KONSTANTINOVIC, B., M. BLAGOJEVIC, Bo. KONSTANTINOVIC, N. SAMARDZIC and B. PEJIC, 2014. Vertical distribution of weed seed banks in extensive and intensive methods of grapevine cultivation. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 20: 860-867 This study deals with the influence of herbicide application (glyphosate and glufosinate-ammonium), soil cultivation meth ods on the size and quantity of weed seed banks. The application of herbicides in a row (intra-row spacing) of the intensive vineyards studied as well as the cultivation between rows (inter-row spacing) affect the soil weed seed bank in the vineyard. The research was carried out in 2011 and 2012 in three different vineyard sites (Erdut, Subotica-Horgos and Fruska Gora vineyards) in intensive vineyards grown for commercial purposes, as well as in extensive vineyards. Samples were taken in ten replications from the inter-row and intra-row zones to the depth of 0-30cm of intensive and extensive vineyards. The samples were rinsed through copper sieves of specific diameters and dried at room temperature, after which the weed seeds were extracted and identified. The comparison of the two weed seed banks in the two methods of grapevine cultivation studied revealed the range of weed seed number in extensive and intensive vine growing within a one year period from 37.006 seeds/m 2 in the inter-row spacing of an intensive vineyard to 69.069 seeds/m 2 in a row of extensive vineyards at various localities. Despite the great diversity of the weeds, totaling 38 species, whose seeds were identified in the samples studied, only several species were predominant in number in comparison to other species: Amaranthus retroflexus L. , Portulaca oleracea L., Chenopodium album L., Stellaria media (L.) Vill. Lamium purpureum L. The germination of the seeds identified showed a significantly higher potential for the predominant weed species in comparison to others.


The appropriate choice of the type of glazing and glazed area in a facade depends on many factors. They include amongst other criteria: location, orientation, climatic condition, energetic efficiency, usage of the building, required user comfort, and the architectural concept. All requirements cannot be fulfilled at all times and priorities have to be set to find a compromise between occupant comfort, design objective, cost and energetic efficiency. An innovative glazing system combining daylighting, glare protection, seasonal thermal control and clear view was developed [1] and patented by the authors. This design was developed using a novel ray tracing approach to obtain a strongly angular dependent transmission with specific angular distribution. Taking advantage of the changing elevation of the sun between seasons, a seasonal variation is created by a strongly angular dependent transmittance. In this paper we present the mixed dimensionality approach used to achieve a very fast and accurate ray tracing of any lamellar structure that has a two dimensional profile. The originality of the presented Monte Carlo algorithm is the separation of intersection and interaction. Intersections are computed using only the two dimensions of the profile thereby increasing significantly computational speed. Interactions are computed using vector calculus in three dimensions and provide accurate results with very little computational load. With such optimizations, the user interface could be designed to give an instantaneous idea of the light path in the modelled system. The model also calculates an accurate bidirectional transmittance distribution function that is used in a Radiance simulation to obtain a rendering of the daylighting distribution in an office space. Hereby we can compare the daylighting performances of the novel design based on optical microstructures with those of other CFSs. Finally the combination of simulated angular dependent transmittance and Meteonorm data provides an estimate of transmitted energy over the year and proves the efficiency of the presented optical microstructures for dynamic thermal control. The proposed working principles of redirection and angular dependent transmittance are thereby demonstrated. The software provides all the mentioned results in the user interface where the performances of different designs can also be compared, making the optimization process of a profile with a defined objective very intuitive.


Law school has long been thought of as an investment in human capital inherently worth consuming. This is a dated view. Today, entering the legal profession through law school requires an increasingly significant financial investment. Yet very little information about the value of a legal education is available for prospective law students. In fact, much of the information tends to mislead rather than inform aspiring lawyers. This Article surveys the available information with respect to one important segment of the value analysis: post-graduation employment outcomes. It then proposes a new standard for the presentation of post-graduation outcomes, "The LST Proposal." Our hope is that this standard enables prospectives to take a detailed, holistic look at the diverse employment options from different law schools. This white paper builds on an earlier version, first published in April 2010. The original set forth an expose of the available law school employment information and proposed a way for law schools to voluntarily release better information. This Article updates descriptions of the current employment information, explains the recent reforms at the ABA Section of Legal Education that followed from the original paper, and offers a new proposal for the Section of Legal Education to adopt for the betterment of the legal profession.


In this contribution, we present a photorefractive lithium-niobate novelty filter microscope. We derive conditions, based on the photorefractive model by Kukhtarev et al. [1], for simulating the two-beam coupling functionality in a lithium-niobate crystal. We verify them experimentally by measuring phase changes due to the mixing of equally transparent fluids in a micro-channel using this novelty filter microscope.


