I have been lucky enough to give many talks at law schools, and whenever I take the microphone--and, inevitably, lower the microphone--the question flashes on people's faces: "Why him?" For one thing, I have no data to share, no findings to report, no technical solutions to offer. And unlike the faculty who have spoken, my experience of the legal academy hardly spans even two years. On the other hand, I have spent those years pushing the most hated conservative position on the most heated political issue at the most socially liberal law schools in the nation. What my experience of the legal academy lacks in length, it has amply made up in intensity. So you will have to go elsewhere for general and systematic data, with all its probative force. But I hope my remarks do have the motivating force of the personal and anecdotal. In that mode, I will draw on my experience at Yale, and in talks and debates at other law schools, to say a word about our topics: Is there a diversity problem? Should we care? And what should we do? Finally, I have titled my Essay "How the Law School Can Succeed--an Invitation," which of course riffs on the title of Duncan Kennedy's famous 1971 student note, How the Law School Fails: A Polemic. (1) I do this first in the hope that my piece, too, becomes a classic, if only through failed Google searches for his. But I also intend the contrast between our titles to highlight a shift of emphasis. Professor Kennedy focused on diagnosing the legal academy's ills. (2) I will begin there--with its failures of diversity--but my emphasis will be on reasons to improve, and on the evidence that improvement is well within our reach. The fact is that I have loved my time at Yale and visiting other law schools. I am writing not as an alien or exile with idle grievances to air, but as a member of the minority, pushing for reform from within, with all the zeal and hopefulness of a local who intends to stay. I. IS THERE A LACK OF INTELLECTUAL DIVERSITY IN LAW SCHOOL FACULTIES? The problems that bedevil the social science on this question are well-known. What are good proxies for ideological diversity? Along what axes should we measure it? Can we measure it meaningfully across disciplines as different as antitrust and admiralty? In truth, of course, we cannot answer these questions until we know why we care about diversity in the first place. A professor at Yale once told me that she absolutely agreed on the need for conservative faculty. "After all," she said without irony, "we liberals have trouble getting you all internships in Republican administrations." Now if that is your purpose, then party affiliation is what you should tally. But if your purpose is also to enrich discussions on major issues of the day, then all the law-and-economics scholars from Coase to Calabresi will not make up for the absence of, say, a single pro-life professor. (And as far as I know, Yale has about that many law and economics professors, and no pro-lifers.) So there is no all-purpose answer to the question of whether we have a diversity problem, or how to measure it. But if sociological precision is elusive, and the population of interest--your colleagues--is manageable and familiar, then personal impressions matter more. Indeed, one reason to care about diversity is its effect on classroom climate; yet that is something that personal experience more immediately captures than comparing campaign-donation rates. And from this personal vantage point, I think certain diversity deficits become clear. A few weeks into my 1L fall, I had to miss an afternoon class to drive down to Seton Hall for a marriage debate. The following Monday, a classmate made small talk by asking where I had been. "A debate!" I said. She cheerfully obliged by asking what the debate was about. I told her it was on gay marriage--at which point she asked, with a knowing smile, "And which side were you on? …


Despite the fact that it could help to overcome the current global financial crisis, the concept of open innovation is only very scarcely applied in the financial services sector. This international literature review covering the past decade provides an overview of the relevant body of literature on this topic. Two questions represent the starting point of this work: (1) Why is open innovation so scarcely applied in the banking, wealth management and insurance industries? and (2) Should the financial services sector use open innovab2202 tion more widely? Our findings show that various organisational factors as well as monetary reasons prevent financial services companies from applying open innovation processes. Yet, by taking into account the potential benefits that the concept of open innovation may yield, this approach should indeed be applied more widely in the financial services industry.


Stringent regulations of pollutant emissions now apply to newgeneration combustion devices. To achieve low nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions simultaneously, a complex optimization process is required in the development of new concepts for engines. Already efficient for the prediction of turbulent combustion, Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is also a promising tool to better understand the processes of pollutant formation in gas turbine conditions and to provide their quantitative prediction at the design stage. In this work, a new methodology for the prediction with LES of NOx and CO in realistic industrial configurations is developed. It is based on a new strategy for the description of chemistry, using Analytically Reduced Chemistry (ARC) combined with the Thickened Flame model (TFLES). An ARC with accurate CO and NO prediction is derived, validated on canonical laminar flames and implemented in the LES solver. The accuracy of this approach is demonstrated with a highly resolved simulation of the academic turbulent Sandia D flame, for which excellent prediction of NO and CO is obtained. The methodology is then applied to two industrial configurations. The first one is the SGT-100, a lean partially-premixed gas turbine model combustor studied experimentally at DLR. LES of this configuration highlights the chemical processes of pollutant formation and provides qualitative and quantitative understanding of the impact of the operating conditions. The second target configuration corresponds to a mono-sector prototype of an ultra-low NOx, staged multipoint injection aeronautical combustor developed in the framework of the LEMCOTEC European project and studied experimentally at ONERA. An ARC for the combustion of a representative jet fuel surrogate is derived and used in the LES of the combustor with an Eulerian formalism to describe the liquid dispersed phase. Results show the excellent performances of the ARC, for both the flame characteristics and the prediction of pollutants.


This paper aims to present central concepts of Evolutionary Institutionalism and to highlight analytical elements that may be useful for studies in agricultural economics. To this end, the study carried out a literature review based on the main references of institutional and evolutionary economics. The main analytical contribution of Evolutionary Institutionalism to agricultural economics lies in understanding economic relations from the perspective of human behaviour. Individuals become central to the analysis of the rural world, since they establish habits, behaviour patterns, and rules of conduct that, when interacting collectively, produce institutions. Thus, it is from the active role of the individual that rural dynamics emerge and consolidate an institutional environment and prevailing social structures. It is possible to point out some specific themes that emerge as potential applications of this line of thought: a) the analysis of the development trajectory of and institutional changes affecting different rural sectors; b) the role of habits, traditions and behavioural trends; c) power relations in agricultural markets; d) the evaluation of public policies for agriculture; e) innovation and technology as determinants of the evolution of routines, and f) the institutions "behind" the new relations of food production and consumption.


This study aims at investigating the effectiveness of the functional approach to second language instruction in acquiring grammatical accuracy. In other words, the second language instruction that is semantically, interactionally (i.e. the meaning-oriented and interaction-oriented instructional techniques) and structurally based (i.e. the rule-oriented instructional techniques) enhances the acquisition of grammatical accuracy more effectively than the structural approach. The reason for such an investigation has resulted from the fact that many instructors of English use the structural and traditional approaches in teaching grammar. The consequence of using such approaches is the decline of English language among university students. Another reason for this investigation is the globalization of all the aspects of today's life which involves second/ foreign language learners to cope with the discourse of modern civilization, so that they can acquire the cross-cultural understanding worldwide through the multimedia and the other communication channels. This step can be achieved by the functional approach to second/ foreign language instruction. To verify the hypothesis, both the qualitative and quantitative research methods have been used to elicit the required data. The subjects of the study were the students majoring in English at the University of Nyala in Sudan. The data which was collected from the subjects, has been analyzed statistically by using a T-test. The results of the investigation have revealed that the functional approach to second language instruction is more effective in acquiring the grammatical accuracy than the structural approach. The study concludes with pedagogical implications and recommendations for the application of the functional approach in second/ foreign language learning/ teaching.


The presence of the mole cricket Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa on the Dutch wadden island Texel (Orthoptera) This note addresses the distribution of the mole cricket (Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa (Linnaeus, 1758)) on the Dutch wadden island Texel. In 1998 and 1999, records of this species were published in a local newspaper. Later, more records got known. Until then, there were no known records of this species of Texel nor from the adjacent mainland. It became known that in the year 1900 large numbers of nests of mole crickets were found in a tree nursery on the island and that a population had been living in the surrounding area all through the 20th century. The large numbers in the nursery may suggest a non-native origin, however, no significant numbers of young trees nor tree lumps are believed to have been imported into Texel. Therefore, it is concluded that the species is most likely native on the island, although a non-native origin on the island can not be ruled out entirely.


