The refugee label acknowledges the plight of people marginalized, oppressed and pushed to the periphery of society. While having this status affords a number of rights from countries signatory to the 1951 UN convention, the concept of 'refugeehood' within resettlement contexts can become a master status that defines a person above and beyond any other form of identity. Drawing upon political theories of recognition, this dilemma is addressed by examining the powerful current Western discourses on trauma where refugees are often situated. It is then contextualized, using the example of Sudanese men resettled in Australia to differentiate ordinary and extra-ordinary stories of lived experience. This distinction provides a helpful framework for developing more sophisticated understandings of how people have responded to trauma beyond the 'event-worthy' underpinnings of forced migration.


The demand for high speed ultrasonic scanning of large and complex components is driven by a desire to reduce production bottlenecks during the non-destructive evaluation of critical parts. Emerging systems (including robotic inspection) allow the collection of large data volumes in short time spans, compared to existing inspection systems. To maximize throughput, it is crucial that the reconstructed inspection data sets are generated and evaluated rapidly without a loss of detail. This requires new data visualization and analysis tools capable of mapping complex geometries whilst guaranteeing full part coverage. This paper presents an entirely new approach for the visualization of three-dimensional ultrasonic C-scans, suitable for application to high data throughput ultrasonic phased array inspection of large and complex parts. Existing reconstruction approaches are discussed and compared with the new Index Based Triangulation (IBT) method presented. The IBT method produces 3D C-scan representation, presented as coloured tessellated surfaces, and the approach is shown to work efficiently even on challenging geometry. An additional differentiating characteristic of the IBT method is that it allows easy detection of lack of coverage (an essential feature to ensure that inspection coverage can be guaranteed on critical components). Results demonstrate that the IBT C-scan generation approach runs over 60 times faster than a C-scan display based on Delaunay triangulation and over 500 times faster than surface reconstruction C-scans. In summary the main benefits of the new IBT technique are: • High speed generation of C-scans on large ultrasonic data sets (orders of magnitude improvement over surface reconstruction C-Scans) • Ability to operate efficiently on 3D mapped data sets (allowing 3D interpretation of C scans on complex geometry components) • Intrinsic indication of lack of inspection coverage


Of all of the educational tools used in social studies education, by far the most critiqued is the standard basal textbook. If used properly, nevertheless, textbooks are not as problematic as critics claim and can be a useful tool in the teaching and learning of social studies and history. Based on the focus found in the Common Core Standards on informational texts, the practicality of using textbooks is especially true in today's educational environment. This article was written with the goal of helping social studies teachers develop lessons that assist their students in meeting the requirements of the Common Core. One specific strategy is described to offer teachers an example of how to effectively use their textbook in a Common Core focused and social studies content-based activity. A sample lesson, based on an inquiry activity titled "Hollywood or History," is provided.


Hybrid recommender systems (RS) have shown to improve system accuracy by combining benefits from the collaborative filtering (CF) and content-based (CB) approaches. Recently, the increasing complexity of such algorithms has fueled a demand for researchers to focus more on the user-oriented aspects such as explainability, user interaction, and control mechanisms. Even in cases, where explanations are provided, the systems mostly fall short in explaining the connection between the recommended items and users' preferred features. Additionally, in most cases, rating or re-evaluating items is typically the only option for users to specify or manipulate their preferences. With the purpose to provide advanced explanations, we implemented a prototype system called Featuristic, by applying a hybrid approach that uses content-features in a CF approach and exploits feature-based similarities. Addressing important user-oriented aspects, we have integrated interactive mechanisms into the system to improve both preference elicitation and preference manipulation. Besides, we have integrated explanations for the recommendations into these interactive mechanisms. We evaluated our prototype system in two user studies to investigate the impact of the interactive explanations on the user-oriented aspects. The results showed that the Featuristic System with interactive explanations have significantly improved users' perception of the system in terms of the preference elicitation, explainability, and preference manipulation – compared to the systems that provide non-interactive explanations.


In English, the lexicon is one of the many areas affected by the asymmetry in the treatment of humans and inanimates. The study focuses on compounds. We compare compounds denoting human animates to those denoting inanimates. We find that there are proportionately few compounds for humans, and that this small proportion reveals a tendency for human animate nouns to be more opaque than nouns for inanimates. We propose that this is due to the way we conceptualize humans, i.e. as more than the sum of their parts. Humans resist transparent denominations because reducing a person to one characteristic amounts to ignoring his or her essential complexity. We take this to be a manifestation of anthropocentrism in language. Moreover, when human animate nouns are compounds (in spite of their tendency to be opaque), they exhibit two semantic characteristics that are not shared by inanimate nouns. The first one is that they tend to be derogatory. This again indicates that humans cannot easily be reduced to one characteristic. If they are, denominations tend to be negatively loaded. The second one is that they often involve the representation of a personal relationship (for example, a paper boy delivers newspapers, i.e. comes to someone's place). Transparency is therefore meaningful.


[1] A new MFRSR data analysis algorithm is presented. Our earlier algorithm assumed a monomodal aerosol size distribution, while the new algorithm allows us to partition the aerosol optical thickness into fine and coarse aerosol modes. In addition, we retrieve the fine mode effective radius and Angstrom exponent. A bimodal gamma distribution is used to describe the aerosol particle size distribution. The algorithm has been tested using a multi-year data set from the local MFRSR network at the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program site in Southern Great Plains (SGP). Our retrieved aerosol optical thicknesses (total, fine, and coarse) are compared with the corresponding AERONET almucantar retrieval results derived from a CIMEL sunphotometer co-located with the MFRSR at the SGP Central Facility. A constrained variant of the algorithm (zero NO2 column values) has been used to define the range of physically justified values of the fine mode effective radius, and for comparison with AERONET particle size retrievals. We use the multiple MFRSR measurements obtained during the year 2000 at the SGP Extended Facilities to examine geographical and seasonal variability of aerosol properties. A correspondence has been found between the geographical variation in the fine mode particle size and aerosol composition (nitrates versus sulfates) as measured by National Atmospheric Deposition Program. We similarly find good correspondence between our retrieved aerosol sizes and the PM2.5 to PM10 ratios obtained from EPA AirData monitoring. Examination of the data from the SGP Central Facility obtained for the period 1993–1997 reveals a decreasing trend in coarse mode aerosol optical thickness during the 1993–1995 period, consistent with the decay of the stratospheric aerosol following the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. In contrast, fine mode optical thickness exhibits only seasonal variability with summer maxima during this period.


The purpose of this thesis is to explore the various ways in which middle managers approach their role as change agents. Existing research on organizational change has primarily emphasized the implementation of change as middle management's main role during strategic change. I argue that middle managers are facing increasing challenges and expectations and particularly an increased pace of change. I therefore anticipate that the middle manager's role in strategic change may be more diverse than has been suggested in the previous literature. In order to examine how middle managers at various levels approach their role as change agents, I conducted a review of the literature on middle management and change, and carried out two longitudinal case studies of middle managers. Theoretically, I draw on middle management literature and the sensemaking perspective. My findings suggest that middle managers approach their role as implementer in various ways that differ in terms of both role perception and implementation practices. Some middle managers also take on a broader role as change agent that goes far beyond implementing change. The specific approach middle managers take to their role as change agents is important as it influences how change progresses. Consequently, my research contributes to the middle management literature and the strategic change literature by expanding our notion of the middle manager's role as change agent and by illustrating how middle managers contribute to securing the progress of change.


UNLABELLED
The purpose of this study was to evaluate differences in myocardial defect detection between 99mTc-sestamibi myocardial SPECT images reconstructed using conventional filtered backprojection (FBP) without attenuation correction (AC) and those reconstructed using maximum-likelihood expectation maximization with nonuniform attenuation correction (MLAC).

METHODS
An observer study and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were performed using simulated 99mTc-sestamibi SPECT data from a population of 24 mathematic anthropomorphic torso phantoms, which realistically modeled a wide range of anatomic variations. The phantoms modeled male patients with a flat diaphragm, male patients with a diaphragm raised to the level of the heart, and female patients with large breasts. Transmural, cold defects with a contrast of 0.25 were simulated in the left ventricular wall for 6 locations. Noisy projection data were generated from the phantoms and included the effects of nonuniform attenuation, collimator-detector response, and scatter. The data were then reconstructed using FBP and MLAC. Images were displayed in the short- and long-axis formats, as in clinical practice. Eight observers viewed blocks of FBP and MLAC images and, for each image, indicated on a continuous rating scale the probability that a defect was present. From the rating data, FBP and MLAC ROC curves were generated, and their areas (Az) were estimated and compared.

RESULTS
In general, the FBP and MLAC ROC curves did not cross and the MLAC curve showed a higher Az than did the corresponding FBP curve. For male phantoms with a flat diaphragm, the average difference in Az was 0.04 and was not statistically significant (at the P = 0.05 level) for 6 of 8 observers. For male phantoms with a raised diaphragm, the average difference in Az was 0.22 and was statistically significant for 6 of 8 observers. For female phantoms with large breasts, the average difference in Az was 0.19 and was statistically significant for all 8 observers.

CONCLUSION
This study showed an improvement in defect detection in myocardial SPECT images using MLAC in comparison with images using FBP without AC, particularly for patients with large breasts or with a diaphragm raised to the level of the heart.


