Pennsylvanian coals represent remains of the earliest peat-forming rain forests, but there is no current consensus on forest ecology. Localized studies of fossil forests suggest intermixture of taxa (heterogeneity), while, in contrast, coal ball and palynological analyses imply the existence of pronounced ecological gradients. Here, we report the discovery of a spectacular fossil forest preserved over ∼1000 ha on top of the Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian) Herrin (No. 6) Coal of Illinois, United States. The forest was abruptly drowned when fault movement dropped a segment of coastal mire below sea level. In the largest study of its kind to date, forest composition is statistically analyzed within a well-constrained paleogeographic context. Findings resolve apparent conflicts in models of Pennsylvanian mire ecology by confirming the existence of forest heterogeneity at the local scale, while additionally demonstrating the emergence of ecological gradients at landscape scale.


BACKGROUND
Endothelial dysfunction is one of the mechanisms linking diet and the risk of cardiovascular disease.

OBJECTIVE
We evaluated the hypothesis that dietary patterns (summary measures of food consumption) are directly associated with markers of inflammation and endothelial dysfunction, particularly C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin 6, E-selectin, soluble intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (sICAM-1), and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (sVCAM-1).

DESIGN
We conducted a cross-sectional study of 732 women from the Nurses' Health Study I cohort who were 43-69 y of age and free of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes mellitus at the time of blood drawing in 1990. Dietary intake was documented by using a validated food-frequency questionnaire in 1986 and 1990. Dietary patterns were generated by using factor analysis.

RESULTS
A prudent pattern was characterized by higher intakes of fruit, vegetables, legumes, fish, poultry, and whole grains, and a Western pattern was characterized by higher intakes of red and processed meats, sweets, desserts, French fries, and refined grains. The prudent pattern was inversely associated with plasma concentrations of CRP (P = 0.02) and E-selectin (P = 0.001) after adjustment for age, body mass index (BMI), physical activity, smoking status, and alcohol consumption. The Western pattern showed a positive relation with CRP (P < 0.001), interleukin 6 (P = 0.006), E-selectin (P < 0.001), sICAM-1 (P < 0.001), and sVCAM-1 (P = 0.008) after adjustment for all confounders except BMI; with further adjustment for BMI, the coefficients remained significant for CRP (P = 0.02), E-selectin (P < 0.001), sICAM-1 (P = 0.002), and sVCAM-1 (P = 0.02).

CONCLUSION
Because endothelial dysfunction is an early step in the development of atherosclerosis, this study suggests a mechanism for the role of dietary patterns in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease.


The aim of this article is to explore the structural elements of the performance audit and determine their inspection and evaluation areas and methods. The article contains a comprehensive analysis of related research and practical works which led to the identification of performance audit elements and their related areas. The significance of performance auditing requires focusing on its specific control function designed to ensure an objective assessment of the functionality of the activity, on the programmes and/or on the systems of organisations from the point of view of their performance economy, effectiveness and efficiency, and on the promotion of performance and management progress. It is the knowledge of the shortcomings of a specific organisation, programme or system that makes it possible to project guidelines for their further successful performance. Most performance audit descriptions focus on the three E's - economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. This type of audit examines: a) the economy of administrative activities in accordance with sound administrative principles and practices, as well as management policies; b) the efficiency of utilization of human, financial, and other resources, including examination of information systems, performance measures and monitoring arrangements, and procedures followed by audited entities for remedying identified deficiencies; and c) the effectiveness of performance in relation to achievement of the objectives of the audited entity and the audit of the actual impact of activities compared with the intended impact.


One important problem in human brain mapping research is to locate
the important anatomical features. Anatomical features on the
cortical surface are usually represented by landmark curves, called
sulci/gyri curves. These landmark curves are important information
for neuroscientists to study brain disease and to match different
cortical surfaces. Manual labelling of these landmark curves is
time-consuming, especially when large sets of data have to be
analyzed. In this paper, we present algorithms to automatically
detect and match landmark curves on cortical surfaces to get an
optimized brain conformal parametrization. First, we propose an
algorithm to obtain a hypothesized landmark region/curves using the
Chan-Vese segmentation method, which solves a Partial Differential
Equation (PDE) on a manifold with global conformal parameterization.
This is done by segmentating the high mean curvature region. Second,
we propose an automatic landmark curve tracing method based on the
principal directions of the local Weingarten matrix. Based on the
global conformal parametrization of a cortical surface, our method
adjusts the landmark curves iteratively on the spherical or
rectangular parameter domain of the cortical surface along its
principal direction field, using umbilic points of the surface as
anchors. The landmark curves can then be mapped back onto the
cortical surface. Experimental results show that the landmark curves
detected by our algorithm closely resemble these manually labeled
curves. Next, we applied these automatically labeled landmark curves
to generate an optimized conformal parametrization of the cortical
surface, in the sense that homologous features across subjects are
caused to lie at the same parameter locations in a conformal grid.
Experimental results show that our method can effectively help in
automatically matching cortical surfaces across subjects.


Attribute based encryption (ABE) is a popular cryptographic technology to protect the security of users' data. However, the decryption cost and ciphertext size restrict the application of ABE in practice. For most existing ABE schemes, the decryption cost and ciphertext size grow linearly with the complexity of access structure. This is undesirable to the devices with limited computing capability and storage space. Outsourced decryption is considered as a feasible method to reduce the user's decryption overhead, which enables a user to outsource a large number of decryption operations to the cloud service provider (CSP). However, outsourced decryption cannot guarantee the correctness of transformation done by the cloud, so it is necessary to check the correctness of outsourced decryption to ensure security for users' data. Current research mainly focuses on verifiability of outsourced decryption for the authorized users. It still remains a challenging issue that how to guarantee the correctness of outsourced decryption for unauthorized users. In this paper, we propose an ABE scheme with verifiable outsourced decryption (called full verifiability for outsourced decryption), which can simultaneously check the correctness for transformed ciphertext for the authorized users and unauthorized users. The proposed ABE scheme with verifiable outsourced decryption is proved to be selective CPA-secure in the standard model.


Organic (Alq3) film, which was coated on a donor plate, was transferred to an organic light emitting diode (OLED) substrate with help of heat generated by a dithering laser beam. The laser beam was diffracted in an acousto-optic modulator (AOM), then focused on the laser-to-heat converting layer of the donor plate; the focused spot followed trajectories guided by rotation of a Galvano-mirror. Three different functional waveforms, sine wave, square wave, and saw tooth wave were applied to the AOM as modulation signal to generate the dithering beam. The fluorescence microscope images of the donor plate showed that the patterns of removed Alq3 film were affected considerably by the modulation waveforms and the phase difference between adjacent dithering beams. Further, the printed images of Alq3 film on the OLED substrate were different from the patterns of removed Alq3 film. Atomic force microscope images indicated that not only direct transfer but also deposition by sublimated vapor of Alq3 contributed to the pattern formation. Printed patterns affected considerably the electricity-to-light conversion characteristics of OLEDs. For uniform transfer, not only the phase relation of dithering beam lines but also adequate waveform were important.


Census data on benthic foraminiferal tests in 45 surface sediment samples from Pauatahanui Inlet, Wellington, New Zealand, are analysed by Correspondence Analysis and Non-Hierarchical classification techniques. The faunas are grouped into 7 associations: (A) Trochamminita irregularis/Miliammina fusca - at high tide level in a small tidal creek at the limits of salt water influence; (B) Trochammina inflata/Jadammina macrescens - in an extreme high tidal pool, close to the mouth of a small stream; (C) Miliammina fusca/Haplophragmoides wilberti/Trochammina inflata - intertidal and shallow subtidal (to 0.6 m depth), muddy sand over a large area in the upper reaches of the inlet, where most freshwater runoff enters; (D) Elphidium excavatum/Miliammina fusca - intertidal muddy sand associated with shelly beaches on the fringe of association C; (E) Ammonia beccarii/Haynesina depressula - in a wide variety of intertidal and shallow subtidal (to 3 m depth) sediments that form a belt between the more brackish associations (A–D) and the more normal salinity associations (F–G); (F) Bolivina cf. translucens/Textularia earlandi/Bolivina subexcavata - in mud to muddy, very fine sand in a shallow basin (1–2.5 m deep) in the middle of the inlet and in a small, sheltered backwater; (G) Elphidium charlottensis/Patellinella inconspicua/Quinqueloculina seminula - in sandy mud and muddy fine sand, intertidal to 10 m depth, in the mouth, entrance channel and adjacent outer and middle parts of the inlet, where a flush of normal salinity water enters during each tidal cycle. Using Canonical Correspondence Analysis, the factors most influential in determining the faunal distribution are, in decreasing importance: freshwater influence (salinity), exposure to the air during tidal cycles, proximity to the open sea, tidal current strength and percentage of mud in the substrate.


Signal parameters characterizing acoustic emission (AE) detected during metal cutting have been theoretically correlated in a simple manner, to the work material properties, cutting conditions, and tool geometry. During chatter, the cutting conditions and the tool geometry change considerably. Self-exited chatter, an instability of the cutting process in combination with the machine structure, is a basic performance limitation of machine tools. In the research findings presented in this paper, changes occurring to AE signal parameters have been used to detect the onset of chatter and hence plot stability charts, during a turning operation. Apart from showing the borderlines of stability, such charts can be used to identify the necessary changes required to eliminate chatter at minimum or no loss of production. The signal parameters investigated include AE mean intensity level, the skew and kurtosis of the power spectrum; as well as the count rate of the emissions.