I. Introduction II. Background A. Prior Iowa Consumer Fraud Law B. Prior Legislative Attempts C. The 2008 Legislative Session D. The 2009 Legislative Session III. Analysis A. Assessing Iowa's Need for a Private Consumer Fraud Action 1. National Fraud Climate: Incidence and Enforcement 2. Consumer Fraud in Iowa B. The History of Private Actions for Consumer Fraud C. Learning from 49 Examples--Characteristics of Private Consumer Fraud Actions 1. Ensuring Economic Feasibility: Attorney Fees Provisions a. Provisions Regarding Plaintiff's Fees b. Provisions Regarding Defendant's Fees 2. Measuring Causation: Reliance and Injury-in-Fact Provisions 3. Measuring Blame: Culpability Provisions 4. Exemptions D. Building the Best Bill--Amending Iowa's New Law IV. Recommendations A. Attorney Fee Provisions B. Causation Combination: Tendency to Mislead & Injury-in-Fact C. Ensuring Culpability D. Other Provisions 1. Eliminating Attorney General Supervision 2. Encouraging Out-of-Court Settlement 3. Professional & Industry Exemptions V. Conclusion I. INTRODUCTION June 2008 is a month most Iowans would prefer wash away. Persistent heavy rains brought the state's worst flooding in recorded history. The Cedar River rose 20 feet above flood stage, putting 1300 city blocks underwater and damaging or destroying more than 6000 homes and businesses in Cedar Rapids. (1) The University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, had twenty buildings flooded and estimated damages of $230 million. (2) Forty-five days after the waters receded, the Iowa Governor's Office estimated the floods had caused $12 billion in damages. (3) The damages from the Iowa floods are likely within the United States' top five costliest natural disasters since 1900. (4) As Iowans take part in the rebuilding process, many will depend upon help from out-of-town and out-of-state contractors. (5) Among well-intentioned and legitimate contractors (both from Iowa and elsewhere) helping victims are criminals and con artists who come to disaster areas to prey on desperate individuals. (6) For example, the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force charged over nine hundred individuals with disaster-related fraud in the three years after Hurricane Katrina--nearly one every day, excluding Sundays, for three years. (7) Non-profits, attorneys general, and well-known insurance companies advise individuals on how to avoid disaster fraud via their websites. (8) To compound the injuries from the 2008 floods, Iowa was the only state that did not give its citizens the right to sue for consumer fraud, leaving its citizens in a uniquely vulnerable position. (9) Many states adopted such a right in the 1960s and 1970s.10 After a decade of strong pushing, Iowa finally created a private action for consumer fraud in the legislative session after the 2008 floods. Part II of this Note opens by providing a history of Iowa's recent attempts to create a private right of action for consumer fraud, with a more in-depth discussion of the 2008 and 2009 efforts. Part III analyzes other states' consumer fraud actions, Iowa's need for a private action for consumer fraud, and the provisions of the 2009 bill, which became law. Finally, Part IV takes lessons from 49 other states to judge the new law's provisions, and offer revisions that balance the needs of all stakeholders. Specifically, the legislature should make the attorney fees awards to prevailing plaintiffs mandatory, clarify that defendants can only win attorney fees for frivolous claims, and eliminate Attorney General oversight to prevent politicization and inconsistent enforcement. II. Background A. Prior Iowa Consumer Fraud Law For nearly ten years, Iowa stood alone without a private right of action for consumer fraud. (11) This meant that defrauded consumers had to file complaints with the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division instead of filing a private suit. …


Excerpt] Congress has considered, at various points in time, numerous pieces of legislation that relate to genetic and genomic technology and testing. These include bills addressing genetic discrimination in health insurance and employment; precision medicine; the patenting of genetic material; and the oversight of clinical laboratory tests (in vitro diagnostics), including genetic tests. The focus on these issues signals the growing importance of public policy issues surrounding the clinical and public health implications of new genetic technology. As genetic technologies proliferate and are increasingly used to guide clinical treatment, these public policy issues are likely to continue to garner attention. Understanding the basic scientific concepts underlying genetics and genetic testing may help facilitate the development of more effective public policy in this area.


Myers and Thompson (1989) noted that the model specification could have a large impact on the hedge ratio estimated. A huge literature exists on estimating hedge ratios, but the literature is lacking a formal treatment of model specification uncertainty. This research accomplishes that task by taking a Bayesian approach to hedge ratio estimation, where specification uncertainty is explicitly modeled. The methodology is applied to data on hedging of corn and soybeans and on cross-hedging of corn oil using soybean oil futures. Results show the potential benefits and insights gained from such an approach.


We quantified the fate and transport of watershed‐derived ammonium in a tidal freshwater marsh fringing the nutrientrich Scheldt River in a whole‐ecosystem 15N labeling experiment. 15N‐NH4+ was added to the floodwater entering a 3,477 14 m2 tidal marsh area, and marsh ammonium processing and retention were traced in six subsequent tide cycles. We present data for the water phase components of the marsh system, in which changes in concentration and isotopic enrichment of NO3−, NO2−, N2O, N2, NH4+, and suspended particulate nitrogen (SPN) were measured in concert with a mass balance study. Simultaneous addition of a conservative tracer (NaBr) confirmed that tracer was evenly distributed, and the Br2 budget was almost closed (115% recovery). All analyzed dissolved and suspended N pools were labeled, and 31% of added 15N‐NH4+ was retained or transformed. Nitrate was the most important pool for 15N, with nitrification accounting for 30% of 15N‐transformation. In situ whole‐ecosystem nitrification rates were four to nine times higher than those in the water column alone, implying a crucial role for the large reactive marsh surface area in N‐transformation. Under conditions of low oxygen concentrations and high ammonium availability, nitrifiers produced N2O. Our results show that tidal freshwater marshes function not only as nutrient sinks but also as nutrient transformers.


[1] Four definitive and three probable rayed craters have been identified on Mars using 100-m resolution thermal infrared images obtained by the Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS). These seven craters are similar to the previously discovered rayed crater Zunil and are best recognized by a distinct thermal contrast with respect to their surroundings. Martian rays, unlike their lunar counterparts, only exhibit minor contrasts in visible albedo. As a consequence, their presence on Mars most likely went unnoticed until substantial global coverage of THEMIS thermal infrared was achieved. Their presence has since been discerned in the coarser-resolution Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) data set, which preceded THEMIS. Observations in visible images of the primary cavities, secondaries, and rays suggest that, like lunar ray counterparts, Martian rays are invariably young geomorphic features. Martian rays are typically greater than hundreds of kilometers in length and consist of numerous densely clustered secondary craters, and thereby are a physical manifestation of high-velocity ejecta. Spallation accounts for a small fraction of the high-velocity ejecta that experiences low-shock compression due to interference from the rarefaction wave with the free surface. Spallation is currently the favored mechanism responsible for ejecting meteorites from Mars and is likely responsible for some of the ray-forming secondaries. Additional observations and inferences based on Martian rayed craters are compared with current Martian meteorite delivery models and the Martian meteorites themselves. The correlations presented here suggest that Martian rayed craters are the most plausible candidate source craters for the Martian meteorites to date.


Most cell behaviors are the outcome of processing information from multiple signals generated upon cell stimulation. A systematic understanding of cellular systems requires methods that activate multiple signaling molecules or pathways in single cells. However, the construction of tools for such multiplexed signal control is challenging. Here we present orthogonal chemogenetic systems that allow control of multiple signaling pathways in living mammalian cells based on self-localizing ligand-induced protein translocation (SLIPT). Two orthogonal SLIPT systems were constructed to enable chemically inducible, individual translocation of two proteins from the cytoplasm to the inner-leaflet of the plasma membrane in the same cell. The SLIPT systems combined with fluorescent reporters achieved simultaneous multiplexed activation and monitoring of endogenous Ras/ERK and PI3K/Akt pathways in single cells. Thus, orthogonal SLIPT systems provide a powerful platform for multiplexed chemical signal control in single cells, offering new opportunities for dissecting cell signaling networks and synthetic cell manipulation.


The web offers new opportunities to realize some of the current ideals for interactive language assessment by providing learners information about their language ability at their convenience. If such tests are to be trusted to provide learners with information that might help to improve their language ability, the tests need to undergo validation processes, but validation theory does not offer specific guidance about what should be included in a validity argument. Conventional wisdom suggests that low-stakes tests require less rigorous validation than high-stakes tests, but what are the factors that affect decisions about the validation process for either? Attempting to make these contributing factors explicit, this article examines the ways in which the purpose of a low-stakes web-based ESL (English as a second language) test guided its design and the validation process. The validity argument resulting from the first phase of the validation process is illustrated.


We examine Robert Frank's arguments for taxation to mitigate positional externalities. The scarcity that characterizes positional goods is real, but various mechanisms reduce the potential waste, and Frank overstates the case for a governmental solution. The plausibility of Frank's arguments for extensive market failure requires various assumptions, including the usefulness of happiness comparisons over time, the widespread existence of winner-take-all markets, the failure of voluntary evolution to internalize externalities, and that both "leisure†and governmental activities are significantly less positional than the full-range of activities Frank proposes to tax. Each assumption is shaky. Frank's policy solutions overlook standard public choice arguments against government expansion and shrug off the Smithian burden of proof incumbent on those proposing coercion.


PURPOSE: In the era of globalization and competition in a vigorous market, micro and small enterprises (MSEs) look for sustainable growth by consuming diverse resources. Previous studies have identified that financial services of microfinance are essential drivers for SMEs' survival. Yet, the feature role of other microfinance services, such as micro-credit, micro-savings, micro-insurance, training, and social networking, to achieve substantial growth of the MSE sector is still lacking, which explains why MSEs make such a small contribution to Pakistan's economy. Therefore, the main purpose of the research is to consider the impact of microfinance services on the growth of MSEs in Pakistan, as MSEs are the most vulnerable group in the country and throughout the world. Moreover, this study also identified the mediating role of social and psychological capital in enhancing the productivity of microfinance services for MSEs. METHODOLOGY: 770 respondents from metropolitan cities in Pakistan were contacted for the survey, and the response rate was 64%. After screening the data, only 357 questionnaires appeared to be completed in all respects, so they were initially fed into the computer spread and then imported for further analysis. Structured questionnaires were used to collect the data from 357 micro and small enterprises operating in the developing market of Pakistan. Derived hypotheses were verified through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using AMOS 21. FINDINGS: The study's findings revealed that microfinance services have an essential role in promoting MSE growth. Microfinance institutions' services, such as micro-credit, micro-savings, micro-insurance, and training, play an important role in the development of MSEs. Moreover, social and psychological capital are the crucial factors that partially mediate the relationship between microfinance services and MSE growth in Pakistan. The limitation of this study is the adaptation of a crosssectional design to collect the data. Longitudinal research at different time frames may present diversified results. IMPLICATIONS: The study gives the impression that institutions of microfinance, practitioners, and other policymakers should enhance their perimeter to offer microfinance services and support group-based lending or training to maximize their social and psychological capital, through which MSEs may be able to attain substantial growth. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This empirical study contributes to the literature on microfinance services and MSE growth by focusing on the mediating effect of social and psychological capital, and providing the foundation for further studies.


