The linguistic phenomenon of recurrence is identified in two aspects; either as a repetition of an action or a restoration to a former state. This paper examines two lexical items, an auxiliary verb san and an adverb (e)bio, which encode this phenomenon in Akan. The recurrence marker san is claimed to be the output of a grammaticalization process which has as its historical input a phonologically identical lexical verb with a restorative meaning. Even though the recurrence marker san is diachronically associated with restoration, its use gives rise to either a restorative or a repetitive assumption, in the form of an implicated premise. This assumption forms part of the context within which the utterance containing san is interpreted. Thus its function coincides with that of (e)bio, except for one particular use of the latter, associated with its occurrence at utterance-initial position. The almost identical functions of these two markers reveal the close conceptual relationship between recurrence of the repetitive and of the restorative type.


The tragic murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is well known. Why he was in Karachi; how he saw his role as an international journalist: why he was singled out for kidnapping; and where the incredible search effort led - are the subject of Mariane Pearl's book. A journalist in her own right, Mariane is, as was her husband, profoundly committed to the idea that a more informed public makes for a better world, and to the idea that risks are taken to uncover a story. A superb writer, she presents a truly illuminating tale - including her own crucial role in the investigative team, where she was responsible for negotiating unprecedented cooperation between the FBI and Pakistani intelligence and able to forge alliances with an array of people, from the Karachi chief of police to George Bush. A Mighty Heart is an extraordinary book - a fitting tribute to a dedicated reporter and a profound and heartbreaking love story.


Despite the fact that since the beginning of the global financial crisis of 2008 nearly nine years has passed, the world economy has not come to a steady trajectory of development. In the article it is shown that the crisis has a systemic character and it is connected with the managing model. The fundamentals of methodology are represented by the analysis of dynamics of macro indicators of 10 leading economies of the world the contribution of which exceeds 61% of world GDP. In this research macroeconomic, demographic indicators, indicators of money supply, etc. were analyzed. In the research it was revealed that the current state of the world economy is characterized by a number of contradictions in the field of investments, demography, central government debts, and monetary regulation of all leading economies of the world. It is possible to cope with them within the existing economic paradigm thanks to the constant economic growth, the opportunities of which are almost exhausted within the developed managing model (called by K. Marx in "the bourgeois way of production" and the uniform, global market).


This paper considers the estimation of a dynamic ordered probit of self-assessed health status with two fixed effects: one in the linear index equation and one in the cut points. The two fixed effects allow us to robustly control for heterogeneity in unobserved health status and in reporting behaviour, even though we can not separate both sources of heterogeneity. The contributions of this paper are twofold. First it contributes to the literature that studies the determinants and dynamics of Self-Assessed Health measures. Second, this paper contributes to the recent literature on bias correction in nonlinear panel data models with fixed effects by applying and studying the finite sample properties of two of the existing proposals to our model. The most direct and easily applicable correction to our model is not the best one, and has important biases in our sample sizes


Joseph Frank's continuing biography of Dostoevsky is by now recognized as one of the major achievements of this century in this form, and perhaps the best work on the author in any language. During the course of this long-range effort, Frank has also produced articles, introductions, and occasional pieces that arise from his acute awareness of how Western ideas are changed, transformed, and given new meanings and implications when they are reflected through the Russian prism. It is this interaction between Russia and the West that has fascinated Frank for many years and that provides the focus for these essays. Assembled here are twenty contributions dealing with the culture that generated the great novels of Dostoevsky and the criticism of the Russian formalists of the early twentieth century, whose perceptions still shape our views of Russian and much of world literature. Included are evaluations of books by Jakobson and Bakhtin, as well as of books about the development of Russian formalist criticism and thought. At the center are pieces on Dostoevsky and his milieu, as well as on his influence on world literature. Among them are Frank's New Criterion piece on Ralph Ellison's debt to Dostoevsky and a critical examination of the world-famous article by Freud on the Russian master. Gathered together, these essays reveal one of the powerful critical intelligences of our time, considering issues that arise from his study of Dostoevsky but which extend well beyond the time and place of that novelist alone.


The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between roadway and roadside accident rates for Washington State highways to improve the Washington State Department of Transportation's (WSDOT's) process of modeling roadway and roadside accident rates and to arrive at possible improvements in the efficiency of WSDOT's safety project programming process. The project tested the use of the seemingly unrelated regression estimation (SURE) model to model the roadway and roadside simultaneously. The theoretical advantage of the SURE approach is that it does not impose any a priori assumptions on the explicit linkage between roadway and roadside accident rates, and there is no theoretical support for explicit linkage, either. The data used to derive this model were from a random sample of 500 one-mile sections from the Washington State highway system. Traffic data included traffic volumes, truck compositions, annual average daily traffic, traffic speeds, and other relevant information. Geometric data included lane, shoulder, median, curve, and intersection information. Historical weather data such as monthly precipitation and temperature were collected from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration database. In comparing significant explanatory variables between the roadway accident rate and roadside accident rate models, very few variables were common. This confirms that it is preferable to specify separate functional forms for roadway and roadside accident rates. Empirical results indicated that correlation between roadway and roadside accident rates was insignificant, indicating that efficiency gains from the SURE model would be minimal. The important finding from a programming standpoint is that jointly modeling the roadway and roadside simultaneously would not result in significant efficiency improvements in comparison to the current state-of-the-practice in Washington State.


Renewal of the Sociology of Knowledge Tim Dant, Knowledge, Ideology & Discourse: A Sociological Perspective (New York: Routledge Revivals, 2012), ISBN-10: 0415615828, Pages 254. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This student textbook brings together a wide range of theoretical issues in social theory, but its main contribution is to the field of sociology of knowledge. Traditional problems of the discipline are analyzed from a new perspective. Chapters of the book progressively introduce the main effort of the author-his intent to show that sociological analysis of knowledge and ideology is possible through the empirical analysis of discourse. In this respect, the author develops a sustained argument for the sociology of knowledge and its renewed relevance in contemporary sociology. The central claim of the author is that knowledge, ideology and discourse are social processes that are inextricably linked. Discourse is the form in which knowledge appears as empirical and social phenomenon. At the same time, the process of discourse has ideological effects because the lived relations are rendered into representations in language and can be traced within utterances, where those relations are simplified and transformed. For that reason, the discursive analysis proposed by Dant is oriented to practical and empirical problems in sociology of knowledge and concerned with the contents of discourse that are related to the world of experience and action. The point of departure for the analysis is definitions of knowledge, ideology and discourse, where knowledge is the construal of the relation between abstract entities that are taken to represent the world of human experience. Here, knowledge is shared by humans through communication for the purpose of understanding both the experience of the world and for guiding actions (p.5). Discourse is the material content of utterances exchanged in social contexts that are imbued with meaning by the intention of utterers and treated as meaningful by other participants. Exchange of meaning is a social action and is introduced as a way of empirical analysis of the process of knowledge, ideology and discourse. However, because it is taken as a theoretical category, discourse does not do the same work as knowledge or ideology, but it does describe an empirical phenomenon where knowledge and ideology are effectively produced (p.195). The concept of ideology has been developed by Dant to describe the management of contradictions involved in the social process of knowledge. …


Ras plays a central role in the development and progression of human cancer. Ras function depends on its ability to associate with cellular membranes. Nascent Ras is targeted to membranes by virtue of a series of posttranslational modifications of a C-terminal "CAAX" motif that include farnesylation, proteolysis, and carboxyl methylation. This pathway is an attractive target for anti-Ras drug development. Farnesyltransferase inhibitors have been developed and are in clinical trials. Their success has prompted interest in developing pharmacologically useful inhibitors of the other two enzymes in the Ras processing pathway. Ironically, it now appears that methotrexate, one of the oldest chemotherapeutic drugs, may work, in part, by inhibiting carboxyl methylation of Ras.


The mathematical models describing the removal of suspended solids and head loss changes through the depth and during the time of operation of a filter run have been established by various research workers in the past which gave good correlation with experimental results under particular conditions. Recently a more general equation has been evolved which was used in a multilayer filtration study and is found to predict results matching to experimental observations. The relation of the various parameters in the equation with filtering velocity and specific surface have been found for multilayer filtration with flocculent suspensions and the resulting mathematical model was run with the help of the digital computer to predict concentration removal and head loss development in the filter.


This article asks why the European Commission lost control over the policy process in one of the most contested areas of policy-making in the European Union in recent years. The article finds that after years of vigorous political controversy over the framing of the issues at stake, the EU finally shifted into a Schattschneiderian mode of politics. The policy conflict expanded dramatically and a previously unrelated set of actors and interests united along new lines of policy debate. The analysis underscores how the political mode of EU decision-making can shift during the process of policy-making. In particular, it stresses how policy conflicts affect the mobilisation and demobilisation of political contestants and the realignment of political actors in the European Union.


Asked to explain the mechanisms of everyday survival in Russia, many people answer with one word: "potato." Potato is a key factor in subsistence throughout postsocialist countries, but potato discourses and practices serve as well to dramatize the stark devolution of state–society relations and the ceaseless industry of the population. This essay posits potato as an axis of practice, around which myriad gestures of labor, exchange, and consumption are organized; it also presents potato as a complex system of knowledge, embedded in historical memory and encapsulating local theories of economic devolution. Several ethnographic and economic studies have analyzed the significance of postsocialist food growing; this essay focuses on the chief product of that labor and the narratives that circulate around it. It argues that although potato conveys popular critiques of social stratification, it also frames experiences of personhood.


