We present ultra-high-resolution (0.32 km s-1) spectra obtained with the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) and Ultra-High-Resolution Facility (UHRF) of interstellar Na I D1, Na I D2, Ca II K, K I, and CH absorption toward two high Galactic latitude stars HD 141569 and HD 157841. We have compared our data with 21 cm observations obtained from the Leiden/Dwingeloo H I survey. We derive the velocity structure and column densities of the clouds represented by the various components and identify the clouds with ISM structures seen in the region at other wavelengths. We further derive abundances, linear depletions, and H2 fractional abundances for these clouds wherever possible. Both stars are located in regions of IRAS 100 μm emission associated with high Galactic latitude molecular clouds (HLCs): HD 141569 lies, in projection, close to MBM 37 and the Lynds dark cloud L134N, whereas HD 157841 is in the vicinity of the MBM 151. Toward HD 141569 we detect two components in our UHRF spectra: a weak, broad b = 4.5 km s-1 component at -15 km s-1, seen only in Ca II K absorption, and another component at 0 km s-1, seen in Na I D1, Na I D2, Ca II K, K I, and CH absorption. The cloud represented by the -15 km s-1 component is warm and may be located in a region close to the star. The cloud represented by the 0 km s-1 component has a Ca linear depletion δ(Ca) = 1.4 × 10-4 and shows evidence for the presence of dust, consistent with strong 100 μm emission seen in this region. The H2 fractional abundance f(H2) derived for this cloud is 0.4, which is typically what is observed toward HLCs. We conclude that this 0 km s-1 cloud is associated with MBM 37 and L134N based on the presence of dust and molecular gas (CH) and good velocity agreement with CO emission from these two clouds. This places HD 141569 beyond MBM 37 and L134N, which are estimated to be at ≈ 110 pc. In the case of the HD 157841 sight line, a total of six components are seen on our UHRF spectra in Na I D1, Na I D2, Ca II K, K I, and CH absorption. Two of these six components are seen only in a single species. The cloud represented by the components at 1.85 km s-1 has a Ca linear depletion δ(Ca) = 2.8 × 10-4, indicating the presence of dust. The f(H2) derived for this cloud is 0.45, and there is good velocity agreement with CO emission from MBM 151. To the best of our knowledge, this 1.85 km s-1 component toward HD 157841 is the first one found to have relative line widths that are consistent with pure thermal broadening only. We associate the 1.85 km s-1 cloud seen in our UHRF spectra with MBM 151 and conclude that HD 157841 must lie beyond ~200 pc, the estimated distance to MBM 151.


Professor Todd Lubart's past and present work on creativity is a perfect example of how dynamic and multi-faceted this area of psychology really is. Creative phenomena draw on cognitive, personality, emotional, motivational and social processes at once and creativity studies can be found at the intersection between different psychological fields: cognitive, social and personality, organisational, developmental, educational, individual differences and so on. In this interview Professor Lubart discusses his creativity research projects and how they evolved in a constant dialogue between personal interests and opportunities for research and collaboration. Creativity is portrayed as a heterogeneous domain where the most interesting breakthroughs happen 'at the borders'. Here, those who make an impact are the ones ready to take risks and exploit the domain's intrinsic diversity and the possibilities for creative thinking associated with it.


Habitat degradation and introduction of non-native salmonids have caused substantial declines in abundance and distribution of Yellowstone cutthroat trout. Additionally, global climate change is expected to exacerbate current threats through changes to thermal regimes, hydrology, stream productivity, and distributions of non-native species. Understanding how factors such as climate and local stressors (e.g., non-native species) interact to affect Yellowstone cutthroat trout is critical for developing management strategies to enhance future persistence. However, research investigating relationships among these factors and life history characteristics and vital rates of Yellowstone cutthroat trout is lacking. To address this need, we examined the influences of temperature, streamflow, food availability, and presence of brook trout on life history characteristics of Yellowstone cutthroat trout in Spread Creek, Wyoming. We used passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags and a combination of stationary and mobile PIT tag antennae within a capture-recapture framework to monitor growth, movement, and survival of Yellowstone cutthroat trout and brook trout throughout the Spread Creek drainage. Considerable differences existed in frequencies of movements between species and among tributaries. Significant differences existed among growth rates of trout in three tributary streams. Preliminary results suggest the observed differences were driven by the complex interactions of streamflows, fish densities, and prey abundances, rather than stream temperatures. We discuss our results in the context of maintaining diversity of life-history patterns within watersheds as a means to increase metapopulation resiliency. Our findings provide critical information needed to refine climate risk assessments and to better direct limited resources to ensure the long term persistence of the subspecies.


Diane Ruth Westmoreland
Can spiritual maturity be nurtured in Northern English Anglican congregations?
An exploration of whether parishioners can grow spiritually through an experiential course on prayer, using methods based in Ignatian practice

This project began with an observation that people who joined small rural Church of England churches found it hard to grow beyond the beginnings of faith and that some long-standing church-goers struggled to grow spiritually. A further concern was that the Church of England's current emphasis on strategies for church growth was diverting congregational leaders away from an appropriate level of attention to the spiritual growth of their congregations.

This thesis argues that congregational leaders should be encouraged to give more attention to the nurturing of growth towards spiritual maturity in the local congregation. It does this by asking the question, 'What is spiritual maturity?'; examining models of human maturity from secular human potential psychology, faith development theory and Ignatian spirituality, before presenting a theoretical model of spiritual maturity. This 12 point model hypothesises that a significant difference between psychological and spiritual understandings of maturity is the discrepancy between human potential psychology's suggestion of self-actualisation as the goal of human life and surrender to God as a key aspect of spiritual maturing.

The research created an extensive original dataset and analysed whether spiritual maturity can be nurtured using methods of ethnographic study and action research. The research tracks 24 participants through an experiential course on prayer, written for this research project, and a sermon series, using semi-structured interviews before and after to assess changes in the participants' spiritual lives and to enquire whether these changes match the model of spiritual maturity proposed.

The contention of the thesis is threefold: that clergy should pay more attention to the nurture of spiritual growth; that Ignatian practice can be used in the congregational setting to nurture spiritual maturity and that corporate spiritual experience has a significance for growth which is currently underestimated.


This paper focuses on the language shift phenomenon in Singapore as a consequence of the top-town policies. By looking at bilingual family language policies it examines the characteristics of Singapore's multilingual nature and cultural diversity. Specifically, it looks at what languages are practiced and how family language policies are enacted in Singaporean English-Chinese bilingual families, and to what extend macro language policies – i.e. national and educational language policies influence and interact with family language policies. Involving 545 families and including parents and grandparents as participants, the study traces the trajectory of the policy history. Data sources include 2 parts: 1) a prescribed linguistic practices survey; and 2) participant observation of actual negotiation of FLP in face-to-face social interaction in bilingual English-Chinese families. The data provides valuable information on how family language policy is enacted and language practices are negotiated, and what linguistic practices have been changed and abandoned against the background of the Speaking Mandarin Campaign and the current bilingual policy implemented in the 1970s. Importantly, the detailed face-to-face interactions and linguistics practices are able to enhance our understanding of the subtleties and processes of language (dis)continuity in relation to policy interventions.

The study also discusses the reality of language management measures in contrast to the government's 'separate bilingualism' (Creese & Blackledge, 2011) expectations with regard to 'striking a balance' between Asian and Western culture (Curdt-Christiansen & Silver 2013; Shepherd, 2005) and between English and mother tongue languages (Curdt-Christiansen, 2014). Demonstrating how parents and children negotiate their family language policy through translanguaging or heteroglossia practices (Canagarajah, 2013; Garcia & Li Wei, 2014), this paper argues that 'striking a balance' as a political ideology places emphasis on discrete and separate notions of cultural and linguistic categorization and thus downplays the significant influences from historical, political and sociolinguistic contexts in which people find themselves. This simplistic view of culture and linguistic code will inevitably constrain individuals' language expression as it regards code switching and translanguaging as delimited and incompetent language behaviour.


The aggregation state of Pt and Ni metal nanoparticles (NPs) can be easily controlled from isolated individual NPs to aggregated clusters on two-dimensional reduced graphene oxide (rGO) by one-step chemical reduction. Formation of Pt–Ni NP/rGO and Pt–Ni cluster/rGO depends on the introduction of poly-(vinyl pyrrolidone). In the Pt–Ni cluster/rGO nanohybrid, Pt NPs are encapsulated by Ni NPs to form Pt–Ni clusters on rGO, which significantly changes the surface chemical state of the Pt NPs. The corresponding nonlinear optical (NLO) and optical limiting (OL) properties were investigated by the open-aperture Z-scan technique with nanosecond pulses at 532 nm. The results show that the Pt–Ni cluster/rGO hybrid has stronger NLO and OL effects than the Pt–Ni NP/rGO hybrid in both liquid and solid matrices. The main contributors to the NLO and OL effects in the Pt–Ni/rGO nanohybrids in both the liquid- and solid-state matrices are a combination of nonlinear absorption and nonlinear scattering, although the mechanism in nonlinear scattering is completely different. Transfer of electrons from Pt to Ni owing to the difference in their electronegativities contributes to the enhanced NLO and OL responses in the Pt–Ni cluster/rGO both in suspension and in a gel glass composite. Thus, the NLO and OL responses of two-dimensional GO can be effectively modified by altering the aggregation state of the metal NPs on its surface. This strategy could be easily extended to tailor the optoelectronic properties of graphene-based composites.


