Abstract This paper deals with leadership and organizational change in a competitive environment. It addresses challenges faced by today's global organizational leaders and what is needed of them. The paper will discuss seven important differences that organizational leaders need to succeed in the future: 1) a flat and teamoriented organization, 2) the nature of leadership, 2) leadership and organizational philosophy, 3) the best leaders teach leadership, 4) leadership and organization culture, 5) leadership evaluation and practices, 6) leaders alienating followers, and 7) leadership and teamwork in a change process. Furthermore, the researchers will address the issues of resistance to change and provide ways on how to overcome it. The paper will explain why it is necessary for leaders to continuously evaluate their practices. Also, the researchers will highlight the issue of leaders alienating followers and what can be done to bring them on board. Finally, the researchers concludes by providing the importance of reconciling different points of view and constantly obtaining commitment to successfully implement positive change and creating a team-oriented organization that is needed in a sustainable change process. Introduction: Leadership True leaders always have a vision. They know where they want to go and how to get there. According to Burns (1978), leaders provide change and movement in an organization. They do so by providing a vision for change (Bennis 6t Nanus, 1997). In order to be effective, leaders must have a clear sense of goals in order to guide their institutions in new directions (Bums). They need the capacity to stand back from everyday activities and see the processes of change over the long term. Leaders value others' skills and experiences and build teams that make use of them. They courageously accept responsibility for problems and are able to clearly communicate the mission, goals and objectives of the organization. Great leaders are willing to challenge the status quo while trusting and empowering their people. Not only do leaders use obstacles to create a positive future, they are willing to set an example of sacrifice for the good of the next generation. The leader's internal, external, and relational context of behavior connects with the followers' own sense of internal motivation. The leader's behaviors provide a model for internally motivated people. Such individuals sense the leader's encouragement as he or she listens to them, respects them, assists in their development, and shares power with them (Davidhizer & Shearer, 1997). Leaders elevate the interests of people (Bass, 1990) and serve as the missing ingredient in moving toward more participative systems (Collins, Ross, & Ross, 1989). Such leaders attract internally motivated people, inspire them with a mission, and initiate new ways of thinking (Keller, 1995). The result is new influence on the culture of the organization. The primary task of leadership is to establish and maintain /nt/macy-the concept of caring-because disciplined unselfishness comes about only through close social relationships. This is significant because it shows how much leaders care about their employees. This also helps sustain a trusting relationship between leaders and employees. What's more, trust is a primary attribute associated with leadership and when this trust is broken it can have serious adverse effects on employee performance. Hence, the leader must work hard to build identification-based trust in any change process, which can be done by the leader creating a positive environment that nurtures an emotional connection among employees. This is important because it allows one employee to act as an agent for the other, and substitute for that employee in interpersonal transactions. This further enhances a united team during a change process. Traditional sources of intimacy-the family, the club, the neighborhood, and life-long friendships- are all presently threatened by modern lifestyles in today's global world. …


We encourage contributors to take the initiative to prepare reviews of significant books not on this list of interest to readers of the RRPE. We would also welcome a more ambitious examination of bodies of literature that should be better known by our readers. I would be pleased to assist in obtaining review copies for this purpose. We also have a number of books that we have received from publishers interested in having reviews appear in the RRPE. We encourage people to request them. Reviews should be twelve hundred to fifteen hundred words in length and submitted within sixty days of your receipt of the book. More detailed instructions will accompany the book when it is sent to you. We welcome review essays encompassing three or four books that bring together an important literature in significant areas for political economists. The book review editor and one other member of the Editorial Board referee reviews of single books. Suggestions for making this section more useful for readers are particularly encouraged. This list is updated regularly on the RRPE Web page.


The goal of this Article is to introduce a comprehensive methodology for analysis of visuals used for communication in legal works, by which I mean transactional and litigation documents, legal instruments, primary and secondary sources of law, and legal informational materials. To date, the scholarship on visuals in legal communications has been heavily descriptive, with some forays into the ethical and practical considerations of the use of "visualized" legal works. No one has yet devised a comprehensive analytical methodology that draws upon the disciplines of visual literacy, visual cultural studies, visual rhetoric, and mise en scene analysis to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of actual examples of highly visual legal documents and critique their efficacy and propriety in a variety of legal settings. This Article will fill that gap in the literature.

The new methodology evaluates the following aspects of visual legal works:

• Immediate Visual Context
o Analysis of Meaning
o Taxonomy of Purpose and Function
• Immediate Verbal Context
• Visual Cultural Context
• Mise en Scene and the Rhetorical Topic of Arrangement
• Visual Rhetoric and the Ethical and Professional Propriety of the Work.

Lawyers, judges, and law students typically do not receive training in visual literacy regarding the reading and interpretation of visual images, and much less so in the design principles required to create the most effective visuals for legal communications and legal instruments, such as contracts. This condition persists in spite of the fact that visual images can communicate across language and cultural barriers, taking advantage of the enormous speed and power of visual communication. In equal measure, knowledge and understanding of these principles will enable lawyers to design and use effective visuals, and to challenge or respond to the visual legal communications proffered by their opponents in litigation or negotiation, or their counterparts in a transaction.

My intent in this Article and the methodology it presents is to examine visual elements as visuals, not as a translation or alternative form of verbal communication. The approach of trying to translate visual works into verbal arguments or verbal elements of legal reasoning limits the scope and the effectiveness of the visual works, because communication through visuals employs a separate visual language, and not in a literal or verbal sense. The methodology proposed in this Article is a set of tools that can help verbally-oriented law-trained writers to become better readers, evaluators, and creators of visual communications in the law.


ABSTRACT This paper deals with the systematic and botanical description of the microfloral elements from the Pliocene S. Pedro da Torre section (NW Portugal) and the description of the palaeoenvironment and palaeoclimate, for use as a correlation attempt with other Pliocene deposits. The S. Pedro da Torre section represents one of the main sites which may help us to understand the vegetation and the paleoenvironment of the Pliocene north-western Iberian Peninsula. Nearly 70 different taxa were indentified (including bryophytes, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms), which indicate a palaeowetland setting, dominated by arboreal vegetation that developed under humid and warm climatic conditions.


There are several good reasons to introduce classification schemes for optimization problems including, for instance, the ability for concise problem statement opposed to verbal, often ambiguous, descriptions or simple data encoding and information retrieval in bibliographical information systems or software libraries. In some branches like scheduling and queuing theory classification is therefore a widely accepted and appreciated tool. The aim of this paper is to propose a 5-position classification which can be used to cover all location problems. We will provide a list of currentliy available symbols and indicate its usefulness in a - necessarily non-comprehensive - list of classical location problems. The classification scheme is in use since 1992 and has since proved to be useful in research, software development, classroom, and for overview articles.


Numerous neurophysiological studies have revealed that a large number of the primary visual cortex neurons operate in a regime called surround modulation. Surround modulation has a substantial effect on various perceptual tasks, and it also plays a crucial role in the efficient neural coding of the visual cortex. Inspired by the notion of surround modulation, we designed new excitatory-inhibitory connections between a unit and its surrounding units in the convolutional neural network (CNN) to achieve a more biologically plausible network. Our experiments show that this simple mechanism can considerably improve both the performance and training speed of traditional CNNs in visual tasks. We further explore additional outcomes of the proposed structure. We first evaluate the model under several visual challenges, such as the presence of clutter or change in lighting conditions and show its superior generalization capability in handling these challenging situations. We then study possible changes in the statistics of neural activities such as sparsity and decorrelation and provide further insight into the underlying efficiencies of surround modulation. Experimental results show that importing surround modulation into the convolutional layers ensues various effects analogous to those derived by surround modulation in the visual cortex.


The fact that fifteen of the nineteen terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001 were Saudi citizens inevitably raised serious questions about the social conditions that have produced such violent personalities capable of the mass taking of innocent lives and devastating an entire city, if not a nation. Answers were quick to come by, as the U.S. media pointed to the Saudi culture. Charges were made that the youth were brainwashed by the most extremist school in Islam, namely, Wahhabism. The Saudi educational institutions were also blamed for promoting anti-Semitism, anti-Western attitudes, and intolerance of other religions. Saudi society was also condemned for having a corrupt and backward political system. Naturally, in this land of intolerance and authoritarianism, resorting to violence by its inhabitants became a foregone conclusion.


Problems of emerging antibiotic resistance are becoming a serious threat worldwide, and at the same time, the interest to develop new antimicrobials has declined. There is consequently a need for efficient methods to develop new treatments that minimize the risk of resistance development and that are effective on infections caused by resistant strains. Based on in silico mathematical models, describing the time course of exposure (Pharmacokinetics, PK) and effect (Pharmacodynamics, PD) of a drug, information can be collected and the outcome of various exposures may be predicted. A general model structure, that characterizes the most important features of the system, has advantages as it can be used for different situations. The aim of this thesis was to develop Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic (PKPD) models describing the bacterial growth and killing after mono- and combination exposures to antibiotics and to explore the predictive ability of PKPD-models across preclinical experimental systems. Models were evaluated on data from other experimental settings, including prediction into animals. A PKPD model characterizing the growth and killing for a range of E. coli bacteria strains, with different MICs, as well as emergence of resistance, was developed. The PKPD model was able to predict results from different experimental conditions including high start inoculum experiments, a range of laboratory and clinical strains as well as experiments where wild-type and mutant bacteria are competing at different drug concentrations. A PKPD model, developed based on in vitro data, was also illustrated to have the capability to replicate the data from an in vivo study. This thesis illustrates the potential of PKPD models to characterize in vitro data and their usage for predictions of different types of experiments. The thesis supports the use of PKPD models to facilitate development of new drugs and to improve the use of existing antibiotics.


