Recommending TV content to groups of viewers is best carried out when relevant information such as the demographics of the group is available. However, it can be difficult and time consuming to extract information for every user in the group. This paper shows how an audio analysis of the age and gender of a group of users watching the TV can be used for recommending a sequence of N short TV content items for the group. First, a state of the art audio-based classifier determines the age and gender of each user in an M-user group and creates a group profile. A genetic recommender algorithm then selects for each user in the profile, a single personalized multimedia item for viewing. When the number of items to be presented is different to the number of viewers in the group, i.e. M = N, a novel adaptation algorithm is proposed that first converts the M-user group profile to an N-slot content profile, thus ensuring that items are proportionally allocated to users with respect to their demographic categorization. The proposed system is compared to an ideal system where the group demographics are provided explicitly. Results using real speaker utterances show that, in spite of the inaccuracies of state-of-the-art age-and-gender detection systems, the proposed system has a significant ability to predict an item with a matching age and gender category. User studies were conducted where subjects were asked to rate a sequence of advertisements, where half of the advertisements were randomly selected, and the other half were selected using the audio-derived demographics. The recommended advertisements received a significant higher median rating of 7.75, as opposed to 4.25 for the randomly selected advertisements.


Abstract
Context and Setting: Educational system for medical laboratory technologists in Uganda produced many technologists with diploma who cannot freely access postgraduate education. Biomedical scientists are in short supply and production needs scale up.
Why the idea was necessary. Medical laboratory technologists with diploma lack the competence and qualifications required for admission to masters' degree programmes, and are required to undertake lengthy undergraduate degrees as prerequisite. A postgraduate diploma programme that will form a link between the diploma and masters degree is therefore proposed.
What was done: To develop a curriculum that will address this need, a nationwide needs assessment was conducted to determine stakeholders' recognition of the need for the programme and the most appropriate modes of programme delivery. National stakeholders were identified and prioritised and a questionnaire was developed and piloted. The questionnaires were distributed to the stakeholders in Makerere University, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, and Kampala International University. Data were analysed using qualitative and quantitative methods.
Results and Impact: A response rate of 83 % was recorded, 96 % agreed that the programme was needed, and 93 % wanted it implemented immediately. Reasons given for this need included scaling up manpower, production of better qualified scientists, more opportunities for medical laboratory sciences, technological development, and improving healthcare services. The study demonstrated the need for further training of medical laboratory technologists in Uganda. This will address the manpower shortages in biomedical sciences and empower the technologists to become biomedical scientists.


ABSTRACTThis paper provides preliminary evidence on the effect of social norms on CEO pay. Using a sample of sin firms and non-sin firms for the years 1992-2010, we find that CEOs of sin firms earn higher pay than CEOs of non-sin firms. In addition, the bonus and cash pay-performance sensitivities of CEOs of sin firms are higher than the bonus and cash pay-performance sensitivities of CEOs of non-sin firms when performance is measured using accounting returns. These results add to the growing literature on the effect of social norms on financial markets.INTRODUCTIONAkerlof (1980) defines social norms or customs as acts whose utility to the agent performing them depends in some way on the beliefs and actions of others. Social norms are thought to be important determinants of economic behavior (Elster, 1989; Kubler, 2001). In the setting of capital markets, social norms manifest themselves in the form of "socially responsible investing" where investors do not invest in corporations which operate in specific industries perceived to be exploiting human vice (Haigh and Hazelton, 2004; Statman, 2000; Statman, 2006). However, others have argued that investing in stocks that exploit human vice or "sin" stocks provide superior returns when compared to other investment strategies (Ahrens, 2004; Fabozzi, Ma, and Oliphant, 2008; Krantz, 2011; Nelson, 2009; Statman and Glushkov, 2008; Waxier, 2004). Sin stocks are defined as the stocks of publicly traded corporations that are engaged in morally reprehensible productive activities - typically those engaged in the production of alcohol and tobacco products as well those companies operating in the gaming industry.Hong and Kacperczyk (2009) document that social norms can have important effects in capital markets. Specifically, they provide empirical evidence showing that sin stocks are ignored by investors even though they provide superior returns due to a "neglect effect." This is due to investors following social norms for not investing in such stocks. Kim and Venkatachalam (201 1) reinforce this result by documenting that this "neglect effect" holds true even though sin firms possess higher financial reporting quality. We investigate how this "neglect effect" influences CEO pay arrangements at sin firms. Specifically, we examine the association between CEO pay and firm performance for a sample of sin stocks as compared to the general population of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 1500 stocks whose CEO pay data is available on the S&P ExecuComp database for the years 1992-2010.To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to examine the influence of social norms on CEO pay. We add to the small but growing literature on social norms by documenting that CEOs of sin firms earn higher pay than CEOs of non-sin firms, and that the association between CEO pay and firm performance is higher for CEO bonuses and cash pay. The results of this study show how social norms influence the behavior of corporate boards in terms of how they reward their CEOs in addition to their effect on investor behavior and capital markets. This study may also prove to be useful to compensation committees of corporate boards as they determine CEO pay arrangements in the future.The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews the current research on the effects of social norms in financial markets. Section 3 examines CEO pay arrangements in sin firms versus non-sin firms. Section 4 summarizes and offers some concluding comments.SOCIAL NORMS IN FINANCIAL MARKETSBecker's (1957) theory of discrimination is perhaps the earliest work on the influence of social norms on markets. Becker (1957) explains that, in labor markets, agents (employers) may discriminate against hiring individuals possessing certain characteristics (e.g., gender or race), even if this discrimination results in harm (financial costs) to the agents. Akerlof (1980) formally defines social norms or customs as acts whose utility to the agent performing them depends in some way on the beliefs and actions of others. …


This paper offers a new method for estimation and forecasting of the linear and nonlinear time series when the stationarity assumption is violated. Our general local parametric approach particularly applies to general varying-coefficient parametric models, such as AR or GARCH, whose coefficients may arbitrarily vary with time. Global parametric, smooth transition, and changepoint models are special cases. The method is based on an adaptive pointwise selection of the largest interval of homogeneity with a given right-end point by a local change-point analysis. We construct locally adaptive estimates that can perform this task and investigate them both from the theoretical point of view and by Monte Carlo simulations. In the particular case of GARCH estimation, the proposed method is applied to stock-index series and is shown to outperform the standard parametric GARCH model.


Computing techniques are increasingly being used in scientific research to tackle a diverse set of problems. An example is complex systems research, which focuses on the use of computer simulations to explore, understand and describe the real-world system under study. These simulations are often sophisticated pieces of software with numerous design trade-offs between performance and ease of development and use. We propose a simulation framework for complex systems simulation that allows each component of a simulation---for example visualisation, or data analysis---to be developed in the most appropriate language. The framework uses the concept of shared objects to communicate data between simulation components. We present here a detailed motivation for multilingual simulations, an outline design and prototype for the simulation framework, and discuss future plans for the framework.


In 2007, France created the Regulatory Authority for Technical Measures (l'Autorite de Regulation des Mesures Techniques or ARMT), an independent regulatory agency charged with promoting the interoperability of digital media distributed with embedded "technical protection measures" (TPM), also known as "digital rights management" technologies (DRM). ARMT was established in part to rectify what French lawmakers perceived as an imbalance in the rights of copyright owners and end users created when the European Copyright Directive (EUCD) was transposed into French law as the "Loi sur le Droit d'Auteur et les Droits Voisins dans la Societe de l'Information" (DADVSI). ARMT is both a traditional independent regulatory agency and a novel attempt to develop a new governance structure at the national level to address global information economy challenges. The fear that other national governments might follow suit seems to have helped to cool enthusiasm for TPM among some businesses. This Article notes parallels between the limitations imposed on ARMT and those imposed on the first modern independent regulatory agencies that emerged in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Using history as a guide, it is not surprising that the ARMT's exercise of authority has been limited during its early years; it remains possible that ARMT may become a model for legislation in other countries.It took decades before the first American independent regulatory agencies exercised real authority, and their legitimacy was not established beyond question until Roosevelt's "New Deal." Even though information society institutions may evolve quickly, national governments are sure to require more time to develop effective, legitimate ways to ensure that global information and communication technology (ICT) standards conform to their national social policies.


Purpose: Diabetic neuropathy is a chronic and disabling condition that affects a significant number of individuals with diabetes mellitus (DM). Long considered a disease of the peripheral nervous system, there is now increasing evidence of central nervous system (CNS) involvement. Recent advances in neuroimaging methods have improved our understanding of how diabetic neuropathy affects the CNS. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentration of polyols, plasma glucose, and 18-fluordeoxyglucose (18-FDG) uptake correlation in the CNS of Type 1 diabetes mice models. Materials and Methods: We conducted a study using two different Type 1 DM mice models: Streptozotocin induced and non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice models. Positron emission tomography with 18-FDG was used to determine glucose uptake in the frontal cortex and hippocampus. CSF samples were taken from the cisterna magna, while polyol species in the CSF were determined using gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric assays by Sigma Aldrich. Results: The concentration of CSF myoinositol was significantly higher in NOD mice compared to controls (P = 0.001). The 18-FDG uptake was significantly attenuated in NOD mice compared to controls. CSF-myoinositol negatively correlated with 18-FDG uptake in the hippocampal area (ρ = −0.571, P = 0.003) and frontal cortex (ρ = −0.521, P = 0.044). Conclusion: We demonstrated that in the early course of Type 1 DM, there are functional changes in the CNS, precisely in the frontal cortex and hippocampal region, evidenced by elevated myoinositol, which might reflect the initiation of cerebral tissue damage. Whether this suggests that hyperglycemia is toxic for the brain needs further investigation.


