Abstract. In high mountain areas, permafrost is important because it influences the occurrence of natural hazards, because it has to be considered in construction practices, and because it is sensitive to climate change. The assessment of its distribution and evolution is challenging because of highly variable conditions at and below the surface, steep topography and varying climatic conditions. This paper presents a systematic investigation of effects of topography and climate variability that are important for subsurface temperatures in Alpine bedrock permafrost. We studied the effects of both, past and projected future ground surface temperature variations on the basis of numerical experimentation with simplified mountain topography in order to demonstrate the principal effects. The modeling approach applied combines a distributed surface energy balance model and a three-dimensional subsurface heat conduction scheme. Results show that the past climate variations that essentially influence present-day permafrost temperatures at depth of the idealized mountains are the last glacial period and the major fluctuations in the past millennium. Transient effects from projected future warming, however, are likely larger than those from past climate conditions because larger temperature changes at the surface occur in shorter time periods. We further demonstrate the accelerating influence of multi-lateral warming in steep and complex topography for a temperature signal entering the subsurface as compared to the situation in flat areas. The effects of varying and uncertain material properties (i.e., thermal properties, porosity, and freezing characteristics) on the subsurface temperature field were examined in sensitivity studies. A considerable influence of latent heat due to water in low-porosity bedrock was only shown for simulations over time periods of decades to centuries. At the end, the model was applied to the topographic setting of the Matterhorn (Switzerland). Results from idealized geometries are compared to this first example of real topography, and possibilities as well as limitations of the model application are discussed.


Chronic exposure to nicotine up-regulates high sensitivity nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in the brain. This up-regulation partially underlies addiction and may also contribute to protection against Parkinson's disease. nAChRs containing the α6 subunit (α6* nAChRs) are expressed in neurons in several brain regions, but comparatively little is known about the effect of chronic nicotine on these nAChRs. We report here that nicotine up-regulates α6* nAChRs in several mouse brain regions (substantia nigra pars compacta, ventral tegmental area, medial habenula, and superior colliculus) and in neuroblastoma 2a cells. We present evidence that a coat protein complex I (COPI)-mediated process mediates this up-regulation of α6* or α4* nAChRs but does not participate in basal trafficking. We show that α6β2β3 nAChR up-regulation is prevented by mutating a putative COPI-binding motif in the β3 subunit or by inhibiting COPI. Similarly, a COPI-dependent process is required for up-regulation of α4β2 nAChRs by chronic nicotine but not for basal trafficking. Mutation of the putative COPI-binding motif or inhibition of COPI also results in reduced normalized Förster resonance energy transfer between α6β2β3 nAChRs and εCOP subunits. The discovery that nicotine exploits a COPI-dependent process to chaperone high sensitivity nAChRs is novel and suggests that this may be a common mechanism in the up-regulation of nAChRs in response to chronic nicotine.


In Slaying the Dragon: Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition, Bernard Batto argues that biblical authors, like other ancient Near East authors, used mythic traditions in composing their works. Batto joins massive evidence with masterful argument to show that myth actually lies at the heart of the theological enterprise of the biblical authors. Slaying the Dragon is sure to provoke dicussion on the theological relevance of myth in the biblical tradition.


This paper studies the factors underlying the heterogeneity in inventory behavior and performance across retail stores. We use a dynamic model of multi-product retailers and local competition to estimate store productivity and consumers' perceived quality of the shopping experience, and we analyze their relationship with inventory behavior and product variety. Using novel and detailed data on Swedish stores and their products, we find that stores learn from demand to improve future productivity. Store productivity is the main primitive that increases inventory turnover and product variety, and this increase is larger for stores with already high inventory turnover. Stores in small markets with intense competition from rivals have higher inventory turnover. Consumers in large markets and markets with large investments in technology benefit from a broader product variety. Counterfactual experiments show that the increase in inventory turnover due to innovations in productivity is three times greater when uncertainty in demand is reduced by 30 percent. Our analysis highlights important trade-offs between productivity and demand that allow retailers to reach high levels of inventory turnover and offer a broad product variety to consumers.


Cleavage of the zona pellucida component ZP2 is required to prevent sperm binding to fertilized eggs. Many sperm bind to an unfertilized egg, and the entry of one sperm into the egg triggers exocytosis of the egg's cortical granules, which prevents sperm binding to the fertilized egg. One model of sperm-egg recognition proposes that cleavage of the egg zona pellucida (ZP) component ZP2 by a protease released from the cortical granules prevents sperm binding after fertilization. Another model proposes that sperm bind to glycans of the ZP component ZP3, which are removed by a cortical granule glycosidase. To distinguish between these models, Gahlay et al. tested whether sperm binding to egg in mouse required cleavage of ZP2 or the presence of O-glycosylated ZP3. Wild-type sperm bound to eggs derived from Zp3-null females that carried a transgene encoding a form of ZP3 that lacked glycosylation sites. Likewise, sperm bound to eggs from Zp2-null females that carried a transgene encoding a form of ZP2 that could not be cleaved. However, sperm also bound to eggs that contained the uncleavable ZP2 even after fertilization and cortical granule release. Therefore, cleavage of ZP2, rather than deglycosylation of ZP3, was important for preventing sperm-egg recognition after fertilization. The authors propose that ZP2 is the primary determinant of sperm-egg recognition and that cortical granule exocytosis triggers cleavage of ZP2, thus releasing bound sperm and preventing subsequent binding. G. Gahlay, L. Gauthier, B. Baibakov, O. Epifano, J. Dean, Gamete recognition in mice depends on the cleavage status of an egg's zona pellucida protein. Science 329, 216–219 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Mycotoxins are fungal metabolites which have been reported to have toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic effects. Adverse effects of aflatoxin are recognized on human and animal health, many countries imposed standards for mycotoxin in food and feedstuff. The maximum allowable limit imposed by the European Union is 50 mg/L. 221 raw milk sampleswere collected from four dairy farms in Varamin region, Tehran province during fall 2011. The samples were placed in a refrigerator for 2 hours and then were centrifuged at 2000 g for 5 min. The fat layer was removed and M1 levels were measured using ELISA kits from Tecna Co. Italy. The mean± SD concentration of AFM1 in the studied samples was 21.4 ± 4.7 ng/L ranging from 0 to 405 ng/l. The results of the present study showed that the 26.7% of the studied samples were contaminated with AFM1 which is in accordance with the previous studies affirming the necessity of preventing measures to reduce mycotoxin contamination of feedstuff.


Traditional liberal democratic states across the world are concerned about the issue of political polarization. At the same time, the media, one of the major democratic institute, is also facing new challenges. Trust of towards traditional media, particularly for some specific social groups, is defined more by the media outlet's political sympathies or ideological perspective than by professionalism and objective reporting. Political polarization is also a challenge for Georgian media outlets. It particularly becomes problematic during politically important events, for instance during election cycles. Some argue that a polarized media environment is not a real problem if the media environment in the country, in general, is pluralistic and voters have access to different media outlets. Is the fragmentized Georgian media environment a threat in itself and to what extent will media outlets be able to fulfill one of the major functions of journalism – public forum function – and prepare citizens for informed political decisions? 1Nino Robakidze Media researcher, SAFE Initiative Eurasia Center Manager, IREX. * The author is grateful to Mariam Grigalashvili for her contribution to research for the paper. 9


This paper uses case information on Chapter 11 filings for almost 5000 private companies across five district courts in the US between 1989 and 2004. We first establish that within districts cases are assigned randomly to judges, which allows us to estimate judge specific fixed effects in their Chapter 11 rulings. We find very strong and economically significant differences across judges in the propensity to grant or deny specific motions. Specifically some judges appear to rule persistently more favorably towards creditors or debtors. Based on the judge fixed effects we created an aggregate index to measure the pro-debtor (pro-creditor) friendliness of each judge. We show that a pro-debtor bias leads to increased rates of re-filing and firm shutdown as well as lower post-bankruptcy credit ratings and lower annual sales growth up to five years after the original bankruptcy filing. Finally we use the estimated judge fixed effects to instrument for the exogenous variation in the propensity to grant specific motion.


Perception, judgment, and reasoning are all processes that are sensitive to cues to animacy (i.e. the presence of signals that indicate an object behaves as if it has intentions and internal goals). The present study investigated the following question: Does animacy facilitate decision-making in a dynamic control system? To address this, the present study used a dynamic decision-making task and compared behavior in four different contexts (Abstract, Animate-Social, Inanimate-Social, Inanimate- Non-social). Participants were randomly allocated to one of these contexts, and in each version they were required to learn to manipulate variables in order to bring the dynamic system to a desirable state and maintain it at that level. The findings suggest that it is not animacy per se that facilitates decision-making behavior, but rather the presence of a context. However, animacy made an impact on the type of strategic behavior implemented when interacting with the dynamic system. We argue that context induces general beliefs about causal relationships in dynamic environments that generalize across animate as well as inanimate contexts.


The Internet marketplace is global, technologically dynamic, information-rich, and network based. Policymaking tends to be nation bound, rules oriented, and issue dependent. One example of the tension that result between the economic environment and the policymaking venue is the interdependence between tax policy and international trade negotiations. Another is the changing balance between creator and user and between individual and society in rights to intellectual property and protection of personal information. How policymakers weight these issues against the backdrop of overlapping jurisdictions will materially affect whether individuals, firms, countries, and the world as a whole will benefit from the wealth of information and the possibilities of network externalities offered by the global Internet marketplace. UCITA offers one specific lens through which to trace the tensions created by a more global, digital, and information-based marketplace.


Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome is a genetic disorder, which predisposes the individual to the formation of highly vascularized tumors that demonstrate age dependent penetrance. The disease is caused by mutations in Von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor gene present in short arm of chromosome 3. The disease is characterized by development of CNS hemangioblastomas, phaeochromocytoma, renal cyst, clear cell renal cell carcinoma. The Diagnosis of VHL can be made in a patient with confirmed family history using molecular genetic testing of the VHL gene and presence of tumor. Average life expectancy in patients with VHL has been about 50 years. The protein products encoded by VHL gene recognize and destroy α-subunit of Hypoxia inducible factor. Cells lacking functional VHL protein accumulates HIF-α which up regulate hypoxia responsive genes. These genes products include proteins that control glucose uptake and metabolism, extracellular pH, growth factors, which regulate vascular development, angiogenesis, and lymphangiogenesis by binding to its receptor. Hence, VHL is a tumor suppressor gene based on both genetic and functional criteria, and VHL inactivation appears to be a very early step in renal carcinogenesis. VHL disease is classified into type 1 and type 2 depending on the phenotype but it is only helpful for research studies. The treatment of patient with VHL depends upon the specific complications of the disease present. Screening is recommended from childhood once diagnosis has been established. CNS hemangioblastomas are the most common manifestation, detailed neurologic history, CNS examination and baseline brainstem and spine MRIs should be done for any symptomatic conditions. Opthalmoscopic screening from early childhood and yearly follow-ups to prevent visual impairment. Audio logic tests and MRI auditory canal should be done when symptomatic for endolymphatic sac tumors. Blood pressure evaluations and yearly urinary catecholamines level for pheochromocytoma. Abdominal ultrasound screening should be started at 8 years of age; any abnormality should be evaluated by CT or MRI. Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan *Corresponding author: Hira Burhan, Dow University of Health Sciences, Baba-e-Urdu Road, Karachi 74200, Pakistan, Tel: +92 332 3587197; E-mail: email@example.com Citation: Burhan, H., et al. The Genetic and Clinical Aspects of Von Hippel-Lindau Syndrome. (2018) Int J Hematol Ther 4(1): 17. Received date: August 27, 2017 Accepted date: January 25, 2018 Published date: January 31, 2018


With the continuous growth of the collegiate recovery movement, treatment providers are considering a return to school a viable option for people in early recovery and it is often the goal of the student to return to school as quickly as possible following treatment.  The barriers to and skills needed for recovery maintenance and school completion are interconnected and should be addressed simultaneously in treatment with students planning to return to school.  This presentation is designed to address the treatment provider's role in preparing a student to return to school by exploring methods to assess for developmental barriers and resources and build skills for both substance use recovery maintenance and the successful navigation of higher education.


BACKGROUND
There is very little information available on self-perceived competence levels of junior medical doctors with regard to definitions by the National Core Curriculum (NCC) for Undergraduate Medical Education.

AIMS
This study aims to determine the perceived level of competence of residents during undergraduate medical education within the context of the NCC.

STUDY DESIGN
Descriptive study.

METHODS
The survey was conducted between February 2010 and December 2011; the study population comprised 450 residents. Of this group, 318 (71%) participated in the study. Self-assessment questionnaires on competencies were distributed and residents were asked to assess their own competence in different domains by scoring them on a scale of 1 to 10.

RESULTS
Nearly half of the residents reported insufficient experience of putting clinical skills into practice when they graduated. In the theoretical part of NCC, the lowest competency score was reported for health-care administration, while the determination of level of chlorine in water, delivering babies, and conducting forensic examinations had the lowest perceived levels of competency in the clinical skills domain.

CONCLUSION
Residents reported low levels of perceived competency in skills they rarely performed outside the university hospital. They were much more confident in skills they performed during their medical education.


During the last decades, non-traditional marks have found their way into trademark registers worldwide. Against this background, the time has come to take stock. Which law and practice has evolved with regard to these marks? How do trademark offices and courts address the wide variety of issues—ranging from legal-doctrinal to competition-based and cultural concerns—that are raised by the inclusion of non-traditional marks in the trademark system? Which positions have evolved in the debate on the continuous expansion of the domain of trademark protection? Which repercussions does this expansion have on other branches of intellectual property protection and the intellectual property system as a whole? Offering a fresh, critical, and interdisciplinary analysis of the questions raised by the acceptance of non-traditional marks, this book provides an insightful academic—and at the same time practical—legal and economic review of the topic. Office and court decisions from different countries and regions serve as a starting point for a comparison of existing approaches to non-traditional marks. Providing a comprehensive overview of the status quo in different jurisdictions, the essays in this book offer a cutting-edge discussion of legal problems and solutions in the field of non-traditional marks. The analysis, however, goes far beyond specific questions of trademark law and practice. It places the issue in the broader context of fundamental rights, in particular freedom of competition and freedom of expression, and explores the impact on other fields of intellectual property, such as patent, copyright, and industrial designs law.


The Gibbs distribution is often used to model micro-textures. This includes a definition of a neighbourhood system. If a micro-texture contains a large-scale variation, the neighbourhood system will be large, which implies many parameters in the corresponding Gibbs distribution. The estimation of the parameters for such models will be difficult and time consuming. I suggest, in this paper, a separation of the micro-texture into a large-scale variation and a small-scale variation and model each source of variation with a Gibbs distribution. This method is applied on full-tone print of newsprint to model the variation caused by print mottle. In this application, the large-scale variation is mainly caused by fibre flocculation and clustering and the small-scale variation contains the variation of the fibres and fines on and between the clusters. The separate description of these two variations makes it possible to relate different kinds of paper qualities to the appropriate source of variation.


The proxy abstraction has a longlasting tradition in object settings. From design pattern to inherent language support, from remote method invocations to simple forms of behavioral reflection - incarnations as well as applications of proxies are innumerable.Since version 1.3, Java supports the concept of dynamic proxy. Such an object conforms to a set of types specified by the program and can be used wherever an expression of any of these types is expected, yet reifies invocations performed on it. Dynamic proxies have been applied to implement paradigms as diverse as behavioral reflection, structural conformance, or multi-methods. Alas, these proxies are only available "for interfaces". The case of creating dynamic proxies for a set of types including a class type has not been considered, meaning that it is currently not possible to create a dynamic proxy mimicking an instance of a given class. This weakness strongly limits any application of dynamic proxies.In this paper we unfold the current support for dynamic proxies in Java, assessing it in the light of a set of generic criteria for proxy implementations. We present an approach to supporting dynamic proxies "for classes" in Java, consisting in transformations performed on classes at load-time, including a generic scheme for enforcing encapsulation upon field accesses. These transformations seemlessly extend the scope of the current support for dynamic proxies. We discuss the precise benefits and costs of our extension in terms of the criteria introduced, and illustrate the usefulness of uniformly available proxies by implementing future method invocations both safely and transparently.


This work presents an assessment of the potential and economical feasibility of adopting wind energy as a renewable source of energy in Qatar. An analysis is presented for the long term measured wind speed (1976-1989) at Doha International Airport. The average annual wind speed was found to be about 4.4 m/s, which indicates the suitability of utilizing only small wind turbine generators, efficiently. Such small generators can be implemented for water pumping and to produce sufficient electricity to meet vital, limited needs of remote locations, such as isolated farms, which do not have access to the national electricity grid. An economical assessment is presented which takes into consideration the interest recovery factor, the life time of the wind energy conversion system (WECS), the investment rate and operation and maintenance costs. The results indicate that the cost of electricity generation from the wind in Qatar compares favorably to that from fossil fuel resources.


PURPOSE
To determine whether, by employing recent advances in immunocytochemical technique, it is possible to identify reliably the product of the retinoblastoma (RB) susceptibility gene, p110RB1, in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded eyes with commercially available primary antibodies. If so, the authors sought to determine the distribution of p110RB1 in normal human eyes and retinoblastomas in hopes of better understanding its function.

METHODS
Four antibodies to p110RB1 were tested on normal human and monkey eyes, as well as on six human retinoblastomas. The human tissue was formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded. Free antigen was used for an absorbed control. The monkey eye had been injected with tritiated (H3) thymidine 24 hours before enucleation.

RESULTS
Three of the four antibodies had acceptable reactivity (a polyclonal against the carboxyl-terminal epitope and two monoclonals against epitopes near the amino-terminus). Staining was confined to nucleated cells of the normal eyes and was strongest in the cycling cells of the lenticular and corneal epithelia. Somewhat weaker reactivity was seen in those corneal epithelial cells in S phase as determined by autoradiography for H3-thymidine. Of the six retinoblastomas, three had strong nuclear and cytoplasmic staining and one showed weaker staining in the tumor cells than in the adjacent vascular endothelial cells. Two of the tumors had positive cytoplasmic and negative nuclear staining with an amino-terminal antibody but were completely negative for carboxyl-terminal p110RB1 reactivity.

CONCLUSIONS
Using appropriate immunocytochemical techniques, p110RB1 can be identified in paraffin-embedded tissues with commercially available antibodies. The observed staining pattern in retinoblastoma suggests that RB1 transcripts are commonly produced in the tumor cells and that they are sometimes, but not always, capable of nuclear binding. Thus, nuclear binding by the RB1 gene product per se is not sufficient to prevent tumor growth, nor does it indicate the presence of a normal transcript.


