Bitcoin is promoted as an alternative to currency, and even at times as an alternative to money, but neither Bitcoin's development nor its promulgation emerge from thoughtful analyses of money or currency as they currently exist, let alone the thought and history that have figured in their development. The grounding problems that Bitcoin advocates consider central are not the ones that major thinkers about money or currency, from the Right or the Left, have deemed important. On the contrary, those grounding problems are largely ideological: the desire to bypass the (apparently lawful) credit card and PayPal "blockade" of WikiLeaks, on the one hand (usually mentioned as the instigating event in the widespread use of Bitcoin), and the desire to bypass central and/or commercial banks for either the creation of money (as many of the more rabid advocates insist) or the provision of financial services (the main interest of Satoshi Nakamoto's original Bitcoin paper), on the other. The former ideas emerge from a libertarian, anti-state politics familiar from much of the WikiLeaks story. The latter ideas emerge from the profoundly ideological and overtly conspiratorial anti-Central Bank rhetoric propagated by the extremist Right in the US, and which despite its overt "anti-bank" rhetoric, on most thoughtful analysis, serves rather than resists the interests of banks and big finance (much as despite its anti-bank rhetoric, Bitcoin itself is now promoted by banks, investors, and venture capitalists). Scholars of money like Mary Mellor and Ann Pettifor have suggested meaningful alternatives to the current money system, but Bitcoin has very little in common with their proposals, which would require societal assent as well as technical innovation. The lack of any thorough, non-conspiratorial analysis of existing financial systems means that Bitcoin fails to embody any true alternative to them. The reasons for this have little to do with technology and everything to do with the existing systems in which Bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies are embedded, systems that instantiate the forms of social power that cannot be eliminated through either wishful thinking or technical or even political evasion: the rich and powerful will not become poor and powerless simply because other people decide to operate alternate economies of exchange. Lacking a robust account of transforming these systems of power, even without Bitcoin's flaws, a "perfect" cryptocurrency would exacerbate, rather than address, the existing serious problems with our monetary and financial systems. Because it operates without such an account, Bitcoin's real utility and purpose (and that of the cryptocurrency movement in general) can be better understood as a "program" for recruiting uninformed citizens into a neoliberal anti-government politics, understanding the nature and effects of which requires just the attention to political theory and history that Bitcoin enthusiasts rail against.


The long-term in vitro culture and differentiation of human pancreatic islets is still hindered by the inability to emulate a suitable microenvironment mimicking physiological extracellular matrix (ECM) support and nutrient/oxygen perfusion. This is further amplified by the current lack of a non-invasive and rapid monitoring system to readily evaluate cellular processes. In this study, we realized a viable method for non-invasively monitoring isolated human pancreatic islets in vitro. Islets are induced to dedifferentiate into proliferative duct-like structures (DLS) in preparation for potential and subsequent re-differentiation into functional islet-like structures (ILS) in a process reminiscent of islet regeneration strategies. This long-term in vitro process is conducted within a three-dimensional microenvironment involving islets embedded in an optimized ECM gel supported by microfabricated three-dimensional scaffolds. The islet-scaffold is then housed and continuously perfused within chambers of a bioreactor platform. The process in its entirety is monitored through dielectric spectroscopy measurements, yielding an accurate representation of cellular morphology, functionality, and volume fraction. This non-invasive and real-time monitoring tool can be further manipulated to elucidate important information about the optimized cellular microenvironment required for maintaining long-term culture and achieve efficient differentiation for islet regeneration.


Incorporation of clicker technology in an introductory chemistry class is described as a method for collecting and automatically tabulating student feedback for use in formative faculty development. Students are polled in real-time on issues of classroom management and the success of various teaching methods. Tabulated data is displayed on the classroom screen and used to facilitate classroom discussion. This method was introduced in a first-year general chemistry class for non-majors and resulted in unusually high student evaluation marks in categories related to communication with the instructor. The success of the method was evaluated using midsemester and final student evaluations, informal written student evaluations, peer observation, and instructor reflection.


The derivation of margins for use in external beam radiotherapy involves a complex balance between ensuring adequate tumour dose coverage that will lead to cure of the cancer whilst sufficiently sparing the surrounding organs at risk (OARs). The treatment of cancer using ionising radiation is currently witnessing unprecedented levels of new treatment techniques and equipment being introduced. These new treatment strategies, with improved imaging during treatment, are aimed at improved radiation dose conformity to dynamic targets and better sparing of the healthy tissues. However, with the adoption of these new techniques for radiotherapy, the validity of the continued use of recommended statistical model based margin formulations to calculate the treatment margins is now being questioned more than ever before.
To derive margins for use in treatment planning which address present shortcomings, this study utilised novel applications of fuzzy logic and neural network techniques to the PTV margin problem. As an extension of this work a new hybrid fuzzy network technique was also adopted for use in margin derivation, a novel application of this technique which required new rule formulations and rule base manipulations. The new margin models developed in this study utilised a novel combination of the radiotherapy errors and their radiobiological effects which was previously difficult to establish using mathematical methods. This was achieved using fuzzy rules and neural network input layers.
An advantage of the neural network procedure was that fewer computational steps were needed to calculate the final result whereas the fuzzy based techniques required a significant number of iterative computational steps including the definition of the fuzzy rules and membership functions prior to computation of the final result. An advantage of the fuzzy techniques was their ability to use fewer data points to deduce the relationship between the output and input parameters. In contrast the neural network model requires a large amount of training data.
The previously stated limitations of currently recommended statistical techniques were addressed by application of the fuzzy and neural network models. A major advantage of the computational intelligence methods from this study is that they allow the calculation of patient-specific margins. Radiotherapy planning currently relies on the use of 'one size fits all' class solutions for margins for each tumour site and with the large variability in patient physiology these margins may not be suitable for use in some cases. The models from this study can be applied to other treatment sites, including brain, lung and gastric tumours.


"Ancestral Connections" unlocks the inner meaning of Australian Aboriginal bark painting. Drawing on more than ten years of fieldwork among the Yolngu--an Aboriginal people of Northeast Arnhem Land--and applying both anthropological and art historical methods, Howard Morphy explores systematically the graphic representation of traditional knowledge in Yolngu art. He also charts the role that art has played in Aboriginal society both present and past. The rich symbolism of Yolngu art links the Yolngu directly with the "Dreaming, " the time of world-creation that continues as the spiritual dimension of the present. Morphy shows how a complex dialectic of "inside" and "outside" interpretations of painting structures the system of knowledge in Yolngu society, and how European interest in this art has caused certain changes in the conditions of its production. The "inside" significance of the art, however, has not changed; it retains its dual ability to represent and to constitute relationships between things. "Ancestral Connections" is a major contribution to the anthropology of art. A subtle commentary on the colonial encounter in northern Australia, the book demonstrates how the Yolngu have used their art--against all odds--as an instrument of cultural survival and as a component of the economic and political transformation of their society.


Measurements are presented how chain and microphase-separated structures of ultrathin polyurethane (PU) films are controlled by the thickness. The film thickness is varied by a solution concentration for spin coating. The systems are PUs prepared from commercial raw materials. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopic measurement revealed that the degree of hydrogen bonding among hard segment chains decreased and increased with decreasing film thickness for strong and weak microphase separation systems, respectively. The microphase-separated structure, which is formed from hard segment domains and a surrounding soft segment matrix, were observed by atomic force microscopy. The size of hard segment domains decreased with decreasing film thickness, and possibility of specific orientation of the hard segment chains was exhibited for both systems. These results are due to decreasing space for the formation of the microphase-separated structure.


Background. An ectopic pregnancy can be a life-threatening condition. Early diagnosis with ultrasonography and quantitative beta-human chorionic gonadotrophin (β-hCG) measurement has improved early and accurate diagnosis and treatment. Medical management with methotrexate internationally has a success rate of up to 93%, but there is a paucity of data on this treatment option in developing countries. Objective. To determine the success of methotrexate treatment for ectopic pregnancies at a referral hospital in a developing country. This non-surgical, outpatient treatment seems a good option in hospitals with an ever-rising pressure on bed occupation and long waiting lists for emergency surgery. Methods. A 5-year retrospective audit was performed on 124 patients treated for ectopic pregnancies with methotrexate at Tygerberg Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa. Results. With success defined as a β-hCG level of <15 IU/L without requiring surgical intervention, the success rate was 44%. Fifteen per cent of medically managed patients required surgery. The remaining 41% were lost to follow-up. One patient had a major adverse outcome with a ruptured ectopic and required 2 units of blood, resuscitation and emergency laparotomy. Conclusion. Medical management of ectopic pregnancies is a safe and effective management option, as proven by international data, but at Tygerberg Hospital the safety of this treatment modality cannot be guaranteed because of poor follow-up. Improvement in patient selection with consideration of predictors of success and thorough counselling, as well as full informed consent, is recommended before using this treatment modality. A new follow-up system should be developed at Tygerberg Hospital to guarantee patient safety.


In 2015, analog synthesizers are resurgent in popular appeal. Robert Moog is often celebrated as the central and originary figure who launched a so-called revolution in sound by making synthesizers widely available in the late 1960s and early 970s. This essay examines the figure of the humble tinkerer, as exemplified by Moog, along with other historically specific and archetypal forms of masculinity that are embodied by the male subjects at the center of electronic music9s historical accounts. Critical readings of audio-technical discourse, and of the periodization of synthesizer histories, reveal that women are always already rendered out of place as subjects and agents of electronic music history and culture. Yet a set of letters, written by young women across the United States to Harry F. Olson at the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in the mid-1950s and analyzed in this article, demonstrates that women were an enthusiastic audience for the RCA synthesizer a decade before Moog built his prototypes. As they did with new media, including wireless radio and the phonograph, in the early twentieth century, women played a key role at midcentury in enabling the broad-based market for analog synthesizers that greeted Moog and others in the 1960s once these instruments were made available for widespread use.


