It is often said that digital technologies are revolutionizing the social sciences, much as they revolutionized the natural sciences a few decades ago. This is not the case. The situation in the social sciences is more like that of the natural sciences in the 15th century, just after the introduction of the printing press. In The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, Elizabeth Eisenstein (1979) thoroughly describes how the introduction of the press triggered the Scientific Revolution of the XVI century. Yet, as Eisenstein makes very clear, the revolution did not broke overnight. Several decades after Gutenberg invention, naturalists were still printing the same mistakes they used to hand-copy. It was only after press attained a certain level of maturity and circulation that it started to have a real impact on the natural sciences.


This article discusses the issue of choice as it applies to long-term unemployed and vulnerable individuals. It argues that the combination of poor employment opportunities, requirements, compulsions and sanctions has not merely reduced available choice for individuals with multiple barriers to re-/join the labour market but has also resulted in curtailed decision-making abilities when it comes to their pathways into employment. The outcomes can include protective resistance as a response to the extent of regulation, which may undermine engagement in job search and related activities. Despite attempts by benevolent staff in a charity to provide support and enhance capabilities that result in the overcoming of protective resistance, they operate within a broader institutional framework of choice as set by government policy. The end result is compulsion, not choice.


In this study, we distinguish between three major subtypes of the Dutch adverb anders in terms of the concepts of comparison and phoricity. The criteria of proportionality, clefting and the interaction with negation are applicable to [+comparative/+phoric] Type I anders but not to [-comparative/+phoric] Type II anders nor to [-comparative/-phoric] Type III anders . The criteria of accommodation and the interaction with conjunctions apply to type II but not to type III, which is characterized positively as an attitudinal discourse marker. Word-order differences further underpin the proposed tripartition. Finally, our synchronic analysis of Dutch anders is put in the broader perspective of grammaticalization theory and its underlying formal criteria are related to the standard (diachronic) parameters and principles of grammaticalization.


Agricultural industries in small geographical areas with limited acreage tend to be overlooked by those not associated with the growing region or industry. Sugarbeets continue to be produced in a relatively small geographic area and on relatively limited acreage in eastern Montana and western North Dakota. These factors, along with continued debate over policies affecting domestic sugar industries and recent industry expansions have prompted an analysis of the economic importance of the sugarbeet industry to the regional economy. Revenues from sugarbeet production and expenditures by processors to Montana and North Dakota entities in fiscal 2011 represented the direct economic impacts from the industry. Expenditure information was provided by Sidney Sugars Inc. and marketing cooperatives. Secondary economic impacts were estimated using input-output analysis. The sugarbeet industry, which included the growing regions in eastern Montana and western North Dakota and the Sidney, MT processing facility, planted 31,107 acres and processed 798,624 tons of sugarbeets in fiscal 2011. Production, processing, and marketing activities generated $73.9 million in direct economic impacts. Gross business volume (direct and secondary effects) from the sugarbeet industry in that region was estimated at $212.4 million. Direct and secondary employment in the industry was 186 and 805 full-time equivalent jobs, respectively. The industry paid $474,000 in property taxes and was estimated to generate another $1.8 million in sales and use, personal income, and corporate income taxes in Montana and North Dakota. In real terms, gross business volume of the sugarbeet industry in eastern Montana and western North Dakota increased 4 percent since 2003. Increases in business activity from the industry have resulted from an increase in expenditures and also were influenced by relatively high sugar prices during fiscal 2011.


Four thousand entries focus on every aspect of earth's environment and the human actions that affect it. With global coverage, the book spans the time before recorded history to the present. Wideranging coverage includes information on subjects such as activist movements, agriculture and horticulture, air pollution, alien species and species migration, biodiversity, botany, climate and weather, extinct and endangered species, fish and fishing, genetic engineering and biotechnology, land use and development, noise pollution, oceanography, and population growth.


The growing importance and scope of technology transfer processes undertaken all over the world settles the question of the necessity for their proper identification. The multi-aspect character and complexity of these phenomena create specific problems in conducting analytic work. Although technology transfer is an element of the Science-TechnologyInnovation (STI) system, it does not have a proper place in the existing methodology system of this area. The aim of this article is to point out the necessity to create a proper, complex and comprehensive methodology for researching technology transfer processes, which would contribute to better understanding of the processes themselves and at the same time enable their proper development.


We study the problem of controlling linear time-invariant systems with known noisy dynamics and adversarially chosen quadratic losses. We present the first efficient online learning algorithms in this setting that guarantee $O(\sqrt{T})$ regret under mild assumptions, where $T$ is the time horizon. Our algorithms rely on a novel SDP relaxation for the steady-state distribution of the system. Crucially, and in contrast to previously proposed relaxations, the feasible solutions of our SDP all correspond to "strongly stable" policies that mix exponentially fast to a steady state.


This paper explores the retrospective construction of atrocity narratives of organizational change in primary industries of the Latrobe Valley, located in southeast Australia. Within their narratives, participants discuss various forms of workplace violence aimed at employees by management and, in some cases, other employees. In addition, shifting narratives from violence to resignation are explored. As all participants are no longer employed in the organizations described in the narratives, causal associations between workplace violence and resignation choices are of particular interest. In this context, atrocity narratives are presented in a deliberate effort to extend the theorizing of organizational change into domains that are neither attractive nor progressive.


Sir, Sandrone et al. (2012, 2013) rediscovered, translated, and commented on the manuscripts of Angelo Mosso (1882, 1884), in which Mosso described his 'human circulation balance'; James (1890) described this as a 'delicately balanced table which could tip downwards either at the head or the foot if the weight of either end were increased'. Mosso claimed that the balance allowed him to observe changes in cerebral blood volume associated with mental effort and emotional responses, and consequently the balance is regarded as the direct forerunner of modern non-invasive functional neuroimaging techniques. However, Sandrone et al. (2012, 2013) stated that 'we have no direct evidence that the balance was really able, as stated, to measure changes in cerebral blood flow during acts of cognition … despite its proven ability to measure blood volume changes in various organs (e.g. lungs, feet, hands)'.

In our laboratory, we recently constructed a balance similar to Mosso's, and using modern data collection and analysis methods that were unavailable to Mosso, we investigated whether the balance was sensitive to changes in cerebral blood volume produced by modulating the level of mental activity. The construction and mechanism of our balance is depicted and explained in Fig. 1, and may be compared with Figs 3 and 8 in Sandrone et al. (2013), which show Mosso's apparatus. The balance is a class 1 lever, in which the moment of a force measured at the fulcrum is proportional to the magnitude of the force and its distance from the fulcrum. With a participant lying on the balance across the fulcrum, if mental activity produces a net shift of blood towards or away from the head then this will produce a slight change in the centre of mass of the participant relative to the fulcrum of the lever, …


Claudins constitute the major component of tight junctions and regulate paracellular permeability of epithelia. Claudin-10 occurs in two major isoforms that form paracellular channels with ion selectivity. We report on two families segregating an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by generalized anhidrosis, severe heat intolerance and mild kidney failure. All affected individuals carry a rare homozygous missense mutation c.144C>G, p.(N48K) specific for the claudin-10b isoform. Immunostaining of sweat glands from patients suggested that the disease is associated with reduced levels of claudin-10b in the plasma membranes and in canaliculi of the secretory portion. Expression of claudin-10b N48K in a 3D cell model of sweat secretion indicated perturbed paracellular Na+ transport. Analysis of paracellular permeability revealed that claudin-10b N48K maintained cation over anion selectivity but with a reduced general ion conductance. Furthermore, freeze fracture electron microscopy showed that claudin-10b N48K was associated with impaired tight junction strand formation and altered cis-oligomer formation. These data suggest that claudin-10b N48K causes anhidrosis and our findings are consistent with a combined effect from perturbed TJ function and increased degradation of claudin-10b N48K in the sweat glands. Furthermore, affected individuals present with Mg2+ retention, secondary hyperparathyroidism and mild kidney failure that suggest a disturbed reabsorption of cations in the kidneys. These renal-derived features recapitulate several phenotypic aspects detected in mice with kidney specific loss of both claudin-10 isoforms. Our study adds to the spectrum of phenotypes caused by tight junction proteins and demonstrates a pivotal role for claudin-10b in maintaining paracellular Na+ permeability for sweat production and kidney function.


This commentary describes the work of the NGO Danish Seed Savers, working with heritage plants, highly prioritized by The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The Danish Seed Savers act as activists, when they work to change the implementation of EU seed-legislation. At the same time, they have a seat in the Danish Committee on Plant Genetic Resources and help the Ministry of Food to protect and communicate about heritage plants. The commentary reflects on the role of the Danish Seed Savers. They are science communicators and activists but asks: are they alternative? Abstract


This thesis investigates the relations between the literacy practices used in two community-based organisations and those of the young people in a situation of precarity (aged 16 to 30) who attended their activities in Quebec (Canada). These organisations supported them to find work, housing, return to education, improve their social relationships, and integrate in society, which I refer to as social and professional insertion. Drawing on the New Literacy Studies (NLS), in this study literacies are considered as social practices rather than technical skills. The thesis brings together NLS and francophone studies on literacy, and uses terms originating in French and which have no precise equivalents in English. Examples are 'rapport a l'ecrit' and 'situation of precarity'. The methodological approach is ethnographic, critical, and participatory. The study had two phases of data collection. In the first phase, the chosen techniques were participant observation and semi-structured interviews, and the second phase involved participatory workshops. The findings indicate that the young people had extremely rich and complex literacy practices. The literacy practices used as part of the organisations' activities and workshops for young people were hybrid; combining school-related, digital and vernacular literacies with practices associated with counselling, work, social relationships, and relations with the state. Some young people whose education got interrupted reconciled themselves with education and school-related literacy through their participation at Le Bercail and L'Envol. With the support of the youth workers, the young people were encouraged to learn by doing, a form of learning that can be identified as apprenticeship. The literacy practices used in the organisations were not exclusively controlled by the research participants. Some sponsors of literacy (e.g. the state and institutions) were imposing various literacy demands they had to respond to. The youth workers acted as literacy mediators with regards to some of these. Literacy mediation at Le Bercail and L'Envol can be qualified as a form of 'powerful literacies' since it can offer an alternative to counter dominant literacies and it can support learning. A new term―literacy intermediates―is suggested to describe the kind of literacy mediation that the youth workers were doing.


