Across Europe there is a push for strengthening research-based higher education (Fung et.al, 2017). As a pedagogical driven approach, research-based education aims at making students across all levels learn through enquiry and discovery (eg. Cleaver et al., 2017). Core competencies addressed are scientific and critical thinking skills, and skills in scholarly and interdisciplinary communication. At the University of Oslo, the reinforcement of research-based education is manifest in a recent large-scale initiative. The initiative implies that we must build quality in teaching and learning through partnership across and beyond the communities of our university. How can a library in higher education contribute to research-basededucation?
This presentation illuminates three interrelated cases from The University of Oslo Library. They exemplify how libraries can involve students, librarians and their patrons when the aim is to develop innovative education. Together the cases prompt discussions about the methods used to include different  actors' perspectives in current development of learning and teaching design.
The three cases highlight the current state of a long-term movement of our libraries away from librarycentered approaches and towards user and co-creation centered approaches. The methods described respond to the current call for partnership in building enquiry-based learning experiences.
The first case is our staff-development program. Established a decade ago the program focuses on developing a shared understanding of information literacy and pedagogical theories. The program is one element in our effort to change focus from education as a private concern to corporate responsibility. The aim is to make pedagogical competencies a matter of shared knowledge and culture.
The second case presents course design and the methods used to include the perspectives of students, fellow librarians and faculty. Project methodology from informatics has contributed to  teambuilding and collaboration among library staff. It has also facilitated feedback from students, faculty and  fellow librarians. The result is a revision of courses to students from BA to PHD levels, now with an emphasis on research-based education and active learning.
The last case describes the development of physical and digital learning spaces at the university libraries.  Technology has opened for a change in the way students collaborate, learn and study. A project based approach that apply user centered design and user experience have contributed to the collection of information from students and employees aimed at enhancing and developing library space to enhance learning experiences.
Together our three cases tell a story about cultural change within our libraries, about implementation by involvement of different people and perspectives, and about the balancing of specialized expertise with shared vocabularies.
ReferencesFung, D., Besters-Dilger, J., & Van der Vaart, R. (2017). Excellent education in research-rich universities. [Position Paper] League of European Universities (LERU).  https://www.leru.org/files/ExcellentEducation-in-Research-Rich-Universities-Full-paper.pdf
Cleaver, E., Wills, D., Gormally, S., Grey, D., Johnson, C., & Rippingale, J. (2017). Connecting research and teaching through curricular and pedagogic design: from theory to practice in disciplinary approaches to connecting the higher education curriculum. In: Carnell, B & Fung, D, (eds.) Developing the Higher Education Curriculum: Research-based Education in Practice. London, UCL Press, pp. 145-159


This study analyses the location of patterns of brain activity in the signal space while a human subject is trained to operate a brain-computer inter- face. This evaluation plays an important role in the understanding of the underlying system, and it gives valuable information about the translation algo- rithms. The relative position and morphology of the patterns in a training session, and from one session to another, enable us to evaluate the performance of both the interface and the user. Thanks to these aforementioned variables we are also able to appre- ciate stable trajectories of the mental states during the sessions, which shows both the adaptability of the user to the interface, and vice versa.


This article examines sexual violence against older women, a problem that has been largely hidden from view in the societal and legal discussion of sexual assault. The article identifies a significant disconnect between the social science description of sexual assault against older women, on the one hand, and the available case law, on the other. The social science literature suggests that older women are most likely to be sexually assaulted by somebody they know and that a disproportionate number of the sexual assaults against older women take place within care facilities. The case law, however, paints a very different picture of sexual violence against older women—a majority of the reported cases involve women attacked in their homes by strangers in the context of a robbery or home invasion. We argue that this portrayal of sexual violence against older women in the case law resembles that of the case law of sexual assault against younger women thirty years ago, before the women's movement brought acquaintance and spousal sexual assault into the public eye. We conclude that these types of sexual assaults continue to be under-reported for older women, and we explore some of the reasons for the failure of the criminal justice system to respond to this group of complainants.


Research shows that most ventures fail, yet it has devoted limited attention to the consequences of entrepreneurs' past failure for investors' decisions. Our motivating insight is that failure can be due to bad luck, lack of skill or both. Therefore, failure conveys ambiguous information about skill. We predict that investors will discount entrepreneurs that experienced past failure. However, in the presence of a signal of skill, the magnitude of the failure discount is reduced. We test our predictions using an online experiment where respondents are potential investors in seed stage ventures via equity crowdfunding. Respondents evaluate a realistic investment opportunity in a between-subjects design, where we decompose the effect of failure into luck and skill. Our results indicate that investors discount entrepreneurs who have experienced failure. Past failure in the presence of a signal of skill, however, is not discounted. The findings indicate no discount of failure based on the "failed" label only. Overall, our analysis sheds light on the rationality of investors. In a world where entrepreneurial failure is prevalent, we find that investors are sensitive to its core drivers: luck and skill.


Domestic service was a vital occupational sector in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries - particularly for women. This article uses a new series of wage observations from across England, focusing on rural areas. Analysis of the dataset shows that wages paid to servants in rural England slightly increased over the period considered, but at uneven rates dependent on region and precise occupation of servant. The majority of servants, particularly maids, did not experience any significant increase in the wages they were paid. This article also shows a widening wage gap between male and female servants. When differences between regions were analysed, it was shown that the wages paid to servants did not match the model of the north becoming the high wage zone of England by the mid‐nineteenth century, although rates of growth there were the highest. For servants the south generally remained an area of higher wages even in the mid‐nineteenth century. Geography was probably not the key variable in determining wage levels. The type of household in which a servant was employed was more important than where it was located. The most important variables were the servants' gender, and their occupations in the household.


This grounded theory study conceptualises an abstract social process of 'resourcing change', explaining challenges managers face during the initiation of change as their learning in organisations and their responses to them. Both management challenges and their resolutions are theoretically organised on the global-local continuum, reflecting the inter-connected and mutually influencing nature of the social reality. The abstract social process of 'resourcing change' has general implications beyond the temporal and spatial boundaries of the study – managers in one UK subsidiary within each of two multinational corporations – Cooper Standard (UK) and Ricoh (UK), respectively, at the time when this study was conducted. The grounded theory of 'resourcing change' has made several significant theoretical and methodological contributions. First, the study of learning has been extended to the management population, given their strategic importance in organisations (Easterby-Smith et al., 1998). Second, management learning in organisations is conceptualised as 'initiation of change' – a seldom recognised, individual-to-organisation process of change (Quinn, 1996). Learning, as in this study, has been re-connected to accounts of organisational change (Hendry, 1996). A particular emphasis is placed on the initiation stage of change, not on any other stages (e.g. implementation). Third, from a process-relational perspective of organising and managing (Watson, 2002), this grounded theory study of 'resourcing change' has identified the contradictions in many processual-oriented research studies, highlighting the absence of the temporal and spatial dimensions in the on-going evolution of social processes. The methodological contributions that this grounded theory study makes are, first and foremost, the conceptualisation of the emerged concepts that are used to explain the process of initiating change in management learning. Research problems and questions are then formulated by abstractly conceptualising the concerns and resolutions of research participants, as opposed to the researcher's own. This study begins with no focus, however uncomfortable that may make some researchers, recognising the key fact that the focus of the researcher, prior to his or her exposure to the research participants, has no relevance whatsoever to them. The focus is only established at the end of the study, following a set of rigorous and transparent methodological procedures. The adherence to the orthodox grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) confirms that grounded theory is a fully-fledged research methodology in its own right, not a set of methods for data analysis (McCallin, 2003).


The University of Freiburg offers an excellent research environment for doctoral students interested in the field of Protein Structure and Function. We study protein structure and function in vitro as well as in a variety of model systems including E. coli, yeast, and mammalian cells. Methods cover the complete biochemistry tool set and extend to biophysical, cell biological, pharmacological, and genetic approaches. We participate in the Collaborative Research Center Functional specificity by coupling and modification of proteins SFB 746 . Major Research Areas: biogenesis, structure, and function of membrane proteins molecular mechanisms of enzymes, therapeutically important enzyme inhibitors, and combinatorial biosynthesis of enzymes with novel functions intracellular protein transport, protein translocases of the mitochondrial membranes, translocation systems in prokaryotes function of chaperones in various essential processes including de novo protein folding, protein degradation, and transport across cellular membranes To find information on the principal investigators in this area please click here


ABSTRACT A new teaching aid—exergames—is increasing in popularity in schools and is regarded as an interesting, varied and effective way of improving students' fitness. These exercise television games often contain references to physical activities carried out in different outdoor landscapes. The purpose of this article is to examine the views of landscape and nature offered by the games and the consequences this may have for students' relationships with nature and future environmental commitment. The methodological approach used is companion meaning analysis: the meaning of nature that follows when playing the games. The results show a controlled landscape that is perfectly arranged for the activity (functional specialisation). It is an obvious anthropocentric base and commands an instrumental value where nature is valuable because it satisfies our felt preferences (demand value). Exergames can thus be seen as a further step in an ongoing detachment process from the physical landscape (indoorisation).


