The success of an organization or department was influenced by performance of
staffs. The assessment of staffs will be based on the main task of the organizations.
There are negative consequences and affect the performance of civil servants as a
result of over-indebtedness problems. Now a days, the over-indebtedness among
civil servants were affected the performance of civil servants, thus it will be affect
the disciplinary action. With that, this study entitled "Factors affecting the
Awareness of Dealing with Over-Indebtedness among Civil Servants in Kuala
Lumpur" was very useful to avoid this problem. The main purpose of this study is to
determine the factor of knowledge, attitudes, law enforcement and campaigns
influenced the awareness of over-indebtedness among civil servants. Next, this study
is also to determine demographic factors that influence the level awareness of overindebtedness
among civil servants.
The methodology of this research was quantitative method and all data was gathered
used questionnaire. The sample size of this research was 300 respondents were
collected from selected by department of government sector in Kuala Lumpur.
Cronbach's Alpha and factor analysis test was carried out to test the reliability and
validity of research of each construct in questionnaire. There are two type of research
which is descriptive and inferential statistic was used in this research. Descriptive
statistics was applied to elaborate demographic profile and important item in each
variable. Before proceed to inferential statistics, the screening data must be
implement. The test of normality and multicolinearity was proceeded to fulfil the
normality and linearity assumptions. T-test and Anova test was used to find out what
are the demographic aspects that impact to decision the level of awareness overindebtness
among civil servants. Correlation Pearson was used to know the
relationship of knowledge, attitude, implementation of legal and campaigns towards
the level of awareness over-indebtness among civil servants. Multiple linear
regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between influenced factors
towards the level of awareness over-indebtness.
Overall findings from this study suggest there were significant influenced between
gender, race,level of education, income and expenses towards the level of awareness
of over-indebtness. Beside that, the main objective was achieved, there are three
factors, knowledge,attitude, implementation of legal influenced. level of awareness of
over-indebtness. Campaign was not significantlyinfluenced level of awareness of
over-indebtness.


Performance metrics for binary classification are designed to capture tradeoffs between four fundamental population quantities: true positives, false positives, true negatives and false negatives. Despite significant interest from theoretical and applied communities, little is known about either optimal classifiers or consistent algorithms for optimizing binary classification performance metrics beyond a few special cases. We consider a fairly large family of performance metrics given by ratios of linear combinations of the four fundamental population quantities. This family includes many well known binary classification metrics such as classification accuracy, AM measure, F-measure and the Jaccard similarity coefficient as special cases. Our analysis identifies the optimal classifiers as the sign of the thresholded conditional probability of the positive class, with a performance metric-dependent threshold. The optimal threshold can be constructed using simple plug-in estimators when the performance metric is a linear combination of the population quantities, but alternative techniques are required for the general case. We propose two algorithms for estimating the optimal classifiers, and prove their statistical consistency. Both algorithms are straightforward modifications of standard approaches to address the key challenge of optimal threshold selection, thus are simple to implement in practice. The first algorithm combines a plug-in estimate of the conditional probability of the positive class with optimal threshold selection. The second algorithm leverages recent work on calibrated asymmetric surrogate losses to construct candidate classifiers. We present empirical comparisons between these algorithms on benchmark datasets.


The development of a predictive model for bone remodeling is becoming increasingly important for medical applications such as bone surgery or bone substitutes like prostheses. However, as bone remodeling is a complex multiphysics phenomenon and difficult to quantify experimentally, predictive numerical models remain, at best, phenomenologically driven. Patient dependency is often ignored as its influence is usually considered secondary, although it is known to play an important role over long periods of time. Another difficulty to study this patient dependency is the availability of experimental samples to carry out extensive analyses. Using our recently developed statistical reconstruction framework, a set of "bone like" microstructures with variety of distributions has been created to study pseudo "patient variabilities." The method provides similar effective stiffness tensor, equivalent stresses, and strain energy distributions for the original and the statistically reconstructed samples. The main outcome of this study is the correlation of similar effective mechanical properties between samples when bone remodeling will depend on the local strain energy distribution as a function of each bone microstructure. It is expected that two different microstructures with equivalent bone volume fraction will lead to identical bone remodeling in a short period of time, whereas this needs to be proven for long term evolution. This work could be used to develop precise predictive numerical models while developing parametric studies on an infinite number of virtual samples and correlating patient dependency with more precise mechanobiological numerical models.


The surveillance discourse in British broadcast news since the Snowden revelations covers justifications and challenges. Justification focuses on authorisation and rationalisation strategies stating terror threats explicitly, which are often expressed by governmental actors. Delegitimation strategies predominantly use moralising and mythopoetic arguments of civil liberties and are expressed by Snowden himself, politicians, rarely by journalists, non-governmental organisations, and very rarely by citizens. However, what exactly is at stake when mass surveillance increases remains obscure in the broadcast discourse. The surveillance discourse should be richer especially in order to give the audience a chance to understand the less concrete contra-surveillance arguments better.


This paper focuses on the dislodging of hegemonic narratives of culture and identity through formations of contemporary art that are spatially and temporally located in a field of uneven material and immaterial flows. This is a position that prompts an exploration of emerging issues in context of conditions of global mobility. In building an argument for an expanded art theory, I draw from a diverse range of artists, curators, critics and theorists to investigate the global networks of relationships influencing discourses of contemporary art and its technologies of production and dissemination. Analysis of art objects and/or events informed by transmigration involves articulating the ways in which they displace and contest established discourses and hegemonic narratives without using, in the process, an alternative narrative which is in itself exclusive and bounded. Such art objects and/or events exceed and surpass any single code, central ideology or static system. The complexity of contemporary art informed by conditions of transmigration is grounded in an in-between space between and across different borders. In the global context, with its transnational networks and transmigration of ideas and people, contemporary art has become so highly multifaceted and mobile that it challenges established definitions, crosses boundaries and calls for new ways of understanding the multiplicities of space, time and potential.


This research examines the presence of and reasons for local studies resources in the libraries and learning centres of further and higher education institutions in the United Kingdom. The studys aims were to investigate the content and scope of local collections in academic libraries, to examine the impact these collections have on teaching, learning and research within the institutions, and to compile an inventory of local resources in college and university libraries. Using an approach combining basic- and applied research, the study represents the most comprehensive investigation of local resources in academic libraries so far. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected by way of two survey questionnaires, plus observational visits to a small number of libraries, learning centres and Special Collections departments. In addition, interviews were conducted with local studies experts, collection managers, educators, and students. Secondary literature focusing principally on both local studies and academic libraries was also consulted. The study found that, while the literature, as well as ˜tradition tends to equate local studies and its resources with the public library, local material could be found in a majority of respondents collections. It is suggested that the relative neglect afforded local collections outside of the public sector is unwarranted, particularly when considering the potential for wider access to material that a more inclusive approach to local resources might allow for. The research also noted that the term ˜local, as defined by the geographical scope of the material held in different collections, is open to significantly diverse interpretations, ranging from the college or university campus itself to one or more constituent countries (for instance, England and Wales). While some authors have addressed the complexity of defining ˜local, the issue remains largely underexamined in the literature, where the term can frequently be based on little more than a tacit understanding of what ˜local means in any given context.


Lung cancer is one of the most commonly occurring cancers in the USA. The American Cancer Society estimates that a total of 221 200 individuals were newly diagnosed with lung cancer in 2015, representing approximately 13% of all new cancer diagnoses.1 Worldwide, lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy. In their most recent report, WHO estimated that there were 1.8 million new lung cancer cases diagnosed in 2012.2

In addition to being one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers, survival from lung cancer is poor, making it the leading cause of cancer death in the USA.3 The 5-year lung cancer survival rate for cases diagnosed in 2011 was only 17.8%, with wide variations in survival rates by stage at diagnosis and specific histological subtype.4 The survival rate has only improved modestly in recent decades; the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) programme of the National Cancer Institute estimated that overall 5-year survival rates were 12.2% for cases diagnosed in 1975–1977, 13.0% for cases diagnosed in 1987–1989 and 14.6% for cases diagnosed in 1996–1998.4 Therefore, interventions or other strategies to increase survival are a source of consistent research, with a focus on lifestyle and treatment interventions.5 , …


A simple, rapid, precise RP-HPLC method was developed for simultaneous estimation of aspirin and clopidogrel bisulphate in tablet dosage form used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. To achieve the maximum resolution, acetonitrile:50 mM potassium dihydrogen phosphate buffer:methanol, solution pH adjusted to 3, in the ratio 50:30:20; v/v was selected as mobile phase. This mixture was found to be appropriate allowing good separation of both the components at a flow rate of 1.5 ml/min and detection wavelength 240 nm. In these conditions clopidogrel bisulfate and aspirin were eluated at the 7.47 and 2.2 min. The linearity was found in the concentration range 1.5-7.5 and 3.5-15.0 μg/ml, respectively. All the analytical validation parameters were determined and found with in the limit as per ICH guideline, which indicates the validity of method.