Lay conceptions of well-being are multidimensional cognitive representations of the nature and experience of well-being and an important component of individuals' worldview. Previous research indicates that these lay conceptions are composed of both hedonic (i.e., pleasure-focused) and eudaimonic (i.e., virtueand meaning-focused) dimensions, and the degree to which one conceptualizes well-being in hedonic and eudaimonic terms has been found to be associated with multiple indicators of experienced well-being. Previous research is limited, however, in that it has often defined and operationalized experienced well-being using indicators of subjective well-being (SWB) and has not addressed associations between lay conceptions of well-being and psychological well-being (PWB). Additionally, previous research is further limited in that it has not considered more complex relationships between conceptions of well-being and general personality traits, specifically the Big Five, in predicting well-being. To address these limitations, this chapter presents research examining (1) whether hedonic and eudaimonic dimensions of individual conceptions of well-being predict both PWB and SWB and (2) whether individual conceptions of wellbeing predict unique variance in PWB and SWB beyond that predicted by the Big Five personality traits. Correlational analyses indicated more numerous and typically more robust associations between eudaimonic dimensions, compared to hedonic dimensions, and both PWB and SWB. Further, individual conceptions of well-being predicted unique variance in several dimensions of PWB and SWB when controlling for the Big Five, with eudaimonic dimensions being positively associated with well-being and hedonic dimensions being negatively associated with well-being. These findings thus complement a growing body of literature suggesting that eudaimonic approaches to well-being may be particularly important for positive psychological functioning.


Introduction: Combination of interferon-alpha (IFN-α) and Ribavirin (RBV) drugs is used for treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) chronic infection. Various factors play role in the response rate of HCV infected patients to treatment. HCV genotype along with viral load, age, race, obesity, insulin resistance, fibrosis and interleukin 28B gene (IL-28B) polymorphisms are considered the most important ones. In recent years, it has been claimed that some polymorphisms close to IL-28B gene play a significant role in response to combined therapy among which IL-28B polymorphisms have a more important role in sustained virological response (SVR). In this study, frequency of genotypes of rs8099917 polymorphism of interleukin 28B gene in 2 groups of Iranian healthy individuals and HCV infected patients living in Tehran was compared. Materials & Methods: Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method was used to compare the frequency of genotypes of rs8099917 polymorphism between 105 healthy individuals and 105 chronic HCV infected patients. The results were analyzed with SPSS version 15 using χ2 test. Findings: The genotype frequency of this polymorphism in the healthy individuals was demonstrated as GG: 1%, GT: 25.7% and TT: 73.3%, while in HCV infected patients, it was shown as GT: 58.1% and TT: 41.9%.. No GG genotype was detected in the patients infected with HCV. Discussion & Conclusion: Our investigation came to the conclusion that a significant difference existed between the 2 groups of Iranian healthy and HCV infected individuals regarding the frequency of rs8099917 genotypes and frequency of favorable TT genotype, because it was higher among the healthy individuals than that of the patients infected with HCV


Voegelin's magisterial account of medieval political thought opens with a survey of the structure of the period and continues with an analysis of the Germanic invasions, the fall of Rome, and the rise of empire and monastic Christianity. The political implications of Christianity and philosophy in the period are elaborated in chapters devoted to John of Salisbury, Joachim of Flora (Fiore), Frederick II, Siger de Brabant, Francis of Assisi, Roman law, and climaxing in a remarkable study of Saint Thomas Aquinas's mighty thirteenth-century synthesis.Although "History of Political Ideas" was begun as a textbook for Macmillan, Voegelin never intended it to be a conventional chronological account. He sought instead an original comprehensive interpretation, founded on primary materials and taking into account the most advanced specialist scholarship or science as he called it available to him. Because of this, the book grew well beyond the confines of an easily marketable college survey and until now remained unpublished.In the process of writing it, Voegelin himself outgrew the conceptual frame of a "History of Political Ideas," turning to compose "Order and History" and the other works of his maturity. "History of Political Ideas" became the ordered collection of materials from which much of Voegelin's later theoretical elaboration grew, structured in a manner that reveals the conceptual intimations of his later thought. As such, it provides an unparalleled opportunity to observe the working methods and the intellectual evolution of one of our century's leading political thinkers. In its embracing scope, "History of Political Ideas" contains both analyses of themes Voegelin developed in his later works and discussions of authors and ideas to which he did not return or which he later approached from a different angle and with a different emphasis."The Middle Ages to Aquinas" has withstood the test of time. What makes it still highly valuable is its thoroughly revisionist approach, cutting through all the convenient cliches and generalizations and seeking to establish the experiential underpinnings that typified the medieval period."


Abstract Amplitude integrated electroencephalography (aEEG) is a user friendly technique suitable for long term continuous monitoring of cerebral electrical background activity. It is increasingly being used in monitoring high risk neonates in intensive care units. Newer two-channel aEEG monitors by providing data from both side of the brain may increase the sensitivity for detection of unilateral cerebral injury. Here we report a critically ill preterm neonate with intracranial hemorrhage who was monitored with the two-channel aEEG for 3 weeks continuously. Seizures were clearly detected by monitoring electroencephalographic activity of both hemispheres and efficacy of anticonvulsant therapy was evaluated objectively. Amplitude integrated EEG helps management of critically ill patients as it allows continuous long-term monitoring of brain functions.


A cosmic-ray soil moisture probe is usually cali- brated locally using soil samples collected within its support volume. But such calibration may be difficult or impracti- cal, for example when soil contains stones, in presence of bedrock outcrops, in urban environments, or when the probe is used as a rover. Here we use the neutron transport code MCNPx with observed soil chemistries and pore water dis- tribution to derive a universal calibration function that can be used in such environments. Reasonable estimates of pore water content can be made from neutron intensity measure- ments and by using measurements of the other hydrogen pools (water vapor, soil lattice water, soil organic carbon, and biomass). Comparisons with independent soil moisture mea- surements at one cosmic-ray probe site and, separately, at 35 sites, show that the universal calibration function explains more than 79 % of the total variability within each dataset, permitting accurate isolation of the soil moisture signal from the measured neutron intensity signal. In addition the frame- work allows for any of the other hydrogen pools to be sep- arated from the neutron intensity measurements, which may be useful for estimating changes in biomass, biomass water, or exchangeable water in complex environments.


Over the course of a little more than a century, American liberals (or in an earlier period, progressives) and conservatives have switched positions on judicial restraint, judicial review, and the role of the federal courts – not once, but twice. This cycling has multiple causes, including changes in the Supreme Court's docket and partisan strategies for judicial appointments.

Behind the composition of the Court's docket and the judicial appointments process, however, is a still deeper cause: the slowly changing structure of national party competition in the United States. Throughout American history national politics has been organized around a series of political regimes in which one party is dominant and sets the basic agenda for political contest. The dominant party also usually has more opportunities to shape the federal judiciary. Eventually the dominant party's coalition falls apart and a new regime begins, led by a different party. This has happened six times in our nation's history, and we appear to be on the cusp of a seventh transformation.

Generational shifts in views about judicial activism and judicial restraint mirror the rise and fall of political regimes led by dominant parties. The kinds of the cases the Justices select, and how the Justices exercise their powers of judicial review, reflect whether we are early in the regime, in its middle years, or in its later days. For this reason, the rise and fall of regimes shapes partisan (and ideological) attitudes about the exercise of judicial review.

Early in a regime, the newly dominant party faces opposition from judges appointed by the old regime and obstacles from the constitutional jurisprudence those judges created. Hence its supporters tend to be more skeptical of judicial review. As the dominant party gains control of the courts, however, its followers increasingly recognize the importance of judicial review to promote and protect the party's commitments of ideology and interest. The positions of the two parties are symmetrical: as time goes on, the dominant party relies ever more heavily on judicial review to further its goals, while the other party gradually loses faith in the courts and increasingly preaches judicial restraint--although neither party entirely gives up on using the courts to promote its favored policies. As a political regime moves from its beginning to its conclusion, the positions of the two parties gradually switch, and so too do the views of legal intellectuals associated with the parties. The effect, however, is generational, and not everyone changes sides: older legal intellectuals may cling to their long-held beliefs about judicial review, while younger thinkers adopt a different perspective.

Constitutional theories – such as originalism and living constitutionalism – also evolve to reflect changing views about judicial review and judicial restraint. For example, while conservative originalism began as a justification for judicial restraint, it soon evolved to justify strong judicial review; the same thing happened to living constitutionalism earlier in the twentieth century.


Most studies of the gender pay gap use cross-section earnings functions to apply a Oaxaca decomposition into the contributions of differences in characteristics and coefficients. But the accounts that these studies provide of the gender pay gap are often hard to relate to more informal stories told about the sources of women's disadvantage in the labour market. In this paper we show how one can use a minimal amount of panel data to decompose average earnings into the contribution of the average starting wage for workers entering paid work from non-employment, average wage growth for those in continuous employment and the fraction of workers entering employment. We use this decomposition to try to identify the source of the pay gap between men and women and the gap between full-time and part-time women using data drawn from the British Household Panel Survey. Comparing men and women we find no significant differences in wage growth whilst in continuous employment so that the source of the gender pay gap comes from the entrant pay gap and the share of entrants. Looking at longer-run changes suggests that we would expect to see a further narrowing of the gap. Comparing full- and part-time women there is no difference in entry pay shares and little difference in wage growth so that the bulk of the differential can be explained in terms of the fact that part-time women are much more likely to be entrants.


