Most of colorectal adenocarcinomas are believed to arise from adenomas, which are premalignant lesions. Sequencing the whole exome of the adenoma will help identifying molecular biomarkers that can predict the occurrence of adenocarcinoma more precisely and help understanding the molecular pathways underlying the initial stage of colorectal tumorigenesis. We performed the exome capture sequencing of the normal mucosa, adenoma and adenocarcinoma tissues from the same patient and sequenced the identified mutations in additional 73 adenomas and 288 adenocarcinomas. Somatic single nucleotide variations (SNVs) were identified in both the adenoma and adenocarcinoma by comparing with the normal control from the same patient. We identified 12 nonsynonymous somatic SNVs in the adenoma and 42 nonsynonymous somatic SNVs in the adenocarcinoma. Most of these mutations including OR6X1, SLC15A3, KRTHB4, RBFOX1, LAMA3, CDH20, BIRC6, NMBR, GLCCI1, EFR3A, and FTHL17 were newly reported in colorectal adenomas. Functional annotation of these mutated genes showed that multiple cellular pathways including Wnt, cell adhesion and ubiquitin mediated proteolysis pathways were altered genetically in the adenoma and that the genetic alterations in the same pathways persist in the adenocarcinoma. CDH20 and LAMA3 were mutated in the adenoma while NRXN3 and COL4A6 were mutated in the adenocarcinoma from the same patient, suggesting for the first time that genetic alterations in the cell adhesion pathway occur as early as in the adenoma. Thus, the comparison of genomic mutations between adenoma and adenocarcinoma provides us a new insight into the molecular events governing the early step of colorectal tumorigenesis.


A large fraction of major intracontinental strike-slip faults, defined here as those slipping at rates of ∼10 mm/yr or more, lie adjacent to relatively strong regions, such as oceanic lithosphere or Precambrian shields. We suggest that such faults form adjacent to discontinuities in strength, because strain in a continuous medium must concentrate near such strong objects. Concentration in strain is enhanced in deforming continua where viscosity is non-Newtonian, and hence where strain rates vary with deviatoric stress raised to a power greater than one, as is the case for rock-forming minerals at low temperatures characteristic of the lithosphere. Conversely, in regions where deformation is spread over a wide region, such as in the Basin and Range Province of the western United States or in the high interior of the Tibetan Plateau, the absence of strong objects may allow deformation to be diffuse without the development of rapidly slipping faults.


Visual systems transduce, process and transmit light-dependent environmental cues. Computation of visual features depends on the types of photoreceptor neurons (PR) present, the organization of the eye and the wiring of the underlying neural circuit. Here, we describe the circuit architecture of the visual system of Drosophila larvae by mapping the synaptic wiring diagram and neurotransmitters. By contacting different targets, the two larval PR-subtypes create parallel circuits potentially underlying the computation of absolute light intensity and temporal light changes already within this first visual processing center. Locally processed visual information then signals via dedicated projection interneurons to higher brain areas including the lateral horn and mushroom body. The stratified structure of the LON suggests common organizational principles with the adult fly and vertebrate visual systems. The complete synaptic wiring diagram of the LON paves the way to understanding how circuits with reduced numerical complexity control wide ranges of behaviors.


Author(s): Eidsheim, Nina Sun | Abstract: In The Race of Sound Nina Sun Eidsheim traces the ways in which sonic attributes that might seem natural, such as the voice and its qualities, are socially produced. Eidsheim illustrates how listeners measure race through sound and locate racial subjectivities in vocal timbre—the color or tone of a voice. Eidsheim examines singers Marian Anderson, Billie Holiday, and Jimmy Scott as well as the vocal synthesis technology Vocaloid to show how listeners carry a series of assumptions about the nature of the voice and to whom it belongs. Outlining how the voice is linked to ideas of racial essentialism and authenticity, Eidsheim untangles the relationship between race, gender, vocal technique, and timbre while addressing an undertheorized space of racial and ethnic performance. In so doing, she advances our knowledge of the cultural-historical formation of the timbral politics of difference and the ways that comprehending voice remains central to understanding human experience, all the while advocating for a form of listening that would allow us to hear singers in a self-reflexive, denaturalized way.


Between the ninth and thirteenth centuries the Western world witnessed a glorious flowering of the pictorial arts. In this lavishly illustrated book, C.R. Dodwell provides a comprehensive guide to all forms of this art-from wall and panel paintings to stained glass windows, mosaics, and embroidery-and sets them against the historical and theological influences of the age. Dodwell describes the rise and development of some of the great styles of the Middle Ages: Carolingian art, which ranged from the splendid illuminations appropriate to an emperor's court to drawings of great delicacy; Anglo-Saxon art, which had a rare vitality and finesse; Ottonian art with its political and spiritual messages; the colorful Mozarabic art of Spain, which had added vigor through its interaction with the barbaric Visigoths; and the art of Italy, influenced by the styles of Byzantium and the West. Dodwell concludes with an examination of the universal Romanesque style of the twelfth century that extended from the Scandinavian countries in the north to Jerusalem in the south. His book-which includes the first exhaustive discussion of the painters and craftsmen of the time, incorporates the latest research, and is filled with new ideas about the relations among the arts, history, and theology of the period-will be an invaluable resource for both art historians and students of the Middle Ages.


The aim of this paper is to empirically investigate the relationship between exchange-rate regime and economic growth, building on underlying theoretical examination and shortcomings of empirical literature. Channels through which regime might influence growth could be distinguished at: i) level of uncertainty imposed by certain regime, which than affects trading and investment decisions; ii) regime as shock absorber; iii) its linkage to productivity growth, which usually interferes with financial development. Empirical research offers divergent result though and is criticized because of: measurement error in regimes' classification; appropriateness of growth framework; endogeneity of exchange-rate regime and/or other regressors; Lucas critique; sample-selection bias and survivor bias. Applying dynamic system-GMM panel estimation on 169 countries over the period 1976-2006 and addressing all shortcoming of the empirical literature, this paper finds that the exchange-rate regime is not statistically significant in explaining growth. The conclusion is robust to dividing the sample on developing versus advanced countries and considering two sub-periods. In all specifications, the exchange-rate regime does not even approach conventional significance levels. Observation de-facto versus de-jure regime matters neither. No empirical grounds were established that coefficients in the regression suffer the Lucas critique. Hence, the main conclusion is that, as nominal variable, the exchange rate regime does not have explanatory power over growth.


This thesis presents the design and testing of a micro-objective lens for a miniature endoscopic confocal microscope. The advance of confocal endo-microscopy for in-situ imaging can lead to considerable improvements in inspection, analysis, and diagnosis, especially in the biomedical field. The dimensions of the objective lens developed are 4.0 mm long and 2.0 mm in diameter incorporated into a probe that is 2.0 mm in diameter and 10.0 mm long. The size of the probe will allow it to be inserted in some of the smallest channels in an endoscope. The objective lens features a 0.33 numerical aperture, a 4x magnification, and 200 μm field of view and a sub-micron spot size. The optical system is compensated at two wavelengths, 488 nm and 515 nm. Chromatic and spherical aberrations are minimized through the use of 3 refractive planoconvex elements and an 8-level fused silica diffractive optical element. Details of the lens design, its simulation using computer ray tracing software, fabrication of the diffractive optical element and experimental characterization of the assembly are presented.


While romantic letters are usually understood as unstudied and natural expressions of heartfelt love, I argue they are learned through genre instruction and crafted through rhetorical practice. In the nineteenth-century United States, manuals taught generic conventions for epistolary address, pacing of exchange, and rhetorical purpose, embedding within this instruction a heteronormative conception of romantic relations. Yet these same conventions were susceptible to queer adaptation, particularly in the epistolary practices of writers composing same-sex relations. Addie Brown and Rebecca Primus were African American women who learned but reinvented the conventions by negotiating category-crossing forms of address, timing exchange with urgency rather than restraint, and repurposing the romantic letter to erotic and even political ends. Analyzing Brown and Primus's letters alongside manuals thus underscores the dynamic ways both instruction and practice shape romantic letters and life.


Nanopores have been shown to be a useful analytical tool for single molecule detection. They have been used to study the composition of DNA and other molecules of interest. These pores are usually α-hemolysin which is a toxin from Staphylococcus aureus or more recently nanoscale synthetic solid state pores. Now we are beginning to look at other molecules or proteins by sending them into the nanopores and measuring a characteristic partial current blockade. In this thesis we look at polyethylene glycol (PEG) as it enters and blocks current through a single alpha hemolysin pore. We report the effects of ionic strength, PEG size, and applied voltage on the depth and duration of the current blockades. We also apply autocorrelation analysis on the arrival times of PEG molecules to the pore see if we can identify if the PEG is translocating through the pore or escaping from the same side it enters. This suggests a new approach to current blockade analysis.


Ecological impacts from roads may be the rule rather than the exception in most of the conterminous United States. We measured the proportion of land area that was located within nine distances from the nearest road of any type, and mapped the results for 164 ecoregions and 2108 watersheds nationwide. Overall, 20% of the total land area was within 127 m of a road, and the proportion increased rapidly with distance, so that 83% was within 1061 m of a road, and only 3% was more than 5176 m away. For forest land area only, the proportions differed by less than 2% for all distances. Regions with more than 60% of their total land area within 382 m of a road may be at greatest risk of cumulative ecological impacts from roads. These regions include nearly all coastal zones, as well as substantial portions of the southeast US and the basins of the Ohio, Brazos, Colorado, Sacramento, and San Joaquin Rivers.


