This study examined how people who participate in endurance events currently get guidance on psychological aspects of their events and their preferred ways for receiving guidance from researchers and practitioners, so that psychologists can use these ways to disseminate research-derived knowledge. People in the United Kingdom (N = 574) who participated competitively or non-competitively in running (5 km and greater), road cycling (time trials, road races, or sportives), or triathlon events completed an online survey. The main questions addressed ways they have intentionally used to find psychological guidance, how they have got guidance without intentionally looking for it, and their preferences for receiving guidance. The most common ways of intentionally finding guidance were looking on websites (48.1% of participants), asking other athletes (46.7%), and asking coaches (32.5%). Athletes most commonly tried to find guidance on coping, motivation, and managing nerves. Posts on social media (51.3%), spoken word (48.0%), and magazines (45.9%) were common ways of unintentionally getting guidance, and athletes (68.1%) and coaches (45.9%) were most often the source of unintentionally received guidance. Websites (49.5%) and online videos (41.8%) were the most preferred ways to receive guidance, although researchers and practitioners working with coaches (35.5%) and event organisers (34.8%), and magazines (34.7%) were also preferable. Psychologists are encouraged to disseminate guidance to endurance athletes using websites, online videos, social media, magazines, and by working with coaches and event organisers. The data can also inform the design of intervention efficacy and effectiveness trials that deliver interventions in these ecologically valid and preferable formats.


In this study, thermoresponsive copolymers that are fully injectable, biocompatible, and biodegradable and are synthesized via graft copolymerization of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) onto alginate using a free-radical reaction are presented. This new synthesis method does not involve multisteps or associated toxicity issues, and has the potential to reduce scale-up difficulties. Chemical and physical analyses verify the resultant graft copolymer structure. The lower critical solution temperature, which is a characteristic of sol-gel transition, is observed at 32 °C. The degradation properties indicate suitable degradation kinetics for drug delivery and bone tissue engineering applications. The synthesized P(Alg-g-NIPAAm) hydrogel is noncytotoxic with both human osteosarcoma (MG63) cells and porcine bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (pBMSCs). pBMSCs encapsulated in the P(Alg-g-NIPAAm) hydrogel remain viable, show uniform distribution within the injected hydrogel, and undergo osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation under appropriate culture conditions. Furthermore, for the first time, this work will explore the influence of alginate viscosity on the viscoelastic properties of the resulting copolymer hydrogels, which influences the rate of medical device formation and subsequent drug release. Together the results of this study indicate that the newly synthesized P(Alg-g-NIPAAm) hydrogel has potential to serve as a versatile and improved injectable platform for drug delivery and bone tissue engineering applications.


At a recent gallery opening of the work of Terry Atkinson
, I got talking to an artist friend, 'M', and both of us were singing the praises of a certain mutual acquaintance,
'D' who happened to be 'cropping up' all over the place, in shows, in magazines, in his writings, even his teaching was being talked about. It was a genuine pleasure to see our friend doing so well but when my other friend 'M' made the point that 'D 'was really focussed and knew what he was doing', and added wistfully, 'I wish I did, I haven't a clue most of the time', I felt an immediate sense of empathy and it seemed entirely appropriate that we would have this conversation within the context of work by Atkinson who has recently described the art world as a 'swamp'. Like my friend 'M', I too mostly seem to be little lost in my practice, but it's a waywardness I seem compelled to cultivate in a far more profound manner than a simple inability to focus, yet something about this apparent lack of direction seems to indicate back to me an absence of something altogether more serious, of a sustainable intellectual argument perhaps, leading to the further academic threat of the loss of peer esteem or even more
withering, the accusation of a shortfall of artistic ambition. When asked to describe my work I often still stumble like a first year art student on his or her first viva. However I know its not that I'm not articulate, it's that I'm not able to articulate a practice, which I have steered all over the place, precisely in order for it to be un-speakable. So why is this, why am I forced to feel this sense of inadequacy of a practice which I could argue, wilfully refuses to settle, that it is precisely this refusal which lends the practice its method and its appearance in the world. Should I admit to my wayward processes resembling some form of modus operandi then I am, of course, entirely 'knowing' about what I am doing. In which case I am finely performing my lack of performance, I am focusing, via the invocation of diverse and contradictory
strategies, on this lack. David Bohm, in 'On Creativity' suggests that we must 'give patient and sustained attention to the idea of confusion'. My argument for my contribution to ATINER will be for a rethinking of practice, particularly within the contexts of research driven agendas of the Art and Design Institutions, in order to create conceptual space for this confusion and complexity to exist as aesthetic tensions, which are attempting to exist outside of the realm of the essentialising commodification of the art market whilst being implicitly sceptical of the progressive drive towards knowledge of the contemporary research culture. In the words of Jacques Ranciere, 'Aesthetics is the ability to think contradiction'. I propose to explore an argument that refuses to isolate waywardness as a lazy or uncritical approach, and indeed, to suggest that such an approach is deeply engaged, politicised and recognises contradiction as an aesthetic force. It may be possible to
argue that this impossibility of classification, this refusal (or inability) to 'focus' is in itself a highly charged and even ideologically informed approach, having its routes in libidinal forces, which, at their centre promote a deeply profound and necessary critical distance and attempt at detachment from what could be seen as the atomising effects of the confusion and manipulation of everyday media orientated life, presenting another model of confusion, in which tensions and stresses, contractions
and disturbances have an aesthetic and dynamic dimensions which may experienced as a form of pleasure. I will do this by drawing attention to my own practice within my collaborations of Dutton and Swindells and The Institute of Beasts, but I will also refer to the work Art and Language, Terry Atkinson, Fischli and Weiss, Arakawa and Gins, Liam Gillick as well as some emergent artists within the UK (Andy Spackman, Brigid Mcleer) and the thinking of
David Bohm, Claire Bishop, Jaques Ranciere, Grant Kester and
Elizabeth Grosz.


The detection of protein biomarkers is of great importance in the early diagnosis of severe pathological states. Although in the last decade many approaches to achieve ultra-sensitive protein detection have been developed, most of them require complicated assay set-ups, hindering their adoption in point-of-care applications and on-spot diagnosis. Here we show an organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) biosensor printed on plastic substrates that can selectively detect Immunoglobulin G (IgG) with an unprecedented attomolar detection limit. The OECT is used as a transducer of the biorecognition event taking place at the gate electrode. The measured concentrations are well below the detectable limits of the leading clinical diagnostic enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and comparable to the ones gathered with the label-needing single molecule arrays platform. Our work benchmarks the role of plastic OECT-based biosensors as a powerful tool in simple, low cost, yet non-invasive, ultra-sensitive, and widely applicable immunoassay technology.


Despite its formal status as promulgator of federal-court rules of practice and procedure, the Supreme Court is a suboptimal rule interpreter, as recent groundbreaking but flawed rules decisions illustrate. Scholars have proposed abstention mechanisms to constrain the Court in certain rule-interpretation contexts, but these mechanisms disable the Court from performing its core adjudicatory functions of dispute resolution and law interpretation. This article urges a different solution: bring the rulemakers to the Court. It argues that the Rules Committees — those bodies primarily responsible for studying the rules and drafting rule amendments — should take up a modest amicus practice in rules cases to offer the Court information that may improve its decisionmaking in rules cases. The article explores the possible forms of such a role and articulates guiding norms for its structure, timing, and content.


The diploma is two apartment buildings in Oslo. They are situated next to a collection of free standing urban houses. A close clustering of buildings creates a dynamic urban situation. They are neither perimeter-block or free-standing block, but embody certain qualities of each of these typologies. The focus is on privacy of the interior, on collective spaces of apartments and the city between two buildings. The apartments have rooms that can be reached in various ways, giving a flexibility to the plan. The multitude of layers in the facade gives an outside feeling to the inside space. On the ground floor the two buildings are connected by a piazza, with the aim of creating a feeling of living in the city together.


In private conversations, native Japanese people often regale one another with tales of tactless, even tasteless, encounters that fall under the heading of the Japanese term amae (pronounced "a-mah-yeh"). Amae also encompasses sweet moments between parents and children or between lovers. In Japan, people know when interactions move into the realm of amae, even though they'd be hard pressed to define it. Psychologists are, however, beginning to scrutinize such interactions. They roughly define amae as a person's expectation that another person will indulge him or her and the obligation of the second person to do so, whether or not he or she wants to. Both the researchers and people who grew up in Japan recognize that amae is double-edged: It can serve important and beneficial social roles, but it also can go sour.


The hydrogen absorption of metal hydride (MH) is an exothermic process. For a cylindrical MH hydrogen storage reactor with a concentric tube heat exchange, the hydrogen adsorption heat is discharged by the heat transfer fluid (HTF), and the absorption reaction proceeds along the radial direction from the center to the periphery, which leads to the non-uniformity of the reaction process and limits the average reaction rate. In order to improve the hydrogen storage rate, the phase change material (PCM) is used to assist in heat transfer by surounding the reactor. This paper establishes a mathematical model to describe the heat and mass transfer process within the reactors. The results show that the surrounding PCM can absorb the reaction heat at the periphery of the reactor, and promote the reaction proceeding in this region. Thus, the average hydrogen absorption rate of the reactor surrounded by PCM is increased by about 1.5 times owing to the assisted heat transfer of PCM.


