The more plant species grow together, the higher the yield. Higher plant species richness may also increase drought resistance, i.e. yield preservation during droughts. However, the mechanisms underlying these positive biodiversity effects are still debated. I this thesis, I investigated whether diversity in root characteristics or 'traits', such as rooting depth, can explain increased yield, or 'overyielding', and drought resistance in grassland plant communities. My results show that, although diversity in roots traits could not explain overyielding, root traits – and deep rooting in particular – were important: communities with deep-rooting species performed better than expected. Further, overyielding of deep-rooting species in diverse communities increased when growing with shallow-rooting neighbours, supporting the importance of rooting depth diversity. This research shows that rooting strategies play an important role in the positive effect of plant diversity on yield production. We found no evidence that plant species richness or root trait diversity increased drought resistance, perhaps due to extremeness of the drought treatment. On the contrary, drought decreased overyielding. Future biodiversity research at different drought intensity levels may further increase our insights on how biodiversity affect the drought resistance of our grasslands.


These studies demonstrated increasing glucose metabolic rates in the human primary (PVC) and associative (AVC) visual cortex as the complexity of visual scenes increased. The metabolic response of the AVC increased more rapidly with scene complexity than that of the PVC, indicating the greater involvement of the higher order AVC for complex visual interpretations. Increases in local metabolic activity by as much as a factor of 2 above that of control subjects with eyes closed indicate the wide range and metabolic reserve of the visual cortex.


Computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is one promising technological means to support e-learning over the Internet. However, current CSCL systems work mostly in a passive fashion and do not attempt to take active control of the collaboration. In such systems, it is the responsibility of the participating students to organize and accomplish all the activities of collaborative learning (CL). Students get little assistance from the system during the CL, e.g. the composition of a CL group, the partition of a learning task, the combination of learning outcomes, etc. This paper seeks to actively help and guide students in the CL by software agents. The CSCL over the Internet is first investigated where some challenges for the students while they are taking part in the CL are highlighted. Based on the investigation, a multi-agent architecture to facilitate the CL is proposed. Then, the implementation in one particular CSCL system, LiveNet, is presented and the supports of the agents for the CL are explored. At the final are the conclusions of the paper and some outlooks.


I describe and partially formalize two aspects of Edmund Husserl's phenomenological philosophy, in a way that highlights their relevance to cognitive science. First, I describe "constitutive phenomenology", the study of structures (what I call phenomenological "models") that constitute a person's sense of reality. These structures develop incrementally over the course of a person's life, and serve a variety of functions, e.g. generating expectations relative to actions, and determining the contents of context awareness. Second, I describe "transcendental-eidetic phenomenology", which posits a hierarchy of laws, each governing the way consciousness must be organized in order for a particular type of thing (a physical thing, a person, a social institution, etc.) to appear.


The historical perspective makes visible the fundamental changes linked to the use of New Media in learning and the impact of IT in learning institutions organization. The two decades after the personal computer and networked learning revolution were caracterized by resistance to change. Nevertheless, nowaday IT has reached a remarkable role, and the way in which universities adopt the latest generation of infrastructure for teaching and learning will make the difference between institutions and build their prestige in the future. It is crucial to create institutional responses for a new generation of learners that are fully engaged with technologies. Institutions still have to learn how to optimize the use of IT not only for teaching and learning, but also for research and to develop creativity in several fields: from art and science to medical experimentation. On the contrary, for students the use of IT for all sort of activieties is already felt as natural.


Cone-beam CT (Computed Tomography) has become a major imaging technique thanks to its image-fidelity and scanning time. Scientists and practitioners frequently utilize volume visualization tools for diagnosis and decision-making. The thesis work presented here seeks to improve on the volume visualization pipeline for CT generated data. We summarize our contributions into three categories.
Cone-beam CT scanners typically use analytical algorithms to reconstruct volumetric data. We studied the interpolation error of visualization tools and built a verifiable visualization tool and efficient data structure to enable users to enjoy interactive rendering speed to freely examine the high resolution data at minimal error.
For the recently developed low-dose CT which suffers from either noisy or an insufficient number of X-ray projections, we proposed an optimization framework to determine effective parameters for the data denoising and volume reconstruction stage. We have devised an efficient method to optimize various parameters for iterative CT reconstruction using an ant colony optimization algorithm. We also developed an interactive user interface to visually explore various acquisition settings. Our preliminary results show that the learned parameters can be readily applied to similar scans with promising results.
Lastly, we provide visual guidance which can boost user efficiency when exploring the data. For guided visualization, we propose a view suggestion framework rooted in high-dimensional feature space which does not rely on particular transfer functions or volume segmentations as an initial input.


In this study, a treatment plan for a spinal lesion, with all beams transmitted though a titanium vertebral reconstruction implant, was used to investigate the potential effect of a high-density implant on a three-dimensional dose distribution for a radiotherapy treatment. The BEAMnrc/DOSXYZnrc and MCDTK Monte Carlo codes were used to simulate the treatment using both a simplified, recltilinear model and a detailed model incorporating the full complexity of the patient anatomy and treatment plan. The resulting Monte Carlo dose distributions showed that the commercial treatment planning system failed to accurately predict both the depletion of dose downstream of the implant and the increase in scattered dose adjacent to the implant. Overall, the dosimetric effect of the implant was underestimated by the commercial treatment planning system and overestimated by the simplified Monte Carlo model. The value of performing detailed Monte Carlo calculations, using the full patient and treatment geometry, was demonstrated.


Variable eating quality was identified as a major contributor to declining Australian beef consumption in the early 1990s. The primary issue was the inability to predict the eating quality of cooked beef before consumption. A R&D program funded by industry and Meat and Livestock Australia investigated the relationships between critical control points along the supply chain, cooking methods and beef palatability. These relationships were underpinned by extensive consumer taste panels. Out of this R&D grew the Meat Standards Australia (MSA) voluntary meat grading system which aimed at predicting consumer palatability scores of cooked beef. Quality was defined on the basis of one of four grades. The grading model predicts consumer scores for 135 'cut by cooking method' combinations for each graded carcass. The MSA system commenced in 1999/2000 and at present some 850,000 cattle are graded annually, about 25% of the total domestic kill. This paper first describes the evolution of the MSA grading scheme and its adoption by industry. Next, evidence is presented relating to consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for guaranteed eating quality, the premiums that Australian consumers have actually paid for MSA graded cuts, and the extent to which premiums paid by consumers are transmitted back along the value chain to cattle producers. WTP data collected during exit surveys from taste panels in Australia, the United States, Japan and Ireland showed that consumers were willing to pay more for premium quality. However, whilst MSA has the capacity for four quality grades, it is mostly used to simply discriminate between ungraded and graded product (ie 3 star or better). A survey of Australian beef retailers and wholesalers suggested that from 2004/05 to 2007/08, beef consumers were prepared to pay around $0.32/kg extra for MSA branded beef on a carcass weight equivalent basis. Retailers kept about $0.06/kg and wholesalers kept about $0.12/kg. The remaining $0.14/kg was passed back to cattle producers. Despite accelerated use of MSA in the wholesale trade, visibility at retail is generally low. It is being used predominantly to support private brand initiatives or to underpin existing channel partner offers. The paper concludes by discussing two case studies of business models that small niche beef retailers have developed to further capture the benefits from the MSA scheme through introduction of private brands. In summary, the MSA innovation has resulted in a higher degree of accuracy in the ability to predict beef eating quality for consumers. This has improved consumer choice, opportunities for value adding, and sufficient transmission of the premiums paid by consumers for graded cuts to provide real incentives for beef producers to supply MSA‐ compliant cattle.


Large-scale and complex emergencies often occur in countries where government institutions have weak coping capacity. They may struggle to deliver essential services routinely, even in non-emergency situations. This has serious implications for the way in which emergency water, sanitation and hygiene services are managed long-term and in the transition from emergency to post-emergency situations. UNHCR and Oxfam commissioned a study to understand more about how emergency WASH services are delivered, and to identify how the provision of infrastructure can lead to sustainable service delivery and a more professional management mechanism. As many humanitarian crises are protracted in nature, emergency WASH services need to be sustained once humanitarian agencies depart. This report aims to review and identify alternative service delivery options, and to provide some pragmatic guidance that can be incorporated into emergency response programmes and tested, evaluated and built on in the future.


Utilizing a new survey of employers, this paper examines how and why establishments differ in their willingness to permit an older full-time white-collar worker to take phased retirement. Phased retirement means that an older worker remains with his or her employer while gradually reducing work hours and effort. Although older workers often express an interest in phased retirement, actual occurrences are evidently rare. A possible explanation is that employers limit opportunities for phased retirement. The survey indicates that employers are often willing to permit phased retirement, but primarily as an informal arrangement. The results also indicate that opportunities for phased retirement are greater in establishments that employ part-time white-collar workers, allow job sharing, and have flexible starting times. Opportunities tend to be more limited in establishments where white collar workers are unionized, and where the establishment is part of a larger organization.


Increases in arousal modulate information processing, promoting and prompting a switch from a contextual cognitive system to a more rigid habit system underlying ongoing cognition. We built on previous research findings regarding effects of emotion on context processing, examining whether
 or not high arousal states of different valence affect context processing. We measured context processing using the AX-continuous performance task paradigm. To manipulate emotional arousal, 60 participants were exposed to short clips from existing feature films showing either a social interaction
 (control condition), a violent encounter (negative arousal condition), or an episode of sexual intercourse (positive arousal condition). Analyses of signal detection measures showed that, compared to the control and positive-arousal groups, participants in the negative-arousal group displayed
 selective impairment of context processing. Results indicated that alterations in context processing by increased arousal are valence specific.


