To the Editor: The article by Gagon et al regarding patient beliefs and barriers in medication adherence provided an introductory look into the critical need for health care providers to assess and discuss negative beliefs regarding medications when implementing a medication regimen. The article provided several key findings regarding the effect of patient beliefs and barriers on medication adherence; however, the study could have been further enhanced with some minor improvements. The majority of the participants in the study were of African-American or Hispanic background, which could indicate that cultural background has an effect on patient beliefs leading to variations in medication adherence. The discussion failed to mention any cultural implications of this study. Given that the US Census Bureau estimates that by the year 2060, 20% of the US population will be foreign born and by the year 2044, 50% of all Americans will belong to a minority group, it is important for the authors to consider the impact of cultural beliefs on individual health and medication adherence. The authors did not give recommendations for future studies which could be further enhanced by examining specific cultures such as Hispanic/Latinos, Asian-Americans, Native-Americans, or Middle-Eastern heritage, as well as specific beliefs regarding medications pertaining to these cultures. Furthermore, the selection of participants to be included in the study may have resulted in sampling bias. Although the study examined patients reporting to the health center for regularly scheduled appointments, this subgroup of participants may inherently be more compliant than the general population as they are not only scheduling regular appointments, but also regularly attending these appointments and thus not representative of the general population. The study's primary outcome was to evaluate patient adherence to medication and specifically examined prescribed medication taken regularly by using the 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale, but the authors failed to indicate what the scale specifies as "regular" when taking medications and whether missing 1 dose of medication per week versus missing 1 dose of a medication monthly is still considered taking prescribed medications regularly. Next, the study also made note that younger individuals (18 to 25 years) had lower adherence rates compared with the other age categories. However, the authors never gave any explanation for these findings. For example, it is possible that these findings may be due to personality characteristics attributable to that age range, or because individuals that age are less likely to be taking multiple medications, all which are important for providers to consider. The study concludes that providers need to address negative beliefs held by patients to increase adherence and decrease the morbidity and mortality associated with chronic disease, yet the authors did not give any recommendations for providers for addressing negative beliefs. The discussion section of the study would have been further enhanced had they provided information for providers regarding how to address beliefs in patients and how to eliminate misunderstanding, while remaining culturally sensitive. The Agency for Health care Research and Quality by the US Department of Health and Human Services gives several recommendations useful to providers in addressing health beliefs. Susana Romero-Martinez College of Health Care Sciences Nova Southeastern University Fort Myers, FL email@example.com


OBJECTIVES
Atherosclerosis of the lumbar vessels has been suggested as a mechanism leading to low-back pain (LBP). We studied whether seven cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors predict LBP.

METHODS
A sample (N=902) stratified by gender, age, and occupational class was drawn from employees in an engineering company in 1973 and examined for body mass index (BMI), smoking, exercise, serum total cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and LBP. By November 2000, 232 persons had died, 108 from cardiovascular causes. In 2000, 546 (81% of the survivors) responded to a follow-up questionnaire on, for example, LBP.

RESULTS
Among the men, frequent local LBP at follow-up was predicted by high triglyceride and DBP levels and being a past smoker at baseline, adjusted for age, occupational class and frequent local LBP at baseline. In analogous models, high triglyceride and SBP levels and smoking (past and current) predicted frequent radiating LBP. An increased LBP score was predicted by a high BMI, serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, SBP and DBP levels, and smoking status at baseline. When BMI was allowed for, the associations between triglyceride level and all LBP outcomes persisted, as well as the association between SBP and frequent radiating LBP and an increased LBP score. An overall score of CVD risk factors showed a graded association with increased LBP. Among the women, a high BMI predicted frequent local and radiating LBP, and smoking at baseline predicted frequent radiating LBP and an increased LBP score.

CONCLUSIONS
The study adds to the evidence supporting the atherosclerosis-LBP hypothesis particularly for men.


TRL Ltd is monitoring the environmental effects of the Gloucester Safer City project. As part of this work, a city-wide network of monitoring sites has been set up to determine concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, PM10 and benzene in Gloucester. The network comprises 10 kerbside sites and a background site. This document reports on the first two years (1997 and 1998) of the air quality monitoring in Gloucester. In both years benezene concentrations at all of the sites were below the Air Quality Standard of 16.25 micrograms/cu m (5ppb). Over the monitoring period, the mean concentrations fell at the kerbside locations by 24% and at the background by 53%, which reflects the general decline in hydrocarbon emissions from traffic in Gloucester. For nitrogen dioxide, concentrations at the kerbside were close to or greater than the Air Quality Standard of 40 microgram/cu m. On average concentrations fell by 9% at the kerbside, which again reflects a decline in the emissions of oxides of nitrogen from traffic in Gloucester. However over the same period, nitrogen dioxide concentrations increased at the background site by 7%. Air quality monitoring is to continue until the end of 2001 largely as described in this report, except for additional sampling of kerbside PM10 and carbon monoxide. (A)


The β-amyloid peptide (Aβ) and tau are key molecules in Alzheimer's disease causing neuronal dysfunction and cell death. Evidence exists that tau mediates the pathology downstream of Aβ. N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are supposed to play an essential role in the pathophysiology of Aβ and tau. However, the exact mechanisms deciphering how Aβ could induce tau-dependent neuronal dysfunctions are still unclear. Here we show that virus-mediated expression of human tau causes neuronal degeneration in organotypic hippocampal slice cultures from APP transgenic mice but not in non-transgenic cultures. Treatment with therapeutically concentrations of NMDAR open channel blocker memantine completely abolished tau-dependent cell death in APP transgenic cultures. Removing extracellular calcium with calcium chelator BAPTA also prevented tau toxicity. Our data indicate that human tau-dependent neuronal cell death in APP transgenic slice cultures is mediated by calcium influx through NMDARs.


We present an anisotropic Laplace test statistic for software reliability growth enhancement. The proposed approach is defined as a nonlinear function of the Laplace trend test using redescending stabilization functions. The goal of stabilization functions is to deal with the problem of increasing reliability growth by taking into account the absence of activity in the system. Experimental results with real software failure data illustrate the effectiveness and the much improved performance of the proposed method in software reliability.


Political parties matter for government outcomes. Despite this general finding for political science research, recent work on public policy and agenda-setting has found just the opposite; parties generally do not matter when it comes to explaining government attention. While the common explanation for this finding is that issue attention is different than the location of policy, this explanation has never truly been tested. Through the use of data on nearly 65 years of UK Acts of Parliament, this paper presents a detailed investigation of the effect parties have on issue attention in UK Acts of Parliament. It demonstrates that elections alone do not explain changes in the distribution of policies across issues. Instead, the parties' organizations, responses to economic conditions, and size of the parliamentary delegation influence the stability of issue attention following a party transition.


Much Indigenous affairs journalism in the Western Australian state capital of Perth reproduces colonial discourse and perpetuates racist stereotypes of Aboriginal people. Against this background the traditional custodians of Perth, the Noongar people, have struggled to find a media voice. Meanwhile, observers in several countries have critiqued a shift from journalism about specific places toward journalism concerned with no place in particular. Spurred by globalisation, this shift has de-emphasised the 'where?' question in the 'what, where, who, why, how and when?' template of journalistic investigation. Reporting from a project in which journalism students collaborated with Noongar community organisations, we argue that an understanding of Indigenous Australians' profound connection to place can inform journalists about the underlying character of places about which they report. We suggest that working with Indigenous people can transform the way journalists conceptualise their careers, and help secure a sense of place for Indigenous people in the media. Finally, collaborating with Indigenous people can teach journalists to view their professional practices through a sense of place lens, re-emphasising the 'where?' question in its application to both geographic place and the realm of a journalist's imagination.


Computational support for sketching is an exciting research area at the intersection of design research, human–computer interaction, and artificial intelligence. Despite the prevalence of software tools, most designers begin their work with physical sketches. Modern computational tools largely treat design as a linear process beginning with a specific problem and ending with a specific solution. Sketch-based design tools offer another approach that may fit design practice better. This review surveys literature related to such tools. First, we describe the practical basis of sketching — why people sketch, what significance it has in design and problem solving, and the cognitive activities it supports. Second, we survey computational support for sketching, including methods for performing sketch recognition and managing ambiguity, techniques for modeling recognizable elements, and human–computer interaction techniques for working with sketches. Last, we propose challenges and opportunities for future advances in this field.


Deep Residual Networks (ResNets) have recently achieved state-of-the-art results on many challenging computer vision tasks. In this work we analyze the role of Batch Normalization (BatchNorm) layers on ResNets in the hope of improving the current architecture and better incorporating other normalization techniques, such as Normalization Propagation (NormProp), into ResNets. Firstly, we verify that BatchNorm helps distribute representation learning to residual blocks at all layers, as opposed to a plain ResNet without BatchNorm where learning happens mostly in the latter part of the network. We also observe that BatchNorm well regularizes Concatenated ReLU (CReLU) activation scheme on ResNets, whose magnitude of activation grows by preserving both positive and negative responses when going deeper into the network. Secondly, we investigate the use of NormProp as a replacement for BatchNorm in ResNets. Though NormProp theoretically attains the same effect as BatchNorm on generic convolutional neural networks, the identity mapping of ResNets invalidates its theoretical promise and NormProp exhibits a significant performance drop when naively applied. To bridge the gap between BatchNorm and NormProp in ResNets, we propose a simple modification to NormProp and employ the CReLU activation scheme. We experiment on visual object recognition benchmark datasets such as CIFAR-10/100 and ImageNet and demonstrate that 1) the modified NormProp performs better than the original NormProp but is still not comparable to BatchNorm and 2) CReLU improves the performance of ResNets with or without normalizations.


