Forecasting practices have to utilize more sophisticated methods to avoid some of the of the biggest planning pitfalls...overall firm performance will be maximized if the demand forecasting processes are collaborative, sophisticated, oriented towards the product life cycle, and developed using non-constrained consumer demand data. Most high tech firms are experiencing significantly more turbulence in the operating environment than in previous years. Wall Street has reacted negatively to most dot-coms, as well as to large computer hardware and software companies. The Amex computer technology index has fallen over 40% during the last twelve months. Additionally, the average net profit margin has fallen to a modest 5.6% level. So how can forecasting impact these profitability measures? Those firms that did a better job of forecasting had significantly better control over their inventory and customer service levels. For example, while the average days of cost of goods (COGS) sold held in component and finished goods inventory is 16 days on the average for the hardware industry, those firms that more closely matched their supply with demand predictions reported less than 10 days on the average. Furthermore, better demand forecasting helped many high tech firms to beat the average of 23.2 for inventory turnover (i.e., the number of times you sell your inventory per year) by nearly 25%. KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGH TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRIES Despite the staggering range of products manufactured within such abroad classification, many companies in high technology industries share several common characteristics: Markets for high technology products are generally young, sometimes less than a decade old. There is a dearth of historic examples and patterns to analyze for planning future demand. Product life cycles are often short, while supply chain lead times for some components are relatively long. Tactical planning is crucial, but requires so much attention that the strategic outlook is sometimes neglected. The rapid pace of technological evolution makes long range planning extremely difficult; new developments can create new markets almost overnight, or drive existing products into early obsolescence. Demand for high technology products is influenced not only by the state of the economy, but also by fads and cultural shifts that can be difficult to anticipate. Consumers are increasingly demanding unique configurations, especially in the computer hardware industry segment, which creates havoc for procurement and production planners alike. Profit margins often start out high, but quickly fall as competitors enter the new market. Inventory management in the early phases of a new product is therefore very critical. Many key components are manufactured by a relatively limited number of suppliers, who may have to deal with several companies engaged in active competition. Failures to manage forecasts and maintain supplier relations are therefore not only injurious to a manufacturer, but also may inadvertently result in an advantage to its direct competitors. There are some key elements, which produce most of the supply chain headaches for forecasters and demand planners. Those elements are discussed below. RATE OF TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT Many people are familiar with the story of how Intel Corporation's cofounder, Gordon Moore, who predicted in 1965 that the density of transistors in an integrated circuit would double every year. This observation became known as Moore's Law. This was later amended to double every 18 months, which has proven to be remarkably accurate for over 30 years. The Moore's Law produces an incredible rate of improved performance in electronics technology. With nearly every new chip generation, transistors are scaled down by a factor of 0.7. Compared to the previous generation, each transistor takes up only half of the surface area on the chip, can be switched in 30% less time, and requires only a third of the power for operation. …


This study aimed to resolve the direction of the relation between Greek affiliation and substance use by taking advantage of the quasi-experimental nature of change in college fraternity/sorority affiliation. Precollege individual differences and college substance use were examined as a function of time-varying Greek status to characterize self-selection (by which heavy substance users opt into Greek systems) and socialization (by which Greek systems foster heavy substance use). Prospective data on continuously enrolled college students (N=2,376), assessed at precollege and in the first 6 semesters of college, were used. Latent class analysis indicated 4 discrete groups of status: constant Greek members (30%), constant nonmembers (64%), late joiners (2%), and droppers (4%). Random coefficient models demonstrated disaffiliation with Greek systems is associated with decreases in risky drinking and alcohol-conducive environmental factors (peer norms and alcohol availability), whereas affiliation is associated with increases, indicating Greek socialization via sociocognitive and physical environments. Future Greeks differed from nonmembers in diverse individual characteristics and heavier substance use at precollege, suggesting multiple selection paths into Greek systems. Findings suggest a reciprocal relation between Greek environment and individuals in determining the trajectories of college drinking and heterogeneity in drinking as functions of changes in Greek affiliation.


Olfactory systems in organisms ranging from invertebrates to mammals distinguish between odors using an array of olfactory neurons that express different olfactory receptors—usually just one receptor in a given neuron. Since an organism's genome can encode hundreds of olfactory receptors, researchers have struggled to understand how a single olfactory neuron decides which receptor to express. In Drosophila, it seems that regulatory elements upstream of olfactory receptor genes act like zip codes to direct the expression of each gene to the appropriate class of olfactory neurons.

Anandasankar Ray and colleagues looked at one of the two olfactory organs in fruit flies—the maxillary palp. Unlike the antennae, the maxillary palp contains just six classes of olfactory neurons and seven olfactory receptors (one class of neuron expresses two receptors). This simplicity made it easier for the authors to study, and by comparing the genomes of different Drosophila species, Ray et al. identified gene-specific regulatory elements upstream of these olfactory receptor genes that were highly conserved across species, thereby indicating their likely importance.

By creating fusion genes between these regulatory stretches of DNA and a reporter gene, GAL4 (which encodes a yeast transcription factor that binds to upstream activating sequences and activates the green fluorescent protein reporter gene), Ray et al. showed that these regulatory regions are necessary for neuron-specific expression; when mutated, they could no longer cause genes to be expressed in olfactory neurons. The authors also showed that most of these regulatory elements in multiple copies could drive expression in the olfactory neurons of the maxillary palps. For example, the olfactory receptor gene Or46a is expressed in a type of neuron called pb2B. When the conserved region of DNA upstream of Or46a was mutated, the expression of the paired GAL4 marker was lost.

Scanning electron micrograph of a Drosophila head overlaid with expression patterns of four odor receptors in the antenna (blue, yellow, and magenta) and the maxillary palp (green). Sequences represent cis elements conserved upstream of odor receptor ...

Not all of the regulatory elements carried out this kind of "positive regulation"—some were negative regulators. One olfactory receptor gene, Or42a, had two highly conserved upstream elements, and mutation of one of these resulted in the expression of a reporter gene in two types of olfactory neurons, rather than just one. It seems that upstream regulatory sequences of this receptor drive expression in both types of neurons, but the negative regulator suppresses expression in neurons other than the appropriate class. Another gene, Or59c, is close to a binding site for a known transcription factor (Scalloped or Sd) that is expressed in olfactory organs. Functional analysis showed that Scalloped seems to repress expression of Or59c in the neighboring neurons

So it appears that the neuron-specific expression of olfactory receptor genes in the maxillary palp depends on an interplay between positive and negative regulatory elements that are specific to each gene. The authors liken these elements to molecular zip codes that specify the neuronal "address" at which each gene should be expressed. The cross-species comparison showed that these regulatory elements, and the organization of gene expression as well as the odor responses of neurons in the maxillary palp, have been conserved for tens of millions of years since the species in question diverged—even though the amino acid sequences of the olfactory receptors themselves have not been highly conserved. This indicates that the maxillary palp may be important for odor discrimination and olfactory behavior in Drosophila.

Interestingly, some of these regulatory elements are also found upstream of genes that are involved in axon guidance, suggesting that they might contribute to the formation of connections between olfactory neurons and neurons in the antennal lobes that receive these connections. So as well as directing the expression of specific olfactory receptors to specific olfactory neurons, these regulatory elements might also control the formation of an olfactory "map" higher in the nervous system.


The aim of the present work is to develop a sophisticated analytical model for
columns within three-dimensional assemblies in fire conditions.
A preliminary investigation into this problem resulted in the development of a simplified approach for the analysis of isolated columns in fire. This model is based
on the Perry-Robertson approach to defining critical loads of imperfect columns
at ambient temperature. It takes into account uniform and gradient temperature
distributions across the section of an isolated pin-ended column. It also accounts
for initial out-of-straightness, load eccentricity and equal end-moments.
A three-dimensional finite element model has subsequently been developed for
the analysis of frames in fire conditions. This model is based on a beam finite
element with a single node at each end of the element. At each node eight degrees of freedom are introduced. The finite element solution of the problem is
obtained using an incremental iterative procedure based on the Newton-Raphson
method, adapted to account for elevated temperature effects. The developed procedure offers a unique treatment of the thermal effects which allows solutions to
be arrived at regardless of the problem's boundary conditions. The finite element
formulation takes into consideration geometrical and material nonlinearities, initial
out-of-straightness and residual stresses. It allows for virtually any temperature
distribution across and along the structural members, and the analysis can handle
any three-dimensional skeletal steel structure. The developed model allows the
material mechanical properties to be expressed either as trilinear or continuous
functions which vary with temperature.
A computer program, 3DFIRE, has been developed based on the above-mentioned
formulation and validated extensively against a wide range of previous analytical
and experimental work. This program has then been used to perform parametric studies to establish the most prominent features of column behaviour in fire
whether as isolated members or as part of structural assemblies. These studies
have yielded a large amount of data from which generalised conclusions have been
made.
The analysis has been extended recently to include composite beams within the
structural assembly. This development was undertaken to enable analytical studies
on the test building at Cardington, in which fire tests are planned to take place in
the near future.


