their treatment choice from three anti-TNF-alpha therapies: etanercept (Enbrel), adalimumab (Humira) and infliximab (Remicade). Patients who had tried more than one anti-TNF-alpha medication were asked at one-to-one interviews for their treatment preferences and how their current treatment had been decided.

RESULTS
Both interviewees and questionnaire respondents chose adalimumab as their preferred treatment. Interviewees identified lack of control, convenience and technical issues as influencing treatment choice. Questionnaire respondents were less likely than interviewees to want to participate in making decisions about the selection of anti-TNF-alpha therapy. There were few gender differences. Patients younger than 61 years old were more confident about self-administering treatment, and preferred subcutaneous (sc) over intravenous (iv) medication, as this reduced regular hospital attendance. Older patients preferred health care staff to administer treatment and more readily identified 'contact with other patients/meeting others' and 'staff availability if problems arise' as factors influencing choice.

CONCLUSIONS
RA patients demonstrate a clear treatment preference. Different factors influence patients who choose sc compared with iv medications. Many RA patients either wished to share in treatment decisions or relinquish responsibility to the health professional when choosing anti-TNF-alpha therapy. Patients require reassurance and continuing dialogue with clinicians to manage their condition optimally.


A study in Kalman-filter theory has led to a method of processing relative measurements to estimate the current state of a physical system, using less computation than has previously been thought necessary. As used here, relative measurements signifies measurements that yield information on the relationship between a later and an earlier state of the system. An important example of relative measurements arises in computer vision: Information on relative motion is extracted by comparing images taken at two different times. Relative measurements do not directly fit into standard Kalman filter theory, in which measurements are restricted to those indicative of only the current state of the system. One approach heretofore followed in utilizing relative measurements in Kalman filtering, denoted state augmentation, involves augmenting the state of the system at the earlier of two time instants and then propagating the state to the later time instant.While state augmentation is conceptually simple, it can also be computationally prohibitive because it doubles the number of states in the Kalman filter. When processing a relative measurement, if one were to follow the state-augmentation approach as practiced heretofore, one would find it necessary to propagate the full augmented state Kalman filter from the earlier time to the later time and then select out the reduced-order components. The main result of the study reported here is proof of a property called reduced-order equivalence (ROE). The main consequence of ROE is that it is not necessary to augment with the full state, but, rather, only the portion of the state that is explicitly used in the partial relative measurement. In other words, it suffices to select the reduced-order components first and then propagate the partial augmented state Kalman filter from the earlier time to the later time; the amount of computation needed to do this can be substantially less than that needed for propagating the full augmented Kalman state filter.


This article examines the role of inflation risk in the determination of interest rate movements in the Philippines. The analysis proceeds by first estimating a measure of inflation risk that is analytically derived from the consumption-based capital asset pricing model (CCAPM). This inflation risk measure, the covariance of purchasing power growth and consumption growth, is estimated using a multivariate GARCH method on quarterly Philippine data from 1986 to 2005. The estimated inflation risk series is then used in a CCAPM-based interest rate model to help explain interest rate movements in the Philippines.


Many Kiowas believe that song is a gift from God. Its power, argues Luke E. Lassiter, rests in the many ways that community members hear, understand, and feel it: "Song has power. As I begin to understand what this means for my mentors, I am just beginning to understand what this means in my life. They are not just singers. They are vehicles for something greater than all of us. Indeed, I now understand that I am not just a singer. But ...I will sing until I die." As a boy, Lassiter had an early fascination with pow wows. This interest eventually went from a hobby to a passion. As Lassiter made Kiowa friends who taught him to sing and traveled the pow wow circuit, serving many times as a head singer, he began to investigate and write about the pow wow as an experiential encounter with song. The Power of Kiowa Song shows how song is interpreted, created, and used by individuals, how it is negotiated through the context of an event, and how it emerges as a powerfully unique and specific public expression. The Power of Kiowa Song presents a collaborative, community-wide dialogue about the experience of song. Using conversations with Kiowa friends as a frame, Lassiter seeks to describe the entire experience of song rather than to analyze it solely from a distance. Lassiter's Kiowa consultants were extremely active in the writing of the book, re-explaining concepts that seemed difficult to grasp and discussing the organization and content of the work. In a text that is engaging and easily read, Lassiter has combined experiential narrative with ethnological theory to create a new form of collaborative ethnography that makes anthropology accessible to everyone. This book is designed for anyone interested in Native American studies or anthropology, and it also serves as a resource written by and for the Kiowa themselves. Hear the Power of Kiowa Song


From the Publisher:
This is the revised and greatly expanded Second Edition of the hugely popular Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing. The product of a unique collaboration among four leading scientists in academic research and industry, Numerical Recipes is a complete text and reference book on scientific computing. In a self-contained manner it proceeds from mathematical and theoretical considerations to actual practical computer routines. With over 100 new routines (now well over 300 in all), plus upgraded versions of many of the original routines, this book is more than ever the most practical, comprehensive handbook of scientific computing available today. The book retains the informal, easy-to-read style that made the first edition so popular, with many new topics presented at the same accessible level. In addition, some sections of more advanced material have been introduced, set off in small type from the main body of the text. Numerical Recipes is an ideal textbook for scientists and engineers and an indispensable reference for anyone who works in scientific computing. Highlights of the new material include a new chapter on integral equations and inverse methods; multigrid methods for solving partial differential equations; improved random number routines; wavelet transforms; the statistical bootstrap method; a new chapter on "less-numerical" algorithms including compression coding and arbitrary precision arithmetic; band diagonal linear systems; linear algebra on sparse matrices; Cholesky and QR decomposition; calculation of numerical derivatives; Pade approximants, and rational Chebyshev approximation; new special functions; Monte Carlo integration in high-dimensional spaces; globally convergent methods for sets of nonlinear equations; an expanded chapter on fast Fourier methods; spectral analysis on unevenly sampled data; Savitzky-Golay smoothing filters; and two-dimensional Kolmogorov-Smirnoff tests. All this is in addition to material on such basic top


Prosody plays an important role in both identification and synthesis of emotionalized speech. Prosodic features like pitch are usually estimated and altered at a segmental level based on short windows of speech (where the signal is expected to be quasi-stationary). This results in a frame-wise change of acoustical parameters for synthesizing emotionalized speech. In order to convert a neutral speech to an emotional speech from the same user, it might be better to alter the pitch parameters at the suprasegmental level like at the syllable-level since the changes in the signal are more subtle and smooth. In this paper we aim to show that the pitch transformation in a neutral-to-emotional voice conversion system may result in a better speech quality output if the transformations are performed at the supra-segmental (syllable) level rather than a frame-level change. Subjective evaluation results are shown to demonstrate if the naturalness, speaker similarity and the emotion recognition tasks show any performance difference.


Falls are the most common cause of injuries and the primary etiology for accidental deaths in the elderly population. The ability to quickly take a step is of paramount importance in maintaining balance. Previous research has shown a significant correlation between the time it takes to execute a step and the risk of experiencing a future fall. Consequently, a method that can quickly and accurately measure step behavior may be used to identify individuals with an increased risk of falling. The current project has built a prototype device that can be used in a clinical setting to easily and efficiently measure parameters of step execution. The step is performed under either single task (motor task only) or dual task conditions (motor task while performing an attention demanding cognitive task). Data can be stored in a relational data base and a clinical report that reflects fall risk can be printed. The current project is part of the Swedish PIEp initiative (Product Innovation Engineering Program), a federally and industry supported program that promotes innovation and technology commercialization in engineering education through development of innovation knowledge, experience and education including exchange of students and personnel between industry and academia on a national and international level.


Background Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a common condition among older men, confers its morbidity through potentially bothersome lower urinary tract symptoms. Treatments for BPH include drugs such as alpha-adrenergic receptor blockers and 5-alpha reductase inhibitors, minimally invasive therapies that use heat to damage or destroy prostate tissue, and surgery including transurethral resection of the prostate. Complementary and alternative medicines are gaining popularity in the US. Two phytotherapies commonly used for BPH are extracts of the fruit of Serenoa repens, the Saw palmetto dwarf palm that grows in the Southeastern US, and extracts of the bark of Pygeum africanum, the African plum tree. Purpose The objective of the Complementary and Alternative Medicines for Urological Symptoms (CAMUS) clinical trial is to determine if phytotherapy is superior to placebo in the treatment of BPH. Methods CAMUS was originally designed as a 3300-participant, four-arm trial of S. repens, P. africanum, an alpha-adrenergic blocking drug, and placebo with time to clinical progression of BPH, a measure of long-term efficacy, as the primary endpoint. Before enrollment started, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single institution clinical trial showed that S. repens at the usual dose did not demonstrate any benefit over placebo with respect to symptom relief at 1 year. Consequently, the focus of CAMUS shifted from evaluating long-term efficacy to determining if any short-term (6—18 months) symptom relief could be achieved with increasing doses of S. repens, the phytotherapy most commonly used in the US for BPH. Results Results are anticipated in 2011. Conclusions Trial design occurs in an environment of continually evolving information. In this case, emerging results from another trial suggested that a study of long-term efficacy was premature, and that an effective dose and preparation of S. repens had to be established before proceeding to a long-term clinical trial. Clinical Trials 2009; 6: 628—636. http://ctj.sagepub.com


Undermined survival is usually the reason to migrate: wars, persecutions, famines, natural calamities are just few examples, as well as cultural, economic, social or religious issues. The diversity of these reasons thus correlates with the extreme variability of migrants typologies and their origin countries. Nowadays it has been reached a sufficient stability of the phenomenon, also testified by the growing number of family unities in Italy and all over the Europe, and by the birth of several children in the welcoming country.