Bengal Stream: The Vibrant Architecture Scene of Bangladesh S AM Swiss Architecture Museum, Basel 2 December 2017–24 June 2018

Bengal Stream: The Vibrant Architecture Scene of Bangladesh was an exhibition about dichotomies: coexisting dichotomies, dichotomies in dialogue. The tensions between modernity and tradition, lightness and gravity, silence and chaos, urban and rural, resisting and floating are just some of the productive oppositions that define recent developments in Bangladeshi architecture.

Curated by Niklaus Graber, Andreas Ruby, and Viviane Ehrensberger and produced by the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum in cooperation with the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements, the exhibition brought together more than sixty projects by established and emerging architects in Bangladesh. Two premises are fundamental to understanding Bangladesh's architectural scene. The first, the geoclimatic, was briefly introduced in the exhibition's entrance panel. The second, the historical, was presented didactically in the first room. Bangladesh arose from an extreme territory, the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, a labyrinth of streams, creeks, ponds, marshes, and fertile soil. The monsoons—seasonal warm winds from the Bengal Bay—bring heavy rains that, when added to the Himalayan snow runoff, cause regular annual flooding. Bengali culture emerged in constant dialogue with these unavoidable natural conditions and their rhythms.

The vibrant contemporary architectural scene of Bangladesh, presented in the main exhibition space, owes its timeless language to this dialogue and to the continuous interaction between tradition and modernity, which started with the work and thinking of Muzharul Islam (1923–2012), the intellectual father of a generation of Bangladeshi architects. After studying architecture in the United States and Britain, Islam returned to Bangladesh and started adapting international modernist principles to local culture, climate, and materials. The synthesis he effected required a deep and precise knowledge of little-studied …


Summary Lyme borreliosis is known to be associated with several outdoor professions and activities, but the incidence of Lyme borreliosis in beekeepers has not previously been investigated. We distributed questionnaires based on various earlier investigations and 732 beekeepers responded. We found that in 31.1% of the responders, Lyme borreliosis had been diagnosed. Factors found to be associated with the likelihood of Lyme borreliosis infection were: the estimated percentage of tick bites received during beekeeping (number of tick bites during beekeeping compared to total number of tick bites); the total number of bites; the duration of beekeeping; migratory beekeeping and locating hives in forests. Stepwise discriminant analysis identified the estimated percentage of tick bites received during beekeeping as the most relevant factor. Protection against tick bites was used by only a minority of responders (11.4%). From our results, we must conclude that beekeepers should be considered as a high risk group for Lyme borreliosis when compared to the general population and even forest workers. Education to increase the use of protection must be encouraged in order to decrease the incidence of Lyme borreliosis.


The textile effluents containing dye, printing and processing waste water of Balotra region were collected to study the concentration levels of different salts and metal ions in the effluents. Water samples were collected from ten different locations of Balotra region and various parameters were analysed viz pH, EC, TDS, COD, The concentration of Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl−, NO3 −, F− and the heavy metals (Cu, Fe, Cr, Ni, Zn, Pb Cd), which reveals that effluent discharge from the dyeing and printing textiles has great impact on the quality of water. The results show extreme variation from the standard WHO specifications. The samples were found to contain pH and electrical conductivity in the range 7.1 to 8.7 and EC from 2000 to 9000 μmhos/cm, respectively. The concentrations of biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were found unexpectedly very high. A higher concentration of heavy metals was also detected. The concentration of nitrates and fluorides were very high from the limit set by WHO.


Phrases such as 'the only difference is one of faith' construct Copts and Muslims in Egypt as, although different, mainly the same as each other. Similar constructions of sameness are also dominant in historical and current Egyptian narratives on national unity. However, as a result of the privileging of sameness and the underplaying of differences, the interaction between narratives of sameness and difference has been left unexplored and partly ignored, not only by national movements, but also by research. Thus, the main issue examined in this article is how current Orthodox Christian practices in Egypt take shape under the influence of hegemonic narratives of sameness and difference. Supported by data collected from ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Egypt, the argument is that the Copts, by positioning themselves as Christians in specific locations and situations, are mediating the antithetical potentialities of being the same as or different from the national Muslim majority. In other words, Christianity not only makes a difference as a sign of the Copts' minority position, but also simultaneously offers Copts a way out of their marginal position as a minority.


OBJECTIVES
We assessed the relative efficacy and safety of once-daily administration of 100 and 200 mg filgotinib (a JAK1-selective inhibitor) in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We conducted a Bayesian network meta-analysis combining the direct and indirect evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that examined the efficacy and safety of filgotinib in patients with active RA.

RESULTS
Five RCTs involving 3,920 patients met the inclusion criteria. There were 15 pairwise comparisons, including 8 direct comparisons and 7 interventions. The ACR20 response rate was significantly higher in the filgotinib 200 mg + methotrexate (MTX) group than in the placebo or placebo + MTX group (odds ratio (OR): 12.39, 95% credible interval (CrI): 3.36 - 45.98.10; OR: 2.68, 95% CrI: 1.80 - 4.39). Compared to the placebo group, the filgotinib 100 mg, adalimumab 40 mg + MTX, filgotinib 200 mg, and placebo + MTX groups showed a significantly higher ACR20 response rate. The ranking probability based on the surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) indicated filgotinib 200 mg + MTX was likely to achieve the best ACR20 response rate (SUCRA = 0.902), followed by filgotinib 100 mg + MTX (SUCRA = 0.694), filgotinib 100 mg (SUCRA = 0.675), adalimumab 40 mg + MTX (SUCRA = 0.661), filgotinib 200 mg (SUCRA = 0.305), placebo + MTX (SUCRA = 0.259), and placebo (SUCRA = 0.005). The safety based on the number of serious adverse events (SAEs) did not differ significantly among 6 six interventions.

CONCLUSION
Filgotinib 100 and 200 mg administration once daily in combination with MTX was the most efficacious intervention for active RA, with no significant risk of SAEs.
.


In this article, Professor Gross considers the consequences of a most unlikely turn of events: The abolition of contingent fees in civil litigation in the United States. He anticipates three types of changes that might take place: (1) Finding other ways to shift the risks and costs of litigation away from individual plaintiffs. The most obvious response in this category is cheating -- disobedience to the new rules -- which no doubt would occur. In addition, the abolition of contingent fees would create strong pressures to permit plaintiffs to sell civil tort claims outright (a practice that is now generally prohibited); and might result in the development of a market for litigation insurance, a service now widely used in Germany. (2) Reducing the costs and risks of civil litigation. With civil plaintiffs directly responsible for lawyers' fees, there would be moves to cut those costs -- by limiting lawyers' compensation, simplifying the rules of procedure, and by shifting from ordinary lawyer-controlled civil litigation to self-representation, ADR, and public prosecution. (3) Pursuing fewer claims. The central argument of many opponents of contingent fees is that they stir up frivolous litigation. Eliminating such fees would reduce litigation, but not primarily by eliminating meritless claims. In fact, the sorting of claims by merit would probably get worse, and the number of uncompensated meritorious claims would certainly go up. One likely response would be an increase in first-party insurance, to cover losses that are now compensated through tort litigation. Overall, Professor Gross predicts that the system of compensation for those injuries that are now handled in tort litigation would become more bureaucratic; that regardless of its formal structure, the process would increasingly resemble first-party insurance; and that the role of the lawyers would be sharply reduced.


MODERN HISTORY AND POLITICS Possessors and Possessed: Museums, Archaeology, and the Visualization of History in the Late Ottoman Empire, by Wendy M.K. Shaw. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA and London, UK: University of California Press, 2003. xi + 225 pages. Maps. Illustrations. Notes to p. 245. Bibl. to p. 260. Index to p. 269. $60. Informed by the novel critical insights offered by postcolonial studies, cultural history today witnesses a growing interest in the ways by which the non-Western world "spoke back" to the West in its own creative modes and multifarious tongues. The present challenge is to map out a more inclusive and diverse history of cultural representation for the modern past, whereby cultures exposed to Western hegemony (through colonization or local programs of modernization) are considered active participants in a complex web of cross-cultural exchange, albeit shaped by the dynamics of an unequal power relationship. The book under review takes up this challenge, delving into uncharted terrain in the history of Euro-Ottoman cultural exchange. In the context of Late Ottoman history, it focuses on the emergence and development of one of the most symbolically charged institutions serving the modern state, the museum. Shaw's aim is to examine the manner in which this institution, so central to the formation of Western self-identity, was appropriated by the Late Ottoman state, and transformed in accordance with the shifting political agendas and cultural aspirations of the modernizing elite. Shaw investigates the Ottoman museum, alongside the cultural, legal, and scholarly practices that surround it (e.g, archaeology, or antiquities laws), as an index of modes of Ottoman self-identification and projection in the final century of the empire. The Ottoman Museum's beginnings can be traced back to the 1840s, the early years of the Tanzimat, when it developed out of a dynastic repository of relics and military spolia into a secular collection of arms and Helleno-Byzantine antiquities. In the first chapter, the author situates the emergence of the modern Ottoman museum against the backdrop of traditional practices of collecting in the Ottoman realm, where objects on display served as potent markers of dynastic power and control. Her emphasis on historical continuities, an exception in Late Ottoman studies, is quite pertinent, as it enables the reader to link the particularities of the early museum with pre-existing cultural propensities. The subsequent chapters trace various stages in the development of the museum, from the efflorescence of the antiquities collection under the directorship of Osman Hamdi Bey and the belated addition of an Islamic arts section (1889), to the re-emergence of the military museum under the auspices of the Young Turk regime as an instrument of nationalist propaganda and resistance. …