[1] Rainwater collected on the island of Bermuda between January 2000 and January 2001 shows pronounced seasonal variation in the nitrogen and oxygen isotopic composition of nitrate. Higher 15N/14N and lower 18O/16O ratios are observed in the warm season (April–September) in comparison to the cool season (October–March): The mean δ15N of nitrate for the warm and cool seasons is −2.1‰ and −5.9‰ (versus air N2), respectively, while the mean δ18O is 68.6‰ and 76.9‰ (versus Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water). The few cool season rain events that had high 15N/14N and low 18O/16O exhibited trajectory paths originating from the south, similar to those of warm season samples. Accordingly, the region from which air is transported to the island determines the 15N/14N and 18O/16O of the nitrate. The source region provides precursor nitrogen oxides (NOx), influencing the 15N/14N of nitrate, and contributes to the chemistry that produces nitrate from NOx, which determines the 18O/16O of nitrate. While the range in nitrate 15N/14N observed during the cool season is consistent with anthropogenic emissions from North America, the higher warm season 15N/14N suggests that lightning is a significant source of nitrate to Bermuda. The isotopic evidence for a significant southern source of nitrate to Bermuda helps to explain the previous observation of unexpectedly high nitrate concentrations in warm season rain. The 18O/16O of nitrate in rain at Bermuda is high throughout the year (δ18O = 60.3 to 86.5‰) as a result of interactions of precursor NOx with ozone, which has a high 18O/16O ratio. The lower nitrate 18O/16O in the warm season and in cool season air masses from the south is consistent with elevated concentrations of hydroxyl radical (OH), which dilutes the isotopic signal of ozone. Our limited data set suggests that the relative importance of the OH sink for NOx during the cool season varies spatially over as large a range as is observed between the warm and cool seasons.


(NOTE: Each chapter begins with Where You've Been and Where You're Going sections and concludes with Uses and Abuses, Chapter Summary, Review Exercises, Chapter Quiz, Real Statistics-Real Decisions--Putting it all Together, and Technology sections.) 1. Introduction to Statistics. An Overview of Statistics. Data Classification. Case Study: Rating Television Shows in the United States. Experimental Design. 2. Descriptive Statistics. Frequency Distributions and Their Graphs. More Graphs and Displays. Measures of Central Tendency. Measures of Variation. Case Study: Earnings of Athletes. Measures of Position. 3. Probability. Basic Concepts of Probability. Conditional Probability and the Multiplication Rule. The Addition Rule. Case Study: Probability and Parking Lot Strategies. Additional Topics in Probability and Counting. 4. Discrete Probability Distributions. Probability Distributions. Binomial Distributions. Case Study: Binomial Distribution of Airplane Accidents. More Discrete Probability Distributions. 5. Normal Probability Distributions. Introduction to Normal Distributions and the Standard Normal Distribution. Normal Distributions: Finding Probabilities. Normal Distributions: Finding Values. Case Study: Birth Weights in America. Sampling Distributions and The Central Limit Theorem. Normal Approximations to Binomial Distributions. 6. Confidence Intervals. Confidence Intervals for the Mean (Large Samples). Case Study: Shoulder Heights of Appalachian Black Bears. Confidence Intervals for the Mean (Small Samples). Confidence Intervals for Population Proportions. Confidence Intervals for Variance and Standard Deviation. 7. Hypothesis Testing with One Sample Introduction to Hypothesis Testing. Hypothesis Testing for the Mean (Large Samples). Case Study: Human Body Temperature: What's Normal? Hypothesis Testing for the Mean (Small Samples). Hypothesis Testing for Proportions. Hypothesis Testing for the Variance and Standard Deviation. 8. Hypothesis Testing with Two Samples. Testing the Difference Between Means (Large Independent Samples). Case Study: Oatbran and Cholesterol Level. Testing the Difference Between Means (Small Independent Samples). Testing the Difference Between Means (Dependent Samples). Testing the Difference Between Proportions. 9. Correlation and Regression. Correlation. Linear Regression. Case Study: Correlation of Body Measurements. Measures of Regression and Prediction Intervals. Multiple Regression. 10. Chi-Square Tests and the F-Distribution. Goodness of Fit. Independence. Case Study: Traffic Safety Facts. Comparing Two Variances. Analysis of Variance. 11. Nonparametric Tests. The Sign Test. The Wilcoxon Tests. Case Study: Health and Nutrition. The Kruskal-Wallis Test. Rank Correlation. Runs Test. Appendix A. Alternative Presentation of the Standard Normal Distribution. Standard Normal Distribution Table (0-to-z). Alternate Presentation of the Standard Normal Distribution. Appendix B. Tables.


The EURODELTA-Trends multi-model chemistry-transport experiment has been designed to facilitate a better understanding of the evolution of air pollution and its drivers for the period 1990–2010 in Europe. The main objective of the experiment is to assess the efficiency of air pollutant emissions mitigation measures in improving regional-scale air quality.

The present paper formulates the main scientific questions and policy issues being addressed by the EURODELTA-Trends modelling experiment with an emphasis on how the design and technical features of the modelling experiment answer these questions.

The experiment is designed in three tiers, with increasing degrees of computational demand in order to facilitate the participation of as many modelling teams as possible. The basic experiment consists of simulations for the years 1990, 2000, and 2010. Sensitivity analysis for the same three years using various combinations of (i) anthropogenic emissions, (ii) chemical boundary conditions, and (iii) meteorology complements it. The most demanding tier consists of two complete time series from 1990 to 2010, simulated using either time-varying emissions for corresponding years or constant emissions.

Eight chemistry-transport models have contributed with calculation results to at least one experiment tier, and five models have – to date – completed the full set of simulations (and 21-year trend calculations have been performed by four models). The modelling results are publicly available for further use by the scientific community.

The main expected outcomes are (i) an evaluation of the models' performances for the three reference years, (ii) an evaluation of the skill of the models in capturing observed air pollution trends for the 1990–2010 time period, (iii) attribution analyses of the respective role of driving factors (e.g. emissions, boundary conditions, meteorology), (iv) a dataset based on a multi-model approach, to provide more robust model results for use in impact studies related to human health, ecosystem, and radiative forcing.


Premiere: Gare du Nord, Basel: 18.6.05.
Further performances: Seoul International Computer Music Festival (2007); ICMC, Copenhagen (2007); CBSO Centre, Birmingham (2007); Keele University (2007); MANTIS, Manchester (2007); Musique & Recherches, Brussels (2006); Aix en Provence (2005).
Publication: Reflections, C3R Records double CD [C3R014], (binaural reduction)
Research summary: Kaleidoscope: Arcade explores spatialisation strategies in multichannel acousmatic works as an extension of (or challenge to) existing electroacoustic concert presentation practice. It proposes a relatively flexible listening environment, such that—in contrast to (implied-)spectacle-based front-to-back seating conventions—spatial orientation is not prescribed. It embraces qualitatively different perceptions of a work between listeners based on their positions in space, abandoning the idea (as in stereo diffusion models) of an ideal/preferred and fixed listening position. To this end, the piece is presented via a circular array of loudspeakers (both 12- and 8- channel versions, as well as binaural-see CD (encoding by Lorenzo Picinali)) which permits peripheral, oppositional and envelopment spatial activities and relationships (not explicitly left/right or front/back) such that—although the relative placements and trajectories of spatial activity will be perceived differently by different listeners—the overall musical, spatial and structural content of the work should remain coherent irrespective of an individual listener's position or orientation (see http://www.mti.dmu.ac.uk/~peterb/outcome2.html for more information).
The work's referential content complements this technical exploration: material taken from, or implying arcade origins (pinball flippers, springs and sound effects, rolling balls and coin-operated mechanisms) is treated playfully and musically, in the absence of an explicit narrative, while the extrapolation of internal spectro-behavioural detail conventionally explored as an acousmatic compositional concern is extended to include spatio-behavioural detail. As such it echoes many of the concerns expressed in later research concerning the fabricated aural landscape, though the emphasis is here on poetic commentary on the sound materials rather than a pursuit of the illusion of 'real life'.


This study attempts to assess the effect of business environment on the possibility of a firm to be part of a global value chain. Hence, it provides a bridge between two active literatures on global value chains (GVC) and business environment. Using a comprehensive firm-level dataset from the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES, with a special focus on the case of MENA countries), the contribution of the paper is threefold. First, it provides various and more consistent measures of GVC. Second, it examines the association between an array of business environment variables (infrastructure, labor conditions, access to finance, fiscal policy, enforcement of contracts, easiness of permits, informality, trade procedures and security) on the likelihood of integrating a GVC. Third, for these business environment variables, our paper compares both perception-based (based on firms' perceptions) and factual (based on facts whether from the WBES or from the Doing Business dataset) impediments that might be hindering a firm's participation in a GVC. Our main findings show that, for factual variables, the number of procedures to get electricity, the lack of credit bureau coverage, the number of tax payments, the cost to resolve insolvency, the number of documents to export, the number of procedures to register property and protecting minority investors have a negative and significant association with the integration into a GVC. For perception-based variables, the following variables are perceived as statistically significant constraints for GVC: transport, labor regulations and informality.


Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), a staple crop for millions of sub-Saharan Africans, contains high levels of cyanogenic glycosides which protect it against herbivory. However, cyanogens have also been proposed to play a role in nitrogen transport from leaves to roots. Consistent with this hypothesis, analyses of the distribution and activities of enzymes involved in cyanide metabolism provides evidence for cyanide assimilation, derived from linamarin, into amino acids in cassava roots. Both β-cyanoalanine synthase (CAS) and nitrilase (NIT), two enzymes involved in cyanide assimilation to produce asparagine, were observed to have higher activities in roots compared to leaves, consistent with their proposed role in reduced nitrogen assimilation. In addition, rhodanese activity was not detected in cassava roots, indicating that this competing means for cyanide metabolism was not a factor in cyanide detoxification. In contrast, leaves had sufficient rhodanese activity to compete with cyanide assimilation into amino acids. Using transgenic low cyanogen plants, it was shown that reducing root cyanogen levels is associated with elevated root nitrate reductase activity, presumably to compensate for the loss of reduced nitrogen from cyanogens. Finally, we overexpressed Arabidopsis CAS and NIT4 genes in cassava roots to study the feasibility of enhancing root cyanide assimilation into protein. Optimal overexpression of CAS and NIT4 resulted in up to a 50% increase in root total amino acids and a 9% increase in root protein accumulation. However, plant growth and morphology was altered in plants overexpressing these enzymes, demonstrating a complex interaction between cyanide metabolism and hormonal regulation of plant growth.


