Abstract Recent molecular analyses indicate that many reef coral species belong to hybridizing species complexes or "syngameons." Such complexes consist of numerous genetically distinct species or lineages, which periodically split and/or fuse as they extend through time. During splitting and fusion, morphologic intermediates form and species overlap. Here we focus on processes associated with lineage fusion, specifically introgressive hybridization, and the recognition of such hybridization in the fossil record. Our approach involves comparing patterns of ecologic and morphologic overlap in genetically characterized modern species with fossil representatives of the same or closely related species. We similarly consider the long-term consequences of past hybridization on the structure of modern-day species boundaries. Our study involves the species complex Montastraea annularis s.l. and is based in the Bahamas, where, unlike other Caribbean locations, two of the three members of the complex today are not genetically distinct. We measured and collected colonies along linear transects across Pleistocene reef terraces of last interglacial age (approximately 125 Ka) on the islands of San Salvador, Andros, and Great Inagua. We performed quantitative ecologic and morphologic analyses of the fossil data, and compared patterns of overlap among species with data from modern localities where species are and are not genetically distinct. Ecologic and morphologic analyses reveal "moderate" overlap (>10%, but statistically significant differences) and sometimes "high" overlap (no statistically significant differences) among Pleistocene growth forms (= "species"). Ecologic analyses show that three species (massive, column, organ-pipe) co-occurred. Although organ-pipes had higher abundances in patch reef environments, columnar and massive species exhibited broad, completely overlapping distributions and had abundances that were not related to reef environment. For morphometric analyses, we used multivariate discriminant analysis on landmark data and linear measurements. The results show that columnar species overlap "moderately" with organ-pipe and massive species. Comparisons with genetically characterized colonies from Panama show that the Pleistocene Bahamas species have intermediate morphologies, and that the observed "moderate" overlap differs from the morphologic separation among the three modern species. In contrast, massive and columnar species from the Pleistocene of the Dominican Republic comprise distinct morphologic clusters, similar to the modern species; organ-pipe species exhibit "low" overlap (<10%, only at species margins) with columnar and massive species. Assuming that "moderate" overlap implies hybridization and "high" overlap implies more complete lineage fusion, these results support the hypothesis of hybridization among species within the complex in the Bahamas during the Pleistocene. Hybridization involved introgression of three distinct evolutionary lineages, in association with Pleistocene sea level and temperature fluctuations, and appears to have been limited geographically primarily to the Bahamas and the northern Caribbean. Thus, not only does the structure of species boundaries within the complex vary geographically, but these geographic differences may have persisted since the Pleistocene.


Hypotheses to explain phyllotaxy – the regular positioning of leaves on stems – were first proposed in the nineteenth century. Recently, polarized transport of the photohormone auxin was found to have a key role in generating phyllotaxy patterns that is consistent with classical models. How auxin might interact with other patterning mechanism to regulate phyllotaxy is currently unclear.

Keywords:

phyllotaxy;
phyllotaxis;
auxin;
leaf development


This paper presents the results of a baseline study carried out to understand farmers' perceptions about the existence of salinity in their farmlands and its impact on agricultural production and household food security. The strategies adopted by farmers to deal with the salinity and food insecurity problems are also discussed. The survey data were collected from a total of 300 farmers from five districts of Ethiopia. Farmers were selected using a random sampling from a household list. Focus Group Discussions were conducted with farmers in each district to investigate their perceptions of the soil salinity, its impacts and their adaptive strategies. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS descriptive statistics and chi-square test. Farmers' responses showed that they were concerned about increasing soil salinity problems and its impact on their crop productivity and well-being. The results show that observing white crust and dark brown color of the soil are the major indicators used by farmers to identify salinity on their fields. Poor irrigation and drainage management problems are perceived as the main causes for salinity development. Salinity directly effects crop productivity and household incomes, which leads to food insecurity. The crop production losses due to soil salinity ranged from 10 to 70%. Performing off-farm jobs, selling household assets and joining food aid programs are the common coping strategies adopted by farmers. Farmers' perceptions on salinity should be used as an entry point by different stakeholders to develop strategies for the salt-affected areas.

 Key words: Soil salinity, food security, crop productivity, coping strategies, rural poverty.


The recent history of urban development in Italy largely stems from a policy – here
intended as a set of actions and strategies of administrators, entrepreneurs and
experts – which has been incapable of planning transformations and, therefore,
adopting a shared and far-sighted approach to development.
The urban regeneration of metropolitan areas and their consequent demographic
and economic development (70% of the population and 80% of GDP are concentrated
in these areas) have often penalised internal areas such as the Alps and
Apennines.
Some peculiar experiences, including the regeneration of the village of Ostana (Cuneo),
the project carried out in Contrada Bricconi (Bergamo), or even the activities
of the association Dolomiti Contemporanee (Belluno) – just to mention a few interesting
cases in the Italian Alps, – show that the understanding of and care for
a unique territory are the pillars on which any informed political, administrative, architectural
or territorial project should be based. This approach is all the more important
in the framework of those events envisaging the construction of large infrastructures
(such as the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina). After these events,
such infrastructures are often abandoned because they are useless for the territory,
economically unsustainable in the long-term, and not shared with the local
community.
In this perspective, the work of the association Architetti Arco Alpino (Alpine Arc Architects),
whose activities range from architecture awards to photographic surveys,
conferences and publications, aims to understand the complexity of mountain areas
and to promote architectural quality. In this framework, they have successfully
shown how the problems are often the same regardless of geographical and cultural
distances.
The solution to these problems is to be found primarily in the act of listening to the
places and history of the local population; whether in the Alps or elsewhere, every
good project based on a contemporary and conscious approach starts from there.


This is a report on a project partially funded by the Criminology Research Council. The original title of the project, in the name of Pamela Snow and Martine Powell, was 'The language processing and production skills of young offenders : implications for enhancing prevention and intervention strategies'. The study examined the oral language processing and production skills of a group of 30 young male offenders completing community based juvenile justice orders. The performance of this group was compared with that of a group of 50 males attending state government secondary schools in the same region of metropolitan Melbourne. In spite of the fact that the young offenders studied were an average of two years older than the comparison group, they performed significantly more poorly on all but one of the measures employed. The findings indicate that young offenders are at high risk for difficulties with auditory processing, manipulating and understanding abstract linguistic concepts, and have difficulty using story grammar to generate a simple narrative. These findings have implications in three broad domains: forensic interviewing of young offenders; early intervention for young children who display comorbid learning and behaviour disturbances; and service delivery at the program level for young offenders engaged with the juvenile justice system. The study also articulates the implications of these findings for further research. These pertain principally to examining the relationship between language skills and social skill, and exploring the ways in which the findings can be applied to service delivery models within the juvenile justice system.


This paper uses a dynamic intertemporal macroeconomic model of the world economy to examine the macroeconomic consequences for a small economy, such as Australia, of shocks in the world economy. The model, called the MSG2 (McKibbin-Sachs Global) model, is based on the assumption that agents maximise objective functions subject to intertemporal budget constraints. Allowance is also made for the existence of various rigidities in labour markets and imperfections in the ability of agents to borrow and lend. The model is parameterized based on techniques from computable general equilibrium models and standard macroeconomic models. It is used to examine the impact on Australia of fiscal and monetary policies in the U.S. and Japan as well as the transmission of policy changes within the Australian economy.


Snowboarding Halfpipe (HP) is a winter action sport which has progressed from being a recreational snow activity to a high performance snow sport such as traditional downhill or Nordic skiing. Like figure skating, gymnastics and diving, performance in the snowboard HP is subjectively assessed by a number of judges. The marking criteria focus on jump height (amplitude) and trick difficulty as the primary technical aspects. However, overall style and the appearance of effortless motion are also essential components of a well scored run. While HP performance is very technical in nature, considerable physical capabilities are required in order to maximize jump amplitude and remain injury free. This paper examines the scientific basis of the HP to highlight the role that sports scientists and strength and conditioners can play in this sport. Challenges that these practitioners may experience with these athletes are also discussed. Further research is required to characterize the physical capacities of elite HP snowboarders and how these compare to the stresses that training and competing may place on the human body. Such information may allow strength and conditioning coaches and sports scientists to develop more specific conditioning programs and to have a clearer understanding of the volume, intensity and mode of training athletes require and can tolerate in order to optimize their HP performance.


