This study aimed to examine the achievement goal orientation profiles of  5 th and 7 th grade students and the profile differences in academic achievement and anxiety. Participants were 1652 Portuguese students who responded to the Achievement Goals Scale and the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire. Based on a person-centered approach, a cluster analysis identified six groups of students with distinct motivational profiles: task oriented, ego oriented, success oriented, disengaged, self-defeating oriented and diffuse. Diffuse oriented students was the group with higher number of participants. Concerning the gender composition of clusters, differences arise in the groups of disengaged and self-defeating orientations, with boys predominating in the former and girls in the second group. Regarding age, the success oriented students group was overrepresented by younger students and older students were more likely to adopt disengaged orientations. Clusters also presented different composition when retention was taken into account, with students who have been retained being more represented in the disengaged and diffuse groups. Moreover results showed that goal orientation profiles had effects on academic achievement and anxiety. Success oriented students had the higher grades and profiles including predominantly ego orientations are more related to class and test anxiety.


This paper focuses on actual and ideal partner-age among older Swedes, from a gender perspective on age-homo/heterogamy. The paper is based on a survey to 60–90 year old Swedes, currently either singles or in a cross-gender relationship (married, cohabiting, LAT) (n=1225; response rate 42%). All analyses were made also separately for men and women. Results: Unions tend to follow a traditionally gendered age structure: 56% of men but only 16% of women have a younger partner. This age-pattern is more pronounced for those: in first unions (p<.001); in unions initiated before the 1970s (p<.01). There was no significant variation with union form or urbanity (modernity), and not with either education or income (power resources). Ideal partner-age correlates strongly (p<.001; R2=0,76) with actual partner-age for respondents in unions (ideal only slightly younger). Single men and women are freer to envision a younger partner: almost all (92%) single men and half of the single women (47%) prefer a younger partner (8,9 years younger on average for men; 2,2 for women). The proportion preferring a younger partner increases by age, leading to increasingly incompatible age ideals. The results will be discussed in relation to life-course theory; gender and power; the deinstitutionalization hypothesis.


The nonlinear studies of two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials, specifically graphene, are very significant since graphene is finding its usefulness in handling the enormous heat in nanoscale high-density power electronics. Graphene has emerged to be a promising nanomaterial as an excellent heat spreader due to its high thermal conductivity. However, the experimental nonlinear study of graphene materials and their application in developing future optoelectronic devices demands for more developed research. The research objective is first to build a precise, and sensitive technique to investigate and understand the thermal nonlinear properties, including nonlinear refractive index (n2), nonlinear absorption coefficient (β), and thermo-optic coefficient (dn/dT), which are dependent on the laser power and temperature of graphene thin film materials. Many techniques have been used for measuring the nonlinear parameters, and the Z-scan method has been considered the standard approach due to its simplicity and sensitivity. The main goal of this research was to investigate the thermal nonlinearities of nonfunctionlaized and functionalized graphene thin films without and with gold nanorods (NFG, AuNFG, FG, and AuFG) on glass substrates as well as gold nanorods (AuNRs) in deionized water through using the built Z-scan system. Then finally, the effects of gold nanorods on enhancing the thermal nonlinearity of graphene were studied. In the Z-scan system, a continuous wave (cw) of an argon ion (Ar + ) laser beam was used as the excitation source at wavelengths of 457 and 514 nm. The sample was fixed on a micrometer translation stage and moved in the propagation direction (z) of a narrowly focused Gaussian beam. After that, the transmitted signal, passing through the material, was recorded using a photo detector in the far field. In this dissertation work, the beta-barium borate (BBO) crystal was chosen as an excellent candidate to calibrate and test the accuracy of the built Z-scan system and to investigate the thermal nonlinearities, which was important due to the fact that the BBO crystal has remarkably high thermal and optical properties. In the linear regime, the morphology and physical properties of all the research graphene samples were investigated using different optical and structural analytical techniques, including Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM), and UV-Visible spectrophotometer. The Z-scan experimental study indicated that graphene had a negative value of the nonlinear refractive index with a selfdefocusing performance. These results also concluded that gold nanorods enhance the nonlinear thermal properties of graphene materials. Gold nanorods were proved to enhance the thermal nonlinear absorption of graphene by 50%. Also, there was a large enhancement on the thermal refraction and the change of refractive index with temperature (dn/dT) due to the presence of gold nanorods. Therefore, using a variety of nanostructures for the ability to control the thermal-optical behaviors not only increases but also opens the doors for new application areas, including biomolecular and chemical sensing, cooling systems, photo-thermal therapy, thermal storage in solar cells, and other thermal nonlinear devices. This research contributes to increasing not only the physics, but also chemistry, knowledge about the relation between the graphene nonlinear properties, functionalizationgold nanorods and oxygen groups which, as a sequence, helps scientists and engineers to understand and improve the optical technologies in general.


Since 2015, at least a dozen tribal court banishments have been reported in Alaska, mainly involving alleged bootleggers and drug dealers in rural communities. Rural Alaska communities, which are predominantly Alaska Native, face high rates of alcoholism, drug abuse, and related crime. Faced with these drug and alcohol issues and insufficient access to law enforcement, it is not surprising that some communities have decided to banish offenders. However, banishment is not currently legal, at least when imposed upon nonNative citizens. Tribal courts lack sufficient jurisdiction over non-Natives to banish them for bootlegging or dealing drugs. Tribal governments are sovereigns with inherent powers, but they are subject to certain restrictions under the federal government. Land-based jurisdiction is insufficient to claim jurisdiction in these cases because Alaska lacks significant Indian country and the Montana factors fail to provide definitive support. Tribal jurisdiction, however, should be expanded to allow tribal courts to banish non-Natives for violations of drug and alcohol laws to improve access to justice, decrease the burden on state law enforcement, and improve welfare in rural Alaskan


Polyurethane dispersions (PUD) have established themselves as most versatile polymeric binder in coating, adhesive, sealant, and elastomer industries. Like any other polymers, PUDs also have certain limitations, such as hydrolytic stability, water resistance, and oil resistance. In order to develop these properties, two different polyol families were synthesized. The first polyol can be used in ambient curable systems, and the second can be utilized in ultraviolet radiation cure coatings. For ambient curable systems polyether chemistry based soy-polyol was developed from epoxidized soy fatty acid methyl ester (ESFAME). The cationic ring opening of oxirane oxygen groups from ESFAME resulted in polyol with average hydroxyl number 88 mgKOH/g and number average molecular weight 1517. The indigenous soy-polyol was used as soft segment polymeric chain backbone of aqueous PUD. The PUDs with varying soft segment to hard segment ratios were developed and characterized for film properties, surface properties, chemical resistance, and thermal properties. The PUD (55% bio content) with reasonable aforementioned properties was utilized for further developmental work, where hydrophobicity and oleophobicity of the coatings were improved to meet the goal of the project. Siliconated (Si) and fluorinated (F) polyol was utilized with indigenous soy-polyol, and 7 different polyurethane polymeric chains were fabricated with varying Si and F concentration. The topographical morphologies of these PUDs were monitored with AFM, and the hydrophobicity was monitored with contact angle instrument. All other basic film properties, water and oil resistance properties were thoroughly discussed. Also, the PUDs !! vi! were self-crosslinked with carbodiimide and excellent water resistance and oil resistance coatings were achieved from this research. For ultraviolet curable coatings, novel hydroxylated acrylic epoxidized soybean oil was synthesized from commercially available epoxidized soybean oil (ESO). It was characterized for viscosity, hydroxyl number, iodine number, molecular weight, FT-IR, and NMR studies. The UV-cured coating films were designed from this indigenous acrylated ESO (AESO) and they were tested for pencil hardness, pendulum hardness, impact resistance, adhesion strength, and thermal properties. In order to further improve the mechanical properties, AESO was used in dual curable coatings. The developed instant radiation curable and ambient curable coatings resulted in excellent chemical resistance, optimum mechanical and thermal properties. The advantage of hydroxyl groups of AESO was taken to develop 9 different UV-curable PUDs. The coating properties were characterized based on constant crosslink density, increasing crosslink density. Once again, topographical studies were conducted with AFM, and contact angle studies were used to determine the UV-PUDs water resistance.


ZnO–graphene hybrid materials were successfully synthesized from graphene oxide (GO) and zinc acetate by a facile hydrothermal fabrication method. Three composites of ZnO–graphene hybrids with different graphene incorporation amounts were prepared by changing the dosage of GO. The chemical composition, morphology, and structural characterization reveal that the wurtzite-phase ZnO particles with diameters less than 10 nm were uniformly anchored on the graphene sheets to form ZnO–graphene hybrid materials. The ZnO–graphene hybrids were utilized as anodes in the construction of high-performance lithium-ion batteries. One of the hybrids, the ZnO–HG composite with 71.5 wt% graphene content, exhibits a high reversible specific capacity (749.2 mA h g−1), excellent cycle stability over 100 cycles (70.3% retention), and good rate performance at a high current density of 2 A g−1 (354.1 mA h g−1). Additionally, to further investigate the anodes for practical use in full Li-ion cells, we for the first time, tested the ZnO–graphene anodes at different cut-off voltages. The results show that even at the low cut-off voltage of 0.01–1.0 V, the ZnO–HG anode can still deliver the reversible capacity of 240 mA h g−1, which is qualified for use as an anode material in Li-ion full cells. The excellent performances are attributed to the presence of graphene which has an important role as the ZnO nucleation substrate during preparation, highly conductive agent, and volume expansion buffer during prolonged charge/discharge cycling.