One of the most famous books ever written about a man's search for faith and peace. The Seven Storey Mountain tells of the growing restlessness of a brilliant and passionate young man, who at the age of twenty-six, takes vows in one of the most demanding Catholic orders--the Trappist monks. At the Abbey of Gethsemani, "the four walls of my new freedom," Thomas Merton struggles to withdraw from the world, but only after he has fully immersed himself in it. At the abbey, he wrote this extraordinary testament, a unique spiritual autobiography that has been recognized as one of the most influential religious works of our time. Translated into more than twenty languages, it has touched millions of lives.


In this paper, I investigate the interactions between foreign exchange policy, monetary policy, and developments in Korean capital markets. A large increase in Korea's external position, combined with a relatively inflexible exchange rate, led to very large potential increases in money growth between 1986 and 1989. The sterilization of the foreign exchange intervention required an unprecedented monetary tightening on other fronts--a tightening that could have created serious distortions in the financial markets had direct credit controls been utilized. Consequently, the use of open market operations, rediscount policy, and reserve requirements was expanded and adapted to be more responsive to other market rates. ; In addition to its sterilization efforts in 1986-89, the Korean government allowed the won to appreciate against the dollar and liberalized some capital outflows, thereby reducing the external pressure for money growth. Additionally, in March 1990, the government introduced a more flexible exchange rate system that will help reduce future external pressure on the money supply. However, because daily changes in spot rates are currently limited, pressure on the money stock may occur again if market pressures for exchange rate changes exceed the allowed bands.


On 14 July 2006 the Full Federal Court declared that Humane Society International ('HSI') could commence proceedings against Japanese whalers for alleged violations of the Australian Whale Sanctuary in Antarctica. 1 The decision was a significant victory for the public interest organisation, which had originally been denied leave to serve originating process on the Japanese defendant on the grounds that the action could be contrary to Australia's national interests. 2 In its amended statement of claim3 HSI alleged that between February 2001 and March 2005, the respondent Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd ('Kyodo') had unlawfully killed or interfered with around 385 Antarctic Minke whales in the Australian Whale Sanctuary located off the coast of the Australian Antarctic Territory ('AAT'). HSI also gave particulars of a permit issued to Kyodo by the Japanese Government for an ongoing whale research program. This permit indicated that the killing of whales would continue. This note briefly examines the background to the litigation. It then goes on to consider the progress of the case through the Federal Court, highlighting the various factors that have attracted the Court's attention at each stage. It first considers the judgment of Allsop J, and his unusual invitation to the Australian Government to make submissions regarding aspects of the case. It then analyses the decision of the Appeal Court, concluding with a consideration of the case's broader Antarctic context and possible implications for environmental litigation more generally.


An increasing Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has resulted in morbidity and mortality from treatment failures and increased health care costs. Appropriate antimicrobial drug use has unquestionable benefit, but physicians and the public frequently use these agents inappropriately hence, it became necessary to perform the antimicrobial susceptibility test as a routine. The aim of antimicrobial susceptibility testing is to determine the lowest concentration of existing or even new antimicrobial agents which inhibits the visible growth of the bacterium being investigated, under certain test conditions. The Disk diffusion, well diffusion, stokes and gradient diffusion methods are manual methods that provide flexibility and possible cost savings. The most commonly used testing methods include broth microdilution method using commercially available 96-well micro dilution panel. Broth dilution, tube dilution and E test provide quantitative results (e.g. Minimal Inhibitory Concentration) whereas other methods provide qualitative results which are categorized as susceptible, intermediate or resistant. Although available testing methods provide accurate detection of common antimicrobial resistance mechanisms, emerging newer mechanisms of resistance certainly attracts researcher for the development of advanced, reproducible, automated and reliable antimicrobial testing methods.


In recent years drug abuse has been recognised as a growing problem in Northern Ireland. The following article examines the family backgrounds of a group of young children (n=388) who were looked-after by social services and looks specifically at a group (n=162) whose family lives have involved adults who misuse drugs. Children from drug-abusing families did not show greater levels of recorded abuse or neglect than the other children in this 'looked after' population, nor were they more likely to stay within the care system. However, the prevalence of heroin and cocaine use in this population was extremely small. Drug abuse in this population was found to be significantly associated with alcohol abuse, mental health problems and offending behaviour within the family. There was evidence of a reduction in drug abuse within families over a two year period of social work involvement.


This paper is concerned with the entropy of an action of a countable torsion-free abelian group G by continuous automorphisms of a compact abelian group X. A formula is obtained that expresses the entropy in terms of the Mahler measure of a greatest common divisor, complementing earlier work by Einsiedler, Lind, Schmidt and Ward. This leads to a uniform method for calculating entropy whenever G is free. In cases where these methods do not apply, a possible entropy formula is conjectured. The entropy of subactions is examined and, using a theorem of P. Samuel, it is shown that a mixing action of an infinitely generated group of finite rational rank cannot have a finitely generated subaction with finite non-zero entropy. Applications to the concept of entropy rank are also considered.


This document is an extension to STD35, RFC1006, a standard for the
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Extracts of wild berry fruits (Bilberry, Cranberry, Raspberry and Strawberry) were analysed using the near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). NIRS can be used quantitatively and qualitatively to detect, identify, and qualify raw materials like berry fruits and to control their quality. The spectra of fruit products were measured by diffuse trans-reflectance and raw spectra were used for chemometric analysis. The range of NIR used in this research was 904–1699 nm with the aim to use the potential of near-infrared spectroscopy to detect differences between berry-fruits themselves, differences between the sample based on the preparation procedure as well if it is possible to detect the staleness of the samples (fresh and one month old). NIR is a fast and non-destructive analytical method that in association with chemometric modelling becomes a powerful tool for application in food industry. The chemometric methods applied to the recorded NIR data were classification analysis based on principal component (PC) scores and partial last squared regression (PLSR) model. Analyses of the spectrums reveals changes in specific wavelengths of 904-1181 nm that are related to the 3rd CH overtone and 2nd overtone of the OH stretch of H2O as well as in the range of 14341635 nm which correspond to C–H combinations and the 1stovertone of the bonds. The simple PLS regression showed that the influence of the storage on the NIR spectra of samples is high (R2=0.79). This study showed that near infrared spectroscopy has potential to distinguish extracts based on unprocessed freshwild berry fruit extracts, sample preparation procedure and their quality decrease affected by the storage. All findings indicate the advisability of use of NIR for on-line monitoring of product quality and selection.


The global economy has grown rapidly over the past decade with a commensurate growth in the demand for electricity services that has increased a country's vulnerability to energy supply disruptions. Increasing need of reliable and affordable electricity supply is a challenge which is before every Asia Pacific Partnership (APP) country. Collaboration between APP members has been extremely fruitful in identifying potential efficiency upgrades and implementing clean technology in the supply side of the power sector as well established the beginnings of collaboration. However, significantly more effort needs to be focused on demand side potential in each country. Demand side management or DSM in this case is a policy measure that promotes energy efficiency as an alternative to increasing electricity supply. It uses financial or other incentives to slow demand growth on condition that the incremental cost needed is less than the cost of increasing supply. Such DSM measures provide an alternative to building power supply capacity The type of financial incentives comprise of rebates (subsidies), tax exemptions, reduced interest loans, etc. Other approaches include the utilization of a cap and trade scheme to foster energy efficiency projects by creating a market where savings are valued. Under this scheme, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the production of electricity are capped and electricity retailers are required to meet the target partially or entirely through energy efficiency activities. Implementation of DSM projects is very much in the early stages in several of the APP countries or localized to a regional part of the country. The purpose of this project is to review the different types of DSM programs experienced by APP countries and to estimate the overall future potential for cost-effective demand-side efficiency improvements in buildings sectors in the 7 APP countries through the year 2030. Overall, the savings potential is estimated to be 1.7 thousand TWh or 21percent of the 2030 projected base case electricity demand. Electricity savings potential ranges from a high of 38percent in India to a low of 9percent in Korea for the two sectors. Lighting, fans, and TV sets and lighting and refrigeration are the largest contributors to residential and commercial electricity savings respectively. This work presents a first estimates of the savings potential of DSM programs in APP countries. While the resulting estimates are based on detailed end-use data, it is worth keeping in mind that more work is needed to overcome limitation in data at this time of the project.