Functional brain imaging of 6-month-old infants with a high familial risk for autism predicts a diagnosis of autism at 24 months of age. Predicting the future with brain imaging In a new study, Emerson et al. show that brain function in infancy can be used to accurately predict which high-risk infants will later receive an autism diagnosis. Using machine learning techniques that identify patterns in the brain's functional connections, Emerson and colleagues were able to predict with greater than 96% accuracy whether a 6-month-old infant would develop autism at 24 months of age. These findings must be replicated, but they represent an important step toward the early identification of individuals with autism before its characteristic symptoms develop. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social deficits and repetitive behaviors that typically emerge by 24 months of age. To develop effective early interventions that can potentially ameliorate the defining deficits of ASD and improve long-term outcomes, early detection is essential. Using prospective neuroimaging of 59 6-month-old infants with a high familial risk for ASD, we show that functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging correctly identified which individual children would receive a research clinical best-estimate diagnosis of ASD at 24 months of age. Functional brain connections were defined in 6-month-old infants that correlated with 24-month scores on measures of social behavior, language, motor development, and repetitive behavior, which are all features common to the diagnosis of ASD. A fully cross-validated machine learning algorithm applied at age 6 months had a positive predictive value of 100% [95% confidence interval (CI), 62.9 to 100], correctly predicting 9 of 11 infants who received a diagnosis of ASD at 24 months (sensitivity, 81.8%; 95% CI, 47.8 to 96.8). All 48 6-month-old infants who were not diagnosed with ASD were correctly classified [specificity, 100% (95% CI, 90.8 to 100); negative predictive value, 96.0% (95% CI, 85.1 to 99.3)]. These findings have clinical implications for early risk assessment and the feasibility of developing early preventative interventions for ASD.


Abstract Mobile technologies offer new affordances for teacher observation in teacher education programs, albeit under-examined in contrast to video technologies. The purpose of this article is to investigate the integration of mobile technologies into teacher observation. Using a case study method, the authors compare the traditional narrative paper-pen, mobile app-supported, and video observation methods. Participants included 2 experienced teachers of English as a Foreign Language who were selected as the observers and observees in a higher education institutional context. The data was collected in three different teaching sessions over 4 weeks. Data sources included lesson observation notes and semi structured interviews conducted with teachers after each session. Results suggest recommendations for the integration of mobile and video based observation tools into teacher professional development programs, preservice and in-service teacher education programs, as well as teacher certificate programs. ABSTRACT Mobile technologies offer new affordances for teacher observation in teacher education programs, albeit under-examined in contrast to video technologies. The purpose of this article is to investigate the integration of mobile technologies into teacher observation. Using a case study method, the authors compare the traditional narrative paper-pen, mobile app-supported, and video observation methods. Participants included 2 experienced teachers of English as a Foreign Language who were selected as the observers and observees in a higher education institutional context. The data was collected in three different teaching sessions over 4 weeks. Data sources included lesson observation notes and semi structured interviews conducted with teachers after each session. Results suggest recommendations for the integration of mobile and video based observation tools into teacher professional development programs, preservice and in-service teacher education programs, as well as teacher certificate programs.


The scientific literature on the diversity and biological characteristics of sharks and rays from the Andaman and Nicobar Archipelago fishing grounds is scarce and compromised by species misidentifications. We carried out systematic fish landing surveys in South Andamans from January 2017 to May 2018, a comprehensive and cost-effective way to fill this data gap. We sampled 5,742 individuals representing 57 shark and ray species. Of the 36 species of sharks and 21 species of rays landed, six species of sharks - Loxodon macrorhinus, Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos, Sphyrna lewini, Carcharhinus albimarginatus, Carcharhinus brevipinna, and Paragaelus randalli dominated landings and comprised 83.35 % of shark landings, while three species of rays were most abundant – Pateobatis jenkinsii, Himantura leoparda and H. tutul, and comprised 48.82 % of ray landings. We report size extensions for seven shark species as well as three previously unreported ray species, increasing the known diversity for the islands and for India. For sharks, mature individuals of small-bodied species (63.48 % males of total landings of species less than 1.5 m total length) and immature individuals of larger species (84.79 % males of total landings of species larger than 1.5 m total length) were mostly landed; whereas for rays, mature individuals were predominantly landed (80.71 % males of total landings) likely reflecting differences in fishing patterns as well as habitat preferences and life history stages across species. Further, juvenile sharks and gravid females were landed in large quantities which might be unsustainable in the long-term. Landings were female-biased in C. amblyrhynchos, S. lewini and P. jenkinsii, and male-biased in L. macrorhinus and H. leoparda, indicating either spatio-temporal or gear specific sexual segregation in these species. Understanding these nuances - the composition and biology of sharks and rays landed in different fisheries seasonally will inform future conservation and fishery management measures for these species in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.


Background Insight into user adherence to Web-based intervention programs and into its relationship to intervention effect is needed. Objective The objective of this study was to examine use of a Web-based self-help intervention program, the Chinese version of My Trauma Recovery (CMTR), among Chinese traumatized individuals, and to investigate the relationship between program use and user characteristics before the intervention and change in outcomes after the intervention and at 3-months' follow-up. Methods The sample consisted of 56 urban survivors of different trauma types and 90 rural survivors of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, who used the CMTR in 1 month on their own or guided by volunteers in a counseling center. Predictors were demographics (sex, age, highest education, marital status, and annual family income), health problems (trauma duration, posttraumatic symptoms, and depression), psychological factors (coping self-efficacy), and social factors (social functioning impairment and social support). Program use was assessed by general program usage (eg, number of visiting days) and program adherence (eg, webpages completed in modules). Outcome measures were the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS), Symptom Checklist 90-Depression (SCL-D), Trauma Coping Self-Efficacy scale (CSE), Crisis Support Scale (CSS), and Social Functioning Impairment questionnaire (SFI) adopted from the CMTR. Results (1) Program use: rural participants had a larger total number of visiting days (F1,144=40.50, P<.001) and visited more program modules in 1 month (χ23=73.67, P<.001) than urban participants. (2) Predictors and program use: total number of visiting days was correlated with CSS at pretest (r=.22, P=.009), and total number of completed webpages was associated with SFI at pretest (r=.19, P=.02). Number of webpages completed in modules was correlated with all demographic, disease severity, psychological, and social factors at pretest. (3) Program use and outcomes change: in general, use of the triggers and self-talk modules showed a consistent positive association with improvement in PDS, SCL-D, SFI, and CSE. The relaxation module was associated with positive change in PDS, but with negative change in CSS and SFI. The professional help module was associated with positive change in SCL-D, but its use on the first day was associated with negative change in CSS and CSE. The unhelpful coping module was associated with negative change in SFI. The mastery tools module showed a consistent association with negative change in PDS and SCL-D. Conclusions These findings suggest that both individual (eg, demographic, health problems, psychological) and social factors (eg, social functioning, social support) should be considered when delivering Web-based interventions, particularly in collectivist cultures. Specific program adherence indicators (eg, webpages completed in each module, activity types completed), rather than general program usage indicators (eg, total number or time of visiting), should be developed to examine the effectiveness of various program modules or elements. Clinical Trial Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12611000951954; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=343399 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6G7WyNODk)


INTRODUCTION Since numerous years, mobile phone is used for different professional purposes, particularly by senior managers in the workplace. And this technology is more and more used in the workplace since mobile applications have been integrated to actual enterprise business strategies. Individual adoption of technology has been studied extensively in the workplace (Brown & Venkatesh, 2005). Far less attention has been paid to adoption of technology in the household (Brown & Venkatesh, 2005). Obviously, mobile phone is now integrated into our daily life. According to the more recent forecast of Gartner Research, 1.22 billion of mobile phones have been sold throughout the world in 2008, a 6 percent increase over 2007 sales (Gartner Newsroom, 2008). And, as the tendency is showing up, mobile phone use will be still increasing in the future. The purpose of this study is then to investigate who really are the users of a mobile phone and what are the determining factors who make such that they are using a mobile phone? Few studies have been conducted until now which investigate the intention to adopt a mobile phone by people in household (in the case of those who do not yet own a mobile phone) or the use of mobile phone in the everyday life of people in household (in the case of those who own a mobile phone). Yet we can easily see that mobile phone is actually completely transforming the ways of communication of people around the world. It is therefore crucial to more deeply examine the determining factors in the use of mobile phone by people in household. This is the aim of the present study. The related literature on the actual research area of mobile phone is summarized in Table 1. In addition to the summary of literature on the actual research area of mobile phone presented in Table 1, other researchers have identified some factors which may increase the use of mobile phone by people in household. For example, in a large study conducted in 43 countries of the world, Kauffman and Techatassanasoontorn (2005) noted a faster increase in the use of mobile phone in countries having a more developed telecommunications infrastructure, being more competitive on the wireless market, and having lower wireless network access costs and less standards regarding the wireless technology. And a study involving 208 users by Wei (2008) showed that different motivations predict diverse uses of mobile phone. According to the Wei's findings, mobile phone establishes a bridge between interpersonal communication and mass communication. As we can see in the summary of literature related to mobile phone presented above, few studies until now examined the determining factors in the use of mobile phone by people in household. Thus, the present study brings an important contribution to fill this gap as it allows a better understanding of the impacts of mobile phone usage into people's daily life. It focuses on the following two research questions: (1) Who are the buyers of mobile phone for household use? (2) What are the determining factors in the use of mobile phone by people in household? The paper builds on a framework suggested by Fillion (2004) in the conduct of hypothetico-deductive scientific research in organizational sciences, and it is structured as follows: first, the theoretical approach which guides the study is developed; second, the methodology followed to conduct the study is described; finally, the results of the study are reported and discussed. THEORETICAL APPROACH This study is based on the theoretical foundations developed by Venkatesh and Brown (2001) to investigate the factors driving personal computer adoption in American homes as well as those developed by Brown and Venkatesh (2005) to verify the determining factors in intention to adopt a personal computer in household by American people. In fact, Brown and Venkatesh (2005) performed the first quantitative test of the recently developed model of adoption of technology in households (MATH) and they proposed and tested a theoretical extension of MATH integrating some demographic characteristics varying across different life cycle stages as moderating variables. …


