Two homologous proteins, UxuR and ExuR, were previously predicted to repress synthesis of enzymes required for hexuronic acid metabolism, but little is known about the relative roles of these proteins in gene regulation. We confirmed the previous report that UxuR is essential for rapid growth with d-glucuronate as the primary source of carbon and energy. In contrast, an exuR mutant grew more rapidly on d-glucuronate than the parent. Transcription of exuR is initiated at a σ70-dependent promoter predicted in silico. Purified ExuR bound to the exuR regulatory region in the presence, but not in the absence, of d-glucuronate. Apparently weaker UxuR binding in the presence of glucuronate was also detected, and its addition decreased ExuR binding by forming ExuR-UxuR heterodimers. Glucuronate induced exuR transcription in the parental strain, but not in the exuR mutant. No evidence was obtained for cAMP-dependent regulation of exuR by the catabolite repressor protein (CRP). A previous study reported that the divergent yjjM and yjjN genes, essential for l-galactonate metabolism, are repressed by UxuR. We showed that ExuR binds to the yjjM-yjjN regulatory region, and that the binding is also glucuronate-dependent. As for the exuR promoter, UxuR appeared to decrease ExuR binding. ExuR is required for glucuronate induction of yjjM and yjjN, and CRP is required for their transcription. The combined data established that UxuR and ExuR fulfil contrasting roles in regulating hexuronic acid metabolism and indicate that ExuR can function as a transcription activator, possibly by inactivating the repressor function of UxuR by heterodimer formation.


Data collection methods for qualitative research are varied and have a rich history. The Life Story Board (LSB) is a game board-like tool that is used to construct a visual representation of a person's narrative and his/her related context. In our study, we comparatively assessed the LSB as a data elicitation tool for social science research. We reviewed eight Canadian research projects that have used the LSB as data elicitation tool for qualitative research and assessed the LSB on the feasibility of its use, on its effectiveness to elicit information, on aspects that facilitate and/or hinder its use, and how it compares with conventional interview approaches. Our findings suggest that the LSB can be used with study participants of different gender, age, ethnicity, and life circumstances; that it is effective as a data elicitation tool, and that it facilitates engagement with interviewees, without presenting any major hindrances.


Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) has been implemented in many companies during the last decade and has gained an increasing significance. For many companies it means that the focus is no longer on how to implement the ERP system, but rather on how to maintain and improve the system to gain business benefits from the systems. However the ERP literature on how to do this is limited. The purpose of this article is to explore how Project Portfolio Management (PPM) from the Research and Development (R&D) literature can be applied to an ERP second wave context, when companies are to prioritize and select maintenance and continuous improvement initiatives. This is done by reviewing the existing literature in the fields of PPM from R&D literature and then by reviewing the existing literature about maintenance and improvement initiatives in the ERP literature, after which the two are compared and discussed using three case-studies. The paper contributes with a discussion on how PPM from R&D can be applied to maintenance and continuous improvement initiatives in the second wave of ERP. The paper ends with arguing that emphasis needs to be given to this field, since a conscious and systematic prioritization of maintenance and improvement initiatives is believed to be able to increase business performance.


In recent years, we have witnessed the concomitant rise of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in educational and academic settings. This study aimed to explore the effect of an aspect of MALL i.e. Java mobile dictionaries on EFL students' vocabulary learning. To this end, the researchers divided forty intermediate Iranian EFL learners into experimental and control group. Both groups, initially, took the pretest designed based on the vocabulary in the course book, Touchstone 3. While the experimental group received three java mobile dictionaries and installed them on their mobile phones, the control group attended conventional classes without any additional tool. Experimental group took the advantage of their mobile dictionaries throughout the course looking up the meaning of unknown words. After the treatment both groups firstly filled out a questionnaire which would elicit the learners' attitude toward java mobile dictionaries. Then, they took the posttest. Results of t-tests run revealed that the experimental group students significantly outperformed their control group counterparts in EFL vocabulary learning. Moreover, the students exhibited their pronounced tendency to use Java mobile dictionaries in vocabulary learning.


An improved knowledge of how contrasting types of plant communities and their associated soil biota differ in their responses to climatic variables is important for better understanding the future impacts of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems. Elevational gradients serve as powerful study systems for answering questions on how ecological processes can be affected by changes in temperature and associated climatic variables. In this study, we evaluated how plant and soil microbial communities, and abiotic soil properties, change with increasing elevation in subarctic tundra in northern Sweden, for each of two dominant but highly contrasting vegetation types, namely heath (dominated by woody dwarf shrubs) and meadow (dominated by herbaceous species). To achieve this, we measured plant community characteristics, microbial community properties and several soil abiotic properties for both vegetation types across an elevation gradient of 500 to 1000 m. We found that the two vegetation types differed not only in several above- and belowground properties, but also in how these properties responded to elevation, pointing to important interactive effects between vegetation type and elevation. Specifically, for the heath, available soil nitrogen and phosphorus decreased with elevation whereas fungal dominance increased, while for the meadow, idiosyncratic responses to elevation for these variables were found. These differences in belowground responses to elevation among vegetation types were linked to shifts in the species and functional group composition of the vegetation. Our results highlight that these two dominant vegetation types in subarctic tundra differ greatly not only in fundamental aboveground and belowground properties, but also in how these properties respond to elevation and are therefore likely to be influenced by temperature. As such they highlight that vegetation type, and the soil abiotic properties that determine this, may serve as powerful determinants of how both aboveground and belowground properties respond to strong environmental gradients.


In conservation biology and natural resource management, adaptive management is an iterative process of improving management by reducing uncertainty via monitoring. Adaptive management is the principal tool for conserving endangered species under global change, yet adaptive management problems suffer from a poor suite of solution methods. The common approach used to solve an adaptive management problem is to assume the system state is known and the system dynamics can be one of a set of pre-defined models. The solution method used is unsatisfactory, employing value iteration on a discretized belief MDP which restricts the study to very small problems. We show how to overcome this limitation by modelling an adaptive management problem as a restricted Mixed Observability MDP called hidden model MDP (hmMDP). We demonstrate how to simplify the value function, the backup operator and the belief update computation. We show that, although a simplified case of POMDPs, hm-MDPs are PSPACE-complete in the finite-horizon case. We illustrate the use of this model to manage a population of the threatened Gouldian finch, a bird species endemic to Northern Australia. Our simple modelling approach is an important step towards efficient algorithms for solving adaptive management problems.


The generalized Hamming weight of a linear code is a new notion of higher dimensional Hamming weights. Let C be an [n,k] linear code and D be a subcode. The support of D is the cardinality of the set of not-always-zero bit positions of D. The rth generalized Hamming weight of C, denoted by d/sub r/(C), is defined as the minimum support of an r-dimensional subcode of C. It was shown by Wei (1991) that the generalized Hamming weight hierarchy of a linear code completely characterizes the performance of the code on the type II wire-tap channel defined by Ozarow and Wyner (1984). In the present paper the second generalized Hamming weight of the dual code of a double-error-correcting BCH code is derived and the authors prove that except for m=4, the second generalized Hamming weight of [2/sup m/-1, 2m]-dual BCH codes achieves the Griesmer bound. >


This article examines the relationship between the share of immigrants in a locality and private versus public school choices of natives and immigrants in Australia. Using the 2001 Australian Census data, it finds that private school attendance among native‐born Australians is higher in localities with a higher share of immigrant populations. Immigrants' private school attendance is lower where the share of their like‐type immigrants is higher. These effects vary with the presence of a common language and ethnic background between the natives and the immigrants. Overall, the results suggest the possibility of a 'flight' from unfamiliar cultures in the Australian school system.


Understanding the spatio-temporal positioning of hosts and their parasites in free-living states is useful in devising methods to diminish parasite encounters in animal production systems. We explored the potential for depth-based control methods of the amoebic gill disease (AGD) agent, Neoparamoeba perurans, in salmon mariculture systems by conducting: (1) depth-stratified N. perurans water sampling surveys in 2 years, and (2) a mensurative experiment comparing depth distributions of N. perurans and salmon hosts in commercial salmon sea-cages. From water sampling mostly at marine salinities, N. perurans abundance (quantitative PCR-derived cells l-1) varied among years, but overall, neither depth, time since freshwater bathing, temperature and salinity were predictors of N. perurans abundance. However, at 1 survey time, depth patterns in N. perurans abundance appeared during strong vertical salinity gradients following rainfall (at 1 site, salinity ranged between 14 and 35 g l-1), with greater numbers of cells below a less saline surface layer. This suggested that salinity mediates N. perurans depth distribution during intermittent halocline development. Fish depth distribution monitoring revealed intense fish crowding, with local swimming densities up to 5 times stocking densities, typically at the surface at night. Simultaneously collected daytime water samples during low levels of fish crowding, with stock scattered amongst upper and lower cage sections, revealed no relationship between N. perurans and fish depth distributions. If intense fish crowding in narrow depth bands leads to high concentrations of N. perurans in cage environments and increased AGD risk, behavioural manipulations that vertically spread fish could be a successful AGD mitigation strategy.


How can we seek justice and redress for the sexual abuse of children and better prevent the occurrence of such abuse?