In automotive engineering, the main load bearing structure (Body-in-White, BIW) has traditionally been manufactured using metals such as steel and light alloys. In order to satisfy upcoming European regulations on CO2 emissions, considerable weight reduction is necessary and requires the extensive use of lightweight materials and technologies. The European project TECABS focuses on the development of technologies enabling the production of a BIW of an A00 VW-Lupo based on carbon reinforced composites on a production strategy of 50 units per day. Gathering 16 partners, the TECABS project aims at reducing the weight of a BIW by 50% (from 270 to 135kg) and the part count by 70% (from 230 to 70). Liquid Composite Moulding (LCM) is a potentially viable process for producing large 3D complex structures with appropriate production rates, using Non-Crimp Fabrics (NCFs) based on carbon fibres. This PhD work investigated this route, by comparing two LCM processes, one based on a thermoset matrix and one based on a reactive thermoplastic matrix. An analysis of the impregnation mechanisms was carried out. Although often neglected by many authors, capillary effects were found to play a role in the infiltration of the fluid into a porous bed. A method was developed to measure the capillary pressure drop during dynamic infiltration experiments. For the very low viscosity monomer (Lactam12 (LC12)), capillary effects showed negative capillary pressure drops (ΔPγ = -14kPa) leading to spontaneous wicking which could not be ignored when considering injection simulations. Epoxy resins, on the contrary, showed positive values of capillary pressure drop (ΔPγ = 14kPa), demonstrating a resistance to flow. When compared to typical injection pressure, the influence of the capillary effects was shown to be negligible for injection simulations. The influences of the fibre chemistry, of the fluid velocity and of the porous bed architecture were investigated. Each was shown to exert an influence and they were all in accordance with theoretical laws. NCFs were selected as being the reinforcement within the TECABS framework. They showed comparable draping behaviour with respect to woven fabrics, but with very large deformations, NCFs provided the best compromise. The energy required for draping NCF was mainly attributed to the friction occurring between fibres inside the fibre tow, whereas shear proved to be very advantageous. Equivalent locking angles for NCFs appeared at values in the range of 55-65°, being above the 40° found with woven fabrics. The influence of the stitching patterns was also investigated since several architectures were characterised. The process window of the thermoset epoxy resin was drawn using the determination of parameters such as gel points and degree of cure. The post-cure stage was also investigated and results showed that no specific heating ramp as suggested by supplier was required for pursuing the cure outside of the mould. As the low toughness of thermoset matrices is a drawback in using advanced composites in automotive industry, a study was carried out to propose a toughening of the matrix. The use of Hyperbranched Polymers (HBPs) proved to increase the toughness of the neat resin by a factor of 50%. This however was not observed with reinforced composites, since no improvement was measured. Adhesion when using HBPs proved to be a major issue, being responsible for the cohesion at the interface. The effect of the stitching was also investigated and underlined that through thickness reinforcement often presented in literature to improve delamination properties cannot be applied to the polyester stitches used in this work. Production of a demonstrator quarter floor-pan was achieved successfully in-house using thermoplastic RTM technologies. An aluminium mould was designed and manufactured in order to produce large 3D complex shapes by injecting into a reinforcing bed a low-viscosity monomer LC12 that polymerises in-situ. Short shot (incompletes) production proved the existence of capillary effects with the presence of large unsaturated regions at the flow front. Thermoplastic and thermoset RTM were finally compared on several grounds. The first one was the impregnation kinetics and part quality. Overall void content for both thermoset and thermoplastic processes were equal to 6.6%. Intra-bundle void content varied since 5% was measured with epoxy and less than 1% with LC12. The second ground was based on a cost analysis where the production of a full floor-pan was considered. Various production strategies were chosen and production curves could be established, allowing the selection of the most economic system in accordance with any production volume. Cost segmentation was carried out underlining the importance of the carbon fibre cost and NCFs manufacturing (up to 77% of total costs for thermoset components). This cost analysis demonstrated the viability of thermoplastic RTM with respect to traditional RTM, as long as the thermoplastic process can be brought to a more mature stage.


The Dbl homology (DH)-containing protein Vav acts as a guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) for the Rho family of guanine triphosphatases (GTPases), and, in vitro, Vav exhibits specific GEF activity toward Rac protein. Phosphorylation of Vav in response to B cell receptor or T cell receptor stimulation precedes Rac activation. Expression of NH2-terminal deletion (residues 1-182) mutants of Vav leads to chronically activated Vav and increased Rac activity. Phosphorylation of Tyr174 is important for activation of Vav, but until now, the mechanism by which Vav is activated has remained elusive. Aghazadeh et al. have used nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to solve the structure of the Vav DH domain in solution. By comparing the structure of the DH domain in the presence or absence of phosphate at Tyr174, the authors identified that, in the inactive state, Tyr174 resides in the Vav DH domain where it occludes Vav's ability to bind and to exchange nucleotides on Rac. Upon phosphorylation of Tyr174, an α helix that contains Tyr174 shifts away from the DH domain, allowing Vav to bind Rac and to exchange GDP for GTP, thus activating Rac. Within the context of the whole protein, it is suggested that the Vav pleckstrin homology (PH) domain lies juxtaposed to the Tyr174-occluded DH domain. Upon lipid binding by the Vav PH domain at the surface of a membrane, the Tyr174 residue becomes available for phosphorylation, leading to Vav activation. Thus, activation of Vav occurs in a multistep process whereby proper membrane localization of Vav leads to its activation. Aghazadeh, B., Lowry, W.E., Huang, X.-Y., and Rosen, M.K. (2000) Structural basis for relief of autoinhibition of the Dbl homology domain of proto-oncogene Vav by tyrosine phosphorylation. Cell 102: 625-633. [Online Journal]


Background: Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are a leading cause of disability and morbidity. There is an unmet need for a simple, practical, home method to detect DFUs early and remotely monitor their healing. Method: We developed a simple, inexpensive, smartphone-based, "Foot Selfie" system that enables patients to photograph the plantar surface of their feet without assistance and transmit images to a remote server. In a pilot study, patients from a limb-salvage clinic were asked to image their feet daily for six months and to evaluate the system by questionnaire at five time points. Transmitted results were reviewed weekly. Results: Fifteen patients (10 male) used the system after approximately 5 minutes of instruction. Participants uploaded images on a median of 76% of eligible study days. The system captured and transmitted diagnostic quality images of the entire plantar surface of both feet, permitting clinical-management decisions on a remote basis. We monitored 12 active wounds and 39 pre-ulcerative lesions (five wounds and 13 pre-ulcerative lesions at study outset); we observed healing of seven wounds and reversal of 20 pre-ulcerative lesions. Participants rated the system as useful, empowering, and preferable to their previous methods of foot screening. Conclusions: With minimal training, patients transmitted diagnostic-quality images from home on most days, allowing clinicians to review serial images. This system permits inexpensive home foot screening and monitoring of DFUs. Further studies are needed to determine whether it can reduce morbidity of DFUs and/or the associated cost of care. Artificial intelligence integration could improve scalability.


The Intelligent Monitoring Systern (IMS) currently provides for joint processing of data from six arrays located in Northern and Central Europe. From experience with analyst review of events automatically defined by the IMS, we bave realized that the quality of the automatic event locations can be significantly improved if the event intervals are reprocessed with signal processing pararneters tuned to phases from events in the given region. The tuned processing parameters are obtained from off line analysis of events located in the region of interest. The primary goal of such intelligent post processing is to provide event definitions of a quality that minimizes the need for subsequent manual analysis. The first step in this post processing is to subdivide the arca to be monitored in order to identify sites of interest. Clearly, calibration will be the easiest and potential savings in manpower are the largest for areas of high, recurring seismicity. We bave identified 8 mining sites in Fennoscandia/NW Russia and noted that 65.6% of the events of ML > 2.0 in this region can be associated with one of these sites. This result is based on 1 year and a half of data. The second step is to refine the phase arrival and azimuth estimates using frequency filters and processing parameters that are tuned to the initial event location provided by the IMS. In this study, we have analyzed a set of 52 mining explosions from the Khibiny Massif mining area in the Kola peninsula of Russia. Very accurate locations of these events bave been provided by the seismologists from the Kola Regional Seismology Centre. Using an autoregressive likelihood technique we have been able to estimate onset times to an accuracy (standard deviation) of about 0.05 s for P phases and 0.15 0.20 s for S phases. Using fixed frequency bands, azimuth can be estimated to an accuracy (one standard deviation) of 0.9 degrees for the ARCESS array and 3 4 degrees for the small array recently established near Apatity on the Kola peninsula. The third step in the post processing is a relocation of the event, using refined arrivai times and recomputed azimuths from broad band flk analysis. By introducing region specific travel time corrections, a median error of 1.4 km from the reported location has been obtained. This should be compared to the median error of 10.8 km for the automatie IMS processing for these events. This improvement in location accuracy clearly demonstrates the usefulness of the intelligent post processing approach.


This book offers the definitive guide to the theory and practice of disaster robotics. It can serve as an introduction for researchers and technologists, a reference for emergency managers, and a textbook in field robotics. Written by a pioneering researcher in the field who has herself participated in fifteen deployments of robots in disaster response and recovery, the book covers theory and practice, the history of the field, and specific missions. After a broad overview of rescue robotics in the context of emergency informatics, the book provides a chronological summary and formal analysis of the thirty-four documented deployments of robots to disasters that include the 2001 collapse of the World Trade Center, Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and numerous mining accidents. It then examines disaster robotics in the typical robot modalities of ground, air, and marine, addressing such topics as robot types, missions and tasks, and selection heuristics for each modality. Finally, the book discusses types of fieldwork, providing practical advice on matters that include collecting data and collaborating with emergency professionals. The field of disaster robotics has lacked a comprehensive overview. This book by a leader in the field, offering a unique combination of the theoretical and the practical, fills the gap.