Objectives/Research Problem: Degenerative joint disease normally affects older population which
eventually disturb patient's mobility. Current available prescriptions and surgical procedures are
incapable to cure the disease completely due to the nature of avascular cartilage. Gene transfer and tissue
engineering have emerged as promising approaches in treating the disease. The idea behind the
incorporation of the two approaches is to regenerate a stable tissue engineered cartilage constructs by
enhancing the cells source. Hence, the aim of this study is to assess the effect of non-viral SOX9 and
TERT genes transfected chondrocytes in vitro and in vivo.
Materials and Method: With the approval of Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUCIIUM)
(IIUM/IACUC/Approval 2015/(5)/(24)), SOX9 and TERT genes are transferred in monolayer
cultured chondrocytes via lipofection technique. The post-transfected chondrocytes are then seeded in a
three-dimensional (3D) poly(lactic-co-glycolic) (PLGA) with and without fibrin scaffolds for tissue
engineered cartilage constructs formation in vitro. The resulting constructs are implanted subcutaneously
in the athymic nude mice for constructs' maturation purpose. The incorporation of cells in the 3D scaffold
in vitro and the in vivo implantation are important to mimic the internal microenvironment of the human
body. The monolayer post-transfected chondrocytes, in vitro and in vivo 3D constructs are evaluated with
several different assessments namely glycosaminoglycan (GAG) assay, cell proliferation assay,
histological and immunohistochemistry, gene expression assessment. This is done to confirm the
chondrogenic properties of the constructs based on selected time points.
Results and Discussion: Several preliminary findings are obtained. The results show certain trend towards
synergistic effect of both SOX9 and TERT genes on chondrocytes. However, no conclusion can be made
at this juncture. The experiment is still ongoing.
Conclusion: It is hoped that the combination of SOX9 and TERT genes can help regenerate a good
quality cartilage for tissue engineering purpose.


The increase of interest in using social media as a source for research has motivated tackling the challenge of automatically geolocating tweets, given the lack of explicit location information in the majority of tweets. In contrast to much previous work that has focused on location classification of tweets restricted to a specific country, here we undertake the task in a broader context by classifying global tweets at the country level, which is so far unexplored in a real-time scenario. We analyze the extent to which a tweet's country of origin can be determined by making use of eight tweet-inherent features for classification. Furthermore, we use two datasets, collected a year apart from each other, to analyze the extent to which a model trained from historical tweets can still be leveraged for classification of new tweets. With classification experiments on all 217 countries in our datasets, as well as on the top 25 countries, we offer some insights into the best use of tweet-inherent features for an accurate country-level classification of tweets. We find that the use of a single feature, such as the use of tweet content alone-the most widely used feature in previous work-leaves much to be desired. Choosing an appropriate combination of both tweet content and metadata can actually lead to substantial improvements of between 20 and 50 percent. We observe that tweet content, the user's self-reported location and the user's real name, all of which are inherent in a tweet and available in a real-time scenario, are particularly useful to determine the country of origin. We also experiment on the applicability of a model trained on historical tweets to classify new tweets, finding that the choice of a particular combination of features whose utility does not fade over time can actually lead to comparable performance, avoiding the need to retrain. However, the difficulty of achieving accurate classification increases slightly for countries with multiple commonalities, especially for English and Spanish speaking countries.


Introduction: Menopause means complete stoppage of menses for last one year due to failure of follicular activities of the ovaries. This can be determined by the various hormones secreted by ovary such as LH and FSH. As these hormones are responsible for normal maintenance of basic ovarian function in reproductive life; there occurs considerable alteration in their levels in menopause. Aims and Objectives :- 1] To study and compare ovarian function by determining levels of LH and FSH in Surgical and Natural menopause. 2] To study and compare ovarian function in Surgical and Natural menopause. Brief Methodology: - Case study: - 50 women with surgical menopause between 45 – 50 years of age. Control study: - 50 women with natural menopause between 45 – 50 years of age. Material & Methodolgy :- Fasting serum samples of all women with surgical and natural menopause were analysed for LH and FSH on Immulite 1000 chemiluminiscence based analyser in special investigation lab. Summary of the Results :- Mean levels of LH and FSH were higher in surgical menopausal women as compared to natural menopausal women. Women in surgical menopause suffered from more vasomotor symptoms and cognitive decline as compared to women in natural menopause group.


Commonsense reasoning, in particular qualitative spatial and temporal reasoning (QSTR), provides flexible and intuitive methods for reasoning about vague and uncertain information including spatial orientation, topology and proximity.  Despite a number of theoretical advances in QSTR, there are relatively few applications that employ these methods.  The central problem is a significant lack of application level standards and validation methods for supporting developers in adapting and integrating QSTR with their domain specific qualitative spatial and temporal models.  To address this we present a significantly novel methodology for QSTR application validation, inspired by research in software engineering.  In this paper we focus on unit testing, and adapt the software engineering strategy of defining boundary cases.  We present two critical boundary concepts, a methodology for isolating the units under testing from other parts of the model, and methods to assist the designer in integrating our critical boundary unit testing approach with a broader validation plan.


The predominant approaches for extracting key information from documents resort to classifiers predicting the information type of each word. However, the word level ground truth used for learning is expensive to obtain since it is not naturally produced by the extraction task. In this paper, we discuss a new method for training extraction models directly from the textual value of information. The extracted information of a document is represented as a sequence of tokens in the XML language. We learn to output this representation with a pointer-generator network that alternately copies the document words carrying information and generates the XML tags delimiting the types of information. The ability of our end-to-end method to retrieve structured information is assessed on a large set of business documents. We show that it performs competitively with a standard word classifier without requiring costly word level supervision.


Cabernet is a system for delivering data to and from moving vehicles using open 802.11 (WiFi) access points encountered opportunistically during travel. Using open WiFi access from the road can be challenging. Network connectivity in Cabernet is both fleeting (access points are typically within range for a few seconds) and intermittent (because the access points do not provide continuous coverage), and suffers from high packet loss rates over the wireless channel. On the positive side, WiFi data transfers, when available, can occur at broadband speeds.
 In this paper, we introduce two new components for improving openWiFi data delivery to moving vehicles: The first, QuickWiFi, is a streamlined client-side process to establish end-to-end connectivity, reducing mean connection time to less than 400 ms, from over 10 seconds when using standard wireless networking software. The second part, CTP, is a transport protocol that distinguishes congestion on the wired portion of the path from losses over the wireless link, resulting in a 2x throughput improvement over TCP. To characterize the amount of open WiFi capacity available to vehicular users, we deployed Cabernet on a fleet of 10 taxis in the Boston area. The long-term average transfer rate achieved was approximately 38 Mbytes/hour per car (86 kbit/s), making Cabernet a viable system for a number of non-interactive applications.


In this study, we show how to measure the size of tax benefit arising from the purchase of fixed annuities - both deferred and immediate. We demonstrate how the size of tax benefit available from tax deferral depends on five factors: (1) the length of time the annuity is held during the accumulation and decumulation phases of ownership; (2) whether a deferred annuity is annuitized (either by conversion or by a 1035 exchange) at the end of the surrender period, or taken as a lump sum distribution; (3) the level of yields; (4) tax rates on ordinary income; and (5) the differential between tax rates on ordinary income and tax-preferred treatment of dividends and capital gains. We provide a set of formulae that can be used to estimate the size of tax benefit arising from tax deferral under varied scenarios.


A 73 year old male horse trainer was admitted to the emergency department for acute traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage after he was thrown from an untrained horse and fell on his head. The figure on the left is a CT that shows evidence of an acute subarachnoid hemorrhage. The patient was taking warfarin at the time of his fall, because he had an artificial aortic valve (INR=2.5). He was initially alert and oriented, but he quickly became confused, disoriented and drowsy. The cerebral angiogram on admission showed no signs of aneurysm or arterio-venous malformation. He had a complicated clinical course and developed hydrocephalus. Three weeks later (see figure on the right), the CT showed evidence for a left temporal lobe contusion. The patient was still disoriented to time and place, but he could follow 1-step commands. His wife was counselled at discharge about how he should neither drive, nor ride a horse again. When the patient was seen 10 months later, he was still was signitificantly cognitively impaired (MMSE=14/30).
Corresponding author
Ahmad Al-Awwad and Linda A. Hershey
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
USA


The multistep model of carcinogenesis in the breast suggests a transition from normal epithelium to invasive carcinoma via non-atypical and atypical hyperplasia and in situ carcinoma. The introduction of mammographic screening has led to the increased detection of preinvasive disease, and this has highlighted deficiencies in the biology and classification of such lesions. The excitement surrounding the development of DNA microarray analysis and proteomics has raised expectations about the role of these techniques in understanding the biology and translating these data to clinical practice. Only a few years ago, scientists studied disease initiation and progression in a linear fashion, identifying and examining one cancer-related molecule at a time. The recent development of technologies that allow a large number of genes and gene products to be analysed simultaneously has brought renewed interest to breast cancer research, with the hope of identifying a unique 'fingerprint' for each tumour and hence individualised treatment. To date, histopathological assessment has been at the heart of clinical management – does the new technology herald the end?


Understanding how colour is used by the human vision system is a widely studied research field. The field, though quite advanced, still faces important unanswered questions. One of them is the explanation of the unique hues and the assignment of color names. This problem addresses the fact of different perceptual status for different colors. Recently, Philipona and O'Regan have proposed a biological model that allows to extract the reflection properties of any surface independently of the lighting conditions. These invariant properties are the basis to compute a singularity index that predicts the asymmetries presented in unique hues and basic color categories psychophysical data, therefore is giving a further step in their explanation. In this paper we build on their formulation and propose a new singularity index. This new formulation equally accounts for the location of the 4 peaks of the World colour suney and has two main advantages. First, it is a simple elegant numerical measure (the Philipona measurement is a rather cumbersome formula). Second, we develop a colour-based explanation for the measure.