Malnutrition, the suboptimal consumption of essential nutrients like zinc, severely affects human health. This burden of malnutrition falls disproportionally heavy on developing countries, directly increasing child mortality and childhood stunting, or reducing people's ability mending diseases. One option to combat malnutrition is to blend missing nutrients in crop fertilizers, thereby increasing crop yields and possibly the nutrient density in harvested crop products, thus enriching crop products destined for human consumption. But, the effectiveness of so-called agronomic fortification remains ill-understood, primarily due to a paucity of field trials. We hypothesize that, if at all this is an effective strategy, there should exist a causal link between malnutrition and natural variation in the quality of soils to begin with. Until now, data limitations prevented the establishment of such a link, but new soil micronutrient maps for Sub-Saharan Africa allow for a detailed assessment. In doing so, we find statistically significant relations between soil nutrients and child mortality, stunting, wasting and underweight. For instance, a simultaneous increase in soil densities of copper, manganese and zinc by one standard deviation reduces child mortality by 4–6 per mille points, but only when malaria pressure is modest. The effects of soil nutrients on health dissipate when malaria pressure increases. Yet, the effects are fairly small in magnitude suggesting that except for a few regions, agronomic fortification is a relatively cost ineffective means to combat malnutrition.


The hidden curriculum has become a topic of high concern within our colleges of pharmacy. Despite our efforts to map the curriculum to competency statements and our painstaking development of lectures and syllabi, students probably learn more about becoming a pharmacist from the unplanned, hidden curriculum than from our carefully designed formal presentations.

It has been said that "The hidden curriculum is not simply found, one must go looking for it."1 My efforts to go "looking for it," lead me to conclude that our hidden curriculum is found in ways similar to how we find everyday things.

Portions of the hidden curriculum might be compared to a misplaced set of car keys. Undoubtedly we have all spent time searching for car keys. In our hurry through our daily routine, we unconsciously drop our keys in unlikely places. In our curricula the "car keys" are passing conversations and nonverbal cues. Often our interactions with each other and our nonverbal communication are inconsistent with our more formal messages. Students receive didactic lectures espousing the importance of interprofessional teamwork. When they hear pharmacists belittle the efforts of other team members, they are unlikely to retain the right "take away" message. White coat ceremonies focused on the importance of core values, including respect for others and empathy, are unlikely to have the lasting impact we desire, if followed by an introductory pharmacy practice experience (IPPE) during which students hear health care professionals make derogatory remarks about a patient.

Role modeling plays a critical part in developing future practitioners. Students learn by example. They not only learn specific skills, but also "cultural norms." Faculty members who support each other, show empathy for patients, and create an inviting learning environment are likely to foster the development of future colleagues who are supportive, empathetic, and lifelong learners.

On a different note, the hidden curriculum might be compared to house keys hidden under the doormat. The house keys are purposefully hidden, but their location may be more obvious than intended. The house keys in our curriculum are the powerful messages sent by our institutional policies and the allocation of our resources. Policies that allow students to attend professional meetings and funds that support their travel send messages that the institution values their participation in professional organizations. Promotion and tenure guidelines that reward excellence in teaching imply that the organization values teaching. Flexible work schedules for faculty and staff members may send the message that the organization is family friendly. These "keys" may not be in plain view, but their effect is evident.

Finally, the hidden curriculum might be compared to an Easter egg hunt. Some messages we send in our curricula are expertly hidden, disguised in ways that one might never find without continually hunting. These are messages about our own shortcomings that we hide from our students, hoping that they will not be discovered. Perhaps we do not want students to realize that we do not have all the answers or that we make mistakes. We may worry that our students will recognize that transformation from resident or postdoctoral fellow one day to faculty member the next does not make us expert teachers overnight. We may avoid discussions that make us uncomfortable. After all, how do we teach a student how to deal with the death of a patient for whom he/she cared? How do we explain that the profession can evolve in the setting of health care reform legislation that we do not completely understand? Indeed, these Easter eggs in our curricula may pose the greatest challenges.

It would be a productive exercise for faculty members within all of our colleges to examine their own personal curricula for hidden messages. Are we effective role models? What messages do our institutional policies convey? Does our allocation of resources reflect our values? And finally, what messages lurk in our silences?


We report on the electronic structure of the perovskite oxide CaCrO${}_{3}$ using valence-band, core-level, and Cr $2p\ensuremath{-}3d$ resonant photoemission spectroscopy (PES). Despite its antiferromagnetic order, a clear Fermi edge characteristic of a metal with dominant Cr $3d$ character is observed in the valence-band spectrum. The Cr $3d$ single-particle density of states are spread over 2 eV, with the photoemission spectral weight distributed in two peaks centered at $~$1.2 and 0.2 eV below $E$${}_{F}$, suggestive of the coherent and incoherent states resulting from strong electron-electron correlations. Resonant PES across the Cr $2p\ensuremath{-}3d$ threshold identifies a ``two-hole'' correlation satellite and yields an on-site Coulomb energy $U~$ 4.8 eV. The metallic DOS at $E$${}_{F}$ is also reflected through the presence of a well-screened feature at the low binding energy side of the Cr $2p$ core-level spectrum. X-ray-absorption spectroscopy at Cr $L$${}_{3,2}$ and O $K$ edges exhibit small temperature-dependent changes that point toward a small change in Cr-O hybridization. The Cr $2p$ core-level spectrum can be reproduced using cluster model calculations that include a charge transfer from the metallic screening channel at $E$${}_{F}$. The overall results indicate that CaCrO${}_{3}$ is a strongly hybridized antiferromagnetic metal, lying in the regime intermediate to Mott-Hubbard and charge-transfer systems.


Six Origanum species, Origanum acutidens (Hand. -Mazz.) Ietsw. (OA), Origanum brevidens (Bornm.) Dinsm. (OB), Origanum haussknechtii Boiss. (OC), Origanum husnucan-baseri H.Duman, Aytaç & A.Duran (OHB), Origanum leptocladum Boiss. (OL), Origanum rotundifolium Boiss. (OR), belonging to sect. Brevifilamentum were analyzed for their essential oil and phenolic components. For the essential oil analyses, GC-MS and GC-FID were used. Phenolic contents of the aerial parts of the chloroform, acetone, and methanol extracts were analyzed using LC-MS/MS. Antioxidant activity of the species was investigated by three methods; DPPH free radical scavenging activity, β-carotene linoleic acid assays and CUPRAC assays. Also, acetyl and butyrylcholinesterase inhibition of the extracts were investigated. While the essential oil contents of the section Brevifilamentum showed difference in chemotype, the phenolic contents were found to be coumaric acids and derivatives. These groups were the most abundant components of the extracts. Especially rosmarinic acid was detected in high amounts in acetone and methanol extracts. OA had the best activity both in antioxidant and anticholinesterase assays.


We present a deep, wide-field optical study of the M81 group dwarf galaxy Holmberg II (HoII) based on Subaru/Suprime-Cam imaging. Individual stars are resolved down to I similar to 25.2, that is, about 1.5?mag below the tip of the red giant branch (RGB). We use resolved star counts in the outskirts of the galaxy to measure the radial surface brightness profile down to mu V similar to 32?mag arcsec-2, from which we determine a projected exponential scalelength of 0.70 +/- 0.01?arcmin (i.e. 0.69 +/- 0.01?kpc). The composite profile, ranging from the cored centre out to R = 7?arcmin, is best fitted by an ElsonFallFreeman profile which gives a half-light radius of 1.41 +/- 0.04?arcmin (i.e. 1.39 +/- 0.04?kpc), and an absolute magnitude MV = -16.3. The low surface brightness stellar component of HoII is regular and symmetric and has an extent much smaller than the vast H?i cloud in which it is embedded. We compare the spatial distribution of the young, intermediate-age and old stellar populations, and find that the old RGB stars are significantly more centrally concentrated than the young stellar populations, contrary to what is observed in most dwarf galaxies of the local Universe. We discuss these properties in the context of the comet-like distribution of H?i gas around HoII, and argue for the presence of a hot intragroup medium in the vicinity of HoII to explain the contrasting morphologies of gas and stars.


Truly incremental development is a holy grail of verification-intensive software industry. All factors that threaten it should be removed. Cache memories have an intrinsically jittery timing behavior. The WCET variability that this causes wrecks incrementality. This hazard occurs as the WCET bounds of a software system can only be safely determined when its final memory map is known, which only happens at the end of development. Interestingly, the memory layout optimization techniques, originally devised to optimize average- or worst-case cache response time, open some avenue to control the innate dependence of cache behavior on memory layout. The state-of-the-art approaches, though effective to their own goal, are onerous to use and intrinsically iterative, hence arch-enemy of incrementality. As such they do not lend themselves to effective application in real-world industrial development. In this paper, looking at instruction caches, we describe a novel procedure positioning technique that makes it possible to control the memory layout across incremental software releases. Experimental evidence confirms that our approach facilitates early reasoning on the timing behaviour of system increments and also improves cache performance.


The problem of sensor configuration for the detection of correlated random fields using large sensor arrays is considered. Using error exponents that characterize the asymptotic behavior of the optimal detector, the detection performance of different sensor configurations is analyzed and compared. The dependence of the optimal configuration on parameters such as sensor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), field correlation, etc., is examined, yielding insights into the most effective choices for sensor selection in various operating conditions. Simulation results validate the analysis based on asymptotic results for finite sample cases.


