A hands-on approach to iPad application development Beginning iPad Application Development is written to help jumpstart beginning iPad developers. It covers the various topics in such a manner that you will progressively learn without being overwhelmed by the details. It adopts the philosophy that the best way to learn is by doing, hence the numerous Try It Out sections in all the chapters, which first show you how to build something and then explain how things work. Although iPad programming is a huge topic, the aim for this book is to get you started with the fundamentals, and help you understand the underlying architecture of the SDK, and appreciate why things are done certain ways. After reading this book (and doing the exercises), you will be well equipped to tackle your next iPad programming challenge. This book is for the beginning iPad developer who wants to start developing iPad applications using the Apple iPhone SDK. To truly benefit from this book, you should have some background in programming and at least be familiar with object-oriented programming concepts. If you are totally new to the Objective-C language, you might want to jump straight to Appendix D, which provides an overview of the language. Alternatively, you can use Appendix D as a quick reference while you tackle the various chapters, checking out the syntax as you try the exercises. Depending on your learning pattern, one of those approaches may work best for you. What This Book Covers This book covers the fundamentals of iPad programming using the iPhone SDK. It is divided into 18 chapters and four appendices. Chapter 1: Getting Started with iPad Programming covers the various tools found in the iPhone SDK and explains their uses in iPad development. Chapter 2: Write Your First Hello World! Application gets you started with Xcode and Interface Builder to build a Hello World application. The focus is on getting your hands dirty. More details on the various parts and components are covered in subsequent chapters. Chapter 3: Views, Outlets, and Actions covers the fundamental concepts of iPad programming: outlets and actions. You learn how outlets and actions allow your code to interact with the visual elements in Interface Builder and why they are an integral part of every iPad application. You will also learn about the various UI widgets known as views that make up the user interface of your iPad application. Chapter 4: View Controllers discusses the various view controllers available in the iPhone SDK. You will learn how to develop different types of iPad applications - View-based, Window-based, Split View-based, as well as Tab Bar applications. Chapter 5: Keyboard Inputs shows you how to deal with the virtual keyboard in your iPad. You see how to hide the keyboard on demand and how to ensure that your views are not blocked by the keyboard when it is displayed. Chapter 6: Screen Rotations demonstrates how you can reorient your application's UI when the device is rotated. You learn about the various events that are fired when the device is rotated. You also learn how to force your application to display in a certain orientation. Chapter 7: Using the Table View explores one of the most powerful views in the iPhone SDK - the Table view. The Table view is commonly used to display rows of data. In this chapter, you also learn how to implement search capabilities in your Table view. Chapter 8: Application Preferences discusses the use of application settings to persist application preferences. Using application settings, you can access preferences related to your application through the Settings application available on the iPad. Chapter 9: File Handling shows how you can persist your application data by saving the data to files in your application's sandbox directory. You also learn how to access the various folders available in your application sandbox. Chapter 10: Database Storage Using SQLLite3 covers the use of the embedded SQLite3 database library to store your data. Chapter 11: Simple Animations provides an overview of the various techniques you can use to implement simple animations on the iPad. You also learn about the various affine transformations supported by the iPhone SDK. Chapter 12: Gesture Recognizers provides an overview of the various gesture recognizers available in the iPhone SDK to help your device interpret user's input gestures. Chapter 13: Accessing the Accelerometer shows how you can access the accelerometer that comes with every iPad. You will also learn how to detect shakes to your device. Chapter 14: Web Services teaches you how to consume Web services from within your iPad application. You will learn the various ways to communicate with Web services - SOAP, HTTP GET, and HTTP POST. You will also learn how to parse the returning XML result returned by the Web service. Chapter 15: Bluetooth Programming explores the use of the Game Kit framework for Bluetooth programming. You will learn how to get two iPads to communicate using a Bluetooth connection. You will also learn how to implement voice chatting over a Bluetooth connection. Chapter 16: Bonjour Programming shows how you can publish services on the network using the Bonjour protocol. Chapter 17: Apple Push Notification Services explains how you can implement applications that use push notifications. The APNs allows your applications to constantly receive status updates from a service provider even though the application may not be running. Chapter 18: Displaying Maps shows how to build location-based services application using the Map Kit framework. You will also learn how to obtain geographical locations data and use them to display a map. Appendix A: Answers to Exercises contains the solutions to the end-of-chapter exercises found in every chapter except Chapter 1. Appendix B: Getting Around in Xcode provides a quick run-through of the many features in Xcode. Appendix C: Getting Around in Interface Builder provides an overview of the many features of Interface Builder. Appendix D: Crash Course in Objective-C provides a crash course in Objective-C. Readers who are new to this language should read this chapter before getting started.


This paper explores the effects of iconic, abstract representations of complex objects on our interactions with those objects through an ethnographic study of the use of the London Underground Map to tame and enframe the city of London. Official reports insist that the `Tube Map's' iconic status is due to its exemplary design principles or its utility for journey planning underground. This paper, however, presents results that suggest a different role for the familiar image: one of an essential visual technology that stands as an interface between the city and its user, presenting and structuring the points of access and possibilities for interaction within the urban space. The analysis explores the public understanding of an inscription in the world beyond the laboratory bench, the indexicality of the immutable mobile's visual language, and the relationship between representing and intervening. It further suggests fruitful crossovers between Science Studies, Urban Studies, and Human—Computer Interaction by approaching the individual as a `user' of a city and its graphical interface, applying the technique of cognitive mapping to overlapping virtual and analog spaces, and exploring the social and practical effects of strong and standardized visual languages on further narratives and interactions with scientific, technological, or everyday objects.


Econometric theory, as presented in textbooks and the econometric literature generally, is a somewhat disparate collection of findings. Its essential nature is to be a set of demonstrated results that increase over time, each logically based on a specific set of axioms or assumptions, yet at every moment, rather than a finished work, these inevitably form an incomplete body of knowledge. The practice of econometric theory consists of selecting from, applying, and evaluating this literature, so as to test its applicability and range. The creation, development, and use of computer software has led applied economic research into a new age. This book describes the history of econometric computation from 1950 to the present day, based upon an interactive survey involving the collaboration of the many econometricians who have designed and developed this software. It identifies each of the econometric software packages that are made available to and used by economists and econometricians worldwide.


Omni-directional sources are often used in room acoustic computer simulations, as opposed to directional sources, since measured directivity data are quite limited and difficult to obtain. The purpose of this study is to investigate the objective and subjective significance of adding more complex directivity to the sources used in computer simulations and auralizations. A simple hall was used as the modelled space in the software program ODEON. Three source positions on stage and three receiver audience positions were chosen. Impulse responses (IRs) were calculated for the nine source/receiver combinations, using (a) an omnidirectional source, (b) a highly directional source beaming in a sixteenth-tant of a sphere, and (c) three realistic sources: piano, singing voice and violin. The directivity data for the three realistic sources, obtained from the Physikalisch-Technischen Bundesanstalt website, were available in octave bands from 1 kHz – 4 kHz for the piano and violin, and from 125 Hz – 4 kHz for the singing voice. The objective measures evaluated were Sound Pressure Level (SPL), Reverberation Time (T60) and Clarity Index (C80). In general, there is at least 5% difference in T60 data between the omnidirectional source and the realistic directional ones. Differences in SPL and C80 are more irregular across frequency bands and appear to be more apparent for sources with higher directivity index. For select source/receiver combinations, the IRs resulting from each source directivity have been convolved with anechoic musical recordings of piano, singing and violin to produce auralizations. Subjective testing revealed a noticeable difference between the omnidirectional and the sixteenth-tant sources, but not with the realistic sources.


Simple syntheses of 4,4-disubstituted 2-thiazolin-5-thiones, which have so far been difficult to obtain, are described. These compounds are stable and undergo a number of different reactions. The first type of reaction discussed here are cyclosubstitutions, which occur on heating in the presence of eJectron-deficient acetylenes. 1,3-Dithiafulvenes are thus formed via nitrile elimination. Thiazolinthiones show different chemical behaviour in reactions with ynamines. On warrning, thiazolinylidene-thioamides and -thioketones are formed via a [2+2] cycloaddition, followed by an electrocyclic ring opening reaction. The third reaction type has been observed in the conversion with 1,3-dipolar reagents, In situ generated benzonitriliumbetaines undergo 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition to the exocyclic e,S-double bond and form dithiaspiro [4.4]nonadienes.


In this article we study the hydrostatic equilibrium configuration of neutron stars and strange stars, whose fluid pressure is computed from the equations of state p=ωρ5/3 and p=0.28(ρ−4ℬ), respectively, with ω and ℬ being constants and ρ the energy density of the fluid. We start by deriving the hydrostatic equilibrium equation for the f(R,T) theory of gravity, with R and T standing for the Ricci scalar and trace of the energy-momentum tensor, respectively. Such an equation is a generalization of the one obtained from general relativity, and the latter can be retrieved for a certain limit of the theory. For the f(R,T)=R+2λ T functional form, with λ being a constant, we find that some physical properties of the stars, such as pressure, energy density, mass and radius, are affected when λ is changed. We show that for a fixed central star energy density, the mass of neutron and strange stars can increase with λ. Concerning the star radius, it increases for neutron stars and it decreases for strange stars with the increment of λ. Thus, in f(R,T) theory of gravity we can push the maximum mass above the observational limits. This implies that the equation of state cannot be eliminated if the maximum mass within General Relativity lies below the limit given by observed pulsars.


