The thesis is composed of two broad themed sections with the underlying aim of understanding on a precise atomic basis, the electronic and structural factors governing the reactive and non-reactive surfaces of two metal oxides belonging to the same group in the periodic table; boron (B) and aluminium (Al). Using accurate density functional theory (DFT) computations, we first elucidate the initial reaction steps of the surface oxidation of elemental boron into its respective oxide; boron trioxide (B₂O₃). The highly exoergic reaction obtained for the dissociative adsorption of molecular oxygen over the boron surface coincides with the widely used boron oxidation reaction as secondary energy source in rockets. The relatively large activation energy for the O-O dissociation step marks the non-spontaneity of elemental boron oxidation at room temperature. Having established routes for the formation of B₂O₃-like precursors, we then investigate the relative stability of four low-index surfaces of the low-pressure B₂O₃ phase; namely the B₂O₃-I configuration. We demonstrate that none of the investigated low-index surfaces have dangling bonds, which reasonably relates to the experimentally observed low reactivity of this compound. The most stable surface terminations of B₂O₃ orientations entail tetrahedral BO₄ units. Such termination incurs a lower surface energy than orientations that consist of only triangular BO₃ units. Electronic and structural factors provide atomic-base elucidation of the observed inertness of B₂O₃.

Combined experimental techniques (i.e. diffuse reflectance infrared spectroscopy) and DFT simulation are used to answer some of the most intriguing questions pertinent to factors underpinning the well-documented catalytic inhibition by B₂O₃ and its hygroscopic behaviour. We investigate the adsorption and dissociation mechanisms of two hydrogen chalcogenides, namely water (H₂O) and hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) molecules over B₂O₃-I (101) surfaces. We show that the diboron trioxide surface exhibits high physiochemical reactivity towards water molecules. The Lewis acid properties of B₂O₃-I lead to the formation of a molecular adsorption state (rather than dissociative adsorption) of the H₂S molecule via the acceptance of an electron pair into the low-energy orbital of the boron valence shell. While acting as water scavenger to generate dissociated radicals, B₂O₃ exhibits an inhibitor characteristic towards the dissociation of H₂S molecules, representing an ideal reactor wall coating in such systems.

Alumina have been widely utilised as independent catalysts or as support materials for other catalysts. From an environmental perspective, alumina nanoclusters dispersed on surfaces of particulate matter PM₁₂ generate from various combustion processes play a critical role in the synthesis of environmental persistent free radicals (EPFR). Of particular importance are phenoxy-type EPFR that often acts as building blocks for the formation of notorious pollutants. Herein, we provide a comprehensive thermo-mechanistic account of alumina-surface mediated formation of phenoxy-type EPFR on different structural alumina models encompassing the following surfaces: dehydrated alumina surface, fully hydrate alumina surface, surfaces with different hydration coverage, and silicon-alumina doped surface. We show that fission of the phenol's hydroxyl bond over dehydrated alumina systematically incurs lower energy barriers in reference to the hydrate surfaces. The catalytic activity of the alumina surface in producing the phenoxy/phenolate species reversibly correlates with the degree of hydroxyl coverage. Furthermore, we clarify the effect doping on the catalytic activity of alumina. The activation energy barrier required to form phenoxy moiety on Si-substituted Al₂O₃(0001) surface is ~40% lower than that of analogous barriers encountered over undoped dehydrate alumina surface. Overall, all considered models of alumina configurations are shown to produce adsorbed phenolate; however, desorption of the latter into the gas phase requires a rather sizable energy. Thus, the fate of absorbed phenolate is most likely to be dictated by decomposition affording carboneous layer of self-decomposition into other stable molecules.


In recent years many countries in Oceania have developed tax havens. Using their sovereignty, Pacific Islands countries have profited by providing offshore havens from metropolitan taxation and regulation. Tax Havens and Sovereignty in the Pacific Islands surveys the timely, important and controversial topic of Pacific Islands tax havens - havens currently holding hundreds of billions of dollars.


Temperate estuaries are characterized by significant seasonal variability in the vertical salinity gradient, which, along with biological factors, may play a role in determining plankton ver- tical distribution. We examined the vertical distribution of microplankton (20 to 200 µm) and nanoplankton (~5 to 20 µm) in the San Francisco Estuary (SFE) over diel, seasonal and interannual time scales, and assessed the degree to which abiotic (hydrography) and biotic (predation) factors influenced these patterns. We sampled 2 hydrographically-distinct locations within the SFE: San Pablo Bay, a partially-mixed estuary, and South Bay, a lagoonal estuary. We conducted replicate Niskin bottle casts during the day and night at each location on 6 occasions between 1998 and 1999. We also conducted replicate day and night pump sampling for mesozooplankton (>153 µm) on 4 of these dates. The vertical distribution of micro- and nanoplankton was often homogeneous with depth, even under substantially different hydrographic conditions. ANOVA testing of weighted mean depths (WMD) of chlorophyll, major taxa of micro- and nanoplankton, and cope- pods (factors: location, year, season, time of day) revealed that only the microplankton taxa (specifi- cally ciliates) showed significant differences in vertical distribution over the sampling period. The most significant differences in WMD were observed seasonally. Ciliates and copepods (Acartia spp.) showed significant diel differences in WMD on several occasions, but diel differences were rarely observed among other micro- and nanoplankton. The degree of salinity stratification was never correlated to WMD of any micro- or nanoplankton group, however vertical distributions of heterotrophic loricate and aloricate ciliates and dinoflagellates were often significantly correlated with distributions of chlorophyll and autotrophic nanoflagellates (presumed food), as well as with the vertical distributions of Acartia spp (presumed predators). We conclude that micro- and nanoplankton are often relatively homogeneously distributed with respect to depth in the SFE. However, when micro- and nanoplankton distributions were more heterogeneous, biotic factors had a greater influence on vertical distribution than abiotic factors (stratification) in the SFE.


Introduction: Hepatitis A is caused by a virus with a similar name. As a very contagious disease, Hepatitis A is one of the most prevalent infant infections across the developing countries. People who have been vaccinated and also those who caught this disease already are immune against hepatitis A. Since it was not possible and cost effective to analyze the immunity level of all asymptomatic children, in this study, the immunity level of some children against this virus was measured in order to estimate their immunity potential against this infection. Methods: A total of 400 6-11 years old children in Kerman County, who have referred to the Be'sat Specialized Clinic and infants emergency care ward of Afzalipour Hospital and their blood have been collected for any reason except diagnosing hepatitis, were studied. Children with chronic liver, blood, immunity system deficiency and malignity were excluded from the study. Using ELISA technique and Dia-pro Milano Italy, made by Italy (with a sensitivity of 100% and specialty of 99.6%), their serum was analyzed in terms of anti-hepatitis data were analyzed using SPSS 16. Results: 42.8% of children were immune against hepatitis A. 55% and 45% of children referred to the mentioned medical centers were girl and boy, respectively. 59.1% of boys and 40.9% of girls were immune, but there was not any significant difference between them. There was a direct relationship between immunity and children's age, as with increasing their age as large as 1 year their immunity level against hepatitis A is increased as large as 0.75%. There was not found any relationship between the immunity level and other demographic properties. Conclusion: Most of 6-11 children are immune against hepatitis A because of their asymptomatic disease.


Summary

1. Quantitative food webs were constructed describing the community of leafmining moths in the genus Phyllonorycter (Gracillariidae) and their parasitoids at a site in southern England.

2. Twelve species of Phyllonorycter were reared from four species of tree. The moths were attacked by 27 species of hymenopterous parasitoids.

3. Four webs were constructed for successive moth generations over 2 years. A summary web was built and a comparison made between webs expressed in terms of number of mines and number of females recruiting to the next generation.

4. All hosts and most parasitoids were recorded in the first year, but new host–parasitoid associations were discovered throughout the sampling period. The diversity of mines and parasitoids was similar across generations.

5. The structure of the parasitoid community was strongly influenced by the host plant.

6. The extent of potential indirect interactions between hosts was assessed by constructing quantitative parasitoid overlap diagrams. The measure of influence used was the importance of one species as a source of parasitoids attacking the other. The greatest potential for apparent competition was between species of host attacking the same species of plant.