Understanding factors controlling the distribution and reproduction of fishes is crucial for developing ecosystem models of fish populations. Yet, these observations are difficult to make on the same time and space scales as physical forcing events. A hydrophone was used to record fish sound production associated with reproduction at the LEO-15 ocean observatory to determine the relationship between variation in fish calling behavior and oceanographic variation. Sound produc- tion was dominated by Atlantic croaker Micropogonias undulatus, weakfish Cynoscion regalis, and striped cusk-eel Ophidion marginatum. Striped cusk-eels called with a crepuscular pattern, with a strong peak at dusk, less sound production during the night, and a lesser peak in sound production at dawn. Sciaenids called mostly at dusk and night. Nine advection events bringing colder waters to the LEO-15 site were correlated with greatly reduced levels of sound production in Atlantic croaker and weakfish on daily time scales. Our results show how ocean observatories with passive acoustics can study tightly coupled physical oceanographic influences on fish behavior on daily time scales.


CONTEXT
Conventional colonoscopy is the best available method for detection of colorectal cancer; however, it is invasive and not without risk. Computed tomographic colonography (CTC), also known as virtual colonoscopy, has been reported to be reasonably accurate in the diagnosis of colorectal neoplasia in studies performed at expert centers.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the accuracy of CTC in a large number of participants across multiple centers.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
A nonrandomized, evaluator-blinded, noninferiority study design of 615 participants aged 50 years or older who were referred for routine, clinically indicated colonoscopy in 9 major hospital centers between April 17, 2000, and October 3, 2001. The CTC was performed by using multislice scanners immediately before standard colonoscopy; findings at colonoscopy were reported before and after segmental unblinding to the CTC results.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The sensitivity and specificity of CTC and conventional colonoscopy in detecting participants with lesions sized at least 6 mm. Secondary outcomes included detection of all lesions, detection of advanced lesions, possible technical confounders, participant preferences, and evidence for increasing accuracy with experience.

RESULTS
A total of 827 lesions were detected in 308 of 600 participants who underwent both procedures; 104 participants had lesions sized at least 6 mm. The sensitivity of CTC for detecting participants with 1 or more lesions sized at least 6 mm was 39.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 29.6%-48.4%) and for lesions sized at least 10 mm, it was 55.0% (95% CI, 39.9%-70.0%). These results were significantly lower than those for conventional colonoscopy, with sensitivities of 99.0% (95% CI, 97.1%->99.9%) and 100%, respectively. A total of 496 participants were without any lesion sized at least 6 mm. The specificity of CTC and conventional colonoscopy for detecting participants without any lesion sized at least 6 mm was 90.5% (95% CI, 87.9%-93.1%) and 100%, respectively, and without lesions sized at least 10 mm, 96.0% (95% CI, 94.3%-97.6%) and 100%, respectively. Computed tomographic colonography missed 2 of 8 cancers. The accuracy of CTC varied considerably between centers and did not improve as the study progressed. Participants expressed no clear preference for either technique.

CONCLUSIONS
Computed tomographic colonography by these methods is not yet ready for widespread clinical application. Techniques and training need to be improved.


The emergence of Taiwan Studies as a new area study in Europe is an intriguing phenomenon. It started more or less "from scratch" at a time when the area studies model was seriously challenged in academic debates. Since then the field has rapidly expanded in Europe. This paper seeks to analyse the factors that have facilitated the successful institutionalisation of academic Taiwan Studies in a region that otherwise does not have close relations with Taiwan. It argues that financial overtures from Taiwan have found fertile ground in Europe, which has to do with the distinct Asian Studies tradition on the continent, a major restructuring of the university field since the 1990s, and the specific historical circumstances of Taiwan's political and social transformation in the late 20th and early 21st century. While these wider developments have provided advantageous circumstances, the successful construction and institutionalisation of a new thriving academic field can only be explained by the strong personal commitment of key Taiwan scholars in Europe and the skilful integration of individual efforts through the creation of a Europe wide network.


We studied rank-specificity of predation risk taking in captive Willow Tits Parus montanus. Level of risk taking was expressed by dura tion of hiding after a simulated predator attack. By manipulating available food, we separated the effects of hunger and other rank associated factors on accepted predation risk. As expected, hungry birds took more risks than satiated ones. When both the dominants and the subordinates were hungry or satiated, no rank-related differences existed in the duration of hiding. When the dominants had consumed more food than the subordinates, they also hid longer. Similarly, the subordinates hid longer when they were sati ated and dominants hungry. We conclude that incautiousness of subordi nates, reported earlier with regard to variety of antipredatory behaviours of flocking birds, probably reflects a strategy to cope with high risk of starva tion resulting from restricted access to food.


An apparent link between upwelling‐related physical signatures, macronutrients, and toxic diatom blooms in the various "hotspots" throughout California has motivated attempts to forecast harmful algal blooms (HABs) as a function of select environmental variables. Empirical models for predicting toxic Pseudo‐nitzschia blooms in one such region, the Santa Barbara Channel (SBC), are tested in a nowcast mode using predictions based on merging data from MODIS ocean color geophysical products and the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) applied to the Southern California Bight. Thresholds for each model generate event forecasts. Spatially‐explicit, monthly HAB maps are compared to shipboard observations and California monitoring data, demonstrating that the models predict offshore events otherwise undetected by nearshore monitoring. The use of mechanistic hydrodynamic models in concert with empirical, biological models facilitates future process studies on the effects of coastal eutrophication and climate change on regional HAB dynamics.


This article presents a study of a multilingual research park at the University of Barcelona (Catalonia), where administrative staff, researchers and other members interact in a variety of languages. Focusing on the use of Catalan, Spanish, and English the study investigates whether all scientific tasks are carried out in English (the monoglot hypothesis regarding scientific language practices) or they are carried out in different languages depending on several variables (interlocutors, domains, etc.). An online questionnaire was sent to all members of the university research staff, and their responses provide evidence that English is the scientific lingua franca of the scientific park, but this does not mean that English has become the default language of the institution, but rather that the institution functions essentially on the basis of trilingualism. Two main factors can be singled out when trying to explain the organization of this plurilingual practice: the professional role of the PCB (Parc Cientific de Barcelona) staff, and the type of communicative activity, the latter being strongly influenced by the intended addressee. A cluster analysis of the research staff at the institution shows that there are four sociolinguistic profiles of researchers depending on their proficiency in different languages and their geographic origin. The final section argues that the processes of language change do not occur in a compact but rather in a domain-by-domain manner, according to complex balances that depend on the composition of each linguistic ecosystem.


Volcanic-aeolian interactions and processes have played a vital role in landscape evolution on Mars. Martian lava fields and associated caves have extensive geomorphological, astrobiological, and in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) implications for future Mars missions which might be focused on subsurface exploration. Although several possible cave "skylights" of tens to >100 m diameter have been spotted in lava fields of Mars, there is a possibility of prevalence of meter-scale features which are an order of magnitude smaller and difficult to identify but could have vital significance from the scientific and future exploration perspectives. The Icelandic volcanic-aeolian environment and fissure volcanoes can serve as analogs to study lava flow-related small caves such as surface tubes, inflationary caves, liftup caves, and conduits. In the present work, we have tried to explore the usability of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-derived images for characterizing a solidified lava flow and designing a sequential methodology to identify small caves in the lava flow. In the mapped area of ~0.33 km2, we were able to identify 81 small cave openings, five lava flow morphologies, and five small cave types using 2 cm/pixel high-resolution images. The results display the usefulness of UAV imaging for such analogous research, and also highlight the possibility of the widespread presence of similar small cave openings in Martian lava fields. Such small openings can facilitate optimal air circulation within the caves while sheltering the insides from physical weathering and harmful radiations. Using the available best resolution remote sensing images, we extend the analogy through the contextual and geomorphological analysis of several possible pit craters in the Tharsis region of Mars, in a region of extremely vesicular and fragile lava crust with pahoehoe-type morphology. We report two possible pit craters in this region, with diameters as small as ~20 m. The possibility that such small cave openings can lead to vast subterranean hollow spaces on Mars cannot be ruled out considering its low gravity.


Several nuclides in the natural radioactive decay series display a strong non-conservative behaviour in the oceanic water column because of their removal to the sediments by uptake at the solid—solution interface. This removal process is commonly referred to as scavenging, and it is believed to be important in governing the behaviour of many heavy metals and other trace substances in the ocean. Measurements of radioactive disequilibrium in seawater yield estimates of the rate at which scavenging occurs. Results show that removal times by scavenging are comparable to within-basin lateral mixing times. It follows that the distribution of the scavenged tracers should be sensitive to the spatial distribution of their sinks, and this has been demonstrated by observation, most notably in the case of 210Pb. The distribution of 210Pb suggests a strong control by intensified uptake at boundaries, especially at the ocean margins. This conclusion has been confirmed by sediment traps and by measurements of 210Pb accumulations in the sediment column. A similar phenomenon of intensified scavenging at ocean margins has been observed for 231Pa. Studies with 230Th, on the other hand, show that its delivery to the sediments is mainly caused by the local flux of sinking particles. Thus two transport pathways for removal by scavenging are envisioned, one with a strong horizontal component due to the intensified uptake at the margins and the other with a strong vertical component due to the particle flux. Important large-scale chemical fractionations, best illustrated by comparative studies of 230Th and 231Pa, are produced by differential partitioning of elements between these two pathways. Model calculations suggest that horizontal mixing rate and particle flux are important variables controlling the partitioning of reactive chemical substances between pelagic sediments of the interior ocean and hemipelagic sediments of the ocean margins. Changes in the extent of this partitioning through time may be recorded as changes in the 230Th/231Pa ratio through the sediment column.