This work brings together the thoughts on this question advanced by leading scholars, from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, from around the world. These thinkers – some also professional practitioners – provide new perspectives on sanctioned and informal responses to abuse in religious, educational and total institutions, as well as to abuse carried out in non-institutional settings. The Sexual Abuse of Children will be a valuable resource for researchers, students and those who deal with related issues in professional contexts.


To investigate changes in plant water use and growth rates brought about by the loss of a part of a root system, an experiment was conducted to determine quantitatively the effects of removing pan of a cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) root system. Approximately one-fourth of the total root length was severed by forcing a sharp-edged plate horizontally through the soil from front to rear of a rhizotron compartment. Root length was estimated from the number of roots appearing at the glass viewing surface of the compartment. Stem diameters were monitored continuously with linear variable differential transformers. Plant height was measured daily. Growth reductions after root pruning were greater when the root system was small and concentrated in the upper 25 cm of soil than when the root system was larger and confined to the upper 50 cm of soil. Consequently, effects of root damage by cultivation or by root pathogens may, in part, depend on the size and extent of the root system at the time of damage.


Respiratory information can be obtained from the changes in electrical impedance across the chest, the electrocardiogram or the changes in light absorption across the finger. Running estimates of the breathing rate from each of these can be obtained from independent Kalman filters. A robust estimate of breathing rate is derived by fusing the outputs of these independent Kalman filters using a weighting calculated from the squared differences between each prediction from the filters and the corresponding measurements.


Because of their relevance as a source of energy as woodfuel, carbon storage capacity and their environmental characteristics in ecosystems, tropical leguminous trees are suitable for their management on plantations to produce biomass for energy or carbon sequestration for climate change mitigation. The main purpose of this paper is to present the results of a research project to develop a methodology to estimate the energy content and the carbon sequestered in the above ground biomass of trees in plantations of Acacia cochliacantha and Acacia pennatula, two leguminous tree species of the tropical dry forest of Mexico and Central America. To do this the heating value and carbon content of wood data were integrated to transform allometric equations into energy and carbon sequestered equations. These equations, once supplemented with further experimental data could be very useful in calculating energy content and carbon sequestration to enhance the economics and sustainable management of these energy plantations.


Most research on image decomposition, e.g. image segmentation and image parsing, has predominantly focused on the low-level visual clues within single image and neglected the contextual information across different images. In this paper, we present a new perspective to image decomposition piloted by the multi-labels associated with individual images. Observing that the context information (i.e., local label representations of the same label are similar while those from different labels are dissimilar) exists across different images, we propose to perform image decomposition in a collective way, and then the image decomposition problem is formulated as an optimization which maximizes inter-label difference and at the same time minimizes intra-label difference of the target label representations. Such contextual image decomposition has a wide variety of applications, among which the two exemplary ones are: 1) multi-label image annotation in which the sparse coding of a query image over the bases consisting of all learned label representations naturally produces the multi-label annotation, and 2) label ranking in which the annotated labels are re-ordered according to the sparse coding coefficients on those learned label representations. It is worth noting that these two applications can be performed simultaneously via the label propagation process in sparse coding.


The corporation does not allow owners, at least by default, to cash out their interests. This feature of "capital lock-in" facilitates durable and centralized management of corporate assets. It has been argued that capital lock-in is what has made the corporation the dominant business form and has enabled the modern firm. This argument for the historical significance of capital lock-in is intended to provide a rationale for rejecting reforms that would compromise lock-in. However, lock-in has costs, including inhibiting effective monitoring of managers. Moreover, the historical argument is inaccurate, since lock-in has always been available in the partnership form. Lock-in should be viewed as just one of many features of firms that evolve to meet business needs, not frozen in place by a dubious account of the past.


There is growing interest in bridging the gap between science and society. Fostering relationships between researchers and practitioners, such as partnering to conduct experiments, is an increasingly popular way to do that. Yet, despite the growing number of such partnerships, academics who are new to them often lack guidance about considerations to keep in mind and the steps involved. This chapter bridges the gap. I discuss the benefits, challenges, and goals of organizational partnerships as well as provide a step-by-step guide for academics beginning new ones. Throughout, I emphasize the fact that such partnerships entail building new working relationships with people who have diverse forms of knowledge. As a result, both a learning mindset as well as a relational mindset are necessary.


A national interacting metasystem of national education and fostering developed in the Finnish speaking region Tornedalen in northern Sweden from the late 19th century to the 1950s. It was not formally agreed as a deliberate education system, but was more of a tacit understanding of a common nationalistic goal within different educational institutions such as primary schools, the residential industrial schools [arbetsstugor], the folk high-schools and the different forms of explicit military education. The aim was to help the poor region economically, to spread the Swedish language and culture in the area, to break the isolation of the region through education and to integrate this geopolitically sensitive border region into the nation. The integrative phase of Swedish nationalism was a common denominator. Leading persons in the educational and fostering activities were many times the same persons. There was a consensus over party lines about the need of acculturation and assimilation of the Tornedalians. The school, the nation and the family was regarded as central concepts in the fostering of the minority into Swedish citizens. By regarding the educations in Tornealen as a metasystem of ideological influences you get an imagination of the ideological power single educations gets when interconnected as a system.


The delicate artistry and lyrical prose of Woolf's novels have established her as a writer of sensitivity and profound talent. Virginia Woolf displays genuine humanity and concern for the experiences that enrich and stultify existence. In Mrs Dalloway, Society hostess, Clarissa Dalloway is giving a party and her thoughts on that one day, and the interior monologues of others with interwoven lives reveal the characters of the central protagonists. To the Lighthouse is the most autobiographical of Virginia Woolf's novels. Based on her early experiences, it touches on childhood and children's perceptions and desires. It is at its most trenchant when exploring adult relationships and the changing class-structure in the period spanning the Great War. Orlando, 'the longest and most charming love letter in literature', playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf's close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. 'I am writing to a rhythm and not to a plot', said Woolf of The Waves. Regarded as one of her greatest and most original works, it conveys the rhythms of life in synchrony with the cycle of nature and the passage of time'. Also included: Jacob's Room, A Room of One's Own, Three Guineas and Between The Acts


The origins, design, fabrication and performance of an Atlantic salmon microarray are described. The microarray comprises 16 950 Atlantic salmon-derived cDNA features, printed in duplicate and mostly sourced from pre-existing expressed sequence tag (EST) collections [SALGENE and salmon genome project (SGP)] but also supplemented with cDNAs from suppression subtractive hybridization libraries and candidate genes involved in immune response, protein catabolism, lipid metabolism and the parr–smolt transformation. A preliminary analysis of a dietary lipid experiment identified a number of genes known to be involved in lipid metabolism. Significant fold change differences (as low as 1·2×) were apparent from the microarray analysis and were confirmed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis. The study also highlighted the potential for obtaining artefactual expression patterns as a result of cross-hybridization of similar transcripts. Examination of the robustness and sensitivity of the experimental design employed demonstrated the greater importance of biological replication over technical (dye flip) replication for identification of a limited number of key genes in the studied system. The TRAITS (TRanscriptome Analysis of Important Traits of Salmon)–salmon genome project microarray has been proven, in a number of studies, to be a powerful tool for the study of key traits of Atlantic salmon biology. It is now available for use by researchers in the wider scientific community.


1. The impact of different genetic risk loads defined by HLA-DQBI alleles on the autoimmune and clinical characteristics of 647 children and adolescents with recent-onset Type I diabetes was evaluated in a prospective population-based study. The subjects were divided into four groups based on HLA-DQBI genotypes: DQB1*0302/0201 (high risk), *0302/x (moderate risk), *0201/y (low risk) and *z/z (decreased risk). 2. Close to two thirds (62.3%) of the subjects possessed a high or moderate risk genotype. A decreased frequency of positivity for islet cell antibodies (ICA) and insulin autoantibodies (IAA) (76.8% compared with 85.3%; P = 0.05, and 30.5% compared with 50.8%, P = 0.0006, respectively) but not of positivity for antibodies to the 65 kDa isoform of glutamate decarboxylase was observed in children with the DQB1*0201/y genotype compared with other children. Among ICA-negative subjects, those with the DQB1*0201/y genotype had higher serum C-peptide levels over the first 2 years after the diagnosis of Type I diabetes than those with other genotypes ( P = 0.028). 3. Our data provide some evidence of HLA-DQB1-determined heterogeneity in the autoimmune and clinical characteristics of childhood Type I diabetes at the time of the clinical manifestation. This suggests differences between children with various HLA-DQBI genotypes in the pace and/or intensity of the beta-cell destructive process leading to clinical Type I diabetes.


This report presents the results of an experimental and analytical study, which was conducted on three footings of an existing bridge in order to determine their in-situ stiffness. The bridge is located on Interstate 80 south east of Verdi, Nevada. Six tests were conducted by shaking each footing in the longitudinal and the short direction. Each footing was subjected to sinusoidal vibration force, which was applied through an eccentric mass shaker. Twenty-three accelerometers were used to measure the response of the soil, bridge footings, and the bent cap of the bridge during shaking. A three-dimensional finite element model of the last two spans of the bridge was developed using the computer program COSMOS//M. Then, a linear response history analysis was performed to determine the steady state acceleration response of the three footings. During the analysis, the soil-footing interaction was modeled using a spring-dashpot model. Several refinements were applied to the response history analysis until the predicted steady state peak acceleration at the footing level matched the measured steady state peak acceleration on the corresponding footing during the dynamic field test. A design guideline and recommendations, which provide the basis for the computation of footing stiffness using spring models, were developed based on the experimental and the analytical results.