Objective Data on the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in Indians living in the western part of the country are limited. The authors aimed to study the vitamin D status and dietary intake of calcium and phytates in healthy adult volunteers from a city in the western part of India. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary care centre in western India. A total of 1137 young (age: 25–35 years), healthy volunteers of both sexes were included in the study. All subjects were assessed for sun exposure, dietary intake of energy, protein, fat, calcium and phytates. Biochemical investigations included calcium, inorganic phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH), total proteins, albumin and creatinine in serum and spot urinary calcium to creatinine ratio. Results The serum 25(OH)D concentration for the whole study population was low (17.4±9.1 ng/ml), and that for men and women were 18.9±8.9 ng/ml and 15.8±9.1 ng/ml, respectively. Seventy per cent of the study population had hypovitaminosis D (25(OH)D <20 ng/ml) with a slightly higher prevalence in women (76%). Mean dietary calcium intake of the study population was 322.92±135.17 mg/day and was very low when compared with the recommended dietary allowance (400 mg/day for adults of both sexes) issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research. Dietary phytate was much higher than calcium intake with a dietary phytate to calcium ratio of 2.25±0.76. Serum iPTH had significant negative correlation with 25(OH)D (r=−0.23, p<0.001). Conclusion Hypovitaminosis D, low dietary calcium and high phytate consumption are highly prevalent among young healthy adults in the western part of India.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the regenerative effects of chitosan membranes containing tetracycline (TC) applied to surgically created one-wall intrabony defects in beagle dogs. The defects either received chitosan membrane (CH), chitosan membrane containing 0.5%, 1% TC (CH-TC0.5, CH-TC1.0) or flap operation only. The animals were sacrificed 8 weeks after the experimental surgery, and comparative histological and histometric examinations were done. The amount of junctional epithelium migration and connective tissue adhesion did not show any statistically significant differences among the groups. The amount of new cementum regeneration, and new bone regeneration were significantly greater in CH-TC1.0 group than the control (P<0.05). The results suggest that chitosan membrane combined with 1.0% TC may have beneficial effect on the regeneration of bone and cementum in intrabony periodontal defects.


The sustained production of abalone from the five state-managed (Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, and Western Australia) Australian abalone fisheries has contrasted with many of those elsewhere that exhibited rapid and sustained declines in production. Australian abalone fisheries are significant at local, regional, state, national, and international scales. Key attributes are (1) harvesting, processing, and reinvestment of profits occur away from major metropolitan centers; (2) they are among the most valuable wild-catch species in all states; (3) the combined Australian abalone harvest in 2011 (>4,500 t) had a landed value of ∼AU$200M and represented 15% of the Australian total wild-catch production; and (4) this level of production made these fisheries the dominant contributor (60%) to global wild-catch abalone production. Unlike many other abalone fisheries, total catches were controlled by limited entry, quotas, size limits, and geographic boundaries, overseen by stringent compliance regimes, early in their history. Subsequently, state-based research programs, explicitly tasked with providing scientific advice to support management decisions, undertook assessments to match harvests with stock productivity. This information upon which to base management decisions contributed to long-term (>20 years) stable harvests and enabled relationships among stakeholders to develop around consideration of the information and advice for management. In general, rights-holders developed stewardship for the resource, and this has led to numerous important outcomes, including evolving resource co-management and a nationally representative industry entity, the Abalone Council of Australia. The Abalone Council of Australia, state-based industry entities, and ongoing relationships among rights-holders, fishery managers, and researchers play vital roles in addressing and overcoming current and impending challenges for these fisheries. These difficulties include (1) urban encroachment into coastal regions (the so-called "sea change" phenomenon); (2) a growing interest in access to the abalone resource, reflecting the increasing, culturally diverse Australian population; (3) the ever-present threat of illegal fishing; (4) recent total allowable commercial catch reductions, particularly in Victoria and New South Wales, to facilitate stock rebuilding; (5) changing market conditions; (6) declining profitability from increasing operational costs and appreciation of the Australian dollar; and (7) environmental changes, such as prolonged drought and warmer seas associated with shifts in climate. Overall, this review demonstrates that abalone can be harvested sustainably over extended periods, despite aspects of their demography that suggest higher vulnerability to overexploitation, providing the management systems that control harvesting activities and external impacts that encompass several key underpinning elements. This review also identifies likely challenges to sustained production and shows that the future of these stocks and fisheries will require proactive strategies to mitigate current threats to sustainability and to maintain economically viable productivity.


MORPHOLOGY AND MOLECULAR ORGANIZATION OF DEVELOPING WHEAT STARCH GRANULES Renuka N. Waduge Advisor: University of Guelph, 2012 Professor Koushik Seetharaman During starch synthesis, knowledge of how the supra molecular organization of starch granules occur is still unknown. This dissertation begins exploring the changes to wheat starch morphology, structure and organization during granule development. Starches from wheat seeds harvested at different days after anthesis were isolated and studied for their molecular organization at different scales. The interaction of granular starch to iodine vapor was used to reveal information about the physical state of the polymers in the granules. Both large and small granule populations initiated as spherical shaped granules, but large granules changed into lenticular shape, while small granules remained spherical. Blocklet, lamellae, and crystalline structures were well developed already at seven days of maturity, suggesting their presence at the center of mature granules. Furthermore, (i) the size of blocklets decreased from center to the periphery in both granule populations, but at all developmental stages, they were larger in small granules than in large granules; (ii) Lamellae repeat distance was shorter close to the center of granules; (iii) B-type crystallites were mixed with A-type crystallites at the center of granules from both populations, but the proportion of B-type crystallites was higher in large granules, which correlated with a higher proportion of amylopectin long chains in these granules; (iv) The relative crystallinity (RC) of starches from both populations was higher at the center of the granule than that at the periphery. RC was lower in large granules than in small granules suggesting influence of the higher amylose content in large granules, which introduces more defects reducing RC. AFM visualized surfaces with features different from the regular type of surface among immature starch granules, which was interpreted as the amorphous growth ring of the starch granule. Exposure of starches to iodine vapor demonstrated different levels of molecular organization between them and revealed possible interaction of inter-cluster chain segments and spacer segments of amylopectin with iodine. In-situ AFM imaging of the granule surface exposed to iodine vapor under humid conditions revealed that glucan polymers or polymer segments in between and on top of blocklets have the ability to interact with iodine.


Sociological Images is a website aimed at a broad public audience that encourages readers to develop and apply a sociological imagination. The site includes short, accessible posts published daily. Each includes one or more images and accompanying commentary. Reaching approximately 20,000 readers per day, Sociological Images illustrates the potential for using websites as a platform for public engagement in the social sciences. This report provides an overview of the site's history, approach, reach, and impact. The authors also discuss some challenges facing academics interested in blogging for a general audience and some of the features that contribute to the popularity of the site.


A fluctuation-characterization method using an interferometer is ordinarily classically formulated by considering frequency fluctuations. However, it is preferable to treat it quantum mechanically because the method measures q-number quadrature fluctuations at the same time. We formulated an interferometric fluctuation-characterization method by treating quadrature fluctuations as q-number variables and frequency fluctuations as a c-number stochastic variable, and we gave the power spectral density of the fluctuations for pulse light. This method measures fluctuations that are calibrated with shot noise level, and it makes it possible to estimate the fluctuation angle in phase space, which is the quantity that determines transmission characteristics in optical communications. Fluctuations in a laser diode were characterized as an example of measurement.


Online video streaming marks a participatory turn in Colombia's propaganda war. To understand this shift, I analyze a video the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) produced of its kidnapping of 12 provincial parliamentarians in 2002, tracing fragments of that video as they "recombine" online in two other videos that antagonistically resignify the original. I conduct the same exercise with footage of the Colombian military's rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages in 2008 and contrast its celebratory recombinations with those of the FARC video. Building on Michael Warner's theory of publics and counterpublics and Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of "re-accentuation," I argue that "recombinatory circulation" reproduces the biases of Colombia's mass media, constraining pro-FARC counterpublics. I contextualize the circulation analysis with ethnography focused on former hostages, demobilized rebels, and military intelligence officials. Beyond Colombia, I argue for converting interactive circulation into an empirical and analytical prism to illuminate the politics of online publics.


A cheap and direct solution towards engineering better catalysts through identification of novel materials is required for a sustainable energy system. Perovskite oxides have emerged as potential candidates to replace the less economically attractive Pt and IrO2 water splitting catalysts. In this work, excellent electrical conductivity (980 S cm−1) was found for the double perovskite of composition GdBa0.6Sr0.4Co2O6−δ which is consistent with a better oxygen evolution reaction activity with the onset polarisation of 1.51 V with respect to a reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). GdBa1−xSrxCo2O6−δ with increasing Sr content was found to crystallise in the higher symmetry tetragonal P4/mmm space group in comparison with the undoped GdBaCo2O6−δ which is orthorhombic (Pmmm), and yields higher oxygen uptake, accompanied by higher Co oxidation states. This outstanding electrochemical performance is explained by the wider carrier bandwidth, which is a function of Co–O–Co buckling angles and Co–O bond lengths. Furthermore the higher oxygen evolution activity was observed despite the formation of non-lattice oxides (mainly hydroxide species) and enrichment of alkaline earth ions on the surface.


Social media has become a primary mean of content and information sharing, thanks to its speed and simplicity. In this scenario, link previews play the important role of giving a meaningful first glance to users, summarizing the content of the shared webpage within their title, description and image. In our work, we analyzed the preview-rendering process, observing how it is possible to misuse it to obtain benign-looking previews for malicious links. Concrete use-case of this research field is phishing and spam spread, considering targeted attacks in addition to large-scale campaigns.