Connections between time, technology, and the processes of reading and writing make clear the links between experiences of what appear to be quite different phenomena. Reading and writing have functioned together in a particular way to build the world as we have known it for three thousand years. These interacting processes have now been transformed at their core and are building a different world, one where certainties of the previous era are disappearing and being displaced by what the author sees as a chronic and pervasive mode of cognitive distraction. Robert Hassan offers a perspective permeated by a sense of history, beginning with the invention of writing and the development of the skill of reading. Together with technological developments, these provide a unique view of the trajectory of modernity into late-modernity, and illustrate how the arc of progress has transformed. New modes of time, technology, and reading and writing are helping create a faster world where we know less about moreand forget what we know evermore quickly. What is the time of a thought? Is it possible to measure thinking? Can we consider knowledge or information, or reading and writing, as having temporal rhythms? These are questions Hassan tries to answer. So unfamiliar are we to thinking in such terms that they sound impossible. To a significant degree, time, thinking, and many forms of knowledge are the fruits of subjective experience. We connect experiences at superficial levels, where people have different experiences that may be objectively the same, but our interpretations will always diverge in respect of the reality we confront. This intersection of philosophy and communication takes the reader into new realms of analysis.


Document classification developed over the last 10 years, using techniques originating from the pattern recognition and machine-learning communities. All these methods operate on flat text representations, where word occurrences are considered independents. The recent paper by Sebastiani (2002) gives a very good survey on textual document classification. With the development of structured textual and multimedia documents and with the increasing importance of structured document formats like XML, the document nature is changing. Structured documents usually have a much richer representation than flat ones. They have a logical structure. They are often composed of heterogeneous information sources (e.g., text, image, video, metadata, etc.). Another major change with structured documents is the possibility to access document elements or fragments. The development of classifiers for structured content is a new challenge for the machine-learning and IR communities. A classifier for structured documents should be able to make use of the different content information sources present in an XML document and to classify both full documents and document parts. It should adapt easily to a variety of different sources (e.g., different document type definitions). It should be able to scale with large document collections.


for modern high-technology farms by 2030. To achieve this, a significant increase in intensive agricultural activities and weed management practices is required. To develop strategies and achieve the goals of sustainable agriculture, the present study used a semi-structured questionnaire survey to assess farmers' knowledge and perception of weeds, their sources of information, and their reasons for willingness or unwillingness to adopt non-chemical weed control methods. The survey was conducted from June to October 2018 and included 62 members of the Malim Nawar Vegetable Farmers Association. Descriptive and chi-square statistics were used for the statistical analyses. Of the 62 participants, 50 (80.6%) were over 50 years of age, and 47 (75.7%) spoke the Hakka dialect. Pest infestation and crop diseases were the most important constraints in crop production, followed by weed infestation. Knowledge of weed species led to the anticipation of yield loss and exploration of potential control methods. Social networking and agriculture chemical companies were the main sources of information on weed control methods. Despite knowing the harmful effects of chemical herbicides, farmers' willingness/resistance to adopt non-chemical weed control methods depended on many different factors. The survey results showed that the proactive-ness of farmers' associations and relevant government agencies is a prerequisite for achieving agricultural development through education. Moreover, structure and systematic learning using innovative methods adjusted to local socioeconomic conditions could facilitate a paradigm shift from chemical control to environment-friendly weed control methods.


The emergence of Online Fantasy Sports Platforms (OFSP) has presented a challenge for the regulatory bodies across the globe: do they represent game of skill or game of chance? A game of skill is a game where the outcome is determined mainly by the predominance of mental or physical skill, rather than chance. Gambling or a game of chance is where outcomes are entirely driven by luck and skill has no role to play. In this work, we present a novel data-driven test that helps address this question. In particular, the failure of the test leads to the conclusion that the outcomes are based on the predominance of skill, and not based on luck. The proposed test is based on a sound statistical hypothesis of chance that we introduce. It is robust against all sorts of biases that might be present in the data. We apply the test to data obtained from two fantasy sports platforms: Dream11 for Cricket and FanDuel for Basketball. In both cases, we conclude that there is overwhelming evidence that the outcomes are driven by the predominance of skill. Indeed, evidence of "survivor bias" can be found in such dataset suggesting the importance of a robust statistical approach presented in this work. We report similar observations in the context of mutual fund performances suggesting that they are being managed by skilful fund managers.


Cloudy bands probably caused by the high dust concentrations of winter snow deposited during glacial periods are characteristic stratigraphic features of Greenland ice cores. While sofar no (Vostok and Dome C) or only few (Dome Fuji) cloudy bands were reported from Antarctic ice cores the EDML ice core drilled in Dronning Maudland contains abundant cloudy bands like the GRIP, GISP2 or NGRIP ice cores. Number and intensity of cloudy bands vary with climate, the colder the more and the more intense cloudy bands are observed. Cloudy bands indicate the layering in an ice sheet and can be used to detect flow induced disturbances in an ice core. We find increased wavyness of cloudy bands below about 2050 m depth. Clear ice contains about 1-100 optically visible particles but cloudy band ice on the order of >10 000, intense cloudy bands typically 105 to 106 per cm3 and more. Microscopic observations show that grain size is much smaller in cloudy bands than in the clear ice between the cloudy bands but the distribution of micro-particles is not related to grain boundaries or triple junctions.


The brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis is the only salmonid native to the southern Appalachian Mountains, and is distributed across eastern North America from Canada to Georgia. This species was once abundant in coldwater lakes and streams throughout its range, but environmental disturbances and the introduction of non-native species have drastically reduced the number and sizes of wild populations. Genetic evidence suggests a division at the subspecies level between southernand northern-derived brook trout populations, with the break between the two forms occurring roughly at the New River watershed. Before the subspecies structure was recognized, brook trout of northern origin were widely stocked throughout the Southeast. The primary objective of this study was to determine the phylogenetic origin of all wild brook trout populations in southwestern Virginia using allozyme markers. Seventy-eight streams believed to contain brook trout in the New, James, Holston, and Yadkin river drainages were sampled by backpack electrofishing. Muscle tissue samples were collected from 916 individuals from 56 populations using a non-lethal biopsy technique. The samples were analyzed by cellulose acetate gel electrophoresis and histochemical staining techniques. Variation at four polymorphic loci, including the diagnostic creatine kinase (CK-A2*) locus, was quantified in terms of genetic diversity and population genetic differentiation. Allele frequencies indicated that 19 populations were of putative southern origin, 5 of northern origin, and 32 of mixed genetic origin. The secondary objective was to determine the geographic distribution of southernand northern-form brook trout populations throughout the native range using data compiled from all known genetic studies. A map of these data showed that the break between the southern and northern form is sharp, occurring at the New/Roanoke-James watershed divide. Populations from the New River drainage expressed the southern allele at a frequency of 85%, suggesting that their historic native character is southern, and that the presence of northern alleles is due to stocking or stream-capture events. The persistence of the southern form, despite the heavy stocking of northern-derived individuals, may be evidence of an adaptive advantage for the southern form of


The general objective of our work was to determine the acute toxicity and bioaccumulation of arsenic (As) in tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) from the blackfoot disease (BFD) area in Taiwan. The average concentration of As in pond water ranged from 17.8 to 49 μg L−1. Acute toxicity tests showed that the As concentration that caused toxicity to tilapia ranged from 69 060 μg As L−1, in the 24‐h toxicity test, to 28 680 μg As L−1, in the 96‐h toxicity test. We measured As concentrations in various tissues of tilapia to identify the affinities of tissues for As. Significant correlations were found among the As concentrations in all tissues. The highest bioconcentration factor (BCF) was found in the intestine (maximum value: 2270). The order of BCFs was: intestine > stomach > liver ≃ gill > muscle. Arsenic concentrations in all tissues were allometric, negatively correlating with fish body weight [r2 = 0.63 ± 0.045 (mean ± SE), p < 0.05]. Our results also revealed that As concentrations in muscle tissue were positively correlated with As accumulation in the viscera (r2 = 0.85, p < 0.05). Significantly higher concentrations of As were obtained in the viscera of tilapia [12.65 ± 10.17 μg g−1 dry wt (mean ± SD)] than in the muscle tissue (3.55 ± 0.42 μg g−1 dry wt). Our results suggest that a simple way of reducing the health risk associated with consuming tilapia is to trim and cook the fish properly, that is, removing the viscera of tilapia can greatly reduce the amount of As ingested and consequently reduce the health risks. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 18: 252–259, 2003.