In normal dogs epinephrine stimulates glucose production (Ra) independently of glucagon. To investigate the role of this interaction in diabetes, epinephrine (0.1 micrograms . kg-1 . min-1) was infused for 90 min in five alloxan-diabetic dogs in the presence or absence of somatostatin (0.1 micrograms . kg-1 . min-1). In response to epinephrine, glycemia rose by 40% reflecting a near maximal (122%) increase in Ra. Plasma glucagon (IRG) rose to 953 pg/ml, whereas insulin (IRI) increased minimally. When somatostatin was infused with epinephrine to prevent the rise of IRG and IRI, there was only a marginal increase of glucose concentration (12%) and production (38%). The effect of somatostatin was reversed by infusing glucagon (10 ng . kg-1 . min-1) together with epinephrine and somatostatin into five additional alloxan-diabetic dogs. Increments in IRG, glycemia, and Ra were fully reestablished. A 100% FFA increase was observed in all three groups, indicating that the lipolytic effect of epinephrine was independent of glucagon. In conclusion, in diabetic dogs, in contrast to normal dogs, epinephrine induced a marked and prolonged increase in glucose concentration and production mostly through a stimulation of IRG secretion.


Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Unleashed presents start-to-finish guidance for planning, customizing, deploying, integrating, managing, and securing both cloud and on-premise based versions of Dynamics CRM. Leading Dynamics implementer Marc Wolenik fully covers Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Fall 13, and many features first introduced in Microsofts Polaris and Update Rollup 12. Youll find thorough coverage of Dynamics revamped Flow interface and advanced cross-platform mobile client support. Extensive new coverage also includes: Business Process Flows, Portable Business Logic, reporting and forms improvements, server-side email synchronization, MarketingPilot, NetBreeze, Yammer, and much more. Drawing on extensive insider knowledge, Wolenik presents proven best practices and pitfalls to avoid in using every significant Dynamics CRM 2013 capabilityinformation available in no other book. Marc J. Wolenik, is CEO of Webfortis, a Microsoft Gold Customer Relationship Management Competency Partner that specializes in delivering Microsoft Dynamics CRM/xRM solutions for companies of all sizes. Learn from experience and dive deep into CRM technologies that cross almost every industry and vertical. His books include Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Unleashed, Microsoft CRM 4 Unleashed, and Microsoft CRM 4 Integration Unleashed. Detailed information on how to Compare on-premise and cloud versions of Dynamics CRM, make your best choice, and deploy painlessly Use the advanced configuration and customization options that offer you the most value Take full advantage of Dynamics CRMs new flow interface and productivity shortcuts Learn about new add-on features for Dynamics, including MarketingPilot, NetBreeze, and Yammer Personalize dashboards, activities, calendars, data import/export, and more Manage leads, opportunities, accounts, contacts, marketing lists, collateral, campaigns, quotes, orders, and invoices Integrate schedules, cases, contacts, and product/service information Build powerful automated workflows, processes, and complete solutions Deliver CRM applications to smartphones and tablets, including iOS devices Provide watch lists, automatic alerts, and other sales help through InsideView Social Insights Extend Dynamics CRM with custom plug-ins and add-ons Integrate Dynamics CRM 2013 with SharePoint, Azure, SQL Server, SRSS, Visual Studio, and .NET Framework ON THE WEB: Download all examples and source code presented in this book from informit.com/title/9780672337031 as it becomes available


A phylogenetic tree is a diagram showing the evolutionary relationships between organisms. Gymnosperms produce cones to house their seeds and are commonly assumed to have originated during the Carboniferous era and conifers are a major division of gymnosperms. This study used the matK gene to construct a phylogenetic tree of conifer species (junipers, sequoias, Cupressacae, spruces, pines) with an outgroup of cycads. The matK gene was aligned using the program Seaview and the tree was created using PAUP. Analysis revealed that pines, spruces, sequoias, and Cupressacae have similar phenotypes while junipers and cycads appear to be distinct. The Bootstrap values of the tree show that the overarching clades are strongly supported and, therefore, are reliable. The purpose of this study was to generate hypotheses regarding the evolution of certain traits as well as the current distribution patterns of these species. Firstly, leaf type variability seems to have been determined by environmental selection during Pangea. Secondly, the winged seed phenotype dates back to the common ancestor of all conifers and is accompanied by a loss of winged seeds in the juniper clade. Finally, the distributions of junipers and pines have both been affected by other organisms including humans. The phylogenetic tree constructed in this study lends support to the hypothesis that North American pines originated from Asian pines. This phylogenetic study of conifers provides additional information regarding the evolutionary history of conifers. The hypotheses generated as a result of this study also provide additional ideas regarding the relative status of conifers in the history of evolution and new directions for future field research.


This thesis investigates the discourses of world kinship that are bound up in the founding documents of the United Nations such as the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These discourses have constituted a sense of mission for the United Nations throughout its history. Building a human family from the fragmentary reality of world politics has become a widely stated purpose not just of the UN, but of politicians and NGOs through into the contemporary period. In light of the impracticability of these sentiments, the thesis aims to trace their origins, meanings, and continued appeal. Beginning with the planning process of the United Nations, I show how the UN resulted from a highly exclusive State Department enterprise. The small planning circle believed that the organisation should be imbued with the most visionary ideals. Today the discursive landscape favours such statements as the ideal of the family of nations much less, and yet such discourse remains a resource for those seeking an idealistic vision of world politics. I argue that kinship discourse endures because of its particular cognitive facility, but that its continued usage is problematic. Kinship discourses may be used flexibly to draw boundaries between in-groups and the 'Other' in world politics in ways that enable us to reconceptualise Schmittian decisionism. Further, understanding usages of kinship discourse presents us with an image of a world which is sometimes incapable of defining its interests and identity coherently. While being potentially useful tools for engineering emotive consensus, the modes of discourse employed are Western in nature and can easily slip into registers which are seriously counter-productive to UN projects. Thus, a case may be made that the UN, and world politics in general, will eventually rethink the notion that a 'human family' is the ultimate goal of international life.


This thesis describes a master graduation research into the problem of matching workforce to workload at TNT business counters. A TNT business counter is a facility where, every night, mail is collected, prepared and sent on to a sorting centre. Team managers at these collection facilities try, on a daily basis, to make sure the process is finished in time.
The strategy of TNT Mail Netherlands currently aims at cost reduction and the creation of a more flexible cost structure at all departments. To achieve these goals within the collection department, a reorganisation called DPM-C was started at business counters. This change process includes the implementation of standardized best practice processes and improvement of process steering. The first evaluations show that cost reduction is achieved, but team managers indicate they have no clear understanding on how to organize the required amount of workforce needed on an evening. Therefore, management at collection asked for a research into the daily process of matching workforce to workload.
In this thesis we address this operational workforce management problem. The amount of required workforce depends on two uncertain factors: "mail volume" and "productivity". To estimate the magnitude of these uncertainties at two process (intake and preparation), we analyse data within existing databases at TNT and interview experts.
The mail volumes for the intake and preparation process fluctuate daily and can be approximated by a normal distribution function. We quantify the fluctuation by measuring the coefficient of variation, which is on average 0.1 and 0.2 for the intake and preparation process, respectively. For the productivity we conclude that, although norms exist for each process, the actual achieved productivity also fluctuates significantly.
We discuss two ways to improve performance on matching workforce to workload: (1) taking actions to reduce the workload uncertainty, and (2) improving workforce flexibility to cope with the existing workload uncertainty.
It appears that the correlation between consecutive days and weekdays is very moderate, therefore no reliable predictions on workload is possible based on these variables. Our data shows nonetheless that fluctuations in mail volume may be reduced if the mail volume of different business counters is integrated. We therefore recommend continuing the current research into centralization of business counters, especially as larger facilities also make the creation of flexibility easier
From interviews we learn that uncertainty in productivity may be caused by the following factors: difference in input, difference in measurement, motivation and experience of employees. Isolating these factors and compensating for these effects in the data turns out to be impossible with the currently available data. Based on evaluations of DPM-C and interviews, however, we conclude that productivity fluctuations may be reduced by the creation of performance feedback and increase of control by management (by presence at the work floor).
v
Improving flexibility on operational level is bounded by decisions on strategic and tactical level; for example, the collective labour agreement bounds the way in which personnel can be deployed. Comparing methods to create operational workforce flexibility in literature to methods currently used by team managers, shows us that almost all methods are present within collection to some extent. We can distinguish methods used in case too many and too few employees are present at the work floor.
If too few employees are present at the work floor, flexibility can be created by cross function employment, arranging extra personnel and working overtime. If too many employees are present at the work floor, workforce flexibility can be created by asking for volunteers to take leave (for part of their shift), to participate in cross function employment, or to switch to not-time-dependent activities, such as the mandatory work related knowledge test. Workforce flexibility should preferably be created at the end of the process, and can be arranged more easily at larger facilities than at small ones. We also recommend that training of team managers should focus more on creation of commitment and cooperation, as this is essential for many of the methods to create operational flexibility.
We conclude in this thesis that reducing uncertainty of different factors in the process of matching workforce to workload is difficult on operational level. We also conclude that ways to create flexibility exist and are used by team managers to different extent. As many of the methods used to create flexibility depend on local circumstances, we recommend to increase knowledge exchange of concrete and useful approaches on this topic.