Global catch fishery is said to been oppressed to its limit (Boyd & Schmittou, 1999), further implying aquaculture might be the only solution to the world demand for fishery products. The applied term aquaculture in this paper refers to the one used by NOAA (2008); breeding, rearing, and harvesting of plants and animals in all kind of water environments, including but not limited to ponds, rivers, lakes, and the ocean.

According to Shamshak & Anderson (2008, p. 74) aquaculture has over the past 20 years been the fastest growing food sector with an average annual growth rate of 8.7%. It further represents approximately 37 % (Shamshak & Anderson, 2008, p. 73) of total fisheries production worldwide. But even though aquaculture has taken off, the practice has its critics. The industry must counter criticism about the lack of sustainability. If the industry is able to successfully do this, the farming technique can more easily fulfill its potential role as a world food supplier (Boyd &, Schmittou, 1999). But first the aquaculture industry needs better environmental management for a continued growth.

One practice that needs to be curtailed is the choice of using unsustainable (limited) and expensive fishmeal and fishoil. The challenge is to identify more environmentally friendly and cheap substitutes for the unsustainably fishmeal and fishoil. Several trials have been made to reduce the quota of unsustainable fishmeal in farming the deep blue, and where e.g. feed has been substituted to one extend by soybeanmeal. Nonetheless, it is crucial that the substitutes for fishmeal and fishoil maintain both the quality and quantity of production that the original products achieve. Also, further importance and essentials must be paid to make these practices transparent to the industry's stakeholders.

Pittenger et al., (2007, p. 98) has shown that advances in both feed formulation and feed management on a farm level have led to increased fish growth, reduced production costs, and reduced feed conversion ratios but where research is still in progress to continue developing alternative feed ingredients. Of importance is to note that even though progress has been made in identifying substitutes for fishmeal and fish oil, there is currently no commercially available product that can completely substitute for fishmeal and fishoil (Ibid).

A fish farm needs to efficiently deal with the environmental issues it causes, or the effects will be deleterious. This thesis shows that less use of fishmeal (substituted by Soybean Protein Concentrate) can improve waterquality in some parameters used in this thesis. Further this thesis shows how sustainable benchmarks (with respect to watermetrics) efficiently can be managed and communicated to the industry's stakeholders by business managers.

A farm managed with environmental awareness and a willingness to share the experiences in the process of finding a more sustainable production method (also referred as the case farm in this thesis) is; Kona Blue Water Farm, HI, USA.


This research thesis presents a study of mobile-enhanced accessibility evaluation. In the first phase we have identified the evaluation methods that enable evaluation of mobile-enhanced accessibility. In the second phase we have performed evaluation of a specific mobile-enhanced accessibility prototype named "Augment" based on some selected evaluation methods that enables evaluation of mobile-enhanced accessibility. Finding methodologies for accessibility evaluation is just as important as early assessment. Therefore, in the last step on the basis of the evaluation results and literature review findings, we have presented an efficient and usable evaluation method that would enable valid and reliable evaluation of mobile-enhanced accessibility. The name of the presented evaluation method is "AccessEva" that is a diary method supported by a software application, which will run on a smart phone with the mobile-based accessibility software. This enables the testers to survey user attitudes, and experiences about the mobile-enhanced accessibility. At the end of this diary method period we suggest that a group discussion will be introduced and conducted together with the participants under the supervision of evaluators.


Abstract. In this study, we propose a novel approach to describe the scattering effects of atmospheric aerosols in a complex urban environment using water vapor (H2O) slant column measurements in the near infrared. This approach is demonstrated using measurements from the California Laboratory for Atmospheric Remote Sensing Fourier Transform Spectrometer on the top of Mt. Wilson, California, and a two-stream-exact single scattering (2S-ESS) radiative transfer (RT) model. From the spectral measurements, we retrieve H2O slant column density (SCD) using 15 different absorption bands between 4000 and 8000 cm−1. Due to the wavelength dependence of aerosol scattering, large variations in H2O SCD retrievals are observed as a function of wavelength. Moreover, the variations are found to be correlated with aerosol optical depths (AODs) measured at the AERONET-Caltech station. Simulation results from the RT model reproduce this correlation and show that the aerosol scattering effect is the primary contributor to the variations in the wavelength dependence of the H2O SCD retrievals. A significant linear correlation is also found between variations in H2O SCD retrievals from different bands and corresponding AOD data; this correlation is associated with the asymmetry parameter, which is a first-order measure of the aerosol scattering phase function. The evidence from both measurements and simulations suggests that wavelength-dependent aerosol scattering effects can be derived using H2O retrievals from multiple bands. This understanding of aerosol scattering effects on H2O retrievals suggests a promising way to quantify the effect of aerosol scattering on greenhouse gas retrievals and could potentially contribute towards reducing biases in greenhouse gas retrievals from space.


In this chapter we analyze the legal routes used to deliver Low Cost Home Ownership in England where there is some element of public subsidy involved. In order to evaluate the various products used for LCHO (right to buy, part-ownership, co-operative housing models), this chapter:a) Explains the legal frameworks used to deliver the main LCHO products available in England; b) Explores the potential benefits of home ownership to the individual in the form of wealth creation, "mainstreaming" and security of place; c) Sets out key additional policy objectives of LCHO, in particular introducing and supporting tenure mix (sustainable communities) and sustaining the opportunity for continued use of the subsidy to provide access to LCHO for intermediate income households; andd) Evaluates the extent to which the different products available deliver both the individual benefits of home ownership and support the wider policy objectives.


Recently-developed techniques have improved the performance of production systems several times over. However, these techniques are not yet adequate for continuous problem solving in a dynamically changing environment. To achieve adaptive real-time performance in such environments, we use an organization of distributed production system agents, rather than a single monolithic production system, to solve problems. Organization self-design is performed to satisfy real-time constraints and to adapt to changing resource requirements. When overloaded, individual agents decompose themselves to increase parallelism, and when the load lightens the agents compose with each other to free hardware resources. In addition to increased performance, generalizations of our composition/ decomposition approach provide several new directions for organization self-design, a pressing concern in Distributed AI.


Empirically, this study builds on responses from leading qualitative entrepreneurship scholars. We carry out a Bourdieuan analysis of the field of entrepreneurship scholarship—particularly heterodox qualitative writing—and the way that scholars learn to play this game (habitus). It discusses unchallenged assumptions (doxa), commitment to shared stakes (illusio), the practice to achieve these stakes (practice), and the struggle for glories and riches (capital). By deploying Bourdieu's frame, we have been able to expose key processes, structures, and relationships within qualitative entrepreneurship authorship. These offer four types of practical outcomes: guidance for good practice; insights into emotional aspects of authorship; warnings of potentially dysfunctional practices; and a celebration of our successes.


Purpose: Oxidative stress is closely associated with the pathogenesis of nontraumatic osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH). This study aimed to determine whether the serum levels of antioxidant nutrients were decreased in patients with ONFH. Methods: We analyzed the serum levels of antioxidant nutrients in 39 patients with ONFH (ONFH group) and 78 age- and gender-matched healthy people (control group) who voluntarily participated in the Yakumo study, which is a comprehensive health examination program. We measured and compared the serum levels of α-tocopherol (vitamin E) and total carotenoids, including zeaxanthin/lutein, β-cryptoxanthin, lycopene, α-carotene, and β-carotene, in the ONFH and control groups using high-performance liquid chromatography. Results: The mean serum levels of total carotenoids were significantly lower in the ONFH group than in the control group (2.36 ± 1.26 and 3.79 ± 2.36 µmol/l, respectively, p < 0.001). However, no significant difference was found in α-tocopherol between the two groups (26.37 ± 6.90 µmol/l in the ONFH group and 26.24 ± 6.28 µmol/l in the control group, p = 0.920). Among each carotenoid, the serum levels of zeaxanthin/lutein, lycopene, and β-carotene were significantly lower in the ONFH group than in the control group (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The serum levels of carotenoids were lower in patients with ONFH than in healthy, community-living people. This result suggests that carotenoids may be related to the pathogenesis of ONFH.


Purpose: PD-1 inhibitors are established agents in the management of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); however, only a subset of patients derives clinical benefit. To determine the activity of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors within clinically relevant molecular subgroups, we retrospectively evaluated response patterns among EGFR-mutant, anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive, and EGFR wild-type/ALK-negative patients. Experimental Design: We identified 58 patients treated with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors. Objective response rates (ORR) were assessed using RECIST v1.1. PD-L1 expression and CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) were evaluated by IHC. Results: Objective responses were observed in 1 of 28 (3.6%) EGFR-mutant or ALK-positive patients versus 7 of 30 (23.3%) EGFR wild-type and ALK-negative/unknown patients (P = 0.053). The ORR among never- or light- (≤10 pack years) smokers was 4.2% versus 20.6% among heavy smokers (P = 0.123). In an independent cohort of advanced EGFR-mutant (N = 68) and ALK-positive (N = 27) patients, PD-L1 expression was observed in 24%/16%/11% and 63%/47%/26% of pre–tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) biopsies using cutoffs of ≥1%, ≥5%, and ≥50% tumor cell staining, respectively. Among EGFR-mutant patients with paired, pre- and post-TKI–resistant biopsies (N = 57), PD-L1 expression levels changed after resistance in 16 (28%) patients. Concurrent PD-L1 expression (≥5%) and high levels of CD8+ TILs (grade ≥2) were observed in only 1 pretreatment (2.1%) and 5 resistant (11.6%) EGFR-mutant specimens and was not observed in any ALK-positive, pre- or post-TKI specimens. Conclusions: NSCLCs harboring EGFR mutations or ALK rearrangements are associated with low ORRs to PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors. Low rates of concurrent PD-L1 expression and CD8+ TILs within the tumor microenvironment may underlie these clinical observations. Clin Cancer Res; 22(18); 4585–93. ©2016 AACR. See related commentary by Gettinger and Politi, p. 4539


