Cardiovascular disease is common in avian species and increasing commercial economic losses and demand for healthcare in the household/smallholding veterinary sector has resulted in increased research into these disorders. This in turn has highlighted the importance of breeding, genetic testing and possibilities for future prognostic and diagnostic testing. Research into avian cardiovascular genetics has rapidly accelerated. Previously much work was undertaken in mammals with information extrapolated and transferred to birds. Birds have also been used to model cardiovascular disease and therefore knowledge has become enriched due to this endeavour. Increasingly, the avian genome is being analysed in its own right. This work is assisted by the growing number of avian genomes being published. In 2015, Nature published news on the 'Bird 10K' project, which aims to sequence 10,500 extant bird species. By 2018, the Avian Genomes Consortium had published the sequences of 45 species/34 orders. This review investi-gates a range of avian cardiovascular disorders in order to highlight their pathologies, epidemiology and genetics in addition to avian models of heart disease. With the avail-ability of more reference genomes, increases in the number and magnitude of avian stud- ies and more advanced technologies, the genetics behind avian cardiovascular disorders is being unravelled.


AbstractIn Neogene geologic settings, seismic resolution plays an important role in the static characterization of large stratigraphically complex reservoirs. Attenuation of high frequencies due to absorption and scattering of waves propagating through the subsurface contributes to the loss of seismic resolution, resulting, in particular, to a poor delineation of thin beds. This case history comprised the resolution enhancement of seismic data from one petroleum field located in the southern Gulf of Mexico. We applied discrete wavelet transform-based multiresolution analysis to identify frequency components in the data that required spectral enhancement. The resulting enhanced power spectrum contains a higher frequency content, which made it possible to identify new heavy oil (11°–23° API) reservoirs located in thin sandstones of deltaic sedimentary environments. The methodology used here helped us to cope with the attenuation problem.


Market selection methods, of which a vast number exist, are a critical tool in firms' and government's policy, planning and budgeting processes. To this end, the primary aim of this paper is to determine the international market selection method best-suited to the identification of potential export opportunities for South Africa. The secondary aim is to apply the chosen method to South Africa in order to determine realistic export opportunities (country-product combinations). The decision support model chosen for application in this study consists of a screening process of four consecutive filters, through which relevant information on markets (such as country risk indicators, macroeconomic data, imports per product group, etc.) is fed, and which allows the identification realistic export opportunities. Results are reported on the application of this decision support model to the case of South Africa, adapted for an analysis of foreign trade data at the SITC four-digit level up to 2004. In this way, South Africa's export opportunities in individual countries are listed and categorised according to criteria such as import market characteristics and South Africa's market share in the various markets.


The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate life satisfaction and its relation to factors such as physical and mental health and social and financial resources among people (60–89 years old) with and without reduced self-care capacity in six European countries, and among informal caregivers (50–89 years old) in Sweden. The aim was further to investigate the extent, need and type of support provided or desired among informal caregivers. This is part of the cross-national European Study of Adults' Wellbeing (ESAW) including six European countries N=12 478 (the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Italy, Austria, UK and Sweden). The Older Americans' Resources Schedule (OARS), Life Satisfaction Index Z (LSIZ) and Rosenberg self-esteem scale were used. Study I comprised 522 people (65–89 years old) with reduced self-care capacity, study II comprised 151 informal caregivers with a high caregiving extent, 392 with a low caregiving extent and 1258 non-caregivers from the Swedish sample. In study III 2195 people with reduced self-care countries. The data were analysed by descriptive and inferential statistics using non-parametric statistics, logistic and linear regression. Low life satisfaction (LSIZ) was related to higher age, being a woman, high degree of reduced self-care capacity, living in special accommodations, feeling lonely and poor financial resources. Feeling lonely, reduced self-care capacity, feeling worried, poor health and poor financial resources in relation to needs predicted low life satisfaction (Paper I). Frequent caregivers with a high extent of caregiving had lower LSIZ than those with less frequent caregiving and noncaregivers, while no differences were found between less frequent caregivers and non-care caregivers in LSIZ. Lower LSIZ was associated with not being employed, low social resources, not refreshed after a night's sleep, poor health, and frequent caregiving (Paper II). In paper III it was found that there were differences as well as similarities in factors predicting LSIZ in that self-esteem and overall health were important in all countries among older people with reduced self-care capacity and reduced self care capacity in three of six countries, whilst in paper IV four factors were found to be common in all ESAW countries. The factors were social resources, financial resources, feeling greatly hindered by health problems and low self-esteem. Factors of importance for life satisfaction thus seem to differ depending on the personal situation and social and political system. These differences should be taken into account when outlining and providing preventive, rehabilitative and support for these groups.


BACKGROUND
Currently there is no vaccine available in use against any form of leishmaniases worldwide.

OBJECTIVE
To assess potential of a live-attenuated Leishmania major promastigates, for protection against a challenge infection with L. major in BALB/c mice.

DESIGN
A laboratory based study.

SETTING
Study was carried out at Centre for Biotechnology Research and Development, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi.

RESULTS
The greatest protection against challenge with L. major was seen in mice immunised with live parasites (P < 0.001) compared to vaccinations with heat killed or soluble antigens. In general, immunised mice produced high level of antileishmanial antibodies and T cell stimulation to their respective antigens.

CONCLUSIONS
Our live-attenuated parasites produced by serial sub-culture of L. major parasites 118 times showed the capacity to induce appropriate cell-mediated immune responses and protection against L. major infection in BALB/c mice. Data also suggests that these parasites do not revert to virulence when injected subcutaneously in mice.


Andrew Delbanco (Ed.), Writing New England: An Anthology from the Puritans to the Present, Harvard/Belknap: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA: 2001. Writing New England is a literary history of New England, but not only of New England itself, but also a picture of the beginning of our American heritage. And not a history only, but through Andrew Delbanco a link of the past with the present through carefully selected writings of the well-known and the not-so-well-known. Through excerpts from the familiar and less familiar artists, both religious and secular, aesthetic and political, Delbanco selects works that are representative of the time from which they were written. Within each section of the anthology, his arrangement of the pieces addresses a topic and sets a mood that reflects the thoughts and feelings of the individual writers. As the reader moves from section to section, the works create a thread, and then a series of threads that weave their way throughout the collection, in the end creating the unique tapestry we identify as the "New England mind" -- and as Delbanco exhibits, perhaps our "national mind" as well -- a part of the American dream, not terribly far removed from the dreams of the earliest New Englanders. Delbanco's "Introduction" is very informative and sets out his purpose very well. He also includes a chronology of New England history from the settlement in 1607 to Boston's "Big Dig" of the 1990's. The brief introductions before each section help to explain and to set the tone for the selections that follow, and help to tie the sections together, producing an almost unbroken narrative spanning three centuries. The chronological arrangement allows the reader a sense of change over time as each individual section is arranged from early works, such as John Cotton's 1630 sermon, "Christ the Fountain of Life" to later writings such as Dorothy West (1995) in "The Richer, the Poorer" in The Examined Self. A certain continuity of spirit is achieved as the reader moves through time with each author on the particular themes, beginning with "The Founding Idea" -- featuring John Winthrop's 1630 sermon, "Model of Christian Charity" and ending with pieces by Ralph Waldo Emerson (from 1846) and Donald Hall (from 1986) in "The Abiding Sense of Place." A brief biographical sketch of each author is also provided before each selection. This allows the reader to obtain a degree of knowledge about the selection, its author, and the place within the larger tapestry that it fulfills. From the editor's initial introduction to the sectional introductions, one learns some interesting and little-known facts, such as the unexpected death of William Bradford's wife just before their New World experiment could begin, and of Charles Summer's eloquently prepared brief that he was never able to present before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts on behalf of a five year old African-American girl who was denied access to equal education in Boston's public schools in 1849 (223). (Delbanco goes on to add that it would be 6 more years before an act of the Massachusetts legislature would terminate school segregation, and 105 years until the landmark case of "Brown vs. …


Editor's note: This essay is part of a series being published to help commemorate the Monthly Labor Review's centennial (July 1915–July 2015). The essays―written by eminent authorities and distinguished experts in a broad range of fields―cover a variety of topics pertinent to the Review and the work of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Each essay is unique and comprises the words and opinion of the author. We've found these essays to be enlightening and inspirational. We hope you do as well.


Described here is a chemo-selective enrichment strategy, termed the semitryptic peptide enrichment strategy for proteolysis procedures (STEPP), to isolate the semitryptic peptides generated in mass spectrometry-based proteome-wide applications of limited proteolysis methods. The strategy involves reacting the ε-amino groups of lysine side chains and any N-termini created in the limited proteolysis reaction with isobaric mass tags. A subsequent digestion of the sample with trypsin and the chemo-selective reaction of the newly exposed N-termini of the tryptic peptides with N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS)-activated agarose resin removes the tryptic peptides from solution, leaving only the semitryptic peptides with one nontryptic cleavage site generated in the limited proteolysis reaction for subsequent LC-MS/MS analysis. As part of this work, the STEPP technique is interfaced with two different proteolysis methods, including the pulse proteolysis (PP) and limited proteolysis (LiP) methods. The STEPP-PP workflow is evaluated in two proof-of-principle experiments involving the proteins in a yeast cell lysate and two well-studied drugs, cyclosporin A and geldanamycin. The STEPP-LiP workflow is evaluated in a proof-of-principle experiment involving the proteins in two cell culture models of human breast cancer, MCF-7 and MCF-10A cell lines. The STEPP protocol increased the number of semitryptic peptides detected in the LiP and PP experiments by 5- to 10-fold. The STEPP protocol not only increases the proteomic coverage, but also increases the amount of structural information that can be gleaned from limited proteolysis experiments. Moreover, the protocol also enables the quantitative determination of ligand binding affinities.


