The rise of generalist large-scale models in natural language and vision has made us expect that a massive data-driven approach could achieve broader generalization in other domains such as continuous control. In this work, we explore a method for learning a single policy that manipulates various forms of agents to solve various tasks by distilling a large amount of proficient behavioral data. In order to align input-output (IO) interface among multiple tasks and diverse agent morphologies while preserving essential 3D geometric relations, we introduce morphology-task graph, which treats observations, actions and goals/task in a unified graph representation. We also develop MxT-Bench for fast large-scale behavior generation, which supports procedural generation of diverse morphology-task combinations with a minimal blueprint and hardware-accelerated simulator. Through efficient representation and architecture selection on MxT-Bench, we find out that a morphology-task graph representation coupled with Transformer architecture improves the multi-task performances compared to other baselines including recent discrete tokenization, and provides better prior knowledge for zero-shot transfer or sample efficiency in downstream multi-task imitation learning. Our work suggests large diverse offline datasets, unified IO representation, and policy representation and architecture selection through supervised learning form a promising approach for studying and advancing morphology-task generalization.


Developed specifically for the purpose of preparing for AIX certification Makes an excellent companion to classroom education For AIX professionals This redbook is designed as a study guide for professionals wishing to prepare for the certification exam to achieve: IBM eServer Certified Specialist - pSeries AIX System Support. The system support certification validates a broad scope of AIX problem determination and resolution skills and the ability to perform general AIX software system maintenance. This redbook helps AIX support professionals seeking a comprehensive and task-oriented guide for developing the knowledge and skills required for the certification. It is designed to provide a combination of theory and practical experience needed for a general understanding of the subject matter. It also provides sample questions that will help in the evaluation of personal progress and provide familiarity with the types of questions that will be encountered in the exam. This redbook does not replace practical experience you should have, but is an effective tool that, when combined with education activities and experience, should prove to be a very useful preparation guide for the exam. Due to the practical nature of the certification content, this publication can also be used as a desk-side reference. So, whether you are planning to take the pSeries AIX System Support certification exam, or if you just want to validate your AIX system support skills, this redbook is for you.


Captive giant pandas are reported in the literature to perform stereotypic behaviours which are considered to be a behavioural indicator of stress. Although environmental enrichment techniques are commonly used to prevent and/or mitigate performance of stereotypic behaviour in captive giant pandas, evaluation of such techniques is rarely undertaken or reported. This study used behavioural observation methodologies to evaluate the impact of an enclosure rotation as enrichment on the activity budgets of two captive giant pandas, Funi and Wang Wang, housed at the Adelaide Zoo in South Australia. Instantaneous time sampling methods were used to record the giant pandas' behaviour and location in each enclosure at 180-second intervals over a total of 180 hours (132 baseline hours, 48 post-intervention hours). Following the enclosure rotation, Funi demonstrated a reduction in performance of stereotypic pacing (from 11% of scans at baseline to 4% of scans post-intervention), as well as a notable decrease in frequency of performance of stereotypic somersaults with this aberrant behaviour ceasing completely on the 8th day of data collection post-enclosure rotation. Whilst Wang Wang's performance of stereotypic pacing remained comparably stable across the study period (about 6 – 7% of scans), the enclosure rotation led to a marked increase in sexual communication behaviours and moderate increases in overall activity. Findings from this case study indicate that enclosure rotations may be an effective behavioural enrichment technique for reducing performance of stereotypic behaviours and increasing behavioural repertoire and activity in zoo-housed giant pandas.


Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) is a polymer with outstanding performance, particularly concerning temperature resistance, chemical resistance and mechanical characteristics. Literature shows a gap in the knowledge with regards to PEEK flammability and decomposition products.
The aim of this thesis is to describe the decomposition and flammability behaviour of PEEK, in order to develop new fire safe PEEK-based materials. By relating the measured thermal decomposition behaviour and changes in physical properties of PEEK materials to their performance in standard flammability tests, the dependence of these tests has been investigated with regards to orientation, thickness, presence of fillers, moisture absorption and absorption of infrared radiation. This understanding can inform the development of modified PEEK materials with enhanced fire safety.
Various industry standard tests have been utilised to examine PEEK such as the Cone Calorimeter (ISO 5660), UL-94 (EN 60695-10-11), Limiting Oxygen Index (LOI), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) in both air and inert atmospheres and the Small Flame Ignitability Test (ISO 11925). PEEK decomposition has been investigated using Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Simultaneous Thermal Analysis coupled with Fourier Transform Infrared (STA-FTIR) and Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry (pyGC/MS). Residue analysis has been carried out using Diamond Attenuated Total Reflectance coupled with Fourier Transform Infrared (dATR-FTIR), Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (MAS-NMR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled with Electron Dispersive X-ray Analysis (SEM-EDX).
Thermal analysis shows a rapid mass loss around 580°C followed by a slower mass loss of the resultant char. The stages of decomposition have been investigated by using FTIR and NMR on the condensed phase residues. Samples subjected to various temperature regimes have been observed in the dATR-FTIR and MAS-NMR and the results shows differences in the structures of the residue during decomposition.
Generally, filled PEEK materials (with glass fibre, carbon fibre and talc) tend to have lower flammability in the Cone Calorimeter with a longer time to ignition and a lower peak heat release rate compared to the unfilled materials. The same is true in the LOI, where filled materials give a higher oxygen index, and in the UL-94 test where shorter burn times are recorded. PEEK shows inconsistent behaviour in some flammability tests, possibly due to the critical heat flux for ignition of PEEK being so close to the heat fluxes employed in many industry standard tests. The presence of moisture within the samples also reduces the time to ignition of PEEK in the Cone Calorimeter and increases the burning time in the UL-94, possibly due to the formation of a foamed sample close to the melting temperature of the polymer.


In previous research (Tech. Rep. 172, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif., 1991) we developed an iterative shape-from-shading (SFS) algorithm that uses a single image, by combining a triangular-element surface model with a linearized reflectance map. In the current research we generalize the single-image SFS algorithm to the photometric stereo SFS algorithm, which uses multiple images taken under different lighting condition for more-accurate surface reconstruction. An explicit surface model based on nodal basis-function representation is used so that the integrability problem that arises in conventional photometric stereo SFS algorithms can be solved easily. It is also shown that single-image SFS algorithms have an inherent problem; i.e., the accuracy of the reconstructed surface height is related to the slope of the reflectance-map function defined on the gradient space. The accuracy can be greatly improved by combining two photometric images properly, and the optimal illumination condition that leads to the best shape reconstruction is examined. Simulation results for several test images are given to demonstrate the performance of our new algorithm.


Quantitative application of digital in-line holography (DIH) to characterize multiphase fragmentation is demonstrated. DIH is applied to record sequential holograms of the breakup of an ethanol droplet in an aerodynamic flow field. Various stages of the breakup process are recorded, including deformation, bag growth, bag breakup, and rim breakup. A recently proposed hybrid method is applied to extract the three-dimensional (3D) location and size of secondary droplets as well as the 3D morphology of the rim. Particle matching between sequential frames is used to determine the velocity. Coincidence with the results obtained from phase Doppler anemometry measurement demonstrates the accuracy of measurement by DIH and the hybrid method.


Very often the psychological repercussions of lipodystrophy in HIV infected patients are important to a level that can reach reluctance to antiretroviral therapy or lead to depression and anxiety. In some patients' opinion, it is easier to live with HIV than with lipodystrophy. The facial appearance is perceived by the patient and the society as a stigma of this particular condition, with all negative consequences. We know that HIV-related lipodystrophy (first described in '97 and '98) is expressed by peripheral atrophy of the face, limbs and buttocks, simultaneous with central fat accumulation (visceral), as well as in the breasts, neck and dorsocervical area (the so-called "buffalo hump"). These features coexist with subcutaneous lipomas and metabolic disturbances such as insulin resistance, hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia.

Although the distribution of the adipose tissue is unbalanced (visceral increase and peripheral decrease) with overall fat loss, the mean body mass is preserved.

The pathogenesis of HIV lipodystrophy remains unclear. Consistent studies (cohort and in vitro) of adipocytes, skeletal muscle and hepatocytes point toward a complex of factors involving antiretroviral theories, environmental and host-related aspects.

The most effective treatment for facial lipodystrophy in HIV positive patients is still to be found; numerous treatment attempts have been made, based on changes in antiretroviral therapy, addition of other drugs (such as growth hormones, insulin, steroids), lipid-lowering drugs, diets or exercising, but these attempts have often proved disappointing. Even the nonresorbable or (slowly) resorbable fillers came with their high rate of complications.

In this light, the newly born regenerative plastic surgery seems to be a very promising therapeutic solution. It is important to mention the brilliant scientific and practical contribution of pioneers in this field: S. Coleman, J.M. Serra-Renom, J. Fontdevila, M. Eisenmann-Klein, G. Rigotti, N. Pallua, P. Rubin, W. Futrell, R. Khouri, R. Mazzola, K. Yoshimura.

Although facial fat grafting for HIV infected patients began in the late '90s, the techniques (and instruments) have only recently become more refined, more precise, with a higher degree of predictability. And very importantly – there is more (although still not enough) science behind this approach, leading to a better understanding of the composition and behavior of the various cellular populations and other components generically called "adipose tissue", which will soon probably be named "adipose organ".

