During the summer of 1997, the Department of Justice issued a directive requiring all future federal plea agreements to include language providing that a defendant waive her statutory right to appeal the sentence imposed by a judge(1) guaranteed by the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (the "Act").(2) Various agreements in several federal jurisdictions previously had used similar waiver language on an ad hoc basis.(3) Twice during the summer of 1997, the issue arose in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.(4) Although several circuits have deemed the waiver acceptable,(5) Judges Paul L. Friedman and Harold H. Greene ruled in separate hearings that the U.S. Attorney's office could not include such a condition in any plea agreement.(6) Though the U.S. Attorney's office subsequently withdrew the language and proceeded contrary to the Department of Justice directive,(7) many other jurisdictions not bound by the District of Columbia ruling continue to use waiver language as a precondition to any plea agreement. This Note discusses the validity of plea agreement provisions that require the defendant to waive the right to appeal sentencing as a condition to making a plea agreement. The first section offers a brief historical review of the right to appeal sentencing, the Department of Justice directive, the Judicial Conference's consideration of the topic, and the specific history of the current controversy over waiver provisions. The second section examines legal issues, as reflected in cases and statutes. The third section investigates public policy considerations favoring and opposing enforcement of the waiver. In the fourth section, this Note presents another scholarly treatment of this issue, and concludes that the proposed alternative is deficient. The fifth section presents another alternative that relies upon Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(e)(1)(C). This Note's proposed alternative complies with the legal and public policy considerations that forced a rejection of both the Department of Justice directive and the previous scholarly treatment of the issue. Finally, this Note concludes that the government should use Rule 11(e)(1)(C) to effectuate a plea in which a defendant sacrifices her right to appeal, rather than requiring each plea agreement to include a waiver of such right. HISTORY OF THE RIGHT TO APPEAL SENTENCING AND OF THE PRESENT CONTROVERSY Prior to November 1, 1987,(8) federal judges had nearly complete discretion in the imposition of sentences.(9) The criminal defendant did not possess the right to appeal sentencing except through a habeas corpus action or in other limited circumstances.(10) Habeas actions, however, were, and still are, limited procedurally, essentially to prevent defendants from having multiple opportunities to appeal.(11) The government also possessed limited appellate rights regarding sentencing.(12) Members of Congress found this state of affairs unacceptable because it provided unfettered and unjustifiable judicial discretion.(13) Congress therefore sought to heighten the accountability of federal trial judges and to generate uniformity within the criminal justice system by creating a check on judges' sentencing powers.(14) Members who believed that a lack of uniformity often led to disparate treatment of particular defendants also were concerned about the rights of the accused.(15) To remedy these shortcomings, Congress drafted and passed the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984.(16) Congress designed the Sentencing Reform Act to make sentences uniform and to afford all defendants the right to appeal a sentence.(17) Appellate review ensures uniformity because appellate judges do not substitute their discretion for that of a trial judge. Instead, appellate judges ascertain whether the trial court properly applied the guidelines(18) and whether the record justifies any departure from the sentence imposed by the trial court.(19) The Act does not indicate whether the defendant has the power to waive this appellate right. …


Efficient cathode electrode materials suitable for NN reductionThe products
of the electrochemical reduction of nitrate (ERN) are critically dependent
on the nature of the electrode material, pH of the media and applied
potential as well as the nature of supporting electrolyte. Cu-Sn alloys are
promising electrode materials that up to now have not been completely
investigated. For this reason, Cu and Cu-Sn cathodic materials were
prepared and tested for nitrate reduction. The cyclic voltammetry studies
allow establishing the specific parameters concerning the electrodeposition
of the individual metals and alloy respectively. SEM images taken for Cu,
Sn and Cu-Sn alloy deposits indicate significant structural changes by
changing the electrodeposition parameters. The obtained electrode materials
are suitable for nitrate reduction.In situ electrochemical methods for the
detection of products resulting from ERNIn this thesis, two simple and fast
electrochemical methodologies for determination of electroactive products
resulting from ERN at a Cu and Cu-Sn electrode are proposed. For the
detection of the products, cyclic hydrodynamic voltammetry (CHV) and square
wave voltammetry (SWV) with high scan rates, with hydrodynamic techniques
(Rotating Ring Disk Electrode) are combined. It is demonstrated that, the
electroactive products resulting from ERN (NO2-, NH2-OH and NH4+) can be
electrochemically detected by the CHV and SWV technique. The results
obtained with the CHV and SWV techniques allow as well a real-time
evaluation of the electrocatalytic properties of the used electrode
material. Pilot plant test for electrochemical reduction of synthetic
nitrate solutionThe effects of electrode materials, cell configuration and
cell operating parameters on the electrochemical reduction of NN in
synthetic nitrate solutions have been investigated to develop a robust
process capable of treating volumes of nitrate waste. Different operating
conditions such as applied current, the initial concentration of nitrate
and flow rate were investigated to determinate the optimum conditions. Rate
constants, current efficiencies and energy consumption were evaluated.
Tests concerning direct reduction in electrochemical flow cell led to
obtain the maximum permissible concentration (50 mg/L) in 16h with 99%
removal at Cu-Sn cathode, while in the case of Cu cathode this performance
was achieved in 20h. The calculated energy consumption for ERN, in the
experimental conditions developed in this thesis, shows superiority in
comparison with literature data.


Evaluating the economics of information systems is a difficult task. In addition to classical approaches to the economic evaluation of information systems, attention is paid to individual processes and workflows. The quality of information systems functionality is based on a quality workflow processes. A poorly designed workflow of the information system leads to a number of errors and problems in exchanging information within the system. The lower the error rate and the higher the efficiency of individual activities, the higher the economic value of the information system and, as the case may be, of other analytical, expert or decision systems in the organisation. In this paper, known principles of cohesion and coupling are used. The selected real process is evaluated within the framework of the agricultural information system operated by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic. In the article is created a design the structure of information elements of the modelled workflow, measured cohesion and coupling and compared with two alternatives.


We investigated the adhesion and colony formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 on a solid coated in close-packed spheres of polystyrene. The objective was to determine the effect of surface topography on the early stages of biofilm formation. Solids were pretreated with serum and then exposed to bacteria under low shear for one day in a center for disease control biofilm reactor. Whereas flat sheets are covered in large colonies after one day, a close-packed layer of 630-1550 nm monodisperse spheres prevents colony formation. Moreover, the film of spheres reduces the density of P. aeruginosa adhered to the solid by an average of 80%. Our data show that when P. aeruginosa adheres to the spheres, the distribution is not random. For 630 nm and larger particles, P. aeruginosa tends to position its body in a 2-fold site. We rationalize the selectivity on the basis of energy minimization for adhesion: sites differ in the deformation needed to achieve a given contact area. We rationalize the inhibition of colonization by the 630-1550 nm spheres in terms of the lack of adjacent favorable positions for bacteria. A close-packed layer of polystyrene spheres also delays colony formation on a medical-grade stainless-steel needle over a period of one day. This suggests that a colloidal crystal approach to biofilm inhibition might be applicable to a variety of materials and geometries.


Abstract In the present study, an attempt was made to improve the corrosion resistance and microhardness of a cast magnesium–aluminium–zinc alloy by laser surface melting. A 400 W pulsed Nd:YAG laser was used to melt and rapidly quench the surface of the cast AZ91C alloy to improve the corrosion resistance. This was evaluated using potentiodynamic polarisation and EIS studies. The microstructure of the melt pool was examined using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) along with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction studies (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The work revealed that laser melting improves the corrosion resistance of as cast AZ91C alloy because of its fine microstructure and extensive solubility of aluminium in eutectic (β phase). The microhardness of the laser surface melted layer was also increased from 74 HV to 99–124 HV.


CONTEXT
Celiac disease (CD) is associated with an increased fracture risk, an increase that persists after diagnosis. A significant proportion of patients with CD have persistent villous atrophy (VA) on follow-up biopsy.

OBJECTIVE
The objective of the study was to determine whether persistent VA impacts long-term fracture risk.

DESIGN
This was a cohort study.

SETTING AND PATIENTS
We identified all patients in Sweden with histological evidence of CD who underwent a follow-up biopsy and compared patients with persistent VA with those with mucosal healing.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The following were measured: 1) any fracture; 2) likely osteoporotic fracture (defined as fractures of the hip, distal forearm, thoracic and lumbar spine, or proximal humerus); and 3) hip fracture.

RESULTS
Of 7146 patients, VA was present on follow-up biopsy in 43%. There was no significant association between persistent VA and overall fractures [hazard ratio (HR) of persistent VA compared with those with healing 0.93, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.82-1.06] or with likely osteoporotic fractures (HR 1.11, 95% CI 0.84-1.46). Persistent VA was associated with an increased risk of hip fracture (HR 1.67, 95% CI 1.05-2.66). Hip fracture risk increased, depending on the degree of VA (HR for partial VA compared with those with healing 1.70, 95% CI 0.82-3.49, HR for subtotal/total VA compared with those with healing 2.16, 95% CI 1.06-4.41).

CONCLUSIONS
Persistent VA on follow-up biopsy is predictive of hip fracture risk. The association between persistent VA and hip fractures, but not fractures overall, implies that thinner sc tissue and fall or trauma may be mechanisms by which persistent VA confers an increased fracture risk.