When configuration changes, daemon-reload stops the world in an increasingly unsustainable way. The problem is getting worse for two reasons: (1) heavier use of systemd means more units and longer reload times and (2) expanded use of socket activation/D-Bus activation/automount means more things urgently need PID 1's attention. There are ways to fix this up, but we'll need to move away from stopping the world (the main event loop), throwing out most loaded state, reloading state, and then resuming event handling.


This article outlines an action research investigation into the role of an academic librarian in the UK Higher Education (HE) sector. It is the view of the author that a key way of supporting research as a librarian is to engage in the practice oneself, to partake in knowledge creation rather than simply providing information. It investigates the notion of the embedded librarian in relation to research support via a literature review. It then uses data recordings from meetings of the Higher Education Action Research in Teaching (HEART) group at York St John University, of which the librarian is a member, to provide evidence to support the idea that sharing expertise in such an arena also provides information literacy (IL) support to researchers. The theoretical basis employed is that of communities of practice (Wenger 1998), as it is the assertion of the author that all members of the said group are part of a community of practice, based upon shared aims of improving pedagogic practice.


Medical education in Australia is now a matter of public concern as the depth of knowledge of medical graduates in basic sciences is questioned. Recently, The Weekend Australian, in their story "Doctors fail basic anatomy", reported that "Senior doctors claim teaching hours for anatomy have been slashed by 80 per cent in some medical schools to make way for 'touchyfeely' subjects such as 'cultural sensitivity', communication and ethics. The time devoted to other basic sciences — including biochemistry, physiology and pathology — has also been reduced." An accompanying editorial opined that "Medical schools are only the latest institutions to fall victim to postmodern academic fashions that ignore the basics in favour of the trendy and the politically correct." A subsequent report highlighted the concerns of Australasian clinical colleges about the downturn of basic medical sciences. Despite this criticism and concern, deans of medicine were defiant, and the Australian Medical Council (which accredits our medical schools) remained strangely silent. The Chairman of the Committee of Deans of Australian Medical Schools summarily dismissed the criticism as a "clash of cultures" within the profession and noted "I have never seen any evidence ... in any of our disciplines that would show we are deficient." And this is the problem. There is no public evidence. There is no national assessment of knowledge in basic sciences or in any other medical domain; assessment is internal. There is no national comprehensive outline of course content; this is left to institutional judgements. Last year, when the "clash of cultures" emerged, the former Minister for Education established a steering committee to gather the evidence. Whether it will have the impact of the 1988 Doherty Report on medical education remains to be seen. The last thing we need is another talkfest producing a report for political archives and inaction.


Abstract The return of property expropriated during the communist period to previous owners or to their descendants (property restitution) led to the quick emergence of a private rental sector in those post-communist countries that applied a physical form of property restitution soon after 1990. The Czech Republic and Estonia are examples of such countries. Within just a few years, as a result of property restitution, a private rental sector grew out of almost non-existence to become a significant part of the countries' total housing stock. However, the character of this sector remained different from the private rental sector found in countries with advanced economies – especially owing to specific rent regulation, tenant protection and, albeit indirectly, public housing privatisation. This article analyses and compares the genesis of private rental tenure in the Czech Republic and Estonia. Its main goal is to demonstrate how state regulations and interventions have influenced tenure choice, the formation of social norms, and thus the permanent perception of private renting. In both transition countries private renting gradually acquired the character of a transitional and residual form of housing. State interventions early on in the transition were probably the most significant factors behind the fact that private renting did not establish itself as a real tenure alternative to owner-occupied housing.


Maintaining the security of information systems and associated data resources is vital if an organisation is to minimise losses. Access controls are the first line of defence in this process. The primary function of access controls is to restrict the use of information systems and resources to authorised users. Password-based systems remain the predominant method of user authentication despite the many sophisticated and viable security alternatives that have emerged from research and development. However, evidence suggests that passwords as a means of authentication is often compromised by poor security practices. This paper presents the results of a survey that examines user practice in creating and using password keys and reports the findings on user password composition and security practices for e-mail accounts. Despite a greater awareness of security issues, the results show that an improvement in user password management practice is required.


Judging by introspection and intuition, most of us would agree that the we become conscious of events in the external physical world when we pay attention to them and things we notice (i.e., become conscious of) are the ones that attract our attention. A long tradition of investigations in psychology and neuroscience also confirm that attention and awareness go hand in hand. Recently, however, the validity of this intuition has been questioned. This thesis addresses the hypothesis that attention and awareness might be disentangled at behavioural and neurobiological levels. Two main questions were: (1) does allocation / withdrawal of attention to / from unconscious stimuli affect the contents of subconscious processing and if so, could one demonstrate such modulations at the perceptual levels of processing? (2) What are the neural substrates of attentional selection of unconscious perception? In order to address these questions I adopted the framework of Load Theory combined with a recently developed technique called Continuous Flash Suppression (which combines binocular rivalry with dichoptic masking allowing for prolonged periods of unconscious exposure to visual stimuli). In 7 behavioural experiments I demonstrated (1) orientation-specific adaptation to unconscious gratings (rendered invisible by CFS); (2) such subconscious orientation processing was modulated by
attentional load in a concurrent orthogonal foveal task as well as by sustained spatial attention. Finally, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) I showed that human primary visual cortex (Vl) response to invisible stimuli was also modulated by attentional load. My findings join a-number of recent works in challenging the traditional view that attention and awareness are one and the same as well as the idea that attention acts as the gate-keeper to awareness. They also support the suggestion that neither the availability of attentional capacity for stimulus processing nor allocation of spatial attention can be a sufficient condition for awareness.


This special issue originates from the seventh annual conference of the European Society for Periodical Research (ESPRit) I was entrusted with hosting in Paris on 'Periodicals In-Between: Periodicals in the Ecology of Print and Visual Cultures'. The event took place between the Bibliotheque nationale de France, Inalco and Paris-Sorbonne University in June 2018. A bilingual venue, it brought together young and advanced scholars and discussed the complex parts played by periodicals in a rich array of cultural and scientific settings and milieus from numerous points of view: history of literature, art history, press and media, visual studies, comparative literature, theatre studies, scientific cultures, translation and reception studies. A variety of serial publications were considered: reviews, magazines, parts, supplements, pull-outs, journals, annuals, anthologies, book series, newspapers, even a radio broadcast. This special issue proposes a few select contributions developed into research articles. By presenting them and recalling the conference's main arguments and themes, the introduction offers an overview of investigations, and highlights some of the hypotheses significant for periodical studies today.


The Thule Towing System Netherlands manufacturing the Tow bars for OE and AM customers. In current situation, the Engineer designs the tow bar models in Pro/ENGINEER and analyzing its strength qualitatively(justifying from the big red spot region) in Pro/MECHANICA. Basically, the analysis is done to predict the life and to judge whether the model will survive the physical test (CARLOS). CARLOS is the physical test with the dynamic load cases occurring at the tow hook orthogonally for 93 hours. The model predicted to survive on the CARLOS test bench are prototyped and tested. The problem is that the model predicted from FEA to survive the test is not actually surviving. In order to make the prediction to be the same between FEA and CARLOS a new simulation procedure with an assessment method should be developed with the FKM guidelines which is the standard analysis method for fatigue.


It is hardly an exaggeration to say that volumes have already been written ON THE THEME OF the relationship between minority protection in particular countries and the EU. The preferred topics tend to be minority protection during accession monitoring, the accusation of double standards and a possible way out, and the related theme of expanding attention for minority issues within the EU, sometimes even focusing on a particular minority group like the Roma. A second theme that has attracted considerable attention in terms of minority protection is the question of whether, and to what extent, 'migrants' could qualify as new minorities. This article seeks to merge these two lines of investigation in order to enhance insight into the EU and its attitude towards traditional versus new minorities, while also exposing the underlying conceptualizations of 'Europe', European identity and the Europe that is being integrated under the aegis of the EU. Notwithstanding the absence of an explicit minority policy for internal purposes, it is possible to identify the gradual emergence of a minority-conscious implementation of non-minority-specific EU policies (non-discrimination, social inclusion, integration, human rights and cultural diversity). Nevertheless, this emergence is not equally marked in all policy areas. It is argued here that there is a clear difference between the approach towards minorities - and new, immigrant minorities in particular - in terms of socio-economic integration (the socio-economic sphere) on the one hand and in terms of cultural integration and identity protection (the cultural-identity sphere) on the other. Policies regarding socio-economic integration are rather elaborate and at least semi-inclusive in the sense that they also benefit new minorities from outside the EU (third country nationals "TCN�?, as opposed to EU citizens). The EU's cultural diversity policies are more modest and have progressed only hesitantly from an agnostic attitude towards minorities to a modest attention solely to indigenous minorities, and then finally to an inclusive approach towards both traditional and new (TCN) minorities. In the end, the picture that emerges can be linked to visions (of the EU institutions) about Europe and European identity with relation to the overarching goal of 'European integration'. Arguably, the integration process is gradually becoming more inclusive, with integration in the socio-economic dimension apparently working as a catalyst for integration in the field of culture and cultural identity.


