Cases are won and lost in discovery, yet discovery draws too little academic attention. Most scholarship focuses on how much discovery to allow, not how courts decide discovery disputes - which, unlike trials, occur in most cases. The growth of e-discovery - imprudent emails or lingering deleted files - makes cost issues increasingly salient, but the e-discovery rules just reiterate existing cost/benefit proportionality limits. Proportionality limits are topic of broad consensus among civil procedure scholars and economists, but this Article deems them impossible to apply effectively. Proportionality limits fail to curb discovery excess while also disallowing discovery meritorious cases need, resulting in bad cases dominating good ones. This Article acknowledges proportionality's flaws but rejects the consensus blaming bad rulemaking or judging. Rather, proportionality requires impossible comparisons: how can courts compare discovery value and cost before parties gather the evidence? Like other arguments that procedural rulings are never truly separate from case merits, this Article notes how discovery has more probative value in the closest cases - yet case merits remain uncertain in discovery, when courts cannot yet examine all the evidence. In game theory terms, parties with discovery disputes cannot convey case merit credibly; courts have too little information, so low-merit parties can claim high merit, and courts act as if all cases warrant similar discovery. In this pooling equilibrium, ruling the same on all cases in the pool, regardless of merit, is courts' best strategy but a sub-optimal one, yielding too much discovery in low-merit cases, too little in higher-merit ones. Thus, the quest for better discovery has disappointed not because of bad rules or decisions, but because courts and parties are stuck in a pooling equilibrium with information-timing circularity: optimal evidence-gathering requires merits analysis, which requires evidence-gathering.One answer is to defer close decisions on possibly useful but costly evidence until meritorious cases separate from the pool, turning pooling equilibria into separating equilibria. Summary judgment can be this separation: cases going to trial, post-summary judgment, likely have 50/50 odds - better than most. Costly evidence has more value in 50/50 cases, where juries struggle to reach verdicts, than in weaker or stronger cases. No one yet has proposed post-summary judgment discovery to redress the costly discovery dilemma (summary judgment typically follows discovery), but high-cost evidence can be an exception: cases surviving summary judgment are close calls warranting more fact-gathering, so some costly discovery regularly denied now should be allowed after summary judgment. Thus, the existing debate is too focused on discovery quantity; it should focus more on discovery timing. Existing rules give courts discretion to use this proposal, but a new rule could minimize the risk of misusing the proposal to deny more discovery. This Article concludes by briefly noting how economic analyses must consider the details and information timing of the litigation process.


In S. cerevisiae initiation of replication occurs from discrete sites in the genome, known as origins and these display a characteristic temporal profile of activation during S phase of the cell cycle. The genomic context of origins has been demonstrated to be important to determine the time of firing, more specifically histone acetylation levels surrounding origins can influence their activation time. How increased acetylation is translated into earlier firing of specific origins is currently unknown. Bromodomains are known to bind acetylated histones in vivo. The bromodomain-containing Yta7p has been identified in a complex with various remodelers of chromatin and subunits of DNA polymerase ǫ. It is also a target of cell cycle and checkpoint kinases. Therefore, Yta7p makes an excellent candidate to bind acetylated histones surrounding replication origins and affect an alteration in the chromatin structure that could influence time of firing. Deletion of the histone deacetylase RPD3 results in a rapid S phase phenotype due to increased histone acetylation at "late-firing" origins. Increased acetylation at "late" origins leads to an advance in the time of firing of those specific origins. The aim of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that the bromodomain-containing protein Yta7p binds to histones with increased acetylation near to replication origins and subsequently influences origin firing. Hence, deletion of YTA7 would abolish the rapid S phase of a ∆rpd3 strain. Indeed the S phase of the ∆rpd3∆yta7 strain was reverted to WT duration. A role for Yta7p in DNA replication is also inferred by two additional lines of evidence presented in this thesis. Synthetic growth defects are evident when YTA7 and RPD3 deletion is combined with mutation of a third replication protein. In addition, ∆rpd3∆yta7 mutants are sensitive to HU, which is a phenotype shared by many strains with deletions in genes that encode proteins involved in DNA replication. Evidence to support a direct role of Yta7p in DNA replication events is provided by identification of an S phase specific binding of Yta7p to replication origins. Moreover, levels of Yta7p bound to early-firing origins are increased compared with their later-firing counterparts. Levels of Yta7p that are bound to "late-firing" origins are only increased in conditions of RPD3 deletion, where the resulting increase in histone acetylation at the "late-firing" origins is associated with advanced time of firing. Time of Yta7p binding at these "late" origins is also advanced concomitantly. This data supports the hypothesis that Yta7p provides a functional link between histone acetylation and time of origin activation. In searching for a specific replication linked function of Yta7p it was observed that recruitment of the FACT subunit Spt16p to replication origins was increased in conditions of YTA7 deletion. A second function for Yta7p in the S phase checkpoint was also demonstrated and the two roles of Yta7p, in DNA replication and S phase checkpoint, were separated depending upon their requirement for the bromodomain. The data produced in this thesis adds to our knowledge of DNA replication events and highlights the importance of histone modifications and chromatin remodeling to the replication field. This thesis describes the direct involvement of a protein, which was previously unassociated, with DNA replication and S phase checkpoint function and provides good ground work for future investigation.


This first part of the autobiography of Dr Sultan bin Muhammad al-Qasimi spans the years until his selection as ruler of Sharjah as a young man of thirty-three. It reveals the emergence of the man and the state, documenting with insight the dramatic palace coups in his own country and the neighbouring emirate of Ras al-Khaimah and the struggles for power during the formation of the United Arab Emirates. Revealing fascinating and untold parts of the history of the Gulf state, the author's story is told with humour and passion, including his role in the protests and anti-British sabotage actions following the tripartite aggression against Egypt in 1956, his brief affiliation with the Ba'th party and the subsequent attempt on his life by party zealots in the 1960s, the occasionally baffled British administration attempting to follow the changing balances in power, and the siege of the palace in 1972 in which the former ruler of Sharjah was killed.


This article presents a class action research in the subject of Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) at the SMK Murni Surakarta. This research aim is improving student ability to create correct CNC program for mill machine. It is found that last class students performed not quite well in this subject. They had difficulty to create CNC mill program logically. Actually, the students possessed appropriate knowledge to imagine the cutting tool movement from subjects related to conventional machine operation However, students were not able to construct that knowledge to develop CNC codes properly. Therefore this research analyzed possibility to implement learning strategy based on constructivism approach that is generative learning strategy. This strategy is directed to ask students to generate their past knowledge with the result that they can understand what their learned on their ways. There were two cycles conducted during the action research, every cycle was consisted of four phases: planning, action, evaluation and reflection phase. At the first phase of 1st cycle, the teacher prepare teaching plan, course material and assessment instrument. Then, the teacher identified initial knowledge and motivation of students to plan the actions by means of question-naire and pre requisite subject score. The first cycle action is focused on tool movement on coordinate form. The evaluation on this cycle showed that students were able to create knowledge from information they have known and they were capable to determine tool direction. Based on this result, in the second cycle the students were asked to create engineering drawing on the millimeter book together with the tool direction. After that, they simulated it by means of Cutviewer mill. There was an increasing in percentage of students do@ the task correctly (74,3%). It shows that generative learning strategy could be an alternative to reduce students' difficulty in CNC programming learning.


Following a summary of the geological structure of the Albanides and of the oil and gas reservoirs in Albania, the parameters controlling the distribution of the present-day geothermal field are analysed in detail: temperature, geothermal gradient and heat flow density in the centre of the Albanian Sedimentary Basin. The paper analyses the palaeothermal regime of the External Albanides for the Upper Triassic–Eocene carbonates and the Middle–Upper Miocene and Pliocene molasse. It looks in detail at the burial and thermal history of the External Albanides and discusses the implications for hydrocarbon generation.


L'ubomír BAŇAS Numerical approximation of the stochastic Cahn-Hilliard equation and the (stochastic) Hele-Shaw problem The Cahn-Hilliard equation is a fourth oder parabolic partial differential equation (PDE) that is widely used as a phenomenological model to describe the evolution of interfaces in many practical problems, such as, the microstructure formation in materials, fluid flow, etc. It has been observed in the engineering literature that the stochastic version of the Cahn-Hilliard equation provides a better description of the experimentally observed evolution of complex microstructure. The equation belongs to a class of so-called phase-field models where the interface is replaced by a diffuse layer with small thickness proportional to an interfacial thickness parameter e. It can be shown that for vanishing interfacial thickness the deterministic as well as the stochastic Cahn-Hilliard equation (with proper scaling of the noise) both converge to a sharp-interface limit which is given by the deterministic Hele-Shaw problem. We propose a time implicit numerical approximation of the stochastic Cahn-Hilliard equation which is robust with respect to the interfacial thickness parameter. We show that, with suitable scaling of the noise, the sharp-interface limit of the proposed numerical approximation converges to the deterministic Hele-Shaw problem. In addition we present numerical evidence that without the scaling of the noise the sharp-interface limit of the stochastic Cahn-Hilliard equation is a stochastic version of the Hele-Shaw problem. We propose a numerical approximation of the stochastic Hele-Shaw problem and present computational results which demonstrate the respective convergence of the stochastic Cahn-Hilliard equation to the deterministic or the stochastic version of the Hele-Shaw problem depending on scaling of the noise term. This is joint work with D. Antonopoulou, R. Nurnberg and A. Prohl.