Objectives:Standard sleep scoring criteria may be unreliable when applied to critically ill patients. We sought to quantify typical and atypical polysomnographic findings in critically ill patients and to begin development and reliability testing of methodology to characterize the atypical polysomnographic tracings that confound standard sleep scoring criteria. Design:Prospective convenience sample. Setting:Two academic, tertiary care medical centers. Patients:Thirty-seven critically ill, mechanically ventilated, medical ICU patients. Interventions:None. Measurements and Main Results:Mechanically ventilated subjects were monitored by continuous polysomnography. After noting frequent atypical polysomnographic findings (i.e., lack of stage N2 markers, the presence of polymorphic delta, burst suppression, or isoelectric electroencephalography), attempts to use standard sleep scoring criteria alone were abandoned. Atypical polysomnographic findings were characterized and used to develop a modified scoring system. Polysomnographic data were scored manually via this revised scoring scheme. Of 37 medical ICU patients enrolled, 36 experienced atypical sleep, which accounted for 85% of all recorded data, with 5.1% normal sleep and 9.4% wake. Coupling observed patient arousal levels with polysomnographic characteristics revealed that standard polysomnographic staging criteria did not reliably determine the presence or absence of sleep. Rapid eye movement occurred in only five patients (14%). The revised scoring system incorporating frequently seen atypical characteristics yielded very high interrater reliability (weighted &kgr; = 0.80; bootstrapped 95% CI, [0.48, 0.89]). Conclusions:Analysis of polysomnographic data revealed profound deficiencies in standard scoring criteria due to a predominance of atypical polysomnographic findings in ventilated patients. The revised scoring scheme proved reliable in sleep staging and may serve as a building block in future work.


Despite advances in ovarian cancer (OC) therapy, recurrent OC remains a poor-prognosis disease. Because of the close interaction between OC cells and the tumor microenvironment (TME), it is important to develop strategies that target tumor cells and engage components of the TME. A major obstacle in the development of OC therapies is the identification of targets with expression limited to tumor surface to avoid off-target interactions. The follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR) has selective expression on ovarian granulosa cells and is expressed on 50%–70% of serous OCs. We generated mAbs targeting the external domain of FSHR using in vivo–expressed FSHR vector. By high-throughput flow analysis, we identified multiple clones and downselected D2AP11, a potent FSHR surface–targeted mAb. D2AP11 identifies important OC cell lines derived from tumors with different mutations, including BRCA1/2, and lines resistant to a wide range of therapies. We used D2AP11 to develop a bispecific T cell engager. In vitro addition of PBMCs and T cells to D2AP11-TCE induced specific and potent killing of different genetic and immune escape OC lines, with EC50s in the ng/ml range, and attenuated tumor burden in OC-challenged mouse models. These studies demonstrate the potential utility of biologics targeting FSHR for OC and perhaps other FSHR-positive cancers.


Studying past changes in temperature and salinity of bottom water is of interest because they reflect not only regional expressions, but also global changes in heat flux and circulation patterns at depth. Here we present the results of sediments off Somalia to identify the water mass distribution present at the intermediate depths in the Arabian Sea for the past 31 kyr using paired Mg/Ca and d18O measurements of epi-benthic foraminifer Cibicidoides kullenbergi.
First, we calibrate Mg/Ca in C. kullenbergi and Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi with measured in situ bottom water and isotopic temperatures from core-tops along a depth transect off Somalia. We compare the new data with the published calibrations and discuss other potential effects (e.g., carbonate ion). Second, we investigate temperature and salinity changes from the coupled d18O and Mg/Ca records of C. kullenbergi for the past 31 kyr off Somalia at ~1580 m water depth. The results show that the glacial water mass at the intermediate depth was warmer and more saline compared to the present day. We suggest that this water mass is Glacial Arabian Sea Intermediate Water (GASIW) and bathed the slope at intermediate levels offshore Somalia during the last glacial. The GASIW is most likely to be originated in the northern Arabian Sea although a possible influence of glacial Red Sea water can not be excluded.


It may come as a surprise to some to be told that the modern digital computer is really quite old in concept, and the year 1984 will be celebrated as the 150th anniversary of the invention of the first computer the Analytical Engine of the Englishman Charles Babbage. One hundred and fifty years is really quite a long period of time in terms of modern science and industry and, at first glance, it seems unduly long for new concept to come into full fruition. Unfortunately, Charles Babbage was ahead of his time, and it took one hundred years of technical development, the impetus of the second World War and the perception of John Von Neumann to bring the computer into being. Now twenty years later and with several generations of computer behind us, we are in a position to make a somewhat more meaningful prognosis than appeared possible in, say 1948. We can only hope that we will not be as far off actuality as we believe George Orwell to be, or as far off in our time scale as were Charles Babbage and his almost equally famous interpreter, Lady Lovelace.


1. In groups of South African Bantu and Caucasian women aged 30–44 years, sub-divided into those having had (i) none to two or (ii) seven or more children, measurements of radiographs of the second metacarpal and of the humerus were made in respect of length, cortical thickness, cortical index, cortical area/total area, cross-sectional area index and cortical/surface area ratio. 2. In Bantu mothers of large compared with small families, there were no significant differences in the means of corresponding variables. This was also the case with the Caucasian mothers. Bantu mothers of large and small families had significantly lower mean values for most variables compared with those of Caucasian mothers of large and small families. In all four groups, ranges of measurements and indices were very wide. 3. It is questioned whether Bantu mothers accustomed to a low calcium intake and to numerous pregnancies and long lactations, suffer from calcium deficiency. The problem of whether the high recommended allowances of calcium during these periods confer a clinically detectable benefit requires re-examination.


Based on data of US-listed companies a relationship between potential indicators and company performance is to be found. To determine which variables are included in the final model, a selection process ("from general to specific") is started using the Akaike Information Criterion. A panel data analysis with fixed effect models yields the coefficients using ordinary least squares techniques. In addition, a specification test is conducted to decide whether a random effect or fixed effect model is used. Finally a binary logit model is introduced in order to predict whether each measure of firm performance will beat the average value for the firms in the market. In order to conduct statistical analysis financial data of 9,854 companies for the time period from 1986 to 2004 is obtained from the Compustat (S&P) database and hereof 1,672 audited companies are kept in the sample. Summarizing, the results indicate that companies with a low book-to-market ratio, an efficient working capital management, a small portion of liquidity, more equity and less debt, and high retained earnings for reinvesting purposes will have a better profitability performance measured by the return on investment. Further on companies with an unqualified auditor's opinion, less equity and more debt, few assets, and no retained earnings will have a better cash flow performance measured by cash dividends. Finally, companies with a low book-to-market ratio, efficient working capital, more equity and less debt, negative stock rating, few assets, high EBIT margin and high profitability will have a better market performance measured by the stock price. The results indicate that there exists a relationship between company performance and financial indicators as it was assumed in the hypothesis. Although some effects seem contrary and unreasonable (compared to previous studies) at least some of the indicators are explaining a company's performance quite well. (author's abstract)


I. INTRODUCTION In 1996, Pfizer, Inc. (Pfizer) distributed an unapproved antibiotic to patients in a field hospital in Kano, Nigeria. (1) Many children suffered and died as a result of this trial, and Pfizer has endured severe criticism for its failure to properly register its clinical trial. (2) Pfizer is not the only member of the international pharmaceutical industry that has gone overseas to test experimental drugs. (3) Other large pharmaceutical companies have also gone abroad in search of less stringent regulations and lower costs. (4) This desire among companies to avoid regulation and lower costs has contributed to the globalization of drug testing. (5) This Note explores the United Nation's ineffective regulation of international clinical trials with human subjects. (6) Part II of this Note traces the evolution of U.N. efforts to police international clinical trials, including the World Health Organization's (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP). (7) Part III discusses a Nigerian family's recent lawsuit against Pfizer and suggests that that suit is indicative of the failure of past regulatory efforts. (8) In light of Pfizer's conduct in Nigeria, Part IV analyzes the ICTRP's potential effect upon international clinical trials, specifically dealing with the issue of informed consent. (9) Part V concludes that the ICTRP will only minimally aid in preventing the abuse of human participants in international clinical trials. (10) II. HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW MONITORING CLINICAL TRIALS Pharmaceutical companies cannot market a drug without first providing documentation that the medication is proven effective and safe for human use. (11) Despite the regulations, the number of American pharmaceutical companies testing their products abroad on human subjects in clinical trials has surged in recent years. (12) The WHO defines a clinical trial as "any research study that prospectively assigns human participants ... to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes. Interventions include but are not restricted to drugs, cells and other biological products, surgical procedures, radiologic procedures, devices, behavioural treatments, process-of-care changes, preventive care, etc." (13) The pharmaceutical industry, and its supporters, advocate for international clinical trials to facilitate and speed the entry of drugs into the market, providing aid to individuals in developing nations. (14) Others claim that pharmaceutical companies treat human beings as guinea pigs and take advantage of those most in need. (15) A. The International Community's Effort to Promote Informed Consent Informed consent is one of the most fundamental aspects of an ethical clinical trial. (16) Informed consent requires researchers to adequately convey to participants the risks and benefits of the trial, their rights, and an opportunity to decide whether to participate. (17) The information communicated to the patient must fully contain the choices available to her, so that she may make a meaningful choice. (18) The international community first codified informed consent in 1949 with the creation of the Nuremberg Code. (19) The Code was a reaction to the Nazis' medical experimentation conducted during WWII. (20) It emphasized that knowing and voluntary consent must be a requirement in clinical studies, and highlighted that consent is only voluntary if the participants are able to consent, are free from coercion, and are capable of comprehending the potential risks and benefits involved. (21) With the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki, the World Medical Association built upon the concept of informed consent by suggesting that the subject's consent should be obtained in writing. (22) However, the Declaration did relax the standard by providing that therapeutic research does not require informed consent where the researcher believes that it is unnecessary or difficult to obtain. …