This paper provides a summary measure of the possible new commitments in the area of market access undertaken by the European Union and the United States, using the Trade Restrictiveness Index (TRI) as the tariff aggregator. Indicators such as the TRI, based on welfare theory, integrate economic behavioural assumptions within a balance of trade framework. We take the 2000 bound tariffs as the starting point and attempt to assess how much liberalisation in agriculture could be achieved in the European Union and the United States as a result of the present negotiations. We compute the index for agricultural commodity aggregates assuming a specific (Constant Elasticity of Substitution) functional form for import demand. The present levels of the TRI under the actual commitments of the Uruguay Round are computed and compared with three hypothetical cases: a repetition of the same set of commitments of the Uruguay Round, a uniform 36 percent reduction of each tariff, an harmonization formula based on the "sliding scale" scheme. This makes it possible to infer how reducing tariff dispersion would help improve market access in future trade agreements.


Abstract. The extension and complexity of large cities creates "urban water" and a related issue: public water services, including public water supply, sewage collection and treatment, and storm water control, had previously become a policy sector separate from water resource allocation issues thanks to water transport and treatment technologies. Large metropolitan areas today cannot take nature for granted anymore, and they need to protect water resources, if only to reduce the long term cost of transporting and treating water. In this paper, we compare the historical development of water services in European and Brazilian metropolitan areas, placing the technological developments in their geographic, socio-economic and political contexts. Our frame is to follow the successive contributions of civil engineering, sanitary engineering, and environmental engineering: the "quantity of water" and civil engineering paradigm allowed to mobilise water in and out of the city, and up the hills or the floors; in the "water quality" and chemical/sanitary engineering paradigm, water treatment gave more freedom to cities to take water from rivers closer to them, but also to reduce sewer discharge impacts; lastly, the environmental engineering paradigm proposes to overcome the supply side perspective, by introducing demand side management, water conservation, water allocation flexibilisation, and an integrated approach to water services, water resources management, and land use policies.


We describe how to formulate matching and combinatorial problems of vision and neural network theory by generalizing elastic and deformable templates models to include binary matching elements. Techniques from statistical physics, which can be interpreted as computing marginal probability distributions, are then used to analyze these models and are shown to (1) relate them to existing theories and (2) give insight into the relations between, and relative effectivenesses of, existing theories. In particular we exploit the power of statistical techniques to put global constraints on the set of allowable states of the binary matching elements. The binary elements can then be removed analytically before minimization. This is demonstrated to be preferable to existing methods of imposing such constraints by adding bias terms in the energy functions. We give applications to winner-take-all networks, correspondence for stereo and long-range motion, the traveling salesman problem, deformable template matching, learning, content addressable memories, and models of brain development. The biological plausibility of these networks is briefly discussed.


The paper focuses on the description and demonstration of how numerical simulation applied as pollutants dispersion modeling in airport areas is a solution for solving complex problems concerning air quality issues and status strategies or perspectives for sustainable urban development, including traffic areas. The paper describes a methodology used to evaluate the concentration of major pollutants in an international airport environment, by means of mathematical analysis and informs about the validation possibility of the results and tool, by direct measurements. The software used is one that has global coverage and international acceptance, ISC3View developed by United States Environmental Agency. The case study was conducted for the International Airport "Traian Vuia" from Timisoara, during different representative episodes of several days in 2008 and 2009, thus also the fleet functioning as well the general air pollution issues such as emission factors are shortly introduced.


The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a multi-directional soccer-specific fatigue protocol on sprinting kinematics in relation to hamstring injury risk. Nine semi-professional soccer players (Mean +/- SD: Age: 21.3 +/- 2.9 year; Height 185.0 +/- 8.7 cm; Body Mass 81.6 +/- 6.7 kg) completed the SAFT(90); a multi-directional, intermittent 90 min exercise protocol representative of soccer match-play. The 10m sprint times and three-dimensional kinematic data were recorded using a high-speed motion capture system (Qualisys Track Manager) every 15 min during the SAFT(90). A significant time dependent increase was observed in sprint time during the SAFT(90) (P<0.01) with a corresponding significant decrease in stride length (P<0.01). Analysis of the kinematic sprint data revealed significantly reduced combined maximal hip flexion and knee extension angle, indicating reduced hamstring length, between pre-exercise and half-time (P<0.01) and pre-exercise and full-time (P<0.05). These findings revealed that the SAFT(90) produced time dependent impairments in sprinting performance and kinematics of technique which may result from shorter hamstring muscle length. Alterations in sprinting technique may have implications for the increased predisposition to hamstring strain injury during the latter stages of soccer match-play.


Post-transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM) is a metabolic alteration in organ transplant patients, with an incidence ranging from 2% to 65%. PTDM leads to an increased risk of organ rejection, infections, cardiovascular (CV) events, and reduced survival. The incidence of PTDM depends on various factors occurring in the post-transplant period, from changes in lifestyle and eating habits, with subsequent increase of visceral weight and fat, to the direct action of immunosuppressive drugs. In recent years, cardiovascular outcome studies have shown that two drug classes, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) and sodium-glucose-cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT-2i) have cardiovascular and renal protection effects on patients with type 2 diabetes, substantially modifying the guidelines on the therapeutic management of these patients. Given the effects on glycometabolic control and the several glucose-independent effects, GLP-1RAs and SGLT-2i potentially play a predominant role in the management of PTDM. The evidence gathered so far in the literature is still limited. Though no drug interactions are present, GLP-1RAs may still interfere with the absorption of immunosuppressants due to the effect of slowing gastric emptying. On the other hand, SGLT-2i already increases the risk of genitourinary infections, which could be more frequent and severe in immunosuppressed patients. Nevertheless, both drug classes appear to be safe and effective in transplanted patients, and though further controlled prospective studies are necessary, their mechanism of action, glucose-independent effects, and cardiovascular and renal protection effects seem to fully respond to the metabolic changes caused by PTDM.


No principle of First Amendment law is more firmly established than the principle that government may not restrict speech based on its content. It would seem to follow, then, that Congress may not withhold copyright protection for disfavored categories of content, such as violent video games or pornography. This Article argues otherwise. This Article is the first to recognize a distinction in the scope of coverage between the First Amendment and the Copyright Clause. It claims that speech protection from government censorship does not imply speech protection from private copying. Crucially, I argue that this distinction in the scope of coverage between copyright and free speech law does not suggest a tension between them. To the contrary, the distinction enables copyright to further the purpose of free speech under the marketplace-of-ideas speech theory. Through copyright, Congress may alleviate failures in that marketplace which stem from individuals determining the value of speech for the collective. Furthermore, the possibility of Congress abusing this discriminatory power poses relatively minimal threat to speech because copyright denial does not altogether prevent speakers from realizing profit from their speech. This fact, coupled with viewpoint-neutrality and rational-basis restraints, alleviates the usual risks associated with government influencing content in the marketplace. Additionally, free-speech doctrine leaves room for the sort of discrimination that Congress would exercise in defining copyright eligibility according to content. Doctrines governing limited-public forums and congressional funding allow for content discrimination akin to content-based copyright denial.