The notion that certain uses of public and private property can have negative effects beyond legally defined property boundaries is firmly embedded in land use law. We are now comfortable regulating land use to prevent and control for impacts to our natural resources, environmental quality, and nuisances to third parties. This idea is partly rooted in economic theory - i.e., the existence of negative externalities - but also in the theory of ecology - i.e., the notion that property is inextricably part of a network of social and economic relationships and that its impacts traverse legally defined property boundaries. But not all impacts, or costs, of land use are properly accounted for in land use regulation. This Article highlights a category of social costs that remain largely exogenous to the norms underlying our system of land use controls. Scholars from a variety of disciplines recognize the importance of social capital to, and the deleterious impacts from its loss on, urban communities. Yet legal scholars have not taken seriously social capital when normatively evaluating urban land use regulation and policy. This Article argues that the failure to account seriously for the ways that land use decisions interact with social capital, particularly in the most socially vulnerable communities, underlies many contemporary disputes involving the persistent fragmentation and social inequities of urban metropolitan space. The Article concludes by suggesting that only through a rethinking of the city commons can we begin to take social capital seriously in land use policy and law. Instead of conceptualizing the city as an aggregation of private property rights, we should instead seek to identify and protect common resources and interests in the city commons through limited access rights and collaborative governance strategies that preserve and draw upon existing social networks to manage common city resources.


Citizen science and sustainability science promise the more just and demo- cratic production of environmental knowledge and politics. In this review, we evaluate these participatory traditions within the context of (a) our theorization of how the valuation and devaluation of nature, knowledge, and people help to produce socio- ecological hierarchies, the uneven distribution of harms and benefi ts, and inequitable engagement within environmental politics, and (b) our analysis of how neoliberalism is reworking science and environmental governance. We fi nd that citizen and sustainabil- ity science oft en fall short of their transformative potential because they do not directly confront the production of environmental injustice and political exclusion, including the knowledge hierarchies that shape how the environment is understood and acted upon, by whom, and for what ends. To deepen participatory practice, we propose a heterodox ethicopolitical praxis based in Gramscian, feminist, and postcolonial the- ory and describe how we have pursued transformative praxis in southern Appalachia through the Coweeta Listening Project.


Abstract Today many of us are unaware and perhaps even deny the fact that our ideas, decisions, and choices are driven by fear whether obvious or subtle. In his seminal book, Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in an Age of Reason, Michel Foucault examines the archeology of madness wherein he illuminates how fear of the other has come to shape society's moral compass toward persons adjudged as lamentable, engendering certain social constructs that have given shape to what he called the mutation of confinement. In other words, Foucault highlights the historical and cultural turning points that gave rise to the societal belief that necessitates the establishment of confinement. To "cage" people who are different from the composite identity position held by those unmarked by stigmatized identifiers—those who fall outside the "norm"—is perceived as a meaningful exercise toward the greater good and security of society. Juxtaposed with society's "civilized" attitude toward persons regarded as lamentable and thus worthy of confinement is Jean Vanier's understanding of the value and dignity of each person—a radical conviction that gave rise to L'Arche, a revolutionary attempt to dismantle the walls of fear within, between, and among us. In what follows, Jean Vanier's understanding of fear will be comparatively analyzed in relation to the dominant societal notion of fear in order to draw attention to the practical ways in which these ideas have consequences in L'Arche and society as a whole. Underlying this attempt is the contention that Vanier's notion of fear entails a radical reversal of the "civilized norm" of confinement. This article proceeds in three parts and will offer a theological reflection which could serve as a catalyst for a world that remains enveloped with fear of the other, particularly those deemed different and deviant.


A complex earth system model (atmosphere and ocean general circulation models, ocean biogeochemistry and terrestrial biosphere) was used to perform transient simulations of two interglacial sections (Eemian, 128-113 ky B. P., and Holocene, 9 ky B.P.-present). The changes in terrestrial carbon storage during these interglacials were studied with respect to changes in the earth's orbit. The effects of different climate factors on changes in carbon storage were studied in offline experiments in which the vegetation model was forced only with temperature, hydrological parameters, radiation, or CO2 concentration from the transient runs. The largest anomalies in terrestrial carbon storage were caused by temperature changes. However, the increase in storage due to forest expansion and increased photosynthesis in the high latitudes was nearly balanced by the decrease due to increased respiration. Large positive effects on carbon storage were caused by an enhanced monsoon circulation in the subtropics between 128 and 121 ky B. P. and between 9 and 6 ky B. P., and by increases in incoming radiation during summer for 45 degrees to 70 degrees N compared to a control simulation with present-day insolation. Compared to this control simulation, the net effect of these changes was a positive carbon storage anomaly in the terrestrial biosphere of about 200 Pg C for 125 ky B. P. and 7 ky B. P., and a negative anomaly around 150 Pg C for 116 ky B. P. Although the net increases for Eemian and Holocene were rather similar, the magnitudes of the processes causing these effects were different. The decrease in terrestrial carbon storage during the experiments was the main driver of an increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration during both the Eemian and the Holocene. (Less)


The 10th edition of this well-respected textbook continues to serve the purpose and achieve the intended goal of the publication, which is to provide a comprehensive, thorough, well-referenced, up-to-date source of knowledge on diseases affecting cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, and goats. The book is edited by 4 well-respected and experienced authors and 7 international contributors. The editors and contributors have done an extensive, critical review of the current literature to update the different sections of the book and apply evidence-based veterinary medicine.

The 5-page introduction is unique. It outlines the principles and objectives of large animal practices, and it provides the reader with a mental picture of optimal professional goals and standard practices. The introduction is followed by a small section on "how to use this book," which focuses on developing a critical thinking process.

The textbook is divided into 2 main parts; general and special medicine. The first part consists of 15 chapters. The general and basic principles of large animal medicine are covered in the 1st, 2nd, and 4th chapters of this part. The 3rd chapter covers diseases and disorders of the newborns. The rest of the chapters discuss the different diseases and disorders that can affect each body system. Most of those chapters start with 4 key and important topics. Those are principles and manifestations of the system dysfunction, special examination of the system, as well as principles of treatment and control of the diseased organ system.

The 2nd part of this textbook consists of 21 chapters that discuss diseases based on etiology. Those include diseases associated with bacteria, viruses, chlamydia, prions, rickettsiales, algae, fungi, protozoa, helminth parasites, arthropod parasites, metabolic causes, nutritional deficiencies, physical agents, inorganic and farm chemicals, toxins in plants, fungi, cyanobacteria, clavibacteria, insects and animals, and allergy, as well as diseases associated with the inheritance of undesirable characters, and specific diseases of uncertain etiology. Each entity covers the different aspects of the individual disease process including etiology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical findings, clinical pathology, necropsy findings, diagnostic confirmation, differential diagnosis treatment, and control. In addition, each disease entity begins with a helpful synopsis box that provides a brief and quick review of the disease and highlights important facts. This makes important and key information easy to find and access.

In addition to the numerous clinically relevant tables and illustrations that are embedded throughout the text, this textbook concludes with helpful tables containing conversion factors, reference laboratory values, drug doses and dosing intervals for horses, ruminants, and swine. The index is accurate and appropriately cross-referenced.

The chapters of this new edition are revised to contain current literature. Diseases associated with prions is a new chapter that has been added to this edition and this book is different from others in the marketplace in that it covers major diseases of all countries, including foreign animal and emerging diseases.

The 10th edition of this textbook marks the passing of an era, as stated in the dedication. This is the first edition of this text book that does not have Professor D.C. Blood, the originator of book, as an author or contributor. Moreover, it is the last edition under the leadership of Professor Otto M. Radostits who sadly passed away just before the publication and release of this book. Professor Radostits was a world leader in the field of veterinary literature.

This encyclopedic textbook is useful and highly recommended for undergraduate students, clinicians, lecturers, and researchers.


Participation in everyday occupations influences people's health and well-being. To enable individuals to do the activities they want and need to do is the main concern of occupational therapy practice. Many daily occupations are universal, but they also depend on culture. The development of the Activity Card Sort in eight countries has offered the opportunity to describe occupations across cultures. In the developmental process of culturally relevant versions of the Activity Card Sort by occupational therapists in each country, the instrument versions included samples of older adults (N = 468). These data are used in the current description with the aim of identifying central activities across cultures and central activities for Asian and Western cultures. Te n activities were identified as being central across cultures (i.e., more than half of the older adults in all eight countries performed them). They were the following: shopping in a store, doing grocery shopping, doing dishes, doing laundry, reading books or magazines, sitting and thinking, watching television, listening to radio or music, visiting with friends and relatives, and talking on the telephone. Further, 16 additional activities central to Asian culture and 18 activities central to Western culture were identified. The identification of central activities deepens knowledge of activities with cultural significance. This knowledge is needed in clinical practice and multicultural research. This description provides a starting point for further exploration of everyday occupations among older adults.


