Feature films have long been part of the curriculum for history courses at some high schools and universities. Researchers have generally assumed that movies help stimulate and motivate student learning (e.g., Considine 1989, 230 and 233; Rebhorn 1988, 1; Romiszowski 1974, 194), but because of their visual and emotive power, films also have potential to distort learning. In this article, we focus on the way one feature film, Oliver Stone's JFK (1991), was incorporated into a twentieth-century American history course and examine the film's effect on students' learning and critical thinking. Our comments on this film result from a larger research study on student learning that involved forty-six students who were enrolled in a one-semester course at Murdoch University and who agreed to participate in questionnaires and interviews.


Summary. Wild birds were probably of little importance for food in Roman Britain, but there is some advantage, for ecology, conservation, archaeological reconstruction and education, in establishing a tolerably correct list of species present in Roman times. There are special problems for the recovery and identification of bird bones; on the other hand, historical and other sources are wanting for Roman Britain. There is no evidence for falconry in the Roman period; birds would be caught, for sport by lime-rods, and for food by a variety of methods. There is little definite evidence for religious use of wild birds in Roman Britain. The environment of Britain in the Roman period was, in many respects, quite similar to that of recent times, but the bird species recorded from Roman sites suggest that the landscape was rather varied, and favourable to wildlife. An up-to-date list of 94 wild species can be roughly quantified by the number of sites on which each has been found; both the more numerous species and the absentees offer some surprises, and the effect is to emphasize the Romanization of eating habits in the province.


There are current notions of who street style relates to both as subject and audience. Blogs and trend sites document various street-style trends of young people who curate themselves in offbeat ways. Major companies view these sites in the hope of picking up the next youth trend that can be analysed and then adopted commercially for a larger consumer audience. However, this current formula often depicts a narrow type of subject: young, Caucasian, and, in the main, female subjects to explore for trend analysis and observation. This research challenges these notions by using 'iPhoneography' to reveal a wider spectrum of street style that does not limit itself to this current practice. This presentation reveals the use of 'iPhoneography' as a vehicle to explore street style within a framework of the brief 'Style without Boundaries'. The premise of which is to capture images of stylish individuals from around the world as inclusive practice regardless of age, gender and culture.

The images captured as part of the Style with Boundaries project illuminate a more candid understanding of how people clothe themselves and construct identity in living scenarios. The project culminated with an event that highlighted how these new virtual communities are realising actual communities through 'InstaMeet' and commenting, exchanging and reflecting on narratives surrounding their own and other's imagery.

The social dialogue explored through this work places street style in relation to fashion narrative, people, meanings and the 'iPhoneographers' oeuvre.


In this paper, we present the concept of adapting to changes in ground conditions like stiffness, damping and friction, using a novel two degree of freedom reconfigurable leg length hopping robot with a fixed passive compliance. In such a robot, the change in the dynamics of the single legged hopper can be induced by the change in coupled stiffness and damping of the system, i.e., stiffness and damping of the ground coupled with the stiffness and damping of the robotic leg. It is experimentally shown by in-place hopping of a robotic leg on various grounds (stiff, less stiff and soft) that the leg can effectively adapt to changes in coupled stiffness and damping by the rate and the amplitude at which the leg length changes. This is true, while the leg hops in-place as the role of ground friction is negligible. However, in forward motion where the ground friction dominates, a change in initial effective leg length, i.e., shortening or lengthening can provide an additional support to the hip motor in overcoming even large variations in ground friction. This is demonstrated through a planar locomotion experiment on different ground surfaces. The overall results provide strong support for this concept.


Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of two NSAIDs, meloxicam and ketoprofen in controlling post-operative pain following ovariectomy in rats. Study design: Experimental study Animals: Twenty one healthy and adult female Sprague-Dawley rats weighting approximately 200 gr. Methods: Intramuscular injection of the combination of xylazine (10 mg/kg) and ketamine (75 mg/kg) was used to induce general anesthesia in all rats. Then the selected rat was assigned for a group prior to surgery in the following order: Group A, received no extra analgesic, group B, received subcutaneous injection of 5 mg/kg ketoprofen at the time of induction of anesthesia and group C received subcutaneous injection of 2 mg/kg meloxicam (7.5 mg/ml) at the time of induction of anesthesia. Then ovariectomy was performed through two dorso-lateral abdominal incisions.  Score of pain at 2, 4 and 24 hours after the surgery using VAS, serum levels of cortisol and CPK at 2 hours after the surgery were evaluated in all rats. Results: The score of pain was significantly different in group A, compared to group B and C (P=0). Also the concentration of cortisol was significantly increased in all groups following the surgery. This increase was significant in group A compared to group B and C (P<0.05). Although CPK concentration was increased significantly in all groups after the surgery, no significant correlation was found among groups. Conclusion: It is concluded that either meloxicam or ketoprofen have similar effects in controlling pain following ovariectomy in rats.


Since the disclosure in 2009 of the Larosiere Report, legislative acts disciplining financial markets have established a set of rules called to form the foundations of a sanctioning administrative law to be enforced by the Member States. Furthermore, the ECtHR and the ECJ, are contributing to apply here the guarantees of the Rome Convention and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This study, in addition to giving account of such legislation and case‐law, aims to outline the broad principles of this new law, whose purpose is levelling the 'playing field' amongst NCAs and fostering supervisory convergence without creating new institutions. Should this 'experiment' be successful, and a new way of 'cooperative federalism' could emerge at a global level in the Union. Otherwise, further centralisation—which is neither possible nor desirable at this stage—should be expected in future years, with a sort of single supervisory mechanism in securities markets.


The Dryad and DryadLINQ systems offer a new programming model for large scale data-parallel computing. They generalize previous execution environments such as SQL and MapReduce in three ways: by providing a general-purpose distributed execution engine for data-parallel applications; by adopting an expressive data model of strongly typed .NET objects; and by supporting general-purpose imperative and declarative operations on datasets within a traditional high-level programming language. A DryadLINQ program is a sequential program composed of LINQ expressions performing arbitrary side-effect-free operations on datasets, and can be written and debugged using standard .NET development tools. The DryadLINQ system automatically and transparently translates the data-parallel portions of the program into a distributed execution plan which is passed to the Dryad execution platform. Dryad, which has been in continuous operation for several years on production clusters made up of thousands of computers, ensures efficient, reliable execution of this plan on a large compute cluster. This paper describes the programming model, provides a high-level overview of the design and implementation of the Dryad and DryadLINQ systems, and discusses the tradeoffs and connections to parallel and distributed databases.


This work was first drafted five years ago at the invitation of the editors of the ""Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications"". However, it was found to contain insufficient physical applications for that series; hence, it has finally come to rest at the doorstep of the American Mathematical Society. The first half of the work is little changed from the original, a fact which may partly explain both the allusions to applications and the elementary approach. It was written to be understood by a reader having minimal familiarity with continuous time stochastic processes. The most advanced prerequisite is an understanding of discrete parameter martingale convergence theorem.This book contains a general summary and outline, and an introduction. It presents some gratuitous generalities on scientific method as it relates to diffusion theory. Brownian motion is defined by the characterization of P. Levy. Then it is constructed in three basic ways and these are proved to be equivalent in the appropriate sense. Uniqueness theorem. Projective invariance and the Brownian bridge is presented. Probabilistic and absolute properties are distinguished. Among the former includes the distribution of the maximum, first passage time distributions, and fitting probabilities, and among the latter includes law of created logarithm, quadratic variation, Holder continuity, non-recurrence for $r\geq 2$. 3.General methods of Markov processes are adapted to diffusion. Analytic and probabilistic methods are distinguished. Among the former include transition functions, semigroups, generators, resolvents. Among the latter include Markov properties, stopping times, zero-or-one laws, Dynkin's formula, additive functionals. The book features classical modifications of Brownian motion; absorption and the dirichlet problem; space-time process and the heat equation; killed processes, Green functions, and the distributions of additive sectionals; and, time-change theorem (classical case), parabolic equations and their solution semigroups, some basic examples, distribution of passage times.The book covers Local time: construction by random walk embedding; Local time processes; Trotter's theorem; The Brownian flow; Brownian excursions; The zero set and Levy's equivalence theorem; Local times of classical diffusions; and, Sample path properties. It also includes boundary conditions for Brownian motion; the general boundary conditions; construction of the processes using local time; and, green functions and eigenfunction expansions (compact case).Another chapter is a 'finale' on nonsingular diffusion. The generators $(d/dm)(d^+/dx^+)$ are characterized. The diffusions on open intervals are constructed. The conservative boundary conditions are obtained and their diffusions are constructed. The general additive functionals and nonconservative diffusions are developed and expressed in terms of Brownian motions. The audience for this survey includes anyone who desires an introduction to Markov processes with continuous paths that is both coherent and elementary. The approach is from the particular to the general. Each method is first explained in the simplest case and supported by examples. Therefore, the book should be readily understandable to anyone with a first course in measure-theoretic probability.


