This Article explores a little-known chapter in the cultural history of The Masses, the radical, iconoclastic, and artistically cutting-edge publication that was the subject of Learned Hand's landmark First Amendment decision in Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten (1917). The Article sets forth the story of an internal battle about freedom of expression in the arts that had shaken The Masses to its core in the year leading up to Hand's famous decision. The Masses was founded on two central premises: first, that absolute freedom of expression was necessary for its mission; and second, that art and politics must be inextricably intertwined in pursuing this mission because creativity was itself an act of political rebellion against capitalism. Yet this marriage between art and politics was a fragile one; indeed it collapsed in the year before Hand's opinion, as editors tried to constrain the political messages of the artists, leading to an artists' strike that forever changed the magazine. At stake in this conflict were urgent questions about the nature of art and the relationship between art and politics. Ultimately the magazine devoted to free speech and free artistic expression - the magazine that would later be pursued by the government for speaking too frankly - set limits on the free expression of its own artists.

By exploring the artistic significance of The Masses and by unearthing this internal censorship battle at the magazine, my goal is to show how the conflict over art at The Masses presaged contemporary debates about the role of art in the First Amendment. The bitter internal struggle over freedom of expression at The Masses anticipated a longstanding problem in free speech law: how do we justify protection for art, often apolitical, irrational, and hard to reduce to a "particularized message," under a vision of the First Amendment that prizes political discourse and assumes a rational marketplace of ideas. The history of The Masses sheds light on our ongoing discomfort about the place of art in the First Amendment.


Abstract This study reports the quantitative effect of students using podcasts in a 1st year undergraduate exercise physiology module. From a cohort of 70 students, 50 volunteered and completed the study. Using a pre-post random allocation research design, students were allocated to either a podcast group (PG) or control group (CG) based on a 32-question multiple-choice exam. The PG then listened to six podcasts over six weeks, while the CG were provided with an exact transcript of the podcasts in printed form to ensure that both groups were provided with the same content. After six weeks, both groups were re-examined using the same test. Data were analysed using the effect size statistic and 90% confidence intervals. The CG improved their exam performance by 43%, whereas the PG improved by 46%. The difference between the groups on the post-test was a mean effect size of 0.19 (90%CI: −0.16 to 0.53 [trivial to positively small]). There is almost no chance that the true effect in the population is harmful. The results of this study suggest that using podcasts provides little quantitative benefit for students over and above written text when learning exercise physiology.


Previous physiological studies [e.g., Bieser and Muller-Preuss, Exp. Brain Res. 108, 273-284 (1996); Schulze and Langner, J. Comp. Physiol. A 181, 651-663 (1997); Steinschneider et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 104, 2935-2955 (1998)] have suggested that neural activity in primary auditory cortex (A1) phase-locked to the waveform envelope of complex sounds with low (<300 Hz) periodicities may represent a neural correlate of roughness perception. However, a correspondence between these temporal response patterns and human psychophysical boundaries of roughness has not yet been demonstrated. The present study examined whether the degree of synchronized phase-locked activity of neuronal ensembles in A1 of the awake monkey evoked by complex tones parallels human psychoacoustic data defining the existence region and frequency dependence of roughness. Stimuli consisted of three consecutive harmonics of fundamental frequencies (f(0)s) ranging from 25 to 4000 Hz. The center frequency of the complex tones was fixed at the best frequency (BF) of the cortical sites, which ranged from 0.3 to 10 kHz. Neural ensemble activity in the thalamorecipient zone (lower lamina III) and supragranular cortical laminae (upper lamina III and lamina II) was measured using multiunit activity and current source density techniques and the degree of phase-locking to the f0 was quantified by spectral analysis. In the thalamorecipient zone, the stimulus f0 at which phase-locking was maximal increased with BF and reached an upper limit between 75 and 150 Hz for BFs greater than about 3 kHz. Estimates of limiting phase-locking rates also increased with BF and approximated psychoacoustic values for the disappearance of roughness. These physiological relationships parallel human perceptual data and therefore support the relevance of phase-locked activity of neuronal ensembles in A1 for the physiological representation of roughness.


A novel molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor was developed for the sensitive and selective determination of ampicillin (AMP). The sensor was prepared on a platinum electrode modified with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), and a thin film of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs). MWCNTs and AuNPs were introduced to enhance the sensor's electronic transmission and sensitivity. The molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was synthesized using AMP as the template molecule, methacrylic acid as functional monomer, and ethylene glycol maleic rosinate acrylate (EGMRA) as cross-linker. The performance of the proposed imprinted sensor was investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV), differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results showed that the imprinted film displayed a fast and sensitive response to AMP. Under optimal conditions, response peak current had a linear relationship with the concentration of AMP in the range of 1.0 × 10−8 mol/L to 5.0 × 10−6 mol/L and a detection limit of 1.0 × 10−9 mol/L (S/N = 3). This imprinted sensor was used to detect AMP in food samples with recoveries of 91.4–105%. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40613.


Divergence estimators based on direct approximation of density ratios without going through separate approximation of numerator and denominator densities have been successfully applied to machine learning tasks that involve distribution comparison such as outlier detection, transfer learning, and two-sample homogeneity test. However, since density-ratio functions often possess high fluctuation, divergence estimation is a challenging task in practice. In this letter, we use relative divergences for distribution comparison, which involves approximation of relative density ratios. Since relative density ratios are always smoother than corresponding ordinary density ratios, our proposed method is favorable in terms of nonparametric convergence speed. Furthermore, we show that the proposed divergence estimator has asymptotic variance independent of the model complexity under a parametric setup, implying that the proposed estimator hardly overfits even with complex models. Through experiments, we demonstrate the usefulness of the proposedapproach.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Many approaches have been described for the surgical management of Rectourethral fistulas (RUF). Herein, we outline our experience with minimally invasive surgery (MIS) for the repair of RUF based 10 continuous patients and describe our step-by-step approach. METHODS: After IRB approval was obtained (HS-17-00208), patients who underwent laparoscopic/robotic repair of RUF were identified. All cases were performed by an experienced surgeon (RS) between 2004 and 2018. Follow-up schedule was at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months, respectively. Baseline characteristics included age, sex and etiology. Operative characteristics evaluated included operating time (OT), estimated blood loss (EBL), intraoperative complications, length of hospital stay (LOS), transfusion rate, 90-day complications, and success rate. Continuous variables were summarized as mean and standard deviation (SD) while categorical variables were shown in frequencies and percentages. RESULTS: Ten male patients were identified. 4 cases (40%) developed after surgical procedures: lower colon resection, transurethral resection of prostate, simple prostatectomy, and perianal fistula repair. One patient also received previous external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). 6 cases occurred after cryotherapy (three, one with concomitant brachytherapy), high intensity focused ultrasound (two, one with concomitant EBRT), and EBRT with concomitant brachytherapy (one). Laparoscopic and robotic repair was performed in 4, and 6 cases, respectively. The procedure consisted of a salvage prostatectomy, closure of the rectal defect, tissue interposition, and vesicourethral anastomosis. Mean (SD) OT was 235.9 (72.1) minutes, mean EBL was 166 (92.2), no transfusions, conversions or intraoperative complications were recorded. Three fecal diversions were performed concomitantly with the surgical repair. 1 major postoperative complication was reported. LOS was 4.8 (4.02). 6 out of 8 patients reported complete continence at 12 months of follow up (2 patients lost during follow-up). No artificial urinary sphincter placement was needed. 9/10 fecal diversions were reversed. At 12 months of follow-up, no recurrences were found. CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary results showed MIS to be a feasible and successful technique for RUF repair. More studies are needed. Source of Funding: none


In this study, we investigated whether subjects with a Lower Maximum Step Length (MSL) Percentage (LMP) display unstable locomotion while negotiating an obstacle. Data were collected using a three-dimensional motion analysis system. The toe-obstacle clearance of the leading limb was monitored in 10 young adults while stepping over three height obstacles from 30%, 40% and 50% of MSL. The vertical clearance at the time of the obstacle crossing decreased systematically with more complicated experimental set up. In particular, subjects with LMP showed smaller clearances than subjects with a Higher Maximum step length Percentage (HMP). Furthermore, a significant correlation was observed between the toe-obstacle clearance and MSL. The mean of variance value of toe-obstacle clearance of the leading limb differed between the subjects with LMP and those with HMP. Our findings help to explain the relation of MSL and gait adaption ability to negotiate obstacles safely during obstacles crossing. Jpn J Phys Fitness Sports Med, 61(1): 103-109 (2012)


Adolescent is a vulnerable group in reproductive health area. This period is marked by strong desire to try and explorenew things. Pornography is a medium which can influence adolescent toward high risk sexual behaviour. The exposureto pornographic materials is a serious problem among adolescent since it could have negative impacts such as unwantedpregnancy, unsafe abortion, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV-AIDS. This cross-sectional study was conducted tounderstand various types of pornographic exposures, effects of pornographic exposure, and factors influence the effect.Study was conducted at five state junior high schools in Pontianak District in 2008 with 395 respondents fromDecember 2007 to January 2008. The result shows that 83.3 % adolescence has exposed to pornography and 79.5% ofthem had experienced the effects of pornographic exposure. 19.8% respondent who experienced the effects ofpornography was in the addiction stage. 69.2% respondent of those in addiction stage was in escalation stage. 61.1%respondent of escalation stage was in desensitization stage, and 31.8% respondent of desensitization was in act-outstage. Multivariate analysis shows that there were four variables that have significant relationship to the effect ofpornographic exposure, that is gender (male), grade at school (third), length of exposure (recent) and frequency ofexposure (often). The analysis also shown that the frequency of pornography (often) is the most dominant factor relatedto the effect of pornographic exposure among adolescence with Odds Ratio of 5.02 (95% CI: 1.39-18.09). It issuggested to provide information in a professional way and targeted to the right group; to improve preventive effortsthrough collaboration within school, and to study further as to align positively those in the act-out stage. keywords: adolescence, effect of exposure, pornography


Viruses pose a serious threat to the health and well-being of honey bees, Apis mellifera, the most economically valuable pollinators of agricultural and horticultural crops worldwide. Recently, honey bee viruses have gotten a lot of international attention due to the significant disease status that viruses cause in honey bees and the recent observation of the tight correlation between Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in the U.S. and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus. Over the past decades, considerable progress has been made in our understanding of virus infections in honey bees. This review chapter summarizes previous findings and recent progress in the understanding of the morphology, genome organization, taxonomy, transmission, and pathogenesis of honey bee viruses. The prospects of future research and challenges associated with the study of honey bee viruses are also discussed in detail.