The new researches and applications on adipose tissue revealed a whole fascinating universe of new therapies and scientific paths. "Adipocytes", "preadipocytes", "ADSC's" (adipose-derived stromal cells), "niche", scaffold, cell-cell interaction, blood circulating factors, paracrine factors, cell-matrix interaction, neurotransmitters, are key terms and, in the same time, key elements involved in regenerative surgery using fat transplant, leading to healing processes in facial HIV lipoatrophy. This novel type of closed surgery requires harvesting of the fat from the excessive deposits, which is then slowly centrifuged and transplanted with very fine instruments. The transplanted fat is stimulated with Fractional CO2 LASER (λ10600 nm) and with diode LASER (λ860 nm) as promising additional therapy due to LLLT (low level laser therapy). The LASER has at least two effects, acting to improve the quality of the skin (which is often very damaged) and optimize the take of the adipose graft.

Due to the systemic effect of LLLT (and the derived photoproducts described by Mester and Oshiro), it is possible to record normalizations of remote tissue (cellular) disturbances. To improve skin condition and fat graft survival, one other additional simultaneous therapy can be performed – PRP (platelet-rich plasma), which contains growth factors.

The science has still to deepen the good, often remarkable clinical results.

The therapies based on self cellular regeneration with autologous products (adipose tissue transplant and stem cells, PRP) acting in synergy with light (LASER) energy and the science behind them, appear as an interesting, vast "station" for treating various conditions including HIV lipoatrophy, until the next scientific challenge, such as gene engineering therapy, becomes available.


Familismo (familism) has been introduced in various ways in Latino mental health. For people with mental illnesses such as depression, familism can create pressures that are treatment discouraging. This article presents the results of a multiphase study aimed to increase antidepressant adherence among Latinos. The data presented came from Phase 1 and describe an analysis of familism broadly defined from the transcripts across six focus groups with 30 participants. Data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Familismo was defined as the general tendency to value family unity, which can take precedence over individual needs. Family influence presented a broader category to include any reference to family and generally included instrumental support. Familismo was brought up by 73% of participants; family influence was brought up by 80% of participants. Familismo can lead to patients covering up their symptoms or their illness severity to protect their family and not burden them. We concluded that familismo and family influence can become treatment supportive or treatment discouraging influences on Latinos with depression. Results expand the understanding and concept of familismo among Latinos.


Virtual reality based simulation is an appealing option to supplement traditional clinical education. However, the formal integration of training simulators into the medical curriculum is still lacking. Especially, the lack of a reasonable level of realism supposedly hinders the widespread use of this technology. Therefore, we try to tackle this situation with a reference surgical simulator of the highest possible fidelity for procedural training. This overview describes all elements that have been combined into our training system as well as first results of simulator validation. Our framework allows the rehearsal of several aspects of hysteroscopyfor instance, correct fluid management, handling of excessive bleeding, appropriate removal of intra-uterine tumors, or the use of the surgical instrument.


The origins of U.S. corporate taxation are often associated with the 1909 corporate excise tax. Scholars who have investigated the beginnings of this levy have mainly focused on the legislative history of the 1909 corporate tax to argue that it was either an expression of the Progressive Era impulse to regulate large-scale corporations or an attempt to use corporations as remittance devices to collect taxes aimed at wealthy shareholders. This Article broadens the conventional historical accounts of the emergence of American corporate taxation by revisiting the 1909 U.S. corporate tax from a comparative perspective. The aim is to look both below and beyond the American nation-state to determine how and why U.S. state governments and other Western industrialized nations tried to tax corporations at the turn of the twentieth century. This Article investigates a small slice of subnational and transnational comparative examples: corporate tax laws and policies in a few representative nineteenth-century industrializing American states, and in turn-of-the-century England and Germany. Building on the well-known insights of comparative business history, this Article contends that historically-determined political interests, social ideas, and cultural beliefs help explain the American obsession with disciplining large-scale business corporations through the use of nominally punitive tax laws and policies. Comparative-historical analysis shows how differences in the organizational structures of big businesses across place and time have led to variations in political economy that were ultimately expressed in the legal ideas and cultural attitudes toward corporate capitalism. These variations, in turn, shaped the transnational distinctions in corporate tax law and policies. Greater attention to the comparative-historical development of law and political economy may help us understand the stubborn persistence of American corporate taxation, particularly in the face of recent global changes and the relentless economic critiques of the double taxation of corporate income.


The biplot display is a graph of row and column markers obtained from data that forms a twoway table. The markers are calculated from the singular value decomposition of the data matrix. The biplot display may be used with many multivariate methods to display relationships between variables and objects. It is commonly used in ecological applications to plot relationships between species and sites. This paper describes a set of Excel© macros that may be used to draw a biplot display based on results from principal components analysis, correspondence analysis, canonical discriminant analysis, metric multidimensional scaling, redundancy analysis, canonical correlation analysis or canonical correspondence analysis. The macros allow for a variety of transformations of the data prior to the singular value decomposition and scaling of the markers following the decomposition.


This paper is based on a survey of 148 Russian privatization investment funds representing, in terms of size, 69 percent of all investment funds created in connection with the voucher privatization of about 14,000 state enterprises. The investment funds surveyed hold shares in about 5,000 privatized enterprises, thus providing a window into the world of corporate governance of a substantial portion of Russian firms. The paper argues that investment funds, like most other outside investors, have relatively small impact on the governance of Russian firms due to the firms' domination by corporate insiders, particularly management. Given high returns from shareholder activism, the investment funds attempt to influence the firms in their portfolios in a variety of ways (through obtaining board seats and providing them with a range of services), but have extremely poor access to information and are largely unable to prod the firms toward more radical restructuring. In particular, the investment funds are only rarely able to effect managerial changes, although a logistic equation model used shows that firms which do participate in more that one dismissal of top managerial personnel seem to be interested in fundamental restructuring. The paper also describes the main features of the emerging Russian capital market and analyzes the determinants of the trading activity of the investment funds.


This article takes issue with the rational choice approach that views the economy as an autonomous realm where isolated individuals make maximizing choices in terms of their personal preferences. The argument made is that income generation, consumption and exchange form a holistic complex that must be studied in its unity and that the economy and individual economic behaviour are articulated with a social context. This is demonstrated by evidence (collected through fieldwork) on the differences in the use of remittances by three villages in Kerala, India, which have experienced large scale migration to the Middle Eastern countries.

In the three cases, it was the way in which income earned from international migration was perceived, together with the variation in ethnic structures, that explained the similarities and differences in their consumption, exchange and investment patterns. In each case, it was the larger ethnic structure that conditioned (1) the types of activities into which the money was channelled; (2) the range of people who were the beneficiaries of migrant remittances; (3) the patterns of reciprocity or charity practised by the migrants; (4) the selection of the trade-off point between community status and economic accumulation; and; (5) the groups of individuals who gained or lost economic control.


This paper reports a case study of Mandarin-Norwegian bilingual boy born into a Mandarin-speaking immigrant family in Norway. Mandarin and Norwegian are typologically distinct languages and presumably have contradictory parameters in the domains of finiteness and word order, the focal areas of the present study. The study explores whether there is cross-linguistic influence in the domains of finiteness and word order, leading the Mandarin-Norwegian bilingual child to lengthy periods of ungrammatical outcomes in Norwegian or a path of acquisition distinguishable from that of monolingual Norwegian children in relevant respects. The data are drawn from 5 files of a longitudinal corpus, when the boy was aged between 5;11 and 6;11. The production data indicate that the informant has essentially the same type of abstract linguistic system as Norwegian monolinguals, though limited cross-linguistic influence can be observed in word order and in markings of M-finiteness (i.e. morphological finiteness expressed as verbal inflection; term due to Lasser, 1997: 77).


This article aimed at developing a conceptual framework about the role of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) and its impact on managerial skills and organizational performance which offered some insights into how learning might occur at the organizational level in order to improve organizational capability as well as individual capability. It also indicated that there were plenty of research studies to advocate the influence of SHRM. Nevertheless, there were some rare examples of linkages between SHRM and sustainable organizational learning practices that can improve organizations effectiveness and develop its performance through ample qualification, suitable working condition, and potential motivation. Thus, this article aims to emphasize on several approaches of organizational learning as facilitating variables. Today, the strategic part of HRM practices which was integrated within the organization stated that the success of the organizational performance lied in developing positive attitudes of individuals, groups, and organizations that mainly enhanced individual competence as well organizational competence through organizational learning. Therefore, the context of this study identified the key concept of SHRM that influenced and boosted knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA's) of employees in an organization. Finally, this article recommended some research suggestions based on the highlighted propositions that accelerated organizational performance and improved competitive abilities.


