In this paper, we systematically review recent advances in surface inspection using computer vision and image processing techniques, particularly those based on texture analysis methods. The aim is to review the state-of-the-art techniques for the purposes of visual inspection and decision making schemes that are able to discriminate the features extracted from normal and defective regions. This field is so vast that it is impossible to cover all the aspects of visual inspection. This paper focuses on a particular but important subset which generally treats visual surface inspection as texture analysis problems. Other topics related to visual inspection such as imaging system and data acquisition are out of the scope of this survey. The surface defects are loosely separated into two types. One is local textural irregularities which is the main concern for most visual surface inspection applications. The other is global deviation of colour and/or texture, where local pattern or texture does not exhibit abnormalities. We refer this type of defects as shade or tonality problem. The second type of defects have been largely neglected until recently, particularly when colour imaging system has been widely used in visual inspection and where chromatic consistency plays an important role in quality control. The emphasis of this survey though is still on detecting local abnormalities, given the fact that majority of the reported works are dealing with the first type of defects. The techniques used to inspect textural abnormalities are discussed in four categories, statistical approaches, structural approaches, filter based methods, and model based approaches, with a comprehensive list of references to some recent works. Due to rising demand and practice of colour texture analysis in application to visual inspection, those works that are dealing with colour texture analysis are discussed separately. It is also worth noting that processing vector-valued data has its unique challenges, which conventional surface inspection methods have often ignored or do not encounter. We also compare classification approaches with novelty detection approaches at the decision making stage. Classification approaches often require supervised training and usually provide better performance than novelty detection based approaches where training is only carried out on defect-free samples. However, novelty detection is relatively easier to adapt and is particularly desirable when training samples are incomplete


The von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) syndrome is a pleomorphic familial disease characterized by the development of highly vascularized tumors, such as hemangioblastomas of the central nervous system, pheochromocytomas, renal cell carcinomas, cysts and neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas. Up to 75% of VHL patients are affected by VHL-associated pancreatic lesions; however, very few reports in the published literature have described the cellular origins and biological roles of VHL in the pancreas. Since homozygous loss of Vhl in mice resulted in embryonic lethality, this study aimed to characterize the functional significance of VHL in the pancreas by conditionally inactivating Vhl utilizing the Cre/LoxP system. Specifically, Vhl was inactivated in different pancreatic cell populations distinguished by their roles during embryonic organ development and their endocrine lineage commitment. With Cre recombinase expression directed by a glucagon promoter in α-cells or an insulin promoter in β-cells, we showed that deletion of Vhl is dispensable for normal functions of the endocrine pancreas. In addition, deficiency of VHL protein (pVHL) in terminally differentiated α-cells or β-cells is insufficient to induce pancreatic neuroendocrine tumorigenesis. Most significantly, we presented the first mouse model of VHL-associated pancreatic disease in mice lacking pVHL utilizing Pdx1-Cre transgenic mice to inactivate Vhl in pancreatic progenitor cells. The highly vascularized microcystic adenomas and hyperplastic islets that developed in Pdx1-Cre;Vhl f/f homozygous mice exhibited clinical features similar to VHL patients. Establishment of three different, cell-specific Vhl knockouts in the pancreas have allowed us to provide evidence suggesting that VHL is functionally important for postnatal ductal and exocrine pancreas, and that VHL-associated pancreatic lesions are likely to originate from progenitor cells, not mature endocrine cells. The novel model systems reported here will provide the basis for further functional and genetic studies to define molecular mechanisms involved in VHL-associated pancreatic diseases.


In the following an introduction to the level set method will be givenso that one becomes aware of the arising problems, which lead to the needof reinitialization. The problems concerning reinitialization itself will be analysed more detailed and a solution for area loss will be proposed. This solution consists in a combination of the commonly used PDE for reinitialization and extrapolation around the zero level set. Numericalexperiments show rather satisfactory results as far as area loss and computation of curvature are concerned.


A semi-analytical solution for the concentration of photosensitive suspension is developed in a hemispherical droplet illuminated with ultraviolet (UV) laser. A biharmonic equation in stream function is analytically solved using toroidal coordinates, which is used to solve the transport equation for concentration. Flow pattern and photosensitive material concentration are affected by the peak location of the UV light intensity, which corresponds to the surface tension profile. When the laser beam is moved from the droplet center to its edge, a rotationally symmetric flow pattern changes from a single counter clockwise circulation to a circulation pair and finally to a single clockwise circulation. This modulation in the orientation of circulation modifies the concentration distribution of the photosensitive material. The distribution depends on both diffusion from the droplet surface and the Marangoni convection. The region beneath the droplet surface away from the UV light intensity peak has low concentration, while the region near the downward dividing streamline has the highest concentration. When the UV light peak reaches the droplet edge, the concentration is high everywhere in the droplet.


To read the large-scale masterpieces of Elizabethan literature with something of the agility they assume and demand is an art which must be self-consciously cultivated by us today. The Shepheardes Calender, an early, relatively brief essay in a complex mode, provides exercise for our wit in smaller compass. We ought, I believe, to bring to it something of the same resources that we bring to Spenser's larger work. As Ernest de Selincourt wrote, "It lies along the high-road that leads him to Faery land." 1 It is the product of the same sensibility, and in it we can discern the special proclivities of the poet's imagination: the preference for radical allegory and " iconographical ambiguity"; 2 the search for a form that will contain variety and unify it without violating its subtle life-patterns; the exploitation of a setting that can also serve as a complex controlling metaphor. The great invention of Faerie Land is anticipated by Spenser's evocation of the archetypal hills, valleys, woods, and pastures of the Calender. Early critics tended to read the work as a kind of anthology, a series of experiments in various verse-forms; Spenser's themes, conceived as subordinate to his forms, could be subsumed under E. K.'s categories, plaintive, moral, and recreative.3 The poem's reputation has taken an upward turn in the past few years, accompanied by a critical tendency to stress the unifying power of its metaphors, and there have been several attempts to reduce its pattern to a single thematic statement. The reconstruction of the poem's composition by Paul McLane suggests the difficulties


The focused issue " The Management of Thyroid Tumors in 2020 and Beyond " edited by Drs. Jonathon Russell and Jeremy Richmon is going to be released in Annals of Thyroid ( AOT ) in the coming months. This issue aims to review the state-of-art in the management of thyroid pathology, to provide a venue for original research focused on remote access or minimally invasive thyroid management and to review the success at extending proven management strategies into new geographic regions. Taking this opportunity, we have done a series of interviews with the authors discussing the highlights of their articles and sharing their experiences or stories in this field.


Deuteron 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy was used to study the dynamics of water molecules within the mesoporous material MCM-41. The deuteron spectra show three magnetization components for a sample hydrated to a 0.2 monolayer level. One component was assigned to the pore surface silanol group deuterons that exhibit a broad Gaussian line of 32.6 kHz FWHM and the other components were assigned to the water deuterons. At room temperature one water deuteron component has a powder-pattern line shape (splitting of about 4.2 kHz and population of about 61%) and the other has a Lorentzian line shape (about 388 Hz FWHM and population of 39%). Magnetization exchange occurs between these components. An exchange model, based on multi-site exchange, was constructed and used to analyse the results for exchange. For the 0.2 monolayer sample the rate of magnetization exchange out of the hydration site, where the water deuterons exhibit a Lorentzian line in the H spectra is, 1.3 ms−1. 2D measurements at 233 K and room temperature confirmed the magnetization exchange scenario for the two water deuteron sites. By combining the deuteron results with proton-silicon cross polarization magic angle spinning experiments, together with heat treatment of the sample, definitive hydration site identification for MCM-41 was achieved. This study has shown that the water molecules bound to the hydrogen-bonded silanol groups produce the powder pattern while water molecules bound to the single silanol groups produce the Lorentzian line. This represents a necessary first step toward a meaningful modeling of NMR observables in terms of site-specific water molecule coordination and dynamics in MCM-41.


UK consumers are facing a high level of detriment. Much of the detriment can be avoided or reduced by making consumers informed and well equipped with suitable levels of knowledge and skills thus become empowered. As one important element to consumer empowerment, there is a strong case that consumers need suitable consumer information and advice services (CIAS). In an attempt to improve the local CIAS provision in Great Britain, the Consumer Support Network (CSN) initiative was launched in 1999 to join up the existing local CIAS providers. A local CIAS needs assessment was required for each CSN to achieve full establishment status (Brennan and Galloway 2002). It was discovered during the period that there was a lack of a
scientific local CIAS needs assessment model available for local agencies to employ. This triggered this research project which is aimed to fill this gap. Due to the fact that Northern Ireland was not included in the CSN initiative, it was decided that this research targeted Great Britain, namely England, Scotland and Wales, although the literature would be drawn from the UK to inform the research.

In the UK, the majority of CIAS is publicly funded and provided by public and voluntary sectors. Due to the funding nature of local CIAS provision, the needs for CIAS can be defined as needs for public services in this research. A review of the existing literature provided detailed background on the UK consumer landscape and the consumer empowerment agenda. Two broader categories of issues surrounding the concept of needs for public services and needs assessment were also identified: the theoretical debate on needs for public services and needs assessment and specific practical issues concerning local CIAS needs and needs assessment. The research is focused on the latter, since the purpose of a local CIAS needs assessment is to provide practical guidance to assist local agencies to design and improve their services.