Most of Gram-positive bacteria anchor surface proteins to the peptidoglycan cell wall by sortase, a cysteine transpeptidase that targets proteins displaying a cell wall sorting signal. Unlike other bacteria, Clostridium difficile, the major human pathogen responsible for antibiotic-associated diarrhea, has only a single functional sortase (SrtB). Sortase's vital importance in bacterial virulence has been long recognized, and C. difficile sortase B (Cd-SrtB) has become an attractive therapeutic target for managing C. difficile infection. A better understanding of the molecular activity of Cd-SrtB may help spur the development of effective agents against C. difficile infection. In this study, using site-directed mutagenesis, biochemical and biophysical tools, LC-MS/MS, and crystallographic analyses, we identified key residues essential for Cd-SrtB catalysis and substrate recognition. To the best of our knowledge, we report the first evidence that a conserved serine residue near the active site participates in the catalytic activity of Cd-SrtB and also SrtB from Staphylococcus aureus. The serine residue indispensable for SrtB activity may be involved in stabilizing a thioacyl-enzyme intermediate because it is neither a nucleophilic residue nor a substrate-interacting residue, based on the LC-MS/MS data and available structural models of SrtB–substrate complexes. Furthermore, we also demonstrated that residues 163–168 located on the β6/β7 loop of Cd-SrtB dominate specific recognition of the peptide substrate PPKTG. The results of this work reveal key residues with roles in catalysis and substrate specificity of Cd-SrtB.


Natural disasters, especially major earthquakes, cause widespread devastation in the built environment. Hence, the major component of the recovery in its aftermath constitutes a chain of projects starting at different times, having different costs and durations. In this study, the post disaster recovery curve modelled through a mathematical approach taking into account these properties of the projects. The approach followed is based on the project S-curve concept that provides the opportunity to simulate the progress by outlining the project spending. Well-known mathematical functions are adapted to model the project spending and the handover processes. Monte Carlo simulation is performed to evaluate the general behavior of the recovery curve using the model developed. Weibull distribution is used to generate the model's parameters. Results of the Monte Carlo simulation demonstrate that the recovery process exhibits an S-shape, the duration of initial portion and the slope of the bulk portion being significantly governed by the level of preparedness of the community.


We describe a method for sequencing full-length 16S rRNA gene amplicons using the high throughput Illumina MiSeq platform. The resulting sequences have about 100-fold higher accuracy than standard Illumina reads and are chimera filtered using information from a single molecule dual tagging scheme that boosts the signal available for chimera detection. We demonstrate that the data provides fine scale phylogenetic resolution not available from Illumina amplicon methods targeting smaller variable regions of the 16S rRNA gene.


The design of reliable micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) requires understanding of material properties of devices, especially for free-standing thin structures such as membranes, bridges, and cantilevers. The desired characterization system for obtaining mechanical properties of active materials often requires load control. However, there is no such device among the currently available tools for mechanical characterization of thin films. In this paper, a new technique, which is load-controlled and especially suitable for testing highly fragile free-standing structures, is presented. The instrument developed for this purpose has the capability of measuring both the static and dynamic mechanical response and can be used for electro/magneto/thermo mechanical characterization of actuators or active materials. The capabilities of the technique are demonstrated by studying the behavior of 75 nm thick amorphous silicon nitride (Si_3N_4) membranes. Loading up to very large deflections shows excellent repeatability and complete elastic behavior without significant cracking or mechanical damage. These results indicate the stability of the developed instrument and its ability to avoid local or temporal stress concentration during the entire experimental process. Finite element simulations are used to extract the material properties such as Young's modulus and residual stress of the membranes. These values for Si_3N_4 are in close agreement with values obtained using a different technique, as well as those found in the literature. Potential applications of this technique in studying functional thin film materials, such as shape memory alloys, are also discussed.


A detailed empirical study of how small business owners finance their enterprises, this volume compares the experiences of women with those of men. The author redresses an over-reliance on subjective and anecdotal evidence of discrimination in this area with a controlled study of forty matched pairs of male/female owners and their strategies for raising finances. The research reveals the importance of adopting a theoretical framework in which the role of gender in the financing of small businesses is considered, and the practical implications for female entrepreneurs, banks and policy-makers.


Nemaline myopathy is an inherited muscle disease that is mainly diagnosed by the presence of nemaline rods in muscle biopsies. Of the nine genes associated with the disease, five encode components of striated muscle sarcomeres. In a genetic zebrafish screen, the mutant träge (trg) was isolated based on its reduction in muscle birefringence, indicating muscle damage. Myofibres in trg appeared disorganised and showed inhomogeneous cytoplasmic eosin staining alongside malformed nuclei. Linkage analysis of trg combined with sequencing identified a nonsense mutation in tropomodulin4 (tmod4), a regulator of thin filament length and stability. Accordingly, although actin monomers polymerize to form thin filaments in the skeletal muscle of tmod4trg mutants, thin filaments often appeared to be dispersed throughout myofibres. Organised myofibrils with the typical striation rarely assemble, leading to severe muscle weakness, impaired locomotion and early death. Myofibrils of tmod4trg mutants often featured thin filaments of various lengths, widened Z-disks, undefined H-zones and electron-dense aggregations of various shapes and sizes. Importantly, Gomori trichrome staining and the lattice pattern of the detected cytoplasmic rods, together with the reactivity of rods with phalloidin and an antibody against actinin, is reminiscent of nemaline rods found in nemaline myopathy, suggesting that misregulation of thin filament length causes cytoplasmic rod formation in tmod4trg mutants. Although Tropomodulin4 has not been associated with myopathy, the results presented here implicateTMOD4 as a novel candidate for unresolved nemaline myopathies and suggest that the tmod4trg mutant will be a valuable tool to study human muscle disorders.


SnO2 and α-Fe2O3 were prepared by a sol–gel method and their composite (SnO2–α-Fe2O3) systems were synthesized by combining SnO2 with α-Fe2O3 in various weight percent ratios. Sn : Fe (0.25 : 0.75), Sn : Fe (0.5 : 0.5) and Sn : Fe (0.75 : 0.25) samples were prepared using a simple grinding process and they were characterized by various analytical techniques. The photocatalytic activity was studied under UV/solar light using phenol as a model pollutant. The better performance of the Sn : Fe (0.75 : 0.25) composite under UV/solar light irradiation was due to the efficient charge carrier separation and also due to the synergistic effects between photocatalysis and photo-Fenton reactions. The Sn : Fe (0.25 : 075) composite shows better photocatalytic activity under solar light illumination. The photocatalytic activity of the composite systems further increases in the presence of H2O2. An extremely small amount of the catalyst (10 mg/250 mL) was capable of causing a considerable increase in the rate of the degradation reaction. The effectiveness of the catalyst at very low concentrations is suggested by the calculation of number of active sites, turnover number (TON) and turnover frequency (TOF) for all the systems under both UV/solar light illumination. The photocatalytic oxidation process dominates the degradation reaction rather than the photocatalytic reduction. The staggered positions of the conduction band edges of SnO2 and α-Fe2O3 with respect to one another facilitate a smooth charge transfer process.


In this work we analyzed characteristics of aleatory variability with regard to intra-event and inter-event components in the prediction of peak ground acceleration in Taiwan and the spatial (site-to-site) correlation of ground motion residuals. The characteristics are very important for an assessment of seismic hazard and loss for regionally located building assets (portfolio) and spatially distributed systems (lifelines) and ShakeMap generation. The strong-motion database collected by the TSMIP network in Taiwan, which includes about 4650 records from 66 shallow earthquakes (M(subscript L)>4.5, focal depth<30 km) occurred in 1993-2004, was used for this purpose. The results of the analysis show that the ground motion correlation structure is highly dependent on local geology and on peculiarities of the propagation path (azimuth-dependent attenuation). Thus, a single generalized spatial correlation model may not be adequate for all of Taiwan territory or similar large areas.


This paper explores the item-based nature of child language acquisition by examining data from the CHILDES database (MacWhinney 2000). Two studies are explicated: the first uses pooled data from several children, and the second follows a single child longitudinally. The results show that the learning of the complex construction consisting of a main clause followed by an infinitival compliment, e.g. I want to play, center around a single verb, want, even though other candidate verbs exist in the children's vocabulary. We provide empirical evidence to show that children initially learn grammar via itembased units and gradually break down complex constructions as units into smaller pieces in a process that leads towards the organization of language into the abstract categories consistent with a fully competent adult grammar.


Abstract The aim of this study was to identify the data collection properties of cricket coaches, using the first stage of the 4Cs Competitive Intelligence (CI) process model of Weiss as framework. Semi-structured interviews were performed with high-level cricket coaches in South Africa. Content analysis was performed by developing a codebook through the creation of theory and data-driven codes with ATLAS.TITM computer assisted qualitative data analysis software. Codes were thematised into the what, where, who and how of data collection as well as challenges cricket coaches face. Overall, coaches indicated that they make use of various sources of information on competitors, own team and the environment. Data collection is usually performed by numerous persons within the team set-up and a variety of information formats are utilized. The main findings of the study indicated that easy available sources are not effectively utilized, data collection processes are not performed in a structured manner and coaches need skill development regarding data collection and analysis. Furthermore, the lack of technology as well as the absence of a person who can collect data and a shortage of skills by the person who is responsible for data collection, are the main challenges coaches face.


The need of efficient antennas in handheld terminals has increased drastically due to the fast development of wireless services. These antennas should be small, efficient and cover multiple frequency bands. But efficiency in antennas is limited by fundamental physical principles, and miniaturizing an antenna is frequently a very challenging task. In this contribution, several aspects of antenna miniaturization will be covered, namely after a short summary on physical limitations, some key aspects in design, analysis and measurement will be highlighted.


