The relative growth response of planted loblolly (Pinus taeda L.), shortleaf (Pinus echinata Mill.), Virginia (Pinus virginiana Mill.), and Eastern white (Pinus strobus L.) pines to intensive silvicultural practices such as woody competition control and fertilization in the Piedmont Province of Virginia is unclear. To address this issue, during 1999, a mixed stand of Virginia pine and hardwoods was clearcut and site-prepared by herbicide application. Three replications containing strips of loblolly, shortleaf, Virginia, and white pines were planted at a 3 m x 1.5 m spacing during February-June, 2000. Four different sources of loblolly pine seedlings were used. The strips were subsequently split across to accommodate four different silvicultural treatments: (1) check (no treatment); (2) woody vegetation control; (3) fertilization; and (4) weed control plus fertilization. The weed control treatment used two directed spray herbicide applications in 2001 (triclopyr and glyphosate) and 2003 (glyphosate) and one mechanical cutting of the remaining hardwoods in 2004. Fertilizer containing N, P, K, and S was applied in 2001, only N in 2002, and N plus P in 2004. Crop tree survival was highest for loblolly pine, decreased in shortleaf and Virginia pines, and Eastern white pine had the poorest survival through age 5. Fertilization without controlling the competing hardwoods decreased survival in all planted pines due to the increased hardwood competition. Loblolly pine was tallest (4.7 m) through the five-year period, shortleaf and Virginia pines were shorter (2.95 m and 3.06 m, respectively), and white pine was shortest (1.7 m). When fertilized, hardwoods were taller than white pine seedlings, almost equal in height to shortleaf and Virginia pines, but shorter than loblolly pine seedlings. Silvicultural treatments had no significant impact on tree height. However, the weed control treatment increased fifthyear pine DBH and stem volume, while fertilization did not. When applied in combination with weed control, there was no additional increase in crop tree DBH and stem volume due to fertilization beyond that from weed control only. The increased availability of soil nutrients due to harvesting the previous stands and allocating them to the crop trees by controlling the competing woody vegetation was enough to meet the nutrient requirements of the young seedlings up to this age.


The Arctic is a key player in the climate system because of the strong modification of the surface energy budget through snow and ice cover, which is tightly coupled to the global circulation of the atmosphere and the ocean. AWI (Alfred Wegener Institute) initiated therefore together with EC (Environment Canada) a special airborne program, as the Polar Airborne Measurements and Arctic Regional Climate Model Simulation Project (PAMARCMiP). The past two campaigns with POLAR 5 took place during April 2009 as well as April 2011. The Instrumentation, included a tethered electromagnetic (EM) sensor for sea ice thickness measurements [Haas et al, 2010], analyzers for ozone, gaseous elementary mercury, bromine monoxide, aerosol light scattering and aerosol light absorption and refractory black carbon, aerosol number concentration and aerosol size distribution, and aerosol optical depth (AOD). In addition, aerosol and ozone LIDAR were operated, and drop sondes were launched to characterize atmospheric state variables and to use it for combined LIDAR and aerosol data analysis [Hoffmann et al., 2012]. The traverses were completed within about a month, providing 3-D snapshots of aerosol, trace gases, atmospheric condition and sea ice thickness


In molecular cell biology, scientists employ many types of substrates over which to culture cells to study them. In many cases these substrates are made of rigid materials like glass or Mica. To mimic the in vivo substrates which are wet and soft and tissue like, they also grow cells on compliant substrates.Depend on the subject of the research, many scientists utilize soft substrates made of gels to mimic the wet and soft tissues in biological systems and to study the migration of cells and related physical characteristics such as velocity, force, adhesion and traction and in general cell migration. Study of each of these subjects and parameters require complex procedures. For instance, time-lapse microscopy techniques are commonly employed that require advanced image processing techniques to track cells. During this time span, cells should be kept in an incubator to imitate their actual environments. One of the challenging physical parameters is the measurement of the force applied by a cell on its substrate in real time. Ionic polymer metal composites (IPMCs) are smart multi-functional materials with simultaneous sensing and actuation capabilities provide a unique system to dynamically monitor cell growth, differentiation, migration, adhesion and traction. Currently micro pillars made with polyacrylamide or polyethylene glycol gels and more recently polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microposts from microfabricated silicon masters only give information on cellular activities after the fact. IPMCs are capable or real time sensing of cell dynamics, adhesion and traction. This paper discusses some initial observations and the potential of such cell dynamic observations and tracking.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


In this paper, I report on a set of data which, so I believe, give evidence of current experience as being conceptualized on the basis of conceptual structures that originate from different time scales. The data are obtained by a procedure that shows features of think-aloud protocols and eye-tracking research. The text which is read is a narrative, an excerpt from Saint-Exupery's Le Petit Prince . Five groups of readers, at different times and locations, were presented with the text in five different languages. They underlined the words for which something came to mind and jotted down responses in the margin of the one-page long text ad lib , in a time frame of ten minutes. Their responses, expressed by pictorial and written signs, testify to ways of perceiving elements in scenes and scenarios, in short, elements of the environment with which the readers interact at the moment of reading. When the jotted responses are correlated with the segmental positions in which they occur, regular patterns emerge, revealed by significant differences in response frequencies. The semantic properties of the linguistic material in these segmental positions signal the perceptual presence of (image-)schematic figure-ground relations that inhere in basic event structures. Different layers of semiosis, originating from different time scales, thus appear to simultaneously contribute to current experience, the latter being possible because of the expanded consciousness of the organism that discovered how to turn in on itself.


Background: Newborn infants have low serum cortisol concentrations due to immature Hypothalamic-Pituitary- Adrenal axis. Cortisol is highly protein bound. Hypoproteinemia, often present in sick newborns, can alter the measured total serum cortisol (TC) without affecting free cortisol (FC) concentrations. Objective: Evaluate the relationship between baseline FC and TC in sick newborn infants with refractory hypotension. Methods: Simultaneous baseline FC and TC were measured in neonates with refractory hypotension. TC was measured using radioimmunoassay and FC by LC/MS/MS. The correlation between the concentration pairs was determined using regression. Results: Thirty five of 36 pairs with patients serum cortisol concentrations were included. One pair was removed due to being a strong outlier. The mean ± SD gestational age and birth weight were 29.3 ± 5.7 weeks and 1.52 ± 1.28 kg, respectively. FC (0.02 to 42.5 mcg/dL) and TC (0.7−33.2 mcg/dL) varied widely. The overall correlation between FC and TC was r = 0.48 (p = 0.003). When analyzed based on TC ≤ or > 10 mcg/dL the correlation weakened (r = 0.38 and r = 0.21, respectively). For infants ≤34 and >34 weeks correlation were similar (r = 0.48 and 0.45, respectively). Conclusions: In sick newborns, correlation between FC and TC is weak. TC measured routinely may not reflect the extent of adrenal insufficiency.


Correspondence to Dr M Marks; firstname.lastname@example.com ABSTRACT Objectives: This study sought to determine the prevalence of common bacterial sexually transmitted infections, including Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae, in women attending clinics in the Solomon Islands. Methods: We conducted a sexual health survey among women attending three nurse-led community outpatient clinics in August 2014, to establish the prevalence of bacterial sexually transmitted infections in female clinic attenders in Honiara, Solomon Islands. Vaginal swab samples were tested for infection with C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae using a commercial strand displacement amplification assay. Serum samples were tested for syphilis. Results: We enrolled 296 women, aged 16–49, attending three clinics. Knowledge of safe sexual practices was high but reported condom usage was low. The prevalence of infection with C. trachomatis was 20%. The prevalence of infection with N. gonorrhoeae and syphilis were 5.1% and 4.1%, respectively. Conclusions: Bacterial sexually transmitted infections are a major health problem in the Solomon Islands. Interventions are urgently needed.


This paper describes a new high-pressure, temperature-controlled isotropic cell used for evaluation of the thermal volume change mechanisms of saturated and unsaturated soils under isotropic stress states. Specifically, details of the experimental setup, instrumentation, thermo-mechanical calibration of the device, experimental procedures, and typical results are presented in this paper. The thermal isotropic cell includes suction control using the axis translation technique, saturation control/monitoring using a pore water pressure flow pump, cell pressure control using a high-pressure flow pump, and a stainless steel cell to permit application of isotropic net mean stresses up to 10 MPa. The cell fluid temperature is regulated by circulating heated water through a copper heating coil within the cell, and an internal circulating fan is used to promote homogenous temperature throughout the cell chamber. Non-contact proximity transducers are used to directly measure soil deformation in the radial and axial directions, permitting assessment of thermo-mechanical anisotropic strains during changes in mean effective stress or temperature while also avoiding the need to consider complex thermo-mechanical cell deformations. The high-pressure flow pump and thermal control system are designed to apply changes in net mean stress and temperature at slow rates to characterize the full soil compression and thermal volume change curves, respectively. Along with the thermo-mechanical calibration of the cell, the results from two tests on compacted silt specimen having different initial degrees of saturation are presented that show how the cell can be used to characterize changes in volume and degree of saturation during thermo-mechanical loading. Both normally consolidated soil specimens were contracted during heating, although the specimen with a lower degree of saturation showed slightly greater thermal volume change.