A new approach to change detection in very high resolution remote sensing images based on morphological attribute profiles (APs) is presented. A multiresolution contextual transformation performed by APs allows the extraction of geometrical features related to the structures within the scene at different scales. The temporal changes are detected by comparing the geometrical features extracted from the image of each date. The experiments performed on panchromatic QuickBird images related to an urban area show the effectiveness of the proposed technique in detecting changes on the basis of the spatial morphology by preserving geometrical detail.


The effects of diazoxide, cromakalim and pinacidil on depolarization-evoked tritium overflow from the rat brain cortical slices preloaded with [3H]noradrenaline were studied. Diazoxide inhibited both transmural nerve stimulation (TNS)- and 25 mM K(+)-evoked tritium overflows more potently than cromakalim. Diazoxide effects were only partially antagonized and cromakalim ones were totally reversed by 1 microM glibenclamide. Diazoxide, but not cromakalim, reduced the 45 mM K(+)-evoked tritium overflow, which was not antagonized by glibenclamide. Both diazoxide and cromakalim stimulated 86Rb+ efflux to a similar extent, the effects being completely abolished by glibenclamide. Glibenclamide (> or = 3 microM) by itself enhanced the TNS-evoked tritium overflow. Pinacidil increased both TNS- and K+ (25 and 45 mM)-evoked tritium overflows with little effect on 86Rb+ efflux. Pinacidil-induced increase in the TNS-evoked tritium overflow was still observed in the presence of cocaine or hydrocortisone. Pinacidil failed to affect the inhibitory action of xylazine on the TNS-evoked tritium overflow, whereas phentolamine attenuated it. These results indicate that ATP-sensitive K+ channels are present in the adrenergic nerve endings of rat brain. These channels seem to be pharmacologically different from those reported for vascular smooth muscles and pancreatic beta-cells.


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Bloomberg insists that we need to get our priorities straight: the economy comes before the earth, capitalism before nature. Yet, from any sort of realistic, world-wise perspective, it is clear that we are faced with two immense, imminent, and irreversible crises, one threatening within as short a time as a year to destabilize the world capitalist economy, the other promising to destroy the planet as a home to humanity, destabilizing industrial civilization and undermining the survival chances of hundreds of millions or even billions of people this century. Both represent the culmination of capitalist contradictions over centuries of development and both point to the need to transform society in revolutionary ways. It is the coevolution of economic and ecological contradictions under global monopoly-finance capital that defines the epochal historical crisis of our times. In this new issue of Monthly Review, we also celebrate Monthly Review's relationship with the annual School of Ecology in Mauritius.


Scott Hess, "Walden Pond as Thoreau's Landscape of Genius" (pp. 224–250)
 This essay explores how Henry David Thoreau's identification with Walden Pond was influenced by the nineteenth-century discourse of the literary landscape and by William Wordsworth's association with the English Lake District in particular. Wordsworth was a central figure for the transatlantic development of the "landscape of genius"—a new form of literary landscape in which the genius of the author, associated with a specific natural landscape, mediated the spiritual power of nature for individual readers and tourists. Wordsworth's identification of his authorial identity with the Lake District landscape had a formative influence on both Thoreau's self-conception and his subsequent reception and canonization, as Thoreau and Walden Pond as his landscape of genius entered the canon together. The essay concludes by exploring the ongoing significance of Thoreau's association with Walden for both his scholarly and popular reputations, including proliferating discourses of "Thoreau Country"; cultural and political disputes over the Concord and Walden landscapes; and invocations of Thoreau as an ecological hero and inspiration for responses to climate change.


Source-code examples of APIs enable developers to quickly gain a gestalt understanding of a library's functionality, and they support organically creating applications by incrementally modifying a functional starting point. As an increasing number of web sites provide APIs, significantlatent value lies in connecting the complementary representations between site and service - in essence, enabling sites themselves to be the example corpus. We introduce d.mix, a tool for creating web mashups that leverages this site-to-service correspondence. With d.mix, users browse annotated web sites and select elements to sample. d.mix's sampling mechanism generates the underlying service calls that yield those elements. This code can be edited, executed, and shared in d.mix's wiki-based hosting environment. This sampling approach leverages pre-existing web sites as example sets and supports fluid composition and modification of examples. An initial study with eight participants found d.mix to enable rapid experimentation, and suggested avenues for improving its annotation mechanism.


Intergenerational income mobility varies significantly across Canada, with the landscape clustering into four broad regions. These are not geographically contiguous, and provincial boundaries are not the dividing lines. The important exception is Manitoba, which has noticeably less intergenerational mobility among eight indicators derived from a large administrative data set for a cohort of men and women born between 1963 and 1970. These indicators are derived for each of the 266 Census Divisions in the 1986 Canadian Census. They show that higher mobility communities are located in Southwestern Ontario, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, and tend to be correlated with lower poverty, less income inequality, and a higher share of immigrants.


This article focuses on the role of religious conflict between parents in determining child custody and visitation disputes. It suggests a framework for reconciling parental control over religious observance and training with the state's duty to protect the child's best interests. First, it examines the history of English and American child custody law and analyzes modern custody cases in which religion is a factor. Next, it addresses the alarming recent attempt by courts to resolve religious disputes with a shared custody approach, awarding 'spiritual custody' to one parent and 'physical custody' to the other. Finally, this article proposes a contractual approach to the question of religion in parental child custody and visitation disputes. Since religion is a legitimate issue to be considered in fashioning child custody decisions, courts should be required to consider the religious needs of the child, as a component of the child's educational and psychological well-being. However, constitutional issues need not be reached. Indeed, it is likely that courts can avoid most troublesome constitutional issues by enforcing the express and implied contracts created by the parties before their divorce. Ultimately, the approach suggested here most effectively protects the actual religious needs of parents and children by enforcing the express and implied contracts created in the intact, pre-divorce family.


The topic of youth civic engagement is increasingly popular in social science research; however, the question of why some youth are civically involved while others are not is not well understood. This article addresses the following questions: What motivations and barriers do youth report for civic involvement? How do motivations and barriers differ across school contexts? A qualitative study using in-depth semi-structured interviews with youth (N = 22) was used to identify four categories of motivations and two categories of barriers for civic involvement. Variation emerged in the motivations and barriers for civic involvement both within and across school contexts. Understanding civic motivations in context uncovers new insights about how to structure opportunities to better facilitate youth civic involvement.


0740-7475/05/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE Copublished by the IEEE CS and the IEEE CASS March–April 2005 IN 1987, Tsugio Makimoto described the semiconductor industry swings between standardization and customization every decade. According to Makimoto, the pendulum has currently swung to standardized parts, most prominently FPGA devices. This emphasis should last through 2007 when system designers will once again feel the pressure to differentiate products with custom chip designs. With advances in their capacity and performance, FPGAs have certainly emerged as a volume leader. Typically, these parts are also among the first ported to high-performance semiconductor processes. Although initially a replacement for boardlevel logic devices, FPGAs have now captured the imagination of several diverse user communities, including computer architects looking to break out of vonNeumann-computing bottlenecks. Indeed, when allowed by the application in question, spatially spreading computing tasks has several advantages because of parallel processing. Designers have exploited spatial parallelism in building custom computing machines for tasks from fingerprint recognition to image processing and bioinformatics. Reconfigurable architectures have evolved into various configurable computing platforms, ranging from loosely coupled coprocessing engines to tightly coupled configurable data paths. This burst of creativity in exploiting FPGAs is indicative of the computing community's aggressive search for the most efficient platform (in terms of cost, energy, and design time) for future systems. Even though computing is not yet the major consumer of FPGAs, the FPGA vendors have tried to tap into the appetite of the mainstream (and even high-performance) computing market by providing attractive features such as high-speed transceiver links and sophisticated memory controllers. In some cases, these links directly support mainstream processor interfaces (such as HyperTransport or PCI Express). The jury is out on how the mainstream architectures will evolve, particularly given the trends toward multiple cores (a topic that D&T plans to cover in coming months), and whether or not FPGAs will have a role in the new platforms. However, it is certain that FPGA vendors are not staying still and are taking advantage of their increasing transistor budgets to put one or more processor cores on-chip with support for advanced I/O and memory interfaces. Responding to these trends, the guest editors, P.A. Subrahmanyam and Patrick Lysaght, have put together a special issue of D&T. The special issue's three contributions seek to address the key questions in architectural design for high-performance computing, architectural exploration for making the right trade-offs in hardware and software, and the effective integration of these parts in an overall computing system. Aside from the special issue, our nontheme offering appeals to a diverse group of design and test professionals, including articles on advances in ATE frameworks, BIST for detection of crosstalk faults in the boundary scan environment, an extension of a processor instruction set for multimedia applications, and a battery emulator for embedded systems. D&T interviews remain one of our most popular departments. Ably led by Ken Wagner, this department has included interviews with several individuals who have had a significant impact on design and test, including Gordon Moore, Gene Amdahl, Robin Saxby, and Michael Hackworth. This time, Ken interviews Patrick Gelsinger, who was Intel's CTO and is now senior vice president of the Digital Enterprise Group. Pat shares his perspective, both technical and personal, about the semiconductor industry, and his work and life. D&T is glad to bring you an up-close discussion with such a phenomenal individual. In a later issue, Ken interviews a technical visionary, Irwin Jacobs, president and CEO of Qualcomm. We hope you enjoy the issue!