The interactions of certain aromatic nitre compounds with nucleophiles in protic solvents and in protic dipolar aprotic solvent mixtures have been investigated using the techniques of proton magentic resonance and visible spectroscopy. Picrate ion reacts with concentrated aqueous sodium sulphite to give an unusual ion carrying five negative charges. This results from the covalent addition of two sulphite molecules to the picrate ion, at ring carbon carrying hydrogen. At low sulphite concentration a 1:1 adduct is produced. The equilibrium constants for the formation of these complexes have been determined. Solvent effects on the formation of 1:1 adduct were examined in water-dimethyl sulphoxide mixtures. With hydroxide ion in aqueous solutions, the major of the picrate ion is to give a 1:2 adduct.1,2,3,5-Tetranitrobenzene reacts with hydroxide ion or sulphite ion in water, or ethoxide ion in ethanol to form red complexes whose NMR spectra indicate covalent addition of the nucleophile at C(_4). The complexes are not stable and replacement of the nitro group at occurs quickly. The equilibrium and the rate constants for these processes have been measured. In contrast 1,2,4 ,5-tetranitrobenzene reacts with hydroxide ion to give 2,4,5-trinitrophenol without the production of colour. With ethoxide or sulphite ions coloured species are produced. l,3-Dimethoxy-4,6-dinitrobenzene reacts with methoxide ion in dimethyl sulphoxide-methanol mixtures to form an adduct whose NMR spectrum indicates methoxide addition at C(_2). The equilibrium constants in various solvent compositions have been determined. Solvent effects on the stability of Meisenheimer complexes formed from 1,3,5-trinitrobenzene and thiolate ions have been investigated in alcohol-water mixtures. The equilibrium constants for formation of the1:1 adducts are smaller in water than in alcohol but go through a maximum at about 80% alcohol. The equilibrium constants of the 1:2 adducts increase monotonically as the proportion of water is increased and are ca. 10(^3) greater in water than in pure alcohol. This greater stability is attributed partly to the good solvation by water of a localised negative charge on the nitro group between the positions of addition.


On the face of it, Wu Mei (not her real name) represents the modern Chinese woman who has achieved spectacular success. Just thirtyone years old, she makes around one million RMB (roughly $150,000) a year as an attorney in Beijing, a salary that likely places her in the top 1 percent income bracket in China. Slender and beautiful, she could be the perfect cover model for a magazine feature on "China's richest women." Yet, as she speaks, a darker picture emerges. Wu recently managed to obtain a divorce from her abusive husband after five years of marriage, but only by giving up her home, her life savings, and most of her belongings.


Cervical cancer is one of the major causes of death among women worldwide. There is an established linkage between cervical cancer and Oncogenic Human Papilloma virus (HPV) strains 16 and 18. While cervical cancer is widely understood as a fatal disease, knowledge and awareness of cervical cancer and HPV in Uganda has been limited even among health workers. Objectives : To establish the level of knowledge in regard to HPV vaccination among parents/guardians of the vaccinated girls and to assess the attitudes to HPV vaccination among parents/guardians of the vaccinated girls. Methods: A cross-sectional study where 384 mothers/ female guardians of vaccinated girls were recruited into the study. One hundred and sixty four women reported knowing about HPV i.e. 42.7% out of the 384 women. The variables which were significantly associated with knowledge of HPV among the women were; age below 30years, higher education level with P<0.001, Marital status with P<0.001, tribe P=0.021, Religion, P=0.001 and occupation with P <.001. Conclusion: The level of knowledge of HPV among the women of Nakasongola district was relatively low. High education among the mothers contributed to better knowledge. The general attitude towards HPV vaccination was positive among mothers though there is still need for the populations to appreciate HPV and cervical cancer in general.


Two cases of failure of centrifuge baskets were investigated. The first involved a centrifuge running at approximately 1000 rpm. The basket was constructed from a perforated sheet of stainless steel rolled into a cylinder and joined by a single vee longitudinal weld. Detailed examination showed the weld had not completely penetrated the full depth of the section. The fracture faces showed a gradually progressing fatigue crack developing from a notch, formed by the lack of penetration, at the root of the weld. Microscopic examination of the parent plate showed it was a typical titanium stabilized austenitic steel. It is probable that had the basket been subjected to a periodic inspection by a competent person, this failure would not have occurred. The second case concerned a continuous duty centrifuge operating at 2200 rpm. Fracture had occurred at the circumferential weld attaching the stainless steel skirt to the basket rim and also in the region of the vertical weld which was made when the skirt was formed into a cone. Stress-corrosion cracking of the skirt material, which contained residual stresses due to cold-rolling, had been caused by the presence of sodium chloride.


Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus having special affinity for the CD4 receptor molecule, which is present on the surface of T-helper lymphocytes. There are two genetically different but related forms of HIV, HIV-1 and HIV-2, that have been isolated from patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The development of periodontal disease in HIV patients is due to its host-microbial interaction. This results in a compromised host immune system leading to the destruction of periodontal supporting structures. The first clinical signs of HIV infection are often associated with various oral and periodontal manifestations. HIV-associated periodontal lesions may be categorized as unusual forms of gingivitis, necrotizing periodontal diseases, and exacerbated periodontitis. These observations have led to the universal inclusion of almost all oral lesions in staging and classification schemes for HIV infection. In the last few decades, the dentists have played a paramount role in identifying and treating both common and uncommon oral and periodontal lesions in HIV-infected patients. This review aims to provide an update on the pathogenesis, re-activation of HIV, various periodontal manifestations of HIV, and recent updates on HIV management. An in depth understanding of AIDS and its oral manifestations is important for appropriate management of oral lesions in patients infected with HIV.


Combinatorial optimization problems are notoriously challenging for neural networks, especially in the absence of labeled instances. This work proposes an unsupervised learning framework for CO problems on graphs that can provide integral solutions of certified quality. Inspired by Erdos' probabilistic method, we use a neural network to parametrize a probability distribution over sets. Crucially, we show that when the network is optimized w.r.t. a suitably chosen loss, the learned distribution contains, with controlled probability, a low-cost integral solution that obeys the constraints of the combinatorial problem. The probabilistic proof of existence is then derandomized to decode the desired solutions. We demonstrate the efficacy of this approach to obtain valid solutions to the maximum clique problem and to perform local graph clustering. Our method achieves competitive results on both real datasets and synthetic hard instances.


Previous work has shown that genetic diversity at a neutral locus
 is affected by background selection due to recurrent deleterious mutations as though the effective
 population size N e is reduced by a factor that is calculable from genetic parameters such as
 mutation rates, selection coefficients, and the rates of recombination between sites subject to selection
 and the neutral locus. Given that silent changes at third coding positions are often subject to
 weak selection pressures, it is important to develop similar quantitative predictions of the effects
 of background selection on variation and evolution at weakly selected sites. A diffusion approximation
 is derived that describes the effects of the presence of a single locus subject to mutation
 and strongly deleterious selection on variation and evolution at a partially linked, weakly selected
 locus. The results are validated by computer simulations using the Ito pseudo-sampling method.
 We show that both nucleotide site diversity and rates of molecular evolution at a weakly
 selected locus are affected by background selection as though N e is reduced
 in the same way as for a neutral locus. Heuristic arguments are presented as to why the change in N e for the neutral case also applies with weak selection. As in the case of a neutral locus, the number of segregating
 sites in the population is poorly predicted from the change in N e . The
 potential significance of the results in relation to the effects of recombinational environment on molecular variation and evolution
 is discussed.


This paper explores the use of haptic stimuli as non-visual affordances to assist in learnability of bend gestures. We tested 48 haptic Tactons with simulated blind participants to understand what haptic sensation could intuitively map to bend location and direction. We identify that a short, single motor Tacton indicates reliably a bend location, while participants agreed that the combination of two motors with varying intensities could indicate bend direction. This work is the first to explore the use of Tactons to communicate bend gesture location and direction, to eventually create a tactile interaction method for blind smartphone users


A sample of 489 students attending teacher education faculties in the Republic of Croatia were surveyed to examine their satisfaction with the Visual Arts Teaching Methodology course and identify the predictors of their final grades in that course. The results confirmed that students are satisfied with all composite variables (6), which measure different aspects of course quality, and the highest-rated composite variable was course organization. A Stepwise linear regression was used to identify the predictors of the final grades in the course. The analysis returned three hierarchical models with predictors that accounted for 14.6% of the variance in the criterion variable (final grade). An increase in the number of students in lectures, the number of classes missed, and the overall course satisfaction were predictive of higher final grades in the course. The assessment of student satisfaction with classes in higher education can identify the aspects of courses or study programmes that warrant further improvement. The students' satisfaction with a course mostly depends on the quality of their relationship with the teacher and the quality of the teacher's performance in class. Based on the results of previous studies, the assessment of teacher performance in class and the quality of the student-teacher relationships should not depend on the students' final grade.


We report on theoretical studies of molecularly thin Langmuir films on the surface of a quiescent subfluid and qualitatively compare the results to both new and previous experiments. The film covers the entire fluid surface, but domains of different phases are observed. In the absence of external forcing, the compact domains tend to relax to circles, driven by a line tension at the phase boundaries. When stretched (by a transient applied stagnation-point flow or by stirring), a compact domain elongates, creating a bola consisting of two roughly circular reservoirs connected by a thin tether. This shape will then relax slowly to the minimum-energy configuration of a circular domain. The tether is never observed to rupture, even when it is more than a hundred times as long as it is wide. We model these experiments by taking previous descriptions of the full hydrodynamics, identifying the dominant effects via dimensional analysis, and reducing the system to a more tractable form. The result is a free boundary problem for an inviscid Langmuir film whose motion is driven by the line tension of the domain and damped by the viscosity of the subfluid. Using this model we derive relaxation rates for perturbations of a uniform strip and a circular patch. We also derive a boundary integral formulation which allows an efficient numerical solution of the problem. Numerically this model replicates the formation of a bola and the subsequent relaxation observed in the experiments. Finally, we suggest physical properties of the system (such as line tension) that can be deduced by comparison of the theory and numerical simulations to the experiment. Two movies are available with the online version of the paper.