We designed a set of experiments for 20 social media platforms including social networks and instant messenger applications and found out how most of the platforms follow their own preview design and format, sometimes providing partial information. Four of these platforms allow preview crafting so as to hide the malicious target even to a tech-savvy user, and we found that it is possible to create misleading previews for the remaining 16 platforms when an attacker can register their own domain. We also observe how 18 social media platforms do not employ active nor passive countermeasures against the spread of known malicious links or software, and that existing cross-checks on malicious URLs can be bypassed through client and server-side redirections. To conclude, we suggest seven recommendations covering the spectrum of our findings, to improve the overall preview-rendering mechanism and increase users' overall trust in social media platforms.


ABSTRACT The renewed conflict between Russia and NATO has brought back security concerns over nuclear and conventional deterrence and defence in Europe. Since the days of the Cold War those two elements are closely intertwined, with direct ramifications on arms control policies. This article recalls the post-Cold War history of conventional arms control in Europe. It focuses on the underexplored impact of the US legislative during the mid-to-late-1990s. Relying on open sources from US Congress, the article traces the political standstill on conventional arms control to a crucial Congressional decision in the year 1997 which ultimately tied the future of this arms control regime to the solution of two protracted conflicts in the post-Soviet space. The article challenges the mainstream view that Russia is solely to blame for the dissolution of conventional arms control and concludes that without solving the standstill, nuclear arms control for Europe will as well remain deadlocked.


U.S. state governors led over 500 trade missions in the ten years prior to the recent economic downturn. (1) While state budgets are under pressure during the economic downturn, governor-led trade missions continue, albeit at a somewhat reduced rate. In the last seven years, Nebraska Governor Heineman (or other high-level state officials, such as the lieutenant governor or the head of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture) led nine overseas trade missions, including four to Cuba and two to China. (2) The purpose of governor-led trade missions is to expand existing export markets for products from the state or to open new markets. A state's department of economic development and/or the department of agriculture will plan and coordinate the trade missions depending on the types of products likely to find a market in the targeted country. In the case of trade missions focusing on agricultural products, delegations will include producer associations, growers, and corporations representing agricultural interests. Of the nine overseas trade missions led by the Nebraska governor (or other high-level state officials), delegations have varied in size from 10 to over 60 persons. Nebraska agricultural officials coordinate the state's trade missions with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service, which has roughly 100 offices in 82 countries throughout the world and provides marketing information on an additional 80 plus countries. Governor-led trade missions are also generally coordinated with the U.S. embassy in the visited country as well. Nebraska is not the only state in the nation's heartland engaged in these types of trade missions. Iowa's Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds recently led a delegation to China and had discussions with China's Vice-President Xi. (Interestingly, Iowa Governor Branstad has a nearly 30-year relationship with Vice-President Xi that began when the Vice President was a leading local official in Hebei, China, which established a sister-state relationship with Iowa during Governor Branstad's initial term as Iowa Governor in the mid-1980s). South Dakota Governor Daugaard sponsored a trade mission to China whose timing overlapped in part with the Iowa trade mission, as did a broader U.S. Department of Agriculture trade mission. Minnesota Governor Drayton led a trade mission to China in the last year as well. Nebraska Governor Heineman will be leading another mission to China in July 2012. Countries to be visited on a mission are selected based on a variety of factors. Suggestions from producer groups and USDA marketing information and advice play a key role. Activities of other U.S. states and the high "entry fixed costs" (3) of exporting to particular markets, including language and cultural barriers or great involvement of the government in the economy of the tbreign country, also play a role in selecting countries to be visited. Countries visited may be large purchasers already, potentially vast future markets, or markets that only recently opened to trade with U.S. entities. Nebraska's experience is informative. One of the nine trade missions was to Japan, the single largest purchaser of U.S. corn, soybeans and wheat. Two more missions were to China and/or Taiwan, which are fast-growing markets for U.S. agricultural products, with China now the leading export market for U.S. soybeans. Four trips were to Cuba, a market that only opened in late 2000 to U.S. agricultural exports, with the lifting of sanctions on food and medical exports to the communist country. Newspapers often report "agreements" being concluded between state governors and the foreign country at the conclusion of trade missions. What this typically involves is a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the governor and representatives of the foreign country or government-run import authority of the foreign country in which the foreign entity signals its good-faith intent to purchase a set amount of agricultural products from state producers. …


Are natural rights 'nonsense on stilts', as Jeremy Bentham memorably put it? Must the very notion of a right be individualistic, subverting the common good? Should the right against torture be absolute, even though the heavens fall? Are human rights universal or merely expressions of Western neo-imperial arrogance? Are rights ethically fundamental, proudly impervious to changing circumstances? Should judges strive to extend the reach of rights from civil Hamburg to anarchical Basra? Should judicial oligarchies, rather than legislatures, decide controversial ethical issues by inventing novel rights? Ought human rights advocates to learn greater sympathy for the dilemmas facing those burdened with government? These are the questions that What's Wrong with Rights? addresses. In doing so, it draws upon resources in intellectual history, legal philosophy, moral philosophy, moral theology, human rights literature, and the judgements of courts. It ranges from debates about property in medieval Christendom, through Confucian rights-scepticism, to contemporary discussions about the remedy for global hunger and the justification of killing. And it straddles assisted dying in Canada, the military occupation of Iraq, and genocide in Rwanda. What's Wrong with Rights? concludes that much contemporary rights-talk obscures the importance of fostering civic virtue, corrodes military effectiveness, subverts the democratic legitimacy of law, proliferates publicly onerous rights, and undermines its own authority and credibility. The solution to these problems lies in abandoning rights-fundamentalism and recovering a richer public discourse about ethics, one that includes talk about the duty and virtue of rights-holders.


Starting with the observation that unexpected events offer opportunities for investment gain—and loss—the author suggests a scenario-planning approach that encourages investors to consider the unexpected. When incorporated as part of the investment process, scenario planning increases the likelihood that decisions made today will continue to be valid for the future. This article thus gives an overview of scenario planning and its possible application to the process of investing. The author first provides an example of possible scenarios out in the future and then, having defined scenario planning, discusses how that process would cause one to envisage a portfolio differently. Having suggested four possible guidelines to allow users to benefit from the approach, the author concludes that scenario planning is a powerful tool for thinking about the future as it enforces a long-term view and changes the focus of discussion.


This project is concerned with obstetric complications and cesarean births in a Yucatec Maya community that has recently began interacting with global market economies and Western biomedicine. This research engages with maternal health, reproductive biology, colonial histories, and the global trend of increasing cesarean births. The Yucatec Maya are a short statured population [average adult female height 2010 = 143.2 cm] with historically low obstetric complications and maternal mortality. In the last 30 years, CS rates have risen to account for 25% of all births in this community. Because extreme short stature for population has been linked to obstructed labor and birth complications, this project was designed to determine if stature is impacting the rising rate of CS. Reproductive outcomes and obstetric complications were modeled against height in 3 age cohorts of mothers using one-way ANOVA with a Bonferroni-post hoc test and univariate general linear models. No statistical evidence was found to indicate that stature is related to reproductive outcomes or obstetric complications; however, there is an association between short stature and likelihood of cesarean birth. The dramatic change in birth mode in this population may be attributed to increased availability of biomedical resources, doctor-driven perceptions of indigenous women, and low capacity of rural public hospitals to serve numerous patients in labor.


Rather than quenching all reactive intermediates and arresting
the reaction, the addition of catalytic or stoichiometric (1–10
equiv.) quantities of H2O to organic and organometallic
processes can lead to surprisingly beneficial effects on reaction rate,
product yield, and regio-, diastereo- and enantioselectivity. A most
intriguing aspect of H2O-promoted transformations is the role
that this strong Lewis-base can play in providing a source for more highly
Lewis-acidic species. This scenario is most likely operative when
H2O is added to reaction mixtures containing alanes, but
organozinc reagents or organocuprates also seem to be transformed
accordingly. In addition, the oxide or hydroxide ligand on the metal
presents a source for chelation interactions that change aggregation states
of organometallics and can provide anchimeric assistance. In many cases,
water has been found to be an effective hydrolyzing agent leading to
secondary products that serve as catalysts or promoters. In some cases, it
has been shown that water provides a quenching agent capable of driving
chemical equilibria towards the desired products.


Most people have intuitive associations with the word 'magnetism' based on everyday life: refrigerator magnets, the compass, north and south poles, or someone's 'magnetic personality'. Few people, however, realize how complicated the phenomenon really is, how much research still deals with the topic today, and how much it penetrates our modern industrialized world - from electricity, wireless communication at the speed of light to magnetic sensors in cars and data storage in computers. Stohr's lecture will provide a glimpse at the magic and science behind magnetism: its long history, scientific breakthroughs in its understanding, and its use in our modern society. In the process Stohr will show how research at SSRL/SLAC is addressing some of the forefront issues in magnetism research and technology today.


High quality data are essential for markets to function efficiently. This study describes the production and dissemination of U.S. stock market data and explores how much individual investors are paying for the data. The joint nature of the production of information along with trading, surveillance, and listing services makes it difficult to allocate the fixed costs to customer classes. Data from the competing exchanges are consolidated and distributed through entities known as Securities Information Processor (SIPs). The costs of providing this data fall mainly on the professional investors who value it the most. Professional traders pick up over 80% of the cost of the SIP data. The SIPs intentionally provide real-time data at very low cost to nonprofessional investors and delayed data for free. The inflation-adjusted price of real-time Tape C nonprofessional data has fallen 96.3% since 1987. Since 2008, inflation-adjusted SIP revenues allocated to the exchanges have fallen 23.7%. These cost reductions are one of the many contributors to the massive reduction in trading costs that has occurred in recent years. Not only has the price fallen, but the latency, the amount of time the SIPs take to process and report trades and quotes, has fallen as well. Latency has fallen 99.7% since 2010. The cost for nonprofessional data is quite low. For a very large broker, the cost of real-time nonprofessional data is about $0.17 per customer per month, about the same as a sip of Starbucks.