Nationwide, more and more entrepreneurs are committing themselves to creating and running "third places," also known as "great good places." In his landmark work, The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg identified, portrayed, and promoted those third places. Now, more than ten years after the original publication of that book, the time has come to celebrate the many third places that dot the American landscape and foster civic life. With 20 black-and-white photographs, Celebrating the Third Place brings together fifteen firsthand accounts by proprietors of third places, as well as appreciations by fans who have made spending time at these hangouts a regular part of their lives. Among the establishments profiled are a shopping center in Seattle, a three-hundred-year-old tavern in Washington, D.C., a garden shop in Amherst, Massachusetts, a coffeehouse in Raleigh, North Carolina, a bookstore in Traverse City, Michigan, and a restaurant in San Francisco.


Annotation data is stored and manipulated in various formats and there have been a number of efforts to build generalised models of annotation to support sharing of data between tools. This work has shown that it is possible to store annotations from many different tools in a single canonical format and allow transformation into other formats as needed. However, moving data between formats is often a matter of importing or exporting from one tool to another. This paper describes a web-based interface to annotation data that makes use of an abstract model of annotation in its internal store but is able to deliver a variety of annotation formats to clients over the web.


High temporal resolution (5 min) particle size distribution data (0.5. 20 mu m) were collected using aerodynamic particle sizer at an urban (Lanzhou) and a suburban (Yuzhong) site at Lanzhou, northwest China from 1(st) August to 31(st) October 2010. Variations of particle concentrations and properties of volume size distributions (PVSD) were analyzed and urban pollution characteristics were investigated using PVSDs and chemical analysis. The average particle number, surface area and volume concentrations for size range 0.5. 10 mu m were 280.54 +/- 270.92 cm(-3), 331.04 +/- 316.95 mu m(2) cm(-3) and 93.01 +/- 127.75 mu m(3) cm(-3), respectively, at the urban site, which were 2.87, 1.50 and 1.62 times higher than those at the suburban site. Compared with the suburban site, shifts of accumulation mode (0.5. 1.0 mu m) to a smaller size and the coarse mode (1.0. 10 mu m) to a larger size of the PVSDs were observed at the urban site, which may be related to elevated fossil fuel burning and municipal construction or fugitive dust, respectively, in urban area. K-means cluster analysis was used to group the PVSD into six clusters representing the effect of different sources and meteorological conditions. PVSDs at the urban site were dominated by clusters affected by local anthropogenic sources and secondary aerosols, which was characterized by bimodal with peaks at accumulation mode and coarse mode, respectively, while those affected by construction works, wind-borne dust, and dust events were dominated by coarse mode. Chemical composition analysis of PM2.5 samples collected on days representing different clusters confirmed the assignment of clusters to different sources.


OBJECTIVES
We determined differences in Medicaid service use and health care costs in a rural Indian Health Service (IHS) user population of American Indians and Alaska Natives as compared with Whites.

METHODS
California Medicaid eligibility and claims files were linked to IHS user files to obtain a sample of Medicaid-eligible American Indian/Alaska Native users (n=7910). A random sample of Whites was matched for age, gender, aid category, length of eligibility, and county of residence (n=15075). We used generalized linear models to compare risk-adjusted use of resources-ambulatory visits, prescriptions, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and costs-both adjusting and stratifying for dominant source of ambulatory visits.

RESULTS
American Indians/Alaska Natives had significantly lower use of Medicaid-paid ambulatory visits, prescriptions, emergency room visits, and hospitalizations and lower associated costs than Whites. Medicaid-paid total costs and use of services were lower for those who predominantly used Indian health program clinics, as well as for those who predominantly used other sources of ambulatory care.

CONCLUSIONS
Barriers to receiving Medicaid services and payments exist for American Indians/Alaska Natives in the rural IHS-user population. If American Indians/Alaska Natives are to have Medicaid resources comparable to those of Whites, these barriers must be reduced.


Background Anaemia during pregnancy and at delivery is an important public health problem in low- and middle-income countries. Its association with the children's haemoglobin level over time remains unclear. Our goals were to identify distinct haemoglobin level trajectories using latent class analysis and to assess the association between these trajectories and maternal anaemia and other risk factors. Method A prospective study of children from birth to 18 months of life was conducted in a rural setting in Tori-Bossito, Benin. The main outcome measure was the haemoglobin levels repeatedly measured at 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 months. Variables were collected from the mothers at delivery and from their children at birth and during the follow-up. The analyses were performed by means of Latent Class Analysis which has never been used for this kind of data. All the analyses were performed with Stata software, version 11.0, using the generalized linear latent and mixed model (GLLAMM) framework. Results We showed that 33.7% of children followed a low haemoglobin trajectory and 66.3% a high trajectory during the first 18 months of life. Newborn anaemia, placental malaria, malaria attack, sickle cell trait and male gender were significantly associated with a lower children's haemoglobin level over time, whereas maternal age, children living in a polygamous family and with good feeding practices had a higher Hb level in the first18 months. We also showed that maternal anaemia was a predictor for 'low haemoglobin level trajectory' group membership but have no significant effect on children haemoglobin level over time. Conclusion Latent Class Analyses framework seems well suited to analyse longitudinal data under the hypothesis that different subpopulations of subjects are present in the data, each with its own set of parameters, with distinctive evolutions that themselves may reflect distinctive aetiologies.


Intraguild predators both feed on and compete with their intraguild prey. In theory, intraguild predators can therefore be very effective as biological control agents of intraguild prey species, especially in productive environments. We investigated this hypothesis using the mixotrophic chrysophyte Ochromonas as intraguild predator and the harmful cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa as its prey. Ochromonas can grow photoautotrophically, but can also graze efficiently on Microcystis. Hence, it competes with its prey for inorganic resources. We developed a mathematical model and parameterized it for our experimental food web. The model predicts dominance of Microcystis at low nutrient loads, coexistence of both species at intermediate nutrient loads, and dominance of Ochromonas but a strong decrease of Microcystis at high nutrient loads. We tested these theoretical predictions in chemostat experiments supplied with three different nitrogen concentrations. Ochromonas initially suppressed the Microcystis abundance by > 97% compared to the Microcystis monocultures. Thereafter, however, Microcystis gradually recovered to -20% of its monoculture abundance at low nitrogen loads, but to 50-60% at high nitrogen loads. Hence, Ochromonas largely lost control over the Microcystis population at high nitrogen loads. We explored several mechanisms that might explain this deviation from theoretical predictions, and found that intraspecific interference at high Ochromonas densities reduced their grazing rates on Microcystis. These results illustrate the potential of intraguild predation to control pest species, but also show that the effectiveness of their biological control can be reduced in productive environments.


Paul's phrase 'the law of Christ', used without explanation in Gal 6.2, means neither some form of words (such as Lev 19.18), nor a norm constituted by the example of Christ himself. It is rather a metaphor for what, in the life of those who belong to Christ, occupies the place that law had in the life of those who came before Christ: it means the Spirit, as described in Gal 5.16–25. Incidentally, the phrase serves to relativize 'law', implying that the Jewish law is just one form of law and not the highest.


Macroeconomic forecasts enable the policy-makers to foresee the future economic trends and take prompt measures to ensure longer economic growth and quicker economic recovery. Accurate and timely macroeconomic forecasts may also help the enterprises to make better long-term business strategies. Social media has a swift and sensitive response to economic dynamics through online news reports, interviews and individual comments. Economic Indices extracted from social media data are more immediate and comprehensive, but lack of stability and credibility in empirical studies. This research proposed a mix frequency modelling approach to incorporate only the recent high frequency part of social media data in traditional econometrics based macroeconomic forecasting with support of a multisource based macroeconomic forecast system. A mixed data sampling (MIDAS) model is constructed and an empirical evaluation is presented to show how to incorporate Google search queries into Chinese CPI forecasting. The empirical results indicate a satisfactory improvement in forecasting performance. The multisource modelling and forecasting framework offers a practical and implementable solution for involving social media data sources into macroeconomic forecasting systems. This research contributes to future development of decision support systems for governmental policy-making and enterprises' operational decisions in the Big Data era.


Mechanistic understanding of binocular rivalry (BR) has drawn upon psychophysical, electrophysiological and brain-imaging studies. The first brain stimulation approach occurred in the late 1990s and assessed a new mechanistic proposal, the interhemispheric switch (IHS) hypothesis. Both caloric vestibular stimulation (CVS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) modulated rivalry predominance when applied unilaterally. We describe the IHS model, its genesis and the brain stimulation evidence on which it rests. We also review more recent CVS and TMS rivalry studies, and discuss the findings of slow BR in bipolar disorder (BD) and genetic contribution to individual variation in BR rate. Finally, we describe a recent Drosophila model that can shed light on genetic, molecular and neurophysiological aspects of both BR and BD.


This article presents two approaches for estimating the components of forest change utilizing data from a rotating panel sample design. One approach uses a variant of the exponentially weighted moving average estimator and the other approach uses mixed estimation. Three general transition models were each combined with a single compatibility model for the mixed estimation approach. The four resulting estimation systems are compared and contrasted in a sample simulation study covering four simulated populations. FOR. SCI. 53(1): 50-61.