For some fifteen years, little attention has been paid to South Africa's late Cold War conflicts and the memories of soldiers who fought in them. Likewise, combatants with the liberation movements have all but been forgotten or otherwise marginalised in the new political dispensation. But the recent controversy over the exclusion of the names of SADF soldiers from the Freedom Park memorial wall and the popularity of publications and the existence of Internet sites that host personal accounts of the war suggest that there is significant public interest in these matters. The discovery of mass graves and questions about the treatment of detainees in SWAPO camps has kept the war in the public eye in Namibia.This volume offers new perspectives on the Border War through the paradigms of diplomatic and military history, cultural and literary studies, as well as victimology. Contributors to this volume have challenged the boundaries, broken the silences, even tackled some taboos about the war. They have put the Border War firmly back on the academic agenda thereby mirroring its place in the popular imagination. Gary Baines is an Associate Professor in the History Department and Peter Vale is the Nelson Mandela Chair of Politics at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.


The Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Health-Care Settings provides health-care workers (HCWs) with a review of data regarding handwashing and hand antisepsis in health-care settings. In addition, it provides specific recommendations to promote improved hand-hygiene practices and reduce transmission of pathogenic microorganisms to patients and personnel in health-care settings. This report reviews studies published since the 1985 CDC guideline (Garner JS, Favero MS. CDC guideline for handwashing and hospital environmental control, 1985. Infect Control 1986;7:231-43) and the 1995 APIC guideline (Larson EL, APIC Guidelines Committee. APIC guideline for handwashing and hand antisepsis in health care settings. Am J Infect Control 1995;23:251-69) were issued and provides an in-depth review of hand-hygiene practices of HCWs, levels of adherence of personnel to recommended handwashing practices, and factors adversely affecting adherence. New studies of the in vivo efficacy of alcohol-based hand rubs and the low incidence of dermatitis associated with their use are reviewed. Recent studies demonstrating the value of multidisciplinary hand-hygiene promotion programs and the potential role of alcohol-based hand rubs in improving hand-hygiene practices are summarized. Recommendations concerning related issues (e.g., the use of surgical hand antiseptics, hand lotions or creams, and wearing of artificial fingernails) are also included.


The overall goal of this projects is to adopt and build on three of the Saudi vision 2030 "thriving economy" theme third-level objectives that include (1) Localize military industry, (2) Nurture and support the innovation & entrepreneurship culture, and (3) Grow SME contribution to the economy. One of the very important initiatives of the adopted "thriving economy theme to our area of concentration is planning to grow the economy by manufacturing half of the defense needs within the Kingdom, with the intention to offset the economy, keep more resources in Saudi Arabia and to create more job opportunities for its citizens". The main research question explores how to develop a conceptual model to demonstrate how innovative technological initiatives contribute to localized military equipment manufacturing technology. The research process includes creating a conceptual model meant to assist with the development of low-complexity-defense-spare-parts manufacturing industries, utilizing technology transfer and a business incubator. The model will include (1) adopting a Systems Approach to better understand the nature and the scope of the problem statement (2) developing a Conceptual Model for high volume, low mix, low complex spare parts manufacturing industries that will contribute to the national defense industrial sector, (3) investigating the adequacy and limitations of the Innovative Concept, (4) validating the model by analyzing the alignment of the concept with the systems methodological strategy. This project utilizes an applied research (often called action research) as its methodology. This methodology applies a systems approach and related systems thinking to ensure a holistic understanding of the nature of the problem statement. The literature review bodies clustered beneath the category of "Technology and Innovation Management" and addresses classifications of the major approaches to the issue of localizing the defense manufacturing industry. Moreover, the literature review in the field of innovation, technology transfers and Systems Science have been analyzed. While this project is still ongoing, the hypothesis of this conceptual framework will address the need to develop a flexible model that contributes to the current and future challenges as there is a lack of an adequate model to guide Saudi government on how to develop the SME defence manufacturing industries in order to become aligned with their country's vision 2030.


This thesis asks two questions:
1. What is the connection between Early Years policy development
and the lived experience of those professionals implementing it?
2. To what extent do Early Years professionals consider that
government policy has contributed to a better understanding of
Early Years practice for those implementing it, and towards a
consistent national view?
Recent years have seen a growing national focus on the Early Years of
education, centring on government policy. With this focus has come a
wide range of opinion as to what constitutes effective Early Years practice
and how successful current policies are in achieving appropriate provision
for young children.
This thesis first introduces the central themes of policy and lived
experience and sets out the rationale for the study. This is followed by an
overview of the contribution of six key historical figures in early childhood
education. The thesis moves on to discuss policy developments in
England since the Plowden report in 1967.
The thesis outlines and justifies the life historical methods for the study
which involved interviews with eight professionals in order to understand
how policy had impacted on their lives and work. Analysis of the data
includes the stories of all eight participants and my own story as an Early
Years teacher. The experiences of the eight participants were analysed to
produce five themes: Personal qualities, Teaching- an art not a process?,
Respecfful or subversive teachers?, - Views of childhood; Resilience.
These are discussed in the light of the participants' experiences and the
literature on effective proactive practice and policy. This discussion illustrates professional and personal struggles to 'fit policy to children's
needs through appropriate practice.
The thesis concludes with an update on policy since the completion of
fieldwork and a conclusion, returning to the research questions, which
shows two things: first that - so far as the participants in this study are
concerned - there is a mismatch between policy development and lived
experience, and second, that some Early Years professionals develop
government guidance and policy to contribute to a better understanding of
Early Years practice.


A microsurgical suction tube with an attached ball probe has been developed. It functions as a microdissector when the ball probe is in its extended position, creating a larger working field than an ordinary sucker. When the ball probe is in the repose position, it does not interfere with the suction capacity, and the suction tube serves as a regular sucker. By adding the properties of the microdissector to the suction tube, dissection of exquisitely fine and subtle structures, including arachnoidal membranes, is facilitated. The ball probe is easily dismantled from the suction tube and the whole instrument conveniently cleaned.


A group of researchers associated with the Centre de documentation juive contemporaine in Paris undertook the first Holocaust research in France. However, this private institution was not nearly as isolated as previously understood: despite general indifference and financial problems, the center managed to influence the course of national research on the Second World War, and helped to represent the Jewish trauma in exhibitions and national commemorations. This article argues for consideration of the interaction between state undertakings and Jewish initiatives in the study of postwar reactions to the Holocaust. Such a perspective can both illuminate contemporary disinterest and show how the genocide was integrated into French history largely as a consequence of the efforts of the Jewish community.


Ukraine is deeply divided internally, although as a result of the changes that have taken place since its independence, the country's internal divisions now have less and less to do with territorial divides, and the split into historical 'sub-Ukraines' has become less pronounced, especially for the younger generation. Ukraine is not a country of two competing regional identities, one in the west, the other in the east. The western identity, in which the unity of Ukraine is a key value, coexists with the multiple and diverse local patriotisms of the different regions in the east and the south of the country. The present protest movement has consolidated the country's sense of unity. Its opponents have also been championing the indivisibility of Ukraine, even while they demanded a thorough decentralisation of the country, which was often mistaken for separatism. Russia has been stirring up separatist tendencies in Ukraine, but with little success. Crimea is an exception here, because in most respects it has remained unaffected by the dynamics of the social processes transforming mainland Ukraine – separatist tendencies are indeed deeply rooted in the peninsula.


Satellite-based estimates of impervious surfaces are being produced for the entire United States as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Landsat-based National Land Cover Database (NLCD). In the Chesapeake Bay region, these impervious surface data support water-quality modeling, restoration, and planning. USGS research developed a protocol for collecting high-resolution impervious surface data from aerial photographs and other imagery sources, for the purpose of assessing the accuracy of satellite-based maps of impervious surfaces. The validation data collected using this protocol, were applied to the assessment of NLCD impervious surface data accuracy across a gradient of urban development in the ChesapeakeBay/Mid-Atlantic region. The protocol specifies a minimum mapping unit of any impervious surface that is ten square meters or larger in a test area. For the study region 240 such test areas, each measuring 500 m by 500 m on a side, were randomly selected. Initial comparison of NLCD estimated impervious surface area by chip showed that between 33 and 46 chips were collected for each of five development categories (none, rural, exurban, suburban, dense suburban, and urban). Since the analysis was conducted within a GIS environment and the protocol requires extensive attribution of data sources, additional ancillary information available for each validation data point allowed us to provide potential explanations for observed errors. For example, some cases where relative error was greater than 100% could be explained by temporal discontinuities between the date of capture of the satellite image and validation source data in rapidly changing areas. Other errors were created by vegetation cover obscuring impervious surfaces and by other factors that bias the satellite processing algorithms. Through such analysis we evaluated the errors, strengths, and weaknesses of the NLCD product and can suggest appropriate uses for regional, satellite-based data in rapidly developing areas of environmental significance.