In an increasingly globalized world community, rural international migration is often characterized by engagements or links that migrants establish with their home countries, home towns and relatives in their country of origin through transnational economic and social activities. This background paper analyses how migrants positively contribute to the sustainable economic development of rural youth in their countries of origin. Specifically, this paper details migrants' contribution to youth rural development through transnational economic engagement, which positively impacts financial inclusion, creation of employment opportunities and the promotion of entrepreneurship.

Transnational engagement activities include money transfers (family remittances), philanthropy, entrepreneurship, capital investment, homeland goods consumption and knowledge transfer. We find that youth are doubly disadvantaged relative to adults in rural areas and relative to their urban counterparts, making remittances and other forms of engagement particularly important in helping this especially vulnerable group. Transnational engagement that occurs in rural areas and targets issues such as education or nutrition can disproportionately benefit youth. Other transnational engagement, such as knowledge transfer or partnership, establishes youth as agents of their own development and economic well-being. Though the activities differ, underlying all forms of transnational engagement is a reinforcement of social and cultural identities and connection with countries of origin for both migrants and descendants of migrants.


An essential function of the trunk is the compensation of external forces and loads in order to guarantee stability. Stabilising the trunk during sudden, repetitive loading in everyday tasks, as well as during performance is important in order to protect against injury. Hence, reduced trunk stability is accepted as a risk factor for the development of back pain (BP). An altered activity pattern including extended response and activation times as well as increased co-contraction of the trunk muscles as well as a reduced range of motion and increased movement variability of the trunk are evident in back pain patients (BPP). These differences to healthy controls (H) have been evaluated primarily in quasi-static test situations involving isolated loading directly to the trunk. Nevertheless, transferability to everyday, dynamic situations is under debate. Therefore, the aim of this project is to analyse 3-dimensional motion and neuromuscular reflex activity of the trunk as response to dynamic trunk loading in healthy (H) and back pain patients (BPP).
A measurement tool was developed to assess trunk stability, consisting of dynamic test situations. During these tests, loading of the trunk is generated by the upper and lower limbs with and without additional perturbation. Therefore, lifting of objects and stumbling while walking are adequate represents. With the help of a 12-lead EMG, neuromuscular activity of the muscles encompassing the trunk was assessed. In addition, three-dimensional trunk motion was analysed using a newly developed multi-segmental trunk model. The set-up was checked for reproducibility as well as validity. Afterwards, the defined measurement set-up was applied to assess trunk stability in comparisons of healthy and back pain patients.
Clinically acceptable to excellent reliability could be shown for the methods (EMG/kinematics) used in the test situations. No changes in trunk motion pattern could be observed in healthy adults during continuous loading (lifting of objects) of different weights. In contrast, sudden loading of the trunk through perturbations to the lower limbs during walking led to an increased neuromuscular activity and ROM of the trunk. Moreover, BPP showed a delayed muscle response time and extended duration until maximum neuromuscular activity in response to sudden walking perturbations compared to healthy controls. In addition, a reduced lateral flexion of the trunk during perturbation could be shown in BPP.
It is concluded that perturbed gait seems suitable to provoke higher demands on trunk stability in adults. The altered neuromuscular and kinematic compensation pattern in back pain patients (BPP) can be interpreted as increased spine loading and reduced trunk stability in patients. Therefore, this novel assessment of trunk stability is suitable to identify deficits in BPP. Assignment of affected BPP to therapy interventions with focus on stabilisation of the trunk aiming to improve neuromuscular control in dynamic situations is implied. Hence, sensorimotor training (SMT) to enhance trunk stability and compensation of unexpected sudden loading should be preferred.


We propose two new methods of speech detection in the context of voice-controlled far-field appliances. While conventional detection methods are designed to differentiate between speech and nonspeech, we aim at distinguishing desired speech, which we define as speech originating from the person interacting with the device, from background noise and interfering talkers. Our two proposed methods use the first word spoken by the desired talker, the "anchor" word, as a reference to learn characteristics about that speaker. In the first method, we estimate the mean of the anchor word segment and subtract it from the subsequent feature vectors. In the second, we use an encoder-decoder network with features that are normalized by applying conventional log amplitude causal mean subtraction. The experimental results reveal that both techniques achieve around 10% relative reduction in frame classification error rate over a baseline feedforward network with conventionally normalized features.


Toward the goal of understanding and controlling instability in combustion systems, we present a fundamental characterization of the interaction of the buoyancy-induced instability in flickering flames with forced excitation of fuel supply. Laminar coflow diffusion flames were acoustically forced, whose frequency responses were recorded as a function of excitation frequency and amplitude. The evolving structure of such flames was also examined through the use of video analysis and particle imaging velocimetry (PIV). For specific combinations of excitation frequency and amplitude, the frequency response of the flames was found to couple to that of the forcing, where the contribution of natural puffing frequency disappears. Such instances of coupling exhibited many harmonics of the excitation frequency, related indirectly to the natural puffing frequency. We showed how such harmonics form, through application of PIV, and furthermore unveiled insight into the physics of how the flame couples to the forcing under certain conditions. Our frequency response characterization provides quantitative results, which are of utility for both modeling studies and active-control strategies.


This document is designed to be a first-year graduate-level introduction to probabilistic programming. It not only provides a thorough background for anyone wishing to use a probabilistic programming system, but also introduces the techniques needed to design and build these systems. It is aimed at people who have an undergraduate-level understanding of either or, ideally, both probabilistic machine learning and programming languages.
We start with a discussion of model-based reasoning and explain why conditioning as a foundational computation is central to the fields of probabilistic machine learning and artificial intelligence. We then introduce a simple first-order probabilistic programming language (PPL) whose programs define static-computation-graph, finite-variable-cardinality models. In the context of this restricted PPL we introduce fundamental inference algorithms and describe how they can be implemented in the context of models denoted by probabilistic programs.
In the second part of this document, we introduce a higher-order probabilistic programming language, with a functionality analogous to that of established programming languages. This affords the opportunity to define models with dynamic computation graphs, at the cost of requiring inference methods that generate samples by repeatedly executing the program. Foundational inference algorithms for this kind of probabilistic programming language are explained in the context of an interface between program executions and an inference controller.
This document closes with a chapter on advanced topics which we believe to be, at the time of writing, interesting directions for probabilistic programming research; directions that point towards a tight integration with deep neural network research and the development of systems for next-generation artificial intelligence applications.


This paper is concerned with lateral dynamics of the two-axle freight wagon with the UIC single-link suspension, where dry friction is the only one way of damping oscillations. The mathematical model of the standard UIC single-link suspension has been prepared elsewhere according to non-smooth mechanics assumptions and then implemented into known MBS program. Numerical simulations of motion of the two-axle freight wagon with 200 kN axle load were performed on the straight track according to methods appropriate for dynamic stability, lateral forces exerted on the track, guiding forces, coefficient of derailment and coefficient of wheel-rail wear. The influence of coefficient of friction in suspension joints as well, as velocity of freight wagon were taken into account.


Donor-acceptor co-doped SiC is a promising light converter for novel monolithic all-semiconductor white LEDs due to its broad-band donor-acceptor pair luminescence and potentially high internal quantum efficiency. Besides sufficiently high doping concentrations in an appropriate ratio yielding short radiative lifetimes, long nonradiative lifetimes are crucial for efficient light conversion. The impact of different types of defects is studied by characterizing fluorescent silicon carbide layers with regard to photoluminescence intensity, homogeneity and efficiency taking into account dislocation density and distribution. Different doping concentrations and variations in gas phase composition and pressure are investigated.


Introduction A change in procedure from open to laparoscopic reversal of Hartmann's colostomy was implemented at our department between May 2009 and December 2010. The aim of the study was to investigate whether this change was beneficial for the patients. Methods The medical records of all patients who underwent colostomy reversal after a primary Hartmann's procedure during the period from May 2009 to December 2010 were reviewed retrospectively in a case control study. Results A total of 13 patients were included. Six had a laparoscopic and 7 an open procedure. The two groups matched with regard to age, sex, the American Society of Anaesthestist (ASA) score, body mass index and indication for Hartmann's operation. A significantly longer operation time was found for laparoscopic than for open surgery (median 285 versus 158 minutes, p < 0.001), but with a less blood loss (median 100 versus 600 ml, p < 0.001), faster return of bowel function (median three versus four days, p < 0.01) and a shorter postoperative hospitalization (median four versus six days, p < 0.01). No intraoperative complications occurred. One laparoscopic operation was converted (16.6%). There was no difference in postoperative complications between the two groups (10 versus 14%) and no anastomotic leaks. The total mortality was 0. Conclusion It is possible for trained laparoscopic general surgeons to perform laparoscopic reversal of Hartmann's procedure as safely as in open surgery and with a faster recovery, shorter hospital stay and less blood loss despite a longer knife time. Therefore, it seems reasonable to offer patients a laparoscopic procedure at departments skilled in laparoscopic surgery and use it for standard colorectal surgery.


