During the last decade, Electronic Government (EGOV) has been seen as instrumental for a more efficient public sector and more effective public service delivery. Recent trends in government and public service delivery transformation strategies emphasise a move from organisational silos to joined-up, whole-of-government and citizen-centric service delivery and service improvement. The scope of impact implies a move from intra-government focused improvements to the relationships between government, business and citizens. Technology, in this context, acts as a catalyst and enabler for such changes. The transformational maturity of public sector organisations is largely dependent on the strategic focus, horizontal and vertical integration between government departments and across levels of government (i.e. national, regional and local). Other change agents include different partnership models with external agents and improved governance and inter-governmental cooperation. This, in turn, should be backed up by proper technological enablers that provide consistent user experience and process redesign across sectors and is supported by enabling skills and organisational culture, such as customer-centricity, partnership building, collaborative and cross-sectoral customer value creation. Influenced by different organisational, political and socio-economic factors, strategies in Latvia, Denmark and the United Kingdom (UK) have taken different approaches to digitally-enabled and customer-centric service delivery. This report analyses intergovernmental governance and partnership models of the three countries since 2013. The report identifies existing strategies, practices and technologies in the delivery of core government services, and in progression from silos-based, disjointed government towards a customer-centric, whole-of-government approach in public sector service production and delivery. The analysis finds that the whole-of-government approach for public service delivery has been strategically recognised in all three analysed countries, but that countries have different structural approaches when addressing technology-enabled public service delivery and whole-of-government concepts. Research shows that in order to ensure holistic and consistent digital transformation as illustrated by the example of Denmark and the UK, it is essential to compile sufficient governance maturity and organisational capacity, combining strategic and operational competencies. It is also critical to grant a broad mandate to coordinate, guide, set standards and supervise across government sectors and government levels. Government-wide design standards, process redesign practices, centralised user insight analysis, and cross-sectoral process ownership are other common elements necessary to whole-of-government approaches. It is also evident that when supply-side digitalisation activities and enablers are supported by opt-out rather than opt-in strategies on the user's side, more dynamic shifts in channel choice are evident, and a higher eServices user base is reached, as it is demonstrated in the Latvian and Danish examples. The analysis concludes that current methods and practices for performance monitoring and impact evaluation are generally designed for agency- and service-based performance assessment. This means that government cross-agency methods and practices must be elaborated to support further and facilitate a whole-of-government approach. All countries would benefit from closer cooperation between agencies and across administrative levels, but also with private sector stakeholders. This applies to strategy development as well as operational joined-up service delivery partnerships.


With some 280,000 objects, the Harvard Art Museum is the largest university art museum in the United States. Its Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler museums feature world-renowned collections of archaic Chinese jades and bronzes, Italian Renaissance paintings, and nineteenth-century art, along with remarkable holdings of prints, drawings, photographs, and Bauhaus and German expressionist works, making it one of the most distinguished museums in the world.This first handbook of the collections surveys their full scope, from early-Egyptian bronzes and Chinese ceramics to contemporary paintings and prints. Familiar works by Pollock, Picasso, Durer, Van Gogh, and other well-known artists are presented along with extraordinary Persian miniatures, rare photographic prints, important Greek coins, and African sculpture. Each work is fully illustrated in color and introduced with a brief, engaging text. This elegantly designed book not only offers an appealing and accessible presentation of some of the Harvard Art Museum's most significant works, but also introduces readers to other resources at the Museums, such as the Straus Center for Conservation, as well as to the artist archives that are housed there.


We present the application of wavefront sensing to 3-dimensional particle metrology for measuring the 3-component velocity vector field in a fluid flow across a volume. The technique is based upon measuring the wavefront scattered by a tracer particle from which the 3-dimensional tracer location can be calculated. Using a temporally resolved sequence of 3-dimensional particle locations the velocity vector field is obtained. In this paper we focus on an anamophic technique to capture the data required to measure the wavefront. Data is presented from a reconstruction of the phase of the wavefront as well as from a more pragmatic approach that examines only the defocus of that wavefront. The methods are optically efficient and robust and can be applied to both coherent and incoherent light in contrast to classical interferometric methods. A focus of this paper has been the filtering techniques in order to reliably extract the particle images from the overall image field. The resolution and repeatability of the depth (or range) measurements have been quantified experimentally using a single mode fiber source representing a tracer particle. A first proof of principle experiment using this technique for 3-dimensional PIV on a sparsely seeded gas phase flow is also presented.


Rice bran oil was extracted from rice bran collected after four milling breaks that were
used to process rice in Bernas factory, Sekinchan, Malaysia. Two organic solvents were
used, a non-polar solvent that was hexane and a mixture of non-polar and polar, which
were chloroform-methanol. Gamma oryzanol content of rice bran oil was then
quantified, and the total antioxidant activity (TAA) was determined using FTC and TBA
methods. After oil extraction, dietary fiber content was quantified in the four phases of
defatted rice bran. Results showed that rice bran contained around 20 % lipid in the
extracts of the two solvents used. Unlike oil yield, y-oryzanol content was affected by
rice milling and the type of solvent used for extraction. For chloroform-methanol
extract, phase 2 of rice milling contained the highest amount of y-oryzanol (5280 * 120
pprn), followed by phase 3 (3820 * 60 pprn), phase 4 (3400 * 100 pprn), and phase 1
(3000 * 80 pprn). The four phases of hexane extracts contained lower amount of yoryzanol
than chloroform-methanol extracts. Phase 2 of rice milling contained the
highest y-oryzanol content (4560 100 pprn), followed by phase 3 (2400 * 40 pprn),.
phase 4 (2080 * 40 pprn), and phase 1 (1600 * 60 pprn). TAA studies showed that rice
bran oil extracted from phase 2 of rice milling had significantly higher antioxidant
activity than phase 1 (pc0.05). However, no significant differences were found among
other phases (p0.05). It was found that rice bran is a good source of dietary fiber.
However, fiber distribution was affected also by milling systems. Phase 2 of rice milling
contained the highest amount of TDF which was 5 1.2 * 0.9 %, followed by phases 3, 1
and 4 that contained 45.2 * 1.0 %, 37.6 * 0.1 % and 35.5 * 0.8 % respectively.
Caco-2 cell line was used as in vitro model to study y-oryzanol bioavailability from
different formulations that were triolein solution, emulsion, tocotrienol rich fraction
(TRF)-y-oryzanol emulsion, and microspheres. By day 9, cell line showed polarized
monolayer properties as was detected from transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER)
value (247.2 * 25.0 &m2) and phenol red diffusion (4.2 + 0.1 %). However, all
experiments were conducted at day 18, to ensure that cells were fully polarized. In vitro
digestion of 100 mg dose from each formulation resulted in low micellarization
concentrations of y-oryzanol from both triolein solution and microspheres, that were 2 1
* 2 pglml digestate, and 20 * 2 pgml respectively. Nevertheless, micellarization
concentrations were greatly improved to 5087 * 147 pglml and 5 160 + 228 pglml, from
emulsion and TRF- y-oryzanol emulsion, respectively. After 10 h of incubation, only
0.43 * 0.02 pg (2.03 +_ 0.09 %) y-oryzanol was transported to the lower compartments
from triolein solution. Cellular uptake of y-oryzanol from microspheres after the same
period of incubation, increased to 1.25 * 0.09 pg (6.33 f 0.44 %). Gamma oryzanol
absorption increased further to 1 14.94 * 2.02 pg (2.3 1 f 0.04 %) and 1 15.82 * 4.52 pg
(2.24 + 0.05 %) from emulsion and TRF- y-oryzanol emulsion, respectively.
Phannacokinetics of y-oryzanol was studied using rabbits. Gamma oryzanol emulsion
was given as a single intravenous dose. Plasma level of y-oryzanol was quantified using
HPLC. Plasma clearance of y-oryzanol followed two compartments model, indicating
that y-oryzanol was distributed to the internal tissues. Elimination constant was 0.086 *
0.004 pg/ml.h, and the half-life was 8.040 * 0.360 h.
Rabbits were used as in vivo model to study the bioavailability of y-oryzanol from
triolein solution, microspheres, emulsion and TRF- y-oryzanol emulsion. The maximum
concentration of y-oryzanol from triolein solution was 6.37 * 1.48 pg/ml, and improved
to 130.30 * 30.40 pglml upon loading y-oryzanol in microspheres. However, in both
formulations, the maximum concentrations were achieved after 2 h of ingestion. Where
as the maximum concentrations of y-oryzanol from emulsion and TRF- y-oryzanol
emulsion were 555 * 100 pglml and 525 * 95 pglml respectively and the t max. was 2 h.
The absolute bioavailability of y-oryzanol emulsion was 6.61 * 0.86 %. The oral
emulsion was used as a standard, so that the relative bioavailabilitiy (F relative) values
of the other formulations were calculated. While F( relative) for y-oryzanol from triolein
solution was only 0.51 * 0.06 %, it was significantly ('<0.05) increased to 16.63 * 1.71
% upon loading y-oryzanol in microspheres. Addition of TRF to y-oryzanol emulsion
resulted in an increase of F (relative) to 109.60 * 13.83 %. However, this increase could
be due to the preservative effect of TRF antioxidants.
In conclusion, the bioavailability of y-oryzanol was low. However, its absorption
increased around 200 times after emulsification and 33 times upon loading in
microspheres.