Objective To assess the impact of hypothermic neural rescue for perinatal asphyxia at birth on healthcare costs of survivors aged 6–7 years, and to quantify the relationship between costs and overall disability levels. Design 6–7 years follow-up of surviving children from the Total Body Hypothermia for Neonatal Encephalopathy (TOBY) trial. Setting Community study including a single parental questionnaire to collect information on children's healthcare resource use. Patients 130 UK children (63 in the control group, 67 in the hypothermia group) whose parents consented and returned the questionnaire. Interventions Intensive care with cooling of the body to 33.5°C for 72 hours or intensive care alone. Main outcome measures Healthcare resource usage and costs over the preceding 6 months. Results At 6–7 years, mean (SE) healthcare costs per child were £1543 (£361) in the hypothermia group and £2549 (£812) in the control group, giving a saving of −£1005 (95% CI −£2734 to £724). Greater levels of overall disability were associated with progressively higher costs, and more parents in the hypothermia group were employed (64% vs 47%). Results were sensitive to outlying observations. Conclusions Cost results although not significant favoured moderate hypothermia and so complement the clinical results of the TOBY Children study. Estimates were however sensitive to the care requirements of two seriously ill children in the control group. A quantification of the relationship between costs and levels of disability experienced will be useful to healthcare professionals, policy makers and health economists contemplating the long-term economic consequences of perinatal asphyxia and hypothermic neural rescue. Trial registration number This study reports on the follow-up of the TOBY clinical trial: ClinicalTrials. gov number NCT01092637.


Without any polemic intention, our present contribution will be concerned with the idea of corporeality as an ontological index, in positive and negative perspective. In the positive perspective, corporeality represents the definitional index of the human person. More specifically, we shall approach the (human) corporeality within the formative process of the person`s consciousness (persona). In order to make relevant our philosophical target, the idea of corporeality will be treated within the semiotic extension of the concept of place / locus (Romanian: loc, Latin: locus, French: lieu/place, Hebrew: makom 'place/ locus' — Hamakom 'the Omnipresent God, the Omnipresent locus'), in conformity with the following three oppositions: (a) place as a physical index vs. human symbol; (b) place with reference to physical persona vs. spiritual persona; (c) place in profane sense vs. sacred sense. In the negative perspective, the absence of corporeality makes relevant a new meaning of the Judaic concept hamakom: Hamakom with the sense of 'the Omnipresent God, the Omnipresent locus'. We intend to establish two targets for our research: 1. to follow the process during which the definitional index represents a formative agent of (self) consciousness; and 2. to establish the switching point where hamakom ("the place") becomes Hamakom 'the Omnipresent God, the Omnipresent locus'.


The Lisbon Treaty has introduced numerous changes to the shape and role of the Council Presidency. However, it seems that the actual effect of those changes is not so big as might appear from the text of the Treaty. While a legal and institutional analysis of the Presidency on the basis of the Treaty of Lisbon gives a clear picture of the significantly changed role, quantitative and qualitative empirical research conducted by the author among officials involved in the Presidencies of Spain and Belgium do not fully confirm this picture. This article aims at analysing the reasons and manifestations of certain discrepancies between the planned shape and powers of the Council Presidency in the Treaty of Lisbon and its actual role in practice.


Financial Inclusion for inclusive growth is a topic of contemporary significance and relevance. This study besides establishing the growth enhancing role of bank-based financial intermediation through empirical evidence has also found that access to finance by the poor is a prerequisite for poverty reduction in order to achieve inclusive growth and sustainable economic development. The study has evaluated using appropriate statistical techniques the impact of financial inclusion efforts on the inclusive growth in the case of a developing economy like India by considering the most reliable data for the period from 1975 to 2007. The theoretical and empirical analysis leads us to conclude that bank led financial inclusion has definitive advantages for inclusive growth in developing economies.


Abstract Parent–child dyadic rigidity and negative affect contribute to children's higher levels of externalizing problems. The present longitudinal study examined whether the opposite constructs of dyadic flexibility and positive affect predicted lower levels of externalizing behavior problems across the early childhood period. Mother–child (N = 163) and father–child (n = 94) dyads engaged in a challenging block design task at home when children were 3 years old. Dynamic systems methods were used to derive dyadic positive affect and three indicators of dyadic flexibility (range, dispersion, and transitions) from observational coding. We hypothesized that the interaction between dyadic flexibility and positive affect would predict lower levels of externalizing problems at age 5.5 years as rated by mothers and teachers, controlling for stability in externalizing problems, task time, child gender, and the child's effortful control. The hypothesis was supported in predicting teacher ratings of child externalizing from both mother–child and father–child interactions. There were also differential main effects for mothers and fathers: mother–child flexibility was detrimental and father–child flexibility was beneficial for child outcomes. Results support the inclusion of adaptive and dynamic parent–child coregulation processes in the study of children's early disruptive behavior.


The survey of 2440 physicians manifested broad spread of the defensive medicine in Lithuania. 86,3 proc. of doctors admitted referring their patients to other specialists without any real need and only to protect themselves from any probable legal prosecution. 60,7 proc. appoint unnecessary additional analysis for the same reason. 66,6 proc. avoid "risky" patients (ones presenting with a complicated or dangerous desease, or aware and ready to defend their patient rights. 59,9 proc. avoid using necessary, but risky procedures. 40,3 proc. appoint unnecessary drugs. There are many unwelcome consequences of this wide spread defensive medicine for Lithuanian health care. The first. Overflow of the national health care system with great number of additional patients. This brings enormous prolongation of waiting time for all patients. This causes great harm to patients who should receive the medical care in a proper time. Those patients lose their chances for successful recovery. The second. Defensive medicine causes especially great harm to the patients who have the most serious diseases. They do not receive the proper care because in their cases some daring decisions are needed, but these decisions are not taken because of their doctors' fear of legal prosecution. The third. Defensive medicine causes multisided economical losses. The great number of patients spends great deal of money purchasing unnecessary drugs, doing laboratory tests, getting unnecessary consultations, etc. Drug misuse (especially, defensive appointments of antibiotics) brings large-scale of reduction in their efficiency.


The causes of some mental illnesses such as schizophrenia have been very difficult to pin down, probably because numerous neurotransmitter systems go awry in the brains of such patients. This apparent complexity may be because each of these transmitters activates a common downstream pathway that causes the negative symptoms of the disease. Mice injected with drugs that activate various transmitter pathways (amphetamines, LSD, and PCP) all exhibit psychosis-like symptoms. Svenningsson et al. show that phosphorylation of the protein DARPP-32 at specific sites is necessary for each of the drugs to have these effects. Mice that did not have the ability to phosphorylate DARPP-32 did not show psychosis-like behaviors in response to these three different drugs. P. Svenningsson, E. T. Tzavara, R. Carruthers, I. Rachleff, S. Wattler, M. Nehls, D. L. McKinzie, A. A. Fienberg, G. G. Nomikos, P. Greengard, Diverse psychotomimetics act through a common signaling pathway. Science 302, 1412-1415 (2003). [Abstract] [Full Text]


This article deploys a qualitative media content analysis to examine discourses linking sport, head injury, and longer term neurocognitive decline. It draws on a seminal British television documentary and associated print media coverage to demonstrate that the representation of sport-related brain injury is intricately connected to both conceptions of risk in sport and a wider social response to aging and dementia. The article augments existing North American analyses to provide the first cross-cultural comparison of this phenomenon and, in doing so, illustrates how the social prominence of cultural representations of sport-related brain injury relates in part to the distinct characteristics of the sport-related phenomenon, which extend and amplify both the broader cultural crisis of concussion in sport and existing representations of dementia. The study is therefore important because it provides a unique perspective on both a key contemporary sporting issue and this global health concern.