The measured drainage fluxes through a layered volcanic vadose zone exhibited high spatial variability as a consequence of heterogeneous flow conditions. The drainage flux variability was quantified using automated equilibrium tension lysimeters, installed in close‐proximity and resulted in high variability in the Br masses recovered from a conservative tracer experiment. The primary cause of the heterogeneous flow was attributed to textural changes occurring at the interface between volcanic layers, resulting in development of funnel‐flow patterns, and further enhanced by the existence of hydrophobic conditions. The Br recoveries in individual automated equilibrium tension lysimeters were used to determine the corresponding variable sizes of the surface areas contributing drainage to the lysimeters. The tracer experiment confirmed the existence of unsaturated lateral transport occurring at the sloping interface of the coarse Taupo Ignimbrite material with the silty Palaeosol layer at approximately 4.2 m depth. This study demonstrates that measurements of both flux and solute concentrations at multiple locations are essential when heterogeneous flow is suspected to be present, to be able to determine reliable estimates of contaminant leaching through the vadose zone at the plot scale. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Aim: To determine a radiographic and clinical profile of adult subjects with scoliosis and to determine an association between selected radiographic and clinical parameters. Subjects: Sixty subjects between 18 and 45 years, with or without neck/back pain, previously diagnosed with scoliosis. Methodology: A case history and a physical examination of the subject which included an orthopedic assessment of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spinal areas were conducted for all subjects. Selected clinical data viz. a case history, family history, level and location of pain if present, presence of leg length inequality, pelvic obliquity, shoulder height inequality and/or rib hump was recorded. A full spine A-P radiograph was taken for each subject in the weight-bearing position. Selected radiographic parameters viz. location of curve/s, side of convexity, degree of pedicle rotation, level of the apex vertebra and the Cobb angle of inclination were assessed and recorded. SPSS version 15.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA) was used for data analysis. Results: The mean (± SD) age of the subjects was 26.8 (± 7.9) years. The majority of the subjects were females (63.3 %). A family history of scoliosis was reported by 14 subjects. Most of the subjects (73.3%) complained of pain of moderate severity at the time of presentation. The thoracic and lumbar regions were common areas of complaint in symptomatic subjects and they were most likely to experience pain at the level of the apex vertebra. Shoulder height inequality was observed in 96.7% of subjects, LLI in 91.7% of subjects, rib hump in 73.3% of subjects and pelvic obliquity in 86.7% of subjects. The majority of scoliotic curves were of idiopathic origin (96.7%). Thirty subjects presented with more than one curve. The mean (± SD) Cobb angle for the major curve was 21.3º (± 13.1º) while the mean (± SD) Cobb measurement for the minor curve was 16.7º (± 5.4º). The range for the major and minor curve was 11.5º - 97.0º and 10º- 37º respectively. Both the major and minor curve had the majority of curves located in the thoracic region. However, the apex vertebra was most likely to be found in the T7/T8 region for the major curve and L1/2 region for the minor curve. Pedicle rotation was Grade 1, Grade 0 or Grade 2 (in that order) for the major curves and Grade 0, Grade1 and Grade 2 for the minor iv curves. There was no significant association between the gender of the patient and the severity of pain (p = 0.725), severity of the major curve (p = 0.545) or grade of pedicle rotation (p = 0.639). There was also no significant association between the ethnicity of the subjects and severity of the major curve (p = 0.088) or degree of pedicle rotation (p = 0.882). No significant association was found between location of the major curve and presence of pain (p = 0.565) or between the side of the curve and pain (p = 0.812). There was no correlation between the degree of pain and the degree of curve (r = 0.102). No significant association was found between LLI and degree of curvature (p = 0.470). A significant association between LLI and reported pain was found (p = 0.034). A significant association was observed between the presence of a rib hump and the degree of curvature (p = 0.049). A positive correlation was found between rib hump elevation and degree of curvature (r = 0.814). A positive correlation between rib hump elevation and degree of pedicle rotation was found (rho = 0.308). Conclusion: Idiopathic scoliosis is the most common form of scoliosis in young adults. Pain is a common clinical feature in adult scoliosis. The size of the curve does not influence the magnitude of the LLI, pelvic obliquity or shoulder height inequality, however since these clinical features are common findings in the scoliotic individual, it is suggested that these parameters be routinely evaluated for their diagnostic significance. The presence of shoulder height inequality, LLI, rib hump and pelvic obliquity are deemed to be good clinical signs of scoliosis. Even though LLI was not associated with the magnitude of the curve, it may be a significant contributor to the back pain as LLI was found to be the only clinical parameter to have a significant association with pain. Therefore clinicians should explore the treatment of LLI to alleviate pain associated with scoliosis. The presence of a rib hump is a good clinical indication of the presence of a scoliosis.


Access to environmental justice is a key component to ensure just and equitable outcomes for sustainable development. This paper aims to assess the present judicial structures that offer access to environmental justice in India. The initiative, presented below has wider international purchase as it is a case study of a growing judicial development.India's policies and laws have sought to become comprehensive and stringent particularly as a consequence of the Bhopal tragedy in 1984. The 'command and control approach' is supplemented by new regulatory techniques such as environment impact assessments and public hearings. However, contradictions and gaps in institutional mechanisms have resulted in ineffective implementation of legislation. Factors such as slack performance by enforcement authorities, multi-layered corruption, political interference and personal gain are the root causes for this failure.As a consequence, the role of India's judiciary in securing the enforcement of rights through Public Interest Litigation [PIL] outside statute law but within the constitutional mandate has promoted new and unique environmental jurisprudence. PIL is an innovative and powerful judicial tool making human rights meaningful and effective. PIL has revolutionised the judicial procedure by introducing three procedural innovations: namely, expanded standing, non-adversarial procedure and attenuation of rights from remedies as a result of expanded frontiers of fundamental rights, particularly the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.The right to a healthy environment finds its genesis through the right to life. The state is under a duty to enforce this constitutional right by devising and implementing a coherent and coordinated programme for the well-being of the citizenry. Failure on the part of state have prompted the judges to issue short interim directions entitled 'continuing mandamus'. The proactive judiciary has also declared and promoted the principles of sustainable development, the precautionary and the polluter pays principles.However, concerns such as the rapidly increasing number of petitions, expensive and delayed disposal of petitions, complex technical and scientific issues, inconsistent approach by the courts based upon individual judicial preferences, unrealistic directions and the issue of creeping jurisdiction have created doubts about the current effectiveness of PIL in environmental matters. In seeking a balanced judicial forum that advances a distinctively green jurisprudence, the Parliament of India enacted the National Green Tribunal Act 2010. The National Green Tribunal [NGT] is one element of a reformist approach to environmental governance. The Tribunal aims to adjudicate environmental protection and forest conservation cases in an effective and expeditious manner. This includes enforcement of any legal right relating to the environment together with available relief and compensation for damages to persons and property. The NGT started functioning from 4th July 2011. The Principal Bench is based at New Delhi with circuit benches at Chennai, Bhopal, Pune and Kolkata so that it can reach remoter parts of India. The principal bench and the regional benches are active. India has joined a handful of forward looking countries including Australia and New Zealand to have a dedicated green court. The creation of NGT is an important initiative. NGT's potential is being realised in terms of type and volume of cases coming before it. The 'multi-faceted and multi-skilled' NGT with a wide jurisdiction is gradually earning the reputation of being a 'fast-track court'. It aims to strike a right balance between environment and development. The nature of cases which have come before the NGT include environmental clearances for developmental projects including dams, steel plants, hydro- electric projects and thermal power plants; coastal zone regulations; encroachments on the floodplains; issues relating to pollution and imposition of environmental fines. The principles of inter-generational equity, precautionary and polluter pays principle, public trust doctrine underpinning the international environmental law have been foundational norms in deciding the matters before the NGT. The institutional redesigning of this judicial structure is unlikely to be the panacea for all environmental ills but it can provide a lead in terms of new forms of environmental dispute resolution. This positive initiative must be seen within the broader context of balancing competing values of environment protection and sustainability on one hand and resource driven growth on the other.


