Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is a well established and
versatile technique for the elemental analysis of a wide spectrum of samples. For a
majority of the elements that can be analysed by ICP-MS limits of detection in the
order of sub ng 1 1 levels can be attained. However, a number of these elements have
problems associated with them that lead to a restriction of the limits of detection that
can be achieved. Phosphorus and Sulphur are two such elements that exhibit poorer
limits of detection, the improvement of which would be highly desirable to the ICPMS
analyst.
Six methods for the measurement of 31p and 32S isotopes have been developed with
the aim of avoiding the spectroscopic interferences at the native m/z ratios of 31 and
32 respectively. These approaches have utilised a hexapole collision cell, a 'cold/cool
plasma' and an experimental ICP torch bonnet. Via the collision cell and 'cold/cool
plasma' approaches the isotopes of interest were either converted to different species
for successful measurement at an alternative m/z ratio or interfering species were
removed allowing measurement at the native m/z. Limits of detection achieved by
these approaches were comparable with those quoted in the literature and by ICP-MS
instrument manufacturers. The approach using the torch bonnet was not successful in
attenuating spectroscopic interferences; however, it did show potential for continuing
as an area of research. The development of these six methods is discussed in Chapter
2.
As an application of the successful methods developed for the measurement Of 31p and
328 isotopes, DNA (and its associated components) was selected for study as this biomolecule
is comprised of approximately IO % phosphorus. DNA in solution was
successfully quantified by these methods and DNA components, studied during
polymerase chain reaction processes and in single nucleotide polymorphisms, were
qualified. The application of these methods to the study of DNA and its components
is discussed in Chapter 3.

As part of a collaboration between the Loughborough University Atomic
Spectroscopy Research Group and the Cancer Biomarkers and Prevention Group at
the University of Leicester, ICP-MS was employed in the investigation of the
interactions between two Pt based anti-cancer drugs (cisplatin and oxaliplatin) and
their biological target DNA. For this collaboration, DNA was the interest common to
both groups. The interaction of each of these drugs with known quantities of DNA
was measured by ICP-MS and binding constant data was calculated for use as the
basis of a clinical test for drug efficacy in cancer patients. The binding constant data
showed that the interaction between drug and target is particularly inefficient. This
area of research is discussed in Chapter 4.
The potential for ICP-MS interface modification was also explored. Two modified
designs are discussed that may prove to be advantageous for the transport of ions
between the atmospheric pressure conditions of the ICP ion source and the vacuum
conditions of the mass spectrometer. One of these designs was successfully
manufactured and produced positive data. Research into this design is being furthered
by the Thermo Electron Corporation, the discussion of which is in Chapter 5.
A further collaboration was established with both the Biomaterials-related Infection
Group of the School of Medical and Surgical Sciences and the Polymer Group of the
School of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of
Nottingham. Here ICP-MS was employed in the measurement of silver leaching from
a silver nano-particle impregnated polymer material that could be used in the
production of catheters. Silver leaching from a catheter is potentially desirable due to
its anti-microbial properties. The study of this leaching revealed that significant
quantities of silver were being transferred from the polymer into surrounding human
serum media over the period of seven days and beyond. For the most part this work
was routine ICP-MS measurement, and did not involve research or development, so
does not take part in the main body of this thesis. This work is discussed in Appendix
5.


Abstract Fixed nitrogen in illite-smectites (I-S) has been measured for Miocene shales from a Gulf of Mexico oil well. Fixed N values for the <0.2 μm fraction increase with depth from 150 ppm (1000 m) to a maximum of 360 ppm (3841 m). This increase is coincident with illitization from 41% I in I-S to 75% I in I-S. Below 3841 m, fixed N values decrease to 190 ppm (4116 m) while I-S is maintained with a slight increase from 77 to 82%. The changes in fixed N with increasing illitization are consistent with the notion that illitization proceeds via both transformation and dissolution/ precipitation reaction mechanisms. The trend of decreasing fixed N in illitic I-S is compatible with surface-controlled crystal growth and Ostwald ripening mechanisms for illitization. The trend may also be linked to the timing of maximum NH4+ release from kerogen maturation during oil generation. The changing rate of NH4+; liberation from organic matter and multiple illitization reaction mechanisms can result in complex N geochemical cycling pathways throughout early diagenesis to metamorphism.


Background Lassa fever is a viral haemorrhagic illness responsible for disease outbreaks across West Africa. It is a zoonosis, with the primary reservoir species identified as the Natal multimammate mouse, Mastomys natalensis. The host is distributed across sub-Saharan Africa while the virus' range appears to be restricted to West Africa. The majority of infections result from interactions between the animal reservoir and human populations, although secondary transmission between humans can occur, particularly in hospital settings. Methods Using a species distribution model, the locations of confirmed human and animal infections with Lassa virus (LASV) were used to generate a probabilistic surface of zoonotic transmission potential across sub-Saharan Africa. Results Our results predict that 37.7 million people in 14 countries, across much of West Africa, live in areas where conditions are suitable for zoonotic transmission of LASV. Four of these countries, where at-risk populations are predicted, have yet to report any cases of Lassa fever. Conclusions These maps act as a spatial guide for future surveillance activities to better characterise the geographical distribution of the disease and understand the anthropological, virological and zoological interactions necessary for viral transmission. Combining this zoonotic niche map with detailed patient travel histories can aid differential diagnoses of febrile illnesses, enabling a more rapid response in providing care and reducing the risk of onward transmission.


This article explored the perspectives of 25 patients regarding virtual reality (VR)-based rehabilitation following knee surgery and identified the important factors that allowed patients to immerse themselves in rehabilitation. Qualitative analysis of data collected via open-ended questionnaire and quantitative analysis of data from physical assessments and surveys were conducted. In the open-ended questionnaire, the majority of participants mentioned level of difficulty as the most common reason for selecting both the most and the least immersive exercise programs. Quantitative analysis showed that participants experienced a high level of flow (3.9 +/- 0.3 out of 5.0) and a high rate of expectation of therapeutic effect (96%) and intention of exercise adherence (96%). Further, participants with more severe pain or physical dysfunction tended to have more positive experiences (e.g., Difficulty-Skill Balance, Clear Goals, and Transformation of Time), leading to high levels of flow during VR-based rehabilitation. In conclusion, VR-based games are potentially acceptable as a motivational rehabilitation tool for patients following knee surgery. However, to best meet patients' needs, it might be useful to equip a VR program with varied levels of difficulty, taking into account the severity of the individual's knee injury. Additionally, severe pain or physical dysfunction might act as an indication rather than a contraindication for VR-based rehabilitation.


To work against threats and to obtain new possibilities, new forms of inter-organizational collaborations are formed. Established models of organizational control are insufficient to cope with the management of such complex situations. In inter-organizations there is also a need to foresee and act upon future events. The management literature deals mainly with one single organization although aspects of collaborative processes are discussed. The human challenges of virtual team membership are: Creating effective team leadership; Managing conflict and global virtual teams dynamics; Developing trust and relationships; Understanding cross-cultural differences; Developing intercultural communication competence. Organizational learning is recommended as a tool to in the first place develop an intercultural communication competence, but also as a complement to learn more about each other. To develop organizational learning within an organization has shown to be successful. The question is how to transfer the concept to inter-organizations. The viability of an inter-organization is depending on the ability to work as a team, learn from each other and adapt to new situations. To maintain and develop the knowledge and to prevent conflicts and misunderstanding organizational learning is an excellent approach. New or adapted models suited for inter-organizations needs to be produced. In this paper problems and possibilities with inter-organizational management and organizational learning are discussed.


According to the National Federation of the Blind, there are an estimated 10 million people in the United States who are visually impaired. Of these, 1.3 million are legally blind. Many people with extreme vision loss receive orientation and mobility training in order to help them learn skills that allow them to travel and navigate multiple types of indoor and outdoor environments. Even with this training, a fundamental problem these people face is learning new routes, especially in environments with which they are not familiar. Although the research community has developed a number of localization and navigation aids that are meant to provide navigation assistance, only a handful have reached the marketplace, and the adoption rate for these devices remains low.
Most assistive navigation devices take responsibility for the navigation and localization processes, leaving the user only to respond to the devices' commands. This thesis takes a different approach and proposes that because of the high level of navigation ability achieved through years of training and everyday travel, the navigation skills of people with visual impairments should be considered an integral part of the navigation system. People with visual impairments are capable of following natural language instructions similar to those given by a visually impaired person communicating route directions over the phone to another person with visual impairments. Devices based on this premise can be built, delivering only verbal route descriptions. As a result, it is not necessary to install complex sensors in the environment.
This thesis has four hypotheses that are addressed by two systems. The first hypothesis is that a navigational assistance system for the blind can leverage the skills and abilities of the visually impaired, and does not necessarily need complex sensors embedded in the environment to succeed. The second hypothesis is that verbal route descriptions are adequate for guiding a person with visual impairments when shopping in a supermarket for products located in aisles on shelves. These two hypotheses are addressed by ShopTalk, a system which helps blind users shop independently in a grocery store using verbal route descriptions.
The third hypothesis is that information extraction techniques can be used to extract landmarks from natural language route descriptions. The fourth and final hypothesis is that new natural language route descriptions can be inferred from a set of landmarks and a set of natural language route descriptions whose statements have been tagged with landmarks from the landmark set. These two hypotheses are addressed by the Route Analysis Engine, an information extraction-based system for analyzing natural language route descriptions.