Although more than half a century has passed since official suspension of the organization called the Gulag (Gosudarstvennoe upravlenie lagerei, State Administration of Camps), the Soviet system of incarceration and internal exile, it still retains its elusive omnipresence and heavy imprint on various aspects of everyday lives in contemporary Russia. As a system of concentration camps, the Gulag was officially established in the 1930s with its territory stretching across the Russian North, Siberia, and the Far East, and into Central Asia. Even though amnesties, mass releases, and reduction of the number of camps officially happened in the 1950s, the system was still functioning until the 1980s.


Abstract There is an inherent link between theory and measurement suggesting that validation of measures should be the first stage of theory testing. The aim of the present study was to cross-validate the factorial validity of the Thought Occurrence Questionnaire for Sport for use among adolescent athletes. National standard young athletes (Individual N = 204; Team N = 360) completed the TOQS questionnaire. Single-sample and multisample confirmatory factor analysis provided support for the psychometric integrity of the hypothesized three-factor correlated model. Multisample results demonstrated invariance for factor loadings and correlations between individual and team athletes. Internal consistency coefficients were over the .70 criterion for acceptability. Findings lend support to previous validation studies conducted on samples of adult athletes and suggest that the TOQS provides an equally valid measure for use among adolescent athletes. It is suggested that the TOQS can be used to investigate theoretical issues related to cognitive interference during competition.


This thesis describes the conceptualisation and development of the PYROCART model. This model simulates the spatial behaviour of fire in spatially heterogeneous environments. The principle aims of the research were to test the applicability of overseas fire spread models to New Zealand fuels, to investigate the environmental controls influencing wildland fire behaviour and to assess the applicability of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to fire spread prediction. The PYROCART model integrates a Geographic Information System (Arc/Info) and the fire spread model of Rothermel ( 1972). The Rothermel model consists of a series of flux equations which describe the physical and chemical processes of combustion. Rate of spread is estimated to be the difference between these fluxes. A problematic limitation of this model is that it is assumed that the landscape in which the fire is being modelled is homogenous with respect to environmental descriptors such as fuel type, slope, wind speed and wind direction. The use of a cellular data model within a Geographic Information System overcomes some of the spatial limitations of the Rothermel model associated with the assumption of environmental homogeneity. The model is validated using a large wildfire which occurred on 27-28 May, 1995 on the west bank of the Cass River in the Cass Basin. This fire burnt 580 hectares across a complex vegetation mosaic comprising shrubland, stands of Nothofagus solandri var clif.fortioides, bog and tussockland. The pre-fire vegetation was mapped and fuel models were built for nine vegetation types. The topography and variation in the wind field of the fire scar were also surveyed. The overall prediction of the model is estimated to have an accuracy of 80%. Prediction accuracies within different fuel types, slopes and wind conditions are also presented and it is shown that fuel type and slope appear to be the dominant influence on fire spread. No trends in prediction accuracy by wind speed and wind direction are apparent. The predicted burned area and the real burned area have a similar overall shape. However, problems of over-prediction of backing and flanking rates of spread at high wind speeds are identified. The PYROCART model shows potential as a management tool, especially for the testing of hypotheses concerning alternative land management strategies. However, due to the complex input data and parameterisation techniques required to operate the model it is not suitable for in situ fire management.


 Abstract—This study built a research model in order to provide a comprehensive understanding not only to know how the contribution of organizational culture and leadership to enhance organizational performance, and how they are to each other, but also to answer the gaps in previous research on organizational culture and organizational performance. The study was conducted on automotive component industry in Indonesia. Target population consisted of 165 companies as members of GIAMM throughout Indonesia. The sampling technique used is the census sampling in which the entire target population to be sampled. Results show that Leadership has a strong role in improving organizational performance and in shaping organizational culture. While strong organizational culture cannot be proved to improve organizational performance.


Annual influenza epidemics are a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality in the United States and around the world. Older adults, individuals 65 years of age and older, are disproportionately affected by influenza. In 2009 a high-dose influenza vaccine was licensed for use in older adults. The efficacy and effectiveness of this influenza vaccine have been and continue to be studied today, in 2015. However, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the body primarily responsible for developing recommendations on how to use vaccines to control disease in the United States, recommends that older adults receive an influenza vaccine and does not distinguish between the standard-dose and high-dose vaccines. Given the growing body of research around the high-dose influenza vaccine, this literature review seeks to identify the efficacy of the high-dose influenza vaccine in older adults as well as facilitators and barriers to influenza vaccination among older adults. The author conducted a review of the literature published between January 1, 2004 and March 1, 2015 on these topics. Only 12 peer-reviewed articles were selected for inclusion from the 714 articles identified by the review. Four were randomized controlled trials, two were systematic literature reviews, four were retrospective data analyses, and two were cross-sectional studies. The studies regarding the efficacy of the high-dose influenza vaccine were of high quality, however the articles assessing factors associated with influenza vaccine uptake among older adults were limited in scope and generalizability. This review identified a considerable gap in the literature related to the facilitators and barriers to influenza vaccination among older adults at the individual, interpersonal, and community levels. Qualitative and mixed-methods research is needed to move from understanding who is and is not receiving an annual influenza vaccine to why and how individuals and communities are receiving annual influenza vaccines. This review is of public health significance because understanding and preventing influenza through the use of the high-dose influenza vaccine has the potential to significantly improve public health through preventing illnesses and hospitalizations, reducing influenza mortality, and reducing expenditures related to influenza morbidity.


BACKGROUND
Self-management of hypertension, comprising self-monitoring of blood pressure with self-titration of medication, improves blood pressure control, but little is known regarding the views of patients undertaking it.

AIM
To explore patients' views of self-monitoring blood pressure and self-titration of antihypertensive medication.

DESIGN AND SETTING
Qualitative study embedded within the randomised controlled trial TASMINH2 (Telemonitoirng and Self Management in the Control of Hypertension) trial of patient self-management of hypertension from 24 general practices in the West Midlands.

METHOD
Taped and transcribed semi-structured interviews with 23 intervention patients were used. Six family members were also interviewed. Analysis was by a constant comparative method.

RESULTS
Patients were confident about self-monitoring and many felt their multiple home readings were more valid than single office readings taken by their GP. Although many patients self-titrated medication when required, others lacked the confidence to increase medication without reconsulting with their GP. Patients were more comfortable with titrating medication if their blood pressure readings were substantially above target, but were reluctant to implement such a change if readings were borderline. Many planned to continue self-monitoring after the study finished and report home readings to their GP, but few wished to continue with a self-management plan.

CONCLUSION
Participants valued the additional information and many felt confident in both self-monitoring blood pressure and self-titrating medication. The reluctance to change medication for borderline readings suggests behaviour similar to the clinical inertia seen for physicians in analogous circumstances. Additional support for those lacking in confidence to implement prearranged medication changes may allow more patients to undertake self-management.


The gene, cblA, encoding the species-specific, clavulanate-susceptible, endogenous cephalosporinase was cloned from Bacteroides uniformis WAL-7088. The nucleotide sequence was determined, and the cblA structural gene was found to be 891 nucleotides, with a 48% G+C composition, which is similar to that of the B. uniformis genome. The cblA open reading frame encoded an Ambler class A beta-lactamase polypeptide precursor of 296 amino acid residues with a predicted molecular weight of 33,450. A beta-lactamase-deficient B. uniformis mutant with increased beta-lactam susceptibility was constructed by insertional inactivation of the chromosomal gene. This mutant was complemented by plasmids bearing the cblA gene, and the resulting strains were resistant to cephaloridine and had a beta-lactamase that comigrated with the parental beta-lactamase on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (30,500 Da) and in isoelectric focusing gels (pI 4.6), confirming a role for this beta-lactamase in resistance.


As adaptive clinical
trials (ACTs) receive growing attention and exhibit promising performance in
practical trials during last decade, they also present challenges to drug
supply chain management. As indicated by Burnham et al. (2015), the challenges
include the uncertainty of maximum drug supply needed, the shifting of supply
requirement, and rapid availability of new supply at decision points. To
facilitate drug supply decision making and the development of mathematical analysis
tools, we propose two trial supply chain optimization problems that represent
different mindsets in response to trial adaptations. In the first problem, we
treat the impacts of ACTs as exogenous uncertainties and study important
aspects of trial supply, including drug wastage, resupply policy, trial length,
and costs minimization, via a two-stage stochastic program. In the second
problem, we incorporate the adaptation rules of ACTs with supply chain
management and numerically study the impact of joint optimization on the trial
and drug supply planning through a mixed-integer nonlinear program (MINLP). For
solution approaches to the problems, we use progressive hedging algorithm (PHA)
and particle swarm optimization (PSO) respectively, and take advantages of the
problem structures to enhance the solution efficiency. With case studies, we
see that the proposed models capture the features of ACT drug supply and the
mechanisms of trial conduction well. The solutions not only reflect the impact
of trial adaptations but also provide managerial suggestions, e.g. the
prediction of needed production amount, storage capacity at clinical sites, and
resupply schemes. The joint optimization also suggests a new angle and research
extension in the field of ACT design and supply.


Increasingly adopted by both public and private organizations, Design-build (DB) has become a favored construction project delivery system, outperforming other systems in terms of cost, schedule, and quality. However, DB has been especially criticized by the public sector for practicing subjective evaluation and for providing only limited accessibility to small and medium-sized contractors. In Korea, similar critiques have been raised, as these qualities have prevented public owners from benefiting from the potential advantages of DB. In order to address these challenging issues, the present research systematically analyzes the characteristics of the DB delivery system in Korea. Based on industry surveys and an extensive literature review, a qualitative system dynamics model is developed and used to propose and test hypothetical DB policy alternatives that are expected to enhance DB performance. Furthermore, after the appropriate customization processes, these research findings can also be applied to the industry settings of different countries.