This randomized, single-blind, crossover trial tested whether participants who used Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) maintained reduced food cravings after 12-months and updates previously reported 6-month findings. Ninety-six overweight/obese adults were allocated to a 4-week EFT treatment or waitlist condition. Degree of food craving, perceived power of food, restraint capabilities, and psychological symptoms were assessed pre- and posttest and at 12-month follow-up for collapsed groups. Significant improvements occurred in weight, body mass index, food cravings, subjective power of food, craving restraint, and psychological coping for EFT participants from pretest to 12 months (p < .05). It appears EFT can result in participants maintaining reduced cravings over time and affect weight and BMI in overweight and obese individuals.


Mismatches between person and environment following a work-role transition are considered in the light of a theory of such transitions. The effects of role requirements, socialization processes and personality were examined among 145 student nurses at various stages in their training, using questionnaire and diary recording methods. A number of theoretical predictions were borne out, but of particular interest were the findings that those with high desire for control entering the low discretion environment of student nursing were more likely than others to role innovate but they also evidenced greater levels of personal change, surprise and emotional frustration. It is suggested that adjustment to mismatches following work-role transitions fosters high levels of personal change and attempted role innovation but that low discretion environments in particular hinder such adjustments, leading to frustration and intentions to turnover.


The fly ash microspheres (FAMs) formed during the mineral transformation stage in coal combustion are hollow spherical particles with a density less than water. This paper presents the results of X-ray micro-computed tomography and an automatic image analysis system of the porosity in the structure of hardened concrete with microspheres. Concrete mixtures with ordinary Portland cement and two substitution rates of cement by microspheres—5% and 10%—are investigated. For all considered mixes, a constant water/binder ratio (w/b) equal to 0.50 was used. The distribution of the air voids and the compressive strength of the concrete were tested after 28 days. With the increasing mass of cement replacement by FAMs, the compressive strength decreases after 28 days. The total volume of the air voids in hardened concrete with fly ash microspheres tested by X-ray varies from 5.1% to 7.4%. The closed pores constitute more than 80% of the total content of air pores. The study proves that the use of microspheres grains with specific dimensions has a significant impact on concrete porosity. Their application in concrete technology can be an alternative aeration solution for fresh concrete mixes and an effective method for utilization.


Since the introduction of the European CO2 emissions trading system (EU ETS), the development of CO2 allowance prices is a new risk factor for enterprises taking part in this system. In this paper, we analyze how risk emerging from emissions trading can be considered in the stochastic profit and loss planning of corporations. Therefore we explore which planned figures are affected by emissions trading. Moreover, we show a way to model these positions in a planned profit and loss account accounting for uncertainties and dependencies. Consequently, this model provides a basis for risk assessment and investment decisions in the uncertain environment of CO2 emissions trading.


Intensification and diversification are the key factors that control the performance of stochastic local search in satisfiability (SAT). Recently, Novelty Walk has become a popular method for improving diversification of the search and so has been integrated in many well-known SAT solvers such as TNM and gNovelty+. In this paper, we introduce new heuristics to improve the effectiveness of Novelty Walk in terms of reducing search stagnation. In particular, we use weights (based on statistical information collected during the search) to focus the diversification phase onto specific areas of interest. With a given probability, we select the most frequently unsatisfied clause instead of a totally random one as Novelty Walk does. Amongst all the variables appearing in the selected clause, we then select the least flipped variable for the next move. Our experimental results show that the new weight-enhanced diversification method significantly improves the performance of gNovelty+ and thus outperforms other local search SAT solvers on a wide range of structured and random satisfiability benchmarks.


Assessments of reach capability using human figure models are commonly performed by exercising each joint of a kinematic chain, terminating in the hand, through the associated ranges of motion. The result is a reach envelope determined entirely by the segment lengths, joint degrees of freedom, and joint ranges of motion. In this paper, the validity of this approach is assessed by comparing the reach envelopes obtained by this method to those obtained in a laboratory study of men and women. Figures were created in the Jack human modeling software to represent the kinematic linkages of participants in the laboratory study. Maximum reach was predicted using the software's kinematic reach-envelope generation methods and by interactive manipulation. Predictions were compared to maximum reach envelopes obtained experimentally. The findings indicate that several changes to the normal procedures for obtaining maximum reach envelopes for seated tasks are needed. Accurate prediction of maximum seated reach requires consideration of balance and pelvis mobility, neither of which is closely linked to joint range of motion. Sufficient ranges of motion in the shoulder and torso are also needed to represent postures near maximum reach.


Quality assurance in higher education has a bearing on the policies, systems and processes directed at ensuring the quality of education provision in an institution (HEQC 1996, 14). To ensure a striving for excellence in academic programmes in a Faculty, to determine the extent to which this striving is achieved and to promote development and improvement, a project for programme evaluation was initiated, geared at designing a mechanism to be used in academic programme self-evaluations, but which will also be suitable for preparations for external evaluations and can serve as a premise for planning and development actions to improve programme quality. For the purpose of this project, quality assurance is labelled by the integration of methods, thinking and approach, that triangulates in a synergistic manner and inform the complexities and nuances of all core activities related to programme management and implementation, as well as quality management, namely quality control, evaluation, reflection, growth, development and enhancement, and planning. A qualitative, explorative and descriptive design was employed. A study of quality assurance criteria for academic programmes was conducted, followed by the development of an evaluation mechanism with criteria and rubrics for evaluation. Interviews were used as data collection method, with respondents from a variety of academic programmes country-wide, as well as experts in the area of academic QA. The final outcome of the project is a matrix-based mechanism indicating various levels of quality attainment, and providing guidelines for improvement. The instrument will be suitable for use in all academic programmes that strive to comply with the HEQC criteria for programme review.


The global economic crisis had a significant impact on the fiscal stance of local government units. The literature discusses this issue by explaining that financial crises change budget decisions of central state authorities towards the financing of those priorities which could improve the economic situation at national level. The impact of the change in national government's decisions influences local government units differently depending on the level of their fiscal autonomy. Investments at the local level are below pre-crisis levels in most European Union countries. This article analyzes the impact of the financial crisis on the fiscal imbalance showing that there is a lack of financial resources for investments. Due to fiscal constraints and annual borrowing limits of regional and local public administration authorities, the affordability of projects and investments is limited. Furthermore, the article analyzes the obstacles to investments at local level in Croatia, a country belonging to the group of European Union Member States which was hit hardest by the crisis and experienced a larger drop in investments. The results of the survey conducted among members of regional assemblies have been analyzed with respect to the level of local development and other factors enabling to identify more precisely the obstacles to investment.


BACKGROUND
Gastric cancer currently ranks second in global cancer mortality. Most patients are either diagnosed at an advanced stage, or develop a relapse after surgery with curative intent. Apart from supportive care and palliative radiation to localized (e.g. bone) metastasis, systemic chemotherapy is the only treatment option available in this situation.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the efficacy of chemotherapy versus best supportive care, combination versus single agent chemotherapy and different combination chemotherapy regimens in advanced gastric cancer.

SEARCH STRATEGY
We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE and EMBASE up to March 2009, reference lists of studies, and contacted pharmaceutical companies and national and international experts.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomised controlled trials on systemic intravenous chemotherapy versus best supportive care, combination versus single agent chemotherapy and different combination chemotherapies in advanced gastric cancer.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two authors independently extracted data. A third investigator was consulted in case of disagreements. We contacted study authors to obtain missing information.

MAIN RESULTS
Thirty five trials, with a total of 5726 patients, have been included in the meta-analysis of overall survival. The comparison of chemotherapy versus best supportive care consistently demonstrated a significant benefit in overall survival in favour of the group receiving chemotherapy (hazard ratios (HR) 0.37; 95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.24 to 0.55, 184 participants). The comparison of combination versus single-agent chemotherapy provides evidence for a survival benefit in favour of combination chemotherapy (HR 0.82; 95% CI 0.74 to 0.90, 1914 participants). The price of this benefit is increased toxicity as a result of combination chemotherapy. When comparing 5-FU/cisplatin-containing combination therapy regimens with versus without anthracyclines (HR 0.77; 95% CI 0.62 to 0.95, 501 participants) and 5-FU/anthracycline-containing combinations with versus without cisplatin (HR 0.82; 95% CI 0.73 to 0.92, 1147 participants) there was a significant survival benefit for regimens including 5-FU, anthracyclines and cisplatin. Both the comparison of irinotecan versus non-irinotecan (HR 0.86; 95% CI 0.73 to 1.02, 639 participants) and docetaxel versus non-docetaxel containing regimens (HR 0.93; 95% CI 0.75 to 1.15, 805 participants) show non-significant overall survival benefits in favour of the irinotecan and docetaxel-containing regimens.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
Chemotherapy significantly improves survival in comparison to best supportive care. In addition, combination chemotherapy improves survival compared to single-agent 5-FU. All patients should be tested for their HER-2 status and trastuzumab should be added to a standard fluoropyrimidine/cisplatin regimen in patients with HER-2 positive tumours. Two and three-drug regimens including 5-FU, cisplatin, with or without an anthracycline, as well as irinotecan or docetaxel-containing regimens are reasonable treatment options for HER-2 negative patients.