Sustainable energy from wind and solar is most readily available near the sea. Seawater electrolysis would thus be a highly promising method for intermittently storing surplus electricity from these sources, in the form of hydrogen. Unfortunately, the direct use of seawater in electrolysers brings with it a selectivity problem, caused by the chloride salts in such water. Instead of forming oxygen at the anode, which is environmentally harmless and thus the desired product, the formation of toxic chlorine becomes possible in seawater, and this reaction has to be avoided. This thesis is focussed on how the anodic evolution of oxygen and chlorine compete, and how selectivity between these two reactions may be optimized for the benefit of seawater electrolysis, and electrocatalysis in general.


Terminal coalgebras for a functor serve as semantic domains for state-based systems of various types. For example, behaviors of CCS processes, streams, infinite trees, formal languages and non-well-founded sets form terminal coalgebras. We present a uniform account of the semantics of recursive definitions in terminal coalgebras by combining two ideas: (1) abstract GSOS rules l specify additional algebraic operations on a terminal coalgebra; (2) terminal coalgebras are also initial completely iterative algebras (cias). We also show that an abstract GSOS rule leads to new extended cia structures on the terminal coalgebra. Then we formalize recursive function definitions involving given operations specified by l as recursive program schemes for l, and we prove that unique solutions exist in the extended cias. From our results it follows that the solutions of recursive (function) definitions in terminal coalgebras may be used in subsequent recursive definitions which still have unique solutions. We call this principle modularity. We illustrate our results by the five concrete terminal coalgebras mentioned above, e.\,g., a finite stream circuit defines a unique stream function.


As large-scale display and multi-touch technologies become more affordable, the market has seen the development of multi-touch walls. This new medium offers a unique mix of information density, direct interactivity and collaboration support, and the new features have radical effects on interaction design. Here we explore some research issues together with proposed solutions and some design suggestions, based on our own approach to three areas of interaction design: multi-touch input, user interface and co-located collaboration.


After looking at a photograph of someone, an average face can appear 'opposite' in gender, identity, and other attributes - but what happens to the appearance of other faces? Face aftereffects have repeatedly been ascribed to perceptual re-normalisation. According to this account, the adapting face, and more exaggerated versions of it, should appear more neutral, a pattern linked to adaptation within norm-based opponent channels. Other spatial aftereffects (e.g. tilt and spatial frequency) have a locally-repulsive pattern, in which differences between adapting and test stimuli are exaggerated, with little change to the adaptor's appearance. This pattern has been linked to multi-channel encoding schemes. Existing face aftereffect reports do not provide clear evidence for either pattern, because most quantify the aftereffect as a shift in a category boundary during a binary classification task. Such tasks are sensitive only to changes in the appearance of near-neutral stimuli, for which re-normalising and locally-repulsive aftereffects make the same prediction. We overcome this problem by using a spatial comparison task to measure the relative aftereffect induced between two differently-adapted retinal locations. By interleaving three standard stimuli, we are able to measure the relative aftereffect at three points: each of the two adapted values, and mid-way between them on the stimulus dimension. In our experiments, re-normalisation should manifest as the same magnitude and direction of relative aftereffect at all three standard values. Local repulsion should manifest as a larger relative aftereffect at the central standard value than either of the adapted standard values. In behaviourally-matched experiments we compared aftereffect patterns after adapting to tilt, facial identity, and facial gender. In all three experiments, data matched the predictions of a locally-repulsive but not a re-normalising aftereffect. Data are consistent with there being similar encoding strategies for tilt, identity, and gender, likely involving multiple channels with no unique norms. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


We present a general theory of atom guiding in a blue-detuned hollow laser beam. Using the dressed-atom approach, we obtain the mean dipole gradient force, the radiation pressure force, and the momentum diffusion coefficients for three-level Λ-type cold atoms. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we calculate the guiding efficiencies and the final velocity distributions of atoms for various conditions. We find that the guiding efficiency depends not only on the intensity and detuning of the guiding hollow beam but also on the atom-guiding direction with respect to the propagation direction of the hollow laser beam. Comparing our analyses with recent experimental results, we find that they are mutually consistent. The results that we present can also be applied to atom guiding by hollow optical fibers.


Abstract : Although the consequences of global climate change may seem to be the stuff of Hollywood--some imagined, dystopian future--the melting ice of the Arctic, the spreading deserts of Africa, and the swamping of low lying lands are all too real. We already live in an "age of consequences," one that will increasingly be defined by the intersection of climate change and the security of nations. For the past year a diverse group of experts, under the direction and leadership of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), met regularly to start a new conversation to consider the potential future foreign policy and national security implications of climate change. The group consisted of nationally recognized leaders in the fields of climate science, foreign policy, political science, oceanography, history, and national security.


Deep learning-based codecs for lossy image compression have recently managed to surpass traditional codecs like JPEG and JPEG 2000 in terms of rate-distortion trade-off. However, they generally utilize architectures with large numbers of stacked layers, often making their inference execution prohibitively slow for time-sensitive applications. In this work, we assess the suitability of such compression techniques in real-time video streaming, and, more specifically, next-generation interactive tele-presence applications, which impose stringent latency requirements. To that end, we compare a recently published work on image compression based on convolutional neural networks which achieves state-of-the-art compression ratio using a relatively lightweight architecture, against a CPU and a GPU implementation of JPEG, measuring compression ratios and timings. With these results, we run a simulation of a tele-immersion pipeline for various networking conditions and examine the performance of the compared codecs, calculating framerates and latencies for different codec/network combinations.


Recent advances in machine learning and adaptive motor control have enabled efficient techniques for online learning of stationary plant dynamics and it's use for robust predictive control. However, in realistic domains, system dynamics often change based on unobserved external contexts such as work load or contact conditions with other objects. Previous multiple model approaches to solving this problem are restricted to finite, discrete contexts without any generalization and have been tested only on linear systems. We present a framework for estimation of context through hidden latent variable extraction - solely from experienced (non-linear) dynamics. This work refines the multiple model formalism to bootstrap context separation from context-unlabeled data and enables simultaneous online context estimation, dynamics learning and control based on a consistent probabilistic formulation. Most importantly, it extends the framework to a continuous latent model representation of context under specific assumptions of load distribution


As most metabolic studies are conducted in male animals, understanding the sex specificity of the underlying molecular pathways has been broadly neglected; for example, whether PPARs elicit sex-dependent responses has not been determined. Here we show that in mice, PPARalpha has broad female-dependent repressive actions on hepatic genes involved in steroid metabolism and immunity. In male mice, this effect was reproduced by the administration of a synthetic PPARalpha ligand. Using the steroid oxysterol 7alpha-hydroxylase cytochrome P4507b1 (Cyp7b1) gene as a model, we elucidated the molecular mechanism of this sex-specific PPARalpha-dependent repression. Initial sumoylation of the ligand-binding domain of PPARalpha triggered the interaction of PPARalpha with GA-binding protein alpha (GABPalpha) bound to the target Cyp7b1 promoter. Histone deacetylase and DNA and histone methylases were then recruited, and the adjacent Sp1-binding site and histones were methylated. These events resulted in loss of Sp1-stimulated expression and thus downregulation of Cyp7b1. Physiologically, this repression conferred on female mice protection against estrogen-induced intrahepatic cholestasis, the most common hepatic disease during pregnancy, suggesting a therapeutic target for prevention of this disease.


The document, Reference Points for the Design and Delivery of Degree Programmes in Linguistics, is an attempt to chart the main characteristics of linguistics as an academic discipline practised in universities across Europe, and to articulate the main features of degree programmes in linguistics and related areas of study. Modern linguistics is distinguished by an emphasis on the highly structured nature of language and linguistic behaviour and the development of a range of discipline specific methodologies to elucidate these structures from a formalist or functionalist perspective. Moreover, a range of viewpoints on language emerge from formal, sociological and psychological perspectives, as well as from practical concerns such as language teaching. Because of this, much of linguistics is interdisciplinary in both the issues it addresses and the methodologies brought to bear. Linguistics is thus represented in the document as including a vital core of the systematic, theoretical and empirical study of the structure, function and use of language in all its forms (spoken, written and signed), along with sub-disciplines that apply this structured perspective to questions of language acquisition, language production and processing and language variation and change. In addition to these sub-disciplines of linguistics, it is recognized that a linguistic perspective may be applied to the analysis of language in the context of other areas of human activity (inter alia: technology; education; translation; intercultural communication; language disorders). The present document is thus, by definition, a very broad-based account of academic practice in our field of study. It is not meant to provide a checklist of academic standards, but rather to capture the vital core of linguistics as a subject area whilst also allowing for the diversity in curriculum design that stems from the variability in perspective, emphasis and degrees of specialisation evident in different institutional contexts as well as different national contexts. In this sense, our document is descriptive and aspirational rather than prescriptive.The document has been prepared by a team of experts from across Europe, representing a broad spectrum of academic specialisms and a diversity of cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and operating both within their specific cultural and academic traditions and across political and linguistic boundaries in international and transnational contexts. The composition of the team has ensured that our work has been informed by a broad range of subject expertise as well as by practical experience of academia at different levels and in a variety of political, cultural, and educational contexts; at the same time, however, if you have any comments, please direct them to Ingrid van der Meer ( email@example.com).