Adolescent is a period of transition, emotionally unstable so that they are easily violated the norms in society. Two major problems that are often experienced by adolescents is an abuse of psychotropic drugs and sexual behavior. Adolescent sexual behavior nowadays leads to deviant behavior. The purpose of this research was to know the effectiveness of the personality type and associating environment toward adolescent sexual behavior. Method: Observational study with cross sectional design. The population was student at class VII and VIII totaled 174, the sample was 121 students taken by proportionate stratified random sampling. The independent variable was personality type and associating environment, dependent variable was sexual behavior. The data collected by questionnaire and analyzed by multiple regression logistic. Result: The personality type most were introvert and extrovert as 54 adolescents (44,6%); good associating environment was 79 adolescents (65,2%); and negative sexual behavior as 70 adolescents (57,9%), with most types were holding hands when dating and kissing. Based on the regression equation, obtained factor personality type could increase the value of 0,753 sexual behavior while associating environment 1,772 and p value (0,000) <  (0,05). Discussion:Personality type and social environment together has an effect to the sexual behavior. Adolescent with extrovert personality had a more positive attitude toward sexual behavior than introvert adolescent. Because they were adaptable, open and are likely to share problems with others, so introvert adolescent risk in doing free sex. However, the environment and personality are also interrelated, because the associating environment could shape the personality.


Harnessing green and renewable sources of energy is a future solution that addresses rising energy demands and growing environmental concerns. Among these, tapping wind energy using wind turbines appears to be one of the most promising solutions. A wind energy conversion system captures kinetic energy of wind and converts it into electrical energy. By nature, availability of wind energy is stochastic and intermittent. In contrast, electric power system expects a steady and planned supply of energy. This thesis addresses the gap in characteristics of wind energy supply and conventional electric energy demand. This thesis considers a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) connected to a wind turbine to harness wind energy. The proposed topology connects a Supercapacitor through a buck-boost chopper to the DC link of rotor circuit. The Supercapacitor works to perform the job of a flywheel. The thesis proposes an appropriate control system that controls the output of the DFIG to constant value (Pref) eliminating short-term fluctuations. This control system works to control the buck-boost chopper and works as a inner control loop. Thereafter, this thesis proposes and optimization algorithm that considers short-term forecasted wind speeds (energy) for several minutes. It then optimizes to determine a minimum set of output values of the DFIG (Pref). It ensures that output of the DFIG has minimum changes thus minimizing intermittency in the DFIG output. This optimization algorithm forms the outer loop in the overall control strategy.

The complete system is implemented in Matlab/Simulink and analysed in this thesis. The results demonstrate that the inner and outer control loops work to minimize output power oscillations and improve power quality.


Recent observations of protoplanetary disks, as well as simulations of planet–disk interaction, have suggested that a single planet may excite multiple spiral arms in the disk, in contrast to the previous expectations based on linear theory (predicting a one-armed density wave). We reassess the origin of multiple arms in the framework of linear theory by solving for the global two-dimensional response of a nonbarotropic disk to an orbiting planet. We show that the formation of a secondary arm in the inner disk, at about half of the orbital radius of the planet, is a robust prediction of linear theory. This arm becomes stronger than the primary spiral at several tenths of the orbital radius of the planet. Several additional, weaker spiral arms may also form in the inner disk. On the contrary, a secondary spiral arm is unlikely to form in the outer disk. Our linear calculations, fully accounting for the global behavior of both the phases and amplitudes of perturbations, generally support the recently proposed WKB phase argument for the secondary arm origin (as caused by the intricacy of constructive interference of the azimuthal harmonics of the perturbation at different radii). We provide analytical arguments showing that the process of a single spiral wake splitting up into multiple arms is a generic linear outcome of wave propagation in differentially rotating disks. It is not unique to planet-driven waves and also occurs in linear calculations of spiral wakes freely propagating with no external torques. These results are relevant for understanding formation of multiple rings and gaps in protoplanetary disks.


The conventional history of modern scientific peer review begins with the censorship practices of the Royal Society of London in the 1660s. This article traces one strand of the "prehistory" of peer review in the writings of John Amos Comenius and other members of the Hartlib circle, a precursor group to the Royal Society of London. These reformers appear to have first envisioned peer review as a technique for theologians, only later proposing to apply it to philosophy. The importance of peer review was as a technique that would permit a community of theologians or philosophers to resolve disputes internally rather than publicly, since public disputation would (they believed) sow doubt, error, and confusion, and disrupt the social order.


ABSTRACT This paper compares International Financial Accounting Standards (IFRS) with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs). It touches in part convergence by the Financial Accounting Standard board (FASB) and International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) in bringing IFRS and GAAP to become one international set of standards. Countries will adopt IFRS in response to this global convergence. Asian countries have started compliance with these standards as early as June 2003 when first time adoption was issued by London International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). This paper will present the compliance of selected Asian countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam with the IFRS as of 2009-2010. INTRODUCTION Extensive preparation and emphasis has been given to the worldwide adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), however IFRS for small and medium-sized entities (SME) should be equally emphasized. IFRS for SMEs are modified IFRS standards tailored to third party users of small and midsize companies that have no public accountability and still need to issue financiais for lending, management, and other purposes. Public accountability is applicable when an entity's debt or equity instruments are publicly traded or the entity is a financial institution or other that, as part of its primary business, holds assets in a fiduciary capacity for a broad group of outsiders. If the assets are held in a fiduciary capacity, such as a public utility company, this will not be a cause for an entity to have public accountability. Moreover, the standards for SMEs are more user-friendly for preparers and users than full IFRS. Major key simplifications characteristic of IFRS for SMEs are: the omission of some topics that are not relevant to small and midsize companies; some accounting policies have been modified exclusively for SMEs but are not allowed under full IFRS; minimize disclosures; and simplified language and explanations. IFRS for Small and Medium-Sized Companies This table is not meant to be all inclusive. We have simply enumerated some differences between IFRS for SMEs and full IFRS, and IFRS for SMEs and U.S. GAAP to provide the reader with an idea of the changes that have or will take place in the near future. China's Compliance with IFRS China is a Communist party-led state that has executive, legislative, and a judicial branch, China has different political and legal system compared to other countries. Though the Chinese Communist Party was formed in 1921, it subsequently led to the formation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. Since then China adopted socialism as its political system. With the founding of the PRC, resources that are essential to production in the country became state owned and thus creating state-owned enterprises, also called SOE. In 1993, China had worked closely with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu as a consultant to develop the Chinese Accounting Standards that would generally be in line with international accounting and financial reporting practices. About 30 exposure drafts of the standards had been published between 1994 and 1996. By the year 2000, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu was reappointed as a consultant for the second half of the project. The remaining work was to incorporate in the CAS additional 17 standards that dealt with issues that the International Accounting Standards Committee had addressed. While in 2001, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) issued a new comprehensive "Accounting System for Business Enterprises" known as the "System". The new system replaced both the Accounting System for Joint-Stock Limited Enterprises and Accounting Regulations for Foreign Investment Enterprises, requiring all enterprises to follow the new unified system. When the system was fully implemented, many of the regulations of the past were replaced giving way to comparability among enterprises. …


In China, the demand for care work is increasing with the aging of the population. Care services are mainly provided by internal migrants and their wages are found to be particularly low among internal migrants. However, there are few articles that have examined disparities of potential care workers using nationally representative internal migrant data. In terms of the different types of disparities, there are two main forms: inequality and stratification. Inequality refers to variation in absolute levels, whereas stratification refers to segmentation of relative ranks. This paper measures how the stratification index of potential care workers among internal migrants has changed from 2011 to 2015. The results of a nonparametric stratification index (NSI) shows that income stratification between care/non-care work exhibits a declining trend. Decomposition analysis revealed that NSI in each year was apparent by between gender stratification rather than within gender stratification. Furthermore, counterfactual analysis shows that income stratification between care/non-care work would have risen even more than it actually did if care/non-care work differences in educational attainment had remained at their 2011 levels.


Thyroxin is important for the development of fetus brain during early
pregnancy. Low body iodine stores during gestation may be present as hypothyroidism in the mother
and/or dysfunction in the fetus nervous system. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the trend
of urinary iodine excretion (UIC) during pregnancy in Zive District of Urmia County.
Materials & Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 107 pregnant women (age >17 years) at first
trimester (<12 weeks) were recruited. Spot urine samples were collected. UIC was assessed by the
Sandell – Kolthoff method. Data analysis was carried out by SPSS software version 22.
Results: The mean age of the studied population was 26±5 years. Median UIC during the first,
second, and third trimester were 62 µg/L, 130 µg/L and 90 µg/L. Repeated measure analysis revealed
that the differences between UIC at first trimester and those at second- and third trimester were
statistically significant (P<0.001). The prevalence of iodine deficiency (UIC, 150 µg/L) during fist-,
second-, and third trimester were 98%, 67%, and 80%, respectively.
Conclusions: This study reports that 81% of the pregnant women in Zive District of Urmia exhibited
mild to moderate iodine deficiency (UIC ≤ 150 µg/L). Also, a marked elevation in median UIC was
seen at the second trimester when compared to first or third trimesters. UIC pattern in the present
study is different from those obtained for iodine sufficient regions in Iran. These differences may
reflect the impact of whole body iodine stores on UIC pattern during gestation. Therefore, appropriate
iodine store during early pregnancy is vital for the well-being of the fetus and should be considered a
priority for health service authorities in order to prevent mental dysfunction, impaired growth and
increases mortality among new born children


