You can discover Japanese art like no other. Originally created by the artists of the ukiyo-e school of the floating world to advertise brothels in 17th-century Yoshiwara, these popular spring pictures (shunga) transcended class and gender in Japan for almost 300 years. These tender, humorous and brightly coloured pieces celebrate sexual pleasure in all its forms, culminating in the beautiful, yet graphic, work of iconic artists Utamaro, Hokusai and Kunisada. This catalogue of a major international exhibition aims to answer some key questions about what shunga is and why was it produced. Erotic Japanese art was heavily suppressed in Japan from the 1870s onwards as part of a process of cultural modernisation that imported many contemporary western moral values. Only in the last twenty years or so has it been possible to publish unexpurgated examples in Japan and this ground-breaking publication presents this fascinating art in its historical and cultural context for the first time. Within Japan, shunga has continued to influence modern forms of art, including manga, anime and Japanese tattoo art. Drawing on the latest scholarship and featuring over 400 images of works from major public and private collections, this landmark book sheds new light on this unique art form within Japanese social and cultural history. Shunga: sex and pleasure in Japanese art is published to accompany an exhibition at the British Museum from October 2013 to January 2014.


The aim of the paper is to examine the state of affairs in farming practices in the sector of commercial farms in Polish Agriculture. Analysis of farming practices and farmers opinions on their appropriateness was based on the results of the survey in the sample of 721 farms from different regions of the country. Farming practices related to crop production, animal husbandry, farm management and environment were measured against the ideal model drawn from the Integrated Farming System guidelines. keywords: farming practices, Integrated Farming System, Farming Practices Correctness Indicator


Purpose of this study is to compare students' course achievement and attitudes towards computers in computer literacy course between two course delivery methods: Blended and face-to-face (FTF). Using a pretest-posttest control group experimental design model, participants were assigned to experimental and control groups purposefully in order to achieve group equivalency. The study was conducted during the fall of the 2006-2007 academic year. Participants were 179 students from the Faculty of Education at Uludag University in Turkey. 86 students were taught with the blended mode of delivery, which involved using both FTF and online modes of instruction; 93 students were taught with FTF mode alone. At the beginning of the study, prior knowledge about computer literacy and attitudes towards computers were measured in both groups. At the end of the study, students' final course scores and attitude scores towards computers were evaluated. Data were analyzed using independent samples t-tests. A statistically significant difference was found between the FTF and blended group (p<0.05). The analysis showed that the blended group was more successful than the traditional group in terms of both course achievement and attitudes towards computers.


In this paper the effect of a force control law in the transparency of a five degree-of-freedom (dof) haptic mechanism is investigated. The mechanism, which is a part of a training medical simulator for urological operations, consists of a two-dof, five bar linkage and a three-dof spherical joint. The force control algorithm is described and discussed. The open and closed loop schemes are compared. It is shown that the use of the control law aims at the maximization of the haptic device transparency increasing the realism of the simulation. A stability analysis of a one-dof haptic device is performed determining the force control law margin, i.e. a quantitative indication of the haptic mechanism ability to simulate a wide range of virtual environments, maintaining at the same time its stability. Simulation results of the force control law application on the five-dof mechanism are presented and discussed. The closed loop system shows substantially improved response with respect the open loop system.


We extend the definition of a convex risk measure to a conditional framework where additional information is available. We characterize these risk measures through the associated acceptance sets and prove a representation result in terms of conditional expectations. As an example we consider the class of conditional entropic risk measures. A new regularity property of conditional risk measures is defined and discussed. Finally we introduce the concept of a dynamic convex risk measure as a family of successive conditional convex risk measures and characterize those satisfying some natural time consistency properties.


Regret-based algorithms are highly efficient at finding approximate Nash equilibria in sequential games such as poker games. However, most regret-based algorithms, including counterfactual regret minimization (CFR) and its variants, rely on iterate averaging to achieve convergence. Inspired by recent advances on last-iterate convergence of optimistic algorithms in zero-sum normal-form games, we study this phenomenon in sequential games, and provide a comprehensive study of last-iterate convergence for zero-sum extensive-form games with perfect recall (EFGs), using various optimistic regret-minimization algorithms over treeplexes. This includes algorithms using the vanilla entropy or squared Euclidean norm regularizers, as well as their dilated versions which admit more efficient implementation. In contrast to CFR, we show that all of these algorithms enjoy last-iterate convergence, with some of them even converging exponentially fast. We also provide experiments to further support our theoretical results.


Abstract. This paper, which focuses on emissions from China's coal-fired power plants during 1990–2010, is the second in a series of papers that aims to develop a high-resolution emission inventory for China. This is the first time that emissions from China's coal-fired power plants were estimated at unit level for a 20-year period. This inventory is constructed from a unit-based database compiled in this study, named the China coal-fired Power plant Emissions Database (CPED), which includes detailed information on the technologies, activity data, operation situation, emission factors, and locations of individual units and supplements with aggregated data where unit-based information is not available. Between 1990 and 2010, compared to a 479 % growth in coal consumption, emissions from China's coal-fired power plants increased by 56, 335, and 442 % for SO2, NOx, and CO2, respectively, and decreased by 23 and 27 % for PM2.5 and PM10 respectively. Driven by the accelerated economic growth, large power plants were constructed throughout the country after 2000, resulting in a dramatic growth in emissions. The growth trend of emissions has been effectively curbed since 2005 due to strengthened emission control measures including the installation of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems and the optimization of the generation fleet mix by promoting large units and decommissioning small ones. Compared to previous emission inventories, CPED significantly improved the spatial resolution and temporal profile of the power plant emission inventory in China by extensive use of underlying data at unit level. The new inventory developed in this study will enable a close examination of temporal and spatial variations of power plant emissions in China and will help to improve the performances of chemical transport models by providing more accurate emission data.


We have measured the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the resistance for bulk samples of single-walled nanotubes treated in different ways. Hydrostatic pressure-treated samples and as-grown samples show a two-dimensional variable-range hopping behaviour while samples treated in non-hydrostatic pressure or in acid for a long time show a three-dimensional transport behaviour. We suggest that the observed two-dimensional behaviour arises from a network structure with a fractal dimension lower than three.


We consider the finite interactions of the generalized Proca theory including the sixth-order Lagrangian and derive the full linear perturbation equations of motion on the flat Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker background in the presence of a matter perfect fluid. By construction, the propagating degrees of freedom (besides the matter perfect fluid) are two transverse vector perturbations, one longitudinal scalar, and two tensor polarizations. The Lagrangians associated with intrinsic vector modes neither affect the background equations of motion nor the second-order action of tensor perturbations, but they do give rise to non-trivial modifications to the no-ghost condition of vector perturbations and to the propagation speeds of vector and scalar perturbations. We derive the effective gravitational coupling $G_{\rm eff}$ with matter density perturbations under a quasi-static approximation on scales deep inside the sound horizon. We find that the existence of intrinsic vector modes allows a possibility for reducing $G_{\rm eff}$. In fact, within the parameter space, $G_{\rm eff}$ can be even smaller than the Newton gravitational constant $G$ at the late cosmological epoch, with a peculiar phantom dark energy equation of state (without ghosts). The modifications to the slip parameter $\eta$ and the evolution of growth rate $f\sigma_8$ are discussed as well. Thus, dark energy models in the framework of generalized Proca theories can be observationally distinguished from the $\Lambda$CDM model according to both cosmic growth and expansion history. Furthermore, we study the evolution of vector perturbations and show that outside the vector sound horizon the perturbations are nearly frozen and start to decay with oscillations after the horizon entry.


The basic assumption in this article is that growing older does not mean only, or even necessarily, a decline in one's labour capacities. Some capacities increase over the years, although this development is clearly not the same for each and every individual. The older workers' "enriched" capabilities are determined by certain aspects of job design. Older employees find, however, that their ability to learn and grow is hardly respected or addressed by their employer. Through action research in collaboration with a team of older female care workers with low educational levels, a new learning process was launched in a health care institution. The programme was designed in line with the team's own needs and experience. Thus, the initiative and learning demand lay with the participants. Their experiences and interests were key to the learning programme, which consisted of experimental and collective learning with the opportunity of self-direction. With the development of their capacities in the job and their improved performance, a change arose both in the employment relationship (the delegation of power and a more coaching oriented management style) and in the work content (the possibility of organising and cooperating in order to solve problems together). Due to new cutbacks and quality requirements in the standardisation of care processes, however, most of the changes have since disappeared.


— Spark ignition (SI) engines operating at very lean con- ditions demonstrate significant nonlinear behavior by exhibiting cycle-to-cycle bifurcation of heat release. Past literature suggests that operating an engine under such lean conditions can signifi-cantly reduce NO x emissions by as much as 30% and improve fuel efficiency by as much as 5%–10%. At lean conditions, the heat release per engine cycle is not close to constant, as it is when these engines operate under stoichiometric conditions where the equivalence ratio is 1.0. A neural network controller employing output feedback has shown ability in simulation to reduce the nonlinear cyclic dispersion observed under lean operating conditions. This neural network (NN) output controller consists of three NNs: a) an NN observer to estimate the states of the engine such as total fuel and air; b) a second NN for generating virtual input; and c) a third NN for generating actual control input. The uniform ultimate boundedness of all closed-loop signals is demonstrated by using the Lyapunov analysis without using the separation principle. Persis- tency of the excitation condition, the certainty equivalence principle, and the linearity in the unknown parameter assumptions are also relaxed. The controller is implemented for a research engine as a pro- gram running on an embeddable PC that communicates with the engine through a custom hardware interface, and the results are similar to those observed in simulation. Experimental results at an equivalence ratio of 0.77 show a drop in NO x emissions by around 98% from stoichiometric levels with an improvement of fuel efficiency by 5%. A 30% drop in unburned hydrocarbons from un- controlled case is observed at this equivalence ratio of 0.77. Similar performance was observed with the controller on a different engine.