We develop an empirical model of the decay of Fourier amplitudes for earthquakes of M 3-6 recorded on rock sites in eastern North America and discuss its implications for source parameters. Attenuation at distances from 10 to 500 km may be adequately described using a bilinear model with a geometric spreading of 1=R 1:3 to a transition distance of 50 km, with a geometric spreading of 1=R 0:5 at greater distances. For low frequencies and distances less than 50 km, the effective geometric spreading given by the model is perturbed using a frequency- and hypocentral depth- dependent factor defined in such a way as to increase amplitudes at lower frequencies near the epicenter but leave the 1 km source amplitudes unchanged. The associated anelastic attenuation is determined for each event, with an average value being given by a regional quality factor of Q � 525f 0:45 . This model provides a match, on aver- age, between the known seismic moment of events and the inferred low-frequency spectral amplitudes at R � 1 km (obtained by correcting for the attenuation model). The inferred Brune stress parameters from the high-frequency source terms are about 600 bars (60 MPa), on average, for events of M> 4:5.


Questions: Natural regeneration is central to plant conservation strategies. Worldwide, many Juniperus species are threatened due to their failure to regenerate. We focus on Juniperus communis in areas of NW Europe where it is declining and ask: what advice is available to land managers on natural regeneration methods, and when applied, how effective has this been?

Methods: We synthesize knowledge on the efficacy of management interventions and conditions associated with J. communis regeneration. In field trials, we test interventions where knowledge is lacking. We assess regeneration of J. communis, creation of regeneration microsites and germination of sown seed in response to the interventions.

Results: Although J. communis occurs in different habitats, there is consistency in site conditions important for regeneration (unshaded/open, short ground vegetation, disturbed/bare ground, low herbivore pressure). In calcareous grasslands, areas with regeneration are stony/bare or vegetation is short or sparse; in upland acid grasslands and dry heathlands regeneration locations are disturbed areas sometimes with a moss cover. Several interventions (grazing, scarification, turf stripping) can create regeneration conditions. The synthesis identified cattle grazing and ground scarification for further testing on upland acid grasslands. In the resulting field trials, regeneration was rare and recorded on only one cattle-grazed site. An exposed moss layer characterized regeneration microsites but there was insufficient evidence that either intervention increased regeneration microsite frequency. Few sown seeds germinated.

Conclusions: Different interventions or intensities of these appear to be required depending on habitat type. Broadly, on calcareous grassland intense scarification or soil stripping is needed, while on dry heathlands light scarification is suitable. On upland acid grassland, cattle grazing and ground scarification do not reliably result in regeneration. Creation of favourable mossy regeneration microsites is unlikely following intervention, unless soil fertility is low. Land-use change, increased climate warming and pollution are pressures acting on J. communis and may cause habitat loss and altered site conditions (e.g. soil fertility), making it difficult to create regeneration microsites at all J. communis sites. Other constraints on regeneration may operate (e.g. seed predation and low seed viability) and managers should assess population and site potential before undertaking management.


Graphene and carbon nanotubes are extreme mechanical and electronic materials which have been the subjects of intense study and development since their discoveries. While many of their intrinsic properties have been discovered, their interactions with other materials are only beginning to be explored. The noncovalent binding of single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides to carbon nanotubes and graphene has been seen to give rise to effective gas sensors. We examine similar systems to each of these in turn, imaging carbon nanotubes decorated with single-stranded DNA in Transmission Electron Microscope, and performing X-ray reflectivity of a single-stranded DNA film on graphite. The TEM study shows that the DNA bunches up along tubes but does not tend to clump on single tubes. Helical wrapping is not seen on single tubes. X-ray reflectivity shows that DNA on a graphite surface forms an inhomogeneous layer around 1.6 nm thick. The differences between the various thicknesses of few-layer graphene are substantial though often underappreciated. These differences are highlighted in the system of several-nanometer metal particles on few-layer graphene flakes. We formed such particles by evaporation and annealing, then examined them in Scanning Electron Microscope. We found that gold nanoparticles were circular and experienced limited growth, with the radius varying as the number of layers to the 1/3 power. A theoretical explanation is given for this observation, based on an electrostatic interaction. This theory is also consistent with observations for titanium and silver nanoparticles. Ytterbium nanoparticles on graphene form instead into filaments. A related theory is presented showing that the same electrostatic interaction is capable of overcoming surface tension to deform particles from circularity.


Introduction: An epidemic of acute myositis affecting children in Eastern Nebraska occurred in association with influenza infections in 2007. The myositis was quite distinct from the generalized myalgias that typically precede or accompany influenza infection. Myositis followed the initial influenza prodrome by a few days and almost exclusively involved the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles. Our objective was to evaluate influenza-associated acute myositis during 2 consecutive influenza seasons. Methods: After the institutional review board approval, we conducted a retrospective chart review to identify children younger than 18 years diagnosed with influenza at the Children's Hospital in Omaha, Neb, between October 2005 and April 2007. Myositis was defined by elevated creatine kinase (CK) levels and clinical presentation. Results: Eighty-nine children tested positive for influenza at the Children's Hospital in the 2005-2006 winter season, and 184 tested positive in the 2006-2007 season. In the first season, 90% of cases were influenza A and 10% influenza B, whereas in the second season, 57% were influenza A and 43% influenza B; the increase of influenza B in the community is statistically significant with a 2-sided P < 0.0001. There were 15 cases of acute myositis in association with influenza in 2007 and none in the 2006 season; 73% of the cases were secondary to influenza B and 27% to influenza A. This difference is significant with a 2-sided P = 0.0264. The age range of children with acute myositis was 3 to 14 years, with a mean of 7.93 years and a median of 7 years. Most cases presented with a few days of fever, cough, and rhinorrhea followed by acute calf pain, abnormal gait, and inability to ambulate. Thirteen of the 15 patients were hospitalized. Most cases were uncomplicated with full recovery within a week. The peak CK levels ranged from 264 to 26,582 U/L. The children with the 2 highest CK levels died from complications of their illnesses. Conclusions: Acute myositis after influenza infection occurs more commonly with influenza B, although the patients with influenza A had more complicated courses. Myositis should be suspected in patients with acute change in gait, refusal to walk, and intense leg pain a few days after a viral prodrome.


Any review of medieval culture and literature in the British eighteenth century requires some consideration for the modernizations of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Effectively a collaboration that spanned the entire century, this project began with Dryden and Pope and continued in earnest with lesser-known poets like George Ogle and William Lipscomb. The resulting modernization of every Chaucerian tale between 1700 and 1795 revisits medieval themes, but it also displays contemporary anxieties through presentations of language, content, style, and rhetorical intent that are sometimes vastly different from Chaucer's originals. The modernization project is worthy of study, in particular because it reflects, across several generations of poets, the religious and political landscape of the late-Stuart and Georgian dynasties. Thus, through the completion of the modernized text, the text of Great Britain as it moved throughout the 1700s is also illuminated. The resulting eighteenth-century Chaucer looks with keen attention at the ideological conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism, especially within the context of events like the Glorious Revolution, the Hanoverian succession, the Jacobite uprisings, and the threat of war with Continental powers across the Channel. In the process of rewriting the Tales, the modernizers unwittingly accomplished something else, of no less importance. Through their own close reading of the medieval, they articulated attitudes and interpretations that contribute to the modernization project in their own time but also anticipate modern accepted scholarship by several centuries. At a minimum, any gathering awareness of the eighteenth-century Chaucer sheds more light on Britain's defiant steps toward patriotic Anglican rule at the start of the 1800s. While this better understanding can help unravel Britain's historical sense of its "dark" Catholic past, it can also help show the development of other literary genres, like the Gothic novel, with more clarity. ©2016 by Eric Larson All Rights Reserved


Over the past twenty-five years, the Supreme Court's Establishment Clause jurisprudence has been plagued by inconsistencies and hard-to-reconcile decisions. This is largely because the Court has abandoned objective analyses in favor of a more result-oriented approach, justifying certain governmentally sponsored religious practices on the grounds that, given their historical, cultural, or physical contexts, they are sufficiently diluted of religious meaning to satisfy the First Amendment. This ad hoc practice—whether guised as an application of one of the Court's formal tests or as an instance of "ceremonial deism" —has undermined the central purpose of the Establishment Clause. This Note proffers a more principled approach, based on justice O'Connor's endorsement test, which allows for some "secular" religious references but still gives fidelity to the commands of the Establishment Clause and the constitutional rights of nonadherents. Using this approach, this Note demonstrates that the current form of the Pledge of Allegiance is best understood as an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.


