This debate section gathers together contributions from cultural historians, political geographers, urban sociologists and architectural writers on new forms of ruination in contemporary landscapes. Their case studies span examples of ruins in China, North America, Ireland and Ukraine, as well as reviewing cultural representations of ruined, remote and peripheral spaces in England and Greece. Many wider cultural representations of ruined landscapes are primarily visual; whilst these have great value in alerting wider publics to the debris of global capitalism, neoliberalism and state-sanctioned processes of cultural imperialism, what is needed within academic contributions to the ruinology literature is a deeper understanding and articulation of the wider contexts within which ruination occurs. Therefore, several contributions supplement visual representations of ruination with ethnographic and first-person accounts of places on the ground, whereas other contributions offer readings of ruined landscapes that are rich in political histories and policy details. Connections are made to wider contemporary debates around 'forensic architecture' and critical archaeologies of the present and recent past. What connects these contributions is a commitment to situating ruins within their historical, policy and social contexts, and working through ruination to open out political readings of landscape.


a state of physical, emotional, mental and social wellbeing in relation to sexuality; it is not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity. Sexual health requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. For sexual health to be attained and maintained, the sexual rights of all persons must be respected, protected and fulfilled.1


— Successful approaches to improve verification productivity are to increase the speed of verification and begin validating software/hardware integration very early in the design process. Historically, verification and validation platforms have been developed as separate flows, preventing reuse of modules and methods between the two. As a consequence, various customized verification and validation platform features must be devised and implemented to verify complex, highly integrated System on Chip (SoC) designs. Bringing these two flows together would save an immense amount of duplicate effort and time while potentially reducing the introduction of errors, since less code needs to be developed and maintained.


Although North Korea's northern border remains easy to cross, and North Koreans are now well aware of the prosperity enjoyed south of the demilitarized zone, Kim Long Il continues to rule over a stable and supportive population. Kim enjoys mass support due to his perceived success in strengthening the race and humiliating its enemies. Thanks in part to decades of skillful propaganda, North Koreans generally equate the race with their state, so that ethno-nationalism and state-loyalty are mutually enforcing. In this respect North Korea enjoys an important advantage over its rival, for in the Republic of Korea ethnonationalism militates against support for a state that is perceived as having betrayed the race. South Koreans' "good race, bad state" attitude is reflected in widespread sympathy for the people of the North and in ambivalent feelings toward the United States and Japan, which are regarded as friends of the republic but enemies of the race. But North Korea cannot survive forever on the public perception of state legitimacy alone. The more it loses its economic distinctiveness vis-a-vis the rival state, the more the Kim regime must compensate with triumphs on the military and nuclear fronts. Another act of aggression against the Republic of Korea may well take place in the months ahead, not only to divert North Korean public attention from the failures of the consumer-oriented "Strong and Prosperous Country" campaign, but also to strengthen the appeasement-minded South Korean opposition in the run-up to the presidential election in 2012. ********** For all its problems, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) enjoys one significant advantage over its rival to the south. North Koreans identify strongly with their nation (race) and their state, between which they appear to make little distinction, while in South Korea loyalty to the race militates against state-loyalty. (1) Awareness of the difference between the two Koreas can help us understand not only the overbearing confidence that Pyongyang displays when dealing with Seoul, even when requesting aid, but also the apathy with which the South Korean public has responded to acts of North Korean aggression in recent years. In South Korea, citizens' reluctance to identify with the state is a common topic of discussion among conservatives. (2) In the United States, however, even Korea watchers tend to overlook it entirely. The general assumption in Washington is that if one of the two Koreas can count on its people in a crunch, it is the Republic of Korea (ROK). This assumption rests on a misperception of North Korea as a communist state that has failed even on its own terms. Also at work is a confusion of South Korean nationalism with patriotism, as evidenced in international press references to the ROK's "patriotic" sports fans. (3) This derives from the common tendency of native English speakers, including many political scientists, to use the words "state" and "nation" interchangeably--as Koreans do not. (4) We must therefore distinguish clearly between Korean nationalism, which is a sense of proud identification with the Korean race, and South or North Korean patriotism, i.e., loyalty to the respective state as a political entity. For clarity's sake I will resort to a redundant but common prefix and discuss ethno-nationalism. First, however, I must take issue with the current consensus in regard to North Korea's longevity. The perception of the DPRK as a Stalinist or hard-line communist holdout surviving by dint of exceptional totalitarianism still features in some journalism and Western conservative scholarship, but it seems to be waning, not least because it is now so easy (if still illegal) for North Koreans to cross the border or to telephone outsiders. (5) Far more popular nowadays is the notion that the DPRK owes much of its stability and longevity to its popular success in adapting communism to indigenous Korean traditions. …


Mouse C1 line cells are megakaryoblastic cells established by coinfection of Abelson murine leukemia virus and recombinant simian virus 40. We examined the effects of various compounds on growth and differentiation of these cells. Megakaryocytic differentiation of C1 cells was not induced by cytokines that stimulate megakaryocytic maturation of normal progenitor cells, such as interleukin 3 and 6 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. However, the cells were induced to differentiate into megakaryocytes by treatment with some protein kinase inhibitors. The inhibition of v-abl tyrosine kinase activity preceded induction of differentiation of the cells treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors such as genistein, herbimycin A, and erbstatin. Treatment of C1 cells with a v-abl antisense oligomer inhibited their proliferation and induced acetylcholinesterase activity, a typical marker of megakaryocytic differentiation. These results suggest that inhibition of v-abl function is associated with induction of megakaryocytic differentiation of C1 cells. Among the compounds tested, 1-(5-isoquinolinylsulfonyl)-2-methylpiperazine (H-7), a potent inhibitor of cyclic nucleotide-dependent and Ca(2+)-phospholipid-dependent (protein kinase C) protein kinases, was the most potent inducer of differentiation of C1 cells. However, the differentiation-inducing effect of H-7 was unlikely to be mediated through inhibition of protein kinase C or cyclic nucleotide-dependent kinases, because other types of inhibitors of these kinases were not effective, and a protein kinase activator (phorbol ester) induced differentiation of C1 cells. Moreover, neither v-abl mRNA expression nor v-abl kinase activity in C1 cells was affected by treatment with H-7. These findings indicate that induction of megakaryocytic differentiation by H-7 is not related to inhibition of v-abl kinase, but rather to some novel function of H-7.


To infer social preferences regarding the relative earnings of spouses, we use measurement error in the earnings reported for married couples in the Current Population Survey. We compare the earnings reported for husbands and wives in the survey with their "true" earnings as reported by their employers to tax authorities. Compared with couples where the wife earns just less than the husband, those where she earns just more are 15.9 percentage points more likely to under-report her relative earnings. This pattern reflects the reporting behavior of both husbands and wives and is consistent with a norm that husbands out-earn their wives.


A support vector machine (SVM) learns the decision surface from two different classes of the input points, in many applications there are misclassifications in some of the input points. In this paper a biobjective quadratic programming model is utilized and different feature quality measures are optimized simultaneously using the weighting method for solving our bi-objective quadratic programming problem. An important contribution will be added for the proposed bi-objective quadratic programming model by getting different efficient support vectors due to changing the weighting values. The experimental results, give evidence of the effectiveness of the weighting parameters on reducing the misclassification between two classes of the input points.


Recent International Maritime Organization (IMO) decisions with respect to measures to reduce the emissions from maritime greenhouse gases (GHGs) suggest that the collaboration of all major stakeholders of shipbuilding and ship operations is required to address this complex techno-economical and highly political problem efficiently. This calls eventually for the development of proper design, operational knowledge, and assessment tools for the energy-efficient design and operation of ships, as suggested by the Second IMO GHG Study (2009). This type of coordination of the efforts of many maritime stakeholders, with often conflicting professional interests but ultimately commonly aiming at optimal ship design and operation solutions, has been addressed within a methodology developed in the EU-funded Logistics-Based (LOGBASED) Design Project (2004–2007). Based on the knowledge base developed within this project, a new parametric design software tool (PDT) has been developed by the National Technical University of Athens, Ship Design Laboratory (NTUA-SDL), for implementing an energy efficiency design and management procedure. The PDT is an integral part of an earlier developed holistic ship design optimization approach by NTUA-SDL that addresses the multi-objective ship design optimization problem. It provides Pareto-optimum solutions and a complete mapping of the design space in a comprehensive way for the final assessment and decision by all the involved stakeholders. The application of the tool to the design of a large oil tanker and alternatively to container ships is elaborated in the presented paper.


Objective: To determine the effects of Vicoprofen®, ibuprofen, and placebo on anaerobic performance and pain relief after resistance-exercise-induced muscle damage. De-sign: Randomized, controlled clinical study. Setting: University human-performance/sports-medicine laboratory. Participants: 36 healthy men. Methods and Measures: After baseline testing (72 h), participants performed an eccentric-exercise protocol. Each was evaluated for pain 24 h later and randomly assigned to a Vicoprofen (VIC), ibuprofen (IBU), or placebo (P) group. Postexercise testing was performed every 24 h for 4 d. Results: Significantly greater muscle force, power, and total work were observed in VIC than in P (P < .05) for most time points and for IBU at 48 h. Conclusions: Anaerobic performance is enhanced with VIC, especially within the first 24 h after significant muscle-tissue damage. The greater performances observed at 48 h might be a result of less damage at this time point with VIC treatment.