Small species without commercial value are often overlooked in conservation management. Pygmy perches are minature percichthyid fishes from temperate southern Australia of significant conservation concern, with five of the seven described species being threatened nationally. The present paper examines the plight of Yarra pygmy perch Nannoperca obscura, and variegated pygmy perch N. variegata, and discusses the progress of national (and State) recovery-plan actions. Threats and risks to these species are considerable; however, overall, few recovery actions have been completed and the status of many populations is unknown following the recent 'millenium drought'. Habitat restoration, fish rescues, environmental water delivery and research into distribution, ecology and population dynamics are largely driven by individuals within singular local management authorities. Like many small fishes, they receive less attention than do larger ones and a cross-jurisdictional national recovery team is required to prioritise, coordinate and implement conservation efforts before the continued persistence of these species can be assured. These two small fishes are representative of many similar species and the lessons from the present case study may be applied elsewhere throughout the world.


ABSTRACT Mycobacterium bovis infection in wildlife and feral species is a potential source of infection for livestock and a threat to protected and endangered species. The aim of this study was to identify Spanish wild animal species infected with M. bovis through bacteriological culture and spacer oligonucleotide typing (spoligotyping) of isolates for epidemiological purposes. This study included samples from red deer (Cervus elaphus), fallow deer (Dama dama), wild boar (Sus scrofa), Iberian lynx (Lynx pardina), hare (Lepus europaeus), and cattle (Bos taurus). They were collected in several geographical areas that were selected for their unique ecological value and/or known relationships between wildlife and livestock. In the areas included in this survey, M. bovis strains with the same spoligotyping pattern were found infecting several wild species and livestock, which indicates an epidemiological link. A locally predominant spoligotype was found in these areas. Better understanding of the transmission and distribution of disease in these populations will permit more precise targeting of control measures.


The Sabras were the first Israelis - the first generation, born in the 1930s and 1940s, to grow up in the Zionist settlement in Palestine. Socialized and educated in the ethos of the Zionist labor movement and the communal ideals of the kibbutz and moshav, they turned the dream of their pioneer forebears into the reality of the new State of Israel. While the Sabras made up a small minority of the new society's population, their cultural influence was enormous. Their ideals, their love of the land, their recreational culture of bonfires and singalongs, their adoption of Arab accessories, their slang and gruff, straightforward manner, together with a reserved, almost puritanical attitude toward individual relationships, came to signify the cultural fulfillment of the utopian ideal of a new Jew. Oz Almog's lively, methodical, and convincing portrayal of the Sabras addresses their lives, thought, and role in Jewish history. The most comprehensive study of this exceptional generation to date, "The Sabra" provides a complex and unflinching analysis of accepted norms and an impressive appraisal of the Sabra, one that any examination of new Israeli reality must take into consideration. The Sabras became Palmach commanders, soldiers in the British Brigade, and, later, officers in the Israel Defense Forces. They served as a source of inspiration and an object of emulation for an entire society. Almog's source material is rich and varied: he uses poems, letters, youth movement and army newsletters, and much more to portray the Sabras' attitudes toward the Arabs, war, nature, work, agriculture, cooperation, and education. In any event, the Sabra remained central to the founding myth of the nation, the real Israeli, against whom later generations will be judged. Almog's pioneering book juxtaposes the myths against the realities and, in the process, limns a collective profile that brilliantly encompasses the complex forces that shaped this remarkable generation.


The EU-funded project EMI, now at its second year, aims at providing a unified, high quality middleware distribution for e-Science communities. Several aspects about workload management over diverse distributed computing environments are being challenged by the EMI roadmap: enabling seamless access to both HTC and HPC computing services, implementing a commonly agreed framework for the execution of parallel computations and supporting interoperability models between Grids and Clouds. Besides, a rigourous requirements collection process, involving the WLCG and various NGIs across Europe, assures that the EMI stack is always committed to serving actual needs. With this background, the gLite Workload Management System (WMS), the meta-scheduler service delivered by EMI, is augmenting its functionality and scheduling models according to the aforementioned project roadmap and the numerous requirements collected over the first project year. This paper is about present and future work of the EMI WMS, reporting on design changes, implementation choices and longterm vision.


The Australian and New Zealand regions so far were left out of consideration when studying the Linyphiidae (Linyphiinae) on a world-wide basis. When revising the genus Linyphia it appeared that a fair number of species had been described from these regions; but it also became very clear, by a superficial investigation, that these species were so completely different from our European concept of Linyphia and related genera, that they were best put aside then with a view to paying more attention to that part of the world at a later time. A small collection of Linyphiidae from Australian caves, recently received from Mrs. Barbara York Main, Nedlands, Western Australia, offered an excellent opportunity to become better acquainted with the interesting fauna of this continent and the adjacent regions. Together with a number of specimens gathered in the course of years from different museum collections this formed a small but useful basis to start from. The specimens received from Australia and from other musea were used as nuclei of investigation into the literature of this region. Of the formerly described species only those were re-investigated that were considered to be closely related to the species already at hand. The number of species of Linyphiidae that have been described from Australia is very small, only nine. Four more are known from Tasmania. New Zealand (Auckland Island, Campbell Island, and Antipodes Island included, each with one species) is by far the richest, as far as our knowledge of this family goes at present, with 25 species, two of which are more widely distributed over the world. Going north we know one species from Lord Howe Island, one from Norfolk Island, two from New Caledonia, one from the


This article is drawn from a programme of ethnographic observation and interview-based research carried out at magistrates' and Crown Court trials in the north of England. The goal of the paper is to investigate how video links and pre-recorded examination-in-chief have been applied in practice to child witnesses giving evidence. The argument will be made that children are given little say over whether they give evidence through such 'special measures', despite the possible negative implications of doing so. It is argued that this situation arises first from an absence of proper mechanisms to establish the views of the child (engendered by statutory limitations) and, secondly, from the routine working practices of prosecutors in particular, which tend to exclude any consideration for the views of children. Questions will be raised as to whether the proposals set out in the Government's Improving the Criminal Trial Process for Young Witnesses consultation paper will adequately address such problems. The paper concludes by noting that this situation fails to address the child's need to construct a full and uninhibited account during the evidential process and is ultimately of little benefit to the child or the system.


This paper investigates the status of the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) standard in China and analyses key factors influencing its adoption by Chinese enterprises. It applies lessons learnt from studying the implementation of China's mandatory environmental regulations to assess the potential for using this voluntary standard to promote improved environmental performance. Our findings indicate that the number of certified enterprises is growing exponentially and that factors influencing adoption include international trade, transnational corporate policy, government-sponsored environmental projects, the potential for regulatory, economic, and environmental benefits, and the interest of top company management. Evaluation of case studies demonstrates that while the reported benefits of ISO 14001 adoption are often substantial, benefits are often qualitative and more normalised, while quantitative information is needed to conduct analysis that can be generalised within and across industrial sectors. Finally, we synthesise information presented in the body of the paper and make recommendations on steps that can be taken to maximise the efficacy of future ISO 14001 certifications.


Modern energy policy aims to ratchet up the manufacture and use of biofuels, i.e. any fuel produced from biological materials. Yet biofuels derived from agricultural crops and residues, wood, forest residues, or other kinds of plant-based biomass feedstocks can be as environmentally and socially devastating as the finite fossil fuel resources they seek to replace. Often overlooked are their globalization impacts on land grabs, food security, greenhouse gas emissions, drought, deforestation, interference with climate change adaption measures, population displacement, desertification, sea level rise, biodiversity, and scalability. These environmental and social consequences result in food shortages, violent conflicts, urban riots, rural protests, and rising food costs. There is, however, hope for biofuels. Certain other types of biofuels, known collectively as second generation biofuels, are a more suitable alternative for global and regional energy needs because of their availability as well as their significantly reduced public health, environmental, and climate change impacts on society. These new biofuels are derived from algae, seaweed, food waste, and other plant and animal residues. While these biofuels are a more appropriate replacement for fossil fuels than first generation biofuels, they too carry with them potentially significant impacts. Therefore, a cautionary analysis of regulatory and governance regimes for second generation biofuels is critical for improving innovation and investment for this energy resource. To that effect, I provide an inquiry into biofuel law and policy through the theoretical framework of science, technology, society, and the environment (STSE) to assess the hurried development of biofuels and how this biofuel gold rush has had adverse social, economic, and environmental consequences globally. This article concludes with two correlative policy interventions to counter the negative consequences of conventional forest- and agriculturally-based biofuels. First, I question the environmental efficacy of all biofuels as clean energy as defined by the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), including those derived from natural resources that compete with food and timber supplies. Second, I argue that the more stringent Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), as implemented in California and British Columbia, would provide better social and environmental outcomes as a part of the national energy policy plan.


