Yttria stabilized zirconia powders were prepared with 3, 5, 8 and 10 mol% of added yttria. The structural analysis of these samples was carried out using X-Ray Diffraction, Particle Size Distribution, Nitrogen Adsorption, Mercury Porosimetric and Scanning Electron Microscopic techniques. The XRD studies indicated that the Z3 Y and Z5Y were tetragonal whereas Z8Y and ZIOY were found to be cubic in shape.

Surface area was calculated using Nitrogen Adsorption Isotherms. It was found that with an increase in mole percent of Y 20 j in zirconia, there was an increase in surface area up to 5 mol% but after that it started decreasing. Mieroporosity or the powders was calculated by applying Dubinin-Radushkevich equation to the data obtained from nitrogen adsorption. D-R plots were found to be linear in the low relative pressure region and then there was an upward deviation at higher relative pressure in all the five systems. This deviation from the linearity shows a heterogeneous system of micropores. The deviation may also be due to the capillary condensation in transitional pores or multilayer formation on the walls of macropores.

Pore size distribution in all the powders was studied using Mercury Porosimetric Technique. The irreversibility of hysteresis in Mercury Porograms indicated the presence of 'ink bottle' pores. The results obtained from SEM technique indicated that particles were round in shape. The particles were found to be of non-uniform size distribution.

Adsorption of MeOH EtOH, PrOH and BuOH on pure and yttria stabilized zirconia was carried out between 273 to 303K. The isotherms obtained were of Type II. The surface area was calculated using Langmuir and BET adsorption isotherm equations and was found maximum for Z5Y powder. The isosteric heat of adsorption was calculated. Heat of adsorption, in general, seemed to be consistent with the earlier proposed idea of two adsorption processes occurring simultaneously, one with a small activation energy and the other with a large activation energy.

Thermodynamic parameters such as change in free energy, entropy and enthalpy of adsorption were calculated using Virial isotherm. It was found that maximum adsorption had taken place on Z5Y sample. Most probably it was due to the strongest affinity of Z5Y for the alcohols among all the samples. IR spectroscopic studies were also carried out in the range 4000 to 400 cm -1 and the adsorption of alcohols was confirmed by the results obtained.

Water vapour adsorption on zirconia was also studied. The isotherm obtained was of Type V, a characteristic of weak gas-solid interactions. The value of surface area obtained from the water vapor adsorption was much lower than that obtained from the nitrogen adsorption.


Background: Effective wastewater treatments are paramount to modern-day Scientists. The available methods are ineffective in detoxifying tannery wastewater. Aim: This study synthesize and characterized polysiloxane-Immobilized thiosalicylic-mercaptoethanol ligand system (PITSMCBLS) and used in detoxification of Cr3+ and Fe3+ from tannery wastewater.Method: Porous solid PITSMCBLS was prepared by hydrolytic polycondensation of tetraethylorthosilicate with mixture of 3-chloropropyltrimethoxysilane, methanol and sodium hydroxide as catalyst. The gelation formed (3-CPP) after 40 min, was functionalized (F-3CPP) with excess ethylchloroacetate, triethylamine and grafted with thiosalicylic-mercaptoethanol bi-ligand. The PITSMCBLS was characterized using FTIR and SEM-EDX. The competitive sorption characteristics of metal ions (Cr3+ and Fe3+) were studied using Microwave Plasma Atomic-Emission Spectrophotometer.Result: The FTIR spectrum of PITSMCBLS showed vibrational frequencies (cm-1) at: 3339, (O-H); 2928, (C-H); 2685, (SH); 2497, (Si-H); 1587–1707, (C=O) and 1028, (Si-O). The SEM-EDX showed irregular particle sizes (4.4294 ± 1.7187 nm) and elemental composition (wt %): 3-CPP, Si (50.45); O (25.02) and Cl (24.57). The F-3CPP showed, O (58.68) and Si (41.32), while PITSMCBLS showed 11.94 of S. Gibbs free energy yielded negative range values for ΔGo (Cr3+ -14.187 to -14.832 and Fe3+ - 14.369 to -14.843 kJmol-1), positive values for: ΔHo (Cr3+ 5.345 and Fe3+ 0.000 kJmol-1) and ΔSo (Cr3+ 64.459 and Fe3+ 47.421 Jmol1K1) respectively.Conclusion: PITSMCBLS exhibits high potential for extraction of Cr3+ and Fe3+ in tannery wastewater. The Thermodynamic values indicate spontaneous, endothermic reactions and high degree of disorderliness with respect to metal ion binding capacity to the ligand system. This development would improve tannery wastewater treatment.


U‐Pb ages of zircon in four different Apollo 14 breccias (14305, 14306, 14314, and 14321) were obtained by secondary ion mass spectrometry. Some of the analyzed grains occur as cogenetic, poikilitic zircon grains in lithic clasts, revealing magmatic events at ~4286 Ma, ~4200–4220 Ma, and ~4150 Ma. The age distribution of the crystal clasts in the breccias exhibits a minor peak at ~4210 Ma, which can be attributed to a magmatic event, as recorded in zircon grains located in noritic clasts. An age peak at ~4335 Ma is present in all four breccias, as well as zircon grains from different Apollo landing sites, enhancing the confidence that these grains recorded a global zircon‐forming event. The overall age distribution among the four breccias exhibits minor differences between the breccias collected farther away from the Cone Crater and the ones collected within the continuous ejecta blanket of the Cone Crater. A granular zircon grain yielded a 207Pb/206Pb age of 3936 ± 8 Ma, which is interpreted as an impact event. A similar age of 3941 ± 5 Ma (n = 17, MSWD = 0.89, P = 0.58) was obtained for a large zircon grain (~430 × 340 μm in size). This grain might have crystallized in the same impact melt sheet which formed the granular zircon or the age is representative of the final extrusion of KREEP magma. The majority of zircon grains, however, occur as isolated crystal clasts within the matrix and their ages cannot be correlated with any real events (impact or magmatic) nor can the possibility be excluded that these ages represent partial resetting of the U‐Pb system.


The RECODE project identified two overarching issues that are inhibiting take-up of policies related to open access to research data: a lack of a coherent open data ecosystem; and a lack of attention to the specificity of research practices, processes and forms of data collections. Against this background, the report provides policy recommendations on open access to research data targeted at key stakeholders in promoting open access: research funders; data managers; research institutions; and publishers. These recommendations will assist the above stakeholders in furthering the goals of open access to research data in each of their organizations and networks. Recommendations include both overarching and stakeholder-specific ones as suggestions to address and attend to these two issues by building on or learning from existing experience. In doing so, RECODE recognises that in some situations it is appropriate to build consensus and transfer good practice across disciplines and stakeholder groups, while in others it is appropriate to enable and support specific groups to maintain their particularity in relation to disseminating, preserving and re-using research data. In addition, for each stakeholder group good practice examples are provided that can serve as "models" for providing open access to research data. Finally, the recommendations and good practice examples will reduce "costs" associated with providing open access, as stakeholders do not need to develop their own expertise, but can use this information as a foundation to develop their own policies, support actions and initiatives.


A new, morphologically distinctive, murornate prasinophyte phycoma, Dictyotidium senticogremium sp. nov., is described from Upper Devonian strata of the Geirud Formation, Alborz Mountains, northern Iran. It is characterized by a small, near-circular vesicle, the surface of which is regularly divided by low membranous muri into few relatively large polygonal lacunae; central parts of the latter bear prominent granulate sculpture. Dictyotidium senticogremium sp. nov. occurs in a relatively diverse acritarch, prasinophyte, and miospore assemblage collectively indicating an early Late Devonian (Frasnian) age. The species is persistent, relatively common and has a presumably short stratigraphic range; therefore it is a potentially useful biostratigraphic index fossil for inter-basinal correlation across Iran.


Histidine-rich glycoprotein (HRG) is an abundant protein that binds fibrinogen and other plasma proteins in a Zn2+-dependent fashion but whose function is unclear. HRG has antimicrobial activity, and its incorporation into fibrin clots facilitates bacterial entrapment and killing and promotes inflammation. Although these findings suggest that HRG contributes to innate immunity and inflammation, little is known about the HRG-fibrin(ogen) interaction. By immunoassay, HRG-fibrinogen complexes were detected in Zn2+-supplemented human plasma, a finding consistent with a high affinity interaction. Surface plasmon resonance determinations support this concept and show that in the presence of Zn2+, HRG binds the predominant γA/γA-fibrinogen and the γ-chain elongated isoform, γA/γ′-fibrinogen, with Kd values of 9 nm. Likewise, 125I-labeled HRG binds γA/γA- or γA/γ′-fibrin clots with similar Kd values when Zn2+ is present. There are multiple HRG binding sites on fibrin(ogen) because HRG binds immobilized fibrinogen fragment D or E and γ′-peptide, an analog of the COOH terminus of the γ′-chain that mediates the high affinity interaction of thrombin with γA/γ′-fibrin. Thrombin competes with HRG for γ′-peptide binding and displaces 125I-HRG from γA/γ′-fibrin clots and vice versa. Taken together, these data suggest that (a) HRG circulates in complex with fibrinogen and that the complex persists upon fibrin formation, and (b) by competing with thrombin for γA/γ′-fibrin binding, HRG may modulate coagulation. Therefore, the HRG-fibrin interaction may provide a novel link between coagulation, innate immunity, and inflammation.