Earthquake design of buildings involves the creation of a structural system capable of resisting the seismic forces in a ductile manner. Postearthquake observations have shown that the failure of many reinforced concrete buildings has been due to the inability of the lower-story columns to resist the earthquake imposed loads. Failure of these members are often related to an inappropriate layout of the reinforcement in the upper and lower regions of these columns (insufficient column-tie sizing and spacing, leading to tie failure as well as buckling of the longitudinal reinforcement). Considering these observations, a new hybrid structural system for both moment resistant frame and shearwall buildings, which was proposed by Bouwkamp 1990, has since been studied at the Darmstadt University of Technol-ogy. The system involves the use of prefabricated composite columns consisting of steel tubular thin-walled sections filled with concrete and typical reinforced concrete beam-slab floors. In case of shear walls, the composite columns are used as edge members of the concrete shear walls. In principle, the steel tubular column section replaces effectively the longitudinal column reinforcement and provides the confinement for the (core) concrete. Realizing that the connection between the composite columns and concrete beam-slab floor as well as between the shear-wall edge members and concrete wall are critical, the connection design at the interface of the different elements has been a major subject of study. Earlier research on the design and seismic response of hybrid moment resistant frames have shown that this system can be used effectively for the aseismic design of ductile moment resistant frames. The present study has focussed on the use of this system for shear wall type buildings. Ten alternative interface designs, reflecting a one-third scale model of the edge region of the first story shear wall of an 8-story building, have been developed and tested. The model shear wall was designed with a double-layered 10 x 10 cm mesh having f 8 mm bars vertically and f 6mm bars horizontally. Horizontal anchor bars between composite column and concrete wall extended through holes in the steel column section, were spaced at 10 cm o.c. and directly connected to the wall reinforcement. Also, an interface arrangement with inclined (45-degree) anchor bars as well as headed shear studs welded to the steel tube section were investigated. All specimen were tested under cyclic alternating displacement-controlled loads. Main results in terms of force-displacement, shear force- shear distortion and force-slip re-lation are presented and discussed. A non-linear FE computer program, ANSYS 5.7 has been used to study the inelastic cyclic response under shear of the different interface connections (IFC) tested. Two models have been developed to capture the interface behavior between edge column and RC wall panel. Firstly, a model with non-linear springs, interconnecting the common interface nodal points of the wall panel and steel tube have been introduced. The non-linear spring-characteristics were taken from the empirically derived mechanical model idealising the force-slip relationship at the interface. Secondly, a simple truss-like model capable of capturing the interface behavior has been derived. A comparison between experimental and numerical results show an excellent agreement and clearly support the validity of the both models developed in this study for predicting the non-linear response of the hybrid shear wall system under earthquake load conditions.


This article critiques Porter and Kramer's concept of creating shared value. The strengths of the idea are highlighted in terms of its popularity among practitioner and academic audiences, its connecting of strategy and social goals, and its systematizing of some previously underdeveloped, disconnected areas of research and practice. However, the concept suffers from some serious shortcomings, namely: it is unoriginal; it ignores the tensions inherent to responsible business activity; it is naïve about business compliance; and it is based on a shallow conception of the corporation's role in society. [Michael Porter and Mark Kramer were invited to respond to this article. Their commentary follows along with a reply by Crane and his co-authors.]


Nanotechnology has come to mean a range of highly promising disciplines in science and technology. Metal oxide Nanoparticles had been used in recent studies due to its large bandwidth and high binding energy and it has potential applications like antibacterial, antifungal, anti-diabetic, antiinflammatory, wound healing, anti-oxidant and optic properties. The usages of nanomaterials are enormous as energy storage devices such as fuel cells, detection of threads in defence, navy, drug delivery and water purification. Green synthesis of Nanoparticles has received a lot of attention and close scrutiny of scientists and researchers. Leaf extract of Azadirachta Indica contains phytochemicals and enzymes which take part in the conversion of metal compounds into Nanoparticles. Pure zinc oxide and Manganese oxide is prepared and doped with Azadirachta Indica to analyse its general and optical properties. We have attempted to prepare pure ZnO and MnO Nanoparticles also both were doped with neem at 5:1 ratio by using solvothermal method.


The male body, followed by male reproductive organs from which the sperm originates, is depicted from top to bottom at the left. Under the male reproductive organs is a diagram of a single sperm. To the right of the sperm diagram, the physiological and morphological changes a sperm undergoes to fertilize an egg are depicted from left to right. Each change is associated with a light pink rectangle background. Each light pink rectangle corresponds to the location of the sperm within the female reproductive organs, which is depicted above it. In addition, a molecular view of each change is directly under each light pink rectangle. It is important to note the background color of the illustration. A blue to purple gradient depicts the two phases of sperm capacitation: sperm capacitation is in blue, and the acrosome reaction is in purple. It is still unclear where the two phases differentiate and thus a gradient is used as opposed to two distinct colors. The title location for each phase designates the approximate start of each phase.


The phenomenon of postpacing depression of cardiac pacemakers was utilized to evaluate the sinus-node function in 56 patients by analyzing the sinus-node recovery time (SRT), that is, the interval between the last paced P wave and the following sinus P wave. Corrected SRT (CSRT) is defined as the recovery interval in excess of the sinus cycle (SRT — sinus cycle length). The SRT was measured following sinus-node suppression by (1) isolated premature beats (PABs) and (2) atrial pacing (AP) at rates of 100 to 140/min for periods of 2 to 5 min at each level. Twenty-eight patients had normal heart rates (group A), and 28 patients had sinus bradycardia (SB; group B). Ten of the 28 patients with SB were restudied after receiving atropine (2 mg intravenously). The CSRT with PABs was similar in both group A and group B patients and remained essentially unchanged after atropine despite a decrease in sinus cycle length. The phenomenon of interpolated PABs was demonstrated in seven of the 56 patients. In 27 of the 28 patients with normal heart rates (group A), the CSRT with AP ranged from 110 to 525 msec and was essentially independent of the rate and duration of AP. In the remaining one patient of group A, despite a normal heart rate, the CSRT was prolonged (1810 msec) and directly dependent on the rate and duration of AP. In 12 of the 28 patients with SB, the CSRT was comparable to that in group A (≦525 msec). In the remaining 16 patients with SB (group B), the CSRT ranged from 560 to 3740 msec and was usually directly proportional to the rate and duration of AP. After atropine in most of the patients with a prolonged CSRT, the CSRT remained abnormal whereas in others junctional escape beats appeared first, followed eventually by normal sinus rhythm. In a single patient with SB and an abnormal CSRT, restudy 7½ months later again showed a prolonged CSRT indicating the reproducibility of the measurement. The CSRT with AP provides a potentially useful clinical means of assessing the sinus-node function and thereby aids in the diagnosis of the "sick sinus syndrome.' It is stressed that AP was found to be more reliable than PABs in eliciting an abnormal response. Furthermore, a normal sinus (atrial) rate does not necessarily provide assurance of a normal sinus-node response to AP, that is, normal sinus-node function.


The growth of urban population as the result of economic and industrial development has changed our place of living from a prosperous place to where the resources are carelessly consumed. On the other hand, long-term climate change, i.e. global warming, has had adverse impact on our resources. Certain resources are on the verge of depletion as the consequence of climate change and inconsiderate consumption of resources, unless serious measures are implemented immediately. The building sector, whose share in the municipal energy consumption is considerably high, is a key player that may successfully solve the problem. This paper aims to study the effects of climate change on the energy consumption of buildings and analyze its magnitude to increase the awareness of how construction can reduce the overall global energy consumption. A descriptive-analytical method has been applied to analyze valid models of energy consumption according to different scenarios and to interpret the conditions underlying current and future energy consumption of buildings. The results clearly show that the energy consumption in the building sector increasingly depends on the cooling demand. With that being said, we can expect the reduction of overall energy consumption of buildings in regions with high heating demands, whereas rising the energy consumption in buildings is expected in regions with high cooling demand. To conclude, the long-term climate change (e.g. global warming) underlies the increased energy consumption for the cooling demand whose share in total energy consumption of buildings much outweighs the heating demand. Therefore, to conserve our resources, urban energy planning and management should focus on working up a proper framework of guidelines on how to mitigate the cooling loads in the energy consumption patterns of buildings.


The purpose of this paper is to develop and analyze a least-squares approximation to a first order system. The first order system represents a reformulation of a second order elliptic boundary value problem which may be indefinite and/or nonsymmetric. The approach taken here is novel in that the least-squares functional employed involves a discrete inner product which is related to the inner product in H -1 (Ω) (the Sobolev space of order minus one on Ω). The use of this inner product results in a method of approximation which is optimal with respect to the required regularity as well as the order of approximation even when applied to problems with low regularity solutions. In addition, the discrete system of equations which needs to be solved in order to compute the resulting approximation is easily preconditioned, thus providing an efficient method for solving the algebraic equations. The preconditioner for this discrete system only requires the construction of preconditioners for standard second order problems, a task which is well understood.


In this essay I approach the story of Elisha and the miraculous jar of oil (2 Kgs 4:1-7) through a close reading and attention to its literary genre – hagiography. The widow's attitude toward Elisha, the miracle that Elisha performs for her, the contrast built up between Elisha and Elijah, and the parallels between Elisha and the Lord all emphasize what makes Elisha a unique figure in the Bible. Unlike other prophets, he is not described as a messenger-prophet. Instead, he is a holy man of God, endowed with supernatural powers that he uses to work miraculous deliverances for individuals and the community.


The burning of fossil fuels has increased the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere from 280 ppmv (volume parts per million) to 385 ppmv over the last 200 years. This increase is larger than has occurred over the past 800,000 years. Equilibration of increasing amounts of CO2 with surface waters will decrease the pH of the oceans (called ocean acidification ) from a current value of 8.1 to values as low as 7.4 over the next 200 years. Decreasing the pH affects the production of solid CaCO3 by microorganisms in surface waters and its subsequent dissolution. CO2 dissolution in the ocean can also affect acid–base equilibria, metal complex formation, solid–liquid equilibria, and the adsorption of ions to charged surfaces. Thermodynamic principles can be used to understand these processes in natural waters.


