This volume gives details of nearly 1000 publications and services (including electronic publications) produced by trade associations, professional bodies, banks, consultants, employers' federations, forecasting organizations and others, together with statistics appearing in trade journals and periodicals. Titles and services are listed alphabetically by publisher and each entry contains information, where available, on subject, content and source of statistics, as well as frequency and cost, and address, telephone and fax details for further information. This updated edition also includes details of internet sites and information on whether statistics are available on those sites.


This article applies several concepts from psychology to the interpretation of Dante Alighieri's literary masterpiece Inferno and describes elements of pedagogy for this kind of interdisciplinary approach. A premise is that sinners in Hell experience emotional suffering. Core psychological concepts are outlined. A methodological distinction is drawn between "what is said" and "what is shown" in Dante's text. Aspects of the psychologies of the glutton Ciacco, the blasphemer Capaneus, and the sinful lover Francesca are analyzed. Three broad patterns of emotional experience are identified. (1) Each class of sinners suffers its own peculiar complex of negative emotions. The article provides close analysis of one such local complex, the emotions that the pusillanimous suffer at the edge of Hell. (2) Sinners do not suffer remorse. The article discusses a paradoxical implication of remorselessness. (3) Damned souls engage in resistance against an imperative to despair. The article also identifies a tension between infernal justice and human psychology. It concludes with brief discussion of how literature, history, and psychology are complementary resources.


In a historical approach to the conflicts in Africa, one can distinguish certain outstanding sequences. The first sequence, corresponding to the pre-colonial period, was characterized by the birth and development of kingdoms and empires of limited scopes whose peaceful coexistence could be disrupted by violent conflicts by the whims of conquest and domination. Just like the wars between nations in Europe before the two World Wars, these conflicts resembled, at their core, tribal considerations. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A second sequence encompases the period of relative stability the continent experienced, despite the colonial imposition of geographic divisions that would one day spawn a wealth of conflicts. Indeed, the Berlin Congress of February 1885 was devoted to the Balkanization of the African continent, the parceling out of territories and the separation of people according to borders that were fixed along the interests of the colonizers, and without heed to local societies. This arbitrary construction of national boundaries constituted a principal source of post-independence border conflicts despite the Congress's preoccupation with stabilization of the continent. When the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was established in 1963, it adopted the principle of the intangibility of borders, thus challenging the inherited character of colonization. The third sequence came with the independence of African nations, when, as a direct product of the divisions created by those at the Congress of Berlin, cross-border territorial claims inevitably generated conflict. The principle of respecting national borders was fragile due to the artificial character of these borders, which rarely reflected the preexisting social and cultural structures established by locals. Often, members of the same family would in fact find themselves divided between two countries because of this colonial residue. Furthermore, the East-West Cold War antagonism of the period often aggravated these conflicts. Some of these confrontations were thus rather "inter-official wars by procurement," molded through the balancing mechanisms of power and wholly controlled by the instigating powers. The fourth sequence saw conflicts of the internal type: tribal wars, armed struggles for control of wealth and access to or maintenance of capacity. The recurrence of "conflicts surrounding the ballot box" illustrated the weakness of democracy in Africa. With independence, the colonial states yielded to numerous, hermetically-sealed single parties. Those bold enough to engage in political opposition were faced with only two possibilities: exile or the creation of armed movements. This "democratic vacuum" was characterized by remarkable features: the smothering of public freedom, farcical electoral exercises, and electoral fraud. As a result, African leaders faced a host of external pressures--the growing international perception that Africans were dependent on government aid or the strongly diplomatic messages from global figures like French President Francois Mitterand, for instance-- that highlighted and attempted to combat the vice of the single party system. A period of "national conferences" then appeared as a prelude to, and progressive phasing-in of, the multi-party system in the eighties. Today, it is impossible to deny my particular interest in the consolidation of peace and creation of lasting development in Africa. The Senegalese experience shows that in Africa, it is wholly possible to politically succeed and achieve one's goals with the ballot box and not with weapons--provided that both sides show a high degree of restraint and leadership. The Senegalese election and subsequent development efforts give hope to the idea that a framework of democratic accountability can bring about a stronger, more successful Africa. Indeed, the objectives of peace and lasting development cannot be attained without well-rooted institutions of democracy. …


Preface to the Second Edition Preface to the First Edition Introduction: Forest Fires, Fractal Oil Fields, and Diffusion What is percolation? Forest fires Oil fields and fractals Diffusion in disordered media Coming attractions Further reading Cluster Numbers The truth about percolation Exact solution in one dimension Small clusters and animals in d dimensions Exact solution for the Bethe lattice Towards a scaling solution for cluster numbers Scaling assumptions for cluster numbers Numerical tests Cluster numbers away from Pc Further reading Cluster Structure Is the cluster perimeter a real perimeter? Cluster radius and fractal dimension Another view on scaling The infinite cluster at the threshold Further reading Finite-size Scaling and the Renormalization Group Finite-size scaling Small cell renormalization Scaling revisited Large cell and Monte Carlo renormalization Connection to geometry Further reading Conductivity and Related Properties Conductivity of random resistor networks Internal structure of the infinite cluster Multitude of fractal dimensions on the incipient infinite cluster Multifractals Fractal models Renormalization group for internal cluster structure Continuum percolation, Swiss-cheese models and broad distributions Elastic networks Further reading Walks, Dynamics and Quantum Effects Ants in the labyrinth Probability distributions Fractons and superlocalization Hulls and external accessible perimeters Diffusion fronts Invasion percolation Further reading Application to Thermal Phase Transitions Statistical physics and the Ising model Dilute magnets at low temperatures History of droplet descriptions for fluids Droplet definition for the Ising model in zero field The trouble with Kertesz Applications Dilute magnets at finite temperatures Spin glasses Further reading Summary Numerical Techniques


Peer-assisted learning (PAL) involves students learning with and from each other. PAL activities may be informal, or undertaken formally in a curriculum, with or without educator facilitation. Reports on PAL in medical education suggest its value can extend beyond technical knowledge gain, to development of broader professional skills. However, the literature largely focuses on the value of PAL in the university environment, rather than how it occurs in the clinical context. Medical students at Monash University are required to engage in PAL in their pre-clinical years. The researcher's experience as learner and teacher suggested students also formulated PAL strategies for clinical placements. However, activities were not formalised and unlikely to be optimised. This research aimed to identify students' and educators' use and perceptions of PAL during clinical placements to develop recommendations for PAL in clinical settings. A tri-phasic study was designed using Biggs' Constructive Alignment as a framework to characterise students' PAL experiences, examining the intended, enacted, and perceived curriculum. Year 3 was the focus of the study, as this first clinical year contains many unstructured learning opportunities which may afford PAL. Research methods comprised a curriculum map (Phase 1), student survey and an observational study of the students on their clinical placements (Phase 2), and interviews with experienced educators (Phase 3). Whilst the curriculum map identified few explicit learning objectives relating to PAL, students reported participation in PAL activities during clinical placements on average 20 times per week. Observations supported this reported frequency of peer interactions: two-thirds of students' time was spent in the company of peers. Survey and interview data revealed students valued teaching and feedback from peers, but doubted the accuracy of peer-generated information. The roles of 'feedback giver' and 'observer' were less valued by students. Significantly more female students reported that PAL contributed to a safe learning environment than males. PAL activities were reported to contribute to students' evaluative judgement: the comprehension of and ability to judge performance against notions of quality. Educator involvement was perceived to be a key ingredient for successful PAL. These data were used to develop a PAL Activity Matrix, which identified activities students could partake in within a clinical environment to optimise their learning. In Phase 3, expert educators reported the study findings resonated with their own broader experience of PAL in clinical education. The activity matrix was confirmed as representing ideal strategies. Potential barriers and facilitators to the uptake of PAL were illuminated. These 'real world' considerations for culture, epistemic authority, and patient-centred care were included in the resultant implementation framework for PAL. This comprehensive study informs the current discourse on PAL in clinical medical education. It identifies barriers and facilitators to PAL, and presents strategies to improve the value of PAL. Future work could test the effect of PAL strategies on students' clinical capacity, including technical competency, professional and communication skills, and preparedness and ability to teach. The use of PAL could also be examined in a broader range of clinical environments, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.


There is a dearth of accurate information and analysis on China's economic/business infrastructure available to the investment community. Using cases from the Asian press and elsewhere, Gamble shows, in no uncertain terms, the challenges of doing business in China, from real estate to joint ventures and beyond. This book is vital reading for business executives, investors, and anyone concerned with China's business and economic environment. It is possible to read the pertinent law in China-translations of statutes are available-yet determining exactly how the legal infrastructure works on the ground is difficult. Without proper guidance, discerning the infrastructure's impact on risk management, economic forecasting, or prospective business and financial operations is next to impossible. Gamble provides that information through a combination of his own experience, legal research, economic analysis and investigative journalism.