The relationship between devaluation and default risk is a central issue in the discussion of the costs and bene…ts of dollarizing emerging economies. Correct measures of these two unobserved variables are essential for assessing the welfare implications of dollarization. This paper studies the role of private sector balance sheets in measuring devaluation and default risk. A leading argument in favor of dollarization rests on the causal link between devaluation risk and country default risk. According to this view, "…rms and households in emerging economies have dollar-denominated debts, some of them acquired through domestic transactions like the purchase of a car or a refrigerator. Therefore, ‡uctuations in the exchange rate run the risk of creating serious …nancial stress." (Calvo, 2000). As devaluations cause defaults, dollarization can substantially reduce default risk in emerging economies by taking away the government's ability to devalue. Assessing the empirical relevance of this argument requires the analyst to measure devaluation and sovereign risk. In our interpretation of the argument, the chain through which devaluations lead to defaults has two crucial links: the liability dollarization problem (net dollar liabilities and net peso assets) and explicit or implicit government bailouts designed to avoid generalized bankruptcy. This is the way in which the story goes. Assume that, under certain unexplained circumstances (an exogenous …scal shock?), a government must devalue while private sector balance sheets exhibit a liability dollarization problem. Under these conditions following a devaluation the credit market will collapse. To avoid the supposedly costly generalized default, the government may have to make transfers to banks. If this transfers are su¢ciently high, the government may have to default on its debt. If this is the way the world functions, then when the (exogenous in the story) expected devaluation goes up, the expected default will go up. A minimal empirical test that this theory should pass is a positive correlation between expected devaluation and default risk. The standard approach to measuring sovereign default risk and devaluation risk rests on two no-arbitrage conditions restricting the return on peso denominated (emerging) sovereign bonds and the return on dollar denominated (emerging) sovereign bonds on one hand, and the return on dollar denominated (emerging) sovereign bonds and the return on dollar denominated risk free bonds on the other. The absence of risk free peso denominated bonds creates an identi…cation problem as there are two arbitrage equations to measure three unobserved variables: sovereign default risk on peso bonds, sovereign default risk on dollar bonds, and devaluation risk. This paper shows that the identi…cation problem can be solved with information about government and private sector balance sheets and a simple of the shelf model of optimal default and devaluation. The model provides a theory on how a benevolent government jointly decides the three default alternatives it has available, namely, the devaluation rate, the default rate on peso denominated bonds and the default rate on dollar denominated bonds. A key assumption of the model, motivated by the current debate on dollarization, is that government guarantees banks a minimum level of pro…ts. This implies that if there is a currency mismatch in private sector balance sheets that would induce banks to go bankrupt in the event of a large devaluation, banks (depositors) will be bailed out by the government. The model predicts that the choice between defaulting on domestic currency debt through an explicit default or through devaluation depends on the private sector's balance sheet positions. In general, government will prefer to default on its domestic currency debt by devaluing its currency rather than through an explicit default. The incentive to do so stems from the fact that a devaluation is more pro…table because it amounts to a default on the government's domestic currency debt plus its monetary liabilities. In economies with a liability dollarization problem, where the private sector has net dollar liabilities (or net peso assets), governments may choose to explicitly default on domestic currency debt instead of devaluing. This is because, in this case, the devaluation will trigger a bailout of the banking system. The optimal choice between devaluation and explicit default will depend on the trade-o¤ between the …scal gain of depreciating government monetary liabilities and the …scal cost of bailing out the …nancial system. If the latter exceeds the former, the government will prefer to default on its domestic debt, rather than devaluing and triggering a bailout. Using data on Argentine balance sheets for the period 1994-2000 we …nd that it is never optimal for the government to default on its domestic currency debt when we take currency denomination of balance sheets at face value. Using this identifying assumption expected devaluations are measured by the di¤erence between the return on domestic currency sovereign bonds and the risk free dollar rate. If we assume that all non-secured loans denominated in dollars are actually in pesos this result is reversed: it is never optimal for a government to devalue since a devaluation will trigger a …nancial crisis and, therefore, a bank-bailout that will o¤set the …scal gain of devaluing.


To the Editor: On March 31, 2013, the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China notified the World Health Organization of 3 cases of human infections with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus. These cases were caused by a novel virus that was identified by laboratory testing at the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on March 29 (1).

As of April 19, 2013, a total of 91 laboratory-confirmed human cases (17 deaths) of infection with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus were reported in 4 provinces in China (2). We report clinical features of 2 infected adults who died, 2 critically ill infected adults who recovered, and 1 infected child who had a mild case during this outbreak in Shanghai, China.

A 3.5-year-old boy had fever (39.5°C) for 3 days and mild rhinorrhea starting on March 31. He was admitted to a district pediatric outpatient clinic on April 1. At admission, the child was given oseltamivir for 5 days, even though signs and symptoms had resolved. Nasopharyngeal swab samples were positive by real-time PCR for avian influenza A(H7N9) virus. All symptoms resolved uneventfully by April 3, and CDC was notified that avian influenza A(H7N9) virus was identified in his respiratory sample. The patient was discharged on day 11 after illness onset.

The 4 adult patients were given diagnoses of severe pneumonia with shortness of breath, dyspnea, and marked hypoxia (Table). Duration from disease onset to severe illness was 5–7 days. At admission, the 4 patients with severe cases had decreased peripheral blood leukocyte counts and increased levels of aspartate aminotransferase; 3 had increased levels of lactate dehydrogenase (Table).

Table

Characteristics for 4 patients infected with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus, Shanghai, China*

All 4 adult patients had radiologically confirmed pneumonia and bilateral patchy alveolar opacities or diffused lobar consolidation with or without pleural effusion (Figure, Appendix). Findings on chest radiographs for severe cases requiring mechanical ventilation were consistent with those for acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Figure

Chest computed tomographic scans for 3 patients infected with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus, Shanghai, China. A) Patient 1, who died, showing extensive lung infiltrates at day 7 of illness onset. B) Patient 3, who had a severe case, showing partial rear ...

Among the 4 severe cases in adults, a 52-year-old woman (patient 1) and a 49-year-old man (patient 2) died from acute respiratory distress syndrome and multiple organ failure on days 14 and 10, respectively, after disease onset and 1–2 days after progression to respiratory failure. Two other patients showed improvement and were virus negative 6 and 4 days after antiviral treatment. After 23–24 days of treatment in an intensive care unit, the 2 patients with severe cases recovered and were discharged (Table).

The 2 patients who died were given methylprednisolone. Of the 2 patients who recovered, 1 was given a low dose of methylprednisolone for 1 week and the other was not given methylprednisolone. Although it is difficult to assess the role of glucocorticoids in treatment because of limited number of cases, caution is advised because of possible serious adverse events, including death, as reported for human infection with influenza A(H1N1) virus (4).

One of the adult patients reported exposure to poultry. The family of the child patient raised chickens and ducks, but these animals had no apparent disease, and cloacal swab specimens were negative for avian influenza A(H7N9) virus. One patient who died (patient 2) had frequent occupational exposure to poultry. Sixteen contacts of the child and 45 contacts of the 4 adult patients were monitored, and routine virologic sampling was performed. One contact (husband of patient 1) of a patient who died (Table) became febrile and was positive for avian influenza A(H7N9) virus on April 12 (day 24 after disease onset for patient 1); as of the date of this report, he was receiving treatment in an intensive care unit. However, it is difficult to tell if this is a case of human-to-human transmission or if both persons were exposed to infectious poultry. All remaining contacts had no symptoms and were negative for virus by PCR.

Several features of this avian influenza A(H7N9) outbreak are distinct from those of previous avian influenza outbreaks. Human infection with this virus showed a case-fatality rate of 18.7% (17/91), but this rate is not as high as that for avian influenza A(H5N1) virus (case-fatality rate 59%) (5).

Avian influenza A(H7N9) virus infection seems to cause more severe human illness than do other subgroups of H7 influenza A viruses (subtypes H7N2, H7N3, and H7N7), which are usually associated with poultry outbreaks but cause mild disease in humans. However, infection with avian influenza A(H7N7) virus resulted in the death of a veterinarian during an outbreak in the Netherlands (6). In the 5 patients reported here, avian influenza A(H7N9) virus caused fatal disease in 2 adult patients 52 and 49 years of age, who had other medical conditions. Older age has been reported to confer higher risk for developing more severe influenza-associated outcomes (7).

In conclusion, these cases indicated that avian influenza A(H7N9) virus might not be as virulent as avian influenza A(H5N1) virus in humans. Avian influenza A(H7N9) virus does not appear to cause obvious disease in poultry and causes mild disease in children. More severe disease in adults occurred among those had concurrent diseases or were immunodeficient.


Threats to journalists carry many different lessons, but one is constant: People who would intimidate or kill journalists are usually terrified that someone might find out. Journalists who want to protect one another need do nothing more than what should come naturally to them: report on threats to journalists--big threats and small threats, whether they are directed against the international luminaries of the profession or small timers. Non-journalists can also play a big part in the fight to protect journalists. Next to tough and timely reporting that establishes the facts of a case, nothing protects a journalist so much as public outrage and public support. Ordinary citizens can play an enormous role by pressuring thugs and tyrants who would like to stifle the freedom of the press. The freedom of journalists is consequently the bedrock of freedom for all people. Chapters and contributors to "Journalists in Peril "include: "The Clash of Arms in Exotic Locales" by Peter Arnett; "Press Freedom--Balkan Style" by Kati Marton; "Grim Prospects for Hong Kong" by John Schidlovsky; "Russian Reporters--Between a Hammer and an Anvil" by losif M. Dzyaloshinsky; "Defiant Publishing in Nigeria" by Dapo Olorunyomi; "Turkish Journalists on Trial" by Ahmet Emin; "In America, Justice for Some" by Ana Arana; and "Blood and Fear in Italy" by Candida Curzi. The tragic accounts detailed in "Journalists in Peril "are poignantly written and are important reading for all concerned with democracy in the world, especially political scientists, government officials, and those involved in the various communications professions.