We will study the action of a finite family, $\{ F\sb i\} \sbsp {i=1}{m},$ of contractive mappings on a compact subset of a complete metric space. The family $\{ F\sb i\} \sbsp {i=1}{m},$ is known as an iterated function system (IFS). Although many of the results presented here can be generalized to an arbitrary complete metric space, we will restrict ourselves to the metric space ($\IR\sp{n}$, Euclidean distance). Using the notion of Minkowski sausages, we will define a distance function, h (the Hausdorff distance), on the space of all compact subsets of $\IR\sp{n}$ denoted by ${\cal H}(\IR\sp{n})$. The pair (${\cal H}(\IR\sp n), h)$ forms a complete metric space in which we will establish the existence of a unique "point" ${\cal A}$ (compact subset of $\IR\sp n)$ satisfying the equation $\cup \sbsp{i=1}{m}\ F\sb i({\cal A}) = {\cal A}.$ We will explore various characterizations of the compact set ${\cal A}$ which is referred to as the attractor of the IFS $\{ F\sb i\} \sbsp {i=1}{m}$. The topological properties of an attractor depend on the contractive mappings constituting the corresponding IFS. The main purpose of this study is to investigate conditions under which an attractor will have certain connectivity properties. Among these properties will be considered total disconnectedness, connectedness and arcwise connectedness. We will see that in fact, the notions of connectedness and arcwise connectedness coincide in the case of an attractor. Some other topological properties of attractors including property S, local connectedness and semi-local connectedness will also be discussed.


This book analyses collaboration in the Greater Mekong Subregion. It explores inter-state cooperation and the role of subnational units (provincial and local governments) and transnational actors (NGOs, firms) in building and maintaining the subregion. It also considers the relationships between actors on the three levels, their influences within the structures of decision-making in the GMS, their policy pronouncements and roles in the GMS. After exploring the historical background of cooperation in the GMS, the author discusses how far cooperation in the GMS has developed from the mere promotion of the national interest of individual states towards an institution as an independent actor able to influence relationships between its member states instead of only being influenced by them. Hensengerth scrutinises the nature of GMS cooperation and the character and capabilities of the institution of the GMS, exemplified by the bilateral relations between China and Vietnam. Here, the study will combine the analysis of subregionalism and institution-building in the GMS with an analysis of China-Vietnam relations by combining theoretical approaches to regional integration in the form of the regime approach with foreign policy analysis


Limited scientific research regarding the effectiveness of Adventure-Based
Experiential Learning (AEL) as an instrument to develop personal effectiveness
exists. Furthermore, little attention have been given to factors that influence the
effectiveness of these programmes. As a result the purpose of this study was twofold.
Firstly the study aimed to determine whether AEL is effective in improving the
personal effectiveness of participants scientifically. The Review of Personal
Effectiveness with Locus of Control (Richards et al., 2002) was used to determine the
personal effectiveness of participants. For the first article 23 adolescents currently
enrolled in a post-matric development centre were studied. The study consisted of an
experimental (n=12) and control group (n=11). The experimental group participated
in a five day low risk AEL programme in an urban setting. Pre-post test effect sizes
showed that the experimental group experienced significant (d=0.80) development in
four areas and medium (d=0.50) development in nine areas of personal development,
compared to one medium effect size for the control group. Secondly, the study
investigated whether a processed AEL programme will produce higher short-term
outcomes in terms of personal effectiveness than a non-processed programme. For
the second article a processed experimental group (n=12), a non-processed
experimental group (n=12) and a control group (n=11) were studied. The
experimental groups participated in identical Jive day low risk AEL programmes, with
one group receiving group processing after each activity while the other experimental
group did not. Pre-post test effect sizes for the processed experimental group
indicated significant improvements (d=0.80) in four constructs and medium
improvements (d=0.50) in nine constructs. The non-processed experimental group
achieved significant improvements (d=0.80) in one construct and medium
improvements (d=0.50) in two constructs. Results indicate the importance of
processing for the attainment of AEL programme outcomes. Research into the effect
of AEL design and duration as well as the amount and type of processing on outcomes
is recommended.


Enediynes are organic molecules that readily undergo a thermal rearrangement, now commonly known as the Bergman cyclization, to a cyclic para diradical form. Interest in this rearrangement was renewed when it was found to be crucial to the mechanism of cytotoxicity in a variety of natural products containing the enediyne structural moiety. Cyclization of these molecules leads to DNA strand scission and ultimately cell death. Recent efforts by medicinal chemists to discover therapeutically relevant enediyne derivatives have been complemented by computational approaches, which seek to compute energies and energetic barriers to cyclization that can accurately predict the behavior of these molecules in vivo . Here we demonstrate this approach for cis -hex-3-ene-1,5-diyne and two of its analogs using density functional theory, discuss the validity of its predictions, and investigate the effect of basis set on the description of these molecules' reactivity.


Iatrogenic hypoglycemia is a problem for many people with diabetes (1). It causes recurrent morbidity in most people with type 1 diabetes and many with advanced type 2 diabetes and is sometimes fatal. It generally precludes maintenance of euglycemia over a lifetime of diabetes and therefore full realization of the benefits of glycemic control. It impairs defenses against subsequent falling plasma glucose concentrations and causes a vicious cycle of recurrent hypoglycemia.

Hypoglycemia in diabetes is typically the result of the interplay of therapeutic insulin excess—caused by treatment with insulin, a sulfonylurea, or a glinide—and compromised physiological and behavioral defenses against falling plasma glucose concentrations (1,2). Compromised physiological defenses include loss of the normal decrease in β-cell insulin secretion and increase in α-cell glucagon secretion and attenuation of the normal increase in adrenomedullary epinephrine secretion during hypoglycemia. The compromised behavioral defense is failure to ingest carbohydrates because of loss of symptoms due to attenuation of the normal increase in sympathoadrenal, largely sympathetic neural, activity. The concept of hypoglycemia-associated autonomic failure (HAAF) in diabetes posits that recent antecedent hypoglycemia (or sleep or prior exercise) causes both defective glucose counterregulation (by attenuating the epinephrine response in the setting of absent insulin and glucagon responses) and impaired awareness of hypoglycemia (by attenuating sympathoadrenal and the resulting symptomatic responses) and thus a vicious cycle of recurrent hypoglycemia.

Although additional intraislet mechanisms may be involved, it is reasonable to attribute both loss of the insulin and of the glucagon responses to hypoglycemia, the prerequisites to HAAF, to β-cell failure. Insulin normally restrains glucagon secretion and a decrease in insulin normally stimulates glucagon secretion during hypoglycemia. In the setting of absolute endogenous insulin deficiency—β-cell failure—there is …


Summary

This paper explores the challenges and opportunities for feminists working as women's rights and gender equality specialists in international non-governmental development organisations, as analysed from an insider practitioner perspective. Part 1 identifies the strategies used and the challenges encountered when Turquet lobbied DFID on its gender equality policy while struggling to avoid marginalisation within her own organisation, Action Aid. In Part 2, Smyth describes how she left Oxfam for a year to work in the Asian Development Bank and uses this experience to consider the strategic opportunities available to a gender specialist working in an NGO such as Oxfam as compared with working in an international finance institution.


US intelligence agencies - the eponymous American spies - are exceedingly aggressive, pushing and sometimes bursting through the technological, legal and political boundaries of lawful surveillance. Written for a general audience by a surveillance law expert, this book educates readers about how the reality of modern surveillance differs from popular understanding. Weaving the history of American surveillance - from J. Edgar Hoover through the tragedy of September 11th to the fusion centers and mosque infiltrators of today - the book shows that mass surveillance and democracy are fundamentally incompatible. Granick shows how surveillance law has fallen behind while surveillance technology has given American spies vast new powers. She skillfully guides the reader through proposals for reining in massive surveillance with the ultimate goal of surveillance reform.


