Behrooz Parhmi Plenum Press, New York, 1999, 532 pp. ISBN 0-306-45970-1, $88.00 The book is organized in a very structured way making it suitable for use in a senior-level undergraduate or an introductory-level graduate course in computer science/engineering. While being successful in covering the main topics of parallel processing, the author has managed to arrive at an evenly divided book with fairly self-contained sections. As shown in page (xi), the book is comprised of six parts with each part containing four chapters. In the book, theoretical models of parallel processing are described and accompanied by techniques for exact analysis of parallel machines. The focus of the book is mainly on hardware issues, and software aspects such as parallel compilers/operating systems and concurrent programming are addressed in less detail. From the start, the author motivates the problem by explaining the continuing need for parallel processing regardless of advances in technology. Chapter 1 dwells on basic concepts of parallel processing. Fundamental computations including semigroup and parallel prefix computations are covered in Chapter 2. The reader here is introduced to simple parallel architectures such as linear array, binary tree, and 2D mesh. Most common communication primitives such as one to one routing, broadcasting, and sorting are described in conjunction with the said three architectures. In Chapter 3, asymptotic complexity along with complexity classes (NP-complete, NP, P, NC, etc.) is covered in detail. The author has done a good job in clarifying facts and fallacies of parallel processing. Chapter 4 concludes the first part of the book by intruding Flynn's classification of parallel machines, the PRAM model, and global versus distributed memory. Part II starts out with the PRAM as an extreme model for parallel computation. It then describes, in more detail than earlier chapters, the basic parallel algorithms. Algorithms aimed at systems with shared memory are discussed in Chapter 6. Synthesis and analysis of sorting networks are presented in Chapter 7, which is followed by more coverage of architectures designed for such parallel algorithms as DFT and FFT. Part III is devoted to mesh-based networks with associated algorithms. These networks are important due to their simplicity and low communication delay; they form the backbone of many parallel machines. I think, therefore, devotion of the whole part to mesh topologies is appropriate and well justified. Part IV covers the popular networks proposed over the past decades to serve as the underlying topology of parallel machines. These networks generally have low diameter and node degree and offer the familiar trade-off between speed and cost. Part V presents broad topics such as data flow, load balancing, and scheduling as well as system issues. Emulation (embedding) among parallel architectures is also discussed in a general way, with specific problems given at the end of the chapter. Finally Part VI adds much value to the text by addressing the implementation issues and introducing the contemporary parallel machines of different types. The book also contains useful and informative examples, illustrations, and problems. The end-of-chapter exercises are rigorous and relate directly to the subject just covered. References are recent and are taken from highly visible conferences/journals and books in the discipline. Finally, it should be pointed out that writing a book on computer architecture in general and parallel processing in particular is a challenge considering recent advances in technology. The author should be congratulated for composing a book, which appears to survive for years to come as it addresses, along with contemporary algorithms and architectures, concepts and innovations with little or no dependence on the current technology. Shahram Latifi University of Nevada, Las Vegas


TWe estimate a structural model of herding behavior in which feedback arises due to mutual concerns of traders over the unobservable "true" level of market liquidity. In a herding regime, random shocks are exacerbated by endogenous feedback, producing a dampened power-law in the fluctuation of largest sales. The key to the fluctuation is that each trader responds not only to private information, but also to the aggregate behavior of others. Applying the model to the data on portfolios of institutional investors (fund managers), we find that the empirical distribution is consistent with model predictions. A stock's realized illiquidity propagates herding and raises the probability of observing a sell-off. The distribution function itself has desirable properties for evaluating "tail risk".


In the absence of U.S. fiscal adjustment and a further correction of the dollar, the current account deficit is headed to $1.3 trillion by 2010 (8 to 8.5 percent of GDP) and net U.S. foreign liabilities to over $8 trillion (50 percent of GDP). According to CGD/IIE Senior Fellow William R. Cline, the rising trade deficit and associated borrowing from abroad are now financing a decline in personal saving and a rise in the government deficit. This imbalance will increasingly put the US economy - and developing countries - at risk. This working paper focuses on the impact the U.S. external deficit and a possible hard landing for the U.S. and world economies will have on developing countries. The author finds that these countries are at risk since they have relied heavily on a continuing expansion of trade surpluses with the United States as a source of demand. Developing countries with high borrowing abroad are also doubly sensitive to a spike in world interest rates - once directly, once indirectly through higher risk spreads - that might be associated with a hard landing. To avoid a disruptive hard landing, the paper urges a gradual adjustment process. Specifically, Cline urges the Group of 20 major industrial and developing nations to take the lead in coordinating a program of global exchange rate realignments that can foster U.S. external adjustment, in a Plaza II initiative. The recommendations include a credible commitment by the US to eliminate its fiscal deficit over four or five years, a halt in intervention in exchange rate markets by countries likely to avoid appreciation of their currencies, and coordination by individual country central banks to appreciate their currencies against the dollar. These actions would begin a process of guiding the dollar downwards, towards a goal of a real depreciation of about 20 percent for the dollar from its current level. This Working Paper is based on The United States as a Debtor Nation, a book published in 2005 by the Center for Global Development and the Institute for International Economics.


Project management continuously faces challenges in an increasingly dynamic and competitive environment. This demands for strong leadership by project manager that is fundamental and more crucial to achieving project success. Previous empirical studies have indicated the positive impacts of Islamic leadership on organisational performance and outcome in various sectors such as business, banking, etc, however no similar studies have been conducted in construction related and project management context. Delphi method is an option to the traditional and popular methods used for data collection in research such as interview and questionnaire survey. It is increasingly adopted in various areas of researches including in project management as well as Islamic studies that aim to reach consensus and decisive opinions on topics that are being researched by involving a group of panels or experts. This paper seeks to present the adoption of this method in a postgraduate study that has been conducted on the applicability of Islamic leadership principles (ILP) in project management with specific reference to JKR Malaysia (Public Works Department of Malaysia). Selected project managers with certain criteria were the respondents or experts for the Delphi interview. Two (2) rounds of Delphi interviews were conducted and sufficient to achieve the level of consistency of results. The findings indicated that Islamic leadership principles were highly applicable and it could enhance the likelihood of achieving project success in JKR project management. Acceptable level of consensus were achieved in all constructs attributing to the Islamic leadership principles  and its strategies. Keywords : Project Management,  Project Success, Islamic Leadership Principles, Delphi Method


The purpose of this research was to investigate and analyse the factors that lead to the failure of SMMEs, especially the businesses owned by previously disadvantaged individuals in Durban. The study was motivated by the fact that SMMEs are not growing but instead there seems to be an increase in the failure rate of SMMEs. A range of literature was reviewed that included past research papers and journals on the subject of SMMEs, government papers and acts, information from NGOs, financial institutions and government agencies to help understand the role players in the SMME sector. Primary data was collected in the form of a questionnaire which was given to SMME owners to complete in order to get their views on the sector. The findings show that SMMEs owned by previously disadvantaged individuals are dealing with issues such as lack of finance, insufficient government support and lack of information on services available to them from government and NGOs, which if left unattended, can cause their businesses to fail. Among other things, it was recommended that business owners be mentored and trained in both financial and business management in order to be able to take advantage of the services available to them. It was also recommended that government assess its position on SMME policies in order to be readily available to the SMME sector.


Background: Somatostatin analogues have been used to image endocrine neoplasia in dogs and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in humans.
Hypothesis: The hypothesis of this study was that dogs with naturally-occurring NHL will demonstrate tumor-specific uptake of 111In-DOTA-TATE on planar scintigraphy.
Methods: Three dogs with spontaneous B cell lymphoma received 3-5mCi (111-171MBq) of 111In-DOTA-TATE injected intravenously and were imaged with a planar gamma camera at 1, 4 and 24 hours after injection. Regions of interest were drawn around disease sites and ratios constructed to muscle containing blood-pool within each image.
Results: All evaluated nodes concentrated the radiopharmaceutical at the 4 and 24 h time-points. Spleen uptake was also visible for all three dogs. Liver and gastrointestinal uptake was present as described in previous reports. Conclusions and Clinical Importance: The somatostatin analogue 111In-DOTA-TATE demonstrates tumor-specific uptake in canine B cell NHL. This agent could be used for imaging of dogs with NHL and as a platform for delivery of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals.


With an increasing fraction of the world's forests being intensively managed for meeting humanity's need for wood, fiber and ecosystem services, quantitative understanding of the functional changes in these ecosystems in comparison with natural forests is needed. Inparticular, the role of managed forests as long-term carbon (C) sinks and for mitigating climate change require a detailed assessment of their carbon cycle on different temporal scales. In the current review we assess available data on the structure and function of the world's forests, explore the main differences in the C exchange between managed and unmanaged stands, and explore potential physiological mechanisms behind both observed and expected changes. Two global databases that include classification for management indicate that managed forests are about 50 years younger, include 25% more coniferous stands, and have about 50% lower C stocks than unmanaged forests. The gross primary productivity (GPP) and total net primary productivity (NPP) are the similar, but relatively more of the assimilated carbon is allocated to aboveground pools in managed than in unmanagedforests, whereas allocation tofine roots and rhizosymbiontsis lower. This shift inallocation patterns ispromotedbyincreasing plant size, and by increased nutrient availability. Long-term carbon sequestration potential in soils is assessed through the ratio of heterotrophic respiration tototaldetritus production, which indicatesthat (i) the forestsoils maybe losing more carbon on an annual basis than they regain in detritus inputs, and (ii) the deficit appearstobegreater in managedforests. While climate change and management factors (esp. fertilization) both contribute to greater carbon accumulation potential in the soil, the harvest-related increase in decomposition affects the C budget over the entire harvest cycle. Although the findings do not preclude the use of forests for climate mitigation, maximizing merchantable productivity may have significant carbon costs for the soil pool. We conclude that optimal management strategies for maximizing multiple benefits from ecosystem services require better understanding of the dynamics of belowground allocation, carbohydrate availability, heterotrophic respiration, and carbon stabilization inthe soil.