Intelligent Data Analysis for e-Learning: Enhancing Security and Trustworthiness in Online Learning Systems addresses information security within e-Learning based on trustworthiness assessment and prediction. Over the past decade, many learning management systems have appeared in the education market. Security in these systems is essential for protecting against unfair and dishonest conductmost notably cheatinghowever, e-Learning services are often designed and implemented without considering security requirements. This book provides functional approaches of trustworthiness analysis, modeling, assessment, and prediction for stronger security and support in online learning, highlighting the security deficiencies found in most online collaborative learning systems. The book explores trustworthiness methodologies based on collective intelligence than can overcome these deficiencies. It examines trustworthiness analysis that utilizes the large amounts of data-learning activities generate. In addition, as processing this data is costly, the book offers a parallel processing paradigm that can support learning activities in real-time. The book discusses data visualization methods for managing e-Learning, providing the tools needed to analyze the data collected. Using a case-based approach, the book concludes with models and methodologies for evaluating and validating security in e-Learning systems. Provides guidelines for anomaly detection, security analysis, and trustworthiness of data processing Incorporates state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary research on online collaborative learning, social networks, information security, learning management systems, and trustworthiness prediction Proposes a parallel processing approach that decreases the cost of expensive data processing Offers strategies for ensuring against unfair and dishonest assessments Demonstrates solutions using a real-life e-Learning context


The Religious Society of Friends (known as 'Quakers') has a long tradition in responsible business, dating back to at least the 17th Century. Today, the legacy of Quakers in business can still be witnessed in industries as diverse as chocolate as banking. In fact, many of today's global organisations can either be traced back to their Quaker roots (such as Barclays and Lloyds). The Quakers were also the first entrepreneurs to trade based on their trustworthiness and 'modern inventions' such as fixed prices and socially responsible investment have Quaker roots.
Quaker entrepreneurs were and are well-known for strong ethical values, derived from a theology committed to finding "that of God in everyone" and enacted through testimonies to equality, honesty, simplicity and peace. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Quakers saw trade and business as social reform, a possible route to eradicate poverty and social ills among the working, urban population. In fact, it is argued that Quakers' concern with social reform was a key ingredient as the engine of the Industrial Revolution. Examples included the ironworks established by Quakers at Coalbrooke in Shropshire. Later Quaker concern with the over-use of alcohol led to the emergence of the chocolate entrepreneurs such as Cadbury's and Rowntree.
If there is a distinct set of Quaker business ethics that characterised Quaker entrepreneurs it was often based on (1) honesty and truth in all business dealings, including financial matters and truth in advertising, (2) a commitment to improving the life conditions of its employees through mechanisms such as pay well-above the average and access to suitable housing and healthcare, which often manifested itself in the canonical 'model villages' of Bourneville in Birmingham and Earswick in York, (3) full payment of taxes due, (4) using a proportion of profits for philanthropic purposes, and (5) more recently, an environmental concern.
With growing contemporary interest in how firms manage the triple bottom line, and in the wake of the economic turbulence of the last decade, how alternative business models can contribute to innovation, the Quaker approach to responsible business has much to tell us.
This short presentation aims to show how responsible approaches to business are perhaps nothing new – and how Quakers concern for social reform can provide contemporary business with lessons about leadership, organisation design, human resource management, marketing and advertising, corporate governance and entrepreneurship for social purposes.
Distilling a Quaker approach to responsible business is an exciting and valuable new research area that will help inform the field of responsible business and ethics.


To date, the general hypothesis of understanding the Federal Republic's relations to
Israel has been to emphasise German policy towards Israel as having been guided by
what is commonly referred as a 'moral obligation', thereby the Federal Republic has
framed its policy towards Israel primarily in recognition of the mass murder committed
by Nazi Germany against the Jews. Numerous writings on German-Israeli relations
have readily ascribed a 'moral' dimension on almost all facets of German policy
towards Israel, including reparations payments, the establishment of diplomatic
relations and arms transfer, thereby having made this the commonplace historiographic
notion to understand this relationship thus far.
Analysing Germany's relations to Israel from their inception to the
establishment of diplomatic relations and thereafter, this study aims, through use of
primary documents and by close focus on German government actions throughout this
period, to step back from the 'morality' narrative and to illustrate the wider motives and
reasons behind German foreign policy decisions, which are to reveal 'morality' to have
been a concern on the sidelines, whereas the major thrust of German foreign policy
decisions towards Israel suggests Germany's relations with Israel to have followed the
greater political, economic and strategic deliberations prevalent at the time.
In doing so, this study seeks to reappraise the notion of interpreting German-
Israeli relations as mainly a product of a nation 'having come to terms with its past' and
instead to advocate a view acknowledging Germany's relations to Israel as, at crucial
moments in time, to have followed and embraced factors, arguments and decisions that
were far more fluid than past historiography on the subject had us suggest. Thus, this
study hopes to make a useful contribution to the wider field of studies dealing with
German-Israeli/Jewish relations and more generally to the area of contemporary
German history.


ROLE OF THE CAMPUS PASTOR: RESPONSIBILITIES AND PRACTICES IN MULTISITE CHURCHES Christopher Barton Kouba, D.Min. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2014 Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Michael S. Wilder Chapter 1 provides an introduction to this project by describing the current definition of the campus pastor and evaluates the overall idea of multisite churches. This chapter introduces my personal background which led me to this project and identifies the rational for focusing on this topic. Chapter 2 explores the biblical calling of the pastoral ministry as found in the Pastoral Epistles. This chapter focuses on what the campus pastor must be and what the campus pastor must do. While there are many functional aspects of being a campus pastor, he must first be biblically qualified to be a pastor and perform those functions while serving in his role. Chapter 3 gives the results of the online survey and presents the functional job descriptions for campus pastor based on the different ministry models. This data helps the campus pastor see how the role can look different based on size of the church, number of campuses, preaching style used, and geography of the campuses. Chapter 4 provides practical suggestions on the top three best practices of campus pastors that emerged from the online surveys: effective communication, contextualization amidst structure, leading from the second chair. Interviews were conducted with various campus pastors and practical ideas were captured that can be implemented by new campus pastors to help them be most effective in their role. Chapter 5 describes a learning map for a new campus pastor to use in the first ninety days of his position. This learning map outlines how a campus pastor should relate to others, how he should learn his context, how he should develop leaders, and how he should take care of his own soul. This learning map will be a helpful resource and guide to ensure the campus pastor can maximize his first ninety days and establish habits and patterns that will help him be successful going forward.


Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus), a bird of significant ecological and economic importance throughout the Rolling Plains region of Texas, has experienced significant population declines. Bobwhites have been the focus of extensive research for decades but little is known about foraging ecology of adults and chicks during post-hatch. Invertebrates are a key summer diet component for chicks, and supply the necessary proteins and minerals needed to fuel rapid body development. We examined brood-foraging sites to investigate invertebrate abundance. We radiomarked 121 bobwhite hens during winter-spring 2008 and 2009 and subsequently monitored 14 broods post-hatch. We collected invertebrate samples from 34 brood points and random paired-locations using sweep nets. Samples were sorted by Order to ascertain abundance and diversity. There was no difference in total abundance, abundance of Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Orthoptera, and Order diversity between brood and random locations. Northern bobwhite hens do not appear to select foraging sites based upon invertebrate abundance in the Rolling Plains of Texas. Citation:Warren, T. L., S. R. Yancey, and C. B. Dabbert. 2012. Invertebrate abundance at northern bobwhite brood locations in the Rolling Plains of Texas. Proceedings of the National Quail Symposium 7:122–124.


Collisional ring galaxies are the outcome of nearly axisymmetric high-speed encounters between a disc and an intruder galaxy. We investigate the properties of collisional ring galaxies as a function of the impact parameter, the initial relative velocity and the inclination angle. We employ new adaptive mesh refinement simulations to trace the evolution with time of both stars and gas, taking into account star formation and supernova feedback. Axisymmetric encounters produce circular primary rings followed by smaller secondary rings, while off-centre interactions produce asymmetric rings with displaced nuclei. We propose an analytical treatment of the disc warping induced by an inclination angle greater then zero. The star formation history of our models is mainly influenced by the impact parameter: axisymmetric collisions induce impulsive short-lived starburst episodes, whereas off-centre encounters produce long-lived star formation. We compute synthetic colour maps of our models and we find that rings have a B V colour typically � 0.2 mag bluer than the inner and outer disc, in agreement with observations.


Spatial and temporal parameters of gait have clinical relevance in the assessment of motor pathologies, particularly in orthopaedics. A new gait analysis system is proposed which consists of (a) an ambulatory device (Physilog ®) including a set of miniature gyroscopes and a portable datalogger, and (b) an algorithm for gait analysis. The aim of this study was the validation of this system, for accuracy and clinical applicability. Eleven patients with coxarthrosis, eight patients with total hip arthroplasty and nine control subjects were studied using this portable system and also a reference motion analyzer and force plate. The small differences in the stance period (19 ± 31 ms), stride length and velocity (0.4 ± 9.6 cm and 2.5 ± 8.3 cm/s, respectively), as well as thigh and shank rotations (2 .4 ± 4.3◦ and 0.3 ± 3.3◦, respectively), confirmed good agreement of the proposed system with the reference system. In addition, nearly the same accuracy was obtained for all three groups. Gait analysis based on Physilog ® was also in agreement with their Harris Hip Scores (HHS): the subjects with lower scores had a greater limp, a slower walking speed and a shorter stride. This ambulatory gait analysis system provides an easy, reproducible and objective method of quantifying changes in gait after joint replacement surgery for coxarthrosis. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


Oats are predominantly a European and North American crop, as they have cool moist climate; Russia, Canada, the United States, Finland, and Poland are leading oat producing countries. Oats have been used as livestock and human foods since ancient times. Oats (Avena sativa) is a class of cereal grain essentially grown for human consumption as well as for livestock fodder. Food industry fundamentally alter agricultural commodities into foods making it edible, palatable as well as appealing; by innumerable physical and chemical operations increasing shelf-life, bioavailability of the nutrients, stabilizing colour, flavour along with increase in the economic value of the grain. Recent observational and human interventional studies indicate that oats can have an impact on various non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes; obesity and hypertension etc. Therefore it is important to increase awareness of oats and its health benefits among individuals thereby encouraging them to increase the frequency of oats in the diet. In the year 1997, USFDA approved the use of a health claim "3g/day of oat Beta- glucan may help lower blood total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C) cholesterol". Over all consumption of oats has increased in the recent years due to its nutritional benefits; presence of Beta-glucan, antioxidants like Avenanthramides, vitamin E (tocotrienols and tocopherols).