Four-banded, or chestnut, goby Chromogobius quadrivittatus (Steindachner, 1863) (Actinopterygii, Perciformes, Gobiidae) is recorded from in Kazachiya Bay, Sevastopol, Crimean Peninsula. The study shows that the species is more numerous and probably widely distributed in the Black Sea being a cryptobenthic species inhabiting darkened and twilight biotopes, such as grottos, marine caves, clusters of rocks and boulders, rocks with wide cracks and various artificial constructions At the same time, the sampling of the species need a special method with "trap" simulating darkened and twilight biotopes.
Keywords: Diversity; Pisces; Chromogobius; Gobiidae; new records; ecology; goby; Black Sea; Crimean Peninsula
References:
Ahnelt, H. (1990). Chromogobius quadrivittatus, Chromogobius zebratus and Zebrus zebrus (Pisces: Gobiidae): first record for Corsica (France) and Sardinia (Italy). Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien, 91(B), 27-41 (in German with English abstract).
Saad, A. (2005). Checklist of Bony Fish Collected from the Coast of Syria. Turkish Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic, 5, 99-106.
Berg, L. S. (1949). Fishes of fresh waters of USSR and neighboring regions. III. 4th ed. Moscow: Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1-1382 (in Russian).
Boltachev, A. R., & Karpova, E. P. (2014). Faunistic revision of alien fish species in the Black Sea. Russian Journal of Biological Invasions, 5(4), 225-241.
Boltachev, A. R., Karpova, E. P. & Pashkov, A. N. (2018). Four-banded goby Chromogobius quadrivittatus (Steindachner, 1863). In: Red book of the city of Sevastopol. Main Department of Natural Resources and Ecology of Sevastopol. Sevastopol. Publishing House "ROST-DOAFK", 368 (in Russian).
Colombo, М. & Langeneck, J. (2013). The importance of underwater photography in detecting cryptobenthic species: new in situ records of some gobies (Teleostei: Gobiidae) from Italian Seas with ecological notes. Acta Adriatica, 54(1), 101-110.
Engin, S., Seyhan, D., Akdemir, T., & Keskin, A. C. (2016). New distribution data for two cryptobenthic gobiid fish (Gobiidae) in the Turkish coasts. Journal of Black Sea/Mediterranean Environment, 22(1), 110-118.
Georgiev, J. M. (1961), An unknown poem for the Bulgarian ichthyofauna - Relictogobius kryzanowskii. II. Reports of Center of Researches in Fishing and Fishery, 1, 141-145 (in Bulgarian).
Kovtun, O. A. (2013). A new record of the rare goby Chromogobius quadrivittatus (Steindachner, 1863) (Actinopterygii, Perciformes, Gobiidae) in the marine underwater cave of Tarkhankut Peninsula (Black Sea). Marine Ecological Journal, 13(1), 18 (in Russian).
Marin I. N., & Turbanov, I. S. (2016). The first record of the copepod genus Clausidium Kossmann, 1875 (Crustacea: Copepoda: Poecilostomatoida: Clausiididae) parasitic on burrowing callianassid shrimps from the Black Sea. Arthropoda Selecta, 25(4), 381-384.
Marin, I. (2018). On the taxonomic identity of the representatives of the brachyuran genus Pilumnus Leach, 1816 (Decapoda, Brachyura, Pilumnidae) occurring along the Russian coasts of the Black Sea. Arthropoda Selecta, 27(2), 111-120.
Miller, P. J. (1965). Relictogobius kryzanowskii and penetration of Mediterranean gobies into the Black Sea. Nature, 208(5009), 474-475.
Miller, P. J. (1971). A revision of the Mediterranean gobiid genus Chromogobius (Teleostei-Perciformes). Journal of Zoology, London, 164, 305-334.
Miller, P. J. (1986). Gobiidae. Fishes of the North-Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Paris: UNESCO, 3, 1019-1085.
Pashkov, A. N., Reshetnikov, S. I., & Makhrov, A. A. (2013). On the occurrence in the waters of the Krasnodar Territory of the four-banded goby Chromogobius quadrivittatus (Steindachner, 1863) (Pisces, Gobiidae). Modern Fisheries and Ecological problems of the Azov-Black Sea region: proceeding of VHI Intern. Kerch, June 26-27, 2013 - Kerch: YugNIRO, 2013, 83-87 (in Russian).
Pchelina, Z. M. (1939). New species and genus of goby Relictogobius kryzanowskii n.g., n.sp. from saline lake of Abrauskii Peninsula, the Black Sea basin. Doklady Akademii nauk SSSR, 23(6), 586-589 (in Russian with English abstract).
Pinchuk, V. I. (1987). Taxonomic notes on gobiid (Perciformes, Gobiidae) fauna of Ukraine. Bulletin of Zoology, 5, 30-35 (in Russian).


We present an analysis of the stellar populations of 102 visually selected early-type galaxies (ETGs) with spectroscopic redshifts (0.35 ≲ z ≲ 1.5) from observations in the Early Release Science program with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We fit one- and two-component synthetic stellar models to the ETGs UV-optical-near-IR spectral energy distributions and find that a large fraction (∼40%) are likely to have experienced a minor (fYC ≲ 10% of stellar mass) burst of recent (tYC ≲ 1 Gyr) star formation. The measured age and mass fraction of the young stellar populations do not strongly trend with measurements of galaxy morphology. We note that massive (M > 1010.5 M☉) recent star-forming ETGs appear to have larger sizes. Furthermore, high-mass, quiescent ETGs identified with likely companions populate a distinct region in the size–mass parameter space, in comparison with the distribution of massive ETGs with evidence of recent star formation (RSF). We conclude that both mechanisms of quenching star formation in disk-like ETGs and (gas-rich, minor) merger activity contribute to the formation of young stars and the size–mass evolution of intermediate redshift ETGs. The number of ETGs for which we have both HST WFC3 panchromatic (especially UV) imaging and spectroscopically confirmed redshifts is relatively small, therefore, a conclusion about the relative roles of both of these mechanisms remains an open question.


Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), have direct applications to landscape practice. Operating between human scales of landscape observation and low-flying light aircraft – usually between 10-120m – drones offer new survey possibilities by providing near-range visual information, among other sensory data sets. They can grant new perspectives on spatial layout and landscape conditions, and with almost immediate data capture, can be a powerful, cost-efficient new site design tool. This technical information note aims to help landscape professionals understand the use of UAVs and systems and procurement of UAV services and pilots. It particularly covers drone operations and uses for deployment in UK air-space. Although some detail is included for cautionary purposes, this note is not to be taken as guidance; effort has only been made to ensure its accuracy at the time of publication


High-resolution detection of specific molecules in cells is a major challenge in biology. We show that infrared scanning near-field microscopy can detect the spatial distribution of alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole-propionic acid–type glutamate receptor clusters on hippocampal neurons. The GluR2 subunits were labeled with the die Alexa 488 and high-resolution infrared micrographs were taken at 6.25 µm. The absence of photobleaching makes this approach suitable for a long-term observation and allows to localize different infrared-absorbing molecules over the complex background of other cell components.


The aim of this paper is the formulation of an instructive proposal for the conceptual comprehension of phenomena of Kinematics in one dimension, in the Greek Lyceum, supported by: suitable laboratory activities with the use of MBL (Microcomputer-Based Laboratory), simulations implemented by the «Interactive Physics» and a simple and open web-based software The reasons that impose our particular proposal are: . Conceptual difficulties on graphic representations, related to motion, for students at the first class of Greek Lyceum (Aged 15-16 years old). B. Physics teachers in Greece do not have educational material with explicit educational methodology at their disposal. In addition to this, they do not exploit the interest of their students and they set problems that discourage them. C. Students ask from their teachers, at school, provocative and interesting problems in the school laboratory. Instructive intervention Planning The whole process was implemented in two steps Laboratory instructive interventions. The activities-experiments were implemented with MBL A post-test. Our sample was divided in an experimental group (24 students for October 2005 and 27 students for October 2006) and a group of control (40 students). In the post-test we used two questions from the FCI test (The Force Concept Inventory) (Hestenes, D., Wells, M. and Swackhamer G. (1992)) and ideas from Worksheets of C.M.S.T. (Center for Science and Mathematics Teaching Tufts University of Massachusetts), so as that the test has bigger validity. The questions of the post-test were selected upon the following criteria: a. The comprehension of concepts which are related to kinematics. b. The functional comprehension of related graphic representations. c. The confrontation of the students' alternative ideas. The findings of the results of the post-test indicate the supremacy of the experimental team for questions related to the comprehension of graphic representations and the capability of interpretation of their answers.


The concept of a yield surface is central to the mathematical formulation of classical plasticity theories. However, at elevated temperatures, material response can be highly rate-dependent, which is beyond the realm of classical plasticity. Viscoplastic theories have been developed for just these conditions. In viscoplastic theories, the flow law is given in terms of inelastic strain rate rather than the inelastic strain increment used in rate-independent plasticity and in unified viscoplastic theories no yield criterion is used. Thus, surfaces of constant inelastic strain rate or flow surfaces, which describe hardening behavior, are considered to be more useful than yield surfaces. Experimental procedures to determine yield surfaces in axial-torsional stress space are well established. The use of small-offset definitions of yield minimizes the change of material state and allows multiple loadings to be applied to a single specimen. Flow surfaces are determined using the same procedures with the exception that inelastic strain rates are used rather than total inelastic strains. The key to these experiments is precise, decoupled measurement of axial and torsional strain. With this requirement in mind, the performance of a high-temperature multiaxial extensometer was evaluated through comparison with strain gage results at room temperature. Yield surfaces (both initial and subsequent) were found to be nearly identical when determined for Type 316 stainless steel using the extensometer and strain gages. The extensometer was then used successfully to determine flow surfaces for Type 316 stainless steel at 650°C.