Background/Aim: Telogen effluvium (TE) is a scalp disorder characterized by the thinning or shedding of hair resulting from the early entry of hair in the telogen phase. Nigella sativa (NS) is a dicotyledonous belonging to the Ranunculacae family. It has been shown that its major constituent, tymoquinon (TQ), exerts anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects by inhibiting pro-inflammatory mediators, such as cyclooxygenase and prostaglandin D2. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of NS essential oil as a potential treatment for TE, a pathology characterized by a significant inflammatory component. Study Design/Methods: Twenty patients affected by TE for this double-blind, placebo controlled and randomized study were enrolled. Ten of these patients were treated with a scalp lotion containing 0.5% NS, daily for 3 months, while the other ten patients were treated with placebo daily for 3 months. Videodermatoscopic analysis (Trichoscan Dermoscope Fotofinder?) and evaluation of three independent dermatologists were performed before treatment (T0), after 3 months of treatment (T3) and at the 6 months follow-up (T6). Results: The results showed a significant improvement in 70% of patients treated with NS. Videodermatoscopic analysis showed a significant increment of hair density and hair thickness in patients treated with NS. NS was also able to reduce the inflammation observed in the majority of patients affected by TE. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that NS can be considered potentially useful for the treatment of TE.


International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 370 aimed to explore the limits of life in the deep subseafloor biosphere at a location where temperature increases with depth at an intermediate rate and exceeds the known temperature maximum of microbial life (~120°C) at the sediment/basement interface ~1.2 km below the seafloor. Drilling Site C0023 is located in the vicinity of Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Sites 808 and 1174 at the protothrust zone in the Nankai Trough off Cape Muroto at a water depth of 4776 m. ODP Leg 190 in 2000, revealed the presence of microbial cells at Site 1174 to a depth of ~600 meters below seafloor (mbsf), which corresponds to an estimated temperature of ~70°C, and reliably identified a single zone of higher cell concentrations just above the decollement at around 800 mbsf, where temperature presumably reached 90°C; no cell count data was reported for other sediment layers in the 70°–120°C range, because the limit of manual cell count for low-biomass samples was not high enough. With the establishment of Site C0023, we aimed to detect and investigate the presence or absence of life and biological processes at the biotic–abiotic transition with unprecedented analytical sensitivity and precision. Expedition 370 was the first expedition dedicated to subseafloor microbiology that achieved time-critical processing and analyses of deep biosphere samples by simultaneous shipboard and shore-based investigations.
Our primary objectives during Expedition 370 were to study the relationship between the deep subseafloor biosphere and temperature. We aimed to comprehensively study the factors that control biomass, activity, and diversity of microbial communities in a subseafloor environment where temperatures increase from ~2°C at the seafloor to ~120°C at the sediment/basement interface and thus likely encompasses the biotic–abiotic transition zone. We also aimed to determine geochemical, geophysical, and hydrogeological characteristics in sediment and the underlying basaltic basement and elucidate if the supply of fluids containing thermogenic and/or geogenic nutrient and energy substrates may support subseafloor microbial communities in the Nankai accretionary complex.
To address these primary scientific objectives and questions, we penetrated 1180 m and recovered 112 cores across the sediment/basalt interface. More than 13,000 samples were collected, and selected samples were transferred to the Kochi Core Center by helicopter for simultaneous microbiological sampling and analysis in laboratories with a super-clean environment. Following the coring operations, a temperature observatory with 13 thermistor sensors was installed in the borehole to 863 mbsf.


This paper focuses on the preparation of student teachers for teaching in rural schools using Work Integrated Learning (WIL). Generally, teachers are not prepared to teach in rural schools and those that are currently working there want to leave. Amongst other recruitment strategies for rural teaching, South Africa uses the Funza Lushaka bursary scheme for student teachers to work in rural schools after obtaining qualifications, and a rural school allowance for teachers already working there. This paper reports on the findings of 10 student teachers placed in two rural schools for WIL, two rural school teachers, the Teaching Practice (TP) officer and the Subject Advisor for rural schools. Participatory Action Research (PAR) was used as a methodology to allow participants to be co-researchers in generating data. Meeting discussions were conducted to get experience of rural teaching and data were analysed and interpreted through the use of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The findings are that many teachers are not trained for rural teaching during their study, and that there is no collaboration between the rural schools and Teacher Education Institution (TEI). The paper recommends collaboration between TEIs and rural schools and collaboration between the Department of Higher Education and the Department of Basic Education for teacher training programmes.1


Network tarpits, whereby a single host or appliance can masquerade as many fake hosts on a network and slow network scanners, are a form of defensive cyber-deception. In this work, we develop degreaser, an efficient fingerprinting tool to remotely detect tarpits. In addition to validating our tool in a controlled environment, we use degreaser to perform an Internet-wide scan. We discover tarpits of non-trivial size in the wild (prefixes as large as/16), and characterize their distribution and behavior. We then show how tarpits pollute existing network measurement surveys that are tarpit-naïve, e.g. Internet census data, and how degreaser can improve the accuracy of such surveys. Lastly, our findings suggest several ways in which to advance the realism of current network tarpits, thereby raising the bar on tarpits as an operational security mechanism.


In March of 2004, South Africans celebrated as the President of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), Mr Joseph S Blatter, announced to the world that South Africa would be the host of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. This moment did not only serve to punctuate the years of hard work that went into securing the rights to host this most prestigious event, but also presented a unique opportunity to the country to unite behind a singular project. This would be a moment in South Africa's history in which we would be able to embrace the challenges ahead and use the opportunity to plot our own path and future.
The FIFA World Cuptm comprises 64 matches, involves 32 teams and lasts between 28 - 43 days (depending on the stage of the competition teams are able to reach). The event is expected to yield a cumulative television audience of 40 billion in 2010 through about 200 television-viewing hours. The expected impact on South Africa's brand will be enormous. This paper seeks to unpack the issues around the hosting of the event and the implications such an event would have on the country itself.


This long-awaited book presents a comprehensive, integrated and up-to-date overview of the major physiological and behavioral factors affecting human reproduction. Trained as an anthropologist as well as a demographer, the author summarizes data from a wide range of societies, and writes with signal clarity on the interaction between biology and behavior. A unique combination of comprehensive subject matter and an integrated analytical approach makes the book ideally suited both as a graduate-level textbook and as a reference work.


Child labor evokes deep emotions and is cause for growing international concern. Most recent global estimates show that 186 million children are engaged in full time economic activity. This paper discusses the possibilities and pitfalls of Western policies that seek to curb child labor abroad. Since such policies aim to combat practices in other societies, policy-makers should be aware of the many relevant differences between developing and developed countries. We discuss three issues that are central to this debate: different conceptions of childhood and the dominance of the Western conception in these debates; the distinction between child work and child labor; and socioeconomic causes of child labor. We then evaluate the implications of these investigations for direct and indirect policy options against child labor abroad.


Objective This study aimed to assess the impact of individual comorbid conditions as well as the weight assignment, predictive properties and discriminating power of the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) on outcome in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Methods A prospective multicentre observational study (AMIS Plus Registry) from 69 Swiss hospitals with 29 620 ACS patients enrolled from 2002 to 2012. The main outcome measures were in-hospital and 1-year follow-up mortality. Results Of the patients, 27% were female (age 72.1±12.6 years) and 73% were male (64.2±12.9 years). 46.8% had comorbidities and they were less likely to receive guideline-recommended drug therapy and reperfusion. Heart failure (adjusted OR 1.88; 95% CI 1.57 to 2.25), metastatic tumours (OR 2.25; 95% CI 1.60 to 3.19), renal diseases (OR 1.84; 95% CI 1.60 to 2.11) and diabetes (OR 1.35; 95% CI 1.19 to 1.54) were strong predictors of in-hospital mortality. In this population, CCI weighted the history of prior myocardial infarction higher (1 instead of −0.4, 95% CI −1.2 to 0.3 points) but heart failure (1 instead of 3.7, 95% CI 2.6 to 4.7) and renal disease (2 instead of 3.5, 95% CI 2.7 to 4.4) lower than the benchmark, where all comorbidities, age and gender were used as predictors. However, the model with CCI and age has an identical discrimination to this benchmark (areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves were both 0.76). Conclusions Comorbidities greatly influenced clinical presentation, therapies received and the outcome of patients admitted with ACS. Heart failure, diabetes, renal disease or metastatic tumours had a major impact on mortality. CCI seems to be an appropriate prognostic indicator for in-hospital and 1-year outcomes in ACS patients. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT01305785


Eight days ...three gold medals ...three world records ...one amazing reputation firmly established. Usain Bolt's life - and the world of sport - would never be quite the same again. 16 August 2008 ...Beijing, China ...the Bird's Nest stadium ...91,000 spectators and an unimaginably huge global television audience ...the final of the men's 100 metres at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. The crack of the starter's pistol triggers thousands of camera flash bulbs ...and precisely 9.69 seconds later a young Jamaican streaks across the finishing line to claim the gold medal and his destiny. Four days later Bolt claims the 200 metres gold, setting a new world record of 19.30 into the bargain, the night before his 22nd birthday. Then on 22nd August he leads the Jamaican team to more glory in the 4 x 100 metres relay final, in yet another world record time. Since those heady days of the Beijing Olympics in August 2008, Usain Bolt has lowered both the 100 metres and 200 metres world records once again - to a barely believable 9.58 and 19.19 seconds respectively - as the World Championships in Berlin brought two more gold medals and yet more superlatives. At a stroke the Jamaican has become the greatest sports star in the world. 9.58 is Usain Bolt's story so far, in his own words, beautifully illustrated with dozens of specially commissioned photographs. It's about a skinny kid from the parish of Trelawny, where they harvest the best yams in the world. It's about growing up playing cricket and football in the warm Jamaican sun, then discovering that he could run fast, very fast. It's about family, friends and the laid-back Jamaican culture. It's about Auntie Lillian's pork and dumplings and Dad's grocery store in the sleepy village of Sherwood Content. It's about what makes him tick, where he gets his motivation and where he takes his inspiration. It's about the highs and the lows, the dedication and sacrifices required to get to the top. It's about fast food, partying, dancehall music, fast cars and that lightning bolt pose. It's about radiating sport's biggest smile. This is the story of the fastest man on the planet.