Much has been written on gray marketing or parallel marketing channels in the U.S. but little has been done on parallel channels of U.S. exports. An exploratory survey was done of international marketing executives to learn of their experiences with the formation of parallel channels of their products. This study identified how parallel traders sourced their products and what factors led to the formation of parallel channels. Comparisons were made between U.S. parallel export channels from U.S. parallel import channels. While grave problems occur with parallel channels, evidence was presented that suggested that parallel channels can provide export marketers with benefits not found in authorized channels. In this respect, parallel channels can be viewed as a supplemental distribution channel. Policy considerations for U.S. exporters were provided as well as areas for future research. Since the mid-1980s there has been a growing interest in the international business literature in so-called "gray markets" or what is referred to by some as parallel markets. Gray market goods are products that enter a market in ways not intended by the original manufacturer (Czinkota, Rivoli, and Ronkainen, 1992). Gray market goods are differentiated from black market products because the former often enter the market legally but outside the control of the regular, authorized distribution channels (Czinkota et al., 1992). In effect, a second, or parallel distribution channel, is formed that exists alongside the authorized one set up by the manufacturer, resulting in intra-brand competition. The bulk of attention to gray marketing has been directed at the U.S. market, where gray market sales have been estimated as high as $10 billion annually (A red-letter date, 1988). There is a growing literature on parallel import activities in the American market (see Weigand,1991; Cavusgil and Sikora, 1988), but virtually nothing from the perspective of American exporters who find their goods being exported through unauthorized channels (notable exceptions are Weigand, 1989 and Kalfayan, 1978). This is an unfortunate gap in the literature because U.S. exporters face various foreign legal systems and environments that impact their distribution policies in ways not found in the parallel trade in the U.S. By focusing mostly on the U.S. market, unique problems, opportunities, and distribution policy concerns of the U.S. exporter related to parallel channels have been ignored. RESEARCH METHOD A convenience sample was drawn consisting of executives who had participated in an executive development seminar on international marketing. Interviews of 27 middle- and seniorlevel executives were conducted from consumer nondurable ( 14 firms), consumer-durable (6 firms), and industrial-goods companies (7 firms). Industries included: tobacco, pharmaceuticals, food, garment, household appliances such washing machines and refrigerators, medical supplies, hand tools, electrical, publishing, and liquor. Nearly 50 percent of the executives interviewed were from divisions of Fortune-SOO organizations, and every company had export sales of at least one million dollars. Export sales as a percentage of total sales averaged over ten percent. In most cases, the interviews were conducted by telephone, while a few were done face-to-face. Mostly open-ended questions were used to facilitate data collection for this exploratory study. No interview was terminated prematurely and the average length was nearly 45 minutes. Respondents found the subject quite interesting and often provided elaborate answers to the questions. Questions focused around five general areas: 1 ) Executive attitudes toward parallel exports of their products. 2) How their products were sourced for parallel export channel. 3) Factors causing parallel export channels to form. 4) Problems and opportunities created by parallel export channels. 5) Commonly used strategies to reduce the occurrence of parallel exports. …


Selectively harvesting whole individuals in managed populations (e.g. fisheries, hunting) has substantial effects on life expectancy and age at maturity. Although demographic rates of trees are impacted by recurrent harvest of plant organs (e.g. fruit, leaf, bark) known as non‐timber forest products, the effect of such harvesting on life‐history traits is less explored. Here, we investigate how different strategies of foliage and bark harvest by local people affect life expectancy and age at maturity of Khaya senegalensis across two climatic regions in West Africa. We compare elasticities of life expectancy to perturbation of vital rates to the elasticities of population growth rate, emphasizing how the two kinds of elasticity address distinct biological issues and management goals. Life expectancy was shorter and reproduction delayed in the dry than in the moist region, indicating a cost of drought to life‐history traits. Harvesting at constant rates only affects (increased) life expectancy in the moist region and (reduced) age at first reproduction in the dry region. Models in which harvest intensity varies stochastically over time show results similar to those with constant harvesting rate. However, there is an interactive effect of harvest on life‐history traits between regions. Increasing harvesting pressure accelerates maturity and reduces life expectancy in the dry region but delays reproduction and increases life expectancy in the moist region. This indicates that stochasticity magnifies the effect of harvesting on life‐history traits. With the notable exception of heavily harvested populations in the moist region, life expectancy is more elastic to survival of early rather than late life stages. This pattern contrasts with the elasticity of population growth rate; the latter is more elastic to survival of late rather than early life stages. Synthesis. Our results suggest that plant harvesting can affect life‐history traits but in different ways across an environmental gradient. Failure to account for stochasticity in harvesting rate can mask some of these effects. Our results also indicate that processes driving plant life expectancy, at least for long‐lived species, may differ from those driving population dynamics.


We have investigated the lateral charge transport in a multilamellar network of crystalline structures of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) embedded in a matrix of small crystallites and amorphous polymers resulting from crystallization at temperatures close to the melting point. Removing the matrix by an appropriate washing process allowed us to observe a power-law increase of the maximum current (Imax) passing from the conductive tip across the polymer crystalline structure into the substrate with increasing number (N) of interconnected edge-on lamellae: Imax ∼ N 2/3. Varying isothermal crystallization temperature and crystallization time allowed to tune the morphological structure and to increase charge transport through the network of lamellar crystals by up to a factor of twenty. Our results suggest that the efficiency of charge transport can be increased by the cumulative contributions of a large number of interconnected crystalline lamellae, indicating a potential pathway for improving the performance ...


Traditionally, the majority of health economic modelling has been performed in spreadsheet calculators such as Microsoft Excel as it is perceived to be more transparent and easy to use. However, as the modelling requirements become more realistic and therefore complex, spreadsheets become increasingly cumbersome and difficult to manage. We argue that specialist statistical packages such as R should be used when the models become suitably complex. We acknowledge the difficulties associated with script-based statistical software, but argue that user-written packages designed for health-technology assessments simplify the analysis when compared to spreadsheet calculators. Additionally, we argue that the production of web-applications based on R will allow the statistical capabilities of specialist software to be available for all. All that is needed is a dialogue between the modellers and the academic to make the software available for all.


We present a method for measuring the physical parameters of the coldest T-type brown dwarfs using low resolution near infrared spectra. By comparing H_2O- and H_2-sensitive spectral ratios between empirical data and theoretical atmosphere models, and calibrating these ratios to measurements for the well-characterized 2-5 Gyr companion brown dwarf Gliese 570D, we derive estimates of the effective temperatures and surface gravities for 13 mid- and late-type field T dwarfs. We also deduce the first quantitative estimate of subsolar metallicity for the peculiar T dwarf 2MASS 0937+2931. Derived temperatures are consistent with prior estimates based on parallax and bolometric luminosity measurements, and examination of possible systematic effects indicate that the results are robust. Two recently discovered late-type T dwarfs, 2MASS 0939-2448 and 2MASS 1114-2618, both appear to be>50 K cooler than the latest-type T dwarf, 2MASS 0415-0935, and are potentially the coldest and least luminous brown dwarfs currently known. We find that, in general, higher surface gravity T dwarfs have lower effective temperatures and luminosities for a given spectral type, explaining previously observed scatter in the Teff/spectral type relation for these objects. Masses, radii and ages are estimated for the T dwarfs in our sample using the evolutionary models of Burrows et al.; we also determine masses and radii independently for eight T dwarfs with measured luminosities. These two determinations are largely consistent, lending support to the validity of evolutionary models at late ages. Our method is well suited to large samples of faint brown dwarfs, and can ultimately be used to directly measure the substellar mass function and formation history in the Galaxy.


The quest towards increasing the energy density of traction battery technologies has led to the emergence and diversification of battery materials. The lithium sulfur battery (LSB) is in this regard a promising material for batteries due to its specific energy. However, due to its low volumetric energy density, the LSB faces challenges in mobility applications such as electric vehicles but also other transportation modes. To understand the potential environmental implication of LSB batteries, a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was performed. For this study, electrodes for both an NMC111 with an anode graphite and a LSB battery cell with a lithium metal foil as anode were manufactured. Data from disassembly experiments performed on a real battery system for a mid-size passenger vehicle were used to build the required life cycle inventory. The energy consumption during the use phase was calculated using a simulative approach. A set of thirteen impact categories was evaluated and characterized with the ReCiPe methodology. The results of the LCA in this study allow identification of the main sources of environmental problems as well as possible strategies to improve the environmental impact of LSB batteries. In this regard, the high requirements of N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) for the processing of the sulfur cathode and the thickness of the lithium foil were identified as the most important drivers. We make recommendations for necessary further research in order to broaden the understanding concerning the potential environmental implication of the implementation of LSB batteries for mobility applications.