In 1990, a strike of national significance took place at large-scale egg- and poultry-raising facilities in Yucatan, Mexico. This article relates the history of the struggle of Maya-speaking workers to form independent unions and of the event that came to be known as the "War of the Eggs." Part of that struggle relates to the formation of an archive by strikers, and the eventual production of a historical narrative of the conflict by labor organizers from elsewhere in Mexico. An ethnographic reading of event, archive, and history demonstrates some of the ways that local understandings of past, present, and future shaped the account authored by organizers, transforming a story of national infamy into one of local redemption. (Yucatan, people's archive, union organizing, strike, labor oppression, redemption) ********** It was a bitter ending to a long struggle. For five months, the workers of the Fernandez avicultural farms had fought to form a union independent of what they called a "phantom union" established by a national labor confederation (the Confederacion de Trabajadores Mexicanos, or CTM) at the owner's request. Women and men from the pueblo of Tetiz stood alongside the strikers, providing them with food and support, barricading roads to the egg-laying facilities, and at times even battling strikebreakers and state police. Facing the imprisonment and beating of union leaders, severe ultimatums from Jorge Fernandez and the governor of Yucatan, and rumors of imminent repression by federal forces, the independent union finally admitted defeat. On May 25, 1990, the workers voted to dissolve the union and to quit in unison, abandoning the farms they had occupied. Several days later, Carlos Caamal Couoh, general secretary of the defunct Independent Union of the Workers of Tetiz and Hunucma (Sindicato Independiente de Obreros de Tetiz y Hunucma) ruefully remarked that the constitutional rights that workers thought they enjoyed--rights to form unions and to strike--had proven to be nonexistent. Nonetheless, the workers and the people of Tetiz found honor even in defeat. As Caamal declared in a letter addressed to "public opinion," dated May 30, 1990: Truly responsible men and women struggle upright, with their heads held high, facing the sun. In the same way, without bowing or kneeling before anyone, they admit it when they have been defeated by brute force and cowardice. An entire pueblo, supported by reason and justice, was crushed viciously in order to impose the whims of a handful of powerful men. Let this remain for history, as a history of infamy. Caamal's words were preserved in an archive of the events of 1990, formed by the Independent Union of Aviculture Workers (the Sindicato Independiente de Trabajadores de la Industria Avicola, henceforth SITIA). His letter marked the end of the independent union's existence, and signaled the conclusion of a series of events that came to be known as the War of the Eggs. As a historical document, Caamal's letter also is the last document in the chronologically organized SITIA archive of the strike, and calls for a future writing of the history of the struggle as a story of infamy. That history would soon appear, authored anonymously and widely disseminated by the organizers of the independent union, entitled The Battle of Tetiz and Hunucma: The One Hundred Forty Days that Shook Yucatan. Archive and history were inextricably linked from the moment the conflict began. Leaders and advisors of the independent union took great pains to assemble an archive of the happenings in Tetiz, clipping newspaper articles, copying documents and press releases, and filing photographs, leaflets, and correspondence. Their archival practice was guided by a sense of the conflict as history in the making, and they were keenly aware of how elements of the stories presented in press reports and union documents eventually might be integrated into a historical narrative of the conflict. …


China is now a global leader in renewable energy production,an important player in development finance and climate change diplomacy, and the world's largest provider of energy finance. Meanwhile, in recent years, South Africa has emerged as a regional leader in renewable energy development following the launch of its renewable energy independent power producers' procurement program (RE IPPPP). In this paper we explore the different modes of involvement of Chinese companies in South Africa's solar PV and wind energy sectors, and how the differentiated technological and industrial trajectories of Chinese companies are interacting
with South Africa's unique national context. In doing so we reveal complex interactions between evolving market
dynamics, and international and domestic factors in both
China and South Africa. Such dynamics, which may at once be political, technical, economic and social, include the highly globalized nature of production chains in wind and solar PV, accompanied by increasingly consolidated markets, and ongoing trade disputes between Chinese, and EU and US solar PV manufacturing companies.


Child marriage (marriage before age 18 years) is an internationally recognised health and human rights violation disproportionately affecting girls, globally. Although the practice of girl child marriage has decreased substantially over the past 20 years,1,–,3 it remains strikingly pervasive in some world regions, particularly South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa where up to 50–70% of girls in some countries are married prior to age 18 years2. However, the practice is not limited to these areas of the world. Parts of Latin America and Eastern Europe report rates of child marriage greater than 10–20% among females,2 and even high development nations see some cases of child marriage.4 Currently, over 60 million women and girls worldwide are affected by child marriage.1 2

Although girl child marriage is a global concern, a review of the literature on this phenomenon (see online appendix for methods) documents clear social vulnerabilities that heighten risk for child marriage at national and individual levels. Studies consistently show that marriage of minor aged girls is more likely to occur in rural and impoverished areas with low access to healthcare1,–,3 5,–,15; regional conflict and instability further exacerbate these vulnerabilities.16 17 However, the primary contextual factor heightening risk for girl child marriage is gender inequity, often characterised, at least in part, by lower access to education and employment opportunities for females relative to males.1 4 5 17 Across national contexts, it is the poorest and least educated girls who are most vulnerable to early marriage,1,–,3 5,–,15 18 and even among girls receiving an education, early marriage appears to impede continuation of that education.19

Expanding on this issue of gender inequity …


The move towards sustainable energy production and use is one the most challenging and profound changes currently taking place in the world's established and emerging economies. Energy and Innovation: Structural Change and Policy Implications presents a series of informative case studies from Norway, the United Kingdom, Poland, the United States, Russia, Japan, and China that demonstrate how the pace of sustainable energy production differs by country.

Part 1 examines the challenges of increasing sustainable energy production. The main themes include differences between countries in the European Union concerning energy consumption, energy security, smart metering, and resistance to change.

Part 2 presents challenges to innovation in different economic systems. The authors contrast developed European and North American systems with emerging economies such as that of China. Their focus is on improving the innovation capabilities of firms and organizations through enhanced access to knowledge. Solutions include corporate collaborations with the academic sector and access to investment capital.

Part 3 surveys the range of industry sectors that are adopting environmentally-friendly solutions. There is a special focus on start-up companies that are working to bring new energy-production technologies to the market.


The not so pleasing state of the nation's quality of education has been a major area of research. Many researchers have looked into various aspects of the educational system and organizational structure in relation to the quality of service delivery of the staff members. However, there is paucity of research in areas relating to the sense of competence and commitment in relation to leadership styles. Against this backdrop, this study investigated the impact of leadership style and sense of competence on the performance of post-primary school teachers in Oyo state Nigeria. Data were generated across public secondary schools in the city using survey design method. Ibadan as a metropolis has eleven local government areas contained in it. A systematic random sampling technique of the eleven local government areas in Ibadan was done and five local government areas were selected. The selected local government areas are Akinyele, Ibadan North, Ibadan North-East, Ibadan South and Ibadan South-West. Data were obtained from a range of two – three public secondary schools selected in each of the local government areas mentioned above. Also, these secondary schools are a representation of the variations in the constructs under consideration across the Ibadan metropolis. Categorically, all secondary school teachers in Ibadan were clustered into selected schools in those found across the five local government areas. In all, a total of 272 questionnaires were administered to public secondary school teachers, while 241 were returned. Findings revealed that transformational leadership style makes room for job commitment when compared with transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles. Teachers with a high sense of competence are more likely to demonstrate more commitment to their job than others with low sense of competence. We recommend that, it is important an assessment is made of the leadership styles employed by principals and school administrators. This guides administrators and principals in to having a clear, comprehensive knowledge of the style they currently adopt in the management of the staff and the school as a whole; and know where to begin the adjustment process from. Also to make an impact on student achievement, being attentive to teachers' levels of commitment may be an important aspect of leadership for school principals. Keywords—Leadership style, sense of competence, teachers, public secondary schools, Ibadan.


In this note, we develop a search-based monetary growth model to analyze the growth and welfare effects of inflation. We introduce endogenous growth via capital externality into a two-sector search model and compare the effects of inflation to those from a standard cash-in-advance (CIA) growth model. We find two important differences between the two approaches. First, while the growth effect of inflation operates solely through endogenous labor supply in the CIA model, the growth effect of inflation operates through an additional consumption effect in the decentralized market in the search model. Second, we quantitatively evaluate the welfare cost of inflation and find that the search model exhibits a larger (smaller) welfare gain than the CIA model when we decrease the growth rate of money supply to achieve the Friedman rule (zero inflation). These contrasting results are due to a non-linearity in welfare as a function of inflation in the search model. JEL classification: E41, O41, O42.


There was something unreal about the opinions in McCutcheon v. FEC. These opinions examined a series of strategies for circumventing the limits on contributions to candidates imposed by federal election law, but they failed to notice that the limits were no longer breathing. The D.C. Circuit's decision in SpeechNow.org v. FEC had created a far easier way to evade the limits than any of those the Supreme Court discussed. SpeechNow held all limits on contributions to super PACs unconstitutional.This Article argues that the D.C. Circuit erred; Citizens United v. FEC did not require unleashing super PAC contributions. The Article also considers what can be said for and against a bumper sticker's declarations that "MONEY IS NOT SPEECH!" and "CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE!" It proposes a framework for evaluating the constitutionality of campaign-finance regulations that differs from the one currently employed by the Supreme Court. And it proposes a legislative scheme of campaign-finance regulation that would effectively limit contributions while respecting the Supreme Court's campaign-finance decisions.