Climate warming has been related to glacial retreat along the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Over the last years, a visible melting of Fourcade Glacier (Potter Cove, South Shetland Islands) has exposed newly ice-free hard bottom areas available for benthic colonization. However, ice melting produces a reduction of light penetration due to an increase of sediment input and higher ice impact. Seventeen years ago, the coastal sites close to the glacier cliffs were devoid of macroalgae. Are the newly ice-free areas suitable for macroalgal colonization? To tackle this question, underwater video transects were performed at six newly ice-free areas with different degree of glacial influence. Macroalgae were found in all sites, even in close proximity to the retreating glacier. We can show that: 1. The complexity of the macroalgal community is positively correlated to the elapsed time from the ice retreat, 2. Algae development depends on the optical conditions and the sediment input in the water column; some species are limited by light availability, 3. Macroalgal colonization is negatively affected by the ice disturbance, 4. The colonization is determined by the size and type of substrate and by the slope of the bottom. As macroalgae are probably one of the main energy sources for the benthos, an expansion of the macroalgal distribution can be expected to affect the matter and energy fluxes in Potter Cove ecosystem.


Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP) is seeking an Associate Editor (Evidence Summaries) to join its Editorial Team.
Evidence Summaries (ES) provide critical appraisal syntheses for specific research articles. These research synopses provide readers with information regarding the original research article's validity and reliability, thus providing information on the presence or absence of evidence with which to make informed decisions.
The Evidence Summaries are a key component of this journal. ES are written by a team of experienced authors who follow a strict format to ensure consistency. All ES undergo peer review to ensure quality. Up to ten ES are published in every issue of EBLIP.

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The ideal candidate will be well-versed in evidence based practice and critical appraisal. This position requires dedicated time on a regular basis and is labour intensive. It is therefore essential that interested persons ensure available time to devote to this position prior to applying. This is an unpaid position.

Interested persons should send their resumes by October 1, 2007, to:

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In this paper we argue that the main empirical findings about firm diversification and performance are actually consistent with a resource-based view of corporate diversification, where firms seek to maximize shareholder value. In our model, diversification is the natural result of firm growth since it allows firms to explore new productive opportunities. Because technologies exhibit decreasing returns to scale, returns fall with growth, and firms find expansion into alternative industries more attractive. Moreover, diversification also allows firms to take advantage of synergies by reducing the fixed costs of production. Our analysis differs from existing literature in a number of crucial ways. First, most models have focused on the negative impact of diversification on performance, while generally ignoring the motives behind the diversification decision itself. As a result, they rarely provide an answer to the fundamental economic question of why do diversified firms exist at all, if diversification is inefficient? By contrast, we generate a diversification discount endogenously, since diversification is ex-ante optimal for the firm. Second, while most models are designed to address a single specific issue, we can deal with the broad array of available evidence by endogenously linking productivity, size, and valuations to the diversification decision of the firm. Our model delivers a number of new and already established empirical features. First, we show that currently expanding firms are not only ex-ante less productive than a comparable focused firm, but that they are also less productive ex-post. Second, we find that differences in productivity and valuation between focused and diversifying firms are related to differences in size. However, this size "effect" does not account for all of the cross-sectional differences between diversified and stand-alone firms. Finally, and perhaps most surprisingly, our model is able to deliver the well-documented "diversification discount" despite the fact that diversification is a value-maximizing strategy and it has significant benefits to firms.


A new urgency is emerging around nuclear power development and this urgency is accentuated by the post-tsunami events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. This urgency extends beyond these dramatic events in Japan, however, to many other regions of the world and situations where nuclear power development is receiving renewed attention as an alternative to carbon-based energy sources. As a contribution to the growing public debate about nuclear power development, this paper offers a set of insights into the social and ethical aspects of nuclear power development by drawing from published literature in the humanities and social sciences. We offer insights into public risk perception of nuclear power at individual and national levels, the siting of nuclear waste repositories, the changing policy context for nuclear power development, social movements, and the challenges of risk management at the institutional level. We also pay special attention to the ethical aspects of nuclear power with attention to principles such as means and ends, use value and intrinsic value, private goods and public goods, harm, and equity considerations. Finally, we provide recommendations for institutional design and performance in nuclear power design and management.


In this paper we present a method to create textures on smooth surfaces of arbitrary topology using ReactionDiffusion systems in a graphics processing unit (GPU). To do this we use a parametrization of Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces and obtain the metric information of the distortion caused by this parametrization, so we can calculate differential operators of functions defined on this surface. Then we solve the systems in the domain of parametrization of each patch. This process can be done in parallel for each point in the discretization of the surface, so the GPU implementation can heavily increase the velocity of computation.


Steven Weisenburger would call Gravity's Rainbow a satire, albeit of a special sort. Gabriele Schwab would call it a transitional text, although of a consummate kind. What difference do such classifications make to the understanding of Pynchon's novel? This is one question. What difference does Pynchon's novel, in turn, make to some understanding of the sophisticated theoretical vocabulary used by both critics? This is another question. Each of these books variously demonstrates how difficult it is to keep the two questions apart, which is probably just as it should be.


The field of patent protection was imported via translation from West-European countries into Turkey. Not only the legal framework but also patent specifications as a text type have been adopted from Western legal traditions. Previous research has revealed that unlike Western textual models of patent specifications with their specific macro and micro structures varying according to the legal tradition of each country in the exporting system, we are not in a position to speak of a specific text type for the Turkish context. This paper offers a brief introduction to the role of translation in the drafting of laws and regulations in the Turkish Republic and discusses the reception of the patent system including the problems encountered in the transfer process into Turkey. It will also offer a number of insights to be drawn from the specific circumstances in Turkey which will also have implications for a discussion on the phenomenon of translation in the age of globalization.


Introduction Today's technology integrates a variety of sensors into our daily lives--sensors are used extensively in residential and commercial systems that we are exposed to every day. However, the details of how these sensors operate are often ignored, and the sensors are simply treated as transparent components in larger systems. Microcontrollers provide a cost-effective platform for studying sensors and sensor interfacing techniques, and make available an interactive learning environment for students in the classroom or using the World Wide Web (Cotton & Johnson, 2006). For educational purposes it is not necessary to use expensive commercial-grade equipment to teach students about commonly used sensors. Schools frequently have limited funds for acquiring educational materials; therefore, purchasing sensors identical to those used in large-scale industry is not an option. By purchasing small-scale components that cost only a small fraction of what commercial systems may be using, schools can educate and engage students in a much broader range of authentic experiences. Discussion The focus of the following activities is directed at interfacing commonly available sensors with simple electronic components and inexpensive microcontrollers, which aligns well with STL Standard 11, "Apply the design process," STL Standard 12, "Use and maintain technological products and systems," and STL Standard 19, "Manufacturing technologies." Only a basic understanding of electronics and microcontrollers is needed to implement these activities. The activities explore several cost-effective techniques for the study of selected sensors by interfacing them with very basic electronic circuits and easy-to-program microcontrollers. An educator can effectively direct a course of study by selecting suitable sensors and emphasizing topics appropriate to their course objectives. Computer programming techniques that control hardware, sensor theory of operation, and hardware interfacing strategies are only a few of the subject areas that could be the focal point of a course of study. Presented here are ideas for implementing a course of study with several basic but interesting operational sensor systems together with some possible alternatives or enhancements. Photoresistors A good sensor is the common photoresistor. (See Figure 1.) Photoresistors are inexpensive ($0.75-$2.00), easy to work with and understand, and readily available from electronic parts suppliers (Gilliland, 2000). Photoresistors, coupled with a microcontroller and simple supporting circuitry, can be used as the basis for several illustrative laboratory experiments, like controlling a simple dusk-to-dawn yard lighting system or controlling a line-following wheeled robot. A simple version of a dusk-to-dawn yard lighting system experiment is easily implemented by building a basic electronic circuit that uses a light-emitting diode (LED) as a simulated yard light, a photoresistor, and microcontroller. This experiment relies on changes in light intensity to represent daytime and nighttime conditions. When the light intensity varies, the resistance of the photoresistor is altered, and ultimately a voltage change is detected by the microcontroller, which will activate the yard light or LED in this experiment. This activity allows students to observe how sensors are used to monitor a common homeowner's event. Students could be challenged to enhance the yard-light activity by enabling the system to compensate for light coming from the headlights of a passing automobile or from lightning during a storm. Another photoresistor activity that is always appealing to students is the robot line-following experiment. The activity is implemented by using a pair of photoresistors mounted on a small wheeled robot that follows a black line on a white background. Photoresistors are mounted on the front of a small robot in a fashion similar to automobile headlights but aimed downward at approximately a 45[degrees] angle. …


Abstract In an artificial language-learning task, two groups of English and French participants learned one of two language rules: 1) stress the first heavy (CVC) syllable, else the first syllable, or, 2) stress the first light (CV) syllable, else the first syllable. French and English participants were chosen to compare learning outcomes by speakers of different native stress systems, fixed and variable. Participants were trained on the target language by listening to a set of nonsense familiarization words exemplifying the stress rule. This was followed by a forced-choice task to choose the correct version of the words they had just learned. Following the training procedure, participants were tested on novel words with the same stress pattern to which they were familiarized. The result of the novel word testing was that the natural rule with stress on heavy syllables was learned significantly better than the unnatural, stress light syllables, rule. To account for the learnability of both the natural and the unnatural rules, I argue for the interaction of a general cognitive mechanism that facilitates learning in general and a domain-specific language mechanism that can access universal phonological principles to aid in learning a natural language rule.