Like most linguistic theories, the theory of generalized phrase structure grammar (GPSG) has described language axiomatically, that is, as a set of universal and language-specific conattaints on the well-formedncss of linguistic elements of some sort. The coverage atttl detailed analysis of English grammar in the ambitious recent volume by Gazdar, Klein, Pullum, and Sag entitled Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar [2] are impressive, in part because of the complexity of the axiomatic system developed by the authors. In this paper, we examine the possibility that simpler descriptions of the same theory can be achieved through a slightly different, albeit still axiomatic, method. Rather than characterize the well-formed trees directly, we progress in two stages by procedurally characterizing the well-formedness axioms themselves, which in turn characterize the trees. 1 I n t r o d u c t i o n I Like most llngafistic theories, the theory of generalized phrase structure grammar (GPSG) has described language axiomatically, that is, as a set of universal and language-specific constraints on the we[l-formedncss of linguistic elements of some sort. In the case of GPSG, these elements are trees whose nodes are themselves structured entltics from a domain of categories (a type of feature ~trueture [6]). The proposed axioms have become quite complex, culminating in the ambitious recent volume by Gazdar, Klein, Pullum, and Sag entitled Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar [2]. The coverage and detailed analysis of English grammar in this work are impressive, in part because of the complexity of the axiomatic system developed by the a u t h o r . In this paper, we examine the possibility that simpler descriptions of the same theory can be achieved through a slightly different, albeit still axiomatic, method. Rather than characterize the well-formed trees driectly, we progress in two stages by procedurally characterizing tim well-formedaess axioms themselves, which in turn charaetei'ize the trees. In particular, we give a procedure which converts GPSG g ramma~ into g r amma~ written lThls research was m~de possible by a gift. from the System Development Foundation. I am indebted to Lauri K~rttuncn and Ray Perrault for their eomrael~te on earlier drafts, and to Roger Evans, Gerald Gszdsr~ Ivan S~.$t ltenry Thompson, and members of the Foundations of Grammar project at the Center for the Study of Language and Information for their helpful discussions during the development of this work. in a unification-b~qed formalism, the PATR-II formalism developed at SRI International (henceforth PATR) [5], which h~s its own declarative semmltics, and which can therefore be viewed &s an axiomatization of string well-formedness constraints. 2 The characterization of GPSG thus obtained is simpler and better defined than the version described by Gazdar et al. The semantics of the formalism is given directly through the reduction to PATR. Also, the PATR axiomatization has a clear construetire interpretation, unlike that used in Gazdar et al., thus making the system more amenable to computational implementation. Finally, the characteristics of the coml~ilation--the difficulty or ease with which the various devices can be encoded in PATR-can provide a measure of the expressiveness and indispensability of these devices in GPSG. 2 T h e G P S G A x i o m s 2 .1 A S u m m a r y o f t h e P r i n c i p l e s GPSG describes natural languages in terms of various types of constraints on local sets of nodes in trees. Pcrtlncnt to the ensuing discussion are the following: • ID (immediate dominance) rules, which state constraints of immediate dominance among categories; • metarules, which state generalizations coI~ccraing classes of ID rules; ¢ LP (linear precedence) rules, which constrain the Ihwar order of sibling categories; • feature cooccurrencc restrictions (FCR), which constrain the feature structures as to which arc permissiHe categories; a feature specification defaults (FS1)), which provide values for features that are otherwise unspecified; and, most importantly, 21towever, a caveat is ]n order th:~t the detailed ~u~alysis from this perspective of the full range of GPSG devices (especially immediate dominance (ID) rules, and feature cooccurrence restrictions) is not discussed fillly here, nor do I completely understand them. (See Section 3.4.} And while in a confessional mood, I should add that the Msorlthm given here has not actually been implemented.


Background: Myopericytoma (MPC) is a recently proposed term to describe a group of tumours that originate from perivascular myoid cells and show a range of histological growth patterns. Only a small number of series describing MPC have been reported. MPC is frequently misdiagnosed as a sarcoma. Aims: To document the clinical and histopathological findings of a series of MPCs, to describe the range of growth patterns and morphological spectrum, and to compare MPC with myofibroma (MF). Patients/Methods: Fourteen patients with features of MPC and/or MF were identified from the archival files of the department of anatomical pathology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia. Results: There were six female and eight male patients. The mean and median patient ages were 37 and 35.5 years, respectively. The tumours were located in the skin, subcutis, or superficial soft tissues of the distal extremities (13 patients) or the head and neck region (one patient), and showed a spectrum of morphological appearances. They were divided into two groups based upon the predominant growth pattern corresponding to MPC (seven cases) and MF (seven cases). The feature most suggestive of MPC was the presence of a concentric perivascular arrangement of plump spindle shaped cells. The presence of a zonation/biphasic appearance was most characteristic of MF. Conclusions: MPC exhibits a spectrum of growth patterns that overlap with MF. Tumours can be designated as MPC or MF depending on the predominant growth pattern.


This paper presents an experimental and analytical study of a steel plate connection for joining walls in the Masonite Flexible Building (MFB) system. These connections are used partly for splicing the wall elements and partly for tying down uplifting forces and resisting horizontal shear forces in stabilizing shear walls. The steel plates are inserted in a perimeter slot in the plyboard panel (a composite laminated wood panel) and fixed mechanically with screw fasteners. The load-bearing capacity of the slotted-in steel plate connections are determined experimentally and derived analytically for different failure modes. The test results show ductile post-peak load-slip characteristics, indicating that a plastic design method for shear walls can be applied to calculate the horizontal load-bearing capacity. The slotted-in steel plate connection concept can also be used for joining shear walls to transverse walls for tying down purposes in order to simplify the stabilization system of the building. The use of transverse walls for resisting uplifting forces introduces a three-dimensional behaviour of the wall junction and a more effective load transfer.


In this paper we provide a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the multinational enterprises (MNEs) and foreign direct investment (FDI) on domestic firms in Europe. We build on the theoretical model of Markusen and Venables (1999) and modify it to better reflect reality and to capture international industrial linkages. For empirical part we build a unique and large database that covers 30 European countries over 2001 - 2013. Rich data are combined from the Amadeus, UN Comtrade and BACI sources. Our results do not show evidence for a pure spillover effect when other channels are controlled for. However, on a more detailed level we show that MNE?s presence significantly affects domestic firms both in terms of changing market structure and productivity improvements. On other hand, change in sourcing patterns often results in that domestic firms are crowded-out. However, those domestic firms, that are able to withstand this double competition, receive additional benefits stemming from their interaction with downstream MNEs in form of productivity spillovers. We also document existence of trade (export) spillovers for both upstream and downstream levels. Despite that impact of the MNEs presence is not unambiguous the existence of positive production and trade spillovers is overwhelming.


1 This form should be used for both quantitative and qualitative dissertations. The descriptors associated with both quantitative and qualitative dissertations should be referred to by both students and markers. 2 There is scope within qualitative dissertations for the RESULTS and DISCUSSION sections to be presented as a combined section followed by an appropriate CONCLUSION. The mark distribution and criteria across these two sections should be aggregated in those circumstances. Student name: Student ID:


Livestock has been said to cast a long shadow on climate change. However, environmental protection has also other aspects. This paper analyses one possible conflict between environmental goals in Sweden: to decrease the number of ruminants in order to minimise the impact on climate change and to maintain the number of ruminants in order to preserve biological diversity. Some Swedish stakeholders seem to argue that preserving biological diversity carries as much weight as mitigating climate change. This can be interpreted as if ruminants are considered to be good for the environment despite their impact on climate change, and thus shortening the long shadow. We point out, however, that only a fraction of ruminants are grazing pastures with high biodiversity. For most Swedish meat production, this argument is of minor importance for environmental sustainability.


Pollution of the earth's water resources, including freshwater sources such as lakes and rivers, by heavy metals have been a detriment to the environment for as long as the industrial age of man. As these metallic pollutants accumulate in the supply of precious groundwater and drinking water the need for clean-up technologies to combat the increasing threat is becoming of more importance to government and industry alike. Previous work has established the possibility of using known chelating agents, such as LIX-54® supported on silica gel in the removal of selected heavy metal ions such as copper(II), nickel(II) , and cadmium(II) from standard aqueous solutions (Norris and coworkers, 1996). Remediation of heavy metals using coordinating agents such as dithiooxamides and aliphatic amines has also been an environmental cleanup technology that has proven to be effective in the uptake of selected heavy metals from aqueous media (Poore and coworkers, 1996). The current study illustrates the effectiveness of using relatively inexpensive coordinating agents such as aliphatic amines and aliphatic thiols supported on silica gel and other solid supports to remove selected monovalent and divalent metals from aqueous standard solutions to achieve similar results. This study also reports the significance and results of an investigation involving the use of bifunctional compounds, such as 2-mercaptoethanol, to chemically attach and modify the silica gel, montmorillonite KSF, and magnetite, and subsequently be used in the uptake of selected heavy metals such as copper(II), cadmium(II), lead(II), nickel(II) and silver(I) ions.


Abstract. In-situ Polar Nephelometer (PN) measurements of unusual ice crystal scattering phase functions, obtained near the cloud-top of a mid-latitude anvil cloud, at a temperature of about −58 °C, were recently reported by Gayet et al. (2012). The ice crystal habits that produced the phase functions consisted of aggregates of ice crystals and aggregates of quasi-spherical ice particles. The diameters of the individual quasi-spherical ice particles were estimated to be between about 15 μm and 20 μm. The measured-averaged scattering phase functions were featureless, at scattering angles less than about 100°, but an ice bow-like feature was noted between the scattering angles of about 120° to 160°. The estimated asymmetry parameter was 0.78 ± 0.04. In this paper, the averaged scattering phase function is interpreted in terms of a weighted habit mixture model. The model that provides the best overall fit to the measured scattering phase function comprises of highly distorted ten-element hexagonal ice aggregates and quasi-spherical ice particles. The smaller quasi-spherical ice crystals are represented by Chebyshev ice particles of order 3, and were assumed to have equivalent spherical diameters of 24 μm. The asymmetry parameter of the best overall model was found to be 0.79. It is argued that the Chebyshev-like ice particles are responsible for the ice bow-like feature and mostly dominate the scattered intensity measured by the PN. The results from this paper have important implications for climate modelling (energy balance of anvils), cloud physics and the remote sensing of cirrus properties.