The intestinal barrier, consisting of the vascular endothelium, epithelial cell lining, and mucus layer, covers a surface of about 400 m2. The integrity of the gut wall is sustained by transcellular proteins forming tight junctions between the epithelial cells. Protected by three layers of mucin, the gut wall forms a non-permeable barrier, keeping digestive enzymes and microorganisms within the luminal space, separate from the blood stream. Microorganisms colonizing the gut may produce bacteriocins in an attempt to outcompete pathogens. Production of bacteriocins in a harsh and complex environment such as the gastro-intestinal tract (GIT) may be below minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) levels. At such low levels, the stability of bacteriocins may be compromised. Despite this, most bacteria in the gut have the ability to produce bacteriocins, distributed throughout the GIT. With most antimicrobial studies being performed in vitro, we know little about the migration of bacteriocins across epithelial barriers. The behavior of bacteriocins in the GIT is studied ex vivo, using models, flow cells, or membranes resembling the gut wall. Furthermore, little is known about the effect bacteriocins have on the immune system. It is generally believed that the peptides will be destroyed by macrophages once they cross the gut wall. Studies done on the survival of neurotherapeutic peptides and their crossing of the brain–blood barrier, along with other studies on small peptides intravenously injected, may provide some answers. In this review, the stability of bacteriocins in the GIT, their effect on gut epithelial cells, and their ability to cross epithelial cells are discussed. These are important questions to address in the light of recent papers advocating the use of bacteriocins as possible alternatives to, or used in combination with, antibiotics.


Europe has suffered several extreme weather events which were responsible for considerable ecological and economic losses in the last few decades. In Southern Europe, droughts are one of the most frequent extreme weather events, causing severe damages and various fatalities. The main goal of this study is to determine the role of Circulation Weather Types (CWT) on spatial and temporal variability of droughts by means the new multi-scalar Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). This study aims also to identify the main CWTs associated with winter and summer droughts over different regions of Iberian Peninsula. During the period between 1950 and 2012, the most frequent CWTs were found to be the Anticyclonic (A), Cyclonic (C), North (N) and Northeast (NE) types. The trend analysis for winter season shows a clear increase of frequency CWTs associated to dry events (A, East and Southeast) and a decrease of frequency of C and northern types while in summer a clear decrease of NE is observed. The spatial patterns of correlation between SPEI and CWT show large patterns of negative correlations with winter frequencies of A and eastern weather types, while the reverse occurs with C and western types. This feature is highlighted on a regional approach. The NE type presents negative correlations Central, Northwestern and Southwestern regions during winter and positive correlations in Eastern region during summer. In opposition, the West type presents positive correlations in all regions (except Eastern region) during winter and does not present significant correlations during summer. In general, the predominant CWT associated to winter or summer drought conditions differs greatly between regions. The winter droughts are associated mainly with high frequency of E types and low frequency of W types for all areas, while the summer drought in eastern sectors are linked with low frequency of C type, as well as the western regions are related with the N type.


In this paper we describe progress toward developing an Advanced Process Engineering Co-Simulator (APECS) for the design and optimization of future energy plants to achieve a sustainable balance between efficiency, economics, and environmental performance. The APECS integration framework combines process simulation and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, together with advanced visualization and highperformance computing. We apply APECS here to the U.S. Department of Energy's coal-fired FutureGen power plant that will produce both hydrogen and electricity without emissions. Two high-fidelity CFD simulations, one for an entrained-flow gasifier and one for a gas turbine combustor, are coupled into an overall process simulation of a potential FutureGen plant configuration. The co-simulation results illustrate how APECS can help engineers understand and optimize the fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, and chemical reactions that drive overall power plant performance and sustainability.


To the Editor:

The field of thoracic surgery has undergone some incredible changes. Just a couple of years into my retirement, I have come to realize how fortunate I was to practice during the golden age of the specialty that I embraced during my entire adult life. At the same time, I am deeply concerned by the image of the new generation of thoracic surgeons.

When I review the fantastic accomplishments of thoracic surgery for the past 50 years and witness the current state of our practice, a very disturbing picture comes to life. The list of procedures that are no longer under our control is frightening, and the changes to the ones that we still do are significant.

To start with, the field of thoracic surgery is divided: pulmonary, esophageal, and other thoracic procedures are in the hands of general thoracic surgeons, and cardiac operations are in the domain of cardiac surgeons. Vascular interventions now are the property of vascular surgeons, and both cardiologists and radiologists are competing to do the same procedures that in the past were performed by thoracic surgeons.

Everything that I studied so hard for so many years is gone. Yes, gone and replaced by procedures that are performed using needles, catheters, fluoroscopy, stents, endografts, etc. Some are great advances, I must admit that, but whether we like it or not, these changes are not surgery, at least not the surgery I remember.

I grew up during that golden age of thoracic surgery that I now reminisce over. In those days, we did our own bronchoscopies and then pulmonary resections; our own upper endoscopies and esophageal surgery; coronary bypasses, lots of them, even for single vessel lesions; all kinds of valves, repairs and replacements; and also congenital heart procedures. We did peripheral vascular surgery, from neck to toes, and all those cases were mixed usually within a single week of work.

There were no thoracoscopies or minimally invasive surgery, no balloons and stents, and robotic surgery was not even in the science fiction stories. Small aneurysms were followed with periodic ultrasounds and repaired when considered to be enlarging or too big, and the list goes on and on.

I am not practicing medicine anymore; I am fully retired. Retired after an entire life devoted to the specialty that I fell in love with during my surgical training. I still remember my days at the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans, mesmerized by the expertise and knowledge of the 2 surgeons who trained me, Dr. John Ochsner and Dr. Noel Mills.

Seven years of relentless learning, practicing, watching, and doing until the hands and the mind began to work as one. Days and nights of operating, making rounds, attending lectures; days and nights full of disappointments, frustrations, depressions away from my family, and trying to survive with one goal in my mind—to become a thoracic surgeon. That was all I wanted to be.

Now, we are told that we have to start all over again, not as surgeons, but as something totally different. What disturbs me more than anything is the precarious situation that young and future thoracic surgeons are going to face.

The young ones will have to learn new disciplines. They will be required to be trained in invasive procedures and to begin competing with cardiologists and radiologists and vascular surgeons. Some may have to spend time learning pulmonary and esophageal surgery and also peripheral vascular surgery.

All those were our fields; we gave them away resting on our laurels because we were too busy doing coronary bypasses. Now we need to take them back if we want to survive in the highly competitive world of tomorrow.

The future thoracic surgeons, those still in medical school, are a different story. They will have to be told what to expect of the specialty. They will need to be trained in a different way, as clinicians, radiologists, and surgeons, or as the newest rapidly evolving specialty, surgical interventionist.

Obviously, 7 years of surgical training are a waste of time for somebody who will only perform small openings; work with needles and catheters; or, even worse, perform a surgical procedure looking at a computer screen while the patient rests in the next room. Yes, the curriculum will have to be very different.

The golden days are gone. In a way, we are responsible for losing so many fields of our specialty. We are also responsible for losing that privileged position that we used to occupy in the medical profession. I am proud that I will be called a thoracic surgeon until the last day of my life. I don't need any other name; that one says it all.

It means that I spent a minimum of 7 years of surgical training; it means that I am proficient in all types of procedures involving the thoracic cavity and its contents; and it means that I am also a general surgeon. With mixed feelings I am happy to be retired; I don't think I would like to be called a surgical interventionist.


Learning should be fast, relevant and integrated into day-to-day work patterns. One way of doing this is through elearning. E-learning has created favorable conditions for rural college students to compete with the urban ones. The article examines whether the rural students of Nagapattinam district (Tamilnadu) are having the impact of e-learning. The research is based on sample survey of rural students from the Engineering College and Arts and Science College.


Research with communities, even co-produced research with a commitment to social justice, can be limited by its expression in conventional disciplinary language and format. Vibrant, warm and sometimes complex encounters with community partners become contained through the gesture of
 representation. In this sense, 'writing up' can actually become a kind of slow violence towards participants, projects and ourselves. As a less conventional and containable form of expression, poetry offers an alternative to the power games of researching 'on' communities and writing it up.
 It is excessive in the sense that it goes beyond the cycles of reduction and representation, allowing the expression of subjective (and perhaps sometimes even contradictory) impressions from participants. In this cowritten paper we explore poetry as a social research method through subjective
 testimony and in the light of our Connected Communities-funded projects (Imagine, Threads of Time and Taking Yourself Seriously), where poetry as method came to the fore as a way of hearing and representing voices differently.


Food and nutrition security (FNS) rests on five pillars: availability, access, utilization, stability, and sovereignty. We assessed the potentials of local agroforestry practices (AFPs) for enabling FNS for smallholders in the Yayu Biosphere Reserve (southwestern Ethiopia). Data was collected from 300 households in a stratified random sampling scheme through semi-structured interviews and farm inventory. Utility, edibility, and marketability value were the key parameters used to determine the potential of plants in the AFPs. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and correlation analysis were employed to determine the form, variation, and association of local AFP attributes. Homegarden, multistorey-coffee-system, and multipurpose-trees-on-farmlands are the predominant AFPs in Yayu. Multipurpose-trees-on-farmlands are used mainly for food production, multistorey-coffee-system for income-generation, and homegarden for both. The 127 useful plant species identified represent 10 major plant utility groups, with seven (food, fodder, fuel, coffee-shade, timber, non-timber-forest-products, and medicinal uses) found in all three AFPs. In total, 80 edible species were identified across all AFPs, with 55 being primarily cultivated for household food supply. Generally, household income emanates from four major sources, multistorey-coffee-system (60%), homegarden (18%), multipurpose-trees-on-farmlands (13%), and off-farm activities (11%). Given this variation in form, purpose, and extracted benefits, existing AFPs in Yayu support the FNS of smallholders in multiple ways.