We consider a nonlinear first order stochastic difference equation which may be viewed as a stochastic perturbation of {\it W. E. Ricker's} [J. Fish. Res. Bd. Can. 11, 559-623 (1954)] deterministic model of population growth. Numerical experiments seem to suggest that the corresponding Markov process has a stationary probability distribution but this is shown to be false by proving that the process is in fact null recurrent


Engaging customers online is fast becoming a focus for entrepreneurs, researchers and marketers as it offers a platform with a lower barrier of entry and is heavily utilized among the tech savvy millennial generation (aged 18-24) through social applications currently such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Often, using it as an entertainment source to replace television shows, online videos for today's millennial generation have become the new and socially acceptable way to interact with peers as well as with various brands. This research explores how fashion videos have risen in prominence and how they are perceived by the millennial generation. It explores attitude formation and online image processing to generate a hierarchical list of traits which participants focused upon when viewing a fashion video. The result is an established order to engage, direct and hold the attention of audiences for the longest time possible; eyes of the people in videos, lips, motion, size, images, colour, text style and, lastly, position. Using optometric or eye gaze tracking technology to capture where participants directed their focus, a comparison of what participants believed they valued to what they actually focused upon was demonstrated, with 30 semi-structured interviews and pre/post questionnaires to measure perceptions of the portrayed brand. This article articulates how the hierarchy generated is based upon a social referencing scheme for the viewer, followed by an attribute information search, to the situation and branded objects portrayed. Additionally this study, unsurprisingly, found that participants did not fully remember the full videos that they were exposed to, nor the content upon which they had directly focused. However, it is important to note that participants could recall considerably more amounts of information when their eye pupils dilated, presenting an opportunity for additional research. Shapeshifting Conference: Auckland University of Technology 14-‐16 April 2014 2


The past thirty years of conflict and political unrest in Afghanistan has decimated the country's education system in terms of staffing, premises, curricula, and student attendance, for both male and female students. The education sector has been at the forefront of the political battles and conflicts between competing interest groups during the wars of resistance and ideological and ethnic conflicts that have plagued the country over the past few decades (Changing Profile of Education in Afghanistan, 2013). The changing political ideologies have taken a toll on the quality of education services and weakened governance. The current Government is committed to tackling issues of security, poverty reduction, governance and shared and inclusive growth. It sees service delivery as playing a dual role in Afghanistan: promoting social cohesion and trust in public institutions, while laying the foundation for job creation and growth. Within the context of increased fragility that Afghanistan has been experiencing, the current report aims to provide an up-to-date analysis of the country's education sector, including the use of public expenditures spanning over the past six years. Supported by recent administrative and household data and using the information from a primary survey of off-budget funding, the report provides more insights on key aspects of the education system performance and provides recommendations for reforms along the themes of outcomes and expenditures.


The development of reversible oxygen electrodes, able to drive both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), is still a great challenge. We describe a very efficient and stable bifunctional electrocatalytic system for reversible oxygen electrodes obtained by direct CVD growth of nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) on the surface of cobalt boride (CoB) nanoparticles. A detailed investigation of the crystalline structure and elemental distribution of CoB before and after NCNT growth reveals that the NCNTs grow on small CoB nanoparticles formed in the CVD process. The resultant CoB/NCNT system exhibited outstanding activity in catalyzing both the OER and the ORR in 0.1 M KOH with an overvoltage difference of only 0.73 V between the ORR at −1 mA cm−2 and the OER at +10 mA cm−2. The proposed CoB/NCNT catalyst showed stable performance during 50 h of OER stability assessment in 0.1 M KOH. Moreover, CoB/NCNT spray-coated on a gas diffusion layer as an air-breathing electrode proved its high durability during 170 galvanostatic charge–discharge (OER/ORR) test cycles (around 30 h) at ±10 mA cm−2 in 6 M KOH, making it an excellent bifunctional catalyst for potential Zn–air battery application.


Throughout the New Testament, we find exhortations to imitate or follow in the steps of Christ, Paul and even some other godly people. In the Epistle to the Philippians, we find this exhortation to imitate incorporated into a Pauline theology of progressive sanctification. Sanctification in Philippians is portrayed as a conforming to Christ through the knowledge of Him, which comes through tripartite means of the Word of God (the Apostolic teaching), the internal work of God's Spirit and the imitation of Christ, the Apostle Paul and other godly examples. We will aim at forming a biblical theology of sanctification through imitation restricted in our analysis to the Epistle of Philippians. First part of the article reviews the teaching of sanctification in Philippians, with an emphasis on passages where Paul directly addresses this issue: Philippians 1:9-11, 27-29; 2:12-16; 3:1-15. Second part of the article introduces us to biblical teaching on imitation, and then it reviews a downward spiral of imitation: imitating Christ (Phil. 2:5), imitating Paul (Phil. 3:17a; 4:9) and imitating Paul's faithful imitators (Phil. 3:17b). In the conclusion, we will see that imitation of Christ and His faithful imitators is a means of progressive sanctification that is both important and often neglected, both by those who should serve as primary examples of godliness (spiritual leaders) and those who need to learn by imitating. Key terms: imitation, sanctification knowledge, transformation, model, Christ, Paul, Philippians, Holy Spirit, Scriptures


Hank Brown was always interested in accounting. As an undergraduate it was his major at the University of Colorado and through an accounting internship he worked for Eastman Kodak while in college. Brown had planned to join a CPA firm after graduating in 1961 but instead he volunteered for a four-year stint in the Navy, including a year in Vietnam (and earned an Air Medal with two gold stars, a Naval Unit Citation, the Vietnam Service Medal and National Defense Medal). Returning home in 1966, he entered law school at the University of Colorado, working part-time for Arthur Andersen's Denver office to help pay his bills. Again, he intended to join a CPA firm after receiving his law degree in 1969, but instead he accepted a position with Monfort, Inc., the nation's largest cattle feeding operation. Hank Brown never lid find permanent employment as a CPA but he obtained commendable employment elsewhere: Last year he was elected to the Senate from Colorado, becoming the first U. S. Senator who is an accredited CPA. A "CREATIVE ACCOUNTING PRIZE" FOR CONGRESS? "If we ever give out prizes for creative accounting, Congress will certainly head the list," remarks Brown, during an interview in which he lamented the lack of a basic understanding of accounting by those who set the nation's fiscal policies. "The very bizarre system that Congress uses does exactly what it's designed to do," says Brown. "It obfuscates the unfortunate fiscal policy the nation has." It's one of the things Brown would like to see changed, and he may get the chance. Brown was recently appointed to the Budget Committee, which he terms "a great forum to work from to straighten out fiscal policy." The 51-year-old Republican, a native Coloradan, is well-acquainted with the need to "straighten out" the nation's endemic problems, fiscal and otherwise. Regarded as moderate on social issues while fiscally conservative, Brown arrived in Washington in 1980 as a U.S. Representative from Colorado's largely agricultural 4th District. By 1988 the Almanac of American Politics had deemed Brown "one of the most effective Republicans in the House," partly for his work on the Ways and Means Committee, and the National Taxpayers' Union named him a "taxpayer's friend." On an office shelf Brown displays the line of "Golden Bulldog" statuettes he's received from a group called Watchdogs of the Treasury. Brown also gained a reputation for both his courtesy and tenacity-qualities that have helped him on several occasions to negotiate legislative compromises between liberals and conservatives. His interests range to other matters as well, including conservation. He shepherded through Congress legislation guaranteeing federal protection for Colorado's Cache La Poudre River and helped expand the boundaries of the Rocky Mountain National Park. Commuting between the Senate and Greeley, Colorado, every week to be with his family-his wife Nan and their three children-leaves Brown with little spare time, although he admits to a love for skiing whenever he can find the time. THE VALUE OF "PRATICAL EXPERIENCE" One of the biggest problems with Congress is too many members never had the chance to work for a living, Brown is convinced. "It's had disastrous consequences in terms of national policy," he says. "It's not that they're evil or bad people, it's that they simply don't have the practical experience to understand the effect of what they do." He gives as an example what happened when Congress required companies to adopt the calendar year for tax purposes. "The suggestion that you're going to have everybody on the same fiscal year is ludicrous," he asserts. …


Research in self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2002) has shown that satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs in sport contexts is associated with enhanced engagement, performance, and well-being. This article outlines the initial development of a multidimensional measure designed to assess psychological need thwarting, an under-studied area of conceptual and practical importance. Study 1 generated a pool of items designed to tap the negative experiential state that occurs when athletes perceive their needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness to be actively undermined. Study 2 tested the factorial structure of the questionnaire using confirmatory factor analysis. The supported model comprised 3 factors, which represented the hypothesized interrelated dimensions of need thwarting. The model was refined and cross-validated using an independent sample in Study 3. Overall, the psychological need thwarting scale (PNTS) demonstrated good content, factorial, and predictive validity, as well as internal consistency and invariance across gender, sport type, competitive level, and competitive experience. The conceptualization of psychological need thwarting is discussed, and suggestions are made regarding the use of the PNTS in research pertaining to the darker side of sport participation.


The paper integrates and analyzes the local data and literature on Filipino adolescent risk-taking published in the last two and a half decades (i.e., since 1981), using a developmental and ecological perspective. The authors first summarize the documented data on the incidence of risky behaviors, specifically substance use, risky sexual activity, and delinquency; second, the factors associated with the risky behaviors are presented; third, the authors analyze the prevalent themes from the literature and propose variables and mechanisms for conceptualizing and explaining adolescent risk-taking. Implications for further local research are discussed, which highlight the need for more complex research designs that attend to the processes and multiple contexts of risky behaviors among Filipino youth.


PURPOSE
Effect of organoselenium compound (selol), on antinociceptive action of opioid agonists in vincristine neuropathic pain model was investigated.

METHODS
The changes in pain thresholds were determined using mechanical stimuli--the modification of the classic paw withdrawal test described by Randall-Selitto.

RESULTS
Daily administration of VIN (70 microg/kg, iv) resulted in progressive decrease of pain threshold. Neither morphine, fentanyl nor buprenorphine administered alone in 5 consecutive days modified the vincristine-induced hyperalgesia, whereas selol slightly increased the nociceptive threshold. Co-administration of selol with opioids markedly enhanced the analgesic activity of all three investigated compounds.

CONCLUSIONS
Therefore, concomitant administration of selenium and opioids may be beneficial in terminal neoplastic states.