The galaxy within which we reside, the Milky Way, offers perhaps the highest fidelity training ground for models of galaxy formation, providing insights into its history of formation and evolution on a star-by-star basis. Such insights are only truly useful for constraining disc galaxy formation models if we properly understand the wider context of the Milky Way among the plethora of galaxies in the Universe. This thesis aims to make progress toward answering the question of whether the Milky Way is a typical disc galaxy. Through the effort to answer this question, this thesis presents new measurements of the structure of our Galaxy and new insights into aspects of its history of assembly and evolution which have a strong influence on its α-element abundances. Providing a baseline constraint on future models for the formation of the Galaxy, I present a dissection of the Milky Way disc spatial structure as a function of [Fe/H], [α/Fe] and stellar ages (based on the surface abundances of Carbon and Nitrogen), as measured by the APOGEE survey. I measure the disc density profile, fitting the scale heights and lengths of mono-age, mono-[Fe/H] sub-populations in the high and low [α/Fe] disc. The fitted disc vertical scale height distribution is smooth when weighted by surface-mass density, suggesting that the high and low [α/Fe] populations are not vertically distinct at the solar radius, as would be expected if they were interchangeable with the geometric thin and thick disc components. I find that the surface density profile of low [α/Fe] mono-age, mono-[Fe/H] populations is best fit by a broken exponential, such that their density increases with R to a peak radius, and declines thereafter, whereas the high [α/Fe] populations are better described by a single, declining exponential within the range of Galactocentric radii observed by APOGEE. The trends of the density profile parameters as a function of age and metallicity provide insights into the structural evolution of the Galaxy, and provide strong constraints on future models of its formation and evolution. In particular, a main finding of this study is that the high and low [α/Fe] discs have a relatively distinct radial structure. To understand the origin of the structures found in the above study, and to generate novel and predictive models for the formation of the Galaxy, I perform an analysis of element abundances in Milky Way like galaxy discs in the EAGLE simulation. I concentrate on the abundance of α-elements in these galaxies, with a view to understanding the origin of the bimodality in [α/Fe] at fixed [Fe/H] which is apparent in both the Milky Way and in EAGLE Galactic analogues. I show that EAGLE reproduces broad expectations for the production of α-elements from simple chemical evolution models, namely that stars with enhanced [α/Fe] are born from gas in rapidly star forming environments at high density. These environments are conducive to forming α-enhanced stars because their gas consumption timescale is considerably shorter than the characteristic delay timescale for Type Ia supernovae. I further show that such environments are only achieved in EAGLE haloes when the rate of dark matter accretion is faster at early times than the majority of galaxies with similar stellar mass at z=0. The necessity for this atypical and rapid early assembly means that galaxies hosting discs with [α/Fe] bimodality are extremely rare, forming in ≈ 6% of galaxies at the Milky Way stellar mass range. Following the prediction of EAGLE that galaxies which host [α/Fe] bimodality like that of the Milky Way should have atypical histories of assembly, I then perform a study of Milky Way halo stars in common between APOGEE and Gaia DR2, with a view to placing constraints on the accretion history of the Galaxy. I present a detailed characterisation of the kinematics and abundances of the recently discovered Gaia-Enceladus association, which is proposed to be the debris of a singular and massive accretion event. By comparing the kinematics and abundances of Gaia-Enceladus to the debris of satellites accreted onto Milky Way analogues in the EAGLE simulations, I make a quantitative prediction of the stellar mass of the Milky Way satellite to be 10^8.5 < M* < 10^9 Msun and predict its earliest possible time of accretion to be z≈1.5. I also show that such mergers are uncommon in the simulations, in agreement with the prediction that the Milky Way assembly history should be atypical. The above results outline a new view of the Galaxy in which it is potentially not a good example of a `typical' disc galaxy, playing host to structural components which are linked to its chemistry in a complex manner, which may indicate that its history of assembly is not in common with other galaxies at the same stellar mass. In finding that the Galaxy is atypical in this way, this thesis has uncovered new aspects of the evolutionary history of the Milky Way, which pave the way for future work towards the goal of fully reconstructing the history of our Galaxy and using that understanding to formulate robust and general models for the formation of disc galaxies.


Although cell phone banking was preceded by Internet banking, recent statistics in South Africa show that more customers are adopting cell phone banking compared to Internet banking. Customers' attitude significantly influences their behaviour in accepting or rejecting technology. This study employs customers' trust of the Internet and cell phone banking systems and subjective norm together with the TAM's constructs of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use to simultaneously ascertain retail banking customers' attitude towards Internet and cell phone banking services and to determine whether significant differences exist in their attitude towards these services.
Results of this study indicate that although customers have a positive attitude towards both Internet and cell phone banking services, their overall attitude towards cell phone banking is more positive than that of Internet banking and they are not only more emphatic in their intention to start/continue using cell phone banking, but also to increase their frequency of usage. Hence a more rapid adoption and usage of cell phone banking services are envisaged in South Africa. The study also provides key insights for policy makers, retail banks and marketers responsible for designing, implementing and promoting a more kindly disposed adoption of Internet and cell phone banking in South Africa.


One hundred and sixteen cases of chagasics who had sudden death were taken in order to analize some aspects to clear up the sudden death mechanism in chronic chagasics, such as: sex, age at death, profession, the role emotion and physical effort at the moment of death, and the relation between death and the seasons of the year. All of these trypanosomotics patients upparently, did not show any symptons and/or signals of heart failure in life. For a comparative analisys, a group of chronic chagasics that died from or after failure was used. The data showed that death (in chagasics who had sudden death as much as in chagasics who had heart failure) is more frequent in men than women and it occurs earlier in male chagasics who had sudden death than in those trypanosomotics individuals whose death was associated or preceeded by heart failure. Finally, our data suggest that physical effort, emotional factors and season variation do not play essential roles in the unchaiment of the chronic chagasic death.


Women have been identified as being at greater risk than men in South Africa's growing HIV epidemic. Stigma contributes to the epidemic, as it makes HIV-positive individuals reluctant to become identified and seek appropriate care. The purpose of this study is to begin to explore how women experience and deal with AIDS stigma under conditions where they have little formal support. In-depth, narrative interviews were conducted with ten HIV-positive women, living in a poor, black township in Cape Town. The study used both social constructionist and psychoanalytic theory to understand the impact that their 'spoiled identity' had on the emotional lives of these women. The study elicited women's narratives as they talked about their experience of living with a 'spoiled identity'. The analysis suggested that the women drew on negative social discourses around HIV, which were then internalised, to become part of the self. However, the narratives also indicated the women's resistance to their stigmatised identity. The narratives illustrated their attempts to fend off the 'spoiled identity' by splitting off these bad representations and projecting them outside of themselves.


The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability and validity of the 30-15 Intermittent Field Test (30-15IFT) with and without a ball and to determine differences across these two methods in female soccer players. Twenty-four collegiate female soccer players participated in this study (19.46 ± 1.22 years; 167.01 ± 7.23 cm; 60.95 ± 7.84 kg). Players performed one trial of the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery (YYIR) test, three trials of the 30-15IFT, and three trials of the 30-15IFT with a ball (30-15IFT-B), separated by a minimum of 48 hours. Maximal intermittent running velocity (VIFT), heart rate at exhaustion (HRpeak), and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were collected. Interclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) demonstrated good reliability during the 30-15IFT in VIFT (ICC = 0.88) and HRpeak (ICC = 0.89), as well as in the 30-15IFT-WB VIFT (ICC = 0.83) and HRpeak (ICC = 0.87). Results showed differences between VIFT, HRpeak, and RPE between trials 30-15IFT and 30-15IFT-B (p < .05). Significant differences were shown in mean VIFT scores between trials 1 and 2 (p < .001) and trials 1 and 3 (p < .001). Estimated maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) of YYIR and estimated VO2 max of 30-15IFT and 30-15IFT-WB was very strongly (r = 0.82) and strongly (r = 0.68) correlated. In conclusion, the 30-15IFT was deemed valid and reliable and the 30-15IFT-B was reliable in female soccer players. Table of


Here is the whole sweep of the Soviet experiment and experience as told by its last steward. Drawing on his own experience, rich archival material, and a keen sense of history and politics, Mikhail Gorbachev speaks his mind on a range of subjects concerning Russia's past, present, and future place in the world. Here is Gorbachev on the October Revolution, Gorbachev on the Cold War, and Gorbachev on key figures such as Lenin, Stalin, and Yeltsin.

 The book begins with a look back at 1917. While noting that tsarist Russia was not as backward as it is often portrayed, Gorbachev argues that the Bolshevik Revolution was inevitable and that it did much to modernize Russia. He strongly argues that the Soviet Union had a positive influence on social policy in the West, while maintaining that the development of socialism was cut short by Stalinist totalitarianism. In the next section, Gorbachev considers the fall of the USSR. What were the goals of perestroika? How did such a vast superpower disintegrate so quickly? From the awakening of ethnic tensions, to the inability of democrats to unite, to his own attempts to reform but preserve the union, Gorbachev retraces those fateful days and explains the origins of Russia's present crises.

 But Gorbachev does not just train his critical eye on the past. He lays out a blueprint for where Russia needs to go in the twenty-first century, suggesting ways to strengthen the federation and achieve meaningful economic and political reforms. In the final section of the book, Gorbachev examines the "new thinking" in foreign policy that helped to end the Cold War and shows how such approaches could help resolve a range of crises, including NATO expansion, the role of the UN, the fate of nuclear weapons, and environmental problems. On My Country and the World reveals the unique vision of a man who was a powerful actor on the world stage and remains a keen observer of Russia's experience in the twentieth century.