ABSTRACT Adaptive explanations for modern human foot anatomy have long fascinated evolutionary biologists because of the dramatic differences between our feet and those of our closest living relatives, the great apes. Morphological features, including hallucal opposability, toe length and the longitudinal arch, have traditionally been used to dichotomize human and great ape feet as being adapted for bipedal walking and arboreal locomotion, respectively. However, recent biomechanical models of human foot function and experimental investigations of great ape locomotion have undermined this simple dichotomy. Here, we review this research, focusing on the biomechanics of foot strike, push-off and elastic energy storage in the foot, and show that humans and great apes share some underappreciated, surprising similarities in foot function, such as use of plantigrady and ability to stiffen the midfoot. We also show that several unique features of the human foot, including a spring-like longitudinal arch and short toes, are likely adaptations to long distance running. We use this framework to interpret the fossil record and argue that the human foot passed through three evolutionary stages: first, a great ape-like foot adapted for arboreal locomotion but with some adaptations for bipedal walking; second, a foot adapted for effective bipedal walking but retaining some arboreal grasping adaptations; and third, a human-like foot adapted for enhanced economy during long-distance walking and running that had lost its prehensility. Based on this scenario, we suggest that selection for bipedal running played a major role in the loss of arboreal adaptations. Summary: Recent biomechanical models of human foot function and experimental locomotion data from great apes suggest that the human foot evolved to facilitate both bipedal walking and running.


A classic of crime and adventure, Grant Allen's "An African Millionaire" is perfect for fans of books such as "Arsene Lupin", "Gentleman Thief". Wealthy, confident and handsome, Charles Van Drift is not accustomed to being swindled and his brush with Colonel Clay both rattles and infuriates him. As his South African diamond fortune takes hit after hit from the quick-witted master of disguise, Allen leaves even the reader guessing: who can you trust? Van Drift grows more suspicious of those around him and a few too many misguided accusations shake the millionaire's confidence. Colonel Clay is in his head. Gary Hoppenstand contributes an introduction discussing the reception of the work when it was first serialised in "The Strand" and the significance of Colonel Clay as the first recurring gentleman rogue.


Polarized cell protrusions promote localized induction of heart progenitor cells. During heart development, precursor cells must integrate signals from the surrounding macro- and microenvironments and respond in an accurate manner to undergo induction to the appropriate cell fate. In the model organism Ciona intestinalis, "founder" cells divide asymmetrically to produce heart lineage precursor and tail muscle precursor cells. Using this primitive chordate, Cooley et al. found that the founder cells formed polarized, invasive protrusions and that the side of the cell with the protrusions differentiated into the heart lineage precursors after asymmetric division. The protrusions enabled the cells to generate a localized response to a relatively ungraded fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signal, a key growth factor in specifying the heart progenitor lineage. In situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry indicated that the Ciona founder cells are surrounded by FGF-expressing cells in the adjacent mesenchyme and are initially exposed to uniform amounts of FGF, a pattern that persists until after the initial founder cell asymmetric division. Time-lapse imaging of living embryos revealed, however, that just before this asymmetric division the founder cells extended invasive protrusions into the underlying ventral epidermis. These founder cell protrusions were localized along the cell membrane region from which the heart progenitor cells would emerge (the anterior-ventral edge). Fluorescence images of fixed embryos at a similar developmental stage indicated that F-actin and FGF receptor activation also became concentrated at the anterior-ventral edge of the membrane of the presumptive heart progenitor cells. The polarized protrusive activity, F-actin cortical concentration, and FGF receptor activation correlated with induction of the heart progenitor cell fate but not with the initiation of heart progenitor cell migration, which occurs at later developmental stages. Disruption of localized actin dynamics in founder cells through expression of a constitutively active mutant of the small guanosine triphosphatase Cdc42, a regulator of actin dynamics, driven by a mesoderm posterior (Mesp) enhancer element led to more uniform extension of cell protrusions from regions of the cell surface and an expansion of heart marker gene expression to all founder lineage cells. Similar effects were not seen upon targeted expression of wild-type Cdc42 in founder cells. Together, the authors suggest that polarized cytoskeletal dynamics and protrusive membranes can facilitate localized signal transduction, including in the context of relatively uniform growth factor receptor occupancy and subsequent cell fate specification. J. Cooley, S. Whitaker, S. Sweeney, S. Fraser, B. Davidson, Cytoskeletal polarity mediates localized induction of the heart progenitor lineage. Nat. Cell Biol. 13, 952–957 (2011). [PubMed]


Nitrogen metabolism in prokaryotes involves the coordinated expression of a large number of enzymes concerned with both utilization of extracellular nitrogen sources and intracellular biosynthesis of nitrogen-containing compounds. The control of this expression is determined by the availability of fixed nitrogen to the cell and is effected by complex regulatory networks involving regulation at both the transcriptional and posttranslational levels. While the most detailed studies to date have been carried out with enteric bacteria, there is a considerable body of evidence to show that the nitrogen regulation (ntr) systems described in the enterics extend to many other genera. Furthermore, as the range of bacteria in which the phenomenon of nitrogen control is examined is being extended, new regulatory mechanisms are also being discovered. In this review, we have attempted to summarize recent research in prokaryotic nitrogen control; to show the ubiquity of the ntr system, at least in gram-negative organisms; and to identify those areas and groups of organisms about which there is much still to learn.


Christmas at The Ritz London, with the choir singing carols in the opulent Palm Court and the Long Gallery lined with Christmas trees, is a glorious celebration of this age-old festival. This charming Edwardian-style book captures the essence of a traditional Christmas, showing how you can recreate this elegance in your own home. The innate sense of tradition, style and sophistication of The Ritz is embodied in the delightfully illustrated collection of sumptuous recipes with literary and historical descriptions of Christmas past and Christmas present. "The Ritz London Book of Christmas" captures all the great traditions of The Ritz London to make your Christmas an exceptional and elegant event. Over fifty delicious recipes are included for all aspects of the Christmas festivities from traditional mince pies and roast turkey with chestnut and sausagemeat stuffing to Dr Johnson's punch.


ROYER, Joseph Robert. Supercritical Fluid Assisted Polymer Processing: Plasticization, Swelling and Rheology. (Under the direction of Drs. Saad A. Khan and Joseph M. DeSimone.) The use of supercritical carbon dioxide, scCO2, as a transient plasticizer eliminates the disadvantages associated with many other industrial plasticizers. Because CO2 is a gas under atmospheric conditions, it can be used as a processing aid and then easily removed from a polymer through evaporation to obtain the original physical properties of the unplasticized polymer matrix. In addition, CO2 has been shown to be more environmentally friendly in comparison to many of the traditional organic plasticizers. However, the biggest challenge hindering the widespread use of CO2 as a plasticizer involves a lack of understanding of and data quantifying its effect on polymer swelling and the concomitant reduction in material viscosity. In this work, a three-step approach is used to investigate and quantify the physical phenomena associated with CO2-induced plasticization of polymer melts. First, a novel experimental apparatus was designed and constructed to measure equilibrium swelling, swelling kinetics and diffusion of CO2 into a polymer melt. It was found that diffusion of CO2 into PDMS exhibited Fickian behavior up until two-thirds of the equilibrium swelling value was obtained. The CO2 pressure had a negligible effect on the diffusion coefficient; however, the system temperature directly affected the diffusion coefficient. Increased pressure was found to enhance the extent of swelling whereas a maximum was observed with increasing temperature, at pressures above 15 MPa. The Sanchez-Lacombe equation of state was found to be in good agreement with the experimentally calculated variables, and thus, can be used as a predictive tool to obtain physical properties of the CO2-PDMS system. Secondly, a high pressure extrusion slit die rheometer was constructed to measure the viscosity of polymer melts plasticized with low concentrations of CO2. Polystyrene, poly(methyl methacrylate), polypropylene, low density polyethylene, and poly(vinylidene fluoride) were all investigated. CO2 was found to be an efficient plasticizer for all of these polymer materials, generally lowering the viscosity of the melt 30-80%, depending on processing conditions. Predictive viscoelastic scaling models based on free-volume principles and a prediction of Tg depression from a diluent were developed to quantify the effects of CO2 concentration, pressure and temperature on viscosity. This unique free-volume approach allows the high pressure polymer/CO2 rheology to be predicted based solely on physical parameters of the polymer melt and CO2. Therefore, only rheological measurements at ambient pressures are required to predict the high pressure polymer/CO2 solution behavior over the concentration and temperature ranges for which the models are valid. Finally, a novel high pressure magnetically levitated sphere rheometer (MLSR) was developed to further investigate the effects of CO2 on the viscosity of polymer melts. The MLSR measures the difference in magnetic intensity required to levitate a magnetic sphere in a sample fluid while the fluid is at rest and under shear. The observed change in magnetic intensity is directly proportional to the viscoelastic force imposed on the sphere by the surrounding fluid, and thus is used to calculate the fluid viscosity from a calibration of known viscosity standards. The rheometer eliminates many of the disadvantages associated with other high pressure rheometers and can operate over a wide range of CO2 concentrations at constant pressure with excellent reproducibility. This rheometer was used to measure the viscosity reduction of poly(dimethyl siloxane) by CO2. The effects of both system pressure and CO2 were investigated. The viscosity of the polymer melt could be lowered in excess of 97% of its original value at atmospheric pressure by adding a CO2 concentration of approximately 30 wt%. Additionally, experimental evidence revealed that the elevated pressure significantly increased the polymer/CO2 viscosity.