DSM coherence protocols should scale well for large networks. Fault-tolerance in terms of highly available data access and uninterrupted DSM service is needed in large-scale environments that have a greater number of potentially malfunctioning components. We present a new class of dynamic coherence protocols for DSM systems in error-prone networks whose instances offer highly available access to DSM data at low operation costs. The approach is based on the highly scalable Boundary-Restricted (BR) coherence protocol class. The new protocol class, called the Dynamic Boundary-Restricted (DBR) coherence protocol class, maintains read/write frequencies of DSM requests at run-time. This information is used to dynamically adjust the minimum number of cached copies of a single DSM page in order to guarantee a given degree of data availability. The description of the new protocol class is accompanied by an analysis covering a large variety of workloads. This analysis presents the overall savings achieved by using a DBR coherence protocol in comparison to a static BR protocol.


Biotelemetry was used to study thermal and spatial relationships in Nerodia fasciata confluens, N. c. cyclopion and N. r. rhombifera. Twenty snakes were monitored between April 1978 and September 1979 in Ascension Parish, Louisiana Laboratory-determined preferred temperature ranges were compared to environmental temperatures from air, soil, and water to predict thermally optimum microhabitats. Compari son of observed and predicted microhabitats for each obser vation showed that N. fasciata was found more frequently in the thermally optimum microhabitat than were N. cyclopion and N. rhombifera. Nerodia cyclopion consistently showed thermal nonconformity by altering the relationship between body (BT) and ambient (AT) temperatures so that BT was closer to the preferred range when AT was high or low. All species showed the highest degree of thermoregulation in spring/fall; the lowest degree of thermoregulation was found in summer for N. cyclopion, and in winter for the other two species. Snake movements showed a high degree of variation. Snakes typically stayed in a home area for about 20 days before making a major movement (>100 m) . Nerodia fasciata moved significantly more than N. rhombifera. The latter species stayed closer to land, spent more time underground, and, when in water, was found at greater depths than the other two species. The mean home range polygon for all observations was 5.96 ha, with values ranging from 0.03 to 15.39 ha. Home range size showed much variation and was not significantly correlated with species, sex, reproductive condition, weight, time of year, length of tracking period or interval between observations.


Abstract Russell's book The Problems of Philosophy was first published a hundred years ago.1 A remarkable feature of this enduring text is the glint of Platonism it presents on a dark empiricist sea: while our knowledge of physical objects is entirely mediated by direct awareness of sense data, we can also have direct awareness of certain universals, Russell claims.2 This is questionable, even if one has no empiricist inclination. Universals are abstract, hence causally inert. How, then, can we have any knowledge of them, direct or indirect? This paper is about Russell's answer to that question. I will argue that given some modification and elaboration of Russell's views, his claim that some universals are knowable by acquaintance is plausible.


Grossglauser and Tse (2001) introduced a mobile random network model where each node moves independently on a unit disk according to a stationary uniform distribution and showed that a throughput of Theta(1) is achievable. El Gamal, Mammen, Prabhakar, and Shah (2004) showed that the delay associated with this throughput scales as Theta(nlogn), when each node moves according to an independent random walk. In a later work, Diggavi, Grossglauser, and Tse (2002) considered a random network on a sphere with a restricted mobility model, where each node moves along a randomly chosen great circle on the unit sphere. They showed that even with this one-dimensional restriction on mobility, constant throughput scaling is achievable. Thus, this particular mobility restriction does not affect the throughput scaling. This raises the question whether this mobility restriction affects the delay scaling. This correspondence studies the delay scaling at Theta(1) throughput for a random network with restricted mobility. First, a variant of the scheme presented by Diggavi, Grossglauser, and Tse (2002) is presented and it is shown to achieve Theta(1) throughput using different (and perhaps simpler) techniques. The exact order of delay scaling for this scheme is determined, somewhat surprisingly, to be of Theta(nlogn), which is the same as that without the mobility restriction. Thus, this particular mobility restriction does not affect either the maximal throughput scaling or the corresponding delay scaling of the network. This happens because under this 1-D restriction, each node is in the proximity of every other node in essentially the same manner as without this restriction


The Department of Plant Science and Crop Protection of the University of Nairobi launched the first postgraduate training by distance learning in 2010. Development of the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode of delivery was based on client-driven demand for a flexible mode of learning by agriculture graduates who had specialized in Crop Protection at final year at undergraduate and holding management positions in horticulture industry. This demand was necessitated by the requirement by public and private sector employers that professionals at management positions should have advanced training and skills in order to satisfy the increasingly competitive job market. However, the employers are unable to grant study leave for workers to pursue postgraduate training. Therefore, the ODL mode of delivery was developed to open up opportunities in postgraduate training in Master of Science in Crop Protection. The ODL programme was initiated in 2008, starting with review of curriculum to accommodate open and distance learning mode. Academic and technical staff were sensitized on the need for ODeL mode of postgraduate training. Many feared that it would not be possible to deliver a science-based programme by distance learning due to the practical component involved. The new training approach focused on distance learning based on provision of hard copy manuals because many of the potential students worked in the agriculture sector and most stations were located in rural areas without stable cell phone and internet connectivity. The first ODL intake was launched in October 2010 with a class of 13 students. Every year the programme admits over 15 students and at the beginning of each academic year, the new students are inducted in to the ODL mode of training. The main medium of instruction is the print in the form of self-instructional modules. These serve in the place of the teachers as they contain the subject content and instructional devices to guide learners. To support the printed modules, academic support services are provided by face to face tuition sessions held during the semester. The face to face on campus sessions are dedicated practicals, tutorial sessions, continuous assessments, presentation of term papers and consultation with supervisors on thesis research. Through the ODL mode of delivery class sizes have increased from five to about 20 students per intake every year. The approach has maximized the use of limited physical and human resources and significantly reduced the unit cost of postgraduate training. The new frontier is to convert the programmes to full e-delivery since internet connectivity has improved in many parts of the country.


Using gold labeled antibodies, we developed and tested an immunoelectron microscope (IEM) method for detection of protein localization in Drosophila melanogaster polytene chromosomes. This method is based on procedures widely used for indirect immunofluorescent (IF) staining of salivary gland polytene chromosome squashes. The application of IEM was evaluated by using specific antibodies against proteins earlier localized in both decondensed (interbands and puffs) and compact (bands) regions of polytene chromosomes. In all the experiments, IEM and IF images for homologous chromosome regions were compared. When applied to regions of loose structures, IEM enabled us to localize, with high precision, signals in fine bands, interbands and puffs. There was a good correspondence between immunogold EM and IF data. However, there was no correspondence for dense bands: gold particles were distributed at their boundaries, while the entire bands showed bright fluorescence. This discrepancy probably resulted from a poor penetration of antibodies conjugated to gold particles in the tightly packaged structures. From the results obtained it may by concluded that the IEM method is advantageous for studying the fine protein topography of loose decompacted regions of polytene chromosomes. And this must be taken into consideration when protein localization in polytene chromosomes is performed.


Surface modifications of highly monodisperse citrate-stabilized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with sizes ranging from 3.5 to 150 nm after their exposure to cell culture media supplemented with fetal bovine serum were studied and characterized by the combined use of UV-vis spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, and zeta potential measurements. In all the tested AuNPs, a dynamic process of protein adsorption was observed, evolving toward the formation of an irreversible hard protein coating known as Protein Corona. Interestingly, the thickness and density of this protein coating were strongly dependent on the particle size, making it possible to identify different transition regimes as the size of the particles increased: (i) NP-protein complexes (or incomplete corona), (ii) the formation of a near-single dense protein corona layer, and (iii) the formation of a multilayer corona. In addition, the different temporal patterns in the evolution of the protein coating came about more quickly for small particles than for the larger ones, further revealing the significant role that size plays in the kinetics of this process. Since the biological identity of the NPs is ultimately determined by the protein corona and different NP-biological interactions take place at different time scales, these results are relevant to biological and toxicological studies.


We present RealPen, an augmented stylus for capacitive tablet screens that recreates the physical sensation of writing on paper with a pencil, ball-point pen or marker pen. The aim is to create a more engaging experience when writing on touch surfaces, such as screens of tablet computers. This is achieved by regenerating the friction-induced oscillation and sound of a real writing tool in contact with paper. To generate realistic tactile feedback, our algorithm analyzes the frequency spectrum of the friction oscillation generated when writing with traditional tools, extracts principal frequencies, and uses the actuator's frequency response profile for an adjustment weighting function. We enhance the realism by providing the sound feedback aligned with the writing pressure and speed. Furthermore, we investigated the effects of superposition and fluctuation of several frequencies on human tactile perception, evaluated the performance of RealPen, and characterized users' perception and preference of each feedback type.


Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/kendall_albums Part of the Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons, and the United States History Commons Gift of Wilbur Hammond, Jean Bryer, and Roger and Mindy Smith, August 2003. Restrictions and additional information contact Special Collections Department, University of Maine 5729 Fogler Library, Orono, ME 04469-5729 or call (207) 581-1686.