Students learning in regional, rural and remote locations in Queensland are currently experiencing a 'turn-off' in relation to school-based ICT in the first three years of high school. At the same time, students are experiencing increasing levels of interest and motivation from their use of ICT at home. Given the importance of ICT as an enabling factor in transforming pedagogy and bridging the barriers of distance, it is essential that educators connect with learners' experiences in order to devise strategies to ensure that students have increasing levels of engagement with ICT across the curriculum rather than the diminishing levels of satisfaction that are currently evident. This paper reports preliminary findings from the large study of Year 8, 9 and 10 students and focuses on data from students in regional, rural and remote schools (n = 629), which was extracted from the full dataset of 1,292. This research employed a case study approach using surveys, interviews and focus groups with students and teachers. This paper presents both quantitative and qualitative evidence indicating that homebased ICT usage was considered more interesting and preferred compared with school-based ICT usage. Explanations for why this trend is occurring will be discussed.


Abstract Given the unique spatial structure of stream habitat and the stochasticity characteristic of lotic ecosystems, metacommunity approaches hold much promise in the field of stream ecology. We take advantage of the tight parallels between neutral theories of molecular evolution and community assembly and present a novel conceptual approach to evaluating the role of stochasticity and dispersal limitation in structuring stream metacommunities. The analogous neutral frameworks generate similar expectations for the spatial structure of species comprising communities and genes comprising populations, particularly among patchily distributed, isolated local habitats (e.g., headwater streams) where among-stream dispersal is expected to be limited. Our emphasis is on the conceptual value of this approach, but we also used a limited data set composed of intensively sampled community and population-genetic data collected from 5 to 7 Rocky Mountain alpine streams for illustrative purposes. We characterized neutral population genetic structure as mitochondrial haplotype distributions for the blackfly Prosimulium neomacropyga, which shows strong genetic isolation by distance across the study region. We assessed community structure as the relative frequencies of ecologically similar species in the family Chironomidae collected annually over 2000–2003. Species richness was positively correlated with haplotype richness across streams (r  =  0.55), and analogous methods revealed significant &bgr; diversity at both the population-genetic (FST  =  0.23) and the community (FST  =  0.16) levels. However, a more spatially explicit comparison of pairwise community dissimilarity and genetic distance revealed no evidence of correlation (Mantel test, r  =  −0.18, p  =  0.54), a result suggesting no effect of spatial distance on community similarity at the relatively fine spatial scale of our study. We discuss 2 key arguments to explain the lack of community distance decay: 1) unaccounted environmental differences among streams, and 2) varying spatial and temporal scales of neutral processes (including genetic drift and ecological drift; i.e., stochastic temporal change) between population-genetic and community levels. Evidence for both selective and neutral explanations is compelling in this system. The explanations cannot be disentangled with the current data, but the study has strong heuristic value that we hope will stimulate future efforts in stream metacommunity analysis.


The use of sugarcane harvesting without residue burning is a common harvesting management in Brazil. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of harvest systems and management of sugarcane with and without trash incorporation and of burned sugarcane on soil physical attributes as on production of stems in a Red Yellow Latosol (Typic Hapludox). The treatments can be described as sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) with burning and manual cutting; sugarcane without burning and automated cutting, with incorporation of chopped residue down to 0.30 m; sugarcane without burning and automated cutting, without incorporation of chopped residue. The particle size distribution, soil organic matter, aggregate stability, bulk density and soil porosity in 0.0–0.1, 0.1–0.2 and 0.2–0.3 m depths were determined as well as soil resistance to penetration and soil moisture in 0.0–0.1, 0.1–0.2, 0.2–0.3 and 0.3–0.4 m depths. The systems sugarcane without burning and sugarcane with residue incorporation revealed the highest stalk production and higher values of organic matter, aggregate stability, macroporosity, water content and smaller values of soil resistance to penetration and bulk density of soil, compared to sugarcane system without incorporation of residue and burned sugarcane.


The process of leaving deeply meaningful and embodied identities can be experienced as a struggle against addiction, with continuing cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses that are involuntary, unwanted, and triggered by environmental factors. Using data derived from a unique set of in-depth life history interviews with 89 former U.S. white supremacists, as well as theories derived from recent advances in cognitive sociology, we examine how a rejected identity can persist despite a desire to change. Disengagement from white supremacy is characterized by substantial lingering effects that subjects describe as addiction. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of identity residual for understanding how people leave and for theories of the self.


Traditionally, interaction methods for wearable computers have focused on input to the computer itself, yet little has been done when it comes to allowing interaction with the surrounding environment. Pervasive computing, on the other hand, offers access to computational power from any place all the time, yet most interaction techniques utilize either physical hardware or monitoring of the user in order to receive input. This paper presents a novel form of interaction by which a wearable computer user can interact with and control a pervasive computing environment in a natural and intuitive manner. Using sensors, the user can be allowed to literally "throw" events into the environment as a way of interacting with devices and computers.


In recent years, social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook have drawn attention from companies and researchers interested in detecting trends. The informal nature of status updates from these services leads to a higher volume of updates, because each update takes little care to generate, but each update is usually short and noisy (misspellings, lack of punctuation, non-standard abbreviations and capitalization). These shortcomings cause traditional Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to have substantially lower accuracy than is found with structured text such as newswire articles. We present a system for improving the accuracy of one NLP technique, Named Entity Recognition or NER, on Twitter data by training a recognizer specifically for this type of data. NER is the process of automatically recognizing which words are names of people, places, or organizations. This trained model is compared to baseline entity detection rate with an off-the-shelf NER system.


Rotaviruses are the commonest cause of severe watery diarrheal disease in infants and young children, causing an estimated 352,000–592,000 deaths per year, mostly in developing countries. In 1999, the first rotavirus vaccine to be licensed in the USA (RotaShield®) was withdrawn . However, before use of the vaccine was suspended, several economic evaluations were performed. Recently, two rotavirus vaccines, Rotarix® and RotaTeq®, have completed Phase III clinical trials. The first economic evaluations of these new rotavirus vaccines are now appearing. The purpose of this paper is to review the existing cost–effectiveness evidence-base, and to provide methodologic suggestions for future analyses.


This paper is concerned with allowing the user of a wearable, portable, vision system to interact with the visual information using hand movements and gestures. Two example scenarios are explored. The first, in 2D, uses the wearer's hand to both guide an active wearable camera and to highlight objects of interest using a grasping vector. The second is based in 3D, and builds on earlier work which recovers 3D scene structure at video-rate, allowing real-time purposive redirection of the camera to any scene point. Here, a range of hand gestures are used to highlight and select 3D points within the structure and in this instance used to insert 3D graphical objects into the scene. Structure recovery, gesture recognition, scene annotation and augmentation are achieved in parallel and at video-rate.


This study aims not only to find out status of rural infrastructural development in Pakistan but also to investigate role of infrastructure in rural poverty reduction. Twin detached analyses have been utilized on two different secondary datasets based on temporally contemporary surveys. Firstly, with the help of 'Pakistan 2008 MOUZA Statistics', a comprehensive and composite index of principal infrastructural variables accessible to rural communities has been constructed while assigning higher weights to lower variances. Secondly, logit estimation is applied to 8480 observations of 'HIES (2005-06)' relating to rural households to explore hypothesized positive role of infrastructure in poverty reduction. The analysis not only points out a poor status of rural infrastructural development in Pakistan but also highlights its positive but secondary role in poverty eradication of rural areas.


This essay examine the meaning produced around bodies and body fat in the queer community, but also in the surrounding straight community. The author has interviewed fat activists, and are using queertehory, to examine and analyze the relationship between body fat and the understanding and construction of sexuality and gender. The author concludes that even if norms around body shape and body fat are overlapping between the two contexts to some degree, they also differ. In the straight community, people with larger body shapes and sizes are punished, and encouraged to stay, or become, slim. However, in the queer community, "fat" or bigger body sizes are not frowned upon in the same degree. Even if the slim bodily ideal still is present in the queer community in some degree this bodily ideal seems to be changing and be replaced by more diverse ideals. The author describes how bodily ideals and ideals surrounding body fat factors into the construction of categories such as gender and sexuality, and concludes on how body fat is a factor in the construction of heteronormativity.


OBJECTIVE
This multicenter open-label clinical trial compared the efficacy and safety of repaglinide/troglitazone combination therapy, repaglinide monotherapy, and troglitazone monotherapy in type 2 diabetes that had been inadequately controlled by sulfonylureas, acarbose, or metformin alone.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
Patients with type 2 diabetes (n = 256) who had inadequate glycemic control (HbA1c > or =7.0%) during previous monotherapy were randomly assigned to receive repaglinide (0.5-4.0 mg at meals), troglitazone (200-600 mg once daily), or a combination of repaglinide (1-4 mg at meals) and troglitazone (200-600 mg once daily). After a 4-6 week washout period, the trial assessed 22 weeks of treatment: 3 weeks (weeks 0-2) of forced titration, 11 weeks of fixed-dose treatment (weeks 3-13), and 8 weeks (weeks 14-21) of titration to maximum dose. Changes in HbA1c and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) values were measured.