We study evolution of resonant modes by traversing over the distance between two parallel dielectric cylinders. The processes of mutual scattering of Mie resonant modes by cylinders result in an interaction between the cylinders which lifts a degeneracy of resonances of the isolated cylinders. There are two basic scenarios of evolution. For strong interaction of cylinders resonances bypass the Mie resonances with increase of the distance. That scenario is typical for low-lying resonances (monopole and dipole). For weak interaction of cylinders the resonances are bound around the Mie resonances of isolated cylinders that form the second scenario. Both scenarios demonstrate a significant enhancement of the $Q$ factor compared to the case of an isolated cylinder.


Abstract: Building off of the work of dance scholar Brenda Dixon Gottschild, the author argues that the American dancing body is a fusion of West African, ballet, and modern dance techniques. Yet, curricula in collegiate dance departments throughout the U.S. reduce West African dance and dances from the African Diaspora to electives, while modern dance and ballet are regarded as foundational. This article theorizes how the delegation of modern dance and ballet as the proper "techniques" for training dancers in the academy invoke de Certeau's notion of "place" and "space," and reifies racist constructions of the black dancing body. Keywords: Dance, Technique, West African, Modern Dance, Ballet Introduction "I don't want to do African, what about my technique?" a Latina student thoughtfully explains to her advisor when asked why she wanted to drop the Contemporary African/Modern I class and take a modern dance class from another teacher. Similar to other students who had dropped the class, the student cited fear of losing her "technique" as her primary reason. Like most dance programs throughout the country, our program requires that students spend the majority of their studio time in modern and ballet classes, while other genres are relegated to electives. To advance through our program, a panel reviews students in their modern and ballet classes to determine if they can move up to the next required level. The students have to reach at least level two in both areas for a BA in Dance and advance further in technique for a BFA. The majority of our students, or at least the majority of our African American and Latina/o students, begin in introductory modern and ballet classes, which precede level one. These classes count as electives and not towards technique credits.1 Students who begin in introductory courses fear being left behind as they feel they are already getting a late start in their dance training. Unfortunately, neither the students, nor our department and others across the country, have yet to figure out how to make the movement practices they enter with advantageous for their training in the academy. Our failure to do so impacts retention efforts, as students struggle to advance in our program. It might also impact diversity since these students, who are often of color, are simply not admitted into other collegiate dance programs. I do understand the conundrum my students face. I was once one of those young, dance students entering the academy with training in jazz, ballet, and tap from a competition studio.2 Like them, I was also well versed in the vernacular dances of the time. I could Snake, Prep, Wop, Reebok, Smurf, and Guess with the best of them. My expertise with the popular dance styles served me well at my dance studios. My teachers would ask me to teach the dances to them and my peers, so they could "clean up" the steps and insert them into our two-minute competition choreography. But it did not do much for me at the university, or so I thought. I, too, avoided West African or Afro-Brazilian classes afraid that they would not help me become a better dancer. Those classes were fun and came easy to me, unlike ballet. Thus, I failed to see how they would help me improve my technique. And, my teachers did not help me discover the connections between the various forms. As I watch my students struggle with the same physical ideologies as I did twenty plus years previously, I am inspired to write this article. Conversations with colleagues at my own and other institutions who struggle to overhaul curriculum to include dances from the African Diaspora, also inform this essay. And the student compositions, journals, and formal interviews layered throughout this paper, evident the need to revise our programs to better suit the diverse student bodies that dance through our doors. Each instructor I spoke with or emailed, holds a full time or adjunct position, and teaches one or more of the following courses: modern, ballet, West African, pedagogy, dance making, and dance history. …


The resurgence of cancer immunotherapy stems from an improved understanding of the tumor microenvironment. The PD-1/PD-L1 axis is of particular interest, in light of promising data demonstrating a restoration of host immunity against tumors, with the prospect of durable remissions. Indeed, remarkable clinical responses have been seen in several different malignancies including, but not limited to, melanoma, lung, kidney, and bladder cancers. Even so, determining which patients derive benefit from PD-1/PD-L1–directed immunotherapy remains an important clinical question, particularly in light of the autoimmune toxicity of these agents. The use of PD-L1 (B7-H1) immunohistochemistry (IHC) as a predictive biomarker is confounded by multiple unresolved issues: variable detection antibodies, differing IHC cutoffs, tissue preparation, processing variability, primary versus metastatic biopsies, oncogenic versus induced PD-L1 expression, and staining of tumor versus immune cells. Emerging data suggest that patients whose tumors overexpress PD-L1 by IHC have improved clinical outcomes with anti-PD-1–directed therapy, but the presence of robust responses in some patients with low levels of expression of these markers complicates the issue of PD-L1 as an exclusionary predictive biomarker. An improved understanding of the host immune system and tumor microenvironment will better elucidate which patients derive benefit from these promising agents. Mol Cancer Ther; 14(4); 847–56. ©2015 AACR.


Without violating existing app security enforcement, malicious modules inside apps, such as a library or an external class, can steal private data and abuse sensitive capabilities meant for other modules inside the same apps. These so-called "module-level attacks" are quickly emerging, fueled by the pervasive use of third-party code in apps and the lack of module-level security enforcement on mobile platforms. To systematically thwart the threats, we build CASE, an automatic app patching tool used by app developers to enable module-level security in their apps built for COTS Android devices. During runtime, patched apps enforce developer-supplied security policies that regulate interactions among modules at the granularity of a Java class. Requiring no changes or special support from the Android OS, the enforcement is complete in covering inter-module crossings in apps and is robust against malicious Java and native app modules. We evaluate CASE with 420 popular apps and a set of Android's unit tests. The results show that CASE is fully compatible with the tested apps and incurs an average performance overhead of 4.9%.


Paper prepared for the Future of Journalism Conference, Cardiff, September 2011
Newspapers, particularly in the Western world, have seen paid circulation decline in the last decade. Online news is abundantly available, but at the same time newspapers – in print and online - often serve as sources for other media. Their position is definitely weaker than before, but it would be an exaggeration to write their obituary right now. In this research we track the significance of newspapers in 160 countries worldwide by calculating how many people use daily newspapers and how this changed over the last decade. We compare countries and continents, and distinguish between paid and free newspapers. Results show that newspapers are particularly significant – with more than 50% of the population reading a newspaper on a daily basis - in sixteen countries in Europe (mainly in Nordic and Western Europe) and ten countries in Asia (Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Macau and some Gulf states). Most African, Asian and South American countries show a very low penetration of newspapers. Free dailies, however, have increased the presence of newspapers in Europe and some Asian and American countries. When shifts over the years are analyzed, the decline of newspapers mainly shows in Europe, Northern America, Australia and New Zealand although newspapers are still very well read in those areas. In Asia newspaper penetration has increased over the last decade. Latin America shows a stable penetration with population growing fast. In Africa there are only two copies of newspapers distributed per 100 inhabitants, a number that has not changed over the last decade.


This West Balkans Regional Aquatic Animal Disease Diagnostic Manual is a handbook whose main purpose is to facilitate the daily duties at aquaculture farms and provide a useful reference that will answer the majority of practical questions posed by official veterinarians, veterinary inspectors and fish health experts in five Western Balkan countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and the Republic of Serbia). It is developed through the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Technical Cooperation Programme Project TCP/RER/3402 "Assistance to Western Balkan Countries for Improving Compliance to International Standards on Aquatic Animal Health", a regional project that is based on a consultative and consensusbuilding process. This is a diagnostic guide for the surveillance, clinical inspection and sampling at aquaculture facilities with the aim to detect the diseases listed by the Word Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the European Union (EU) according to their guidelines and standards, as well as other diseases of economic importance. Both standards include monitoring for diseases, the obligatory notification of clinical signs in registered farms and sampling by official veterinarians, activities that unconditionally require knowledge on diseases, farm production, normal appearance of the farmed species, and recognition of any changes that could lead to the suspicion of disease occurrence. Thus, this manual provides essential information on how to perform clinical inspections of fish and mollusc farms, how to recognize unusual behaviour of fish; how to select the most appropriate specimens for laboratory examination; and how to collect, pack and ship samples to the diagnostic laboratory. The laboratory procedures employed to identify the various disease agents are described, and information on the viral, bacterial and parasitic diseases of fish and molluscs in the Western Balkans is provided. The information presented should assist countries to maintain and improve their national aquatic animal health status, harmonize standards regionally, and better comply with the health standard requirements of regional and international trading partners. (


In desert environments, nonvegetated (bare) soils and sediments can act as recharge basins, allowing water infiltration but restricting evaporation. When such sediments are located over buried wastes, drainage can transport vadose zone contamination downward to groundwater. Lysimeters were used to quantify drainage from bare sediments at the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site in Washington state, USA. Drainage varied widely from zero to more than half of the annual precipitation for sediments ranging from fine silts to coarse rock fragments. Decade‐long drainage records were used to develop two empirical models relating annual drainage and textural properties of bare sediments. A 22‐yr drainage record for bare, coarse sand was tested, and the calibration developed for the past 10 years (1995–2004) was found to reliably predict drainage from the previous 12 years. The texture models were also compared against Darcy's Law drainage estimates (i.e., unsaturated hydraulic conductivity) for coarse sand and found to outperform Darcy's Law estimates of the long‐term drainage average. The texture models reasonably predicted annual drainage rates for bare sediments containing significant fines (materials less than 50 μm), but significantly overpredicted drainage rates for clean rock and gravels with little or no fines. The failure of the textural models with coarse materials containing minimal fines was attributed to advective drying. Drainage predictions using the textural models indicate that to minimize drainage only modest quantities of fines need to be added to the coarse sediments to substantially reduce the potential for groundwater contamination.