BACKGROUND: Six minutes walk test (6MWT), is a sub-maximal exercise test, used as a clinical indicator of the functional capacity, in patients with cardiopulmonary diseases. Its safety, validity, reliability and its correlation with several physiological instruments, are well studied. However, there are no published data on 6MWT, in the Saudi population. We are reviewing our experience with 6MWT and assessing its safety and its correlation with pulmonary function variables, in patients with pulmonary diseases, in our local population.
 MATERIALS AND METHODS: We consecutively studied patients with pulmonary diseases, who underwent 6MWT and pulmonary function test in King Khalid University Hospital, from June 2003 to December 2004. The 6MWTs were conducted according to the American Thoracic Society guidelines. Spirometry, lung volumes and diffusion capacity measurements were correlated with the absolute walked distance.
 RESULTS: One hundred and twenty nine tests were performed. All patients were of the Saudi community (59% female), with mean age of 43±15 years. Out of 129 patients, 65 patients had proven respiratory diagnosis. In all patients, the test were performed with no serious complications. The six minute walk distance (6MWD) had correlation with patient's height (r=+0.40, P <0.001), but not with patients' weight, BMI, borg scale, or oxygen saturation. The 6MWD correlated significantly with Dlco (r=+0.52, P <0.01), FVC (r=+0.46, r<0.001) and had a weaker relation with FEV1 (r=+0.31, P <0.05). The test had no significant correlation with lung volumetric parameters (TLC, FRC and RV).
 CONCLUSION: 6MWT is simple and safe test in evaluating patients with chronic pulmonary diseases in the Saudi population. In our study, 6MWD showed correlation with spirometric parameters and diffusion capacity. Further studies are needed to evaluate 6MWT in a more homogenous patients' population.


Background Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus distributed throughout much of Africa and Asia. Infection with the virus may cause acute febrile illness that clinically resembles dengue fever. A recent study indicated the existence of three geographically distinct viral lineages; however this analysis utilized only a single viral gene. Although ZIKV has been known to circulate in both Africa and Asia since at least the 1950s, little is known about the genetic relationships between geographically distinct virus strains. Moreover, the geographic origin of the strains responsible for the epidemic that occurred on Yap Island, Federated States of Micronesia in 2007, and a 2010 pediatric case in Cambodia, has not been determined. Methodology/Principal Findings To elucidate the genetic relationships of geographically distinct ZIKV strains and the origin of the strains responsible for the 2007 outbreak on Yap Island and a 2010 Cambodian pediatric case of ZIKV infection, the nucleotide sequences of the open reading frame of five isolates from Cambodia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Uganda, and Senegal collected between 1947 and 2010 were determined. Phylogenetic analyses of these and previously published ZIKV sequences revealed the existence of two main virus lineages (African and Asian) and that the strain responsible for the Yap epidemic and the Cambodian case most likely originated in Southeast Asia. Examination of the nucleotide and amino acid sequence alignments revealed the loss of a potential glycosylation site in some of the virus strains, which may correlate with the passage history of the virus. Conclusions/Significance The basal position of the ZIKV strain isolated in Malaysia in 1966 suggests that the recent outbreak in Micronesia was initiated by a strain from Southeast Asia. Because ZIKV infection in humans produces an illness clinically similar to dengue fever and many other tropical infectious diseases, it is likely greatly misdiagnosed and underreported.


This paper delves into the historical origin, the types of smocks and the notion of colours that characterize smock production in Northern Ghana. It uncovers the philosophical connotations of its usage and the attendant aesthetical powers of an indigenous cloth that served in one sense as a silent metaphorical unifier between northern and southern part of Ghana and in other sense to signal the return to self-governance as a result of its usage and appearance in a turning point of Ghana's independence struggle. The article uses historical narrative and visual analytic approaches. Keywords: Smock, identity-making, fashion, dress, indigenous cloth


I was stolen by the gypsies. My parents stole me right back. Then the gypsies stole me again. This went on for a long time. --Charles Simic, "I Was Stolen by the Gypsies" As this epigraph from Simic suggests, stories about gypsies have a very long and murky history. The history of the actual Romany people is almost as obscure. It seems that they entered France in the early fifteenth century and Great Britain gradually in the sixteenth century following their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Thereafter, in both French and British literature, the gypsies, as they became known, became transfigured by the literary imagination into a collective trope (conjoining freedom and escape from the everyday, licentiousness, thievery, exoticness, foreignness, and the ability to read the future) and a narrative device (the child stolen by gypsies or the adult who runs away with them, as in Arnold's "The Scholar-Gypsy" [1853] or Borrow's The Romany Rye of the same year). Gypsies by the nineteenth century were firmly established archetypes of the romantic imagination and the Gothic tale as much as they were actual people roaming the byways of the English and French countryside. As David Mayall notes, the Gypsies have [...] held especial appeal for the bohemian imagination of artists, poets, dramatists and fiction writers [...]. In fine art and "high-brow" literature, in the less "respectable" penny dreadfuls and railway literature, and in both light and serious operas, the Gypsies regularly appear in the familiar guise of exotic, dark-skinned, nomadic and romantically alluring rural nomads. (139) As we know, Jane Eyre has a famous gypsy interlude when Rochester assumes the guise of a gypsy fortuneteller to interrogate Jane, and in The Mill on the Floss, Maggie as a little girl runs away briefly to join the gypsies. (1) Throughout the nineteenth century, novelists and poets drew on gypsies to represent a complex of meanings. Balzac, for instance, makes brief mention of them as figures of escape, exotica, and fortune-telling in eleven of his novels, Louisa May Alcott in eight novels deploys the gypsies as a trope for outdoor pleasure and sexual licentiousness, and Edward Bulwer Lytton in countless volumes invokes the gypsies as the dark ancestors of possibly dangerous characters. To characterize someone as a gypsy in the nineteenth-century novel is to bring in a host of negative connotations ranging from criminality to miscegenation. Estella's terrifying convict mother has gypsy blood in Great Expectations, Heathcliff's mysterious darkness and dangerousness stem from possible gypsy blood in Wuthering Heights, and Will Ladislaw's bohemian recklessness is explained by the inhabitants of Middlemarch as a product of gypsy parentage. Real gypsies were shunned during this period for allied reasons. As Celia Espuglas has set out, these reasons were underlaid by racism; eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European accounts stressed the absolute racial apartness of gypsies as well as their status as a "degenerate" breed of humankind. (2) Gypsies were also disliked because they refused to fit into the prevailing economic system, relying instead on "fortune-telling, hawking secondhand goods, and clearing discarded waste" to make money (Espuglas 148). Grellmann's 1783 account of the gypsies, for instance, focused on the gypsies as indolent; Leo Lucassen notes that even when they worked as, for instance, musicians or hawkers, such activities were often a form of indirect intimidation and thievery (75). (3) Moreover, their standards of hygiene and cleanliness were far less stringent than those held by the typical British citizen--gypsies often left bodily waste in open trenches near their encampments and were renowned for their dirtiness and aversion to baths. Gypsies also had a reputation, probably merited to some degree, for unrestrained licentiousness and prostitution; certainly the figure of the female gypsy as an enticing alien (her descent from Cleopatra was legendary (4)) marked depictions such as that by George Crabbe: in his "The Lovers' Journey," Crabbe described a gypsy woman whose "light laugh and roguish leer express'd / The vice implanted in her youthful breast" (158-59). …


Among animal species, cell types vary greatly in terms of number and kind. The broad range of number of cell types among species suggests that cell type origination is a significant source of evolutionary novelty. The molecular mechanisms giving rise to novel cell types, however, are poorly understood. Here we show that a novel cell type of eutherian mammals, the decidual stromal cell (DSC), evolved by rewiring an ancestral cellular stress response. We isolated the precursor cell type of DSCs, endometrial stromal fibroblasts (ESFs), from the opossum Monodelphis domestica. We show that, in opossum ESF, the majority of decidual core regulatory genes respond to decidualizing signals, but do not regulate decidual effector genes. Rather, in opossum ESF, decidual transcription factors function in apoptotic and oxidative stress response. We propose that the rewiring of cellular stress responses could be a general mechanism for the evolution of novel cell types.


OF DISSERTATION THE JOYS OF EARTH: EVOLUTIONARY KINSHIP IN VICTORIAN ATHEIST AND AGNOSTIC AUTHORS Darwin's evolutionary theory provided, for some atheist and agnostic authors in Victorian England, a theory of kinship and community, of investment in the world, that had been missing before. Without a "creation" story that could match the Biblical version, those who stood outside the dominant Christian paradigm rarely had the words or concepts to construct their own visions of how humans fit into the existence of other species, into landscapes, and into a world that, if unfallen, seemed resistant to other explanations. Those who did construct alternate mythologies usually reared them on a Christian base. Into the Victorian loss of faith, Darwin's theory irrupted, another crack in the foundation of Christian belief but a living tree for those who could accept its consequences and trace them to their logical ends. Darwin's own beliefs and supporters tended in the agnostic direction; scientific evidence gave a solid, often intensely interesting, fertile ground for the growth of stories that did not have a teleology and rejected transcendence and separation from the animal world. This tension, neither separation nor absolute sameness as other species, but a middle ground, constantly tied in inescapable bonds, at once without traditional comfort and full of the attempts to find a new joy, can be expressed as kinship-indifference. These ideas still hold resonance within the modern world, where some refuse to accept that human beings are descended from other species, and with it, refuse to accept that human beings are bounded within the environment of Earth and must suffer from its catastrophes. Fantasies of escape and theological and teleological convictions still flourish in modern nature writing, side-by-side with a conception of unity that breaks down all differences between humans and animals and subsumes them into an amorphous mass. Kinship is a way to rethink the human connection with the environment that offers a mixture of hope, realism, and reevaluation of the science that has shaped so much of our engagement with the world. Victorian atheist and agnostic writers, such as George Eliot, George Meredith, and Algernon Charles Swinburne, and their convictions, provide one extremely lively and relevant model.