Objective Type 1 and 2 diabetes are characterized by elevated blood glucose levels and increased dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) activity levels in the serum. However, previous studies reported a negative correlation between glucose concentrations and DPP4 levels. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the connection between glucose and DPP4 in adipocytes under physiological and diabetic conditions, because DPP4 is an adipokine. Methods Blood glucose and serum DPP4 levels were measured, and adipocytes were collected from mice under normal, high-fat diet fed, and diabetic conditions. The adipocytes obtained were incubated for 24 hours in medium containing 5.5 or 25 mM glucose, and 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were differentiated under 5.5 or 25 mM glucose. Adipocytes from mice and 3T3-L1 were stimulated by tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) for 24 hours. The levels of released and intracellular DPP4 were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results Mice fed high-fat diet had lower serum DPP4 levels in the first and second week than controls. However, this difference gradually disappeared over 6 weeks. The differentiation of 3T3-L1 adipocytes under 25 mM glucose produced lower DPP4 levels than those differentiated under 5.5 mM; this was also observed in isolated adipocytes from mice. However, these effects of glucose were lost in adipocytes from diabetic mice, and an increase in total DPP4 levels was observed. The stimulation of adipocytes with TNF-α increased the release of DPP4 irrespective of glucose concentration. Conclusion The production of DPP4 in adipocytes was negatively regulated by 25 mM glucose under physiological conditions, but not in diabetic mice. Our results suggest that the observed increase in serum DPP4 levels may be attributed to increased production of DPP4 in adipocytes and an enhancement in TNF-α-induced release.


British policies towards immigration have recently been preoccupied with cultivating a sense of social cohesion among ethnic and cultural groups in the United Kingdom. Such policies highlight the increasing uneasiness of the British state regarding cultural diversity, which is seen as being at odds with solidarity. In this paper we move away from this dichotomy between solidarity and cultural diversity and the pursuit of social cohesion and order to propose that solidarity is not a universal social and cultural condition to be achieved, but a transient part of the process of intergroup understanding. Drawing on Gadamer, we argue that intergroup solidarities are temporary bonds that already exist between groups but need to be brought to consciousness through a 'fusion of horizons'. We look at British people's representations of immigration and the tensions that arise out of their encounters with the perspective of the 'other'. We provide an analysis of the conditions that permeate the process of fusion through a study on social values conducted in London with members of the British public.


abstract Curriculum as a design in education has a strategic position, as all educational activities geared to the curriculum. Basically the curriculum is a system consisting of several components. Curriculum components of an educational institution can be identified by reviewing books education curriculum. In the classical view, the curriculum is seen as a lesson plan in a school or lessons and materials that must be taken at school. Meanwhile, according to the modern view, the curriculum as a lesson plan, regarded as something real happening in the education process in schools. Kata kunci : pengertian kurikulum, fungsi dan tujuan kurikulum, pengertian KBK, tujuan, landasan dan ciri-ciri KBK, pengertian KTSP, tujuan, landasan dan ciri-ciri KTSP, perbedaan KBK dan KTSP.


Asset fixity of inputs is tested under state-contingent production uncertainty. We construct a general dynamic dual model for U.S. agriculture that allows tests for full variability and strict fixity to be performed for each input as well as tests for functional form. We estimate the model using a generalized Box-Cox functional form. Most test results are robust to functional form, but test results of fixity are sensitive for two of four inputs. The generalized Leontief is found to be significantly preferred to the translog and normalized quadratic functional forms for the dynamic model. With this functional form, family labor exhibits strict fixity, while land, capital, and hired labor exhibit quasi-fixity. Production uncertainty has limited impacts on investment decisions for quasi-fixed inputs.


The aim of this study was to determine the relationship of antioxidants profile with endogenous reproductive hormone level across the menstrual cycle. Predicting ovulation is the basis on which the fertile period is determined. Currently there are many methods accessible to identify the ovulatory period. Unfortunately, these methods are not always efficient for accurate detection of ovulation. Hence, an attempt was made to detect ovulation through antioxidant profile with the help of BBT, saliva ferning and ultrasound. Salivary antioxidants were investigated serially during preovulatory, ovulatory and postovulatory periods of normal menstrual cycle in twenty healthy volunteers. The sample was collected in three consecutive menstrual cycles. Salivary antioxidants was estimated and analysis by UV-spectrophotometer. The results revealed higher significant variations in the antioxidant concentration and physiological changes are also essential owing to ovarian hormones during menstrual cycle. Alkaline phopshatase, peroxidase, ascorbic acid and lactate dehydrogenase were maximum during ovulation and minimum during postovulatory phase. Superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase were decrease in phases of menstrual cycle. Among these antioxidants alkaline phopshatase, peroxidase and ascorbic acid were predominantly exhibited during ovulatory phase than pre and post-ovulatory phase. Therefore, we studied the effects of 17 β-oestradiol and progesterone on the antioxidative status and the vulnerability to oxidative stress exhibited during normal menstrual cycle.


Floating-point division is generally regarded as a low frequency, high latency operation in typical floating-point applications. However, in the worst case, a high latency hardware floating-point divider can contribute an additional 0.50 CPI to a system executing SPECfp92 applications. This paper presents the system performance impact of floating-point division latency for varying instruction issue rates. It also examines the performance implications of shared multiplication hardware, shared square root, on-the-fly rounding and conversion, and fused functional units. Using a system level study as a basis, it is shown how typical floating-point applications can guide the designer in making implementation decisions and trade-offs.


What are the learned representations that contribute to object identification? Using letter stimuli in behavioral and fMRI paradigms, we provide evidence for the role of stored "standard" letter shapes and abstract letter identity representations, also identifying their neural substrates within left ventral cortex. The behavioral experiments involved presentation of letter pairs in an unusual novel font; stimuli were 33 letter shapes, including letters that differed in font or case. Participants (n= 90) performed similarity judgments (Experiments 1a/b) and same/different physical identity judgments (Experiments 2a/b). To control for stimulus visual similarity and isolate the contribution of learned representations, stimuli were presented both upright and also rotated (90°ccw, reflected across the vertical axis) to reduce identifiability while maintaining pixel-wise letter similarities across upright/rotated conditions. Pairwise similarity judgments, reaction times and accuracies were correlated with representational similarity matrices representing: pixel-overlap, similarity in a standard font, letter identity (across case/font). The assumption is that matrix correlations greater for the upright than rotated stimuli represent factors not reducible to stimulus similarity. Results revealed: pixel overlap correlations were comparable (r=.65/.63) for upright and rotated stimuli, while matrix correlations for standard shape and letter identity were greater for upright (r=.63; .59) than rotated (r=.34;.30) stimuli. The findings provide evidence for the role of stored standard letter shapes and cross font/case identity in letter identification. In the fMRI experiment, participants (n=11) viewed single upright letters in the novel font and underwent retinotopic mapping. MVPA computed the pairwise similarity of the multivoxel activation patterns which were compared to similarity matrices representing: stimulus similarity (from Experiments 1/2), standard font similarity and letter identity. Results indicated neural representation of: stimulus similarity in bilateral retinotopically defined cortex (V1, V2v, V3v, V4), standard font similarity left lateralized in LO, pF, and the mid fusiform and letter identity in the left mid fusiform. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


ABSTRACT The importance of developing students' ability to argue effectively is generally recognised across the curriculum, however what this means within religious education has not been thoroughly investigated. We explore this issue first through an initial review of both wider philosophical and curriculum literature on argumentation, notably Toulmin's work, and then a review of relevant research within religious education. We then describe our curriculum analysis, addressing three research questions focusing on the frequency, purpose and conceptualisation of argumentation, though a mixed-methods curriculum analysis of locally agreed syllabuses across England (LASs). A quantitative analysis of frequency in thirty-five LASs showed that although argumentation was never mentioned, other cognates were always present. A detailed qualitative analysis of six LASs showed that its purpose was linked to personal expression within democratic participation, and epistemic and empathetic flexibility. Using Toulmin's model of argumentation as a frame, it is generally conceptualised around the elements of claim, evidence and rebuttal, but the precise nature of evidence, warrant and backing are not explicit, especially as the field-dependent elements are unspecified. The implications of these findings for both general conceptualisations of argumentation and curriculum development within religious education are outlined.


Much uncertainty surrounds transmission of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) through blood and blood derived products. A first expert elicitation with 14 experts was conducted in March 2008, and a second re-elicitation involving 11 experts was held a year later in March 2009. Both expert groups were calibrated using a series of seed questions for which values are known, and then were asked to provide their individual judgements on a set of seven target questions for which values are not known or have not been determined through conventional research. Questions dealing with uncertainty of TSE prevalence, genotype effects, susceptibility, and infectivity were answered by the experts. Elicitation can be used to obtain quantitative values for parameters affecting prion uncertainty gaps. We show that the method is amenable to re-elicitation over time allowing refinement of expert opinion as new knowledge becomes available for improved risk assessments where data gaps continue to exist.