This research aims to investigate and develop a scientific conceptual local CIAS needs assessment model. This aim was achieved by identifying the relevant practical issues surrounding local CIAS needs and needs assessment involving two research populations: the CIAS professionals, who are responsible for the delivery of local CIAS, and the general public, who are the recipients of CIAS. Due to the characteristics of these two research populations, a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods was chosen in this research. The CSN coordinators were chosen to represent the CIAS professionals in the first phase qualitative research. The transcriptions of 18 semi structured in-depth interviews were collected and analysed to generate the initial assessment model. The important part of the initial model, the needs for CIAS and its components, was tested and then modified in the second phase quantitative research based on the analysis of the data collected from 585 on-street questionnaire surveys of the general public in Great Britain which was chosen as the research population in the second phase. A purposive sampling was employed to ensure a good level of representativeness considering the resource constrains to this research. The employment of combined research methods ensures the assessment model is scientific by comparing and contrasting data from both local CIAS professionals and the recipients of local CIAS. The scientific attribute of the assessment model is also assured by employing scientific qualitative and quantitative data collecting and analysing techniques and procedures.

The results of the two phases enabled this research to produce a scientific conceptual assessment model. The main product of this thesis, the new local CIAS needs assessment model, is evidence based, tailor-made, and ready to be employed by local CIAS agencies. This model consists of two sections, left and right: the needs assessment process and the practical issues of local CIAS needs. The left section includes the main stages of a local CIAS needs assessment and highlights the key issues associated with each stage. The right section illustrates the key components of CIAS needs and factors influencing CIAS needs: consumer knowledge and shopping patterns and their key components. The two effective means of local consumer segmentation, consumer disadvantage and consumer age, are also identified and illustrated in the section.

The scientific CIAS assessment model could assist the professionals to gather evidence on local CIAS needs more effectively and systematically. The evidence could be used to improve the existing CIAS provision and design new CIAS to target any unmet needs identified. The evidence gathered, together with the relevant findings of this research, could also strengthen the case of local CIAS provision and better coordination with national CIAS provision such as Consumer Direct. The model could also benefit the professionals, policy makers and academia by
comprehensively illustrating the components of CIAS need, the key relating factors and effective means for local consumer segmentation. The outcomes of the research also shed a light on the gaps in the literature thus identifies the possible areas of future research.


All agricultural markets are subjected to institutional regulations that – in one way or another –affect the functioning of these markets, and this is no different for the agricultural land market in the EU. In this paper, we describe the existing regulations in the sales markets for agricultural land in selected EU member states and candidate countries. The analysis focuses on three types of sales market regulations and institutions: quantity regulations, price regulations and transaction costs. The differences in the regulatory framework between land acquisition and ownership by domestic and foreign investors are analysed, as well as the taxes associated with land sales and ownership, zoning regulations and market imperfections.


Purpose Metastatic response to induction therapy for high-risk neuroblastoma is a prognostic factor. In the International Society of Paediatric Oncology Europe Neuroblastoma (SIOPEN) HR-NBL-1 protocol, only patients with metastatic complete response (CR) or partial response (PR) with ≤ three abnormal skeletal areas on iodine 123-metaiodobenzylguanidine ([123I]mIBG) scintigraphy and no bone marrow disease proceed to high dose therapy (HDT). In this study, topotecan-vincristine-doxorubicin (TVD) was evaluated in patients failing to achieve these criteria, with the aim of improving the metastatic response rate. Materials and Methods Patients with metastatic high-risk neuroblastoma who had not achieved the SIOPEN criteria for HDT after induction received two courses of topotecan 1.5 mg/m2/day for 5 days, followed by a 48-hour infusion of vincristine, 2 mg/m2, and doxorubicin, 45 mg/m2. Results Sixty-three patients were eligible and evaluable. Following two courses of TVD, four (6.4%) patients had an overall CR, while 28 (44.4%) had a PR with a combined response rate of 50.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 37.9 to 63.6). Of these, 23 patients achieved a metastatic CR or a PR with ≤ 3 mIBG skeletal areas and no bone marrow disease (36.5%; 95% CI, 24.7 to 49.6) and were eligible to receive HDT. Toxicity was mostly haematological, affecting 106 of the 126 courses (84.1%; 95% CI, 76.5 to 90.0), and dose reduction was necessary in six patients. Stomatitis was the second most common nonhematological toxicity, occurring in 20 patients (31.7%). Conclusion TVD was effective in improving the response rate of high-risk neuroblastoma patients after induction with COJEC enabling them to proceed to HDT. However, the long-term benefits of TVD needs to be determined in randomized clinical trials.


Synopsis Shorthaul transport, also known as secondary intermediate transport (SIT), is a feature of pulpwood transport in South Africa. SIT is an additional transport phase within traditional secondary transport. It originates at roadside landing or depot and terminates at another depot, rail siding or merchandising area (not the final destination). The reason for the inclusion of SIT is identified as the result of the poor and steady decline of forest road conditions to the extent that highway type vehicles are unable to reach roadside landings. This necessitates the use of intermediate storage sites, from where timber is once again loaded and transported to its final destination. A network analysis model, assisted by newly developed and industry accepted terminology, and pixel-based geographic information system (GIS) were combined to analyse various transport scenarios within three study areas in the KwaZulu/Natal Midlands of South Africa, employing SIT on poor, high-density forest road networks. The simple pixel-based GIS contained information on the forest road network, surface cover and slope. The results of the economic analysis highlighted the need for the reduction of road network densities and for the improvement of the remaining network. This would eliminate the need for extended primary transport and allow the use of highway vehicles transporting from compartment roadside to and past plantation exits. Results show the average annual cost penalty to the industry, by maintaining SIT and related transport, to be R43.25 million or R8.24/m3. SIT accounts for between 10 and 15% of the total delivered cost of round wood pulpwood


Designing robust monitoring programmes for cryptic species is particularly difficult. Not detecting a species does not necessarily mean that it is absent from the sampling area. A conclusion of absence made in error can lead to misguided inferences about distribution, colonisation and local extinction estimates, which in turn affects where and how conservation actions are undertaken. It is therefore important to investigate monitoring techniques that reduce the non-detection rate of cryptic species. As habitat complexity plays an important role in the activity of bats within a forest, it was hypothesised that the amount of vegetative 'clutter' present at different heights within two different forest types affected the flight activity of lesser short-tailed bats (Mystacina tuberculata). This could affect detection of the species within different forest structures. To compare bat activity at three heights - top (22.0-25.0 m), middle (10.0-12.0 m) and bottom (1.5-2.0 m) - within a podocarp and a beech forest we used automatic bat monitors during January to March 2005. The number of bat passes was recorded at each height at two study areas within each forest and compared between forest types. The forest structure was described using the Recce method and vegetative cover estimated within the three height tiers sampled for bat activity. Within both forest types, the middle-level bat detectors logged the greatest amount of activity. However, differences between the forest types were most pronounced closer to the ground, where a high amount of activity was detected within the beech forest, and very little within the podocarp forest. This suggests that flight activity of lesser short-tailed bats may be affected by the level of vegetative clutter found at different heights within a forest. When designing monitoring programmes for lesser short-tailed bats, it is recommended that consideration be given to the forest structure and how this may affect detection of bat activity.


[Extract] A couple of news items in the weekend papers have piqued my interest in the ongoing conservative putsch to retain the centrality of the family in society. The first of these was a story about the Federal Opposition MP, Kevin Andrews, who has signalled a 'socially conservative change' to welfare policy under a coalition government. (Andrews' views on family are well known.)

The second is a piece in the Weekend Australian by Catholic pro-family conservative writer, Angela Shanahan opining about the importance for women of marrying a stable man. For the children.

These uncritical views rely on a combination of sentimentality and 'facts' about how society benefits from this institution. What they fail to reveal is the history of paternal control over women and children central to the effective operation of the family in a patriarchal society. And by family, what they mean is a married heterosexual procreative union.

These views of family implicitly blame single mothers and their children for the breakdown of society. I maintain that it is instead the narrow construction of the institution of 'family' that feeds into the moral (conservative) panic of social collapse. What we need instead is a re-imagining of society.


Stand-off chemical sensing is an important capability with applications in several domains including homeland security. Engineered devices for this task, popularly referred to as electronic noses, have limited capacity compared to the broad-spectrum abilities of the biological olfactory system. Therefore, we propose a hybrid bio-electronic solution that directly takes advantage of the rich repertoire of olfactory sensors and sophisticated neural computational framework available in an insect olfactory system. We show that select subsets of neurons in the locust (Schistocerca americana) brain were activated upon exposure to various explosive chemical species (such as DNT and TNT). Responses from an ensemble of neurons provided a unique, multivariate fingerprint that allowed discrimination of explosive vapors from non-explosive chemical species and from each other. Notably, target chemical recognition could be achieved within a few hundred milliseconds of exposure. Finally, we developed a minimally-invasive surgical approach and mobile multi-unit electrophysiological recording system to tap into the neural signals in a locust brain and realize a biorobotic explosive sensing system. In sum, our study provides the first demonstration of how biological olfactory systems (sensors and computations) can be hijacked to develop a cyborg chemical sensing approach. SUMMARY We demonstrate a bio-robotic chemical sensing approach where signals from an insect brain are directly utilized to detect and distinguish various explosive chemical vapors.