Conflict management and resolution are processes for dealing with discord or facilitating peaceful and satisfactory cessations to conflict, and even potentially its transformation. Ideas and actions about how disputes are handled within various historical, geographic, political, economic, and cultural contexts and structures come from a range of positions, people, and institutions, with some approaches having empirical, experiential, precedential, authoritative, or intuitive support. The aggregation, analysis, and dissemination of these processes have led to the development of related fields within peace and conflict studies. Identified approaches to conflict management and resolution include, but are not limited to, alternative dispute resolution (negotiation, facilitation, mediation, case analysis, early neutral evaluation, conciliation, and arbitration), peacebuilding, and diplomacy. As an interdisciplinary field, scholarship is drawn from a broad range of academic disciplines, including social psychology, law, economics, and political science. These theories and processes are often systematically designed toward specific ends (e.g., management, analysis, resolution, transformation) and get applied at the individual, community, institutional, regional, state, and/or international levels. Through an analysis of the extant African studies resources focusing on conflict management and resolution, emergent themes fall into two broad categories: applied mechanisms of conflict management and resolution, and conflict issues affecting the continent. The African continent has seen its fair share of violent and intractable conflicts, both intra- and interstate. From the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya beginning in 2010 to the Niger Delta conflict and Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria, Kenyan presidential election violence, or South African water shortages, conflict and the need for its management, analysis, and resolution are abundant. Engagement (not isolation) and active dialogue, collaboration, and conflict sensitivity (i.e., do no harm) are essential keys to studying, managing, resolving, and transforming the diverse range of conflict situations found throughout Africa. External, internal (i.e., indigenous or localized), and hybrid models can open and sustain pathways to peace. Many scholars now argue that conflict management, analysis, and resolution must address root causes, take an interdisciplinary approach, not conflate conflict and violence, use multiscalar perspectives (i.e., individual, group, state, interstate), and employ multicultural sensitivities attuned to cultural contexts and global sources of conflict. Scholars and practitioners must investigate and better understand the origins, causes, resolution, and consequences of conflicts in contemporary Africa in relation to their postcolonial contexts. Concerns include ethnic, religious, political, and environmental conflict factors, as well as demographic pressures. The stakeholder roles in post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction should also be determined and continually evaluated to ensure effectiveness in African conflicts.


Hereditary angioneurotic oedema is a rare condition inherited as an autosomal dominant and characterized by episodic circumscribed oedema of the skin, subcutaneous tissues, or mucous membranes. Life may be threatened when the pharynx or larynx are involved and oedema of the intestinal mucous membrane, presenting as colicky abdominal pain and vomiting, may lead to unnecessary surgical intervention. The condition is due to deficiency of the functional inhibitor of the activated first component of complement. Consumption of the inhibitor by activation of other plasma esterase systems permits spontaneous activation of the initial stages of the complement system and leads to the appearance of a kinin derived from the second component of complement which causes oedema by increasing vascular permeability.

Four patients in three generations of a family with hereditary angioneurotic oedema are presented with special reference to attacks of abdominal colic. The clinical and radiological appearances and serological changes are described before, during, and after treatment by transfusion of fresh-frozen plasma. It was confirmed that this, by replacing the inhibitor, is highly effective in terminating attacks without significant side-effects. It was also confirmed by a controlled trial that epsilon-aminocaproic acid acts prophylactically by reducing the frequency and severity of attacks of oedema.


The focus of computerised learning has shifted from content delivery towards personalised online learning with Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS). Oscar Conversational ITS (CITS) is a sophisticated ITS that uses a natural language interface to enable learners to construct their own knowledge through discussion. Oscar CITS aims to mimic a human tutor by dynamically detecting and adapting to an individual's learning styles whilst directing the conversational tutorial. Oscar CITS is currently live and being successfully used to support learning by university students. The major contribution of this paper is the development of the novel Oscar CITS adaptation algorithm and its application to the Felder-Silverman learning styles model. The generic Oscar CITS adaptation algorithm uniquely combines the strength of an individual's learning style preference with the available adaptive tutoring material for each tutorial question to decide the best fitting adaptation. A case study is described, where Oscar CITS is implemented to deliver an adaptive SQL tutorial. Two experiments are reported which empirically test the Oscar CITS adaptation algorithm with students in a real teaching/learning environment. The results show that learners experiencing a conversational tutorial personalised to their learning styles performed significantly better during the tutorial than those with an unmatched tutorial.


In today's world all eyes are on Iran, which has grappled with an experiment that has had a massive global impact. For some, the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79 was the triumph of a modern, political Islam, heralding Muslim justice and economic prosperity. Others, including many of the original revolutionaries, saw religious fanatics attempting to roll back time by creating a despotic theocracy. Either way, the Iranian Revolution changed the Muslim world. It not only inspired the Muslim masses but also reinvigorated intellectual debates on the nature and possibilities of an Islamic state. The new 'Islamic Republic of Iran' combined not just religion and the state, but theocracy and democracy. Yet the revolution's heirs were soon engaged in a protracted struggle over its legacy. Dissident thinkers, from within an Islamic framework, sought a rights-based political order that could accept dissent, tolerance, pluralism, women's rights and civil liberties. Their ideas led directly to the presidency of Mohammad Khatami and, despite their political failure, they did leave a permanent legacy by demystifying Iranian religious politics, and condemning the use of the Shariah to justify autocratic rule. This book tells the story of the reformist movement through the world of Hasan Yousefi Eshkevari. An active supporter of the revolution who became one of the most outspoken critics of theocracy, Eshkevari developed ideas of 'Islamic democratic government', which have attracted considerable attention in Iran and elsewhere. In presenting a selection of Eshkevari's writings, this book reveals the intellectual and political trajectory of a Muslim thinker and his attempts to reconcile Islam with reform and democracy. As such it makes a highly original contribution to our understanding of the difficult social and political issues confronting the Islamic world today.


Aims and Objectives To review systematically, qualitative literature covering the implementation of task shifting in sub‐Saharan Africa to address the growing interest in interventions of this kind. This review aims to distil the key practical findings to both guide a specific project aiming to improve the quality of neonatal care in Kenya and to contribute to the broader literature. Background Task‐shifting programmes aim to improve access to healthcare by delegating specific tasks from higher to lower skilled health workers. Evidence suggests that task‐shifting programmes in sub‐Saharan Africa may improve patient outcomes, but they have also been criticised for providing fragmented, unsustainable services. This systematic review of qualitative literature summarises factors affecting implementation of task shifting and how such interventions in sub‐Saharan Africa may have affected health workers' feelings about their own positions and their ability to provide care. Design Following literature search, a modified Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) framework was used to assess quality. Thereafter, analysis adopted a thematic synthesis approach. Methods A systematic literature search identified qualitative studies examining task ‐shifting interventions in sub‐Saharan Africa. Thematic synthesis was used to identify overarching themes arising from across the studies and infer how task‐shifting interventions may impact on the health workers from whom tasks are being shifted. Results From the 230 studies screened, 13 met the inclusion criteria. Overarching themes identified showed that task shifting has been associated with jurisdictional debates linked to new cadres working beyond their scope of practice, and tension around compensation and career development for those taking on tasks that were being delegated. Conclusions Based on the qualitative data available, it appears that task shifting may negatively impact the sense of agency and the ability to perform of health workers' from whom tasks are shifted. The potential implications of task shifting on all health workers should be considered prior to implementing task‐shifting solutions.


This dissertation is in two parts. Part one is an original composition, Symphony No. 1 and is inspired by different aspects of Japanese culture. Part two is an analysis of Tõru Takemitsu's November Steps, which is scored for orchestra and the traditional Japanese instruments, biwa and shakuhachi. The first movement of Symphony No. 1 is entitled Rashõmon and is based on the structure of the 1951 Akira Kurosawa film. The harmonic language is primarily polytonal and is based on the octatonic scale. The second movement is entitled For a Person of a Floating World. Its form is derived from the 5-7-5 syllabic structure of haiku poetry. The harmonic language consists of contrasting pentatonic and whole-tone derived sonorities. The third and fourth movements are inspired by Katsushika Hokusai's woodblock print The Great Wave Off Kanagawa. The third movement serves as a prelude and is entitled The Darkening Sky. The last movement is entitled The Great Wave Off Kanagawa and utilizes the percussion section to emulate a Japanese taiko drum ensemble. Both movements utilize transpositions of a symmetrical scale consisting of two [025] trichords (C-D-F / F#-G#-B). Part two is an analysis of November Steps and emphasizes the realization of Japanese and Western influences in the composition. It is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter is an introduction. The second chapter is a biography of the composer. The third chapter deals with the Western composers who have had the most profound influence on Takemitsu. The fourth chapter explores Japanese aesthetic concepts which are central to Takemitsu's music. The fifth chapter discusses the biwa and shakuhachi. The sixth chapter analyzes November Steps. The introduction explains Takemitsu's aesthetic approach. Next, previous analyses are described. The third section deals with Takemitsu's notation for the biwa and shakuhachi. Next, Takemitsu's orchestral seating plan is discussed. The next two sections analyze how November Step's form is generated from stratified gestures which accumulate and dissipate over time. The last section explores how the Japanese aesthetic concepts of ma and cyclical time are realized in the composition. The seventh chapter is a conclusion.


This paper will outline a piece of research that did not aim primarily to use a
narrative approach or to rely upon narrative inquiry. The initial focus of the
research was concerned with using documentary analysis in order to
investigate whether or not an integrated model of individual and group decision
making processes (Whyte, 1989; 1991) could be used to explain and predict
decision making in cases of child protection in the UK. The research involved
using a 'background concept' (Layder, 1993) in order to analyse child death
inquiry documents and documents relating to ongoing cases in child protection
within a local UK health authority. However what emerged from the research
appeared to be the way in which documentary analysis could reveal instances
where community and cultural narratives with regard to mothering had impact
upon the decision making processes of individuals and groups.