Uncertainties in design variables and problem parameters are often inevitable and must be considered in an optimization task if reliable optimal solutions are sought. Besides a number of sampling techniques, there exist several mathematical approximations of a solution's reliability. These techniques are coupled in various ways with optimization in the classical reliability-based optimization field. This paper demonstrates how classical reliability-based concepts can be borrowed and modified and, with integrated single and multiobjective evolutionary algorithms, used to enhance their scope in handling uncertainties involved among decision variables and problem parameters. Three different optimization tasks are discussed in which classical reliability-based optimization procedures usually have difficulties, namely (1) reliability-based optimization problems having multiple local optima, (2) finding and revealing reliable solutions for different reliability indices simultaneously by means of a bi-criterion optimization approach, and (3) multiobjective optimization with uncertainty and specified system or component reliability values. Each of these optimization tasks is illustrated by solving a number of test problems and a well-studied automobile design problem. Results are also compared with a classical reliability-based methodology.


Near-infrared spectroscopy was evaluated as a means to quantify the nitrogen content in fresh cotton leaves (Gossypium hirsutum L. var. Delta Pine 90) subjected to a factorial design experiment of varying nitrogen and water applications. Absorbance spectra were collected in the 10 000–4000 cm−1 (1000–2500 nm) region from fresh cotton leaves over a two month portion of the growing season. Total nitrogen content was quantified by a wet chemistry Kjeldahl method for validation purposes. Partial least-squares regression analysis, using an automated grid search method, selected the spectral region 6041 to 5651 cm−1 (1650–1770 nm) for analysis based on having the lowest standard error of prediction of total nitrogen content. This region includes protein spectral features. Nitrogen predictions resulted in a correlation coefficient of 0.83, and a standard error of prediction of 0.29% for nitrogen levels ranging from 3.1 to 5.2% total nitrogen. This approach has promise for providing rapid plant chemical analyses for cotton crop fertilization management purposes.


Pressure-temperature-time (P-T-t) conditions of metamorphism have been determined in the Annapurna region of central Nepal that place new constraints on the structural and tectonic evolution of the Himalayan orogenic wedge. Peak P-T conditions increase structurally upward: ∼525 °C and 8 kbar in the Lesser Himalayan sequence, 650 °C and 12 kbar at the base of the Greater Himalayan sequence across the Main Central thrust, 750 °C and 12 kbar in the middle of the Greater Himalayan sequence, and 775 °C and 13 kbar near the top of the Greater Himalayan sequence. Metamorphic monazite ages in the Greater Himalayan sequence also increase structurally upward: 16–21 Ma for subsolidus growth at the base of the Greater Himalayan sequence to ∼25 Ma for peak-T metamorphism and anatexis near the top of the Greater Himalayan sequence. These ages are several million years older than at equivalent structural levels at Langtang, ∼200 km to the east. The P-T-t data recommend reinterpretation of the Bhanuwa fault within the Greater Himalayan sequence as a thrust, and the presence of a different thrust structurally above the Bhanuwa thrust, here named the Sinuwa thrust. The new data are consistent with progressive stacking of tectonic slices, with calculated overthrust rates that are consistent with some (but not all) models that presume ∼2 cm/yr convergence across the Himalaya since 25 Ma. Despite differences in absolute ages, similarities among the chemical systematics of monazite, peak P-T conditions, and overthrust rates calculated for Annapurna when compared to Langtang imply that the broad geodynamics in one part of an orogen can be realistically extrapolated within a few hundred kilometers, although the timing and duration of movement on discrete thrust surfaces may differ.


The Clinical Gynecologic Oncology , 9 th edition released in 2017 is regarded as a must-have, readable and most comprehensive reference for diagnosis and treatment of gynecologic cancers. As far as we know, the 6 th edition and 8 th edition of this book have been translated into Chinese, which have aroused tremendous attention in the field of gynecologic oncology in China. To benefit the physicians and patients in China and to further the communication in the field, we launched a project to dig the stories and ideas behind the book, and to share the recognized leaders' stories and insights of the filed.


The aim of this paper is to analyze and explain the correlations between the level of victimization and the quality of family interaction, school attachment, and social self-efficacy. The study included 715 students (54% girls and 46% boys) from both seventh (N = 370) and eighth (N = 345) grades from different regions of the Republic of Croatia; the average age was 13.22 years (SD = 0.664). Along with the General Data Questionnaire, measuring instruments used for this paper were the Quality of Family Interaction Scale (KOBI), the School Bonding Scale, the School Anxiety Scale, the Social Self-Efficacy Scale, and the adapted Participant Role Questionnaire (PRQ). A descriptive analysis showed that the largest number of victims experienced verbal (occasionally: 48.8%; often: 18.6%) and relational violence (occasionally: 30.6%; often: 12.3%). The correlation analysis showed a weak but statistically significant negative correlation between the quality of family interaction and the level of victimization, a negative correlation between school bonding and fear of school with the level of victimization, and a negative correlation between social self-efficacy and the level of victimization. The results of this research may serve as a great starting point for further research and may pose important implications for creating preventive programs to reduce and prevent both bullying and cyberbullying nationwide.


This book is about alternative public service delivery arrangements. Public service delivery concerns services in the public interest, directly or indirectly provided by local, regional, national or supranational governments. A government may finance, manage and provide the legal structure for instance the provision of basic services, such as water and electricity in order to ensure that all people have access. Indirectly governments can subsidize, regulate or in other ways support private or non-profit organizations to provide their people with food, clothing, housing, medical care and social services. Public service delivery is also about governments providing safety through, for instance, the building of dikes against flooding, in the old days, the building of walls around cities against outside threats - and nowadays walls between countries. It is about protecting people from injustice and harm through making and upholding laws, be it through the protection of their property rights, the protection against discrimination, or protection against exploitation through laws regulating the increasingly complex living conditions. It is also about taking care of safety through the organization of the military, the police, fire brigades, prosecutors and judges. Governments vary to the extent they provide services to enhance human development in their territory, through basic education, social housing, socio-economic development and human development.


The current legal debate about the regulation of economic exchange between intimates mistakenly assumes that the law does not countenance such exchange to any notable extent. This assumption is so widely held that it unites otherwise disparate anticommodification and pro-market scholars. Both groups agree that the law maintains a strict boundary between economic exchange and intimacy, and disagree only on whether to applaud or criticize that boundary. Both overlook or underemphasize the degree to which the law already permits economic exchange within intimate relationships. The current debate's focus on whether the law should enforce economic exchanges between intimates misses at least three critical questions: how the law already regulates such exchanges, for what purposes, and with what consequences. One of the primary ways that the law constitutes an intimate relation as intimate - recognizes its dignity and distinguishes it from other relationships - is by regulating how economic resources are exchanged within the relationship. But efforts to denote the sanctity of intimate relationships through the regulation of economic exchange appear to systematically perpetuate and exacerbate distributive inequality for women and the poor. These distributive consequences suggest a need to reexamine and reform how the legal system establishes the specialness of an intimate relationship. This Article begins that project.


Copper corrosion was examined in solutions containing natural organic matter (NOM) and in situations where NOM was removed by enhanced coagulation with alum or ferric chloride. Electrochemical methods were used to evaluate the long-term effects of each water quality on copper corrosion. In experiments exploring the role of NOM in copper corrosion, corrosion rates increased with NOM concentration at pH 6, whereas at pH 7.5 and 9 the NOM had less significant effects. Waters treated by enhanced alum coagulation had higher corrosion rates than untreated waters, but enhanced ferric chloride coagulation had the opposite effect. This difference was attributed to the relative effects of added sulfate via alum coagulation versus added chloride via ferric chloride coagulation. Compliance with the EPA Lead and Copper Rule and disinfection byproduct regulations may require that utilities address both regulations simultaneously. That is, water treatment processes, NOM concentration, and copper corrosion behavior are clearly interdependent and should be considered when contemplating changes to meet DBP regulations.


4510 Objective: The ginger components [6]-gingerol, and [6]-paradol have been shown to interfere with carcinogenic processes in several cell types. Previously described mechanisms of action include inhibition of EGF-induced cell transformation and AP-1 activation and induction of apoptosis. Ginger exerts inhibitory effects on prostaglandin and leukotriene biosynthesis, indicating that the antineoplastic effects of gingerol are also associated with anti-oxidant and/or anti-inflammatory function. A pro-inflammatory state may contribute towards ovarian carcinogenesis. In the present study, we explored the response of ovarian cancer cells to ginger in vitro . Methods: A panel of ovarian cancer cell lines was treated with ginger solubilized in DMSO. Pharmaceutical grade whole ginger extract standardized to 5% [6]-gingerol, was used. Cell viability was determined with sulforhodamine assays. Ginger effect on VEGF, IL-8 and PGE-2 expression was determined via ELISA assay. Apoptosis was determined by sub G0 analysis by flow cytometry, and by immunoblotting for expression of caspase-9. Morphologic analysis was performed using light and electron microscopy. Autophagy was determined by transiently transfecting cells with GFP labeled LC3 and quantifying activated LC3 using immunofluroescence microscopy. Results: Ginger induced cell death as determined with sulforhodamine assay in all ovarian cancer cell lines tested. The extent of apoptotic cell death as indicated by cleavage of caspase-9 by immunoblotting and Sub Go analysis by flow cytometry was less than expected, suggesting that non-apoptotic cell death was also occurring. Morphologic analysis indicated the presence of autophagy; this was confirmed by immunofluorescence microscopic examination of activated LC3-GFP in ginger treated cells. Ginger treatement also resulted in decreased production of VEGF, IL-8 and PGE-2 in ovarian cancer cells. Conclusion: Ginger induces cell death in ovarian cancer cells through apoptosis as well as the induction of autophagy. The majority of conventional chemotherapeutic agents induce apoptotic cell death. Because ginger can circumvent chemoresistance due to alterations in apoptotic signaling, it has the potential to be effective against chemoresistant disease. Our preliminary results indicate that ginger is a nutraceutical that may have significant therapeutic benefit for ovarian cancer patients.