Microbial symbionts of insects have been demonstrated to play an important role in the nutrition and protection of the host; these include aphids and tsetse. Studies often use antibiotics to eliminate the symbionts but the deleterious impact of using these antibiotics is not commonly addressed. The impact of chlortetracycline treatment on Aedes aegypti and Drosophila melanogaster was investigated by assessing life-span, fecundity, development time, survival, nutrition and metabolism. The impact on microbial numbers and diversity was also determined.
With Drosophila, treatment with 50 µg ml-1 and above showed a significant extension in development time and life-span, reduction in fecundity and change in nutritional content. Microbial numbers were significantly reduced at 50 µg ml-1 and above. Culturable techniques and 454 pyrosequencing, demonstrated that the microbial diversity of Drosophila was predominantly Acetobacter. Bacterial elimination through egg dechorionation yielded some similar results to chlortetracycline treatment. However, fecundity and life-span was not significantly affected. Microarray analysis established a significant reduction in the abundance of transcripts associated with immunity, particularly antimicrobial peptides.
With Aedes aegypti, treatment significantly reduced the survival and also affected the life-span and nutrition of the insect. Microbial numbers of mosquito larvae were reduced at 30 and 100 µg ml-1. Colonies grew on plates supplemented with 50 µg ml-1 of chlortetracycline, indicating that the larvae bore chlortetracycline-resistant bacteria. 454 pyrosequencing demonstrated a change in diversity of bacteria found in mosquitoes +/- chlortetracycline, switching from Elizabethkingia meningoseptica to Raoultella sp with chlortetracycline.
It is concluded that chlortetracycline significantly impacts the performance of the 2 insects through bacterial depletion, changes to bacterial diversity and toxicity. Nevertheless, different responses were observed with Aedes aegypti and Drosophila melanogaster. Moreover, experiments with Drosophila using egg dechorionation, emphasised the toxic impact of using antibiotics to eliminate microbes in the insect host.


This chapter describes a new computational approach for accurately modeling radiation-induced single-event transient current and charge collection at circuit level. This approach, called random-walk drift-diffusion (RWDD), is a fast Monte Carlo particle method based on a random-walk process that takes into account both diffusion and drift of carriers in a non-constant electric field both in space and time. After introducing the physical insights of the RWDD model, the chapter details the practi‐ cal implementation of the method using an object-oriented programming language and its parallelization on graphical processing units. Besides, the capability of the ap‐ proach to treat multiple node charge collection is presented. The chapter also details the coupling of the model either with an internal routine or with SPICE for circuit solving. Finally, the proposed approach is illustrated at device and circuit level, considering four different test vehicles in 65 nm technologies: a stand-alone transistor, a CMOS inverter, a SRAM cell and a flip-flop circuit. RWDD results are compared with data obtained from a full three-dimensional (3D) numerical approach (TCAD simulations) at transistor level. The importance of the circuit feedback on the charge-collection process is also demonstrated for devices connected to other circuit nodes.


We investigate how patient ability to pay through insurance influences the equity of care given by Emergency Medical Service (EMS) crews following 9-1-1 calls. EMS agencies are often underfunded and rely on self-generated revenues to carry out their health mission. Revenues depend on insurance reimbursement rates that typically decrease in the following order: private insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid. Reimbursement rate differences provide strong organizational-level incentives to treat patients differently based on ability to pay, but it is unclear if such differences might impact individual-level behaviors in the absence of direct incentives. Using data from 31 states reported to the US National Emergency Medical Services Information System, we find that both private insurance and Medicare patients receive more procedures (4.6% and 1.5%) and have longer transport times (5.1% and 3.9%) than Medicaid patients. These differences reduce with call urgency but increase on busy days. Differences manifest across all agency types but particularly in larger agencies and agencies with fewer private insurance calls in the recent past. While EMS crews do not benefit directly from patient payments, our results suggest they do respond to indirect organization-level incentives when making care decisions.


Despite renewed interest in emergent language simulations with neural networks, little is known about the basic properties of the induced code, and how they compare to human language. One fundamental characteristic of the latter, known as Zipf's Law of Abbreviation (ZLA), is that more frequent words are efficiently associated to shorter strings. We study whether the same pattern emerges when two neural networks, a "speaker" and a "listener", are trained to play a signaling game. Surprisingly, we find that networks develop an \emph{anti-efficient} encoding scheme, in which the most frequent inputs are associated to the longest messages, and messages in general are skewed towards the maximum length threshold. This anti-efficient code appears easier to discriminate for the listener, and, unlike in human communication, the speaker does not impose a contrasting least-effort pressure towards brevity. Indeed, when the cost function includes a penalty for longer messages, the resulting message distribution starts respecting ZLA. Our analysis stresses the importance of studying the basic features of emergent communication in a highly controlled setup, to ensure the latter will not strand too far from human language. Moreover, we present a concrete illustration of how different functional pressures can lead to successful communication codes that lack basic properties of human language, thus highlighting the role such pressures play in the latter.


What is the effect of school consolidation on student achievement? Theory gives little guidance because possibly positive effects from larger school size can be offset by negative effects from reduced choice and competition. We investigate these issues empirically by analyzing the effects on students' achievement of a consolidation reform that took place in Dutch primary education in the mid-1990s. The reform was implemented by increasing the minimum required school size, leading to an increase in actual school size and a reduction in the number of schools. For identification, we exploit variation between municipalities. We find that an increase in the minimum required school size of 10% has a small positive effect on student achievement of 0.72% of a standard deviation. Further analysis indicates that this effect can be mainly attributed to the increase in actual school size; reduced competition and choice do not seem to have harmed student achievement. We also find no evidence that the consolidation effect is driven by reduced school segregation or the elimination of small schools that were—given their size—underperforming (JEL I21, I22, H75, D40).


Quantification of cerebral blood flow (CBF) using dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI requires determination of the arterial input function (AIF) representing the delivery of intravascular tracer to tissue. This is typically accomplished manually by inspection of concentration time curves (CTCs) in regions containing the ICA, VA, and MCA. This is, however, a time consuming and operator dependent procedure. We suggest a completely automatic procedure for establishing the AIF based on a cluster analysis algorithm. In 20 normal subjects CBF maps calculated in 2 slices by the automatic procedure were compared to maps obtained with AIFs selected individually by 7 experienced operators. The average manual to automatic CBF ratio was 1.03 ± 0.15 in the lower slice and 1.05 ± 0.12 in the upper slice, demonstrating excellent agreement between the manual and automatic method. The algorithm provides means for objectively assessing AIF candidates in local AIF search algorithms designed to reduce bias due to delay and dispersion. Given the reproducibility and speed (10 s) of the automatic method, we speculate that it will greatly improve the accuracy of perfusion images and facilitate their use in clinical diagnosis and decision‐making, particularly in acute stroke but also in cerebrovascular disease in general. Magn Reson Med, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Bacteremia is common with manipulation of the teeth and periodontal tissues during dental procedures. Majority of dental office visits result in some degree of bacteremia that warrants antibiotic prophylaxis before a dental procedure to reduce the frequency, nature or duration of bacteremia. This study aimed to collect data on prophylactic use of cephradine which is most preferred in dental procedures in Bangladesh.  A total 2219 of patients both adult and children above 5 years were enrolled to assess use of antibiotic, its dose and duration for antibiotic prophylaxis during dental procedures. Efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis in terms of clinical cure, further dose modification and need to change antibiotic was evaluated at day 10 of antibiotic use and in case of root canal therapy at day 30. Any side effect of antibiotic use recorded within 3 days was considered for safety evaluation. This was a non-controlled, multicentre, observational study. 2016 (90.9%) of the patients received cephradine as prophylactic antibiotic with a mean dosage of 500mg (487.48+60.99) and duration of treatment was 3-7 days (5.47+1.03). Some of the dentists also preferred amoxicillin (149, 6.7%) and cephalexin (54, 2.4%) for prophylaxis. The majority of the patients (1657, 82.2%) who had prophylaxis with cephradine had no clinical sign of infection and some of the patients needed to change their initial dose or change of the antibiotic. Overall 1816 (81.8%) patients were found having no clinical sign of infection on antibiotic prophylaxis. Among the patients 239 (10.7%) needed to change the dose of prescribed antibiotic and 55 (2.4%) were required to change their prescribed antibiotic. However, the data on type of infection was not recorded. 109 (4.9%) patients were lost to follow up on Day 10. Prescribed antibiotic prophylaxis was not associated with adverse events in majority (91%) of the patients. Some of the patients reported diarrhea (104, 4.7%), stomach upset (68, 3.1%) and dizziness (31, 1.4%) during antibiotic use. However, those were self-limiting and no dose adjustment, discontinuation of therapy or withdrawal from the study was required. No serious adverse events were reported. Cephradine 500 mg for 5 days course was preferred as prophylactic antibiotic in dental procedures in this study. Majority of the patients had no clinical sign of infection on evaluation at day 10. Cephradine therapy was mostly not associated with adverse events in patients; however, diarrhea, stomach upset and dizziness were reported in some patients that were self-limiting. Bangladesh Journal of Dental Research and Education Vol.5(2) 2015: 49-54


When President Obama took office in 2009, Congress through appropriations linked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) funding to "maintaining" 33,400 immigration detention beds a day. This provision, what this Article refers to as the bed quota, remains in effect, except now the mandate is 34,000 beds a day. Since 2009, DHS detentions of non-citizens have gone up by nearly 25 percent. To accommodate for this significant spike over a relatively short period of time, the federal government has relied considerably on private prison corporations to build and operate immigration detention facilities. This Article takes a comprehensive look at the Congressional immigration detention bed quota. It details its legislative history, and the relationship between the quota and private prisons in the immigration detention system. It situates the provision in a conversation about quotas generally, both in the law enforcement context and also in relation to the significance of quotas in U.S. immigration law historically. The Article then examines the bed quota through the lens of foundational as well as present-day jurisprudence on immigration detention and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It also analyzes the quota through international human rights law, particularly the protections related to arbitrary detention and vulnerable migrants. The Article concludes with policy considerations that caution against Congress imposing the immigration detention bed quota.