 This anniversary edition features a new foreword by William Taubman, award-winning biographer of Khrushchev and Gorbachev.


We explore differences in perception of national security policies between self-identified liberals, moderates, and conservatives from a national sample of U.S. adults. Using a discrete choice experiment, we also quantify each group's willingness to trade off select policies in exchange for reduced risk of a 9/11-style terrorist attack. Relative to other groups, liberals are more likely to view such policies as ineffective and susceptible to government abuse. They also perceive a lower threat of terrorism. All groups are willing to make trade-offs between civil liberties and risk of a terrorist attack. However, loss of civil liberties affects liberals more than conservatives. (JEL D61, H41, H56)


We report on Recent podocopid ostracods from the northern coast of Vietnam, describe two new ostracod species (Loxoconcha vietnamensis and Caudites huyeni), and describe the appendages of Loxoconcha ocellata Ho 1982. We identified 75 species from 15 Recent surface-sediment samples and recognized three biofacies (I, II, III) based on salinity ranges. Among these, biofacies II commonly occurs in marine to brackishwaters over a wide range of salinity. The Recent ostracod assemblages of the northeastern coast of Vietnam shows a strong connection with the ostracod fauna of the coast of China.


We quantified the metabolic cost to the Antarctic leafy liverwort Cephaloziella varians of responding to an abrupt increase in ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation exposure in the natural environment at Rothera Point on the western Antarctic Peninsula (67 °34′S, 68 °07′W). The liverwort was protected from exposure to UVB radiation for 44 days with screens containing Mylar polyester, after which time its thalli, which are normally black in colour, had become green owing to reduced concentrations of an anthocyanidin, identified here as riccionidin A, in thallus tips. Thalli were then exposed to an abrupt increase in UVB radiation by removing the screens. The thalli became visibly darker within 48 h of the screens being removed, resynthesizing riccionidin A to the same concentration as that present in thalli outside screens during this period. Chlorophyll fluorescence measurements indicated that nonphotochemical quenching was higher in the thalli formerly under the screens than in those not previously covered with screens, but that Fv/Fm and photochemical quenching were the same in the two groups of thalli. We used data from aqueous phase oxygen electrode measurements to calculate an estimate for carbon fixation by C. varians during the 48 h after the screens were removed. Assuming a photosynthetic quotient for Antarctic bryophytes of 1, these analyses indicated that the minimum weight of carbon used to synthesize riccionidin A was equivalent to 1.85% of the carbon fixed by thalli during the 48 h after the abrupt increase in UVB radiation exposure.


Within an undergraduate or graduate operations management course, inventory management is a critical area of learning and understanding for all students. This teaching module usually includes a discussion of the differences between continuous (Q) and periodic (P) review inventory systems. In our teaching, we have found that the most difficult concept for students to grasp is the concept of the review interval for the periodic review system. Therefore, in this paper, we develop a simulation using Crystal Ball to demonstrate for students the importance of using the review period of P+L in a periodic review system and how using this interval protects a firm more adequately against stockouts. This tool also provides an opportunity to introduce simulation concepts into operations management courses that do not normally have time to present these concepts.


Recent developments in wireless communication, mobile computing, and sensor technologies have prompted a new vision of the world in which we live. As witnesses the effects of Moore's law, which are evident in many aspects of innovative technical opportunity, such as cost, size, capacity, bandwidth, etc. These advances allow us to build new types of human-computer-environment interaction in augmented physical spaces. Ideally, mobile computing devices can go with people so that they can access information on the move as being constantly connected to the digital space. Sensor technologies enable mobile computing devices to sense their users and environments. This increases the interaction bandwidth between a human and a mobile computing device. The development of context-sensitive mobile computing systems requires considerable engineering skills. None of the existing approaches provides an effective means of obtaining location and environmental information using "standard" hardware and software. This raises the entry level of discovering more about this type of interaction to the designers. In addition, it is important to stress that relatively little is known about the usability problems that might arise from interaction with these different context-sensitive mobile computing applications. The focus of this thesis is on the development of a prototyping environment for context-sensitive mobile computing. This thesis makes two contributions. The most significant contribution is the presentation of the Glasgow Context Server (GCS). It has been specifically designed to address the concerns mentioned above. It successfully integrates an off-the-shelf radio Local Area Network (LAN) with the infrared sensors that have been a feature of many previous context-sensitive mobile computing applications. The GCS is intended to help interface designers validate the claimed benefits of location sensing, location disclosing and environment sensing applications. The second contribution is the working applications, in particular, a web-based annotation system for physical objects and a shopping assistant built upon the GCS environment. These demonstrations are used to evaluate the GCS approach and point out the challenging issues in computing technology as well as usability concern. The hope is that this research can provide interface designers with an in-depth reference to a prototyping environment for context-sensitive mobile computing applications.


In dusty radio-frequency (RF) discharges under micro-gravity conditions often a void is observed, a dust free region in the discharge center. This void is generated by the drag of the positive ions pulled out of the discharge by the electric field. We have developed a hydrodynamic model for dusty RF discharges in argon to study the behaviour of the void and the interaction between the dust and the plasma background. The model is based on a recently developed theory for the ion drag force and the charging of the dust. With this model, we studied the plasma inside the void and obtained an understanding of the way it is sustained by heat generated in the surrounding dust cloud. When this heating mechanism is suppressed by lowering the RF power, the plasma density inside the void decreases, even below the level where the void collapses, as was recently shown in experiments on board the International Space Station. In this paper we present results of simulations of this collapse. At reduced power levels the collapsed central cloud behaves as an electronegative plasma with corresponding low time-averaged electric fields. This enables the creation of relatively homogeneous Yukawa balls, containing more than 100 000 particles. On earth, thermophoresis can be used to balance gravity and obtain similar dust distributions.


THE PERCEIVED RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WELLNESS AND MICROAGGRESSIONS IN AFRICAN AMERICAN AND LATINA AMERICAN FEMALE DOCTORAL STUDENTS IN COUNSELOR EDUCATION PROGRAMS by Dawn M. Robinson Wellness has been identified as one of the primary goals in the counseling profession (Myers, 1992; Myers & Sweeney, 2005; Roscoe, 2009). Although wellness is one of the main goals of counseling, and there has been a plethora of research on wellness, there is a scarcity of wellness research focused on counselors, and counselors in training (Myers & Sweeney, 2008). Research on racial discrimination and microaggressions in students, as well as faculty in higher education suggests that many colleges and universities are hostile settings for people of color (Bradley & Holcomb-McCoy, 2004; Salazar, 2009; Salazar et al., 2004). Day to day experience with racial microaggressions can be detrimental to the well-being of people of color (Sue, Lin, Torino, Capodilupo, & Rivera, 2009; Troxel et al., 2003). This study utilized qualitative methods to examine the perceived relationship between racial microaggressions and wellness in female graduate students of color. A phenomenological approach (Creswell, 2007; Moustakas, 1994) guided this methodology. Participants included seven African American and one Latina American females who were enrolled in CACREP accredited counselor education doctoral programs in one region of the United States. Participants were interviewed face to face and/or by phone in two rounds of interviews. Interview questions addressed participants" experiences, their definitions of wellness, and their perceptions of the relationship between wellness and racial microaggressions. Participants discussed seven themes including: program experience, day to day experiences of microaggressions, types of microaggressions, wellness, the impact of microaggressions on wellness, wellness strategies in coping with microaggressions, and program expectations. The primary types of microaggressions experienced were microinsults (n=8) and microinequities (n=7). Microaggressions were found to have an impact on emotional, academic/career, overall, interpersonal/social, physical, psychological, personal, and spiritual components of wellness. Wellness strategies helped to decrease participants (n=4) vulnerability to racial microaggressions. This study provides information which informs counseling programs of the unique experiences and needs of Latina and African American female graduate students, with implications for increasing retention rates and improving the overall quality and wellness of these students. THE PERCEIVED RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WELLNESS AND MICROAGGRESSIONS IN AFRICAN AMERICAN AND LATINA AMERICAN FEMALE DOCTORAL STUDENTS IN COUNSELOR EDUCATION PROGRAMS by Dawn M. Robinson A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Counselor Education and Practice in the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services in the College of Education Georgia State University


In this paper, we present an analytical study of proximity-aware structured peer-to-peer networks under churn. We use a master-equation-based approach, which is used traditionally in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics to describe steady-state or transient phenomena. In earlier work we have demonstrated that this methodology is in fact also well suited to describing structured overlay networks under churn, by showing how we can accurately predict the average number of hops taken by a lookup, for any value of churn, for the Chord system. In this paper, we extend the analysis so as to also be able to predict lookup latency, given an average latency for the links in the network. Our results show that there exists a region in the parameter space of the model, depending on churn, the number of nodes, the maintenance rates and the delays in the network, when the network cannot function as a small world graph anymore, due to the farthest connections of a node always being wrong or dead. We also demonstrate how it is possible to analyse proximity neighbour selection or proximity route selection within this formalism.


