The accurate synthesis of proteins is crucial to the existence of a cell. In yeast, several genes that affect the fidelity of translation have been identified (e.g., omnipotent suppressors, antisuppressors and allosuppressors). We have found that the dominant omnipotent suppressor SUP46 encodes the yeast ribosomal protein S13. S13 is encoded by two similar genes, but only the sup46 copy of the gene is able to fully complement the recessive phenotypes of SUP46 mutations. Both copies of the S13 genes contain introns. Unlike the introns of other duplicated ribosomal protein genes which are highly diverged, the duplicated S13 genes have two nearly identical DNA sequences of 25 and 31 bp in length within their introns. The SUP46 protein has significant homology to the S4 ribosomal protein in prokaryotic-type ribosomes. S4 is encoded by one of the ram (ribosomal ambiguity) genes in Escherichia coli which are the functional equivalent of omnipotent suppressors in yeast. Thus, SUP46 and S4 demonstrate functional as well as sequence conservation between prokaryotic and eukaryotic ribosomal proteins. SUP46 and S4 are most similar in their central amino acid sequences. Interestingly, the alterations resulting from the SUP46 mutations and the segment of the S4 protein involved in binding to the 16S rRNA are within this most conserved region.


Social networks and reputation are believed to play important roles in mitigating informational frictions related to financial intermediation, in particular bank lending. We investigate the effect of the network and reputation of financial institutions on the certification value of bank loans using data on syndicated loans to European companies. We find that the presence of more central and reputable leaders in a syndicate substantially increases the stock market's reaction to loan announcements. This certification value is reinforced when informational frictions are more important, but vanishes in case of severe disruptions in the functioning of financial markets, such as during the financial crisis of 2008.


To enrich our conception of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), it is necessary to take a wider orientation to this disability category than has been advocated traditionally. Over the past decade, there has been an emerging conception of ADHD from a sociocultural perspective, and this orientation, when linked to the traditional biomedical perspective, provides a more accurate and authentic construct of ADHD. In this article, we advocate that speech-language pathologists approach ADHD with a mindset that is open to the complexities of context-bound human functioning at all levels. Four sources of data demonstrating the richness of the sociocultural orientation are presented and clinical implications are detailed


We study continual learning in the large scale setting where tasks in the input sequence are not limited to classification, and the outputs can be of high dimension. Among multiple state-of-the-art methods, we found vanilla experience replay (ER) still very competitive in terms of both performance and scalability, despite its simplicity. However, a degraded performance is observed for ER with small memory. A further visualization of the feature space reveals that the intermediate representation undergoes a distributional drift. While existing methods usually replay only the input-output pairs, we hypothesize that their regularization effect is inadequate for complex deep models and diverse tasks with small replay buffer size. Following this observation, we propose to replay the activation of the intermediate layers in addition to the input-output pairs. Considering that saving raw activation maps can dramatically increase memory and compute cost, we propose the Compressed Activation Replay technique, where compressed representations of layer activation are saved to the replay buffer. We show that this approach can achieve superior regularization effect while adding negligible memory overhead to replay method. Experiments on both the large-scale Taskonomy benchmark with a diverse set of tasks and standard common datasets (Split-CIFAR and Split-miniImageNet) demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Since diabetic nephropathy (DN) is the most common cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), the search for an early predictor for DN is important because interventions may be tailored to prevent the onset of pathogenesis leading to DN instead of reversing an already altered physiological condition. Microalbuminuria is presently the preferred marker of nephropathy, but by the time the detection of microalbuminuria is initiated, advanced renal structural changes have already occurred as evidenced from renal biopsies. Recent reports have showed that the expression and levels of CYP2E1 protein is elevated in the peripheral blood lymphocytes among patients with prolonged diabetes and in those with chronic renal failure. However, there are no published reports on the correlation between elevated CYP2E1 and progression of nephropathy. Therefore, the aims of this study were to evaluate lymphocyte CYP2E1 as a candidate early predictor for diabetic nephropathy using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), validate the HPLC observations using real-time PCR, to construct a candidate DN gene signature using the microarray technology, as well as to determine other biomarkers besides CYP2E1 which may be suitable candidate early predictors for DN. A cross-sectional cohort study was carried out among Malaysians, consisting of control (n=28), diabetes (n=50), diabetic nephropathy (n=34) and non diabetic nephropathy (n=15) cohorts. Whole blood samples were collected, lymphocytes were isolated and aliquots were made. Microsomes were prepared for CYP2E1 analysis using HPLC. Total RNA was extracted from the lymphocytes for real time PCR and microarray studies. Microarray analysis was done using Illumina Human Ref-8 Sentrix bead chips and the raw data were analyzed using GeneSpring GX 11.0 software. A gene expression signature consisting of 59 differentially expressed genes (P<0.001) has been constructed and validated using real time PCR. Statistical significance tests were done by employing the one-way ANOVA test at P value cut-off of 0.001 using the Sigma Plot software, version 11.0. The prototype candidate gene expression pattern displayed properties of possible early predictors for DN. Genes involved in glucose metabolism and associated pathways (PGK1, ENO1, TpI1, ANGPTL4, AKR1B1, and SORD) were good observational entities for early prediction of DN. Products of these candidate signature genes may be easily measured in clinical laboratories from plasma samples. The results also showed lymphocyte CYP2E1 was detected in 38.7% of the diabetes cohort population (n=50) with normal serum creatinine, urine microalbumin, glomerular filtration rate and HbA1c levels. Lymphocyte CYP2E1 was not detectable in the control and pre-diabetic cohorts. In conclusion, this study lends early evidence that lymphocyte CYP2E1 is a more specific candidate predictor for diabetic nephropathy compared to microalbuminuria and a prototype candidate molecular signature may be tested as a possible early predictor for DN.


This article focuses on the escalating international row over the decision by the European Union to include aviation emissions in its Emissions Trading Scheme from 2012 onwards. The main point of controversy is that the ETS will apply to foreign airlines to the extent they operate flights to and from EU airports. The article sheds light on the background of the dispute by providing an overview of the slow progress on aviation emissions under the UNFCCC and the International Civil Aviation Organization. It describes the main features of the EU scheme and discusses the pending request for a preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union concerning the compatibility of the ETS with international law. The article concludes that there is a good case to be made for the legal design of the EU's scheme for aviation emissions under international law. Furthermore, from a climate-policy perspective, the scheme can be seen as a necessary first step towards controlling rapidly growing aviation emissions. At the same time, the continuing global impasse on climate change mitigation raises concerns over fragmentation of climate change law and the spread of unilateral climate policies and retaliatory measures.


The lack of marketing expertise and resources among social enterprises is a well-noted problem. It has generated much attention from researchers, who have studied ways for improving the marketing performance of social enterprises. With the rise of social media channels for daily communication, an opportunity has surfaced for social enterprises to use such channels as a promotionaltool. This study aims to investigate how social enterprises may use social media for promotion to improve their marketing performancein Hong Kong. In-depth interviews were conducted with five social entrepreneurs or the relevant marketing staff. Interviewees generally agreed that social media is a low-cost channel thatis effective in increasing public awareness and stimulating customer interest. Further benefits of social media as a marketing tool for social enterprises include the relatively low cost of marketing, the quick-response platform for customer queries and the possibility to run low cost CRM. However, interviewees also reported that social enterprises have to compete with an enormous amount of channel-level competitors that are also conducting marketing activities through social media, which has diluted the effectiveness of the online advertising effort. Nevertheless, the benefits of using social media as a promotional tool are still significant to the business model of social enterprise and should be adopted.


Extracted from text ... LOCAL GOVERNMENT BULLETIN 18 EXTENDING Municipal From the
COURTS
Mgoqi v City of Cape Town
3619/06
managers'CONTRACTS
The change of government in the City of Cape Town
Metropolitan Council has also seen a change in the office
of the municipal manager. Although the decision of the
Cape High Court in Mgoqi v City of Cape Town dealt with
a number of issues, at the core of the dispute was whether
the outgoing mayor could have extended the contract of
the then-municipal manager, Wallace Mgoqi.
The facts
The municipal manager's three-year contract was due to end on 28
February 2006, one ..


Increasingly wikis are used to support existing corporate knowledge exchange processes. They are an appropriate software solution to support knowledge processes. However, it is not yet proven whether wikis are an adequate knowledge management tool or not. This paper presents a new approach to analyze existing knowledge exchange processes in wikis based on network analysis. Because of their dynamic characteristics four perspectives on wiki networks are introduced to investigate the interrelationships between people, information, and events in a wiki information space. As an analysis method the Social Network Analysis (SNA) is applied to uncover existing structures and temporal changes. A scenario data set of an analysis conducted with a corporate wiki is presented. The outcomes of this analysis were utilized to improve the existing corporate knowledge processes.