Instantaneous non-local quantum computation requires multiple parties to jointly perform a quantum operation, using pre-shared entanglement and a single round of simultaneous communication. We study this task for its close connection to position-based quantum cryptography, but it also has natural applications in the context of foundations of quantum physics and in distributed computing. The best known general construction for instantaneous non-local quantum computation requires a pre-shared state which is exponentially large in the number of qubits involved in the operation, while efficient constructions are known for very specific cases only.
We partially close this gap by presenting new schemes for efficient instantaneous non-local computation of several classes of quantum circuits, using the Clifford+T gate set. Our main result is a protocol which uses entanglement exponential in the T-depth of a quantum circuit, able to perform non-local computation of quantum circuits with a (poly-)logarithmic number of layers of T gates with quasi-polynomial entanglement. Our proofs combine ideas from blind and delegated quantum computation with the garden-hose model, a combinatorial model of communication complexity which was recently introduced as a tool for studying certain schemes for quantum position verification. As an application of our results, we also present an efficient attack on a recently-proposed scheme for position verification by Chakraborty and Leverrier.


Majapahit is one of the big kingdoms and the last Hindu-Buddhist kingdom in Java Island based in East Java Indonesia. One of the Majapahit Kingdom estate is Bajang Ratu Temple which located in Trowulan, nowadays called Mojokerto county, which has a philosophical meaning is in terms of function where the temple was established to honor Jayanegara. Hindu religion can not be separated with frangipani flowers as a medium of joy. About why frangipani flowers with white petals and yellow tinge more often we meet because the flowers are often planted by adherents of Hinduism. By looking at opportunities for international jewelry sales then Indonesia jewelry has a chance to make a profit. In addition, Indonesia also has the opportunity to introduce Indonesian culture to the outside world, especially abroad. It is intended that Indonesian culture is also recognized internationally by showing its trademark. Therefore, an alternative way is needed to introduce the culture. One of the alternatives related to culture is jewelry. Middle East, Russia is one of the overseas areas that have the potential to be targeted, where women there are using abaya. Usually, abaya used outside the house, but when in the house, abaya released and then there are many worn luxury products. One of the luxury products is jewelry. To make products that fit the target market of Middle Eastern and Russia women author conducted data collection from various literature studies both from the internet and from books. In addition, the method of collecting images to find product placement based on trends is also done to facilitate analysis where products can enter and expand marketing. Determination of some matters related to the product is also required, namely determining product strategy, branding, visual elements, new product development process, product level, sales forecast methods, and product protocol. From these determinations, it can be obtained data where the product can be developed with appropriate marketing management in several ways that can attract consumers to the product and cultural creativity creation jewelry inspired by Majapahit kingdoms and frangipani flower is made with a more modern style and use silver material that is suitable for women.


The aim of this study was to determine the effects of complex training (a combination of weight training and biomechanically similar plyometric jumps) on the motor skills of basketball players, namely: explosive power of the lower extremities, agility and speed running. The sample consisted of 31 basketball players of junior age from basketball clubs OKK "Konstantin" and OKK "Junior" from Nis. The respondents were divided into two groups: the experimental group (E, n = 16; AVIS = 186,17cm ± 6,50cm; AMAS = 74,75 ± 9,48kg) and control group (K; n = 15; AVIS = 185,15 ± 9,10cm; AMAS = 79,23 ± 11,87kg). The experimental group (E) consisted of basketball players from basketball team OKK "Constantine," who in addition to the basic technical and tactical training also had a complex training. The control group (K) consisted of the basketball players from basketball team OKK "Junior", who at that time had only technical and tactical training. To assess the explosive strength of the lower extremities were used: Squat Jump (SJ), Countermovement Jump (CMJ), Drop Jump (DJ) and Countermovement Jump/Single leg (CMJ/S). To assess agility: Agility T Test (TTEST) Hexagon Agility Test (HEKS), Illinois Agility Test (ILINO), Lane Agility Drill (DRIL) for speed measuring: 10x5m Shuttle Test (10x5m), Sprint Fatigue Test (SFT) and Sprint Speed at 15m (S15m). The experimental program, which involves the use of complex training, lasted for 12 weeks and every week they conducted two training sessions. Each complex training lasted for 90 minutes and consisted of three parts: introduction, main and final part. Data processing was carried out by SPSS statistical program. To determine the effect of complex training on the motor skills of basketball players, the analysis of covariance ANCOVA was used. The results showed that after experimental treatment, E group achieved significantly greater progress than group K in the following tests: SJ, CMJ, DJ, TTEST, HEKS, ILINO, DRIL, 10x5m and S15m. There was no difference between E and K group on tests CMJ/S and SFT. Based on these results we concluded that the complex training had a positive effect on the development of explosive strength of the lower extremities, agility and speed running of young players.


This article examines two different models for understanding the relationship between direct effect and supremacy. The "primacy model" argues that supremacy is capable of producing independent "exclusionary effects" within the national legal orders, where a provision of domestic law is incompatible with Community law; direct effect is only relevant if "substitutionary effects" are at issue, where Community law is invoked as a novel source of rights or obligations not already recognized under national law. By contrast, the "trigger model" asserts that, for any provision of Community law to produce an independent effect within the national legal system (whether exclusionary or substitutionary), it must satisfy the threshold criteria for having direct effect; the principle of supremacy is thus a consequence of and dependent upon that of direct effect. The choice between these two competing models can have important practical implications, for example, in the debate about the "incidental effects" of unimplemented directives, or the potential legal effects of Third Pillar framework decisions. This article examines the conceptual underpinnings of the two models, then explores how far they are supported by the caselaw. It is argued that recent rulings such as Pfeiffer and Berlusconi undermine support for the "primacy model"; but older cases such as CIA Security and Unilever Italia remain difficult to reconcile with the "trigger model". It is concluded that perhaps the ECJ itself has vacillated over its own understanding of the proper relationship between direct effect and supremacy, making it difficult for commentators to construct any coherent and descriptively accurate theory.


Drawing on the discourses of postmodernism, postcolonialism, and globalization, Vitaly Chernetsky maps out the new cultural developments in literature, architecture, painting, film, and performance art emerging in Russia and Ukraine, the two largest successor states to the Soviet Union, situating these phenomena in a greater global context. In Mapping Postcommunist Cultures Chernetsky argues that Russia and Ukraine exemplify the principal paradigms of post-Soviet cultural development. In Russia this has manifested itself in the subversive dismantling of the totalitarian linguistic regime and the foregrounding of previously marginalized subject positions. In Ukraine, work in these areas shows how the traumas of centuries of colonial oppression are being overcome through the carnivalesque decrowning of ideological dogmas and an affirmation of a new type of community, most recently demonstrated in the peaceful Orange Revolution of 2004. Mapping Postcommunist Cultures also critiques the neglect of the former communist world in current models of cultural globalization.


Mediation in the international context is a relatively recent phenomenon. As an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism, third-party neutral mediation is firmly entrenched in the legal ethos and procedural rules of most common law jurisdictions; such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. However, in the rest of the world, including many European, Latin American and Asian nations with civil law traditions, mediation remains an elusive concept. Some commentators suggest this may be due in part to differences in systemic (i.e. adversarial vs. inquisitorial) and cultural (i.e. mediation vs. conciliation) orientations. This article considers whether International Commercial Mediation is a legitimate Dispute Resolution Mechanism (DRM) alternative to litigation or arbitration and the effect of decision-making and behavioral biases, including System Justification Theory.


"The Painted Word" examines Samuel Beckett's relationship with the visual arts, in an effort to shed new light on the author's work and on his thinking on aesthetics. Lois Oppenheim argues that Beckett was a profoundly visual artist whose work reflects a preoccupation with the visual as a paradigm of creativity. She presents the three principal forms taken by Samuel Beckett's dialogue with art, and more precisely, painting: his critical writing on art, the function of art in his narrative and theatrical writing, and his indirect "collaborations" with painters.The volume's starting point is the current debate over Beckett's place with regard to modernism and postmodernism. Contextualizing his practice of art with his thinking on art, Oppenheim resituates the debate in conjunction with philosopher Merleau-Ponty's writings on painting and reveals the unifying force of all Beckett's work that resides in a play of visbility. Beckett's thinking on art had everything to do with his aims as a creative writer. Oppenheim shows that the classic Beckettian themes--language (its expressivity or lack thereof), identity (its, at best, tenuous link to a fragmented self), and the subject-object dichotomy--are all modeled on the sensory perspective of the eye. And that it is the verbal figuration of reality as vision that constitutes, whatever the genre, the Beckettian drama.The volume includes several reproductions of artists' renderings of Beckett's texts and works by Giacometti and Bram Van Velde, two of which were owned by Beckett. Broadly interdisciplinary, "The Painted Word" will appeal to those interested in aesthetics and the philosophy of art as well in Beckett's work.Lois Oppenheim is Professor of French and Chair, Department of French, German, and Russian, Montclair State University. She is President of The Samuel Beckett Society, and author of many books including "Directing Beckett."