This paper presents the optical mouse based mobile robot traveling simulator for the extraction of the statistical parameters of a traveling surface. In the mobile robot traveling simulator proposed in this paper, a traveling surface sample is rotating relative to stationary optical mice, rather than a mobile robot equipped with optical mice is traveling over a surface. First, the conceptual design and operational principle of the mobile robot traveling simulator are explained. Second, the velocity kinematics which maps the velocity of a mobile robot under simulation to the velocities of optical mice of the mobile robot traveling simulator is derived. Third, the setting of the parameters of the mobile robot traveling simulator, including the angular velocity of a motor and the installation angles of optical mice, is described. Finally, using the prototype of mobile robot traveling simulator, experimental results for four different traveling surface samples are given.


This paper focuses on automated synthesis of divide-and-conquer parallelism, which is a common parallel programming skeleton supported by many cross-platform multithreaded libraries. The challenges of producing (manually or automatically) a correct divide-and-conquer parallel program from a given sequential code are two-fold: (1) assuming that individual worker threads execute a code identical to the sequential code, the programmer has to provide the extra code for dividing the tasks and combining the computation results, and (2) sometimes, the sequential code may not be usable as is, and may need to be modified by the programmer. We address both challenges in this paper. We present an automated synthesis technique for the case where no modifications to the sequential code are required, and we propose an algorithm for modifying the sequential code to make it suitable for parallelization when some modification is necessary. The paper presents theoretical results for when this {\em modification} is efficiently possible, and experimental evaluation of the technique and the quality of the produced parallel programs.


Article history: Received April 26 2016 Received in Revised Format August 16 2016 Accepted September 14 2016 Available online September 14 2016 The product-mix planning and the lot size decisions are some of the most fundamental research themes for the operations research community. The fact that markets have become more unpredictable has increaed the importance of these issues, rapidly. Currently, directors need to work with product-mix planning and lot size decision models by introducing stochastic variables related to the demands, lead times, etc. However, some real mathematical models involving stochastic variables are not capable of obtaining good solutions within short commuting times. Several heuristics and metaheuristics have been developed to deal with lot decisions problems, in order to obtain high quality results within short commuting times. Nevertheless, the search for an efficient model by considering product mix and deal size with stochastic demand is a prominent research area. This paper aims to develop a general model for the product-mix, and lot size decision within a stochastic demand environment, by introducing the Economic Value Added (EVA) as the objective function of a product portfolio selection. The proposed stochastic model has been solved by using a Sample Average Approximation (SAA) scheme. The proposed model obtains high quality results within acceptable computing times. © 2017 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved


A convert to Catholicism, G.K. Chesterton was a leading intellectual of the British Edwardian age and one of the important social and religious thinkers of the twentieth century. His trademark was paradox. He wrote in defense of the imagination and the corralling of opposites, oppositions, contradictions, and bountiful inconsistencies. The article explores Chesterton's views on faith, religion, God, Christianity, Islam, modernity, change, and progress. It locates him in a philosophical stream that sees laughter and comedy as a religious disguise, paradox as a creative force, and the imagination as a necessary complement of reason. This is framed by a discussion of Chesterton's thoughts about the importance of limits and boundaries in defining good actions and good societies.


Objectives: Mindfulness-based interventions demonstrate promise in helping individuals cultivate awareness of risks, thereby decreasing likelihood of revictimization; however, mindfulness-based approaches with homeless youth have received little empirical attention. This mixed-methods study investigates a mindfulness-based intervention for homeless youth, investigating (a) quantitatively—to what extent is the intervention effective in increasing youths' mindfulness over time? and (b) qualitatively—in observing homeless youths' participation in the mindfulness groups, what strategies appear most helpful in engaging them in this mindfulness intervention and what challenges are encountered? Methods: Using a randomized experimental design, the current study pilot tests an intensive (3 day), skill-building intervention to train homeless youth (N = 97, ages 18–21 years) to practice mindfulness and avoid risks. Youths' mindfulness was assessed via standardized self-report instruments at baseline and post-intervention (1 week post baseline for youth in the control condition). Results: Repeated-measures ANOVA results indicate that although no effect was found on total mindfulness, a significant effect was found for mindfulness subscales. Intervention youth improved in their observation skills significantly more than control youth (F[1] = 3.88, p < .05, partial-η2 = .05). Qualitatively, certain intervention strategies (i.e., facilitating, personal sharing, teaching, and peer activation) demonstrated notable utility in actively engaging youth in mindfulness material, whereas challenges (meeting basic needs, a fight or flight instinct, and a generalized distrust of service providers) created challenges in implementing mindfulness skills. Conclusion: The intervention improved youths' attention to internal and external stimuli yet future iterations will need to continue to modify to meet the unique needs of this population.


Many mobile SoC chips employ a "two-macro" approach including volatile and nonvolatile memory macros (i.e. SRAM and Flash), to achieve high-performance or low-voltage power-on operation with the capability of power-off nonvolatile data storage. However, the two-macro approach suffers from slow store/restore speeds due to word-by-word serial transfer of data between the volatile and nonvolatile memories. Slow store/restore speeds require long power-on/off time and leave the device vulnerable to sudden power failure . This study proposes a resistive memory (memristor) based nonvolatile SRAM (or memristor latch) cell to achieve fast bit-to-bit parallel store/restore operations, low store/restore energy consumption, and a compact cell area. This resistive nonvolatile 8T2R (Rnv8T) cell includes two fast-write memristor (RRAM) devices vertical-stacked over the 8T, and a novel 2T memristor-switch, which provides both memristor control and SRAM write-assist functions. The write assist feature enables the Rnv8T cell to use read favored transistor sizing to prevent read/write failure at lower VDDs. We also fabricated the first macro-level memristor-based (or RRAM-based) nonvolatile SRAM. This 16 Kb Rnv8T macro achieved the lowest store energy and R/W VDDmin (0.45 V) of any nonvolatile SRAM or two-macro solution.


The theory and design of a Tchebycheff tapered balun transformer which will function over frequency bandwidths as great as 100:1 is presented. The balun is an impedance matching transition from coaxial line to a balanced, two-conductor line. The transition is accomplished by cutting open the outer wall of the coax so that a cross-sectional view shows a sector of the outer conductor removed. As one progresses along the balun from the coaxial end, the open sector varies from zero to almost 2π, yielding the transition to a two-conductor line. The balun impedance is tapered so that the input reflection coefficient follows a Tchebycheff response in the pass band. To synthesize the impedance taper, the impedance of a slotted coaxial line was obtained by means of a variational solution which yielded upper and lower bounds to the exact impedance. Slotted line impedance was determined experimentally by painting the line cross section on resistance card using silver paint and measuring the dc resistance of the section. The measured VSWR of a test balun did not exceed 1.25:1 over a 50:1 bandwidth. Dissipative loss was less than 0.1 db over most of the range. Measurements show that the unbalanced current at the output terminals is negligible.


Alexis de Tocqueville was among the first to draw attention to Americans' propensity to form voluntary associations-and to join them with a fervor and frequency unmatched anywhere in the world. For nearly two centuries, we have sought to understand how and why early nineteenth-century Americans were, in Tocqueville's words, "forever forming associations." In The Making of Tocqueville's America, Kevin Butterfield argues that to understand this, we need to first ask: what did membership really mean to the growing number of affiliated Americans? Butterfield explains that the first generations of American citizens found in the concept of membership-in churches, fraternities, reform societies, labor unions, and private business corporations-a mechanism to balance the tension between collective action and personal autonomy, something they accomplished by emphasizing law and procedural fairness. As this post-Revolutionary procedural culture developed, so too did the legal substructure of American civil society. Tocqueville, then, was wrong to see associations as the training ground for democracy, where people learned to honor one another's voices and perspectives. Rather, they were the training ground for something no less valuable to the success of the American democratic experiment: increasingly formal and legalistic relations among people.


Seed dispersal by frugivorous bats in Cerros de Amotape National Park, Tumbes, Peru. The role of fruit bats was evaluated in three habitat types of Cerros de Amotape National Park, Tumbes, Peru. The diet was quantified by analyz � ing the seeds found in fecal samples and testing the preference for plant resources, niche breadth, the importance of each bat species as dispersors, and the level of trophic niche overlap. We captured 33 species of bats, 13 were predominantly frugivo� rous and accounted for 81% of total captures. The diet was represented by 22 plant species predominantly consumed by six species of bats. The species with the largest niche breadth and considered important food dispersors were Artibeus fraterculus and Carollia perspicillata. There was a high overlap in resource use among the most com� There was a high overlap in resource use among the most com� mon species of frugivorous bats captured. The high frequency of secondary succession plant species suggests that anthropogenic activities have a significant effect on forest composition affecting the diet of frugivorous canopy bats. Palabras clave. Dieta. Dispersion. Frugivoros. Murcielagos. Semillas.


Background/Aims Type 1 diabetes is often accompanied by gastrointestinal motility disturbances. Vagal neuropathy, hyperglycemia, and alterations in the myenteric plexus have been proposed as underlying mechanism. We therefore studied the relationship between vagal function, gastrointestinal motiliy and characteristics of the enteric nervous system in the biobreeding (BB) rat known as model for spontaneous type 1 diabetes. Methods Gastric emptying breath test, small intestinal electromyography, relative risk-interval variability, histology and immunohistochemistry on antral and jejunal segments were performed at 1, 8 and 16 weeks after diabetes onset and on age-matched controls. Results We observed no consistent changes in relative risk-interval variability and gastric emptying rate. There was however, a loss of phases 3 with longer duration of diabetes on small intestinal electromyography. We found a progressive decrease of nitrergic neurons in the myenteric plexus of antrum and jejunum, while numbers of cholinergic nerve were not altered. In addition, a transient inflammatory infiltrate in jejunal wall was found in spontaneous diabetic BB rats at 8 weeks of diabetes. Conclusions In diabetic BB rats, altered small intestinal motor control associated with a loss of myenteric nitric oxide synthase expression occurs, which does not depend on hyperglycemia or vagal dysfunction, and which is preceded by transient intestinal inflammation.