We prove an area law for the entanglement entropy in gapped one dimensional quantum systems. The bound on the entropy grows surprisingly rapidly with the correlation length; we discuss this in terms of properties of quantum expanders and present a conjecture on completely positive maps which may provide an alternate way of arriving at an area law. We also show that, for gapped, local systems, the bound on Von Neumann entropy implies a bound on Rényi entropy for sufficiently large α < 1 and implies the ability to approximate the ground state by a matrix product state.


Tree-like tableaux are certain fillings of Ferrers diagrams originally introduced by Aval et al., which are in simple bijections with permutation tableaux coming from Postnikov's study of totally nonnegative Grassmanian and alternative tableaux introduced by Viennot. In this paper, we confirm two conjectures of Gao et al. on the refined enumeration of non-occupied corners in tree-like tableaux and symmetric tree-like tableaux via intermediate structures of alternative tableaux, linked partitions, type $B$ alternative tableaux and type $B$ linked partitions.


Regions of cardiac tissue that have a combination of focal activity and poor, heterogeneous gap junction coupling are often considered to be arrhythmogenic; however, the relationship between the properties of the cardiac microstructure and patterns of abnormal propagation is not well understood. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of microstructure on the initiation of reentry from focal stimulation inside a poorly coupled region embedded in more well-coupled tissue. Two-dimensional discrete computer models of ventricular monolayers (1 × 1 cm) were randomly generated to represent heterogeneity in the cardiac microstructure. A small, central poorly coupled patch (0.40 × 0.40 cm) was introduced to represent the site of focal activity. Simulated unipolar electrogram recordings were computed at various points in the tissue. As the gap conductance of the patch decreased, conduction slowed and became increasingly complex, marked by fractionated electrograms with reduced amplitude. Near the limit of conduction block, isolated breakthrough sites occurred at single cells along the patch boundary and were marked by long cell-to-cell delays and negative deflections on electrogram recordings. The strongest determinant of the site of wavefront breakthrough was the connectivity of the brick wall architecture, which enabled current flow through small regions of overlapping cells to drive propagation into the well-coupled zone. In conclusion, breakthroughs at the size scale of a single cell can occur at the boundary of source-load mismatch allowing focal activations from slow conducting regions to produce reentry. These breakthrough regions, identifiable by distinct asymmetric, reduced amplitude electrograms, are sensitive to tissue architecture and may be targets for ablation.


When Claude Steiner and the late Eric Berne developed the theory of Transactional Analysis, their basic belief that people were born princes and princess, until their parents turned them into frogs countered the fundamental principle of psychiatry which asserts that emotional and mental distress comes from within. This theory was further developed in Steiner s book Games Alcoholics Play. Dr. Berne, in What Do You Say After You Say Hello?, acknowledged Steiner s important role in the analysis of life scripts which we choose at an early age and which rule every detail of our lives until our death. In Scripts People Live, Steiner expands upon this belief to show that people are innately healthy but develop a pattern early in life based upon negative or positive influences of those around them. Thus children decide, however unconsciously, whether they will be happy or depressed, winners or failures, strong or dependent, and having decided, they spend the rest of their lives making the decision come true. For those who choose a negative script, the consequences can be disastrous unless they make a conscious decision to change. Steiner s classic in psychological theory, with a new foreword by the author, offers a hopeful and practical analysis so that we all may rewrite our life scripts and lead more meaningful and fulfilling lives."


Angola is a coastal west-central African state which currently stands as one of the fastest growing economies on the sub-continent. Angola's development as a burgeoning economic powerhouse has been attained despite a protracted and brutal civil conflict spanning several decades. In the current post-conflict era, Angola has emerged as one of the leading producers of oil on the African continent, second only to Nigeria, in addition to boasting an equally robust diamond mining industry. However, the main oil-producing region in Angola, the Cabinda province, has been the centre of intense conflict between the inhabitants of the region on one hand in their endeavor for self-determination, and the central government on the other, which defends the economic and geo-strategic importance of the region. At a practical level, the proponents of the conflict are the Liberation Front of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), which is at the forefront of secessionist calls, and the Luanda government through the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA). The activities of FLEC in the Cabinda region against Luanda (the Angola state) have launched a new debate on the dynamics of oil violence in the region. Among the main concerns is that the militia groups in the region are carrying out terrorist acts which,in turn, breed further instability that could have severe consequences for the state's security. Therefore, it is pertinent to undertake an in-depth exploration of the nexus between terrorism and FLEC activities in the region, as well to establish whether the recurrent breach of national security law committed by the FLEC in their secessionist endeavors have allowed the Angolan government to rightly characterize the violent activities of the militant group as terrorism.


An innovations sequence of a time series is a sequence of independent and identically distributed random variables with which the original time series has a causal representation. The innovation at a time is statistically independent of the prior history of the time series. As such, it represents the new information contained at present but not in the past. Because of its simple probability structure, an innovations sequence is the most efficient signature of the original. Unlike the principle or independent component analysis (PCA/ICA) representations, an innovations sequence preserves not only the complete statistical properties but also the temporal order of the original time series. An long-standing open problem is to find a computationally tractable way to extract an innovations sequence of non-Gaussian processes. This paper presents a deep learning approach, referred to as Innovations Autoencoder (IAE), that extracts innovations sequences using a causal convolutional neural network. An application of IAE to nonparametric anomaly detection with unknown anomaly and anomaly-free models is also presented.


In 1581 Edmund Campion, a Jesuit priest working underground in Protestant England, was found guilty of treason and hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. Years later he would be beatified. Evelyn Waugh's compelling and elegant narrative is a homage to the man he revered as a poet, scholar, hero and martyr. He tells Campion's story with a novelist's eye for detail, from his success as an Oxford scholar, through his travels around Europe, his doomed secret mission to England and on to his capture and dramatic trial. Vividly re-creating a time of persecution and surveillance, Evelyn Waugh - author of "A Handful of Dust", "Scoop", "Vile Bodies", "Brideshead Revisited" and the "Sword of Honour" trilogy - writes that 'the hunted, trapped murdered priest is our contemporary and Campion's voice sounds to us across the centuries'.


Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Indonesia and Australia, traditional Indonesian fishermen are permitted access to fish in a designated area inside the 200 nm Australian Fishing Zone (AFZ). However, crew and vessels are regularly apprehended for illegal fishing activity outside the permitted areas and after prosecution in Australian courts, their boats and equipment are destroyed and the fishermen repatriated to Indonesia. This thesis is an ethnographic study of one group of Indonesian maritime people who operate in the AFZ. It concerns Bajo people who originate from villages in the Tukang Besi Islands, Southeast Sulawesi. The study explores the social, cultural, economic and historic conditions which underpin Bajo sailing and fishing voyages in the AFZ. It also examines issues concerning Australian maritime expansion and Australian government policies, treatment and understanding of Bajo fishing. The thesis considers the concept of "traditional" fishing regulating access to the MOU area based on use of unchanging technology, and consequences arising from adherence to such a view of "traditional"; the effect of Australian maritime expansion on Bajo fishing activity; the effectiveness of policy in providing for fishing rights and stopping illegal activity, and why Bajo continue to fish in the AFZ despite a range of ongoing restrictions on their activity. It is concluded that because of a lack of ethnographic insight and poor understanding of the issues there are serious inconsistencies in Australian policies and for the most part, they have been ineffective. The concept of "traditional" fishing, which regulates access to the 1974 MOU area for Indonesian fishermen is problematic, it ignores cultural dynamism and does not reflect the reality of Bajo fishing. Recent changes in Bajo fishing activity are in direct response to Australian maritime expansion and other broader local and global processes of influence. Continuing illegal Bajo fishing activity occurs as a direct result of the ineffectiveness of the 1974 MOU, as well as economic consequences arising from the apprehension and destruction of boats. Other historical, social-cultural and economic reasons also motivate continued Bajo fishing activity in the AFZ. Alternative approaches to managing a traditional Indonesian fishery in the AFZ are required and a more anthropologically informed approach should be taken. A new agreement should afford specific access rights to Bajo fishermen who have fished in the north Australian region since the early decades of this century.