Using supramolecular principles, we have been designing luminescent lanthanide complexes with a defined hairpin bis-interlacator in order to obtain luminescent probes able to recognise DNA. The complexes are comprised of Platinum(II) terpyridine, which acts as a DNA recognition site and is brought together with a "remote" luminescent lanthanide unit. All the synthetic approaches were based on the accessibility of the lanthanide-platinum complexes by the self-assembly of different components in a one pot reaction. Thus, we have been able to isolate a water soluble heterometallic complex based on thiophenal linkage named [LnPt\(_2\)]Cl\(_2\). The complex has a relatively weak lanthanide luminescence, which increases upon addition of DNA. Photophysical and DNA binding properties of the lanthanide-platinum complex were investigated by UV-vis absorption, luminescent studies and circular and linear dichroism. Oligonucleotides of twelve bases were also used to investigate the intercalation [LnPt\(_2\)]Cl\(_2\) and the mono-intercalator AATP used as control compound. Using bidimensional NMR techniques, we investigated the binding site for [LnPt\(_2\)]Cl\(_2\) and AATP upon interaction with Dickerson-Drew sequence. The sulphur lanthanide-platinum linkage in [LnPt\(_2\)]Cl\(_2\) was replaced with an acetylide one in order to introduce new photophysical features. Thus the self-assembly procedures based on DTPA-bis(amido-acetylide) and a platinum(II) terpyridine led us to isolate a new lanthanide-platinum complex named [LnC\(\equiv\)CPt\(_2\)] (CH\(_3\)SO\(_3\))\(_2\). The photophysical properties and the DNA binding properties toward interaction with CT-DNA were investigated. The complex named LnC\(\equiv\)CPt\(_2\)](CH\(_3\)S)\(_3\))\(_2\) exhibited a relatively strong lanthanide luminescence that increased upon addition of DNA. The bi-functional metal complex [EuLPt](PF\(_6\)) (where Pt=platinum-2,2':6'2"-terpyridine and L=assymmetric DTPA bisamide ligand with a thiopheno pendant arm and a quinoline moiety) was synthesised and the interaction of [EuLPt](PF\(_6\)) with CT-DNA was examined by luminescence spectroscopy, linear and circular dichroism studies and thermal denaturation studies. The [EuLPt](PF\(_6\)) retained the ability to increase its luminescence upon the addition of CT-DNA. The binding properties of the complexes were tested toward interaction with plasmid DNA by gel electrophoresis and properties such as the unwinding angle were measured. The bis-intercalators [LnPt\(_2\)]Cl\(_2\) and [LnC\(\equiv\)CPt\(_2\)](CH\(_3\)SO\(_3\))\(_2\) showed the ability to uncoil DNA almost as well as cisplatin and at low concentrations, while almost double the amount of mono-intercalators, such as [EuLPt](PF\(_6\)) is required to observe the same uncoiling effect.


This Article describes the climate of anti-gay sentiment and fear that has made it difficult for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students to come out or to seek support within school communities. The 1970s Miami - Dade Gay Rights Ordinance (the so-called Save Our Children campaign) fostered a climate of silence and invisibility that eventually morphed into overt hostility toward LGBT students across most student populations in the country.
The Author cites contemporary data showing dramatically high rates of hostility, including bullying and harassment, toward LBGT students. She summarizes the steps taken by the U.S. Department of Education to address bullying and she suggests several critical steps essential to improving the experience of LGBT students.


Many happened-before-based detectors for debugging multithreaded programs implement vector clocks to incrementally track the casual relations among synchronization events produced by concurrent threads and generate trace logs. They update the vector clocks via vector-based comparison and content assignment in every case. We observe that many such tracking comparison and assignment operations are removable in part or in whole, which if identified and used properly, have the potential to reduce the log traces thus produced. This paper presents our analysis to identify such removable tracking operations and shows how they could be used to reduce log traces. We implement our analysis result as a technique entitled LOFT. We evaluate LOFT on the well-studied PARSEC benchmarking suite and five large-scale real-world applications. The main experimental result shows that on average, LOFT identifies 63.9 percent of all synchronization operations incurred by the existing approach as removable and does not compromise the efficiency of the latter.


The Michelson-Morley Interferometer Experiment of 1887 is often cited as one of the cornerstones (and perhaps THE cornerstone) upon which Einstein built his theory of special relativity. Allegedly, it "proved" there was no aether. Once Einstein postulated that the speed of light was invariant, the only explanation that became accepted was that time slowed and length contracted due to relative motion according to the Lorentz Transformation formulae, adopted by Einstein as tenets of his special relativity. Despite subsequent experiments contradicting the alleged "null result," reanalysis of the results indicating positive ("non-null") results, and even maintaining the validity of the null result but explaining it via classical physics, the M&M Interferometer Experiment remains a special relativity foundation. However, if the limitation of the invariance of the speed of light is removed, the "null result" can be easily explained without resort to special relativity and its postulates of time dilation and length contraction. Yet this is seldom done.


Seagrass meadows composed of larger species are assumed to store larger sediment organic carbon (Corg) stocks, storing more Corg in their tissues and larger leaves promoting greater burial of seagrass and non‐seagrass Corg. However, the influence of species composition on sediment Corg stocks remains poorly understood mainly from challenges in isolating it from confounding factors. We assessed Corg stocks in seagrass biomass and sediment of four species compositions in a tropical Caribbean meadow. We hypothesized that larger species would lead to higher sediment Corg stocks, within a limited geomorphic setting and time frame. Seagrass biomass and surficial and sediment profiles were collected to measure seagrass morphometrics, δ13C and δ15N, dry bulk density, Corg and inorganic carbon (Cinorg) stocks, and grain size. Seagrass biomass Corg stocks ranged from 0.04 to 3.7 Mg ha−1, with higher biomass Corg stocks in compositions with larger species. Surficial sediment Corg and Cinorg stocks (to 1.5 cm) averaged 2.6 ± 0.6 Mg Corg ha−1 and 68.8 ± 14.6 Mg Cinorg ha−1, respectively, and did not vary among species compositions. Isotopic analyses revealed a ~ 50% contribution of seagrasses to surficial sediment Corg in compositions with larger species, compared to a contribution of ~ 35% for those of smaller species. This study provides novel blue carbon data from an understudied region and contributes to understanding the role of seagrass species composition on sediment carbon storage.


of Review Articles: Should be divided into the following subsections: Background, Summary and Key Messages. The Background should provide a brief clinical context for the review and is followed by the Summary, which should include a concise description of the main topics covered in the text. The Key Messages encapsulate the main conclusions of the review. Submit the abstract on a separate page. The abstract should be less than 300 words.


Abstract. In this study, we assess two push broom hyperspectral sensors as carried by small (10–15 kg) multi-rotor Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). We used a Headwall Photonics micro-Hyperspec push broom sensor with 324 spectral bands (4–5 nm FWHM) and a Headwall Photonics nano-Hyperspec sensor with 270 spectral bands (6 nm FWHM) both in the VNIR spectral range (400–1000 nm). A gimbal was used to stabilise the sensors in relation to the aircraft flight dynamics, and for the micro-Hyperspec a tightly coupled dual frequency Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver, an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), and Machine Vision Camera (MVC) were used for attitude and position determination. For the nano-Hyperspec, a navigation grade GNSS system and IMU provided position and attitude data. This study presents the geometric results of one flight over a grass oval on which a dense Ground Control Point (GCP) network was deployed. The aim being to ascertain the geometric accuracy achievable with the system. Using the PARGE software package (ReSe – Remote Sensing Applications) we ortho-rectify the push broom hyperspectral image strips and then quantify the accuracy of the ortho-rectification by using the GCPs as check points. The orientation (roll, pitch, and yaw) of the sensor is measured by the IMU. Alternatively imagery from a MVC running at 15 Hz, with accurate camera position data can be processed with Structure from Motion (SfM) software to obtain an estimated camera orientation. In this study, we look at which of these data sources will yield a flight strip with the highest geometric accuracy.


This thesis compares the performance of the new static model based estimator proposed by Skogestad et al. (2011) with least squares (LS), principal component regression (PCR), and partial least squares (PLS) estimators on a linear, binary, and multicomponent distillation model. The performance is classified into two categories: "open-loop" performance (estimator used for monitoring) and "closed-loop" performance (estimator used for control). The new estimator is derived from a regression point of view, and it is shown that this estimator is optimal for "closed-loop" estimation. Skogestad et al. (2011) also presented a method called loss regression for applying the new estimator on data. This thesis shows that this estimator is sensitive to noise and collinearity, and a new improved method called the truncated "closed-loop" method (truncated CLM) is proposed. It is found that the new estimator and the truncated CLM have better "closed-loop" performance, but worse "open-loop" performance than LS, PCR and PLS.


Acoustic echoes arise whenever there is acoustic coupling between a loudspeaker and a microphone. A traditional solution for eliminating the undesired echo signal is an acoustic echo canceler (AEC), which identifies the echo path between a loudspeaker and a microphone by means of an adaptive filter. The echo signal can be canceled successfully when the modeling filter approaches the true echo path. Another way to mitigate the echo effect is through echo suppression. Unlike an AEC, an acoustic echo suppressor (AES) achieves echo attenuation by means of spectral modification. In this paper, we propose an AES without a need for the computationally complex task of acoustic echo path estimation. Instead of identifying the echo path impulse response, the proposed method estimates only the properties of the echo path which are needed for effective echo suppression. These are a delay parameter and a filter mimicking the coloration effect of the echo path on the loudspeaker signal. The gain filter for the AES is computed using the estimated delay and coloration effect filter. Simulations and experiments using a real-time telecommunication system indicate that the proposed scheme is effective for suppressing echo, supports duplex communication, and is less sensitive to echo path changes than a conventional AEC.


Virtually all Automated People Movers (APMs) use electrical power for propulsion. Many designs also use electrical braking to augment any mechanical braking devices for decelerating trains. Certain technologies allow some of the energy available during train decelerations to be `regenerated' electrically to reduce the overall power and energy required to operate the system. For these technologies and selected applications, significant reductions in electrical consumption and wear of friction brakes can be obtained, resulting in improved reliability, lower initial capital cost, lower operating and maintenance costs, and reduced impacts on the environment. This paper presents an assessment of the prospects for significant regeneration benefits, including the basic concepts involved in power conversion, descriptions of the key technologies involved, the combinations of technologies that provide a `receptive line' for effective utilization of regeneration, the types of alignment, routing and power distribution configurations that lend themselves to effective regeneration, and the system engineering techniques available to optimize the timing of train operations for maximum regeneration benefits. Case study results are given for selected specific applications.