The objective of this study is to examine the attitude of the management level
of a local commercial bank and its relationship with the causal attribution
towards women managers' career advancement.
A survey research was conducted with the participation of 70 employees (both
male and female) from the management level of a local commercial bank. The
sample of the respondents was based on simple random sampling. Structured
questionnaires using the six-point Likert - type scales were used to measure the
dependent and independent variables. The data collected were analyzed using
the SPSSPC software The frequency distribution and measures of central tendency were employed in
a descriptive analysis while the relationships between variables were analysed
by using the independent t-test and one way ANOVA.
The result reveals that more than half of the respondents (61.4%) have positive
attitude towards women managers. The gender role of individuals also plays an
important role in influencing the management level's attitude towards the
women managers. Majority of the respondents identified that internal
attributions for performance have a significant effects to the attitude towards
women managers.
The internal attributions for performance such as competence in doing a job
and the ability in doing job were found to have a significant effect on the
attitude towards women managers. Among the external factors investigated,
only the perception that the job was easy job has been identified as a factor
that affects the performance of women managers. Results of the ANOVA test
show that qualification is the only demographic variable that has a significant
influence on management's level attitude women managers.
The study concludes that gender, internal attributions for performance and
qualification contribute significantly to the management's attitude towards
women managers. From the findings, it is recommended that a proactive action need to be
taken to retain the women managers in the organization. A comprehensive
study covering factors such as psychological and sociological factors are also
recommended for future research to enrich the present literature


Abstract National Ignition Facility (NIF) specifications require nondestructive, independent profiling of copper, argon, and oxygen in a delivered beryllium capsule. We use a combination of two methods to accomplish this goal: (a) model-enhanced energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) of witness shell fragments for destructive profiling of all three elements in a select sample within a batch and (b) differential radiography (DR) to profile copper and argon on multiple shells to nondestructively prove the sample-to-sample consistency within a batch. This combination fully qualifies the delivered shells. For EDS, we developed a physics model and fabricated standards to quantify low concentrations of relatively light elements in a very low-Z matrix. For model validation, we produced sputtered beryllium capsules containing a single dopant in each shell and used contact radiography (CR) to characterize the dopant profiles to 5 to 10% accuracy. The copper calibration was also checked against bulk Cu-Be standards with known composition, and the argon and oxygen calibrations were also checked against the X-ray absorption edge spectroscopy (Edge method) and the weight gain methods. Together, the EDS method gives ±0.1, ±0.05, and ±0.2 at.% accuracy for copper, argon, and oxygen, respectively, in NIF specification capsules. For DR, we conduct two CR measurements with the X-ray tube running at 9 and 30 kVp, respectively. The differential response between copper and argon enables elemental separation. The dopant profiles can be measured to ±0.1 at.% for NIF specification capsules. The oxygen profile in DR must be inferred from the EDS measurement. In the production work flow, we use EDS to obtain the oxygen profile and use it as input to the DR measurement. We then check that the copper and argon profiles obtained from DR and those from EDS are consistent. The average argon and copper contents from either method can also be checked against the results from the Edge method. These two levels of cross-checks offer critical assurances to the data integrity in production metrology.


Titanium dioxide is a highly photoactive catalyst used extensively to abate and detoxify polluted waters, air, and soils. It is also commonly employed in commercial sunscreen lotions as a physical filter to block UVA/UVB sunlight radiation, designed to protect people from sunburns and skin cancers. The thesis is two-dimensional. Part A deals with fundamental studies of photocatalysis. Part B addresses more practical considerations of the use of titanium dioxide in suncreams. The thesis addresses the fundamentals of Heterogeneous Photocatalysis to provide additional understanding of the activity of TiO 2 , and of the (primary) events occurring during the photocatalytic process. A protocol is developed for measuring photochemical quantum yields, Z, in heterogeneous media. Turnover quantities and the nature of photocatalysis are treated mathematically. The spectral dependence of quantum yields and wavelength-dependent selectivities of photocatalysts are examined for the first time. Of import, reactions occurring at the TiO 2 particle surface involve hot charge carriers that do not relax down the conduction and valence band electronic manifolds as fast as conventional Wisdom had predicted. Further, the thesis focuses on the genotoxic effects of TiO 2 on DNA. The spectroscopic features of TiO 2 , make it an excellent UVA/UVB sunblock. We demonstrate that, when commercial TiO 2 specimens are illuminated with UV radiation, hydroxyl radicals are generated, which damage supercoiled DNA plasmids and human skin cells as evidenced by single- and double-strand breaks, and kill yeast cells. Passivation of the titania particle surface reduces the photoactivity, of titanium dioxide with profound impact on the photooxidation of phenol. Also, damage to DNA., human skin cells and yeast cells is dramatically attenuated by modified titania samples, thus making them safer for use in sunscreen lotions. Moreover, the modified specimens completely retain their UVB/UVA absorption characteristics. Contrary to manufacturers claims, commercial sunscreen lotions exposed to simulated sunlight are not photostable. Preliminary spectroscopic and photochemical studies on active ingredients in various solvents are reported. Results indicate that the organic chemical UV filters photodegrade on exposure to simulated sunlight in relatively short time. The nature of the solvent and the presence of oxygen influence the photodegradation. Formation of singlet oxygen is suspected


The legal treatise is a subject with a pedigree. Four seminal articles by eminent legal historians have defined how we think about this particular fabrication of literary form. Writing in the midst of debates over critical analysis of law, A.W.B. Simpson identified the treatise as a common law form of summation for legal doctrine. Its rise was marked by nineteenth-century demands for a tidy form of legal thinking while the doctrinal skepticism of legal realism doomed the genre by the 1930s. Morton Horwitz underscored the importance of treatises for legal historians. In his view, the genre serves as a freeze-frame of law as it is conceived in a given moment of time. Angela Fernandez and Markus Dubber argued that the treatise was a more or less stable mixture of law as it is and law as it should be. They foregrounded the utopian dimension within the legal treatise. Christopher Tomlins identified the treatise as a legal technology with set purposes. Many of these purposes are deeply instrumental—and the very act of recordation is an exercise of power. This essay disembarks from these important contributions. Drawing upon such diverse fields as the history of the book, literary genre studies, information management, and the sociology of knowledge, it underscores the multiplicity of the treatise's genre ecosystem. The legal treatise simultaneously serves as a site for the production of knowledge, a stepping-stone or even substitute for codes, fabricated order, a mechanism for establishing authorial authority, a professional talisman, a technic of systematizing and organizing information, a legitimization of existing norms, and a means of constructing a national jurisprudence akin to the way a dictionary might define a national language. The essay focusing largely on common law treatises of the long nineteenth-century will examine these and other purposes operating within the social context of the legal profession. How do these competing goals exist within a single literary artifact? What pressures threaten to unravel the legal treatise's claims to monumental authority? The essay's salient contribution will be its highlighting the importance of time. The legal treatise is a genre which simultaneously asserts its place as a summa of legal knowledge and—as the commonplace historical introduction especially underscores—will be subject to countless revisions. It is a text readied for obsolescence. Beneath the treatise's facade of professional authority lies a profound anxiety about its own timelessness.


Current climate change exacerbates the environmental restrictions on temperate species inhabiting low latitude edges of their geographical ranges. We examined how temperature variations due to current and future climate change are likely to affect populations' persistence of stream‐dwelling brown trout Salmo trutta at the vulnerable southern periphery of its range. Analysis of 33 years of air temperature data (1975–2007) by time‐series models indicated a significant upward trend and a pronounced shift in air temperature around 1986‐1987. This warming is associated with an ongoing population decline of brown trout, most likely caused by a loss of suitable thermal habitat in lower latitudes since the 1980s. Population decrease may not be attributed to physical habitat modification or angler pressure, as carrying capacity remained stable and populations were not overexploited. We developed regional temperature models, which predicted that unsuitable thermal habitat for brown trout increased by 93% when comparing climate conditions between 1975–1986 and 1993–2004. Predictions from climate envelope models showed that current climate change may be rendering unsuitable 12% of suitable thermal habitat each decade, resulting in an overall population decrease in the lower reaches of around 6% per year. Furthermore, brown trout catches markedly decreased 20% per year. Projections of thermal habitat loss under the ecologically friendly B2 SRES scenario showed that brown trout may lose half of their current suitable habitat within the study area by 2040 and become almost extinct by 2100. In parallel to the upstream movement of brown trout thermal habitat, warm water species are increasing their relative abundance in salmonid waters. Empirical evidence was provided of how current climate change threatens some of the most healthy native brown trout populations in Southern Europe and how forthcoming climate change is expected to further decrease the conservation status of the species.


The Common Core State Standards recommend that all educators equip students with the literacy skills needed for college and careers. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine middle-level content-area teachers' perspectives on a district-led literacy professional development program and their implementation of the literacy strategies they learned. The conceptual framework included Bruner's constructivist, Bandura's self-efficacy, and Knowles's andragogy theories. These theories informed the investigation of adult learners' perspectives regarding the way they learn and gain confidence in providing literacy instruction. Eleven English, math, science, and social studies teachers participated in the study through individual interviews. Data were also gathered via classroom observations and lesson plans. The findings of the study indicated that teachers did implement the literacy strategies following the professional development provided despite lacking perceived self-efficacy with these skills. Although teachers saw value in literacy, their perceptions of the professional development were affected by their commitment to content instruction, time constraints, the organization of the professional development, and a forced compliance district mandate.