Summary Background: Acquired brain injury (ABI) may result in lifelong impairment of physical, cognitive, and psychosocial functions. Several rehabilitative treatments are often needed to support walking recovery, thus participants' engagement becomes a crucial aspect, especially when patients are children. In the last few years, traditional physiotherapy (PT) has been flanked by innovative technologies for rehabilitation in the fields of robotics and Virtual Reality (VR). Preliminary results have shown interesting perspectives in the use of a VR system, the GRAIL (Gait Real-time Analysis Interactive Lab), in improving walking abilities in a small group of children with ABI, although further insights are needed about its use as rehabilitative tool in the pediatric population. Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of a rehabilitation treatment on a GRAIL system for the improvement of walking abilities, in a group of children suffering from ABI. Methods: 12 children with ABI (study group – SG; mean age = 12.1 ± 3.8 years old) underwent a 10-session treatment with the GRAIL, an instrumented multi-sensor platform based on immersive VR for gait training and rehabilitation in engaging VR environments. Before (T0) and at the end of the treatment (T1), the participants were assessed by means of functional scales (Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM), Functional Assessment Questionnaire (FAQ), 6-Minute Walk Test (6minWT) and the 3D-Gait Analysis, over ground (OGA) and on GRAIL (GGA). Results: All the participants completed the rehabilitative treatment. The functional evaluations showed an improvement in Gross Motor abilities (GMFM-88, p = 0.008), especially in standing (GMFM-D, p = 0.007) and walking (GMFM-E, p = 0.005), an increase of the endurance (6minWT, p = 0.002), and enhanced autonomy in daily life activities (FAQ, p = 0.025). OGA identified a significant decrease of the Gillette Gait Index for the impaired side and a general increase of symmetry. GGA showed improvements in spatiotemporal parameters and joints range of motion that moved towards normality and symmetry recovery. Conclusions: A 10-session treatment with GRAIL on children with ABI led to improvements in their walking abilities and enhanced their engagement during the training. This is desirable when long life impairments are faced and children's motor functions have to be regained and it supports the leading role that VR might have in the rehabilitation field.


Background: Kidney injury, including chronic kidney disease and acute kidney injury, is a worldwide health problem. Hypoxia and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) are well-known factors that promote kidney injury. Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) and SMAD3 are their main downstream transcriptional factors. Hypoxia-HIF pathway and TGF-β/SMAD3 pathway play a crucial role in the progression of kidney injury. However, reports on their interactions are limited, and the global transcriptional regulation under their control is almost unknown. Methods: Kidney tubular epithelial cells were cultured and stimulated by hypoxia and TGF-β. We detected global binding sites of HIF-1α and SMAD3 in cells using chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequencing (ChIP-Seq), and measured the gene expression using RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq). ChIP-quantitative PCR (qPCR) was used to quantitatively evaluate bindings of SMAD3. Results: ChIP-Seq revealed that 2,065 and 5,003 sites were bound by HIF-1α and SMAD3, respectively, with 614 sites co-occupied by both factors. RNA-Seq showed that hypoxia and TGF-β stimulation causes synergistic upregulation of 249 genes, including collagen type I alpha 1 (COL1A1) and serpin peptidase inhibitor, clade E, member 1, which are well-known to be involved in fibrosis. Ontology of the 249 genes implied that the interaction of HIF-1α and SMAD3 is related to biological processes such as fibrosis. ChIP-qPCR of SMAD3 at HIF-1α binding sites near COL1A1 and SERPINE1 indicated that HIF-1α promotes the bindings of SMAD3, which is induced by TGF-β. Conclusions: These findings suggest that HIF-1α induced by hypoxia activates the TGF-β/SMAD3 pathway. This mechanism may promote kidney injury, especially by upregulating genes related to fibrosis.


Temporal queries on time evolving data are at the heart of a broad range of business and network intelligence applications ranging from consumer behavior analysis, trend analysis, temporal pattern mining, sentiment analysis on social media, cyber security, and network monitoring. In this work, we present an innovative data structure called Fast Approximate Query-able(FAQ), which provides a unified framework for temporal query processing on Big Data. FAQ uses a novel composition of data sketching, wavelet-style differencing for temporal compression, and quantization, and handles diverse kinds of queries including distinct counts, set membership, frequency estimation, top-K, p-norms, empirical entropy, and distance queries such as Histogram lp-norm distance (including Euclidean and Manhattan distance), cosine similarity, Jaccard coefficient, and rank correlation. Experiments on a real-life multi dimensional network monitoring data sets demonstrate speedups of 92x achieved by FAQ over a flat representation of data for a mixed temporal query workload.


Pseudogenes are nonfunctional vestiges of genes. Investigating genes that were inactivated specifically on the human lineage or within humans can reveal the genetic basis of interspecies differences between humans and chimpanzees and interindividual differences within humans. It can also help understand the selective pressures that altered during human evolution or vary among human populations. Recent genome-wide surveys showed that human-specific pseudogenisation events occurred much more frequently to chemosensory and immune response genes than to other genes. Although nondeleterious pseudogenisation events were traditionally considered to be neutral, emerging evidence suggests that some of them are beneficial. One well-characterised case is the human CASP12 locus, where the null allele decreases the incidence of sepsis and has apparently been selected for in human evolution. Exploration of roles of pseudogenisation in genome evolution and phenotype evolution has started.

Key Concepts:

Pseudogenes in our genome can be (1) shared with other species, (2) functional only in non-human species or (3) functional in some but not all humans.

According to the 'less-is-more' hypothesis, human-specific pseudogenes that are functional in related primates reveal insight into how gene loss helped shape human evolution.

Large-scale human genetic variation databases reveal hundreds of segregating pseudogenes, suggesting individual and population differences in functional gene content.

Although most gene-disrupting variants are under negative selective pressure, some population genetic studies of segregating pseudogene loci reveal signatures of positive selection for the disrupted allele, suggesting that gene loss can be beneficial.

Among fixed and segregating human-specific pseudogenes, chemoreception and immune response are over-represented functional categories.

Keywords:

human;
evolution;
chimpanzee;
pseudogene;
positive selection


This paper uses laboratory experiments to test the theoretical observations that both the violations of competitive risk-neutral firms and the marginal effectiveness of increased enforcement across firms are independent of differences in their abatement costs and their initial allocations of permits. This conclusion has important implications for enforcing emissions trading programs because it suggests that regulators have no justification for targeting their enforcement effort based on firm-level characteristics. Consistent with the theory, we find that subjects' violations were independent of parametric differences in their abatement costs. However, those subjects that were predicted to buy permits tended to have higher violation levels than those who were predicted to sell permits. Despite this, we find no statistically significant evidence that the marginal effectiveness of enforcement depends on any firm-specific characteristic. We also examine the determinants of compliance behavior under fixed emissions standards. As expected, we find significant differences between compliance behavior under fixed standards and emissions trading programs.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this integrative literature review of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for hematologic malignancies was to determine whether meaning-making might be helpful to improve coping and psychological adaptation as patients navigate HSCT.

DATA SOURCES
CINAHL®, MEDLINE®, and PsychINFO databases, and ancestry searches. Search terms included bone marrow transplant, hematopoietic stem cell transplant, hematologic malignancy, quality of life, lived experience, psychosocial, psychological, isolation, and social support.

DATA SYNTHESIS
Twenty-four research articles published from 1989-2012 were included. Five major themes emerged: (a) lived experience, (b) coping style, (c) quality of life, (d) psychological morbidity, and (e) potential for post-traumatic growth. Meaning-making was a thread that ran through each of the key areas of the HSCT experience.

CONCLUSIONS
Physical, psychosocial, and spiritual issues arise during HSCT that are unique among patients diagnosed with cancer. Meaning-making is key to adaptive coping and helps to reduce physical, psychosocial, and spiritual challenges, as well as assists patients in experiencing positive personal growth. Interventions focused on meaning-making should be tested in this population.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Nurses are positioned to develop and deliver meaning-making interventions for patients undergoing HSCT and to assess patient-oriented outcomes.


In recent years the construction industry has become increasingly aware of the potential of the
technical knowledge held by construction professionals and the need to manage it effectively.
However, organisations have experienced numerous problems in implementing and sustaining
Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives. A key reason for this, which has been cited both
within industry and academia, is a lack of understanding of the best-suited KM approaches
available and how to adopt them. In particular, the importance of people-orientated KM
practices, specifically in the case of construction firms who have a high level of dependence
on the tacit knowledge of their employees, has been well documented with many KM authors
calling for further research in this area.
The research undertaken for this study was initiated in response to the need for further
research and an improved understanding of KM (people-orientated KM in particular) best
practice. The research was also focussed on establishing an effective KM initiative within
Ramboll Whitbybird; the sponsoring organisation. The central aim of the research was
therefore to "deliver a framework that facilitates the retention and reuse of knowledge, which
will increase Ramboll Whitbybird's potential to drive engineering best practice and respond
appropriately to conventional and emerging business opportunities." To achieve this an
action research approach was adopted, facilitated through the use of literature reviews,
interviews, focus groups, and other data collection methods, to enable the findings to be
implemented within an industrial setting.
Through extensive industry involvement the research highlighted the core components
necessary for a successful KM initiative, and the actions necessary from those involved in
implementing, managing and sustaining KM activities within construction firms. The findings
demonstrated that an organisation wishing to realise effective KM needs to establish a clear
definition and understanding of KM across the business, which can be achieved through the
compilation of a KM strategy (statement) and action plan. It also needs to acknowledge the
importance of addressing the critical factors that will determine the success of its KM
initiative such as the need for KM champions and a supporting team, a fit with the way people
work and an alignment with business objectives. The research also highlighted the importance
of people-orientated KM practices, and that construction organisations in particular should
identify and prioritise KM activities such as Communities of Practice (CoPs), due to their
reliance on tacit knowledge transfer. However, in order to maximise the benefits to
individuals and the business, the organisation will need to take a 'light touch' approach to the
management of CoPs. Supporting people-based KM activities with the right technology is an
important factor, particularly as organisations expand and become more geographically
dispersed. To ensure that this technology is an effective supporter of KM it needs to be
tailored to fit with the KM needs of the business, and will need to become de-centralised in its
operation. Finally, the research outlined the importance for the organisation to consider the
integration of KM within the daily operation of the business by incorporating KM effectively
into communication and reporting structures, while also ensuring that it becomes a core aspect
of its Quality Assurance (QA) procedures.