Children and adolescents in a summer tennis instruction program were taught a "metaphor method" for eliminating distractions and detrimental ideation. They visualized themselves enclosed in a bubble, cocoon, or chrysalis that separated them from nontask stimuli. Although subjects in the experimental and control groups were positive in their evaluations of their tennis experience, ratings from instructors demonstrated multiple advantages of the metaphor method. When compared to control group subjects receiving regular instruction, students taught to use boundary metaphors improved significantly in terms of performance criteria and ability to concentrate. Their instructors also rated them significantly higher in enjoyment of the experience, motivation, and a display of mature and appropriate behavior. The method was easy to implement and appears adaptable to a variety of sports and other performance settings.


Abstract Stability tests for cointegrating coefficients are known to have very low power with small to medium sample sizes. In this paper we propose to solve this problem by extending the tests to dependent cointegrated panels through the stationary bootstrap. Simulation evidence shows that the proposed panel tests improve considerably on asymptotic tests applied to individual series. As an empirical illustration we examined investment and saving for a panel of European countries over the 1960-2002 period. While the individual stability tests, contrary to expectations and graphical evidence, in almost all cases do not reject the null of stability, the bootstrap panel tests lead to the more plausible conclusion that the long-run relationship between these two variables is likely to have undergone a break.


In this paper we study the feedback control problem using an r-channel decentralized dynamic feedback control scheme. We will develop the theory in the behavioral framework. Using this framework we introduce an algebraic parameterization of the space of all possible feedback compensators having a bounded McMillan degree, and we show that this parameterization has the structure of an algebraic variety. We define the pole-placement map for this problem, and we give exact conditions when this map is onto, and almost onto. Finally we provide new necessary and sufficient conditions which guarantee that the set of stabilizable plants is a generic set. >


The influx of migrants from rural areas in search of better economic prosperity has led to a double edged tragedy. First, it accounts for less food production from rural areas. Secondly, it has led to continuous increase in urban population causing congestion, food insecurity, poverty and deteriorating quality of life. Elsewhere, many nations have incorporated urban agriculture (UA) as a supplementary effort to food supply to urban centres and the food and agricultural organization (FAO) is encouraging this trend vigorously. Urban agriculture is not new or geographically isolated to a country. The United Nations Development Program estimated that fifteen percent of food worldwide is grown in cities. Countries such as Cuba successfully used UA as a means to evade food shortages, while many developing countries have long been farming within cities for income and subsistence. This paper reviewed the status of UA in Nigerian cities, its challenges and prospects for augmenting food supply to urban centres. In Nigeria, UA is practiced but in uncoordinated manner and not much can be deduced from its contribution to food supply in the urban centres due to lack of statistics and none inclusion in urban planning. Scanty literature is available for some cities such as Lagos, Abuja, Jos and Kwara but none exists for several fast growing urban centres such as Port Harcourt city where 90% of petroleum production takes place. Urban agriculture can become a strategic means of meeting the increase demand for food in such cities if well harnessed.


Objective The risk of cancer after exposure to the β-interferons (IFNβs) for multiple sclerosis (MS) has not been established. We assessed whether IFNβ treatment for MS is associated with cancer risk or the risk of specific cancers in a population-based observational study. Methods The British Columbia MS database was linked to the provincial Cancer Registry, Vital Statistics death files and Health Registration files. Using a nested case-control design, MS cancer cases were matched with up to 20 randomly selected MS controls at the date of cancer diagnosis by sex, age (±5 years) and study entry year using incidence density sampling. Associations between treatment exposure and overall or specific (breast, colorectal, lung and prostate) cancers were estimated by conditional logistic regression, adjusted for MS disease duration and age. Tumour size at cancer diagnosis was compared between treated and untreated patients using the stratified Wilcoxon test to explore potential lead time bias. Results The cohort included 5146 relapsing-onset MS patients and 48 705 person-years of follow-up, during which 227 cancers were diagnosed. Exposure to IFNβ was not significantly different for cases and controls (OR 1.28; 95% CI 0.87 to 1.88). There was a non-significant trend towards an increased risk of IFNβ exposure in the breast cancer cases (OR 1.77; 95% CI 0.92 to 3.42), but no evidence of a dose–response effect. Tumour size was similar between IFNβ treated and untreated cases. Conclusions There was no evidence of an increased cancer risk with exposure to IFNβ over a 12-year observation period. However, the trend towards an association between IFNβ and breast cancer should be investigated further.


In 2014, the project CEILE (Corpus Electronicum Inscriptionum Latinarum Estoniae, EKKM 14-364) was launched within the framework of the program "Estonian language and cultural memory", in order to systematically map and study the Latin inscriptions created before 1918 and stored in Estonian Lutheran and Catholic churches. As of 2018, the database contains more than 300 inscriptions. Although the proportion of verse texts is not high (13 entries), the fact that the material (totalling 175 verses) has survived almost completely, part of them in situ and partly in transcriptions, and contains several lengthier texts, allows us to make certain generalizations about their metrical and prosodic structure. In this paper, we will give an overview of the chronology and sites of inscriptions and describe the metrical, rhythmical and prosodic structure of the verse texts, addressing also the conjectural role of meter and prosody in our work. We will also dwell on the metrical and prosodic correctness of the texts and will take a separate look at the prosodic licences and errors which occur in the verse texts of the corpus.


The historical district is formed during a long time of the city development. It contains special architecture and human landscapes. With the process of urban modernization,the historical district imminently needs renewal by improving the building quality, repairing the space environment in order to protect the cultural information in the historical district. Historical district renewal is a most popular topic in the urban development in China. Nowadays many historical districts are going to be rebuilt. Among all the cultural, social and economic factors, the cultural continuity does not as obvious as economic or social reflection, it is easily forgotten. This paper is seeking for the combination among the urban cultural elements, the special conditions of historical district and the theory of the sustainable development based on the analysis of problems existing in the historical districts. It is important to describe the sustainable renewal from the aspect of cultural continuity in the historical district. Based on the sum-up experience of the case studies, this paper tries to classify the renewal to different types and see the different cultural performance in those types. The theoretical tools and case studies are all taken into the paper to give the final suggestion to continue cultural elements in the historical district renewal. Finally, this paper gives a new attempt to create a residential area for elderly people after the analysis and discussion.


The Little Minch Sill Complex consists of a series of stacked, multi-leaved Paleocene dolerite sills, which have primarily intruded into Mesozoic sedimentary rocks and Paleocene tuffs/?hyaloclastites within the Sea of Hebrides Basin. The Sea of Hebrides Basin is situated to the west of the Scottish mainland on the NE Atlantic margin. Two previously proposed models for the emplacement of the sill complex have opposing ideas for the location of magma input and the emplacement mechanisms. Both models have been constructed using data primarily from onshore outcrops on the Isle of Skye, Raasay and the Shiant Isles. However, these onshore outcrops only represent a quarter (1040 km2) of the entire extent of the sill complex, which is largely located offshore. To understand how the sill complex as a whole was emplaced within the basin, both onshore and offshore magma transport needs to be considered. Using high-resolution multibeam bathymetry data (up to 2 m resolution) obtained between 2008 and 2011, along with supporting seismic reflection, sparker and pinger data, a new assessment of the offshore extent and character of the sill complex has been constructed. Mapping of the large-scale relationships between intrusions and the host rock, along with morphological features such as magma lobes, magma fingers, transgressive wings, en echelon feeder dykes and the axis of saucer-/half-saucer-shaped intrusions, has indicated the magma flow directions within the intrusive network. Assessing the flow kinematics of the sills has provided insights into magma transport and emplacement processes offshore. Combining data from previously mapped onshore sills with data from our newly constructed model for magma emplacement offshore has allowed us to construct a new model for the emplacement of the Little Minch Sill Complex. This model demonstrates that major basin-bounding faults may have a lesser role in channelling magma through sedimentary basins than previously thought. Applying the knowledge obtained from this study could further progress our understanding of the effect of sill emplacement on fluid flow within volcanic rift basins worldwide, with direct impacts on the exploitation of petroleum and geothermal systems.


The attempt to gain a theoretical understanding of the concept of time in quantum mechanics has triggered significant progress towards the search for faster and more efficient quantum technologies. One of such advances consists in the interpretation of the time-energy uncertainty relations as lower bounds for the minimal evolution time between two distinguishable states of a quantum system, also known as quantum speed limits. We investigate how the non uniqueness of a bona fide measure of distinguishability defined on the quantum state space affects the quantum speed limits and can be exploited in order to derive improved bounds. Specifically, we establish an infinite family of quantum speed limits valid for unitary and nonunitary evolutions, based on an elegant information geometric formalism. Our work unifies and generalizes existing results on quantum speed limits, and provides instances of novel bounds which are tighter than any established one based on the conventional quantum Fisher information. We illustrate our findings with relevant examples, demonstrating the importance of choosing different information metrics for open system dynamics, as well as clarifying the roles of classical populations versus quantum coherences, in the determination and saturation of the speed limits. Our results can find applications in the optimization and control of quantum technologies such as quantum computation and metrology, and might provide new insights in fundamental investigations of quantum thermodynamics.