Due to the effects of the Moore's law, the process variations in current technologies are increasing and have a major impact on power and performance which results in parametric yield loss. Due to this, process variability and the difficulty of modeling accurately transistor behavior impede the dimensions scaling benefits. The Fully Depleted Silicon-On- Insulator (FDSOI) technology is one of the main contenders for deep submicron devices as they can operate at low voltage with superior energy efficiency compared with bulk CMOS. In this paper, we study the static energy on 28nm FDSOI devices to implement sub-threshold circuits. Study of delay vs. static power trade-off reveals the FDSOI robustness with respect to process variations.


Background Breast cancer is the most common site of cancer in women in Egypt as it accounts for ∼38.8% of total malignancies among Egyptian women; it is an important cause of mortality among women. For many women with early-stage breast cancer, a combination of partial mastectomy and radiation therapy − together referred to as breast-conserving therapy − is preferable to total mastectomy. Objective To focus on superior medial technique as an oncoplastic procedure for the management of breast cancer and to assess the technique clinically regarding oncological safety, surgical outcomes, and patient satisfaction. Patients and methods It was a prospective, analytical study that included 20 patients aiming to assess clinically the superior medial oncoplastic technique for lower and outer quadrant breast cancer regarding oncological safety and patient satisfaction. This study was conducted at Bahya Specialized Breast Cancer Hospital and Ain Shams University Hospitals. Results All the 20 patients underwent oncoplastic breast surgery which implied two major technical steps, excision of the tumor with a wide safety margin through a predesigned incision with frozen section examination for margins along with formal axillary dissection, followed by immediate reconstruction using superior medial technique. Breast cancer, like other cancers, occurs because of an interaction between an environmental (external) factor and a genetically susceptible host. Normal cells divide as many times as needed and stop. They attach to other cells and stay in place in tissues. Cells become cancerous when they lose their ability to stop dividing, to attach to other cells, to stay where they belong, and to die at the proper time. Conclusion This approach has enabled us to increase the number and extend the indications of breast-conserving surgery with wider margins offering safer oncologic control with more satisfactory cosmetic outcome.


Book Reviews ARMENIA A Concise History of the Armenian People (From Ancient Times to the Present), by George Bournoutian. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2002. xiii + 499 pages. Text to p. 114. Time-lines, maps, and plates to p. 183. Part II text to p. 380. Time-lines, maps, and plates to p. 452. Bibl. to p. 467. Index to p. 499. $35. George Bournoutian has produced the most up-to-date, concise, well rounded, one-- volume history of the Armenian people published in the English language to date, suitable to be used as a college textbook and also useful to intellectuals as well as to the general public. A.E. Redgate produced an outstanding one-volume history, The Armenians (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1998), but that book is skewed to the earlier period and spends only 24 pages covering the time from 1071 A.D. to the present. (Redgate's study is nonetheless recommended for those who might be interested in a book produced by a scholar learned in classical literature and in the Armenian chronicles.) Richard Hovannisian edited an excellent two-volume History of the Armenian People (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997) with chapters written by renowned experts, which might be more attractive to advanced scholars, though the attention it gives various periods of Armenian history is uneven. Bournoutian, a Professor at Iona College, is a master of the critical languages which are necessary for writing a learned history of Armenia - including Persian, Armenian, Russian, some Turkish, and of course English. He has published eight previous books with Mazda Press, several of them critical English translations of chronicles and documents in Persian, Armenian, and Russian. Obviously, he is well read both in the primary as well as the secondary sources. In A Concise History of the Armenian People, Bournoutian not only covers the areas of traditional, historic Armenia, but he also understands that because the Armenians, like the Greeks of ancient times and the Jews of more recent times, are a Diaspora people, their history is not limited to any one specific area of the globe. Thus, Bournoutian carries his story, in Part I, from ancient times and the origins of the Armenian people, through the period in Armenia of autonomous rulers and kings. He then covers the tug-of-war between Rome and Persia over Armenia, the conversion of Armenia to Christianity, the Arab domination over Armenia, the Armenian kingdom of the early Middle Ages, and finally the Cilician kingdom and Armenia's fraternization with the Crusaders. …


A pilot experiment of stock enhancement based on the release of hatchery-reared juveniles of dusky grouper, Epinephelus marginatus , was carried out at two artificial reefs located 0.9 km offshore the south-western Sicilian coast (Central Mediterranean). The fish assemblages inhabiting the reefs were characterized using underwater visual census (UVC) surveys. Despite some differences in fish species richness, diversity and abundance, both artificial reefs provide suitable feeding resources and shelter opportunities for the settlement of dusky grouper juveniles. A total of 95 dusky grouper juveniles, which were 3 and 4 years old, were released. No stress-related effects on fish swimming or behaviour were observed during the step by step transportation to the sea-bottom at 20 m depth. After release, several groupers showed very low reactivity; freezing and schooling were the most common behaviours. The sighting rate after one month of UVC surveys was 15.7% and 20% at the two artificial reefs. No effect of fish size at release on grouper survival was observed. Some groupers were not recorded on the pyramid of release but elsewhere in the same artificial reef, which demonstrated their ability to move around the reef. The extent of dispersal of the released juveniles largely exceeded the area encompassed by the reefs, which was shown by recaptures of tagged groupers by local fishermen up to 13 km from the release site. This result provides a first insight into the potential of stock enhancement of hatchery reared dusky grouper juveniles for marine ranching and conservation purposes.


Context. Helioseismic holography is an imaging technique used to study heterogeneities and flows in the solar interior from observations of solar oscillations at the surface. Holographic images contain noise due to the stochastic nature of solar oscillations.
Aims. We aim to provide a theoretical framework for modeling signal and noise in Porter–Bojarski helioseismic holography.
Methods. The wave equation may be recast into a Helmholtz-like equation, so as to connect with the acoustics literature and define the holography Green's function in a meaningful way. Sources of wave excitation are assumed to be stationary, horizontally homogeneous, and spatially uncorrelated. Using the first Born approximation we calculated holographic images in the presence of perturbations in sound-speed, density, flows, and source covariance, as well as the noise level as a function of position. This work is a direct extension of the methods used in time-distance helioseismology to model signal and noise.
Results. To illustrate the theory, we compute the holographic image intensity numerically for a buried sound-speed perturbation at different depths in the solar interior. The reference Green's function is obtained for a spherically-symmetric solar model using a finite-element solver in the frequency domain. Below the pupil area on the surface, we find that the spatial resolution of the holographic image intensity is very close to half the local wavelength. For a sound-speed perturbation of size comparable to the local spatial resolution, the signal-to-noise ratio is approximately constant with depth. Averaging the image intensity over a number N of frequencies above 3 mHz increases the signal-to-noise ratio by a factor nearly equal to the square root of N. This may not be the case at lower frequencies, where large variations in the holographic signal are due to the contributions from the long-lived modes of oscillation.


A new species of Gesneriaceae, Oreocharis jinpingensis W.H. Chen & Y.M. Shui from the Xilong Mountains of Jinping County in southeastern Yunnan, China, bordering North Vietnam, is described and illustrated. Its morphological distinctiveness from the most similar species O. auricula is discussed. Pollen and seed morphological characters are also reported for O. jinpingensis:


The authors present a novel virtual reconfigurable architecture (VRA) for realising real-world applications of intrinsic evolvable hardware (EHW) on field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The phenotype representation of the proposed evolvable system is based on a two-dimensional function element (FE) network. Compared with the traditional Cartesian genetic programming, the proposed approach includes more connection restrictions in the FE network to reduce genotype length. Another innovative feature of the VRA is that the whole evolvable system, which consists of an evolutionary algorithm unit, a fitness value calculation unit and an FE array unit, can be realised on a single FPGA. On this work, a custom Xilinx Virtex xcv2000E FPGA, which is fitted in the Celoxica RC1000 Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) board is utilised as the hardware platform. The main motive of the research is to design a general, flexible evolvable system with powerful computation ability to achieve intrinsic evolution. As examples, the proposed evolvable system is devoted to evolve two real-world applications: a character recogniser and an image operator by using gate level evolution and function level evolution, respectively. The experimental results show that the VRA can bring higher computational ability and more flexibility than traditional approach to intrinsic EHW.


In one embodiment, the disclosure includes a method of biomass conversion including fermenting biomass to produce a carboxylic acid or carboxylate salt and hydrogen gas, recovering the hydrogen gas, and converting the carboxylic acid or carboxylate salt to an alcohol using the hydrogen gas. In one embodiment, the hydrogen produced by biomass conversion may be converted to an acetate. Another embodiment relates to a biomass conversion system. The system may include: a fermentation unit for fermentation of biomass to a carboxylic acid or carboxylate salt in a fermentation broth and for production of a carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas stream, an extraction unit for extracting the carboxylic acid or carboxylate salt from the fermentation broth, a gas extraction unit for separation of the hydrogen gas and the carbon dioxide, and a production unit for production of an alcohol from the carboxylic acid or carboxylate salt using the hydrogen gas.