Studies of low basal Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK) activity in non‐stressed cells led us to identify a JNK inhibitor that was purified and identified as glutathione S‐transferase Pi (GSTp) and was characterized as a JNK‐associated protein. UV irradiation or H2O2 treatment caused GSTp oligomerization and dissociation of the GSTp–JNK complex, indicating that it is the monomeric form of GSTp that elicits JNK inhibition. Addition of purified GSTp to the Jun–JNK complex caused a dose‐dependent inhibition of JNK activity. Conversely, immunodepleting GSTp from protein extracts attenuated JNK inhibition. Furthermore, JNK activity was increased in the presence of specific GSTp inhibitors and a GSTp‐derived peptide. Forced expression of GSTp decreased MKK4 and JNK phosphorylation which coincided with decreased JNK activity, increased c‐Jun ubiquitination and decreased c‐Jun‐mediated transcription. Co‐transfection of MEKK1 and GSTp restored MKK4 phosphorylation but did not affect GSTp inhibition of JNK activity, suggesting that the effect of GSTp on JNK is independent of the MEKK1–MKK4 module. Mouse embryo fibroblasts from GSTp‐null mice exhibited a high basal level of JNK activity that could be reduced by forced expression of GSTp cDNA. In demonstrating the relationships between GSTp expression and its association with JNK, our findings provide new insight into the regulation of stress kinases.


For the United States economy (1960-1989), the correlation between the growth rates of the Solow residual and the real price of energy (government spending) is -0.55 (0.09). The Solow residual confounds movements in energy prices and government spending with those in true technology. Why? To address this question, this study develops a model to see if it quantitatively captures the endogenous transmission mechanism underlying the observed Solow residual correlations. It does. The transmission mechanism depends on endogenous capital utilization. With this transmission mechanism in place, and with the occurrence of shocks to 'true' technology, energy prices, and government spending, the model economy accounts for 76 or 89 percent of U.S. output volatility, well matches the U.S. empirical regularities involving capital utilization and the Solow residual, and is generally consistent with other features of U.S. business cycles.


Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is etiologically associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. However, the exact role of EBV in NPC pathogenesis remains elusive. Activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is common in human cancers including NPC and plays an important role in the pathogenesis and progression of human cancers. Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a major inflammatory cytokine, is a potent activator of STAT3. In this study, we report that EBV-infected immortalized nasopharyngeal epithelial (NPE) cells often acquire an enhanced response to IL-6-induced STAT3 activation to promote their growth and invasive properties. Interestingly, this enhanced IL-6/STAT3 response was mediated by overexpression of IL-6 receptor (IL-6R). Furthermore, IL-6R overexpression enhanced IL-6-induced STAT3 activation in uninfected immortalized NPE cells in vitro, and promoted growth and tumorigenicity of EBV-positive NPC cell line (C666-1) in vivo. Moreover, it is shown for the first time that IL-6R was overexpressed in clinical specimens of NPC. IL-6 expression could also be strongly detected in the stromal cells of NPC and a higher circulating level of IL-6 was found in the sera of advance-staged NPC patients compared to the control subjects. Therefore, IL-6R overexpression, coupled with enhanced IL-6/STAT3 signaling may facilitate the malignant transformation of EBV-infected premalignant NPE cells into cancer cells, and enhance malignant properties of NPC cells.


The essay develops a postcolonial perspective on Italy and South Africa based on the writer's experience of rural developmental work among predominantly Zulu-speaking people and on five main points of connection between that specific locale and the Italian cultural horizon, from Roman times to World War II: Language, Accounting, Spirituality, War and Literature. Central to this cross-cultural encounter is the writer's direct and intimate involvement in both cultural spheres and the way this is representative of the working of 'episodic memory', i.e. the psychic mechanism by which moments and people of the past are made to live again in one's inner world in the guise of 'shades' and crucially contribute to shape one's sense of belonging. This is a phenomenon that literature has always known, and which this essay exemplifies also by means of original poems that complement the theoretical insights exposed on preand post-colonial Italy and its connection with contemporary South Africa. Summary


Scholars in the field of public administration are operating in an increasingly globalising world in which people and polities enjoy an unprecedented degree of connectivity irrespective of their geographical location. The enormity of the global spread of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has brought this into clear focus. The purpose of this article is to highlight three trajectories for globalising public administration research and theory. The first trajectory is to build generalisable theories to enhance global applicability. The second is to be more inclusive of diverse perspectives in the mainstream of public administration scholarship. The final trajectory is to scale up the lens of inquiry beyond the nation-state to include global governance actors and organisations. Research efforts that test a universal measurement scale of public service motivation demonstrate progress in the direction of generalisable theory. The broad and diverse body of research on electronic government typifies a decisively inclusive research area. At the same time, the expansion of research on policy networks to the global governance context provides an example along the scaling-up trajectory. The three-trajectory approach outlined in this article provides for a more comprehensive understanding of what it means for public administration research and theory to globalise.


BACKGROUND
The widely used Swiss neighbourhood index of socioeconomic position (Swiss-SEP 1) was based on data from the 2000 national census on rent, household head education and occupation, and crowding. It may now be out of date.

METHODS
We created a new index (Swiss-SEP 2) based on the 2012-2015 yearly micro censuses that have replaced the decennial house-to-house census in Switzerland since 2010. We used principal component analysis on neighbourhood-aggregated variables and standardised the index. We also created a hybrid version (Swiss-SEP 3), with updated values for neighbourhoods centred on buildings constructed after the year 2000 and original values for the remaining neighbourhoods.

RESULTS
A total of 1.54 million neighbourhoods were included. With all three indices, the mean yearly equivalised household income increased from around 52,000 to 90,000 CHF from the lowest to the highest index decile. Analyses of mortality were based on 33.6 million person-years of follow-up. The age- and sex-adjusted hazard ratios of all-cause mortality comparing areas in the lowest Swiss-SEP decile with areas of the highest decile were 1.39 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.36-1.41), 1.31 (1.29-1.33) and 1.34 (1.32-1.37) using the old, new and hybrid indices, respectively.

DISCUSSION
The Swiss-SEP indices capture area-based SEP at a high resolution and allow the study of SEP when individual-level SEP data are missing or area-level effects are of interest. The hybrid version (Swiss-SEP 3) maintains high spatial resolution while adding information on new neighbourhoods. The index will continue to be useful for Switzerland's epidemiological and public health research.


With the explosion of information, more and more people are embarrassed to manage information effectively. How to search and retrieve accurate information match to people's requirements has been an important issue in information management research. Although search engine can solve this problem partly, the support of manage information is still limited. To use search engine, the users should input precise keywords by themselves first and this stage might cause much confusion to users. For that reason, we need a recommendation system that can catch users' preferences to help users to obtain information more quickly and conveniently without copious process. In our research, a recommendation system is designed based on users' profile. We use ontology technology to be the core of our recommendation system, because ontology can describe the concepts and relations of individual's domain knowledge. Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) algorithm is one of the most popular methods to build ontology, and we apply it to construct our experimental system to recommend master theses to subjects. In order to evaluate our recommendation system, we developed a FCA-based system and another Scoring FCA-based system as treatments, and a Keyword-based system as a control group. We focus on both users' satisfaction on information quality and system quality of our systems. The results show that users have higher information satisfaction on Scoring FCA-based system and FCA-based system than Keyword-based system. This study contributes to research and practice in information recommendation system.


This study presents a break with previous literary criticism that has vilified orality, in an effort to understand the interface between orality and the black Zimbabwean novel. It traces the ways in which the African oral story-telling tradition has survived within the black Zimbabwean novel in English. The author critically analyses the works of eight leading Zimbabwean creative writers, revealing how they have used oral story-telling traditions in their literature. He argues that throughout the colonisation, liberation and post- independence periods, African orature was and remains a mode of expressing resistance to authoritarian ideas and cultural dominance, and a social vision.


In October 1803, the small group of British officials, convicts and settlers who arrived in southern Van Diemen's Land (VDL) to establish a settlement, included a Scotsman, Robert Littlejohn from Montrose. He was granted land and established a property that he named Montrose Farm (now a suburb of greater Hobart). A year later, another Scot, Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson, also from Montrose, left Sydney to establish a northern settlement at Port Dalrymple, traveling with his Scottish wife, Elizabeth. Littlejohn and the Patersons were the first of many Scots who arrived in VDL between 1803-1863 as free settlers. While the Patersons and others who formed part of the colonial elite can be easily traced in the archives, the lives and careers of less prominent settlers such as Littlejohn remains obscured. Even less is known about colonists such as George and Margaret Stewart, who did not found settlements or take up early land grants. However, they, like many other Scottish settlers, left their mark on the Tasmanian landscape. At Kirklands Cemetery in the Northern Midlands region of Tasmania, the Stewarts are buried together beneath a black, marble and granite headstone, declaring that they 'CAME FROM SCOTLAND / IN THE VESSEL ANDROMEDA / IN THE YEAR 1823'. A headstone inscription of this type was an important and public communication of identity, and proved popular among Scots in VDL. Today, those that survive can be interpreted as a vital historical record, illuminating important features of individual lives and identity.


Ovarian cancer (OC) is difficult to diagnose at an early stage and leads to the high mortality rate reported in the United States. Standard treatment for OC includes maximal cytoreductive surgery followed by platinum-based chemotherapy. However, relapse due to chemoresistance is common in advanced OC patients. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new anticancer drugs to suppress OC progression. Recently, the anticancer effects of laminarin, a beta-1,3-glucan derived from brown algae, have been reported in hepatocellular carcinoma, colon cancer, leukemia, and melanoma. However, its effects in OC are not reported. We confirmed that laminarin decreases cell growth and cell cycle progression of OC cells through the regulation of intracellular signaling. Moreover, laminarin induced cell death through DNA fragmentation, reactive oxygen species generation, induction of apoptotic signals and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, regulation of calcium levels, and alteration of the ER-mitochondria axis. Laminarin was not cytotoxic in a zebrafish model, while in a zebrafish xenograft model, it inhibited OC cell growth. These results suggest that laminarin may be successfully used as a novel OC suppressor.