Almost all known matter in the Universe is in a state, the plasma state, that is rare on Earth, and whose physical properties are still incompletely understood. Its complexity is such that a reliable understanding must build on empirical knowledge. While laboratory experiments are still an important source of such knowledge, the Earth's magnetosphere-ionosphere system, made accessible by space technology, vastly widens the parameter ranges in which plasma phenomena can be studied. This system contains all three main categories of plasma present in the Universe. Furthermore, the interaction between the magnetosphere and the ionosphere excites a wealth of plasma physical phenomena of fundamental importance. These include, among others, formation of magnetic-field aligned electric fields, acceleration of charged particles, release of magnetically stored energy, formation of filamentary and cellular structures, as well as unexpected chemical separation processes. What has been learned, and what still remains to be learned, from study of the magnetosphere-ionosphere system should therefore provide a much improved basis for understanding of our Universe. >


Wound healing in African catfish, Clarias gariepinus, fed diets supplemented with ascorbic acid was studied under laboratory conditions. Fish weighing approximately 80-110 g were stocked in 500 l aquaria in a static water system and fed one of five test diets containing different levels of microencapsulated ascorbic acid (0, 0.06, 0.10, 0.30 and 0.70 g AsA/100 g feed). After two weeks, all experimental fish were wounded by making a 1 x 1 cm dorso-lateral incision above the lateral line of the fish. Wounded tissues were sampled for histopathological analysis 4, 8, 24, 48 and 96 hours, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 days after making the incision. There were significant differences in weight gain, specific growth rate (SGR) and feed conversion ratio among the dietary treatments. Weight gain and SGR of fish fed the ascorbic acid free diet were lower than those of fish fed diets supplemented with ascorbic acid. The wound healing response showed a direct correlation to ascorbate level in the diet. Fibroblasts were present at 96 h irrespective of the ascorbic acid level. As 14 days, fish fed no ascorbic acid had some regeneration of muscle tissues, whereas fish fed diets containing supplemental ascorbic acid had a normal epidermis, dermis and muscle structure. There was no mortality during the experimental period, and fish fed ascorbic acid free diets did not exhibit any deficiency signs. Results of this study indicate that about 0.10-0.70 g AsA/100 g feed is needed for wound repair in African catfish.


Cross-border production networks have been playing an increasingly important role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries' trade in recent years, but micro-level studies are rare. This paper uses firm-level data from the two most active ASEAN countries in production networks (Thailand and Malaysia) and examines the effect of participating in production networks on profits and technological capabilities of firms. The empirical results show that participating in production networks raises profits. The evidence further suggests that participation in production networks is also positively correlated with technology upgrading, measured by a technological capabilities index.


The present study examined autonomy climate (AC) and support climate (SC) as moderators of the relationship between pay level satisfaction (PLS) and employee outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, affective commitment and intention to stay). Survey data were collected from 5801 Belgian employees, representing 148 units. The hypotheses derived from distributive justice theory and from research on the meaning of money received partial support. Multilevel analyses revealed that AC buffered the negative effects of low PLS on all three outcomes, and that SC exacerbated the negative effects of low PLS on intention to stay. Theoretical and practical implications of this differential moderating effect are discussed.


The adoption of new technology depends on many factors, such as the type of technology, the context or culture in which the technology is introduced, and the individual decisions by people within that culture. This work presents the advantages provided by using a multi-scale modeling approach to represent human adoption behavior of e-commerce. This approach uses an agent-based model to encompass the detailed behavior of individuals and their immediate network of relationships, as well as an influence-based system dynamics model to show how society-level influences function interactively and with respect to individual agents. The exploration of technology adoption grounds the model in a realistic environment and allows the incorporation of theoretical models from multiple relevant domains. The integrated model demonstrates how representing behavior at multiple levels of abstraction is a natural approach that allows for a greater understanding of the relationship of influences across sociological scales.ion is a natural approach that allows for a greater understanding of the relationship of influences across sociological scales.


Bioorthogonal "click" chemistries represent a small but growing class of reliable "spring-loaded" reactions that occur exclusively between a pair of specific reaction partners, without interference from any of the native functional groups found in biological systems. These chemistries can be used to efficiently introduce a whole host of entities into biomolecules, ranging from targeting groups through to detectable molecules and functionalities that alter biodistribution characteristics. This thesis describes the synthesis, utilisation and assessment of five new "clickable" imaging probes, spanning three different designs, with each bearing an alkyne functionality to facilitate highly-site specific tagging of azide-bearing (bio)molecules via the Cu(I)-catalysed click reaction. The first set of tags are luminescent terbium(III) complexes incorporating cyclen-based chelators. Their utility for luminescent labelling was demonstrated though successful click conjugation to a small model azide compound as well as E.coli aspartate/glutamate-binding protein incorporating a genetically encoded p-azido-L-phenylalanine or p-(azidomethyl)-L-phenylalanine residue. Upon conjugation, one of the complexes displayed a significant luminescent enhancement ("light-up" effect), providing a simple indicator of successful ligation. The tags should prove useful for time-gated assay luminescence applications. A second set of tags, also cyclen-based, were designed for potential bimodal imaging applications. These feature a fluorescent alkynyl-napthalimide group for optical detection, and a chelated Gd(III) ion to provide image contrast in MRI. As proof-of-concept, one of the complexes was clicked to a lipidated cell-penetrating peptide and uptake into tongue squamous carcinoma cells successfully visualised by fluorescence microscopy. The naphthalimide group was also found to impart photo-cytotoxic activity to the tagged peptide, suggesting that the tag may be a useful prototype building block for the production of theranostic agents. The final class of tags, based upon the TACN macrocycle, were designed for chelation of the radionuclide 64Cu and thereby the production of radiolabelled conjugates for imaging of tumours via positron emission tomography. Model 64Cu chelates proved to be highly stable under physiological conditions, including in the presence of serum. By clicking one of the tags to a fluorescently-labelled bombesin peptide, a radiotracer designed for targeted imaging of prostate cancer was produced and evaluated in a small animal model. Although the peptide conjugate ultimately proved to have poor biodistribution characteristics, the "clickable" tags should prove useful for the development of better performing PET tracers in the future.


Major bubble episodes are rare events. In this paper, we examine what factors might cause some asset price bubbles to become very large. We study, in a laboratory setting, some of the specific institutional features investors in the South Sea Company faced in 1720. Several factors have been proposed as potentially contributing to one of the greatest periods of asset overvaluation in history: an intricate debt-for-equity swap, deferred payment for these shares, and the possibility of default on the deferred payments. We consider which aspect might have had the most impact in creating the South Sea bubble. The results of the experiment suggest that the company's attempt to exchange its shares for government debt was the single biggest contributor to the stock price explosion, because of the manner in which the swap affected fundamental value. Issuing new shares with only partial payments required, in conjunction with the debt-equity swap, also had a significant effect on the size of the bubble. Limited contract enforcement, on the other hand, does not appear to have contributed significantly.


Background Depression and anxiety are common mental health problems that are strongly associated with sleep disturbances, according to community-based researches. However, this association has not been investigated among patients admitted for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). We examined the prevalence of depression and anxiety in inpatients with various CVDs and their association with sleep disturbances. Materials and methods This cross-sectional study included 1294 patients hospitalized for CVDs in a Japanese university hospital were evaluated for their mental status using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), for sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) using pulse oximetry, and for sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Results Patient characteristics were as below: mean age, 63.9±14.7 years; 25.7% female. Overall, 18.9% had depression (HADS-depression≥8) and 17.1% had anxiety (HADS-anxiety≥8). The presence of depression was associated with female sex, older age, higher plasma brain natriuretic peptide level, lower estimated glomerular filtration rate, and the prevalence of heart failure. Overall, 46.5% patients were categorized as having a poor sleep quality (PSQI>5), and 28.5% patients had SDB (3% oxygen desaturation index>15). Although depression and anxiety were not associated with SDB, they were independently associated with poor sleep quality (OR = 3.09, 95% CI 2.19–4.36; OR = 3.93, 95% CI 2.71–5.69, respectively). Conclusions Depression and anxiety were not uncommon in patients with CVDs. Poor sleep quality could be an important risk factor linked to psychological disturbances.


This work aims at analysing complex phenomena through the construction of appropriate models, followed by an analysis of the characteristic parameters of the models. It all derives from the need to work, not only with empirical values but with functions that are able to smooth the histogram and give us the possiblity to omit values
that could be outlier. According to the classical theory of measure, the data generated by a "correct" model are more "real" then the empirical one, because they are purified from error sampling and from error of measurement.
We should never forget that there are no "real" models, but rather models that approximate the reality in a more ore less accuracy. Models compatible with empirical data can be manifold.
The idea proposed in this thesis is to trasform the histogram data by means of an approximation function in order to control the error deriving from empirical data.
What we look for is the right compromise between model and error. Our target is to be able to work with models that are comparable in order to be able to apply the techniques of a Multidimensional Data Analysis. For that reason, all the histograms will be transformed into models through the approximation by means of functions of the same family. In that case we would work with data that have been synthesized
through a model, and from there we would obtain N models for
each variable, all corresponding to the i-th observation. Models constructed that way can be synthesized through parameters and through an appropriate quality index of adaptation. Successively we will pass
on to the analysis of the data achieved through adequate techniquesof Multidimensional Analysis.


The intensity of light scattered by an air bubble in water is predicted by the geometric-optics calculation of Davis (1955) to have a divergent angular derivative as the critical scattering angle ϕc is approached. Effects of diffraction in the angular region near ϕc are described here. The Fraunhofer diffraction for scattering angles ϕ≤ϕc is estimated using a simplified physical-optics approximation. A ringing and decay of the far-field intensity is predicted that is formally similar to the near-field diffraction of a straight edge. Observation of millimeter radius bubbles in water with collimated monochromatic illumination confirm the existence of this ringing which has a quasi period ≃ 25 mrad. The diffraction calculation gives an approximate description of the relative ϕ of the observed maxima and minima. Fringes with a lower contrast and spacing ≃ 0.3 mrad were also observed; they appear to be caused by the interference of rays with distinct paths. Implications for the critical angle scattering of white light are discussed.