High-level modeling formalisms are increasingly popular tools for studying complex systems. Given a high-level model, we can automatically verify certain system properties or compute performance measures about the system. In the general case, measures must be computed using discrete-event simulations. In certain cases, exact numerical analysis is possible by constructing and analyzing the underlying stochastic process of the system, which is a continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC) in our case. Unfortunately, the number of states in the underlying CTMC can be extremely large, even if the high-level model is "small". In this thesis, we develop data structures and techniques that can tolerate these large numbers of states.
First, we present a multi-level data structure for storing the set of reachable states of a model. We then introduce the concept of event "locality", which considers the components of the model that an event may affect. We show how a state generation algorithm using our multi-level structure can exploit event locality to reduce CPU requirements.
Then, we present a symbolic generation technique based on our multi-level structure and our concept of event locality, in which operations are applied to sets of states. The extremely compact data structure and efficient manipulation routines we present allow for the examination of much larger systems than was previously possible.
The transition rate matrix of the underlying CTMC can be represented with Kronecker algebra under certain conditions. However, the use of Kronecker algebra introduces several sources of CPU overhead during numerical solution. We present data structures, including our new data structure called matrix diagrams, that can reduce this CPU overhead. Using our techniques, we can compute measures for large systems in a fraction of the time required by current state-of-the-art techniques.
Finally, we present a technique for approximating stationary measures using aggregations of the underlying CTMC. Our technique utilizes exact knowledge of the underlying CTMC using our compact data structure for the reachable states and a Kronecker representation for the transition rates. We prove that the approximation is exact for models possessing a product-form solution.


We present measurements from the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission taken during a reconnection event on the dayside magnetopause which includes a passage through an electron diffusion region (EDR). The four MMS satellites were separated by about 10 km such that estimates of gradients and divergences allow a reasonable estimate of terms in the generalized Ohm's law, which is key to investigating the energy dissipation during reconnection. The strength and character of dissipation mechanisms determines how magnetic energy is released. We show that both electron pressure gradients and electron inertial effects are important, but not the only participants in reconnection near EDRs, since there are residuals of a few mV/m (~30–50%) of E + Ue × B (from the sum of these two terms) during the encounters. These results are compared to a simulation, which exhibits many of the observed features, but where relatively little residual is present.


What roles or functions does consciousness fulfill in the making of moral decisions? Will artificial agents capable of making appropriate decisions in morally charged situations require machine consciousness? Should the capacity to make moral decisions be considered an attribute essential for being designated a fully conscious agent? Research on the prospects for developing machines capable of making moral decisions and research on machine consciousness have developed as independent fields of inquiry. Yet there is significant overlap. Both fields are likely to progress through the instantiation of systems with artificial general intelligence (AGI). Certainly special classes of moral decision making will require attributes of consciousness such as being able to empathize with the pain and suffering of others. But in this article we will propose that consciousness also plays a functional role in making most if not all moral decisions. Work by the authors of this article with LIDA, a computational and conceptual model of human cognition, will help illustrate how consciousness can be understood to serve a very broad role in the making of all decisions including moral decisions.


Abstract. The world's population is growing rapidly. Food production must be increased in order to meet their dietary needs, but this must come at a cost that is affordable to everyone. Agriculture was the main source of food for the population. All agricultural equipment is rarely modernized due to its low productivity. In India, farming is done by traditional means, in addition to the large-scale development of the industrial and service sectors compared to the agricultural sector. There will be a lot of field work in the agriculture sector, such as weeding, weeding, sowing, spraying, etc. Apart from this spraying operation, the farmers play a vital role in the agricultural process of protecting the crop. Traditionally, the spraying of pesticides and insecticides is carried out by farm workers carrying backpack sprayers that require more human effort. Attention is paid to these important problems and an attempt is made to develop equipment that will be of benefit to the farmer in spraying operations. As we know, there were different types of agricultural sprayers like backpa. Because there is a lot of solar energy available in nature. So we will use solar energy in agricultural sprayers with the help of solar panels. Farmers face the problem of large area coverage in a short period of time. In this project work, we will manufacture a multiple power supply of fertilizer sprayer. And this manufactured equipment will cover the maximum area during spraying.


Persistence is a hazard criterion for chemicals enshrined in chemical regulation worldwide. In this paper, we argue that the higher the persistence of a chemical, the greater the emphasis that it should be given in chemicals assessment and decision making. We provide case studies for three classes of highly persistent chemicals (chlorofluorocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) to exemplify problems unique to highly persistent chemicals, despite their otherwise diverse properties. Many well-known historical chemical pollution problems were the result of the release of highly persistent chemicals. Using evaluative modeling calculations, we demonstrate that if a chemical is highly persistent, its continuous release will lead to continuously increasing contamination irrespective of the chemical's physical-chemical properties. We argue that these increasing concentrations will result in increasing probabilities of the occurrence of known and unknown effects and that, once adverse effects are identified, it will take decades, centuries or even longer to reverse contamination and therefore effects. Based on our findings we propose that high persistence alone should be established as a sufficient basis for regulation of a chemical, which we term the "P-sufficient approach". We argue that regulation on high persistence alone is not over-precautionary given the historical and ongoing problems that persistent chemicals have caused. Regulation of highly persistent chemicals, for example by restriction of emissions, would not only be precautionary, but would serve to prevent poorly reversible future impacts.


Purpose: This multicenter, first-in-human study evaluated safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of BI-505, a human anti-ICAM-1monoclonal antibody, in advanced relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients. Experimental Design: BI-505 was given intravenously, every 2 weeks, at escalating doses from 0.0004 to 20 mg/kg, with extension of therapy until disease progression for responding or stable patients receiving 0.09 mg/kg or higher doses. Results: A total of 35 patients were enrolled. The most common adverse events were fatigue, pyrexia, headache, and nausea. Adverse events were generally mild to moderate, and those attributed to study medication were mostly limited to the first dose and manageable with premedication and slower infusion. No maximum tolerated dose was identified. BI-5050s half-life increased with dose while clearance decreased, suggesting target-mediated clearance. The ICAM-1 epitopes on patient bone marrow myeloma were completely saturated at 10 mg/kg doses. Using the International Myeloma Working Group criteria, 7 patients on extended therapy had stable disease for more than 2 months. Conclusion: BI-505 can be safely administered at doses that saturate myeloma cell ICAM-1 receptors in patients. This study was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01025206). Clin Cancer Res; 1–7. 2015 AACR.


Giant gas discoveries in the vicinity have sparked increased interest in the petroleum potential of the Eastern Mediterranean. However, a lack of well data from the area means that a number of crucial unknowns about the region remain. Many of these unknowns relate to uncertainties regarding the sedimentary infill of the main basins, including the sediment provenance areas and elastic properties. The petroleum potential of this region has been investigated through the acquisition and analysis of multiple 2D and 3D seismic surveys offshore Cyprus and Lebanon and a thorough review of available literature regarding the regional geology. An amplitude extraction study indicates sourcing of probable clastic sediments from the NE, from present-day Syria. In addition evidence of conduits coming off onshore Lebanon can be seen in the seismic data. Use of released data from one of the closest wells penetrating the same stratigraphy as the new discoveries enabled us to build a synthetic model over one of these discoveries (Tamar discovery) and to perform a fluid-substitution over this model. Comparison of these results with characteristics of identified leads and prospects in the northern, undrilled part of the Levantine Basin may improve our understanding of the rock properties in this area as similarities in between these may also indicate similarities in the elastic properties.


Galileo wrote that "the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics"; his quantitative approach to understanding the natural world arguably marks the beginning of modern science. Nearly 400 years later, the fragmented teaching of science in our universities still leaves biology outside the quantitative and mathematical culture that has come to define the physical sciences and engineering. This strikes us as particularly inopportune at a time when opportunities for quantitative thinking about biological systems are exploding. We propose that a way out of this dilemma is a unified introductory science curriculum that fully incorporates mathematics and quantitative thinking.


Abstract Objective Clinical guidelines exist to promote antibiotic stewardship, particularly in ambulatory care settings such as the emergency department (ED). However, there is limited evidence on prescribing practice for persons with spinal cord injury and disorder (SCI/D). The goal of this study was to assess trends in antibiotic prescribing in the ED setting for persons with SCI/D. Design A retrospective dynamic cohort study design. Setting ED visits that did not result in same day hospitalization over 6 years (fiscal year (FY) 2002-FY2007) in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities Participants Veterans with SCI/D. Outcome measures VA clinical and administrative databases were used to identify the cohort and to obtain demographics, diagnoses, and medications. The rate of antibiotic prescribing for ED visits was defined as the number of antibiotics/total ED visits. Results Veterans with SCI/D had 21 934 ED visits and 5887 antibiotics prescribed over the study period (rate of 268.4 prescriptions/1000 visits). The antibiotic prescribing rate increased from 238.8/1000 visits in FY2002 to 310.8/1000 visits in FY2007 (P < 0.0001). This increase in the rate of prescribing was seen across all patient demographics and factors assessed. Conclusion Although clinical guidelines for judicious use of antibiotics in persons with SCI/D have been disseminated to providers, antibiotic prescribing in an ED setting is high and continuing to rise in this population.