Sixteen patients with dementia were studied 4 years after admission to group-living (GL) units, an intermediate level of dementia care. Of eight patients who were still alive, four lived in the GL units and four had been institutionalized. The eight patients who had died had spent 89% of their survival time in GL. Aggression was the most frequent cause of institutionalization.


The distribution of flourescently labeled α-actinin after microinjection into fibroblasts has been determined in both living and fixed cells. We have found that the distribution of the injected tetramethylrhodamine isthiocyanate-labeled protein (TMRITC-α-actinin) in living cells, which is in ruffling membranes, actin microfilament bundles, and polygonal microfilament networks (Feramisco, 1979, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 76:3967-3971), was virtually unaffected by the fixation (3.5 percent formaldehyde) and extraction (absolute acetone) used for the preparation of the cells for immunoflourescence. Also, these patterns were found to coincide with the α-actinin revealed by immunoflourescence. Also, these patterns were found to coincide with the α-actinin revealed by immunoflourescence. These findings offer, for the first time, evidence indicating the validity of the immunoflourescence technique in the localization of α-actinin in cultured cells. With the combination of the injection procedure and the immunoflourescence localization of endogenous structural proteins, it was determined that nearly all of the actin stress fibers were decorated in a periodic manner with the injected α-actinin. Endogenous tropomyosin in the injected cells was found to be distributed with a periodic pattern along the stress fibers that was antiperiodic to the pattern observed for the microinjected α-actinin. The tropomyosin antibody stained the polygonal microfilament networks and was excluded from the foci, whereas the microinjected α-actinin was incorporated into the foci of the networks. Thus, the microinjected fluorescent derivative of α-actinin appears to be incorporated into the functional pools of α-actinin within the living cell and to be utilized by the cell with fidelity.


Three-dimensional assembloids can be used to study human development and disease Brain development is a remarkable self-organization process in which cells proliferate, differentiate, migrate, and wire to form functional neural circuits. In humans, this process takes place over a long fetal phase and continues into the postnatal period, but it is largely inaccessible for direct, functional investigation at a cellular level. Therefore, the features that make the human central nervous system unique and the sequence of molecular and cellular events underlying brain disorders remain largely uncharted. Human pluripotent stem (hPS) cells, including those obtained by reprogramming somatic cells, have the ability to self-organize and differentiate when grown in three-dimensional (3D) aggregates rather than in direct contact with a flat plastic surface (1). Such 3D neural cultures, also known as organoids and organ spheroids, recapitulate many aspects of human brain development in vitro (1) and have the potential to accelerate progress in human neurobiology. Here, I discuss the emerging approaches to produce brain assembloids—the next generation of brain organoids that combine multiple cell lineages in 3D. These cultures can be used to model interactions between various brain regions in vitro, and ultimately may be applied to understand the assembly of neural circuits and to capture complex cell-cell interactions in the brain.


The sophisticated methods used in recent high-profile cyber incidents have driven many to need to understand how such security issues work. Demystifying the complexity often associated with information assurance, Cyber Security Essentials provides a clear understanding of the concepts behind prevalent threats, tactics, and procedures. To accomplish this, the team of security professionals from VeriSigns iDefense Security Intelligence Services supply an extensive review of the computer security landscape. Although the text is accessible to those new to cyber security, its comprehensive nature makes it ideal for experts who need to explain how computer security works to non-technical staff. Providing a fundamental understanding of the theory behind the key issues impacting cyber security, the book: Covers attacker methods and motivations, exploitation trends, malicious code techniques, and the latest threat vectors Addresses more than 75 key security concepts in a series of concise, well-illustrated summaries designed for most levels of technical understanding Supplies actionable advice for the mitigation of threats Breaks down the code used to write exploits into understandable diagrams This book is not about the latest attack trends or botnets. Its about the reasons why these problems continue to plague us. By better understanding the logic presented in these pages, readers will be prepared to transition to a career in the growing field of cyber security and enable proactive responses to the threats and attacks on the horizon.


Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the micro-organism of choice for the conversion of monomeric sugars into bioethanol. Industrial bioethanol fermentations are intrinsically stressful environments for yeast and the adaptive protective response varies between strain backgrounds. With the aim of identifying quantitative trait loci (QTL's) that regulate phenotypic variation, linkage analysis on six F1 crosses from four highly divergent clean lineages of S. cerevisiae was performed. Segregants from each cross were assessed for tolerance to a range of stresses encountered during industrial bioethanol fermentations. Tolerance levels within populations of F1 segregants to stress conditions differed and displayed transgressive variation. Linkage analysis resulted in the identification of QTL's for tolerance to weak acid and osmotic stress. We tested candidate genes within loci identified by QTL using reciprocal hemizygosity analysis to ascertain their contribution to the observed phenotypic variation; this approach validated a gene (COX20) for weak acid stress and a gene (RCK2) for osmotic stress. Hemizygous transformants with a sensitive phenotype carried a COX20 allele from a weak acid sensitive parent with an alteration in its protein coding compared with other S. cerevisiae strains. RCK2 alleles reveal peptide differences between parental strains and the importance of these changes is currently being ascertained.


Historically the frail elderly, as well as other weak populations who are unable to care for themselves, have been subject to legal proceedings known as guardianship. Despite changes and reforms, adult guardianship law has survived as a fundamental legal institution aimed to protect the frail elderly as well as other incompetent adults. However, concerns around guardianship over the elderly have been on the legal agenda in various countries since the 1960s. Since then, a broad wave of legal reform has swept the developed world in this field of law. This study attempts to compare different adult guardianship law reforms from an international and comparative perspective. For this purpose, Maryland (U.S.A.), Sweden, Germany, Japan, and Israel, were chosen as base for comparison. Each jurisdiction was examined in three fields: general background of its socio-legal system; the narrow dimension of its adult guardianship law, including some historical background and modern developments; and its legal alternatives to guardianship. The findings of the legal comparison reveal that this field of law is currently characterized by innovation and originality on the one hand, and on the other hand by close links to culture and legal tradition. While all the jurisdictions involved strive to reform guardianship law in a way that promotes the autonomy and independence of the elderly population, the means and tools that were actually adopted were different and diverse.


This thesis is a study of the nature and rehabilitation of the functional impairments in unilateral homonymous hemianopia (HH), with a major focus on hemianopic dyslexia. The reading, visual exploration and line bisection impairments associated with homonymous visual field loss are frequent and well-established clinical phenomena. Yet, it is still unknown whether the reading and visual exploration impairments are caused by the visual field defect or by additional extrastriate injury preventing efficient spontaneous oculomotor adaptation. It is also unclear whether the line bisection impairment directly arises from the visual field defect or its adaptive oculomotor consequences, or whether it indicates an associated visual-spatial deficit that is caused by injury to regions involved in visual-spatial perception (Introduction). Based on a critical review of research into hemianopic dyslexia since its original description in 1881, it is suggested that the visual field defect is a major component of hemianopic dyslexia but possibly not its sole cause (Chapter 1). This assumption was confirmed in six experiments whose purpose was to establish the extent to which the reading, visual exploration and line bisection impairments associated with HH are purely visually elicited. To study the behavioural changes associated with the visual field defect that are not caused by brain injury, a gaze-contingent display paradigm was used to simulate HH in healthy participants. Simulated HH induced the reading and visual exploration impairments of hemianopic patients. However, all participants showed efficient spontaneous oculomotor adaptation to simulated HH which was associated with highly specific and task-dependent improvements in reading and visual exploration (Chapters 2 and 3). Moreover, simulated HH did not induce the main feature of the hemianopic line bisection impairment, i.e., the contralateral line bisection error, albeit it nevertheless impaired line bisection performance (Chapter 4). The final study investigated the basis and specificity of the therapeutic effect of an efficient compensatory oculomotor treatment method for hemianopic dyslexia in patients with unilateral homonymous visual field loss. The results demonstrate that using text-material and, thus, lexical-semantic processes, is not critical to the treatment effect, which was also found to be specific to reading (Chapter 5). The concluding chapter reviews the main findings and suggests that the functional impairments associated with visual field loss may not simply be failures of vision. Although the hemianopic visual field defect is a major component of hemianopic dyslexia and possibly contributes to the visual exploration and line bisection impairments, additional injury to specific extrastriate regions seems to be the critical causative factor. The implications for understanding, assessing and rehabilitating functional impairments in homonymous visual field disorders are discussed. The important future research directions arising from this thesis are also identified and presented (Conclusion).


Much of the most interesting work in philosophy today is metaphysical in character. Oxford Studies in Metaphysics is a forum for the best new work in this flourishing field. OSM offers a broad view of the subject, featuring not only the traditionally central topics such as existence, identity, modality, time, and causation, but also the rich clusters of metaphysical questions in neighboring fields, such as philosophy of mind and philosophy of science. Besides independent essays, volumes will often contain a critical essay on a recent book, or a symposium that allows participants to respond to one another's criticisms and questions. Anyone who wants to know what's happening in metaphysics can start here.


In this study, the biological activity of 20 essential oils (EOs) from herbal plants and citrus fruits were investigated in terms of mammalian DNA polymerase (pol) inhibitory activity, cancer cell (human colon carcinoma, HCT116) growth inhibitory activity, antiallergic activity, as anti-β-hexosaminidase release activity in rat basophilic leukemia RBL-2H3 cells treated with calcium ionophore A23187, and antioxidant activity by a lipophilic-oxygen radical absorbance capacity method. These EOs showed patterns of inhibition of pol α, a DNA replicative pol, similar to their cancer cell growth inhibitory activity, and their inhibitory activity on pol λ, a DNA repair/recombination pol, by the EOs showed correlation with anti-β-hexosaminidase release activity. Among these EOs, chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.) was the strongest inhibitor of pols α and λ and showed significant effects on both cancer cell growth and mast cell degranulation. On the basis of these results, chamomile EO can be recommended as a potentially useful, bioactive candidate for therapeutic applications.