In recent years, we have witnessed an unprecedented growth in the security software market. This market is now fiercely competitive with hundreds of nearly identical products; yet, the price is high and coverage low. Although recent research has examined such idiosyncrasies and found the existence of a negative network effect as a possible explanation, several important questions still remain: (1) What possibly discourages product differentiation in such a competitive market? (2) Why is versioning absent here? (3) How does the presence of free alternatives in this market impact its structure? We develop a comprehensive oligopoly model, with endogenous quality and versioning decisions, to address these issues. Our analyses reveal that, although the presence of numerous competitors leads to a greater need to differentiate, the network effect in this market works as a counterweight, incentivizing vendors to sacrifice differentiation in favor of collocating in the top end of the quality spectrum. We explain the reasons and implications of this important finding. We further show that this result is robust and applicable even when versioning by competing vendors or the presence of free software is taken into consideration. Furthermore, given that the presence of free software actually intensifies competitive pressure and heightens the need to differentiate, the role of the network effect in abating differentiation becomes even more discernible.


Prepared in cooperation with the Colorado State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts and issued by the Colorado State Board for Vocational Education


The effects of neutron irradiation on the steel reactor vessel for the modular hightemperature gas-cooled reactor (MHTGR) are being investigated, primarily because the operating temperatures are low [121 to 288°C (250-550°F)] compared to those for commercial light-water reactors (LWRs) [~288°C (550°F)]. The need for design data on the reference temperature (RTNDT) shift necessitated the irradiation at different temperatures of A 533 grade B class 1 plates, A 508 class 3 forging, and welds used for the vessel shell, vessel closure head, and vessel flange. This paper presents regularand mini-tensile, Automated Ball Indentation (ABI) and Charpy V-notch (CVN) impact test results from five irradiation capsules of this program. The first four capsules were irradiated in the University of Buffalo Reactor (UBR) to an effective fast fluence of 1.1×10 neutrons/cm [0.7×10 neutrons/cm (>1 MeV)] at temperatures of 288, 204, 163, and 121°C (550, 400, 325, and 250°F), respectively. The fifth capsule (designated ORNL-7) was irradiated in the Ford Nuclear Reactor (FNR) of the University of Michigan at 60°C (140°F) to an effective fast fluence of 1.3×10 neutrons/cm [0.8 × 10] (>1 MeV) ]. The yield and ultimate strength of both A 553 grade B class 1 plate materials of the MHTGR increased with decreasing irradiation temperature. Similarly, the 41-J CVN transition temperature shift increased with decreasing irradiation temperature (in agreement with the increase in yield strength). The mini-tensile and Automated Ball Indentation (ABI) test results (yield strength and flow properties) were in good agreement with those from standard tensile specimens. The minitensile and ABI test results were also used on a model which utilizes the changes on yield strength to estimate the CVN ductile-to-brittle transition temperature shift due to irradiation. The model predictions were compared with the CVN test results obtained here and in earlier work.


The structural stability, mechanical properties, and dynamical properties of T carbon-like structures were extensively studied by first-principles calculations using density functional theory. A novel modulated T carbon-like carbon allotrope (T-II carbon) is predicted by means of first principles calculations. This structure has 8 atoms in the unit cell, possesses the Pnm space group, and can be derived by stacking up two T carbons together. T-II carbon is a semiconductor with band gap 0.88 eV and has a higher hardness (27 GPa) than that of T carbon (5.6 GPa). The calculations of ideal strength and the electron localization function indicate that T-II carbon has better ability to resist shear strain than T carbon.


Grain boundaries (GBs) play an important role for the mechanical properties of metals. In addition to dislocation motion inside the grains, some metal alloys deform along the GBs at high temperatures. GBs can also be the cause of a brittle behaviour of some metallic alloys, where crack propagation along the GBs is observed. This thesis aims to understand the role of GBs on the thermo-mechanical behaviour of metals and especially to define the microscopic mechanism, which leads to a deformation at the GBs. In this thesis, polycrystals, single crystals and bi-crystals of a yellow gold alloy are studied in detail, primarily by mechanical spectroscopy. The analysis and interpretation of the experimental data identifies different anelastic relaxations (internal energy dissipation processes), that produce peaks in the mechanical loss spectrum. The mechanical loss spectrum of polycrystals shows a relaxation peak P2 at about 780K, which is absent in single crystals made from the same alloy. Stepwise deformation of a single crystal causes an increase of the high temperature mechanical loss background and the appearance of a high temperature peak (P3). Above a critical deformation, P3 disappears and the peak P2, which is normally observed in polycrystals, appears. The increase of the exponential background is interpreted as due to the introduction of new dislocations whereas the peak P3 is attributed to a dislocation relaxation mechanism in the sub-grain boundaries. The peak P2 located at intermediate temperatures depends on the grain size: with grain growth, the peak position shifts to higher temperatures. It is shown that the relaxation time is proportional to the grain size d. Such a grains size dependence is in agreement with the Zener model based on geometrical considerations of an assembly of elastic grains, which can slide against each other. The investigations on bi-crystals containing a single GB with a specific misorientation between crystal lattices and a specific boundary plane orientation show that the relaxation peak P2 is closely related to a mechanism taking place at the boundary. The peak height is proportional to the GB density in a bi-crystal, whereas a single crystalline part cut from a bi-crystal does not show a relaxation peak. Molecular dynamics simulations are performed in order to illustrate the potential microscopic mechanisms responsible for the stress relaxation peak P2 in polycrystals. A Sigma5 grain boundary is submitted to a shear deformation parallel to the boundary plane. The grain boundary shows a migration perpendicular to the boundary plane coupled to shear for temperatures below 700K. Above 1000K, only grain boundary sliding is observed. Two models are developed that provide expressions for the relaxation strength and the relaxation time that are compared to experimental measurements performed on polycrystals. The observed grain size dependence favours the sliding model over the migration model. Measurements as a function of stress allow a refinement of the sliding model. The stress amplitude dependence of the peak P2 indicates a depinning mechanism, which is interpreted as due to GB dislocations between zones where sliding of different amount occurred. Obstacles to the sliding movement like steps or extended coincidence sites in the GB plane act as pinning points. The pinning points can be overcome at high temperatures close to the melting point, which results in the onset of local microscopic creep.


Objectives
Malnutrition continues to be a major cause of death worldwide among children aged 5 years and under. We describe two patients who developed kwashiorkor while being predominantly fed rice milk.

Methods
An 11-month old Caucasian male presented with a 3-day history of worsening edema, decreased oral intake, diffuse maculopapular rash, and poor weight gain. He was diagnosed with dairy, soy, and sesame allergies by two allergists and was placed on rice milk. Labs revealed hypoalbuminemia, anemia, transaminitis, zinc and copper deficiency. He was started on Elecare Jr and vitamin supplementation with clinical improvement.A 2-year-old Caucasian male presented with a 7-day history of abdominal distension, abdominal pain, edema, and rash. He had multiple food allergies. His diet consisted of diluted almond and rice milk, chips, apples, and corn. He had hypoalbuminemia and anemia with multiple vitamin deficiencies.

Results
Kwashiorkor is characterized by severe malnutrition, hypoalbuminemia, edema, irritability, and rash. It is rare in the US but is being reported in patients receiving rice milk as their major source of nutrition. Previously described cases were due to dietary manipulations by the parents. Both our patients were under the guidance of physicians. Rice milk has been suggested as an alternative for patients with milk protein allergy however; not all products on the market have the same nutritional value, with significantly varied fortification. A recent study examined patients diagnosed with CMPA fed an extensively hydrolyzed rice protein-based formula called Novarice. This formula contains 21.9 calories and 0.6 grams of protein per ounce. Both our patients were ingesting Rice Dream which contains only 15 calories and 0.13 g of protein per ounce.

Conclusions
Infants who ingest rice milk are at high risk of developing severe malnutrition with hypoalbuminemia, edema, and nutritional deficiencies. It is important to educate not only consumers but health care providers on nutritional composition of these products. Translating an evidence-based study on the benefits of fortified rice milk into clinical practice needs to be performed cautiously since not all rice milk products are nutritionally alike.

Funding Sources
None.

Supporting Tables Images and/or GraphsTable 1


Brief Description:
The Age of Chopping Off Heads consists of two video works; Dying is for Amateurs and Trial by Media. Two choreographed dance performances have been filmed as interpretations of pop songs, written and recorded by Common Culture, with lyrics adapted from celebrity confession interviews. The music is produced by manipulating publicly available music samples in free to use Digital Audio Workspaces. The work was exhibited in The Laughable Enigma of Ordinary Life, Arquipelago, Centro de Artes Contemporâneas in Sao Miguel, the Azores. (15th September- 31st 2017 to 14 January 2018).

Research Statement:
Borrowing the celebrity confessional interview format as a formal register of a particularly pernicious form of contemporary commodification, the research combines generic music samples with lyrics formed from narcissistic confessional TV interviews with celebrities from the worlds of film, television, music and art.

The concept of 'throwing voices' in order to make claims about how the world is, or should be, is used as a formal and conceptual strategy with which to ventriloquise our interest in unsettling and corrupting the persuasive and fascinating allure of contemporary spectacle. As recent political events in the West have demonstrated, the throwing of 'celebrity' voices has proven to be spectacularly successful.

The use of music and celebrity culture, and the mechanisms of their production and consumption, allows the research to interrogate the seductive allure of the culture industry by appropriating and redeploying the forms and conventions by which it routinely exploits and commodifies individual ambition as formulaic spectacle.

