Social domains are classes of interpersonal processes each with distinct procedural rules underpinning mutual understanding, emotion regulation and action. We describe the features of three domains of family life – safety, attachment and discipline/expectation – and contrast them with exploratory processes in terms of the emotions expressed, the role of certainty versus uncertainty, and the degree of hierarchy in an interaction. We argue that everything that people say and do in family life carries information about the type of interaction they are engaged in – that is, the domain. However, sometimes what they say or how they behave does not make the domain clear, or participants in the social interactions are not in the same domain (there is a domain mismatch). This may result in misunderstandings, irresolvable arguments or distress. We describe how it is possible to identify domains and judge whether they are clear and unclear, and matched and mismatched, in observed family interactions and in accounts of family processes. This then provides a focus for treatment and helps to define criteria for evaluating outcomes.


We provide an overview of our recent advances in the manipulation of wetting in inverse-opal photonic crystals. Exploiting photonic crystals with spatially patterned surface chemistry to confine the infiltration of fluids to liquidspecific spatial patterns, we developed a highly selective scheme for colorimetry, where organic liquids are distinguished based on wetting. The high selectivity of wetting, upon-which the sensitivity of the response relies, and the bright iridescent color, which disappears when the pores are filled with liquid, are both a result of the highly symmetric pore structure of our inverse-opal films. The application of horizontally or vertically orientated gradients in the surface chemistry allows a unique response to be tailored to specific liquids. While the generic nature of wetting makes our approach to colorimetry suitable for applications in liquid authentication or identification across a broad range of industries, it also ensures chemical non-specificity. However, we show that chemical specificity can be achieved combinatorially using an array of indicators that each exploits different chemical gradients to cover the same dynamic range of response. Finally, incorporating a photo-responsive polyelectrolyte surface layer into the pores, we are able to dynamically and continuously photo-tune the wetting response, even while the film is immersed in liquid. This in situ optical control of liquid percolation in our photonic-crystal films may also provide an error-free means to tailor indicator response, naturally compensating for batch-to-batch variability in the pore geometry.


This study was designed to measure the adverse the effects of electromagnetic waves on the hepatocytes in vivo. For this purpose, a developing chick embryo model was selected. 40 fertilized chick eggs were used. An egg incubator was used for egg development. In the exposed group, 20 fertilized eggs were exposed to mobile phone electromagnetic waves by placing a mobile phone inside the incubator in silent mode, while in the control, the mobile phone was removed. Mobile phone received calls from outside for 50 minutes in 24 hours. Liver was removed for electron microscopy. Control group revealed normal hepatocytes with big central nucleus, well-developed cristae in normal looking mitochondria, rounded nucleus, scattered ribosomes, few glycogen vacuoles and rough endoplasmic reticulum. Normal looking sinusoids lined by simple squamous epithelium and few Kupffer cells. Sinusoids were containing many nucleated RBC. On tenth day of development, exposed group revealed marked proliferation of mitochondria. At day 15, electron-dense mitochondria which were either swollen or dumbbell shaped and degenerated invisible cristae were apparent. Marked infiltration of fatty vacuoles and myelin-like figures in the cytoplasm, and derangement of classic hepatic lobule and sinusoids was observed. We conclude that electromagnetic waves affected the proliferation of hepatocytes in the chick embryo.


We present extensive numerical studies on the determination of coherent wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) crosstalk penalties for ultradense wavelength-division multiplexed (DWDM) systems, focusing on carrier-suppressed return-to-zero (CSRZ) as well as on 67% duty cycle differential phase-shift keying (67% RZ-DPSK) at a spectral efficiency of 0.8 b/s/Hz. Our analyses reveal large statistical variations in the predicted required optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) when changing the WDM channels' interference conditions, in particular their relative optical phases and their relative time shifts. The strong impact of the exact WDM interference conditions can lead to simulation inaccuracies of many decibels when using standard OSNR simulations techniques. In measurements of DWDM system performance, the long averaging time of bit error ratio (BER) test sets can hide these burst-error generating penalty variations, and may, therefore, lead to wrong interpretations, especially for systems employing forward error correction (FEC). To overcome the DWDM simulation problem, we introduce and thoroughly assess a new simulation technique that allows us to efficiently and accurately capture the average required OSNR penalty for DWDM systems with negligible statistical error.


This article tries to identify symbolic motifs associated with "Amulet and Relic" in Bakhtiari hand-woven. Main questions are; how motifs have been related to "Amulet and Relic" and how they have been woven on these applied works and what have been reasons of these mysterious motifs? It seems that answer to this question must be investigated on Lor Bakhtiari culture and its symbols like its materials and spiritual function which were inspired by customs, traditions, habits, perceptions and insights. The results of the present paper, which has been obtained through content analysis method and its data were collected using library and field studies, indicates that: in supernatural forces of "Amulet and Relic" in motifs with their decorative and practical aspects, are medium for conveying their messages and recorded historical values -which are very important for their weavers –and they are a way to reflect their desires and wishes. During years, for their value and belief, they have entered into folk arts of Bakhtiari as decorative motifs.


We study the condensation of localized closed string tachyons in 3/N nonsupersymmetric noncompact orbifold singularities via renormalization group flows that preserve supersymmetry in the worldsheet conformal field theory and their interrelations with the toric geometry of these orbifolds. We show that for worldsheet supersymmetric tachyons, the endpoint of tachyon condensation generically includes ``geometric'' terminal singularities (orbifolds that do not have any marginal or relevant Kahler blowup modes) as well as singularities in codimension two. Some of the various possible distinct geometric resolutions are related by flip transitions. For type-II theories, we show that the residual singularities that arise under tachyon condensation in various classes of type-II theories also admit a type-II GSO projection. We further show that type-II orbifolds entirely devoid of marginal or relevant blowup modes (Kahler or otherwise) cannot exist, which thus implies that the endpoints of tachyon condensation in type-II theories are always smooth spaces.


Women, considering swimming as a form of exercise to lose weight, have been discouraged from doing so, since researchers suggest that swimming does not burn fat as efficiently as land exercise. The purpose of this study was to compare carbohydrate and fat utilization by women engaging in two different forms of exercise, walking and swimming, at the same intensity and duration. Subjects were 20 moderately trained female subjects, walkers (W) = 10 and swimmers (S) = 10; ages 18-40 years. Measurements of blood free fatty acids (FFA), glycerol, lactate, glucose, free fatty acid turnover (FFAT), respiratory quotient (RQ), and fat oxidation were made during 60 minutes of walking or swimming at the same exercise intensity. Multivariate analysis of variance determined no significant differences between groups in net energy expenditure (NEE), RQ, fat oxidation, blood FFA, glycerol, glucose, and FFAT(p > .05). There was a significant difference between groups in blood lactic acid levels (p < .01). Since it was foun...


Algorithmic music composition involves specifying music in such a way that it is non-deterministic on playback, leading to music which has the potential to be different each time it is played. Current systems for algorithmic music composition typically require the user to have considerable programming skill and may require formal knowledge of music. However, much of the potential user population are music producers and musicians (some professional, but many amateur) with little or no programming experience and few formal musical skills. To investigate how this gap between tools and potential users might be better bridged we designed Choosers, a prototype algorithmic programming system centred around a new abstraction (of the same name) designed to allow non-programmers access to algorithmic music composition methods. Choosers provides a graphical notation that allows structural elements of key importance in algorithmic composition (such as sequencing, choice, multi-choice, weighting, looping and nesting) to be foregrounded in the notation in a way that is accessible to non-programmers. In order to test design assumptions a Wizard of Oz study was conducted in which seven pairs of undergraduate Music Technology students used Choosers to carry out a range of rudimentary algorithmic composition tasks. Feedback was gathered using the Programming Walkthrough method. All users were familiar with Digital Audio Workstations, and as a result they came with some relevant understanding, but also with some expectations that were not appropriate for algorithmic music work. Users were able to successfully make use of the mechanisms for choice, multi-choice, looping, and weighting after a brief training period. The 'stop' behaviour was not so easily understood and required additional input before users fully grasped it. Some users wanted an easier way to override algorithmic choices. These findings have been used to further refine the design of Choosers.


The interactive self-study programme (called CAVOCA: Computer Assisted VOCabulary Acquisition) is based on generally accepted theories about the mental lexicon (cf. Aitchison's Words in the Mind) and the "levels of processing" theory first advanced by Craik and Lockhart. The programme constitutes a systematic attempt to operationalize the theoretical analysis of the word learning process that recognizes various stages in this same process: learning about the various features of the word, embedding it in various networks, consolidation etc. leading to efficient lexical retrieval. With this end in mind, the words are presented in a variety of L2 contexts, enabling the learner to process the word intensively and facilitating long-term retention. The programme is intended as an alternative to more orthodox word learning techniques such as bilingual word lists with their disappointing long-term retention results. The programme has been contrasted in various experimental (differential treatment) settings with bilingual word lists, and the results confirm the theory concerning the structure of the mental lexicon in that a deeper level of processing results in better long-term retention.


Background: Very limited published data exist on the spectrum of mental health disorders encountered at primary health care (PHC) facilities in South Africa. Methods: The original data from a recent study were analysed with regard to its useful set of data on patients with mental disorders in primary care clinics in Cape Town. Results: Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder accounted for the majority of visits, with common mental disorders (depression, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders) accounting for only a minority of visits. Furthermore, the mental health population in the study had significantly fewer chronic disease co-morbidities than the non-mental health patients. Conclusion: There is an urgent need to screen better for common mental disorders in primary care patients in South Africa, and to screen for chronic medical diseases in patients with serious mental illness.