The purpose of this study was to explore the differences that may exist among employees when they are seeking different types of information (i.e., technical, referent, social, appraisal, normative, organizational, and political) from their peers in the workplace. Specifically, this study examined whether employees differed in the perceived appropriateness, importance, and frequency of seeking information from information, collegial, and special peers. Participants were 229 working adults who completed one of three versions (reporting on an information peer, a collegial peer, or a special peer) of a survey packet containing a series of measures. Results indicate that employees generally report that they seek information from special peers rather than from collegial peers or information peers.


This article takes as its subject practices of looking that occur in London's newsstands (magazine retail displays). Taking an ethnographic approach inspired by the flâneur and emphasising the symbolic properties of consumption activities that take place in public retail space, it reports on an extensive participant observation of newsstands. A three-fold typology of visual consumption is put forward: "drifting," "speed-shopping" and "free-reading." These practices of looking are then critically analysed in the light of theoretical perspectives on visual consumption, in particular, the tension between arguments prioritising the pleasures and, conversely, the constraints that it entails. The analysis culminates in the argument that the most fruitful position is a dialectical one that acknowledges the conditional freedom of visual consumption.


FCC regulations are among the most controversial administrative law regulations because of their impact on broadcast television. This iBrief analyzes the history of FCC regulation and highlights the problems associated with the current model. Applying theories of economics, this iBrief proposes solutions to the current problems of selective enforcement and vagueness in enforcement. While the Supreme Court recognized that FCC regulation is necessary, it is also necessary for there to be a clearer model for how the agency should be run.


Estimating and projecting population trends using population viability analysis (PVA) are central to identifying species at risk of extinction and for informing conservation management strategies. Models for PVA generally fall within two categories, scalar (count-based) or matrix (demographic). Model structure, process error, measurement error, and time series length all have known impacts in population risk assessments, but their combined impact has not been thoroughly investigated. We tested the ability of scalar and matrix PVA models to predict percent decline over a ten-year interval, selected to coincide with the IUCN Red List criterion A.3, using data simulated for a hypothetical, short-lived organism with a simple life-history and for a threatened snail, Tasmaphena lamproides. PVA performance was assessed across different time series lengths, population growth rates, and levels of process and measurement error. We found that the magnitude of effects of measurement error, process error, and time series length, and interactions between these, depended on context. We found that high process and measurement error reduced the reliability of both models in predicted percent decline. Both sources of error contributed strongly to biased predictions, with process error tending to contribute to the spread of predictions more than measurement error. Increasing time series length improved precision and reduced bias of predicted population trends, but gains substantially diminished for time series lengths greater than 10–15 years. The simple parameterization scheme we employed contributed strongly to bias in matrix model predictions when both process and measurement error were high, causing scalar models to exhibit similar or greater precision and lower bias than matrix models. Our study provides evidence that, for short-lived species with structured but simple life histories, short time series and simple models can be sufficient for reasonably reliable conservation decision-making, and may be preferable for population projections when unbiased estimates of vital rates cannot be obtained.


Fifty years ago, the overall picture of health and safety in the construction industry was quite different. Lead poisoning, other toxic exposures, and fatal accidents dominated the occupational health debate (1) while musculoskeletal disorders and occupational disability were not seriously discussed. Nowadays, as in most branches of industry, the mean age of construction workers is increasing due to the decreasing influx of young people into the sector (3). The expectation is that it will be difficult to maintain productivity with the current fitness and work ability levels of older workers. The problem at hand is, therefore, rather new.

In this issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, Oude Hengel et al (2) report the results of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in the construction industry that aimed to improve work ability and health and reduce sick leave. The authors have to be complimented for undertaking a RCT of a complex intervention in a difficult setting where many would argue the infeasiblity of such a task. At the same time the results are sobering. As the authors understate, "further implementation of this intervention is not recommended at this time".

Why is randomization important? Randomization prevents selection bias and baseline differences of confounders or prognostic factors. Especially when effect sizes are small, randomization increases the validity of the study (3). However, randomization is also difficult because the researcher has to explain to the eligible participants that they may or may not receive the intervention. In addition, it is difficult to maintain a very long follow-up of participants without co-interventions. Otherwise, there are no differences between a controlled and a RCT study.

In what situation is randomization infeasible? It is impossible to randomize individuals when the intervention is implemented at the group level, such as is the case with many workplace interventions. In an RCT, inviting participants is probably also more difficult in an environment outside the healthcare sector. The fewer units that are available for randomization, the more unlikely it is that the intervention and control groups will be similar.

Cluster- or group randomization is an elegant way to overcome the problems mentioned here. Instead of randomizing individual participants, whole groups of patients are randomized, for example, departments of a firm or a healthcare practitioner's patients. An additional benefit of cluster randomization is that it prevents uptake of the intervention by the control group, which might be "contaminated" by the intervention participants. However, in case of workplace interventions, this contamination is exactly the argument in favor of why workplace interventions are preferred above general population interventions. In theory, the communal spirit at work should increase the effect of health promotion. However, there is no hard evidence of such an effect, and this is also illustrated by the low intra-cluster coefficients in the Oude Hengel et al study (2). Moreover, experts usually prefer the risk of contamination over the drawbacks of cluster randomization. One such drawback is that group randomization does not concur with the demands of statistical theory that individual participants should be independent. When analyzed at the individual level, this lack of independence artificially narrows the confidence interval of the effect size. This increases the likelihood of incorrectly concluding a significant beneficial result. To avoid this, the sample size should be increased and the analysis should take the clustering effect into account. This is possible with simple techniques but nowadays most researchers would prefer multilevel regression analyses, which are more difficult to interpret (4).

Improving work ability in a preventive, proactive way is not easy. Current interventions are supposed to influence work ability in the long run, say after ten years. At short-term follow-up, we can then only measure surrogate indicators of long-term work disability. It is unclear if health and health behavior are such indicators. Therefore, RCT might not be the most helpful research designs in this case; it might be better to revert to non-randomized study designs such as cohort studies (5).

Other problems with work ability are that the concept is ill-defined, the validity of the measurement is not well known, and the theory on how to improve work ability is not well underpinned with empirical studies (6). For improving or preserving future work ability, researchers seem – to a large extent – to rely on increasing physical fitness by means of exercise training (7) or improving cardiovascular risk factors (8). This led to varying results in the studies. In my opinion, work ability is a complex concept based on a person's self-judgment of physical capacity and beliefs about functioning in relation to disease and old age. It is unclear how this would be influenced by exercise or cardiovascular risk factors. It is interesting to see that the approach of the Oude Hengel et al's study is more creative than most other studies: in addition to training sessions by a physiotherapist, there were empowerment sessions and a rest break tool.

The physiotherapist's task was to reduce the physical workload of workers. It is not easy to see how this would lead to improved work ability in the long run. It is well known that instruction and training do not decrease back pain most probably because it is not possible to decrease the load enough (9). There is no evidence that this is better with other musculoskeletal complaints. Moreover, there is a trade-off between lowering workload and productivity especially in the construction industry. It is easy to lower the workload but this comes at the expense of productivity (10). Therefore, it could well be that the labor market will solve the problem of aging workers and lower productivity rather than occupational health interventions.

In addition, there is the contrariety of decreasing physical activity at work and increasing physical activity in leisure time. Our level of physical activity has been decreasing over the past 30 odd years, which is of course a public health concern. Much of the decrease is due to decreasing activity at work (11), but it is contradictory to decrease physical activity at work while simultaneously promoting it outside work. However, this seems to be what we are doing in the construction industry. In addition, it is unclear which combination of workload and leisure-time activity puts workers most at risk of cardiovascular disease. (12). Therefore, the challenge is not to decrease the physical load at work but rather to transform it into a workload that keeps workers healthy.

If simple interventions do not work, researchers often recommend multi-modal or multi-component interventions. However, even though this sounds alluring, if this is not underpinned with an idea of how these components will influence an underlying mechanism of disease or occupational disability, it seems a shotgun approach. As in the Oude Hengel et al study, even in spite of a careful process evaluation, in the end it is very difficult to judge which of the interventions did not work and why. Focusing on the rest-break tool might have been more informative. It would have been a wonderful result if the study could have shown the effect of the tool on fatigue among workers using the tool at the end of the day. In general, for evaluation of complex interventions, it is recommended to build up the evaluation in a phased approach starting with feasibility studies and ending with an RCT (13).

It is good to see studies with negative results published because it is well known that getting these results published is more difficult for authors. This creates publication bias in systematic reviews resulting in effects that are overly beneficial. Based on the Oude Hengel et al study and the current level of theory and evaluation studies, it is not recommended to implement these interventions. Before embarking upon new RCT, it is good first to synthesize properly the available studies on sustained work ability in a systematic review and see what can be learned.


The leaves of the Nigerian plant, Spondias mombin, are traditionally used in the management of inflammations and cancers. The crude methanolic extract (SM0), the hexane-soluble fraction (SM1) and the sub-fractions (SM1-1-SM1-4 of the leaves were previously investigated andreported to be cytotoxic using brine shrimps test (BST). The sub-fractions SM1-1, SM1-2, and SM1-3 had LD50 values at 24 h as 4.63, 6.14 and 5.92 and LD90 values of 41.38, 47.72 and 45.68 µg/ml, respectively. The cytotoxic fractions have now been investigated for their chemical constituents by subjecting them to chromatographic purification to give a total of 63 fractions. Ten of these fractions were found to be strongly cytotoxic and in good quantity. Further purification of fraction P29 which was partially pure using preparative TLC on silica gel gave three compounds which were characterized using GC-MS, Proton and Carbon-13 NMR spectral analyses. The compounds were identified as hydrocinnamic acid, p, alpha-bis (trimethylsilyloxy), trimethylsilyl ester, 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-[(2-octadecyloxycarbonyl) ethyl]-phenol and benzene acetic acid, alpha,-methyl-, alpha, 4-bis [(trimethylsilyl) oxy]-, methyl ester. These compounds may be responsible for the use of this plant in ethnomedicine for the management of inflammation and cancer.