Abstract OFSP is being used as an ingredient of baked products and can be a source of pro-vitamin A. Information about OFSP puree bread consumer profile is limited. The current study investigates the consumer socio-demographics, knowledge, practices and attitude towards OFSP puree bread in Kenya. A total of 1024 consumers were interviewed from Nairobi, Kiambu, Kajiado, Kisumu and Kakamega counties. The OFSP bread is purchased by 60% female respondents above 30 years old, who have a university education (79%), formally employed (93%), therefore, middle to high-income earners. Before consumption, 42% of the consumers stored their bread in the refrigerator while 38% stored in the open, and 20% in cupboards. Consumers agree that the OFSP bread could be a good source of energy, vitamins, especially Vitamin A (94%). The acceptance ratings of OFSP bread ranged from 7.37 to 7.65 on a 9-score hedonic scale, hence "liked moderately." There was a significant relationship between socio-demographics, knowledge about the root, the bread and the overall acceptance of the OFSP puree bread. Consumers were willing to pay more for the OFSP bread based on potential nutritional benefits. There was a significant relationship between consumer demographics and willingness to pay for OFSP puree bread.


With the presentation of this award, the innovative concept of the BPM-Global Income Fund that became available in May 2013 has already proven its merits after a short time. The concept comprised of Bond-Picking, exposure of premiums resulting from inefficiencies, global diversification and permanent hedging fully convinced the five-star jury. The average rating is within the investment grade sector and the current yearly rate of return of the bond portion of the portfolio is over 7%. The fund is thus conceived as a balanced mutual fund for generating income with high fixed income and active risk management. It thus stole the limelight from the KAG Hansainvest Reserve Fund, the BPM-Boutique's bestseller up until now which is yet a bigger brother with a broader investment universe Share class (EUR) R - Retail: WKN: A1T8AW / ISIN: LU0912686986 Share class (EUR) I - Institutional: WKN: A1T8AX / ISIN: LU0912693339 With its headquarters in Berlin, the 'BPM - Berlin Portfolio Management GmbH' is a financial services company licensed and monitored pursuant to the German Banking Act. They are licensed to provide approved services such as financial portfolio management and investment advice for private investors and fund assets. BPM counsels mutual funds and offers wealth management services to German and international clients with discretionary mandates.


We consider the combinatorial bandits problem with semi-bandit feedback under finite sampling budget constraints, in which the learner can carry out its action only for a limited number of times specified by an overall budget. The action is to choose a set of arms, whereupon feedback for each arm in the chosen set is received. Unlike existing works, we study this problem in a non-stochastic setting with subset-dependent feedback, i.e., the semi-bandit feedback received could be generated by an oblivious adversary and also might depend on the chosen set of arms. In addition, we consider a general feedback scenario covering both the numerical-based as well as preference-based case and introduce a sound theoretical framework for this setting guaranteeing sensible notions of optimal arms, which a learner seeks to find. We suggest a generic algorithm suitable to cover the full spectrum of conceivable arm elimination strategies from aggressive to conservative. Theoretical questions about the sufficient and necessary budget of the algorithm to find the best arm are answered and complemented by deriving lower bounds for any learning algorithm for this problem scenario.


1503 Background: It is assumed that most locally advanced breast cancers (LABC) could be detected at an earlier stage with routine screening. However, LABCs may present between screens as interval cancers (IC). ICs present at an earlier age, with higher grade, larger size, and are associated with lower survival, compared to screen-detected cancers (SDC), and comprise 17% of cancers from population-based screening programs. We evaluated the screening history in patients with LABCs from the I SPY TRIAL, to determine the frequency of screening and ICs.

METHODS
Of 221 pts enrolled in the I-SPY TRIAL, a multisite neoadjuvant study for women with LABCs > 3cm in size, screening history and presentation were retrospectively collected for 154. Two groups, screened (S), defined as a mammogram within 2 years, or non screened (NS), previous mammogram more than 2 years prior, were evaluated (Table). The frequency of ICs at 1 and 2 years was determined in S pts. Frequency of mammographically occult (MO) tumors was determined for all.

RESULTS
Of the total, 99 (64%) and 55 (36%) were NS and S, respectively. Mean tumor size for all pts was 6.7cm. Only 11 (20%) of S pts were SDCs and 44 (80%) were ICs, with 24 (63%) diagnosed within 1 year and 14 (37%) between 1 and 2 yrs of their last normal mammogram. 24 (24%) NS patients were younger than the recommended screening age of 40; in the remaining 75 pts, 9 (12%) were MO. Only 20% of IC tumors were MO. ICs were of higher grade (44% vs 11% grade III), and tumor size (7.0cm vs 4.4cm) than their SDC counterparts. 80% of cancers detected in I SPY were NKI70 gene test poor prognosis. Relationship to breast density and subtype is currently being assessed.

CONCLUSIONS
Women presenting with LABCs have a high likelihood (80%) of an IC. This suggests that the growth rate of LABCs precludes early detection by conventional screening. Understanding the biology of ICs will be important to develop better strategies for prevention and early detection. [Table: see text] No significant financial relationships to disclose.


Child's health has hardly received attention within the literature investigating work-family interference. This theoretical oriented thesis focuses on how chronically ill, including asthma, interact with family's emotional climate, contribute to parents' well-being and interference with parents' work. Family resources contribute to coping, while work resources can provide more time which is essential as childcare demands restrict parent's time recovery. The parent depends on roles defined within work and family, and performing multiple roles can lead to postive and negative outcomes The discussion focuses on parents' utilization of family friendly benefits, with promoting and restrictive factors from both family and organization. Certain gender related tendency operates behind utilization of family-friendly benefits, and companies contribute to this tendency. This implies that most likely mothers utilize those benefits, also as a means to reduce their need for recovery. Due to traditional role view within the family and the influence of organizational culture on role demands, employed fathers are resistant to family-work interference and have reduced need to utilize those benefits. Parents working in higher as well as lower positions are restricted to utilize those benefits, but due to different inputs. Precautions are given with generalization of the results based on samples and family friendly situation in the US. The conceptual framework was revised in accordance with the focus in the discussion.


Today, the simultaneous increase of obesity and vitamin D deficiency is estimated to affect over one billion people in the world. An association between vitamin D deficiency and obesity is well known, but the mechanisms are not totally clear yet. This study was designed to investigate the effect of weight loss on serum vitamin D levels in obese women. Methods: The study has been performed on 44 obese women who were admitted to the in TEV Sultanbeyli State Hospital Nutrition and Dietetics Clinic between the dates October 2016 and April 2017. In the first meeting, the demographic features and dietary habits were interrogated with a questionnaire form; 3-day food consumption records were taken; body compositions were determined with anthropometric measurements and the biochemical parameters were analyzed. After the first meeting, a specific weight loss diet program was generated, and nutritional education was given to the subjects. Results: The correlation between vitamin D and BMI values after the study showed a positive correlation (r=0.52) in the 5-10% weight loss group and a negative correlation (r=-0.52) in the >10% weight loss group. But this relationship was not found to be statistically significant because the total number of subjects was low (p>0.05). Conclusions: This study shows that there may be a higher rise in vitamin D levels in patients with larger volumes of body fat loss. Therefore, there is a need for prospective studies with larger numbers of subjects.


We present Breakout, a group interaction platform for online courses that enables the creation and measurement of face-to-face peer learning groups in online settings. Breakout is designed to help students easily engage in synchronous, video breakout session based peer learning in settings that otherwise force students to rely on asynchronous text-based communication. The platform also offers data collection and intervention tools for studying the communication patterns inherent in online learning environments. The goals of the system are twofold: to enhance student engagement in online learning settings and to create a platform for research into the relationship between distributed group interaction patterns and learning outcomes.


I OFFER SOME PERSONAL reflections on the archaeology and prehistory of Burma arising out of my reading of the various papers in this volume and from some thirty years teaching on the (mainly) prehistoric archaeology of Southeast Asia to cohorts of students in London. I feel unequal to the task of writing any substantial account of Burmese archaeology since I have been to Burma on only four occasions, and although I have read almost everything I could find on its early archaeology, I could make little coherent sense from what I have seen and read: too much was missing from the narrative. Documentation on all early sites was sparse and too widely spaced in place and time to relate them to each other. In 1978 I visited Taungthaman (south of Mandalay) where a few seemingly late prehistoric burials had been dug and briefly reported, but there was no reliable dating, no analysis of the materials, and nothing to relate them to. In early 1999 I was privileged to spend a day at the newly discovered cemetery site at Nyaung-gan described here by Moore and Pauk Pauk. That is the sum of my personal experiences of prehistoric archaeology in Burma. Clearly the country has many significant archaeological sites, some, such as Beikthano (Aung Thaw 1968) had been competently excavated and published. Other reports, such as that on the Padah Lin Caves (Aung Thaw 1971), hinted at a long sequence of occupation from mobile hunter-gatherers to settled Neolithic villagers, although details were lacking and the documentation on the contexts of the finds, on the stratigraphy and chronology, lacked authority. Beyond these quite unrelated sites there was little other than stray finds reported in the Journal of the Burma Research Society, The Archaeological Survey of Burma, and geological reports (see Aung-Thwin, this issue). I should emphasize that the above and subsequent comments are almost all on prehistoric archaeology and I am far more ignorant than I should be on the archaeology of the historic periods, from Pyu into later times. Of all the great cities of old Burma, I have visited only Pagan, and that only once and more as a tourist than as a scholar. I will thus restrict most of my comments to the prehistory of Burma. SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY IN BURMA The six articles in this issue of Asian Perspectives make a significant contribution to our knowledge of the archaeology of this country. That this should be so--that only six rather short chapters should be of such significance--tells us quite a lot about the rather backward state of Burmese archaeology. This has not always been so, because investigation into the early history of humans in Burma started early, as the chapter by Michael Aung-Thwin tells us. In the late nineteenth century there was much pioneering and thoughtful research into the Palaeolithic in Burma by geologists such as Noetling, Cotter, Clegg, Evans, Pascoe, Sanson, Smith, and Stamp, among others, who, although their framework for Quaternary geology can now be seen to be flawed, recognized the tools of early man in ancient geological contexts and brought them to the attention of their colleagues. In Burma, as in many other Southeast Asian colonial territories, geologists pioneered archaeological research. Later generations should remember with gratitude the work of Wray in Malaya; Mansuy, Colani and Patte, Fromaget, and Saurin in Indochina; and Van Es in Java. In Burma itself this research, which was always marginal to the main interests of the researchers, was continued in the 1930s by T. O. Morris, who should properly be remembered as the "Father of Burmese Archaeology." Morris recognized the significance of the flaked stone tools eroding from the various terraces of the Irrawaddy River and sent some specimens to the British Museum where they were studied by the Keeper of the Prehistoric Department, the redoubtable Reginald Smith. This contribution led to the first piece of sustained archaeological field research by Hallam Movius and Helmut de Terra in the late 1930s, which yielded the first, and still rather lonely monograph on the early prehistory of Burma (de Terra and Movius 1943). …


