Since the end of the Cold War, economic sanctions have become a common instrument of diplomacy. (1) As tools of international pressure, sanctions--the interruption of some or all economic relations--fall between diplomacy arid armed force and usually aim to achieve political ends while avoiding the costs and destruction of war. (2) In a two-superpower world, few states were not aligned with one of these powers; therefore, sanctions were ineffective since either the United States or the U.S.S.R. could build an alliance with any country cut off by the other. In the last decade of the 20th century, however, economic sanctions have become a more potent arid frequent tool of hostile foreign policy. Growing reluctance to use U.S. ground troops to settle international disputes has made the search for alternative weapons of hostile foreign policy of paramount importance. Additionally, consensus among nations on the appropriate use of military force in international diplomacy is increasingly rare. Generating such consensus requires shared values, international treaties, and international law, focused increasingly on human rights. War is usually justified only as a last resort in cases of grave domestic rights violations or territorial aggression by an offending state. Even in such cases, international wars are increasingly limited to expelling invading forces; there is little consensus that any one nation's government should overthrow the government of another, demand unconditional surrender, or create occupied states. These limitations on engaging in full-scale, conventional warfare create pressure to find other means to negotiate hostilities between stares. (3) Thus, in the post-Cold War, one-superpower world, sanctions have become the weapon of choice prior to, instead of, or after limited wars. (4) From 1993 to 1996, 35 new sanction regimes were initiated by the United States. U.S. sanctions now have been instituted or legislated against countries containing 68 percent of the world's population. (5) Most of those sanctions limit commercial relations or military cooperation; comprehensive sanctions that attempt to halt all commerce are far rarer. The United Nations has also increased its use of sanctions in recent years. Prior to 1991, the United Nations instituted sanctions only twice, against Southern Rhodesia in 1966 and against South Africa in 1977. Since 1991, the UN and other regional organizations have instituted sanctions against Iraq, the Yugoslav federation of Serbia and Montenegro, Libya, Rwanda, Angola, Somalia, Liberia, Burundi, and Haiti. In 1998 and 1999, further U.S. sanctions were considered or legislated against Pakistan, India, China, Yugoslavia, and Nigeria. Civilian Casualties Sanctions are popular because they quickly demonstrate determination and action on the part of leaders. Interest groups in developed countries can exert great pressure to take rapid action in this way with little opposition from the countries' citizens. Often the only opposition against sanctions is voiced by the U.S. business community, whose major concern is lost sales and markets. Finally, sanctions appear cheap--at least compared to expensive military interventions. For example, during the 1994 international military operation in Haiti to return exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power, the $8 billion cost of military intervention dwarfed the $250 million spent by all parties for humanitarian relief. (6) It appears that the sanctioned country bears the full cost of sanctions. But many of those costs are borne solely by the civilian population. Most sanctions increase suffering among civilians, particularly among the most disadvantaged. (7) The cases of Iraq, Haiti, and Cuba show how damaging sanctions can be, especially in terms of human suffering. Increasingly, reports of human suffering have made the subject of sanctions a volatile issue in the mind of the American public. …


Distant supervision algorithms learn information extraction models given only large readily available databases and text collections. Most previous work has used heuristics for generating labeled data, for example assuming that facts not contained in the database are not mentioned in the text, and facts in the database must be mentioned at least once. In this paper, we propose a new latent-variable approach that models missing data. This provides a natural way to incorporate side information, for instance modeling the intuition that text will often mention rare entities which are likely to be missing in the database. Despite the added complexity introduced by reasoning about missing data, we demonstrate that a carefully designed local search approach to inference is very accurate and scales to large datasets. Experiments demonstrate improved performance for binary and unary relation extraction when compared to learning with heuristic labels, including on average a 27% increase in area under the precision recall curve in the binary case.


Song serves as a living symbol of collective identity through which liberational dignity is practiced in Indonesia's province of West Papua. The participative power of song has maintained an ideological "notion state" (Webster, 2001) which has sustained Papuan dignity and identity through Dutch and Indonesian occupation. This article traces the formation of Papuan collective identity through song, beginning with the Koreri movement of 1939-43 under the leadership of Angganeka Manufandu, reigniting in the music of Arnold Ap during the years of Indonesia's arguably genocidal "New Order" government (1965-98), and continuing into the present with current Papuan musical movements that reinforce identity and dignity.


As part of an 11-state inventory, we censused the Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) in the interior of California from 2009 to 2012, using a combination of aerial, ground, and boat surveys. An estimated 8791 pairs breeding in the interior of the state in 2009–2012 exceeded the 7170 pairs estimated in 1998–1999. In both periods, cormorants were breeding in 9 of 11 ecoregions, but three-fourths were at one site—Mullet Island at the Salton Sea in the Sonoran Desert ecoregion (abandoned in 2014). The ecoregions with the next highest proportions were the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, and Modoc Plateau. The apparent increase in numbers and colony sites since 1999—consistent with the pattern through much of western North America—reflects the (short-lived) increase in numbers at the Salton Sea, an increasing number of colonies and breeding pairs in the Central Valley, and slightly better coverage on the recent surveys. Because of practical survey constraints and limited data to date, evidence of change in numbers of Doublecrested Cormorants breeding in the interior of California between 1998–1999 and 2009–2012 is inconclusive. Plans for monitoring will need to take into account the effects of substantial annual variation in numbers, which may be associated with large fluctuations in cormorants' prey base, short-term cycles of drought and flood, shifts of nesting cormorants into or out of the interior of California, and the expectation of greater environmental fluctuations with continuing climate change. The factors most likely to limit the number of cormorants breeding in the interior of the state are habitat loss or alteration (particularly from reallocation of water for human needs), disease, human disturbance, and the long-term effects of climate change.


Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient that exerts its functions via selenoproteins. Little is known about the role of Se in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Epidemiological studies have inversely correlated nutritional Se status with IBD severity and colon cancer risk. Moreover, molecular studies have revealed that Se deficiency activates WNT signaling, a pathway essential to intestinal stem cell programs and pivotal to injury recovery processes in IBD that is also activated in inflammatory neoplastic transformation. In order to better understand the role of Se in epithelial injury and tumorigenesis resulting from inflammatory stimuli, we examined colonic phenotypes in Se-deficient or -sufficient mice in response to dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis, and azoxymethane (AOM) followed by cyclical administration of DSS, respectively. In response to DSS alone, Se-deficient mice demonstrated increased morbidity, weight loss, stool scores, and colonic injury with a concomitant increase in DNA damage and increases in inflammation-related cytokines. As there was an increase in DNA damage as well as expression of several EGF and TGF-β pathway genes in response to inflammatory injury, we sought to determine if tumorigenesis was altered in the setting of inflammatory carcinogenesis. Se-deficient mice subjected to AOM/DSS treatment to model colitis-associated cancer (CAC) had increased tumor number, though not size, as well as increased incidence of high grade dysplasia. This increase in tumor initiation was likely due to a general increase in colonic DNA damage, as increased 8-OHdG staining was seen in Se-deficient tumors and adjacent, non-tumor mucosa. Taken together, our results indicate that Se deficiency worsens experimental colitis and promotes tumor development and progression in inflammatory carcinogenesis.


ABSTRACT Acoustic indices are valuable tools for measuring and tracking changes in biodiversity. However, the method used to collect acoustic index data can be made more effective by recent developments in electronics. The current process requires recording high-quality audio in the field and computing acoustic indices in the lab. This produces vast quantities of raw audio data, which limits the time that sensors can spend in the field and complicates data processing and analysis. Additionally, most field audio recorders are unable to log the full range of contextual environmental data that would help explain short-term variations. In this paper, we present the BioAcoustic Index Tool, a smart acoustic index and environmental sensor. The BioAcoustic Index Tool computes acoustic indices as audio is captured, storing only the index information, and logs temperature, humidity, and light levels. The sensor was able to operate completely autonomously for the entire five-month duration of the field study. In that time, it recorded over 4000 measurements of acoustic complexity and diversity all while producing the same amount of data that would be used to record 3 minutes of raw audio. These factors make the BioAcoustic Index Tool well-suited for large-scale, long-term acoustic biodiversity monitoring.