You will find a lot of information about the English language on this site. You can learn English words, practise grammar, look at some basic rules, prepare for exams, do tests or just have fun playing games. Enjoy yourself with more than 1,000 exercises online.


A three-year field study (January 2011–December 2013) of the Odonata of Curaçao, supported by photos and exuvial collections, recorded a total of 21 species from the island, almost doubling its previously known fauna. The lists of Odonata known from Aruba and Bonaire were also updated by specimen and photo records, and 24 species are now known from these three islands. During the period of the study, odonates decreased in abundance and diversity in Curaçao, apparently because heavy rains just before the study began led to colonization of the island by several nonresident species that subsequently declined and disappeared as wetlands diminished during a period with normal rainfall.


Introduction A search engine enables a user of electronic data resources to quickly locate the specific information desired from within a large volume of mostly unrelated or extraneous information. A variety of software packages have been developed to enable the administrator of a search site to gather, index, and provide a user search interface for retrieval of references to online resources. Some products are aimed at meeting the prodigious and particular needs of Internet portal sites such as Excite and Yahoo that attempt to index a significant percentage of the Internet. Still others are engineered and priced to support more modest objectives, such as the indexing of pages within a single Web site, for searching by visitors to that Web site. Typical search engine needs for a library Internet site fall between these extremes. Usually, the indexing of a library's own site is a given. Often, inclusion of the site of the library's institutional parent organization is also a requirement. But as they develop larger and more ambitious Internet sites, librarians find themselves drawn to creation of specialized search capabilities that immediately reach beyond purely local content. Some libraries may wish to provide comprehensive search access to Internet sites pertaining to a given geographical area or governmental jurisdiction. Others may wish to focus on a particular set of subject areas that parallel the library collection. In some environments, thorough coverage of a collection of specific corporate Web sites or support for other approaches to achieving a level of competitive intelligence may hold special value. Along the way, it may be necessary to index a wide variety of document formats, beyond plain-vanilla HTML (Hypertext Mark Up Language) files, both local to the library site and accessible from a remote server. This report looks at search engine software of use in this middle ground. Included are products appropriate to creating a searchable index of from several hundred to several hundred thousand Web pages. Products that cost more than $10,000, in a basic configuration, have been excluded as likely to exceed the cost limitations of most libraries. Given the cost considerations that typically attend certain high-end operating systems, only those products that runs on Windows NT/98/2000, Linux, or the Macintosh have been covered in depth. A number of major products that fall outside these guidelines are listed in the Products Briefly Noted section. Technology and Product Overview What Is a Search Engine? The term "search engine" carries a variety of overlapping and even contradictory meanings for Internet users, depending on their experience and perspective. Some apply it to any Internet finding aid whatsoever. Virtually any large list or other tool for identifying an Internet resource by topic, concept, or keyword qualifies. This usage is too broad to serve any practical purpose here. A topically organized system for classifying links to Internet resources may be a valuable finding aid. It may be a valuable search guide or search aid, but it is not a search engine. Search engines earn their name by offering keyword searching capability, based on the indexing of text contained within a document, and by delivering a list of references with Web links that match the search words entered by the user. Publishers of Internet directory services may coincidentally also offer search engine access to the Internet at large. They may even offer a search engine that can be constrained to search only the contents of the site's own directory pages. This useful recursion notwithstanding, a search engine is a search engine and a directory is a directory, and the maintenance of a clear view of the distinctions between them will aid clear discussion of the products treated in this report. A more subtle distinction is called for between "search engine" as the name of a software genre, and "search engine" as a particular retrieval service and the indexed links it contains. …


Radicalization, sectarianism, and violence have affected the youth more than any other age groups in district Dera Ismail Khan. The district had a peaceful and diverse community until late 1990s. Its residents came from diverse ethnic, religious, and sectarian backgrounds. Sectarianism and later terrorism disturbed the much-cherished peace and diversity of the district. The War on Terror, the operations in Waziristan, the arrival of IDPs, and local politics based on religious and sectarian lines increased youth's susceptibility to radicalization and marred the peace and diversity in the district. The government's counter radicalization strategy was largely based in panel law enforcement. On the other hand, there is considerable scope for community level involvement for countering radicalization among the youth. There is need to empower the youth as active participants to counter the radical narratives, and to check their susceptibility to violence. Accordingly, there is need for investments in their institutional capacity building.


The design of efficient locomotion gaits for robots with many degrees of freedom is challenging and time consuming even if optimization techniques are applied. Control parameters can be found through optimization in two ways: (i) through online optimization where the performance of a robot is measured while trying different control parameters on the actual hardware and (ii) through offline optimization by simulating the robot's behavior with the help of models of the robot and its environment. In this paper, we present a hybrid optimization method that combines the best properties of online and offline optimization to efficiently find locomotion gaits for arbitrary structures. In comparison to pure online optimization, both the number of experiments using robotic hardware as well as the total time required for finding efficient locomotion gaits get highly reduced by running the major part of the optimization process in simulation using a cluster of processors. The presented example shows that even for robots with a low number of degrees of freedom the time required for optimization can be reduced by a factor of 2.5 to 30, at least, depending on how extensive the search for optimized control parameters should be. Time for hardware experiments becomes minimal. More importantly, gaits that can possibly damage the robotic hardware can be filtered before being tried in hardware. Yet in contrast to pure offline optimization, we reach well matched behavior that allows a direct transfer of locomotion gaits from simulation to hardware. This is because through a meta-optimization we adapt not only the locomotion parameters but also the parameters for simulation models of the robot and environment allowing for a good matching of the robot behavior in simulation and hardware. We validate the proposed hybrid optimization method on a structure composed of two Roombots modules with a total number of six degrees of freedom. Roombots are self-reconfigurable modular robots that can form arbitrary structures with many degrees of freedom through an integrated active connection mechanism.


The Jungian concept of archetypes is of immense value for critically distinguishing what is potentially of universal practical value in religious and other cultural traditions, and separating this from the dogmatic elements. However, Jung encumbered the concept of archetypes with debatable constructions like the 'collective unconscious' that are unnecessary for understanding their practical function. Archetypes in Religion and Beyond puts forward a far-reaching new theory of archetypes that is functional without being reductive. At its centre is the idea that archetypes are adaptations to help us maintain inspiration over time. Humans are such distractable beings that they need constant reminders to maintain integration with their most sustainable intentions: reminders using the profound power of symbol linked to embodied experience. This multidisciplinary book weaves together religious studies, ethical philosophy, the psychology of bias, the neuroscience of brain lateralization, the linguistics of embodied meaning, the feedback loops of systems theory, a lifetime's experience of Buddhist practice, and appreciation of symbolism in the arts: all with the aim of producing a fresh understanding of the role of archetypes, in religion and beyond, that can also be directly applied in practice.


We need to move towards more sustainable farming methods that maximise yields whilst protecting the environment. One approach that would achieve this goal is ecological intensification, which seeks to manage the biodiversity and ecological processes underpinning agricultural production so that damaging farming practices can be replaced or reduced. Forb-rich arable field margins have been shown to benefit flower-visiting insects such as wild bees, and recent evidence suggests that they can also enhance the levels of pollination and pest control in adjacent crop fields. They may also promote a suite of additional ecosystem services of societal and agronomic importance, but this has yet to be established. Furthermore, the ability of forb-rich field margins to deliver multiple benefits (i.e. ecosystem multifunctionality), including pest control and pollination, is likely to be contingent on a range of local and landscape factors. Using a range of pre-existing field margin plots (n = 98) distributed across 16 arable farms in central eastern England, this study first sought to examine whether high quality forb-rich field margins promote ecosystem multifunctionality more effectively than low quality forb-poor field margins. This involved measuring a range ecosystem services within and adjacent to field margin plots, including pest control, pollination, soil carbon storage, flood alleviation, the abundance of invertebrate ecosystem service providers and the amount of invertebrate biodiversity. Secondly, it established whether arable field margins provide adequate foraging resources for flower-visiting insects. And thirdly, it determined the local and landscape factors (including margin quality) that best promote ecosystem service provision and invertebrate biodiversity within agro-ecosystems. The findings indicated that quality was the most important determinant of ecosystem multifunctionality within arable field margins, as high quality margins supported significantly greater levels of pest control, pollination, flood alleviation and invertebrate biodiversity. However, a range of additional local and landscape management prescriptions further enhanced the multifunctionality of arable field margins, such as the level of vehicle traffic margins receive, vegetation height, landscape complexity and the amount of floral resources provided by the adjacent hedgerow. Despite the multiple benefits of high quality field margins, they were also found to enhance invertebrate crop pests. This may reduce the willingness of farmers to adopt forb-rich habitats on their land. Finally, the present study highlights that more consideration should be given to the forb species included within field margin seed mixes, as certain species were found to promote agronomically damaging crop pests, whereas other species not currently included in field margin seed mixes were extremely attractive to several important flower-visiting taxa or flowered during spring; a period in which field margins are floristically poor. This thesis clearly demonstrates that forb-rich field margins provide multiple agronomic, societal and biodiversity benefits, and outlines the important drivers of ecosystem multifunctionality. As such, it provides farmers and landowners with a clear set of management guidelines for promoting biodiversity and ecosystem services within arable field margins.