Nonlocal phonological interactions are often sensitive to morphological domains. Bolivian Aymara restricts the cooccurrence of plain, ejective, and aspirated stops within, but not across, morphemes. We document these restrictions in a morphologically parsed corpus of Aymara. We further present two experiments with native Aymara speakers. In the first experiment, speakers are asked to repeat nonce words that should be interpreted as monomorphemic. Speakers are more accurate at repeating nonce words that respect the nonlocal phonotactic restrictions than nonce words that violate them. In a second experiment, some nonce words are interpetable as morphologically complex, while others suggest a monomorphemic parse. Speakers show a sensitivity to this difference, and repeat the words more accurately when they can be interpreted as having a morpheme boundary between two consonants that tend to not cooccur inside a morpheme. Finally, we develop a computational model that induces nonlocal representations from the baseline grammar. The model posits projections when it notices that certain segments often cooccur when separated by a morpheme boundary. The model generates a full Maximum Entropy phonotactic grammar, which makes distinctions between attested and rare/unattested sequences in a way that aligns with the speaker behavior.


We consider multistage stochastic linear optimization problems combining joint dynamic probabilistic constraints with hard constraints. We develop a method for projecting decision rules onto hard constraints of wait-and-see type. We establish the relation between the original (infinite-dimensional) problem and approximating problems working with projections from different subclasses of decision policies. Considering the subclass of linear decision rules and a generalized linear model for the underlying stochastic process with noises that are Gaussian or truncated Gaussian, we show that the value and gradient of the objective and constraint functions of the approximating problems can be computed analytically.


This study presents a method for adjusting long-term climate data records (CDRs) for the integrated use with near-real-time data using the example of surface incoming solar irradiance (SIS). Recently, a 23-year long (1983–2005) continuous SIS CDR has been generated based on the visible channel (0.45–1 μm) of the MVIRI radiometers onboard the geostationary Meteosat First Generation Platform. The CDR is available from the EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF). Here, it is assessed whether a homogeneous extension of the SIS CDR to the present is possible with operationally generated surface radiation data provided by CM SAF using the SEVIRI and GERB instruments onboard the Meteosat Second Generation satellites. Three extended CM SAF SIS CDR versions consisting of MVIRI-derived SIS (1983–2005) and three different SIS products derived from the SEVIRI and GERB instruments onboard the MSG satellites (2006 onwards) were tested. A procedure to detect shift inhomogeneities in the extended data record (1983–present) was applied that combines the Standard Normal Homogeneity Test (SNHT) and a penalized maximal T-test with visual inspection. Shift detection was done by comparing the SIS time series with the ground stations mean, in accordance with statistical significance. Several stations of the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) and about 50 stations of the Global Energy Balance Archive (GEBA) over Europe were used as the ground-based reference. The analysis indicates several breaks in the data record between 1987 and 1994 probably due to artefacts in the raw data and instrument failures. After 2005 the MVIRI radiometer was replaced by the narrow-band SEVIRI and the broadband GERB radiometers and a new retrieval algorithm was applied. This induces significant challenges for the homogenisation across the satellite generations. Homogenisation is performed by applying a mean-shift correction depending on the shift size of any segment between two break points to the last segment (2006–present). Corrections are applied to the most significant breaks that can be related to satellite changes. This study focuses on the European region, but the methods can be generalized to other regions. To account for seasonal dependence of the mean-shifts the correction was performed independently for each calendar month. In comparison to the ground-based reference the homogenised data record shows an improvement over the original data record in terms of anomaly correlation and bias. In general the method can also be applied for the adjustment of satellite datasets addressing other variables to bridge the gap between CDRs and near-real-time data.


The laser action of Perylene-Red doped in linear, crosslinked, fluorinated and sililated polymeric materials is reported. The purity of dye was found to be a key factor to enhance its solid-state laser behaviour. The samples were transversely pumped at 532 nm, with 5.5 mJ/pulse and 10 Hz repetition rate. Perylene-Red doped copolymers of methyl methacrylate with a 10 vol% proportion of 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl-methacrylate exhibited a lasing efficiency of 26% with a high photostability since the dye laser output remained at the same level after 100,000 pump pulses in the same position of the sample. This lasing behaviour is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest achieved to date for organic, inorganic, and hybrid materials doped with Perylene-Red.


No one has more authority to call the shots the way they really are than award-winning economist Paul Krugman, whose provocative New York Times columns are keenly followed by millions. One of the world's most respected economists, Krugman has been named America's most important columnist by the Washington Monthly and columnist of the year by Editor and Publisher magazine. A major bestseller, this influential and wide-ranging book has been praised by BusinessWeek as Krugman's "most provocative and compelling effort yet," the New York Review of Books as "refreshing," and Library Journal as "thought-provoking...even funny." The American Prospect put it in vivid terms: "In a time when too few tell it like it is...[Krugman] has taken on the battle of our time." Built from Paul Krugman's influential Op-Ed columns for the New York Times, this book galvanized the reading public. With wit, passion, and a unique ability to explain complex issues in plain English, Krugman describes how the nation has been misled by a dishonest administration. In this long-awaited work containing Krugman's most influential columns along with new commentary, he chronicles how the boom economy unraveled: how exuberance gave way to pessimism, how the age of corporate heroes gave way to corporate scandals, how fiscal responsibility collapsed. From his account of the secret history of the California energy crisis to his devastating dissections of dishonesty in the Bush administration, from the war in Iraq to the looting of California to the false pretenses used to sell an economic policy that benefits only a small elite, Krugman tells the uncomfortable truth like no one else. And he gives us the road map we will need to follow if we are to get the country back on track. The paperback edition features a new introduction as well as new writings.


The G. C. KUHLMAN CAR CO. was founded in Cleveland ca. 1893 by Gustav C. Kuhlman. Predecessor firms were run by Gustav, his three brothers, and father, Frederick. The Kuhlman family produced finished hardwood interiors for office buildings and private residences. The firm first built horse-drawn streetcars during the 1880s. During the subsequent decade Gustav started his own firm, specializing in street railway and interurban vehicles. Expansion led Kuhlman from the family shops along St. Clair Avenue to two former carbarns at Broadway and Aetna. A large plant was finally built ca. 1901 at E. 140th (Adams) and the NYCRR tracks (near Aspinwall) in COLLINWOOD.The company was incorporated in 1901; Fayette Brown served as president during that time. Kuhlman was taken over in 1904 by Philadelphia's J.G. Brill Co., replacing Kuhlman's officers with Philadelphia executives. Gustav Kuhlman remained with the firm briefly as general manager, and continued to visit the plant until his death in 1915.Kuhlman ultimately built over 5,000 electric railway vehicles, most of which were streetcars. Only about fifteen percent of Kuhlman's output consisted of interurban cars. Railways in Ohio, Michigan, New York, and Illinois accounted for most of Kuhlman's orders, with Cleveland and Detroit being the two largest city customers. During the early 1920s the firm branched into bus body construction, becoming one of the first manufacturers to build bus bodies entirely of steel. Cleveland's WHITE MOTOR CORP. was a major customer. As the market for electric railway vehicles shrank in the wake of the automobile and bus manufacture concentrated in specialist firms, Brill expanded Kuhlman's product line to include steel diners. The firm was re-incorporated as the J.G. Brill Co. of Ohio in 1925, though it continued to be known as Kuhlman until 1930. The firm was closed permanently by Brill during the mid-1930s.


Abstract. The National Mapping Agencies (NMA) of the German federal states derive nationwide digital orthophotos with a ground resolution of 10 to 20 cm by aerial surveys at regular cycles of two or three years. Standard surveys use large format cameras, the direct georeferencing informations and normal overlap ratios of 70% forward and 30% sideward overlap. These basic geodatasets are in use in a variety of applications. Most commonly authoritive agencies use these orthophotos as a fundamental dataset in their GIS-systems. Interactive work for deriving the orthopohotos is necessary for updating the terrain model and for defining seamlines for objects above the reference plane. With respect to the developments in dense image matching using the semi global matching algorithms it is possible to derive surface models with pixel resolution and full color informations of the aerial photos. Using these high resolutioned height informations for the orthophoto procedure some software solutions are able to derive the quality of true orthophotos without remaining occluded areas. The rectification additionally uses always a height model from the same survey so that there will be no interactive steps in the working process left. TrueDOP visualises the correct position of all objects without the fault effect of the central perspective. This is a basic condition for using the dataset for effective rasterbased classification applications, in special for the use in change detection. The Working Committee of the Surveying Authorities of the States of the Federal Republic Germany (AdV) evaluates the replacement of the classical ATKIS-DOP by the TrueDOP. In this connection the TrueDOP is understood as a qualitative upgrading of the existing AdV-product ATKIS-DOP. The resulting advantages and disadvantages in reference to the technical and economical aspects are considered and compared.


Assay methods for the alkaloids of sorghum ergot (Claviceps africana) are described and compared. Sorghum ergot bodies (sclerotia/sphacelia) from various regions of Queensland and New South Wales were collected in 1997 and 2001 and assayed by spectrophotometry, thin layer chromatography, or high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). All contained dihydroergosine (DHES) as the main alkaloid component (about 80%), with smaller amounts of dihydroelymoclavine and festuclavine.