Self-attention-based Transformer has demonstrated the state-of-the-art performances in a number of natural language processing tasks. Self attention is able to model long-term dependencies, but it may suffer from the extraction of irrelevant information in the context. To tackle the problem, we propose a novel model called Sparse Transformer. Sparse Transformer is able to improve the concentration of attention on the global context through an explicit selection of the most relevant segments. Extensive experimental results on a series of natural language processing tasks, including neural machine translation, image captioning, and language modeling, all demonstrate the advantages of Sparse Transformer in model performance. Sparse Transformer reaches the state-of-the-art performances in the IWSLT 2015 English-to-Vietnamese translation and IWSLT 2014 German-to-English translation. In addition, we conduct qualitative analysis to account for Sparse Transformer's superior performance.


For nearly half a century the supersolid phase of matter has remained mysterious, not only eluding experimental observation, but also generating a great deal of controversy among theorists. The recent discovery of what is interpreted as a non-classical moment of inertia at low temperature in solid 4He [E. Kim and M.H.W. Chan, Nature 427 225 (2004a); E. Kim and M.H.W. Chan, Science 305 1941 (2004b); E. Kim and M.H.W. Chan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97 115302 (2006); A.C. Clark and M.H.W. Chan, J. Low Temp. Phys. 138 853 (2005)] has elicited much excitement as a possible first observation of a supersolid phase. In the two years following the discovery, however, more puzzles than answers have been provided to the fundamental issue of whether the supersolid phase exists, in helium or any other naturally occurring condensed matter system. Presently, there is no established theoretical framework to understand the body of experimental data on 4He. Different microscopic mechanisms that have been suggested to underlie superfluidity in a perfect quantum crystal do not seem viable for 4He, for which a wealth of experimental and theoretical evidence points to an insulating crystalline ground state. This perspective addresses some of the outstanding problems with the interpretation of recent experimental observations of the apparent superfluid response in 4He (seen now by several groups, e.g. A.S. Rittner and J.D. Reppy 2006; M. Kondo, S. Takada, Y. Shibayama and K. Shirahama, Proceedings of QFS2006, Kyoto, Submitted to J. Low Temp. Phys.; A. Penzyev, Y. Yasuta and M. Kubota, Proceedings of QFS2006, Kyoto, Submitted to J. Low Temp. Phys., cond-mat/0702632.) and discusses various scenarios alternative to the homogeneous supersolid phase, such as superfluidity induced by extended defects of the crystalline structure, including grain boundaries, dislocations and anisotropic stresses. Can a metastable superfluid 'glassy' phase exist, and can it be relevant to some of the experimental observations? One of the most interesting and unsolved fundamental questions is what interatomic potentials, given the freedom to design one, can support an ideal supersolid phase in continuous space, and can they be found in Nature.


The American public responded to the first cases of AIDS with fear and panic. Both policymakers and activists were concerned not only with stopping the spread of the disease, but also with guiding the public's response toward those already infected. Fatal Advice is an examination of how the nation attempted, with mixed results, to negotiate the fears and concerns brought on by the epidemic. A leading writer on the cultural politics of AIDS, Cindy Patton guides us through the thicket of mass-media productions, policy and public health enterprises, and activist projects as they sprang up to meet the challenge of the epidemic, shaping the nation's notion of what safe-sex is and who ought to know what about it.

There is the official story, and then there is another, involving local groups and AIDS activists. Going back to early government and activist attempts to spread information, Patton traces a slow separation between official advice and that provided by those on the front lines in the battle against AIDS. She shows how American anxieties about teen sex played into the nation's inadequate education and protection of its young people, and chronicles the media's attempts to encourage compassion without broaching the touchy subject of sex or disrupting the notion that AIDS was a disease of social and sexual outcasts. Her overview of the relationship between shifting medical perceptions and safe-sex advice reveals why radical safe-sex educators eventually turned to sexually explicit, including pornographic, representations to spread their message—and why even these extreme tactics could not overcome the misguided national teaching on AIDS.

Patton closes with a stirring manifesto, an urgent call to action for all those who do not want to see the hard lessons of AIDS education and activism wasted, or, with these lessons, the loss of so many more lives.


From events at Nuremberg and Tokyo after World War II, to the recent trials of Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein, war crimes trials are an increasingly pervasive feature of the aftermath of conflict. In his new book, Law, War and Crime, Gerry Simpson explores the meaning and effect of such trials, and places them in their broader political and cultural contexts. The book traces the development of the war crimes field from its origins in the outlawing of piracy to its contemporary manifestation in the establishment of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Simpson argues that the field of war crimes is constituted by a number of tensions between, for example, politics and law, local justice and cosmopolitan reckoning, collective guilt and individual responsibility, and between the instinct that war, at worst, is an error and the conviction that war is a crime. Written in the wake of an extraordinary period in the life of the law, the book asks a number of critical questions. What does it mean to talk about war in the language of the criminal law? What are the consequences of seeking to criminalise the conduct of one's enemies? How did this relatively new phenomenon of putting on trial perpetrators of mass atrocity and defeated enemies come into existence? This book seeks to answer these important questions whilst shedding new light on the complex relationship between law, war and crime.


Previous studies of disinflation work with models in which firms use time-dependent strategies, changing nominal prices at intervals of fixed length. These models may be criticized for failing to allow pricing behavior to adjust after a large shift in policy regime. Consequently, this paper develops a model that allows firms to adopt strategies that are partially state-dependent, changing nominal prices whenever they deviate sufficiently from their target values. The paper uses this model to examine how the welfare costs and benefits of disinflation vary with the initial inflation rate and the speed of disinflation.


In carrier-sense-multiple-access/collision-avoidance networks in which stations have different data rates, some stations are penalized because slow stations receive more time to transmit. Thus, a single low data-rate station unfairly brings down the throughput of the high data-rate stations. We introduce a simple and standard-compliant algorithm to fairly utilize the channel. We first provide a formulation for the throughput with mixed data-rate connections. To alleviate the low performance of the high data-rate stations, we introduce a mechanism that implements an adaptive scheme to adjust the packet size according to the data rate. With this scheme, stations occupy the channel for equal amounts of time. We then extend the scheme to a frame-aggregation scheme to show how different packet sizes affect performance.


David Rosenthal, Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music, 1955-1965The importance of geography to jazz and African American musical aesthetics has always been decisive. Musical sounds were somehow representative of specific areas but could adapt to and alter the sounds of other areas. The early New Orleans sounds of Kid Ory and King Oliver, for example, led to the exportation of that style to New York via Louis Armstrong in 1924. Again in the early 1950s the development of distinctly "California" sounds crystallized into cool jazz (after Miles Davis' 1949 "Birth of the Cool" session with several West Coast players), and shortly thereafter a flesh jazz style emerged with a renewed boppish vigor, mostly in New York. David Rosenthal's Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music, 1955-1965 chronicles this development in New York-based African American jazz aesthetics. What Dizzy Gillespie sparingly refers to in his autobiography as the "...more earthy, crunchy sound" of hard bop is intimately connected, Rosenthal argues, "to soul music, rhythm and blues, and other popular African American musical idioms...by accretion rather than rupture."Rosenthal's book moves at times like an encyclopedia through a pantheon of players divided into four general groups, "the borderline between jazz and the popular black tradition" (Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderley, organist Jimmy Smith); those "more tormented" (Jackie McLean, Tina Brooks, Mal Waldron, Elmo Hope); those "of a gentler, more lyrical bent who found in hard bop a more congenial climate than bebop had offered" (Benny Golson, Gigi Gryce, Art Farmer, Tommy Flannagan, Hank Jones); and those "Experimentalists consciously trying jazz's structural and technical boundaries" (Monk, Mingus, Andrew Hill, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane). Each contingency came together in New York and recorded mostly for the two major New York labels releasing hard bop recordings, Prestige and Blue Note.Rosenthal's study marks the fact that no in-depth study of many of these players or of the New York mainstream jazz scene during 1955-1956 exists. This reviewer finds his musicological discussions often reductive and too focused on adjective -laden descriptions of specific representative tunes at the expense of historical contextualization, which is often hinted at but rarely accomplished.While Rosenthal manages a fairly thorough exploration of heroin addiction and the early deaths of scores of these players, he has trouble doing anything more than mentioning albums, tunes, and players' untimely deaths. Pianists Wynton Kelly (1931-1971), Elmo Hope (1923-1967, and Sonny Clark (1931-1963), none of whom reached forty-one, have rarely seen the light of book pages and mention of them are welcome here, despite my misgivings about Rosenthal's too-brief discussions of them.To establish a context outside the players' individual lives, Rosenthal discusses urban New York with a paucity of historical sources but with his eye carefully trained on the city as a vague geography for aesthetics. His section "Jazz in the Ghetto," seeks to reveal how hard bop reached for and incorporated the expressive qualities of African American popular traditions like blues and gospel into the more elaborate and complex bebop of the forties and on. The importance of the bar or night club is presented here via the newly pervasive jukebox and the sale of jazz singles by New York jazz labels. Rosenthal says, "Blue Note and Prestige each issued approximately three hundred 45 rpm singles between 1955 and 1970." Average sales for these singles (mostly "ballards and groove numbers") was around 3000 for jukeboxes and 1000 for individuals. …


Determination of instrumentation for interplanetary science missions is an involved, complex procedure. A final design solution is achieved at the end of this often lengthy process. The analysis methodology presented here investigates mission requirements and generates a mission sensor package using design engineering relations. Given the broad science goals for an interplanetary science mission, the specific scientific measurements required can be determined. From the measurements the required specifications flow down, leading to an overall mission design. The mission design drives the instrumentation requirements and influences the selection of components for the mission. Components are chosen to meet mission requirements, creating an initial sensor package design. Trade studies are performed at component levels. Designs iterate on initial concepts and options are evaluated until a final design is determined. A tool for in-situ measurements is developed using systems engineering design relations to deliver a sensor payload configuration starting from the initial mission concept and the specific measurement objectives. Design of the sensor payload package for any mission is a combination of different aspects. The final design is a result of individual case studies at the component level and design engineering studies at a system level. Human decision elements are included in the design process, and final selection between competing components is made. The decision to use one flight hardware component over another can arise from many factors – functionality, heritage, Technology Readiness Level (TRL), compatibility, etc. The objective of this work is to combine selection techniques for mission hardware, based on optimization studies with engineering judgment, into a single tool that can be used to generate a preliminary sensor package configuration for planetary missions. A tool for in-situ measurements is developed using systems engineering design relations to deliver a sensor payload configuration starting from the initial mission objectives and the specific measurement types. The In–Situ Sensor Payload Optimization Tool (ISSPO) consists of a number of individual sensor modules, based on commercially available and space-rated components, and programs to determine the required components. Information on the desired mission location and types of science data to be returned, along with payload limits, are entered into the main program. For each sensor type available within the database, a corresponding module is executed and supplied information on the planetary location and additional sensor requirements. Selection of the final sensor is made based on operational ranges and required performance limits. Logic checks determine whether the sensor package meets or exceeds the mission limits, or if another combination of components would provide a viable solution with some requirement tradeoff. The resulting sensor package represents a preliminary sensor package capable of answering the mission's science requirements.