Household debt in Norway has risen substantially over the past 15-20 years relative to both disposable income and bank deposits. An increase in interest rates will therefore reduce disposable income for Norwegian households more than previously. Changes in interest rates can have a direct impact on household consumption via changes in disposable income an effect generally referred to as the cash-flow channel. In this article, we use tax data from Statistics Norway for all Norwegian households in the period between 2004 and 2015 to shed light on how the cash-flow channel has developed over time. In line with developments in net household debt, we find that the cash-flow effect has become stronger in recent years, but that the increase is somewhat smaller than the total increase in net interest expenses in isolation would imply, owing to increased buffers in the form of liquid assets.


Abstract: The National Football League has experienced both expansion and relocation of its franchises in the past decade. It is a dynamic market; the relocation of a NFL franchise is an annual possibility. This study looked at the demographic and economic factors that determine the current locations of NFL teams. The top 50 metropolitan areas were empirically examined to explain why some cities have an NFL team and others do not. These factors included population, per capita income, the number of other sports franchises, and the number of Fortune 500 companies, geographic factors, and television ratings for "Monday Night Football." This model can identify cities for possible expansion and those that would serve as relocation sites in the future. Special attention was paid to the Los Angeles and New Orleans markets. Introduction: The National Football League has experienced a dynamic period of expansion and relocation in the past decade; the league seeks to position itself with the optimal configuration for long-term growth of the professional football market. Although expansion is not a current short-term goal for the NFL, the relocation of weak teams remains an annual possibility. Moving an existing sports franchise is not new. After the 1995 season, Los Angeles lost both of its football teams. The Rams moved from the old Rose Bowl in Pasadena to the brand-new TWA Dome in downtown St. Louis. The Raiders moved from the Los Angeles Coliseum to the newly renovated Oakland Coliseum. In 1996, the Cleveland Browns moved into a new stadium in Baltimore and became the Ravens. Most recently, the Houston Oilers moved to Tennessee and became the Titans in 1999. The city of Los Angeles, which lost its chance to gain an expansion team in 2002 to Houston because it was unable to approve financing for a new stadium, remains without a team. Although this leaves the second largest television market without its own team, it also offers a credible relocation threat for existing team owners in their new stadium negotiations with local authorities. (1) Expansion and relocation of franchises in professional sports leagues have been studied for baseball and basketball; however, as far as the researchers know, a location model had never been created for the National Football League. Bruggink and Zamparelli (1999) produced a location model for Major League Baseball. The top 50 metropolitan areas were chosen for the sample. The explanatory variables for the regression model are population, population growth, and per capita income, in addition to the number of other professional sports teams in the area, the number of headquarters for Fortune 500 companies in the area, and the distance to the closest city with a baseball team. As one would expect, all variables had positive coefficients in the regression model. A more recent sports model by Rascher and Rascher (2005) estimated the probability that a particular city will have a National Basketball Association team by using the same core set of variables and adding factors such as the average NBA Nielsen television ratings for each city. One interesting application of our model was applied to the New Orleans Saints football team. Even before the Hurricane Katrina damage to the Superdome, the owners of the Saints hinted that a move to a new location was in the offing. (2) Of course, this is the typical ploy to gain public subsidies for a new or improved stadium, but the closure of the Superdome for the 2005 season made this relocation potential very real. The re-scheduled 2005 games found the Saints playing in the welcoming city of San Antonio with capacity attendance at the Alamodome. Although the Saints played the 2006 season in a repaired Superdome, they are in position to pursue one of two options after 2006: 1) stay in New Orleans with a long term city commitment to help build a new or improved stadium, or 2) move to a new location in Los Angeles (Maske and Shapiro, 2005) or San Antonio (Orsborn 2006). …


This study posits that by virtue of the enabling role of local governments, the economic development of their locality must be at the core of their public accountability, which is referred to here as "economic accountability". Grounded on this idea of accountability, along with enabling theory and institutional theory, the study presents empirical evidence supportive of the argument that the enabling role of local governments, as manifested in a capacity to establish or adhere to formal institutional arrangements, has a direct impact on the entrepreneurial strategic posture and performance of local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which are key players in local economic development.The results of the structural equation modelling support the view that institutional arrangements as manifestations of the enabling role of city governments are positively associated with an entrepreneurial strategic posture of local firms, which consequently improves the firms' overall economic performance. Therefore, SME development in particular, and local economic development in general, should be part of the economic accountability of local governments in the Philippine context of local governance.


The application of environmentally friendly components is an approach for substitution of synthetic substances in commercial waxes applied to citrus. In this study, the effect of biocomposite edible coatings based on pea starch and guar gum (PSGG) on total vitamin C, phenolic, flavonoid, anthocyanins, and carotenoid content, and antioxidant capacity of "Valencia" orange stored at 5 and 20 °C for 4 weeks are evaluated. The fruits are coated by a single layer PSGG coating, blended composite PSGG coating containing shellac (Sh) and oleic acid (OA) as hydrophobic compounds (PSGG-Sh), and a layer-by-layer (LBL) coating (PSGG as an internal layer and Sh as an external layer). The results show no significant differences in changes of bioactive compounds between coating treatments after first week storage at both temperatures. The PSGG coatings incorporated with hydrophobic compounds (PSGG-Sh) better preserves the nutritional value and the antioxidant potential of oranges during storage compared with other treatments. The single layer PSGG coating is almost similar to bilayer coating in preserving nutritional value of fruit during storage and less effective than the blended composite PSGG-Sh coating.


In this paper, the scenario normalization technique is addressed, which is very useful in the context of generic equipment control, where an equipment-control system (ECS) is to control several pieces of equipment, possibly of different types. This paper begins with a background introduction to a photolithographic cell and the concept of generic equipment control adopted in semiconductor fabs. The concept of message modulation that translates in semantics context the sequence flows between the high-level ECS and the low-level equipment is presented. The main idea relies on the operational scenarios modeling by the sequence diagram; message translation based on semantics analysis; the derivation of production rules and the implementation of them on an event-triggering platform. Scenarios, thus obtained and presented to the high-level ECS by the coordinator, are then in compliance with the normalized scenario as required by the generic equipment controller. The significance of the proposed normalization techniques has the following implication: when different equipment are included in a cell operation, it is not necessary to rewrite control programs but to add relatively simpler transformation sequences enabling the use of the standard ECS function. From the control point of view, the controlled systems of stepper and track can be modeled as discrete event dynamic ones if operation coordination is considered.


This research was an attempt to study the readiness of secondary school
texherc ir! Sehrxp h hple.wnth,g Teachings for Mathematics
and Science. The main objectives of the study were to determine the level
of teachers' perceived readiness and validate the Confirmatory Factor
Analysis (CFA) model for the four constructs measuring teachers'
readiness. There were nine research questions posed in order to achieve
the objectives.
The research design was a descriptive research and the data were
collected using questionnaires. The study followed a survey method
which used a multi-stage sampling technique to select 210 form one and
two Mathematics and Science teachers. Both descriptive and inferential
statistics were used to analyze the data of the study.The results of this study had thrown light on teachers' perceived readiness
in implementing the new educational reform. It appeared all of the
respondents had perceived moderate to high level of overall teachers'
readiness. A majority of them had high perception .level in attitude, and
content knowledge. A majority of them had a moderate perception level in
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills and English
Language skills. None of the respondents was at low perception level
except for the (ICT) skills construct. This result gives a scenario that
though the respondents seemed to have perceived the right attitude,
sufficient English Language proficiency, and high content knowledge for
implementing ETeMS, they were still lacking in ICT skills especially in the
web-based activitiest for emfile m d i n-d rpaiving Q-~T\&, surfkg the
internet and chatting and the utilization of software.
For the demographic variables, it was found that school localrty, subject
taught, gender, ethnic groups, professionall academic qualifications and
training did not have any significant differences in the overall teachers'
readiness except the age groups. The younger group, respondents' age
25 to 30 years old perceived that they performed the highest in the ICT
skills and overall teachers' readiness among the older groups.
There are statistical significant differences in ethnic groups: The Malay
teachers show the highest perception in new technology and ICT. The Indian teachers are the most proficient in perceived English Language
skills and the Chinese perceived themselves as the most knowledgeable
towards the implementation of ETeMS.
Three indices were used to examine the goodness-of-fit of the proposed
model: (a) the Chi-square (CMINIDF); (b) baseline comparisons: Bentler-
Bonnett Normed-Fit lndex (NFI), Incremental Fit lndex (IF]) and
Comparative Fit lndex (CFI); and (c) the Root Mean Square Error of
Approximation (RMSEA). The data had demonstrated that the model was
an acceptable model with 2 .90 (Bentler &
Bonnet, 1980), and RMSEA < 1.0 and data significantly to support the
model.