RESULTS
The combination therapy showed a significant reduction in mean HbA1c values (-1.7%) that was greater than with either type of monotherapy Repaglinide monotherapy resulted in a reduction of HbA1c values that was significantly greater than troglitazone (-0.8 vs. -0.4%) (P < 0.05). Combination therapy was more effective in reducing FPG values (-80 mg/dl) than either repaglinide (-43 mg/dl) or troglitazone (-46 mg/dl) monotherapies. Adverse events were similar in all groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Combination therapy with repaglinide and troglitazone leads to better glycemic control than monotherapy with either agent alone. Repaglinide monotherapy was more effective in lowering HbA1c levels than troglitazone monotherapy Repaglinide/troglitazone combination therapy was effective and did not show unexpected adverse events.


Inventory of records of Bosque County. Begins with an introduction and explanation of the roles of various county government offices. Describes the records of the Commissioners Court, County Judge, County Clerk, County Court, County Attorney, District Clerk, Justice of the Peace, Sheriff, Tax Assessor-Collector, Treasurer, and Auditor. Also provides a listing of Bosque County records and an index.


The tragic death of Adelaide AFL coach Phil Walsh has once again brought the issue of family violence to the forefront of the nation's consciousness. Family homicides account for 41% of murders in Australia, with the majority of those being intimate partner homicides. Parricide, or an individual killing their parent(s), accounted for 4.8% of homicides in the ten years to June 30, 2012. It is our third-most-common form of family homicide.

Australia's rate of parricide is comparable to that reported for other Western nations, which range from 2-6% of homicides. Averaging out to around one death a month, parricide causes significant shock and confusion within the community. With a private memorial service for Walsh being held at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday, the question for the community is what can be done to reduce the number of such tragedies.

Current research indicates that offenders tend to fall into one of two basic categories: younger offenders, often in their late teens, who appear to have been victims of ongoing abuse; and older offenders, typically in their mid-20s, who are found to have been suffering from a psychotic episode. As a result of these two issues of abuse and mental illness, many families suffer in silence and shame, but their suffering is often a consequence of a broader failure of society to face up to and act on these social problems.


The frequency conversion of cw continuous variable quantum states via second-order nonlinear optical processes is theoretically analyzed. It is shown that wideband frequency conversion of cw continuous variable quantum states is feasible by sum-frequency generation. For difference-frequency generation, besides as an optimal-phase-conjugation frequency-conversion process, any one quadrature of the quantum state can be frequency converted through it. Particularly, we analyze the influence of pump field fluctuations on the fidelity of the frequency-conversion process for a coherent state input.


At the global level, it appears that acceptance for integrated water resources management (IWRM) has been growing. In a status report by the United Nations in 2012, 82% of the 134 nations which responded indicated that they had embarked on reforms to achieve integrated approaches to water resources management. Over the last decade in the Caribbean there have been similar IWRM agendas. However, so far efforts to embed IWRM in the region have yielded few results. Hence it is appropriate to ask what has been the progress with adopting an integrated approach to water management in the Caribbean and are there lessons that can be learnt? The paper seeks to provide some answers to those two questions. An overview of the various national and regional IWRM initiatives over the last decade provides the basis on which the evaluation of the successes or otherwise is made. This is complemented by an assessment of the enabling conditions and the extent to which they have been able to support developments. The analysis of contributing factors uses a stakeholder characterisation typology developed by Mitchell and Agle. Finally, the need for 'brokering' actors as an integral part of policy reform is identified as a necessary element of success.


Problems that occur in the implementation of 2013 Curriculum is the lack of understanding in the learning process assessment and learning outcomes. The concept of thorough learning takes longer time, it also requires teachers understanding to the ability of the student individually. Teachers also do not fully understand the concept of authentic and continuous assessment. The aim of this study is to improve the classroom teachers' understanding toward authentic assessment with training model based on participants' activeness. This research used Classroom Action Research approach with two cycles. The techniques of collecting data are questionnaires (self-assessment), interviews, and portfolios. The data were analyzed using triangulation with consideration to the three types of data. The result showed an improvement in the teachers' understanding on authentic assessment. This is indicated by the improvement of the average from pretest to posttest in the cycle 1 is 9.25 and cycle 1 to cycle 2 is 13.19.


Dual federalism is dead, but its spirit continues to haunt contemporary discussions of federalism. Neither courts nor scholars embrace dual federalism's goal of creating exclusive and non-overlapping spheres of state and national authority. Nevertheless, the dualist conception of federalism as a line-drawing exercise persists. This Article offers an alternative conception that understands the interaction of national and state governments, rather than their separation, as the primary means of realizing the aims of federalism. The focus on drawing lines between state and federal authority has led current federalism doctrine in unfortunate directions. In an attempt to create a protected realm of state control, the Rehnquist Court has used the concept of "noncommercial" activity as a limit on federal power. The distinction between commercial and noncommercial activity, however, has proven difficult to define. At the same time, the Court's conception of federalism has provided no assistance in clarifying the relationship of state and national authority in the vast areas of inevitable overlap. With regard to preemption and the dormant Commerce Clause, areas in which the "noncommercial" activity category has no application, the Court has failed to produce a coherent federalist approach. Instead the Court has broadly restricted the exercise of state power. Contemporary scholarly debates about federalism have been plagued by similar dualist tendencies. Commentators engage in irreconcilable disputes over the potential benefits and harms of separating state and federal authority. Dualist theories, moreover, provide no guidance to legislatures or courts in resolving the inevitable conflicts that arise in areas of concurrent state and federal regulation. Existing scholarship thus offers little assistance in assessing such important federal-state initiatives as the federal No Child Left Behind Act. After examining some promising, but ultimately unsatisfactory alternatives, the Article offers a "polyphonic" conception of federalism to replace the now regnant dualism. Polyphonic federalism does not divide state and federal authority, but instead seeks to harness the interaction of state and national power to advance the goals associated with federalism. By rejecting the need to draw lines between state and federal realms, the polyphonic conception avoids the problems that have plagued judicial doctrine and federalism theory. The Article concludes by illustrating how courts can serve as crucial nodes of interaction between federal and state authority. In this way, the courts can fulfill the goals of federalism, including the protection of individual rights.


UV-B is an integral component of the daylight spectrum that regulates plant gene expression and development, but very little is known about how plants perceive UV-B. Although UV-B-induced damage and repair have been extensively investigated, the mechanisms by which UV-B is perceived as a signal, which mediates physiological and protective responses is not yet clearly understood neither in mammals, nor in higher plants. Low fluence rates of UV-B induce the expression of genes involved in UV-protective responses such as flavonoid biosynthesis and promote plant survival in UV-B.

The aim of this study is to contribute to the elucidation of the signal transduction events that lead to the acclimation of plants in response to non-damaging levels of UV-B (< 3.5 μmol m-2 s-1). In particular, the characterisation of UVR8 (UV-RESISTANCE LOCUS 8), a UV-B specific signalling component, is carried out at the protein level. The function of UVR8 involves the orchestration of the expression of a range of genes mediating vital UV-protective responses, including those encoding light-regulated transcription factors HY5 and HYH, enzymes involved in the phenylpropanoid pathway, antioxidant and stress proteins (Brown et al., 2005). UVR8 shows 30% sequence identity to the human regulator of chromatin condensation (RCC1) but differs both in activity and function. The phenotype of uvr8 mutant plants is characterised by an increased susceptibility to UV-B and the lack of the UV-B-specific induction of genes involved in UV-protection, such as CHS (encoding the flavonoid biosynthetic enzyme chalcone synthase) and the transcription factor HY5. The UVR8-mediated regulation of transcription in response to UV-B seems to occur via the association of UVR8 with chromatin via histones in the promoter region of HY5 (Brown et al., 2005) and other genes involved in light signalling.

In this study, further investigation of the mechanism by which UVR8 acts as a UV-B specific signalling component is performed by employing a number of approaches including: spatial, temporal protein analysis, subcellular localisation studies, structure-function analyses, and the yeast-two-hybrid assay for the identification of UVR8 interacting proteins.
To study spatial, temporal and wavelength specific UVR8 protein abundance anti-UVR8 peptide antibodies were generated. Western blot analyses showed that UVR8 is ubiquitously expressed in all plant tissues from the very early stages of development and at every light treatment tested (dark, white light, UV-B).

The subcellular localisation of UVR8 analysed by confocal fluorescence microscopy revealed that a fusion of UVR8 with green fluorescent protein (GFP) is localised in the cytoplasm and the nucleus of various plant tissues (leaf, hypocotyl, root, flower) and under various light fluence rates and qualities (white, red, UV-A, UV-B).
Interestingly, a treatment of low fluence rates of UV-B led to an increase of GFP-UVR8 protein accumulation in the nucleus, which was confirmed by western blot analysis based on protein fractionation studies in wild-type plants. The wavelength specificity, the kinetics and the fluence-rate sensitivity of GFP-UVR8 nuclear accumulation suggest that this response is UV-B specific, rapid (10 min UV-B) and very sensitive to very low fluence rates of UV-B (0.1 μmol m-2 s-1). Protein synthesis does not seem to be involved in this process, as there is no change in the protein levels before and after a UV-B irradiation.
To assess the importance of the presence of UVR8 in the nucleus and the cytoplasm of the plant cell, uvr8-1 transgenic plants were produced expressing either constitutively nuclear localised GFP-UVR8 fused to a nuclear localisation signal (NLS), or cytosolically retained GFP-UVR8 fused to a nuclear export signal (NES). Nuclear exclusion of NES-GFP-UVR8 fusion protein was sustained under most light conditions apart from UV-B, which induced nuclear import of the protein. This indicates that the mechanism involved in the nuclear accumulation of UVR8 can overcome an export signal either by masking it or by simply superseding it. Furthermore, the NES-GFP-UVR8 construct was functional after UV-B treatment, since it rescued the mutant uvr8 phenotype. None of the inhibitor treatments tested (staurosporine, cycloheximide, cantharidin) was successful in blocking the UV-B induced nuclear import of NES-GFP-UVR8, although they impaired the UVR8 regulated induction of CHS expression. Thus, no evidence is presented for a specific protein modification, which could control this response.
Constitutive nuclear localisation of NLS-GFP-UVR8 had no effect on the function of the protein according to complementation analyses. Furthermore, no change in localisation, fluorescence intensity or protein abundance was observed in response to white light or after a UV-B irradiation. These results indicate that the constitutive nuclear localisation of UVR8 is not sufficient for constitutive activation of UVR8 regulated gene expression and that a UV-B stimulus is still necessary to trigger these responses. Unfortunately, based on the current data it cannot be concluded whether the UV-B signal perception occurs in the nucleus or in the cytosol of the plant cell.