The survey of the mid-infrared sky by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) led to the discovery of extremely cold, low-mass brown dwarfs, classified as Y dwarfs, which extend the T class to lower temperatures. Twenty-four Y dwarfs are known at the time of writing. Here we present improved parallaxes for four of these, determined using Spitzer images. We give new photometry for four late-type T and three Y dwarfs and new spectra of three Y dwarfs, obtained at Gemini Observatory. We also present previously unpublished photometry taken from HST, ESO, Spitzer, and WISE archives of 11 late-type T and 9 Y dwarfs. The near-infrared data are put onto the same photometric system, forming a homogeneous data set for the coolest brown dwarfs. We compare recent models to our photometric and spectroscopic data set. We confirm that nonequilibrium atmospheric chemistry is important for these objects. Nonequilibrium cloud-free models reproduce well the near-infrared spectra and mid-infrared photometry for the warmer Y dwarfs with 425 ≤ Teff (K) ≤ 450. A small amount of cloud cover may improve the model fits in the near-infrared for the Y dwarfs with 325 ≤ Teff (K) ≤ 375. Neither cloudy nor cloud-free models reproduce the near-infrared photometry for the Teff = 250 K Y dwarf W0855. We use the mid-infrared region, where most of the flux originates, to constrain our models of W0855. We find that W0855 likely has a mass of 1.5–8 Jupiter masses and an age of 0.3–6 Gyr. The Y dwarfs with measured parallaxes are within 20 pc of the Sun and have tangential velocities typical of the thin disk. The metallicities and ages we derive for the sample are generally solar-like. We estimate that the known Y dwarfs are 3 to 20 Jupiter-mass objects with ages of 0.6–8.5 Gyr.


A dramatic increase in cover by woody vegetation has been observed in grasslands worldwide, due to independent and interacting global changes. In the C4-dominated mesic tallgrass prairie of North America, the most proximate factor driving this shift in growthform dominance is fire exclusion. In 2001, we reintroduced annual fire into a C4-dominated mesic grassland where it had been excluded for 10 y, and evaluated changes in stem density and ecophysiology of an increasingly abundant C3 woody plant, roughleaf dogwood (Cornus drummondii). Our primary objective was to quantify the impacts of fire-induced aboveground mortality and resource constraints on the persistence of roughleaf dogwood in this ecosystem. In both years of the study (2001–2002), burned shrubs suffered a complete loss of aboveground biomass due to top-kill from spring fire but persisted via resprouting. A considerable reduction in total growing-season precipitation in 2002, as compared to 2001, revealed that resprouts had lower mortality with reduced soil moisture, were less vulnerable to reductions in soil moisture availability, and maintained higher predawn xylem pressure potentials and rates of photosynthesis than did unburned shrubs. Additionally, enrichment of Cleaf in burned shrubs in 2002 was indicative of greater water use efficiency of resprouting stems. During the drought that occurred in the second growing season, mortality of stems within unburned shrub islands increased and was nearly 9 times more than in burned shrub islands. Thus, resprouting shrubs—with their characteristics of reduced leaf tissue, taller stems, and greater stem densities—are efficient in rapidly reoccupying post-fire environments, even with the added stress of below-average precipitation during the growing season. The results of this study suggest that within this grassland, reintroduction of fire will not eliminate roughleaf dogwood in the short term because of its ability to resprout vigorously and persist, even under stressful moisture conditions. Given that North American grasslands are important both economically and ecologically, fire management plans should therefore emphasize frequent fire to prevent shrub establishment. keywords: C3 shrubs, carbon isotope ratios, Cornus drummondii, fire, Kansas, mesic grasslands, roughleaf dogwood, woody plant encroachment. Citation: Heisler, J.L., A.K. Knapp, and J.M. Briggs. 2007. Fire and resource availability influence carbon and water relations of the C3 shrub roughleaf dogwood in a mesic grassland. Pages 86–93 in R.E. Masters and K.E.M. Galley (eds.). Proceedings of the 23rd Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference: Fire in Grassland and Shrubland Ecosystems. Tall Timbers Research Station, Tallahassee, Florida, USA.


Although scientists have postulated a wide range of adverse human health effects of exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), the nexus of the debate is the concern that prenatal and childhood exposure to EDCs may be responsible for a variety of abnormalities in human sexuality, gender development and behaviors, reproductive capabilities, and sex ratios. Scientists today are asking hard questions about potential human effects: Do EDC exposures impair fertility in men or women? Can they cause sexual organ malformations, stunted reproductive development, or testicular or breast cancer? Do fetal exposures to EDCs alter sex phenotypes? Do they change later gender-related neurobiological characteristics and behaviors such as play activity and spatial ability? Could such exposures even be involved in the etiology of children born with ambiguous gender?

EDCs include a spectrum of substances that can be loosely classified according to their known or suspected activity in relation to sex hormone receptors and pathways. The most-studied and best known are the environmental estrogens, which mimic estradiol and bind to estrogen receptors (ERs). ER agonists include the pesticide methoxychlor, certain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), bisphenol A (BPA; a high production volume chemical used to make polycarbonate plastic), pharmaceutical estrogens such as diethylstilbestrol (DES) and ethinyl estradiol, and phytoestrogens, which occur naturally in many plants, most notably in soybeans in the form of genistein and related substances. There are a few known ER antagonists, or antiestrogens. Antiandrogens, or androgen receptor (AR) antagonists, include the fungicide vinclozolin, the DDT metabolite p,p′-DDE, certain phthalates (a group of chemicals used to soften polyvinyl chloride plastics), and certain other PCBs. And there are other types of EDCs that affect particular endocrine targets. The various EDCs differ greatly in their potencies relative to natural hormones, and in their affinity for target receptors. Some have been shown to act via non–receptor-mediated mechanisms, for example by interfering with hormone synthesis.

In many well-documented cases of high-level fetal exposures to known EDCs such as DES, certain PCBs, and DDT, the answer to the question of whether exposure is associated with gender-related effects is clearly yes. But high-level exposures such as these are relatively rare and isolated. The debate today centers on low-dose exposures—generally defined as doses that approximate environmentally relevant levels—and the idea that low-dose intrauterine exposure to some EDCs during certain critical windows of development can have profound, permanent impacts on subsequent fetal development and adult outcomes.

Critics of this idea maintain that thus far there is no credible evidence to suggest that low-dose exposures cause any adverse human health effects. But if low-dose exposures were confirmed to be the threat that proponents of the concept insist they are, public health would clearly be at risk, regulatory agencies' risk assessment approach would need to be revised, and certain common chemicals—including some that are massively produced and economically important—would likely disappear from the marketplace.

In a June 2000 EHP review article on human health problems associated with EDCs, Stephen Safe, director of the Center for Environmental and Genetic Medicine at Texas AM however, at present the evidence is not compelling." Frederick vom Saal, a developmental biologist at the University of Missouri–Columbia, disagrees, particularly in light of the research that's been presented in the years since that review. "The jury is not out on human effects," he says. "In terms of the amount of information we have in animals and the amount of information we have in humans, clearly there is a huge difference, but that's a lot different than saying the jury is out on whether EDCs influence humans." One thing both scientists might agree on, though, is that right now there are still more questions than answers.


Background We sought to study the clinicopathologic characteristics of colorectal cancer in young female patients. We also wanted to determine the association of colorectal cancer with anemia in these female patients and, finally, to determine the effect of gender on prognosis in young patients with colorectal cancer. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of all young patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer between 1982 and 1999 in two teaching hospitals in New York City. Results A total of 3,546 cases of colorectal cancer were diagnosed. Sixty-one (1.63%) of these patients were young patients and 32 (0.85%) were female. Young refers to all patients in the study who were younger than 40 years of age. The clinical presentation and mean age at presentation were very similar in both male and female patients. At presentation, 87.5% of female patients had anemia compared with only 69% of male patients. Males had a statistically significant higher mean hemoglobin level compared with females (12.87 versus 10.29 g) at P = 0.0001. Seventy-nine percent of female patients compared with 86% of male patients presented with left-sided tumors. Fifty-five percent of males presented with late stage disease compared with 68% of females (P = 0.27). Female sex seemed to adversely affect the prognosis, although this did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.08). Stage of disease was associated with worse prognosis and this was independent of sex. Age and hemoglobin were not independent predictors of mortality. Conclusion Colorectal cancer does occur in females of childbearing age who might have a tendency to present with late stage disease as evidence from this study. Young female patients with anemia should be questioned about gastrointestinal symptoms, and colorectal cancer should definitely be in the differential diagnoses. This might conceivably allow for earlier diagnosis and potential for cure in this patient group.


Glass-fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) cell-core sandwiches are composed of outer GFRP face sheets, a foam core, and a grid of GFRP webs integrated into the core to reinforce the shear load capacity. One of the critical failure modes of cell-core sandwich structures is shear wrinkling, a local buckling failure in the sandwich webs because of shear loading. The shear wrinkling behavior of GFRP laminates with different laminate sequences, stabilized by a polyurethane foam core, was experimentally and numerically investigated. Shear wrinkling was simulated by a biaxial compression–tension setup. The results show that an increasing transverse tension load significantly decreases the wrinkling load. The decreasing effect of tension is explained by the lateral contraction because of Poisson's effect, which causes an increase in the initial imperfections and subsequent accelerated bending.