For efficient coupling of droplet-based microfluidics with mass spectrometry (MS), a spyhole drilled on the top of a microchip is used to sample the passing droplets by electrostatic-spray ionization (ESTASI) MS. The technique involves placing an electrode below the chip under the spyhole and applying high-voltage pulses. Electrospray occurs directly from the spyhole, and the droplet content is analyzed by MS without a dilution or oil removal step. To demonstrate the versatility of this technique, we have successfully monitored a droplet-based tryptic digestion, as well as a biphasic reaction between β-lactoglobulin in water and α-tocopheryl acetate in 1,2-dichloroethane, where the protein extracts the antioxidant from the oil phase and becomes reduced.


A moving, inter-war family saga "The German Boy" from Patricia Wastvedt, the Orange Prize Longlisted author of "The River". In 1947, Elisabeth Mander's German nephew comes to stay: Stefan Landau, her dead sister's teenage son, whom she hates and loves before she's even set eyes on him. Orphaned by the war and traumatised by the last, vicious battles of the Hitler Youth, Stefan brings with him to England only a few meagre possessions. Among them a portrait of a girl with long copper hair by a young painter called Michael Ross - and with it the memory, both painful and precious, of her life and that time between the wars. Spanning decades and generations, "The German Boy" tells the moving story of two families entangled by love and friendship, divided by prejudice and war, and of a brief encounter between a woman and a man that touched each of their lives forever. "An absorbing literary saga ...a sophisticated and subtly woven story". ("Daily Mail"). "Hypnotic, atmospheric and exquisitely written. A novel I won't forget". (Lucinda Riley, author of "Hothouse Flower"). "A love story at its centre which will make your heart ache". (Julia Green, author of "Blue Moon"). "A heart-rending story of epic proportions, thrilling and utterly captivating. I am haunted by it still"). (Suzannah Dunn, author of "The Confession of Katherine"). Howard Born in 1954, Patricia Wastvedt grew up in Blackheath, south London, and spent her summers in Kent. She has a degree in Creative Arts and an MA in Creative Writing, and her first novel, "The River", written in her late forties, was long-listed for the Orange Prize. She teaches at Bath Spa University, and is also a manuscript editor. She lives and writes in a cottage in Somerset.


This thesis describes the preparation and characterisation of potential 'modular' solid state
hydrogen storage solutions for on-board applications. The systems investigated throughout
this work are based on reactions between light weight hydroxides and hydrides.
In many senses light metal hydroxides can be seen as attractive candidates for hydrogen
storage: they are low cost, present negligible toxicity and it is not possible to poison the fuel
cell with decomposition products, unlike in nitrogen or boron containing systems. However,
as the dehydrogenation products are the respective oxides, the major drawback of such
systems lays in the fact the thermodynamics of rehydrogenation are not favourable for onboard applications. Hence, the system must be considered as a 'charged module', where the regeneration is performed ex-situ. Dehydrogenation can be achieved through reaction with light metal hydrides such as LiH or MgH2.

A wide range of 'modular' release systems can be studied, however the most interesting in
terms of theoretical gravimetric capacity, kinetics and thermodynamics within reasonable
temperature range (RT - 350°C) use magnesium and lithium hydroxide and their hydrate
forms. The present work focuses on the full investigation of three main systems:
· Mg(OH)2 – MgH2 system
· Mg(OH)2 – LiH system
· LiOH(·H2O) – MgH2 system (both anhydrous and monohydrate LiOH were used)

Mixtures of hydroxides and hydrides were prepared by manually grinding stoichiometric
amounts of the starting materials. Further, nanostructuring the reactants was investigated as a means to control the dehydrogenation reaction and enhance the kinetics and thermodynamics of the process. Nanostructured Mg(OH)2 and LiOH(·H2O) have been successfully obtained using both novel and conventional synthetic routes. Reduction of the particle size of both hydrides was effectively achieved by mechanically milling the bulk materials. As detailed throughout Chapters 3, 4 and 5, promising results were obtained when employing nanosized reactants. The onset temperatures of hydrogen release were decreased and the overall systems performances enhanced. Particularly interesting results were obtained for the LiOH – MgH2 system, which exhibit a dramatic decrease of the onset temperature of H2 release of nearly 100 K when working with milled and nanostructured materials with respect to bulk reagents.
All systems were characterised mainly by Powder X-ray diffraction (PXD) and
simultaneous thermogravimetric analysis (TG-DTA) mass spectroscopy (MS). TG-DTA2
MS experiments were performed to obtain information on the onset and peak temperature
of hydrogen release, weight loss percentage and nature and amount of the gases evolved
during the reaction. Ex-situ PXD studies have been performed for each system in order to
try and identify any intermediate species forming during the dehydrogenation process and
ultimately propose a mechanism of H2 release. Since two fundamentally different types of
reaction pathway could be proposed for the Mg(OH)2 – LiH system, powder neutron
diffraction (PND) was employed for following the reaction in-situ. Developing a complete
model of the dehydrogenation process in terms of mechanistic steps was found to be
pivotal in order to understand and enhance such systems further.


"Theoretically, the actor ought to be more sound in mind and body than other people, since he learns to understand the psychological problems of human beings when putting his own passions, his loves, fears, and rages to work in the service of the characters he plays. He will learn to face himself, to hide nothing from himself -- and to do so takes an insatiable curiosity about the human condition. from the Prologue" Uta Hagen, one of the world's most renowned stage actresses, has also taught acting for more than forty years at the HB Studio in New York. Her first book, "Respect for Acting, " published in 1973, is still in print and has sold more than 150,000 copies. In her new book, "A Challenge for the Actor, " she greatly expands her thinking about acting in a work that brings the full flowering of her artistry, both as an actor and as a teacher. She raises the issue of the actor's goals and examines the specifics of the actor's techniques. She goes on to consider the actor's relationship to the physical and psychological senses. There is a brilliantly conceived section on the animation of the body and mind, of listening and talking, and the concept of expectation. But perhaps the most useful sections in this book are the exercises that Uta Hagen has created and elaborated to help the actor learn his craft. The exercises deal with developing the actor's physical destination in a role; making changes in the self serviceable in the creation of a character; recreating physical sensations; bringing the outdoors on stage; finding occupation while waiting; talking to oneself and the audience; and employing historical imagination. The scope and range of Uta Hagen here is extraordinary. Her years of acting and teaching have made her as finely seasoned an artist as the theatre has produced.


In his public lecture 'On the American Indians' given at the University of Salamanca in 1538-39, Francisco de Vitoria presented an unsettling defense of freedom of movement, arguing that the Spanish had the right to travel and dwell in the New World, since it was considered part of the law of nations [ius gentium] that men enjoyed free mutual intercourse anywhere they went. This argument has been seen on multiple occasions as a justification of the expansion of the Spanish empire. However, this research claims that the right to travel advocated by Vitoria was not intended to be interpreted in absolute terms, for it had to serve the purpose of bringing peace and unity among men, and could not contradict natural law. Vitoria's legacy is of enormous value as it initiated a long lasting discussion regarding the question of the grounds under which human mobility could be restricted. To read or download this article, please follow this link:  http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1503684 DOi: 10.14324/111.2057-2212.061


The ability to fulfil the resource demand in runtime is encouraging the businesses to migrate to cloud. Recently, to provide real-time cloud services and to save network resources, fog computing is introduced. To further improve the quality of service in delivery process, Artificial Intelligence is being applied extensively. However, the state-of-the-art in this regard is still immature as it mainly focuses at either fog or cloud. To address this issue, a novel reinforcement learning-based personalized service delivery (RLPSD) mechanism is proposed in this paper, which allows the service provider to combine the fog and cloud environments, while providing the service. RLPSD distributes the user's service requests between fog and cloud, considering the users' constraints (e.g. the distance from fog), thus resulting in personalized service delivery. The proposed RLPSD algorithm is implemented and evaluated in terms of its success rate, percentage of service requests' distribution, learning rate, discount factor, etc.


A general method is proposed for calculating approximate thresholds of interval mapping tests for quantitative trait loci (QTL) detection. Simulation results show that this method, when applied to backcross and F2 populations, gives good approximations and is useful for any situation. Programs which calculate these thresholds for backcross, recombinant inbreds and F2 for any given level and any chromosome with any given distribution of codominant markers were written in Fortran 77 and are available under request. The approach presented here could be used to obtain, after suitable calculations, thresholds for most segregating populations used in QTL mapping experiments.