Recent experimental studies [I. R. Titze et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 97, 3080–3083 (1995); R. W. Chan et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 99, 2471(A) (1996)] have shown the existence of optimal values of the glottal width and convergence angle for ease of phonation, at which the phonation threshold pressure is minimum, not predicted by the previous theory [I. R. Titze, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 83, 1536–1552 (1988); J. C. Lucero, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 98, 779–784 (1995)]. This phenomena is analytically investigated using low‐dimensional dynamical models of the vocal folds. The threshold pressure is determined through numerical techniques, linearizing first the equations of motion about the equilibrium position and calculating next the value of lung pressure for instability. The results agree with the experimental evidence, showing that the threshold pressure is minimum when the vocal folds are slightly separated and the glottis is rectangular. The minimum occurs as a consequence of large viscous losses at small glottal w...


Abstract:This article explores the functions that food, as a narrative trope, has played in the characterization and storytelling of three prominent martial arts novels in late imperial China: Shuihu zhuan 水滸傳 (Water Margin), Sanxia wuyi 三俠五義 (Three Gallant Men and Five Loyal Brothers), and Ernü yingxiong zhuan 兒女英雄傳 (ATale of Lovers and Heroes). The detailed and individualized descriptions of the heroes' eating and drinking add depth and complexity to the characters and justify plot development. Meanwhile, the narrative functions of the food descriptions in these three novels elucidate the distinct challenges for the martial arts novel in character portrayal and narrative focus.


Background: HER-2 is the target for antibody-based treatment of breast cancer (trastuzumab), which is highly successful in both advanced disease and the adjuvant setting. HER-2 can be analysed by fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) for gene amplification or immunohistochemistry (IHC) for protein overexpression. Aim: As both methods are known to be influenced by previous tissue processing, to analyse the applicability of both FISH and IHC to decalcified bone metastases of breast cancer. Methods: A tissue microarray (TMA) was constructed from 149 breast cancer bone metastases. Consecutive TMA sections were analysed by FISH (PathVysion) and IHC (HercepTest). Results: FISH analysis was interpretable in 113 (85.0%) cases. Amplification was seen in 14 (12.4%) interpretable metastases. HER-2 positivity on IHC analysis was 3+ in 9.8% of cases and 2+ in 11.3%. A comparison of the two techniques revealed high concordance. Of the 14 cases of amplification, 10 (71%) showed 3+ IHC staining, two (14%) showed 2+, one (7%) showed 1+, and one (7%) showed 0+. Three of the four amplified cases that did not show 3+ IHC staining had an equivocal FISH result, with a HER-2/centromere 17 ratio of 1.8–2.2. Of the 13 cases that showed IHC 3+ staining, amplification was present in 10 (77%). Conclusions: HER-2 FISH analysis has an excellent success rate in highly standardised EDTA-decalcified bone metastases, suggesting that this method is easily applicable to decalcified tissues. The high concordance between IHC and FISH suggests that HER-2 IHC may be equally applicable to EDTA-treated tissues as to the usual formalin-fixed tissues.


We provide a computationally efficient black-box reduction from mechanism design to algorithm design in very general settings. Specifically, we give an approximation-preserving reduction from truthfully maximizing any objective under arbitrary feasibility constraints with arbitrary bidder types to (not necessarily truthfully) maximizing the same objective plus virtual welfare (under the same feasibility constraints). Our reduction is based on a fundamentally new approach: we describe a mechanism's behavior indirectly only in terms of the expected value it awards bidders for certain behavior, and never directly access the allocation rule at all. Applying our new approach to revenue, we exhibit settings where our reduction holds both ways. That is, we also provide an approximation-sensitive reduction from (non-truthfully) maximizing virtual welfare to (truthfully) maximizing revenue, and therefore the two problems are computationally equivalent. With this equivalence in hand, we show that both problems are NP-hard to approximate within any polynomial factor, even for a single monotone sub modular bidder. We further demonstrate the applicability of our reduction by providing a truthful mechanism maximizing fractional max-min fairness.


The goal of gene therapy is either to introduce a therapeutic gene into or replace a defective gene in an individual's cells and tissues. Gene therapy has been urged as a potential method to induce therapeutic angiogenesis in ischemic myocardium and peripheral tissues after extensive investigation in recent preclinical and clinical studies. A successful gene therapy mainly relies on the development of the gene delivery vector. Developments in viral and nonviral vector technology including cell-based gene transfer will further improve transgene delivery and expression efficiency. Nonviral approaches as alternative gene delivery vehicles to viral vectors have received significant attention. Recently, a simple and safe approach of gene delivery into target cells using naked DNA has been improved by combining several techniques. Among the physical approaches, ultrasonic microbubble gene delivery, with its high safety profile, low costs, and repeatable applicability, can increase the permeability of cell membrane to macromolecules such as plasmid DNA by its bioeffects and can provide as a feasible tool in gene delivery. On the other hand, among the promising areas for gene therapy in acquired diseases, ischemic cardiovascular diseases have been widely studied. As a result, gene therapy using advanced technology may play an important role in this regard. The aims of this review focus on understanding the cellular and in vivo barriers in gene transfer and provide an overview of currently used chemical vectors and physical tools that are applied in nonviral cardiovascular gene transfer.


Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgments. 1: Optical Networking Fundamentals. 1.1 Fiber Optics: A Brief History in Time. 1.2 Distributed IP Routing. 1.3 Scalable Communications: Integrated Optical Networks. 1.4 Lightpath Establishment and Protection in Optical Networks. 1.5 Optical Network Design Using Computational Intelligence Techniques. 1.6 Distributed Optical Frame Synchronized Ring (doFSR). 1.7 Summary and Conclusions. 2: Types of Optical Networking Technology. 2.1 Use of Digital Signal Processing. 2.2 Optical Signal Processing for Optical Packet Switching Networks. 2.3 Next-Generation Optical Networks as a Value Creation Platform. 2.4 Optical Network Research in the IST Program. 2.5 Optical Networking in Optical Computing. 2.6 Summary and Conclusions. 3: Optical Transmitters. 3.1 Long-Wavelength VCSELs. 3.2 Multiwavelength Lasers. 3.3 Summary and Conclusions. 4: Types of Optical Fiber. 4.1 Strands and Processes of Fiber Optics. 4.2 The Fiber-Optic Cable Modes. 4.3 Optical Fiber Types. 4.4 Types of Cable Families. 4.5 Extending Performance. 4.6 Care, Productivity, and Choices. 4.7 Understanding Types of Optical Fiber. 4.8 Summary and Conclusions. 5: Carriers' Networks. 5.1 The Carriers' Photonic Future. 5.2 Carriers' Optical Networking Revolution. 5.3 Flexible Metro Optical Networks. 5.4 Summary and Conclusions. 6: Passive Optical Components. 6.1 Optical Material Systems. 6.2 Summary and Conclusions. 7: Free-Space Optics. 7.1 Free-Space Optical Communication. 7.2 Corner-Cube Retroreflectors. 7.3 Free-Space Heterochronous Imaging Reception. 7.4 Secure Free-Space Optical Communication. 7.5 The Minimization of Acquisition Time. 7.6 Summary and Conclusions. 8: Optical Formats: Synchronous Optical Network (SONET)/ Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), and Gigabit Ethernet. 8.1 Synchronous Optical Network. 8.2 Synchronous Digital Hierarchy. 8.3 Gigabit Ethernet. 8.4 Summary and Conclusions. 9: Wave Division Multiplexing. 9.1 Who Uses WDM? 9.2 Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexed Backbone Deployment. 9.3 IP-Optical Integration. 9.4 QoS Mechanisms. 9.5 Optical Access Network. 9.6 Multiple-Wavelength Sources. 9.7 Summary and Conclusions. 10: Basics of Optical Switching. 10.1 Optical Switches. 10.2 Motivation and Network Architectures. 10.3 Rapid Advances in Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing Technology. 10.4 Switched Optical Backbone. 10.5 Optical MEMS. 10.6 Multistage Switching System. 10.7 Dynamic Multilayer Routing Schemes. 10.8 Summary and Conclusions. 11: Optical Packet Switching. 11.1 Design for Optical Networks. 11.2 Multistage Approaches to OPS: Node Architectures for OPS. 11.3 Summary and Conclusions. 12: Optical Network Configurations. 12.1 Optical Networking Configuration Flow-Through Provisioning. 12.2 Flow-Through Provisioning at Element Management Layer. 12.3 Flow-Through Circuit Provisioning in the Same Optical Network Domain. 12.4 Flow-Through Circuit Provisioning in Multiple Optical Network Domain. 12.5 Benefits of Flow-Through Provisioning. 12.6 Testing and Measuring Optical Networks. 12.7 Summary and Conclusions. 13: Developing Areas in Optical Networking. 13.1 Optical Wireless Networking High-Speed Integrated Transceivers. 13.2 Wavelength-Switching Subsystems. 13.3 Optical Storage Area Networks. 13.4 Optical Contacting. 13.5 Optical Automotive Systems. 13.6 Optical Computing. 13.7 Summary and Conclusions. 14: Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations. 14.1 Summary. 14.2 Conclusion. 14.3 Recommendations. Appendix: Optical Ethernet Enterprise Case Study. A.1 Customer Profile. A.2 Present Mode of Operation. A.3 Future Mode of Operation. A.4 Comparing the Alternatives. A.5 Summary and Conclusions. Glossary. Index.