Perceived security is defined as the level of security that users feel while they are shopping on e-commerce sites. The aims of this study were to determine items that positively influence this feeling of security by users during shopping, and to develop guidelines for perceived security in e-commerce. An experiment allowed users with different security assurances to shop on simulated e-commerce sites. The participants were divided into three groups, shopping for cheap, mid-range, and expensive products, respectively. Following the shopping environment, the virtual shopping security questionnaire (VSSQ), consisting of fourteen perceived security items, was presented to the users. The VSSQ was presented to the participants to validate these perceived security items. The VSSQ had a Cronbach's alpha internal reliability value of 0.70. With the exception of two items, there were no significant differences in item ratings between the groups of different shopping item values. A factor analysis procedure determined two main factors concerning perceived security in e-commerce. The perceived operational factor includes: the site's blocking of unauthorized access; emphasis on login name and password authentication; funding and budget spent on security; monitoring of user compliance with security procedures; integration of state-of-the-art systems; distribution of security items within the site; website's encryption strategy; and consolidation with network security vendors. The perceived policy-related factor includes: the website's emphasis on network security; top management commitment; effort to make users aware of security procedures; the website's keeping up-to-date with product standards; the website's emphasis on security in file transfers; and issues concerning the web browser.


ABSTRACT Although literature reports associations between parent-teacher communication and childcare quality, little is known about how such communications are related to family, child and childcare characteristics. This study examines whether child, family and childcare experience characteristics predict the level of parent-teacher communication, and differences between parents' and teachers' reports of communication. Participants were mothers of 90 infants and their teachers in childcare in Portugal. Results show that both parents and teachers report higher levels of communication in higher-quality programmes. Teachers reported more frequent communication than parents. Teachers, but not parents, reported more frequent communication when children spent fewer hours in childcare. Discussion highlights the relevance of monitoring the quality of childcare contexts, especially in early ages, and to increase parent-teacher communication when children spend more time in childcare. The importance of promoting high-quality childcare and accounting for variables at the mesosystemic level of development in teacher training are also discussed.


Optical control of elementary molecular motion through impulsive stimulated Raman scattering is enhanced by means of timed sequences of femtosecond pulses that are produced by pulse-shaping techniques. In particular, terahertz-rate trains of femtosecond pulses are used for repetitive impulsive excitation of individual phonon modes in an α-perylene molecular crystal. When the pulse repetition rate is matched to the desired phonon frequency, mode-selective vibrational amplification is achieved. A comparison of data acquired with the transient-grating and the pump–probe experimental geometries reveals the timing dynamics of the induced phonon oscillations with respect to the driving femtosecond pulse sequence.


Maillet et al. determined that regulation of secretion of nonamyloidogenic soluble amyloid precursor protein (sAPPα) was mediated by a novel signal transduction pathway involving crosstalk between the Ras and Rho families of small guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases). Activation of the Gs-coupled serotonin (5-HT4) receptor stimulated sAPPα release in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells transfected to express both human 5-HT4 receptors and a human APP and in primary cultures of mouse cortical neurons. [Gs are the family of heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding protein (G protein) α subunits that stimulate adenylyl cyclase.] Pharmacologic analysis indicated that 5-HT4-mediated sAPPα secretion involved cyclic adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cAMP), but was independent of protein kinase A (PKA). Similarly, 5-HT4-mediated activation of the Rho GTPase Rac (assessed by the fraction of GTP-bound Rac to total Rac) through a mechanism that involved cAMP but was independent of PKA. Further pharmacologic analysis, combined with expression of various mutants of Rac, the Ras GTPase Rap1, and Epac1 (cAMP-activated guanine nucleotide exchange factor for Rap1), indicated that cAMP stimulated Epac1, which activated Rap1, which led to activation of Rac and sAPPα secretion. These data thus define a novel cAMP-dependent pathway involved in the regulation of sAPPα secretion. M. Maillet, S. J. Robert, M. Cacquevel, M. Gastineau, D. Vivien, J. Bertoglio, J. L. Zugaza, R. Fischmeister, F. Lezoualc'h, Crosstalk between Rap1 and Rac regulates secretion of sAPPα. Nat. Cell. Biol. 5 633-639 (2003). [Online Journal]


Peroxidases (POXs) are the key extracellular enzymes produced by crude oil degrading microbes. Knowledge of optimum conditions for POXs activity is crucial for providing effective environment for bioremediation. In this study, physicochemical properties of POXs produced by Actinomyces israelii and Actinomyces viscosus during growth on crude oil were studied. The POXs exhibited similarities in activity and stability with striking differences in response to two divalent metal ions. The POXs from both species had optimum pH of 7.0 and were very stable over a narrow pH range (6.0 - 8.0). The POXs demonstrated similar thermostability exhibiting relative residual activity of 62% at 50°C after 30 min incubation and 45% residual activity at the same temperature after 60 min despite the fact that POXs from A. viscosus and A. israelii had optimum temperatures of 50°C and 40°C, respectively. The POXs from A. viscosus and A. israelii were greatly activated by Fe2+ at 5.0 and 10.0 mM. The enzymes were both strongly inhibited by Cu2+, Mg2+ and Hg2+. Surprisingly, these congeneric POXs demonstrated striking differences in their response to Ca2+ and Mn2+. POX from A. viscosus was activated by Ca2+ and Mn2+ exhibiting relative activity of 136% and 106% at 5 mM, respectively. In contrast, POX from A. israelii was strongly inhibited by Ca2+ and Mn2+ exhibiting 62.5% relative activity in the presence of 5 mM of each metal ion. Increasing the concentration of Ca2+ and Mn2+ led to further activation of POX from A. viscosus and inhibition of POX from A. israelii. Results provide deeper insights into functional properties of studied POXs from closely related microbes. The physicochemical properties are very similar; however, notable differences provide a strong basis for structural characterization of these congeneric enzymes.


The federal government is larger than conventional budget measures suggest. Many tax preferences are effectively spending programs. Adding these preferences to federal outlays and receipts makes the government appear about 4 percent of GDP larger. The 1986 tax reform cut these benefits, but they have since rebounded to a larger share of GDP than before. Using this broader measure of government size, many base-broadening reforms viewed as tax increases would be reclassified as spending cuts. Raising marginal tax rates would be recorded as a tax increase and a spending increase because it would boost the value of many tax preferences.


Studies show that many students struggle with properly organizing their academic activities; what makes things even worse is that up to 90% of students are at least part-time procrastinators. In order to clarify how these students could be supported, the article at hand deals with the influences and possible benefits of implementation intentions in an academic learning context and substantiates the literature discussion with data collected among students. Aiming at studying the antecedents of academic performance from a cognitive perspective, the research complements an extended form of the Theory of Planned Behaviour by integrating procrastination and experience. Unlike many other studies, this paper does not focus on reasons for nor different forms of procrastination, but rather develops a comprehensive framework for understanding academic learning. A structural equation modelling approach is applied for this purpose using an empirical data base. For the outcome of this research different hypotheses are investigated especially in reference to implementation intentions. In the majority of cases the theories presented during the literature review can be substantiated with the empirical data used for the study. Key findings are the significant influences of goal intentions, as well as experience, and their positive effect on implementation intentions. Furthermore, the negative influence of procrastination is underlined by the results of the paper and identified as a major problem for college students. Other findings of the paper are the effects of subjective norms and PBC (Perceived Behaviour Control) on the formation of goal intentions. Nevertheless, the study brings up several further questions and identifies areas where research should be deepened, that is behaviour itself.


Abstract. This paper describes the IMPACT Global Hydrological Model (IGHM), a component of the International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT) integrated modeling system. IMPACT has been developed in the early 1990s to identify and analyze long-term challenges and opportunities for food, agriculture, and natural resources at global and regional scales and builds on a series of previous food demand and supply projections models developed at the International Food Policy Research Institute since the early 1980s. The IGHM has been developed to assess water availability and variability as drivers of water use and irrigated crop production in IMPACT. It adopts a saturation runoff generation scheme and uses a linear groundwater reservoir to simulate base flow in 0.5o latitude by 0.5o longitude grid cells over the global land surface excluding Antarctica. The IGHM has four cell-specific calibration parameters, which are determined through maximizing the Kling–Gupta efficiency (KGE) with a genetic algorithm at the grid cell level, using gridded natural runoff series generated by the WaterGAP Global Hydrological Model (WGHM). During the calibration and validation periods, globally, the majority of grid cells attain KGE values greater than 0.50. As a meta-model of the more computationally expensive WGHM, IGHM transfers the climate-hydrology dynamics provided by WGHM into the integrated IMPACT model at a lower computational cost and enables coupling hydrology and other related processes considered in IMPACT which are important for analyzing long-term water and food security under a range of environmental and socioeconomic changes.


