PURPOSE
To investigate the distribution of the intermediate filament (IF) proteins desmin, vimentin, and nestin in human extraocular muscles (EOMs).

METHODS
Healthy adult EOM samples were serially sectioned (5 and 1 μm) and processed for immunohistochemistry, with specific antibodies (Abs) against desmin, vimentin, and nestin and different myosin heavy chains (MyHCs), including the newly characterized Ab MYH7b against MyHC slow tonic. The distribution of desmin was also studied in EOMs at 16 to 18 weeks of gestation.

RESULTS
Desmin was present in the vast majority of muscle fibers. Notably, muscle fibers that contained MyHC slow tonic were either unlabeled or very weakly labeled with three different Abs against desmin. These muscle fibers had normal cytoarchitecture and intact basement membrane. In fetal muscle, desmin was also absent or weak in myotubes containing MyHC slow tonic. Nestin was detected in a large proportion of muscle fibers in the orbital layer and to some extent also in the global layer, whereas no muscle fibers contained vimentin. Desmin and nestin were enriched at neuromuscular junctions, as in limb muscle. In contrast, some myotendinous junctions lacked desmin or nestin.

CONCLUSIONS
The human EOMs differed significantly from the other muscles in the body with respect to their IF composition. Desmin, hitherto regarded as a ubiquitous muscle cytoskeletal protein, was absent or only present in trace amounts in a subset of normal muscle fibers in adult and fetal EOMs. Nestin, normally downregulated early in the postnatal period, was present in a high proportion of adult muscle fibers.


For the endangered fish totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi), as for other endangered species, the relative amount of environmental variability in demographic rates at various life stages is uncertain. Because of the ontogenetic migratory pattern of this species, four life history stages, (a) prerecruits, (b) juveniles, (c) pre-adults, and (d) adults, experience different environmental conditions. We used a diffusion equation approximation of random Leslie matrices to explore the effects on extinction risk of environmental variability in each of these life stages and correlation between stages. Variability in pre-adults and adults had a greater effect on the probability of extinction than did variability in prerecruits and juveniles. In general, correlation between stages increases the rate of increase of the variance of the logarithm of abundance and, hence, the probability of extinction. For example, when all life stages vary coherently, the rate of increase of the variance is the square of a weighted sum of elasticities, while when all stages vary independently, the rate of increase is the same weighted sum of the squared elasticities. The maximum extinction rate occurs when all life history rates in a Leslie matrix vary coherently. Specifically, when the coefficient of variation is the same in each parameter, the rate of increase of the standard deviation of the logarithm of abundance equals the coefficient of variation of the environmental variability. We also evaluated the accuracy of the diffusion equation approximation by comparing predicted extinction rates with those from Monte Carlo simulations of totoaba with variability in each of the four stages. The diffusion equation approximation accurately predicted probabilities of extinction in all cases except one, random variability in recruitment, where it underestimated simulation results substantially. This is apparently due to the large random jumps in abundance in this case. The diffusion equation approximation accurately predicted quasi-extinction of the adult portion of the population.


This paper presents a low power fully integrated class-E power amplifier and its integration with remotely powered sensor system. The class-E power amplifier is suitable solution for low-power applications due to its high power efficiency. However, the required high inductance values which make the on-chip integration of the power amplifier difficult. The designed power amplifier is fully integrated in the remotely powered sensor system and fabricated in 0.18 μm CMOS process. The power is transferred to the implantable sensor system at 13.56 MHz by using an inductively coupled remote powering link. The induced AC voltage on the implant coil is converted into a DC voltage by a passive full-wave rectifier. A voltage regulator is used to suppress the ripples and create a clean and stable 1.8 V supply voltage for the sensor and communication blocks. The data collected from the sensors is transmitted by on-off keying modulated low-power transmitter at 1.2 GHz frequency. The transmitter is composed of a LC tank oscillator and a fully on-chip class-E power amplifier. An additional output network is used for the power amplifier which makes the integration of the power amplifier fully on-chip. The integrated power amplifier with 0.2 V supply voltage has a drain efficiency of 31.5% at -10 dBm output power for 50 Ω load. The measurement results verify the functionality of the power amplifier and the remotely powered implantable sensor system. The data communication is also verified by using a commercial 50 Ω chip antenna and has 600 kbps data rate at 1 m communication distance.


Downstream processing is currently the major bottleneck for bioproduct generation. In contrast to the advances in fermentation processes, the tools used for downstream processes have struggled to keep pace in the last 20 years. Purification bottlenecks are quite serious, as these processes can account for up to 80% of the total production cost. Coupled with the emergence of new classes of bioproducts, for example, virus-like particles or plasmidic DNA, this has created a great need for superior alternatives. In this review, improved downstream technologies, including aqueous two-phase systems, expanded bed adsorption chromatography, convective flow systems, and fibre-based adsorbent systems, have been discussed. These adaptive methods are more suited to the burgeoning downstream processing needs of the future, enabling the cost-efficient production of new classes biomaterials with a high degree of purity, and thereby hold the promise to become indispensable tools in the pharmaceutical and food industries.


Concomitant administration of atorvastatin, omeprazole, and dexamethasone has been shown to increase the serum concentration of serum hydroxymethylglutaryl coenzyme A which can be associated with elevation of creatine kinase and an increased risk of severe myopathy and rhabdomyolysis. In this paper, we report a case of a 60-year-old female patient with stage IV colon cancer and compromised hepatic function receiving palliative care who developed rhabdomyolysis while taking atorvastatin, omeprazole, and dexamethasone. Atorvastatin was stopped, and the dexamethasone dose was decreased. Her case was complicated by urosepsis cultures revealing an extended spectrum β-lactamase-producing strain of Escherichia coli, and she died on the second day after admission. Physicians should evaluate the risk/benefit ratio of continuing statins in palliative care patients, and pay special attention to the monitoring of patients on statins and P-glycoprotein inhibitors regardless of hepatic function.


Scholars of common property resource theory (CPR) have long asserted that certain kinds of institutional arrangements based on collective action result in successful environmental stewardship, but feedback and the direct link between social and ecological systems remains poorly understood. This paper investigates how common property institutional arrangements contribute to sustainable mangrove fisheries in coastal Ecuador, focusing on the fishery for the mangrove cockle ( Anadara tuberculosa and A. similis ), a bivalve mollusk harvested from the roots of mangrove trees and of particular social, economic, and cultural importance for the communities that depend on it. Specifically, this study examines the emergence of new civil society institutions within the historical context of extensive mangrove deforestation for the expansion of shrimp farming, policy changes in the late 1990s that recognized "ancestral" rights of local communities to mangrove resources, and how custodias, community-managed mangrove concessions, affect the cockle fishery. Findings from interviews with shell collectors and analysis of catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) indicate that mangrove concessions as common property regimes promote community empowerment, local autonomy over resources, mangrove conservation and recovery, higher cockle catch shares, and larger shell sizes, but the benefits are not evenly distributed. Associations without custodias and independent cockle collectors feel further marginalized by the loss of gathering grounds, potentially deflecting problems of overexploitation to "open-access" areas, in which mangrove fisheries are weakly managed by the State. Using Ostrom's Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, the explicit link between social and ecological systems is studied at different levels, examining the relationship between collective action and the environment through quantitative approaches at the fishery level and qualitative analysis at the level of the mangrove landscape. Implications for coastal and fishery management are discussed in the conclusions.


Significance We report an empirical study of gaze deflection—a common experience in which you turn to look in a different direction when someone "catches" you staring at them. We show that gaze cueing (the automatic orienting of attention to locations at which others are looking) is far weaker for such displays, even when the actual eye and head movements are identical to more typical intentional gazes. This demonstrates how gaze cueing is driven by the perception of minds, not eyes, and it serves as a case study of both how social dynamics can shape visual attention in a sophisticated manner and how vision science can contribute to our understanding of common social phenomena. Suppose you are surreptitiously looking at someone, and then when they catch you staring at them, you immediately turn away. This is a social phenomenon that almost everyone experiences occasionally. In such experiences—which we will call gaze deflection—the "deflected" gaze is not directed at anything in particular but simply away from the other person. As such, this is a rare instance where we may turn to look in a direction without intending to look there specifically. Here we show that gaze cues are markedly less effective at orienting an observer's attention when they are seen as deflected in this way—even controlling for low-level visual properties. We conclude that gaze cueing is a sophisticated mental phenomenon: It is not merely driven by perceived eye or head motions but is rather well tuned to extract the "mind" behind the eyes.


In exercise games, it is often possible to gain rewards, i.e. points, by only partly completing an intended movement, which can undermine the effect of using such games for exercise. To ensure usability and reliability of exergames, correct movements must be accurately identified. Aim of the current study was to evaluate performance of machine learning models in classifying weightshifting movements as correct or incorrect. Eleven healthy elderly (6 F) performed a stepping exercise in a correct (with weight shift) and an incorrect (without weight shift) version. A 3D Motion Capture (3DMoCap) system calculated joint center positions (JCPs); 2270 repetitions (1133 correct) were recorded. Random Forest (RF), k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification models were built. Evaluation: 10fold leave-one-group-out cross validation (CV), repeated for all persons. Results showed high accuracy and recall in all classifiers. Average accuracy and recall was RF = 0.989, k-NN = 0.949, SVM = 0.958. Highest was RF on all JCPs, and SVM on shoulder JCPs (both 0.996). Lowest was k-NN on ankle JCPs (0.879). This study shows that all three models can distinguish correct and incorrect repetitions with high accuracy and recall, also by using selected JCPs. RF consistently outperformed the other models.