Excerpt] Executive Summary Section 1031 has been part of the Internal Revenue Service tax code since 1921, but recent changes to Section 1031 and recent guidance provided by the IRS have significantly broadened the appeal and use of this provision within the U.S. commercial real estate industry. The exponential increase in Section 1031 transaction volume experienced over the past several years has generated recognition, both good and bad, for the many companies and investors who participate in this sector of the market.2 In this article I hope to shed some light upon these new like-kind transactions, explain why certain investors have embraced them, and discuss recent trends and observations which may influence how this industry will evolve over the next several years.


Purpose of reviewVenous thromboembolism is an important complication for patients undergoing surgery. Thromboprophylaxis reduces thromboembolic events. Recent findingsIn this review we discuss the evidence supporting the use of newer agents for thromboprophylaxis, rivaroxaban and dabigatran etexilate. We will also discuss current thromboprophylaxis options for patients undergoing bariatric surgery, including dose and duration of pharmacological prophylaxis and mechanical methods. The most recent The American College of Chest Physicians and American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons guidelines are also reviewed. SummaryNovel agents may modify our approach to thromboprophylaxis; although these agents offer reduced rates of venographic deep vein thrombosis, their impact on patient important outcomes (clinical deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and death) requires additional study.


Reading comprehension in pupils in Years Four and Five was investigated in
a series of experiments predominantly using error detection in short,
narrative passages. The claim that readers of this age may exclusively
accept decodability as sufficient to judge text as non-problematic was
investigated. Little evidence was found in support of this claim. However
evidence was obtained that consonant strings were more often detected than
nonsense words and more nonsense words were detected than real words of
inappropriate meaning when they were substituted into the same passages at
the same points. Fewer real words of inappropriate meaning were detected
when they were the same part of speech as the word they replaced than
when they were a different part of speech. No evidence was obtained that
significant numbers of children exclusively detected only nonsense words.
However decreasing the readability of the passages significantly reduced the
detection rate for real words of inappropriate meaning while the detection
rate for consonant strings and nonsense words remained both higher and
more stable. It was suggested that children who are asked to read passages
of too low a readability for them may be more likely to exclusively employ a
lexical standard of comprehension.
No evidence was obtained that asking children to read or listen to a passage
a second time before completing an error detection task improved their
performance. Moreover no difference in semantic comprehension
monitoring was found to be dependent on whether the material was
presented orally or visually. Better comprehenders were better than less
good comprehenders on both error detection and doze tasks. However
there was no difference in the relationship between performance on
prompted e.g. doze, as compared to unprompted e.g. error detection, comprehension tasks between better and less good comprehenders. Both
groups performed better on the prompted comprehension tasks. Better
performance was maintained on doze tasks even when the subjects were not
only alerted to having to read the passage for meaning but knew they were
to be asked questions on it. The extensive use of unprompted
comprehension tasks with feedback was proposed as a method of closing
the gap between students' performance on unprompted as contrasted with
prompted measures of comprehension.
Better comprehenders were better at sequencing sentences to make a story
but did not perform better than less good comprehenders at recognising
sentences from stories they had just read. Both better and less good
comprehenders were less good at rejecting as having just been read
sentences semantically congruent with the stories as contrasted with
sentences semantically incongruent with the stories. This was consistent
with most readers engaging in constructive processing of short stories.
The results of this series of experiments were compatible with and discussed
in terms of comprehension involving the construction of a mental model of
what is heard or read while listening to or reading short stories. Suggestions
for further experiments were made.


Initiating the process of new product development based on consumer needs and by satisfying their expectations, as required by the concept of marketing, emphasizes indubitable significance and contribution of consumer behaviour in marketing. However, insufficient or inadequate application and understanding of the consumer has been observed in the practice, in the process of innovation. Therefore, managers of the two companies that were involved in the process of new instant coffee development were interviewed. Secondary data, concerning the brand performance are data of the longitudinal studies of market research agencies. The paper shows that insufficient attention paid to consumers in the new product development impacts the success of the product. It has been confirmed that the marketing managers rely on consumer behaviour and that they are aware of its importance, but use it quite superficially. The conclusion is that, in practice, enterprises in Serbia, in addition to the insufficient application of consumer behaviour in the new products development, face the shortcomings related to the process itself, such as the lack of marketing concept acceptance, production of certain formal documents, strategic planning as well as consumer research. The paper proposes a modification of the new products development model that insists on the four observed shortcomings.


In this research, carbon fiber sheet (CFS) substitute to lateral tie was used for torsional strengthening of PC member. To investigate the mechanical properties of CFS strengthened PC member subjected to torsion and torsional reinforcement effects of CFS, monotonic and cyclic torsional loading tests were carried out with specimens which strengthened by lateral ties and unreinforced specimen for comparison. From both monotonic and cyclic loading test results, it was proved that the CFS can increase the ultimate torsional capacity and cracking torque. And it was also confirmed that the CFS had sufficient reinforcement effect, and for CFS strengthened specimen, the cracks of concrete were dispersed and widths were small. Mechanical properties such as torsional rigidity retention, residual twist, resilience and ductility were excellent. As for three-dimension finite element method analysis, analysis results matched the results of monotonic loading tests well and tracked the cyclic torsional loading tests when both nonlinear properties and hysteresis properties of each material were applied. A calculation concept including torsional effective cross-sectional area and thickness of shearing flow for the torsional capacity of CFS strengthened PC member was proposed.


Human rights are moral principles or norms that describe certain standards of human behaviour and are regularly protected as natural and legal rights in municipal and international law. They are commonly understood as inalienable, fundamental rights "to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being" and which are "inherent in all human beings", regardless of their age, ethnic origin, location, language, religion, ethnicity, or any other status. They are applicable everywhere and at every time in the sense of being universal, and they are egalitarian in the sense of being the same for everyone. They are regarded as requiring empathy and the rule of law and imposing an obligation on persons to respect the human rights of others, and it is generally considered that they should not be taken away except as a result of due process based on specific circumstances; for example, human rights may include freedom from unlawful imprisonment, torture, and execution.


A comparison is made between rigorous numerical results and a recently proposed analytical method for modeling light diffraction by lamellar diffraction gratings. The conclusion is that the analytical model is quite restrained in its applicability and can be misleading in determining the behavior of the grating efficiencies.


Volcanic eruptions are amongst the most spectacular of natural phenomena. During the past few years, our knowledge of the basic physics and chemistry of magmatic and volcanic processes has been transformed. We now understand how rocks melt and how the resulting magmas migrate upward and eventually accumulate to form magma chambers. We can model a range of physical and chemical processes in these chambers, and we recognize why chamber walls fracture and how magma flows away from chambers through fractures in the crust. Experimental and theoretical work on bubble nucleation and growth has improved models of magma ascent and explosive volcanic eruption mechanisms. Detailed geophysical, geochemical and field research has led to major advances in understanding the mechanisms that trigger changes between lava-forming (or effusive) eruptions and explosive eruptions. Numerical models that simulate processes involved in explosive and effusive eruptions are at an advanced stage but are capable of further refinement. Many of these advances have been made through interdisciplinary collaboration between geologists and colleagues in other areas, especially physics and mathematics. In this contribution, we review the results of some of this work, and draw attention to areas where future collaboration will help to unravel outstanding problems in volcanology.


Health Promotion is a relatively new discipline and there is little in the way of practical help for students and practitioners in choosing and implementing appropriate evaluation methods. As the demands for rigorous evaluation and evidence-based decision-making increase, health promotion cannot ignore the need for accurate, reliable and valid methods to carry out evaluation. This book provides clear descriptions (with plentiful practical examples) of such methods, and the problems that can arise from their implementation. Both qualitative and quantitative methods that are commonly used are described and the problems and benefits that arise with their use are explained. Experiences in the practical implementation of evaluation are explained, with examples from a variety of different social, economic and cultural contexts. The third edition of this highly successful book has been fully revised and updated to reflect the ongoing developments in the field of health promotion. It will appeal to students and practitioners in health promotion and public health (including programme managers in both the government and the voluntary sector), and donors and funding agencies who commission health promotion interventions and evaluations


Did you know that the majority of the water used by Utah homeowners is applied to ornamental landscapes as irrigation (Utah Division of Water Resources, 2003)? Our arid climate and low annual precipitation (10 inches of annual rainfall in Sanpete County) make supplemental irrigation an essential requirement for many landscape plants. Since landscape irrigation is the single largest residential use of water, efficiently using that water is a very effective way of conserving precious water resources. Irrigating your landscape efficiently means you are doing your part to conserve water for the future, helping to delay costly water development projects, and being a good steward of Utah's natural resources.


In Classical Individualism, Tibor R. Machan argues that individualism is far from being dead. Machan identifies, develops and defends what he calls classical individualism - an individualism humanised by classical philosophy, rooted in Aristotle rather than Hobbes. This book does not reject the social nature of human beings, but finds that every one has a self-directed agent who is responsible for what he or she does. Machan rejects all types of collectivism, including communitarianism, ethnic solidarity, racial unity, and gender identity. The ideas expressed here have important social and political implications, and will be of interest to anyone concerned with the notion of individuality and individual responsibility.