Two ERP components are discussed in relation to studies of
semantic and mnemonic processing, namely the N400 and LPC. The
N400 is a monophasic negativity typically observed between 250 - 500
ms post-stimulus. Semantic and repetition priming studies utilising
linguistic stimuli in the visual modality (i.e. words, nonwords), and
stimulus paradigms (i.e. sentence priming and lexical decision tasks)
have indicated that the N400 is readily evoked by semantic anomaly
and is sensitive to word frequency (low frequency words eliciting
greater amplitude N400s than high frequency words), word class
(larger N400s to content words), semantic relatedness (larger N400s to
unrelated words), subject expectancy (larger N400s to unexpected
words within a context), phonology (larger N400s to non-rhyming
words and nonwords), and repetition (attenuated N400s following
word repetition). Theoretical formulations suggest the N400 indexes
the degree of spreading activation throughout the semantic network
(Morton, 1969), contextual integration (Rugg, 1990), semantic
expectancy (Kutas & Hillyard, 1984), or a memory search process
(Bentin & McCarthy, 1994). Which of these formulations most
accurately explains the N400 is currently unresolved. Whether the
negativity observed following semantic anomaly in paradigms
employing nonlinguistic stimuli (e.g. pictures, faces, and music) is
reflecting the same process as the N400 elicited by linguistic anomaly,
is also the subject of considerable debate.
Enhanced LPC amplitudes in language tasks are typically recorded
to sentence final words. The broad, post N400 positivity, occurs
approximately 550-800 ms post-stimulus and is presumed to reflect
processes associated with closure (Friedman, Simson, Ritter, & Rapin,
1975; Kutas & Hillyard, 1982), certainty (Stuss, Picton, Cerri, Leech, &
Stethem, 1992), and integrative elaborative processing (Andrews,
Mitchell, & Ward, 1993). All task relevant stimuli appear to elicit the
LPC, its amplitude being inversely related to subjective probability.
The LPC is also associated with certain aspects of mnemonic
processing. Enhanced LPC amplitudes have been recorded to stimuli
which are subsequently recognised, to 'seen' stimuli as compared to
'unseen', and to the second presentations of stimuli. Subsequent to
these findings, it has been hypothesised that the LPC observed in
memory and repetition paradigms reflects some process associated
with both encoding and retrieval. Resulting from the perceived
similarity between the LPC component elicited in these various
paradigms, some investigators posit that similar episodic processes
subserve them (Besson & Kutas, 1993).


Immersion freezing of thin aqueous specimens is an essential preparation technique for cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM), aiming to preserve fragile biological structures such as molecules and cells in their hydrated environment for a close-to-native visualization. For successful experiments, vitreous ice must be produced, surface contamination must be avoided, and, most important, the natural state of the structure must be preserved. This protocol describes immersion freezing of biological samples, such as purified protein complexes, viruses, liposomes, synthetic cytoskeletal filaments, isolated organelles, or small cells suspended in an aqueous solution, using the new Leica "EMGP" grid plunger. It includes a discussion of issues of general importance for cryo-EM, such as the properties of the sample and the pretreatment of the specimen carrier. It also provides details on how to make the most of the special features of this instrument to obtain good specimens and reproducible results. Troubleshooting issues concerning the operation of the GP in particular, as well as common problems in immersion freezing encountered on manual and semiautomatic instruments, are addressed.


Despite extensive research use of the Present State Examination (PSE), the validity of classification based on PSE data has not been studied extensively. We have examined a consecutive series of functional psychiatric admissions using the PSE and systematically gathered clinical and demographic data in order to study not only the reliability but the descriptive (construct) validity of classification based on PSE data. We have found that the PSE can be used in a psychiatric hospital to reliably describe and classify schizophrenic and affective syndromes with considerable descriptive validity in terms of clinical and demographic variables. We believe that this type of validity is an important step in establishing validity of clinical disease entities. The interrelationship among different kinds of validity (descriptive, concurrent, predictive) might provide clinical disease concepts with more definitive validity.


The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the longest and most violent conflicts in modern history. The language used to represent this important conflict in the media is frequently commented on by scholars and political commentators (e.g., Ackerman, 2001; Fisk, 2001; Mearsheimer & Walt, 2007). To date, however, few studies in the field of applied linguistics have attempted a thorough investigation of the language used to represent the conflict in influential media outlets using systematic methods of linguistic analysis. The current study aims to partially bridge this gap by combining methods and analytical frameworks from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Corpus Linguistics (CL) to analyze the discursive representation of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict in American, Arab, and British media, represented by CNN, Al-Jazeera Arabic, and BBC respectively. CDA, which is primarily interested in studying how power and ideology are enacted and resisted in the use of language in social and political contexts, has been frequently criticized mainly for the arbitrary selection of a small number of texts or text fragments to be analyzed. In order to strengthen CDA analysis, Stubbs (1997) suggested that CDA analysts should utilize techniques from CL, which employs computational approaches to perform quantitative and qualitative analysis of actual patterns of use occurring in a large and principled collection of natural texts. In this study, the corpus-based keyword technique is initially used to identify the topics that tend to be emphasized, downplayed, and/or left out in the coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in three corpora complied from the news websites of Al-Jazeera, CNN, and the BBC. Topics –such as terrorism, occupation, settlements, and the recent Israeli disengagement plan— which were found to be key in the coverage of the conflict—are further studied in context using several other corpus tools, especially the concordancer and the collocation finder. The analysis reveals some of the strategies employed by each news website to control for the positive or negative representations of the different actors involved in the conflict. The corpus findings are interpreted using some informative CDA frameworks, especially Van Dijk's (1998) ideological square framework. INDEX WORDS: Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Critical discourse analysis, Corpus linguistics, Collocation, Concordance, Keyword analysis, Terrorism, Settlements THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT IN AMERICAN, ARAB, AND BRITISH MEDIA: CORPUS-BASED CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS


Abstract. The Mediterranean Sea is a semi-enclosed sea characterized by high salinities, temperatures and densities. The net evaporation exceeds the precipitation, driving an anti-estuarine circulation through the Strait of Gibraltar, contributing to very low nutrient concentrations. The Mediterranean Sea has an active overturning circulation, one shallow cell that communicates directly with the Atlantic Ocean, and two deep overturning cells, one in each of the two main basins. It is surrounded by populated areas and is thus sensitive to anthropogenic forcing. Several dramatic changes in the oceanographic and biogeochemical conditions have been observed during the past several decades, emphasizing the need to better monitor and understand the changing conditions and their drivers. During 2011 three oceanographic cruises were conducted in a coordinated fashion in order to produce baseline data of important physical and biogeochemical parameters that can be compared to historic data and be used as reference for future observational campaigns. In this article we provide information on the Mediterranean Sea oceanographic situation, and present a short review that will serve as background information for the special issue in Ocean Science on "Physical, chemical and biological oceanography of the Mediterranean Sea". An important contribution of this article is the set of figures showing the large-scale distributions of physical and chemical properties along the full length of the Mediterranean Sea.


While oolong tea (OT) has been shown to induce weight loss and reduce fat accumulation, the mechanisms remain poorly defined, especially for aged OT. In this study, five groups of mice (n = 9/group) were used including a normal diet with vehicle treatment, and a high-fat diet (HFD) with vehicle or the water extracts from aged OTs (EAOTs, three different storage years) by oral gavage at 1000 mg/kg·BW for 6 weeks. Body weight, fat accumulation, and serum biochemical parameters were used to evaluate obesity. The morphology of hepatocytes and adipocytes was analyzed by being stained with hematoxylin and eosin. The levels of p-AMPK, p-ACC (and non-phosphorylated versions), CPT-1 and FAS were determined by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. EAOTs decreased HFD-induced body weight, fat accumulation, serum levels of triglyceride, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, while enhancing the serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level. At the same time, EAOTs clearly alleviated fatty liver and reduced the size of adipocytes in the epididymal fat, especially in the 2006 group. Most importantly, EAOTs increased the phosphorylation of AMPK and ACC, and up-regulated the expression of CPT-1 but down-regulated the expression of fatty acid synthase, TNF-α and iNOS. Thus, EAOTs may inhibit obesity by up-regulating energy expenditure and fatty acid oxidation while inhibiting fatty acid synthesis and inflammation.


Entry to the information age and effective life in information-oriented society requires an understanding of its characteristics. One of the social institutions that will undergo extensive changes at this age is general and higher education and training institutions. The aim of this review study is to evaluate the effectiveness of e learning in learning. This paper is a review study carried out using Medline and CINAHL databases and Google search engine. The studies used include review articles and English meta-analysis of language.Of the retrieved results,38 documents including articles, books and web sites were investigated and classified. At first, the background of e learning was studied history and in the next section its effectiveness in learning was briefly examined. The overall benefits of e-learning include the promotion of learning, independence and individual satisfaction, learning at anytime, anywhere and with any background, learning without the same prerequisites, speed and process of learning due to individual needs, individual learning along with cooperative learning, saving time and costs significantly, the possibility of teaching and learning for all people, mutual teaching and learning, getting quick results in learning, learning more by using multimedia and maintaining resources and reducing environmental and audio pollution. The results of studies suggest positive effects of e-learning on learning thus it is suggested that this approach be used more in education, which requires building the required grounds.