In mountain areas, the use of coarse-grid re-analysis data for driving fine-scale models requires downscaling of near-surface (e.g. 2 m high) air temperature. Existing approaches describe lapse rates well but differ in how they include surface effects, i.e. the difference between the simulated 2 m and upper-air temperatures. We show that different treatment of surface effects result in some methods making better predictions in valleys while others are better in summit areas. We propose the downscaling method REDCAPP (REanalysis Downscaling Cold Air Pooling Parameterization) with a spatially variable 5 magnitude of surface effects. Results are evaluated with observations (395 stations) from two mountain regions and compared with three reference methods. Our findings suggest that the difference between near-surface air temperature and pressure-level temperature (∆T ) is a good proxy of surface effects. It can be used with a spatially-variable Land-Surface Correction-Factor (LSCF ) for improving downscaling results, especially in valleys with strong surface effects and cold air pooling during winter. While LSCF can be parameterized from a fine-scale digital elevation model (DEM), the transfer of model parameters between 10 mountain ranges needs further investigation.


The feasibility of using CFD to model the dispersion of pollutant in the near wake of a model vehicle was investigated through a series of experimental and computational studies. The near wake structure of the MIRA 33% scale reference vehicle (fastback) was measured using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), and hotwire anemometry and the dispersion of a tracer measured using Flame Ionisation Detectors (FIDs). The experimental data not only provided insight into the dispersion character of the model vehicles's near wake but more importantly produced data for the validation of the numerical simulations of the measured near wake and dispersion fields. The numerical simulations of the near wake flow field were conducted using the CFD code STAR-CD with the standard, RNG, Chen and nonlinear (quadratic) k- e models in combination with Upwind (UD), Linear Upwind (LUD) and the Monotone Advection and Reconstruction (MARS) differencing schemes. Validation showed the predicted flow field to be in good agreement with the measured flow field. Using the numerical flow field predictions as a foundation the dispersion of a passive gaseous pollutant was simulated by modelling the dispersion of scalar quantity released into the computational domain using a fluid injection technique. The numerical predictions of both mean velocity and concentration fields were validated against the experimental data using various statistical validation techniques. Several short investigations into the influence of vehicle speed and exhaust mass flow rate were also conducted to further assess the applicability and use of the technique in investigating dispersion in the near wake of a vehicle. Relative successes in both the velocity field and dispersion simulations were demonstrated in making predictions of the mean velocity and concentration fields. However there is clearly the need for more development and in particular the application of time-dependent techniques for the underlying velocity solutions in order that peaks in mean concentration resulting from build-up due to unsteadiness in the flow field are fully captured. Nevertheless the study demonstrated the potential for the use of STAR-CD to investigate and understand in more detail the dispersion of pollution close behind a road vehicle and possibly assess the concentration levels, at the road side of different pollutants released.


Dutch-American relations in the post-war period have been inexorably intertwined with the Cold War. In the course of the 1960s the East-West struggle entered a new phase with the beginning of a period of detente, which had important consequences for the Dutch-American relationship. In this dissertation, which focuses on the governmental level, the following issues are dealt with: firstly, to what extent was the relationship affected by the complicating developments that took place in the years 1969-1976? Secondly, how did Dutch and American policy makers view the relationship? Finally, what did the asymmetry in the relationship mean and were the Dutch able to exert any influence? When taking into account both international and domestic factors, the picture that emerges is one of both change and continuity. What makes the period concerned stand out is the fact that the Atlantic Alliance was at a point where a redefinition of the common goals seemed unavoidable. Security concerns and preserving the American dominant position in the international arena were the foremost concerns of President Nixon and NSC-advisor Kissinger. These ideas clashed with those of Dutch politicians of for instance the Labour Party who wanted detente, an active human rights policy and development cooperation to be part of the Atlantic foreign policy agenda. The American embassy in The Hague was aware of these changes: it noticed a turn to the left in Dutch society and the political landscape. The Dutch cabinets in the period concerned faced domestic pressure to take a more critical stance towards the United States, where the Nixon administration faced problems concerning its image and credibility because of the Vietnam war and the Watergate scandal. On the other hand, unmistakable signs of continuity in the Dutch-American relationship were present. The Dutch governments in the years concerned did not turn away from Atlantic cooperation, as the Netherlands remained dependent on the American military commitment to Western Europe. Detente was in this sense not a cause for optimism, but rather for concern, particularly for Foreign Minister Luns, as well as for Van der Stoel. They were both concerned that the spirit of detente would reduce the willingness to maintain the defence burdens that were needed to counter Soviet expansionism. A second aspect of continuity was the fact that the Dutch government wanted to be treated as a serious partner. This was the case because frequent and substantive contacts with the Americans were of crucial importance to the Dutch in order to be able to exert influence in the international arena. If the Dutch had the impression that they were overlooked, they would not hesitate to openly express their discontent. In American eyes, this was the most destabilising factor in the bilateral relationship. Finally, the American government also had an interest in good relations with the Netherlands. Repeatedly American policymakers stated that the Dutch were able to fulfil an exemplary role for other (smaller) Western European allies. Their support could also serve as justification for the American foreign policy agenda. This created leverage for the Dutch government at certain moments to achieve its own goals.


A 100 m deep borehole in mountain permafrost hasbeen equipped with both a thermistor chain and a fiber optic cable for DTS measurements. The device permits to assess the resolution and accuracy of DTS measurements through the comparison of parallel DTS profils and with classical sensors. First results show a reolution in the order of 0.1 °C can be achieved, but that the accuracy is strongly dependent on the calibration of the measurement.


Presented is a fuzzy-logic-based scheduling algorithm for passive optical networks (PONs) that considers four different metrics to allocate an upstream bandwidth to optical network units (ONUs). The metrics considered are the delay of the head-of-the-line packets at the ONUs, the importance level of the packets, the relative ONU's buffer fullness, and the level of the power fluctuation from one ONU to another. One of the advantages of a fuzzy controller is the fact that, regardless of the design complexity, the controller can be implemented as a simple look-up table, which makes it ideal for high-speed operation. Further facilitation of implementation was achieved by realization of the fuzzy algorithm through a two-stage hierarchal architecture. Moreover, linear predictive filters have been used to predict the traffic arrival rate and the packet delay at the ONUs. Compared with the round-robin scheduling algorithm, the results show significant performance improvement in terms of the overall packets delay as well as jitter when the proposed algorithm in employed. Furthermore, using this algorithm would reduce the average level of power fluctuations in a PON system and will also provide high-level service differentiation between packets of different importance.


In the last two decades, the use of osteosynthesis miniplate has been growing to aid the healing process and reconstruction of fractured mandibular bone. In principle, the plate is used to provide stable fixation of the fractured bone tissue during the healing process and reconstruction. Based on earlier studies, it is noted that arrangements and geometry of the osteosynthesis miniplate played a critical role in determining the stability of the fractured mandibular bone, as well as the miniplate. In this research, a simulation with finite element method (FEM) was carried out to investigate the influence of the number of holes in an osteosynthesis miniplate on the stability of fractured mandibular bone and the corresponding miniplate after the implantation. For this purpose, a set of osteosynthesis miniplate with three different configurations was taken for simulation using a three-dimensional (3D) model of mandibular bone generated from the patient through computed tomography (CT). The result of the simulation showed that all the miniplates with three configurations tested were stable enough to prevent movement of fractured mandibular bone. Moreover, fixation with a pair of miniplates having four screw holes demonstrated the desired result; as indicated by the lowest value of displacement, pressure on the bone surface and pressure on the miniplate.


The history and water-related features in the Poblet Cistercian Monastery, located in Tarragona province, Spain are described. The study is undertaken with the main purpose of obtaining data for the establishment of an integrated water management system inside the walls of the abbey, which is suffering water scarcity due to increasing demands and the prevalent semiarid conditions.


Drilling mud is one of the most important components of rotary drilling, without which drilling is almost impossible. Drilling mud has many functions and applications, including cleaning the bottom of wells and transporting drilled debris to the ground, drying and lubrication of drilling tools such as drills, weight pipes and maintenance drilling pipes. From the wall of the well and create an impenetrable layer for the wall to prevent the entry of pressurized floors into the well to prevent the deposition of particles and weight-increasing materials of the drilling mud, while the drilling mud is stationary. Separation of drilled material after reaching the ground level Weight reduction of weight pipes, drill pipes and wall pipes according to Archimedes' law pointed to the hydraulic power of mud pumps to the drill. In this project, the goal is optimal hydraulic design for drilling mud. Due to the fact that in the optimal hydraulic design of drilling mud, the maximum hydraulic power and pump outlet pressure and well geometry are among the limitations, so the only parameters that can be used in the design are adjusting the pump outlet rate and size and number of drill nozzles. In this research, it was tried to design the optimal output rate as well as the number and size of drill nozzles to reduce the pressure drop and increase the hydraulic power of the pump.