This book covers the area of product and process modelling via a case study approach. It addresses a wide range of modelling applications with emphasis on modelling methodology and the subsequent in-depth analysis of mathematical models to gain insight via structural aspects of the models. These approaches are put into the context of life cycle modelling, where multiscale and multiform modelling is increasingly prevalent in the 21st century. The book commences with a discussion of modern product and process modelling theory and practice followed by a series of case studies drawn from a variety of process industries. The book builds on the extensive modelling experience of the authors, who have developed models for both research and industrial purposes. It complements existing books by the authors in the modelling area. Those areas include the traditional petroleum and petrochemical industries to biotechnology applications, food, polymer and human health application areas. The book highlights to important nature of modern product and process modelling in the decision making processes across the life cycle. As such it provides an important resource for students, researchers and industrial practitioners. Ian Cameron is Professor in Chemical Engineering at the University of Queensland with teaching, research, and consulting activities in process systems engineering. He has a particular interest in process modelling, dynamic simulation, and the application of functional systems perspectives to risk management, having extensive industrial experience in these areas. He continues to work closely with industry and government on systems approaches to process and risk management issues. He received his BE from the University of New South Wales (Australia) and his PhD from imperial College London. He is a Fellow of IChemE. Rafiqul Gani is a Professor of Systems Design at the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, and the director of the Computer Aided Product-Process Engineering Center (CAPEC). His research interests include the development of computer-aided methods and tools for modelling, property estimation and process-product synthesis and design. He received his BSc from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 1975, and his MSc in 1976 and PhD in 1980 from Imperial College London. He is the editor-in-chief of Computers and Chemical Engineering journal and Fellow of IChemE as well as AIChE. - product and process modelling; a wide range of case studies are covered - structural analysis of model systems; insights into structure and solvability - analysis of future developments; potential directions and significant research and development problems to be addressed.


The will of an omnipotent being would be perfectly efficacious. Alexander Pruss and I have provided an analysis of perfect efficacy that relies on non-trivial counterpossible conditionals. Scott Hill has objected that not all of the required counterpossibles are true of God. Sarah Adams has objected that perfect efficacy of will (on any analysis) would be an extrinsic property and so is not suitable as a divine attribute. I argue that both of these objections can be answered if the divine will is taken to be the ground , rather than the cause, of its fulfillment.


This research explores how communities of practice facilitate knowledge dynamics through unique social processes. Despite the growing focus on communities of practice as an effective way to facilitate knowledge management and innovation; the social processes used by such communities to engage in continuous knowledge sharing and new idea generation is yet to be fully explored. In particular, this study focuses on how expert communities operating within organisational boundaries use social processes to share knowledge among members which enhances their creativity and innovative outcomes within such expert communities. The findings highlight the significance of actively encouraging and supporting the cultivation of social networks within their organisations to create value through fostering knowledge sharing and new idea generation. Therefore, it is important for managers and senior members to recognise the value of social interactions when facilitating knowledge sharing and innovation within organisational


: Information and communication technology (ICT) continues to change business as we know it. As ICT further integrates into our daily lives, it creates more opportunities to both help and hinder fundamental social problems throughout the world. In response to these growing and urgent societal needs, the Association for Information Systems approved the Bright ICT Initiative to extend IS research beyond a focus on business to take on the broader challenges of an ICT-enabled bright society. We conducted a Delphi study to provide guidance on where bright ICT-minded researchers might focus to produce their greatest impact. In this paper, we report on our findings. The Delphi panel comprised 182 globally distributed IS journal editors who participated in a three-round consensus-building process via the Internet. Our results provide a framework of eleven research priority areas and specific research topics for those engaged in future-oriented, socially conscious IS research.


Utilizing load, price, and survey data for 119 large customers that paid competitively determined hourly electricity prices announced the previous day between 2000 and 2004, this study provides insight into the factors that determine the intensity of price response. Peak and off-peak electricity can be: perfect complements, substitutes, or substitutes where high peak prices cause temporary disconnection from the grid, as for some firms with on-site generation. The average elasticity of substitution is 0.11. Thirty percent of the customers use peak and off-peak electricity in fixed proportions. The 18% with elasticities greater than 0.10 provide 75% of the aggregate price response. In contrast to Industrial customers, Commercial/Retail and Government/Education customers are more price responsive on hot days and when the ratio of peak to off-peak prices is high. Price responsiveness is not substantially reduced when customers operate near peak usage. Diversity of customer circumstances and price response suggest dynamic pricing is suited for some, but not all customers.


This thesis examines Barry Hines's representation of contemporary British working-class and working-class culture. The corpus includes the writer's nine novels: The Blinder published in 1966, A Kestrel for a Knave in 1968, First Signs in 1972, The Gamekeeper in 1975, The Price of Coal in 1979, Looks and Smiles in 1981, Unfinished Business in 1983, The Heart of It in 1994 and finally Elvis over England in 1998. The written work also comprises the play entitled Two Men from Derby which was first shown on BBC 1 on 21 February 1976 and subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 23 October 1976. Besides the scope of the author's literary output has been enhanced thanks to the adaptation of four of his narratives to cinema through his collaboration with the film-maker Ken Loach. In 1969 the novel entitled The Kestrel for a Knave was adapted into the film named Kes. The Price of Coal was first written for a television series which broadcast in 1977 before being published in book form. The Gamekeeper, was adapted into a film in 1980. Looks and Smiles won the Young Cinema Award in the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. Barry Hines's position as both a novelist as a scriptwriter has enabled his message to be more widespread.It is the tenor of his message that I study and analyse through the study of his literary output which spans the second half of the 20th century. I wish to question his use of supposedly straightforward realism, verging on naturalism, through the delineation of the geographical, the human, the social and the cultural backdrop. The writer's literary treatment combines up-to-date details with traditional tenets which conjure up a nostalgic backdrop in the face of the economic, historical and social upheavals of the era. The outlook which remains steeped in the past underscore the timelessness of the working-class according to the narrator. Yet is this definition still relevant as the recent re-shaping of the microcosm is acknowledged, yet downplayed. The overall feeling of everlastingness highlight the entrapment of the contemporary working-class members who cannot come to terms with the successive changes undergone by British society. The writer's staunch empathy and his use of humour assuage the bleakness of the habitat and of the social conditions. His optimism contrasts with the current virulent contempt levelled at the working-class as he advocates active participation as the only way-out.


UBVRUHK photometry of the Vega-excess star SAO 26804=HD 233517 and several stars of its environments obtained at the I-meter telescope of the Tien-Shan Observatory in Kazakhstan is presented. It is shown that the star has a later
spectral type than has been considered oreviously. Its effective temperature is estimated by the visual surface brightness method
as 4170 K. The star has no excess radiation in the range of 0.3-2.5 um. A comparison of its IR-excesses with those of other K-type stars with IR-excesses is made. HD 233517 is probably
more evolved than SAO 179815=HD 98800 having a very similar intrinsic spectral energy distribution (SED) and the largest IR-excess among K-type stars from the SAO catalogue.


Can public policy interfere with culture, such as beliefs and norms of cooperation? We investigate this question by evaluating the interactions between the State and the Civil Society, focusing on the labor market. International data shows a negative correlation between union density and the quality of labor relations on one hand, and state regulation of the minimum wage on the other hand. To explain this relation, we develop a model of learning of the quality of labor relations. State regulation crowds out the possibility for workers to experiment negotiation and learn about the true cooperative nature of participants in the labor market. This crowding out effect can give rise to multiple equilibria: a "good" equilibrium characterized by strong beliefs in cooperation, leading to high union density and low state regulation; and a "bad" equilibrium, characterized by distrustful labor relations, low union density and strong state regulation of the minimum wage. We then use surveys on social attitudes and unionization behavior to document the relation between minimum wage legislation and the beliefs about the scope of cooperation in the labor market. JEL Classification: J30, J50, K00.


Psychologists have recently begun to study the psychological dimensions of judging, but to date almost all of the research has been on lay experimental subjects. Implicit in the research, therefore, is that the judge's attributes as a human bring are more important than the judge's attribute's as lawyer and/or as judge in explaining judicial behavior. This may possibly be true, and it is relatively consistent with a Legal Realist understanding of judges and judging, but there remains a need for research directed specifically to the question whether judges by virtue of legal training, self-selection to judging, or judicial experience think and reason and make decisions differently from lay people. More specifically, when judges engage in tasks typically reserved to judges - finding and interpreting the relevant law, most prominently - are their cognitive processes different from those of lay people engaged in analogous tasks, and from those of lay people engaged in different and more fact-focused tasks? Until we can answer these questions based on systematic research, we will not know whether there is a psychology of judging at all, as opposed simply to general psychology applied to some of the tasks in which judges, like all other decision makers, engage.


Accreditation has become more prominent for business schools since two decades. In this paper, we explore how accreditation influences the internal and external processes of identity dynamics. First, we argue that Hatch & Schultz (2002) framework, social identity theory and the habitual routines approach offer a comprehensive theoretical framework. Second, we illustrate it with a European Management School's accreditation failure and its management of change related to the accreditation goal. We elaborate and discuss a model titled "Identity Change through Accreditation" (ICA). Finally, we suggest some implications for managing change during accreditation as well as avenues for research.