Agent-based technology is playing an increasingly important role in today's economy. Usually a multi-agent system is needed to model an economic system such as a market system, in which heterogeneous trading agents interact with each other autonomously. Two questions often need to be answered regarding such systems: 1) How to design an interacting mechanism that facilitates efficient resource allocation among usually self-interested trading agents? 2) How to design an effective strategy in some specific market mechanisms for an agent to maximise its economic returns? For automated market systems, auction is the most popular mechanism to solve resource allocation problems among their participants. However, auction comes in hundreds of different formats, in which some are better than others in terms of not only the allocative efficiency but also other properties e.g., whether it generates high revenue for the auctioneer, whether it induces stable behaviour of the bidders. In addition, different strategies result in very different performance under the same auction rules. With this background, we are inevitably intrigued to investigate auction mechanism and strategy designs for agent-based economics. The international Trading Agent Competition (TAC) Ad Auction (AA) competition provides a very useful platform to develop and test agent strategies in Generalised Second Price auction (GSP). AstonTAC, the runner-up of TAC AA 2009, is a successful advertiser agent designed for GSP-based keyword auction. In particular, AstonTAC generates adaptive bid prices according to the Market-based Value Per Click and selects a set of keyword queries with highest expected profit to bid on to maximise its expected profit under the limit of conversion capacity. Through evaluation experiments, we show that AstonTAC performs well and stably not only in the competition but also across a broad range of environments. The TAC CAT tournament provides an environment for investigating the optimal design of mechanisms for double auction markets. AstonCAT-Plus is the post-tournament version of the specialist developed for CAT 2010. In our experiments, AstonCAT-Plus not only outperforms most specialist agents designed by other institutions but also achieves high allocative efficiencies, transaction success rates and average trader profits. Moreover, we reveal some insights of the CAT: 1) successful markets should maintain a stable and high market share of intra-marginal traders; 2) a specialist's performance is dependent on the distribution of trading strategies. However, typical double auction models assume trading agents have a fixed trading direction of either buy or sell. With this limitation they cannot directly reflect the fact that traders in financial markets (the most popular application of double auction) decide their trading directions dynamically. To address this issue, we introduce the Bi-directional Double Auction (BDA) market which is populated by two-way traders. Experiments are conducted under both dynamic and static settings of the continuous BDA market. We find that the allocative efficiency of a continuous BDA market mainly comes from rational selection of trading directions. Furthermore, we introduce a high-performance Kernel trading strategy in the BDA market which uses kernel probability density estimator built on historical transaction data to decide optimal order prices. Kernel trading strategy outperforms some popular intelligent double auction trading strategies including ZIP, GD and RE in the continuous BDA market by making the highest profit in static games and obtaining the best wealth in dynamic games.


The Electoral College has been subject to a constant barrage of criticism. This raises an obvious question: how has the College managed to survive despite its lack of popularity, its opacity and its generally controversial nature? Commentators look to the wisdom and staying power of the founding generation as well as to the force of history and tradition. In this Article, we look carefully at a third possibility. That is, we look to the foundation of our political structure and the nature of our democratic commitments. In this vein, we are particularly intrigued by the question of electoral legitimacy. To be clear, we are not interested in the question of legitimacy in and of itself. Rather, it is clear to us that the question of legitimacy - and more generally the larger debate surrounding the use of the College as the method of presidential selection - rests upon an infrequently articulated conception of democracy and an oft-debated notion of federalism. In so doing, we conclude that before we can meaningfully talk about whether the Electoral College is worth keeping or changing, we must first come to grips with the scope of our democratic commitments. We must also grapple with the nature of the compromise that we have struck between state and federal interest in presidential elections. Until we struggle with and come to appreciate these two crucial foundations of our democratic ethos, the Electoral College debate will continue to consist of recycled ideas that will continue to be rejected.


IN J. R. R. TOLKIEN'S LEGENDARIUM, THERE ARE MANY DIVERSE INSTANCES OF creation: the making of Middle-Earth in his creation myth, "Ainulindale"; Melkor's attempts at creation within Middle-Earth; Aule's creation of the Dwarves; and Saruman's contrivances, to name only a few of such creative acts. In his landmark essay "On Fairy-Stories," Tolkien posits that for a story (or a sub-creation) to engender belief it must convey to the reader an "inner consistency of reality" (139). One of the many ways Tolkien achieves this inner consistency is to construct these creative moments around specific principles or ethics that assure their legitimacy within Tolkien's poiesis (a term Tolkien himself employed that combines the ideas of creation/making and of speaking/poetry). Tolkien critics have embarked upon many quests for origins and influences that inform the principles with which Tolkien invests his elaborate sub-creation, and Richard West remarks that the Kalevala, among other sources, was "absorbed into [Tolkien's] imagination" and that it "inform[s] his legendarium, not as imitation or pastiche, but as a natural part of his mindset" (288). This article argues that Tolkien adapts principles derived from the Kalevala specifically to inform Middle-Earth's creative ethic. Just as the creative aesthetic of the Kalevala privileges harmony over dissonance, antiquity over modernity, and remembrance over invention, so, too, does Tolkien invest his poiesis with these values. Understanding the way Tolkien incorporates these dichotomies into the creative acts of Middle-Earth may offer the reader an interpretive method by which to evaluate these various forms of making. For evidence of the influence the Kalevala (or "Land of Heroes") had over Tolkien, one need look no further than his own words. In a letter to W. H. Auden, Tolkien admits, "I was immensely attracted by something in the air of the Kalevala, even in Kirby's poor translation" (Letters 214). He describes the source of his fascination as "something in the air"--something formless and difficult to grasp. Such imprecision is difficult to avoid when trying to determine exactly what Tolkien gleaned from these tales. One cannot reduce Tolkien's attraction to the Kalevala to a single plot or character; rather, the very atmosphere in which these stories live seems to have impressed him. Humphrey Carpenter, Tolkien's biographer, quotes him as saying, "the more I read of it, the more I felt at home and enjoyed myself (57). One may surmise from such statements that Tolkien inhabited these ancient stories and felt connected to them on a level deeper than the superficial. Scholars typically credit the Kalevala with inspiring Tolkien to rework some of its material in The Silmarillion. (1) Certainly, Tolkien did "attempt to reorganize" some surface elements of the Kalevala, (2) and he explicitly states the tale of Turin Turambar is "derived from elements in [...] the Finnish Kullervo" (xvii). Tolkien follows this insight by claiming that this information will interest only those "who like that sort of thing" and, soon after, adds that this connection "is not very useful" (xvii). Aside from this lone acknowledged parallel, critics also have postulated that the origin of the Silmarils has its roots in the Finnish artifact called the Sampo (Shippey, Road 242). Beyond that observation, critics discuss, at great length, how Tolkien admired Elias Lonnrot, the nineteenth-century folklorist, linguist, and compiler of the Kalevala. Verlyn Flieger asserts that "Tolkien envisioned himself doing exactly [what Lonnrot did], constructing a world of magic and mystery, creating a heroic age that, although it might never had existed, would give England a storial sense of its own mythic [...] identity" (29). Anne Petty extends this notion, arguing for a connection between Tolkien and Lonnrot based on their intention, their use of language, and the content of their work (70). When Petty addresses the similarities between Lonnrot and Tolkien in the area of content, she keeps with the tradition of established criticism by focusing on Tolkien's adaptations of the Kullervo and the "core epic of the Sampo" (78). …


In A People's War on Poverty, Wesley G. Phelps investigates the on-the-ground implementation of President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty during the 1960s and 1970s. He argues that the fluid interaction between federal policies, urban politics, and grassroots activists created a significant site of conflict over the meaning of American democracy and the rights of citizenship that historians have largely overlooked. In Houston in particular, the War on Poverty spawned fierce political battles that revealed fundamental disagreements over what democracy meant, how far it should extend, and who should benefit from it. Many of the programme's implementers took seriously the federal mandate to empower the poor as they pushed for a more participatory form of democracy that would include more citizens in the political, cultural, and economic life of the city. At the centre of this book are the vitally important but virtually forgotten grassroots activists who administered federal War on Poverty programmes, including church ministers, federal programme volunteers, students, local administrators, civil rights activists, and the poor themselves. The moderate Great Society liberalism that motivated the architects of the federal programmes certainly galvanised local antipoverty activists in Houston. However, their antipoverty philosophy was driven further by prophetic religious traditions and visions of participatory democracy and community organising championed by the New Left and iconoclastic figures like Saul Alinsky. By focusing on these local actors, Phelps shows that grassroots activists in Houston were influenced by a much more diverse set of intellectual and political traditions, fueling their efforts to expand the meaning of democracy. Ultimately, this episode in Houston's history reveals both the possibilities and the limits of urban democracy in the twentieth century.


This paper analyses the risk amplification inherent in a macroeconomic model with a heterogeneous financial sector. It extends a model with an equity-constrained intermediary by adding a shadow banking intermediary with pro-cyclical leverage. It is shown that the inclusion of this intermediary significantly amplifies financial frictions and adds to financial instability. Quantitative effects on asset prices are magnified, and the amplification propagates to the real side of the macroeconomy. Reducing the size of the shadow banking sector involves a trade-off between stabilizing the economy and the expected growth of economic activity. Ignoring the heterogeneity of the financial sector may lead to an underestimation of the excess risk-taking due to the anticipation of expansionary policies and of financial and macroeconomic responses to shocks.


The dynamical behavior of a cell signaling pathway may be described by means of a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. Such a model involve parameters and frequently part of them are unknown. If the experimental data is available then parameters may be estimated. The key issue related to the problem of parameter estimation is the type of the data that most often comes from different blotting techniques. Two points are specially important. First, the data are collected only at discrete time moments that are relatively rare. Second, the data are only semi-quantitative, that means the values estimated based on blot images may be compared only within one blot and cannot be compared to data estimated based on other blots. To overcome the difficulties we propose an approach assuming existence of unknown multipliers (weights), one per one blot. Hence, the whole problem of fitting of the mathematical model depends on fitting not only parameters of the model but also the set of weights. In this paper we test the approach on NFκB transcription factor pathway.


Aim: The aim of this prospective study is to report the short-term results of the change in taste and food tolerance after SG, RYGB and OAGB using a modified Suter Questionnaire and analyze whether these components can affect patient's weight loss, quality of eating, and state of health.