Background: Hypertension is an important public health problem in Brazil, and has been affecting individuals of different ages and social strata.
Objective: To determine the prevalence of hypertension and its associated factors in Brazilian adult population.
Methods: Cross-sectional study involving Brazilian adults aged 18 years and older. Data were obtained from the National Health Survey conducted in 2013. A multistage sampling method was used to select a national representative sample of the Brazilian population. The selected sociodemographic variables studied were: sex, age, race, marital status and education level. Behavioral variables included physical activity, smoking status, self-perceived health status and reported salt intake self-perceived. Body Mass Index calculated from weight and height values obtained during household visits. Comorbidities diabetes type 2, high blood cholesterol, cardiovascular diseases, stroke and chronic renal failure were assessed by self-report.
Results: Hypertension increased with age in both sexes, and the men were more likely than women to have that disease in all age categories analyzed. Male sex, older age, not living with partner, low educational level, physically inactive, smoking, overweight, diabetes type 2 and high blood cholesterol were associated with hypertension.
Conclusion: These results reinforce the need for adoption and implementation of measures, based on strategies for prevention, treatment and control of hypertension, still present in expressive way in Brazil and different parts of the world.


Background: Sesquiterpenoids, such as tussilagone, has effects of raising blood pressure, antiplatelet aggregation, and anti-inflammation activities, which is regarded as index compound for quality control of Tussilago farfara L. Objective: This study was aimed to obtain an effective method for fast isolation of sesquiterpenoids from T. farfara L. by high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC). Materials and Methods: A solvent optimization method for HSCCC was presented, i.e., the separation factors of compounds after the K values of solvent system should be investigated. Results: A ternary solvent system of n-hexane:methanol:water (5:8:2, v/v/v) was selected and applied for the HSCCC, and 56 mg of tussilagone (2) was isolated from T. farfara L., along with two other sesquiterpenoids 5.6 mg of 2,2-dimethyl-6-acetylchromanone (1) and 22 mg of 14-acetoxy-7 β-(3'-ethyl cis-crotonoyloxy)-lα-(2'-methylbutyryloxy)-notonipetranone (3) by HSCCC with high purities. Their chemical structures were elucidated by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. Conclusion: These results offered an efficient strategy for preparation of potentially health-relevant phytochemicals from T. farfara L., which might be used for further chemical research and pharmacological studies by preparative HSCCC. Abbreviations used: HSCCC: High-Speed Counter-Current Chromatography; LC-MS: Liquid Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer; NMR: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance; TCM: Traditional Chinese Medicine; HPLC: High Performance Liquid Chromatography; ESI-MS: Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry; PE: petroleum ether


Over the last three decades the average life expectancy of a corporation in North America has dipped well below 20 years. In fact, by 1983 a full third of the 1970 Fortune 500 companies had been acquired, merged, or broken apart. In this landmark book, one of the business world's foremost pioneers, Russell L. Ackoff, delivers this indispensable guide for those hoping to beat these odds-and to better navigate the corporate challenges of the next millennium. While most business and management schools continue to teach the functions of a corporation separately-production, marketing, finance, personnel-the reality is that for a corporation to endure each division must work with the others to create an effective system. Re-Creating the Corporation is Ackoff's masterful blueprint for understanding and creating these model corporate systems. In four comprehensive sections-Background, Process, Designs, and Change-Ackoff lays out in clear concise prose the five organizational goals of successful corporate systems: plan effectively, learn and adapt rapidly, democratize, introduce internal market economies, and employ a flexible structure that will minimize the need for future restructuring. And through a deft mix of practical and theoretical examples drawn from a wide range of applications in a wide range of firms, this book ultimately guides executives to the system best suited to meet their organizational goals. Re-Creating the Corporation, which is the culmination of a lifetime of innovative and insightful business thought from one of the business world's premier thinkers, is essential reading for those attempting to navigate the rapidly changing economic environment of the next millennium.


Editor's note: Stevan Harnad wrote the following essay in 1987 while at Princeton just as the Internet we know coalesced into being. It describes his first experience with a troll and then a flame war on a USENET bulletin board. I repost it for three reasons: 1) As Clive Thompson put it when he tweeted the essay yesterday, "some things haven't changed!" Which is satisfying to my brain at least. We *have* a culture on this here Internet, for good or ill. 2) Going back to such a finely observed primary document lets us feel the strangeness of the Internet again. This was something new unto the world! 3) I wish Harnad's term for Internet discourse -- skywriting -- had caught on. From his place in cognitive science, he intuited early on that Internet culture was something like a return to oral culture, as you can find summarized in his later paper, "Back to the Oral Tradition Through Skywriting at the Speed of Thought."


This paper investigates price-setting for truly homogenous products sold in markets without any formal trade barriers. We use data from IKEA, a furniture company selling identical products in an identical shopping environment in different EU countries. We get four remarkable outcomes: 1) The law of one price does not hold. 2) Country-specific effects of non-tradable cost components are important. 3) Pricing to the market surely occurs but price discrimination is limited by incomplete information. 4) The unexplained part of between-country price variation for identical products is about 75% which leaves most of the inter-country price variation unexplained.


The semiotic status of conducting is one that is intuitively felt to be correct, but rarely subjected to scrutiny. The multitude of potential expressive gestures, including but not limited to the use of the hands, arms, body, head, facial expressions and eyes, present the would-be semiotic researcher with a veritable Gordian knot. The result of this is that too often, conductors are assessed solely on the performance that results from their gestures, rather than on the gestures themselves. Restricting the semiotic domain to the more readily classifiable use of the hands and arms, the paper examines the semiotics of conducting in terms of both codes and sign-production, in order to provide a theoretical framework for the syntactic and semantic analysis of conducting gestures. The paper concludes with some suggestions as to how this framework might be used in practical terms.


At the global level, trade in services has been the most dynamic sector, with an average growth rate about double that in the primary and manufacturing sectors. However, the three activities have a completely different composition in terms of type of labour, services being the most skill-intensive. In Uruguay, the formation of human resources shows several weaknesses; which leads one to ask: Is Uruguay prepared to take advantage of the opportunities open in the global market? If not, what are the consequences? A simulation exercise was tried consisting of an increase in external demand for skill-intensive services, following the global trend of trade in services and the increasing participation of Uruguay in such trade. The results show that, in a context where the educational system does not improve its performance, the scenario of increasing external demand for services leads to an increase in the wage gap across qualifications. But this is not a necessary result. Educational policies aiming at improving the efficiency of the education sector will contribute to a better matching between demand and supply of qualifications, allowing the expansion of dynamic sectors with a reduction in inequality.


A passenger who misses an appointment because of unexpected delays on train services. An online shopper unable to wear the outfit s/he ordered for a long-awaited date because it doesn't fit. Anecdotal observations of consumers unable to carry their goals because of uncontrollable events raise the question of their persistence to purchase the brand involved in such goal failures. This research emphasizes the moderating role of beliefs that the world is an ordered and non-random place on future brand purchase intentions in the face of goal failure.


Abstract This paper considers a class of cargo ship routing and scheduling problems from industrial and tramp shipping and presents a wide range of benchmark instances that have been created to represent realistic planning problems for various shipping segments. Initial results for the benchmark instances are provided both through exact and heuristic methods. Optimal solutions to smaller problem instances are provided by a commercial mixed-integer programming solver, and high-quality solutions to larger problem instances are provided by a state-of-the-art adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic. The provided benchmark instances, as well as an instance generator, intend to stimulate future development of solution algorithms for this important planning problem, and to provide a basis for modelling and solving various real-life problem extensions that go beyond what is included in the benchmark instances.


I. INTRODUCTION A growing number of countries, particularly the so-called "third wave"1 democracies, have given some level of protection for positive rights-those rights requiring affirmative government action for their provision2-in their constitutions.3 America has not yet joined the group of nations embracing the constitutional provision of positive rights,4 and scholars have speculated as to the reasons why.5 The analysis of positive rights and the American Constitution could potentially proceed along two strands. The first strand seeks to explain why Americans have not amended the Constitution to include positive rights. The second strand focuses on why the Supreme Court has not found such rights protected in the existing Constitution itself.6 This Comment fits primarily within the second strand of research efforts, although it offers insights into the first as well, and advances a theory as to why no protection for positive rights currently exists in the American Constitution. It does so by responding to an argument made by Professor Cass Sunstein in The second Bill of Rights.7 Sunstein contends that the primary reason the Supreme Court has not found constitutional protection for positive rights in the American Constitution is essentially a twist of fate in the 1968 election, which resulted in Richard Nixon becoming President of the United States.8 In contrast to the realist explanation advanced by Sunstein, I propose a counter-thesis: that the institutional structure of the American government, combined with America's classically liberal political culture, has prevented the Supreme Court from interpreting such rights into the Constitution. I refer to this throughout this Comment as the "cultural-institutional thesis." This approach is in contrast to the way other authors have addressed the question of positive rights in the American Constitution, which have either focused on the legal9 or political contexts.10 By focusing on the combination of both, this Comment offers unique insights not only regarding the history of positive rights in America, but also as to their future. With that in mind, this Comment proceeds as follows. Part II briefly summarizes Sunstein's argument, and provides a brief articulation of the cultural-institutional thesis. Part III discusses classical liberalism in American political culture, using Louis Hartz's controversial classic The Liberal Tradition in America11 as a theoretical guide. Part IV contains a discussion about how the institutional structure of American government operates in conjunction with political culture to constrain counter-majoritarian judicial review, illustrated by specific examples from Supreme Court case law and public opinion data. Part V provides a brief synthesis of the political culture and institutional limitation arguments and applies the cultural-institutional thesis to the question of the constitutional provision of positive rights in America, concluding that the constitutionalization of positive rights will not occur absent a shift in America's classically liberal political culture. Finally, Part VI is a brief conclusion. II. SUNSTEIN'S ARGUMENT AND THE CULTURAL-INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSE In The Second Bill of Rights, Sunstein outlines four possible explanations for why the constitutionalization of positive rights has not occurred in America: (1) the chronological explanation, (2) the institutional explanation, (3) the cultural explanation, and (4) the realist explanation.12 Sunstein rejects all but the fourth explanation. This Part first sets forth Sunstein's responses to each possible explanation, followed by an explication of the cultural-institutional thesis. A. Sunstein's Possibilities 1. The chronological explanation The chronological explanation for America's failure to constitutionalize positive rights focuses on the fact that the American Constitution predates the idea of state provision of positive rights. …