In this study, we give the Sturm comparison theorems for discrete fractional Sturm-Liouville (DFSL) equations within Riemann-Liouville and Gr\"unwald-Letnikov sense. The emergence of Sturm-Liouville equations began as one dimensional Schr\"odinger equation in quantum mechanics and one of the most important results is Sturm comparison theorems [27]. These theorems give information about the properties of zeros of two equations having different potentials.


This article argues for the relevance of Erwin Panofsky's twentieth-century art historical three-step method of preiconography, iconography, and iconology to the field of media studies. It illustrates the ways in which genealogies of visual elements spread across a wide range of visual media can illuminate long-standing cultural tropes. More specifically, this project takes up the second step proposed by Panofsky—namely iconography—to link visual representations of Trump's election campaign to the recruitment World War I posters featuring a caricature of Uncle Sam. Through the articulation of this genealogy, it sheds light on the ways in which humor and politics have been visually welded together by the popular press since the nineteenth century.


Independence among different tourism expenditure categories is the most convenient hypothesis for modeling decision–making processes. Nevertheless, the best-suited framework would require dependence among expenditures in order to face individual budget and ordered choices. To this end we provide a new multivariate copula-based logit model with explanatory variables. We applied our tools to the expenditures of the foreign tourists visiting South–Tyrol (Northern Italy), and we underlined the need to go beyond usual independence assumption in order to get more realistic results. The obtained findings are useful for policy makers, marketing experts, and local government in order to know how visitors allocate their travel budget; moreover, they can been exploited to improve the touristic supply by means of ad–hoc promotions, advertising, touristic packages, and attractions.


Credit risk is today one of the most intensely studied topics in quantitative finance. This book provides an introduction and overview for readers who seek an up-to-date reference to the central problems of the field and to the tools currently used to analyze them. The book is aimed at researchers and students in finance, at quantitative analysts in banks and other financial institutions, and at regulators interested in the modeling aspects of credit risk. David Lando considers the two broad approaches to credit risk analysis: that based on classical option pricing models on the one hand, and on a direct modeling of the default probability of issuers on the other. He offers insights that can be drawn from each approach and demonstrates that the distinction between the two approaches is not at all clear-cut. The book strikes a fruitful balance between quickly presenting the basic ideas of the models and offering enough detail so readers can derive and implement the models themselves. The discussion of the models and their limitations and five technical appendixes help readers expand and generalize the models themselves or to understand existing generalizations. The book emphasizes models for pricing as well as statistical techniques for estimating their parameters. Applications include rating-based modeling, modeling of dependent defaults, swap- and corporate-yield curve dynamics, credit default swaps, and collateralized debt obligations.


We study how changes in the structure of a brokers' transaction network affect the probability with which the returns and volume of the traded financial assets change significantly. We analyze how the dynamics of the brokers' transaction network are associated with the returns and volume observed in the Chilean stock market. To do this, we construct and validate an index that synthesizes the daily changes of the brokers' transaction network structure of equity market transactions. We find that the changes of this structure are significantly correlated with variables that describe the local and international economic-financial environments. In addition, changes in the brokers' transaction network structure are associated with a greater probability of positive shocks of more than two standard deviations in the stock exchange index return and total traded stock volume. These results suggest that the structure of the brokers' trading relations plays a role in determining the returns and volume of transactions in the Chilean stock market.


A Langford sequence of order m and defect d can be identified with a labeling of the vertices of a path of order 2 m in which each label from d up to d  +  m  − 1 appears twice and in which the vertices that have been labeled with k are at distance k . In this paper, we introduce two generalizations of this labeling that are related to distances. The basic idea is to assign nonnegative integers to vertices in such a way that if n vertices ( n  > 1 ) have been labeled with k then they are mutually at distance k . We study these labelings for some well known families of graphs. We also study the existence of these labelings in general. Finally, given a sequence or a set of nonnegative integers, we study the existence of graphs that can be labeled according to this sequence or set.


Java long pepper (Piper retrofractum Vahl) is one of the Indonesian original plants having aphrodisiac activity. This study was aimed to isolate piperine and to evaluate aphrodisiac potency of piperine and piperine-free insoluble n-hexane fraction from ethanolic extract of P. retrofractum. Twenty five male rats were randomized into 5 groups. Oral repeated administration once a day for 27 days were given to andriol group (0.72 mg/day), CMC-Na 1%, piperine (1.6 mg/kg body weight), piperine-free insoluble n-hexane fraction (2.1 mg/kg body weight), insoluble n-hexane fraction (31.72 mg/kg body weight). Rat's sexual behavior including sexual introduction and climbing were observed in day 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23, and 27. Normal and homogenous data were analyzed statistically with one-way ANOVA, followed by LSD test. The result showed that the administration of andriol, piperine, piperine-free insoluble n-hexane fraction, and total insoluble n-hexane fraction has a significant increase in the frequency of introduction, compared to the group of CMC-Na 1% (p<0.05). There was also a significant increase of piperine and piperine-free insoluble n-hexane fraction in the frequency of climbing (p<0.05). Keywords : Piper retrofractum Vahl, sexual behavior, piperine, aphrodisiac


The instructional capacity of the principal is critical to the success of effective schools. The conceptualization of principals as leaders of learning is an emergent concept that distills the significance of the role and function of principals as instructional leaders. This qualitative case study sought to examine and chronicle the key dispositions and practices that distinguish principals as instructional leaders. More specifically, this case investigated a principal-led professional development model that sought to determine the efficacy of an approach to teacher development through microteaching, espousing inquiry-oriented feedback. More specifically, this study investigated the lived experiences of teachers participating in a principal-facilitated professional development microteaching protocol, and to examine how teachers' experiences participating in this protocol impacted their teaching practice. Guided by the primary research questions, "Is principal-led microteaching a viable tool to facilitate professional development within schools?" and "To what measure does hermeneutic reflection in the case of a principal-led microteaching protocol impact teachers' pedagogical practice?," this study investigates both the positionality of principals as leaders of learning and the impact of this role on a professional development protocol for teachers. Phenomenology served as the theoretical and methodological framework for this study, and is central to the conceptual framework and interpretive analysis of this study's findings. More specifically, hermeneutic phenomenology was used to explore the subjective experiences of teachers as it related to a principal-led professional development protocol employing microteaching. Narrative data were collected through video-recorded observations and interviews, and reported using a phenomenological approach to provide insight into significant themes. In vivo coding was employed to analyze and report subsequent findings, and to explore a broader context of implications centering the theoretical and pragmatic functions of instructional leadership qua the principalship. Findings established in this study address methods to develop alternate models of contiguous, job-embedded professional development designated to enhance teacher efficacy through microteaching and inquiry-oriented feedback. Additional findings offer recommendations for a framework to promote more efficacious professional development models in high school contexts, as well as recommendations for future study of principals as instructional leaders.


Abstract Evidence based strategies are needed to enhance the ability of the Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) sector to prevent prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and harms including Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). In Australia FASD prevention research has largely focused on primary care and child development sectors, while little research has been conducted with AOD services providing comprehensive support to high risk women. This study interviewed 26 staff from 18 organizations involved in referral and co-ordination, case management, or treatment and support services for women with (or at high risk of) PAE in the Greater Newcastle region in Australia. Interviews with service workers indicated a significant appreciation of the psychosocial complexities related to substance misuse in pregnancy, a highly skilled approach to harm reduction, and a sector going to extraordinary lengths to overcome the disadvantages faced by women including gaps in service provision. These results are discussed in light of recommendations to support AOD services to reduce the harms of PAE.


OBJECTIVE: To describe features of Huntington disease in Charlotte Brontё's character, Bertha Mason, in Jane Eyre .
 BACKGROUND: George Huntington's essay "On Chorea" described adult-onset hereditary chorea in 1872. However, several decades preceding Huntington's description, familial cases of chorea in children and adults with involuntary movements, speech disturbances, and progressive dementia were published. During this period of enhanced recognition of what is now termed Huntington disease, Charlotte Brontё published Jane Eyre in 1847.
 METHODS: Comparison of Charlotte Brontё's portrayal of Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre with George Huntington's original description of Huntington disease.
 RESULTS: In Jane Eyre , Brontё features the enigmatic Bertha Mason, known as the "woman in the attic". Mason had a progressive and familial neuropsychiatric disease with violent movements whose description mirrors the tenets in Huntington's original essay. One tenet was the "tendency to insanity and suicide." These behavioral features are prominently featured in Brontё's text, with descriptions of Mason as a "maniac" with homicidal tendencies who later commits suicide. Mason's cognitive decline is described as having a "cast of mind common, low, narrow and singularly incapable of being led to anything higher." Brontё depicts Mason as having abnormal movements, described as wild and animal-like with "convulsive plunges." Mason's abnormal movements resemble the description in Huntington's original essay which is of movements "which gradually increase in violence and variety."
 CONCLUSIONS: Brontё's character has a familial disorder with classic motor, cognitive and behavioral features of Huntington disease. This depiction has had implications for the treatment of patients with neuropsychiatric disease. Brontё's unsympathetic portrayal of Mason's neuropsychiatric illness has been deplored by literary critics who brought the issue of humane treatment of neuropsychiatric patients into broader view. This insight remains important today as patients with Huntington disease and their families continue to face stigmatization and prejudicial representation. Disclosure: Dr. Coon has nothing to disclose. Dr. Hassan has nothing to disclose.