The preferred method of assay for infected sorghum and mixed feeds involved extraction into dichloromethane:methanol:ethyl acetate:ammonium hydroxide (50:5:25:1) using an ultrasonic bath. After solvent removal, the extract was dissolved in diethyl ether and partitioned into 0.5 M hydrochloric acid. After adjusting the pH to 8–10 with ammonium hydroxide, the alkaloids were extracted into dichloromethane, the solvent evaporated, and the residue dissolved in methanol. HPLC separation was on a C18 column, 150 × 3.9 mm, run isocratically at 40°C, with acetonitrile:0.1% ammonium acetate:methanol (31:50:20) as the mobile phase. Detection was either by UV at 280 nm or by fluorescence with excitation at 235 nm and absorbance at 340 nm. Levels of quantitation for DHES in sorghum approached 0.1 mg/kg (UV) and 0.01 mg/kg (fluorescence). Method recoveries for DHES in the range of 0.025–7 mg/kg averaged 75%.

The total alkaloid content of ergot bodies (sclerotia/sphacelia) from different batches of grain varied from 100 to 7900 mg/kg (0.79%). Within batches, there was much less variation in the alkaloid content of ergot bodies, but larger ergots tended to contain more alkaloid than smaller ergots, and those infected with Cerebella species contained even less; this probably related to the ratio of sclerotial/sphacelial tissue present. Honeydew also contained DHES (1–10 mg/kg) and might contaminate clean grain at significant levels. Tests on 4 farms showed that substantial amounts of ergot bodies and alkaloids were removed during grain harvesting.


With each new innovation in technology since at least the Industrial Revolution, and probably before, optimists and pessimists have squared off in a cyclic debate over the impact of the day's newest technology. Self-proclaimed futurists for centuries have attempted to foretell the impact of technology on society with varied success. The goal of this research project is to study the effect of computer network technology on the social interactions of the local community organizations in Blacksburg, VA. Online surveys filled out by the leaders and members of these organizations measure different aspects of each organization and the use and usage of Internet technology within that organization. Correlations between the two may help us identify ways technology has affected the way we communicate with one another. Are community organizations communicating more or less? If so, how? Has face-to-face interaction been forsaken in lieu of technology such as email? The effects found in the survey results should give way to meaningful discourse on how technology can best be used to aid social interaction in local organizations.


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This paper studied the piezoresistivity of cement-based composite filled with nickel powder. Cement-based composites filled various content of nickel powder were fabricated. During the hardening procedure of cement-based composite, various strength of magnetic fields were applied on the composites with a set of Helm-holtz coils, which can generate an adjustable uniform magnetic field through changing the electric current. The aligning level of nickel powder was characterized with the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) pictures, which indicated that the aligning level of nickel powder increased upon the magnetic field strength, and the alignment of nickel powder leaded to a remarkable change in the characteristics of conductive network. The electrical property of cement-based composite filled with randomly distributed nickel powder is isotropic. After aligning the nickel powder, it becomes anisotropic. Furthermore, the anisotropic level is not only dependent on the magnetic field strength (alignment level), but also related to the content of nickel powder. An interesting finding given in this paper is that the highest anisotropic level of electrical conductivity is reached at the threshold content of nickel powder, which is the critical content of nickel powder to form a connected conductive network. Piezoresistivity of cement-based composite is also dependent on both the content and alignment level of nickel powder. When the content of nickel powder was lower than the threshold, the strain gauge factor of the cement-based composite increased upon its alignment level. However, for a large content of nickel powder that exceeded the threshold, the alignment of the nickel powder reduced the strain gauge factor. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/278


Decentralized governance of natural resources is considered one of the key strategies for promoting sustainable management of natural resources at local level. Effective decentralized natural resource management requires strong local natural resource institutions. Therefore, strengthening local institutions governing the management of natural resources is one of the core principles of decentralization reforms in Francophone West Africa countries. This study assessed the existing local institutions (rules, norms and or local conventions) governing the management of natural resources and forms of community participation in the development of these natural resource institutions. Our findings showed significant variation within the study sites regarding the level of knowledge of existing local rules and norms governing the management of natural resources by the respondents. Results showed that the level of knowledge of local conventions was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in the district of Bougouni than in the district of Koutiala (a score of 3.16 compared to 1.70 on a scale of 0 to 4).This study shows also that participation was dominated by a small group of individuals, often community leaders and elites. The results suggest that women are marginalized. Presently, the big challenge that faces the institutions governing natural resource use in the study area is the system of representativeness in the community in the development of local rules and norms as community leaders and household heads often dominate, which does not encourage active participation of community members. Therefore, for effective implementation of local natural resource institutions, the interest of key natural resource users should be taken into account. It is also important to promote rules and norms that attempt to protect or strengthen women's access to natural resources in the community.


This essay reviews the changing status of single country research in comparative politics, a field defined by the concept of comparison. An analysis of articles published in top general and comparative politics field journals reveals that single country research has evolved from an emphasis on description and theory generation to an emphasis on hypothesis testing and research design. This change is a result of shifting preferences for internal versus external validity combined with the quantitative and causal inference revolutions in the social sciences. A consequence of this shift is a change in substantive focus from macropolitical phenomena to micro-level processes, with consequences for the ability of comparative politics to address many substantive political phenomena that have long been at the center of the field.


Real-world automated reasoning systems must contend with inconsistencies and the vast amount of information stored in relational databases.  In this paper, we introduce compilation techniques for inconsistency-tolerant reasoning over the combination of classical logic and a relational database.  Our resolution-based algorithms address a quantifier-free, function-free fragment of first-order logic while leveraging off-the-shelf database technology for all data-intensive computation.


Organotypic cancer cell cultures combined with modern imaging technology have greatly expanded the possibilities of in vitro cancer research and drug development. In fact, imaging and subsequent image analyses have become a main component for high content screening in early stage drug discovery. The scale of such screening campaigns is rapidly growing, while at the same time, cell cultures become increasingly complex and now also include multicellular organoids in three-dimensional cultures. As a result of these imaging experiments, large amounts of image data are generated, posing ever-increasing demands to the related analysis methodology. In this doctoral thesis, novel and efficient statistical methods are introduced to meet these demands, spanning a variety of research topics in both statistics and machine learning. As a starting point, the preprocessing and segmentation of the image data are described, leading to the statistical analysis of treatment effects through descriptive features of the multicellular structures. A novel flexible finite mixture regression model is introduced in this context to account for the intra-tumor heterogeneity in the cultures. To gain a more direct interpretation for the treatment effects, an unsupervised analysis sequence is proposed leading to the phenotypic grouping of the cell structures. This is achieved by using a selected set of feature principal components as inputs for clustering algorithms. Finally, the problem of global level novelty detection is formulated and tackled with permutation tests. While the feature analysis and clustering approaches deal with very specific applications, the flexible FMR and global level novelty detection methods represent more abstract problems that are inspired by the challenges in image analysis but are not directly motivated by them. The application of all methods is demonstrated with a real cancer culture dataset in the introductory part of


Palpation is important in both veterinary and medical health professions. It is however difficult to learn, teach and assess. More must be understood about the skills involved in palpation. The present study compares the ability of practicing veterinarians and veterinary students to identify stiffness values. An absolute identification paradigm was used where a force-feedback device rendered virtual surfaces with 5 levels of stiffness within a "clinically relevant" range of 0.2 − 0.5 N/mm. The results from 12 veterinarians and 14 veterinary students show that the veterinarians performed significantly better than the students (p ≪ 0.001). The mean information transfer was 0.97 bits (almost 2 perfectly-identifiable stiffness levels) for the veterinarians and 0.58 bits (1 correctly-identified stiffness level) for the students. However, neither group was able to reliably identify more than 2 levels of stiffness, indicating that the success of veterinarians in clinical practice probably relies on additional properties such as size, shape and texture. Our findings suggest that stiffness perception in the context of veterinary medicine is a learned clinical skill. Quantifying expert ability will help inform teaching methods and set targets for students. Similar psychophysical methods can also be used to monitor student performance throughout the learning process. Future work will examine the contributions of other object properties as well as motor strategies to palpation performance.


Now available in a three-volume set, this updated and expanded edition of the bestselling The Digital Signal Processing Handbook continues to provide the engineering community with authoritative coverage of the fundamental and specialized aspects of information-bearing signals in digital form. Encompassing essential background material, technical details, standards, and software, the second edition reflects cutting-edge information on signal processing algorithms and protocols related to speech, audio, multimedia, and video processing technology associated with standards ranging from WiMax to MP3 audio, low-power/high-performance DSPs, color image processing, and chips on video. Drawing on the experience of leading engineers, researchers, and scholars, the three-volume set contains 29 new chapters that address multimedia and internet technologies, tomography, radar systems, architecture, standards, and future applications in speech, acoustics, video, radar, and telecommunications. This volume, Wireless, Networking, Radar, Sensor Array Processing, and Nonlinear Signal Processing, provides complete coverage of the foundations of signal processing related to wireless, radar, spacetime coding, and mobile communications, together with associated applications to networking, storage, and communications.


Nosocomial infections are one of the most important causes of mortality and morbidity in hospitals. These are major public health problems worldwide, but particularly in developing countries. The purpose of this research was to analyze the frequency of the microorganisms in the specimens taken from the surgical wounds, and to examine antimicrobial susceptibility for some isolates . Wound swabs were examined from June 2010 to January 2011. The isolates were identified by conventional methods, antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method as per NCCLS guidelines.A total of 102 wound swabs were examined 22(21.56%) swabs were sterile and 80(78.43%) were positive for microorganisms. The results showed 27.2% positive for Pseudomonas aeruginosa , 25.0% positive for Coagulase positive Staphylococci, 20.0% positive for Enterococcus spp., 17.5% positive for Escherichia coli ,15.0% positive for Klebsiella pneumonia ,13.7% for Proteus mirabilis, and10.0% for Acinetobacter baumannii. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing showed that the rate of isolates of Imipenem Resistance Pseudomonas aeruginosa (IRPA) were 3.7% , 11.2% positive for Vancomycin Resistance Enterococci(VRE) ,13.7% positive for both Methicillin Resistance Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)and Vancomycin Resistance Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) ,and 11.2% positive for Vancomycin Intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (VISA). We found that postoperative wound infections increase with pre and post operative hospitalization that's mean the infections can be decrease by shortening the hospitalization time.Our results appear to be maintained with strategies for preventing nosocomial infection,permanent education, strong application of protocols and urging the implementation of strict infection control policy.