Introduction Criminology in Latin America today, as elsewhere has lost the importance it acquired in other times. To understand where it stands, and its various perspectives, it is necessary to review the origins of criminology in Latin America. An attempt to write its history calls for a review of the development of criminology as a "science," as well as of its acceptance, spread, and implementation. As this article clearly demonstrates, criminology was not created in Latin America, but was imported through a series of particular processes and adapted to local situations while becoming institutionalized with an inter-American dimension. The same is true of recent schools of critical criminology. In this respect, there is no agreement on the origins of the modern study of crime. It all depends on the scientific paradigm chosen. The realm of works dedicated to the discussion of crime based on observations of the conditions in various European countries has led several contemporary authors to maintain that the scientific study of crime predated the Positivist School of Criminology. William Chambliss, for example, argues that "criminology began in the period of history known as the Enlightenment" (Chambliss, 1988: 169). Others assume an extreme position. Richard Quinney, for example, states that: there is a myth in criminology that Lombroso is the founder of scientific criminology.... The Lombrosian School of Criminology must be regarded as an anomaly to criminology, an orientation that has actually detained the progress of sociological criminology (Quinney, 1970: 57). Despite the importance of this topic for the question of what constitutes science, for this article on the development of criminology in Latin America the point of departure is the positivist science known first as criminal anthropology and later as criminology, which was founded in Italy by Cesare Lombroso, a doctor of medicine. The Birth and Acceptance of Positivist Criminology Fundamental to the birth and acceptance of positivist criminology in the 19th century was the growing importance both of science in general and of scientific discourse to the task of reordering the world. The solution of growing social problems through the application of science was considered the best way to maintain order and guarantee progress. Hence the development of positivism and its method of experimental observation, which was borrowed from the natural sciences, for the study of man and society. Social problems, such as crime, would be considered as neutral objects governed by universal laws. The positivist method, and particularly the development of anthropology and psychiatry, were essential elements in the reformulation of the crime problem in the name of the new science. The causes of crime would now be studied in the individual criminal so as to neutralize them with adequate legal measures. The sciences of man entered into an association with the law. Criminal anthropology was born, but it had to be an independent science because criminal man had particular traits. His behavior was a direct challenge to order and progress. He was doubly dangerous: his limitations were not only moral, but also morphological. He belonged to an inferior species, a "different race" and that is why he committed crime. Determinism marked the new "science." Yet that was insufficient to justify the birth of criminal anthropology since no science is born spontaneously. Its acceptance and development are related to the needs of the times. Thus, its appearance first in Italy, its growing importance in the rest of Europe, and its export to Latin America resulted from the intersection of multiple aspects, some of which can be summarized as follows: 1. The sociopolitical characteristics of Italy and the North-South conflict to achieve uniformity; 2. Changes in capitalism and its need to expand since commodity and capital stocks exceeded that which could be maintained within national frontiers, as well as a change in liberal ideology from free will to determinism to rationalize social inequalities. …


Organic-inorganic nanohybrid materials were successfully fabricated from organically modified colloidal-silica nanoparticles synthesized through the sol-gel process and using the modified acryl resin. The materials exhibited the simple solution-processible film formation and high transmittance of above 90% in the visible wavelength regions. The materials were used for the fabrication of various patterns using the photolithography. We could simply fabricate the photopatterns and easily control the surface structures by changing the content of organically modified colloidal-silica nanoparticles. Also, the thermal and mechanical properties of the formed nanohybrid films could be efficiently enhanced through the synergistic combination of organically modified colloidal-silica nanoparticles with the modified acryl resin.


Abstract This paper seeks to shed new light on the study of decentralized natural resource governance by applying institutional theories of polycentricity—the relationships among multiple authorities with overlapping jurisdictions. The emphasis on multi-level dynamics has not penetrated empirical studies of environmental policy reforms in nonindustrial countries. On the contrary, many of today's decentralization proponents seem to be infatuated with the local sphere, expecting that local actors are always able and willing to govern their natural resources effectively. Existing studies in this area often focus exclusively on characteristics and performance of local institutions. While we certainly do not deny the importance of local institutions, we argue that institutional arrangements operating at other governance scales—such as national government agencies, international organizations, NGOs at multiple scales, and private associations—also often have critical roles to play in natural resource governance regimes, including self-organized regimes.


The aim of this paper was to examine how useable and inclusive the city is from the perspective of older bicyclists. Methods used were quantitative questionnaires and qualitative focus group interviews. Participants were people aged 65 years or older. The results showed that respondents were fairly satisfied with the transport infrastructure design. However, other road users seemed to complicate cycling, e.g. as communication and interaction between other road users was perceived as difficult and poor. © 2014 The authors and IOS Press.


A thermally activated variable attenuator for long-range (low-loss) surface plasmon-polariton (LRSPP) waves is discussed in this paper. The surface plasmon waveguide consists of a thin Au stripe on a thick layer of SiO2, which is covered by a thick layer of index-matched polymer. The structure is optically symmetric near room temperature, supporting an LRSPP. Increased attenuation of the mode occurs upon heating of the Au stripe via the passage of current therein. Heating substantially changes the refractive index of the polymer near the stripe, rendering the structure highly optically asymmetric and cutting off the mode. Thermal modeling results that link the injected current density to the refractive-index perturbation are presented and discussed. Experimental results validate the thermal modeling and demonstrate the operation of the device at a free-space optical wavelength near 1550 nm. The resistivity of the stripe is also measured as a function of the drive current, and the simultaneous use of the stripe as a thermal monitor is discussed and demonstrated


The CNS myelin sheath is an extension of the oligodendrocyte plasma membrane and is composed of 80% lipid and 20% protein. Myelin formation is a very sophisticated and highly conserved process, any disturbance of myelin protein or lipid composition has a strong impact on myelin biogenesis and myelin phenotype, which often results in CNS myelin pathology. The work presented here is divided into two parts: A. An investigation of the role of proteolipid protein (PLP/Dm20) Cys residues in myelin structure and function, and B. The role of PLP/Dm20 and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in CNS myelin morphology and CNS physiology.
A. PLP is highly conserved and is the most abundant protein of CNS myelin. Also, point mutations in PLP are known to cause a variety of mild to severe PMD/SPG2 dysmyelinating leukodystrophies both in human and in mice. Some PLP point mutations are directly correlated to the perturbed plasma membrane trafficking of PLP/Dm20 in oligodendroyctes and correlate with the severity of PMD. PLP and its isoform Dm20 have 14 and 12 Cys residues, respectively, and are involved in post-translational S-acylation and the formation of two disulfide bridges. The work presented within this thesis furthers the understanding of the role of the Cys residues in PLP/Dm20. We analysed PLP/Dm20 Cys residue function by replacing Cys residues in PLP/DM20 with Ser residues (i.e., Mut-PLP/Dm20). In silico analyses predicted that the Mut-PLP and Dm20 have impaired transmembrane structure and reduced hydrophobic properties, supported by our in vivo and in vitro analysis which revealed perturbed cell surface targeting of the mutant proteins. Furthermore, in order to understand the role of Mut-PLP in CNS at early embryonic stages, a transgenic mouse mutant is being generated via pronuclear injection of a transgene composed of a Nestin enhancer and MBP promoter regulatory elements along with Mut-PLP cDNA, on a PLP negative genomic background. In addition, to understand the role of di-sulfide bridges in PLP; a knock-in mouse mutant is being generated in which the disulfide bridges of PLP/Dm20 have been deleted.
B. PLP is an integral myelin membrane protein, and PUFAs are constituents of phospholipids, which are critical structural components of the CNS myelin membrane. In this thesis, we have expanded the understanding of the significant role of PLP and PUFAs and their impact in the CNS by phenotyping the plp-/-fads2-/- double knock-out mouse model (DM). The DM has been generated and validated on a genomic, RNA and protein level confirming lack of PLP and Fads2 which is a key enzyme for endogenous PUFAs synthesis. The DM exhibited a profound behavioral cataleptic state with mild tremor and seizures starting from 5 months age, and had a significantly reduced life span, compared to the single mutants (plp-/- and fads2-/-) and wild-type counterparts.
In the brain and CNS myelin of the DM mice, PUFAs analysis revealed only partially depleted docosahexanoic acid (DHA) levels (40-50%) suggesting that DHA is highly regulated and/or is compensated for depleted PUFAs and was retained tenaciously in membrane structures of the CNS. Intriguingly, an unusual PUFA, eicosatrienoic acid (20:3) was detected, which may substitute for the observed depletion of arachidonic acid. Further analyses of the gene expression profile in the DM brain revealed no significant differences among myelin membrane proteins, desaturases and other myelin specific proteins, thus suggesting no alteration of these proteins in the absence of PLP and PUFAs.
The DM mice showed a massive alteration in morphology of the CNS myelin manifesting as hypomyelination and a loss of myelin compaction around axons. In retinal electron micrographs, the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) region showed no major significant morphological alterations. Retinal function, as assessed by ERG, revealed a decrease in a-wave signals suggesting defects in visual functions. Behavioral physiology studies, as assessed by the rota-rod task and Morris water maze and other similar tasks, showed partial but significant defects in neuromotor coordination/functions. The Morris water maze also revealed significant defects in cognitive ability (i.e., spatial acquisition/learning and in the reference memory). Alterations in behavioral physiology and the reduced lifespan in DM mice may be correlated with the disrupted myelin morphology and hypomyelination of CNS.