The unique occurrence of abundant (~1 vol%) near‐pure‐Fe metal in the Camel Donga eucrite is more complicated than previously believed. In addition to that component of groundmass metal, scattered within the meteorite are discrete nodules of much higher kamacite abundance. We have studied the petrology and composition of two of these nodules in the form of samples we call CD2 and CD3. The nodules are ovoids 11 (CD2) to 15 (CD3) mm across, with metal, or inferred preweathering metal, abundances of 12–17 vol% (CD2 is unfortunately quite weathered). The CD3 nodule also includes at its center a 5 mm ovoid clumping (6 vol%) of F‐apatite. Both nodules are fine‐grained, so the high Fe metal and apatite contents are clearly not flukes of inadequate sampling. The metals within the nodules are distinctly Ni‐rich (0.3–0.6 wt%) compared to the pure‐Fe (Ni generally 0.01 wt%) groundmass metals. Bulk analyses of three pieces of the CD2 nodule show that trace siderophile elements Ir, Os, and Co are commensurately enriched; Au is enriched to a lesser degree. The siderophile evidence shows the nodules did not form by in situ reduction of pyroxene FeO. Moreover, the nodules do not show features such as silica‐phase enrichment or pyroxene with reduced FeO (as constrained by FeO/MgO and especially FeO/MnO) predicted by the in situ reduction model. The oxide minerals, even in groundmass samples well away from the nodules, also show little evidence of reduction. Although the nodule boundaries are generally sharp, groundmass‐metal Ni content is anti‐correlated with distance from the CD3 nodule. We infer that the nodules represent materials that originated within impactors into the Camel Donga portion of the eucrite crust, but probably were profoundly altered during later metamorphism/metasomatism. Origin of the pure‐Fe groundmass metal remains enigmatic. In situ reduction probably played an important role, and association in the same meteorite of the Fe‐nodules is probably significant. But the fluid during alteration was probably not (as previously modeled) purely S and O, of simple heat‐driven internal derivation. We conjecture a two‐stage metasomatism, as fluids passed through Camel Donga after impact heating of volatile‐rich chondritic masses (survivors of gentle accretionary impacts) within the nearby crust. First, reduction to form troilite may have been triggered by fluids rich in S2 and CO (derived from the protonodules?), and then in a distinct later stage, fluids were (comparatively) H2O‐rich, and thus reacted with troilite to form pure‐Fe metal along with H2S and SO2. The early eucrite crust was in places a dynamic fluid‐bearing environment that hosted complex chemical processes, including some that engendered significant diversity among metal+sulfide alterations.


It is well established in the literature that foreign affiliates are subject to a series of governance and assimilation costs that deteriorate their performance. This is particularly relevant for firms which have been recently acquired by foreign investors. We employ the variation in civic capital across Italian provinces as an exogenous determinant of these governance costs. We derive the testable implication that there should be a clean evidence of a negative effect of foreign ownership on performance in areas where civic capital is low. As the level of local civic capital increases, this reduces the scope for internal transaction costs, and makes the governance of foreign affiliates easier, and their performance better. We take this prediction to the data and find confirmation of our conceptual framework. Our analysis underlines the importance of the geographic heterogeneity of informal institutions when analyzing the effect of foreign ownership on firm performance.


The aging of populations is a phenomenon which has become an important research topic. Demographers, however, have given inadequate attention to the projection of the number of old people and their future age composition. This paper shows that the conventional method for estimating the survivorship proportions of the very old tends to produce misleading results with respect to the size and composition of the aged. Several alternatives are suggested here to overcome these problems. An empirical example is used to point out the problems of the conventional approach and to evaluate the suggested improvements.


Recursive processing of Gaussian mixture functions inevitably leads to a large number of mixture components. In order to keep the computational complexity at a feasible level, the number of their components has to be reduced periodically. There already exists a variety of algorithms for this purpose, bottom-up and top-down approaches, methods that take the global structure of the mixture into account or that work locally and consider few mixture components at the same time. The mixture reduction algorithm presented in this paper can be categorized as global top-down approach. It takes a clustering algorithm originating from the field of theoretical computer science and adapts it for the problem of Gaussian mixture reduction. The achieved results are on the same scale as the results of the current "state-of-the-art" algorithm PGMR, but, depending on the input size, the whole procedure performs significantly faster.


Camera traps can detect rare and cryptic species, and may enable description of the stability of populations of threatened species. We investigated the relative performance of cameras oriented horizontally or vertically, and recording mode (still and video) to detect the vulnerable long-nosed potoroo (Potorous tridactylus) as a precursor to population monitoring. We established camera traps for periods of 13–21 days across 21 sites in Richmond Range National Park in north-east New South Wales. Each camera trap set consisted of three KeepGuard KG680V cameras directed at a bait container – one horizontal and one vertical camera in still mode and one horizontal camera in video mode. Potoroos and bandicoots (Perameles nasuta and Isoodon macrourus) were detected at 14 sites and pademelons (Thylogale stigmatica and T. thetis) were detected at 19 sites. We used program Presence to compare detection probabilities for each camera category. The detection probability for all three taxa groups was lowest for the vertical still and similar for the horizontal cameras. The detection probability (horizontal still) was highest for the potoroos (0.43) compared with the bandicoots (0.16) and pademelons (0.25). We estimate that the horizontal stills camera could achieve a 95% probability of detection of a potoroo within 6 days compared with 8 days using a vertical stills camera. This suggests that horizontal cameras in still mode have great potential for monitoring the dynamics of this potoroo population.


Four different nondestructive tests were evaluated for detecting and quantifying the amount of distributed damage in prestressed concrete bridge girders. This was in response to a number of bridges throughout Texas exhibiting premature concrete deterioration due to a combination of delayed ettringite formation and alkali silica reaction. Visual inspection, acoustic emission, short pulse radar, and impact echo are described, and possible procedures to apply these methods to concrete with distributed damage are presented and evaluated.


Our previous work presented a Petri net-based iterative synthesis policy for deadlock prevention in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). Given the Petri net model of an FMS prone to deadlock, it aims to synthesize a live controlled Petri net. Its use for FMS control guarantees its deadlock-free operation and high performance in terms of resource utilization and system throughput. At each iteration, a first-met bad marking is singled out from the reachability graph of the Petri net. A well-established invariant-based control method is used to prevent it from being reached. This process is carried out until the net model becomes live. The method proposed is generally applicable, easy to use, effective, and straightforward, although its off-line computation is of exponential complexity. This paper presents two improvements: (a) using the Petri net reduction approach to simplify very large Petri net models so as to alleviate computation effort; and (2) simplifying the invariant-based control method. A number of FMS deadlock problems from the literature are used to illustrate them.


The intent of this empirical study was to examine to what extent the use of group support systems (GSSs) in meetings modifies individual and group behaviour in subsequent manual meetings. Because meetings occupy a significant amount of organisational resources, yet are perceived to be mostly unproductive, it would seem that improving the effectiveness of meetings would lead to positive and lasting organisational productivity gains. The study utilised a cross-sectional survey design to compare the differences between GSS-influenced meetings and traditional manual meetings on several composite measures. Results showed that the two groups were significantly different and that the GSS group rated their subsequent meetings as more productive and satisfying. New behaviours may have been learned as a result of the technology-supported meetings as these behaviours were applied to subsequent meetings.


A finite-element (FE) model of human skin is proposed for future use in an interactive real-time surgical simulation to teach surgeons procedures, such as facial reconstruction using skin-flap repair. For this procedure, skin is cut into flaps that are stretched to cover openings in the face. Thus, the model must recreate the visual, haptic, and force feedback expected by the surgeon. To develop the FE model, a series of in vitro experiments were conducted on samples of human skin, subjected to uniaxial and planar tensile straining. Reduced polynomial hyperelastic (HE) materials were found to fit many of the samples' stress-strain data well. Finally, an explicit dynamic FE mesh was developed based on the fitted HE material models. A total Lagrangian formulation with the half-step central difference method was employed to integrate the dynamic equation of motion of the mesh. The mesh was integrated into two versions of a real-time skin simulator: a single-threaded version running on a computer's main central processing unit and a multithreaded version running on the computer's graphics card. The latter was achieved by exploiting recent advances in programmable graphics technology.


This paper constructs a new measure of currency mismatch in the banking sector that controls for bank lending to unhedged borrowers. This measure explicitly takes into account the indirect exchange rate risk that banks undertake when they lend to borrowers that will not be able to repay in the event of a sharp depreciation. Such systemic risk taking is not captured by indicators that are based only on banks' balance sheet data. The new measure is constructed for 10 emerging European economies and for a broader sample that includes 19 additional emerging economies, for the period 1998-2008. Comparisons with previous currency mismatch measures that do not adjust for unhedged foreign currency borrowing illustrate the advantages of the new approach. In particular, the new measure flagged the indirect currency mismatch vulnerabilities that were building up in a number of emerging economies before the recent global crisis. Measuring currency mismatch more accurately can help country authorities in their efforts to address vulnerabilities at the right time, avoiding hurting growth prospects.


Three corn research trials were conducted during the 2016 growing season. Two studies were conducted at Scandia, KS, (dryland and irrigated) and one at Topeka, KS (dryland). The objective of these trials was to investigate the contribution of different farming systems for closing corn yield gaps. Each experiment consisted of five treatments: common practices (CP), comprehensive fertilization (CF), production intensity (PI), ecological intensification (CF + PI), and advanced plus (AD). Across all three experiments and under dryland and irrigation scenarios, CP presented the lowest yield. In environments with yield response, intensifying production without a balanced nutrition program did not increase yields. A balanced nutrition program substantially increased yields in corn with more relative impact in dryland environments. The absolute yield gap was 86 bu/a for dryland and 75 bu/a for irrigated condition.


Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM) is an effective method for reducing the effect of crosstalk in Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) systems. This paper discusses various DSM algorithms, including Optimal Spectrum Balancing (OSB), Iterative Spectrum Balancing (ISB), Autonomous Spectrum Balancing (ASB), Iterative Water-Filling (IWF), Selective Iterative Water-filling (SIW), Successive Convex Approximation for Low complExity (SCALE), the Difference of Convex functions Algorithm (DCA), and Distributed Spectrum Balancing (DSB). They are compared in terms of performance (achievable data rate) and computational complexity.