Long-read sequencing of transcripts with PacBio Iso-Seq and Oxford Nanopore Technologies has proven to be central to the study of complex isoform landscapes in many organisms. However, current de novo transcript reconstruction algorithms from long-read data are limited, leaving the potential of these technologies unfulfilled. A common bottleneck is the dearth of scalable and accurate algorithms for clustering long reads according to their gene family of origin. To address this challenge, we develop isONclust, a clustering algorithm that is greedy (in order to scale) and makes use of quality values (in order to handle variable error rates). We test isONclust on three simulated and five biological datasets, across a breadth of organisms, technologies, and read depths. Our results demonstrate that isONclust is a substantial improvement over previous approaches, both in terms of overall accuracy and/or scalability to large datasets. Our tool is available at https://github.com/ksahlin/isONclust.


Techniques and technologies to transfer electromagnetic energy through sub-wavelength channels have been researched extensively in the past few years because their application in different areas such as sub-wavelength imaging, telecommunication, increasing the storage capacity, and confinement and transmission of electromagnetic energy. Common ways of achieving such transmission includes exciting surface plasmon polaritons on both sides of the cannel or using double negative metamaterials. Recently a mechanism to squeeze the electromagnetic energy through sub-wavelength channels using materials with extremely small permittivity was introduced. Such materials may be found naturally at some limited frequencies in the infrared and optical frequency ranges, but they are commonly fabricated for a desired frequency as engineered metamaterials by by embedding metallic inclusions in a dielectric medium. The main problem with the engineered materials is that they have relatively large losses at their low permittivity frequency. In this thesis,I have presented a novel structure consisting of arrays of metallic wires that can be used to squeeze electromagnetic energy through sub-wavelength channels and junctions with negligible loss. The theory of transmission through such array is derived and design methods to tune the transmission frequency is provided. The structure is also tested numerically and experimentally in several geometries and results are compared with previous methods.


Optical limiting by suspensions of Au nanoparticles is enhanced by several orders of magnitude with the use of complex plasmonic shapes, such as spined 'nanourchins,' instead of nanospheres. Similar enhancements are observed by changing the material of nanospheres from Au to Ag. The experiments, measuring intensity-dependent transmission over a wavelength range from 450 to 650 nm for a 6 ns pulsed laser, are analyzed in terms of an effective nonlinear extinction coefficient, which we relate to the local, plasmonically enhanced electric field. FDTD simulations reveal a large electric field enhancement inside the nanospined structures and qualitatively confirm the plasmonic trends, where Ag nanospheres and Au nanourchins are more effective than Au nanospheres. These results suggest that designing nanostructures for the maximum plasmonic enhancement provides a roadmap to materials and geometries with optimized optical limiting behavior.


Online social networks (OSNs) have become the new vector for cybercrime, and hackers are finding new ways to propagate spam and malware on these platforms, which we refer to as social malware. As we show here, social malware cannot be identified with existing security mechanisms (e.g., URL blacklists), because it exploits different weaknesses and often has different intentions.
In this dissertation, we show that social malware is prevalent in Facebook, the largest OSN to date with more then a billion users and develop an efficient and scalable social malware detection system that takes advantage of the social context of posts. We deploy this detection system as a Facebook app called MyPageKeeper to protect Facebook users from social malware. We find that our detection method is both accurate and efficient. Furthermore, we show that, social malware significantly differs from traditional email spam or web-based malware.
One of the major factors for enabling social malware is malicious third-party apps. We show that such malicious apps are also widespread in Facebook. Therefore, to identify malicious apps, we ask the question: given a Facebook application, can we determine if it is malicious? Our key contribution in this part is in developing FRAppE—Facebook's Rigorous Application Evaluator—arguably the first tool focused on detecting malicious apps on Facebook. We identify a set of features that help us distinguish malicious apps from benign ones. For example, we find that malicious apps often share names with other apps, and they typically request fewer permissions than benign apps. Then, leveraging these distinguishing features, we show that FRAppE can detect malicious apps with 99.5% accuracy, with no false positives and a low false negative rate (4.1%). Finally, we explore the ecosystem of malicious Facebook apps. We identify mechanisms these apps use to propagate and find that many apps collude and support each other.


AIM
Retrospective analysis of mesoglycan therapeutic activity in venous disorders. The clinical data have been selected from the outpatient database of the Chair of Angiology of the University of Catania (from 1988 to 1997) through a cross survey between the prescription commercial name of mesoglycan and the key words varicose veins, deep venous thrombosis (DVT), chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS), venous thrombosis, venous ulcer.

METHODS
Patients have been selected on the basis of definite data relative to principal diagnosis, clinical history, clinical and instrumental objective phlebological picture, posology and duration of treatment, follow-up visits in the first three years following the first observation. Group 1: 56 patients with first episode DVT; Group 2: 27 patients with recurrent DVT; Group 3: 182 patients with CVI (107 with primitive CVI and 75 with secondary CVI). The selected patients data have been included in new databases. DVT patients were evaluated for recurrence prevalence during the follow-up period (6, 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36 months). In Group 2 the recurrence prevalence in the normal follow-up period was evaluated and, in addition, the clinical chronology of the recurrence previous to observation was drawn, in order to find out the recurrence prevalence of the thrombotic episode preceding our observation. The two prevalence trends ( mesoglycan treatment and episode preceding our observation) have been compared with the Student t test. CVI patients (Group 3) were classified according to CEAP classification criteria. The effectiveness of treatment was assessed according to the changes in the scores of venous dysfunction of CEAP classification (disability score; pain; oedema; skin color change; cutaneous ulcer). The mean and standard deviation of the considered scores have been evaluated with the Student t test comparing each series with the immediately previous series and with the T0 series. The mean dose of mesoglycan was 50 mg twice per day.

RESULTS
Group 1 (1(st) episode DVT): the recurrence prevalence was 3.5% at 6 months, 9% at 12 months, 12.5% at 18 months, 14.28% at 24, 30 and 36 months. At the end of the 3 follow-up years the PTS diagnosis could be performed in 10 patients (17.85%). Group 2 (recurrent DVT): the recurrence prevalence was 3.7% at 6 months, 11.11% at 12 months, 14.81% at 24 months, 18.51% at 36 months during mesoglycan treatment. In the preceding period the prevalence was 11.11% at 6 months from the preceding episode, 16.66% at 12 months, 33.33% at 24 months and 37.03% at 36 months. In the remaining 62.96% the recurrence occurred at 36 and 48 months. The comparison between the two series showed a significant difference with P < 0.0004. PTS prevalence at the end of the 3 follow-up years was 17.85% in patients with a first episode of DVT and 81.41% in patients with recurrent DVT. Group 3 (CVI): all the venous dysfunction scores showed a significant improvement during the follow-up period, both in comparison with the beginning of treatment and with the immediately preceding control visit.

CONCLUSION
The results obtained in groups 1 and 2 show that mesoglycan is effective in preventing thrombotic recurrence in patients with previous DVT. The recurrence prevalence in patients with DVT at 1(st) episode was lower than the prevalence reported by the literature data (17.5% within 2 years and 24.6% within 5 years). The positive trend was also confirmed in the recurrent DVT group, although with a major prevalence (18.51%) due to a higher thrombotic risk. However, the prevalence in the treatment period is significantly lower than the previous thrombotic episode. Mesoglycan was also effective in CVI patients, with a progressive and significant improvement of disability, pain and edema, which are the pathophysiologic elements responsible for the impairment of quality of life. At the various follow-up points the mean score value significantly reduced compared to T0 and to the values of the preceding control. In conclusion mesoglycan is a useful and effective medication in the treatment of venous disorders, both in the subacute phase of DVT and in the long-term therapy for CVI, and is worth more extensive documentation, in accordance with the criteria of evidence-based medicine.


The aim of the present study is the pathological status of strategic approach to maintenance human resource and organizational commitment with checking the status of mediator variables impact on organizational commitment among organizational support, organizational justice, organizational culture and needs of Excellence. The research type is descriptive. In order to realize this, Zahedan Municipal employees, up to 2032 were considered as a statistical population, so Morgan table has been applied and 234 employees were considered as the statistical sample. In order to gather data, a questionnaire with Cronbach's Alpha 0.89 has been arranged . For the purpose of data analysis SPSS software, Friedman Test, t-Test and Gap Analysis have been applied. The results showed that the state of organizational support, organizational justice and the strategic approach for maintaining human resources are faced with injury.