In rural Tanzania women play a crucially important role in social and economic production. However, the constraints of poverty, combined with poor infrastructure and minimal resources, limit entrepreneurial possibilities. Nonetheless, poor rural female entrepreneurs use enterprise to try to improve their lives. But this survivalist entrepreneurship appears radically different from western models of enterprise and we know very little about processes and practices. Literature suggests that there is a substantial gap of knowledge in terms of how much poor rural female entrepreneurs use entrepreneurship activities to cope in their livelihood, and this issue is the focus of this study. Like any other social and economic process, entrepreneurship is dependent on the social setting of an area, that is, the people and the environment in which they carry out their daily life activities. Thus, entrepreneurship development in Tanzania, like any developing country, reflects the social and cultural differences, hence the difference in entry, performance, and survival of enterprises. This study is also guided by the fact that significant differences exist in the general entrepreneurial behaviour and performance between men and women, as well as between women from the same region and from other localities. This study aims at increasing understanding on whether these differences are brought about by the cultural and social attributes, rather than physical and psychological differences. The purpose of this study is to explore on how socio cultural factors have impacted on the way poor rural female entrepreneurs undertake their entrepreneurial activities in rural village markets in Tanzania. The study was guided by the social constructionist theory. An ethnographic case study approach was used to collect data. Primary data were collected from thirty nine respondents from three village markets: Kongowe, Ruvu Darajani and Patandi. These markets portray the commercial side of social life and the social side of the commercial life. Observation, conversations, interviews and life stories were used to gather the required information. Secondary data were collected from various publications and reports from villages to central government level. For this study, the researcher looked into four assumptions, namely ontology, epistemology, assumptions on human nature and methodological implications. In undertaking this study, multiple approaches and data sources were used to triangulate the findings and deepen understanding of social and cultural parameters in three settings. The sustainable rural livelihood framework was used to analyse the impact of the entrepreneurial environment, availability and access to livelihood assets and the level of vulnerability on poor rural female entrepreneurs lives. It was revealed that poor rural female entrepreneurs undertake entrepreneurial activities in order to survive and not because they want to be entrepreneurs. Enabling environment dictates the type, amount and quality of assets possessed by the rural female entrepreneurs. It was also shown that poor women with few assets are more vulnerable to much of the social and economic harassments. It is within this vulnerability context where rural poor female entrepreneurs choose the strategies in order to achieve their livelihood outcomes. Findings from this study show that some cultural beliefs have negative impact on entrepreneurship and consequently economic development of the country. Beliefs in witchcraft and ignorance towards education influence the way rural women start and run their businesses. Religious and customary laws discriminate poor rural female entrepreneurs and hinder their efforts in undertaking entrepreneurial activities. Unfavourable credit repayment conditions and misuse of loans have negative impact on the growth of most enterprises. Moreover, business support from government and non governmental agencies is limited. The study shows how the phenomenon of entrepreneurship is context specific and how it differs across cultures. This research has made three contributions: firstly, by bringing new evidence to bear; secondly, using already known information with new interpretation; and thirdly, by tackling an existing problem using ethnographic approach.


Accepted: 24.06.2014 Students in higher education are being taught pedagogically. Moreover, pedagogy has long persisted as the basis for the entire educational system. Education is, however, discovering that adults learn differently than children learn even though they have been taught as children were taught. Students tend to behave dependently when they are in a structured, pedagogical educational setting. This dependent behavior may be because these learners do not know how to learn, they only know how to be taught. In pedagogy, the instructor is in charge and held entirely responsible for all learning: what is to be taught, how it is to be taught, when it is to be taught, how it is to be measured, etc. Adult students need to be taught how to learn in order to become life-long, autonomous learners. Research demonstrates that adult students being taught andragogically become engaged in the learning process. They are ready for learning, learn more, experience more meaningful learning, and enjoy learning. This paper presents a six point plan for promoting engagement for students in the college classroom: create a safe environment for learning; ask students what they need to know; explain why students are learning certain concepts, theories, skills, etc.; provide real-life learning opportunities; offer opportunities for collegial collaboration; and have students evaluate their own learning. Collaboration between educators on the six points will also increase the likelihood of engaging students. Student engagement leads to improved retention and ultimately to student success.


This paper presents the major synchronic facts about verb clusters in modern Pennsylvania Dutch (Pennsylvania German) and indicates how they have developed historically. Although Pennsylvania Dutch is descended from primarily Palatine German dialects, the behavior of verb clusters in the modern language is distinct from what is found in European German dialects. Focusing on three- and four-verb clusters in subordinate clauses, it is observed that Pennsylvania Dutch observes a strict rule whereby a maximum of one lexical verb may occur within a clause; additional lexical verbs are located to the right of the clause periphery. The analysis presumes that non-lexical verbs in verb clusters, specifically the finite auxiliary hawwe 'have' and a non-finite modal, form a single syntactic unit.


Background: Joint Replacement Surgery is subject to budget constraints, including shortened length of stay Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC). Local analgesia facilitates rapid postoperative recovery. Local soft tissue infiltration with Naropein® is recommended after joint replacement. Methodology: Soft tissue infiltration around the operative site is limited by low efficiency due to rapid resorption. A haemostatic compress was imbibed with Naropein® and deposited near the operative site. The objective was to allow the gradual diffusion of the molecule until disapproval of this compress, about 3 days. The use of cellulose pad soaked with Naropein® may be an improvement over the simple local infiltration. No wound drainage was performed. Result: The short prospective series aimed to demonstrate the effectiveness of postoperative anesthesia and the safety of the cellulose pad. This has been demonstrated along this preliminary study. Conclusions: A short preliminary series suggests that infiltration of Naropein® into soft tissues may be replaced by the deposition of a Naropeine-soaked cellulose pad.


Electoral reform creates new strategic coordination incentives for voters, but these effects are difficult to isolate. We identify how the reform of the Norwegian electoral system in 1919, when single-member districts (SMDs) were replaced with multi- member proportional representation (PR), shaped voter behavior. Our dataset allows us to measure vote-shares of parties in the pre-reform SMDs and in the same geographic units in the post-reform multi-member districts. The electoral reform had an immediate effect on the fragmentation of the party system in Norway, due in part to strategic party entry. We find, though, that another main effect of the reform was that many voters switched between existing parties, particularly between the Liberals and Conservatives, as the incentives for these voters to coordinate against Labor were removed by the introduction of PR. This has implications for how we understand electoral reform, particularly in the early part of the 20th century.


Based on newly collected material from the Kavieng Lagoon Biodiversity Survey, we describe a new species of cone snail, Conus hughmorrisoni sp. nov., from the vicinity of Kavieng, New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. It closely resembles the New Caledonian C. exiguus and the Philippine C. hanshassi , but differs from these species by having more numerous shoulder tubercles, by the shell's sculpturing and details of the color pattern. We also sequenced a fragment of the mitochondrial COI gene of five specimens collected alive. All possessed very similar sequences (genetic distances 10%).


BACKGROUND
Studies all over the world suggest that severe mental illness, including schizophrenia and mood disorders, is associated with tobacco smoking. This study, combining samples from the United States and Spain, had 3 objectives: (1) to test the hypothesis that severely mentally ill patients who smoke are more likely to have a high nicotine dependence when compared with control smokers, (2) to compare frequencies of high nicotine dependence in controls in both countries, and (3) to compare frequencies of high nicotine dependence in severely mentally ill patients in both countries.

METHOD
Scores on the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) for 4 samples of current daily smokers were analyzed. The sample sizes of the U.S. and Spanish control groups were 129 and 646 subjects, respectively. The diagnoses for the U.S. patients were DSM-IV schizophrenia, 74% (89/120), and DSM-IV mood disorders, 26% (31/120). The diagnoses for the Spanish patients were DSM-IV schizophrenia, 87% (173/199), and DSM-III-R mood disorders, 13% (26/199). High nicotine dependence (FTND score > or = 6) was the dependent variable in 5 logistic regression analyses.

RESULTS
The main findings were that (1) severely mentally ill patients had significantly higher frequencies of high nicotine dependence than controls (odds ratio [OR] = 10.59, 95% CI = 7.31 to 15.34) even after controlling for gender, country, interaction between country and mental illness, and age; (2) U.S. controls had significantly higher frequencies of high nicotine dependence than Spanish controls (OR = 3.18, 95% CI = 2.02 to 5.00); and (3) U.S. and Spanish patients did not have significantly different frequencies of high nicotine dependence.

CONCLUSION
New studies, specially designed to test for transcultural differences in nicotine dependence, are needed to verify that nicotine dependence in severely mentally ill patients is consistently high and similar in different countries.


This thesis presents an integrated subsurface, field analogue and scaled physical modelling approach to the investigation of the autocyclic and allocyclic controls on
braided river morphology and preserved alluvial architecture at both the channel-belt and within channel-belt scales.