With the wide applications of saliency information in visual signal processing, many saliency detection methods have been proposed. However, some key characteristics of the human visual system (HVS) are still neglected in building these saliency detection models. In this paper, we propose a new saliency detection model based on the human visual sensitivity and the amplitude spectrum of quaternion Fourier transform (QFT). We use the amplitude spectrum of QFT to represent the color, intensity, and orientation distributions for image patches. The saliency value for each image patch is calculated by not only the differences between the QFT amplitude spectrum of this patch and other patches in the whole image, but also the visual impacts for these differences determined by the human visual sensitivity. The experiment results show that the proposed saliency detection model outperforms the state-of-the-art detection models. In addition, we apply our proposed model in the application of image retargeting and achieve better performance over the conventional algorithms.


The National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation together fund more than $40 billion of research annually in the United States and around the globe. These large public expenditures come with strings, including a complex set of laws and guidelines that regulate how scientists may use NIH and NSF funds, how federally funded research may be conducted, and who may have access to or own the product of the research. Until recently, researchers have had little instruction on the nature of these laws and how they work. But now, with Robert P. Charrow's "Law in the Laboratory", they have a readable and entertaining introduction to the major ethical and legal considerations pertaining to research under the aegis of federal science funding. For any academic whose position is grant funded, or for any faculty involved in securing grants, this book will be an essential reference manual. And for those who want to learn how federal legislation and regulations affect laboratory research, Charrow's primer will shed light on the often obscured intersection of government and science.


Female prison officers have an important role to play in the lives of the imprisoned women they are charged with 'looking after'. This thesis draws upon 64 days of research, over 35 weeks, over a 12-month period to produce a unique ethnographic study of female frontline officers responsible for female prisoners in a public sector prison in England. This thesis offers a snapshot of prison life during a particularly tumultuous period in contemporary British penology, whilst providing an important counter-narrative to previous gendered studies of prison occupational culture. Staff-prisoner relationships are central to the running of prisons (Sparks et al, 1996) and this thesis argues these relationships are becoming less robust due to the lack of face-to-face contact, reducing personal interactions and ultimately the quality of the prison regime. This thesis also argues mental illness is a key challenge for the prison officers, and will highlight the officer's knowledge of this issue is limited due to a lack of sufficient training being available. This thesis will also address the impact of the occupation on female officers, and how personal issues such as childbirth can create unique emotional burdens for some of the female officers. Relatedly, this thesis argues prison is an emotional milieu where the officers are forced to manage their emotions under pressure, and how the mis-management of these emotions can lead to the job spilling-over into the private lives of the prison officers. Finally, this thesis will provide critical engagement with the theoretical aspects of prison occupational culture; spill-over and contamination, and the sociology of emotions


The term "competitiveness" has been used in conceptually distinct ways at the firm, regional and national levels. After primarily reviewing existing concepts at the national level, we introduce a new definition of regional competitiveness adapting definitions used in the academic literature. Specifically, we connect "outcome competitiveness" with new perspectives on a more socially inclusive and ecologically sustainable growth path, as envisaged in the WWWforEurope research programme, in which 33 European research groups are taking part. Evaluating competitiveness requires both an input assessment (costs, productivity, economic structure, capabilities) and an outcome assessment. We define regional outcome competitiveness as the ability of a region to deliver beyond-GDP goals. For regions in industrialised countries, this ability depends on innovation, education, institutions, social cohesion and ecological ambition. Given this new perspective (of broader beyond-GDP goals), social investments and ecological ambitions should not be considered costs, but rather drivers of competitiveness. This is compatible with a new innovation policy fostering non-technical innovations and a new industrial policy supporting societal goals. Applying this concept to European regions, we show which regions take the "high road" to competitiveness and compare our results with the existing literature.


The exhumation history of the central Himalaya is well documented, but lateral variations in exhumation remain poorly constrained. In this study, we identify sediment source areas and examine the late Neogene exhumation history of the eastern Himalaya from the synorogenic sedimentary record of its foreland basin. We present Nd and Hf isotopic data as well as apatite and zircon fission-track analyses from the Miocene–Pliocene Siwalik Group along the recently dated Kameng River section in Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India. Our isotopic data show that Siwalik Group sediments deposited between 13–7 and <2.6 Ma in Arunachal Pradesh were mainly derived from Higher Himalayan source rocks. In contrast, sediments deposited between ca. 7 and 3 Ma have far less negative eNd and eHf values that require involvement of the Gangdese Batholith and Yarlung suture zone source areas via the Brahmaputra River system. Consequently, these sediments should also record incision of the Namche Barwa massif by this river. Source-area exhumation rates of Himalayan-derived sediments, determined from detrital zircon fission-track data, were on the order of 1.8 km/m.y. in the fastest-exhuming areas. These rates are very similar to those calculated for the central Himalaya and have been relatively constant since ca. 13 Ma. Our results do not support the hypothesis of a major change in exhumation rate linked to either local or regional climate change or to Shillong Plateau uplift during the Miocene, as reported elsewhere. The zircon fission-track data further suggest that exhumation of the Namche Barwa massif between 7 and 3 Ma was much slower than the ∼10 km/m.y. rate recorded in the recent past. Detrital apatite fission-track data indicate deformation of the Siwaliks due to forward propagation of the frontal thrust since around 1 Ma.


A comparison of erythemally weighted surface UV irradiance observations with similar NASA TOMS surface UV
determinations is described. Comparisons are made for two observation periods: the Robertson-Berger (R-B) meter period
from 1974 to the late 1980s and the current period from 1996 to the present when more sophisticated UVB-1 instruments
were used. The more primitive R-B meter observations that comprised the fi rst U.S. UV network are seen to drift downward
with respect to those of the TOMS. While the UVB-1 observations did not appear to drift, a substantial bias is noted to exist
between the TOMS and the UVB-1 stations collecting observations; the TOMS estimations tend to be higher. A portion of the
bias may be attributed to errors in calibration, total ozone, and cosine response of the surface instrumentation. Unaccounted
aerosol effects, although not considered to be large in the TOMS estimations, present another source of error. Comparisons
are fi rst done for all sky conditions and then for clear sky conditions. The biases typically agree for all sky conditions
within the uncertainties of the surface instruments' calibrations, liberally defi ned as ± 5%, implying that the TOMS cloud
correction scheme performs reasonably well. Snow cover severely impacts the TOMS observations, giving considerably
higher estimations. The biases for clear sky conditions ranged from 15% to 19% with no obvious drifts between the satellite
and surface observations. The variation in the biases among stations is within the calibration uncertainties of the instruments,
but the absolute bias is unexpectedly large. The standard deviations of the clear sky comparisons among all stations are steady
at 4.8% ± 0.7%. A plot of the TOMS/UVB-1 ratio versus TOMS cloud refl ectivity observations is noisy, but qualitatively
suggestive of a possible slight increase (~ 5% or greater) over the range of clear to overcast skies. The results from these
comparisons is believed to be relevant to a WMO goal of uniformly assuring the quality of UV observations made by networks
in many countries. The results for clear sky comparisons suggest that a satellite observing system such as TOMS, which
provides global coverage daily, might partially serve as a fi rst-order check to quality assure UV observations being made by
networks worldwide. Future research should concentrate on determining the causes of the large differences seen between
the UVB-1 and TOMS and the range of uncertainties, using a larger array of stations.


Summary form only given. Nonthermal atmospheric pressure gas discharges operated in the diffuse mode have commanded increasing interest largely because their low gas temperature, spatial uniformity, and temporal stability are highly desirable for many materials processing applications. Most such plasmas are generated capacitively with a sinusoidal excitation voltage, and their electrical signature has a distinct characteristic of having one discharge current pulse every half cycle. Of particular interest is that the width of the discharge current pulse is a small fraction of half period of the applied excitation voltage and that the current pulse usually precedes the peak of the excitation voltage in any given half cycle. This suggests that for a very significant part of its application the excitation voltage may not contribute to the production of electrons and that of reactive species, both of which are important for surface modifications required for many materials processing applications. Therefore it is of interest to explore whether this potentially inefficient use of the input electric power can be remedied by, for example, appropriate shaping of the waveform of the excitation voltage. To study this, we have developed a simple numerical model and its associated computer code for one-dimensional simulation of atmospheric pressure helium discharges. To compare to the usual route of using sinusoidal excitation, we consider three pulsed excitation voltage waveforms, namely (1) peak-leveled sinusoidal, (2) square wave, and (3) Gaussian. For each case, plasma voltage and current are computed to identify the parametric range within which the generated atmospheric plasmas are diffuse and nonthermal discharges.


The South African Truth and Reconciliation story has provided a moral inspiration for the rest of the world to reconsider reconciliation. Under the name of 'restorative justice' (RJ), the spirit of ubuntu has opened a world-wide window for experimental criminology to address two key questions. The first question is whether reconciliation is a more effective way to prevent crime than pure punishment. If it is, at least in some cases, the second question is how best to structure and administer a system of reconciliation, with what kinds of offences, victims and offenders. These two questions have been the focus of the fifteen-year long Jerry Lee Program of Randomized Controlled Trials in Restorative Justice, including eleven randomized controlled trials in Australia and England. The evidence so far shows that RJ causes most offenders tested to reduce their frequency of offending more than pure punishment, especially those charged with violent offences. RJ also gives victims far more benefit than pure punishment. The challenge for experimental criminology is now to generate more evidence about the best ways of implementing RJ on a far wider scale.