Fundamental ecological research is both intrinsically interesting and provides the basic knowledge required to answer applied questions of importance to the management of the natural world. The 100th anniversary of the British Ecological Society in 2013 is an opportune moment to reflect on the current status of ecology as a science and look forward to high‐light priorities for future work. To do this, we identified 100 important questions of fundamental importance in pure ecology. We elicited questions from ecologists working across a wide range of systems and disciplines. The 754 questions submitted (listed in the online appendix) from 388 participants were narrowed down to the final 100 through a process of discussion, rewording and repeated rounds of voting. This was done during a two‐day workshop and thereafter. The questions reflect many of the important current conceptual and technical pre‐occupations of ecology. For example, many questions concerned the dynamics of environmental change and complex ecosystem interactions, as well as the interaction between ecology and evolution. The questions reveal a dynamic science with novel subfields emerging. For example, a group of questions was dedicated to disease and micro‐organisms and another on human impacts and global change reflecting the emergence of new subdisciplines that would not have been foreseen a few decades ago. The list also contained a number of questions that have perplexed ecologists for decades and are still seen as crucial to answer, such as the link between population dynamics and life‐history evolution. Synthesis. These 100 questions identified reflect the state of ecology today. Using them as an agenda for further research would lead to a substantial enhancement in understanding of the discipline, with practical relevance for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem function.


Light detection and ranging (lidar) systems are active sensors capable of creating a
permanent three-dimensional (3D) record of forest canopy structure. This 3D
characterisation can provide increased accuracy for aboveground biomass estimates in
high-biomass ecosystems, where passive optical sensors only provide a two-dimensional
(2D) perspective. The aim of this study was to test a quantitative, accurate, and
repeatable method to obtain estimates of canopy biophysical properties and monitor
seasonal variations in forests by using multi-temporal terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) data.
This research is one of the first detailed multi-temporal terrestrial lidar studies undertaken
anywhere in the world. The study site chosen for this research was Delamere Forest,
located in Cheshire, Northwest England. TLS data on vegetation structure were acquired
for seven sampling plots, comprising two broad-leaf and five conifer stands, between
March 2008 and April 2009. Canopy directional gap fractions were derived from the TLS
datasets collected and compared with estimates derived from coincident hemispherical
photographs. The comparison showed that TLS gap fractions estimates were consistently
lower than those estimated from hemispherical photographs. To examine this apparent
difference further the potential information available from the intensity values recorded
by TLS were investigated. The use of this information in the computation of gap fractions
led to a better agreement between estimates derived from both sources, as well as a better
understanding of how intensity values are activated within forest canopies. Estimates of
other biophysical properties were also computed from the TLS data, including leaf area
index, average leaf angle distributions, and clumping index. The analysis of these
estimates highlighted the repeatability and consistency of the TLS measurements in
comparison with corresponding results derived from the hemispherical photographs.
Analysis of the TLS datasets was conducted in order to improve the understanding of the
interaction between lasers and vegetation canopies. The novelty of this research is in
applying a ground-based lidar sensor to characterise the structure of a range of tree
canopies using intensity corrected data, and assessing the utility of estimates of
biophysical properties for monitoring temporal variations in forest canopies.


Abstract. The modifications of atmospheric circulation induced by anthropogenic effects are difficult to capture because wind fields feature a complex spectrum where the signal of large-scale coherent structures (planetary, baroclinic waves and other long-term oscillations) is mixed up with turbulence. Our purpose is to study the effects of climate changes on these two components separately by applying a wavelet analysis to the 700 hPa wind fields obtained in climate simulations for different forcing scenarios. We study the coherent component of the signal via a correlation analysis to detect the persistence of large-scale or long-lasting structures, whereas we use the theory of autoregressive moving-average stochastic processes to measure the spectral complexity of the turbulent component. Under strong anthropogenic forcing, we detect a significant climate change signal. The analysis suggests that coherent structures will play a dominant role in future climate, whereas turbulent spectra will approach a classical Kolmogorov behaviour.


In-house built PC based rapid conductometric titration method for assay of trace amount of boron in light water and heavy water [100 ppb (μg L)] with a precision of 2.2 has been reported. The method involves conversion of trace quantity of extremely poor conducting boric acid present in the sample to a relatively better conducting complexing species boronmannitol complex using mannitol. This complex is then titrated against NaOH. Minor shift in conductivity during reaction of the complex compound with NaOH is captured online using an indigenously developed high resolution conductometric titration device. In addition, the technique provides information about any reactive chemical specimens, if present in the sample. The entire titration process is completed within a couple of minutes. A high resolution conductivity measurement technique has been proposed for quick assay of boron down to 20 ppb B level (RSD 4.1%). The present technique is suitable for rapid assay of boron in heavy water moderator in pressurised heavy water reactors. The influence of isotopic effect on sensitivity of measurements of boron in light water and heavy water matrices is also described.


In this paper, we propose a hierarchical approach to solving sensor planning for the global localization of a mobile robot. Our system- consists of two subsystems: a lower layer and a higher layer. The lower layer uses a particle filter to evaluate the posterior probability of the localization. When the particles converge into clusters, the higher layer starts particle clustering and sensor planning to generate an optimal sensing action se- quence for the localization. The higher layer uses a Bayesian network for probabilistic inference. The sensor planning takes into account both local- ization belief and sensing cost. We conducted simulations and actual robot experiments to validate our proposed approach.


Geographical indications are a distinctive type of intellectual property rights, protected by the TRIPS Agreement. The EU and China started to negotiate the Agreement on the Cooperation on, and Protection of, Geographical Indications in March 2011. It has recently been revealed that one or two more rounds of negotiations may be necessary to conclude the Agreement. Recall that in July 2017, as a major step forward in the negotiations, the EU and China each published a list of 100 GI products that may be granted protection under the other's jurisdiction.
Both Europe and China are endowed with a sophisticated food culture, featuring many high-quality GI products protected in their respective territories. An agreement on GI protection will facilitate more GI exports and further enhance overall bilateral trade in foodstuffs, which has seen steady and quick growth over the last decade. According to the latest statistics, China is Europe's second-largest export market for foodstuffs (over the last few years), while Europe is China's fifth largest.
This report illustrates that, in the context of negotiating the GI Protection Agreement, the EU succeeded in extending its GI protection philosophy, i.e. the so-called 'old-world' approach, and model to China, paving the way for more GIs to be registered in the country for future protection. The EU leverages GI protection to enhance its food quality policy, which goes hand in hand with the reform of the common agricultural policy. As for China, although further work on technical details, including strengthening GI enforcement, is required, doubling down on GI exports to Europe and through ambitious trade agreements with other trading partners should be a goal. Thus China's ancient food culture would serve the modern purposes of enhanced trade – just as the EU has achieved.
Moreover, the forthcoming GI Protection Agreement between the EU and China is instilled with the principles of reciprocity and mutual benefits, which should be a sine qua non for trade relations applicable to all partners. In this regard, both sides should strive to extend their constructive cooperation on GI protection to other trade areas to facilitate a win-win spirit in overall bilateral trade relations. The Report covers in extensive detail the Chinese aspects of GI protection, as they are not well-known in Europe.


Kaolinite is one of the layered aluminosilicates capable of undergoing intercalation by virtue of ion substitution reaction taking place in the interlayer spaces which in turn creates site vacancies whose compensation give rise to sorption reaction thereby smoothening the progress of intercalation reactions. Nevertheless, the fact that kaolinite is a 1:1 layered silicate and so, hard to intercalate spontaneously, opened up experiments pertaining the application of intermediate intercalation reactions utilizing powerful organic and inorganic intercalants. This study was therefore set to investigate the effect of both laboratories synthesized and naturally oligomer zed cationic Fe3+ oligomers in inducing kaolinite intercalation as intermediate intercalation compounds. The kaolinite nanomaterial were characterized for particle size using Andreasen pipette sedimentation technique, chemical composition using XRF, molecular absorption spectroscopy using ATR/FTIR, thermo-properties using TG/DTG and mineralogical analysis as well as intercalation ratios using XRD techniques. The X-ray diffraction pattern revealed the existence of FCC Crystal Bravais for both kaolinite intercalated with laboratory synthesized and naturally oligomerized cationic Fe3+ oligomers whose crystallite sizes as per the Scherer equation were between 80.01 and 23.85 nm and between 64.58 and 19.25 nm respectively. Similarly, intercalation ratios were respectively 70.41% (associated with lattice expansion along the c-plane of about 3.62 A) and 37.53% (associated with lattice expansion along the c-plane of about 3.61 A) indicating that laboratory synthesized cationic Fe3+ oligomers (under controlled experimental condition and enough aging) intercalate twice as compared to naturally oligomerized one but in general the findings revealed that it is possible to use Fe3+ cationic oligomers as intermediate intercalation compounds. Analysis of kaolin phases indicated that kaolinite phase was the major kaolin phase whereas illite was the minor phase. The structure of kaolinite was seen to be maintained in both extremes as revealed in the molecular vibrational studies. Thermal stability between 0°C to 800°C revealed that both kaolinite nanomaterial intercalated with laboratory synthesized and naturally oligomerized cationic Fe3+ oligomers exhibited three degradation phases in common namely; 25°C-375°C, 425°C-450°C and the 475°C-800°C phases.


This title focuses on the comprehension of the properties of water in foods, enriched by the approaches from polymer and materials sciences, and by the advances of analytical techniques. The International Symposium on the Properties of Water (ISOPOW) promotes the exchange of knowledge between scientists involved in the study of food materials and scientists interested in water from a more basic point of view and the dialogue between academic and industrial scientists/technologists. This comprehensive book covers the topics presented at the 10th ISOPOW held in Bangkok, Thailand in 2007, including water dynamics in various systems, the role of water in functional food and nano-structured biomaterials. Special features include:


Establishing whether life ever existed, or is still active on Mars today, is one of the outstanding scientific questions of our time. In the scope of the ExoMars mission Raman measurements will be performed with the RLS Spectrometer to identify organic compounds and mineral products as indicators of biological activity1.