The work is formed around two components, the production of pop songs (synchronising the translation of found dialogue into lyrics with the composition of sampled music) and the production of choreographed dance routines. The appropriation and adaptation of 'found' verbatim dialogue from confessional 'celebrity' and political interviews' is converted into mainstream pop lyrics to creates a context to interrogate how this material surfaces and is mediated into the public realm. Common Culture worked with Kelly Bates, a choreographer and dancer attuned to the interpretative cliches of television music programmes, to produce dance routines responsive to each of the songs. The use of overtly cliched choreography highlights the inflated expressive economy of celebrity culture as being one that is both highly mediated and commodified. The appropriation of this mode of address allows the redeployment of the characteristics of product to be critiqued within a contemporary art context.


A theoretical investigation of the exciton formation process from free carriers in a single GaAs/Al1-xGaxAs quantum well is presented. The mechanism for the formation processes is provided by the interaction of the electrons and holes with phonons. The contributions from both the acoustic and optical phonons are considered. The relative importance of exciton creation from a thermalized electron-hole gas (bimolecular formation) versus a direct creation of excitons from the crystal ground state through the electromagnetic field (geminate formation) is discussed. The formation process is analyzed for different densities and temperature of the free carriers, and for different intensities of the exciting optical pump. The results compare reasonably well with recent experiments.


Objectives-To assess the distribution of personal exposures to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in school children, and to investigate factors that might influence personal exposure. Methods-NO, exposures were assessed by use of passive diffusion tubes for 46 children aged 9-11 years, selected from two Southampton schools. The tubes were worn for seven days, and parallel measurements were made with static samplers in the child's kitchen, living room, classroom, and playground. Information about potential exposures was collected by questionnaire. Results-Personal exposures to NO2, averaged over seven days, ranged from 11 to 257 4ug/m3 (6 to 137 ppb) with a geometric mean of 36 ,uglm' (19 ppb). Exposures correlated with concentrations of NO2 recorded in the home, but the relation was far from exact. Factors associated with increased personal exposure included the use of gas appliances in the home, living with one or more smokers, and travel to school by means other than a car. However, together these variables only explained a small part of the variation in personal exposures. Conclusions-These findings reinforce the need for personal monitoring of exposure in studies investigating potential health effects ofNO2 in children. (Occup Environ Med 1996;53:200-203)


Archetypes are increasingly used as a methodological approach to understand recurrent patterns in variables and processes that shape the sustainability of social-ecological systems. The rapid growth and diversification of archetype analyses has generated variations, inconsistencies, and confusion about the meanings, potential, and limitations of archetypes. Based on a systematic review, a survey, and a workshop series, we provide a consolidated perspective on the core features and diverse meanings of archetype analysis in sustainability research, the motivations behind it, and its policy relevance. We identify three core features of archetype analysis: Recurrent patterns, multiple models, and intermediate abstraction. Two gradients help to apprehend the variety of meanings of archetype analysis that sustainability researchers have developed: (1) understanding archetypes as building blocks or as case typologies and (2) using archetypes for pattern recognition, diagnosis, or scenario development. We demonstrate how archetype analysis has been used to synthesize results from case studies, bridge the gap between global narratives and local realities, foster methodological interplay, and transfer knowledge about sustainability strategies across cases. We also critically examine the potential and limitations of archetype analysis in supporting evidence-based policy making through context-sensitive generalizations with case-level empirical validity. Finally, we identify future priorities, with a view to leveraging the full potential of archetype analysis for supporting sustainable development.


This paper, the annual, cross-sectional analysis of the EBRI IRA Database, examines the distribution of IRA owners by IRA type, average and median account balances, and contributions and rollovers to IRAs. Added to this cross-sectional study is a longitudinal component that looks at account balance changes and contribution behavior of a consistent sample of individual IRA owners from 2010 to 2012. For year-end 2012, the EBRI IRA Database contained information on 25.3 million accounts owned by 19.9 million unique individuals, with total assets of $2.09 trillion. The EBRI IRA Database is unique in its ability to track individual IRA owners with more than one account, thereby providing a more accurate measure of how much they have accumulated in IRAs. The average IRA account balance in 2012 was $81,660, while the average IRA individual balance (all accounts from the same person combined) was $105,001. Overall, the cumulative IRA average balance was 29 percent larger than the unique account balance. Rollovers overwhelmingly outweighed new contributions in dollar terms. While almost 2.4 million accounts received contributions, compared with the 1.3 million accounts that received rollovers in 2012, 10 times the amount of dollars were added to IRAs through rollovers than from contributions. The average individual IRA balance increased with age for owners ages 25 or older, from $11,009 for those ages 25-29 to $192, 961 for those ages 70 or older. Looking at individuals who maintained an IRA account in the database over the three-year period in question, the overall average balance increased each year--from $95,431 in 2010 to $95,547 in 2011 and to $106,205 in 2012. Males had higher individual average and median balances than females: $139,467 and $36,949 for males, respectively, vs., $81,700 and $25,969 for females. However, the likelihood of contributing to an IRA did not significantly differ by gender within the database, as both Roth and traditional IRAs owned by either males or females (as well as those without a gender identified in the database) had similar probabilities of receiving contributions. IRA owners were more likely to be male. In particular, those with an IRA originally opened by a rollover or a SEP/SIMPLE IRA were much more likely to be male (57.4 percent of the former, and 58.2 percent of the latter). Younger Roth IRA owners were more likely to contribute to the Roth IRA than were older Roth IRA owners: 43 percent of Roth owners ages 25-29 contributed to their Roth in 2012, compared with 21 percent of Roth owners ages 60-64.


the quest to contextualise education in Africa has been on-going for a while and many countries have been making efforts towards it. During this time of educational review, conscious efforts should be made to identify problematic levels of some subjects that are dreadful to the learners to pave the way for curriculum re-design for context appropriateness. Mathematics learning in African countries has been a source of concern to all educational stakeholders despite several efforts towards its deconstruction. An examination of performance trend in the subject might reveal at what point the learning started declining and this will suggest intervention towards decolonisation of its content. This study measured the academic performance of pupils from preschool level up to the end of primary education (VI class). A descriptive survey research design was adopted and 720 Primary VI pupils were selected through multi-stage sampling technique in a state in Nigeria. Primary School Mathematics Performance Record Sheet (PSM_PRS) was used to collect mathematics scores from preschool through Primary VI class. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and graphs. Pupils started experiencing major declines in mathematics from Primary III class. Results also indicate no significant difference in the class where male and female pupils' performances started declining. Therefore, there is the need to review and contextualise mathematics content from third year in primary/elementary school for effective learning. Activity-based and exploratory strategies using contextual experiences and resources to deliver mathematics lessons were recommended for third year in primary/elementary schools and beyond.


Ferrites have widely been used in different electrical engineering applications including radio and TV sets as well as carrier telephony as cores of inductors, transformers and so forth, for their good electrical and mechanical properties. However, a substantial amount of foreign exchange is spent every year on the import of either finished ferrite products or raw materials for making these ferrites. The main aim of the present work was to produce different types of ferrites at comparatively low cost with improved electrical and mechanical properties using locally available raw materials.

Three types of ferrites, namely, Manganese-Zinc (Mnx Zn1-x Fe204), Nickel Zinc (Nix Zn–x Fe2 04) and Copper-Zinc (Cux Znl-x Fe2 04 ) ferrites with x = 0.66, 0.77, 0.88 and 0.99 were prepared by conventional double sintering method. A locally available low cost iron oxide (Fe2 03 ), containing small amount of Si (0.5%) as an impurity, was used to prepare the ferrites. The advantage of using locally available iron oxide was twofold: Firstly it reduced the process price markedly due to its low cost as compared with the price of commercially available pure ferrites. Secondly, the presence of Si, in the iron oxide, as an impurity was found to improve the properties of the ferrites produced.

Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was used to characterize the microstructure of the ferrite samples. A homogenous and fine grain microstructure was found in all the ferrites studied. The chemical phase analysis carried out by X-Ray powder diffraction (XRD) method confirms the formation of the expected ferrite structure. Lattice parameters, X-ray density and bulk density along with porosity have been investigated to study the effect of composition on magnetic and electrical properties. Lattice parameters show a decreasing trend with increasing Ni and Cu in the composition, whereas an increase with increasing Mn content. Mass density of all the samples was found to increase by increasing x, which in turn decreases the porosity. However, the X-ray density of Ni-Zn and Cu-Zn ferrites was increased with increasing the x content whereas it was decreased in case of Mn-Zn ferrites.

Electrical resistivity of all the ferrite samples was measured and then used to calculate the activation energy and drift mobility. The room temperature resistivity shows an increasing trend with Ni and Mn concentrations while a decrease with increasing Cu content. The temperature dependent dc resistivity was found to decrease with increasing temperature from 303 to 453 K showing a semi conducting behaviour. The mobility showed a direct relation with temperature and inverse relation with resistivity in all the samples. It was observed that the samples having higher values of resistivity also possessed higher activation energies and vice versa.

The Dielectric constant (E') and the dielectric loss tangent (tan 8) were studied for all the ferrite system prepared at different temperatures (25-180 °C) and frequencies (100, 300, 500, 700 and 900 kHz). It was found that the values of E' and tan 8 decrease with increasing Ni, and Mn content x, and decreasing Cu content respectively.

The variation of the dielectric constant and dielectric loss tangent as a function of frequency for these series of ferrite system at different temperatures shows that both the dielectric constant and dielectric loss tangent decreases with increasing frequency. The decrease of dielectric constant and dielectric loss tangent with frequency is a normal dielectric behaviour of spinal ferrites

On increasing the temperature, electrical conductivity increases due to the increase in thermally activated drift mobility of electric charge carries according to hopping conduction mechanism. Therefore, the dielectric polarization Increases causing a marked increase in E' and tan 8 as the temperature increases.