Plains larkspur (Delphinium geyeri Greene) is a major cause of cattle deaths in the northern Great Plains of Wyoming and Colorado. We examined the amount and timing of larkspur ingestion by grazing cattle in relation to larkspur phenology, nutrient concentrations, and weather conditions. Four summer grazing trials were conducted near Cheyenne (1996 and 1997) and Laramie, Wyo. (1998 and 1999). All trials began when plains larkspur was vegetative or in the early bud stage. In the first 2 studies, 6 yearling heifers grazed from 3 May to 4 August 1996; the same animals plus 5 cow-calf pairs grazed from 13 May to 10 August 1997. During both 1996 and 1997, cattle ate 0.5 to 1% of bites as larkspur during May, then consumption decreased to nearly 0 during the remainder of both summers. When eaten, larkspur was typically consumed during cool, foggy weather conditions. In the last 2 studies, 6 cow-calf pairs grazed near Laramie, Wyo., from 13 May to 30 June 1998, and 6 different cow-calf pairs grazed from 2 June to 20 July 1999. Cattle ate substantial amounts of plains larkspur (herd average approximately 3%) during the vegetative and bud stages from mid-May into early June, 1998. Cattle may have eaten more larkspur during 1998 because drought reduced spring availability of green grass. Consumption of larkspur was negatively related (r2 = 0.43) to daily temperature in 1998, but not during 1999. During 1999 cattle ate essentially no plains larkspur during the vegetative and bud stages, but ate larkspur (herd average approximately 5%) during the flower and pod stages when larkspur plants were beginning to desiccate and ambient temperatures were above average. This series of trials indicates that it will be difficult to predict plains larkspur consumption based on larkspur growth patterns or weather. Although cattle sometimes increase plains larkspur consumption when temperatures are cooler than normal, this pattern is not consistent enough to serve as a basis for management recommendations. DOI:10.2458/azu_jrm_v55i4_pfister


This research determined the level of competency in deliveries handled, deliveries assisted, and initial newborn care among students who have done the procedure the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and the 5th time. It provides evidence as to whether the number of scrubs required by the PRC is an appropriate measure of competency. Utilizing direct observation method, this study had a total of 158 participants chosen in a nonrandom manner. Data were collected in two sites – Silliman University in the Visayas and Liceo de Cagayan University in Mindanao. A Delivery Room Checklist was used to assess the competency of the DR scrubs. The students achieved very satisfactory competence level on the third delivery handle, satisfactory rating on the third delivery assist, and very satisfactory rating on the third initial care of new born. The competency level is achieved on the third delivery room scrub, therefore, only three delivery room scrubs should be required for Nurse Licensure Examination. Key words – Delivery room scrubs, competency measures for delivery room scrub.


The question whether Congress may create legal classifications based on Indian status under the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause is not reaching a critical point. Critics claim the Constitution allows no room to create race or ancestry based legal classifications. The critics are wrong.

When it comes to Indian affairs, the Constitution is not colorblind. Textually, I argue, the Indian Commerce Clause and Indians Not Taxed Clause serve as express authorization for Congress to create legal classifications based on Indian race and ancestry, so long as those classifications are not arbitrary, as the Supreme Court stated a century ago in United States v. Sandoval and more recently in Morton v. Mancari.

Should the Supreme Court reconsider those holdings, I suggest there are significant structural reasons why the judiciary should refrain from applying strict scrutiny review of Congressional legal classifications rooted in the political question doctrine and the institutional incapacity of the judiciary. Who is an Indian is a deeply fraught question to which judges have no special institutional capacity to assess.


Protecting human health in today's global food market is an important challenge and one which must be addressed through internationally recognized food safety systems. The overall responsibility for food safety is shared by all segments of the food system, including the various industry sectors, government regulatory agencies and consumers in general. Any threat to the food supply, whether by intentional or unintentional contamination could result in danger to health, considerable cost to food chain suppliers and could also affect trade. This paper will highlight some food safety management initiatives of three countries -- Trinidad and Tobago; the Philippines, and Bangladesh in protecting the food supply from hazards. The initiatives of some non-governmental organizations in Trinidad and Tobago are presented. In the Philippines both the public and private sector are active in encouraging strict adherence to the food legislations. A non-government agency has successfully used inventions and innovative training kits under the "4-in-1 Food Safety Training system: 5S, GAP (Good Agricultural Practice), GMP (Good Management Practices) and HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) in the last decade to help the food industries meet the safety and quality requirements of national and international trade. For Bangladesh, the challenges and opportunities of the frozen fish trade through implementing principles of HACCP and some updated food safety legislations are highlighted.


Piezoelectric structures have been used in a variety of applications ranging from vibration control and sensing to morphing and energy harvesting. In order to employ the effective 33-mode of piezoelectricity, interdigitated electrodes have been used in the design of macro-fiber composites which employ piezoelectric fibers with rectangular cross section. In this article, we present an investigation of the two-way electroelastic coupling (in the sense of direct and converse piezoelectric effects) in bimorph cantilevers that employ interdigitated electrodes for 33-mode operation. A distributed-parameter electroelastic modeling framework is developed for the elastodynamic scenarios of piezoelectric power generation and dynamic actuation. Mixing rules (i.e. rule of mixtures) formulation is employed to evaluate the equivalent and homogenized properties of macro-fiber composite structures. The electroelastic and dielectric properties of a representative volume element (piezoelectric fiber and epoxy matrix) between two neighboring interdigitated electrodes are then coupled with the global electro-elastodynamics based on the Euler–Bernoulli kinematics accounting for two-way electromechanical coupling. Various macro-fiber composite bimorph cantilevers with different widths are tested for resonant dynamic actuation and power generation with resistive shunt damping. Excellent agreement is reported between the measured electroelastic frequency response and predictions of the analytical framework that bridges the continuum electro-elastodynamics and mixing rules formulation.


The effect of neutron and gamma ray irradiations on the optical properties of proton exchanged Z-cut lithium niobate optical planar waveguides were investigated. The damage thresholds were found by optical characterization for waveguides exchanged either in pure or diluted proton source.


Two messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines developed by Pfizer‐BioNTech and Moderna are being rolled out. Despite the high volume of emerging evidence regarding adverse events (AEs) associated with the COVID‐19 mRNA vaccines, previous studies have thus far been largely based on the comparison between vaccinated and unvaccinated control, possibly highlighting the AE risks with COVID‐19 mRNA vaccination. Comparing the safety profile of mRNA vaccinated individuals with otherwise vaccinated individuals would enable a more relevant assessment for the safety of mRNA vaccination. We designed a comparative safety study between 18 755 and 27 895 individuals who reported to VigiBase for adverse events following immunization (AEFI) with mRNA COVID‐19 and influenza vaccines, respectively, from January 1, 2020, to January 17, 2021. We employed disproportionality analysis to rapidly detect relevant safety signals and compared comparative risks of a diverse span of AEFIs for the vaccines. The safety profile of novel mRNA vaccines was divergent from that of influenza vaccines. The overall pattern suggested that systematic reactions like chill, myalgia, fatigue were more noticeable with the mRNA COVID‐19 vaccine, while injection site reactogenicity events were more prevalent with the influenza vaccine. Compared to the influenza vaccine, mRNA COVID‐19 vaccines demonstrated a significantly higher risk for a few manageable cardiovascular complications, such as hypertensive crisis (adjusted reporting odds ratio [ROR], 12.72; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.47–65.54), and supraventricular tachycardia (adjusted ROR, 7.94; 95% CI, 2.62–24.00), but lower risk of neurological complications such as syncope, neuralgia, loss of consciousness, Guillain‐Barre syndrome, gait disturbance, visual impairment, and dyskinesia. This study has not identified significant safety concerns regarding mRNA vaccination in real‐world settings. The overall safety profile patterned a lower risk of serious AEFI following mRNA vaccines compared to influenza vaccines.


The development of entrepreneurship in China is coined in this paper as the 'Chintrepreneurship', namely, the China-way of entrepreneurship, which is defined synthetically as an integral result of ideological transformation, industrial institutionalization and privatization, and technological transition from imitation and innovation. From an evolutionary perspective, China-way of entrepreneurship is resulted from the three-staged economic reformation. From a dialectic perspective, government intervention is not only a driver but also an obstacle to the formation of China-way of entrepreneurship, which is outlined as a compounded effect of dual-track policy, financial policy, FDI policy, science, technology, and innovation policy, education and human capital policy. As an exploratory study and relying on an in-depth and extensive literature review, on-site observations and thousands of interviews, this paper endeavors to establish a theoretical framework, to contour the taxonomy and the four constraints, and to distinguish the formational mechanism of China-way of entrepreneurship from the previously defined ones. Theoretically, this paper proposes a need for a paradigm shift from polarized (Washington Consensus) to de-polarized (Beijing Consensus), and argues that, the network-based framework (aka: the neo-classical economics) fits to rationalize the peculiarity and mechanism of China-way of entrepreneurship, uniquely incubated from the politically autocratic, bureaucratic and cronyism oriented social and institutional systems. This paper concludes that entrepreneurship does exist in China, and that, government intervention and seedling approach serve as strategic and exogenous forces, while imitation and low marginal price act as tactical and endogenous factors – together, they constitute the developmental mechanism of CHINTREPRENEURSHIP, in parallel with economic transition, from traditionally the global production networks (GPNs) to presently the global production and trade networks (GPTNs), from manufacturing-based to service and consumption oriented. From the perspective of Darwin's 'survival of the fittest', criticism is definitely needed, in order to legitimize the theory of CHINTREPRENEURSHIP.


Currently artificial emotions are being extensively used in robots. Most of these implementations are employed to display affective states. Nevertheless, their use to drive the robot's behavior is not so common. This is the approach followed by the authors in this work. In this research, emotions are not treated in general but individually. Several emotions have been implemented in a real robot, but in this paper, authors focus on the use of the emotion of fear as an adaptive mechanism to avoid dangerous situations. In fact, fear is used as a motivation which guides the behavior during specific circumstances. Appraisal of fear is one of the cornerstones of this work. A novel mechanism learns to identify the harmful circumstances which cause damage to the robot. Hence, these circumstances elicit the fear emotion and are known as fear releasers. In order to prove the advantages of considering fear in our decision making system, the robot's performance with and without fear are compared and the behaviors are analyzed. The robot's behaviors exhibited in relation to fear are natural, i.e., the same kind of behaviors can be observed on animals. Moreover, they have not been preprogrammed, but learned by real inter actions in the real world. All these ideas have been implemented in a real robot living in a laboratory and interacting with several items and people.