Cooperating teachers are central to the teacher education process particularly in helping student teachers to make the transition from 'students of teaching' to 'teachers of students' (Ganser, 2002). Due to having daily contact and being in 'the trenches' with the student teacher, researchers suggest that the cooperating teacher plays a fundamental role as a mentor, role model and friend (Tjeerdsma, 1998). Teaching practice however, can be a difficult time for all involved as attempts are made to incorporate two largely separate worlds (Beck and Kosnik, 2000): the university setting and the school setting. All three groups of the teacher education triad make a valuable contribution to the experience; student teachers bring their own experiences as students to physical education (PE) classes, university supervisors bring knowledge gained through teaching and research and cooperating teachers bring subject matter and pedagogical knowledge gained from their experiences as practitioners and as undergraduates (Mc Cullick, 2001). The purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of a cooperating physical education teacher's programme on student teacher learning from the perspectives of all three groups involved; the cooperating teacher, the student teacher and the university supervisor.

A cooperating physical education teachers programme (COPET) was designed in an effort to maximise the learning opportunities for student teachers when on teaching practice placement. The programme was piloted with a cohort of twenty-six cooperating teachers supervising twenty-eight student teachers on teaching practice placement. Following this two week placement, separate focus group interviews were held with eleven cooperating teachers, fourteen student teachers and six university supervisors to evaluate the effectiveness of the COPET programme. The constant comparative method (Merriam, 1998) was used to analyse the focus group data.

Findings indicate that all three members of the teaching practice triad believe the COPET programme to have had a positive impact on the teaching practice process. This impact centred around levels of interaction between the cooperating teacher and the student teacher, and the support structures put in place as a result of the programme. The majority of student teachers linked their progress directly to the contribution made by their cooperating teachers. The cooperating teachers felt more content in their role given that the programme helped to offer a structure to the process, particularly with regard to providing feedback to the student teachers. The university supervisors felt that the programme ensured that the cooperating teachers were more accountable for their role in assisting student teachers. Concerns were expressed by both student teachers and university supervisors in relation to disparities between cooperating teacher involvement. This is somewhat explained by the main concern expressed by cooperating teachers being the time demands of the programme.

While the COPET programme has resulted in a number of positive changes in the experiences of all three members of the teaching practice triad, a number of key considerations are suggested for future implementation and development of the programme. Effective and efficient programme improvement is a team process and the power for constructive change lies with all parties (Rikard, 1990).


The City of Stockholm's energy and climate goals are analyzed and projected in several scenarios. Using the year 2015 as the baseline year, a database covering the energy performance and fuel use within the City is created. This starting point is used to project the performance of the City until the year 2050. The projection is made with the use of scenarios and the simulation software LEAP by formulating scenarios that combine ongoing, planned and conceivable measures. All these scenarios aim to the reduction of emissions with the long term aim to set the City of Stockholm a fossil fuel free city by 2050. Various paths can be followed towards that goal and these are analyzed and classified based on cost and applicability. According to the simulation of scenarios, the immediate action and the long-term planning are shown to play an essential role in achieving the City's goals. In addition, the significance of policy, the behavioral aspect and the continuous gradual development are found to be three basic pillars towards the target that the City has set. Specifically, the City should focus on energy efficiency in both generation and utilization. Available technology can help to this direction at an affordable cost and with remarkable potential. However, in order to achieve the target of an entirely fossil fuel free city by the year 2050, the City of Stockholm needs to support a shift of transportation modes towards public transport. Currently, the transportation sector has a low share of clean fuels and is likely going to be the most challenging sector to affect. Among the challenges in the transportation sector comes the fact that there is always a given risk when trying to introduce a new dominant fuel, based on assumptions of future car fleets and volatility of markets. Biofuels may for instance lead to a shortage in the market with higher biofuel and food prices as a result while changing the entire vehicle fleet takes 20 years on average. The best possible scenario does demonstrate one possible path toward a fossil fuel free City of Stockholm 2050 by taking a number of aggressive actions. This does not account for possible new technologies nor changes in the economy at large.


Selective breeding of dogs has resulted in repeated artificial selection on breed-specific morphological phenotypes. A number of quantitative trait loci associated with these phenotypes have been identified in genetic mapping studies. We analyzed the population genomic signatures observed around the causal mutations for 12 of these loci in 25 dog breeds, for which we genotyped 25 individuals in each breed. By measuring the population frequencies of the causal mutations in each breed, we identified those breeds in which specific mutations most likely experienced positive selection. These instances were then used as positive controls for assessing the performance of popular statistics to detect selection from population genomic data. We found that artificial selection during dog domestication has left characteristic signatures in the haplotype and nucleotide polymorphism patterns around selected loci that can be detected in the genotype data from a single population sample. However, the sensitivity and accuracy at which such signatures were detected varied widely between loci, the particular statistic used, and the choice of analysis parameters. We observed examples of both hard and soft selective sweeps and detected strong selective events that removed genetic diversity almost entirely over regions >10 Mbp. Our study demonstrates the power and limitations of selection scans in populations with high levels of linkage disequilibrium due to severe founder effects and recent population bottlenecks.


Textual grounding is an important but challenging task for human-computer interaction, robotics and knowledge mining. Existing algorithms generally formulate the task as selection from a set of bounding box proposals obtained from deep net based systems. In this work, we demonstrate that we can cast the problem of textual grounding into a unified framework that permits efficient search over all possible bounding boxes. Hence, the method is able to consider significantly more proposals and doesn't rely on a successful first stage hypothesizing bounding box proposals. Beyond, we demonstrate that the trained parameters of our model can be used as word-embeddings which capture spatial-image relationships and provide interpretability. Lastly, at the time of submission, our approach outperformed the current state-of-the-art methods on the Flickr 30k Entities and the ReferItGame dataset by 3.08% and 7.77% respectively.


Title IX is widely credited with shaping new norms for the world of sports by requiring educational institutions to provide equal athletic opportunities to women. The statute and regulations send a message that women are entitled to participate in sports on terms equal to men. For several decades, this message of equality produced dramatic results in participation rates, as the number of women interested in athletics grew substantially. Despite these gains, however, many women and girls, especially those of color and lower socio-economic status, still do not participate in sports, or remain interested in participating, in numbers comparable to their male counterparts. Indeed, in recent years the gains in participation rates brought about by Title IX seemingly have leveled off while the childhood obesity crisis, especially among girls, has grown. Title IX scholarship and popular advocacy efforts often focus on greater Title IX enforcement as the way to continue attracting women and girls to participate in competitive sports.This Article examines whether greater enforcement of Title IX's equality mandate is the answer, by looking at the signals the statute and regulations send to prospective female athletes. In doing so, this Article explains that a key feature of Title IX theory is that discrimination in the form of fewer opportunities for women as compared to men, as well as sub-par conditions for participation, "sends a message" to girls that discourages them from participating. This negative message is the prevailing explanation for why women still do not participate in sports at rates comparable to men. Implicit in this argument is that strong Title IX enforcement can produce the opposite result, continuing to signal that women are entitled to participate in sports on terms equal to men, and that such a positive message will stimulate interest in participation. This Article seeks to push beyond such assumptions to examine with more nuance how Title IX speaks to women about sports and how the law's expressive content affects women's interest in participating. Using the expressive theory of the law, this Article takes the position that Title IX powerfully "speaks" beyond its remedies, and the message today is much more complex than that of simply empowering women through a message of equality. Instead, this article asserts that Title IX in fact sends a mixed message, communicating both that women and girls are entitled to participate in athletics under the same conditions as their male counterparts, but also that such participation opportunities are within a model for athletics that serves to exclude those who lack the interest, ability and/or resources to meet its demands. As a result, while Title IX communicates an empowering message that can in many cases stimulate women's interest in sports, it also sends a message that drives many more women, especially those of color and lower socio-economic status, away.


Abstract. The volatility of organic aerosols remains poorly understood due to the complexity of speciation and multiphase processes. In this study, we extracted humic-like substances (HULIS) from four atmospheric aerosol samples collected at the SORPES station in Nanjing, eastern China, and investigated the volatility behavior of particles at different sizes using a Volatility Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer (VTDMA). In spite of the large differences in particle mass concentrations, the extracted HULIS from the four samples all revealed very high-oxidation states (O : C > 0.95), indicating secondary formation as the major source of HULIS in Yangtze River Delta (YRD). An overall low volatility was identified for the extracted HULIS, with the volume fraction remaining (VFR) higher than 55 % for all the regenerated HULIS particles at the temperature of 280 °C. A kinetic mass transfer model was applied to the thermodenuder (TD) data to interpret the observed evaporation pattern of HULIS, and to derive the mass fractions of semi-volatile (SVOC), low-volatility (LVOC) and extremely low-volatility components (ELVOC). The results showed that LVOC and ELVOC dominated (more than 80 %) the total volume of HULIS. Atomizing processes led to a size-dependent evaporation of regenerated HULIS particles, and resulted in more ELVOC in smaller particles. In order to understand the role of interaction between inorganic salts and atmospheric organic mixtures in the volatility of an organic aerosol, the evaporation of mixed samples of ammonium sulfate (AS) and HULIS was measured. The results showed a significant but nonlinear influence of ammonium sulfate on the volatility of HULIS. The estimated fraction of ELVOC in the organic part of the largest particles (145 nm) increased from 26 %, in pure HULIS samples, to 93 % in 1 : 3 (mass ratio of HULIS : AS) mixed samples, to 45 % in 2 : 2 mixed samples, and to 70 % in 3 : 1 mixed samples, suggesting that the interaction with ammonium sulfate tends to decrease the volatility of atmospheric organic compounds. Our results demonstrate that HULIS are important low-volatility, or even extremely low-volatility, compounds in the organic-aerosol phase. As important formation pathways of atmospheric HULIS, multiphase processes, including oxidation, oligomerization, polymerization and interaction with inorganic salts, are indicated to be important sources of low-volatility and extremely low-volatility species of organic aerosols.