The purpose of this study was to examine opinions regarding future trends in outsourced intercollegiate sports marketing from managers of the outsourced marketing companies hired to administer media and marketing rights at select National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I schools. Twenty-eight of the 61 companies selected to participate in this study responded. Via the Delphi Method, data were collected as descriptive statistics, and frequencies were analyzed along with qualitative responses. The findings indicated that outsourced companies seek new business opportunities for the future with athletic departments. The most likely area involved athletic facility naming rights; retailing, licensing and concessions are less desired areas. The responders also indicated that companies are satisfied with their relationship with the schools though properties are looking for means to reduce expenses in the partnership. Those responding also indicated that future ventures and continuous sales efforts are likely to focus on select Division I schools (both private and public) and their respective conferences, since these appear to be the most capable of demonstrating a larger financial return on investment within intercollegiate athletics.


The debate about whether it is necessary - or, indeed, possible - to distinguish between fictional and non-fictional narratives rages on. Those who argue that such distinctions are spurious are armed with some heavy artillery: they point out that all attempts to convey factual information are shaped in accordance with the generic and - more broadly - cultural norms governing such texts; all textual representations of the real carry the biases and limitations not only of the recording 'I' but more profoundly of the language in which they are expressed; all apprehensions of the real (including the self) are mediated - or even more fundamentally, directed - by culture and history.


The report 'Towards an Innovation-intensive Circular Economy. Integrating research, industry, and policies' is a result of the cooperation between FEEM and Universita Cattolica. The report proposes an original perspective to the circular economy as a paradigm of change that involves the whole production system. While material circularity is increasing under the pressure of decades of waste/recycling policies in Europe and Italy, a 'new' circular economy more intensive of technological and social innovation is establishing itself beyond the waste/recycling system, and it involves the material and organisational efficiency of enterprises and the whole production/consumption systems. The report starts from a stocktaking of definitions, public policies, quantifications, innovations, and institutional initiatives on the circular economy in Europe and in Italy. Two 'integrative approaches' are then proposed for achieving a better interaction between research, industry, and policies. The first approach exploits the concepts of 'System of innovation' (national, regional, sectoral) to redefine the process towards a circular economy. In such a 'System of innovation', enterprises are at the core, and the sub-systems of policies, finance, research/university, and civil society can contribute, through network interactions, to the change of the industrial and consumption paradigms towards resource efficiency and circularity. By means of this approach, it is easier to understand the importance of internal factors (for example industrial capabilities and strategies) as well external factors (for example European research programmes and finance) in creating opportunities or barriers to the circular economy. The second 'integrative' approach mirrors the intrinsically systemic features of the circular economy by suggesting to put it in connection to other major transitions of this phase, in particular decarbonisation and the bioeconomy, through a NEXUS-type approach. The interactions between circular economy, decarbonisation, and the bioeconomy are several but not necessarily they are synergic in that potential conflicts may arise. Synergies and conflicts, for example through an intensive use of biomass for energy, are not fully recognised by policies, which are still designed and implemented with a sector-minded approach. This can impair the performance of enterprises in pursuing a profitable circularity strategy. The report also addresses some open issues in the 'economics of the circular economy', like the low prices of primary commodities that do not create incentives to circularity innovations, thus assigning a major burden to policy instruments (for example fiscal instruments), and the changing attitude of the financial sector, which is moving towards the adoption of circularity criteria in the allocation for financial resources.


Recently, researchers have begun to explore people's motives to forgive those who have offended them. Using a recall method, we examined whether such motives (relationship-, offender- or self-focused) differ between and within cultures that are more collectivistic (Moluccan Islands in Indonesia) or more individualistic (the Netherlands) and whether this depends on people's relationship with the offender. More specifically, we examined the idea that other-focused motives should be more important in cultures that are more collectivistic and that self-focused motives should prevail in more individualistic cultures. We found that Moluccan participants indeed endorsed relationship- and offender-focused motives more than Dutch participants. Moluccan and Dutch participants did not, however, differ in the extent to which they endorsed self-focused motives. Furthermore, Dutch participants were more likely to endorse relationship motives (especially in close relations) than self-focused motives. For Moluccan participants, relationship-, offender- and self-focused motives were equally important and also did not depend on how close they were with the offender. Differences between the samples could not be explained by the extent to which people defined themselves as more independent or interdependent. The implications of these findings for future research on forgiveness motives are discussed.


Geological and geophysical data have been integrated with the aim of presenting a new evolutionary model for the Southern Tyrrhenian and adjacent regions. The Southern Tyrrhenian backarc basin opened within a plate convergence regime because of sinking and rollback of the oceanic Ionian lithosphere. On the basis of seismological observations, I infer that the sinking slab was torn apart on either side in the last 2 Ma and this process controlled the neotectonics of the Southern Apennines - Tyrrhenian region. On the north-eastern side the slab broke off from NW to SE and this process triggered volcanism and NW-SE extension along the Eastern Tyrrhenian margin, and strike-slip tectonics along NW-SE trending faults in Northern Calabria. On the south-western side the slab broke off from W to E along the Aeolian Island alignment, although the tear has currently been reoriented along the NNW-SSE Malta escarpment. During its sinking the subducted slab also detached from the overriding plate, favouring the wedging of the asthenosphere between the two plates and the regional uplift of the Calabrian arc and surroundings. This regional uplift promoted gravitational instability within the orogenic wedge, particularly towards low topography areas; the large-scale sliding of the Calabrian arc towards the Ionian basin can be the cause of CW rotation and graben formation in Calabria. Also the E-dipping extensional faults of the Southern Apennines can be related to accommodation of vertical motions within the fold-and-thrust belt. The pattern of recent seismicity reflects this neotectonics where crustal-scale gravity deformation within the orogenic wedge is responsible for extensional earthquakes in Calabria and the Southern Apennines, whereas Africa plate convergence can account for compressional earthquakes in Sicily.


Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he's pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he's never met.


The choice of an appropriate illumination design is one of the most important steps in creating successful machine vision systems for automated inspection tasks. In a popular technique, multiple inspection images are captured under angular-varying illumination directions over the hemisphere, which yields a set of images referred to as illumination series. However, most existing approaches are restricted in that they use rather simple and generic illumination patterns on the hemisphere. Furthermore, the spectrum of the illumination is assumed to be fixed and is not considered. In this paper, we present an illumination technique which reduces the effort of capturing a series of inspection images for individual reflectance features by using linear combinations of basis light patterns that vary in their directional and spectral radiance. The key idea is to encode linear functions for feature extraction as angular- and wavelength-dependent illumination patterns, and thereby to compute linear features from the scene's spectral reflectance field directly in the optical domain. Finally, we evaluate and verify the proposed illumination technique to the problem of optical material type classification of printed circuit boards (PCBs).


In-situ high pressure X-ray diffraction experiments on Heusler-type ferromagnefic shape memory alloy Mn2NiGa under pressure up to 40 GPa have been carried out by using diamond anvil cell device with synchrotron radiation source, and magnetic measurements have also been performed on uninstalled samples by using vibration sample magnetometer. At ambient pressure Mn2NiGa has body centered cubic structure. Two phase transitions in Mn2NiGa were observed during high pressure experiments. The first at about 0.77 GPa is belong to martensitic transformation, and the second at about 20 GPa is isostructural transformation between two different martensites. Meanwhile, a lot of defects and distortion of lattice were generated in martensites due to pressurization. Consequently, coercive force of stress-induced martensites rises up to 204 kA/m and it is almost ten times larger than that of thermo-induced martensites. Pressure processes also make saturation magnetization of martensites decrease rapidly, which reveals the obvious defect effect.


The effectiveness of evolutionary algorithms have been verified on multi-objective optimization, and a large number of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms have been proposed during the last two decades. To quantitatively compare the performance of different algorithms, a set of uniformly distributed reference points sampled on the Pareto fronts of benchmark problems are needed in the calculation of many performance metrics. However, not much work has been done to investigate the method for sampling reference points on Pareto fronts, even though it is not an easy task for many Pareto fronts with irregular shapes. More recently, an evolutionary multi-objective optimization platform was proposed by us, called PlatEMO, which can automatically generate reference points on each Pareto front and use them to calculate the performance metric values. In this paper, we report the reference point sampling methods used in PlatEMO for different types of Pareto fronts. Experimental results show that the reference points generated by the proposed sampling methods can evaluate the performance of algorithms more accurately than randomly sampled reference points.