Abstract Widows are often presented as victims of patriarchal sexual dictates in analyses of widow-inheritance. Our study explored experiences of widowhood in Kampala. Ethnographic fieldwork combined participant observation, semi-structured individual interviews, and focus group discussions. Widows are heterogeneous. Many husbands died intestate. Husbands commonly exclude their wives from will-writing. A Muganda man's last funeral rites include widow-cleansing. Widows get omukuza - levirateguardian. Our data contest overt sexualisation of levirate relationships. Exchange and opportunity cost are crucial to sexualising of processes withinwidowhood. Meanings associated with widowhood are transforming. Rather than a frozen construct, sexuality of widows is changing because of HIV/AIDS, intermarriages, religious synchronisations, recurrent deaths, and poverty. While some widows felt victims of circumstances leading to sexual activities with levirate-guardians, many others challenged sexualising the levirate relationship. A few benefited from sexually engaging with levirate-guardians. Victimisation is only one of many meanings interloped within widowhood.


The work performed under Contracts NAS3-23929 and NAS3-24633 is presented. MTI evaluated the feasibility of high-speed balancing for both the T700 power turbine rotor and the compressor rotor. Modifications were designed for the existing Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD) T53/T55 high-speed balancing system for balancing T700 power turbine rotors. Tests conducted under these contracts included a high-speed balancing evaluation for T700 power turbines in the Army/NASA drivetrain facility at MTI. The high-speed balancing tests demonstrated the reduction of vibration amplitudes at operating speed for both low-speed balanced and non-low-speed balanced T700 power turbines. In addition, vibration data from acceptance tests of T53, T55, and T700 engines were analyzed and a vibration diagnostic procedure developed.


This paper focuses on the biography of the Portuguese naturalist Francisco de Arruda Furtado, born on São Miguel Island, in the Azorean archipelago, in 1854, who became part of an international network of naturalists. Despite his short life, he produced original research on malacology (the study of molluscs), and from his youth Furtado claimed to be a disciple of Darwin. Informed by recent literature reflecting on the resurgence of biography in the history of science, the narrative of Furtado's life will take into consideration what it meant to be, and the implications of considering oneself, a disciple of Darwin in the nineteenth-century natural sciences. In the history of science, the concept of disciple has often been associated with research schools, but Darwin did not create one and never surrounded himself with young apprentices. In this paper we argue that in Furtado's case, and in all probability in many others, in addition to being a scientific theory, evolution had the status of a doctrine. As such, Darwinian evolution had a strong ideological and political dimension. By propagating it among lay people it had the potential of changing attitudes individually and socially, while at the same time it provided the scientific foundations for social and political transformation. Consequently, in addition to scientific research based on Darwin's theory, Furtado deeply engaged in proselytizing the natural sciences and Darwinian evolution, becoming representative of the importance of Darwin's disciples in Furtado's sense, in the reception and endorsement of evolution around the world, with repercussions beyond natural history.


Separating impacts of human activities and climate change on hydrology is essential for watershed and ecosystem management. Many previous studies have focused on the impacts on total streamflow, however, with little attentions paid to its components (i.e., baseflow and surface run‐off). This study distinguished the contributions of climate change and human activities to the variations in streamflow, baseflow, and surface run‐off in the upstream area of the Heihe River Basin, a typical inland river basin in northwest China, by using eight different forms of time‐trend methods. The isolated contributions to streamflow variation were also compared with those obtained by two Budyko‐based approaches. Our results showed that the time‐trend methods consistently estimated positive contributions of climate variability and human activities to the increases in streamflow and its components but with obviously varying magnitudes. With regard to streamflow, the time‐trend method double‐mass‐curve–Wei, with a physical basis, produced a reasonable smaller contribution of human activities than climate changes, inconsistent with the Budyko‐based approaches. However, all the other time‐trend methods led to contrary results. The contributions to baseflow variation diverged more significantly than those to streamflow and surface run‐off, ranging from 24% to 92% for human activities and from 8% to 76% for climate variability. In terms of surface run‐off, most of the time‐trend approaches produced smaller contributions of human activities (ranging from 21% to 49%) than climate change. The uncertainties associated with the various time‐trend approaches and the baseflow separation algorithm were revealed and discussed, along with some recommendations for future work.


Applications in many areas of computing make discrete decisions under uncertainty, for reasons such as limited numerical precision in calculations and errors in sensor-derived inputs. As a result, individual decisions made by such programs may be nondeterministic, and lead to contradictory decisions at different points of an execution. This means that an otherwise correct program may execute along paths, that it would not follow under its ideal semantics, violating essential program invariants on the way. A program is said to be consistent if it does not suffer from this problem despite uncertainty in decisions. In this paper, we present a sound, automatic program analysis for verifying that a program is consistent in this sense. Our analysis proves that each decision made along a program execution is consistent with the decisions made earlier in the execution. The proof is done by generating an invariant that abstracts the set of all decisions made along executions that end at a program location l, then verifying, using a fixpoint constraint-solver, that no contradiction can be derived when these decisions are combined with new decisions made at l. We evaluate our analysis on a collection of programs implementing algorithms in computational geometry. Consistency is known to be a critical, frequently-violated, and thoroughly studied correctness property in geometry, but ours is the first attempt at automated verification of consistency of geometric algorithms. Our benchmark suite consists of implementations of convex hull computation, triangulation, and point location algorithms. On almost all examples that are not consistent (with two exceptions), our analysis is able to verify consistency within a few minutes.


However one chooses to consider the work of the International Boundary and Water Commission, United States and Mexico (IBWC)--whether from a cultural, geographic or political standpoint--one is drawn to the conclusion it is as remarkable a regional water management agency as can be found anywhere. Supervising the boundary and water of the entire 1967 mile border, the Commission oversees two major river basins, numerous lesser ones, and over 700 miles of land boundary between El Paso, Texas and Tijuana, Baja California Norte. The Commissions' jurisdiction, originating prior to the turn of the century, has grown to embrace a wide range of functions and an extraordinarily diverse geographic and human landscape in the 1980s. In the process it has acquired a reputation as a singularly effective diplomatic and administrative agency and made this delicate sphere of U.S.-Mexican relations the hallmark of binational cooperation. It is at present the only officially designated international organization and permanently institutionalized commission in any sphere of U.S.-Mexico relations (Federal Register, 1984:292). As such, it has become a model for emulation by other countries. From its modest beginnings as a binational agency charged with mapping and maintaining the international boundary, the IBWC's jurisdiction and functions have grown to encompass an array of water management responsibilities and projects, ranging from water apportionment, storage, and flood control, to include border sanitation, water quality, and emergency water supply. Most important, the Commission has evolved as both a diplomatic and technical agency, with primary responsibilities for enforcing and interpreting the provisions of the international treaties with which it is entrusted, and anticipating and designing solutions to new problems within its jurisdiction. The Commission's work is, therefore, dynamic and changing. In the 1970s and 1980s it has faced a number of new issues and challenges that have significantly broadened its actual functions and portend further changes in the Commission's agenda. This paper is addressed to an understanding of these issues, how they have affected the work of the Commission and its capacity to respond to the new items on its agenda. The principal thesis developed in the following pages is that the IBWC functions subject to institutional and political limitations that 1) enable it to be dynamic and effective in certain areas and 2) circumscribe its functional development in others. This dual relationship has rather significant implications for the evolution of the Commission's work in the 1980s and the way in which it will respond to the several challenges it currently faces. In subsequent pages the paper sets out the functional character and scope of the Commission's work, its institutional and political limitations, current problems on the agenda of the Commission, and an analysis of its capacity to deal with these issues in the 1980s.


This paper presents evidence from two surveys to help explain the poor ratings consistently given to the teaching of economics at Australian universities. The evidence suggests that the poor ratings of economics teaching can be attributed to two related factors: inappropriate pedagogical practices and lack of rewards for allocating additional time to teaching. The survey data on pedagogy in economics consist of 205 responses from graduates from two Queensland universities. The time elapsed since graduation ranges from 1 to 10 years. The survey data on academics' time allocation consist of 290 responses from academic economists across a wide range of Australian universities.