We simulated light scattering from a particle located on a smooth surface. We developed a new approach utilizing the discrete sources method based on a strict mathematical model for this scattering problem. The main features of the corresponding numerical algorithm are presented. The results of modeling and comparisons with other theoretical results and experimental data are shown as well.


A major goal of evolutionary biology is to identify key evolutionary transitions that correspond with shifts in speciation and extinction rates. Here we test the association of transitions in plant mating system with shifts in diversification rates using a novel stochastic character mapping method that identifies the timing and nature of both transitions in trait evolution and diversification rate shifts over evolutionary trees. Utilizing a state-dependent speciation and extinction (SSE) model and a densely sampled fossil-calibrated phylogeny of the plant family Onagraceae, we confirm long standing theory that self-compatible lineages have higher extinction rates and lower net diversification rates compared to self-incompatible lineages. Furthermore, our results provide the first empirical evidence for the "senescing" diversification rates predicted in highly selfing lineages: our mapped character histories show that the loss of self-incompatibility is followed by a short-term spike in speciation rates, which declines after a time lag of several million years resulting in negative net diversification. Lineages that have long been self-compatible such as Fuchsia and Clarkia are in a previously unrecognized and ongoing evolutionary decline.


The Friersdale Charnockite is a late-Mesoproterozoic (1078 ± 10 Ma), fine- to medium-grained to porphyritic orthopyroxene-bearing monzogranite intrusion with characteristic opalescent quartz that outcrops in the Keimoes-Upington region of the Northern Cape, South Africa. The weakly to undeformed, northwest-southeast trending granitoid body represents the most extensive member of the Keimoes Suite and intruded across the tectonic boundary between the granulite facies Kakamas and Areachap Terranes of the Namaqua-Natal Metamorphic Province during the final stages of the main Namaqua orogeny. The Friersdale Charnockite is a metaluminous, ferrous and potassic monzogranite with major, trace, REE and isotope chemistries suggesting a mixed crustal source with significant input from both Paleoproterozoic- and Mesoproterozoic-aged source regions.


An autonomous agent is an intelligent system that has an ongoing interaction with a dynamic external world. It can perceive and act on the world through a set of limited sensors and effectors. Its most important characteristic is that it is forced to make decisions sequentially during its entire "life". The main objective of this dissertation is to study algorithms by which an autonomous agents can learn to perform sequential decision-making efficiently and autonomously. The dissertation describes a framework for studying autonomous sequential decision-making consisting of three main elements: the agent, the environment, and the task. The agent attempts to control the environment by perceiving the environment and choosing actions in a sequential fashion. The environment is a dynamic system characterized by a state and its dynamics, a function that describes the evolution of the state given the agent's actions. A task is a declarative description of the desired behavior the agent should exhibit as it interacts with the environment. The ultimate goal of the agent is to learn a policy or strategy for selecting actions that maximizes its expected benefit. The dissertation focuses on sequential decision-making when the environment is characterized by continuous states and actions, and the agent has imperfect perception, incomplete knowledge, and limited computational resources.
The main characteristic of the approach proposed in this dissertation is that the agent uses its previous experiences to improve estimates of the long-term benefit associated with the execution of specific actions. The agent uses these estimates to evaluate how desirable it is to execute alternative actions and select the one that best balances the short- and long-term consequences, taking special consideration of the expected benefit associated with actions that accomplish new learning while making progress on the task. The approach is based on novel methods that are specifically designed to address the problems associated with continuous domains, imperfect perception, incomplete knowledge, and limited computational resources. The approach is implemented using case-based techniques and extensively evaluated in simulated and real systems including autonomous mobile robots, pendulum swinging and balancing controllers, and other dynamic system controllers.


DNA methylation is an epigenetic modification that is nearly ubiquitous.
Eukaryotic DNA methylation contributes to the regulation of gene expression and
maintaining genome integrity. In mammals, DNA methylation occurs primarily on
the C5 carbon of cytosine in a CpG dinucleotide context and is catalyzed by the
DNA methyltransferases, DNMT1, DNMT3A and DNMT3B. While dnmt3a
and dnmt3b genes are highly
homologous, the enzymes have distinct functions. Some previous reports
suggested differences in the enzymatic behavior of DNMT3A and 3B, which could
affect their biological roles. The goal of my thesis work was to characterize kinetics
mechanisms of DNMT3A and 3B, and to identify the similarities and differences
in their catalytic properties that contribute to their distinct biological
functions. Given the sequence similarity between the enzymes, we asked whether
DNMT3B was kinetically similar to DNMT3A. In a series of experiments designed
to distinguish between various kinetics mechanisms, we reported that unlike
DNMT3A, DNMT3B methylated tandem CpG on DNA in a processive manner. We also
reported that the disruption of the R-D interface, critical for the
cooperativity of DNMT3A, had no effect on DNMT3B activity, supporting the
non-cooperative mechanism of this enzyme.

DNMT3A is frequently mutated in numerous cancers. Acute Myeloid Leukemia
(AML) is a malignancy of hematopoietic stem cells in which numerous patients
exhibit a high frequency of the heterozygous somatic mutation Arg882His in
DNMT3A. Through thorough consensus motif building, we discovered a strong
similarity in CpG flanking sequence preference between DNMT3A Arg882His variant
and DNMT3B enzyme. Moreover, we found that the variant enzyme has the same kinetics
mechanism as DNMT3B, indicating a gain-of-function effect caused by the
mutation. This change is significant because the variant enzyme can aberrantly
methylate DNMT3B targets in AML cells and effect global gene expression. In particular,
given that DNMT3B has been shown to have oncogenic properties, this suggests
that the Arg882His variant can acquire similar oncogenic properties and drive
AML development.

Taken together, my thesis work provides novel insights into the
relationship between the biochemical properties and the biological functions of
DNMT3A and 3B.


Abstract The term biofilm designates an aggregate of microorganisms belonging to one or more species which adhere to various surfaces but also to each another. These microbial communities are included and interconnected within an organic structure known as slime, composed of protein substances, polysaccharides, and DNA. The Center for Disease prevention and control considers infections with bacteria in biofilms among the 7 most important challenges which must be overcome in order to improve the safety of health services. The risk of microbial biofilm development exists for a long list of medical devices and equipment, as well as in certain diseases such as cystic fibrosis. An aggravating aspect is represented by the almost 1,000 times higher antimicrobial resistance of bacteria growing and multiplying within biofilms. Thus, in case of biofilm-infected medical devices, the resistance to antimicrobial treatments requires the removal of the device which essentially means the failure of the exploratory or therapeutic intervention in question. The role of microbial biofilms in medical pathology is a subject that raises interest for both researchers and clinicians in order to establish new methods for prevention and treatment of biofilms. This paper is intended as an overview in the management of microbial biofilms, presenting future insights, with technological progress in microscopy, molecular genetics, and genome analysis. Therefore the present paper will focus on describing the mechanisms involved in biofilm development, biofilm related infections, methods of detection and quantification of microbial communities and therapeutical approaches.


Acute urinary retention (AUR) is characterized by a sudden and painful inability to pass urine and is the most common urological emergency. However, according to our knowledge, no study to date has attempted to explore the monthly variation of AUR after adjusting for climatic parameters. This study aimed to examine the monthly variation of AUR due to benign prostatic enlargement (BPE) in Taiwan. The data used in this study were sourced from 2 datasets: the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005 and a meteorological dataset supplied by the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau. We identified 1406 patients aged 40 years or more with a diagnosis of BPE that could all be followed throughout a 6-year study period (2003-2008). We used the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) method to examine the incidence of AUR for seasonality. The results show that January (midwinter) had the highest rates, decreasing in March to a trough in June (early summer). The incidence then increased again and reached a peak in December (early winter). The ARIMA test also revealed significant monthly variation in the incidence of AUR. In addition, the ARIMA regression revealed that January, February, August, October, November, and December had significantly higher monthly incidence rates of AUR compared with June, after adjusting for the time trend effect and climatic parameters. Our study concluded that significant monthly variation in the incidence of AUR occurred, and January (midwinter) had the highest rates.