(Commentary on Umberto Eco's article On the ontology of fictional characters: A semiotic approach in the present issue.) The contrast between real and fictional characters in our thinking needs further elaboration. In this commentary on Eco's look at the ontology of the semiotic object, I suggest that human semiotic construction entails constant modulation of the relationship between the states of the real and fictional characters in irreversible time. Literary characters are examples of crystallized fictions which function as semiotic anchors in the fluid construction — by the readers — of their understandings of the world. Literary characters are thus fictions that are real in their functions — while the actual reality of meaningmaking consists of ever new fictions of fluid (transitory) nature. Eco's ontological look at the contrast of the semiotic object with perceptual objects ( Gegenstande ) in Alexius Meinong's theorizing needs to be complemented by the semiotic subject. Cultural mythologies of human societies set the stage for such invention and maintenance of such dynamic unity of fictionally real and realistically fictional characters.


Detailed magnetic susceptibility records of late Wisconsin loess sequences in the southwest Indiana region show several distinct changes in magnitude that reflect variations in loess accumulation rate. The comparison of the magnetic susceptibility signal and sedimentary features within the loess reveal the following relations: (1) low magnetic susceptibility values correspond to incipient paleosols that record periods of low loess accumulation rates; (2) highly variable values within intermediate to high magnetic susceptibility zones correspond to stratified loess that represents periods of high loess accumulation rates; and (3) moderate to high magnetic susceptibility values correspond to massive loess that may reflect periods of moderate to high loess accumulation rates. We suspect that soil moisture controls the loess accumulation rate, and, if so, our work shows that soil moisture alternated about 24 times between 25 and 14 ka in the middle of North America.


Diatoms are microscopic algae that are found throughout the world in aquatic environments. They are the focus of many scientific endeavors because they play an important role in geochemical cycling and biologic communities; they are indicator organisms due to their sensitivity to environmental changes; and their silica frustule preserves well in the sediment providing a fossil record for examining environmental change. Scientific studies involving diatom identification benefit from accessible, reference materials of diatom taxa, including regional and comprehensive diatom floras. The "Stuart R. Stidolph Diatom Atlas" is a digital atlas of light microscopy images taken of diatom flora from coastal regions throughout the world. The atlas will be an essential reference on coastal diatoms, and will be of interest to aquatic biologists, coastal ecologists, oceanographers, and geologists from all over the globe.


Contemporary research on sustainability is fragmented between multiple disciplines and areas, with on-going debates about methodological as well as practical issues. The core value of sustainability is embedded in the long-term maintenance of quality of life and contains environmental, economic and social components. Business organizations have a substantial responsibility for preserving the quality of life for future generations, as a result of the role they play in transforming natural and societal resources into goods and services. The marketing function is a major force in strategic decision-making in contemporary organizations. With its arsenal of tools for influencing (managing) consumption patterns, marketing must take responsibility for sustainable behaviour of both organizations and consumers. This article discusses the role of marketing in facilitating sustainable behaviour. Contemporary marketing education may not prepare students to use marketing's influence to support sustainability. This study, using senior level Marketing students, assesses the perceptions, opinions and attitudes towards sustainability at three different universities in Austria, Portugal and Serbia. These students represent future decision makers shaping marketing and business strategies. The results of this research inform the marketing academic community about its ability to build contemporary curricula, as well as marketing professionals who seek justification for sustainable marketing strategies. Business schools, in their role of educators, should assume more active role in shaping students' attitudes towards sustainability.


The connection between Education Studies and UK Initial Teacher Training is difficult to avoid, particularly given their histories. For many working in the field this is also desirable as it offers an opportunity to reclaim cherished principles of teacher education free from the shackles of regulation and surveillance. In this paper the authors question a retrospective framing of Education Studies and, while sympathetic to the liberal-humanist traditions often embodied in these ambitions, argue instead for a reappraisal of what it means to educate through Education. Drawing on experiences of Education Studies and ITT programmes, and in conjunction with contemporary thinking around teacher professionality, the authors call for a re-imaging of the educational professional. The paper argues for Education Studies as a preparation for educational practice where moral, ethical and value conflicts are properly accounted for in evolving educational identities. The paper concludes that Education Studies has an obligation to widen the spectrum of educational practices with which it has traditionally been concerned, reaching beyond simplistic conceptions of reflection to a practice of informed educational judgement.


From jawboning to community organizing to lobbying to legal proceedings. To be an advocate and to engage in advocacy is to adopt a stance, advance a cause, and attempt to produce a result in behalf of an interest of a person, group, or cause. The wellspring of advocacy in the human services is the age-old biblical admonition of our collective responsibility for those who are elderly, disabled, widowed, orphaned, poor, and those who cannot care for themselves and have no one to care for them. Advocates achieve legitimacy for their position from a variety of sources. Some advocates are invested with legal status from conferred rights, powers, and duties, while others are constrained or empowered by moral rights, duties, and obligations. Some advocates are legitimized by their "clients" (those for whom they advocate), while others simply declare their own legitimacy. Advocacy in behalf of older people, the field of aging, and those matters that concern today's and tomorrow's elders comports with the following general observations. Some special considerations concerning old age are noted in the discussion as they are relevant. The techniques of advocacy cut a wide swath. Modes include jawboning, demagoguery, rhetoric, mass communication, and traditional public relations; political organizing, community organizing, Internet and mass-mail broadsides; legislative lobbying; publication in mass media, trade, and scholarly materials; formal legal proceedings, formal representation of individuals and groups, and formal surrogate decision-making. There are virtually no limits to the breadth or narrowness of the cause in time, space, or intended effect. Some advocates represent causes that would reform basic institutions and programs of government, family or economic relationships, and fundamental rights of individuals and legal entities. Others seek to protect or secure a single narrow benefit or right for just one individual in truly unique circumstances. Thus, advocacy presents a complexity of issues in terms of the substance of die cause, the party or parties represented, the techniques engaged in, the legitimacy of the representation, and die legal and moral constraints of the particular advocacy processes. WHO ARE THE ADVOCATES? Advocates may be friends or family members of the beneficiary, attorneys for the individual, public interest lawyers, government attorneys, representatives of organized groups, for-profit and nonprofit organizations, trade associations, professional associations, labor unions, social workers in public and nonpublic agencies, legislators at all levels of government, other public employees, as well as journalists and educators. Some of the better-recognized efforts pursuing public policy and legislation in behalf of the elderly have been mass organizations. Some have disappeared from the scene, others have grown; some have diminished in their public presence, others have become entrepreneurial and seem to have changed their focus. The Townsend Movement for old-age pensions of the 1930s, the McClain Citizens Committee for Old Age Pensions, National Retired Teachers Association, and AARP of the 1950s, and the Gray Panthers of the 1970s indicate the variety of organizations and fates. Of course, presentation of the history of advocacy in behalf of older people is beyond the scope of this essay, but understanding the history is indeed important to our understanding of the role and effectiveness of such mass movements (Pratt, 1995). What is critical to our understanding of advocacy, self-advocacy aside, is an appreciation that advocacy involves one party seeking to represent the interests of another. This basic fact suggests that one must be alert to the possibility that the interests of the advocate and the beneficiary may not always be congruent. Second, while the idea of one party expending energy, time, and money on behalf of another suggests beneficent motives, the outcomes of advocacy may not always be beneficent. …


Summary
1.
Understanding the impacts of invasive species on natural ecosystems is an important component
of developing management strategies. Habitat-forming invasive plants and sessile invertebrates
often support a high diversity and abundance of native fauna, suggesting some benefits of invasion.
However, the fitness responses of these native fauna, and thus the net benefit from their association
with habitat-forming invasive species, are not well understood.
2.
We determined how fitness-related life-history traits, patterns of resource allocation among
life-history traits, and survivorship of an abundant bivalve,
Anadara trapezia
, responded to invasion
by the habitat-forming seaweed,
Caulerpa taxifolia
, by transplanting
A. trapezia
into invaded and
uninvaded habitats over a 12-month period.
3.
Although
A. trapezia
recruits into
C. taxifolia
in high numbers, adult growth, body condition,
shell condition, female reproduction and survivorship were all significantly lower in
C. taxifolia
compared to unvegetated sediment. Notably, we observed high mortality in
C. taxifolia
after heavy
rainfall events, highlighting a potential link between sublethal effects on condition, stochastic
environmental perturbation and survivorship.
4.
In addition to the overall reduction in fitness, there were changes in scaling relationships between
reproduction and body size following invasion. Female
A. trapezia
in
C. taxifolia
habitat allocated
proportionally more resources to reproduction (including reproductive tissue and number of eggs
per follicle) than those in unvegetated sediment despite their poor condition. Maximizing
reproduction following invasion may impose a further cost to already stressed
A. trapezia
and
contribute to the higher mortality observed when living in
C. taxifolia
.
5.
Synthesis and applications
. The full impact of habitat-forming invasive species is complex and
understanding it cannot be based solely on descriptions of native species diversity or abundance.
Our study has identified how the presence of long-lived species within habitat-forming invasive
species may simply indicate an extinction debt. A decline in the fitness of
A. trapezia
in
C. taxifolia
appears to increase its probability of mortality in the long-term. We recommend that management
approaches for
C. taxifolia
and other habitat-forming invasive species combine an understanding
of impacts on species diversity, abundance and the fitness of associated fauna to provide a more
pluralistic understanding of their effects.