Abstract
 This paper explores the possibility of detecting certain movements of vehicles that might provide useful information for crime investigations. It is known that existing car following models are interested in microscopic interactions between vehicles in randomly formed pairs. The present work, however, introduces the concept of macroscopic analysis of vehicle positions on a network and the idea of seeking if these movements exhibit any meaningful relationships. First of all detection algorithms are produced for two possible types of detection: (a) was a particular vehicle followed by any vehicle? and (b) did a particular vehicle follow any vehicle? These algorithms assume that every link in the network is equipped with some sort of vehicle identification or tracking device and the identities of all vehicles, such as their number plates, are fed into the program. Then a simulation program is developed to implement the first algorithm (Type (a)), as an example, to visualise the concept. Since the present paper is a preliminary and basic approach to the problem, a number of issues and details requiring further research, together with the directions which could be taken, are also identified and discussed.


The proliferation of genomic data and their widespread data reuse pose new challenges to effectively manage and curate genomic data. This study contributes towards better understanding of 156 genomics scientists' perception and priorities for metadata functional requirements in genome curation work. Our study was guided by previously identified twenty two metadata functional requirements (Willis, Greenberg, & White, 2012), and intended to define a context-sensitive model of groupings for metadata goals in genome curation. Analysis of the results revealed that genomics scientists recognize specific sets of metadata functional requirements in the genome-curation context. These metadata goals were reduced to six factor constructs. The rankings of these constructs in decreasing order are Portability, Reusability, Manipulability, Sufficiency, Interoperability, and Modularity. The findings indicated that genomics scientists need both domain independent and dependent metadata functional requirements that are primarily related to data comparison, integration, and reuse across platforms and databases. The constructs defined by this study advance the understanding of metadata requirements and their relationships. In addition, the resulting metadata requirement model can serve as a valuable resource to genome scientists, data curators and administrators for designing metadata schemes and developing data-curation policies.


The purpose of this paper is to initially review the conceptual landscape of trust within the social sciences in order to highlight under what circumstances trust becomes a crucial concern for human interactions. From this basis, the concept of trust is unpacked alongside similar concepts, such as confidence, and goes on to explore trust within the context of a salient concern with the UK health profession, that is, trust between patients and general practitioners (GPs). As will be demonstrated, issues of trust are heightened under greater situations of vulnerability and uncertainty, which means that health researchers interested in trust between patients and GPs need to be sensitive to the types of medical conditions patients have when examining trust in patient/GP relationships. Building on recent focus group work in the UK specifically designed to explore issues of trust with patient/GP relations (Wiles 2014), and using data from the GP/Patient Survey, a set of multivariate analyses are employed to explain levels of perceived trustworthiness in GPs. The results outline the relative impact that patient characteristics, interactional histories, and GP characteristics have on levels of trust, with strong support given to the role of continuity of care as well as GP specific qualities.


Background: Despite progressive increasing of drug use or drug addiction
particularly with cannabis in young people, knowledge is limited about their
consequences on mental health in adulthood. In Fatick (Senegal), the mental
health hospital "Dalal Xel" receives many young people who present psychiatric
troubles necessitating a hospitalisation. Frequently, their history reveals use
or abuse of cannabis joined sometimes with other drug. Method: From a study
concerning period going from January 2010 to December 2013, the authors attempt
to define the rate of cannabis users in the study's population. Next, they seek
to describe their social and familial characteristics, and the modality of
cannabis use. Finally, they attempt to make correlations between use of cannabis
and diagnostic delivered by doctors. Results: 9.13% of patients who are
received during the study's period report personal cannabis use. The middle
delay between the first use of cannabis and the first apparition of psychiatric
troubles is 4 years and 8 months. The diagnostic of acute delirious episode
(BDA in French) is frequently evocated about a first episode or recidivism.
Evolution respects classic report of 1/3 (good, bad and indeterminate).
Schizophrenia is also evocated in non negligible proportion, particularly in
early and prolonged use of cannabis. Conclusion: Psychopathological disorders are frequent among adolescents
and young adults who are hospitalised in the psychiatric hospital of Fatick.
Use of cannabis in long term seems to provide particularly psychosis.


This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of aqueous, ethanolic and ethyl acetate extracts from neem leaves on growth of some human pathogens (Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus terreus, Candida albicans and Microsporum gypseum) in vitro. Different concentrations (5, 10, 15 and 20%) prepared from these extracts inhibited the growth of the test pathogens and the effect gradually increased with concentration. The 20% ethyl acetate extract gave the strongest inhibition compared with the activity obtained by the same concentration of the other extracts. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) analysis of ethyl acetate extract showed the presence of a main component (nimonol) which was purified and chemically confirmed by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopic analysis. The 20% ethyl acetate extract lost a part of its antifungal effect after pooling out the nimonol and this loss in activity was variable on test pathogens. The purified nimonol as a separate compound did not show any antifungal activity when assayed against all the six fungal pathogens.


This thesis addresses two main issues in slope stability: 1) effect of faults in the large open pit mines and large rock slopes, and 2) improving stability of tailing dames using Hydro-Jex technology. Section 1 Effect of faults in the large open pit mines and large rock slopes: Deep open pit mines and large rock slopes expose many diverse rock lithologies and geological structures in a short period of time. Faulted rock masses reduce the integrity of slopes and can impose significant design challenges for geotechnical engineers. Numerical modeling is a powerful tool for simulating fault response. However, there are few guidelines and methods for calibrating/validating and implementing faults in a numerical model. This study presents a novel laboratory method to calibrate numerical models and highlights the challenges in simulating faults. The weak zone, ubiquitous-joint, and interface techniques are the widely-used methods in the modeling to capture fault slip mechanisms. One of the main issues in reliable modeling of faulted rock structure is the scarcity of experimental analyses in the laboratory under the controlled conditions. Moreover, a comprehensive evaluation of the effect of using the conventional fault modeling methods on the stability of rock structures is required, as well as a benchmarking between theoretical and experimental results. This research combines theory and experiment, in order to fill the existing gaps, using numerical simulation and laboratory measurements. In the numerical simulations, sensitivity and comparative analyses are carried out to investigate the stability of rock slopes on large and small scales (overall open ii pit slope and bench slope), and the fault zones, employing the methods as mentioned earlier in the FLAC3D software. The factor of safety of the slope is monitored upon variation of the design parameters, such as fault and rock mass mechanical properties, fault types, and modeling framework (e.g., mesh density, convergence ratio). Also, parameters such as shear displacement and shear stress are investigated to deduce the failure mechanism of the studied models. Finally, a laboratory test is performed to calibrate the modeling results and approximate the agreement between theoretical and experimental results. It needs to be mentioned that these analyses/tests are not to favor one method over the other, but rather to emphasize on pros and cons of each within the assumptions of this study. Section 2 improving stability of tailing dames using Hydro-Jex® technology: Hydro-Jex is a new enhanced method for heap leach treatments with significantly higher mineral recovery. In this study, the Hydro-Jex operation is case-studied at the Los Filos mine in Mexico for heap leach stability. This is pursued by numerical modeling of the heap leach pad stability and well monitoring of the phreatic surface before and after the HydroJex operation. Experimental and numerical results both indicate an improvement in mineral processing under the influence of Hydro-Jex. Numerical results show an insignificant decrease and significant increase of stability during and after Hydro-Jex, respectively, while the integrity of the liner is maintained in both cases. The injection pressure is found to be negligible compared to the dimensionality of the heap and stability of the structure is not exposed to any significant risk, even up to 25% above the overburden pressure. On the other hand, the heap leach factor of safety increases after Hydro-Jex attributed to the breakdown of the build-up water solution and thus a decrease in the iii phreatic surface. The injection wells are suggested to be drilled in a wise manner based on accurate geophysical data; in locations where over-compaction of the heap material results in water solution build-ups and pore pressure enhancement. Compared to traditional heap leaching, the Hydro-Jex technique could not only expedite the mining process by increasing the chemical extraction, but also increase the stability of the heap by unclogging drains.


Strategic decisions deal with the long-term direction of the firm and its main activities, usually the responsibility of the top managers in an organization. Because the firm is the critical unit of analysis in strategy, we need to define what firms are, how they create value, and what their organizational boundaries are in order to understand their overall performance. However, this must be done in a manner that is most useful for strategic analysis and decision making. In other words, we need a theory of the firm for business strategy. Theory of the Firm for Strategic Management integrates and expands key existing theories, like transaction costs economics and the resource-based view, to develop a value-based theory of the firm. This provides a framework to show how firms can create value for customers and, at the same time, capture economic profits for their owners through business, corporate, international, and social strategies.