Raman spectra of cyanobacteria (Nostoc commune) on iron (III) oxide and on mineral mixtures assigned to early acidic and late basic Mars have been measured using two excitation wavelengths. The reason why cyanobacteria were chosen is due to an assumption that photosynthesizing cyanobacteria or the anoxigenic photosynthesizing microorganisms as direct ancestors of cyanobacteria appeared for the first time on Early Earth 3.8 to 3.5 Billion years ago. During this time Mars is supposed to have a more temperate climate with a wet phase, where water was supposed to be liquid on the surface and life might have evolved under similar conditions as on Earth. This means that the potential was given on both of the terrestrial planets that ancestors of the cyanobacteria or the cyanobacteria themselves might have evolved in this short time period because of the quiet similar conditions. Some well known pigments of the photosynthesis apparatus of cyanobacteria such as carotene are detectable by Raman spectroscopy and it is of interest to determine these specific pigments even in Mars analogue mineral mixtures.

In this context we have investigated if and how the Raman spectrum of the bacteria is influenced by the Raman signal of the mineral background. Raman measurements were performed on pure cyanobacteria to find the spectra that characterize them. The spectrum of beta-carotene is identified to describe the presence of cyanobacteria, which is in good agreement with literature2,3,4. The strong fluorescence of the cyanobacteria above 620 nm favours an excitation wavelength of 532 nm over 633 nm to avoid the fluorescence disturbing the spectrum between 500 cm-1 and 2000 cm-1. Scanning a sample with a mineral/bacteria mixture provides the capability to distinguish between mineral areas with and without bacteria. To get optimal spectra of Fe2O3, mineral mixtures of early acidic and late basic Mars and the cyanobacteria the laser power needs to be adjusted for each of them separately.

1 Rull Perez F, Martinez-Frias J. Spectroscopy Europe 2006 18: 18–21.
2 Edwards HGM, Villar SEJV, Parnell Jj, Cockell CS, Lee P. The Analyst 2005; 130: 917.
3 Vitek P, Jehlicka J, Edwards HGM. Anal Bioanal Chem 2009; 393:1967
4 Edwards HGM, Wynn-Williams DD, Villar SEJV. J. Raman Spectroscopy 2004; 35: 470.


The present study focuses on the dynamics of conversion of agricultural land to aquaculture over a decade from 1995 to 2013 in Chinna Cherukuru Village (Thotapalligudur Mandal) in Nellore District of Andhra Pradesh State, India. Multi temporal satellite data from 1995's medium resolution to high resolution IRS LISS IV & Cartosat of 2013 time frame was analysed and mapped using RS & GIS techniques to monitor the dynamics of land transformation from agriculture to aquaculture (1995's) and conversion back to agriculture in 2013. It was observed that, in 1995 aquaculture was practiced to an extent of 62.35 hectares which accounts to 9.48 % of the Total Geographic Area (TGA) of the village (658.01 hectares), whereas in 2001 there is a major conversion from agricultural land to aquaculture accounting to an extent of 237.01 hectares or 36.01 % of total village area . However, thereafter there was a significant conversion back to agriculture accounting to an extent of 27.23 hectares or 4.13 % of TGA in 2013. The study tries to understand the underlying reasons for conversion back to agriculture which were due to several factors that include outbreak of diseases in aquatic fauna, natural calamities, variation in production cost / selling cost and non-availability of infrastructure facilities like cold storages etc. The present village level study on LUCC database provides an answer key question about socio-economic issues, land use and cropping pattern which form important input for environmental management.


Recently, Pluim and Drew1 provided tips for managing loads to help reduce injury risk in tennis. A central premise was the importance for assessing the acute:chronic loads—a concept to understand that the rate of change towards high weekly loads is more problematic (ie, increases injury risk) than simply performing high loads. In general, activities performed by athletes can be viewed as stress (ie, external loads like running distances or the number of accelerations/decelerations performed) and strain (ie, internal loads like heart rate, blood lactate). Thus, metrics from several domains are necessary to comprehensively quantify training and competition loads; however, there is a paucity of literature describing these indicators for tennis across the developmental spectrum. This knowledge gap limits the ability to identify which key metrics should be targeted within a systematic monitoring plan and subsequently used to track the acute:chronic loads in tennis, thus enabling the development of strategies to reduce injury risk.

To …


An oriented graph $G^{\sigma}$ is a simple undirected graph $G$ with an orientation $\sigma$, which assigns to each edge a direction so that $G^{\sigma}$ becomes a directed graph. $G$ is called the underlying graph of $G^{\sigma}$, and we denote by $Sp(G)$ the adjacency spectrum of $G$. Skew-adjacency matrix $S( G^{\sigma} )$ of $G^{\sigma}$ is introduced, and its spectrum $Sp_S( G^{\sigma} )$ is called the skew-spectrum of $G^{\sigma}$. The relationship between $Sp_S( G^{\sigma} )$ and $Sp(G)$ is studied. In particular, we prove that (i) $Sp_S( G^{\sigma} ) = {\bf i} Sp(G)$ for some orientation $\sigma$ if and only if $G$ is bipartite, (ii) $Sp_S(G^{\sigma}) = {\bf i} Sp(G)$ for any orientation $\sigma$ if and only if $G$ is a forest, where ${\bf i}=\sqrt{-1}$.


In this work, the structural, magnetic and mechanical properties of Nd16Fe76−xCoxB8 alloys with a varying Co content of x = 0, 10, 20 and 25 were experimentally investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Mossbauer spectrometry (MS) and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) at room temperature (RT), and microhardness tests were performed. The system presented hard Nd2Fe14B and the Nd1.1Fe4B4 phases for samples with x = 0; when the concentration increased to x = 20 and 25, the CoO phase appeared. All MS data showed ferromagnetic behavior (eight sextets: sites 16k1, 16k2, 8j1, 8j2, 4c, 4e, sb) associated with the hard and soft magnetic phases, and one paramagnetic component (doublet: site d) associated with the minority Nd1.1Fe4B4 phase, which was not identified by XRD. All samples were magnetically hard and presented hard magnetic behavior. The increase of Co content in these samples did not improve the hard magnetic properties but increased the critical temperature of the system and decreased the crystallite size of the hard phase. There was a general tendency towards increased microhardness with cobalt content that was attributable to cobalt doping, which reduces the lattice parameters and porosities within the sample, improving its hardness.


Abstract. Global climate model (GCM) outputs feature systematic biases that render them unsuitable for direct use by impact models, especially for hydrological studies. To deal with this issue, many bias correction techniques have been developed to adjust the modelled variables against observations, focusing mainly on precipitation and temperature. However, most state-of-the-art hydrological models require more forcing variables, in addition to precipitation and temperature, such as radiation, humidity, air pressure, and wind speed. The biases in these additional variables can hinder hydrological simulations, but the effect of the bias of each variable is unexplored. Here we examine the effect of GCM biases on historical runoff simulations for each forcing variable individually, using the JULES land surface model set up at the global scale. Based on the quantified effect, we assess which variables should be included in bias correction procedures. To this end, a partial correction bias assessment experiment is conducted, to test the effect of the biases of six climate variables from a set of three GCMs. The effect of the bias of each climate variable individually is quantified by comparing the changes in simulated runoff that correspond to the bias of each tested variable. A methodology for the classification of the effect of biases in four effect categories (ECs), based on the magnitude and sensitivity of runoff changes, is developed and applied. Our results show that, while globally the largest changes in modelled runoff are caused by precipitation and temperature biases, there are regions where runoff is substantially affected by and/or more sensitive to radiation and humidity. Global maps of bias ECs reveal the regions mostly affected by the bias of each variable. Based on our findings, for global-scale applications, bias correction of radiation and humidity, in addition to that of precipitation and temperature, is advised. Finer spatial-scale information is also provided, to suggest bias correction of variables beyond precipitation and temperature for regional studies.


Control of real industrial processes is almost always burden with an uncertainty. The reasons of that unfavorable fact are mainly an imprecise modelling and measuring or an influence of some external conditions. A convenient tool for dealing with such class of issues represents the application of models with parametric uncertainty. The mathematical model is then supposed to contain parameters which are not precisely known, but the values thereof lie within given intervals. If individual uncertain coefficients (in polynomial, in transfer function etc.) are mutually independent, the uncertainty has a simple interval structure. This contribution offers several possibilities of utilization of interval uncertainty for systems description and presents the tools for robust stability analysis, emphasizing advantages and limitations connected with the use of this simple structure, even for more complicated problems.


A method for creating a variety of pseudo-random 'noisy' stimuli that possess several useful statistical and phenomenal features for psychophysical experimentation is outlined. These stimuli are derived from a pseudo-periodic function known as multidimensional noise. This class of function has the desirable property that it is periodic, defined on a fixed domain, is roughly symmetric, and is stochastic, yet consistent and repeatable. The stimuli that can be created from these functions have a controllable amount of complexity and self-similarity properties that are further useful when generating naturalistic looking objects and surfaces for investigation. The paper addresses the creation and manipulation of stimuli with the use of noise, including an overview of this particular implementation. Stimuli derived from these procedures have been used successfully in several shape and surface perception experiments and are presented here for use by others and further discussion as to their utility.