A software synchronous optical sampling system is constructed based on sum frequency generation (SFG) in periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN). Five gigahertz of a non-return-to-zero (NRZ) data signal is sampled by sampling pulse with the repetition frequency of 29.31 MHz. The power of the SFG light is set at -23 dBm, and an eye diagram is successfully recovered. A band-pass filter is added before the sampling pulse is subjected to erbium-doped fiber amplifier to reduce gain competition and ensure a high power level of SFG.


This article deals with the relationship of ethnology and sociocultural anthropology in the Czech Republic. The author argues that these discourses are different in principle and, therefore, should not be blended together or, more importantly, confused one for another. One specific ethnographic case is used to show that the two scholar discourses provide different perspectives, or more precisely, are based on various theoretical backgrounds. The ethnographic example is an issue of the collective identity of inhabitants of Voyvodovo, the only Czech village in Bulgaria, specifically their belief that they are descendants of the exiles after the 1620 White Mountain Battle. Texts of selected authors are analysed to compare the different approaches of ethnology and social anthropology. The ethnologists strive to reveal objective historical Truth, led by the principle of the positivist historiography, best characterised by Ranke's 'Wie es eigentlich gewesen?' For them, if the beliefs and identities of the actors do not correspond to this objective historical Truth (as in this case), their belief and identity are incorrect or wrong; therefore, Voyvodovans are not and cannot be the descendants of the exiles of the White Mountain Battle. The author, in contrast, adopts the position of social anthropology, according to which 'if people believe a thing to be true, then it is true;' in this sense, the Voyvodovans really are descendants of exiles of the White Mountain Battle. On a general level, this contradiction is between the positivist approach, maintained by the (Czech) ethnologists and the position of social constructivism held by the sociocultural anthropology which has not yet been fully established in the Czech Republic.


We present a comparison of Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array-2 (SCUBA-2)
850-μm and Herschel 70–500-μm observations of the L1495 filament in the Taurus Molecular
Cloud with the goal of characterizing the SCUBA-2 Gould Belt Survey (GBS) data set.
We identify and characterize starless cores in three data sets: SCUBA-2 850-μm, Herschel
250-μm, and Herschel 250-μm spatially filtered to mimic the SCUBA-2 data. SCUBA-2
detects only the highest-surface-brightness sources, principally detecting protostellar sources
and starless cores embedded in filaments, while Herschel is sensitive to most of the cloud
structure, including extended low-surface-brightness emission. Herschel detects considerably
more sources than SCUBA-2 even after spatial filtering. We investigate which properties of
a starless core detected by Herschel determine its detectability by SCUBA-2, and find that
they are the core's temperature and column density (for given dust properties). For similartemperature
cores, such as those seen in L1495, the surface brightnesses of the cores are
determined by their column densities, with the highest-column-density cores being detected by
SCUBA-2. For roughly spherical geometries, column density corresponds to volume density,
and so SCUBA-2 selects the densest cores from a population at a given temperature. This
selection effect, which we quantify as a function of distance, makes SCUBA-2 ideal for
identifying those cores in Herschel catalogues that are closest to forming stars. Our results can
now be used by anyone wishing to use the SCUBA-2 GBS data set.


This paper describes the algorithms of the level2 research (L2r) processing chain developed for the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES). The chain has been developed in parallel to the operational chain for conducting researches on calibration and retrieval algorithms. L2r chain products are available to the scientific community. The objective of version 2 is the retrieval of the vertical distribution of trace gases in the altitude range of 18–90 km. A theoretical error analysis is conducted to estimate the retrieval feasibility of key parameters of the processing: line-of-sight elevation tangent altitudes (or angles), temperature and ozone profiles. While pointing information is often retrieved from molecular oxygen lines, there is no oxygen line in the SMILES spectra, so the strong ozone line at 625.371 GHz has been chosen. The pointing parameters and the ozone profiles are retrieved from the line wings which are measured with high signal to noise ratio, whereas the temperature profile is retrieved from the optically thick line center. The main systematic component of the retrieval error was found to be the neglect of the non-linearity of the radiometric gain in the calibration procedure. This causes a temperature retrieval error of 5–10 K. Because of these large temperature errors, it is not possible to construct a reliable hydrostatic pressure profile. However, as a consequence of Correspondence to: P. Baron (firstname.lastname@example.com) the retrieval of pointing parameters, pressure induced errors are significantly reduced if the retrieved trace gas profiles are represented on pressure levels instead of geometric altitude levels. Further, various setups of trace gas retrievals have been tested. The error analysis for the retrieved HOCl profile demonstrates that best results for inverting weak lines can be obtained by using narrow spectral windows.


This paper aims to develop a systematic allocation methodology to combine multi-strategy hedge funds within a structure of fund of funds in a risk-controlled manner. This is particularly important since the traditional mean-variance optimization proves ineffective in addressing hedge fund return distributions that are asymmetric in nature. Moreover, unstable correlations among various hedge fund strategies also pose a challenge to a meaningful optimization to combine various hedge fund strategies. This paper attempts to suggest some practical ways to overcome both these obstacles. (TO MATA for empowering me with her Shakti !


OBJECTIVE
When multiple bilateral partially circumscribed masses having a similar appearance are detected on screening mammography, some radiologists recommend recall examination to identify imaging features suggestive of malignancy that are not evident on standard screening views. This study assesses the need for such recall imaging.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Cases of multiple masses were identified by reviewing the mammographic reports of 84,615 consecutive screening examinations. Each case of multiple masses was prospectively interpreted as benign, with recommendations for follow-up mammography in 1 year and for aspiration of any palpable masses if clinically indicated. Subsequently diagnosed cancers were identified through data linkage with our regional tumor registry and through our institution's computer-based outcomes tracking system.

RESULTS
Among 84,615 consecutive screening examinations, we identified 1440 (1.7%) cases of multiple masses. Among the multiple-masses cohort, two interval cancers were found. Both were early-stage (T1bN0M0; T1cN0M0) and low-grade (histologic grade 1) cancers. The interval cancer rate among the multiple-masses cohort was 0.14%, which is somewhat lower than the age-matched United States incident cancer rate of 0.24%.

CONCLUSION
The frequency of cancer development and the stage at cancer diagnosis among nonrecalled cases of multiple masses are similar to those observed in the general screening mammography population. Therefore, recall imaging for women with multiple masses does not appear to be justified.


Much of the research that goes into Big Data, and specifically on Collaborative Big Data, is focused upon questions, such as: how to get more of it? (e.g., · participatory mechanisms, social media, geo-coded data from personal electronic devices) and · how to handle it? (e.g., how to ingest, sort, store, and link up disparate data sets). A question that receives far less attention is that of Collaborative analysis of Big Data; how can a multi-disciplinary layered analysis of Big Data be used to support robust decisions, especially in a collaborative setting, and especially under time pressure? The robust Decision Engineering required can be achieved by employing an approach related to Network Science, that we call Relationship Science. In Relationship Science, our methodological framework, karassian netchain analysis (KNA), is utilized to ascertain islands of stability or positive influence dominating sets (PIDS), so that a form of annealed resiliency or latent stability is achieved, thereby mitigating against unintended consequences, elements of instability, and "perfect storm" crises lurking within the network.


The sizable gender gap in college enrolment, especially among African Americans, constitutes a puzzling empirical regularity that may have serious consequences on marriage markets, male labor force participation and the diversity of college campuses. For instance, only 35.7 percent of all African American undergraduate students were men in 2004. Reduced form results show that, while family background covariates cannot account for the observed gap, proxy measures for non-cognitive skills are crucial to explain it. Moreover, a sequential model of educational attainment indicates that males have actually higher preferences for education than females after controlling for latent factors (i.e. cognitive and non-cognitive skills). The model also shows that cognitive skills strongly affect the decision to move from one school level to the next, especially after finishing high school, but cannot account for disparities between genders. On the contrary, the substantial differences in the distribution of non-cognitive skills between males and females make these abilities critical to explain the gender gap in educational attainment across and within races.