Visual perception appears nearly continuous despite frequent disruptions of the input caused by saccades and blinks. While research has focused on perception around saccades, blinks also constitute a drastic perturbation of vision, leading to a complete interruption of the visual input that lasts about 100ms but that we barely notice. Does the visual system actively fill in the missing information or does it simply ignore it? We addressed this question in two experiments in which observers judged the durations of brief visual stimuli in different temporal relations to blinks, using the method of single stimuli. In the first experiment stimuli either straddled the entire blink (onset before the start and offset after the end of the blink), or onset 200ms after the end of the blink. An analysis of the relative biases in the two conditions revealed that stimuli that straddled the blink appeared as 90ms briefer than those that followed the blink-a difference equal to about 77% of the mean blink duration. In a second experiment, the stimulus straddled the end of the blink (onset during the blink, offset after the end), or onset either just after or 200ms following the end of the blink. The optically visible durations of the stimuli that straddled the end of the blink were overestimated by about 20ms in comparison to stimuli that appeared long after. Significantly, we found that in both experiments the duration errors were correlated with trial-by-trial variations in blink durations. Thus, our results suggest that the default mode of the visual system is to ignore the absence of information during blinks. However, in the case of unexpected events, vision partially fills in the blink. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


The agriculture sector is important in the overall economy and export earnings of Pakistan. Pollination is an essential ecosystem service that depends on symbiosis between species, the pollinated and the pollinator. Animal mediated pollination contributes to the sexual production of over 90% species of modern angiosperms. Effective pollination results in increased crop production, quality improvement and more seed production. Many fruits, vegetables, edible oil crops, stimulant crops and nuts are highly dependent on bee pollination. Worldwide value of pollinators is €153 billion (217 billion US dollars). The production value of pollinated dependent crop in Pakistan is quantified to be 1.59 billion US$. There is serious deficit of pollinators worldwide and also in Pakistan. Small percentage of Pakistani population understands the process of pollination and its importance. It is essential to up scale the capacity of various stakeholders concerned with crop production in Pakistan.


Investment decisions have to be made when there is little information
 about the scope of the project. New projects have to depend on historical evidences and
 experiences gained from previous projects of similar nature. However, such projects lack
 historical data and even if such data are available, they cannot be applied owing to the very
 unique nature of the projects and their locations. In such circumstances, subjective judgments
 of the experts based on their experience are very useful inputs for the success of any projects.
 In risk analysis, determining a numerical value to such judgments without distorting the
 subjective judgments is very essential. An approach is taken in this study that will prioritize
 the existing risks and assign a cost value to all the major risks through systematic risk
 analysis. The proposed methodology will be demonstrated through its application to a case study
 of Nyadi Hydropower Project in Nepal.


Fossil feathers often preserve evidence of melanosomes—micrometre-scale melanin-bearing organelles that have been used to infer original colours and patterns of the plumage of dinosaurs. Such reconstructions acknowledge that evidence from other colour-producing mechanisms is presently elusive and assume that melanosome geometry is not altered during fossilization. Here, we provide the first test of this assumption, using high pressure–high temperature autoclave experiments on modern feathers to simulate the effects of burial on feather colour. Our experiments show that melanosomes are retained despite loss of visual evidence of colour and complete degradation of other colour-producing structures (e.g. quasi-ordered arrays in barbs and the keratin cortex in barbules). Significantly, however, melanosome geometry and spatial distribution are altered by the effects of pressure and temperature. These results demonstrate that reconstructions of original plumage coloration in fossils where preserved features of melanosomes are affected by diagenesis should be treated with caution. Reconstructions of fossil feather colour require assessment of the extent of preservation of various colour-producing mechanisms, and, critically, the extent of alteration of melanosome geometry.


This paper investigates the performance of 6 versions of Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (CMAES) with restarts on a set of 28 noiseless optimization problems (including 23 multi-modal ones) designed for the special session on real-parameter optimization of CEC 2013. The experimental validation of the restart strategies shows that: i). the versions of CMA-ES with weighted active covariance matrix update outperform the original versions of CMA-ES, especially on ill-conditioned problems; ii). the original restart strategies with increasing population size (IPOP) are usually outperformed by the bi-population restart strategies where the initial mutation stepsize is also varied; iii). the recently proposed alternative restart strategies for CMA-ES demonstrate a competitive performance and are ranked first w.r.t. the proportion of function-target pairs solved after the full run on all 10-, 30- and 50-dimensional problems.


Somatic cells can be directly converted into induced neural stem cells (iNSCs) by defined transcription factors. However, the therapeutic effect of undifferentiated iNSCs on ischemic stroke has not been demonstrated. In this study, we used a mouse model of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO). iNSCs (5 × 105) were injected directly into the ipsilateral striatum and cortex 24 h after tMCAO. Histological analysis was performed at 7 days, 28 days, and 8 months after tMCAO. We found that iNSC transplantation successfully improved the survival rate of stroke model mice with significant functional recovery from the stroke. The fate of engrafted iNSCs was that the majority of iNSCs had differentiated into astroglial cells but not into neural cells in both the sham-operated brain and the poststroke brain without forming a tumor up to 8 months after tMCAO. Our data suggest that the directly converted iNSCs can be regarded as a candidate of safe cell resource for transplantation therapy in patients suffering from ischemic stroke.


The island of Lampedusa is known as an EU border hotspot. Its high degree of 'borderness', though, is less the result of its geographical location than the product of a 'borderization' process carried out through specific policies, practices and discourses. The introduction explains what Lampedusa's 'borderness' consists in: irregular landings and the changed anthropic and human landscape have turned the island into an ideal observatory for all major issues of the current debate on migration-related border controls. The first section analyses the main factors of the 'borderization' process. Specific political choices (establishing a detention centre, concentrating migrants, dispatching border guards, employing patrol boats, involving humanitarian workers etc.) suggest that borders are the result of the placing and interaction of 'spatial bodies', as well as of legislative measures and international relations. The paper also regards Italian immigration control policies as a 'political spectacle', and Lampedusa as the theatre of the 'border play'. The second section therefore analyses the two narratives (the securitarian one of the 'tough' and the humanitarian one of the 'humane' border) prevailing in five different acts of the play, and shows that both are strictly connected and serve the same purpose of governing and managing human mobility.


To study the process of microbial-mediated dolomite formation, growth experiments were carried out with selected bacterial cultures under anoxic environmental conditions simulating those found in Lagoa Vermelha, a hypersaline lagoon in Brazil where dolomite precipitation occurs. Specifically, we report the isolation of a particular strain of sulfate-reducing bacteria, LVform6, from Lagoa Vermelha sediment, which apparently promotes the formation of nonstoichiometric dolomite. Sulfate-reducing bacteria grown in a synthetic liquid medium produced dolomite during 30 days incubation at 30 °C. The precipitates have morphologies similar to those observed in Lagoa Vermelha sediment. Our results demonstrate that sulfate-reducing bacteria can influence dolomite precipitation under controlled lowtemperature, anoxic conditions, and imply that anaerobic microorganisms can play an important role in carbonate sedimentation. They may have been particularly significant in Earth's earliest history when a more reducing atmosphere existed.


The relationship between the bilateral investment treaty ('BIT') between Australia and China (1988) and the preferential trade agreement between those countries ('ChAFTA') (2015) provides an interesting case study of the co-existence of successive treaties under public international law. ChAFTA contains but a skeleton of an investment chapter, centred on national treatment and most-favoured nation obligations, yet with a range of substantive and procedural protections of policy space. The parties have agreed to negotiate a comprehensive investment chapter in the coming years. But the pre-existing BIT already contains standard investment protections including provisions on fair and equitable treatment and expropriation. Do those obligations continue to apply in the post-ChAFTA world? If so, are the regulatory protections in ChAFTA sufficient to protect the parties' sovereign autonomy, despite their absence from the BIT itself? The answers to this puzzle lie at the intersection between the relevant general provisions of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and the ChAFTA provisions on its relationship to other treaties. A close reading of these different provisions suggests that the modern clarifications in ChAFTA are unlikely to affect the interpretation or application of the 'old style' Australia-China BIT, leaving the latter obligations in place without textual nuance, and Australia in particular open to an ISDS claim on the basis of those broad obligations.


In order that mobile applications can be employed successfully in education, the opinions of teachers for using these applications must be identified and improved. For these reasons, the purpose of this study is to identify the opinions of teacher candidates, who are teachers of the future, on the usage of mobile applications in the process of multimedia project development. This study which was conducted with the purpose of identifying the opinions of teacher candidates on usage of mobile applications in education as means of communication employed qualitative method. Results is that using mobile applications in multimedia project development process attracted the attention of students and ensured effective communication.


This study examines the development of poetic language in modem Arabic poetry through discussion of a selection of twelve poems from Bilād al-Shām (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine), applying a method of analysis and evaluation based on a close study of the text itself rather than on critical sources. A practical method of analysis is used to examine elements of poetic language, namely rhythm, theme and structure, the poet's voice, word-association, metaphor and symbol, all of which form the text. The study is introduced by a brief review of the development of modem Arabic poetry, of previous studies of poetic language in modem Arabic poetry, and an analysis of the poetic language in four outstanding poems of the post-second world war period. The four poems were chosen since they are typical of die changes, renewal or departure from classical poetic language. These poems embody new forms in both expression and ideas, and express the Arab identity by discussing Arab social and political problems. The four poems may not be the best poems of their time but each one clearly exhibits a different use of elements of poetic language current at the time. These poems, which are written before and during 1967, are still effective and influential today. Their poetic language is still the criterion by which to examine and compare the twelve selected poems in part two. The poems were chosen from those composed in Bilād al-Shām after the events of 1967. This choice was made to enable die writer to investigate die effect of the war upon poetry, to illustrate pan-Arabism and nationalism, and to examine the poetic language in these poems. In both part one and part two my concern is to present facts rather than arguments. My intention is also to make a brief comparison and conclusion. These conclusions - drawn from the discussion - are found in part three. This study deals with the following: the identification of common factors and differences in the poems discussed; the existence, or lack, of creative trends in the use of language; the degree of influence of the four poems upon the twelve selected poems; and whether die twelve poems imitate ideas, concepts, words and symbols derived from the four poems. It also traces the development of poetic language as it approaches the prose style and as it establishes a different use of metaphors and symbols.