Relating system dynamics to the broad systems movement, the key notion is that reinforcing loops deserve no less attention than balancing loops. Three specific propositions follow. First, since reinforcing loops arise in surprising places, investigations of complex systems must consider their possible existence and potential impact. Second, because the strength of reinforcing loops can be misinferred - we include an example from the field of servomechanisms - computer simulation can be essential. Be it project management, corporate growth or inventory oscillation, simulation helps to assess consequences of reinforcing loops and options for interventions. Third, in social systems the consequences of reinforcing loops are not inevitable. Examples concerning globalization illustrate how difficult it might be to challenge such assumptions. However, system dynamics and ideas from contemporary social theory help to show that even the most complex social systems are, in principle, subject to human influence. In conclusion, by employing these ideas, by attending to reinforcing as well as balancing loops, system dynamics work can improve the understanding of social systems and illuminate our choices when attempting to steer them.


Recently, medical image fusion has emerged as an impressive technique in merging the medical images of different modalities. Certainly, the fused image assists the physician in disease diagnosis for effective treatment planning. The fusion process combines multi-modal images to incur a single image with excellent quality, retaining the information of original images. This paper proposes a multi-modal medical image fusion through a weighted blending of high-frequency subbands of nonsubsampled shearlet transform (NSST) domain via chaotic grey wolf optimization algorithm. As an initial step, the NSST is applied on source images to decompose into the multi-scale and multi-directional components. The low-frequency bands are fused based on a simple max rule to sustain the energy of an individual. The texture details of input images are preserved by an adaptively weighted combination of high-frequency images using a recent chaotic grey wolf optimization algorithm to minimize the distance between the fused image and source images. The entire process emphasizes on retaining the energy of the low-frequency band and the transferring of texture features from source images to the fused image. Finally, the fused image is formed using inverse NSST of merged low and high-frequency bands. The experiments are carried out on eight different disease datasets obtained from Brain Atlas, which consists of MR-T1 and MR-T2, MR and SPECT, MR and PET, and MR and CT. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated using more than 100 pairs of images based on the subjective and objective quality assessment. The experimental results confirm that the proposed method performs better in contrast with the current state-of-the-art image fusion techniques in terms of entropy, VIFF, and FMI. Hence, the proposed method will be helpful for disease diagnosis, medical treatment planning, and surgical procedure.


Abstract. In-situ aircraft observations of ice crystal concentrations in Antarctic clouds are presented for the first time. Orographic, layer and wave clouds around the Antarctic Peninsula and Larsen Ice shelf regions were penetrated by the British Antarctic Survey's Twin Otter aircraft, which was equipped with modern cloud physics probes. The clouds studied were mostly in the free troposphere and hence ice crystals blown from the surface are unlikely to have been a major source for the ice phase. The temperature range covered by the experiments was 0 to −21 °C. The clouds were found to contain supercooled liquid water in most regions and at heterogeneous ice formation temperatures ice crystal concentrations (60 s averages) were often less than 0.07 l −1 , although values up to 0.22 l −1 were observed. Estimates of observed aerosol concentrations were used as input into the DeMott et al. (2010) ice nuclei (IN) parameterisation. The observed ice crystal number concentrations were generally in broad agreement with the IN predictions, although on the whole the predicted values were higher. Possible reasons for this are discussed and include the lack of IN observations in this region with which to characterise the parameterisation, and/or problems in relating ice concentration measurements to IN concentrations. Other IN parameterisations significantly overestimated the number of ice particles. Generally ice particle concentrations were much lower than found in clouds in middle latitudes for a given temperature. Higher ice crystal concentrations were sometimes observed at temperatures warmer than −9 °C, with values of several per litre reached. These were attributable to secondary ice particle production by the Hallett Mossop process. Even in this temperature range it was observed that there were regions with little or no ice that were dominated by supercooled liquid water. It is likely that in some cases this was due to a lack of seeding ice crystals to act as rimers to initiate secondary ice particle production. This highlights the chaotic and spatially inhomogeneous nature of this process and indicates that the accurate representation of it in global models is likely to represent a challenge. However, the contrast between Hallett Mossop zone ice concentrations and the fairly low concentrations of heterogeneously nucleated ice suggests that the Hallet Mossop process has the potential to be very important in remote, pristine regions such as around the Antarctic coast.


Global Warming Systemically Caused Hurricane Sandy by George Lakoff Yes, global warming systemically caused Hurricane Sandy -- and the Midwest droughts and the fires in Colorado and Texas, as well as other extreme weather disasters around the world. Let's say it out loud, it was causation, systemic causation. Systemic causation is familiar. Smoking is a systemic cause of lung cancer. HIV is a systemic cause of AIDS. Working in coal mines is a systemic cause of black lung disease. Driving while drunk is a systemic cause of auto accidents. Sex without contraception is a systemic cause of unwanted pregnancies. There is a difference between systemic and direct causation. Punching someone in the nose is direct causation. Throwing a rock through a window is direct causation. Picking up a glass of water and taking a drink is direct causation. Slicing bread is direct causation. Stealing your wallet is direct causation. Any application of force to something or someone that always produces an immediate change to that thing or person is direct causation. When causation is direct, the word cause is unproblematic. Systemic causation, because it is less obvious, is more important to understand. A systemic cause may be one of a number of multiple causes. It may require some special conditions. It may be indirect, working through a network of more direct causes. It may be probabilistic, occurring with a significantly high probability. It may require a feedback mechanism. In general, causation in ecosystems, biological systems, economic systems, and social systems tends not to be direct, but is no less causal. And because it is not direct causation, it requires all the greater attention if it is to be understood and its negative effects controlled. Above all, it requires a name: systemic causation. Global warming systemically caused the huge and ferocious Hurricane Sandy. And consequently, it systemically caused all the loss of life, material damage, and economic loss of Hurricane Sandy. Global warming heated the water of the Gulf and Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in greatly increased energy and water vapor in the air above the water. When that happens, extremely energetic and wet storms occur more frequently and ferociously. These systemic effects of global warming came together to produce the ferocity and magnitude of Hurricane Sandy. The precise details of Hurricane Sandy cannot be predicted in advance, any more than when, or whether, a smoker develops lung cancer, or sex without contraception


Objective: Independent studies have previously demonstrated that both the HIPK2 and BRAF genes are amplified and rearranged, respectively, in pilocytic astrocytomas (PAs). The purpose of this study was to further investigate the frequency of BRAF and HIPK2 alterations in PAs, the concordance of these events, and their relationship to clinical phenotype. Methods: We performed extensive characterization by array-based copy number assessment (aCGH), HIPK2 copy number analysis, and BRAF rearrangement and mutation analysis in a set of 79 PAs, including 9 tumors from patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). Results: We identified 1 of 3 previously identified BRAF rearrangements in 42/70 sporadic PAs. An additional 2 tumors with no rearrangement also exhibited BRAF mutation, including a novel 3-base insertion. As predicted from the genomic organization at this locus, 22/36 tumors with BRAF rearrangement also exhibited corresponding HIPK2 amplification. However, 14/36 tumors with BRAF rearrangement had no detectable HIPK2 gene amplification and 6/20 tumors demonstrated HIPK2 amplification without apparent BRAF rearrangement or mutation. Only 12/70 PAs lacked detectable BRAF or HIPK2 alterations. Importantly, none of the 9 PA tumors from NF1 patients exhibited BRAF rearrangement or mutation. Conclusions: BRAF rearrangement represents the most common genetic alteration in sporadic, but not neurofibromatosis type 1-associated, pilocytic astrocytomas (PAs). These findings implicate BRAF in the pathogenesis of these common low-grade astrocytomas in children, and suggest that PAs arise either from NF1 inactivation or BRAF gain of function.


For several years now, many cities across the world have undergone, for administrative and political reasons, mergers that have considerably reduced the number of municipalities on a given territory. This tendency affects various urban contexts, as evidenced by recent mergers in Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax (Canada), Baltimore (United States), and in other countries such as Scotland, Australia and England. Quebec has not escaped this trend, and since January 1st 2002, six major urban areas were created. While mergers now constitute a familiar occurrence, the processes they entail differ considerably from site to site, questioning existing power structures, administrative procedures, and modes of belonging. In Quebec, the case of Montreal stands out, because of its strategic economic position, and also because of the historical and often conflictual relations between its diverse ethnic and linguistic collectivities. This paper examines how the merger of twenty-nine municipalities on the island of Montreal into a single city now composed of twenty-seven boroughs, modifies the relations between the two dominant majorities and, more specifically, the capacity of English Canadians to control their institutions and daily affairs. Does this transformation, which involves the disappearance of municipalities, some of which were governed by English Canadians and other Anglophones, follow the trend observed in Quebec since the sixties, involving a loss in the latter's institutional completeness, organizational capacity, and spheres of autonomy?