The prediction of inter-well alluvial architecture in the continental Barren Red Beds of the Upper Carboniferous, Lower Ketch Member, Southern North Sea, UK, presents
difficulties. Subsurface data from the Tyne Field is subdivided into coarse-grained sandbodies (60%) alternating with siltstone lithofacies (40%). A depositional model is
proposed representing an aggrading alluvial plain traversed by a series of 100 to 1100 m wide channel-belts with palaeochannel depths of between 1.5 and 3.5 m, and supplied
with a fine grain size distribution (D50 = 0.08 mm). A seasonal climatic regime probably promoted crevasse splay deposition and development of extensive floodplains. The
Tyne model can nest within a regional depositional setting where: (1) the predominant sediment supply was from the north; and (2) proximal to distal trends exhibit a grain
size diminution, and a lowering of net-to-gross and connectivity.

This thesis provides the first complete comparative study between the Tyne Field and an onshore analogue, the Eocene Escanilla Formation, Southern Pyrenees, Spain. New evidence is presented to suggest a fluvio-lacustrine setting for the Escanilla Formation. A marked qualitative and quantitative similarity between the two sedimentary sequences
gives confidence in the analogue and permits the use of geometrical datasets, including sandbody width/thickness ratios, frequency distributions, channel-belt orientation and connectivity to be used in the construction of geological reservoir models of the Lower Ketch Member. Empirical estimates of channel-belt width in the prediction of sandbody geometry overestimate -75 % of the channel-belt sandbody widths measured from the outcrop, -because estimates fail to account for: (1) different channel patterns, (2) any autocyclic and allocyclic controlling mechanisms, and (3) vertical and lateral channelbelt
stacking.

Grain size is a key control on alluvial architecture at both the within channel-belt and channel-belt scale. Physical modelling of the Ashburton River, Canterbury Plains, New Zealand has allowed the impact of grain size to be isolated from other controlling parameters. Three reach-scale, generic Froude-scaled modelling experiments,
incorporating a fourfold change in grain size have been undertaken in a flume facility that permits aggradation. Comparisons between model and field studies suggest grain
size is not the most influential control on channel geometry. The modern Ashburton River exhibits no change in channel geometry downstream. However, a halving then
quartering of the grain size distribution in the Ashburton River model resulted in: (1)channel geometries first deepening then widening, (2) the proportion of overbank sheet flow increasing, and (3) the duration of channel occupancy remaining constant. Under the boundary conditions imposed in the experimental study, grain size limits are
recognised for scaled physical models, which suggest that physical models cannot reproduce Lower Ketch Member grain size distribution ranges.

The preserved alluvial architecture from the Ashburton model is classified and quantified into six architectural elements. Architectural elements from the Ashburton
River model show that alluvial architecture is dominated by channel fill deposits. An increase in primary channel fill width and thickness, an increase in splay widths, a higher proportion of preserved splay deposits, and a decrease in the size and frequency of occurrence of fine-grained architectural elements may all be attributed to a quartering
of the grain size distribution.

A methodology is presented to link permeability to the architectural elements of the Ashburton model, in order to supply data from the preserved stratigraphy of physical
models to serve as inputs for the construction of both static and dynamic (fluid flow) reservoir models. In addition, the potential of an aggrading physical model to examine the impact of sampling frequency and up-scale averaging in the construction of reservoir models is explored.


Introduction: Although trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is diagnosed clinically and most cases can be easily identified, misdiagnoses are frequent and lead to delayed treatment. Therefore, we evaluated the painDETECT questionnaire, an established tool for detecting neuropathic pain components, as a screening tool in TN. Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of all patients who had presented to our neuro-surgical outpatient department complaining of craniofacial pain between January 2019 and August 2021. The patients were categorized as likely having TN (TN group) or likely having pain of a different etiology (non-TN). Patients with other neuropathic facial pain syndromes or those in whom TN could not be diagnosed nor ruled out with sufficient confidence were excluded. The painDETECT scores were compared, along with other outcome parameters. Results: We identified 52 patients with craniofacial pain. After exclusion of 14 patients, 25 patients were included in the TN group and 13 in the non-TN group. The mean painDETECT score was 17.0±4.7 and 12.7±6.1, respectively (p=0.02). The positive predictive value for TN at a cutoff value of 19 points was 80%, the negative predictive value was 39%. In patients who underwent surgery, the correlation between the postoperative painDETECT score and the postoperative numeric rating scale score was 0.73 (p=0.01). Discussion: The painDETECT questionnaire is of limited use as a screening tool for possible TN. It can be utilized to track treatment outcomes if data collection beyond daily clinical use is desired.


Immigrant entrepreneurship is an important feature of the economy. With the growing numbers of visible ethnic minority communities, their presence in the labour market is of increasing importance in contemporary society. The Chinese are an under- researched group as documented by various authors and publications (Parker, 1994; Pang and Lau, 1998). The dissertation aims to address this failing. The Chinese are often associated with heavy concentration in the catering trade, in the form of restaurants and takeaways. The reason for this continued dominance is an interesting issue to explore. This thesis investigates the Chinese in Newcastle upon Tyne and their experiences, mainly within the catering trade, which offers both employment and self-employment opportunities. As will be revealed, this form of labour market participation can lead to social exclusion but at the same time, the creation of a stronger community. One possible element in the decision to enter self-employment is the existence of racial discrimination in the labour market. However, occupational choice is a more complex issue than simply an outcome of discrimination. The two principal research questions that guide this study are: 'Is self-employment a choice or a necessity?' and 'Does discrimination play a role in occupational choice?' An original and unique framework for analysis has been adopted based on prior knowledge held by the researcher by living the experiences as a member of the Chinese ethnic group. This stock of knowledge or indeed 'social capital' formed the basis for ideas and questions used in each of the three stages of research: self- completion questionnaires, semi-structured follow-up interviews and a focus group session. The implementation of these stages has been conducted in order to gain an understanding of the issues surrounding the two main research questions and to provide an insight into the experiences of the Chinese. However, due to the nature of voluntary responses in the chosen methodology, the research does not aim to generalise the Chinese community, as it remains a small-scale qualitative study.


I have in my office a poster from the NGO Forum of the World Conference, which closed the United Nations Decade for Women, held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1985. The design is simple: a black, white, and red drawing of a strong and graceful African woman. Upon her head she carries a sign, in place of the traditional pot or basket. The sign reads, "If it's not appropriate for women, it's not appropriate. Tech and Tools at Forum 85, Nairobi."The poster's specific reference is to the Appropriate Technology movement. Led by women and grassroots activists during the seventies and eighties, this movement challenged the emphasis on big construction projects in foreign aid packages. An "appropriate technology" may be large or small, crafted or "high tech." The important thing is that it be accessible to its users and not require them to conform to its demands. Instead, the technology serves and sustains their chosen way of life.The vibrant image depicted by my poster also challenges the deterministic conception of technology, the idea of a "technological imperative." Two basic deterministic assumptions have profoundly influenced the law's response to technology: (1) that the pattern of technical process is preordained, and not the product of human choice; and (2) that society must adapt its arrangements in response to technological developments. These beliefs are widely held and tend to deflect critical reactions to new products and obscure opportunities to make technology more socially responsive.Today, I want to discuss the status of technology in the law and suggest that, to secure women's rights to health and a viable environment, we must re-evaluate and change the law's treatment of technology. I am going to speak very generally about both medical and reproductive health technologies and production technologies which affect the environment. I will discuss conceptual obstacles to changing the law about technology and suggest that identifying cases in which technology has already been the subject of women's struggles may help orient us toward articulating legal rights to appropriate technology.A threshold difficulty in considering technology is its peculiar invisibility. The familiar is often invisible and our understanding of technology suffers from this limitation. Technology is pervasive and it constitutes the framework for our lives, so we tend not to see individual technologies as objects nor view technological evolution as a category. Indeed, we do not have much lay vocabulary for the term "technology."


This paper draws on a systematic review undertaken during the inception phase of the Justice and Security Research Programme in 2011, seeking to analyse the evidence for the connections between climate change and violent conflict. The authors report on what academic research is saying about the links between climate change and violent conflict and then examine how the various studies make their arguments for such linkages. This allows for an evaluation of the evidence on whether climate change will accelerate violent conflict and the likely ways such connections might occur. The authors' findings suggest there are strong disagreements in the literature and these reflect different ways of explaining the origins of conflict. They argue that these models of conflict need to be examined critically, with a detailed understanding of all the elements that cause violent conflict and its continuation, before believing some of the more catastrophic predictions about climate change and conflict.


Premature closure of cranial base synchondroses has been proposed as the mechanism for brachycephaly in dogs and caudal occipital malformation syndrome (COMS) in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. The purpose of this retrospective study was to compare times of closure for cranial base synchondroses in mesaticephalic, brachycephalic, and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel dogs. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging studies were retrieved for client-owned dogs less than 18 months of age. Breed, age, skull conformation, and the open or closed state of cranial base synchondroses were independently recorded by two observers. For dogs with a unanimous observer agreement, regression analysis was used to test effects of age and gender on the open or closed status of synchondroses and differences between groups. A total of 174 dogs were included in MRI interpretations and 165 dogs were included in the regression analysis. Statistically significant differences in closure time of the spheno-occipital synchondrosis were identified between brachycephalic and mesaticephalic dogs (P = 0.016), Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and mesaticephalic dogs (P < 0.0001), and Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and brachycephalic dogs (P = 0.014). Findings from the current study supported the theory that morphological changes leading to the skull phenotype of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniels could be due to an earlier closure of the spheno-occipital synchondrosis.