This essay examines the growing threat of workplace political coercion, or when employers attempt to threaten or coerce their workers into supporting firm-favored issues, policies, or political candidates. We describe, for the first time, the prevalence of such coercion, and propose a relatively straightforward legislative fix that would protect private-sector workers from the risk of political intimidation. This essay responds to an earlier piece published by Professor Secunda in the YLJ Forum that described how the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC opened up the possibility for employers to hold mandatory "captive audience" meetings for workers, in which managers could endorse candidates for elected office. Managers, Secunda noted, could discipline workers who refused to participate in such firm-sponsored partisan activities. Accordingly, Secunda recommended federal legislation that would ban the use of mandatory political meetings in the private sector. At the time that Secunda's essay was published, however, we lacked any systematic evidence of the prevalence or characteristics of employer political coercion in the American workforce, and so his recommendations could not be tailored to the specifics of employer political recruitment. New survey research from an ongoing academic project from Mr. Hertel-Fernandez, however, has provided precisely that information, documenting the extent to which workers have experienced political coercion from their employers. Our present essay summarizes that survey evidence, using the empirical data to craft a bi-partisan policy proposal that would address employer political coercion in the private sector by adding political opinions and beliefs to the list of protected classes in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Lastly, we draw on survey research to describe why this proposal could attract bipartisan political support.


This thesis describes an investigation of polarisation conversion effects in gallium arsenide optical waveguides. The research was carried out with the aims of predicting, preventing and harnessing such effects.

Experimental results are presented to demonstrate changes in the polarisation state of light propagating in passive deep-etched waveguides. The results are described by established modelling techniques. The effect due to process-dependent features of waveguide cross-section geometry, in particular asymmetry resulting form non-vertical etching, is investigated. The polarisation angles of hybrid waveguide modes are measured, and a novel technique is presented for the measurement of the differences been the effective indices of orthogonally polarised modes. The measurements obtained are used to analyse the evolution of elliptical polarisation states during propagation, and to provide an account of the physical origin of the polarisation conversion. Details of the nature of the optical modes predicted by rigorous numerical method simulations are demonstrated by the experimental results, while quantitative agreement between the simulated and measured data is shown. A simplified account of the behaviour is provided using a coupled-mode formulation. The influence of the linear electrooptic effect in modifying the polarisation conversion behaviour is explored experimentally, and is described using established theory.

Waveguide designs are obtained which prevent unintended polarisation conversion in the presence of identified causes, while maintaining the main waveguide parameters of material composition, optical mode size and shape, electrooptic performance, and fabrication process. The polarisation behaviour in waveguides fabricated to these designs is evaluated, and the expected performance benefits are confirmed.

A novel waveguide device which provides electrooptic control and switching of the optical polarisation state is presented. The device is capable of converting any input polarisation state into an arbitrary output state using the linear electrooptic effect. A working design is obtained and the fabrication of devices is described. Experimental results are presented which demonstrate the concept. Further developments of the polarisation controller device are proposed, including the realisation of the potential for switching speeds at frequencies of tens of GHz.


A discrimination paradigm was used to detect the influence of phonetic context on speech (experiment 1a) and nonspeech (experiment 1b) stimuli. Results of experiment 1a were consistent with the previously observed phonetic context effect of liquid consonants (/l/ and /r/) on subsequent stop consonant (/g/ and /d/) perception. Experiment 1b demonstrated a context effect of liquid consonants on subsequent nonspeech sounds that were spectrally similar to the stop consonants. The results are consistent with findings that implicate spectral contrast in phonetic context effects.


Extensive research in xenotransplantation is being propelled by the critical shortage of allotransplants. About a third of the patients on organ waiting lists in the United States die for lack of available organs, and in the United Kingdom fewer than 30% of those waiting for kidneys receive them each year.1–3 The human toll of suffering in patients who need transplants is great, and their quality of life is poor.

This update focuses on whole organ xenotransplants. It draws on the latest published studies and the assessments at two recent meetings—a conference of US and UK scientists, ethicists, and policy experts in New York in May 1999, and the June 1999 meeting of the xenotransplantation subcommittee of the US Food and Drug Administration's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

Research is currently being conducted in all the critical areas of xenotransplantation, and this will, it is hoped, make xenotransplants safe and effective for human beings. These critical areas include immunological barriers, physiological functioning, infectious disease risks, and pivotal ethical issues.

#### Summary points

Xenotransplantation research is driven by the acute shortage of available allotransplants

Although one longstanding problem, hyperacute rejection of xenotransplants, is being overcome, daunting immunological barriers remain

Great attention must be given to the physiological functions of porcine organs in human beings

Worries over the infectious disease potential of porcine xenotransplants are easing

Ethical concerns over xenotransplants, including the challenge of identifying patients who might be approached as subjects of reinitiated clinical trials, are being explored

Over time, xenotransplantation has proved to be daunting because of organ rejection. Rejection occurs in several stages: hyperacute rejection, acute vascular rejection, cellular rejection, and chronic rejection.2–4 Hyperacute rejection and acute vascular rejection are mediated by antibodies against oligosaccharide determinants on pig vascular endotelium.5 These forms of rejection occur …


Our subject is the preparation of cases before international courts and tribunals. We plan to cover the logistics and overall coordination of the case, the organization of the legal and technical teams, general issues of litigation strategy, coordination and assignment of different roles among counsel, agents, home team representatives and experts, oral advocacy, examination of witnesses, techniques to reduce costs, and so on. The subject of this panel, the preparation of cases before international courts and tribunals, is an aspect of international litigation that is largely hidden from view--although panel members have put together quite an extensive list of writings on the subject, which we have made available here. (1) But it is of great practical importance. Unless the team is properly composed, and preferably properly composed early on, this can have a very adverse effect on the presentation of the case. I shall begin with a few comments of my own on the composition of a legal team, especially for an inter-state case. The composition of a legal team is ultimately a matter for the client, perhaps advised by the first team member who is approached. It naturally depends in large part on the subject matter of the case and the forum, but there are other factors. On the one hand is cost; on the other is the political need to be seen to be pulling out all the stops. The latter factor may lead to an inflated team, which is almost as bad--and perhaps more common--as a team that is too small. Will the members of the team get on well together? It is--or should be-a team, working collegiately, not a set of individuals working in isolation, however eminent. That does not mean they have necessarily worked together already. Indeed, there may be advantages, in terms of new thinking and new approaches, in not always working with the same people. A team needs to have the right mix of skills, including practitioner/academic and linguistic (English and French?). An interesting question that I hope we can touch on is the role of law firms in international litigation. A recent "client alert" (from a London-based law firm) contained the following statement: Observers of international boundary litigation will note that, yet again, the party whose team was led by a law firm has prevailed over the party whose team did not include a law firm. This confirms the trend of the increasing professionalisation of public international law adjudication over the past decade or more. Leaving aside whether this was an accurate statement in relation to the particular case (questionable), is the general proposition true? …


In today's multi-core systems, cache contention due to true and false sharing can cause unexpected and significant performance degradation. A detailed understanding of a given multi-threaded application's behavior is required to precisely identify such performance bottlenecks. Traditionally, however, such diagnostic information can only be obtained after lengthy simulation of the memory hierarchy.
 In this paper, we present a novel approach that efficiently analyzes interactions between threads to determine thread correlation and detect true and false sharing. It is based on the following key insight: although the slowdown caused by cache contention depends on factors including the thread-to-core binding and parameters of the memory hierarchy, the amount of data sharing is primarily a function of the cache line size and application behavior. Using memory shadowing and dynamic instrumentation, we implemented a tool that obtains detailed sharing information between threads without simulating the full complexity of the memory hierarchy. The runtime overhead of our approach --- a 5x slowdown on average relative to native execution --- is significantly less than that of detailed cache simulation. The information collected allows programmers to identify the degree of cache contention in an application, the correlation among its threads, and the sources of significant false sharing. Using our approach, we were able to improve the performance of some applications up to a factor of 12x. For other contention-intensive applications, we were able to shed light on the obstacles that prevent their performance from scaling to many cores.


What do terrorists want? No question is more fundamental for devising an effective counterterrorism strategy. The international community cannot expect to make terrorism unprofitable and thus scarce without knowing the incentive structure of its practitioners. The strategic modelthe dominant paradigm in terrorism studiesposits that terrorists are political utility maximizers. According to this view, individuals resort to terrorism when the expected political gains minus the expected costs outweigh the net expected benefits of alternative forms of protest. The strategic model has widespread currency in the policy community; extant counterterrorism strategies seek to defeat terrorism by reducing its political utility. The most common strategies are to fight terrorism by decreasing its political benefits via a strict no concessions policy; decreasing its prospective political benefits via appeasement; or decreasing its political benefits relative to nonviolence via democracy promotion. Despite its policy relevance, the strategic model has not been tested. This is the first study to comprehensively assess its empirical validity. The actual record of terrorist behavior does not conform to the strategic model's premise that terrorists are rational actors primarily motivated to achieving political ends. The preponderance of empirical and theoretical evidence is that terrorists are rational people who use terrorism primarily to develop strong affective ties with fellow terrorists. Major revisions in both the dominant paradigm in terrorism studies and the policy community's basic approach to fighting terrorism are consequently in order.