Set in Italy in the summer of 1940, this trio of stories explores the relationships between the different generations caught up in the war as well as Calvino's own experiences as a teenager. In the title story, "Into the War", we are given an insight into what life was really like for those too young to be conscripted into Mussolini's army, while in "The Avanguardisti in Menton", Calvino and his friends take a revealingly anti-climactic trip to the garrisoned French town of Menton, the sole Italian conquest of the early months of the conflict. The final story, "UNPA Nights", is a touching, comic tale of friendship in a blackout, where the narrator's imagination wanders as he roams through the seedier parts of the darkened town instead of guarding the school buildings. "Into the War" is Calvino at his autobiographical best, combining brilliantly recollected memory with compelling wit and perfect prose.


A renewable energy program in Bangladesh that brings solar power to rural households is one of the most successful solar home system (SHS) programs in the world. It has demonstrated an inexpensive and reliable way to bring electricity to rural households. Several output-based aid (OBA) features have contributed to the success. Notably, the subsidy payment makes the installation of a working solar home system affordable to poorer households, and is combined with longer-term consumer credit. This note explores the distinctive features and results of the program and draws lessons for future projects.


Multibeam bathymetry is a major reconnaissance tool for marinegeological and geophysical surveys. Bathymetry, backscatter intensityand sidescan data are collected as a first stage of subsequentmultiparameter surveys. The products derived are used for theinterpretation of processes and features on the ocean floor.The AWI Bathymetry and Geodesy Group manages arctic and antarcticbathymetry data from 18 years of R/V Polarstern cruises, heterogeneousin format, quality and processing stage. GIS plays a major role in theprocessing of our bathymetry data. However, the manifold kinds of datathat we store among the bathymetry (data from GPS, gravimetry,altimetry, etc.) are not yet implemented in a homogeneous databasearchitecture ready for synergistic spatial and temporal queries.Aim of the FramBIS project is the creation of a high resolution DigitalElevation Model (DEM) and bathymetric chart series of the Fram Straitbased on Seabeam and Hydrosweep multibeam data from R/V Polarsterncruises between 1984 and today. The Fram Strait region is part of theextensive arctic ridge system, it's topography thus is of interest formultifarious geological and biological ridge process studies.Besides the DEM modelling the project serves as a microscale pilot studyfor a data unification in the afore mentioned sense. Currently we arelooking for an adequate data and database model fitting our needs and asuitable client for data query and retrieval. Bringing the data togetherin an appropriate manner at best raises synergistic potentials forproblem solution, at least offers a new, hopefully inspiring view on thedata.Moreover the technical realization of internal and external databaseaccess via WWW is simplified. This is particularly important asbathymetry data is a significant basic information for the marinescience community. As the global coverage of high resolution bathymetricinformation is still poor it seems desirable not only to have the globallarge scale data (e.g. GEBCO, ETOPO5) available via WWW but also datafrom smaller regions in higher resolution.Our poster describes the use of GIS in our data processing and draws upa plan for a web-based 'Bathymetric Information System' for the FramStrait with GIS-capabilities for data query, analysis and capture. Thissystem is not yet implemented.


ABSTRACT With the growing number of older adults becoming a global concern, developed countries have focused on education as a means to promote successful aging. Previous research has focused on the effects of gender and age on learning satisfaction among senior students. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to the interactive effects of age and gender on learning satisfaction of senior university students. To investigate these effects, a learning satisfaction questionnaire was administered to 485 students enrolled in the Division of Continuing and Extension Education (DCEE) at the National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences in Taiwan. The data collected were subsequently examined by means of descriptive statistics and univariate analysis of variance. The results revealed that respondents were generally satisfied with the DCEE program. However, the standard deviation scores for learning satisfaction were slightly higher for males than for females. Furthermore, an interactive effect was identified between gender and age in relation to learning satisfaction. Respondents' learning satisfaction scores were higher for males than for females for the age range of 55–60. For the group aged 71 and above, females scored higher than males. However, males in the age range of 55–60 had a higher level of learning satisfaction than males aged 71 and above. Based on this study, the article identifies implications for teachers and administrators such as a need for more diverse, adaptive, and sustainable programs that enhance learner satisfaction.


This paper discusses the emergence of aspiration as a keyword linked to higher education equity policy in England and Australia since 1997. Aspiration serves multiple purposes when constructed as a problematic site in which policy must intervene. For example, it can be understood as a vector for new technologies of governance that operate through the production of entrepreneurial dispositions; as a signifier for groups that have experienced upward social mobility; and as a personality trait that correlates with future earnings and thus can be defined as a dimension of human capital. It has also provided a rallying point for equity work in higher education. Focusing on English and Australian policy contexts, as well as the recent education work of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), we examine the different perspectives of a range of stakeholders on the strategy of 'raising aspiration' for higher education and how these have changed over time; the partnership work undertaken in the HE systems of both countries under the aegis of aspiration-raising policies; and recent policy developments in both contexts. In particular, we consider how aspiration-focused policies have affective effects on policy actors and seek to control affects directly by modulating feelings about capacities for action in the future. Two data sets provide the empirical basis for the paper: (a) document analysis of major equity policies in England since 1997 and in Australia since 2008, as well as a review of relevant OECD policy documents; and (b) analysis of nine interviews with equity practitioners and policy personnel in England, Australia, and located within the OECD.


It has become a matter of recurring lament and concern — and periodically, an object of satire and derision — that Americans lack basic knowledge, awareness, or interest concerning the world beyond their borders; whether in terms of history, public affairs, culture, language, or even basic geography. Politicians, corporate leaders, scholars, and other observers across a broad spectrum routinely warn of the potential dangers this global awareness deficit poses to the well-being and security of the United States. In an increasingly interdependent world — with a growing array of economic, political, social, and environmental problems that transcend national borders — individuals cannot meaningfully function as responsible democratic citizens without both greater global knowledge, and the capacities and sensibilities necessary to engage that knowledge critically, and with sophistication. Some observers push harder and deeper; as Martha Nussbaum argues, "[i]t is irresponsible to bury our heads in the sand, ignoring the many ways in which we influence, every day, the lives of distant people."In response to these concerns, significant investments have been made in recent years to expand the place of global perspectives in elementary, secondary, and undergraduate education. To what extent and in what manner, then, are analogous concerns relevant to U.S. law schools, which educate some of society's most active and influential citizens? And how have law schools responded? This symposium issue of the Drexel Law Review examines these questions. Fifteen panelists — with expertise and experience spanning a variety of countries and legal systems — presented papers engaging current trends concerning globalization and legal education at the symposium, which took place in October 2012. Eight of these papers are published in this symposium issue.Although the rationales for globalizing legal education are longstanding and well-developed, the dynamic and uncertain context of U.S. legal education demands an equally dynamic set of responses that continue to develop, critique, refine, and rearticulate these rationales — and equally important, that critically assess and reassess the specific forms that initiatives to globalize legal education can and should take. The contributions to this symposium issue take on this challenge by addressing a series of conceptual and methodological themes at the leading edge of recent developments, including innovative approaches to integrating international, transnational, and comparative perspectives into the law school curriculum, pioneering methods of bringing these global perspectives into experiential learning and lawyering programs, and critical perspectives on all of these emerging ideas and trends.


This book is for anyone who wants to provide their learners with rich and rewarding reading experiences. Drawing on current reading theory, the book promotes the teaching of reading in a theoretically sound way, moving beyond a comprehension-testing approach to reading. The practical part of the book provides a collection of accessible, generic activities so that teachers can support and develop learners' reading skills and strategies. Its scope is wide-ranging, from promoting reading and developing fluency, to exploiting digital sources, using learner-generated texts and assessing reading. Further activities support teachers develop excellence in the teaching of reading through guided reflection and action research.


Author(s): Douglass, John A; Zhao, Chun-Mei | Abstract: Bolstered by the recommendations of the 1998 Boyer Report, US federal agencies have put significant resources into promoting opportunities for undergraduates to engage in research. American universities and colleges have been creating support programs and curricular opportunities intended to create a "culture of undergraduate research." Yet our knowledge about the commonality of undergraduate research engagement—how it integrates into the educational experience, and its benefits or lack thereof—is still very limited. Universities exude the ideal of a pivotal link of teaching and research. We have assumed that personal interactions between active scholars and undergraduates—via traditional curriculum, research courses, working in a lab or doing fieldwork—have positive influences on students' maturation and their overall academic and social experience. The following exploratory study looks at data generated by the 2010 Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) undergraduate survey, an online census administered at fifteen major research-intensive universities. Among this specific case study of mostly AAU campuses, there is evidence that undergraduate research engagement outside of the traditional classroom is a relatively common experience. Further, this research engagement leads to self-reported learning gains across many areas, but especially in the areas of field knowledge, how to present and communicate knowledge, research skills, higher levels of satisfaction about educational experiences, better use of time, and higher levels of non-quantitative skills. Yet not all research activities are created equally. This study identified two different types of research: those research activities that mainly involve assisting faculty research, and those that mainly involve conducting independent personal research. The former is more prevalent in STEM fields, while the latter is more likely in the humanities, social sciences, and in professional majors. Further, lower-division students also tend to participate in assisting faculty research more often than their upper-division peers, who are more likely to engage in independent research. As part of the ongoing SERU research agenda, we hope to generate a more extensive analysis of SERU data and other data sources. We suggest that SERU campuses consider amending their current curricular requirements based on the following recommendations resulting from this investigation: 1. use the SERU database to provide regular reports on undergraduate research engagement, and include those reports in Academic Program/Department reviews; 2. expand existing efforts so that most, if not all, undergraduates have the opportunity for two or more non-classroom forms of research engagement, perhaps depending on the field of the major and discipline.