There is a high level of interest in pedestrian detection systems based on worldwide acknowledgement of pedestrian safety, and the need for research in this area is increasing. The HoG based pedestrian detection method proposed by Dalal and Triggs has been recognized as being less sensitive to the clothing and poses of pedestrians and also changes in lighting and is therefore one of the main methods used for pedestrian detection. But because the HoG based method requires a significant amount of computations, it is difficult to implement this method in real-time. Therefore, this paper calculates the histogram of only needed cells to suggest HoG based on Quarter Cell, which has shortened the calculating process and it turns out that there is no significant difference in detectability factor whereas the time spent to get the results has decreased.


Incorporation of Satellite Observations into Texas Ozone Attainment Modeling by Wei Tang Uncertain photolysis rates and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission inventories impair the accuracy of ozone (O3) regulatory modeling. Satellite-observed clouds have been used to correct model-predicted photolysis rates, and satellite-constrained top-down NOx emissions have been used to identify and reduce uncertainties in bottom-up NOx emissions. However, studies on using multiple satellite-derived model inputs to improve O3 State Implementation Plan (SIP) modeling are rare. In this thesis, observations of clouds from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) and of NO2 from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) are used to adjust the inputs to SIP modeling of O3 in Texas. The discrete Kalman filter (DKF) inversion approach is successfully applied with decoupled direct method (DDM) sensitivities in the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with extensions (CAMx) model to adjust Texas NOx emissions in designated emission regions and categories to better match OMI NO2 data. The NO2 vertical column densities (VCD) difference between OMI and CAMx over rural areas is alleviated by adding missing lightning and aviation and underestimated soil NOx emissions to the base regulatory emission inventory and further reduced by increasing modeled NOx lifetime and adding an artificial NO2 layer in the upper troposphere. The region-based DKF inversion using OMI NO2 tends to scale up NOx emissions in most regions, which conflicts with the inversion results using ground NO2 measurements and fails to improve the ground-level O3 simulations. The sector-based DKF inversion using OMI NO2 suggests scaling down area and non-road NOx emissions by 50%, leading to approximately 2-5ppb decrease in ground 8-h O3 concentrations, and improving both hourly ground-level NO2 and O3 simulations by reducing biases by 0.25 and 0.04 and errors by 0.13 and 0.04, respectively. Finally, using both GOES-derived photolysis rates and OMI-constrained NOx emissions reduces modeled bias and error by 0.05, and increases the model correlations in simulating ground O3 measurements and makes O3 more sensitive to NOx emissions in the O3 nonattainment areas.


Recently, the federal circuit courts of appeal have divided in addressing to what extent either Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects those who complain about racial or gender discrimination from retaliation by their employers or schools. Neither Title VI nor Title IX explicitly prohibits retaliation by recipients. However, various federal agencies have issued specific Title VI or IX regulations that explicitly prohibit retaliation by recipients. Title IX "was modeled after Title VI . . ., which is parallel to Title IX except that it prohibits race discrimination, not sex discrimination, and applies in all programs receiving federal funds, not only in education programs." Because of the similarities between these two statutes, federal courts have often examined them together when interpreting the meaning of each. In 2003, in Peters v. Jenney, the Fourth Circuit held that Title VI's prohibition against racial discrimination includes a right of action against "retaliation." In light of the Supreme Court's holding in Alexander v. Sandoval that Congress intended Title VI to prohibit only intentional discrimination, the Peters decision recognized a private cause of action only for those who allege that a recipient retaliated against them for complaining about intentional discrimination. Any person who is the victim of retaliation may file suit, not just minorities who are the victims of discrimination. By contrast, in Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Educ., the Eleventh Circuit in 2002 rejected any private right of action against retaliation because the text of Section 901 of Title IX does not explicitly provide for such a private cause of action for retaliation. Assuming arguendo that a private right of action existed to sue recipients for retaliation, the Eleventh Circuit observed that it would limit any such right to plaintiffs who are the victims of gender discrimination and would not allow those who merely allege that others have suffered gender discrimination, such as the male plaintiff in that case, to pursue a retaliation claim. The Jackson court followed dicta in Sandoval suggesting that only express statutory language may establish a private right of action. However, to the extent that the Sandoval decision suggested in dicta that rights of action must be express, its reasoning is contrary to the Court's prior precedent and its own reasoning. The Sandoval decision itself acknowledged that "regulations applying Section 601's ban on intentional discrimination are covered by the cause of action to enforce that section." The Supreme Court granted certiorari in Jackson and the case was argued before the Court on November 30, 2004. This Article argues that both Title VI and Title IX implicitly authorize plaintiffs to file retaliation claims against recipients of federal funds. Since its 1969 decision in Sullivan v. Little Hunting Park, Inc., the Supreme Court has consistently recognized retaliation claims as vindicating the central anti-discrimination principles of comparable civil rights statutes, and, therefore, such suits are permissible even after Sandoval. Retaliation claims are rooted in both Title VI and Title IX's central purpose of prohibiting intentional discrimination. Additionally, following the Chevron doctrine, the Fourth Circuit in Peters appropriately deferred to agency regulations interpreting Title VI and Title IX to prohibit retaliation. Although holding that Title VI regulations could not authorize a private right of action to enforce regulations prohibiting disparate impacts, the Sandoval Court recognized that these agency regulations were effective to the extent they vindicated Title VI's core prohibition against intentional discrimination. Thus, courts may conclude that Title VI and IX implicitly allow plaintiffs to bring retaliation claims if their employer or school retaliates against them for complaining about intentional racial or gender discrimination because such suits are strongly consistent with the statutes's primary purpose of prohibiting recipients from engaging in intentional discrimination.


Despite regular acknowledgment of the interconnectedness of global ecosystems, government policies at the national level focuses on environmental problems within their borders. As a result, the level of public and private resources expended on environmental protection in rich and poor countries is dramatically different on both a per capita and an absolute basis. While this outcome is readily explained by the politics of environmental issues, in which voters reward governments for domestic expenditures but are skeptical of expenditures outside the jurisdiction, these differences mean that the total amount of environmental quality purchased across nations is lower than it could be. It means that some nations are purchasing small, expensive increments in environmental quality while large, low-cost increments in other jurisdictions are not purchased. By applying the principles of marginal analysis from economics, this article demonstrates that this produces both less total environmental quality and treats residents of rich and poor countries different in a morally unacceptable way. The authors propose that governments provide more transparent cost and benefit information to allow public discussion of such differential treatment and to encourage environmental gains from wherever most efficiently achievable.


Image registration is essential for geospatial information systems analysis, which usually involves integrating multi-temporal and multispectral datasets from remote optical and radar sensors. An algorithm that deals with feature extraction, keypoint matching, outlier detection, and image warping is experimented in this study. The methods currently available in the literature rely on techniques, such as the scale-invariant feature transform, between-edge cost minimization, normalized cross correlation, least-squares image matching, random sample consensus, iterated data snooping, and thin-plate splines. Their basics are highlighted and encoded into a computer program. The test images are excerpts from digital files created by the multispectral SPOT-5 and Formosat-2 sensors, side-looking ERS-2, and Envisat synthetic aperture radars, and by the panchromatic Ikonos and QuickBird sensors. Suburban areas, housing rooftops, the countryside and hilly plantations are studied. The co-registered images are displayed with block sub-images in a criss-cross pattern. Besides the imagery, the registration accuracy is expressed by the root mean square error. Toward the end, this paper also includes a few opinions on issues that are believed to hinder a correct correspondence between diverse images.


From a theory developed on a quasi-one-dimensional-flow basis, it is found that the stability of the ram jet is dependent upon the instantaneous values of mass flow and total pressure recovery of the supersonic diffuser and immediate neighboring subsonic diffuser. Conditions for stable and unstable flow are presented. The theory developed in the report is in agreement with the experimental data of NACA-TN-3506 and NACA-RM-L50K30. A simple theory for predicting the approximate amplitude of small pressure pulsation in terms of mass-flow decrement from minimum-stable mass flow is developed and found to agree with experiments. Cold-flow tests at a Mach number of 1.94 of ram-jet models having scale factors of 3.15:1 and Reynolds number ratios of 4.75:1 with several supersonic diffuser configurations showed only small variations in performance between geometrically similar models. The predominant variation in steady-flow performance resulted from the larger boundary layer in the combustion chamber of the low Reynolds number models. The conditions at which buzz originated were nearly the same for the same supersonic diffuser (cowling-position angle) configurations in both large and small diameter models. There was no appreciable variation in stability limits of any of the models when the combustion-chamber length was increased by a factor of three. The unsteady-flow performance and wave patterns were also similar when considered on a reduced-frequency basis determined from the relative lengths of the model. The negligible effect of Reynolds number on stability of the off-design configurations was not anticipated in view of the importance of boundary layer to stability, and this result should not be construed to be generally applicable. (author).