The Notch family of receptors is involved in a wide variety of developmental processes, including cell fate specification, cell proliferation, and cell survival decisions during cell differentiation and tissue morphogenesis. Notch1 and Notch ligands are expressed in the developing limbs, and Notch signalling has been implicated in the formation of a variety of tissues that comprise the limb, such as the skeleton, musculature, and vasculature. Notch signalling has also been implicated in regulating overall limb size. We have used a conditional allele of Notch1 in combination with two different Cre transgenic lines to delete Notch1 function either in the limb mesenchyme or in the apical ectodermal ridge (AER) and limb ectoderm. We demonstrate that Notch signalling, involving Notch1 and Jagged2, is required to regulate the number of Fgf8‐expressing cells that comprise the AER and that regulation of the levels of fibroblast growth factor signalling is important for the freeing of the digits during normal limb formation. Regulation of the extent of the AER is achieved by Notch signalling positively regulating apoptosis in the AER. We also demonstrate that Notch1 is not required for proper formation of all the derivatives of the limb mesenchyme. Developmental Dynamics 234:1006–1015, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Background: Foam rolling (FR) is, compared to dynamic stretch (DS), a relatively new method used in warm-up routines prior athletic performances in for example, sprinting and soccer. The research on the subject is limited and further investigation is needed to better understand about the possible effects of foam rolling on performance. By comparing FR to DS this study focused on how foam rolling may affect sprint time on 20 meter. Aim: The aim of this study was to compare FR to DS included in warm-up routines prior 20 meter sprint performance. The study was done on young male soccer players. Method: Fifteen subjects participated in the study aged 16-17 years. A randomized cross over design was used over two test sessions with one week apart. Half group began with FR included in the warm-up routine and half began with DS included in the routine. The fastest sprint times in 20 meter were analyzed in a dependent t-test to investigate possible different effects between the two warm-up routines. Results: The result showed no statistical significant difference between the two warm-up routines on sprint time (p=0.54). Mean sprint time was 3.05 for FR and 3.05 for DS. Standard deviation (SD) was 0.14 for FR and 0.16 for DS. Conclusion: This study showed no difference on 20 meter sprinting performance when FR was compared to DS. That indicates that FR as well as DS can be included in warm-up routine prior short sprints without differences in performance. However, studies with larger sample size are needed to investigate the possible affects of foam rolling on physical impact and sprint performance.


This paper is an examination of the battle chansons of Clement Janequin for references to Renaissance trumpet music. The following issues are addressed: dating the early use of the clarino register; the history and evolution of the courtly trumpet ensemble; and the transition from the shorter trumpet of the Middle Ages to the longer instrument of the middle Renaissance and Baroque eras. Because the earliest Janequin battle chanson predates all known written trumpet sources by over fifty years, musical evidence gleaned from these battle chansons can help to establish the existence and character of trumpet performance practices in the first third of the sixteenth century.
The first chapter summarizes all of the known primary sources of information on Renaissance trumpet performance, and identifies important issues worthy of further investigation. The second chapter examines trumpet music and trumpet style in the Renaissance, including trumpet ensemble performance, military trumpet calls, and the imitation of trumpet style in purely vocal music, and contains eight musical examples. The third chapter discusses the battle chansons of Janequin and their influence on other sixteenth-century works. Chapter £our analyzes the battle works of Janequin for allusions to trumpet music and includes eleven musical examples. The fifth and concluding chapter places the musical allusions into the context of trumpet history.
The musical references pointed out in these chansons provide the first musical evidence that trumpeters in the early sixteenth century were performing in the clarino register. Clear references to unequal articulation, military calls, characteristic: trumpet rhythms, and to the music of the courtly trumpet ensemble are demonstrated. The chansons also provide evidence of the simultaneous use of trumpets in at least two different keys, probably for two different styles of playing.


OBJECTIVE
The authors' goals were 1) to establish a clinically useful standard index of the relative anticholinergic potency of psychiatric medications; 2) to determine which cognitive functions are most affected by the administration of anticholinergic medications to patients with schizophrenia; and 3) to compare in vitro and clinically derived indexes of anticholinergic load in predicting these cognitive impairments.

METHOD
One hundred six clinically stable patients with schizophrenia were given a brief neuropsychological battery and evaluated on a standard symptom rating scale. The anticholinergic load associated with their psychiatric medications was estimated by using 1) a pharmacological index, calculated from a compilation of published studies reporting in vitro brain muscarinic receptor antagonism, and 2) a clinical index, based on clinician ratings of the anticholinergic side effects of medications. The authors analyzed the correlations of both indexes with the neuropsychological measures and with summary neuropsychological factor scores.

RESULTS
The clinical and pharmacological anticholinergic indexes were highly correlated with each other and showed virtually identical associations with neuropsychological measures. Anticholinergic load was associated with lower scores on measures of attention and declarative memory, including several measures of auditory and visual memory and two tests of complex attention, but was unrelated to intelligence, simple attention, working memory, executive functions, conceptual fluency, or motor speed.

CONCLUSIONS
This pattern of cognitive impairment with central cholinergic antagonism is consistent with emerging models of the functional anatomy of ascending forebrain cholinergic subsystems. Both pharmacological and clinical indexes show utility in predicting the effects of anticholinergic load on cognition in schizophrenia. Doses of psychiatric medication within the range of routine pharmacotherapy practice may have clinically significant effects on memory and complex attention in patients with schizophrenia; these effects may contribute as much as one-third to two-thirds of the memory deficit typically seen in patients with schizophrenia.


Bioactive glasses (BaGs) are widely utilised in bone tissue engineering (TE) but the molecular response of cells to BaGs is poorly understood. To elucidate the mechanisms of cell attachment to BaGs and BaG-induced early osteogenic differentiation, we cultured human adipose stem cells (hASCs) on discs of two silica-based BaGs S53P4 (23.0 Na2O - 20.0 CaO - 4.0 P2O5 - 53.0 SiO2 (wt-%)) and 1-06 (5.9 Na2O - 12.0 K2O - 5.3 MgO - 22.6 CaO - 4.0 P2O5 - 0.2 B2O3 - 50.0 SiO2) in the absence of osteogenic supplements. Both BaGs induced early osteogenic differentiation by increasing alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP) and the expression of osteogenic marker genes RUNX2a and OSTERIX. Based on ALP activity, the slower reacting 1-06 glass was a stronger osteoinducer. Regarding the cell attachment, cells cultured on BaGs had enhanced integrinβ1 and vinculin production, and mature focal adhesions were smaller but more dispersed than on cell culture plastic (polystyrene). Focal adhesion kinase (FAK), extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2) and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)-induced c-Jun phosphorylations were upregulated by glass contact. Moreover, the BaG-stimulated osteoinduction was significantly reduced by FAK and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) inhibitors, indicating an important role for FAK and MAPKs in the BaG-induced early osteogenic commitment of hASCs. Upon indirect insert culture, the ions released from the BaG discs could not reproduce the observed cellular changes, which highlighted the role of direct cell-BaG interactions in the osteopotential of BaGs. These findings gave valuable insight into the mechanism of BaG-induced osteogenic differentiation and therefore provided knowledge to aid the future design of new functional biomaterials to meet the increasing demand for clinical bone TE treatments.


The photoconductive and luminescent properties of cadmium sulphide have been of interest, and have only been studied extensively since 1947 when Frerichs reported a convenient method of preparing small single crystals. The properties of the material are summarised in Chapter two of this thesis, following an outline of the essential theory of electrical conduction in semiconductors. Conventional methods of single crystal preparation such as growth from the melt of from solution are not practicable with cadmium sulphide and most measurements have been made on small plates or rods grown by sublimation in a flow of carrier gas. However the preparation of large single crystal samples is desirable for certain measurements, e.g. Hall effect measurements, and essential if recent applications such as gamma-ray detectors or ultrasonic amplifiers are to be pursued. Various methods of growing large single crystals by sublimation have been reported, and these are reviewed in chapter 4. However crystal produced by similar methods can show marked differences in their properties. The resistivities of crystals as grown can be as high as 10(^10) ohm-cm., or as low as 1 ohm-cm, with wide variations in the carrier mobility. Close control of the properties of the material produced is essential for any application of for any detailed study of the material itself. The work which forms the basis of this thesis therefore consists of an investigation into the feasibility of growing large crystals by several methods. The effect on the resultant properties is observed when parameters such as the growth temperature or the partial pressures of the components are altered. The suitability of various starting material is also discussed. The conclusions from the present work are that departures from stoichiometry in the growth system are responsible for much of the difficulty in preparing large single crystals of good quality at low temperatures (~1050 C). Further, at the present time the properties of the material are controlled by departures from stoichiometry rather than by contamination from chemical impurities. The final section of the thesis indicates which of the reported methods is most suitable for small-scale production of large single crystals of high resistivity cadmium sulphide. It also described a growth method embodying the conclusions drawn from the present work as a basis for further study.


The European Project Semester (EPS) is a programme offered by 13 European universities in 11 countries throughout Europe to students who have completed at least two years of study. It is a four-month program and it is a mixture of "Project Related Courses" and project organized/problem based learning. Project teams are of made of 3-6 students from different countries and different backgrounds, so EPS projects promote a multicultural and interdisciplinary teamwork. The main language is English but EPS students in Tarbes have also some French lessons. The main aim of the EPS is to improve the skills of the students in different fields like: team building, research strategy, project management, use of modern design tools and techniques, and English communication. Knowing other cultures and learning other languages are important aims too. The BioCom team is a student group consisting of 5 members, from 4 different countries currently participating in the European Project Semester program hosted in "Ecole Nationale d'Ingenieurs de Tarbes". These individuals expressed the same interest in the project on "Investigation of fully-biomaterials: association of a bio-based thermosetting resin and vegetable fibres". Supported by the AGROMAT experts, the team must produce a new bio-composite material made of jute woven fibres and a bio-thermosetting resin matrix that has better mechanical properties than the green-resin itself. The following document contains the work process & results the team has been developing & gaining for the last 4 months, including the Project Management, Research on Resins, preparation of Samples Production & Tests. The final green-resin choice was influenced by the obtained results during the conducted market investigation, to know what's out there and what's available within the requested criteria. For the great support, insightful advices during the last months we would like to express our gratuity to our client, Mr. Philippe Evon, technical supervisor, Mrs. Helene Welemane, management supervisor, Mr. Paul-Etienne Vidal, and the expert in polymers, Mrs. France Chabert.