In this paper, a new method to filter coherency matrices of polarimetric or interferometric data is presented. For each pixel, an adaptive neighborhood (AN) is determined by a region growing technique driven exclusively by the intensity image information. All the available intensity images of the polarimetric and interferometric terms are fused in the region growing process to ensure the validity of the stationarity assumption. Afterward, all the pixels within the obtained AN are used to yield the filtered values of the polarimetric and interferometric coherency matrices, which can be derived either by direct complex multilooking or from the locally linear minimum mean-squared error (LLMMSE) estimator. The entropy/alpha/anisotropy decomposition is then applied to the estimated polarimetric coherency matrices, and coherence optimization is performed on the estimated polarimetric and interferometric coherency matrices. Using this decomposition, unsupervised classification for land applications by an iterative algorithm based on a complex Wishart density function is also applied. The method has been tested on airborne high-resolution polarimetric interferometric synthetic aperture radar (POL-InSAR) images (Oberpfaffenhofen area-German Space Agency). For comparison purposes, the two estimation techniques (complex multilooking and LLMMSE) were tested using three different spatial supports: a fix-sized symmetric neighborhood (boxcar filter), directional nonsymmetric windows, and the proposed AN. Subjective and objective performance analysis, including coherence edge detection, receiver operating characteristics plots, and bias reduction tables, recommends the proposed algorithm as an effective POL-InSAR postprocessing technique.


Anti-virus software is the main defense mechanism against malware, which is becoming more common and advanced. A significant part of the virus scanning process is dedicated to scanning a given file against a set of virus signatures. As it is important that the overall scanning process be as fast as possible, efforts must be done to minimize the time spent in signature matching. Recently, graphics processing units have increased in popularity in high performance computation, due to their inherently parallel architecture. One of their possible applications is performing matching of multiple signatures in parallel. In this work, we present details on the implemented multiple string searching algorithm based on deterministic finite automata which runs on a graphics processing unit. Due to space concerns inherent to DFAs our algorithm only scans for a substring of each signature, thereby serving as a high-speed pre-filtering mechanism. Multiple optimizations were implemented in order to increase its performance. In our experiments with sets of test files, the implemented solution was found to have a speedup of around 28 when compared to the pattern matching portion of ClamAV, an open-source anti-virus engine. On other sets of test files with different characteristics the solution does not have such a good performance, but future work is described to improve it in these situations.


ABSTRACT: This article suggests two apparently contradictory theses: namely that Swami Muktananda (1908––1982) was an enlightened teacher and practitioner of an esoteric form of Tantric sexual yoga, and that he also engaged in actions that were not ethical, legal, or liberatory with many disciples. These two theses are brought into creative tension through a developing Tantric hermeneutic. In discussing secrecy and power, the article addresses critical cultural, feminist, and psychological issues about sexual abuse and the importation of Asian religious traditions into contemporary American society, and argues that what has happened in the recent history of Siddha Yoga arises directly out of Tantra's long history of dissimulation and secrecy. I suggest that a hybrid scholarly sensibility might emerge out of the secret heart of the Tantric teachings, itself offering a way forward in the study of such traditions.


The widespread grow of big data and the evolution of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies enable cities to obtain valuable intelligence from a large amount of real-time produced data. In a Smart City various IoT devices generate data continuously which needs to be analyzed within a short period of time, using some big data technique. In this paper, we examine applicability of employing distributed stream processing frameworks at the data processing layer of Smart City and appraising the current state of their adoption and maturity among the Smart City use cases. Our experiments focuses on evaluating the performance of three SDPSs, namely Apache Storm, Apache Spark Streaming, and Apache Flink. According to our obtained results, choosing proper framework at the data analytics layer of a Smart City, depends on characteristics of the target IoT applications. Finally, we present a category of applications that suit each framework.


Purpose The aim of the study was to investigate the achieved audibility with clinically available, modern, high-end, behind-the-ear hearing aids fitted using the Desired Sensation Level v5.0 child prescription for a clinical sample of children with hearing impairment and the effect of the extended bandwidth provided by the hearing aids on several outcome measures. Method The achieved audibility was measured using the maximum audible output frequency method. Twenty-eight children (7-17 years old) with mild to severe hearing losses completed this study. Two hearing aid conditions were fitted for each participant: an extended bandwidth condition, which was fitted to targets as closely as possible, and a restricted bandwidth condition, for which aided output was restricted above 4.5 kHz. Consonant discrimination in noise, subjective preference, aided loudness growth, and preferred listening levels were evaluated in both conditions. Results The extended bandwidth hearing aid fittings provided speech audibility above 4.5 kHz for all children, with an average maximum audible output frequency of 7376 Hz (SD = 1669 Hz). When compared to a restricted bandwidth, the extended bandwidth condition led to an improvement of 5.4% for consonant discrimination in noise scores, mostly attributable to /s/, /z/, and /t/ phoneme perception. Aided loudness results and preferred listening levels were not significantly different across bandwidth conditions; however, 65% of the children indicated a subjective preference for the extended bandwidth. Conclusion The study suggests that providing the full bandwidth available, with modern, behind-the-ear hearing aids, leads to improved audibility, when compared to restricted bandwidth hearing aids, and that it leads to beneficial outcomes for children who use hearing aids, fitted to the Desired Sensation Level v5.0 child prescription, without causing significant increases in their loudness perception.


Lidar measurements of mixed dust/smoke plumes over the tropical Atlantic ocean were carried out during the winter campaign of SAMUM-2 at Cape Verde. Profiles of backscatter and extinction coefficients, lidar ratios, and Ångstr¨om exponents related to pure biomass-burning aerosol from southern West Africa were extracted from these observations. Furthermore, these findings were used as input for an inversion algorithm to retrieve microphysical properties of pure smoke. Seven measurement days were found suitable for the procedure of aerosol-type separation and successive inversion of optical data that describe biomass-burning smoke. We inferred high smoke lidar ratios of 87 ± 17 sr at 355 nm and 79 ± 17 sr at 532 nm. Smoke lidar ratios and Ångström exponents are higher compared to the ones for the dust/smoke mixture. These numbers indicate higher absorption and smaller sizes for pure smoke particles compared to the dust/smoke mixture. Inversion of the smoke data set results in mean effective radii of 0.22 ± 0.08 μm with individual results varying between 0.10 and 0.36 μm. The single-scattering albedo for pure biomass-burning smoke was found to vary between 0.63 and 0.89 with a very low mean value of 0.75 ± 0.07. This is in good agreement with findings of airborne in situ measurements which showed values of 0.77 ± 0.03. Effective radii from the inversion were similar to the ones found for the fine mode of the in situ size distributions.


This paper identifies and confirms a perceptual phenomenon: when users interact with simulated objects in a virtual environment where the users' scale deviates greatly from normal, there is a mismatch between the object physics they consider realistic and the object physics that would be correct at that scale. We report the findings of two studies investigating the relationship between perceived realism and a physically accurate approximation of reality in a virtual reality experience in which the user has been scaled by a factor of ten. Study 1 investigated perception of physics when scaled-down by a factor of ten, whereas Study 2 focused on enlargement by a similar amount. Studies were carried out as within-subjects experiments in which a total of 84 subjects performed simple interaction tasks with objects under two different physics simulation conditions. In the true physics condition, the objects, when dropped and thrown, behaved accurately according to the physics that would be correct at that either reduced or enlarged scale in the real world. In the movie physics condition, the objects behaved in a similar manner as they would if no scaling of the user had occurred. We found that a significant majority of the users considered the movie physics condition to be the more realistic one. However, at enlarged scale, many users considered true physics to match their expectations even if they ultimately believed movie physics to be the realistic condition. We argue that our findings have implications for many virtual reality and telepresence applications involving operation with simulated or physical objects in abnormal and especially small scales.


Artificial intelligence courses at universities that do not have focused AI tracks may suffer from a lack of student interest unless they are tied to some application of AI that students find appealing. Robots have been used successfully to draw students into AI courses, but their use can take time away from material that instructors feel should be covered in a general course. We present an approach that utilizes small-scale robotics to teach traditional, core AI concepts. The approach is somewhat generalizable and does not rely on any particular textbook. The methodology was used at two universities in the spring of 2009 to good student response. After presenting those results, we discuss ways in which we intend to modify the approach in future semesters.


BACKGROUND: Early neonatal mortality has remained high and unchanged for many years in Tanzania, a resource-limited country. Helping Babies Breathe (HBB), a novel educational program using basic interventions to enhance delivery room stabilization/resuscitation, has been developed to reduce the number of these deaths. METHODS: Master trainers from the 3 major referral hospitals, 4 associated regional hospitals, and 1 district hospital were trained in the HBB program to serve as trainers for national dissemination. A before (n = 8124) and after (n = 78 500) design was used for implementation. The primary outcomes were a reduction in early neonatal deaths within 24 hours and rates of fresh stillbirths (FSB). RESULTS: Implementation was associated with a significant reduction in neonatal deaths (relative risk [RR] with training 0.53; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.43–0.65; P ≤ .0001) and rates of FSB (RR with training 0.76; 95% CI 0.64–0.90; P = .001). The use of stimulation increased from 47% to 88% (RR 1.87; 95% CI 1.82–1.90; P ≤ .0001) and suctioning from 15% to 22% (RR 1.40; 95% CI 1.33–1.46; P ≤ .0001) whereas face mask ventilation decreased from 8.2% to 5.2% (RR 0.65; 95% CI 0.60–0.72; P ≤ .0001). CONCLUSIONS: HBB implementation was associated with a significant reduction in both early neonatal deaths within 24 hours and rates of FSB. HBB uses a basic intervention approach readily applicable at all deliveries. These findings should serve as a call to action for other resource-limited countries striving to meet Millennium Development Goal 4.