Introduction In any community, Mothers and Children constitutes not only priority group, but they are also a "Vulnerable" or "Special-risk Group". Similarly in India our biggest problem is malnutrition among under five year old children. To break the vicious cycle of malnutrition, morbidity reduced learning capacity and mortality India launched the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme in 1975. It is the foremost symbol of India's commitment to her children Rationale: Forty percent of the world's severely under-nourished under-five children live in India so the present study was conducted to assess the nutritional status of children availing the services under Integrated Child Development Service Scheme in Uttarakhand. Objective: To estimate the level of nutrition in children attending Anganwadi centers of Doiwala block. Methods: Out of these Seven ICDS project areas, Doiwala Block was chosen for the study purpose since it is also the field practice area of Department of Community Medicine, HIMS. 19 AWC was selected by using Simple Random Sampling technique in Doiwala block. All the children aged between 3- 6years attending Anganwadi centers were included in community based, cross sectional study. Predesigned pretested anthropometric survey tool with local adaptability and minor modification for local suitability was adopted to collect information pertaining to growth monitoring of the children [Adopted from WHO child growth standard 2006]. Children were weighed, and their height and MUAC were recorded. Weight for age, height for age and MUAC for age was calculated using WHO growth references .Nutritional status according to the WHO Child Growth Standards was analysed using WHO Anthro statistical software. Results: 200 children were surveyed. From the total population 110 are males and 90 are females. After the analysis of weight for age with anthro software it was found that 20.9% of children lie within -2 SD with a mean of -0.98 and SD of 1.14.In case of height for age 30.9% of children lie within -2 SD with a mean of -0.92 and SD 1.87.BMI for age 25.8% of children lie within -2SD with a mean of-1.58 and SD1.3.MUAC for age 30% of children lie within -2SD. Conclusion: As per anthropometric calculation the burden of malnutrition was high among children attending Anganwadi centers. This raises concern about the children who are not allowed to attend the Anganwadi centers on regular basis due to various reasons. Burden of malnutrition among children attending Anganwadi centers can be tackled by enhancing the quality of mid-day meal programme especially on high protein and caloric intake.


Recent high-level synthesis approaches and C-based hardware description languages attempt to improve the hardware design process by allowing developers to capture desired hardware functionality in a well-known high-level source language. However, these approaches have yet to achieve wide commercial success due in part to the difficulty of incorporating such approaches into software tool flows. The requirement of using a specific language, compiler, or development environment may cause many software developers to resist such approaches due to the difficulty and possible instability of changing well-established robust tool flows. Thus, in the past several years, synthesis from binaries has been introduced, both in research and in commercial tools, as a means of better integrating with tool flows by supporting all high-level languages and software compilers. Binary synthesis can be more easily integrated into a software development tool-flow by only requiring an additional backend tool, and it even enables completely transparent dynamic translation of executing binaries to configurable hardware circuits. In this article, we survey the key technologies underlying the important emerging field of binary synthesis. We compare binary synthesis to several related areas of research, and we then describe the key technologies required for effective binary synthesis: decompilation techniques necessary for binary synthesis to achieve results competitive with source-level synthesis, hardware/software partitioning methods necessary to find critical binary regions suitable for synthesis, synthesis methods for converting regions to custom circuits, and binary update methods that enable replacement of critical binary regions by circuits.


Will incomes of low and high skilled workers continue to diverge? Yes says our paper's dynamic, six-good, five-region -- U.S., Europe, N.E. Asia (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong), China, and India -- general equilibrium, life-cycle model. The model predicts a near doubling of the ratio of high- to low-skilled wages over the century. Increasing wage inequality arises from a traditional source -- a rising worldwide relative supply of unskilled labor, reflecting Chinese and Indian productivity improvements. But China's and India's education policies matter. If successive Chinese and Indian cohorts become more skilled, major exacerbation of inequality will be precluded.


In an era of intensive competition where plant operating efficiencies must be maximized, downtime due to machinery failure has become more costly. To cut operating costs and increase revenues, industries have an urgent need to predict fault progression and remaining lifespan of industrial machines, processes, and systems. An engineer who mounts an acoustic sensor onto a spindle motor wants to know when the ball bearings will wear out without having to halt the ongoing milling processes. A scientist working on sensor networks wants to know which sensors are redundant and can be pruned off to save operational and computational overheads. These scenarios illustrate a need for new and unified perspectives in system analysis and design for engineering applications. Intelligent Diagnosis and Prognosis of Industrial Networked Systems proposes linear mathematical tool sets that can be applied to realistic engineering systems. The book offers an overview of the fundamentals of vectors, matrices, and linear systems theory required for intelligent diagnosis and prognosis of industrial networked systems. Building on this theory, it then develops automated mathematical machineries and formal decision software tools for real-world applications. The book includes portable tool sets for many industrial applications, including: Forecasting machine tool wear in industrial cutting machines Reduction of sensors and features for industrial Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI) Identification of critical resonant modes in mechatronic systems for system design of R&D Probabilistic small-signal stability in large-scale interconnected power systems Discrete event command and control for military applications The book also proposes future directions for intelligent diagnosis and prognosis in energy-efficient manufacturing, life cycle assessment, and systems of systems architecture. Written in a concise and accessible style, it presents tools that are mathematically rigorous but not involved. Bridging academia, research, and industry, this reference supplies the know-how for engineers and managers making decisions about equipment maintenance, as well as researchers and students in the field.


This thesis is about a design process for creating educationally relevant tools. I submit that the key to creating tools that are educationally relevant is to focus on ensuring a high degree of alignment between the designed tool and the broader educational context into which the tool will be integrated. The thesis presents methods and processes for creating a tool that is both well aligned and relevant. The design domain of the thesis is described by a set of tools I refer to as "Configurable Embodied Interfaces". Configurable embodied interfaces have a number of key features, they: • Can sense their local surroundings through the detection of such environmental and physical parameters as light, sound, imagery, device acceleration, etc. • Act on their local environment by outputting sound, light, imagery, motion of the device, etc. • Are configurable in such a way as to link these inputs and outputs in a nearly unlimited number of ways. • Contain active ways for users to either directly create new programs linking input and output, or to easily re-configure them by running different programs on them. • Are user focused; they assume that a human being is manipulating them in some way, through affecting input and observing output of the interface. Spurred by the growth of cheap computation and sensing, a large number of educational programs have been built around use of configurable embodied interfaces in the last three decades. These programs exist in both formal and informal educational settings and are in use from early childhood through adult and community education. Typically, configurable embodied interfaces are used as tools in three major and sometimes overlapping areas: computer Science education, creative and engineering design education, and traditional science and math education. This work details three examples of collaborations between technologists and educators that led to the creation of educationally successful tools; these three examples share a focus on creating a configurable embodied interface to tackle a specific cognitive and affective set of learning goals, but differ completely in the location of the learning environment, the age and interests of the learners, and the nature of the learning goals. Through the exploration of the methods used, an analysis of the general and context-specific features of the design processes of the three


To what extent did the economic boom of the 1990s-early 2000s improve the well-being of persons in the bottom rungs of the income distribution? This paper uses a pooled cross-state time series regression design to estimate the effect of earnings, unemployment, and inequality on poverty in the boom. I find that the tight labor market reduced poverty substantively, gainsaying the gloom that developed in the 1980s about the effect of economic growth on the less advantaged; and that socially undesirable behaviour also fell in the period, potentially due in part to the boom.. While the rising tide of economic progress can lift many boats, however, around 6-8% of Americans cannot be so helped, and thus constitute a relatively long term poverty population. Moreover, the level of the tide needed to improve the conditions of the less advantaged is a 4-5% unemployment rate, not the 6-6.5% unemployment once viewed as the NAIRU.


Theory presents two broad channels through which profit sharing can increase worker training. First, it directly increases training by alleviating hold-up problems and/or by encouraging co-workers to provide training. Second, it indirectly increases training by reducing worker separation and increasing training investments' amortization period. This article provides the first attempt at separately identifying these two channels. We confirm a strong direct effect, but also identify a weaker, more tenuous indirect effect. This suggests that profit sharing's influence on training is unlikely to operate primarily through its reduction on separations while simultaneously presenting the first evidence confirming the prediction of an indirect causation.


Invasion by non-native tree species is an environmental and societal challenge requiring predictive tools to assess invasion dynamics. The frequent scale mismatch between such tools and on-ground conservation is currently limiting invasion management. This study aimed to reduce these scale mismatches, assess the success of non-native tree invasion and determine the environmental factors associated to it. A hierarchical scaling approach combining species distribution models (SDMs) and satellite mapping at very high resolution (VHR) was developed to assess invasion by Acacia dealbata in Peneda-Geres National Park, the only national park in Portugal. SDMs were first used to predict the climatically suitable areas for A. dealdata and satellite mapping with the random-forests classifier was then applied to WorldView-2 very-high resolution imagery to determine whether A. dealdata had actually colonized the predicted areas (invasion success). Environmental attributes (topographic, disturbance and canopy-related) differing between invaded and non-invaded vegetated areas were then analyzed. The SDM results indicated that most (67%) of the study area was climatically suitable for A. dealbata invasion. The onset of invasion was documented to 1905 and satellite mapping highlighted that 12.6% of study area was colonized. However, this species had only colonized 62.5% of the maximum potential range, although was registered within 55.6% of grid cells that were considerable unsuitable. Across these areas, the specific success rate of invasion was mostly below 40%, indicating that A. dealbata invasion was not dominant and effective management may still be possible. Environmental attributes related to topography (slope), canopy (normalized difference vegetation index (ndvi), land surface albedo) and disturbance (historical burnt area) differed between invaded and non-invaded vegetated area, suggesting that landscape attributes may alter at specific locations with Acacia invasion. Fine-scale spatial-explicit estimation of invasion success combining SDM predictions with VHR invasion mapping allowed the scale mismatch between predictions of invasion dynamics and on-ground conservation decision making for invasion management to be reduced. Locations with greater potential to suppress invasions could also be defined. Uncertainty in the invasion mapping needs to be accounted for in the interpretation of the results.