The Ventersdorp Contact Reef (VCR) is an Archaean conglomeratic gold placer, mined in the Carletonville, West Rand, and Klerksdorp goldfields of the Republic of South Africa. It belongs to a lithostratigraphic formation, the Venterspost Conglomerate Formation (VCF), which is considered to be stratigraphically independent of the underlying Witwatersrand Supergroup sediments and overlying Ventersdorp Supergroup volcanics. In this paper, the present formal stratigraphic placement of the Formation is compared with its alternative stratigraphic assignment to either of the underlying Witwatersrand or overlying Ventersdorp Supergroups. Evidence for a basin-wide, angular unconformity separating the VCF from Witwatersrand rocks, which were regionally lithified prior to deposition of the Formation, indicates that it is stratigraphically divorced from the Witwatersrand Supergroup. While similar angular, internal unconformities are present within the Witwatersrand Supergroup, a significant difference between these and the VCF unconformity is that the internal Witwatersrand unconformities are asserted to have basinward extents only to the tectonic hinge between continuous deposition and contemporaneous (Witwatersrand) foreland basin destruction. A genetic difference between the VCR and typical Witwatersrand placers is reflected by their differing mineralogical content and metamorphic grade. These differences, by implication, also reflect a substantial time gap separating their deposition. The fact that the conglomerates and sandstones of the VCF are locally interbedded with lava flows that are geochemically similar to the lava of the basal Westonaria Formation of the Ventersdorp Supergroup, indicates lithologic and genetic links to this Supergroup. These relationships are further supported by the presence of tuffaceous sandstone beds within the VCF. The occurrence of deformational load structures at the contact between the formation and the basal lava flows of the overlying Ventersdorp Supergroup indicates an unconsolidated, probably water-saturated state of the VCF sediments at the time of their envelopment by the lava, and implies a conformable relationship with the lower formations of the Supergroup. In conclusion, it is proposed that the VCF be stratigraphically assigned to the Ventersdrop Supergroup.


A model of an evolving network of interacting molecular species is shown to exhibit repeated rounds of crashes in which several species get rapidly depopulated, followed by recoveries. The network inevitably self- organizes into an autocatalytic structure, which consists of an irreducible "core" surrounded by a parasitic "periphery." Crashes typically occur when the existing autocatalytic set becomes fragile and suffers a "core shift," defined graph theoretically. The nature of the recovery after a crash, in particular, the time of recovery, depends upon the organizational structure that survives the crash. The largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of the graph is an important signal of network fragility or robustness.


Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has dropped substantially after a peak of over 27 thousand square kilometers in 2004. Starting in 2008, the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment has regularly published blacklists of critical districts with high annual forest loss. Farms in blacklisted districts face additional administrative hurdles to obtain authorization for clearing forests. In this paper we add to the existing literature on evaluating the Brazilian anti-deforestation policies by specifically quantifying the impact of blacklisting on deforestation. We first use spatial matching techniques using a set of covariates that includes official blacklisting criteria to identify control districts. We then explore the effect of blacklisting on change in deforestation in double difference regressions with panel data covering the period from 2002 to 2012. Multiple robustness checks are conducted including an analysis of potential causal mechanisms behind the success of the blacklist. We find that the blacklist has considerably reduced deforestation in the affected districts even after controlling for the potential mechanism effects of field-based enforcement, environmental registration campaigns, and rural credit.


The purpose of this paper is to study the immigrant performance in France and the impacts on the natives by drawing on research findings from the existing academic literature on the economics of French migration. The research questions are: how do immigrants fare with respect to wages, employment, and occupational choices; are immigrants in competition with the natives, and do they harm or improve the labour market situation of natives; does the presence of immigrants alter the internal migration flows of natives; and what is the role of the business cycle and natives' sentiments on the immigrant flows? The studies reviewed showed that while some immigrant groups are faring well, assimilation and intergenerational mobility has not taken place to a full extent. Overall, immigrants hardly affect the wages and employment levels of natives, and there are no significant displacement effects. However, the social and cultural distance between immigrants and natives is crucial in natives' sentiments. Moreover, business cycles and labour market conditions play a significant role on migration. In France of 2000, there remains a significant gap between policy goals and outcomes, indicating that integration through cultural and political venues alone is not enough but should be combined with a systematic treatment of the needs of the labour market. Lastly, there is substantial need for further studies on immigrants in France.


The aim of this project is to model and validate an inductive system in order to be able to power wirelessly a sensor. The design of the inductive system must be small and light enough to fulfil the requirements of a nano-quadcopter, in which the system is going to be outfitted. Recent investigations about inductive systems added to the Energy Harvesting trend, predict a future based on wireless power. Thereby, the possibility to change the current "wire-dependence" of any device. At the beginning the bases of magnetic resonant induction are given in detail to understand how the energy can be transferred. Then, an inductive model based on two resonant coils is presented. Its main features are explained, as well as the behaviour of the coil variables and their effects. Some coils are defined to be tested using the most suitable resonant configuration. Hence, providing that our purpose is not to optimize efficiency, but to achieve higher receiver power levels. Once the model is defined, numerous measurements of the test coils, under different con- ditions, are performed to validate the model, and so select the most suitable coils for our inductive system. The architecture and design of the wireless power transfer system are studied separately; transmitter and receiver. While attempting to minimize the weight at transmitter's side, a recurring topic during the project, on the receiver side it is intended to efficiently acquire and manage the microwatts to milliwatts of power generated from the transmitter. At the end of the project a temperature sensor is introduced as a technology demonstra- tion. The experiment results shows successfully wireless power transfer for the resonant configuration selected, being able to completely charge the battery and to power the tem- perature sensor, at the same time.


Background: A Bayesian network meta-analysis (NMA) model is a statistical method aimed at estimating the relative effects of multiple interventions against the same disease. The method has recently gained prominence, leading to the synthesis of the evidence regarding rank probabilities for each treatment. In several cases, an NMA is performed excluding incomplete data of studies retrieved through a systematic review, resulting in a loss of precision and power.
Methods: There are several methods for handling missing or incomplete data in an NMA framework, especially for continuous outcomes. In certain cases, only baseline and follow-up measurements are available; in this framework, to obtain data regarding mean changes, it is necessary to consider the pre-post study correlation. In this context, in a Bayesian setting, several authors suggest imputation strategies for pre-post correlation. In other cases, a variability measure associated with a mean change score might be unavailable. Different imputation methods have been suggested, such as those based on maximum standard deviation imputation. The purpose of this study is to verify the robustness of Bayesian NMA models concerning different imputation strategies through simulations.
Results: Simulation results show that the bias is notably small for every scenario, confirming that rankings provided by models are robust concerning different imputation methods in several heterogeneity-correlation settings.
Conclusions: This NMA method seems to be more robust to missing data imputation when data reported in different studies are generated in a low-heterogeneity scenario. The NMA method seems to be more robust to missing value imputation if the expectation of the prior distribution, defined on the heterogeneity parameter, approaches the true value of the variability across studies.


This thesis investigates how change unfolds in a certain type of retailer-owned co-operatives; the pharmaceutical co-operatives in Greece. Previous works have identified the type of changes ('what') that occurred in (mostly, agricultural) co-operatives and explained them through the "structural inefficiencies" of the organizational form ('why'). Within this framework, change will inevitably lead from a member-patron co-operative model to a member-investor model. That dominant theoretical trend seems ill-suited to explaining change in complex organizations of hybrid nature like co-operatives (i.e. a business firm and a civil association). Therefore, the aim of this study is to re-examine the prevailing patterns of change in the co-operative organizations by observing the change process in a fundamental different way. For this reason, it employs a constructivist conceptual framework that it is based on the insights of the theory of autopoietic, self-referential social systems (Social Systems Theory).

Following a qualitative research design and using empirical data derived from the study of three cases in Greek pharmaceutical wholesale sector, which have experienced radical changes in their traditional co-operative form, and the contribution of a key-informant, the research reveals an ambiguous situation: although changes have brought the co-operatives closer to the demands of the current business environment and to the operation of an investor-owned firm, the organizations perceive those changes as if they have left their co-operative nature unaltered.

The outcome of thesis departs significantly from the conventional thinking about change in co-operatives. Change is not an inevitable route to the gradual demutualization of the co-operative. Instead, it is a part of the autopoietic process in which the communicative construct of 'member-patron' guides and orients relevant decisions and processes meaning necessary for the reproduction of the organization. Hence, decisions about change must primarily take into account the particularity of the co-operative organization (i.e. user-owned, user-controlled and user-benefited organization).