Successful immunocontraception of wildlife relying on repeated access to individuals for boosters has highlighted the need to incorporate primer and booster immunisations into one injection. We have investigated use of controlled-release polymers (lactide–glycolide) in small pellets to provide delayed in vivo delivery of booster porcine zona pellucida (PZP) antigen and adjuvant. This report reviews pellet-making methodology, in vitro testing of controlled-release pellets and in vivo effects of controlled-release PZP vaccine. We assessed 3 different manufacturing approaches for producing reliable, cost-effective pellets: (1) polymer melting and extrusion; (2) solvent evaporation from polymer solution; and (3) punch and die polymer moulding. In vitro testing of release patterns of controlled-release formulations, towards development of a 3-year duration vaccine, provided estimates for in vivo use of pellet preparations. These in vitro studies demonstrated protein release delay up to 22 months using 100% l-lactide or polycaprolactone polymers. For in vivo tests, pellets (1-, 3-, and 12-month release delay) serving as boosters were administered intramuscularly with PZP/adjuvant liquid primer to wild horses (Equus caballus), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginanus) and African elephants (Loxodonta africana). Horse field studies assessed fertility via offspring counts and/or faecal-hormone pregnancy testing. Treatment decreased fertility 5.3–9.3-fold in Year 1 and 3.6-fold in Year 2. In preliminary testing in deer, offspring counts revealed treatment-associated fertility reduction of 7.1-fold Year 1 and 3.3-fold Year 2. In elephants, treatment elevated anti-PZP titres 4.5–6.9-fold from pretreatment (no fertility data).


Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between stress and various socio-demographic, health and behavioural factors among undergraduate students studying in an Australian university. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out among firstyear undergraduate students studying at Griffith University. Participants were recruited from four different academic groups (N=728). The questionnaire used in this study comprised of three sections: socio-demographic information, stress scale and a food frequency questionnaire. K-means Cluster analysis was performed to identify the major dietary patterns and multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to examine the factors associated with stress. Results: Nearly 53% of the students had some degree of stress with 37.4% experiencing moderate to severe levels of stress. The factors most strongly associated with having mild or moderate/ severe stress levels included being in a relationship [OR =1.71, 95% CI (1.02-2.87) and OR=1.61, 95% CI (1.06-2.44)], studying a non-health related degree [OR=1.68, 95% CI (1.03-2.73) and OR=1.51, 95% CI (1.04-2.19)], working ≥ 21 hours per week [OR=2.12, 95% CI (1.02-4.40) and OR=2.21, 95% CI (1.323.67)], and engaging in an unhealthy dietary pattern [OR=2.67, 95% CI (1.25-5.72) and OR=2.76, 95% CI (1.47-5.16)]. Being a female [OR=1.84, 95% CI (1.25-2.72)], living in a shared accommodation [OR=0.52, 95% CI (0.27-0.98)], rarely exercising [OR=2.64, 95% CI (1.59-4.39)], having a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or over [OR=2.03, 95% CI (1.36-3.04)], and engaging in a dietary pattern that was low in protein, fruit and vegetables [OR=1.72, 95% CI (1.06-2.77)] were also associated with having moderate/severe stress levels. Conclusion: This study found that more than half of the undergraduate students had some levels of stress. Both mild and moderate/severe levels of stress were associated with sociodemographic characteristics, risky health behaviours and poor dietary patterns. Our findings reinforce the need to promote healthy behaviours among undergraduate university students in order to maintain good mental health.


Utilising the research methodology of narrative inquiry, this study set out to explore how Nigerian immigrant academics counteracted an unwelcoming ethos of reception at a South African university. Data capture comprised a mix of semi-structured interviews, observations, field notes and a researcher journal. Data was analysed utilising qualitative content analysis. Findings reveal that the resiliency process of Nigerian immigrant academics was triggered by ecological sources within the context of the academe and surfaced in the form of resilient qualities. Nigerian immigrant academics drew on specific internal assets and external resources to circumvent the effects of various stressors as well as social and institutional barriers to reconstruct their professional identities and become academically successful. The religious creed of Nigerian immigrant academics seemed to provide a mainstay and guiding force in their lives.


Targeted analytics to address the unique opportunities in hospitality and gaming

 The Analytic Hospitality Executive helps decision makers understand big data and how it can drive value in the industry. Written by a leading business analytics expert who specializes in hospitality and travel, this book draws a direct link between big data and hospitality, and shows you how to incorporate analytics into your strategic management initiative. You'll learn which data types are critical, how to identify productive data sources, and how to integrate analytics into multiple business processes to create an overall analytic culture that turns information into insight. The discussion includes the tools and tips that help make it happen, and points you toward the specific places in your business that could benefit from advanced analytics. The hospitality and gaming industry has unique needs and opportunities, and this book's targeted guidance provides a roadmap to big data benefits.

 Like most industries, the hospitality and gaming industry is experiencing a rapid increase in data volume, variety, and velocity. This book shows you how to corral this growing current, and channel it into productive avenues that drive better business.

 Understand big data and analytics

 Incorporate analytics into existing business processes

 Identify the most valuable data sources

 Create a strategic analytic culture that drives value

 Although the industry is just beginning to recognize the value of big data, it's important to get up to speed quickly or risk losing out on benefits that could drive business to greater heights. The Analytic Hospitality Executive provides a targeted game plan from an expert on the inside, so you can start making your data work for you.


A study of turbulence in BZT dense gas flows is performed using DNS. It is shown that for a large but realistic intensity, the turbulence in dense gas flows behaves in a highly compressible manner when the average thermodynamic state lies within the inversion region in which the gas fundamental derivative is negative. A close similarity is observed in the evolution of the kinetic energy when the initial turbulent Mach number and the Taylor Reynolds number are matched regardless of the Equation of State (EoS) considered. A large turbulent Mach number is yet more easily attained in dense gas flows lying in the inversion region because of the low speed of sound associated with it. In this case the turbulence shows a highly compressible evolution with periodic exchanges between the internal and kinetic energies. In order to assess the capabilities of currently available Large Eddy Simulation (LES) subgrid-scale models, a-posteriori tests are performed using the dynamic Smagorinsky model. Coherently with the hypothesis it relies on, the model perfectly captures the evolution of the kinetic energy when the turbulent Mach number is low enough. When using the perfect gas EoS at a higher turbulent Mach number the agreement is reasonable. Yet, when the average thermodynamic state lies within the inversion region and when using the thermal and caloric Martin&Hou EoS, the model is not able to capture the correct evolution of the kinetic energy. The results presented in this study call for a specific research effort directed towards the assessment and possibly the development of advanced subgrid-scale models for LES of turbulent dense gas flows.


We study trading models when the distribution of signals such as costs or values is not known to traders or the mechanism designer when the profit-maximizing trading procedure is designed. We present adaptive mechanisms that simultaneously elicit this information (market research) while maintaining incentive compatibility and maximizing profits when the set of traders is large (market design). First, we study a monopoly pricing model where neither the seller nor the buyers know the distribution of values. Second, we study a model with a broker intermediating trade between a large number of buyers and sellers with private information about their valuations and costs. We show that when the set of traders becomes large our adaptive mechanisms achieve the same expected profits for the monopolist and the broker as when the distribution of signals is common knowledge.


In July 2008, the Western Australia (WA) Department of Health embarked on a landmark 5-year project to implement a sustainable comprehensive health-system-wide Patient Blood Management Program. Fundamentally, it was a quality and safety initiative, which also had profound resource and economic implications. Unsustainable escalating direct and indirect costs of blood, potentially severe blood shortages due to changing population dynamics, donor deferrals, loss of altruism, wide variations in transfusion practice and growing knowledge of transfusion limitations and adverse outcomes necessitate a paradigm shift in the management of anemia and blood loss. The concept of patient-focused blood management is proving to be an effective force for change. This approach has now evolved to embrace comprehensive hospital-wide Patient Blood Management Programs. These programs show significant reductions in blood utilisation, and costs while achieving similar or improved patient outcomes. The WA Program is achieving these outcomes across a health jurisdiction in a sustained manner.


In this thesis, the syntheses and the characterizations of several new bimetallic carbonyl clusters have been outlined. X-ray crystallography is a key technique in order to elucidate their structures which can be related to their chemical and physical properties. In particular, electrochemical studies are very useful in order to understand how the physical properties of metal aggregates change with increasing size and when the molecular behavior fades into bulk behavior. Moreover, the incipient metallization of the cluster has be assessed (not measured) via UV-vis analyses even if this technique revealed to be not very useful in order to distinguish the different species present in solution. Overall, this work demonstrates that molecular nanoclusters are ideal models in order to better understand the structures and properties of ultrasmall metal nanoparticles.


This paper presents an evolutionary iteration particle swarm optimization (EIPSO) algorithm to solve the nonlinear optimal scheduling problem. A new index called iteration best is incorporated into particle swarm optimization (PSO) to improve the solution quality. The new PSO, named iteration PSO (IPSO), is embedded into evolutionary programming (EP) to further improve the computational efficiency. The EIPSO is then applied to solve the optimal spinning reserve for a wind-thermal power system (OSRWT). Results are used to evaluate the effects of wind generation on the spinning reserve selection of a power system. The OSRWT program considers the outage cost as well as the total operation cost of thermal units to evaluate the level of spinning reserve. The up spinning reserve (USR) and down spinning reserve (DSR) are also introduced into the OSRWT problem. The optimal scheduling of spinning reserve was reached while minimizing the sum of total operation cost and outage cost. Two practical power systems are used as numerical examples to test the new algorithm. The feasibility of the new algorithm is demonstrated by the numerical example, and EIPSO solution quality and computational efficiency are compared to those of other algorithms.