Title of Document: QUANTIFYING THE ROLE OF CERIUM OXIDE AS A CATALYST IN SOLID OXIDE FUEL CELL ANODES Steven C. DeCaluwe, Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 Directed By: Associate Professor Gregory S. Jackson, Department of Mechanical Engineering Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) are an important electrochemical power conversion device, due largely to their high efficiencies and ability to directly oxidize a variety of fuels, including hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and light hydrocarbons. Conventional Ni-based SOFC anodes are prone to failure due to carbon deposition or unwanted metal oxidation. For this reason, ceria (CeO2) is being explored to replace or supplement Ni in SOFC anodes. CeO2, a mixed ionic-electronic conductor (MIEC), has been shown to improve SOFC anodes' resistance to carbon deposition and sulfur poisoning. Optimization of ceria-based anodes has proven difficult due to the unknown role of ceria during SOFC operation. The electrochemical mechanisms and reaction rates needed to describe fuel oxidation on ceria anodes are not well understood, and thus it is not clear how to model the coupling between electrochemistry and mass transport in complex SOFC geometries containing ceria. Both Ce and Ce are present during fuel cell operation, and the ionic and electronic conductivities are determined by the abundance of Ce. The in situ spatial distribution of valence states, then, is expected to have a major impact on ceria's role in SOFC anodes. This work aims to describe the fundamental role of ceria in SOFC anodes by building a numerical SOFC model for the electrochemical oxidation of small molecules. Porous-media SOFC models are developed and validated against experimental data, correcting previous errors in transport equations. The thermodynamic and kinetic parameters for such a model are obtained from experimental measurements on thinfilm ceria anodes, including electrochemical measurements and novel in situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. Fitting thin-film MIEC model results against experimental data leads to the identification and estimation of several key parameters in the proposed H2 oxidation mechanism, with results demonstrating the importance of charge transfer, bulk oxide diffusion and adsorption reactions at the electrode surface. This provides a basis for modeling porous media composite SOFC electrodes with distributed electrochemistry as demonstrated in this work. QUANTIFYING THE ROLE OF CERIA AS A CATALYST IN SOLID OXIDE FUEL CELL ANODES


Medical research findings are often tentative, and people should be able to perceive this. However, the psychological processes underlying this ability are largely unclear. In a laboratory experiment, we found that the following factors had an impact on perception of tentativeness of research findings reported in a newspaper article: (a) the framing of findings, (b) emphasis on the limited reliability of the findings in the article, (c) people's provisional opinion on the topic, and (d) their medicine-related epistemological beliefs. We make recommendations to science journalists to help promote the public understanding of health research and provide suggestions for future studies.


A California Polytechnic State University Senior Project team has been tasked by Marvin Engineering Co. to design and build a friction wear test fixture; the fixture is to characterize the coefficient of friction and potential friction wear of various industry adopted metal pairings in an oxygen-free environment. This final design review serves to document project research, full design process, method of operation of final product, and a comprehensive testing procedure. The R&D department at Marvin Engineering Co. proposed this investigation in order to explore the phenomenon of friction and adhesive wear, specifically the occurrence of galling between stainless steel surfaces. With these findings, Marvin Engineering seeks to establish a test-based method to identify material pairs which provide low friction and wear in an oxygen-deprived environment. Additionally, test candidate material pairs and provide sufficient data to substantiate performance of tested materials.


Very little is known about the economic consequences of men's health disparities. Using data from the 2006 through 2009 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and the National Vital Statistics Reports, we estimated the potential cost savings of eliminating health disparities for racial/ethnic minority men. The total direct medical care expenditures for African American men were $447.6 billion of which $24.2 billion was excess medical care expenditures. With regard to indirect costs to the economy, African American and Hispanic men incurred $317.6 and $115.0 billion respectively. These findings indicate that we cannot afford to overlook the disparities that exist, particularly among African American and Hispanic men. Failure to do so is both socially and morally wrong and carries huge economic consequences.


This article is a critical overview of the symposium on the contribution of the quality assurance process to democracy recently held at the University of Stellenbosch. It argues that recent symposia and colloquia in which South Africans themselves have attempted to stake out their intellectual credentials are extremely important and that the Stellenbosch event must be seen in this light. The article makes an assessment of the self-consciousness of the participants in relation to the major historical and social fractures that characterize South African higher education. In assessing whether this particular meeting should not also have included those who have grievances against the quality assurance process and who have, specifically, been disadvantaged by it, the article suggests that meeting did take a deeply self-conscious line. One saw in it, therefore, the incipient marks of good academic citizenship. Privileged as this group was, it never lost sight of the contradictions which surrounded it.


The objective ofthe study is to examine the effects oftaxes and levies on the financial performance of sugar factories in Kenya. The study has been occasioned by repeated calls to the government by the millers, growers associations and national leaders (especially from the sugar growing zones) for the rationalization of the taxation regime relevant to the industry. The performance of the sub-sector continues on a downward trend despite efforts by the government and the various stakeholders to revamp it, a fact that threatens its very existence. The initiatives that have so far been taken, sad to say, have seen very little success with the sub-sector sinking deeper into the seemingly unending problems. Earlier researches have recommended further investigations into the problems bedeviling the sub-sector. The researcher collected data from all the institutions with stakes in the sugar subsector. The data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. The primary data were be collected from the management in the sugar factories through designed questionnaires. The secondary data were be collected from the millers, other formal institutional publications, journals and reports. The results of the research will be used to give more insights into the perceived income and pricing distortions caused by the tax regime in the industry. It will enable the millers and other stakeholders to push the agenda for the scrapping or reduction of taxes and levies in the sub-sector. This will in effect allow the millers to pass down the benefits to the consumers in terms of price reductions. The financial bottom lines of the factories are likely to improve since the levies and taxes contribute to the high cost of producing sugar. The sub-sector is likely to be attractive to prospective investors since its viability as an investment will be clearer from the tax reduction strategy. The researcher expects to show by analysis how the impact of taxes and levies affects the profitability of the milling factories. The final report will be made available to all key stakeholders in the sugar sub-sector for evaluation and implementation. The results of the study will also be used for any further research in the sugar sub-sector.


Many physiological functions show day-night fluctua tions called circadian rhythm. Day time fluctuation is called diurnal variation which is a part of circadian rhythm. Both are enabled by the biological clock in supra-chiasmatic nucl eus (SCN) of hypothalamus. Impact of diurnal oscillations on body temperature and metabolic rate are widely studied. However, its role in modulating the lung functions from morning till evening is less explored. Hence, an attempt had been made in this arena. Respiratory functional status was assessed at 8 AM, 12 noon and 5 PM in 15 normal young individuals in the age group of 17 to 20 years by pulmonary function test (PFT).The values of PFT variables were analysed in SPSS version 17 by using ANOVA. The mean values of FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC ratio, FEV25-75% and PEFR were maximum (122.80, 128 .20, 121.40 and 107.33)at 5 PM and minimum (105.00, 98.40, 99.53 and 97.80) at 12 noon revealing that lung function was at its best around 5 PM with minimum airway resistance and worst at 12 noon with maximum airway resistance. It is postulated that SCN regulates circadian rhythm through retinal impulses and pineal gland. Pineal gland, in turn, controls circadian rhythm by secreting melatonin which may play a key role in modulating the expression of chemotaxins in airway epithelium. We conclude that asthe pulmonary functional status is at its best around 5 PM it may be considered in determining the time of treatment to enhance the therapeutic efficacy for the pulmonary disorders.


Lipoproteins are complexes of lipids and proteins that carry water‐insoluble cholesterol in the bloodstream. While cholesterol is required for normal cell function, hypercholes‐ terolemia contributes to the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Increased low‐density lipoprotein (LDL) is a major risk factor for CVD. Reduced high‐density lipo‐ protein (HDL) levels are inversely related to CVD risk, suggesting a protective role for HDL. Several diseases, including atherosclerosis, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and rheumatoid arthritis, have been identified where HDL levels are decreased or function is compromised. HDLs are spherical particles with a hydrophobic core of cholesteryl esters surrounded by a monolayer of phospholipids, proteins and unesterified cholesterol. Apolipoprotein (apo) A‐I, the major protein component of HDL, plays an important role in the assembly and function of HDL. One of the major functions of HDL is to mediate cellular cholesterol efflux and the transfer of cholesterol from extrahepatic tissues to the liver for excretion into the bile. In addition to regulating cholesterol metabolism, HDL also exhibits antioxidative, antithrombotic and anti‐inflammatory properties. Under cer ‐ tain conditions, however, HDL may undergo biochemical modification resulting in the formation of a particle with pro‐inflammatory properties. This review will focus on the variable properties of HDL under normal physiological conditions and in the context of inflammation.