A scandalous, but rarely discussed, element of the Christmas "gomen" the Green Knight proposes at Camelot is its openness with regard to the kind of blow that initially can be inflicted and even the implement that can be employed to inflict this blow. Gaston Paris in 1888 was the first to note that the intruder's challenge is only to exchange blows of an unspecified nature. For Paris, the structure of the Green Knight's proposal in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight pointed to a lost French source for the poem. Nearly a hundred years later, in 1976, Victoria Weiss became the first critic to incorporate this unexpected narrative element into a reading of the text, in the process chastising the ubiquitous critical tendency to misread this episode. (1) For Weiss, the potential lethality of Gawain's blow is his first failure, as it demonstrates a patent "lack of Christian concern for human life" (363). The first failure, therefore, ironically anticipates Gawain's second failure where his concern for his own life outweighs all other considerations. Thus, by the end of the poem, "Gawain's concern with 'larges' and 'lewte' reveals a new respect for the life and well-being of others" (366). Hermine van Nuis in 1984 largely concurred with Weiss's conclusions and remarked upon the incongruity between Gawain's claim that he is the weakest knight present and the "uncontrolled zest and fierce impetuosity" of the chosen blow that manifests an "indifferent regard for another man's life" (16). Likewise, in 1991, Sheri Ann Strite suggested that the Green Knight's challenge be interpreted "as inviting a particular conventional response from Gawain as a kind of test" (4). While Gawain follows romance conventions and fulfills audience expectations by decapitating the intruder, he ignores the merciful and Christian options available to him. R.A. Shoaf argued in 1988 that "members of the Arthurian court often fail to be adequately critical in their interpretations" of the surfeit of signs that confront them. So Arthur and Gawain "can only interpret the Green Knight's challenge as implying that the blow is to be struck with the axe, whereas, in fact, the challenge is sufficiently ambiguous to leave open the possibility" of either contestant's choosing the "holly bob" (158). Robert J. Blanch and Julian N. Wasserman in 1995 make the same observation (104). For these modern scholars, the testing of Gawain begins with his first act. Each scholar considers Gawain's performance in the so-called Beheading Game as a failure of some kind: for Weiss, Nuis, and Strite the failure is primarily ethical; for Shoaf, Blanch, and Wasserman, the failure is primarily hermeneutic. And there the matter lies. Whether or not Gawain's blow reflects an impetuous and unchristian disregard for life or suggests his interpretive deficiencies, attention must be focused on the seismic disturbances transmitted along the narrative line by the ambiguity in the Green Knight's proposal. For any reading that treats Gawain's performance in Camelot as a failure of some kind limits its significance by ignoring a crucial passage from Bertilak's speech at the Green Chapel subsequent to a series of humiliating revelations for the hero. According to Bertilak, Morgan le Fay Wayned me upon this wyse to your wynne halle For to assay the surquidre, gif hit soth were That rennes of the grete renoun of the Rounde Table. Ho wayned me this wonder your wyttez to reve, For to haf greved Gaynour and gart hir to dyghe With glopnyng of that ilke gome that gostlych speked With his hede in his hond before the hyghe table. (SGGK 2456-62) (2) [Sent me in this wise to your lovely hall to make a trial of your pride, if it were true what circulates about the great renown of the Round Table. She sent me this wonder to take away your wits, in order to have grieved Guinevere and caused her to die with dismay at that same man who spoke like a ghost with his head in his hand before the high table. …


Background. Suicide is among the three leading causes of death in youth population; family conflicts have been considered as an independent possible risk factor for suicidality among this population. Objective. To assess the relationship between family problems and suicidality in adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD). Method. Patients between the ages of 10 and 18 years with a MDD diagnostic were included. To assess family problems, the scale Instrument for Family Problems (IPF) was applied; to determine the degree of suicidality, the Okasha Suicidality Scale was used. The values of these scales were compared through a logistic regression. Odds ratios (OR) were obtained to find differences between the groups with a confidence interval (CI) of 95%. Results. Out of the 37 patients that were examined, 21 (56.7%) had high suicidality risk. They were older in age and had a higher depression severity index. No association was found between the values obtained in the IPF and suicidality, except for the item "disagreements between the father and the mother regarding permissions", with an OR: 5.28, 95% CI (1.06-26.3). Discussion and conclusion. The association found between high suicidality and the IPF-D item might be related to the use of a severity depression index as a cofactor. Family conflicts assessed through the IPF do not seem to be an independent factor explaining differences between the studied groups.


The Value of Children (VOC) questionnaire has been widely used to measure the value of children, that is, the reasons for wanting to have a child and expected benefits from becoming a parent. In this study we aim at analyzing the factorial structure of the Italian version of the VOC questionnaire. Data from 1,027 Italian participants were submitted to confirmatory factor analysis to test three models (a two-factor solution, a three-factor solution, and a four-factor solution), reflecting alternative representations of VOC dimensionality presented in the literature, and to investigate the measurement invariance of the best factor model across gender and family generations. The results indicated that the four-factor model (Economic-normative VOC, Emotional VOC, Family VOC, and Old-age security VOC) presented the best fit and parameters that were cross-group invariant. Implications for theory, assessment, and future research are discussed.


Book synopsis: The Cambridge philosopher Frank Ramsey (1903-1930) died tragically young, but had already established himself as one of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth century. Besides groundbreaking work in philosophy, particularly in logic, language, and metaphysics, he created modern decision theory and made substantial contributions to mathematics and economics. In these original essays, written to commemorate the centenary of Ramsey's birth, a distinguished international team of contributors offer fresh perspectives on his work and show how relevant it is to present-day concerns.
Each of the ten essays addresses fundamental and contentious issues, including success semantics, propositions, infinity, conditionals, conceptual analysis, decision theory, and intergenerational justice. They also shed light on the intellectual context in which Ramsey developed his thought, including his relationship with such leading thinkers as John Maynard Keynes, Bertrand Russell, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The volume will be indispensable reading for anyone interested in the recent history of philosophy and economics, as well as for practitioners and students of logic, metaphysics, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, decision theory, and welfare economics.


According to the source-filter theory proposed for human speech, physical attributes of the mammalian vocal production mechanism combine independently to result in individually distinctive vocalizations. In the case of stereotyped calls with all individuals producing a similar frequency contour, formants resulting from the shape and size of the vocal tract may be more likely to contain individually distinctive information than the fundamental frequency resulting from the vibrating source. However, the formant structure resulting from such filtering has been historically undervalued in the majority of studies addressing individual distinctiveness in nonhuman species. The upcall of the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) is characterized as a stereotyped contact call, and visual inspection of upcall spectrograms confirms presence of a robust formant structure. Here I present results testing age, sex, and individual distinctiveness of upcalls recorded from archival, suction cup mounted tags (Dtags). Multiple measurements were made using the fundamental frequency contour, formant structure, and amplitude of the upcalls. These three variable groupings were then tested alone and in combination with other groupings to assign upcalls to age classes based on reproductive maturity, age classes based on size, sex, and individual whales. To compare multiple classification methods, I used both discriminant function analysis and a classification and regression tree to classify calls to appropriate groups. In all analyses, the percentage of calls correctly assigned to the correct group—age, sex, individual—was significantly higher than chance levels. These results represent the first quantitative analysis of individual distinctiveness in mysticete whales and provide a baseline for further development of acoustic detection techniques that could be used to noninvasively track movements of whales across multiple habitats. Discrimination of age, sex, and individual identity using the upcall of the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) By Jessica Annalisa Maverique McCordic B.A. College of the Atlantic, 2012 THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Biology Syracuse University May 2015 Copyright © Jessica Annalisa Maverique McCordic 2015 All rights reserved


Aims To investigate the prevalence of pachychoroid pigment epitheliopathy (PPE) in fellow eyes of patients with unilateral central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) and to determine differences between patients with PPE, uncomplicated pachychoroid (UCP) and normal fellow eyes. Methods We retrospectively reviewed 536 patients with CSC. Demographic and medical data, spectral domain optical coherence tomography scans with enhanced depth imaging mode, infrared reflectance images and fundus autofluorescence images were obtained from the patients' medical records. Results 254 (47.4%) of 536 patients had bilateral CSC. The female to male ratio was 1/2.8 in all patients with CSC. In patients with unilateral CSC (282 patients), 61% of fellow eyes had PPE, 30.8% had UCP and 8.2% were normal. There were no significant differences between patients with PPE, UCP and normal eyes in age, duration of disease, sex, presence of systemic hypertension, steroid use, psychopharmacological medication use, refractive error or central foveal thickness. Eyes with PPE and UCP did not differ regarding subfoveal choroidal thickness. In eyes with PPE (172 eyes), 77.3% had retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) bumps and 43% had pigment epithelium detachment. Conclusion PPE is common in fellow eyes of patients with CSC. There is no difference between PPE and UCP regarding demographic characteristics and medical features.


Salicylic acid (SA) is a phyto-hormone that regulates physiological and biological processes in plants and can be used to improve plant growth under different environmental conditions, including water stress. Thus, a field experiment as split plot factorial based on randomized complete blocks design with three replications was conducted in 2014 to investigate the effects of fertilizer and salicylic acid on growth, chlorophyll content and grain yield of coriander ( Coriandrum sativum L.) plants under drought stress. Treatments were three levels of water supply (irrigation after 60, 90 and 120 mm evaporation from class A pan) and four levels of fertilizer application (control, 100 kg ha -1 Urea, Nitrokara (biofertilizer) and 50% Urea + Nitrokara) and foliar spray of salicylic acid (0 and 1 mM). Results indicated that water deficit had a significant reduction effect on leaf area, chlorophyll content, fresh weight of root and leaf and grain yield. Salicylic acid and 50% Urea + Nitrokara resulted in a significant increase of all traits under stress and well watering conditions. Although highest amount of studied traits was observed in plants treated with SA or application of 50% Urea and Nitrokara under well watering, but the changes rate was higher under stress conditions. Therefore, salicylic acid and combination of urea and Nitrokara can be used to promote growth of coriander under different water availabilities, which ultimately can enhance field performance of this plant.