It was Phil Wortham playing homemade four-string guitar with Tiny Hill working on a squeezebox. It wasn't like anything Atwater had ever heard before. The music made him want to move. (Mosley 1995, 74) When I first read this passage from Walter Mosley's RL's Dream, his inclusion of Tiny Hill in the turn-of-the-century scene from rural Mississippi startled me. Accordions rarely appear in depictions of African-American musicians, fictional or not. Walter "Pat" Rhodes made the only commercial recordings of a black Mississippi accordionist in 1927. He was from Sunflower County, an area that would provide a wealth of blues musicians in the following years. Unlike Mosley's Tiny Hill, the few comments Rhodes's accordion elicited in blues commentary treated his simple playing as an aberration or novelty, especially in contrast to the sophisticated quality of the guitar playing on the same recordings (Charters 1967, 74; Calt and Wardlow 1988, 174). Most commentaries were more interested in the strong resemblance between Rhodes's "The Crowing Rooster' and the guitarist Charlie Patton's more famous "Banty Rooster Blues" than in Rhodes's choice of musical instrument. As blues researcher Bengt Olsson stated, the accordion was considered "an unusual instrument for blues playing down in Mississippi" (Olsson 1970, 71). While there has been a sizable amount of research over the past fifteen years on ethnic musical traditions that use the button accordion, there has been remarkably little concerning usage by African Americans (Snyder 1994, 149). in this paper, I argue that Rhodes was not an aberration, but rather one of a significant number of black musicians born in Mississippi between 1870 and 1880 who played the diatonic button accordion. There is an appropriate historical context, other than novelty, for the recordings of Rhodes and those of fellow Mississippian "Blind" Jesse Harris that is supported by examining the musical evidence, social history, and other available data. By piecing together the faint traces of this tradition, often little more than one line references gleaned from a wide range of sources, it is possible to get a rare glimpse, however tentative, into this distinctly black music. We must first recognize that this musical tradition was masked by a prejudice against accordions in general and by a stereotype that blacks, outside the Cajun region of southwest Louisiana, never played the accordion in any significant numbers. Peter Narvaez (1994, 203-205) addressed the effect that commercial mediation has had on blues commentary in terms of repertoire, but it also is critical to see the effect of this mediation on assumptions about instruments. The voluminous interviews conducted with blues musicians overwhemingly emphasized musicians who had made records. Those who did not record or who played instruments not heavily recorded received little interest. Narvaez stated that "blues commentators have sometimes neglected the existence of performance and repertory variations by overlooking fieldwork data gathered in localities" (205). But we have to look beyond this to the forces at work in the fieldwork conducted. Many interviewers were themselves guitarists and showed little interest in references to other types of instrumentation, even when the interviewed offered it. At the time of Olsson's research in the Memphis region, this attitude was beginning to change. Both he and ethnomusicologist David Evans broadened their approach to interviews and noted references to fife and drum groups, single string instruments, banjo players, and even brass bands in the interviews they conducted (Evans 1983, 163-172; Olsson 1989). However, until ethnomusicologist Kip Lornell began conducting interviews in the 1970s, no researcher seems to have consistently asked informants if they had heard of or had known accordionists. Interviewers also never asked them to describe what the accordion to which they were referring looked like or sounded like. …


This Comment chronicles the Community Reinvestment Act from its adoption to its present status, including its revision under the Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA). It reviews the major criticisms of the CRA's supporters and detractors. It introduces the recent regulations issued by the regulatory agencies responsible for enforcing the CRA and the Congressional response to those regulations. It concludes that the CRA can be a more effective legislative response to the lack of banking services in poorer inner city communities if the recent agencies' regulations are allowed to take effect and if careful steps are taken to extend the CRA to non-bank financial institutions.


Policy towards asylum seekers has been a controversial topic for more than a decade. Rising numbers of asylum applications have been met with ever-tougher policies to deter them. Following a period of policy harmonisation, the EU has reached a crucial stage in the development of a new Common European Asylum System. This paper seeks to shed light on what form this should take. It summarises the development of policy to date and it argues that these policies have been too tough, even from the point of view of EU citizens. Using an economic framework, it examines scenarios with different degrees of policy harmonisation and integration among EU countries. Finally, it argues that there is an important role for enhanced burden-sharing arrangements.


The nitrogen-fixing symbiosis between Aeschynomene indica and photosynthetic bradyrhizobia is the only legume-rhizobium association described to date that does not require lipochito-oligosaccharide Nod factors (NF). To assist in deciphering the molecular basis of this NF-independent interaction, we have developed a protocol for Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated transformation of A. indica. The cotransformation frequency (79%), the nodulation efficiency of transgenic roots (90%), and the expression pattern of the 35S Cauliflower mosaic virus promoter in transgenic nodules were all comparable to those obtained for model legumes. We have made use of this tool to monitor the heterologous spatio-temporal expression of the pMtENOD11-β-glucuronidase fusion, a widely used molecular reporter for rhizobial infection and nodulation in both legumes and actinorhizal plants. While MtENOD11 promoter activation was not observed in A. indica roots prior to nodulation, strong reporter-gene expression was observed in the invaded cells of young nodules and in the cell layers bordering the central zone of older nodules. We conclude that pMtENOD11 expression can be used as an infection-related marker in A. indica and that Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated root transformation of Aeschynomene spp. will be an invaluable tool for determining the molecular basis of the NF-independent symbiosis.


This paper places environmental research and development (R&D) in the context of the literatures about corporate social responsibility and value chain management. The paper then explains how public policies aimed at improving environmental performance create opportunities for socially responsible corporate investments in environmental R&D. The lesson for sustainable value-chain management is that a company's managers will find profitable opportunities for environmental R&D when public policy focuses on the environmental performance of the activities in the company's value chain. Although public policy creates opportunities for profitable R&D, any general expectation that such socially responsible investments that support environmental sustainability will create sustainable competitive advantage for the firm is unwarranted because the investments may be necessary for the firm's survival (but without such advantage) in the post-policy environment. The paper describes actual corporate behaviour toward environmental R&D and uses the behaviour to corroborate the validity of the theoretical lesson as a guide to socially responsible corporate behaviour.


We sought to determine if maternal use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in the second half of pregnancy is associated with persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN). We performed a case-controlled study (1:6 ratio) of infants delivered at Madigan Army Medical Center with primary PPHN from 2003 through 2009. Study and control patients were compared for the following clinical factors: SSRI use after 20 weeks gestation, mode of delivery, maternal disease, body mass index, tobacco use, fetal gender, maternal age, and parity. We identified 20 cases of primary PPHN out of 11,923 births for an incidence of 0.17%. Mode of delivery was the only factor we found to be associated with PPHN. Specifically, cesarean delivery (CD) prior to the onset of labor increased the risk for PPHN: odds ratio (OR) = 4.9, confidence interval (CI) 1.7 to 14.0. Importantly, use of SSRIs in the second half of pregnancy was identified in 5% of the controls but none of the cases (OR = 0, CI 0 to 3). PPHN is associated with CD prior to the onset of labor but not with SSRI use in the second half of pregnancy. Previous studies linking PPHN to SSRI use relied on after-the-fact patient interviews and incomplete records. Additional studies are needed to verify these results.


The review of the state of heritage policies and the operational conclusions on legal reform have highlighted that there are many differences concerning legal and institutional systems for the cultural heritage in the countries of south-East Europe, all of which are at differenct stages of development. There has been a general consensus in favour of an improved methodology for the protection and management of cultural heritage and of the need to move away from the ideology of the past towards a more inclusive and integrated approach, recognising the value of heritage in society. The concept of sustainable development and the contribution of the heritage in this sphere is a new field of consideration - in its early stages in terms of understanding and implementation, but this should not deter investigation of sustainable solutions. The debate has made a major contribution to the reform process. There is a need for a functioning network and capacity building to exchange ideas to further assist this process. The Council of Europe will undertake to organise, with different host countries, a programme of activities drawn from the requests of country delegates and the operational conclusions of this examination. The issues for susequent consideration will be based on the following subject areas, for which a number of themes have been provisionally identified: - the use of digital information systems; - cultural landscapes; - integrated consevation systems; - cultural heritage and sustainable development; - financial policy and funding measures including revitalisation programmes, the use of the heritage as an economic resource and the perspective of investors; - human resources for the management of cultural heritage.


The production of hierarchical hybrid conductive materials that are mesoporous, with pores spanning from sub-microns to microns in size, is important for large-area electrode applications. Here, a simple one-step, low-cost method to fabricate metal oxide–carbon hybrid materials with a hierarchical pore structure in a microwave oven is demonstrated. The microwave pyrolysis of ferrocene using carbon felt as a microwave absorber is a method that is rapid (takes of seconds), requires neither harsh conditions nor the use of costly equipment, and can be readily scaled up. The produced material has a high specific surface area, a multi-length scale porous structure and a high conductivity, and is quite stable, making it promising for many practical applications. As an electrode in microbial electrosynthesis, its performance is improved by a factor of five and an optimal biofilm of the microorganism is formed on the surface.