Malaysia, setting out to transform its economy through industrialisation to
become a fully developed country by 2020 must provide for all of the resources
required as best as it can. The key question pertaining to economic growth goal in
Malaysia is the present and future configuration of the resource gap constraints which
can be influenced by factors such as reliability of foreign capital inflow, strength of
crowding in and crowding out effects, and the imperatives of the constraints on the
process of economic development.
This thesis attempts to elucidate the above mentioned structural questions, to
identify their solutions as well as to examine the extent of macroeconomic constraints
faced by Malaysia as it undertakes economic transformation. Two as well as three-gap
approaches have been utilised to identify the dominant resource constraints limiting the
target growth and to estimate the future resource requirements needed to achieve the
pre-determined target. Particular attention is given to the impact of foreign transfers on the rate of growth in potential output. In addition, the study will examine the saving
behaviour of the Malaysian economy. This will be done using the multivariate cointegration
approach followed by an error-correction modelling to investigate the saving
behaviour in a dynamic framework.
The empirical findings of the saving analyses indicate that maintaining a stable
macroeconomic condition is critical for mobilising savings, encouraging domestic
investment and laying the foundations for sustained economic growth. Among the
macro variables exports and tax level appear to be more significant in explaining the
saving rate in Malaysia. A number of other variables including interest rate, dependency
ratio and rate of growth are also important. The dependency ratio has been found to
exert a negative effect on rate of saving. The empirical results have confirmed the
adverse effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on savings, suggesting that strategies
aimed at reducing the FDI (and thus debt burden) would help to raise domestic saving.
The results of two-gap analysis tends to conform with that expounded by the
Neo-structuralists which claims that the dominant constraint in most developing
countries is foreign exchange gap caused primarily by structural disequilibrium or
macroeconomic imbalances. The estimation and projections carried out have led to be
the inference that the trade constraint has tended to be more binding than the saving
constraint. In the three-gap analysis, a sustainable growth of 6.5 per cent per annum
would require an investment ratio of 28 per cent, while an 8 per cent of annually
would growth require 35 per cent investment ratio over the period 1995-2000. With no change in the ratio of interest payments to potential output, 5.58 per cent of foreign
saving (around RM 5 billion) per year would be required for an 8 per cent growth and a
4.1 per cent (around RM 3.2 billion) annual increase would be required for a 6.5 per
cent growth rate annually over the period 1995-2000.


Abstract My research focuses on the promotion of mental health and the treatment of mental health problems in people with developmental disabilities. People with developmental disabilities are at high risk for developing mental health problems or serious challenging behaviours at some point in their lives. Research is needed to address these mental health concerns by studying programs that can promote mental health in people with developmental disabilities, die experiences of parents of people with developmental disabilities, and the training needs of graduate students in psychology to provide mental health care to clients with developmental disabilities. More generally, Canadian psychology has an important role to play in mental health promotion for individuals with developmental disabilities. Keywords: developmental disability, intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorders, mental health Approximately 1-3% of the population has a developmental disability (DD), which includes individuals with intellectual disabilities and/or autism spectrum disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2000; Ouellette-Kuntz & Paquette, 2001). Individuals with DD are at high risk for developing mental healdi problems and have poorer prognosis dian typically developing individuals. In Great Britain for instance, 36% of children with DD also meet criteria for a co-occurring mental healtii problem, a prevalence rate five times greater than in peers without DD (Emerson & Hatton, 2007), and similar rates are found in adults with DD (Cooper, Smiley, Morrison, Williamson, & Allan, 2007). Mental healdi disorders are important predictors of poor overall health in individuals with DD (Linehan, Noonan Walsh, van Schrojenstein Lantman-de VaIk, & Kerr, 2004). As a result of the sizable population base and level of need, it is important to conduct research that investigates protective factors that bolster mental health, and there is a need for new and more effective treatment options mat rectify problems when they arise. My program of research comprises three streams that study: (a) interventions that can improve mental health in people with DD, (b) families who care for people with DD, and (c) mental health services and training that can increase access to mental health care for people with DD. Research on Interventions One efficient way of targeting mental healdi risk is to identify programs that serve a protective role by promoting mental health before problems arise. More specifically, I have been involved in studying Special Olympics, a sport organisation for children and adults with DD, which has long been noted by parents and professionals as a program that can enhance the self-esteem, confidence, independence, and socialization of participants (Klein, Gilman, & Zigler, 1993). My research was among the first in Canada to quantitatively examine psychological benefits of involvement, studying athlete participation in Special Olympics over a 3-year period, and finding positive changes in athletes' self-concept, and adaptive and maladaptive behaviours (Weiss & Bebko, 2009). This research identified specific program characteristics (e.g., the number of competitions and years in the program) that related to addete psychological well-being (Weiss, Diamond, Demark, & Lovald, 2003). Empirically identifying variables of import has led to a renewed focus on ensuring that sport programming results in positive psychological benefits for athletes with DD, and has informed program developers about the aspects of the program that should be emphasised (e.g., focusing on creating more opportunities for local level competitions). Research on Families If we are interested in prevention and intervention for people with DD, it is integral that research be directed toward understanding and supporting parents, who are significant agents in maintaining the mental health of their children across the life span. …


The current economic climate has had a significant effect on the amount of money being put into third level institutes across the country. This has resulted in Trinity College Dublin cutting most of its budgets, in particular the training and development budget within the university. One way to deal with this crisis is to introduce a coaching culture. The ideal behind a coaching culture would be that individuals across the organisation at all levels can share
their knowledge and experiences. A coaching culture within an organisation is a culture where not only formal coaching occurs, but also where most people use coaching behaviours as a means of managing, influencing and communicating with each other. Creating a coaching culture that is embedded, demonstrates a progressive organisation that places much emphasis on staff development.

Why introduce a coaching culture? To many people, the talk of a coaching culture seems far removed from the practical reality of their working lives. However, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) survey revealed that those skeptics are increasingly in a minority. In the survey, 80% of respondents agreed that a coaching culture will only work well in a culture that supports learning and development.

There is growing academic support for the view that developing a coaching culture can yield significant organisational benefits. The Harvard Business Review (2004) had an article by Sherman and Freas which argued the case for a coaching culture in this way. "When you create a culture of coaching, the result may not be directly measurable in dollars. But we have yet to find a company that cannot benefit from more candour, less denial, richer communication, conscious development of talent, and disciplined leaders who show compassion for people." This thesis will examine why and how a coaching culture should be introduced into 3rd level institutions, taking Trinity College Dublin as an example.


In this article we will study effects of the clause for eliminate or reduce liability in relations between two parties, and also with third parties. This type of clause reduces or eliminates contractual liability of the agent of damage, except in cases of violation of public order that this clause will be considered invalid. These clauses are effective in the tortious liability, provided that the clause is expressly encompassed the fault and does not violate a jus cogens; this theory has been accepted also in the English Law. In relation to the third parties, the agent of damage who is the successor in the contract, could reliance on the exclusion clause against the aggrieved party, based on the theory of "Third-party beneficiary" or "subrogation". The exclusion clause should be reliable on against third parties who can't prove the fault of the agent of damage, except by reference to the contract.


The last decade has seen a remarkable increase in interest in Christianity among scholars in the social sciences and humanities and among public intellectuals. This attention to Christianity has followed on its recent growth, especially in the global South, and its increasing public political role in many parts of the world. The primary object of this volume is to initiate a dialogue between two emerging intellectual discourses that have been important to the new prominence of Christianity as a topic of scholarly discussion. One of these discourses is being constructed primarily by historians, anthropologists, theologians, and popular Christian writers and has taken shape around notions such as "world Christianity" and "global Christianity." This discourse holds that w hile Christianity has always been global in its ambitions and self-conceptions, there is something about its recent growth, particularly in the global South, that is transforming it in important ways. The second discourse is primarily philosophical and has moved to make Christian categories and materials central to its projects of philosophical and cultural critique-projects once thought to be firmly rooted in secularist (and largely atheist) assumptions. Our contention is that these emerging discourses could benefit from some cross-fertilization. "Global Christianity, Global Critique" is an attempt to start a conversation toward this end, bringing together essays by social scientists who study existing Christian communities and those by theologians, philosophers, and historians of religion who have been reconsidering the critical potential of Christianity.


Introduction: Medical education is constantly discussed by experts due to its close relationship with the public health from the perspectives of relevance, appropriateness and responsiveness to community needs. There is no consistent general model to evaluate the social accountability of medical schools. This study was conducted to develop indicators of social accountability in medical schools. Methods: Criteria and indicators of social accountability were developed during three stages. In the first stage, after a deep review on the Global Consensus on Social Accountability of Medical Schools (GCSA) and several papers we developed baseline areas, criteria and indicators. In the second stage, during the first round of the Delphi, the tables draft was sent to twenty medical education experts. Then, comments were collected and classified in the first meeting of the focus group discussions and necessary reforms were implemented in the tables. In the third stage and second round of Delphi, the set of revisions were sent the same selected experts. The suggested reforms were applied after collecting the instructors' comments in the second focus group discussions. Five members of the focus group discussions were selected based on their relevant knowledge and experience in social accountability issues. Results: Ten areas, twenty-eight criteria and ninety-five indicators were developed after three stages of study with two rounds using the Delphi method and two focus group sessions. To clarify the criteria and indicators, we tried to make the developed indicators and criteria practical so that they could be used in the social accountability evaluation of medical schools. Conclusion: According to the importance and key role of social accountability in the medical schools mission, using comprehensive indicators can result in better accreditation and evaluation of medical schools .This study has prepared applicable and comprehensive indicators for evaluation of different aspects of social accountability in medical schools.