Unresting the Waters: The Fight Against Racism in New York's Episcopal Establishment, 1845-1853"Another Revolution...and the nigger delegation admitted into the Diocesan Convention." So wrote George Templeton Strong, a very prominent, white attorney and leading New York Episcopalian, in his diary on September 30, 1853.(2) In his racist way, Strong was referring to the victory just won by the people of St. Philip's Church, then located on Centre Street, between Worth and Leonard Streets, in lower Manhattan, not far from the recently rediscovered 17th century Negro Burial Ground.Racism had been the root problem from the very beginning. In 1809, 200 black men and women decided not to put up any longer with the second-class treatment they were getting at historic Trinity Church, the "Mother Church" of the Anglican or Episcopal denomination in the United States, where their forefathers had been worshiping since long before the Revolutionary War. Greatly encouraged by Absalom Jones' breakaway from the Methodist Episcopal Church and the formation of the St. Thomas African Episcopal Church of Philadelphia in 1794, New York's black Episcopalians pulled out of Trinity and organized their own congregation, The Free African Church of St. Philip. "Free" meant free of official denominational affiliation. And they named their religious organization for Philip, the only Apostle known to have converted an Ethiopian to Christianity.(3)Racism was clearly behind the designation of St. Philip's Church on Centre Street as "...consecrated for the use of coloured members of the Protestant Episcopal Church," when in 1818 it became the first African-American congregation received into the Episcopal Diocese of New York. But segregation was not the issue. The St. Philip's members wanted to wor ship by themselves. They could not have desired or expected anything else in a New York City that was, at the time, in the words of one historian, "as firmly Jim Crow as if the term had already been invented."(4)The problem was the black Episcopalians wanted to worship in the enhanced dignity and comfort they would feel if they had a minister of their own color. To accomplish this, they had to fight against the strong resistance of New York's Episcopal establishment to the ordination to the Episcopal priesthood of a certain young black man, who also happened to be one of the earliest of the black abolitionists in New York. It took a long time -- some 17 years from 1809, when the application was first made. But victory came in 1826, when Peter Williams Jr., first rector of St. Philip's Church, became a priest.(5)The 1853 success over racism was therefore only the most recent in the parish's long-term efforts to achieve recognition as full-fledged Episcopalians entitled to the very same rights as any European-American congregation in the diocese. Representation in the annual convention meant that St. Philip's would at long last have a vote in determining policy, electing bishops, and in the general governance of the diocese, which then covered all of New York State.The drive to achieve admission to the convention started in earnest in 1845. At the time, St. Philip's was without a settled religious leader or rector. The Rev. Peter Williams Jr. had died in 1840. No replacement for him had yet been found. In the absence of a rector, it was solely up to lay leaders -- two wardens and eight vestrymen, collectively known as the vestry -- who were then annually chosen by the congregation to conduct the affairs of the parish.Elected in April of 1845,(6) at a time when women could not yet vote nor serve on vestries, they were men of widely different stations in life, some well-known in the black community, others really known only within the parish that chose them. But they had at least four characteristics in common. All had demonstrated leadership abilities. All were devoted to the Episcopal form of worship. All were painfully aware of the not-so-subtle -- indeed, sometimes vicious -- racism then pervasive in the Episcopal Church. …


BACKGROUND
Chronic lung disease and severe intraventricular hemorrhage or periventricular leukomalacia in premature infants are associated with abnormal neurodevelopmental outcomes. In a previous randomized, controlled, single-center trial of premature infants with the respiratory distress syndrome, inhaled nitric oxide decreased the risk of death or chronic lung disease as well as severe intraventricular hemorrhage and periventricular leukomalacia. We hypothesized that infants treated with inhaled nitric oxide would also have improved neurodevelopmental outcomes.

METHODS
We conducted a prospective, longitudinal follow-up study of premature infants who had received inhaled nitric oxide or placebo to investigate neurodevelopmental outcomes at two years of corrected age. Neurologic examination, neurodevelopmental assessment, and anthropometric measurements were made by examiners who were unaware of the children's original treatment assignment.

RESULTS
A total of 138 children (82 percent of survivors) were evaluated. In the group given inhaled nitric oxide, 17 of 70 children (24 percent) had abnormal neurodevelopmental outcomes, defined as either disability (cerebral palsy, bilateral blindness, or bilateral hearing loss) or delay (no disability, but one score of less than 70 on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development II), as compared with 31 of 68 children (46 percent) in the placebo group (relative risk, 0.53; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.33 to 0.87; P=0.01). This effect persisted after adjustment for birth weight and sex, as well as for the presence or absence of chronic lung disease and severe intraventricular hemorrhage or periventricular leukomalacia. The improvement in neurodevelopmental outcome in the group given inhaled nitric oxide was primarily due to a 47 percent decrease in the risk of cognitive impairment (defined by a score of less than 70 on the Bayley Mental Developmental Index) (P=0.03).

CONCLUSIONS
Premature infants treated with inhaled nitric oxide have improved neurodevelopmental outcomes at two years of age.


Received 18.07.2012 Accepted 24.09.2012 Published 09.11.2012 Different Energy options have been the driving force for the world economy with an evolution in types and sources. Decades ago choosing what energy option to use did not call for much debate as issues of sustainability, pressure on our environment, and our climate were not a major concern. However today, humans have to grapple with these current global challenges especially those exacerbated by our current sources of energy. The review article argues that science and sustainability thinking should be the basis for making the choice about what energy option is suitable for our era. It proposes that a more fruitful discourse should follow from a dialogue that puts in place the set of sustainability indicators and evaluating the suitability of the options for our era in that context. Focusing on two energy options; conventional and nuclear energy; the review compares them based on a set of sustainability indicators including, but not limited to, the environment, economics, ethics, expertise requirements, technical information, health, safety, uncertainty and government funding. In trying to answer the question Unsustainable conventional energy sources, is nuclear energy similar?, the review concludes that despite the demerits of nuclear energy, it is the solution to meet the world's growing energy needs and to reverse the impending threat posed by climate change if research and development efforts in the sector are accelerated. Conventional energy Nuclear energy Sustainability


Coronal Stop Deletion (CSD) is well-documented in the sociolinguistic literature as both a dialect feature and as a variable prone to style-shifting (Guy 1980, Guy 1991a, Guy 1991b, Guy and Cutler 2011, Hazen 2011). This study compares deletion rates between Michelle and Barack Obama's 2012 Democratic National Convention (DNC) speeches and their respective deletion rates in a 2012 joint interview on the television program, The View. As Barack and Michelle Obama are some of the most famous individuals in the world, examining differences in their linguistic behavior between an extremely formal setting (DNC Speeches) and a somewhat less formal setting (The View) sheds light on the style-shifting patterns of these public figures. In the most formal contexts, Barack and Michelle use rates of CSD that are higher than those attested for white speakers of Standard American English (SAE) in sociolinguistic interview situations and Barack and Michelle seem to be almost equally sensitive to speech situation as a conditioning factor for CSD. Deletion rates are also both affected by following phonological context for both Barack and Michelle, and their deletion by phonological context follows the patterns found in previous works (Guy 1980, Guy 1991a, Guy and Cutler 2011). Morphological category is also a significant factor conditioning deletion for Barack Obama but not for Michelle Obama, and her results by morphological category may indicate that she is employing a style more similar to African American English (AAE). The results also indicate that Barack and Michelle's CSD patterns may also be partially attributable to style-shifting behaviors and/or dialect mixing between SAE and AAE. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/ vol20/iss2/7 U. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 20.2, 2014 "He Didn'(t) Give Up When Things Got Har(d)": Examining Barack and Michelle Obama's Rates of Coronal Stop Deletion


Sea mussels form dense aggregations on temperate rocky shores; however, in the absence of such firm substrates, biogenic surface such as the calcified integument of crustaceans may become settlement sites for their larvae. In this paper we present the first report on the association between the California mussel Mytilus californianus Conrad, 1837 and the Pacific sand crab Emerita analoga (Stimpson, 1857), collected from a sandy beach in Monterey Bay, California, U.S.A. We examined 63 crabs, and three had epibiotic mussels attached on their lateroventral surfaces. The organisms were measured and photographed. Such low incidence rate is tied to the collection site, as sandy beaches are considered atypical habitats for this bivalve species. The occurrence of epibiotic M. californianus suggests a random and non-obligatory relationship with E. analoga .


The technology in the field of digital media generates huge amounts of tex- tual information every day, so mechanisms to retrieve relevant information are needed. Under these circumstances, many times current web search engines do not provide users with the information they seek, because these search tools mainly use syntax based techniques. However, search engines based on semantic and context information can help overcome some of the limitations of current alternatives. In this paper, we propose a system that takes as input a list of plain keywords pro- vided by a user and translates them into a query expressed in a formal language without ambiguity. Our system discovers the semantics of user keywords by consulting the knowledge represented by many (heterogeneous and distributed) ontologies. Then, context information is used to remove ambiguity and build the most probable query. Our experiments indicate that our system discovers the user's information need bet- ter than traditional search engines when the semantics of the request is not the most popular on the Web.


The Torngat Mountains of northern Labrador portray a complex history of regional and local ice movements during the Wisconsinan. Research undertaken in outer Nachvak Fiord, central Torngat Mountains, provides the basis for a morphostratigraphic and lithostratigraphic framework. The application of relative and absolute dating techniques allows reconstruction of a tentative glacial and relative sea level chronology for the area. -- The Nachvak glacial phase represents the last regional ice advance into the outer Nachvak Fiord area. During this event, tributary valleys were backfilled by fiord ice as far east as the fiord threshold, whereas south of the fiord, ice terminated at the western end of Adams Lake. This ice advance is distinguished from previous glacial events on the basis of its drift properties. The earlier Adams Lake glacial phase is considered to be local m origin. The eastern limit of this advance, as defined by the maximum extent of local lithological and geochemical drift characteristics, was Valley of the Flies terminal moraine. The MI glacial phase represents an extensive, older regional ice advance and is characterized by the upper limit of till and moraine in the study area. -- Acoustic stratigraphy of Nachvak Fiord and Adams Lake sediments supplements the terrestrial glacial geology of the region. Acoustic units are interpreted as representing sedimentary facies related to one or more glacial - deglacial cycles, in both the fiord and lake basins. Tentative models of deposition require a grounded to partially-grounded outlet glacier m the fiord during the last regional ice advance, and a significant ice margin at the western end of Adams Lake. -- Analysis of raised marine evidence reveals eleven shorelines, ranging in elevation from 9 m to 73 m above present sea level. The extent and geometry of the shorelines are the bases of a model of relative sea level change during deglaciation from the Nachvak phase maximum. This permits the identification of the Shoal Water Cove and Tessersoak glacial readvances, and the Kogarsok and Townley Head glacial still-stands which appear consistent w1th the morphological evidence of moraines in the region. Locations of major loading centers which affected the Nachvak Fiord region, are based on the assumption of synchronous shoreline formation in the outer fiord area. Radiocarbon-dated shells from sediments associated with a raised marine shoreline suggest that approximately 30 m of emergence has occurred since 9 ka BP. -- A tentative chronology of glacial events is reconstructed from radiocarbon dates, amino acid ratios, and soil development rates. The Nachvak glacial maximum is tentatively dated at 22 ± 2 ka BP. It is estimated that the Adams Lake glacial phase occurred during the period 29-50 ka BP. The MI glacial phase is tentatively dated at ≥75 ka BP, based on comparisons with similar regional ice advances on Baffin Island. -- Correlations with local chronologies from northern Labrador are proposed, and critically examined in the context of previous models of glaciation. The Early Wisconsinan in northern Labrador was likely characterized by an extensive advance of Laurentide ice which may have extended onto the Labrador Shelf. The Middle Wisconsinan is suggested to have been a period of local cirque glacier expansion, with associated high relative sea levels. The extent of Late Wisconsinan ice may have been topographically controlled in northern Labrador. In the Nachvak Fiord region ice was restricted to the fiord basin, whereas in areas north and south of the Torngat Mountains the ice advance may have been more extensive than during the Early Wisconsinan. The deglacial chronology proposed for Nachvak Fiord suggests that a stepwise recession of Laurentide ice characterized the late-glacial period.