Book synopsis: Youth Cultures offers a comprehensive outline of youth cultural studies in the twenty-first century, with reference to a range of new research case studies. Featuring both well known and emerging scholars from the UK, the US and mainland Europe, the book addresses core theoretical and methodological developments before going on to examine key substantive themes in the study of young people's identities and lifestyles. These include questions of commerce, power and politics, issues of gender and ethnicity, uses of place and space and impacts of new media and communications. Simultaneously offering an accessible introduction and a range of new contributions to the subject area, Youth Cultures will appeal to both students and academics within a range of disciplines, including sociology, media and cultural studies, youth studies and popular music studies.


Abstract Analyses of nuclear reactor safety have increasingly required the coupling of full three-dimensional neutron-kinetics (NK) core models with system transient thermal-hydraulic (TH) codes. To produce results within a reasonable computing time, the coupled codes use different spatial descriptions of the reactor core. The TH code uses few, typically 5 to 20, TH channels that represent the core. The NK code uses the explicit node for each fuel assembly. Therefore, a spatial mapping of coarse grid TH and fine grid NK domain is necessary. However, improper mappings may result in the loss of valuable information, thus causing inaccurate prediction of safety parameters. The purpose of this investigation is to study the sensitivity of spatial coupling (channel refinement and spatial mapping) and develop recommendations for NK-TH mapping in the simulation of safety transients—control rod drop, turbine trip, and feedwater transient—combined with stability performance (minimum pump speed of recirculation pumps). The research methodology consists of a spatial coupling convergence study, as an increasing number of TH channels and different mapping schemes approach the reference case. The reference case consists of one TH channel per one fuel assembly. The comparison of results has been done under steady-state and transient conditions. The obtained results and conclusions are presented in this paper.


The single-screen movie theaters that punctuated small-town America's main streets and city neighborhoods since the 1920s are all but gone. The well-dressed throng of moviegoers has vanished; the facades are boarded. In Silent Screens, photographer Michael Putnam captures these once prominent cinemas in decline and transformation. His photographs of abandoned movie houses and forlorn marquees are an elegy to this disappearing cultural icon. In the early 1980s, Putnam began photographing closed theaters, theaters that had been converted to other uses (a church, a swimming pool), theaters on the verge of collapse, theaters being demolished, and even vacant lots where theaters once stood. The result is an archive of images, large in quantity and geographically diffuse. Here is what has become of the Odeons, Strands, and Arcadias that existed as velvet and marble outposts of Hollywood drama next to barbershops, hardware stores, and five-and-dimes. Introduced by Robert Sklar, the starkly beautiful photographs are accompanied by original reminiscences on moviegoing by Peter Bogdanovich, Molly Haskell, Andrew Sarris, and Chester H. Liebs as well as excerpts from the works of poet John Hollander and writers Larry McMurtry and John Updike. Sklar begins by mapping the rise and fall of the local movie house, tracing the demise of small-town theaters to their role as bit players in the grand spectacle of Hollywood film distribution. "Under standard distribution practice," he writes, "a new film took from six months to a year to wend its way from picture palace to Podunk (the prints getting more and more frayed and scratched along the route). Even though the small-town theaters and their urban neighborhood counterparts made up the majority of the nation's movie houses, their significance, in terms of revenue returned to the major motion-picture companies that produced and distributed films, was paltry." In his essay, "Old Dreams," Last Picture Show director Peter Bogdanovich recalls the closing of New York City's great movie palaces-the mammoth Roxy, the old Paramount near Times Square, the Capitol, and the Mayfair-and the more innocent time in which they existed "when a quarter often bought you two features, a newsreel, a comedy short, a travelogue, a cartoon, a serial, and coming attractions." While the images in Putnam's book can be read as a metaphor for the death of many downtowns in America, Silent Screens goes beyond mere nostalgia to tell the important story of the disappearance of the single-screen theater, illuminating the layers of cultural and economic significance that still surround it. "These photographs and the loss of which they speak signal the passing of a way of being together." -Molly Haskell List of Theaters by State Alabama * The Lyric, Anniston * The Martin, Huntsville Arizona * The Duncan, Duncan Arkansas * The Avon, West Memphis California * The Town, Los Angeles * El Capitan, San Francisco * The State, Santa Barbara Connecticut * The Dixwell Playhouse, New Haven * The Princess, New Haven Florida * The Gateway, Lake City Georgia * The Judy, Hartwell Idaho * The Ace, Wendell Illinois * The Pekin, Pekin Indiana * The Rem, Remington * The Ritz, Rensselaer Kansas * The Cameo, Kansas City Kentucky * The Crescent, Louisville * The Ohio, Louisville Louisiana * The Madison, Madisonville * The Sabine, Many * The Jefferson, New Orleans Massachusetts * The Strand, Westfield Michigan * The Liberty, Benton Harbor Mississippi * The Magee, Magee * The Star, Mendenhall * The Mono, Monticello * The Park, Pelahatchie Missouri * The Star, Warrensburg Nebraska * The Grand, Grand Isle New Jersey * RKO Proctor's Palace, Newark New Mexico * The Lux, Grants * The State, San Jon New York * The Hollywood, Au Sable Forks * The Broadway, Buffalo * The Lovejoy, Buffalo * The Senate, Buffalo * The Jefferson, New York City * The Little Carnegie, New York City * The 72nd Street East, New York City North Carolina * The Colonial, Chesnee * The Alva, Morganton Oregon * The United Artists, Pendleton Pennsylvania * The Lawndale, Philadelphia * The Rex, Philadelphia * The Spruce, Philadelphia * The York, Philadelphia * The Capitol, Williamsport Tennessee * The Park, Memphis Texas * The Royal, Archer City * The Strand, Chillicothe * The Gem, Claude * The Mulkey, Clarendon * The Texas, Del Rio * The Bowie, Fort Worth * The Chatmas, Hearne * The Queen, Hearne * The Palace, Henderson * The Alabama, Houston * The Almeda, Houston * The Crim, Kilgore * The Gulf, Robstown * The Clinch, Tazwell * The Winnie, Winnie Virginia * The Earle, Big Stone Gap * The Home, Strasburg Washington * The Pasco, Pasco West Virginia * The Ritz, Ansted * The Alpine, Rainelle


The first step to study and develop a two Degrees of Freedom (DOF) prosthesis is to derive a dynamic model for simulation and control design. In this paper, the ankle-foot prosthesis has controllable Dorsi-Plantarflexion (DP) and Inversion-Eversion (IE) DOF. We derive a compliant dynamic model for a recently developed ankle-foot prosthesis followed by identification of the actuators, transmission, and prosthetic foot parameters. The resulting model is then verified experimentally and in simulation. Dynamic decoupling of the actuators to the ankle's DP and IE DOF is also investigated using Bode plots. The code used for simulating the prosthesis is provided on GitHub for the community.


Continuity of care is crucial to ensuring positive health outcomes for patients discharged from an inpatient hospital setting, and improved information sharing can help. To share information, caregivers write discharge notes containing action items to share with patients and their future caregivers, but these action items are easily lost due to the lengthiness of the documents. In this work, we describe our creation of a dataset of clinical action items annotated over MIMIC-III, the largest publicly available dataset of real clinical notes. This dataset, which we call CLIP, is annotated by physicians and covers 718 documents representing 100K sentences. We describe the task of extracting the action items from these documents as multi-aspect extractive summarization, with each aspect representing a type of action to be taken. We evaluate several machine learning models on this task, and show that the best models exploit in-domain language model pre-training on 59K unannotated documents, and incorporate context from neighboring sentences. We also propose an approach to pre-training data selection that allows us to explore the trade-off between size and domain-specificity of pre-training datasets for this task.


Globalization continues to process despite its economic and social crises. Scholars also continue to study on globalization. However, it is not understood truly. Especially economists see globalization as a one-sided phenomenon. So the social substance cannot be perceived profoundly. The concept of consumerism implies a culture and an ideology as a plank of globalization (global capitalism), and it enables economists to develop an interdisciplinary view and to understand multidimensionality of globalization.


Conventional water treatment processes (e.g., coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, and filtration) are widely used for producing drinking water from surface water sources. Transient, gradual, or abrupt changes in source water quality that could compromise treatment effectiveness can be triggered by climate and related meteorological events, accidental or intentional contamination, security breaches, or other disruptions. However, the design principles that underpin the majority of existing conventional treatment systems predate climate adaptation considerations. This paper considers the adaptation capacity of conventional water treatment systems. A modeling framework is used to illustrate climate adaptation mechanisms that could enable conventional treatment systems to accommodate water quality impairments. Treatment system resiliency is explored in response to generic climate-relevant water quality perturbations such as extreme temperature variations and changes in the quantity and characteristics of solids, particles, and organic constituents. Promising adaptation options include modifying chemical parameters (e.g., types of chemicals, dosages, sequence of chemical addition, mixing intensity and duration), filter operations, and microbiological augmentation of existing physical/chemical treatment systems. The capacity reserve concept provides an organizing principle that could be useful for prioritizing climate adaptation strategies such as major or minor treatment/infrastructure modifications, system-wide upgrades such as off-line storage, operational changes in distribution systems, or the use of supplemental water sources including reclaimed or recycled water.


We study the properties of a network consisting of two model neurons that are coupled by reciprocal inhibition. The study was motivated by data from a pair of cells in the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion. One of the model neurons is an endogenous burster; the other is excitable but not bursting in the absence of phasic input. We show that the presence of a hyperpolarization activated inward current (ih) in the excitable neuron allows these neurons to fire in integer subharmonics, with the excitable cell firing once for every N 1 bursts of the oscillator. The value of N depends on the amount of hyperpolarizing current injected into the excitable cell as well as the voltage activation curve of ih. For a fast synapse, these parameter changes do not affect the characteristic point in the oscillator cycle at which the excitable cell bursts; for slower synapses, such a relationship is maintained within small windows for each N. The network behavior in the current work contrasts with the activity of a pair of coupled oscillators for which the interaction is through phase differences; in the latter case, subharmonics exist if the uncoupled oscillators have near integral frequency relationships, but the phase relationships of the oscillators in general change significantly with parameters. The mechanism of this paper provides a potential means of coordinating subnetworks acting on different time scales but maintaining fixed relationships between characteristic points of the cycles.