If in the First Act you hang a gun upon the wall, by the Third Act you must use it. Chekhov I. INTRODUCTION As technological and scientific advances proliferate, innumerable questions regarding legal, cultural, ethical, and human rights issues arise begging for answers. In the ever-broadening global climate of economics and human rights, politicians and world leaders are more frequently asking about the impact of these technologies on the policies of countries around the world. More specifically, as genetic and reproductive options are enlarged, their effects elicit questions related to procreative rights, discrimination, and population policy. The purpose of this comment is to analyze the eugenic practices and policies of the United States and China, and comment on their respective human rights implications. This Comment will outline the development of the eugenics movement and how eugenic practices have largely been abandoned in the United States. This will be contrasted with the continuing eugenic sterilization practices in China. This comment will also distinguish the social goals of sterilization policies in both countries. It will recognize as the primary distinction in policy the fundamental choice of whether to subordinate the well being of the individual to the well being of society. In addition, it will discuss the permissive genetic policies in the United States which may implicitly endorse eugenic practices. II. EUGENICS DEFINED For many, the term "eugenics" conjures up some image of a science fiction experiment gone amuck. The film industry has produced enough movies of aliens bred to have certain omnipotent or omniscient capabilities to somewhat justify that notion. However, the term "eugenics" comes by this connotation honestly, as it was first widely discredited in connection with atrocities of Nazi policies in Germany.(1) Surprisingly, the beginning of eugenics comes from a more palatable background. Plato was one of the earliest theorists to advocate the betterment of the human race by choosing the correct mate.(2) The term "eugenics" comes from the Greek word meaning "well born."(3) It was coined by Charles Darwin's cousin, Francis Galton, who defined it as "the science of improving stock."(4) Bertrand Russell, a British philosopher, described it as more of a social movement than a science in that it "attempt[s] to improve the biological character of a breed by deliberate methods adopted to that end."(5) There is some controversy over the definition of eugenics and how broadly the term sweeps. Much of the controversy focuses on whether eugenics should be defined in terms of the intent of the policies or their consequences.(6) However, all eugenicists share the common belief that "individual desires should be subordinated to a larger public purpose."(7) The definition of eugenics can be further delineated into "positive" and "negative" eugenics. Positive eugenics is similar to Plato's view which attempts to improve the race through selection and maximization of "socially desirable" genes.(8) In this instance, eugenicists try to manipulate genes or the mating of genes to increase the incidence of "positive" or "desirable traits."(9) This can be contrasted with the more controversial negative eugenics which seeks to eliminate those "bad" or "undesirable" genes or traits from the gene pool.(10) The most infamous example of negative eugenics was Hitler's attempt in the Lebensborn Project to produce "good babies."(11) Accounts vary as to the actual numbers, but historians agree that Hitler had as many as sixty to a hundred thousand "unfit" persons sterilized in an attempt to prohibit reproduction by defectives and eliminate their bad genes from the human race.(12) Eugenicists believed that through the use of both positive and negative eugenics they could eliminate many so-called hereditary defects such as mental retardation, criminality, and mental illness, and thereby eradicate many social problems. …


Recent findings with children and adults propose that the developmental increase in the DRM false memory illusion is not related to children's increased ability to process relational meaning across list items as proposed by Fuzzy-trace theory (FTT). These studies show that the effects of semantic information are limited to true memories. Unlike the propositions of FTT, this suggests that false memories do not benefit from this type of information. Previous research with adults has demonstrated that the DRM false memory illusion using recall tasks is strongly related to DRM lists' backward associative strength (BAS). However, the role of lists' associative strength has not yet been examined on children's false recall. This study sought to examine the role of associative strength on children's false recall using the DRM paradigm and to further examine the role of semantic information on children's true and false memories. Children with the ages of 5, 7, and 11 years, studied and recalled 12 (6 DRM, 6 category) word lists with varying backward and forward associative strengths. To examine the role of semantic information, half of the children in each age group were provided with descriptive labels prior to list presentation. Results indicated that children's false recall of category and DRM lists were effected by different variations of associative strength, where the highest rates of false recall was obtained from DRM lists with high backwardhigh forward associative strength, and category lists with high backward-low forward associative strength. This also varied within each age group. Children's true and false recall benefited from descriptive labels. However, the increase in false memories can be attributed to the strong associative relations between the descriptive label and the critical lures of category lists. When associative relations between descriptive labels and critical lures were low, as Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Children ' s False Memories iv in DRM lists, there was no beneficiary effect of labels on false recall. These results suggests that as in adults, children's false memories occur as a result of associative activation, whether from backward or forward associative links with list items or descriptive labels. This is in line with false memory theories based on network models of semantic knowledge (such as activation/monitoring theory), where falsely reporting the critical lure within the DRM paradigm results from its activation through highly related list items. Children's increased susceptibility to the false memory illusion may be related to an increased automaticity in processing associative relations between list items and the lure rather than an increased ability to extract meaning across list items. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Children's False Memories v Table of


An efficient monolithically integrated laser on Si remains the missing component to enable Si photonics. We discuss the design and fabrication of suspended and tensile-strained Ge/SiGe multiple quantum well microdisk resonators on Si for laser applications in Si photonics using an all-around SiNx stressor. An etch-stop technique in the Ge/SiGe system is demonstrated and allows the capability of removing the defective buffer layer as well as providing precise thickness control of the resonators. Photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy indicate that we have achieved a biaxial tensile strain shift as high as 0.88% in the microdisk resonators by adding a high-stress SiNx layer. Optical gain calculations show that high positive net gain can be achieved in Ge quantum wells with 1% external biaxial tensile strain.


This thesis examines several aspects of decision making under uncertainty. In the first chapter, coauthored with Ondřej Rydval, Andreas Ortmann, and Ralph Hertwig, we replicate three pricing tasks of Gneezy, List, and Wu (2006) for which they document the so-called uncertainty effect, namely, that people value a binary lottery over non-monetary outcomes less than other people value the lottery's worse outcome. While the authors implemented a verbal lottery description, we use a physical lottery format, which makes misinterpretation of the lottery structure highly unlikely. We also provide subjects with complete information about the goods they are to value (book gift certificates and one-year deferred payments). Contrary to Gneezy, List, and Wu (2006), we observe for all three pricing tasks that subjects' willingness to pay for the lottery is significantly higher than other subjects' willingness to pay for the lottery's worse outcome. In the second chapter, I investigate the relationship between attitudes towards ambiguity and the ability to reduce compound risks. The evidence from an experiment on adolescents shows that patterns identified in the previous literature are susceptible to experimental implementation and the characteristics of the subjects. Cognitive skills and the way lotteries are presented affect reduction of compound risks differently to ambiguity neutrality. My results suggest that theoretical studies which model ambiguity preferences by relaxing the assumption of compound risk reduction should be viewed with caution. In the third chapter, I review recent experimental studies on decision making under ambiguity and identify the main determinants related to intrinsic characteristics of a subject (static contexts) and related to interaction between a subject and ambiguous reality (dynamic contexts). Significantly fewer papers address robustness under dynamic contexts. Moreover, several studies report contradictory results and shifts to ambiguity-neutrality under certain conditions. I suggest that, if we aim to predict behavior under ambiguity, then we ought to focus on robustness of attitudes toward ambiguity, specifically in dynamic contexts.


Latin America is experiencing a new era of the myth of development based on a model of extractivism. The most dramatic face of extractivism in the region has been, on the one hand, the growing presence of transnational mining corporations supported by national governments as well as regional and international finance and development institutions, and, on the other hand, the intense resistance against this development by social movements. In this paper we present the case of Andalgala (a small town in the Province of Catamarca in Argentina) and the people's struggle against transnational mining corporations and their allies. Following the tradition of the Philosophy of Liberation and Dussel's ana-dialectic method, we have closely engaged with, what have been called, the "Argentinean communities of NO", expressing their opposition to neocolonial forms of development and management. In this paper we are specifically interested in understanding how the two main managerial devices used by mining companies, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and governance pacts, impacted the people's struggle. Overall, this paper provides a snapshot of the battles at the frontlines of extractivism. It hopes to give voice to those people who are normally not heard, providing a space for their views of a different kind of development.


Due to biases in the output of climate models, a bias correction is often needed to make the output suitable for use in hydrological simulations. In most cases only the temperature and precipitation values are bias corrected. However, often there are also biases in other variables such as radiation, humidity and wind speed. In this study we tested to what extent it is also needed to bias correct these variables. Responses to radiation, humidity and wind estimates from two climate models for four large-scale hydrological models are analysed. For the period 1971–2000 these hydrological simulations are compared to simulations using meteorological data based on observations and reanalysis; i.e. the baseline simulation. In both forcing datasets originating from climate models precipitation and temperature are bias corrected to the baseline forcing dataset. Hence, it is only effects of radiation, humidity and wind estimates that are tested here. The direct use of climate model outputs result in substantial different evapotranspiration and runoff estimates, when compared to the baseline simulations. A simple bias correction method is implemented and tested by rerunning the hydrological models using bias corrected radiation, humidity and wind values. The results indicate that bias correction can successfully be used to match the baseline simulations. Finally, historical (1971–2000) and future (2071–2100) model simulations resulting from using bias corrected forcings are compared to the results using non-bias corrected forcings. The relative changes in simulated evapotranspiration and runoff are relatively similar for the bias corrected and non bias corrected hydrological projections, although the absolute evapotranspiration and runoff numbers are often very different. The simulated relative and absolute differences when using bias corrected and non bias corrected climate model radiation, humidity and wind values are, however, smaller than literature reported differences resulting from using bias corrected and non bias corrected climate model precipitation and temperature values.


In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Oxfam's Public Health Promotion team used a voucher programme to provide beneficiaries with essential hygiene items through local shops. The voucher system was chosen so that beneficiaries could access hygiene items in a normal and dignified way, and in order to pilot an innovative approach to dealing with the challenges of in-kind distributions in an urban setting. This case study documents the programme with a focus on drawing out lessons learned.


Indigenous thought reminds us that a wind, a movement of creation has always and continues to breathe into and through us. Having regard for and living in alignment with the flow of this wind facilitates wellbeing and was the primary concern of our original Māori institutions. Ihirangaranga are sound vibrations that continue to carry and impart these source vitalities. Indigenous women have a unique role in embodying and expressing these vibrations. As Māori sound science practitioners at Te Amokura Centre for Wholeness and Total Wellbeing we continue ancient traditions of healing and wholeness by soothing hearts, minds, bodies and souls by facilitating these vibrations. This work extends a lineage of healers and sacred sound practitioners – but for many years, my whānau (family) and I did not know this. This article shares our story of the wind and how, despite colonisation, it continues to move and find expression in our personal, collective, and intergenerational bodies since before my grandparents' grandparents' to us, and beyond into the vitalised lives of our grandchildren's' grandchildren.