BACKGROUND
Mushroom spores have frequently been associated with respiratory allergy. The aims of this study were to elucidate the incidence and causes of chronic cough in a mushroom farm.

METHODS
Participants were 69 mushroom workers who produce Hypsizigus marmoreus (Bunashimeji) and 35 control subjects. We excluded six workers because they had had asthma or allergic rhinitis before working. Participants completed a cross-sectional health survey 2 years after starting work at the mushroom farm.

RESULTS
The mean airborne endotoxin levels in the harvesting and packing rooms were approximately 60-fold higher than those in the offices. Of 63 workers, 42 workers (67%) reported chronic cough after working on this farm, 19 workers had no cough, while 2 workers had hypersensitivity pneumonitis develop to the spore, which has been previously reported by us. Of the 42 workers with cough, 6 workers had organic dust toxic syndrome (ODTS), 18 workers had postnasal drip syndrome, 15 workers had cough variant asthma, and 3 workers had eosinophilic bronchitis. Seventy-one percent of the workers noticed the cough in the first 3 months, and the mean latent period in ODTS workers was the shortest. The cough had a trend to improve or disappear after weekend holidays. Bronchial hyperresponsiveness but not FEV(1)/FVC% in the 42 workers with cough was significantly (p < 0.001) increased as compared with the control subjects.

CONCLUSIONS
Working on a mushroom farm carries a significant risk for chronic cough from inhalation of mushroom spores, and we suggest that elevated airborne endotoxin on this farm is the cause.


The inv(16) is one of the most frequent chromosomal translocations associated with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The inv(16) fusion protein acts by dominantly interfering with AML-1/core binding factor beta-dependent transcriptional regulation. Here we demonstrate that the inv(16) fusion protein cooperates with AML-1B to repress transcription. This cooperativity requires the ability of the translocation fusion protein to bind to AML-1B. Mutational analysis and cell fractionation experiments indicated that the inv(16) fusion protein acts in the nucleus and that repression occurs when the complex is bound to DNA. We also found that the inv(16) fusion protein binds to AML-1B when it is associated with the mSin3A corepressor. An AML-1B mutant that fails to bind mSin3A was impaired in cooperative repression, suggesting that the inv(16) fusion protein acts through mSin3 and possibly other corepressors. Finally, we demonstrate that the C-terminal portion of the inv(16) fusion protein contains a repression domain, suggesting a molecular mechanism for AML-1-mediated repression.


Although there seems to be a growing interest in the study of the citizen's happiness as an alternative measure of a country's progress to GDP, happiness as a public concern is still an ambiguous concept, hard to define. Moreover, different notions are used indiscriminately to talk about the same thing. This investigation aims to determine the conceptions of happiness, well-being and quality of life that originate from the indexes that different governments and public institutions around the world have created to study them. Through the Scoping Review method, this study identifies the recent academic research in this field (a total of 267 documents between 2006 and 2016) from some of the most popular social sciences databases around the world, Web of Science, Scopus, JSTOR, Sage, EBSCO, IBSS and Google Scholar, and in Spain, ISOC and Dialnet. These 267 documents referenced 53 different indexes and researches. The Grounded Theory method has been applied to a sample of 13 indexes in order to identify the main categories they use to determine these three concepts. The results show that these are multi-dimensional concepts and similar indicators are used indistinctly to measure happiness, well-being and quality of life.


Companies with social missions are frequently bought by larger, more conventional profit-seeking firms and just as frequently accused of "selling out." Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. is perhaps the leading example: its takeover by international conglomerate Unilever is an oft-repeated cautionary tale of the negative proclivities of the publicly-traded corporate form and profit-maximizing corporate law. Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, corporate law did not compel the sale, or sell-out, of Ben & Jerry's. This familiar account omits a critical part of the narrative -- the company and its founders had established impressive anti-takeover defenses that, when pressed, the board declined to test. The Ben & Jerry's story demonstrates that a well designed corporate structure can be suitable for social entrepreneurs seeking to pursue both profits and a social mission. Moreover, handwringing by progressives over the sale of social enterprise icons may be misguided, as such transactions may enable these firms to create more social value than they could independently.


We describe initial work on extensions to word highlighting for multiparticipant chat to aid users in finding messages of interest, especially during times of high traffic in chat rooms. We have annotated a corpus of chat messages from a technical chat domain (Ubuntu's technical support), indicating whether they are related to Ubuntu's new desktop environment Unity. We also created an unsupervised learning algorithm, in which relations are represented with a graph, and applied this to find words related to Unity so they can be highlighted in new, unseen chat messages. On the task of finding relevant messages, our approach outperformed two baseline approaches that are similar to current state-of-the-art word highlighting methods in chat clients.


This Working Paper assesses the economic importance of the logistics sector in Belgium for the period 2010-2015 on the basis of the data from the annual accounts submitted to the NBB's Central Balance Sheet Office. The logistics sector was defined on the basis of the NACE-Bel nomenclature of activities and corresponds to what is generally referred to as the professional logistics sector. The sector's economic importance was calculated via two different channels, namely the direct and indirect effects. The direct effects concern the contribution made within the sector itself in terms of value added, employment and investment. Those results are also broken down according to firm size and region. The indirect effects generated by the sector through its links with the rest of the economy are estimated for the variables employment and value added. The sensitivity of the results to the definition of the sector is then assessed by a rough estimate of the logistic activities taking place outside the defined sector. The results of the calculations show that in 2015 the logistics sector directly created € 11.9 billion in value added and employed 134 000 full-time equivalents; in so doing, the sector contributed 2.9% of GDP and 3.3% of domestic employment expressed in full-time equivalents). The total economic importance of the logistic sector – i.e. including the indirect effects generated by the sector– came to 4.6% of GDP and 5.4% of domestic employment. If the definition of the sector is extended to include logistic activities outside the defined sector, the estimates for both percentages increase by more than half, to roughly 7.6% of GDP and 8.0% of domestic employment. In the Working Paper, the analysis of the sector's economic importance is supplemented by an analysis from the social and financial point of view, presenting the findings relating to the social balance sheet, the financial ratios, the NBB's financial health indicator, and credit risk based on the NBB's In-house Credit Assessment System.


The buildings of the Great Wardrobe are identifiable on the Agas map of 1561-70. They were located within the ward of Baynard's Castle and the parish of St Andrew's by the castle. The plot fronted onto Carter Lane, to the north, St Andrew's to the south, Puddle Dock hill to the west and Addle Hill to the east. The Great Wardrobe was attached to the royal household and a substantial number of the accounts and warrants subsidiary to the accounts have survived. Most of the accounts are in Latin but by Henry VII's reign, the first accounts in English appear. The format of the accounts also changed under the first Tudor as the clerks started to record information about who received livery by the name of the recipient rather than listing the suppliers of cloth and furs. The early history of the Great Wardrobe was presented by T. F. Tout in the fourth volume of his definitive work Chapters in the Administrative History of Medieval England, (Manchester, 1928). Tout noted that the fourteenth century Great Wardrobe had five key functions: acquiring raw materials, converting the fabric and fur into clothes, storing of raw materials, distributing the completed garments and accounting for the money received and spent by the keeper. Much less has been written on the Great Wardrobe under the first two Tudor king's and this volume will demonstrate that the basic function of the Great Wardrobe in the sixteenth century remained unchanged. However, the book will also offer far more. The Great Wardrobe employed a range of craftsmen who lived and worked in the city. The holders of the key posts, such as the king's tailor and the king's skinner, were often leading members of their respective livery companies and they were at the centre of a network of other tailors, embroiderers, skinners and tapestry weavers who were employed on a more adhoc basis. The accounts will be used to explore the range of garments were available in Tudor London and the spectrum of techniques that the king's artificers used to create clothes for the king and his household. They record the charges made for making different garments. The accounts also make it clear that while bespoke clothes were the norm for the king, some ready-made items such as footwear, hats and hose were bought for some members of the household such as the officers of the hunts. The evidence from the accounts will be set in context using material from other sources such as the Book of Rates. The Great Wardrobe bought fabric, furs, passementerie and accessories from a network of suppliers. London was the focal point for this group of suppliers and most of them were Londoners. In addition there was a small group of Italian merchants who supplied a small range of very expensive silks. The accounts provide a view of the range of textiles that were for sale in London, in terms of weave, quality, cost and colour. For those studying the court, the Great Wardrobe accounts provide insights into who received livery from the king, as members of the king's court, his household and elements of his government. Many of these individuals lived in London or at Westminster and royal pageantry ensured that they would have been seen wearing their livery in and around London. Finally, the Great Wardrobe also derived part of its income from the land and property that it owned in and around the streets where the Wardrobe was based.