Sago starch is an important source of dietary carbohydrate in lowland and coastal
areas of Papua New Guinea (PNG). There have been sporadic reports of severe
haemolytic illness resulting from sago starch consumption, termed sago haemolytic
disease (SHD), with most reports coming from the Western Province. Despite the
occurrence of SHD, and a high likelihood of less severe foodborne illness resulting
from consumption of indigenous foods in general in PNG, there have been no
detailed studies of the microbiology of sago starch. The aim of this study was to
establish a broad basal knowledge of the microbiology of traditionally prepared sago
starch in PNG.

Sago starch samples and sociological information were collected in two of the main
sago eating regions of PNG, the East Sepik Province and the Western Province.
Sago starch samples were collected predominantly from the houses of sago starch
producers in rural areas of the two provinces, and to a lesser degree from markets in
some villages in the East Sepik Province. In addition to these samples considered 'fit
for consumption', two samples of sago starch that had been associated with
outbreaks of SHD were also analysed.

Analysis of the sago starch for common bacterial pathogens was done using accepted
methods, and where possible was based on the relevant Australian Standards. The
findings suggest that faecal contamination of sago starch is widespread, with over
three-quarters of all samples tested for faecal coliforms at the upper limit of
detection. The human pathogen Salmonella spp. was isolated from approximately 7%
of samples tested. The presence of emerging human pathogens such as Citrobacter
freundii and Enterobacter sakazakii was tested, with the former being present in a
low percentage of samples tested. Other important bacterial food pathogens such as
Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus were also detected in sago starch, but
none of the 57 samples tested for Listeria monocytogenes was positive.

Mycological analysis of sago starch revealed a variety of fungal contaminants.
Commonly occurring genera of filamentous fungi included Penicillium, Scytalidium,
Aspergillus, and Acremonium. Mycotoxin analysis of sago starch revealed that the common mycotoxins such as aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, cyclopiazonic acid,
sterigmatocystin, zearalenone and citrinin were not present. Selected fungal isolates
were tested for the presence of mycotoxin production in pure culture, with two-thirds
found to be capable of citrinin production and one isolate capable of sterigmatocystin
synthesis.

In an attempt to determine the aetiological agent of SHD, bacterial and fungal
isolates were screened for haemolytic activity on blood agar. A suitable semiquantitative
assay was developed, and extracts from bacterial and fungal cultures
were tested. Particular attention was paid to the haemolytic activity of fungal
extracts, given the long speculated role of mycotoxins in the aetiology of SHD. The
haemolytic activity of numerous fungal species has been demonstrated for the first
time, and steps in the optimised extraction and purification of the haemolytic
component of some isolates has been completed. Further work was conducted on
extracts from Penicillium steckii, a common contaminant of sago starch. The
chemical properties of the extract suggest that a novel fungal metabolite is
responsible for haemolytic activity.

Detailed studies on the microbial ecology of stored sago starch have been conducted,
primarily to garner a greater understanding of factors that contribute to the microbial
safety of the food. The study has established that sago starch is a naturally fermented
product, and this fermentation process contributes greatly to the food safety of the
product. Bacterial pathogens such as B. cereus, L. monocytogenes, S. aureus and
Salmonella sp. do not survive well in actively fermenting sago starch, primarily due
to the production of weak acids. Furthermore, numbers of filamentous fungi are low
in actively fermenting sago starch, presumably due to the reduced oxygen
availability.

On the basis of the sociological data and microbial studies, a hazard analysis and
critical control point (HACCP) plan was devised that was considered appropriate for
application in village based production of sago starch in rural PNG. Through a
greater understanding of the microbiology of sago starch, together with the
development of an appropriate HACCP plan, this research will lead to increased food
safety and food security for sago consumers in rural and remote lowland areas of PNG. Moreover, studies of the haemolytic metabolites of fungi isolated from sago
starch pave the way for further research to determine the aetiology of SHD.


Hated by bosses and subordinates alike, traditional performance appraisals have been abandoned by more than a third of U.S. companies. The annual review's biggest limitation, the authors argue, is its emphasis on holding employees accountable for what they did last year, at the expense of improving performance now and in the future. That's why many organizations are moving to more-frequent, development-focused conversations between managers and employees. The authors explain how performance management has evolved over the decades and why current thinking has shifted: (1) Today's tight labor market creates pressure to keep employees happy and groom them for advancement. (2) The rapidly changing business environment requires agility, which argues for regular check-ins with employees. (3) Prioritizing improvement over accountability promotes teamwork. Some companies worry that going numberless may make it harder to align individual and organizational goals, award merit raises, identify poor performers, and counter claims of discrimination—though traditional appraisals haven't solved those problems, either. Other firms are trying hybrid approaches—for example, giving employees performance ratings on multiple dimensions, coupled with regular development feedback. INSET: CAN YOU TAKE COGNITIVE BIAS OUT OF ASSESSMENTS?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


We study the sample complexity of learning threshold functions under the constraint of differential privacy. It is assumed that each labeled example in the training data is the information of one individual and we would like to come up with a generalizing hypothesis $h$ while guaranteeing differential privacy for the individuals. Intuitively, this means that any single labeled example in the training data should not have a significant effect on the choice of the hypothesis. This problem has received much attention recently; unlike the non-private case, where the sample complexity is independent of the domain size and just depends on the desired accuracy and confidence, for private learning the sample complexity must depend on the domain size $X$ (even for approximate differential privacy). Alon et al. (STOC 2019) showed a lower bound of $\Omega(\log^*|X|)$ on the sample complexity and Bun et al. (FOCS 2015) presented an approximate-private learner with sample complexity $\tilde{O}\left(2^{\log^*|X|}\right)$. In this work we reduce this gap significantly, almost settling the sample complexity. We first present a new upper bound (algorithm) of $\tilde{O}\left(\left(\log^*|X|\right)^2\right)$ on the sample complexity and then present an improved version with sample complexity $\tilde{O}\left(\left(\log^*|X|\right)^{1.5}\right)$.
Our algorithm is constructed for the related interior point problem, where the goal is to find a point between the largest and smallest input elements. It is based on selecting an input-dependent hash function and using it to embed the database into a domain whose size is reduced logarithmically; this results in a new database, an interior point of which can be used to generate an interior point in the original database in a differentially private manner.


This article discusses the possible impact of the Communal Land Rights Act (CLRA or the Act) on the land rights of rural women in South Africa. It asks whether the Act is likely to enhance or undermine tenure security, not only for women, but also for rural people in general. In the context of declining rates of marriage it focuses particularly on the problems facing single women. It examines two inter-related issues: The first is the content and substance of land rights, including the question of where rights vest. The second relates to power over land, in particular control over the allocation and management of land rights.
It begins with an account of the parliamentary process and the last minute changes to the CLRA. The Communal Land Rights Bill (CLRB) was opposed by all sectors of civil society apart from traditional leaders. The most vehement opposition came from rural women and women's organisations, who argued that the Bill undermined the principle of equality in favour of an alliance with traditional leaders. Traditional leaders on the other hand welcomed the Act as a triumph of tradition and African custom.
The Constitution guarantees the right to equality and also recognises customary law and the institution of traditional leadership. During the constitutional negotiations there was a battle between women's representatives and traditional leaders about which should take precedence - equality or custom. Traditional leaders argued that the constitution would not be successful if it relied on 'foreign concepts and institutions'. Equality won: but the inherent tension between the different provisions has meant that a clash has long been anticipated. Some have seen the Act as manifesting that anticipated clash.


Title of dissertation: Equilibrium free energies from nonequilibrium simulations: Improving convergence by reducing dissipation Suriyanarayanan Vaikuntanathan, Doctor of Philosophy, 2011 Dissertation directed by: Professor Christopher Jarzynski Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Institute for Physical Science and Technology The estimation of equilibrium free energy differences is an important problem in computational thermodynamics, with applications to studies of ligand binding, phase coexistence and phase equilibrium, solvation of small molecules, and computational drug design, among others. Recent advances in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, in particular the discovery of exact nonequilibrium work fluctuation relations, have made it possible to estimate equilibrium free energy differences from simulations of nonequilibrium processes in which a system of interest is driven irreversibly between two equilibrium states. Estimates of ∆F obtained from processes in which the system is driven far from equilibrium often suffer from poor convergence as a consequence of the dissipation that typically accompanies such processes. This thesis is concerned with this problem of poor convergence, and studies methods to improve the efficiency of such estimators. A central theoretical result that guides the development of these methods is a quantitative connection between dissipation and the extent to which the system "lags" behind the actual equilibrium state, at any point in time of the nonequilibrium process. The first strategy involves generating "escorted" trajectories in the nonequilibrium simulation by introducing artificial terms that directly couple the evolution of the system to changes in the external parameter. Estimators for ∆F in terms of these artificial trajectories are developed and it is shown that whenever the artificial dynamics manage to reduce the lag, the convergence of the free energy estimate is improved. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this method on a few model systems. In particular, we demonstrate how this method can be used to obtain efficient estimates of solvation free energies of model hard sphere solutes in water and other solvents. In the second strategy,"protocol postprocessing", the trajectories normally generated in the course of a nonequilibrium simulation are used to construct estimators of ∆F that converge faster than the usual estimators. Again, the connection between dissipation and lag guides the development of this method. The effectiveness of this strategy is also demonstrated on a few model systems. Equilibrium free energy differences from nonequilibrium computer simulations: Improving convergence by reducing dissipation


This paper presents the theory and an evaluation of a spatial sine testing parameter estimation algorithm that uses directly the measured forced mode of vibration and the measured force vector. The parameter estimation algorithm uses an ARMA model and a recursive QR algorithm is applied for data reduction. In this first evaluation, the algorithm has been applied to a frequency response matrix (which is a particular set of forced mode of vibration) using a sliding frequency window. The objective of the sliding frequency window is to execute the analysis simultaneously with the data acquisition. Since the pole values and the modal density are obtained from this analysis during the acquisition, the analysis information can be used to help determine the forcing vectors during the experimental data acquisition.