Because research on the impact of web survey incentives has exclusively focused on Western settings, it is unclear to what extent current insights translate and generalize to non-Western societies, which are usually characterized by very different economic conditions, cultural traditions, and survey climates. The current article presents the results of a web survey incentives experiment among almost 4,440 Ghanaian university students who were offered conditional and unconditional incentives of different values (in the form of telephone credit). Our analyses partly replicate Western findings: Higher value incentives produce higher participation rates and unconditional incentives outperform conditional ones in the lower value conditions. In the case of relatively high incentives, however, conditional outperforms unconditional incentives. No differential effects of incentives on response quality were found.


In this paper, the author describes an experience of asking Masters' students in marketing (both MSc and MBA students in different modules) to write a teaching case study and its pedagogical note as major assessment for the module. The written case was the major deliverable of the term. In a previous paper, the learning benefits students gained from such an assignment as viewed by themselves were described (Author, 2015). Students identified as benefits of this experience many of the learning benefits already underlined in the literature (Ashamalla & Crocitto, 2001; Forman, 2006; Vega, 2010) on student-written cases, such as deepening of the learning experience, longer learning, development of skills such as critical thinking, research, problem-solving, communication, synthesis, analysis, tolerance for ambiguity, as well as enhanced motivation and responsibility. Non-previously identified benefits of writing a teaching case study came also from analysis. Students highlighted how writing a teaching note eased and strengthened their understanding of international marketing concepts, challenged them, provided originality and novelty as well as gave them confidence. Case study writing can be considered a more active experience that requires students to assume a variety of different roles— researcher, interviewer, writer — some of which can be quite new to students (Ross et al., 2008). In this article, the author reports, as faculty, her own perception of difficulties faced by Masters' business students in writing a teaching case study. Data were collected using the ethnographic method of participant observation, "the process of learning through exposure to or involvement in the day-to-day or routine activities of participants in the researcher setting" (Schensul et al, 1999, p. 91). E-mails exchanged with students, questions asked by students as well as discussions during class, and personal notes made by the author during the process have been analysed to provide insight into the main difficulties students faced in the assigned task. By learning through this experience, the main aim of the paper is to guide business faculty in enhancing the development of student-written cases, by helping them anticipate main obstacles faced by students in such an exercise of content co-creation. Key implications for business educators are provided.


Technological innovation has made extraction of natural gas from deep shale formations economically viable. While unconventional shale gas development is seen as an economic benefit, concerns have been raised about the environmental and health risks associated with the extraction process. We combine GIS data on unconventional shale gas development in Pennsylvania and Ohio with household data on bottled water purchases to assess the impact that perceived risks to drinking water from unconventional shale development have had on household well-being using a treatment effects design. In our preferred triple difference models with time-varying treatment effects, we find per household averting expenditure in 2010 ranges from $10.74 in our full sample specification to $15.64 when omitting urban counties more likely to contain public water supplies. Converting the sample-average averting expenditure of $10.74 to an annual expenditure for the entire affected population implies an averting expenditure in Pennsylvania shale counties exceeding $19 million for the year 2010.


In May 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) Secretariat produced its first-ever report regarding health issues related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in preparation for an agenda item of the 2013 WHO Executive Board (EB) meeting. The debate resulted in the removal of the item from the adopted agenda. Since then, LBGT health has never been brought up again. Drawing on the debate, there are three 'lacks' causing the deadlock in the WHO: (1) the lack of consensus between universalists and cultural relativists on implementing the right to health, (2) the lack of capacity of the WHO in addressing political controversies, and (3) the lack of evidence thwarting the claim for health justice for LGBT people. However, in this paper, I argue that it is the lack of globalism, in contrast to internationalism, that prevents the WHO from achieving the health-for-all goal. While the EB is authorized to determine the global health policy agenda by the WHO Constitution, its prioritization of national interests has made human rights protection rhetorical rather than obligatory. Combating such institutional obstacles to LGBT health, I conclude that it is urgent to promote the people-centered approach to global health governance by accommodating the 'polyvocality' of civil societies.


The Bill of Flights was added to the United States Constitution in 1791, two hundred years ago. It was not the first bill of rights in history. It was not a perfect instrument even for its time in the United States itself. It may not be sufficient to our time, even for the United States itself. •
But the. Uni ted States Bill of Rights, has been crucial to life in the United States and of major.significance for the world. It represents the first, lasting commitment by any country to the idea of human rights as. supreme law. For 200 years it has been at the heart of a political system ,committed to constitutionalism, now recognized as the hallmark of legitimate government. The Bill, of Rights has inspired and provided a model for national constitutions and for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other, international human rights instruments which have given expression and reality,to the; human rights idea in our century.
The two hundredth anniversary of the Bill of Rights is an appropriate, occasion to celebrate its history, note its content, and ponder its international significance.


Lenticel discoloration (LD), under-skin browning (USB) and resin canal disorder (RCD) are three important fruit skin disorders of concern to the Australian mango industry. They result in downgrading of fruit quality and loss of market confidence. LD is confined to the discoloration of lenticels on the fruit skin. USB is a sub-surface spreading grey-brown lesion that may only become evident in the marketplace. RCD is a dark brown discoloration of the finely branched pattern of ramifying sub-surface resin canals. These three browning disorders were compared and contrasted at the cellular level by light microscopy after free-hand sectioning. Discoloured lenticels on the surface of 'Honey Gold' mango fruit typically appeared as small round spots comprised of a dark brown centre surrounded by a white corona. Non-coloured lenticels were visible as small round spots surrounded by a white corona. In cross-section, there was browning of cells surrounding the cavity of discoloured lenticels. Nonetheless, there was no such browning in non-coloured lenticels. USB symptoms in 'Honey Gold' fruit were evident as dark-brown cells in the tissue surrounding the resin ducts. In contrast, RCD, which was evident in 'Kensington Pride' mango fruit, was characterised by browning of the lumen of resin ducts. Accordingly, LD, USB and RCD involve different browning biology processes at the cell and tissue levels. A greater understanding of symptom development and expression could aid in informed management of these physiological disorders.


The public sector is an important driver in supporting market transformation towards more efficient energy systems and buildings. To succeed in the energy transition it is important not only to mobilise local administrations, but also to engage citizens, and companies developing their business in the sector, in public energy planning and policy. But the development, financing and implementation of ambitious sustainable energy plans and measures should be based on reliable data. The aim of this paper is to present the main insights of ACCENT, a new decision-support tool for local administrations developed under a pan-European project upheld by Climate KIC. ACCENT tool is based on a web-platform that allows local administrations to define and monitor measures addressed to improve the energy performance of buildings included in their sustainable energy action plans. The research has allowed us to recognize common pan-European challenges as the need to share real energy consumption data of buildings or the low willingness of some energy suppliers to offer information in this regard. In addition, we face specific local barriers based mainly on the lack of linkage among public bodies, the dispersion of data, the requirement of legislative and disseminating mechanisms to make citizens aware of energy renovation of their own buildings, or the inaccessibility to existing information on the state of the buildings as IEE database (Buildings Evaluation Report) in the case of Spain. In conclusion, ACCENT allows local administrations to take refurbishment decisions at a city scale based on the energy performance of buildings.


Post-larval prediction is important, as post-larval supply allows us to understand juvenile fish populations. No previous studies have predicted post-larval fish species richness and abundance combining molecular tools, machine learning, and past-days remotely sensed oceanic conditions (RSOCs) obtained in the days just prior to sampling at different scales. Previous studies aimed at modeling species richness and abundance of marine fishes have mainly used environmental variables recorded locally during sampling and have merely focused on juvenile and adult fishes due to the difficulty of obtaining accurate species richness estimates for post-larvae. The present work predicted post-larval species richness (identified using DNA barcoding) and abundance at 2 coastal sites in SW Madagascar using random forest (RF) models. RFs were fitted using combinations of local variables and RSOCs at a small-scale (8 d prior to fish sampling in a 50 × 120 km2 area), meso-scale (16 d prior; 100 × 200 km2), and large-scale (24 d prior; 200 × 300 km2). RF models combining local and small-scale RSOC variables predicted species richness and abundance best, with accuracy around 70 and 60%, respectively. We observed a small variation of RF model performance in predicting species richness and abundance among all sites, highlighting the consistency of the predictive RF model. Moreover, partial dependence plots showed that high species richness and abundance were predicted for sea surface temperatures <27.0°C and chlorophyll a concentrations <0.22 mg m-3. With respect to temporal changes, these thresholds were solely observed from November to December. Our results suggest that, in SW Madagascar, species richness and abundance of post-larval fish may only be predicted prior to the ecological impacts of tropical storms on larval settlement success.