The article deals with the research of the influence of selected technological parameters of die casting on the internal structure of die-casts based on Al-Si alloys. Among the chosen technological parameters of die casting is pressing piston speed and holding pressure. Examined castings internal structure is defined by the percentage of porosity. The article described the course design and preparation of metallographic samples to be investigated by optical microscopy. The measured values are given in tabular and graphical form. At the end of the evaluation is shown the impact of individual parameters on the internal structure and quality of the castings.


The Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) regime stands on shaky ground. Its legitimacy is heavily questioned by critics and a "backlash debate" has ensued. As a result, a contested and infected debate has been on-going for some years now and multiple reform proposals have been offered, ranging from (a) moderate (and sensible) reform proposals—e.g., increased transparency; the inclusion of state counterclaims; the inclusion of higher ethical standards; reformulating deference standards; applying human rights and environmental law when interpreting international investment treaties; etc.—to more (b) radical reform proposals—e.g., the elaboration of either an Appellate System or an Investment Court System (ICS). Such latter proposals are radical because they seek the total re-designing of the entire ISDS regime. It is argued that these radical proposals ultimately seek to undercut the fundamental elements of international arbitration in favor of a supposedly "fairer" and more "just" system. The proponents of these "equitable" reforms seek to dismantle ISDS as we know it. It is submitted that all reform proposals are best analyzed through the lens of the mental representation of the stakeholders to the ISDS regime, namely, the essential actors; service providers; value providers; and the global community at large. But what interests should be preserved and further enhanced? This paper makes several points, inter alia, (1) that the contemporary criticism is not a new phenomenon and that we must emphatically reject the spill-overs of extreme left-leaning ideology, nationalism, protectionism, idiosyncrasy, parochialism, and populism in transnational litigation; (2) that moderate reformproposals merit attention if—and only if—those further the fundamental elements of international arbitration, and conversely, rejected if not; (3) that the way, shape, and form of ISDS must be analyzed through the lens of its historical and * Adjunct Professor, Penn State Law. Managing Partner, DER Legal, Stockholm. Ph.D. Candidate (University of Edinburgh). Many thanks to my mentor, friend, and role-model Professor William F. Fox. A note of appreciation to my former research assistant, Harsh Manohar. Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business 41:273 (2021) 274 philosophical underpinning; and (4) that every stakeholder's claim must be heard, but that in the sociology of ISDS there should be a hierarchal structure deciding the validity (or normative value) of each claim depending on the stakeholders overall positioning in the regime. Finally, the ISDS-reform discussions should be conducted in a manner that underscores broader historical, economic, political, philosophical, and sociological lessons of the project called "transnationalism," which happens to be a brainchild of liberal capitalism. Investor State Dispute Settlement 41:273 (2021) 275 TABLE OF CONTENTS


Innovation is considered to be necessary for economic development and global competitiveness. An approach to understanding the innovation process, known as Systems of Innovation, or Innovation Systems, has developed since the 1980s in an attempt to understand, explain and encourage innovation at national, regional, sectoral and technological levels. These approaches have been used to develop policy, but less effort has been made to apply these approaches to the work of the researcher, technologist and practitioner who conduct research and apply the results in the hope that innovation will result. The sectoral and technological systems approaches were selected to analyse the innovation performance of food safety projects in the Australian red meat industry.
This study aimed to determine the value of applying sectoral and technological system failure frameworks at the level of individual projects. The frameworks were constructed as theories, so that they could be tested. The primary research question was whether the theories were able to explain the ability of research to lead to innovation. This study further considered the performance of the innovation system as a whole and the role of the actors in the innovation system.
This study utilised a multiple case study design, collecting data through surveys of people involved in past research and development projects. The principal method of data analysis was fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), which is suited to the analysis of case study data.
Both the sectoral and technological system frameworks were able to explain the success or failure of projects to lead to an innovation outcome. Projects that did not lead to an innovation outcome had weak elements in both system frameworks. No obvious correlation between the elements of one framework and the other were noted. Analysis of multiple cases of poor innovation system performance revealed that the same elements from each framework were recurrently weak. A detailed analysis of the interactions between actors in this system established the central role played by the intermediary, the research and development corporation charged with managing the projects.
The findings have implications for theory, method, policy and practice. This study has provided evidence that both system failure frameworks include factors significant to predicting innovation failure at the project level. Furthermore, these innovation system frameworks describe a system that operates in a consistent way from project to project. The importance of intermediary functions to innovation system performance is demonstrated. At a methodological level, the work has demonstrated the use of QCA methods for the construction and testing of theory. Consideration has been given to how QCA can be applied to the validation of a measurement system for case study analysis. At the policy level, it is suggested that innovation system failure frameworks could be applied to the design of innovation projects to increase the chance of a successful outcome. The consolidation of the two failure frameworks into one may benefit the design and management of projects at the intersection of sectoral and technological innovation systems. At the level of practice, this study suggests that innovation system frameworks may provide managers with important insights and guidance for managing innovation projects and that fulfilling the functions of an intermediary may increase the likelihood of an innovation outcome.


Chondritic meteorites primarily contain millimeter-sized spherical objects, chondrules; however, the co-accretion process of chondrules and matrix grains is not yet understood. In this study, we investigate the ejection process of chondrules via collisions of fluffy aggregates composed of chondrules and matrices. We reveal that fluffy aggregates cannot grow into planetesimals without losing chondrules if we assume that the chondrite parent bodies are formed via direct aggregation of similar-sized aggregates. Therefore, an examination of other growth pathways is necessary to explain the formation of rocky planetesimals in our solar system.


This report evaluates the third exercise of the Expanded Project Supervision Reports (XPSRs), prepared by the Structured and Corporate Finance Department (SCF). The exercise represents a step toward full compliance with the Evaluation Cooperation Group's (ECG) guidelines, which require the validation of the XPSRs the same year they reached Early Operational Maturity (EOM). Based on the agreed schedule between OVE and SCF, this goal should be achieved by the end of 2011. This exercise implies the preparation of 13 XPSRs for all projects that reached EOM in 2008 and 2009. According to this agreed schedule, two additional exercises will be conducted by the end of 2011, one for projects that reached EOM in 2010 and another for projects that will reach EOM in 2011.
This report presents the main findings and conclusions from the evaluation exercise. Some specific financial, business or proprietary information has been edited, in compliance with the Bank's Access to Information Policy.


The dopamine D4 receptor in prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a key role in normal mental functions and neuropsychiatric disorders. However, the cellular mechanisms and physiological actions of D4 receptors remain elusive. In this study, we found that activation of D4 receptors in PFC exerts a complex regulation of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), a multifunctional enzyme critically involved in synaptic plasticity that is fundamental for cognitive and emotional processes. In PFC slices with high neuronal activity, application of the D4 receptor agonist [4-phenylpiperazinyl)-methyl]benzamide (PD168077) produced a potent reduction of the CaMKII activity, whereas in PFC slices with low neuronal activity, PD168077 caused a marked increase of the CaMKII activity. The D4 up-regulation of CaMKII activity was through the stimulation of phospholipase C pathway and elevation of intracellular Ca2+ via ionsitol-1,4,5-triphosphate receptors. These results reveal a bidirectional regulation of CaMKII activity by PFC D4 receptors in response to changes in neuronal activity, and a nonclassic signaling pathway underlying the D4 up-regulation of CaMKII activity. This modulation provides a unique and flexible mechanism for D4 receptors to regulate CaMKII activity, which could lead to dynamic regulation of many targets of CaMKII by D4 receptors.


This article was written as part of the curriculum for the Bachelor of Music in Music Management and the Bachelor of Science in Music Industry Studies at University of the Pacific. Each student conducted research based on his or her own areas of interest and study. To learn more about the program, visit: go.pacific.edu/musicindustry Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/backstage-pass


The principal findings of experimental economics are that impersonal exchange in markets converges in repeated interaction to the equilibrium states implied by economic theory, under information conditions far weaker than specified in the theory. In personal, social, and economic exchange, as studied in two-person games, cooperation exceeds the prediction of traditional game theory. This book relates these two findings to field studies and applications and integrates them with the main themes of the Scottish Enlightenment and with the thoughts of F. A. Hayek: through emergent socio-economic institutions and cultural norms, people achieve ends that are unintended and poorly understood. In cultural changes, the role of constructivism, or reason, is to provide variation, and the role of ecological processes is to select the norms and institutions that serve the fitness needs of societies.


The clearing of woodland to eradicate the tsetse fly in the Babati district, Tanzania, was a governmental initiative. The clearings were mainly carried out in the mid 20th century and managed to reduce the tsetse fly by a great amount. The clearings opened up remote areas and made it possible to access areas that had previously been unavailable for humans. The clearing also had an enormous impact on the environment. This is a case study on five different areas in the Babati district that have all been subjected to tsetse clearings. The studied areas are Bonga, Kiru Erri Kiru Valley, Magugu and Mamire. The fieldwork consisted of semi-structured interviews and transect walks. The purpose was to study if the clearings have had any influence over the spreading of agriculture land that were not cultivated before and to inquire into the most significant environmental impact that the clearings had. Different outcome in agriculture land spreading due to the clearings could be seen in the five studied areas. In Bonga and Kiru Valley no agriculture started after the clearings, but in Kiru Erri, Magugu and Mamire some of cleared land is nowadays used for agriculture. The result of the fieldwork indicates that the clearings have had noticeable influence over the spreading of agriculture land but there were also other important driving forces. These were increase in population, land degradation, land shortages and the politic agenda. The most important negative environmental impact due to the clearings was erosion.