Nervous system function depends on the specificity of individual neuronal connections, which in turn involves recognition of cell surface molecules during neuronal development. Dscam, which encodes an immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily cell adhesion molecule (Down syndrome cell adhesion molecule) implicated in Drosophila axonal pathfinding, can give rise to 38,016 protein isoforms that share a common domain structure but differ in three extracellular Ig domains (Ig2, Ig3, Ig7). Individual neurons express multiple isoforms, and different neurons express distinct sets of isoforms. Wojtowicz et al. overexpressed a single Dscam isoform in Drosophila midline cells and a set of interneurons whose axons cross the midline and found a marked reduction in the number of axons crossing the midline at the posterior commissure. Dscam isoforms showed homophilic binding in assays involving aggregation of fluorescent beads bound to Dscam extracellular domain-Fc chimeras, decorated beads binding to COS cells expressing Dscam, and pull-downs from extracts of Drosophila S2 cells expressing FLAG-tagged Dscam. Further, the aggregation assay indicated that different isoforms differed in the rate and extent of aggregation. However, different isoforms did not bind to each other. Binding specificity depended on all three variable Ig domains, and even isoforms that differed in only 7 to 12 amino acids of Ig7 showed little if any heterophilic binding. The authors suggest that this specificity of Dscam interaction could promote repulsive interactions between sister branches of the same axon that share their entire Dscam complement, whereas low levels of signaling from neurites that share only some isoforms could lead to adhesion. W. M. Wojtowicz, J. J. Flanagan, S. S. Millard, S. L. Zipursky, J. C. Clemens, Alternative splicing of Drosophila Dscam generates axon guidance receptors that exhibit isoform-specific homophilic binding. Cell 118, 619-633. [Online Journal]


Over the coming years it is expected that considerably more wind power will be connected to the Irish power system. This will result in a power system that at times of high wind power penetration will operate with very low inertia, making the system susceptible to large rate of change of frequency (RoCoF) events due to disturbances. These high RoCoF events could result in the cascade tripping of generators connected to the grid resulting in complete shutdown of the system. This paper investigates the differences between local RoCoFs seen at individual buses and system wide RoCoFs seen across the entire power system. A model of the IEEE 39 bus power system was implemented and simulated with Power Systems Simulation for Engineers (PSS/E). Matlab was then used to process and analyse the results. The simulations and results show that after a disturbance on a power system, local RoCoFs close to the disturbance could occur that are significantly larger than the system RoCoF and predicted RoCoF.


We investigated sexual and seasonal patterns in scent-marking behaviour of the honey badger, by direct observations of habituated individuals (five females, four adult males, two young males). Four categories of scent-marking behaviour were identified: (1) scent marking at latrines; (2) token urination in holes along the foraging path; (3) squat marking at single-use sites; and (4) functional excretion. Females and young males used all four types of scent marking, but adult males were not observed to use token urination. A strategy of hinterland scent marking was used, as was predicted from the large home ranges of both male and female honey badgers. There were significant sexual differences in marking rate: adult males primarily used latrines and adult females favoured token urination. Latrine scent marking in adult male honey badgers provides support for the 'scent-matching' hypothesis. Females visited latrines when they were in oestrus. However, the low level of marking activity during a visit and the intensive smelling suggested a scent-matching function rather than reproductive advertisement. Token urination appeared to be related to the maintenance of spatiotemporal separation in females, although we also observed token urination in young males. While the placement of urine in foraging holes and its relation with successful digging attempts offer some support for the foraging efficiency hypothesis, we consider this unlikely, because we did not observe it in adult males and there was no seasonal pattern. Squat marking occurred under a wide range of conditions in both males and females and may be related to marking valuable resources. It is likely that scent marking in honey badgers has many functions.  2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.


In this paper, we apply the stochastic dynamic programming to approximate the mean project completion time in dynamic Markov PERT networks. It is assumed that the activity durations are independent random variables with exponential distributions, but some social and economical problems influence the mean of activity durations. It is also assumed that the social problems evolve in accordance with the independent semi-Markov processes over the planning horizon. By using the stochastic dynamic programming, we find a dynamic path with maximum expected length from the source node to the sink node of the stochastic dynamic network. The expected value of such path can be considered as an approximation for the mean project completion time in the original dynamic PERT network.


This paper examines the empirical relation between nominal exchange rates and macroeconomic fundamentals for five major OECD countries between 1974 and 1987. Five theoretical models of exchange rate determination are considered. Potential non-linearities are examined using a variety of parametric and non-parametric techniques. We find that the poor explanatory power of the models considered cannot be attributed to non-linearities arising from time-deformation or improper functional form.


This note analyzes the need for the Supreme Court to develop a firm constitutional standard for determining whether a government search of a public employee is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. Specifically, the note stresses that the test needs to take into account emerging technology and its impact on public employees' privacy rights. To properly ground these issues in current law, I explore them through the lens of the Supreme Court's two major opinions related to government searches of its employees — O'Connor v. Ortega and City of Ontario v. Quon. I then demonstrate that the Supreme Court has yet to produce a standard that adequately protects the privacy interests of public employees. To fill this gap in the law, I propose a balancing test that weighs the interests of both the government employer and the government employee. The test does so by considering the extent to which an employee's work-related activity carries over into the private sphere of the home.


We perform two-photon excitation confocal experiments on coupled gold nanoantennas and observe time-integrated luminescence spectra that match plasmonic mode emission in the far-field. We show that the transversal particle plasmon mode can be excited, using excitation light that is cross-polarized with respect to the gold luminescence signal and therefore oriented along the long axis of the dipole gold antenna. We provide evidence for losses in polarization information from the excitation channel to the luminescence response due to the nature of the energy and momentum transfer. Finally, we map out the two-photon induced luminescence intensity profile for a fixed excitation wavelength λ and varying antenna arm length L.


Large-scale language models such as BERT have achieved state-of-the-art performance across a wide range of NLP tasks. Recent studies, however, show that such BERT-based models are vulnerable facing the threats of textual adversarial attacks. We aim to address this problem from an information-theoretic perspective, and propose InfoBERT, a novel learning framework for robust fine-tuning of pre-trained language models. InfoBERT contains two mutual-information-based regularizers for model training: (i) an Information Bottleneck regularizer, which suppresses noisy mutual information between the input and the feature representation; and (ii) a Robust Feature regularizer, which increases the mutual information between local robust features and global features. We provide a principled way to theoretically analyze and improve the robustness of representation learning for language models in both standard and adversarial training. Extensive experiments demonstrate that InfoBERT achieves state-of-the-art robust accuracy over several adversarial datasets on Natural Language Inference (NLI) and Question Answering (QA) tasks.


Hevea brasiliensis is the major source of natural rubber. Natural rubber being a unique biopolymer of strategic importance needs to be continuously well managed and protected against biotic damages. Many rubber producing countries include South East Asia, Africa and Latin America among others. Corynespora leaf fall caused by Corynespora cassiicola is currently considered as the most destructive leaf disease of Hevea rubber in Asian and African continents causing about 45% of yield loss. It had caused great loss to the rubber industry in various countries, thus the need for prompt action against the disease. The rubber breeding over the years have been on the development of clones with high yield combined with the desirable secondary traits. The resistance of rubber clones to C. cassiicolla depends on its ability to neutralize the toxin or its use of the hypersensitive response of the clone. The major objective of this review was to awaken the consciousness to C. cassiicolla, having in mind that rubber clones once tolerant to the disease had later become susceptible.

 Key words: Bio polymer, Corynespora cassiicolla, Hevea brasiliensis, natural rubber, tolerant.


Cooperation and fairness in encounters with strangers are puzzling behaviors, since they contradict the law of natural selection. Compelling evidence shows that direct and indirect reciprocity and altruistic punishment are important mechanisms for the evolution of cooperation in the long-term. For short-interaction, cooperation and fairness are explained by theories which assume that individuals have other-regarding sentiments, or that they base their decisions on perceptions of others' intentions. The present paper proposes a new theory of decisions in interactive situations. The theory retains the assumption that individuals are solely self-interested, but assumes that individuals value their outcomes relative to their aspiration levels. The proposed theory is used to derive predictions of mutual cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma game, of proposers' offers in ultimatum bargaining games, and in the sequential common-pool-resource dilemma game. These predictions are tested using experimental data. Strikingly, for the standard ultimatum game the predicted mean relative offer is the famous Golden Ratio. Keywords: Cooperation, Fairness, Aspiration Level, Prisoner's Dilemma, Ultimatum Game, Resource Dilemma, Golden Ratio.


The respected Joyce critic Stanley Sultan describes his newest book as philological biography. Using the fiction the young James Joyce was writing from 1904 to 1906, he traces the process by which Joyce evolved into the mature artist. Sultan argues that Joyce enriched his fiction with a "poetics of autobiography," a series of elegant strategies that made him his own esoteric subject and that reached its final stage in Finnegans Wake. He compares Joyce's coming of age as a writer with D. H. Lawrence's parallel and exactly contrary development. While Sultan sees Lawrence as using personal experience as a pragmatic source of plots, incidents, and characterization, he maintains that Joyce became increasingly devoted to and adept at making a fictionalized version of himself the subject of his fiction. Working with Dubliners, he carefully reexamines the narratology of the initial three stories, especially the first version of "The Sisters." He also draws valuable inferences from such evidence as the chronological relations among the actual dates of historical events in the stories and the dates of their original composition and revision. Sultan's observations address the elusive processes of creativity and bring a new understanding to the relations between art and autobiography. They will be welcomed by scholars of Joyce and of 20th-century literature.