Phytoplankton experience strong and abrupt variations in light intensity. How cells cope with these changes influences their competitiveness in a highly dynamical environment. While a considerable amount of work has focused on photoacclimation, it is still unknown whether processes specific of phytoplankton groups (e.g. calcification and silicification) influence their response to changing light. Here we show that the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum and the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi respond to an abrupt increase in irradiance by increasing carbon fixation rates, decreasing light absorption through the decrease of light-harvesting pigments and increasing energy dissipation through the xanthophyll cycle. In addition, E. huxleyi rapidly increases calcium carbonate precipitation in response to elevated light intensity, thereby providing an additional sink for excess energy. Differences between the 2 species also emerge with regard to the magnitude and timing of their individual responses. While E. huxleyi show a pronounced decrease in chlorophyll a and fucoxanthin cellular contents following increased light intensity, P. tricornutum has a faster increase in diadinoxanthin quota, a slower decrease in Fv/Fm (ratio of variable to maximum fluorescence) and a stronger increase in organic carbon fixation rate during the first 10 min. Our findings provide further evidence of species-specific responses to abrupt changes in light intensity, which may partly depend on the phytoplankton functional groups, with coccolithophores having a supplementary path (calcification) for the rapid dissipation of excess energy produced after an abrupt increase in light intensity. These differences might influence competition between coexisting species and may therefore have consequences at the community level.


This important new contribution to studies on authorship and film explores the ways in which shared and disputed opinions on aesthetic quality, originality and authorial essence have shaped receptions of Lynch's films. It is also the first book to approach David Lynch as a figure composed through language, history and text. Tracing the development of Lynch's career from cult obscurity with Eraserhead, to star auteur through the release of Blue Velvet, and TV phenomenon Twin Peaks, Antony Todd examines how his idiosyncratic style introduced the term 'Lynchian' to the colloquial speech of new Hollywood and helped establish Lynch as the leading light among contemporary American auteurs. Todd explores contemporary manners and attitudes for artistic reputation building, and the standards by which Lynch's reputation was dismantled following the release of Wild at Heart and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, only to be reassembled once more through films such as Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr. and INLAND EMPIRE. In its account of the experiences at play in the encounter between ephemera, text and reader, this book reveals how authors function for pleasure in the modern filmgoer's everyday consumption of films.


Several methods are proposed to estimate null values in relational database systems. Often the estimated accuracy of the existing methods is not good enough. In this paper, we present an improving method to generate weighted fuzzy rules from relational database systems for estimating null values using Genetic Simulated Annealing (GSA), where the attributes appearing in the antecedent part of generated fuzzy rules have different weights. After a predefined number of evolutions of the GSA, the best chromosome contains the optimal weights of the attributes, and they can be translated into a set of rules to be used for estimating null values. The improving method can get a higher average estimated accuracy rate than the existing method (i.e., using Genetic Algorithms). The only constraint of GSA is time. It takes longer time comparing with Genetic Algorithms (GA). We also modified the Equation for the better result comparing with the existing method.


In a number of water alcohols solutions the surface tension is an increasing function of temperature. Such mixtures are generally referred as self-rewetting fluids because convection driven by a reverse Marangoni effect is direct from cold to hot region along liquid-vapour interface. Within two phase heat transfer device, like heat pipes, liquid condensed is spontaneously driven to the hot evaporator improving the thermal performances and increasing the maximum heat flux. The research activities focused on numerical simulation and experimental laboratory for thermal characterization of heat pipe filled with self-rewetting fluids. Measurements of thermo-physical properties, in particular surface tension, have been carried out for several binary and ternary mixtures. A comparison between heat pipe filled ordinary and self-rewetting fluids has been carried out. Flow visualization of self-rewetting fluids has been obtained using optical diagnostic systems.


Greening Pakistan's industry has become an imperative to minimize its adverse impacts on the environment and society, but also to sustain the sector's growth. Despite substantial growth in recent decades, the industrial sector is yet to make its full contribution to Pakistan's development. Limited consideration of the growing resource use, waste, and pollution that have accompanied industrialization has imposed mounting economic, environmental, and social costs. This is particularly true in large urban centers around which industries agglomerate, such as Lahore and Karachi. At the same time, poor environmental management has become a liability for Pakistan's industries, which notably undermines the competitiveness of export-oriented manufacturing sectors. The challenges posed by industries' lack of environmental sustainability jeopardize Pakistan's development and are expected to worsen under a business-as-usual scenario. The Government of Punjab (GoPunjab) should put sustainable industrialization at the center of its growth strategy and should modernize its policy toolkit for this purpose. Punjab's Growth Strategy 2018 envisioned that growth must be private sector-led, investment-driven, export-oriented, environmentally sound, and employment-intensive. Developing an ambitious and integrated policy to green industries would be a strategic way to jointly achieve these objectives, and in so doing, Punjab could become a lighthouse for the rest of Pakistan. This would require both strengthening environmental policy (stick) and developing elements of a green industrial policy looking at investment, innovation, and trade (carrot). Importantly, policy objectives should go beyond the current focus on pollution control and compliance, to include preventive and circular approaches at the firm and industry levels that could yield environmental and productivity/competitiveness gains. The time has come to integrate these approaches in strategies and regulations, and to institutionalize and mainstream them across relevant government agencies.


: An increasing number of cities are recognising the impacts of climate change on their development pathways. In this paper, we assess strategic climate adaptation actions in the cities of Durban (South Africa), Indore (India), and Medellin (Colombia), and examine different approaches to integrating emerging adaptation priorities into urban plans, programmes, or governance arrangements. We highlight sources of planning tension – particularly between aspects of the planning process and larger urban political economic forces – that reshape how subsequent adaptation interventions are framed and implemented. We find that when advanced with a focus on alignment with development, strategic actions that transcend individual actor or sectoral interests have a better chance at taking root. However, we note that a procedural focus in strategic urbanism must also be accompanied by an integrated assessment of planning outcomes in order to ensure more equitable and inclusive development in cities. Although strategic approaches may facilitate coherent policy framings, targeted actor coalitions, and opportunities for collaborative action, such approaches are often unable to adequately capture the difficult policy trade-offs or contestations that are required to further overall adaptive capacities of cities. In other words, strategic adaptation actions must be considered in relation to the powerful, and often entrenched, political economic interests that constrain urban equity at-large.


The development of a food allergy depends on several factors,
including genetic factors and early exposure to allergy-causing proteins
in the diet, food protein uptake and handling, and the development
of tolerance. Chicken eggs, cow's milk (including all dairy products),
peanuts, fish, nuts, wheat and soya are foods that are most likely to
cause an allergic reaction in infancy and childhood. Avoidance of
allergenic foods is a possible mechanism for prevention.
 The critical stage at which the allergy-causing food should be avoided
however, is still very much debated, is it with the mother during
pregnancy or during lactation or with the infant, during weaning or when breast milk does no longer satisfy the infant?


The type specimens (male and female "Cotypi") of Geophilus armatus Silvestri, 1895 (here designated as lectotype and paralectotype respectively), and the lectotype and paralectotypes of Geophilus tenebrosus Meinert, 1886 [currently Plateurytion tenebrosus (Meinert, 1886)] were compared morphologically, and all specimens are considered conspecific. Consequently, G. armatus is here designated as a new junior synonym of P. tenebrosus. A redescription of the species is given, based on the study of numerous additional specimens from Argentina and a few from Uruguay, including new data on morphological characters and their intraspecific variation, as well as new distributional records which expand significantly our knowledge of the geographical range of the species. Plateurytion mauryi n. sp. (Chilopoda: Geophilomorpha: Geophilidae) is here described and illustrated from a single female specimen collected in Argentina (Mendoza province: Las Heras departement: Puente del Inca) at ca. 2933 m a.s.l., in the eastern slope of the Andes (within the Altoandina biogeographic province). The new species is characterized by having the coxal organs grouped in clusters (two in each coxopleuron of the last leg-bearing segment), this character being shared by two other Neotropical species of the genus, i.e., P. lethifer (Crabill, 1968) and P. yungarun (Pereira, 2005), from the Yungas of Peru and Argentina respectively, to which it seems to be closely related and with which it is accordingly compared in detail. New diagnoses for these latter species are also given.


BlackRock's recent public letters to the CEOs of the companies in which it invests have drawn substantial attention from stock market actors and observers for their conspicuous call on corporate CEOs to focus on sustainability and social impacts on non-shareholder stakeholders. This Article explores the market changes that propelled BlackRock into a position to make such a call, and whether institutional shareholders can be effective monitors of these broad social goals. It argues that while corporate attention to non-shareholder stakeholders can improve firm value, shareholder oversight of these stakeholder relationships will not succeed in having this effect.

In the past several decades, U.S. institutional shareholders have come to exert significant influence over corporate managers. In the wake of this shift, concerns have arisen about how shareholders are using their power to influence corporate managers. Described herein as "managerial fixation" on shareholders, these discussions raise concerns about negative stakeholder impacts and a loss of firm value.