Significance Whether coral skeleton crystals grow by attachment of ions from solution or particles from tissue determines (i) corals' growth rate, (ii) how they survive acidifying oceans, and (iii) the isotopes in the crystals used for reconstructing ancient temperatures. Our data show that two amorphous precursors exist, one hydrated and one dehydrated amorphous calcium carbonate; that these are formed in the tissue as ∼400-nm particles; and that they attach to the surface of coral skeletons, remain amorphous for hours, and finally crystallize into aragonite. Since these particles are formed inside tissue, coral skeleton growth may be less susceptible to ocean acidification than previously assumed. Coral bleaching and postmortem dissolution of the skeleton will occur, but a calcification crisis may not. Do corals form their skeletons by precipitation from solution or by attachment of amorphous precursor particles as observed in other minerals and biominerals? The classical model assumes precipitation in contrast with observed "vital effects," that is, deviations from elemental and isotopic compositions at thermodynamic equilibrium. Here, we show direct spectromicroscopy evidence in Stylophora pistillata corals that two amorphous precursors exist, one hydrated and one anhydrous amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC); that these are formed in the tissue as 400-nm particles; and that they attach to the surface of coral skeletons, remain amorphous for hours, and finally, crystallize into aragonite (CaCO3). We show in both coral and synthetic aragonite spherulites that crystal growth by attachment of ACC particles is more than 100 times faster than ion-by-ion growth from solution. Fast growth provides a distinct physiological advantage to corals in the rigors of the reef, a crowded and fiercely competitive ecosystem. Corals are affected by warming-induced bleaching and postmortem dissolution, but the finding here that ACC particles are formed inside tissue may make coral skeleton formation less susceptible to ocean acidification than previously assumed. If this is how other corals form their skeletons, perhaps this is how a few corals survived past CO2 increases, such as the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum that occurred 56 Mya.


Author: Ryan Timothy Holt Title: An Investigation of Classical Panel Stiffener Buckling Methods for Modern Airframe Applications Institution: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Degree: Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering Year: 2008 Classical methods for buckling assessment of aircraft panels reinforced by bulb-stiffened flanges differ regarding symmetric versus asymmetric cross-sections. The present research addresses a number of classical derivations of methods with a focus on the work of Dwight Windenburg as published in "The Elastic Stability of Tee Stiffeners" and the expansion of his work to asymmetric sections by E. F Bruhn in Analysis and Design of Aerospace Vehicle Structures. Vagueness in the relevance of geometric symmetry of the bulb exists between Windenburg's plate theory approach, and the accepted industry standard applications defined in the methods of Bruhn. The results presented trace the bibliographic history of sizing bulb-stiffeners to achieve the highest critical stress obtainable by the web, and verify the two sizing procedures theoretically and using Finite Element Analysis software. The results suggest that the theoretical approach presented by Windenburg is correct as stated; however the FEA results suggest that the claim made by Bruhn's and Windenburg's sizing process is inadequate.


United Fiber System, Ltd (UFS) seeks to secure financing for a 600,000 tonnes greenfield pulp mill project in South Kalimantan, Indonesia. It will be somewhat unique in Indonesia in that it will source its fiber entirely from sustainably managed plantations and will generate minimal negative impacts on natural forests and local communities. This brief has been prepared to promote a more informed and transparent dialogue on the proposed project among financial decision makers, policy makers, and other stakeholders. Based on a review of available documents and analyses, CIFOR has major questions regarding the social and environmental sustainability of the planned pulp mill and associated plantations. The issues are first limited information on the plantation development program provided by UFS. Secondly, the proposed project is likely to place direct pressures on the 77,000 ha of natural forest that reportedly remains at the PT Hutan Rindang Banua (PT HRB) plantation concession, and particularly on the 44,000 ha of areas covered by 'mixed tropical hardwood' (MTH) that were designated by Jaakko Poyry to be appropriate for plantation development. Thirdly, the development of a new 600,000 tonne pulp mill in South Kalimantan would compound the very significant problem of industrial over capacity that currently exists in Indonesia's forestry sector. Fourth, while the proposed pulp mill and associated plantations could generate significant employment and associated benefits, there is a risk of serious negative impacts on surrounding communities, which have a population of over 60,000 people. Finally, the project's current ownership structure lacks transparency, and this could lead to a lack of accountability if UFS or its affiliates fail to meet the commitments it is now making. As such, it is essential that financial decision makers, policy makers, and other interested parties design structures for ensuring accountability and transparency on the part of project principals.


Elliptic-Curve cryptography (ECC) is promising for enabling information security in constrained embedded devices. In order to be efficient on a target architecture, ECCs require accurate choice/tuning of the algorithms that perform the underlying mathematical operations. This paper contributes with a cycle-level analysis of the dependencies of ECC performance from the interaction between the features of the mathematical algorithms and the actual architectural and microarchitectural features of an ARM-based Intel XScale processor. Another contribution is the cycle-level analysis of a modified ARM processor that includes a word-level finite field polynomial multiplier (poly_mul) in its data path. This extension constitutes a good trade-off between applicability in a number of contexts, the simplicity of integration within the processor, and performance. This paper points out the most advantageous mix of elliptic curve (EC) parameters both for the standard ARM-based Intel XScale platform and for the one equipped with the polyjnul unit. In particular, the latter case allows for more than 41 percent execution time reduction on the considered benchmarks. Last, this paper investigates the correlation between the possible architectural organizations of a processor equipped with poly_mul unit(s) and EC benchmark performance. For instance, only superscalar pipelines can exploit the features of out-of-order execution and only very complex organizations (for example, four way superscalar) can exploit a high number of available ALUs. Conversely, we show that there are no benefits in endowing the processor with more than one poly_mul, and we point out a possible trade-off between performance and complexity increase: A two-way in-order/out-of-order pipeline allows +50 percent and +90 percent of Instructions per Cycle (IPC), respectively. Finally, we show that there are no critical constraints on the latency and pipelining capability of the polyjnul unit for the basic EC point multiplication.


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Innovations in transport and information communication technology have led to an ever expanding global perspective and playing field, for both business and citizens. Educational institutes play an important role in preparing students for this new reality. One way of doing this is for students to engage in educational travel experiences. Indeed, over the past two decades increasing numbers of students participated in study abroad programs, study tours, international internships and relatively new short-term programs such as international research projects. Yet, at the same time, globalization seems to have reduced some of the traditional benefits of educational travel, as the challenge of adapting to a different cultural environment has become easier than it has been in the past. Equally, there is a need to reconsider the competencies that educational travel should develop, as there is a noticeable shift towards pointing out the professional relevance of these experiences. The aim of this research was to work towards a competence framework and investigate how the learning of competencies was related to overcoming cultural distance. Based on these findings, implications for learning programs were formulated.


Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) measures have succeeded in restricting the two traditional avenues of money laundering, namely, the abuse of financial intermediaries and the physical movement of money across borders. Consequently, international criminal and terrorist organizations have turned to trade-based money laundering (TBML) to conceal and legitimize their funds, as this is a channel that remains relatively untouched by international AML/CFT efforts. This abuse of the global trade network has received increasing recognition from the Financial Action Task Force, the international standard-setter, as the next front in AML/CFT. Because TBML methods may be used not only to launder money, but also to finance international terrorism, facilitate weapons proliferation, and conceal and transport weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), this article proposes a far-reaching solution—that those in the international supply chain be required by law to adopt AML/CFT safeguards to protect their businesses, including filing suspicious activity reports, identifying their customers, and designating an AML/CFT compliance officer.


The antioxidant and antibacterial activities of ethanolic extracts of in vivo grown Asparagus officinalis cv. Mary Washington were investigated using superoxide dismutase, erythrocyte haemolysis and 2,2diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazil free radical scavenging methods. The measured antioxidant and antimicrobial potential were then compared to the activities offered by the ethanolic extracts of in vitro grown A. officinalis as well as ethanolic extract of undifferentiated callus cells of A. officinalis produced on Murashige and Skoog medium containing 1.5 mg/l 6-benzylaminopurine combined with 0.5 mg/l naphthalene acetic acid. The highest antioxidant capacity was obtained from the in vivo grown plant extract followed by in vitro grown plant extract in all three examined assays. Although, no antibacterial activity was detected from both in vivo and in vitro grown plant extracts in the disc diffusion antimicrobial assay, ethanolic extract of A. officinalis offered antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus.


Income is defined as the amount of funds, resources and/or time allowed to obtain goods over a specified period of time. This review discusses laboratory studies of income using methods of behavior analysis, behavioral pharmacology and behavioral economics. Initially, income was studied with respect to consumption of two types of the same good (e.g., food or drug), and later comparisons were made between food and nonfood rewards as well as drug and nondrug rewards. A consistent finding in these studies is that preferences between two goods change and often reverse as income is changed from low to high. Thus, reinforcing effects are not inherent in the goods, but they depend on the economic context (income, price of good, availability of substitutes). Another economic variable that has shown considerable impact on drug-reinforced behavior is the availability of nondrug alternative reinforcers which seem to function as economic substitutes. The present review also examines the interaction of income variables with price of drug (ethanol and phencyclidine) and availability of nondrug alternatives. It was concluded that price and availability of nondrug alternative are major determinants of drug intake. Changes in income dramatically alter preference between drug and nondrug items; however, income has a greater effect on consumption of nondrug alternatives than on drug intake. It was concluded that the optimal formula for reducing/preventing drug intake would be low income, high drug price and availability of inexpensive alternative nondrug reinforcers.