Like many other EU-countries, specifically those with a similar universal welfare state system, Denmark is interested in developing and utilising all existing labour potentials within its economy. However, in doing so, the country is challenged by growing globalisation, outsourcing as well as pressure on the country's competitiveness coupled with demographic deficiency, aging and still growing demands on the universal welfare state. Immigrants, specifically those with a national origin in non-EU countries, are particularly interested within such a context. Besides their presence and attitudes being continuously debated and contested politically, immigrants represent both a burden as well as an investment cost for the universal welfare state. Like in many other EU-countries, they represent a challenge to the highly appreciated 'national social cohesion'. Denmark is therefore, interested in keeping those immigrants who contribute to the development of the universal welfare state, while reducing the burden of the others. Thus, the controversial question arises: whom among the immigrants from non-western countries will chose to stay in their new country and who will emigrate again? The following is an empirical clarification of this issue, the state of the art and the attitudes and future trends, based on two sets of comprehensive quantitative data collection.


This paper looks at the state of higher education in India – in terms of policies and the trajectory that it has taken in the aftermath of neoliberalisation of the economy. Through studying the discourses that construct the edifice of the educational complex in the country, it unravels the dynamics of how economy, politics and education interact. Lastly, it explores the possibilities of countering the neoliberal offensive of capital and create a more egalitarian higher education system.


This paper attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of the specially designed packages of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions with 'student brigades' (student teams tasked with maintaining hygiene in school) on household WASH behavior and practices in both a household and farm setting. In addition, household members' health and developmental productivity outcomes were also examined. A randomized control trial (RCT) involving student brigades (SBs) was carried out in six sub-districts (hotspots) characterized by comparatively poor WASH indicators. The specially designed WASH-agriculture treatment consisted of three interventions: (1) informing the households about the prior water testing results; (2) delivering hygiene messages with the help of posters; (3) equipping SB members with water quality test kits and asking them to test the water quality at different places and report their findings to their household. Employing the difference-in-difference (DID) multivariate regression technique, the analysis revealed that the BRAC WASH treatment performed well in terms of effecting behavioral changes and improving hygiene practices. In addition, the results suggested that informing households of their drinking water quality and conveying WASH-agriculture hygiene messages to them could have a significant incremental impact over the existing BRAC WASH treatment in changing household hygiene behavior and practices at home and on farms. This research provides evidence that students can act as agents of change in improving water quality, sanitation and health in a rural setting.


Background: The deregulation of the apoptosis of immune-competent cell has been suggested to play a key role in the development of the inflammatory reactions in allergic diseases like asthma. This study aimed to investigate the particularity of apoptosis of peripheral blood lymphocytes in allergic asthmatic patients (light and severe persistent asthma). The study of apoptosis peripheral blood lymphocytes were assessed by electron and optic microscopes and flow cytometry. Result: The apoptosis of the lymphocytes of asthmatics shows structural and biochemical particularities. The initial phase of the apoptosis is expressed through the correlation between the number of cells with a decrease in the mitochondrial potential and the translocation of the phosphatidylserine on the surface of lymphocytes of patients. The extension of the survival of lymphocytes in asthmatics of light severity is associated with the increase of the proliferating activity on the slowdown of the apoptosis of cells. On the other hand, the increase of the rate of self-antibodies directed against DNA in asthma of serious severity is associated with the death of lymphocytes by means of programmed necrosis, followed by the development of the alteration of the nearby cells and the inflammatory reactions, but also the phagocytosis of the remaining cellular fragments and the development of the immune response, if these cellular fragments contain chromatin associated with antigens. Conclusion: The results obtained (especially with the patients of serious severity) allowed to understand the impact of the apoptosis on the immunity of the patients and to forecast the degree of serious asthma. Further study in immunology will benefit from these findings in order to better understand the process of apoptosis in atopic bronchial asthma patients. It appears to be obvious that diseases such as cancer, autoimmune disorders may derive benefit from such studies.


Ibrahim Ilyasu  Adam[1]
This paper analyzes Muslim feminist hermeneutics in relation to the position of Muslim women in society making a special reference to Asma Barlas. The paper focuses on the concept of seclusion and veiling as perceived by Barlas and other Muslim feminists and reflected in her book "Believing Women" in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an, 2002. Barlas believes that patriarchal reading of the Qur'En has negatively affected woman's progress, and potentially impeded her from taking certain roles in public spheres. This created a patriarchal mentality that expounds that women need to be secluded from public spheres. Barlas' central argument is that veiling and seclusion constitute gross discrimination against women because Qur'Enic injunctions do not categorically state that women shall be secluded and their body is pudendal and must be covered. In other words, the Qur'an does not impose a specific dress mode on women. Thus, imposing veiling and seclusion on women is a strong violation of women's right which has no meaning; hence, it should be discountenanced. This paper critically analyses the exegetical methodology of Asma Barlas in rereading gender-sensitive verses related to seclusion and veiling and examines the extent to which she breaks with traditional exegetes in interpreting those verses.

[1]Dr. Ibrahim Ilyasu holds PhD in Tafsir and Islamic family law.  He is  lecturer I , at Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano. . He could be reached at  email@example.com, and  mobile, +234 90257 15 524. He dedicated his blog www.ibrahimilyas.wordpress.com  to propagating true teachings of Islam and social justice.


Over the last two decades, a number of high-throughput technologies (genome-and proteome-based) have been developed and applied on different cancer types such as squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) arising from aerodigestive and genitourinary tracts. These analyses, when comprehensively utilized, have clearly con-tributed to a better understanding of the molecular hallmarks, oncogenic pathways and immunological features of SCCs. This chapter aims to describe the SCCs most important molecular aberrations as well as their molecular classification, highlight-ing the commonalities and differences among them, independent of their body site origin. The most frequently altered oncogene is PIK3CA, involved in the PI3K/ AKT/mTOR pathway and frequently activated in many human cancers. However, alterations in the cell-cycle control TP53 gene occur in the vast majority of SCCs. New possible molecular therapies, common to all SCCs, are discussed in light of a comprehensive, panSCC analysis.


This book records efforts to utilize public speaking to analyze serious social, educational, and scientific issuesoand to inform a variety of publics of their importance. Drawing from research, Otto Larsen responds to the broader challenge of linking research outcomes to possible policies and actions in four general areas: mass media effects and controls, problems of performance in professional organizations, efforts to gain scientific legitimacy for social and behavioral science, and the enhancement of teaching and learning in universities. This volume records the content of thirty-three talks given over a forty-year period from 1952 to 1993. Contents: Preface. COMMUNICATION. Trying to be Effective, Vying to be Successful; Comic Books and Creative Leisure; From the Flow of Information to the Adoption of Innovation; How Good are the Polls? VIOLENCE. Dialogue on Media Violence; Violence May be Hazardous to Your Health; What is the Question? OBSCENITY AND PORNOGRAPHY. Predispositions on Pornography; The Anatomy of Pornography; Should Pornography Laws be Repealed? Effects as a Factor in a No Win Game; How Far Can We Go? CENSORSHIP. Censors as Censors; Prurience, Offensiveness, Social Value; Are Sex and Violence Identical Twins? SOCIOLOGICAL ORGANIZATION. The Year Sociology Stood Still; How Far from Providence? Counsel to Council on Planning; The Year the Annual Meeting Stood Still; Mid-Life Crises Control. SOCIAL SCIENCE. Mapping Human Relations; Turtles and the National Science Board; Innovation and Productivity; High Above Cayuga's Waters; Pain from Knowledge Gain in Social Science; An Overview of the Underdog; Terrible Parable on Politics of Science; The Future of Social Science; Through a Rear View Mirror. THE ULTRAMULTIVERSITY. Professorial Gamesmanship; The Ongoing Pursuit of Knowledge. THREE MEMORABLE MENTORS. The Foundations of George Lundberg; The Dimensions of Stuart C. Dodd; The Footprints of Tad Blalock; Afterword; A Grand View of Social Science; Name Index; Subject Index.


Most federal taxes are collected from taxpayers by business entities, held in a public trust for the United States, and then paid over to the Internal Revenue Service (the IRS). While the vast majority of business entities pay over the taxes held in trust in a timely and appropriate manner, a sizeable amount, in dollar terms, does not get paid. The amount of unpaid "collected" taxes in 2008 created a $58 billion tax gap item.Disclosure law governing federal taxes defaults to non-disclosure for most tax returns. This general rule of non-disclosure governs the returns reporting the taxes collected by business entities even though the information on these returns is information concerning a public trust. This article analyzes the federal tax disclosure laws and concludes that the amount of taxes collected on behalf of the United States and the amount of these collected taxes paid over to the IRS should be disclosed. Rather than coming under the general rule of non-disclosure which applies to income tax returns and other returns reporting the liability of an individual or entity for the payment of taxes, these returns should be treated like the returns of pension plans, which are open for the public to see.In addition to approaching the issue from the perspective of disclosure policy, the article also looks at the collection policy issues presented by the disclosure of this information. For the same policy reasons that Congress has decided compliance is enhanced by the disclosure of pension plans and the returns of exempt organizations, the article concludes that compliance would be enhanced by this proposal and the tax gap reduced.


The need to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change is urgent especially in the agriculture sector. However, there have been no published reports whether upland corn farmers are applying climate change adaptation strategies. This study sampled 91 upland corn farmers in Sagbayan, Bohol, Philippines to determine the factors affecting their decision to employ adaptations strategies. The adaptation strategies are those soil and water management and conservation techniques employed by farmers, which is modelled using binary logistic regression. The average age of the respondents was 56 years old. Respondents have been in corn production for an average period of 30 years. More than 50% of their annual household income comes from farming (PhP 25,393). Results showed that gender, farm income, total land used in farming and value of farm assets were the determinants of farmers' use of adaptation strategies. Overall, corn farmers are knowledgeable of the impacts of climate change; however, employment of adaptation strategies is minimal. Hence, intervention should focus on programs that will increase probability of farmers employing adaptation strategies. Such programs may include farm-to-market roads to minimize post-harvest losses, setting of farmer field school and information drive.