In solar energy system, sun tracking can significantly improve the
efficiency of any solar array. Solar trackers periodically update the orientations of
devices such as reflectors, solar panels or equipment to the actual position of the
sun. From these points of view, we designed and developed a tracking system for
the UPM solar collector.
The system uses a software called Work-Bench in association with two data
acquisition and control cards. The UPM solar collector uses two modes of tracking,
passive and active tracks. The switch from active to passive is done automatically
by comparing the irradiation to a preset value of 300 Wm-2. A manual tracking is
also provided. This is required for initialization, shutdown, maintenance and
emergency tasks. For the purpose of tracking, two independent stepper motor
shafts are attached to the receiver. For the active tracking, the output voltages from two sun position sensors
were used to activate the stepper motors. These two sun sensors convert the light
intensity into voltage signals. Then by using the WorkBench software these signals
are converted into logic signals to control the movement of the stepper motors.
The passive tracking was carried out by utilizing the position angles of the
sun. These angles were then resolved into two components for the east west and
north south tracking. The WorkBench software was then used to convert these two
components into voltages. The voltage was calibrated against a reference voltage
produced by potentiometers attached to the motor shafts. The output from the
comparison was used to control the movement of the stepper motors.
Finally, the accuracy of the system was tested by taking the output
resistance from a light dependent resistor attached to the receiver. The data
indicated that the tracking is satisfactory since the output resistance from the light
dependent resistor was approximately constant on a cloudless periods.


We present an algorithm that solves the problem of finding the vehicle schedule which minimizes total inconveniences for travel along a fixed path, where service times at nodes are constrained by time windows and where inconvenience is modeled using convex functions of the service times. This problem occurs as the last step or as a sub-problem in many common approaches to solving routing and scheduling problems. We show that the complexity of the algorithm, expressed as a number of unidimensional minimizations, is on the order of the number of nodes for convex inconvenience functions. For linear and quadratic functions, this complexity is linear in the number of nodes. We present extensions to the case where linear costs are applied to waiting time, and also to the case where the service time variables are discrete.


Title of Thesis: EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ON DISTRIBUTION AND ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION OF THE INVASIVE HYDROZOAN, MOERISIA LYONSI Xiping Ma, Master of Science, 2003 Thesis directed by: Professor Jennifer E. Purcell Professor Victor S. Kennedy Associate Professor Thomas J. Miller Marine, Estuarine, and Environmental Sciences Program University of Maryland, College Park The effects of temperature, salinity, food and predation on the invasive hydrozoan, Moerisia lyonsi, were studied in the laboratory to understand its cross-oceanic distribution patterns and the quantitative relationships between the asexual reproduction of polyp and medusa buds. Polyp mortality occurred only at some treatments of salinities 35-40. Polyps reproduced asexually at salinities 1-40 at 20-29°C, but not at 10°C. The highest asexual reproduction rates occurred at salinities 5-20 without significant difference among salinities. The scyphomedusa, Chrysaora quinquecirrha, was found to prey heavily on the medusae of M. lyonsi and may have restricted its distributions in estuaries. The initiation and proportion of medusa bud production was more responsive to environmental changes than that of polyp bud production. Unfavorable conditions enhanced polyp bud production, while favorable conditions enhanced medusa bud production. The adaptive reproduction processes of M. lyonsi and the significance to survival and dispersal of the populations are discussed. EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ON DISTRIBUTION AND ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION OF THE INVASIVE HYDROZOAN, MOERISIA LYONSI


This Article explores alternative legal mechanisms for solving a type of coordination problem known as the Assurance Game. The traditional approach has been to focus on changing the expectations of the parties. This Article focuses on altering the underlying payoff structure — not through sanctions, but through risk-reducing mechanisms such as guarantees. One type of risk-reducing mechanism is the conditional money-back guarantee. Conditional money-back guarantees operate in settings ranging from federal deposit insurance to daily deal websites such as Groupon and LivingSocial. In each of these, a promise is made to return an individual's monetary contribution if an event or condition that depends on the actions of others is met. The condition may be (1) the reaching of a predetermined threshold, or (2) the happening of some event. This Article examines both types of conditional money-back guarantees and analyzes factors that may impact their effectiveness.


This Article provides valuable insight to the broader discussion of reforming investor-state disputes. Many have noted that the system is in a crisis due to a lack of democratic accountability and inconsistent decisions, which create a chilling effect on legitimate domestic law and policy. Despite substantial discussion in recent years concerning how to reform investor-state disputes, there is only limited discussion concerning the extent to which such disputes challenge domestic intellectual property (IP) limits, as well as global IP norms. Moreover, even among those who recognize the challenge to IP limits, the relevance of human rights is generally not addressed. This Article begins to fill this gap from two angles. First, it aims to promote a better understanding of how such disputes undermine the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) at an important time when policymakers are recommending reliance on policy space under TRIPS. Second, it considers whether human rights might help to protect this policy space using the facts of Eli Lilly v. Canada.


This conference charitably opens with a gift. Its organizers begin by granting to substantive due process the right to exist. This is hot a small or insignificant gift. Political experience suggests how big a step it is for one antagonist to grant the other's right to exist. With that matter conceded, it seems, the contenders need hot fight the battle for legitimacy, but may devote all their energies to the definition of boundaries. But this gift is a Trojan Horse; it poses a menacing challenge hidden deep within. If the proponents of substantive due process cannot defend its boundaries satisfactorily, then evidently the principle of enforceable liberty itself is at risk of being banished to oblivion with a pronouncement of illegitimacy across the board. Alan Meese admits as much: The absence of such an explanation [for the way in which the Supreme Court has treated liberty], or, what may be worse, the provision of an explanation that will not withstand scrutiny, suggests that the distinction between personal rights and economic rights, and, with it, the legitimacy of the enterprise of substantive due process, is an illusion.(1) This Essay is an effort to rout the troops crouched in the bowels of the marvelous Horse, to challenge them with a strong offensive charge on behalf of vigorous liberty protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. More prosaically, my purpose is to suggest some of the limitations of what I will call the "conservative critique" of substantive due process, a critique taken up in Meese's paper.(2) The foundation of that critique is that, because the Framers valued some of the types of liberty that we now call economic rights, modern courts should give robust protection to these rights, and only these rights, against most types of government regulation.(3) The judiciary's failure since 1937 to do so, the critique maintains, constitutes a breach of fidelity to the Constitution itself and casts serious doubt on any judicial effort to protect liberties of any kind from state abridgment. The conservative critique propounds impoverished notions of both liberty and fidelity. This Essay offers some reminders about the development of liberty in this country, as well as some historical, theoretical, and common sense considerations that might guide us in the development of a better approach to the protection of liberty under the Constitution. Professor Meese is on the right track when he questions the relatively recent splitting of liberty into two distinct categories, economic and personal.(4) He correctly questions the Supreme Court's decision to apply strict scrutiny to laws curtailing personal liberties while seeking only a rational basis fort laws impinging upon economic liberties. This artificial pigeonholing--particularly when the arbitrary choice of pigeonhole has such radically significant consequences--serves neither history nor principle. Though I grant Meese this first step of his argument, my concession ends here. Meese goes astray when he suggests that the categories themselves are meaningful, but that if substantive due process is to be "principled,"(5) then the specific freedoms occupying privileged and nonprivileged positions should simply switch places. He does hot go far enough in taking on the categorical jurisprudence that characterizes modern analysis of liberty under the Due Process Clause. In place of the dichotomous reasoning that has developed around the question of constitutional liberty, I propose a more integrated, common sense understanding of the place of liberty in the roster of individual rights protected by judicial scrutiny under the Fourteenth Amendment. A critical comment on the conservative critique of substantive due process, which would still allow for the fragmenting of liberty into two categories, is one step in the process of reaching that goal. This Essay discusses the way in which courts have traditionally understood a constitutional claim to liberty under the Due Process Clause, suggesting that liberty did hot originate as a fragmented or hierarchical notion. …


TORBENSEN, VIGGO V. (28 Sept. 1858-4 Jan. 1947) pioneer in the automotive industry and founder of the Torbensen Axle Company was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the son of Hans W. and Marian (Peterson) Torbensen. He was educated in Danish public schools and studied engineering at the Naval Technical School, graduating in 1879. After 2 years as a machinist's apprentice and a year working in England, he came to America where he was employed by a succession of firms. In 1892, Torbensen traveled to Germany for further training. Returning to the U.S. in 1899, he designed and produced the first internal automobile gear drive used in this country while managing the DeDion-Bouton Motorette Co. of Brooklyn, N.Y. In 1912, he founded the Torbensen Gear & Axle Company at Newark, NJ and moved it to Cleveland in 1915, reincoporating it as the Torbensen Axle Co. with a capital of $1.75 million. By 1917 the company was generating an annual income of $6 million from the sales of 30,000 axles, most of them produced at its 4-acre plant on E. 152nd St. Torbensen axles equipped one out of every three trucks made in the U. S. The founder retired in the early 1920s, when the company was absorbed by the Eaton Axle Co. He married Evelyn L. Smith of Philadelphia, and they had 3 children, Allen, Clara U. (Mrs Charles J. Long), and Mrs. Margaret Rauchmiller. Torbensen's second wife was Gertrude Stritmater whom he married 5 Aug. 1922. He died in Cleveland and was buried in LAKE VIEW CEMETERY.