ABSTRACT Bacterial diversity in a deep-sea sediment was investigated by constructing actinobacterium-specific 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) clone libraries from sediment sections taken 5 to 12, 15 to 18, and 43 to 46 cm below the sea floor at a depth of 3,814 m. Clones were placed into operational taxonomic unit (OTU) groups with ≥99% 16S rDNA sequence similarity; the cutoff value for an OTU was derived by comparing 16S rRNA homology with DNA-DNA reassociation values for members of the class Actinobacteria. Diversity statistics were used to determine how the level of dominance, species richness, and genetic diversity varied with sediment depth. The reciprocal of Simpson's index (1/D) indicated that the pattern of diversity shifted toward dominance from uniformity with increasing sediment depth. Nonparametric estimation of the species richness in the 5- to 12-, 15- to 18-, and 43- to 46-cm sediment sections revealed a trend of decreasing species number with depth, 1,406, 308, and 212 OTUs, respectively. Application of the LIBSHUFF program indicated that the 5- to 12-cm clone library was composed of OTUs significantly (P = 0.001) different from those of the 15- to 18- and 43- to 46-cm libraries. FST and phylogenetic grouping of taxa (P tests) were both significant (P < 0.00001 and P < 0.001, respectively), indicating that genetic diversity decreased with sediment depth and that each sediment community harbored unique phylogenetic lineages. It was also shown that even nonconservative OTU definitions result in severe underestimation of species richness; unique phylogenetic clades detected in one OTU group suggest that OTUs do not correspond to real ecological groups sensu Palys (T. Palys, L. K. Nakamura, and F. M. Cohan, Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 47:1145-1156, 1997). Mechanisms responsible for diversity and their implications are discussed.


We study the problem of estimating the parameters of a linear median regression without any assumption on the shape of the error distribution – including no condition on the existence of moments – allowing for heterogeneity (or heteroskedasticity) of unknown form, noncontinuous distributions, and very general serial dependence (linear and nonlinear). This is done through a reverse inference approach, based on a distribution-free testing theory [Coudin and Dufour (2009, The Econometrics Journal)], from which confidence sets and point estimators are subsequently generated. The estimation problem is tackled in two complementary ways. First, we show how confidence distributions for model parameters can be applied in such a context. Such distributions – which can be interpreted as a form of fiducial inference – provide a frequency-based method for associating probabilities with subsets of the parameter space (like posterior distributions do in a Bayesian setup) without the introduction of prior distributions. We consider generalized confidence distributions applicable to multidimensional parameters, and we suggest the use of a projection technique for confidence inference on individual model parameters. Second, we propose point estimators, which have a natural association with confidence distributions. These estimators are based on maximizing test p-values and inherit robustness properties from the generating distribution-free tests. Both finite-sample and large-sample properties of the proposed estimators are established under weak regularity conditions. We show they are median unbiased (under symmetry and estimator unicity) and possess equivariance properties. Consistency and asymptotic normality are established without any moment existence assumption on the errors, allowing for noncontinuous distributions, heterogeneity and serial dependence of unknown form. These conditions are considerably weaker than those used to show corresponding results for LAD estimators. In a Monte Carlo study of bias and RMSE, we show sign-based estimators perform better than LAD-type estimators in heteroskedastic settings. We present two empirical applications, which involve financial and macroeconomic data, both affected by heavy tails (non-normality) and heteroskedasticity: a trend model for the S&P index, and an equation used to study β-convergence of output levels across U.S. States.


Today, mobile robots are expected to carry out increasingly complex tasks in multifarious, real-world environments. Often, the tasks require a certain semantic understanding of the workspace. Consider, for example, spoken instructions from a human collaborator referring to objects of interest; the robot must be able to accurately detect these objects to correctly understand the instructions. However, existing object detection, while competent, is not perfect. In particular, the performance of detection algorithms is commonly sensitive to the position of the sensor relative to the objects in the scene. This paper presents an online planning algorithm which learns an explicit model of the spatial dependence of object detection and generates plans which maximize the expected performance of the detection, and by extension the overall plan performance. Crucially, the learned sensor model incorporates spatial correlations between measurements, capturing the fact that successive measurements taken at the same or nearby locations are not independent. We show how this sensor model can be incorporated into an efficient forward search algorithm in the information space of detected objects, allowing the robot to generate motion plans efficiently. We investigate the performance of our approach by addressing the tasks of door and text detection in indoor environments and demonstrate significant improvement in detection performance during task execution over alternative methods in simulated and real robot experiments.


Based on original ethnographic research with scientists, clinicians and families, this book examines Rett syndrome to illuminate more general issues concerning the construction and interpretation of diseases and syndromes. It derives from research with a specialist team of clinicians and scientists, and a series of families referred with a potential diagnosis of Rett syndrome, and documents the scientific, clinical, patient and family experiences over a three-year period.

Although Rett syndrome itself is rare, it is one of some 2,000 such syndromes, and its genetic basis has recently been linked to the much broader Autism spectrum. From a sociological or anthropological point of view, it is also of considerable interest as a clinical entity that is undergoing transformation in the light of recent post-genomic research. Traditionally, such syndromes have been diagnosed clinically, but increasingly genetic technologies are having an impact on the diagnosis, description and classification of conditions. Rett Syndrome is thus a key exemplar of the implications of genetic medicine that are far-reaching and extend well beyond this particular syndrome.


Persuasion is used in spoken and written communication to convince the audience to take appropriate actions or to support specific viewpoints. The speaker or writer may use statistics and logical arguments, emotions and their character, authority and credibility to convince the audience. The present study examined university students' strategies of persuading their lecturer to grant their request using Aristotle's rhetorical proofs of ethos, logos and pathos as the framework. The data were from 165 students enrolled in an English language course in a Malaysian university. They were asked to write down what they would say to persuade their lecturer to end the class early. Some students used more than one strategy, giving rise to 180 persuasion strategies in total. Analysis of their requests showed that  majority of the students used one type of rhetorical appeal to persuade. Emotional appeal (pathos) was the most popular persuasion strategy accounting for over half of the persuasion strategies identified, followed closely by the rational appeal (logos). Appeal to ethos (credibility) was seldom used. Further analysis of the use of personal pronouns showed a clear difference in that self-focus is frequent in appeals to logos whereas other-focus is frequent in appeals to pathos.  When students made an appeal to logos in their requests, they used the singular first person pronoun (I, my) more than the second person pronoun because they justified their request for an early class dismissal by using their heavy workload and uncomfortable physical classroom conditions. When the students made emotional appeals, the content of their persuasion revolved around their lecturer and they made frequent use of the second person pronoun. The results suggests that the students can benefit from the teaching of persuasive discourse so that they are able to use the rhetorical appeals more effectively.


Symphony No. 1 is an orchestral composition for twenty-four instrumental groups without percussion instruments. It was composed with Algorithmic Composition System software, which gives driving forces for composition to the composer through the diverse compositional methods largely based on physical phenomena. The symphony consists of three movements. It lasts about sixteen minutes and twenty-six seconds--five minutes and twenty-two seconds for the first movement, five minutes and forty seconds for the second movement, five minutes and twenty-four seconds for the third movement. Most musical components in the first movement of the symphony are considered embryos, which gradually begin developing through the second and third movements.


Although the Series Resonant Converter (SRC) is not yet fully explored and widely applied it is becoming more and more important for the contactless charging of the Electric Vehicles (EV) batteries. From the point of view of the modern propulsion batteries the careful and reliable charging is very important and good solutions will be the SRC contactless battery charging and the online resonant energy transfer. To their high efficiency must be added the high stability of an instantaneous method of control. The proposed solution is based on correcting the portion of energy that is sent to the load in each half period through the resonant circuit. Experimental results are shown from the implementation of this idea in the SRC working on a loosely coupled (contactless) magnetic connection.


Chaos-based approaches are frequently proposed in information hiding, but without obvious justification. Indeed, the reason why chaos is useful to tackle with discretion, robustness, or security, is rarely elucidated. This research work presents a new class of non-blind information hiding algorithms based on some finite domains iterations that are Devaney's topologically chaotic. The approach is entirely formalized and reasons to take place into the mathematical theory of chaos are explained. Finally, stego-security and chaos security are consequently proven for a large class of algorithms.