A dynamic elastic local buckling analysis is presented for a pile subjected to an axial impact load. The pile is assumed to be geometrically perfect. The interactions between the pile and the surrounding soil are taken into account. The interactions include the normal pressure and skin friction on the surface of the pile due to the resistance of the soil. The analysis also includes the influence of the propagation of stress waves through the length of the pile to the distance at which buckling is initiated and the mass of the pile. A perturbation technique is used to determine the critical buckling length and the associated critical time. As a special case, the explicit expression for the buckling length of a pile is obtained without considering soil resistance and compared with the one obtained for a column by means of an alternative method. Numerical results obtained show good agreement with the experimental results. The effects of the normal pressure and the skin friction due to the surrounding soil, self-weight, stiffness and geometric dimension of the cross section on the critical buckling length are discussed. The sudden change of buckling modes is further considered to show the 'snap-through' phenomenon occurring as a result of stress wave propagation.


Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of nanoencapsulated Centella asiatica and Zingiber officinale extract, with the dose of 3000 mg/day, in reducing cellulite and improving the composition of subcutaneous adipose. Methods: This study used the quasi-experimental with pre and post-controlled design using 38 female subjects who suffer cellulite and have BMI > 25, and met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Subjects were grouped randomly into the 28-day treatment group, the 42-day treatment group, and control group. Subjects in the treatment groups received the tested herbal with 3000 mg/day (2 x 3 capsules @500 mg) that should be taken in determined duration. Appearance of cellulite and lipid profile were observed and body composition analysis was performed before and after treatment. Data were analyzed using T-test, Wilcoxon or Mann-Whitney, while the comparison of the three treatment groups was tested with ANOVA with 95% confidence level (p Results: The administration of the drug for 28 days can significantly repair the cellulite grade. There was a significant improvement in cholesterol/HDL ratio, which showed that the 28-day treatment group was better than the 42-day treatment group. Compared to control group, the 28-day and the 42-day treatment groups showed better clinical improvements in total cholesterol, LDL, the ratio of LDL/HDL, fasting blood sugar, weight, BMI, body fat, body fat percentage, left and right arm fat, trunk fat, left thigh fat, and cellulite grade. Conclusion: Nanoencapsulated extract of C. asiatica and Z. officinale can improve cellulite, lipid profile, and subcutaneous fat. Key words: Centella asiatica, Zingiber officinale , Cellulite, Subcutaneous fat.


Sparse subspace clustering (SSC) represents each data point as a sparse linear combination of other data points in the dataset. In the representation learning step SSC finds a lower dimensional representation of data points, while in the spectral clustering step data points are clustered according to the underlying subspaces. However, both steps suffer from high computational and memory complexity, preventing the application of SSC to large-scale datasets. To overcome this limitation, we introduce Selective Sampling-based Scalable Sparse Subspace Clustering (S5C) algorithm which selects subsamples based on the approximated subgradients and linearly scales with the number of data points in terms of time and memory requirements. Along with the computational advantages, we derive theoretical guarantees for the correctness of S5C. Our theoretical result presents novel contribution for SSC in the case of limited number of subsamples. Extensive experimental results demonstrate effectiveness of our approach.


A system for on-line measurements of trace components with concentrations as low as a few pptv has been developed on the basis of proton transfer reactions. Medical applications by means of breath analysis allow the monitoring of metabolic processes in the human body, and examples of food research include investigations of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from fruit, coffee and meat. Investigations of VOC emissions from decaying biomatter and on-line monitoring of the diurnal variations of VOCs in ambient air are typical examples of environmental applications.


"That's what she said": The effect of emotional prosody on the interpretation of intent. Jennifer M. Roche The University of Memphis Rick Dale The University of Memphis Abstract: Nygaard and Lunders (2002) have shown that emotional prosody impacts the resolution of lexical ambi- guity during spoken language, yet sentential meaning is often ignored (Snedeker, 2008). The integration of linguistic and non-linguistic cues to speech is vital for successful interpretation of intent. Experiment 1 evaluated the perception of sentential contexts with emotional prosody (e.g., irritation, disgust, neutral, compassion, sarcasm and innuendo). Results suggested that listeners have the ability to differentially categorize the intent behind statements, based on emotional prosody. Experiment 2 evaluated the online process of categorizing sentences with emotional prosody, via systematic curvatures in the arm using the Wii remote. Results of Experiment 2 suggest that a perceiver's arm curvatures are reflective of the differentially interpreted categorized emotional information when the sentences remained stable. This supports the notion that emotional information plays a large role in the interpretation of sentential meaning, as it sharply influences the interpretation of intent.


This paper presents a theoretical method to solve the free vibration and transient responses of a rectangular plate-cavity system. The spectral collocation method was used to solve the resonant frequencies and corresponding mode shapes of rectangular plates based on Kirchhoff thin-plate and Mindlin-Reissner thick plate theories. A linear velocity potential function was employed to model the fluid pressure applied to the plate surface. Unlike in previous studies, it was not assumed that the wet-mode shapes were the same as the dry-mode ones. Rather, the wet modes were assumed to be the superposition of the dry modes; then, the resonant frequencies and corresponding mode shapes of the wet modes could be obtained by solving the equations of the coupled system by exploiting the orthogonality of dry modes. Using dry modes' orthogonality and superposition of the wet modes, the transient responses of the rectangular plate-cavity system under impact loading can be solved. A method for estimating the resonant frequencies of the coupled system is proposed based on parametric studies to determine the influence of the fluid properties and plate materials on resonant frequencies. As a result, the resonant frequencies and transient responses obtained from the proposed theoretical methods are in excellent agreement with those obtained finite element analysis.


Abstract Venture Capital (VC) funding raised by companies producing Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions is on the rise. In healthcare, VC funding is distributed unevenly and certain technologies have attracted significantly more funding than others. The funding decisions made by VC companies also work as a technology driver for the industry. We analyzed a database of 106 Healthcare AI companies collected from open online sources to understand factors affecting VC funding of AI companies operating in different areas of healthcare. Companies acting as R&D catalysts have been most succesful in raising VC funding. The results suggest that there is a significant connection between higher funding and having research organizations and pharmaceutical companies as the customer of the product or service. In addition, focusing on AI solutions that are applied to direct patient care delivery is associated with lower funding. We discuss the implications of our findings on health technology research and development, and on the barriers of platform data markets in healthcare industry.


The purpose of this paper is to discuss in detail the numerical techniques used to investigate the effects of Thermoelectric Magnetohydrodynamics on dendrtic growth. A numerical model is proposed which couples the growth mechanics, solution to the electric potential, fluid mechanics and the transport of heat and mass. The implementation of the equations, solution techniques and the coupling between each of the various physical phenomena is described. A finite difference sharp interface enthalpy based method is used to solve the evolution of the liquid/solid front. The electric potential becomes the solution to Laplace's equation, with a boundary condition applied to the interface and a sub meshing technique is applied to improve the accuracy. The problem is also inherently 3-dimensional and it can be shown analytically that classical 2-dimensional approximations lead to stagnation of the flow. Therefore a quasi 3-dimensional approximation is used which effectively allows simulations to be carried out in 2-dimensions, which significantly reduces the computational time required.


Abstract The Nelson Mineral Belt, part of the Dun Mountain Ophiolite Belt of Permian age, in the north of the South Island of New Zealand, was the subject of intense interest soon after the European settlement of New Zealand owing to the discovery of copper and chromite mineralization. The first geologist to survey the Mineral Belt in east Nelson was Thomas Ridge Hacket (c. 1830–1884), who arrived from Britain in 1857, although he was primarily interested in the mineralization. The first scientific description of the belt followed the visit in 1859 of the geologist Ferdinand von Hochstetter (1829–1884) of the Austrian Geological Survey who regarded the belt as a sill. He recognized that Dun Mountain was not serpentinite, like the rest of the belt, but an olivine-rich rock that he named dunite. von Hochstetter tentatively considered that thick mafic rocks of the Brook Street Volcanics, that were then considered to be intrusives rather than sedimentary, may have been a correlative of the Mineral Belt. Between the belt and the Brook Street rocks he mapped the Wooded Peak Limestone and Maitai Slates. von Hochstetter tentatively assigned a Mesozoic age to all of the above rocks and for nearly 100 years Mesozoic sedimentary rocks in many parts of New Zealand were regarded as a correlative of the Maitai Slates. Both Hacket and von Hochstetter confirmed an abundance of chromite in the Mineral Belt, a finding that resulted in the building of New Zealand's first railway. Mining was short-lived but hopes were raised that gold might be found following Hacket's move to Queensland in the late 1860s. He recognized that the Gympie gold-fields had many similarities with Dun Mountain and reasoned that east Nelson might also be auriferous. This was taken up by men in Nelson such as Sir David Monro (1813–1877) and William Wells (1810–1893) who were keen geological observers, and by Monro's son in law Dr, later Sir James, Hector (1834–1907) who was director of the New Zealand Geological Survey. In 1870, Hector arranged for Edward Heydelbach Davis (1845–1871) to undertake a detailed examination of the Permo-Triassic rocks of east Nelson. Davis, like Hacket, regarded the Mineral Belt as metamorphosed Maitai rocks. As well as demonstrating that the east Nelson rocks did not contain economic concentrations of gold, copper or chromite, Davis showed that they were distinct from what had been thought to be similar rocks in the Coromandel gold-fields in North Island of New Zealand. This was the first, if not fully appreciated, step to limit the Maitai rocks. Hacket's correlation of the Gympie and Dun Mountain rocks was forgotten until the advent of plate tectonics. The various major rock units in Nelson are now recognized as terranes that accumulated as a result of convergent plate tectonics along the Mesozoic margin of Gondwanaland.