In a recent talk I gave, titled "Fabulous Invalids Together: Why Disability in Mainstream Theater Matters," I asked: Why should we care about theater in this age of multiple visual media? And more to the point, why should we care about disability in theater, given how crips onstage have been so unimaginatively imagined? In response, I argued that we needed to understand a figure I have deemed the fabulous invalid, borrowing the title of Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's 1938 play of the same name in which theater is represented as an invalid who is down but never out, perhaps dying but not dead yet. (1) In essence, I posited, this is a potentially rich figure that we ignore at our peril; it is one that we also need to update and embrace in considering the dramatic representation of disability, particularly in the face of the unceasing parade of disabled characters who limp, stroll, and sit on American stages. What if we rejected a "cure or kill" mentality in critical analysis of our own, hacking away from demanding that images be either politically resistant or polemically resisted? What if, instead, we embraced the idea that the range of disabled characters onstage over time, creates for audiences a kind of figurative "fabulosity"? This fabulous invalid, then, is a paradigm for understanding productive tensions in theater, for refusing to reject a given representation of disability as politically ineffectual just because it may seem to contain elements of the conventional or stereotypical, and for reclaiming those aspects of disability representation that do important aesthetic and political work. But, of course, the fabulous invalid has other aspects to her identity than disability. In his landmark essay "Is Disability Studies Actually White Disability Studies?" the late Chris Bell pointedly and satirically presents his own modest proposal for perpetuating the bias of what he names White Disability Studies. "When you come across a non-white disabled person," he writes, tongue firmly in cheek, focus on the disability, eliding the race and ethnicity, letting them he run over, forgotten. Do not consider how the intersection in which this subject lives influences her actions and the way she is seen. Choose not to see that intersection and move on down the road of disability, away from the "perpendicular" roads of race and ethnicity. The fact that the intersection exists is not your fault. It is prime example of poor engineering. (378) Bell's point is, of course, that these intersections of the different aspects of embodiment do matter and that we bypass them at our own peril; therefore, the fabulous invalid cannot be assumed to be the normate in every other way except disability. What, then, do the multiple identities of this figure offer as they intersect with disability, enhancing and enriching our understanding of how disability functions to make drama more fabulous in its very querying and queering of multiple social structures? In works by contemporary African American women playwrights, disability works with race and gender to give voice to the lived experience of being a disabled person of color, to call attention to common experiences, and to enhance an understanding of identities as socially constructed. Some examples include Suzan-Lori Parks's Venus, which tells the story of Saartjie (Sarah) Bartman, the infamously nicknamed Venus Hottentot, whose excessive body was put on display for sideshow audiences in the nineteenth century; Parks's In the Blood, which references forced sterilization as it was deployed against poor, African American women; Lynn Nottage's Ruined, which shows the physical aftereffects of rape used as a tool of wartime violence in the Congo; and Anna Deavere Smith's Let Me Down Easy, which depicts illness and the contingency of the human body. These playwrights figure disability in various ways: to recount history, pain, sexual violence, caregiving, the disposability of disabled bodies of color in American society, and the intersecting and stigmatized experiences of women of color and the disabled. …


With its solo set-up, more subdued speeds, and endlessly varying events and courses, autocross is the easiest, safest, and least expensive way to get into motorsports. Anyone with a helmet and a car can do it. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have some driving skills, which is where this book comes in. As a veteran racer and professional driving coach, Ross Bentley knows what it takes to compete and to win, and he gives readers the benefit of that knowledge in "Winning Autocross Techniques".The first in the "Speed Secrets" series to address a specific form of racing, this volume focuses on the skills critical to autocross success: car handling and driver skill at high speeds on unique courses. Though slower than other motorsports in absolute terms, autocross, with its high number of turns per minute, can challenge even the most expert driver. Adapting his time-proven method of teaching drivers how to go fast, Bentley clearly details the steps and techniques that help autocross drivers maintain control and dominate a course at speed. Though specific to autocross, and essential to mastering its particular challenges, his advice and instruction in this book will prove invaluable to drivers who go on to road racing as well.


Summary: In Part 2 of this article, the author continues her examination of the implications of the OECD's Action Plan on Tax Base Erosion and Profit Shifting from an African perspective. Although the OECD Project covers 15 Actions to address BEPS, the low economic development of many African countries, their limited administrative capacity and general lack of development of international tax laws limits the ability of these countries to fully implement all the OECD's recommendations to curtail BEPS. This paper identifies three of the highest priority actions that have the greatest BEPS impact for African economies. These are: Action 4, which deals with limiting base erosion via interest deductions and other financial payments; Action 6, which deals with preventing treaty abuse; and Action 7, which deals with preventing the artificial avoidance of permanent establishment status. Referring to examples from an array of African countries, the paper discusses the special concerns that these countries face with respect to Actions 4, 6 and 7 and the limitations of the measures that they currently apply to deal with those concerns. Thereafter, the paper provides recommendations as to how African countries can effectively implement the OECD recommendations with respect to Actions 4, 6 and 7. This analysis is based on the premise that as much as African countries are encouraged to associate themselves with the OECD recommendations to curtail BEPS, their approach should be one of coming up with customised solutions to protect their tax bases. Since African countries' tax systems are not homogenous and since their levels of economic development as well as their levels of administrative capacity to deal with the challenges associated with BEPS vary immensely, each country must evaluate its own situation to identify its particular issues and determine the most appropriate techniques to ensure a sound tax base.


Many educational tools are used for prehospital trauma life support (PHTLS) training, including mobile apps. This study describes the currently available mobile apps for PHTLS training. Systematic searches in the Apple Store, Google Play Store, and BlackBerry World were conducted in December 2015. Two researchers performed all searches independently and collected their findings in different databases, which were later compared. Finally, a descriptive analysis was carried out. A total of 41 mobile apps that fulfilled the inclusion criteria were found. Among these, 97.5% (n = 40) were in English, 58.5% (n = 24) were updated in 2015, and 51.2% (n = 21) were not free. Of the 20 free apps, 85% (n = 17) did not require an internet connection for any function, 70% (n = 14) had no videos or animation, 10% (n = 2) had any game, and 70% (n = 14) had no institutional certification. In conclusion, it was found that PHTLS apps usually lack interactive content and institutional certification, which should be taken into...


Process-control systems usually deal with changeable environments so that high adaptability of these systems is required. After a process-control system has been implemented and deployed, it is not an easy task to adapt the system to satisfy new requirements. Considering this problem, we propose the use of relational program architectures to design process-control systems for high adaptability. With the relational program architecture, a process-control system is designed to be the composition of several Independently Developable End-user Assessable Logical (IDEAL) components through pre-defined composition patterns. Each IDEAL component is associated with several end-user visible properties and can be solved and validated in its restricted "view" of the system, i.e., it can be designed and implemented independently, and can be tested or verified by the end-user independently. In addition, the system level properties (safety, stability, and reliability) can be inferred from the individual IDEAL components mathematically. The relational program architecture can provide not only the ultra-high dependability assurance of a process-control system, but can also make the system highly adaptable. We propose several principles, by which we can accurately determine which components of the system need to be adapted and how to adapt them after the system's requirement has changed. These principles can be evolved to automated tool support.


Globalisation is a phenomenon that has made the world shrink and business has crossed borders. To add over the advancement in technology has made this much easier. Companies are now indulging in outsourcing for many reasons. Recently, an increasing number of British firms have outsourced the IT and IS to India and other countries. Specifically, this study evaluates the Ericsson outsourcing its transmission planning to India and why are they doing so and how are they managing them. It also evaluates how the outsourced departments can work efficiently providing excellent customer service and thus increasing the business. This study adopts a primary mixed research approach involving a questionnaire as well as interview. The findings from the primary sources give a view and description of Ericsson outsourcing its transmission planning to India the views about the employees and the management. The reasons for outsourcing and how they are managing the outsourced department along with the future of outsourcing within Ericsson and that also provides the picture of outsourcing in general.


The functional organization of human auditory cortex can be probed by characterizing responses to various classes of sound at different anatomical locations. Along with histological studies this approach has revealed a primary field in posteromedial Heschl's gyrus (HG) with pronounced induced high-frequency (70–150 Hz) activity and short-latency responses that phase-lock to rapid transient sounds. Low-frequency neural oscillations are also relevant to stimulus processing and information flow, however, their distribution within auditory cortex has not been established. Alpha activity (7–14 Hz) in particular has been associated with processes that may differentially engage earlier versus later levels of the cortical hierarchy, including functional inhibition and the communication of sensory predictions. These theories derive largely from the study of occipitoparietal sources readily detectable in scalp electroencephalography. To characterize the anatomical basis and functional significance of less accessible temporal-lobe alpha activity we analyzed responses to sentences in seven human adults (4 female) with epilepsy who had been implanted with electrodes in superior temporal cortex. In contrast to primary cortex in posteromedial HG, a non-primary field in anterolateral HG was characterized by high spontaneous alpha activity that was strongly suppressed during auditory stimulation. Alpha-power suppression decreased with distance from anterolateral HG throughout superior temporal cortex, and was more pronounced for clear compared to degraded speech. This suppression could not be accounted for solely by a change in the slope of the power spectrum. The differential manifestation and stimulus-sensitivity of alpha oscillations across auditory fields should be accounted for in theories of their generation and function. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT To understand how auditory cortex is organized in support of perception, we recorded from patients implanted with electrodes for clinical reasons. This allowed measurement of activity in brain regions at different levels of sensory processing. Oscillations in the alpha range (7–14 Hz) have been associated with functions including sensory prediction and inhibition of regions handling irrelevant information, but their distribution within auditory cortex is not known. A key finding was that these oscillations dominated in one particular non-primary field, anterolateral Heschl's gyrus, and were suppressed when subjects listened to sentences. These results build on our knowledge of the functional organization of auditory cortex and provide anatomical constraints on theories of the generation and function of alpha oscillations.