Mast cells (MCs) are forceful multifunctional effector cells of the immune system. MCs are normally distributed throughout connective and mucosal tissues, but in several pathological conditions accumulation of MCs occur. This accumulation is probable due to directed migration of MCs and they are subjects for migration at least two different occations: 1) when they are recruited as progenitor cells from the blood into the tissue; and 2) when they as mature MCs are recruited to sites of inflammation. The aim of this study was to investigate MC migration to chemoattractants released in vivo or in vitro (body fluids collected from patients with asthma or rheumatoid arthritis and TH1- and TH2-cytokines) and to recombinant cytokines (transforming growth factor -β (TGF-β) and CCL5/RANTES).This thesis shows that bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid from asthmatic patients and synovial fluid from patients with rheumatiod arthritis contain MC chemoattractants, and that part of the chemotactic activity can be related to the presence of stem cell factor (SCF) and TGF-β. We also show that MC chemotactic activity during pollen season is significantly increased compared to before pollen season. Furthermore, we demonstrate that TGF-β isoforms, CCL5, TNF-α and IL-4 act as MC chemoattractants in a bellshaped dose- dependent manner. TGF-β proved to be an extremely potent attractant giving an optimal migratory response at 40fM and TGF-β3 being the most effective isoform. The chemokine CCL5 induced migration through interaction with the receptors CCR1 and CCR4 expressed on MC. Furthermore, we also found that TNF-α produced by TH1-lymphocytes and IL-4 produced by TH2-lymphocytes are MC chemoattractants.In conclusion, with this thesis we have identified six new human mast cell chemoattractants and provide evidence that BAL fluid and synovial fluid from patients with asthma and rheumatoid arthritis, respectivly, contain MC chemoattractants. This information provides important clues in understanding the mechanisms behind MC recruitment to sites of inflammation.


In view of the recent discovery (Molecular Cell 6, 861–871) of a (Lys76Thr) codon change in gene pfcrt on chromosome 7 which determines in vitro chloroquine resistance in Plasmodium falciparum, we have re-examined samples taken before treatment in our study in Zaria, Northern Nigeria (Parasitology 119, 343–348). Drug resistance was present in 5/5 cases where the pfcrt 76Thr codon change was seen (100% positive predictive value). Drug sensitivity was found in 26/28 cases where the change was absent (93% negative predictive value). Allele pfcrt 76Thr showed strong linkage disequilibrium with pfmdr1 Tyr86 on chromosome 5, more complete than that between pfcrt and cg2 alleles situated between recombination cross-over points on chromosome 7. Physical linkage of cg2 with pfcrt may account for linkage disequilibrium between their alleles but in the case of genes pfmdr1 and pfcrt, on different chromosomes, it is likely that this is maintained epistatically through the selective pressure of chloroquine.


The reduction of Non-Revenue Water (NRW) through leakage detection is gaining ever higher significance for well-run water utilities. Tethered leak detection technology has become an essential tool for detecting the presence pinpointing the location as well as estimating the magnitude of leaks in large diameter (300 mm and above) water transmission mains of all pipe materials. For the past 7 years, inline CCTV inspection has also been available for in-service water mains using the Sahara ® tethered video inspection system. These two technologies were used independently, which required two surveys for the same pipeline to deliver leak detection and CCTV inspection. This paper introduces Sahara AV, tethered combined leak detection and CCTV inspection technology designed to deliver multi functions such as leak detection, leak location and CCTV inspection through only one deployment for in-service water mains; recently wall thickness assessment has also been added to the list of technologies which can be mounted on the Sahara system. This paper introduces the Sahara AV system along with its specifications and explains the mechanism adopted to introduce the sensor into the live pipeline. The paper also discusses Sahara case study from Asia describing the benefits and return on investment experienced by clients that have engaged with programs involving Sahara technology.


Edmund Husserl's writings on moral philosophy have received relatively little attention in the scholarly literature. Nevertheless, those scholars who have written on Husserl's moral philosophy have distinguished between his early or "pre-war" ethics and his later or "postwar" ethics. Husserl's early ethics are influenced heavily by his teacher, Franz Brentano, while his later ethics are influenced by the practical writings of J. G. Fichte. As one might suspect given these two very different influences, there are issues concerning the consistency between Husserl's positions in his earlier and later ethics. Moreover, identifying Husserl's considered ethical position is complicated by the fact that, as Janet Donohoe points out, "it is important to recognize at the outset that Husserl's [ethical] theory is by no means complete. He was never satisfied enough with his account to publish it, nor is there even necessarily a unified theory that deserves the name of Husserl's ethics."1 Despite the difficulty Donohoe identifies, one may still speak of "Husserl's ethics," for he devoted many pages of lecture notes and research manuscripts to the articulation of his views on ethics. My focus in this essay is Husserl's later ethics. By drawing on Husserl's recently published lecture course from the early 1920s titled "Introduction to Ethics,"2 I shall expound and evaluate the influence Hume and Kant had on Husserl's moral philosophy. First, I shall argue that Husserl both uncritically endorses Hume's claim that all acts of valuing are based on feeling or sentiment, and I shall argue, as well, that Hume influenced Husserl's concern for preserving human individuality in an account of moral obligation. second, I shall argue that despite Husserl's criticism that Kant's moral philosophy cannot serve as a guide to action because it is too formal,3 Kant's conception of the moral law as universally and necessarily applying to all human beings, as well as Kant's notion of autonomy, deeply impressed Husserl. Third, I shall examine Husserl's account of what he calls the "absolute ought." Specifically, I shall examine and evaluate Husserl's attempts to explain and to justify how this absolute ought (i.e., moral obligation) is normative for all human beings by grounding it in each individual's personal values of love, values that originate from the inwardness of each individual. This attempt at justification was inspired by Fichte's practical philosophy and was motivated by Husserl's desire to reconcile universal moral obligation with human individuality. I think Husserl's Fichtean grounding of obligation fails, and I shall argue that by returning to Husserl's original Kantian inspiration, Husserlians can develop a cogent account of and normative justification for moral obligation. Humean and Kantian Influences in Husserl's "Introduction to Ethics" Husserl's lecture course, "Introduction to Ethics," gives us an interesting source of material for seeing the influences on Husserl's own thinking on ethics, for, unlike his early lecture notes,4 Husserl spends most of the course engaging the moral philosophies of other thinkers. Though Husserl spends time in the beginning of the lectures discussing the ethical theories of some ancient philosophers (most notably Aristippus' version of hedonism), most of his attention is directed to an examination of modern ethical theories from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. And, as in the early lecture notes, the central theme running throughout Husserl's lecture courses from the early twenties is the struggle in moral philosophy between an ethics of feeling and an ethics of reason. Husserl thinks that this struggle can be seen throughout the history of Western ethics, but he believes that it comes to a head in the debates between moral sense theories and rationalist theories of ethics from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.5 More ximportantly, Husserl sees the struggle as it is articulated from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries as continuing into Husserl's time. …


We examine the influence of economic downturns on the relation between diversification and firm value in a large panel of U.S. firms over the period from 1984 to 2014. When markets are incomplete or there are significant frictions, diversification provides value when the fortunes of one business segment are imperfectly correlated with the fortunes of another. We test whether this hedging effect of diversification is valued by the market. We find that the hedging value of diversification during economic downturns reduces the diversification discount by 9% for domestically diversified firms and 12% for globally diversified firms. Our results are robust to controlling for endogeneity of diversification decisions. Consistent with a hedging value of diversification, we find that risk reduction as measured by the correlation of a firm's industrial and regional operations with the state of the economy is a key channel through which diversification becomes more valuable during economic downturns. We find little evidence that the enhanced value of diversification during downturns is attributable to alternative explanations such as mitigation of overinvestment in value-reducing diversification strategies, enhanced value of internal capital markets, or more valuable debt coinsurance.


In the frame of the European COST 296 project (Mitigation of Ionospheric Effects on Radio Systems, MIERS) in the Working Package 1.3, new ionospheric models, prediction and forecasting methods and programs as well as ionospheric imaging techniques have been developed. They include (i) topside ionosphere and meso-scale ir- regularity models, (ii) improved forecasting methods for real time forecasting and for prediction of foF2, M(3000)F2, MUF and TECs, including the use of new techniques such as Neurofuzzy, Nearest Neighbour, Ca- scade Modelling and Genetic Programming and (iii) improved dynamic high latitude ionosphere models through tomographic imaging and model validation. The success of the prediction algorithms and their improvement over existing methods has been demonstrated by comparing predictions with later real data. The collaboration between different European partners (including interchange of data) has played a significant part in the development and validation of these new prediction and forecasting methods, programs and algorithms which can be applied to a variety of practical applications leading to improved mitigation of ionosphereic and space weather effects.