To investigate the structure-function relationship within the UVR8 protein, deletion analyses followed by complementation studies in transgenic plants were performed. More specifically, deletion of the first 23 amino acids at the N-terminus of UVR8 impaired its nuclear accumulation in response to UV-B. Deletion of a 27 amino acid region near the C-terminus had no effect on the UV-B dependent re-localisation of the protein, but abolished UVR8 regulated gene expression. In addition, a highly basic sequence at the extreme C-terminal of UVR8, resembling a putative monopartite nuclear localisation signal, was deleted. Subcellular localisation and complementation analyses suggest that this sequence does not serve as a nuclear localisation signal, it is not involved in the UV-B induced nuclear accumulation and its absence does not affect UVR8 protein function. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays show that none of the regions deleted is required for chromatin association and none of the deletions affects subcellular localisation in white light.

In order to identify interacting partners for UVR8, the yeast-two hybrid system was used. Unfortunately no interacting proteins have been identified, neither from a screen, nor by directed-interaction studies. A different approach could be employed in the future involving size exclusion chromatography of protein extracts from plants in order to establish whether UVR8 functions as part of a complex in vivo.


While the field of computer vision drives many of todays digital technologies and communication networks, the topic of color has emerged only recently in most computer vision applications. One of the most extensive works to date on color in computer vision, this book provides a complete set of tools for working with color in the field of image understanding.Based on the authors intense collaboration for more than a decade and drawing on the latest thinking in the field of computer science, the book integrates topics from color science and computer vision, clearly linking theories, techniques, machine learning, and applications. The fundamental basics, sample applications, and downloadable versions of the software and data sets are also included. Clear, thorough, and practical, Color in Computer Vision explains:Computer vision, including color-driven algorithms and quantitative results of various state-of-the-art methodsColor science topics such as color systems, color reflection mechanisms, color invariance, and color constancyDigital image processing, including edge detection, feature extraction, image segmentation, and image transformationsSignal processing techniques for the development of both image processing and machine learningRobotics and artificial intelligence, including such topics as supervised learning and classifiers for object and scene categorization Researchers and professionals in computer science, computer vision, color science, electrical engineering, and signal processing will learn how to implement color in computer vision applications and gain insight into future developments in this dynamic and expanding field.


Focus groups were used to explore drivers understanding of fatigue, the associated crash risk, and strategies for preventing or combating fatigue. Participants appeared to understand that fatigue impairs driving. The role of personal experience in learning about the risks and symptoms of fatigue, and about how to cope with fatigue, was highlighted. Some participants appeared to believe (incorrectly) that fatigue can be overcome through willpower. Focus group participants were able to describe a range of strategies for combating fatigue, but many of these have been shown to be ineffective. Interestingly, powernaps, which have been widely promoted within the media were thought to be ineffective by a large proportion (approximately half) of participants. Potential mechanisms for disseminating messages about fatigue to the driving public were also discussed. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E215375.


Multi-angle spectral radiance images from the Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS) on the European Space Agency's Proba satellite were acquired over desert grasslands in the USDA, ARS Jornada Experimental Range near Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA. The data were used to obtain multi-angle ratio images and to effect spatial bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model inversions. The results show that there is canopy 3-D structure information observable in ratio images but physical interpretation is difficult. Inversion of a simple non-linear model for three canopy parameters resulted in low root-mean-square error values. The difficulty of decomposing the effects of brightness and reflectance anisotropy (BRDF shape) in complex desert shrub landscapes with varying soil-understory characteristics was overcome by allowing linear scaling of the parameters of the soil-understory sub-model as a function of near-nadir 631 nm reflectance. The retrieved parameter maps show a high spatial correlation between width and height but a different distribution for density. Examination of high resolution panchromatic and multi-spectral imagery shows that there are strong relationships between the retrieved parameters and canopy characteristics although further validation is required


Recent innovations in mobile wireless technology have instigated a debate between two camps of legal scholars about how policymakers should structure federal administration of the electromagnetic spectrum. The first argues that the Federal Communications Commission should define spectrum use rights more clearly and give spectrum licensees near fee-simple property rights in frequencies that they can use and sell in secondary markets as they wish. The second camp argues that, rather than award exclusive licenses to the highest bidder, the FCC ought to open much if not most of the spectrum to unlicensed use by smartphones and tablets equipped with the newest spectrum administration technology. This Article shows that, first, both of these camps comprise a new orthodoxy that eschews conventions in public lawmaking in federal spectrum administration for an approach that is sealed away from direct public scrutiny. This emergent approach assumes that the market for emergent smart spectrum sharing technologies can more objectively realize the public interest than public participation in the policymaking processes.Second, this Article challenges the new orthodoxy by arguing that local public participation in federal spectrum administration in particular can align the new technologies with the diverse priorities of each community in ways that neither the technologies alone nor the markets for them ever can. It is of no legal or normative consequence, it asserts, that substantive federal spectrum policy encourages commercial adoption of the newest technology. Rather, the Article posits, lawmakers in this field ought to create procedural mechanisms in federal spectrum administration that accommodate local communities' diverging interests. In the end, the Article proposes a solution based on relatively recent legal scholarship and developments in public law administration.


The increasing size and complexity of scientific data could dramatically enhance discovery and prediction for basic scientific applications. Realizing this potential, however, requires novel statistical analysis methods that are both interpretable and predictive. We introduce Union of Intersections (UoI), a flexible, modular, and scalable framework for enhanced model selection and estimation. Methods based on UoI perform model selection and model estimation through intersection and union operations, respectively. We show that UoI-based methods achieve low-variance and nearly unbiased estimation of a small number of interpretable features, while maintaining high-quality prediction accuracy. We perform extensive numerical investigation to evaluate a UoI algorithm ($UoI_{Lasso}$) on synthetic and real data. In doing so, we demonstrate the extraction of interpretable functional networks from human electrophysiology recordings as well as accurate prediction of phenotypes from genotype-phenotype data with reduced features. We also show (with the $UoI_{L1Logistic}$ and $UoI_{CUR}$ variants of the basic framework) improved prediction parsimony for classification and matrix factorization on several benchmark biomedical data sets. These results suggest that methods based on the UoI framework could improve interpretation and prediction in data-driven discovery across scientific fields.


The learning in neural network takes place with the help of Back Propagation Algorithm. The more the number of datasets, the more improved the learning will be. To facilitate the learning process to take place in a secure manner, the cloud platform is used. The cloud distributes the keys to the owners, the participating entities in the learning process. The owners encrypt their data using AES cryptography and then the cloud manipulates the ciphertext using BGN homomorphic algorithm. The collaborative learning takes place in cloud enabling the owners to share the data and then train the neural network with different datasets. Thus the scalability of the learning process is improved.


The aim of the study was to produce chicken breast meat emulsions with the addition of different hydrocolloids that would have comparable, or better, textural properties to those produced with phosphates (E 450-452). We prepared 10 emulsions from mechanically separated chicken breast meat (as three experimental repetitions) with the additions of: phosphates (control; 0.7%), and three different levels of carrageenan and xanthan (0.5%, 0.8%, 1%), and of potato starch (1%, 1.5%, 2%). Instrumental measurements of colour (CIE L*, a*, b*) and texture (texture profile analysis, stress relaxation tests) were performed, along with evaluation of the sensory attributes (descriptive analysis). These chicken breast meat emulsions with different hydrocolloids significantly differed in their instrumentally measured colour values and most texture parameters (hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess, chewiness, resilience, F0, Y30), and in some of the sensory attributes (colour, firmness, aroma). The increases in carrageenan and potato starch additions affected some of the measured colour values and the sensory attributes, although the measured texture parameters were not affected. The increases in xanthan addition showed changes for the colour, texture and sensory profiles. These chicken breast meat emulsions with phosphate (0.7%), carrageenan (0.5%, 0.8%) and potato starch (2.0%) were most similar in colour, texture and aroma. Those with potato starch showed non-significant trends for improved attributes compared to the control group, due to their intense aroma.