The European Food Safety Authority asked the Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues to develop an Opinion on the identification of pesticides to be included in cumulative assessment groups (CAGs) on the basis of their toxicological profile. In 2008, the PPR Panel adopted an Opinion on the suitability of existing methodologies for cumulative risk assessment of pesticides and a tiered approach was proposed, which was applied to a selected group of triazole pesticides in 2009. The present Opinion suggests a methodology for grouping of pesticides based on phenomenological effects and provides CAGs for the thyroid and nervous system. This approach can be applied even when the underlying biochemical events mediating the effects are not understood, and is based on a standardised and thorough review of Draft Assessment Reports (DARs) supporting the approval of all pesticides in Europe, and on recommendations from the European Commission. Pesticidal active substances exhibiting neurotoxic properties were allocated to CAGs for acute effects on motor, sensory and autonomic divisions of the nervous system and neurochemical endpoints. Chronic effects across the same divisions/endpoints and neuropathological effects were collated. Active substances having adverse effects on the thyroid system were allocated to CAGs for effects either on C-cells/the calcitonin system or on follicular cells/the T3/T4 system. The PPR Panel notes that the resulting groups encompass many pesticides and also that individual pesticides could appear in several groups and therefore the data entries for performing cumulative risk assessment (CRA) are of considerable magnitude. Although some CAGs contain a large number of pesticides, little indication of cumulative risk may be inferred from the size of CAGs per se. The PPR Panel recommends that the methodology is implemented for all major organ/systems but the approach used should be considered specific for pesticides.


Although the number of neutrophils circulating in blood is maintained relatively constant, the mechanisms through which production is increased under neutropenic conditions or decreased under neutrophilic conditions remain unclear. IL-23, a cytokine produced by dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages (Mфs), stimulates T cells to produce interleukin-17 (IL-17), which stimulates neutrophil production. Noting that strains of mouse that lack adhesion molecules (which have defects in neutrophil trafficking) exhibit neutrophilia, Stark et al. hypothesized that DCs and Mфs--which phagocytose apoptotic neutrophils--monitor the numbers of neutrophils reaching peripheral tissues and provide a feedback mechanism to regulate production. Fluorescent labeling revealed that wild-type neutrophils were more likely to undergo phagocytosis than were those from CD18−/− mice when injected into the same recipient mice. In mice that lacked CD18 or the endothelial selectins (which were neutrophilic), IL-17 mRNA abundance in mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN), spleen, and elsewhere was increased, as was the percentage of total T cells that produced IL-17. Bone marrow-derived dendritic cell (BMDC)-conditioned medium stimulated production of IL-17 by CD18−/− splenocytes, as did Mф-conditioned medium, an effect that was blocked by an antibody to the p40 subunit of IL-23 and attenuated by coculturing the BMDCs or Mфs with apoptotic neutrophils. Adoptive transfer of wild-type but not CD18−/− neutrophils into CD18−/− mice reduced the enhanced expression of IL-23 in MLN, as well as the numbers of circulating neutrophils and the serum IL-17 concentration; moreover, antibody to the p40 subunit of IL-23 reduced the numbers of circulating neutrophils. Thus, the authors propose that neutrophil phagocytosis--and a consequent decrease in IL-23 production--acts as a negative feedback mechanism to regulate neutrophil production. M. A. Stark, Y. Huo, T. L. Burcin, M. A. Morris, T. S. Olson, K. Ley, Phagocytosis of apoptotic neutrophils regulates granulopoiesis via IL-23 and IL-17. Immunity 22, 285-294 (2005). [PubMed]


Abstract Objective To illustrate the impact of intake-related bias in FFQ and 24 h recall (24hR), and correlated errors between these methods, on intake–health associations. Design Dietary intake was assessed by a 180-item semi-quantitative FFQ and two 24hR. Urinary N and urinary K were estimated from two 24 h urine samples. We compared four scenarios to correct associations for errors in an FFQ estimating protein and K intakes. Setting Wageningen, The Netherlands. Subjects Fifty-nine men and fifty-eight women aged 45–65 years. Results For this FFQ, measurement error weakened a true relative risk of 2·0 to 1·4 for protein and 1·5 for K. As compared with calibration to duplicate recovery biomarkers (i.e. the preferred scenario 1), estimating a validity coefficient using this duplicate biomarker resulted in overcorrected associations, caused by intake-related bias in the FFQ (scenario 2). The correction factor based on a triad using biomarkers and 24hR was hampered by this intake-related bias and by correlated errors between FFQ and 24hR, and in this population resulted in a nearly perfect correction for protein but an overcorrection for K (scenario 3). When the 24hR was used for calibration, only a small correction was done, due to correlated errors between the methods and intake-related bias in the 24hR (scenario 4). Conclusions Calibration to a gold standard reference method is the preferred approach to correct intake–health associations for FFQ measurement error. If it is not possible to do so, using the 24hR as reference method only partly removes the errors, but may result in improved intake–health associations.


Since the announcement of the birth of Dolly the cloned sheep in February 1997, assiduous attempts have been made to emphasise the potential benefits of human cloning techniques that do not result in a cloned baby: replacement body organs; cancer and ageing research; testing new pharmaceuticals, to name a few. Such research would nonetheless pave the way for the replication of humans and for human genetic engineering. Promotion of such benefits has been at the expense of investigations into the social, economic and environmental aspects of health and disease - what causes the ill-health and disease that these potential applications of cloning technology might treat? Key issues relating to how these potential benefits would be obtained and distributed are little discussed. This paper explores questions of purposes, distribution of risks and benefits, and public and private responsibility raised by the new genetic technologies. It points to the relations between the profit agenda of medical/biotech companies, the rhetoric in political and public discourse, and the ideological trend of focusing on the individual. Such relations can be considered adequately only when broader social and economic issues (such as those of equity within the modern welfare state and between the North and the South) are included in the discourse. When "ethical" considerations of the immediate moral character and consequences of cloning are framed within the traditional discourse of moral philosophy rather than these broader issues, they legitimise the politics of market power.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the effects of composition of aloe vera-green tea, matrica, and chlorhexidine on gingival inflammatory indices and dental stain index.

 In this double-blinded placebo-controlled clinical trial, anti-inflammatory, anti-plaque formation, and dental staining effects of two herbal mouthwashes, including aloe vera-green tea and matrica in comparison with chlorhexidine in 60 patients with plaque induced gingivitis referring to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, School of Dentistry were evaluated. The indices evaluated in this study were plaque index (Silness and Loe), gingival index (Loe and Silness), bleeding on probing index (Ainamo and Bay) and dental stain index (Lobene stain index). They were evaluated on the first day of using mouthwashes and two weeks later. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS software version 22. One-way ANOVA, Tukey post hoc, and paired t and Chi-square tests (α=0.05) were used as appropriate.

 There was no significant difference between the four groups in terms of the mean values of plaque index, gingival index, BOP index, and stain index before the application of mouthwash. However, after mouthwash application, the mean values of indices were significantly different between the four groups. Aloe vera-green tea and chlorhexidine mouthwashes reduced plaque index, gingival index, and bleeding on probing index significantly and there was no significant difference between these two mouthwashes (P>0.05). The effect of matrica mouthwash on plaque index and gingival index was significantly lower than aloe vera-green tea and chlorhexidine (P<0.05). The mean reduction in BOP index was not significantly different between the aloe vera-green tea, chlorhexidine, and matrica groups. Regarding dental stain index, both herbal mouthwashes caused significantly lower dental stain in comparison with chlorhexidine (P<0.05).

 The results of the present study show that aloe vera-green tea mouthwash may be an effective mouthwash owing to its antiplaque and anti-inflammatory properties and may be an ideal substitute for chlorhexidine.

 The clinical trial code: IR.MUI.REC.1395.3.573


Neuronal Transposons Transposons comprise a hefty chunk of the Drosophila genome and, unregulated, can generate mutations; thus, mechanisms exist to suppress transposon activity, particularly in the germline. Perrat et al. (p. 91) investigated transposon motility in neurons of the Drosophila brain. The mushroom body of the brain, responsible for olfactory memory, contains several different types of neurons. One class of neurons, the αβ neurons, exhibited increased transposon mobility, which generated increased neuronal diversity. Transposon movement in memory-relevant neurons in fruit flies increases neuronal diversity within and between animals. Recent studies in mammals have documented the neural expression and mobility of retrotransposons and have suggested that neural genomes are diverse mosaics. We found that transposition occurs among memory-relevant neurons in the Drosophila brain. Cell type–specific gene expression profiling revealed that transposon expression is more abundant in mushroom body (MB) αβ neurons than in neighboring MB neurons. The Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) proteins Aubergine and Argonaute 3, known to suppress transposons in the fly germline, are expressed in the brain and appear less abundant in αβ MB neurons. Loss of piRNA proteins correlates with elevated transposon expression in the brain. Paired-end deep sequencing identified more than 200 de novo transposon insertions in αβ neurons, including insertions into memory-relevant loci. Our observations indicate that genomic heterogeneity is a conserved feature of the brain.