Titanium dioxide has been widely used as an antimicrobial agent, UV-filter and catalyst for pollution abatement. Herein, surface modifications with selected transition metals (Me) over colloidal TiO2 nanoparticles and immobilization with a colloidal SiO2 binder as composite films (MeTiO2/SiO2) on a glass carrier were used to enhance solar-light photoactivity. Colloidal TiO2 nanoparticles were modified by loading selected transition metals (Me = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn) in the form of chlorides on their surface. They were present primarily as oxo-nanoclusters and a portion as metal oxides. The structural characteristics of bare TiO2 were preserved up to an optimal metal loading of 0.5 wt%. We have shown in situ that metal-oxo-nanoclusters with a redox potential close to that of O2/O2˙− were able to function as co-catalysts on the TiO2 surface which was excited by solar-light irradiation. The materials were tested for photocatalytic activity by two opposite methods; one detecting O2˙− (reduction, Rz ink test) while the other detecting ˙OH (oxidation, terephthalic acid test). It was shown that the enhancement of the solar-light activity of TiO2 by the deposition of transition metal oxo-nanoclusters on the surface depends strongly on the combination of the reduction potential of such species and appropriate band positions of their oxides. The latter prevented excessive self-recombination of the photogenerated charge carriers by the nanoclusters in Ni and Zn modification, which was probably the case in other metal modifications. Overall, only Ni modification had a positive effect on solar photoactivity in both oxidation and reduction reactions.


The Low Income Housing Tax Credit ("LIHTC") program is the largest existing program for the development of low-income affordable rental housing in the country. The program is administered by the United States Department of Treasury and the Office of Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC"), federal agencies by statute that have regulatory and supervisory authority over financial institutions. However, while 42 U.S.C. § 3608(d) provides that federal agencies that have regulatory authority over financial institutions need to administer their programs in a manner that affirmatively furthers fair housing, part of Treasury's policies under the LIHTC statute gives preference for affordable housing projects being developed in areas that are already predominantly minority and contain concentrated poverty. Neither the Treasury nor the OCC have any regulations, guidance, reports, or audits that further fair housing by enforcing federal nondiscrimination policies or their legal duty to overcome patterns of racial segregation in housing. This Note argues that Treasury and OCC should take a larger role in affirmatively furthering fair housing under the Fair Housing Act by reforming their governing structure and polices to reflect civil rights values. Specifically, the Treasury should explicitly acknowledge the authority Title VI and the Fair Housing Act in their policies and regulations, establish a centralized, federal governing body to assure state housing finance agencies are in compliance with civil rights laws, and require state housing finance agencies ("HFA") to establish governing bodies that are inclusive of the communities they serve.


We present Spitzer observations of Lyα blobs (LABs) at z = 2.38–3.09. The mid-infrared ratios (4.5 μm/8 μm and 8 μm/24 μm) indicate that ∼60% of LAB infrared counterparts are cool, consistent with their infrared output being dominated by star formation and not active galactic nuclei (AGNs). The rest have a substantial hot dust component that one would expect from an AGN or an extreme starburst. Comparing the mid-infrared to submillimeter fluxes (∼850 μm or rest-frame far-infrared) also indicates that a large percentage (∼2/3) of the LAB counterparts have total bolometric energy output dominated by star formation, although the number of sources with submillimeter detections or meaningful upper limits remains small (∼10). We obtained Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) spectra of six infrared-bright sources associated with LABs. Four of these sources have measurable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission features, indicative of significant star formation, while the remaining two show a featureless continuum, indicative of infrared energy output completely dominated by an AGN. Two of the counterparts with PAHs are mixed sources, with PAH line-to-continuum ratios and PAH equivalent widths indicative of large energy contributions from both star formation and AGN. Most of the LAB infrared counterparts have large stellar masses, around 1011 M☉. There is a weak trend of mass upper limit with the Lyα luminosity of the host blob, particularly after the most likely AGN contaminants are removed. The range in likely energy sources for the LABs found in this and previous studies suggests that there is no single source of power that is producing all the known LABs.


Noel Carroll, film philosopher, has gathered in this book 18 of his most recent essays on cinema and television - what Carroll calls "moving images". The essays discuss topics in philosophy, film theory, and film criticism. Drawing on concepts from cognitive psychology and analytic philosophy, Carroll examines a wide range of topics. These include film attention, the emotional address of the moving image, film and racism, the nature and epistemology of documentary film, the moral status of television, the concept of film style, the foundations of film evaluation, the film theory of Siegfried Kracauer, the ideology of the professional western, and films by Sergei Eisenstein and Yvonne Rainer. Carroll also assesses the state of contemporary film theory and speculates on its prospects. The book continues many of the themes of Carroll's earlier work, "Theorizing the Moving Image", and develops them in new directions. A general introduction by George Wilson situates Carroll's essays in relation to his view of moving-image studies.


Dropstone-bearing glaciomarine sedimentary rocks of the Ghaub Formation within metamorphosed Neoproterozoic basinal strata (Swakop Group) in central Namibia contain interbedded mafic lava flows and thin felsic ash beds. U-Pb zircon geochronology of an ash layer constrains the deposition of the glaciomarine sediments to 635.5 ± 1.2 Ma, providing an age for what has been described as a "Marinoan-type" glaciation. In addition, this age provides a maximum limit for the proposed lower boundary of the terminal Proterozoic (Ediacaran) system and period. Combined with reliable age constraints from other Neoproterozoic glacial units—the ca. 713 Ma Gubrah Member (Oman) and the 580 Ma Gaskiers Formation (Newfoundland)—these data provide unequivocal evidence for at least three, temporally discrete, glacial episodes during Neoproterozoic time with interglacial periods, characterized by prolonged positive δ 13 C excursions, lasting at most ∼50– 80 m.y.


Endothelium-dependent dilatation of cerebral arterioles is impaired during chronic hypertension. The goal of this study was to determine the effects of an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, cilazapril, on endothelium-dependent dilatation in pial arterioles. Four-month-old Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats and stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP) received cilazapril in their drinking water (500 mg/L) for 3 to 6 months. Treatment with cilazapril reduced mean arterial pressure in both WKY rats and SHRSP and had no significant effect on baseline diameter of pial arterioles measured with a cranial window. Responses to bradykinin and A23187, but not to nitroglycerin and adenosine, were impaired in SHRSP. Cilazapril did not affect responses to bradykinin (3 x 10(-7) M) and A23187 (10(-5) M) in WKY rats but significantly increased cerebral vasodilatation in response to bradykinin (52 +/- 4% vs 27 +/- 5%) and A23187 (19 +/- 3% vs 8 +/- 3%) in SHRSP. Cilazapril also tended to increase dilator responses to nitroglycerin and adenosine in SHRSP. In another group of SHRSP, treatment with cilazapril for 4 days produced a moderate reduction in blood pressure and increased cerebral vasodilatation in response to bradykinin, A23187, and adenosine. Topical application of the active form of cilazapril (cilazaprilat) for 40 minutes also increased cerebral vasodilatation in response to bradykinin, A23187, and nitroglycerin in SHRSP. The data indicate that an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor enhances cerebral vasodilatation in response to endothelium-dependent agonists in SHRSP and may also increase responses to endothelium-independent agonists.


Fully spectroscopic x/γ-ray imaging is now possible thanks to advances in the growth of wide-bandgap semiconductors. One of the most promising materials is cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe or CZT), which has been demonstrated in homeland security, medical imaging, astrophysics and industrial analysis applications. These applications have demanding energy and spatial resolution requirements that are not always met by the metal contacts deposited on the CdZnTe. To improve the contacts, the interface formed between metal and semiconductor during contact deposition must be better understood. Gold has a work function closely matching that of high resistivity CdZnTe and is a popular choice of contact metal. Gold contacts are often formed by electroless deposition however this forms a complex interface. The prior CdZnTe surface preparation, such as mechanical or chemo-mechanical polishing, and electroless deposition parameters, such as gold chloride solution temperature, play important roles in the formation of the interface and are the subject of the presented work. Techniques such as focused ion beam (FIB) cross section imaging, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and current  −  voltage (I–V) analysis have been used to characterize the interface. It has been found that the electroless reaction depends on the surface preparation and for chemo-mechanically polished (1 1 1) CdZnTe, it also depends on the A/B face identity. Where the deposition occurred at elevated temperature, the deposited contacts were found to produce a greater leakage current and suffered from increased subsurface voiding due to the formation of cadmium chloride.