The central nervous system (CNS) of the human body is the whole system of brain, spinal marrow and nerve cells throughout the body that correlates and regulates the internal reactions of the body and controls its adjustment to the environment. It controls muscles and processes sensory information originating from visual, aural, and other sensorial systems. Apart from that, it constitutes important human properties such as the ability to learn, control, think, feel, have self-awareness et cetera. The central nervous system not only directs the body on a conscious level but also on a subconscious level, making sure that we keep breathing, for example.
Considering all these functions, it is easy to understand that malfunctions of the central nervous system can easily result in very severe complications, ranging from diminished control over movements and actions to abrupt cessation of life.
One of the possible ways for the central nervous system to become damaged is by a shortage of oxygen. Normally, oxygen is extracted from the air by the lungs, which have a huge surface that is rich with capillaries. This surface allows for diffusion of oxygen from the air into the blood. After this, the heart pumps the oxygen-rich blood through the body, where the oxygen is used for various purposes, including the function of the central nervous system.
Hypoxia (or hypoxaemia) is the general phenomenon in which the oxygen level in the blood is too low for the body to perform normally. In hospitals, the oxygen level is usually monitored because it is a critical parameter in surgical anesthesia. Apart from the measurement tools available, hypoxia can often be diagnosed visually, because the subject's skin tends to turn bluish. In the case of newborns, however, this diagnosis is often more difficult. It is possible for the neonate to experience episodes of hypoxia before and during birth, in which case the hypoxic episode may very well go by unnoticed. When this happens, damage may have been inflicted to the central nervous system. This damage is often hard to recognize, as it may not show until a much later stage in the life of the newborn.
In this paper we explore a neural network approach for classifying infant cry in order to detect hypoxia related CNS damage. The data set consists of 35 recorded cases of infant cries episodes, called the FCU data set. Each cry episode is split into valid cry units resulting in a data set of 183 elements, called the ACU data set.
Relevant numerical features are determined by the research on features in the area of infant cry analysis and speech recognition. After determining the relevant features an ensemble of Radial Basis Neural Networks was constructed for both data sets (ACU and FCU) using bootstrap aggregation. Testing the classification performance resulted in a performance of 85 ±7 % (99 % confidence level) on the ACU data set and 76 ±19 % (99 % confidence level) on the FCU data set.
These classification rates should be approached with caution, however. The 78% is the lower bound of the confidence interval for the results of the classification is based on a small data set. It should therefore be stressed that the results from this investigation are not to be taken any other than 'preliminary'. Much more data and testing needs to be done.
In conclusion, the results that were found are encouraging in the sense that a statistically significant relationship was found. The feature selection and classification methods developed in this investigation can be a sound basis for continuation. Further research should divert its attention to the (frequency) measurement and noise issues and to the data availability issues
KEYWORDS: infant cry analysis, neural networks, hypoxia-related CNS damage


Microlens arrays fabricated by a direct ink-jet printing of UV-curable hybrid polymer are reported. A periodic pattern of polymer drops was ink-jet printed on the surface-treated glass substrate and cured in the UV-light. Using this simple technique, we demonstrated periodic arrays of almost semi-spherical microlenses of 50 µm diameter size and a focal distance of 48µm. The optical characteristics of solitary µ-lenses and arrays comprising up to 64x64 microlenses are measured both in the near- and far-field zones. Large numerical aperture and short focal distance make the ink-jet printing of microlenses very attractive for applications in optical interconnects, large 2D VCSEL arrays and pixelated imagine sensors utilizing CCD or SPAD arrays, offering thus an efficient, simple and a cheap alternative to the conventionally used photolithography technique.


Abstract A new reference cigarette, the 3R4F, has been developed to replace the depleting supply of the 2R4F cigarette. The present study was designed to compare mainstream smoke chemistry and toxicity of the two reference cigarettes under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) machine smoking conditions, and to further compare mainstream smoke chemistry and toxicological activity of the 3R4F cigarette by two different smoking regimens, i.e., the machine smoking conditions specified by ISO and the Health Canada intensive (HCI) smoking conditions. The in vitro cytotoxicity and mutagenicity was determined in the neutral red uptake assay, the Salmonella reverse mutation assay, and the mouse lymphoma thymidine kinase assay. Additionally, a 90-day nose-only inhalation study in rats was conducted to assess the in vivo toxicity. The comparison of smoke chemistry between the two reference cigarettes found practically the same yields of total particulate matter (TPM), 'tar', nicotine, carbon monoxide, and most other smoke constituents. For both cigarettes, the in vitro cytotoxicity, mutagenicity, and in vivo toxicity showed the expected smoke-related effects compared to controls without smoke exposure. There were no meaningful differences between the 2R4F and 3R4F regarding these toxicological endpoints. The assessments for the 3R4F cigarette by smoking regimen found as a trivial effect, due to the higher amount of smoke generated per cigarette under HCI conditions, an increased yield of toxicant and higher toxicological activity per cigarette. However, per mg TPM, 'tar', or nicotine, the amounts of toxicants and the in vitro toxicity were generally lower under HCI conditions, but the in vivo activity was not different between the two machine smoking conditions. Overall, as the main result, the present study suggests equivalent smoke chemistry and in vitro and in vivo toxicity for the 2R4F and 3R4F reference cigarettes.


The Vibrio fischeri luminescence genes are activated by the transcription factor LuxR in combination with a diffusible signal compound, N-(3-oxohexanoyl) homoserine lactone, termed the autoinducer. We have synthesized a set of autoinducer analogs. Many analogs with alterations in the acyl side chain showed evidence of binding to LuxR. Some appeared to bind with an affinity similar to that of the autoinducer, but none showed a higher affinity, and many did not bind as tightly as the autoinducer. For the most part, compounds with substitutions in the homoserine lactone ring did not show evidence of binding to LuxR. The exceptions were compounds with a homocysteine thiolactone ring in place of the homoserine lactone ring. Many but not all of the analogs showing evidence of LuxR binding had some ability to activate the luminescence genes. None were as active as the autoinducer. While most showed little ability to induce luminescence, a few analogs with rather conservative substitutions had appreciable activity. Under the conditions we employed, some of the analogs showing little or no ability to induce luminescence were inhibitors of the autoinducer.


Extensions and improvements of the programming language Java and its related execution environment (Java Virtual Machine, JVM) are the subject of a large number of research projects and proposals. There are projects, for instance, to add parameterized types to Java, to implement "Aspect-Oriented Programming", to perform sophisticated static analysis, and to improve the run-time performance. Since Java classes are compiled into portable binary class files (called byte code), it is the most convenient and platform-independent way to implement these improvements not by writing a new compiler or changing the JVM, but by transforming the byte code. These transformations can either be performed after compile-time, or at load-time. Many programmers are doing this by implementing their own specialized byte code manipulation tools, which are, however, restricted in the range of their re-usability. To deal with the necessary class file transformations, we introduce an API that helps developers to conveniently implement their transformations.


Statistical modeling of multilevel data has been in discussion for several years and many developments have been made in this aspect. However the field of multilevel modeling for discrete categorical responses is relatively new, with markedly few applications in the areas of ordinal categorical response modeling. Most of these applications are focused in the area of educational data. The basis of this paper is to explore the use of Generalized Linear Multilevel Models for modeling a multilevel ordinal categorical response, in the field of medicine, which is somewhat of a novel application, as these methods have seldom been utilized in modeling medical data. The application focuses on analysing the factors that affect the severity of respiratory infections diagnosed in family practice and is based on data collected at 13 family practices in Sri Lanka. The data consisted of individual patient records, clustered within the practices and thus required a multilevel modeling approach. The explanatory variables pertaining to this study were: Age, Gender, Duration and most prevailing Symptom of the patients, while the ordinal categorical response indicating the severity of the diagnosis made was termed Diagnosis. Two main approaches of the Generalized Linear Multilevel Model; namely the Proportional Odds Model and the Non-Proportional Odds Model have been applied to the data and the models compared using suitable diagnostic tests. The variables Symptom and Duration provided significant main effects while the Symptom-Gender interaction also proved to be significant. Based on the DIC diagnostic, the Non-Proportional Odds model proves to be the better of the two models. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljastats.v12i0.4969 Sri Lankan Journal of Applied Statistics Vol.12 2011 pp.83-99


Introduction: Candidiasis is responsible for 85% of fungal infections of the oral cavity in humans. There is little data available on the adhesion of C. albicans to a variety of crowns. This study aimed to investigate the adhesion and colonization of C. albicans to two conventional crowns.

Materials and Methods: In this in-vitro study, first 36 circular disks of two crowns were created: all-metal and metalceramic (18 for each crown). The disks were transferred to plates containing the suspensions 1 × 105 cfu/ml of C. albicans colonies. After 40, 80, and 120 minutes, the disks were rinsed in sterile normal saline and shaken at low speed to separate yeast cells. This suspension was cultured on Sabouraud dextrose agar culture medium with pour plate method and was then counted. Differences were considered significant when pE'0.05, using computer software SPSS version 18 for windows.

Results: In all-metal and metal-ceramic samples, adhesion and colonization of C. albicans significantly increased during time (pE'0.001). The lowest adhesion and colonization of C. albicans was observed in metal-ceramic crowns after 40 minutes, and the highest adhesion and colonization of C. albicans in metal-ceramic crowns after 120 minutes.

Conclusion: The results showed that adhesion of C. albicans to all-metal crowns was significantly less than metal-ceramic crowns after 80 minutes and 120 minutes.


The coast line of Kouchibouguac Bay, New Brunswick, within the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence coastal province, consists of a barrier island system of sand beaches and low dunes. It is a relatively low energy system in a protected location with the important waves entering the bay through a narrow fetch window from the northeast. The behaviour of these wave trains and their refraction patterns within the S. Gulf of St. Lawrence and Kouchibouguac Bay were simulated by the construction of a series of refraction diagrams, from which it is possible to obtain a realistic appraisal of wave conditions at the shore. Waves entering the bay from N and NE directions are concentrated on the southern part of the barrier island system,, and those entering from the ENE and E are concentrated on the northern part. In greater detail, a series of wave refraction diagrams, based on former conditions of nearshore bathymetry at Richiboucto Inlet, help to explain the changes which have occurred there in the past 80 years. The simulation of wave behaviour in Kouchibouguac Bay has provided useful additional information which helps to explain the recent evolution of the barrier island system.