In the twilight of the third century C.E., the unity of the Western world was threatened by financial crisis, invasion, and plague. The Syrian city Palmyra had long protected Rome against Persian invasion, but under its queen Zenobia, Palmyra broke away from Roman hegemony. The Roman Empire had never been closer to disintegration, nor had it suffered so much before at the hands of a woman. This volume is the first comprehensive historical treatment in any language of Roman Syria, the revolt of Zenobia, and the city of Palmyra. Drawing on discoveries in archaeology, the history of the Silk Road, numismatics, and Roman and Persian history, Richard Stoneman has assembled a rich collage of knowledge about this intriguing period. As he tells the story of this major revolt and its leader, the author surveys the history of the spice trade in antiquity, the religious ferment of third- century Syria, early modern travelers to Palmyra, and in particular Zenobia's changing image through the ages. The lucid text and numerous illustrations will attract all who are intrigued by the third- century Roman Empire and its frontiers, by pre-Islamic Arab culture, by Roman Syria and Palmyra itself, and by the fascinating Queen Zenobia. ." . . an excellent synthesis of current knowledge and a sound introduction to the third cen-tury, especially in the East. . . ."--Journal of Military History ." . . Stoneman provides an excellent and readable introduction to what is known about Palmyra, and particularly the astonishing period in the mid-third century A.D. . . . [He] marshalls recent reinterpretations of the politics of the eastern frontier by both historians and archaeologists, as well as the inspiration of his own visits to Syria, to underline Palmyra's unique commercial position and the ability over the centuries of Roman rule of its ethnically and religiously highly heterogeneous ruling class to exploit the caravan trade from East and South Asia to their economic and political advantage."--Greece & Rome Richard Stoneman has published numerous books on the ancient world and on travel in the Eastern Mediterranean. He is Senior Editor at Routledge.


This article addresses two connected elements of the current consensus on women and poverty: One is the view, in poverty discourses, that women are "the poorest of the poor," and the other is the view, in gender and development (GAD) discourses, that gender analysis and interventions need to be mainstreamed into poverty reduction policies and practice. I argue that to characterize women as especially "poor" is to misrepresent gender disadvantage, and that rather than mainstreaming gender into poverty by defining women as especially poor within existing poverty concepts, we should seek to reformulate understandings of poverty to reflect the distinctively gendered nature of disadvantage for both women and men. This involves expanding notions of poverty beyond narrowly materialist viewpoints and toward greater recognition of gendered identities, ideologies and struggles, as well as toward a relational field which encompasses more culturalist perspectives. Poverty reduction through development has recently become more prominent in both development studies and policy. Examples include the emphasis on poverty reduction in the 1997 White Paper produced by the new Labour Government in Britain, and the domestic social policy in Europe. At the same time, poverty thinking is also adapting to a new political environment, globalized and post-socialist, in which the understandings of social justice are shifting. In Nancy Fraser's U.S.-based analysis: Many actors appear to be moving away from a socialist political imaginary, in which the central problem of justice is redistribution, to a `post-socialist' imaginary in which the central problem is recognition. With this shift, most salient social movements are no longer economically defined `classes' who are struggling to defend their `interests,' end `exploitation' and win `redistribution.' Instead, they are culturally defined `groups' or `communities of value' who are struggling to defend their `identities,' end `cultural domination' and win `recognition.' The result is a decoupling of cultural politics from social politics, and the relative eclipse of the latter by the former.(1) The turn to culture and to "recognition" rather than redistribution in the West has penetrated development debates in the form of the postmodernist critique of poverty, gender and development.(2) However, mainstream poverty and development discourses remain resolutely redistributionist and wedded to a materialist sense of social justice, and it is arguable that rather than "flying blind," as Fraser calls the visionlessness of current progressive struggles, poverty discourses in development are "flying blinkered," paying too little attention to cultural politics. Class politics or cultural politics should not be alternatives, and, as Fraser argues, should have a bivalency which integrates "the social and the cultural, the economic and the discursive."(3) I argue here that gender disadvantage cannot be fathomed from a narrowly materialist perspective. There are multiple ways in which poverty is conceptualized, but arguably few capture what, for a gendered subject, makes a life go well. In other places, I have noted the tendency in development discourses to represent gender issues in development as variants of poverty problems and to reduce gender disadvantage to a claim that women are over-represented among the poor.(4) This brief review suggests that gender disadvantage cannot be understood with unmodified poverty concepts and indicators, which can both misleadingly deny the material subordination of women(5) and entirely fail to reflect the ideological and cultural bedrock of gender inequity Gender into poverty won't go. The point is not that women are poor but that poverty is gendered. In the sections that follow, I first argue that, in the context of mainstreaming gender into poverty reduction policies, it has become important to consider both the best analytical approaches to integrating gender into poverty reduction work and the feminist politics of just how "women's needs" are constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed in the mainstreaming endeavor. …


This study focused on journalists, who are constantly seeking, processing, evaluating and packaging information, in order to shed light on their information behaviors, and contribute to the development of efficient information behaviors. The examination focused on the information behaviors of journalists as they relate to the Internet and information technologies. The population included all print journalists in Kuwait, and was examined using a self-administered questionnaire and interviews by E-mail. Information behaviors were examined from three perspectives: Access and Internet usage, evaluation and purpose, and information technology skills. Access and Internet usage was related to obstacles preventing Internet use, and usage patterns of popular Internet applications such as E-mail. Evaluation and purpose was related to information evaluation criteria, the Internet for conducting journalistic tasks, and the use of the Internet to seek specific types of information. In terms of skills, the examination focused on the skills of journalists in using 21 information technology tools and applications, and their usage patterns of information technology devices. Results showed that print journalists in Kuwait were lacking efficient information behaviors in relations to the Internet and information technology. Their usage of the Internet was limited to the most popular applications such as E-mail, search engines, and the World Wide Web. Female journalists were found to be more skilled, and more utilizing, of the Internet than males. Data revealed a large gap in terms of information behaviors between the youngest journalists and the rest of the population. The youngest journalists were found to be more skilled in using the Internet, and relied more heavily on the medium than others. Other results showed that graduates from educational institutions in Kuwait, and Kuwaiti citizens, relied more heavily on the Internet for conducting journalistic tasks than others. Further, results identified age, educational level, journalism experience and Internet experience as important factors that affected information behaviors. Improved behaviors for journalists in Kuwait require interventions on three fronts: education and curricula, training, and workplace practices. These interventions can pave the way for an efficient journalism industry in Kuwait which utilizes the Internet and information technology to its benefit.


Entrepreneurship in the Healthcare sector has received increased attention over the last two decades, both in terms of scholarly research and number of innovative enterprises. Entrepreneurial activities and innovations have emerged from and will continue to be driven by several actors along the healthcare value chain but especially from non-traditional healthcare players. In this new volume, we present the reader with several critical issues in healthcare entrepreneurship and innovation, covering a comprehensive set of research topics. We bring together the latest academic research and management practice, with contributions by authors from entrepreneurship, medical sciences, and management, who provide in depth and practical insights into designing and managing entrepreneurship in healthcare. Upon providing a systematic review of the research field, we discuss several important macro-, meso-, and micro-level issues in healthcare entrepreneurship, such as opportunity identification, the entrepreneurial ecosystem including accelerators, the benefits of open innovation for the sector, and social entrepreneurship in healthcare.


The study assessed constraints to increased layers production among small-scale poultry farmers in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State. Data were collected using a multistage sampling technique to select 120 small-scale poultry farmers. Descriptive statistics (frequencies counts, percentages) were used to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents. The result shows that the mean age of the respondents was 48 years and majority (77.5%) of the farmers had higher education. Majority of the respondents (73%) practiced sweeping and packing of dirt in the poultry house as the daily routine management on their farms. The major constraint faced by the respondents was disease and pest attack (76.7%) followed by difficulty in credit and loan procurement processes (73.3%). The study therefore recommends that Government should tackle the problem of loan/credit procurement, market price instability, disease and pest as well as proper funding of small-scale layers poultry business so as to enhance the commercialization of poultry industry in Nigeria. Keywords: Poultry Farms, Layer Production, Socio-Economic Characteristics, Constraints.


This thesis is concerned with the development and implementation
of a number of numerical algorithms for solving finite dimensional
nonlinear optimization problems. Most of the currently used
optimization methods use directly or indirectly a local quadratic
representation of the objective function.
The need to introduce non-quadratic models arises from the fact
that objective functions may not be represented adequately by quadratic
functions. Although complicated models can represent general nonlinear
functions more accurately than quadratics, they are more difficult to
deal with both analytically and numerically. Therefore there must be
a compromise between the generality of the model and the ease with which
it can be used in the context of optimization.
Various non-quadratic models have been tested in both gradient
and nongradient methods. Sophisticated gradient techniques such as
conjugate gradient and variable metric methods have been used with the
proposed models and compared with the traditional methods over a variety
of standard test functions.
One measure of the complexity of an optimization problem is its
size, measured in terms of the number of unknown variables. Despite
the fact that computation has been seriously dealt with and good algorithms
have been proposed in the past insufficient work has been done on very
large problems. Therefore most of the standard test problems were used
in their generalized form to gain insight into the efficiency of the use
of the non-quadratic models as the dimension of the problem increases.
The numerical results show that the use of non-quadratic models is
beneficial in most of the problems considered especially when the dimensionality
of the problem increases.