Today, Native Americans and Mexican American point to the treaties of the last century in support of their claims for intercultural justice. Under this discourse of treaty rights, both the Indian treaties and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo embody the moral obligation of the United States to honor its promises to respect the land and the cultural rights of the distinct ethnic groups that were involuntarily incorporated through conquest. However, there are also important differences between the group claims. In particular, the discourse of treaty rights for Native American people highlights the political sovereignty of those groups and maintains a powerful connection to contemporary concepts of self-determination and group sovereignty. Professor Tsosie argues that contemporary mechanisms for achieving intercultural justice must correspond to the unique historical and political qualities of the particular intergroup relations, and thus, the structures used to achieve intercultural justice for American Indian groups may well be different than those used for Mexican Americans.


This research is achieving a better understanding of fully fashioned weft knitting related to individual, larger, 3D body shape. Transferable results are being produced on industrial Shima Seiki knitting systems.
Women over fifty comprise an increasing proportion of our population, yet there appears to be an imbalance between their sartorial aspirations and availability of desirable clothing. In parallel with middle aged women, women of size 16 and above find clothes shopping fruitless, and frustrating. Consequently both bigger and or older women become excluded from their peer group and disregarded by fashion. Consideration is also given to the psychological affects of larger body size. This research addresses these issues in the practical context of knitwear.
One significant finding of this research is that larger and or older women's response is to look to custom made clothing. Towards this end, garment templates in an internationally transferable format have been created to facilitate the possibilities of bespoke production within the European Union.
A pilot study has culminated in a capsule collection of prototype garments and contributed to the development and inception of a main study.


This paper proposes a technique for the initial design stage of video systems, including the structural and parametric synthesis of photodetector and encoding devices combined on a single chip. An approach to the synthesis of video systems on a chip is outlined, using an efficiency index that takes into account the interconnection of the complexity and the transfer rate. A method is proposed for distributing the area of the chip between the photodetector and the computer. The concept of parallel input of video information from the photodetector into the computer is considered.


Ultra-low-power circuits are becoming more desirable due to growing portable device markets and they are also becoming more interesting and applicable today in biomedical, pharmacy and sensor networking applications because of the nano-metric scaling and CMOS reliability improvements. In this thesis, three main achievements are presented in ultra-low-power adders. First, a new majority function algorithm for carry and the sum generation is presented. Then with this algorithm and implied new architecture, we achieved a circuit with 75mV supply voltage operation. Last but not least, a 64 bit current-mode majority-function adder based on the new architecture and algorithm is successfully tested at 75mV supply voltage. The circuit consumed 4.5nW or 3.8pJ in one of the worst conditions.


As the number of Internet-based consumer transactions continues to rise, the need to protect these transactions against hacking becomes more and more critical. An effective approach to securing information on the Internet is to analyze the signature of attacks in order to build a defensive strategy. This book explains how to accomplish this using honeypots and routers. It discusses honeypot concepts and architecture as well as the skills needed to deploy the best honeypot and router solutions for any network environment. Honeypots and Routers: Collecting Internet Attacks begins by providing a strong grounding in the three main areas involved in Internet security: Computer networks: technologies, routing protocols, and Internet architecture Information and network security: concepts, challenges, and mechanisms System vulnerability levels: network, operating system, and applications The book then details how to use honeypots to capture network attacks. A honeypot is a system designed to trap an adversary into attacking the information systems in an organization. The book describes a technique for collecting the characteristics of the Internet attacks in honeypots and analyzing them so that their signatures can be produced to prevent future attacks. It also discusses the role of routers in analyzing network traffic and deciding whether to filter or forward it. The final section of the book presents implementation details for a real network designed to collect attacks of zero-day polymorphic worms. It discusses the design of a double-honeynet system architecture, the required software tools, and the configuration process using VMware. With the concepts and skills you learn in this book, you will have the expertise to deploy a honeypot solution in your network that can track attackers and provide valuable information about their source, tools, and tactics.


Previous studies have shown that both the amygdala and frontal cortex contribute to emotional and motivational processes in rodents and humans. These regions show extensive amyloid pathology in humans with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and in mouse models of AD. However, the impact of amyloid production on emotional and motivational processes in mouse models of AD has not been systematically examined. The presence of pathology within key regions linked to emotional processes led to the hypothesis that Tg2576 mice, which express a human genetic mutation associated with early onset AD, would show age-related deficits in emotional reactivity and incentive and aversive learning and memory processes. Biochemical and immunohistochemical analysis confirmed the presence of extensive amyloid pathology in cortical, amygdala and medial temporal lobe structures in Tg2576 mice. Behavioural studies established impairments in anxiety, behavioural disinhibition and fear conditioning in Tg2576 mice. In contrast, other experiments showed that appetitive instrumental and Pavlovian conditioning remained goal-directed in aged Tg2576 mice. However, context-outcome associations were insensitive to post-conditioning changes in the value of the outcome in aged but not in young Tg2576 mice. In order to gain insight into how Ap pathology influenced hippocampal-amygdala system activity during emotional learning, the final set of experiments assessed changes in the expression of the immediate early gene product c-Fos following acquisition and retrieval of fear memories. The findings from this thesis indicate that Tg2576 mice display relatively circumscribed changes in emotional reactivity and emotional memory processes that may reflect age-related alterations in amygdalo-hippocampal network interactions.


Late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Zionist efforts to promote Hebrew as a modern vernacular not only emphasized Hebrew's standing as a Jewish tongue but also affirmed the language's universalist bona fides. These claims were buoyed by long-standing Jewish and Christian traditions that claimed Hebrew was a transcendent language tied to universal human values. During a period distinguished by modern universal language programs, however, Hebrew's limited reach and apparent artificiality provoked a sense of unease about its universalist claims. This unease was expressed in programs to westernize Hebrew orthography and enhance its global spread and in a series of often anxious comparisons, offered in the Hebrew periodical press, between Hebrew and Esperanto, the most popular universal language program of the day.


The article notes a trend towards low-key naturalism in twenty-first-century independent
 queer cinema. Focusing on work by Andrew Haigh, Travis Mathews and Ira Sachs, it argues
 that this observational style is welded to a highly meta-cinematic engagement with
 traditions of representing non-straight people. The article coins the term 'New Gay
 Sincerity' to account for this style, relating it to Jim Collins's and
 Warren Buckland's writing on post-postmodern 'new sincerity'. At its
 crux, this new style centres itself in realism to record non-metropolitan, intimate and
 quotidian gay lives, while acknowledging the high-style postmodernism of oppositional
 1990s New Queer Cinema.


Interest in optical properties of plasmonic nanoparticles embedded in transparent dielectrics is growing due to potential uses in biomedicine, sustainable energy, and manufacturing. This work evaluates geometric optics in polymer thin films containing mono- or polydisperse gold nanoparticles (AuNP) using a compact linear algebraic sum. Reflection and transmission from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films containing uniformly- or assymetrically-distributed monodisperse or polydisperse AuNPs decreased with AuNP morphological isotropy and particle density. In PDMS, monodisperse AuNPs increased optical attenuation linearly with gold content, while polydisperse AuNPs reduced from hydrogen tetrachloroaurate (TCA) increased optical attenuation in proportion to order-of-magnitude rises in gold content. Polydisperse AuNP concentrated asymmetrically at one film interface exhibited higher attenuation. Cumulative optical responses from AuNP-PDMS films paired with another film or reflective element were within 0.04 units on average from values predicted for transmission, reflection, or attenuation using linear algebra. These results support design of NP-containing dielectric films to integrate into biochemical, microelectromechanical, and optoelectronic devices and systems.


Housing construction as activities for providing people with normal living conditions, plays an important role in economy of separately taken region and country in general. The construction industry is one of the few branches of a national economy having strong multiplicative effect. By estimates of the Ministry, the greatest volumes of construction of housing in the next two years will be observed in the Central and Volga federal districts. The main objective of the state housing policy is creation of necessary conditions for effective realization of opportunities of citizens on improvement of the living conditions. Housing construction in Russia gains steam thanks to growth of welfare of citizens, and also increase in opportunities of receiving the credit or mortgage for acquisition or construction of housing. Assumes a serious scale as the complex housing construction providing to citizens with apartments from elite to economy class, and individual low construction.


Herbivores play a key role in the sustainability of steppe grasslands through their influence on the structural and functional properties of the ecosystem. Their grazing often leads to changes in vegetation structure, species composition and abundance, plant productivity and plant nitrogen cycling.

The aim of this thesis is to gain insight in the impact of different types of herbivores, a large and a small, on the steppe vegetation. We conducted an exclosure experiment on the Stipa steppe, in which we examined the effects of 3 years of exclusion of Tahki (Przewalski horse) and Siberian marmots on plant biomass and plant N-concentration, and plant species abundance.

Grazing significantly decreased the plant standing crop (which consists of aboveground biomass and standing dead material) of the Stipa vegetation (chapter 3). The exclusion of takh and marmots led to a higher plant standing crop in the exclosure plots, and the intensity of grazing by takh and marmots was sufficient to cause significant differences between the different types of exclosures. A successive increase in the amount of standing crop on fully grazed, marmot-grazed and ungrazed plots reflected a successive decrease in grazing intensity.

Our results on plant species abundance showed a higher frequency of the rhizomatous grass Leymus chinensis under a higher grazing intensity, and a decrease of the caespitose Stipa krylovii.

We addressed the question of whether shifts in species dominance that occur with increased grazing, can be explained by differences in growth responses to clipping. In a greenhouse experiment we tried to establish a link between the species dynamics in the Mongolian steppe and physiologically based plant characteristics. We compared the potential for compensatory growth of Leymus and Stipa, using a recently developed technique of growth analysis. Leymus exhibited a much stronger compensatory growth and increase in RGR after clipping than Stipa, and Leymus plants maintained its productivity levels, while productivity in Stipa dropped. These results suggest that the greater grazing tolerance of Leymus results from the much stronger compensatory growth after clipping than Stipa.