Introduction: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a leading cause of death worldwide. The association of socioeconomic status with CAD is supported by numerous epidemiological studies. Whether such factors also impact the number of diseased coronary vessels and its severity is not well established. Materials and Methods: We conducted a prospective multicentre, multi-ethnic, cross sectional observational study of consecutive patients undergoing coronary angiography (CAG) at 5 hospitals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Baseline demographics, socioeconomic, and clinical variables were collected for all patients. Significant CAD was defined as ≥70% luminal stenosis in a major epicardial vessel. Left main disease (LMD) was defined as ≥50% stenosis in the left main coronary artery. Multi-vessel disease (MVD) was defined as having >1 significant CAD. Results: Of 1,068 patients (age 59 ± 13, female 28%, diabetes 56%, hypertension 60%, history of CAD 43%), 792 (74%) were from urban and remainder (26%) from rural communities. Patients from rural centres were older (61 ± 12 vs 58 ± 13), and more likely to have a history of diabetes (63 vs 54%), hypertension (74 vs 55%), dyslipidaemia (78 vs 59%), CAD (50 vs 41%) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) (27 vs 21%). The two groups differed significantly in terms of income level, employment status and indication for angiography. After adjusting for baseline differences, patients living in a rural area were more likely to have significant CAD (adjusted OR 2.40 [1.47, 3.97]), MVD (adjusted OR 1.76 [1.18, 2.63]) and LMD (adjusted OR 1.71 [1.04, 2.82]). Higher income was also associated with a higher risk for significant CAD (adjusted OR 6.97 [2.30, 21.09]) and MVD (adjusted OR 2.49 [1.11, 5.56]), while unemployment was associated with a higher risk of significant CAD (adjusted OR 2.21, [1.27, 3.85]). Conclusion: Communal and socioeconomic factors are associated with higher odds of significant CAD and MVD in the group of patients referred for CAG. The underpinnings of these associations (e.g. pathophysiologic factors, access to care, and system-wide determinants of quality) require further study.


Using data of US domestic mergers and acquisitions transactions, this paper shows that acquirers have a preference for geographically proximate target companies. We measure the 'home bias' against benchmark portfolios of hypothetical deals where the potential targets consist of firms of similar size in the same four-digit SIC code that have been targets in other transactions at about the same time or firms that have been listed at a stock exchange at that time. There is a strong and consistent home bias for M&A transactions in the US, which is significantly declining during the observation period, i.e. between 1990 and 2004. At the same time, the average distances between target and acquirer increase articulately. The home bias is stronger for small and relatively opaque target companies suggesting that local information is the decisive factor in explaining the results. Acquirers that diversify into new business lines also display a stronger preference for more proximate targets. With an event study we show that investors react relatively better to proximate acquisitions than to distant ones. That reaction is more important and becomes significant in times when the average distance between target and acquirer becomes larger, but never becomes economically significant. We interpret this as evidence for the familiarity hypothesis brought forward by Huberman (2001): Acquirers know about the existence of proximate targets and are more likely to merge with them without necessarily being better informed. However, when comparing the best and the worst deals, we are able to show a dramatic difference in distances and home bias: The most successful deals display on average a much stronger home bias and distinctively smaller distance between acquirer and target than the least successful deals. Proximity in M&A transactions therefore is a necessary but not sufficient condition for success. The paper contributes to the growing literature on the role of distance in financial decisions.


Approximately 3.5 million Nepalese are working as migrant workers in the Gulf countries, Malaysia, and India. Every year there are more than 1000 deaths and many hundreds cases of injuries among Nepalese workers in these countries excluding India. A postmortem examination of migrant workers is not carried out in most of these countries, and those with work-related injuries are often sent back to home. Uninsured migrant workers also do not have easy access to health care services in host countries due to the high medical and hospital fees. Greater efforts are needed to protect the health and well-being, labor rights, and human rights of migrant workers from Nepal and other South-Asian nations. There is a need to enforce universal labor laws in these countries and to develop accurate records of mortality and morbidity and their causes.


Use of [3H]glucose and a one-compartment model to determine glucose kinetics frequently underestimates the rate of glucose production (Ra). To assess to what extent an isotope effect, a tracer contaminant, or inadequacy of the model was responsible, we measured glucose Ra and forearm clearance of tracer and unlabeled glucose at various concentrations of plasma insulin (∼50, ∼160, and ∼1800 μU/ml) and plasma glucose (∼90, ∼160, ∼250, and ∼400 mg/dl) under steady-state and non-steady-state conditions. Under isotopic steady-state conditions, the clearances of tracer and unlabeled glucose across the forearm were identical, and exogenous glucose infusion rates did not differ significantly from the isotopically determined glucose Ra (10.0 ±1.3 vs. 10.5 ± 1.0 mg ⋅ kg−1 fat-free mass ⋅ min−1, respectively). However, under isotopic non-steady-state conditions, the isotopically determined Ra was significantly lower than the glucose infusion rate (11.5 ± 1.3 vs. 13.7 ± 1.5 mg ⋅ kg−1 fat-free mass ⋅ min−1, respectively, P < .001), and the underestimation was related to the deviation from the isotopic steady state. When [3H]glucose specific activity of plasma samples from experiments with the greatest underestimation of Ra was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography, <7% of the underestimation could be accounted for by a contaminant. These results indicate that inadequacy of the one-compartment model is responsible for underestimation of glucose Ra under non-steady-state conditions and that there is no detectable isotopic effect or appreciable contaminant of [3-3H]glucose. We conclude that under isotopic steady-state conditions, [3-3H]glucose is a reliable tracer for glucose kinetic studies in humans.


A guide to all aspects of ProQuest Biological Science Collection including content, searching, and viewing results on the ProQuest platform.


This article compares the views of teachers and professors about the transition from secondary mathematics to tertiary calculus. Quantitative analysis revealed five categories where teachers and professors differed significantly in the relative frequency of addressing them. Using the rite of passage theory, the separation and incorporation phases were investigated by carrying out thematic analyses on these five categories. For the professors, the analysis revealed specific content within algebra and precalculus that they viewed as vital preparation for students' tertiary calculus success. For the teachers, the analysis highlighted the classroom environment realities of teaching in the separation phase. The rite of passage and professional turf theories are used to discuss and interpret the findings.


This paper proposes a hybrid method for eyes local- ization in facial images. The novelty is in combining techniques that utilise colour, edge and illumination cues to improve accuracy. The method is based on the observation that eye regions have dark colour, high density of edges and low illumination as compared to other parts of face. The first step in the method is to extract connected regions from facial images using colour, edge density and illumination cues separately. Some of the regions are then removed by applying rules that are based on the general geometry and shape of eyes. The remaining connected regions obtained through these three cues are then combined in a systematic way to enhance the identification of the candidate regions for the eyes. The geometry and shape based rules are then applied again to further remove the false eye regions. The proposed method was tested using images from the PICS facial images database. The proposed method has 93.7% and 87% accuracies for initial blobs extraction and final eye detection respectively.


This article deals with the advantages and disadvantages of evidence led Via a video-conference facility. Section 158 of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 (the Act). as amended by s 7 of the Criminal Procedure Amendment Act 86 of 1996 (the CPAA), deals with a situation in which the court may order that evidence be led by means of electronic media. An application may be made by the state or defence counsel, or the court may make such an order on its own initiative. In the instance dealt with below, it was the state which made the application in terms of s 158(2)(a) of the Act.


Embryological researches of an invasive plant Rudbeckia laciniata focused on the process of megasporogenesis, female gametophyte formation, and fertilization. A disturbed first meiotic division results in the formation of restitution nucleus. In some megaspore mother cells micronuclei or vacuoles were observed near the restitution nucleus. Different course of megasporogenesis led to the development of unreduced embryo sacs with various organization which is reflected in the embryo formation and capacity of seed germination. Our research confirmed the occurrence of hemigamy in the Polish representatives of R. laciniata. In spite of a reduced germination capacity of R. laciniata seeds, their production allows a long-distance dispersal and expansion of the species.


Sales taxes have become a central feature of antismoking initiatives across the world. Dan Halliday provides a strong argument in favour of smoking licences as an alternative to such taxes.1 I agree with much of Dan's argument. For this commentary, I want to take a cue from Dan's points about the relationship between ideal and non-ideal theory. In particular, I want to take a step back to consider on what basis we should assess the relative merits of different antismoking interventions such as taxes and licences and, more broadly, what the goal of tobacco control and antismoking initiatives should be. While this may at first glance seem obvious—the goal, one might argue, is to reduce smoking as much as possible and, ideally, to eradicate it entirely—such a response would, I think, be too quick. Much is to be gained from considering in more detail what the goals of tobacco would be if we could abstract from, or 'assume away', certain aspects of the real world, before considering how these goals might need to be adapted in light of real world constraints.

Halliday emphasises that his argument is an exercise in non-ideal theory. In particular, it addresses real world problems that, if we were arguing at the level of ideal theory, we would assume do not exist. However, Halliday leaves open what response would be required to smoking from the perspective of ideal theory, noting that while some ideal societies might ban tobacco altogether, others might not restrict it at all (ref. 1, p. 1).