Objective: To Study the Relationship between Maternal Hemoglobin and Perinatal
outcome in a cohort of 860 pregnant women and to highlight the importance of
antenatal care regarding maternal health and fetal outcome.
Methods: All Singleton pregnancies delivering at Pakistan Railway Hospital
Rawalpindi from January 2004 to December 2005 that fulfilled the required criteria
were included.
Results: Out of the 860 patients, 402 were anemic (


The quantitative trait locus ahl8 is a key contributor to the early-onset, age-related hearing loss of DBA/2J mice. A nonsynonymous nucleotide substitution in the mouse fascin-2 gene (Fscn2) is responsible for this phenotype, confirmed by wild-type BAC transgene rescue of hearing loss in DBA/2J mice. In chickens and mice, FSCN2 protein is abundant in hair-cell stereocilia, the actin-rich structures comprising the mechanically sensitive hair bundle, and is concentrated toward stereocilia tips of the bundle's longest stereocilia. FSCN2 expression increases when these stereocilia differentially elongate, suggesting that FSCN2 controls filament growth, stiffens exposed stereocilia, or both. Because ahl8 accelerates hearing loss only in the presence of mutant cadherin 23, a component of hair-cell tip links, mechanotransduction and actin crosslinking must be functionally interrelated.


ABSTRACT Genes that are essential for viability represent potential targets for the development of anti-infective agents. However, relatively few have been determined in the filamentous fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. A novel solution employing parasexual genetics coupled with transposon mutagenesis using the Fusarium oxysporum transposon impala had previously enabled the identification of 20 essential genes from A. fumigatus; however, further use of this system required a better understanding of the mode of action of the transposon itself. Examination of a range of conditions indicated that impala is activated by prolonged exposure to low temperatures. This newly identified property was then harnessed to identify 96 loci that are critical for viability in A. fumigatus, including genes required for RNA metabolism, organelle organization, protein transport, ribosome biogenesis, and transcription, as well as a number of noncoding RNAs. A number of these genes represent potential targets for much-needed novel antifungal drugs.


An eight-month old female entire mixed breed dog in Arizona was presented for a 15-day history of multifocal cutaneous nodules and plaques, with progressive stertor, anorexia, haemorrhagic gingival masses, peripheral lymphadenopathy and mild haemorrhagic vaginal discharge without obvious genital masses. Fine needle aspirate cytology was consistent with multifocal cutaneous and mucosal canine transmissible venereal tumour (TVT) with peripheral lymph node metastases. Histopathology and immunohistochemistry supported the diagnosis. Eight weekly treatments with 0.5 mg/m2 intravenous vincristine resulted in complete clinical resolution, without relapse five months after treatment. The classic presentation of TVT is of adult dogs with genital tumours and low metastatic rate. This report describes an unusual presentation in a puppy with multifocal, extragenital, metastatic, cutaneous and mucosal TVT. In doing so, it underscores the importance of recognising less common presentations of TVT, as well as diagnostic cytological and histopathological findings, as prognosis for cure is excellent with treatment.


his special issue on "Social Justice and the Animal Question" explores the connections between the oppression of animals and broader issues of social injustice. Over the past two decades, sociologists have begun to examine the roles that animals play in various social contexts (e.g., Alger and Alger 2003; Arluke 2006; Arluke and Sanders 1996; Brandt 2004; Fitzgerald 2005; Flynn 2000a, b; Irvine 2004; Kalof, Fitzgerald, and Baralt 2004; Sanders 1999; Scarce 2000). Indeed, there are a great many roles to examine. If we could somehow remove animals and animal products from human society, life as we know it would cease. Animals are everywhere. Nearly 60 percent of American households include pets, and most people think of the animals as family members or companions (AVMA 2002). Between 10 and 15 million Americans support at least one animal welfare group (Jasper and Nelkin 1992). Animals are in the foods most people eat, as well as in clothing and shoes. We can find animals all around the house in cosmetics, soap, toiletries, medications, and in the labs that test these products. Animal products are in the house itself in drywall, linoleum, wallpaper and carpet adhesive, and paints, just to start the list. "Animal Planet," the hugely popular television channel devoted to animalthemed programs, features shows that range from "Animal Cops" to "Meerkat Manor." Animal influences appear in our language. As Clifton Bryant (1979) pointed out, we can describe someone as "pig-headed," "stubborn as a mule, "gentle as a lamb," or "strong as an ox." We might "bark up the wrong tree," wear a "pony tail," be "sly as a fox," "catty," or a "lame duck." The analogies and metaphors abound, revealing a strong zoological influence on culture. Animals have assisted people in tasks ranging from hearing and seeing to plowing fields and waging war. Finally, animals figure heavily in many social problems, from dog bites to disease outbreaks to concern over endangered species. I hope I have made my point. Nevertheless, some skeptics may grant that animals are ubiquitous, but still doubt whether they merit sociological study. Moreover, do they merit space in a journal devoted to humanity and society? The articles in this issue provide convincing evidence that they do. A basic premise of humanism maintains that people can develop a sense of morality and justice without relying on religion or tradition. Acting on this, Western societies have overcome prejudices and ended the oppression (albeit incompletely) of an ever wider human community. Scholars who study animals in society often point out INTRODUCTION


Equilibrium real exchange rate and corresponding misalignment estimates differ tremendously depending on the panel estimation method used to derive them. Essentially, these methods differ in their treatment of the time-series (time) and the cross-section (space) variation in the panel. The study shows that conventional panel estimation methods (pooled OLS, fixed, random, and between effects) can be interpreted as restricted versions of a correlated random effects (CRE) model. It formally derives the distortion that arises if these restrictions are violated and uses two empirical applications from the literature to show that the distortion is generally very large. This suggests the use of the CRE model for the panel estimation of equilibrium real exchange rates and misalignments.


From the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries the Basque territories, endowed with a strong cultural personality and a peculiar juridical-institutional system that conferred on them a notoriously distinct identity, had to keep switching horses in mid-stream between France and Spain. Throughout those years, the Fueros and language of the Basques were perceived from outside as an anomaly and an obstacle; a number of Spanish and French authors made it their business to point out the barbarity and lack of literary development of the Basque language, an incomprehensible jargon fit only for oral ballads, as well as the excessive disjuncture which the foral system provoked in the juridical, economic and fiscal relations of the two monarchies. On the other hand, the Basque apologists sought to legitimize the institutions through the creation of a construct, more or less mythical in essence, which with great frequency relied on the excellence of the Basque language for its justification. Its Tubaline and even paradisiacal origin, its antiquity, perfection, clarity and expressive capacity, they argued, placed it among the seventy-two matrix languages created after the dispersion of Babel. This anthology attempts to present the most important works of this secular polemic in which politics and language go hand in hand and in which the diatribes and insults of authors such as Mariana, Mayans and Fernandez Marina collide with the passionate defensive treatises of writers such as Garibay, Larramendi and Iztueta.


We consider the problem of quickest change-point detection in data streams. Classical change-point detection procedures, such as CUSUM, Shiryaev-Roberts and Posterior Probability statistics, are optimal only if the change-point model is known, which is an unrealistic assumption in typical applied problems. Instead we propose a new method for change-point detection based on Inductive Conformal Martingales, which requires only the independence and identical distribution of observations. We compare the proposed approach to standard methods, as well as to change-point detection oracles, which model a typical practical situation when we have only imprecise (albeit parametric) information about pre- and post-change data distributions. Results of comparison provide evidence that change-point detection based on Inductive Conformal Martingales is an efficient tool, capable to work under quite general conditions unlike traditional approaches.


This study explores the transnational history of social work and, as a case study, examines the movement of social work research between Germany and Mandatory Palestine in the 1930s and 1940s. This transnational circulation of knowledge and ideas was driven by a group of German-Jewish social workers who migrated to Palestine and helped establish the profession in the new country. Particular attention is paid to early professional schools of social work, which served as hubs for knowledge circulation and laid the academic foundations of social work long before the discipline found its final form. To study this translation process, this article analyses research activities at Alice Salomon's Academy for Social and Educational Women's Work in Berlin and Siddy Wronsky's School of Social Services in Jerusalem. Both institutes were influential in establishing the profession in their countries and closely linked the emerging social work training and research. As a transnational research team, we approached and analysed these activities through archival files and documents in Israel and Germany. This analysis is framed by assumptions about the transnational translation of knowledge and, to add context, presents findings on the origins of social work in both countries and its societal embeddedness.


The objective of this thesis is to design a system which can perform catheter insertion into a human body with haptic feedback. The haptic feedback will consist of a system; a surgeon can use to feel forces in his hand while performing operation from a remote distance. The addition of touch sensor will enable the surgeon to know how much force is being applied to any tissues, and he will sense the same feeling as if working on the patient during the manipulation of the catheter. In this research scale model is used to simulate the catheter insertion operation. This research also demonstrates the effectiveness of MR fluid devices in force feedback applications. Force and displacement sensors sense the environment conditions along which the end effectors of electronic actuator moves. This information is then used to control the MR fluid device to provide appropriate force feedback to user. The research done and system created intended for future research benefiting the Wichita State University's biomechanics program. Suggestions for future research are included. Problems encountered during research and solutions found are also addressed.


ROS 1 and ROS 2 are two widely-used robotic middleware. One of their essential features is to enable two robots with the same middleware, ROS 1 or ROS 2, to connect directly and collaborate. However, two robots running two different middleware can only communicate by additionally using one of the bridge solutions available in the robotic community. It is even more challenging when deploying these robots as part of an OPC UA - based industrial testbed. The first challenge is to network the robots with other OPC UA devices. Second, a testbed environment sometimes requires a robot to join the system rapidly and with minimal configuration for quick experiments. While addressing the above needs, this paper presents an approach to bridge ROS 1 and ROS 2 robots to an OPC UA PubSub network. The approach derives from the actual experiences in developing an OPC UA-based robotic testbed for Industry 4.0 research.