Improving Depression Screenings for Adults Living With HIV/AIDS Through Education and Training by Shermanda M. Brumfield MSN, University of Southern Mississippi, 2014 MSN Education, William Carey University, 2011 BSN, William Carey University, 2004 Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice Walden University November 2017 Abstract People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) are 4 times more likely to have a diagnosis of depression than persons without HIV. The specific problem at a rural clinic in a southern region of the United States, was a lack of continuity in the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) screening procedures that made sure that PLWHA were screened, identified, and referred. Early identification and treatment can help patients cope with barriers that affect health outcomes. The purpose and goal of this project was to develop andPeople living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) are 4 times more likely to have a diagnosis of depression than persons without HIV. The specific problem at a rural clinic in a southern region of the United States, was a lack of continuity in the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) screening procedures that made sure that PLWHA were screened, identified, and referred. Early identification and treatment can help patients cope with barriers that affect health outcomes. The purpose and goal of this project was to develop and implement an evidence-based depression screening protocol to improve clinical staff practices and adherence to the PHQ-9 guidelines thereby increasing the number of PLWHA who were diagnosed and treated for depression. The Iowa model of evidencedbased practice served as a guide for this project. An interdisciplinary team was assembled to develop protocols and staff training. This project compared clinic staff knowledge on depression through pre and posttests. Upon completion of staff training, the pretest had a M = 78.33 and SD = 11.146 and the posttest a M = 99.17 and a SD = 2.887. Results of a paired t test confirmed a statistically significant increase in knowledge with p < .000. Over a 4-week period, depression screenings at the study site went from 10% to 100%. Data showed that positive social change was realized when PLWHA began to get depression treatment because of proper screening, early interventions, and depression management. Although the project is designed for the PLWHA in the rural clinic, other primary care providers may find that an evidenced-based practice protocol can be useful to improve PHQ-9 depression-screening practices for patients in other clinical areas. Improving Depression Screenings for Adults Living With HIV/AIDS Through Education and Training by Shermanda M. Brumfield MSN, University of Southern Mississippi, 2014 MSN Education, William Carey University, 2011 BSN, William Carey University, 2004 Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice


Sydney Lamb (2016) presents a theory of linguistic structure that reaches through all levels of linguistic organization (semantics, syntax, morphology, phonology). The network architecture of Lamb's system is analogous to the network of neurons in the brain. Lamb's theory organizes linguistic units in part in terms of constituencies . This discussion note explores the possibility of recasting Lamb's theory entirely in terms of dependencies . An approach that relies more on dependency as the principle organizing the units of linguistic structure would result in simpler networks, increasing plausibility and thus being more consistent with the network of neurons in the brain.


There is a an ever-present risk of Meloidogyne chitwoodi extending its range to Finland because of the active import of plant material to the country. If the nematode becomes established in Finland, two factors may limit its pest potential: low temperature accumulation during the growing season and low winter temperatures. On average, the effective temperature accumulation may enable development of 1.5 generations yearly. In warm years, development of two generations is possible in the southern parts of the country. Hatching of the second generation, and infection of potato tubers, is possible in most potato-growing areas. Low soil temperatures during the winter reduce population densities but may not prevent the nematode from becoming established in Finland. If M. chitwoodi were to extend its range to Finland, it could become a pest of potatoes, especially seed potatoes. For other crops, such as cereals and vegetables, population densities of M. chitwoodi would probably remain at such low levels that yield losses would not occur under current climatic conditions. Scientific information concerning M. chitwoodi populations in Europe is insufficient for a fully reliable pest risk analysis. This will not be possible until the effect of abiotic and biotic factors on the nematode are well known. A data base of the distribution of the nematode, based on a geographical information system, is urgently needed for the whole of Europe. Soil temperature maps interpolated from direct measurements, or derived from air temperatures, should also be constructed because soil temperature accumulation is one of the most important factors which may limit the distribution of this polyphagous nematode.


Much of recent philosophy of perception is oriented towards accounting for the phenomenal character of perception—what it is like to perceive—in a non-mentalistic way—that is, without appealing to mental objects or mental qualities. In opposition to such views, I claim that the phenomenal character of perception of a red round object cannot be explained by or reduced to direct awareness of the object, its redness and roundness—or representation of such objects and qualities. Qualities of perception that are not captured by what one is directly aware of or by representational content are instances of what Gilbert Harman has called "mental paint" (Block, 1990; Harman, 1990). The claim of this paper is that empirical facts about attention point in the direction of mental paint. The argument starts with the claim (later modified) that when one moves one's attention around a scene while keeping one's eyes fixed, the phenomenology of perception can change in ways that do not reflect which qualities of objects one is directly aware of or the way the world is represented to be. These changes in the phenomenology of perception cannot be accounted for in terms of awareness of or representation of the focus of attention because they manifest themselves in experience as differences in apparent contrast, apparent color saturation, apparent size, apparent speed, apparent time of occurrence and other appearances. There is a way of coping with these phenomena in terms of vague contents, but vague contents cannot save direct realism or representationism because the kind of vagueness required clashes wth the phenomenology itself.


The present research provides insights into the different forms of adaptation strategies employed by international graduate students to overcome the challenges faced in the academic writing practices and gain access to their disciplinary communities of practice at Master's level. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured in-depth focus group interviews. Respondents were 70 international graduate students enrolled in various Master-level programs. Semi-structured focus group interviews allowed the international graduate students to share their own experiences in the employment of suitable adaptation strategies to overcome the challenges faced in their academic writing practices in the Master programs. The adaptation strategies employed include enhancing their English language proficiency, referring to non-formal advisory services, and improving their academic writing style.


Big MACs Tubeworms are important marine benthic species that encrust rocks and contribute to fouling of man-made objects, such as ships' hulls and drilling well heads. Like most marine invertebrates, the larval stages of tubeworms are free-swimming, but the cues for larval settlement and the triggers for metamorphosis are mysterious. Shikuma et al. (p. 529, published online 9 January) experimented on larval settlement by the tubeworm, Hydroides elegans, which needs to associate with a biofilm-forming bacterium, Pseudoalteromonas luteoviolacea, before settlement can occur. The bacterium was found to express metamorphosis-associated contractile structures (MACs) in large and structurally elaborate arrays that allow the tubeworm larvae to develop. Benthic marine larval development is triggered by a bacterially expressed structure of phage origin. Many benthic marine animal populations are established and maintained by free-swimming larvae that recognize cues from surface-bound bacteria to settle and metamorphose. Larvae of the tubeworm Hydroides elegans, an important biofouling agent, require contact with surface-bound bacteria to undergo metamorphosis; however, the mechanisms that underpin this microbially mediated developmental transition have been enigmatic. Here, we show that a marine bacterium, Pseudoalteromonas luteoviolacea, produces arrays of phage tail–like structures that trigger metamorphosis of H. elegans. These arrays comprise about 100 contractile structures with outward-facing baseplates, linked by tail fibers and a dynamic hexagonal net. Not only do these arrays suggest a novel form of bacterium-animal interaction, they provide an entry point to understanding how marine biofilms can trigger animal development.


Abstract No-tillage and reduced tillage are considered sustainable options of conservation tillage. While US organic farming researchers have focused on no-tillage, European organic farming researchers have concentrated on reduced tillage through the reduction of tillage depth or the application of noninversion tillage practices. Combinations of these two approaches have been implemented by the use of the two-layer plow or the layer cultivator. These innovations often came from farmers, aiming at reducing off-farm inputs such as fuel, and saving costs and labor, while at the same time building up soil fertility. Systematic, documented research on reduced tillage systems in Europe started only 1–2 decades ago, with experiments in Germany, Switzerland and France. While most experiments mimic stockless farms, other experiments include fodder crops such as grass–clover ley and applications of manure and slurry as is typical for mixed farms with animals and crops. Soil organic carbon, microbial activity and soil structure are often improved in the upper soil layer under reduced tillage compared with plowed soils. However, these positive findings were confounded by lower yields in some cases and enhanced weed pressure, except for the two-layer plow. Often it was not possible to determine whether and to what extent yield reduction was due to weed competition or to nitrogen shortage, because of retarded nitrogen mineralization in spring in reduced tillage systems. In systems with manure use, also higher soil fertility measures concomitant with increased yields were reported under reduced tillage. Indeed, it is difficult to gain an overview on research activities dealing with reduced tillage in organic farming in Europe due to dispersed experimental infrastructures and the scarcity of peer-reviewed published literature. To close this knowledge gap a European Network is being established aiming at further developing reduced tillage systems in organic farming, addressing the issue of carbon sequestration and N2O emissions, as well as weed and nutrient management.


We now know that there is much more to classical mechanics than previously suspected. Derivations of the equations of motion, the focus of traditional presentations of mechanics, are just the beginning. This innovative textbook, now in its second edition, concentrates on developing general methods for studying the behavior of classical systems, whether or not they have a symbolic solution. It focuses on the phenomenon of motion and makes extensive use of computer simulation in its explorations of the topic. It weaves recent discoveries in nonlinear dynamics throughout the text, rather than presenting them as an afterthought. Explorations of phenomena such as the transition to chaos, nonlinear resonances, and resonance overlap to help the student develop appropriate analytic tools for understanding. The book uses computation to constrain notation, to capture and formalize methods, and for simulation and symbolic analysis. The requirement that the computer be able to interpret any ex ression provides the student with strict and immediate feedback about whether an expression is correctly formulated. This second edition has been updated throughout, with revisions that reflect insights gained by the authors from using the text every year at MIT. In addition, because of substantial software improvements, this edition provides algebraic proofs of more generality than those in the previous edition; this improvement permeates the new edition.