Summary: A unique essay collection on Jim Crace, locating his writing within contemporary philosophical, cultural and political debates. In novels such as The Gift of Stones, Quarantine, Being Dead, The Pesthouse, and most recently, Harvest, Jim Crace has articulated a mythical sense of our contemporary simultaneous dislocation and connection to the world and planet on which we live. Crace has an uncanny ability to condense the conundrums of global political questions to the lucid simplicity of an epic yet particular narrative, evoking simultaneously a concrete sense of time and place through his characters and a timelessness through his refusal to locate his novels at identifiable historical or political moments. This timely first critical collection of essays on Crace's work provides a retrospective on his work to date, locating his work within a number of contemporary interdisciplinary critical and cultural perspectives and concerns, including post-humanism, post-millennial pastoralism, post-post feminism and gender, intersections between science and literary theory, environmental politics, the symbiotics of authorial and critical archival work, and the context of the burgeoning world of literary prizes. It includes additional contextual material in the form of an interview with Jim Crace and the re-publication of a seminal critical essay on "Craceland" by Adam Begley. As such this critical essay collection will be essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary fiction, and Crace's unique writing. For the first time, this book offers readers seminal cutting edge research on Crace's work together in one collection, from Crace himself to academics to archivists and literary editors.The essays consider Crace's earlier and most recent work in the light of contemporary critical and philosophical debates within a global political context, and each of the essays offer innovative inter-disciplinary ways of considering contemporary fiction.


This article examines Korean Twitter discourse surrounding Yemeni refugees in South Korea. Sequestered on Jeju Island since their arrival in 2018, the 500 refugees have prompted enormous public debate in Korea, which has until recently defined itself in terms of a mono-ethnic identity. Grounded in the literature on Korean digital feminism, this article conducts a thematic analysis from a corpus of more than 8,000 Korean-language tweets. The refugees and their situation are found to be appropriated by different segments of South Korean society to make broader arguments about gender, nationalism, and economic insecurity. This article finds that prorefugee and antirefugee arguments draw on identical themes to draw opposite conclusions predicated on their different understandings of "Koreanness" in increasingly multicultural South Korea. The article suggests the notion of "affective splintering" to make sense of the lack of cohesion among individuals within superficially ideologically aligned groups, such as conservatives or digital feminists. Similarities and differences with Twitter discourse on refugees from other contexts are discussed.


The paper presents the result of the soundings carried on in Ayia Triada in 1997-1999, starting from the data of old excavations and notebooks. The abundant graphic and photographic documentation reveals the complex history of the area due to ancient and modern activities. Our research concerned the following areas: A) In the area of the tomb of the Painted Sarcophagus the funerary building was brought to light, and reexamined, allowing us to date its construction to early LMIIIA2. Some decades after, the tomb was robbed as a consequence of a damnation memoriae within the framework of a strong competition among elites. B) In the nearby of Tholos B, the ossuary has been cleaned, and an entrance door in its western side has been identified, closed in MMII. C) In the area to the South of Tholos A, the small funerary chambers 1-10 have been analytically surveyed. A small pottery deposit and the reexamination of the walls has allowed the attribution of the complex to a mature phase of MMIA, and the identification of three architectonic phases. D) In the area to the West of chambers 1-10, the three rooms a-c, found empty by earlier excavators, have been investigated, and dated after our study to MMIA. They were probably built immediately before chambers 1-10, and had the same function. An eleventh room has been identified. The back wall of Rooms a-c included two baetyls, determining a kind of ceremonial door with its sill, looking towards Tholos A. In a later phase, the two baetyls had been incorporated in a small paved room, which can be dated to MMII and which represented a cultic space, as demonstrated by the presence of a slab/kernos. The entrance of this space was no more oriented towards the tomb (as in the betyls wall), as a consequence of changes in the funerary sphere. E) In the area of Tholos A, a small portion not yet excavated has been investigated along the northern side. F) Moreover a small sounding has been made in the so called Cyclopean wall, already brought to light in the '70es. The wall was built in the protogeometric period, and its eastern part overlapped the wall of Tholos A, already as a ruin. The wall delimited a ritual space linked with the tomb, probably used for the cult of the ancestors. G) Finally, a rich dump of MMIA pottery has been discovered in an ellipsoidal pit behind the wall of the baetyls. The vases were probably part of the original furniture of the nearby chambers 1-10, removed in MMIB to make room for the new depositions found in earlier excavations. In the final chapter a summary of the most important results is proposed. The profanation of the tomb of the Painted Sarcophagus is set against the framework of the urban phases identified in the new excavations; the event is furthermore interpreted in the perspective of the political relations between the centres of Knossos and AyiaTriada: the damnatio memoriae would echo the destruction of the palace of Knossos and the changes in the relations among the settlements of Crete. Second, the frequent uses in the area of Tholos A have been highlighted , especially in MMIA, with some insights in the nature of religious liturgies linked with the tomb. A short paragraph in the end attempts the reconstruction of a diachronic sequence of the whole area of the necropolis.


Incubation was for a long time considered to be a period of decreased activity and low cost for parents. It was therefore ignored as a potential factor affecting life-history trade-offs in birds. Lately this view has started to change, and studies now show that there might be considerable costs connected to incubation. We experimentally reduced the nest temperature during incubation in blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus, thus increasing the energetic cost of incubation, to test the importance of incubation as a component of reproductive costs and for nestling quality. While most other studies use brood size manipulation to manipulate reproductive costs, we were able to separate treatment effects acting during the incubation period from those acting on later reproductive performance by applying a cross-foster design. We were also able to isolate the effects of decreased incubation temperature on the nestlings from treatment effects acting on incubating females. We found no experimental effect on the length of the incubation period or on hatching success. The lower temperature during incubation, however, caused lower growth rates in nestlings and reduced chick rearing capacity in adults. We conclude that incubation is a costly period, with the potential to affect both the trade-off between current and future reproduction and the one between parental effort and offspring quality within the current breeding attempt.


Pocket Road Bike Maintenance provides road bike enthusiasts with step-by-step guidance to maintaining and repairing their bikes, combining an easy-to-use format and design with high quality photographs of the latest equipment.The book guides the reader through most common problems that may occur on a road bike and shows how to repair it. It also give tips on how to spot the early warning signs of trouble so that you can fix the problem before you need to get involved with costly replacements. It is the perfect reference manual to carry with you in a pannier or backpack.


Fraud and forgery are two types of crime in the land registration system. Both crimes are essentially involved in the deception of making dishonest personal gain for oneself or to create loss for another. Many countries have successfully converted their land registration records from paper documents into the computerised system. In Malaysia, since 1995, many different land administration authorities have offered their services through e-government instruments such as Computerised Land Registration System (CLRS) and Electronic Land Administration System (ELAS). Nonetheless, these innovations are factored as the cause in the increase of fraud and forgery cases. This study reviews the fraud and forgery challenges in land registration system innovations related to the information ownership. The fraud and forgery challenges in Malaysia include the (i) limited power of Registrar or land administrator, (ii) lack of expertise and resources, (iii) computerised land registration system security, (iv) lack of concern among legal practitioners and commissioners of oath, and (v) the abuse of power. This study also informs the land administration authorities and practitioners about the significance and challenges to protect information against the misuse for fraudulent purpose.


Some lemon [Citrus limon (L.) Burm. f.] cultivars present compatibility problems with commonly used citrus rootstocks. Therefore, assessing trueness-to-type of lemon mother trees is needed by growers. Morphological differentiation of lemon cultivars is not precise because they present high phenotypic plasticity. The objective of this paper is to contrast the discriminatory ability of several molecular marker systems for lemon. Three marker types were used: randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) and inter-retrotransposon amplified polymorphism (IRAP). The molecular variability found in C. limon is larger than that reported for C. clementina, another vegetatively propagated citrus species. This difference in variability content might be explained by differences in the distribution and age of both cultures. Similar to clementines, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) markers using primers anchored in copya-like retrotransposons resulted in a higher rate of polymorphisms (36.4%) than did primers of random sequence (27.3%) or those anchored at simple sequence repeats (0%), indicating a higher molecular variability at the locations where these retrotransposons inserted. Primers anchored in gypsy-like retroelements did not yield polymorphisms. Lemon cultivars from important groups such as 'Eureka', 'Fino', and 'Verna' could be distinguished using all polymorphisms.


MEMS switches represent a promising technology for a wide range of communications applications. They operate at high frequency, opening and closing the contact between metal pads. Surfaces are rough in nature, therefore a predictive description of contact switching requires understanding of asperity contact and adhesion. A simple model is presented to estimate adhesion forces in MEMS switches and the total forces required to detach the pads. The interface between two rigid pads is modeled as an array of uniformly distributed elastic asperities mimicking the interface roughness. Two types of asperities are considered: bonded asperities and adhered asperities, as described by the JKR adhesion model. The effects of asperity size, density, and load-displacement relationship are analyzed as a function of the loading conditions (i.e., tensile load and bending moment). The minimum force for detachment is proportional to the asperity size and asperity density, except when bending moments and tensile forces are combined (which leads to a more complex relationship). The results are summarized in a loading-detachment map. The most effective method to detach the contacts is through a combination of a bending moment and a tensile force. The implication of these results to MEMS designs are discussed and approaches to modifying the moment and tensile force ratio are suggested.


We present the analysis of X-ray and optical observations of gas filaments observed in the radio source 3CR 318.1, associated with NGC 5920, the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) of MKW 3 s, a nearby cool core galaxy cluster. This work is one of the first X-ray and optical analyses of filaments in cool core clusters carried out using MUSE observations. We aim at identifying the main excitation processes responsible for the emission arising from these filaments. We complemented the optical VLT/MUSE observations, tracing the colder gas phase, with X-ray Chandra observations of the hotter highly ionized gas phase. Using the MUSE observations, we studied the emission line intensity ratios along the filaments to constrain the physical processes driving the excitation, and, using the Chandra observations, we carried out a spectral analysis of the gas along these filaments. We found a spatial association between the X-ray and optical morphology of these filaments, which are colder and have lower metal abundance than the surrounding intracluster medium (ICM), as already seen in other BCGs. Comparing with previous results from the literature for other BCGs, we propose that the excitation process that is most likely responsible for these filaments emission is a combination of star formation and shocks, with a likely contribution from self-ionizing, cooling ICM. Additionally, we conclude that the filaments most likely originated from AGN-driven outflows in the direction of the radio jet.