Do politicians manipulate the enforcement of conditional welfare programs to influence electoral outcomes? We study the Bolsa Familia Program (BFP) in Brazil, which provides a monthly stipend to poor families conditional on school attendance. Repeated failure to comply with this requirement results in increasing penalties. First, we exploit random variation in the timing when beneficiaries learn about penalties for noncompliance around the 2008 municipal elections. We find that the vote share of candidates aligned with the president is lower in zip codes where more beneficiaries received penalties shortly before (as opposed to shortly after) the elections. Second, we show that politicians strategically manipulate enforcement. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find weaker enforcement before elections in municipalities where mayors from the presidential coalition can run for reelection. We provide evidence that manipulation occurs through misreporting school attendance, particularly in municipalities with a higher fraction of students in schools with politically connected principals.


This commentary considers the topics of humour and online settings. Both have received increasing attention amongst researchers and practitioners of science communication, and both raise numerous questions around the role of informality and enjoyment in the spread of information. However, online settings also provide a great range of data with which to address these questions. Here I suggest that close consideration of technical infrastructure plays an important role in this data collection. I shall do so using case studies drawn from two popular participatory websites, reddit and Facebook, which display contrasting attitudes towards using humour. I argue that these attitudes are partly products of the different tools provided by the pages for users to show appreciation, which affect the appearance of content on the websites. I also suggest that these tools allow users to appreciate jokes in multiple ways, and by extension might provide researchers with methods for assessing different forms of engagement.


The main topics of this article are some terminological problems with the term »museum pedagogy«, which has been used in Slovenia for more than two decades. This term is problematic for at least two reasons. Firstly, because it includes educational work with both children and adults in museums and galleries, but at the same time it does not take into consideration a crucial change which took place with the establishment of Andragogy as a specifi c educational science. The second reason why the term »museum pedagogy« is problematic is that it leads to the wrong conclusion that Museum Pedagogy is a specifi c educational science or discipline, although actually it is not.


We improve the effectiveness of propagation- and linear-optimization-based neural network verification algorithms with a new tightened convex relaxation for ReLU neurons. Unlike previous single-neuron relaxations which focus only on the univariate input space of the ReLU, our method considers the multivariate input space of the affine pre-activation function preceding the ReLU. Using results from submodularity and convex geometry, we derive an explicit description of the tightest possible convex relaxation when this multivariate input is over a box domain. We show that our convex relaxation is significantly stronger than the commonly used univariate-input relaxation which has been proposed as a natural convex relaxation barrier for verification. While our description of the relaxation may require an exponential number of inequalities, we show that they can be separated in linear time and hence can be efficiently incorporated into optimization algorithms on an as-needed basis. Based on this novel relaxation, we design two polynomial-time algorithms for neural network verification: a linear-programming-based algorithm that leverages the full power of our relaxation, and a fast propagation algorithm that generalizes existing approaches. In both cases, we show that for a modest increase in computational effort, our strengthened relaxation enables us to verify a significantly larger number of instances compared to similar algorithms.


Objective: Multiple etiological and prognostic factors have been implied in schizophrenia and its outcome. Advanced paternal age has been reported as a risk factor in schizophrenia. Whether this may affect schizophrenia outcome was not previously studied. We hypothesized that advanced paternal age may have a negative effect on the outcome of relapse in schizophrenia. Method: We interviewed 191 patients with first-episode schizophrenia and their relatives for parental ages, sociodemographic factors at birth, birth rank, family history of psychotic disorders, and obstetric complications. The outcome measure was the presence of relapse at the end of the first year of treatment. Results: In the 1-year follow-up period, 42 (22%) patients experienced 1 or more relapses. The mean paternal age was 34.62 years (SD 7.69). Patients who relapsed had significantly higher paternal age, poorer medication adherence, were female, and were hospitalized at onset, compared with patients who did not relapse. A multivariate regression analysis showed that advanced paternal age (OR 1.05, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.10), medication nonadherence (OR 2.37, 95% CI 1.12 to 4.99), and female sex (OR 2.44, 95% CI 1.14 to 5.24) independently contributed to a higher risk of relapse. Analysis between different paternal age groups found a significantly higher relapse rate with paternal age over 40. Conclusions: Advanced paternal age is found to be modestly but significantly related to more relapses, and such an effect is the strongest at a cut-off of paternal age of 40 years or older. The effect is less likely to be mediated through less effective parental supervision or nonadherence to medication. Other possible biological mechanisms need further explorations.


Security is an important requirement for a service-oriented architecture (SOA), since SOA in principle considers services spread widely on different locations and diverse operational platforms. The main challenge for SOA security still drifts around 'clouds' and there is still a lack of suitable frameworks for security models based on consistent and convenient methods. In this paper, we propose security solutions for an Intelligence Information System completely based on SOA. Contemporary security architectures and security protocols are still evolving. SOA-based systems are characterized with differences in security implementation as encryption, access control, security monitoring, security management through disparate domains etc. Domains have services as endpoints in the information systems, which usually form composite services. The workflow which is established through composite services is extending on different endpoints in different domains. The paper's main aim is to provide a contribution in developing suitable security solutions to Intelligence Information Systems using web service security standards in order to reach appropriate level of information security considering authentication, authorization, privacy, integrity, trust, federated identities, confidentiality and more. The paper reflects an approach in which useful information provided by the services is sent out directly from the creators of information to the consumers of information. We introduce security and logging system that can be used as verification and validation middleware


Accurate temperature measurements with good depth resolution will be helpful in appreciating processes that influence temperatures in the vadose zone. In some areas, such as the Albuquerque Basin, groundwater flow perturbs the temperature regime in the saturated zone, making the deep vadose zone a potentially better region to investigate ground surface temperature changes. When it is not logistically or economically possible to span the vadose zone with a pipe filled with water, the temperature measurements must be made in air. Because of the very small heat capacity of air, these temperature measurements are difficult. This paper describes a new temperature sensor with a relatively fast time constant in air that provides accurate temperature measurements in a continuous logging mode. Temperature gradient characteristics below the 5‐m depth, based on a 1‐m depth measurement interval, are reproducible at a number of logging speeds. Absolute temperatures between the logs at any given depth below about 25 m typically agree to within 0.01°C. The temperature logging system should enable one to gather considerable information regarding the thermal regime in the vadose zone.


A study of the Directorate General for Competition's (DG Competition) 1996 "Notice on the non-imposition or reduction of fines in cartel cases" suggests that it largely failed to induce members of active cartels to self-report. Instead, immunity and fine discounts were predominantly awarded in cases where cartels were failing, or had already failed. A majority of leniency cases followed (or were broadly contemporaneous to) equivalent investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice. All but one EU only leniency case had failed before self-reporting occurred. Moreover, nearly half of leniency cases concerned closely related infringements in the chemicals industry. The majority of those U.S.-EU leniency cases had failed (or were failing) at the time of self-reporting. A preliminary analysis of the revised 2002 notice suggests less reliance on U.S. successes, but still more cartels connected to previous infringements in the chemicals industry. A central challenge is preventing the leniency program from providing a way for failed cartelists to tame the end game, or to use leniency as a strategic tool to put former cartel members (now competitors once more) at a disadvantage. Such cases risk overwhelming DG Competition with leniency applications that do little to enhance deterrence.


At the same time the 1960s sitcom Bewitched aired in reruns next to drag queens on LOGOtv, a cable channel targeted to LGBTQ viewers, it also aired on the former National Christian Network channel (FamilyNet) immediately preceding a lineup of church programs featuring far-right, anti-gay hosts. Bewitched's ability to appeal to these very different channels' brands and audiences underscores a textual vigor and sustainability for success in syndication that even the best so-called quality shows today lack. While some may deride a study of syndication (and reruns especially) as irrelevant and passé, syndicated programs are neither of those things if their continued popularity assures our familiarity with them. As a text, Bewitched is already supple enough to motivate two politically opposing media brands to pick it up, but the context of each of these channels' flow, including commercials, station IDs, and edits to content, can make the experience of watching the same episode of any show on different channels a wholly different textual experience. This article returns to foundational theories of TV flow and intertextuality to propose retextuality as a theoretical and methodological intervention in studies of television. It argues that in syndication, the production labor of syndicators, executives, programmers, and marketing departments effectively retextualizes shows like Bewitched, offering scholars opportunities for new textual analyses and new insight into the marginalized and queer audiences syndicated programming often serves.


This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of a chapter accepted for publication in the European Centre for Minority Issues and The European Academy Bozen/Bolzano (eds), European Yearbook of Minority Issues, Volume 12, 2013 (Brill, 2015). The version of record is available at: http://www.brill.com/publications/european-yearbook-minority-issues

In reviewing the activities of relevant UN human rights institutions, bodies and mechanisms this chapter identifies and examines some of the main issues that have emerged regarding minority rights during the year 2013. It notably analyses how the UN has focused particular attention on the situation and the rights of religious minorities, as well as on the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda. The chapter also reviews activities in other issue areas important for minorities such as language, education, combatting racism, hatred and intolerance, and the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities. It highlights developments with regard to specific groups such as Roma, people living with Albinism and Dalits. It also examines some of the urgent situations that have arisen from conflicts which have targeted minorities across the globe.