The structure of a bacterial homolog of insulin-induced trans-membrane sterol receptors elucidates their structure and function. The aberrant accumulation of sterols contributes to heart attack and stroke. Two proteins embedded in the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum, Insig-1 and Insig-2, are key players in the cellular pathway that regulates cellular sterol levels. Ren et al. report the structure of a mycobacterial homolog of Insig. The structure, together with biochemical experiments, suggests how Insig interacts with other components of the sterol regulatory pathway. R. Ren, X. Zhou, Y. He, M. Ke, J. Wu, X. Liu, C. Yan, Y. Wu, X. Gong, X. Lei, S. F. Yan, A. Radhakrishnan, N. Yan, Crystal structure of a mycobacterial Insig homolog provides insight into how these sensors monitor sterol levels. Science 349, 187–191 (2015). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The eastern Mediterranean is a hotspot of biological invasions. Numerous species of Indo-pacific origin have colonized the Mediterranean in recent times, including tropical symbiont-bearing foraminifera. Among these is the species Pararotalia calcariformata. Unlike other invasive foraminifera, this species was discovered only two decades ago and is restricted to the eastern Mediterranean coast. Combining ecological, genetic and physiological observations, we attempt to explain the recent invasion of this species in the Mediterranean Sea. Using morphological and genetic data, we confirm the species attribution to P. calcariformata McCulloch 1977 and identify its symbionts as a consortium of diatom species dominated by Minutocellus polymorphus. We document photosynthetic activity of its endosymbionts using Pulse Amplitude Modulated Fluorometry and test the effects of elevated temperatures on growth rates of asexual offspring. The culturing of asexual offspring for 120 days shows a 30-day period of rapid growth followed by a period of slower growth. A subsequent 48-day temperature sensitivity experiment indicates a similar developmental pathway and high growth rate at 28°C, whereas an almost complete inhibition of growth was observed at 20°C and 35°C. This indicates that the offspring of this species may have lower tolerance to cold temperatures than what would be expected for species native to the Mediterranean. We expand this hypothesis by applying a Species Distribution Model (SDM) based on modern occurrences in the Mediterranean using three environmental variables: irradiance, turbidity and yearly minimum temperature. The model reproduces the observed restricted distribution and indicates that the range of the species will drastically expand westwards under future global change scenarios. We conclude that P. calcariformata established a population in the Levant because of the recent warming in the region. In line with observations from other groups of organisms, our results indicate that continued warming of the eastern Mediterranean will facilitate the invasion of more tropical marine taxa into the Mediterranean, disturbing local biodiversity and ecosystem structure.


This study reports on the removal of Cu(II) ions from an aqueous solution by adsorption onto dried Carpobrotus edulis plant in a column system. The effect of various process parameters, namely m/V ratio, contact time, initial Cu(II) concentration and pH was studied. The experimental data were analyzed using Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models to determine the mechanistic parameters related to the adsorption process. The results showed that the adsorption of Cu(II) ions by dried C. edulis increases with the increase of contact time, adsorbent dose, pH and initial Cu(II) concentration in the solution. The maximum adsorption of Cu(II) is reached after one hour of contact time at initial copper concentrations ranging between 10 and 100 mg/L. The m/V ratio of 25 g/L was optimal to obtain a maximum adsorption of copper ions. The maximum adsorption percentage of C. edulis is equal to 94.4%. These results showed that the dried C. edulis plant could be considered as a potential adsorbent material for the removal of Cu(II) from wastewater, using a column adsorption mode.


UNDERSTANDING AND ENCOURAGING ENTREPRENEURSHIP INTERNATIONALLY Suddenly, all over the world, entrepreneurs are the good guys! Not the individuals who sit on their accumulated wealth, counting dividend checks, but those who create local jobs, commercialize technology, and build enterprises that become internationally competitive. But entrepreneurship is proving to be as hard to transplant as its name is to spell. Even "true believers" debate about how to define it, understand it, and encourage it. As a result, in many countries, the encouragement of entrepreneurship is off to a sputtering start.(1) How much do we really understand about entrepreneurship internationally? The Myth of Individual Action Entrepreneurship's true believers often fail to appreciate the degree to which effective entrepreneurship is enmeshed with culture. United States ideology, which emphasizes individualism and a need for personal achievement, has dominated the conventional world view of what entrepreneurship is all about. But the cult of individualism is foreign to--and often unacceptable in--many countries of the world. Gradually, it is becoming clear that each country/culture must develop its (1)See findings reported in Rein Peterson, Mari A. Peterson and Nancy B. Tieken, Encouraging Entrepreneurship Internationally (Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., 1988, forthcoming). Dr. Peterson is Director of Entrepreneurial Studies at York University, Toronto, Canada. This essay is based on two workshops he conducted as Paul T. Babson Professor (1985-1986) and as Senior Research Fellow, National Centre for Management Research and Development (1986-1987). own brand of entrepreneurship and raise its own champions to promote entrepreneurial behavior that fits the prevailing societal mores. Even more than national leaders and political change agents, entrepreneurs need to have a deep understanding of the socio-economic environment of which they are a part. Entrepreneurs act as boundary spanners and redefiners, and therefore need to be cultural specialists. Much of what actually passes as U.S. individualism tends to be popular rhetoric. George C. Lodge describes two general ideological extremes--individualism and communitarianism.(2) He believes that each community and nation has over time arrived as an ideological balance that is a unique combination of the two opposing prototypes described below. The First Prototype: Individualism . Individualism. The atomistic notion that the community is no more than the sum of the individuals in it. . Property rights. The best guarantee of individual rights lies in the sanctity of property rights. . Competition. The uses of property are best controlled by each individual proprietor competing in an open market to satisfy individual consumer decisions. (2)George C. Lodge, The New American Ideology (New York: Alfred Knopf, Inc., 1975). . Limited state. The less government the better. . Scientific specialization and fragmentation. If we attend to the parts, as experts and specialists, the whole will take care of itself. The Second Prototype: Communitarianism . Communitarianism. The community is more than the sum of the individuals in it; the community is organic, not atomistic. The survival and self-respect of individuals depends on the recognition of community needs. . Rights and duties of membership. These include the rights to survival, to income, to pensions, to health care. These rights supersede property rights--not only the fit have a right to survive. . Community needs. Clean air and water, safety, energy, jobs, competitive exports, etc., are more important than individual consumers' references. . Active state. An active, planning state is the arbiter of community needs. . Holism. Interdependence, as opposed to scientific specialization. The interrelatedness of all things is recognized. …


OBJECTIVE
Preventive strategies against knee osteoarthritis (OA) require a knowledge of risk factors that influence the initiation of the disorder and its subsequent progression. This population-based longitudinal study was performed to address this issue.

METHODS
Ninety-nine men and 255 women aged > or =55 years had baseline interviews and weight-bearing knee radiographs in 1990-1991. Repeat radiographs were obtained in 1995-1996 (mean followup duration 5.1 years, median age at followup 75.8 years). Risk factors assessed at baseline were tested for their association with incident and progressive radiographic knee OA by logistic regression.

RESULTS
Rates of incidence and progression were 2.5% and 3.6% per year, respectively. After adjusting for age and sex, the risk of incident radiographic knee OA was significantly increased among subjects with higher baseline body mass index (odds ratio [OR] 18.3, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 5.1-65.1, highest versus lowest third), previous knee injury (OR 4.8, 95% CI 1.0-24.1), and a history of regular sports participation (OR 3.2, 95% CI 1.1-9.1). Knee pain at baseline (OR 2.4, 95% CI 0.7-8.0) and Heberden's nodes (OR 2.0, 95% CI 0.7-5.7) were weakly associated with progression. Analyses based on individual radiographic features (osteophyte formation and joint space narrowing) supported differences in risk factors for either feature.

CONCLUSION
Most currently recognized risk factors for prevalent knee OA (obesity, knee injury, and physical activity) influence incidence more than radiographic progression. Furthermore, these factors might selectively influence osteophyte formation more than joint space narrowing. These findings are consistent with knee OA being initiated by joint injury, but with progression being a consequence of impaired intrinsic repair capacity.


Questioning the view that the work is not representative of the poet's mature accomplishment, Suzanne Nash argues that the revisionary process involved in its creation led Valery to reflect on problems fundamental to poetic production and thus provided inspiration for all his later poetry.Originally published in 1983.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive, high-grade neuroendocrine neoplasm that possesses distinctive genetic features and clinical properties, has a highly reliable pathological diagnosis and responsiveness to specific chemotherapy. SCLC frequently presents with early metastasis, which confers a morbid prognosis. Herein we describe a 65-year-old male patient,
whose preliminary investigations revealed primary SCLC with metastatic neuroendocrine carcinoma of the liver and anemia. Further analysis and a meticulous search for the unexplained anemia at diagnosis, revealed synchronous hepatic and skeletal metastases with primary small cell
carcinoma of the lung. These conditions are uncommon and seldom described in the literature.


Variability in historic fire regimes in eastern North America resulted in an array of oak savannas, woodlands and forests that were dominant vegetation types throughout the region. In the past century, once abundant woodlands have become scarce due to conversion to agriculture, or development of forest structure in the absence of fire. Restoration of oak woodlands is a primary goal for land management agencies and conservation organizations. Although oak woodlands can be restored with a long-term regimen of prescribed burning, a combination of prescribed burning, timber harvesting and forest thinning produces the desired structure and composition more efficiently. Sustaining oak woodlands requires an occasional longer fire-free period to allow for replacement of the overstory by recruitment of trees from the reserve of oak sprouts that have accumulated in the understory. Prescribed fire is useful for sustaining oak woodlands, but it must be used judiciously to minimize timber damage and decreases in value. Integrating fire in a silvicultural prescription that uses the shelterwood regeneration method to promote competitive oak reproduction has been successfully applied in the eastern US to sustain oak forests. Restoration of oak ecosystems is possible but requires innovative combinations of traditional practices, including prescribed burning.