Cloverfield (Reeves US 2008) employs an amateur hand-held-camera styled conceit to narrate a love story centred on young people caught up in an alien attack on New York. The monstrous creature's seemingly inexplicable arrival (accompanied by parasitic spiders) echoes the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US while also intertextually building on a significant history of monster, disaster and sf films. This article investigates how sound and music activate genre identification, narrative features, emotional engagement and marketing operations for the film. Constructed around footage apparently shot by the central protagonists on their home recorder (digicam), the film sound track mostly adheres to this narrative. However, as the analysis shows, the sound is notable for the way it is highly crafted and contrived to be cinematically affective while appearing to be merely sonically 'documenting' the action and events. The article draws on Rick Altman's model of sound in film to demonstrate how the sound track effectively extends the film's 'point of view' with an elaborated 'point-of-audition' sound design.


The study of property is thriving. Having been long dominated by a disintegrative approach building on the bundle of rights concept, property scholarship is reintroducing essentialist models, with the right to exclude featuring prominently as property's core. While the new essentialism school studies various resources, from land to intellectual property, largely missing from its accounts is the most prominent source of wealth: the business corporation. Whereas corporate law theory is increasingly looking beyond the "nexus of contracts" model to illuminate the firm's proprietary foundations, property theory has yet to fit the business corporation into its newly integrative framework. The Article argues that this deficiency is not merely a coincidence. In many ways, the business corporation undermines the paradigms of current property theory. To start with, the underlying notion of divorce of ownership from control in the business corporation seems antagonistic to the owner's right to exclude in property. In addition, while property theory recognizes the need to pool together resources and overcome collective action problems, conventional models of property governance, such as residential community associations, seem alienated from the power relations and vertical authority within the business firm. Specifically, the setting of a majority shareholder enjoying a control premium alongside owing fiduciary duties to dispersed minority shareholders is allegedly at odds with the horizontal governance assumption in contemporary property paradigms. This dissonance does not release, however, property theory from accounting for the core features of the business corporation. Moreover, the Article argues that once we move from a model of substantive essentialism to one that identifies the institutional and structural traits of property, then the corporation becomes a much better fit for property theory. This shift sets the ground for reconceptualizing the firm as a "nexus of property."


The photonic bandgap of periodic multilayers with diffuse interfaces is calculated by considering an empirical model for the interdiffusion profile. The model for the diffuse profile is based on the error function Erf and a characteristic parameter σ. The model is valid for multilayer structures with an arbitrary layer thickness. It is shown that the width of the bandgap varies with the value of σ and the Brillouin zone boundary. Numerical examples are presented. It is suggested that measuring the ratio of the width of the bandgaps at different orders, that is, determining experimentally the ratio of the widths of the different Bragg peaks on a reflectivity curve, can allow estimation of the thickness of the interdiffusion layer.


Abstract Real-life time series have complex and non-linear structures. Artificial Neural Networks have been frequently used in the literature to analyze non-linear time series. High order artificial neural networks, in view of other artificial neural network types, are more adaptable to the data because of their expandable model order. In this paper, a new recurrent architecture for Pi-Sigma artificial neural networks is proposed. A learning algorithm based on particle swarm optimization is also used as a tool for the training of the proposed neural network. The proposed new high order artificial neural network is applied to three real life time series data and also a simulation study is performed for Istanbul Stock Exchange data set.


Understanding their own learning styles can assist students as they relate to one another and ultimately to their future clients. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the preferred learning and personality styles of a convenience sample of Central Michigan University students enrolled in the following health-related professions: Athletic Training, Communication Disorders, Social Work, and Physician Assistant. Method: Students completed two self-administered online instruments used to measure learning styles, the VARK and the online version of the Keirsey Temperament Sorter II (KTS-II). Associations between VARK learning style scores and the online Keirsey Temperament Sorter II results were also examined. Results: Seventy-four percent of the students scored as Guardians (Sensing-Judging) based on the online KTS-II report and 62% were multimodal learners on the online version of the VARK. Conclusion: This study confirmed previous findings that Guardian is the preferred temperament type on the MBTI/KTS-II for health professions students. Average scores on the VARK and the Keirsey did not differ between the various health-related disciplines; however, students scoring as Idealists (Intuition/Feeling) on the Keirsey had significantly higher Aural scores on the VARK when compared to those with Guardian temperaments. There was no significant difference found between Keirsey groups and how they scored on Vark-V (Visual), R/W (Read/Write), or K (Kinesthetic) learning style dimensions.


Thanks to direct access to union databanks, this paper can answer two new questions in Industrial Relations: how long union membership lasts and what are the determinants of its duration. This also allows to conceptualize union membership as a much more dynamic phenomenon than in previous studies, where it was considered a static situation whose causes or eþects were to be investigated. Survival analysis applied to a sample of 48705 workers highlights that union membership duration is a positive, though declining, function of age. Furthermore, women, "flexible" workers, foreign ones and those working in cities tend to show less attachment to union membership than the other workers.


This paper examines the advances made on gender issues in Ghana, particularly regarding how far misogyny is being watered down in educational leadership. The article thence reflects on how society might resolve the question of the effects of misogyny on educational leadership futures and the associated possibilities, and decisively address this enervating question in the decades ahead. The paper discusses how individuals and groups are resisting and challenging their experiences of gender inequalities, as well as attempting to intervene and correct the causes and consequences of gendered power imbalances. The paper does not intend to assess all the facets of gendered life and inequality. Instead, it discusses arguments that have been put forward regarding re-engineering gender spaces for educational leadership futures. Data obtained from two all-boys' schools suggest that gendered inequality is visible in both public and private spheres. However, the validity of the arguments that gender inequalities are still entrenched and persisting over time, place, and culture is contrasted with alternative claims from the data that gendered power relations, and for that matter inequalities, are gradually being eroded. Furthermore, the current academic focus on the concept of intersectionality regarding how variables like gender, tribe, religion, and culture intersect to define people's gendered experiences, is used as the analytical framework. The study of women's educational leadership experiences in this paper is used as a framework to further examine these issues and address some of the debates. The paper concludes with an argument that the study of inequality in relation to gendered identities, relations, and experiences must continue with an exploration of the study of men and masculinities if the theoretical analysis of gender is to be enriched to re-invent genders spaces for educational leadership futures. We also argue the view that to set the agenda for a more equal educational leadership future, society must see the need to link gender closely to other forms of social inequalities.


Abstract Global economic and social life has been severely challenged since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 disease a pandemic. Travel, tourism and hospitality, in particular, has been massively impacted by the lockdowns used to maintain social distance to manage the disease. Robotics, artificial intelligence, and human-robot interactions have gained an increased presence to help manage the spread of COVID-19 in hospitals, airports, transportation systems, recreation and scenic areas, hotels, restaurants, and communities in general. Humanoid robots, autonomous vehicles, drones, and other intelligent robots are used in many different ways to reduce human contact and the potential spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including delivering materials, disinfecting and sterilizing public spaces, detecting or measuring body temperature, providing safety or security, and comforting and entertaining patients. While controversial in the past due to concerns over job losses and data privacy, the adoption of robotics and artificial intelligence in travel and tourism will likely continue after the COVID-19 pandemic becomes less serious. Tourism scholars should seize this opportunity to develop robotic applications that enhance tourist experiences, the protection of natural and cultural resources, citizen participation in tourism development decision making, and the emergence of new 'high-touch' employment opportunities for travel, tourism and hospitality workers.


Since Twitter is capable to quickly send information and a person can casually tweet anything not important enough to write in a diary or a personal feeling, it is ideal to analyze user's emotional feeling as a study subject. For analyzing an area difference in emotional expression between urban and rural area, we conducted a survey for young Twitter users in Tokyo 23 wards and Tokushima city regarding the field of politics as seemingly little interest mainly among young generations, then examined an individual emotional difference by area through analyzing emotional expression of Twitter users in the above-described study subject areas. There was a significant difference in the data median value between Tokyo 23 wards and Tokushima city from the survey results, and the study found a larger emotional intensity in the field of politics for Tokyo 23 wards compared to Tokushima city. The study also confirmed a stronger negative feeling by users in Tokyo 23 wards in terms of a balance between positive expression and negative expression.


Colorectal cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths. At present, anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) cetuximab and panitumumab and anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) mAb bevacizumab have been incorporated into treatment paradigms for patients with refractory metastatic colorectal cancer. However, many patients simply do not respond to these treatments or eventually acquire resistance following a short course therapy. In this article, we review the literature for studies on the expression patterns, prognostic significance and predictive value of HER (also called erbB) family members and other factors for response to therapy with the HER inhibitors in colorectal cancer. We discuss some of the advances, challenges as well as future opportunities for more effective targeting of the HER receptors using a cocktail of HER inhibitors (e.g. dual and pan HER TKIs, monospecific or bispecific antibodies) in combination with other therapeutic interventions.