Methods: From May 2017 to December 2017, 81 morbid obese patients were divided into 3 groups: group A (27 patients for SG), group B (26 patients for RYGB), and group C (28 patients for OAGB).

Nutritional assessment and dietary counseling occurred 3 months before the surgery (baseline) and at 1 week, followed by 1, 3, 6, and 12 months post-surgery.

At 6 and 12 months, the quality of food was assessed by a modified Suter Questionnaire, which included additional questions evaluating changes in taste and food choices.

Results: We observed in all the groups an optimal weight loss with no statistical differences at 1 year FU among the groups. Data analysis showed a good food tolerance that improved within the first year after surgery, and there was a progressive enhancement of proper eating habits. We obtained a decrease from 6 to 12 months in the consumption and interest for fatty and sweet foods.

Conclusion: There was a significant reduction in negative habits, which was due to taste change, weight loss and improvement in health conditions.

Our study demonstrates the importance of the nutritionist during the pre-operative period and during the follow up to ensure good nutritional habits and achieve long-term results.


This thesis argues that the sociology of human rights is more restricted in its treatment of natural law than it should be. In building this argument the thesis explores the different ways in which the subdiscipline is restricted and demonstrates how a different approach to natural law can make it stronger. It notes the enduring influence of the traditional sociological dismissal of natural law, an approach to natural law thought that relies on a reactive reading of natural law as doctrine. This traditional approach grounds both the dismissal of the notion of human rights in broader sociology and the continued rejection of natural law and natural rights thought within the sociology of human rights. The thesis takes a descriptive approach to natural law, treating natural law as theory rather than doctrine. It explores concepts within the early modern natural law theories of Grotius, Hobbes and Pufendorf that challenge a number of traditional sociological assumptions about natural law that are echoed within the subdiscipline. The thesis also points to ways in which major ideas in these early modern natural law theories are relevant to key themes and issues that have emerged within the sociology of human rights, including the distinction between foundationalist and constructionist approaches to human rights, the distinction between description and advocacy of human rights, the treatment of the role of the state in securing human rights, and the social import of human rights. It argues that as early examples of rights thought in which great importance is placed on the social conditions of the rights bearer, and in which connections are made between the achievement of society and the protection of individual rights, the natural law theories recovered in this thesis have much to offer the sociology of human rights.


We apply a recent proposal for a distinguished ground state of a quantum field in a globally hyperbolic spacetime to the free massless scalar field in a causal diamond in two-dimensional Minkowski space. We investigate the two limits in which the Wightman function is evaluated (i) for pairs of points that lie in the centre of the diamond (i.e. far from the boundaries), and (ii) for pairs of points that are close to the left or right corner. We find that in the centre, the Minkowski vacuum state is recovered, with a definite value of the infrared cutoff. Interestingly, the ground state is not the Rindler vacuum in the corner of the diamond, as might have been expected, but is instead the vacuum of a flat space in the presence of a static mirror on that corner. We confirm these results by numerically evaluating the Wightman function of a massless scalar field on a causal set corresponding to the continuum causal diamond. We also present an independent calculation of the entanglement entropy for a free massless scalar field in 1+1 dimensions. We use a recent formula for a global expression of entropy using Green functions of the theory. This formula is independent of a density matrix with respect to a hypersurface (as the usual definition of entropy depends on), and it is applicable to both continuum spacetimes and to discrete causal sets. We compute the entanglement entropy in a spacetime of two causal diamonds in the continuum and in a causal set, in the limit that one is much larger than the other. In the continuum, we obtain the result S = 1 3 ln ( ` a ) + c, where a is the UV cutoff of the theory, ` is the diameter of the smaller diamond, and c is a constant. This result is in agreement with results in CFT.


The work presented in the thesis deals with the isolation, structure elucidation and study of pharmacological properties of the four plants. Investigation on the chemical constituents of each plant is discussed in separate parts.

1) PART-A It describes the studies on the chemical constituents of the leaves of Rhazya Stricta, which have led to the isolation of two new indole alkaloids (i,ii) with six known alkaloids (iii-viii) which are as follows

Rhaziattarine (64) Hexahydroalstonine (70) Akuammidine (71) Rhazimine(72) N-acetyl aspidosphermidine(73) Eburnamenine(74) Strictamine (75) Rhazimanine(76)

2) PART-B It deals with the investigation on the chemical constituents of roots of Taxus baccata,, which led to the isolation of two new taxane diterpenoids (i,ii)and three known diterpenoids (iii-v) (i)Taxa-4(20), 11.diene-10-methoxy-2a,5a-diacetoxy-14b,a-methyl butyrate {116} (ii) Taxa-4(20),11-diene-2a-5a, 10B triacetoxy-14Bya methyl butyrate {117}

iii)Taxusin {118) (iv)2-Deacetoxy taxini J {119} (v)7B-acetoxy taxusin {120}

2) PART-C It describes the studies on the chemical constituents of Fritillaria persice This led to the isolation of one new (i) and two known alkaloids isolated for the first time from F.Persica (ii-iii).

(i)Persinin {137) (ii)Delavinone (138) (iii)Delavine (139)

4) PART-D It deals with the investigation carried on the chemical constituents of Zizyphus lotus.which led to the isolation of one new cyclopeptide alkaloid.

(i)Lotusinin {149} Extensive aspectroscopic techniques such as EIMS, FDMS, FAMBS,HRMS,Peak matching MS,UV,IR,1H and 13 C-MMR (BB,DEPT)COSY.45 , NOE difference HMBC and HMOC were employed to elucidate the structures of the above compounds.


This investigation demonstrates the feasibility of the radial and azimuthal axially symmetric LC structure using double-side photoalignment in a dye-doped liquid crystal (DDLC) cell. A linear and linearly polarized beam is applied to a rotated DDLC cell to produce an axially symmetric LC alignment. Notably, double-sided photoalignment is performed at a temperature that is maintained just above the clear point. Conformation of the axially symmetric LC devices can be controlled by varying the polarization direction of the pumping light, and the simulation results correlate well with OR closely correspond to the experimental results.


Abstract Magnetism defines the complex and dynamic solar corona. Twists and tangles in coronal magnetic fields build up energy and ultimately erupt, hurling plasma into interplanetary space. These coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are transient riders on the ever-outflowing solar wind, which itself possesses a three-dimensional morphology shaped by the global coronal magnetic field. Coronal magnetism is thus at the heart of any understanding of the origins of space weather at the Earth. However, we have historically been limited by the difficulty of directly measuring the magnetic fields of the corona, and have turned to observations of coronal plasma to trace out magnetic structure. This approach is complicated by the fact that plasma temperatures and densities vary among coronal magnetic structures, so that looking at any one wavelength of light only shows part of the picture. In fact, in some regimes it is the lack of plasma that is a significant indicator of the magnetic field. Such a case is the coronal cavity: a dark, elliptical region in which strong and twisted magnetism dwells. I will elucidate these enigmatic features by presenting observations of coronal cavities in multiple wavelengths and from a variety of observing vantages, including unprecedented coronal magnetic field measurements now being obtained by the Coronal Multichannel Polarimeter (CoMP). These observations demonstrate the presence of twisted magnetic fields within cavities, and also provide clues to how and why cavities ultimately erupt as CMEs.


This article tests the cross-national equivalence of the political protest scale, as developed by Barnes and Kaase, in 20 Western European countries using a battery of items included in the fourth wave of the European Values Study. The scale measuring the concept of political protest is widely used, but no evidence of cross-country equivalence has yet been provided in the literature. The article illustrates the concept of political protest, the relationship between concept formation, operationalization, and measurement equivalence, and the possible consequences of a lack of equivalence. It is argued that comparative research may be threatened by a lack of measurement equivalence. The spread of international surveys eases comparative designs, but at the same time enlarges the chances that we compare what is not actually comparable. The article then outlines an empirical strategy to assess the political protest scale's measurement equivalence. To assess cross-country equivalence, Mokken Scale Analysis, a nonparametric scaling method within the family of Item Response Theory models, is used. This has been shown to work better than Confirmatory Factor Analysis when dealing with dichotomous and polytomous items forming ordinal scales. The results show that the cross-country equivalence of the political protest scale depends on the type of measure the scholar wishes to build and use.


Several studies have focused on the perceived risk of bicycle crashes (irrespective of crash types) and concluded that cycling near high volumes of motor vehicles deters people from cycling. The perceived risk of bicycle crash types (with or without motor vehicles) has not yet been studied. Cyclists, both in countries with low and high levels of cycling participation, are substantially more likely to sustain severe injuries in single-bicycle crashes than in bicycle-motor vehicle crashes. This questionnaire study sets out to compare which bicycle crash types are perceived to cause most hospitalizations among cyclists. The study comprised cyclists over 55 years in the Netherlands, and over 40 years in the Belgian regions of Flanders (a region with high cycling participation), Brussels and Wallonia (regions with low cycling participation). The majority of cyclists (60%) perceive bicycle-motor vehicle crashes cause most hospitalizations among cyclists. This percentage is greatest in the areas of Brussels and Wallonia and lowest in the Netherlands. Cyclists who were involved in a bicycle-motor vehicle crash themselves are more likely to regard this crash type as the most common cause of hospitalizations among cyclists, while cyclists over 60 years who were involved in a crash without a motor vehicle are more likely to perceive that crash type as the most common cause. The smaller perception bias in the study areas with higher cycling participation – particularly the Netherlands and to a somewhat lesser degree Flanders – is probably due to bicycle infrastructure being more separated from high-speed motor traffic, leaving cyclists less exposed. The outcomes show that cyclists underestimate the likelihood of severe injuries due to single-bicycle crashes. New interventions should raise the awareness of the risk of single-bicycle crashes and provide solutions to avoid such crashes.