Information and communication technology are radically changing the way of business. These changes and development resulted in new delivery of channels for banking products and services such as Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), Telephone Banking, PC-Banking, and Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale (EFTPoS). Many banks are making huge investments in technology to maintain and develop their infrastructure, they not only to provide new electronic information-based services, but also to manage their risk positions and pricing. Over time, usage of Internet has been increased in banks. Their main concern has been to serve clients more conveniently, and in the process increase profits and competitiveness. ICT has been used extensively in banking. Banks have recognized the ICT as representing an opportunity to increase profits and their competitiveness. The study shows how people can make use of ICT in banking. 200 Chennai respondents were taken as sample and the data was analysed and drawn meaningful inferences with the help of various tools such as simple percentage analysis, factor analysis and chi square. The study provides various suggestions for the banks to improve the effective utilisation of ICT in banking.


There are, perhaps, three components that are vital to the success of any scientific quest. They are 1) creative thinking and courageous experimentation of researchers in the field, 2) an amalgamation of this research with approaches of the broader research community (which often creates the most exciting ideas), and, finally, 3) practical applications of the research that put it in the broader perspective of our lives. All of these components are distinctive features of four symposia that were held at the Fall MRS 2010 meeting in Boston and are brought together in this volume, namely, Symposium SS: "Advanced Imaging and Scattering Techniques for In Situ Studies", TT: "In Situ X-Ray Synchrotron Radiation Spectroscopies in Energy-Related Materials Science and Heterogeneous Catalysis", UU: "Real-Time Studies of Evolving Thin Films and Interfaces" and VV: "Novel Development and Applications of Scanning Probe Microscopy." A major unifying theme for these symposia is exploration of intricate properties of materials on the near-to-atomic length scale in the immediate vicinity of the free surface or at interfaces between materials. These symposia focus on various aspects and approaches of exploration of surfaces and interfaces from more traditional electron and x-ray scattering (the focus of symposia SS, TT, and UU) to more recent and rapidly advancing scanning probe microscopy, or SPM (Symposium VV). Together, they cover a field of great importance across the broad MRS community. Of tremendous interest in modern material science, this key aspect of nanotechnology considers how interfaces and surfaces help to determine properties and functionalities of a wide range of materials, including oxides, metals and nanoparticles. Monitoring evolving surfaces in real time is a prerequisite for mastering the evolution process itself. Furthermore, surfaces and interfaces often display surprising properties that are qualitatively different from those of the corresponding bulk materials. Controlling and tailoring the physical properties at the interfaces between different materials on the atomic scale can therefore result in real scientific breakthroughs. Research in atomic control when fabricating interfaces and surfaces will help in understanding important structure-property relationships as well as in improving the design of nano-devices. Another aspect of this research is developing techniques to probe the structure and/or the properties of evolving surfaces and interfaces in environments where they are created and used. Symposium UU was a forum for researchers who use or develop in-situ characterization and monitoring techniques for thin films, surfaces and interfaces. Experts in the fields of real-time 1) scattering (e.g., XRD and TEM), 2) imaging (e.g., SPM) and 3) spectroscopy (e.g., XPS) came together to report on their respective progress and/or new developments. Different kinds of probes, such as light in a wide energy spectrum, electrons and scanning probes, and their various capabilities to adapt, case by case, to the very peculiar working conditions required for this research emerged. Also, a particular opportunity was given for researchers to show prospects for applications of novel techniques to real-time analysis.


Competitive video and computer game play is nothing new: the documentary King of Kong memorably portrays a Donkey Kong player's attempts to achieve the all-time highest score; the television show Starcade (1982--1984) featured competitions among arcade game players; and first-person shooter games of the 1990s became multiplayer through network play. A new development in the world of digital gaming, however, is the emergence of professional computer game play, complete with star players, team owners, tournaments, sponsorships, and spectators. In Raising the Stakes, T. L. Taylor explores the emerging scene of professional computer gaming and the accompanying efforts to make a sport out of this form of play. In the course of her explorations, Taylor travels to tournaments, including the World Cyber Games Grand Finals (which considers itself the computer gaming equivalent of the Olympics), and interviews participants from players to broadcasters. She examines pro-gaming, with its highly paid players, play-by-play broadcasts, and mass audience; discusses whether or not e-sports should even be considered sports; traces the player's path from amateur to professional (and how a hobby becomes work); and describes the importance of leagues, teams, owners, organizers, referees, sponsors, and fans in shaping the structure and culture of pro-gaming. Taylor connects professional computer gaming to broader issues: our notions of play, work, and sport; the nature of spectatorship; the influence of money on sports. And she examines the ongoing struggle over the gendered construction of play through the lens of male-dominated pro-gaming. Ultimately, the evolution of professional computer gaming illuminates the contemporary struggle to convert playful passions into serious play.


We cross-correlate the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropy maps from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), MAXIMA-1, and MAXIMA-2 experiments. We use the cross spectrum, which is the spherical harmonic transform of the angular two-point correlation function, to quantify the correlation as a function of angular scale. We find that the three possible pairs of cross spectra are in close agreement with each other and with the power spectra of the individual maps. The probability that there is no correlation between the maps is smaller than 1 × 10-8. We also calculate power spectra for maps made of differences between pairs of maps and show that they are consistent with no signal. The results conclusively show that the three experiments not only display the same statistical properties of the CMB anisotropy, but also detect the same features wherever the observed sky areas overlap. We conclude that the contribution of systematic errors to these maps is negligible and that MAXIMA and WMAP have accurately mapped the CMB anisotropy.


In the seventeenth century, Newton published his famous experimentum crucis, in which he claimed that light is heterogeneous and is composed of (colored) rays with different refrangibilities. Experiments, especially a crucial experiment, were important for justifying Newton's theory of light, and eventually his theory of color. Goethe conducted a series of experiments on the nature of color, especially in contradistinction to Newton, and he defended his research with a methodological principle formulated in "Der Versuch als Vermittler." Goethe's principle included a series of experiments and resultant higher empirical evidence as mediator between the objective (natural phenomena) and the subjective (theory or hypothesis). Although the notion of experimentum crucis became popular among scientists, even until today, in reconstructing experimental research and for justifying theories, especially for rhetorical purposes, I propose that Newton's justification of his theory of light and color is best reconstructed in terms of Goethe's methodological principle. Finally, Goethe's principle has important consequences for the contemporary philosophical underdetermination thesis.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consist of a set of sensor nodes with limited capability. WSNs may suffer from multiple node failures when they are exposed to harsh environments such as military zones or disaster locations and lose connectivity by getting partitioned into disjoint segments. Relay nodes (RNs) are alternatively introduced to restore connectivity. They cost more than sensors as they benefit from mobility, more power and more transmission range, enforcing a minimum number of them to be used. This paper addresses the problem of RN placement in a multiple disjoint network by developing a genetic algorithm (GA). The problem is reintroduced as the Steiner tree problem (which is known to be an NP-hard problem) by the aim of finding the minimum number of Steiner points where RNs are to be placed for restoring connectivity. An upper bound to the number of RNs is first computed to set up the length of initial chromosomes. The GA algorithm then iteratively reduces the number of RNs and determines their location at the same time. Experimental results indicate that the proposed GA is capable of establishing network connectivity using a reasonable number of RNs compared to the best existing work. Keywords—Connectivity restoration, genetic algorithms, multiple-node failure, relay nodes, wireless sensor networks.


Service evolution is the process of maintaining and evolving existing Web services to cater for new requirements and technological changes. In this paper, a service evolution model is proposed to analyze service dependencies, identify changes on services and estimate impact on consumers that will use new versions of these services. Based on the proposed service evolution model, four service evolution patterns are described: compatibility, transition, split-map, and merge-map. These proposed patterns provide reusable templates to encourage well-defined service evolution while minimizing issues that arise otherwise. They can be applied in the service evolution scenario where a single service is used by many, possibly unknown, consumers' applications. In such a scenario, providers evolve their services independently from consumers, which might cause unexpected errors and incur unpredicted impact on the dependent consumers' applications. Therefore, providers can use these patterns to estimate the impact that changes to be introduced to their services may cause on their consumers, and to allow consumers smoothly migrate to the newest version of the service.


Title A national assessment of green infrastructure and change for the conterminous United States using morphological image processing Abstract Green infrastructure is a popular framework for conservation planning. The main elements of green infrastructure are hubs and links. Hubs tend to be large areas of 'natural' vegetation and links tend to be linear features (e.g., streams) that connect hubs. Within the United States, green infrastructure projects can be characterized as: 1) reliant on classical geographic information system (GIS) techniques (e.g., overlay, buffering) for mapping; 2), mainly implemented by states and local jurisdictions, and; 3) static assessments that do not routinely incorporate information on land-cover change. We introduce morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) as a complementary way to map green infrastructure, extend the geographic scope to the conterminous United States, and incorporate land-cover change information. MSPA applies a series of image processing routines to a raster land-cover map to identify hubs, links, and related structural classes of land cover. We identified approximately 4,000 large (> 100 hubs) networks within the conterminous United States, of which 10 percent crossed state boundaries. We also identified a net loss of up to 1.76 million ha of links and 1.72 million ha of hubs between 1992 and 2001. Our national assessment provides a backbone that states could use to coordinate their green infrastructure projects, and our incorporation of change illustrates the importance of land-cover dynamics for green infrastructure planning and assessment.