A flexible approach to producing optical interconnects on 609.6$ast ,$609.6 mm large-area panels is demonstrated. Stepwise projection patterning from 101.6$ast ,$101.6 mm masks has generated optical waveguide patterns over the whole panel using large-area projection lithography equipment. The waveguide routing design allows optical waveguides on different 101.6$ast ,$101.6 mm tiles to be interconnected. Four different waveguide connecting geometries in the border region between tiles have been fabricated and tested. Multimode waveguides from inorganic-organic hybrid polymers (ORMOCER) (cross section:$le hbox 50~muhbox mast hbox 10~muhbox m$) with refractive index step between core and cladding$Delta n=hbox 0.01$were produced. The index step was adjusted by mixing two diffrent ORMOCER systems. The materials show good adhesion to numerous substrates, such as glass and silicon. Application concepts such as flexible manufacturing of optoelectrical hybrid backplanes with two-dimensional interconnect, a three-dimensional optical interconnect with optical vias, and a hybrid backplane with the optical interconnect in a strip-format on a separate plane right above the electrical plane are proposed. Promising new technologies are presented along with preliminary demonstrativ viability.


Disorders of sex development (DSDs) are defined as congenital conditions in which chromosomal, gonadal or anatomical sex is atypical. In many DSD cases, genetic causes remain to be elucidated. Here, we performed a case-control exome sequencing study comparing gene-based burdens of rare damaging variants between 26 DSD cases and 2625 controls. We found exome-wide significant enrichment of rare heterozygous truncating variants in the MYRF gene encoding myelin regulatory factor, a transcription factor essential for oligodendrocyte development. All three variants occurred de novo. We identified an additional 46,XY DSD case of a de novo damaging missense variant in an independent cohort. The clinical symptoms included hypoplasia of Müllerian derivatives and ovaries in 46,XX DSD patients, defective development of Sertoli and Leydig cells in 46,XY DSD patients and congenital diaphragmatic hernia in one 46,XY DSD patient. As all of these cells and tissues are or partly consist of coelomic epithelium (CE)-derived cells (CEDC) and CEDC developed from CE via proliferaiton and migration, MYRF might be related to these processes. Consistent with this hypothesis, single-cell RNA sequencing of foetal gonads revealed high expression of MYRF in CE and CEDC. Reanalysis of public chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing data for rat Myrf showed that genes regulating proliferation and migration were enriched among putative target genes of Myrf. These results suggested that MYRF is a novel causative gene of 46,XY and 46,XX DSD and MYRF is a transcription factor regulating CD and/or CEDC proliferation and migration, which is essential for development of multiple organs.


In this Article, we ask what vehicles for worker advocacy and representation at a collective level are most likely to support a healthy democracy and a more just distribution of wealth, and (notwithstanding the NLRA) what legal architecture will nurture them. Our answer to the first question is "many mechanisms." The best hope for a revived labor movement appears to lie with new actors such as workers' centers, community and occupational groups, and identity caucuses that can work in partnerships with established unions; class action plaintiffs' firms dedicated to enforcing workplace rights; and government agencies and attorneys general. The experience of these groups with law thus far is instructive because it signals hostility to group rights and collective action in the workplace context beyond labor law. Accordingly, reforming labor law will not be sufficient. A bolder approach is necessary. On the second question, then, we contend that more robust constitutional protection for group action in its many forms is essential to create breathing space for worker mobilization. That protection can and should be founded upon the First Amendment freedom of assembly. Relying on a vigorous body of First Amendment scholarship that emphasizes the role that assembly rights have played in our constitutional tradition, we offer a preliminary sketch of how reframing labor rights as assembly rights might expand legal protections for labor unions and other worker advocacy efforts, and shore up democracy in the process. Our argument proceeds in four parts. Part I treads ground familiar to labor scholars, describing the role that judicial hostility to group action has played in cabining group rights in the labor law context. Part II describes the new vehicles for collective worker activism that have developed to fill the gaps left by the decline of conventional unions, and assesses the law's response to their strategies. We explain how law has been hostile to collective action by workers even where unions and labor law are not involved. This hostility is manifested most starkly in a recent series of decisions from the Supreme Court narrowing the availability of class claims by workers in workplace-based litigation and arbitration. Because class claims may play a critical role in the formation of group identity, these developments stifle nascent forms of worker activism. Part III contends that a new legal frame is essential to support group rights, and looks to a revitalized First Amendment right of assembly. Part III also discusses the implications of this reframing, explaining why the new frame is vital to a healthy democracy. Part IV outlines how such a frame might alter the existing labor law regime. Reframing labor rights as assembly rights would offer modern unions and other worker advocacy groups a new rhetorical tool in the struggle to win hearts and minds. Constitutional rights are accessible to the public and to workers in a way that statutory mandates are not. Thus, they are more likely to be effective in the crusade to rebrand labor unionism. Unions, worker centers, and other advocacy groups should consider appealing to the public to support the constitutional right to assembly in the context of rallies, pickets, boycotts, demonstrations, and social media appeals designed to advance workers' rights. They might reform their marketing strategies, including websites, publicity, handbills, and other mediums to foreground assembly rights. Further, the constitutional stature of the assembly right could ground serious challenges in court to portions of the labor law that hamstring both unions and new forms of worker advocacy groups, particularly restrictions on picketing, secondary boycotts, the strike weapon, and group litigation conducted as part of an organizing drive. It might also, however, ground challenges to parts of the statute that labor holds dear, including exclusive representation and the ban on company unions.


Many black neighborhoods in New Orleans are perceived by outsiders as being areas of decay. However, to photographer Michael P. Smith, in these neighborhoods remained the preserves of a rich cultural heritage. Smith, who photographed the subject for more than twenty years, saw the city's African-American culture as "cultural wetlands" that engender much of the traditional music and folk life that have made New Orleans famous. In Spirit World, Smith documents the thriving cultural richness of black New Orleans and captures the expressions of urban folk culture. Smith, who was allowed to witness some of the most private religious ceremonies of the Spiritual Churches, captured the unbridled emotion of ceremony participants. Dramatic black and white stills show baptisms, possession trances, social-club marches, communion services, and street life. Midway through the book, an explosion of color serves as a transition from religious photographs to ones that are more secular and gives readers a spectacular glimpse at Mardi Gras Indians, a religious ordination, and a jazz funeral. Spirit World originally appeared in 1983 as a popular traveling exhibit, which won a Certificate of Commendation from the American Association for State and Local History. Overwhelming positive reaction to the exhibit led the author to publish this catalogue of images and accompanying journal. Photographs from this book and two of Smith's other books, A Joyful Noise: A Celebration of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz Fest: A Pictorial History, have appeared in an exhibit at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The one-man exhibit used images and field recordings to give a true sense of the featured culture.


Paleomagnetic analysis from lower Pleistocene (Sicilian) mudstones in the Sant'Arcangelo basin (Southern Apennines, Italy) shows no vertical-axis rotations. These results define the upper time constraint on the 23° counterclockwise rotations previously measured in the underlying lower Pleistocene (Santernian-Emilian) units of the Sant'Arcangelo basin. These rotations occurred before the Jaramillo subchron in a time span of <0.5 m.y. Paleomagnetic rotations are coeval with the major phases of thrusting along the outer front of the Apennines, do not extend to the Adriatic foreland, and were limited to the hanging wall of the active thrust sheets along the outer front of the Apennines. Rapid counterclockwise rotations, coeval with thrusting and offset on left-lateral faults, represent the surface manifestation of the differential slab retreat and southwest-ward rollback of the trench in the Calabrian arc region. The unusually fast vertical-axis rotations indicate that the left-lateral component of deformation was particularly intense during the early Pleistocene in the Sant'Arcangelo region, located along the edge of the retreating subduction zone. These data suggest that the lateral breakoff of the African-Ionian-Adriatic subducting lithosphere, imaged by seismic tomography and deep seismicity, occurred in the Sant'Arcangelo region during the early Pleistocene.