Keywords: Co-operatives, Change, Social Systems Theory, Pharmaceutical Sector, Greece


The majority of Carpathian metamorphics protoliths have TDM model Sm/Nd ages between 1.6 and 2.0 Ga. This suggests an important episode of continental crust formation after the 2.0 Ga. The Biharia lithogroup (Apuseni Mountains) and the Tulghes lithogroup (East Carpathians) furnished Zircon U/Pb ages from metagranitoids and acid metavolcanics, respective, around 500 Ma; this is a sign of existence of some Lower Proterozoic protoliths among Carpathian metamorphics. The bimodal intrusions which are piercing the volcano-sedimentary sequence of Paiuseni lithogroup in Highis Massif (Apuseni Mountains) have given Permian ages on Zircon U/Pb data. The Paiuseni lithogroup probably represents the fill of a rift basin of the same age. The Arieseni, Muntele Mare and Vinta granitoid intrusions from Apuseni Mountains, with U/Pb ages between Lower Devonian and Permian, indicates some contractional and extensional processes, in connection with Variscan Orogeny.


Quantifying quality of experience for network applications is challenging as it is a subjective metric with multiple dimensions such as user expectation, satisfaction, and overall experience. Today, despite various techniques to support differentiated Quality of Service (QoS), the operators still lack of automated methods to translate QoS to QoE, especially for general web applications.
 In this work, we take the approach of identifying unsatisfactory performance by searching for user initiated early terminations of web transactions from passive monitoring. However, user early abortions can be caused by other factors such as loss of interests. Therefore, naively using them to represent user dissatisfaction will result in large false positives. In this paper, we propose a systematic method for inferring user dissatisfaction from the set of early abortion behaviors observed from identifying the traffic traces. We conduct a comprehensive analysis on the user acceptance of throughput and response time, and compare them with the traditional MOS metric. Then we present the characteristics of early cancelation from dimensions like the types of URLs and objects. We evaluate our approach on four data sets collected in both wireline network and a wireless cellular network.


This is a treatise on an attempt to translate a concept -the driving principle of a design in the parlance of the design studios at the Louisiana State University School of Landscape Architecture -into practice, form and function. If form follows function, as states the oft quoted proverb of design credited to Louis Sullivan, then perhaps as much attention should be given to the design of the function as the form. What this treatise will demonstrate is that function designed around a concept can result in physical manifestations, or forms, of that concept. In this case a concept was applied to a community development project. The project in turn created physical manifestations of the concept. The focus of this work is on a project begun in 1996 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The concept underlying the Baton Rouge project was to use active stewardship of the land and its people as a means of promoting economic and community development. This concept was put into practice through the creation of the Baton Rouge Economic and Agricultural Development Alliance, or BREADA, the function of which is to foster stewardship of land and community. Among the most evident forms borne of the concept and BREADA are the Red Stick Farmers' Market, the community garden project, and the recently-created Main Street Market in downtown Baton Rouge. Examination of the Baton Rouge project lead to a second premise. The concept that drives the design of the function and form can also guide the creation of the conditions necessary to produce the desired function and form. This includes such seemingly mundane aspects of a project's creation as how it is organized, funded, administered, evaluated, and staffed.


This article reports on a detailed corpus-based and contrastive analysis of the syntactic, semantic and functional properties of English depend , French dependre and Dutch afhangen , liggen and zien as markers of intersubjectivity. Based on three large-scale monolingual corpora of spoken English, French and Dutch, the results show that these intersubjectivity markers are semantically related to a conditional meaning of the verbs they are based on: viewpoints expressed or asked for in the preceding discourse are presented as valid only in particular circumstances. Furthermore, it is shown that the markers have undergone a process of decategorialisation, as they appear almost exclusively in third person present tense, and as the range of subjects that can be combined with these markers is more restricted than the non-intersubjective uses of these verbs. Finally, a detailed corpus analysis of the Dutch markers shows that their use is mainly determined by regional and functional parameters.


Engineering of TiO(2) electrode layers is critical to guaranteeing the photoconversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Recently, a novel approach has been introduced for producing TiO(2) electrodes using the inverted structures of colloidal crystals. This paper describes a facile route to producing ordered macroporous electrodes from colloidal crystal templates for DSSCs. Using concentrated colloids dispersed in a volatile medium, the colloidal crystal templates were obtained within a few minutes, and the thickness of the template was easily controlled by changing the quantity of colloidal solution deposited. Here, the effects of the structural properties of the inverse opal TiO(2) electrodes on the photovoltaic parameters of DSSCs were investigated. The photovoltaic parameters were measured as a function of pore ordering and electrode film thickness. Moreover, DSSC applications that used either liquid or viscous polymer electrolyte solutions were investigated to reveal the effects of pore size on performance of an inverse opal TiO(2) electrode.


Cytokine receptors do not contain intrinsic kinase domains, thus the recruitment and activation of their downstream kinases, termed the Janus kinases (Jaks), is a highly regulated process. The Jaks consist of a tyrosine kinase and a pseudokinase domain in addition to several smaller conserved sequences located near the NH2-terminus. The domain located closest to the NH2-terminal is essential for the binding of Jaks to cytokine receptor subunits; however, the same region also appears to have some influence on the catalytic activity of the kinase domain. Now, Zhou et al. have found that the Jak3 NH2-terminus consists of a FERM (4.1, ezrin, radixin, moesin) domain that mediates intermolecular binding to the common γ (γc) cytokine receptor chain, and simultaneously stabilizes, through intramolecular interactions, the active conformation of the kinase domain of Jak3. Experiments in COS-7 cells expressing γc with various mutant forms of Jak3 revealed that mutations in the FERM domain disrupted the association of Jak3 with γc. In addition, patient-derived mutations in the FERM domain greatly reduced the kinase activity of Jak3; these mutants also failed to bind ATP. These data suggest that the intact FERM domain is required for protein-protein association and for properly maintaining the structure of the kinase domain. Experiments using COS cells that expressed the isolated kinase domain of Jak3 and various NH2-terminal fragments of Jak3 revealed that the FERM domain associated with the kinase domain, and that the FERM domain enhanced the kinase activity in vitro. Staurosporine, a kinase inhibitor that binds to the ATP binding site of kinases and alters the conformation of kinases, disrupted the association of Jak3 with γc, and this effect was reversed by the addition of excess amounts of ATP. Thus, these data suggest that the FERM domain of Jak3 simultaneously functions to promote association with cytokine receptors while mediating the appropriate activation of the kinase domain. Y.-J. Zhou, M. Chen, N. A. Cusack, L. H. Kimmel, K. S. Magnuson, J. G. Boyd, W. Lin, J. L. Roberts, A. Lengi, R. H. Buckley, R. L. Geahlen, F. Candotti, M. Gadina, P. S. Changelian, J. J. O'Shea, Unexpected effects of FERM domain mutations on catalytic activity of Jak3: Structural implication for Janus kinases. Mol. Cell 8, 959-969 (2001). [Online Journal]


Roadway illumination is a vital component of safety while driving during the night. There are regulations in place to ensure all publicly maintained roads are properly lit, but the validation process is too time consuming, costly, and dangerous for adequate data collection studies. This work is aimed toward remedying this problem by creating an Advanced Lighting Measurement System (ALMS) capable of recording illumination readings while traveling at normal driving speeds. This solution is based on the Arduino Uno development board, a cost effective yet powerful microcontroller. The proposed embedded system consists of Ariduino Uno microcontroller, Distance measurement instrument, USB module, event logger, GPS module, light meters, and microSD module. This work involves collecting data along 100 centerline miles of Florida roadways and converting the resulting illumination readings into GIS format, allowing them to be included in the roadway database of the Florida Department of Transportation. By including this data the FDOT will be able to repair poorly lit corridors and will be aware of possible safety concerns. The illumination values recorded by the ALMS have been validated and verified as an accurate replacement for conventional lighting measurements. The system requires minimal user interaction and rapidly speeds up illumination measurement along highways.


Over one hundred million women in the world are estimated to be "missing" from the world's population due to some form of gendercide. Gendercide exists on almost every continent and affects every class of people. Gendercide has traditionally taken the form of sex-selective abortion, infanticide, or death caused by neglect. Sex-selective abortions occur when a pregnancy is terminated due to the sex of the fetus. In the last few decades, technological advances have allowed potential parents to identify the gender of their baby early in the first trimester. Recently, with the advent of newer technology that allows one to choose a baby's gender, such as preimplantation genetic diagnosis ("PGD") and MicroSort, it is possible for those who can afford it to select their child's gender instead of resorting to getting rid of a fetus of an unwanted gender. This Article examines the issue of gender selection technology. If the technology is available to choose a child's gender, is there any reason to restrict access to such technology? Does the answer depend upon how the technology is being used? Many countries have attempted to curb this issue through legislation restricting sex-selective abortions, and some have even gone further to restrict access to ultrasound and other gender identification technology. This Article provides a global overview of such restrictions and examines their bioethical implications. Part I of this Article discusses the practice of sex selection and its impact worldwide. This part examines the impact of sex-selective practices on birth rates in various countries, including the United States. Then, Part II outlines the technological methods available to identify or even choose a child's gender and what this means for the practice of sex selection. Part III discusses legal efforts to restrict sex selection in India, the United States, and other countries around the world. Part IV analyzes these legal efforts through a bioethical lens, specifically giving consideration to autonomy, justice, and class issues. Although the practice of sex-selective abortion or sex selection is certainly disturbing, this Article concludes that restricting access to the technology that allows sex selection is not an effective answer.