In order to develop a centrifugal blood pump that meets the requirements of a long-term, implantable circulatory support device, in this study a single-pivot bearing supported centrifugal blood pump was designed to evaluate its basic performance. The single-pivot structure consisted of a ceramic ball male pivot mounted on the bottom surface of the impeller and a polyethylene female pivot incorporated in the bottom pump casing. The follower magnet mounted inside the impeller was magnetically coupled to the driver magnet mounted on the shaft of the direct current brushless motor. As the motor rotated, the impeller rotated supported entirely by a single-pivot bearing system. The static pump performance obtained in the mock circulatory loop revealed an acceptable performance as a left ventricular assist device in terms of flow and head pressure. The pump flow of 5 L/min against the head pressure of 100 mm Hg was obtained at rotational speeds of 2,000 to 2,200 rpm. The maximum pump flow was 9 L/min with 2,200 rpm. The maximum electrical-to-hydraulic power conversion efficiency was around 14% at pump flows of 4 to 5 L/min. The stability of the impeller was demonstrated at the pump rpm higher than 1,400 with a single-pivot bearing without an additional support at its top. The single-pivot supported centrifugal pump can provide adequate flow and pressure as a ventricular assist device, but its mechanical stability and hemolytic as well as thrombotic performances must be tested prior to clinical use.


Behavioural studies have indicated that response times on complex reaction time tasks are faster if blood glucose concentrations are slightly elevated above normal (Donohoe & Benton, 2000). Such tasks involve several cognitive processing stages but it is not clear which of these stages are speeded after glucose administration. In order to investigate this problem we have used a double blind repeated measures design for the administration of glucose and placebo drinks. Participants performed a Flanker task while EEG was recorded as a physiological measure. More specifically, we used a Flanker task that required participants to respond to either left or right pointing central arrows by pressing a left or a right button, respectively. In addition on each trial there are extra arrows surrounding the central arrow which all either pointed in the same (congruent condition) or opposite (incongruent condition) direction as the central arrow or they were lines without an arrow head (neutral condition) All condition were presented equiprobably. No significant differences between the glucose and placebo condition were observed in mean reaction times and errors rates. However the ERP data showed that the N1 amplitude was significantly increased after glucose administration. This could indicate that stimulus identification is influenced by glucose administration, as previous researchers have found an increased N1 amplitude during discriminative feature processing compared to simple detection tasks (Hopf et al., 2002). In addition, mean reaction times and error rates were analysed separately for each of the 8 blocks. Differences between drink types were only found for the reaction times of the first block. Participants who had received glucose during their 1st session and placebo during the 2nd session, had longer reaction times after glucose administration compared to placebo. However this effect was not found for participants who received placebo before glucose drinks. These findings might be linked to task difficulty effects. Previous research has shown that high task difficulty is necessary to find glucose enhancement effects on the Hick task (sensorimotor function; Donohoe & Benton, 2000), working memory (Kennedy & Scholey, 2001) and episodic memory (Sunram-Lea et al., 2002). Our results conflict directly with Donohoe and Benton's (2000), potentially caused by methodological or task differences. It might be also possible that separate cognitive processes might be differently affected by glucose; which should be explored in future studies.


Networks pervade social and economic life, and they play a prominent role in explaining a huge variety of social and economic phenomena. Standard economic theory did not give much credit to the role of networks until the early 1990s, but since then the study of the theory of networks has blossomed. At the heart of this research is the idea that the pattern of connections between individual rational agents shapes their actions and determines their rewards. The importance of connections has in turn motivated the study of the very processes by which networks are formed. In Connections , Sanjeev Goyal puts contemporary thinking about networks and economic activity into context. He develops a general framework within which this body of research can be located. In the first part of the book he demonstrates that location in a network has significant effects on individual rewards and that, given this, it is natural that individuals will seek to form connections to move the network in their favor. This idea motivates the second part of the book, which develops a general theory of network formation founded on individual incentives. Goyal assesses the robustness of current research findings and identifies the substantive open questions. Written in a style that combines simple examples with formal models and complete mathematical proofs, Connections is a concise and self-contained treatment of the economic theory of networks, one that should become the natural source of reference for graduate students in economics and related disciplines.


The behavior of a complex system often depends on parameters whose values are unknown in advance. To operate effectively, an autonomous agent must actively gather information on the parameter values while progressing towards its goal. We call this problem parameter elicitation. Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) provide a principled framework for such uncertainty planning tasks, but they suffer from high computational complexity. However, POMDPs for parameter elicitation often possess special structural properties, specifically, factorization and symmetry. This work identifies these properties and exploits them for efficient solution through a factored belief representation. The experimental results show that our new POMDP solvers outperform SARSOP and MOMDP, two of the fastest general-purpose POMDP solvers available, and can handle significantly larger problems.


Iconic images are often used to reduce complex political questions into simple divisions which ultimately exclude alternative voices and preserve hegemonic ideology. This chapter discusses fundamental questions concerning the role of images in public's view of politics and, in particular, three tendencies associated to the current visual turn: the fictionalisation of politics, the politicisation of fiction; and to glocalisation of hegemonic political values. The focus is here on the use of images and TV soaps in the discursive construction of political events. The main argument is that visual representations of the political such as The West Wing or similar are reinforce public's disenchantment for politics and politicians, fostering depoliticisation and ultimately the 'democratic deficit' in Western politics.


The citizens and governments of states and localities have a federal statutory right to the "honest services" of their public officials. The federal statutes that criminalize conduct impinging on this right, however, do not clearly define the parameters of the term "honest services," and, as a result, the U.S. Courts of Appeals have differed in their interpretation of what conduct comprises a violation of the statute. The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Third and Fifth Circuits have held that, in order for there to be a federal crime, the "honest services" must be owed under state or local law. Meanwhile, the First Circuit has held that such a state or local law violation is not a necessary prerequisite to the federal crime. This Note argues that, due to federalism and the nature of public corruption, the former approach strikes the appropriate balance between state sovereignty and the federal interest in good government.


The Society for Photographic Education was founded forty years ago in Chicago following the historical meeting of 1962 in Rochester at the George Eastman House. This March, SPE held its annual national conference in Austin (TX), under the theme An American Vision. A year and a half after the tragedy of the World Trade Center, after months that saw an unprecedented increase in flag sales, and while the country was "at war" on foreign soil, An American Vision was bound to raise questions and expectations. Moreover, in a period during which most of its founders retired, SPE could take this opportunity and reassess the impact of its members' work on the photographic scene. The chosen theme of the conference also provided an interesting platform to try and define what an "American vision" was in the field of photography; how idiosyncratic American photography was; what role and impact it had played internationally. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the words of Lawrence McFarland, this year's conference chair, "The idea of An American Vision was to explore the dreams that have made the continent of America unique." A quick look at the program would rapidly scale the statement down to what it really meant: the continent, there, except for an interesting panel of Cuban photographers, was limited to the United States. If any, there were very few traces of South American photography and none of Canadian photography. Regarding the subject of "dreams," the participants were in fact more confronted with the various realities of our time than asked to partake in any reinvestigation of the various myths and ideologies that built and were generated by this nation. As an example, most of the works that students showed was definitely anchored in digital technology. It addressed issues of identity, the students' identities, or questioned the very medium they were using. While Desert Storm II, the Return was raging, and the discontent of a good percentage of the population reverberated in the streets of many an American metropolis, including Austin, the conference proposed an unusual number of presentations on the various rivers of the country--from High Water by David Taylor, The River's Green Margins by Allen Hess and John Lawrence, A Delta Journey by Bruce West, to Riverwalk to Stillwater by William Wylie--, an interesting take on the idea of the eye of the hurricane. In spite of their somewhat paradoxical presence in times of trouble, the above-mentioned presentations could be seen as extensions of one central theme of American photography: landscape. In fact, American photographers, since the disappearance of the New York Photo League in the early nineteen fifties, have extended a long tradition. It originated on the West coast in the nineteenth century with artists such as Eadweard Muybridge, or Carleton Watkins, then was carried on by the Weston dynasty, Ansel Adams, and later Minor White. Whereas the post-WW II period in Europe, and especially in Paris, gave birth to numerous photo agencies specialized in social and political documentary (Rapho, Magnum, Gamma, Viva, ...,) the nineteen seventies gave us the New Topographics, Garry Winogrand, Eugene Atget (reborn), William Eggleston, more prints and portfolios, at a higher price, by Ansel Adams, as well as photographic education, and a growing fine-art photography market. One of the strong development that post-modernism brought to American photography was a new focus on feminism and multi-culturalism. As usual, the SPE conference embraced these with various caucuses that were variously attended. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Going back to Lawrence McFarland's definition of An American Vision, only two events seemed to relate to the material that dreams are made of: Organic Magic by Keith Carter, an inspired, as well as entertaining and didactic lecture that legitimately drew an audience exceeding the capacity of the room in which it was scheduled, and Lady Warriors, a moving video documentary by John Goheen on seven Navajo teenage girls who won the Arizona cross-country running title. …


Prior to the 2004 federal election the Australian Greens were rising as the third force in the Australian political system. At the 2001 election they secured an increased share of the vote and returned a second Senator. Conversely the Australian Democrats, held to be the third force in Australian politics went backwards in 2001, losing a Senate seat. From 2001 to 2004 the Greens polled strongly and were buoyed by increased support for their anti-Iraq war and pro-refugee positions. As a party they appeared to be moving beyond single-issue status. Equally the Democrats were suffering from internal disunity and their support collapsed. By the time of the 2004 election the Greens were expected to win enough Senate seats to at least share the balance of power in the Senate. These high expectations were held by political commentators and the Greens themselves, buoyed by strong polling. This dissertation examines the expectations placed on the Greens. While it was found that expectations were too high, the Greens nevertheless had the capacity to perform better than they did in the Senate. The Greens' underperformance at the 2004 federal election is generally consistent with 'constraints theory'. While institutional barriers to minor party representation in the Australian parliament provided the greatest constraint on the Greens' election performance, this dissertation also examines the impact of government and media attacks on the Greens during the 2004 election campaign and the Australian Embassy bombing on the Greens' election results.