Observation of
fire damaged
structures and recent
fire
tests at the Cardington LBTF have
suggested that even nominally
`simple'
connections are capable of providing significant
restraint at elevated-temperatures. As most
frames
are designed
assuming pinned response
at ambient-temperature, with no account being
taken of the reduction
in mid-span
moments, this
is
an aspect of connectivity which may be
utilised
in the assessment of the
fire
resistance of steel
framed buildings, without necessitating changes
in
the approach
adopted
in
ambient-temperature design
or construction. To date
the assessment of the
influence
of connection response on
frame behaviour has been limited by
the quantity of
available test data, although
initial
studies based
on postulated moment-rotation-
temperature characteristics concluded that the failure
temperatures for beams
are
increased
due
to the rigidity of
`simple' connections.
Moment-rotation
relationships have been measured
for
a
flush
end-plate connection, both
as bare-steel
and as composite with a concrete slab across a range of temperatures. To
define accurately the full moment-rotation-temperature response a series of tests have been
conducted
for
each arrangement, where specimens were subject to varying constant
levels
of
load
and
increasing
temperatures. Observed failure mechanisms have been
compared
with those for
a nominally
identical
specimen
tested at ambient-temperature, and
initial
recommendations presented
for
the degradation of ambient-temperature connection
characteristics. A mathematical expression
is proposed
in order to represent the test data
at
a number of temperatures.
It is
clearly unrealistic to expect that many such
tests can be anticipated
in
the future,
and as
such a spring-stiffness model has been presented
for both bare-steel
and composite
flush
end-plate connections. The use of a spring-stiffness model compares
favourably with other
forms of modelling due to the combination of efficient solution and the ability to follow
accurately the full
non-linear range of connection response,
based on an understanding of
the response of the component parts. A multi-linear representation of response has been
adopted, where the stiffness of the connection
is
revised as elements enter the plastic range
of response. Comparison has been made between the response predicted and that recorded
experimentally.
Experimentally derived
connection characteristics
have been incorporated within analysis of
typical sub-frames, with parameters
including connection stiffness, capacity and
temperature being
varied. Further studies are presented considering the sensitivity of
overall
frame behaviour to inaccuracies in
the representation of connection response and
the use of simplified models to generate elevated-temperature connection characteristics.
Based on postulated elevated-temperature moment-rotation characteristics
for
the
connections contained within the Cardington
test
frame,
predictions have been
presented
for the response of the structure subject to a series of
full
scale
fire
tests, with semi-rigid
behaviour being compared with the common assumptions of pinned and rigid
characteristics.


In 2017, the Supreme Court overruled the Federal Circuit's then-longstanding interpretation of 28 USC § 1400(b)—the statute that governs venue in patent infringement lawsuits. This ruling significantly narrowed patent venue. It also brought § 1400(b)'s neglected "regular and established place of business" test back into the light of day. Under this revived test, venue is proper if a defendant has a regular and established place of business in the judicial district where suit is brought. Despite initial guidance from the Federal Circuit, the resurrected test caused confusion and disagreement at the district court level. One disagreement concerned whether § 1400(b) implicitly requires that the defendant have a human agent conducting business at the place in question. This can be called the "human-agent requirement." Most district courts to address the issue— and now, the Federal Circuit itself—have endorsed the requirement. In these courts' view, a place satisfies the "regular and established place of business" test only if an agent of the defendant is physically present, doing business there on the defendant's behalf. This Comment argues that imposing the human-agent requirement is a mistake. First and most important, the requirement is an extratextual add-on, unmoored from the statute's meaning. Second, it will make the early stages of patent litigation more complex, uncertain, and expensive than they already are. Third and finally, though the requirement might seem like the only way to avoid overbroad patent venue, it isn't. In a world without the human-agent requirement, courts could limit venue by robustly enforcing the "place" requirement—which is unambiguously found in § 1400(b)'s plain text.


Automatic visual inspection allows for the identification of surface defects in manufactured parts. Nevertheless, when defects are on a sub-millimeter scale, detection and recognition are a challenge. This is particularly true when the defect generates topological deformations that are not shown with strong contrast in the 2D image. In this paper, we present a method for recognizing surface defects in 3D point clouds. Firstly, we propose a novel 3D local descriptor called the Model Point Feature Histogram (MPFH) for defect detection. Our descriptor is inspired from earlier descriptors such as the Point Feature Histogram (PFH). To construct the MPFH descriptor, the models that best fit the local surface and their normal vectors are estimated. For each surface model, its contribution weight to the formation of the surface region is calculated and from the relative difference between models of the same region a histogram is generated representing the underlying surface changes. Secondly, through a classification stage, the points on the surface are labeled according to five types of primitives and the defect is detected. Thirdly, the connected components of primitives are projected to a plane, forming a 2D image. Finally, 2D geometrical features are extracted and by a support vector machine, the defects are recognized. The database used is composed of 3D simulated surfaces and 3D reconstructions of defects in welding, artificial teeth, indentations in materials, ceramics and 3D models of defects. The quantitative and qualitative results showed that the proposed method of description is robust to noise and the scale factor, and it is sufficiently discriminative for detecting some surface defects. The performance evaluation of the proposed method was performed for a classification task of the 3D point cloud in primitives, reporting an accuracy of 95%, which is higher than for other state-of-art descriptors. The rate of recognition of defects was close to 94%.


Objective Evidence-based quality of life (QL) questionnaires require the identification of issues of importance to patients. The primary aim of this study was to inform providers on patient-expressed issues while enhancing the content validity of instruments assessing QL and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in prostate cancer. The study provided additional psychometric properties for the new PRO and QL instrument, the Prostate Cancer Symptom Scale (PCSS). Methods An anonymous web-based survey of 2128 patients with prostate cancer was conducted with patients rating 18 QL items on a five-point scale. Results Most respondents (74%) were aged 55–74 years, had early stage disease at diagnosis (81%) and were diagnosed within 2 years of the survey (81%). The top five-rated issues were: overall QL, ability to perform normal activities, maintaining independence, ability to sleep and not being a burden. These items were ranked as either 'very important' or 'important' by at least 88% of patients. None of the most highly ranked issues were symptoms. Instead, the highest ranked items were global issues reflecting the impact of symptoms on patients. In addition to the enhanced content validity findings, good reliability results and initial support for construct validity are reported for the PCSS. Conclusions This is the largest survey providing patient-expressed background for content validity for QL and PRO measures. The findings of this study should aid development of newer practical questionnaires, such as the PCSS, which can be adapted to electronic platforms enhancing rapid and accurate PRO and QL evaluation.


A regional stratigraphy is established between 64°N and 65°N dividing the upper Pliocene and Quaternary sediments overlying IKU Bedrock Units IX and X into I l informal units ( L, K, I, H, G, F, E, D, B, A and U) separated by regional reflectors. The database consisted of about 5000 km of sei smie profiles ( si te surveys, multichannel sei smie tie lines between wells, selected conventional deep seismic lines, IKU's regional analog sparker grid), lithological and geophysical well information. 'Base Unit IX' represents the oldest event mapped and forms the basis for IKU Bedrock Units IX and X in the east and for the Plio/Pleistocene sediment wedge increasing to more than 1 500 m thickness westwards at the shelf edge. The delta-like coastal Unit IX ( of supposed Oligocene age) is very characteristic on seismic profiles. It has been mapped from Møre to Lofoten and probably consists mainly of sand. Most of the overlying sediments ( Units X to E) seem to have been deposited by glacial processes, which explains the high sedimentation rates compared to the older units. The undulating reflector forming the base of Unit D ( earlier assumed to be base Quaternary) is now interpreted as a result of the Saalian glaciation. The overlying layered sediments in Unit D consist of glaciomarine and marine ( Eemain) sediments. The three topmost units ( B , A and U) are dominated by unsorted material representing Weichselian tills.


OBJECTIVE Stereotactic radiosurgery has been used for patients with high-risk cavernous malformations of the brain. We performed radiosurgery for patients with symptomatic, imaging-confirmed hemorrhages for which resection was believed to be associated with high risk. This study examines the long-term hemorrhage rate after radiosurgery. METHODS We reviewed data obtained before and after gamma knife radiosurgery on 82 patients treated between 1987 and 2000. Most patients had multiple hemorrhages from brainstem or diencephalic cavernous malformations. Follow-up data were examined to identify hemorrhages, and an overall hemorrhage rate was calculated. RESULTS Observation before treatment averaged 4.33 years (range, 0.17–18 yr) for a total of 354 patient-years. During this period, 202 hemorrhages were observed, for an annual hemorrhage rate of 33.9%, excluding the first hemorrhage. Temporal clustering of hemorrhages was not significant. After radiosurgery, patient follow-up averaged 5 years (range, 0.42–12.08 yr), for a total of 401 patient-years. During this period, 19 hemorrhages were identified, 17 in the first 2 years posttreatment and 2 after 2 years. The annual hemorrhage rate was 12.3% per year for the first 2 years after radiosurgery, followed by 0.76% per year from Years 2 to 12. Eleven patients had new neurological symptoms without hemorrhage after radiosurgery (13.4%). The symptoms were minor in six of these patients and temporary in five. CONCLUSION Radiosurgery confers a reduction in the risk of hemorrhage for high-risk cavernous malformations. Risk reduction, although in evidence during initial follow-up, is most pronounced after 2 years. Given the difficulty of identifying high-risk patients, treatment after one major hemorrhage should be considered in selected younger patients. Such a strategy warrants further investigation.