Hypertension has been for decades a major contributor to overall mortality and morbidity worldwide. This study was aimed towards evaluating changes in blood pressure in normotensive and L-NAME hypertensive induced rats subjected to treatment with a synthesized semicarbazone copper complex (CSCZ)**. CSCZ was synthesized from the reaction between di-2-pyridylketone semicarbazone (dpksc) and CuCl2.2H2O in refluxing ethanol and characterized from its spectroscopic and elemental analyses. The infrared and electronic absorption spectra are in accord with the proposed formulation of the complex. Animals were rendered hypertensive by oral administrations of Nω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) daily (dose 40 mg/kg body weight) for 5 weeks. Oral daily dosages (20 mg/kg body weight) of CSCZ was administered to the animals. A significant decrease in systolic blood pressure (SBP) at 132.91 ± 7.62 was observed in the L-NAME/CSCZ treated group (LCZ) when compared to the L-NAME group at 161.00 ± 5.34 while no significant changes were observed in heart rate (HR) and pulse pressure (PP). Treatment with CSCZ also seemingly normalised and prevented the development of L-NAME induced hypertension in the rats. A significant decrease in SBP and PP was also seen in the normotensive group treated with CSCZ at 91 ± 2.11 and 21.67 ± 1.43 respectively when compared to the control group at 130.63 ± 2.98 and 44.10 ± 5.15 respectively. These findings reveal the blood pressure lowering effects of CSCZ in normotensive rats and its ability to prevent L-NAME induced hypertension.


Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, a pluripotent cytokine implicated in the pathogenesis of airway inflammation, has been shown to provoke hypersecretion of mucin by airway epithelial cells in vitro. In this study, we investigated potential signaling pathways mediating TNF-alpha-induced mucin secretion using guinea pig tracheal epithelial (GPTE) cells in air-liquid interface culture. Exogenously applied TNF-alpha (human recombinant) stimulated mucin secretion in a concentration-dependent manner, with maximal effects at 10 to 15 ng/ml (286 to 429 U/ml). The pathway of stimulated secretion appeared to involve generation of intracellular nitric oxide (NO), activation of soluble guanylate cyclase (GC-S), production of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), and activation of cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG). TNF-alpha increased production of nitrite and nitrate by GPTE cells; both mucin secretion and cGMP production were attenuated by NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (1 mM), a competitive inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), or by the GC-S inhibitor LY83583 (50 microM); and mucin secretion in response to TNF-alpha or to the cGMP analogue dibutyryl cGMP (100 and 500 microM) was attenuated by the specific PKG inhibitor KT5823 (1 microM). Increased mucin secretion and increased cGMP production in response to TNF-alpha both appeared to be mediated by a phospholipase C that hydrolyzes phosphatidylcholine (PC-PLC), and by protein kinase C (PKC), since both responses were attenuated by either D609 (10 and 20 microg/ml), a specific PC-PLC inhibitor, or by each of three PKC inhibitors: Calphostin C (0.3 and 0.5 microM), bisindoylmaleimide (GF 109203X, Go 6850; 20 nM), or Ro31-8220 (10 microM). Collectively, the results suggest that TNF-alpha stimulates secretion of mucin by GPTE cells via a mechanism(s) dependent on PC-PLC and PKC, and involving activation of NOS, generation of NO, production of cGMP, and activation of PKG.


Allocation of operating room (OR) block time is an ongoing challenge for OR managers. In this study, we sought to determine whether inclusion or exclusion of turnover time in comparisons of block utilization would identify different surgical services as under- or overused. For a 13-mo period, we evaluated data extracted from the OR information system of a large academic medical center. During that time period, 15 surgical services performed 12,245 surgical procedures. Allocated block hours, number of first cases performed, total number of cases, and average case durations were determined. The average turnover time for each service was determined by a manual, case-by-case review of data from 1 mo. Raw utilization (RU; case durations only) and adjusted utilization (AU; case duration plus turnover time) were calculated for each service. Turnover time was credited to the service performing surgery after room turnover. Case du-ration was limited to surgeries performed during resource hours. Two indices of utilization (i.e., the usage rate of the service divided by the overall use of all ORs in the suite) were used to compare services: the RU or AU Index (RUI or AUI). Outliers were services with indices that were >1.15 or <0.85. The RUI identified three services as underutilizers and one service as an overutilizer. Using the AUI, the same outliers were identified, and no new services were identified. Examining the changes in index (between AUI and RUI), the percentage of to-follow cases highly correlated with changes in index (r2 = 0.60); the average turnover time did not (r2 = 0.002). Inclusion of turnover time did not change the services that were identified as under- and overutilizer.


Polarization of the motile cell is associated with the formation of a distinct plasma membrane domain, the pseudopod, whose stabilization determines the directionality of cell movement. The rapid movement of cells over a substrate requires that an essential aspect of cell motility must be the supply of the necessary molecular machinery to the site of pseudopodial extension. Renewal of this pseudopodial domain requires the directed delivery to the site of pseudopodial protrusion of proteins which regulate actin cytoskeleton dynamics, cell-substrate adhesion, and localized degradation of the extracellular matrix. Polarized targeting mechanisms include the targeted delivery of β-actin mRNA to the leading edge and microtubule-based vesicular traffic. The latter may include Golgi-derived vesicles of the biosynthetic pathway as well as clathrin-dependent and clathrin-independent endocytosis and recycling. Coordination of protrusive activities and supply mechanisms is critical for efficient cellular displacement and may implicate small GTPases of the Rho family. While the specific molecular mechanisms underlying pseudopodial protrusion of the motile cell are well-characterized, discussion of these diverse mechanisms in the context of cellular polarization has been limited. SUMMARY


This study analyzed the diet and reproductive dynamics of Trachelyopterus lucenai Bertoletti, Pezzi da Silva & Pereira, 1995, an allochthonous fish species in the subtropical coastal lagoons of the Tramandai River, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The fecundity of the species is described for the first time. Specimens were captured in the interconnected lagoons Itapeva, Quadros and Malvas, on a monthly basis, from November 2008 to April 2010, with gillnets of different mesh sizes. The food items identified were assessed for abundance and frequency of occurrence. The sex ratio, reproductive period for males and females, for mature females, fecundity, were estimated. These results were analyzed with respect to seasonal variation. We captured 135 individuals, including 82 females and 53 males, especially in months with high temperatures (October 2009 to March 2010). Females were more abundant than males in all months. There was no difference between the mean size of females and males, and both sexes showed allometric growth. The feeding analysis showed a generalist-opportunist food habit; 26 items were consumed, with a predominance of autochthonous items (insects and fish). Temporal variations in diet were associated with variations in water and air temperature and rainfall in the region, but these variations did not differ between males and females. The sex ratio differed significantly from 1:1, with 1.5 females per male. The reproductive period occurred from October to March, with most activity in November and December, and showing no variation between the peaks of gonadal development of males and females. The mean fecundity of mature females was 1,536 oocytes per spawning (n = 17). The feeding habits and reproductive behavior of the species in the study site are similar to those described for where the species is native. Although clearly seasonal, the reproductive period was long, in spite of the low fecundity. These features facilitate the establishment of T. lucenai and make it a good competitor in the new environment.


A new compact low-cost sampling mixer with internal local strobe-pulse generator for (carrierless) ultra-wideband (UWB) applications, especially for sub-sampling of UWB video pulse signals, is presented along with detailed design information. The sampler employs a double-sided planar structure to facilitate interface with the strobe-pulse generator and the baseband circuit without using wire connections or air bridges, enabling hybrid microwave integrated-circuit integration with significant reduction in assembly effort. A novel coupling structure for both coupling and termination of the RF and local-oscillator signals to the Schottky-diode sampling bridge was designed to suppress ringing in the strobe pulse signal, resulting in harmonic-distortion reduction in the baseband output signal. Development of strobe-pulse generators using step recovery diodes for good output power efficiency is also presented along with design information for relatively low clock frequencies. The developed sampler achieves an unprecedented conversion loss of 4.5-7.5 dB (without a baseband amplifier) and conversion gain from 6.5 to 9.5 dB (with an amplifier) over a 5.5-GHz RF bandwidth, a dynamic range of over 50 dB, and low harmonic distortion in the baseband output. A new intrinsic conversion-loss equation that allows the sampler's conversion loss and operating RF bandwidth to be predicted accurately was also derived.


This study seeks to gain a greater understanding of the process of transition and development that secondary physical education beginning teachers undergo during their pre-service year and their first year of teaching. Such an investigation is timely in the light of fundamental government reforms of current government policy that promotes a model of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) that is located in schools rather than higher education and that perceives teaching as a craft that is best learnt as an apprentice (Gove, 2010). This shift towards employment-based routes of ITE allocates universities a marginal position, which will impact on the kind of support they can provide. The research aim is to investigate beginning teachers' journeys through complex landscapes of practice.This longitudinal study takes an interpretive approach to investigate the journey through complex landscapes of practice of thirteen physical education beginning teachers. The qualitative methodology utilises procedures associated with Charmaz's approach to grounded theory. Data were gathered over a two year period by way of 52 semi structured, individual interviews at four points in time, namely at the start of the pre-service programme (September 2008); after the completion of their first placement school (February 2009); at the end of their pre-service programme (June 2009); and at the end of their first year of teaching (May/June 2010). The data were analysed, coded, and categorised, and explanations of theory that emerged were grounded in the data.The findings of this study have four broad sets of implications for the learning journeys of beginning teachers. Beginning teachers need time and space to be able to distance themselves from the practicalities of the school setting, which can be overwhelming in the immediacy of their demands. Both schools and universities need a shared language, so that sameness and continuity can reside in the fact that both sites are concerned with pedagogy and with the learning process of the beginning teachers High quality, structured mentoring I support is paramount in order to ameliorate the inconsistencies that occur during the learning journey. The University's role is key in the preparation of beginning teachers to help them reconcile their personal and professional identities of who they believe they are and who they are aspiring to become.This study highlights the need for policy makers, teacher educators and schools to develop a shared understanding of the complexity of factors that influence the professional learning of beginning teachers and highlights the importance of providing beginning teachers with a (neutral) third space where they can develop the critical capacity to negotiate the competing imperatives confronting them on their learning journey.Thus this study makes a timely and important contribution to the ongoing debate around beginning teachers' professional development and particularly in the current policy context regarding preparation for teaching.