Whilst working in Hong Kong from 1993 to 2005, firstly for the Geotechnical Engineering Office of the Hong Kong Government and then for various international consultants, I was involved in a number of important research studies, landslide investigations and construction projects where I was able to make a significant contribution to science, knowledge and practice under the theme of slope engineering. This work was carried out in what I have described as the engineering geology approach which has six interrelated objectives: identification of vulnerable slopes; constraint of slope defect; definition of slope geological and hydrogeological model; geotechnical characterisation; slope design; and design verification – constructability. Six projects are described in this narrative (Volume 1 of the submission) supported by published reports, papers, and research articles which are reproduced in Volumes 2 to 5. The establishment of the Hong Kong Slope Safety System (HKSSS) in Hong Kong in 1977 has developed over the subsequent 28 years into what is considered one of the most sophisticated slope safety systems in the world. The Chai Wan Area Study (Volume 2), the Site Characterisation Study (Volume 3), and the Lai Ping Road investigation (Volume 4) have made positive contributions to the HKSSS through: the development of new slope investigation techniques; the advancement in understanding of the formation of "clay rich seams" and their role in slope instability; and the application of detailed geomorphological mapping of failure scarps in the understanding of slow moving retrogressive landslides. Further work carried out in my role as Resident Geotechnical Engineer for the Foothill Bypass project and Senior Resident Engineer for the Deep Bay Link project contributed to the HKSSS through: developing an understanding of the residual strength of weathered rock in Hong Kong; natural terrain hazard mitigation, in particular a cost benefit approach in scenarios where there is only an economic risk; and in the design and construction of long soil nails in aggressive ground conditions and the use of double corrosion protection systems for long soil nails.


Glacier inventories provide essential baseline information for the determination of water resources, glacier-specific changes in area and volume, climate change impacts as well as past, potential and future contribution of glaciers to sea-level rise. Although Greenland is heavily glacierised and thus highly relevant for all of the above points, a complete inventory of its glaciers was not available so far. Here we present the results and details of a new and complete inventory that has been compiled from more than 70 Landsat scenes (mostly acquired between 1999 and 2002) using semi-automated glacier mapping techniques. A digital elevation model (DEM) was used to derive drainage divides from watershed analysis and topographic attributes for each glacier entity. To serve the needs of different user communities, we assigned to each glacier one of three connectivity levels with the ice sheet (CL0, CL1, CL2; i.e. no, weak, and strong connection) to clearly, but still flexibly, distinguish the local glaciers and ice caps (GIC) from the ice sheet and its outlet glaciers. In total, we mapped ~ 20 300 glaciers larger than 0.05 km 2 (of which ~ 900 are marine terminating), covering an area of 130 076 ± 4032 km 2 , or 89 720 ± 2781 km 2 without the CL2 GIC. The latter value is about 50% higher than the mean value of more recent previous estimates. Glaciers smaller than 0.5 km 2 contribute only 1.5% to the total area but more than 50% (11 000) to the total number. In contrast, the 25 largest GIC (> 500 km 2 ) contribute 28% to the total area, but only 0.1% to the total number. The mean elevation of the GIC is 1700 m in the eastern sector and around 1000 m otherwise. The median elevation increases with distance from the coast, but has only a weak dependence on mean glacier aspect.


One part personal quest to discover running greatness after age 50, one part investigation into what the women's running boom can teach athletes about becoming fitter, stronger, and faster as we age, Older, Faster, Stronger is an engrossing narrative sure to inspire women of all ages. A former overweight smoker turned marathoner, Margaret Webb runs with elite older women, follows a high-performance training plan devised by experts, and examines research that shows how endurance training can stall aging. She then tests herself against the world's best older runners at the world masters games in Torino, Italy. Millions of women have taken up running in recent decades-the first generation of women to train in great numbers. Women are qualifying for the Olympic marathon in their 50s, running 100-mile ultra marathons in their 60s, completing Ironmans in their 80s, competing for world masters records in their 90s. What are the secrets of these ageless wonders? How do they get stronger and faster long after their "athletic prime"? Is there an evolutionary reason women can maintain endurance into advanced years? Webb immerses herself in these questions as she as she trains to see just how fast she can get after 50.


ARCHON ™ (ARchitecture for Cooperative Heterogeneous ON-line systems) was Europe's largest project in the area of Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI). It devised a general-purpose architecture, software framework, and methodology which has been used to support the development of DAI systems in a number of real world industrial domains. Some examples of the applications to which it has been successfully applied include: electricity distribution and supply, electricity transmission and distribution, control of a cement kiln complex, control of a particle accelerator, and control of a robotics application. The type of cooperating community that it supports has a decentralised control regime and individual problem solving agents which are large grain, loosely coupled, and semi-autonomous. This paper will tackle a broad range of issues related to the application of ARCHON technology to industrial applications. Firstly, it gives the rationale for a DAI approach to industrial applications and highlights the characteristics which typify this important domain. Secondly, the ARCHON framework is detailed-with a special emphasis being placed upon the implementation architecture. Thirdly, a brief resumee and status report of the main applications is presented. Finally, the lessons learned and the future plans are presented.


The purpose of this essay is to explore the relevance of Stephen Biddle's theory of the Modern System as a model for explaining victory and defeat. Using a multiple case-study of battles from the Finnish-Russo conflict during the Second World War, comparisons are made between the system, doctrines and actual methods of combat in order to draw conclusions about the relevance of the theory. Results of the study confirm that the Modern System is applicable as an explanatory model since both cases show that the victor used methods of combat more comparable to the system than the loser. However, no relationship could be found between the system and the doctrines used which indicates that the Modern System based purely on doctrine is not enough to explain victory and defeat in combat. Therefore the explanatory value of the system is related to methods of combat rather than written doctrine.


These days, achieving success in the music business requires not only talent and persistence, but a healthy dose of social media savvy. Getting the word out and attracting fans has always played a crucial role in building a music career, and today, much of that audience-building process happens online. Your chances of success will grow as you master the social media platforms that offer benefits to musicians. One of today's most popular and useful social-media outlets for new musicians seeking attention is Soundcloud. In SOCIAL MEDIA FOR MUSICIANS: SOUNDCLOUD, authors Gary and Simone Hiebner tell you everything you need to know to put Soundcloud to work for your music career. Soundcloud offers great playback utilities and allows fans to communicate with artists, building the all-important bond between performer and audience. Make the most of today's social-media tools and put your music career on the fast track with SOCIAL MEDIA FOR MUSICIANS


Steganography involves hiding of text, image or any sensitive information inside another image, video or audio in such a way that an attacker will not be able to detect its presence. Steganography is, many times, confused with cryptography as both the techniques are used to secure information. The difference lies in the fact that steganography hides the data so that nothing appears out of ordinary while cryptography encrypts the text, making it difficult for an outsider to infer anything from it even if they do attain the encrypted text. Both of them are combined to increase the security against various malicious attacks. Image Steganography uses an image as the cover media to hide the secret message. In this paper, we propose an image steganography method which clusters the image into various segments and hides data in each of the segment. Various clustering algorithms can be used for image segmentation. Segmentation involves huge set of data in the form of pixels, where each pixel further has three components namely red, green and blue. K-means clustering technique is used to get accurate results. Therefore, we use K-means clustering technique to get accurate results in a small time period.


This dissertation explores the relationship between ethnicity and nation-building and nationalism in Nigeria. It is argued that ethnicity is not necessarily incompatible with nationalism and nation-building. Ethnicity and nationalism both play a role in nation-state formation. They are each functional to political stability and, therefore, to civil peace and to the ability of individual Nigerians to pursue their non-political goals. Ethnicity is functional to political stability because it provides the basis for political socialization and for popular allegiance to political actors. It provides the framework within which patronage is institutionalized and related to traditional forms of welfare within a state which is itself unable to provide such benefits to its subjects. Ethnicity as identity and as pragmatic pursuit of economic and political advantage are, therefore, the routes to the political centre and so contribute to the legitimacy of the state. Nationalism is functional to political stability because it legitimates state power. However, as an elite ideology to legitimate the control of state power and struggles for it, nationalism articulates ethnicity and destabilizes the society, creating an identity crisis for individuals and communities. As the people increasingly resort to religion to correct their identity crisis, new political actors arise to challenge the existing order, using established religious ideologies to criticise and challenge the oppressive structure of elite-led secular nationalism. The Nigerian experience demonstrates that nationalism is best understood as a result of a continuous tradition in which legitimation claims of a social order are sustained and challenged rather than the result of modern industrialization.


A set of novel approaches for estimating epistemic uncertainty in deep neural networks with a single forward pass has recently emerged as a valid alternative to Bayesian Neural Networks. On the premise of informative representations, these deterministic uncertainty methods (DUMs) achieve strong performance on detecting out-of-distribution (OOD) data while adding negligible computational costs at inference time. However, it remains unclear whether DUMs are well calibrated and can seamlessly scale to real-world applications - both prerequisites for their practical deployment. To this end, we first provide a taxonomy of DUMs, and evaluate their calibration under continuous distributional shifts. Then, we extend them to semantic segmentation. We find that, while DUMs scale to realistic vision tasks and perform well on OOD detection, the practicality of current methods is undermined by poor calibration under distributional shifts.


When people interpret the outcome of a research study, do they consider other relevant information such as prior research? In the current study, 251 college graduates read a single brief fictitious news article. The article summarized the findings of a study that found positive results for a new drug. Three versions of the article varied the amount and type of previous research: (a) two prior studies that found the drug did not work, (b) no prior studies of the drug, or (c) two prior studies that found the drug had a positive effect. After reading the article, participants estimated the probability the drug is effective. Average estimates were similar for the three articles, even for participants who reported more statistics experience. Overall, just 4% of participants appeared to use prior research to make probability estimates—most seemed to focus on the latest study, while ignoring or discounting prior studies. Implications for statistics education and reporting are discussed.