Skeletal muscle atrophy due to disuse is a widespread problem arising from many situations including clinical immobilisation due to injury or disease. As individuals age, the universally observed loss of muscle mass and function known as sarcopenia compounds this problem leading to a significant reduction in locomotor ability and quality of life for sufferers. Recently there has been much work investigating ways to mitigate muscle mass loss in immobilised limbs and to aid in recovery in the post immobilisation phase. Much focus has been placed on recovery protocols based upon either resistance training, nutritional supplementation, or both. In study 1 we report an extensive data set describing in detail skeletal muscle adaptations in structure and function in response to both disuse (ULLS) and retraining. The results indicate that, 1) the loss of muscle force with 3-week unloading in humans is mostly explained by muscle atrophy and a decrease in myosin content and, 2) all the neuromuscular changes induced by this model of disuse can be fully restored after a resistance training intervention of equal duration
Study 2 tests the hypothesis that increasing amino acid leucine availability by nutritional supplementation will increase muscle protein synthesis in immobilised muscle and result in mitigating the loss of lean muscle mass. In fact, we found that leucine supplementation alone was not sufficient to maintain muscle mass during 3 weeks of unilateral lower limb suspension. Study 3 examined the effect of leucine supplementation on muscle mass gains during an active recovery training program of muscles previously subjected to ULLS. Despite low participant numbers, the data suggest that leucine supplementation had no effect on the extent to which muscle recovered post ULLS.
Study 4 investigates the role of training and immobilization in sarcopenia and discusses the potential of using ultrasound imaging to develop an image based biomarker of sarcopenia. Cross sectional data from both young and old individuals subjected to different loading conditions are analysed in this study. Life-long training appears to slow down the process of sarcopenia whilst periods of disuse due to injury or disease worsen the condition. The change in muscle fibre geometry exhibited in sarcopenia and disuse atrophy could potentially act as a convenient and inexpensive indicator of the onset of sarcopenia.


Language transmission, the passing on of language features such as words between people, is the process of inheritance that underlies linguistic evolution. To understand how language transmission works, we need a mechanistic understanding based on empirical evidence of lasting change of language usage. Here, we analysed 200 million online conversations to investigate transmission between individuals. We find that the frequency of word usage is inherited over conversations, rather than only the binary presence or absence of a word in a person's lexicon. We propose a mechanism for transmission whereby for each word someone encounters there is a chance they will use it more often. Using this mechanism, we measure that, for one word in around every hundred a person encounters, they will use that word more frequently. As more commonly used words are encountered more often, this means that it is the frequencies of words which are copied. Beyond this, our measurements indicate that this per-encounter mechanism is neutral and applies without any further distinction as to whether a word encountered in a conversation is commonly used or not. An important consequence of this is that frequencies of many words can be used in concert to observe and measure language transmission, and our results confirm this. These results indicate that our mechanism for transmission can be used to study language patterns and evolution within populations.


In this article we explore the links between return migration, belonging and transnationalism among migrants who returned from the Netherlands to northeast Morocco. While transnationalism is commonly discussed from the perspective of a receiving country, this study shows that transnationalism also plays a vital role in reconstructing post-return belonging. Return migration is not simply a matter of 'going home', as feelings of belonging need to be renegotiated upon return. While returnees generally feel a strong need to maintain various transnational practices, the meanings they attach to these practices depend on motivations for return, gender and age. For former (male) labour migrants, transnational practices are essential for establishing post-return belonging, whereas such practices are less important for their spouses. Those who returned as children generally feel uprooted, notwithstanding the transnational practices they maintain. The amount of agency migrants are able to exert in the return decision-making process is a key factor in determining the extent to which returnees can create a post-return transnational sense of home.


With today's high product variety and shorter life cycles in motor car manufacture, every new car design must be adapted to existing production facilities so that these can be used for several car models. Sharing information is at the core of collaborative engineering. With an ontology approach, the work within the domains requirement management, engineering design and production engineering can be integrated. An ontology approach based on an information model implemented in a computer tool supports the work in the different domains and their collaboration. In our work we make use of the existing structures and link those using appropriately named links. We also propose the introduction of a new structure describing the generic functions of the manufacturing system, MSF. This tree structure is a suitable tool to link product related objects to their associated production equipment at varying levels of detail. The manufacturing requirements are modelled using a concept for the definition of the requirement content, called Manufacturing Requirement (MR). To enable the MR to cover different ranges and levels, and enhance the maintenance of the system integrity, the concept of Requirement Object is introduced. The RO is used to collect the instances for which a specific MR is valid. We also use the rule inference facility to reduce the number of explicitly defined relations.


Despite substantial advances in its management, severe sepsis remains the most common cause of death in intensive care units, and has a mortality of 30-50%. Within Australia, there are an estimated 15,000 cases of severe sepsis each year. However the epidemiology of sepsis in the tropical Northern Territory, a region with a high incidence of acute infections and chronic diseases, and a high proportion of Indigenous residents, has not been described. The pathophysiology of sepsis is complex and incompletely understood. A pivotal factor in sepsis pathophysiology is dysfunction of the endothelium, a metabolically active organ which lines the entire vascular system Following the literature reviews in section A, this thesis is divided into three parts. In section B, I present a 12-month prospective cohort study based at Royal Darwin Hospital describing the epidemiology of sepsis in the Top End of the Northern Territory. This study found that the incidence of sepsis in this region is five-fold higher than that in temperate Australia and elsewhere, and that most of this burden occurs in Indigenous people. In section C, I undertook an observational study examining endothelial function in patients with sepsis and healthy controls, using a novel technique called peripheral arterial tonometry. This study found that peripheral arterial tonometry is a feasible technique for monitoring endothelial function in sepsis and that endothelial function is impaired in proportion to disease severity. It also identified several potential targets for development of therapeutic intervention to improve the endothelial and microvascular dysfunction of sepsis. One of the most promising potential adjunctive therapies for sepsis is the statins, a class of lipid-lowering drugs. Section D describes the rationale and protocol for a currently recruiting randomised trial of atorvastatin to improve endothelial function in patients with severe sepsis.


Unemployment experiences can have consequences for how people think about democracy and where they stand vis‐a‐vis the state. We investigate how young people's experiences with public employment services can shape levels of external political efficacy—the feeling that decision‐makers are responsive to citizen needs. The personal and direct experiences one gathers at this pivotal time in life can also leave their mark on political attitudes. We analyze an original dataset on German youth to test how encounters with such agencies affect young people's political efficacy, finding that perceptions of helpfulness and being treated fairly and with respect increase the likelihood of being politically efficacious. The findings highlight the importance of personal experiences and bureaucratic interactions for vulnerable young people's democratic attitudes.


According to the biblical book of Daniel chapter 3, King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled the Babylonian Empire where the Jews lived in exile, commissioned the building of a ninety-foot golden image and commanded the people to worship it. Refusal to comply meant one's death in a fiery furnace. While most obeyed the king's dictate, the story recounts how Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego, Jews who worked for the king, refused to worship the image and remained loyal to their God. In response, the king bade his men to stoke the furnace and burn the defiant rebels. To the king's amazement, the trio appeared unscathed amid the red-hot flames, and he glimpsed a mysterious fourth figure with them. Seeing this, the king called the men to come out of the furnace and they emerged unharmed, protected, according to the text, by the fourth figure, an angel. The story depicts Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego as heroes who withstood the forces of evil and witnessed the power of their God. It speaks to the fidelity of these men and to the intolerant nature of Nebuchadnezzar's faith. While this passage and its lessons may be familiar to many, in the 1920s they gained additional meanings that provide us with important insights into the workings of religious intolerance in the United States.


We read with great interest and enthusiasm the study by Baron et al, published recently in Arthritis Care & Research (1). The authors demonstrated that the severity of global disease during systemic sclerosis (SSc) is associated with periodontal disease (2), mandibular erosion, and tooth loss. The pathophysiology of SSc remains only partially understood, but several modifiable factors exist; among these, orofacial involvement may play a specific role that can lead to an increased liability to dental caries, periodontitis, and chewing disorder (3). SSc is characterized by symmetric and erosive synovitis that may result in joint irregularity and disability. Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) arthritis is a frequent finding in patients with SSc, and if not diagnosed early, can lead to facial dysmorphism and lifetime disability and pain (4). We recently reported a detectable prevalence of symptoms and signs of dysfunction at TMJs and self-reported symptoms in SSc (limited and diffuse) patients compared to healthy subjects (5). In our sample, the Modified Rodnan Skin Score was correlated with the worsening of maximum mouth opening and TMJ dysfunction in SSc patients. In addition to our results, emerging evidence indicates that the involvement of the orofacial region during SSc is usually associated with an impaired quality of life, emphasizing the need for a specific treatment related to this kind of disability (6). For these reasons a specific disease-related questionnaire quantifying mouth disability in SSc was developed (7). Considering the fact that 80% of SSc patients can show a wide array of oral manifestations (8), we believe that the dentist could play an important role and should be involved in a multidisciplinary diagnostic process aimed at preserving oral health during the treatment of this disease and providing correct oral pain management and clinical support for patients affected by SSc. The orofacial involvement in SSc is often underdiagnosed. Therefore, the findings by Baron et al (1) open avenues for further research and provide recent evidence on how the health of the mouth can be important in the quality of life in SSc, as are appropriate preventive measures to prevent future complications.