New technologies drastically change recruitment techniques. Some research projects aim at designing interactive systems that help candidates practice job interviews. Other studies aim at the automatic detection of social signals (e.g. smile, turn of speech, etc...) in videos of job interviews. These studies are limited with respect to the number of interviews they process, but also by the fact that they only analyze simulated job interviews (e.g. students pretending to apply for a fake position). Asynchronous video interviewing tools have become mature products on the human resources market, and thus, a popular step in the recruitment process. As part of a project to help recruiters, we collected a corpus of more than 7000 candidates having asynchronous video job interviews for real positions and recording videos of themselves answering a set of questions. We propose a new hierarchical attention model called HireNet that aims at predicting the hirability of the candidates as evaluated by recruiters. In HireNet, an interview is considered as a sequence of questions and answers containing salient socials signals. Two contextual sources of information are modeled in HireNet: the words contained in the question and in the job position. Our model achieves better F1-scores than previous approaches for each modality (verbal content, audio and video). Results from early and late multimodal fusion suggest that more sophisticated fusion schemes are needed to improve on the monomodal results. Finally, some examples of moments captured by the attention mechanisms suggest our model could potentially be used to help finding key moments in an asynchronous job interview.


ABSTRACT Let A be a population sub-domain of interest and assume that the elements of A cannot be identified on the sampling frame and the number of elements in A is not known. Further assume that a sample of fixed size (say n) is selected from the entire frame and the resulting sub-domain sample size (say nA ) is random. The problem addressed is the construction of a confidence interval for a sub-domain parameter such as the sub-domain aggregate T x A i i A = Œ  . The usual approach to this problem is to redefine xi , by setting x i A i = œ 0 if . Thus, the construction of a confidence interval for the sub-domain total is recast as the construction of a confidence interval for a population total which can be addressed (at least asymptotically in n) by normal theory. As an alternative, we condition on nA and construct confidence intervals which have approximately nominal coverage under certain assumptions regarding the sub-domain population. We evaluate the new approach empirically using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Compensation Survey.


Lipoprotein receptor expression plays a crucial role in the pathophysiology of adipose tissue in in vivo models of diabetes. However, there are no studies in diabetic patients. The aims of this study were to analyze (a) low- density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1) and very low-density lipoprotein receptor (VLDLR) expression in epicardial and subcutaneous fat from type 2 diabetes mellitus compared with nondiabetic patients and (b) the possible correlation between the expression of these recep- tors and plasmatic parameters. Adipose tissue biopsy sam- ples were obtained from diabetic (n = 54) and nondiabetic patients (n = 22) undergoing cardiac surgery before the initiation of cardiopulmonary bypass. Adipose LRP1 and VLDLR expression was analyzed at mRNA level by real- time PCR and at protein level by Western blot analysis. Adipose samples were also subjected to lipid extraction, and fat cholesterol ester, triglyceride, and free cholesterol con- tents were analyzed by thin-layer chromatography. LRP1 expression was higher in epicardial fat from diabetic com- pared with nondiabetic patients (mRNA 17.63 ± 11.37 versus 7.01 ± 4.86; P = 0.02; protein 11.23 ± 7.23 versus 6.75 ± 5.02, P = 0.04). VLDLR expression was also higher in epicardial fat from diabetic patients but only at mRNA level (231.25 ± 207.57 versus 56.64 ± 45.64, P = 0.02). No differences were found in the expression of LRP1 or VLDLR in the subcutaneous fat from diabetic compared with nondiabetic patients. Epicardial LRP1 and VLDLR mRNA overexpression positively correlated with plasma triglyceride levels (R 2 = 0.50, P = 0.01 and R 2 = 0.44, P = 0.03, respectively) and epicardial LRP1 also correlated with plasma glucose levels (R 2 = 0.33, P = 0.03). These results suggest that epicardial overexpression of certain lipoprotein receptors such as LRP1 and VLDLR expression may play a key role in the alterations of lipid metabolism associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus.


Zelda Fitzgerald was the mythical American Dream Girl of the Roaring Twenties who became, in the words of her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the first American flapper. Their romance transformed a symbol of glamour and spectacle of the Jazz Age. When Zelda cracked up, not long after the stock market crash of 1929, Scott remained loyal to her through a nightmare of later breakdowns and final madness.Sally Cline brings us a trenchantly authentic voice through Zelda s own highly autobiographical writings and hundreds of letters she wrote to friends and family, publishers and others. New medical evidence and interviews with Zelda s last psychiatrist suggest that her insanity may have been less a specific clinical condition than the product of the treatment she endured for schizophrenia and her husband s devastating alcoholism. In narrating Zelda s tumultuous life, Cline vividly evokes the circle of Jazz Age friends that included Edmund Wilson, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, and H. L. Mencken. Her exhaustive research and incisive analysis animate a profoundlymoving portrait of Zelda and provide a convincing context to the legacy of her tragedy."


Intravenous injection of CBA mice with H-2-compatible irradiated B10.BR spleen cells led to a sequence of negative and positive selection of the host T-cell response against the multiple foreign minor histocompatibility antigens (HA) on the injected cells. By 1 d posttransfer, thoracic duct lymphocytes (TDL) of the host had lost the capacity to differentiate in vitro into cytotoxic cells specific for the injected minor HA; spleen and lymph node cells, by contrast, gave normal or enriched responses at this time. By 5 d posttransfer, TDL were hyperresponsive to the injected antigens. Selection with disrupted (sonicated) cells gave similar findings. With injection of either irradiated of disrupted spleen cells, the H-2 haplotype of the minor HA- bearing cells had no apparent effect on the magnitude of selection. By contrast, treatment of spleen cells with glutaraldehyde before injection led to H-2 restriction of selection, i.e., negative selection of the CBA response to B10.BR was marked with injection of glutaraldehyde-treated H-2-compatible B10.BR cells but was minimal with H-2-different B10 or B10.D2 cells. These data are taken to imply that, at least in H-2-incompatible situations, the minor HA-bearing cells must be processed by host cells, i.e., to allow the antigens to become associated with self H-2 determinants. Circumstantial evidence from studies on the specificity of selection induced with glutaraldehyde- treated cells from mice of the B10 recombinant strains suggested that I region-restricted T cells may control the induction of H2K, D- restricted cytotoxic precursor cells.


A field study was conducted at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (U.S.A.), to determine the response of natural beaches to artificial manipulation by sand scraping. Between March 1981 and May 1982, a total of 100,000 m of sand was shifted from the lower beach to the backbeach on three occasions over a R-km length of shoreline. Fiftyfour profile stations were surveyed to the -1.0 meter contour as many as ten times during the study to determine the effect of scraping and fill along a stable-to-slightly erosional beach. The purpose of the scraping and fill was to provide temporary erosion relief, protect existing dunes and structures, and provide a wider recreational beach at high tide. It was found that scraping and fill had little adverse effect on the beach cycle in the northern zone of the project area, which is fronted by a natural dune system. Fill placed at a gentle slope along the seaward margin of the dunes remained in place for up to ten months before eroding to the prefill surface. In contrast, similar quantities of fill along shore protection structures in the southern zone eroded in several weeks to four months. The study found significant differences in the response of armored versus unarmored shorelines with higher erosion rates and slower recovery of the beach at armored stations.


This essay aims to begin to fill a potential gap in previous research when it comes to studying the political content of specific cultural practices, in this case the Freedom Theatre in Jenin. The theatre expressively refers to itself as a political theatre, calling themselves freedom fighters and places itself at the forefront of they call "cultural resistance". The creation of this cultural resistance is investigated here. This essay aims to explores, through examining the theatre's methods of practice, how cultural resistance could be transformed into political action and what problems that may hinder their political aspirations from becoming a true potential for political influence. The essay concludes that the theatre uses identity and narrative for political purposes in order to unite and strengthen the Palestinian collective identity, creating a civil resistance towards the Israeli occupation. This is however not an unproblematic process, and many of the same problems facing other nonviolent resistance movements are also present within the theatre.


This thesis investigates workplace learning for new and established leaders in an English primary school. The study uses an ethnographic linguistic approach to explore the workplace learning environment and develops a conceptual framework that examines boundary construction, performance spaces and genres of organizational talk. This framework draws on Hernes (2003) to assess organizational boundaries, sociological and psychological concepts which take account of space and a Bakhtinian theory of language to understand genres. Using this framework the study investigates the way that the five formal leaders of a 350 pupil semi-rural primary school are able to learn to lead as part of their working lives. The methods used included interviews, participant observation, concept mapping,group discussions and attendance at the INSET training days and management team meetings taking place within the school. The study took place over one school year (September to July). The study illuminates the ways in which learning to lead was dominated by the local environment. Planned learning within the school was related to the organizational concerns of the headteacher and her perceptions of vulnerability and risk associated with opening the boundaries around and within the school. The school was assessed as having a restrictive learning environment, using Fuller and Unwin's (2003) expansive – restrictive continuum, but this planned strategy by the headteacher aimed to ensure that fast, immersive learning could take place. Use of a limited range of genres of organizational talk also shaped the way in which learning took place, privileging process knowledge (Eraut 2004). The thesis proposes that boundaries, spaces and genres need to be considered together when considering the workplace as a learning environment.


Considerable attention has recently been paid to the N-Myc downstream-regulated gene (NDRG) family because of its potential as a tumor suppressor in many human cancers. Primary amino acid sequence information suggests that the NDRG family proteins may belong to the α/β-hydrolase (ABH) superfamily; however, their functional role has not yet been determined. Here, we present the crystal structures of the human and mouse NDRG2 proteins determined at 2.0 and 1.7 Å resolution, respectively. Both NDRG2 proteins show remarkable structural similarity to the ABH superfamily, despite limited sequence similarity. Structural analysis suggests that NDRG2 is a nonenzymatic member of the ABH superfamily, because it lacks the catalytic signature residues and has an occluded substrate-binding site. Several conserved structural features suggest NDRG may be involved in molecular interactions. Mutagenesis data based on the structural analysis support a crucial role for helix α6 in the suppression of TCF/β-catenin signaling in the tumorigenesis of human colorectal cancer, via a molecular interaction.