The Carrall Street Greenway is a public realm improvement project located in the Vancouver's historic Downtown Eastside (DTES). Development of the Greenway served two functions; stimulating the economic revitalization of the DTES, and adding to the City of Vancouver (City) greenways network. The Greenway design process was lengthy and involved stakeholders from diverse backgrounds including special interest groups, such as heritage and cycling advocacy groups, community groups and business operators. The goal was to develop a design for the 20 metre right-of-way that satisfied all groups. The design narrows the space allocated to vehicles to two travel lanes with uni-directional recreational paths at sidewalk level on each side of the street. There is also a flexible amenity area on one side of the street to be used for the various community needs. At different times of day or season, this amenity area can be used for parking, loading, sidewalk cafes, street parties and other community programming. Providing this flexibility in space programming is a new concept for Vancouver. In addition to the special transportation design features, the Greenway also incorporates numerous innovative and sustainable design elements such as stormwater infiltration planter boxes, granite features, and a permeable paving system.


Emergency Health-Care based scenarios provide the motivation to develop supporting technologies for dealing with situations where people need medical assistance because of a sudden disease or emergency. The innovative combination of intelligent agent technology, semantic Web services, peer-to-peer, and mobile computing for intelligent peer-to-peer mobile service environments is the corner stone of the CASCOM project, which aims at providing a value-added support for business services for mobile workers and users across mobile and fixed networks, especially for e-Health environments. In this paper, we describe the technical approach developed in the CASCOM project for the context-aware secure composition planning and execution of Semantic Web Services.


"Functional Information"—estimated from the mutual information of protein sequence alignments—has been proposed as a reliable way of estimating the number of proteins with a specified function and the consequent difficulty of evolving a new function. The fantastic rarity of functional proteins computed by this approach emboldens some to argue that evolution is impossible. Random searches, it seems, would have no hope of finding new functions. Here, we use simulations to demonstrate that sequence alignments are a poor estimate functional information. The mutual information of sequence alignments fantastically underestimates of the true number of functional proteins, because it also is strongly influenced by a family's history, mutational bias, and selection. Regardless, even if functional information could be reliably calculated, it tells us nothing about the difficulty of evolving new functions, because it does not estimate the distance between a new function and existing functions. The pervasive observation of multifunctional proteins suggests that functions are actually ver close to one another and abundant. Multifunctional proteins would be impossible if the FI argument against evolution were true.


Abstract We investigated the influence of climatic and environmental factors on interannual variations in juvenile abundances of marine fishes in a river-dominated coastal system of the north-central Gulf of Mexico, where an elevated primary productivity sustains fisheries of high economic importance. Fish were collected monthly with an otter trawl at three stations near Mobile Bay from 1982 to 2007. Fish sizes were used to isolate juvenile stages within the data set, and monthly patterns in juvenile fish abundance and size were then used to identify seasonal peaks for each species. The average numbers of juvenile fish collected during these seasonal peaks in each year were used as indices of annual juvenile abundances and were related to corresponding seasonal averages of selected environmental factors via a combination of principal components analysis and co-inertia analysis. Factors contributing the most to explain interannual variations in juvenile fish abundances were river discharge and water temperature during early spring—early summer, wind speed and North Atlantic Oscillation index during late fall—winter, and atmospheric pressure and wind speed during summer—fall. For example, juvenile abundances of southern kingfish Menticirrhus americanus during summer—fall were positively associated with atmospheric pressure and negatively associated with wind speed during this period. Southern kingfish juvenile abundances during late fall—winter were also negatively associated with wind speed during the same period and were positively associated with river discharge during early spring—early summer. Juvenile abundances of the Atlantic croaker Micropogonias undulatus during early spring—early summer were negatively associated with river discharge and North Atlantic Oscillation during late fall—winter. Overall, the importance of river discharge for many of the species examined emphasizes the major role of watershed processes for marine fisheries production in coastal waters of the north-central Gulf of Mexico.


The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act compelled states to design school-accountability systems based on annual student assessments. The effect of this Federal legislation on the distribution of student achievement is a highly controversial but centrally important question. This study presents evidence on whether NCLB has influenced student achievement based on an analysis of state-level panel data on student test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The impact of NCLB is identified using a comparative interrupted time series analysis that relies on comparisons of the test-score changes across states that already had school-accountability policies in place prior to NCLB and those that did not. Our results indicate that NCLB generated statistically significant increases in the average math performance of 4th graders (effect size = 0.22 by 2007) as well as improvements at the lower and top percentiles. There is also evidence of improvements in 8th grade math achievement, particularly among traditionally low-achieving groups and at the lower percentiles. However, we find no evidence that NCLB increased reading achievement in either 4th or 8th grade.


Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (real name Lev Simkhovich Vygodsky; Orsha 1896–Moscow 1934) was a Russian psychologist who created cultural-historical theory, which proved influential in developmental psychology and other psychological disciplines. Vygotsky characterized his approach as "height psychology" (as opposed to "depth psychology") and posited that the higher forms of mind should be the starting point for the study of human development. In his view it was essential to study psychological processes in their historical dynamics; these dynamics could be unraveled with the causal-genetic approach he developed, which involved the guided formation of mind in the course of its study or the experimental unfolding of ontogeny. Vygotsky claimed that the mechanisms of human development are not genetically determined and that we must find its source in culture and the social environment. Human development is mediated by cultural artifacts and sign systems, which are mastered in a dialogue with other people in spontaneous or guided interaction, which stimulates development by creating a zone of proximal development. The major means of the transformation of innate mind into higher mind is language, which enables us to preserve and transmit the experience of generations. In this process of cultural development the person develops a system of higher psychological functions that are social in origin, voluntary and mediated in nature, and form part of a systemic whole. The process of ontogeny goes through a series of stable periods and crises that correspond with specific conditions of the social situation of development and the developmental tasks. Age periods are completed with the development of neoformations, which do not just form results but are also prerequisites for further development. With the development of verbal thinking and the mastery of cultural means of behavior the person masters her/his innate mind and becomes a personality, whose main characteristic is freedom of behavior.


A simple, accurate, rapid and sensitive spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of tramadol hydrochloride in pharmaceutical formulations. The method was based on the formation of chloroform extractable complex of tramadol hydrochloride with wool fast blue, which shows absorbance maxima at 590 nm against the reagent blank treated similarly. The method obeys Beer's law in the concentration ranges of 50-250 µg/mL. Validation studies are statistically significant as all the statistical parameters are within the acceptance range (% RSD< 2.0 and S.D. < 2.0) for both accuracy and precision study. High recovery and low % RSD reveals the reliability of the method for quantitative study of the proposed method in tablet formulation. The proposed method is simple, rapid accurate, precise, reproducible and economic and can be used for routine quantitative analysis of tramadol hydrochloride in pure and tablet dosage form.


The surgical management and treatment of oral cancer is one of the greatest challenges for residents and fellows specializing in oral and maxillofacial surgery. The unique anatomy of the perioral region makes tumor ablation and surgical reconstruction particularly complex. This practical handbook presents the most important procedures in oral cancer surgery in a concise and highly visual manner, providing a solid repertoire of basic surgical techniques for handling almost any case and achieving the best possible results. Key features: * Comprehensive coverage of all the most important surgical approaches for managing and treating oral cancer* Practical systematic guide encompassing every step of the operative procedure including tracheotomy techniques, lymph node management, tumor ablation, and reconstruction* Enhanced with more than 200 full-color intraoperative photographs and diagrams to illustrate each step of the surgical process* Includes important tips and tricks for anticipating and avoiding potential problems during surgery This book is an essential reference for all young surgeons wanting to review the surgical principals, anatomy, and techniques that form the basis of oral cancer therapy. More experienced surgeons will also find it useful for reviewing techniques and surgical strategy before heading into the operating room. Thieme eOtolaryngology is the premier online resource for otolaryngology-head and neck surgery. For a free trial, go to: thieme.com/eototrial


Thirty-four K-Ar ages and supporting paleomagnetic measurements from flows of the Cima volcanic field provide a detailed volcanic history and a temporal basis for analysis of evolving landforms. The Cima field has undergone three periods of volcanic activity, spanning late Miocene through latest Pleistocene time: (1) 7.6 to 6.5, (2) 4.5 to 3.6, and (3) 1.0 to at least 0.015 m.y. ago. These precisely dated sequences afford a unique opportunity to quantify the long-term effects of pedogenesis and erosion on volcanic landforms in an arid environment. Morphologic and pedologtc data indicate that the most stable geomorphic surfaces in the field occur on flows between 0.25 and 0.75 m.y. old. Younger flows are dominated by eolian aggradation and outcrop rubbling, and older flows are dominated by surface runoff and fluvial dissection. A process-response model involving progressive pedogenesis and a subsequent shift from infiltration to surface runoff is proposed to explain this temporal variation in land-surface stability.