Superplastic behaviour is well established in finegrained zirconia ceramics at high temperatures (well above 0.5Tm, where Tm is the absolute melting point). In this study, an attempt was made to develop a nanocrystalline 5 mol.% yttria partially stabilised zirconia ceramic (5Y-PSZ) capable of exhibiting superplastic flow at relatively lower temperatures. A physical vapour processing route was used to synthesise the powders which was consolidated and subjected to a pressureless sintering route. Dense specimens with grain sizes in the nanometer range were subjected to tensile as well as compressive tests in the temperature range of 1283-1523K at different stress or strain rate levels in order to determine the superplastic deformation behaviour. The stress – strain – strain rate response of the material was analysed by a model for grain boundary sliding controlled superplastic flow. It was demonstrated that the strain rates predicted by the model are in close agreement with the experimentally observed ones.


Oligopolists look for signals from one another in planning their strategies. Some signals solicit cooperation from rivals and a still smaller number succeed in achieving noncompetitive equilibria. But only a subset of these noncompetitive outcomes involve agreements under Section 1 of the Sherman Act. In this essay, I try to identify what sorts of signaling fall within this last and narrowest category: signaling that brings about agreement. Conventional signals are actions, like nods of the head, that a culture has recognized as having a specific meaning; prearranged signals are outwardly benign actions or events that parties have agreed to treat as having special significance for them. Both conventional and prearranged signals may form or implement an express agreement under Section 1 in the same way as words, although rivals sometimes prefer to use the signals rather than words in order to conceal a surreptitious conspiracy. Still more important for antitrust law in practice are implicit signals — actions with general, often benign meanings for more than one audience, but that rivals understand as conveying a special meaning for them. Where the action's multiple meanings for multiple audiences have important efficiency consequences — like a bare public announcement about present or even future prices — courts do not treat the specialized meaning for rivals as triggering a Sherman Act agreement, even if the conduct facilitates noncompetitive pricing. On the other hand, even a formally public announcement may bring about an agreement, if its implicit meaning targets rivals without providing useful information to other audiences.


We describe and analyze two stochastic methods for l1 regularized loss minimization problems, such as the Lasso. The first method updates the weight of a single feature at each iteration while the second method updates the entire weight vector but only uses a single training example at each iteration. In both methods, the choice of feature/example is uniformly at random. Our theoretical runtime analysis suggests that the stochastic methods should outperform state-of-the-art deterministic approaches, including their deterministic counterparts, when the size of the problem is large. We demonstrate the advantage of stochastic methods by experimenting with synthetic and natural data sets.


Prepare for the VCP-DCV ExamPrepare yourself for VMware's challenging VMware Certified Professional-Data Center Virtualization exam, as well as the typical tasks and responsibilities you can expect as a VMware vSphere 5.5-certified professional. This comprehensive book guides you through all topics and objectives you'll need to know for the exam. These include planning, installing, upgrading, and securing vCenter Server and ESXi; configuring networking and storage; performing basic troubleshooting; and more. You'll also gain access to premium online practice and review tools.Prepares certification candidates for the VMware Certified Professional-Data Center Virtualization exam (VCP-DCV)Covers all exam objectivesFeatures real-world scenarios, hands-on exercises, and challenging review questionsExplores key topics such as securing vCenter and ESXi, planning and configuring vSphere networking and storage, creating and deploying virtual machines and vApps, establishing services levels, and moreIncludes access to online practice exams, flashcards, and other study toolsIf you want the best preparation for the VCP-DCV certification exam, you'll want VCP-DCV VMware Certified Professional Data Center Virtualization on vSphere Study Guide.


ABSTRACT Group parent-training interventions for the treatment and prevention of externalizing problems in young children have been empirically validated almost exclusively with mother-only groups or with groups where the majority of participants are mothers. One reason for this focus has been the difficulty in attracting fathers to parent-training groups. In order to examine the idea that father-only groups would produce high rates of acceptance and attendance among fathers, we randomly assigned 39 ethnic minority fathers of 3 to 5-year-old children attending Head Start preschool either to an 8-week father-only parent-training intervention or to a no-treatment control group. Initial interest and attendance was strong, although dropout became a major problem, with 70% of fathers assigned to the experimental group attending fewer than half of the sessions. While statistical power was too low to uncover significant treatment effects, some trends nonetheless support the utility of this approach. Father and teacher reports, but not mother reports, suggest that children whose fathers were in the experimental group demonstrated fewer behavior problems than children whose fathers were in the untreated control group. The intervention did not produce significant effects on father discipline skills, nurturance toward their children, or fathers' contributions to childrearing activities. Interestingly, there are indications that the intervention had a negative impact on the marital/cohabiting relationship. This pilot study is a first step in understanding how to effectively engage fathers in parent training.


Questions of happiness and well-being have increasingly been drawing the attention of health economists, with the understanding that its measures approximate quality of life, or at any rate is one of its major components. Happiness in surveys is typically reported as a rating scale. For instance, life satisfaction question at the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) states as follows - "How satisfied are you at present with your life as a whole?" The respondents can then answer this question with an integer number (or category) between 0 and 10, with 0 being the lowest and 10 the highest level of life satisfaction. It is typically assumed that for a particular latent value of life satisfaction, the individual will report the same category (e.g. "8") regardless the time of the survey. However, recent research has questioned this, suggesting that the respondent may not use the same evaluation criteria when assessing her life satisfaction at different points in time. For instance, the same level of life satisfaction can be reported as 8 today but as 7 in a year from today, if the person is becoming more demanding. Therefore, a simplistic analysis between both responses would wrongly conclude that the respondent's life satisfaction is decreasing. A new OHE Research paper by Cubi-Molla and Yaman (2017) explores changes in the reporting behaviour of immigrants in Germany 1984-2010, in questions related to life satisfaction. Previous literature suggests that immigrants' happiness tends to decrease over time compared to the natives'. The authors firstly explore the robustness and origin of this finding, and then propose a model that has the potential to decompose the effect of the number of years since migration into a true change in life satisfaction and a simple change in reporting behaviour. The model suggests that the existence and size of the reporting bias depend on how accurately individuals remember their past life satisfaction.


Letter to the editor in response to a story about a discriminatory sign posted at a business in Needville, Texas. John J. Herrera recounts his experiences with discrimination and the exclusion of Mexican Americans in Houston and around the state.


Introduction: The use of many flaps has been described to repair substance loss in the medial and distal thirds of the lower leg. The main advantage of the muscle medial hemisoleus flap is preserving one half of the innervated medial soleus muscle in situ and keeping the foot's plantar flexion power. Moreover, the flap has a longer arc of rotation. As recently described, new vascular concepts and techniques have increased flap viability. This study aimed to examine the use and advantages of the medial hemisoleus flap with emphasis on an indication and complication analysis. Methods: Over a 10-year period, nine medial hemisoleus flaps were executed to repair traumatic wounds with tibial exposure in eight patients. We describe the indications and surgical techniques in detail. Results: Complete wound healing was achieved in all patients. There was a low donor-site complications rate. One patient suffered from partial necrosis of the extremity flap. The mean operative time was 2 h. Conclusions: The medial hemisoleus flap is useful for repairing substance loss and provides coverage with intermediary thickened tissue, high vascularity, minimal donor-site morbidity, foot plantar flexion power preservation, faster rehabilitation, accessible surgical techniques, and a shorter operative time.