A method for performing calculations on the lower bound states of van der Waals trimers is developed, which models atom-atom-diatom trimers with basis functions in all five degrees of freedom. Spherical harmonic and distributed Gaussian functions and solutions of one-dimensional adiabatic Hamiltonians are used as basis functions. Arg was examined as a precursor system. No spectroscopy has been performed on Ara, nor is this currently feasible. For the systems considered, most experimental data exists for (^v)HCI = 0 Ar(_2)HCl so this is the main target of the work. Predictions are made for Ar(_2)DCl, for (_v)HCI = 1 Ar(_2)HCl, and for (^v)HF =0,1 Ar(_2)HF ; experiments are currently in progress on some of these systems. The current state of knowledge of the pair potentials of the Ar-Ar, and Ar-HF/CI systems is summarised. Physical models for important three body potential terms are suggested; these arise from dipoles induced on the argon atoms, dispersion effects, orbital deformation and the Ar(_2) overlap-induced field. The parameters in the models come from the literature, where possible, and otherwise from a fit to some ab-initio data points for the Ar(_3) and Ar(_2)HCl trimers (Chalasinski et al.).Calculations on Ar(_s) with various two- and three-body potentials are presented and discussed in the context of earlier work. For Ar(_2)HCl a comparison is made with earlier, approximate, work (Hutson, Halberstadt and Beswick). The possible effects of Hamilto- nian approximations are discussed before addressing the effects of individual three-body components. Two sets of three-body parameters are assessed, and indicate that the physical models used are substantially appropriate, although deficient in detail; agreement with experiment is good, with changes in frequencies of about 1.5cm(^-1) arising from the best three-body model. The most important three-body component is found to be the interaction of the overlap-induced field with the HCI permanent multipoles, with the dispersion effects slightly less important and other terms much less so.


This document was prepared in the context of the Program for the "Improvement of Surveys and the Measurement of Living Conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean" (ISLC/MECOVI). Bolivia ranks among Latin America's so-called "early adjusters". While Bolivia's economic reforms, which began in 1985, have clearly brought economic stability and some structural change, they have failed so far to bring a major boost to the economy and export production. Using household survey data, this paper analyzes how and to what extent Bolivia's economic reforms, which began in 1985, have made an impact on living conditions of the Bolivian population between 1985 and 1995.


In a series of recent decisions, the Supreme Court overturned a number of circuit court opinions and adopted a more narrow reading of certain federal recidivist sentencing enhancements. Although the decisions revealed that many federal prisoners were sentenced incorrectly and are serving sentences that are much longer than they should be, few of these prisoners have obtained relief in the lower courts on collateral review. Courts have generally dismissed the claims on procedural grounds, citing interests in finality. Indeed, courts often refuse to correct sentencing errors on collateral review, even when both the judge and the prosecutor acknowledge that the prisoner is serving additional years in prison based on a sentencing mistake. After a criminal judgment has become "final," federal courts appear reluctant to resentence. Federal prisoners seeking collateral review of sentences are subject to the same — and in some cases stricter — procedural barriers to relief as those seeking the more drastic remedy of undoing their convictions. But sentencing errors should be easier to fix than conviction-based errors because arguments favoring finality are much weaker in the sentencing context. Correcting a sentence is vastly easier than retrying a case, and staleness of evidence is not a major concern at a resentencing because judges, unlike juries, can rely on previous findings. Outside the special context of capital cases, the important distinctions between collateral review of sentences and convictions have received little attention from courts or scholars. Given the backdrop of extensive litigation in the lower courts about correcting sentencing errors at the collateral review stage, and the possibility that the Supreme Court will need to resolve divergent circuit decisions in this area, now is an important moment to consider whether interests in finality should carry as much weight when a court reviews a sentence rather than a conviction in a collateral proceeding, and when the federal court is reviewing its own decision rather than the decision of a state court. Courts have been overstating the interests in finality of sentences. They should be correcting more sentencing mistakes on collateral review, at least where an intervening decision has narrowed the reach of a substantive sentencing provision.


This large format book of photographs of women and men is a tribute to the beauty, spirit and style of the last 40 years by world-renowned photographer, Gilles Bensimon. It offers a visual insight into the celebrity world and includes fashion shots and character studies in black and white and colour. From the world of the catwalk, the cinema, television, sport, music, the gossip columns, shown here are names including Audrey Hepburn, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Uma Thurman, Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sharon Stone, Nicole Kidman, Catherine Deneuve, Britney Spears and Venus Williams, to name a few. Gilles has also photographed Hugh Grant, Calvin Klein and Alexander McQueen.


On January 7, 1894, the New York Times declared that Connecticut Governor Luzon B. Morris's appointment of Superior Court Judge William Hamersley to the Connecticut Supreme Court ensured that the Court "will become Democratic for the first time in thirty years..." The article related that both Democrats and Republicans hastened to support Hamersley as one of Hartford's finest citizens and a brilliant lawyer as well. "For twenty years," the author wrote, "Judge Hamersley was State's Attorney here, and was pitted against the ablest lawyers in the country in the great Charter Oak Life conspiracy case in 1878... The energy which he displayed as a Public Prosecutor was phenomenal."For a case that the New York Times deemed "great," there has been hardly anything written about the "Great Charter Oak Life" criminal conspiracy. The only record of the whole affair appeared in 1897 as a chapter in P. Henry Woodward's Insurance in Connecticut. It is striking that the history books are virtually silent on a trial in Hartford Superior Court, reported on by national newspapers and lasting over twenty days. The trial pitted Hamersley as prosecutor against Leonard Swett-a world-renowned attorney and one of Abraham Lincoln's closest friends.This article traces the history of that trial and the surrounding events from its origins in 1877 to its conclusion in January 1879. The trial is important not only for its personalities, but for its influence on the regulation of the insurance industry in the "city of insurance."


This article reflects on the proliferation of responses to the so-called phenomenon of "foreign terrorist fighters," and the profound human rights challenges they give rise to. It considers national, regional and international developments, many spurred by an activist Security Council, through which expanded powers have been assumed and rights restricted by reference to the need to respond to ftf threats. A series of uncomfortable relationships emerge from this analysis. They include for example tensions: between the evolving and still relatively superficial understanding of the nature and source of uncertain threats and contributing factors on the one hand, and the onerous and far-reaching nature of responses directed against them on the other; between the expansive use of coercive measures including criminal law, and basic constraining principles of criminal law upon which its legitimacy and power depends, such as individual culpability, harm principle and remoteness; or between the original purposes of most ftf measures and their impact in practice, on the operation of humanitarian law, on humanitarian workers and human rights defenders, and on the rule of law. Exceptional ftf measures continue to spread their reach and creep into other areas of security and organised crime. The article highlights the need to consider the short and long term impact, on the full range of rights of many, of the array of administrative, criminal and other measures being passed into law and implemented in practice across the globe in the name of responding to the ill-defined phenomenon of "ftfs".


The commercial exploitation of scientific knowledge and increased public participation in democratic decision-making about science and technology have emerged as the two central themes of contemporary science policy in Britain. We argue that the prominence of participatory discourse in contemporary science policy is primarily due to the close fit of this discourse with the post-Fordist and post-industrial economic strategy of the British state. Participation is a form of immaterial labour which gains currency in this phase of capitalism, blurring the distinctions between production and consumption, and between the economy and the political or communicative public sphere. Participation is cognitive, interpretative, affective, and social work which enters into the construction of technologies as bundled material artefacts and cultural meanings. Participation operates both in the production and consumption of goods and in the legitimation of social and political relations. Public engagement exercises prepare the product for the market and the market for the product. Such exercises therefore instantiate the way in which immaterial labour is both productive and political. Participation activates, but also disciplines, the subjectivities of post-Fordist publics. Contrary to the rhetoric of democratization that has accompanied public engagement efforts, these programmes potentially operate as forms of control and co-optation, and promote the shaping of publics as markets.