The Brent catchment is a heavily urbanized area with a long history of pollution. Consequently, a restoration enhancement project was carried out between 1999 and 2003 at Tokyngton Park to improve/restore the river's general quality and natural channel features whilst also incorporating flood-attenuating features. Like most urban rivers in the UK, sediment quality is not routinely monitored and hence little is known of the nature and levels of pollutants accumulating within them. In this study, surface sediment samples have been collected three adjacent restored and unrestored reaches of the river and analysed for selected heavy metals [Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr), Lead (Pb), Nickel (Ni), Copper (Cu) and Zinc (Zn)], microbial parameters and sediment ecotoxicity using the Microtox® Solid Phase Test. Results show considerable spatial and temporal variation in sediment metal and faecal indicator organism (FIO) concentrations within the same and in different river reaches. With the exception of Ni and Cr, mean sediment metal concentrations exceeded existing sediment quality criteria at all sites. However a measured sediment ecotoxicity data range of 10 to 991g/L indicated negligible toxicity (EC50 ≥10g/L). The chemical and microbiological analyses results obtained potentially highlights the key role sediments play in the persistence of pollutants in urban watercourses and the long-term implications for river ecology and human health and safety, particularly with restored rivers granting open access to recreational users.


PRE-20TH CENTURY HISTORY Between Muslim and Jew: The Problem of Symbiosis under Early Islam, by Steven M. Wasserstrom. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995. viii + 237 pages. Bibl. to p. 278. Index to p. 300. $45. Reviewed by Richard C. Martin In his study of interconfessional relations during the early centuries of Islam, Steven Wasserstrom has presented a work that goes beyond traditional Judaica and Oriental studies. Between Muslim and Jew is a reworking of the category of symbiosis, which had been used to describe medieval Jewish and Muslim relations by Solomon D. Goitein, and later by Bernard Lewis. More particularly, it is a study, as the author states toward the end of the book, of "the dialectical reception and construction of other social worlds [which] made symbiosis function effectively. Jews had to construct `the Muslim,' and Muslims necessarily constructed `the Jew.' This is the problem of symbiosis at its heart: the existence of other worlds was always social and imaginary" (pp. 209-10). Wasserstrom has organized his study in three parts, which he calls trajectories, constructions and intimacies-each of which contains two chapters. In part one, the author summarizes what scholarship has come to know about the social world of Jews, especially during the 8th-llth centuries in the Middle East, and he problematizes that knowledge for its gaps and complexities. In the second chapter, he advances his argument that Jewish Messianic sects, particularly the 'Isawiyya, initiated a trajectory or paradigm of messianic expectations that influenced early Shi'ite sectarianism. This sectarian milieu of Jewish and proto-Shi'ite messianism arose in the context of the social and political turbulence of the Muslim conquests and civil wars of the first century of the Islamic era. In part two, "Constructions," Wasserstrom carries his argument further by deconstructing the views held by Ignac Goldziher, Goitein, and many 20th-century Orientalists that Shi`ism was fundamentally hostile to Judaism. He discusses the comparison and its variants that "the Shi`is are the Jews of our community" (p. 96). In Chapter 4 (the most interesting for this reviewer), Wasserstrom goes beyond this early stage of sectarian disputes to examine the intellectual tools developed by exegetes and theologians in defense of their own religious self-understandings and their categorization of the other. The focus of the discussion is the use of the science of allegorical and rational interpretation (ta'wil) as a tool for comparing religions. Muslim and Jewish scholars (and other sectarian scholars in Islamic society) used ta'wil as a tool for comparative exegesis. …


In this paper, we introduce and analyze a new, dynamic generative user model to explain the behavior of file size distributions. Our Recursive Forest File model combines multiplicative models that generate lognormal distributions with recent work on random graph models for the web. Unlike similar previous work, our Recursive Forest File model allows new files to be created and old files to be deleted over time, and our analysis covers problematic issues such as correlation among file sizes. Moreover, our model allows natural variations where files that are copied or modified are more likely to be copied or modified subsequently. Previous empirical work suggests that file sizes tend to have a lognormal body but a Pareto tail. The Recursive Forest File model explains this behavior, yielding a double Pareto distribution, which has a Pareto tail but close to a lognormal body. We believe the Recursive Forest model may be useful for describing other power law phenomena in computer systems as well as other fields.


BACKGROUND
Old age is associated with reduced cognitive performance. Nutritional factors may contribute to this association.

OBJECTIVE
We tested associations between cognitive performance and plasma vitamin B-12, folate, and homocysteine concentrations in the elderly.

DESIGN
We studied survivors of the Scottish Mental Surveys of 1932 (Aberdeen 1921 Birth Cohort, or ABC21) and 1947 (Aberdeen 1936 Birth Cohort, or ABC36), which surveyed childhood intelligence quotient. We measured folate, vitamin B-12, and homocysteine concentrations in fasting blood samples and cognitive performance by the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), National Adult Reading Test (NART), Raven's Progressive Matrices (RPM), Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), digit symbol (DS) subtest, and block design (BD) subtest.

RESULTS
Homocysteine was higher in the ABC21 than in the ABC36 (P < 0.0001). There were positive correlations between folate and vitamin B-12 and negative correlations between homocysteine and both folate and vitamin B-12. MMSE, RPM, AVLT, DS, and BD scores were higher in the ABC36. In the ABC21, folate, vitamin B-12, and MMSE score were positively correlated and homocysteine was negatively correlated with RPM, DS, and BD scores. Folic acid was positively correlated with AVLT and DS scores. In the ABC36, folate was positively correlated with BD score. After adjustment for childhood intelligence quotient, partial correlations were strengthened between vitamin B-12 and NART score and between homocysteine and RPM score but weakened between red blood cell folate and DS score.

CONCLUSIONS
B vitamins and homocysteine are associated with cognitive variation in old age. In the ABC21 but not the ABC36, homocysteine accounted for approximately 7-8% of the variance in cognitive performance. This may prove relevant to the design of neuroprotective studies in late life.


First-order ambisonics suffers from low angular resolution and a small sweet spot, and decoding to many loudspeakers does not help. Parametric decoding methods solve this problem, at the risk of introducing audible artifacts. A method for high angular resolution planewave expansion (HARPEX) is proposed, which combines the spatial sharpness of parametric methods with the physical correctness of linear decoding without introducing audible artifacts. In a formal listening test, a decoder using this method to decode first-order B-format signals scores much higher than max rE decoding of the same signals, and similarly to max rE decoding of third-order versions of the same signals.


This paper reviews the macro-national level factors that influence women's work engagement in Arab countries. First, it offers an overview of the notions of work engagement and gendered work engagement. Next, the macro-national context is investigated where economic, socio-cultural, and legal factors are analyzed that may explain differences in workplace engagement between men and women. Lastly, the discussion, implications for future research and practice, and conclusion are offered.


A revision of the 15 New Zealand species of the ground beetle tribe Licinini (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Harpalinae) is provided. Two of the four recognised subtribes of Licinini occur in New Zealand. The subtribe Licinina is represented by the genus Physolaesthus Chaudoir. In the subtribe Dicrochilina, the species formerly included in  Dicrochile Guerin-Meneville are divided into three groups of generic rank, based on distinctive morphological features: Dicrochile, Pedalopia Laporte de Castelnau and Stomatocoelus Macleay. The genus Dicrochile is known from New Zealand and Norfolk Island, Pedalopia is regarded as endemic to New Zealand, while Physolaesthus and Stomatocoelus are also found in Australia and island groups to the north of New Zealand. Original type material of all, except one, named species of New Zealand Licinini has been examined. A single species of Physolaesthus , which also occurs in Australia, is found in New Zealand and 14 species of Dicrochilina, all endemic to New Zealand, are recognised. Five new species and one new subspecies of Pedalopia are described as follows: P. arowhenua n. sp. from South Canterbury; P. flavipes florae n. subsp. from north west Nelson; P. oparara n. sp. from north west Nelson; P. orongorongo n. sp. from Wellington; P. waipori n. sp. from the southern South Island and P. watti n. sp. from the Kaikoura Coast and North Canterbury. Seven species names are newly synonymized: Dichrochile limbatus Broun, 1880 with Physolaesthus insularis Bates, 1878; Dichrochile nitida Broun, 1882 and D. rugicollis Broun, 1917 with Dicrochile aterrima Bates, 1874; Dicrochile anchomenoides Guerin-Meneville, 1847, D. subopaca Bates, 1874 and Agonum (Platynus) whitei Csiki, 1931 with Anchomenus atratus Blanchard, 1842; Dichrochile anthracina Broun, 1893 with Dichrochile maura Broun, 1880.  Anchomenus atratus Blanchard, 1842 is removed from secondary homonymy with Carabus atratus Duftschmid, 1812. Notes on type material, geographic distribution, seasonal occurance and habitat are provided for each species. Eight of the ten Australian species placed in Dicrochile by Moore et al. (1987) are transferred to the genus Stomatocoelus .  The possible relationships of the tribe Licinini within the subfamily Harpalinae are discussed.


Abstract. Cirrus clouds are composed of ice particles and their formation pathways have been studied extensively in the laboratory. The ability of ammonium sulfate particles to act as nuclei for cirrus clouds has been of particular importance because of their ubiquitous presence in the upper troposphere. The results of past laboratory experiments of homogeneous ice nucleation from ammonium sulfate particles show a wide range of freezing conditions. In the present study, a flow tube apparatus equipped with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to reexamine these discrepancies. It was found that when ammonium sulfate particles were preconditioned at 100% relative humidity (RH) prior to experimentation, the particles began to freeze at conditions predicted by the homogeneous ice nucleation model developed by Koop et al. (2000). If the particles were not preconditioned at 100% RH, some froze at warmer temperatures and lower ice saturation ratios than predicted by Koop et al. (2000). It is hypothesized that a population of effloresced particles affected freezing conditions for particles that were not preconditioned at 100% RH.