Growth is rarely an easy experience. But it is a necessary dimension of life's rhythms. In adolescence, confident children transition to insecure young adulthood; they outgrow their clothing, their self-images, sometimes even their bodies. Hermit crabs face a similar challenge: but instead of outgrowing their garments, they outgrow their shells, organic casings that provide shelter under which they can thrive. Children, of course, adjust. So too do hermit crabs—but not without initial discomfort as they shift to more spacious shells. Caryn McTighe Musil, AAC&U vice president for diversity, equity, and global initiatives, likened diversity practitioners to these hermit crabs as she addressed the 2006 Diversity and Learning conference. Diversity education has outgrown its frameworks. Practitioners hesitate to leave the "structural, political, and intellectual shells" they have so painfully crafted. The diversity movement, Musil says, has reached a "defining moment." Like hermit crabs, diversity practitioners must choose: remain cramped inside the casements of established structures, or embrace growth and move toward new forms of engagem e n t . When Musil suggests that diversity educators need to shed their figurative shells, she speaks specifically of three distinct movements within diversity education: U.S. diversity, global learning, and civic engagement. Each movement, she notes, has unique strengths, and each movement has reasonable reservations about collaboration. Individuals in different movements fear that alliances will sap their resources or undercut their missions. In collaboration, however, these movements can create frameworks that are ultimately "more encompassing" than those of any single movement. They can accelerate their collective growth and impact by stepping beyond the casings that have constrained them. As Musil recalled, diversity education has always been dynamic and evolving. The diversity education movement has, among other things, moved from a desire to advance social justice to seeing diversity as a means to promote academic excellence, civic learning, and engagement. The projects and theories presented at the 2006 Diversity and Learning conference, many of which are revisited in this issue of Diversity Digest, illustrate this process of change and renewal. They also illustrate the need to celebrate what Musil calls the "remarkable even if insufficient progress" diversity educators have made—even as the next generation of diversity education emerges. Diversity Digest, too, has reached a point of transition. The educational initiatives we have promoted for over a decade have expanded beyond our structural boundaries. The next issue of Diversity Digest will introduce a new format, designed to incorporate the distinct and interrelated movements of civic engagement, global learning, and U.S. diversity. Growth, indeed, is rarely an easy experience—but we believe it will reward us with more spacious architecture for doing our transformative work. To listen to a podcast of Caryn McTighe Musil's speech "The Shell Game: Regeneration at the Crossroads," visit www.aacu.org/Podcast/DL06_podcasts.cfm. ■ D I G E S T I N S I D E D I G E S T D er I I V S TY Ad vancing Di versity in Higher Ed u c a t i o n A S S O C I A T I O N O F A M E R I C A N C O L L E G E S A N D U N I V E R S I T I E S Volume 10, Number 2 2007


Motivated by recent advances in solution methods for mixed-integer convex optimization (MICP), we study the fundamental and open question of which sets can be represented exactly as feasible regions of MICP problems. We establish several results in this direction, including the first complete characterization for the mixed-binary case and a simple necessary condition for the general case. We use the latter to derive the first nonrepresentability results for various nonconvex sets, such as the set of rank-1 matrices and the set of prime numbers. Finally, in correspondence with the seminal work on mixed-integer linear representability by Jeroslow and Lowe, we study the representability question under rationality assumptions. Under these rationality assumptions, we establish that representable sets obey strong regularity properties, such as periodicity, and we provide a complete characterization of representable subsets of the natural numbers and of representable compact sets. Interestingly, in the case of subsets of natural numbers, our results provide a clear separation between the mathematical modeling power of mixed-integer linear and mixed-integer convex optimization. In the case of compact sets, our results imply that using unbounded integer variables is necessary only for modeling unbounded sets.


Modern measurement schemes for linear dynamical systems are typically designed so that different sensors can be scheduled to be used at each time step. To determine which sensors to use, various metrics have been suggested. One possible such metric is the observability of the system. Observability is a binary condition determining whether a finite number of measurements suffice to recover the initial state. However to employ observability for sensor scheduling, the binary definition needs to be expanded so that one can measure how observable a system is with a particular measurement scheme, i.e. one needs a metric of observability. Most methods utilizing an observability metric are about sensor selection and not for sensor scheduling. In this dissertation we present a new approach to utilize the observability for sensor scheduling by employing the condition number of the observability matrix as the metric and using column subset selection to create an algorithm to choose which sensors to use at each time step. To this end we use a rank revealing QR factorization algorithm to select sensors. Several numerical experiments are used to demonstrate the performance of the proposed scheme.


Study question Does facilitated physical activity provide an effective treatment for adults with depression presenting in primary care? Summary answer Although trial participants receiving the physical activity intervention in addition to usual care reported increased physical activity compared with those receiving usual care alone, there was no evidence to suggest that the intervention brought about any improvement in depressive symptoms or reduction in antidepressant use. What is known and what this paper adds Numerous studies have reported the positive effects of physical activity, but most of the current evidence originates from small non-clinical samples using interventions that are not practicable in a healthcare setting. Our results indicate that offering patients a facilitated physical activity intervention is not an effective strategy for reducing symptoms of depression, although it increased self reported physical activity and sustained this effect over 12 months.


The article is devoted to crowdfunding as a rapidly developing area of investing in start-ups in any sphere. It was during the difficult period for the science that particular importance was given to crowdfunding as a collective cooperation of people (donors), who voluntarily collect their money or other resources usually via Internet to support other people' efforts or organizations in starting innovative venture projects. Crowdfunding as a tool to search and test investment ideas are gaining popularity in Russia nowadays for it allows to attract funding start-ups and venture capital for projects of all types and related activities, the only limiting factor being quality of the advertising campaigns and public interest for the project. This innovative model of financing projects of different types can be used on a much wider scale, at the level of enterprises and even by government agencies. Similar financing venture projects can be actively implemented, for example, in the system of higher education institutions through the establishing – by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation – of a specialized on-line platform where research teams are entitled to position their projects.


In the past five years, teacher evaluation has become a preferred policy lever at the federal, state, and local levels. Revisions to teacher evaluation systems have made teachers individually accountable for student achievement to a greater extent than ever before. We describe and analyze the components, processes, and consequences embedded in new teacher evaluation policies in all fifty states, the twenty-five largest school districts, and Washington, DC. We contextualize these policies by basing our analysis in prior research on teacher evaluation, and examining key comparisons between state and district policies, including their treatment of teachers in tested and untested subjects with career and beginning teachers. We find notable differences in how states and the largest districts have structured evaluation policies for all teachers and, in particular, for early career teachers compared with their more veteran counterparts, and for teachers in nontested grades and subjects compared with those in tested grades and subjects.


textabstractThe heart is in continuous and rhythmic motion. For centuries this unique
property has fascinated clinicians and scientists, although their attempts to get a
better insight in the mechanisms which govern heart wall motion were seriously
hampered by the almost complete absence of effective measurement tools.
A dramatic change took place in the course of this century thanks to the
technological revolution which changed cardiology more than any other of the
biomedical sciences. The introduction of roentgen rays into medical practice
enabled physicians for the first time to observe the beating heart in the intact
human being. In cases of myocardial infarction, assessed by the new electrocardiographic
technique, the fluoroscopy screen revealed abnormal motion of
the epicardial contour. Numerous tools and methods were designed and developed
to preclude the subjectivity and inaccuracy inherent with naked eye observation
of heart wall motion. However, as only the epicardial contour could be
determined, the information thus obtained remained limited. In 1929 Forssman
introduced a catheter into his right heart. This act set the pace for the development
of angiocardiography which after a hesitating start became one of the
fastest growing areas in the medical field. As a consequence of the rapidly
increasing number of cardiac catheterizations paralleled by an explosive growth
of the amount of data obtained during each procedure, automated data processing
became indispensible.
In 1967 cardiologists of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, described
their flrst experiences with the use of a computing device in the cardiac
catheterization procedure. This example was soon followed by cardiologists
and technicians of the Thoraxcenter who developed a computer system, tailored
to their catheterization laboratory, which became operative in 1973 and comprised
facilities to process pressure signals on line and under control of the
operator. To pursue the automation of data processing in the catheterization
laboratory two more systems had to be developed: a system to detect automatically
coronary artery contours and an analysis system for left ventriculograms.
For this automated detection of the left ventricular endocardial contour from
cineangiograms, a hard-wired system was designed and constructed. It was called
the "Contouromat'.
The aim of this thesis is to describe work to evaluate and validate this tool
and its applicability in clinical practice and research. The first question which arises is whether an automated angie processing system has any benefit. Indeed
in some clinics left ventriculograms continue to be judged in a purely qualitative
way, although Herman et al's semiquantitative classification into norma-, hypo-,
and dyskinesia is now applied in most centers. Since the angiogram contains
more information than the human eye can detect by simple inspection, and the
human observation often is inaccurate and inconsistent and strongly dependent
upon the experience of the observer, there is much to be said for some form of
standardization. The same applies to hand-drawn contours from end diastolic
and end systolic cineframes which are currently employed to quantify the
respective volumes. In conclusion, a weB designed angie processing system which
produces consistent and reproducible quantitative data at a rate man cannot
match, may help us to manage the diagnostic problems of our patients, whose
interest - in spite of all emphasis on the technical tool we use - remains the
primary aim of our efforts.


Background: The objectives of this study were to analyze the results of the right anterolateral thoracotomy approach for primary mitral valve replacement with reference to length of incision, surgical exposure, mean cross-clamp time, mean bypass time, intensive care unit (ICU) stay, hospital stay, overall comorbidity sepsis, dehiscence, healing cosmesis and cost-effectiveness. Materials and Methods: Thirty-three patients were operated for mitral valve disease in the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences from September 2009 to August 2011 and all patients underwent mitral valve replacement. Results: Of the 33 patients, 13 were male (40.6%) and 19 were female (59.4%). The length of incision was 14.8 ± 2.3 cm and, in thoracotomy, there was a significantly lesser duration of ICU stay the entire hospital stay. Scar visibility was around 25% in case of thoracotomy. Conclusion: Approach through a right anterolateral thoracotomy proved to be easy to perform while maintaining maximum security for the patients. Besides its better cosmetic result, especially in female patients, this approach proved to have several advantages. It offered a better exposure to the mitral apparatus even in patients with small left atrium, allowing mitral valve replacement to be performed easily. The shorter hospital stay and cost-effectiveness of thoracotomy approach is an additional relief to the family.