The overview summarizes the main electromagnetic activities in Russia since the 13th Electromagnetic Launch Technology Symposium in 2006. This research has been focused on the development and improvement of electric-discharge launchers, railguns, and electrothermal-chemical launchers. Research efforts have been directed toward studying the physical phenomena and processes limiting the attainment of high velocities and life time of launchers. Considerable attention has been paid to solving problems related to material erosion, the manufacture of new materials and their testing in high-current arc discharges and the search for new applications of launchers in science and engineering.


At the same time that the Supreme Court has come to insist on a radical distinction between representations of sex and violence as a matter of constitutional law, never have the two genres been more deeply intertwined, in popular entertainment, of course, but also in certain practices of punishment. This paper considers the phenomenon of "torture porn" to explore not only representations of torture and humiliation in popular culture, but also the ways in which popular culture has shaped practices of punishment. Here I explore photographs of Abu Ghraib (as well as other legal and cultural disputes over the disclosure of photographs of torture) to explore the ways in which the popular vernaculars of pornography and smart phone photography informed the practice of torture. I compare the photos to a burgeoning genre of reality TV shows from the same era in which in which the spectacle of humiliation, punishment and even torture plays a pivotal and seemingly pleasurable role in the drama. In both scenarios, I focus not only on the mixture of sexuality and violence, pleasure and punishment, but also on the critical role of the camera. Ultimately by analyzing the similarities between "torture porn" in popular entertainment and the visual materials produced at Abu Ghraib, I suggest a mutually productive relationship between popular culture and punishment.


Understanding and transforming how cities think is a crucial part of developing effective knowledge infrastructures for the Anthropocene. In this article, we review knowledge co-production as a popular approach in environmental and sustainability science communities to the generation of useable knowledge for sustainability and resilience. We present knowledge systems analysis as a conceptual and empirical framework for understanding existing co-production processes as preconditions to the design of new knowledge infrastructures in cities. Knowledge systems are the organizational practices and routines that make, validate, communicate, and apply knowledge. The knowledge systems analysis framework examines both the workings of these practices and routines and their interplay with the visions, values, social relations, and power dynamics embedded in the governance of building sustainable cities. The framework can be useful in uncovering hidden relations and highlighting the societal foundations that shape what is (and what is not) known by cities and how cities can co-produce new knowledge with meaningful sustainability and resilience actions and transformations. We highlight key innovations and design philosophies that we think can advance research and practice on knowledge co-production for urban sustainability and resilience.


Sanskrit is considered by many devout Hindus and global consumers of yoga alike to be an inspirational, divine, 'language of the gods'. For 2000 years, at least, this middle Indo-Aryan language has endured in a post-vernacular state, due, principally, to its symbolic capital as a liturgical language. This presentation focuses on my almost decade-long research into the theo-political implications of reviving Sanskrit, and includes an explication of data derived from fieldwork in 'Sanskrit-speaking' communities in India, as well as analyses of the language sections of the 2011 census; these were only released in July 2018. While the census data is unreliable, for many reasons, but due mainly to the fact that the results are self reported, the towns, villages, and districts most enamored by Sanskrit will be shown. The hegemony of the Brahminical orthodoxy quite often obfuscates the structural inequalities inherent in the hierarchical varṇa-jātī system of Hinduism. While the Indian constitution provides the opportunity for groups to speak, read/write, and to teach the language of their choice, even though Sanskrit is afforded status as a scheduled (i.e. recognised language that is offered various state-sponsored benefits) language, the imposition of Sanskrit learning on groups historically excluded from access to the Sanskrit episteme urges us to consider how the issue of linguistic human rights and glottophagy impact on less prestigious and unscheduled languages within India's complex linguistic ecological area where the state imposes Sanskrit learning. The politics of representation are complicated by the intimate relationship between consumers of global yoga and Hindu supremacy. Global yogis become ensconced in a quite often ahistorical, Sanskrit-inspired thought-world. Through appeals to purity, tradition, affect, and authority, the unique way in which the Indian state reconfigures the logic of neoliberalism is to promote cultural ideals, like Sanskrit and yoga, as two pillars that can possibly create a better world via a moral and cultural renaissance. However, at the core of this political theology is the necessity to speak a 'pure' form of Sanskrit. Yet, the Sanskrit spoken today, even with its high and low registers, is, ultimately, various forms of hybrids influenced by the substratum first languages of the speakers. This leads us to appreciate that the socio-political components of reviving Sanskrit are certainly much more complicated than simply getting people to speak, for instance, a Sanskritised register of Hindi.


The key to financial security is good financial planning. We can no longer rely on the State to provide for us. Our future prosperity - and that of our children - lies in our own hands. For some this will represent an exciting challenge, but for many the confusing jargon, the increasing complexity of products and the major scandals in the pension and mortgage markets have made finance a frightening and frustrating topic. Help is at hand! Whether you need to buy a house, purchase vital protection insurances, save for your children's education and your own retirement, here is a plain English guide to help you manage your finances with care and get the best value for your money. Personal Financial Planner will provide you with all the valuable information you need to make sound investment decisions, enabling you to meet your short, medium and long-term goals and plan for a secure future with confidence.Written by Debbie Harrison, an award-winning author and journalist, this new edition of Personal Financial Planner will enable you to: *find a good financial planner *protect yourself and your family against illness and loss of income with vital insurances *minimise tax *make a will *understand how investments work *invest in the right assets and products for your short, medium and long term requirements *plan for future educational fees *select the right mortgage *plan for your retirement. Written in Debbie's renowned accessible style, Personal Financial Planner provides you with sound financial advice that strikes a much-needed balance between the over-simplified and the highly technical advice otherwise available. Personal Financial Planning Putting the 'personal' back into personal finance.


The waste tailing of metals generated during mining processes is degrading the environment by increasing the soil toxicity, leading to disturbances in the ecosystem. This study was initiated to determine the biokinetics of Thiobacillus thiooxidans for manganese bioleaching in the presence of excess sulphur. In batch studies, the effect of manganese concentration on the leaching efficiency of T. thiooxidans was also evaluated, and it was found that as the concentration of manganese increases, the leaching efficiency decreases. This may be due to an inhibitory effect of manganese at higher concentrations. The maximum leaching efficiency of more than 95% was found at lower manganese concentration of 5-25 mg/litre, while the efficiency significantly decreases to 35% at 200 mg/litre manganese. The biokinetic coefficient (maximum growth rate and inhibition constant) was also determined for T. thiooxidans for manganese bioleaching using Haldane's equation. A linear mathematical relationship was also developed between leaching efficiency, initial manganese concentration and time of incubation, which would be useful in predicting the leaching efficiency under various conditions. The significance test using T-paired test was also performed, and it was found that the theoretical leaching efficiency is above 95% confidence level from observed leaching efficiency. The above parameters are invariably required for the design and simulation of batch and continuous bioreactors for bioleaching of manganese tailings. The present work may be useful for management of tailing waste generated during mining processes.


As part of a project to establish a UK national standard apparatus for measurement of the thermal diffusivity/conductivity of molten materials, thermal diffusivity measurements have been made on a copper candidate reference material. In this paper we comment generally on some potential reference materials for the metallurgical and polymer processing industries and present measurements of the thermal diffusivity of molten copper from the melting point up to 1200 °C obtained with a laser-flash apparatus. The results have an expanded uncertainty of ′11.7%, based on a combined uncertainty of ′4.76 multiplied by a coverage factor of 2.45, providing a level of confidence of approximately 95%. Plans are described for imminent work on other materials including tin, lead, and polyethylene.


In this document, we describe the design of a new family of block ciphers, called FOX. The main goals of this design, besides a very high security level, are a large implementation flexibility on various platforms as well as high performances. The high-level structure is based on a Lai-Massey scheme, while the round functions are substitution-permutation networks. In addition, we propose a new design of strong and efficient key-schedule algorithms.


Background Many neurological conditions manifest with psychiatric symptoms and may be misdiagnosed. Structural neuroimaging, that is, computerised tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), can aid in the diagnosis or exclusion of these conditions. MRI is preferable in this regard but is more expensive and less readily available than CT. However, the indications for the requisitions of MRI in the clinical psychiatric setting remain poorly defined. All published literature on the clinical utility of neuroimaging in Africa is on CT scans. Aim To describe the clinical characteristics and MRI findings in a cohort of patients presenting with psychiatric symptoms. Methods Retrospective chart review of all patients who underwent MRI between 01 October 2010 and 31 June 2016. MRI findings were correlated with socio-demographic and clinical information including psychiatric diagnosis, indication for MRI imaging and impact on patient management. Results Of 53 MRIs performed, 33 (62%) were abnormal. Patients with HIV, neurocognitive disorders, chronic mental illness and involuntary admission were more likely to have abnormal scans (83%, 80%, 71% and 79%, respectively); 54% of abnormal MRIs (24% of all MRIs performed) necessitated referral to other disciplines. No statistically significant associations were found with socio-demographic or clinical factors. Conclusion Abnormalities on MRI scans in mentally ill patients were common and a quarter required referral to other disciplines. Further studies are required to clarify the clinical utility of MRI in patients with psychiatric illness which could assist in the development of a guide to the rational use of this modality in a resource-constrained environment.