As knowledge is now being distributed and shared through the Internet not only in the form of text but also in that of video, UCC (User Created Content) knowledge video sharing services have emerged on the Internet such as Instructables.com. This paper deals with a UCC knowledge video service in real world and reports the case of analyzing its customer model. The knowledge video sharing service can be considered as both a kind of discontinuous innovation, which requires knowledge provider's technical ability of creating and editing UCC video, and a value network, which matches UCC providers and consumers therefore brings network effect, we first adopt the Chasm theory as the base of the customer model and refine the customer model referencing the Technographics, which is also an Internet-refinement of the Chasm model. Finally, non-customer analysis of Blue Ocean strategy is applied for exploring potential customers of the service.


Tracking technologies such as GPS, mobile phone tracking, video and RFID monitoring are rapidly becoming part of daily life. Technological progress offers huge possibilities for studying human activity patterns in time and space in new ways. Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) held an international expert meeting in early 2007 to investigate the current and future possibilities and limitations of the application of tracking technologies in urban design and spatial planning. This book is the result of that expert meeting. Urbanism on Track introduces the reader to the basics of tracking research and provides insight into its advantages above other research techniques. But it also shows the bottlenecks in gathering and processing data and applying research results to real-life problems. Urbanism on Track showcases tracking experiments in urban studies, planning and design – from pedestrian navigation in Austria to Danish field tests, from TU Delft's Spatial Metro project to MIT's Real Time Rome and last but not least the Sense of the City project realised in Eindhoven. Urbanism on Track discusses the relevance of tracking for policy making, the possibilities of a new cartography and the implementation of tracking technologies in urban design and planning. This makes Urbanism on Track a unique book, setting the agenda for the structural embedment of research using tracking technologies in urbanism.


Background: The birth weight of a neonate depends mainly on optimal placental growth and function in utero. Measurement of the placental weight, the neonatal birth weight and the placenta-birth weight ratio is an indirect way of assessing this vital relationship. This underscores the significance of placental weight as a major determinant of neonatal weight.
Objective: To determine the placental weight, birth weight and placental- birth weight ratio in a cross-section of subjects attending our antenatal clinic
Methodology: This was a clinic-based cross-sectional study from July 31, 2015 to June 30, 2017. Four hundred and forty-four (444) subjects attending our antenatal clinic were recruited through systematic random sampling. The placental weights and birth weights were measured within one hour of delivery using a table –top beam weighing scale. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS version 20.0 and significance set at a P-value of <0.05.
Results: Four hundred and forty-four subjects (whose mean age was 28.75 years, mean parity was 1.5 and mean gestational age at delivery was 38.70 weeks) participated in the study. The mean placental weight was 670 g, the mean birth weight was 3300 g and the mean placental-birth weight ratio (PBWR) was 20.3. Two hundred and eighteen (49.1%) of the neonates were male and 226(50.9%) were female. There was a positive correlation between the placental weight and the placental-birth weight ratio(X2 = 108.570; p-value = 0.001). There was a progressive decline in the PBWR with gestational age at term.
Conclusion: The placental weight increased with the birth weight and the gestational age. The placenta-birth weight ratio declined progressively with gestational age.


A novel multiresolution image analysis technique based on hierarchies of irregular tessellations generated in parallel by independent stochastic processes is presented. Like traditional image pyramids these hierarchies are constructed in a number of steps on the order of log(image-size) steps. However, the structure of a hierarchy is adapted to the image content and artifacts of rigid resolution reduction are avoided. Two applications of these techniques are presented: connected component analysis of labeled images and segmentation of gray level images. In labeled images, every connected component is reduced to a separate root, with the adjacency relations among the components also extracted. In gray level images the output is a segmentation of the image into a small number of classes as well as the adjacency graph of the classes. >


Competition between four foliose lichen species, common on slate rock surfaces in South Gwynedd, Wales, UK, was studied in experimental plots with and without nutrient enrichment by bird droppings. Fragments of the four lichens were glued to pieces of slate on horizontal boards in monoculture and in two-, three- and four-species mixtures in a factorial experimental design. In monoculture, nutrient enrichment increased thallus area of Parmelia conspersa (Ehrh. ex. Ach.) Ach., decreased thallus areas of Parmelia saxatilis (L.) Ach. and Parmelia glabratula ssp. fuliginosa (Fr. ex. Duby) Laundon, and did not affect thallus area of Phaeophyscia orbicularis (Necker) Moberg compared with untreated thalli. In the mixtures, P. conspersa and Ph. orbicularis were equally effective competitors in plots with and without nutrient enrichment. Addition of bird droppings, however, altered the ability of P. saxatilis and P. glabratula ssp. fuliginosa, to compete with the other species, the competitive ability of both species being reduced in some mixtures but increased in others. The results suggest that nutrient enrichment may alter the competitive balance between the four lichen species and this may be a factor determining their relative abundance on rock surfaces in South Gwynedd.


Up-to-date surveys of all major research areas in international trade and international finance are presented in this volume. The chapters have a high standard of exposition, delivering ideas at the forefront of the field in a clear readable fashion. The volume has a good overall balance of theoretical and empirical coverage. The trade side of the volume surveys theoretical work on trade based on scale economics and imperfect competition, the relationship between trade and technological progress, strategic trade policy, the political economy of trade policy, and the rules and institutions of international trade, as well as empirical work on trade patterns, trade policies, and regional integration. The finance side covers topics such as exchange rates, purchasing power parity, the current account, the international transmission of business cycles, foreign ending, international capital markets, target zones and speculative attacks on fixed exchange rates, and international economic policy coordination. For students and researchers interested in understanding developments in modern international economics, this book is an essential reference.


A skin window enables noninvasive, longitudinal monitoring of cancer growth and therapy response in tissue-engineered bone in mice. Bone tumors revealed Noninvasive imaging can help monitor cancer metastasis and tumor-stroma interactions but is challenging for thick, dense tissues such as bone. Dondossola et al. studied prostate cancer metastasis to bone using tissue engineering and intravital multiphoton microscopy in mice. A skin window overlaying implanted engineered bone constructs injected with cancer cells allowed for observation of osteolysis in the bone constructs, with osteoclasts localized at the tumor-bone interface. Treatment with zoledronic acid slowed osteoclast activity (bone resorption) without affecting cancer growth. This engineered bone and imaging method gives a glimpse into tumor-bone interactions that could be useful to test therapies for bone remodeling and cancer metastasis. Intravital multiphoton microscopy (iMPM) in mice provides access to cellular and molecular mechanisms of metastatic progression of cancers and the underlying interactions with the tumor stroma. Whereas iMPM of malignant disease has been performed for soft tissues, noninvasive iMPM of solid tumor in the bone is lacking. We combined miniaturized tissue-engineered bone constructs in nude mice with a skin window to noninvasively and repetitively monitor prostate cancer lesions by three-dimensional iMPM. In vivo ossicles developed large central cavities containing mature bone marrow surrounded by a thin cortex and enabled tumor implantation and longitudinal iMPM over weeks. Tumors grew inside the bone cavity and along the cortical bone interface and induced niches of osteoclast activation (focal osteolysis). Interventional bisphosphonate therapy reduced osteoclast kinetics and osteolysis without perturbing tumor growth, indicating dissociation of the tumor-stroma axis. The ossicle window, with its high cavity-to-cortex ratio and long-term functionality, thus allows for the mechanistic dissection of reciprocal epithelial tumor-bone interactions and therapy response.


The use of beads as body adornment has served as a strong non-verbal communicative device within Ghanaian culture. Decorating oneself with beads can depict a person's mood, project a period in life one is going through, and display the social status of the individual. This study focuses on the significance beads have in portraying the prestige, inheritance and duty of responsibility of traditional figures of authority. The research was concentrated on the chiefs and queen mothers of the Ewe cultural group and their particular usage of beads as an item of royal regalia. Behind the beautiful, aesthetic expression of bead adornment is an underlying principle of reason. This study investigates answers to why certain beads are only associated with royalty; how "pomp and circumstance" are ever present at formal ceremonies and the history that encompasses the reasons from where these practices and beliefs may be derived. Within this work is an outlying historical background of the Ewes of Ghana, including their most recent migration from Togo and the festivals that celebrate this occurrence. Present at the festivals are notable attire and adornment which reveal the important positions which royalty hold as both "symbolic figures" and present day "active figures" in Ewe society. This paper will discuss the special kinds of beads that tell a vital story of the prestige, inheritance, and social status of the chiefs and queen mothers.