Stable isotopic (δ13C; δ15N) analysis of bone collagen and other refractory biological materials is a mainstay of palaeoecological research, but comparability between individuals depends on homogeneity within the sample specimens. Long bones of extinct New Zealand moa display lines of arrested growth that reflect prolonged development over several years, leading to potential systematic inhomogeneity in stable isotopic enrichment within the bone. We tested whether the isotopic content within a Euryapteryx curtus tibiotarsus is homogeneous by measuring δ15N and δ13C values in 6 adjacent 1cm-diameter cortical bone cores arranged along the bone axis from each of the proximal and distal ends. We then measured isotopic ratios in 5 radial slices of a core from the mid-shaft of a Pachyornis elephantopus tibiotarsus to see if there was any depth (ontogenetic) effect at a single sampling point. The δ13C value increased with distance from the proximal bone end, but neither δ13C nor δ15N values in samples from the distal end of the bone were correlated with position. Within mid-shaft cortical bone, the δ13C value decreased with depth but δ15N values were constant. Sampling the entire depth of cortical bone from the caudal surface at the distal end of the tibiotarsus, if feasible, therefore provides a spatially homogenous material, free of maturation effects on stable isotopic composition. If for any reason that position cannot be sampled, the outer (radial) layer at the mid-shaft can be substituted.


Economic crises have mainly affected the more vulnerable social sectors and created losses of freedom and inequality. Currently, most media are controlled by a relatively small group of companies around the world. In the face of this situation, networked society has accelerated the development of alternative communication models, which act as loudspeakers for citizens' voices. The aim of this study is to describe the main features of the new forms of citizen expression, communication and cooperation, such as social networks, review sites, citizen journalism and the collaborative economy. It is concluded that in the face of these new challenges it is essential to continue to develop ethical principles of self-regulation to ensure the accuracy and thoroughness of new forms of communication on the Net.


Being based on a sound theoretical basis, masking schemes are commonly applied to protect cryptographic implementations against Side-Channel Analysis (SCA) attacks. Constructing SCA-protected AES, as the most widely deployed block cipher, has been naturally the focus of several research projects, with a direct application in industry. The majority of SCA-secure AES implementations introduced to the community opted for low area and latency overheads considering Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) platforms. Albeit a few, those which particularly targeted Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) as the implementation platform yield either a low throughput or a not-highly secure design.In this work, we fill this gap by introducing first-order glitch-extended probing secure masked AES implementations highly optimized for FPGAs, which support both encryption and decryption. Compared to the state of the art, our designs efficiently map the critical non-linear parts of the masked S-box into the built-in Block RAMs (BRAMs).The most performant variant of our constructions accomplishes five first-order secure AES encryptions/decryptions simultaneously in 50 clock cycles. Compared to the equivalent state-of-the-art designs, this leads to at least 70% reduction in utilization of FPGA resources (slices) at the cost of occupying BRAMs. Last but not least, we provide a wide range of such secure and efficient implementations supporting a large set of applications, ranging from low-area to high-throughput.


The statistical application considered here arose in epigenomics, linking the DNA methylation proportions measured at specific genomic sites to characteristics such as phenotype or birth order. It was found that the distribution of errors in the proportions of chemical modification (methylation) on DNA, measured at CpG sites, may be successfully modelled by a Laplace distribution which is perturbed by a Hermite polynomial. We use a linear model with such a response function. Hence, the response function is known, or assumed well estimated, but fails to be differentiable in the classical sense due to the modulus function. Our problem was to estimate coefficients for the linear model and the corresponding covariance matrix and to compare models with varying numbers of coefficients. The linear model coefficients may be found using the (derivative-free) simplex method, as in quantile regression. However, this theory does not yield a simple expression for the covariance matrix of the coefficients of the linear model. Assuming response functions which are except where the modulus function attains zero, we derive simple formulae for the covariance matrix and a log-likelihood ratio statistic, using generalized calculus. These original formulae enable a generalized analysis of variance and further model comparisons.


The EU has been one of the largest trade partners for so called Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Commodity turnover of these countries with the EU vary between 30% and 50% of total, but their access to the EU market is less preferential than for many other neighboring countries. They trade with the EU on the basis of MFN regime, and five EaP countries, with exemption of Belarus, use privileges provided by Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) or the GSP+ or autonomous trade preferences (Moldova). With the launch of EaP initiative in 2009, relations between the EU and the Eastern European countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) have received new impetus for development. The EaP offers upgrade of relations within three major dimensions, namely (a) the Association Agreement (AA), (b) Agreement on a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), and (c) Visa Facilitation and Readmission agreements. The AA talks have been launched with all EaP countries expect for Belarus, and four of them have been involved in the DCFTA talks. Ukraine has progressed the most, as after five years of negotiations the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement with embedded DCFTA has been initialed in 2012. The aim of this study is to assess gains and losses that could arise from the DCFTA with the EU for the EaP countries, using information about EU-Ukraine DCFTA as model case for EaP regional trade cooperation. The focus of the paper is on non-tariff (regulatory) component of the EU DCFTA and potential implications of regulatory approximation. Also, current level of harmonization of EaP countries' regulatory framework with the EU acquis in the areas related to the DCFTA is analyzed.


Marxian economics and standard economics are widely different yet they share a central weakness: the respective profit theories are demonstrably false – each one in its own characteristic way. Roughly speaking, Marx tried to explain profit by objective factors while standard economics cites subjective factors. For different reasons, neither route led to satisfactory results. The conclusion is straightforward: one has to do better. The conceptual consequence is to first reconstruct the profit theory from a solid basis with no regard to either Marxian or standard premises. In order to succeed, objective-structural axioms have to be taken as formal point of departure.


The trajectory of the suburb Sunshine in Western Melbourne (1906–85), from industrial powerhouse to repository of social problems, sheds light on the issues surrounding organic urban expansion. For the many Australians living on the fringes of large cities, a sense of deprivation – particularly inequality in services – undercut the presumed comfort and stability of the post-war period. Unrest in outer areas deepened following the contraction of the 'long boom'. The area's pre-Second World War origins as a manufacturing suburb regulated by the industrialist Hugh V. McKay is starkly contrasted with its later incarnation as a site of industrial and suburban sprawl.


PURPOSE Seasonal influenza vaccine is recommended and funded for groups at higher risk of serious infection, but uptake is suboptimal. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of short message service (SMS) reminders for influenza vaccination. METHODS Six weeks after seasonal influenza vaccinations began, we identified high-risk patients who had a mobile telephone number on record at 10 practices in Western Australia. Thirty-two percent of the selected patients had already been vaccinated in the current year and were ineligible. Of the remaining 12,354 eligible patients at each practice one-half were randomly assigned to receive a vaccination reminder by SMS (intervention) and the rest received no SMS (control). Approximately 3 months after the SMS was sent (the study period), vaccination data were extracted from the patients' electronic medical records. Log-binomial regression models were used to calculate the relative risk (RR) of vaccination between the intervention and control group. RESULTS Twelve-percent (769 of 6,177) of the intervention group and 9% (548 of 6,177) of the control group were vaccinated during the study period, a 39% relative increase attributable to the SMS (RR = 1.39; 95% CI, 1.26–1.54). For every 29 SMSs sent, costing $3.48, 1 additional high-risk patient was immunized. The greatest effect was observed for children younger than 5 years, whose parents were more than twice as likely to have their child vaccinated if they received a SMS reminder (RR = 2.43; 95% CI, 1.79–3.29). CONCLUSION We found SMS reminders to be a modestly effective, low-cost means to increase seasonal influenza vaccine coverage among high-risk patients.


Manganese peroxidase 3 (MnP3) is an extracellular peroxidase from the white-rot fungus, P. radiata that is a well-studied wood/lignin degrader from Scandinavian forest (Hilden et al., 2005). Unlike the Phanerochaete chrysosporium MnP's previously characterised, the P. radiata MnP3 is a 'short' MnP with a truncated C-terminus evolutionarily more related to the newly characterised versatile peroxidase. The cDNA for the full length MnP3 from P. radiata was optimised at the 5' end for E.coli expression and cloned into the expression vector pFLAG1. Five site-directed mutants targetting the Mn binding site (E40H, E44H, E40H/E44H, D186H and D186N) were constructed and characterised. The recombinant MnP3's, both wild-type and variants were isolated from E.coli inclusion bodies after expression in W3110 and active soluble proteins recovered after in vitro refolding and extensively characterised. In this work, the characteristics of the P. radiata wild type MnP3 were compared with those of the mutant enzymes and the 'classical' Phanerochaete enzyme described in the literature. The molecular weight of the enzymes was 36kDa with UV/Vis absorption spectra typical of a six-coordinate high spin haem peroxidase. In contrast to the literature on these enzymes, the Phlebia MnP3 was found to have a maximum efficacy (kcat/Km) at pH 5.0 rather than the more typical optimum at 4.5. Consistent with the high oxidation potential of these enzymes, the Compound I form of the enzyme was found to be unstable decaying rapidly to a Compound II-like intermediate. Mutations to the manganese (II)-binding ligands change the catalytic properties of the Phlebia MnP3 dramatically and reactivity towards Mn (II) were greatly decreased particularly at lower pH. Interestingly, much of the activity in the higher pH region was maintained, showing that carboxylate Mn ligands are not essential at higher pH when tighter binding of Mn2+ is favoured. The pKa's for the activity dependence matches those expected for the deprotonation of the surrogate His ligands. The results confirm that the mutated Mn (II) binding site is the only productive catalytic site for Mn (II) oxidation. The specificity of metal binding by MnP3 was examined; Cu ions were found to be strongly inhibitory and Zinc ions bound particularly tightly and somewhat nonspecifically to MnP3 with stoichiometries as high as 5:1 suggestive of multiple metal-binding sites other than the specific manganese-binding site. Use of Zn ions in crystallisation media clearly has the potential to complicate metal ion assignment in the structures of these enzymes. Interestingly, Cobalt ions were able to enhance the activity of MnP3 but were not rapidly oxidised by the enzyme itself. The P. radiata enzymes have been found to be active in acidic and alkaline regions, being stable over a large pH range (5.0 – 8.5) and are readily additionally stabilised by addition of excess Ca2+, both desirable features in such an enzyme that could be applied to the 'biorefinery' concept.