Scanning electron microscopic studies (SEM) revealed that the radula of Muricanthus kuesterianus resembled that of Muricanthus virgineus in most details. But there were some apparent differences. In Muricanthus kuesterianus rachidian tooth have a broad base than that of Muricanthus virgineus . The base of the median cusp was broad, short, stout and pointed straight towards the anterior end. The left  lateral cusp elongated,  sharp, slightly bent and pointed outwards and the right lateral cusp dorso ventrally flattened and the anterior end small, slightly pointed. In between the median and left lateral cusps, a sharp and pointed denticle is present where as the right laterals and median cups there is no denticle. The lateral teeth which are two in numbers flanked median rachidian. Keywords: Scanning Electron Microscope, Radula, Gastropoda, Muricidae, Muricanthus kuesteianus,


Over the years, several different renewal movements within Christianity have had a significant impact on Melanesian societies and cultures. In people's aspirations for total transformation, however, there has often appeared one insurmountable obstacle: a firm bond between being and place. The Ambonwari people of the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea have faced the same problem since the Catholic charismatic movement reached the village in December 1994. Their cosmology and social organization have always been inseparable from their paths (journeys, marriages, exchanges, adoptions) and places (places of mythological ancestors, old and new villages, places of other groups, places for processing sago, fishing places, taboo places, camps), and their historicity was primarily perceived and defined in terms of place. The adherents of the Catholic charismatic movement attempt to abolish their emplaced past, transcend their territorial boundaries, and simultaneously modify their places. Because Ambonwari cosmology dealt with multiple spatio-temporalities, however, Catholic charismatic leaders find it difficult to undermine this diversity. It is this multiplicity of emplaced historicities that troubles them most and not simply time per se.


We explore the stability of tidal streams to perturbations, motivated by recent claims that the clumpy structure of the stellar streams surrounding the globular cluster Palomar 5 are the result of gravitational instability. We calculate the Jeans length of tidal streams by treating them as a thin expanding cylinder of collisionless matter. We also find a general relation between the density and the velocity dispersion inside a stream, which is used to determine the longitudinal Jeans criterion. Our analytic results are checked by following the time evolution of the phase space density within streams using numerical simulations. We conclude that tidal streams within our Galactic halo are stable on all length scales and over all time-scales.


One of the challenges in laser direct writing with a high numerical-aperture objective is the severe axial focal elongation and the pronounced effect of the refractive-index mismatch aberration. We present the simultaneous compensation for the refractive-index mismatch aberration and the focal elongation in three-dimensional laser nanofabrication by a high numerical-aperture objective. By the use of circularly polarized beam illumination and a spatial light modulator, a complex and dynamic slit pupil aperture can be produced to engineer the focal spot. Such a beam shaping method can result in circularly symmetric fabrication along the lateral directions as well as the dynamic compensation for the refractive-index mismatch aberration even when the laser beam is focused into the material of a refractive index up to 2.35.


The Amazonian Slash-and-Burn Model and the Succession Model, both agentbased models, were developed to help address how much influence prehistoric Amazonian populations practicing slash-and-burn cultivation had on their surrounding environment and if different slash-and-burn cultivation strategies, i.e. short-fallow, bushfallow, and long-fallow, could be identified based on the signatures left behind by these cultivation practices in subsequent forest composition and patterning. Both models were sensitivity tested to determine the validity and predictability of the parameters generated from ethnographic data. The outcome of this testing indicates that varying cultivation and fallow cycle lengths create different proportions of forest land, fallow land, and cultivation land on the total landscape through time. These results suggest that different prehistoric Amazonian slash-and-burn cultivation strategies could potentially be identified in paleoecological records based on the proportional signatures.


'Disability' is one of those words whose definition tears apart scholars and policy-makers. Even people regarded as 'disabled' disagree with the definitions of the word, arguing that they are the product of disadvantage and restrictions imposed by society to exclude them from mainstream activities (UPIAS, 1976: 14). Sadly, that is true, since the definition of the word 'disability' always has a negative connotation. 'Disabled' is also seen as a derogatory word; hence the use of 'persons with disabilities' in most discourses. According to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), a person with disability is one who has a long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment which may hinder her/his full, effective and equal participation in social activities (article 1).


This article critically assesses the ongoing use of the term 'weapons of mass destruction' (WMD) in policy and academic discourse. Nuclear, biological and chemical weapons are commonly lumped together as WMD, but such conflation is misleading from a technological viewpoint and renders the term vulnerable to political manipulation. There are important scientific and strategic differences between weapon types, and glossing over these leads to confusion in accurately assessing and effectively addressing threats of mass destruction. WMD-based language obscures the paramount threat of nuclear weapons, exaggerates the destructive power of chemical weapons, and is unhelpful or counterproductive when used in the context of biological weapons. In the areas of deterrence, defence, and non-proliferation, WMD-based language can mischaracterize the challenges that are uniquely associated with each weapon type, and this potentially generates adverse security consequences flowing from the implementation of inadequate or misdirected countermeasures. The article concludes that it would be both desirable and feasible to abandon the term 'WMD'.


Many e-commerce websites struggle to turn visitors into real buyers. Understanding online users' real-time intent and dynamic shopping cart choices may have important implications in this realm. This study presents an individual-level, dynamic model with concurrent optimal page adaptation that learns users' real-time, unobserved intent from their online cart choices, then immediately performs optimal Web page adaptation to enhance the conversion of users into buyers. To suggest optimal strategies for concurrent page adaptation, the model analyzes each individual user's browsing behavior, tests the effectiveness of different marketing and Web stimuli, as well as comparison shopping activities at other sites, and performs optimal Web page transformation. Data from an online retailer and a laboratory experiment reveal that concurrent learning of the user's unobserved purchase intent and real-time, intent-based optimal interventions greatly reduce shopping cart abandonment and increase purchase conversions. If the concurrent, intent-based optimal page transformation for the focal site starts after the first page view, shopping cart abandonment declines by 32.4% and purchase conversion improves by 6.9%. The optimal timing for the site to intervene is after three page views, to achieve efficient learning of users' intent and early intervention simultaneously.


Nano-MgO carbon composites (MCs) demonstrated great potential in phosphate immobilization to resolve phosphorus reuse and eutrophication problems, but the mechanisms of phosphate immobilization are still unclear. In this study, MCs were fabricated via CO2 activation of hydrochar materials, and the activation mechanisms were first investigated through analysis of pyrolysis gases and porosity. The results indicate that MgO particles (pyrolysis products of MgCl2) catalyzed the consumption of the carbon matrix but blocked the development of carbon matrix pores. Furthermore, phosphate immobilization by MCs increased with the increase of MgO loading content. More importantly, XPS and TEM-EDX profiles demonstrate that solution and surface precipitations regulated phosphate immobilization by MCs. Solution precipitation mainly contributed to a MgHPO4 precipitate, while in surface precipitation the carbon matrix served as a bridge for H2PO4− transmission to MgO particles to produce a Mg(H2PO4)2 precipitate. Also, with the decrease of carbon content, surface precipitation became dominant due to the shortened distance. This contributes to the improvement of phosphate immobilization by MCs, which was found to be even higher than pure MgO. Compared with N2 activated MC, CO2 activated MC showed much higher phosphate immobilization potential attributed to the surface precipitation reaction. The results of this study will guide the development of more efficient MC materials for phosphate recovery.


Since the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy the prognostic of patients
with HIV infection has been improved significantly. We know that most patients who start
HAART achieve a complete immunovirological response but about 10-30% of patients,
according published studies, presents a poor CD4 T cell increment despite indetectable HIV
viral load (discordant immunological response, DIR).The definition of DIR and the
characteristics of patients included in published studies, are heterogeneous and it is difficult to
reach a conclusion respect the prevalence, independent associated factors and clinical outcomes
in patients with DIR. We included 272 naive-antiretroviral HIV infected patients in a
retrospective cohorts study, who started antiretroviral therapy with a HAART regimen in the
HIV Unit of Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre in Madrid between January 1997 and January
2003. The patients included presented a complete HIV viral load suppression at least in two
consecutive determinations during the first year of follow-up and one of them at month 12. The
selected patients had no any concomitant immunossupresor therapy. Epidemiolgy, clinical,
biological and therapeutic variables were collected at baseline visit and the patients were
followed-up every 4 months and the determinations of CD4 cell counts, HIV viral load and
opportunistics diseases (CDC guidelines, Atlanta 1993) were specifically collected too. The
patients were followed-up until 24 months on HAART were completed or until two consecutive
HIV viral load were detectable, the suspension of HAART were necessary or the patient were
lost during the follow-up or dead. DIR was defined as the increment in CD4 cell counts less or
similar to 100cell/mm3 respect baseline count despite indetectable HIV viral load at month 12
on HAART. The study aims were to analyze the DIR prevalence at months 12 and 24, the
independent associated factors to DIR and describe the clinical outcomes observed in patients
with DIR. We analyzed the same goals in patients with less than 200 CD4 cell/mm3 counts at
baseline. The prevalence of DIR was 33% at month12 and 18% at month 24. The independent
associated factors to DIR were a minor baseline HIV viral load (RR=0.52, IC95%=0.33-0.81,
p=0.004), HCV co-infection (RR=2.28, IC95%=1.24-4.19, p=0.008) and d4T versus AZT
treatment (RR=0.48, IC95%=0.25-0.89, p=0.02) at month12 and a minor baseline HIV viral
load (RR=0.48, IC95%=0.26-0.90, p=0.02), HCV co-infection (RR=2.81, IC95%=1.19-6.61,
p=0.01) and a mayor baseline CD4 cell counts (RR=1.36, IC95%=1.09-1.69, p=0.005) at month
24. The opportunistic diseases incidence was 8.4% and there were no significant statistical
differences between patients with and without DIR. The patients with severe baseline
immunodepression had a prevalence of DIR of 33% and 11% at months 12 and 24 respectively;
the independent associated factor to DIR was d4T versus AZT treatment (RR=0.41,
IC95%=0.19-0.87, p=0.02) at month 12 and no independent associated factor were observed at
month 24; the opportunistic diseases incidence was 8.7% and no significant statistical
differences were observed between patients with and without DIR.