Abstract There has been extensive research internationally describing teachers' homogenous socio-demographic backgrounds and critiquing the associated equity and diversity issues, most especially with regard to ethnicity and gender, and to a lesser extent, social class and disability. Yet, teachers' religious affiliations and/or convictions have rarely been explored. Since 96% of state primary schools in Ireland are denominational, considering religious diversity in teaching is both critically important and a complex undertaking. This paper examines primary initial teacher education (ITE) applicants' religiosity, and views of teaching religion, in Ireland. Our data suggest low levels of religious practice and religiosity among ITE applicants, many of whom would prefer to teach religion using a non-confessional approach. The paper raises critical questions regarding the experiences, constitutional rights and professional practice of increasingly secular and/or non-practicing Catholic teacher cohorts in a predominantly Catholic primary education system that has survived the trend towards progressive 'unchurching' of Europe.


Supercapacitor represent one of the newest innovations in the field of electrical energy rtorage, and are subject of several developments in the industry for many different and news applications. Supercapacitors, which can supply a high instantaneous power, offer a solution to define new supply able to provide both energy and power. This leads to severl studies, in the industry and also in research laboratories, because supercapacitors and their applications require new developments. The way supercapacitors can be used is presented in this paper, as complementary energy storage devices for voltage drop compensation at the end of supply lines for trolley-buses. Two main axes on a real bus overhead-supply and the developments also needed for the associated power converter. The simulation tools that have specialoly been developed will be also presented, taking into account the specifities of a DSP-bord for the implementation.


Indigenous researchers are knowledge seekers who work to progress Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing in a modern and constantly evolving context. This book describes a research paradigm shared by Indigenous scholars in Canada and Australia, and demonstrates how this paradigm can be put into practice. Relationships don't just shape Indigenous reality, they are our reality. Indigenous researchers develop relationships with ideas in order to achieve enlightenment in the ceremony that is Indigenous research. Indigenous research is the ceremony of maintaining accountability to these relationships. For researchers to be accountable to all our relations, we must make careful choices in our selection of topics, methods of data collection, forms of analysis and finally in the way we present information. I'm an Opaskwayak Cree from northern Manitoba currently living in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales, Australia. I'm also a father of three boys, a researcher, son, uncle, teacher, world traveller, knowledge keeper and knowledge seeker. As an educated Indian, I've spent much of my life straddling the Indigenous and academic worlds. Most of my time these days is spent teaching other Indigenous knowledge seekers (and my kids) how to accomplish this balancing act while still keeping both feet on the ground.


Abstract Unforced and forced film cooling jets are investigated in view to develop a reduced order model of the velocity and temperature fields. First, a vertical jet in cross-flow, a configuration well documented at high blowing ratios, is investigated at low blowing ratios using experimental visualizations and large eddy simulations. The unforced study reveals that dominant structures at low blowing ratio can be significantly different from the ones formed at high blowing ratio and describes their evolution and transition as the blowing ratio is changed. The forced jet investigations extend the results of past numerical studies in terms of starting vortex classification to partly modulated jets, and evidence a quantitative mismatch in the transition blowing ratio threshold between experiments and simulations. Film cooling performance estimations show that, at fixed mass flow rate, unforced jets perform better than the forced jets while at fixed pressure supply, forced jets can bring some improvements over their unforced counterpart. A survey of a more application relevant inclined jet is carried out using comparable methods. The unforced study shows the attached inclined and vertical jet vortical structures have strong similarities yet one of them is absent from the former configuration therefore leading to smoother regime transitions. The forced inclined jet study reveals some common starting vortex regimes with the ones of the vertical jet, but also exhibits unique sets of structures not observed before. Film cooling performance of inclined jets is also assessed and compared to relevant vertical jet results. Derivations of reduced order models of two-dimensional systems for both velocity and temperature fields using the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) - Galerkin method are used to establish the numerical methods and potential caveats of the method. Then, POD of unforced and forced inclined jet is carried out as a statistical analysis tool to evidence the energetically dominant flow structures. Finally, reduced order models of the unforced jet are obtained in the attached and transitional regimes and reduced order models for the forced jet are derived in both instantaneous and phase averaged fields. Most of the derived models show reasonable agreement with the projected empirical data once stabilized using appropriate linear damping methods. The flow analysis, models and methods presented herein constitute an essential step towards the development of close-loop controlled film cooling system.


Examination papers have until now received little attention in the field of document design. Although this theoretical framework and the domain of application may not be a perfect match, the principles of document design could have some heuristic value in the domain of assessment in education. The poor results of a group of South African technical college students from certain cultural and educational backgrounds merited an investigation into the diagnostic and remedial value of these principles. In this contribution examination papers are situated within a general model for problem-based text evaluation, representative of current thinking in document design. At a more specic level criteria for assessment in education are identied and validated as criteria for examination papers in particular. These criteria are mapped onto the textual elements of documents and represented in an evaluation matrix. The applicability of the matrix is demonstrated through the analysis of a selection of examples from national examination papers for career-oriented college subjects. It is suggested that any pretesting - text-focused, expert-focused or reader-focused - be preceded by thorough planning, taking cognizance of the macro-context of problem-based document design, valid micro-contextual criteria, and appropriate research methods. The outcomes should yield useful dividends at a practical as well as an academic level.


We study two decomposition problems in combinatorial geometry. The first part deals with the decomposition of multiple coverings of the plane. We say that a planar set is cover-decomposable if there is a constant m such that any m-fold covering of the plane with its translates is decomposable into two disjoint coverings of the whole plane. Pach conjectured that every convex set is cover-decomposable. We verify his conjecture for polygons. Moreover, if m is large enough, we prove that any m-fold covering can even be decomposed into k coverings. Then we show that the situation is exactly the opposite in 3 dimensions, for any polyhedron and any $m$ we construct an m-fold covering of the space that is not decomposable. We also give constructions that show that concave polygons are usually not cover-decomposable. We start the first part with a detailed survey of all results on the cover-decomposability of polygons.
The second part investigates another geometric partition problem, related to planar representation of graphs. The slope number of a graph G is the smallest number s with the property that G has a straight-line drawing with edges of at most s distinct slopes and with no bends. We examine the slope number of bounded degree graphs. Our main results are that if the maximum degree is at least 5, then the slope number tends to infinity as the number of vertices grows but every graph with maximum degree at most 3 can be embedded with only five slopes. We also prove that such an embedding exists for the related notion called slope parameter. Finally, we study the planar slope number, defined only for planar graphs as the smallest number s with the property that the graph has a straight-line drawing in the plane without any crossings such that the edges are segments of only s distinct slopes. We show that the planar slope number of planar graphs with bounded degree is bounded.


Pyruvate kinase deficiency is an inherited metabolic disorder characterized by a deficiency in the enzyme "pyruvate kinase" causing hemolytic anemia. It is more severe in early presentation, and it has no sex predilection. The majority of the cases occur because of genetic mutation while some may be caused by diseases such as leukemia and refractory sideroblastic anemia. PKD presents with severe anemia, lethargy, fatigue, failure to thrive and associated complications such as heart failure and liver failure. Diagnosis of the disease is manly done by blood studies that show normocytic normochromic anemia with increased reticulocytes without blood loss. The treatment modalities are mainly conservative involving blood transfusion, folic acid supplements and chelation of deposited iron.


Every city has an environmental story, perhaps none so dramatic as Pittsburgh's. Founded in a river valley blessed with enormous resources - three strong waterways, abundant forests, rich seams of coal - the city experienced a century of exploitation and industrialization that degraded and obscured the natural environment to a horrific degree. Pittsburgh came to be known as "the Smoky City," or, as James Parton famously declared in 1866, "hell with the lid taken off." Then came the storied Renaissance in the years following World War II, when the city's public and private elites, abetted by technological advances, came together to improve the air and renew the built environment. Equally dramatic was the sweeping deindustrialization of Pittsburgh in the 1980s, when the collapse of the steel industry brought down the smokestacks, leaving vast tracks of brownfields and riverfront. Today Pittsburgh faces unprecedented opportunities to reverse the environmental degradation of its history. In Devastation and Renewal, scholars of the urban environment pose questions that both complicate and enrich this story. Working from deep archival research, they ask not only what happened to Pittsburgh's environment, but why. What forces - economic, political, and cultural - were at work? In exploring the disturbing history of pollution in Pittsburgh, they consider not only the sooty skies, but also the poisoned rivers and creeks, the mined hills, and scarred land. Who profited and who paid for such "progress"? How did the environment Pittsburghers live in come to be, and how it can be managed for the future? In a provocative concluding essay, Samuel P. Hays explores Pittsburgh's "environmental culture," the attitudes and institutions that interpret a city's story and work to create change. Comparing Pittsburgh to other cities and regions, he exposes exaggerations of Pittsburgh's environmental achievement and challenges the community to make real progress for the future. A landmark contribution to the emerging field of urban environmental history, Devastation and Renewal will be important to all students of cities, of cultures, and of the natural world.