This paper analyzes the political economy of productivity-related policymaking in Chile following a political transaction cost model (Spiller and Tommasi, 2003; Murillo et al., 2008). The main findings indicate that i) the Chilean policymaking process (PMP) was successful in the 1990s in implementing productivityenhancing policies, but as the country moved to a higher stage of development, the PMP grew less adept at generating the more complex set of policies needed to increase productivity at this stage; and ii) the Chilean PMP is less transparent than previously thought (Aninat et al., 2008), thus allowing political actors to favor private interests without being punished by the electorate. This has become apparent as the more sophisticated reforms needed at this stage of development require a deeper and more consolidated democracy.


This inquiry argues that current Tenth Amendment jurisprudence causes net harm to federalism values under certain circumstances. Specifically, New York v. United States and Printz v. United States protect state autonomy to some extent by requiring the federal government to internalize more of the costs of federal regulation before engaging in regulation, and by addressing any accountability problems that commandeering can cause. But anticommandeering doctrine harms state autonomy in situations where the presence of the rule triggers more preemption going forward. Preemption generally causes a greater compromise of federalism values than does commandeering by eroding state regulatory control. While it is a context-sensitive empirical question whether specific applications of the commandeering ban would cause the federal government to respond by engaging in preemption, giving states a choice between commandeering and preemption, using the conditional spending power, or declining to regulate, this inquiry primarily advances a conceptual claim. Because there often will exist a non-trivial chance that Congress will engage in preemption when it cannot commandeer, and because it is impossible for the Court to know at the time of judicial decision where a given case fits along the continuum of preemption probabilities, federalism doctrine requires a strategically sophisticated conceptual system, one that takes into account all of the regulatory possibilities before Congress. This inquiry recommends replacing the Court's categorical anticommandeering rule with a legal standard that is sensitive not only to accountability concerns, but also to the feasibility of preemption should commandeering be prohibited and to the financial burdens imposed by commandeering. One payoff of this approach is that it turns the conventional wisdom about New York and Printz on its head. Because preemption was reasonably available in the short run only in New York, and because accountability concerns were not greater in New York, Printz remains a close case, but the Court in New York should have rejected the state's Tenth Amendment challenge. After anticipating various objections, the author employs a post-9/11 terrorism hypothetical to illustrate the argument's potential relevance and force.


Ex-American footballer, actor and celebrity O J Simpson was indicted in late 1994 on two counts of murder, setting the scene for a real-life courtoom drama which came to be known as 'The Trial of the Century'. The trial lasted nine months, involved more than one hundred and twenty witnesses, and was watched on worldwide television by millions of fascinated viewers. This is the first full linguistic analysis of the trial, drawing on the official trial transcripts, police interviews with Simpson and media coverage of the case. Janet Cotterill analyses the language and discourse of the trial, exploring some of the linguistic strategies employed by the judge, lawyers and witnesses in the (re)construction and (re)presentation of the crimes, their victims and alleged perpetrator.


Achievement test scores in mathematics have been a concern among educators for many years. Teaching contextualized mathematics has been found to be effective and includes providing a direct application to real-life scenarios rather than teaching linear equations and algebraic principles in isolation. This study measured the effects of integrating mathematical skills in one instructional unit in an animal science curriculum. Students from eight schools participated in the research study. Students completed a pretest measuring their existing mathematical skills and self-efficacy in math. All students were taught a unit of instruction about animal nutrition and feeding. The control group received a typical nutrition unit, and the treatment group received the same unit of instruction with the addition of mathematical skill integration. Following the unit of instruction, students completed a posttest survey, which included a mathematics attitudinal scale, posttreatment self-efficacy scale, and posttreatment mathematics skills questions. No statistically significant difference was found in mathematics selfefficacy or mathematics skills between the control group and treatment. However, results indicated a strong positive relationship between students' mathematics self-efficacy and their mathematics skills. Further, highest level of mathematics courses completed and overall grade point average were statistically significant factors in predicting mathematics selfefficacy.


Nowadays, developing countries are using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to bridge the gap in knowledge access and social equality for their people. It is widely recognized that bridging the digital divide can promote literacy, democracy, social development, public services equality, and sustainable economic growth. Digital divide, therefore, is an obstacle to sustainable national development that could help countries advance to the age of digital economy. In Thailand, ICT development and mobile penetration are strongly correlated with economic growth and social benefits. The Thai government, regulators, and other stakeholders are encouraging the ICT industry to provide communications and services for all by fostering investment and removing regulatory bottlenecks. The objective of this paper is to analyze the digital devide in Thailand and gives recommendations to the government and regulators to provide supportive policies to reduce the digital divide.


Scripture and church order This article attempts to contribute to the clarification of the relationship between Scripture and church order. The concept church order is not considered to refer to rules and regulations only, but to encompass the entire nature of the church. In attempting to answer the question about the relationship between Scripture" and church order, the author first sets out the views of a number of theologians on the issue and thereafter presents his perspective Oil the issue.


The Z-scan analysis technique has been developed to permit characterization of nonlinear refractive indices and nonlinear absorption of non-Gaussian laser beams by a numerical approach. The new approach is based on a mode expansion of the electric field of the laser beam into Gaussian–Laguerre or Gaussian–Hermite modes. The individual modes are propagated within the nonlinear sample under the influence of the intensity-dependent phase shifts. The resulting electric field at the exit plane is expanded as a new sum of Gaussian–Laguerre or Gaussian–Hermite modes. From the final mode expansion the field distribution at the detector plane is calculated. The method also makes it possible to simulate a variety of complex optical limiting devices, such as stacks of samples with different material parameters and thick samples with a variation of material parameters along the z axis. A series of test simulations is presented and compared with experimental Z-scan data of solutions of substituted phthalocyanine molecules.


ABSTRACT The last two decades have seen athletes in sports whose main competitions are not run by professional leagues demand better remuneration and a greater say in their national and international federations, especially with respect to the Olympic Games and other major competitions. This paper traces the history behind these demands (section 1) and describes the ways sport organizations have responded to them so far (section 2). It then presents current solutions, centered round the more-or-less representative groupings of athletes that have been created since the mid-20th century, and suggests a more innovative proposal that would require federations to change their legal form (section 3).


ABSTRACT The implementation of routine whole-genome sequencing (WGS) promises to transform our ability to monitor the emergence and spread of bacterial pathogens. Here we combined WGS data from 308 invasive Staphylococcus aureus isolates corresponding to a pan-European population snapshot, with epidemiological and resistance data. Geospatial visualization of the data is made possible by a generic software tool designed for public health purposes that is available at the project URL (http://www.microreact.org/project/EkUvg9uY?tt=rc). Our analysis demonstrates that high-risk clones can be identified on the basis of population level properties such as clonal relatedness, abundance, and spatial structuring and by inferring virulence and resistance properties on the basis of gene content. We also show that in silico predictions of antibiotic resistance profiles are at least as reliable as phenotypic testing. We argue that this work provides a comprehensive road map illustrating the three vital components for future molecular epidemiological surveillance: (i) large-scale structured surveys, (ii) WGS, and (iii) community-oriented database infrastructure and analysis tools. IMPORTANCE The spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a public health emergency of global concern, threatening medical intervention at every level of health care delivery. Several recent studies have demonstrated the promise of routine whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of bacterial pathogens for epidemiological surveillance, outbreak detection, and infection control. However, as this technology becomes more widely adopted, the key challenges of generating representative national and international data sets and the development of bioinformatic tools to manage and interpret the data become increasingly pertinent. This study provides a road map for the integration of WGS data into routine pathogen surveillance. We emphasize the importance of large-scale routine surveys to provide the population context for more targeted or localized investigation and the development of open-access bioinformatic tools to provide the means to combine and compare independently generated data with publicly available data sets. The spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a public health emergency of global concern, threatening medical intervention at every level of health care delivery. Several recent studies have demonstrated the promise of routine whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of bacterial pathogens for epidemiological surveillance, outbreak detection, and infection control. However, as this technology becomes more widely adopted, the key challenges of generating representative national and international data sets and the development of bioinformatic tools to manage and interpret the data become increasingly pertinent. This study provides a road map for the integration of WGS data into routine pathogen surveillance. We emphasize the importance of large-scale routine surveys to provide the population context for more targeted or localized investigation and the development of open-access bioinformatic tools to provide the means to combine and compare independently generated data with publicly available data sets.


The increased commercial use of copper oxide nanoparticles (nCuO) led to the release of nanoparticles in wastewaters potentially harming the aquatic biota. The purpose of this study was to determine the toxic action of nCuO and dissolved Cu (II) to Dreissena bugensis freshwater mussels placed in 4 types of surface waters: aquarium, green (high conductivity), brown (high organic carbon) and 10 % municipal effluent (high conductivity and anthropogenic source of organic carbon). Mussels were exposed to 50 µg/L of nCuO or Cu (II) for 96 h at 15 °C in the above waters. The results revealed that the total Cu loadings were higher in mussels placed in organic-rich waters (brown and effluent) and exposed to either forms of Cu. Tissue Cu contents were correlated with air-time survival, lipid peroxidation, protein-ubiquitin levels and DNA strand breaks. Both surface water types and Cu forms influenced Zn (II) mobilization, glutathione S-transferase activity and protein turnover (ubiquitin binding). Based on the surface water properties, Cu (II) was more influenced by the levels and origin of the organic carbon content while nCuO was more influenced by the total suspended solids. In conclusion the toxicity of nCuO could be influenced by surface waters properties expecially when similar physiological targets are impacts by these treatments.