Collection data structures in standard libraries of programming languages are designed to excel for the average case by carefully balancing memory footprint and runtime performance. These implicit design decisions and hard-coded trade-offs do constrain users from using an optimal variant for a given problem. Although a wide range of specialized collections is available for the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), they introduce yet another dependency and complicate user adoption by requiring specific Application Program Interfaces (APIs) incompatible with the standard library. A product line for collection data structures would relieve library designers from optimizing for the general case. Furthermore, a product line allows evolving the potentially large code base of a collection family efficiently. The challenge is to find a small core framework for collection data structures which covers all variations without exhaustively listing them, while supporting good performance at the same time. We claim that the concept of Array Mapped Tries (AMTs) embodies a high degree of commonality in the sub-domain of immutable collection data structures. AMTs are flexible enough to cover most of the variability, while minimizing code bloat in the generator and the generated code. We implemented a Data Structure Code Generator (DSCG) that emits immutable collections based on an AMT skeleton foundation. The generated data structures outperform competitive hand-optimized implementations, and the generator still allows for customization towards specific workloads.


I. INTRODUCTION II. THE ORIGIN OF CRIMINAL MEMBERSHIP AND GROUP LIABILITY UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW III. THE CASES INVOLVED IN THIS INQUIRY A. Afri-Forum v. Malema B. United States v. Al Bahlul C. Victims' Communication Pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute Requesting Investigation and Prosecution of High-level Vatican Officials for Rape and Other Forms of Sexual Violence as Crimes Against Humanity and Torture as a Crime Against Humanity IV. INTERNATIONAL LAWS GOVERNING CRIMINAL MEMBERSHIP AND GROUP LIABILITY A. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights B. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination C. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court D. The Charter of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremburg (London Charter) and the Trials of Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal V. DEFINING CRIMINAL MEMBERSHIP AND THE EXTENT OF ITS APPLICATION THROUGH THE CHAIN OF POWER A. Distinguishing Criminal and Non-Criminal Groups B. Difficulties in Defining What Constitutes "Membership" VI. LIABILITY WITHIN CRIMINAL AND NON-CRIMINAL GROUPS AND ACTIONS SUFFICIENT TO CHANGE THE STATUS OF A GROUP A. Liability for Membership in a Criminal Group B. Liability for Membership in a Non-Criminal Group Whose Leader Is Guilty of Criminal Acts that May Be Imputed to Members of the Group C. Liability of a Leader of a Non-Criminal Group for the Acts of His Subordinates VII. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION On September 9, 2011, the United States Court of Military Commission Review decided United States v. Al Bahlul, recognizing conspiracy and "criminal membership" as war crimes for the first time in the United States. (1) The court held that "joining al Qaeda was punishable by military commission as an offense against the law of armed conflict when committed." (2) This decision has broad implications for the prosecution of terrorism in the United States, and raises the question of what constitutes "criminal membership." Julius Malema, the leader of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League in South Africa, was convicted under South Africa's "Equality Act" on September 12, 2011, of a hate crime for leading the singing of "Shoot the Boer" at ANC rallies. (3) This is his second conviction for hate speech. (4) As South Africa is a party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), (5) his conviction presents potential legal issues for the ANC, as CERD demands nations "prohibit organizations ... which promote and incite racial discrimination, and ... recognize participation in such organizations or activities as an offense punishable by law." (6) Because of his position as leader of the ANC Youth League, Malema may have exposed himself to broader liability under the provisions of CERD and South African law. His actions and conviction may potentially suffice to establish a functional purpose, if not an explicit purpose, for the group to be considered racially discriminatory, and if so, his actions and conviction may be imputed to the ANC as a whole. He may be potentially complicit in the ongoing violence in South Africa toward Afrikaner landowners. (7) On September 13, 2011, the advocacy group the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court demanding an investigation of the Pope and other high Vatican officials for apparent complicity in covering up sexual abuse by priests worldwide. (8) The complaint alleged: [H]igh-level Vatican officials, including Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, either knew and/or in some cases consciously disregarded information that showed subordinates were committing or about to commit such crimes. …


The genetic divergence was assessed in 60 mango genotypes through D 2 - statistics and principal component analysis. The genotypes under study were grouped into eight clusters and the diversity was influenced by the morphological characters, not by the geographical distribution of the genotypes. The clustering pattern revealed that the genotypes collected from the same region did not fall in the single cluster. The maximum inter cluster distance was noticed between cluster II and cluster VIII, and the lowest between clusters VII and cluster VIII. From the cluster means, cluster I was high yielding and ranked first in terms of number of secondary branches per inflorescence, percent fruit set per inflorescence, and yield per plant. Cluster VIII had only one genotype which produced the highest percentage of flowering shoots, % perfect flowers, number of fruits per plant, and %TSS. The genotypes of cluster VII produced the biggest sized fruits. The first nine characters of the principal component axes with eigen values above unity accounted for 88.3% of the total variation among the fifteen characters. Weight of harvested fruits per plant (0.990 and 0.181), number of fruits per plant (0.101 and 0.607) and individual fruit weight (0.027 and 0.107) for both the vectors were positive across two axes indicating the important components of genetic divergence. The genotypes belonging to clusters I, VII and VIII with high to moderate genetic distances might be recommended for use in crossing programs to produce new recombinants with desired traits. Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 38(2): 343-353, June 2013 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjar.v38i2.15895


Biomedical research has become a digital data-intensive endeavor, relying on secure and scalable computing, storage, and network infrastructure, which has traditionally been used, supported, and maintained locally. For some types of biomedical applications, cloud computing has emerged as an alternative to locally maintained traditional computing approaches. Accordingly, I think that Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) is as the heart of healthcare system. MCC offers new kinds of services and facilities for patients and medical staff. For this I have tried to propose a new mobile medical online system. To this senario, I tried to implement a medical cloud expert system (MCES) solution using Google's Android OS. The developed system has been working using the CloudSim Simulator. This paper gives initial results of the system in practice. In fact the proposed solution shows that the MCES has a regulating capability to tackle the problem of existing application. The performance of the MCES is compared with the traditional system in polyclinic which showed that this prototype yields better performance than usual application. IndexTerms Healthcare ;Mobile web services;Cloud computing; CloudSim; Medical cloud expert system;Bioinformatics _____________________________________________________________________________________________________


Over the last decade, Dirac matter has become one of the most prominent fields of research in contemporary material science due to the incredibly rich physics of the Dirac equation. Notable examples are the Dirac cones in graphene, Weyl points in TaAs, and gapless edge states in Bi2Te3. These unique phases of matter are intimately related to the topological structure of Dirac fermions. However, it remains an open question if the topological structure of Maxwell's equations predicts yet new phases of matter. This thesis will conclusively answer this question.Topological electrodynamics is concerned with the geometry of electromagnetic waves in condensed matter. At the microscopic level, photons couple to the dipole-carrying excitations of a material, such as plasmons and excitons, which hybridize to form new normal modes of the system. The interaction between these bosonic oscillators is the origin of temporal and spatial dispersion in optical response functions like the conductivity tensor. Our main achievement is motivating a global interpretation of these response functions, over all frequencies and wavevectors. This theory led us to the conclusion that there are topological invariants associated with the conductivity tensor itself. In this thesis, we show exactly how to calculate these electromagnetic invariants, in both continuum and lattice theories, to identify unique Maxwellian phases of matter. Magnetohydrodynamic electron fluids in strongly-correlated 2D materials like graphene are the first candidates of this new class of topological phase. The fundamental physical mechanism that gives rise to a topological electromagnetic classification is Hall viscosity which adds a nonlocal component to the Hall conductivity. To study the topological electrodynamics, we propose viscous Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory -- a Lagrangian framework that naturally generates the equations of motion, nonlocal Hall response and the boundary conditions. We demonstrate that nonlocal Hall conductivity is the spin-1 photonic equivalent of dispersive mass and induces precession of bulk photonic skyrmions. Nontrivial photonic skyrmions are associated with Dirac monopoles in the bulk momentum space and a singular Berry gauge. A singular gauge occurs when the photonic mass changes sign. Remarkably, the boundary of this medium supports gapless chiral edge states that are spin-1 helically-quantized and satisfy open boundary conditions.


In many cases, low-pressure, high-temperature metamorphism must be the consequence of advective heat transfer, e.g., the ascent of granitic magma. Whereas such heating mechanisms are necessarily short-lived, the lifetime of the underlying orogenic processes is likely to be much longer, and it is conceivable that, during the evolution of an orogen, repeated transient heating at shallow crustal levels is caused by episodes of segregation and upward passage of melts generated at deep crustal levels. The number and timing of these events would depend on such factors as critical melt segregation volume, Moho temperature, and strain-rate evolution. We investigate some of the controls on this multiple-event superposition using a simple thermomechanical model designed to predict, simultaneously, the strain-rate and the isostatic and thermal evolution of convergent orogenesis, subject to a constant driving force. An appealing aspect of this formulation is that, in contrast to models that have attempted to explain event cyclicity through episodic processes acting on the orogenic boundaries, it accounts for the repeated occurrence of events through processes inherent to the orogenic system itself.