This unique book on modern topology looks well beyond traditional treatises and explores spaces that may, but need not, be Hausdorff. This is essential for domain theory, the cornerstone of semantics of computer languages, where the Scott topology is almost never Hausdorff. For the first time in a single volume, this book covers basic material on metric and topological spaces, advanced material on complete partial orders, Stone duality, stable compactness, quasi-metric spaces and much more. An early chapter on metric spaces serves as an invitation to the topic (continuity, limits, compactness, completeness) and forms a complete introductory course by itself. Graduate students and researchers alike will enjoy exploring this treasure trove of results. Full proofs are given, as well as motivating ideas, clear explanations, illuminating examples, application exercises and some more challenging problems for more advanced readers.


Abstract. Land surface models (LSMs) need to be able to simulate realistically the dynamics of permafrost and frozen ground. In this paper we evaluate the performance of the LSM JULES (Joint UK Land Environment Simulator), the stand-alone version of the land surface scheme used in Hadley Centre climate models, in simulating the large-scale distribution of surface permafrost. In particular we look at how well the model is able to simulate the seasonal thaw depth or active layer thickness (ALT). We performed a number of experiments driven by observation-based climate datasets. Visually there is a very good agreement between areas with permafrost in JULES and known permafrost distribution in the Northern Hemisphere, and the model captures 97% of the area where the spatial coverage of the permafrost is at least 50%. However, the model overestimates the total extent as it also simulates permafrost where it occurs sporadically or only in isolated patches. Consistent with this we find a cold bias in the simulated soil temperatures, especially in winter. However, when compared with observations on end-of-season thaw depth from around the Arctic, the ALT in JULES is generally too deep. Additional runs at three sites in Alaska demonstrate how uncertainties in the precipitation input affect the simulation of soil temperatures by affecting the thickness of the snowpack and therefore the thermal insulation in winter. In addition, changes in soil moisture content influence the thermodynamics of soil layers close to freezing. We also present results from three experiments in which the standard model setup was modified to improve physical realism of the simulations in permafrost regions. Extending the soil column to a depth of 60 m and adjusting the soil parameters for organic content had relatively little effect on the simulation of permafrost and ALT. A higher vertical resolution improves the simulation of ALT, although a considerable bias still remains. Future model development in JULES should focus on a dynamic coupling of soil organic carbon content and soil thermal and hydraulic properties, as well as allowing for sub-grid variability in soil types.


In many real-world applications, various optimization problems with conflicting objectives are very common. In this paper we employ Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm based on Decomposition (MOEA/D), a newly developed method, beside Tabu Search (TS) accompaniment to achieve a new manner for solving multi-objective optimization problems (MOPs) with two or three conflicting objectives. This improved hybrid algorithm, namely MOEA/D-TS, uses the parallel computing capacity of MOEA/D along with the neighborhood search authority of TS for discovering Pareto optimal solutions. Our goal is exploiting the advantages of evolutionary algorithms and TS to achieve an integrated method to cover the totality of the Pareto front by uniformly distributed solutions. In order to evaluate the capabilities of the proposed method, its performance, based on the various metrics, is compared with SPEA, COMOEATS and SPEA2TS on well-known Zitzler-Deb-Thiele's ZDT test suite and DTLZ test functions with separable objective functions. According to the experimental results, the proposed method could significantly outperform previous algorithms and produce fully satisfactory results.


ABSTRACT

Phenols
are ubiquitous in our surroundings including biological molecules such as
L-Dopa metabolites, food components, such as whiskey and liquid smoke, etc. This
dissertation describes a new method for detecting phenols, by reaction with
Gibbs reagent to form indophenols, followed by mass spectrometric detection.
Unlike the standard Gibbs reaction which uses a colorimetric approach, the use
of mass spectrometry allows for simultaneous detection of differently
substituted phenols. The procedure is demonstrated to work for a large variety
of phenols without para‐substitution. With para‐substituted
phenols, Gibbs products are still often observed, but the specific product
depends on the substituent. For para groups with high
electronegativity, such as methoxy or halogens, the reaction proceeds by
displacement of the substituent. For groups with lower electronegativity, such
as amino or alkyl groups, Gibbs products are observed that retain the
substituent, indicating that the reaction occurs at the ortho or meta position.
In mixtures of phenols, the relative intensities of the Gibbs products are
proportional to the relative concentrations, and concentrations as low as
1 μmol/L can be detected. The method is applied to the qualitative
analysis of commercial liquid smoke, and it is found that hickory and mesquite
flavors have significantly different phenolic composition.

In the
course of this study, we used this technique to quantify major phenol
derivatives in commercial products such as liquid smoke (catechol, guaiacol and
syringol) and whiskey (o-cresol,
guaiacol and syringol) as the phenol derivatives are a significant part of the
aroma of foodstuffs and alcoholic beverages. For instance, phenolic compounds
are partly responsible for the taste, aroma and the smokiness in Liquid Smokes
and Scotch whiskies.

In the
analysis of Liquid Smokes, we have carried out an analysis of phenols in
commercial liquid smoke by using the reaction with Gibbs reagent followed by
analysis using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). This
analysis technique allows us to avoid any separation and/or solvent extraction
steps before MS analysis. With this analysis, we are able to determine and
compare the phenolic compositions of hickory, mesquite, pecan and apple wood
flavors of liquid smoke.

In the analysis of phenols in whiskey, we describe the
detection of the Gibbs products from the phenols in four different commercial
Scotch whiskies by using simple ESI-MS. In addition, by addition of an internal
standard, 5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-1-napthol (THN), concentrations of the major
phenols in the whiskies are readily obtained. With this analysis we are able to
determine and compare the composition of phenols in them and their contribution
in the taste, smokey, and aroma to the whiskies.

Another
important class of phenols are found in biological samples, such as L-Dopa and
its metabolites, which are neurotransmitters and play important roles in living
systems. In this work, we describe the detection of Gibbs products
formed from these neurotransmitters after reaction with Gibbs reagent and
analysis by using simple ESI‐MS. This technique would be an alternative method
for the detection and simultaneous quantification of these neurotransmitters.

Finally,
in the course of this work, we found that the positive Gibbs tests are obtained
for a wide range of para-substituted
phenols, and that, in most cases, substitution occurs by displacement of the para-substituent. In addition, there is
generally an additional unique second-phenol-addition product, which
conveniently can be used from an analytical perspective to distinguish para-substituted phenols from the
unsubstituted versions. In addition to
using the methodology for phenol analysis, we are examining the mechanism of
indophenol formation, particularly with the para-substituted
phenols.

The
importance of peptides to the scientific world is enormous and, therefore,
their structures, properties, and reactivity are exceptionally
well-characterized by mass spectrometry and electrospray ionization. In the
dipeptide work, we have used mass spectrometry to examine the dissociation of
dipeptides of phenylalanine (Phe), containing sulfonated tag as a charge
carrier (Phe*), proline (Pro) to investigate their gas phase dissociation. The
presence of sulfonated tag (SO3-) on the Phe amino acid
serves as the charge carrier such that the dipeptide backbone has a canonical
structure and is not protonated. Phe-Pro dipeptide and their derivatives were
synthesized and analyzed by LCQ-Deca mass spectroscopy to get the fragmentation
mechanism. To confirm that fragmentation path, we also synthesized
dikitopeparazines and oxazolines from all combinations of the dipeptides. All
these analyses were confirmed by isotopic labeling experiments and determination
and optimization of structures were carried out using theoretical calculation.
We have found that the fragmentation of Phe*Pro and ProPhe* dipeptides form
sequence specific b2 ions. In addition, not only is the 'mobile
proton' involved in the dissociation process, but also is the 'backbone
hydrogen' is involved in forming b2 ions.


A house is equipped with a smart clothes washer, an intelligent HVAC system and a video enabled home security system, all running through the home network it reduces the noise by doing laundry when no one is at home, saves energy costs by automatically changing the temperature depending who is in a room, lets the owner remotely see the kids walk in the door after school, and keeps the house safe the owner is maximizing the use of the Internet of Things ("IoT") devices (i.e. a network of everyday objects connected to the Internet and to each other). However, the home owner has also created at least four points for data vulnerabilities, giving a hacker four opportunities to enter the home. A single hack can allow a wrongdoer to determine when no one is home and access an empty house, spy on the children and collect PIN numbers and any sensitive data recorded by any or all of the IoT service providers, like credit card numbers. When such a data breach happens, what legal protections does a consumer have? What regulatory infrastructure is in place to prevent this type of intrusion, what data is considered protectable personal identifying information (PII), what obligations do the manufacturers have to prevent hacks, and what remedies are available to those whose privacy has been corrupted? This paper attempts to address the growing infiltration of the IoT into everyday life and to answer some of these questions by looking at the current US legal framework addressing privacy.


Electronics may be subjected to shock, vibration, and drop-impact during shipping, handling and during normal usage. Measurement of transient dynamic deformation of the electronics assemblies during the shock and vibration can yield significant insights in understanding the occurrence of failure modes and the development of failure envelopes. Failure-modes include solder-joint failures, pad cratering, chip-cracking, copper trace fracture, and underfill fillet failures. Previous researchers have measured the transient-dynamics of board assemblies with high-speed imaging in conjunction with high-speed image analysis for measurement of relative displacement, angle, velocity, and acceleration. In addition, high-speed data-acquisition systems with discrete strain gages have been used for measurements of transient strain and with accelerometers for measurement of transient acceleration. Development of accurate models requires better understanding of full-field strain deformation in board assemblies. In this paper, the use of digital image correlation (DIC) with ultra high-speed imaging has been used for full-field measurement of transient strain in various board assemblies subjected to shock in various orientations. Measurements have been taken on both the package and the board side of the assemblies. Accuracy of high-speed optical measurement has been compared with that from discrete strain gages. Package architectures examined include-flex ball-grid arrays, tape-array ball-grid arrays, and metal lead-frame packages. Explicit finite-element models have been developed and correlated with experimental data. Models developed include, smeared property models, Timoshenko-beam models, and explicit sub-models. The solder strains have been computed from the explicit finite element models for life prediction in shock.