Recruitment to telomeres is a pivotal step in the function and regulation of human telomerase. Impaired telomerase function can lead to premature organismal aging, development of cancer and multisystem disorders such as dyskeratosis congenita. Telomerase access to telomeres may be regulated by a telomere-binding complex termed shelterin, which is composed of TRF1, TRF2, RAP1, TIN2, TPP1 and POT1 proteins. However the molecular basis for human telomerase recruitment to telomeres is not known. Here, we have directly investigated the process of telomerase recruitment via chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). We find that depletion of two components of the shelterin complex – TPP1 and the protein that tethers TPP1 to the complex, TIN2 – results in a loss of telomerase recruitment. On the other hand, we find that the majority of the observed telomerase association with telomeres does not require POT1, the shelterin protein that links TPP1 to the single-stranded region of the telomere. Furthermore, we find that the double-stranded telomere binding protein, TRF2 is dispensable for telomerase association with telomeres. Deletion of the oligonucleotide/oligosaccharide-binding fold (OB-fold) of TPP1 further disrupts telomerase recruitment. In addition, while loss of TPP1 results in the appearance of DNA damage factors at telomeres, the DNA damage response per se does not account for the telomerase recruitment defect observed in the absence of TPP1. Our findings indicate that TIN2-anchored TPP1 plays a major role in the recruitment of telomerase to telomeres in human cells and that the recruitment does not depend on POT1 or interaction of the shelterin complex with the single-stranded region of the telomere. We propose that the loss of TRF2 can be compensated by the second double-stranded telomere binding protein, TRF1 that anchors TIN2/TPP1-recruited telomerase onto the telomeres. Dyskeratosis congenita (DC) is a multisystem disorder characterized with bone marrow failure, cancer predisposition and defective telomere maintenance. The TINF2 gene that encodes for the TIN2 shelterin protein is one of seven mutated genes identified in DC patients. Here, we have examined the effects of TIN2 DC mutants on telomere protection and shelterin protein stability. We find that exogenous expression of TIN2 DC mutants can rescue the TIN2-depleted phenotype, restoring TPP1 protein levels and telomere protection. Our findings indicate that TIN2 DC mutants preserve the intact telomere structure and protection. We propose that defective telomere elongation may be the underlying cause of impaired telomere maintenance in TIN2 DC patients.


Over thirty years after his death in 1983, Paul de Man, a hugely charismatic intellectual who created with deconstruction an ideology so pervasive that it threatened to topple the very foundations of literature, remains a haunting and still largely unexamined figure. Deeply influential, de Man and his theory-driven philosophy were so dominant that his passing received front-page coverage, suggesting that a cult hero, if not intellectual rock star, had met an untimely end. Yet in 1988, de Man's reputation was ruined when it was discovered that he had written an anti-Semitic article and worked for a collaborating Belgium newspaper during World War II. Who was he, really, and who had he been? No one knew. Still in shock, few of his followers wanted to find out. Once an admirer, although never a theorist, the biographer Evelyn Barish began her own investigation. Relying on years of original archival work and interviews with over two hundred of de Man's circle of friends and family, most of them now dead, Barish vividly re-creates this collaborationist world of occupied Belgian and France. Born in 1919 to a rich but tragically unstable family, Paul de Man, a golden boy, was influenced by his uncle Henri de Man, a socialist turned Nazi collaborator who became the de facto Belgian prime minister. By the early 1940s, Paul, while seemingly only a reviewer for Nazi newspapers, was secretly rising in far more important jobs in Belgium's and France's collaborationist regimes. Postwar, barred from the university, de Man created a publishing house, but stole all its assets; then, facing jail, he fled to New York, abandoning his family (his opportunistic, anti-Semitic writing seemed the least of his crimes). Arriving penniless, he quickly rose again, befriending an entire generation of American writers in New York, including Dwight Macdonald, Elizabeth Hardwick, and Mary McCarthy. Barish sketches de Man's renowned careers at Bard and Yale, as well as the circumstances surrounding his loving-but bigamous-second marriage to former Bard student Patricia Kelley, who created the tranquillity he so lacked. Juxtaposing this personal story to his meteoric rise through American academia, Barish traces the origins of the philosophical deconstructionism that he later created with Jacques Derrida, showing how de Man attracted followers with his attack on the hypocrisy of society that attempts to cover up the "essential alienation" of art from "the system." While focusing on the biographical facts, this commanding and psychologically probing biography reveals as much about human behavior and the cross-currents of twentieth-century intellectual thought as it does about the man who held an entire generation in his thrall.


Murine plasmacytomas show a striking dependence on interleukin 6 (IL6) for their growth in vitro . Here, we present evidence suggesting that IL6 also plays an essential role in the in vivo development of these tumors . This conclusion is based on the finding that the tumorigenicity of an IL-6-dependent plasmacytoma cell line was increased -100-fold on transfection with an IL-6 expression vector, whereas it was inhibited in animals treated with monoclonal antibodies capable of blocking the binding of IL6 to its receptor. Injection of these antibodies 1 d before tumor challenge protected >50% ofthe mice and retarded tumor growth in all animals . Tumors arising in antibody-treated mice retained their 11,6 dependence in vitro, suggesting that the level of protection could be improved if stronger IL6 antagonists were available.


An important feature of the recent process of structural transformation in developing countries has been that the informal sector has remained an important element of manufacturing activity. In spite of rapid rates of economic growth since the 1991 reforms, the informal sector has been a persistent phenomenon in India, leading to significant policy concerns on the lack of inclusivity of economic growth. This book assesses how informal manufacturing firms have responded to the context of economic liberalization in India. It takes a novel approach to the study of informality, by viewing it through a 'production' lens and making enterprise performance the centre-piece of the analysis of informality. The book studies the determinants of enterprise growth and performance along the entire 'continuum' of the informal sector, from micro household enterprises to larger enterprises in the informal sector employing wage labour. The strength of the book is the systematic examination of the various aspects of informality in the Indian manufacturing sector using rich firm-level data from large nationally representative surveys spanning two decades of reforms The book argues that concerted government action is needed to allow the informal sector to participate more fully in India's economic growth.


Anadolu University began distance education applications and TV broadcasting related to this concept on 1982-1983 academic year. 3-d (three dimensional) computer animation techniques started TV be used in educational TV programs on1989, the same year when the Animation Department was established. The Animation Department, which was orginally found under the name Electronic Graphics is formed so as to benefit from the production and expression advantages of 3-d computer animation techniques which became wide-spread through technological improvements. By this study it is aimed to point out how and where 3-d computer animation techniques can be put into work usefully during the process of the production of TV educational programs of Anadolu University OEF. Besides this general goal, to state the position, importance and production levels of animation can be expressed as a sub-goal of the study. This study is limited with the usage of 3-d computer animation on educational TV programs


We show that a single-layer antireflection coating on a THz source of high refractive index can substantially increase the transmission of emitted THz pulses. Calculations indicate that the optimum coating thickness depends on the exact shape of the generated THz waveform and whether the transmitted waveform is to be optimized for the highest peak (temporal) amplitude, peak spectral amplitude, or pulse energy. We experimentally demonstrate a 15% increase in peak amplitude, a 33% increase in peak spectral amplitude, and a 48% increase in energy for a 100 μm thick fused silica AR coating on a lithium niobate crystal used as THz emitter.


This project extends debates about cosmopolitanism to the classroom by defining a cosmopolitan pedagogy that fosters students' ethical engagement with difference. By reimagining cosmopolitanism in a pedagogical space, I build a counter-hegemonic cosmopolitanism which disrupts totalizing narratives of Enlightenment modernity and open a location for alternative epistemologies. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin, Wolfgang Iser, and Louise Rossenblatt, I reconfigure contemporary reading theory to face the challenges of engaging with postcolonial literature in an era of globalization. Readings of key postcolonial texts, including Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Patrick Chamoiseau's Texaco, and Chris Abani's GraceLand, provide insight into the way cosmopolitanism works to construct community out of the shared sense of alienation that arises in the postcolony in an age of globalization. Through postcolonial theorists Dipesh Chakrabarty, Homi Bhabha, and Simon Gikandi, I argue that the unhomely cosmopolitan comes to represent the displaced figure of globalization but whose presence interrupts the narrative of development constructed through colonial modernity. Ultimately, a cosmopolitan pedagogy makes the classroom an unhomely space which disrupts knowledge production and consumption, challenging students to be responsible for their participation in those processes. In asking students to be accountable for and respond to the call of the other, this project helps students build the skills necessary to ethically engage with difference inside and outside the classroom.


ABSTRACT We develop a Bayesian variable selection method for logistic regression models that can simultaneously accommodate qualitative covariates and interaction terms under various heredity constraints. We use expectation-maximization variable selection (EMVS) with a deterministic annealing variant as the platform for our method, due to its proven flexibility and efficiency. We propose a variance adjustment of the priors for the coefficients of qualitative covariates, which controls false-positive rates, and a flexible parameterization for interaction terms, which accommodates user-specified heredity constraints. This method can handle all pairwise interaction terms as well as a subset of specific interactions. Using simulation, we show that this method selects associated covariates better than the grouped LASSO and the LASSO with heredity constraints in various exploratory research scenarios encountered in epidemiological studies. We apply our method to identify genetic and non-genetic risk factors associated with smoking experimentation in a cohort of Mexican-heritage adolescents.