COVID-19 devastated the US labor market threatening homeowners' ability to stay current on their mortgage. During the Great Recession, payment relief was more difficult to come by whereas the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act provided most impacted homeowners with up to 12 months of payment relief if they attested to COVID-related hardship. However, the CARES Act did not cover everyone—it was silent on non-federally backed mortgage holders and those experiencing non-COVID related hardship. Furthermore, many borrowers were either not aware of mortgage relief options and/or were worried about potential balloon payments after forbearance ends. How well did this widespread intervention work? Did it reach all those who might have benefitted? Is there evidence of widespread moral hazard? Using checking account data linked to loan-level mortgage servicing data, we explore these questions. We find that while a third of homeowners in forbearance made all payments to date, a small fraction of homeowners not in forbearance did miss payments. Also, we find little evidence of widespread moral hazard. Families using forbearance to miss mortgage payments showed larger drops in total income than other homeowners and experienced income changes similar to those who have gone delinquent without the protection of forbearance. Also, families in forbearance were more likely to have lost labor income and received UI than families not in forbearance. Finally, we find that forbearance helped families with low levels of liquid assets to maintain their cash buffers. Together these results suggest that CARES Act mortgage forbearance policies helped homeowners experiencing financial hardship in a material way by allowing them to miss payments without adversely affecting their credit scores and maintain their small cash buffers in a world with a lot more economic uncertainty. In addition, these benefits came with little evidence of material moral hazard. However, there is room for improvement in future legislation as a small fraction of homeowners facing hardship did not benefit from forbearance and one main impediment was confusion around balloon payments. All in all the CARES Act forbearance policies appear so far to have been a large step in the right direction relative to policies during the Great Recession.


Chris Atkinson is a plant scientist at the Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich and currently carries out research and teaching in crop science and its application to agriculture and horticulture. Chris's early career saw him working for Unilever Ltd. and for AFRC at the Rothamsted Research Station in Harpenden, where his career was inspired to change direction from analytical chemistry to plant science. On retraining he gained a First Class Honours degree in Applied Biology from the University of London in 1979. His love of 'places wild' and the opportunity to study mountain plants lead him to U.C.N.W. and the School of Plant Biology, Bangor and a Ph.D. on the physiological ecology of montane grasslands (Atkinson, 1982) from the University of Wales. Yes he did take Welsh lessons, but eventually decided it was easier to marry a Welsh-speaker. On finishing his Ph.D. he worked the Dr. Pat Denne in the Department of Forestry, at the University of Wales, learning much about trees that would one day underpin his research. The opportunity arose in 1984 to work with Prof. Harold Mooney and Bill Winner at Stanford University in California and in Virginia at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The magnificence of living in Appalachia and seeing an 'Appalachian Fall' is a sight never forgotten, but the attraction of 'Lakeland' even greater and the Atkinson's moved to Lancaster. His third and final postdoctoral position came when Prof. Terry Mansfield FRS and Bill Davies, at Lancaster University, invited him to work on a project linked to the chemical control of stomatal behaviour (funded by Shell UK). Six years in Lancaster saw Chris become a Research Fellow as he started writing and delivering his own research proposals. In order to breakout of the post-doctoral cycle of short-term contacts and limited stability, Chris with some reluctance, left Lancaster to come to the warmer and drier south and join Horticulture Research International (HRI) at East Malling, as a Senior Scientific Officer, in the Crop Physiology Department. Those 2 years in forestry had all been worthwhile as he now worked on perennial woody crops (fruit trees). Lots of hard work and the drive to carry out science in manner which would be of use to an industry saw him promoted to Principle Research Scientist, within the Perennial Quality and Biotechnology Team. Further promotions came and he became an Executive Member of East Malling Research's Science Management Team, and was part of the team that achieved privatisation status for the institute in 2006. As Head of Science for the newly privatised organisation he oversaw, with the Group Secretary and Finance Director, East Malling Research balancing its financial books for a number of years. Further changes saw him become the Deputy Chief Executive and Senior Programme Leader (Resource Use for Sustainable Production). Chris also became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture and the Royal Society of Biology, before accepting a Chair at NRI, University of Greenwich, in 2012 and is now the Professor of Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change. His main research interests focus on understanding the impact of environmental factors on the growth and development of crops, particularly fruits. A major part of his work is on the impacts of drought on crop physiology and production. His research also includes studies of the influence of temperature on the growth and quality of fruit, the impact of autumn temperatures/chilling on the flowering and cropping, and developing strategies to optimise production and examining environmental differences in the ability to set and retain fruit. The tolerance mechanisms of different rootstocks, to drought, have also been a subject for investigation. Recent work is directed at the impacts of soil applied biochar and health benefits of fruit consumption, particularly with respect to agronomic ways to enhance fruit bioactive compounds. His research has also included work on perennial biomass crops, enhancing Artemisia production, and pharmaceutical protein production in transformed tobacco. He has also acted as a peer journal reviewer for a wide range of international plant science journals (>20), for many years, and as the editor of the journal Plant Growth Regulation, as well as, a consultant/reviewer for both national and international Research Councils and organisations such as BBSRC, FCT, NERC, DFID, FAO and USDA. His career has resulted in over 250 publications of which over 100 have been in peer-reviewed international journals


Muscle-bone interaction might regulate bone remodeling in an endocrine manner, but the exact mediators have not been identified. Previous in vitro studies suggest that exosomal miRNAs are a candidate for this interaction. Here we present an in vivo study to show that targeted knockout of a muscle-specific miR-23a cluster including miR-23a, miR-27, and miR-24-2 in skeletal muscle tissues can suppress bone remodeling in mice. The effect of miR-23a cluster seem to not be related to aging, but can worsen the pathological extent of osteoporosis in mice. Our findings suggest that muscle-derived miRNAs may contribute to bone metabolism regulation through exosomes in muscle-bone interaction.


Due to the fast growth, Cloud Computing has become a non-transparent market with providers and customers willing to adopt it. Furthermore, many offers only partially meet customers' requirements and it is not clear how exactly Cloud Computing influences the IT. That makes it difficult for customers to plan migration projects and implement sustainable Cloud solutions. There are important factors and considerations for the decision to adopt Cloud Computing. The current studies and research in this field can be summarized to focus around the questions why adoption of Cloud Computing would occur, how much adoption would take place or how it would be adopted. But the adoption requirements covering all three service models (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) have barely been discussed in literature so far. A detailed understanding of Cloud requirements enables customers to adopt Cloud solutions efficiently. Therefore this paper aims to contribute a framework addressing the adoption and selection of Cloud services. A Cloud Requirement Framework (CRF) was developed, concentrating on relevant requirements for adopting Cloud services targeting all three service models. To develop this framework we followed a design science approach and conducted a systematic literature review, an extensive market analysis and an evaluation based on expert interviews.


In the late 1970's and early 1980's, feminists pushed for reform of statutory rape laws. At that time, states' laws explicitly provided that only males could be charged with the crime of having sexual intercourse with a female below a certain age. The victims of statutory rape were always female. Feminists advocated that the law should be rewritten in gender-neutral terms. They hoped that formal equality in statutory rapes laws would lead to the recognition that both males and females have sexual agency and greater equality in society as a whole. Unfortunately, the prosecutorial discretion granted by the language of these laws perpetuate rather than abolishes traditional male/female stereotypes.
In October 2017, a social movement erupted out of the unacceptable exercise by men of their power over female subordinates. The #MeToo movement exposed the widespread prevalence of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and sexual violence that women experience in the workplace. The #MeToo movement's objective is not dissimilar to the goal of proponents of gender-neutral statutory rape laws, which seek to have men and women treated equally. Unfortunately, #MeToo and state adoption of gender-neutral statutory rape laws share another phenomenon. Both the #MeToo movement and the practical enforcement of gender-neutral laws create a "victimology paradigm." It seems that recognizing inequality among genders requires conceding perceived female frailties.
Using the example of statutory rape laws, this article explains how movements for increased equality between men and women can fail to meet their stated goals. The article begins by exploring traditional statutory rape laws, which stereotypically gendered perpetrators and victims. It follows with a discussion of the political forces behind the nation-wide change to neutralize gendered statutes. The article dedicates significant attention to the flaws of gender-neutral statutory rape laws, which, by removing gender designations of victims and perpetrators, grant prosecutors unchecked discretion to choose which partner to charge in cases of mutual consent to the same prohibited conduct. Today prosecutors are three times more likely to charge males with statutory rape than they are to charge females with the crime. Parents of females' alert authorities of prohibited sexual activity of their daughters at a rate that is largely disproportionate to that of parents of males. Prosecutorial stereotyping as it pertains to prohibited sexual intimacy between consenting teens has created an unfortunate return to the female-victim paradigm that proponents of gender-neutral statutory rape laws sought to erase. The article concludes with a recommendation for achieving a more balanced application of gender-neutral laws.
Cultural movements can have unintended consequences. This article explains how the women's rights movement's campaign to neutralize gendered statutory rape laws failed to achieve its goal of an equal society. Today, a growing number of voices suggest that #MeToo, like the practical application of gender-neutral statutory rape laws, disempowers women. This article exposes the pernicious effects of the legislative shift to gender neutrality and explains how it serves as a cautionary tale to the #MeToo movement and the fight for workplace equality.