The current study was designed to assess the vocabulary and literacy skills of young children who participated in an authentic literacy practice, i.e., Vivian Paley's "storytelling curriculum," over the course of their respective prekindergarten or kindergarten years. We asked: How do prekindergarten and kindergarten age children, who participate in the storytelling curriculum over the course of the school year, perform on pre- and postmeasures of AGS/Pearson Assessments' Expressive Vocabulary Test (EVT), the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) (3rd ed.) Form IIIA, and Whitehurst's Get Ready to Read!, as compared to those young children in the same grade with similar backgrounds and in the same or similar school settings who did not participate in the storytelling curriculum? Results show that in comparison to same-age children in like settings, participants in the storytelling curriculum showed significant gains in both vocabulary knowledge and literacy skills. These findings underscore the possibility of supporting both beginning and experienced teachers in using authentic literacy activities to prepare children for literacy learning, while maintaining their service to a wide range of other developmental issues. They also call into question the prevailing trend to abandon such classroom practices in favor of a skills-centered approach to curriculum.


This paper compares the performance of transfer pricing and tidy cost allocations in a multiproduct firm in presence of output market competition and production externalities. In absence of competition, tidy cost allocations are creating inefficient allocations within the firm while transfer prices can always be adjusted to replicate the first best solution of the centralized firm. While the second result is well known, the first result draws a parallel to the impossibility of solving the free rider problem in team production by a profit sharing scheme. Under duopolistic competition, transfer prices are still the best accounting rule but the solution depends on the nature of competition on the final product market. When firms compete in prices, the strategic rationale requires to allocate more than the total cost of the congested service to the duopolistic departments. While transfer prices can still be adjusted accordingly, the tidiness requirement prevents the cost allocation scheme from providing the desired strategic incentives to the firms' managers. Under quantity competition, the strategic motive requires to allocate less than the cost of the service to the duopolistic departments. Although a tidy cost allocation scheme does not contradict the required direction of the strategic effect, the optimal allocation is at best found incidentally while the transfer prices can again always be adjusted in an optimal way.


This thesis is concerned with two-dimensional models that are integrable in the presence of a boundary and whose spectrum in the bulk is constituted of massless particles. Although there is already a vast literature on the subject (e.g. Kondo and Callan-Rubakov models), the common minimal denominator in all these situations is the fact that the bulk theory is conformal invariant and it is the boundary that is responsible for the broken scale invariance. Here, our purpose is to consider the alternative situation, where the boundary respects the conformal invariance of the theory and the renormalization group trajectory is controlled by a bulk perturbation. The model in question is the principal chiral model at level k = 1. We propose the set of permissible boundary conditions suggested by the symmetries of the problem and compute the corresponding minimal reflection matrices. For one of the boundary conditions we compute the boundary ground state energy and the boundary entropy using the technique of boundary thermodynamic Bethe ansatz. In the infrared limit our results are shown to be in complete agreement with the predictions of the boundary conformal field theory approach. Finally, we consider the classical supersymmetric Liouville theory on the half-line and compute the boundary conditions compatible with the superconformal invariance. We construct an infinite set of commuting integrals of motion using Lax-pair techniques and discuss some aspects of the quantum theory as well as its relation to the super Korteweg-de Vries equation.


Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate vertical alveolar bone loss 3 months after tooth extraction when a technique of ridge preservation was applied using a particulate demineralized freeze-dried bone allograft 300 - 500 µm associated with platelet concentrates (platelet-rich-fibrin) in the form of gel and membranes. Material and Methods: A retrospective radiological clinical study was conducted on 56 patients for whom 95 extractions had been performed immediately followed by alveolar filling. Among the patients, 17 were smokers and 16 were provided with an immediate removable temporary prosthesis after extractions. Vertical bone loss was measured radiologically by panoramic X-ray before extractions and by a computed tomography scan 3 months after, at the level of mid-buccal bone wall, by two independent observers. For statistical analysis, Student's t-test was performed to compare the mean bone loss between mono- and pluri-radicular teeth and to compare the mean bone loss between tobacco users versus non users and finally to compare the mean bone loss between individuals that had provisional removable prosthesis and those that had not. Results: Three months after tooth extraction, the mean of vertical loss of the mid-buccal bone wall was 0.72 (SD 0.71) mm (5.53% SD 5.19). No significant difference between bone loss at mono-radicular and pluri-radicular teeth (P = 0.982) was observed. There was no significant correlation between tobacco habits and bone loss (P = 0.2), nor between provisional removable prosthesis and bone loss (P = 0.786). Conclusion: These results indicate a good potential for the technique using Demineralized Freeze-Dried Bone Allograft 300 - 500 µm and platelet concentrates in alveolar bone preservation.


Mammalian Notch receptors contain 29–36 epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like repeats that may be modified by protein O-fucosyltransferase 1 (Pofut1), an essential component of the canonical Notch signaling pathway. The Drosophila orthologue Ofut1 is proposed to function as both a chaperone required for stable cell surface expression of Notch and a protein O-fucosyltransferase. Here we investigate these dual roles of Pofut1 in relation to endogenous Notch receptors of Chinese hamster ovary and murine embryonic stem (ES) cells. We show that fucosylation-deficient Lec13 Chinese hamster ovary cells have wild type levels of Pofut1 and cell surface Notch receptors. Nevertheless, they have reduced binding of Notch ligands and low levels of Delta1- and Jagged1-induced Notch signaling. Exogenous fucose but not galactose rescues both ligand binding and Notch signaling. Murine ES cells lacking Pofut1 also have wild type levels of cell surface Notch receptors. However, Pofut1–/– ES cells do not bind Notch ligands or exhibit Notch signaling. Although overexpression of fucosyltransferase-defective Pofut1 R245A in Pofut1–/– cells partially rescues ligand binding and Notch signaling, this effect is not specific. The same rescue is achieved by an unrelated, inactive, endoplasmic reticulum glucosidase. Therefore, mammalian Notch receptors require Pofut1 for the generation of optimally functional Notch receptors, but, in contrast to Drosophila, Pofut1 is not required for stable cell surface expression of Notch. Importantly, we also show that, under certain circumstances, mammalian Notch receptors are capable of signaling in the absence of Pofut1 and O-fucose.


Most of the data collected on the reproduction of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) comes from by-caught or stranded animals and is therefore opportunistic in nature. Harbour porpoises kept in a human-controlled environment offer a unique opportunity to gather data on the same individual with a known history over a long period of time. At Fjord&Baelt in Kerteminde, Denmark, Freja, a 10-y-old female harbour porpoise, became pregnant in September 2005 and gave birth during the night between 24 and 25 July 2006. Routinely sampled parameters, such as food intake, weight, blubber-thickness, body-girth measurements, and respiration rates, did not follow the seasonal patterns observed the preceding years at the facility. These variables either increased or remained stable during the pregnancy. As the first sign of the approaching parturition, a dramatic drop in food intake occurred 8 d prior to her giving birth followed by a decrease in body temperature of 1o C at about 62 h before giving birth. Freja's intermammary distance also increased as the date of the birth approached, although this parameter cannot be used for immediate diagnosis of impending parturition. The newborn calf was found dead a few hours after the birth and appeared to be the result of a full-term gestation. This study describes some observable changes in behavioural, physical, and physiological parameters occurring in a primiparous harbour porpoise during gestation, which could be used in animal husbandry for this species.


Many literatures have shown that needs last longer than any specific solutions, so understanding of customer needs seems a crucial factor in early Product-Service System (PSS) development. Nowadays, many western companies, especially manufacturing focused companies, have realized the difficulty of understanding market needs. In this thesis, a new Value-Driven Needfinding methodology for manufacturing company to apply in certain markets was investigated. To further demonstrate the implementation of the proposed methodology, a case study involving Volvo Construction Equipment exploring value-orient needs in Chinese market is showed. At the end, by providing the scenarios comparison, a PSS conceptual design will be illustrated to show the utilization of the customer needs, then opportunities for company future provision towards sustainability based on early PSS development will be discussed.