This mixed-methods study explored the use of post-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and relationship satisfaction in HIV-serodiscordant couples. "Serodiscordant" refers to couples in which one partner is living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and one is not. PrEP is a daily dose of the antiretroviral medication Truvada, taken as a prevention measure by HIVnegative individuals at substantial risk for contracting the virus. This study was conducted via an anonymous online survey with both quantitative and open-ended questions to determine whether there is any relationship between the use of PrEP and relationship satisfaction in HIVserodiscordant couples. Data was analyzed by comparing people in serodiscordant couples in which the HIV-negative partner is using PrEP with people in serodiscordant couples in which PrEP is not used. No statistically significant results were found. A thematic analysis was conducted of the answers to the qualitative questions. Participants who were using PrEP (either taking PrEP themselves or partnered with someone taking PrEP) were more likely to name Sexual and Physical Connection as a way that their partner provided emotional support and as one of the best things about their relationship. Respondents from this group were also more likely to cite the theme of Comfort, Safety, and Trust as one of the best things about their relationship, although this theme was reported by both groups. Participants from the non-PrEPusing group were unique in reporting Closeness as one of the best things about their relationship and in reporting the themes of Age/Time/Future and Communication as things they would like to change about their relationship.


A Handbook of Children and Young People's Participation brings together key thinkers and practitioners from diverse contexts across the globe to provide an authoritative overview of contemporary theory and practice around children's participation.

Promoting the participation of children and young people – in decision-making and policy development, and as active contributors to everyday family and community life – has become a central part of policy and programme initiatives in both majority and minority worlds. This book presents the most useful recent work in children's participation as a resource for academics, students and practitioners in childhood studies, children's rights and welfare, child and family social work, youth and community work, governance, aid and development programmes.

The book introduces key concepts and debates, and presents a rich collection of accounts of the diverse ways in which children's participation is understood and enacted around the world, interspersed with reflective commentaries from adults and young people. It concludes with a number of substantial theoretical contributions that aim to take forward our understanding of children's participation.

The emphasis throughout the text is on learning from the complexity of children's participation in practice to improve our theoretical understanding, and on using those theoretical insights to challenge practice, with the aim of realising children's rights and citizenship more fully.


Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 amino acid sequence polymorphisms associated with expression of specific human histocompatibility leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I alleles suggest sites of cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL)-mediated selection pressure and immune escape. The associations most frequently observed are between expression of an HLA class I molecule and variation from the consensus sequence. However, a substantial number of sites have been identified in which particular HLA class I allele expression is associated with preservation of the consensus sequence. The mechanism behind this is so far unexplained. The current studies, focusing on two examples of "negatively associated" or apparently preserved epitopes, suggest an explanation for this phenomenon: negative associations can arise as a result of positive selection of an escape mutation, which is stable on transmission and therefore accumulates in the population to the point at which it defines the consensus sequence. Such negative associations may only be in evidence transiently, because the statistical power to detect them diminishes as the mutations accumulate. If an escape variant reaches fixation in the population, the epitope will be lost as a potential target to the immune system. These data help to explain how HIV is evolving at a population level. Understanding the direction of HIV evolution has important implications for vaccine development.


Projected demographic changes in industrialized countries will reduce the share of the workingage population. Analyses based on standard OLG models predict that these changes will increase the capital-labor ratio. Hence, rates of return to capital decrease and wages increase, which has adverse welfare consequences for current middle aged asset rich agents. This paper addresses two important endogenous adjustments channels to dampen these detrimental effects of demographic change: investing abroad and endogenous human capital formation. Our quantitative finding is that openness has a relatively mild effect. In contrast, endogenous human capital formation in combination with profound changes in pension policy – fixing contribution rates and increases in the retirement age – have strong effects. Maximum welfare losses of demographic change for households alive in 2010 decrease from 6.5% to 3.6% when human capital endogenously adjusts and when the statutory retirement age is indexed to life expectancy.


In the present study, the effects of 2 different oil types (soybean and olive oil) and 3 different gums (xanthan gum, sodium alginate, locust bean gum, and their blends) on the rheological and physicochemical properties (pH, titratable acidity, moisture, and color), overrun, melting rate, melting time, and sensory properties of frozen mellorine samples were determined. Apparent viscosity of all mix samples decreased with shear rate, meaning that mellorine mix samples showed shear thinning behavior. Mellorine mix samples showed Ostwald-de Waele flow behavior (R2 >= 0.9915). Viscous synergy indexes were calculated to determine if the gums had synergic interaction. The viscous synergy index value of the xanthan and locust bean gum combination was found to be approximately 1.80, indicating synergic interaction between them. The effects of different gums on the apparent viscosity values at 50 s-1 (eta50) were satisfactorily modeled by a modified power-law model. The adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model was also found to be sufficient to predict apparent viscosity values based on the oil type, gum concentrations, and shear rate (R2 = 0.9121). According to the combined design, the optimum gum concentration was determined to be 56.3% xanthan gum and 43.7% locust bean gum.


Advances in power electronic systems, especially those in hybrid and electric automobiles and renewable power generation systems, demand high blocking voltage, fast switching performance and low thermal budget from power semiconductor devices. State-of-the--art, silicon based power semiconductor devices are limited by material properties in meeting these demands. Due to the relatively low critical electric field, the on-resistance of the devices is high, and increases significantly with blocking voltage. As a result, current silicon (Si) power MOSFETs rated at above 600 V suffer from unacceptably high conduction losses. Innovative designs, such as the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), have been developed which use conductivity modulation through the injection of minority carriers to reduce on-resistance. But the involvement of minority carriers gives rise to stored charge and a turn-off delay, dramatically increasing switching losses compared to unipolar devices. Silicon carbide (SiC), a wide band gap semiconductor provides an alternative to Si, and offers a 7x higher electric field strength, 2x higher saturation velocity, and 3x higher thermal conductivity. A thinner, more heavily doped drift region is required for a SiC power device for a particular voltage, which reduces on-resistance and power consumption. However, the channel resistance of SiC metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) is high due to the poor quality of the dielectric-semiconductor interface. Thus the SiC MOSFET fails to live up to the full promise of the material. Minimization of the channel resistance is essential, especially for applications requiring blocking voltages under 1 kV, where this component dominates others. In this work, a novel tri-gate SiC MOSFET is proposed to address this issue. This new structure utilizes both the conventional horizontal surface as well as the sidewalls of a trench to increase the effective width of the channel without increasing the device area. With proper optimization, it should be possible to achieve 3x lower specific on-resistance compared to current SiC unipolar power devices.


Recently, the research on mobile ad hoc networks is departing from the view of stand-alone networks, to focus on hybrid self-organized network environments interconnected to the Internet. This type of networks is built on a mix of fixed and mobile nodes using both wired and multi-hop wireless technologies, and may be easily integrated into classical wired/wireless networking infrastructures. In this paper we design a lightweight and efficient architecture to build such a multi-hop hybrid ad hoc network, which will be used as a flexible and low-cost extension of traditional wired LANs. Our proposed architecture provides transparent global Internet connectivity and self-configuration to mobile nodes, without requiring configuration changes in the preexisting wired LAN. Differently from most of the implemented solutions, which are based on complex IP-based mechanisms, such as Mobile IP, IP-in-IP encapsulation and IP tunneling, our proposed system operates below the IP level, and employs only layer-2 mechanisms. We have prototyped the core functionalities of our architecture, and we present several experimental results to verify the network performance constraints, and how different OLSR parameter settings impact on them.


Since its first appearance in 1962, the impact of The Gutenberg Galaxy has been felt around the world. It gave us the concept of the global village; that phrase has now been translated, along with the rest of the book, into twelve languages, from Japanese to Serbo-Croat. It helped establish Marshall McLuhan as the original 'media guru.' More than 200,000 copies are in print. The reissue of this landmark book reflects the continuing importance of McLuhan's work for contemporary readers.


The combination of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) with resonant XUV excitation of a core electron into the transient valence vacancy that is created in the course of the HHG process is investigated theoretically. In this setup, the first electron performs a HHG three-step process, whereas the second electron Rabi flops between the core and the valence vacancy. The modified HHG spectrum due to recombination with the valence and the core is determined and analyzed for krypton on the 3d→4p resonance in the ion. We assume an 800 nm laser with an intensity of about 10(14) W/cm2 and XUV radiation from the Free Electron Laser in Hamburg (FLASH) with an intensity in the range 10(13)-10(16)W cm2. Our prediction opens perspectives for nonlinear XUV physics, attosecond x rays, and HHG-based spectroscopy involving core orbitals.