The future sustainability of cities is contingent on economic resilience. Yet, urban resilience is still not well understood, as cities are frequently disrupted by shocks, such as natural disasters, economic recessions, or changes in government policies. These shocks can significantly alter a city's economic structure. Yet the term economic structure is often used metaphorically and is often not understood sufficiently by those having to implement policies. Here, we operationalized the concept of economic structure as a weighted network of interdependent industry sectors. For 938 U.S. urban areas, we then quantified the magnitude of change in the areas' economic structures over time, focusing on changes associated with the 2007–2009 global recession. The result is a novel method of analyzing urban change over time as well as a typology of U.S. urban systems based on how their economic structures responded to the recession. We further compared those urban types to changes in economic performance during the recession to explore each structural type's adaptive capacity. Results suggest cities that undergo constant but measured change are better positioned to weather the impacts of economic shocks.


This document describes a simple client/server model for supporting policy control over QoS signaling protocols. The model does not make any assumptions about the methods of the policy server, but is based on the server returning decisions to policy requests. The model is designed to be extensible so that other kinds of policy clients may be supported in the future. However, this document makes no claims that it is the only or the preferred approach for enforcing future types of policies.


Phosphorylation of cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) by the CDK-activating kinase is required for the activation of CDK enzymes. Members of two families of CDK inhibitors, p16/p18 and p21/p27, become physically associated with and inhibit the activity of CDKs in response to a variety of growth-modulating signals. Here, we show that the representative members of both families of CDK inhibitors, p21, p27, and p18, can prevent the phosphorylation of their CDK partners, CDK2 and CDK6, by CDK-activating kinase. No direct interaction between CDK-activating kinase and the CDK inhibitors could be detected, suggesting that binding of these CDK inhibitors to CDK subunits renders CDK inaccessible to the CDK-activating kinase phosphorylation. These findings suggest that a general mechanism of CDK inhibitor function is to block the phosphorylation of CDK enzymes by CDK-activating kinase.


Changes in natural patterns of animal behaviour and physiology resulting from anthropogenic disturbance may alter the conservation status of a population if they affect the ability of individuals to survive, breed or grow. However, information to forecast population‐level consequences of such changes is often lacking. We developed an interim framework to assess the population consequences of disturbance when empirical information is sparse. We show how daily effects of disturbance, which are often straightforward to estimate, can be scaled to the disturbance duration and to multiple sources of disturbance. We used expert elicitation to estimate parameters that define how changes in individual behaviour or physiology affect vital rates and incorporated them into a stochastic population model. Model outputs can be used to evaluate cumulative impacts of disturbance over space and time. As an example, we forecast the potential effects of disturbance from offshore wind farm construction on the North Sea harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) population. Synthesis and applications. The interim framework can be used to forecast the effects of disturbances from human activities on animal populations, to assess the effectiveness of mitigation measures and to identify priority areas for research that reduces uncertainty in population forecasts. The last two applications are likely to be important in situations where there is a risk of unacceptable change in a species' conservation status. The framework should, however, be augmented with empirical data as soon as these are available.


We develop an approach for the detection of ruins of livestock enclosures (LEs) in alpine areas captured by high-resolution remotely sensed images. These structures are usually of approximately rectangular shape and appear in images as faint fragmented contours in complex background. We address this problem by introducing a rectangularity feature that quantifies the degree of alignment of an optimal subset of extracted linear segments with a contour of rectangular shape. The rectangularity feature has high values not only for perfectly regular enclosures but also for ruined ones with distorted angles, fragmented walls, or even a completely missing wall. Furthermore, it has a zero value for spurious structures with less than three sides of a perceivable rectangle. We show how the detection performance can be improved by learning a linear combination of the rectangularity and size features from just a few available representative examples and a large number of negatives. Our approach allowed detection of enclosures in the Silvretta Alps that were previously unknown. A comparative performance analysis is provided. Among other features, our comparison includes the state-of-the-art features that were generated by pretrained deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs). The deep CNN features, although learned from a very different type of images, provided the basic ability to capture the visual concept of the LEs. However, our handcrafted rectangularity-size features showed considerably higher performance.


AbstractSuccessful completion of a construction project requires the ability to coordinate activities of numerous individuals participating in tasks that often have high levels of complexity and uncertainty. Thus, the project manager plays crucial roles, often setting the ground rules and fostering a collective approach that strongly influence project performance. However, there are uncertainties regarding various aspects of project managers' influence, particularly related to their leadership style. Thus, the research reported in this paper explores the degrees to which leadership styles affect project outcome and specific leadership styles are appropriate in specific types of situations. The analysis is based on a questionnaire survey of views of 162 project managers employed by the largest public infrastructure client in Sweden. The results indicate that project performance (in terms of cost, time, and quality) is affected by leadership, suggesting that the project manager's leadership style is a signi...


Despite its small size, New Caledonia has a flora which includes 43 endemic species of conifer. This study examines the stand structure of the New Caledonian conifer, Araucaria laubenfelsii Corbasson, a species which occurs on ultramafic soils as an emergent tree in rainforest and in an unusual structural association with maquis vegetation. Fire and cyclone blow-down are the primary disturbances in the maquis, but fire is infrequent in the rainforests which is evident from the low proportion of fire scarred trees. Preliminary results show abundant seedlings and saplings of A. laubenfelsii both in maquis and forest. Size class distributions of individuals suggest that the species is continuously regenerating in the maquis and immature forests. Variability in the stand structure in maquis communities reflects the probable patchy nature of disturbance from small-scale fires and blow-down from tropical cyclones. In mature forests, Nothofagus codonandra (Baillon) Steenis is the dominant canopy species and 'other tree species' are continuously regenerating, while the size class distributions and basal area of A. laubenfelsii suggest that there is, at present, limited regeneration of this species. Tree ring counts indicate that individuals in forest areas grow at a slower rate than those in maquis, but attain greater age, probably as a result of greater protection from fire.


Composite hematite–silica structures recovered from a siltstone bed in the Elatina Formation of South Australia include (1) sub-circular to whorl-shaped forms, (2) elongate to half-moon-shaped forms and (3) and lozenge-shaped forms locally linked into chains. They range from 200 to 500 µm in diameter and are interpreted as eukaryote tests. Evidence for internal etching of a calcite core of some tests indicates that at least some of the hematite–silica fabrics were acquired through replacement. Carbon isotope values of −20‰ δ13C are suggestive of precipitation by microbial activity, and imply a change in ambient fluid chemistry associated with a pH reduction. The tests occur within sandstone beds that were deposited on a tidally modulated braidplain during the Marinoan glaciation at the end of the Cryogenian. The quartz grains in the sandstone sample lack the typical textures (surface striae, internal fractures or irregular grain boundaries) expected for glacially transported material. Thus, on textural grounds we argue that the eukaryote tests represent a proglacial ecosystem during a late Cryogenian snowball Earth event. Supplementary material: Video files of digital X-ray tomographs (μCT) in the longitudinal and transverse planes are available at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.2209723.


MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small molecules of noncoding RNA that range between ~19-22 nucleotides in length. In recent years, scientists have observed that these small RNA molecules exist in the extracellular environment within eukaryotic organisms. Furthermore, these microRNA molecules are known to associate with a family of proteins named Argonaute proteins. These microRNA/Argonaute protein complexes are the core of a larger assembly of proteins that compose the RNA Induced Silencing Complex (RISC). The RISC has exhibited the ability to inhibit the translation of, or cleave, its target messenger RNA (mRNA), the latter of which being exclusive only to Argonaute 2 protein (Ago2). It has also been observed in the literature that these Argonaute/miRNA complexes often target genomic regions associated with various cancers in humans and, currently, more than 2000 miRNAs have been discovered and published in the literature. Current methods for analyzing miRNA expression involve total RNA extraction using methods such as ethanol precipitation. However, total RNA extraction does not take into consideration that the major functional component of post-transcriptional inhibition is indeed that Argonaute protein/miRNA complex and not the miRNA alone. In this study, we investigate a novel method to capture and detect the active Ago2/miRNA (miRNP) complex and quantitate associated miRNAs by utilizing an antibody against Ago2 and subsequent application of real-time PCR to successfully capture the active miRNP complex and quantitate the associated miRNAs.