Porous silicon (PS) light-emitting diode (LED) with an ITO/PS/p-Si/Al structure was fabricated by anodic oxidation method. Photoluminescence (PL) of the PS LED was measured with a peak at 593 nm, and electroluminescence (EL) was measured with a peak at 556 nm under the conditions of 7.5-V forward bias and 210-mA current intensity. The spectral width of EL was measured to be about 160 nm.


Rank order correlation coefficients (rC,X) were determined between C and the nitric acid-soluble elements Al, Ba, Ca, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, P, S, Sr, Ti, V, Zn and N in lake sediments. Nitrogen and S concentrations increased together with C from the point of isolation towards the top of the sediment, whereas Ca, Cr, Cu, K, Mg, Na, Ni and Ti concentrations decreased. In the case of Al, Ba, Co, Fe, Mn, V and Zn, two divergent patterns were seen, their concentrations either decreasing or increasing towards the top of the sediment. Of the rC,P values, 91% were positive and 9% negative. The sediment cores were classified into three groups on the basis of the correlations between C and Co, Fe, Mn and Zn: (1) rC,Co, rC,Fe, rC,Mn and rC,Zn statistically significant and negative; (2) rC,Co, rC,Fe, rC,Mn and rC,Zn not statistically significant; and (3) rC,Co, rC, Fe, rC,Mn and rC,Zn statistically significant and positive. In the light of the geochemical properties of the sediments, it was concluded that those in group 1 had been deposited under reducing and/or acidic conditions in small, shallow lakes containing high concentrations of C and those in group 3 under oxidative and/or alkaline conditions in large, deep lakes, while those in group 2 represent intermediate forms. It was approximated that C ≤ 9% in sediment provides precipitation of Fe–Mn oxides, but it is impeded by greater C concentrations. Also, sedimentation of terrigenous till material was found to be more effective in small than in large lakes.


Surface topography of additively manufactured components often contains 3D features, e.g. particles, open surface pores. X-ray computed topography can capture these features, allowing measurement data to be used for 3D surface texture characterisation. On the basis of the newly developed 3D surface texture parameters, this paper investigates material ratio curves of the surfaces produced by additive manufacturing processes, i.e. selective laser melting and high speed sintering. The material ratio curves of these surfaces vary in their shapes, depending on the specific process and associated process parameters, as well as surface orientations. Re-entrant topography features can result in recess shapes on the material ratio curve at the surface heights where these features locate. This unique characteristic makes the material ratio curve an effective analysis tool to differentiate various AM surface topographies, allowing surface texture to be linked with process control and functional assessment. Furthermore, Vvv (valley void volume) is identified as a useful volume parameter to characterise the open surface pores of AM surfaces. The material ratio Mr2 for the determination of Vvv is discussed with the consideration of three options to address the open surface pores. The secant scanning approach proposed by ISO 13565-2 and the manual set ratio at the first sharp drop of the material ratio curve were found to be able to achieve reasonable results for the AM open surface pore characterisation.


Empirical Centroid Fictitious Play (ECFP) is a generalization of the well-known Fictitious Play (FP) algorithm designed for implementation in large-scale games. In ECFP, the set of players is subdivided into equivalence classes with players in the same class possessing similar properties. Players choose a next-stage action by tracking and responding to aggregate statistics related to each equivalence class. This setup alleviates the difficult task of tracking and responding to the statistical behavior of every individual player, as is the case in traditional FP. Aside from ECFP, many useful modifications have been proposed to classical FP, e.g., rules allowing for network-based implementation, increased computational efficiency, and stronger forms of learning. Such modifications tend to be of great practical value; however, their effectiveness relies heavily on two fundamental properties of FP: robustness to alterations in the empirical distribution step size process, and robustness to best-response perturbations. The main contribution of the paper is to show that similar robustness properties also hold for the ECFP algorithm. This result serves as a first step in enabling practical modifications to ECFP, similar to those already developed for FP.


Human brain is provided with a flexible audio-visual system, which interprets and guides responses to external events according to spatial alignment, temporal synchronization and effectiveness of unimodal signals. The aim of the present thesis was to explore the possibility that such a system might represent the neural correlate of sensory compensation after a damage to one sensory pathway. To this purpose, three experimental studies have been conducted, which addressed the immediate, short-term and long-term effects of audio-visual integration on patients with Visual Field Defect (VFD).
 Experiment 1 investigated whether the integration of stimuli from different modalities (cross-modal) and from the same modality (within-modal) have a different, immediate effect on localization behaviour. Patients had to localize modality-specific stimuli (visual or auditory), cross-modal stimulus pairs (visual-auditory) and within-modal stimulus pairs (visual-visual). Results showed that cross-modal stimuli evoked a greater improvement than within modal stimuli, consistent with a Bayesian explanation. Moreover, even when visual processing was impaired, cross-modal stimuli improved performance in an optimal fashion. These findings support the hypothesis that the improvement derived from multisensory integration is not attributable to simple target redundancy, and prove that optimal integration of cross-modal signals occurs in processing stage which are not consciously accessible.
 Experiment 2 examined the possibility to induce a short term improvement of localization performance without an explicit knowledge of visual stimulus. Patients with VFD and patients with neglect had to localize weak sounds before and after a brief exposure to a passive cross-modal stimulation, which comprised spatially disparate or spatially coincident audio-visual stimuli. After exposure to spatially disparate stimuli in the affected field, only patients with neglect exhibited a shifts of auditory localization toward the visual attractor (the so called Ventriloquism After-Effect). In contrast, after adaptation to spatially coincident stimuli, both neglect and hemianopic patients exhibited a significant improvement of auditory localization, proving the occurrence of After Effect for multisensory enhancement. These results suggest the presence of two distinct recalibration mechanisms, each mediated by a different neural route: a geniculo-striate circuit and a colliculus-extrastriate circuit respectively.
 Finally, Experiment 3 verified whether a systematic audio-visual stimulation could exert a long-lasting effect on patients' oculomotor behaviour. Eye movements responses during a visual search task and a reading task were studied before and after visual (control) or audio-visual (experimental) training, in a group of twelve patients with VFD and twelve controls subjects. Results showed that prior to treatment, patients' performance was significantly different from that of controls in relation to fixations and saccade parameters; after audiovisual training, all patients reported an improvement in ocular exploration characterized by fewer fixations and refixations, quicker and larger saccades, and reduced scanpath length. Similarly, reading parameters were significantly affected by the training, with respect to specific impairments observed in left and right hemisphere–damaged patients. The present findings provide evidence that a systematic audio-visual stimulation may encourage a more organized pattern of visual exploration with long lasting effects.
 In conclusion, results from these studies clearly demonstrate that the beneficial effects of audio-visual integration can be retained in absence of explicit processing of visual stimulus. Surprisingly, an improvement of spatial orienting can be obtained not only when a on-line response is required, but also after either a brief or a long adaptation to audio-visual stimulus pairs, so suggesting the maintenance of mechanisms subserving cross-modal perceptual learning after a damage to geniculo-striate pathway. The colliculus-extrastriate pathway, which is spared in patients with VFD, seems to play a pivotal role in this sensory compensation.


In 1875 Sir Edward Malet spent just a few months of his diplomatic career as a young attache at the British Legation in Rome, yet when he came to write his memoirs a quarter of a century later he described it as 'the pleasantest post in the service'. Malet's words could easily have been those of a number of other British diplomats who showed a remarkable affection for Italy and the cities which served successively as its capital during the years following Italian unification: Turin (1861-5), Florence (1865-71), and Rome (from 1871). For certain other British representatives, however, life in Italy could be a much less pleasant experience. Many members of the consular service found that their careers brought them experiences to be endured rather than enjoyed, leading them to form very different views on their country of residence. During the mid-nineteenth century, the value of both diplomats and consuls to their home government often rested rather more in their ability to describe and explain foreign affairs than in their function as implementers of foreign policy or representatives of British interests overseas. Such observations and opinions could prove influential, and by comparing and contrasting the personal experiences of such individuals in Italy during the 1860s and '70s, this paper enhances our understanding of British perceptions of the country at the same time as seeking to account for the strange combination of adoration and contempt they felt towards it during this critical phase of Italian history.


Growing demands for marine fish products is leading to increased pressure on already depleted wild populations and a rise in aquaculture production. Consequently, more captive-bred fish are released into the wild through accidental escape or deliberate releases. The increased mixing of captive-bred and wild fish may affect the ecological and/or genetic integrity of wild fish populations. Unambiguous identification tools for captive-bred fish will be highly valuable to manage risks (fisheries management) and tracing of escapees and seafood products (wildlife forensics). Using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data from captive-bred and wild populations of Atlantic cod Gadus morhua L. and sole Solea solea L., we explored the efficiency of population and parentage assignment techniques for the identification and tracing of captive-bred fish. Simulated and empirical data were used to correct for stochastic genetic effects. Overall, parentage assignment performed well when a large effective population size characterized the broodstock and escapees originated from early generations of captive breeding. Consequently, parentage assignments are particularly useful from a fisheries management perspective to monitor the effects of deliberate releases of captive-bred fish on wild populations. Population assignment proved to be more efficient after several generations of captive breeding, which makes it a useful method in forensic applications for well-established aquaculture species. We suggest the implementation of a case-by-case strategy when choosing the best method.