The general case for a licence, Halliday suggests, is that it imposes upfront substantial costs on an activity the implicit costs and risks of which would not otherwise materialise until much further in the future. Drawing on …


The American family dog is a social construct that blurs the ontological boundaries of nature/culture dualism and which contemporary American documentary filmmakers represent by employing alternate tropes of 'dog as human' and 'dog as animal.' In filmic and practical use, these tropes are in flux and are confusing. The position of the dog as a paradox of nature and culture and member of the contemporary inter-species family makes the decision to euthanize it ethically challenging. Non-fiction dog programming is more popular than ever and most shows employ the 'dog as human' trope. But few address at what point that trope breaks down and how to find the line between 'dog as human' and 'dog as animal' when making ethical decisions for dogs. I will prove this by describing movies like Why We Love Cats and Dogs (Ellen Goosenberg Kent 2009) that rely on removed experts to explain the how humans are similar to dogs and those like Shelter Dogs (Cynthia Wade 2003) that follow devastating moments of loss with cheery depictions of renewal. My thesis film Soul Dog instead dives into the deep emotional conflict that many of us face in a society where dogs have become surrogate for family. Using personal subjective storytelling techniques like that in Sherman's March (McElwee 1986) and quirky vox pop interviews similar to those in Gates of Heaven, (Morris 1978) I focus on the personal stories and popular wisdom that influence our actions.


While spending long hours of her everyday commuting in Mexico City traffic, capturing urban moments with her mobile camera lens and sharing them through social networks, the author reflects on emotions, inequality, beauty and time. How can someone be present and absent at the same time?, in this overwhelming traffic of people, machines, information and ideas 'on the move'. How does each object or character defines it's own cultural geography and tempo, constructing a new pervasive mode of mobilized social inclusion and exclusion. Is this a way to avoid boredom? Or has she found a way to connect in this mobility paradigm by opening a door that has not yet been completely explored.


For four years there were reports in western Europe concerning the persecution of the English Catholics by the Lord Protector, so that it was not unusual for the Catholic foreign diplomats residing in London to include their current views of their predicament in many surviving letters in the files of their foreign secretaries.1 At least seven of these diplomats were appointed during this period, and a close look at their reactions can offer a new and informative picture of the recusants as they saw it at different occasions. There were four princes usually represented. The Doge of Venice followed the custom of appointing a representative for a short term so that there were three Venetians sent to the Lord Protector. For a year and a half Lorenzo Paulucci was Agent and secretary and then recalled in July, 1655. His successor, Giovanni Sagredo, had the rank of ambassador but was appointed elsewhere after eight months, and his embassy was closed for nine months. In April, 1657, Francesco Giavarina reopened it, but he too served for less than a year until January, 1658. As will be seen, all three were curious about the Catholics and enjoyed giving them access to their embassy chapels.The grand duke of Tuscany was pleased with the services of his veteran agent, Amerigo Salvetti, who limited access to his chapel to Italian traders and visitors, but wrote bulletins about the regime's restraints on the "papists." His son Giovanni, born in London, was named his successor in April, 1658. As the diplomats of Portugal were concentrating at this time on commercial agreements, they will not be included here. There remain the diplomats of the two great monarchies of western Europe, Spain and France, who played more visible roles in the Catholic question at different times but without competition. Alonso de Cardenas of Spain was at first the most prominent of all. he had arrived in London in 1638 and maintained many links to the Catholic community in and near London through his well-staffed chapel. His one confrontation with Cromwell occurred when he requested the custody of the aged English priest John Southworth, who had been condemned under a mandate of the protector, and was refused. The priest became the sole martyr of this regime, but remained a drawback to Cromwell's ineffective efforts to gain the friendship of Catholic princes.2 Cardenas had to close the Spanish embassy in October, 1655, after Cromwell's misguided attack on Santo Domingo led to his costly naval war against the domains of Philip IV In mid-1656, accordingly, Antoine de Bordeaux assumed a new role among the resident Catholic diplomats, as shall be seen shortly. The laws against Catholics were enacted a decade earlier than when Cromwell accepted the office of protector in December, 1653. The Long Parliament passed a new law on March 27, 1643, requiring a Catholic aged twenty-one or over to subscribe on demand to an "oath of abjuration" which denied specific traditional Catholic beliefs. If this was refused the offender suffered "sequestration" of his estate, which meant that two-thirds of his "lands, rents, goods and chattels" were to be possessed by a county commission of sequestrations, who leased the property to non-Catholics, who paid rent to the exchequer. Furthermore, if a royalist, the Catholic faced a loss of four-fifths of his estate.3 This draconian penalty had been preceded by the act of February 3, 1643, that required each Catholic to pay every tax assessment at twice the official rate, and lastly by an act of February 23, by which any tithe still attached to a Catholic's inherited lands was also confiscated.4 Obviously, all sequestered properties risked two more hazards in that any incompetence by the new proprietor could produce a decline in both value and income, which might take years to recover after the retxirn of the property to the Catholic owner.5 Regional studies have shown that the Catholic minor gentry with typical lower income "almost certainly suffered more severely than the greater gentry and the peerage," since sequestration usually forced them to sell a small part of their holdings. …


In this paper, we study the problem of constrained robust (min-max) optimization ina black-box setting, where the desired optimizer cannot access the gradients of the objective function but may query its values. We present a principled optimization framework, integrating a zeroth-order (ZO) gradient estimator with an alternating projected stochastic gradient descent-ascent method, where the former only requires a small number of function queries and the later needs just one-step descent/ascent update. We show that the proposed framework, referred to as ZO-Min-Max, has a sub-linear convergence rate under mild conditions and scales gracefully with problem size. From an application side, we explore a promising connection between black-box min-max optimization and black-box evasion and poisoning attacks in adversarial machine learning (ML). Our empirical evaluations on these use cases demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach and its scalability to dimensions that prohibit using recent black-box solvers.


Communicating their thinking in mathematics is challenging for young children. This research studied the change in first-grade students' oral and written solution explanations before and after six problem-based mathematics lessons that focused on developing conceptual understanding of adding or subtracting a 2-digit number and a multiple of ten. A pre/post quasiexperimental design was used. Participants were assigned to a comparison group or an intervention group based on the classroom in which they are assigned. All students completed a pre-and post-assessment. Both groups received the same problem-based lessons. To encourage growth in their communication skills, students in both groups were asked to talk about their strategies, while the intervention group was asked to both talk and write about their strategies during each lesson. Oral and written pre-and post-assessments were scored using a rubric adapted from the Project M3 curriculum (Gavin et al., 2006-2008) and interrater reliability was established. T-test analyses were conducted to determine if a significant difference exists between first-graders oral and written mathematical explanations within discourse modes (comparing pre/post writing or pre/post talking) and between discourse modes (comparing talking and writing) for the intervention and comparison groups. A significant difference between discourse modes was found on the pre-assessments but not the post-assessments, suggesting that increasing oral discourse decreased the gap between the children in both groups ability to talk and write about their thinking. A significant difference was found within discourse modes for the intervention group, but not the comparison group, suggesting that adding written discourse to problem-based lessons further increased the children in the intervention group's ability not only to write about their solutions, but also to talk about their thinking. ANCOVA analyses were conducted to determine if there was a difference in the oral and written explanations between the comparison and intervention groups. ANCOVA analyses found a significant difference between the comparison group and intervention group's oral and written explanations at the completion of the study, suggesting that adding written discourse to problembased lessons increased the intervention children's ability to both talk and write about their thinking. INDEX WORDS: Oral Discourse, Written Discourse, Problem-Based Lessons, Sociomathematical Norms, Social Constructivism EXPLORING FIRST GRADERS' MATHEMATICAL EXPLANATIONS by Nicole Venuto Gearing


ABSTRACT A new record of the genus Naja Laurenti, 1768 is described from the latest Miocene of Solnechnodolsk locality in Russia. It is assigned to N. romani (Hoffstetter, 1939), the largest European cobra, which disappeared in Europe before the end of the Miocene. The record of N. romani is the first evidence of the survival of cobras to the latest Miocene of Eastern Europe, which points to the existence of a Caucasian refugium during the late Miocene. The large size of the vertebra of the cobra from Solnechnodolsk indicates that it belonged to one of the largest specimens of this taxon. Naja romani from Solnechnodolsk represents the first record of cobras in Russia and the Northern Black Sea area, contributing to the knowledge of ancient biodiversity of the region and suggesting a wider range for the genus. Naja romani was a thermophilous snake that indicates a subtropical character of the Solnechnodolsk fauna.


The vast and diverse spread of the oil and gas pipeline infrastructure
makes real-time monitoring of the entire network a very costly
task. This topology has provided vandals and crude-oil thieves with
the opportunity of tapping the pipelines and successfully stealing
crude oil from them unhindered. Nigeria lost more than USD 11
billion to crude-oil theft and pipeline vandalization over a 4-year
period (2007 to 2011). The increase in vandalization has led to the
divestment of assets by some of these oil companies because it is
no longer economical to continue operating the assets. Strategies
used by the government and oil companies to tackle these challenges
include the deployment of military personnel to these assets
and also along their pipeline right of way (ROW). In spite of these
attempts, the results show that the deployment of these personnel
and the attendant cost have not reduced the quantity and frequency
of oil theft because the deployment time to some of these locations
also contributes to delay in the response of the security personnel.
The deployment of dynamic pipeline-pressure profiles enables
the determination of the onset of a leak or a loss of crude oil. This
paper presents the deployment plan and communication architecture
of the vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) type of unmanned
air vehicles (UAVs) for pipeline monitoring. The pipeline network
of the company is divided into wide area cells, and each cell is controlled
from a facility. Low-power UAVs with directional antennas
and long-range zoom cameras are deployed to provide real-time visual
monitoring of the pipeline section whenever a pressure drop
or any significant third-party activity is detected on a section of
the pipeline. Security personnel can then be deployed to the pipeline
section if vandal activity is detected. This solution has the capability
of reducing crude-oil theft by providing accurate location
data in a timely manner to the company with respect to the bunkering
activity along its pipeline ROW and also enabling the timely
deployment of personnel to contain the situation.