We have developed two fundamental components to manufacture a prosthetic skin: a stretchable pressure sensor formed of piezoelectric elastomer/ferroelectret multilayer sandwiched between stretchable electrodes and stretchable thin-film transistors. The components are prepared and embedded in silicone rubber, a polymer, which mimics the mechanical compliance of human skin. We demonstrate the stretchability of the sensory unit. In both relaxed and stretched states, the soft sensor skin transduces kPa pressures into electrical currents in the μA range.


Based largely on industry-level aggregate statistics, the prevailing view, and one that has strongly influenced macroeconomic thought, is that real wages during the cycle containing the Great Depression are either acyclical or countercyclical. Does this finding hold-up when more micro data are employed? We examine this question based on detailed blue-collar workers' company payroll data for a large section of the British engineering and metal working industries. We distinguish between pieceworkers and timeworkers, with pieceworkers accounting for over half the workforce. For the period 1927 to 1937, the two pay groups are broken down into 14 occupations, and 48 travel-to-work geographical districts. We estimate wage and hours cyclicality in respect of the national unemployment rate as well as the district rates. Weekly hours and real weekly earnings are found to be strongly procyclical. Real hourly earnings of pieceworkers are also significantly procyclical. The roles of standard and overtime hours are crucial to these findings.


The authors examined factors related to preschool children's reasoning about including a hypothetical peer with a physical disability in different play activities. They hypothesized that children's inclusion decisions would be influenced by features of the physical environment, attention to issues of fairness and equity, and individual child characteristics. Participants comprised 72 children enrolled in inclusive preschool classrooms. Children's ideas about inclusion and their inclusion decisions were gathered in response to vignettes reflecting experiences that children are likely to encounter in preschool. The authors found that children were significantly more likely to say that they would include a child with a physical disability in an activity requiring few motor skills. Children's inclusion decisions were also significantly associated with their developing theory-of-mind skills and with prompts that encouraged them to consider issues of fairness and equity when making a decision. These results suggest that adaptations of planned activities that promote participation by reducing motor demands for all children, along with attention to issues of fairness and equity of opportunity, may be effective classroomwide interventions to support inclusion of children with disabilities in play activities with peers.


When we speak of childhood, we are speaking of adults' constructions of a time in life that no longer exists for the adult. Children do not generally have a voice in these strongly contested viewpoints. Historically, children were viewed as either evil (being the product of parents' intimacy), innocent and in need of care and nurturing, or miniature adults, who existed alongside their elder counterparts. Policy and practice in Early Childhood Education leans strongly toward the image of the child as innocent, and in need of adult protection, as adults grapple with decisions involving the child's best interests.

On closer examination, however, there are multiple views of childhood, which are not mutually exclusive. This paper uses a template of ten constructions of childhood (Sorin & Galloway, 2005) presented at the first international conference on Childhood in Oslo in 2005, to explore current perception and practice in early childhood education. It challenges practitioners to apply the template to their own taken-for-granted notions of children and childhood and to reconsider what is possible in early childhood perceptions and practices. As this template is still relatively new and fluid, it invites discussion and feedback to the author. Comments can be sent to: firstname.lastname@example.com


The normative concept of transparency, along with the open government laws that purport to create a transparent public system of governance, promises the moon - a democratic and accountable state above all, and a peaceful, prosperous, and efficient one as well. But transparency, in its role as the theoretical justification for a set of legal commands, frustrates all parties affected by its ambiguities and abstractions. The public's engagement with transparency in practice yields denials of reasonable requests for essential government information, as well as government meetings that occur behind closed doors. Meanwhile, state officials bemoan the significantly impaired decision-making processes that result from complying with transparency's sweeping and powerful legal mandates and complain about transparency's enormous compliance costs. This Article argues that the frustrations with creating an open government originate in the concept of "transparency" itself, which fails to consider the tensions it conceals. The easy embrace of transparency as a basis for normative and utilitarian ends evades more difficult questions. When is transparency most important as an administrative norm? To what extent should an agency be held to that norm? Open government laws fall short in answering these questions because, relying on the assumptions of "transparency," they typically operate at exceptionally high levels of abstraction. As a result, they establish both broad mandates for disclosure and broad authority for the exercise of a state privilege of non-disclosure, and they ultimately fail to produce an effective, mutually acceptable level of administrative openness. Transparency theory's flaws result from a simplistic model of linear communication that assumes that information, once set free from the state that creates it, will produce an informed, engaged public that will hold officials accountable. To the extent that this model fails to describe accurately the state, government information, and the public, as well as the communications process of which they are component parts, it provides a flawed basis for open government laws. This Article critiques the assumptions embedded in transparency theory and suggests an alternative approach to open government laws that would allow a more flexible, sensitive means to evaluate the costs and benefits of information disclosure. It also proposes institutional alternatives to the current default regime in open government laws, which relies on weak judicial enforcement of disclosure mandates, and offers substantive suggestions that would improve efforts to establish a more accountable state and an informed public.


The article concerns the two main problems connected to evidentiality in bilingual Macedonian and Albanian political discourse:Firstly, there is a problem of matching the form in the original to its equivalent in translation, which is not trivial in case of perfect in Macedonian-Albanian and Albanian-Macedonian translation. Macedonian perfect is homonymous to some evidential forms, whereas in Albanian there is an expansion of perfect at the expense of aorist. So perfect in both languages under consideration can be better described as a frame, inside which different phenomena take place, using the suitable definition by F. Fici. The translation between the languages provides some algorithms for defining the intent of the form's original meaning.Secondly, the problem of interaction between a grammatical and a lexical marker when used together is described. The bilingual discourse gives some insights as to how the common meaning of the phrase can be drawn from the lexical and grammatical components and then recoded in the target language. Keywords: evidentiality; political discourse; bilingual discourse; perfect; translation


Dietary supplement use is high among breast cancer survivors. One compound natural to cruciferous vegetables, diindolylmethane (DIM), is among the supplements commonly used. This bioactive compound has significant experimental evidence for bioactivity in breast chemoprevention. Sparse evidence in the form of well-designed human clinical trials exist to test its efficacy or safety. Methods: In this double-blind placebo-controlled study women taking tamoxifen for breast cancer primary or tertiary prevention were randomly assigned to receive 150 mg DIM (BioResponse(BR)-DIM) twice daily or a placebo for a minimum period of 12 months. Primary outcome was change in urinary estrogen metabolites 2-hydroxyestrone and 16α-hydroxyestrone (baseline to 6 weeks, 6 and 12 months). Secondary endpoints included breast density by mammogram and fat:water ratio MRI (baseline to 12 months) and serum estrogens (baseline to 6, 12 months). Safety data were also evaluated, including tamoxifen metabolites. Results: Adherence to study pills was >91% by pill count and urinary DIM metabolite assessment. In participants assigned DIM there was a significant and sustained shift in urinary estrogen metabolism favoring a higher 2-OH:16α-OH ratio; sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) was also increased. No change in breast density was demonstrated. Safety analysis showed no appreciable differences in adverse events by treatment arm; however, tamoxifen metabolism for the parent compound as well as endoxifen and 4-OH endoxifen were appreciably reduced in women assigned to the DIM arm. Conclusions In this first large study of DIM in the setting of breast cancer chemoprevention, a favorable shift in estrogen metabolism and SHBG was demonstrated. However, the reduction in tamoxifen metabolites raises concern regarding the potential interaction between DIM and tamoxifen, an area in need of continued research. Impact Given the widespread and generally unsupported use of dietary supplementation by breast cancer survivors, these data will help to inform the use of DIM as a dietary supplement for breast cancer patients receiving tamoxifen.


This paper presents a political economy model of exchange rate policy. The theory is based on a common agency approach with rational expectations. Financial and exporter lobbies exert political pressures to influence the government's choice of exchange rate policy, before shocks to the economy are realized. The model shows that political pressures affect exchange rate policy and create an over-commitment to exchange rate stability. This helps to rationalize the empirical evidence on fear of large currency swings that characterizes exchange rate policy of many emerging market economies. Moreover, the model suggests that the effects of political pressures on the exchange rate are lower if the quality of institutions is higher. Empirical evidence for a large sample of emerging market economies is consistent with these findings.