On the crestal area of the Eratosthenes Seamount at Site 966 an important "chaotic" interval composed of clast-rich, matrix supported sediments (here named the Mass-Flow Unit) was recovered in five boreholes, situated up to 70 m apart. These sed ments overlie shallow-water limestones of Miocene age and are, in turn, overlain by deep-water nannofossil ooze and saprope of early Pliocene–Pleistocene age. Nannofossils and planktonic foraminifers indicate an early Pliocene age for the matrix, and a late Miocene to early Pliocene age for clasts within the Mass-Flow Unit. Clasts of shallow-water limestone and nannofossil chalk are both present. The matrix is mainly nannofossil ooze admixed with silt-sized reworked carbonate grains, minor quartz, and terrigenous clay. Whole-rock X-ray diffraction reveals variable quantities of calcite, dolomite, and aragonite, together wi th minor quartz and pyrite. Fibrous carbonate is seen in several thin sections. Limestone clasts have undergone extensive dissol tion, followed by variable meteoric water cementation, presumably during Messinian emergence. Comparable Miocene–Pliocene settings onshore in Cyprus are the following: (1) formation of lower Pliocene carbonate debris flows, similar to those at Site 966, related to extensional faulting; (2) Messinian erosion, karstification, and talus f ormation on the flanks of a graben undergoing active crustal extension during the late Miocene; (3) formation of deep channel and related debris flows of late Pliocene age. Of these, the first and second show similarities with the Eratosthenes Mass-Flow Uni t. The Florence Rise also shows some similarities. A depositional-tectonic model is proposed for the Site 966 Mass-Flow Unit, in which the Miocene limestone of Eratosthenes Seamount was subaerially exposed and diagenetically altered during the Messinian salinity crisis. This was followed by marine transgression and accumulation of lower Pliocene nannofossil ooze. Extensional faulting was active during the early Pliocene (and possibly earlier), resulting in subaqueous mass wasting of Miocene limestones and large-scale gravity reworking of nannofossil oozes as multiple debris flows. Tilting continued during emplacement of debris flows, resulting in interstratal shearing, slumping, and minor high-angle faulting. Formation of the Mass-Flow Unit is interpreted to relate to the initial stages of collision of the Eratosthenes Seamount with the Cyprus active margin to the north. In this interpretation, the Eratosthenes Seamount was flexurally loaded by the advancing plate and underwent initial block faulting, followed by collapse and subsidence. ch st a ob art us tiv en ee e 9 (h ro e ob lo ci ho it ediery ing en wer bed ellment sical s of eene r), ne– rth-


In this paper we present several interest points detectors and we analyze their suitability when used as landmark extractors for vision-based simultaneous localization and mapping. For this purpose, we evaluate the detectors according to their repeatability under changes in viewpoint and scale. These are the desired requirements for visual landmarks. Several experiments were carried out using sequence of images captured with high precision. The sequences represent planar objects as well as 3D scenes. Key-Words: Interest-Point detector, Visual SLAM, Visual Landmarks, Mobile Robots


The aim of the study was to measure and subsequently evaluate the quantitative and qualitative factors of physical activity (PA) of primary school pupils in the Czech Republic in the autumn period using an objective method and to assess whether these factors differ significantly before and after clock shift from the summer time (Daylight Savings Time) to winter time. The data were acquired from 37 pupils (20 boys, 17 girls) aged 10–13, at primary schools in Brno (CZE) in the period from 22 October to 26 October 2014 and subsequently from 12 November to 16 November 2014. PA was measured using the Actigraph GT3X accelerometer (Actigraph corp., USA) in the week when the clocks were changed, on 26 October 2014 and two weeks later. Three business days and two weekend days were measured. The monitored characteristics included those related to energy output, movement time according to intensity and the number of steps. Changes in measured characteristics after the clock shift were tested statistically using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Throughout the business days the pupils demonstrated more than med > 10000 steps a day and MVPA did not fall under med > 60 min/day. However, during the weekend these values did not exceed 6600 steps a day 39 min MVPA/day. When comparing the results of all the investigated PA factors before and after the clock shift, significant differences have been found only in boys during business days for moderate PA (p = 0.02) and MVPA (p = 0.04). The study has revealed substantial differences between PA of children during business days when compared to days off in the autumn period. However, the changes in the PA structure before and after the winter clock shift have only been diagnosed at the level of moderate PA and MVPA in boys, even though the daytime duration has been reduced significantly by more than one hour from 10 hours 23 minutes before to 9 hours and 16 minutes after the clock shift.


Using real time estimates of output gaps or Greenbook forecasts of the unemployment rate, this article estimates Taylor-type policy rules that predict the actual behavior of the funds rate during two sample periods, 1968Q1 to 1979Q2 and 1979Q3 to 1994Q4. The inflation rate response coefficient is close to unity over the first sub-period and well above unity over the second, suggesting Fed policy violated the Taylor principle during the first period. The adjustment of the funds rate in response to fundamentals is not as rapid during the first period as it is during the second. Together these results support the conventional view that the Fed was "too timid" and "too sluggish" during the late 1960s and the 1970s. Though the Fed smoothes interest rates, the degree of smoothing exhibited is far less than what was previously estimated. The funds rate response to its fundamentals is complete within one year during the first period and within one quarter during the second.


It is necessary to conceptualize and provide better measures of good governance because in contrast to democratization, empirical studies show that it has strong positive effects on measures of human well-being, social trust, life satisfaction, peace and political legitimacy. A central problem is that the term "governance" is conceptualized differently in three main approaches to governance which has led to much confusion. To avoid this, the term quality of government (QoG) is preferred. This paper argues for a parsimonious conceptualization of QoG built the "Rawls-Machiavelli programme". This is a combination of the Rawlsian understanding of what should be seen as a just political order and the empirical strategy used by Machiavelli stating what is possible to implement. It is argued that complex definitions are impossible to operationalize and that such a strategy would leave political science without a proper conceptualization as well as measures of the part of the state that is most important for humans' well-being and political legitimacy. The theory proposed is that impartiality in the exercise of public power should be the basic norm for how QoG should be defined. The advantage with this strategy is that it does not include in the definition of QoG what we want to explain (efficiency, prosperity, administrative capacity and other "good outcomes") and that recent empirical research shows that this theory can be operationalized and used to measure QoG in ways that have the predicted


Abstract We compare two general strategies for performing statistical disclosure limitation (SDL) for continuous microdata subject to edit rules. In the first, existing SDL methods are applied, and any constraint-violating values they produce are replaced using a constraint-preserving imputation procedure. In the second, the SDL methods are modified to prevent them from generating violations. We present a simulation study, based on data from the Colombian Annual Manufacturing Survey, that evaluates the performance of the two strategies as applied to several SDL methods. The results suggest that differences in risk-utility profiles across SDL methods dwarf differences between the two general strategies. Among the SDL strategies, variants of microaggregation and partially synthetic data offer the most attractive risk-utility profiles.


This thesis studies customary land relations among the Indigenous Mentawaian people of Siberut Island, West Sumatra. Based on a three-month period of fieldwork in Muntei, a government settlement in the southeast of Siberut Island, this thesis analyses how Mentawaians arrange rights to land. Traditionally, access to land has been tied to vertical reciprocity with ancestors and horizontal reciprocity with other Mentawaians in which the exchange of gifts mediate land relations. In an egalitarian agrarian setting, rigid rules are not necessary since access to land is the domain of interpersonal relationships that depend upon both concrete and imaginative social relations. Rules would be explicitly enunciated for the purpose of judging and sanctioning or finding 'true' claimants, but are in most contexts better understood as a kind of legal sensibility, allowing Mentawaians to reconfigure social relations and practices, adjust political alliances, and adapt to external stimulus. Over time, incorporation into wider political and economic relations through cash crop production and state intervention has triggered land privatization and commodification, resulting in the resurfacing of past conflicts and the emergence of new forms of dispute. Customary land tenure, then, is being reconfigured with attempts to maintain dynamic principles of ancestrally sanctioned social relationships through land, while accommodating partly conflicting aspirations for economic and legal certainty. The desire to maintain fluidity while seeking clarity is particularly reflected in the modification of the customary institution for land dispute management (tiboi polak).

The emphasis on flexibility and continual adjustment of Mentawaian customary land tenure is particularly important given the recent attempts by local government and NGOs to introduce formal legal procedures for land administration. The contention of this thesis is that a narrowly legalistic approach to land rights is inadequate to understanding the social dynamic of customary tenure that operates among Mentawaians and to offer solutions for dealing with contested land claims. Providing sufficient land tenure security either for protecting customary rights (the aim of community mapping by NGOs) or for securing land for development programs (through government regulation) has to be located beyond the binary opposition between customary (adat) law and state law. Instead of focusing on a top-down and legalistic approach through the systematic formalization of landownership and the designation of customary territory, district government and NGO efforts require a more nuanced approach that begins with legal sensibilities and associated cultural processes entailed in the indigenous dispute management system, tiboi polak. The accommodation of tiboi polak into the state legal order without the imposition of formal title or permanent fixation of claims may provide a platform that could enable Mentawaians the possibility of maintaining the fluidity and social underpinning of customary land relations while seeking clarity and security of access to land.