In the last years compliant actuators have become extremely popular in the field of wearable robotics, due to their ability to realize safe human-robot interfaces. One of the most well-known example of a compliant actuator is the series elastic actuator (SEA), consisting of an elastic element (e.g. a spring) in series with a stiff actuator; such actuation architecture is considered to be the simplest design solution to realize compliant, compact, and light-weight actuators for wearable robots; in addition, from the control perspective, SEA architecture allows for simple force or torque control in addition to position control. In this chapter, three wearable robots for upperand lower-limb rehabilitation and assistance, developed at The BioRobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, are described. The three devices have similar SEA-based actuation units, integrating commercial electromagnetic motors and custom torsional springs, with constant stiffness and linear torque-deformation characteristics. Closed-loop torque control performance show that the systems can be highly transparent when controlled under zero-torque modality, i.e. the interaction with the human is minimal and the actuators do not hinder the user's movement, and bandwidths and output torques are compatible with the human movements to be assisted.


A significant proportion of the working poor in Asian cities live in slums as renters. An estimated 60–90 per cent of low-income rentals in Asia are in the informal sector; 25 per cent of India's housing stock comprises informal rentals. Yet informal rentals remain an understudied area. Through an empirical study, this article illustrates the typologies of informal rental housing in urban villages and unauthorized colonies in Gurgaon, a city of 1.2 million located within India's National Capital Region (NCR). Further, through qualitative fieldwork, the article sheds light on how renters, usually low-income migrants, leverage informal rentals to negotiate the city. The research finds that while informal rentals offer advantages of affordability, flexibility and proximity to livelihoods for migrants, they are also sites of exploitation and poor living conditions. Further, the study reveals that social networks that carry over from places or origin as well as household migration strategies strongly influence housing choices in the informal rentals market.


Introduction DURING A LARGE DEMONSTRATION AGAINST THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION in Seattle, tear gas fired by police affected many WTO delegates, shoppers, and city officials, but was relatively ineffective against protesters who had brought their own gas masks. As a result, police escalated their use of force, including the use of rubber bullets to disperse crowds. Initially, as police pushed against the lines of demonstrators, the nonviolent activists closed ranks and locked arms tightly. The more the police pushed, the more resilient the line became. However, the demonstrators' success in blocking police and WTO delegates also inhibited other demonstrators from moving to new locations and blocked their own medics from reaching the injured. The degree of secrecy accompanying the preparations of both police and protesters, while believed to be strategic, also inhibited cooperation with allies. These examples illustrate an ironic perspective on protest, which we develop below. Briefly noted are commonly heard explanatory stories about the Seattle events, along with some of their limitations. We suggest that a neglected perspective involving irony is needed to understand the complexity of these events. We then detail police and demonstrator activities on the first day of the WTO meetings, noting organizational, planning, and tactical efforts. We identify 10 forms of irony inherent in the structure of the situation or that may emerge from interaction. These factors bring a significant degree of indeterminacy and trade-offs, no matter what decisions are made. We conclude with suggestions on limiting violations of constitutional rights and police and demonstrator violence. Our method involves interviews, news accounts and other documents, e-mail discussion lists, videos, and direct observation. Four Stories About Seattle Police and demonstrator interactions during the 2000 Seattle World Trade Organization (WTO) protests can be viewed through multiple lenses involving political-economy, rationalization, and the supposed irrationality of crowds. These yield varying explanatory and evaluative conclusions. The initial story involves police as the first line of defense of a capitalist economic system and the protest of subordinates as a natural consequence of structures of inequality. The WTO, after all, is a loose coalition of world businesses. The laws on the books and those given enforcement priority do not equally reflect all social interests, even if they exist within an ethos of universal enforcement, which in principle focuses on behavior, not the characteristics of those against whom the law is enforced. [1] On balance, police actions tilt decisively in favor of the more powerful, who have a disproportionate role to begin with in defining what the law will be and how it is enforced. In Seattle, the focus of law enforcement was on trying to insure conditions that permitted global business to do business. Their focus was not on investigating legal and moral crimes against labor and the environment, conditions in poor countries, or questionable alliances between businesses and governments. However useful as a stage setting, a broad political-economic approach has limitations. Many Seattle protest groups did reflect the unprivileged, such as the poor and those in developing countries, but many other protest groups, such as those concerned with environmental issues, [2] were hardly disadvantaged in traditional economic terms. [3] Such an approach tells us little about variation within and across demonstrations, and it cannot explain police protection of demonstrators or repression of protest demonstrations in noncapitalist societies. Neither can it account for the often competing and conflicting interests of diverse elites by economic sector, institutional affiliation, and region. Many Seattle residents viewed the mayor and police chief as relatively progressive, rather than as draconian enforcers of a 19th-century capitalist order. …


There is an ongoing need for development of new chemotherapeutic regimens for metastatic breast cancer [mBC], especially when tumors lack therapeutic targets such as the estrogen or progesterone receptor [ER/PR], or the human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 [HER2]. Capecitabine is an orally bioavailable fluoropyrimidine approved for monotherapy in mBC, and bevacizumab is a monoclonal antibody targeting vascular endothelial growth factor which has shown to be active in mBC and tolerable in combination with other chemotherapeutics. The combination of these two agents has been explored in multiple phase II and III clinical studies, with improvements in progression-free survival and overall response rates noted as compared to capecitabine monotherapy. However, the use of bevacizumab in combination with capecitabine and other chemotherapy agents for mBC remains beset with controversy due to safety concerns, cost issues, and pending regulatory decisions.


The aim of this dCSE project was to improve the TBE code which is based on the tight binding model with self consistent multipole charge transfer. Given an appropriate parameterisation, the code is general and can be used to simulate a wide variety of systems and phenomena such as bond breaking, charge and magnetic polarisation. The first goal was to achieve better performance through parallelising all suitable routines with MPI. The next step was to integrate ScaLAPACK's parallel diagonalisation routines transparently and with minimal communication, thus allowing the code to run on multi-node machines as opposed to a single node which was already possible thanks to threaded LAPACK/BLAS libraries. The third and last task was to utilise GPUs as accelerators for the heavy linear algebra calculations and subsequently integrate with the MPI parallelisation. The goals in the first two work packages were achieved mostly as planned with significant benefit gained from exploiting the sparsity of the tight binding Hamiltonian and reformulating the algorithms for calculations of the density matrix elements and related quantities. The electrostatics routines have also seen a significant reduction of memory usage and parallel speedup. A generic diagonalisation interface for all required diagonalisation routines was developed together with the related transparent communication routines. This is now available for all programs in the LMTO suite of which TBE is part. Nearly all of the code has been updated to Fortran 90 and later standards making it easier and much safer to work with. The third task, GPU porting of TBE, was the more exciting and riskier part of the project and it did not dissappoint in term of the challenges it provided. The original intention was to minimise risk by avoiding native development as much as possible by using established libraries instead. Unexpectedly the diagonalisation routines were nowhere near as fast as expected and this steered us in slightly uncharted territory, writing CUDA code for a number of matrix operations and researching completely different algorithms for obtaining the density matrix. Eventually, the goals were accomplished even though the acceleration is still far from what it was hoped to be.


The age and growth of turbot Psetta maxima in the Black Sea were examined from specimens caught by both coastal fisheries in Trabzon and a trawl net survey of the Trabzon Fisheries Research Institute from December 1997 to July 1999. The number of otoliths available for examination was 641 pairs of otoliths. We counted the number of otolith opaque and hyaline zones and measured the otolith and ring radii. Monthly changes in the ratio of the number of opaque edges and marginal growth rate indicated that a single ring was formed once a year for both sexes. The relations of back-calculated standard length(cm) L(t) to age t(years old) expressed using the Bertalanffy growth equation were represented as L(t)=54.8{1-e- 0.481(t + 0.011)} and L(t)=45.0{1-e- 0.597(t+0.011)} for female and male, respectively. The estimate of growth coefficient did not differ from those of turbot in the Gulf of Lion and in a release-recapture experiment in the Black Sea, but were nearly twice as large as that in the Gulf of Pomerania.


Managers are interested in the dynamics of down woody material because of its role as a fuel component, a feature of wildlife habitat, a carbon pool, and other characteristics. We analyzed nearly 9,000 plots from the Interior West, spanning the range from sparse juniper and mesquite woodland to dense spruce-fir forests, in order to characterize down woody material as it relates to stand and site factors. Average abundance of down woody material increases predictably with climatic factors, as measured by several parameters, and with stand age. However, the patterns of abundance with stand age vary widely by forest type, with certain types exhibiting unique patterns that are at least partly explained by known patterns of their development and growth. One area where forest types differ substantially is in the amount and type of down woody material that is "inherited" by a newly regenerated stand from the previous stand on the site. These legacy characteristics are influenced by the type of transition — e.g., from one stand type to the next (successional) or from self-replacement (either latesuccessional types or mid-succession disturbance). In addition, the variability of legacy down wood within a given type and climatic regime may be informative with respect to site history (e.g., "encroachment" or "replacement" status of some pinyonjuniper woodlands). Our analysis should provide managers with a framework assessing the status of down woody material, as well as models for "typical" down woody dynamics over time.