Abstract. The goal of this work is to intercompare four global land surface emissivity products over various land-cover conditions to assess their consistency. The intercompared land emissivity products were generated over a 5-year period (2003–2007) using observations from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer – Earth Observing System (AMSR-E), the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I), the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager (TMI), and WindSat. First, all products were reprocessed in the same projection and spatial resolution as they were generated from sensors with various configurations. Then, the mean value and standard deviations of monthly emissivity values were calculated for each product to assess the spatial distribution of the consistencies/inconsistencies among the products across the globe. The emissivity products were also compared to soil moisture estimates and a satellite-based vegetation index to assess their sensitivities to changes in land surface conditions. Results show the existence of systematic differences among the products. Also, it was noticed that emissivity values in each product have similar frequency dependency over different land-cover types. Monthly means of emissivity values from AMSR-E in the vertical and horizontal polarizations seem to be systematically lower than the rest of the products across various land-cover conditions which may be attributed to the 01:30/13:30 LT overpass time of the sensor and possibly a residual skin temperature effect in the product. The standard deviation of the analyzed products was lowest (less than 0.01) in rain forest regions for all products and highest at northern latitudes, above 0.04 for AMSR-E and SSM/I and around 0.03 for WindSat. Despite differences in absolute emissivity estimates, all products were similarly sensitive to changes in soil moisture and vegetation. The correlation between the emissivity polarization differences and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values showed similar spatial distribution across the products, with values close to the unit except over densely vegetated and desert areas.


In this paper, analytical expressions are presented for the microwave attenuation of slow wave electrodes obtained by periodically loading a regular coplanar line with capacitive elements. Such electrodes are commonly used in III-V compound semiconductor electro-optic modulators and other traveling wave devices. These results are obtained by modifying the existing analytical loss expressions for regular coplanar lines based on physical arguments. The predictions of these expressions are compared with experimental results up to 35 GHz and agreement is found to be very good. Validity of this analysis is also discussed. It is found that the approach works very well for lines of practical interest. Hence, the proposed approach enables complete design of capacitively loaded slow wave electrodes by predicting the microwave loss with closed-form equations in addition to velocity and characteristic impedance.


Energy saving is considered as one of the most important issue affects the consumers, power system quality and the global environment. The high energy demanded by home appliances, air conditioning and lighting makes homes to be considered as one of the most critical area for the impact of energy consumption. Smart home technology is a good choice for people not only care about security, comfort but energy saving as well. In this paper, a smart home energy management technique based on a set of sensors is presented. It minimizes the domestic energy waste and can be adapted according to the user habits. A proposed scenario is reported of daily routine and performed by 16 steps. Three assumptions of varying the time spent in each step according to different behavior are examined. The effectiveness of the proposed set is shown based on a static correlation between the power consumption and saving. KeywordsEnergy saving, smart home, occupancy sensor.


Within the dance world, gender (as a binary concept) appears to be central to lived experience. Whilst dance
is known as a feminine activity, males tend to be even more in the minority in more 'feminised' genres, such as ballet. However, in other genres, such as street dance, which allows them to conform to a more traditionally masculine identity, they are in the majority. Regardless of genre, however, males are more often found in positions of power within the dance-performer's world compared to their female counterparts. Dance teachers clearly have an important role to play in dance students' perceptions of gendered (in)equalities within the dance world, where the majority of dance teachers are female. To date, however, their perceptions have been under-researched. To address this research gap, 10 female professional dance teachers, ranging in age from 24 to 71 years, were interviewed. Data were analysed using thematic analysis through the theoretical lens of symbolic interactionism. Two salient themes were identified: coolness and masculinity, and male privilege.
Participants perceived that gender inequalities did exist within dance genres and in the opportunities afforded to male and female dancers. These inequalities appeared to lead to a greater valorisation of male dancers in terms of physical and psychological characteristics. The perceptions of female dance teachers in general are important in relation to the socialisation of future dance professionals.


In invasion ecology, potential impacts of aliens on native flora are still under debate. Our aim was to determine the pollinator mediated effects of both proximity and abundance of an alien species on the reproductive success of natives. We chose the highly invasive Impatiens glandulifera and two native species: Epilobium angustifolium and Aconitum napellus ssp. lusitanicum. These species share characteristics allowing for pollination interactions: similar biotopes, overlapping flowering periods and same main pollinators. The effects of abundance (5, 25 and 100 individuals) and proximity (0 and 15 m) of the alien on visitation rate, insect behaviour, pollen deposition and reproductive success of both natives were investigated during 2 flowering seasons. We used centred visitation rates as they can be directly interpreted as a positive or negative effect of the invasive. Both abundance and proximity of the alien increased bumblebee visitation rates to both natives. On the other hand, abundance of the exotic species had a slight negative effect on honeybee visits to natives while its proximity had no effect. The behaviour of bumblebees changed as visitors left significantly more often the native plants for I. glandulifera when its abundance increased. As a consequence of this "inconstancy", bees deposited considerable quantities of alien pollen on native stigmas. Nevertheless, this interspecific pollen transfer did not decrease seed set in natives. Self-compatibility and high attractiveness of both native species probably alleviate the risk of altered pollinator services and reproductive success due to the invader in natural populations.


The social justice paradigm, developed in philosophy by John Rawls and others, reaches limits when confronted with diverse populations, unsound governments, and global markets. Its parameters are further limited by a traditional utilitarian approach to both industrial actors and consumer behaviors. Finally, by focusing too exclusively on poverty, as manifested in insufficient incomes or resources, the paradigm overlooks the oppressive role that gender, race, and religious prejudice play in keeping the poor subordinated. The authors suggest three ways in which marketing researchers could bring their unique expertise to the question of social justice in a global economy: by (1) reinventing the theoretical foundation laid down by thinkers such as Rawls, (2) documenting and evaluating emergent "feasible fixes" to achieve justice (e.g., the global resource dividend, cause-related marketing, Fair Trade, philanthrocapitalism), and (3) exploring the parameters of the consumption basket that would be minimally required to achieve human capabilities.


Anne Boleyn has been narrativized in Young Adult (YA) historical fiction since the nineteenth century. Since the popular Showtime series The Tudors (2007–2010) aired, teenage girls have shown increased interest in the story of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second and most infamous queen. This construction of Boleyn suggests that she was both celebrated and punished for her proto-feminist agency and forthright sexuality. A new subgenre of Boleyn historical fiction has also recently emerged—YA novels in which her story is rewritten as a contemporary high school drama. In this article, I consider several YA novels about Anne Boleyn in order to explore the relevance to contemporary teenage girls of a woman who lived and died 500 years ago.


Growing evidence suggests that Parkinson's disease is not solely affecting the dopaminergic system. Results from biochemical, animal, postmortem, and functional imaging studies have revealed that other neurotransmitter systems are affected as well, including the serotonergic system. With the use of in vivo positron emission tomography functional imaging, it has been shown that serotonergic terminals are affected at a varying, nonlinear degree starting early in the clinical course of Parkinson's disease. Tremor and the majority of nonmotor symptoms do not seem to respond adequately to dopaminergic medication. Recent studies suggest that serotonergic dysfunction has a direct relevance to Parkinson's disease symptoms, the so-called nonmotor symptoms, including depression, fatigue, weight changes, and visual hallucinations. These in vivo findings indicate that agents acting on the serotonergic system could help towards alleviating these symptoms. This paper aims to review the current literature and to highlight the need for further in vivo investigations.


Topics Covered: The coverage in this book is wide, ranging from channel programming, through the operation of the vacuum column in a magnetic tape unit, to how a verifier operator can cheat! More specifically, there are chapters on the following subjects: the channel; I/O software;punch card (on and off-line) devices and the integrated control unit;IBM 1403 printers;magnetism and magnetic recording; IBM 2400 series magnetic tape units and their controllers; direct access storage devices; the IBM 2311 disk drive; the IBM 2841 disk storage controller; the IBM 2321 data cell; the IBM 2314 disk system; the IBM 2303 head per track drum; and the IBM 1052 inquiry console. Both hardware and software aspects of these topics are covered, at a level similar to that in the descriptive parts of the manufacturer's manuals. Quantitative information on byte storage capacities is given.