For the estimation of the carrying capacity, which is an important index for sustainable pasture use, one should account for the effect of compensation. Without this it would lead to a considerable underestimation of the carrying capacity of Leymus grasslands, while for Stipa grasslands it would lead to an overestimation.

On the Stipa steppe we studied the impact of marmot disturbances. Burrowing activities of marmots lead to important changes in the vegetation of the Stipa steppe. They create mounds that differ greatly in vegetation cover; there are mounds covered with bare soil, mounds covered by a vegetation more or less similar to the surrounding Stipa vegetation, and mounds dominated by the grass Leymus chinensis or the herb Artemisia adamsii. It is likely that the different types of mounds represent a series of succession, considering the growth habit of the species dominating the different types of mounds. A dynamic and patchy vegetation cover is created, which can easily regenerate into the more stable Stipa steppe.


Binocular rivalry and cross-orientation suppression are well-studied forms of competition in visual cortex, but models of these two types of competition are in tension with one another. Binocular rivalry occurs during the presentation of dichoptic grating stimuli, where two orthogonal gratings presented separately to the two eyes evoke strong alternations in perceptual dominance. Cross-orientation suppression occurs during the presentation of plaid stimuli, where the responses to a component grating presented to both eyes is weakened by the presence of a superimposed orthogonal grating. Conventional models of rivalry that rely on strong competition between orientation-selective neurons incorrectly predict rivalry between the components of plaids. Lowering the inhibitory weights in such models reduces rivalry for plaids, but also reduces it for dichoptic gratings. Using an exhaustive grid search, we show that this problem cannot be solved simply by adjusting the parameters of the model. Instead, we propose a robust class of models that rely on ocular opponency neurons, previously proposed as a mechanism for efficient stereo coding, to yield rivalry only for dichoptic gratings, not for plaids. This class of models reconciles models of binocular rivalry with the divisive normalization framework that has been used to explain cross-orientation. Our model makes novel predictions that we confirmed with psychophysical tests.


The current work studies the relevance of features in time- and frequency-domain given a scattered Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) wave. This wave is used to identify inclusions, such as reinforcement bars and fissures, in concrete structures. The right choice of features is fundamental to the design of intelligent machines to support the detection, qualification, and quantification of fissures in concrete. Although the extension of its results to other types of materials is expected to be possible, this work focuses on the analysis of the problem of discovering the characteristics of cylindrical materials inside a concrete structure, which may be conductor, water, or air. Both noiseless and features selected given a white Gaussian noise are considered in simulated data. Some features were extracted, and those selected are presented, indicating that the features in time- and frequency-domain are complementary and relevant. Classification and regression models with different number of features indicate that not all features available are needed to achieve satisfactory performance. Moreover, decreasing the number of features also decreases the computational burden.


In 1935, the National Bureau of Economic Research invited a consortium of universities to join with it in establishing a "program of cooperative research" in the area of economic measurement. The Conference on Research in Income and Wealth (CRIW) was founded a year later to provide conceptual support for the establishment of the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts. It was a conference in the basic sense of the word--a group of experts drawn from academia, government statistical agencies, and the business and economic policy community, meeting at regular intervals to confer on issues of importance for the development of the national accounts. While the CRIW has broadened its agenda to include measurement issues beyond the strict confines of the national accounts, the essential personality and objectives of the CRIW have remained unchanged up to the present. The CRIW has special status at the NBER, thus setting it apart from the Bureau's regular programs. This status reflects the dual personality of the organization: it is an activity within the NBER, which exercises oversight and provides administrative support, but at the same time, it has a separate membership, steering committee, and its own dedicated funding from the government statistical agencies. Ongoing financial support is derived from the Bureau of the Census, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and Statistics Canada. The executive committee is drawn from these agencies, from academe, and from program directors appointed by the NBER. The CRIW currently has some 300 members. Election to membership in the CRIW does not convey affiliation with the NBER, although there is considerable overlap. The main activity of the CRIW is to hold annual conferences on subjects defined by the conference membership. The conference proceedings then appear in the series Studies in Income and Wealth, published by the University of Chicago Press for the NBER. This series now contains nearly 70 volumes. In recent years, the CRIW has joined with NBER's Program on Productivity to hold workshops at the annual Summer Institutes, and this initiative has broadened to include other NBER programs. The conference volumes published over the last decade include: The Economics of New Goods (1997), Geography and Ownership as Bases for Economic Accounting (1998), Labor Statistics Measurement Issues (1998), International and Interarea Comparisons of Income, Ou~Out, and Prices (1999), New Developments in PrActivity Analysis (2001), Medical Care Output and Productiviy (2001), and Scanner Data and Price Indexes (2003). The last three years have been particularly busy, with five regular CRIW conferences whose volumes are not yet published: Measuring Capital in the New Economy (2002), Hard-to-Measure Goods and Services: Essays in Memory of Zvi Griliches (2003), New Architecture for the U.S. Nationa/Accounts (2004), Price Index Concepts and Measurement (2004), and Producer Dynamics: New Evidence from Micro Data (2005). In addition, the CRIW has collaborated in three other conferences and five workshops. A listing of recent conferences and programs and workshops is available on the CRIW web page (www.nber.org/CRIW/), along with a list of volumes in the Studies in Income and Wealth series. This list of recent conference papers is too long to describe fully in this brief report. However, there are several cross cutting themes: the importance of the revolution in information technology; the emergence of new goods and services whose quality differences are important and changing; and the globalization of economic activity. These dynamic issues provide a formidable challenge to economic measurement, since the national accounts are not a static structure, but rather one that must evolve continuously to reflect changes in the structure of the economy. New Goods The 1980s and early 1990s were the period in which personal computers, cell phones, video games, ATMs, and then the Internet, became common items of daily life. …


BACKGROUND
Ex vivo T-cell depletion of allogeneic BM (BM) grafts can effectively reduce graft versus host disease (GvHD) and may also apply to transplantation of allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) transplants.

METHODS
Here we have evaluated T-cell depletion and progenitor cell recovery by antibody-mediated cells lysis using three CD52 monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) at different concentrations and cell densities.

RESULTS
CAMPATH-1M was superior to CAMPATH-1H for T-cell depletion of BM samples. Treatment with CAMPATH-1M resulted in up to 2.55 log depletion of CD3+ cells, with recoveries of >or=45% CD34+ cells, >or=67% CFU-GM and >or=65% BFU-E. CAMPATH-1H treatment resulted in up to 1.64 log depletion of CD3+ cells and similar recoveries of CD34+ cells, CFU-GM and BFU-E as seen with CAMPATH-1M. Depletion of CD19+ cells was similar to that observed for CD3+ cells while natural killer (NK) cells were relatively spared compared with the T and B cell populations. Log depletions of T cells from PBSC, as determined by immunofluorescence studies and limiting dilution analyses, were similar using CAMPATH-1M, -1H, and -1G. There were also no differences in the depletion of CD19+ cells or NK cells using the three MAbs. Similar results were obtained for recoveries of CD34+ cells, CFU-GM and BFU-E using all three MAbs, although the recovery of CD34+ cells using the highest concentration of MAbs was significantly greater in CAMPATH-1H treated samples. Increasing the number of PBSC treated with CAMPATH-1H and -1M had no effect on the log depletion of T, B or NK cells and there were no major differences in the log depletions achieved with CAMPATH-1H or -1M. Likewise, the higher PBSC density had no effect on the recoveries of CD34+ cells or committed progenitors and once again CAMPATH-1H gave similar recoveries to those obtained using CAMPATH-1M.

DISCUSSION
Although CAMPATH-1M resulted in greater ex vivo T-cell depletion of BM than CAMPATH-1H, in all other respects, the humanised CAMPATH-1H was just as effective as CAMPATH-1M and -1G.


Styrene and styrene oxide have been implicated as reproductive toxicants, neurotoxicants, or carcinogens in vivo or in vitro. The use of these chemicals in the manufacture of plastics and polymers and in the boat-building industry has raised concerns related to the risk associated with human exposure. This review describes the literature to date on the metabolic fate of styrene and styrene oxide in laboratory animals and in humans. Many studies have been conducted to assess the metabolic fate of styrene in rats, and investigations on the metabolism of styrene in humans have been of considerable interest. Limited research has been done to assess metabolism in the mouse. The metabolism of styrene to styrene oxide and further conversion to styrene glycol (via epoxide hydrolase), mandelic acid, and phenylglyoxylic acid has been given considerable attention, and is considered to be the major pathway of activation and detoxication for humans. While the hydrolysis of styrene oxide to styrene glycol historically has been the favored pathway for the rat, studies in more recent years have indicated that glutathione conjugation also is a viable and significant pathway for both the rat and the mouse. This pathway has not been established in humans. Mandelic acid and phenylglyoxylic acid have been used as urinary markers of exposure in humans exposed to styrene. Extensive investigations have been conducted on the kinetics of styrene and styrene oxide in rodents. In people, the kinetics of styrene and styrene oxide in the blood of occupationally exposed workers and volunteers have been determined. Pharmacokinetic models developed in the last decade have become increasingly complex, with the most recent physiologically based model describing the kinetics of styrene and styrene oxide. This model shows pronounced species differences in sensitivity coefficients for styrene or styrene oxide between mice, rats, and humans, where mice are the more sensitive species to the Vmax for both epoxide hydrolase and monooxygenase. This result is particularly interesting in light of the recent findings of extensive mortality and hepatotoxicity for mice exposed to relatively low levels of styrene (250 to 500 ppm), while rats and humans exhibit only nasal and eye irritations at exposure concentrations well above 500 ppm.