This book aims to take users from scratch to having a solid base in French within six months, and to feel comfortable with the language in as little as three months. In only half an hour a day users will move ahead naturally until they are at ease with all the basic structures needed for communication and become familiar with the basic words and grammar of French. The method comprises two phases: the passive phase, in which users simply repeat what they hear and read, and the active phase, in which users begin to create sentences and imagine themselves in a variety of everyday situations.


This paper explores the diachrony of French and reconsiders the classical analysis of French palatalizations. It is widely admitted that the transition from Latin dorsal stops to French palatal fricatives is triggered by an external palatalizing object which affects the constitution of the targeted consonant. While this analysis can satisfyingly explain the palatalization of dorsals before /i/, it makes the palatalization before /a/, which occurred a few centuries later, completely opaque. Revising the internal structure and the melody used to describe segments (Government Phonology 2.0 – Pochtrager 2006) allows us to give a unified analysis of both palatalizations: whether /i/ or /a/, the vocalic environment is indeed the trigger, as it interferes with the structure of dorsals and lead to internal changes. However, while /i/ adds palatality to the consonant, /a/, by its lack of melody (Pochtrager & Živanovic 2010), leads to an internal reconfiguration of the dorsal, which already contains . In other words, we face two kinds of palatalization: an external one and an internal one. Furthermore, our analysis takes the intermediate stages from Latin dorsals to French palatals into consideration and attested dialectal variations observed in Northern France. This article is part of the special collection:  Palatalization


Thiol-terminated polyisobutylene (α,ω-PIB-SH) was synthesized from thiourea and α,ω-bromine-terminated PIB in a three-step, one-pot procedure, using a cosolvent system of 1:1 (v:v) heptane:dimethylformamide. The initial alkylisothiouronium salt was produced at 90 °C. Aqueous base hydrolysis at 110 °C resulted in thiolate chain ends, which were re-acidified to form telechelic PIB-SH. 1H and 13C NMR confirmed thiol functionality and complete terminal halogen conversion. Thiol-based "click" reactions were used to demonstrate PIB-SH utility. Alkyne-terminated PIB was synthesized by a phosphine-catalyzed thiol-ene Michael addition with propargyl acrylate. Reaction of this product with 6-mercaptohexanol produced tetrahydroxy-functional PIB by a sequential thiol-ene/thiol-yne procedure. 1H NMR confirmed the structures of both products. PIB-SH was reacted with isocyanates in the presence of base to produce polythiourethanes. A model reaction used phenyl isocyanate in THF with catalytic triethylamine. Similar conditions were used to produce PIB-based thiourethanes with and without a small-molecule chain extender. Increased molecular weights and thiol group conversion were observed with GPC and 1H NMR, respectively. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2010


Agile methods provide a product-centric model for software development. Projects, however, are deeply ingrained in corporate management systems and in the business models of service companies. Having established agile methods at the team or department level, many software development groups find further improvement hampered by conflicts with project-based policies, procedures, and practices. How can you take full advantage of cross-functional teams and a product-centric implementation approach within a project-based planning process and in the face of policies and procedures that seem designed to prevent scope trade-offs? When software development is only one part of a larger work effort, how can you make a successful case for optimizing globally rather than locally? And with so many project, program, and product management roles involved, how can you maintain role clarity and a measure of stability even as you work to evolve those roles? This paper presents a simple framework for successfully integrating project-based and product-centric approaches within a single, continuously improving workflow at the enterprise-scale. It describes an approach that explicitly defines the boundary between project and product-centric processes and maintains delineation as changes and improvements occur. If your organization depends on projects, you are experienced with Agile methods, and you have already tried the scrum of scrums, this paper may help you determine the next step to take.


Assessment tax management of local governments (LGs) has become more challenging due to robust developments. Assessment tax revenue is the main income for local governments which are used to pay for services and maintenance in the local government administrative areas. However, the amount of revenue collected is decreasing due to the serious problem of assessment tax arrears that affect the administrative system and as a corollary, the delivery of services by local governments. The incidences of non-payment amongst ratepayers and tax collection issues by local governments throughout Malaysia have become a serious problem. Therefore, this paper will analyze the Malaysian local government assessment tax collection and arrears performance in each local governments. The "Star Rating†concept is applied to address the performance of assessment tax collection in Malaysia. The results revealed that most of the assessment tax collections in Malaysia are performed under inadequate level. Assessment tax collection statistics for the research include the total revenue and assessment tax arrears for each local government in Malaysia within six years from 2004 until 2009.


Whether and how firms can employ relative rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs) to differentiate their brands from competitors in cyberspace remains a critical, puzzling issue in e-commerce research. By synthesizing relevant literature from cognitive psychology, marketing, and e-commerce, this study identifies key contextual factors that are conducive for creating brand positioning online via SERPs. In two experiments, the authors establish that when Internet users' implicit beliefs (i.e., schema) about the meaning of the display order of search engine results are activated or heightened through feature priming, they will have better recall of an unknown brand that is displayed before the well-known brands in SERPs. Further, those with low Internet search skills tend to evaluate the unknown brand more favorably along the particular brand attribute that activates the search engine ranking schema. This research has both theoretical and practical implications for underMIS Quarterly Vol. 34 No. 2, pp. 261-279/June 2010 261 Dou et al./Brand Positioning Strategy standing the effectiveness of search engine optimization techniques.


Background: Pandu Roga is Pitta Pradhana Tridoshaja Vyadhi in which aggravated Pitta Dosha vitiates Kapha, Vayu, Rakta, Twaka, Mamsa and Ojas. It can be correlated with Iron deficiency Anemia, due to similarity in clinical features. Inadequate intake of iron rich food in diet is the main cause of Iron deficiency anemia. Aim: Evaluation of effect of dietary supplement acquired from Kitchen garden with Gudharitaki Awaleha on RBCs, Hb%, MCV, MCHC, MCH for making Kelapur village anemia (Iron deficiency) free. Methodology: 120 subjects (60 in each) will be classified randomly into 2 parallel groups. Group A i.e. Trial group –Gudharitaki Awaleha 5 gm BD with Dietary supplement will be given after meal two times a day with lukewarm water for 90 days and Group B i.e. Control group – Gudharitaki Awaleha 5 gm BD will be given after meal two times a day with lukewarm water for 90 days. Assessment will be noted on 0 & 90 th day. Result: Variations will be seen in subjective as well as objective parameters and inferences. Conclusion: The effectiveness of Gudharitaki Awaleha with dietary supplement will be more than only Gudharitaki Awaleha


In his burgeoning body of film theoretical work the French philosopher Jacques Rancière repeatedly turns to some canonical films by Neorealist pioneer Roberto Rossellini. Not simply retreading tired motifs of Neorealism, Rancière's comments offer some profound new insights, revolutionising prior perspectives on Rossellini. In this article I shall put Rancière's perspective into dialogue with two of the most significant of these perspectives: André Bazin's and Gilles Deleuze's. In doing so I shall claim that Rancière's approach departs radically from the canonised, standardised Neorealist conception of Rossellini. Instead, I wish to claim that he describes a modernist artist primarily concerned with aesthetic clashes. In doing so I shall contemplate how the meaning of these films has evolved since the era of their contemporary reception, demonstrating the congruence and disparity between these three disparate approaches.


In this study, we evaluated the production potential of the polyculture of Freshwater Angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare, Cichlidae) and Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei). Two experimental trials were set up. The first trial entailed the use of a randomized design to investigate three treatments options: angelfish monoculture, shrimp monoculture, and fish and shrimp polyculture in 12 experimental 15 m2 ponds. In the second trial, we investigated two treatments (polyculture of caged fish and uncaged fish) in 10 experimental units. In trial 1, polyculture negatively affected fish growth and survival. However, fish did not affect shrimp growth and the greatest profit was achieved in polyculture. In trial 2, caging fish improve the growth of both fish and shrimp. An economic analysis showed the greatest profit and benefit cost ratio for caged fish compared with uncaged fish. We conclude that growing P. scalare and L. vannamei together is a better strategy than shrimp monoculture in low-salinity water. The use of caged fish in such a polyculture operation would enhance productivity and profitability.