Over the past 25 years in the United States, enforcement of drug prohibition has expanded dramatically. Over the same period, however, the trends in drug production and consumption have been essentially flat, and the real, purityadjusted prices of both cocaine and heroin have more than halved. This combination of facts raises questions about the effectiveness of prohibition enforcement, and it constitutes a puzzle that is interesting to explain. In this paper the authors document these facts and explore possible explanations. They do not claim to provide a complete answer, but shed light on which explanations are likely to be important.


Crosslinguistic influence has been seen in bilingual adult and child learners when compared to monolingual learners. For speakers of Light Warlpiri and Gurindji Kriol there is no monolingual group for comparison, yet crosslinguistic influence can be seen in how the speakers resolve competition between case-marking and word order systems in each language. Light Warlpiri and Gurindji Kriol are two new Australian mixed languages, spoken in similar, yet slightly different, sociolinguistic contexts, and with similar, yet slightly different, argument marking systems. The different sociolinguistic situations and systems of argument marking lead to a difference in how speakers of each language interpret simple transitive sentences in a comprehension task. Light Warlpiri speakers rely on ergative case-marking as an indicator of agents more often than Gurindji Kriol speakers do. Conversely, Gurindji Kriol speakers rely on word order more often than Light Warlpiri speakers do.


This paper examines the effects of monetary policy in Australia using a small structural vector autoregression model. The model we use is a modification of the small open economy model developed for the G6 economies (the G7 less the United States) by Kim and Roubini (1999). The success of the Kim and Roubini model across these economies makes it a natural starting point to analyse monetary policy in Australia. Consistent with Kim and Roubini, we find no evidence of the price or exchange rate puzzles identified in the literature. We demonstrate that, in the Australian context, modelling the interdependence between the domestic interest rate, the foreign interest rate and the nominal exchange rate is critical to resolving these puzzles. Further, we demonstrate that the Kim and Roubini model can be further usefully refined when applied to the Australian data. We use the model to perform various monetary policy experiments and the results of these experiments accord well with both the existing SVAR literature and previous empirical work for Australia. We find that monetary policy shocks have a delayed and gradual effect on the price level and a small temporary effect on output. We also use the model to examine the effects of shocks to the Australian economy and the role of monetary policy in response to these shocks. Generally, we find that monetary policy has served to dampen both output and price fluctuations. A qualifying aspect of our results is the model's instability, for example, around the most recent change in the implementation of monetary policy in Australia.


Following Justice Kennedy's retirement and the bitter fight over Justice Kavanaugh's confirmation, increasingly polarized views about constitutional law in general, and specific constitutional cases in particular, threaten to undermine courts' legitimacy, degrade their institutional capacity, and weaken public support for important civil liberties.

To help mitigate these risks, this essay proposes that judges subscribe to an ethos of "symmetric constitutionalism." Within the limits of controlling considerations of text, structure, history, precedent, and practice, courts in our polarized era should lean towards outcomes, doctrines, and rationales that confer valuable protections across both sides of the nation's major political divides, and away from those that frame constitutional law as a matter of zero-sum competition between competing partisan visions. In other words, courts should aspire to craft a constitutional law with cross-partisan appeal, avoiding when possible interpretations that favor one ideological position without possible benefit to others.

Reflecting on several cases from Justice Kennedy's last term, including Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, this essay explores what subscribing to such an ethos might mean in practice. It also considers what critical purchase a preference for symmetry might offer in several controversial areas, including freedom of expression, structural constitutional law, equal protection, gun rights, and substantive due process.


Theories of globalisation focusing on the intensification of transnational flows of people, capital and ideas appear to challenge the hitherto local forms of solidarity. At the same time, international crises, ethnic conflicts and an emerging interest in multiculturalism have rendered cosmopolitanism as a form of global solidarity an appealing ideal and social project. This promise of cosmopolitanism as a claim about global belonging and solidarity has attracted as many critics as it has advocates. This paper will attempt to defend cosmopolitanism as an emerging reality and will suggest its exploration in relation to global media and communications. It will argue that cosmopolitanism should be thought about and explored as a process "from below" rather than a project "from above". In this process, media constitute a significant force in forging relations of connectivity and responsibility towards distant others. This is especially the case in the coverage of disasters at a global scale, when audiences are faced with the vulnerability of distant others. The paper will be empirically grounded on a study of Greek audiences in relation to media coverage of distant disasters. It will draw upon material from focus group discussions on the ways people relate to different instances of distant suffering and their victims. Cosmopolitanism as a form of global solidarity, it will be argued, is a rather elusive and vulnerable condition, heavily dependent on media representational practices and conditioned by cultural biases and interpretations. It is, however, an emergent possibility, expressed in terms of responsibility for distant others and of imagining the globe as a terrain of potential action.


This work consists on the improvement of first surface silvered thick glass mirrors. Several types of CSP mirrors based on different Physical Vapor Deposition techniques (PVD) and the presence or absence of the copper protective back layer were prepared: ([Ag Sputtered], [Ag Evaporated], [Cu Sputtered-Ag Evaporated], [Cu Evaporated-Ag Sputtered], [Cu Evaporated-Ag Evaporated] and [Cu Sputtered-Ag Sputtered]). The UV-VIS-NIR measurements have shown that the different combinations of Silvered mirrors have approximately the same Specular Reflectance. The mirrors with the Copper back protective layer were chosen as the optimal mirror combinations since the [Ag-Evaporated] and the [Ag-Sputtered] mirrors presented stability and adhesion problems during the top protective layer deposition process. A transparent Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3) protective layer was deposited on top of the selected mirrors using Dip-coating and Ion Layer Gas Reaction (Spray-ILGAR) deposition techniques. After the deposition of the protective layer, the optical properties, thickness, composition and surface morphology of the mirrors were tested. The results showed that the Specular Reflectance decreased after the deposition of Al2O3 layer by Dip-coating technique. On the other hand, an improvement in the Specular Reflectance of the [Cu Sputtered-Ag Sputtered] mirror was noticed after the deposition of Al2O3 with the ILGAR technique. An increase in the diffuse reflectance after the deposition of the Al2O3 protective layer by ILGAR method was also observed, this can be explained by the presence of some roughness on the surface of the mirror, which was confirmed by the SEM pictures. From these results, it can be concluded that the Al2O3 protective layer deposition by ILGAR technique is a very promising technique since enhances the specular reflectance of the mirrors. The final prepared mirror combination is composed of thick glass substrate, covered with a metal back layer of Sputtered Copper (50 nm), a reflective layer of Sputtered Silver (100 nm) deposited on top of the Copper layer, and a top protective layer of Al2O3 deposited by Spray-ILGAR technique.


A variational principle is not generally satisfied in steady-state quantum transport as opposed to the case of ground-state problems. We show that for a short-range potential, a functional for the scattering amplitude canbe introduced that is stationary for arbitrary variations about the exact scattering wave function. However, except for the special case of spherically symmetric potentials, the functional does not satisfy any minimum principle even in linear response and for single-channel scattering. The absence of a minimum principle puts severe limitations on the choice of trial wave functions in transport calculations. Examples of electronic transport in selected quantum wires will be presented to illustrate the problem.


Introduction: Acute scrotal pain is a common complaint encountered in the emergency room. Besides testicular torsion, incarcerated inguinal hernia is another important cause that requires urgent exclusion as it warrants emergency surgery.Case Report: Here we present a case of acute painful scrotal swelling in a young man owing to an incarcerated inguinal hernia that caused testicular ischemia. Ultrasound evaluation revealed the presence of bowel and omentum in the scrotum and normal echotexture of the testis. However, color Doppler revealed the absence of testicular blood flow. The patient underwent emergency surgery. The bowel and testis were salvaged by reducing the hernia.Conclusion: This case report illustrates the occurrence of testicular ischemia owing to compressed vascular supply by an incarcerated inguinal hernia. It also shows that testicular ischemia can occur in the absence of a twisted spermatic cord, thereby underscoring the requirement for evaluating the testis in the setting of an incarcerated inguinal hernia


Until now it is well established that fluoride is an important ingredient to combat dental caries, working both systemically and topically. As the action of fluoride is dose-related and it has a cumulative action, it's over dosage can cause serious toxic effect. Fluorosis is one of the chronic toxic effects of fluoride that appears as a developmental disorder of dental enamel. Fluorosis develops due to multiple and continuous exposures to high concentration of fluoride in low dosage. Therefore, the development of fluorosis is not only dependent on the dose but also greatly reliant on length and timing of fluoride exposure. This paper presented a case of dental fluorosis of a 9 years old girl who had a history of swallowing of toothpaste during tooth brushing when she was younger than 3 years. Clinically fluorosis appears as subsurface hypo mineralization or porosity (mottling enamel) of teeth where usually fine white to chalky opaque to brown discoloration of enamel occur which was typically seen in all of my patient's permanent teeth (all permanent incisors and all permanent first molars) present at that time in her mouth while all of her deciduous teeth (all deciduous canines and molars) present at that time in her mouth were absolutely sound. Micro-abrasion is one of the procedures to treat the fluorosis teeth. In this case micro-abrasion was performed successfully.