OF DISSERTATION CHARACTERIZATION OF METHANE-AIR DIFFUSION FLAMES FOR FLAME SYNTHESIS APPLICATION THROUGH OPTICAL DIAGNOSTICS Flame synthesis is a growing field of research aiming at forming new materials and coatings through injection of seed materials into a flame. Accurate prediction of the thermal structure of these flames requires detailed information on the radiative properties and a thorough understanding of the governing combustion processes. The objective of this work is to establish a basic optical diagnostic characterization of different methane-air diffusion flames of different complexity. The basic principles are developed and demonstrated at a rotational symmetric co-flow burner and finally applied to a burner consisting of six clustered microflames which is designed for future flame synthesis work. This work focuses on the demonstration of the optical techniques for characterizing the optical emissions from diffusion flames and of the proposed method for the determination of radiating species properties from these optical measurements. In the co-flow diffusion flame setup, the fuel of methane diluted with nitrogen is provided through an inner tube while the air is applied through an outer duct surrounding the fuel nozzle. Filtered imaging and spectrally resolved measurements of the chemiluminescence of CH and C2 and of water emission were conducted. A procedure for using the HITRAN database to support the spectroscopic analysis of the water emission was developed. In the six clustered microflames burner setup, the burner consisted of six micronozzles arranged in a circle surrounding a central nozzle through which air and TaN seed particles with sizes between 0.3 and 3 m were injected. Spectrally resolved measurements of the chemiluminescence of CH and C2 were conducted for temperature measurements. Imaging results obtained from a spectral integration of the molecular emission were compared to results from Japanese collaborators who applied a tomographic analysis method to filtered emission measurements of CH emission which can yield spatially resolved three dimensional mapping of the flame front. The analysis of the spatial distribution of the integrated band emission of CH and C2 showed that the emission of both species is generated at the same locations in the flame which are the thin flame sheets shown in the tomography results of CH. The ratio of the C2 and the CH emission from the emission spectroscopy measurements was used to determine a local equivalence ratio through empirically derived correlations for premixed flames reported in literature. Rotational and vibrational temperature distributions of CH and C2 radicals throughout the entire flame were determined from the spectrally resolved emission from CH and C2. The temperatures of TaN seed particles were characterized using VIS-NIR emission spectra while varying fuel-air flow rates. The temperature profiles of the particles at various heights above the base of the central nozzle, obtained by their VIS-NIR continuum emission, showed a well-defined constant temperature region that extended well beyond the actual flame front and changed as fuel and oxidizer flow rates were varied. The results demonstrate the ability to control the duration to which seed particles are subjected to high temperature reactions by adjusting fuel and oxidizer flow rates in the clustered microflames burner.


Since the 1960's Ronald Dworkin has been arguing for a particular account of law that he believed was both explanatorily superior to the one offered by competing theories, and also the basis for normative arguments for producing right answers to legal questions. Justice in Robes collects Dworkin's most recent essays on this subject and thus provides the appropriate opportunity for assessing the legal theory of one of the more influential legal philosophers. In this Review I seek to offer a clearer account than appears in the book itself of Dworkin's project, and in this way offer a measured assessment of his work. My argument shows that there has been significant misunderstanding of Dworkin's project and that once it is cleared we can see that Dworkin's questions are not so far apart from those of other legal theorists. This approach has another benefit, as it ties together Dworkin's disparate discussions in Justice in Robes into a more coherent whole. Once the structure of Dworkin's argument is clarified, I move on to examine the details of his argument. Here, I argue, his arguments are often less convincing. Nevertheless, I argue, this need not lead us to wholesale rejection of his theory. I show how his ideas make more sense within a broader account of law that shows the limited but undeniable sense in which his arguments are correct, and inform our understanding of legal practice.


United States faced a growing number of corporate bankruptcies during the subprime crisis. This article is intended to determine the effectiveness of some governance mechanisms on the financial distress probability of companies over the period 2007–2009. This period is divided into two parts; we take the date of filing for chapter 11 of the company Lehman Brothers (15 December, 2008) as the cutting point between the mortgage and the financial phases of the crisis. Aiming to highlight the influence of corporate governance mechanisms on financial distress probability, we then use, for each sub period, logit models on paired samples of firms which half opted for legal protection due to financial and commercial difficulties. Our results indicate that, during the first sub period, combining the functions of CEO and chairman of the board of directors is beneficial to the survival of the firm, whereas, during the second sub period, capital ownership by the CEO appears to be an incentive to keep the firm on float. This paper seeks to add to the corporate governance literature by considering how certain corporate governance mechanisms impacted the perennity of companies during the subprime crisis.


A certain pathos of temporality is at the core of Nietzsche's critique of reason, and it is this pathos that motivates his questioning of the Western discourse of values and of valuation. The well-rehearsed Nietzschean thesis about the decline of values in modernity – nihilism as a kind of character fault of the modern personality –builds in effect less upon the values themselves (whatever these might be specified as) than upon a certain evolution in the human subject. An evolution in the subjectivity that has turned humans around from what Giddens (perhaps misleadingly) called ontological security towards their evolving capacity to navigate an unknown future and negotiate the values that flow from it. This article tries to demonstrate how Nietzsche's notion of modern subjectivity is in this sense inseparable from our negotiation of values over time; inseparable, in other words, from a certain axiology of time. Critically, it is not nihilism that is Nietzsche's primary concern – as so many read him – but rather his notion that values are inhabited by their own contingency: namely, the very possibility of their own exhaustion. For Nietzsche, the critique of morality is a particular case of his critique of values. All evaluation, all practices of conceptualizing, determining and applying values fits into the kind of genealogy Nietzsche carries out on morality. For Nietzsche there is an inseparable link between the supposed essence of value and the temporal field in which their rise or decline is experienced, and bemoaned.


This study investigates the existence and shape of an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) across 16 developed countries and 58 developing countries during the period 1995–2010. The basic model of the EKC is a polynomial equation of real GDP per capita. The EKC model estimated for CO2 emission per capita was extended by using control variables, such as trade, urban population, fossil fuel consumption, and service sector. Based on the nonparametric test of poolability of Baltagi et al. (1996), the relationship was found to have structural stability. A nonparametric pooled regression model was constructed, which allowed functional form flexibility and considered the endogeneity problem often emphasized in the EKC literature. The estimation results show the nonexistence of an EKC for both groups. The study also indicates the existence of nonlinearity and heterogeneity in the relationships between CO2 emission and the control variables across both groups. Keywords: Environmental Kuznets Curve, CO2 emissions, Nonparametric models, Endogeneity, Control Function Approach. JEL: C14, C23, Q56.


Parasitic water moulds in the genus Saprolegnia cause mortality of amphibian embryos and reduced size at metamorphosis, leading to increased adult mortality. Most studies of virulence have focused on only a single Saprolegnia species, but the Saprolegnia species associated with amphibian eggs and their distributions are not well known. This study aimed to investigate the distribution of amphibian-associated water moulds in Scotland. In particular, we asked the questions: i) Does Saprolegnia species composition vary between sites?; and ii) Is presence of Saprolegnia related to environmental parameters? Common frog (Rana temporaria) eggs with evidence of Saprolegnia infection were sampled from ten sites, cultured, and the 28S region of the rDNA array sequenced. Thirteen samples isolated from four sites were identified as members of the Saprolegniaceae and the ITS region of these samples were subsequently sequenced to further resolve species identification. Four species of Saprolegnia were found in total, with one or two species of Saprolegnia present in each of four sites. S. diclina was the most common species identified and was found at three of the four sites. Acidity was significantly lower and altitude significantly higher at sites where Saprolegniaceae were present. Therefore, R. temporaria eggs in different pools are subject to infection by different, and in some instances more than one, species of Saprolegnia. Overall, our findings suggest that future studies of virulence need to consider the effect of multiple Saprolegnia species within a site as well as the population of origin of the amphibian host.


In "What is Meaning" (1903) the author elaborates on the fundamental tenets of her theory of sign, to which she gave the overall term 'significs'. One of the main obstacles to an adequate theory of meaning, in Lady Welby's opinion, is the unfounded assumption of fixed sign meaning. "There is, strictly speaking, no such thing as the Sense of a word, but only the sense in which it is used – the circumstances, state of mind, reference, 'universe of discourse' belonging to it. The Meaning of a word is the intent which it is desired to convey – the intention of the user. The Significance is always manifold, and intensifies its sense as well as its meaning, by expressing its importance, its appeal to us, its moment for us, its emotional force, its ideal value, its moral aspect, its universal or at least social range." This facsimile of the 1903 edition of "What is Meaning" is accompanied by an essay on "Significs as a Fundamental Science" by Achim Eschbach, and "A Concise History of Significs" by G. Mannoury.


The crystallinity of non-molten and pre-molten uncompatibilized and compatibilized polymer blends of high density polyethylene (HDPE)/Nylon 12 have been investigated by using FT-Raman spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD). The FT-Raman, DSC, and WAXD measurements have revealed that the crystallinity of HDPE of both uncompatibilized and compatibilized blends increases upon melting except for the compatibilized blend with the Nylon 12 content of 80 wt%. The degree of the increase is significantly larger for the uncompatibilized blends than the compatibilized blends. The FT-Raman data suggests that the crystallinity of the compatibilized blend with the Nylon 12 content of 80 wt% decreases slightly after melting. It is very likely that the compatibilized polymer blends are well oriented during the melting and molding process by an extruder because of the existence of maleic anhydride (MAH)-grafted copolymer as a compatibilizer. In contrast, it seems that the uncompatibilized polymer blends are not so much oriented and have more amorphous phase in the Nylon 12 rich region before melting. Thus, the melting process induces a recrystallization process.