Vertically Integrated Project: STEM Education & Public Engagement (International) The Vertically Integrated Project: STEM Education & Public Engagement was created in 2015 by Robert Collins of the School of Education, Faculty of HaSS at the University of Strathclyde. The project's ongoing aims resonate with a fostering of both interdisciplinary approach to learning and the development of enhanced communities of inquiry in the field of STEM Education. Within the project students are involved in creating and sustaining STEM Education Clinics in local Scottish schools and public engagement events within their related local communities. In so doing, the project not only develops students' own STEM domain knowledge - and intra–professional and inter-personal skills sets in students - but also seeks to promote the development of STEM literacies acquisition of stakeholder communities in which these clinics are set. Although the VIP's initial aspirations are towards developing all participants' predicate socio-scientific discourse, it is also known that subsequent associated specialist STEM knowledge and skills set acquisitions this activity promotes are considered a much-valued commodity in the wider political and economic spheres. This is particularly relevant in terms of citizenship attainment of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (particularly that of SDG 4 Quality Education and SDG 5 Gender Equality) in practice. It is envisaged therefore, that protracted iterations of the project will elicit valuable STEM Literacies' attainment across the longer term. To this end, domestically in Scotland the current project has taken the form of an evaluative study of STEM Education enhancement within local community schools identified in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) areas 0-20 and 0-40. Emphasis here was placed on the investigation of participant argumentation within STEM through use of the Modified Toulmin Argument Pattern (ModTAP) Analytical Framework (Foong & Daniel, 2010).Crucially, the VIP is timely in supporting the national drive towards bridging attainment gap and gender imbalance in STEM Education study, is aligned to creativity regarding STEM study in Scottish schools and chimes with precepts highlighted in the Scottish Government's recent National Improvement Framework. With this in mind, in Academic Session 2018-19 it was decided that the early successes of the domestic project might be usefully replicated internationally. To this end a small exploratory case study in Summer 2018-19 in Gambia was able to identify that there may indeed be scope for the VIP to extend internationally within Gambian schools. This successful pilot study was then followed up in Academic Session 2018-19 with a view to working toward a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Education in Gambia towards introducing the programme, which had already been run so successfully in Scotland, in the near future. This report then outlines the process of investigation, scope for furthering student study internationally within the VIP: STEM Education & Public Engagement and the appetite for its adoption as a key STEM pedagogical driver in Gambian schools moving forward.


Dairy farms in China's suburban areas have been playing an important role in providing urban markets with fresh milk. With the construction of dairy cattle concentration centres and more cows being driven to the concentration centres, small and scattered dairy farms are gradually disappearing and more concentrated dairy cattle farming is being formed near suburban areas. This paper uses farm survey data and stochastic input distance functions to make estimates of total factor productivity (TFP) on suburban dairy farms, as well as for the entire dairy sector. The results show that over the past decade technical change and TFP growth have been positive on suburban dairy farms, but that on average such farms have been falling behind the advancing technical frontier. Further, the rate of technical change has been more rapid on suburban farms than for the dairy sector as a whole. The results suggest efforts to achieve a more even adoption of new technologies within the suburban dairy sector will further advance productivity growth in the sector.


The presence of planets around solar-type stars suggests that many white dwarfs should have relic planetary systems. While planets closer than ~5 AU will most likely not survive the post-main-sequence lifetime of their parent star, any planet with semimajor axis greater than 5 AU will survive, and its semimajor axis will increase as the central star loses mass. Since the stability of adjacent orbits to mutual planet-planet perturbations depends on the ratio of the planet mass to the central star's mass, some planets in previously stable orbits around a star undergoing mass loss will become unstable. We show that when mass loss is slow, systems of two planets that are marginally stable can become unstable to close encounters, while for three planets the timescale for close approaches decreases significantly with increasing mass ratio. These processes could explain the presence of anomalous IR excesses around white dwarfs that cannot be explained by close companions, such as G29-38, and may also be an important factor in explaining the existence of DAZ white dwarfs. The onset of instability through changing mass ratios will also be a significant effect for planetary embryos gaining mass in protoplanetary disks.


Peptide Weinreb amide derivatives with an N-substituted mercaptoethyl group are designed as thioester precursors for native chemical ligation. We show that these amides undergo rapid ligation with a cysteinyl peptide under normal NCL conditions to form various Xaa-Cys peptide bonds, including the difficult Val-Cys junction. Facile synthesis of the Weinreb amide linkers allows easy access to this new type of peptide thioester precursor by standard Fmoc solid phase synthesis.


This study sets out to present a socio-dramatic story outlining the dramatic elements; namely setting, action, climax, conflict, dialogue, epiphany, denouement and the ending, all of which form the complex target of the poem represented in presenting a full-fledged story regardless of the lyrical nature of the poem. With view at highlighting the aesthetics of the text, the study aims at exploring its dramatic structure, the action, the poem's dynamics, the personification involved, the extent of objectivity, the dramatic language and the narrative technique.


—Linearizability is an important correctness criterion for implementations of concurrent objects. Automatic checking of linearizability is challenging because it requires checking that: 1) All executions of concurrent operations are serializable, and 2) the serialized executions are correct with respect to the sequential semantics. In this work, we describe a method to automatically check linearizability based on refinement relations from abstract specifications to concrete implementations. The method does not require that linearization points in the implementations be given, which is often difficult or impossible. However, the method takes advantage of linearization points if they are given. The method is based on refinement checking of finite-state systems specified as concurrent processes with shared variables. To tackle state space explosion, we develop and apply symmetry reduction, dynamic partial order reduction, and a combination of both for refinement checking. We have built the method into the PAT model checker, and used PAT to automatically check a variety of implementations of concurrent objects, including the first algorithm for scalable nonzero indicators. Our system is able to find all known and injected bugs in these implementations.


The issue of international tax arbitrage has proven a difficult and intractable one. Rather than try to minimize costs of the arbitrage or prevent "abuse" of the laws of a particular regime, the United States should also consider affirmatively bearing some of the costs of the international tax arbitrage transaction to further the policy of international vertical equity and shift the incentives in the worldwide regime that led to the rise of the arbitrage in the first place. Harnessing the costs of international tax arbitrage transactions will not always be the appropriate response to each particular arbitrage transaction. Depending on the circumstances, the traditional responses may be sufficient, a fundamental change to the underlying United States domestic tax law may be appropriate or a worldwide consensus on harmonization in a particular area may arise. Harnessing the costs of the international tax arbitrage should be considered, however, when such responses prove inadequate. At a minimum, in adopting such an approach the United States would provide some level of subsidy for investment in developing countries at little to no cost to the current international tax regime. At best, however, harnessing the costs of international tax arbitrage could place of the issue of international tax arbitrage back on the international scene, restart stalled international tax discussions and potentially move towards a greater worldwide consensus, not only on the international tax arbitrage itself but on the larger issue of the role of international vertical equity in the worldwide tax regime. In a second-best world, United States unilateral action in harnessing the costs of international tax arbitrage may be the first step towards a first-best solution.


Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was used to quantify citrate, glucose, lactate, glycerophosphorylcholine and choline in seminal plasma from subjects injected with a new male contraceptive RISUG, a copolymer of styrene maleic anhydride dissolved in dimethyl sulphoxide, and in seminal plasma from normal ejaculates. No significant difference in the concentration of citrate was observed between the groups, indicating that the prostate is not affected by the contraceptive. The concentrations of glucose, lactate, glycerophosphorylcholine and choline were significantly lower (P < 0.01) in subjects injected with RISUG compared with controls. In addition, metabolite ratios such as choline:citrate, citrate:lactate, choline:lactate and glycerophosphorylcholine:choline were calculated. Citrate:lactate and glycerophosphorylcholine:choline ratios were significantly lower in RISUG-injected subjects than in controls (P < 0.01), thereby indicating the occurrence of partial obstructive azoospermia. The most important finding of the present study was that the intervention of RISUG in the vas deferens even for a period as long as 8 years is absolutely safe and does not lead to prostatic diseases.


Description Curating neuroimaging research data for sharing and re-use involves practical challenges for those concerned in its use and preservation. These are exemplified in a case study of the Neuroimaging Group in the University of Edinburgh's Division of Psychiatry. The study is one of the SCARP series encompassing two aims; firstly to discover more about disciplinary approaches and attitudes to digital curation through 'immersion' in selected cases, in this case drawing on ethnographic field study. Secondly SCARP aims to apply known good practice, and where possible to identify new lessons from practice in the selected discipline areas; in this case using action research to assess risks to the long term reusability of datasets, and identify challenges and opportunities for change.


This article investigates how experimental forms of urban mapping can reveal the particularity of places in non-standard urban situations with the intention of moving beyond the reductivism of still-dominant modernist modes of mapping and associated forms of planning. In order to do so, it reports on the emergence of a methodology involving transect walks, with the purpose of mapping the peculiarities of cultural landscapes. The study is located in cities and communities in the Arctic that are undergoing rapid transformation and are in urgent need of new conceptual approaches capable of enabling future thinking and strategic action. The article specifically asks how such a methodology works to includes the ephemeral and emergent, but also digital, dimensions of urban landscapes, and results in a complex reflexive method of critically reading and writing, of moving and locating, of seeing and picturing place mapping.