The article discusses the very common hydraulics problem of seepage through a homogeneous isotropic dam standing on an impervious sub-stratum and with a pervious blanket on its downstream side (Fig. 1), which enables both dam volume and seepage pressure to be recluced [2]. The characteristic non-dimensional parameters involved are the following : l = L/H = Dam width / Upstream head of water α = Upstream facing angle q = Q / KH Non-dimensional discharge. With the potential function φ or the stream function ψ, the steady flow equation is Δφ = 0 or Δψ = 0. This elliptical-type problem is made more complicated by the fact that the boundary conditions are of the composite type and that the position of the free surface region boundary is not known. After a few approximations, Numerov gives the solution in the form of formulae (2) and (3). For α = 90°, formula (2) turns expression (4). Numerical calculation of these functions was accomplished by Shankin [5]. Kozeny considers flow towards a slit and obtains formula (6), which is a better approximation than Dupuit's formula. Casagrancle [6] has put forward a relationship applicable for small angles α. Guevel [7] uses the hodograph method to find discharge and free surface expressions for the case where the latter features a point of inflexion just on the upstream face of the dam. Numerical solution of the problem in the ω = φ + iψ plane with the conventions of Figure 3 requires a successive approximation procedure, as the boundary conclition x = l is unknown to begin with. The solution is first found for the function y, and then for the function x after calculation of the value of x on the boundary (AB). By replacing the derivatives by standard interpolation formulae, one obtains a linear system, which one then solves by the Young-Frankel iteration method. Table 1 compares the direct numerical calculation results with those given by formula (4). Thanks to the remarkable flexibility of numerical calculation, it has been possible to accomplish a systematic study for angles varying from 20° to 90°. The results are listed in Table 2 and shown in Figures 4, ancl 13 to 18. By considering instead of the real dam a hypothetical one of the same volume with a vertical facing, the authors found an approximation for the dam width from the numerical calculation data (see formulae (8) to (14)). for their economic dam volume study, they assumed the downstream free surface to be parabolic in shape (Kozeny's assumption), for which the optimum downstream slope is given by formula (17) and the gain in volume over a design with a vertical downstream facing is ΔΩ = 1/8q. For a symmetrical dam, the minimum volume condition defines the relationship between discharge and angle of inclination, as shown in Figure 9. Figure 10 makes evaluation of the gain in volume casier. An example (Fig. 11) shows how the free surface can be constructed by interpolation. The various formulae and graphs are applied to a practical case. It is concluded that application of a systematic numerical study to a necessarily limited number of cases has enabled the results to be generalised by interpolation and simple quick "synthetic" formulae to be obtained.


Two related challenges with current teleoperated robotic systems are lack of peripheral vision and awareness, and difficulty or tedium of navigating through remote spaces. We address these challenges by providing an interface with a focus plus context (F+C) view of the robot location, and where the user can navigate simply by looking where they want to go, and clicking or drawing a path on the view to indicate the desired trajectory or destination. The F+C view provides an undistorted, perspectively correct central region surrounded by a wide field of view peripheral portion, and avoids the need for separate views. The navigation method is direct and intuitive in comparison to keyboard or joystick based navigation, which require the user to be in a control loop as the robot moves. Both the F+C views and the direct click navigation were evaluated in a preliminary user study.


This thesis is composed of three chapters, which can be read independently. In the …rst chapter we explore distributive justice and perception of fairness using survey data from freshmen and senior students of economics and sociology. We analyse the impact of context and education on their preferences over a hypothetical distribution of resources between individuals which presents a trade o¤ between e¢ ciency and equality. With context giving minimal information, economics students are less likely to favour equality; studying economics in‡uences the preferences of the subjects, increasing this di¤erence. However, when the same problem is inserted into a meaningful context, the difference disappears. Four distribution mechanisms are analysed: egalitarianism, maximin, utilitarianism and utilitarianism with a ‡oor constraint. The second chapter considers a public good game with heterogeneous endowments and incomplete information a¤ected by extreme free-riding. We overcome this problem through the implementation of a contest in which several prizes may be awarded. We identify a monotone equilibrium, in which the contribution is strictly increasing in the endowment. We prove that it is optimal for the social planner to set the last prize equal to zero, but otherwise total expected contribution is invariant to the prize structure. Finally, we show that private provision via a contest Pareto-dominates public provision and is higher than the total contribution raised through a lottery. The third chapter investigates fund-raising mechanisms based on a prize as a way to overcome free riding in the private provision of public goods, under the assumptions of income heterogeneity and incomplete information about income levels. We compare experimentally the performance of a lottery, an all-pay auction and a benchmark voluntary


How do blogs produce posts? What local, underlying mechanisms lead to the bursty temporal behaviors observed in blog networks? Earlier work analyzed network patterns of blogs and found that blog behavior is bursty and often follows power laws in both topological and temporal characteristics. However, no intuitive and realistic model has yet been introduced, that can lead to such patterns. This is exactly the focus of this work. We propose a generative model that uses simple and intuitive principles for each individual blog, and yet it is able to produce the temporal characteristics of the blogosphere together with global topological network patterns, like power-laws for degree distributions, for inter-posting times, and several more. Our model ZC uses a novel 'zero-crossing' approach based on a random walk, combined with other powerful ideas like exploration and exploitation. This makes it the first model to simultaneously model the topology and temporal dynamics of the blogosphere. We validate our model with experiments on a large collection of 45,000 blogs and 2.2 million posts.


Peracchi v. Commissioner is a lightning rod for commentators and the bane of students of corporate income tax. In short, the decision makes no sense because it grants the maker of a note a section 1012 basis in the note, violating a fundamental principle of income taxation. Nonetheless, the decision helped preserve a fundamental aspect of corporate taxation - the tax-free formation of and contributions to controlled corporations. Because of its unorthodox application of the section1012 basis rules, the Peracchi decision is the subject of severe criticism. Unfortunately, commentators who criticize Peracchi generally fail to offer an alternative that recognizes general income tax principles, concepts of corporate income tax, and the economic realities of corporate formation and contributions to corporations. This Article reviews the evolution of the corporate formation rules governing contributions of self-created notes. It discovers that Congress did not intend to impose taxable gain on shareholders who contribute self-created notes. It also reveals how the court in Peracchi reached the right conclusions (from an economic and corporate-tax-policy perspective) using the wrong analytical framework. After assessing current theories of Peracchi, the Article presents the liability-offset theory. Under this theory, the contributed self-created note would offset the liabilities assumed by the corporation in a manner similar that used in section 357(d). The Article illustrates that this theory adheres to general principles of income tax, honors concepts of corporate income tax, and recognizes the economic realities of corporate formation and contributions to corporations. The theory could therefore help resolve problems that stem from Peracchi and its progenitors.


A fundamental right to sell land is implied by a recent insurgence of ownership and alienability references in international law. After decades of ideological controversy, several new documents suggest that the scope of the human right to property is gradually broadening. But a number of nations, including Mozambique, still impose restrictions on land alienability. This Note will use Mozambique as a case study to analyze strengthening international recognition of land alienability rights. While alienability restrictions probably do not violate current obligations, they may soon be incompatible with an evolving standard of private property ownership. But the case of Mozambique presents unique problems in considering the benefits of a private land market, including the historical influences of customary African law, colonialism, and Marxism, as well as legitimate fears over the adverse effects privatization could have on African development. In addition, the will of the people may be manifest by the democraticallyelected government's decision to continue its alienability restrictions. Given these concerns, this Note concludes that it may not be prudent to invoke international human rights law to pressure Mozambique and similarly-situated nations to privatize land.


This book presents a comprehensive overview of the sum rule approach to spectral analysis of orthogonal polynomials, which derives from Gabor Szego's classic 1915 theorem and its 1920 extension. Barry Simon emphasizes necessary and sufficient conditions, and provides mathematical background that until now has been available only in journals. Topics include background from the theory of meromorphic functions on hyperelliptic surfaces and the study of covering maps of the Riemann sphere with a finite number of slits removed. This allows for the first book-length treatment of orthogonal polynomials for measures supported on a finite number of intervals on the real line.

In addition to the Szego and Killip-Simon theorems for orthogonal polynomials on the unit circle (OPUC) and orthogonal polynomials on the real line (OPRL), Simon covers Toda lattices, the moment problem, and Jacobi operators on the Bethe lattice. Recent work on applications of universality of the CD kernel to obtain detailed asymptotics on the fine structure of the zeros is also included. The book places special emphasis on OPRL, which makes it the essential companion volume to the author's earlier books on OPUC.


This thesis concerns how to compute upper and lower bounds for the eigenvalues of self-adjoint operators. We discuss two different methods: the so-called quadratic method and the Zimmermann-Mertins method. We know that the classical methods of computing the spectrum of a self-adjoint operator often lead to spurious eigenvalues in gaps between two parts of the essential spectrum. The methods to be examined have been studied recently in connection with the phenomenon of spectral pollution. In the first part of the thesis we show how to obtain enclosures of the eigenvalues in both the quadratic method and the Zimmermann-Mertins method. We examine the convergence properties of these methods for computing corresponding upper and lower bounds in the case of semi-definite self-adjoint operators with compact resolvent. In the second part of the thesis we find concrete asymptotic bounds for the size of the enclosure and study their optimality in the context of one-dimensional Schrodinger operators. The effectiveness of these methods is then illustrated by numerical experiments on the harmonic and the anharmonic oscillators. We compare these two methods, and establish which one is better suited in terms of accuracy and efficiency.


Bearing in mind the previous Gauteng Education MEC's recent indication that "discipline starts at home," our article focuses on what South African law has contributed during the past 20 years to prompt parents participate accountably with partners in public school education, and how case law has defined parent accountability in this regard. Examples of relevant legislation would be those which assign the ultimate responsibility for learner conduct to parents, and call for a harmonious relationship between parents and educators. In line with the South African Schools Act's requiring that parents partner with the State, educators and learners in accepting responsibility for their children's schooling, this article highlights the need for a shared vision of the way forward. The importance of having such a shared vision to bring these disparate stakeholders' aspirations together around the common goal, namely to develop all learners' talents and capabilities, is underscored. The authors argue that factors such as reciprocal blame and a lack of cooperation are among the problems that hamper the full realisation in practice of the legislative provisions pertaining to parental accountability. Our article identifies solutions to this challenge, such as parents' setting upright examples by behaving in an accountable manner, and recommendations, such as empowering parents for their roles as partners in education.