Evidence is given for a new neural network theory of biological motion perception, a motion boundary contour system. This theory clarifies why parallel streams V1 yields V2 and V1 yields MT exist for static form and motion form processing among the areas V1, V2, and MT of visual cortex. The motion boundary contour system consists of several parallel copies, such that each copy is activated by a different range of receptive field sizes. Each copy is further subdivided into two hierarchically organized subsystems: a motion oriented contrast (MOC) filter, for preprocessing moving images; and a cooperative-competitive feedback (CC) loop, for generating emergent boundary segmentations of the filtered signals. The present work uses the MOC filter to explain a variety of classical and recent data about short-range and long- range apparent motion percepts that have not yet been explained by alternative models. These data include split motion; reverse-contrast gamma motion; delta motion; visual inertia; group motion in response to a reverse-contrast Ternus display at short interstimulus intervals; speed- up of motion velocity as interflash distance increases or flash duration decreases; dependence of the transition from element motion to group motion on stimulus duration and size; various classical dependencies between flash duration, spatial separation, interstimulus interval, and motion threshold known as Korte''s Laws; and dependence of motion strength on stimulus orientation and spatial frequency. These results supplement earlier explanations by the model of apparent motion data that other models have not explained; a recent proposed solution of the global aperture problem including explanations of motion capture and induced motion; an explanation of how parallel cortical systems for static form perception and motion form perception may develop, including a demonstration that these parallel systems are variations on a common cortical design; an explanation of why the geometries of static form and motion form differ, in particular why opposite orientations differ by 90 degree(s), whereas opposite directions differ by 180 degree(s), and why a cortical stream V1 yields V2 yields MT is needed; and a summary of how the main properties of other motion perception models can be assimilated into different parts of the motion boundary contour system design.© (1991) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.


Work integrated learning which is terminology now very familiar to all universities' faculty members, has always been integral to initial teacher education programs. As a result of the complexities involved in this field, building effective partnerships with schools continues to be a major focus of education faculties. These complexities around a partnership between two very different institutional contexts require negotiating a relationship that is of value to all involved. The concept of communities of practice can provide a framework to establish the collaboration needed. The Australian Commonwealth government conducted in 2007 a national inquiry into the effectiveness of the teacher education programs in Australia (Commonwealth of Australia, 2007). One of the recommendations from the inquiry was to provide funds directly to Education faculties to assist in the improvement of the professional experience (or practicum) component of teacher education courses. This paper describes and examines a project that was funded and implemented in 2009. Project Supervision aimed to develop professional development materials for school supervisors/mentors. The process to achieve this was designed by the author around a community of practice involving teachers - both experienced and preservice - and teacher educators.


Ultrafast laser processing can be used to realize various morphological surface transformations, ranging from direct contour shaping to large-area-surface functionalization via the generation of "self-ordered" micro- and nanostructures as well as their hierarchical hybrids. Irradiation with high-intensity laser pulses excites materials into extreme conditions, which then return to equilibrium through these unique surface transformations. In combination with suitable top-down or bottom-up manufacturing strategies, such laser-tailored surface morphologies open up new avenues toward the control of optical, chemical, and mechanical surface properties, featuring various technical applications especially in the fields of photovoltaics, tribology, and medicine. This article reviews recent efforts in the fundamental understanding of the formation of laser-induced surface micro- and nanostructures and discusses some of their emerging capabilities.


The presence of chronic inflammation is associated with increased nutrient availability during obesity or type 2 diabetes which contributes to the development of complications such as atherosclerosis, stroke and myocardial infarction. The link between increased nutrient availability and inflammatory response remains poorly understood. The functioning of monocytes, the primary instigators of the inflammatory response was assessed in response to obesity and increased glucose availability. Monocyte microRNA expression was assessed in obese individuals prior to and up to one year after bariatric surgery. A number of microRNAs were identified to be dysregulated in obesity, some of which have previously been linked to the regulation of monocyte inflammatory responses including the microRNAs 146a-5p and 424-5p. Weight loss in response to bariatric surgery lead to the reversal of microRNA changes towards control values. In vitro treatments of THP-1 monocytes with high concentrations of D-glucose resulted in decreased intracellular NAD+:NADH ratio, decreased SIRT1 deacetylase activity and increased P65 acetylation. However the increased osmotic concentration inhibited LPS induced inflammatory response and TNFα mRNA expression. In vitro treatment of primary human monocytes with increased concentrations of D-glucose resulted in increased secretion of a number of inflammatory cytokines and increased expression of TNFα mRNA. Treatment also resulted in decreased intracellular NAD+:NADH ratio and increased binding of acetylated P65 to the TNFα promoter region. In vitro treatments of primary monocytes also replicated the altered expression of the microRNAs 146a-5p and miR-424-5p, as seen in obese individuals. In conclusion a number of changes in monocyte function were observed in response to obesity and treatment with high concentrations of D-glucose. These may lead to the dysregulation of inflammatory responses contributing to the development of co-morbidities.


Black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) breeding in the Arctic, are exposed to annual fluctuating environmental conditions. The impact of inter-year variations in environmental conditions on the blood concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) was examined in black-legged kittiwakes breeding in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard. In addition, it was examined if inter-year variations in concentration of POPs were affecting circulating thyroid hormone (TH) levels. Blood samples were collected from breeding kittiwakes during the incubation period in 2008 (n=46) and 2009 (n=31), two different years in respect of environmental conditions. The whole blood samples were analyzed for POPs: polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs; PCB-28, -52, -99, -118, -101, -138, -153, 180, -183, -187, -194), hexachlorobezene (HCB), hexachlorocyclohexan (HCH), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (p,p'-DDT), dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p'-DDE) oxychlordane, cis-chlordane, trans-chlordane, cis-nonachlor, trans-nonachlor, heptachlor, heptachloroepoxid, and mirex, using gas chromatography mass spectrometry. Plasma was analysed for concentrations of total triiodothyronine (T3), using radioimmunoassay. Associations between variables of POPs and T3 were analysed using univariate statistics. Biometric measurements of the kittiwakes; body mass, skull length, and wing length where included in the statistical analysis, together with calculated BC (BC; body mass controlled for body size). Associations between the variables were analysed using multivariate statistics. The PCBs were the dominant contaminants in both 2008 and 2009. The three major constituents in the kittiwakes were PCB-153, followed by PCB-138 and PCB-180. Even though the body condition of the kittiwakes was significant poorer in 2009 compared to 2008, the concentrations of PCBs and DDE did not differ between 2008 and 2009. The concentration (ng/g wet weight [w.w.]) of HCB and oxychlordane were significant higher in 2009 compared to 2008. There was a strong negative association between HCB and body condition of the kittiwakes. Also the concentration of oxychlordane was negative correlated to body condition. Thus, kittiwakes with poor body condition had higher levels of HCB and oxychlordane. Additionally, HCB, oxychlordane and PCB-183 were positively associated with egg-laying date, while body condition was negatively correlated to egg-laying date. The results showed that kittiwakes with a poor body condition and thus, high levels of HCB and oxychlordane, were associated with late breeding. The low body condition in 2009 indicated poor food availability and unfavourable conditions for the kittiwakes that year.


An expedient protocol for Cu-catalyzed C-H oxidation/diacylation of indoles with arylglyoxal hydrates to construct indolyl diketones is developed. This methodology exhibits the synthetic utility of the synthesis of an indole-alkaloid 1,2-di(1H-indol-3-yl)ethane-1,2-dione and offers a straightforward means to produce different indolyl nitrogen-containing heterocycles such as indolyl quinoxaline, indolyl hydantoin and indolyl imidazole in high yields. Preliminary mechanistic studies indicate that two proposed pathways are involved in this process.


In Furman v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Furman's counsel. Three Justices agreed that Georgia law, as applied, was arbitrary and potentially discriminatory. Moreover, one Justice challenged the value of the death penalty and doubted it served any of the alleged purposes for which it was employed.
Although many challenges subsequent to Furman have been raised and arguably resolved by the Court, the underlying challenges raised by Furman appear to remain prevalent with the Court. Justice Breyer recently echoed the concurring opinions of Furman in his dissenting opinion from Glossip v. Gross, when he stated: "In this world, or at least in this Nation, we can have a death penalty that at least arguably serves legitimate penological purposes or we can have a procedural system that at least arguably seeks reliability and fairness in the death penalty's application. We cannot have both."


Robust coercive apparatuses are credited for the Middle East's uniquely persistent authoritarianism, but little work exists analyzing their origins. In this paper, we present an original theory regarding the origins of coercive institutions in contemporary authoritarian regimes like those in the Middle East. More specifically, we argue that post-independence authoritarian coercive capabilities are shaped by pre-independence institution-building, largely dictated by the interests of colonial powers who dictated state development projects. We depart from existing general theories about the origins of coercive institutions, in which authoritarian leaders have full autonomy in constructing coercive institutions when they come to power, and in which the military is the primary source of the state's institution. Instead, we argue that authoritarian leaders coming to power in the twentieth century, after major state building occurred, inherit states with certain predetermined resources and capabilities, and coercive institutions. We support our theory with preliminary budgetary and employment data from 1880 to 1960 in Egypt. Our results demonstrate significant continuity rather than disruption through the 1952 Free Officers Coup that effectively liberated Egypt from British influence.