Detection of homogeneous climate areas is a challenging issue, which can be affected by different criteria. One of the most prominent factors is choosing the time scale, which can lead to different spatial and temporal patterns. Total precipitation is a key factor in climatological studies, and studying its distribution is of utmost importance. The combination of principal components analysis and cluster analysis is used for homogeneous precipitation areas9 detection. Hence, the spatial pattern of total precipitation was investigated in northwestern Iran during the past two decades (1991–2010) on seasonal and annual time scales. The results of clustering on each time scale were validated, and well-defined clusters were investigated and compared with each other. Two homogeneous sub-regions were recognized in spring, the best period for depicting homogeneous precipitation clusters at seasonal resolution. The annual pattern of precipitation delineated three clusters in the study region. Finally, the characteristics of the well-clustered maps reveal the importance of time scale in detection of homogeneous precipitation sub-zones.


Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly and pervasively affecting society. AI and algorithms play a relevant role in the Intellectual Property (IP) discourse as well. Tomorrow, algorithms will of course come as creators and innovators but today they are already here as enforcers. Content sanitization online will soon — and inevitably — become the sole domain of algorithmic enforcement tools. This process towards algorithmic enforcement online has been characterized by a few important recent developments. First, emerging regulatory framework, new legislative obligations and judicial trends would like to force online intermediaries to implement architectural changes leading to sanitization of allegedly infringing content — possibly legit freedom of expression — by design. Second, as a consequence, algorithmic enforcement brings about privatization of enforcement and delegation of public authority. Third, in online enforcement of intellectual property — as well as any other content sanitization — algorithms take decisions reflecting policy's assumptions and interests that have very significant consequences to society at large, yet there is limited understanding of these processes. Finally, but critically for the focus of this investigation, Online Service Providers' (OSPs) regulatory choices — occurring through algorithmic tools — can affect profoundly enjoyment of users' fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression, freedom of information and right to privacy and data protection. This Chapter will map the complex conundrum triggered by algorithmic enforcement in the IP domain with special emphasis on copyright and trademark enforcement online. In doing so, this chapter, first, briefly explains what algorithmic enforcement online actually is. Second, this chapter will dig into voluntary, judicial and legislative measures that have been promoting the emergence of algorithmic enforcement online. Third, this chapter will assess tensions between algorithmic enforcement and human rights, including due process, freedom of information, freedom expression, privacy and freedom of business. In conclusion, this chapter will discuss solutions for protecting human rights form algorithmic enforcement negative externalities.


The goal of the present thesis was to investigate and optimize different approaches towards User-Customized Password Speaker Verification (UCP-SV) systems. In such systems, users can choose their own passwords, which will be subsequently used for verification. The main assumption here unlike text-dependent speaker verification, is that no a priori knowledges about the password (such as its phonetic transcription) is available to the system. Speaker verification has already been widely investigated. However, although more user-friendly, UCP-SV is less understood and actually exhibits several new challenges, including: automatic inference of HMM password models (from a speaker-indepenent ASR system), fast speaker adaptation of the resulting acoustic models, score normalization, and verification (involving both text verification, i.e. ASR, and speaker verification). Evaluation of such as system is then based on its ability to simultaneously verify two hypotheses: (1) the identity of a claimed speaker, (2) pronouncing the correct password, and thus rejecting all other possible alternatives. In this thesis, two different speaker acoustic modeling approaches are investigated: HMM/GMM approach and hybrid HMM/MLP approach. Within the HMM/GMM approach, the background model used for likelihood normalization was particularly a difficult problem, and several solutions had to be investigated to improve the baseline system and to make the UCP-SV system actually practical. Within HMM/MLP approach, MLP adaptation was the main problem. We found that the modeling capabilities of the adapted MLP was more towards learning the lexical content of the password than the customer characteristics. Therefore, a probabilistic framework that combines the hybrid HMM/MLP systems and Gaussian Mixtures Models (GMM) is proposed. In this framework, the HMM/MLP system is used for utterance verification, while GMM is used for speaker verification. Experimental results showed comparable performance with HMM/GMM approach. Since UCP-SV involves both speech recognition (ASR) and speaker verification (SV), a natural extension of our work was to also investigate new approaches towards using ASR together with SV to improve both ASR and SV systems. In this thesis, we have shown that optimization and recognition based on a joint ASR-SV posterior probability was yielding better ASR and SV performance, beyond what could be achieved through a "sequential" approach (e.g., first performing speaker ID/clustering, followed by speech recognition).


Extracting the roots (stemming) of Arabic words is one of the most challenging skills taught to Arabic language learners. To address this challenge, this paper proposes the Arabic word Root extraction Tutor (ART). ART is a cognitive tutor intended to teach students production rules needed for Arabic word root extraction. In the passive mode, ART accepts an input word and generates its root with explanation. In the active mode, on the other hand, words are generated by ART and the student is prompted to provide the correct roots. ART integrates several techniques for enhanced tutoring. It provides a positive feedback for a correct answer and a negative one otherwise. In the latter case, Prompting Answer Strategy (PAS) is employed, where the student is guided to detect the error by integrating scaffolding and self-explanation. Scaffolding prompts the student to apply the relevant production rule step by step. In each step, a number of options are given to the student to select the correct one via self-explanation. If the error persists, the correct answer is generated with explanation. In addition to generating real words, artificial words are generated using the production rules. This novel technique is intended to ensure that the student applies the production rules rather than memorizes the roots of common words. Evaluation has shown the effectiveness of ART tutoring process and suggests artificial word generation as a promising technique in language tutoring.


The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), whose the history dates back to "Shanghai five," was founded in 1996 in order to deal with security and border issues. However, in the course of time, the organization has expanded the cooperation ground: the vision of the organisation has been recently enlarged so as to intensively emphasise economic issues such as forming a free trade area and initiating an economic integration. Since the potential economic effect is ambiguous and initially depends on the actual trade structure among the member countries, it is crucial for policymakers to have the right tools to evaluate the economic effect of such an initiative. The aim of this study is to provide practical guidance to policymakers for determining the potential economic effect of a further Free Trade Area (FTA) to be founded within the SCO. For this purpose, a set of indicators are used to determine the potential effect at regional and industrial levels that a possible regional trade arrangement may yield for the participating countries. It is concluded that there is a geographical bias towards trading among the members. To overcome this, there are two possible solutions for the SCO if it attempts a FTA: It should generate inter-industry and intra-industry trades and initiate new members.


The expectations of a successful outcome during childbirth are high for all of the parties concerned. The overall objective of prenatal care and birth care is that midwives contribute to create the most positive experience for the expectant parents concerning their pregnancy, the actual childbirth and the child's infancy. During the past thirty years, there has been a significant increase in Caesarean section frequency both in Sweden and in the rest of the Western World. More parents feel an overall insecurity when it comes to the labor phase leading up to childbirth. The purpose of this study was to describe how midwives experience their work of creating a sense of security and providing good nursing care when meeting with the expectant parents. A phenomenological approach was implemented using eleven qualitative interviews and these were analyzed with Giorgis' method of analysis. The results of this analysis revealed three themes: organizational-professional conditions, the communicative ability of the midwives and their reflective-emotional competence. The ability of the midwives to trust their inner sensibility and intuition was something that was characteristic of all the interviews and consequently this was the essence of the results. Managements' organization of the workload and how management utilized competent and experienced midwives affected the midwives' ability to contribute to a sense of security and provide competent nursing care for expectant parents. When the communication was based on sensibility and compassion, the midwives' were enabled to create a sound and trusting relationship between themselves, the MVC and with the expectant parents. The emotional involvement on the part of the midwives was an essential requirement for carrying out the work in a satisfactory manner. Perhaps a question for future research is how inner knowledge based on practical experience can benefit new personnel and how the organization and the education of healthcare providers can utilize the intuitive knowledge of midwives.


We present a method based on maximum-likelihood estimation to calculate the threshold of the number of converted photoelectrons according to Poisson and Gaussian statistics. The calculations for detection and false-alarm probabilities are given including a proposal of error probability. An efficient approach of setting threshold according to laser flight time is discussed as the laser power decreases in propagation. Comparison of the fixed threshold and the varied threshold in Poisson and Gaussian statistics is provided. The varied threshold approach tends to keep the error probability at the lowest level. This varied threshold approach is found to have a similar effect on ranging accuracy as a threshold-fixed approach.


The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction has emerged as one of the topmost challenges of the 21st century. Because the threat of nuclear and radiological terrorism is of recent origin, the international nuclear regime built over the past half-century was considered quite inadequate to address these concerns. This prompted the international community to respond to this global security problem by creating new legal rules at the national level and to strengthen the existing instruments and institutions. It is in this context that this paper introduces and analyses the legal framework established by multilateral instruments and United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 1540 against the backdrop of global nuclear renaissance. The aim of the paper is to examine and analyse the national implementation of the international legal obligations in the field of nuclear terrorism in India, a key player in the international nuclear debate.