Selenium Technologies has been conducting preliminary design work on a manned lunar lander for use in NASA's First Lunar Outpost (FLO) program. The resulting lander is designed to carry a crew of four astronauts to a prepositioned habitat on the lunar surface, remain on the lunar surface for up to 45 days while the crew is living in the habitat, then return the crew to earth via direct reentry and land recovery. Should the need arise, the crew can manually guide the lander to a safe lunar landing site, and live in the lander for up to ten days on the surface. Also, an abort to earth is available during any segment of the mission. The main propulsion system consists of a cluster of four modified Pratt and Whitney RL10 rocket engines that use liquid methane (LCH4) and liquid oxygen (LOX). Four engines are used to provide redundancy and a satisfactory engine out capability. Differences between the new propulsion system and the original system include slightly smaller engine size and lower thrust per engine, although specific impulse remains the same despite the smaller size. Concerns over nozzle ground clearance and engine reliability, as well as more information from Pratt and Whitney, brought about this change. The power system consists of a combination of regenerative fuel cells and solar arrays. While the lander is in flight to or from the moon, or during the lunar night, fuel cells provide all electrical power. During the lunar day, solar arrays are deployed to provide electrical power for the lander as well as electrolyzers, which separate some water back into hydrogen and oxygen for later use by the fuel cells. Total storage requirements for oxygen, hydrogen, and water are 61 kg, 551 kg, and 360 kg, respectively. The lander is a stage-and-a-half design with descent propellant, cargo, and landing gear contained in the descent stage, and the main propulsion system, ascent propellant, and crew module contained in the ascent stage. The primary structure for both stages is a truss, to which all tanks and components are attached. The crew module is a conical shape similar to that of the Apollo Command Module, but significantly larger with a height and maximum diameter of six meters.


This article presents a material ecosystemic approach as a theoretical grounding for understanding digital technologies as potential catalysts of socioeconomic development. Through such an approach, talk of "technology" is replaced by talk of the "material." Material is understood as inclusive of the human-made as well as the natural, of humanrelationships, human bodies, and words spoken. And the social is always necessarily materialized. These elements provide some clues as to how to move toward an improved ethic of design. The case of mobile phone use for financial practices among low- and lower-middle-income urban Ugandans is offered as a substantive case. The particular assumptions of modernization underlying calls for "financial inclusion" and the distinction between informal and formal are reconsidered through the lens of material ecosystemic analysis.


Canada's boreal forest is one of the largest and most ecologically significant ecosystems on the planet and the source of supply for one of Canada's most significant natural resource sectors. Recognizing this, forest companies and environmental organizations in Canada came together to create the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA) in 2010, creating a unique and unprecedented approach and a new era in conservation and resource management. Communications Consultant Roisin Reid uses the framework of Collective Impact to reflect retrospectively on the creation and development of the CBFA and considers whether Collective Impact offers further insights into how this work might proceed as they move from Phase III–Organizing for Impact to Phase IV–Sustaining Action and Impact.


The study attempted to identify factors affecting career uncertainty as perceived by college students in a university in the Philippines. One hundred thirteen students responded to a brief free-response questionnaire in which they were asked to describe experiences that have led to them being either certain or uncertain about their future careers, their feelings resulting from certainty or uncertainty, and either supportive actions towards certainty or coping mechanisms employed during uncertainty. The data were transcribed and coded into themes based on Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT). Follow-up interviews were conducted with volunteer participants to validate questionnaire data. Results suggest that career uncertainty may be influenced more by outcome expectations (such as expectation of finding a high-paying job) rather than self efficacy or other contextual supports and barriers (such as parental pressure). The data also suggest that information and guidance received prior to the collegiate years may be an influential factor in career uncertainty. Suggestions for career guidance for college students and future research into the utility of SCCT in the Filipino context are made.


This thesis examines the reform of the legislative regime for governing offshore oil
development on Australia's continental shelf. In particular, the thesis explores how
several factors have combined to shape the Commonwealth's offshore petroleum
legislation at various stages since its original enactment. The more important of these
factors include questions of constitutional law, the impact of the emerging law of the sea,
the Commonwealth's policy-making and administrative expertise, and the input of state
governments and the oil industry to Commonwealth offshore policy.
The thirty year history of the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act can be considered as
having evolved through four distinct phases. During the 1960s, the Commonwealth
legislated to accommodate the states' much greater capacity to administer offshore oil
development. The second phase of offshore policy in the 1970s is characterized by the
Commonwealth's assertion of its superior legislative capabilities over offshore areas visa-vis
the states. Following the associated inter-governmental tension, the third
evolutionary phase in the early 1980s represents a return to a collaborative offshore
policy approach. The fourth phase corresponds with the current mature state of the regime
wherein the Commonwealth now prevails in offshore petroleum policy but still involves
the states directly in continental shelf policy making under Commonwealth law. Despite
the responsibilities of the Commonwealth and states shifting over time because of the
influence of the factors identified above, the participation of both spheres of government.
in continental shelf policy has never been seriously doubted. This thesis argues that it is
the joint exercise of decision-making powers by the Commonwealth and states that has
provided stability to an otherwise volatile area of natural resources policy. In strictly legal terms, the Commonwealth could have asserted its jurisdiction in
respect of the extended continental shelf when it first entered this legislative policy field
in 1967. Because of the particular combination of factors prevailing at that time, however,
the Commonwealth instead vacated to the states the policy field of offshore petroleum.
The early role assumed by the states assured them of continued participation in the
Commonwealth's offshore petroleum regime, even after offshore jurisdiction was divided
three miles offshore in 1980 as part of the Offshore Constitutional Settlement (OCS). At the same time, the Commonwealth has come to realize the necessity of state
government input to its continental shelf regime. While the Commonwealth has
increasingly legislated to reduce the role of the states in offshore petroleum policy, this
sphere of government still participates directly in administering the continental shelf
regime through the exercise of Commonwealth powers.
That the Commonwealth has progressed its marine resources policies within the
context of the OCS without sending Australia back into another phase of offshore
disputation testifies to the maturation of this policy area, and the legal and administrative
regimes established to govern offshore petroleum development. The thesis shows that the
regime established under the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act has handled
jurisdictional issues with a high degree of success through its evolving partnership
between the Commonwealth and the states. Although the offshore petroleum regime does
have some shortcomings, the legislation nonetheless provides a model by which
jurisdictional differences over offshore resources can be overcome. Thus, the offshore
petroleum regime established under the OCS arrangements has relevance for other
federations struggling with offshore jurisdiction issues, particularly the United States.


In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke argues against the claim that there are innate ideas. His arguments consisted in the denial of universal assent, the incoherency of innate ideas, and the formation of principles by inductive means. In this paper, I attempt to show why these arguments do not work in showing that there are no innate ideas and also propose and defend Gottfried Leibniz's model of dispositional innatism — the claim that we are born with at least innate dispositions or tendencies to have particular beliefs. I use the ordinary conception of memories as a proper analogy for how innate ideas can exist in a mind even without the agent being aware of them, as well as how those ideas may vary in degree of innateness in the context of being dispositions. I then end by defending the claim that we are innately disposed to believe in a mind-independent world, despite there being prima facie contrary evidence from Jean Piaget's stages of development in his work on child psychology. Consequentially, this will allow for further exploration into what innate dispositions, in general, would entail in the development of minds and belief-forming for human beings.


Abstract My essay focuses on the construction of identity in virtual spaces but with an emphasis on Facebook. The purpose of my thesis is to analyze the construction of identities online and the characteristics attributable to online identities. Also, I attempt to draw a comparison between the modernist and postmodernist concept of self presentation and how they operate. With my essay, I demonstrate that the modernists view of self presentation online is arguably faulty by showing that contrary to their views identities are not stable nor fixed bur are fluid and constantly changing through the availability of technologically advanced computer languages and again by outlining the availability of tools that enable users create, and/or distort their identities Also, with my essay, I explain how these identities are maintained through a process called "impression management". I analyze identity construction through the eyes of theorists like Erving Goffman, who proposes that we actors performing our identities, Sherry Turkle, who evaluates identity construction in the age of the internet and other theorists like Judith Butler, Joanne Finkelstein, Peggy A Thoits, Annette N Markham, Zizi Papacharissi among others. Digital Artifact: creation of a website that adopts a performative nature to depict the unstable locus of identity on Facebook. In order to achieve this, I would work on HTML, Flash, Photoshop to create a constantly changing array of texts and images using actual images from selected Facebook users' accounts and actual status updates. Keyterms: Identity, Medium/Media, Nomenclature, Hyperreality, Representation, Culture and Performance.