A string of prominent structural anticlines is located in the deep offshore Atlantic Ocean c. 150 km west of Essaouira (Morocco), possibly forming large traps. However, the basement is inferred to comprise oceanic crust, which raises concerns for source-rock presence and sufficient subsurface temperatures for oil generation. The presented work showcases a hydrocarbon charge assessment approach adapted to the very sparse data context and the specific geodynamic settings of the Moroccan Atlantic margin. Regional 2D basin and petroleum systems modelling was performed to assess possible scenarios of hydrocarbon charge of the deep-water folds, its migration style and timing. Several possible oil and gas generation drivers have been identified for postulated Toarcian marine shale source rocks. These range from simple burial-driven heating to more unique scenarios involving early stage oceanic ridge heating and the effect of the Canary Island hotspot. In particular, the latter might have had a major impact on the oil and gas generation, the migration style and overall accumulated amounts. Supplementary material: A table with lithology parameters used for modelling, an overview table of modelling cases and annex figures with additional results from modelling cases are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4183106


Increasing complexity in construction projects, together with widespread availability of technology applicable to many aspects of the construction industry, is driving demand for greater integration of information and communication technologies. The resulting transformations in technology and process require associated changes in professional roles and relationships in a digital context. Development of any professional role is a dynamic process, with no determined transition point when a profession can be considered to exist or not. Instead there is a cycle of development as skills, expectations, and specialisations evolve and are modified to suit the changing environment. This concept of the professional life cycle forms the framework for an exploration of changes in roles and practice in the context of digital construction. While traditional construction industry functions and responsibilities take place within well-established professional roles, a multiplicity of views has emerged regarding the status of roles which encompass digital construction. This paper uses practitioner narratives to explore aspects of technology adoption and implementation that are having an impact on the way such careers develop. Interviewees were selected who identified themselves, or were identified by their peers, as BIM specialists; many of these individuals also described involvement in broader digital construction initiatives. Taking BIM practice as a starting point, career factors identified by these practitioners are connected to a wider perspective of digital maturity in the industry, and to the concept of the professional life cycle: as digital practice continues to change and mature, the career possibilities and needs within the field also evolve. The findings show that the introduction of digital construction has progressed to a point where BIM is now common across many sectors of the AEC industry, and a range of other digital applications are becoming increasingly mainstream. This move to digital construction in many cases takes place within traditional roles that have expanded or changed to suit the changed environment. In other cases, new roles have emerged to fulfil specific needs for digital management of information, process and strategy in projects and organisations. However, even with this increasing involvement of specialist practitioners in BIM and wider industry practice, the status of digital construction with regard to professional roles is still not established. Many practitioners expressed feelings of insecurity regarding their current position, suggesting that work to provide greater clarity around career progression is necessary so that practitioners can be assured that digital skills have value and recognition.


Streaming potential and resistivity measurements have been performed on Fontainebleau sandstone and Villejust quartzite samples in a triaxial device during compaction, uniaxial compression, and rupture. Measurements on individual samples do not show any clear intrinsic dependence of the streaming potential coefficient with permeability. An apparent dependence of the streaming potential coefficient with permeability is, however, observed during deformation. The effect of surface conductivity is taken into account and is small compared with the observed changes in the streaming potential coefficient. The observed dependence is therefore interpreted in terms of a difference in the evolution of the electrical and hydraulic connectivity patterns during deformation. This effect causes the streaming potential coefficient, and consequently the inferred ξ potential, to be reduced by a geometrical factor R_G representing the electrical efficiency of the hydraulic network. Estimates of the R_G factor varying between 0.2 and 0.8 for electrolyte resistivity larger than 100 Ωm are obtained by comparing the values of the ξ potential inferred from intact rock samples with the values obtained from crushed rock samples, where the geometrical effects are assumed to be negligible. The reduction of the streaming potential coefficient observed during compaction or uniaxial compression suggests that the tortuosity of the hydraulic network increases faster than the tortuosity of the electrical network. Before rupture, an increase in the streaming potential coefficient associated with the onset of dilatancy was observed for three samples of Fontainebleau sandstone and one sample of Villejust quartzite. The changes in streaming potential coefficient prior to failure range from 30% to 50%. During one experiment, an increase in the concentration of sulfate ions was also observed before failure. These experiments suggest that observable streaming potential and geochemical variations could occur before earthquakes.


In light of recent discussions on the anthropology of space and theories of governmentality, this article analyzes the entrenchment and interaction in space of ethnic and national identities in an environment in which competing conceptualizations of space persist. The town of Komotini, in northern Greece, is inhabited by both Greek and Turkish speakers; both communities have claims to a variety of ethnic and geographical origins. These claims are presented in different contexts, such as national celebrations, street naming, and instances of communal and intercommunal interaction. The article analyzes how the claims of different actors are related through the examination of space making by state officials, minority residents, and local Greeks, all of whom acknowledge, albeit in different ways, the inconsistencies of a Greek national imaginary within Komotinian space.


The Great War gave birth to some of the twentieth century's most celebrated writing; from Brooke to Sassoon, the poetry generated by the war is etched into collective memory. But it is in prose fiction that we find some of the most profound insights into the war's individual and communal tragedies, the horror of life in the trenches and the grand farce of the first industrial war. Featuring forty-seven writers from twenty different nations, representing all the main participants in the conflict, No Man's Land is a truly international anthology of First World War fiction. Work by Siegfried Sassoon, Erich Maria Remarque, Willa Cather and Rose Macaulay sits alongside forgotten masterpieces such as Stratis Myrivilis' Life in the Tomb, Raymond Escholier's Mahmadou Fofana and Mary Borden's The Forbidden Zone. No Man's Land is a brilliant memorial to the twentieth century's most cataclysmic event.


Hitchcock ( 2012 ) demonstrated that the validity of causal exclusion arguments as well as the plausibility of several of their premises hinges on the specific theory of causation endorsed. In this paper I show that the validity of causal exclusion arguments—if represented within the theory of causal Bayes nets the way Gebharter ( 2015 ) suggests—actually requires much weaker premises than the ones which are typically assumed. In particular, neither completeness of the physical domain nor the no overdetermination assumption are required.


Abstract Cardiovascular risk increases progressively with age. Statins in octogenarians may therefore potentially bring about large reductions in absolute risk. Epidemiological studies, however, show that statin prescription declines with age and is lowest in the oldest patients with the highest cardiovascular risk. Reasons for low statin utilisation in the elderly include safety concerns, doubts about the utility of statin therapy in those of advanced age and a paucity of definite trial evidence supporting statin prescription in octogenarians. Some of the more recently completed statin outcome trials have randomised patients as old as 82 years. A meta-analysis of secondary prevention, with patients aged 65–82 years at randomisation, supported statin prescription in this age group, as statin therapy was associated with relative risk reduction similar to that observed in younger patients. A Swedish registry study showed improved survival in octogenarians prescribed a statin following hospitalisation with an acute myocardial infarction. Currently there is no definite evidence that statin therapy prevents or ameliorates cognitive impairment or dementia. Statin therapy should be considered in octogenarians at high cardiovascular risk, taking into account factors such as biological vs. chronological age, life expectancy, quality of life, risk of interaction with medications taken for co-morbidities and the ability of the patient to take the statin safely.


Previous research has generally shown a very small although statistically significant economic benefit from attending high-quality colleges. This small effect was at odds with what students' college choices and various social theories would seem to suggest. This study sought to reconcile the empirical evidence and theories. The effort was in two directions. First, the economic effect of college quality was reexamined—not only for an "average" student, but also for different students. Second, the effect of college quality was expanded from examining only the economic benefit to considering other student outcomes, including job satisfaction and graduate degree accomplishment. A new perspective regarding the social role of college quality was offered in conclusion.


Background:  Forging 'new' decolonial education curriculum policy reform with ill-conceived intents may lead to both socio-political and economic pathologies and failure. Aim:  The aim of the social sciences meta synthesis done was to consolidate gathered evidence from published scientific articles on decolonial curriculum reform policies. It was critical during the process of synthesising to acknowledge the fact that Africans continue to experience multifaceted socio-political and economic shifts of being as influenced by a variety of global ideologies. Concerted decolonial efforts should be made to manage these matrices of material social constructs such that the contamination and decapitation of true African educational curricula, identities, cultures, values, ethos and principles are curtailed. Setting:  The critical exploration of meta-data underpinned by a critical-dialectical perspective attempted to dig beneath the impact of coloniality of power on the conscious mind of an African intellectual. The critical social research analyses how the African colonised mind can effectively decolonise African university curriculum given their colonially captured mind. Method:  An extensive search, guided by selected key words, yielded about 35 articles on decolonisation but were trimmed down to 15 as determined by my main focus thus: decolonial curriculum reform in post-colonial nation states. Results:  Findings indicate that African scholars, political pundits and researchers tend to rely on the mentally embedded notion of caged colonial mentality (CCM) in advocating for decolonial curriculum reform, with little regard for the multifaceted seismic shifts that impact on the socio-politico-education life of post-colonial African existential Beings. Conclusion:  I strongly advocate for the dismantling of systemic CCM and embrace those seismic shifts that incorporate contemporary decolonial projects when crafting the architecture for decolonial curriculum designs that build on appropriate knowledge, competences, skills, values, beliefs and practices from around the globe to buttress multiplicities of identities, while nevertheless retaining Africa's interests at the centre.


The focus of mass housing developments built by speculative developers in the UK has broadly been on maximising density whilst retaining a predominantly detached housing form. This economically led strategy, aimed at maximising sale values, can conflict with the aim of radically reducing environmental impacts. For example by creating very closely spaced, deep, narrow frontage houses, which may not optimise solar design. Whilst a variety of products have been developed to enable design professionals to model and assess the environmental performance (especially in energy use terms) of individual buildings, there are currently no tools for modelling the performance of whole developments, based on variables such as site layout, denSity, orientation, topography, etc. USing passive solar design as an exemplar for sustainable development offers the opportunity to improve the environmental, spatial and aesthetic performance of speculative developments. This thesis describes the development of a tool for planners and developers to optimise the passive solar characteristics of housing developments through an environmental site assessment, encouraging the use of basic environmental techniques early in the design process. In this thesis the characteristics of passive solar design are ascertained and a tool is developed that can show, quantitatively and visually, the savings that passive solar design can achieve compared to more 'standard' modern speculative developments. This thesis is one small step in the development of a tool to encourage sustainable design through the entire design process from an early stage. It has used passive solar design of mass, speculative housing in the north east of Scotland as a starting point for a tool which, it is hoped, can in future encompass wider aspects of the complex field of sustainable design.