The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Environmental Safeguards Unit (ESG) initiated this study to address the need to better understand how to assess and address climate change related risks in IDB funded projects. The Caribbean region is uniquely sensitive to natural hazards such as hurricanes, extreme precipitation events, and coastal storm surges due to the relatively small size and low elevations of the island nations that make up the region. Climate change is expected to exacerbate the threat of natural hazards. As a result of climate change, average temperatures and sea levels are rising, precipitation patterns might change, and hurricanes could intensify. Many of these changes are already occurring, and are projected to become more severe in the future. The purpose of this paper is to: (1) propose a step-wise process to assess climate change risks to IDB projects and (2) identify tools and methodologies to support the risk assessment process specific to the Caribbean region.


Forensic DNA profiling uses 'non-coding' parts of the human genome to compare DNA profiles and establish links between individuals and crimes under investigation. In most situations, only a complete match between such profiles is significant. However, it is also possible to identify individuals through 'familial matching', for example, where a DNA database search yields a partial match with a suspect profile, suggesting that the suspect is a close relative of the person on the database. It has also become possible through 'DNA phenotyping' to analyse 'coding' parts of the human genome to produce a probabilistic assessment that the suspect is, for example, of a particular racial background, or has a particular hair or eye colour. Neither of these more novel techniques is mentioned in Australian forensic procedures legislation. This article argues that familial matching uses the traditional DNA profiling methodology and is no more invasive than established methods of investigation. However, DNA phenotyping employs a different methodology from traditional DNA profiling, and generates information beyond simply generating a means of identification. DNA phenotyping for externally visible traits should be permitted, but analysis for other traits, such as pathophysiology and psychopathology, should only be permitted if certain conditions are met.


One morning in April, we each directed our browsers to Amazon.com's website. Not only did the site greet us by name, the home page opened with a host of suggested purchases. It directed Joe to Barry Greenstein's Ace on the River: An Advanced Poker Guide, Jonah Lehrer's Imagine: How Creativity Works, and Michael Lewis's Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World. For John it selected Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need, the spy novel Mission to Paris, by Alan Furst, and the banking exposé The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, also by Michael Lewis. By now, online shoppers are accustomed to getting these personalized suggestions. Netflix suggests videos to watch. TiVo records programs on its own, just in case we're interested. And Pandora builds personalized music streams by predicting what we'll want to listen to.


We introduce OPTIK, a new practical design pattern for designing and implementing fast and scalable concurrent data structures. OPTIK relies on the commonly-used technique of version numbers for detecting conflicting concurrent operations. We show how to implement the OPTIK pattern using the novel concept of OPTIK locks. These locks enable the use of version numbers for implementing very efficient optimistic concurrent data structures. Existing state-of-the-art lock-based data structures acquire the lock and then check for conflicts. In contrast, with OPTIK locks, we merge the lock acquisition with the detection of conflicting concurrency in a single atomic step, similarly to lock-free algorithms. We illustrate the power of our OPTIK pattern and its implementation by introducing four new algorithms and by optimizing four state-of-the-art algorithms for linked lists, skip lists, hash tables, and queues. Our results show that concurrent data structures built using OPTIK are more scalable than the state of the art.


The increasing diversity in packet-processing applications together with the rapid increase in channel bandwidth has brought about greater complexity in communication protocols. Also influenced by these factors is the computational load for packet-processing engines, demanding high performance microprocessor designs as an indispensable solution. This paper reports on extensive simulation experiments carried out for exploring the performance of instruction-level parallel Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) processors executing packet-processing applications. On the grounds of the experimental results, a design space exploration has been used to derive an efficient application-specific VLIW processor architecture based on the VEX instruction set architecture. The VEX simulator toolset has been used for design space exploration, and a number of networking applications have been chosen to serve in guiding the architectural exploration. The optimization measures achieve up to 60% improvement in performance for the most representative packet-processing applications.


For decades, legal commentators sounded the alarm about the tremendous power wielded by prosecutors. Scholars went so far as to identify uncurbed prosecutorial discretion as the primary source of the criminal justice system's many flaws. Over the past two years, however, the conversation shifted. With the emergence of a new wave of "progressive prosecutors," scholars increasingly hail broad prosecutorial discretion as a promising mechanism for criminal justice reform.

The abrupt shift from decrying to embracing prosecutorial power highlights a curious void at the center of criminal justice thought. There is no widely-accepted normative theory of the prosecutorial role. As a result, prosecutors are viewed as the criminal justice system's free agents, deploying the powers of their office as they see fit to serve constituents, public safety, or, most broadly, the cause of justice.

This Article uses the rapidly shifting views of prosecutors to explore normative theories of prosecution: What should prosecutors be doing? It highlights the emptiness of the current "do justice" model, and proposes an alternative "servant-of-the-law" theory of prosecutorial behavior that could place real constraints on prosecutorial excess. It also explores ways in which a servant-of-the-law model could, perhaps counterintuitively, contribute much-needed theoretical grounding to the progressive prosecution movement.


To apprehend the mythic origins we have to try to sink into what it feels like to be such a consciousness. Of course it is impossible, in one sense, as we always keep our present rationality with us. Yet the method remains correct. You cannot remain aloof from the subjective and know what it is. We take our rationality into the mythic mind for dreams should be judged by waking consciousness and not by another dream. What Nixon has opened out for me at this moment remains to great for me too comprehend and comment further. Doubtless there will be many corrections and enhancements but everything turns upon grasping the principle of original self-creation, self-organisation, self-sustainment, self-unfolding or self-enclosure and it is to the grasping of this autopoesy that I would like to add a few words.


In this paper one presents and discuss the hybridation concept using some aspect that integrate it, as the physical architecture of automated systems (hardware), the information system that integrates that architecture and the working places design. Analyzed are also the inter-dependences of those aspects, and we have as a reference the flexible production and assembly system existent at UNINOVA-CRI. The focus is made on possible problems that can occur with the use of possible development of those systems, namely: a) full automation with centralized human control, b) non-automated process of shop-floor work with a system "one man, one machine", c) hybrid system of automated cells with "elastic" human jobs.


Hotel revenue management needs stronger support from human resources policies, according to this survey of 186 revenue managers. At the same time, respondents to the survey anticipate that revenue management will extend to other areas of the lodging business, including spas and function spaces. The principal human resources issue involves career paths for employees involved in revenue management. At the moment, the route to promotions for revenue managers is not clear. Some may move up from a single hotel to a group or division, but others may simply find employment in another lodging chain to move up. Moreover, many executives pointed to the difficulty of finding qualified revenue managers. With regard to the extension of revenue management to other hospitality areas, respondents commented that an integrated approach will be necessary. Although revenue management is largely viewed as a technical or quantitative process, pricing strategy and competitive tactics have become strong elements in revenue management. In all categories, respondents living in Asia thought revenue management techniques and issues were in greater need of improvement than did the revenue managers in North America. The dichotomy was particularly pronounced regarding human resources issues, but was also noticeable for technical issues, such as forecasting, optimization, and overbooking, as well as pricing and distribution.


: Flukebook is a non-profit, open source cetacean data archiving and photo matching tool developed under the Wildbook Platform that uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to facilitate photo-identification of individual animals in the wild. In 2016 the IWC approved funding for the development of a regional data platform for the Arabian Sea Whale Network (ASWN), to be implemented in collaboration with Wild Me, the developers of Flukebook. This collaboration has resulted in expanded functionality of the Flukebook platform to allow storage and analysis of survey sightings data that does not include individual encounter or photo-identification data, as well as other functions that will be of use to the global cetacean research community.


Wuthering Heights is a drama of instabilities. The novel introduces a "wuthering" into the social, psychical, and ideological stabilities of the world it represents and submits secure self-identity to the wuther of the other, to the disruptive and conflictual movements of alterity. The essay examines the ways in which the limits of social and sexual identity are dramatized in the novel, a process that shows how self-identity is conflictually constructed and how the other inhabits the familiar. The argument examines the ideological contradictions dramatized in the figure of Heathcliff and the agon of desire, identity, and sexual difference as it is enacted in the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff. The essay concludes by examining Cathy's delirium in the novel alongside Julia Kristeva's account of delirium in psychoanalysis and relates both of these to the dynamic textuality of Wuthering Heights. The argument reinflects Marxist, feminist, and deconstructive treatments of Emily Bronte's text and focuses particularly on wuthering as othering in the novel's account of subjectivity.


Abstract. In polar regions, sastrugi are a direct manifestation of drifting snow and form the main surface roughness elements. In turn, sastrugi alter the generation of atmospheric turbulence and thus modify the wind field and the aeolian snow mass fluxes. Little attention has been paid to these feedback processes, mainly because of experimental difficulties. As a result, most polar atmospheric models currently ignore sastrugi over snow-covered regions. This paper aims at quantifying the potential influence of sastrugi on the local wind field and on snow erosion over a sastrugi-covered snowfield in coastal Adelie Land, East Antarctica. We focus on two erosion events during which sastrugi responses to shifts in wind direction have been interpreted from temporal variations in drag and aeolian snow mass flux measurements during austral winter 2013. Using this data set, it is shown that (i) neutral stability, 10 m drag coefficient (CDN10) values are in the range of 1.3–1.5 × 10−3 when the wind is well aligned with the sastrugi, (ii) as the wind shifts by only 20–30° away from the streamlined direction, CDN10 increases (by 30–120 %) and the aeolian snow mass flux decreases (by 30–80 %), thereby reflecting the growing contribution of the sastrugi form drag to the total surface drag and its inhibiting effect on snow erosion, (iii) the timescale of sastrugi aerodynamic adjustment can be as short as 3 h for friction velocities greater than 1 m s−1 and during strong drifting snow conditions and (iv) knowing CDN10 is not sufficient to estimate the snow erosion flux that results from drag partitioning at the surface because CDN10 includes the contribution of the sastrugi form drag.