Computer support helpdesks often engage in sensemaking while working on atypical problems. Handoffs are common in these sensemaking situations due to shift changes, because a different skill or perspective is needed or simply because the current sensemaker may be exhausted. Though handoff may be needed, it may not always be successful. This could be true because sensemaking involves non-routine activities for which no structural support for handoff may exist, or because sensemakers may not be sure what to handoff if sensemaking is not complete.

This study examined the issues related to sensemaking handoff in computer support helpdesks. Existing theories of sensemaking (Russell et al, 1993 and Weick, 1996) were used as a framework. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with two different computer helpdesk personnel groups at a large mid-western university. Successful handoffs occurred either very early or very late in the sensemaking process. This choice of handoff time as well as other aspects of handoffs are discussed using the principles of least collaborative effort [13] and mindfulness [18].


One of the most important forms of drug resistance in acute myeloid leukemia is the multidrug resistance (MDR) phenotype, which is characterized by the expression of the MDR1 gene product, P-glycoprotein. Although a number of factors affect MDR1 gene expression, the genetic events that "switch on" the human MDR1 gene in tumor cells that were previously P-glycoprotein negative have remained elusive. Here, we report evidence that the methylation status of the human MDR1 promoter may serve as a basis for this "switch." Based on Southern analysis using methylation-sensitive and methylation-insensitive restriction enzymes, a tight correlation was found between MDR phenotype and demethylation of the 5' region of the MDR1 gene in a human T cell leukemia cell line. Similar results were obtained from the analysis of P-glycoprotein-positive and P-glycoprotein-negative samples of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Treatment of the cell lines with the demethylating agent 5'-azadeoxycytidine altered the methylation pattern of the MDR1 promoter in P-glycoprotein-negative cells to resemble that of P-glycoprotein-positive cells and activated the promoter such that MDR1 mRNA was now detectable. Treatment also resulted in an increased resistance to epirubicin and decreased daunomycin accumulation, both of which were reversible by verapamil, a characteristic of the classical MDR phenotype in cells expressing P-glycoprotein. These results suggest that the MDR phenotype may be acquired as a result of changes in methylation of the MDR1 promoter.


Abstract 311 Introduction: MRC Myeloma IX (N = 1,960) included intensive and non-intensive pathways and 2 bisphosphonates (BPs; zoledronic acid [ZOL] and clodronate [CLO]) in patients (pts) with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. The trial is unique in having investigated both overall survival (OS) and bone endpoints in the context of BP treatment and a thalidomide (Thal), alkylating agent, and steroid induction regimen; and maintenance Thal. We have shown that ZOL significantly reduces skeletal-related events (SREs) and improves OS independent of its effect on SREs, suggesting potential antimyeloma activity (Morgan et al. ASCO 2010, #8021). Early comparisons between antimyeloma regimens demonstrated superiority of Thal-containing regimens for induction (Morgan et al. ASH 2009, #352) and maintenance. Here we present important new data on interactions between BPs, Thal, and standard induction regimens used in terms of response, progression-free survival (PFS), OS, and on the bone endpoints included in SREs. Methods: The intensive pathway randomized pts to 4 to 6, 3-wk cycles of CVAD (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin, dexamethasone) or CTD (cyclophosphamide, Thal, dexamethasone) as induction therapy, followed by high-dose melphalan treatment and ASCT. The non-intensive pathway randomized pts to 4-wk cycles of melphalan and prednisolone (MP) or attenuated CTD (CTDa). Each treatment arm also was randomized to ZOL (4 mg IV q 3–4 wk, dose-adjusted based on renal function) or CLO (1600 mg/d) continued at least until disease progression. After induction, pts in both pathways were offered entry to a maintenance Thal or no maintenance randomization. Endpoints included PFS, OS, and response. SREs include fractures, spinal cord compression, radiation or surgery to bone, and new osteolytic lesions at disease progression. Time to first SRE was assessed using cumulative incidence function, and OS was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox analysis was used to assess hazard ratio (HR) and associated 95% CI for SRE risk, adjusting for effects of treatment regimen, minimization factors, and SRE history at baseline (stratified by pathway). Diagnosis of bone lesions was not a study-entry requirement; BP use may be off-label outside the UK in some pts. Results: With a median follow-up of 3.7 yr and 1,960 evaluable pts, ZOL and Thal-containing regimens produced multiple treatment benefits. Overall, there was a trend for more pts with complete response (CR; P = .15), fewer early deaths (within 60 days of randomization; P = .06), and improved OS for ZOL vs CLO ( P = .04). SRE risk was significantly reduced with ZOL vs CLO (HR = 0.74, P = .0004), and—for the first time—SRE risk also proved lower for CTDa vs MP (HR = 0.74, P = .021), but was similar for CTD vs CVAD (HR = 1.03; P = .80). In the intensive pathway (n = 1,111; median age 59 yr), CR or very-good-partial response (VGPR) was achieved after induction therapy by 43.2% of pts with CTD and 27.5% of pts with CVAD. Similar proportions of pts achieved CR/VGPR with ZOL and CLO (36.0% vs 34.7%). OS and PFS were slightly better for ZOL vs CLO (OS: HR = 0.84; 95% CI, 0.68–1.03; PFS: HR = 0.90; 95% CI, 0.78–1.05; P > .05 for both). In both the CVAD and CTD arms, fewer ZOL- vs CLO-treated pts had SREs (overall intensive: 27.9% vs 36.3%; log-rank P = .034). In the nonintensive pathway (n = 849; median age 73 yr), pts randomized to CTDa had a significantly higher CR rate (13.1% vs 2.4%; P P P = .03 overall). ZOL significantly reduced risk of death by 17% vs CLO (HR = 0.83; P = .049). Time to first SRE was significantly longer for CTDa vs MP ( P = .021) and ZOL vs CLO (log-rank P = .008). In modeling analyses we show that the impact of achieving a CR and of CTDa on SREs may not be independent, suggesting that the improved response is important in reducing bone disease. ZOL prolonged the median time to first SRE vs CLO in both the MP and CTDa arms. In the maintenance randomization (n = 820), ZOL significantly reduced SREs compared with CLO. Conclusions: We demonstrate that ZOL provided benefits beyond CLO, improving OS and response status, and preventing potentially debilitating SREs. Pts receiving regimens containing Thal and ZOL had the best clinical outcomes, being associated with better response, survival, and lower SRE risk. Disclosures: Morgan: Celgene: Honoraria, Research Funding; Ortho Biotech: Honoraria, Research Funding; Novartis: Honoraria, Research Funding; Boehringer Ingelheim: Research Funding; Pharmion: Research Funding; Chugai: Research Funding. Off Label Use: Diagnosis of bone lesions was not a study-entry requirement; Therefore bisphosphonate use may be off-label outside the UK in some patients. Davies: Celgene: Honoraria; Ortho Biotech: Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria. Cook: Orthobiotec: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau. Jackson: Celgene: Honoraria; Janssen-Cilag: Honoraria.


In the wake of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, close to two hundred thousand Hungarians crossed into Austria.  About thirty thousand of these refugees were allowed to enter the United States. Their common experience of living under totalitarian communism and participating or being a witness to the exhilarating thirteen days of the revolution and their sudden, previously unplanned, departure from the homeland gave them a collective identity that was different from the one shared by the people of previous waves of Hungarian influx to the United States. The high educational level of the refugees attained before and after their arrival made their absorption into the mainstream relatively easy. The integration process was facilitated by the shaping of a positive image of the 1956 refugees by the US government and the media.  The reestablishment of the communist system in post-1956 Hungary contributed to the perception that, for the refugees in the United States, there was no hope for return to the homeland.  This assumption strengthened the attitudes of those who wished to embrace the American melting pot model.  Many of the 1956-ers in the United Sates, however, were also comfortable with the notion of ethnic pride and believed in the shaping of a dual national identity.


Deterministic execution offers many benefits for debugging, fault tolerance, and security. Current methods of executing parallel programs deterministically, however, often incur high costs, allow misbehaved software to defeat repeatability, and transform time-dependent races into input-or path-dependent races without eliminating them. We introduce a new parallel programming model addressing these issues, and use Determinator, a proof-of-concept OS, to demonstrate the model's practicality. Determinator's microkernel application programming interface (API) provides only "shared-nothing" address spaces and deterministic interprocess communication primitives to make execution of all unprivileged code---well-behaved or not---precisely repeatable. Atop this microkernel, Determinator's user-level runtime offers a private workspace model for both thread-level and process-level parallel programming. This model avoids the introduction of read/write data races, and converts write/write races into reliably detected conflicts. Coarse-grained parallel benchmarks perform and scale comparably to non-deterministic systems, both on multicore PCs and across nodes in a distributed cluster.


Macroalgae can form extensive blooms in coastal areas receiving high nitrogen loading, and a large fraction of this biomass is likely to be degraded in permeable sediments. We undertook a series of experiments investigating the influence of buried macroalgae Ulva lactuca on denitrification in permeable sediments using flow-through reactor and flume experiments. Our results showed that in flow-through chamber experiments, the presence of buried macroalgae generally did not enhance rates of denitrification, although an enhancement of coupled nitrification–denitrification was observed at intermediate porewater flow rates. 2D planar optode images revealed that leaching dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from buried macroalgal sheets resulted in a plume of hypoxic-anoxic sediment that had only a very small stimulating influence on denitrification rates (observed rates range from 0.1 to 3 μmol m−2 h−1). Flume experiments showed that buried macroalgae sheets had a pronounced effect on porewater flow fields within the sediment, and that the effect on denitrification was highly dependent upon the position of the buried macroalgae relative to ripple geometry. Overall, our results showed that rates of denitrification were orders of magnitude lower in flume experiments with realistic flow fields compared to column experiments with artificial flow fields, in agreement with previous work. We conclude that the presence of buried macroalgae does not significantly stimulate denitrification rates within permeable silicate sands.