This project evaluated how teachers bringing groups to the Museum of the Rockies used the Taylor Planetarium as a learning tool. Teachers who visited the Museum between October 2013 and March of 2014 were asked to participate by answering questions via online surveys and phone interviews. Each teacher was asked to do this before and after their visit to the Taylor Planetarium to measure how their preparation before the visit impacted their students and themselves. After their visit, each participating teacher completed a survey to gather data on the purpose of school group visits, perceptions of student engagement, and instructional techniques used during their visit. Additionally, I contacted planetarium directors from the Pacific Northwest to gather data on their practices and ideas. This project generated evidence that there is a considerable need to increase the communication level between Montana's teachers and the Museum of the Rockies to enhance the learning experience of the students they bring in to see a planetarium show.


Mental health professionals who work with people over 65 have been shown to exhibit subtle and overt ageist attitudes. Many of these misconceptions were based on societal perceptions and ageism stereotypes arising from contemporary research performed on a non-representative portion of people over 65. Nursing home residents representing only 4.2% of the older adult population have been studied and the results of those studies have been generalized to represent all older adults. Few studies have given voice to the 95.8% of well older adults living independently. It was held if older adults were listened to, guiding information could be gained which could help professionals working with older adults to become more aware of the trappings of ageism and age stereotypes. A qualitative study was employed to explore the lived experience of aging through the analysis and coding of interviews with ten independent people over 65 years old living in diverse locations around the world. Though some of the findings supported old age stereotypes, it was found that the participants held an "inner age" that was 30-40 years younger than their physical age, that the participants did not see themselves as "old," that "old" meant physical disability or poor attitude, and that "connectedness" was important in life fulfillment. The findings were used to develop a set of guidelines for critiquing expressive therapies literature about working with older adults. Applications of the guidelines to a selection of expressive therapies literature was performed and


This article draws on the concept of subjunctivity to explore how conditions of uncertainty, experimentation, and refusal shape the lives of women raising children with Down syndrome in Amman, Jordan. The connections that women forge – as mothers of children with Down syndrome – enable them to imagine new possibilities for their families and their futures across boundaries of class and circumstance. Prenatal diagnosis, however, invites possibilities of a different kind, challenging established models for divine creation, human agency, and moral accountability. As women reflect on what they would have done if they had known about their child's Down syndrome in utero, they reason themselves to different conclusions. Yet their interest in the question itself reveals how, even in its absence, prenatal diagnosis circulates as a technology of subjunctivity, conjuring multiple possible pasts, presents, and futures.


This book argues that the mainstream definitions of corruption, and the key expectations they embed concerning the relationship between corruption, democracy, and the process of democratization, require reexamination. Even critics who did not consider stable institutions and legal clarity of veteran democracies as a cure-all, assumed that the process of widening the influence on government decision making and implementation allows non-elites to defend their interests, define the acceptable sources and uses of wealth, and demand government accountability. This had proved correct, especially insofar as 'petty corruption' is involved. But the assumption that corruption necessarily involves the evasion of democratic principles and a 'market approach' in which the corrupt seek to maximize profit does not exhaust the possible incentives for corruption, the types of behaviors involved (for obvious reasons, the tendency in the literature is to focus on bribery), or the range of situations that 'permit' corruption in democracies. In the effort to identify some of the problems that require recognition, and to offer a more exhaustive alternative, the chapters in this book focus on corruption in democratic settings (including NGOs and the United Nations which were largely so far ignored), while focusing mainly on behaviors other than bribery.


Pharmaceuticals are biologically active compounds that may be consumed in hundreds of tonnes per year, and which are excreted into municipal sewerage systems. Many pharmaceuticals persist during sewage treatment, and significant environmental risk has been linked to incomplete removal of pharmaceuticals. Evaluation of this risk is important and should be as representative as possible, taking into consideration all significant exposure routes and removal processes. Sludge treatment processes are of particular interest because they offer a final opportunity for the removal of persistent compounds before the disposal of treated biosolids. During environmental risk assessment, it is currently assumed that anaerobic sludge treatment results in insignificant removal of persistent and adsorptive compounds from sewage sludge. This project was undertaken to address whether this assumption is valid. This thesis describes research into the behaviour and fate of pharmaceuticals in anaerobic digester sludge, and examines how redox conditions influence removal efficiency. Nine commonly used pharmaceuticals (caffeine, cimetidine, fluoxetine, ibuprofen, metformin, naproxen, paroxetine, propranolol and salicylic acid) were selected for use based upon detection levels within sewage sludge and predicted anaerobic biodegradability. Initial experiments were conducted to identify toxicity to anaerobic microorganisms and anaerobic biodegradability. No toxicity to the microorganisms in anaerobic sludge was identified at ≤ 50 mg C L-1for any of the selected pharmaceuticals. The extent of removal in anaerobic sludge and the principal removal mechanism was found to vary between the selected pharmaceuticals. Metformin and salicylic acid were removed by 82 and 93% through mineralisation, respectively; naproxen was completely removed through primary biodegradation; fluoxetine, paroxetine and propranolol were removed by 92 and 96 and 55% due to adsorption, respectively. It was hypothesised that the removal of pharmaceuticals in anaerobic sludge through biodegradation and adsorption would be observed at varying rates under differing redox conditions. Test systems using headspace gas flushing and chemical amendment were evaluated for the control of redox conditions, with Eh measurements and DOC removal being used to indicate the stability of the system and its capacity for biodegradation. The addition of nitrate, sulfate and carbonate resulted in poised Eh values in the region of +200, -200 and -200 mV, respectively and 81, 78 and 74% removal of DOC, respectively. This methodology was subsequently used to evaluate the removal of naproxen, propranolol and fluoxetine under carbonate-, nitrate- and sulfate-amended conditions. Significant differences (p = 0.001) in the removal of naproxen through primary biodegradation were found to exist between different redox conditions. Naproxen was completely removed under control conditions, while 26, 98 and 61% removal was observed under nitrate- sulfate- and carbonate amended conditions, respectively. Some differences were observed in Kd values, however, redox amendment was found to have little influence upon the elimination of propranolol and fluoxetine through adsorption. It was identified from this work that pharmaceuticals within the aqueous phase degraded under anaerobic conditions as predicted, while pharmaceuticals associated with the biosolids were removed through adsorption and present a potential threat to the environment on the disposal of treated biosolids. This work supports the current industry assumption that anaerobic treatment of biosolids offers limited opportunity for the removal of adsorptive pharmaceuticals, and also found no evidence for their enhanced removal under redox-controlled conditions. While research described within this thesis increases knowledge of the behaviour of pharmaceuticals in sewage sludge under anaerobic conditions, data is presented for a limited range of test substances only, and further investigation into the behaviour of additional compound classes is recommended.


Hofstetter, C., Clapp, J., Allem, J., Hughes, S., Li, Y., Irvin, V., Daly, A., Kang, S., & Hovell, M. (2014). Social networks and alcohol consumption among first generation Chinese and Korean immigrants in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The International Journal Of Alcohol And Drug Research, 3 (4), 245-255. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.v3i4.188 Aims: To test hypotheses involving mechanisms of reinforcement of alcohol behaviors operating in social networks. Design: Telephone interviews conducted by professional interviewers in Mandarin or Korean or English with first generation Chinese (from Mainland or Taiwan) and Korean immigrants residing using a dual frame stratified sampling design. Combined probability and non-probability approaches for sampling due to the widespread use of cell phones. Interviews were conducted in language of preferences with over 95% of interviews in Korean or Mandarin. Setting: Residents of three counties with the largest proportions of eligible residents (Los Angeles, Orange, and San Bernardino) were included. Participants: Adult residents (21 and over) stratified by gender who could be reached by telephone constituted the sample. Measures: Measures included frequency/amount alcohol consumption drawn from NIAAA standard, a "relax, socialize, have fun with" name generator was used to identify alters. Reinforcers within networks were measured by participant reports of amount of alter drinking, drunkenness, and encouragement to drink, acculturation, and demographic variables were measured by self report. Findings: Using a random effects approach and controlling for other variables, including drinking in the network, acculturation, Korean/Chinese origin, and demographics, source of immigration, network context, as was and sampling frame, encouragement to drink in the network was related to drinking ( P <.05). Conclusions: Studies of social networks in relation to health behaviors should include measures of actions within networks, especially reinforcers of behaviors, in order to understand the functioning and consequences of networks.


This study divides itself into three parts the opening chapter sets out the textual position. Most of the material here is well known, but additions to it can still be made. Since text, as a selection from a group of variants, and interpretation, as a justification and understanding of that selection, are always associated both in method and in exegesis, (^1) the first chapter also presents an attempt to trace the history of the interpretation of Romans 12.11c, particularly in its earlier, less well-known stages and particularly where is read. The second chapter, the backbone of the thesis, presents in detail the lexical materials, which show how often appears in other writers in company with one or other of the words found in the Pauline context (especially in vv. 11-13) or with their cognates. My conclusion can be put in this interrogatory form: If this word occurs elsewhere in Greek literature (and with necessary changes in Latin literature) in similar company, should we not reconsider the possibility of it's originality in Romans 12.11c? Chapter three assumes this originality and suggests an exegesis of Romans 12 which gives its proper weight within its context, especially within chapters 11-15.


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