In the first decades of the twentieth century, Broadway teemed with showgirls, but only the Ziegfeld Girl has survived in American popular culture—as a figure of legend, nostalgia, and camp. Featured in Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.'s renowned revues, which ran on Broadway from 1907 to 1931, the Ziegfeld Girl has appeared in her trademark feather headdresses, parading and posing, occasionally singing and dancing, in numerous musicals and musical films paying direct or indirect homage to the intrepid producer and his glorious Girl. Linda Mizejewski analyzes the Ziegfeld Girl as a cultural icon and argues that during a time when American national identity was in flux, Ziegfeld Girls were both products and representations of a white, upscale, heterosexual national ideal.

Mizejewski traces the Ziegfeld Girl's connections to turn-of-the-century celebrity culture, black Broadway, the fashion industry, and the changing sexual and gender identities evident in mainstream entertainment during the Ziegfeld years. In addition, she emphasizes how crises of immigration and integration made the identity and whiteness of the American Girl an urgent issue on Broadway's revue stages during that era. Although her focus is on the showgirl as a "type," the analysis is intermingled with discussions of figures like Anna Held, Fanny Brice, and Bessie McCoy, the Yama Yama girl, as well as Ziegfeld himself. Finally, Mizejewski discusses the classic American films that have most vividly kept this showgirl alive in both popular and camp culture, including The Great Ziegfeld , Ziegfeld Girl , and the Busby Berkeley musicals that cloned Ziegfeld's showgirls for decades.

Ziegfeld Girl will appeal to scholars and students in American studies, popular culture, theater and performance studies, film history, gender studies, gay and lesbian studies, and social history.


This research project aimed to find out and analyse the projects and policies of governments and non-government organisations in order to mitigate the effects of climate change on Ursus maritimus and Panthera tigris tigris. The research was limited by a few factors, primarily the dependence on governments and non-government organisations for results. The two species in question have some similarities. The projects aim was to explore the threats of climate change on each, an issue which faces both the Polar bear and Bengal tiger through different ways.
Ursus maritimus, the Polar bear, is the most immediately at risk animal from of climate change and is the flagship species for conservation against climate change. Despite that, there is presently no long term solution to maintaining the population in the wild. Despite that, a number of policies have been enacted too lessen the impact of pollutants within the Arctic. The Canadian, American and Russian governments, with WWF and Greenpeace play a significant role in the protection of critical habitat within the Arctic, an area which was recognised on an international level as important at the International Forum on Conservation of Polar Bears (2013).
Panthera tigris tigris, the Bengal tiger, also faces a number of threats, climate change is currently a threat to those tigers within the Sundarbans region of India and Bangladesh. However the issues regarding habitat loss is easier to overcome with relocation and appropriate management, as there are a number of tiger reserves across the Indian sub-continent, which are not as threatened from climate change. The major issue for P. tigris tigris is poaching and the majority of policies look to combat this threat.
Overall there is an acceptance for the need to mitigate climate change, and the effects of the current climate upon not only threatened species but all life on Planet Earth. The changes being seen at present represent an unsustainable future for biodiversity; there is a chance that the damages, if not mitigated, will creating lasting damage to the more susceptible habitats on earth, such as those of Ursus maritimus and Panthera tigris tigris.


In an attempt to produce hard magnetic material, ultrafine particles of iron-cobalt alloys and nickel have been produced by an evaporation-condensation technique. To investigate the magnetic properties of these particles, a Faraday Balance Magnetometer was constructed, A Pulsed Field Magnetometer was also employed, These were used to measure magnetization and coercively, and to produce hysteresis loops for random assemblies of particles. The d.c. static and demagnetization remanences have also been measured X-ray diffraction techniques were used to find the structure and lattice parameters of the particles. The morphology was studied with the aid of an electron microscope. The observed values of magnetization can be explained in terms of a core of ferromagnetic material surrounded by a surface oxide layer. For cobalt this layer is antiferromagnetic and for iron it is ferrimagnetic. The results of the electron microscopy show that the particles are almost perfectly spherical and their sizes lie within a normal distribution curve. The peak in the distribution falls at approximately 400A. The' particles show a strong tendancy to chain together. This is believed to be due to magnetic attraction. All the samples show a low remanence to saturation ratio, typically 0.20, and a difficulty to saturate. The resulting hysteresis loops can be explained in terms of fanning, coherent rotation and multi domain mechanisms. It is believed that some of the particles are genuinely single domain, and that their magnetization reverses coherently. In addition there are particles large enough to contain more than one domain. The remaining reversal mechanism which is fanning, was proposed by Jacobs and Bean for a chain of spheres, The above model would appear to be further supported by the results of electron microscopy.


At most land-grant universities in the USA, Introduction to Soil Science is traditionally taught using a combination of lecture and laboratory formats. To promote engagement, improve comprehension, and enhance retention of content by students, we developed a problem-based learning (PBL) introductory soil science course. Students work in groups to solve five real-life problems during the semester for approximately five class periods each. Every problem is contained within a study unit that has learning objectives, relevant resources, as well as a description of the problem. As students work through problems, they go through a PBL cycle of: (i) understanding the question, (ii) identifying what they know and do not know, (iii) finding the information they need, (iv) sharing new information, and (v) identifying new questions. Each group produces a synthesis paper describing their approach and solution to the problem. Tests are based on the learning objectives and students can recapture points by explaining wrong answers. They can also revise synthesis papers. Most students reported improvement in verbal and written communication skills, ability to interact in groups, and problem solving skills. They identified writing and revising synthesis papers, and preparing for, taking, and revising exams as very helpful in learning course content. More than three quarters of students indicated a positive response to the PBL format for Introduction to Soil Science. Exam scores for students taught using PBL were 1 to 8 percentage points higher than those taught earlier by the same instructor using traditional methods.


This study aims to discuss the influence of intellectual capital on corporate performance of the Wholesale and Retail trade companies listed in Borsa Istanbul. The study utilized data collected from 26 listed companies for the period of 2010-2015. The Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAIC) model has been used to calculate Intellectual Capital Efficiency (ICE), while corporate performance has been measured using traditional accounting measures, such as; Market, Productivity, and Financial performance. Market performance is represented by market to book ratio (MB) and price to earnings ratio (PE), productivity performance is measured by assets turnover ratio (ATO), and financial performance is represented by return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and earning per share (EPS) ratios. Panel data regression model is utilized to find the relationship between IC and its components; Human capital Efficiency (HCE), Structural Capital Efficiency (SCE), and Capital Employed Efficiency (CEE), with company's performance represented by Market, Productivity, and Financial performance. The findings indicated that Turkish wholesale and retail trade companies are paying good attention to the use of the VAIC components especially HCE in value creation.


N-Acylethanolamines (NAEs) are endogenous plant lipids hydrolyzed by fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH). When wildtype Arabidopsis thaliana seeds were germinated and grown in exogenous NAE 12:0 (35 µM and above), growth was severely reduced in a concentration dependent manner. Wildtype A. thaliana seeds sown on exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) exhibited similar growth reduction to that seen with NAE treatment. AtFAAH knockouts grew and developed similarly to WT, but AtFAAH overexpressor lines show markedly enhanced sensitivity to ABA. When low levels of NAE and ABA, which have very little effect on growth alone, were combined, there was a dramatic reduction in seedling growth in all three genotypes, indicating a synergistic interaction between ABA and NAE. Notably, this synergistic arrest of seedling growth was partially reversed in the ABA insensitive (abi) mutant abi3-1, indicating that a functional ABA signaling pathway is required for the full synergistic effect. This synergistic growth arrest results in an increased accumulation of NAEs, but no concomitant increase in ABA levels. The combined NAE and ABA treatment induced a dose-dependent increase in ABI3 transcript levels, which was inversely related to growth. The ABA responsive genes AtHVA22B and RD29B also had increased expression in both NAE and ABA treatment. The abi3-1 mutant showed no expression of ABI3 and AtHVA22B, but RD29B expression remained similar to wildtype seedlings, suggesting an alternate mechanism for NAE and ABA interaction. Taken together, these data suggest that NAE metabolism acts through ABI3-dependent and independent pathways in the negative regulation of seedling development.


Courts reward attorneys for investing time in class action lawsuits more generously than they reward them for investing money in the costs of those suits. Class counsel may directly profit on time investments in two ways: by billing lawyers at market rates though paying those lawyers less and by receiving multiplied fee awards. Those same attorneys in those same situations may also recover their costs but courts may not — or at least do not — permit the attorneys either to mark up their costs or to receive cost multipliers. As cost profits are rarely even debated, there is no good defense of why they are unavailable, but one assumes that courts are less comfortable awarding attorneys a markup on their copying machine than they are for their legal work.The assumption that costs cannot be directly profitable appears therefore to belittle costs, relegating them to a secondary position in the fee and cost award analysis and treating them as something of a tagalong or afterthought. Our goal in this Article is to give costs their due. We describe current jurisprudence, demonstrating how, given a choice between investing profitable time or reimbursable costs, profit-maximizing attorneys will find time investment more attractive than cost investment. We then explore the effects of this bias, showing that because cost investments are not directly rewarded, profit-maximizing attorneys will predictably (1) avoid certain cases; (2) select suboptimal modes of proceeding within cases they do bring; and then (3) settle those cases prematurely. Assuming that conclusion is unfortunate, we consider and propose mechanisms for remedying it.While our proposals are initial and therefore tentative, our commitment to the project of centering costs is not: it is grounded in the belief that the legal system's anti-cost-investment bias impedes access to justice for individuals whose claims can be established only with substantial cost investments by entrepreneurial lawyers. Centering costs — and considering measures as conventionally discouraged as permitting third parties to profit from cost investments — has the potential to serve a larger public good.