We report the discovery, from three-dimensional seismic mapping, of a field of pockmarks buried at present depths of ∼4 km in the Levant Basin (southeastern Mediterranean). The pockmarks cover an area of ∼1000 km 2 , have diameters as great as 2 km, and erode as much as 200 m into their substrate of deep-water clastic sediments, which immediately predate the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC, ca. 6.2–5.5 Ma). These craters are filled by the basal units of the Messinian evaporites, thus implying they formed at or close to the time of the earliest major drawdown of sea level. All the pockmarks are developed at a single, regionally correlatable surface, Horizon N, which is observed throughout the Mediterranean to coincide with the onset of the MSC. In the study area, this surface formed by erosion and drawdown with a magnitude of 900–1000 m. We propose that this rapid basinal drawdown led to a dramatic increase of the shallow subsurface pore-fluid overpressure regime in the mostly fine-grained pre-Messinian sediments. Subsequent pressure release then resulted in high flux fluid venting, sediment remobilization, and pockmark formation. The spatial association of the craters with an underlying canyon suggests that their formation is linked to biogenic methane generation. The model of drawdown-induced overpressuring and remobilization may be applicable to many other evaporitic basins, and represents a novel mechanism for inducing large-scale sediment remobilization of shallow buried depositional systems at the earliest stages of salt basin development.


The pollen tube represents an attractive model system for functional genomic analysis of the cell-cell interactions that mediate guided cellular growth. The pollen tube extends through pistil tissues and responds to guidance cues that direct the tube towards an ovule, where it releases sperm for fertilization. Pollen is readily isolated from anthers, where it is produced, and can be induced to produce a tube in vitro. Interestingly, pollen tube growth is significantly enhanced in pistils, and pollen tubes are rendered competent to respond to guidance cues after growth in a pistil. This potentiation of the pollen tube by the pistil suggested that pollen tubes alter their gene-expression programme in response to their environment. Recently, the transcriptomes of pollen tubes grown in vitro or through pistil tissues were determined. Significant changes in the transcriptome were found to accompany growth in vitro and through the pistil tissues. Reverse genetic analysis of pollen-tube-induced genes identified a new set of factors critical for pollen tube extension and navigation of the pistil environment. Recent advances reviewed in the present paper suggest that functional genomic analysis of pollen tubes has the potential to uncover the regulatory networks that shape the genetic architecture of the pollen tube as it responds to migratory cues produced by the pistil.


Abstract Wolverine (Gulo gulo) populations have decreased throughout much of their North American range and there is interest in establishing recovery programs in the Sierra Nevada of California and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Determining the sufficiency of prey resources is an important consideration for initiating wolverine recovery, yet there are limited data on resource availability and needs. Our goal is to estimate prey requirements based on wolverine caloric needs and the caloric content of prey likely to be available. We achieve this goal by modifying existing models to account for wolverine biology. Models show a male wolverine requires 5096 kJ/day (2925–7462 kJ) and a female wolverine requires 3645 kj/day (2158–5439 kJ). This translates to an annual energy budget for males of 1.9 million kJ/yr that could be met by consuming the equivalent of approximately 8 mule deer/yr (Odocoileus hemionus) and 1.4 million kJ/yr for females that could be met by consuming the equivalent of less than 6 mule deer/yr. In light of published records of prey availability, these results suggest populations of wolverines could be sustained where recovery programs are being considered in Colorado and California. We suggest incorporating energetic needs of focal species, such as those calculated here for wolverines, into the assessment of resource availability before implementing recovery programs. Further, these estimates can be applied to management and conservation of wolverines throughout their range.


Although researches have extensively studied the relationship between audit quality and financial reporting, little has been said about the consequences to auditors of financial reporting failure in terms of impairment of the audit information role. Based in Taiwan's unique setting, we documents the information role of audit by examining the market reaction to the annual reports of the other clients of auditors associated with restatements. We find that market reaction to clients audited by auditors associated with restatements is significantly more negative than that of clients audited by auditors not associated with restatements, especially for Big-Four auditors. While the results of non-restatement-related group complies with the literature that suggested significantly more positive market reactions for Big-Four clients, abnormal returns are more negative for Big-Four clients of restatement-related auditors. We conclude that an additional penalty for reports audited by Big-Four auditors associated with restatements impairs the perception of their information role.


The Tup/espace model is considered a powerful option for the design and implementation of loosely coupled distributed systems. In this report, the features of the Tuplespace model are examined as well as the issues involved in implementing such a Tuplespace system based on Java. The system presented includes the function of Transactions: a collection of operations that either all succeed or all fail. The system also permits Nested Transactions: an extension of transactions. Nested transactions have a multi-level grouping structure: each nested transaction consists of zero or more operations and possibly some nested transactions. The key advantages offered by nested transactions include that they enable the failure of an operation to be isolated within a certain scope without necessarily aborting the entire transaction, and they allow programmers to sub-divide a complex operation into a number of smaller and simpler concurrent operations. The other features of nested transactions are also examined in this report. Finally, the testing results indicate that it is possible to build an efficient, scalable, and transaction secured distributed application that relies on the Tuplespace model and the system developed for this research.


Written in Berlin in 1934, "Invitation to a Beheading" contains all the surprise, excitement and magical intensity of a work created in two brief weeks of sustained inspiration. It takes us into the fantastic prison-world of Cincinnatus, a man condemned to death and spending his last days in prison not quite knowing when the end will come. Nabokov described the book as 'a violin in a void. The worldling will deem it a trick. Old men will hurriedly turn from it to regional romances and the lives of public figures ...The evil-minded will perceive in little Emmie a sister of little Lolita ...But I know a few readers who will jump up, ruffling their hair'.


The Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Jones clearly established that use of GPS tracking surveillance constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. But the Court left many other questions unanswered about the nature and scope of the constitutional privacy right in location data. A review of lower court decisions in the wake of Jones reveals that, rather than begin to answer the questions that Jones left open, courts are largely avoiding substantive Fourth Amendment analysis of location data privacy. Instead, they are finding that officers who engaged in GPS tracking and related surveillance operated in good faith, based on the new exception to the exclusionary remedy that the Supreme Court laid out in the 2011 case of Davis v. United States. When courts narrowly apply of the Davis rule, they deny suppression remedies and avoid new Fourth Amendment analysis when binding appellate precedent specifically authorized the investigation. That approach will cease to be controlling as soon as courts consider surveillance investigations taking place after the Jones decision issued. When courts apply the Davis rule broadly, however, they deny the exclusionary remedy based on the culpability of the investigating officer or even more amorphous criteria. If broad applications persist, it will take a very long time indeed to get answers to the questions Jones left open. During that time, the constitutional right to privacy in location data will remain undeveloped and unprotected.


Rationalist analysis ofpolicymaking, exemplified by cost-benefit analysis, ignores the variance in outcomes associated with policies and seeks to maximize expected outcomes. Burkeans, by contrast, view policy outcome uncertainty negatively. The Burkean approach is echoed in the precautionary principle, which argues that policies with hard-todetermine or high-variance outcomes should be avoided. Both approaches are the subject of vast literatures. This Article argues that both approaches are wrong. When policies can be reversed in future periods, variation in the outcomes associated with a policy is a good thing. Reversibility means that the downside risk of high-variance policies is limited; policies with unexpectedly bad outcomes can be changed in the next period. The upside of high-variance policies, by contrast, may last indefinitely, since policies with unexpectedly good outcomes will be retained. Thus, when policies are reversible, policymakers should deliberately choose policies with uncertain outcomes, other things equal. The Article also examines the assumption of policy reversibility. It shows that the most important source of irreversibility for policy analysis is irretrievable "sunk costs" rather than the potential for catastrophic outcomes or policy inertia. As a result, policies are more reversible than commonly appreciated. The Article then examines optimal policymaking under irreversibility. Under extreme irreversibility, conservatism of a particular sort, called the "real options" approach, constitutes the best policy. More generally, the Article argues that the appropriate attitude toward policy variance depends upon the reversibility of policy. This analysis illuminates many puzzles in constitutional law and institutional design, such as the puzzling difference between entrenched statutes, which are unconstitutional, and sunset clauses, which are permitted. The Article concludes with recommendations to encourage policymakers to use variance more effectively. A U T H O R. Associate Professor of Law, Yale Law School. I thank Bruce Ackerman, Ian Ayres, Richard Brooks, Heather Gerken, Oona Hathaway, Alvin Klevorick, Daniel Markovits, Theodore Ruger, and participants in Yale Law School's faculty seminar for many helpful suggestions and comments. All errors are my own.