Stereotypically, Moscow's policies towards Cyprus, like those of the UK and the US, have been treated diachronically via the hegemonic analytical paradigm, especially during the Cold War, namely 'Political Realism'. And yet, primarily since 1991 – but arguably even earlier – Moscow's Cyprus policies have been quite distinct, being marked by such 'idealistic' characteristics, as sustained support for the UN Resolutions, for international law (including respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity) and international ethics (including solidarity, protection of human rights, and opposition to illegality and injustice). Therefore, whereas the 'power-political' reading of Washington and London's Cyprus policies remains valid, the identical reading of Moscow's policies needs to be transcended. Thus, the concept of 'Pragmatic Idealism', first introduced regarding Canadian foreign policy, is applied here to the sui generis Russia-Cyprus relationship which, after all, has been thoroughly affected by historical, political, religious, cultural, and axiological affinities and bonds.


Focus: This symposium concerns the making of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). It will deal with initiatives to construct the EHEA and to analyse principles and practices governing the "construct" in context of institutional restructuring and transnational networking. Problem: The EHEA makes visible a new emergent form of governing education through the production as well as reproduction of knowledge. It is a multifaceted on-going construction to shape an European expertise in the "co-production of science and society" (Nowotny mfl, 2001). EHEA is at once the tool and the outcome of new kinds of power-knowledge links, manifested in expressions such as "the knowledge society" or the "knowledge triangle", as well as in instruments connected to the EHEA, e.g. benchmarking or ranking. Given this, it is vital to identify the dynamics in the EHEA construction, including the working by different agents, networks and tools. Theoretical Framework: The current symposium is based on a dynamic nominalist framework (e.g. Hacking, 2000). The EHEA is by this to be seen as a political construct whose emergent "beings" becomes manifest in and through a manifold of knowledge inscribed practices (e.g. Popkewitz, 2009), with governance embodied in the categorisations and notions of progress as well as the different socio-science networks (Latour, 2005) whose machinery produces evaluations (Foss Lindblad, Lindblad & Popkewitz, 2009), certifications, benchmarking and rankings (e.g. Wedlin, Sahlin, & Hedmo, 2009) and systems of expertise. In current discursive settings and university restructuring, the practices of governance are indeed transnational (e.g Djelic & Sahlin, 2006) with globalizing characteristics such as and international education markets, student flows etc. in on-going fabrication of Europe (Novoa & Lawn, 2000) Methodological comments: The contributions based on analyses of strategic EHEA documents where ways of relating higher education and research to each other is important. This is complemented by analyses of different navigation tools such as rankinglists (e.g. Kehm & Stensaker, 2009) and international networks in order to capture the dynamics at work including issues of standardization, diversification and classification. Expected outcomes: A more clearly identified arena for the EHEA, including agents, networks, tools and systems of expertise. This is important for further studies of the EHEA and in developing research cooperation on the transnational governance of Europeanization of Higher Education. Design of the symposium: Firstly; two papers on Europeanization Initiatives, the Bologna Process will be analysed with specific reference to Spain, followed by an analysis of the making and development of the new EU strategy Europe 2020. Secondly; papers on practises in the making to the EHEA, first comparative analyses of knowledge production and Evidence Based Policy in Higher Education in France, UK and the USA and then on Benchmarking and evaluations of higher education and research and how higher education is constructed in these practices. The last paper is a presentation of research on the space of actors and networks organising and influencing Global Governing of Universities. Thirdly, we discuss symposium contributions in relation to the general problematics and the a research agenda concerning the Europeanization of higher education.


In Northern Ireland citizenship education aims to
develop active and engaged participants in democracy
as we know it. But what if young people and the
adults they know around them are largely sceptical
about politics and democracy as we know it, see
the 'vote' as relatively worthless and despair about
decisions that are made by elected leaders? Separate
chapters identify what youth political disaffection
is, what the policy makers behind citizenship
education think it is about and why citizenship
education misses the point. By misrecognising what
political disaffection is, citizenship education
renders itself unsuited to the task of resolving
disaffection and instead can be seen as a social
engineering tool intent on inculcating a passive
acceptance of democracy. This book gives a clear and
thorough account of education in contemporary N.I
society and will be invaluable to teachers of
contemporary social theory, politics and education,
as well as to researchers and students, school
teachers, youth workers and engaged citizens.


Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)γ and Dictyostelium PI3K are activated via G protein–coupled receptors through binding to the Gβγ subunit and Ras. However, the mechanistic role(s) of Gβγ and Ras in PI3K activation remains elusive. Furthermore, the dynamics and function of PI3K activation in the absence of extracellular stimuli have not been fully investigated. We report that gβ null cells display PI3K and Ras activation, as well as the reciprocal localization of PI3K and PTEN, which lead to local accumulation of PI(3,4,5)P3. Simultaneous imaging analysis reveals that in the absence of extracellular stimuli, autonomous PI3K and Ras activation occur, concurrently, at the same sites where F-actin projection emerges. The loss of PI3K binding to Ras–guanosine triphosphate abolishes this PI3K activation, whereas prevention of PI3K activity suppresses autonomous Ras activation, suggesting that PI3K and Ras form a positive feedback circuit. This circuit is associated with both random cell migration and cytokinesis and may have initially evolved to control stochastic changes in the cytoskeleton.


OBJECTIVE
Cardiac recovery in end-stage idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy recently occurred after temporary support with a left ventricular assist device. We report the case histories of patients who underwent removal of the device more than 4 years ago.

METHODS
Since June 1994, 23 patients with end-stage idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy who were supported by a left ventricular assist device or biventricular assist device for 1 to 26 months (mean, 6 months) underwent removal of the device after complete or extensive cardiac recovery, as revealed by echocardiography.

RESULTS
Seven patients (group A) had recurrent cardiac failure after 4 to 24 months. Transplantation was performed in 6 patients, and one died while on the waiting list. Three patients died of noncardiac causes within a period of 4 months and 3 days after removal of the assist device. Stable cardiac recovery occurred in 13 patients (group B) for 3 to 49 months (mean, 23 months). At the time of implantation, there were no significant differences between the groups with regard to age, hemodynamics, left ventricular ejection fraction, left ventricular internal diameter in diastole, and autoantibody levels. The increase of ejection fraction and the decrease of left ventricular internal diameter in diastole after 2 months were highly significant. The patients in group A had longer histories of heart failure and first cardiac symptoms and duration of assist when compared with group B. Group B demonstrated a quicker cardiac recovery on the assist device, and thus support was shorter. Also, the degree of recovery at assist device explantation was more complete in group B. The age at the time of device placement was the only influencing factor for duration on the assist device. The probability of recurrence of heart failure was influenced by the duration of heart failure.

CONCLUSIONS
In selected patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, lasting recovery can be achieved after unloading with a left ventricular assist device. Lasting cardiac recovery seems to be related to functional normalization and a more rapid recovery during the unloading period.


Atherosclerosis has been recognized as an inflammatory disease of the arterial wall. On the other hand, several studies in humans have linked Fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) to coronary artery disease and its risk factors. In the literature, many experimental studies have provided strong evidence for the importance of FABP4 in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. In a recent work, we proposed a potential role of FABP4 by inflammatory proteins in the generation of the atherosclerotic lesions. In conclusion, many results indicate that FABP4 is a key factor connecting vascular and cellular lipid accumulation to inflammation.


Risk assessment and the knowledge provided through this process is a crucial part of any decision-making process in the management of risks and uncertainties. Failure in assessment of risks can cause inadequacy in the entire process of risk management, which in turn can lead to failure in achieving organisational objectives as well as having significant damaging consequences on populations affected by the potential risks being assessed. The choice of tools and techniques in risk assessment can influence the degree and scope of decision-making and subsequently the risk response strategy. There are various available qualitative and quantitative tools and techniques that are deployed within the broad process of risk assessment. The sheer diversity of tools and techniques available to practitioners makes it difficult for organisations to consistently employ the most appropriate methods. This tools and techniques adaptation is rendered more difficult in public risk regulation organisations due to the sensitive and complex nature of their activities. This is particularly the case in areas relating to the environment, food, and human health and safety, when organisational goals are tied up with societal, political and individuals' goals at national and international levels. Hence, recognising, analysing and evaluating different decision support tools and techniques employed in assessing risks in public risk management organisations was considered. This research is part of a mixed method study which aimed to examine the perception of risk assessment and the extent to which organisations practise risk assessment' tools and techniques. The study adopted a semi-structured questionnaire with qualitative and quantitative data analysis to include a range of public risk regulation organisations from the UK, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The results indicated the public risk management organisations mainly use diverse tools and techniques in the risk assessment process. The primary hazard analysis; brainstorming; hazard analysis and critical control points were described as the most practiced risk identification techniques. Within qualitative and quantitative risk analysis, the participants named the expert judgement, risk probability and impact assessment, sensitivity analysis and data gathering and representation as the most practised techniques. Keywords—Decision-making, public risk management organisations, risk assessment, tools and techniques. Atousa Khodadadyan is with the Institute for Risk and Uncertainty and the Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool, UK (e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com). Gabe Mythen (Professor) is with the Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool, UK (phone: 0044-1517943011; fax: 0044-151-7942997; e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com). Hirbod Assa (Dr) is with the Institute for Financial and Actuarial Mathematics, University of Liverpool, UK (phone: 0044-151-7944367; email: email@example.com). Beverley Bishop (Dr) is with the Health and Safety Executive, UK (e-mail: email@example.com).