This book offers an overview of the legal, political, and broad intergovernmental environment in which relations between local and state units of government take place, the historical roots of the conflict among them, and an analysis of contemporary problems concerning local authority, local revenues, state interventions and takeovers, and the restructuring of local governments. The author pays special attention to local governmental autonomy and the goals and activities of local officials as they seek to secure resources, fend off regulations and interventions, and fight for survival as independent units. He looks at the intergovernmental struggle from the bottom up, but in the process examines a variety of political activities at the state level and the development and effects of several state policies. Berman finds considerable reason to be concerned about the viability and future of meaningful local government.


Design and construction of vertical tunnels, more commonly referred to as shaft sinking, continues to rely on particular methodologies that are selected in response to a combination of site requirements, cost models, and available technology. Industry best practice in horizontal tunnelling is well researched and documented; however, changing demands for efficient, quick, and correctly risk-managed shaft sinking projects have revealed the need for similar documented best practice in vertical tunnelling. Shaft sinking methodologies typically vary between two extremes, on the one side being blind sinking, which is high in cost and labour requirements, yet carries the risk management benefit of being able to timeously respond to adverse geotechnical conditions. At the other extreme, raise boring provides an attractive, rapid, low-cost, and low-risk approach in suitable conditions and is usually preferred over more arduous methods whenever possible. Strides in technology are being made continuously to enable deeper, larger diameter shafts to be bored as an alternative to conventional shaft sinking. A particular benefit of raise boring is being able to avoid the delays associated with installation of in-line support. However, this very benefit can become its Achilles' heel in a large, deep shaft. Before boring is completed, it might become necessary to treat local breakout at depths exceeding current equipment capacities. Outcomes of existing geotechnical investigation methods usually indicate that an alternative method to raise boring should be considered when rock mass conditions are expected to be unfavourable. However, it can also usually be assured that poor conditions will occur at some stage within a long shaft. Given the benefits in terms of time, cost, and safety, this has led to risk indicators being questioned and equipment developed to improve risk-management strategies. With tolerance for safety risk practically disappearing, technological innovation continues to be driven ever higher. The question then presents itself: on what basis is the optimum shaft sinking method selected for a particular project? Under the umbrella of the ITA (International Tunnelling Association), a workgroup was initiated through SANCOT to put forward a best practice handbook on vertical tunnelling. The handbook is intended to document the process of vertical shaft engineering in order to assist the selection of an appropriate methodology. The complete design process is addressed, including the initial geotechnical evaluation, assessment of shaft design and constructability, pre-sink requirements, and selection of the excavation methodology. Current methods are separated into either conventional or boring, including blind sinking, slipe and line, Alimak raising, blind boring, and boring with a pilot hole. A final chapter addresses the end-stage process for operational readiness. Good progress was made during the course of 2013. Sub-groups comprising practitioners with substantial experience across the South African mining industry were assigned to gather data and brainstorm methodologies. Following the recent appointment of Ron Tluczek as Chairman, the SANCOT initiative is regaining momentum. On completion, the handbook is expected to deliver a comprehensive presentation of current best practice, with references to new technological development for efficient, safe, and cost-effective approaches to vertical tunnelling in mining.


Department Website: http://sociology.uchicago.edu Program of Study The discipline of sociology explores the nature, structure, and dynamics of social life, and also its causes and consequences for the world. With this broad mandate, sociology encompasses a diversity of substantive interests, methodological approaches, and theoretical orientations. Sociologists study diverse social phenomena ranging from online conversations, friendship, and families to neighborhoods, governments, and global markets. They study cities and communities, inequality, social mobility and social class, patterns of population change and migration, social identities such as race, class, and gender, ethnic relations and social conflict, social media and digital interaction, and social dimensions of sex, health, business, education, law, politics, religion, and science. Sociologists study the emergence, stabilization, disintegration, and wide-ranging implications of these social institutions, behaviors, and meanings. Methodologies of the field range from ethnography, interviews, and historical research to surveys, computational modeling, and big data analysis.


In studies that compare Internet use between groups, factor analysis is often used to create broader categories of use. Composite variables are constructed using a factor structure that fits the overall data. This approach overlooks tests that show whether the constructs are valid and whether items relate similarly to the general constructs in different countries. In this study, World Internet Project survey data were submitted to multi-group latent variable analysis and tested for configural and measurement invariance to illustrate why these tests might be important in cross-national comparisons. It was found that while the general Internet use constructs were applicable across national contexts, the way in which the items contributed was different.


Parametric shape optimization aims at minimizing an objective function f(x) where x are CAD parameters. This task is difficult when f is the output of an expensive-to-evaluate numerical simulator and the number of CAD parameters is large.
Most often, the set of all considered CAD shapes resides in a manifold of lower effective dimension in which it is preferable to build the surrogate model and perform the optimization. In this work, we uncover the manifold through a high-dimensional shape mapping and build a new coordinate system made of eigenshapes. The surrogate model is learned in the space of eigenshapes: a regularized likelihood maximization provides the most relevant dimensions for the output. The final surrogate model is detailed (anisotropic) with respect to the most sensitive eigenshapes and rough (isotropic) in the remaining dimensions. Last, the optimization is carried out with a focus on the critical dimensions, the remaining ones being coarsely optimized through a random embedding and the manifold being accounted for through a replication strategy. At low budgets, the methodology leads to a more accurate model and a faster optimization than the classical approach of directly working with the CAD parameters.


The study of bean genotypes resistant to the whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) B biotype (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) has been of great importance due to the damage caused by this pest. In this research, bean genotypes were evaluated regarding at- tractiveness to whitefly adults, the preference for oviposition in free-choice and non choice tests, egg-to-adult development time and characterized for the presence, type and number of trichomes. The experiments were carried out under greenhouse conditions initially evaluating 100 bean genotypes. The non-preference type of resistance for feeding and/or antibiosis was observed in the genotypes ARC-3, IAC-Alvorada and Canario 101, and the emergence of adults was strongly influenced by the genotypes. It was also observed a moderate negative correlation between the number of eggs and the number of glandular trichomes, as well as a very strong positive correlation between the number of eggs and the number of unciform non-glandular trichomes.


One of the key challenges in automated planning is to define the sources of information that will feed the initial state and goals of each planning task. In many domains, the information comes from company's databases. In other applications, the information is harder to obtain and it is usually partial. In this paper, we will describe an application on travel planning, where the initial state and goals will be obtained by crowdsourcing. Travel planning requires the use of plenty Internet-based resources; some of them are related to human generated opinions on all kinds of matters (e.g. hotels, places to visit, restaurants, ...). We present the OnDroad planner, a system that creates personalized tourist plans using the human generated information gathered from the minube traveling social network. OnDroad proposes an initial tourist guide according to the recommendation of the users profiles and their contacts. In addition, this guide can be continuously updated with newly generated data.


Abstract Erupted absarokitic-shoshonitic volcanics in subduction zones make up a relatively small proportion of the total erupted volcanic material. However, they are a critical component for quantifying subduction metasomatism and mantle source heterogeneity. This study examines the geochemistry of anomalous olivine within a forearc absarokite lava and associated tephra, a compositional end-member of the Cascadia subduction zone magmatism, to infer mantle heterogeneity and magma petrogenesis. Ni concentrations from the young (42 ka) Quartzville absarokitic basalt lava flow and tephra in the Cascade forearc are up to ~6400 ppm Ni with correspondingly low Ca, averaging ~850 ppm Ca in Fo91 olivine cores. Decreasing Ni and Ca toward olivine rims cannot be accounted for by simple fractional crystallization and instead necessitates magma mixing ± diffusive re-equilibration between the high-Ni, low-Ca olivine cores and low-Ni, high-Ca rims. δ18O of olivine phenocrysts (5.64‰) are elevated compared to other Cascade compositional components and outside of the range typically associated with peridotitic olivine or olivine crystallizing from peridotite-derived basaltic magmas. Trace element contents of whole rock, melt inclusions, and scoria glass have high Sr, high Dy/Yb, and low Y, characteristic of adakitic slab melts; however, major element compositions are of an alkali-rich basalt. In addition, similar trace element compositions between all analyzed glasses indicate a related petrogenesis between all components. We propose that a slab partial melt has reacted with depleted harzburgite in the mantle wedge, underlying the older Western Cascades (~40–10 Ma). Reaction of the siliceous slab-derived melt with depleted harzburgite could produce a metasomatized, zoned pyroxenite-harzburgite mantle source. High-Ni, low-Ca olivine crystallizes from melts of the subarc mantle reaction-pyroxenite. Later melting of the metasomatized harzburgite produces the absarokitic bulk composition, with olivine compositions recording diffusive re-equilibration following incorporation of pyroxenite-derived olivine in a peridotitic magma. Importantly, then, the observed olivine chemistry reflects mineralogical variations in the subarc mantle while melt trace element variations record melts/fluids derived from the subducting plate. High-Fo olivine rims (up to ~Fo94) appear to be the result of late-stage oxidation in the lava flow resulting from SO2 degassing and are unrelated to the otherwise complex magma petrogenesis.