The dorsoventral (DV) patterning of the early Drosophila embryo depends on Dorsal, a maternal sequence-specific transcription factor related to mammalian NF-kappaB. Dorsal controls DV patterning through the differential regulation of approximately 50 target genes in a concentration-dependent manner. Whole-genome methods, including ChIP-chip and ChIP-seq assays, have identified approximately 100 Dorsal target enhancers, and more than one-third of these have been experimentally confirmed via transgenic embryo assays. Despite differences in DV patterning among divergent insects, a number of the Dorsal target enhancers are located in conserved positions relative to the associated transcription units. Thus, the evolution of novel patterns of gene expression might depend on the modification of old enhancers, rather than the invention of new ones. As many as half of all Dorsal target genes appear to contain "shadow" enhancers: a second enhancer that directs the same or similar expression pattern as the primary enhancer. Preliminary studies suggest that shadow enhancers might help to ensure resilience of gene expression in response to environmental and genetic perturbations. Finally, most Dorsal target genes appear to contain RNA polymerase II (pol II) prior to their activation. Stalled pol II fosters synchronous patterns of gene activation in the early embryo. In contrast, DV patterning genes lacking stalled pol II are initially activated in an erratic or stochastic fashion. It is possible that stalled pol II confers fitness to a population by ensuring coordinate deployment of the gene networks controlling embryogenesis.


This study explores the significance and relevant contexts of the collected poems of James Beattie, within a detailed study of his own prose works and wider eighteenth-century intellectual debates. His position on the periphery of the literary canon means that this thesis deals largely with primary material, which permits a more thorough and objective analysis than has been conducted before. The first half of this study deals with Beattie's poetic output. Chapter 1 focuses on Beattie's first volume of poetry, Original Poems and Translations. In this chapter I analyse the poems within the context of other eighteenth-century poets, and explore Beattie's engagement with patronage, the eighteenth-century conventions for success as a new poet, and poetic genius. Chapter 2 deals with Beattie's second volume, Poems on Several Subjects, to illustrate the evolution in his ideas concerning the usefti๒ess of poetry as a vehicle for philosophical investigation, and his engagement with eighteenth-century social and political issues. Chapter 3 explores his best known poem, The Minstrel: Or, the Progress of Genius. This chapter discusses the poem in its entirety and within the context of Beattie's career as a poet and philosopher. Chapter 5 focuses on Beattie's final volumes of poetry, which represent his desire to control his poetic legacy. The second half of the study deals with selected critical and philosophical works, which provide insight into the development of Beattie's poetry and express in prose many of the subjects in lus poetry. The most detailed attention in this section is given to the Essay on Truth, although there are also chapters examining other relevant critical works including Dissertations Moral and Critical. On Poetry and Music and On Laughter and Ludicrous Composition, and Beattie's collection of "Scoticisms." There are few modem critical studies of Beattie, and many of them are limited to The Minstrel and to specific areas of interest within this work. This study's comparative and interdisciplinary approach to Beattie's poetry and selected prose aims to justify Beattie's inclusion in our study of the eighteenth century. It is also intended to raise awareness of Beattie's importance in the eighteenth-century and to illustrate his influence on three first- generation Romantic poets of generally recognised importance, namely Scott, Coleridge, and Wordsworth.


Biomaterial‐based regenerative approaches would allow for cost‐effective off‐the‐shelf solution for the treatment of wounds. Hyaluronan (HA)‐based hydrogel is one attractive biomaterial candidate because it is involved in natural healing processes, including inflammation, granulation, and reepithelialization. Herein, dynamic metal–ligand coordination bonds are used to fabricate moldable supramolecular HA hydrogels with self‐healing properties. To achieve reversible crosslinking of HA chains, the biopolymer is modified with pendant bisphosphonate (BP) ligands using carbodiimide coupling and chemoselective "click" reactions. Hydrogel is formed immediately after simple addition of silver (Ag+) ions to the solution of HA containing BP groups (HA‐BP). Compared with previous HA‐based wound healing hydrogels, the HA‐BP·Ag+ hydrogel is highly suitable for clinical use as it can fill irregularly shaped wound defects without the need for premolding. The HA‐BP·Ag+ hydrogel shows antimicrobial properties to both Gram‐positive and Gram‐negative bacterial strains, enabling prevention of infections in wound care. In vivo evaluation using a rat full‐thickness skin wound model shows significantly lower wound remaining rate and a thicker layer of regenerated epidermis as compared with the group left without treatment. The presented moldable and self‐healing supramolecular HA hydrogel with "ready‐to‐use" properties possesses a great potential for regenerative wound treatment.


Title of Document: FAY-HERRIOT SMALL AREA ESTIMATION IN THE SURVEY OF BUSINESS OWNERS. Aneesah N. Williams, Master of Arts, 2007 Directed By: Professor Eric V. Slud Statistics Program Department of Mathematics This paper will study the use of the Fay-Herriot small area estimation model on the Survey of Business Owners and Self-Employed Persons (SBO) 2002 data. Small area estimation continues to be an important topic as the demand for reliable small area statistics continues to grow. Because direct estimates can yield large standard errors due to small sample sizes, the need for small areas to borrow strength from related areas is present. The 2002 SBO has a state level design, which may contain several counties per state with small sample sizes. This paper investigates the plausibility and usability of the Fay-Herriot estimators at the county level for predicting Black ownership of businesses. These mixed-effect model predictors will be compared to linear fixed-effect models. This research will also investigate the parsimony of the two types of estimators. FAY-HERRIOT SMALL AREA ESTIMATION IN THE SURVEY OF BUSINESS OWNERS


Single cell recordings in the awake monkey have so far neglected the depth dimension of visuomotor transformations for reaching. In the few cases where depth has been taken into account, direction has been left apart. The coexistence of depth and direction information for reaching requires further studies, as usually our reaching movements in real life occurr by changes in the distance and laterality of our hand positions in peripersonal space. Here, we investigated how reach depth and reach direction interact at single cell level in two areas of superior parietal cortex (SPL): area V6A and PEc, located caudally in the SPL, in a region of the posterior parietal cortex medial to area MIP/PRR. Two macaque monkeys performed a fixation-to-reach task in 3-dimensional space, toward foveated targets located at different distances and lateralities. We analized the spatial tuning of about 200 neurons per area in several phases of this delay reaching task: target fixation, early and late delay period, movement and holding times. We found that depth and direction signals influenced jointly a large number of neurons in both areas in all epochs of the task considered, with PEc showing more independent processing of depth and direction, especially before the arm movement onset. In PEc, the effect of direction was more prevalent than depth before reaching execution while the reverse was true for depth. In V6A, depth and direction similarly influenced neural activity for the entire trial. These findings suggest the involvement of both areas in visuospatial and action representations in 3D peripersonal space, with a caudo-rostral trend from a joint processing of depth and direction signals for eye position and reach execution in V6A to an encoding of depth related mostly to arm movement in PEc. These data reflect a rostro-caudal trend similar to that observed in human fMRI studies. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


There is limited evidence on theory-based research conducted in China and little is known about the relationships of personal, behavioral, and environmental factors, self-management behaviors, glycemic control, and metabolic syndrome among Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM), especially among those who live in suburban areas. Using Social Cognitive Theory this cross-sectional study was conducted among patients with T2DM recruited from an outpatient clinic in a suburban area of Beijing, China. The aims of the study were to describe patient characteristics in selected personal, behavioral and environmental factors, self-management behaviors, and health outcomes; examine the association and impact of modifiable study variables on self-management behaviors and health outcomes (HbA1c and existence of metabolic syndrome); and explore the mediation role of self-management behaviors among study variables and glycemic control. A convenience sample of 207 patients provided informed consent; self-reported questionnaires were completed during a patient's clinic appointment. A clinic nurse retrieved clinical information from the medical record. The results showed that 40.1% had optimal glycemic control, 16.4% had an adequate level in performing self-management behaviors, and 89.4% were identified to have metabolic syndrome. Compared to men, women in this sample demonstrated poorer health literacy and problem-solving, received less social support and had more depressive symptoms (p<0.05). Multiple regression analysis showed that self-efficacy was a significant correlate of all self-management behaviors (p<0.05). Social support was related to overall self-management, diabetes knowledge was related to diet, and depressive symptoms was related to self-monitoring (p<0.05). Problem-solving, self-management behaviors related to medication and diet were significant correlates for glycemic control (p<0.05). Health literacy (OR =0.77) and self-management behaviors related to physical activity (OR=0.84) were protective factors for metabolic syndrome (p<0.05). There was no mediation of self-management behaviors between the study variables and glycemic control. Patients' overall glycemic control and self-management behaviors were suboptimal and a large proportion were at risk for developing cardiovascular disease. Gender differences should be considered when targeting strategies to improve health outcomes. Findings suggest that future research needs to consider designing and testing an intervention using a multifactorial approach to improve health outcomes among Chinese patients with T2DM.