A social intolerance of medical mistakes has caused them to be criminalised

After pleading guilty to the manslaughter of his patient by gross negligence Feda Mulhem was given a custodial sentence of eight months. Dr Mulhem, who was only three days into his first post as a specialist registrar in haematology at Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, had instructed a junior doctor to inject an anticancer drug into the patient's spine. The drug should have been injected intravenously but Dr Mulhem had confused this drug with another that is given at the same time, which is properly injected into the spine. Within a few minutes the doctor realised the magnitude of his mistake and was visibly shaken, but it was too late to save the life of his teenage patient, Wayne Jowett, whose cancer was in remission.1 Because Dr Mulhem had already served time in custody awaiting his trial he was released immediately, and the dead patient's father called the eight month sentence "absolutely ridiculous," for being too short.2

The anger of Wayne Jowett's father was understandable, but the use of the criminal justice system to punish Dr Mulhem is questionable. He was not seeking to harm his patient; in fact he was intending to further his recovery. His "crime" was that he made a mistake; …


Modern hospitals treat patients with increasing co-morbidity and complexity. Multiple studies have shown that up to 17% of patient admissions are complicated by a serious adverse event. Such events are often not related to the patients underlying medical condition and may result in morbidity, permanent disability, and in up to 10% of cases, death. Serious adverse events are often foretold by the development of new complaints that manifest in derangements of commonly measured vital signs. The Medical Emergency Team is a team of intensive care doctors and nurses with skills in reviewing and treating patients who have become acutely unwell on the hospital wards. The team is summoned when a patient fulfil one ore more predefined criteria for activation. The chapters in this thesis present original research related to the role of the Medical Emergency Team in identifying, reviewing and treating acutely unwell ward patients, primarily at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. The literature relating to the incidence and antecedents to serious adverse events is reviewed. The rationale behind the Medical Emergency Team and the history of its evolution in Australia and The Austin Hospital is then discussed. In the subsequent chapters, the effect of introduction of the Medical Emergency Team on the outcome of a number of patient cohorts is review including 1). the long term mortality following major surgery; 2) the incidence of cardiac arrests in patients admitted for more than 24 hours; and 3) the inhospital mortality of medical and surgical patients admitted for more than 24 hours. In addition, a survey of nurse's attitudes to the Medical Emergency Team and potential barriers to its activation is presented. The change in Medical Emergency Team utilization with time at the Austin and Alfred Hospitals is described. Finally, the causes for Medical Emergency Team activation are examined, as is the role of the team in end of life care planning.


Chapter 2 of PRIVACY LAW FUNDAMENTALS provides a brief overview of information privacy law – the scope and types of law. The chapter contains an historical timeline of major developments in the law of privacy and data security. PRIVACY LAW FUNDAMENTALS is a distilled guide to the essential elements of U.S. data privacy law. In an easily-digestible format, the book covers core concepts, key laws, and leading cases. Professors Daniel Solove and Paul Schwartz clearly and concisely distill all relevant information about privacy law into this short volume. PRIVACY LAW FUNDAMENTALS is designed to be like Strunk and White's Elements of Style for the privacy field – the essential handy reference guide that cuts right to the heart of each topic. The book covers the key provisions of all of the major privacy statutes and regulations: COPPA, DPPA, ECPA, FCRA, FERPA, FISA, FTC Act, GLBA, HIPAA, Privacy Act, VPPA, and more. In addition, it summarizes key state privacy laws such as data security breach notification statutes and provides an overview of FTC enforcement actions. The authors provide numerous charts and tables summarizing the privacy statutes (i.e. statutes with private rights of action, preemption, and liquidated damages, among other things). Topics areas covered include: the media, domestic law enforcement, national security, government records, health and genetic data, financial information, consumer data, data security, education privacy, employment privacy, and international privacy law.


Watermarking is one of the most effective tools to countering multimedia content tampering and digital piracy. However, due to widespread availability of watermarking tools and the ease of distribution via Internet, the misuse of watermarking algorithms adapted to distribute malicious information as well as industrial and government secrets is not only possible but prevalent. Therefore, it becomes critical that such embedded data be removed from the multimedia without degrading the quality. In this paper, we propose a general removal method to remove watermarks from images based on pseudorandom desynchronization by selective pixel removal. This method does not assume nor require any prior information about image, watermark or embedding algorithm. We have shown that our method can achieve on average a 50% BER, effectively removing all watermark information without degrading the visual quality of the images.


This paper describes how a group of preschool teachers participating in a design workshop sketched ideas for how ICT (information and communication technology) can be developed in relation to preschool practice. The design process, which was modelled on creative research methods and future workshops, is presented in detail. The main findings, based on a data-driven analysis of verbal and written statements and design sketches, show that ICT is mainly conceptualised as either a possibility in the support of specific competences (such as language development) or a threat to, for example, the notion of real communication and also to well-established conceptualisations of preschool practice.


In the Fast Reactor Cycle Technology Development (FaCT) project, a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) with mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel and an SFR with metal fuel were selected as the primary and the secondary candidates, respectively, for the Japan Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (JSFR). The present study focuses on the effects of transuranium (TRU) composition in the design for the JSFR core with MOX fuel. In the transitional stage from light water reactor (LWR) to fast breeder reactor (FBR), there is the possibility for FBR fuel to have high minor actinide (MA) content due to the recycling of LWR spent fuel. High MA content affects core and fuel designs as follows: the neutronic reactivity characteristic changes; the linear power limit is reduced because of decreases of the melting point and thermal conductivity in the fuel; the gas plenum length is extended because of an increase in He gas generation. Thus, to evaluate the effects quantitatively, design studies for cores with two TRU compositions were conducted: an FBR multirecycle composition with ~1 wt% (in heavy metal) of MA content and an LWR recycle composition for which 3 wt% of MA content was assumed as a tentative target. The results show that the change from the FBR multirecycle composition to the LWR recycle composition leads to a sodium void reactivity increase of 10%, a linear power limit decrease of 1 to 2%, and a gas plenum length increase of 5%. As a result, the effects of TRU composition on the core and fuel designs were revealed to be benign.


In [33], it was proved that an injective module is indecomposable if and only if its endomorphism ring is local. The first aim of this thesis is to generalize this result from indecomposable modules to square-free ones by showing that an injective module is square-free if and only if its endomorphism ring is quasi-duo. We then describe all maximal right (left, two-sided) ideals of the endomorphism ring of an arbitrary injective module. We then study two classes of modules: Loewy modules with finite Loewy invariants over an arbitrary ring and max modules with finite radical invariants over a semilocal ring. We prove that the endomorphism rings of these modules are semilocal, generalizing in this way a result that proved by Camps and Dicks for artinian modules [9]. In [12], Facchini proved that, over a commutative ring, a module is artinian if and only if it is a Loewy module with finite Loewy invariants. Here we show that this is not necessarily true for modules over non-commutative rings


Dada -- perhaps the most famous and outrageous of modernism's artistic movements -- is said to have begun at the Cabaret Voltaire, a literary evening staged at the restaurant Meierei in Zurich on February 5, 1916. The evening featured stamping, roaring, banging on the lids of pots and pans, and the recitation of incomprehensible "poemes simultanes" Thus a global revolution in art and culture was born in a Swiss restaurant. Or was it?In Dada East, Tom Sandqvist shows that Dada did not spring full-grown from a Zurich literary salon but grew out of an already vibrant artistic tradition in Eastern Europe -- particularly Romania -- that was transposed to Switzerland when a group of Romanian modernists settled in Zurich. Bucharest and other cities in Romania had been the scene of Dada-like poetry, prose, and spectacle in the years before World War I. One of the leading lights was Tristan Tzara, who began his career in avant-garde literature at fifteen when he cofounded the magazine Simbolul. Tzara -- who himself coined the term "Dada," inspired by an obscure connection of his birthday to an Orthodox saint -- was at the Cabaret Voltaire that night, along with fellow Romanians Marcel, Jules, and Georges Janco and Arthur Segal. It's not a coincidence, Sandqvist argues, that so many of the first dadaist group were Romanians. Sandqvist traces the artistic and personal transformations that took place in the "little Paris of the Balkans" before they took center stage elsewhere, finding sources as varied as symbolism, futurism, and folklore. He points to a connection between Romanian modernists and the Eastern European Yiddish tradition; Tzara, the Janco brothers, and Segal all grew up within Jewish culture and traditions.For years, the communist authorities in Romania disowned and disavowed Romania's avant-garde movements. Now, as archives and libraries are opening to Western scholars, Tom Sandqvist tells the secret history of Dada's Romanian roots.


Innovations in the assortment of special wood products made by small manufacturers, and not by major manufacturers in terms of quality and environmental credentials, enables them to compete successfully on the market. For the final phase of the production process, these products require a precisely chosen surface finishing treatment. The purpose of wood treatment is to protect a specific adherend against the adverse effects of external influences, as well as mechanical, chemical and biological damage. The requirements for the quality of the surface treatment are dependent on the function and purpose of a particular product. At present, beyond surface characteristics, there are no other evaluation criteria that take into account the diverse morphological characteristics of wood, e.g. reflectance as a result of the surface reaction of wood to the application of different types and layers of coatings. The research presented in this article focuses on determining the most important qualitative criteria with regards to the surface treatment of special wood products (by assessing the morphological characteristics of the wood ́s surface by means of an experimental optical laser) during the production process of these products, which are produced by a limited number of small manufacturers, are produced in an environmentally friendly way, and are competitive and sustainable.


AbstractA high proportion of the animal imagery in The Faerie Queene serves a function that is effectively heraldic. The actual blazons of knights are seldom given: occasionally they provide a fixed point of reference that still allows for more fluent delineation of character and motivation, where animal imagery plays a vital part. Spenser may have been influenced by Sidney's Arcadia, where characters choose their heraldic devices for tournament or battle so as visibly to express their present states of mind. Sidney is elaborating from real life. Spenser's use of allegory allows him to invert this technique so as to offer and control subjective insight. This he does in three main ways, all of which have immediate and overall structural effect. His characters may ride, encounter or appear with specific beasts that express or project qualities of mind or character, as the Lion ridden by Cupid (FQ III xii 22), the beasts subdued by the young Satyrane, (F I vi) Mercilla's Lion (FQ V 33). They may have names reflected in their actions: Sanglier (FQ V i), Bruin (FQ VI iv). Simile may be specific to an occasion, as Marinell falling before Britomart's spear 'like sacred Ox' (FQ III iv 17) or cumulative over an episode, as in Arthur's fight with Maleger (FQ II xi). In particular, the reader's responses are educated by associative repetition so as to give an unexpected image special force, shifting or clarifying moral perspective.