Using monoclonal antibodies and indirect immunofluorescence microscopy, we investigated the distribution of the M protein in situ in vesicular stomatitis virus-(VSV) infected MDCK cells. M protein was observed free in the cytoplasm and associated with the plasma membrane. Using the ts045 mutant of VSV to uncouple the synthesis and transport of the VSV G protein we demonstrated that this distribution was not related to the presence of G protein on the cell surface. Sections of epon-embedded infected cells labeled with antibody to the M protein and processed for indirect horseradish peroxidase immunocytochemistry revealed that the M protein was associated specifically with the basolateral plasma membrane. The G and M proteins of VSV have therefore evolved features which bring them independently to the basolateral membrane of polarized epithelial cells and allow virus to bud specifically from that membrane.


It is not easy to evaluate Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Lean Construction (Lean) capabilities of design firms. The paper investigates the level of BIM and Lean implementation at representative design firms in Massachusetts. A survey was given to the principal design firms working for a large public client. First, answers were analysed and discussed. Second, results from the same design firm were compared to detect possible inconsistencies. Main results show that there is still not a clear definition of BIM and Lean; BIM training is not done consistently within design firms; and there is not a common understanding of BIM and Lean within each design firm, even though most designers affirmed that they have internal standards. Results of the survey could be useful for designers to develop internal standards and establish training courses for the design firm and clients to better understand designers' approach to BIM and Lean.


Departure In an overview of the Stone Age religious beliefs written half a century ago, Lembit Jaanits (1961, 68 f.) drew attention to the fact that the majority of people who lived at that time were most likely never buried in the ground. This conclusion was made on the basis of an amazingly low number of burials known in either settlement sites or separate cemeteries outside the settlements of that time. Similar thoughts had been published by Estonian folklorist in exile Oskar Loorits (1949, 118) already 12 years earlier. Although more cemeteries and graves from the late Mesolithic and Neolithic have been discovered within the last fifty years in what is today Estonia and its neighbouring areas, this suggestion is still valid and realistic. With a reference to anthropological evidence of some Siberian peoples, Jaanits supposed that the dead could have been taken to certain places outside the settlements (located e.g. in the forest) and left there on the surface of the ground, wrapped perhaps into skins or birch bark (Jaanits 1961, 69). After some time almost no traces will remain from such exposed bodies. As for the number of burial sites, the situation is even worse concerning the Early Bronze Age: no graves have been reported so far in Estonia, which could belong to the second millennium BC (Lang 2007, 147). This is most likely due to the stage of investigation and it is only a matter of time when the first burials will be discovered. In the southernmost neighbouring areas, for instance, several flat cemeteries with pit graves of the Early Bronze Age date have been unearthed, e.g. at Kivutkalns and Raganukalns (Graudonis 1967; Denisova et al. 1985). It was also in the late second millennium BC when the first monumental above-ground burial mounds were erected there, e.g. at Pukuli, Reznes, and Kalniesi (Graudonis 1967; Vasks 2000). In northern and western Estonia the first monumental stone graves were built slightly later, i.e. at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age (Lang 2007, 147 ff.). Since that time, at least one portion of burials has become very much visible in the archaeological record, and forms the main subject of research. However, it was gradually understood since the early 1990s that despite large numbers of stone graves of the Late Bronze and Iron Ages, one part of prehistoric populations have never been buried there. How big that part was, is not clear. At first sight this conclusion based on palaeodemographic calculations was only made for both stone-cist graves of the Late Bronze and early Pre-Roman Iron Ages and north-west-Estonian tarand-graves of the Roman Iron Age (Lang & Ligi 1991; Lang 1995a) because the number of burials in those graves was too small even for regular nuclear families. The tarand-graves in other parts of the country yielding larger numbers of burials were regarded to correspond to burial places of single farms with either nuclear or extended families. Later research into the osteological evidence of cremated bones has clearly demonstrated that even large burial grounds of the Middle and Late Iron Ages might have belonged only to one or a few families and not to larger village communities (Magi 2002, 74; Allmae 2003; Mandel 2003). This conclusion did not suit historical documents, however, that had reported a settlement pattern consisting of relatively advanced villages in the 13th century. The current article aims to discuss the problems connected with mortuary customs that are difficult to study or even invisible for archaeology. This is, first, a study of 'the others'--people who did not belong to the sphere of those buried finally in stone graves, sand barrows or flat cemeteries. Second, this is also a study of complexity in cultural behaviour concerning the death and mortuary customs in which the 'proper burying' has formed only one--and perhaps not the most popular--way of acting. Following the definition given by Frands Herschend (2009, 37), by the term 'burying' I mean the placing of the dead in a 'burial site', i. …


The rates of HIV, STD, and hepatitis infection are high among persons entering prisons, and many of these persons engage in high-risk behaviors after release. Therefore, innovative programs that reduce risk behaviors after release are urgently needed. Project START developed and evaluated two interventions designed for young men leaving prison. This article describes both interventions: the single-session intervention and the enhanced intervention. The single-session intervention focused on HIV/STD/hepatitis prevention only. The enhanced intervention consisted of two prerelease and four postrelease sessions that focused on HIV/STD/hepatitis prevention and more broadly on health and reintegration into the community. Specific procedures used to implement the interventions in correctional settings are described. Process data describing intervention attendance and fidelity to the intervention protocols are presented. Implications for future intervention studies are discussed.


It is believed that traditional safety management needs to be improved on the aspect of preparedness for coping with expected and unexpected deviations, avoiding an overly optimistic reliance on safety systems. Remembering recent major accidents, such as the Deep Water Horizon, the Texas City explosion, and the Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire, such an approach may have helped to maintain the integrity of the designed provisions against major deviations resulting in these disasters. In order to make this paradigm operational, safety management and in particular risk assessment tools need to be refined. A valuable approach is the inclusion of human and organisational factors into the simulation of the reliability of the technical system using event trees and fault trees and the concept of safety barriers. This has been demonstrated e.g. in the former European research project ARAMIS (Accidental Risk Assessment Methodology for IndustrieS, see Salvi et al 2006). ARAMIS employs the bow-tie approach to modelling hazardous scenarios, and it suggests the outcome of auditing safety management to be connected to a semi-quantitative assessment of the quality of safety barriers. ARAMIS discriminates a number of different management issues such as competence management, dealing with conflicts, management of maintenance and inspection, and management of procedures. Shortcomings in these management processes effectuate increased probabilities of failure-on-demand (PFD) of the safety barriers, depending on the type of safety barrier (passive, automated, or involving human action). Such models are valuable for many purposes, but are difficult to apply to more complex situations, as the influences are to be set individually for each barrier. The approach described in this paper is trying to improve the state-of-the–art, and it is based on the understanding that certain human and organisational factors may be seen as a kind of common cause failures that influence the performance of several barriers. Therefore, the model links the performance of a barrier with the necessary set of specific activities to maintain and/or to control that barrier. These specific activities are executed within one of the aforementioned management processes, and the efficiency of the activity will depend on the quality of this management process.


Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) is a clonal myeloproliferative disorder of the
haemopoietic stem cell, defined by the Philadelphia chromosome (Ph) - the
outcome of a balanced, reciprocal translocation between the long arms of
chromosomes 9 and 22. The novel fusion oncogene generated on chromosome
22 as a result of this translocation is called BCR-ABL. In the majority of patients,
this oncogene transcribes a 210-kDa constitutively active protein tyrosine kinase,
often referred to as p210BCR-ABL, which is necessary for the transformation of the
disease. The introduction of the orally available, tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) -
imatinib mesylate (IM) - marked a major advance in CML treatment in terms of
efficacy and tolerability and has now become the first line of therapy. IM acts by
competing with ATP to block ABL-kinase activity, resulting in the selective
apoptosis induction of BCR-ABL+ cells. However, despite the success of IM as
standard therapy for CML, only a small proportion of patients obtain a complete
molecular response, where they become negative for BCR-ABL transcripts by RTPCR.
It is hypothesised that this minimal residual disease is the result of a
primitive quiescent subpopulation of leukaemic cells, which may be the cause for
relapse at a later date. Another major clinical concern is the observation of
molecular resistance in IM-treated patients. Proposed mechanisms of resistance
include BCR-ABL amplification, decreased intracellular IM concentrations caused
by drug efflux proteins such as multi drug resistance-1 and the development of
point mutations within the ABL-kinase domain. In an attempt to overcome IMresistance,
a second generation of BCR-ABL inhibitors has been developed.
Dasatinib (BMS-354825, Sprycel) is a TKI developed for the treatment of IM resistant
or -intolerant patients with Ph+ leukaemias, which has a 325-fold greater
potency than IM against cells expressing wild-type BCR-ABL, and is effective against all IM-resistant BCR-ABL mutants tested in vitro, except T315I. Previously,
we showed that dasatinib induced durable inhibition of BCR-ABL and impressive
clearance of Ph+ cells, however, the primitive quiescent cell population did not
appear to undergo apoptosis even after several days TKI exposure. Therefore, it
was still not clear whether early CML progenitor cells depend on BCR-ABL for
their growth and survival. In this study we have attempted to determine whether
CML stem cells are dependent on BCR-ABL TK activity for their survival and/or
proliferation using dasatinib treatment and aimed to characterise the cells which
survived drug exposure. We found that 10% of the CML cells were able to survive
the dasatinib treatment. We also showed that maximal BCR-ABL TK inhibition was
achieved in the surviving CML cells, both in the bulk population of cells and the
more problematic primitive stem cell population. Those cells which survived the
dasatinib treatment were found to be primitive, residing mainly in the undivided cell
fraction and the very early cell divisions. Since these BCR-ABL TK-inhibited,
resistant cells were also able to grow when re-cultured in cytokines and form longterm
culture-initiating cell (LTC-IC) colonies; these data suggested that ~10% of
primitive CD34+ CML cells are not addicted to BCR-ABL TK activity for their
survival. This also suggested that these primitive, resistant CML cells appeared to
survive and proliferate by BCR-ABL-independent mechanisms. Therefore, the next
experiments were then designed to investigate the cellular process of autophagy
as a potential means of primitive CML cell survival. Analysis of the properties of
CD34+ CML cells which remained viable following dasatinib treatment, revealed
the existence of cytoplasmic autophagic structures determined by electron
microscopy and significantly increased autophagosome-asociated LC3-II,
particularly in the cells cultured without growth factors (GF)s. This suggested that
autophagy is induced following GF deprivation of CML cells and is significantly
increased within these cells, upon BCR-ABL inhibition following dasatinib treatment. Furthermore, we also found that the inhibition of autophagy greatly
potentiated the effect of TKI treatment on the reduction of primitive CML progenitor
cells, in terms of the effective eradication of functionally defined colony forming
cells and LTC-ICs.
Overall, this thesis has shown for the first time that the most TKI-resistant primitive
CML cells are likely to be independent of BCR-ABL TK activity for their
proliferation and/or survival. Furthermore, we have shown that these resistant
CML stem cells rely on the BCR-ABL independent autophagy process for survival
in response to stressful conditions, such as, GF deprivation and TKI treatment.