A mixed methods convergent evaluation informed the redesign of an innovative public school that uses an accelerated model to serve grades 7-9 students who have been retained in grade level and are at risk for dropping out of school. After over 25 years in operation, a shift of practices/policies away from grade retention and toward social promotion required the school to adapt their model to best served students with high risk factors for dropping out of school who have been socially promoted, rather than retained in grade level. This study provided the qualitative (perspectives of former students ( N = 8) and quantitative (demographic and outcome variables for students ( N = 164) who completed the program between 2007-2009) data to ground the evolution of the school model. Five critical aspects of the school model emerged from the former students: teacher as warm demander, diverse and creative practices, being one community, student self-efficacy, and upholding diversity and equity. Quantitative analyses revealed the key finding that the number of times a student accelerated to the next grade in their courses was a positive predictor of all the high school outcomes studied. Data mixed during interpretation generated recommendations to continue strong practices and strengthen the following: have students set, monitor, and share progress; increase clear and high expectations; engage the adult community in setting, tracking and assessing goals; and increase culturally competent practices. These findings can also be used by schools serving students who may be at risk for dropping out of school.


Abstract The new mineral alwilkinsite-(Y) (IMA2015-097), Y(H2O)7[(UO2)3(SO4)2O(OH)3]·7H2O, was found in the Blue Lizard mine, San Juan County, Utah, USA, where it occurs as a secondary alteration phase. The mineral is slightly flexible before brittle failure with splintery fracture and perfect cleavage parallel to [010], has Mohs hardness of ∼2-2½, exhibits dull greenish-grey fluorescence and has a calculated density of 3.371 g cm-3. Alwilkinsite-(Y) occurs as yellowish-green needles, elongate on [010], with domatic terminations and exhibits the forms {102}, {301} and {124}. It is optically biaxial (+) with α = 1.573(1), β = 1.581(1), γ = 1.601(1) (white light), the measured 2V is 65.3(1)°, the dispersion is r < v (weak), the optical orientation is X = c, Y = a, Z = b and there is no pleochroism. Electron microprobe analyses yielded the empirical formula (Y0.66Dy0.08Gd0.06Er0.05Nd0.03Yb0.03Sm0.02Ce0.01)Σ0.94(H2O)7 [(UO2)3(S1.01O4)2O(OH)3]·7H2O. The eight strongest powder X-ray diffraction lines are [dobs Å(I )(hkl)]: 9.88(100)(101,002), 7.47(13)(102), 5.621(17)(103,201), 4.483(18)(104), 3.886(14)(130,222), 3.322(46) (multiple), 3.223(13)(multiple) and 3.145(16)(034). Alwilkinsite-(Y) is orthorhombic, P212121, a = 11.6194(5), b = 12.4250(6), c = 19.4495(14) Å, V = 2807.9(3) Å3 and Z = 4. The structure of alwilkinsite-(Y) (R1 = 0.042 for 4244 Fo > 4σF) contains edge-sharing chains of uranyl bipyramids with outlying sulfate tetrahedra that are similar to the chain linkages within the uranyl sulfate sheets of the zippeite structure. Short segments of the uranyl sulfate chains in the alwilkinsite-(Y) structure have the same topology as portions of the uranyl sulfate linkages in uranopilite. Alwilkinsite-(Y) is named for Alan (Al) J. Wilkins, MD (born 1955), the discoverer of the mineral.


This paper aims to critically explore the forces and critical features relating to the adoption of a new reporting and budgeting system (RBS) in Indonesian local governments.,The study is based on an intensive analysis of document sources and interview scripts around the institutionalization of RBS by the Indonesian government and uses the adaption of Dillard et al. (2004) institutional model in informing its findings.,The authors find that at the national level, the key drivers in RBS adoption were a combination of exogenous economic and coercive pressures and the wish to mimic accounting reforms in developed nations. At the local government level, the internalization of RBS is a response to a legal obligation imposed by the central government. Despite the RBS adoption has strengthened the transparency of local authorities reports – it limits the roles of other members of citizens in determining how local government budgets are allocated.,The results of the study should be understood in the historical and institutional contexts of organizations observed.,The authors reinforce the notion that accounting as a business language dominates narratives and conversations surrounding the nature of government reporting and budgeting systems and how resource allocation is formulated and practiced. This should remind policymakers in other developing nations that any implementation of a new accounting technology should consider institutional capacities of public sector organizations and how the new technology benefits the public.,The authors argue that the dominant role of international financial authorities in the policymaking and implementation of RBS challenges the aim of autonomy policies, which grant greater roles for local authorities and citizens in determining the nature of the budgets and operation of local authorities.,This study extends institutional theory by adapting the Dillard et al. (2004) model in explaining the forces, actors and critical features of a new accounting system adoption by local governments.


To devise ways of tracking learning processes is one of the goals of current CALL research. However, the data collected must be able to account for the learner's approach as well as his/her performance. A study of a novice learner of Spanish using a CALL system designed for vocabulary enlargement, shows that introspective evidence may be used to validate performance data within a theoretical framework which characterizes the learning approach as "surface' or "deep," depending on the degree of the learner's engagement with principles of structure underlying the target language lexis. It is proposed that this framework offers a basis on which effective computer based vocabulary teaching strategies can be developed.


Abstract. The Netherlands' policy for flood risk management is being revised in view of a sustainable development against a background of climate change, sea level rise and increasing socio-economic vulnerability to floods. This calls for a thorough policy analysis, which can only be adequate when there is agreement about the "framing" of the problem and about the strategic alternatives that should be taken into account. In support of this framing, we performed an exploratory policy analysis, applying future climate and socio-economic scenarios to account for the autonomous development of flood risks, and defined a number of different strategic alternatives for flood risk management at the national level. These alternatives, ranging from flood protection by brute force to reduction of the vulnerability by spatial planning only, were compared with continuation of the current policy on a number of criteria, comprising costs, the reduction of fatality risk and economic risk, and their robustness in relation to uncertainties. We found that a change of policy away from conventional embankments towards gaining control over the flooding process by making the embankments unbreachable is attractive. By thus influencing exposure to flooding, the fatality risk can be effectively reduced at even lower net societal costs than by continuation of the present policy or by raising the protection standards where cost-effective.


It was in 1853, just seventy years ago, that as a young man I left my old home in Canada for the West. After spending two years in Kankakee, Illinois, through a man who had just returned from the "pineries" of the Chippewa valley in northern Wisconsin I became interested in that region. In the late summer of 1855, with a man by the name of Ben Dement, I started out. We went by train to Chicago and by train and mule team from there to Galena. At that point we took a steamboat to Reads Landing, at the mouth of the Chippewa. This was several years before steamboats began running on the Chippewa, but we found two raft crews about ready to start up river with a keel boat full of supplies. An average keel boat was perhaps sixty feet long, ten feet wide, and four feet deep. A "running board" about two feet wide extended full length of the boat on each side. The boats were propelled by poles. These poles were about sixteen feet long, light and strong, with a steel point on the lower end and a knob or button on the upper end. From twelve to twenty men were required to propel the boat. An ordinary Chippewa raft crew consisted of eight oarsmen and a pilot. It was a very common arrangement for two raft crews to pole a loaded keel boat up river and tow the boat down again with the next raft. On the keel boat one man acted as pilot and the others were equally divided on the two sides of the boat. Taking their places at the bow, on the running board, with the steel points of their poles on the river bottom and the knobs pressed against their shoulders, the men in a stooping position walked to the stern. Raising their poles they quicklv ran back to the bow to repeat the operation. Attached to the bow and coiled in the boat was a light, strong rope called a "cordil" [cordelle]. This was used for pulling the boat through deep channels and rapids where the poles were not sufficient. A big half-


In this era of rapid development and economic growth, waste management is of high concern for humans. According to statistics, a great amount of rubber waste materials are produced annually. The major amount of these waste rubber material comes from scrap tires. Only a few percent of the waste rubber materials are recycled and made into new products. Recycling of waste rubber has a certain problem: the crosslink structure of thermoset rubber.
Due to the presence of three dimensional crosslink structures in rubber products, they cannot be reprocessed by application of heat, like we do for thermoplastic materials. In order to recycle and reuse the vulcanized rubber we have to find a way to cleave the crosslink bonds. This technique which can break down the crosslink bonds in the rubber is called devulcanization.
Different devulcanization processes are utilizing heat, chemicals, ultrasound, and mechanical stresses in order to break down the crosslink structure of vulcanized rubber and convert the insoluble thermoset rubber into a soft and sticky material which can be processed and vulcanized again. Comparing various devulcanization processes, the thermo-mechanical devulcanization process which applies mechanical forces and heat to break down the crosslink network of rubber is very effective. One of the common ways to maintain the required shear stresses and mechanical forces to cleave and break down the crosslink structure of vulcanized rubber is utilizing the extrusion process.
In this research, twin screw extruders are preferred due to their modular designs which enable us to adjust the different levels of shearing on the material. In order to facilitate the extrusion process supercritical carbon dioxide is used. Supercritical carbon dioxide diffuses into the rubber particles during the devulcanization process and facilitates the process by expanding and softening the rubber particles.
In this research we have established a high throughput devulcanization process to produce devulcanized scrap tire rubber at an industrial scale. The effect of different process parameters on obtained devulcanized rubber properties, such as network structure, rheological properties, and physical and mechanical properties are studied. Results showed that in the range of our experiment design, the only effective parameter on crosslink density and Mooney viscosity of the devulcanized scrap tire is feed rate. Using Horikx theory, it was shown that the devulcanization mechanism for our scrap tire devulcanization process is a selective crosslink cleavage rather than a random chain scission.
The obtained devulcanized rubber was then incorporated in a virgin tire rubber compound and the impact of devulcanized rubber utilization on tire compound performance was studied. Results showed that incorporation of devulcanized rubber into a tire tread compound up to 30 percent does not deteriorate the tire tread properties in a significant manner.
Finally, a high throughput devulcanization process was established for scrap ethylene-diene-propylene…