The UK workplace is witnessing unprecedented change; for the first time witnessing four generations simultaneously active in the workplace. Organisations are increasingly adopting Reverse Mentoring (RM) to link generations together yet adoption is outpacing research into its effectiveness (Marcinkus-Murphy, 2012). A qualitative exploratory study of ten mentors and mentees, using a narrative methodology sought to understand the reverse mentoring relationship and derivation of value. Findings showed the relationship to be reciprocal, capable of generating significant value for mentee, mentor & organisations, beyond simply exchanging knowledge. The study outlined practical opportunities for HR professionals keen to harness the multi-generational workforce.


Randolph Scott was born in Norfolk, Virginia. He received a B.A. in History from Norfolk State University before accepting a teaching position at Central High School in Heathsville, Virginia, which was a predominantly African American school. Dr. Scott was teaching during the integration of the school system and eventually moved to Northumberland High School, which was a predominantly white school. He accepted a position the Job Corps program, working in a variety of locations, and then the National Park Service. His last assignment was with the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was the first African American Superintendent. Dr. Scott earned an M.S. in Sociology from Atlanta University and in 1990 retired from the park service. He attended the Andersonville Baptist Seminary in Andersonville, Georgia, earning a Ph.D. in Theology. Since that time he has served as the Associate Minister at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia. Geraldine Scott has served as the Assistant Secretary for the Cobb County Branch of the NAACP, participating in community activities, including voter registration and membership drives.


The effects of seasonal fluctuations caused by weather and natural fluctuations in demand and supply have influenced the price of various agricultural products, leading many times to an oscillation of prices to be mistakenly linked to further factors. In an attempt to better understand how the influence of the seasonal factor works for the prices of agricultural products, this paper has the objective of analyzing the seasonal behavior the Cost of Basic Basket series (basic food) in Lavras, MG, and its components, besides making a comparison between the direct and indirect form of the disseasonalize the series of Cost of Basic Basket. The data were obtained from the UFLA Department of Administration and Economics and cover the period from January 1995 to December 2005. The database consists of the time series of the 17 products that make up the Food Basket of Lavras, plus the series of the Cost of Basic Basket. The results elicited that eleven of the eighteen series analyzed presented identified seasonality, and then for each series models Sarima were adjusted. Finally, by comparing in a directly and indirectly way the removal of seasonality of the series, the research proved that the direct way is more effective.


The evolution of technology has increased the demand for convenient and user-friendly human–machine interfaces. This demand has driven the rapid development of the touch panel industry. Functioning as a conductive medium, indium tin oxide (ITO) film is a key factor in the quality of touch screens or panels. Because the sputtering process of ITO film includes both STB- and NTB-type quality characteristics, the analysis methodology proposed in the past cannot represent distinct influences or provide the production department with sufficient reference for improvements. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to apply the bilateral index Cpm, which fully reflects process loss and yield, to develop an effective assessment model for the sputtering process with one-sided and two-sided specifications. Traditionally, Cpm can only be used to measure the capability of processes with two-sided specifications. We used the variable transformation method to develop the multi-process capability analysis chart. This chart is capable of measuring process precision and accuracy in relation to both types of quality characteristics. When process capability falls short of required standards, manufacturers can investigate the reasons according to the position of each quality characteristic on the chart. These data provide an important point of reference for proposing improvements to the sputtering process to enhance the quality of ITO film products and increase the competitive advantage and productivity of manufacturers.


This article severely criticizes the Bush Administration's tax policies under the moral principles of Judeo-Christian ethics. I first document that Judeo-Christian ethics is the most relevant moral analysis for tax policy because almost eighty percent of Americans and well over ninety percent of the Congress, including President Bush, claim to adhere to the Christian or Jewish faiths. I also show that evaluating federal tax policy under Judeo-Christian principles not only passes constitutional muster but is also appropriate under the norms of a democracy. I then provide a complete theological framework that can be applied to any tax policy structure. Using sources that include leading Evangelical and other Protestant scholars, Papal Encyclicals and Jewish scholars, I prove that tax policy structures meeting the moral principles of Judeo-Christian ethics must raise adequate revenues that not only cover the needs of the minimum state but also ensure that all citizens have a reasonable opportunity to reach their potential. Among other things, reasonable opportunity requires adequate education, healthcare, job training and housing. Using these theological sources, I also establish that flat and consumption tax regimes which shift a large part of the burden to the middle classes are immoral. Consequently, Judeo-Christian based tax policy requires the tax burden to be allocated under a moderately progressive regime. I discuss the difficulties of defining that precisely and also conclude that confiscatory tax policy approaching a socialistic framework is also immoral. I then apply this Judeo-Christian ethical analysis to the first term Bush Administration's tax cuts and find those policies to be morally problematic. Using a wealth of sources, I then establish that the moral values driving the Bush Administration's tax policy decisions reflect objectivist ethics, a form of atheism that exalts individual property rights over all other moral considerations. Given the overwhelming adherence to Christianity and Judaism, I conclude that President Bush, many members of Congress and many Americans are not meeting the moral obligations of their faiths, and, I argue that tax policy must start reflecting genuine Judeo-Christian values if the country is to survive in the long run.


This paper uses an original, nationally representative survey of manufacturing establishments to shed light on the interaction of employers with community colleges, including information on skill requirements and human resource practices. We test three hypotheses: that high‐skill employers use community colleges, that community colleges are a substitute for employer‐based training, and that community colleges are a complement to so‐called "high‐road" or "high‐commitment" human resource practices. We find limited utilization of community colleges by employers, but those that do establish a relationship are generally satisfied. Employers that demand high skills are more likely to use community colleges, as are "high‐commitment" firms.


Businesses are exploiting perceived gaps in the structure of copyright rights by ingeniously designing their technologies to fulfill demand for individual access through a structure of personalized copies and playback engineered in ways intended to implicate neither the public performance nor the reproduction rights. The archetypal example is Aereo Inc.'s system for providing online access to broadcast television. Aereo allows users to tune into individual antennae to stream TV to themselves, near-live, online. Aereo's activities look a lot like the retransmission of broadcast signals, an activity which Congress has made very clear must result in remuneration for rightholders. However, Aereo's careful design, which assigns each user her own antenna to generate an individual transmission copy from which she can access only the signals she could freely pick up from her own rooftop, means that it can also be argued that Aereo is simply enabling consumers to engage in legitimate non-remunerable uses. If the legality of this design is upheld by the Supreme Court this term, Aereo and subsequent comers will be able to offer consumers on-demand access to content, in a way that competes with licensed services, without any obligation to remunerate the rightholder. The implications of these business models are significant: in the case of audio and audiovisual works, for example, the on-demand access market may soon exceed the value of the retention copy-based market. When some participants are licensed but their competitors are not, the imbalance may provoke licensees to revise or forego their agreements. More generally, opportunistic engineering choices that obscure some courts' perceptions of the impact on the on-demand access market risk removing evolving markets from the scope of copyright owners' exclusive rights. Businesses that free-ride on copyrighted works also obtain an unfair competitive advantage over copyright licensees. The authors of this paper approach copyright from very different perspectives, but are united in the view that it is undesirable for legal outcomes to depend so heavily on technical design. This article addresses the U.S. caselaw that encouraged businesses such as Aereo to design technologies that could rival or even displace copyright-remunerative modes of making works of authorship available to the public. We consider the implications for copyright owners were Aereo and its supporters to succeed in their reading of the Copyright Act, as well as the implications for other technologies, particularly those involving "cloud" storage, were the broadcasters to prevail. Finally, each author offers her own analysis to demonstrate how it is possible to read the U.S. Copyright Act's transmit clause in a way that does not make technological design determine the outcome. Either one of our readings, we argue, enables copyright's exclusive rights to remain effective without discouraging technological innovation.


This note is a joint venture between a student in his third year of studies at the University of Pretoria Faculty of Law and someone who has been teaching law in that Law Faculty since 1999. Several conversations about the need for critical thinking in law schools and our shared experience of the absence of it resulted in this note which is offered here as a tentative contemplation.
The general aim is to reflect on critical thinking in legal education. Of course the issue of critical thinking, critical theory and critique and how to relate this to law, legal education and legal practice is complex and multi-layered. Many questions arise: How does one encourage students to think in a critical manner? How does one teach them/illustrate to them what critical thinking entails? But beyond that, what does critical thinking about law or a critical approach to law mean? Of particular concern to us is what role critical theory plays in developing such a critical approach to law, and in teaching students a critical approach to law. Some might argue that even with all these questions we have missed the most crucial starting point: why is it necessary to include critical thinking in legal education in the first place?
Our argument unfolds as follows: with reference to the post-apartheid context and in light of the specific challenges faced by South African society in the 'new' legal and political order, we start by putting forward a tentative argument for the need for critical engagements with law. We then turn to two of the dominant critical legal theoretical traditions that have influenced critical approaches to law in South Africa during and in the aftermath of apartheid. Finally, we rely on some philosophical/theoretical reflections in support of thinking and theoretical engagement.


Three-day-old rat pups with electrodes directed at the medial forebrain bundle at the level of the lateral hypothalamic area were trained to push a paddle to receive electrical brain stimulation. Pups receiving stimulation that was contingent on lifting the paddle responded more frequently than did control pups and also learned a two-choice spatial discrimination task that was rewarded with brain stimulation. The experiments indicate that a neural substrate in the area of the medial forebrain bundle is involved in the central mediation of reinforcement in the rat pup.