We present a comprehensive geochemical data set for the most recent volcanics from the Mariana Islands, which provides new constraints on the timing and nature of fluxes from the subducting slab. The lavas display many features typical of island arc volcanics, with all samples showing large negative niobium anomalies and enrichments in alkaline earth elements and lead (e.g., high Ba/La and Pb/Ce). Importantly, many of these key ratios correlate with a large range in 238U excesses, (238U/230Th) = 0.97–1.56. Geochemical features show island to island variations; lavas from Guguan have the largest 238U-excesses, Pb/Ce and Ba/La ratios, while Agrigan lavas have small 238U excesses, the least radiogenic 143Nd/144Nd, and the largest negative cerium and niobium anomalies. These highly systematic variations enable two discrete slab additions to the subarc mantle to be identified. The geochemical features of the Agrigan lavas are most consistent with a dominant subducted sediment contribution. The added sedimentary component is not identical to bulk subducted sediment and notably shows a marked enrichment of Th relative to Nb. This is most readily explained by melt fractionation of the sediment with residual rutile and transfer of sedimentary material as a melt phase. For most of the highly incompatible elements, the sedimentary contribution dominates the total elemental budgets of the lavas. The characteristics best exemplified by the Guguan lavas are attributed to a slab-derived aqueous fluid phase, and Pb and Sr isotope compositions point toward the subducted, altered oceanic crust as a source of this fluid. Variable addition of the sedimentary component, but near-constant aqueous fluid flux along arc strike, can create the compositional trends observed in the Mariana lavas. High field strength element ratios (Ta/Nb and Zr/Nb) of the sediment poor Guguan lavas are higher than those of most mid-oceanic ridge basalts and suggest a highly depleted subarc mantle prior to any slab additions. The 238U-230Th systematics indicate >350 kyr between sediment and mantle melting but <30 kyr between slab dehydration and eruption of the lavas. This necessitates rapid magma migration rates and suggests that the aqueous fluid itself may trigger major mantle melting.


This paper proposes the use of a 3D extrusion printer to fabricate artificial magnetic cilium. The cilia are fabricated using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) doped with iron particles so that they remain slender and flexible. They can be driven by a magnetic field to closely mimic the behaviour of biological cilia. Doping iron particles to the polymers has already been done; however, to the best of our knowledge, printing such active and soft magnetic structures has not. The existing methods for manufacturing magnetic polymeric structures are complex and difficult to use for the fabrication of micro-sized high-aspect-ratio cilia. The 3D printing technique we propose here is simple and inexpensive compared to previously suggested fabrication methods. In this study, free-standing magnetic PDMS cilia were fabricated in different sizes up to 5 mm in length and 1 mm in width. The stress-strain curves of the PDMS cilia were experimentally obtained to quantify the effect of the concentration of the iron particles on the modulus of elasticity of the cilia. The higher the iron concentration, the higher the modulus of elasticity. We have quantified the characteristics of the cilia made of 40% w/w iron particles in PDMS. A single cilium (5 × 1 × 0.0035 mm) can output up to 27 μN blocking force under a magnetic field of 160 mT. These cilia can be used as a mixer in lap-on-chip applications and as the anchoring and propulsion legs of endoscopic capsule robots operating within the gastrointestinal tract of humans. Analytical expressions estimating the blocking force are established and compared with the experimental results.


OBJECTIVE
To characterize the profile of pharmacists employed as technical supervisors in drugstores and evaluate their knowledge regarding certain aspects of the legislation controlling drugstores and the profession in general.

METHODS
Based on 175 drugstores in the city of Ribeirão Preto, southeastern Brazil, 100 pharmacists/technical supervisors were randomly selected. Data collection was done by means of in-person interviews, and was guided by a questionnaire evaluating knowledge and attitudes. Data were processed and analyzed using Epi Info and Stata software. Associations were sought between dependent and independent variables using Pearson's chi-squared and Fisher's exact tests.

RESULTS
Most pharmacists were women (64%), aged 22-29 years (47%), graduated approximately three years prior to data collection, trained to work in the pharmaceutical industry (36%) or in clinical analysis (29%). Pharmacist's knowledge of sanitary legislation was considered as insufficient for 28% of subjects, regular for 50%, and good for 22%. Low levels of knowledge were observed regarding the legal requirement for the presence of a pharmacist during the entire drugstore opening hours, pharmacists' attributions, sale of antibiotics, and penicillin administration. It was found that most professionals have difficulties handling the concepts of 'generic' and 'similar' drugs. Low level of knowledge was not associated with any of the independent variables, indicating that this is a generalized phenomenon, i.e., one present among pharmacists of all age groups and both sexes, irrespective of the time since graduation, institution attended, and modality of graduation, among others.

CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that training in the field of drug pharmaceutical care, during undergraduate studies and, especially, during traineeship in pharmacies and drugstores is deficient. It is necessary to divulge information concerning sanitary legislation so that pharmacists may fully exert their profession, without risk of legal threats or hazard to the population.


Diverse forms of material expressions can be achieved through practices that cross-fertilize biology and design. Growing Design is one such practice in which designers grow materials from living organisms, such as bacteria, algae or fungi. While this emerging practice may facilitate novel product ideas, the grown materials, to date, are often used in applications as surrogates for conventional materials. A recently introduced method, Material Driven Design (MDD) (Karana, Barati, Rognoli, & Zeeuw van der Laan, 2015), can support designers in finding novel application ideas for a material in development, by providing the ways in which the unique technical and experiential qualities of the material are emphasized and bridged in an appropriate and creative manner. The present paper explores the journey of a product design master's student, who followed the MDD method through a six-month graduation project, in search of a product application idea for a material that is intentionally grown for design purposes, namely, mycelium-based materials. We provide a practical understanding of how the material-driven design process evolves when the material grows, and elaborate on the product application concept through the lens of materials experience, which is the main motivation for the research and design activities throughout the project. We further speculate on the tools and activities that the student incorporated in the design process to tackle uncertainty as to the micro-organism's agency, its unique temporality, and the acceptance of the material in society.


This review discusses the safety and tolerability of levetiracetam, as presented by the available literature, with attention paid to special populations. In Phase II/III trials, the adverse effects occurring more commonly in the treatment groups versus the placebo group were; somnolence (14.8 versus 8.4%), asthenia (14.7 versus 9.1%), infection (primarily common cold) (13.4 versus 7.5%), and dizziness (8.8 versus 4.1%). Adverse events usually appear within the first month after treatment initiation, are not dose-dependent, are mostly mild-to-moderate, generally resolve without medication withdrawal, and are transient when the medication is stopped. No significant changes in haematology and chemistry profiles or weight occurred. Hypersensitivity reactions were rare and no idiosyncratic event has been reported. Open-label studies have added patient data with other epileptic syndromes and from a wider patient pool, such as children and patients with prior psychiatric history. These studies have supported initial safety findings, but have reported increased behavioural adverse events in children and patients with a history of prior behavioural problems. Levetiracetam is proving to be safe and well-tolerated. So far, it appears to have a favourable safety profile in special populations, such as children, the elderly, and patients with hepatic dysfunction. Preliminary data in pregnancy are promising, but more data are needed on the impact of levetiracetam on the developing fetus and pharmacokinetic alterations caused in pregnancy. Adjustments in dosing are required for decreases in renal clearance.


There is a severe tendency in cyberlaw theory to delegitimize state intervention in the governance of virtual communities. Much of the existing theory makes one of two fundamental flawed assumptions: that communities will always be best governed without the intervention of the state; or that the territorial state can best encourage the development of communities by creating enforceable property rights and allowing the market to resolve any disputes. These assumptions do not ascribe sufficient weight to the value-laden support that the territorial state always provides to private governance regimes, the inefficiencies that will tend to limit the development utopian communities, and the continued role of the territorial state in limiting autonomy in accordance with communal values.In order to overcome these deterministic assumptions, this article provides a framework based upon the values of the rule of law through which to conceptualise the legitimacy of the private exercise of power in virtual communities. The rule of law provides a constitutional discourse that assists in considering appropriate limits on the exercise of private power. I argue that the private contractual framework that is used to govern relations in virtual communities ought to be informed by the values of the rule of law in order to more appropriately address the governance tensions that permeate these spaces. These values suggest three main limits to the exercise of private power: that governance is limited by community rules and that the scope of autonomy is limited by the substantive values of the territorial state; that private contractual rules should be general, equal, and certain; and that, most importantly, internal norms be predicated upon the consent of participants.


Population is a source of a nations' strength and national security, but some overpopulated countries in Asia are trying to lower their population growth, even implementing population control policies. This paper conducts a comparative study of China and India to explore the effectiveness of their population control policies, and its findings suggest that education can be one of the strongest methods to curb the population explosion, reducing its side effects by giving Kerala case. This study suggests that further attention must be given to more cases in China and India related to the correlation between the level of education and population growth. Also, the case of Kerala will be needed to be researched more in-depth and yield more concrete recommendations to facilitate an added value to this field.


Many indigenous leaders and intellectuals in the region are asking themselves how the current rapid spread of free market principles and the process of integration into a single world economy is likely to affect their cultures. The answer depends on what we mean by "culture" and what we mean by "modernity". Cultures are not rigid sets of traditional norms and values, but instead have a deep-seated logic and a whole constellation of alternative processes which, like constantly evolving computer programmes, give each culture considerable flexibility and capacity to adapt to changes in its environment. Modernity, in turn, should mean tolerance and an appreciation of diversity. The proposals put forward by ECLAC regarding competitiveness, current uses of knowledge and the indispensable element of social equity provide guidelines that can help indigenous peoples, once they have been allowed to assume their role as recognized social actors, to make use of the advantages and sidestep the pitfalls of their situation as this century nears its end.


This paper investigates chemical etching as a potential temporary solution to severe adhesive wear experienced during forming of commercially-pure titanium. The aim was to identify contributing factors and experimentally quantify their effects on the etching of CP-Ti and Vanadis 23 tool steel. A comprehensive literature review identified a promising etchant solution, containing 6.5% hydrofluoric acid, 2% formic acid and 2% triethanolamine. A full factorial experiment was designed to test the effects of three factors – hydrofluoric acid concentration, temperature, and time – with statistical analysis to interpret and validate the results. The results confirmed that increasing any of the factors tested leads to a significant increase in titanium dissolution, while only temperature and concentration increases led to a significant increase in steel dissolution. Therefore, a 20°C solution of 3.5% hydrofluoric acid and an etching duration of 35 minutes is recommended for removing adhered titanium without significantly affecting the steel.