On the fiftieth anniversary of the International Sociology of Sport Association and the International Review for the Sociology of Sport, the three guest editors for this special fiftieth anniversary issue of the IRSS, current ISSA president, Elizabeth CJ Pike, the immediate past president, Steven J Jackson, and current IRSS editor, Lawrence A Wenner, introduce the issue's genesis and theme: '50@50: Assessing the trajectory and challenges of the sociology of sport'. In considering the trajectory of the sociology of sport, the ISSA and the IRSS, they reflect on the early development of the field and the founding of an international association and journal aimed at understanding sport in the social and cultural dynamic; they note early and ongoing challenges concerning the academic seating of the field, its legitimacy and impact, and its engagement with the public sphere and the 'sociological imagination'. Speaking to the challenges of fashioning a special issue to represent the breadth of 50 years of the sociology of sport, the editors outline how a '50@50' strategy was implemented to bring perspectives from 50 notable scholars and to ensure that a diversity of voices was heard, not only on a range of themes, theories and methods, but from diverse identities and locales. Addressing two overarching challenges – the global dominance of English as the lingua franca of scholarly discourse and the need to advance interdisciplinarity and engagement with scholars beyond the sociology of sport – will be key to broadening dialogue to help ensure the future sustainability and progress of the sociology of sport.


Availability of a large number of application-specific spectral libraries has generated a great deal of interest in semi-blind unmixing of the hyperspectral image in both remote sensing and signal processing community. This study presents a novel, semi-supervised, parameter-free algorithm which employs sparsity measures for library pruning. The overall algorithm includes sparsity criteria based library pruning and sparse inversion method for abundance computation. In the pruning process, each library element is removed from the spectral library and the corresponding sparse abundance matrix is computed. The library elements which lead to higher sparsity are adjudged as image endmembers, based on the assumption that elimination of actual image endmember enhances sparsity level. The authors also present a detailed exploration of standard sparsity measures. They calculate the abundance of the pruned library by maximising Gini index or pq-norm sparsity, which satisfies the desirable sparsity properties and is easier to compute. The abundance calculation task is solved using the adaptive direction method of multipliers. The experimental results on several real and synthetic image datasets demonstrate the computational efficiency and proficiency the authors' method in the presence of noise and highly coherent spectral library.


Children need adequate and healthy nutrition for sufficient mental development and physical growth. Children also need nutrition education to gain the required skills for correct food selection. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the child-to-child approach based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) on the eating behaviors of elementary school students in Iran. In this quasi-experimental, interventional study with pretest/posttest design and a control group, 173 fourth grade female students of public elementary schools were selected using multistage random cluster sampling. Educational intervention was performed for the intervention group through the child-tochild approach. The research data were collected in the two groups using a 5-scale researcher-made questionnaire based on the constructs of TPB with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.86 before and one and six weeks after the intervention. Then, the data were analyzed using chi-square test, repeated measures ANOVA, and independent t-test. The results showed a significant difference between the two groups regarding the mean scores of attitude, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intention before and one and six weeks after the intervention. However, no significant difference was found between the two groups concerning the mean score of subjective norms. Moreover, the educational intervention resulted in improvement of the intervention group's eating behaviors. The findings of this research suggested the child-to-child approach and the TPB as effective methods in improvement of correct eating behaviors in children.


ABSTRACT
 Manipulating predator populations is often posed as a solution to depressed ungulate populations. However, predator—prey dynamics are complex and the effect on prey populations is often an interaction of predator life history, climate, prey density, and habitat quality. The effect of predator removal on ungulate and, more specifically, mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) populations has not been adequately investigated at a management scale. We tested the efficacy of removing coyotes (Cams latrans) and mountain lions (Puma concolor) for increasing survival and population growth rate of mule deer in southeastern Idaho, USA, during 1997–2003. We assigned 8 game management units (GMUs) to treatments under a 2 × 2 factorial design (treatments of coyote removal and lion removal) with 2 replicates of each treatment or reference area combination. We used methods typically available to wildlife managers to achieve predator removals and a combination of extensive and intensive monitoring in these 8 GMUs to test the hypothesis that predator removal increased vital rates and population growth rate of mule deer. We determined effects of predator removal on survival and causes of mortality in 2 intensive study sites, one with coyote and mountain lion removal and one without. We also considered the effects of other variables on survival including lagomorph abundance and climatic conditions. In these 2 intensive study areas, we monitored with radiotelemetry 250 neonates, 284 6-month-old fawns, and 521 adult females. At the extensive scale, we monitored mule deer population trend and December fawn ratios with helicopter surveys. Coyote removal decreased neonate mortality only when deer were apparently needed as alternate prey, thus removal was more effective when lagomorph populations were reduced. The best mortality model of mule deer captured at 6 months of age included summer precipitation, winter precipitation, fawn mass, and mountain lion removal. Over-winter mortality of adult female mule deer decreased with removal of mountain lions. Precipitation variables were included in most competing mortality models for all age classes of mule deer. Mountain lion removal increased fawn ratios and our models predicted fawn ratios would increase 6% at average removal rates (3.53/1,000 km2) and 27% at maximum removal rates (14.18/1,000 km). Across our extensive set of 8 GMUs, coyote removal had no effect on December fawn ratios. We also detected no strong effect of coyote or mountain lion removal alone on mule deer population trend; the best population-growth-rate model included previous year's mountain lion removal and winter severity, yet explained only 27% of the variance in population growth rate. Winter severity in the current and previous winter was the most important influence on mule deer population growth. The lack of response in fawn ratio or mule deer abundance to coyote reduction at this extensive (landscape) scale suggests that decreased neonate mortality due to coyote removal is partially compensatory. Annual removal of coyotes was not an effective method to increase mule deer populations in Idaho because coyote removal increased radiocollared neonate fawn survival only under particular combinations of prey densities and weather conditions, and the increase did not result in population growth. Coyote-removal programs targeted in areas where mortality of mule deer fawns is known to be additive and coyote-removal conditions are successful may influence mule deer population vital rates but likely will not change direction of population trend. Although mountain lion removal increased mule-deer survival and fawn ratios, we were unable to demonstrate significant changes in population trend with mountain lion removal. In conclusion, benefits of predator removal appear to be marginal and short term in southeastern Idaho and likely will not appreciably change long-term dynamics of mule deer populations in the intermountain west.


Abstract A typology of learning skills is developed that is congruent with the learning style descriptions of experiential learning theory. The typology is holistic, allowing both idiographic and normative comparisons of individuals and situations, and the 'fit' between them. Learning style describes basic and generalised dimensions of individuality in learning, while a learning skill is more situational and subject to intentional development. The Learning Skills Profile (LSP) is a 72‐item, modified Q‐sort assessment instrument designed to assess learning skills. Data from numerous studies are reviewed and reported to establish the LSP's reliability, relational validity, criterion and construct validity. The LSP can be used as a vehicle for providing personal and organisational feedback on skills, and to describe the skills required by different jobs and educational programs.


In threshold public-key encryption, the decryption key is divided into n shares, each one of which is given to a different decryption user in order to avoid single points of failure. In this study, we propose a simple and efficient non-interactive threshold publickey encryption scheme by using the hashed Diffie-Hellman assumption in bilinear groups. Compared with the other related constructions, the proposed scheme is more efficient.


Why did the United States intervene in World War I, breaking with its long tradition of noninvolvement in European political and military conflicts? During the 1920s and 1930s, many "revisionist" historians argued that American efforts to protect its trade with the Allies ultimately led to intervention. The logic of the revisionist position closely parallels the contemporary liberal case that interdependence promotes peace but arrives at different conclusions about the relationship between trade and conflict. Historians have largely abandoned this economic interpretation of American intervention, but data on the impact of the wartime export boom on the United States suggest that it should be reconsidered. The export boom was so large that it would have been difficult to ignore, and its progress corresponds to the timing of important decisions leading to American belligerency. An analysis of congressional voting on war-related measures also suggests that export income helped shape politicians' views of the war.I would like to thank Katherine Barbieri, John Coogan, David Clark, Jeffry Frieden, Jack Levy, Brian Lai, Timothy McKeown, David Painter, Strom Thacker, and participants in the world politics workshop at Binghamton University, the political economy workshop at Harvard University, and the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, for their many comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this article. Lisa Martin and several anonymous reviewers at International Organization also made many valuable suggestions. I am especially grateful to Thomas Walker, whose good-natured skepticism prompted me to write this paper. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2005 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. Any remaining errors and misinterpretations are my responsibility.


You're beyond the basics, so dive right in and really take control of your communications and workday! This supremely organized reference packs hundreds of timesaving solutions, troubleshooting tips, and workarounds. It's all muscle and no fluff. Discover how the experts manage Outlook 2010 -- and challenge yourself to new levels of mastery. Customize and configure Outlook 2010 with advanced setup options Organize and share your calendar, tasks, and notes to optimize efficiency Learn expert ways to manage your contacts and other critical data Extend the power of Outlook by using it with Microsoft Word, Access, and Excel Collaborate through Microsoft SharePoint 2010 libraries and files Implement virus protection, encryption, spam filters, and other security features Perform Outlook tasks through a Web browser or with a mobile device Configure Outlook as a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 client The book website includes a fully searchable online edition of this book, with unlimited access on the Web.


Some years ago I completed an M. A. degree at Huddersfield
University on 'The Fly Sheet Controversy and the Wesleyan
Reform movement in Birstall and the Spen Valley 1849-1857'. The
present study is wider in scope and includes all the divisions
within Methodism and is centred on Bradford, but includes the
Bingley and Shipley circuits and the Birstall and Cleckheaton
circuits, the whole being referred to as 'the Bradford area'.