Retirement has traditionally been seen as the beginning of old age. It has been depicted as mandatory expulsion from the workforce and seen to mark the transition to a period of ill health and poverty. Such ideas and associations are however being challenged in the developed world by socio-demographic changes in retirement and old age. People in the United Kingdom as elsewhere are living longer and healthier lives, and many older people have access to non-state incomes that afford them a reasonable standard of living in retirement. There is however still concern that inequalities persist into old age. Data from two waves of the British Whitehall II study have been used to assess the relative effects of occupational grade, psychological and general health during working life, and retirement patterns or pathways on activities, attitudes to health and income in retirement. The results show that the majority of the sample reported good health, financial security and overall satisfaction with life, but with observable inequalities. Regression analyses demonstrate that pre-retirement circumstances generally had a greater effect on later life than the retirement route or pathway. Retirement no longer represents a drastic break between working and post-work life but rather, the results suggest, there are continuities between the two periods. It is concluded that the main causes of inequalities in retirement are work-based rather than in retirement itself.


Optimization of water supply looped networks has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers for more than 30 years. As the classical water supply looped network optimization problem is mathematically non-convex and multimodal, the resulting solution of most approaches is uncertain in the sense of how close it is to the "best" solution. In many cases, this "best" or "global" solution is invoked and pursued only intuitively without a clear understanding of its meaning. This paper discusses what is involved in "global" solutions and the role that pipe flow distribution can play to deal with non-convexity and multimodality in a new context. The author has introduced this new context recently after formulating a new objective function capable of finding a looped network that can be economically more attractive than its related branched one. Therefore, the convenience of an approach dealing with flows and heads, as relevant decision variables, is encouraged in this paper and its advantages enumerated under the new concepts. The entropy approach is studied critically and an example is provided for comparison with the proposed approach.


The Marlborough fault system comprises a series of major right-lateral strike-slip faults that link the Alpine fault to the Hikurangi subduction zone in the Pacific/Australia plate boundary zone in New Zealand. All of the major active faults of the Marlborough fault system have continuous traces except for the Clarence fault which terminates abruptly near the Ward syncline. Paleomagnetic data from upper Miocene and lower Pliocene sedimentary rocks between the Marlborough faults indicate a consistent post-early Pliocene regional clockwise rotation of about 20°. An additional rotation of about 10° is evident at many localities near the termination of the Clarence fault. It is proposed that the additional rotation, relative to the rest of the region, is caused by a velocity gradient that likely exists between the active Awatere fault and the termination of the Clarence fault. The existence of such a velocity gradient is consistent with inferences from geodetic strain data which suggest that one-third of the displacement in the Marlborough fault system occurs between the Awatere and Clarence faults. The kinematics of rotation can be modelled by treating the area as a rigid block that pivots about the termination of the Clarence fault. The block rotation model satisfies field constraints on the styles of deformation observed at the boundaries of the block and is consistent with available paleomagnetic and geodetic data.


The initial phase of a long-term project with national implications for the improvement of transportation and air quality is described. The overall objective of the research is to develop and verify a computer model that accurately estimates the impacts of a vehicle's operating mode on emissions. This model improves on current emission models by allowing for the prediction of how traffic changes affect vehicle emissions. Results are presented that address the following points: vehicle recruitment, preliminary estimates of reproducibility, preliminary estimates of air conditioner effects, and preliminary estimates of changes in emissions relative to speed. As part of the development of a comprehensive modal emission model for light-duty vehicles, 28 distinct vehicle/technology categories have been identified based on vehicle class, emission control technology, fuel system, emission standard level, power-to-weight ratio, and emitter level (i.e., normal versus high emitter). These categories and the sampling proportions in a large-scale emissions testing program (over 300 vehicles to be tested) have been chosen in part based on emissions contribution. As part of the initial model development, a specific modal emissions testing protocol has been developed that reflects both real-world and specific modal events associated with different levels of emissions. This testing protocol has thus far been applied to an initial fleet of 30 vehicles, where at least 1 vehicle falls into each defined vehicle/technology category. The different vehicle/technology categories, the emissions testing protocol, and preliminary analysis that has been performed on the initial vehicle fleet are described.


This paper evaluates average educational performance effects of an expanding independentschool sector at the compulsory level by assessing a radical voucher reform that was implemented in Sweden in 1992. Starting from a situation where all public schools were essentially local monopolists, the degree of independent schools has developed very differently across municipalities over time as a result of this reform. We regress the change in educational performance outcomes on the increase in the share of independent-school students between Swedish municipalities. We find that an increase in the share of independent-school students improves average performance at the end of compulsory school as well as long-run educational outcomes. We show that these effects are very robust with respect to a number of potential issues, such as grade inflation and pre-reform trends. However, for most outcomes, we do not detect positive and statistically significant effects until approximately a decade after the reform. This is notable, but not surprising given that it took time for independent schools to become more than a marginal phenomenon in Sweden. We do not find positive effects on school expenditures. Hence, the educational performance effects are interpretable as positive effects on school productivity. We further find that the average effects primarily are due to external effects (e.g., school competition), and not that independent-school students gain significantly more than public-school students.


Abstract The field of global studies has gained momentum over the past 20 years and today occupies a significant presence within many universities. As a result, there is now a burgeoning array of institutional support for global studies scholarship. Perhaps not surprisingly, concurrent to such institution-building there has been a spate of essays engaged with the question 'what is global studies?' that have promoted lively debate and commentary. In this essay, I ask a rather different question which is 'who gets to define global studies, and what is at stake in these kinds of delineating efforts?' I argue that debate about global studies demands the inclusion of multiple voices and perspectives from around the world. I conclude by urging global studies scholars to be deliberately conscious of their taken-for-granted assumptions with respect to power and the related capacity to speak for others from the global south and east who are largely still absent in defining this new field of inquiry.


Originally published in 1988, this reference book provides the major economic and social statistical series for the British Isles from the twelfth century up until 1980–81. It is the successor of Abstract of British Historical Statistics and the Second Abstract of British Historical Statistics, which were compiled by the author in collaboration with Phyllis Deane and Hywel Jones respectively. The text presents the user of historical statistics with informed access to a wide range of economic data, without the labour of identifying sources or of transforming many different annual sources into a comparable time series. The statistics selected for presentation are arranged in sixteen chapters. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in British history and historical statistics.


This paper compares the traditional gravity model with a bidirectional approach when multilateral resistance is implemented to analyze the effect of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on exports. We use cross-sectional HS trade data disaggregated at a 6-digit level in 2010 with controls for HS 2-digit level. Our results show that FDI increases exports only in the in the direction of exporter-importer, and the effect is higher when multilateral resistance is implemented and the effect is different across sections. Our robustness checks show that when FDI is removed, the coefficients and the effect on sectors are similar.


The present contribution is an attempt to understand the conditions that impede some households and social groups in securing a decent livelihood by drawing on 'purported' facilitating institutions. It is generally agreed that access to livelihood assets is negotiated through institutions. However, the way in which these institutions operate in everyday practice and in specific contexts is less well understood. The four case studies presented here there- fore analyse how customary norms and state regulations work. The article argues that a deeper understanding of the working of institutions, which in turn influence who is excluded from and who is entitled to access a particu- lar livelihood asset, also provides a bridge to evidence-based development support.


Using the North Sea as a case scenario, a combined three-dimensional hydrodynamic-biogeochemical-pollutant model was applied for simulating the seasonal variability of the distribution of hydrophobic chemical pollutants in a marine water body. The model was designed in a nested framework including a hydrodynamic block (Hamburg Shelf Ocean Model (HAMSOM)), a biogeochemical block (Oxygen Depletion Model (OxyDep)), and a pollutant-partitioning block (PolPar). Pollutants can be (1) transported via advection and turbulent diffusion, (2) get absorbed and released by a dynamic pool of particulate and dissolved organic matter, and (3) get degraded. Our model results indicate that the seasonality of biogeochemical processes, including production, sinking, and decay, favors the development of hot spots with particular high pollutant concentrations in intermediate waters of biologically highly active regions and seasons, and it potentially increases the exposure of feeding fish to these pollutants. In winter, however, thermal convection homogenizes the water column and destroys the vertical stratification of the pollutant. A significant fraction of the previously exported pollutants is then returned to the water surface and becomes available for exchange with the atmosphere, potentially turning the ocean into a secondary source for pollutants. Moreover, we could show that desorption from aging organic material in the upper aphotic zone is expected to retard pollutants transfer and burial into sediments; thus, it is considerably limiting the effectiveness of the biological pump for pollutant exports.


Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia are major health problems in developing countries. MgSO4 is the standard drug in the control of convulsions in eclampsia. Our study carried out at PDVVPF's hospital is based on the low dose regimen than Pritchard, which is suitable for Indian women who are of smaller built than women in western world. This prospective study included 50 eclampsia patients receiving low dose MgSO4 therapy. The loading dose of MgSO4 was 9gm. Following this 2.5 gm was given intramuscularly every 6 hourly for 24 hours after administration of the loading dose. Patients were monitored hourly by observing their respiratory rate, knee jerk and urine output. Out of 50, two patients required Pritchard regimen, rest completely recovered from eclampsia. The maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality were comparable to those of the standard Pritchard regime. The study did not find a single case of magnesium related toxicity with low dose MgSO4 regime. Low dose magnesium sulphate regime was found to be safe and effective in eclampsia.