Income inequality and relative poverty among the working-age population in Japan have risen to levels above the OECD average. This trend is partially explained by labour market dualism, with an increasing proportion of non-regular workers who are paid significantly less than regular workers, as well as by other factors, including the ageing of the workforce. Social spending as a share of GDP has been expanding in the context of population ageing, although it remains below the OECD average and the proportion received by low-income households is small. Consequently, the impact of social spending on inequality and poverty is weak compared to other OECD countries and inadequate to offset the deterioration in market income. The scope for increasing social spending is constrained by the fiscal situation. Instead, reversing the upward trend in inequality and poverty requires reforms to reduce labour market dualism and better target social spending on low-income households, particularly single parents. This Working Paper relates to the 2006 OECD Economic Survey of Japan (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/japan).


Abstract. During the winters of 1999 and 2000 large avalanches occurred in the ski resort of Las Lenas (Los Andes, Mendoza, Argentina). On 8 September 1999 an avalanche of new, dry snow ran over a path with a 1000 m vertical drop. On 30 June and on 1 July 2000 five avalanches of similar vertical drop, which start with new snow, entrained very wet snow during their descent, and evolved into dense snow avalanches.  To use the MN2D dynamics model correctly, calibration of model parameters is necessary. Also, no previous works with the use of dynamics models exist in South America. The events used to calibrate the model occurred during the winters of 1999 and 2000 and are a good sample of the kind of avalanches which can occur in this area of the Andes range.  By considering the slope morphology and topography, the snow and meteorological conditions and the results of the model simulations, it was estimated that these avalanches were not extreme events with a return period greater than one hundred years. This implies that, in natural conditions, bigger, extreme avalanches could happen.  In this work, the MN2D dynamics model is calibrated with two different avalanches of the same magnitude: dry and wet. The importance of the topographic data in the simulation is evaluated. It is concluded that MN2D dynamics model can be used to simulate dry extreme avalanches in Argentinean Andes but not to simulate extreme wet avalanches, which are much more sensitive to the topography.


Horizontally curved highway bridges represent up to 25 percent of the market for new steel-bridge construction each year. However, unanswered questions remain concerning the fundamental behavior of horizontally curved steel girders that may not be adequately addressed in current design specifications. While there has been some isolated research, a coordinated large-scale effort to study curved-girder behavior has not been undertaken in over 20 years. The FHWA and the NCHRP are launching significant research programs on curved steel bridges in late 1992 and early 1993, respectively. However, additional research is recommended to supplement these programs to ensure coverage of areas these programs cannot address. One particular area of interest that may not be addressed is field instrumentation and testing of actual in-service curved steel bridges. Field measurements can provide valuable data to complement and verify previous research. The entire curved-girder research effort must be coordinated from the start to avoid needless repetition of effort. All projects must be overseen by technically competent individuals who are willing to devote the time needed to successfully overcome all barriers to success.


Free specimens of small foraminifers are not commonly reported from Permian strata. A foraminiferal fauna with free tests accompanied by abundant radiolarians has been discovered from uppermost Permian, upper Changhsingian strata in the Liuqiao Section, southwestern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, South China. SEM microphotography and thin sections of free specimens were both used for the study of external and internal morphological features. In most cases the wall structure is not preserved because of recrystallization, however, most species could be identified based on test morphology. Twenty species (six new) of fourteen genera (one new) have been identified. The new genus and new species are: Dalongella n. gen., Dalongella fusiformis n. gen. n. sp., Glomospirella ? mamilla n. sp., Glomospirella ? curva n. sp., Hemigordius ? yini n. sp., Geinitzinita changhsingensis n. sp. and Pseudolangella costata n. sp. The composition of this fauna is quite different from similar age small foraminiferal faunas reported from South China. Furthermore, the presence of radiolarians and cool-water brachiopods probably implies that the fauna is from a deep-water environment.


The aim of this longitudinal study was to assess the frequency of nonreversible airflow obstruction (NRAO) among adults with moderate to severe asthma, and to compare the decline of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) in asthmatics with reversible and nonreversible airflow obstruction. Ninety-two (31 males) life-long nonsmokers with asthma participated in a 10-yr follow-up study; mean age 37 yrs (range 18-64) and duration of asthma 16 yrs (range 2-60) at enrolment. Case history, including use of asthma medication, was obtained, and pulmonary function, including diffusion capacity, was measured using standard techniques. At enrolment, all patients had typical symptoms and reversible airflow obstruction. (NRAO) was defined as FEV1 <80% predicted and change in deltaFEV1 after 5 mg salbutamol <9% pred. A total of 21 (23%) patients (mean age at enrolment 32 yrs) fulfilled the criteria for NRAO at the time of follow-up; current therapy was inhaled steroids (n=21, mean daily dose 1.5 mg), oral steroids (n=14), theophylline (n=20), oral beta2-agonist (n=6) and inhaled beta2-agonist. The patients with NRAO (n=21) had a steeper decline in FEV1 than the remaining patients (n=71, reversible airflow obstruction (RAO)), mean+/-SD 53+/-23 mL x yr(-1) and 36+/-21 mL x yr(-1), respectively (p<0.003). Increasing degree of bronchodilator reversibility (deltaFEV1% pred) at enrolment (p=0.002) and long-term treatment with oral corticosteroids (p=0.009) were associated with an increased risk for the presence of NRAO at follow-up. The comparison of data for NRAO and RAO patients (at follow-up) revealed no significant differences in mean values for total diffusion capacity (TL,CO), diffusion constant (KCO), or total lung capacity. The findings suggest that a subgroup of asthmatics may experience very steep rates of decline in forced expiratory volume in one second leading to severe nonreversible airflow obstruction, whereas no indication was found that long-standing asthma may lead to the development of emphysema.


This article explores how the online presence of colonial material and its postcolonial appropriation and interpretation as well as the possibilities for user interactivity and repurposing of content has opened new channels and networks for the critical examination of the colonial archive, its ontology, politics and power. The analysis focuses on the work of Indonesian photo-based artist Agan Harahap who operates within the colonial archive's mnemonic function using the language of appropriation and parody to merge the colonial past with the postcolonial present. Harahap's Mardjiker Photo Studio is presented as a fictional indigenous studio operating in the colonial era and specialising on culturally inter-mixed portraits: westerners appear in folk attire and postures and locals assume western mannerisms. This digital manipulated imagery is disseminated via different online platforms, namely Facebook, Instagram and Twitter under the name of Sejarah_X. The audiences' participation in sharing and commenting upon Harahap's seamless photographic collages of Indonesia's colonial past hints at the endless realm of possibilities for how these series may be circulated, recontextualised and rematerialised. The online public interaction reveals different levels of awareness and knowledge of colonial history among followers: some are totally deceived by Harahap's skillful hoaxes; others react to his absurd scenarios accusing the artist of trivialising colonial history. Harahap's digital interventions purposefully interrupt the authority and integrity of the archive by asking viewers to think twice about what it is that they see while questioning the authorship and ownership of the colonial archive. Recontextualised and repurposed online on different platforms, his work becomes part of an expanding post-colonial archive and proposes a reframing not only of the politics of colonial representation, but also of the validity and veracity of the photographic image as evidence and historical record.


Learning anatomy is the basic and essential component of medical study when students start to learn in medical career. Since five hundred years ago, the human cadaver has been used as the silent mentor for students in learning anatomy. Later, pre-dissected specimens were used in addition to hands-on dissection of human cadaver. Current advances promote the use of anatomical models as well as plastinated specimens. This study focused on analyzing the preference of students towards different learning modalities available for anatomy teaching. It was conducted on first year medical students at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Malaysia Sabah (FPSK, UMS). A total of 76 students (27 males and 49 females) participated in this study. Out of 76 students, 57 (75%) students preferred using human cadaver for anatomy learning. Four students (5.3%) opted for plastinated specimen while 15 students (19.7%) chose the plastic model. Knowledge gained in learning Anatomy was said to be easier from cadaver (67.1%), followed by plastinated specimen (35.5%) and plastic models (52.6%). In the present study, 97.4% responded that plastic model was easier to apply their knowledge in objective structured practical examinations. The present study found that using cadaver was still favoured by medical students. Further studies are required to determine the preference between hands-on cadaveric dissections versus pre-dissected specimens.