The team production theory of corporate law explains why, when shareholders are disproportionately influential, other stakeholders' interests will be neglected to the detriment of corporate value. This theory leaves open the question of why shareholders cannot simply use their influence to remedy the problem. This Article fills that gap.

Even when shareholders are financially incentivized to use their power to promote the interests of other stakeholders, they will lack the information about stakeholder relationships necessary to do so effectively. This asymmetry of information means that shareholders cannot incorporate stakeholder information into their assessment of firm value, so managing to shareholder expectations will not maximize the value created by stakeholder relationships. Thus, a solution to managerial fixation must entail reducing shareholders' proportional influence over managerial decision-making vis-a-vis the corporation's other stakeholders. This Article concludes by offering two proposals for governance mechanisms that would encourage this reallocation of managerial attention.


There is a critical need for population-based prospective cohort studies because they follow individuals before the onset of disease, allowing for studies that can identify biomarkers and disease-modifying effects and thereby contributing to systems epidemiology. This paper describes the design and baseline characteristics of an intensively examined subpopulation of the LifeLines cohort in the Netherlands. For this unique sub-cohort, LifeLines DEEP, additional blood (n=1387), exhaled air (n=1425), fecal samples (n=1248) and gastrointestinal health questionnaires (n=1176) were collected for analysis of the genome, epigenome, transcriptome, microbiome, metabolome and other biological levels. Here, we provide an overview of the different data layers in LifeLines DEEP and present baseline characteristics of the study population including food intake and quality of life. We also describe how the LifeLines DEEP cohort allows for the detailed investigation of genetic, genomic and metabolic variation on a wealth of phenotypic outcomes. Finally, we examine the determinants of gastrointestinal health, an area of particular interest to us that can be addressed by LifeLines DEEP.


Aim/Purpose: A review of a UK Schools Counsellors attitudes to school-based online counselling (Hennigan & Goss, 2015) provided impetus for the current study, which sought to understand i) Pupil usage of online counselling provision (as an adjunct to f2f provision) from September 2016-July 2017 ii) Differences in CORE-10 and Goals Based outcomes for pupils using f2f only, online only or a blend of both iii) Pupil's thoughts about offering choice of f2f, online or blended counselling.

Design/Methodology: A pluralist, mixed methods approach utilised a variety of quantative analyses and a qualitative thematic analysis of post counselling interviews with pupils who had experienced either f2f or online counselling.

Results/Findings: Of 68 pupils (7.6% of total pupil cohort) using the service, 52 (76%) chose to work f2f only and 16 (24%) chose online counselling (12 blended with f2f and 4 online only). Results suggest that those who received online counselling had a slightly a higher mean average first CORE-10 score and made slightly more improvement. Thematic analysis of post counselling pupil interviews revealed three main themes: 'Convenience', 'Connection' and 'Confidentiality'. Perceived concerns that pupils had about online school-based counselling e.g. quality of relationship, confidentiality online, miscommunication and lack of visual cues, are comparable to some concerns that UK secondary school counsellors had in 2014 (Hennigan & Goss, 2015) and are potentially based upon lack of exposure to relevant information.

Research Limitations: The relatively small sample size and school type selected for the study limit reliability and generalisability. Future research could address these through a larger group of participants and different types of schools.

Conclusions/Implications (including practice implications): This study suggests that pupils want the convenience and flexibility of having a school-based counselling service that is both online and offline and create strong enough connections with their counsellor to make roughly equivalent progress in both mediums. Clarity around confidentiality online may encourage more pupils to access counselling this way, as well as continued exposure to what is for many, still a new and potentially risky venture.


In 1500, Europe was composed of hundreds of statelets and principalities, with weak central authority, no monopoly over the legitimate use of violence, and multiple, overlapping levels of jurisdiction. By 1800, Europe had consolidated into a handful of powerful, centralized nation states. We build a model that simultaneously explains both the emergence of capable states and growing divergence between European powers. In our model, the impact of war on the European state system depends on: i) the importance of money for determining the war outcome (which stands for the cost of war), and ii) a country's initial level of domestic political fragmentation. We emphasize the role of the 'Military Revolution', which raised the cost of war. Initially, this caused more internally cohesive states to invest more in state capacity, while other (more divided) states rationally dropped out of the competition. This mechanism leads to both increasing divergence between European states, and greater average investments in state building on the continent overall.


Automated driving will provide many kinds of benefits - some direct and some indirect. The benefits originate at the individual level, from changes in the behaviour of drivers and travellers with regard to driving and mobility, ending up with benefits at the social level via changes in the whole transport system and society, where many of the current planning and operations paradigms are likely to be transformed by automated driving. There may also be disbenefits, particularly at a social level, for example in intensity of travel which could result in additional congestion and increased use of natural resources. There may also be unintended consequences. For example, we do not know the impacts on public transport: driverless vehicles could provide a means to a lower cost service provision, but the availability of automated cars could lead to more car travel at the expense of collective transport.


In Intelligent Design, Christopher Buccafusco, Mark A. Lemley, and Jonathan S. Masur make a compelling case against the United States' current full-cumulation approach to design protection, which allows designers to obtain protection for a qualifying design under copyright, trademark, and design patent law all at the same time and without any requirement of election. They also argue that design rights, including design patents, "have become too powerful" and suggest several "policy changes designed to bring design rights more in line with social welfare."

But while Buccafusco, Lemley, and Masur express great concern about what design patents cover, they do not discuss how the current test for design patent infringement actually works. Under that test, which was set forth ten years ago by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Egyptian Goddess, Inc. v. Swisa, Inc., design patents are given a much narrower scope than the cases discussed in Intelligent Design might seem to suggest. While this does not undermine the larger argument made by Buccafusco, Lemley, and Masur—namely, that we should not allow designers to gain the functional equivalent of a utility patent using the design patent system—it does affect the way we should evaluate some of their proposed policy solutions.

Under Egyptian Goddess, the presumptive scope of a design patent is narrow and may be further narrowed if there is close prior art. Therefore, at least two of the proposals in Intelligent Design—namely, functionality screening, invalidity based on "principal features," and adding an independent invention defense—may not be either appropriate or necessary. Adopting such proposals may have the unintended consequence of expanding or unnecessarily confusing design patent doctrine, results clearly not intended by the authors of Intelligent Design. Instead, a policy lever not discussed by Buccafusco, Lemley, and Masur—namely, statutory subject matter—may be more helpful in addressing the very valid concerns raised in Intelligent Design.

This response will explain how courts analyze design patent infringement under the Federal Circuit's Egyptian Goddess test. Then, it will discuss how the contemporary test for infringement might affect some of the solutions proposed in Intelligent Design. Finally, it discusses how the question of what constitutes proper statutory subject matter may be a more fruitful policy lever to explore in addressing these important issues of design patent law and policy.


This paper examines remuneration and labour mobility patterns among workers in foreign-owned firms operating in New Zealand. By tracking workers as they move across jobs in different types of firms, we document the extent of the "foreign wage premium" distinguishing between compositional factors (eg, differences in industry and employment composition across foreign and domestic firms) and remaining differences in wage levels and growth rates. We find that much of the average earnings gap between foreign- and domestically-owned firms is due to compositional factors – foreign firms tend to be larger and employ workers who would have received relatively high wages regardless of where they worked. However, even among apparently similar workers and firms, we find a two to four percent earnings gap between workers in domestic and foreign-owned firms. This gap is primarily associated with a wage increase of around two percent on moving from a domestic to a foreign firm, augmented by higher wage growth among foreign-owned firms. However, these premia appear to be specific to foreign-firm employment, as workers who return to domestically-owned firms do not appear to retain the additional earnings associated with foreign-firm employment into their subsequent jobs. We then consider whether foreign-owned firms source workers differently from other New Zealand firms and whether there are systematic differences in the destinations of departing employees by firm ownership. Although foreign-owned firms do not appear to preferentially hire recent immigrants, employees of foreign owned firms are more geographically mobile within New Zealand than comparable workers in domestically owned firms, and are more likely to emigrate within a year of leaving their job.


In the US, African American women have a significantly higher rate of mortality due to breast cancer compared to Caucasian American women. Molecular differences in tumor biology exist between racial groups; however, their contribution to cancer disparity is not well understood. Our studies have identified a race-specific, mechanistic link between microRNA-204 and the IGF2R. The IGF2R is a tumor suppressor gene in several cancers including breast cancer and IGF2R levels are found at significantly lower levels in African American women with breast cancer when compared to their Caucasian counterparts. We observed elevated levels of miR-204 in serum of African American women with breast cancer when compared to Caucasian American women and identified IGF2R as a direct target of miR-204. We show mechanistically that miR-204 mediated inhibition of IGF2R leads to activation of the IGF1R signaling pathway resulting in increased proliferation, migration and invasion, processes that are required for tumor progression. We developed a unique doxycycline-inducible miR-204 transgenic mouse model to define in vivo the oncogenic potential of miR-204 and the mechanism and functional consequences of IGF2R loss. We observed a significant increase in tumor growth and increased metastasis in these animals when compared to non-transgenic controls. This is the first characterization of miR-204 in an in vivo model. These data support a mechanism whereby miR-204 promotes tumor aggression through the IGF2-mediated hyperactivation of the IGF1R signaling pathway in response to direct negative regulation of the tumor suppressor IGF2R and that this could be a potential mechanism promoting breast cancer disparity.