The design rules used to design CP systems in the main do not take into account the interference between the anodes provided to protect a structure or interactions between the structures themselves. CP systems will always interact with each other to some extent when they are in the same electrolyte even when there is no metallic electrical connection and this can radically affect the protection provided to the structure and the life of the CP system. A case study is presented involving the design of the CP system of an FPSO (Floating production storage and offloading vessel). The aim of the study was to verify the performance of the CP system to ensure that the structure was protected for the design life and the anodes had sufficient capacity. Computer modelling was used to simulate the performance of the CP system which comprised of an ICCP system and sacrificial anodes. The study identified some interesting and unexpected interactions which required the design of the CP system to be modified.


1 Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC 2 Division of Geology, National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC 3 Department of Earth Sciences, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC * Corresponding author address: Prof. Chang-Feng Dai, Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC; E-mail: email@example.com Abrupt facies changes from the underlying terrigenous mudstone of deep-water facies upward into reefal limestones were observed on Pleistocene scleractinian reefs in southwestern Taiwan. To reveal the initial mechanisms of reef development, we examined the lithologies and vertical facies changes of 7 outcrops and 37 borehole cores from the Takangshan Reef and performed petrographic and isotopic studies. Various occurrences of dolomitic mudstone were observed from 6 outcrops and in 11 borehole cores, containing massive dolomitic mudstones, carbonate pipes, dolomitic cobbles, and dolomitic pebbles. The δC values of 27 samples ranged from -53.7 0 00 to -10.4 0 00 , indicating that the carbonate cements of these mudstones were all cold-seep carbonates in origin. The majority of the coldseep carbonates and a funnel-shaped structure packed with dolomitic cobbles were precipitated and formed within fine-grained siliciclastic mudstones. The wide occurrence of seep carbonates in the study area suggests hydrocarbon seepage having occurred extensively. The compact nature and associated large lucinid bivalves in massive cold-seep carbonates further indicate a pronounced, long-lasting seepage of methane occurring antecedently to the development of Takangshan Reef. A schematic model was proposed to illustrate the occurrence of various associations of lithologies and lithofacies. The erosional surfaces on siliciclastic mudstones and the funnel-shaped structure, as well as the exhuming of massive cold-seep carbonates may have occurred concurrently during a tectonically unstable time in SW Taiwan. The deposition of fossiliferous mudstone interfingered TAO, Vol. 17, No. 2, June 2006 406 with the conglomerate lithofacies represents a rapid facies transition from a siliciclastic (non-carbonate) to a carbonate environment. The root of this rapid facies change is presumed to be tectonic movement, probably related to the westward thrust migration in the Pleistocene foreland basin. The exposed massive seep carbonates provided a substrate for the encrustations of corals as well as coralline algae and might have played a crucial role in the initial development of coral reefs in a siliciclastic paleoenvironment. To our best knowledge, this is the first case in the world of cold-seep carbonates acting as an initial colonization hardground for hermatypic corals and corallines. (


The circulation in the interior of the Bay of Bengal and of its western boundary current, the East Indian Coastal Current, is inferred from historical ship drift data and from TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter data. The boundary current shows a strong seasonal variability with reversals twice per year that lead the reversal of the local monsoon wind field by several months. On the basis of model simulations it has been suggested that this unusual behavior can be explained by the influence of remotely forced planetary waves. Our data analysis confirms and refines this view by showing the role of topography in the northern bay. We also give an estimate of the relative importance of the different contributions.


Tracking the coordinated activity of cellular events through volumes of intact tissue is a major challenge in biology that has inspired significant technological innovation. Yet scanless measurement of the high-speed activity of individual neurons across three dimensions in scattering mammalian tissue remains an open problem. Here we develop and validate a computational imaging approach (SWIFT) that integrates high-dimensional, structured statistics with light field microscopy to allow the synchronous acquisition of single-neuron resolution activity throughout intact tissue volumes as fast as a camera can capture images (currently up to 100 Hz at full camera resolution), attaining rates needed to keep pace with emerging fast calcium and voltage sensors. We demonstrate that this large field-of-view, single-snapshot volume acquisition method—which requires only a simple and inexpensive modification to a standard fluorescence microscope—enables scanless capture of coordinated activity patterns throughout mammalian neural volumes. Further, the volumetric nature of SWIFT also allows fast in vivo imaging, motion correction, and cell identification throughout curved subcortical structures like the dorsal hippocampus, where cellular-resolution dynamics spanning hippocampal subfields can be simultaneously observed during a virtual context learning task in a behaving animal. SWIFT's ability to rapidly and easily record from volumes of many cells across layers opens the door to widespread identification of dynamical motifs and timing dependencies among coordinated cell assemblies during adaptive, modulated, or maladaptive physiological processes in neural systems.


An object $X$ of a category $mathbf{C}$ with finite limits is called exponentiable if the functor $-times X:mathbf{C}rightarrow mathbf{C}$ has a right adjoint. There are many characterizations of the exponentiable  spaces in the category $mathbf{Top}$ of topological spaces. Here, we study the exponentiable objects in the category $mathbf{STop}$ of soft topological spaces which is a generalization of the category  $mathbf{Top}$. We investigate  the exponentiability problem and give a characterization of exponentiable soft spaces. Also wegive the definition of exponential topology on the lattice of soft open sets of a soft space and present some characterizations of it.


ABSTRACT Several studies document that skills are strong predictors of earnings; however, less is known about the extent to which labour market size influences the return to skills. Using data from a unique representative survey recording the skill requirements of Hungarian firms, we show that social skills have higher returns in large urban labour markets. Surprisingly, this pattern cannot be observed for cognitive skills, while the return to manual skills slightly decreases with labour market size. Our estimates are robust to different agglomeration measures, additional controls and estimation methods; however, returns to skills seem to vary considerably across worker groups.


In this article we analyze the expected effects of regulatory overlap in European competition law resulting from Regulation 1/2003. Drawing upon recently developed economic theories of regulatory competition, our model foresees a number of qualitative adjustments resulting from this reform. On one hand, the direct applicability of the exemption provision should increase the overall amount of exemptions. On the other hand, a decentralized system permits private litigants' forum shopping, and parallel enforcement by multiple national competition authorities will drive up the number of infringement findings. Although the precise direction of substantive competition law is unclear, the overall effect is higher levels of regulatory activity. This entails not only greater administrative costs but also suggests increased transaction costs for doing business in the post-Regulation 1/2003 European Union.


Joints are used extensively in connected structures which are part of machine systems. Joints introduce discontinuity in structures which not only disturb the energy flow but are also possible locations of failure. Thus it is necessary to characterize the joints to determine their rigidity. A joint can be characterized in terms of the energy reflection coefficient and impedance. This study presents both analytical and experimental work on vibration characterization of joints. The analytical work is based on both classical and finite‐element methods. The experimental work is based on the two sensor method for impedance measurements. The vibration behavior of a joint is studied in terms of reflection coefficient and impedance. The joints considered are bolted joints in specimen structures such as cantilever beams. Good results are obtained which supports the application of such studies in design and diagnostics of structural joints. [Work supported by Daewoo Motor Company, Seoul, Korea.]


The first congregation was formed in Jerusalem, giving rise to faith communities throughout the New Testament. In the ensuing two millennia, congregations are found worldwide. The aim of this article is to describe congregations and the study of congregations from a practical theological perspective. An introduction to the study field of congregations is followed by a description of the development of the study field of congregational studies from the perspective of four countries, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and South Africa. The aim is not to give a comprehensive historical overview of the discipline, but to trace some trends that have an influence on the discipline within the South African context. The second part of the article describes the exploration of congregations from a practical theological ecclesiology (the identity, mission and ministry of the congregation) and an analytical perspective (external interaction between congregation and community, and the internal life of the congregation). A practical theological ecclesiology and an analytical framework should interact critically with each other.


Objective: To describe the presenting problems for paediatric dogs and cats presented to emergency clinics, and to determine what factors influence mortality. Background: There is a lack of published literature available on canine and feline paediatric emergencies, their survival rates and factors that contribute to mortality. Experience and opinion largely replace evidence-based medicine when treating this subset of the emergency population. Evidentiary value: Evidentiary value for primary and emergency care practitioners is strong as the data is based on a large primary emergency care database. The paediatric population analysed consisted of 3142 paediatric canine and feline patients. Methods: A retrospective review of canine and feline emergency admissions to emergency out-of-hours clinics (May 2012-January 2014) was conducted. Data recorded included age, nature of complaint, euthanasia/death during treatment, and survival to discharge. Survival to discharge included all patients who presented to the clinic for examination, received treatment and were subsequently discharged; this includes those patients who were discharged  home or to their primary vets care. Patients were divided into four groups: canine patients ≤ 3 months of age and 3-6 months and feline patients ≤ 3 months of age and 3-6 months. Results: Paediatric patients represented around 3% of the emergency cases identified in the database. Survival to discharge in patients ≤3 months of age was significantly reduced in comparison to patients between 3-6 months of age, in both species. Feline paediatric patients had reduced survival to discharge compared to their canine counterparts. Conclusion: Paediatric patients have a low survival rate, indiscriminate of species and reason for presentation, with lower survival in younger animals; with a significant difference in survival between canine and feline patients. Application: The results of this study are important to small animal veterinarians in both emergency and non-emergency practice.