Background: There is a paucity of data on knowledge, awareness, and practices (KAP) of patients with hypothyroidism in India. Aims and Objectives: To study the KAP and adherence to treatment of participants with primary hypothyroidism. Materials and Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was conducted in Endocrinology Outpatient Department of Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, Punjabi Bagh, New Delhi. Two-fifty consecutive primary hypothyroidism participants, aged ≥18 years, who were on treatment for at least 3 months responded to a structured questionnaire, to assess their KAP about the disease and adherence to treatment. Results: A total of 250 patients completed the questionnaire. The mean age of the participants was 43.24 ± 10.80 years; with majority being females (85.6%). The median duration of hypothyroidism was 8 years (range: 3–10). Most were well educated, with 53.6% being graduates/postgraduates. Knowledge and awareness related to hypothyroidism was poor in majority of participants. Only 35.2% and 51.2% knew correct meaning of the terms "thyroid" and "hypothyroidism" respectively. Only 25.6% participants knew correctly that thyroxine (T4) is used to replace and normalize blood levels of thyroid hormone. Forty percent had false dietary beliefs in the context of hypothyroidism. Ten percent participants felt T4 can be stopped once laboratory reports return to normal. Only 36.4% participants knew correctly that T4 need to be continued during pregnancy. Many participants (30.4%) believed hypothyroidism can lead to weight gain in excess of 10 kg. Regarding adherence, 90.4% participants were adherent to T4, 2.4% were moderately adherent, and remaining 7.2% participants were nonadherent to T4. Conclusion: A large number of patients with primary hypothyroidism lack basic knowledge about disease and have dietary and treatment-related prejudices and poor treatment adherence. Public health measures are required to improve KAP in patients with primary hypothyroidism.


Background/Context One in three international students in the U.S. comes from China, propelled by a steep increase in undergraduate enrollment in U.S. colleges. This phenomenon has been accompanied by negative media discourse that portrays them as needy, passive, and unable to cope with their new educational demands. Purpose/Objective Using a hybrid sociocultural framework that privileges student agency and locates students within their sociocultural milieu, this study investigated strategies Chinese international undergraduates used to cope with challenges they faced in U.S. colleges. Population/Participants Eighteen participants—nine freshmen and nine sophomores— from three liberal arts colleges situated in an urban context took part in the study. Research Design This qualitative study followed participants through one academic year. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, engaged in three semi-structured interviews at the beginning, middle, and end of their academic year, and wrote four journal prompts. Findings/Results Results reveal that student strategies cluster around themes of agency and self-reliance, as well as outreach and support. Students spent more time studying, used a range of learning techniques, developed self-help and psychological strategies, tapped into institutional and technological support, and reached out to teachers and peers for help. Conclusions/Recommendations Students' coping strategies reveal fluid responses to intersecting and changing sociocultural expectations, nimbleness in their adaptations, and transience in the challenges faced. Other than contesting stereotypes around Chinese students, findings spell implications for differentiated and responsive college policies serving international students, faculty members, and local peers. It also points to the need to incorporate more longitudinal studies with clear conceptual frameworks so that novel and nuanced understanding of international students can emerge.


Farabi's Virtuous City has a special sociopolitical hierarchy, which at first glance, appears to be original. Now, the following questions are raised: What was Farabi's main criteria for creating this sociopolitical hierarchy? And to what extent did he drew on historical facts to establish this hierarchy? Findings of the present research indicate that the two components of knowledge and function have been Farabi's most important criteria for establishing the sociopolitical hierarchy of his Virtuous City. Accordingly, he categorizes the classes of Virtuous City as follows: 1the ruling class; 2assistants to the ruler, including Al-Afazel (the nobles), Zuvei al-lasana (speakers), Al-Moqadderoun (specialists), Al-Mujahedun (the military), AlMaliyun (economic forces); 3the masses; and 4the opponents and adversaries, including Navabet and Bahimiyun. It seems that there are similarities between the function of some of these classes and the function of historical classes in the ancient Iran's monarchy and the Islamic Caliphate system, yet Farabi's innovation is in integrating them into a whole based on the criteria of knowledge and function and believing that those groups that do not meet the main objectives of Virtuous City -public happiness may be suppressed. On the whole, it appears that Farabi's Virtuous City has an organic class system in which not only the autonomy of classes and individuals is not recognized, but also any opposition is violently suppressed. Methodological approach of this article is methodological hermeneutics with an emphasis on Hirsch's hermeneutics.


We present a three-dimensional morphoelastic rod model capable to describe the morphogenesis of growing plant shoots, as driven by differential growth at the tip. We discuss the evolution laws for endogenous oscillators, straightening mechanisms and reorientations to directional cues, such as phototropic responses to a far light source and gravitropic reactions governed by the statoliths avalanche dynamics. We use this model to investigate the role of elastic deflections due to gravity loading in circumnutating plant shoots. We show that, in the absence of endogenous cues, pendular and circular oscillations arise as a critical length is attained, thus suggesting the occurrence of a Hopf bifurcation reminiscent of flutter instabilities exhibited by structural systems under nonconservative loads. When also oscillations due to endogenous cues are present, their weight relative to those associated with the Hopf instability varies in time as the shoot length and other biomechanical properties change. Thanks to the simultaneous occurrence of these two oscillatory mechanisms, we are able to reproduce a variety of complex behaviors, including trochoid-like patterns, which evolve into circular orbits as the shoot length increases, and the amplitude of the flutter induced oscillations becomes dominant. Our findings suggest that the relative importance of the two mechanisms is an emergent property of the system that is affected by the amplitude of elastic deformations, and highlight the crucial role of elasticity in the analysis of circumnutations.


The great Austrian writer Stefan Zweig was a master anatomist of the deceitful heart, and Impatience of the Heart, the only novel he published during his lifetime, uncovers the seed of selfishness within even the finest of feelings. Hofmiller, an Austro-Hungarian cavalry officer stationed at the edge of the empire, is invited to a party at the home of a rich local landowner, a world away from the dreary routine of the barracks. The surroundings are glamorous, wine flows freely, and the exhilarated young Hofmiller asks his host's lovely daughter for a dance, only to discover that sickness has left her painfully crippled. It is a minor blunder that will destroy his life, as pity and guilt gradually implicate him in a well-meaning but tragically wrongheaded plot to restore the unhappy invalid to health.


It is a bedrock principle of patent law that an inventor need not understand how or why an invention works. The patent statute simply requires that the inventor explain how to make and use the invention. But explaining how to make and use something without understanding how or why it works yields patents with uninformative disclosures. Their teaching function is limited; one who wants to understand or figure out the underlying scientific principles must turn elsewhere. This limited disclosure rule does not align with the norms of science and tends to make patent documents a less robust form of technical literature. To address this problem, this Article proposes a two-tiered disclosure paradigm. While compliance with the extant statutory disclosure requirements would still be sufficient to obtain a patent, the inventor could opt to provide a mechanistic disclosure-one that describes how and why the invention works. Providing mechanistic disclosure would have several upsides for the inventor, improve patent (examination) quality, enrich the public storehouse of technical knowledge, and promote broader goals of the patent system.


Introduction. Part I: Introducing VBA. Chapter 1: What Is VBA? Chapter 2: Jumping Right In. Part II: How VBA Works with Excel. Chapter 3: Working In the Visual Basic Editor. Chapter 4: Introducing the Excel Object Model. Chapter 5: VBA Sub and Function Procedures. Chapter 6: Using the Excel Macro Recorder. Part III: Programming Concepts. Chapter 7: Essential VBA Language Elements. Chapter 8: Working with Range Objects. Chapter 9: Using VBA and Worksheet Functions. Chapter 10: Controlling Program Flow and Making Decisions. Chapter 11: Automatic Procedures and Events. Chapter 12: Error-Handling Techniques. Chapter 13: Bug Extermination Techniques. Chapter 14: VBA Programming Examples. Part IV: Communicating with Your Users. Chapter 15: Simple Dialog Boxes. Chapter 16: UserForm Basics. Chapter 17: Using UserForm Controls. Chapter 18: UserForm Techniques and Tricks. Chapter 19: Accessing Your Macros Through the User Interface. Part V: Putting It All Together. Chapter 20: Creating Worksheet Functions and Living to Tell about It. Chapter 21: Creating Excel Add-Ins. Part VI: The Part of Tens. Chapter 22: Ten VBA Questions (And Answers) Chapter 23: (Almost) Ten Excel Resources. Index.


Given a corpus of news items consisting of images accompanied by text captions, we want to find out "who's doing what", i.e. associate names and action verbs in the captions to the face and body pose of the persons in the images. We present a joint model for simultaneously solving the image-caption correspondences and learning visual appearance models for the face and pose classes occurring in the corpus. These models can then be used to recognize people and actions in novel images without captions. We demonstrate experimentally that our joint 'face and pose' model solves the correspondence problem better than earlier models covering only the face, and that it can perform recognition of new uncaptioned images.


This paper extends the work of Kaminsky and Schmukler (2003) to the Baltic and Central Eastern European future Member States of the European Union, to test if the same short-run increase in cyclical volatility arising from financial integration is observed in this specific sample of "emerging markets". This work finds signs that, contrary to other emerging markets, this does not happen: for the future Member States, financial integration, similarly to the outcome observed in mature market economies, reduces cyclical volatility both in the short and in the long run. Weak indications are found that this may happen partially due to the anchoring of expectations provided by the EU Accession, and to the more robust institutional framework imposed by this process onto the countries in question.


ABSTRACT Inclusive education is a relatively new educational concept in Bhutan. Teachers play a critical role in the successful implementation of educational change. Investigating teachers' attitudes towards inclusion was conducted through an online survey. Respondents included 145 teachers (70 male and 75 female) from eight schools from across eight different districts in Bhutan, representing a return rate of 57%. Data were analysed using Rasch latent trait scaling techniques (Proquest) to determine the face validity of the survey. Case estimates from Rasch were incorporated into further analysis adopting the R statistical environment. Significant differences of attitude were detected based on gender (Pr(Chi) = 0.031); teacher qualifications (Pr(Chi) = 0.005); and experience of teaching children with special education needs (SEN) (Pr(Chi) = 0.018). The slightly positive attitude towards inclusion, measured by a 38-item questionnaire on a six-point scale, showed a mean average score of 3.965. Teachers' satisfaction of teaching children with SEN was positive (73%). The study also revealed the need for safer playgrounds, accessible toilets, less crowded classrooms, and greater education for teachers and support staff. These findings inform future policies and advancement of inclusive education in Bhutanese schools.