A novel read-only memory (ROM) disk with an AgOx mask layer was proposed and studied in this letter. The AgOx films sputtered on the premastered substrates, with pits depth of 50 nm and pits length of 380 nm, were studied by an atomic force microscopy. The transmittances of these AgOx films were also measured by a spectrophotometer. Disk measurement was carried out by a dynamic setup with a laser wavelength of 632.8 nm and a lens numerical aperture (NA) of 0.40. The readout resolution limit of this setup was λ/(4NA) (400 nm). Results showed that the super-resolution readout happened only when the oxygen flow ratios were at suitable values for these disks. The best super-resolution performance was achieved at the oxygen flow ratio of 0.5 with the smoothest film surface. The super-resolution readout mechanism of these ROM disks was analyzed as well.


With the congressional determination that tribes would be treated like states for purposes of the Clean Water Act, Congress greatly increased the potential for conflict between standards set by states and those set by neighboring tribes. The dispute between the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Isleta Pueblo provides a case study of the legal issues that these disputes raise. This case study exposes deficiencies in our national structure for the protection of water quality. Interjurisdictional conflicts are not clearly addressed by Congress in the Clean Water Act, whether they occur between states or between dischargers and tribes. EPA has stepped into this opening and enacted regulations that provide a predictable, if not mandated, decision rule, and that rule has been upheld by the Supreme Court. Under this rule, the water quality of downstream states must be protected in the permitting process. The Clean Water Act lets states, and now tribes, determine their own uses for water, and hence what constitutes polluted waters. When a tribe adopts more protective standards than the state did previously, the quiet discretion in standard setting enjoyed by states under the Act is highlighted. Finally, because of the economic costs of controlling water pollution, tensions between tribal entities and dischargers can be expected to persist. It is questionable whether the rules adopted by EPA are best calculated to create good working relationships and the improvement of water quality. EPA should consider refining its regulations to avoid wholesale legislative revision of this provision of the statute.


Chemogenomics experiments, where genetic and chemical perturbations are combined, provide data for discovering the relationships between genotype and phenotype. Here, we computationally analyzed the largest chemogenomics dataset, which combines more than 300 chemicals with virtually all gene deletion strains in the yeast S. cerevisiae. Traditionally, analysis of chemogenomic datasets has been done considering the sensitivity of the deletion strains to chemicals, and this has shed light into drug mechanism of action and finding drug targets. We also considered the deletion strains which are resistant to chemicals. We found a small set of genes whose deletion makes the yeast cell resistant to many chemicals. Curiously, these genes were enriched for functions related to RNA metabolism. Our approach allowed us to generate a network of drugs and genes that are connected with resistance or sensitivity relationships. As a quality assessment, we showed that the higher order motifs found in this network make biological sense. Moreover, by using this network, we constructed a biologically relevant network projection pertaining to drug similarities, and subsequently analyzed this network projection in detail. We propose the drug similarity network as a useful tool for understanding drug mechanism of action.


Abstract. The last interglacial (LIG, ~130–116 ka, ka = 1000 yr ago) is characterized by high-latitude warming and is therefore often considered as a possible analogue for future warming. However, in contrast to predicted future greenhouse warming, the LIG climate is largely governed by variations in insolation. Greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations were relatively stable and similar to pre-industrial values, with the exception of the early LIG when, on average, GHGs were slightly lower. We performed six time-slice simulations with the low-resolution version of the Norwegian Earth System Model covering the LIG. In four simulations only the orbital forcing was changed. In two other simulations, representing the early LIG, additionally the GHG forcing was reduced. With these simulations we investigate (1) the different effects of GHG versus insolation forcing on the temperatures during the LIG; (2) whether reduced GHGs can explain the low temperatures reconstructed for the North Atlantic; and (3) the timing of the observed LIG peak warmth. Our simulations show that the insolation forcing results in seasonal and hemispheric differences in temperature. In contrast, a reduction in the GHG forcing causes a global and seasonal-independent cooling. Furthermore, we compare modelled temperatures with proxy-based LIG sea-surface temperatures along a transect in the North Atlantic. The modelled North Atlantic summer sea-surface temperatures capture the general trend of the reconstructed summer temperatures, with low values in the early LIG, a peak around 125 ka, and a steady decrease towards the end of the LIG. Simulations with reduced GHG forcing improve the model–data fit as they show lower temperatures in the early LIG. Furthermore we show that the timing of maximum summer and winter surface temperatures is in line with the local summer and winter insolation maximum at most latitudes. Two regions where the maximum local insolation and temperature do not occur at the same time are Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. The austral summer insolation has a late maximum at ~115 ka. In contrast the austral summer temperatures in Antarctica show maxima at both ~130 ka and ~115 ka, and the Southern Ocean temperatures peak only at ~130 ka. This is probably due to the integrating effect of the ocean, storing heat from other seasons and resulting in relatively warm austral summer temperatures. Reducing the GHG concentrations in the early LIG (125 and 130 ka) results in a similar timing of peak warmth, except over Antarctica. There, the lower austral summer temperatures at 130 ka shift the maximum warmth to a single peak at 115 ka.


Development of treatments for rare diseases is challenging due to the limited number of patients available. Since a substantial proportion of all patients may be included in the trial, the goal is to treat those patients within the trial as effectively as possible. This motivates the use of response-adaptive designs which skew allocation towards the better performing treatment(s) but often reduce the statistical power. Consequently, this raises the question of how to allocate patients in order to attain a compromise between these conflicting objectives. This can be formalised as a multi-armed bandit problem with the dynamic programming and Gittins index solutions considered here. Dynamic programming is utilised to propose a randomised design for a two-arm sequential trial with binary outcomes. This design maximises the total number of patient successes and penalises if a minimum number of patients are not allocated to each treatment so that sufficient power is achieved. Moreover, the treatment effect estimator exhibits a very small bias and mean squared error. This design is shown to be fairly robust to delays, with only a slight reduction in patient benefit. Solutions to ameliorate this loss are therefore proposed, for both the fixed and random delay settings. A design based upon the Gittins index — which is randomised and orientated towards a patient benefit objective — is proposed for normal outcomes, illustrated in the multi-armed setting where patients are allocated in blocks. Patient benefit gains are observed when using this design with a continuous outcome instead of dichotomising it. These gains persist even when missing data is imputed. Throughout, we compare the proposed designs to alternative designs via extensive simulations in a range of scenarios. This thesis helps bridge the gap between theory and practice by addressing key issues that have prevented bandit models from being implemented in practice.


Abstract The aim of this study was to assess the genetic variations and relationships across evolutionary related cervid species in order to estimate the genetic diversity of the Red deer population that inhabits the forest area in the south-western part of Slovakia. The study was based on the application of cross-species SNP genotyping. The genomic data were obtained from a total of 86 individuals representing six genera (Axis, Dama, Cervus, Alces, Rangifer, and Odocoileus) using Illumina BovineSNP50 BeadChip. From 38.85% of successfully genotyped loci up to 1,532 SNPs showed polymorphism and were informative for subsequent analyses of the diversity and interspecific genetic relationships. Generally, a good level of observed heterozygosity was found across all species. The value of FIS (0.23±0.13) signalised the increase of a homozygous proportion within them. The application of molecular variance analysis to the hierarchical population structure showed that most of the variation was conserved within separate species (96%). The performed diversity analysis of Slovak Red deer population and comparative analysis of their phylogenic relationships among subspecies from genus Cervus did not identify a remarkable loss of genetic variability. Also, were not identified any degree of admixture that could be due to the historical background of deer farming in Slovakia or reintroduction and hybridisation by other species from genus Cervus (C. canadensis, and C. nippon) which are the major risk of loss of autochthonous Red deer populations in many areas of Central Europe. The analysis of individual's ancestry showed consistent results with patterns of evaluated group differentiations which means low migration rates among all species.


Practical Biomedical Signal Analysis Using MATLAB presents a coherent treatment of various signal processing methods and applications. The book not only covers the current techniques of biomedical signal processing, but it also offers guidance on which methods are appropriate for a given task and different types of data. The first several chapters of the text describe signal analysis techniquesincluding the newest and most advanced methodsin an easy and accessible way. MATLAB routines are listed when available and freely available software is discussed where appropriate. The final chapter explores the application of the methods to a broad range of biomedical signals, highlighting problems encountered in practice. A unified overview of the field, this book explains how to properly use signal processing techniques for biomedical applications and avoid misinterpretations and pitfalls. It helps readers to choose the appropriate method as well as design their own methods.