We present an experimental study of macroscopic and microscopic magnetic anisotropy of a spin tetramer system SeCuO3 using torque magnetometry and ESR spectroscopy. Large rotation of macroscopic magnetic axes with temperature observed from torque magnetometry agrees reasonably well with the rotation of the g tensor above T greater than or similar to 50K. Below 50 K, the g tensor is temperature independent, while macroscopic magnetic axes continue to rotate. Additionally, the susceptibility anisotropy has a temperature dependence which can not be reconciled with the isotropic Heisenberg model of interactions between spins. ESR linewidth analysis shows that anisotropic exchange interaction must be present in SeCuO3. These findings strongly support the presence of anisotropic exchange interactions in the Hamiltonian of the studied system. Below T-N = 8 K, the system enters a long-range antiferromagnetically ordered state with easy axis along the * direction. Small but significant rotation of magnetic axes is also observed in the antiferromagnetically ordered state suggesting strong spin-lattice coupling in this system.


AIM
An earthquake of magnitude 9.0 and accompanying tsunami struck the Tohoku region in northeast Japan on 11 March 2011. The purpose of this study was to observe evacuees' health status such as general health, psychological distress, and feeling of isolation over time.

METHODS
The authors distributed a questionnaire survey to residents of temporary housing in January to March (time 1) and again in October to December of 2012 (time 2).

RESULTS
Two hundred respondents who filled out the questionnaire at both times were the subjects of this study. The self-reported general health in 39% and mental health status in 43.5% of the participants were poor at time 2. In addition, a higher percentage of participants felt a sense of isolation at time 2 even though more of the participants participated in community activities at that time.

CONCLUSION
This result shows the evacuees' prolonged psychological distress and strengthening sense of isolation. It will be necessary to monitor them carefully and provide support continuously over the long term.


Nearly every night on every major network, "unscripted" (but carefully crafted) "reality" TV shows routinely glorify retrograde stereotypes that most people would assume got left behind 35 years ago. In "Reality Bites Back, " media critic Jennifer L. Pozner aims a critical, analytical lens at a trend most people dismiss as harmless fluff. She deconstructs reality TV's twisted fairytales to demonstrate that far from being simple "guilty pleasures," these programs are actually guilty of fomenting gender-war ideology and significantly affecting the intellectual and political development of this generation's young viewers. She lays out the cultural biases promoted by reality TV about gender, race, class, sexuality, and consumerism, and explores how those biases shape and reflect our cultural perceptions of who we are, what we're valued for, and what we should view as "our place" in society. Smart and informative, "Reality Bites Back" arms readers with the tools they need to understand and challenge the stereotypes reality TV reinforces and, ultimately, to demand accountability from the corporations responsible for this contemporary cultural attack on three decades of feminist progress.


Although tactile reactivity issues are commonly reported in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Less feed‐forward inhibition has been proposed as a potential mechanism for some symptoms of ASD. We tested static and dynamic tactile thresholds as a behavioral proxy of feed‐forward inhibition in 42 children (21 children with ASD and 21 typically developing [TD] children). Subthreshold conditioning typically raises the dynamic detection threshold, thus comparison of the dynamic to the static threshold generates a metric that predicts gamma‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) mediated feed‐forward inhibition. Children with ASD had marginally higher static thresholds and a significantly lower ratio between thresholds as compared with TD children. The lower ratio, only seen in children with ASD, might be indicative of less inhibition. Static thresholds were correlated with autism spectrum quotient scores, indicating the higher the tactile threshold, the more ASD traits. The amount of feed‐forward inhibition (ratio between dynamic/static) was negatively correlated with autism diagnostic observation schedule repetitive behavior scores, meaning the less inhibition the more ASD symptoms. In summary, children with ASD showed altered tactile processing compared with TD children; thus measuring static and dynamic thresholds could be a potential biomarker for ASD and might be useful for prediction of treatment response with therapeutics, including those that target the GABAergic system. Autism Res 2016, 9: 616–620. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


What is the origin of music? In the last few decades this centuries-old puzzle has been reinvigorated by new archaeological evidence and developments in the fields of cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary theory. In this path-breaking book, renowned musicologist Gary Tomlinson draws from these areas to construct a new narrative for the emergence of human music. Starting at a period of human prehistory long before Homo sapiens or music existed, Tomlinson describes the incremental attainments that, by changing the communication and society of prehumen species, laid the foundation for musical behaviors in more recent times. He traces in Neandertals and early sapiens the accumulation and development of these capacities, and he details their coalescence into modern musical behavior across the last hundred millennia. But A Million Years of Music is not about music alone. Tomlinson builds a model of human evolution that revises our understanding of the interaction of biology and culture across evolutionary time-scales, challenging and enriching current models of our deep history. As he tells his story, he draws in other emerging human traits: language, symbolism, a metaphysical imagination and the ritual it gives rise to, complex social structure, and the use of advanced technologies. Tomlinson's model of evolution allows him to account for much of what makes us a unique species in the world today and provides a new way of understanding the appearance of humanity in its modern form.


High-dimensional sparse precision matrix estimation is a ubiquitous task in multivariate analysis with applications that cross many disciplines. In this paper, we introduce the SQUIC package, which benefits from superior runtime performance and scalability, significantly exceeding the available state-of-the-art packages. This package is a second-order method that solves the L1--regularized maximum likelihood problem using highly optimized linear algebra subroutines, which leverage the underlying sparsity and the intrinsic parallelism in the computation. We provide two sets of numerical tests; the first one consists of didactic examples using synthetic datasets highlighting the performance and accuracy of the package, and the second one is a real-world classification problem of high dimensional medical datasets. The base algorithm is implemented in C++ with interfaces for R and Python.


Abstract The Blue Mountains water skink Eulamprus leuraensis is an Endangered swamp specialist known from < 60 sites and restricted to the rare, threatened and fragmented habitat of Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone. Understanding the species' ecology, notably its vulnerability to threatening processes such as hydrological disturbance, is essential if we are to retain viable populations of this Endangered reptile. We examined the impact of anthropogenic disturbance (longwall mining practices, development (industrial, urban, infrastructural) and damage by recreational vehicles) on this species, other herpetofauna and the swamp by surveying six paired undisturbed and disturbed sites in south-eastern Australia. The abundance of E. leuraensis was severely affected by disturbance. The species was absent from disturbed swamps, where it was replaced by its congener E. heatwolei and other woodland reptile species. Disturbance was associated with a halving of soil moisture content and a loss of surface water; the dense, live understorey was replaced by a sparser, drier habitat with dead vegetation, logs, rocks and bare ground. In effect, disturbance eliminated the distinctive features of the swamp habitat, transforming it into an area that resembled the surrounding habitat in terms of fauna, flora and physical characteristics. Our surveys suggest that hydrological disturbance (groundwater loss or alterations in surface water chemistry) extirpates E. leuraensis. This species' dependence on groundwater renders it sensitive to habitat degradation through hydrological disturbance. The conservation message for management authorities is clear: to protect the skink, protect the habitat.


In the mid-2000's, Goldman Sachs identified two groups of emerging economies known as the BRICs and the Next-11. Primarily selected on the basis of having large populations, these countries were heralded as the growth centres of the future with the potential to stimulate increased demand for a wide range of commodities, including food. This study uses an import demand model to estimate how income influences per capita expenditure on agrifood imports in 63 countries. The findings suggest that as groups the BRICs and N-11 do not di↵er from other low, middle, or high income countries with respect to their import behaviour. However, disaggregation of the two groups reveals significantly larger expenditure elasticities for China, India, South Korea and Vietnam. A forecasting exercise reveals the capacity of income and population growth in China, India, Indonesia, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam to substantially increase their expenditure on imported agrifood products.


Although previous Northern blot and in situ hybridization studies suggested that neurons express the monocarboxylate transporter MCT2, subsequent immunohistochemical analyzes either failed to confirm the presence of this transporter or revealed only a low density of immunolabeled neuronal processes in vivo. The authors report that appropriate section pretreatment (brief warming episode or proteinase K exposure) leads to extensive labeling of the neuropil, which appears as tiny puncta throughout the whole mouse brain. In addition, intense MCT2 immunoreactivity was found in cerebellar Purkinje cell bodies and their processes, on mossy fibers in the cerebellum, and on sensory fibers in the brainstem. Double immunofluorescent labeling with appropriate markers and observation with epifluorescence and confocal microscopy did not show extensive colocalization of MCT2 immunoreactivity with presynaptic or postsynaptic elements, but colocalization could be observed occasionally in the cortex with the postsynaptic density protein PSD95. Observations made at the electron microscopic level in the cortex corroborated these results and showed that MCT2 immunoreactivity was associated with wide membrane segments of neuronal processes. These data provide convincing evidence that MCT2 represents a major neuronal monocarboxylate transporter in the adult mouse brain, and further suggest that mature neurons could use monocarboxylates such as lactate as additional energy substrates.