The Needs-based model of quality of life has been employed in the development of a wide range of disease-specific quality of life measures over the last 20 years. The model argues that disease prevents need fulfilment and that effective interventions enable individuals to satisfy more of their fundamental human needs. Rather than adopting an existing theoretical framework, the needs-based model developed through grounded theory techniques. Several theories of needs have been advanced during the last 70 years, many of which are well known. This article relates the needs-based model of quality of life to the major published theories of human needs. Several of the theories focus on the development of societies rather than individuals – dependent on the disciplines and interests of the authors; who include sociologists, economists and psychologists. Most theorists also believe that there is a hierarchy of needs. The needs theories suggest that there are varying numbers of fundamental needs, but these tend to overlap across the theories. Statistical analyses of data collected with the needs-based quality of life measures support the view that there is a single, fundamental need.


The authors analyze the distribution in the lexicon of nine Peninsular Spanish consonants (/p, t, k, b, d, g, f, ?, ?/) within the framework of Phonology as Human Behavior with respect to two hypothesised factors: Complexity of Articulation and Visibility. In general, the observed distribution of the uncombined consonants is according to the hypotheses tested. However, one member, /k/, occurs more frequently than would be expected. The authors show that /k/ belongs to a particular subset of consonants in Spanish, which might explain a relative favoring, but they also observe that /k/ appears to be more frequent in other languages as well. It appears that another factor, the Size of Cavity, might play a decisive role.


This paper presents an empirical investigation into the effects of European Union structural policy funding in the poor, remote, rural area of Evrytania in Greece. First, the socio-economic profile of the area is presented, followed by a detailed description of structural policy intervention in the study area during 1989-93 period (first Community Support Framework). Subsequently, a regional Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) is used to portray the structural characteristics of the local economy, followed by the estimation of the economic impacts of policy expenditures during the first period of structural funding after the 1988 reforms. Results indicate that the local economy is characterised by a low level of development, lack of integration and generally traditional structures. Moreover, the economic impacts of structural policy expenditure were found to be very significant, especially in terms of employment and firm income generation, representing thus, a valuable effort for the promotion of the area's development.


Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are the subject of an increasing interest in many applications and a key requirement is the stabilization of the vehicle. Some previous works have suggested using catadioptric vision, instead of traditional perspective cameras, in order to gather much more information from the environment and therefore improve the robustness of the UAV attitude estimation. This paper belongs to a series of recent publications of our research group concerning catadioptric vision for UAVs. Currently, we focus on the estimation of the complete attitude of a UAV flying in urban environment. In order to avoid the limitations of horizon-based approaches, the difficulties of traditional epipolar methods (such as rotation-translation ambiguity, lack of features, retrieving motion parameters from matrix decomposition, etc..) and improve UAV dynamic control, we suggest computing infinite homography. We show how catadioptric vision plays a key role to: first, extract a large number of lines, second robustly estimate the associated vanishing points and third, track them even during long video sequences. Therefore it is not only possible to estimate the relative rotation between consecutive frames but also compute the absolute rotation between two distant frames without error accumulation. Finally, we present some experimental results with ground truth data to demonstrate the accuracy and the robustness of our method.


Introduction to Autism in the Inclusive Classroom An increasing number of students with autism spectrum disorders attend partially or fully integrated classrooms (Chiang and Lin 2007; Mirenda 2003), with a wide range of abilities (Fein and Dunn 2007). Students with autism may have strong basic academic skills, such as decoding or mathematical calculations, but may also have difficulty with reading comprehension, writing, and drawing inferences (Fein and Dunn 2007; Nation, Clarke, Write, and Williams 2006; Nation and Norbury 2005; O'Connor and Klein 2004; Whalon and Hanline 2008). Asberger's Syndrome, a disorder included within the autism spectrum, is characterized by deficits in social interactions and display of repetitive behaviors (Gibbons and Goins 2008). In addition to the patterned, repetitive, and focused behavior and resistance to change found in Asberger's, traditional autism shows symptoms of language, cognitive, or other developmental delays (Gibbons and Goins 2008). An impaired ability to understand cause and effect relationships and to draw inferences is present in most children with autism, and most have difficulty with language comprehension, often associated with academic language across the content areas, and the social use of language (Fein and Dunn 2007). Students on the autism spectrum often struggle in classrooms due to their literal, concrete thinking (Gibbons and Goins 2008) and difficulty understanding what they have read, especially if it requires making inferences rather than just literal understanding (Fein and Dunn 2007). In a typical classroom, students generally acquire information either verbally or by reading silently, which can be challenging for students with autism. Myles et al. (2002) examined the reading performance of sixteen children with Asperger Syndrome and found that when asked to read silently, student performance was below grade level for many in the classroom. Yet, when students were given opportunities to read out loud, reading ability improved, likely due to the additional auditory input. It is unfortunate that a classroom structure in which students are expected to read silently a majority of the time, rather than active oral participation in classroom academic language, "may be one that facilitates learning problems in children and youth with AS," (Myles 2002, 46). Weaknesses in oral language can also have an impact on reading comprehension for students with autism (Lamer and Watson 2008; Nation and Norbury 2005). In a 2005 study for instance, Nation and Norbury were able to attribute reading comprehension impairment to oral language. Supporting evidence was also found in a subsequent study (Nation et al. 2006). In fact, "the less skilled comprehenders showed impairments in vocabulary, and in oral language comprehension, relative to the skilled comprehenders" (Nation et al. 2006, 915). Lamer and Watson (2008) provided additional support for those findings, and further suggested that oral language interventions are crucial for children with ASD to achieve higher levels of success in general academics. Cognitive challenges may make it somewhat difficult for a student with autism to achieve certain educational goals in the general education classroom (Fein and Dunn 2007). Such challenges include difficulty with the practical aspects of language, problems with attention span, difficulties making inferences, and problems applying the rules of reading and grammar (Vacca 2007). Unfortunately, students with developmental disabilities are viewed as being too impaired to participate in meaningful literacy learning experiences with their typical peers (Humphrey 2008; Kluth and Darmody-Latham 2003; Mirenda 2003; Vacca 2007), and research promoting effective strategies for facilitating literacy development has yet to be published in sufficient numbers (Chiang and Lin 2007). Given that the literature has suggested that children with ASD may experience difficulty in acquiring the oral language skills necessary for effective reading (Nation and Norbury 2005; Whalon and Hanline 2008), and that "we can only comprehend text to the degree we comprehend language" (Whalon and Hanline 2003, 367), it becomes imperative that teachers include students with ASD in the classroom academic discussions. …


Meaning in life has been associated with well-being, optimal functioning, and positive psychotherapeutic
outcomes. Meaning is best understood in terms of relationships between its three different structural components:
cognitive, affective, and motivational. Using Reker and Wong's (1988) model as theoretical background, the
present study investigated the associations between trait affect, values structure, and sense of meaning.
Participants included 383 college students from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. Multiple regression
analysis explored the associations between affect, value structure and sense of meaning. Results indicated affect
and value structure were significant predictors of meaning, with positive affect being the strongest predictor.
Results are consistent with third-wave cognitive-behavioral therapies (e.g., Acceptance and Commitment
Therapy) and their emphasis on positive emotional experiences and values as important to the development of
meaning and well-being.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
A dose-finding study was undertaken to investigate the efficacy of PA21, a novel polynuclear iron(III)-oxyhydroxide phosphate binder.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS
In a randomized, active-controlled, multicenter, open-label study at 50 clinical sites in Europe and the United States, hemodialysis patients were randomized to PA21 at dosages of 1.25, 5.0, 7.5, 10.0, or 12.5 g/d or sevelamer-HCl 4.8 g/d for 6 weeks. The primary efficacy endpoint was the change in serum phosphorus concentration from baseline.

RESULTS
There were 154 participants who were randomized and received the study drug. All groups except PA21 1.25 g/d showed a significant decrease in serum phosphorus. Mean decreases in serum phosphorus in PA21 10 g/d and 12.5 g/d were -2.00±1.71 mg/dl and -1.69±1.81 mg/dl, respectively. A similar decrease to sevelamer-HCl (-1.06±1.35 mg/dl) was seen with PA21 5.0 g/d (-1.08±2.12 mg/dl) and 7.5 g/d (-1.25±1.21 mg/d). Overall, 60.9% of participants randomized to PA21 and 57.7% randomized to sevelamer-HCl reported ≥1 adverse event. The most frequent adverse events were hypophosphatemia (18.0%) and discolored feces (11.7%) for the pooled PA21 dose groups, and diarrhea, hypophosphatemia, and hypotension (each 11.5%) for sevelamer-HCl. Discontinuation due to adverse events occurred at a similar rate in PA21-treated (21.1%) and sevelamer-HCl-treated (23.1%) participants.

CONCLUSIONS
PA21 5-12.5 g/d significantly reduces serum phosphorus in hemodialysis patients. The 5 g/d and 7.5 g/d dosages showed similar efficacy to 4.8 g/d of sevelamer-HCl. The adverse events rate was similar for PA21 and sevelamer-HCl.