The production of 6-oxo-prostaglandin F1α (6-oxo-PGF1α), a stable metabolite of prostacyclin (PGI2), was examined in three separate series of experiments in aortae from rats with diabetes induced by streptozotocin (SZ) and aortae from nondiabetic control rats. In the first series, it was shown that production of 6-oxo-PGF1α by aortae from rats with diabetes of 4–6-wk duration was significantly decreased compared with nondiabetic rats (0.77 ± 0.07 ng/mg wet weight aorta vs. 1.23 ± 0.11 ng/mg wet weight aorta, P < 0.001). Diabetic rats were treated with two doses of insulin, a lower dose of 8 U/kg/day that only partially corrected their plasma glucose and body weight compared with nondiabetic rats, and a higher dose of 25 U/kg/day that completely corrected their plasma glucose and body weight. Both insulin regimens completely reversed the defect in 6-oxo-PGF1α production. In the second series, the time course of development of the defect in 6-oxo-PGF1α production was examined. It was found that two weeks after induction of diabetes, the aortic production of 6-oxo-PGF1α did not differ between control and diabetic rats. However, 4 and 7 wk after induction of diabetes, 6-oxo-PGF1α production was significantly reduced, even though the degree of hyperglycemia and hypoinsulinemia was the same as at 2 wk. In the third series, the effect on aortic 6-oxo-PGF1α production of weight loss caused by restricted dietary intake was compared with the effect of a comparable weight loss caused by experimental diabetes. Again, the diabetic rats had significantly reduced 6-oxo-PGF1α production compared with control rats, but 6-oxo-PGF1α production in nondiabetic rats which had lost weight as a result of limited feeding was the same as nondiabetic control rats fed ad libitum. It is concluded (1) that insulin treatment, even if insufficient to achieve perfect control of plasma glucose, can restore 6-oxo-PGF1α production to normal, (2) diabetes of greater than 2-wk duration is required to produce the abnormality, and (3) the reduced 6-oxo-PGF1α production is not a nonspecific consequence of weight loss.


A vast majority of India's population (58%), depends on agriculture for their livelihood and a vital part of our agricultural production technology constitutes of Pesticide use. According to a international report in 2013 " India is the largest producer of pesticides in Asia and ranks 12th worldwide for application of pesticides". In India ,Maharashtra has been the biggest consumer of pesticides in the last 5 years Indian agricultural community belongs to the unorganized sector; hence they receive quite little in terms of healthcare and social security. They thus are very vulnerable to loss of income and unavailability of healthcare, despite belonging to an occupation which involves numerous hazardous possibilities. Chronic exposure to organophosphate pesticides is associated with a multitude of ill health outcomes including polyneuropathy, dermatitis, behavioral changes, glucose intolerance & cancer .The Nervous system in particular in more sensitive to the Organophosphate pesticides, so monitoring of chronically exposed people may help prevent the onset of future neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of this study is to assess changes in levels of Acetyl cholinesterase levels due chronic pesticide exposure, evaluate cognitive function and depression among farmers European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine ISSN 2515-8260 Volume 7, Issue 07, 202


Citrus is an extremely important genus in terms of world fruit production. Despite its economic importance and the small genome sizes of its species (2n = 18, 1C = 430 ± 68 Mbp), entire genomic assemblies have only recently become available for some of its representatives. Together with the previous CMA/DAPI banding and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in the group, this data is important for understanding the complex relationships between its species and assisting breeding programs. In order to anchor genomic data with the cytogenetic map of mandarin (Citrus reticulata), the parental species of several economically important hybrids such as sweet orange and clementine, 18 BAC (bacterial artificial chromosome) clones were used. Eleven clementine BACs were positioned by BAC-FISH, doubling the number of chromosome markers so far available for BAC-FISH in citrus. Additionally, six previously mapped BACs were end-sequenced, allowing, together with one BAC previously sequenced, their assignment to scaffolds and the subsequent integration of chromosomes and the genome assembly. This study therefore established correlations between mandarin scaffolds and chromosomes, allowing further structural genomic and comparative study with the sweet orange genome, as well as insights into the chromosomal evolution of the group.


Emphasising the centrality of terrorism attacks in South Africa, Hussein Solomon provides South African historical and political explanations for the impact of such attacks. In this book the author bravely tackles a controversial topic that persists in evading scholars of terrorism in South Africa. This bold stance is an indication by the author to expose the hidden activities of radical Islamism in South Africa. This is an informed book and the most comprehensive one to date to highlight the scale of the threat posed by Islamist extremists in the hope that the South African government will try to arrest the situation through investing in resources necessary to deal with such attacks. The book is a testament to Solomon's innovative approach; the chapters extensively critically analyse topics which provide fresh and valuable, rather than rehashed and repetitive information.


Objective The aim of the study was to determine health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of women with surgically treated vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN) and vulvar cancer (VC) during the first week after hospital discharge. Further objectives were to investigate differences between women with VIN and VC as well as to examine whether correlations exist between women's symptom experience and HRQoL. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in 8 hospitals in Germany and Switzerland. Women with VIN and VC rated HRQoL with the validated German Short-Form 36. Differences between HRQoL in women with VIN and VC were tested with Wilcoxon rank-sum score. The WOMen with vulvAr Neoplasia (WOMAN) - Patient reported Outcome (PRO) self-report instrument was used to measure women's symptom experience. Correlations between symptoms and HRQoL were calculated using Spearman correlation coefficient. Results Women with VIN and VC (n = 65) reported lower HRQoL in physical aspects (Physical Component Summary [PCS], 34.9) than that in mental aspects (Mental Component Summary, 40.5). Women with VC had lower HRQoL than women with VIN, as manifested by significant differences concerning the dimensions of "physical functioning" and "role-physical." "Difficulties in daily life" as a distressing symptom correlated with MCS and PCS. Wound-related symptoms correlated with PCS and psychosocial symptoms/issues with MCS. Conclusions Analysis showed that women with vulvar neoplasia reported lower HRQoL in the physical and mental dimensions 1 week after discharge than comparable studies referring to months or years after surgery. Health-related quality of life is influenced by physical impairment because physical symptoms are prevalent 1 week after discharge. Patient education should focus on symptom management in an early postsurgical phase to enhance women's HRQoL.


This document presents the methodology and results from the heavy-truck field operational test conducted as part of the Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety Systems program. These findings are the result of analyses performed by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute to examine the effect of a prototype integrated crash warning system on driving behavior and driver acceptance. The heavy-truck platform included three integrated crash-warning subsystems (forward crash, lateral drift, and lane-change/merge crash warnings) installed on a fleet of 10 Class 8 tractors and operated by18 commercial drivers for 10 months. Each truck was instrumented to capture detailed data on the driving environment, driver behavior, warning system activity, and vehicle kinematics. Data on driver acceptance was collected through a post-drive survey and debriefings. The results indicate that integrated crash warning systems not only offer benefits relative to improved driver performance (e.g., improved headway keeping), but that the majority of commercial drivers accepted the system and reported subjective benefits from the integrated system they used. Of the drivers who participated, 15 out of 18 stated that they preferred a truck with the integrated system, stating that they would also recommend that their company consider the purchase of vehicles with integrated safety systems installed. No negative behavioral adaptation effects from the drivers' 10-month use of the integrated system were observed.


Information and communication technologies have been playing a crucial role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of learning and teaching in higher education. Two decades ago, research studies were focused on how to use artificial intelligence techniques to imitate teachers or tutors in delivering learning sessions. Machine learning techniques have been applied in several research studies to construct a student model in the context of intelligent tutoring systems. However, the usage of intelligent tutoring systems has been very limited in higher education as most educational institutions are in favour of using virtual learning environments (VLEs). VLEs are computer-based systems that support all aspects of teaching and learning from provision of course materials to managing coursework. In this research study, the emphasis is on the assessment aspect of VLEs.

A literature review revealed that existing computer-based formative assessments have never utilised unsupervised machine learning to improve their feedback mechanisms. Machine learning techniques have been applied to construct student models, which is represented as categories of knowledge levels such as beginning, intermediate and advanced. The student model does not specify what concepts are understood, the gap of understanding and misconceptions.

Previously, a snap-drift modal learning neural network has been applied to improve the feedback mechanisms of computer-based formative assessments. This study investigated the application of snap-drift modal learning neural network for analysing student responses to a set of multiple choice questions to identify student groups. This research study builds on this previous study and its aim is to improve the effectiveness of the application of snap-drift modal learning neural network in modelling student responses to a set of multiple choice questions and to extend its application in modelling student responses gathered from object-oriented programming exercises.

A novel method was proposed and evaluated using trials that improves the effectiveness of snap-drift modal learning neural network in identifying useful student group profiles, representing them to facilitate generation of diagnostic feedback and assigning an appropriate diagnostic feedback automatically based on a given student response. Based on the insight gained into the use of this novel method, we extend it to identify useful student group profiles that represent different programming abilities for writing an object-oriented class. The purpose of identifying student group profiles is to facilitate construction of diagnostic feedback that improves the development of basic object-oriented programming abilities.

Overall, the main objectives of this research project were addressed successfully. New insights are gained into the application of unsupervised learning in general and snap-drift modal learning in particular. The proposed methods are capable of improving the feedback mechanisms of existing computer-based formative assessment tools. The improved computer-based formative assessments could have a huge impact on students in improving conceptual understanding of topics and development of basic object-oriented programming abilities.