Conditional exponential model has been one of the widely used conditional models in machine learning field and improved iterative scaling (IIS) has been one of the major algorithms for finding the optimal parameters for the conditional exponential model. In this paper, we proposed a faster iterative algorithm named FIS that is able to find the optimal parameters faster than the IIS algorithm. The theoretical analysis shows that the proposed algorithm yields a tighter bound than the traditional IIS algorithm. Empirical studies on the text classification over three different datasets showed that the new iterative scaling algorithm converges substantially faster than both the IIS algorithm and the conjugate gradient algorithm (CG). Furthermore, we examine the quality of the optimal parameters found by each learning algorithm in the case of incomplete training. Experiments have shown that, when only a limited amount of computation is allowed (e.g. no convergence is achieved), the new algorithm FIS is able to obtain lower testing errors than both the IIS method and the CG method.


A model that is designed to provide feedback for assessment and improvement of ocean prediction models is presented. Typical prediction model temperature field output is assumed to be modeled statistically and parametrically. An objective is to relate resulting ocean environmental parameters to some natural acoustic metrics corresponding to measurable features of the received field. The approach uses a canonical sound‐speed profile [J. C. Miller, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 71, 859–862 (1982)] which has closed‐form ray solutions in a range‐independent medium. By incorporating the environmental parameters into the sound‐speed profile and employing the ray geometry for a shallow acoustic source, expressions for convergence zone widths and ranges are developed. A sensitivity examination shows that thermocline scale is the dominant factor for convergence zone variabilities. Implications of the relationships for model assessment will be discussed. [Work supported by INO.]


Abrupt discontinuities in recognizing categories of emotion are found for the labelling of consciously perceived facial expressions. This has been taken to imply that, at a conscious level, we perceive facial expressions categorically. We investigated whether the abrupt discontinuities found in categorization for conscious recognition would be replaced by a graded transition for subthreshold stimuli. Fifteen volunteers participated in two experiments, in which participants viewed faces morphed from 100% fear to 100% disgust along seven increments. In Experiment A, target faces were presented for 30 ms, in Experiment B for 170 ms. Participants made two-alternative forced-choice decisions between fear and disgust. Results for the 30 ms presentation time indicated a significant linear trend between degree of morphing and classification of the images. Results for 170 ms presentation time followed the higher order function found in studies of categorical perception. These results provide preliminary evidence for separate processes underlying conscious and nonconscious perception of facial expressions of emotion.


Livestock have made major contribution to human societies by providing food, shelter, fuel, and services.  Sheep and goat are economically important livestock play an important socioeconomic role for small and large farmers in Libya.  Small ruminant animal meat is popular for Libyan customers, and demand is particularly high during religious and cultural festivals.  Small ruminants is valued for their meat, milk and manure, in addition, wool, hair and skin are becoming more attractive by modern and traditional industry.  They are popular among various communities, however, in societies.  Small ruminant animals play a significant role in the welfare of rural families since they provide both meat and milk as sources of energy and protein for human consumption.  Small stock requires relatively little capital to acquire and to feed compared to large stock.  Sheep and goat play an important role in most small-scale farming systems else where in the world.


ABSTRACT Human parechovirus 1 (HPEV1) displays an arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) motif in the VP1 capsid protein, suggesting integrins as candidate receptors for HPEV1. A panel of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) specific for integrins αvβ3, αvβ1, and αvβ5, which have the ability to recognize the RGD motif, and also a MAb specific for integrin α2β1, an integrin that does not recognize the RGD motif, were tested on A549 cells. Our results showed that integrin αv-specific MAb reduced infectivity by 85%. To specify which αv integrins the virus utilizes, we tested MAbs specific to integrins αvβ3 and αvβ1 which reduced infectivity significantly, while a MAb specific for integrin αvβ5, as well as the MAb specific for α2β1, showed no reduction. When a combination of MAbs specific for integrins αvβ3 and αvβ1 were used, virus infectivity was almost completely inhibited; this shows that integrins αvβ3 and αvβ1 are utilized by the virus. We therefore proceeded to test whether αv integrins' natural ligands fibronectin and vitronectin had an effect on HPEV1 infectivity. We found that vitronectin reduced significantly HPEV1 infectivity, whereas a combination of vitronectin and fibronectin abolished infection. To verify the use of integrins αvβ3 and αvβ1 as HPEV1 receptors, CHO cells transfected and expressing either integrin αvβ3 or integrin αvβ1 were used. It was shown that the virus could successfully infect these cells. However, in immunoprecipitation experiments using HPEV1 virions and allowing the virus to bind to solubilized A549 cell extract, we isolated and confirmed by Western blotting the αvβ3 heterodimer. In conclusion, we found that HPEV1 utilises both integrin αvβ3 and αvβ1 as receptors; however, in cells that express both integrins, HPEV1 may preferentially bind integrin αvβ3.


In May 2012, a seismic sequence struck the Emilia region (northern Italy). The mainshock, of Ml 5.9, occurred on May 20, 2012, at 02:03 UTC. This was preceded by a smaller Ml 4.1 foreshock some hours before (23:13 UTC on May 19, 2012) and followed by more than 2,500 earthquakes in the magnitude range from Ml 0.7 to 5.2. In addition, on May 29, 2012, three further strong earthquakes occurred, all with magnitude Ml ≥5.2: a Ml 5.8 earthquake in the morning (07:00 UTC), followed by two events within just 5 min of each other, one at 10:55 UTC (Ml 5.3) and the second at 11:00 UTC (Ml 5.2). For all of the Ml ≥4.0 earthquakes in Italy and for all of the Ml ≥4.5 in the Mediterranean area, an automatic procedure for the computation of a regional centroid moment tensor (RCMT) is triggered by an email alert. Within 1 h of the event, a manually revised quick RCMT (QRCMT) can be published on the website if the solution is considered stable. In particular, for the Emilia seismic sequence, 13 QRCMTs were determined and for three of them, those with M >5.5, the automatically computed QRCMTs fitted the criteria for publication without manual revision. Using this seismic sequence as a test, we can then identify the magnitude threshold for automatic publication of our QRCMTs.


The southern United States experienced extensional tectonics during the early Mesozoic development of the Gulf of Mexico and subsequent accumulation of up to 12 km of marine sediment. Few seismic stations have operated in the Gulf Coastal Plain for extended periods of time, and data for constraining ground‐motion prediction models are sparse. Previous studies found that the region differs from other parts of eastern North America in terms of Lg attenuation. The Earthscope Transportable Array was in the south‐central United States in 2010–2012, during a time of increased seismicity. That circumstance provided data for investigating Lg propagation. Sixteen earthquakes with magnitudes in the 3.2–5.6 range occurred in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas and were recorded to distances of 1000 km. Stations in the coastal plain of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi exhibit strong attenuation of the Lg phase, compared with stations located to the north in the Ouachita orogenic belt and cratonic platform. Q associated with the crustal waveguide underlying the Gulf Coastal Plain was estimated as Q =365 f  0.62. However, Lg blockage due to crustal thinning and anelastic attenuation due to the presence of several kilometers of sedimentary deposits occurs near the Gulf Coast. The average κ value south of latitude 33° N is 96±10  ms. A remarkable linear correlation exists between the attenuation parameter κ and the thickness of post‐Jurassic sediments in the study region, such that stations near the coast of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, which overlie ∼12  km of sediments, exhibit values of κ ∼160  ms. This strong spatial dependence of attenuation has important implications and should be incorporated in the development of ground‐motion prediction models using the approach suggested here.

Online Material: Figures showing maps of regression residuals and receiver terms for 12 frequency bands.


FEW WESTERN RESEARCHERS HAVE STUDIED music in everyday life. Data were collected from 200 Pakistani participants to address whether Western findings could be generalized to non-Western samples. Music was heard in everyday life by a large number of participants; most musical experiences occurred while participants were with friends; Pakistani classical and Western pop music were heard most frequently; liking for the music varied depending on who the participant was with, where they were, and whether they had chosen to be able to hear music; music was usually experienced during the course of some other activity; exposure to music occurred more frequently in the evening and at weekends; music was heard mostly at home; and the importance of several functions of music depended upon whom the participant was with and the place where the music was heard. These findings are compared with those from earlier Western research.


The Supreme Court, in the 2016 case Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, announced a framework for determining whether a plaintiff had alleged an injury that would permit entry into federal court. The Court indicated that a plaintiff, in order to have constitutional standing, needed to suffer harm that was "concrete" or "real." In explaining how courts could ascertain whether an alleged harm was concrete, the Court created a category of "intangible" harm subject to a distinctive, and arguably more demanding, concreteness inquiry than "tangible" harm, a category that seemingly includes only physical or economic harm. In particular, Spokeo directed courts to inquire into whether an intangible harm bears a sufficiently close relationship to a historically recognized cause of action and into whether such a harm has been elevated by congressional action to the level of cognizability. Since Spokeo, federal courts have wrestled with how to operationalize the Supreme Court's statements on intangible harm and standing. Beneath the growing body of doctrine lie fundamental questions about which values are at stake in categorizing harm into tangible and intangible varieties; whether the advancement of these values is justified; and whether, if so, this advancement is best accomplished through the conceptual tools that federal courts have applied to the task.
This Article investigates and challenges the principles underlying the categorizations of harm outlined in Spokeo, particularly the distinction between tangible and intangible harm. This Article argues that this distinction, and the Spokeo Court's emphasis on the "concreteness" of harm more broadly, reflect an effort to identify a set of uncontroversially pressing human interests that would justify access to judicial proceedings. These interests are often conceptualized in terms of those commensurable with money, quantifiable, or susceptible to evidentiary proof. Yet this approach invites courts to make contestable normative judgments about essential human interests in a way that risks undermining judicial legitimacy, and it obscures the internal complexity and contextual specificity of physical and economic harm. For example, economic loss, as well as pain and suffering resulting from physical harm, are treated as intangible in certain legal contexts, and the damage resulting from economic and physical harm cannot always be readily proven or valued at a given point in time. The Supreme Court's emphasis on concreteness and its invocation of tangibility, this Article contends, are not needed in order to achieve a nuanced balance between competing features of standing doctrine: concerns about the separation of powers and the efficient administration of justice, on the one hand, and concerns about access to the federal courts and judicial legitimacy, on the other. Rather, courts should eschew concreteness as a factor in the standing inquiry independently of whether harm is adequately particularized. Moreover, particularity can fruitfully be understood, in statutory cases, in terms of whether the legal provision under which a plaintiff is suing defines the scope of potential plaintiffs with sufficient specificity.