This article puts forth a hypothesis about the theological origins of liberalism and secularism that offers an alternative to standard accounts of the intellectual origins/theological foundations of liberalism and of political theology which see the two as separate and mutually exclusive. On my hypothesis, the emergency theory of the state associated with political theology and the liberal theory of the state are (or were at their point of origin) the same thing. The hypothesis is that the theory that the state must be secular (and must be founded on principles of due process and religious pluralism, which come to be associated with liberalism) derives from a particular tradition of thought which itself derives from the theological doctrine of divine accommodation, versions of which are found in both Christian and Jewish sources. Building on the work of Amos Funkenstein and others who have shown how modern scientific thought derives from this "secularist theology," I propose that modern political and legal thought does, too. More specifically, I aim to show how the liberal theory of the state derived from theological propositions about the divinely authorized need to suspend divine law and replace it with human legal institutions that accommodate to human needs and imperfections, including the limitations of the human mind. I thereby propose an answer to the mystery of how Christianity became, in Samuel Moyn's words, "terrestrialized," that is, how it "birthed liberalism" and secularism, which locates that birthplace in the doctrine of divine accommodation and the theological tradition of accomodationist thought.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to examine the opinion of Silesian Province citizens on living organ transplantation (Tx).

METHODS
The materials in the study were the opinions of 1100 respondents selected from a representative group of adult citizens collected in 2002 using a public opinion poll. During the data collection a questionnaire interview was used, the result of which were subjected to a quantitative statistical analysis.

RESULTS
Of respondents, 83.1% do but 11.0% do not accept living organ Tx. 92.1% would give his organ for Tx to a relative, 80.5%--a friend and 54.3%--a strange person. The most common motives of potential agreement for living organ donation are awareness of helping another person (43.6%) or a relative (27.0%) as well as conviction of safety of organ harvesting procedure (10.0%). The most common motives of concern are fear of losing one's health (40.1%), poor state of health (13.8%) and fear of organ harvesting (9.8%).

CONCLUSIONS
Silesian Province citizens accept living organ Tx as a way of treatment of patients with end stage organ failure. The main motive of agreement for living organ donation is awareness of helping another person or a relative, and the most common motive of concern is fear of losing one's health.


Indonesian is gift from God nature source such as resource which consist of human resource, biological nature resource, and non biological nature resource, and simulation resources.
Wealthy of nature resource may be began a basis modal to national building which be purposed to increase national earning to increase society safety and prosperity, large and state opportunity to effort and work yard, support region developing. In region autonomy era currently, each
governance of regency/district be claimed to be able to process developing cycle by pressed to region to be autonomous. For this purpose, region government try to get many potential on the region, one of them is tourism. Program of tourism developing is one of government mainstay to get devisen from non oil and natural gas sector. Tourism has a essential role in national developing beside it may increase devisen to nation but it also give work to society around on the tourist place. In Tulungagung regency there are many tourism potential which be give benefit to
support increasing of region original earning to region autonomy application. To develop tourism sector on the Tulungagung so the Tourism and Culture Department imply some strategy which contain on plan strategy of Tourism and Culture Department in 2006, beside that in developing
tourism sector, Tourism and Culture Department also experienced barrier, follows: it has not been publication of all of tourism potential, the quality of human resource is not qualified, it has not been enough fund.
In this study, the writer used descriptive study method namely study method by using of describing and explain clearly a real condition that happen base on the evident and try to look for the solving. The data collecting technique use observation, interview and documentation
technique, after the all of data is collected, then the data is carried out presentation and data analysis by qualitative analysis by giving description about explanation based on the data and then it is conclude and interpreted.
The study result about Tourism and Culture Department in developing of tourism sector to support increasing of Region Original Earning in Tulungagung regency implied some strategy, follows: positioned a society as tourism activity basis, learning of human resources to standardized, carrying out tourism promotion and marketing, conserve history estate in tourism system context, increasing media and infrastructure that support. The result is achieved from this strategy, there are increasing of tourist number who visit to tourist place and tourism interesting
in Tulungagung regency and increasing of Region Original Earning from tourism sector.
The conclusion of this strategy which be implied by tourism and culture department of Tulungagung regency to develop tourism sector may be implied well, it may be seen from the
achieving result, that there are increasing of tourist number who visited to tourist object in Tulungagung regency and there are increasing of region original earning from tourism sector although on the strategy application also experienced a barrier and it is necessary to increase to
be Tulungagung regency as tourism purpose.


In this work, we examine the thermochemistry and kinetics of the partial oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde on silver surfaces. Periodic density functional theory calculations employing the BEEF‐vdW functional are used to identify the most stable phases of the silver surface under relevant reaction conditions and the reaction energetics are obtained on these surfaces. The calculated binding energies and transition state energies are used as input in a mean‐field microkinetic model providing the reaction kinetics on silver surfaces under different reaction conditions. Our results show that, under conditions pertaining to methanol partial oxidation, oxygen is present at low concentrations and it plays a critical role in the catalytic reaction. Surface oxygen promotes the reaction by activating the OH bond in methanol, thus forming a methoxy intermediate, which can react further to form formaldehyde. The dissociation of molecular oxygen is identified as the most critical step.


This book describes the origins, history, and prospects of big game in Africa.Researched, photographed, and compiled over 20 years, Peter Beard's "End of the Game" tells the tale of the enterprisers, explorers, missionaries, and big-game hunters whose quests for adventure and "progress" were to change the face of Africa in the 20th century. This landmark volume is assembled from hundreds of historical photographs and writings, starting with the building of the Mombasa Railroad ("The Lunatic Line") and the opening-up of darkest Africa. The stories behind the heroic figures in Beard's work - Theodore Roosevelt, Frederick Courtney Selous, Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), Denys Finch-Hatton (the romantic hero of Out of Africa), Philip Percival, J. A. Hunter, Ernest Hemingway, and J. H. Patterson (who became famous as the relentless hunter of the "Man-Eating Lions of Tsavo") - are all contextualized by Beard's own photographs of the enormous region.Shot in the 1960s and '70s in the Tsavo lowlands during the elephant-habitat crisis and then in Uganda parks, Beard's studies of elephant and hippo population dynamics document the inevitable overpopulation and starvation of tens of thousands of elephants and rhinos. Originally published in 1965 and updated in 1977, this classic is resurrected by Taschen with rich duotone reproduction and a new foreword. Touching on themes such as distance from nature, density and stress, loss of common sense, and global emergencies, this seminal picture history of eastern Africa in the first half of the 20th century shows us the origins of the wildlife crisis on the continent, a phenomenon which bears a remarkable resemblance to the overpopulation and climate crises we face today.


This paper discusses the process of triggering photon avalanche in deep doped quantum wells. The threshold intensities of the IR light that causes the avalanche are hundreds of kilowatts per square centimeter. The energies for switching the system between states with strong and weak absorption of the pump light are tens of femtojoules per square micrometer.


Brave is Pixar's first fairy tale, a lush, animated adventure through the forests, heaths, and highlands of medieval Scotland. Featuring behind-the-scenes interviews with the film's many artists, The Art of Brave also showcases the gorgeous concept art that went into the creation of the movie, including colour scripts, storyboards, character studies, environment art, sculpts, and more.


Baobab (Adansonia digitata L., Malvaceae) is a multi-purpose tree species native to Africa. Its fruit pulp has very high vitamin C content (ffi ten times that of orange), and can be used in seasoning, as an appetizer and to make juices. Seeds contain appreciable quantities of crude protein, digestible carbohydrates and oil, whereas they have high levels of lysine, thiamine, Ca and Fe. They can be eaten fresh or dried, ground into flour and thus added to soups and stews. Processing eliminates a number of anti-nutritional factors present in the seed. Baobab leaves are superior in nutritional quality to fruit pulp, and contain significant levels of vitamin A. The leaves are a staple for many populations in Africa, and are eaten fresh or dried. Several plant parts have interesting anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and baobab has been used extensively since ancient times in traditional medicine. Key words: Baobab, Adansonia digitata L., traditional use, phytochemistry, pharmacology, amino acids, fatty acids, minerals, vitamins, anti-nutritional factors


In this paper I intend to consider how long term international volunteers contribute to human security, international development and sustainability. With so much emphasis on governance, security and counter terrorism in our now globalised world, it is easy to focus mainly on states and national defense and forget the importance of individual human beings for building trust, cultivating hope and making a difference. The paper will begin by discussing the history and evolution of international volunteer sending agencies and volunteers as a response not just to symptoms but to causes of global poverty and inequality. I will consider how international volunteers might be defined, what may make their role different to other forms of overseas development assistance via personnel, and the positives and negatives that may accompany those differences. I also want to reflect on international volunteers' role and suitability as contributors in the transition to a globally more ecologically sustainable state using O'Riordans idea of the need for a 'spirit of communal obligation' that enables individuals to 'relate to others' needs'. I will link this reflection to some concrete international environmental volunteer experiences drawn from current PhD research on the topic.