Floodplain regulation strives to balance the benefits of reducing flood hazards to human life and property against the costs of limiting encroachment on areas that, under normal conditions, have appeal for many kinds of development. The 1990 enactment of a zero-rise ordinance in King County tightened floodplain regulations enough that agencies responsible for maintaining safe bridges and roadways are now hampered by excessive design and construction costs. Agencies responsible for maintaining transportation safety must now work in a highly restrictive regulatory environment in which bridge replacements and improvements are prohibitively expensive or impossible without variances from one or more regulations. The general purpose of this project was to evaluate the implications of the zero-rise regulation for bridge builders in the King County Roads Division and the Washington State Department of Transportation. The study found the following: (1) Economic trade-off of compliance vs. noncompliance: The results of the impact analysis showed that the potential benefits of maintaining the state's infrastructure by replacing, widening, or building new bridges and roads should be considered when development is restricted within the floodplains. The additional costs for compliance with the zero-rise ordinance would be uniformly much greater than the marginal cost of damages due to additional flooding for the bridges studied. (2) Ability to predict, model, and measure changes: Because of the uncertainties in input parameters, it was not usually possible to predict changes in the water surface elevations to within 0.01 ft (0.003 m). The range of variation for predicted backwater elevations, given realistic levels of uncertainty in inputs, were up to an order of magnitude larger than the 0.01 ft (0.003 m) limit. A steady, one-dimensional hydraulic model, which is an economical and commonly used tool for assessing water surface profiles, was not generally accurate enough to delineate the floodplain to within 0.01 ft (0.003 m). (3) Alternatives to the zero-rise ordinance: An analysis of alternatives to a zero-rise ordinance suggested that, for a limitation law set to a technically enforceable tolerance, exemptions for public structures could be evaluated on the basis of economics.


Bridging the gap between the fields of World Englishes and Second Language Acquisition, this volume offers an in-depth comparative analysis of two postcolonial varieties of English (Singapore and Malaysian English) and neighbouring Indonesian learner English in order to examine the Outer/Expanding Circle distinction and shed light on the genesis of postcolonial varieties of English. The study identifies and analyses more than thirty linguistic features in the categories phonology, morphology, syntax, and discourse, concluding that in spite of clear syntactic differences, the distinction between the Outer and Expanding Circles is gradual rather than strictly categorical, and should rely on current sociolinguistic realities rather than on historical criteria. The volume will be highly relevant for researchers interested in the dynamics of Outer Circle and Expanding Circle Englishes, the structural and sociolinguistic aspects of English in Southeast Asia, or the integration of the paradigms of World Englishes and Second Language Acquisition.


A cobalt-catalyzed method for the 1,1-diboration of terminal alkynes with bis(pinacolato)diboron (B2Pin2) is described. The reaction proceeds efficiently at 23 °C with excellent 1,1-selectivity and broad functional group tolerance. With the unsymmetrical diboron reagent PinB-BDan (Dan = naphthalene-1,8-diaminato), stereoselective 1,1-diboration provided products with two boron substituents that exhibit differential reactivity. One example prepared by diboration of 1-octyne was crystallized, and its stereochemistry established by X-ray crystallography. The utility and versatility of the 1,1-diborylalkene products was demonstrated in a number of synthetic applications, including a concise synthesis of the epilepsy medication tiagabine. In addition, a synthesis of 1,1,1-triborylalkanes was accomplished through cobalt-catalyzed hydroboration of 1,1-diborylalkenes with HBPin. Deuterium-labeling and stoichiometric experiments support a mechanism involving selective insertion of an alkynylboronate to a Co-B bond of a cobalt boryl complex to form a vinylcobalt intermediate. The latter was isolated and characterized by NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. A competition experiment established that the reaction involves formation of free alkynylboronate and the two boryl substituents are not necessarily derived from the same diboron source.


We report on the coupling between ferroelectric and magnetic order parameters in a nanostructured BaTiO3-CoFe2O4 ferroelectromagnet. This facilitates the interconversion of energies stored in electric and magnetic fields and plays an important role in many devices, including transducers, field sensors, etc. Such nanostructures were deposited on single-crystal SrTiO3 (001) substrates by pulsed laser deposition from a single Ba-Ti-Co-Fe-oxide target. The films are epitaxial in-plane as well as out-of-plane with self-assembled hexagonal arrays of CoFe2O4 nanopillars embedded in a BaTiO3 matrix. The CoFe2O4 nanopillars have uniform size and average spacing of 20 to 30 nanometers. Temperature-dependent magnetic measurements illustrate the coupling between the two order parameters, which is manifested as a change in magnetization at the ferroelectric Curie temperature. Thermodynamic analyses show that the magnetoelectric coupling in such a nanostructure can be understood on the basis of the strong elastic interactions between the two phases.


In this paper, we study the neural underpinnings relevant to user-centered web security through the lens of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Specifically, we design and conduct an fNIRS study to pursue a thorough investigation of users' processing of legitimate vs. illegitimate and familiar vs. unfamiliar websites. We pinpoint the neural activity in these tasks as well as the brain areas that control such activity. We show that, at the neurological level, users process the legitimate websites differently from the illegitimate websites when subject to phishing attacks. Similarly, we show that users exhibit marked differences in the way their brains process the previously familiar websites from unfamiliar websites. These findings have several defensive and offensive implications. In particular, we discuss how these differences may be used by the system designers in the future to differentiate between legitimate and illegitimate websites automatically based on neural signals. Similarly, we discuss the potential for future malicious attackers, with access to neural signals, in compromising the privacy of users by detecting whether a website is previously familiar or unfamiliar to the user. Compared to prior research, our novelty lies in several aspects. First, we employ a neuroimaging methodology (fNIRS) not tapped into by prior security research for the problem domain we are studying. Second, we provide a focused study design and comprehensive investigation of the neural processing underlying the specific tasks of legitimate vs. illegitimate and familiar vs. unfamiliar websites. Third, we use an experimental set-up much more amenable to real-world settings, compared to previous fMRI studies. Beyond these scientific innovations, our work also serves to corroborate and extend several of the findings of the prior literature with independent methodologies, tools, and settings.


Background Mobile health (mHealth) interventions can improve health by improving cardiovascular risk factors, but their adoption in care by physicians and patients is untapped. Few mHealth apps have been evaluated in clinical trials, and due to the fast pace of technological development, those previously evaluated are often outdated by the time trial results are available. Given the rapid pace of change in this field, it is not feasible to rigorously evaluate mHealth apps with current methodologies. Objective The overall aim of this pilot study was to test the feasibility of using a web research platform called Trial My App to conduct efficient and rigorous web-based randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of mHealth apps relevant to patients with cardiovascular risk factors by evaluating an app that targets hypertension. Methods For this study, 200 participants with suboptimally controlled hypertension will be recruited through advertisements in newsletters, media, and the internet, as well as through referrals from their health care providers. Screening, consent, randomization, and collection of patient-important health confidence and self-management ability outcomes will be conducted online through the Trial My App research platform. Participants will be randomized into 2 groups: 100 that will use an mHealth app for tracking hypertension and 100 that will be considered as an educational control. All participants will complete questionnaires at 0, 1, 3 and 6 months after enrolment. A substudy to validate the method of blood pressure readings and the consistency of data entered through Trial My App will be conducted with 40 participants. Results The development of the Trial My App web platform has been completed. The creation of survey instruments has been completed in collaboration with our patient partners and advisory board. Recruitment is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2021; data collection and analysis are expected to be completed approximately 1 year after study commencement. Results will be disseminated through conferences and publications. The primary outcomes of this study include the feasibility of conducting an RCT using the Trial My App platform by reporting recruitment, retention, and completion statistics. We will validate app-entered data with a standard 7-day home blood pressure measurement method. Lastly, the pilot, nonblinded RCT will assess the effectiveness of the mHealth app in improving the control of hypertension compared with the control of hypertension in the educational control group. Conclusions This study will determine if it is feasible to use the Trial My App web-based platform to evaluate the effectiveness of mHealth apps for patients with cardiovascular risk factors. As more mHealth apps are evaluated in RCTs, patients will be able to select apps that meet their needs and physicians will be able to make evidence-based recommendations to their patients for apps aimed at improving cardiovascular health. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04528654; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04528654 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) PRR1-10.2196/26155


This study focuses on how young Palestinians in the diaspora understand their identity, and whether this understanding, as well external perceptions of identity, shape their political actions in terms of solidarity movements with Palestine on Ontario campuses. Eight Palestinian activists (aged 19 – 32) were interviewed about their perceptions of identity and experiences of activism. The findings suggest that the participants have a strong Palestinian identity maintained by their connections to home and their involvement in Palestinian activism. The participants' engagement with activism reinforced their Palestinian identity, pointing to the interconnected relationship between identity and political action. When examining the experiences of activism on campus, participants garnered support but also faced challenges from pro-Israel groups and university administrations. The implications of these findings are significant to political and academic freedom in Canada and will hopefully encourage universities to foster nondiscriminatory political debate and ensure that all voices are heard.