A new approach to interact with an industrial robot using hand gestures is presented. System proposed here can learn a first time userpsilas hand gestures rapidly. This improves product usability and acceptability. Artificial neural networks trained with the evolution strategy technique are found to be suited for this problem. The gesture recognition system is an integrated part of a larger project for addressing intelligent human-robot interaction using a novel multi-modal paradigm. The goal of the overall project is to address complexity issues related to robot programming by providing a multi-modal user friendly interacting system that can be used by SMEs.


Molecular biologist Elizabeth H. Blackburn, PhD, 60, of the University of California, San Francisco, today was named to receive the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Blackburn shares the award with Carol W. Greider of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Jack W. Szostak of Harvard Medical School. The scientists discovered an enzyme that plays a key role in normal cell function, as well as in cell aging and most cancers. The enzyme is called telomerase and it produces tiny units of DNA that seal off the ends of chromosomes, which contain the body's genes. These DNA units – named telomeres—protect the integrity of the genes and maintain chromosomal stability and accurate cell division. They also determine the number of times a cell divides—and thus determine the lifespan of cells. The scientists' research sparked a whole field of inquiry into the possibility that telomerase could be reactivated to treat such age-related diseases as blindness, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative diseases, and deactivated to treat cancer, in which it generally is overactive. In recent years, Blackburn and colleagues have investigated the possibility that life stress, the perception of life stress and lifestyle behaviors could take a toll on telomerase and telomeres. They have reported several studies with human participants that suggest a correlation. The findings may offer insight, at the cellular level, into the impact of stress on early onset of age-related diseases. The scientists were named to receive the prize "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the telomerase enzyme," according to the Nobel committee in Stockholm, Sweden. "Dr. Blackburn's research over the course of more than three decades has revolutionized scientists' understanding of the way in which cells function," said UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH. "Her co-discovery of the telomerase has revealed a mechanism that plays a key role in determining the lifespan of cells, as well as the processes of cell aging and cancers. "Her generous spirit, curiosity and highly collaborative nature have led her to forge research partnerships that have significantly broadened scientists' capacity to understand the remarkable telomerase enzyme. As a scientist, a colleague, a mentor and a woman in science, she is an inspiration to the nation and the world." UC President Mark Yudof remarked,"The entire University of California community could not be more proud of Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn. Her path breaking work is yet another reminder of the life-changing contributions UC makes to California and to the world." Evolution of discovery The roots of telomere and telomerase research trace back to the 1930s, when geneticists hypothesized that protective caps on chromosomes ensure their ability to propagate during cell division, and prevent them from inappropriately melding with one another. But it was decades later, between 1975 and 1977, that Blackburn, working as a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University with Joseph Gall, discovered the unusual nature of telomeres, with their simple, repeated DNA sequences composing the chromosomes' ends. Their work was published in 1978. With Szostak, Blackburn established that the DNA repeats stabilize chromosomes. The two also predicted the existence of an enzyme that would add the sequences to the ends of chromosomes, which reside in cells. In 1985, while a professor at University of California, Berkeley, Blackburn and her then-graduate student Greider reported the discovery of telomerase. Their research showed that, in some organisms, such as the single-celled pond dweller Tetrahymena, telomerase continuously replenishes the chromosome's telomeric tips. In humans, however, researchers including Blackburn and her group showed that telomerase is damped down at certain times in the lives of many types of cells, limiting their ability to self-replenish. With this discovery, scientists saw the possibility of exploring whether, in humans, the enzyme could be reactivated to prolong cell life to treat age-related diseases, and deactivated to interrupt cancers. Blackburn joined the UCSF faculty in 1990 and is the Morris Herzstein Endowed Chair in Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. She is the fourth UCSF scientist to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. A native of Australia, Blackburn has lived in the United States since 1975, becoming a naturalized citizen in September 2003. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, John Sedat, PhD, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at UCSF. They have a son, Benjamin. UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.


This introductory text explores the historical origins of the main legal institutions that came to characterize the Anglo-American legal tradition, and to distinguish it from European legal systems. The book contains both text and extracts from historical sources and literature. The book is published in color, and contains over 250 illustrations, many in color, including medieval illuminated manuscripts, paintings, books and manuscripts, caricatures, and photographs. Two great themes dominate the book: (1) the origins, development, and pervasive influence of the jury system and judge/jury relations across eight centuries of Anglo-American civil and criminal justice; and (2) the law/equity division, from the emergence of the Court of Chancery in the fourteenth century down through equity's conquest of common law in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The chapters on criminal justice explore the history of pretrial investigation, policing, trial, and sentencing, as well as the movement in modern times to nonjury resolution through plea bargaining. Considerable attention is devoted to distinctively American developments, such as the elective bench, and the influence of race relations on the law of criminal procedure. Other major subjects of this book include the development of the legal profession, from the serjeants, barristers, and attorneys of medieval times down to the transnational megafirms of twenty-first century practice; the literature of the law, especially law reports and treatises, from the Year Books and Bracton down to the American state reports and today's electronic services; and legal education, from the founding of the Inns of Court to the emergence and growth of university law schools in the United States.


The article is a descriptive and illuminative account of two recognition of prior learning (RPL) projects conceived within specific institutional contexts in higher education in South Africa. The two projects are treated as separate case studies in which a "developmental" model of RPL was piloted. Each case study provides a profile of the students and programmes in the institution, the RPL practices which were developed, and the difficulties encountered in the process of articulating, assessing and accrediting students' prior learning. The article ends with some questions and tentative conclusions concerning the further development of RPL policy and practice in the field of educator development. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol.15(1) 2001: 54-60


This thesis proposes the use of new methodologies for prediction of performances of asphalt mixtures.
Recent improvements in technology make it possible to adopt new methods of investigation with the dual objective of improving the performance in the survey of the parameters and investigate new properties so far not analyzed. In particular, the image analysis and the tyre/surface interaction belong to an innovative framework, which is next to flank, if not replace, the classic measurements so far employed.
The thesis deals with the use of these technologies for the analysis of three rubberized stone mastic asphalts, which were laid on a stretch of road close to Bologna, Italy.
Three different surveys were carried out on site during the first year of service. The surveys included the change in texture and skid resistance due to the traffic, along with the acoustic properties of the pavement. Local as well as dynamic continuous measurements were carried out, involving the use of a profilometer and a skiddometer.
A second phase involved the prediction of the surface parameters with different stages of simulated trafficking on Road Test Machine. At each stage change in macrotexture, skid resistance, adhesion between bitumen and aggregates, contact pressures and areas were assessed.
The image analysis is used for the assessment of the adhesion between the bitumen and the aggregate.
The images are then processed in order to create 3D models of the asphalt specimens and investigate the surface and volume properties.
The tyre/pavement interaction is another fundamental phenomena that received little considerations from the research, given its importance.
A final discussion summarizes these investigations by separately review three different simulated periods, i.e. the early life, the in-service equilibrium and the end of life. In order to accelerate the distress, one slab was subjected to Immersion Wheel Track test.


The article identifies trends and themes in cybertorts in Canada, examining especially how Canadian courts are approaching online defamation and internet jurisdiction issues. In cyberlibel cases, as communication technologies of online chat groups, websites and email are assimilated, some courts are re-considering traditional notions about communications, especially those that associate a message's influence with an author's identity, and concluding that internet communications may be believed more readily than communications in print; anonymous messages may be believed more readily than those by identified speakers; and communications in non-print media, with their correspondingly technologically enhanced features of hyperlinking, cross-referencing, archiving and searching, may be more powerful and memorable. Some of these views, however, are at odds with traditional assumptions about credibility, which historically has been correlated with the speaker's identifiability, bias, experience, and authority. The paper in particular questions the emerging view in internet defamation cases in Canada that anonymous online speech may be more likely to be believed than the same words published in print. While it is important to pay attention to the internet's particular features, including speed and interactivity, traditional theories about how credibility is evaluated and what criteria are weighed to assess belief should still be considered in this medium. Technology may widely expand who can be heard, but it does not necessarily follow that it should, or does, widely expand what and who is believed. The paper also considers internet jurisdiction theory in Canada and argues that Canadian courts should apply general internet principles under Canadian law rather than turning to "internet-specific" jurisdiction tests developed in other countries.