The development of real time embedded equipments is a challenging task that requires the elaboration of multiple models in several domains, notably system, electronics and software, spanning a large spectrum of multiple abstraction levels and viewpoints: structural, behavioral, dependability, etc. These models serve various purposes: specification, design, evaluation or verification and validation. Today, no single modeling language and environment covers all these aspects. While Capella – an open source modeling language and environment for system engineering developed by Thales – fits well to the most early stages of the development process, AADL – the Architecture Analysis and Design Language defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers – provides powerful capabilities to describe and analyze the design artifacts of the software point of view that appear during the latest phase of the design. This is why they have both been selected in the project INGEQUIP of IRT Saint Exupery. While using different modeling languages for different purpose is perfectly acceptable in a development process, it is important to guarantee that information remain consistent across all models. This is why building a formalized bridge between Capella and AADL is an essential piece of INGEQUIP process. In this paper, after an introduction to the context of INGEQUIP, the high level semantics of Capella and AADL are compared. The mapping used in INGEQUIP between Capella physical models and AADL abstract models is then described. The whole approach is illustrated by some elements coming from the design of TwIRTee – the robotic demonstrator of INGEQUIP – before concluding.


Digital pre-distortion (DPD) is a common method to linearize the output signal of a power amplifier (PA), which is being operated in its non-linear operating range. Most PAs operate in their non-linear range for efficiency reasons. The drawback of higher efficiency is the non-linear operating range. In order to maintain signal quality, many transmitters employ DPD. Implementing real-time DPD in a transmitter is a challenging task and often ends in PA models, which are specific to the signal transmitted. Even though these complex models are required for transmitter development, they are not needed during PA verification and development. This article describes an approach to generate a pre-distorted signal based on a hard-clipper. The resulting waveform pushes the output of the DUT as close to the hard-clipper as possible. Due to the waveform approach, the algorithm compensates all memory effects.


We present a generative approach to behavioral organization which uses continuous dynamical systems for switching between multiple actions of an ant hropomorphic robot. The logical context of the possible actions is coded in matrices of parameters for a system of continuous differential equations. The sensor context is represented by a set of variable parameters depending on the sensor inputs. The switching between the behaviors is the result of nonlinear phase transitions in the solution of the underlying dynamical system. The stability of the overall system is guaranteed even for many different behaviors by keeping coupled behaviors on separated timescales. This is demonstrated on the anthropomorphic robot ARNOLD for the example of approaching a door. The robot searches for the door visually, recognizes it, points at it, and approaches it. The dynamical systems approach allows for a flexible change of a running behavioral sequence after unexpected perturbations brought about by dynamic changes in the environment.


Early in 2018, the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Report Office (HDRO) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) agreed to adjust and unify their methodologies on poverty measurement and consider indicator improvements, in order to better monitor the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper sets out the specifications of a joint global Multidimensional Poverty Index first published in 2018, which is an internationally comparable measure of acute poverty that captures the multiple deprivations poor people experience with respect to health, education and living standards. It builds on the original MPI launched in 2010, and an innovative MPI launched in 2014. The best features of both of these are subsumed in the joint global MPI 2018, which also reflects new data possibilities to better align the global MPI to the Sustainable Development Goals. Because the objective of revising the MPI to create a more credible and legitimate measure of multidimensional poverty that enables comparisons across countries using existing data was challenging to realize, the paper first sets out five key principles for a global poverty measure related to data coverage, communicability, comparability, disaggregation, and robustness. Drawing on expert interventions, a global consultation, empirical trials, and these principles, the paper then explains conceptually the motivation and nature of adjustments that were made to five of the ten included indicators. It also recognizes desirable changes that could not be made due to data constraints – for example including data on the environment, work, and security, or on intrahousehold inequalities. And it identifies key issues for future research related to household composition and the use of land and livestock variables.


Health information is often conveyed in printed or digital form. This can present challenges to people with intellectual disabilities, many of whom experience literacy difficulties and are therefore disadvantaged in reading and understanding such information. 'Easy read' versions of health-related documents purport to circumvent these difficulties, but there is little evidence to demonstrate their effectiveness in doing so. The aim of the current research was to address how effective adapted health-based 'easy read' literature was in contributing to the construction of meaning for people with intellectual disabilities. Four studies investigated different areas of 'easy read' information and its use. 1. A survey compared presentational features found in 'easy read' and 'non-easy read' literature published by the UK Department of Health and aligned these with advice given in published guidelines for 'easy read' material. 2. Critical differences between the linguistic features in these two groups of documents were analysed using specialised software. 3. A systematic qualitative linguistic analysis was undertaken to investigate the subtleties conveyed through the discourse of 'non-easy read' compared to 'easy read' texts. 4. Finally, a randomised experiment tested the effects of linguistic simplification and literacy mediation on the understanding of 'easy read' information with sixty participants with intellectual disabilities. When material was compared to its 'non-easy read' counterparts it showed that clear differences had been rendered by authors of the 'easy read' documentation. These differences were indicative of presentational changes and reduced linguistic complexity. They did not appear to translate into more effective understanding of content by people with intellectual disabilities, whether human mediation was present or not. Individual capacity for language, however, was shown to be integral to the construction of meaning from 'easy read material'. This has implications for both the production and the use of 'easy read' material in practice.


The philosopher of art Roger Scruton has claimed that photographic images are not representations, on the basis of the role of causal rather than intentional processes in arriving at the content of a photographic image (Scruton, 1981). His claim was controversial at the time, and still is, but had the merit of being a springboard for asking important questions about what kinds of representation result from the technologies used in depicting and visualising. In the context of computational picturing of different kinds, in imaging and other forms of visualisation, the question arises again, but this time in an even more interesting form, since these techniques are often hybrids of different principles and techniques. A digital image results from a complex interrelationship of physical, mathematical and technological principles, embedded within human and social situations. This paper consists of three sections, each presenting a view of the question whether digital imaging and digital visual artefacts generally are representations, from a different perspective. These perspectives are not representative, but aim only to accomplish what Scruton's paper did succeed in accomplishing, that is, being a provocation and a springboard for a broader discussion.


The fetal heart starts as a tube which folds and fuses in a complex dance that results in a muscular pump with four chambers and four valves. It is not surprising that small errors in development can lead to a wide variety of structural abnormalities in the 4 chambers, the 4 heart valves, the veins and great arteries. Most common heart defects, such as holes between the chambers (atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect) and even more complex conditions such as transposition of the great arteries and tetralogy of Fallot, can be successfully managed after birth.


The illicit drug abuse in pregnancy has received significant attention over the past two decades. However, far too little attention has been given to the consequences of the use of social drugs such as ethanol and tobacco, which are by far the most commonly abused substances during pregnancy. While the deleterious effects of cocaine or amphetamines on the mother and the fetus are more pronounced and easier to detect, the addiction to ethanol and tobacco is usually subtle and more difficult to diagnose. As a result recreational use of alcohol and tobacco may continue undetected in pregnancy, significantly effecting pregnancy outcome and obstetric and anaesthetic management of these patients. This article reviews the consequences of ethanol and tobacco use in pregnancy and offers recommendation for anaesthetic management of these potentially complicated pregnancies.


This paper focuses on the Dirichlet and the Dirichlet-multinomial distributions to analyze one definition of the cycle based on three economic performance regimens: augmentation, stagnation and diminution. We use data from 142 economies grouped in seven clusters during the second half of the last century, a period which has witnessed various structural changes. Furthermore, this paper advances to investigate what the probabilities are of reaching significant  positive  growth  rates  ⎯the  frequency  of  the  augmentation  regimen⎯  which  prevailed  during     the decade from 1950 to 1960, using Bayesian statistics.


Thermocouple measurements have been made at four different altitudes in the neighborhood of Albuquerque, New Mexico, of the intensity of solar radiation transmitted by a silver filter. These have been used to determine values of the transmission coefficient defined by I=Iam where I and I0 are respectively the observed and incident energies, a the transmission coefficient and m the air mass traversed in units of the vertical air path directly overhead at sea level and normal pressure. The results, corrected by the use of Hann's empirical equation for the effect of water in the path, gave for a at 3140 m, 0.47; at 2059 m, 0.47; at 1769 m, 0.46; and at 1556 m, 0.43. The last result, from observations on the New Mexico campus is low probably because of dust scattering; the others are in agreement within the errors. The theoretical value calculated from Rayleigh's law of molecular scattering, and using a new value (λ3240) for the wave length of maximum solar energy transmitted by a silver film, is 0.479. The conclusion is, that at least above 1700 m altitude, and for clean dry air, the Rayleigh law for pure molecular scattering is adequate to account for the atmospheric depletion of solar radiation in the silver transmission band. The somewhat discordant results of earlier investigators are discussed.