As opportunity routing protocol relies on the received encoded packet to estimates the number of forwarding packets, and it makes that the node does not know whether its sending packets cause data redundancy and other issues for the downstream nodeÂ's updating information, thus this paper proposes wireless network coding opportunity routing protocol based on dynamic redundancy control. The agreement will from the perspective of linear space abstract opportunity routing based on network coding as a general opportunity routing, assign each forwarding node forwarding priority in accordance with the ETX distance between forwarding node and the destination node. Forwarding nodes near the destination node will preferentially broadcast the forwarding packets and zero space vector of received linear space. After hearing the broadcast information, nodes with low priority judge the amount of information contained in its linear space according to the zero space vector, then dynamically determines the number of nodeÂ's forwarding packets. Since the reception of the downstream node has been considered when deciding the forward packets, thus reduces transmission of invalid information and reduces overhead. Finally conducts experiments and experimental results show that: compared to the classical MORE protocol, the proposed agreement improves network throughput reduces overhead.


A new record of the Mono Lake excursion (MLE) is reported from the Summer Lake Basin of Oregon, USA. Sediment magnetic properties indicate magnetite as the magnetization carrier and imply suitability of the sediments as accurate recorders of the magnetic field including relative paleointensity (RPI) variations. The magnitudes and phases of the declination, inclination, and RPI components of the new record correlate well with other coeval but lower resolution records from western North America including records from the Wilson Creek Formation exposed around Mono Lake. The virtual geomagnetic pole (VGP) path of the new record is similar to that from another high‐resolution record of the MLE from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 919 in the Irminger Basin between Iceland and Greenland but different from the VGP path for the Laschamp excursion (LE), including that found lower in the ODP‐919 core. Thus, the prominent excursion recorded at Mono Lake, California, is not the LE but rather one that is several thousands of years younger. The MLE VGP path contains clusters, the locations of which coincide with nonaxial dipole features found in the Holocene geomagnetic field. The clusters are occupied in the same time progression by VGPs from Summer Lake and the Irminger Basin, but the phase of occupation is offset, a behavior that suggests time‐transgressive decay and return of the principal field components at the beginning and end of the MLE, respectively, leaving the nonaxial dipole features associated with the clusters dominant during the excursion.


The Permian, Rotliegend Group of the UK Southern North Sea is shown to consist of periodic, cyclic stratal packages which can be used to aid regional correlation in the zone of playa–erg interaction colloquially known as the Rotliegend Feather Edge. In this area, the depositional topography controls the sedimentary facies, with a concentration of aeolian sandstone deposition in the topographic depressions, especially in the lee of hills. These units onlap the contemporaneous intra-basinal and marginal highs. The palaeotopographic lows rapidly became infilled, with later lacustrine deposition occurring over a smoother surface. This allowed the deposition of finer-grained lake deposits over the sands. Prediction of the palaeotopography is key to understanding potential reservoir distribution and seal juxtaposition within the Rotliegend. This paper demonstrates how pre-Permian subcrop maps, Bouguer anomaly maps and the Rotliegend isopach can be used to reconstruct this palaeotopography. Two areas are studied which demonstrate some of the subtleties of the model. The southern Quadrant 42–43 area had a palaeotopography with gentle gradients and a number of subtle intrabasinal highs that allowed for isolated reservoirs overlain by shales with high sealing potential. In contrast, the northern Quadrant 49 area, contained only intra-basinal relief, with high palaeotopographic gradients. Aeolian sediments banked up against this barrier and no intra-Rotliegend seal was deposited over these sands.


High-resolution records of carbon and oxygen isotopes and benthic foraminiferal accumulation
rates for the Eocene-Oligocene section at Ocean Drilling Program Site 689(Maud Rise, Weddell Sea; paleodepth about 1500 m) were used to infer variations in paleoproductivity in relation to changes in climate and ventilation of the deeper-water column. The benthic foraminiferal abundance and isotope records show short-term fluctuations at periodicities of 100 and 400 ka, implying orbitally driven climatic variations.
Both records suggest that intermediate-depth water chemistry and primary productivity
changed in response to climate. During the Eocene, productivity increased during cold
periods and during cold-to-warm transitions, possibly as a result of increased upwelling of
nutrient-rich waters. In the Oligocene, in contrast, productivity maxima occurred during
intervals of low d18O values (presumably warmer periods), when a proto–polar front moved
to the south of the location of Site 689. This profound transition in climate-productivity
patterns occurred around 37 Ma, coeval with rapid changes toward increasing variability
of the oxygen and carbon isotope and benthic abundance records and toward larger-amplitude
d18O fluctuations. Therefore, we infer that, at this time, temperature fluctuations
increased and a proto–polar front formed in conjunction with the first distinct pulsations
in size of the Antarctic ice sheet. We speculate that this major change might have resulted from an initial opening of the Drake Passage at 37 Ma, at least for surface- and intermediate-water circulation.


Situation recognition is an important problem to address for developing newcapabilities in the surveillance domain. It is concerned with recognizing a priori defined situations of interest, which can be of concurrent and temporal nature, possibly occurring in a continuous flow of data and information. It is however a complex task to manually define what constitutes an interesting situation, and we therefore investigate the possibility of using genetic algorithms for evolving Petri nets for situation recognition. Our results show that: (1) it is possible to evolve complex Petri nets, (2) it is possible to increase the performance of manually designed Petri nets, and (3) a dynamic genome representation consisting of complex genes is beneficial compared to a representation consisting of bit strings.


As online dispute resolution (ODR) systems become increasingly popular and prevalent, especially for court cases, those of us considering and setting standards for ODR find ourselves wondering what users really need and want from this new technology. We all know about guidelines in other dispute resolution realms – the importance of avoiding bias and providing a fair process, for example – but how can we set standards for court ODR that encompass those ideals and actually help people who use the system? This question of court ODR standards is one that prompts considerable debate. At a discussion at the recent International Online Dispute Resolution Forum in Williamsburg, Virginia, panelists acknowledged that analogous professional standards and best practices can provide a helpful starting point for ethical design of ODR. However, barometers such as "impartial" and "fair" do not fully guide system design at the user level. That inspired us to think we should seek real feedback from real people on everything from the look and feel of a system to the availability of live assistance while using it. The point on the panel – and our point in this article – is that ODR standards or best practices should never stray far from what the users of ODR might expect from a platform they are required to use to conduct justice-related business. With this in mind, we propose a methodology of standards creation in one question: what would our families, friends, and next-door neighbors expect from an ODR system?


The emissions of isoprene from vegetation in the tropics have been regarded as one of the major sources of the global biogenic emission budget. As this emission is highly sensitive to temperature, one may expect significant changes to the emissions due to climate change. In this study, we explore the impact of regional climate change to the emissions of isoprene in Southeast Asia. The potential role of the combination of climate change and future atmospheric CO₂ concentration on isoprene emissions are also investigated. The latest generation of Hadley Centre regional climate modelling system, PRECIS (Providing Regional Climates for Impact Studies) was used to investigate the climate change in the region. The climate output dataset from the model was then used as input for the BVOC Emission Model, which was developed by Sheffield University and Lancaster University to estimate the emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds. The projected temperature changes under the A₂ emission scenario was 2.5⁰C, which accounted an increase of 22% of isoprene emission from 29 to 37 TgC/yr if the CO₂ emission factor was excluded. Incorporation of higher concentration in future CO₂ emissions was found to offset the climate change impact on future emissions of isoprene in the region. With the CO₂ effects, the projected regional isoprene emissions in 2100 dropped from 28 to 25 TgC/yr. These results suggest that future emissions of isoprene in the region is largely buffered by a number of competing factors, which are certainly important to be considered in estimating the isoprene global budget. In a wider perspective, the anticipated high concentration of CO₂ in the future could lead to the disruption of the ozone, organic aerosol and methane formation through the competing influence with warmer climate on isoprene emissions from tropical vegetation.


The Swedish cultural policy has since the 1930's been engaged in distributing art on a professional level to all citizens and for its fulfilling reduced all hindrances. This article aims to analyze the way the theatre audience has been discussed in governmental cultural policy reports since 1933 years theatre report. In focus stands the failure to fulfill the goal that the theatre audience should be a cross-section of the Swedish society (social, ethnic, gender).


The average time on market (TOM) of sold properties is frequently used by practitioners and policymakers as a market liquidity indicator. This figure might be misleading as the average TOM only considers properties that have been sold. Furthermore, traded properties are heterogeneous. Since these features differ over the cycle, the average TOM could provide wrong signals about market liquidity. These problems are more severe in markets where properties trade infrequently. In this paper, a methodology is provided that allows for the construction of constant-quality housing market liquidity indices in thin markets that can be estimated up to the end of the sample. The latter is particularly important since market watchers are generally interested in the most recent information regarding market liquidity and less in historical information. Using individual transactions data on three different types of Dutch municipalities (small, medium, and large) it is shown that the average TOM overestimates market liquidity in bad times and underestimates market liquidity in good times. The option to withdraw is the most important reason why the average TOM is misleading. Furthermore, constant-quality liquidity leads the average TOM and price changes. The indices not only show that illiquidity is higher during busts, but also that liquidity risk is higher. Additional results suggest that setting a high list price relative to the estimated value results in a higher TOM, but this effect differs over time. Both the list price premium and the effect on sale probability are higher during busts. Differences in housing quality over the cycle, however, also play a significant role. Finally, the method allows for the construction of indices that are more robust to revisions, especially in thinner markets.