ABSTRACT Supported living and retirement villages are becoming a significant option for older adults with impairments, with independence concerns or for forward planning in older age, but evidence as to psychological benefits for residents is sparse. This study examined the hypothesis that the multi-component advantages of moving into a supported and physically and socially accessible 'extra-care' independent living environment will impact on psychological and functioning measures. Using an observational longitudinal design, 161 new residents were assessed initially and three months later, in comparison to 33 older adults staying in their original homes. Initial group differences were apparent but some reduced after three months. Residents showed improvement in depression, perceived health, aspects of cognitive function and reduced functional limitations, while controls showed increased functional limitations (worsening). Ability to recall specific autobiographical memories, known to be related to social problem solving, depression and functioning in social relationships, predicted change in communication limitations, and cognitive change predicted changes in recreational limitations. Change in anxiety and memory predicted change in depression. Findings suggest that older adults with independent living concerns who move to an independent but supported environment can show significant benefits in psychological outcomes and reduction in perceived impact of health on functional limitations in a short period. Targets for focused rehabilitation are indicated, but findings also validate development of untargeted general supportive environments.


A quantitative trait locus (QTL) for uterine capacity is located on chromosome 8. Comparison of porcine and human genetic maps suggested that the estrogen sulfotransferase (STE) gene may be located near this region. The objectives of this study were to clone the full coding region for STE, compare endometrial STE gene expression between Meishan and White composite pigs during early pregnancy, and map the STE gene. We obtained a clone (1886 bp) containing the full coding region of STE by iterative screening of an expressed sequence tag library. Endometrial STE mRNA expression in White composite gilts was determined by Northern blotting on days 10, 13, and 15 of the estrous cycle; and on days 10, 13, 15, 20, 30, and 40 of pregnancy. STE mRNA expression was elevated ( P< 0.01) on days 20 and 30 of pregnancy compared to other days of the cycle or pregnancy. Endometrial STE mRNA expression during early pregnancy, determined using real-time RT-PCR, was elevated ( P< 0.01) on day 20 compared to day 15, decreased (P = 0.02) between days 20 and 30, and decreased further ( P< 0.01) between days 30 and 40 in both Meishan and White composite pigs. Expression of STE mRNA was greater (P = 0.01) in White composite pigs compared to Meishan pigs. Using a microsatellite from an STE containing BAC genomic clone, the STE gene was mapped to 65 centimorgans on chromosome 8. Because STE mRNA expression differs between Meishan and White composite pigs, the STE gene may be a candidate for the uterine capacity QTL. © 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.


Background: Antioxidant rich herbs possess significant activity against various disease conditions induced by oxidative stress. Anethum graveolens is a rich source of bioactive compounds that possess varying pharmacological activities including antioxidant. Objective: To evaluate the nephroprotective effect of aqueous extract of Anethum graveolens seeds in a murine model of gentamicin induced renal damage. Materials and Methods: Wistar albino rats of either sex, weighing 150-200g were divided into 5 groups; normal saline, gentamicin (80 mg/kg, i.p), aqueous extract of Anethum graveolens seeds at 0.5, 1 and 2g/kg/ body wt., p.o, for 8 days, the extract being administered 3 days prior and concurrently with gentamicin for 5 days. Serum urea, creatinine, uric acid, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) analyses and histopathological examination of kidney were performed. Results: Gentamicin treatment caused nephrotoxicity as evidenced by marked elevation in Serum urea, creatinine, uric acid and BUN (107.5±16.92 mg/dl, 0.88±0.09 mg/dl,3.05±0.29 mg/dl and 47.80±9.07 mg/dl respectively) as compared to saline treated animals. Co-administration of aqueous extract of Anethum graveolens at doses 0.5, 1 and 2g/kg/ body wt decreased the rise in these parameters in a dose dependent manner. However statistical significance was obtained only with 1 and 2g/kg body wt doses employed, when compared to the gentamicin treated group. Histopathological analysis revealed epithelial loss with intense granular degeneration in gentamicin treated rats, whereas the test extract mitigated the severity of gentamicin induced renal damage. Conclusion: Our data suggests that aqueous extract of Anethum graveolens seeds exhibits Reno protective effect in gentamicin induced renal damage probably due to its antioxidant actions. Key words: Anethum graveolens, Drug induced nephrotoxicity, Gentamicin, Nephroprotective.


Law school as most of us know it is doomed. Law school today – which is but a gloss on Langdell's Harvard – attempts to prepare students to practice general law in an 1870s world. Students learn a bit about criminal law, a smattering of contracts, a little about torts, a smidgeon of property law, some of the essentials about how cases are moved through a court system. When they emerge, they typically can read and analyze cases, and are told they have learned to "think like a lawyer." In a way, they have.But, at least in the typical required curriculum, they haven't been taught how to negotiate, they haven't been taught how to build teams or work within organizations, and they haven't been taught how to work with clients. They don't learn project management techniques and wouldn't know how to discuss modern information management technologies. It would be considered declasse at most schools to suggest that they should learn how to market themselves, either within the organizations they will join or to the general public. They haven't been shown how to build a balanced life in the law, one where they can achieve professional excellence and yet have a satisfying personal life. In short, they haven't been taught how to "think like a lawyer" in many of the core areas that define successful lawyers today, and will increasingly define them tomorrow. But that's not why law schools are doomed. Law schools are doomed for a more fundamental reason: law schools train only lawyers. Like a zombie, law schools stagger forward reliant on a vision from a past life, ignoring today's diverse world of legal services and the pervasive changes wrought by the rise of the administrative state. To live, legal education needs to be connected to law as it is experienced today. New institutions should be designed based not on what best serves law students or legal educators, but on what best serves the needs of today's society.This article explores why such successor institutions now make sense, and examines in broad strokes what their offerings might look like.


Objectives: Major depression and anxiety disorders are common psychiatric disorders among cancer patients and are associated with psychosocial impairment and decreased quality of life. Depressed and anxious cancer patients could also be prone to some what more rapid progression of cancer symptoms, increased mortality, more metastasis and pain, and increased medical utilization. Although some researched have explored psychological interventions with cancer patients, outcome studies investigating the benefits of behavior therapy among cancer patients with well diagnosed depression and anxiety disorders are new. So the aim of this study was to introduce a new psychotherapy for depression and anxiety in cancer patients. Method: Behavioral activation (BA) is a structured, brief psychosocial approach that aims to alleviate depression and anxiety and prevent future relapse by focusing directly on behavior change. The treatment aims to increase activation systematically in ways that help cancer patients to experience greater contact with sources of reward in their lives and to solve life problems. The treatment procedures focus directly on activation, and on processes that inhibit activation, such as escape and avoidance behaviors and ruminative thinking of cancer patients, to increase experiences that are pleasurable or productive and improve their life context. Results: Results of various studies have shown the effectiveness of BA on reducing depression and anxiety and increasing quality of life in patients with cancer. Researchers also report strong treatment integrity, good patient compliance, excellent patient satisfaction with the BA protocol, and significant pre–post treatment gains across measures assessing depression, quality of life, and medical outcomes. Conclusion: We believe that BA is an important new treatment for depression and anxiety in cancer patients for two main reasons. First, its efficacy is supported by recent empirical researches; second, it is based on simple and easily grasped underlying principles and utilizes a small set of straightforward procedures. BA may represent a practical primary care treatment that may remedy problems associated with cancer.


Bodies in Revolt: Gender, Disability, and a Workplace Ethic of Care. By Ruth O'Brien. New York: Routledge, 2005. Pp. 198. $135.00 cloth; $36.95 paper. What are the conditions under which workers' rights legislation can produce revolutionary change in the workplace? O'Brien proposes an answer to this question by marshaling an array of Western theories of bodies and human action, and considering the "radical potential" of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). According to O'Brien, the ADA's open-ended definition of worker need and its (as yet unrealized) affinity with humanist values make it a potential agent of change in the logic of the capitalist workplace. The ADA can benefit all workers, not simply discrete factions of workers or those workers fitting a narrow definition of disability, by making employers and courts accommodate individuals' varied modes of activity at work. O'Brien asserts that the ADA offers workplace accommodations on the basis of individual, and thus endlessly varying, needs. This model of worker protection is substantively different from protections based on categorical identities, such as age, sex, or race. The ADA, O'Brien argues, provides a chance to view disability not as a fixed identity, but as a universal human condition that generates a range of unique needs. Disability so defined refers to variety in conditions of human activity (e.g., pregnancy, depression) and is not limited to those differences that tend to constitute the popular image of a "handicap" (e.g., developmental disability or physiological injury). O'Brien speculates that this inclusive interpretation of disability, if adopted energetically by political actors within certain ideal institutional arrangements, can generate a revolutionary collective consciousness among workers and perhaps even employers. The heart of O'Brien's book presents (1) a conceptual framework for an "ethic of care" in the contemporary workplace, and (2) the social context in which this ethic might flourish. An ethic of care is an ideal orientation toward workers' needs that flows from emerging, inclusive definitions of disability. Drawing on feminist theories of difference and power, O'Brien outlines in Chapters Two and Three a "workers' cause" logic that eschews securing an equality of circumstances and rights among individuals, instead pursuing the benevolent accommodation of difference in the workplace. This represents a move away from using "normalcy" and "average capabilities" as measuring sticks for employer obligations toward employees; it also rejects the notion of disability as a static identity. O'Brien arrives at this alternative workplace ethic of care after thoughtfully discussing competing theories of "bodies and being," including the work of Descartes, Deleuze, Guattari, Foucault, and Spinoza. Those readers engaged with social theory will find much to like in O'Brien's broad theoretical readings. …


Background: There is a medial bulging of the lateral nasal wall in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Aims: Uncinate process (UP) angulation measurements in patients and controls to objectify this bulging. Materials and Methods: Thirty CF, 17 primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), 13 chronic rhinosinusitis with polyps (CRSwp), and 30 controls were included. Angles were measured bilaterally on computed tomography (CT) scans: A, B, C on coronal sections, D and E on axial sections. Angle A was between the UP and the orbit inner wall, whereas the others were between UP and midline. Results: There was no significant difference between controls, PCD, and CRSwp. However, CF had 3 statistically different angles with controls, 5 with CRSwp, and 4 with PCD. Angle A average value was 126° (±16°) in patients with CF, 138° (±19°) in controls (P = .007), 145° (±15°) in PCD (P = .001), and 138° (±14°) in CRSwp (P = .001). Angle E average value was 35° (±10°) in patients with CF, 20° (±6°) in controls (P < .001), 21° (±4°) in PCD (P < .001), and 22° (±6°) in CRSwp (P < .001). Conclusion: Uncinate process's anatomy is only modified in CF: Angle between UP and inner wall of orbit is closed, and angles between UP and midline are opened. Significance: These measures quantify the medial bulging of lateral nasal wall and support nasofibroscopic observations.