Episodes of ultrahigh-temperature (UHT, ≥900 °C) granulite metamorphism have been recorded in mountain belts since the Neoarchean. However, evidence for the tectonic mechanisms responsible for the generation of such extreme thermal conditions is rarely preserved. Here we report the discovery of 16 Ma UHT granulites—the youngest identified at the Earth's surface—from the Kobipoto Mountains of Seram in eastern Indonesia. UHT conditions were produced by a modern tectonic system in which slab rollback–driven lithospheric extension caused core complex–style exhumation of hot subcontinental lithospheric mantle. Overlying continental crust, heated and metamorphosed by exhumed lherzolites, developed spinel + quartz and sapphirine-bearing residual assemblages, shown by phase equilibria modeling to have required temperatures of ∼950 °C at ∼8 kbar pressure. Seram is therefore a possible modern analogue for ancient orogens that incorporate UHT granulites.


Introduction Clinicians are urged to decrease radiation exposure from unnecessary medical procedures. Many emergency department (ED) patients placed in an observation unit (EDOU) do not require chest pain evaluation with a nuclear stress test (NucST). We sought to implement a simple ST algorithm that favors non-nuclear stress test (Non-NucST) options to evaluate the effect of the algorithm on the proportion of patients exposed to radiation by comparing use of NucST versus Non-NucST pre- and post-algorithm. Methods An ST algorithm was introduced favoring Non-NucST and limiting NucST to a subset of EDOU patients in October 2008. We analyzed aggregate data before (Jan-Sept 2008, period 1) and after (Jan-Sept 2009 and Jan-Sept 2010, periods 2 and 3 respectively) algorithm introduction. A random sample of 240 EDOU patients from each period was used to compare 30-day major adverse cardiac events (MACE). We calculated confidence intervals for proportions or the difference between two proportions. Results A total of 5,047 STs were performed from Jan-Sept 2008–2010. NucST in the EDOU decreased after algorithm introduction from period 1 to 2 (40.7%, 95% CI [38.3–43.1] vs. 22.1%, 95% CI [20.1–24.1]), and remained at 22.1%, 95% CI [20.3–24.0] in period 3. There was no difference in 30-day MACE rates before and after algorithm use (0.1% for period 1 and 3, 0% for period 2). Conclusion Use of a simple ST algorithm that favors non-NucST options decreases the proportion of EDOU chest pain patients exposed to radiation exposure from ST almost 50% by limiting NucST to a subset of patients, without a change in 30-day MACE.


[1] Two parallel experiments involving the evolution and runup induced by plunging regular waves near the shoreline of a sloping bed are considered: (1) a rigid-bed experiment, allowing direct (hot film) measurements of bed shear stresses and (2) a sediment-bed experiment, allowing for the measurement of pore-water pressures as well as observation of sediment suspension and bed morphological changes. Both experiments utilize the same initial bed profile and wave forcing. The experiments show that the mean bed shear stresses experienced onshore of incipient breaking are amplified by nearly a factor of 2 relative to prebreaking conditions, whereas their corresponding turbulent fluctuations are amplified even more strongly, by a factor of 5–6. The plunging processes lead to a series of vortices, whose formation may be explained as the result of shear layer instability. Measurements show that these vortices can significantly enhance peaks in the offshore-directed bed shear stresses. Moreover, near-bed pore pressure measurements indicate that these vortices cause large upward-directed pressure gradients, which in turn produce a corresponding series of suspended sediment plumes shoreward of the initial breaking event. These findings are related to the induced morphological changes over both short and long time scales. The present results are also compared and contrasted with previous experiments utilizing a similar methodology, but involving plunging solitary waves.


Recently, a high number of companies have emerged that offer online direct-to-consumer DNA testing. We investigate these consumer genomics companies through the lens of identity. We find that many of them appeal to a kind of "genetic essentialism". We suggest that this appeal is key to understanding why consumers are attracted to their services. There seem to be three very different currents within contemporary culture at work: the pre-modern search for a naturalistic understanding of identity, the modern enthusiasm for science, and the post-modern emphasis on radical individual self-determination. The support for our hypothesis comes from the companies' websites and the online testimonials of satisfied customers. We discuss the risk of distortion of the subjective experience of identity due to unreliable or uninformative test results, inadequate or misleading explanation, and the fact that the science is still too weak to yield meaningful results.


Standards and codes dictate virtually all aspects of urban development. The same standards for subdividing land, grading, laying streets and utilities, and configuring rights-of-way and street widths to accommodate cars (rather than pedestrians) have been adopted in many areas of the world regardless of variations in local environments. In The Code of the City, Eran Ben-Joseph examines the relationship between standards and place making. He traces the evolution of codes and standards and analyzes their impact on the modern city and its suburbs, arguing that it is time for development regulations to reflect site-specific and localized physical design. Standards and codes were meant to bring order and safety to the city building process. But now, Ben-Joseph argues, these accumulated rules and their widespread application illustrate a disconnect between the original rationale for their existence and their actual effect on the natural and human environment. To discover how this separation of codes from local conditions came about, he looks at the origins of urban standards and their use, from early civilization through the rapid urbanization of the nineteenth century. He provides examples that demonstrate how standards have shaped residential developments and reshaped the natural landscape. And he considers alternatives for the future -- innovation and de facto deregulation by private developers, new design technologies, and place-based regulations reflecting local conditions. Standards, writes Ben-Joseph, will continue to shape the built environment, but they must be flexible enough to allow for innovation and contribute to the development of sustainable and desirable communities.


This chapter aims to discuss the role of professional accounting associations and orders in relation to the current context of accounting training. It is intended, with this, to broaden the discussion about the performance of these professional entities, since they are placed as of public interest. Its work with the universities, aiming to interfere in the training process of future professionals, whether by the application of evidence of access to the profession or by direct and indirect influence in the construction of the curricular con tents intended to form the accountants, must be thought openly and free of ideological load. Thus, it is considered important to analyze the aspects of the relationship between universities and such class entities, in order to know if there is a disinterested relationship or if, on the contrary, the university is influenced by professional accounting associations and orders, in percussion of their selfish interests.


Determining how to respond to the terrorist challenge has become a major public policy issue in the United States over the last three years. However, there is a perspective on terrorism that has been very substantially ignored. It can be summarized, somewhat crudely, as follows: assessed in broad but reasonable context, terrorism generally does not do much damage, and the costs of terrorism very often are the result of hasty, ill-considered, and overwrought reactions than from anything the terrorists have done. A sensible policy approach to the problem might be to stress that any damage terrorists are able to accomplish likely can be absorbed, however grimly. While judicious protective and policing measures are sensible, extensive fear and anxiety over what may prove to be a rather limited problem are misplaced, unjustified, and counterproductive.


Purpose: The paper's objective is to compare differences between people from four European countries in terms of however having or never having debt difficulty is related to risk attitude. Design/Methodology/Purpose: This paper aims to check however having or never having debt arrears is related to risk attitude. The hypothesis put forward is that independently of country, people who have never been in debt arrears are less risk-seeking than people who have ever had arrears; however, the differences in risk aversion between indebted and not indebted individuals are not equal among the nationalities examined. Findings: The hypothesis advanced was confirmed. It can be observed that people who have never had debt arrears are more risk-averse in most cases. In each country, the group of respondents with problems repaying debt rated themselves higher in terms of being a risk-taker and more open to risk than other people. However, the ratings differed in their levels across the different countries. Moreover, in each country, people with debt arrears when asked to give someone advice on investment were more likely to choose the risky option, but the percentages differed among countries. Practical Implications: Present and past debtors are not the same in terms of risk attitude, and sometimes even past debtors resemble more non-debtors in risky behavior Originality: The article results from a large-scale survey (the smallest sample consisted of 802 subjects, the biggest of 1200) conducted in Spain, Italy, Poland, and Romania regarding the emergence of overdue debt.


Phytoremediation is a technique that uses plants as agents of soil and water decontamination. It is an advantageous alternative to the conventional methods of water pumping and treatment and/or physical removal of the contaminated soil layer since it allows in situ treatment at feasible costs. Also, after extracting the contaminant from the soil, the plant stores it for a subsequent treatment, if necessary, or may metabolically transform it into products that are less or non-toxic. Phytoremediation can be employed in soils contaminated by inorganic or organic substances. Promising phytoremediation results have been obtained in soils contaminated by heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, pesticides, explosives, chlorinated solvents and toxic industrial by-products. Herbicide phytoremediation presents interesting results for atrazine, with Kochia scoparia species revealing rhizospheric potential for phytostimulating molecule degradation. Although this technique is not well known in Brazil, studies have been performed using agricultural crops and wild or native plant species from contaminated areas to select efficient species for soil phytoremediation.