The focus of this paper is on the potential role of the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) in protecting the farmer from the plethora of risks associated with the transfer and introduction of modern technologies. The scheme can improve farmers' access to credit when the insurance contract is used as collateral for loans. Farmers can therefore obtain the necessary capital to purchase new technologies. It can also provide the farmer some form of guarantee against the risk of failure resulting from the adoption and use of new technologies. Therefore, to the extent that technology adoption is constrained by risk and uncertainty and lack of access to credit, the insurance scheme can reduce or eliminate these constraints and induce farmers to use improved technologies.


Yeast organisms are widely explored by humans for different biotechnological applications. During their growth, they need to adapt and interact themselves with the environment medium. For this purpose, organisms uptake nutrients and at the same time secrete different molecules include proteins to extracellular medium. This phenomenon requires the use of specialized structures to regulate entry and exit of molecules called transporters. Two transporters, namely Proteins and Vesicles, are specialized in translocating molecules in and out across the wall. The knowledge of these systems is important and served to bring novel applications of yeast. Taking together, this book chapter is divided into two parts: at first, it primarily accounts on few examples of protein (carbohydrates and peroxisome proteins) and vesicle (intracellular and extracellular vesicles) transporters of yeasts. Second, it deals with the recent advances of yeast applications in diverse area of science.


A good reusable framework, pattern or module interface usually is represented by abstract classes. They form an abstract design and leave the implementation to concrete subclasses. The abstract design is instantiated by naming these subclasses. Unfortunately, this exposes implementation details like class names and class tree structures. The paper gives a rationale and a general metaobject protocol design that encapsulates whole class trees. Clients of an abstract design retrieve classes and create objects based on class semantics specifications. Using abstract classes as the only interface enhances information hiding and makes it easier both to evolve a system and to configure system variants.


How can we explain the observed behavior of aggregate inflation in response to e.g. monetary policy changes? Mankiw and Reis (2002) have proposed sticky information as an alternative to Calvo sticky prices in order to model the conventional view that i) inflation reacts with delay and gradually to a monetary policy shock, ii) announced and credible disinflations are contractionary and iii) inflation accelerates with vigorous economic activity. I use a fully-fledged DSGE model with sticky information and compare it to Calvo sticky prices, allowing also for dynamic inflation indexation as in Christiano, Eichenbaum, and Evans (2005). I find that sticky information and sticky prices with dynamic inflation indexation do equally well in my DSGE model in delivering the conventional view.


The increase of the backpacker market to New Zealand has initiated a number of changes within New Zealand's wider tourism industry. Those catering for this distinct style of travel are becoming increasingly aware of the differing needs and wants of these predominantly independent travellers.

Through the use of both quantitative and qualitative techniques this research explores the level of expectation and satisfaction perceived by backpackers towards three service sectors in Northland: accommodation, transport and other tourism activities. This study also attempts to assess the level of service quality in Northland within these three sectors. The results of the research indicate backpackers' level of expectations with accommodation, transport and other tourism activities are met and often exceeded. This subsequently resulted in high levels of satisfaction, which is often associated with overall trip satisfaction. Backpackers are predominantly young, well educated and in general travel for an extended period of time.

This study contends that by understanding backpackers' distinct expectations, and providing consistently high quality services, backpackers will continue to enjoy their experiences in New Zealand. These have important implications for New Zealand's future backpacker tourism industry.


People with neurodevelopmental disorders demonstrate a higher incidence of obesity, emotional and mental health issues, and behavioral problems than the typically developing (TD) population. Based on the importance of early intervention for children with disabilities, research has been done regarding learning and development in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. However, limited research has been done tying a theory-based learning approach to recreational therapy (RT) intervention in the population. RT is a field that is inherently social and experiential, depending on interaction and activity to achieve desired outcomes. The Social Learning Theory (SLT) is a framework that focuses on learning from a social and experiential perspective, and is therefore uniquely compatible with RT methods. This paper will provide a starting point for a theory-based learning approach to RT by discussing the potential utility of SLT in RT for children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Suggestions for future research are discussed. __________________________________________________________________________________________________


Although widely cited as strong evidence that sexual selection has shaped human facial attractiveness judgments, evidence that preferences for masculine characteristics in men's faces are related to women's hormonal status is equivocal and controversial. Consequently, we conducted the largest ever longitudinal study of women's preferences for facial masculinity (N=584). Analyses showed no evidence that preferences for facial masculinity were related to changes in women's salivary steroid hormone levels. Furthermore, both within-subject and between-subject comparisons showed no evidence that oral contraceptive use decreased masculinity preferences. However, women generally preferred masculinized over feminized versions of men's faces, particularly when assessing men's attractiveness for short-term, rather than long-term, relationships. Our results do not support the hypothesized link between women's preferences for facial masculinity and their hormonal status.


Collision avoidance systems (CASs) are being developed and fielded to reduce the number and severity of rear-end crashes. Kinematic algorithms within CASs evaluate sensor input and apply assumptions describing human-response timing and deceleration to determine when an alert should be presented. This dissertation presents an analytic assessment of dynamic function and performance CASs and associated driver performance for preventing automotive rear-end crashes. A method for using naturalistic data in the evaluation of CAS algorithms is described and applied to three algorithms. Time-series parametric data collected during 13 rear- end crashes and 70 near-crashes are input into models of collision avoidance algorithms to determine when the alerts would have occurred. Algorithm performance is measured by estimating how much of the driving population would be able to respond in the time available between when an alert would occur and when braking was needed. A sensitivity analysis was performed to consider the effect of alternative inputs into the assessment method. The algorithms were found to warn in sufficient time to permit 50–70% of the population to avoid collision in similar scenarios. However, the accuracy of this estimate was limited because the tested algorithms were found to alert too frequently to be feasible. The response of the assessment method was most sensitive to differences in assumed response-time distributions and assumed driver braking levels. Low-speed crashes were not addressed by two of the algorithms. Analysis of the events revealed that the necessary avoidance deceleration based on kinematics was generally less than 2 s in duration. At the time of driver response, the time remaining to avoid collision using a 0.5g average deceleration ranged from –1.1 s to 2.1 s. In 10 of 13 crashes, no driver response deceleration was present. Mean deceleration for the 70 near-crashes was 0.37g and maximum was 0.72g. A set of the events was developed to measure driver response time. The mean driver response time was 0.7 s to begin braking and 1.1 s to reach maximum deceleration. Implications for collision countermeasures are considered, response- time results are compared to previous distributions and future work is discussed.


We investigate the decisions of listed firms to go private once again. We start by revealing that while a significant number of firms which go public is VC-backed, an overproportional share of these VC-backed firms go private later on (they stay on the exchange for an average of 8.5 years). We interpret this very robust pattern such that IPOs of VC-backed firms are to a large extent a temporary rather than a permanent feature of the corporate governance of these firms. We investigate various potential hypotheses why VCs actually seem to be able to bring marginal firms to the exchange by relating the going-private decisions to various characteristics of the IPO market as well as to VC characteristics. We find strong support for the certification ability of VCs: more experienced and reputable VCs are more able to bring marginal firms to public exchanges via an IPOs. These marginal firms backed-by more reputable and experienced VCs are more likely to go private later on. Hence, our analysis suggests that IPOs backed by experienced VCs are most likely to be a temporary rather than the final stage in the life of the portfolio firm. We find no support that reputable VCs underprice their IPO-exits more implying that they have no need to leave more money on the table to take the marginal firms public.


School leadership impacts student achievement through the development of a positive school climate and high levels of employee engagement. This dissertation examined the characteristics and behaviors of a school principal who positively impacted school climate and employee engagement. A case study was conducted at a high performing Title I school, as identified by the Georgia Department of Education. The school's personal registered an above average grand mean score on the Gallup Q12 Engagement Survey. The school was located in a large urban school district. Social Exchange Theory provided a theoretical framework for this study. The behaviors of the principal were examined to determine specific characteristics that influenced school climate and employee engagement. Interviews, a focus group, and several observations were conducted to gather qualitative data pertinent to the principal's approach to leadership. The results of the research identified six primary leadership characteristics that impacted school climate and employee engagement: the principal focused on (a) students, (b) building relationships, (c) creating a collaborative environment, (d) communicating clearly, (e) developing others, and (f) reflecting on practice. This study contributes information about leadership characteristics that support the academic performance of students in high-needs schools. This research identified six characteristics required of leadership for students to be academically successful in a positive school climate with highly engaged employees. INDEX WORDS: Leadership characteristics, School climate, Employee engagement, Social exchange theory LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS, SCHOOL CLIMATE, AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IN HIGH PERFOMING, HIGH NEEDS SCHOOLS


We previously showed that treating vascular endothelial cells with 3-methylcholanthrene (3MC) caused cell-cycle arrest in the Go/G1 phase; this resulted from the induction of p21 and p27 and a decreased level and activity of the cyclin-dependent kinase, Cdk2. We further investigated the molecular mechanisms that modulate cell-cycle regulatory proteins through the aryl-hydrocarbon receptor (AhR)/Ras homolog gene family, member A (RhoA) dependent epigenetic modification of histone. AhR/RhoA activation mediated by 3MC was essential for the upregulation of retinoblastoma 2 (pRb2) and histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1), whereas their nuclear translocation was primarily modulated by RhoA activation. The combination of increased phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) activity and decreased phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) activation by 3MC led to the inactivation of the Ras-cRaf pathway, which contributed to pRb2 hypophosphorylation. Increased HDAC1/pRb2 recruitment to the E2F1 complex decreased E2F1-transactivational activity and H3/H4 deacetylation, resulting in the downregulation of cell-cycle regulatory proteins (Cdk2/4 and Cyclin D3/E). Co-immunoprecipitation and electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) results showed that simvastatin prevented the 3MC-increased binding activities of E2F1 proteins in their promoter regions. Additionally, RhoA inhibitors (statins) reversed the effect of 3MC in inhibiting DNA synthesis by decreasing the nuclear translocation of pRb2/HDAC1, leading to a recovery of the levels of cell-cycle regulatory proteins. In summary, 3MC decreased cell proliferation by the epigenetic modification of histone through an AhR/RhoA-dependent mechanism that can be rescued by statins.