OBJECTIVE. Western parents are given conflicting advice about whether to introduce a "scheduled" approach to infant care or to follow their infants' demands. Attempts to address this issue using randomized, controlled trials have been unsuccessful. This comparative study collected evidence about methods of parenting and associated infant crying and sleeping in 2 communities with substantially different approaches to infant care (London, United Kingdom, and Copenhagen, Denmark) and in a "proximal care" group, where parents planned to hold their infants ≥80% of the time between 8 am and 8 pm, breastfeed frequently, and respond rapidly to infant cries. METHODS. Validated behavior diaries were used to measure parental behavior and infant crying and night waking longitudinally at 8 to 14 days, 5 to 6 weeks, and 10 to 14 weeks of age. Feeding and sleeping practices were measured by questionnaire. RESULTS. Proximal care parents held infants for 15 to 16 hours per 24 hours and coslept with them through the night more often than other groups. London parents had 50% less physical contact with their infants than proximal care parents, including less contact when the infants were crying and when awake and settled. London parents also abandoned breastfeeding earlier than other groups. Copenhagen parents fell in between the other groups in measures of contact and care. These differences in caregiving were associated with substantial differences in several aspects of infant crying and settled behavior at night. London infants cried 50% more overall than infants in both other groups at 2 and 5 weeks of age. However, bouts of unsoothable crying occurred in all 3 of the groups, and the groups did not differ in unsoothable bouts or in colicky crying at 5 weeks of age. Proximal care infants woke and cried at night most often at 12 weeks. Compared with proximal care infants, Copenhagen infants cried as little per 24 hours, but woke and cried at night less often at 12 weeks of age. CONCLUSIONS. "Infant-demand" care and conventional Western care, as practiced by London parents, are associated with different benefits and costs. As used by proximal care and Copenhagen parents, infant demand parenting is associated with less overall crying per 24 hours. However, the proximal form of infant-demand parenting is associated with more frequent night waking and crying at 12 weeks of age. Copenhagen infants cry as little per 24 hours as proximal care infants but are settled at night like London infants at 12 weeks of age. Colicky crying bouts at 5 weeks of age are unaffected by care. The findings have implications for public health care policy. First, they add to evidence that bouts of unsoothable crying, which are common in early infancy, are not much affected by variations in parenting, providing reassurance that this aspect of infant crying is not parents' fault. Second, the findings provide information that professionals can give to parents to help them to make choices about infant care. Third, the findings support some experts' concerns that many English parents are adopting methods of care that lead to increased crying in their infants. There is a need for informed debate among professionals, policy makers, and parents about the social and cultural bases for the marked differences between London and Copenhagen parents' approach to care.


Background: Military service is associated with increased rates of heavy drinking. Widely used clinical practices (e.g., motivational interviewing) indicate that addressing both negative and positive drinking consequences is essential to effective treatment. However, research on effectively assessing positive drinking consequences in a clinical population is absent. Aims: The current study (1) evaluated the utility of the Positive Drinking Consequences Questionnaire (PDCQ), a measure previously validated in an undergraduate sample, for use with treatment-seeking veterans, and (2) evaluated relationships between positive drinking consequences and alcohol expectancies, pre-treatment alcohol use, and alcohol-related problems. Method: Ninety-seven veterans seeking treatment for alcohol problems completed an anonymous survey (97.9% male; mean age = 49.76[11.40], 67.0% Caucasian). Results: The PDCQ evidenced a single factor latent structure and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .90). Positive drinking consequences and expectancies were related yet distinct constructs. After controlling for demographic factors, experiencing more positive drinking consequences at program intake was associated with heavier pretreatment drinking (ηp2 = .10, p = .003) and alcohol-related problems (ηp2 = .18, p < .001). Further, PDCQ scores evidenced incremental validity in accounting for pretreatment alcohol use (ηp2 = .12, p = .002) and alcohol-related problems (ηp2 = .11, p = .003) when expectancies also were included in the model. Conclusion: Positive drinking consequences are assessed reliably by the PDCQ in a clinical sample and appear to play an important role in the drinking behavior of veterans seeking alcohol treatment.


Background Conditional cash transfer schemes (CCTS) are relatively new policies in low and middle income countries which aim to improve the health and welfare of poor families by investing in their knowledge, skills and resources. Families are offered regular cash as long as they comply with certain conditions. One of these is that mothers/carers attend workshops where parenting and children's healthcare issues are discussed. We hypothesised that presence of a CCTS in Colombia would be associated with an increase in women's healthcare knowledge. Design and Setting We analysed data from Familias en Acción, Colombia's national CCTS. Households from participating areas and control areas (matched on environmental and socioeconomic criteria) were prospectively surveyed in 2002 and 2006. Women were asked three questions on home-management of acute diarrhoeal illness (ADI), an important cause of childhood mortality for which cost-effective, home-based interventions are available. The sample comprises 5047 women from areas where Familias was operating and 3461 women from control areas. Outcome Measure and Analysis A marker of healthcare knowledge was constructed from responses to survey items on home-management of ADI, using WHO guidelines to identify correct responses. The effect of Familias was estimated using an ordered probit model, controlling for individual, household and regional characteristics. Results Familias was associated with nearly three-fold higher workshop attendance (×2.6, p<0.05) and improved knowledge at follow-up (probit coefficient, β=0.160, p=0.010). Multivariate analysis indicated that women's age (β=−0.002, p=0.042), literacy (β=0.221, p<0.001), level of completed formal education (β=0.260, p<0.001) and involvement in community activities (β=0.057, p=0.033) were independently associated with improved knowledge. Household wealth (β=0.045, p=0.030) and head-of-household literacy were also independently associated (β=0.072, p=0.015). Women's literacy (76%) did not improve. Conclusions Familias is associated with increased healthcare knowledge amongst participating women. Women who are younger, literate, better educated, involved in their community and who live in better-off households with a literate head-of-household, however, show greater knowledge gain relative to other households. CCTS may widen health inequities by leaving behind women with lowest levels of completed formal education, household resources and community participation. Further thought must be given to the role these workshops play in relation to overall CCTS objectives. The most marginalised households may benefit from additional support to overcome illiteracy and strengthen community involvement.


This study examines processual and content aspects of identity during middle adolescence. The main question is how identity processing style (informative/normative/diffuse) affects the content of identity (in terms of exploration and commitment) in different domains of life. The sample includes 256 Czech adolescents who have participated in the long-term longitudinal research ELSPAC (age 17). As instruments, the Czech adaptation of the Groningen Identity Development Scale (GIDS; Bosma, 1985) and the Czech version of the Identity Style Inventory (ISI4, Berzonsky et al., 2007) were administrated. We analyze the content of commitments, strength of these commitments, and the amount of exploration in different life domains (school, occupation, leisure-time activities, philosophy of life, friendship, and romantic relationships). These identity/commitment variables are related to three identity styles. Results indicate that adolescents who prefer an informative identity processing style are not committed yet. Adolescents who adopt normative style report commitments in some life domains, however certain number of them are very weak. Those who relied on a diffuse/avoidant identity processing style lacked firm commitments.


Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are well-known mediators of the stress response in many organisms. Although heat shock proteins have been implicated in plant response to thermal stress, the role of specific heat shock proteins in mediating the response to thermotolerance is poorly defined. Basal thermotolerance is the ability to withstand a nonlethal heat stress; acquired thermotolerance is the ability to withstand a normally lethal heat stress by preconditioning with a milder heat stress. Queitsch et al. demonstrate that HSP101 is essential to mediating the response to both acquired and basal thermotolerance. Arabidopsis plants with decreased levels of HSP101 due to antisense inhibition or cosuppression did not exhibit acquired thermotolerance in whole-plant recovery assays or hypocotyl elongation assays. Furthermore, constitutive expression of HSP101 resulted in a growth advantage for plants subjected to heat shock such that plants overexpressing HSP101 recovered from 45-minute heat shock, but control plants did not. Germinating Arabidopsis seeds have a high basal thermotolerance that is lost if HSP101 expression is inhibited. Thus, HSP101 plays an important role in plant thermotolerance. W. Gurley highlights this work in a commentary. Queitsch, C., Hong, S.-W., Vierling, E., and Lindquist, S. (2000) Heat shock protein 101 plays a crucial role in thermotolerance in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 12: 479-492. [Abstract] [Full Text] Gurley, W.B. (2000) HSP101: A key component for the acquisition of thermotolerance in plants. Plant Cell 12: 457-460. [Full Text]


While the vast majority of integrated photonic devices are traditionally fabricated on rigid substrates, photonic integration of both passive and active photonic devices on flexible polymer substrates has been demonstrated in recent years, and its applications in imaging, sensing and optical interconnects are being actively pursued. This paper presents an overview of the emerging field of mechanically flexible photonics, where we examine material processing and mechanical design rationales dictated by application-specific optical functionalities. The examples include semiconductor nanomembranes which serve as the key enabling material for hybrid inorganic-organic flexible active photonics, and monolithically integrated passive photonic structures fabricated from semiconductors, polymers, or amorphous materials. Technical challenges and further research opportunities related to materials engineering and device integration on flexible substrates are also discussed.


Abstract Violence in southern Thailand can be interpreted in many ways. Recent survey study, however, shows that people are now becoming more inclined to attribute the violence to the activities of militants and extremists, acting in the name of separatist or similar movements. The empirical data also illustrate that escalation of southern violence in recent years makes obvious the patterns of target-oriented and well-planned attacks, as demonstrated in many cases of violent attacks on civilians and government officials in 2004 and 2005. On the other hand, structural statistics indicate that poverty may not be the root cause of crisis, as direct relationships between incidents of poverty and violence are thus far ambiguous. The survey findings that form the basis of this article demonstrate that social grievances may serve as necessary conditions behind the bloodshed, but the decisive factors driving are upsurge of violence lie in the movements' ideological beliefs. To obtain a clearer understanding of the nature and implications of attacks on civilians since the beginning of 2004, we sent questionnaires to key informants in communities that had experienced violence. Clearly, militant activities in local communities were widespread, and were believed to account for the overwhelming majority of the attacks. During the first half of 2005, Muslim victims of political murders began to exceed Buddhist victims. The growth of this Muslim-on-Muslim violence is one of the most important trends of the data. To conclude, the most important questions concern the psychology and motivations of those behind these increasingly vicious attacks. The ideology of the militants is no longer the romantic, low-key separatism of the past: the latest waves of attacks have had a much more aggressive and ruthless character.