Summary Medical Informatics (MI) is an emerging discipline with a high need of trained and skillful professionals. Objective To describe the educational experience of the Department of Health Informatics of the Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires. Methods A descriptive study of the development of the Medical Informatics Residency Program (MIRP) and the e-learning courses related to medical informatics. Results A four-year MIRP with 15 rotations was started in 2000, and was awarded national educational accreditation. Eight residents have been fully trained and their main academic contributions are shown in this study. The e-learning courses related to medical informatics (Healthcare Management, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Information Retrieval, Computer Literacy started, 10x10 Spanish version and HL7 introductory course) started in 2006 and were followed by more than 2266 students from all over the world, with an increase trend in foreign students. Conclusions These educational activities have produced skilled human resources for the development and maintenance of the health informatics projects at our Hospital. In parallel, the number of students trained by e-learning continues to increase, demonstrating the worldwide need of knowledge in this field.


Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among Latinas living in the United States. This article reports the findings of a qualitative study aimed at understanding the experiences of 25 Latinas between the ages of 28 and 83 who are long-term (at least five years post diagnosis) breast cancer survivors. The findings show three key issues and concerns: (a) fear of being stigmatized and being treated differently if they talked about their breast cancer experience; (b) overcoming the perceived negative effects that breast cancer has on their femininity; (c) the effects of breast cancer recovery and survivorship on social relationships of family and community. Family support and peer advocacy helped survivors in several areas: (a) to cope with the fear of recurrence; (b) to combat the fear of social stigma; (c) to become stronger as they dealt with the permanent life changes as a Latina breast cancer survivor; (d) to support them in the struggle for the provision of culturally sensitive health care; and (e) to provide social support in the form of advocacy for other Latina breast cancer survivors.


Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and developing asia have rapidly become more intertwined as the two regions experience strong growth. Trade between the two regions has grown at an average annual rate of 20.5% since 2000, reaching an estimated US $442 billion in 2011. Developing countries are an increasingly important source of investment, and are now the origin of more than a quarter of worldwide foreign direct investment (FDI) flows. Most recently, china has emerged as an important source of capital in LAC. However, while FDI between asia and LAC is on the rise, flows remain concentrated among a few countries, and it has yet to keep pace with the robust increase in trade linkages.


A 24-year-old girl presented with non-specific headache and diplopia. Nasal endoscopy showed a polypoidal mass in the nasopharynx. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed erosion of the clivus. Nasopharyngeal biopsy clinched the diagnosis of tuberculosis. She was put on antitubercular therapy, but developed seizures, bilateral ptosis and obstructive hydrocephalous, which were relieved by a ventriculo-peritoneal shunt. However, the patient developed infarction of the basal ganglia and thalamus and died due to cardiorespiratory arrest.


Simulations of nanoindentation into a typical optical-coatings stack employed in energy efficient glazing have been performed using classical molecular dynamics (MD) and a coupled finite element/MD methodology. The coatings stack consists of a low-emissivity material, Ag, sandwiched between two layers of a transparent conducting oxide (TCO), ZnO. Simulations into both the ZnO and the coatings stack show a strong interaction between the tip symmetry and crystal symmetry in the observed displacement field. A large amount of elastic recovery is observed for both the ZnO system and the coatings stack, but with an impression left on the surface that looks like a crack but extends no further than the tip imprint at maximum depth. The full stack is observed to have a lower hardness once there is a significant penetration of the displacement field into the Ag, when compared to the pure ZnO system. A comparison between the coupled finite element/MD methodology and the fixed boundary MD-only model shows that the boundary conditions have little influence on the calculated results.


Digital technologies have transformed advertising markets causing disruption to the funding of traditional media. Yet, paradoxically, the digital age also provides new opportunities for journalism, enabling innovations in investigative reporting on a global scale. However, the transition of investigative journalism from a single newsroom to a multi-newsroom model—involving large-scale transnational collaboration, use of social media networks to extend audience reach and impact, and data journalism to analyze mass data leaks—is understudied. This paper adapts a conceptual framework usually applied to large-scale political protest movements to large-scale collaborative investigative journalism. It aims to show how Lance Bennett and Alexandra Segerberg's "logic of connective action" can be adapted to understand different forms of networked action such as global collaborative watchdog reporting. Bennett and Segerberg identify three distinct types of large-scale protest formations and this paper contends that these can be approximated to fit different types of large-scale transnational collaborative investigative journalism. Using a case study methodology and interviews with investigative journalists, the article develops a framework to differentiate between types of large-scale investigative collaborations. The framework helps to understand differences between the collaborative investigative reporting efforts of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), WikiLeaks, and Edward Snowden's National Security Agency (NSA) leaks. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this article seeks to advance theoretical understandings of global watchdog reporting in the digital age.


Peatland rewetting aims at stopping the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and establishing net carbon sinks. However, in times of global warming, restoration projects must increasingly deal with extreme events such as drought periods. Here, we evaluate the effect of the European summer drought 2018 on vegetation development and the exchange of methane (CH4) and CO2 in two rewetted minerotrophic fens (Hütelmoor—Hte and Zarnekow—Zrk) including potential carry-over effects in the post-drought year. Drought was a major stress factor for the established vegetation but also promoted the rapid spread of new vegetation, which will likely gain a lasting foothold in Zrk. Accordingly, drought increased not only respiratory CO2 losses but also photosynthetic CO2 uptake. Altogether, the drought reduced the net CO2 sink in Hte, while it stopped the persistent net CO2 emissions of Zrk. In addition, the drought reduced CH4 emissions in both fens, though this became most apparent in the post-drought year and suggests a lasting shift towards non-methanogenic organic matter decomposition. Occasional droughts can be beneficial for the restoration of the peatland carbon sink function if the newly grown vegetation increases CO2 sequestration in the long term. Nonetheless, care must be taken to prevent extensive peat decay. This article is part of the theme issue 'Impacts of the 2018 severe drought and heatwave in Europe: from site to continental scale'.


Lawyers pretend as if the process of application of laws, as well as its outcome, could be an analytic-deductive derivation; especially law students learn that legal decision-making is primarily a logic process. But we know that application of laws depends on analytic-logical as well as on voluntaristic (wilful) elements. Exact relations between these components are unknown and will be unknown. At most German law schools students as the most important imperative tool learn the so called "Auslegung" through the use of theoretical instruments, which do not reflect the interpretation of law practice. These mentioned causes result in irrationality of legal decision-making. In order to achieve more rationality in the process and result of legal decision-making, the contribution makes four suggestions regarding legal methodology and legal education. These proposals consist of few long-term pragmatic approaches to more rationality of legal decision-making.


Dugald Stewart (1753-1810) was professor of mathematics (1775-1785), then of moral philosophy (1785-1810) at the University of Edinburgh. Stewart was one of the great cultural intermediaries. The son of the Scottish Enlightenment, he taught many of the leading intellects of the early 19th century - Sir Walter Scott, James Mill, Sir James MacKintosh, the Edinburgh Reviewers and many foreign luminaries, such as Benjamin Constant. Reared on the mental philosophy of Thomas Reid, his eclectic mind accepted important elements of Adam Smith's historical outlook, and the combination allowed Stewart to have an important influence on methodology, ranging from the science of the mind to the study of language and political economy. Stewart's theory of the mind was part of perhaps the subtlest philosophical answer to both the French Revolution and its British critics. Stewart was among the first British philosophers to react to the new critical philosophy in Germany and much of his own thought was conducted in dialogue with the latest French ideas. The works of Stewart came to be seen as a "Scottish School" and it was enormously influential both in France and in America for much of the 19th century. Sir William Hamilton's edition of Stewart's collected works is still the standard one and useful for studying both Stewart and the epoch of late Enlightenment, revolution and romanticism.