This thesis examines various types of financial transfers between college students and their family members and how they differ by immigration status. Types of financial transfers examined include whether family members: helped students make tuition or loan payments, paid for unexpected expenses, provided health insurance, gave assistance with utilities and credit card payments, rent payments, or provided a regular allowance. Variables used to measure transfers from students to family members are whether students: babysat family member's children or let family members live with them during college, and whether these services were done for free, and whether students gave money to family members while in college. Data was collected from a 2017 survey examining how over 3,000 college students pay for and experience college at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Rutgers University - Camden. Results were analyzed using mixed effects logistic regressions that controlled for gender, race, class, highest level of parent's education, and for each university where data was collected. Results show immigrants are less likely to receive assistance with tuition or student loan payments, help with unexpected expenses, or be provided with health insurance by family members. Immigrants are less likely than non-immigrants to help their family members by babysitting for them, but twice as likely to help by letting them live with them during college. Immigrants not only let their family members live with them at a greater rate than non-immigrants, they also do so for free more often than non-immigrants. Lastly, immigrants babysit for their families less frequently than non-immigrants. Other results show immigrants and non-immigrants do not significantly differ in terms of aid received for utilities and credit card payments, rent, money given to family, receipt of allowance, or babysitting for free.


Purpose: This study examines the feasibility and utility of a daily log for measuring principal leadership practice. Setting and Sample: The study was conducted in an urban district with approximately 50 principals. Approach: The log was assessed against two criteria: (a) Is it feasible to induce strong cooperation and high response rates among principals with a daily instrument? and (b) Can daily logs accurately measure important aspects of principal leadership? The first criterion was assessed through a discussion of data collection procedures and results. The second criterion was assessed through mixed-method analyses comparing daily logs, observations, and an experience-sampling instrument. Results: The authors found that substantial participant contact time and strategic follow-up achieved strong cooperation and yielded high response rates. The accuracy of the log was confirmed through comparisons with an experience-sampling instrument and direct observations. The results also contribute to a broader understanding of how principals allocate their time across leadership domains. Like earlier structured observation studies, the authors found that principals spend more time on management, personnel issues, and student affairs and less time on instructional leadership than advocated by leadership scholars and professional standards. Implications for Research and Practice: Daily logs appear to be a viable means of measuring important aspects of principal practice and overcoming measurement errors associated with one-time surveys that are common in leadership research. Strategies used to maintain high participation rates are discussed in detail, and an example of a district's adaptation of the daily log methodology is provided.


The Gini coefficient is a downward-biased measure of inequality in small populations when income is generated by one of three common distributions. The paper discusses the sources of bias and argues that this property is far more general. This has implications for (i) the comparison of inequality among subsamples, some of which may be small, and (ii) the use of the Gini in measuring firm size inequality in markets with a small number of firms. The small-sample bias has often led to misperceptions about trends in industry concentration. A small-sample adjustment results in a reduced bias, which can no longer be signed. This remaining bias rises with the dispersion and falls with increasing skewness of the distribution. Finally, an empirical example illustrates the importance of using the adjusted Gini. In this example it is shown that, controlling for market characteristics, larger shipping cartels include a set of firms that is stochastically identical (in terms of relative size) to those of smaller shipping cartels.


Abstract : This thesis describes the physics of fully three-dimensional low frequency acoustic interaction with internal waves, bottom sediment waves and surface swell waves that are often observed in shallow waters and on continental slopes. A simple idealized model of the ocean waveguide is used to analytically study the properties of acoustic normal modes and their perturbations due to waves of each type. The combined approach of a semi-quantitative study based on the geometrical acoustics approximation and on fully three-dimensional coupled mode numerical modeling is used to examine the azimuthal dependence of sound wave horizontal reflection from, transmission through and ducting between straight parallel waves of each type. The impact of the natural crossings of nonlinear internal waves on horizontally ducted sound energy is studied theoretically and modeled numerically using a three-dimensional parabolic equation acoustic propagation code. A realistic sea surface elevation is synthesized from the directional spectrum of long swells and used for three-dimensional numerical modeling of acoustic propagation. As a result, considerable normal mode amplitude scintillations were observed and shown to be strongly dependent on horizontal azimuth, range and mode number. Full field numerical modeling of low frequency sound propagation through large sand waves located on a sloped bottom was performed using the high resolution bathymetry of the mouth of San Francisco Bay. Very strong acoustic ducting is shown to steer acoustic energy beams along the sand wave s curved crests.


Extracted from text ... The South African Gastroenterology Review ? November 2006 85
CASE REPORT
One is often humbled when one has to deal with family
members who have developed an illness. I would like to relate
a story of one family member which was an ignobling
experience. The member in question is Attila, she is a
miniature schnauzer (Figure 1). She was and is a mature and
feisty lady. In her 10th dog year (70 in human terms), she had
a rather eventful year. She regularly goes to Greyville
Racecourse, the home of the Durban July, where she gets
walked with our ..


In recent years considerable interest has developed in going 'beyond GDP' to develop measures of economic progress which are more explicitly based on human wellbeing. This work has been inspired, in part, by Sen's non-utilitarian approach to welfare economics, but has been constrained by a lack of empirical indicators relating to human potential. In this paper, therefore, we develop a framework for understanding wellbeing, drawing closely on Sen's seminal contributions to welfare economics, as well as the economic literature on life satisfaction, and use it to generate novel data for the USA and UK consistent with all the components of the theory. We use these data to illustrate some of the life quality analyses that might follow. Specifically, we investigate how various indicators of capability are distributed by ethnicity and gender, and compare and contrast the types of capability which appear relatively strong/weak within each country. In addition, we consider the extent to which life satisfaction and daily activities depend on resources and non-cognitive skills. The paper concludes that with an expansion of the scope of routinely collected survey data, it is feasible to empirically implement fully Sen's theory to provide a much richer account of the wellbeing outcomes that derive from economic progress than is currently the case.


In fusion experiments, interruption units for high DC currents are widely used for generating the loop voltage required at plasma breakdown and current start-up. Likewise, similar systems are employed for the protection of superconductive coils in case of quench (i.e. a loss of superconductivity). In such event, large resistor banks are inserted in the circuits by means of circuit breakers, so as to dissipate the energy stored in the coils. The ITER experiment, the largest fusion facility ever conceived, is currently under construction in the south of France at Cadarache site and, as in the already existing fusion experiments, it will be provided with DC interruption units for plasma initiation (the Switching Network Units - SNUs) and coil quench protection (the Fast Discharge Units - FDUs). The paper, after a survey on the interruption units installed in large fusion facilities worldwide, describes the systems designed for the ITER experiment, pointing out their peculiarities and challenging issues. Then, a comparison among different solutions implemented is given, pointing out critical performances required, issues in the design of key components and possible future developments.


The endogenous neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) is known to affect the excitatory/inhibitory (E/I) balance of primate visual cortex, enhancing feedforward thalamocortical gain while suppressing corticocortical synapses. Recent advances in the study of the human visual system suggest that ACh is a likely component underlying interocular interactions. However, our understanding of its precise role in binocular processes is currently lacking. Here we use binocular rivalry as a probe of interocular dynamics to determine ACh's effects, via the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor (AChEI) donepezil, on the binocular visual system. A total of 23 subjects (13 male) completed two crossover experimental sessions where binocular rivalry measurements were obtained before and after taking either donepezil (5 mg) or a placebo (lactose) pill. We report that enhanced cholinergic potentiation attenuates perceptual suppression during binocular rivalry, reducing the overall rate of interocular competition while enhancing the visibility of superimposition mixed percepts. Considering recent evidence that perceptual suppression during binocular rivalry is causally modulated by the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA, our results suggest that cholinergic activity counteracts the effect of GABA with regards to interocular dynamics and may modulate the inhibitory drive within the visual cortex. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Our research demonstrates that the cholinergic system is implicated in modulating binocular interactions in the human visual cortex. Potentiating the transmission of acetylcholine (ACh) via the cholinergic drug donepezil reduces the extent to which the eyes compete for perceptual dominance when presented two separate, incongruent images.