Little is known of the fate of viruses involved in long-term obligatory associations with eukaryotes. For example, many species of parasitoid wasps have symbiotic viruses to manipulate host defenses and to allow development of parasitoid larvae. The complete nucleotide sequence of the DNA enclosed in the virus particles injected by a parasitoid wasp revealed a complex organization, resembling a eukaryote genomic region more than a viral genome. Although endocellular symbiont genomes have undergone a dramatic loss of genes, the evolution of symbiotic viruses appears to be characterized by extensive duplication of virulence genes coding for truncated versions of cellular proteins.


The phenomenon of infrequent price changes has troubled economists for decades. Intuitively one feels that for most price-setters there exists a range of inaction, i.e. a substantial measure of the states of the world, within which they do not wish to modify prevailing prices. However, basic economics tells us that when marginal costs change it is rational to change prices, too. Economists wishing to maintain rationality of price-setters resorted to fixed price adjustment costs as an explanation for price rigidity. In this paper we propose an alternative explanation, without recourse to any sort of physical adjustment cost, by putting strategic interaction into the center-stage of our analysis. Price-making is treated as a repeated oligopoly game. The traditional analysis of these games cannot pinpoint any equilibrium as a reasonable "solution" of the strategic situation. Thus there is genuine strategic uncertainty, a situation where decision-makers are uncertain of the strategies of other decision-makers. Hesitation may lead to inaction. To model this situation we follow the style of agent-based models, by modelling firms that change their pricing strategies following an evolutionary algorithm. Our results are promising. In addition to reproducing the known negative relationship between price rigidity and the level of general inflation, our model exhibits several features observed in real data. Moreover, most prices fall into the theoretical "range" without explicitly building this property into strategies.


This thesis describes a research project that was carried out at the Centre for Science and Mathematics Education at Utrecht University between 1998 and 2002. The study addresses problems in learning and teaching genetics in upper secondary biology education. The aim of the study is to develop a theoretically founded and empirically tested learning and teaching strategy (LT strategy) to cope with these problems.
The study is designed according to the developmental research approach (Chapter 2). In developmental research educational researchers and teachers co-operate in defining and developing learning activities and testing these in classroom settings. The LT strategy will evolve in a process of cyclic empirical testing of scenarios (Chapter 4).
Literature review and focus group interviews with Dutch biology teachers (n=19) revealed that the main difficulties in genetics education are associated with its abstract and complex nature (Chapter 3). A separation of inheritance from reproduction and meiosis (resulting in abstract subject matter) and the occurrence of heredity phenomena at different levels of biological organisation (its complexity) account in considerable degree for learning problems.
More in-depth data about these key difficulties have been gathered, and design criteria defined, using theoretical and empirical sources (e.g. 12 students interviews, classroom observations, content analysis of textbooks, literature) (Chapter 3). The LT strategy has been developed, evaluated, revised and optimised in a cyclic process of testing scenarios in practice (case studies). Three case studies in different schools (n=3) and forms (n=5) were carried out and resulted in the yo-yo LT strategy for genetics . A formal description of the didactical structure of the final version of the yo-yo LT strategy for genetics is presented in chapter 5.
In the yo-yo strategy students are invited to think backward-and-forward between the levels of biological organisation and to interrelate the genetics concepts on these levels. Analogue to the toy yo-yo. In handling the yo-yo it is impossible to skip part of the descending or ascending pathway. It is possible to yo-yo upwards and downwards, but the anchor and starting point is always the same: the hand that handles the yo-yo. In the yo-yo LT strategy for genetics the starting and anchor point is the organismic level, from where the levels can be descended and ascended (yo-yo downwards) but also ascended to the population and community level and descended (yo-yo upwards).
The yo-yo strategy copes with the complexity by explicitly distinguishing the levels of biological organisation, and by descending and ascending these levels, starting from the concrete organismic level. Explicating the levels makes the transect nature of genetics transparent to students, and provides an insight into what hereditary phenomena, processes, and structures occur on the different levels of biological organisation. The genetics vocabulary is tuned to the specific level students are dealing with at that particular moment, which helps to prevent confusion. In this way, the educational difficulties with cytological concepts, chromosome structure, and the homologue chromosome concept that have been described in the literature are avoided to a great extent.
The yo-yo LT strategy emphasises the genetics key concepts per level of biological organisation and their interrelationships. The relationships between reproduction, meiosis, and inheritance on the organismic and cellular level is stressed, and at the same time these key concepts are made concrete. This diminishes the abstract nature of genetics. The problem posing structure of content-related partial questions and reflection activities provide students a motive to engage in the next learning activity, in which another, related key concept on a subsequent level of biological organisation is explored.
Because the levels of biological organisation play an important role in most biological topics, we have argued that the yo-yo LT strategy could be suitable for all biological topics transecting different levels of organisation, e.g. behaviour, evolution, and ecology.


As the largest unexplored area on earth, the underwater world has unlimited attraction to marine scientists. Due to the complexity of the underwater environment and the limitations of human divers, underwater exploration has been facilitated by the use of submarines, Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). In recent years, use of autonomous control systems being integrated with visual sensors has increased substantially, especially in marine applications involving guidance of AUVs. In this work, autonomous fish-tracking via AUV with vision servoing control system is studied with the purpose of assisting marine biologists in gathering detailed information about the behaviors, habits, mobility, and local and global distributions of particular fish species. The main goal of this work in this thesis is to develop an AUV sensing system, including both video and auxiliary sonar, which has the ability to carry out visually guided autonomous tracking of a particular species of fish, Large Mouth Bass. A key in enabling fish-tracking involves the development of a vision-processing algorithm to measure the position of the vehicle relative to the fish. It is challenging because of the complex nature of the underwater environment including dynamic and varied lighting conditions, turbulent water, suspended organic particles and various underwater plants and animals, and the deformable body of fish while swimming. These issues cause target fish identification by computer vision processing extremely difficult. In automated fish-tracking work, we provide two valid and efficient segmentation and recognition vision algorithms to identify a fish from the natural underwater environment: one is a feature extraction algorithm based on Gabor filter texture segmentation and a new approach that we call projection curve recognition. It is able to extract the feature on the fish tail and body and successfully describe the fish as two straight line segments. The second algorithm is SIFT based fish recognition algorithm. The SIFT approach introduced by David Lowe in 1999 extracts distinctive invariant features to scaling, illumination, rotation or translation of the image. The reliable keypoints matching in the database of keypoints from target fish is implemented by Best-Bin-First (BBF) algorithm. Clustering keypoints that agree on the possible object with Hough transform are identified as the object fish, reliable recognition is possible with as few as 3 features. Finally, a dynamic recognition process was designed using continuously updated fish model to match and recognize the target fish from a series of video frames. The SIFT Based recognition algorithm is effective and efficient in identifying Large Mouth Bass in a natural cluttering underwater environment. For a monocular camera system, the depth of field is extremely hard to obtain by vision processing. Hence, the system is augmented with a forward-looking digital image micro sonar. With the sonar image processing algorithm, the target fish is recognized. Sonar can not only provide the relative range between the fish and AUV, but also assist in identifying the target.


The spatial distribution patterns of five melon cultivars (Cucumis melo L. var. reticulatus) were evaluated by measuring XY coordinates of ripe fruit locations in the field. Fruit ripeness distribution over time was also evaluated for three cultivars by measuring the number of ripe fruit, fruit mass, and location over time. Spatial distribution curves for distances between fruit clusters and individual fruit from cluster centroids varied between clusters and were derived for each cultivar from the best fit curves based on chi-square analysis from the two-dimensional spatial fruit distribution. These equations can be used for predicting actual fruit locations in the field. Ripeness distribution patterns indicated that, while the exact duration of the effective harvesting period is cultivar-dependent, the ripeness trend for each of the cultivars was similar. Spatial distribution patterns vary among melon cultivars and must be recognized in the design of automated harvesting systems.


On a Buddhist rule in the Chronography by Barhebraeus. In the chapter dealing with Mongol religious habits in the Chronography by Barhebraeus (1225/6-1286), we find precise reference to a Buddhist rule on the consumption of meat: the rule states that if the meat of an animal killed on purpose is offered to monks, they are not allowed to eat it. Barhebraeus' primary source concerning the Mongols was the Persian History of the World's Conqueror by ʽAṭā Malek Jovayni, which makes no mention of this rule in the corresponding passage: it must have been an addition of Barhebraeus himself, based on his personal experience. For this reason, we can assume that he had met some Buddhist monks, most likely during his stay in Maragha. In the region of the Ilkhanid capital, a flourishing cultural center of the Near East, there must have been several Buddhist temples and/or monasteries, as we know from later historiographical accounts (Rasīd al-Dīn, al-Qāsānī). Along with several other data (mainly literary and topographical), this reference provides significant evidence of a sizeable Buddhist presence in Western Iran, that is farther west than the limit of securely identifiable Buddhist archaeological remains (i.e., the Kandahar – Merv line). firstname.lastname@example.com


Although wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been employed across a wide range of applications, there are very few books that emphasize the algorithm description, performance analysis, and applications of network management techniques in WSNs. Filling this need, Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks: Management, Performance, and Applications summarizes not only traditional and classical network management techniques, but also state-of-the-art techniques in this area.The articles presented are expository, but scholarly in nature, including the appropriate history background, a review of current thinking on the topic, and a discussion of unsolved problems. The book is organized into three sections. Section I introduces the basic concepts of WSNs and their applications, followed by the summarization of the network management techniques used in WSNs.Section II begins by examining virtual backbone-based network management techniques. It points out some of the drawbacks in classical and existing methods and proposes several new network management techniques for WSNs that can address the shortcomings of existing methods. Each chapter in this section examines a new network management technique and includes an introduction, literature review, network model, algorithm description, theoretical analysis, and conclusion.Section III applies proposed new techniques to some important applications in WSNs including routing, data collection, data aggregation, and query processing. It also conducts simulations to verify the performance of the proposed techniques. Each chapter in this section examines a particular application using the following structure: brief application overview, application design and implementation, performance analysis, simulation settings, and comments for different test cases/scenario configurations.