Manipulating plant functional diversity to improve agroecosystem multifunctionality is a central challenge of agricultural systems world‐wide. In cocoa agroforestry systems (cAFS) shade trees are used to supply many services to farmers,yet their impact on soil functioning and cocoa yields is likely to vary substantially among tree species. Here we compared the impact of five shade tree species (Canarium schweinfurthii (Canarium), Dacryodes edulis (Safou), Milicia excelsa (Iroko), Ceiba pentandra (Kapok tree), Albizia adianthifolia (Albizia)) and unshaded conditions on the functioning of poor sandy savanna soils within eight cocoa farms in Central Cameroon. We assessed the effects of plant functional traits, leaf litterfall and fine root biomass on a range of soil functions and on cocoa yield. Shade trees generally improved soil pH,and Olsen P content, biomass production of bioassays and soil total C and N content, while leaving cocoa yields unchanged. However, these effects varied largely among species. Improvements of soil functions were low under the two fruit trees (Canarium and Dacryodes), medium under the legume tree Albizia and high under the two timber trees (Milicia and Ceiba). Low litter recalcitrance was most strongly associated with increases in soil fertility indicators such as N and P availability, whereas soil C and N content increased with litter Ca restitution. Synthesis and applications. We demonstrate that cocoa agroforest multifunctionality is substantially influenced by the functional traits of shade tree species. Shade tree species with the most dissimilar traits to cocoa (cocoa showing the lowest leaf litter quality) showed the largest improvement of soil functions. Therefore, selection of shade trees based on their functional traits appears as a promising practice to adequately manage soil functioning. In order to fully assess the beneficial role of shade trees in these agroecosystems. Future research will need to extend this approach to other below‐ground traits and other aspects of multifunctionality such as long‐term cocoa health and yield.


The study details the transnational migrations of a sample of professional Indian women from Durban, KwaZulu Natal within the context of their historical transition from indentureship to transnationalism, and their changing social identities. The study makes a contribution towards contemporary interest in the subject of gender and migration in the 21 century. As the Indian and Chinese diasporas expand in size through knowledge workers and investments their increased visibility in countries throughout the world has led to a commensurate level of interest in resettlement and identity building. This dissertation deals specifically with Indian women in the South African diaspora and their transnational links with first world nations, particularly the United Kingdom. Chapter One is a brief history of Indian women in South Africa since their arrival as indentured labourers in 1860. It provides glimpses into their roles as mothers, wives and daughters in the patriarchal Indian household and their eventual transition into the professions. Chapter Two problematizes migration research in South Africa based on the inadequacy of national databases, specifically with regard to the invisibility of racial, gendered and occupational data pertinent to the context of international skills and professional migration. Chapters Three and Four deal with the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the fieldwork conducted as well as the research experiences and challenges of the anthropologist. Chapter Five, Six and Seven form the core ethnographic analysis of the women transnationals as single, married, divorced and widowed professionals. The rising number of Indian women transnationals of varying professional backgrounds, marital statuses and age groups leaving Durban since 1994 has led to the rapid transformation of the conservative Indian household. Their migration to first world destinations overseas signifies the impact of globalizing forces on the demand for professional skills from developing nations such as South Africa, as well as the increasing desire of the women to seek security, career advancement and independence in social spaces that are less repressive and more financially rewarding. Chapter Eight concludes the study by showing how the women are agents in their own emancipation and how identities within the duality of transnational migration have become a fluctuating terrain of negotiation and reconfiguration in their personal relationships and social practices.


The endeavour to develop nanodevices demands for patterning methods in the nanometer scale. The continuous improvement in lithography methods based on deep UV (DUV), X-ray, or electron beam exposure allow for further progress in integrated circuit hardware manufacturing for the coming years. To bring nanodevices to the market, however, there is a need for fast, low-cost replication nanopatterning methods. In addition, an increased flexibility of the nanopatterning methods is important for the engineering of multimaterial and multifunctional nano/micro-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS/MEMS), such as polymer-based electronic and sensor devices, 3D microfluidic systems, and bio-analytical systems. The above-mentioned high-end patterning methods are all based on photolithography and etching, limiting the flexibility in substrate and material combinations. In addition, they have the drawback of the use of high-cost equipment. A series of alternative, complementary surface patterning methods are currently being developed that do not rely on photoresist exposure and thin-film etching steps, e.g. local printing of molecular layers (soft-lithography) and shadow-mask deposition (nanostencil patterning). The nanostencil method is a resistless patterning method based on direct, local deposition of material on an arbitrary surface through a solid-state silicon nitride (SiN) membrane , . We present here the advances towards a full-wafer (100 mm) DUV/MEMS-based nanostencil to allow high-throughput, large-area nanopatterning of mesoscopic structures (10^9 - 10^5 m). The mesoscopic patterns were first defined by a 4× reduced projection exposure using an ASML wafer stepper and then transferred into a SiN layer by means of reactive ion etching (RIE). The membranes were released by wafer-through etching using potassium hydroxide (KOH). Figure 1 shows the mid-process details of 200 nm DUV patterns after the RIE transfer into the 500-nm thick SiN layer. Patterning of nano-scale structures using stencils allows for a large choice of materials and surfaces to be nanopatterned, since it is a non-contact method and no etch steps need to be applied. We have studied the nanopatterning of metals (Al, Au, Bi, and Cr) on various surfaces (silicon, oxides, freestanding SiN cantilevers, and self-assembled monolayers (SAM)) for different applications (molecular electronics, nano-mechanical devices with a 90 MHz resonance frequency , as well as nano-scale Hall-sensor devices). Unconventional substrates for (Bio) MEMS and NEMS have also been applied such as highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), and SU-8.


There is substantial cross-country variation in secondary school design, with some countries tracking students into different ability schools very early, and other countries with little or no tracking at all. Does tracking length affects school performance, as measured by standardized test scores? We use the international data from the International Adult Literacy Survey to estimate the relationship between the experienced tracking length and the performance in standardized cognitive test scores of young adults, aged between 16 and the mid-twenties. Our IV estimates suggest that the contribution of tracking to performance is positive and statistically significant: conditional on total years of schooling, one additional year spent in a track raises average performance by 3.3 to 3.4 percentage points, depending on the estimates.


"Other books claim to present the complete Web services platform architecture, but this is the first one I've seen that really does. The authors have been intimately involved in the creation of the architecture. Who better to write this book?"-Anne Thomas Manes, Vice President and Research Director, Burton Group"This is a very important book, providing a lot of technical detail and background that very few (if any) other books will be able to provide. The list of authors includes some of the top experts in the various specifications covered, and they have done an excellent job explaining the background motivation for and pertinent details of each specification. The benefit of their perspectives and collective expertise alone make the book worth reading."-Eric Newcomer, CTO, IONA Technologies"Most Web services books barely cover the basics, but this book informs practitioners of the "real-world" Web services aspects that they need to know to build real applications. The authors are well-known technical leaders in the Web services community and they helped write the Web services specifications covered in this book. Anyone who wants to do serious Web services development should read this book."-Steve Vinoski, Chief Engineer, Product Innovation, IONA Technologies"There aren't many books that are as ambitious as this one is. The most notable distinguishing factor of this book is that the authors have tried to pair down the specifications for the user and rather than focusing on competing specifications, they focus on complementary ones. Nearly every chapter provides a business justification and need for each feature discussed in the Web services stack. I would recommend this book to developers, integrators, and architects."-Daniel Edgar, Systems Architect, Portland General Electric"Rarely does a project arrive with such a list of qualified and talented authors. The subject matter is timely and significant to the industry. "-Eric Newcomer, author of Understanding SOA with Web Services and Understanding Web Services and Chief Technology officer, IONAThe Insider's Guide to Building Breakthrough Services with Today'sNew Web Services PlatformUsing today's new Web services platform, you can build services that are secure, reliable, efficient at handling transactions, and well suited to your evolving service-oriented architecture. What's more, you can do all that without compromising the simplicity or interoperability that made Web services so attractive. Now, for the first time, the experts who helped define and architect this platform show you exactly how to make the most of it.Unlike other books, Web Services Platform Architecture covers the entire platform. The authors illuminate every specification that's ready for practical use, covering messaging, metadata, security, discovery, quality of service, business-process modeling, and more. Drawing on realistic examples and case studies, they present a powerfully coherent view of how all these specifications fit together-and how to combine them to solve real-world problems. Service orientation: Clarifying the business and technical value propositions Web services messaging framework: Using SOAP and WS-Addressing to deliver Web services messages WSDL: Documenting messages and supporting diverse message interactions WS-Policy: Building services that specify their requirements and capabilities, and how to interface with them UDDI: Aggregating metadata and making it easily available WS-MetadataExchange: Bootstrapping efficient, customized communication between Web services WS-Reliable Messaging: Ensuring message delivery across unreliable networks Transactions: Defining reliable interactions with WS-Coordination, WS-AtomicTransaction, and WS-BusinessActivity Security: Understanding the roles of WS-Security, WS-Trust, WS-SecureConversation, and WS-Federation BPEL: Modeling and executing business processes as service compositionsWeb Services Platform Architecture gives you an insider's view of the platform that will change the way you deliver applications. Whether you're an architect, developer, technical manager, or consultant, you'll find it indispensable.Sanjiva Weerawarana, research staff member for the component systems group at IBM Research, helps define and coordinate IBM's Web services technical strategy and activities. A member of the Apache Software Foundation, he contributed to many specifications including the SOAP 1.1 and WSDL 1.1 specifications and built their first implementations. Francisco Curbera, IBM research staff member and component systems group manager, coauthored BPEL4WS, WS-Addressing, and other specifications. He represents IBM on the BPEL and Web Services Addressing working groups. Frank Leymann directs the Institute of Architecture of Application Systems at the University of Stuttgart. As an IBM distinguished engineer, he helped architect IBM's middleware stack and define IBM's On Demand Computing strategy. IBM Fellow Tony Storey has helped lead the development of many of IBM's middleware, Web services, and grid computing products. IBM Fellow Donald F. Ferguson is chief architect and technical lead for IBM Software Group, and chairs IBM's SWG Architecture Board.© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.