This study investigates the implementation of authentic assessment from a qualitative approach by observing and interviewing a teacher who are applying the assessment. The procedures by Frey, Smith and Allen (2012) were the foundation for the authentic assessment implementation, and an interview was done to reveal the teacher attitude on the use of authentic assessment. Based on the observation on her evaluation during the teaching process in a listening class, she did not implement one procedure in the assessment, which was disallowing learners to do the next step before being able to finish the task with the correct procedure and the good result. From the interview, she informed that she did not apply this procedure because she believed that the students with low achievement should be assisted in different session after the teaching learning process. It needs to be done to accelerate the accomplishment of the curriculum goal. Furthermore, it was also found that she was not designing the tasks instead she was applying the activities planned in the textbook. She informed that the tasks in the textbook were suitable and categorized as 'authentic' to use in the classroom.


Crowdsourcing has become a popular paradigm for labeling large datasets. However, it has given rise to the computational task of aggregating the crowdsourced labels provided by a collection of unreliable annotators. We approach this problem by transforming it into a standard inference problem in graphical models, and applying approximate variational methods, including belief propagation (BP) and mean field (MF). We show that our BP algorithm generalizes both majority voting and a recent algorithm by Karger et al. [1], while our MF method is closely related to a commonly used EM algorithm. In both cases, we find that the performance of the algorithms critically depends on the choice of a prior distribution on the workers' reliability; by choosing the prior properly, both BP and MF (and EM) perform surprisingly well on both simulated and real-world datasets, competitive with state-of-the-art algorithms based on more complicated modeling assumptions.


ABSTRACT We describe here the results of antimalarial therapeutic efficacy studies conducted in Cambodia from 2008 to 2010. A total of 15 studies in four sentinel sites were conducted using dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP) for the treatment of Plasmodium falciparum infection and chloroquine (CQ) and DP for the treatment of P. vivax infection. All studies were performed according to the standard World Health Organization protocol for the assessment of antimalarial treatment efficacy. Among the studies of DP for the treatment of P. falciparum, an increase in treatment failure was observed in the western provinces. In 2010, the PCR-corrected treatment failure rates for DP on day 42 were 25% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 10 to 51%) in Pailin and 10.7% (95% CI = 4 to 23%) in Pursat, while the therapeutic efficacy of DP remained high (100%) in Ratanakiri and Preah Vihear provinces, located in northern and eastern Cambodia. For the studies of P. vivax, the day 28 uncorrected treatment failure rate among patients treated with CQ ranged from 4.4 to 17.4%; DP remained 100% effective in all sites. Further study is required to investigate suspected P. falciparum resistance to piperaquine in western Cambodia; the results of in vitro and molecular studies were not found to support the therapeutic efficacy findings. The emergence of artemisinin resistance in this region has likely put additional pressure on piperaquine. Although DP appears to be an appropriate new first-line treatment for P. vivax in Cambodia, alternative treatments are urgently needed for P. falciparum-infected patients in western Cambodia.


Rate models are often used to study the behavior of large networks of spiking neurons. Here we propose a procedure to derive rate models that take into account the fluctuations of the input current and firing-rate adaptation, two ubiquitous features in the central nervous system that have been previously overlooked in constructing rate models. The procedure is general and applies to any model of firing unit. As examples, we apply it to the leaky integrate-and-fire (IF) neuron, the leaky IF neuron with reversal potentials, and to the quadratic IF neuron. Two mechanisms of adaptation are considered, one due to an after hyperpolarization current and the other to an adapting threshold for spike emission. The parameters of these simple models can be tuned to match experimental data obtained from neocortical pyramidal neurons. Finally, we show how the stationary model can be used to predict the time-varying activity of a large population of adapting neurons.


Over the last two hundred years various pieces of sculpture have been found in what is left of the ruins of the centre of the Roman city of Utica (modern Tunisia). This material is now mostly spread between museum collections in Tunis, Copenhagen, Leiden and London, though some of it remains at Utica, and at least one piece is lost. To judge from what little documentation survives, many of these sculptural elements were found in the same area of Utica and indeed can with reasonable confidence be associated with a single structure, an Antonine-era civil basilica, first identified in the 19th century and recently excavated by a team from the Institut National du Patrimoine and the University of Oxford. This paper presents the new sculptural material unearthed by these excavations for the first time and compares them to the sporadic finds made from the early 19th century onwards. In reconstituting this sculptural assemblage new insights into the decorative programme of the Utican basilica and the aspirations of its commissioners and their community can be gained.


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This project is about human–computer interaction, consisting of two parts. The first part is to analyze human behavior through the observation of machine/system behavior – solely through network traffic. By observing this in a multi user system – what they do and when they do it, this thesis aims to see if distinct features of the population can be found and later reenacted. This will be achieved through observing network traffic, gathering it in a structured way and characterizing it. Humans and their computer workstations are the principal factors in making the traffic that is going to be measured. The second part is to simulate the behavior and network traffic observed with virtual users – programs which behave similarly to their real counterparts. This is done with scripting, and results in a configurable tool which can simulate human behavior as seen from the network. Humans are thus eliminated in favor of computer simulated virtual users. The virtual users will try to generate network traffic with the same type, amount, and characteristics as observed in the first part, in a simulation with a hitherto unprecedented level of realism. Ideally, if this is repeated, it will form an idempotent loop ending up still looking like the original system with real users.


Although a rose by any other name might smell as sweet, two people smelling it might not experience that "sweetness" the same way. Different people differ markedly in their perceptions of particular odors: For example, some people think the testosterone derivative androstenone smells pleasantly floral, others think it smells like sweat or urine, and others don't perceive its scent at all. Keller et al. expressed 335 putative human odorant receptors in a line of human cells that stably expresses accessory factors for odorant receptor expression and identified OR7D4--which is expressed in nasal epithelium--as encoding the receptor most responsive to androstenone. Searching a SNP database for OR7D4 polymorphisms and sequencing the OR7D4 coding region of 391 individuals enabled the identification of the most common OR7D4 allele and a variant with two amino acid substitutions (R88W and T133M, leading to their respective designation as RT and WM). OR7D4 RT responded to androstenone and the related androstadienone (but not to 64 other odorants), whereas OR7D4 WM failed to respond to any odorants (including androstenone and androstadienone). People who were heterozygous for RT and WM or homozygous for WM were in general less sensitive to these two compounds than people who were homozygous for RT--and tended to have more positive perceptions of these odors. Statistical analysis implicated genetic polymorphisms in OR7D4 in differences in androstenone and androstadienone perception, although they did not fully account for such differences, indicating that odorant receptor function per se contributes to the subjective perception of odor. A. Keller, H. Zhuang, Q. Chi, L. B. Vosshall, H. Matsunami, Genetic variation in a human odorant receptor alters odour perception. Nature 449, 468-472 (2007). [PubMed]


Guyana has high potential to develop a nature-based tourist niche market and help diversify its economic base, which now depends on the export of primary commodities. Despite many natural attractions, Guyana is still at a nascent stage of nature-based development relying on primary factors for tourism development as opposed to thorough planning, focused investments, and aggressive marketing efforts. Other segments of traditional tourism development such as business and leisure also are undeveloped and little studied. The tourism sector in general faces many constraints, such as high air travel cost, inadequate infrastructure, a slew of small-scale lodging properties that are not graded or certified, lack of marketing, and limited government budgetary outlays and incentives that would serve to stimulate development of the sector. Some important steps have been taken to improve competitiveness of the sector, but still a critical mass of interventions has not been realized that can lead to a dramatic transformation. This paper reviews the main issues and challenges and posits that critical path modeling, mathematical programming and spatial economic analysis could be used to identify two or three of the most binding constraints that should be addressed first given budgetary limitations and low levels of private sector investments.


OBJECTIVE
To report on the outcome of wounds to the hindlimb of racehorses, and horses with the intended use of racing, where both the long digital extensor (LoDE) and lateral digital extensor (LaDE) tendons had been completely transected.

DESIGN
Retrospective case series.

METHODS
Records of all horses admitted with hindlimb lacerations between 2002 and 2009 were examined for cases where both the LoDE and LaDE tendons in the hindlimb had been severed, and specifically in horses intended to be used for racing. Outcome was assessed via retrieval of race records and via telephone questioning of the owners.

RESULTS
In total, 589 records were retrieved and 34 horses met the inclusion criteria: 26 horses (76%) had proximal wounds that severed both the LoDE and LaDE tendons and 8 (24%) had more distal wounds, where the tendons were severed below the point at which they join; 14 horses (41%) were euthanased prior to discharge. Of the 20 horses discharged, 6 (30%) raced and 12 (60%) did not; 2 (10%) of the treated horses, both Thoroughbred colts, were in race training and showing no signs of lameness at the time of the study. Of the 34 horses presented for treatment, 18% went on to race.