Between 1796 and 1857 several groups of Methodists left
their Wesleyan chapels to create new societies, still Methodist
in doctrine and tradition, but with different styles of church
government. The Independent Methodists, Primitive Methodists
and Bible Christians were looking for greater freedom to
organise their worship and evangelical outreach without the
restrictions imposed by Conference and the ministers. In other
cases secessions followed disputes over specific issues - the
Methodist New Connexion sought greater democracy and more lay
involvement, the Protestant Methodists resented the approval by
Conference of an organ at Brunswick Chapel, the Wesleyan
Methodist Association objected to arrangements for ministerial
training and the Wesleyan Reformers complained of ministerial
domination of Methodism.

Each division was different, but behind them all lay a
pattern of continuing conflict between ministers and lay
members. This obliged many Methodists to make difficult and
far-reaching choices between remaining within Wesleyan
Methodism and making a new commitment to an uncertain future.
In every dispute both sides claimed the moral high ground, and
both were certain that they were right. Wesleyan ministers
claimed authority in accordance with the principle of the
Pastoral Office, but found themselves in a difficult situation,
being obliged by Conference to rule as well as to lead. Lay
members felt in a strong position among family and friends
within their chapels, but many were unwilling to give
unquestioning obedience to men who were little different in
background from themselves, preferring instead a more open and
more democratic style of Methodism. The national background of
each dispute is outlined before its impact on the Methodists in
the Bradford area is considered in detail, and the outcome of
each confrontation is then examined.

An attempt is then made to assess the significance of
membership of the different Methodist denominations in terms of
political activities and relationships with other churches,
although it is suggested that little evidence is available to
distinguish between members of the various Methodist groups.

In summary, conflict between ministers supported by
Conference and the lay members weakened local Methodism. The
hardening of attitudes by both sides and their refusal to
compromise, which led to the creation of new Methodist groups,
destroyed the unity of Methodism in the Bradford area.


This thesis investigates the dynamics of the relationship between personal communications and travel, using agent-based computer simulation modelling. It focuses on the interaction between social, communication and transport networks. The novelty of the thesis lies in using this new modelling technique to identify the important factors underlying this relationship, to get a better understanding of why communication and travel have grown together, and to address the question 'Why are communication and travel complements, not substitutes?' A new way of modelling social networks is presented, based on social circles, which reflects the characteristics of social networks better than the standard network models. This social network model is then used as the basis for three case studies, drawing on qualitative and quantitative secondary data. The first case study looks at the development of mail from 1840 to the start of the First World War; the second at fixed-line phones from 1951 to 2001; and the third at mobile communications and the internet from 1998 to 2007, with forecasts to 2021. The key conclusion is that communication networks evolve out of social networks as does travel for social purposes. When a new communications technology is introduced, affordability is always an initial constraint on take-up, but in the nineteenth century literacy was also important, as is 'digital literacy' in the late twentieth and early twentyfirst centuries. Literacy enables people to keep in touch with those who are geographically remote and this communication is likely to engender travel. Because the internet facilitates meeting new people, this effect is strengthened in contrast to earlier communication modes which have in general only facilitated contact between people who are already known to one another.


Before 1960: • 2-nd place among the intra-terraneous non-out-flow lakes (after the Caspian sea) • 4-th place among the lakes (after the Caspian sea, the Great American lakes and the lake of Victoria)

Parameters of the Aral Sea:

on 1960 on 2018 (the Lesser Aral) Area – 68 999 sq.km2 Area – 3 300 km2 Volume – 1064 km3 Volume – 29 km3 Salinity – 10% Salinity – 17%

The dried Aral Sea is the greatest ecological catastrophe of our times. The topicality of the problem of the disappearing Aral Sea is a threat not only to our region but to the whole of the world. As a result of its drying the wind annually raises up to 75 millions of tons of dust and poisonous salt which are already discovered in Europe and Antarctic Continent, that's why the Aral region is a threat to the world. Before Kazakhstan and the world community stands the problem of restoration of the Aral bio-diversity and good-quality life for the people who live there.

As the head of UNO Antonio Gyterrish said (in 2018): "The Aral Sea can become the symbol of disruption of the planet by mankind ". He called to take lessons from this tragedy and mobilize the whole international community for making actions against ecological catastrophe.

The idea is in the elaboration of biblio-volunteer activity directed at the search and wide-spreading of knowledge for the communities for the stabilization of the ecological and socio-economic state of the Aral Sea. The beginning of our work is the formation and actualization of the data-base of source-study bibliography in the revival of cultural-historical ecological environment of the Near-Aral region (2017-18), the results of which will be presented at the stand. The final goal is a creation of an universal biblio-volunteer movement to promote the conservation of biological variety of the eco-systems of the Near-Aral region.

The ways of solution:

• The creation of the team of volunteers of the "Youth ambassadors" under the slogan "Into steady future together" as exemplified by the Experience of the volunteers (2018) from the Aral district library in the salvation of the ecological environment of the Near-Aral region. They carried out the planting of the green grasses and trees and the planting of the saksaul (Haloxylon ammodendron) immediately upon the dried bottom of the Aral Sea for the purposes of lowering of salt and dust sweepings from the bottom of the dried sea and also the protection of the people of the inhabited points and territories of agricultural use , the animal and plant world of the near Aral Sea region. • To organize cooperation with local volunteer foundations – To hold the cycles of ecological educational activities – Cooperation with local scientists and environmental organizations, foreign environmental movements and academic community of near and far abroad • The creation of ecological systems of Kazakhstani Near Aral region for improving the living conditions of the local population through the wide-spreading of "the green belt " with the use of the local kinds of saksaul, sand acacia, grebenshchik, kakrabarak, Euphratian poplar and others with the attraction of the local and world communities.

• The creation of the cultural-historical tourist complex, which includes e-tengri library, yurta-settlements and different cognitive routes around the region; •

The expected results:

1. Revival of biological diversity environment and improvement of life of the local population. 2. Development of ecological tourism. 3. Activization of the local community in solving important environmental problems 4. Biodiversity conservation activity of an universal national environmental movement


Four experiments investigated perception of major and minor thirds whose component tones were sounded simultaneously. Effects akin to categorical perception of speech sounds were found. In the first experiment, musicians demonstrated relatively sharp category boundaries in identification and peaks near the boundary in discrimination tasks of an interval continuum where the bottom note was always an F and the top note varied from A to A flat in seven equal logarithmic steps. Nonmusicians showed these effects only to a small extent. The musicians showed higher than predicted discrimination performance overall, and reaction time increases at category boundaries. In the second experiment, musicians failed to consistently identify or discriminate thirds which varied in absolute pitch, but retained the proper interval ratio. In the last two experiments, using selective adaptation, consistent shifts were found in both identification and discrimination, similar to those found in speech experiments. Manipulations of adapting and test showed that the mechanism underlying the effect appears to be centrally mediated and confined to a frequency-specific level. A multistage model of interval perception, where the first stages deal only with specific pitches may account for the results.


Extreme aspect ratio semiconductor structures are critical to modern optoelectronic technology because of their ability to waveguide light and transport electrons. Waveguides formed from almost any material by conventional micro/nanofabrication techniques typically have significant surface roughness that scatters light and is a constraining factor in most optoelectronic devices. For example, fabricated planar silica waveguides have optical losses 3 to 5 orders of magnitude higher than silica fibers, in part due to surface roughness. For these reasons silica nanofibers have been proposed as alternatives to fabricated silica or semiconductor channels for waveguiding of light in miniaturized optical devices, as they meet the strict requirements for surface roughness and diameter uniformity required for low loss. An additional advantage of these silica fibers is that they have a circular cross section that can simultaneously guide both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations without cutoff. In contrast the rectilinear cross sections of microfabricated planar waveguides can effectively guide only one polarization without cutoff. However, semiconductors in general exhibit a far broader range of useful optoelectronic function than silica glass because of their ability to form hetero and homojunctions, serve as optical gain media over a broad range of wavelengths, and their superior non-linear optical properties.


Programs for parents of young children hold considerable promise for improving children's life-course trajectories and for reducing health and development problems and associated costs to government and society. To date, this promise has not been achieved. Fulfilling the potential of parenting interventions will require substantial improvements in current practice for developing and testing such programs. Intervention development will be improved if clinicians and investigators ground parenting interventions in theory and epidemiology; and carefully pilot them to ascertain program feasibility, participant engagement, and behavioral change prior to testing them in randomized trials. Studies of parenting interventions will be improved if they adhere to the highest standards for randomization; if they examine objectively measured outcomes with clear public health relevance; and if they minimize selection factors known to compromise the analysis of data. Policy and practice recommendations for parenting interventions will be improved if they are based upon replicated randomized controlled trials, if the interventions are tested with different populations living in different contexts, and if they are examined in dissemination studies before public investments are made in such programs. Procedures need to be developed to ensure that the essential elements of evidence-based parenting programs can be implemented reliably in a variety of practice settings so that they will produce their intended effects. To date, few programs have met these high programmatic and evidentiary standards, with the result that many large-scale policy initiatives for at-risk parents have failed. Evidence is accumulating, however, that some programs delivered by professionals, especially nurse home visiting programs for pregnant women and parents of young children, produce replicable effects on children's health and development, and that these programs can be reliably reproduced with different populations living in a variety of community settings.