Although transparency is a key concept of our times, it remains a relatively understudied phenomenon in global environmental politics. The link between transparency and accountable, legitimate and effective governance is assumed, yet the nature and workings of this link require further scrutiny. Transparency via information disclosure is increasingly at the heart of a number of global environmental governance initiatives, termed governance-by-disclosure here. The article identifies two assumptions that underpin such governance-by-disclosure initiatives, and calls for comparative analysis of the workings of such assumptions in practice, as a way to illuminate the nature and implications of a transparency turn in global environmental governance and its link to accountable, legitimate and effective governance.


The relevance vector machine (RVM), a Bayesian extension of the support vector machine (SVM), has considerable potential for the analysis of remotely sensed data. Here, the RVM is introduced and used to derive a multi‐class classification of land cover with an accuracy of 91.25%, a level comparable to that achieved by a suite of popular image classifiers including the SVM. Critically, however, the output of the RVM includes an estimate of the posterior probability of class membership. This output may be used to illustrate the uncertainty of the class allocations on a per‐case basis and help to identify possible routes to further enhance classification accuracy.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to, which involved 123 students in their last year of an administration course at a private university in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, evaluate the importance of analyzing the pressure from new technologies on the careers of young university students from a career theory perspective.

Design/methodology/approach
From the perspective of traditional theories, the authors used "career anchors," and from the perspective of non-traditional theories, "intelligent careers," in which people develop three competency groups that are transferable between organizations: knowing why; knowing how; and knowing whom. The hypotheses the authors raised were analyzed using statistical techniques and the following results were obtained: young people do not see new technologies as a threat to their current job; people who see the "Knowing How" competence as being more developed feel less pressure from new technologies; non-traditional theories show a greater potential to analyze technological pressure than traditional theories; and, finally, the nature of people's jobs produces different impacts on the pressure of new technologies on their careers, since people who occupy positions involving more human interaction with internal or external clients feel less threatened.

Findings
It was found that the lowest mean among the constructs analyzed was the pressure from technology on career. The correlations between the competencies of intelligent careers and the perception of the pressure from technology on career were weak, but significant, whereas the "Knowing How" competency was negatively correlated with the pressure caused by technology. There was no significant influence of the anchors on the pressure from technology on career. However, incorporating the competencies of intelligent careers improved the statistical model's fit. In associating job positions with the pressure from technology on career, administrative and operational positions showed higher averages than sales associate and management positions.

Originality/value
Broadly speaking, it can be noted that traditional career theories, especially the vocational counseling approach, are not sufficient to explain the impact of new technologies on careers. At the same time, one way of coping with the pressure brought about by technological advances may be in using technology itself to develop "useful professional skills," in a manner consistent with "intelligent careers."


The paper focuses on the operation of a forest conservation project, the USAID-funded Nishorgo Support Project, and its operations in the Lawachhara National Park, Srimangal, Moulvibazar District, Bangladesh. The project has instituted a collaborative management approach. The participants include both state and non-state actors including the Bangladesh Government, the USAID, IUCN, NGOs, and local communities. In 2008 Chevron conducted a seismic survey for natural gas in the National Park, which violated municipal law. This placed the Nishorgo Project in a dilemma over its declared goal of forest conservation versus the interest of the state and Chevron in harnessing gas. This article analyses the interplay of the actors surrounding this critical moment, and argues the officially declared values, norms, and ideational elements guiding the project should be questioned. In establishing this argument, this paper uses the concept of "accountability communities" coined by Kanishka Jayasurya. Key words: Accountability communities, co-management approach, Nishorgo Project, Chevron, USAID, conservation, participation, governance.


The great inquiry into the nature of Aztec civilization began at the very moment of its destruction in the name of the Spanish Crown and Church. The overwhelming discovery of a vast, luxurious overseas empire offering fresh evidence of the enormous diversity of customs and opinions among the nations of the earth expanded the imaginative as well as the geographic horizons of Renaissance Europe. In The Aztec Image, Benjamin Keen explores the shifting attitudes and focus of the scores of historians, philosophers, scientists, and men of letters and the arts who dealt with the Aztec theme in the four and a half centuries after the conquest of Mexico. From that time to the present, the world of the ancient Aztecs has been a subject of compelling interest and controversy in the West. Keen explains how each new view continuously corrected and developed, the Western conception of Aztec civilization. He relates prevailing ideas about the Aztecs to the broad socioeconomic, political, and ideological patterns of the age, as well as to the contemporary state of knowledge about ancient Mexico. A comprehensive work of historiography, Keen's book is the first to encompass the sweep of Western thought on the Aztecs from Cortes to the present.


Abstract The genus Aphelocerus is redefined to include 66 species as follows: A. leucomelas (Chevrolat); A. coalitus, n.sp.; A. echinatus, n.sp.; A. affaniatis, n.sp.; A. delicatulus (Barr); A. aeneus, n.sp.; A. bispineus, n.sp.; A. extensivus, n.sp.; A. primigenious, n.sp.; A. ciliaris, n.sp.; A. acuticolis, n.sp.; A. citimus, n.sp.; A. sturnus Kirsh; A. acanthus, n.sp.; A. inconstans (Gorham); A. cirritus, n.sp.; A. patulus, n.sp.; A. chiriqui, n.sp.; A. sculptilus, n.sp.; A. sabulosus, n.sp.; A. chondrus, n.sp.; A. cohibilis, n.sp.; A. irroratus, n.sp.; A. immarginatus (Chevrolat); A. acutus, n.sp.; A. torosus, n.sp.; A. olanchoensis, n.sp.; A. vietus, n.sp.; A. turnbowi, n.sp.; A. cornuatus, n.sp.; A. humerus, n.sp.; A. domus, n.sp.; A. capillus, n.sp.; A. coactus, n.sp.; A. scalenus, n.sp.; A. yungas, n.sp.; A. extensivus, n.sp.; A. lividus, n.sp.; A. nitidus, n.sp.; A. sagittarius, n.sp.; A. triangulus, n.sp.; A. batesi, n.sp.; A. ebenus, n.sp.; A. catie, n.sp.; A. monteverde, n.sp.; A. arenatus, n.sp.; A. bufustis, n.sp.; A. anticus, n.sp.; A. naevius, n.sp.; A. protenus, n.sp.; A. argus, n.sp.; A. panus, n.sp.; A. hespenheidei, n.sp.; A. collaris, n.sp.; A. dispilis, n.sp.; A. formicoides, n.sp.; A. akis, n.sp.; A. chelonus, n.sp.; A. cheliferous, n.sp.; A. scutellaris (Chevrolat); A. improcerus, n.sp.; A. propinquus, n.sp.; A. calvus, n.sp.; A. myrmecoides, n.sp.; A. inbatus, n.sp.; A. eriodes, new species, and A. discapillus, new species. Lectotypes have been designated for A. inconstans, A. leucomelas, A. nitidus, and A. immarginatus, and for the junior synonyms Clerus laevigatus Spinola, C. mollifascia Chevrolat (new synonymy), C. subfasciatus (Chevrolat), and C. cyaneus (Chevrolat) (new synonymy, new combination; transferred from Enoclerus Gahan). Aside from the conventional subject categories of generic revisions, this work also includes a translation of the abstract into Spanish, a treatise about natural history, discussions of species groups and troublesome key couplets, and evolutionary considerations involving phylogeny and zoogeography. There are 28 habitus illustrations, 239 line drawings, 29 distribution maps, 9 maps depicting the distribution of the major New World clerofauna, 13 electron micrographs, 5 photographs, 1 phylogenetic tree generated by the Hennig 86 computer program, a table involving character analysis, and a table depicting the geographical distribution of the apheloceran species groups. Members of the genus Aphelocerus are thought to be involved in a mimetic complex that also includes species of ants, buprestids, and chrysomelid beetles, weevils, and spiders. These checkered beetles have been observed to scurry on broad-leafed herbaceous plants, and particularly along leaf stems, often in the company of black ants of approximately the same size. A few have been observed foraging on a variety of tree canopy blossoms, although it is not known whether the clerids were consuming anthophilic insects or taking nourishment from flower products such as nectar or pollen. Specimens have been collected throughout the year; however, most were captured from May to July, at elevations ranging from 97 to 3000 m. The "beating sheet" method of collecting seems to be the most productive manner of gathering these beetles, although specimens have been collected with an aspirator while the insect was scurrying on foliage or bark (fig. 1b). Other collecting techniques that yielded specimens include the use of sweep nets, light traps, and Malaise traps. A few specimens were aspirated from flowers of forest trees. It is postulated that the initial division of ancestral Aphelocerus occurred on the current land mass geologically formed by the union of the Mexican/Mayan blocks. The evolution of the group probably began some time after the major Caribbean tectonic events had taken place. The relative paucity of structural diversity among the extant members of the genus suggests a recent evolution for the group or strong selection to resemble a common model for mimicry. The available evidence indicates that there have been three major evolutionary trends among the extant species of Aphelocerus. The first involves the progressive increase of elytral convexity among the mimetic species of the genus, i.e., mimicry of ants, spiders, and Myrmex weevils. The second trend involves the development of white secondary (2°) setae on the elytra, and third, the consolidation of these setae into white setal patches on various organs of the integument. The prominent association of checkered beetles with temperate and tropical montane regions suggests that checkered beetles, in general, occur in seven New World geographical areas, each of which is illustrated: North America, Middle America, South America, Mexo America, Central America, Nuclear Central America, and Insular Central America.