Starting from human ¿sense of touch,¿ this paper reviews the state of tactile sensing in robotics. The physiology, coding, and transferring tactile data and perceptual importance of the ¿sense of touch¿ in humans are discussed. Following this, a number of design hints derived for robotic tactile sensing are presented. Various technologies and transduction methods used to improve the touch sense capability of robots are presented. Tactile sensing, focused to fingertips and hands until past decade or so, has now been extended to whole body, even though many issues remain open. Trend and methods to develop tactile sensing arrays for various body sites are presented. Finally, various system issues that keep tactile sensing away from widespread utility are discussed.


Despite its uncertain effects on political violence, foreign aid is still used as a means to counter insurgency. Recent examples include the US Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP) in Iraq and Afghanistan. This paper describes how local political dynamics can complicate the causal effect of development assistance on insurgent attacks and estimates the effect of small development projects on attacks targeting foreign donors. Dynamic panel data analysis shows that development assistance induced more attacks against the Coalition forces than reduced them. To further uncover the causal mechanism behind the relationship, I also examine three prominent explanations in the literature. The analysis reveals that the level of violence increased neither because insurgency became a more attractive option than legal economic activities (the opportunity costs explanation) nor because the insurgents tried to sabotage the development projects to pre-empt the hearts and minds effect (the pre-emption explanation). Furthermore, although the third, enrichment explanation agrees with the case, my analysis reveals that Iraqi insurgents did become stronger not only by looting, as most studies suggest. The level of violence in Iraq increased because project contractors needed to pay local leaders and insurgents to get access and buy security. While the US military buys down violence against them, discontented leaders contract violence out to third-party, most likely foreign fighters, to initiate attacks against the Coalition forces on behalf of them. In this light, future counterinsurgency efforts need to mind the ties between aid recipients and other actors, provide better security to contractors, or try to allocate aid more strategically.


Many models have been proposed to generate Internet Autonomous System (AS) topologies, most of which make structural assumptions about the AS graph. In this paper we compare AS topology generation models with several observed AS topologies. In contrast to most previous works, we avoid making assumptions about which topological properties are important to characterize the AS topology. Our analysis shows that, although matching degree-based properties, the existing AS topology generation models fail to capture the complexity of the local interconnection structure between ASs. Furthermore, we use BGP data from multiple vantage points to show that additional measurement locations significantly affect local structure properties, such as clustering and node centrality. Degree-based properties, however, are not notably affected by additional measurements locations. These observations are particularly valid in the core. The shortcomings of AS topology generation models stems from an underestimation of the complexity of the connectivity in the core caused by inappropriate use of BGP data.


The paper reviews the empirical problem of estimating state-contingent production functions. The major problem is that states of nature may not be registered and/or that the number of observation per state is low. Monte Carlo simulation is used to generate an artificial, uncertain production environment based on Cobb Douglas production functions with state-contingent parameters. The parameters are subsequently estimated based on different sizes of samples using Generalized Least Squares and Generalized Maximum Entropy and the results are compared. It is concluded that Maximum Entropy may be useful, but that further analysis is needed to evaluate the efficiency of this estimation method compared to traditional methods.


Utilisation of healthcare facilities is low in many developing areas. One possible explanation is that treatment costs, in time or money, are high. Another is that parents perceive treatment benefits to be low. We combine Philippines DHS data with a subsequent facilities survey in order to examine these issues with respect to treatment for respiratory infections and diarrhoea in young children. Controlling statistically for the selectivity of the initiating illness, we find that the staffing level of nearby health facilities is a determinant of the probability that parents take their ill children for curative care.


African trypanosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease affecting both animals and humans in sub-Saharan Africa. The disease is caused bythe protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei, which is transmitted by the tsetse fly (Glossina sp.) vector. In animals, infection leads to severe muscle atrophy and anaemia resulting in significant production and economic losses. In humans, infection leads to both neurological and cardiac dysfunction and can be fatal if untreated. While the neurological-related pathogenesis is well studied, and indeed is responsible for the colloquial name "Sleeping Sickness", the cardiac pathogenesis remains unknown. Previous studies interpreted cardiac dysfunction as being due to immune/inflammatory responses. However, recent work examining the parasite's interaction with the blood brain barrier, the traversal of which is important for development of neurological signs, has identified direct immune/inflammatory independent mechanisms involving calcium (Ca2+) signalling. The current study exposed isolated ventricular cardiomyocytes and adult rat hearts to T. brucei to test whether trypanosomes can alter Ca2+ signalling and cardiac function independent of a systemic immune/inflammatory response.
Using a high-throughput method of observing spontaneous contractile activity in isolated cardiomyocytes, we were able to determine that the presence of T. b. brucei parasites resulted in more cardiomyocytes exhibiting spontaneous contractile events. Moreover, when the parasites were removed by careful centrifugation, the culture supernatant had the same effect. Confocal Ca2+ imaging identified an increase in the frequency of arrhythmogenic spontaneous diastolic sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR)-mediated Ca2+ release (Ca2+ waves). Studies utilising specific inhibitors, recombinant protein and RNA interference all demonstrated that this altered SR function was due to cathepsin-L; a cysteine protease produced by T. brucei (TbCatL). Experiments utilising a Langendorff perfusion method revealed that trypanosome culture supernatant could induce ventricular premature contractions in 50% of a cohort of ex vivo whole rat hearts.
Mechanistic experiments were performed on single isolated cardiomyocytes stimulated at 1.0 Hz and perfused first with control media followed by trypanosome culture supernatant. The protocol utilised triple caffeine applications: (i) prior to stimulation to empty the SR of Ca2+, (ii) after perfusion with control media and after supernatant to determine the SR Ca2+ content and sarcolemmal extrusion of Ca2+ following each solution. Results were normalised to a parallel set of cardiomyocytes perfused with control media only as time controls. These experiments revealed a 10-15% increase in SR Ca2+ reuptake by the SR Ca2+ ATPase (SERCA) but a reduced SR Ca2+ content suggesting a concomitant increase in SR-mediated Ca2+ leak. This conclusion was supported by the data demonstrating that TbCatL increased Ca2+ wave frequency. These effects were abolished by autocamtide-2-related inhibitory peptide (AIP), highlighting a role for Ca2+/calmodulin kinase II (CaMKII) in the TbCatL action on SR function. When cytosolic diastolic Ca2+ was measured in cardiomyocytes with SR function inhibited by ryanodine and thapsigargin, trypanosome supernatant prevented a decline in cytosolic diastolic Ca2+ that was observed in control media. AIP did not abolish this effect suggesting that TbCatL may raise diastolic Ca2+ that could activate CaMKII leading to the observed effects.
These data demonstrated for the first time that African trypanosomes alter cardiac function independent of a systemic immune response via a mechanism involving extracellular cathepsin-L-mediated changes in SR function.
Utilising the same (culture adapted and monomorphic) strain of T. brucei as the in vitro experiments, Lister 427, in a rat model of infection we found no significant increase in the arrhythmia frequency as measured by a 15 min electrocardiogram (ECG). However, when hearts were removed and Langendorff perfused with the addition of isoproterenol the arrhythmia frequency was increased. When the pleomorphic strain T. b. brucei TREU 927 was used in rats with continuous ECG recording from biopotential telemetry there was a significant increase in arrhythmia frequency in the infected rats. When hearts were removed and Langendorff perfused with isoproterenol there was a similar increase in arrhythmia frequency as observed with the 427 infected hearts. This suggests that a cardiac dysfunction phenotype is present during trypanosome infections in an animal model providing the basis for future therapeutic work.
The relationship between arrhythmogenic SR-mediated Ca2+ release and TbCatL has parallels with endogenous extracellular cathepsin-L (CatL). It has been demonstrated that a basal level of CatL is necessary for normal cardiac function. However, in coronary heart disease (CHD) CatL levels are increased in the serum of patients correlating with the severity of disease. The effects of raised CatL on cardiac function remain unknown. Work in our lab has identified that ex vivo Langendorff perfused hearts that have undergone a 30 min period of ischaemia followed by 90 min reperfusion show greater CatL activity in coronary effluent than hearts perfused without ischaemia. In addition, preliminary data collected in this thesis suggest that human patients that have suffered a myocardial infarction and have undergone reperfusion via percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) showed higher CatL levels in post-reperfusion serum samples compared to pre-reperfusion serum. When severity of heart function in patients (measured as left ventricular volume at systole and diastole, ejection fraction, infarct size and area at risk) was assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a preliminary study, there was a positive correlation with serum CatL levels. Using recombinant CatL on isolated rat ventricular cardiomyocytes it was found that the SR Ca2+ content and the stimulated Ca2+ transient were significantly reduced in a concentration dependent manner. This suggests a CatL dependent SR dysfunction. This conclusion was supported by an increase in Ca2+ wave frequency measured by confocal Ca2+ imaging in isolated cardiomyocytes.
The work in this thesis demonstrates a role for both mammalian-derived and exogenous extracellular cathepsin-L proteases in arrhythmogenic SR-mediated Ca2+ release.