This book examines one of the more common and wide-spread methodologies to deal with uncertainty in real-world decision making problems, the computing with words paradigm, and the fuzzy linguistic approach. The 2-tuple linguistic model is the most popular methodology for computing with words (CWW), because it improves the accuracy of the linguistic computations and keeps the interpretability of the results. The authors provide a thorough review of the specialized literature in CWW and highlight the rapid growth and applicability of the 2-tuple linguistic model. They explore the foundations and methodologies for CWW in complex frameworks and extensions. The book introduces the software FLINTSTONES that provides tools for solving linguistic decision problems based on the 2-tuple linguistic model. Professionals and researchers working in the field of classification or fuzzy sets and systems will find The 2-tuple Linguistic Model: Computing with Words in Decision Making a valuable resource. Undergraduate and postdoctoral students studying computer science and statistics will also find this book a useful study guide.


A requirement of communication technology creating a sense of bodily presence of a remote person is anticipated to increase more than ever. However, this type of communication technology has underdeveloped so far. In order to create such a sense, we have proposed two methods to integrate (1) a video avatar and a robot avatar, and (2) a video avatar and movements of physical object which is operated by a remote person. For creating a sense of presence of a remote communication partner, we have proposed a novel concept "Interactive Spatial Copy Wall" display system based on features of two methods, which represents a pseudo three-dimensional shape of a remote communication partner with movable cylinders. In this paper, we describe our further-advanced "Interactive Spatial Copy Wall" display system to represent bodily actions of remote person's upper body in real time. For this advancement, we have designed a modified "Interactive Spatial Copy Wall" by focusing on power source, data communication and measuring threedimensional appearance of a remote person. Consequently, this revised "Interactive Spatial Copy Wall" display system achieves to represent bodily actions of remote person's upper body in pseudo three dimensions, corresponding to hundreds of movements of installed cylinders.


Precision-guided munitions (PGM) play a pivotal role in modern warfare. As such it is important to carry out serviceability checks on critical electro-optical systems particularly those incorporated into precision-guided munitions, laser-warning systems and other military electro-optic systems. These test systems provide functionality checks on military electro-optic systems without the need to disassemble the device under test (DUT) or remove it from the platform. This paper presents new design concepts to build portable electro-optic simulators capable of generating battlefield laser threat signatures to carry out on-line functionality checks on laser sensors used in laser-warning systems and laser seekers in laser-guided munitions. These designs offer one or more advantages over similar commercially available devices and designs discussed in the literature. A prototype using the proposed concept was built and comprehensively evaluated by testing a commercial laser-seeker unit. Test results are presented in this paper.


Use of technology in science and mathematics classes has been increasing, but there are differences in the amount of use and students' perceptions of its helpfulness across grade levels and subject areas. Technology was reported as used only occasionally. Technology was used most often to understand or explore in more depth concepts taught in class. This was followed by using technology as a tool of investigation or assessment. The lowest reported use of technology was as tool of communication. Students in middle school classes perceived technology as less helpful than students in elementary or high school classes. Students in mathematics classes perceived technology as more helpful than students in science classes. Girls perceived technology as more helpful than boys. Additionally, teacher and student perceptions of amount of use varied with teachers reporting more use than students.


Taking an experimental approach to paleoecology, we evaluated the prey portion of Van Valen's Red Queen hypothesis by retrieving diapausing eggs from lake sediments for laboratory tests of evolutionary responses. The sediments consisted of core samples from Portage Lake (Michigan), which were dated by a combination of varve counts and radioisotope (137Cs and 210Pb) techniques. The sedimentary record of Portage Lake documented several major environmental changes (mining, channeling, post‐1950s eutrophication) over the past century. Remains of Leptodora, Chaoborus, and Polyphemus from sediments and historic fish surveys suggested a changing balance of invertebrate and vertebrate (fish) predators. Daphnia retrocurva was present in Portage Lake for over 80 yr and replaced Daphnia dentifera during the eutrophication period. Against the background of environmental change, we tested a part of the Red Queen hypothesis (i.e., that the prey species D. retrocurva must be continually evolving relative to its primary invertebrate predator, just to remain in place). We examined D. retrocurva morphology and genetics through time by retrieving and hatching diapausing eggs from different sediment strata for genetic characterization and by common garden experiments (i.e., isolates reared under the same environmental conditions). Mitochondrial DNA 12S/16S analyses and allozyme electrophoresis were used to characterize hatchlings from various levels. Allele frequencies at one allozyme (Pgi) locus in D. retrocurva differed over the eutrophication phase, suggesting founder effects, natural selection, or both. Common garden experiments with D. retrocurva hatchlings documented significant microevolutionary adjustments in both helmet and spine lengths, supporting the hypothesis of continual evolution in prey against a changing balance of predation.


There has been significant interest in the development of integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) in Europe. Much of this interest has come from academia and regulators, and while elements within the European aquaculture industry have expressed an interest, to date, the adoption of the concept has been limited. Part of the attraction for regulators and academics is the ecological/economic win/win that is associated with eco-innovation solutions. However, if we are to understand why there has been limited uptake of IMTA in Europe, perhaps it is necessary to look at the issue in terms of trade-offs for the individual farmer or company. Using this viewpoint, we investigate the balance of trade-offs for the individual farmer or company to diversify from a traditional fin-fish production business into an IMTA system. In doing so, we reveal that the bal- ance of trade-offs is currently not sufficiently positive to motivate the large-scale uptake of IMTA in Europe, and we contrast this against the situation in Asia where the balance of trade-offs gives better support for the adoption and practice of IMTA. By better understanding the trade-offs for the individual, it is possible to better understand the conditions that will promote the development of IMTA in Europe.


The study offers an analysis of close to fifty Lincoln representations in twenty-first century popular media and presents his various places within Popular Media Memory, a concept linking collective memory and popular media. The examination of fictional visual media such as films, TV series, shows, commercials, cartoons, animated series as well as Internet comics, memes, and music videos reveals the former president as an iridescent, multi-faceted personality and results in a classification into three main categories: The Eulogized Lincoln refers to depictions glorifying character traits and political achievements of his lifetime; the Re-Invented Lincoln includes representations putting the former president into new contexts, making him a spokesperson or counselor for various matters in modern times, or having him fight new conflicts; and the Demystified Lincoln has the sixteenth president as an object of teasing, mocking, and ridicule.


Objective: Literature on participatory health care suggests that, though many patients desire basic information, a substantial number prefer a passive role. This variability is explored as a function of laypersons' beliefs about the nature of medical knowledge, referred to as epistemological beliefs, through the evaluation of a newly-developed instrument, the discipline-based epistemological beliefs scale-lay medical knowledge (DEBS-LMK). Design: Survey. Method: Items were developed to measure Schommer's1 hypothesized constructs of epistemological beliefs within a medical context: source, structure, and certainty of knowledge plus beliefs about acquiring knowledge – innate ability and speed of learning. Setting: Faculty, staff, and students (n = 367) from a Midwestern university provided complete responses to 63 medical epistemological beliefs items and the 18-item multidimensional locus of control scales (MHLOC).2 Results: Factor analysis confirmed the basic theoretical structure of the instrument. Scores on the DEBS-LMK were associated in predictable ways with MHLOC scales. Beliefs about doctors as omniscient authorities were associated with perceptions that powerful others are responsible for health status; in particular, beliefs that patients should be empowered to question and challenge their doctors predicted lower powerful others scores. Beliefs that medical knowledge depends on innate ability and quick learning predicted views that health status is due to chance factors, but beliefs in the need for quick learning were negatively associated with an internal health locus of control. Conclusions: Implications for research on information seeking and on interventions to improve patient/provider communication are discussed.


The present study investigated the associations between self-construal, acculturation, and autonomy–connectedness, as well as the relations between autonomy–connectedness and psychopathological symptoms, controlling for self-construal and acculturation. Participants were 1,209 Dutch individuals, of whom 693 (57.3%) were immigrants with a non-Western background. Results showed that an independent self-construal was positively associated with self-awareness and capacity for managing new situations, and was negatively associated with sensitivity to others (which are the three components of autonomy–connectedness). Moreover, an interdependent self-construal was negatively associated with self-awareness and capacity for managing new situations, and was positively associated with sensitivity to others. Importantly, the latter associations were similar for both Dutch natives and immigrants, and the associations between acculturation and autonomy–connectedness were small and nonsignificant. Autonomy–connectedness, after controlling for self-construal and acculturation, explained a large amount of additional variance in anxiety (12.7%) and depression (14.1), and a medium amount of additional variance in drive for thinness (3.7%) and bulimia (4.8%). Autonomy–connectedness, thus, seems to be an important construct for people with a Western background, as well as for immigrants with a non-Western background.


In this paper, we address the problem of reconstructing an object surface from silhouettes. Previous works by other authors have shown that, based on the principle of duality, surface points can be recovered, theoretically, as the dual to the tangent plane space of the object. In practice, however, the identification of tangent basis in the tangent plane space is not trivial given a set of discretely sampled data. This problem is further complicated by the existence of bitangents to the object surface. The key contribution of this paper is the introduction of epipolar parameterization in identifying a well-defined local tangent basis. This extends the applicability of existing dual space reconstruction methods to fairly complicated shapes without making any explicit assumption on the object topology. We verify our approach with both synthetic and real-world data and compare it both qualitatively and quantitatively with other popular reconstruction algorithms. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed approach produces more accurate estimation while maintaining reasonable robustness toward shapes with complex topologies.