Early detection of gastrointestinal cancer is an actual public health problem. The implementation of the modern endoscopic diagnostic methods based on the progressive digital technologies significantly reduce the risks of diagnostic errors and contributes to the effective solution of that problem. P u r p o s e : to clarify the possibilities of the early detection of gastrointestinal cancer by equipping the endoscopy unit of the city district hospital with the modern digital endoscopes, including devices with zoom functions – ZOOM. M a t e r i a l s a n d m e t h o d s . The article analyzes the statistical data of the work of the endoscopy unit of Nizniy Tagil State city hospital № 1 from 2013 to 2022 (except 2020–21, when the hospital was completely redesigned as a COVID-hospital). R e s u l t s . A clear relationship between the increase in the number of detected oncopathologies of the gastrointestinal tract and the modern technical equipment of the endoscopic units under the modernization of primary health care program in the Sverdlovsk region in 2021 is presented. Based on risk-based approaches and evidence-based medicine data, the importance expert-class equipment in the routine endoscopic practice in the primary healthcare district hospital for diagnosing gastrointestinal cancer at an early stage is shown. Modern approaches to optical endoscopic diagnostics are analyzed, as well as the potential risks of diagnostic errors associated with technical equipment and possible measures to reduce these risks for further improvement of primary endoscopic diagnostics aimed at detecting gastrointestinal cancer in the early stages are determined, the expediency of equipping endoscopic units of primary care medical organizations with endoscopes inreached magnification functions – ZOOM, as well as photo and video recording of digital images with the possibility of archiving, color printing and further expert analysis of endoscopic images. C o n s e q u e n c e . From the presented statistical data, it is clearly seen how with the improvement of the equipment quality, the detection of gastrointestinal cancer of various localizations is growing.


Majority logic is a powerful generalization of common AND/OR logic. Original two-level and multi-level logic networks can use majority operators as primitive connective, in place of AND/ORs. In such a way, Boolean functions have novel means for compact representation and efficient manipulation. In this paper, we focus on two-level logic representation. We define a Majority Normal Form (MNF), as an alternative to traditional Disjunctive Normal Form (DNF) and Conjunctive Normal Form (CNF). After a brief investigation on the MNF expressive power, we study the problem of MNF-SATisfiability (MNF-SAT). We prove that MNF-SAT is NP-complete, as its CNF-SAT counterpart. However, we show practical restrictions on MNF formula whose satisfiability can be decided in polynomial time. We finally propose a simple algorithm to solve MNF- SAT, based on the intrinsic functionality of two-level majority logic. Although an automated MNF-SAT solver is still under construction, manual examples already demonstrate promising opportunities.


This study investigates the complex flow structure generated by riparian emergent vegetation along the edge of floodplain. Detailed velocity and boundary shear stress measurements were carried out for various arrangements of emergent rigid cylindric rods of 3 mm, 6 mm and 9 mm diameters and for three different rod densities. In addition, the impact of foliage on the flow field was assessed during a series of experiments where brushes were used instead of smooth rods. The results of these new experiments are first presented. In addition to the laboratory data, field data was obtained through Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler measurements for two flood events in a stretch of the river Rhone that can be approximated to a straight compound channel with vegetated banks. The analysis of the flow structure highlights the presence of strong secondary circulation and increased vorticity on the river banks.

The rods on the edge of the floodplain increase significantly flow resistance, reducing velocity and decreasing boundary shear stress. Flow rate was seen to decrease with increasing vegetative density for all cases except when foliage was added. This suggests that an optimum threshold density, for which a smaller density would lead to an increased flow rate might exist. Wakes trailing downstream of the vegetation stem, planform coherent structures advected between the main channel and the floodplain, and eddying motion in the flow due to enhanced turbulence anisotropy are among the defining patterns observed in the studied compound channel flows with one line of emergent vegetation along the edge of the floodplain. The Shiono and Knight Method (SKM) was modified in order to account for the increased turbulence activity due to the rods. The drag force term was introduced in the same way as in the work of Rameshwaran and Shiono (2007). However, a new term was added to the transverse shear stress term in the form of an Elder formulation, incorporating a friction drag coefficient which can be derived from the experimental data. In this proposed version, the advection term was set to zero. Another version of the SKM, similar to Rameshwaran and Shiono (2007), was also tested with the addition of a local drag friction only applied in the rod region. The proposed SKM version without the advection term was favored as it can be more closely related to the experimental data and to physical processes.

Finally, the capabilities of Telemac-2D were tested against the experimental data for various turbulence models. The Large Eddy Simulation turbulence model highlighted some unsteady flow patterns that were observed during experiments, while satisfactorily predicting the lateral velocity and boundary shear stress distributions.


Point clouds captured from Unmanned Aerial Systems are increasingly relied upon to provide information describing the structure of forests. The quality of the information derived from these point clouds is dependent on a range of variables, including the type and structure of the forest, weather conditions and flying parameters. A key requirement to achieve accurate estimates of height based metrics describing forest structure is a source of ground information. This study explores the availability and reliability of ground surface points available within point clouds captured in six forests of different structure (canopy cover and height), using three image capture and processing strategies, consisting of nadir, oblique and composite nadir/oblique image networks. The ground information was extracted through manual segmentation of the point clouds as well as through the use of two commonly used ground filters, LAStools lasground and the Cloth Simulation Filter. The outcomes of these strategies were assessed against ground control captured with a Total Station. Results indicate that a small increase in the number of ground points captured (between 0 and 5% of a 10 m radius plot) can be achieved through the use of a composite image network. In the case of manually identified ground points, this reduced the root mean square error (RMSE) error of the terrain model by between 1 and 11 cm, with greater reductions seen in plots with high canopy cover. The ground filters trialled were not able to exploit the extra information in the point clouds and inconsistent results in terrain RMSE were obtained across the various plots and imaging network configurations. The use of a composite network also provided greater penetration into the canopy, which is likely to improve the representation of mid-canopy elements.


BACKGROUND: Sigma (σ)-receptor agonists attenuate brain injury after experimental focal cerebral ischemia in several species. We tested the hypothesis that the potent, prototypical σ1-receptor agonist, 4-phenyl-1-(4-phenylbutyl) piperidine (PPBP), protects neurons by a mechanism involving the antiapoptotic protein bcl-2. METHODS: Primary cortical neuronal cultures were exposed to either 2 h of oxygen–glucose deprivation (OGD) or glutamate (100 &mgr;M). PPBP treatment was initiated either 15 min prior to the insult or at 15 min postinsult then continued for 24 h. In another set of experiments, cultured neurons were preincubated for 2 h prior to PPBP treatment with σ1-receptor antagonist, rimcazole, in a dose-dependent manner. Alive and dead cells were detected with calcein-AM and propidium iodide respectively. Bcl-2 and bax expression were determined by quantitative real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and western blotting, and DNA damage was detected by TUNEL staining. RESULTS: PPBP pretreatment attenuated neuronal injury induced by OGD or glutamate (50 or 100 &mgr;M). This protection was reversed with rimcazole (cell death: OGD 48 ± 2%, OGD plus PPBP 31 ± 3%, OGD plus PPBP with rimcazole 46 ± 2%). PPBP treatment increased bcl-2 but not bax mRNA levels. PPBP's ability to preserve bcl-2 protein after OGD by PPBP was fully abolished by rimcazole. Lastly, PPBP reduced the number of TUNEL-positive cells after OGD, suggesting fewer cells with overt DNA damage. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate that PPBP reduces cell death in vitro by a mechanism involving receptor-dependent preservation of protective genes such as bcl-2


Traditional methods of control allocation optimization have shown difficulties in exploiting the full potential of controlling a large array of control surfaces. This research investigates the potential of employing artificial intelligence methods like neurocomputing to the control allocation optimization problem of Hybrid Wing Body (HWB) aircraft concepts for minimizing control power, hinge moments, and actuator forces, while keeping the system weights within acceptable limits. The main objective is to develop a proof-of-concept process suitable to demonstrate the potential of using neurocomputing for optimizing actuation power for aircraft featuring multiple independently actuated control surfaces and wing flexibility. An aeroelastic OREIO model was used to generate a database of hinge moment and actuation power characteristics for an array of control surface deflections. Artificial neural network incorporating a genetic algorithm then performs control allocation optimization for an example aircraft. The results showed that for the half-span model, the optimization results (for the sum of the required hinge moment) are improved by more than 11%, whereas for the full-span model, the same approach improved the result by nearly 14% over the best MSC Nastran solution by using the neural network optimization process. The results were improved by 23% and 27% over the case where only the elevator is used for both half-span and full-span models, respectively. The methods developed and applied here can be used for a wide variety of aircraft configurations.


OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to (i) identify subpopulations of patients in an occupational setting who will still have or develop chronic low-back pain (LBP) and (ii) evaluate a previously developed prediction model based on the determined subpopulations.

METHOD
In this prospective cohort, study data were analyzed from three merged randomized controlled trials, conducted in an occupational setting (N=622). Latent class growth analysis (LCGA) was used to distinguish patients with a different course of pain intensity measured over 12 months. The determined subpopulations were used to derive a definition for chronic LBP and evaluate an existing model to predict chronic LBP.

RESULTS
The LCGA model identified three subpopulations of LBP patients. These were used to define recovering (353) and chronic (269) patients. None of the interventions showed a relevant treatment effect over another but the rate of decline in symptoms during the first months of the intervention seems to predict recovery. The prediction model, based on this dichotomous outcome, with the variables pain intensity, kinesiophobia and a clinically relevant change in pain intensity and functional status in the first three months, showed a bootstrap-corrected performance with an area under the operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.75 and explained variance of 0.26.