CONCLUSIONS
The prognosis for racing after transection of both hindlimb extensor tendons is poor. Clinicians may wish to consider these findings when formulating advice for clients regarding this injury in racehorses.


The concept of the native speaker, once viewed as "a common reference point for all branches of linguistics" (Coulmas 1981: 1), has increasingly come under criticism, particularly in connection with the study of World Englishes, where it has been pointed out that, while there may be linguistic differences between native and non-native speakers of English, the native speaker is really a political construct carrying a particular ideological baggage. The following paper presents a close reading of Marsh (1859), the text in which the term first occurs, in order to retrace some of the discourses surrounding the concept's emergence. It will be shown that, just like its contemporary counterpart, the 19th-century English native speaker was employed to "other" particular speaker groups and assert ownership over the language.


This paper explores questions of relevance to Ethiopian primary education policy. It examines (i) the match/mismatch between government-prescribed pedagogy and actual student learning practices and (ii) the relationship between those practices and school, class and teacher level factors. The paper employs evidence from government documents on curriculum and pedagogy, time-based observations of 5,088 students in 776 mathematics classes and interviews with teachers. In recent years the government has prescribed a shift away from teacher-oriented towards student-centred methods of learning for both the first (Grades 1–4) and second (Grades 5–8) cycles of primary education with a target that 30% of class time be spent on student-centred activity. We find that student-centred activities accounted for just 10.7% of time spent, teacher-oriented activities 74.5% and 'off task' 14.7%, with first cycle students more 'off task' and second cycle students more 'teacher-oriented'. In both cycles a student is more likely to be 'on task' rather than 'off task' if taught by a teacher with a Diploma or a degree, who has not been absent recently and has received supervision within the last four weeks; and more likely to be engaged in student-centred rather than teacher-oriented activity if taught by a female teacher with a Diploma. In the first cycle, 'on task' activity is associated with female teachers; in the second cycle with male. In the first cycle student-centred activity is associated with class sizes of less than 26; in the second cycle with class sizes of more than 26 and with less experienced teachers. Policy implications are explored.


Imogen Holst, 1907-84, was a much-loved source of inspiration for countless musicians and students who encountered her over the years of her involvement with the Dartington Summer School of Music and the Aldeburgh Festival. This book conveys her infectious enthusiasm and insight as a choral conductor. Here she sets out, clearly and concisely, a wealth of practical information on the physical business of conducting which will be of particular value to the amateur conductor. She deals with the forming and training of a choir, the presentation and rehearsal of the music, and how to approach public performances and competitions. Her final chapter gives advice on the rehearsal of specific choruses by Purcell, Handel, and Britten. Originally published in 1973, this edition has been corrected and updated by Lowinger Maddison, Archivist for the Holst Foundation.


The dinocephalians (Synapsida, Therapsida) were one of the dominant tetrapod groups of the Middle Permian (Guadalupian Epoch, ~270–260 million years ago) and are most abundantly recorded in the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone (AZ) of the Main Karoo Basin, South Africa. Dinocephalians are thought to have become extinct near the top of the Abrahamskraal Formation of the Beaufort Group and their disappearance is one criterion used to define the base of the overlying Pristerognathus AZ. Because of the abundance of fossils in the Karoo, the Beaufort Group biozones form the biostratigraphic standard for later Permian terrestrial tetrapod ecosystems, so their stratigraphic delineation is of great importance to Permian palaeobiology. We report two new specimens of the rare tapinocephalid dinocephalian Criocephalosaurus from the lowermost Poortjie Member, which makes them the youngest dinocephalians known from the Main Karoo Basin and extends the Tapinocephalus AZ from the Abrahamskraal Formation up into the Teekloof Formation. The extension of the Tapinocephalus AZ relative to the lithostratigraphy potentially affects the biozone or biozones to which a fossil species can be attributed; this extension has implications for biostratigraphic correlations within the Main Karoo Basin as well as with other basins across Gondwana. These discoveries also indicate that a population of herbivorous tapinocephalids survived as rare constituents of the tetrapod fauna after most generic richness within the clade had already been lost.


Most terrestrial biological invasions occur in landscapes comprising numerous, independently managed properties. Thus, control of invasion spread generally depends on the choices of many managers, each deciding the extent to control invasions on their property. Here we develop a spatially-explicit, integrated model of invasion spread and human behavior to examine how people's control choices under laissez-faire affect patterns of invasion spread and the total costs and damages imposed by an invader. We evaluate how characteristics of the bioeconomic and social system, including the extent of cooperation among managers, affect the divergence between socially optimal and private control efforts. We find that system-wide invasion externalities generally increase with the potential range size of an invader and with marginal damages from invasion and decrease with marginal control costs and with the size of the invasion when it is discovered. As expected, private control decisions tend to under-control the invasion relative to socially optimal control. However, we also find that less extensive cooperation is needed to control invasions whose costs and damages otherwise lead to the largest externalities. This novel finding suggests that even small amounts of cooperation can avoid some of the worst invasion outcomes and coordination of control can provide large social benefits. This research highlights the importance of human behavior for affecting invasion spread and economics outcomes.


"Operation Solomon" was one of the most remarkable rescue efforts in modern history, in which more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel in little more than a day. Now, in this riveting volume, Stephen Spector offers the definitive account of this incredible story, based on over 200 interviews and exclusive access to confidential documents. Written with the pace and immediacy of a novel, here is the dramatic story of the rescue of the dark-skinned Jews of Ethiopia. Spector recounts how 20,000 Jews were willingly lured from their ancestral villages to Addis Ababa, expecting to be taken quickly from there to the Holy Land. Instead, they became pawns in a struggle between the Israeli government and Ethiopia's repressive dictator, who tried to coerce Israel into selling him weapons he needed in a losing war against rebel armies. In the resulting stalemate, the Jewish community was forced to live for nearly a year in squalid hovels, vulnerable to the dangers of the city, including crime and HIV. Worse yet, the imminent collapse of Addis Ababa, with the rebels closing in on the capital, raised the threat of bloody street fighting or even a genocidal attack on the Jews, a small minority in a nation that is primarily Christian and Muslim. Spector describes the tense negotiations among Israelis, Ethiopians, and Americans, which became increasingly urgent as time ran low and the danger mounted. And he highlights the secret deals and sudden setbacks that nearly aborted the mission at the eleventh hour, even as Israeli jets sat on the runway in Ethiopia, waiting to take the Jews to the land for which they had yearned for generations. Recounting the full story for the first time, Operation Solomon is a stirring account of a heroic rescue achieved in the face of daunting odds.


This study demonstrates how a team of librarians sustained authentic assessment across multiple studies in order to inform changes to an information literacy curriculum. It demonstrates the cyclical and action-based nature of assessment, including closing one loop only to reopen another and begin the assessment process again, emphasizing the importance of sustainability and making changes that increase student learning. Researchers analyzed 79 English composition papers for evidence of information literacy skills, expanding upon a previous study which established information literacy skill benchmarks. Findings from the previous study led to the development of new library instruction lessons, which targeted skills students struggled with – mainly topic refinement and information synthesis. To measure the impact of the modifications, the authors used two rubrics as well as a citation analysis to identify shifts in student learning. Findings indicate that the new lessons contribute to student improvements in synthesis, topic refinement, and source variety. This study illustrates the importance of engaging in an ongoing cycle of assessment and continually making improvements to instruction practices while implementing evidencebased decisions.


Lung diseases must be identified and treated in its early stages, otherwise it will lead to a serious irreversible condition. Interstitial Lung Diseases, presence of lung nodules etc. are most common but very difficult in identifying in its preliminary stages. Identification of the diseases at an earlier stage helps a lot in fast recovery of the patient. Early stage detection can be achieved by combining various detection methods to find the presence of abnormality. Advantage is that anyone in the many existing imaging systems, identifies the occurrence of the abnormality in its earlier stage. So by using different imaging schemes it is possible to identify the disease. This can be tested with available data bases and existing results. The accuracy of the same can be evaluated to a certain extent. Here the paper tries to compare existing systems that are popular for the same and introduce a combinational system that may lead to an exponential growth in the applications of medical imaging techniques. The early detection and diagnosis of lung nodules can be done with the help of medical imaging systems.


Trade flows of agricultural commodities have always received a lot of attention in the Arab region, mainly due to their implications on food security, politics and competition. Most international trade theories postulate that free trade regimes have positive effects on bilateral trade. The justification is that regional trade blocks decrease barriers to intraregional trade and hence, member countries are likely to expect some benefits. Whether each member country actually benefits from such agreements is, however, a subject to debate and empirical tests. The gravity model is used in this paper to assess the impact of the Greater Arab Free Trade Agreement (GAFTA), particularly on the volume and pattern of bilateral agricultural trade during the period between 1995 and 2007. Our results reveal that GAFTA did not have the desired effects on the intra-regional volume of bilateral agricultural trade in four out of eight member countries selected for this study. The only countries in the sample that exhibited positive effects in both the import and export sectors are Lebanon and Syria. These findings uncover important facts that are hidden in the results of other studies, which concluded that the GAFTA has led to an increase in total intra-regional volume of trade. The current study adds to the literature by looking at the effects of the agreement on individual member countries' bilateral trade rather than the aggregate volume of intraregional trade.