This paper uses survey data for 60,000 households from 29 transition economies in 2006 and 2010 to explore how the use of banking services is related to household characteristics, as well as to bank ownership, deposit insurance and creditor protection. At the household level we find that the holding of a bank account, a bank card, or a mortgage increases with income and education in most countries and find evidence for an urban-rural gap. The use of banking services is also related to the religion and social integration of a household as well as the gender of the household head. Using the within-country variation between 2006 and 2010, we find that the privatization of state-owned banks and an increase in market share of foreign banks are associated with a stronger use of banking services. Foreign bank ownership is also associated with a higher use of bank services among highincome households and households with formal employment. State ownership, by contrast is hardly associated with more outreach to poorer households. More generous deposit insurance and stronger creditor rights also foster the use of banking services among the urban, rich, better educated and formally employed.


We compared a new low-dose chlorthalidone formulation consisting of 15 mg of this compound and a biocompatible polymer in a double-blind placebo-controlled trial with the standard 25-mg dose of chlorthalidone in the management of mild essential hypertension. Two hundred twenty-two patients, ranging in age from 21 to 69 years, with an average standing diastolic blood pressure between 91 and 104 mm Hg participated in this trial. At the end of 12 weeks, the percentage of patients who had a decrease in their standing diastolic blood pressure of 5 mm Hg or more was statistically similar in both of the active-treatment groups and significantly different from the placebo group. With the lower-dose compound, the metabolic side effect of hypokalemia was less of a problem and there was no evidence of glucose intolerance. Thus, this new 15-mg formulation of chlorthalidone appears to be an effective antihypertensive agent with fewer metabolic side effects compared with the standard 25-mg dose in the management of mild essential hypertension.


Hand-based gesture interaction in smart environments provides a comfortable and discreet way to interact with the environment. However, most of the available approaches are not robust enough against inaccurately performed gestures and sensor noise in such environments. This usually leads to a decreased gesture recognition rate. Thus, the overall interaction experience suffers when performed in smart environments. To overcome these challenges and to improve the gesture recognition performance, we aim to develop a generic context aware gesture recognition framework inferring user's interaction intention from the output of an arbitrary gesture recognizer and the current context of a smart environment. The main feature of our framework is its ability to adapt to the dynamic context of arbitrary smart environments at runtime.


Abstract The global protected area estate is the world's largest ever planned land use. Protected areas are not monolithic and vary in their purpose, designation, management and outcomes. The IUCN protected area category system is a typology based on management objectives. It documents protected area types and is increasingly used in laws, policy and planning. As its role grows, the category system must be reactive to opinions and open to modifications. In response to requests from members IUCN undertook a 4-year consultation and recently published revised guidelines for the categories. These made subtle but important changes to the protected area definition, giving greater emphasis to nature conservation, protection over the long term and management effectiveness. It refined some categories and gave principles for application. Debates during revision were intense and highlighted many of the issues and challenges surrounding protected areas in the early 21st century. There was a consensus on many issues including the suitability of different governance models (such as indigenous and community conserved areas), sacred natural sites, moving the emphasis of Category IV from habitat manipulation towards species and habitat protection, and recognition of legally defined zones within a protected area as different categories. However, there was considerable disagreement about the definition of a protected area, the appropriateness of some categories with extensive human use, the possibility of linking category classification with biodiversity outcomes, and recognition of territories of indigenous peoples. We map these debates and propose actions to resolve these issues: a necessary step if the world's protected area network is to be representative, secure and well managed.


Examination of gastrointestinal tracts of native cyprinids from the Little Colorado River (LCR) in Grand Canyon, Arizona, 1990-1994, revealed varying rates of prevalence and infrapopulation levels of Asian tapeworm ( Bothriocephalus acheilognathi ). Mean prevalence was 28% (range 0-78%) in humpback chub ( Gila cypha ) and 8% (range 0-46%) in speckled dace ( Rhinichthys osculus ), with infrapopulations as high as 46 and 28, respectively. We also note Asian tapeworm infection of nonnatives common carp ( Cyprinus carpio ), fathead minnow ( Pimephales promelas ), and plains killifish ( Fundulus zebrinus ) from the LCR. Reported pathogenic and chronic effects of this cestode to its definitive hosts add concern for the status of the Grand Canyon population of the federally endangered humpback chub. The rapidity which Asian tapeworm has spread to different drainages of the Colorado River Basin likely portends an eventual cosmopolitan basin distribution in lower elevations suitable to the parasite's thermophilic life history. Such biotic changes must be considered among the most serious threats to conservation and recovery of native fish populations.


My research will examine the origins of the current corn crisis in Mexico. The rise in corn prices are not the result of shortages in production, but the outcome of increased demand stemming from the production of biofuels. I hypothesize that in an age of trade deregulation and food riots, food security remains a possibility for Mexico. I propose that by examining international conditions, free trade policies and the civic response to the 2007 Mexican neoliberal tortilla crisis, we can understand not only the current corn crisis but also the larger crises of food entitlement currently afflicting the developing world. The goal of this study is to contribute to the evaluation of the impact of trade liberalization on corn production and Mexican food security.


Relational governance arrangements across agencies and sectors have become prevalent as a means for government to become more responsive and effective in addressing complex, large scale or 'wicked' problems. The primary characteristic of such 'collaborative' arrangements is the utilisation of the joint capacities of multiple organisations to achieve collaborative advantage, which Huxham (1993) defines as the attainment of creative outcomes that are beyond the ability of single agencies to achieve. Attaining collaborative advantage requires organisations to develop collaborative capabilities that prepare organisations for collaborative practice (Huxham, 1993b). Further, collaborations require considerable investment of staff effort that could potentially be used beneficially elsewhere by both the government and non-government organisations involved in collaboration (Keast and Mandell, 2010). Collaborative arrangements to deliver services therefore requires a reconsideration of the way in which resources, including human resources, are conceptualised and deployed as well as changes to both the structure of public service agencies and the systems and processes by which they operate (Keast, forthcoming).

A main aim of academic research and theorising has been to explore and define the requisite characteristics to achieve collaborative advantage. Such research has tended to focus on definitional, structural (Turrini, Cristofoli, Frosini, & Nasi, 2009) and organisational (Huxham, 1993) aspects and less on the roles government plays within cross-organisational or cross-sectoral arrangements. Ferlie and Steane (2002) note that there has been a general trend towards management led reforms of public agencies including the HRM practices utilised. Such trends have been significantly influenced by New Public Management (NPM) ideology with limited consideration to the implications for HRM practice in collaborative, rather than market contexts. Utilising case study data of a suite of collaborative efforts in Queensland, Australia, collected over a decade, this paper presents an examination of the network roles government agencies undertake. Implications for HRM in public sector agencies working within networked arrangements are drawn and implications for job design, recruitment, deployment and staff development are presented.

The paper also makes theoretical advances in our understanding of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) in network settings. While networks form part of the strategic armoury of government, networks operate to achieve collaborative advantage. SHRM with its focus on competitive advantage is argued to be appropriate in market situations, however is not an ideal conceptualisation in network situations. Commencing with an overview of literature on networks and network effectiveness, the paper presents the case studies and methodology; provides findings from the case studies in regard to the roles of government to achieve collaborative advantage and implications for HRM practice are presented. Implications for SHRM are considered.


What's new in Translation Studies? In offering a critical assessment of recent developments in the young discipline, this book sets out to provide an answer, as seen from a European perspective today. Many "new" ideas actually go back well into the past, and the German Romantic Age proves to be the starting-point. The main focus lies however on the last 20 years, and, beginning with the cultural turn of the 1980s, the study traces what have turned out since then to be ground-breaking contributions (new paradigms) as against what was only a change in position on already established territory (shifting viewpoints). Topics of the 1990s include nonverbal communication, gender-based Translation Studies, stage translation, new fields of interpreting studies and the effects of new technologies and globalization (including the increasingly dominant role of English). The author's aim is to stimulate discussion and provoke further debate on the current profile and future perspectives of Translation Studies.


Book synopsis: For many commentators, global civil society is revolutionising our approach to global politics, as new non-state-based and border-free expressions of political community challenge territorial sovereignty as the exclusive basis for political community and identity. This challenge 'from below' to the nation-state system is increasingly seen as promising nothing less than a reconstruction, or a re-imagination, of world politics itself. Whether in terms of the democratisation of the institutions of global governance, the spread of human rights across the world, or the emergence of a global citizenry in a worldwide public sphere, global civil society is understood by many to provide the agency necessary for these hoped-for transformations. Global Civil Society asks whether this idea is such a qualitatively new phenomenon after all; whether the transformation of the nation-state system is actually within its reach; and what some of the drawbacks might be.


This paper presents an analysis of the effects of tax policy on capital accumulation and valuation based on James Tobin's q theory of investment. As Tobin has explained, aggregate investment can be expected to depend in a stable way on q, the ratio of the stock market valuation of existing capita1 to its replacement cost. For example, increases in the rate of return on physical capital raise its market value and cause increased investment until equilibrium is restored. Although models linking the stock market to investment have been estimated, they have not previously been used to examine the impact of tax policies. The basic idea underlying the approach taken here can be described quite simply. It is generally assumed that the stock market valuation of corporate capital represents the present value of its future dividend stream. In the model of this paper, the effects of tax changes on future profits are used to estimate the impact of those changes on the stock market. These estimates in turn are used as a basis for gauging the impact of the tax changes on capital formation. This approach, working through q, can provide estimates of the effects of policy announcements and of personal tax reforms as well as estimates of the distributional impact of alternative reforms. A distinct feature of the model developed here is that it is rooted in a microeconomic theory that integrates the interests of the corporation and its shareholders.