The practice of recovery-oriented care with individuals who have been found unfit to stand trial or not criminally responsible, and who are subject to review board dispositions, presents a variety of ethical tensions. The assessment and management of risk in a rehabilitative context raises issues of autonomy, confidentiality, and conflicting roles. Awareness of and, where possible, resolution of these conflicts is necessary for the success of the recovery paradigm in this context.


Evidence-based practice (EBP) is used worldwide to improve the quality of patient care to provide costeffective care. EBP is a mandate for nursing practice combining individual clinical judgment with available expertise to generate a positive outcome for the patient. Investigators have documented that nurses have varying degrees of confidence and knowledge about EBP. The purpose of this project was to improve knowledge of EBP among registered nurses (RNs). The ACE Star Model of Knowledge transformation was used as the conceptual model. The key project question was to assess the level of knowledge and confidence about EBP among RNs in a cardio-thoracic (CT) intensive care unit (ICU) before and after viewing a computer-based EBP educational module. The quasi-experimental project used a 1 group pretest–posttest design. In the pretest, a convenience sample (n = 29) completed ACE-ERI competencies to self-assess confidence in EBP and an EBP Knowledge Test. The participants then viewed an EBP educational module based on major steps in EBP practice. Afterward, they repeated both tests. As a group, the paired t test showed a significant increase in scores for the ACE-ERI competencies between pretest and posttest scores. Using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test, knowledge scores increased but were not statistically significant. These findings suggested that there was improvement in both confidence and knowledge supporting the use of the educational module. In order to effectively implement EBP, nurses require knowledge to assess the quality and evidence for improved patient outcome. These results can guide administrators and educators to enhance RN EBP by the use of educational modules to improve the quality of patient care creating positive social change.


CD44 is a broadly distributed polymorphic glycoprotein that serves as the principal cell-surface receptor for hyaluronate. Although CD44-mediated cell interaction with hyaluronate has been implicated in a variety of physiologic events, including cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesion, cell migration, proliferation, and activation, as well as hyaluronate uptake and degradation, the biologic role of CD44 in vivo in various tissues remains to be determined. In the present work we have developed transgenic mice that express an antisense CD44 cDNA driven by the keratin-5 promoter. These mice lack detectable CD44 expression in skin keratinocytes and corneal epithelium and display abnormal hyaluronate accumulation in the superficial dermis and corneal stroma, distinct morphologic alterations of basal keratinocytes and cornea, and defective keratinocyte proliferation in response to mitogen and growth factors. These alterations are reflected by a decrease in skin elasticity, impaired local inflammatory response and tissue repair, delayed hair regrowth, and failure of the epidermis to undergo hyperplasia in response to carcinogen. Our observations indicate that two major functions of CD44 in skin are the regulation of keratinocyte proliferation in response to extracellular stimuli and the maintenance of local hyaluronate homeostasis.


Objective To quantify the effects of a thermostatic control system in social (public) housing on the prevalence of dangerous (>60°C) water temperatures and on fuel consumption. Design Pair-matched double-blind cluster randomised controlled trial. Setting Social housing in a deprived inner-London borough. Participants 150 households recruited as clusters from 22 social housing estates. Four small estates were combined into two clusters (resulting in a total of 10 pairs of clusters). Intervention Social housing estate boiler houses were randomised to a thermostatic control sterilisation programme (heating water to 65°C during 00:00–06:00 h and to 50°C from 06:00 to 00:00 h daily) or to standard control (constant temperature 65°C). Main outcome measures Water temperature over 60°C ('dangerous') after running taps for 1 min and daily fuel consumption (cubic feet of gas). Results 10 clusters (80 households) were allocated to the sterilisation programme and 10 clusters (70 households) to control, of which 73 and 67 households, respectively, were analysed. Prevalence of dangerous (>60°C) hot water temperatures at 1 min was significantly reduced with the sterilisation programme (mean of cluster prevalence 1% in sterilisation programme group vs 34% in control group; absolute difference 33%, 95% CI 12% to 54%; p=0.006). Prevalence of high (>55°C) hot water temperatures at 1 min was significantly reduced (31% sterilisation vs 59% control; absolute difference 28%, 95% CI 9% to 47%; p=0.009). Gas consumption per day reduced more in the control group than in the sterilisation programme group, although not statistically significantly (p=0.125). Conclusions The thermostatic control with daily sterilisation was effective in capping hot water temperatures and therefore reduced scald risk. Although expected to save energy, fuel consumption was increased relative to the control group. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT00874692


In the present study, a comprehensive investigation of the dynamic processes in an artificial algal biofilm immobilized on a porous substrate has been conducted. Experimental investigations including microsensor measurements were carried out. For this purpose, the microsensor setup used for profiling submerged biofilms was modified to enable measurement on the investigated biofilms. To achieve an accurate evaluation of the data acquired through microsensor measurements, a new mathematical method was developed, and a 20 μm depth resolution has been suggested for future photosynthetic activity measurements.
After the establishment of the microsensor methods, a systematic microsenser investigation was carried out: the distribution of dissolved oxygen, pH value and photosynthetic productivity profiles of algal biofilms in a porous substrate biofilm photobioreactor (Twin-Layer photobioreactor) exposed to different surface irradiance and/or exposed to different gas phase CO2 concentrations were measured. The results acquired from these experiments offered important insights into the processes in such biofilms: E.g. light penetration depth, maximal dissolved oxygen concentration and pH distribution. The results show, as expected, photosynthesis in the biofilms occurs only near the biofilms surface (i.e. in the illuminated zones), and dark respiration in the inner part of the biofilm could be the reason of the observed biomass productivity decrease with prolonged cultivation. Also, increases in surface irradiance and/or gas phase CO2 concentrations led to an increase in photosynthetic productivity of the investigated biofilm. No photoinhibition was observed in the studied biofilms, although exceptionally high dissolved oxygen concentrations (12 times of that in normal atmosphere) have been recorded.
The model (as described in the 3rd manuscript, Li et al. 2015d) developed in the study has proven to be very effective in predicting experimental observations. The results show clearly the importance of taking into account not only adsorption and scattering, but also the adaptation of the pigment content of the biomass for investigating radiative transfer in PSBR biofilms. Also, through the development of the model, important insights into the dynamic processes in the investigated biofilm were acquired: E.g., it is very likely that the facilitated CO2 transfer plays an important role in inorganic carbon transport in the studied biofilms when the CO2 concentration supplied in the gas phase is low; macronutrients (N and P) do not limit growth even at high surface irradiance and high gas phase CO2 concentrations as long as they are sufficiently supplied in the medium; and the buffering of the medium with a strong buffer will have significant effects on the inorganic carbon availability in the studied biofilm.
Through this study, a solid basis has been established for future investigation on PSBR biofilms. The methods and model developed in this study are established specifically for investigating biofilms grown in the Twin-Layer porous substrate biofilm photobioreactor. However, with minor modifications and/or additional experimental measurements, they can be easily applied to other phototrophic biofilm systems or for investigation and/or optimization of commercial scale systems.


A new concept in composite construction has been developed
at the University of Salford, involving the use of
fibre-reinforced cement channels, combined structurally
with partially prestressed composite concrete T-beams.
The British Standards Institution Code of Practice,
CP110: 1972, "The Structural Use of Concrete", permits the
use of Class 2 and Class 3 (partially prestressed) concrete
members in structural design'. The limiting design criteria
for such members are usually the limit'states of deflection
and cracking and therefore, an improvement in their
flexural behaviour would be beneficial. This improvement
may be brought about by the addition of fibre-reinforcement,
in the form of two or three dimensionally randomly
distributed fibres. The Code of Practice, CP110: 1972, does
hot, however, give any guidance on the use of fibres in
structural members and it is also apl. arent that the methods
outlined in the code for the calculation of the limit
states are limited and can be improved.
The flexural behaviour of twenty-two partially prestressed
composite concrete T-beams was investigated.
Each beam consisted of a precast partially prestressed
X-joist web, combined with a cast-insitu lightweight
aggregate concrete flange. Alkali-resistant glass fibrereinforced
cement channels were placed at the soffits of
six beams and steel fibre-reinforced concrete was used in
the webs of two beams. The T-beams were subjected toshort-term, long-term and fatigue loading and their structural
performance was considered in terms of strength,
cracking and deformation.
Theoretical relationships are derived between the
applied moment and the depths of the neutral axes of stress
and bending, enabling a design equation relating applied
moment to the steel stress to be developed. Subsequently,
design equations for the calculation of the limit states of
deflection and cracking are developed, which are directly
applicable to both conventional and fibre-reinforced
structural members.
The use of a fibre-reinforced cement channel as an
integral structural part of a concrete member results in
many important advantages when compared with conventional
concrete members and the test results show that they considerably
improve the structural performance of the
partially prestressed composite concrete T-beams.