On 23 January 1812, an estimated M7–M8 earthquake occurred in the New Madrid seismic zone. The New Madrid North fault (NMNF) has been proposed as the location of this rupture. Based on the estimated size of this earthquake, the rupture length of the fault plane would be expected to extend beyond the microseismicity that defines the NMNF. Seismicity data from this area show three alignments of earthquakes, running northeast from New Madrid, Missouri, into western Kentucky and southern Illinois that may represent an extension of the New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ) and therefore alternative locations for the 23 January 1812 rupture. Earthquakes in the northeast NMSZ from June 1995 to June 2006 were relocated using a velocity model of the Mississippi embayment with appropriate depths to bedrock beneath seismic stations. Focal mechanisms were generated for events on the northeast trending alignments. The results show approximately half the focal mechanisms have a north-northeast-striking nodal plane and a right-lateral, strike-slip component consistent with earlier studies of the NMNF to the southwest. This shows that this part of the northeast NMSZ is influenced by the same fault pattern and stress regime as the NMNF, may be an extension of the NMSZ, and therefore alternate locations of the 23 January 1812 rupture.


The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of photoperiod, indole acetic acid (IAA), and phosphorus on soybean plant growth and seed quality during storage. The trial was carried out at Sebapo Experimental Station, Jambi, Center for Post Harvest Research and Development, The Ministry of Agriculture and Center for Forest Research and Development, The Ministry of Forestry, Bogor from November 2009 until June 2010. Split-split plot design was used consisted of three factors, i.e. photoperiods (12 and 14 hours 54 minutes) as the main plot, concentrations of IAA (0, 75, and 150 ppm) as subplot, and dosages of phosphorus (0, 60, and 120 kg P2O5 ha-1) as subplot. The result showed that photoperiod, IAA, and phosphorus application had significantly improved production and seed quality. The path analysis showed that the weight of 1,000 seeds affected other variables. The seed protein content has the largest path coefficient compared to other variables. The treatment of mother plant with 14 hours 54 minutes photoperiod combined with IAA of 150 ppm and P2O5 of 120 kg ha-1 resulted in the highest seed quality during 90 days of storage in room temperature.


This paper presents baseline results from the latest version of EUROMOD (version G4.0+), the tax-benefit microsimulation model for the EU. First, we briefly report the process of updating EUROMOD. We then present indicators for income inequality and risk of poverty using EUROMOD and discuss the main reasons for differences between these and EU-SILC based indicators. We further compare EUROMOD distributional indicators across all EU 28 countries and over time between 2011 and 2016. Finally, we provide estimates of marginal effective tax rates (METR) for all 28 EU countries in order to explore the effect of tax and benefit systems on work incentives at the intensive margin. For a subset of countries for which 2014 EU-SILC data are available in EUROMOD, we also compare poverty and inequality indicators and METR across countries and over time between 2013 and 2016. Throughout the paper, we highlight both the potential of EUROMOD as a tool for policy analysis and the caveats that should be borne in mind when using it and interpreting results. This paper updates the work conducted in the EUROMOD Working Paper EM3/16.


Planning processes are often disconnected from the experienced place on the ground.
Ideologies of space, developing agendas, time constraints and budgets serve to limit
the understanding of the lived world of those dwelling in an area and stand at risk to
reduce it to the abstract space of maps. This induces territorial control from above and
an ignorance of the soft, social values of the individual.
Urbanization and globalization are reshaping our world and demands knowledge,
understanding and change. It generates changes in the urban fabric with growing
class differences and an increasing physical and social fragmentation. The majority of
this change is taking place in the global South, putting an immense pressure on the
informal settlements in the cities. Future urban planners have a big task in turning
this into a sustainable and equal process. However, planners keep imposing planning
ideals from above, shaped by western ideologies of space that are disregarding slums
as becoming one of the major human habitats. The relation between the life world on
the ground and the system world of the planner remain distant. How can planners and
landscape architects understand and manage their role in these processes better?
This thesis set out to explore that relationship. The first phase of that task was
undertaken through a field study in Nairobi, Kenya. Today, Nairobi host more than
200 informal settlements that are the home to more than half of the cities population.
The authors of the thesis got the opportunity to make a report for UN-Habitat, who
has recently introduced a new approach to slum upgrading that is emphasizing the role
of streets as an entry point. Focus in the report was the Korogocho Street Upgrading
Programme that involved the upgrading of the major streets in Korogocho Slum
in Nairobi. The Street Upgrading Project was studied from multiple levels though
the interaction with residents in Korogocho, policy makers, politicians and project
planners. The streets were considered to be a field where multiple strategies and tactics
of the actors were played out, shaping the experience of it and its future development. It
demonstrated many dimensions and symbolic meanings, highlighting several conflicts
between the system world and the life world.
Consequently, the thesis is a reflection upon the authors' own working process in
Nairobi, and how they were affected by the system world of international organizations
such as UN-Habitat, policy making processes, the life world of the resident of
Korogocho and their own world as landscape architecture students. Theory, narratives
and reflections comment on the content of the published UN-report that was finalized
in Nairobi, issues and phenomena encountered in Korgocho, at the UN-Headquarters
and through interviews with local government agents. Furthermore, the methods and
tools used in the making of the report are commented, elaborated and evaluated. This
serves as an elaboration on the complex relationship between ideologies of space, the
multiple realities on the ground, and how this complicated issue can be approached as
a practicing landscape architect or planner.
05


A compact moving optical-wedge interferometer (CMOWI) is presented. This device consists of a moving optical wedge (MOW), a fixed optical wedge (FOW), a fixed compensating plate, and a beam-splitting cube. The optical path difference (OPD) is calculated and analyzed. The factor between the OPD and the displacement of the MOW is less than 1 if the refractive index and wedge angle of the MOW and FOW are chosen properly. Therefore, the CMOWI is insensitive to scanning speed variations compared with the traditional Michelson interferometer. The CMOWI is compact, small-sized, and suitable for low-resolution Fourier transform spectroscopy.


Porous polymeric materials have a wide range of applications, including as tissue scaffolds, catalyst supports, and membrane filters. This paper presents a new fabrication method to prepare components of porous materials by combining 3D printing with salt leaching. Sacrificial salt particulates and photocurable resin are mixed and used as the ink. 3D objects are then printed in a customized digital light processing printer. Owing to the interconnection of salt particles in the objects, porous polymeric components can be obtained upon salt leaching. Multiple pore sizes can be achieved by using selectively sieved salt powders in the ink formula. This method is very simple to implement for different photocurable resins to create 3D porous objects with complicated shapes. It has the advantage of being self-supporting and can be used to print hollow components, especially parts exhibiting the Droste effect. Shape memory foams by using shape memory polymers and dual-pore scaffolds can also be 3D printed with potential applications in tissue engineering. In addition, the porous components can be used as a template for embedding a conductive material to obtain 3D printed objects that function as flexible conductive components or filling with a second polymer to obtain a composite with a tunable modulus.


Kif7 exerts both positive and negative control over hedgehog signaling through its regulation of Gli transcription factors. Hedgehog (Hh) signaling plays a pivotal role in growth, development, and homeostasis. Primary cilia are of central importance for Hh signal transduction, and dynamic trafficking of several hedgehog signaling components, including the kinesin motor protein Kif7 and the Gli transcription factors, is required for appropriate signaling. Kif7 interacts with Gli proteins and appears to affect Hh signaling both positively and negatively, but the mechanism by which Kif7 influences Hh signaling has remained incomplete. Hsu et al. report that Kif7 restricts the ability of Suppressor of fused (Sufu) to bind to and repress the activity of the Gli family of transcription factors in chondrocytes. Signaling from the Hh ligand Indian hedgehog (Ihh) controls the balance between proliferation and differentiation of chondrocytes in the growth plates of developing mouse embryos. Chondrocyte-specific loss of Sufu promoted proliferation and inhibited differentiation (ossification) of these bone-building cells similarly to, but more weakly than, loss of the Hh receptor Ptch1. Loss of Kif7 in chondrocytes, on the other hand, reduced proliferation, stimulated differentiation, and promoted expression of Hh target genes, indicating that Kif7 promoted Ihh signaling in this context. The abundance of Sufu protein, but not transcripts, was increased in Kif7-deficient chondrocytes, suggesting that Kif7 inhibited turnover of Sufu. Removing one copy of Sufu rescued the Kif7 growth plate phenotype. In proliferating wild-type chondrocytes, Kif7 was present at the tips of primary cilia, and Sufu was mostly present at basal bodies with little Sufu, Gli2, or Gli3 in the cilium. Whereas Kif7 localization to the ciliary tip was unaffected in Sufu mutant chondrocytes, Sufu-Gli complexes accumulated in the tips of cilia in Kif7-deficient chondrocytes. Genetic interaction experiments indicated that Kif7 inhibited Ihh signaling in chondrocytes in the absence of Sufu, likely by preventing processing of Gli proteins in the cilium. The authors thus propose that Kif7 reduces the ability of Sufu to repress Gli proteins, thereby promoting Ihh signaling during chondrocyte development, but also inhibits Gli activity and therefore Ihh signaling through a Sufu-independent mechanism. S.-H. C. Hsu, X. Zhang, C. Yu, Z. J. Li, J. S. Wunder, C.-C. Hui, B. A. Alman, Kif7 promotes hedgehog signaling in growth plate chondrocytes by restricting the inhibitory function of Sufu. Development 138, 3791–3801 (2011). [Abstract] [Full Text]