Inequalities permeate mathematics, from the Elements of Euclid to operations research and financial mathematics. Yet too often, especially in secondary and collegiate mathematics, the emphasis is on things equal to one another rather than unequal. While equalities and identities are without doubt important, they don't possess the richness and variety that one finds with inequalities. The objective of this book is to illustrate how the use of visualization can be a powerful tool for better understanding some basic mathematical inequalities. Drawing pictures is a well-known method for problem solving, and the authors will convince you that the same is true when working with inequalities. They show how to produce figures in a systematic way for the illustration of inequalities and open new avenues to creative ways of thinking and teaching. In addition, a geometric argument cannot only show two things unequal, but also help the observer see just how unequal they are. The concentration on geometric inequalities is partially motivated by the hope that secondary and collegiate teachers might use these pictures with their students. Teachers may wish to use one of the drawings when an inequality arises in the course. Alternatively, When Less Is More might serve as a guide for devoting some time to inequalities and problem solving techniques, or even as part of a course on inequalities.


This paper reviews recent trends in travel and tourism in the U.S. and Hawaii to ascertain how the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and subsequent terrible global events affected their tourism flows and the manner and pace of their recovery. We note that tourism in the U.S. has not fully recovered from 9/11 and other international shocks; indeed recovery of international travel to the U.S. may be a long way off. By contrast, Hawaii tourism is enjoying robust growth in the aftermath of 9/11 as growth in tourist arrivals from the U.S. mainland has more than offset declines in Japanese and other international visitors. We suggest that Hawaii's current tourism boom is in part explained by the diversion of U.S. travel from foreign travel. The paper demonstrates the usefulness of vector error correction models to generate dynamic visitor forecasts which we use to ascertain whether tourism in Hawaii has fully recovered from 9/11 and other terrible international events. The paper considers policy options for facilitating the recovery of international tourism to the U.S.


Forum shopping is widespread in patent litigation because there are clear differences in outcomes among the various federal districts. An accused patent infringer that is sued in a particularly disadvantageous forum can file a motion to transfer to a more convenient forum, but the general consensus is that such motions are difficult to win. Accordingly, accused infringers often file declaratory judgment actions to forum shop. Such actions allow accused infringers to preemptively sue the patent owner in the accused infringer's preferred forum, and are considered by many to be the best way for accused infringers to play the forum shopping game. Indeed, accused infringers file substantial numbers of declaratory judgment actions every year. This Article presents new evidence confirming that declaratory judgment actions are often filed to forum shop. But the data also demonstrates that declaratory judgment actions are 2.4 times more likely to be transferred than non-declaratory judgment cases. This suggests that declaratory judgment plaintiffs are often unable to hold onto their chosen forum. Indiscriminate use of declaratory judgment actions to forum shop thus increases unpredictability and wasteful litigation, thereby impeding innovation. The new data presented herein about forum shopping by patent litigants gives a richer context to the debate over forum shopping in general and serves as a basis for further investigation into its effects on judicial norms and efficiency.


This thesis presents an automated multi-electrode resistivity system which was developed for the water content characterisation of unsaturated clay soil. The system controls 64 electrodes in a fully automated procedure, offering continuous real-time data acquisition, which is one of the recent advances in resistivity instrumentation. The system was tested using a wide range of high precision reference resistors and different soils, and validated using commercial standard instruments. The results indicated a high precision, accuracy and resolution of the outputs, with a measurement error of 0.19% (maximum 0.80%) in a four-electrode method and 0.21% in an automated acquisition mode.
 Water content characteristics of mechanically compacted BIONICS clay soil was extensively investigated, with particular focus on the effect of wetting, drying and cracking on soil properties. It was found that the electrical resistivity of soil is sensitive to water content and compaction conditions. Experimental relationships that relate soil resistivity, volumetric water content and degree of saturation were developed. These relationships are useful to estimate the in situ water content. The resistivity behaviour of clay soils subjected to drying and wetting procedures was discussed. Soil water content and microstructure changes are key controlling parameters for resistivity behaviour. Numerical and experimental techniques were used to characterise cracking in clay soils. The results showed that cracks have anomalous high resistivity values that can be distinguished from the background, and changing cracking depth, length, width and orientation causes significant changes in soil resistivity. As the cracks form barriers that disturb the flow of electrical current, the depth and length of the crack have the major influence on soil resistivity.
 It was concluded that the degree of saturation or volumetric water content is a more reliable parameter than the gravimetric water content to calibrate in situ resistivity data against water content and soil resistivity can be used as a useful indicator for monitoring water content changes in clay soils subjected to drying and wetting cycles.


Abstract Examination of the literature suggests that relationships between psychiatric staff and the families of service-users are often characterized as unsatisfactory, and that psychiatric hospitals provide an unconducive environment for the implementation of family and network-orientated approaches. This research focused upon the development in an adult psychiatric admissions unit of family- staff network meetings, that occurred when a person entered hospital. These network meetings, or 'reception meetings', were strongly influenced by the Finnish social network approach (Seikkula, Alakare & Aaltonen 2001), which focuses upon the creation of open dialogue between the service-user, family members and professionals. An overall aim of the study was to generate a body of practice-based narrative accounts which might act as a catalyst to practice developments in this field. Drawing upon a postmodern methodological framework, a range of methods were employed to engage with the multiple voices of service-users, family members and staff in the research site. Data sources included semi-structured interviews, participant observation, secondary data, and material from a research diary that was maintained as a reflexive tool in relation to the practitioner research process. A 'voice-centred relational method' (Brown and Gilligan 1992) provided a heuristic device for guiding data interpretation which facilitated multiple readings from different perspectives. A subsequent stage of data-analysis entailed developing more general connecting themes from across the data-set. A number of themes are developed in the research, which principally relate to the tensions associated with the introduction of a relationally orientated, reflective approach to practice within an individually-based medico-psychiatric organizational context. Practice approaches are discussed which appeared to facilitate an ethos of 'safe uncertainty' (Mason 1993) within network meetings, which is a necessary condition for dialogue. Connections are also drawn between themes generated in this study and the broader contexts of government policy, professional and organizational development, and practice-based research.


If near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is to be used in clinical applications such as the localization of epileptic foci, it must be capable of recording large amplitude transients of which only a few samples are available. With this in mind, we attempted to record the NIRS correlate of isolated delta waves during normal human sleep. Largeamplitude, isolated delta waves in the electroencephalogram (EEG) were selected and the corresponding optical responses were measured. Signal-averaging trials of delta waves revealed fast optical intensity changes ranging from 0.05% to 0.3% but of unstable morphology. Measuring from the positive peak of the delta wave to the nadir of the individual optical responses, we were able to detect a latency of approximately 130 to 180 ms in 75% of the channels. Although encouraging, the results implied that the signalto-noise ratio of NIRS is not yet adequate for clinical application.


Frost-seeding red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) into winter cereals is a cost effective establishment method. Abiotic effects on seedling establishment have been reported, but information on cultivar differences is lacking. The objectives of this study were to quantify the effect of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) on the establishment, persistence, and forage dry matter (DM) production of 15 red clover cultivars of diverse origin. Cultivars were frost-seeded near Ames, IA in March of 2003 and 2004 and Prairie du Sac, WI in 2004. Presence of the wheat crop caused 19 and 23% mortality in 2003 and 2004 compared with the no-wheat treatment in Iowa and 51% mortality in 2004 in Wisconsin. Dry matter yield of diploid cultivars exceeded tetraploids in all environments (439 vs. 559 g m -2 ). Favorable conditions for germination and emergence in 2003 resulted in high plant densities and no relationship between post-wheat red clover density and DM yield. In 2004, unfavorable environmental conditions reduced plant densities, creating a relationship between red clover density (x) and DM yield (y) (y = 305 + 8.86x, R 2 = 0.65 in Iowa; y = 382 + 3.83x, R 2 = 0.22 in Wisconsin). The southern cultivar Cherokee generally had greater performance than the average northern cultivar. Differences across years and locations were inconsistent for elite and land races. Within different origins and selection histories, large variability exists in cultivar performance. More data are needed to determine if the cultivar-by-wheat interaction is important for screening cultivars for dual grain/forage systems.


This study suggests a way of building an as-accurate-as-possible compositional infrastructure to generate continuous wellstreams, from periodic well tests. It also studies the influence of well test measurements on the reservoir and production management. Since well tests are recorded at varying separator temperature and pressure, the measurements are not consistent with each other, and may lead to misinterpretations, wrong decisions, which would result in a lowered production, and ultimately to less incomes. The Well Test Conversion module is used to estimate the actual reservoir wellstream, considering it as molar compositional rates. From this point of view, a better understanding of the flow is possible. In this model, the importance of accurate wellstream generations is emphasized. By reprocessing at any separator conditions, all the well test measurements are simulated, and the comparison between the measurements is more meaningful. The deviations due to the varying separator conditions are flagged. Once the effect of the separator conditions has been removed, actual variations of the fluid properties can be studied. The continuous data are limited to rate measurements, while the periodic well tests are richer in information. A method is proposed to feed the continuous production data with molar rates, generated from periodic well tests. This algorithm produces a database of continuous wellstreams that can be sent through the actual process facilities. In this work, a compositional description of the production is discussed. The data characterizing the production can then be studied (API density and Shrinkage Factor among others) from the simulations. This leads to discussions about the reservoir behaviour, and supports an improved production management. Once the compositional infrastructure is built and the facilities on surface are modelled, an enhanced back-allocation of the production can be achieved.