In 2006, Alberta passed new legislation concerning donation of human organs and tissues. According to the Government of Alberta, the intent of the legislation is to "broaden the scope of and modernize" Alberta's 33-year-old legislation, the Human Tissue Gift Act. (1) In introducing the Bill to the Alberta Legislature, MLA Dave Rodney outlined a number of modifications that will flow from the new statute. These include the following', changes to definitions within the legislation (aimed at both modernizing the terminology and to reflect some of the other changes to the HTGA); provisions that permit living donation by minors in some circumstances; the creation of independent assessment committees designed to protect the interests of minors who are living donors; changes to consent requirements; provisions directing mandatory consideration for donation; provisions respecting quality assurance mechanisms, including registries of personnel and facilities; specific provisions respecting confidentiality of health information; and changes to fines for contraventions of the Act. The Human Tissue and Organ Donation Act (2) was proclaimed into force on August 1, 2009. While some of the modifications made by the Act are quite minor, some have the potential to effect broader change in human organ and tissue donation practice. Will the Act achieve its aims? Are we in for significant change on the organ and tissue donation front? In this brief article, I examine the salient aspects of the Human Tissue and Organ Donation Act. First, I discuss the changes that relate to cadaveric donation, including consent and mandatory consideration for donation. Second, I focus on the changes related to living donation, including donation by minors and independent assessment committees. Finally, I consider modifications that are relevant to both cadaveric and living donation: quality assurance/registry, confidentiality, and fines for contravention of the Act. 1. Deceased donors Consent and Organ Supply A perennial and well-documented problem in organ transplantation is the fact that need for organs far outpaces the supply of organs available for transplantation. In 2008, 4,380 Canadians were awaiting transplants, and 215 died while waiting. (3) Although statistics on tissue donation are not kept in a similar manner, recent research suggests a significant (and growing) unmet demand. (4) Governments seem to continually look for ways to increase the supply of organs, and often zero in on law and practice around consent as a perceived barrier to increased participation in organ donation programs. (5) Alberta's new law is no exception in this respect, in that a clearly articulated aim of the government in advancing the new legislation was to "strengthen the donation program" by ensuring that the wishes of a deceased potential donor in favour of donation will be honored, even where those wishes conflict with the express desires of the next of kin. According to Dave Rodney, the notion that the consent of the potential donor should take precedence over any conflicting wishes of the family "represents a change in current practice. Clinicians generally require consent from next of kin even when the known wishes of the deceased were indicated by a donor card or other document." Mr. Rodney is quite correct that current practice does not respect the consent of a deceased potential donor if the next of kin does not also provide consent for organ donation. Most human organ procurement agencies take the view that donor consent, on its own, is not sufficient to permit the removal of organs from a potential donor's body. (6) But it is questionable whether a change to the legislation was needed in order to permit agencies (such as HOPE, the Human Organ Procurement Exchange agency in Alberta) to rely on the deceased's signed donor card. Section 4 of the HTGA provides: 4(1) Any adult person may consent, (a) in a writing signed by the person at any time, or (b) orally in the presence of at least 2 witnesses during the person's last illness, that the person's body or the part or parts of it specified in the consent be used after the person's death for therapeutic purposes, medical education or scientific research. …


This thesis describes the development of liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) methods for the trace analysis of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and their metabolites in aqueous environmental matrices. The research was focused on the development of chiral LC-MS/MS methods for the analysis of fluoxetine and metoprolol, as well as their chiral metabolites in environmental water samples. A method was also developed for the achiral compounds, diazepam and nordiazepam. The LC-MS/MS methods were validated by the use of the isotope-labeled compounds. As these isotope-labeled compounds were not found in the wastewater samples, the validation could be assessed at trace level concentrations in the actual matrices in which the analytes were detected. The analytes were extracted from the water samples using solid phase extraction methods. Different types of solid phase extraction sorbents were evaluated. Fluoxetine and norfluoxetine were extracted through the use of a mixed mode polymeric based extraction sorbent. A hydrophilic and lipophilic balanced sorbent was employed for the simultaneous extraction of metoprolol and its metabolites, the base α-hydroxymetoprolol and the acidic metabolite deaminated metoprolol. Moreover, silica based C18 extraction discs were applied for the sample preparation of diazepam and nordiazepam. The chromatographic separations were conducted in reversed phase LC with MS compatible mobile phases. The enantiomers of fluoxetine and norfluoxetine were simultaneously separated using the chiral stationary phase (CSP), α1-acid glycoprotein (AGP). The Chiral AGP column was also applied for the separation of the enantiomers of deaminated metoprolol. For the simultaneous separation of the metoprolol enantiomers and the four stereoisomers of α-hydroxymetoprolol, the cellobiohydrolase (CBH) protein based CSP was used. An octadecyl silica based LC column was applied for the separation of diazepam and nordiazepam. The analytes were detected by the use of tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry operating in selective reactive monitoring mode. High resolution MS, employing a quadrupole time-of-flight (QqTOF) mass analyzer, was utilized for the identification of an unknown compound in wastewater samples. The APIs and their metabolites, as well as their respective enantiomers, were quantified in raw and treated wastewater from Uppsala, Sweden along with surface water from the River Fyris in Uppsala.


The aim of this study was to present results of Education to Theatricality (IT: Educazione alla Teatralita) as scientific research and innovative pedagogy in the sector of the education of the person. Education to Theatricality has a lot of purposes to contribute to the psycho-physic well-being of each person; particularly it wants to help everyone to realize himself, as human being and as social actor; it wants to give everybody the chance to reveal his own diversity and specificity, because everybody has a message to convey through his body and his voice. The Education to Theatricality wants to stimulate skills, it wants to develop a better awareness of interpersonal relationships; it wants also give space to the assignment meaning process, because it considers "doing" as important as thinking, which permits to develop awareness about personal acts. Education to Theatricality is a science that includes pedagogy, sociology, human sciences, psychology and performative art in general. The scientific nature of this discipline allows to apply it to the most part of the contexts and of the persons, because it has in the centre of its pedagogical process the human being, as such he is and not necessarily with any skill. The training of the actor-person is one of the most important principles of the Education to Theatricality: the most important purpose is the development of the creativity and the imagination through a work, based on scientific principles that the actor-person leads on himself. The ultimate aim of this science is not to transform the human in an actor-object, shaping him just for packed shows that can be easily sold, but to allow him to enhance his own qualities respecting his personality. The theatrical activity in the school and in the educational centers for children teenagers stimulates and protects the inventive skills of the students.


In this paper, the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) is introduced to implement channel multipath clustering. The GMM incorporates the covariance structure and the mean information of the channel multipaths, thus it can effectively reveal the similarity of the channel multipaths. First, the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is utilized to search for the posterior estimation of the GMM parameters. Then, the variational Bayesian (VB) algorithm is employed to optimize the GMM parameters to enhance the searching ability of EM and further to determine the optimal number of Gaussian distributions without resorting to cross-validation. Finally, a compact index (CI) is proposed to validate the clustering results reasonably. Thanks to the proposed CI, it is possible to find a close relationship among the GMM clustering mechanism, the multipath propagation characteristics and the CI evaluation index. Experiments with synthetic data and outdoor-to-indoor (O2I) channel data are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


This article draws on the oral history narratives of three people who were children in France during the Second World War to demonstrate their dissatisfactions with dominant versions of this past put forward in authoritative public discourse. Rachel was a Jewish child, persecuted, abused, but saved; Anne-Marie was the daughter of a railway resistance fighter who was deported and killed; Grégoire was a child evacuee who survived a violent bombardment. At various moments of their adult lives, each experienced a disruptive form of dissociation with their (personal) history as lived and experienced in comparison with (national) History as researched and recounted. All three invested in healing this wound, in private and public ways. Norquay (1999) writes that forgetting is 'an active process which can involve denial, refusal, discrediting, silencing, omitting'; this article shows the generative power of feeling forgotten, denied, refused, discredited, silenced or omitted, to inspire action which challenges hegemonic discourse. Central to its argument is a call to attend to what feelings do within societies. (Ahmed, 2014) While much influential scholarship is dedicated to top-down analyses French post-war memorial culture (mémoire), less attention is given to personal souvenirs of 'ordinary' or 'unimportant' people, particularly those who were children; such voices and the claims they make have at times been characterised as competitive and damaging to the 'coherence of the national narrative' (Wieviorka, 2012). Yet by failing to listen, dominant historical discourse may provoke damaging sentiments of resentment, exclusion and shame.


The purposes of this study were (a) to determine the measurement device and jumping protocol most appropriate for testing the leg power of elite hockey players and (b) to assess the relationship of leg power measurements to hockey playing ability as indicated by draft selection order. Comparisons were made of leg power measurements from the top 95 players entering the National Hockey League Entry Draft using 2 devices (Vertec and Just Jump) and 2 jump protocols (countermovement and squat). Players' leg powers were ranked from highest to lowest power using each device and protocol and were correlated with draft selection order. Vertec leg power measurements were highest (5,511–5,631 W), but there were no significant differences in power between the 2 jumping protocols on either device. Vertec squat jump provided the highest correlation (0.47) between leg power ranking and selection order and was judged to most closely approximate the full-body coordinated movements involved in hockey. The Vertec device using a squat jump protocol is most appropriate for coaches and fitness specialists to use when evaluating hockey potential based on the off-ice leg power measurements of elite hockey players.


Are we alone in the universe, or are there other life-forms 'out there'? This is one of the most scientifically and philosophically important questions that humanity can ask. Now, in the early 2020s, we are tantalizingly close to an answer. As this book shows, the answer will almost certainly be that life-forms are to be found across the Milky Way and beyond. They will be thinly spread, to be sure. Yet the number of inhabited planets probably runs into the trillions. Some are close enough for us to detect evidence of life by analysing their atmospheres. This evidence may be found within a couple of decades. Its arrival will be momentous. But even before it arrives we can anticipate what life elsewhere will be like by examining the ecology and evolution of life on Earth. This book considers the current state of play in relation to these titanic issues.