Our understanding of the process of fast reconnection has undergone a dramatic change in the last 10 years driven, in part, by the availability of high-resolution numerical simulations that have consistently demonstrated the break-up of current sheets into magnetic islands, with reconnection rates that become independent of Lundquist number, challenging the belief that fast magnetic reconnection in flares proceeds via the Petschek mechanism which invokes pairs of slow-mode shocks connected to a compact diffusion region. The reconnection sites are too small to be resolved with images, but these reconnection mechanisms, Petschek and the plasmoid instability, have reconnection sites with very different density and velocity structures and so can be distinguished by high-resolution line-profile observations. Using IRIS spectroscopic observations we obtain a survey of typical line profiles produced by small-scale events thought to be reconnection sites on the Sun. Slit-jaw images are used to investigate the plasma heating and re-configuration at the sites. A sample of 15 events from 2 active regions is presented. The line profiles are complex with bright cores and broad wings extending to over 300 km s−1. The profiles can be reproduced with the multiple magnetic islands and acceleration sites that characterize the plasmoid instability but not by bi-directional jets that characterize the Petschek mechanism. This result suggests that if these small-scale events are reconnection sites, then fast reconnection proceeds via the plasmoid instability, rather than the Petschek mechanism during small-scale reconnection on the Sun.


Uncertainties in the sensor data such as measurement noise, false detections caused by clutter, as well as merged, split, incomplete or missed detections due to a sensor malfunction or occlusions (both due to the limited sensor field of view and objects in the scene) make multi-target tracking a very complicated task. Thus one of the big challenges is track management and correct data association between detections and tracks. In this contribution we present an algorithm for visual detection and tracking of multiple extended targets under occlusions and split and merge effects. Unlike most of the state-of-the-art approaches we utilize low-level information integrating it in a unified approach based on a threshold-free probabilistic conception. The introduced scheme makes it possible to utilize information about composition of the measurements gained through tracking of dedicated feature points in the image and resolves data association ambiguities in a soft decision using a globally optimal probabilistic data association approach. Beside existence evolution consideration we also exploit the spatial and temporal relationship between stably tracked points and tracked objects, which along with observability analysis, allows us for reconstruction of compatible measurements and thus correct track update even in cases of splits, merges and partial occlusions of the tracked targets.


Frequent high seismic activities occur in Taiwan due to fast plate motions. According to the historical records the most destructive earthquakes in Taiwan were caused mainly by inland active faults. The Central Geological Survey (CGS) of Taiwan has published active fault maps in Taiwan since 1998. There are 33 active faults noted in the 2012 active fault map. After the Chi-Chi earthquake, CGS launched a series of projects to investigate the details to better understand each active fault in Taiwan. This article collected this data to develop active fault parameters and referred to certain experiences from Japan and the United States to establish a methodology for earthquake probability assessment via active faults. We consider the active faults in Central Taiwan as a good example to present the earthquake probability assessment process and results. The appropriate "probability model" was used to estimate the conditional probability where M ≥ 6.5 and M ≥ 7.0 earthquakes. Our result shows that the highest earthquake probability for M ≥ 6.5 earthquake occurring in 30, 50, and 100 years in Central Taiwan is the Tachia-Changhua fault system. Conversely, the lowest earthquake probability is the Chelungpu fault. The goal of our research is to calculate the earthquake probability of the 33 active faults in Taiwan. The active fault parameters are important information that can be applied in the following seismic hazard analysis and seismic simulation.


This wide-ranging narrative explores the role that Jews, Conversos, and Crypto-Jews played in settling and building the Atlantic world between 1500 and 1800. Through the interwoven themes of markets, politics, religion, culture, and identity, the essays here demonstrate that the world of Atlantic Jewry, most often typified by Port Jews involved in mercantile pursuits, was more complex than commonly depicted. The first section discusses the diaspora in relation to maritime systems, commerce, and culture on the Atlantic and includes an overview of Jewish history on both sides of the ocean. The second section provides an in-depth look at Jewish mercantilism, from settlements in Dutch America to involvement in building British, Portuguese, and other trading cultures to the dispersal of Sephardic merchants. In the third section, the chapter authors assess the roles of identity and religion in settling the Atlantic, looking closely at religious conversion; slavery; relationships among Jews, Christians, and Muslims; and the legacy of the lost tribes of Israel. A concluding commentary elucidates the fluidity of identity and boundaries in the formation of the Atlantic world. Featuring chapters by Jonathan Israel, Natalie Zemon Davis, Aviva Ben-Ur, Holly Snyder, and other prominent Jewish historians, this collection opens new avenues of inquiry into the Jewish diaspora and integrates Jewish trade and settlements into the broader narrative of Atlantic exploration.


Women represent the majority of informal sector workers in developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where adolescent pregnancy rates are high. Little empirical evidence exists concerning the relationship between teen fertility and the likelihood that a woman will be employed in the informal sector. Using a panel survey in Madagascar designed to capture the transition from adolescence to adulthood, we estimate a multinomial logit model to capture the effect of the timing of first birth on female selection into four categories: non-participation, informal, formal, and student. To address the endogeneity of fertility and labor market outcomes, we instrument the timing of first birth using young women's community-level access, and duration of exposure to family planning. Our results suggest that motherhood increases the probability of employment for young women and that women whose first birth occurs during adolescence largely select into low-quality informal jobs. This effect is partially, but not entirely, mediated by the effect of teen pregnancy on schooling.


This paper describes an autonomous, wearable location awareness system that determines a user's location within a building given a map of that building. The system uses a moderate number of ultrasonic range transceivers as the sensing elements. Given a set of range readings from these sensors, the system attempts to match those actual readings to expected readings associated with a set of candidate locations for the wearer. These expected readings are calculated using a simulation model of the propagation of ultrasonic signals within a building. A complementary algorithm is given for determining the wearer's movement between rooms, allowing for the uncertainty associated with sensor readings in complex, multiroom environments. A wearable prototype system is described and results from this system in a range of scenarios are presented and analyzed


The Bryozoa are a phylum of small, colonial, filter-feeding, almost exclusively sessile, aquatic organisms. Approximately 5600 living species have been described, and the fossil record comprises approximately 20 000 species. Bryozoans are found in all oceans and many freshwater areas. Most species encrust stones or algae, others form erect bushes and a few form free-living colonies. The individuals in the colonies are almost always smaller than 1 mm, but colonies of freshwater species may grow to 0.5 m in diameter, and some of the marine species form tufts up to more than 25 cm in length. Each individual (zooid) in a colony consists of rather stiff, often calcified, main body wall (cystid) and a tentacle crown plus gut (polypide), which can be retracted into the cystid. Colonies are hermaphroditic, in some groups with hermaphroditic zooids, but a number of groups have separate male and female zooids. Development is indirect with triangular shelled cyphonautes larvae in a few groups, but brood protection and lecithotrophic larvae of many types are more widespread.

Key Concepts:

Bryozoans are colonial aquatic organisms most often growing on stones, shells or algae.

Each individual (zooid) in a colony consists of a more or less stiff main body wall (cystid) and a retractable tentacle crown around the mouth and a gut (polypide), which can be retracted into the cystid.

The almost cylindrical tentacles have bands of cilia which create a water current towards the mouth and between the tentacles. Food particles are strained from this water current.

Colonies are hermaphroditic; many species show hermaphroditic zooids, but some show male and female zooids.

Most species brood the embryos in more or less elaborate brooding structures, called ovicels in the cheilostomes; cyclostomes have large female zooids, which are brood chambers with a rudimentary polypide.

The Bryozoa can be classified as follows: Bryozoa (Phylactolaemata+Gymnolaemata (Eurystomata (Cheilostomata+Ctenostomata)+Cyclostomata)).

Keywords:

colonial;
zooid;
cystid;
polypide;
cyclostomes;
eurystomes;
phylactolaemates;
cyphonautes larva


Wavelength-division multiplexing, which is simply the technique of communicating multiple data streams on separate wavelengths, has emerged as a powerful communications technology. Rapid progress leads us to wonder what its future might be and how far it may progress.Will it one day be possible for everybody on the planet to have their own wavelength?


Evolutionary Computation is an emergent field, which provides new heuristics to function optimization where traditional approaches make the problem computationally intractable. Exploration and exploitation of solution in the problem space are main issues affecting the performance of an evolutionary algorithm. Current enhancements attempt to balance exploitation and exploration to avoid premature convergence during the search process. Multiple parents multiple crossovers and incest prevention are three different techniques that when combined showed a substantial benefit: besides minimizing the risk of premature convergence, the final population is concentrated nearby the optimal solution. This behaviour is an important aid provided by the evolutionary process when applications require a set of alternative solutions to face system dynamics. This paper shows the design, implementation and partial performance results when incest prevention is combined with multiple crossovers on multiple parents for difficult multimodal optimization.


ABSTRACT Some extreme weather events may be more likely to affect climate change beliefs than others, in part because schema individuals possess for different events could vary in encouraging such links. Using a representative sample of U.S. adults and geocoded National Weather Service data, we examine how a range of extreme weather event categories relate to climate change beliefs, and the degree to which individuals' self-reported experiences are shaped by their political views across event types. For tornado, hurricane, and flood events, we find no link with beliefs. For polar vortex and drought events, we find that although self-reported experience is linked with climate beliefs, reporting of these experiences is influenced by political identity and partisan news exposure. These findings underscore a limited role for extreme weather experiences in climate beliefs, and show that events more open to interpretation, such as droughts and polar vortex disturbances, are most likely to be seen through a partisan lens.


A study was carried out in 68 otherwise healthy male naval crew members to assess the long-term effectiveness and side-effects of routine transdermal scopolamine administration for the prevention of seasickness. The transdermal patches were applied to the mastoid process before each sailing and the subjects generally used 2 patches a week. Check-ups were made every 3 months over a period of 3 years. The average reported seasickness severity (on a scale of 0 to 7) after 6 months at sea prior to the administration of transdermal scopolamine was 5.64 +/- 0.11 (mean +/- S.E.M.), in comparison with 3.14 +/- 0.23 post-administration (p less than 0.001). A significant improvement was found in the self-estimated performance at sea whilst receiving the drug: 65.7% +/- 3.38% (mean +/- S.E.M.), compared to 25% +/- 2.24% beforehand (p less than 0.001). Contact dermatitis precluded the use of transdermal scopolamine in 3 (4.4%) subjects. The only other significant side-effect was dryness of mucous membranes. In conclusion, transdermal scopolamine was found to be effective in the prevention of seasickness and improvement of performance at sea during 3 years of follow-up and routine administration of the drug was not complicated either by severe side-effects or by performance disturbances.