Background: Labor outcome with regional anesthesia following previous cesarean section has been fraught with concerns regarding uterine rupture. There is sparse literature regarding the association between the impact of epidural analgesia and labor outcome in vaginal birth after cesarean section (VBAC). This study aims to evaluate the effect of labor epidural analgesia on labor outcome following TOL (Trial of labor) in previous cesarean or normal delivery with maternal and neonatal outcomes. Material and Methods: This is a prospective controlled longitudinal study in second-gravida patients in labor. A total of 132 patients were enrolled for the study out of which 101 were divided into three groups. Group A included 38 second-gravid women with a history of previous caesarean delivery and Group B included 32 second-gravid having previous normal vaginal delivery, both the groups received epidural analgesia during labor. Group C included 31 second-gravid with a history of previous cesarean section who did not receive epidural analgesia during labor. The aim of the study was to evaluate labor outcome in terms of successful vaginal delivery with or without epidural analgesia, along with visual analogue scale (VAS) pain scores during the conduction of delivery, hemodynamic parameters, and progress of trial of labor (TOL). Other obstetric and neonatal parameters were also evaluated. Results: Vaginal delivery was conducted in all patients in Group B (32/32; 100%) and Group C (31/31; 100%), whereas in Group A, two patients underwent emergency cesarean section as a result of impending uterine rupture in one case and acute fetal hypoxia in another. According to the intensity of pain on VAS, women having previous cesarean delivery experienced more severe pain before starting epidural analgesia (VAS in Groups A and C; 7.9 ± 0.2) as compared to previous vaginal delivery (VAS; Group B 6.4 ± 0.2) (P < 0.0001). The duration of second stage of labor was significantly prolonged in parturients with previous CD (Group A 22.6 ± 1.2; Group C 25.0 ± 1.9 v/s Group B 18.4 ± 1.1) (P < 0.0001). Similarly third stage of labor was also prolonged significantly in Group A and Group C (10.1 ± 0.7, 10.2 ± 0.9) as compared to Group B (7.7 ± 0.6) (P < 0.0001). However, total duration of labor was not significantly different among the three groups. (P > 0.05) Cervical dilatation on admission to the maternity ward was 4.1 ± 1.0 (Group A and C) and 4.0 ± 1.0 (Group B). The total consumption of ropivacaine in epidural analgesia was significantly high in Group A (previous CD) (29.6 ± 1.2 mg) as compared to Group B (previous vaginal delivery) (28.1 ± 1.6 mg) (P < 0.0001). Conclusions: Epidural analgesia is an effective and safe method of analgesia for vaginal delivery after previous cesarean section, and does not involve the risk of untimely diagnosis of impending uterine rupture.


ABSTRACT The precarious nature of creative and cultural work is widely acknowledged in academic literature. However, it has often been invisible in the eyes of policy and policymaking. As soon as the spread of Covid-19 started impacting local and national economies across the globe, many industry and policy bodies rushed into researching the impact of Covid-19 on the creative and cultural industries (CCIs) and the workers in the sector. The paper offers an insight into the key concerns of these organizations through the meta-analysis of the survey and research projects that are currently being undertaken in the context of the UK. The results highlight common concerns in relation to visible and invisible issues that need addressing in the sector. The paper concludes by questioning if Covid-19 represents a moment of crisis for the sector or has simply exposed the unsustainable price of creative and cultural work.


This is the fi rst book to focus on the role of southern Asia and Australia in our understanding of modern human origins and the expansion of Homo sapiens between East Africa and Australia before 30,000 years ago. With contributions from leading experts that take into account the latest archaeological evidence from India and Southeast Asia, this volume critically reviews current models of the timing and character of the spread of modern humans out of Africa. It also demonstrates that the evidence from Australasia should receive much wider and more serious consideration in its own right if we want to understand how our species achieved its global distribution. Critically examining the "Out of Africa" model, this book emphasises the context and variability of the global evidence in the search for human origins.


The purpose of the study is to examine educators' perception of accreditation processes in university-based library and information science schools in south-east, Nigeria. The survey research design was adopted. The sample size comprises 38 library and information science educators working in the selected university-based library schools in South-east, Nigeria. The questionnaire was used for data collection. The generated data were analyzed using mean rating. Inadequacy of funds, shortage of qualified personnel, poorly equipped laboratory, shortage of teaching staff at the professorial cadre, lack of well equipped practical laboratory and non-participation of LRCN in accreditation process affect the accreditation of universitybased library schools in the south-east zone. The paper concludes that state of accreditation process in university-based library schools is worrisome. There is a dire need to restructure the accreditation processes of university-based library schools and bring various stakeholders in librarianship into the streamline. Adequate funding of library schools, involvement of LRCN in accreditation of library schools, recruitment of qualified lecturers and engaging in exchange/collaboration programme were recommended.


In this thesis we study the dynamics of cosmological scenarios inspired by quantum gravity. Part I investigates novel features of the semi-classical regime of homogeneous and isotropic loop quantum cosmology. Dynamics in this regime becomes modified by nonperturbative quantum effects, subject to a number of ambiguities. For a flat universe the quantum effects accelerate a scalar field along its self-interaction potential during a period of super-inflation. We study how this behaviour can in principle set the initial conditions for subsequent slow-roll inflation. We also calculate a first approximation for the spectrum of perturbations produced during the super-inflationary phase. For the positively-curved case we investigate how a bounce from a contracting to an expanding phase can occur, and show that this can lead to oscillations of the universe. During the oscillations the inflaton field can roll monotonically up its potential. Once the potential energy becomes sufficiently large, however, the cycles end and inflation commences. For a constant potential the oscillations occur about a centre fixed point allowing the construction of `new emergent universe' scenarios where the universe is past-eternally an Einstein static universe, but subsequently evolves into inflation. Part II considers positively-curved braneworld models in which the dynamical equations become modified in such a way as to permit a bounce. It is conjectured that models of this type can exhibit similar behaviour to the positively-curved LQC scenario. General conditions for this behaviour are determined in braneworld settings and we investigate an explicit example the baneworld of Shtanov and Sanhi in detail.


New software applications are being developed every day by software development groups, ranging from the most professional to smaller amateur ones. The structures of the software development groups are very diverse, and a development environment should satisfy the needs of different kinds of group structure. Considering the advantages of low resource requirement, accessibility through mobile devices with restricted resources, and compatibility with collaborative working environments, Cloud computing is a perfect match for software developers, especially for the groups. However, since Cloud computing operates on insecure Internet, security against malicious third parties is a crucial issue. Files should be kept safe in the Cloud, and should only be accessed by those who have the authorization. Revocation and addition of the group members, and the organization of the access rights should also be performed in an efficient and robust way, fulfilling the needs of different groups. In this thesis, we propose a security and privacy infrastructure for a software development environment running in the Cloud. We propose to solve the security issues using the anonymous credential system, idemix, provided by IBM Research which relies on the Camenisch-Lysyanskaya group signature scheme. Group signatures can provide flexibility in the groups' inner organization and are also helpful for handling the access rights. Moreover, using an anonymous credential system also provides to the group members the ability to keep their anonymity while interacting with Cloud. In this way, we aim to provide an infrastructure to serve the groups with different inner organizations by not compromising their privacy. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed system, we develop a simulation environment using M/D/m/m queues and analyze the proposed system under different scenarios and access control structures. Our results show that the proposed system is an efficient one and can serve up to 1000 concurrent users with response time under one second using four servers.


Measurement of compressive strength and workability of concrete as the most important mechanical properties of concrete have always been a significant topic to designers. Considering a large number of parameters influencing the mixed design of concrete and the reduction in the number of test samples, today various inferential algorithms are used for discovering relationships, predicting mechanical properties, and identifying nonlinear patterns along with optimizing concrete mixtures. Among these algorithms, artificial neural networks are highly effective and reliable alternative for complicated systems with uncertain structure in which the aim is to obtain different kinds of relationship between the input and output variables with high orders. The methodology used in this study is based on MLP and GMDH artificial neural networks, which lack theoretical basis and are known as inverse engineering (IE) or black box models. To present a model for prediction of these parameters, two artificial neural network approaches were investigated and the performance of GMDH model, when comparing the laboratory results with the predicted values, suggests acceptable accuracy of this model in evaluation of compressive strength and slump.


Background: Attenuated familial adenomatous polyposis (AFAP) is associated with germline mutations in the 5′, 3′, and exon 9 of the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene. These mutations probably encode a limited amount of functional APC protein. Methods and results: We found that colonic polyp number varied greatly among AFAP patients but members of the same family tended to have more similar disease severity. 5′ Mutants generally had more polyps than other patients. We analysed somatic APC mutations/loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in 235 tumours from 35 patients (16 families) with a variety of AFAP associated germline mutations. In common with two previous studies of individual kindreds, we found biallelic changes ("third hits") in some polyps. We found that the "third hit" probably initiated tumorigenesis. Somatic mutation spectra were similar in 5′ and 3′ mutant patients, often resembling classical FAP. In exon 9 mutants, in contrast, "third hits" were more common. Most "third hits" left three 20 amino acid repeats (20AARs) on the germline mutant APC allele, with LOH (or proximal somatic mutation) of the wild-type allele; but some polyps had loss of the germline mutant with mutation leaving one 20AAR on the wild-type allele. Conclusions: We propose that mutations, such as nt4661insA, that leave three 20AARs are preferentially selected in cis with some AFAP mutations because the residual protein function is near optimal for tumorigenesis. Not all AFAP polyps appear to need "three hits" however. AFAP is phenotypically and genetically heterogeneous. In addition to effects of different germline mutations, modifier genes may be acting on the AFAP phenotype, perhaps influencing the quantity of functional protein produced by the germline mutant allele.