The study was conducted to assess the impact of the RDET Program of the Cagayan State University at Sanchez Mira Campus, "The Kaniyogan: Reaching People, Transforming Lives" after its second year of service implementation.  The study made use of a combination of a quantitative and qualitative research design with documentary analysis, field visits and interviews to the farmer beneficiaries as methods of gathering the needed data.  The accomplishments of the programs were measured in terms of the number or nature of seminars conducted and or technical/advisory services provided, demonstration areas established, enterprises organized or established, and IEC materials produced and distributed. Impacts of the program were measured in terms of the responses of the adopters of the technology and some individual members of organizations. There were 37 seminars and skills trainings conducted and attended to by a total of 2496 participants during the 2-year period. There are 15 community-based demonstration farms established and 15 campus-based demonstration farms maintained. The extension program is assisting 10 small scale enterprises with 4 individuals and 6 groups or cooperatives/ associations. The RDET Program was able to publish a Coffee Table Book called Kaniyogan  and a Kaniyogan Newsletter. The services offered by the Kaniyogan were rated by 97.80% of the participants as "Good or Better". The extension program has a very good impact on individuals who are able fund their projects.  Moreover, it has not affected much the lives of the individual members of small groups or associations.  Based on the result of the study, a common observation was noted.  If the technology is adopted by an individual who can afford to spend the inputs of the project, it will be sustained and will grow into an enterprise.  Moreover, if this is introduced to a group of people  just to be able to avail of a small amount of grant, it will die when the fund is used up. It is recommended that trainings should be given to individuals who are interested and capable of adopting the technology and they will be the ones to create employment opportunities for the less capable groups.


Justice Kennedy did not just strike down laws that targeted sexual orientation; he did violence to them; by striking them down on rationality review as lacking any legitimate—let alone important or compelling—interest, he wiped out a considerable body of anti-LGBT legislation. This article surveys cases, including LGBT-rights cases, that applied so-called "rational basis with a bite," or what the article calls "incursive rational-basis review." Though the Court never deemed LGBT Americans to be politically powerless for purposes of calling them a suspect class, it did repeatedly deem them to be politically unpopular, thereby triggering a potent species of rational-basis review that shifts the burden to the government, requiring it to proffer a legitimate interest after a court has already found the government's interest to be illegitimate—a nearly impossible burden, indeed. So this level of review, somewhat paradoxically, has been more dangerous for the government than the dreaded "strict scrutiny," which a court applies to smoke out any improper purpose. A court applies incursive rational-basis review, on the other hand, when it has already found an improper purpose. A new socially conservative majority likely will consider LGBT Americans neither politically powerless nor politically unpopular. So LGBT advocates will have lost the most lethal quill in their quiver, leaving them adrift on a sea of constitutional uncertainty and, for now at least, largely hamstrung in their continuing fight for legal equality.


Average annual carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus budgets were constructed for Moreton Bay. Primary production was the dominant source of carbon (by two orders of magnitude), N fixation was the dominant source of nitrogen, and point sources were the dominant source of phosphorus to the bay. About 41% of the nitrogen and 70% of the phosphorus entering Moreton Bay was exported to the ocean, and about 56% of the nitrogen was lost to denitrification. The high percentage loss of phosphorus to the ocean was directly related to the short residence time of the bay (46 d), which was consistent with other shallow coastal ecosystems. In contrast, the percentage loss of nitrogen to the ocean was low compared to other coastal systems due to the high percentage loss through denitrification associated with autotrophic sediments in the bay that enhance denitrification. Because most denitrification studies have been carried out using only dark incubations, the importance of denitrification to the nitrogen budgets of coastal systems in general may be underestimated. Carbon loss from Moreton Bay was dominated (by two orders of magnitude) by atmospheric exchange of CO2 associated with benthic and pelagic respiration. The distinct difference between Moreton Bay (subtropical) and temperate systems was the dominance of biological (microbial: N fixation and denitrification) over physical inputs and losses of nitrogen. High N fixation in turn fuels a positive annual mean net ecosystem metabolism (NEM) of 21 g C m-2 yr-1 and suggests that primary production in the bay is phosphorus limited at the whole ecosystem scale.


In the era of TVIII, characterised by deregulation, multimedia conglomeration, expansion and increased competition, branding has emerged as a central industrial practice. Focusing on the case of HBO, a particularly successful brand in TVIII, this paper argues that branding can be understood not simply as a feature of television networks, but also as a characteristic of television programmes. It begins by examining how the network as brand is constructed and conveyed to the consumer through the use of logos, slogans and programmes. The role of programmes in the construction of brand identity is then complicated by examining the sale of programmes abroad, where programmes can be seen to contribute to the brand identity of more than one network. The paper then goes on to examine programme merchandising, an increasingly central strategy in TVIII. Through an analysis of different merchandising strategies the paper argues that programmes have come to act as brands in their own right, and demonstrates that the academic study of branding not only reveals the development of new industrial practices, but also offers a way of understanding the television programme and its consumption by viewers in a period when the texts of television are increasingly extended across a range of media platforms.


While most large U.S. businesses have long been organized as corporations, a significant portion of our economy, including major parts of our energy infrastructure, are organized as other types of legal entities. These "uncorporations" include such business forms as Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) and Limited Liability Companies (LLCs). Many practitioners have dismissed these alternative entities as merely tax devices and only peripherally important to mainstream business. But this view misses important features of the uncorporation that make it an important alternative in dealing with the "agency" costs that arise in public companies from separating managerial control from equity ownership. Corporate governance relies heavily on agents such as auditors, class action lawyers, judges, and independent directors to protect shareholders from managerial self‐interest. The obvious costs and defects of relying on these governance mechanisms have generally been seen as a reasonable price to pay for the benefits of the corporate form. But this conclusion depends on the availability and effectiveness of the alternative mechanisms for addressing agency costs. Uncorporations provide such an alternative by tying managers' economic well‐being so closely to that of their firms that corporate monitoring devices become less necessary. Uncorporate governance mechanisms include managerial compensation that is based largely (if not entirely) on the firm's profits or cash distributions, and restrictions on managers' control of corporate cash through liquidation rights and requirements for cash distributions. Business people and policy makers should evaluate the potential benefits of uncorporations before concluding that the costs of corporate governance are an inevitable price of separating ownership and control in modern firms.


Much is made of the viscerally disturbing qualities embedded in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre - human bodies are traumatised, mutilated and distorted – and the way these are matched by close and often intense access to the performers involved. Graphic violence focused on the body specifically indicates the film as a key contemporary horror text. Yet, for all this closeness to the performers, it soon becomes clear in undertaking close-analysis of the film that access to them is equally characterised by extreme distance, both spatially and cognitively. The issue of distance is particularly striking, not least because of its ramifications on engagement, which throws up various aesthetic and methodological questions concerning performers' expressive authenticity.
This article considers the lack of access to performance in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, paying particular attention to how this fits in with contemporaneous presentations of performance more generally, as seen in films such as Junior Bonner (Sam Peckinpah, 1972). As part of this investigation I consider the affect of such a severe disruption to access on engagement with, and discussion of, performance. At the heart of this investigation lie methodological considerations of the place of performance analysis in the post-studio period. How can we perceive anything of a character's interior life, and therefore engage with performers who we fundamentally lack access to? Does such an apparently significant difference in the way performers and their embodiment is treated mean that they can even be thought of as delivering a performance?


Transcription factors regulate gene expression by binding to DNA for short durations and by often binding to low-affinity DNA sequences. It is not clear how such temporally brief, low-affinity interactions can drive efficient transcription. Here we report that the transcription factor Ultrabithorax (Ubx) functionally utilizes low-affinity binding sites in the Drosophila melanogaster shavenbaby (svb) locus in nuclear microenvironments of relatively high Ubx concentration. By manipulating the affinity of svb enhancers, we revealed an inverse relationship between enhancer affinity and Ubx concentration required for transcriptional activation. A Ubx cofactor, Homothorax (Hth), was enriched together with Ubx near enhancers that require Hth, even though Ubx and Hth did not co-localize throughout the nucleus. These results suggest that low affinity sites overcome their kinetic inefficiency by utilizing microenvironments with high concentrations of transcription factors and cofactors. Mechanisms that generate these microenvironments are likely to be a general feature of eukaryotic transcriptional regulation.


Heat pipes are valuable heat transfer devices that can be used in space; however, when exposed to the extremely low temperature of space, the working fluid can freeze. Currently, there are different methods to help mitigate freezing effects, including non-condensable gas-charged heat pipes and understanding ice formation on surfaces (e.g., typically surfaces with hydrophobic coatings). However, there is limited research about ice formation on wicks. Different wicking structures may delay freezing or mitigate freezing effects. This paper will investigate ice formation on two surfaces — commercial sintered and grooved wicks. An indoor environmental chamber was used to control ambient air temperature (i.e., 22°C) and relative humidity (i.e., 60% RH) and a Peltier cooler was used to control the surface temperature (i.e., −5°C). The resulting condensation of water onto the surface and then freezing was recorded for an hour and analyzed for the time freezing began on the surface (i.e., ice is initially visible) and the time freezing was complete on the surface. Initial results indicate that the sintered wick begins to freeze first (on average at 10.73 minutes versus 13.66 for the grooved wick) and the freezing front propagates faster (taking on average 10.83 minutes versus 12.44 minutes for the grooved wick). From the analysis, it is seen that the wicking surface structure influences the initial freezing time and the rate the freezing front propagates across the surface. These differences and the causes are investigated in this paper. These differences can, in the future, be exploited to design an optimal freeze-tolerant heat pipe and heat pipe freezing models.