Textual Patterns introduces corpus resources, tools and analytic frameworks of central relevance to language teachers and teacher educators. Specifically it shows how key word analysis, combined with the systematic study of vocabulary and genre, can form the basis for a corpus informed approach to language teaching. The first part of the book gives the reader a strong grounding in the way in which language teachers can use corpus analysis tools (wordlists, concordances, key words) to describe language patterns in general and text patterns in particular. The second section presents a series of case studies which show how a key word / corpus informed approach to language education can work in practice. The case studies include: General language education (i.e. students in national education systems and those following international examination programmes), foreign languages for academic purposes, literature in language education, business and professional communication, and cultural studies in language education.


Abstract Norway and ship rats (Rattus norvegicus and Rattus rattus) have invaded many habitats of conservation value worldwide, but Norway rats are widely assumed to be less of a threat to tree-nesting biota than are ship rats because they are less adept at climbing. We tested this assumption by measuring the capabilities of wild-caught captive rats of both species in reaching food rewards above ground, placed at fixed sites of increasingly difficult access. We confirmed that Norway rats were much slower and less agile than ship rats, but could in fact, given enough time, reach the same height above ground, run across the same thin ropes fixed at both ends and climb a real tree. However, they were more easily defeated by obstacles, more dependent on the availability of footholds, more vulnerable to falls, and those of >200 g body weight were significantly less likely to reach food rewards at the unsupported ends of small branches. We conclude that Norway rats seldom forage above ground, not because they cannot climb but because arboreal foraging is more risky and less likely to be rewarding for them.


Results of stability analysis are presented for two types of plasma with good confinement: internal transport barriers (ITBs) on Tore Supra and the radiative improved (RI) mode on TEXTOR. The stability analysis has been performed with an electrostatic linear gyrokinetic code, evaluating the growth rates of microinstabilities. The code developed, KINEZERO, is aimed at systematic microstability analysis. Therefore the trade-off between having perfect quantitative agreement and minimizing computation time is made in favour of the latter. In the plasmas analysed, it is found that the onset of the confinement improvement involves a trigger. For the ITB discharges, negative magnetic shear is involved, whereas for the RI discharges, the triggering role is played by the increase of the impurity concentration. Once the improved confinement is triggered, the simultaneous increases of temperature and density gradients imply an increase in both the growth rate and the rotation shearing rate. The rotation shear is found to be high enough to maintain an improved confinement through the stabilization of the large scale modes.


BACKGROUND
Iron deficiency is the most common single cause of anemia worldwide. Treatment consists of improved nutrition along with oral, intramuscular or intravenous iron administration.

OBJECTIVES
To describe the efficacy and adverse effects of intravenous iron sucrose therapy in a group of children with iron deficiency anemia who did not respond to oral iron therapy.

METHODS
We conducted a prospective investigation of 45 children, aged 11 months to 16 years, whose oral iron therapy had failed. The children attended the Pediatric Day Care Unit where they received intravenous iron sucrose infusion.

RESULTS
Forty-four of the 45 patients were non-compliant. Nine had Helicobacter pylori gastritis and 16 patients suffered from intestinal malabsorption from different causes. Before treatment, the blood mean hemoglobin concentration was 7.43 g/dl (range 5-10.1 g/dl). Fourteen days after treatment it increased to 9.27 g/dl (SD 1.23) and 6 months later to 12.40 g/dl (SD 1.28). One patient demonstrated a severe side effect with temporary and reversible reduced blood pressure during treatment.

CONCLUSIONS
These preliminary data suggest that administration of intravenous iron in pediatric patients is well tolerated and has a good clinical result, with minimal adverse reactions.


Rennix Gap Bog is a sub-alpine topogenic peatland that contains up to 2 m of organic-rich sediments that have built up over the last approximately 12,000 years. This paper summarises the research and teaching activities that have been undertaken at the site, which has included consideration of the sediment stratigraphy, radiometric dating, palynology, charcoal analyses, dendrochronology and recently, the testate amoebae community composition has been documented. Much of this work is unpublished but has relevance for any future research and provides a long-term context for many contemporary environmental issues, including for issues of relevance to the management of fire in this landscape and vegetation more broadly. In the contemporary environment, the surface of the bog is vegetated with a complex mosaic of Carex fen, sub-alpine Sphagnum shrub bog and Poa costiniana tussock grassland. Pollen analysis suggests that this vegetation has been relatively stable for 10,000 years and prior to that the site was surrounded by sparse vegetation, similar to the alpine herb-grass community of contemporary higher altitude ecosystems. Charcoal analyses suggest that fire activity has varied through time but increased significantly in the historic period. Rennix Gap Bog has not only attracted considerable research but has also been an invaluable, accessible, site for field-based teaching and learning.


This paper presents the qualitative approach and methodology used to conduct a research program which investigates the role of interpretation in sustainable tourism. It introduces a new angle of approach, seeking a more emic understanding of ecotourism's contributions to sustainable tourism. It does this by facilitating the
tourists' own identification or recognition of the personal significance and subsequent feelings of responsibility for their natural and cultural environment. It is hoped the
constructiveness of this newly adapted qualitative method and research approach may be appreciated through its contribution to sustainable tourism theory building,
ecotourism and cruise tourism bodies of knowledge, and interpretive research. It is anticipated that this approach may encourage new directions in tourism research and
practice, as it not only attempts to overcome some major challenges in conducting ecotourism and cruise tourism research of a socio-cultural and environmental nature,
but also with respect to the measurement and analysis of interpretive effectiveness and its role in sustainable tourism. It attempts to demonstrate that these pure
research practices and their results may be effectively utilised in applied situations. It has been suggested that too few researchers recognise that tourism as a field of
study is still in the formative stages, and that if theory is to be developed then it is through exploratory research and "the careful use of qualitative methods" (Hobson,
2003, p. 76). Hobson (2003) poses possible reasons for this lack of recognition being a tendency towards theory testing rather than theory development, with concepts and developed hypotheses grounded in other disciplines being imported
and then sought to fit into the tourism context. There are many aspects of human behaviour, and complex relationships, that quantitative research cannot measure, and that unlike this research with its clearly laid-out research plan, qualitative research often evolves as the research progresses (Hobson, 2003). However, this evolution must be facilitated by established qualitative criteria in a research design or framework that effectively illustrates the qualitative research process, such as those provided by Maykut and Morehouse (1994, in Hobson, 2003).


The purpose of this study was to investigate the regulatory protein (protein B) and
component interactions of soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO). sMMO is a
multi-component enzyme which catalyses the oxidation of methane to methanol. It
consists of three proteins, a hydroxylase, a reductase and protein B (Colby and
Dalton, 1978). Protein B contains no metals, cofactors or prosthetic groups and has a
molecular mass of 16 kDa. It has been shown that protein B is absolutely necessary
for the hydroxylase activity of the sMMO complex and is a powerful regulator of the
enzyme (Green and Dalton, 1985). It has also been found that 12 amino acids are
cleaved from the N-terminus of protein B from Me. eapsulatus (Bath) to form an
inactive truncate, known as protein B' and mutation of the Met12_Gly13 cleavage site
to Met12 -GIn I3 to give the single mutant protein G13Q, improved the stability of the
protein (Lloyd et al., 1997).
Much of this work has concentrated on the study of the catalytic and regulatory
significance of the 12 amino acids cleaved from protein B. Mc. eapsulatus (Bath)
protein B appears to- cleave autocatalytically, generating the inactive protein B'
truncate. The secondary structures of proteins B and B' were seen to be the same,
although the overall structure was identified as differing slightly and protein B was
shown to be capable of existing in a monomer-dimer equilibrium, whereas protein B'
was identified as existing in a monomer form. An homologous protein B from Ms.
trichosporium OB3b, identified as being more a-helical in character, has been shown
to be more stable than Mc. eapsulatus (Bath) protein B but still undergoes the
inactivating cleavage reaction to form truncates, although the cleavage sites differ
between the two proteins.
The construction, expression and purification of N-terminal truncates of Mc. capsulatus (Bath) protein B identified that the presence of the
first 7 amino acids was
essential for protein B activity within the sMMO system and a decrease in specific
activity was observed as each amino acid from 1 to 7 was lost. Upon loss of the 7th
amino acid, tyrosine, the truncate protein was observed to be totally inactive and also
much more prone to cleavage, but unchanged in terms of secondary structure.
Protein concentration was observed as having an effect on the stability of Mc.
capsulatus (Bath) protein B and, the single mutant G13Q, with increased
concentrations improving stability. This effect was not observed for the double
mutant MI2A:G13Q, although it was shown to be more stable than the other
proteins under more dilute conditions. The addition of a magnesium salt also
improved the stability of protein B.
Studies into the interactions of protein B with the other proteins within the sMMO
complex have also been performed. Evidence that the hydroxylase undergoes a large
conformational change upon the binding of the reductase and protein B has been
obtained and modelled to suggest that one trimer of the hydroxylase dimer rotates by
1800 relative to the other upon complex formation. It also showed the sMMO
complex to form in a stoichiometry of 1:2:2 hydroxylase:reductase:protein B. Other
data suggest that -sMMO component binding occurs on only one trimer of the
hydroxylase dimer under different conditions.