Abstract The middle Miocene Mangarara Formation is a thin (1–60 m), laterally discontinuous unit of moderately to highly calcareous (40–90%) facies of sandy to pure limestone, bioclastic sandstone, and conglomerate that crops out in a few valleys in North Taranaki across the transition from King Country Basin into offshore Taranaki Basin. The unit occurs within hemipelagic (slope) mudstone of Manganui Formation, is stratigraphic ally associated with redeposited sandstone of Moki Formation, and is overlain by redeposited volcaniclastic sandstone of Mohakatino Formation. The calcareous facies of the Mangarara Formation are interpreted to be mainly mass‐emplaced deposits having channelised and sheet‐like geometries, sedimentary structures supportive of redeposition, mixed environment fossil associations, and stratigraphic enclosure within bathyal mudrocks and fiysch. The carbonate component of the deposits consists mainly of bivalves, larger benthic foraminifers (especially Amphistegina), coralline red algae including rhodoliths (Lithothamnion and Mesophyllum), and bryozoans, a warm‐temperate, shallow marine skeletal association. While sediment derivation was partly from an eastern contemporary shelf, the bulk of the skeletal carbonate is inferred to have been sourced from shoal carbonate factories around and upon isolated basement highs (Patea‐Tongaporutu High) to the south. The Mangarara sediments were redeposited within slope gullies and broad open submarine channels and lobes in the vicinity of the channel‐lobe transition zone of a submarine fan system. Different phases of sediment transport and deposition (lateral‐accretion and aggradation stages) are identified in the channel infilling. Dual fan systems likely co‐existed, one dominating and predominantly siliciclastic in nature (Moki Formation), and the other infrequent and involving the temperate calcareous deposits of Mangarara Formation. The Mangarara Formation is an outcrop analogue for middle Miocene‐age carbonate slope‐fan deposits elsewhere in subsurface Taranaki Basin, New Zealand.


Mobile handheld devices have become friends in people's daily lives. Frequent usage of available applications, especially video streaming, causes exponential growth in mobile IP traffic. Service providers and application developers need to know the tradeoff between the end-to-end (e2e) performance and cost since, not fully met expectations of customers from those applications cause reduced usage of services, revenue, and growth in the churn rate. The user-centric approach, which involves users into the assessment of the performance of a particular service or application, has become important within the inter-disciplinary research field Quality of Experience (QoE). The ultimate goal is to obtain simplified QoE models on particular applications based on the underlying network-based performance metrics as well as other non-technical metrics related to the end-user. Android smartphones that use open-source code and well-documented Application Programming Interfaces (API), facilitate researchers to do low-level and network-based performance analysis on end-user mobile devices while considering user feedback. In this thesis, the influential factors for Android smartphone-based QoE are studied. The relation between the quantified user-perceived QoE metric, i.e., Mean Opinion Score (MOS), and the artifacts in real-time video streaming such as blockiness and jerkiness caused by network-level metrics, e.g., Packet Delay Variation (PDV), Maximal Burst Size (MBS), and video bit rate are identified. Challenges in assessing the user-perceived QoE of video with the focus on memory effects are discussed. The relation between the objective metric of user reaction time and the user-perceived QoE is presented. Furthermore, different methods to assess end-user-perceived QoE such as Day Reconstruction Method (DRM), Experience Sampling Method (ESM), and preliminary online survey are described. Further influential factors, e.g., context, user routines, user lifestyle, and Quality of Service (QoS) metrics such as Round Trip Time (RTT) and Server Response Time (SRT), are studied. The thesis is concluded with preliminary findings that relate the instantaneous total power consumption to the jerkiness of a real-time video stream with evidences such as stalling events.


Standardization is slowly but slowly but surely marching forward into the public domain. The revision of the European standardization package is stimulating this development because the use of private standards in public policy is supposed to spur technological innovation and reduce barriers to trade. This may explain why the Commission wants to speed up the standardization process. In the meanwhile, however, a number of important legal issues remain unaddressed in recent European policy and legislation on standardization, such as: how far "delegation" of public rulemaking to private standardization bodies may go and if and when this could come into conflict with the alleged voluntary and self-regulatory nature of these standards; whether copyrights that rest on standards limit the access to pieces of legislation that refer to standards in an unlawful way, and who is responsible for the content of the standards: the state or the market? Our hypothesis is that the "club mentality" of standards makers has, until recently, worked as an effective shield against market dynamics and judicial review. However, under the influence of recent case law from the ECJ and national highest courts, the "club house" of the standards bodies is starting to show cracks.


Our understanding of the transition from partons to hadrons in QCD has been challenged in recent years. In particular for high-multiplicity minimum-bias events at the LHC, novel experimentation techniques have revealed tantalising indications of non-trivial and possibly collective phenomena. A new wave of model building efforts has ensued, including ideas of colour reconnections, colour ropes, interacting strings, and hydrodynamics. It is essential to develop further sensitive probes of the mechanisms underpinning this fundamental aspect of QCD, to find answers to key questions such as if and how jet universality is broken and whether collective effects are relevant in pp collisions. The answers will not only be of fundamental interest but will also impact precision studies that rely on hadronisation models, as well as the interpretation of heavy-ion results that use pp collisions as a reference. Using strangeness and baryons as tracers, we propose an extension of minimum-bias studies adapted to the environment of the underlying event which show substantial discriminatory power between several alternative models of soft physics.


The UK Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) recently sent out a questionnaire (see Appendix) to North Sea operating oil companies to survey the different methods used in the estimation of ultimate hydrocarbon recovery and production forecasting. The feedback revealed significant differences in approach between operators in estimation methods and also a wide range of perceptions of the value and accuracy of ultimate recovery and production forecasts. This paper reports the findings of the survey and also takes a historical look at how accurate ultimate recovery estimates have actually been for UK Continental Shelf oil fields developed over the last decade. Historical reserves estimates have been rather inaccurate, with many fields exhibiting changes in estimated ultimate recovery over a ten-year period of over 50%. These inaccuracies have had a severe effect on facilities requirements for many large North Sea fields. The fields studied have required an average of 60-80% more wells than anticipated at the time of Development Plan submission and up to 400% average increase in platform water handling capacities has been necessary. Average field lifetimes have been over a decade longer than originally expected. Accommodating unexpected changes of this magnitude within existing offshore facilities has proven a very expensive exercise and we therefore suggest there is a need for a more unified approach by the industry to ultimate reserves estimation.


Offers an engaging introductory guide to the core topics in geriatric medicine. It is a Doody's Core Title for 2015. "This is a valuable reference for those treating geriatric patients, providing well-reasoned expectations. It offers a common-sense approach in a medical system that is oriented to procedure numbers rather than focused on what a rational outcome is. Medicine owes a debt of gratitude to the authors of this work." (Doody's Review Service). For nearly three decades, the goal of Essentials of Clinical Geriatrics has remained unchanged: to help clinicians do a better job of caring for their older patients. You will find thorough and authoritative coverage of all the important issues in geriatrics, along with concise, practical guidance on the diagnosis and treatment of the diseases and disorders most commonly encountered in an elderly patient. 2015 Doody's Core Title. It features: a strong focus on the field's must-know concepts, from the nature of clinical aging to differential diagnosis of important geriatric syndromes to drug therapy and health services; numerous tables and figures that summarize conditions, values, mechanisms, therapeutics, and more; thorough coverage of preventive services and disease screening; an appendix of Internet resources on geriatrics. Recognizing the reality that medical issues interact with other social and environmental issues, Essentials of Clinical Geriatrics includes chapters on Health Services, Nursing Home Care, Ethical Issues in the Care of Older Persons, and Palliative Care. You will also find chapters on the differential diagnosis and management of confusion, depression, incontinence, falls, and immobility and general management strategies on cardiovascular disorders, decreased vitality, and sensory impairment. There is no better resource to help you effectively address the challenges faced by the upcoming "grey tsunami" than Essentials of Clinical Geriatrics.


The purpose of this study is to test whether the source credibility affects buying intention and measure the perceived credibility differences between created spokesperson and celebrity endorser. The influence that endorser credibility dimensions (i.e. attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise) have on purchase intentions of 326 young consumers has been examined. The results showed that all of the three credibility dimensions for both celebrity endorser and created spokesperson have a positive relationship with purchase intention. Created spokesperson is perceived to be more trustworthy and competent whereas the celebrity endorser is found to be more attractive by the respondents. This study is unique in a way that it covers fairly new and rapidly growing Turkish market. One factor that makes this study unique in Turkey, in which the usage of celebrity endorsers holds significant part in the marketing of products, is the lack of studies that would measure the effectiveness of this method.


Abstract The twenty-first century hosts a well-established global economy, where leaders are required to have increasingly complex skills that include creativity, innovation, vision, relatability, critical thinking and well-honed communications methods. The experience gained by learning to be visually literate includes the ability to see, observe, analyze, describe and interpret-leading to honing critical thinking skills, visual communications, problem-solving and the ability to articulate your thoughts both verbally and visually. This qualitative research explores the potential benefits to leaders in being visually literate.