The present study reports 223 species and three subspecies of lichens from forest rocky communities of mountain Olovgora, which is the highest point of the Vetreny Poyas ridge (Arkhangelsk Region, NW Russia). A total of 82 species are new for the mainland area of Arkhangelsk Region. The species Bryoria glabra has been reported for the first time for European Russia. Two recorded lichen species, Cladonia bellidiflora and Lobaria pulmonaria, are in the Red Data Book of Arkhangelsk Region. The occurrence of old-growth forests, high heterogeneity of conditions, presence of an altitudinal gradient and the proximity to the sea lead to the rich diversity of lichens in this area.


This article empirically studies current claims that patent assertion entities (PAEs), sometimes referred to as 'patent trolls' or non-practicing entities (NPEs), behave badly in litigation by bringing frivolous patent infringement suits and seeking nuisance fee settlements. The study explores these claims by examining the relationship between the type of patentee-plaintiffs and litigation outcomes (e.g., settlement, grant of summary judgment, trial, and procedural dispositions), while taking into account, among other factors, the technology of the patents being asserted and the identity of the lawyers and judges. The study finds significant heterogeneity among different patent holder entity types. Individual inventors, failed operating companies, patent holding companies, and large patent aggregators each have distinct litigation strategies largely consistent with their economic posture and incentives. These PAEs appear to litigate differently from each other and from operating companies. Accordingly, to the extent any patent policy reform targets specific patent plaintiff types, such reforms should go beyond the practicing entity versus non-practicing entity distinction and understand how the proposed legislation would impact more granular and meaningful categories of patent owners.


TIGIT expression on natural killer (NK) cells is associated with dysfunction during chronic HIV infection, but the phenotype and biological functions of these cells in the context of acute HIV-1 infection remain poorly understood. Here, 19 acutely infected HIV-1 patients traced at first, third and twelfth month, and age-matched patients with chronic HIV-1 infection were enrolled to investigate the phenotype and functions of TIGIT expression on NK cells. We found that TIGIT-expressing NK cells did not increase in frequency in the first, third and twelfth month of infection until chronic HIV-1 infection lasted over 2 years. The number of TIGIT+NK cells in acute infection was positively associated with HIV-1 viral load (r = 0.53, P = 0.0009). CD96 was significantly upregulated on NK cells after acute infection for 1 month and in chronic infection over 2 years, while CD226 was downregulated in chronic infection over 2 years. Further, at different stages of infection, CD96−CD226+ cells diminished among total NK cells, TIGIT+NK and TIGIT−NK cells, while CD96+CD226− cells expanded. Reduced CD96−CD226+ cells and elevated CD96+CD226− cells among NK cells especially TIGIT−NK cells, had opposite associations with viral load in the first month of infection, as well as CD4 T-cell counts in including the twelfth month and more than 2 years of chronic infection. In both HIV-1-infected individuals and healthy donors, TIGIT was predominantly expressed in NKG2A−NKG2C+NK cells, with a significantly higher proportion than in NKG2A+NKG2C−NK cells. Moreover, the frequencies of TIGIT+NK cells were positively associated with the frequencies of NKG2A−NKG2C+NK cells in acute infection (r = 0.62, P < 0.0001), chronic infection (r = 0.37, P = 0.023) and healthy donors (r = 0.36, P = 0.020). Enhanced early activation and coexpression of CD38 and HLA-DR in TIGIT+NK cells were detected compared to TIGIT−NK cells, both of which were inversely associated with the decrease in CD4 T-cell counts in both acute and chronic HIV-1 infection. The ability of TIGIT+NK cells to produce TNF-α, IFN-γ and CD107a degranulation substance were consistently weaker than that of TIGIT−NK cells in both acute and chronic infection. Moreover, the functionalities of TIGIT+NK cells were lower than those of TIGIT−NK cells, except for TNF-α−CD107a+IFN-γ−NK cells. These findings highlight the phenotype and functional characteristics of TIGIT-expressing NK cells which have poor capabilities in inhibiting HIV-1 replication and maintaining CD4 T-cell counts.


Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a recent addition to the expanding universe of RNA species and originate through back‐splicing events from linear primary transcripts. CircRNAs show specific expression profiles with regards to cell type and developmental stage. Importantly, only few circRNAs have been functionally characterized to date. The detection of circRNAs from RNA sequencing data is a complex computational workflow that, depending on tissue and condition typically yields candidate sets of hundreds or thousands of circRNA candidates. Here, we provide an overview on different computational analysis tools and pipelines that became available throughout the last years. We outline technical and experimental requirements that are common to all approaches and point out potential pitfalls during the computational analysis. Although computational prediction of circRNAs has become quite mature in recent years, we provide a set of valuable validation strategies, in silico as well as in vitro‐based approaches. In addition to circRNA detection via back‐splicing junction, we present available analysis pipelines for delineating the primary sequence and for predicting possible functions of circRNAs. Finally, we outline the most important web resources for circRNA research.


The aim of this study was to apply a narrative, autobiographical approach to inquiry into the acquisition of language and literacy. This article reports the results of a qualitative analysis of nine women's written recollections of their early language and literacy development, as rooted in family, cultural, school, and community experiences and contexts, and the meanings they give to these memories. In these narratives recounted by adults about their childhood experiences, the stories are weighted with their own interpretations, and the events selected for retelling are ones that, on reflection and in the light of subsequent experience, they have come to see as formative in their lives. Key themes that participants discussed relate to the centrality of the family, their self-descriptions as avid readers, their negative perceptions of school, and their perceptions about the role of culture. Two contributions of this study are that it methodologically complements traditional observational approaches to language acquisition research, and that voices from underrepresented communities are heard. (Language Development, Literacy, Adult Learning, Narrative Analysis, Autobiographical Approach, Qualitative Research)


Increasingly, pleas are made for extending the involvement of minors in decision-making about participation in pediatric research. However, a number of issues arise from this desired participation of minors. First, involvement in decision-making requires children and adolescents to be adequately informed about what participation in research entails. Second, the plea for increased involvement in decision-making requires further investigation whether children indeed can, should and want to play a role in the decision about research participation.
This thesis addresses these issues and thereby contributes to insights in how to empower minors in the context of informed consent for research participation.
New informed consent material was developed in close cooperation with children and other end-users, the process of which is described and evaluated. Also, insights in the role that minors can, should and want to play in the informed consent procedure are described. These insights were obtained by reviewing multidisciplinary scientific evidence on the competence of minors, by an ethical reflection on the view on children that we should adopt, and by consulting minors themselves about the perspectives on their role in decision-making.
Finally, based on this research, recommendations are provided on how to empower minors in decision-making about research participation.


Research background: In the current competitive agricultural market, where substantial capital investment is required to pursue growth related competitive strategies, agricultural cooperatives' performance mainly relies on members' willingness to contribute equity capital. Members are the single and most important source of investment capital. Purpose of the article: This study investigated factors influencing members' willingness to contribute equity capital to their agricultural cooperatives in Ethiopia with the intention of providing empirical evidences to decision makers with regard to specific measures to be taken to enhance members' willingness to contribute equity capital, and thereby improve agricultural cooperatives' performance. Methods: Multi-stage random sampling technique was employed to select the study districts, farmer associations, agricultural cooperatives and respondent households. Semi-structured questionnaire was employed to collect crosssectional data from randomly selected 214 households. The data were analysed using binary logistic regression model. Findings & value added: We found that education level; past role as a committee member; trust on other members' commitment and directors' leadership – influence positively and significantly members' willingness to contribute equity capital. While age and perception on the cooperatives' weaknesses affect negatively and significantly members' willingness. The important policy recommendations are developing and fostering trust among members and between members and directors; re-orienting service provisions in line with the needs and interests of their members; assessing agricultural cooperatives' performance depending on the values that their members expect to obtain from membership. This study investigated the influence of trust on members' willingness to contribute equity capital, and hence will add value to better understanding of the role of trust in enhancing members' commitment in cooperative organizations. Lastly, this cross-sectional survey study subjected to limitations associated with this type of study. Hence the generalizability of its results to other areas of agricultural cooperatives needs further investigation.


This thesis deals with the design, formation and evaluation of dynamic systems constructed by means of sulfur-containing reversible reactions, in organic and aqueous media and under mild conditions. In a first part, the synthesis of thioglycoside derivatives, constituting the biologically relevant starting components of the dynamic systems, is described. In addition, the pD-profile of the mutarotation process in aqueous media for a series of 1-thioaldoses is reported and revealed an astonishing beta-anomeric preference for all the carbohydrate analogs under acidic or neutral conditions. In a second part, the phosphine-catalyzed or -mediated disulfide metathesis for dynamic system generation in organic or aqueous media is presented, respectively. The direct in situ 1H STD-NMR resolution of a dynamic carbohydrate system in the presence of a target protein (Concanavalin A) proved the suitability and compatibility of such disulfide metathesis protocols for the discovery of biologically relevant ligands. In a third part, hemithioacetal formation is demonstrated as a new and efficient reversible reaction for the spontaneous generation of a dynamic system, despite a virtual character of the component associations in basic aqueous media. The direct in situ 1H STD-NMR identification of the best dynamic beta-galactosidase inhibitors from the dynamic HTA system was performed and the results were confirmed by inhibition studies. Thus, the HTA product formed from the reaction between 1-thiogalactopyranose and a pyridine carboxaldehyde derivative provided the best dynamic inhibitor. In a fourth and final part, a dynamic drug design strategy, where the best inhibitors from the aforementioned dynamic HTA system were used as model for the design of non-dynamic (or "static") beta-galactosidase inhibitors, is depicted. Inhibition studies disclosed potent leads among the set of ligands.