Lantana rhodesiensis Linn is used traditionally in the management of several diseases including diabetes mellitus; however, its efficacy and safety is not scientifically evaluated. The aim of this study was to determine in vivo hypoglycemic activity and safety of aqueous extracts of L. rhodesiensis in white male albino rats. Aqueous extracts were screened for their hypoglycemic activity in alloxan induced diabetic rats using the oral and intraperitoneal routes. The safety of these extracts was studied in rats orally or intraperitoneally administered with 1 g/kg body weight daily for 28 days by recording the changes in body and organ weight, hematological and biochemical parameters and histology. Mineral compositions of the extracts were estimated using total reflection X-Ray Fluorescence System (TRXF) while the types of phytochemicals present were assessed using standard procedures. Aqueous extracts orally and intraperitoneally administered at 50, 100 and 150 mg/kg body weight demonstrated hypoglycemic activity with the intraperitoneal route being more effective than the oral route. Oral and intraperitoneal dose of 1 g/kg body weight of the extracts significantly reduced the body weight gain, increased the testis and spleen, and decreased the lung weight; reduced the hemoglobin levels, red blood cell count, packed cell volume and increased the neutrophil count; decreased the activity of γ-glutamyltransferase and histologically mildly reduced lymphoid follicles. Orally, the same dose decreased the red blood cell count, packed cell volume, mean cell volume, monocyte and platelet count; increased the activity of lactate dehydrogenase, and creatine kinase. The extract contained phenols, tannins, flavonoids, alkaloids, sterols, terpenoids, cardiac glycosides, phylobatannins, resins, and bound anthrax quinones. Potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, lead and zinc levels in the extracts were below the recommended daily allowance. In conclusion, the observed hypoglycemic activity and slight toxicity could be associated with the phytonutrients present in this plant. This study recommends use of this plant as herbal medicine.


he purpose of this study was to identify brands of fried oil consumed by consumers, to examine consumersA'ÂiA'¦ perceptions of brandsA'ÂiA'¦ popularity, quality, and price, and to analyze the relationships among perceptions of brandsA'ÂiA'¦ popularity, quality, price, and brandsA'ÂiA'¦ consumption. Data were collected from 150 graduate students of IPB in March 2000. The results of the study showed three brands of fried oil: Bimoli, Filma, and Tropical were most likely to be consumed by respondents. Respondents perceived Bimoli as the most popular brands, followed by Filma, and Tropical. However, majority of respondents perceived Filma as the best quality of brands, followed by Bimoli and Tropical. The majority of respondents also perceived Filma as the most expensive brands, followed by Bimoli and Sunrice. The results also showed that perceived popularity of brands was not related to brand consumption. Respondents who perceived a certain brand as the most popular were not likely to buy and to consume that brand.


Introduction: Human Immunodeficiency Virus 1 (HIV-1) is a retrovirus that infects human immune cells, primarily CD4+ T cells and macrophages. During HIV-1 disease progression, infected individuals have declining CD4+ T cell counts and increasing HIV-1 RNA, indicative of virus replication. Numerous studies have identified important roles for cytokines in immune responses during the course of HIV-1 infection. Cytokines are small molecular weight proteins that communicate signals between a broad range of cells in the immune system. This review aims to highlight a key subset of cytokines that bear potential as targets for the prevention and treatment of HIV-1 infection.
Methods: We conducted a literature review categorizing pertinent cytokines on the basis of four criteria: correlations with HIV-1 replication, impact on host innate immune cells, characteristic expression in elite controllers, and therapeutic applications.
Results: We identified several cytokines in the interleukin (IL) family and the C-C and C-X-C chemokine families with important roles in HIV-1 control. Indeed, the expression of many cytokines was correlated with reduced HIV-1 replication (e.g. IL-21, IL-32, IL-27). Several cytokines directly impact cells of the innate immune system in their HIV-1 control mechanisms. Among many, IL-7 and IL-15 are able to enhance natural killer cell function, while IL-27 enhances macrophage resistance to HIV-1 infection. Elite controllers, individuals who have suppressed HIV-1 replication and preserved CD4+ T cell levels without exogenous antiviral drug treatment, express a uniquely characteristic array of chemokines. Namely, CCL14, CCL27, CCL21, XCL1 and CXCL12 are upregulated in elite controllers compared to non-controllers. Finally, considering the diversity and pleiotropic roles of cytokines during HIV-1 infection, many show potential for inclusion in therapeutic designs.
Conclusion: Herein, we have highlighted the antiviral roles of several cytokines, demonstrating that many cytokines are key regulators of HIV-1 replication. This work provides a focus for future research aiming to better understand HIV pathogenesis and informs novel preventative and therapeutic designs.


In this paper we show that findings of an apparently instable popularity function of U.S. presidents, as reported in the previous literature, are likely the consequence of the common use of linear estimation techniques. Employing Penalized Spline Smoothing in the context of Additive Mixed Models we allow for a-priori unspecified non-linear effects of possible economic determinants of presidential popularity. We find strong evidence for non-linear and negative effects of unemployment, inflation and government consumption on presidential approval and present empirical evidence in favor of the hypothesis of the existence of interaction effects between the economic variables. Additionally we give supporting evidence for the existence of honeymoon and nostalgia effects as well as general decline of support over time.


World War I heralded a new global era of warfare, consolidating and expanding changes that had been building throughout the previous century, while also instituting new notions of war. The 1914-18 conflict witnessed the first aerial bombing of civilian populations, the first widespread concentration camps for the internment of enemy alien civilians, and an unprecedented use of civilian labour and resources for the war effort. Humanitarian relief programs for civilians became a common feature of modern society, while food became as significant as weaponry in the fight to win. Tammy M. Proctor argues that it was World War I - the first modern, global war - that witnessed the invention of both the modern 'civilian' and the 'home front', where a totalizing war strategy pitted industrial nations and their citizenries against each other. Civilians in a World at War, 1914-1918, explores the different ways civilians work and function in a war situation, and broadens our understanding of the civilian to encompass munitions workers, nurses, laundresses, refugees, aid workers, and children who lived and worked in occupied zones, on home and battle fronts, and in the spaces in between. Comprehensive and global in scope, spanning the Eastern, Western, Italian, East African, and Mediterranean fronts, Proctor examines in lucid and evocative detail the role of experts in the war, the use of forced labour, and the experiences of children in the combatant countries. As in many wars, civilians on both sides of WWI were affected, and vast displacements of the populations shaped the contemporary world in countless ways, redrawing boundaries and creating or reviving lines of ethnic conflict. Plumbing primary source materials and secondary studies of combatant and neutral nations, while synthesizing French, German, Dutch, and English language sources, Proctor transcends the artificial boundaries of national histories and the exclusive focus on soldiers. Instead she tells the fascinating and long-buried story of the civilian in the Great War, allowing voices from the period to speak for themselves.


The goal of this research is to develop a method of control for a team of unmanned aerial and ground robots that is resilient, robust, and scalable given both complete and incomplete information of the environment. The method presented in this paper integrates approximate and optimal methods of path planning integrated with a market-based task allocation strategy. Further work presents a solution to unmanned ground vehicle path planning within the developed mission planning system framework under incomplete information. Deep reinforcement learning is proposed to solve movement through unknown terrain environment. The final demonstration for Advantage-Actor Critic deep reinforcement learning elicits successful implementation of the proposed model.


Setting Out on the Great Way brings together different perspectives on the origins and early history of Mahāyāna Buddhism and delves into selected aspects of its formative period. As the variety of the religion which conquered East Asia and also provided the matrix for the later development of Buddhist Tantra or Vajrayāna, Mahāyāna is regarded as one of the most significant forms of Buddhism, and its beginnings have long been the focus of intense scholarly attention and debate. The essays in this volume address the latest findings in the field, including contributions by younger researchers vigorously critiquing the reappraisal of the Mahāyāna carried out by scholars in the last decades of the 20th century and the different understanding of the movement which they produced. As the study of Buddhism as a whole reorients itself to embrace new methods and paradigms, while at the same time coming to terms with exciting new manuscript discoveries, our picture of the Mahāyāna continues to change. This volume presents the latest developments in this ongoing re-evaluation of one of Buddhism's most important historical expressions.


We report a pilot study of bone health of alcohol dependent women. Women admitted to an alcohol-withdrawal unit (cases) and a convenience sample of controls (nursing staff) were recruited and asked to complete a lifestyle questionnaire before undergoing heel ultrasound measurements. Fasting blood samples were obtained on the day of admission (day 1) and at 5 days. Bone turnover markers (P1NP and CTX) and vitamin D levels were measured in a subset of the alcohol dependent population. Cases were less physically active than controls. Alcoholic women had lower heel ultrasound derived Stiffness Index scores (mean 85.2 (17.6)) compared with controls (mean 95.5 (18.7)) (p=0.07). P1NP rose significantly over the detoxification programme (day 1: 28.35 � g/l (12.25); day 5: 34.19 � g/l (13.16), p=0.003) but CTX change was not significant. Lifestyle factors associated with poor bone health are prevalent in female alcoholics. Significant increase in bone formation was observed 5 days after alcohol withdrawal.