Cardiovascular disease, especially ischemic heart disease resulting from coronary artery disease (CAD), is one of the major causes of death and disability in the United States. Even though the dead myocardial cells can be replaced by scar tissue in the healing process, the resulting myocardium cannot function as well as the preinfarcted myocardium, because scar tissues cannot contract. This "normal" healing process results in decreased cardiac output, which can lead to heart failure. Moreover, the scar tissue has abnormal electrical properties, which can lead to sometimes fatal arrhythmias. Previous studies demonstrated that when Lac-Z-labeled healing cells were infused into two animal models of myocardial infarction, that these cells were found to be located within the myocardium, the cardiac skeleton, and the vasculature undergoing repair. These results suggested that healing cells have the potential to repair damaged hearts. The current series of studies were undertaken to determine whether healing cells customarily reside in normal non-injured hearts of small and large animals, and whether autologous healing cells could be infused safely into a post-myocardial infarction patient. Adult rats were euthanized following the guidelines of Mercer University's IACUC. Adult pigs were euthanized following the guidelines of Fort Valley State University's IACUC. The human study was performed under the guidance of the Medical Center of Central Georgia's IRB. Animal hearts were harvested, fixed, cryosectioned, and stained with three antibodies: carcinoembryonic antigen-cell adhesion molecule-1 (CEA-CAM-1) for totipotent stem cells, stage-specific embryonic antigen-4 (SSEA-4) for pluripotent stem cells, and smooth muscle alpha-actin (IA4) for smooth muscle in the wall of the accompanying vasculature, thus serving as the positive procedural control. Cells positive for both CEA-CAM-1 and SSEA-4 were found to be located in adult rat and porcine hearts. Infusion of autologous healing cells into a post-myocardial infarcted patient resulted in an increase in their cardiac output after two successive healing cell infusions. Current IRB-approved studies are underway to assess the safety and efficacy of infused healing cells into individuals with cardiovascular disease.


5-Methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (acronymized as 5-MeO-DMT) is sui generis among the numerous naturally-occurring psychoactive substances due to its unparalleled ego-dissolving effects which can culminate in a state of nondual consciousness (which is phenomenologically similar to transformative peak experiences described in various ancient contemplative traditions, e.g., Advaita Vedānta, Mahāyāna Buddhism). The enigmatic molecule is endogenous to the human brain and has profound psychological effects which are hitherto only very poorly understood due to the absence of scientifically controlled human experimental trials. Its exact neuronal receptor binding profile is a matter of ongoing scientific research, however, its remarkable psychoactivity is presumably mediated via agonism of the 5-HT2A (serotonin) receptor subtype. Anthropological/ethnopharmacological evidence indicates that various cultures utilized 5-MeO-DMT containing plants for medicinal, psychological, and spiritual purposes for millennia. In this paper we argue that this naturally occurring serotonergic compound could be fruitfully utilized as a neurochemical research tool which has the potential to significantly advance our understanding of the cognitive and neuronal processes which underpin cognition and creativity (downregulation of the default-mode network, increased neuronal functional connectivity, etc.). An eclectic interdisciplinary perspective is adopted, and we present converging evidence from a plurality of sources in support of this conjecture. Specifically, we suggest that 5-MeO-DMT has great potential in this respect due to its incommensurable capacity to completely disintegrate self-referential cognitive/neuronal processes (viz., "ego death"). The importance of unbiased systematic scientific research on naturally occurring endogenous psychoactive compounds is discussed from a Jamesian radical empiricism perspective and potential scenarios of abuse are discussed (particularly in the context of military torture).


Broadening neoclassical human capital theory involves reviewing and discussing its assumptions, methods, and aims. As integral human development is driven by human capital, social capital (SC), personalist capital (PerC), and material wellbeing, the neoclassical analysis of the connection between human capital and material well-being needs to be extended to the connection between human capital and social capital as well as to the connection between human capital and personalist capital. This enlargement cannot be carried out through mathematical instruments because SC and PerC are qualitative elements. Personalist economics replaces the anthropological paradigm of the homo economicus with that of the acting person and argues for the valorization of human capital within a free-market economy regulated by moral principles. The result is a new personalist theory that although less elegant and formally sophisticated than the neoclassical theory is nevertheless better able to identify the multidimensional aspects characterizing the attainment of integral human development. Luca Sandona, "Broadening Neoclassical Human Capital Theory for the Attainment of Integral Human Development", Journal of Markets and Morality 16, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 25-36


The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, in the hands of both states and terrorist networks, is considered by many to be the greatest threat to global security today. Contemporary Nuclear Debates discusses the key issues surrounding that threat.The book is divided into four parts. Part I, "US National Missile Defense: When and How?" presents an overview of the missile defense debate and examines the merits of different deployment systems, such as sea-based, space-based, and boost-phase. Part II, "Global Perceptions of Missile Defense," goes beyond the standard debate about the risks and benefits of missile defenses to examine the specific potential reactions of major countries, including China, India, Iran, Japan, and Russia. Part III, "Do Arms Races Matter Anymore?" asks which countries, if any, have the capability to conduct an arms race with the United States, whether any country would choose to do so, and what weapons a country might build in response to a US missile defense deployment. Part IV, "Is Arms Control Dead?" discusses the circumstances under which arms control is useful today, new principles upon which it can be based, and new visions for its future.


Background:The periorbital region plays an important role in overall facial appearance and is one of the first areas to reveal signs of ageing. The eyes in particular are often used as an immediate gauge of chronological age. Consequently, there are many different treatment modalities currently available for use or undergoing clinical investigations. The main targets of the treatments are improvement, if not elimination, of rhytids and replacement of lost volume or removal of excess volume in what is known as the tear trough region. Other characteristics of ageing skin include rough, leathery and uneven skin texture, changes in pigmentation and dryness.


Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry has been used as a detector for several organotin compounds which were separated with the use of micellar liquid chromatography. Trimethyltin chloride, triethyltin bromide, and tripropyltin chloride were separated with a 0.1 M sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micellar mobile phase and C-18 stationary phase. Detection limits for the three were 27, 51, and 111 picograms tin, respectively. A 0.02 M SDS mobile phase was used to separate monomethyltin trichloride, dimethyltin dichloride, and trimethyltin chloride. Detection limits for these compounds were 46, 26, and 126 picograms tin, respectively. Preliminary separation of those five organotin compounds was obtained by gradient elution. Calibration curves were linear over 3.5 orders of magnitude. The relative standard deviation for ten 100-μL injections containing 4 ng tin ranged from 1.3 to 1.9% with a 0.1 M SDS mobile phase and from 3.4 to 4.8% with a 0.02 M SDS mobile phase.


The typically slow life histories of sharks make them susceptible to overexploitation. However, this characteristic also means that shark populations are more amenable to mark-recapture estimation of vital rates and to population viability analysis, compared to many teleost (bony) fishes. We applied this novel approach to inform fisheries management for 2 shark species (Carcharhinus tilstoni and C. sorrah) in northern Australia. We calculated survival estimates based on a current mark-recapture study and age-frequency distributions from historical catch data, and used these along with other estimates of vital rates to construct an individual-based population viability analysis (using VORTEX software). We estimated total current mortality (natural and fishing-related) from tagging data using Brownie models (mean ± SE: 0.532 ± 0.097 and 0.487 ± 0.136) and recapture rate (fisheries-related mortality) (0.023 ± 0.005 and 0.008 ± 0.003) for C. tilstoni and C. sorrah, respectively. Based on historical age-at-length and age-frequency data, mean survival across ages after historical overexploitation was similar for both species (~0.43, or ~0.33 as an age frequency-weighted mean). After correcting for capture-related mortality and permanent emigration, VORTEX population projections including incrementing simulated harvest suggest that the current rates of harvest of both species result in population trajectories that are approximately stable (20 yr predicted average rate of population change r ≅ 0), but this is complicated by a variable contribution of the slower-reproducing species C. limbatus within the black-tip shark complex (C. limbatus is commonly misidentified as C. tilstoni in the fishery). VORTEX projections also clearly indicated that the fishery was overexploited in the past. Using multiple datasets and an individual-based modelling framework to estimate harvest limits for a commercial fishery provides novel insights into management. This is especially pertinent to shark populations given the relative tractability of marking and recovering individuals and the inherent susceptibility of shark populations to overexploitation.


"Remarkably ambitious . . . an impressive tour de force." --Washington Post Book WorldFor Alexander the Great, fame meant accomplishing what no mortal had ever accomplished before. For Julius Caesar, personal glory was indistinguishable from that of Rome. The early Christians devalued public recognition, believing that the only true audience was God. And Marilyn Monroe owed much of her fame to the fragility that led to self-destruction. These are only some of the dozens of figures that populate Leo Braudy's panoramic history of fame, a book that tells us as much about vast cultural changes as it does about the men and women who at different times captured their societies' regard. Spanning thousands of years and fields ranging from politics to literature and mass media, The Frenzy of Renown explores the unfolding relationship between the famous and their audiences, between fame and the representations that make it possible. Hailed as a landmark at its original publication and now reissued with a new Afterword covering the last tumultuous decade, here is a major work that provides our celebrity-obsessed, post-historical society with a usable past. "Expansive . . . Braudy excels at rocketing a general point into the air with the fuel of drama." --Harper's