Sociologists define a community as any group of people that perceives itself as distinct from other groups, and which is perceived by the outside world as distinct. Groups establish community solidarity in opposition to other groups, defining themselves for the most part through confrontation. The central components of such cohesion and differentiation are language and culture, morality, and sociopolitical structures. (1) The very structure of language legitimizes the dichotomy of insiders and outsiders. At one end of the linguistic scale, for example, minimal pairs demonstrate the fundamentals of meaning as it is conveyed through phonological contrast; thus contrast, or phonemic conflict, represents meaning. Similarly, and on the other end of the spectrum, the job of the literary critic must not fail to examine those aspects of group conflict that reveal themselves in an author's use of language. Analytical reading emerges, in part, from an assessment of word choice, which assumes the rejection of alternatives. The sort of literary analysis that seeks to discover sociolinguistic realities in literary texts undertakes to reveal disparity, diversity, and conflict as they manifest themselves in generic and stylistic forms. Occasionally these characteristics conceal, on the contrary, unity and coherence. (2) Besides linguistic choices, human behavior persistently demonstrates the tendency to define by contrast, as evidenced by the routine practice of stereotypes and prejudices. Labeling the other facilitates group identity, thus specifying who or what we are not (Dennen 13). It can be said, then, that the phenomenon of ethnocentrism is based largely on ingroup/outgroup differentiation. As Claudie Bernard points out, democracy no longer allows for reciprocal action between men since the democratic individual is identical to himself but not to others. Associations, on the other hand, where the biological family has been replaced by the institutional family, allow for mutual action. Thus the creation of elective families, as Anne-Marie Baron suggests, permits a narcissistic construct wherein people can define their own relationships according to desires rather than their needs. A study of the interrelation between group identity and stylistics will prove useful in classifying George Sand's communities. I propose to outline selected communities that typically inhabit Sand's universe, taking into consideration their constitution, their "enemies," and the conflicts that at once divide and unite them. I will then analyze the stylistic elements that Sand uses to define each community, and then examine whether such identifying elements suffice to equate Sand's group identity with conflict. Reading through Sand's fictional works, a variety of communities identify themselves in conflict against other groups they consider rivals: national identity, especially French versus Italian; class divisions, e.g., aristocrat versus bourgeois, bourgeois versus paysan (in rare instances, aristocrat versus paysan); geographic contrasts, specifically provincial (and more often than not Berrichon) versus Parisian; professional distinctions, in particular artists versus craftsmen; industrialist versus what today we would call environmentalist; political adherence, e.g., republican versus royalist, Napoleonist versus republican, etc.; gender conflicts; and so on. Fundamentally a study in stylistics, this article seeks to elucidate Sand's use of negative identification to posit an essentially positive world. In so doing, Sand does not deny or erase negative social constructs; rather, she fashions a diverse society through linguistic devices that contrast, confront, and finally complement the very society they define. A Variation on Romantic Dichotomies Two conflicts that Sand inherits from a post-Napoleonic ethos are the nationalism of French versus non-French on the one hand, and the mixing of social classes on the other. …


The intention of this research was to select the ideal condition for accelerated aging of bio-oil and the consequences of additive in stabilizing the bio-oil. The bio-oil was produced from the catalytic pyrolysis of empty fruit bunch. The optimum reaction conditions applied to obtain the utmost bio-oil yield were 5 wt% of H-Y catalyst at reaction temperature of 500 °C and nitrogen flow rate of 100 ml/min. A 10 wt% of solvents including acetone, ethanol, and ethyl acetate were used to study the bio-oil's stability. All the test samples were subjected to accelerated aging at temperature of 80 °C for 7 days. The properties of samples used as the indicator of aging were viscosity and water content. The effectiveness of solvents increased in the following order: acetone, ethyl acetate, and 95 vol% ethanol. Based on the result of Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), it could impede the chain of polymerization by converting the active units in the oligomer chain to inactive units. The solvent reacted to form low molecular weight products which resulted in lower viscosity and lessen the water content in bio-oil. Addition of 95 vol% ethanol also inhibited phase separation.


Realizing institutions and regulations that foster economic growth is an essential asset for contemporary economies. This book investigates practices and options for steering individual and firm behaviour that prevents unacceptable externalities and boosts public interests. These multi-dimensional interactions are investigated in three areas; innovativeness, especially in terms of IP rights; food safety requirements and the impact on EU-competitiveness; and economic stability, particularly within the banking industry. The book provides complementary views and offers clear and relevant conclusions.


Discussion on the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on African Americans has been at center stage since the outbreak of the epidemic in the United States. To present day, however, lack of race-disaggregated individual data has prevented a rigorous assessment of the extent of this phenomenon and the reasons why blacks may be particularly vulnerable to the disease. Using individual and georeferenced death data collected daily by the Cook County Medical Examiner, we provide first evidence that race does affect COVID-19 outcomes. The data confirm that in Cook County blacks are overrepresented in terms of COVID-19 related deaths since - as of June 16, 2020 - they constitute 35 percent of the dead, so that they are dying at a rate 1.3 times higher than their population share. Furthermore, by combining the spatial distribution of mortality with the 1930s redlining maps for the Chicago area, we obtain a block group level panel dataset of weekly deaths over the period January 1, 2020-June 16, 2020, over which we establish that, after the outbreak of the epidemic, historically lower-graded neighborhoods display a sharper increase in mortality, driven by blacks, while no pre-treatment differences are detected. Thus, we uncover a persistence influence of the racial segregation induced by the discriminatory lending practices of the 1930s, by way of a diminished resilience of the black population to the shock represented by the COVID-19 outbreak. A heterogeneity analysis reveals that the main channels of transmission are socioeconomic status and household composition, whose influence is magnified in combination with a higher black share.


Structures of serotonin receptor family members in complex with the fungal alkaloid ergot offer clues for drug designers. Serotonin receptors are the targets for many widely used drugs prescribed to treat ailments from depression to obesity and migraine headaches (see the Perspective by Palczewski and Kiser). Wang et al. and Wacker et al. describe crystal structures of two members of the serotonin family of receptors bound to antimigraine medications or to a precursor of the hallucinogenic drug LSD. Subtle differences in the way particular ligands bind to the receptors cause substantial differences in the signals generated by the receptor and the consequent biological responses. The structures reveal how the same ligand can activate one or both of the two main serotonin receptor signaling mechanisms, depending on which particular receptor it binds. C. Wang, Y. Jiang, J. Ma, H. Wu, D. Wacker, V. Katritch, G. W. Han, W. Liu, X.-P. Huang, E. Vardy, J. D. McCorvy, X. Gao, X. E. Zhou, K. Melcher, C. Zhang, F. Bai, H. Yang, L. Yang, H. Jiang, B. L. Roth, V. Cherezov, R. C. Stevens, H. E. Xu, Structural basis for molecular recognition at serotonin receptors. Science 340, 610–614 (2013). [Abstract] [Full Text] D. Wacker, C. Wang, V. Katritch, G. W. Han, X.-P. Huang, E. Vardy, J. D. McCorvy, Y. Jiang, M. Chu, F. Y. Siu, W. Liu, H. E. Xu, V. Cherezov, B. L. Roth, R. C. Stevens, Structural features for functional selectivity at serotonin receptors. Science 340, 615–619 (2013). [Abstract] [Full Text] K. Palczewski, P. D. Kiser, As good as chocolate. Science 340, 562–563 (2013). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Four studies consisting of 6 experiments were conducted to investigate the likely mechanisms of actions of feed additives used in the place of antibiotics to improve performance and enteric health in broilers. In the first study, the relationship between digesta pH, body weight and nutrient utilisation in broilers of the same breed but with different propensity for weight gain at different ages were investigated. It was noted that birds in group H (heavy) consumed more feed (P < 0.001) than those in group L (light) during the starter (day 10 to 14) and grower (day 15 to 28) phases. Birds in group H had lower (P < 0.05) caecal pH in the starter and grower phases and lower (P < 0.05) proventriculus pH in grower and finisher (day 29 to 42) phases. In the grower phase, caecal pH was correlated (r = 0.553) with total tract retention of DM and energy utilisation at both the ileal and total tract levels, whereas during the finisher phase, crop pH was correlated with ileal nutrient utilisation, and jejunum pH was correlated with total tract energy utilisation. The data showed that differences in body weight are also reflected in differences in gut pH which is likely indicative of differences in intestinal condition between birds with heavier or lighter body weight. The differences in the gut pH explained about half of the variations in total tract nutrient and energy utilisation. Lower gut pH is advantageous for beneficial bacteria colonization but disadvantageous for pathogenic ones colonization and hence it is likely that birds with the same genetic potential may have differences in growth performance based on the type of bacteria colonizing their gut.
In the second study, the response of broiler chickens to the supplementation of benzoic acid (BA) was investigated using growth performance, nutrient and energy utilization, intestinal acidity and histomorphology of the intestine as response criteria, using 945 Ross 308 male broilers in 3 treatments with 7 replicates each for 42 days. In the grower (day 11 to 21) phase, BA supplementation at 0.53 g/kg (BA1) increased (P < 0.001) body weight gain and reduced (P < 0.01) FCR, whereas supplementation at 3.20 g/kg (BA2) reduced (P < 0.005) the feed intake without affecting the body weight gain, resulting in a better FCR. Compared with the control, BA supplementations increased (P < 0.001) the protein and energy efficiency ratios in starter and grower phases and tended (P < 0.10) to increase the energy efficiency ratio in finisher phase (day 22 to 42) or the overall experimental period (day 0 – 42). BA supplementations at both rates reduced the caecal pH. Supplementation of 3.20 g/kg BA stimulated the proliferation of the absorptive cells in the jejunum, as shown in the improvement of the villus and crypt dimensions. The data from this study indicated that dietary supplementation of BA beneficially modified intestinal milieu and improved the growth performance of broiler chicks at 42 d of age.
In third study, two experiments were conducted to investigate the benefit of using BA and turmeric meal (TM) individually or in combination using growth performance, nutrient utilization, and intestinal health as response criteria. A total of 300 male one-day old broilers (Ross 308) were assigned in 5 treatments in randomized complete block design with 2x2 + 1 factorial arrangement, with 6 replicate pens and 10 birds each pen. Combination of 1 g/kg BA and 5 g/kg TM improved (P < 0.05) body weight gain relative to the control. Supplementation of 2 g/kg BA reduced the pH in the crop (P < 0.001) and jejunum (P < 0.01), whereas combination of BA and TM at 2 and 10 g/kg respectively reduced digesta pH in the crop (P < 0.001), jejunum (P< 0.01), and caeca (P < 0.05). All of the dietary treatments increased (P < 0.005) villus height, crypt depth and width relative to the control. All dietary treatments increased (P < 0.001) AME and AMEn relative to the control diet, whilst supplementation of 10 g/kg TM only increased energy digestibility (P < 0.05) and ileal digestible energy (P < 0.01). Orthogonal contrasts showed that BA and TM were additive in their effects on the growth performance, digesta pH in the proventriculus, jejunum, and ileum, and energy utilization, but associative on the energy digestibility, as well as the crop and caecal pH. None of the treatment altered the relative weight and length of the digestive tract of 21 days old broiler. These studies pointed out that BA and TM can be used in the diet individually or in combination to improve the enteric health, nutrient and energy utilization, and growth performance of broiler chickens.
In the fourth study, two experiments were designed to investigate the efficacy of TM and garlic meal (GM) using growth performance, intestinal pH, and energy and nutrient utilisation as response criteria. Three hundreds male one-day old broilers (Ross 308) were assigned in 5 treatments in randomized complete block design with 2x2 + 1 factorial arrangement, with 6 replicate pens and 10 birds each pen. Results showed that combination of GM and TM at 10 g/kg each increased (P < 0.05) the body weight gain, final body weight, and gain to feed ratio relative to the control and the diet with GM supplementation alone. The crop and caecal pH were reduced (P < 0.05) when the diets were supplemented with TM alone at 10 g/kg. The proventriculus pH also dropped (P < 0.05) following GM and TM mixture supplementation at 10 g/kg each relative to the control. Supplementation of 10 g/kg TM alone or in combination with GM at 5 g/kg each increased (P < 0.05) the apparent ileal energy digestibility and ileal digestible energy. All of the dietary treatments increased (P < 0.001) both AME and AMEn compared with the control. Orthogonal contrasts showed that GM and TM were additive for feed intake, nutrient and energy utilization at both the ileal and total tract levels, but associative in their effects on body weight gain and gain to feed ratio. These studies indicated that GM and TM can be used alone or in combination to support intestinal health, improve energy and nutrient utilization, and stimulate growth performance of broiler chickens. Combination of GM and TM at the rate of 5 g/kg each was optimum for enhancing nutrient and energy utilization and promoting growth performance of broiler chickens.
Taken together, these studies showed that benzoic acid and herbal products (garlic and turmeric meal) can be supplemented in the diet alone or in combination to improve the enteric health, nutrient and energy utilization, and growth performance of broiler chickens. Improvements on the growth performance might be attributed to the reduction of the entero-pathogens in the gut, enhancement of intestinal health, alteration of the absorptive cells in the intestinal wall, and improvement in the nutrient and energy utilization.