The incorporation of tungsten in goethite and hematite as well as the relationships between the two minerals in a supergene environment are considered on the basis of a representative sample from the Grantcharitza tungsten deposit (Western Rhodopes, Bulgaria), studied by scanning electron microscopy, electron probe microanalysis, X-ray powder diffraction and micro-Raman spectroscopy. The sample is a colloform black material consisting predominantly of goethite ( G-I ) with 6.83–10.85 wt.% WO3 and of several products of its alteration, including W-poor goethite ( G-II ) with 1.35–5.72 wt.% WO3, a W-rich ferric iron oxide phase ( Fw ) with 22.19–25.12 wt.% WO3, and hematite ( H-I ) with 1.21–1.72 wt.% WO3. It is shown that G-I is an aggregate of proper goethite and of a W-rich ferric iron oxide phase ( Sw ). The alteration of G-I aggregates includes: (i) selective dissolution of Sw which either re-precipitates, thus forming a separate W-rich phase ( Fw ), or which is almost entirely removed from the aggregate; (ii) replacement of the residual goethite G-II by hematite H-I . An atomic ratio W/Fe of about 0.006 is supposed to correspond to the isomorphic (Fe3+ ⟷ W6+) incorporation of tungsten into goethite and hematite in the sample studied. The Raman spectrum of G-II resembles the already published spectroscopic data on goethite, whereas H-II shows spectral features typical of a highly disordered hematite structure. The presence of W atoms in the structures of hematite H-I and goethite G-II causes the appearance of a low-frequency shoulder of the Raman peak near 400 cm−1. According to the Raman spectroscopy data, the W-rich constituent Sw in G-I aggregates as well as its re-precipitated variety Fw both have a Fe-O network similar to that of goethite. In both materials only a small amount of W atoms occupies Fe-positions, while the major part of tungsten forms W-O self-assembled clusters generating a broad band between 580 and 750 cm−1 in the Raman spectra. As shown by model calculations, tungsten is organised in chain-like clusters of corner-sharing WO6 octahedra with an average W-O-W bond angle of about 150°. In addition, Fw contains isolated WO6 octahedra or corner-sharing-WO6 clusters with an average W-O-W angle of about 180°.


IZA DP No. 14849 NOVEMBER 2021 Labor Unions and the Electoral Consequences of Trade Liberalization* We show that the Brazilian trade liberalization in the early 1990s led to a permanent relative decline in the vote share of left-wing presidential candidates in the regions more affected by the tariff cuts. This happened even though the shock, implemented by a right-wing party, induced a contraction in manufacturing and formal employment in the more affected regions, and despite the left's identification with protectionist policies. To rationalize this response, we consider a new institutional channel for the political effects of trade shocks: the weakening of labor unions. We provide support for this mechanism in two steps. First, we show that union presence—proxied by the number of workers directly employed by unions, by union density, and by the number of union establishments— declined in regions that became more exposed to foreign competition. Second, we show that the negative effect of tariff reductions on the votes for the left was driven exclusively by political parties with historical links to unions. Furthermore, the impact of the trade liberalization on the vote share of these parties was significant only in regions that had unions operating before the reform. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that tariff cuts reduced the vote share of the left partly through the weakening of labor unions. This institutional channel is fundamentally different from the individual-level responses, motivated by economic or identity concerns, that have been considered in the literature. JEL Classification: F13, D72, J51, F16, F14


Syntheses of the carbon-bridgehead [2]cryptands (5)–(9) have been achieved in a number of different ways from the ditosylate (12) of diethylene glycol and either pentaerythritol (10) or 1,1,1-tris(hydroxymethyl)ethane (11). The [2]cryptands (5)–(9) all exist as their 'out, out' isomers and form complexes in solution with alkali metal cations. Variable temperature 1H n.m.r. spectroscopy indicates that the free energy of activation for the dissociation of the potassium ion complexes with the bisbenzyloxymethyl-(5) and dimethyl-(9)[2]cryptands in deuteriochloroform is ca. 12 kcal mol–1. Stability constant measurements on the complexes of these [2] cryptands [i.e.(5) and (9)] and the bishydroxymethyl[2]cryptand (6) with sodium, potassium, rubidium, and caesium chlorides in methanolic solution indicate, surprisingly, that the complexes are extremely weak (K′ca. 100). All three [2]-cryptands [i.e.(5), (6), and (9)] exhibit a slight selectivity for binding postassium ions.


Hours before the rise of the very star it will study, NASA's Parker Solar Probe launched from Florida Sunday to begin its journey to the Sun, where it will undertake a landmark mission. The spacecraft will transmit its first science observations in December, beginning a revolution in our understanding of the star that makes life on Earth possible.


Introduction The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, adopted in 1938, introduced a simplified pleading regimen for litigation in the federal courts.1 Commonly referred to as notice pleading,2 this new pleading regimen was designed to shift the courts' attention away IMAGE FORMULA6 from the pleadings and toward proof at trial.3 Under the simplified pleading standards adopted by the Federal Rules, the complaint need not contain a ritualistic recitation of elements of an abstruse theory of recovery, as required at common law; nor did it need to detail "facts" sufficient to make out a "cause of action," as required under the old scheme of code pleading.4 Under the Federal Rules, the complaint simply has to put the other side on notice of claims for relief, and it would withstand a motion to dismiss unless "it appears beyond a doubt that plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief."5 Detailed factual allegations are necessary only in cases involving fraud or mistake.6 The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed this lenient pleading standard. Nevertheless, lower courts in antitrust cases,8 purportedly following the lead of the Supreme Court,9 have used lack of detail in complaints as a basis for dismissing claims on the merits at the pleading stage even where it is clear that the other side is on notice of the plaintiffs claims. Judges have, in effect, implemented court-made specificity requirements to supplement the standards set forth in Rule 9(b).10 This Article analyzes the questions of whether a judicially created requirement for specificity in pleading is consistent with the Federal Rules of IMAGE FORMULA8 Civil Procedure and whether such judge-made pleading rules, if proper, ought to exist. The Article will: 1) explore general standards for pleading under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 2) discuss the exceptional circumstances where specificity in pleading is required under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and 3) analyze the case for and the case against a specificity in pleading requirement in antitrust cases. II. Pleadings Under the Federal Rules The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure reshaped the role of pleadings in federal civil actions.11 The drafters of the Federal Rules recognized that common law pleading was cumbersome and hypertechnical and forced courts to focus on the form of allegations rather than on the merits of the claim.12 In the view of the drafters, the Federal Rules should assure that litigants with meritorious claims have their day in court.13 Judgment is to be based on proof at trial and not on pleadings that initiated the suit.14 Accordingly, pleadings today play a diminished role in federal actions compared with their pivotal role at common law. To grasp the significance of the changes under the Federal Rules, it is important to understand the role historically played by pleadings in litigation. At common law, the pleadings were the focus of the litigation.15 The pleadings set forth the alleged wrong and the remedy sought.16 Proof at trial had to relate strictly to the pleadings.17 Any proof at variance with the pleadings was excluded.18 Amendment to the pleading was virtually impossible.19 The pleading process was technical and formulaic.20 All claims had IMAGE FORMULA12 to fit within the parameters of any one of ten recognized forms of action.21 If a complaint did not sound in one of the recognized forms of action, it was dismissed.22 Litigation was characterized by endless rounds of pleading with the goal of reducing the controversy to one question of law which then could be decided by the court without trial.23 Whereas the goal of the Federal Rules is to assure that meritorious claims are heard on the merits, the goal of common law pleading was to avoid trial. …


This PhD by published work comprises 11 papers published between 2006 and 2009. The research is focussed upon voluntary and related financial reporting by UK companies in their annual report. The level, and more importantly, the importance of voluntary disclosure has significantly increased over the last 20 years (Campbell, Moore and Shrives, 2006) and this submission provides academic and policy relevant contributions to that field. The papers make specific contributions to the extant literature in discrete areas primarily; philanthropy, social and environmental reporting. These 11 publications adopt a range of research methods appropriate to different research questions. The qualitative papers demonstrate successful engagement with a number of high level participant stakeholders from the building society sector, fair trade organisations and UK capital markets as well as capturing disclosure content relevant to other stakeholder groups. Other papers have adopted a positivist approach with appropriate longitudinal and cross sectional data used to test theory. Two of the research projects relating to strategic philanthropy and decision–usefulness of disclosure were supported by external research funding and therefore demonstrate the policy relevance and impact of the research contribution in those areas. Within the commentary, the research is presented in two sections, followed by a conclusion which shows the research impact of the publications and the international dissemination of the research contribution and findings. The key findings of Section 1 show the financial and non-financial influences on levels of philanthropy; inconsistency of philanthropy policy reporting; social disclosure responses to legitimacy threats and the reporting validity of the annual report; a holistic approach to responsible business practice and insights into the mainstreaming of Fair Trade. Section 2 provides findings into the decision-usefulness of a range of voluntary disclosure narratives in the annual report, developed in detail in respect of environmental disclosures and related risk factors and insights into the current issues facing accounting.