Although people all over the world has been using various kind of plant species as medicine for the treatment of diseases since millennia, the isolation and identification of the active principals were only achieved in the 19th century. This can be considered the beginning of remarkable achievements in the discovery of therapeutic agents from plants. Some of these early discoveries are the isolation of morphine from Papaver somniferum, aneasthetic cocaine
from Erythroxylum coca, antimalarial quinine from Cinchona officinalis etc. Numerous other therapeutic molecules have been discovered since and the general health of the world
population improved dramatically, the search for new drugs from plants, microorganisms and marine source continued until today. With the availability of modern techniques,
instrumentations and advancement in scientific knowledge have led to faster phase of discovery of therapeutic chemicals with wide ranged of structural types. It has been
estimated that less than 1% of plant species has been examined in detailed for their therapeutic potential and currently about 120 pharmaceutical products in used are derived from plants and 75% of these were discovered from plants used in traditional medicine. In this presentation we will look into the diversity of chemicals isolated and fully characterized from our own rich Malaysian tropical flora. Amongst the various type of natural products
identified are the many classes of alkaloidsi lignans, terpenoids, sulphur-containing compounds, flavonoids, xanthones, glycosides, chalcones etc. Particular attention was made on certain genus of plants from the Rutaceae family (lemon family) due to the presence of interesting chemical structures and exhibiting good biological activity. From the various types of compounds identified, certain classes of alkaloids, coumarins and sulphur containing compounds have shown excellent antimicrobial and anticancer activity against various cancer cell lines. With the availability of high-throughput screening tests for
bioassay-guided fractionation and combinatorial synthesis toot natural product from plant source particularly from tropical plants, will continue to supply banks of compounds for future drug developments.


The aim of this study was to explore and describe service user experiences of how receiving services from a Flexible Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) team may support or inhibit citizenship. Within a participatory design, individual interviews with 32 service users from five Norwegian FACT teams were analyzed using thematic, cross-sectional analysis. The findings showed that FACT may support citizenship by relating to service users as whole people, facilitating empowerment and involvement, and providing practical and accessible help. Experiences of coercion, limited involvement and authoritarian aspects of the system surrounding FACT had inhibited citizenship for participants in this study.


In his critical notice entitled "An improved whole life satisfaction theory of happiness?" focusing on my article that was previously published in this journal, Fred Feldman raises an important objection to a suggestion I made about how to best formulate the whole life satisfaction theories of happiness. According to my proposal, happiness is a matter of whether an idealised version of you would judge that your actual life corresponds to the life-plan, which he or she has constructed for you on the basis of your cares and concerns. Feldman argues that either the idealised version will include in the relevant life-plan only actions that are possible for you to do or he or she will also include actions and outcomes that are not available for you in the real world. He then uses examples to argue that both of these alternatives have implausible consequences. In response to this objection, I argue that what is included in the relevant life-plan depends on what you most fundamentally desire and that this constraint is enough to deal with Feldman's new cases.


Gas explosions almost always occur in presence of obstacles that disturb the flat flame propagation. The unsteady coupling of the moving flame front and the turbulent vortices generated by the local blockage intensifies the flame acceleration and the subsequent overpressure rise.
In the present research activity, in order to get insights about the nature of obstacles-induced explosions a fundamental study is performed based on the combined use of advanced experimental and numerical tools. The experiments have been focused on the unsteady flame/vortex interaction. A novel twin section combustion chamber has been utilised to allow the controlled formation of stable and repeatable vortical structures into which a flame front can propagate. High-Speed Laser Sheet Flow Visualisation (HSLSFV) has been employed to record the time evolutions of both, flame
shape and scales of flame front wrinkling. Time-Resolved Particle Image Velocimetry (TRPIV) has been used to measure the velocity vectors fields ahead of the propagating flame
fronts. The results obtained have allowed identifying and quantifying the various combustion regimes that establish during the unsteady flame propagation. Depending on the dimension and rotational velocity of the vortical structures encountered and, then, on the strength of the
flame/vortex interaction, the propagating flame is driven to burn from the initial laminar−noeffect regime up to the wrinkled flame regime or pockets formation regime. These regimes differ for the effects produced by the vortices on the flame surface and structure and, consequently, on the way and rate of burning. The experimental results have been used as a guide for the development of a Computational
Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model of unsteady premixed flame propagation through obstacles. The model is based on the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) approach. An assessment has been performed of different literature combustion sub-models proposed for LES of fully turbulent premixed flame (Colin et al., 2000; Flohr & Pitsch, 2000; Kim & Menon, 2000; Charlette et al., 2002; Pitsch & Duchamp De Lageneste, 2002) to select the sub-model that best grasps the flame evolution through the different combustion regimes
identified. The model results have been compared against the experimental data by Patel et al. (2002) on the flame propagation through repeated obstacles in an open-end explosion chamber. III It has been found that the sub-model by Charlette et al. (2002) gives a very satisfactory
agreement with the experimental results in terms of shape and structure of the flame, flame arrival times and locations, flame speed profile along the chamber and overpressure time history. Further validation of the LES model implementing this combustion sub-model versus
the experimental data on the unsteady flame/vortex interaction has deonstrated its excellent ability to reproduce besides the flame shapes and propagation times, also the velocity vectors maps ahead of the front and then the details of the coupling between flame and flow field.
On the other hand, changes of the constants and parameters values of the sub-models other than Charlette et al. (2002) have also allowed the correct simulation of the unsteady flame propagation through obstacles. Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulations of the experiment by Patel et al. (2002) have also been run and the results compared to the LES ones. It has been shown that the LES modelling outperforms the conventional statistical approach, which is indeed not able to correctly simulate the time and spatial development of the vortices and their effects on the flame structure and speed.
With the validated LES model ad hoc simulations have been carried out and the obtained results examined to understand the mechanisms and phenomena correlating flame structure,
speed and resulting overpressure during the unsteady flame propagation in a vented obstructed chamber. The competition between combustion rate and venting rate, that establishes in the chamber zones upstream and downstream of the obstacle, has been identified as the mechanism responsible for the overpressure peaks observed. In particular, the blocking effects of the obstacle-side combustion on the propagation upstream of the obstruction, and of the external
explosion on the turbulent combustion of the mixture trapped downstream of the obstacle (over-combustion) have been highlighted. It has been found that both obstacle-side combustion and overcombustion are strongly affected by the combustion/turbulence interaction and obstacle blockage.
Furthermore, the simulations results have shown that the effects of the operating and geometrical parameters (fuel/air mixture composition, obstacle blockage ratio and shape, obstacles number) on the overpressure peaks can be explained through the effects on the obstacle-side combustion and overcombustion themselves. When the parameters changes are able to increase the amounts of fresh mixture involved in the combustion upstream and
downstream of the obstacle, and the intensity of the turbulent flow field induced around the IV obstruction, obstacle-side combustion and overcombustion become more violent and the related overpressure peaks stronger.


Few events in American history can match the triumph and tragedy of the Civil War. Many books have been written about the War between the States, but until now, none has chronicled - in their own words - the many important roles played by people from New Jersey. Beneath the Starry Flag is a collection of richly detailed eyewitness accounts by New Jerseyans who lived during the Civil War. Drawing from letters, journals, regimental histories, and newspaper accounts. Alan A. Siegel places the reader in the midst of these desperate times. The book deplets the war years chronologically, from the tense days when one state, then another seceded from the Union, through hattles lost and won, to the victory at Appomattox and Lincoln's funeral procession across New Jersey. Readers will learn of the remarkable valor of New Jersey soldiers such as John Beech, a Trenton potter who won a Medal of Honor for bravery at Spotsylvania's Bloody Angle. They will learn too of the sacrifices made by civilians, such as Cornella Hancock of Salem County, who ministered to soldiers wounded on battlefields from Gellysburg to Petersburg. Stegel also tells of other people and institutions who played very different roles in the war. Including Somerset County's Daniel Cory, who said he would shoot the president if he could; the state's leading Copperhead newspapers, which denounced the draft and discouraged enlistments; and the State Legislature, which at one point called for a truce and negotiations to end the conflict. Siegel allows them all, enlisted men and officers, politicians and plain citizens, patriots and conspirators, to speak in their own words in often moving firsthand accounts. Their motives, emotions, and deeds are chronicled in this collection of stories, some which have been out of print for many years, others that have not been heard since they were first written more than a century ago. Beneath the Starry Flag is an invaluable addition to what we know about this remarkable time in American history, perfect for the general reader of Civil War historian.


Cultural Politics in the Third World examines the subtle and multi-faceted relationship between culture and politics in developing countries. The book cautions against both politically reductionist examinations of culture as well as culturally reductionist examinations of politics. By placing culture within its proper political perspective, it demonstrates that civilizations are not clashing, nor are they about to in the foreseeable future. With its contextualization of culture this book will be of interest to both academics and students studying political science, sociology and developmental studies.


The Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism. By Jacob P. Dalton. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011, x + 311 pages, ISBN 978-0-300-18796-0 (paper), $27.50; ISBN 978-0-300-15392-7 (cloth), $40.00. The last several years have seen an increased interest in and publication on the topic of Buddhism and violence. Jacob P. Dalton's The Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism provides great insight into the topic of ritual and violence in Tibetan Buddhism, largely because it brings to light new materials on violent ritual and its role throughout Tibetan history. Dalton's research is based on manuscripts from the Dunhuang library cave, thus offering details from previously un-translated texts. The Taming of the Demons offers the reader a balanced and nuanced examination of an ethically complex topic. As Dalton notes in his acknowledgments, "The subject of violence, and perhaps even more so religious violence, can elicit strong reactions" (ix). In The Taming of the Demons Dalton has undertaken a massive project, an investigation of the history of violent ritual and themes of violence in Tibetan Buddhism. What results is a comprehensive study that incorporates textual analysis and historical research that spans religious traditions and centuries of religious development. The Taming of the Demons comprises an introduction, seven chapters, three appendices, and a glossary of Tibetan titles and terms. Chapter One presents the history of compassionate violence in Buddhism beginning with early Buddhist conceptions, particularly interpretations within Abhidharma and Vinaya literature, then moves to a discussion of the range of Mahayana perspectives. Dalton offers textual support for the various opinions on violence from a variety of Buddhist literature, including the Jatakas, the Upayakausalya Sutra, and the Bodhisattvabhumi. By highlighting the various pre-tantric positions regarding violence, Chapter One recognizes that "... the necessary doctrinal pieces were in place" (29). Pre-tantric literature included numerous examples of moral and immoral violence, often focusing upon the intention behind the violent act. The subtle distinction between moral and immoral violence is discussed in relationship to the Rudra myth, the central text for Dalton's overall argument. Dalton argues, "These two kinds of violence--one wise and compassionate and the other ignorant and demonic--are difficult to distinguish, and yet if the Rudra myth tells us anything, their differentiation is crucial to the tantric Buddhist path" (11). Chapter Two offers a glimpse into the so-called "dark age" of Tibet. Traditional Tibetan history depicts this period of fragmentation, the period from the mid-ninth to the late tenth century, as an era in which Buddhism was persecuted and no longer thrived in Tibet. Recent scholarship has questioned these traditional accounts and based on new materials from Dunhuang, this period of fragmentation seems to have been one in which there was "a wide range of creative changes and developments" and nonmonastic Buddhism continued to thrive (46). Dalton argues convincingly that, "The forms Buddhism took during these 'dark' years may have been distortions in the view of later Tibetans, but these same corruptions were fundamental in shaping Tibetan Buddhism" (46). A major assertion of the book is the importance of ritual violence, sorcery, and demonology in the Tibetan view of history (48). These themes are cemented during the period of fragmentation as the nonmonastic tantric traditions gain traction in Tibet and are evidenced in the Dunhuang texts (59). Chapter Three introduces the reader to Dunhuang textual material that includes a "liberation rite" (sgrol ba). Dalton provides a translation and description of the rite followed by a comparative textual analysis with the Kalika Purana's "Blood Chapter". Dalton highlights the pan-Indian development of tantra and the shared characteristics of Hindu and Buddhist practices, concluding that the liberation rite from the Dunhuang manuscript "may represent an example of such intersectarian sharing . …


Understanding the microeconomic details of technological catch-up processes offers great potential for informing both innovation economics and development policy. We study the economic transition of the PR China from an agrarian country to a high-tech economy as one example for such a case. It is clear from past literature that rapidly rising productivity levels played a crucial role. However, the distribution of labor productivity in Chinese firms has not been comprehensively investigated and it remains an open question if this can be used to guide economic development. We analyze labor productivity and the dynamic change of labor productivity in firm-level data for the years 1998-2013 from the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database. We demonstrate that both variables are conveniently modeled as Levy alpha-stable distributions, provide parameter estimates and analyze dynamic changes to this distribution. We find that the productivity gains were not due to super-star firms, but due to a systematic shift of the entire distribution with otherwise mostly unchanged characteristics. We also found an emerging right-skew in the distribution of labor productivity change. While there are significant differences between the 31 provinces and autonomous regions of the P.R. China, we also show that there are systematic relations between micro-level and province-level variables. We conclude with some implications of these findings for development policy.


While the Klondike Gold Rush is one of the most widely known events in Canadian history, particularly outside Canada, the rest of the Yukon's long and diverse history attracts little attention. Important developments such as Herschel Island whaling, pre-1900 fur trading, the post-World War II resource boom, a lengthy struggle for responsible government, and the emergence of Aboriginal political protest remain poorly understood. Placing well-known historical episodes within the broader sweep of the past, "Land of the Midnight Sun" gives particular emphasis to the role of First Nations people and the lengthy struggle of Yukoners to find their place within Confederation.This broader story incorporates the introduction of mammoth dredges that scoured the Klondike creeks, the impressive Elsa-Keno Hill silver mines, the impact of residential schools on Aboriginal children, the devastation caused by the sinking of the Princess Sophia, the Yukon's remarkable contributions to the national World War I effort, and the sweeping transformations associated with the American 'occupation' during World War II. Completely revised with a new epilogue, the bestselling "Land of the Midnight Sun" was first published in 1988 and became the standard source for understanding the history of the Yukon. Ken Coates and William Morrison have published ten books together, including "Strange Things Done: A History of Murder in the Yukon" and the forthcoming "Trailmarkers: A History of Landmark Aboriginal Rights Cases in Canada".


Abstract The North Atlantic blocking case of 17–30 December 1978 is briefly described synoptically and the results from several 10-day integrations of the ECMWF global numerical model are investigated to assess the role played in both onset and maintenance of the block by the global orography, the Rocky Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau separately; and by the surface exchange (land-sea contrast) and the model's physical parameterizations. While the influence of land-sea contrast is confined to partially controlling the initiation of the process, the dominating effects of global orography (and of the Rocky Mountains in particular) in conditioning both onset and maintenance of the block are confirmed once more for this case. Despite the limitations of a single case study, some efforts are made to bridge the gap between oversimplified numerical models and observational diagnostic studies. The relative success of the control run in simulating onset and early maintenance of the blocking occurrence lends some c...


In this study, morphological and molecular analyzes of one phylogenetic group (VIG2) in the complex of Baikal cyclopoids that are similar in morphology to Diacyclops versutus, D. improcerus and D. galbinus are performed. The first internal transcribed spacer (ITS1) and the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) were chosen as molecular markers. Twenty seven morphological features were measured and values of 18 morphometric characteristics were obtained. An illustrated description of the females VIG2 is given. Representatives of VIG2 are shown to belong to the new taxonomic group Diacyclops in Lake Baikal. Genetic and morphometric differences in the representatives of VIG2 from four locations are comparable to the intraspecific level of differences.


Stochastic Petri nets (SPNs) with generally distributed firing times are isomorphic to generalized semi-Markov processes (GSMPs), but simulation is the only feasible approach for their solution. The authors explore a hierarchy of SPN classes where modeling power is reduced in exchange for an increasingly efficient solution. Generalized stochastic Petri nets (GSPNs), deterministic and stochastic Petri nets (DSPNs), semi-Markovian stochastic Petri nets (SM-SPNs), timed Petri nets (TPNs), and generalized timed Petri nets (GTPNs) are particular entries in the hierarchy. Additional classes of SPNs for which it is shown how to compute an analytical solution are obtained by the method of the embedded Markov chain (DSPNs are just one example in this class) and state discretization, which the authors apply not only to the continuous-time case (PH-type distributions), but also to the discrete case.<<ETX>>


The present note is based in the first place on the Nephropsid material collected by the Australian Fisheries Steamer "Endeavour" in the waters of South and East Australia, while also the West Indian Nephrops specimens in the collections of the U.S. National Museum, Washington, D.C., and the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden, are dealt with. I wish to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Fenner A. Chace, Jr., Curator of the Division of Marine Invertebrates of the U.S. National Museum for entrusting me with the study of the larger part of this material. I am furthermore much indebted to Dr. L. R. Tommasi, Instituto Oceanografico, Sao Paulo, Brazil, for specimens of Nephrops rubellus. The new species described in this paper, Nephrops boschmai, is named in honour of Dr. Hilbrand Boschma, to whom the present volume is dedicated at the occasion of his 70th birthday. It is a great pleasure to express in this way my profound gratitude to Dr. Boschma not only for guiding my first steps in the field of systematic zoology, but also for the innumerable times that he gave me his sound advice and invaluable help both in scientific and personal matters. Nephrops andamanicus Wood-Mason Nephrops andamanicus Wood-Mason, 1892, pl. 4. Endeavour Expedition Great Australian Bight, 126.5° E, S. by W. of Eucla, Western Australia; depth 130-190 fathoms; No. E. 6248-6252. — 4 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀ (1 ovigerous). The carapace length of the males varies between 78 and 85 mm, the females have the carapace length 75 and 85 mm; the largest female is ovigerous. The specimens agree in practically all respects with the published