In this paper we attempt to determine whether the Chinese foreign exchange reserves have been too large. We empirically analyzed the foreign exchange reserves first by using the rate analysis method and then using the cost-profit method. Using the rate analysis method we found that the Chinese actual foreign exchange reserves greatly exceeded the 3-month import foreign exchange demands and also that the optimal foreign exchange reserves demands were calculated to be 40% of the total foreign debt balance. Every year the Chinese foreign exchange reserves have exceeded the total amount of import foreign exchange demand as well as exceeding the foreign exchange demands for the foreign debt balance and profit returning foreign exchange demands of foreign investment enterprises. In addition we have found that only from 2000 to 2003 did the Chinese actual foreign exchange reserves exceed the optimal foreign exchange reserves calculated using the Heller model [11] from 1966. In other years they have basically been equal to or less than the optimal value for foreign exchange reserves, which indicates that there are limits to the Heller model.


T. S. Eliot's little-known sonnet "On a Portrait" (1909) describes a painting by Edouard Manet from 1866, Woman with a Parrot. The significance of this connection has not been examined, nor has the further association of Manet's painting with Eliot's "Portrait of a Lady," another portrait of a woman with a parrot. These poems examine the peculiar inscrutability that observers of Manet's portrait have long remarked. Eliot's poems consider two possible meanings for the blank look on her face: either she is concealing her thoughts from us, or she is mentally absent. While "On a Portrait" considers both possibilities, "Portrait of a Lady" pursues the implications of the second interpretation, suggesting that selfhood or subjectivity is not predicated on a private interiority but on "parroting" the formulae of social interaction. Following Manet, Eliot links flatness--painterly and psychological--with meaningless imitation. All three "portraits" entertain a conception of subjectivity based on reflection and imitation rather than inwardness and originality. Although Eliot's connection with Manet has been neglected, (1) recent criticism in general has emphasized the nineteenth-century figures that influenced Eliot early in his career rather than the more historically remote ones (such as Donne and Dante) that he publicly avowed. In a recent article Ronald Bush identifies Eliot's ties to decadence as one of the primary areas of interest in Eliot studies, particularly with respect to the poet's sexuality (Ann Ardis, Colleen Lamos, Cassandra Laity). This renewal of attention to Eliot's nineteenth-century context owes much to Carol Christ's work on his use of Victorian genres; of special relevance to this essay, she has linked Eliot's representation of women to the nineteenth-century poetic mode of female portraiture as practiced by Tennyson, Browning, Rossetti, and Swinburne. ("Gender" 23). Swinburne is the primary presence in Eliot's Advocate poems from 1908 to January 1909, and this is especially true of "On a Portrait," one of the last poems Eliot wrote before his momentous encounter with Laforgue, which began when he received a copy of Arthur Symons's The Symbolist Movement in Poetry for Christmas in 1908. Eliot's imitation of Swinburne and Tennyson is a stylistic feature of this poem and also very likely the source of some of its thematic anxiety about parrots. Eliot's primary inspiration for his sonnet, however, was Edouard Manet's Woman with a Parrot rather than a work of literature. According to a letter from Eliot's college friend William Tinckom-Fernandez to Harford Powel Jr. (Powel Sr., presumably his father, had been on the Advocate editorial board at the same time as Eliot), he wrote the poem after seeing a reproduction of Manet's painting in a book on French impressionism (Powel 90). (2) It is not at all surprising that Eliot would have been struck by Manet's work, in view of the apprenticeship to Laforgue, and then to Laforgue's master Baudelaire, that he took up almost immediately after he composed this poem. Baudelaire was also Manet's master, in the sense that the poet's treatment of modern urban life gave the painter much of his subject matter (Reff, Manet and Modern Paris 13)--as also happened with Eliot. What is surprising is that Eliot's appreciation of Manet predated the influence of the French poets on his sensibility. In fact, it may have prepared the way for it. Many critics now credit Manet as the first modernist painter, although he composed his major canvases in the 1860s and 70s and did not even regard himself as a member of the impressionists; they called him rather their "father." Clement Greenberg influentially claimed that Manet's modernism lay in his rejection of the illusion of depth: Manet's paintings became the first Modernist ones by virtue of the frankness with which they declared the surfaces on which they were painted.... Flatness, two-dimensionality, was the only condition painting shared with no other art, and so Modernist painting oriented itself to flatness as it did to nothing else. …


Two firms supplying experience goods compete to attract loss averse consumers that are uncertain about how well these goods fit their needs. To resolve valuation uncertainty, firms can allow perspective customers to test (experiment) their products before purchase. We investigate firms' dynamic incentives to allow experimentation and analyze the resulting effects on the profitability and the stability of horizontal price fixing. The analysis shows that, depending on the regulatory regime in place | i.e., whether experimentation is forbidden, mandated or simply allowed but not imposed (laissez-faire) | the degree of consumer loss aversion has ambiguous effects both on the profits that firms can achieve through implicit collusion and on the extent to which these agreements can be sustained. Moreover, we also show that while in static environments consumer welfare is always maximized by a policy that forbids experimentation, the opposite might happen in a dynamic environment. Classification JEL: L12, L15, L44, M30


Many educational leaders dream of the opportunity to begin a new school. New schools provide opportunities for innovation, change, and creativity, which most educators believe is needed to improve current middle school practice. This study follows the process of planning for and opening a new and innovative middle school program designed to offer a unique educational experience for middle school students. This study was conducted as a unique case study that examined the experiences of the school principal and staff members during a two-year period of opening a new school. The researcher serves as a participant in the creation of the Academy and the principal of the school. His experience provides insight into the planning and implementation processes that were utilized to accomplish effective creation and implementation of the school. Other staff members share their perspective on the challenges encountered, and adjustments made, during the opening two years of the program. Participants also provide recommendations on continuing to improve the Academy and ideas about what processes are relevant to other school leaders. The findings of this study reveal that it is essential to clearly establish and communicate the vision when creating new schools. In addition, it provides specific practices found to be beneficial such as empowering teachers as leaders, providing unique training opportunities, and establishing small schools. This research is beneficial to school leaders or districts interested in creating an innovative middle school program to meet the social and academic needs of adolescents.