This paper compares the treatment of international comity in the Restatement (Third) of Foreign Relations Law (1987) and the Restatement (Fourth) (2018). The Restatement (Third) generally avoided international comity and focused on restating international law. In some cases it argued without much support in state practice or opinio juris that rules originating in international comity had developed into customary international law. The Restatement (Fourth) takes a more restrained approach to restating rules of customary international law and correspondingly embraces international comity as a way of distinguishing limits on jurisdiction that are required by international law from limits on jurisdiction that are required only by domestic law. Basing doctrines of foreign relations law on international comity does not mean that these doctrines necessarily grant discretion to courts or to the executive branch. Most of the comity doctrines in the Restatement (Fourth) do not. It does mean that nations are free to shape these doctrines as they see fit. Identifying doctrines of foreign relations law as doctrines of international comity also highlights that they are part of a single toolkit that courts use to address problems in transnational cases.


According to the long-standing periodisation of Estonian literary history, the Estonian National Awakening that started in the mid-19th century was followed by a period of lesser creativity and originality, which ended only with the breakthrough of the modernist Young Estonia group in 1905. In the canon of Estonian literature, Juhan Kunder (1852–1888), today known primarily for his fairy tales, one play and lyrics of one song, is placed in this intermediate period. This article first introduces the significance of Kunder in his time. He was a popular writer and a wellknown pedagogue, and a younger contemporary of the great figures of the National Awakening. As a critic, magazine editor and literary historian, his most important contribution to literary history was in the development of literary thought. It seems that several precedents that have been attributed to the Young Estonia group, e.g., valuing originality, writing well-argued criticism, etc., actually originated from an earlier period. Based on these observations, the author of this article believes that the current structure of Estonian literary history is not adequately justified, and she points out a semantic shift in the terms in use. It is true that Kunder was largely an epigone of his predecessors, but in the positive sense of the term, meaning that he continued their mission. Similarly, Kunder's predecessor, the 'first Young Estonian' Kreutzwald, and a representative of his 20th-century successors, Friedebert Tuglas, were also epigones. During the period of Russification that started during his era, Kunder's attitudes could be considered progressive. Kunder was also a 19th-century contemporary of the Young Estonia group and a true Young Estonian in the original sense of the term which emerged in this period: a Young Estonian introduced new initiatives and was a leader of the national movement. Epigonism and membership in Young Estonia can be seen as the keys to cultural continuity and processionality. Kunder is a link between his predecessors and successors; his ambiguous position between the Young Estonians of the 19th and 20th centuries enables us to treat it as a complicated relationship between fathers and sons. The notion of Young Estonia and its justified use as the basis for literary historical periodisation in the still-valid canon of Estonian literature deserves some re-thinking.


Given its importance in a wide variety of machine vision applications, extending high-speed object detection and recognition beyond the visible spectrum in a cost-effective manner presents a significant technological challenge. As a step in this direction, we developed a novel approach for target image classification using a compressive sensing architecture. Here we report the first implementation of this approach utilizing the compressive single-pixel camera system. The core of our approach rests on the design of new measurement patterns, or projections, that are tuned to objects of interest. Our measurement patterns are based on the notion of secant projections of image classes that are constructed using two different approaches. Both approaches show at least a twofold improvement in terms of the number of measurements over the conventional, data-oblivious compressive matched filter. As more noise is added to the image, the second method proves to be the most robust.


Activation of plant innate immune responses by intracellular receptors involves dynamic changes in the subcellular localisations, assemblies and activities of signalling complexes. The A. thaliana nucleocytoplasmic protein EDS1, together with its signalling partners PAD4 and SAG101, coordinates basal and TNL receptor-triggered cell defence reprogramming in response to pathogens. EDS1, PAD4 and SAG101 genes exist in all seed plants and form a plant-specific family with a N-terminal lipase-like domain and a unique C-terminal EP (EDS1-PAD4) domain. Functional analysis of the crystal structure of an A. thaliana EDS1-SAG101 heterodimer showed that EDS1 forms molecularly distinct heterodimers with its partners through a large conserved interface. EDS1 heterodimer formation is chiefly driven by the juxtaposed lipase-like domains and is essential for EDS1 disease resistance signalling. The EDS1 lipase-like domain without its EP domain is stable but insufficient for immunity. These features suggested a key role of the EP domain.
 To gain functional insights to EP domain function, the EDS1-SAG101 heterodimer crystal structure was used to generate EP domain mutants that were defective in resistance signalling but retained a nucleocytoplasmic distribution and direct partner interactions. Functional analysis of the EDS1 EP domain variants revealed two conserved residues (K478 and R493) that are important for A.thaliana basal and TNL immunity. Mutation of K478 to arginine (K478R) or R493 to alanine (R493A) led to a partial and complete loss of TNL resistance, respectively. These mutants were completely compromised in EDS1-mediated basal resistance. Disease susceptibility of K478R and R493A in TNL resistance to bacterial pathogen strains is due to their failure to counteract virulence activity of the phytotoxin coronatine (a jasmonic acid-isoleucine conjugate mimic).
EDS1-dependent transcriptional defence reprogramming over a 24 h time course after TNL activation is delayed in R493A and this causes delayed accumulation of the important stress hormone, salicylic acid (SA). Coronatine does not affect the SA accumulation profile of this mutant, although it suppresses SA accumulation in wild-type plants. By contrast, wild-type like SA accumulation in the K478R mutant in TNL resistance suggests two distinct activities of EDS1 EP domain: one is to promote the SA pathway (intact in K478R and defective in R493A), the second is to antagonize coronatine-promoted JA outputs (defective in both mutants) in disease resistance signalling. Further targeted mutational analysis shows that a positively charged residue at R493 is vital for EDS1 immunity functions and correlates with an ability of EDS1 to bind to nucleic acid in situ.
Results presented here identify amino acids in the EP domain that are important for two different EDS1 signalling outputs and suggest that EDS1 chromatin association is integral to EDS1 immune function. This protein structure-function study provides tools to dissect the molecular function and interactions of this central plant immune regulatory node.


Social Work Law in Scotland provides a practical guide to the legal framework within which social work operates. Providing accessible explanations of law, the book provides coverage of key areas of law in social work including those relating to children, families and adult services.

Social Work Law in Scotland is designed for use by students studying for a degree in social work as well as those in the profession.


Seventeen-year-old Abigail Johnson is Gifted. Blessed-or cursed-with Sight and Healing, Abby lives an unsettled life, moving from place to place and staying one step ahead of the darkness that hunts her. When she arrives in Jackson, Wyoming, she is desperate to maintain the illusion of normalcy, but she is plagued with visions of past lives mixed with frightening glimpses of her future. Then she meets Kye, a mysterious boy who seems so achingly familiar that Abby is drawn to him like he's a missing piece of her own soul. Before Abby can discover the reason for her feelings toward Kye, the darkness catches up to her and she is forced to flee again. But this time she's not just running. She is fighting back with Kye at her side, and it's not only Abby's life at stake. "A hot new spin on paranormal, Descendant is refreshingly imaginative and powerful. I can't decide which was best -piecing together Abby's sinister past or keeping up with her heartbreaking future. If you like your YA laced with melt-my-heart romance and a good helping of heart-pounding suspense, you'll love this book!" -Michelle Davidson Argyle, author of The Breakaway "Nichole Giles has crafted a story that breathes from the pages. Her characters are authentic, the action intense, with powerful emotions that will keep Descendant on your mind long after the book ends. Open your eyes to another facet of our world in Descendant and you'll be sucked into an adventure with Abby and Kye, that will explore the power of gifts, courage, and love. With top-notch writing, Giles has crafted a story that breathes from the pages." --Rachelle J. Christensen, award-winning author of Wrong Number and Caller ID "Nichole Giles brings a fresh new voice and flawless writing technique to the world of Young Adult fiction. I was swept away to another place and never wanted to come back." --Tristi Pinkston, author of Turning Pages and the Secret Sisters mystery series "This debut novel delivers in all the right ways, with heart-pounding action and a delicious romance that sweeps centuries. I loved it!" --Elana Johnson, author of Possession and Surrender


In 2009, President Barack Obama and a majority Democratic 111 th Congress came to office in a favorable position to enact federal climate legislation. But less than two years later prospects for passing that legislation dimmed considerably. Most explanations for this turn of events fault 1) institutional rules requiring bills receive a 60-vote supra-majority to avoid a Senate filibuster; and 2) the Obama administration's decision to prioritize health care over climate change. Both of these explanations, however, overlook that passing climate legislation requires overcoming a collective action problem. This paper uses a logistical regression model on House Bill (H.R.) 2454 (The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009) to demonstrate that a divided Democratic party made resolving this problem particularly challenging during the 111 th Congress. To make this problem more tractable, supportive Democrats would be well-advised to build coalitions for climate legislation around its non-climate benefits and the costs of the status quo fragmented regulatory environment. These concentrated benefits/costs may not only break fragile ties between pragmatic and tea party Republicans. The added political benefits of triangulating Republicans may also strengthen incentives for blue dog and green Democrats to find common cause in climate legislation.


All education systems, to a greater or lesser extent, are marked by educational inequalities. Nearly all education systems, again to a greater or lesser extent, have
put in place a variety of 'compensatory' strategies to help reduce these educational inequalities. These strategies have gone through different phases and enjoyed different degrees of support, but have generally been as much a part of the education system as the inequalities they are designed to address. This paper explores the continuing reinvention and failure of compensatory education strategies. It looks, in particular, at the emergence and limits of recent moves to implement a 'politics of recognition' for schools in disadvantaged areas. It argues that children in disadvantaged schools need a 'politics of redistribution', but that the
mechanisms of distribution and the nature of what it is that is to be redistributed are problematic. Drawing on theory and empirical research, the paper concludes by arguing that, until we have a clearer idea of what it is that we are compensating, compensatory education policies will be doomed to fail.