During August 2004, mercury (Hg) flux-rates from surface soil were measured at an abandoned gold mining site near Seal Harbour, Nova Scotia. The Hg amalgamation process, used to isolate gold, produced areas of Hg-laden mine tailings. Diurnal measurements of the soil surface exchange of gaseous Hg to the atmosphere and meteorological data from two tailing deposit sites are discussed. These sites have different mining histories resulting in differing levels of Hg in the surface soil (0.05 µg g−1 - Site 1, 23 µg g−1- Site 2). Site 1 showed a maximum flux-rate during mid-day at 60 ng m−2 hr−1, declining to c. 5 ng m−2 hr−1 during evening while Site 2 had a mid-day Hg flux-rate of 1292 ng m−2 hr−1 with levels of c. 300 ng m−2 hr−1 during the evening. Mercury flux from each site has continuous diurnal Hg evasion at the soil surface. Correlations of Hg flux-rate with soil temperature, air temperature and solar radiation were evident at both sites and an Arrhenius-type relation of Hg flux with soil temperature was also evident. Data from these sites were compared to flux experiments conducted at impacted and other non-impacted sites in Nova Scotia.


The purpose of this study was to analyse the academic English language lacks and needs of Industrial Design students in Universiti Teknologi MARA Kedah (UiTM). It highlights the lacks and needs for English for Academic Purposes in helping the students to succeed in the program through the usage of English language. The research tools used were in the form of a questionnaire and interview which later being computed using SPSS into data analysis. Results indicated that the students have problems in acquiring the English language skills. This shows the weaknesses of English Language courses in helping the students to acquire the language skills needed by the faculty. The study concludes that relevant actions should be taken as to ensure the needs of the students are fulfilled and they can perform effectively in the program and future career.


The objective of this study was to evaluate and gain a better understanding of the short-term impact performance and the long-term durability of electrically conductive adhesives for electronic interconnection applications. Three model conductive adhesives, designated as ECA1, ECA2 and ECA3, supplied by Emerson & Cuming, were investigated, in conjunction with printed circuit board (PCB) substrates with metallizations of Au/Ni/Cu and Cu, manufactured by Triad Circuit Inc. Effects of environmental aging on the durability of conductive adhesives and their joints were evaluated. All the samples for both mechanical tests and thermal tests were aged at 85%, 100%RH for periods of up to 50 days. Studies of bulk conductive adhesives suggested that both plasticization, which is reversible and further crosslinking and thermal degradation, which are irreversible, might have occurred upon exposure of ECAs to the hot/wet environment. The durability of electrically conductive adhesive joints was then investigated utilizing the double cantilever beam (DCB) test. It was observed that the conductive adhesive joint was significantly weakened following hydrothermal aging, and there was a transition from cohesive failure to interfacial failure as aging continued. A comparative study of the durability of different conductive adhesive and substrate metallization combinations suggested that the resistance of the adhesive joints to moisture attack is related to the adhesive properties, as well as the substrate metallizations. It was noted that the gold/adhesive interface had better resistance to moisture attack than the copper/adhesive interface. A reasonable explanation of this phenomenon was given based upon the concept of surface free energy and interfacial free energy. XPS analysis was performed on the fractured surfaces of DCB samples. For adhesive joints with copper metallization, copper oxide was detected on the failed surfaces upon exposure of the conductive adhesive joints following aging. XPS analysis on the fractured surfaces of adhesive joints with Au metallization suggested that diffusion of Cu to the Au surface might have happened on the Au/Ni/Cu plated PCB substrates during aging. The impact performance of conductive adhesives was quantitatively determined using a falling wedge test. This unique impact resistance testing method could serve as a useful tool to screen conductive adhesives at the materials level for bonding purpose. Moreover, this test could also provide some useful information for conductive adhesive development. This study revealed that the viscoelastic energy, which is a result of the internal friction created by chain motions within the adhesive material, played an important role in the impact …


Hemoenzymes are prevalent in nature and participate in a wide range of biological activities. Frequently, high-valence iron intermediates are involved in the catalytic events of these enzymes, especially when the activation of peroxide or dioxygen is involved. Building on the fundamental framework of iron-oxygen chemistry, the mechanistic understandings of these enzymes and their reactive intermediates constantly attract attention from the enzymology community. This dissertation work focused on the mechanistic studies on two hemoenzymes, tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase (TDO) and MauG, both of which catalyze unique chemical transformations, i.e., tryptophan oxidation. TDO and MauG are structurally distinct from each other; they catalyze different types of oxidization reactions on tryptophan via diverse strategies. TDO catalyzes the ring-cleavage dioxygenation reaction of free L-tryptophan, incorporating both oxygen atoms from dioxygen into the substrate. MauG uses hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant to catalyze a complex posttranslational-modification reaction on two tryptophan residues from a protein substrate. It utilizes radical chemistry to perform a 40-Å long-range catalytic event. Despite the differences in their catalytic behavior, both enzymes are suggested to employ highvalence iron intermediates in their reactions. A collection of biochemical and spectroscopic approaches was employed to obtain detailed insight into the electronic and structural contributions to the formation and stabilization of high-valence iron intermediates, and into the heme-dependent tryptophan-oxidation mechanisms. In the study of TDO, we solved the long-standing mystery of how the active Fe(II) enzyme is generated from the resting Fe(III) form by hydrogen peroxide. A peroxide-driven reactivation mechanism was established based on the identification of a compound ES-type ferryl intermediate. Additional efforts were dedicated to clarify the controversy in the literature regarding the catalytic roles of a distal histidine residue. Chemical-rescue approaches were used to specify the catalytic contributions of the target residue. In the study of MauG, we discovered an unprecedented tryptophan-mediated charge-resonance phenomenon in the bis-Fe(IV) redox state. This discovery provides the molecular basis for the chemical reactivity of the catalytically competent bis-Fe(IV) intermediate. Together with our collaborators, we also outlined the mechanism of the MauG-mediated long-range catalysis by identifying the catalytic functions of several important residues along the reaction pathway. INDEX WORDS: High-valence iron, Chemical rescue, Electron paramagnetic resonance, Posttranslational modification, Radical enzymology, Electron transfer, Electron hopping, Charge resonance, Long-range catalysis HEME-DEPENDENT TRYPTOPHAN OXIDATION: MECHANISTIC STUDIES ON TRYPTOPHAN 2,3-DIOXYGENASE AND MAUG


BACKGROUND
Aberrant amygdala reactivity to affective stimuli represents a candidate factor predisposing patients with bipolar disorder (BD) to relapse, but it is unclear to what extent amygdala reactivity is state-dependent. We evaluated the modulatory influence of mood on amygdala reactivity and functional connectivity in patients with remitted BD and healthy controls.

METHODS
Amygdala response to sad versus neutral faces was investigated using fMRI during periods of normal and sad mood induced by autobiographical scripts. We assessed the functional connectivity of the amygdala to characterize the influence of mood state on the network responsible for the amygdala response.

RESULTS
We included 20 patients with remitted BD and 20 controls in our study. The sad and normal mood exerted opposite effects on the amygdala response to emotional faces in patients compared with controls (F1,38 = 5.85, p = 0.020). Sad mood amplified the amygdala response to sad facial stimuli in controls but attenuated the amygdala response in patients. The groups differed in functional connectivity between the amygdala and the inferior prefrontal gyrus (p ≤ 0.05, family-wise error-corrected) of ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) corresponding to Brodmann area 47. The sad mood challenge increased connectivity during the period of processing sad faces in patients but decreased connectivity in controls.

LIMITATIONS
Limitations to our study included long-term medication use in the patient group and the fact that we mapped only depressive (not manic) reactivity.

CONCLUSION
Our results support the role of the amygdala-vlPFC as the system of dysfunctional contextual affective processing in patients with BD. Opposite amygdala reactivity unmasked by the mood challenge paradigm could represent a trait marker of altered mood regulation in patients with BD.


This paper describes the ethnopolitical conflict between Russia and Chechnya, and explores thecauses of the war and violence between these two nations that started in the early 1800s andcontinues today. The accurate analysis of conflict is important for a number of reasons, butabove all, because without its accurate diagnosis, suggestions for successful resolution wouldpractically be impossible. The Russo-Chechen conflict is one of the most long-lastingethnopolitical conflicts in the world. Its over two hundred years of history is replete withviolence and atrocities that escalated and deescalated this conflict from time to time. Many booksand articles are written about this conflict to explain its origins and causes relating to one ormore of the factors of nationalism, religion, interests, and geopolitics. This paper, however,employs a multidimensional approach to its analysis by employing a number of theories ofconflict and violence without specifying priority to any causal factors as it is impossible to weighthe causative factors to identify the hierarchical interrelationship among them. This paper arguesthat a multidimensional and multilevel approach to conflict analysis is needed to understand rootcauses of complex conflict correctly that is important for making effective policies of conflictresolution.