CD26, a T cell activation Ag, also known as dipeptidyl peptidase IV, is directly associated with adenosine deaminase (ADA) on the surface of T cells and T cell lines. In the present study, we examined both the binding of ADA and CD26 and the functional consequences of this interaction. We found that ADA was associated with CD26 on T cell lines lacking either ADA or dipeptidyl peptidase IV enzymatic activity, indicating that the association between dipeptidyl peptidase IV and ADA did not require enzymatic activity. Moreover, using immunoelectron microscopy, we demonstrated that CD26 and ADA co-localized on the cell surface, but not inside cells, suggesting that CD26 did not transport ADA to the surface. In keeping with this observation, we showed that human CD26-transfected murine pre-B cell lines lacking human ADA acquired ADA from an extracellular source. More importantly, adenosine in the absence of cell surface ADA inhibited T cell proliferation and IL-2 production induced by various stimuli. On the other hand, cells expressing ADA and CD26 on the surface were much more resistant to the inhibitory effect of adenosine. These data suggest that ADA on the cell surface is involved in an important immunoregulatory mechanism by which released ADA binds to cell surface CD26, and this complex is capable of reducing the local concentration of adenosine.


The no-duty-to-rescue rule says that people are not required to rescue others in distress. Thus, someone who fails to offer aid cannot be held civilly liable if the victim later succumbs to the danger. This liability exemption applies no matter how grave the risk facing the victim, and no matter how simple, easy and safe the rescue opportunity for the bystander. To most people, the no-duty-to-rescue rule seems clearly at odds with the concept of moral fault. Instinctively, it feels wrong to stand idly by as another human being suffers harm. This instinct could be rooted in a number of possible sources. Many societies embrace values of benevolence and altruism. Most religions preach good samaritanism and denounce selfishness. Whatever their source, our sensibilities tell us that one who fails to rescue others is morally deficient. Because of its apparent immorality, the no-duty-to-rescue rule also seems unreasonable. However, as I will attempt to show in this brief essay, such a conclusion is by no means inescapable. In fact, I shall argue that reasonableness fully supports the rule as currently formulated. My thesis will unfold in two parts. First, I shall demonstrate that the no-duty-to-rescue rule is actually a reasonable exception to a broader principle of cooperation, which forces people to make sacrifices for parties who take affirmative measures to defend their interests in emergencies. Second, I show how the rule satisfies the reasonable requirements of distributive and corrective justice, deftly balancing the interests of the parties and the state, while maintaining the integrity of the liberal value system of which it is a part.


To measure the levels of Zn, Mn, Cu, Pb, Cd, As and other trace elements in bodies of the mother and the fetus and to perform correlation analysis among trace elements. Total of 180 pregnant women hospitalized between October 2008 and Apr 2009 were continuously recruited in this study. Contents of trace element in maternal and umbilical cord blood including Zn, Mn, Cu, Pb, Cd and As etc. were determined using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry system. SPSS12.0 software was applied to establish database and conduct statistical analysis. Median concentrations of Zn, Mn, Cu, Pb, As and Cd in maternal blood were respectively 5747.0 μg/L, 29.145 μg/L, 1410.5 μg/L, 32.105 μg/L, 4.435 μg/L , and 1.155 μg/L, and median concentrations of corresponding element in umbilical cord blood were respectively 1793.0 μg/L, 45.489 μg/L, 464.4 μg/L, 21.625 μg/L, 2.976 μg/L, and 0.142 μg/L. Contents of Zn, Cu, Pb, As and Cd in maternal blood were significantly higher than that in umbilical cord blood (P<0.05). Levels of Mn in umbilical cord blood were significantly higher than that in maternal blood (P<0.05). All 6 trace elements in maternal blood had significant positive correlation to corresponding elements in umbilical cord blood (r: 0.169 ~ 0.378 and all P<0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that various trace elements in maternal blood were the main determinant of corresponding trace elements in umbilical cord blood. Some trace elements in maternal blood also had certain impact on the levels of other trace elements in umbilical cord blood. This study showed that toxic trace elements Pb, As and Cd existed at higher level in patients from China than developed countries, which is a problem not to be ignored. Trace element levels in neonate were closely related to that in the mother, while levels of trace element in maternal blood had some effects on the levels of other trace element in umbilical cord blood. Therefore, monitoring trace element levels during pregnancy and effective treatment in case of abnormal findings were still important components of eugenics.


In late 2004, Ukraine underwent the "Orange Revolution"--several weeks of peaceful mass demonstrations that reversed a fraudulent election, catapulted a democrat to the presidency, and promised to transform the country into a modern European state. Just a few months later, the Orange coalition, led by President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, was already at loggerheads, and by late 2005 it had split. Continued bickering among the Orange democrats enabled the man who had been humiliated by the Revolution, Viktor Yanukovych, to stage a spectacular comeback in mid-2006. After Yushchenko dissolved parliament and called new elections in 2007, however, a reconstituted and exceedingly shaky Orange coalition managed to win. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This seemingly endless elite infighting marked by mudslinging, accusations of betrayal, and demagoguery was the last thing that Ukraine's population had expected from the hopeful days of 2004. Instead of smooth sailing toward Europe, Ukraine appeared to have been caught in a series of devastating storms. It is small wonder that, by late 2007, most Ukrainians turned their backs on politics and focused their energy on their personal lives. Ironically, though predictably, political apathy among the Ukrainian population results from disillusionment with the overly enthusiastic revolutionary rhetoric generated by the Orange Revolution, confirming the pragmatic, evolutionary, and thoroughly unromantic progress Ukraine has made since 2004. The Orange Revolution as Romantic Upheaval Popular disillusionment was the result of missed opportunities and political mistakes by the Orange leadership. It was also the product of the exalted expectations created by facing down a corrupt regime and forcing it to the popular will. There are, after all, two distinct ways in which the concept of revolution can be understood--as a popular upheaval or as a fundamental, comprehensive, and rapid change. Upheavals may or may not lead to massive change, while fundamental, comprehensive, and rapid change may or may not be caused by upheavals. Thus, the upheaval known as the French Revolution actually produced far less change than it promised. The Nazi Revolution entailed enormous change but was not produced by an upheaval. The Iranian Revolution, meanwhile, involved both an upheaval in 1978 and 1979 and a complete systemic transformation in the years that followed. Ukraine's Orange Revolution was an upheaval that did not lead to fundamental, comprehensive, and rapid change. But like all self-styled revolutionaries who attempt to sustain a popular uprising, the Orange revolutionaries employed a romantic rhetoric that went far beyond mere upheaval. They promised a transformation of everything, immediately. Ukraine was going to join the European Union and NATO, free itself from Russia's embrace, cast all its corrupt "bandits" into jail, enjoy impeccably clean and efficient government, adopt full-scale economic reforms, experience a cultural revival, and live like the developed West. These extravagant promises were expectations that the revolutionaries, as the peaceful reformers they really were, simply could not meet. They were, thus, hoisted with their own petard. Popular disillusionment was inevitable because fundamental, comprehensive, and rapid change was never in the cards; the Orange coalition's split was inevitable because the rhetoric of revolution could only clash with the realities of Ukraine's evolutionary politics. The ancien regime represented by Yanukovych was able to return in 2006 because it had never quite left. The Undesirability of Revolutionary Change Ukraine is supremely fortunate that the Orange revolutionaries did not attempt to introduce fundamental, comprehensive, and rapid change. Had they tried, they would have failed, and Ukraine's population--saddled with broken institutions and violence-prone elites--would have been far worse off today than it is and would have had far fewer prospects for meaningful reform than it now has. …


The study investigates managers' expectations of contributions towards a strategic alliance. In order to achieve this objective, a case study of a British Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME), which has engaged in international strategic alliances and operates in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, is examined. The findings indicate that cultural issues may be the origin of problems in the mismatch of expectations on contributions connected to strategic alliance formation in the ICT sector. However, culture clashes are not the rule under this scenario. Congruency of the objectives of both partners in the integration process is also an important success factor as well as an open and clear communication between negotiators with regard to potential contributions. Additional research is deemed necessary to establish a deeper understanding of the significance of mismatch of expectations of contributions of partners in the formation of strategic alliances in the ICT sector.


Presents a 100-kHz femtosecond amplifier system delivering pulses with a duration of 35 fs and an energy of 7 /spl mu/J. The system does not include a stretcher, since the large amount of dispersion accumulated during the amplification process is sufficient to prevent self-focusing. Compensation in approximately all orders is achieved through a combination of a prism compressor, chirped mirrors, and a liquid-crystal modulator, allowing the amplified pulses to be shortened to nearly the bandwidth limit.