Discovering needs, habits and consumer behavior is the primary task of marketing analytics. It is necessary to integrate marketing and analytical skills with IT skills. Such knowledge integration allows access to data (structured and unstructured), their analysis and finding out information about the opinions, attitudes, needs and behavior of customers. In the paper, the hypothesis is set that software tools can collect data (messages) from social networks, analyze the content of messages and get to know the attitudes of customers about a product, service, tourist destination, with the ultimate goal of improving customer relations. Experimental results are based on the analysis of the content of social network Facebook by using the package and function 'R language'. This language showed a satisfactory application and development power in analysis of textual data on social networks for marketing analytics.


The impacts of the United States drought of 2007 to both society and ecosystems were substantive and included multi-billion dollar agricultural losses and the second worst wildfire season on record. The purpose of this paper is to place the 2007 drought in historical perspective relative to the climate record from 1895–2007 to increase our understanding of this hazard and contribute to improvements of drought mitigation plans. We compared the 2007 drought historically against the climatic record (1895–2007) using the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). We then examined the temporal progression of the 2007 drought and placed the peak month of drought severity (November) in historical perspective using rankings of severity and statistical recurrence intervals. Moreover, we examined the climatic factors (e.g. geopotential height anomalies) that contributed to both abnormally dry and wet conditions recorded within the continental United States. While there were regions that experienced the worst drought on record both annually and in November during the calendar year 2007, this year was not as severe as other notable drought years. November 2007 ties (with 5 other years) for the 12th worst on record in terms of the number of climatic divisions experiencing the worst November drought. Statistically, drought/wetness conditions in November 2007 were not exceptionally extreme, with almost all of the calculated statistical recurrence intervals being much less than the 113 year period of record.


Author(s): Masta, Stephanie | Abstract: In this article, I analyze, evaluate, and problematize the structure of settler colonialism and demonstrate how it is a process that remains entrenched in the U.S. educational system. I build on previous work done on settler colonial ideology by linking structural forms of settler colonial power to the lived experiences of Indigenous students, using their voices to describe how pervasive and harmful settler colonial ideology is in practice. From their descriptions of the replication of colonial ideology within policies and practices in higher education, the participants create a compelling image of the ongoing dominant influence of settler colonial power in their lives. Challenging settler colonial ideology is not just about providing a more accurate historical record of what occurred in the U.S. Rather, challenging settler colonial ideology reaffirms the value and importance of Indigenous people in the U.S.


In the present work, the pyro-electrohydrodynamic technique was used for the realization of tunable-size microlens arrays. Poly(methyl methacrylate) dissolved in different solvent mixtures was used as the polymeric material for the realization of the microstructures. By controlling the experimental parameters and in particular, the volume of the drop reservoir, graded-size square arrays of tens of microlenses with focal length in the range 1.5-3 mm were produced. Moreover, the optical quality and geometrical features were investigated by profilometric and interferometric analysis.


Summary RNA interference (RNAi) has become a powerful functional genomics tool that can be used to effectively silence gene expression. The implications for analysis of loss-of-function phenotypes through systemic or localized silencing are enormously significant in the application of this technology. The Sid-I gene was implicated in the cellular import of RNAi signal that enables passive uptake of dsRNA. Here we demonstrate that RNAi in the honey bee (Apis mellifera) is systemic and our data suggest that honey bee SID-I homologue, a putative transmembrane protein encoded by AmSid-I, is necessary for the uptake of systemically administered dsRNA and subsequent gene silencing. The honey bee SID-I homologue shares strong similarities with human (NP-060169; 44.3%), mouse (NM-198034; 43.9%), and Caenorhabditis elegans (Q9GZC8; 19%).AmSid-I was expressed in the entire set of honey bee tissues examined with the highest abundance in adult head followed by egg tissue. To test the role of AmSid-I in the systemic effect of RNAi, we induced systemic gene silencing of the honey bee Toll-related receptor 18W by a feeding-soaking delivery method of dsRNA and measured expression levels of AmSid-I and Am18w using real time PCR. A 3.4–fold increase in expression of AmSid-I was observed at 26 h. In contrast, Am18w gene expression was decreased about 60–fold at 30 h. High mortality and morphological abnormalities were also seen due to gene silencing. The presence of SID-I in honey bees and its function as a transmembrane channel that facilitates uptake of dsRNA are discussed.


This study provides the first systematic, international, large‐scale evidence on the extent and nature of multiple institutional affiliations on journal publications. Studying more than 15 million authors and 22 million articles from 40 countries we document that: In 2019, almost one in three articles was (co‐)authored by authors with multiple affiliations and the share of authors with multiple affiliations increased from around 10% to 16% since 1996. The growth of multiple affiliations is prevalent in all fields and it is stronger in high impact journals. About 60% of multiple affiliations are between institutions from within the academic sector. International co‐affiliations, which account for about a quarter of multiple affiliations, most often involve institutions from the United States, China, Germany and the United Kingdom, suggesting a core‐periphery network. Network analysis also reveals a number communities of countries that are more likely to share affiliations. We discuss potential causes and show that the timing of the rise in multiple affiliations can be linked to the introduction of more competitive funding structures such as "excellence initiatives" in a number of countries. We discuss implications for science and science policy.


The next generation telecommunication networks will offer users a range of services. These future telecommunication services are envisaged to be tailored services that are customizable in order to satisfy specific requirements of a variety of customers. Service subscribers and users should be offered some direct control in managing their services. Customization in a multi-service environment introduces the requirement for multiple service profiles for each user. Having user service profiles enable universal service access. The current telecommunication service subscription model is no longer viable for the next generation or TINA-based services. This work proposes a subscription and service information management system that is integrated into the existing TINA-structured platform in the South African TINA (SATINA) Trial. The system developed here realizes the object-oriented TINA subscription information management model. The information model defines all the information and relationships required to handle users, subscribers and the subscription life cycle. The project employs the emerging Object Database Management System (ODBMS) to manage the object oriented telecommunication subscription data. ODBMS provides a powerful and efficient way to managed these object oriented information as information and the relationships are stored as they are used in the application. The proposed subscription and service information management system is a distributed application based on the widely used three-tier architecture model. The three-tier model enables distributed access to the centrally managed subscription and service information regardless of the implementation adopted. Visual modeling technique is used to develop the application and convey the design principles. Application of the subscription and service information management system in the service provider domain is demonstrated by the domain administrator's usage of the system's graphical management console. The integration of the information management system and the SATINA Trial's service platform is indicated through the usage of the TINA compliant Online Subscription service. ii


An important aspect of the interpretation of multimodal messages is the ability to identify when the same object in the world is the referent of symbols in different modalities. To understand the caption of a picture, for instance, one needs to identify the graphical symbols that are referred to by names and pronouns in the natural language text. One way to think of this problem is in terms of the notion of anaphora; however, unlike linguistic anaphoric inference, in which antecedents for pronouns are selected from a linguistic context, in the interpretation of the textual part of multimodal messages the antecedents are selected from a graphical context. Under this view, resolving multimodal references is like resolving anaphora across modalities. Another way to see the same problem is to look at pronouns in texts about drawings as deictic. In this second view, the context of interpretation of a natural language term is defined as a set of expressions of a graphical language with well-defined syntax and semantics. Natural language and graphical terms are thought of as standing in a relation of translation similar to the translation relation that holds between natural languages. In this paper a theory based on this second view is presented. In this theory, the relations between multimodal representation and spatial deixis, on the one hand, and multimodal reasoning and deictic inference, on the other, are discussed. An integrated model of anaphoric and deictic resolution in the context of the interpretation of multimodal discourse is also advanced.


This paper measures dictionaries made by Polish Americans against the development of the Polish–English and English–Polish lexicographic tradition. Of twenty nine monoscopal and biscopal glossaries and dictionaries published between 1788 and 1947, four may be treated as milestones: Erazm Rykaczewski's (1849–1851), Wladyslaw Kierst and Oskar Callier's (1895), Wladyslaw Kierst's (1926–1928), and Jan Stanislawski's (1929). Unsurprisingly, they came to be widely republished in English-speaking countries, primarily the United States of America, for the sake of Polish-speaking immigrants. One might therefore wonder whether there was any pressing need for new dictionaries. There must have been, assuming that supply follows demand, because as many as eight Polish–English and English–Polish dictionaries were compiled by Polish Americans and published by the mid-twentieth century. The scant attention accorded this topic suggests a chronological approach to these dictionaries is in order, firstly, to blow the dust from the tomes; secondly, to establish their filial relationships; and, lastly, to evaluate their significance for the bilingual dictionary market.


This paper attempts to analyze the causal relationship between central government revenue and expenditure for India using annual data over the period 1970-2008. The Johansen cointegration test suggests that there is a long-run relationship between central government revenue and expenditure. The result from Granger causality test based on Vector Error Correction Models (VECM) suggests bidirectional causality between central government revenues and expenditures in the long-run supporting Fiscal Synchronization hypothesis. Under this hypothesis, our finding indicates that the fiscal authority of India should try to raise revenue and cut expenditure simultaneously in order to control the respective fiscal deficit. The short-run Granger causality test based on WALD test restriction suggests unidirectional causality from expenditure to revenue supporting "Spend-and-Tax" hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that the unsustainable fiscal imbalances can be mitigated by policies that adjusted government expenditure.