Cavalli Seamount (34°06′S, 174°10′E) is an irregular-shaped, flat-topped seamount on the Northland Plateau, SW Pacific Ocean. In contrast to Miocene lavas recovered from other seamounts in the area, the rocks dredged from Cavalli Seamount consist of biotite schist, with minor calc-silicate bands. Mineralogy, whole-rock chemistry, U–Pb dating of detrital zircons, and Sr and Nd isotopic composition collectively indicate a siliciclastic–carbonate protolith of latest Cretaceous to Paleogene stratigraphic age. Metamorphic index minerals are sillimanite, andesine, garnet, ilmenite and K-feldspar, and indicate peak P–T conditions of c. 650 °C and c. 0.4 GPa. U–Pb, Ar/Ar and fission-track dating of minerals, and micropalaeontological dating of associated limestones, indicate rapid cooling in the interval 23–21 Ma. The schist contains chloritized and hematized slickenslides parallel to a penetrative lineation, s–c planes and conjugate microfractures, and has limestone geopetal infillings parallel to foliation. These features are consistent with the interpretation of Cavalli Seamount as part of the lower plate of an Early Miocene metamorphic core complex. Although other explanations are possible, the core complex interpretation fits with regional Early Miocene events including crustal thickening as a result of allochthon emplacement in northern New Zealand, crustal thinning associated with rapid extension in the South Fiji Basin, Pacific trench rollback, and abundant Early Miocene igneous activity.


Since 1970, building a new national identity by reunifying Oman's ethno-linguistic groups has been at the heart of Sultan Qaboos's political project. This paper focuses on the place of Omani who returned from the former colonies of Zanzibar and East Africa, responding to Sultan Qaboos's call to 'nationals' abroad. While they played a leading role in the modernization process of the Sultanate, these Swahili-speaking Omani faced prejudices from the population who stayed at home and were forced to give guarantees to the others of their full belonging to the nation. As a consequence, despite their internal differences, they have progressively developed a new collective identity, which has its raison d'etre within the framework of the modern Omani State, and can only be explained by the necessity to find their place in it.


AIMS
As kappa(kappa)-opioids have marked effects on pain threshold in sheep during oestrus, late pregnancy and after birth, a study was undertaken to determine if kappa -opioids also had other roles during these states.

METHODS
Opioid agonists (GR89696, DAMAGO) were administered into either the lateral hypothalamus (LH) or amygdala of non-pregnant sheep (n = 5) or pregnant sheep (n = 15) in late pregnancy (n = 5) within 12 h of birth (n = 5) or in the third week after birth (n = 5). Cortisol, behavioural and electrocardiographic responses to an auditory stimulus were assessed with and without drug administration, as was feed consumption and suckling events.

RESULTS
In non-pregnant sheep, DAMAGO injected into either the LH or amygdala had little effect on the response to the auditory stimulus but when injected into the LH did decrease food consumption. GR 89696 had no obvious effects. In late pregnancy, cortisol and heart rate responses to the auditory stimulus were significantly reduced compared to the non-pregnant animals irrespective of treatment. This was also the case in the third week after birth. Immediately post-partum cortisol responses were closer to that seen in the non-pregnant animal. In late pregnancy and both post-partum periods, GR 89696 in the LH significantly increased feed consumption while DAMAGO had no significant effects. GR 89696 injected into the amygdala reduced the behavioural response to the auditory stimulus in late pregnancy and both post-partum periods.

CONCLUSION
Changes in sensitivity to opioids occur in both the amygdala and LH with pregnancy and after birth. These may influence maternal behaviours and feed intake.


The work that we present treats on the freedmen of the XVth century Barcelona. The information used to realize this work has been obtained from the notarial documentation preserved in several archives in Barcelona, to be exact through the freedmen testaments. Through this documentation we observe that once this group obtained the freedom, it became completely integrated in its new society. The freedmen turned into full right citizens from all the points of view.


Economic theory and empirical evidence suggest that governments might usefully intervene in high-technology competition in two ways: First, they could act as a neutral agent that creates the necessary credibility, commitment and mutual trust among private companies so as to facilitate cooperation in high-risk, high-volume R&D. Second, if — in view of the externalities involved — an element of subsidization is to be added, this could be done in a nondiscriminatory fashion. A favourable tax treatment of R&D expenditures may be the most appropriate tool to achieve this task. In practice, governments do engage in targeted industrial and technology policies, whether justified on economic grounds or not. As a consequence, the string of trade conflicts in hightech industries that began in the 1980s is unlikely to end in the near future, unless substantial reforms are undertaken in some crucial areas of the international trade order. Above all, appropriate reform steps should be made with a view to the regulations on (i) subsidies, (ii) structural impediments, and (iii) dumping and anti-dumping. To mitigate the frictions that arise from a subsidization of domestic firms, a new set of rules should be established. The rules should provide that all plans to grant or to alter existing subsidies are to be notified to and approved by the WTO. Moreover, all subsidies should be ranked according to their potential distortional effects on competition and trade. For each category, quantitative limits that constrain the provision of subsidies to a certain fraction of the subsidy base should be set. To facilitate further liberalization steps, a country should be allowed to exceed these limits, if a national subsidy program offers an open access to firms located in third markets. Besides restrictive business practices of private firms, government regulations and technical standards are the most important structural impediments to trade. Existing GATT Articles already offer a multilateral route to conflict resolution in cases of structural impediments. However, this route has not been used by complainants up to now. The so-called "non-violation" clause of Article 23 GATT provides access to a multilateral dispute settlement even if the defending country has not explicitly violated GATT rules. This route should be tested and, if necessary, improved. To reduce the potential for a protectionist abuse of existing anti-dumping regulations, explicit reference to the state of competition in the relevant exporting and importing country markets should be made in anti-dumping investigations. To meet specific anti-trust concerns in hightech competition — notably with respect to network externalities, systems leverage, standardization, and innovation cartels — one might consider adopting the Draft International Antitrust Code (DIAC) that has recently been proposed by an international group of legal experts.


Financial regulation should be countercyclical, strengthening during speculative booms to contain excessive leverage and loosening following crises so as to not limit credit extension in hard times. And yet, financial regulation in fact tends to be procyclical, strengthening following crises and loosening during booms. This paper considers competing descriptive and normative analyses of that procyclical tendency. All of the models and arguments considered are rooted in a public choice perspective on financial regulation, i.e. rational choice ideas drawn from economics and applied to politics, but with that perspective modified to take account of behavioralist biases in rationality, particularly the availability bias. That bias helps explain the procyclical tendency in financial regulation, as both the public and regulators ignore the threat of financial crises during boom times and become very focused on that threat when crises actually occur. The normal dominance of concentrated interest groups temporarily shifts as public attention turns to financial regulation following a crisis.The models considered here, though differ greatly in their normative conclusions, with some mainly criticizing the deregulation which occurs during booms, others mainly criticizing the regulation which occurs following crises, and yet others critical of the timing of both. The models differ in how they understand the balance of interest groups outside of crises and how likely that balance is to lead to outcomes that reflect the public interest, in how well they think the crisis-related public attention can be channeled to reflect the public interest, and in how they analyze the underlying vulnerability of financial institutions and markets and the intellectual difficulty of regulation. After analyzing these differing models, the paper considers historical evidence to try to choose among them, and then considers various administrative mechanisms which might help dampen the procyclical tendencies of financial regulation. Some of the procedures considered include bicameralism and the committee system in Congress, notice-and-comment rulemaking, hard look judicial review, independent agencies, sunset clauses, mandated agency studies, regulatory "contrarians," and automatic triggers for various rules.


The casing layer is an essential component of the system employed in the culture of Agaricus bisporus. The literature appropriate to the casing layer is fully reviewed, including aspects relating to fructification and morphogenesis in A.bisporus, together with an appraisal of the various media employed, their properties and functions, and the commercial significance of the casing layer. Equipment is described for use in experiments in mushroom culture, based on a scaled-down version of normal growing technique, allowing the analysis of both weights and number of fruitbodies forming, which was useful in assessing the effects of different casing treatments. The basic steps in the production of fruitbodies in A.bisporus.are described, including a photographic study of the colonisation of casing and fructification. Various alterations to the physical structure of peat/chalk casing mixtures were found to have an effect on fructification; those causing an opening-out of the casing structure tended to give better yields, especially in the early stages of production. It was shown that, in order to obtain greater yield through casing amendment, fructification must be stimulated, giving increased numbers of fruitbodies, disproportionate to their total weight and consequently of lower mean weight. A synthetic casing medium based on the light glass-like mineral, perlite, was developed. The best formula obtained was -.1 part perlite: 1 part montmorillonite clay (by weight): 3 parts 0.01% glucose solution. Perlite/montmorillonite casing could be improved by adding compost colonised by mycelium of A.bisporus, or adding a peat-chalk casing extract. Perlite was also found to be suitable for admixture with the standard casing medium and a mixture of equal parts by volume performed as well as the peat/chalk casing normally used.


This paper examines the relationship between "school quality" and earnings in the United Kingdom. The specific focus is on evaluating the effect that private schooling has on hourly wage rates. It is well known that private (i.e. fee-paying) schools compared to state schools score higher on most measures of school quality. Therefore by comparing individuals with private schooling to those with state schooling (and controlling for other variables) it is possible to indirectly evaluate the effect of school quality. Panel data from five waves of the British Household Panel Survey are used in the analysis.