The thesis aims to describe the trade of the port of
Chester and the state of the navigation of the River Dee
from 1600 to 1800, and to put forward reasons for the
decline in the City's trade.
The thesis embodies facts and conclusions drawn from
examination of unpublished documents in the City Archives
and the Public Record Office, and contemporary printed books
and newspapers. For the account of the City and its merchants
considerable use has been made of the material in the City
Archives, and the descriptions of the trade are largely based
on a detailed study of the Port Books in the Public Record
Office. Critical comments and reservations are made about
the use of the Port Books as source material.
Part One of the thesis describes the City, the navigation
of the River Doe and the hinterland. Part Two describes
firstly, Chester's role in the organisation of the customs,
and the Port Books as source material; secondly, the trade
with foreign countries, Ireland and other ports of England
and Wales; and thirdly, the assessment of the various elements
contributing to the decline of the port.
Although considerable efforts were made to improve the
state of the navigation, the City failed to maintain its
importance as a port. This resulted from a variety of causes
including the difficulties of the river. There was
insufficient driving force to overcome these physical
difficulties. This was partly due to conditions in the
City where the guilds, persisting until the eighteenth
century, were a restraining influence on commerce, and
partly to the small size and nature of the hinterland with
which Chester had imperfect communications. The mid-
Cheshire salt trade was lost to Liverpool and the coal and
load trade of Flintshire was largely remote from the City.
Saltney Marsh was an important barrier separating the City
from the mineral tract. The difficulties of the estuary
were added to by the nature of the trade; bulky exports far
exceeded the imports so many ships arrived in ballast which
was jettisoned in the river.
In this way, the thesis presents a broad, geographical
survey of the inter-relationship of the City, the River Dee
and the adjoining hinterland area of Cheshire and North Wales
from 1600 to 1800.


The consequences of frequently used price expectation models are analyzed by comparing the responsiveness of U.S. corn and soybean acreages to six alternative formulations. The trade-off between bias and variance associated with these forecasts is investigated. The results of this study have important implications for future research on supply analysis.


Blind face restoration usually relies on facial priors, such as facial geometry prior or reference prior, to restore realistic and faithful details. However, very low-quality inputs cannot offer accurate geometric prior while high-quality references are inaccessible, limiting the applicability in real-world scenarios. In this work, we propose GFP-GAN that leverages rich and diverse priors encapsulated in a pretrained face GAN for blind face restoration. This Generative Facial Prior (GFP) is incorporated into the face restoration process via spatial feature transform layers, which allow our method to achieve a good balance of realness and fidelity. Thanks to the powerful generative facial prior and delicate designs, our GFP-GAN could jointly restore facial details and enhance colors with just a single forward pass, while GAN inversion methods require image-specific optimization at inference. Extensive experiments show that our method achieves superior performance to prior art on both synthetic and real-world datasets.


Given the probability distribution function relating to the recurrence interval and the occurrence time of the previous occurrence of a fault, a time-dependent model of a particular fault for seismic hazard assessment was developed that takes into account the active fault rupture cyclic characteristics during a particular lifetime up to the present time. The Gutenberg and Richter (1944) exponential frequency-magnitude relation uses to describe the earthquake recurrence rate for a regional source. It is a reference for developing a composite procedure modelled the occurrence rate for the large earthquake of a fault when the activity information is shortage. The time-dependent model was used to describe the fault characteristic behavior. The seismic hazards contribution from all sources, including both time-dependent and time-independent models, were then added together to obtain the annual total lifetime hazard curves. The effects of time-dependent and time-independent models of fault [e.g., Brownian passage time (BPT) and Poisson, respectively] in hazard calculations are also discussed. The proposed fault model result shows that the seismic demands of near fault areas are lower than the current hazard estimation where the time-dependent model was used on those faults, particularly, the elapsed time since the last event of the faults (such as the Chelungpu fault) are short. Article history: Received 30 May 2016 Revised 4 February 2017 Accepted 8 February 2017


We use electropalatographic (EPG) data as a test bed for dimensionality reduction methods based in latent variable modelling, in which an underlying lower dimension representation is inferred directly from the data. Several models (and mixtures of them) are investigated, including factor analysis and the generative topographic mapping. Experiments indicate that nonlinear latent variable modelling reveals a low-dimensional structure in the data inaccessible to the investigated linear models.


ABSTRACT Reworking of sedimentary substrates by terrestrial vertebrates, especially hoofed herbivores, has stratigraphic significance comparable to the bioturbation of marine sediments by benthic invertebrates. Environmental analysis of the Pliocene-Pleistocene Koobi Fora Formation in northern Kenya reveals many vertebrate footprints and trackways in fluvial and lake-margin strata. Some beds are completely reworked by trampling of many animals, presumably ungulates, with subsequent disarrangement of primary grain fabric and sedimentary structures. Examination of tracks and game trails in similar modern Kenyan environments, and comparison with those in older sediments, indicate characteristics useful for their recognition elsewhere. Preservation is best in mud and sand interbeds of medium thickness where the animal foot punches out a plug of coherent surface sediment (usually mud) and presses it into underlying units of contrasting lithology (usually sand). Thicker and less coherent muds simply mold the foot. In both situations the track is flat to concave upward with a discontinuous rim that surrounds a low spot where later wind- or water-laid sediments and bone fragments may concentrate. Trampling of coherent surface mud disturbs the ground surface allowing wind and water to remove the loose sand below. thereby creating shallow erosional depressions on the landscape. Heavy trampling in wet interbeds of sand and mud homogenizes the previously distinct layers into a thicker, more massive unit, typically without any obvious tracks preserved. Although we have identified individual tracks of hippo, antelope, and bird (and a seven print trackway of an early hominid), exact taxonomic assignments are not easily made.


Recently, many online social networks, such as MySpace, Orkut, and Friendster, have faced inactivity decay of their members, which contributed to the collapse of these networks. The reasons, mechanics, and prevention mechanisms of such inactivity decay are not fully understood. In this work, we analyze decayed and alive subwebsites from the Stack Exchange platform. The analysis mainly focuses on the inactivity cascades that occur among the members of these communities. We provide measures to understand the decay process and statistical analysis to extract the patterns that accompany the inactivity decay. Additionally, we predict cascade size and cascade virality using machine learning. The results of this work include a statistically significant difference of the decay patterns between the decayed and the alive subwebsites. These patterns are mainly cascade size, cascade virality, cascade duration, and cascade similarity. Additionally, the contributed prediction framework showed satisfactorily prediction results compared to a baseline predictor. Supported by empirical evidence, the main findings of this work are (1) there are significantly different decay patterns in the alive and the decayed subwebsites of the Stack Exchange; (2) the cascade's node degrees contribute more to the decay process than the cascade's virality, which indicates that the expert members of the Stack Exchange subwebsites were mainly responsible for the activity or inactivity of the Stack Exchange subwebsites; (3) the Statistics subwebsite is going through decay dynamics that may lead to it becoming fully-decayed; (4) the decay process is not governed by only one network measure, it is better described using multiple measures; (5) decayed subwebsites were originally less resilient to inactivity decay, unlike the alive subwebsites; and (6) network's structure in the early stages of its evolution dictates the activity/inactivity characteristics of the network.


Waterproof textiles have wide applications in many fields such as sportswear, protective clothing, and orthopedic dressing. Breathability is an important factor of clothing comfort. Nanofibrous layers have application in these fields due to their interconnected porous area and high surface area. In this work, two different nanofiber layers were fabricated and examined as waterproof and breathable layers. Polyurethane (PU) and PU/nylon 66 (hybrid) nanofiber layers were produced via electrospinning set up with different electrospinning durations. Some of the samples' characteristics such as tensile strength, microindentation, air permeability, water vapor permeability (WVP), and contact angle of water were investigated. Moreover, a novel approach was applied for determining the performance of layers against acidic water to simulate acidic rain. The results show that the tensile strength, indentation force, and acidic waterproof ability of the layers increased with increasing the process duration, that is, while air permeability was decreased simultaneously. This work shows that the required force for indentation and strength of the hybrid layer was less than that of PU nanofiber layer. Also, the electrospun hybrid layers show better air permeability than the PU membrane but still have lower WVP, which affects the breathability of the layer.


Down syndrome (DS) is the most common chromosomal abnormality in man and congenital heart defects (CHD) the most life threatening of its manifestations. The cardiac anomalies and early pulmonary hypertension are associated with high morbidity and mortality. It is thus important to diagnose and intervene early to improve the quality of life. Few studies have been done on Down syndrome patients in Nigeria. Objective: The objective was to find out the incidence and types of congenital heart defects in Down syndrome patients seen in the Paediatric cardiology unit of this tertiary institution. Method: A prospective study of Down Syndrome patients seen at the Paediatric Cardiology clinic of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital over a three year period was carried out. Data of age, sex, birth order, mother's age, indication for surgery, clinical and echocardiographic findings and outcome was analysed. Result: Of the 31 patients who had echocardiography done, all had cardiac defects (100%). Patent ductus arteriosus, occurring solitarily or in combinations was the commonest cardiac defect seen followed by ventricular septal defects. Interestingly, over 60 % of the patients had multiple cardiac defects with VSD/PDA, VSD/ASD accounting for 50%. Conclusion: The incidence of multiple cardiac defects in more than 60% of DS patients seen underscores the need for early diagnosis and intervention. Routine extensive cardiac evaluation in  the first few weeks of life is advocated. Key word : Down syndrome, congenital heart defects, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.


In this correspondence, we address the problem of real-time moving target search in dynamic and partially observable environments, and propose an algorithm called real-time moving target evaluation search (MTES). MTES is able to detect the closed directions around the agent and determines the estimated best direction to capture a moving target avoiding the obstacles nearby. We have also developed a new prey algorithm (Prey-A*) to test the existing and our predator algorithms in our experiments. We have obtained an impressive improvement over moving target search, real-time target evaluation search, and real-time edge follow with respect to path length. Furthermore, we have also tested our algorithm against A*.


We consider the impact of the recent KamLAND data on neutrino oscillations, the first terrestrial neutrino experiment that can probe the solar neutrino anomaly. By combining the first 145.1 days of KamLAND data with the full sample of latest solar neutrino data we find an enhanced rejection against non-LMA oscillations, allowed only at more than 4 sigma with respect to LMA. Furthermore, the new data have a strong impact in narrowing down the allowed range of Delta_m^2 inside the LMA region. In contrast, our global analysis indicates that the new data have little impact on the location of the best fit point. In particular the solar neutrino mixing remains significantly non-maximal (3 sigma).