The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and other international sport governing bodies have recently been involved in contestations concerning the allowance of the hijab in sport. This article interrogates how these institutions participate in the regulation of Muslim women, and the relationship that these actions have with colonial and imperial constitutions of race. Drawing on critical race feminist theorizing, this article argues that the regulation of women who wear the hijab is a technology of power that frames these sport governance bodies as benevolent actors operating within the 'best interests' of female footballers. This hijab that has become a cause of concern in sport is hegemonically understood through Western colonialisms and racial grammars that have historically constituted the figure of 'The Muslim Woman' as in need of protection. The recent contestations represent a new moment in a global field, however, as notions of 'freedom' and 'equal rights' are being invoked to now allow the hijab, albeit under conditions that insidiously reinscribe white patriarchal authority.


The UK Government has recognised the importance of the construction industry in achieving the overall goals of sustainable development. Therefore the Government has put several policies and strategies in place to achieve a more sustainable construction. Sustainable construction is considered as the application of sustainable practices and sustainable development principles to the activities of the construction sector. Lean construction is a new production philosophy which has the potential of bringing innovative changes in the construction industry. The Lean principles focus on the minimisation of both material and process wastes which in turn contribute to sustainable construction in terms of energy consumption and improvement in health and safety etc. This study aims at exploring the concept of sustainable construction and examines how the lean approach can impact on the sustainability practices within the construction industry. The study uses literature review to achieve the stated aim. The findings revealed that the application of lean construction principle, tools and methods have direct contributions to the attainment of sustainable practices within the construction industry. However, the study postulates that the better understanding of lean concept, proper implementation and integration of lean and sustainability concepts are required for lean construction to contribute to sustainable construction.


Turing's o-machine discussed in his PhD thesis can perform all of the usual operations of a Turing machine and in addition, when it is in a certain internal state, can also query an oracle for an answer to a specific question that dictates its further evolution. In his thesis, Turing said 'We shall not go any further into the nature of this oracle apart from saying that it cannot be a machine.' There is a host of literature discussing the role of the oracle in AI, modeling brain, computing, and hypercomputing machines. In this paper, we take a broader view of the oracle machine inspired by the genetic computing model of cellular organisms and the self-organizing fractal theory. We describe a specific software architecture implementation that circumvents the halting and un-decidability problems in a process workflow computation to introduce the architectural resiliency found in cellular organisms into distributed computing machines. A DIME (Distributed Intelligent Computing Element), recently introduced as the building block of the DIME computing model, exploits the concepts from Turing's oracle machine and extends them to implement a recursive managed distributed computing network, which can be viewed as an interconnected group of such specialized oracle machines, referred to as a DIME network. The DIME network architecture provides the architectural resiliency through auto-failover; autoscaling; live-migration; and end-to-end transaction security assurance in a distributed system. We demonstrate these characteristics using prototypes without the complexity introduced by hypervisors, virtual machines and other layers of ad-hoc management software in today's distributed computing environments.


Abstract. Ensuring global food security requires a comprehensive understanding of environmental pressures on food production, including the impacts of air quality. Surface ozone damages plants and decreases crop production; this effect has been extensively studied. In contrast, the presence of particulate matter (PM) in the atmosphere can be beneficial to crops given that enhanced light scattering leads to a more even and efficient distribution of photons which can outweigh total incoming radiation loss. This study quantifies the impacts of ozone and PM on the global production of maize, rice, and wheat in 2010 and 2050. We show that accounting for the growing season of these crops is an important factor in determining their air pollution exposure. We find that the effect of PM can offset much, if not all, of the reduction in yield associated with ozone damage. Assuming maximum sensitivity to PM, the current (2010) global net impact of air quality on crop production varies by crop (+5.6, −3.7, and +4.5 % for maize, wheat, and rice, respectively). Future emissions scenarios indicate that attempts to improve air quality can result in a net negative effect on crop production in areas dominated by the PM effect. However, we caution that the uncertainty in this assessment is large, due to the uncertainty associated with crop response to changes in diffuse radiation; this highlights that a more detailed physiological study of this response for common cultivars is crucial.


OF DISSERTATION SERUM CARTILAGE OLIGOMERIC MATRIX PROTEIN: A BIOMARKER FOR ACUTE ARTICULAR CARTILGE DAMAGE Bone bruise lesions (BBL) are documented on MRIs diagnosing acute knee ligament injury (AKLI). Recent evidence has indicated that a majority of patients that sustain an AKLI, especially anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury, will develop post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) 10-20 years following injury. It has been proposed that the initial damage sustained to the articular cartilage overlying BBL causes a cascade of events that may result in PTOA. Researchers have proposed a modification to treatment protocols for more severe BBL, or have stressed the need for the development of protective therapies to protect the articular cartilage. However, there are limited tools available to evaluate the clinical outcome of articular cartilage overlying BBL. Furthermore, damage to the cartilage overlying BBL may be different according to differing BBL severities. Therefore, the use of a cartilage degradation biomarker, serum cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (sCOMP) and the use of a BBL severity classification system may be useful to determine if differences exist between patients with and without BBL, and with differing BBL severities. The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the utility of sCOMP as a biomarker for acute articular cartilage damage. The purposes of these studies were to determine the inter and intraday reliability of this marker, to document sCOMP longitudinally in collegiate athletes and following AKLI, and to determine if differences in sCOMP and self-reported pain and function exist for patients with and without BBL, and differing BBL following AKLI. The results of these studies indicated sCOMP measures had strong inter and intraday reliability. Additionally, exercise does seem to influence sCOMP levels; however, these elevations may not be clinically meaningful. Furthermore, sCOMP levels were not different between patients with BBL and without, and between differing BBL severities. The results of these studies support the use of a BBL severity classification for future research studies in order to further elucidate the outcomes of these lesions.


We investigate the contribution of the low-energy electronic excitations toward the Raman spectrum of bilayer graphene for the incoming photon energy Omega greater than or similar to 1 eV. Starting with the four-band tight-binding model, we derive an effective scattering amplitude that can be incorporated into the commonly used two-band approximation. Due to the influence of the high-energy bands, this effective scattering amplitude is different from the contact interaction amplitude obtained within the two-band model alone. We then calculate the spectral density of the inelastic light scattering accompanied by the excitation of electron-hole pairs in bilayer graphene. In the absence of a magnetic field, due to the parabolic dispersion of the low-energy bands in a bilayer crystal, this contribution is constant and in doped structures has a threshold at twice the Fermi energy. In an external magnetic field, the dominant Raman-active modes are the n(-) -> n(+) inter-Landau-level transitions with crossed polarization of in/out photons. We estimate the quantum efficiency of a single n(-) -> n(+) transition in the magnetic field of 10 T as In- (n+) similar to 10(-12).


The work presented here investigates the synthesis of poly(lactic acid)–poly(ethylene oxide) diisocyanate chain-linked copolymer, and its application in the nano-encapsulation of bioactive compounds. Study was conducted on the effect of the type of chain-linking agent, along with molecular weight, thermal properties and hydrophilic/hydrophobic behavior, through the methods of gel permeation chromatography, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy–attenuated total reflectance, differential scanning calorimetry, light scattering, water uptake experimentation, and water contact angle measurements. Nanoparticle formation was performed via a single solvent evaporation process, and the particles obtained were characterized by dynamic light scattering and scanning electron microscopy. Results show the significantly enhanced molecular weight of the final product after the chain-linking reaction (up to 300,000 g/mol), as well as the non-linear nature of the sample due to broad polydispersity, ranging from 4–13. The final products exhibited glass transition temperatures of between 30 and 44 °C, while their crystalline quality was either significantly suppressed or a completely amorphous attribute was observed. Nanoparticles in the range of 300 nm that contained metazachlor were successfully prepared, and their releasing behavior exhibited first order release kinetics. A slower rate of release was observed in samples containing 4,4′-methylenebis(phenyl isocyanate) as a chain-linker. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This study was to determine reliability and validity for a two-tiered, multiple- choice instrument designed to identify alternative conceptions in earth science. Additionally, this study sought to identify alternative conceptions in earth science held by preservice teachers, to investigate relationships between self-reported confidence scores and understanding of earth science concepts, and to describe relationships between content knowledge and alternative conceptions and planning instruction in the science classroom. Eighty-seven preservice teachers enrolled in the MAT program participated in this study. Sixty-eight participants were female, twelve were male, and seven chose not to answer. Forty-seven participants were in the elementary certification program, five were in the middle school certification program, and twenty-nine were pursuing secondary certification. Results indicate that the two-tiered, multiple-choice format can be a reliable and valid method for identifying alternative conceptions. Preservice teachers in all certification areas who participated in this study may possess common alternative conceptions previously identified in the literature. Alternative conceptions included: all rivers flow north to south, the shadow of the Earth covers the Moon causing lunar phases, the Sun is always directly overhead at noon, weather can be predicted by animal coverings, and seasons are caused by the Earth's proximity to the Sun. Statistical analyses indicated differences, however not all of them significant, among all subgroups according to gender and certification area. Generally males outperformed females and preservice teachers pursuing middle school certification had higher scores on the questionnaire followed by those obtaining secondary certification. Elementary preservice teachers scored the lowest. Additionally, self-reported scores of confidence in one's answers and understanding of the earth science concept in question were analyzed. There was a slight positive correlation between overall score and both confidence and understanding. Responses on the questionnaire were investigated with respect to pedagogical choices. Evidence suggests that content knowledge and having alternative conceptions or science fragments may impact a teacher's pedagogical choices. Through careful development of instruments like ACES-Q II-R and other two- tiered, multiple-choice instruments, educators and researchers car not only identify possible alternative conceptions, they can raise an awareness of alternative conceptions held by children and adults