Abstract. In an experimental assessment of the potential impact of Arctic Ocean acidification on seasonal phytoplankton blooms and associated dimethyl sulfide (DMS) dynamics, we incubated water from Baffin Bay under conditions representing an acidified Arctic Ocean. Using two light regimes simulating under-ice or subsurface chlorophyll maxima (low light; low PAR and no UVB) and ice-free (high light; high PAR + UVA + UVB) conditions, water collected at 38 m was exposed over 9 days to 6 levels of decreasing pH from 8.1 to 7.2. A phytoplankton bloom dominated by the centric diatoms Chaetoceros spp. reaching up to 7.5 µg chlorophyll a L−1 took place in all experimental bags. Total dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSPT) and DMS concentrations reached 155 and 19 nmol L−1, respectively. The sharp increase in DMSPT and DMS concentrations coincided with the exhaustion of NO3− in most microcosms, suggesting that nutrient stress stimulated DMS(P) synthesis by the diatom community. Under both light regimes, chlorophyll a and DMS concentrations decreased linearly with increasing proton concentration at all pH levels tested. Concentrations of DMSPT also decreased but only under high light and over a smaller pH range (from 8.1 to 7.6). In contrast to nano-phytoplankton (2–20 µm), pico-phytoplankton ( ≤  2 µm) was stimulated by the decreasing pH. We furthermore observed no significant difference between the two light regimes tested in term of chlorophyll a, phytoplankton abundance and taxonomy, and DMSP and DMS net concentrations. These results show that ocean acidification could significantly decrease the algal biomass and inhibit DMS production during the seasonal phytoplankton bloom in the Arctic, with possible consequences for the regional climate.


Agnieszka Miguel received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2001 from the University of Washington, and MSEE and BSEE from Florida Atlantic University in 1996 and 1994. Dr. Miguel's professional interests involve image processing, machine learning, and engineering education especially active learning, diversity, retention, and recruitment. Her teaching interests include MATLAB, circuits, linear systems, and digital image processing. She is a member of the IEEE, ASEE, SWE, and Tau Beta Pi. Currently, Dr. Miguel is the Chair of the ASEE Professional Interest Council I, a position that gives her a seat on the ASEE Board of Directors. She is also the ASEE Pacific Northwest (PNW) Section Chair (2015 2017). Dr. Miguel has held several other officer positions across the ASEE including: Division Chair and Program Chair of the ECE and New Engineering Educators Divisions, and ASEE Campus Representative. Dr. Miguel is also a member-at-large of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association (ECEDHA) Board of Directors. She has been a member of the ECEDHA Annual Conference Program Committee since 2013 and is serving on the Editorial Board for the ECEDHA Source monthly newsletter.


"A practice as research project exploring relationships between space, place, and memory making." Commissioned by the Culture Company and produced for the City of Culture 2013, Austins: Memory and Place considers the relationship between site and memory in a culturally significant location in Derry~Londonderry: Austins Department Store. Often cited as the oldest department store in the world, as a location in Derry~Londonderry, Austins is a unique site where a number of communities come into contact with each other to work, shop, eat, train for careers in retail, or just browse. Austins: Memory and Place is a situated art project considering the dynamics of individual and collective acts of memory-making and their relationship to the places they memorialize. Conceived and directed by Paul Devlin, and produced by Adrian O'Connell, the project was developed through collaboration with a number of associated artists alongside students from the University of Ulster's School of Creative Arts and Technologies in Derry~Londonderry. The project seeks to usefully collide creative strategies drawn from situated art practices, heritage and radical curatorial practices, and participatory arts. In the work we are especially interested in exploring the ways in which intangible heritage, memory-making, and the impact of space on our everyday lives might be thought of as interconnected. The early stages of the project, along with a number of smaller actions, was driven by two primary events: Memory Store, a large-scale, single-day reminiscence event staged in the store in November 2013, and The Big Shop Show, a series of promenade and immersive performances staged twice nightly in December 2013. The Austins: Memory and Place website extends the conversations that began with these staged encounters and live art events. Our website aims both to document that early work and to extend and deepen these conversations by providing an open-ended participatory archive of memories associated with this iconic location in Derry~Londonderry.


Objectives:We recently reported increased CD4+ CD25+ T regulatory (Treg) activity after burn injury in mice. This study sought to determine if Tregs mediate the reduction in TH1-type immunity after serious injury in man and if Treg function is altered by injury. Methods:Peripheral blood was withdrawn from 19 consenting adult patients (35.1 ± 16.3 years of age) with Injury Severity Scores (ISS) 36.6 ± 13.9 on days 1 and 7 after trauma and from 5 healthy individuals. CD4+ T cells were purified and sorted into Treg (CD25high) and Treg-depleted populations. After activation of cells with anti-CD3/CD28 antibody, production of the TH1-type cytokine IFNγ, TH2-type cytokines (IL-4 and IL-5), and the inhibitory cytokine IL-10 was measured using cytometric bead arrays. Treg activity was measured by in vitro suppression of autologous CD4+ T cell proliferation. Results:All patients survived, 9 (47%) developed infection postinjury. IFNγ production by patient CD4+ T cells was decreased on day 1 and day 7, when compared with healthy controls. However, when Tregs were depleted from the CD4+ T cells, the IFNγ production increased to control levels. Tregs were the chief source of IL-4 and IL-5 as well as IL-10. Treg suppression of T cell proliferation increased significantly from day 1 to day 7 after injury. Conclusions:We demonstrate for the first time that human Tregs are increased in potency after severe injury. Most significantly, Tregs are important mediators of the suppression of T cell activation and the reduction in TH1 cytokine production found after injury.


For domain specific languages, "scripting languages", dynamic languages, and for virtual machine-based languages, the most straightforward implementation strategy is to write an interpreter. A simple interpreter consists of a loop that fetches the next bytecode, dispatches to the routine handling that bytecode, then loops. There are many ways to improve upon this simple mechanism, but as long as the execution of the program is driven by a representation of the program other than as a stream of native instructions, there will be some "interpretive overhead".There is a long history of approaches to removing interpretive overhead from programming language implementations. In practice, what often happens is that, once an interpreted language becomes popular, pressure builds to improve performance until eventually a project is undertaken to implement a native Just In Time (JIT) compiler for the language. Implementing a JIT is usually a large effort, affects a significant part of the existing language implementation, and adds a significant amount of code and complexity to the overall code base.In this paper, we present an innovative approach that dynamically removes much of the interpreted overhead from language implementations, with minimal instrumentation of the original interpreter. While it does not give the performance improvements of hand-crafted native compilers, our system provides an appealing point on the language implementation spectrum.


Classroom readiness and the attendant theory-practice disjunction remains a key concern of policy makers, stakeholders and graduate teachers themselves. Links between the theoretical knowledge that preservice teachers gain during initial teacher education (ITE) courses and the practical learning of their school placements need to be strengthened in order to enhance beginning teachers' classroom readiness, or capacity to use their professional knowledge in a classroom setting. We argue that a hybrid model of case-based learning, involving the writing and interpreting of local 'case-stories,' can offer preservice teachers meaningful engagement with 'real' teaching experiences and build context-dependent knowledge outside of the placement setting. This article describes a mixed-method pilot study on the development and use of an online resource of multi-modal place-based 'case-stories' of preservice teachers in Central Australia. It describes the three elements of the hybrid case-learning (HCL) model the platform and place, structure, and resource-set. These elements interact to enable preservice teachers to enhance their classroom readiness through the development of narrative thinking practices and context-dependent knowledge. Preliminary findings suggest the HCL model offers scaffolding for the development of narrative epistemologies, leading to a change in thinking practices and the creation of meaningful connections between lived experiences and conceptual understandings.


The aim of this dissertation is to study how positioning among students in the music classroom interplays with music teaching activities as practised in Swedish comprehensive schools. The study uses a videoethnographic technique for documenting interactions between students in two different music classrooms. The one is in a music profile school with students for whom music may be assumed to be important, the other is in a standard curriculum school with students who do not have any special relation to music. However, both schools recruit students who come from educated, economically stable homes in white middle class society in Sweden and thus share a similar background. The students' interactions are transcribed in great detail and analysed using concepts from positioning theory, conversation analysis and discursive psychology. The results show great differences between the two music classrooms. In the Ordinary School, the dominant positions are conformity, humour, insecurity and rationality. In the Music Profile School the dominant positions are rebelliousness, seriousness, confidence and emotionality. In terms of gender, the Music Profile School classroom could be described as a predominantly masculine practice which diminishes the opportunity for students who wish to attain the position musician and at the same time express femininity. These differences in the students' positioning affects the possibility for such music educational practices as peer-learning to take place. Differences in positioning also affect what work needs to be done in terms of classroom management. By focusing on how positions are achieved through interaction, rather than on what the positions consist of, I hope to open possibilities for the individual music teacher to become aware of which students are being favoured in his or her own classroom. I also hope that this research will help to promote change that could result in greater social justice in the music classroom. How this is to be done will, however, need to be the subject of future research.