Topological data analysis (TDA) is an emerging mathematical concept for characterizing shapes in complex data. In TDA, persistence diagrams are widely recognized as a useful descriptor of data, and can distinguish robust and noisy topological properties. This paper proposes a kernel method on persistence diagrams to develop a statistical framework in TDA. The proposed kernel satisfies the stability property and provides explicit control on the effect of persistence. Furthermore, the method allows a fast approximation technique. The method is applied into practical data on proteins and oxide glasses, and the results show the advantage of our method compared to other relevant methods on persistence diagrams.


While the literature on the theory of poolbased active learning has seen much progress in the past 15 years, and is now fairly mature, much less is known about its cousin problem: online selective sampling. In the stochastic online learning setting, there is a stream of iid data, and the learner is required to predict a label for each instance, and we are interested in the rate of growth of the number of mistakes the learner makes. In the selective sampling variant of this problem, after each prediction, the learner can optionally request to observe the true classification of the point. This introduces a trade-off between the number of these queries and the number of mistakes as a function of the number T of samples in the sequence. This work explores various properties of the optimal trade-off curve, both abstractly (for general VC classes), and more-concretely for several constructed examples that expose important properties of the trade-off.


Considerable interest has been paid in the last few years to the important environmentally benign catalytic hydrogenation reaction of dimethyl oxalate (DMO) to produce methyl glycolate (MG), ethylene glycol (EG) and ethanol (ETOH). SiO2-supported noble metal elements, such as Au, Ag and Ru, have been nominated as efficient catalysts for the production of high MG selectivity. In this work, noble-metal-free Cu nanoparticles wrapped on reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanosheets were synthesized using a green in situ sonochemical method in an aqueous medium and then applied without the calcination step as a robust catalyst in the DMO hydrogenation reaction. Moreover, the effects of ultrasound (US), ammonia (NH4OH), a combination of both US and NH4OH, and Cu loading (10, 25 and 45 wt%) on the morphology and catalytic performance of the produced Cu/RGO catalysts were studied in detail. Interestingly, transmission electron microscopy images revealed that a dramatic morphology evolution of the Cu catalysts from ultra small dots to elongated and leaf-like nanoparticles shapes occurred, depending on simple modification of the reaction parameters. Notably, the obtained catalytic results demonstrated that among the different produced six catalysts, the prepared Cu/RGO catalyst using 20 kHz of ultrasound and in the presence of ammonia with 25 wt% Cu loading displayed the highest MG selectivity (98.8%) at a relatively low reaction temperature (210 °C), while, the synthesized Cu/RGO catalyst with 45 wt% Cu loading exhibited the highest ETOH selectivity (94%) at 240 °C. Moreover, both catalysts showed long-term stability for at least 300 h while maintaining the high DMO conversion and selectivity ratio. The comprehensive characterization to the as-prepared, reduced and spent catalysts concluded that the synergistic ratio of Cu+/(Cu+ + Cu0), the high dispersion of Cu nanoparticles, the defective edges, sites and electron transfer provided from RGO were the main reasons for the obtained superior catalytic activity and long-term stability.


This paper examines an infrastructure road project in the city of Fortaleza, Brazil, within the local context of a small favela, Colonia. This road project, called Projeto Costa Oeste, has a dual purpose of development and increased transportation. This project is done for my client, a local NGO called Associacao dos Moradores do Litoral Oeste (AMLO) and seeks to provide recommendations so that the NGO can work to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs. This paper draws on fieldwork and a wide body of literature in developmental economics, political participation, transportation, road impacts and environmental impact. After outlining these possible and perceived impacts, it assesses Costa Oeste's viability, desirability and effectiveness. The primary finding is that neighborhood residents are unable to realize the attendant rise in property values assocastio4ed with Costa Oeste due to their insecure property rights regime. Therefore, the two primary recommendations to my client are, first, a house registration drive kin which residents take advantage of a Brazilian legal mechanism for registering a house that has been built in a favela such as Colonia. The second recommendation is for AMLO to consolidate the numerous associations working for social change in the neighborhood, thereby focusing their efforts and amplifying their resources.


The paper presents the results of testing the expectations hypothesis and the market segmentation hypothesis in respect to the T-bill market in Poland. The impacts of interbank money rates and exchange rate on the T-bill yield curve is also examined. Methodology is based on a cointegration analysis.


The present work presents a performance comparison between two widely-used CFD codes, namely: the open source platform OpenFOAM and the commercial software FLOW-3D, applied to hydraulic structure modeling. To do so, a case study, consisting of a rectangular channel with a cylindrical bridge pier attached to its rough bottom is modeled using both codes. The flow is assumed to be turbulent transient incompressible multiphase and viscous and is simulated using the finite volume method (FVM) and the volume of fluid approach (VOF). Turbulence is modeled by means of the RANS model RNG k-e. Two scenarios are considered: the initial situation, where the channel bottom is even, and the equilibrium situation, where it is eroded. The eroded streambed geometry is extracted from laboratory experiments using an open sediment transport channel. Several variables of interest, such as shear stresses and vortex shedding period, are estimated and compared among both numerical models and results available in the literature. The main purpose of this study is to assess the accuracy of these solvers when modeling the hydrodynamics of common sediment transport problems.


"Games for Health routinely sees 400-500 attendees across three days of events comprised of game developers, health professionals, investors, researchers, and health industry stakeholders. Attendees come mostly from all over the United States but are often joined by representatives from over a dozen countries around the globe. Many attendees are from large organizations including public tech & health companies, major insurers, large research universities, and game development studios big & small."


Colonoscopy is a minimally invasive procedure to examine the large intestine using a flexible endoscope. Currently, colonoscopic procedures require physically pushing the endoscope through the large intestine which potentially imparts damaging forces on the intestinal wall, requires a high level of expertise to perform safely, and can require extensive procedure time. This paper presents the use of inverted tubular element locomotion (ITEL) for improved endoscope translation and positioning that works via tip eversion of inverted plastic tubes. Experiments were performed to examine the fluid pressure required for locomotion through a large intestinal model and in both straight and curved paths and determine the optimal tube dimensions for insertion via ITEL. Experiments were then performed to compare intestinal forces during manual and ITEL-based insertion. The experiments established a relationship between the tip eversion pressure and the tube thickness and diameter. In addition, it was found that pressure required for locomotion was only minimally impeded by being enclosed in the intestinal manikin but significantly impacted by the curvature of the turn. Measured insertion forces for ITEL were found to be 10.1% less compared to traditional insertion. These results will aid in the future design and development of ITEL for endoscopic positioning.


Opuntia ficus-indica is used in animal feed but has a low protein content (above 4%) in comparison to high-quality forage  (above 16%). It isnecessary to develop technologies that improve the nutrimental value of Opuntia ficus-indica through the process of solid-state fermentation (SSF). Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the changes in the chemical composition of Opuntia ficus-indica during the SSF with the yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus ITD00262. Kluyveromyces marxianus ITD00262 was grown in glucose, peptone, yeast (GPY) broth, at 28 oC and pH 4.8 for 12 h. Opuntia ficus-indica was incubated in SSF at 28 °C without inoculation (T1) or inoculated with K. marxianus ITD00262 (T2). Fermented samples of Opuntia ficus-indica were dried, and the dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), lignin (LIGN) and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) contents were ascertained. Data were analyzed with a completely randomized design with a factorial arrangement of 2×6. A decrease of 11% in DM was observed for T1 compared with T2 at 48 h of fermentation. A 300% increase in PC content was observed for T2 at 120 h of fermentation. The DMIVD was increased by 3%, whereas the values of NDF and ADF decreased by 18% in T2. According to our results, it is confirmed that the use of K. marxianus in the SSF of Opuntia ficus-indica has a positive effect and improves the nutrimental quality of this forage.