This paper provides empirical evidence in support of the view that the quality of institutions is an important determinant of long-term growth of European countries. When also taking into account the initial level of GDP per capita and government debt, cross-country institutional differences can explain to a great extent the relative long-term GDP performance of European countries. It also shows that an initial government debt level above a threshold (e.g. 60-70%) coupled with institutional quality below the EU average tends to be associated with particularly poor long-term real growth performance. Interestingly, the detrimental effect of high debt levels on long-term growth seems cushioned by the presence of very sound institutions. This might be because good institutions help to alleviate the debt problem in various ways, e.g. by ensuring sufficient fiscal consolidation in the longer-run, allowing for better use of government expenditures and promoting sustainable growth, social fairness and more efficient tax administration. The quality of national institutions seems to enhance the long-term GDP performance across a large sample of countries, also including OECD countries outside Europe. The paper offers some evidence that, in the presence of good institutions, conditions for catching-up seem generally good also for euro-area and fixed exchange rate countries. Looking at sub-groupings, it seems that sound institutions may be particularly important for long-term growth in the countries where the exchange rate tool is no longer available (and where also sovereign debt is high), and less so in the countries with flexible exchange rate regimes. However, this result is preliminary and requires further research.

The empirical findings on the importance of institutions are robust to various measures of output growth, different measures of institutional indicators, different sample sizes, different country groupings and to the inclusion of additional control variables. Overall, the results tend to support the call for structural reforms in general and reforms enhancing the efficiency of public administration and regulation, the rule of law and the fight against rent-seeking and corruption in particular.


Strontium Bismuth Titanate is a very promising material for high temperature piezoelectric applications, its elevated ferroelectric phase transition (530°C), linear piezoelectric properties under low field and relatively low room temperature conductivity (compared to others Bismuth Titanates) make it very attractive for precision sensors. However, under severe conditions (low frequency, high field, high temperature or low oxygen partial pressure) some of those advantages disappear. Piezoelectric response is dominated by charge drift in general becomes unstable. Above all, at high temperature and low oxygen partial pressure, a large conductivity increase reduces the piezoelectric efficiency of the material, in this work, electrical conductivity, piezoelectric properties and dielectric permittivity of SrBIT ceramic have been investigated in conditions of high temperature, low oxygen partial pressure, low to moderate driving field and frequency. As a result of this research, a better understanding of SrBIT properties was achieved. Thanks to a careful study of SrBIT processing as a bulk ceramic, a reproducible route was established. Many basic mechanisms leading to both SrBIT crystallization and sintering have been identified. It was demonstrated that a detailed knowledge of the exact processing conditions is required in order to achieve high quality material. DC conductivity measurements were carried out as a function of temperature, oxygen partial pressure and dopant concentration. It was found that the apparent activation energy for conduction for undoped SrBIT was 1 eV between 140 and 220°C and 1.5 eV between 450 and 700°C. Decrease of the activation energy in the lower temperature range has been discussed considering grain boundary conductivity, as a transition from electronic to ionic conduction or as consequence of small polarons conduction. It was shown that lower activation energy resulted from Manganese doping (0.5 eV), this was interpreted as either growing influence of grain boundary conductivity as dopant concentration increases or as shallow hole trap formation. DC conductivity measurements and acceptor/donor doping experiments demonstrated p-type conductivity in the low temperature range (up to 220°C) as donor doping decreases conductivity, while oxygen partial pressure controlled measurements indicated n-type conductivity at higher temperature (above 700°C). An electrical impedance analysis was performed with several equivalent circuits. The aim of these models was to simulate the impedance of SrBIT. The best approximation was found with a distributed element of Havriliak-Negami type. However, as the physical justification for this circuit was not clear, the investigation of the grain, grain boundary and electrode impedances was performed with multiple discrete parallel RC elements. With temperature, grain size and oxygen activity variations, the identification of three separate contributions as grain, grain boundary and electrode was realized. The anisotropy of conductivity and permittivity was demonstrated with textured material and both DC and AC analysis. With the master curves built for the electrical modulus, it was found that the impedance probably related to Bismuth oxide layers produces an additional high frequency are. From this finding and by comparing characteristic relaxation frequencies of undoped, 2 mol.% Mn and 4 mol.% Nb SrBIT, it was determined that conductivity is higher in the ab plane direction than in the c direction within both perovskite units and Bismuth oxide layers. With conductivity measurements under controlled oxygen partial pressure, it was found that an acceptor-based (intrinsic or extrinsic) model could be used to describe the electrical conductivity under controlled oxygen partial pressure of both undoped and 2 mol.% Mn doped SrBIT. However, as neither a pO2-1/6 region (intrinsic oxygen vacancies compensated by electrons) for undoped SrBIT nor a pO2-1/4 region (oxygen vacancies compensated by singly ionized acceptors) for Mn doped SrBIT were seen, it was concluded that the acceptorcontrolled model is not sufficient for a complete description of SrBIT. For this reason and in order to include the low oxygen partial pressure behavior of undoped SrBIT, a donor-based (intrinsic) model was also considered. The source of intrinsic donors would be in that case Bi3+ cations sitting on Sr2+ sites in the perovskite sublattice. Considering Bismuth vacancies as the negative compensating species, both pO2-1/4 and pO2-independent regions could be predicted with the model. However, even if the donor-controlled model seems to better match conductivity measurements in the full PO2) range, rejecting the acceptor-based model would be an error. It is actually not demonstrated that in SrBIT the concentration of exchanged Bismuth cations is always (all temperature, pressure) larger than the natural acceptor impurity concentration. It is very likely that the cation exchange is dependent of the oxygen partial pressure. It is also not proved as suggested in the literature that direct compensation between exchanged Strontium and Bismuth exists, reducing the net donor-excess. With the acceptor-controlled model, the mass-action constants for reduction and for ionization of intrinsic carriers across the band gap were determined. The band gap of SrBIT was estimated to be 3.5 eV. The ionic conductivity of SrBIT was determined at high temperature with measurements under controlled oxygen partial pressure. It was found that the electrical conductivity of SrBIT is probably mixed (electronic and ionic) as the estimation of the transference number provided quite large values (t=0.8 at 800°C). From electronic and ionic conductivity data, mixed conduction can actually be predicted in a large temperature range (above room temperature). The piezoelectric measurements using direct effect demonstrated that it is actually possible to unlock piezoelectrically active ferroelectric domain walls and create non-linear piezoelectric properties in undoped SrBIT. This occurs above a threshold elastic field, which is thermally activated. With a piezoelectric composite, it was demonstrated that the electromechanical coupling between two different phases creates a piezoelectric relaxation. This one could be positive or negative depending on the respective properties of each composite's component. It was shown experimentally that a small temperature change is sufficient to transform a positive relaxation into a negative one. While these experiments did not provide a detailed microstructural explanation for the piezoelectric relaxation observed in 2 mol.% Mn doped SrBIT, they gave a first insight into an original phenomenological approach. Microstructure and piezoelectric properties were related with the calculation of a piezoelectric relaxation composite made of two textured samples. This demonstrated that a piezoelectric relaxation may occur just because of anisotropy. Microstructural reproduction of this coupling is actually an important feature of Aurivillius phases.


About the Book

An extensively revised and updated edition of this popular and accessible text. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Third edition is an extensive revision of this highly successful book.

As in previous editions, both major and alternative approaches and methods are surveyed, with the section on current communicative approaches updated to include new material on CLIL, text and genre-based teaching. The book seeks not only to clarify the assumptions behind these approaches, and their similarities and differences, but also to help teachers explore their own beliefs and practices in language teaching. Further new material deals with other directions in language teaching, such as outcomes-based initiatives, to make this edition fully up-to-date.

For more information:

https://goo.gl/NmJGn2


This paper presents a unified theory of resumptive pronouns, based on the Resource Management Theory of Resumption. It identifies a common basis for puzzlingly different resumptive pronouns in languages such as Irish, in which resumptive pronouns do not behave syntactically like gaps ( syntactically active resumptives ), versus languages such as Vata, in which resumptive pronouns do behave syntactically like gaps ( syntactically inactive resumptives ). The Resource Management Theory of Resumption is based on the Resource Sensitivity Hypothesis, which holds that natural language is resource-sensitive – as captured through the use of a resource logic for semantic composition – and the empirical observation that resumptive pronouns are morpho-lexically ordinary pronouns – languages do not employ special paradigms or special items in resumptive-only uses. The unification of the two kinds of resumption is captured in semantic composition, but Vata-type resumptives also involve an additional syntactic mechanism, which is captured through an operation on feature-value pairs in a constraint-based, non-transformational theory of syntax.


Abstract. The case study, faced in this paper, arises in the context of Interreg Italia-Malta European project named I-Access, dedicated to the improvement of accessibility to Cultural Heritage (CH). Accessibility considered not only as the demolition of physical architectural barriers, but also as the possibility of fruition of CH through technological tools that can increase its perception and knowledge. Last achievements in photogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) technology offered new methods of data acquisition in the field of CH, giving the possibility of monitoring and processing big data, in the form of point clouds. Ever in this field, reverse engineering techniques and computer graphics are even more used for involving visitors to discover CH, with navigation into 3D reconstructions, empowering the real visualization adding further 3D information through the Augmented Reality (AR). At the same time, recent advances on rapid prototyping technologies grant the automated 3D printing of scaled 3D model reconstructions of real CH elements allowing the tactile fruition of visitors that suffer from visual defects and the connection with 3D AR visualizations. The presented work shows how these technologies could revive an historical square, the Piazza Garraffo in Palermo (Italy), with the virtual insertion of its baroque fountain, originally placed there. The final products of this work are an indoor and an outdoor AR mobile application, that allow the visualization of the historical original asset of the square. This study case shows how the mixing of AR and the rapid prototyping technologies could be useful for the improvement of the fruition of CH. This work could be considered a multidisciplinary experimentation, where different technologies, today still in development, contribute to the same goal aimed at improving the accessibility of the monument for enhancing the fruition of CH.