Despite the importance of host species choice of mosquito vectors to the epidemiology and control of malaria, our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary factors that drive the host species preference in these vectors is very limited. My PhD thesis aimed to experimentally investigate the potential ecological and evolutionary determinants of the host species choice of the African malaria vectors Anopheles arabiensis and An. gambiae s.s, which are amongst the most highly specialized and efficient malaria vectors in the world, and identify a control strategy that reduces their anthrophily.

I used a unique semi-field system where these vectors were able to interact naturally with hosts of different species to establish whether their fitness depends on type of host species, they encounter and feed upon. My initial prediction was that highly host-specific feeding behaviour of these vectors is a product of natural selection whereby mosquito fitness is highest on their naturally preferred host types. This prediction was met in An. arabiensis, whose feeding success and lifetime egg production was predicted to be higher on their naturally preferred bovid hosts. However, I did not detect any association between the preference of An. gambiae s.s for humans and their lifetime reproductive success, although they obtain larger blood meals and survived longer on these naturally preferred human hosts. These findings suggest the role of host species on mosquito fitness varies between vector species.

I then evaluated whether the host species-specific fitness of malaria vectors may be attributed to intrinsic defensive behaviours and haematological properties that make some host species being more beneficial than others. My initial prediction was that mosquito feeding success and fitness would be the highest in the absence of host defensive behaviours and, more specifically, that the least defensive host species would be the most highly preferred in nature. I have found that the feeding success (probability of obtaining a blood meal) of An. arabiensis is greater on host species with least effective defenses (e.g. bovids). However, this association was not apparent for anthrophilic An. gambiae s.s. Surprisingly, I found that the subsequent fitness (blood meal size and survival) of both vector species was generally greater on hosts who were free to exhibit defensive behaviours than those whose behaviours were restricted. These findings suggest that natural physical defensive behaviours made by hosts including humans may not impose strong fitness costs to malaria vectors. Therefore, I conclude that if natural host defensive behaviours shape the host species preference of malaria vectors they do so by influencing the probability of acquiring a blood meal but not the value of the blood meal if obtained.

I also assessed whether the nutritive value of host blood, as determined by haematological properties of packed cell volume (PCV) and haemoglobin concentration (Hb), could explain variation in fitness of malaria vectors on different host species. I found that the PCV and Hb of host species that are commonly encountered by malaria vectors in their natural environments vary significantly. I further found that the variation in these haematological properties influence the feeding success (e.g. blood intake rate) of the anthrophilic An. gambiae s.s but not the An. arabiensis. Anopheles gambiae s.s obtain full blood meal faster on hosts with low and medium levels of PCV. Surprisingly, these haematological traits were predicted to have opposite effects on the survival of both vector species. The survival of An. gambiae s.s was positively correlated with host PCV, but negatively correlated with their Hb. In contrast, the survival of An. arabiensis was predicted to be positively correlated with host Hb, but negatively related with PCV. Overall, there was no clear evidence that haematological properties of the host species preferred by these mosquito vectors are optimal for their fitness.

I then extended my investigations to a laboratory investigation to measure the impact of host species diversity on the fitness of An. gambiae s.s throughout their life. Under these conditions, I found that An. gambiae s.s had similar fitness after either feeding on a uniform (human-only) or mixed host species. These findings indicate that the blood composition of different species may be unlikely to reduce the fitness of An. gambiae s.s

My PhD thesis also experimentally measured the impact of using simple intervention (e.g. an untreated bed net) on reducing the fitness of malaria vectors that acquire from human hosts. I found that the lifetime reproductive output of An. arabiensis on protected human was significantly lower than on bovid hosts. In contrast, the use of untreated nets by humans reduced survival of anthrophilic An. gambiae s.s, but the reduction was not predicted to be sufficient to significantly reduce the total lifetime reproductive output of these mosquitoes on human hosts than on animal alternatives. These findings suggest that the widespread use of simple untreated net may generate selection pressures for An. arabiensis to maintain their feeding on bovid hosts and to a lesser extent for An. gambiae s.s to reduce their anthrophily.

The findings of my PhD research have implications for the epidemiology and control of malaria. I found that host species and their intrinsic properties may influence aspects of the feeding success, blood meal size and survival of malaria vectors which are the key determinants of malaria transmission intensity. I further demonstrate that selectively protecting humans with untreated nets may generate selection pressures for malaria vectors to reduce their anthrophily and consequently the transmission intensity of malaria. These findings suggest integrating existing interventions (e.g., use of untreated and insecticide treated bed nets) with environmental management that increases availability of an alternate host species (e.g. zooprophylaxis) may generate selection pressures for An. gambiae s.s to reduce their anthrophily, and An. arabiensis to maintain their feeding on alternative animal hosts (zoophily).

Overall, I discuss the impacts of host species choice and intrinsic host factors on the fitness of African malaria vectors, the impacts of intervention on their fitness and their potential to select for a host shift, and the implications to epidemiology and control of malaria. I finally highlight gaps in the knowledge of the evolution of host species choice in malaria vectors where more research is required.


The thesis is an investigation into the transformation of Greek societies from the Dark Age to the Archaic Period. That transformation included large-scale expansion overseas; the institutionalisation of slavery; population rise; the advent of literacy and literature, of
laws and lawcodes; the development of trade, markets and coinage, of public spaces and public buildings; urbanisation; the emergence of the state. All are essentially interdisciplinary topics, coming within
the ambit of several disciplines: anthropology, archaeology, geography, history and sociology in particular. Therefore the thesis aims at synthesis as well as analysis; synoikism is intended to refer to the union of disciplinary perspectives as well as the union of communities which gave rise to the poleis.

From this synthesis several hypotheses emerge, of which the three principal are: (i) Greek societies in the Dark Age were essentially egalitarian. One implication of this hypothesis is the argument that there was no 'aristocratic stage' in early Greek history. (ii) The role of violence (particularly acquisition by violence) in early Greek
history (especially the 'colonising' process) was considerable. War and plunder are argued to have been the most important sources of income. (iii) The consequences of the expansion and intensification of slavery were qualitatively far greater than commonly allowed.
Historical literature usually fails to take proper cognizance of the fact of Greek slavery, and in particular that most slaves were foreigners, whilst sociological and anthropological literature on exogenous influences and their consequences rarely considers genuine slave societies, yet they are those in which such influences were
particularly acute.

This framework is explicated through a thematic history of early Greece, covering all the aspects noted above.


An important element in melanoma vaccine construction is to identify peptides from melanoma-associated Ags that have immunogenic potential in humans and are recognized by CD8+ T cells in vivo. To identify such peptides, we evaluated HLA-A*02+ melanoma patients immunized to a polyvalent vaccine containing multiple Ags, including MAGE-3, Melan-A/MART-1, gp100, tyrosinase, melanocortin receptor (MC1R), and dopachrome tautomerase (TRP-2). Using a filter spot assay, we measured peripheral blood CD8+ T cell responses, before and after immunization, to a panel of 45 HLA-A*0201-restricted peptides derived from these Ags. The peptides were selected for immunogenic potential based on their strong binding affinity in vitro to HLA-A*0201. Vaccine treatment induced peptide-specific CD8+ T cell responses to 22 (47.8%) of the peptides. The most striking finding was the HLA-independent heterogeneity of responses to both peptides and Ags. All responding patients reacted to different combination of peptides and Ags even though the responding patients were all A*0201+ and the peptides were all A*0201-restricted. From 9 to 27% of patients developed a CD8+ T cell response to at least one peptide from each Ag, but no more than 3 (14%) reacted to the same peptide from the same Ag. This heterogeneity of responses to individual peptides and Ags in patients with the same haplotype points to the need to construct vaccines of multiple peptides or Ags to maximize the proportion of responding patients.


People dislike inflation because inflation erodes the real value of future nominal income and wealth. Adjustment of future nominal values via a cost of living index is an appropriate way to handle the problem of real income risk. Nonetheless an important aspect needs more discussion: If markets existed in which real income risks could be traded-would a rational individual always voluntarily purchase protection against such risk? A model is developed to shed some light on this aspect. It shows that the optimal behaviour depends - as expected - on the cost of protection and the risk preferences of the individual.


No general history of southern farming since the end of slavery has been published until now. For the first time, Gilbert C. Fite has drawn together the many threads that make up commercial agricultural development in the eleven states of the old Confederacy, to explain why agricultural change was so slow in the South, and then to show how the agents of change worked after 1933 to destroy the old and produce a new agriculture.Fite traces the decline and departure of King Cotton as the hard taskmaster of the region, and the replacement of cotton by a somewhat more democratically rewarding group of farm products: poultry, cattle, swine; soybeans; citrus and other fruits; vegetables; rice; dairy products; and forest products. He shows how such crop changes were related to other developments, such as the rise of a capital base in the South, mainly after World War II; technological innovation in farming equipment; and urbanization and regional population shifts.Based largely upon primary sources, "Cotton Fields No More" will become the standard work on post-Civil War agriculture in the South. It will be welcomed by students of the American South and of United States agriculture, economic, and social history.