International tourism demand has grown overtime and tourism now represents one of the most growing sector worldwide. International tourist arrivals reached 1,235 million in 2016 (UNWTO, 2017), and Europe with approximately 620 million international tourists, represents just over half the world's total (50%; UNWTO, 2017). In 2002 a unique currency was introduced in some EU countries. Many applied research focuses on the effect of the common currency policy on Eurozone trade flows (Micco et al., 2003; Faruquee, 2004; Flam and Nordstrom, 2006; Aristotelous, 2006; Baldwin, 2006; Bun and Klaassen, 2007; Frankel, 2010; Camarero et al., 2013; Sadeh, 2014). On the contrary, to date very few papers analyse the effect of this monetary policy on exchange in the service sector, and specifically on tourism flows (Ratz and Hinek, 2006; Gil-Pareja et al., 2007; Thompson and Thompson, 2010; De Vita, 2014; Santana-Gallego et al., 2010; 2016). The main aim of the present paper is to investigate whether and to what extent the introduction of euro affects tourist flows in a sample of European and non- European countries over the period 1995-2013. To do this, we apply a technique of policy evaluation named Synthetic control method (SCM henceforth) first proposed in a seminal work by Abadie and Gardeazabal in 2003. Using this methodology, we compare the post-euro tourism exchange trajectory of countries introducing the euro as common currency in 2002 (i.e. the treated unit) with the trajectory of countries not affected by the policy (i.e. non-treated countries).


When certain enterprise domain needs to make an unusual decision, it will probably require new kind of information. If the interaction model among domains cannot be defined because the decision scenarios are unpredictable, the system itself must search the required information analyzing where it is available, or can be generated. To do that, it is necessary to design a mechanism able to decide where to look for the information.We have developed a distributed DSS able to work in a dynamic way. This system is based on the use of mobile agents, which receive the user´s queries and visit the DSS domains gathering the required information. One of the main elements to the efficient operation of this system is the Router Agent. Its responsibility is to give an adequate route to the mobile agents. In this paper we propose a structure for the Router Agent. It includes a Knowledge Base where the information managed by each domain is represented, and a mechanism to compare the query content with the domain representation. We also present an interactive strategy to obtain the initial data to be stored in the Router Knowledge Base. The AHP method is used to support the task of evaluating the relative importance among terms representing each domain.


INTRODUCTION
The aim of this systematic review was to analyze the dental literature regarding accuracy and clinical application in computer-guided template-based implant dentistry.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
An electronic literature search complemented by manual searching was performed to gather data on accuracy and surgical, biological and prosthetic complications in connection with computer-guided implant treatment. For the assessment of accuracy meta-regression analysis was performed. Complication rates are descriptively summarized.

RESULTS
From 3120 titles after the literature search, eight articles met the inclusion criteria regarding accuracy and 10 regarding the clinical performance. Meta-regression analysis revealed a mean deviation at the entry point of 1.07 mm (95% CI: 0.76-1.22 mm) and at the apex of 1.63 mm (95% CI: 1.26-2 mm). No significant differences between the studies were found regarding method of template production or template support and stabilization. Early surgical complications occurred in 9.1%, early prosthetic complications in 18.8% and late prosthetic complications in 12% of the cases. Implant survival rates of 91-100% after an observation time of 12-60 months are reported in six clinical studies with 537 implants mainly restored immediately after flapless implantation procedures.

CONCLUSION
Computer-guided template-based implant placement showed high implant survival rates ranging from 91% to 100%. However, a considerable number of technique-related perioperative complications were observed. Preclinical and clinical studies indicated a reasonable mean accuracy with relatively high maximum deviations. Future research should be directed to increase the number of clinical studies with longer observation periods and to improve the systems in terms of perioperative handling, accuracy and prosthetic complications.


The idea of NMR crystallography was conceived as soon as NMR spectroscopy was invented. Over the years, several efforts have been devoted to the development of NMR tools to complement X-ray diffraction results. Many of the NMR-related observables are short-ranged in nature, but the paramagnetic ones are not. Therefore, paramagnetism-based restraints are in principle suitable to assess spatial relationships among molecules. We will here review some of the underlying concepts and see how they apply to the problem of obtaining structural information on molecules in the lattice, and on the lattice itself. We will provide positive examples and discuss the negative issues that still haunt paramagnetism-based NMR crystallography.


Battery sizing has significant importance for the performance of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). Although several research has been done over the years for the battery sizing, no research has focused on battery system efficiency which affects fuel economy. This paper has investigated battery system efficiencies of different optimum battery sizes which were optimised using two design optimisation methodologies. The first methodology considered a single driving pattern at a time, whereas, the second methodology considered different driving patterns simultaneously for the optimisation. The study considered a simulation model of a power-split HEV for the optimisation of battery size along with internal combustion engine, motor, and generator. An electric-assist charge sustaining supervisory control strategy was considered as the energy management. The maximum speed, acceleration, and gradeability were considered as design constraints. The optimisation was carried out using a genetic algorithm. Fuel economy was considered as an objective for the optimisation. Five standard driving patterns of different traffic conditions and driving styles were considered for the optimisation. Battery system efficiency of each optimum design was calculated over five standard driving patterns. This study found that battery system efficiency of the design which was optimised over different driving patterns was on average 2% higher compared to that of the designs which were optimised over a single driving pattern. This study shows a direction for the selection of battery size in HEVs for real-world application.


CONTEXT
As the availability of and demand for genetic testing for hereditary cancers increases in primary care and other clinical settings, alternative or adjunct educational methods to traditional genetic counseling will be needed.

OBJECTIVE
To compare the effectiveness of a computer-based decision aid with standard genetic counseling for educating women about BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic testing.

DESIGN
Randomized controlled trial conducted from May 2000 to September 2002.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS
Outpatient clinics offering cancer genetic counseling at 6 US medical centers enrolled 211 women with personal or family histories of breast cancer.

INTERVENTIONS
Standard one-on-one genetic counseling (n = 105) or education by a computer program followed by genetic counseling (n = 106).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Participants' knowledge, risk perception, intention to undergo genetic testing, decisional conflict, satisfaction with decision, anxiety, and satisfaction with the intervention. Counselor group measures were administered at baseline and after counseling. Computer group measures were administered at baseline, after computer use, and after counseling. Testing decisions were assessed at 1 and 6 months. Outcomes were analyzed by high vs low risk of carrying a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation.

RESULTS
Both groups had comparable demographics, prior computer experience, medical literacy, and baseline knowledge of breast cancer and genetic testing, and both counseling and computer use were rated highly. Knowledge scores increased in both groups (P<.001) regardless of risk status, and change in knowledge was greater in the computer group compared with the counselor group (P =.03) among women at low risk of carrying a mutation. Perception of absolute risk of breast cancer decreased significantly after either intervention among all participants. Intention to undergo testing decreased significantly after either intervention among low-risk but not high-risk women. The counselor group had lower mean scores on a decisional conflict scale (P =.04) and, in low-risk women, higher mean scores on a satisfaction-with-decision scale (P =.001). Mean state anxiety scores were reduced by counseling but were within normal ranges for both groups at baseline and after either intervention, regardless of risk status.

CONCLUSIONS
An interactive computer program was more effective than standard genetic counseling for increasing knowledge of breast cancer and genetic testing among women at low risk of carrying a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation. However, genetic counseling was more effective than the computer at reducing women's anxiety and facilitating more accurate risk perceptions. These results suggest that this computer program has the potential to stand alone as an educational intervention for low-risk women but should be used as a supplement to genetic counseling for those at high risk.


Human are generally responsible for the destruction of environment in Malaysia and throughout the world through their production and consumption activities. The main objective of this study was to analyze sustainable consumption practices among civil servants. The study assessed the adoption of value towards environment, attitude towards sustainable consumption practices, materialistic value orientation, and sustainable consumption practices. The factors influencing civil servants' sustainable consumption practice and the existence of value-action gap in sustainable consumption practices were also examined. This study adopted multi-stage sampling method. The data of this study originated from Intensification of Research in Priority Areas (IRPA) project conducted in 2004. For the purpose of this study, 289 respondents from Kedah and Perak were selected.The analysis of descriptive statistics and multiple regression were conducted to measure the variables (gender, age, educational level, job category, income level, value towards environment, attitude towards sustainable consumption practices, and materialistic value orientation) and determine the predictors of sustainable consumption practices. The study found that respondents reported high level of value towards environment and attitude towards sustainable consumption practices. The results of descriptive statistics for materialistic value orientation and sustainable consumption practices showed a moderate adoption. Importantly, the analysis on the intensity of adoption revealed that only half of the respondents reported applying sustainable consumption practices (47.8%).
The analysis of multiple regression showed that the beta value (B) for value towards the environment is 0.220, attitude towards sustainable consumption practices is 0.265, and materialistic value orientation is -0.203. All psychosocial variables (value towards environment, attitude towards sustainable consumption practices, and materialistic value orientation) have proved to influence sustainable consumption practices. However, none of the socio-demographic variables (gender, age, educational level, job category, and income level) is significant in predicting sustainable consumption practices.
Multiple regression analysis revealed that value towards the environment, attitude towards sustainable consumption practices, and materialistic value orientation explained 15% of the variability of sustainable consumption practices. The RSquare value (.15) illustrates a small relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Thus, this demonstrates that there is a value-action gap as the contribution of value and attitude is not strong enough to predict sustainable consumption practices. It also implies that the aspect of practice has to be strengthened.
Some strategies involving the aspect of facilities, laws, incentives, and taxes need to be planned. The barriers which might restrain people from applying sustainable consumption practices need to be removed. The campaigns should focus more on the process of consumption and how consumption leads to environmental deterioration. Thus, civil servants in Kedah and Perak have to be awakened that they are a part of something bigger and their consumption practice will make a substantial difference to the earth.