CONCLUSION
In an occupational setting, different subpopulations of chronic LBP patients could be identified using LCGA. The prediction model based on these subpopulations showed a promising predictive performance.


The first contribution of this paper is to use UK monthly firm-level data to show that there is a large amount of transitory volatility in firm-level average earnings from month to month. We conclude that this cannot all be explained away as the consequence of measurement error, composition effects or variation in remunerated hours i.e. we suggest this volatility is real. The second contribution of the paper is to argue that this volatility cannot be interpreted as high flexibility in the shadow cost of labour to employers because of sizeable frictions in the labour market. Indeed we point out that it is the existence of frictions that allow the volatility to exist. Consequently we argue that this volatility would be expected to have only small allocational consequences and that measures of base wages are more useful in drawing conclusions about wage flexibility.


This paper provides an overview of market-oriented power sector reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America over the past twenty-five years. The role of political economy contextualities in driving, constraining or otherwise influencing power sector reform is explored through a review of the essential literature. Though this literature is considered to have considerably expanded the scope of understanding around power sector reform and development, political economy research in the area is found to be lacking in methodological coherence and theoretical substance. Future efforts are needed to systematically bring together the array of insights, methodological approaches and recommendations in this literature, as well as better bound, differentiate and systemise political economy research in the area going forward. Two initial frameworks are advanced through this paper in relation to this dual research imperative.


The 1997 Asian financial crisis has helped to further regional financial and monetary cooperation. The purpose of this paper is to examine these efforts, their recent developments, and to predict the prospects of such cooperation. In order to deepen financial and monetary integration, the region must overcome several difficulties. The region's appetite for financial market liberalization has been dampened by the crisis and countries are building up foreign exchange reserves instead of reforming domestic financial markets. The diverse structures and development levels of the financial sector among the members is another obstacle. The fact that Japan does not have strong incentives for monetary integration and that the business cycle of member countries is not synchronized are obstacles to monetary integration. Also, the proliferation of FTAs has turned attention away from regional cooperation. Finally regional cooperation needs a leader that can bring impetus to institution building. As the two possible candidates, China and Japan, have been competitors rather than collaborators, the most realistic scenario for regional cooperation is that the ASEAN + 3 countries will muddle through and that the process will be painstakingly slow.


Over the last few years deep learning methods have emerged as one of the most prominent approaches for video analysis. However, so far their most successful applications have been in the area of video classification and detection, i.e., problems involving the prediction of a single class label or a handful of output variables per video. Furthermore, while deep networks are commonly recognized as the best models to use in these domains, there is a widespread perception that in order to yield successful results they often require time-consuming architecture search, manual tweaking of parameters and computationally intensive preprocessing or post-processing methods. In this paper we challenge these views by presenting a deep 3D convolutional architecture trained end to end to perform voxel-level prediction, i.e., to output a variable at every voxel of the video. Most importantly, we show that the same exact architecture can be used to achieve competitive results on three widely different voxel-prediction tasks: video semantic segmentation, optical flow estimation, and video coloring. The three networks learned on these problems are trained from raw video without any form of preprocessing and their outputs do not require post-processing to achieve outstanding performance. Thus, they offer an efficient alternative to traditional and much more computationally expensive methods in these video domains.


This study was aimed to validate the Italian version of the Children's Coping Strategies Checklist-Revision1 (CCSC-R1; Ayers & Sandler, 1999). Seven hundred and forty-seven youngsters (50.5% boys) from two age groups (children: aged 9-10; early adolescents: aged 11-14) participated in the study. Dimensionality of the CCSC-R1 was explored by means of confirmatory factor analyses and testing alternative models. The scale internal consistency and invariance over age and gender were examined, as well as genderand age-related differences in the CCSC-R1 scores. The scale concurrent validity was explored by investigating the associations of the CCSC-R1 dimensions with forms of involvement in bullying and social status among peers in a subsample (N = 255). Analyses provided evidence that a five-factor structure model was most effective. Internal validity of the scale and its partial scalar invariance over age and gender were confirmed. Several of the CCSC-R1 dimensions were associated with involvement in bullying and social status in the expected directions.


While problem solving is a relatively well understood process, problem framing is less well understood, particularly with regard to supporting students to learn as they frame problems. Project-based learning classrooms are an ideal setting to investigate how teachers facilitate this process. Using participant observation, this study investigated how teachers supported students in taking ownership over the framing of problems in a charter school that serves students who have been underserved by traditional schooling. Data include audio/video records, field notes, interviews, and student work from a nineweek project. Interaction analysis was used to examine ownership and learning over time. Analysis suggests that providing a relevant yet revisable design problem, giving instruction about design process as iterative, and problematizing a model of design process supported students in taking ownership over the framing of the problem; students were motivated to pose questions and gathered information purposefully, thereby learning in the process.


In contrast with the struggle of 19th and 20th century women all over the world to be admitted to medical schools, women in ancient Greece and Rome were apparently increasingly at liberty to practise medicine from the 4th century BC onwards. The available evidence offers conclusive proof of this more tolerant attitude. The sources are few in number, but fragmentary information can be gleaned from medical writers, passing remarks in Greek and Latin authors, and funerary inscriptions. These sources emphasise the professions of midwife and female doctor. Although there is some overlap between their duties, we find that in Greece a distinction was drawn between maia and iatrike as early as the 4th century BC, while in Rome the two professions of obstetrix and medica or iatrina were well established by the 1st century BC. The training, personal characteristics, qualifications, duties, status and remuneration of practitioners of the two professions will be considered in this study. The funerary inscriptions of female doctors reveal that they were honoured in the same way as men for exceptional services; medical works were also dedicated to them as colleagues, and those of them who wrote texts of their own were quoted with respect. Thus, although there were never very many female doctors, the classical world does not seem to have placed insurmountable obstacles in the way of women who wished to practise medicine.


This article explores how nine Swedish cultural editors and managers in mainstream media institutions define cultural journalism and its political dimensions during times of increased digitization and media convergence. Swedish cultural journalism is aesthetic and political critique applied to subject areas (music, literature, etc.) and contemporary societal and ethical issues. Drawing on Zelizer we ask whether there is a common interpretive community of cultural journalists in different media regarding: (1) how they define their scope, (2) how they understand "the political" in cultural journalism and its implications for democracy, and (3) how they view media convergence and digitalization. We find that although editors/managers from different media share a basic understanding of cultural journalism as an alternative perspective to news, "the political" in cultural journalism is approached differently in the press and the public service broadcast media. Furthermore, due in part to structural conditions, they also see the effects of digitization differently, forming sub-communities on two counts. This study thus contributes new knowledge to a field previously focused almost exclusively on newspapers.


Redundant Basis Multipliers Over Galois Field (GF(2)) have gained huge popularity in elliptic curve cryptography(ECC)mainly because of their negligible hardware cost for squaring and modular reduction. In this paper, we have proposed a novel recursive decomposition algorithm for RB multiplication to obtain high-throughput digit-serial implementation. Through efficient projection of signalflow graph (SFG) of the proposed algorithm ,a highly regular processor-space sets, we have modified the PSFG suitably and performed efficient feed-forward cutset retiming to derive three novel multipliers which not only involve significantly less time-complexity than the existing ones but also require less area and less power consumption compared with the others. Both theoretical analysis and synthesis results con firm the efficiency of proposed multipliers over the existing ones. The synthesis results for field programmable gate array (FPGA) and application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) realization of the proposed designs and competing existing designs are compared. It is shown that the proposed highthroughput structures are the best among the corresponding designs, for FPGA and ASIC implementation. It is shown that the proposed designs can achieve up to 94% and 60% savings of area-delay-power product (ADPP) on FPGA and ASIC implementation over the best of the existing designs, respectively.


Since New Hampshire introduced the first modern state-sponsored lottery in 1964, 41 other states plus the District of Columbia have adopted lotteries. Lottery ticket sales in the United States topped $48 billion in 2004, with state governments reaping nearly $14 billion in net lottery revenue. In this paper the authors attempt to answer the question of why some states have adopted lotteries and others have not. First, they establish a framework for analyzing the determination of public policies that highlights the roles of individual voters, interest groups, and politicians within a state as well as the influence of policies in neighboring states. The authors then introduce some general explanations for the adoption of a new tax that stress the role of economic development, fiscal health, election cycles, political parties, and geography. Next, because the lottery adoption decision is more than simply a tax decision, a number of factors specific to this decision are identified. State income, lottery adoption by neighboring states, the timing of elections, and the role of organized interest groups, especially the opposition of certain religious organizations, are significant factors explaining lottery adoption.


Network-wide broadcasting and multicasting are two important routing schemes used in group communications. In network-wide broadcasting, generated packets at the source node are distributed to all nodes in the network, while multicasting delivers the packets only to a subset of the nodes by creating and maintaining a data dissemination structure. Due to the overhead in multicasting, in certain situations, it is more efficient to use network-wide broadcasting instead of multicasting, even when the data is destined to a subset of the nodes. In this paper we analyze a specific broadcasting protocol and a specific multicasting protocol for two performance metrics, namely spectrum efficiency and energy efficiency, and determine the conditions that make one of them preferable over the other.