Objective: Foodborne parasitic disease is an emerging public health problem in China, this study aimed at evaluating the factors associated with prevalence of foodborne intestinal parasites among residents in Tianhe district of Guangzhou city, and provides a scientific basis for adjusting the prevention and control strategies. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from June to October of 2016 using a stratified cluster sampling method, 42 neighborhood committees were sampled from 21 streets as the investigation sites. Results:A total of 956 residents were investigated,and the overall prevalence of infection rate was 4.7% (45/956). Clonorchis sinensis and Trichuris trichiura were the predominant parasites identified from the stool of study participants. The infection rate in males (5.04%) was higher than that of females (4.25%), and most of cases occurred in 20-35 y-old age group. occupation, low educational level, eating raw fish, separating the cutting boards for raw and cooked food were independent predictors of food-borne intestinal parasitic infection, while separating cutting boards for raw and cooked food, washing hands before eating and after using the toilet and the awareness of hazards were the protective factors. Conclusion:This present study showed high prevalence of food-borne intestinal parasites among the study subjects. Our results revealed poor personal hygiene like poor practice of hand washing before eating and after using the toilet, eating raw fish, the education level were more important cause of foodborne parasitic disease. Much has to be done to improve the personal hygiene and advocate the healthy eating behaviors.


This paper analyzes the migration behavior of ethnic groups in the former Soviet Un-ion (FSU) from 1989 to 1999. The two main migration movements have been return migration of ethnic groups to their titular nation and migration of all ethnic groups to the Russian Federation. Using factor analysis, we are able to disentangle the effects of economic wealth, growth, and political reforms on migration behavior. Ethnic sorting is found to be the major determinant of migration, which can explain both return migration and migration to Russia. The emigration behavior of Jews and ethnic Germans is found to be very similar to the migration behavior of ethnic groups migrating within the FSU.


It has been argued that diapycnal mixing has a strongly stabilizing role in the global thermohaline circulation (THC). Negative feedback between THC transport and low-latitude buoyancy distribution is present in theory based on thermocline scaling, but is absent from Stommel's classical model. Here, it is demonstrated that these two models can be viewed as opposite limits of a single theory. Stommel's model represents unlimited diapycnal mixing, whereas the thermocline scaling represents weak mixing. The latter limit is more applicable to the modern ocean, and previous studies suggest that it is associated with a more stable THC. A new box model, which can operate near either limit, is developed to enable explicit analysis of the transient behaviour. The model is perturbed from equilibrium with an increase in surface freshwater forcing, and initially behaves as if the only feedbacks are those present in Stommel's model. The response is buffered by any upper ocean horizontal mixing, then by propagation of salinity anomalies, each of which are stabilizing mechanisms. However, negative feedback associated with limited diapycnal mixing only prevents thermohaline catastrophe in a modest parameter domain. This is because the time-scale associated with vertical advective-diffusive balance is much longer than the time required for the THC to change mode. The model is then tuned to allow equilibrium THC transport to be independent of the rate of mixing. The equilibrium surface salinity difference controls the classical THC-transport/salinity positive feedback, whereas the equilibrium interior density difference controls the mean-flow negative feedback. When mixing is strong, unrealistic vertical homogenization occurs, causing a convergence in surface and interior meridional gradients. This reduces positive feedback, and increases stability, in the tuned model. Therefore, Stommel's model appears to overestimate, rather than underestimate, THC stability to high-frequency changes in forcing.


Georgia Douglas Johnson (1877?-1966) is the central figure in an American dramatic genre formed by the responses of playwrights to the racial violence of lynching. (1) Johnson was one of the earliest African American women playwrights and, with approximately 28 dramas addressing both racial and non-racial themes, one of the most prolific of her era. Living in Washington DC during the artistically productive decades commonly known as the Harlem or "New Negro" Renaissance, Johnson was known primarily as a poet, but she made significant contributions to early 20th-century African American drama and to the corresponding national Black theatre movement. Johnson deserves recognition as the most prolific playwright of the lynching drama tradition and as the New Negro Renaissance artist whose work reflects an unprecedented and unrelenting devotion to the anti-lynching movement. Johnson's lynching dramas are landmark contributions to both African American theatre and American theatre in general. This study provides a view of Johnson as both an outspoken advocate in the anti-lynching movement and a central figure in the lynching drama tradition. This perspective of Johnson is offered not in opposition to her more familiar and highly gendered reputation as "lady poet" of the New Negro Renaissance, but as an additional dimension of her artistic life. (2) Focusing on Johnson as a playwright supplements previous scholarship to contribute to a fuller understanding of Johnson as a multi-talented artist and to provide insight into her rich and complex dramatic vision. An intertextual analysis of Johnson's six extant lynching plays explores the formal basis of her artistry as well as her increasing sophistication in employing Black theatre as a means of social protest. According to theatre scholar Harry Elam, "African-American theatre critics and artists, from W. E. B. Du Bois to Amiri Baraka to August Wilson, have asserted that Black theatre practitioners must not only have authority over the representational apparatus but must use the theatre as a means of protest and revolt in order to change black lives and fight oppressive conditions" (Elam 6). Theatre historian and scholar James V. Hatch places anti-lynching plays specifically in the protest tradition initiated by antislavery plays: "The antilynch dramas, comparable only to the passionate appeal in antislavery plays, became the second form of American protest drama" (1996, 232). I analyze Johnson's use of irony, music, and the figure of the Black family as artistic strategies that both locate her plays on lynching within the tradition of African American expressive culture and inform her unique approach to theatre as social protest. While several of her pioneering dramas have been examined in recent books and articles, we still need a volume that focuses exclusively on Johnson as a playwright and includes all of her extant plays. (3) Johnson was a persevering and prolific dramatist who worked under difficult circumstances to produce her art. It is ironic that she won lasting recognition as a poet but not as a playwright since she spent her creative lifetime working in both genres. As early as 1925 she wrote to Howard University's Alain Locke requesting his opinion of her recently completed Blue Blood, which she felt confident enough to describe as "a mighty good play." (4) In 1926 she submitted Blue Blood to the Urban League's Opportunity playwriting contest and won honorable mention; in 1927 her play Plumes was awarded the competition's first prize. Between 1930 and 1935 Johnson submitted several plays to the newly organized Federal Theatre Project (FTP), and in 1938 she contributed her playwriting skills to the NAACP's anti-lynching campaign. (5) By 1943 she had submitted her entire "book of plays" to the Wendell Malliet publishing company in New York, and her 1952 correspondence with Harlem Renaissance patron Harold Jackman reveals she continued to seek a publisher for her "book of plays. …


ABSTRACT Background: Feeding methods used during infancy may impact upon eating behaviors in toddlers and influence the likelihood of developing weight issues. The aim of this study was to compare eating behaviors and food neophobia (defined as the reluctance to eat, or the avoidance of, new foods) in toddlers between three different complementary feeding (CF) groups; spoon-feeding (SF), baby-led weaning (BLW), and mixed method (MM). The study also aimed to investigate changes in early feeding practices and sociodemographic factors in relation to eating behaviors. Methods: One hundred and sixty-two parents with a child aged 12–48 months completed a questionnaire through online parenting forums and via Children's Centers. Parents reported their CF method at the point of introduction to complementary foods, the child's age when this occurred and the feeding method at one year along with breastfeeding duration. Toddler eating behaviors were measured using the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire and the Child Food Neophobia Scale. The questionnaire also examined sociodemographic measures. Results: No significant differences were found in any measured eating behaviors or neophobia between CF groups. There were significant differences in breastfeeding duration, exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, timing of CF, gestational age and weight at birth between CF groups. CF method changed at one year such that more people moved to a MM approach of feeding. Conclusions: CF method does not appear to influence toddler neophobia, and relationships between breastfeeding and BLW and later introduction of CF are further confirmed. Furthermore, it appears that individuals that do not undertake BLW at the onset of CF are rarely undertaking it at one year. This research implies that early CF methods do not influence eating habits during toddlerhood. Further work is required to educate parents on the benefits of progressing infants to complementary food by one year.

https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/file/acd4e0b2-4e4c-48df-beca-f5733055f584/1/Complementary feeding methods - 2018 - Watson Costantini Clegg.pdf


Argument by backward induction forces us to conclude that two "rational" players will defect on every turn of the Finitely Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma (FRPD) game, thus performing significantly worse than agents with imperfect rationality. When this game is treated from an evolutionary perspective, using the standard evolutionary model, we encounter a similar paradox: a population which cooperates through turn k can be invaded by a strategy which cooperates through turn k — 1, and this process continues until the population is dominated by defectors. However, though the strategy of continual defection is evolutionary stable, it is inferior to nearly all other FRPD strategies: a bistable equilibrium occurs, in which a very small proportion of the other strategy can take over the population. Thus we propose and defend an alternative evolutionary model, a random invasion model in which "evolutionary dominance" is used instead of Maynard Smith's invasion criteria. This model combines the Lamarckian spread of ideas through a population with Darwinian natural selection of the organisms adopting those ideas, and thus is a more reasonable model of communicating populations. When the new evolutionary model is applied to the Finitely Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma, we find that defectors dominate the population for very short FRPD games, but as game length increases, it becomes more and more certain that successful strategies will cooperate until near the end of the game. Defining rationality based on evolutionary fitness (or fictitious evolutionary play) using this model, we achieve a resolution to the Finitely Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma paradox. Additionally, the model can be generalized and applied to many other decision situations, and thus it serves as a possible standard for rational decision-making under uncertainty.