Ebola virus causes episodic but increasingly frequent outbreaks of severe disease in Middle Africa, as shown by the recently overcome second largest outbreak on record in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Despite considerable effort, FDA-approved antifiloviral therapeutics or targeted interventions are not available yet. ABSTRACT Ebola virus (EBOV) entry into host cells comprises stepwise and extensive interactions of the sole viral surface glycoprotein (GP) with multiple host factors. During the intricate process, following virus uptake and trafficking to late endosomal/lysosomal compartments, GP is proteolytically processed to cleaved GP (GPCL) by the endosomal proteases cathepsin B and L, unmasking GP's receptor-binding site. Engagement of GPCL with the universal filoviral intracellular receptor Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1) eventually culminates in fusion between viral and cellular membranes, cytoplasmic escape of the viral nucleocapsid, and subsequent infection. Mechanistic delineation of the indispensable GPCL-NPC1-binding step has been severely hampered by the unavailability of a robust cell-based assay assessing interaction of GPCL with full-length endosomal NPC1. Here, we describe a novel in situ assay to monitor GPCL-NPC1 engagement in intact, infected cells. Visualization of the subcellular localization of binding complexes is based on the principle of DNA-assisted, antibody-mediated proximity ligation. Virus-receptor binding monitored by proximity ligation was contingent on GP's proteolytic cleavage and was sensitive to perturbations in the GPCL-NPC1 interface. Our assay also specifically decoupled detection of virus-receptor binding from steps post-receptor binding, such as membrane fusion and infection. Testing of multiple FDA-approved small-molecule inhibitors revealed that drug treatments inhibited virus entry and GPCL-NPC1 recognition by distinctive mechanisms. Together, here we present a newly established proximity ligation assay, which will allow us to dissect cellular and viral requirements for filovirus-receptor binding and to delineate the mechanisms of action of inhibitors on filovirus entry in a cell-based system. IMPORTANCE Ebola virus causes episodic but increasingly frequent outbreaks of severe disease in Middle Africa, as shown by the recently overcome second largest outbreak on record in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Despite considerable effort, FDA-approved anti-filoviral therapeutics or targeted interventions are not available yet. Virus host-cell invasion represents an attractive target for antivirals; however, our understanding of the inhibitory mechanisms of novel therapeutics is often hampered by fragmented knowledge of the filovirus-host molecular interactions required for viral infection. To help close this critical knowledge gap, here, we report an in situ assay to monitor binding of the EBOV glycoprotein to its receptor NPC1 in intact, infected cells. We demonstrate that our in situ assay based on proximity ligation represents a powerful tool to delineate receptor-viral glycoprotein interactions. Similar assays can be utilized to examine receptor interactions of diverse viral surface proteins whose studies have been hampered until now by the lack of robust in situ assays.


Summary
Under the auspices of the Ludlow Jute Co., Ltd., an investigation into the epidemiology and local significance of malaria was conducted at the company's jute mill in India from August, 1951, through July, 1952. This mill is located on the banks of the tidal Hooghly River, 17 miles south of Calcutta, and employs 6,000–7,000 workers half of whom (together with dependents) are quartered within the mill compound, the remainder residing in nearby villages. Dwellings within the Ludlow compound have been sprayed with DDT thrice yearly since 1948; an immediately adjacent mill (Gagalbhai) and the nearly villages served as nonprotected reference areas for the study.
Two spleen and blood-smear surveys among children at the mills and in the villages revealed a low incidence of malaria, although a focal outbreak was uncovered at Gagalbhai where the spleen index rose to nearly 15 per cent and the parasite index to 58 per cent; at Ludlow and in the villages, however, both indices remained well below 5 per cent.
Regular mosquito catches (in the two mill areas and in 10 villages) disclosed 13 species of anophelines. Anopheles sundaicus predominated in catches from human dwellings during the height of the malaria season (October–November), accounting for as much as 40 per cent of the total house catch. Naturally infected A. sundaicus were taken during October–December and again in February and a natural infection rate of 0.76 per cent was established for the year; no other species of anopheline was found naturally infected. Mean-unit mosquito catches from Ludlow dwellings were 15 times lower than those from Gagalbhai and 30 times lower than those from the villages. Only rare specimens of A. sundaicus were taken in Ludlow compound dwellings while outside the compound the mosquito was found in focal concentrations.
The malaria season of 1951–1952 was a comparatively severe one locally. At Ludlow during November the malaria rate based on medical leaves issued reached 84 per 1,000; however, at Gagalbhai the rate was very nearly double that for the same period. Malaria rates were also lower among Ludlow compound residents as compared with village-resident Ludlow employees.
The economic significance of malaria at Ludlow may be judged from the following data: during the year 3,408 leaves were issued for malaria (19.0 per cent of all medical leaves) and these resulted in a loss of 7,173 man-days (12.9 per cent of all time lost to illness). In November, the peak malaria month, 33.5 per cent of the medical leaves issued and 24.6 per cent of the days lost were attributable to malaria.
The epidemiology of local malaria is described and the merits and shortcomings of current control operations are discussed.


In patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), rapid reduction of circulating blasts with induction chemotherapy may serve as an in vivo marker of chemosensitivity. We performed a retrospective analysis of 363 patients with untreated AML who received induction chemotherapy in order to determine the relationship between day of blast disappearance (DOBD) and complete remission (CR) rates, event‐free survival (EFS), and overall survival (OS). DOBD ≤ 5 vs. >5 was identified as the most discriminating cutoff for OS. DOBD > 5 was observed in 35 patients (9.6%). The CR rate for patients with DOBD ≤ 5 vs. >5 was 74.0 and 28.6%, median EFS was 9.4 and 1.8 months, and median OS was 17.1 and 5.8 months, respectively (P < 0.001 for all). DOBD > 5 was independently associated with a lower CR rate and shorter EFS and OS (P < 0.001 for all). DOBD > 5 retained prognostic significance for EFS and OS when patients were stratified by cytogenetic risk group, de novo vs. secondary or therapy‐related AML, European LeukemiaNet‐based risk groups, and whether CR was achieved. We propose DOBD > 5 as a simple and early marker of disease resistance that identifies patients with poor prognosis who otherwise may not be identified with existing risk stratification systems. Am. J. Hematol. 91:1221–1226, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Spanish America has produced numerous "folk saints" - venerated figures regarded as miraculous but not officially recognized by the Catholic Church. Some of these have huge national cults with hundreds - perhaps millions - of devotees. In this book Frank Graziano prvides the first overview in any language of these saints, offering in-depth studies of the beliefs, rituals, and devotions surrounding seven representative figures. These case studies are illuminated by comparisons to some hundred additional saints from contemporary Spanish America. Among the six primary cases are Difunta Correa, at whose shrines devotees offer bottles of water and used auto parts in commemoration of her tragic death in the Argentinian desert. Gaucho Gil is only one of many gaucho saints, whose characteristic narrative involves political injustice and Robin-Hood crimes on behalf of the exploited people. The widespread cult of the Mexican saint Nino Fidencio is based on faith healing performed by devotees who channel his powers. Nino Compadrito is an elegantly dressed skeleton of a child, whose miraculous powers are derived in part from an Andean belief in the power of the skull of one who has suffered a tragic death. Graziano draws upon site visits and extensive interviews with devotees, archival material, media reports, and documentaries to produce vivid portraits of these fascinating popular movements. In the process he sheds new light on the often fraught relationship between orthodox Catholicism and folk beliefs and on an important and little-studied facet of the dynamic culture of contemporary Spanish America.


The recognition of 3D object shape is a fundamental issue in vision science. Although our knowledge has advanced considerably, most prior studies have been restricted to 2D stimulus presentation that ignores stereo disparity. In previous work we have shown how analyses of eye movement patterns can be used to elucidate the kinds of shape information that support the recognition of multi-part 3D objects (e.g., Davitt et al. , JEP: HPP, 2014, 40, 451-456). Here we extend that work using a novel technique for the 3D mapping, and analyses, of eye movement patterns under conditions of stereo viewing. Eye movements were recorded while observers learned sets of surface-rendered multi-part novel objects, and during a subsequent recognition memory task in which they discriminated trained from untrained objects at different depth rotations. The tasks were performed binocularly with or without stereo disparity. Eye movements were mapped onto the underlying 3D object mesh using a ray tracing technique and a common reference frame between the eye tracker and 3D modelling environment. This allowed us to extrapolate the recorded screen coordinates for fixations from the eye tracker onto the 3D structure of the stereo-viewed objects. For the analysis we computed models of the spatial distributions of 3D surface curvature convexity, concavity and low-level image saliency. We then compared (fixation) data - model correspondences using ROC curves. Observers were faster and more accurate when viewing objects with stereo disparity. The spatial distributions of fixations were best accounted for by the 3D surface concavity model. The results support the hypothesis that stereo disparity facilities recognition, and that surface curvature minima play a key role in the recognition of 3D shape. More broadly, the novel techniques outlined for mapping eye movement patterns in 3D space should be of interest to vision researchers in a variety of domains. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


The development of safety-critical systems requires the control of hazards that can potentially cause harm. To this end, safety engineers rely during the development phase on architectural solutions, called safety patterns, such as safety monitors, voters, and watchdogs. The goal of these patterns is to control (identified) faults that can trigger hazards. Safety patterns can control such faults by e.g., increasing the redundancy of the system. Currently, the reasoning of which pattern to use at which part of the target system to control which hazard is documented mostly in textual form or by means of models, such as GSN-models, with limited support for automation. This paper proposes the use of logic programming engines for the automated reasoning about system safety. We propose a domain-specific language for embedded system safety and specify as disjunctive logic programs reasoning principles used by safety engineers to deploy safety patterns, e.g., when to use safety monitors, or watchdogs. Our machinery enables two types of automated safety reasoning: (1) identification of which hazards can be controlled and which ones cannot be controlled by the existing safety patterns; and (2) automated recommendation of which patterns could be used at which place of the system to control potential hazards. Finally, we apply our machinery to two examples taken from the automotive domain: an adaptive cruise control system and a battery management system.