Abstract Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs) represent the highest level of area protection within the Antarctic Treaty area. To reduce environmental impacts, ASPA visitors must comply with the Area's management plan and receive an entry permit from an appropriate national authority. Parties to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty are obliged to exchange information on: i) the number of permits allocated for the forthcoming season, and ii) the number of visits to ASPAs during the previous season. We assessed the effectiveness of current permitting and information exchange practices by examining ASPA visitation data supplied to the Antarctic Treaty System's Electronic Information Exchange System during 2008/09–2010/11. We found that Parties have interpreted and implemented the protected area legislation inconsistently. Furthermore, some Parties did not fulfil their obligations under the Protocol by failing to provide full information on ASPA visitation. Estimations suggested that the level of ASPA visitation varied with ASPA location and the main value being protected. However, without full disclosure by Parties, ASPA visitation data is of limited use for informing general and ASPA-specific environmental management practices. Improved provision and formal interpretation of ASPA visitation data are recommended to enable more co-ordinated and effective management of activities within ASPAs.


Abstract. We present observations of "lion roars" obtained in the magnetosheath by the Spectrum Analyser (SA) of the Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Field Fluctuations (STAFF) experiment aboard Cluster. STAFF-SA calculates, in near real time, the complete auto- and cross-spectral matrix derived from three magnetic and two electric components of the electromagnetic field at 27 frequencies in the range of 8 Hz to 4 kHz. This allows the study of the properties of whistler mode waves and more particularly, the properties of "lion roars", which are intense, short-duration, narrow-banded packets of whistler waves. Their presence is favoured by the magnetic field troughs associated with mirror mode structures. During two short periods of well-defined mirror modes, we study the depth δB/B of the magnetic troughs, and the direction of propagation of the lion roars. During the first period, close to the magnetopause, deep magnetic troughs pass the satellites. Lion roars are then observed to propagate simultaneously in two directions, roughly parallel and anti-parallel to the magnetic field: this probably indicates that during this period, the satellites were within the successive source regions of lion roars. For the second period, far from the magnetopause, the magnetic troughs are less deep. Lion roars are propagating in only one direction, roughly anti-parallel to the magnetic field, suggesting that the source regions are more distant and predominantly on one side of the satellites. Key words. Magnetospheric physics (magnetosheath; plasma waves and instabilities) Radio science (radiowave propagation)


Fire is a prevalent feature of many landscapes and has numerous and complex effects on geological, hydrological, ecological, and economic systems. In some regions, the frequency and intensity of wildfire have increased in recent years and are projected to escalate with predicted climatic and landuse changes. In addition, prescribed burns continue to be used in many parts of the world to clear vegetation for development projects, encourage desired vegetation, and reduce fuel loads. Given the prevalence of fire on the landscape, authors of papers in this special series examine the complexities of fire as a disturbance shaping freshwater ecosystems and highlight the state of the science. These papers cover key aspects of fire effects that range from vegetation loss and recovery in watersheds to effects on hydrology and water quality with consequences for communities (from algae to fish), food webs, and ecosystem processes (e.g., organic matter subsidies, nutrient cycling) across a range of scales. The results presented in this special series of articles expand our knowledge of fire effects in different biomes, water bodies, and geographic regions, encompassing aquatic population, community, and ecosystem responses. In this overview, we summarize each paper and emphasize its contributions to knowledge on fire ecology and freshwater ecosystems. This overview concludes with a list of 7 research foci that are needed to further our knowledge of fire effects on aquatic ecosystems, including research on: 1) additional biomes and geographic regions; 2) additional habitats, including wetlands and lacustrine ecosystems; 3) different fire severities, sizes, and spatial configurations; and 4) additional response variables (e.g., ecosystem processes) 5) over long (>5 y) time scales 6) with more rigorous study designs and data analyses, and 7) consideration of the effects of fire management practices and policies on aquatic ecosystems.


This article gives some insights into the practices for enforcing commercial arbitral awards in China's two anonymized economically less-developed regions. By virtue of the empirical and qualitative data contributed by empirical research, this article depicts this theme from three aspects, namely, the general sociocultural environment for enforcement; practitioners' perceptions; and the enforcement status of arbitral awards, highlighting the gaps between legislative perceptions and real-life practices. This article concludes that China's current sociocultural environment is suitable for accommodating the rapid growth of commercial arbitration, which indicates that the collision between modern arbitration practice and the sociocultural environment is unlikely to constitute a cause of difficulty in the China-seated enforcement of arbitral awards. This article also notes an innate scepticism towards the country's arbitration practice among Chinese practitioners, which could affect their perceptions towards the development prospect of commercial arbitration and the enforceability of arbitral awards, despite the pro-arbitration attitude shared by Chinese judicial organs. Meanwhile, the article observes preliminary evidence showing the impact of Chinese culture on the country's enforcement practices. Finally, the article statistically portrays the enforcement status of arbitral awards in the concerned regions, showing the regionally differentiated enforcement rates, competence of Chinese courts and other issues involved.


The ambient temperature and evaporative demand in the Mediterranean greenhouses are excessively elevated during the high solar radiation season, which has harmful effects on growth and development of the crops, decreasing yield and quality of the products. The current cultivation structures have very poorly efficient natural ventilation systems, therefore making necessary the use of some additional cooling technique. The vast majority of growers turn to shading the greenhouse cover by means of whitening, a fix shading method that leads to considerable losses of the productive potential of the crop. The objective of the present study was to compare the yield response of a tomato crop ('Bigram') grown in coir substrate under two different greenhouse shading systems: traditional whitening (R) and mobile shading diffusive screen system (HS) located inside the greenhouse. The effect of these two different shading systems on the water use efficiency was also evaluated. At the end of the crop cycle, the incident and intercepted PAR were respectively 31.2 and 16.4% higher in the HS greenhouse. The crop grown under the mobile shading obtained an increase of 25% in the marketable yield in relation to the greenhouse with traditional whitening, which at the end of the evaluated period involved 2 more harvested trusses m-2, caused by a shorter period of fruit growth and development. The mobile shading system proved to improve the climate in Mediterranean greenhouses and also the water use efficiency.


As service is becoming increasingly important, many industrial firms have implemented "servitization" strategy and many marketing and management researchers have discussed the topic of business service. This paper focuses on business service types and its impacts from the buyer's perceptive, especially whether user involvement always takes effects on the process of servitization. Using a large sample survey, this study examines the relationship between two types of business service and customer perceived value in terms of economic value, relational /support value and technical/core value as well as the moderating effect of user involvement on this relationship in China fine chemical industry. The results show that both two service types can bring economic value and technical/core value to the buyers, the difference here is the relational/ support value can only be perceived if the buyer purchases the operant resource based service. The results also suggest that user involvement is a moderator in the relationship between both operand and operant resource based service on customer perceived technical/core value.


BACKGROUND
The results of clinical laboratory tests are an essential component of medical decision-making. To guide interpretation, test results are returned with reference intervals defined by the range in which the central 95% of values occur in healthy individuals. Clinical laboratories often set their own reference intervals to accommodate variation in local population and instrumentation. For some tests, reference intervals change as a function of sex, age, and self-identified race and ethnicity.

METHODS
In this work, we develop a novel approach, which leverages electronic health record data, to identify healthy individuals and tests for differences in laboratory test values between populations.

RESULTS
We found that the distributions of >50% of laboratory tests with currently fixed reference intervals differ among self-identified racial and ethnic groups (SIREs) in healthy individuals.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results confirm the known SIRE-specific differences in creatinine and suggest that more research needs to be done to determine the clinical implications of using one-size-fits-all reference intervals for other tests with SIRE-specific distributions.


To grasp the fundamental value proposition of venture philanthropy, this article looks at the example of Europe, where most venture philanthropy organizations (VPs) are currently small and experiment with many intervention models. Analogous to social entrepreneurship, venture philanthropy - often also referred to as "high-engagement philanthropy" - has been the new show in town in philanthropy since the mid-nineties. Five trends are fuelling its rise to prominence: the general growth of more entrepreneurial approaches to social change; the increasing professionalization of civil society; increasing levels of wealth; the changing demographic composition of donors; and their greater desire for involvement in philanthropic ventures. Notwithstanding, the visibility of the venture philanthropy landscape continues to greatly exceed the actual volumes of philanthropic resources deployed. More and more philanthropists are intrigued by venture philanthropy's focus on identifying inflection points and assisting grantee organizations in mastering step changes, creating quality opportunities for involvement and demonstrable impact. But when does it make sense to get involved in venture philanthropy? And for whom? To make inferences about the opportunities the European venture philanthropy landscape offers, the paper looks at three issues: what are the main characteristics of VP organizations? As a driver of future practice, what is the "DNA" of venture philanthropy? Finally, what does this mean in terms of resource allocation? What conditions need to be present to make for a good match between VP and "investee"?