While studying Septobasidium interaction with Diaspididae off Laurus nobilis L., Phillyrea latifolia L. and angustifolia L. in Apulia we found small - 1 to 3 millimetre - brown/black particles on plant bark. Each particle embeds or lays one or more dead armoured scales belonging to Aonidia lauri (Bouche) or Lepidosaphes flava (Signoret), depending on the host plant. The brown-black bodies were irregularly hemispheric, lobated and dull in appearance. We report the results of observations by light microscopy, SEM and X-rays microanalysis of foamy black matters that constitute most of the particles and embed the scale. Findings of hyphae (?) inside the dead insect bodies in connection to Diaspidid scale phenology at the time of death suggest that the particles result from an entomopathogenic or saprophytic interaction. Acknowledgement: we recognise the help and competence of Pasquale Trotti, SELGE UR3. laboratory responsible, for the SEM pictures & microanalysis and Prof Claudio Ciccarone (SAFE-UNIFG) for the tentative identification of the hyphae found associated with Aonidia lauri. We also recognize the support of Applied Ecology. Aonidia lauri (Bouche) is a common Diaspididae often found on Laurel where it infests trunk and twigs but leaves also. Septobasidium grows to great epiphytic thalli on the plant bark and often infects the scale (Porcelli, 2013). On the same Septobasidium-inhabited Laurel as on Pistacia lentiscus L. or Phillyrea latifolia and angustifolia there are numerous black-dull masses embedding one or more A. lauri or Lepidosaphes flava and often sheltering several more individuals under the margin of the masses themselves. Not sheltered scales are comparatively less than those that, possibly following a tygmotactic stimulus, prefer to fix near or under the masses. Moreover, scrutinising the masses one can easily find several or many scales almost entirely embedded in the black matter or still partially exposed. Even those masses that do not show scales embedded reveal one or more individuals inside the matter once purposely dissected. SEM study reveals the presence of stromatic and possibly penetrative hyphae associate with moniliform Nostoc-like chains glued by a foamy gelatinous sheath. Hyphae, Nostoc-like chains and jelly strongly resemble a species of Collema (Fungi) often symbiotically associates with Nostoc (Cyanobacteria) to form Lichen that in the case fills the scale body. Chemical elementary semiquantitative microanalysis supports the organic origin of the black matter. Next studies will confirm the nature of the actors involved in this intriguing phenomenon.


This research is concerned with the application of random fields to model material heterogeneity with implications on the usage of the stochastic finite element method to evaluate structural reliability. In particular, there is extensive consideration of the relationship between the effective modulus of elasticity of randomly heterogeneous timber beams and the underlying lognormal random field of elastic modulus. Under Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, the effective elastic modulus is shown to be a weighted harmonic mean and weighting functions are provided for a number of important loading conditions. Additionally, analytical expressions are derived for the moments of both the displacement and effective elastic modulus of the beam. In the case of multi-dimensional heterogeneity, a generalised weighted mean meta-model is introduced for the effective property of heterogeneous materials and a novel function optimisation algorithm is utilised to optimise the weighting function of this meta-model to the results of both one and two-dimensional finite element models with insights into the sensitivity of the effective property to both spatial weighting and minima of the random field of elastic modulus. Finally, the inference of the parameters of a random field model from effective local and global moduli of elasticity is considered and it is shown that the use of the midpoint approximation results in large epistemic biases which likely leads to underestimation of the variability of heterogeneous materials.


We present a new approach for deep learning on surfaces, combining geometric convolutional networks with rotationally equivariant networks. Existing work either learns rotationally invariant filters, or learns filters in the tangent plane without correctly relating orientations between different tangent planes (orientation ambiguity). We propose a solution to both problems by applying Harmonic Networks on surfaces in the tangent plane: Harmonic Surface Networks (HSN). Harmonic Networks constrain their filters to circular harmonics, which output complexvalued, rotatable feature maps. Considering these complex features as vectors inside the tangent plane, we can use parallel transport along shortest geodesics to transport them along the surface in a natural way. Additionally, Harmonic Networks can be configured so that the output is rotationally invariant, while containing rotationally equivariant filters in hidden layers. This property solves the orientation ambiguity problem, while learning directional filters. We evaluate HSN on three different problems: classification on Rotated MNIST in a plane and mapped to a sphere, correspondence on FAUST, and shape segmentation on FAUST. The results suggest that HSN could improve on state of the art approaches.


Antibiotic resistance is one of the world's most pressing health problems in 21st century. Multi Drug Resistance (MDR) is a phenomenon where the microorganism develops resistance against more than one drug. MDR typhoid is one such emerging problem. This calls for some alternative drugs or use of some compounds alone or in combination with drugs against typhoid. Apitherapy provide us the cure for this. In apitherapy, the honey bee and its hive products are used for the treatment for various ailments. In the present study, a honey bee product i.e. propolis which act as a strong antibacterial is combined with standard antibiotic i.e. cefixime against Salmonella . The time kill analysis and results of checkerboard method confirmed when propolis and cefixime were used in combination, synergy was observed.


This article addresses West European and North American developments in theorizing the state. It briefly reviews the first major post-war revival of theoretical interest in the state that began in Western Europe during the mid-1960s. This was mainly led by Marxists interested in the general form and functions of the capitalist state; but a key supporting role was played by Marxist-feminists who extended such ideas to the patriarchal capitalist state. A second revival during the late 1970s is then described. This involved many more theoretical currents and substantive concerns and was also more institutionalist in overall approach. Although the self-declared movement to �bring the state back in� originated in the USA, some of the most innovative work in this theoretical movement is rooted in less overtly state-centred approaches originating in Western Europe. Indeed some of them argue that the state as such should be dethroned from its central position in analyses of political power and domination. Thus, in addition to neo-statism, I also consider Foucauldian theory, feminism, and discourse analysis. By the 1990s this proliferation of approaches had contributed paradoxically to an apparent withering away of interest in the state as such. None the less, as I argue below, research on the state is continuing in new and exciting forms and directions.


The recent notation degradation of the sovereign debt of the Euro area countries was at the origin of some confusing rumours on the effects of the loss of "Triple-A rating" for these countries as well as for the Franc Zone African Countries (PAZF). The need to protect the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) together with the lack ofeconomic competitiveness of the PAZF caused by the structural overvaluation of the CFAFranc and the no optimality of the Franc Zone are some of the destabilizing factors of the CFAlikely to induce queries about the zone including that which concerns the revision of the currency parity. The financial forfeiture of the Euro countries in general, and in France in particular, provides the opportunity to reconsider the current monetary anchoring by envisaging several happier perspectives for the PAZF, beginning with the keeping of the status quo o the building of the competitiveness of the African economies with the creation of a "CEMAC Franc" or a "WAEMU Franc" within the framework of a system of fixed exchange rates with margins of fluctuations. Irrespective of the policy adopted, the ultimate objective shall be to gradually move towards the "post- CFA" era which shall be followed by the creation of a unique African currency before 2020. This discussion goes well beyond the traditional analyses on the need to revise the 1972 and 1973 agreements between France and PAZF as it incorporates elements of the 2011 financial crisis in the debate.


The occurrence of a single individual of yellowtail tang Zebrasoma xanthurum (Acanthuridae) from Sardinia island (Italy), probably released from an aquarium, is here reported. This represents the first record of this species in the Mediterranean Sea. The overall information available on Acanthurid fishes and other exotic species in the Mediterranean is discussed in the light of the ongoing ecological changes taking place in rocky reef ecosystems.


Exploration in the Proterozoic Vindhyan Basin in the north-central part of India has received much attention because a number of basins coeval to it (Amadeus and McArthur basins, Australia and Lena–Tunguska petroleum province, Siberia) are known hydrocarbon producers. The assemblage of interbedded clastics and carbonates in the thick Vindhyan sedimentary column is considered to be favourable for a petroleum system. This is supported by discovery of oil and gas in Vindhyan sediments. Wavelet processing and application of Maximum Likelihood Deconvolution (MLD) to post-stack seismic data have enhanced resolution significantly to facilitate identification of various stratigraphic features, including reflection pattern termination in the Jabera–Damoh area in the southeastern part of the basin. Sixteen seismic sequences correlatable with well data have been identified from the wavelet-processed data. MLD has also improved structural resolution and made identification of faults easier. This paper shows that MLD is a powerful tool for seismic sequence stratigraphy.


Common air-coupled transducers for non-destructive testing consist of a piezocomposite material and several matching layers. Better acoustical matching to air is achieved by transducers based on charged cellular polypropylene (PP). This material has about hundred times lower acoustic impedance than any piezocomposite, having about the same piezoelectric coefficient. The piezoelectric properties of cellular PP are caused by the polarization of air cells. Alternatively, a ferroelectret receiver can be understood as a capacitive microphone with internal polarization creating permanent internal voltage. The sensitivity of the receiver can be increased by applying additional bias voltage. We present an ultrasonic receiver based on cellular PP including a high-voltage module providing bias voltage up to 2 kV. The application of bias voltage increased the signal by 12 to 15 dB with only 1 dB increase of the noise.
This receiver was combined with a cellular PP transmitter in through transmission to inspect several test specimens consisting of glass-fiber-reinforced polymer face sheets and a porous closed-cell PVC core. These test specimens were inspected before and after load. Fatigue cracks in the porous PVC core and some fatigue damage in the face sheets were detected. These test specimens were originally developed to emulate a rotor blade segment of a wind power plant. Similar composite materials are used in lightweight aircrafts for the general aviation. The other inspected test specimen was a composite consisted of glass-fiber-reinforced polymer face sheets and a wooden core. The structure of the wooden core could be detected only with cellular PP transducers, while commercial air-coupled transducers lacked the necessary sensitivity. Measured on a 4-mm thick carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer plate, cellular PP transducers with additional bias voltage achieved a 32 dB higher signal-to-noise ratio than commercial air-coupled transducers.