With the rapid advancement of additive manufacturing technologies in recent years on both the microscale and the macroscale, research must be done to test the limits of currently available technologies. On the microscale, halloysite nanotubes have proven to be a viable platform for reinforcement of polymers and time release of loaded chemicals, as well as a substrate material for the deposition of nanoparticles. The range of materials are limited due to polarity conflicts, and often lead to wet chemical processes that use more toxic alternatives. Three-dimensional (3D) printing and macroscale additive manufacturing techniques can be used to generate custom structures, however introduction of additives is a difficult proposition without access to industrial scale equipment. Dopants in the form of nanoparticles show great promise for achieving desired properties. Combinations of the technologies can be used in such applications as targeted treatments in medical research, complex geometrical radiation shielding, and printing and casting of conductive structures for a wide array of use. In this work, halloysite nanotubes were investigated as a platform for the dry deposition of metallic nanoparticles through sintering of metal acetylacetonate and metal acetate compounds. These coatings were solely or in combinations achieved for iron, nickel, copper, barium, lithium, and gold. Targeted characterization was performed on the iron, barium, gold, and iron/gold dual coated halloysite to quantify exhibited characteristics of the achieved coatings: magnetic susceptibility of the iron coating, X-ray contrast of the barium coating, and laser resonance with 532 nm and 808 nm wavelengths for the iron, gold, and iron/gold coatings. A process for fabricating metal doped 3D printing filaments was invented using commercially available equipment and designed to allow for the shielding of low level radiation printed to a user designed specification. Metals used include iron oxide and barium sulfate. Printed films utilizing the iron oxide doped filament were shown to have a dopant threshold through the discovered method of 25wt% and showed an increase in beta radiation shielding of twice that of undoped PL A. Barium sulfate was likewise found to have a 25wt% doping threshold and showed successive increases in opacity when tested against clinical medical X-ray machines. Conductive 3D printing filaments were also manufactured without modification of equipment, and the electrical characteristics of printed structures were measured in an attempt to classify the use of such a fabrication method for the manufacture of a hybrid conductive/nonconductive structure with attributes defined by the user. It was found that through the method used, conductive filaments using 15-20wt% graphene could be fabricated. Below this threshold, the material proved insulating; above this threshold, filament extrusion was inhibited. Resistances were found to be 1.5±0.4 MC2 and 60±7 kO for the 15 and 20 wt% filaments, respectively. Further, notable junction capacitances on the order of 20 pF were found for the 20wt% due to the charge accumulation around air voids inherent in the printing process. No notable junction capacitances were found for the 15wt%. Conductive bone cements were also manufactured to test the impact of the addition of graphene to the manufacturing process. Body resistance testing showed uneven dispersion through normal manufacturing means, and flexural testing showed varied electrical characteristics depending upon the doping percentage. Mechanical properties were also found to be inhibited at doping percentages greater than 10wt%, however these could be overcome through the use of greater MMA monomer in the manufacturing process. The first ever ability to coat halloysite nanotubes through a dry sintering process was developed as a proof of principle for multi-functional and real time customizable nanoparticle platforms. Likewise, a method to create and use metal doped and conductive 3D printing filaments on the tabletop scale was realized. Conductive bone cements were also manufactured to test their applicability as a sensor platform. Nanoparticles as additives showed ways to modify these nanotubes or 3D printing filaments with enhanced features and properties easily tailored to desired specifications. APPROVAL FOR SCHOLARLY DISSEMINATION The author grants to the Prescott Memorial Library of Louisiana Tech University the right to reproduce, by appropriate methods, upon request, any or all portions of this Dissertation. It is understood that "proper request" consists of the agreement, on the part of the requesting party, that said reproduction is for his personal use and that subsequent reproduction will not occur without written approval of the author of this Dissertation. Further, any portions of the Dissertation used in books, papers, and other works must be appropriately referenced to this Dissertation. Finally, the author of this Dissertation reserves the right to publish freely, in the literature, at any time, any or all portions of this Dissertation.


Infectious diseases account for more than 13 million deaths every year, which makes it apparent that infectious diseases are a tremendous burden for the society. Much research has therefore been aimed to elucidate the immune responses against pathogens. The mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein (MAVS) has been found to be essential for the antiviral innate immunity. Hou et al. recently described that activation of the antiviral innate immunity pathways activates MAVS by causing them to form aggregates capable of activating downstream signaling resulting in production of interferons that mediate the antiviral response. The aim of this study was to assess how MAVS and innate immune signaling intersect with mitochondrial functions in Huh7 and HEK293 cells. We wanted to isolate SeV-induced MAVS aggregation in these cells. We further wanted to elucidate a possible association between MAVS aggregates and autophagy, which would indicate that MAVS aggregates are targeted for autophagic degradation upon SeV infection. We found that SeV infection and MAVS overexpression are involved in regulation of Nrf2-mediated stress responses. However, we did not detect any change in ROS production upon SeV infection or MAVS overexpression. We were able to detect SeV-induced MAVS aggregation in both Huh7 and HEK293 cells, which confirms that MAVS forms aggregates upon infection. In addition we achieved results indicating that MAVS and p62 are associated upon SeV infection, suggesting that p62 may target MAVS for autophagic degradation after a viral infection has been encountered. These results may contribute to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of MAVS.


We study structural changes of adaptive networks in the coevolutionary susceptible-infected-susceptible (SIS) network model along its phase transition. We clarify to what extent these changes can be used as early-warning signs for the transition at the critical infection rate ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{c}$ at which the network collapses and the system disintegrates. We analyze the interplay between topology and node-state dynamics near criticality. Several network measures exhibit clear maxima or minima close to the critical threshold and could potentially serve as early-warning signs. These measures include the SI link density, triplet densities, clustering, assortativity, and the eigenvalue gap. For the SI link density and triplet densities the maximum is found to originate from the coexistence of two power laws. Other network quantities, such as the degree, the branching ratio, or the harmonic mean distance, show scaling with a singularity at $\ensuremath{\lambda}=0$ (not at ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{c}$), which means that they are incapable of detecting the transition.


Reading is a core prerequisite for educational success and participation in society. However, comprehensive empirical research is needed to understand how reading may differ in a digitalized world. The current study addressed the gender gap in reading digitally. It investigated competence scores along with information on (a) reading and (b) digital motivation and self-concept in 588 elementary school students. Results revealed a gender gap in reading digitally, in reading motivation and self-concept, and in motivation and self-concept in respect to working on digital devices. Only reading motivation variables predicted reading digitally, thereby providing important information on the validity of digitally based reading tests. Reading motivation was found to fully mediate the gender effect on reading digitally. Results have important implications for research and practice.


Globalization has brought us today to the situation that we all live in a global village, where information and the speed of communication have almost totally erased the borders of time and space. This is surely a brand new experience for humankind, because it leaves the impression that the world is small and closed and that it is impossible to change the course of events. But, it is precisely here that the need for closer communication, dialogue, and understanding appears. Partially due to the importance of pluralism for the modern world, and partially due to their own nature, Muslims today are called to enter into a dialogue with the People of the Book, Ehli Kitab, and with those positive movements that are found in the modern world, in order to build a just society in the concrete setting and historical time in which they live. (1) In order for interreligious dialogue to be successful, it must "correspond with reality and should be free from absolute scriptural figurization." (2) One foundation of this interreligious dialogue (3) with the contemporary world and culture could be Islamic humanism, precisely because of the fact that the notion of humanism is one of the most important and popular themes in the contemporary consciousness. (4) Islamic humanism is an organized system of ideas and perspectives about the human being and his or her role in the world. Although Islamic humanism is a concrete and practical way of understanding (hermeneutics) of the world (worldview), it should not be understood as a model of a sociopolitical system that must be concretized in given historical circumstances. Humanism, in general, can be understood as every reasonable approach toward created reality, where human beings--mainly because of our ontological structure, our historical significance with our intellectual-spiritual characteristics--have a special place. Such a generalized definition conditionally intends to create the needed breadth of views toward different forms of humanism that can be found in the history of the human society. By adding "Islamic" we have no intention of discrediting other forms of humanism but wish only to concretize and clearly define the distinction and importance of this kind of humanism, which has been present throughout the history of Islam and has been reflected in Muslims' behavior toward the People of the Book and other minorities. This concrete difference should always be linked in relation to God and the one whom God sent. (5) The other distinction of Islamic humanism that derives from its worldview is the confirmation that the human being can be fully understood only in existential relation with God, with other persons, and with the created world. This truth makes more relative the anthropocentrism of Islamic humanism and puts it in the place that it should really have. Anthropocentrism here is not conceived as a theory contrary to theocentrism nor as an idea that would in any way reject theocentrism. Likewise, anthropocentrism is not conceived as the absolute domination of the human being in the created world. The human is a being and is a part of the created world, while God is the Creator. This gives a common platform for dialogue with those spiritual groups that criticize the overemphasized role of the human being. (6) According to the Islamic understanding, the human being is not the absolute ruler of the created world but simply God's vicegerent on earth (halifetull-llahi fi-l-erd). (7) Almost all values that Islamic humanism accepts as its own are general human values, such as freedom, justice, peace, peaceful coexistence in the society, solidarity, tolerance, etc. Although there are some general values universally valuable for all generations, humanism can be understood only in a concrete historical moment and with historical challenges of the given moment and place. In order to present this idea as best I can, we could mention the Ten Commandments (al-Wasaya al-Ashr or the Decalogue), in the way they are presented in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the Qur'an: (8) Hebrew Scripture Qur'an 1. …


Art historians have long viewed southern Italy, especially the Salento region in Apulia, as a Byzantine artistic province even centuries after Byzantine rule ended there in c. 1070. The Orthodox monastery of Santa Maria di Cerrate, near Lecce, is widely considered to possess some of the region's "most Byzantine" paintings (twelfth to fourteenth centuries). Yet a close examination of these frescoes reveals significant iconographic and stylistic differences from alleged Byzantine norms. A historiographic synopsis and review of problematic definitions of "Byzantine" art are followed in this article by a critique of reductionist labels. Embracing the concept of vagueness offers an alternative way to think about Cerrate and similar borderline cases—not in terms of fixed categories ("Byzantine" or "Western"), but as points on an art-historical continuum that is enriched by acknowledging complexity.