Our goal is to solve nonlinear contact problems. We consider bodies in contact with each other divided into subdomains, which in turn are unions of elements. The contact surface between the bodies is unknown a priori, and we have a nonpenetration condition between the bodies, which is essentially an inequality constraint. We choose to use an active set method to solve such problems, which has both outer iterations in which the active set is updated, and inner iterations in which a (linear) minimization problem is solved on the current active face. In the first part of this dissertation, we review the basics of domain decomposition methods. In the second part, we consider how to solve the inner minimization problems. Using an approach based purely on FETI algorithms with only Lagrange multi- pliers as unknowns, as has been developed by the engineering community, does not lead to a scalable algorithm with respect to the number of subdomains in each body. We prove that such an algorithm has a condition number estimate which depends linearly on the number of subdomains across a body; numerical experiments suggest that this is the best possible bound. We also consider a new method based on the saddle point formulation of the FETI methods with both displacement vectors and Lagrange multipliers as unknowns. The resulting system is solved with a block-diagonal preconditioner which combines the one-level FETI and the BDDC methods. This approach allows the use of inexact solvers. We show that this new method is scalable with respect to the number of subdomains, and that its convergence rate depends only logarithmically on the number of degrees of freedom of the subdomains and bodies. In the last part of this dissertation, a model contact problem is solved by two approaches. The first one is a nonlinear algorithm which combines an active set method and the new method of Chapter 4. We also present a novel way of finding an initial active set. The second one uses the SMALBE algorithm, developed by Dostal et al. We show that the former approach has advantages over the latter.


By developing meta-frontier efficiency and structural equation models, the paper examines whether farm economic viability is positively associated with technical efficiency in a highly food insecure context, such as that of rural Sierra Leone. The findings show that technical efficiency can be a sufficient but not necessary condition in determining economic viability of smallholder farming. It is possible to breach reproductive thresholds at the cost of reduced technical efficiency, when the crop diversification strategy of smallholders includes market-oriented high-value crops. This calls for a dual policy approach that addresses farmers' internal needs for self-consumption (increasing efficiency of food crop production) while encouraging market-oriented cash crop production (diversification assisted through the reduction of associated transaction costs and the establishment of accessible commercialization channels of export related crops and/or high-value crops). The work also calls out for a move-up or move-out strategy for small holders to create viable farming systems in developing world.


Ceiling fans contribute significantly to residential electricity consumption, especially in developing countries with warm climates. The paper provides analysis of costs and benefits of several options to improve the efficiency of ceiling fans to assess the global potential for electricity savings and green house gas (GHG) emission reductions. Ceiling fan efficiency can be cost-effectively improved by at least 50% using commercially available technology. If these efficiency improvements are implemented in all ceiling fans sold by 2020, 70 terawatt hours per year could be saved and 25 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) emissions per year could be avoided, globally. We assess how policies and programs such as standards, labels, and financial incentives can be used to accelerate the adoption of efficient ceiling fans in order to realize potential savings.


Random testing can be fully automated, eliminates subjectiveness in constructing test data, and increases the diversity of test data. However, randomly generated tests may not satisfy program's assumptions such as method preconditions. While constraint solving can satisfy such assumptions, it does not necessarily generate diverse tests and is hard to apply to large programs. We blend these techniques by extending random testing with constraint solving, improving the efficiency of generating valid test data while preserving diversity. For domains such as objects, we generate input values randomly; however, for values of finite domains such as integers, we represent test data generation as a constraint satisfaction problem by solving constraints extracted from the precondition of the method under test. We also increase the diversity of constraint-based solutions by incorporating randomness into the solver's enumeration process. In our experimental evaluation we observed an average improvement of 80 times without decreasing test data diversity, measured in terms of the time needed to generate a given number of valid test cases.


The paper reviews the dynamics of the financing based its analysis on the rich dataset of AidData ranging over 1993-2010, with around 9,077 observations on projects funded in Senegal by various multilateral as well as bilateral donors. The study started in the same year as the establishment of the environment ministry, 1993, to assess the perspectives as well as the evolution of the financing of the environment. Such an approach has large benefits as it helps to (1) capture changes in financial commitments and disbursement within and across sectors; (2) show the composition and changes of the portfolio of donors and levels of funding in the sector; (3) document which subsectors of the environment are receiving more resources; and (4) demonstrate effects achieved to date.


Deep learning techniques such as deep feedforward neural networks and deep convolutional neural networks have recently been shown to improve the performance in sound event detection compared to traditional methods such as Gaussian mixture models. One of the key factors of this improvement is the capability of deep architectures to automatically learn higher levels of acoustic features in each layer. In this work, we aim to combine the feature learning capabilities of deep architectures with the empirical knowledge of human perception. We use the first layer of a deep neural network to learn a mapping from a high-resolution magnitude spectrum to smaller amount of frequency bands, which effectively learns a filterbank for the sound event detection task. We initialize the first hidden layer weights to match with the perceptually motivated mel filterbank magnitude response. We also integrate this initialization scheme with context windowing by using an appropriately constrained deep convolutional neural network. The proposed method does not only result with better detection accuracy, but also provides insight on the frequencies deemed essential for better discrimination of given sound events.


The accumulation of scientific knowledge is an important objective of information systems (IS) research. Although different review approaches exist in the continuum between narrative reviews and meta-analyses, most reviews in IS are narrative or descriptive—with all related drawbacks concerning objectivity and reliability—because available underlying sources in IS do typically not fulfil the requirements of formal approaches such as meta-analyses. To discuss how cumulative IS research can be effectively advanced using a more formalized approach fitting the current situation in IS research, in this paper, we point out the potential of stylized facts (SFs). SFs are interesting, sometimes counterintuitive patterns in empirical data that focus on the most relevant aspects of observable phenomena by abstracting from details (stylization). SFs originate from the field of economics and have been successfully used in different fields of research for years. In this paper, we discuss their potential and challenges for literature reviews in IS. We supplement our argumentation with an application example reporting our experience with SFs. Because SFs show considerable potential for cumulative research, they seem to be a promising instrument for literature reviews and especially for theory development in IS.


Distribution center links the relief suppliers and affected people, making it an indispensable part in the transportation network of earthquake relief supplies. Therefore, the location of distribution center for earthquake relief supplies has significant influence on transportation cost, operation efficiency and logistics performance, which are important in reducing loss of lives and property. In this paper, we first give a review of general facility location models and find out the traditional model most suitable to distribution center location for earthquake relief supplies. Then the special characteristics of relief supplies distribution center are analyzed in detail and a stochastic location model is proposed. The model is based on traditional P-median facility location model and stochastic road damage degree is introduced into the model being treated as a stochastic variable to better fit to actual situation. Monte Carlo simulation method is adopted to simulate the stochastic variable representing actual stochastic road damage situation after earthquake disasters to solve the model. At last, an illustrative example of Wenchuan earthquake is given to show the optimization process of the proposed model and verify the feasibility of the new model. Furthermore, solution comparison between the proposed method and traditional method is made to show the benefits of the new method introduced in our paper.


The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia transformed from a developing Middle Eastern nation into a regional power with ambitious projects in a variety of sectors. In this framework, the government proceeded to legalize cinemas in 2018, with an unprecedented step of issuing seven licenses for major cinema operating businesses. All of the prominent steps designed to promote the film industry align with the broader concept of expanding Saudi Arabia's cultural and economic boundaries by adopting a path towards modernization and diversification. As the study seeks to investigate the social and economic prospects of the newly-established motion picture sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the review is based on the recent commitments and current plans by Saudi authorities and associated organizations. From the socio-economic perspective, the decision to lift the ban on theatres is a crucial milestone, allowing the country to strengthen its entertainment sector. Despite the diversity of suggested strategic plans, the consensus of the Saudi authorities is to stimulate both local and foreign businesses seeking to open new cinemas in Riyadh, Jeddah, and other cities.


In this study, the morphology of fracture of unidirectional (UD) carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs) has been studied to categorize the fracture characteristics for several types of loading. Polyamide 6 (PA6) and epoxy resin as thermoplastic and thermosetting matrix were used to fabricate UD CFRPs plates through compression molding process. Specimens were tested in tensile and bending tests, both in the axial and the transverse direction. Optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used for the fracture observation. Fracture features characteristic of each failure mode were identified.


For a century, Bloomsbury has been celebrated as the home of the 'Bloomsbury Group' of writers and artists in the early decades of the twentieth century. The UCL Leverhulme-funded Bloomsbury Project, 'Bloomsbury and Reform in the Nineteenth Century', is dedicated to the study of the area before this group settled there. A striking number of pioneering nineteenthcentury institutions are to be found in the space bounded by Tottenham Court Road in the west, Euston Road to the north, Gray's Inn Road to the east, and New Oxford Street to the south. Why and how so many centres of learning emerged in the immediate area of the British Museum (founded in 1753 but much extended in the nineteenth century), turning Bloomsbury into an intellectual powerhouse, are questions the project addresses. The beginning and end dates are 1800, when Francis Russell, fifth Duke of Bedford, obtained two acts of Parliament to develop his Bloomsbury estate, and 1904, when Virginia Stephen, later Woolf, moved into the area after the death of her father Leslie Stephen, so beginning the 'Bloomsbury Group'.