Two mathematical models for the simulation of the dynamics of sheetflow are presented, an analytical and a numerical one. In the analytical model the theory of Bagnold (1954) is implemented: a constant ratio between shear stress and normal stresses is assumed. In the numerical model the motion of each layer of grains is considered separately; each layer exists of a rigid rectangular structure of spherical grains. Grain- grain interaction between the successive layers occurs in two ways: on one hand viscous interaction forces, comparable with squeezing forces in lubrication problems and on the other hand direct contact with elastic response when the distance between the grains becomes less than .01 of the grain diameter. When the relative motion of adjacent layers results into compression or dilatation, a resistant force analogous to the Darcy law is assumed.The numerical model has been combined with the turbulent boundary layer model of Bakker and v. Kesteren (1984). Results of computations are compared with measurements of Bagnold (1954) and Horikawa et al (1982). The analytical model predicted the concentration in the sheet flow layer and the intrusion depth rather well, where the numerical model gave reasonable results with respect to the velocity pattern above the sheetflow layer. It is concluded, that up to now the more sophisticated assumptions of the numerical model do not lead as yet to higher accuracy with respect to the intrusion depth of the sheet flow, probably because the separation between sheet flow and the turbulent boundary layer above has been assumed too smooth.


United States v. Katz is the king of Supreme Court surveillance cases, famous for announcing the "reasonable expectation of privacy" test that is designed to protect personal privacy and limit intrusive searches. This essay comments on a forthcoming article by Professor Orin Kerr. Professor Kerr in an excellent article shows how this view of Katz fits badly with how courts actually apply the Fourth Amendment to electronic surveillance and other new technology. In this essay, I show how Professor Kerr actually understates the demise of Katz. Professor Kerr has correctly shown how the traditional property approach has persisted where it helps the government, such as by finding that many kinds of surveillance are not "searches" under the Fourth Amendment. This essay adds the insight that the property regime has actually been abandoned in other respects since 1967, in ways that have dramatically aided government surveillance. The 1967 abolition of the "mere evidence" rule has greatly expanded the government's ability to gain access to the private papers and other information of individuals. Examination of the case law under the "mere evidence" rule and of new developments in telephone technology leads to a second insight. Changing technology means that many telephone calls are likely to be subject to routine recording in the near future. Because the Supreme Court has been so supportive of government access to stored records, Katz may soon be dead on its own facts. If Katz is dead (or nearly so), what should be done? Professor Kerr appears to welcome the demise of Katz. He argues at length that Congress can do a better job than the courts at creating the law for high-tech surveillance. This essay criticizes that view, showing reasons for Fourth Amendment doctrine to continue to play a role in governing electronic surveillance and other high-tech searches. The end of Katz, perhaps even on its own facts, invites us to consider what alternative approaches the courts might use in structuring a good regime for high-tech surveillance by the government. This essay sketches some of the substantive doctrines that courts might workably enforce in defining Fourth Amendment searches. It then explores in some detail the possibility that the courts can work collaboratively with the elected branches to ensure that there are reasonable procedures in place. The new regime would uphold the rule of law, with reasonable procedures specified in advance. This approach would give both the courts and the elected branches their appropriate role for important categories of searches, such as those involving emerging technologies, new types of surveillance, and complex record-keeping systems.


Background: The variability in CD4+ cell counts within mothers and babies at birth, in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive mothers, has not been explained adequately. As one of the predictors of HIV, the CD4 + cell count plots the course of HIV progression. The important implication has to be understood, in relation to HIV-related opportunistic infections. Therefore, this study proposes to evaluate factors that determine CD4+ cell count in infants born to women infected with HIV and to determine the relationship between CD4+ cell counts in maternal viraemia and CD4+ cell counts of babies at birth. Methods: A semi-parametric approach was used in modeling CD4+ cell counts in the newly born babies to HIV-positive women. Gestational age of the mothers was including in the model using a smooth function to cater for non-linearity. Analysis was restricted to antiretroviral therapy (ART) - naive, HIV-infected pregnant women. At enrollment, maternal median age was 26 years (interquartile range (IQR): 5) and median CD4+ counts was 459 cells/mm 3 (IQR: 566). The mean (SD) CD4+ cell counts of HIV-seropositive women were 691 cells/mm 3 (803 cells/mm 3 ). Results: Maternal CD4+ counts and gestational age were found to be the significant determinants of CD4+ counts in the new born babies. Maternal CD4+ was positively associated with CD4+ counts in babies (0.239; p=0.004). We noted a non-linear trend in CD 4+ cell activity with gestational age, the optimum value at occurs at 37 weeks of pregnancy. Conclusions: The model provides a flexible way to estimate the changing distribution of CD4+ cell counts in babies with weeks of pregnancy. Results obtained from the semi-parametric modeling could substantially improve the planning of health services, including the need for antiretroviral therapy.


Many organizations have recognized the potential of managing unstructured information alongside structured information as a way to increase their business value and improve their competitive advantage. The evaluation of a UIM process is a challenging research area that has received little attention up to now. Thus, it is important to provide information officers with appropriate techniques to help them evaluate how UIM technologies should be deployed and how to maximise the benefits to the organisation. The proposed UIM evaluation scheme is a comprehensive set of criteria for the UIM process and it is generic in that it could be used to evaluate any applications and technologies that follow this process. In addition, parts of the evaluation scheme could be used in the evaluation of a different UIM process. It follows that the proposed evaluation scheme could assist information officers that use such applications and designers that develop such applications in evaluating and deploying UIM systems that increase business value and improve competitive advantage. Finally, the proposed framework provides a common language for communication between designers and information officers because the majority of its evaluation criteria focus on the usability and functionality of UIM applications and technologies.


The known Mountain Plover population breeding on the Myton Bench, Duchesne County, Utah, is small, composed roughly of 30 adults and young after each breeding season. Currently, its location is peripheral to the species' main range. This shrub-steppe breeding habitat differs from the shortgrass prairie habitat with which this bird is historically associated. Between 1996 and 1998 we made observations at nesting sites located consistently in 2 con- centrated areas surrounded by large tracts of similar habitat. Activity may be focused in these specific areas because of breeding-site fidelity; this behavior is common among most shorebirds and has been documented for the Mountain Plover in Colorado. Also, Mountain Plovers are social and tend to choose nest sites near others. Most nests in Utah were located within close proximity of mounds of white-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys leucurus), and all were situated near roadways or oil well pads. Mountain Plovers were often observed with broods on these bare areas at night. We conclude that Mountain Plovers on the Myton Bench are distributed in clumped breeding colonies within large areas of appar- ently favorable habitat.


Thermally driven water‐vapor flow can be an important component of total water movement in bare soil and in deep unsaturated zones, but this process is often neglected when considering the effects of soil–plant–atmosphere interactions on shallow water movement. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the coupled and separate effects of vegetative and thermal‐gradient contributions to soil water movement in desert environments. The evaluation was done by comparing a series of simulations with and without vegetation and thermal forcing during a 4.7‐yr period (May 2001–December 2005). For vegetated soil, evapotranspiration alone reduced root‐zone (upper 1 m) moisture to a minimum value (25 mm) each year under both isothermal and nonisothermal conditions. Variations in the leaf area index altered the minimum storage values by up to 10 mm. For unvegetated isothermal and nonisothermal simulations, root‐zone water storage nearly doubled during the simulation period and created a persistent driving force for downward liquid fluxes below the root zone (total net flux ∼1 mm). Total soil water movement during the study period was dominated by thermally driven vapor fluxes. Thermally driven vapor flow and condensation supplemented moisture supplies to plant roots during the driest times of each year. The results show how nonisothermal flow is coupled with plant water uptake, potentially influencing ecohydrologic relations in desert environments.


Fruit quality, particularly flavour, is one of the most important factors driving consumer acceptability of fresh produce and is even more critical for fresh-cut products where a premium eating experience is expected. Fresh-cut papaya samples were processed and packaged in polystyrene trays sealed with high barrier film and stored at 4oC. Texture, colour, total plate count, yeast and mould counts and sensory evaluation were assessed during 18 days storage. After 14 days storage at 4oC freshcut papaya had a significantly softer texture, increased red/yellow colour, but no significant change in total soluble solids and was microbiologically acceptable for up to 7 days. A method using solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) with direct sampling from the headspace of the package was developed to evaluate the change of flavour volatiles of fresh-cut papaya over the cold storage period. The SPME-GC-MS method detected the evolution of cis-linaloloxide and linalool from the headspace of packed fresh-cut papaya. A significant decrease in these two volatiles was observed between day 1 and day 11. Concurrent sensory evaluation showed that the fresh-cut papaya developed an offflavour, although no off-flavour compounds were detected by GC-MS. The methodologies used in this study could be further optimised to evaluate quality in fresh-cut products with the subsequent application in comparing flavour retention and loss in different preparation and packaging fresh-cut products in situ.