Kernel methods are among the most popular techniques in machine learning. From a regularization perspective they play a central role in regularization theory as they provide a natural choice for the hypotheses space and the regularization functional through the notion of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces. From a probabilistic perspective they are the key in the context of Gaussian processes, where the kernel function is known as the covariance function. Traditionally, kernel methods have been used in supervised learning problems with scalar outputs and indeed there has been a considerable amount of work devoted to designing and learning kernels. More recently there has been an increasing interest in methods that deal with multiple outputs, motivated partially by frameworks like multitask learning. In this monograph, we review different methods to design or learn valid kernel functions for multiple outputs, paying particular attention to the connection between probabilistic and functional methods.


The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is a model for restructuring primary care with a focus on improved access to care and clinical excellence. However, to date, the evidence on its effect on healthcare utilization and expenditures has been quite mixed. One possible reason for this may lie in the flexibility with which a practice can meet the thresholds for PCMH recognition, adopting practice reforms in vastly different domains. Hence, practices with the same recognition level may in fact demonstrate divergent capabilities, and subsequently have different leverage over the achievement of the PCMH goals. We study this idea by using previously unavailable data that spans all PCMH recognition domains. The richness of our data allows us to group practices into clusters based on their choice of attributes during the recognition process, and then examine the performance of individual clusters in reducing healthcare utilization and expenditures. We find that treating the PCMH model as an undifferentiated intervention obscures meaningful variation in implementation across practices. In particular, clusters emphasizing practice improvements like use of decision support, enhanced access to care and population management tools have demonstrated some success in impacting utilization and expenditures patterns after PCMH recognition.


RATIONALE
This study describes the development and psychometric testing of the parental coping strategy inventory (PCSI).

METHODS
The PCSI was developed on the basis of previous qualitative study on the Taiwanese parental adaptation process, when caring for children with cancer. In order to develop the measure of parental coping strategy inventory (PCSI), relevant parameters or items for the assessment subscales were then identified and tested in a three-stage process: item development, content validity testing and reliability testing. The PCSI consisted of 48 items in 12 scales after item selection, and the internal consistency of the scales were acceptable. In order to test the psychometric characteristics of the PCSI, data were collected from 183 mothers with children with cancer.

RESULTS
Confirmatory factor analysis supported a good overall model fit of the construct validity of PCSI. In order to test the generalizability of the factor structure, mothers with children with epilepsy were used. The factorial validity of PCSI was supported from the population of those mothers with children with epilepsy.

CONCLUSIONS
This version of the PCSI was developed with an explicit prior conceptual model based on grounded qualitative study findings. The PCSI is a specified coping behaviour measure with the conceptual framework that adaptation problems can be solved through specific coping strategies. It can be administered in 20 minutes and is the first documented measure of the adaptation process administered directly to Taiwanese parents. It demonstrates acceptable psychometric properties and could be used as a quick screening instrument in evaluating parental problems when caring for children with cancer as well as chronic illness (such as epilepsy, as tested). It could also be used as a predictor of parental adaptation outcome. This report presents preliminary data on the initial instrument development and psychometric properties of PCSI.


Students in business language courses develop and refi ne important professional skills, but not all students successfully communicate those academic experiences in their professional job search materials. In this article we fi rst detail what employers expect of recent college graduates and match these qualities to innovative practices in business language curricula. Then we present two in-depth examples of business language course content that includes classroom activities and assessment items in which students articulate in business terms what they have learned in their academic course. Building these explicit steps into the course curriculum helps students recognize for themselves the professional value of their academic work and communicate that value to potential employers.


In finite element simulations dedicated to the modelling of microstructure evolution, the mesh has to be fine enough to: (i) accurately describe the geometry of the constituents; (ii) capture local strain gradients stemming from the heterogeneity in material properties. In this paper, 3D polycrystalline aggregates are discretized into unstructured meshes and a level set framework is used to represent the grain boundaries. The crystal plasticity finite element method is used to simulate the plastic deformation of these aggregates. A mesh sensitivity analysis based on the deformation energy distribution shows that the predictions are, on average, more sensitive near grain boundaries. An anisotropic mesh refinement strategy based on the level set description is introduced and it is shown that it offers a good compromise between accuracy requirements on the one hand and computation time on the other hand. As the aggregates deform, mesh distortion inevitably occurs and ultimately causes the breakdown of the simulations. An automatic remeshing tool is used to periodically reconstruct the mesh and appropriate transfer of state variables is performed. It is shown that the diffusion related to data transfer is not significant. Finally, remeshing is performed repeatedly in a highly resolved 500 grains polycrystal subjected to about 90% thickness reduction in rolling. The predicted texture is compared with the experimental data and with the predictions of a standard Taylor model.


Background: Cancer is a common public health problem in whole world and various screening programs are used in the world for breast and cervix cancers. These screening programs are very important for promotion of public health.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study involved all villages in Adiyaman city center which are above a population of 400 in 2010 and 2011. Mammography films and Pap smear test used for screening.
Results: 817 women that approved screening were transported to screening center. 476 women participated in mammography screening for breast cancer and 733 women participated in cervical screening for cervical cancer. Among these women, 2.5% stated to have a previous mammography and 3 women (0.7%) have a previous pap smear due to some reason. In detailed evaluations, no woman was detected to have breast cancer and one CIN-1 cervix cancer was detected.
Conclusion: Although cancer detection rate was low, participation to cancer screening program should be increased. Especially use of mobile screening vehicles may be helpful.


IN ITALY during Shakespeare's lifetime (1564-1616] two of the most important architectural innovations in the history of modern theater took place: the invention of the proscenium arch and the invention of the theater with boxes. Together, these innovations redefined the way the audience viewed the action of the play and the audience was accommodated. In the decades before Shakespeare's birth, the modern notion of an illusionistic setting for the action had been developed by Italian painters and architects. The purpose of this series in Shakespeare Studies on drama outside England is to situate early modern English theater in a larger global context. Continental Europe in the sixteenth century saw the simultaneous growth of several centers of new dramatic expression, each with its own distinct characteristics. English drama was uniquely splendid as literature, for instance, but it was Italy that largely gave Western theater its modern visual and spatial forms. The Italian contributions came into being through a rich series of experimentations with possible architectural forms for theaters: from literal reconstructions of ancient Roman theaters, driven by humanist interest in antiquity, to the construction of large rectangular rooms with their own stages to house court spectacles, to the building of commercial theaters for the performances of commedia dell'arte troupes. The situation was extremely complex, and so these three categories were quite fluid and often bled into each other. Further complicating the story was the political situation on the Italian peninsula, divided into a number of separate small states, each with its own peculiar form of government and its own cultural traditions. These states watched each other carefully, sometimes emulating and always striving to outdo whatever their rivals may have ventured in the way of theater. Out of this stew of political, cultural, and economic interests rose the architecture of the modern theater. Sadly, the visual and physical evidence for this remarkable moment is almost entirely gone. All the theaters built in Italy during this period, with three exceptions, have vanished, as has most other visual evidence. As a consequence, the study of Italian theater architecture of early modern times has to be based almost entirely on written documentary sources. Only from these documents, which scholars continue to unearth, can we reconstruct in our imaginations what once stood. A standard way to define the theater focuses on three elements: the text, the actors, and the audience. For an architectural historian, this definition is inadequate, because it fails to take into account the physical setting that brings these three elements together--that allows the audience to hear the actors recite the text, to see their movements and expressions, and to be carried visually to another time and place by the illusions created by the scenery. This essay, then, focuses on spaces that were constructed or adapted to contain theatrical performances rather than on the performances themselves. Although a few plays were given in private settings a bit earlier, modern theater history in Italy, in the sense of performances presented to a more or less public audience, seems to begin in 1486, when Ercole d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, ordered a production of Plautus's Menaechmi in the courtyard of his palace and when the production of a tragedy by Seneca, Ippolitus, was offered by Cardinal Raffaele Riario, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, in front of his palace in Rome. (1) In both cases ancient Roman plays were deliberately revived, in line with the general interest in revivifying the culture of antiquity in fifteenth-century Italy. Very quickly modern plays began to be written and performed at courts around the peninsula, alongside revivals of Roman works, which were given sometimes in Latin and sometimes in new translations into Italian. In these early years no one built theaters. …