Single-neuron recording studies in non-human primates indicate that orbitofrontal cortex neurons represent the reward value of the sight, smell and taste of food, and even changes in the relative reward value, but provide no direct evidence on brain activity that is correlated with subjective reports of the pleasantness of food. In this fMRI investigation we report a significant correlation between the activation of a region of the human orbitofrontal cortex and the decrease in subjective pleasantness when a liquid food is eaten to satiety. Moreover, a cluster of voxels in the orbitofrontal cortex showed a decrease in its activation that was specific to the particular liquid food consumed in a meal, providing a neural correlate of sensory-specific satiety to a liquid whole food in humans. This sensory-specific reduction in activation of the orbitofrontal cortex correlating with subjective pleasantness is consistent with an important role for the orbitofrontal cortex in human emotion and motivation, and associated subjective states.


From mid-1977 to mid-1983 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has received reports of more than 2,100 cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). These cases had either biopsy confirmed Kaposi's sarcoma or a biopsy or culture confirmed life-threatening opportunistic infection, without an identifiable cause of immunosuppression. Reports of AIDS in hemophiliacs began to appear in January 1982. As of October 6, 1983, CDC has confirmed 18 reports of AIDS in United States (U.S.) hemophiliacs and 5 outside the U.S. Two had other known risk factors for AIDS. Seventeen of these cases had Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. (PCP). The mortality rate for the 23 hemophiliac cases was 70 percent. Immunologic findings included lymphopenia, a decreased ratio of T helper/T suppressor lymphocytes, and hypergammaglobulinemia. Most hemophiliac cases did not reside in areas of high risk for AIDS. All cases had received factor and, often, other blood products in the 5 years prior to the AIDS diagnosis. The racial distribution of hemophiliac AIDS patients resembled that of transfusion-associated AIDS patients. Hemophiliac AIDS patients resembled both transfusion-associated and IV-drug abuser AIDS patients and differed from homosexuals with AIDS in regard to associated diagnoses. The epidemiology of these cases is consistent with the possibility that AIDS is caused by an agent transmissible through blood products. These data support the need for current blood product related precautions issued by the National Hemophilia Foundation and by the Public Health Service.


We present explicit formulae for the eccentric connectivity index and Wiener index of 2-dimensional square and comb lattices with open ends. The formulae for these indices of 2-dimensional square lattices with ends closed at themselves are also derived. The index for closed ends case divided by the same index for open ends case in the limit N →∞ defines a novel quantity we call compression factor. This factor was calculated for both eccentric connectivity and Wiener index for 2- dimensional square lattice.


A study was carried out for 61 days in order to evaluate the selectivity of ewes grazing on wheat stubble with and without a supplement to correct nutritional deficiency. The supplement was offered at a rate of 0.45 kg per ewe per day, composed of: 46.5% oats, 6% fishmeal, 47% rape meal and 0.5 % of minerals. A field of 17.14 hectares of wheat stubble, and 120 Romney Marsh ewes were used. The experimental design was a randomized block, with 60 ewes per treatment. Feces of six ewes per treatment, at the beginning, middle and the end of the experiment were collected in order to make a histological analysis of the relative presence (%) of vegetal species of the stubble consumed by the ewes. Chemical analysis of the stubble was made in order to determine content of total protein (PT), ADF , lignine, ash, N, P, K, Mg, Ca, Mn and Fe. The ewes showed a high selectivity to the species in order to balance the daily ration and great ability to encounter Echium vulgare and Rubus ulmifolius, species with high protein and mineral content. There was no significant difference of selectivity between treatments (P> 0.05), but there was a significant difference between periods (P<0.05). The protein content rate of vegetal species ranged between 4.3 and 22.6 % on a dry matter basis. The following percentages were found in feces: wheat stubble 29.65 % and 26.76 %; Echium 23.62 % and 23.38 %; and Rubus 21.55 % and 28.99% on treatments with and without supplementation, respectively.


Missing data are often a problem in social science data. Imputation methods fill in the missing responses and lead, under certain conditions, to valid inference. This article reviews several imputation methods used in the social sciences and discusses advantages and disadvantages of these methods in practice. Simpler imputation methods as well as more advanced methods, such as fractional and multiple imputation, are considered. The paper introduces the reader new to the imputation literature to key ideas and methods. For those already familiar with imputation methods the paper highlights some new developments and clarifies some recent misconceptions in the use of imputation methods. The emphasis is on efficient hot deck imputation methods, implemented in either multiple or fractional imputation approaches. Software packages for using imputation methods in practice are reviewed highlighting newer developments. The paper discusses an example from the social sciences in detail, applying several imputation methods to a missing earnings variable. The objective is to illustrate how to choose between methods in a real data example. A simulation study evaluates various imputation methods, including predictive mean matching, fractional and multiple imputation. Certain forms of fractional and multiple hot deck methods are found to perform well with regards to bias and efficiency of a point estimator and robustness against model misspecifications. Standard parametric imputation methods are not found adequate for the application considered.[NCRM WP]


This article explores the ways the emerging concept of humanism was circulated and defined in early nineteenth-century German-language press. By analyzing a digitized corpus of German-language newspapers and periodicals published between 1808 and 1850, this article looks into the ways the concept of humanism was employed in book reviews, news, political reports, and feuilleton texts. Newspapers and periodicals had a significant role in transmitting the concept of humanism from educational debates into general political language in the 1840s. Furthermore, in an era of growing social problems and political unrest, humanism became increasingly associated with moral sentiments. Accordingly, this article suggests that its new political meanings and emotional underpinnings made humanism culturally contagious, particularly immediately before and during the 1848/49 revolutions.


We investigate the combined effect of an Emission Trading System (ETS) and renewable energy sources on electricity generation investment in energy-only markets. We propose a simple representation of the capacity expansion decision between fossil fuel and renewable production, where electricity demand is uncertain. Increasing renewable capacity creates a tradeoff for large electricity producers: a higher share of renewable production can be priced at the higher marginal cost of fossil fuel production, yet the likelihood of achieving higher profits is reduced because more demand is met by cheaper renewable production. A numerical application of the model shows that producers prefer withholding investments in renewable energy sources, calling into question the long-term efficacy of an ETS in achieving decarbonisation goals.


[Extract] On 12 June 2009, two Gold Coast radio hosts attached 200 helium balloons to a live piglet for the purpose of seeing whether a pig could fly. The broadcast stunt was a play on words at the time of the swine flu (flew?) outbreak. Despite the constant squeals of the piglet and what one may think is the questionable logic of bothering with such an endeavour, this stunt was found not to breach Australian law.

The investigation into the piglet broadcast did not lead to a decided case in Australian law courts. Rather, the details of the investigation are administrative and found in a report of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

That investigation examined the complaint of this author under cll 1.3(a) and 1.5(a) of the Commercial Radio Australia Codes of Practice and Guidelines 2004 , namely that the broadcast would incite, encourage or present violence or brutality for its own sake and offend contemporary standards of decency. Significantly, from a legal perspective, the use of the words "violence" and "brutality" were said to have set a high legal standard, such that the broadcast did not offend the Code of Practice . This is despite the fact that evidence from the RSPCA stated that: "if the stunt had continued for any further length of time I am sure a breach (of the Animal Care and Protection Act 2001 ) would have occurred".

This case note argues that there needs to be a reform and strengthening of Animal law in Australia. In particular, there needs to be a redrafting of the Commercial Radio Australia Codes of Practice and Guidelines to include prohibition of treatment of animals which is cruel or inappropriate as well as that which incites violence and brutality. Further, the case raises the issue of whether there should be an independent ethical committee to adjudge the use of animals in the media. In the view of the author, there should be.


Abstract. In quantitative risk assessment, risk is expressed as a function of the hazard, the elements at risk and the vulnerability. From a natural sciences perspective, vulnerability is defined as the expected degree of loss for an element at risk as a consequence of a certain event. The resulting value is dependent on the impacting process intensity and the susceptibility of the elements at risk, and ranges from 0 (no damage) to 1 (complete destruction). With respect to debris flows, the concept of vulnerability – though widely acknowledged – did not result in any sound quantitative relationship between process intensities and vulnerability values so far, even if considerable loss occurred during recent years. To close this gap and establish this relationship, data from a well-documented debris flow event in the Austrian Alps was used to derive a quantitative vulnerability function applicable to buildings located on the fan of the torrent. The results suggest a second order polynomial function to fit best to the observed damage pattern. Vulnerability is highly dependent on the construction material used for exposed elements at risk. The buildings studied within the test site were constructed by using brick masonry and concrete, a typical design in post-1950s building craft in alpine countries. Consequently, the presented intensity-vulnerability relationship is applicable to this construction type within European mountains. However, a wider application of the presented method to additional test sites would allow for further improvement of the results and would support an enhanced standardisation of the vulnerability function.