Network data consisting of recorded historical events can be represented as hyper-graphs where the ties or events can connect any number of nodes or event related attributes. In this paper, we perform a centrality analysis of a directed hypergraph representing attacks by indigenous peoples from the Lesser Antilles on European colonial settlements, 1509–1700. The results of central attacks with respect to at- tacked colonial force, member of attack alliances, and year and location of attack are discussed and compared to a non-relational exploratory analysis of the data. This comparison points to the importance of a mixed methods approach to enhance the analysis and to obtain a complementary understanding of a network study.


This Article sets forth the theory of an enduring, evolving separation of powers, one that checks and balances state power in whatever form that power happens to take. It shows how this constitutional commitment was first renewed and refashioned in the 1930s and 1940s, wherein the construction of a secondary regime of administrative checks and balances triangulated regulatory power among politically appointed agency leaders, an independent civil service, and a vibrant and pluralistic civil society. And it supplies the legal precedent, corrective blueprint, and normative imperative for subsequent generations (including ours) to reaffirm that commitment whenever new threats to limited, rivalrous government arise. This commitment to an enduring, evolving separation of powers helps explain our past and our present — and it readies us for the future. First, reframing the administrative state through the lens of an enduring, evolving separation of powers provides a more seamless connection to the Founding. The twentieth-century shift to administrative governance toppled the Framers' tripartite constitutional regime. But the subsequent construction of an administrative separation of powers represented an act of constitutional restoration, anchoring the modern administrative state firmly within the constitutional tradition of employing rivalrous, heterogeneous institutional counterweights to promote democratic accountability and compliance with the rule of law. Second, this reframing resolves seemingly intractable normative and jurisprudential struggles in contemporary administrative law, harmonizing today's leading (but conflicting) theories and doctrines of public administration. And, third, this reframing prepares us for life in the post-administrative state, a reality that is already beckoning. Increasingly the forces of privatization are consolidating state and commercial power in ways that compromise administrative separation of powers. Understanding privatization not as a sui generis phenomenon but instead simply as the latest, perhaps greatest, threat to an enduring, evolving separation of powers enables us to employ the grammar and doctrinal imperatives of constitutional separation of powers to insist that privatization's proponents take on the responsibility for reestablishing limited and rivalrous governance amid the dynamic turn to the market — or else abandon the enterprise altogether.


A clinical and immunogenetic study was performed on a three-generation family with Reiter's disease (RD). Twelve of 56 members of the family (33 clinically examined) including one in-law, had symptoms of arthritis, urethritis, conjunctivitis, uveitis, and/or mucocutaneous manifestations, but only one had the complete triad of Reiter's syndrome (RS). Radiographic sacro-iliitis was found in 7 individuals, and monoarticular onset was reported in 5 out of 7 with peripheral arthritis. HLA B27 was found in 26 of the 37 family members who were tissue typed (including one in-law). All individuals with RD were B27-positive. Seven different B27 phenotypes were identified. This finding suggests that RD is associated with the B27 antigen itself, and not to a gene closely linked to B27. From a pedigree analysis of this family an autosomal dominant inheritance with incomplete penetrance or multifactorial inheritance seemed the most probable alternatives. The family history is a useful adjunct in the diagnosis of RD.


Background: In today's competitive world, organizations are constantly seeking new ways to maximize the performance of their employees. Despite the increased use of information technology, there are still gaps in performance and efficient organization. There is strongly idea that the performance of organization largely depends to the efforts of the employees beyond the requirements of the role. These behaviors named as over duties behavior, spontaneous behavior and organizational citizenship behavior. Today, these behaviors are an integral part in performance management and have been entered in organizational various aspects. Researches show that perceived organizational justice is one of the factors that lead to citizenship behavior. Methods: In this research, we used field research technique and for gathering data collection used questionnaires. Statistical population was employees of public hospitals in Rasht that they are 2811 employees. Then, distributed 341 questionnaires based on convenience sampling. Method of research was correlation and for analyzing, we used spss software. Results: This study shows that there is a relationship among dimensions of organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior in the Rasht public hospitals and due to positive correlation coefficients, it is the direct relationship. Conclusion/Recommendation: Finally, results show that between distributive justice, procedural justice, interactional justice and informational justice with organizational citizenship behavior there is a direct and significant relationship. i.e., with increment of each of the variables, organizational citizenship behavior will increase. In addition, coefficient level between two variables equals to 0.289 and this situation show that independent variable can predict dependent variable extent to 28.9.


We analyze a tree-period OLG model, where a consumption good is produced by means of skilled labor and an intermediate good. Human capital accumulation depends on the aggregate stock of human capital and on the fraction of time that children spend at school, which is decided by their parents. The remaining time is used as the only input in the production of the intermediate good. We compare schooling time decisions in countries where they are privately made and in countries where they are collectively set through compulsory education laws. We study the dynamic behavior of these economies and find that human capital accumulation will always be larger in the latter case. With international trade, private schooling decisions change according to the initial pattern of comparative advantage. Instead, the outcome of collective schooling decisions does not necessarily follow the pattern of comparative advantage.


James P. Woodard's history of consumer capitalism in Brazil, today the world's fifth most populous country, is at once magisterial, intimate, and penetrating enough to serve as a history of modern Brazil itself. It tells how a new economic outlook took hold over the course of the twentieth century, a time when the United States became Brazil's most important trading partner and the tastemaker of its better-heeled citizens. In a cultural entangling with the United States, Brazilians saw Chevrolets and Fords replace horse-drawn carriages, railroads lose to a mania for cheap automobile roads, and the fabric of everyday existence rewoven as commerce reached into the deepest spheres of family life.
The United States loomed large in this economic transformation, but American consumer culture was not merely imposed on Brazilians. By the seventies, many elements once thought of as American had slipped their exotic traces and become Brazilian, and this process illuminates how the culture of consumer capitalism became a more genuinely transnational and globalized phenomenon. This commercial and cultural turn is the great untold story of Brazil's twentieth century, and one key to its twenty-first.


There are several issues in corporate strategies such as the impact of corporate to performance, the cause and limit of performance, development management and external environment of corporation. This study aims to discuss those issues based on literature review. It is found out that corporate impact to performance is non-neglectable, event though the degree of impact is still unknown. Experience managerial service are important for company to achieve its performance and to achieve its performance, corporation may choose between two approaches incremental and comprehensive, each approach has its own benefits and drawbacks. As a result, it should be aligned with internal and external condition of the corporation and the cost and benefit aspects. External aspect of the corporation in this particular, macroeconomic uncertainty, will influence the strategy of corporation even when the firm only play in local market. In addition, national economic development will impact on how corporation build its strategy.Keywords: corporate strategy, corporate-impact, corporate performance.


The Chachil depocentre is one of a number of early Mesozoic extensional basins that form the early depocentres of the southern Neuquén Basin in Argentina. The synrift volcanic fill is composed of andesites, rhyolites and volcaniclastic deposits. Coarse-grained, non-marine facies dominate the sedimentary fill, mainly in the form of sediment gravity flow deposits. Stream flow deposits and minor non-marine carbonates are also locally present. The evolution of the graben border system was mainly controlled by subsidence along the main boundary fault (the Chihuido Bayo fault system) and recurrent volcanic activity. Marked changes in the thickness of the synrift megasequence indicate that episodic normal faulting in the hanging wall was also important. The integration of structural, magmatic and sedimentary data from the study area has led to the definition of three stages in the evolution of the synrift succession. The early rift stage is defined by the interplay between bimodal volcanism and gravity-driven sedimentation. The mid-rift stage is marked by the transition to acidic magmatism (rhyolitic and pyroclastic flows), also associated with coarse-grained non-marine deposition. The late-rift stage is dominated by fine-grained turbidites and pyroclastic falls related to the first marine sedimentation in the Neuquén Basin.


Abstract SEM analysis of quartz microtextures has been shown to be useful for the study of depositional environments in Quaternary strata, and more recently has been applied to ancient strata. Certain microtextures such as curved grooves, straight grooves, deep troughs, and mechanically upturned plates have been found to be distinctive of glacial processes in particular. SEM analysis of quartz microtextures from the proximal ( 3 km) facies of the Pennsylvanian–Permian Cutler Formation where exposed adjacent to the Uncompahgre uplift, along with qualitative (histograms), semiquantitative (ternary diagram), and quantitative (nMDS) techniques were used to assess the hypothesis that this unit may reflect, in part, proglacial deposition. The proximal lacustrine facies depositionally onlaps Unaweep Canyon, a modern feature hypothesized to be an exhumed valley formed initially by late Paleozoic glaciation. The proximal lacustrine facies exhibits an abundance of high-stress microtextures consistent with a glacial influence. Grains from the distal fluvial facies exhibit fewer high-stress microtextures and more percussion fractures, which are expected to increase with transport distance a priori, owing to more prolonged entrainment in the fluvial system. Multiple approaches to data analysis, including visual inspection of raw data histograms, semiquantitative classification of textures using ternary diagrams, as well as quantitative nonparametric multivariate ordination techniques (nMDS) produce consistent results that suggest that the proximal-most Cutler Formation may reflect proglacial deposition. Despite the abundance of precipitation (diagenetic) features inherent to sedimentary strata of this age, SEM microtextural analysis is a useful tool for the study of ancient alluvial systems where other climate indicators are generally lacking.