BACKGROUND
Hawthorn extract (Crataegeus sp.) a botanical complementary and alternative medicine is often used to treat heart failure. The mechanism(s) by which hawthorn extract may treat heart failure is unknown but may include, theoretically, immunological effects. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the effect of hawthorn extract on the immunomodulatory response in a pressure overload model of heart failure.

MATERIAL/METHODS
A total of 62 male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized to either aortic constriction + vehicle (AC; n=15), aortic constriction + hawthorn 1.3 mg/kg (HL, n=17), aortic constriction + hawthorn 13 mg/kg (HM, n=15), or aortic constriction + hawthorn 130 mg/kg (HH, n=15). Six months after surgical procedure animals were sacrificed and plasma samples obtained for the measurement of the following immunomodulatory markers: interleukin (IL) IL-1ss, IL-2, IL-6, IL-10; and leptin.

RESULTS
The mortality rate following 6 months of aortic constriction was 40% in the AC group compared to 41%, 60%, and 53% for the HL, HM, and HH groups respectively (P>0.05 compared to AC). Aortic constriction produced a similar increase in the left ventricle/body weight ratio for all groups. Hawthorn extract had no effect on the immunomodulatory markers measured in this study, although there appeared to be a trend suggesting suppression of IL-2 plasma concentrations.

CONCLUSIONS
In this animal model of heart failure, hawthorn extract failed to significantly affect the immunomodulatory response characterized after 6 months of pressure overload at a time when approximately 50% mortality was exhibited. Mechanisms other than immunological may better define hawthorn's effect in treating heart failure.


Pursuant to sections 254(a)(11)(A) and 255(b) of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), Public Law 107–252, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) hereby causes to be published in the Federal Register changes to the HAVA State plan previously submitted by Nevada. DATES: This notice is effective upon publication in the Federal Register. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Bryan Whitener, Telephone 202–566– 3100 or 1–866–747–1471 (toll-free). Submit Comments: Any comments regarding the plans published herewith should be made in writing to the chief election official of the individual State at the address listed below. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On March 24, 2004, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission published in the Federal Register the original HAVA State plans filed by the fifty States, the District of Columbia and the Territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 69 FR 14002. HAVA anticipated that States, Territories and the District of Columbia would change or update their plans from time to time pursuant to HAVA section 254(a)(11) through (13). HAVA sections 254(a)(11)(A) and 255 require EAC to publish such updates. This is the sixth revision to the State plan for Nevada. The amendment to Nevada's State plan changes dollar amount spending to percentage amount spending on various activities; elaborates on the Command Center and the Senate Bill 401 report of the election process in Nevada; provides updated charts and tables to reflect November 2009 funding levels and spending plans; incorporates updates to reflect minority language requirements; and removes the Temporary Statewide Voter Registration List. In accordance with HAVA section 254(a)(12), all the State plans submitted for publication provide information on how the respective State succeeded in carrying out its previous State plan. Nevada confirms that its amendments to the State plan were developed and submitted to public comment in accordance with HAVA sections 254(a)(11), 255, and 256. Upon the expiration of thirty days from April 2, 2010, the State is eligible to implement the changes addressed in the plan that is published herein, in accordance with HAVA section 254(a)(11)(C). EAC wishes to acknowledge the effort that went into revising this State plan and encourages further public comment, in writing, to the State election official listed below.


Online news reading has become very popular as the web provides access to news articles from millions of sources around the world. A key challenge of news websites is to help users find the articles that are interesting to read. In this paper, we present our research on developing personalized news recommendation system in Google News. For users who are logged in and have explicitly enabled web history, the recommendation system builds profiles of users' news interests based on their past click behavior. To understand how users' news interests change over time, we first conducted a large-scale analysis of anonymized Google News users click logs. Based on the log analysis, we developed a Bayesian framework for predicting users' current news interests from the activities of that particular user and the news trends demonstrated in the activity of all users. We combine the content-based recommendation mechanism which uses learned user profiles with an existing collaborative filtering mechanism to generate personalized news recommendations. The hybrid recommender system was deployed in Google News. Experiments on the live traffic of Google News website demonstrated that the hybrid method improves the quality of news recommendation and increases traffic to the site.


Count-based estimators are a fundamental building block of a number of powerful sequential prediction algorithms, including Context Tree Weighting and Prediction by Partial Matching. Keeping exact counts, however, typically results in a high memory overhead. In particular, when dealing with large alphabets the memory requirements of count-based estimators often become prohibitive. In this paper we propose three novel ideas for approximating count-based estimators using bounded memory. Our first contribution, of independent interest, is an extension of reservoir sampling for sampling distinct symbols from a stream of unknown length, which we call K-distinct reservoir sampling. We combine this sampling scheme with a state-of-the-art count-based estimator for memoryless sources, the Sparse Adaptive Dirichlet (SAD) estimator. The resulting algorithm, the Budget SAD, naturally guarantees a limit on its memory usage. We finally demonstrate the broader use of K-distinct reservoir sampling in nonparametric estimation by using it to restrict the branching factor of the Context Tree Weighting algorithm. We demonstrate the usefulness of our algorithms with empirical results on two sequential, large-alphabet prediction problems.


A large-scale screen of neuroactive compounds identifies pathways that may play a role in regulating rest-wake activity. Drug discovery methods often rely on in vitro assays to identify compounds with specific types of biochemical activity, but predicting how a psychoactive drug will affect behavior requires direct testing of candidate compounds in animal models. Rihel et al. devised a high-throughput screen to identify compounds that affect rest-wake activity in zebrafish larvae and quantify the behavioral effects. They sorted the compounds into clusters based on their "behavioral fingerprint," a set of behavioral changes elicited by each compound. Analysis of the data revealed that compounds that elicit similar behavioral changes often affect the same molecular targets or pathways, and compounds of similar structure produced similar behavioral effects in vivo. The authors were able to use the data set to predict the biological targets of uncharacterized compounds based on those of well-characterized compounds with which they cluster in the behavioral fingerprint analysis. The screen demonstrated that many aspects of neuropharmacology are conserved between mammals and zebrafish, so this model might also be useful for biochemically characterizing the regulation and pharmacology of complex behaviors. The results also suggested additional pathways that might be involved in modulating rest-wake activities. For example, several anti-inflammatory compounds increased wakeful activity during the day but not at night, suggesting that anti-inflammatory signaling pathways not only increase sleep in response to infection but also modulate daytime activity under normal conditions. These findings might enable researchers to predict biological targets or behavioral effects of novel compounds based on structural or biochemical aspects shared with well-characterized drugs, and they may also inform rational drug design. J. Rihel, D. A. Prober, A. Arvanites, K. Lam, S. Zimmerman, S. Jang, S. J. Haggarty, D. Kokel, L. L. Rubin, R. T. Peterson, A. F. Schier, Zebrafish behavioral profiling links drugs to biological targets and rest/wake regulation. Science, 327, 348–351 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Early anthropological studies of Pentecostalism and gender, dominated by Latin American and Caribbean ethnography, focused to a large extent on women's conversion and how Pentecostal ideology has limited masculine oppressive behavior and provided women with social community, faith healing, domestic counseling, and so forth. These studies of Pentecostalism have thus been dominated by a focus on women on the one hand and on social community and social change on the other. The primary question asked in these studies has been, does Pentecostalism bring about an increased degree of equality? With the development of the anthropology of Christianity, the focus has shifted to a more thoroughgoing understanding of Christianity as a culture. In this paper I argue that this shift can also stimulate a shift in the way we study equality and gender in Pentecostalism. Instead of looking at men and women's roles, we need to look at the specific idea of egalitarianism that this form of Christianity brings about and how this shapes the way in which gendered difference is articulated. I present a case from Vanuatu, South West Pacific, arguing that we need to look at gendered values, and I suggest a focus on what I call "the charismatic space."


Investment support is aimed at attracting investments to agriculture. Although an extensive use of investment support is subject to criticism, it accounts for a great deal of support for producers in the EU countries. In 2002-2008, the investment support for Latvian farm modernisation co-financed by the EU investment programs amounted to LVL82.5 million. The amounts allocated for this type of support account for 30-40% of the total funding for structural measures under EU support programs. In view of the extensive support amount, it is all-important to evaluate the efficiency of supported investment. An evaluation was performed for a group of 324 Latvian farms representing rural enterprises from all Latvian regions. As a result of the research, an increase in the efficiency of supported investment was identified – owing to an increase in the farm sizes and performance efficiency; on the other hand, investments were recognised as a risk factor, which has a negative impact on the farm viability indicators.


The luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) has been proposed as a cost-effective solution to bring electricity generation from sunlight into the built environment. The basic LSC design consists of a plastic plate containing or topped by a thin layer of fluorescent dyes. The dyes absorb sunlight and re-emit it at a longer wavelength. A fraction of this light is trapped by total internal reflection and becomes concentrated along the edges of the waveguide, where one can place small photovoltaic cells to convert the emitted light into electrical current. With its flexibility in color, shape, and size, it would appear ideally suited for exploitation by the architect for use in facades and other structures in the urban surroundings. However, limitations in performance have hindered widespread adoption of the devices. In this work I present modifications to the standard LSC using liquid crystals to assist in collecting, directing, and controlling both the incoming and emitted light in the device, as well as describing additional features to allow on-demand adjustment of transparency.