The induction of different cell fates along the dorsoventral axis of the Drosophila embryo requires a graded activity of the EGF receptor tyrosine kinase (DER). Here we have identified primary and secondary target genes of DER, which mediate the determination of discrete ventral cell fates. High levels of DER activation in the ventralmost cells trigger expression of the transcription factors encoded by ventral nervous system defective (vnd) and pointed P1 (pntPl). Concomitant with the induction of pntP1, high levels of DER activity lead to inactivation of the Yan protein, a transcriptional repressor of Pointed-target genes. These two antagonizing transcription factors subsequently control the expression of secondary target genes such as otd, argos and tartan. The simultaneous effects of the DER pathway on pntP1 induction and Yan inactivation may contribute to the definition of the border of the ventralmost cell fates.


The control of the molecular energy levels of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) is crucial to the design of highly efficient polymer solar cells (PSCs). In particular, the fine control of the HOMO energy level is vital because it can ensure that polymer solar cell devices have a high open circuit voltage (Voc) and a high short circuit current density (Jsc). We systematically synthesized a series of polymers substituted with different numbers of fluorine (F) atoms in conjugated side chains to fine-tune the HOMO energy levels of the donor polymer, and then optimized the associated solar cell devices by varying the length of the alkyl chain in the conjugated side chains. A series of conjugated side chains with non-fluorinated (0F), mono-fluorinated (1F), and di-fluorinated (2F) alkoxyphenyl groups at the meta position were synthesized and introduced into the donor polymer. The strong electron-withdrawing properties of fluorine were found to reduce the HOMO energy level and yield high Voc values up to 1.01 V. The substitution of the conjugated side chain with fluorine affects not only the energy level of the polymer but also its intermolecular packing and crystallinity due to the resulting intermolecular interactions, and was found to be effective in the control of Jsc and FF. A maximum efficiency of 7.64% was achieved for the polymer with the mono-fluorinated conjugated side chain.


In this article, I offer an analysis of Peruvian Aymara speech directed toward sheep and alpacas, children, and marbles (specifically, the use of "animal-oriented interjections"). The use of these forms positions addressees as reduced (quasi) agents and thereby mediates Aymara ideologies about the scaled or graduated character of those enminded beings that regularly act as addressees. Ultimately, the analysis reveals an Aymara human–nonhuman frontier that requires attention to both the interactional encounters sustained across perceived ontological divides (divides understood to turn on species and ethnodevelopmental difference, etc.) and the (scaled) character of the ideologies that renders these divides "ontological."[humans, animals, childhood, materiality, semiotics, mind, Andes]


Climate model evaluation is complicated by the presence of observational uncertainty. In this study we analyze daily precipitation indices and compare multiple gridded observational and reanalysis products with regional climate models (RCMs) from the North American component of the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (NA-CORDEX) multimodel ensemble. In the context of model evaluation, observational product differences across the contiguous United States (CONUS) are also deemed nontrivial for some indices, especially for annual counts of consecutive wet days and for heavy precipitation indices. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) is used to directly include this observational spread into the model evaluation procedure, enabling visualization and interpretation of model differences relative to a "cloud" of observational uncertainty. Applying MDS to the evaluation of NA-CORDEX RCMs reveals situations of added value from dynamical downscaling, situations of degraded performance from dynamical downscaling, and the sensitivity of model performance to model resolution. On precipitation days, higher-resolution RCMs typically simulate higher mean and extreme precipitation rates than their lower-resolution pairs, sometimes improving model fidelity with observations. These results document the model spread and biases in daily precipitation extremes across the full NA-CORDEX model ensemble. The often-large divergence between in situ observations, satellite data, and reanalysis, shown here for CONUS, is especially relevant for data-sparse regions of the globe where satellite and reanalysis products are extensively relied upon. This highlights the need to carefully consider multiple observational products when evaluating climate models.


OmniCAV is laying the foundations for the development of a comprehensive, robust and secure simulator, aimed at providing a certification tool for Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) that can be used by regulatory and accreditation bodies, insurers and manufacturers to accelerate the safe development of CAVs. To achieve this, OmniCAV is using highly detailed road maps, together with a powerful combination of traffic management, accident and CCTV data, to create a high-fidelity traffic and driving simulation environment to interact with the AV under test. Scenarios for testing are developed and randomised in a holistic way to avoid CAVs training to specific conditions. Critically, the simulator offers coverage of a representative element of the U.K. road network, through encompassing rural roads, peri-urban and urban roads to enable autonomy for all. The validity of the synthetic test environment compared to the real-world is of particular importance, and OmniCAV will be tested and refined through an iterative approach involving real-world comparisons and working in conjunction with a CAV testbed.


This book offers a new perspective on the economics of globalization, based on the concepts of firms' capabilities as the immediate cause of countries' wealth. It presents new ways of looking at the way China, India, and Africa have been drawn into the global economy over the past two decades. It offers new perspectives on some of the most central questions in the current debate: What effects does the rise of China have for the advanced industrial economies? Why have some industries adapted quickly and effectively to the changing global scene, while others have not? How were the 'Transition Economies' of Eastern Europe affected by trade liberalization? How have the economic prospects of sub-Saharan African countries changed over the past decade? This analysis contributes to the recent literature on quality and trade, which is providing a new and different approach to the analysis of globalization, and which focusses on those economic mechanisms that are central to the current wave of this centuries-old phenomenon. This book forms the basis for the author's course on Globalisation and Strategy, given to Masters students in Economics and Management at the London School of Economics.


The misuse case methodology is an approach for eliciting security requirements in software development projects. Misuse cases are an extension of the well-known use case methodology, and use the same basic types of diagrams and documentation forms. This thesis presents a study of the introduction and application of the misuse case methodology in a development team in the computer software industry. A qualitative research approach, with workshops and interviews has been applied to determine the usability and effectiveness of misuse cases. In addition, the practioners' perception of the method has been investigated, as this is believed to be an important factor for the adoption of the method in the team's engineering process. The results show that the method was easy to learn, easy to use and gave a good result compared to the time and resources used.


Nanowires are ideal building blocks for next-generation solar cell applications. Nanowires grown with the selective area (SA) approach, in particular, have demonstrated very high material quality, thanks to high growth temperature, defect-free crystalline structure, and absence of external catalysts, especially in the InP material system. A comprehensive study on the influence of growth conditions and device processing on optical emission is still necessary though. This article presents an investigation of the nanowire optical properties, performed in order to optimize the internal radiative efficiency. In an initial preamble, the motivation for this study is discussed, as well as the morphology and crystallinity of the nanowires. The effect on the nanowire photoluminescence of several intrinsic and extrinsic parameters and factors are then presented in three sections: first, the influence of basic growth conditions such as the temperature and the precursor ratio is studied. Subsequently, the effects of varying dopant molar flows are explored, keeping in mind the intended solar cell application. Third, the manner in which the processing and the passivation affect the nanowire optical emission is discussed. Precise control of the growth conditions allows maximizing the nanowire internal radiative efficiency and thus their performance in solar cells and other optoelectronic devices.


Two different conformal field theories can be joined together along a defect line. We study such defects for the case where the conformal field theories on either side are single free bosons compactified on a circle. We concentrate on topological defects for which the left- and right-moving Virasoro algebras are separately preserved, but not necessarily any additional symmetries. For the case where both radii are rational multiples of the self-dual radius we classify these topological defects. We also show that the isomorphism between two T-dual free boson conformal field theories can be described by the action of a topological defect, and hence that T-duality can be understood as a special type of order–disorder duality.


We in vestigate transfinite reductions in abstract reduction systems. To this end, we study two abstract models for transfinite reductions: a metric model generalising the usual metric approach to infinitary term rewriting and a novel partial order model. For both models we distinguish between a weak and a strong variant of convergence as known from infinitary term rewriting. Furthermore, we introduce an axiomatic model of reductions that is general enough to cover all of these models of transfinite reductions as well as the ordinary model of finite reductions. It is shown that, in this unifying axiomatic model, many basic relations between termination and confluence properties known from finite reductions still hold. The introduced models are applied to term rewriting but also to term graph rewriting. We can show that for both term rewriting as well as for term graph rewriting the partial order model forms a conservative extension to the metric model.


Over the past couple of years, anecdotal evidence has emerged linking coordinated campaigns by state-sponsored actors with efforts to manipulate public opinion on the Web, often around major political events, through dedicated accounts, or "trolls." Although they are often involved in spreading disinformation on social media, there is little understanding of how these trolls operate, what type of content they disseminate, and most importantly their influence on the information ecosystem. In this paper, we shed light on these questions by analyzing 27K tweets posted by 1K Twitter users identified as having ties with Russia's Internet Research Agency and thus likely state-sponsored trolls. We compare their behavior to a random set of Twitter users, finding interesting differences in terms of the content they disseminate, the evolution of their account, as well as their general behavior and use of Twitter. Then, using Hawkes Processes, we quantify the influence that trolls had on the dissemination of news on social platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and 4chan. Overall, our findings indicate that Russian trolls managed to stay active for long periods of time and to reach a substantial number of Twitter users with their tweets. When looking at their ability of spreading news content and making it viral, however, we find that their effect on social platforms was minor, with the significant exception of news published by the Russian state-sponsored news outlet RT (Russia Today).