This thesis is comprised of studies in the characterisation of monolayer-protected and metal cluster of the structural response of size-selected (bare) clusters to chemical reactions. The technique employed is high-angle annular dark field (HAADF) aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (AC-STEM).

The effect of chemical reactions on size-selected metal clusters was investigated. The clusters under investigation were imaged with AC-STEM and their structure was assigned by comparing the atomic resolution images with a set of multi-slice STEM image simulation atlases.

The effect of vapour-phase 1-pentyne hydrogenation on size-selected Aux (x=923 and 2057) cluster was studied and it was found that the gold nanoclusters demonstrate high stability in both size distribution and structure under the reaction. On the contrary, size-selected Pdx (x=923 and 2057) clusters tended to transform from amorphous to high symmetry structures under the same reaction condition.

The gas-phase CO oxidation reaction on size-selected Aux (x=561, 923 and 2057) cluster was studied with regard to cluster size distribution and atomic structure. It was found that under the same conditions of the CO oxidation reaction, two different kind of ripening modes could be identified depended on the cluster size. Smoluchowski ripening, in which clusters diffuse intact and coalescence, is found to occur for Au2057 in the CO oxidation reaction. Ostwald ripening, in which larger clusters grow at the expense of smaller ones, was found to occur for Au561 and Au923 clusters, due to the extra energy generated from catalytic CO oxidation reaction.


Introduction: Quality of work life (QWL) is a comprehensive program which leads to promotion of productivity, performance and satisfaction of staff. Occupational stress is, also, defined as individual`s physical, mental and emotional reactions which are experienced due to working life needs and changes. Therefore, this research aims to determine the relationship of QWL with occupational stress in Bu-Ali Sina university staff. Methods: The study is a cross sectional-descriptive type carried out on 178 individuals of Bu-Ali Sina university staff. The data were collected through standard questionnaire of determining QWL and questionnaire of classification of individual`s stress. To test the hypotheses, Pearson correlation coefficient and Lambda test, by utilizing SPSS-16, were used. Results: The results showed that the level of QWL in the population of the study was at the medium and there was a positive significant relationship between QWL and staff education (P=0.001) and between QWL and staff working experience (P=0.04). However, between QWL and sex, marital status and age no significant relationship was found. Based on Pearson correlation test, there was obtained a significant relationship between score of QWL mean and mean of individuals` stress (P=.0.004). In another word, the greater the individuals` QWL, the less stress they experience. Conclusion: Regarding the research findings, managers should improve the level of QWL through coop-erative programs and team working to reduce occupational stress in the workplace.


T
The current scenario, increasingly characterised by discursive practices and multi-ethnic social relations, requires institutions to play a more active role in strategies for the inclusion of immigrants. A complex challenge that requires a rethinking of institutional communication in order to activate a greater cooperation between self-produced and heteroproduced information. The relationship between administrations and local media facilitates the promotion of a cultural and informative pluralism, partly reducing the processes of mediation and mediatisation. The research presents the specific case of the Marche Region by investigating the communication strategies adopted by municipal authorities with a point of view to promote social inclusion. The analysis focuses on two main dimensions: the first concerns service communication to promote cultural integration, whereas the second focuses on the management of institutional information and the relationship with local media.  The main objective is to strengthen the communication strategies present today in the local context to promote the inclusion of migrants and identify how institutions can coordinate with the media to promote information of public utility.


This paper conducts a preliminary assessment of how perceptions influence the decision to opt for entrepreneurship, and whether they vary across selected countries. The central focus is Pakistan: the country's outcomes are duly contrasted with results from Bangladesh, an amalgamated grouping of factordriven economies, and a broad sample of global economies. A pooled dataset of 69 countries surveyed in 2010 and 2011 by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor is utilized. The model takes perceptual factors into account, in addition to the traditional demographic variables which dominate the literature. The results indicate that, globally, three perceptual variables namely opportunity awareness, personally knowing an entrepreneur, and self-confidence in one's own knowledge, skills and abilities increase the likelihood of a person turning into an entrepreneur; the latter two variables are also correlated with the decision to pursue entrepreneurship in Pakistan. However, there are differences in the impact of other perceptual variables like opportunity awareness and fear of failure and also among some standard demographic variables across the set of countries which constitute the research.


The quest for high quality evaluation and assessment of student knowledge and performance has been repeatedly addressed over the years. Without a clear framework of standards and benchmarks, gaps will persist in curriculum content and the quality of instruction will not be advanced. Call for Standards A Nation at Risk, published in 1983 by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, initiated the modern standards movement that called for reform in our educational institutions. It identified "a rising tide of mediocrity" in education that threatened the future of our nation (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983). In 1989, an Education Summit held by President George Bush and the nation's governors, established six broad goals for education, to be reached by the year 2000 (National Education Goals Panel, 1991). In 1990, Congress established the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) and the National Council on Education Standards and Testing INCEST). These two groups were charged with identifing subject matter to be addressed, types of assessments to be employed, and setting standards of performance. These efforts led to the setting of national standards in mathematics, science, civics, dance, theatre, music, art, history and social studies, to name a few. Since 1990, the movement has taken hold at the state level with most states and U.S. territories having set common academic standards for students (Kendall & Marzano, 2000). In 1995, Former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, credited as a chief architect of the standards movement, sums up the need for standards in her book National Standards in American Education:A Citizens Guide (1995): "Americans...expect strict standards to govern construction of buildings, bridges, highways, and tunnels; shoddy work would put lives at risk. They expect stringent standards to protect their drinking water, the food they eat, and the air they breathe. ...Standards are created because they improve the activity of life." While most content areas have already developed and repeatedly revised their content standards over the last decade, Agricultural Education has produced only two frameworks. Cardwell (1999) developed a framework titled the Food, Fiber, Environment and Natural Resources (FFENR) Matrix with the intent of providing a model that would connect elements of the life and physical sciences to human activities associated with FFENR systems. In 1998, Leising, Igo, and Hubert developed the Food and Fiber Systems Literacy (FFSL) Framework. The FFSL Framework A call was issued in 1988 for systematic instruction about agriculture to be given all K- 12 students, establishing food and fiber systems literacy among our population (National Research Council, Board on Agriculture, Committee on Agricultural Education in Secondary Schools). In 1996, Oklahoma State University, in cooperation with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, developed the Food and Fiber Systems Literacy (FFSL) Curriculum Framework. Themes, standards and benchmarks were identified and infused into the core academic curriculum using classroom activities that encouraged active learning. Through an infusion approach across the curriculum, development and testing of the FFSL Framework was carried out during the 1997-98 and 1998-99 academic years at elementary and middle schools in California, Montana, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania. A web-site was created to share what was learned through this project and is maintained by the Department of Agricultural Education, Communications, and 4-H Youth Development at OSU. It includes information about the project, a downloadable version of A Guide to Food & Fiber Systems Literacy (1998), as well as lesson plans and instructional activities. The web-site URL is: http:// food_fiber.okstate.edu Standards & Benchmarks The FFSL Guide consists of two sections; the FFSL framework and sample instructional activities. …


Modular forms are tremendously important in various areas of mathematics, from number theory and algebraic geometry to combinatorics and lattices. Their Fourier coefficients, with Ramanujan's tau-function as a typical example, have deep arithmetic significance. Prior to this book, the fastest known algorithms for computing these Fourier coefficients took exponential time, except in some special cases. The case of elliptic curves (Schoof's algorithm) was at the birth of elliptic curve cryptography around 1985. This book gives an algorithm for computing coefficients of modular forms of level one in polynomial time. For example, Ramanujan's tau of a prime number p can be computed in time bounded by a fixed power of the logarithm of p. Such fast computation of Fourier coefficients is itself based on the main result of the book: the computation, in polynomial time, of Galois representations over finite fields attached to modular forms by the Langlands program. Because these Galois representations typically have a nonsolvable image, this result is a major step forward from explicit class field theory, and it could be described as the start of the explicit Langlands program. The computation of the Galois representations uses their realization, following Shimura and Deligne, in the torsion subgroup of Jacobian varieties of modular curves. The main challenge is then to perform the necessary computations in time polynomial in the dimension of these highly nonlinear algebraic varieties. Exact computations involving systems of polynomial equations in many variables take exponential time. This is avoided by numerical approximations with a precision that suffices to derive exact results from them. Bounds for the required precision--in other words, bounds for the height of the rational numbers that describe the Galois representation to be computed--are obtained from Arakelov theory. Two types of approximations are treated: one using complex uniformization and another one using geometry over finite fields. The book begins with a concise and concrete introduction that makes its accessible to readers without an extensive background in arithmetic geometry. And the book includes a chapter that describes actual computations.