The Star Trek series has inspired not only armchair fans, but also the researchers who are trying to better the human race, developing the devices of the future, and struggling to conquer space travel. The Star Trek series was also the inspiration for this book, which examines the artificial intelligences portrayed in the shows. The question we'll be asking throughout this book is, 'How do we get from where we are now to the point where we are able to create truly exceptional artificial beings such as Holodeck characters, Lieutenant Commander Data, and the Emergency Medical Hologram?' In order to answer this, we'll examine where we are right now and extrapolate where we are heading. Throughout the book a passion for Star Trek is integrated with academic research from the AI, A-Life, and Robotics domains, which are presented in an easy to understand way-- bypassing the technobabble and mind-blowing mathematics. The book examines the characteristics and capabilities of Star Trek's artificial life forms and compares them with current technologies in an attempt to predict if we'll ever create such advanced beings. It is written to provide both the serious Trekker and the occasional voyeur with a handbook of the current techniques and devices available in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics, and artificial life. It examines the development of artificial life forms such as Data and the EMH from the bottom up, including their physical creation programming, and metaphysical aspects such as personality and emotions to determine if such beings might some day be a reality.
CONTENTS: Preface Introduction Part I Body Chapter 1 Positrons, Neurons, and the Android Brain Chapter 2 Physical Beings Chapter 3 Holographic Beings Chapter 4 Sensing the Environment Part II Mind Chapter 5 Presence of Mind Chapter 6 Representing and Storing Knowledge Chapter 7 Thinking and Reasoning Chapter 8 Beyond Their Original Programming Part III Soul Chapter 9 Imagination and Creativity Chapter 10 Humor Chapter 11 Emotions Chapter 12 How to Make Friends and Influence Humans Epilogue Chapter 13 Intelligence and Fooling the Turing Testers Chapter 14 Future's End (VOY#150,151)


When it comes down to family business, it talks about the next gen eration in the family. The point ofafamily business is the first generation inherit the business to the second generation and so on. The challange that awaits when we inherited afamily business is how to keep it sustain able, consistent, and survive in the business comp etitive environment. Each business system that used in the company has its own pros and cons. Using family business system definitely has its positive and negativ e side, there are advantages and disadvantages. The first and definite advantage is f amily, trusting our own f amily to handle the business. If it is inherited to the next generation, especially those who is related as fath er/mother son/daughter, has the more chance ofsuccess because the next generation also inherited their parents skills. The disadvantage is to face the challange as mentioned above. How is the next generation going to manage the business? Are they going to make an innovation? This is the big question, often asked to the next generation. Family business is very interesting, it has a p oint that don't get on any other business. What makes it interesting is the chllange that is being f aced by the next generation, how they manage the business, keep it sutainable, consistent, and survive.


This article uses British diver and homosexual celebrity Tom Daley as a case study to examine instances of homosexual stereotyping on LGBT internet forum the DataLounge. Through textual analysis, I consider the anonymous discourse relating to Daley in terms of its representational implications. Of interest is how Daley is constructed through this discourse and what such constructions have to tell us about views on homosexuality and a particular well-known homosexual subject. I argue that Daley is objectified and aligned with certain stereotypes within this dedicated homosexual forum via the anonymous comments made about his profession, his body and mannerisms, and his personal life. I nominate certain 'themes' to make sense of this discourse, namely: the 'dancer body', the bottom, the slut, and the daddy's boy. In addition to offering insight into how a particular homosexual celebrity is constructed through discourse by his own community, these themes also point to the pressures gay men feel to conform to 'ideals', and the consequences of nonconformity, of being a 'failed representation' (also known as a 'stereotype').


This study determined the efficacy of a combination of aglepristone and cabergoline on termination of mid-term cat pregnancies. Twenty cats with unwanted pregnancies between 30-40 days were included in the study. Aglepristone (10 mg/kg, sc) was given to the AGL group (n=6) twice in a 24-h interval. Cabergoline (5 μg/kg, peros) was administered to the CBG group (n=7) once daily until abortion started or for 8 days. AGL+CBG (n=7) received a combined treatment with both drugs. Abortion occurred in 50% of cats in the AGL group, 71.4% in the CBG group, and 100% in the AGL+CBG. However, the completion of pregnancy termination rate was 85.7% because of fetal retention in one cat from the AGL+CBG group. The interval between treatment-start of abortion (T-SA) was shorter in the AGL+CBG group (3.6±0.3 days) than in the AGL (6.5±0.0) and CBG (6.2±0.2) groups (P<0.01). Similarly, the interval between treatment-end of abortion (T-EA) was shorter in the combined group (4.3±0.5 days) than the others (7.3±0.3 and 6.9±0.9 days, respectively) (P<0.01). Decreasing in progesterone concentration was non-significant in the AGL group from the start of treatment to abortion completion day (dA/d8), but significant in the others (P<0.001). On dA/d8, it was significantly lower in the CBG group (P<0.01) and combined group (P<0.01) than in the AGL group. Only slight diarrhea was observed in 15.4% of the AGL+CBG group. In conclusion, the AGL+CBG combination increased the rate of abortion induction and significantly shortened T-SA and T-EA with negligible side effects.


In this paper, we propose and experiment a probabilistic approach to document classification. We consider the problem of automatically assigning a new article to a Usenet newsgroup. To model a newsgroup, we build a probabilistic language model which is supposed to generate articles for this newsgroup. When a new article is presented, we use a Maximum A Posteriori rule to decide if the message was generated by this newsgroup or not. We evaluate this approach and compare it to a classification based on keywords. On these cases, the probabilistic approach gives better recall and precision indicators. The paper is structured as follows: we first present the problem of document classification in general terms. We then describe our application to newsgroup classification and present the data that we are using. We present first results for a classification based on keyword selection. Finally, we describe the probabilistic formulation of the problem, experiment this approach on the same data and compare the results.


Background: Fertility preservation is important for women of reproductive age with cervical cancer. The underlying reasons behind suboptimal reproductive results after successful fertility-preserving surgery have not yet been fully revealed. Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the experience of fertility preservation with radical trachelectomy from the perspective of women with cervical cancer. Methods: We conducted interviews with women with cervical cancer who underwent radical trachelectomy using a Grounded Theory methodology with a theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism. Results: Our findings articulate a process in which feminine identity is first threatened by a diagnosis of cancer, then repaired by fertility preservation with radical trachelectomy, and finally reconstructed after the surgery, through interactions with self, others, and external events in women with cervical cancer. Feeling incomplete as a woman because of the loss of the uterus was a critical factor in the women's feeling that their feminine identity was threatened. Thus, fertility preservation was significant for these women. The meaning of fertility preservation varied among the women, and their life perspectives were therefore distinct after the surgery. Conclusions: Women with cervical cancer who undergo radical trachelectomy experience an identity transformation process, and child bearing is not the only expected outcome of fertility preservation. Implications for Practice: Nurses should coordinate care through the cancer trajectory. Understanding the identity transformation process helps nurses to assess patients' needs and provide appropriate individual care.


Title of Dissertation: Effects of Model Selection on the Coverage Probability of Confidence Intervals in Binary-Response Logistic Regression Dongquan Zhang, Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Dissertation Directed by: Professor C. Mitchell Dayton Department of Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation While model selection is viewed as a fundamental task in data analysis, it imposes considerable effects on the subsequent inference. In applied statistics, it is common to carry out a data-driven approach in model selection and draw inference conditional on the selected model, as if it is given a priori. Parameter estimates following this procedure, however, generally do not reflect uncertainty about the model structure. As far as confidence intervals are concerned, it is often misleading to report estimates based upon conventional 1 α − without considering possible post-model-selection impact. This paper addresses the coverage probability of confidence intervals of logit coefficients in binaryresponse logistic regression. We conduct simulation studies to examine the performance of automatic model selectors AIC and BIC, and their subsequent effects on actual coverage probability of interval estimates. Important considerations (e.g. model structure, covariate correlation, etc.) that may have key influence are investigated. This study contributes in terms of understanding quantitatively how the post-model-selection confidence intervals perform in terms of coverage in binary-response logistic regression models. A major conclusion was that while it is usually below the nominal level, there is no simple predictable pattern with regard to how and how far the actual coverage probability of confidence intervals may fall. The coverage probability varies given the effects of multiple factors: (1) While the model structure always plays a role of paramount importance, the covariate correlation significantly affects the interval's coverage, with the tendency that a higher correlation indicates a lower coverage probability. (2) No evidence shows that AIC inevitably outperforms BIC in terms of achieving higher coverage probability, or vice versa. The model selector's performance is dependent upon the uncertain model structure and/or the unknown parameter vector θ . (3) While the effect of sample size is intriguing, a larger sample size does not necessarily achieve asymptotically more accurate inference on interval estimates. (4) Although the binary threshold of the logistic model may affect the coverage probability, such effect is less important. It is more likely to become substantial with an unrestricted model when extreme values along the dimensions of other factors (e.g. small sample size, high covariate correlation) are observed. EFFECTS OF MODEL SELECTION ON THE COVERAGE PROBABILITY OF CONFIDENCE INTERVALS IN BINARY-RESPONSE LOGISTIC REGRESSION