Hollister Incorporated, a global healthcare products and services company, was awarded two competitive-bid, group-purchasing contracts with Premier Inc. Premier is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of approximately 3,750 U.S. hospitals and 130,000 other providers to improve health for communities. The contracts include a dual-source agreement for selling ostomy products within Premier's Enterostomal Therapy Products category, and a sole-source agreement for providing Hollister ostomy products to Premier's ASCEND members (who receive group purchasing programs, tiers and prices specifically negotiated for them). In the first, dual-source agreement, Hollister and one other supplier were selected. In the second, sole-source agreement, Hollister was the only vendor selected from several. As of January 1, 2017, all Premier members can take advantage of special pricing and terms pre-negotiated by Premier for products in its Enterostomal Therapy Products category. Premier members selected the awarded suppliers based on their ability to meet clinical performance criteria. Hollister Ostomy Care provides products, resources and services that allow people to resume their lifestyles after ostomy surgery. From the CeraPlusTM skin barrier that helps to maintain healthy peristomal skin to the oneand two-piece pouching systems and related accessories, the Hollister ostomy portfolio meets the unique needs of the people who use them. Hollister Incorporated is an independent, employee-owned company that develops, manufactures, and markets healthcare products and services worldwide. The company develops and manufactures products for ostomy care, continence care and wound care, and also develops educational support materials for patients and healthcare professionals. Hollister Incorporated has been serving healthcare professionals and consumers for 95 years and is committed to making life more rewarding and dignified for people who use its products and services.


i»?i»?i»?This study investigates the impact of global crisis shocks on India's trade and industry. We use both panel data modeling and vector autoregression techniques to understand the dynamic effects of global crisis shocks on Indian industry and trade. The estimated results of panel data models show that changes in trade composition are positively associated with changes in manufacturing composition in India, controlling for other variables. However, there is no strong indication that Indian industry has been severely harmed by the fall in demand in crisis-affected advanced economies such as the United States (US), the European Union (EU), and Japan, holding other things constant. Since there may be lags between changes in composition in export and industry, the study then explores the dynamic effects of global crisis shocks on Indian industry and trade with the help of vector autoregression techniques. The findings of the study indicate that the compositional change in industry has responded significantly to exports to the US, Japan, and the EU in the crisis period. Variance decomposition of compositional change in industry reveals that during the pre-crisis period, almost 100% of the variation in compositional change in industry depended on its own variation, while in the crisis period about 20% of the variation in compositional change in industry has depended on the exports to the EU, Japan, and the US. Therefore, the effect of global crisis shocks of India's exports to advanced economies during the crisis period has been transmitted to Indian industry. However, Indian industry has not responded significantly to the shocks of imports from the advanced economies, while the response to its own shocks is significant during both pre- and postcrisis periods. The study also indicates that India's trade openness has responded mildly to the shock of exports to the US. India's trade with the US, coupled with US GDP, has significantly contributed to the variability of India's trade openness in the crisis period, accounting for 40% of the variation of the trade-GDP ratio of India, whereas India's trade with the EU and Japan has had either no effect or very insignificant effect on India's trade openness. This study suggests that Indian industry has not been significantly harmed by the ongoing global crisis. Even though India continues to enjoy relatively large domestic demand, the compositional change (positive) in the manufacturing sector would decrease if the crisis continues, resulting in a slowdown in growth and a rise in stagnation.


Since 2009, out-of-hospital care of junctional hemorrhage bleeding from the trunk-appendage junctions has changed, in part, due to the newly available junctional tourniquets (JTs) that have been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration. Given four new models of JT available in 2014, several military services have begun to acquire, train, or even use such JTs in care. The ability of users to be trained in JT use has been observed by multiple instructors. The experience of such instructors has been broad as a group, but their experience as individuals has been neither long nor deep. A gathering into one source of the collective experience of trainers of JT users could permit a collation of useful information to include lessons learned, tips in skill performance, identification of pitfalls of use to avoid, and strategies to optimize user learning. The purpose of the present review is to record the experiences of several medical personnel in their JT training of users to provide a guide for future trainers.


Abstract The European directive on product liability defines as defective a product that "does not provide the safety which a person is entitled to expect." In the last years, European national courts have given a number of diverse interpretations of such a broadly and ambiguous defined provision. For an analytical comparison among court decisions, I suggest to distinguish between (1) risk of damages that were foreseeable and avoidable at the time when the product was put into circulation, (2) risk of damages that were unforeseeable and unavoidable, and (3) risk of damages that were statistically foreseeable yet unavoidable. As regards the first category, the Italian Corte di Cassazione has pointed out that the legal provision implies a comparison between the conduct of the victim and that of the producer in order to assess which one of two was in the best position to avoid this risk of damage. Therefore, the mechanism of apportionment of the risk is not different from the one implied by a fault liability rule. It is interesting to note that the third American Restatement on torts does not make any reference to the user's behavior in its black letter on product defectiveness. The analysis shows how this different approach impacts on judicial decision-making. With respect to the second category, the development risk defense clause (expressly provided for by the directive) produces the effect of leaving the victim uncompensated, despite the fact that the European lawmaker has declared his intention to place a liability without fault upon the producer. The problem arises with the third category, because the directive has not envisaged a specific rule for those damages that were statistically foreseeable yet unavoidable, such as the manufacturing defects. On the contrary, Italian law makes explicit that a product "is defective if it does not provide the safety normally provided by other products in the same series." Under this rule (that is one of the application of a more broad doctrine on business risk), the producer is deemed strictly liable for those damages that, even though unavoidable, were manageable as quantifiable in advance. The question is whether this doctrine could be applied also to those design defects actually foreseen by the producer. Following the business risk doctrine, the producer should be held strictly liable as he had accepted the risk in full awareness, having taken it into account in his cost/benefit analysis. However, according to those European courts that do apply the risk/utility test (such as the German courts), the producer is insulated from liability if the cost of an alternative design overweighed the foreseeable risk of damage.


This paper is an attempt to examine incentives' system with a view to prescribe a set of new proposal of incentives for the employees in the ministry of education to ensure high productivity and job stratification. The paper raises a set of questions in the given scenario, enquires into its philosophical and theoretical framework and examines its hypotheses with statistical evidences and recommends corrective measures. The study employs descriptive analytical method. Therefore, the paper addresses issues of high importance in the human resources enhancement strategies to be deployed in the ministry.


RADOVANOVIC, R. S. and V. KATIC, 2009. Influence of lactic acid bacteria isolates on Staphylococcus aureus growth in skimmed milk. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 15: 196-203 A total of 52 lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolates was isolateded from acidcoagulating cheese samples one day old. The samples made from raw cows milk were collected from the houshold of an individual producer in Belgrade surroundings. The isolates were identified as Lactococcus spp.(43.39%) and Lactobacillus spp. (54.71%) and were selected for additional identification. Out of 23 Lactococcus spp. isolates, by monitoring 24 different morphological and physiological characteristics, 18 (78.26%) isolates were identified as Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris, 2 (8.69%) isolates as Lactococcus lactis subsp.lactis, 2 (8.69%) isolates as Lactococcus plantarum and 1 (4.35) isolate as Lactococcus lactis subsp. rafinolactis. Out of 29 Lactobcillus spp. isolates from acidcoagulating cheese were observed for 19 different morphological and physiological properties; 9 (31.03%) isolates were identified as Lactobacillus plantarum, 4 (13.79%) isolates as Lactobacillus brevis, 3 (10.34%) isolates as Lactobacillus buchneri, 3 (10.34%) Lactobacillus salivarius subsp. salivarius, 3 (10.34%) isolates as Lactobacillus acidophilus, 2 (6.89%) isolates as Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. tolerans, 2 (6.89%) isolates as Lactobacillus leichmanii, 1 (3.45%) isolate as Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. delbrueckii and 1 (3.45%) isolate Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus. An inhibitory effect of LAB on Staphylococcus aureus growth was observed in skimmed milk. The resulting inhibition can be ascribed to the lowering of pH.


Polymeric networks that retain and absorb substantial amount of water or biological fluids and resemble as a biological tissue are defined as hydrogels. On the other hand, liposomes, transfersomes and niosomes are lipid carriers, which represent one of the major research and development focus areas of the pharmaceutical industry. They have great potential as lipid vehicles that are able to enhance permeation of drugs across the intact skin and can act as local depot for the drug to sustain and control its delivery. Lipid carrier and hydrogel combinations offer transdermal drug delivery of great potential to enhance systemic effects of both hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs. Also, lipid carriers can target drugs to skin appendages and improve transdermal delivery. Lipid carrier proform systems in the form of gelly liquid crystals can also be used transdermally for better drug absorption enhancement. This review highlights the potential of hydrogels and emulgels with or without lipid nanocarriers for dermal and transdermal application.


"The purpose of this research was to examine a leadership team as they facilitated change at a large urban high school. The research questioned the types of changes the team experienced and how they handled those changes. Furthermore, the research discussed the style of leadership utilized by the team members as they implemented changes at the school. The methodology used for this study included interviewing, observations, document analysis and researcher journaling. The data collection process spanned over the 2005-2006 school year. Measures were taken to ensure the trustworthiness of this study. The data revealed a strong need for leadership while the school was in the midst of change. The multitude of changes created frustration for faculty members at the school. The principal, assistant principals and curriculum coordinator were charged with implementing a new magnet program and raise student achievement at the school. The twist in this story was the fact that the principal and two of the three assistant principals were new to the school. In the end, it was discovered that a plan and vision for change was needed early on in the change process. The leadership team needed a more complete understanding of the changes in order to potentially ease the frustration of the teachers and help with a smoother implementation process."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.