Professor David Kettler commented at the time of initial release, that this book is "writing with great poise and clarity, the author says important things in a deceptively simple way about a problem of paramount significance. A fine piece of clarification, blending just the right mixture of respect and impiety toward the important heroes of contemporary political science, this is the kind of book I look forward to having available for our courses in political theory." Ideology, though long pronounced moribund, continues to play a central role in contemporary political inquiry. In this reevaluation of the true function of political science, the author lays down guidelines for the construction of fruitful political interpretations in the large areas where ideological assumptions and claims cannot be adequately tested. He analyzes two representative theories of power in American society-those of the "pluralists" who affirm and the "elitists" who dispute the case for democracy-and demonstrates how personal preferences and group-oriented interests enter into the development of these concepts. Speaking to all social scientists and students engaged in the study of political processes, Connolly details the methods by which the investigator-who inevitably brings his own beliefs and values to the task-can lay bare and control the ideological aspects of his own work and that of others. A critical examination of the writings of some of the leading figures in recent and contemporary political inquiry, such as Karl Mannheim, C. Wright Mills, Robert Dahl, Daniel Bell, and Seymour Martin Lipset leads him to assign a decisive role for the political scientist in the creation of carefully formulated ideologies. An original mind, drawing upon an exceptionally rich store of knowledge, has here produced an important book which will be of immediate-and challenging-relevance to the work and studies of all scholars, graduate students, and majors in the field of government and to all concerned with fundamental problems in social science. William E. Connolly was Professor of Political Science at Ohio University. He has held a Horace Rackham Graduate Fellowship and has taught at the University of Michigan, where he received his undergraduate and graduate training in political and social science. He is currently Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Political Science at John Hopkins University.


Climate change, including its possible causes and consequences, is one of the most controversial and intensely discussed topics of our time. However, European businesses nowadays are less affected by the direct effects of climate change than by its indirect consequences. One central issue that arises in this context is the change in demands imposed by the enterprises' operational environment. This article contributes to environmental innovation literature by providing a comprehensive framework which allows an analysis of the drivers, determinants and outcomes of climate innovations implemented by companies. In this context, the prime issue is how the perception of climate change affects corporate innovation processes. Firstly, the new demands imposed on the company by its stakeholders are considered. Secondly, the innovative reactions to these impulses are captured. Finally, the functions and relevance of certain internal and external determinants in the innovative process are highlighted.


n this study, we present the results of nitrogen deposition on land from a set of 29 simulations from six different tropospheric chemistry models pertaining to present-day and 2100 conditions. Nitrogen deposition refers here to the deposition (wet and dry) of all nitrogen-containing gas phase chemical species resulting from NOx (NO + NO2) emissions. We show that under the assumed IPCC SRES A2 scenario the global annual average nitrogen deposition over land is expected to increase by a factor of ∼2.5, mostly because of the increase in nitrogen emissions. This will significantly expand the areas with annual average deposition exceeding 1 gN/m2/year. Using the results from all models, we have documented the strong linear relationship between models on the fraction of the nitrogen emissions that is deposited, regardless of the emissions (present day or 2100). On average, approximately 70% of the emitted nitrogen is deposited over the landmasses. For present-day conditions the results from this study suggest that the deposition over land ranges between 25 and 40 Tg(N)/year. By 2100, under the A2 scenario, the deposition over the continents is expected to range between 60 and 100 Tg(N)/year. Over forests the deposition is expected to increase from 10 Tg(N)/year to 20 Tg(N)/year. In 2100 the nitrogen deposition changes from changes in the climate account for much less than the changes from increased nitrogen emissions.


PURPOSE
The International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) remains the most commonly used system for risk classification in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDSs). The IPSS gives more weight to blast count than to cytogenetics. However, previous publications suggested that cytogenetics are underweighted in the IPSS. Here we investigate the prognostic impact of cytogenetic subgroups compared with that of bone marrow blast count in a large, multicentric, international patient cohort.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
In total, 2,351 patients with MDS who have records in the German-Austrian and the MD Anderson Cancer Center databases were included and analyzed in univariate and multivariate models regarding overall survival and risk of transformation to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The data were analyzed separately for patients treated with supportive care without specific therapy, with AML-like chemotherapy, or with other therapy regimens (low-dose chemotherapy, demethylating agents, immune modulating agents, valproic acid, and cyclosporine).

RESULTS
The prognostic impact of poor-risk cytogenetic findings (as defined by the IPSS classification) on overall survival was as unfavorable as an increased (> 20%) blast count. The hazard ratio (compared with an abnormal karyotype or a bone marrow blast count < 5%) was 3.3 for poor-risk cytogenetics, 4.8 for complex abnormalities harboring chromosomes 5 and/or 7, and 3.1 for a blast count of 21% to 30% (P < .01 for all categories). The predictive power of the IPSS cytogenetic subgroups was unaffected by type of therapy given.

CONCLUSION
The independent prognostic impact of poor-risk cytogenetics on overall survival is equivalent to the impact of high blast counts. This finding should be considered in the upcoming revision of the IPSS.


A central challenge in data visualization is to understand which data samples are required to generate an image of a data set in which the relevant information is encoded. In this article, we make a first step towards answering the question of whether an artificial neural network can predict where to sample the data with higher or lower density, by learning of correspondences between the data, the sampling patterns and the generated images. We introduce a novel neural rendering pipeline, which is trained end-to-end to generate a sparse adaptive sampling structure from a given low-resolution input image, and reconstructs a high-resolution image from the sparse set of samples. For the first time, to the best of our knowledge, we demonstrate that the selection of structures that are relevant for the final visual representation can be jointly learned together with the reconstruction of this representation from these structures. Therefore, we introduce differentiable sampling and reconstruction stages, which can leverage back-propagation based on supervised losses solely on the final image. We shed light on the adaptive sampling patterns generated by the network pipeline and analyze its use for volume visualization including isosurface and direct volume rendering.


Catholic mission from the mid-20th century onwards was complicated by geopolitical upheaval, church reform, and the emergent critique of the colonial power matrix to which the Church belonged. Missionary movements to Latin America coincided with visions for a progressive, radically transformative church. Landscapes of Liberation expands scholarship into liberation theology's reception in Andean America and critically examines the interplay of the Catholic Church as a global institution with parishes as local actors. Through source material from both sides of the Atlantic, this book charts how a transnational network of pastoral agents and laypeople in Peru's southern highlands claimed mission and development as intertwined tenets of spiritual and social life throughout three decades of agrarian reform, activism, and social conflict. Ultimately, this book reveals how transformative theories for rural development yield contingent transformations: concrete change, yet contested liberation.


Who has not discovered to their dismay that no one wants to read their most carefully crafted, meritorious, compelling, and passionate writings? Think of all the proposals you have written that no one is interested in. Or the web pages, the blog posts, or the company brochures. Chances are, your failures are linked to an inability to connect with what your readers would be interested in reading. Our intrepid writer about writing, Phil Yaffe, offers some valuable insight into how to get people to read your stuff. He says you need to adopt the "expository writing challenge": that no one is interested in what you are inclined to write, therefore you must discover what they want to read. Only then you can get started, and only then you can succeed.


Aim/Purpose The purpose of this exploratory qualitative case study was to understand dissertation chair agency, chair preparation, and academic supports provided by experienced Educational Leadership Ed.D. dissertation chairs in the United States. Background Previous research has identified attrition rates of 50-60 percent in education doctoral programs. This research helps identify the faculty profiles and academic supports provided by Educational Leadership faculty who have served on successful dissertation committees. Understanding these findings may help to improve retention and completion in other doctoral programs. Methodology This was an exploratory qualitative case study. Ten doctoral faculty who have successfully chaired 419 Ed.D. Educational Leadership dissertations at accredited U.S. colleges and universities were interviewed. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Contribution The findings from this study contribute to the body of knowledge on doctoral retention and dissertation completion by providing information on promising practices from the perspective of dissertation chairs. Findings While successful dissertation chairs exhibited expertise as researchers, seven of the ten participants reported that they had limited training for Chair Agency, Chair Preparation, and Academic Supports 112 chairing dissertations. Academic supports included coursework that was organized coherently with a focus on opportunities for substantive feedback, writing support and research methodology. Recommendations for Practitioners Dissertation chairs should utilize their agency to ensure that the program has the proper resources to support doctoral education. This includes adequate writing support for graduate students, courses taught by faculty who are engaged in research and understand the requirements for completing a dissertation, and protecting faculty time so that they are able to provide students substantive feedback within coursework and at the dissertation phase. Recommendation for Researchers Researchers should continue to explore the causes of attrition in doctoral programs and identify specific actions that can be taken to improve program completion rates. Impact on Society Increasingly U.S. institutions of higher learning are being called to validate their success and improve retention rates. Understanding the faculty profiles and academic supports utilized by successful doctoral faculty has the potential to improve retention and thereby increase completion rates and consequentially alleviate the stressors that ABD students experience. Future Research Future research could focus on expanding the findings of this study by exploring the perspectives of faculty based on institution type and examining how socio-emotional factors such as student-student and faculty-student relationships are intentionally established in programs with high graduation rates.


Abstract. Meltwater ion concentration and infiltration rate into frozen soil both decline rapidly as snowmelt progresses. Their temporal association is highly non-linear and a covariance term must be added in order to use time-averaged values of snowmelt ion concentration and infiltration rate to calculate chemical infiltration. The covariance is labelled enhanced ion infiltration and represents the additional ion load that infiltrates due to the timing of high meltwater concentration and infiltration rate. Previous assessment of the impact of enhanced ion infiltration has been theoretical; thus, experiments were carried out to examine whether enhanced infiltration can be recognized in controlled laboratory settings and to what extent its magnitude varies with soil moisture. Three experiments were carried out: dry soil conditions, unsaturated soil conditions, and saturated soil conditions. Chloride solutions were added to the surface of frozen soil columns; the concentration decreased exponentially over time to simulate snow meltwater. Infiltration excess water was collected and its chloride concentration and volume determined. Ion load infiltrating the frozen soil was specified by mass conservation. Results showed that infiltrating ion load increased with decreasing soil moisture as expected; however, the impact of enhanced ion infiltration increased considerably with increasing soil moisture. Enhanced infiltration caused 2.5 times more ion load to infiltrate during saturated conditions than that estimated using time-averaged ion concentrations and infiltration rates alone. For unsaturated conditions, enhanced ion infiltration was reduced to 1.45 and for dry soils to 1.3. Reduction in infiltration excess ion load due to enhanced infiltration increased slightly (2–5%) over time, being greatest for the dry soil (45%) and least for the saturated soil (6%). The importance of timing between high ion concentrations and high infiltration rates was best illustrated in the unsaturated experiment, which showed large inter-column variation in enhanced ion infiltration due to variation in this temporal covariance.