In this paper, we discuss logic circuit designs using the circuit model of three-state quantum dot gate field effect transistors (QDGFETs). QDGFETs produce one intermediate state between the two normal stable ON and OFF states due to a change in the threshold voltage over this range. We have developed a simplified circuit model that accounts for this intermediate state. Interesting logic can be implemented using QDGFETs. In this paper, we discuss the designs of various two-input three-state QDGFET gates, including NAND- and NOR-like operations and their application in different combinational circuits like decoder, multiplier, adder, and so on. Increased number of states in three-state QDGFETs will increase the number of bit-handling capability of this device and will help us to handle more number of bits at a time with less circuit elements.


We consider the task of designing truthful mechanisms for single parameter agents. We prove a general sufficient condition for truthfulness when each agent's valuation function for each possible outcome is a one-dimensional function of its type, continuous everywhere and differentiable almost everywhere. For certain types of natural valuation functions, our condition is also necessary. Our condition extends both the Mirrlees-Spence condition [25, 17], applicable only for differentiable real allocations, and Archer and Tardos' single parameter characterization [4], which assumes an agent's valuation is linear in its type.We demonstrate the simplicity of testing our condition by showing that classical criteria for truthfulness in combinatorial problems such as auctions and machine scheduling can be derived from our condition. In addition, we use our condition to derive results for new single parameter problems, which have not been previously analyzed.We also consider combinatorial problems where the true types of agents affect the valuation of each other, such as in machine scheduling with selfish jobs. In such cases there are only degenerate dominant strategy mechanisms. We show that the same condition can be used to design mechanisms which are ex-post truthful, meaning that the outcome where all agents cooperate and report their true type is a Nash equilibrium. We demonstrate the power of this condition by applying it on the problem of machine scheduling with strategic job owners, previously presented in [5]. We give a constant approximation ratio algorithms for the original problem and to the double setting where both jobs and machines are strategic.


This thesis situates the innovations of three English novels from the 1790s by three relatively unknown women writers, Jane West, Charlotte Smith, and Anna Maria Bennett, against the background of a literary climate characterised by highly conventional forms of fiction in either sentimental or satiric modes. Their innovations consisted in the fashioning of parodic forms that would balance emotionality with irony. Through their novels, moreover, West, Smith, and Bennett redefined the terms of aesthetic value in the eighteenth century. Veiling their claims by subtle and sophisticated ironic narrative strategies, they created an irony of their own.Literary reviews of the period regarded the novel as a subliterary form of female entertainment. In West's A Gossip's Story, Smith's The Old Manor House, and Bennett's A Beggar Girl, techniques such as free indirect discourse are used to create narrative voices which question the gendering of forms. Through this study's combination of narratological and historical method, the narrator of West's novel, for example, is shown to be a fusion of two stereotypes from contemporary reviews of novels: the female hack writer and the male literary genius, one connected with confessional sentimentalism, the other with reserved satire.In this period, the circulating library novel was particularly associated with women and with formulaic fiction. West, Smith, and Bennett make this novel the target of a double-edged parody. In the process, they expose general readers of such novels to benevolent ridicule presenting them as Quixotes led astray by fiction. This study traces the attempt of West, Smith, and Bennett to educate their readers by analysing a historically situated implied reader. This education, I believe, prepared readers for the more sophisticated ironic narrative techniques to come, found, for example, in Jane Austen's Emma. I examine such techniques in Austen's novel in tight of the achievement of these earlier novelists. This thesis concludes that innovation in literary history may, in fact, originate in minor as well as major novelists of the past.


Minimum equipment list is the release manual for the flight dispatchers of the airline operation control department, and is the basis about the realization of MEL fault clearance in the flight dispatch. In practice the route repair personnel of maintenance engineering department conduct a deferred defect, complete technology release, and then the flight dispatchers achieve dispatch release. This paper firstly combined the release sequence of airline actual flight, the difference and connection of the maintenance release and dispatch release was analysed, the definition of MEL release was introduced. The classification of MEL release of the flight dispatcher was discussed, it had focus on the restrictive conditions analysis of the MEL auxiliary release and the corresponding countermeasures and advices. Finally, several noticeable issue of MEL release was paid attention. This article provides the theoretical support and reference release for the implementation of MEL release about airline flight dispatchers.


This study investigated students' perceptions of autonomy support from an instructor in relation to students' motivational beliefs on an ePortfolio project. The motivational beliefs of interest included: Effort/Importance, felt Pressure/Tension, and Value/Usefulness. These relationships were further examined with particular focus on the potential moderating role of students' culturally based learning preferences as outlined in Parrish and Linder-VanBerschot's (2010) Cultural Dimensions of Learning Framework (CDLF). This study was quasi-experimental, survey-based research supported by self-reported data collected from a convenience sample of graduate and undergraduate students. Students enrolled in a variety of courses that assigned an ePortfolio assignment received an email invitation from their instructor and self-selected to participate. Based on the responses of 35 students, the findings from this research showed significant relationships between three culturally based learning preferences and the motivational belief of Value/Usefulness. A summary of findings, limitations, and implications for further research are discussed. Autonomy Supportive Instruction as it relates to Students' Motivational Beliefs on an ePortfolio Project: The Moderating Role of Culturally Based Learning Preferences


In this position paper, we discuss our prior and current work on data science work practices and how these might be supported by ubiquitous analytics tools. We argue collaborative tools might reduce risks of false conclusions based on ill-conceived understandings of data sets. Aiming to study this area, we outline research questions within these topics.


We define self-cross correlation as the cross correlation between an image and a truncated part of it. A new method for finding tight object-support bounds by use of the self-cross-correlation information is addressed. These bounds are used in the generalized-projection method to reconstruct photon-limited atmosphere-degraded images. The iterative Fourier-transform algorithm and the generalized-projection method, with use of the autocorrelation function only, have not been preferred to the Knox–Thompson and the triple-correlation methods for phase-retrieval problems, because the use of the autocorrelation function only usually does not give tight object-support bounds. The tight-object-support-bounds constraint is crucial for the uniqueness of phase retrieval by generalized projections. We find that the information contained in the average self cross correlation gives the required tight object-support bounds. The advantage of our method over the triple-correlation method lies in the speed of computation.


The Electric Power Engineering Centre (EPECentre) was launched in 2002 and is governed by a trust board, the Power Engineering Excellence Trust, representative of the New Zealand power industry. It was established in response to a growing industry shortage of qualified electric power engineers, and to plan for and administer the critical issues facing New Zealand's electric power industry. Its purpose is to promote and support the education of power engineers and the study of power engineering as a field of excellence in New Zealand. It is focussed on bringing fresh minds and perspectives to New Zealand power engineering through student-industry interaction, enabling awareness of and planning for future industry challenges. It will be working to encourage greater numbers of students into power engineering courses at Canterbury University, to establish stronger relationships between students and the industry, to increase the quality and quantity of power engineers in New Zealand, and to create and foster power engineering innovation and research. To reach the long-term objectives of the EPECentre, all operational requirements have been identified and a business plan developed, along with a host of programmes, activities, and initiatives. Thus far, a large percentage of these have been implemented including various field trips, scholarships, conferences, conventions, market research, work placement in the power industry for engineering students, etc., which have resulted in increased student enrolments in power engineering courses, and a renewed interest in power engineering research at Canterbury University.


We examined the influence of ultrashort pulses (USP) on sensory neurons. Single and high frequency bursts of 12 ns E‐fields were presented to rat skin nociceptors that expressed distinct combinations of voltage‐sensitive proteins. A single E‐field pulse produced action potentials in all nociceptor subtypes at a critical threshold (Ec) of 403 V/cm. When configured into high frequency bursts, USP charge integrated to reduce the action potential threshold in a frequency and burst duration‐dependent manner with Ec as low as 16 V/cm (4000 Hz, 25 ms burst). There was no evidence of electroporation at field intensities near the Ec for nociceptor activation. USP bursts activated a late, persistent Ca++ flux that was identified as a dantrolene‐sensitive Ca++‐induced Ca++ release (CICR). Influx of Ca++ into the cell was required for the CICR and resulted in a reduction of the single pulse Ec by about 50%. Bioelectromagnetics 32:148–163, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.