Over the last decades much progress has been made in the fight against human trafficking. As with any social movement, divisions exists among activists and scholars on the most effective direction to execute social change. Often, these focus on language. One such critical discussion is whether it is appropriate to label human trafficking "Modern Day Slavery." Although the term has existed for several years, the analogy gained a more full acceptance with its use by President Obama in September 2012 when he described "the injustice, the outrage, of human trafficking which must be called by its true name -- modern slavery." Questions remain, however, if it indeed must be called that, as the implications are significant.This article argues in support of the position that modern day slavery is an apt label to use as analogy to human trafficking. Acknowledging its costs and imperfections, of which there are several, the label fulfills the goals of analogy because it is an accurate description of the practice of human trafficking and, most importantly the experience of so many victims. This is particularly true when one defines slavery beyond antebellum slavery to include the period of de facto slavery after the Civil War, in which peonage and debt bondage were the dominant exploitive institutions. Therefore, this article asserts that the label only can be embraced when slavery is defined in this way and when specifically focused on the victim/survivor experience. However, this article also advances the argument that it is an analogy that has not fulfilled its promise to assist in explaining or characterizing the realities of human trafficking. It has failed to do so because its use so often stops there, with a simple sensational label that is unanalyzed, uncritiqued, and unrefined. Therefore, this article examines the implications of that label of modern day slavery to each of the stakeholders in the institution of human trafficking. By doing so, the true potential of this powerful but appropriate label is unlocked.By examining it through the implications it has for the stakeholders of human trafficking: victims, traffickers, owners, and the bystanders, the article underscores the propriety of the label. Only when the label is fully embraced within this framework can its power be mastered to assist in transforming society from one that endorses and profits from ownership of people to one that rejects it in all its forms.


Structural disorder induced by cryogenic milling and by heating to the amorphous phase in the active pharmaceutical ingredient Griseofulvin has been studied using Raman spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), and fluorescence spectroscopy. A broad, exciting-frequency-independent scattering background in the Raman spectra and changes in intensities and splitting of some of the Raman lines due to lattice and molecular modes have been observed. In the cryomilled samples this strong background is deconvoluted into two components: one due to lattice disorder induced by cryomilling and the other due to Mie scattering from nanosized crystallites. A single-component background scattering attributed to lattice disorder is seen in the Raman spectrum of the amorphous sample. Fluorescence measurements showed an intrinsic fluorescence signal in as-received Griseofulvin that does not correspond to the inelastic background in the Raman spectra and, moreover, decreases in intensity upon cryomilling, thus excluding an assignment of the Raman background intensity to impurity- or molecular-defect-induced fluorescence. Wide-angle XRPD measurements on cryomilled Griseofulvin shows a broad two-component background consistent with the background-scattering component in the Raman data associated with lattice disorder, but at longer correlation lengths. Persistence of this disorder to even longer lengths is evident in small-angle synchrotron XRPD data on micronized Griseofulvin taken as a function of temperature from the crystalline to the amorphous phase.


Band structures of one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystals (PCs) containing dispersive left-handed metamaterials are studied theoretically. The results show that the structure possesses a type of photonic band gap originating from total internal reflection (TIR). In contrast to photonic band gaps corresponding to zero average refractive index and zero phase, the TIR gap exhibits sharp angular effect and has no polarization effect. It should also be noted that band structures of transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) mode waves are exactly the same in the PCs we studied.


Escalating attrition rates among all sectors
of employment negatively impacts the efficiency of education systems globally.
This dilemma has impacted special education for decades. The departure of
special educators leaves public education systems devoid of quality educators.
Understanding the influence of job satisfaction upon employee retention plays a
vital role in developing effective teacher retention initiatives. The purpose
of this qualitative study, which consisted of 12 participants, was to determine
the influencing factors of Bahamian special educators' withdrawal from the
educational system. Job Satisfaction and Social Cognitive Career Theory
grounded this study and emphasized the influence of educators' experiences upon
their career decisions. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews,
focus group, and analyzed through open coding. Findings revealed that Bahamian special educators withdraw from special education
because of critical factors (a) lack of support, (b) inadequate training, and
(c) burnout, resulting in poor job satisfaction.


For decades the Magistrate has run the affairs of a tiny frontier settlement, ignoring the impending war between the barbarians and the Empire, whose servant he is. But when the interrogation experts arrive, he is jolted into sympathy with the victims and into a quixotic act of rebellion which lands him in prison, branded as an enemy of the state. Waiting for the Barbarians is an allegory of oppressor and oppressed. Not just a man living through a crisis of conscience in an obscure place in remote times, the Magistrate is an analogue of all men living in complicity with regimes that ignore justice and decency.


The Posse Foundation selected high-potential, non-traditional students to attend selective colleges as part of a group of 10 from the same city. The organization had developed an ambitious growth plan, but because it focused on the most selective colleges, the pool of available university partners was somewhat limited. Some members of Posse's board wondered if the organization should broaden the criteria for potential partner colleges in order to more quickly grow the number of students it served. If Posse defined its impact as helping as many non-traditional students as possible enter and graduate from college, expanding the list of acceptable partners might make sense. But CEO Deborah Bial believed that selective colleges provided posse scholars with more than just superior career opportunities - they were a gateway to influential leadership positions and powerful networks. If Posse defined its impact as changing the demographic makeup of the leadership of professions such as law, business, medicine, and education, then perhaps it should continue to target only the most selective colleges. The case provides an opportunity for readers in the CEO's shoes and weigh the consequences of each approach.


Background: Patients scheduled for major elective noncardiac surgery frequently undergo preoperative medical consultations. However, the factors that determine whether individuals undergo consultation and the extent of interhospital variation remain unclear. Methods: The authors used population-based administrative databases to conduct a cohort study of patients, aged 40 yr or older, who underwent major elective noncardiac surgery in Ontario, Canada, between April 2004 and February 2009. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to identify patient- and hospital-level predictors of consultation. Results: Within the cohort of 204,819 patients who underwent surgery at 79 hospitals, 38% (n = 77,965) underwent preoperative medical consultation. Although patient- and surgery-level factors did predict consultation use, they explained only 5.9% of variation in consultation rates. Differences in rates across hospitals were large (range, 10–897 per 1,000 procedures), were not explained by surgical procedure volume or hospital teaching status, and persisted after adjustment for patient- and surgery-level factors. The median odds of undergoing consultation were 3.51 times higher if the same patient had surgery at one randomly selected hospital as opposed to another. Conclusions: One-third of surgical patients undergo preoperative medical consultation. Although patient- and surgery-level factors are weak predictors of consultation use, the individual hospital is the major determinant of whether patients undergo consultation. Additional research is needed to better understand the basis for this substantial interhospital variation and to determine which patients benefit most from preoperative consultation.


This study examines the Qatar Olympic participation and the creation of a national representation through sport. Until its independence from Britain in 1971, Qatar could not participate in any international sport competition. On September 3, 1971, the country's Heir Apparent appeared on local TV and announced the Qatar's independence. In subsequent years, national sports federations in Qatar started to request for membership of their respective International Federations (IFs). However, in order to participate in the Olympics, the Qatar National Olympic Committee (QOC) should be established. Thus, in 1979, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) received a letter announcing the establishment of the QOC. After got its recognition in 1980, the QOC was eligible to send athletes to the Olympics. Since that to date, one hundred and sixteen Qatari athletes have represented the country in eight Olympics, starting with the 1984 Los Angeles Games. From the governance side, until 2000 Sydney Games, QOC had four different presidents. On December, 12, 2000, H.H. Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani took the leadership of the QOC. Two years later H.H. Sheikh Tamim was appointed as the first and until today the only IOC member from Qatar. In 2012 London Games, Qatar sent its first women delegation with four athletes in different sports. In its whole Olympic history, Qatar won four bronzes in different male sports. The idea of having athletes in the opening ceremony of an Olympic Games and raising the national flag of the country can be seen as a strategy of the government to assert their national autonomy on global stage (Tomlinson, 2006). In this sense, the Olympics were used by Qatar to win international recognition (Houlihan, 2005) and to create a national representation though sport. The study is based on the theories of Cultural History (Green, 2008), National Identity (Smith, 2009) and Imagined Community (Anderson, 2006). The primary sources used in this paper are official documents, letters and telegrams from IOC, the IFs and the Official Gazette of the State of Qatar. This study is the academic result of the research conducted by the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic & Sports Museum into the history of Qatar in the Olympic Games in preparation of "Olympics: Past and Present Exhibition" which took place in Doha, Qatar from March until June, 2013.


Optogenetic control of neural activity in deep brain regions requires precise and flexible light delivery with non-invasive devices. To this end, Tapered Optical Fibers (TFs) represent a minimally-invasive tool that can deliver light over either large brain volumes or spatially confined subregions. This work links the emission properties of TFs with the modal content injected into the fiber, finding that the maximum transversal propagation constant (kt) and the total number of guided modes sustained by the waveguide are key parameters for engineering the mode demultiplexing properties of TFs. Intrinsic features of the optical fiber (numerical aperture and core/cladding diameter) define the optically active segment of the taper (up to ∼3mm), along which a linear relation between the propagating set of kt values and the emission position exists. These site-selective light-delivery properties are preserved at multiple wavelengths, further extending the range of applications expected for tapered fibers for optical control of neural activity.