Business transactions are typically recorded in the company ledger. The primary purpose of such financial information is to accompany a monthly or quarterly report for executives to make sound business decisions and strategies for the next business period. These business strategies often result in transitions that cause underlying infrastructures and components to change, including alteration in the nomenclature system of the business components. As a result, a transaction stream of an affected component would be replaced by another stream with a different component name, resulting in discontinuity of a financial stream of the same component. Recently, advancement in large-scale data mining technologies has enabled a set of critical applications to utilize knowledge extracted from a vast amount of existing data that would otherwise have been unused or underutilized. In financial and services computing domains, recent studies have illustrated that historical financial data could be used to predict future revenues and profits, optimizing costs, among other potential applications. These prediction models rely on long-term availability of the historical data that traces back for multiple years. However, the discontinuity of the financial transaction stream associated with a business component has limited the learning capability of the prediction models. In this article, we propose a set of machine learning–based algorithms to automatically discover component name replacements, using information available in general ledger databases. The algorithms are designed to be scalable for handling massive data points, especially in large companies. Furthermore, the proposed algorithms are generalizable to other domains whose data is time series and shares the same nature as the financial data available in business ledgers. A case study of real-world IBM service delivery retrieved from four different geographical regions is used to validate the efficacy of the proposed methodology.


Low-level program analysis is a fundamental problem, taking the shape of "flow analysis" in functional languages and "points-to" analysis in imperative and object-oriented languages. Despite the similarities, the vocabulary and results in the two communities remain largely distinct, with limited cross-understanding. One of the few links is Shivers's k-CFA work, which has advanced the concept of "context-sensitive analysis" and is widely known in both communities.
 Recent results indicate that the relationship between the functional and object-oriented incarnations of k-CFA is not as well understood as thought. Van Horn and Mairson proved k-CFA for k ≥ 1 to be EXPTIME-complete; hence, no polynomial-time algorithm can exist. Yet, there are several polynomial-time formulations of context-sensitive points-to analyses in object-oriented languages. Thus, it seems that functional k-CFA may actually be a profoundly different analysis from object-oriented k-CFA. We resolve this paradox by showing that the exact same specification of k-CFA is polynomial-time for object-oriented languages yet exponential-time for functional ones: objects and closures are subtly different, in a way that interacts crucially with context-sensitivity and complexity. This illumination leads to an immediate payoff: by projecting the object-oriented treatment of objects onto closures, we derive a polynomial-time hierarchy of context-sensitive CFAs for functional programs.


Columnists and social media users commonly stated that terrorist attacks resonate differently in the world and they speculated on some potential reasons such as familiarity, number of victims, and the difference in expectations of a country to be a stage for a terrorist attack to explain this difference. An academic perspective, more specifically a sociological one, is needed to bring light to this debate. In this study, I aimed to understand the discourse after terrorist attacks and to find out if there is a difference between reactions to terrorist attack based on where they happened. This paper embraces a text mining approach to uncover what topics are discussed after four cases of terrorist attacks and to reveal if there is a discrepancy in reactions towards terrorist attacks based on the country they happened. The study consists of two parts. In the first part, the determinants of the public interest and support and how public interest differentiates between different cases of terror attacks is explored. In the second part, topic sentiment analysis is conducted to reveal the nature of the discourse on terrorism. Using the insights from social identity theory, realistic conflict theory and integrated threat theory, I argued that social group categorization in the context of terrorism takes place in a dichotomous manner as Western and Non-Western. This argument, social self-identities being based on 'West vs. the Rest' mentality in the context of terrorism, is supported by the statistical evidence and the topic model. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.


The scope of patentable subject matter has continued to generate fierce debate even after Congress created the Federal Circuit in 1982 to promote uniformity and predictability in the nation's patent laws. (1) Section 101 of the Patent Act of 1952 (Section 101) defines patentable subject matter as "any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter." (2) In 1972, the Supreme Court explained in Gottschalk v. Benson that "[the t]ransformation and reduction of an article 'to a different state or thing' is the clue to the patentability of a process claim that does not include particular machines." (3) In 2008, the Federal Circuit held that Benson's "machine-or-transformation test," was "the sole test governing [section] 101 analyses." (4) Last Term, in Bilski v. Kappos, (5) the Supreme Court rejected both the Federal Circuit's "machine-or-transformation" holding and the suggestion of an alternative categorical ban on business method patents. (6) Instead, the Court denied Bilski's application on the finding that it was an unpatentable abstract idea. (7) Although the Court purported to decide the case narrowly to avoid "impos[ing] limitations on the Patent Act that are inconsistent with the Act's text," (8) the Court's interpretation of Section 101 all but guarantees increased uncertainty in an already convoluted area of patent law because it denies the Federal Circuit the ability to create a clear and predictable patentable subject matter standard and encourages the Federal Circuit to experiment with the doctrine through case-by-case analysis. In the initial patent application Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw filed on April 10, 1997 they described "how buyers and sellers of commodities in the energy market can protect, or hedge, against the risk of price changes." (9) Bilski's invention required only three steps: first, selling commodities to consumers at a fixed rate based on historical averages and corresponding to the risk position of the consumers; second, identifying market participants for that commodity having a counter-risk position to the consumers; and third, initiating a series of transactions between the commodity seller and the market participants at a second fixed rate that balances the risk position of the series of consumer transactions. (10) Bilski's application focused on using this process in energy markets. (11) The patent examiner rejected Bilski's application, stating that because it was not limited to a practical application of the abstract idea of hedging risk, it was not directed to the technological arts. (12) In 2006, the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences affirmed the rejection, concluding that Bilski's application "involved only mental steps that do not transform physical matter and was directed to an abstract idea." (13) In 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard the case en banc and affirmed. (14) The majority opinion rejected the "useful, concrete and tangible result" test that had governed patentable subject matter since Slate Street Bank (15) in 1998. (16) The court held that, "[a] claimed process is surely patent eligible under Section 101 if: (1) it is tied to a particular machine or apparatus, or (2) it transforms a particular article into a different state or thing." (17) According to the court, this "machine-or-transformation test" was "the sole test governing [section] 101 analyses" of patentable processes. (18) Applying the machine-or-transformation test, the court held that Bilski's method claimed nonpatentable subject matter. (19) The Federal Circuit hearing also produced four other opinions, (20) but only one judge concluded that the application claimed only patentable subject matter. (21) The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment (22) in an opinion by Justice Kennedy. (23) Justice Kennedy's opinion purported to defend the plain meaning of Section 101 from efforts to restrict the reach of the patent laws by reading new limitations into the statute. …


MINWii is a music therapy game for the renarcissization of demented patients. It lets players improvise or play songs of their choice by pointing at a virtual keyboard with a Wiimote Pistol. We present the results of a three-month usability study we conducted with 7 institutionalized patients suffering from mild to moderately severe Alzheimer's disease at the LUSAGE Living Lab in Paris. We demonstrate that MINWii is indeed usable by AD patients despite their motor and cognitive impairments: our results, which were largely computed automatically thanks to MINWii's extensive logging capabilities, show either an instant mastery or a clear learning effect depending on patients' cognitive abilities. Moreover, patients were overall very satisfied with the game and expressed a desire to repeat the experience: MINWii fosters positive interaction with the caregivers and elicits powerful reminiscence with even the most severely impaired patients. This study justifies future research to assess the lasting effects of playing MINWii on both quality of life and cognitive impairment in demented patients.


Wildlife trade is a big and burgeoning business, but its welfare impacts have not been studied comprehensively. We review the animal welfare impacts of the wildlife trade as they were reported in the literature between 2006 and 2011. Rarely was the term welfare mentioned, evidence of welfare impact documented, or welfare improvement recommended. Literature focused on mammals and on animals killed on site, for luxury goods or food, and for traditional medicine. Welfare impacts may be underreported, particularly in international, illegal, and wild-caught trade and trade in reptiles. Greater attention should perhaps be paid to the welfare of animals traded alive and in larger numbers (e.g., birds, reptiles, amphibians) and to those—including mammals—potentially subject to greater impacts through live use (e.g., as pets). More evidence-based research is needed. Animal welfare should be integrated with wider issues; collaboration between conservationists and welfarists and the development of health and welfare levers to influence trade offer benefits to both people and wildlife.


This second issue of the Journal of Learning Analytics in 2017 is the first edited by the full new journal editorial team. As the baton is passed on, we would like to thank the founding editors for their work initiating the journal and nurturing its development over the past several years. We look forward to continuing that tradition of excellence. This issue includes four research paper contributions, and a special section on the 'Shape of Educational Data'. This editorial is also an opportunity for us to reflect on the development of the journal so far, and describe some changes we are making to continue the expansion and maturation of a growing community of learning analytics researchers and practitioners.