Biodiesel produced from rapeseed oil was used as a cost-effective and sustainable agent to enhance crude oil biodegradation in sand microcosms. The initial concentration of crude oil and total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) was 20,000 and 18,750 mg/kg, respectively. The mass ratio of biodiesel to crude oil was 0 (designated T1), 1:10 (designated T2), 1:4 (designated T3), and 1:2 (designated T4). After 80 days of incubation, the total removals of TPH and PAHs were 68.6 and 61.5% in T1, 78.0 and 67.3% in T2, 86.3 and 76.2% in T3, 72.2 and 57.9% in T4, respectively. Higher amounts of biodiesel reduced TPH biodegradation due to the decreased transfer of substrates caused by dilution effect. The addition of biodiesel stimulated bacterial growth during the initial period but the petroleum hydrocarbon degradation is not always correlated with the density of bacteria in the presence of biodiesel. Dehydrogenase activity (DHA) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity increased greatly after the beginning of incubation. From then on, DHA continuously decreased with time. T3 had the highest DHA and PPO activity from day 30 to the end of the experiment. The lowest toxicity was observed in T3 at day 80, and T3 showed the highest degradation rate constant.


Concentrating on the health sector, this article argues that the provision of collective goods through external actors depends on the level of state capacity and the complexity of the service that external actors intend to provide. It shows that external actors can contribute most effectively to collective good provision when the service is simple, and that simple services can even be provided under conditions of failed statehood. Effectively delivering complex services requires greater levels of state capacity. The article also indicates that legitimacy is a key factor to explain variance in health service delivery. To demonstrate this, the article assesses health projects in Somalia. It shows that simple services—malaria prevention and tuberculosis control—are provided effectively in all three Somali regions, including the war-torn South-Central region. In contrast, the HIV/AIDS project only achieved substantial results in Somaliland, the only region with a comparatively higher level of state capacity, and failed in the South-Central region and Puntland.


Frederick Mortimer Young (1860-1927) graduated at Cambridge University U.K, in 1884
and settled in Hobart in 1891 for his health. He assisted the newly founded (1890)
University of Tasmania by drafting statutes etc. and editing the University Calendar and he
served on the University Counci11919-21 and 1923-27. He also served on the committee
of the Hobart Technical School 1893-5 and on the joint Tasmanian Government Education
Department and University Engineering Board of Management. He was on the local
committee for the Hobart meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of
Science 1921 and read a paper to the geographical section on "projections for world maps".


Since 1972, the journal Radical Philosophy has provided a forum for the discussion of radical and critical ideas in philosophy. It is the liveliest and probably the most widely read philosophical journal in Britain. This anthology reprints some of the best articles to have appeared in the journal during the past five years. It covers topics in social and moral philosophy which are central to current controversies on the left, focusing on theoretical issues raised by the socialist, feminist and environmental movements. Topics covered include feminist perspectives on a range of traditional philosophical issues and contemporary problems; theoretical questions involved in the rethinking of socialism and Marxism; and questions about the relation between humanity and nature raised by environmental debates. The pieces included engage with contemporary issues in critical terms, and represent the best of recent philosophical work on the left. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in the current state of radical thought.


We studied the coherent backscattering for a converging beam in typical photovoltaic media, LiNbO3:Fe crystals and paid special attention to the complicated interaction among the incident light, changed scattering centers, and nonlinearity of the crystal. By controlling the interaction, we changed the temporally fluctuant backscattering speckles with random phases to be one phase conjugate wave of the incident light; meanwhile the random scattering centers could be self-arranged into order. And at the same time, a waveguide was formed in the sample.


Levels of the phytohormone indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) can be altered by the formation and hydrolysis of IAA conjugates. The isolation and characterization of Arabidopsis thaliana mutants with reduced IAA-conjugate sensitivity and wild-type IAA responses is advancing the understanding of auxin homeostasis by uncovering the factors needed for conjugate metabolism. For example, the discovery that the IAA-Ala-resistant mutant iar1 is defective in a protein in the ZIP family of metal transporters uncovered a link between metal homeostasis and IAA-conjugate sensitivity. To uncover additional factors impacting auxin conjugate metabolism, we conducted a genetic modifier screen and isolated extragenic mutations that restored IAA-amino acid conjugate sensitivity to the iar1 mutant. One of these suppressor mutants is defective in a putative cation diffusion facilitator, MTP5 (At3g12100; formerly known as MTPc2). Loss of MTP5 function restored IAA conjugate sensitivity to iar1 but not to mutants defective in IAA-amino acid conjugate amidohydrolases. Our results are consistent with a model in which MTP5 and IAR1 transport metals in an antagonistic fashion to regulate metal homeostasis within the subcellular compartment in which the IAA-conjugate amidohydrolases reside, and support previous suggestions that the ion composition in this compartment influences hydrolase activity.


Clinical demand for individualized "adaptive" treatment policies in diverse fields has spawned development of clinical trial methodology for their experimental evaluation via multistage designs, building upon methods intended for the analysis of naturalistically observed strategies. Because often there is no need to parametrically smooth multistage trial data (in contrast to observational data for adaptive strategies), it is possible to establish direct connections among different methodological approaches. We show by algebraic proof that the maximum likelihood (ML) and optimal semiparametric (SP) estimators of the population mean of the outcome of a treatment policy and its standard error are equal under certain experimental conditions. This result is used to develop a unified and efficient approach to design and inference for multistage trials of policies that adapt treatment according to discrete responses. We derive a sample size formula expressed in terms of a parametric version of the optimal SP population variance. Nonparametric (sample-based) ML estimation performed well in simulation studies, in terms of achieved power, for scenarios most likely to occur in real studies, even though sample sizes were based on the parametric formula. ML outperformed the SP estimator; differences in achieved power predominately reflected differences in their estimates of the population mean (rather than estimated standard errors). Neither methodology could mitigate the potential for overestimated sample sizes when strong nonlinearity was purposely simulated for certain discrete outcomes; however, such departures from linearity may not be an issue for many clinical contexts that make evaluation of competitive treatment policies meaningful.


The LDT0-028K is a flexible component comprising a 28 μm thick piezoelectric PVDF polymer film with screenprinted silver ink electrodes, laminated to a 0.125 mm polyester substrate, and fitted with two crimped contacts. As the piezo film is displaced from the mechanical neutral axis, bending creates very high strain within the piezopolymer and high voltages are generated. When the assembly is deflected by direct contact, the device acts as a flexible "switch", and the generated output is sufficient to trigger MOSFET or CMOS stages directly. If the assembly is supported by its contacts and left to vibrate "in free space" (with the inertia of the clamped/free beam creating bending stress), the device will behave as an accelerometer or vibration sensor. Adding mass, or altering the free length of the element by clamping, can change the resonant frequency and sensitivity of the sensor to suit specific applications. Multi-axis response can be achieved by positioning the mass off center. The LDTM-028K is a vibration sensor where the sensing element comprises a cantilever beam loaded by an additional mass to offer high sensitivity at low frequencies.


Attorney General William Barr's handling of Robert Mueller's Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election was undeniably controversial and raised meaningful questions regarding the impartiality of the Department of Justice. Yet, Barr's conduct, which occurred at the conclusion of the Mueller investigation, was merely the caboose at the end of a series of controversies that were coupled together from the outset of the investigation. Ensnarled in dissonance from its inception, the Mueller investigation was dogged by controversies that ultimately compromised its legitimacy.

Public trust of criminal investigations of executive branch wrongdoing requires prosecutorial independence. To further this critical objective, an investigative and prosecutorial structure must be implemented that grants a prosecutor sufficient latitude to pursue independent investigations while reigning in the exercise of runaway discretion. Indeed, at no time since Watergate has there been such a clear need for reform.

This Article will explain why many of the controversies that beset the Mueller investigation can be sourced to the Special Counsel regulations—the rules that governed his appointment, as well as his investigative and prosecutorial authority. And it will explain why many of these ills can be ameliorated by enacting a modified and innovative version of the expired Independent Counsel Statute.


Objective: The primary objective of this study was to determine the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of all persons who presented to the Accident and Emergency Department of the University Hospital of the West Indies with a history of deliberate harm over a six-month period. Methods: The dockets of patients presenting with deliberate self-harm were collected and reviewed for the information. A questionnaire was designed to extract the information. Data were analysed using SPSS version 17 and RXC programme. Results: Of the total number of dockets reviewed (n = 61), 78% of patients were below age 40 years, with a mean age of 28 years. Sixty-four per cent were female, 82% were single, 83% lived with someone, 80% had a secondary school level of education and 72% were unemployed. Overdose of medications was the main method of harm. Seventy-five per cent of patients did not use illicit substances. There was a significant association found between reason for self-harm and psychiatric illness (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Given these preliminary results, it would be useful to conduct a wider, island-wide study to determine the extent of self-harming behaviour in Jamaica so that appropriate interventions can be implemented to reduce this problem.


Dental carries is a complex mixture of saliva containing bacteria which regulates oral health. Studies are subjected for determining low in caries active persons. But most investigators have been unable to confirm this finding. Here researcher wants to find out the interplay of other factors including proteins and enzymes. Thus levels and state of calcium and phosphorous in saliva may be an indicator of susceptibility to dental caries. Thus the current study is determined on the levels of salivary constituents in caries group and caries free group. As a research protocols the assembling bacterial isolation and identification assess their relationship with prevalence of dental caries.