Abstract Purpose: The National Health Service in Scotland published a best practice framework to support occupational therapists and physiotherapists to deliver effective services for children with developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD); however, adherence is variable. To highlight areas for development, this study compared the care pathway within a paediatric DCD service against the NHS Scotland framework. Methods: A partnership of researchers and clinicians based in the United Kingdom conducted a qualitative study with 37 participants (N = 13 interview participants, N = 24 workshop participants). In-depth interviews and/or workshops were used to map the DCD service against the NHS framework. Identified gaps were aligned with four key stages of the care pathway. Qualitative analysis software was used to analyse the data. Results: Core principles to guide future development were identified for each phase of the pathway. These core principles related to the NHS framework and focused on issues such as involving the family, defining clear pathways and enhancing children's participation. Participants identified potential strategies for service improvement such as developing community-based interventions and information provision. Conclusion: Challenges when providing services for children with DCD include confusing service pathways and poor partnership working. It is, therefore, important that clinicians utilise collaborative working strategies that support children's participation. Implications for Rehabilitation There are numerous challenges related to the implementation of best practice principles into the provision of therapy services for children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). It is important that AHPs seek ways of engaging parents and educational professionals at all stages of the care pathway in order to ensure optimum service provision for the child. Addressing participation is an important aspect and community-based strategies may be particularly beneficial, both as a preventative activity and as an intervention approach.


Go to work for a local government and the first impression you have is, there are many people in the game. Advice, suggestions, opinions, guesses, and sometimes even threats come from every direction. The diverse and sometimes covert nature of this information makes it harder to understand than any technical data set you will ever come across. Furthermore, the way you respond to this information has the potential to cause more problems than anything you may ever construct. Thus the key to your success is really dependent on how well you communicate. This is so true that civil engineers should really think of themselves as communication engineers, because the crux of our work is working with ideas flowing back and forth between people.


This article reports on an investigation into the validity of a widely used scale for measuring the extent to which higher education students employ active learning strategies. The scale is the active learning scale in the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement. This scale is based on the Active and Collaborative Learning scale of the National Survey of Student Engagement. The particular focus of the study was to investigate effects resulting from the addition of a small number of items to the active learning scale designed to capture some highly engaging, mostly online, activities. The items were developed in response to concerns that students studying in distance mode often report lower average scores on active learning scales than their on-campus counterparts. The additional items relate to activities such as working online with other students and faculty. The findings show that average scores on the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement/National Survey of Student Engagement scale increase significantly when the new items are included and that some differences between on-campus and distance education students narrow significantly. These findings have implications for the development of more robust and comprehensive instruments to measure active learning.


The quality of poverty estimates relies heavily on the data sources. One of the sources of data for poverty estimation in the Philippines is the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES). The FIES is the source of detailed information on income and expenditures of Filipino families. Conducted by the National Statistics Office every three year, it is an input to the calculation of critical poverty data necessary to monitor the condition of the poor in the country. In this document, one will be able to look into how the FIES is administered, how it evolved through time, how the concepts of family and income are defined, what the survey covers, how much it costs to conduct the FIES, how detailed the survey questions are, how long it takes to complete the enumeration, and what the issues surrounding it are.


This paper uses the framework in Wolak (2003a,b and 2007) and data on half-hourly offer curves and market-clearing prices and quantities from the New Zealand wholesale electricity market over the period January 1, 2001 to June 30, 2007 to characterize how the four large suppliers in this imperfectly competitive industry exercise market power. To accomplish this we introduce half-hourly measures of the firm-level ability and incentive of an individual supplier to exercise unilateral market power that are derived from a simplified model of expected profit-maximizing offer behaviour in a multi-unit auction market. We then show that half-hourly market-clearing prices are highly correlated with the half-hourly values of the firm-level and firm-average measures of both the ability and incentive of the four large suppliers in New Zealand to exercise market power. We then present evidence consistent with the view that this increasing relationship between the ability or incentive of individual suppliers to exercise market power and higher market-clearing prices is caused by the four large suppliers submitting higher offer prices when they have a greater ability or incentive to exercise unilateral market power. We show that after controlling for changes in input fossil fuel prices and other factors that impact the opportunity cost of producing electricity during that half hour, each of the four suppliers submits a higher offer price into the wholesale market when it has a greater ability or incentive to exercise unilateral market power. To strengthen the case that this increasing relationship between market prices and the ability and incentive of each of the suppliers to exercise unilateral market power is actually caused by the four large suppliers exercising unilateral market power by changing their offer prices in response to their ability and incentive to exercise market power, we also perform a test of the implications of the null hypothesis that the four large suppliers behave as if they had no ability to exercise market power. We find strong evidence against this null hypothesis and instead find that these hypothesis testing results are consistent with the perspective that these suppliers are exercising all available unilateral market power.Classification-JEL:


The persistence of bird species is negatively affected by forest fragmentation and deforestation. Inadequate knowledge on specific impacts of such factors as forest fragmentation and deforestation on bird occupancy of miombo dominated landscapes masks the efficacy of conservation interventions over declining avian populations. This study investigates bird occupancy in various land use types in the Zambian miombo dominated landscapes to establish impacts of anthropogenic stressors on avian species. Five land use types: (1) privately managed natural forest, (2) publicly managed national forest, (3) pine forest, (4) corporate mining areas, and (5) woodlands in urban areas were compared for bird abundance, richness, evenness and diversity. Using indices of bird abundance, diversity, evenness and richness based on point count technique, this study revealed that human-dominated areas such as publicly managed national forest, pine forest, corporate mining areas, and woodlands in urban areas support lesser bird occupancy than natural miombo forests of the Copperbelt province, Zambia. The variations in occupancy could probably be attributed to availability of nesting sites and forage, largely influenced by the nature of land use types. The nature of a particular land use type was expressed by levels of human disturbance, spatial setting of the land use types in relation to others and adaptability of birds to their emerging non-native environments. Therefore, integrative land use types coupled with restoration programmes for the persistence of avian populations across disturbed environments need to be promoted and implemented.


Introduction. About 30% of all systemic reactions are modulated by cofactors, of which the most documented are: the physical exercise, alcohol consumption and drugs (in order of frequency  – NSAIDs, gastric antisecretory, beta blockers and ACEI). Occasionally, drugs, especially NSAIDs, can hide the real triggers, making it harder to find or delaying the diagnosis, meaning that the patients are at risk of recurrence of these high-severity reactions.
Case report. Patient A.M., female, 35 years old, came to the clinic after a severe immediate reaction caused by ibuprofen administration for dysmenorrhea. The oral provocation test with COX2 selective inhibitors was negative. The patient received the recommendation to avoid the NSAIDs and to use, if is necessary, the tolerated drugs. A few months later, the patient comes back after a moderate immediate reaction to one of the selective COX2 inhibitors previously tolerated. This time there are clearly mentioned, as cofactors, not only the physical exercise, but also the alcohol consumption. Specific IgE antibodies to omega 5 gliadina was 17.8 ku/l, showing the true sensitivity to wheat. After that, the patient was provoked again to the COX2 selective inhibitor, which was tolerated. Given the severity of the first reaction, she refused the ibuprofen provocation test.
Conclusion. In the modern allergy practice we have to overcome the paradigm "NSAID = the main character" in anaphylaxis, because a significant percentage of patients with systemic reactions in the context of NSAID administration can have another real trigger.


The case made for market-determined, flexible exchange rates by Princeton economist Frank D. Graham between the 1920s and the late 1940s is examined. It is argued that Graham's case embodied all essential elements of a monetary approach to exchange rates and the balance of payments. Exchange rates are monetary variables, and monetary policy strongly influences their movement. Contrary to received commentaries, Graham was the first twentieth-century economist to make a coherent case for flexible rates; he was an unappreciated forerunner of postwar, Chicago-based advocacy of flexible rates culminating in Friedman's 1953 classic. Graham's antipathy toward the Bretton Woods plans for exchange rates mirrored that of the Chicagoans. He advanced a liberal policy agenda including flexible exchange rates, capital mobility, rule-based independent monetary policies, and free trade. In the form of Frank Graham, Princeton was not far from Chicago.


PURPOSE
To improve the ability of graduate students to learn medical physics concepts through the incorporation of active learning techniques.

METHODS
A traditional lecture-based radiological physics course was modified such that: (1) traditional (two-hour) lectures were provided online for students to watch prior to class, (2) a student was chosen randomly at the start of each class to give a two minute synopsis of the material and its relevance (two-minute drill), (3) lectures were significantly abbreviated and remaining classroom time used for group problem solving, and (4) videos of the abbreviated lectures were made available online for review. In the transition year, students were surveyed about the perceived effects of these changes on learning. Student performance was evaluated for 3 years prior to and 4 years after modification.

RESULTS
The survey tool used a five point scale from 1=Not True to 5=Very True. While nearly all students reviewed written materials prior to class (4.3±0.9), a minority watched the lectures (2.1±1.5). A larger number watched the abbreviated lectures for further clarification (3.6±1.6) and found it helpful in learning the content (4.2±1.0). Most felt that the two-minute drill helped them get more out of the lecture (3.9±0.8) and the problem solving contributed to their understanding of the content (4.1±0.8). However, no significant improvement in exam scores resulted from the modifications (mean scores well within 1 SD during study period).

CONCLUSION
Students felt that active learning techniques improved their ability to learn the material in what is considered the most difficult course in the program. They valued the ability to review the abbreviated class lecture more than the opportunity to watch traditional lectures prior to class. While no significant changes in student performance were observed, aptitude variations across the student cohorts make it difficult to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of active learning.