SUMMARY. Detection of the sentinel lymph node has become a mainstay of certain surgical interventions for cancer. In this sense, physiological and biochemical properties of the molecules employed for early detection of such metastasis have become relevant in many specialties. Traditionally the main characteristics considered for such radiopharmaceuticals are particle size and surface features. In addition, design of radiolabeled molecules has to take in account anatomy of the vascular lymphatic epithelium and its interaction with such agents. The aim is to create more specific and effective drugs, thus precisely shaping and eventually remodelling the surgical strategy for a given patient. Advances in diagnostic imaging open perspectives for additional categories of agents, endowed with different physico-chemical features as required by positron-emission tomography and other sophisticated procedures. This review covers the molecules used in sentinel node finding as well as some related topics, which can help to understand their action mechanism and failures.


The regional powerhouse, South Africa, has since the introduction of the nonracial democratic dispensation in 1994, played a central and important role in the formation of both the regional and continental security architecture. With the establishment of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in 1992, one of the central areas of collaboration for the community was envisioned to be security, understood within a broadened human security framework. Security was therefore from the outset one of the cornerstones of integration in the SADC. It was believed that the formation of a security community would help dismantle the enmities that had plagued regional relations during the apartheid era. For some parties, institutionalisation of relations pointed to a means of stabilising and disseminating a particular order. Such institutions depict the power relations prevailing at the time of their establishment, which, however, can change over time (Cox 1981:136). The integration ambition surrounding security correlated with the ambitions of South Africa, the new democratic government in the regional powerhouse. South Africa and its overall foreign policy ambitions desired the pursuit of peace, democracy and stability for economic growth and development in the region and within South Africa itself.


The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia (LTRC) was the first of its kind to include a diaspora population in all aspects of the truth commission process. The LTRC partnered with a US-based human rights organization, The Advocates for Human Rights (The Advocates), to facilitate diaspora involvement in outreach, statement taking, report writing and the first official public hearings of a truth commission ever held in a diaspora. This article, written by two staff members from The Advocates who were intimately involved in all phases of the LTRC Diaspora Project, describes the rationale for diaspora involvement in the Liberian case, provides an overview of the outcomes of and lessons learned from the Liberia TRC Diaspora Project and discusses legal and policy reasons why other truth commissions and transitional justice processes should consider a strategy for engaging diaspora populations in their work.


Translation uses the genetic information in messenger RNA (mRNA) to synthesize proteins. Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are charged with an amino acid and brought to the ribosome, where they are paired with the corresponding trinucleotide codon in mRNA. The amino acid is attached to the nascent polypeptide and the ribosome moves on to the next codon. The cycle is then repeated to produce a full-length protein. Proofreading and editing processes are used throughout protein synthesis to ensure the faithful translation of genetic information. The maturation of tRNAs and mRNAs is monitored, as is the identity of amino acids attached to tRNAs. Accuracy is further enhanced during the selection of aminoacyl-tRNAs on the ribosome and their base pairing with mRNA. Recent studies have begun to reveal the molecular mechanisms underpinning quality control and go some way to explaining the phenomenal accuracy of translation first observed over three decades ago.


Harper's chapter was commissioned by the curator/editor of the 21:21 Textile Vision of Reiko Sudo and NUNO
exhibition/publication, accompanying essays by Professor Lesley Millar, Director: Anglo-Japanese Textile Research Centre, UK;
Laurel Reuter, Director: North Dakota Museum of Art; and Keiko Kawashima, Director: Gallery Gallery, Kyoto. The publication
accompanied the exhibition's tour, which included the National Centre for Craft and Design, UK; Textile Kultur Haslach, Austria;
and Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg (2005-07).
The text draws on Barthes and Benjamin, examining concepts of performative translations and essentialisms in Western
understandings of contemporary Japanese culture. Pursuing a textual fantasy of activated animated cloth, a provocative and
original reading of Reiko Sudo's designs is developed via conceptual intermeshing of the sadistic sexual practices and
seductive rough trade of under-the-radar night-time Tokyo and the expressive textiles created by Sudo. This approach counters
normative tendencies for reverence in relation to textiles of Japan, and Harper carefully manages a balance of appreciation and
challenge within the chapter.
The essay forms the basis of a chapter in the author's forthcoming book, Fabrics of Desire (AHRC and Sasakawa-funded,
commissioned by Berg Publishers, Oxford/New York, for publication in 2008), linking to papers presented at the Association of
Art Historians Contestations conference, University of Ulster, Belfast; the Fashion in Fiction conference, University of
Technology, Sydney; and the Design History Society Design-Body-Sense conference, Kingston University (all 2007).
It relates to Harper's part in Lutz Becker's film 'What is Cloth to Me?' (2005), and resulted in an invitation to lead a session at the
Ambiguous Spaces Symposium, UCCA (2005); an invitational essay on Reiko Sudo for Selvedge magazine (2005), London;
and commissioned texts for publications with Fabrica, Brighton and Pallant House, Chichester (2006). It further informed
Harper's presentation at the Contemporary Artists' Responses to Japanese Traditions symposium, University of Brighton, 2007.


New forms of manifestations of religious intentions in socio-political space have constituted themselves as markers of transformation in the contemporary socio-political coordinates. Revision of the dominant traditional linear approaches placed the focus of ideological and political discussions about the correspondence of stable and variable, traditional and modern in a religious prism. Emerging new configurations in the public and private spheres mark transformation of the traditional relations between religion, society and the state corresponding to the logic of the project of modernity and the paradigm of secularization and require new interpretation optics. The contours of the new designs are evident in the contexts of new challenges and threats related to global political risks of religious terrorism, loss of monopoly on the description of reality, including moral connotations in the understanding of progress of the principle of secularism, with the increased importance of religious and confessional identity, civilizational, local and personalindividual levels, forming the hierarchy of values that determines horizons of public and personal goal setting. The penetration of religious meanings in the political and social reality of various areas, their incorporation into ideological discourses of identity build a wide variety of interpretations in the extreme poles of which is religious outline of internal and external threats to social stability and understanding of religion as a resource of optimization of the political system. Institutional, axiological and ontological projection refracts the religious factor in Russian society in polyvalent and nonlinear ways, reflecting the multidirectional vectors of ongoing transformation. On the basis of sociological data of The Institute of Sociology, RAS, the given article analyzes a number of subjects, reflecting qualitatively new social relationships. The emphasis is on multi-scale conflicts, correlation between the secular and the religious in the coordinates of importance of the democracy attributes and social significance of religion, institutional and value aspects as well as the dominant ideas in the Russian society about the role of Church, religion and religious faith in human life and society. Growing importance of religious factors and religious identities in contemporary conditions, the incorporation of religious meanings in different spheres of society intersect with the needs of ensuring the unity of values and stabilization of the social system, as well as close attention to Russian civilization experience. Despite increased sensitivity of contemporary debates on the tragectory of political practices in Russia, the religious factor could be a factor of social cohesion, determining the search of new forms of relations between the state and religious organizations based on the challenges and needs of society and identifying the need for improving mechanisms and practices of state-confessional relations.


The purpose of this study has been the examination of the role
of the 'teacher as researcher' and the analysis of, the participation
of teachers in research in their own classrooms.
This has involved a study of two projects - the Humanities
Curriculum Project and the Ford Teaching Project - which introduced
the idea of teachers examining their own practice, and an analysis
of action research from the perspectives of John Elliott and
Stephen Kemmis.
Three recent projects:
(a) Leicestershire Classroom Research In-Service
Education Project
(b) A Register of Self-Evaluation Schemes compiled
with the Open University
(c) A Schools Council Programme 2 Project:
Leicestershire Network
were analysed to determine what happened when teachers engaged in
self-evaluation and research in their own classrooms. The results show that there are only a small number of teachers
actively engaged in self-evaluation and they experience difficulty
in starting their research because they lack experience of monitoring
techniques and how to fit these procedures into the routines of
teaching. Creating time to engage in self-evaluation is a major
inhibiting factor.
The need for a support structure to help teachers is clearly
identified and-the role of co-ordinators to bring teachers together
to share ideas is essential for the development of this work. At
the present moment the teachers have taken the first step in
acquiring competence and confidence.
Many of the teachers expressed the view that self-evaluation had
enabled them to learn more about their teaching, about pupils, and
about their own subject.


This Article addresses a different sort of legal transplant — one in which outside legal doctrines are imported in order to be cabined, treated as normative counterpoints, and identified as the legal other. Legal primitivism is a kind of anti-transplant. It heightens the persistent differences between a dominant legal system and its understanding of primitive rules. An often ignored legal literature depicting legal primitivism emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century. Mapping the differences between America's modern legal system and its antecedents, this immense literature, which included works by OliverWendell Holmes, James Coolidge Carter, and John Henry Wigmore, described an archaic legalism which sometimes belonged to tribal societies, and sometimes was simply conjured out of thin air. Exploring the project of constructing geographies of legal knowledge assists in our understanding of American law in a period of significant change. What elements of primitive law were valorized? Which were seen as archaic or repugnant? And what was the purpose of constructing a legal doppelgänger? By examining these cultural negotiations, and holding legal primitivism up as a mirror to modern law, it is possible to uncover the anxieties of legal modernism.