BACKGROUND The excimer laser–assisted nonocclusive anastomosis (ELANA) technique enables large-caliber bypass revascularization without temporary occlusion of the parent artery. OBJECTIVE To present the surgical experience of 2 bypass centers using ELANA in the treatment of complex intracranial lesions. METHODS Between July 2002 and December 2007, 64 consecutive patients (37 in Germany and 27 in Finland) were selected for high-flow bypass surgery with ELANA. Modified Rankin Scale, a bypass success rate, and the success rate of the laser arteriotomy were assessed. RESULTS In 66 surgeries for 64 intent-to-treat patients, 58 ELANA procedures were completed successfully. A favorable outcome (postoperative modified Rankin Scale score less than or equal to preoperative modified Rankin Scale) at 3 months was achieved in 43 of 56 patients (77%) with anterior circulation lesions (37 of the 43 patients had aneurysms, 4 had ischemia, and 2 received a bypass before tumor removal) and only in 2 of 8 patients (25%) with posterior circulation aneurysms. Perioperative (< 7 days) mortality for anterior and posterior circulation aneurysms was 6% and 50%, respectively. At the 3-month follow-up, 12% and 63% of patients with anterior and posterior circulation aneurysms, respectively, were dead. The success rate of the laser arteriotomy was 70%. Another 14% were retrieved manually after a nearly complete laser arteriotomy. CONCLUSION The ELANA procedure requires a meticulous and careful operative technique. Morbidity and especially mortality rates, usually unrelated to ELANA, are comparable to those of contemporary series of conventional high-flow revascularization operations. This underscores the overall complexity of treating neurovascular pathologies by high-flow bypasses.


A bipartite query-URL graph, where an edge indicates that a document was clicked for a query, is a useful construct for finding groups of related queries and URLs. Here we use this behavior graph for classification. We choose a click graph sampled from two weeks of image search activity, and the task of "adult" filtering: identifying content in the graph that is inappropriate for minors. We show how to perform classification using random walks on this graph, and two methods for estimating classifier parameters.


This paper describes an efficient and robust approach to provide a safe execution environment for an entire operating system, such as Linux, and all its applications. The approach, which we call Secure Virtual Architecture (SVA), defines a virtual, low-level, typed instruction set suitable for executing all code on a system, including kernel and application code. SVA code is translated for execution by a virtual machine transparently, offline or online. SVA aims to enforce fine-grained (object level) memory safety, control-flow integrity, type safety for a subset of objects, and sound analysis. A virtual machine implementing SVA achieves these goals by using a novel approach that exploits properties of existing memory pools in the kernel and by preserving the kernel's explicit control over memory, including custom allocators and explicit deallocation. Furthermore, the safety properties can be encoded compactly as extensions to the SVA type system, allowing the (complex) safety checking compiler to be outside the trusted computing base. SVA also defines a set of OS interface operations that abstract all privileged hardware instructions, allowing the virtual machine to monitor all privileged operations and control the physical resources on a given hardware platform. We have ported the Linux kernel to SVA, treating it as a new architecture, and made only minimal code changes (less than 300 lines of code) to the machine-independent parts of the kernel and device drivers. SVA is able to prevent 4 out of 5 memory safety exploits previously reported for the Linux 2.4.22 kernel for which exploit code is available, and would prevent the fifth one simply by compiling an additional kernel library.


The Internet has grown in size at rapid rates since BGP records began, and continues to do so. This has raised concerns about the scalability of the current BGP routing system, as the routing state at each router in a shortest-path routing protocol will grow at a supra-linearly rate as the network grows. The concerns are that the memory capacity of routers will not be able to keep up with demands, and that the growth of the Internet will become ever more cramped as more and more of the world seeks the benefits of being connected.

Compact routing schemes, where the routing state grows only sub-linearly relative to the growth of the network, could solve this problem and ensure that router memory would not be a bottleneck to Internet growth. These schemes trade away shortest-path routing for scalable memory state, by allowing some paths to have a certain amount of bounded "stretch".

The most promising such scheme is Cowen Routing, which can provide scalable, compact routing state for Internet routing, while still providing shortest-path routing to nearly all other nodes, with only slightly stretched paths to a very small subset of the network. Currently, there is no fully distributed form of Cowen Routing that would be practical for the Internet.

This dissertation describes a fully distributed and compact protocol for Cowen routing, using the k-core graph decomposition.

Previous compact routing work showed the k-core graph decomposition is useful for Cowen Routing on the Internet, but no distributed form existed. This dissertation gives a distributed k-core algorithm optimised to be efficient on dynamic graphs, along with with proofs of its correctness. The performance and efficiency of this distributed k-core algorithm is evaluated on large, Internet AS graphs, with excellent results.

This dissertation then goes on to describe a fully distributed and compact Cowen Routing protocol. This protocol being comprised of a landmark selection process for Cowen Routing using the k-core algorithm, with mechanisms to ensure compact state at all times, including at bootstrap; a local cluster routing process, with mechanisms for policy application and control of cluster sizes, ensuring again that state can remain compact at all times; and a landmark routing process is described with a prioritisation mechanism for announcements that ensures compact state at all times.


Inevitable conflicts occur in establishing appropriate standards for journalism education. The professional community has specific goals in mind, usually calling for pragmatic, hands-on preparation for the practice of journalism. The academic community strives to accommodate professional demands but also has—or should have—as its mission to provide students with experiences that will help them in life-long career pursuits and to produce scholarship that enhances journalistic performance as well as society as a whole. The author maintains that professional and academic communities have different missions yet share some of the same goals. Drawing largely on the experience of the United States, the author argues against the wholesale adoption of the U.S. model of journalism education and for the establishment of the academy as the primary agent in journalism education. The author offers several proposals and considerationsin the negotiating process between the profession and the academy in achieving shared goals.


Abstract A variety of superhard coatings with Vickers plastic hardness exceeding 40 GPa have been reported by several research groups during the last five years (for recent reviews see refs [1,2]). However, one has to distinguish between superhard nanocomposites, such as nc-TiN/a-Si3N4, nc-TiN/a-Si3N4/a- and nc-TiSi2, nc-(Ti1-xAlx)N/a-Si3N4, nc-TiN/TiB2, nc-TiN/BN, etc. where the high hardness originates from the nanostrucutre and, therefore, remains stable upon annealing to high temperatures [1], and coatings, such as CrN/Ni, ZrN/Ni, and others [2] in which the measured high hardness is due to a high compressive stress that is induced in the coatings due to energetic ion bombardment during their deposition (e.g., by magnetron sputtering). We also summarize the recent progress in the industrial applications of the superhard nanocomposite coatings on machining tools.


Angiogenesis is the formation of new microvascular network from the pre-existing blood vessel. In tissue engineering approaches, angiogenesis is essential for the promotion of micro-vascular network inside an engineered scaffold construct, mimicking a functional blood vessel in vivo. In the in vivo system, the formation of new blood vessels depends on the properties fibrin gel extracellular matrix. In this study, we have investigated the effect of different fibrinogen and thrombin composition on the biophysical properties of fibrin gel. Higher concentration of thrombin (4.0 Units/milliliter) yields a shorter clotting time of the fibrin gel and result in better water uptake property while at lower concentration of thrombin (0.5 Units/milliliter), the clotting time takes much longer. Also, at lowest concentration ratio of fibrinogen to thrombin (0.5 milligram/milliliter to 4.0 Units/milliliter), the turbidity study shows the lowest absorbance compared to other samples. Different concentration of fibrinogen and thrombin also affect the microstructure of the fibrin gel. The variation of these properties will be then manipulated to be used for in vitro angiogenesis. This study opens broader application of fibrin extracellular matrix in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering researches.


EAP is typically used in an arrangement where the actual service (such
as a wireless LAN access point) is separated from the authentication
server. However, EAP itself does not have a concept of a service
identity or its parameters, and thus the client usually does not
authenticate any information about the service itself, even when a
mutually authenticating EAP method is used. This document specifies a
backward compatible extension to popular EAP methods for
authenticating service related information, such as the identity and
type of the offered service. A common parameter name space is created
in order to ensure that the same kinds of identifiers can be
authenticated independent of the choice of the EAP authentication
method, retaining the EAP media independence principle.


In 1879 Thomas Edison invented the light bulb and built the first power station in Pearl Street in Manhattan in 1882, while the German inventor Werner von Siemens installed the first electric elevator in Mannheim in 1880. Since then, electricity has powered – directly or indirectly – the shape and dynamics of urban life. In cities of the developed world, we take for granted that electricity feeds the complex systems which sustain and sometimes spectacularly fail us. In emerging cities of the developing world, a light bulb is still embraced as a symbol of civilisation by some, while others celebrate their urbanity in a visual cacophony of neon. The Electric City is, in many ways, the crucible of patterns of production, consumption and pollution of the 21st century 'urban age' as cities struggle with their impact on the social and environmental well-being of the planet. After having tackled the urban economy, health and well-being, violence, security, social inclusion and design at conferences held in – amongst others – Hong Kong, Chicago, New York, Sao Paulo and Johannesburg, the Urban Age returns to London for its eleventh conference since 2005. We turn our attention to the challenges and responsibilities faced by cities in the digital age as Climate Change and economic pressures continue to define our everyday urban realities. Since its inception, the Urban Age has studied the spatial and social dynamics of over 30 cities in the developed and developing world, collaborated with over 40 academic institutions and municipal authorities and been attended by over 5,000 speakers and participants from urban design, policymaking, research and practice. In London we welcome over 60 speakers from 30 cities in 15 countries across four continents who take part in the two-day Urban Age Electric City conference in the aptly named Shoreditch Electric Light Station in central London – a building that in its own history reflects the connections between power and the city. It opened as an electricity generating station in 1896 to burn rubbish, giving steam for generating electricity with the waste used to heat public baths next door. The motto above the door is 'E Pulvere Lux Et Vis, or 'Out Of The Dust, Light And Power', reflecting a trajectory of sustainable resilience that parallels the themes and issues debated by the protagonists of the Urban Age.