Code cloning plays a very important role in open-source software engineering. The presence of clones within a project may indicate a need for refactoring, and clones between projects are even more interesting, since code migration takes place and violations are possible. But how is code being copied? How prevalent is the process and on what level does it happen?In this general study, we attempt to shed some light on these questions by searching for clones in a large dataset of over 23 thousand Java projects on the level of both files and methods, and by studying the code fragments themselves and their clone pairs. We study the size and the age of code fragments, the prevalence of their clones, relationships between exact and non-exact clones, as well as between method-level and file-level clones. We also discover and describe various anomalies in the code clones that were detected in the dataset.Our research shows that the copying occurs all through the years of the Java code existence and that method-level copying is much more prevalent than file-level copying, with only 35.4% of methods having no clones at all. Additionally, some of the discovered anomalies can be useful for future large-scale cloning research as they can be used for removing auto-generated code.


A detailed investigation into the calcareous nannofossils from the upper Campanian–Maastrichtian deposits of the Kladorub Formation (NW Bulgaria) has been carried out in order to examine their taxonomic content and test the applicability of cosmopolitan zonation schemes for this stratigraphic interval in the country. The Kladorub Formation is composed of silty to fine-sandy marlstones and rare marly limestones, occasionally interbedded with sandstone layers. The recovered nannofloras are abundant, taxonomically diverse and exhibit predominantly moderate preservation, which allowed precise taxonomic identifications and biostratigraphic analysis to be made. As a result, the presence of two previously undocumented, biostratigraphically significant taxa has been recorded (i.e., Eiffellithus parallelus and Ceratolithoides kamptneri). Consequently, the studied Upper Cretaceous sediments have been assigned to subzone UC15dTP (pars.)–subzone UC20dTP; in the uppermost 2 m of the section, the presence of zone NP1 has also been indicated, which is in concordance with previous authors' data. Due to the lack of proper chronostratigraphic framework for the Kladorub Formation, top Uniplanarius trifidus and base Lithraphidites quadratus have, respectively, been used to approximate the Campanian/Maastrichtian and lower/upper Maastrichtian boundaries. The Cretaceous/Palaeogene boundary, however, could not be drawn with precision, because it falls within a 6.5-m interval of non-exposure. The resulting biostratigraphic framework offers higher stratigraphic resolution than previously used local zonation schemes and allows correlation with coeval sedimentary successions from other parts of the Tethyan and Boreal realms.


This paper describes a process for constructing situation-specific belief networks from a knowledge base of network fragments. A situation-specific network is a minimal querycomplete network constructed from a knowledge base in response to a query for the probability distribution on a set of target variables given evidence and context variables. We present definitions of query completeness and situation-specific networks. We describe conditions on the knowledge base that guarantee query completeness. The relationship of our work to earlier work on KBMC is also discussed.


Is shift work associated with higher mortality risk? That question has been the subject of much discussion for decades. Mortality risk includes concerns that reflect not only incidence but also case fatality, treatment, information of death certificates, and competing causes of death – especially in advanced age. Although related, mortality and incidence are not the same as the former is broader.

Taylor & Pocock (1) performed the first study using modern epidemiological methods. The cohort included 8603 male manual workers followed for 12 years. The analysis presented results on indirect standardization, ie, the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) among day, shift, and ex-shift workers, using the general population as a reference. The results showed SMR of 97.3, 101.5 and 118.9 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 99.0–141.7] for the three groups respectively (results calculated based on figures provided). The authors concluded that "the evidence we have obtained…leads to the conclusion that shift work appears to have no adverse effect upon mortality" (p206, 1). In the following years, that study has often been cited as evidence against increased mortality among shift workers. However, a reanalysis of the data casts doubt on the interpretation of the results, arguing that internal comparison between the three groups might indicate that shift work actually increases mortality risk (2).

Later studies have yielded inconsistent results. In a recent review of eight studies, five were negative. The meta-analysis showed an all-cause mortality risk of 1.04 (95% CI 0.97–1.11) for shift workers (3). Mortality studies on shift workers include a number of issues, which could explain the inconsistencies. Exposure to shift work has been measured in many ways. Often the exposure is determined at one point in time, and exposures before and after are not considered. Many individuals who start shift work often quit after a few years and change to day work. That process will result in a dilution of the day working group, which will consequently contain a mixture of day and shift workers. This leads to a misclassification of exposure that further leads to an underestimation of the risk associated with shift work.

Another issue is the "healthy worker effect", which is a term that describes the reduced morbidity and mortality in occupationally active individuals in comparison with the general population. This problem is common when mortality is measured with indirect standardization (SMR). Even SMR below one could indicate an increased mortality risk. As a result, real excesses in both morbidity and mortality due to harmful exposures at work might be wholly or partially masked (4).

Some studies have included participants who are middle-aged or even of advanced age (5). Ageing is a marker of the accumulation of different risks for deadly diseases. The role of shift work will therefore be diminished due to competing causes. An additional problem with including participants of an older age is that such participants constitute a cohort of survivors, ie, they have "survived" shift work and are probably less sensitive to that kind of exposure.

When specific outcomes are addressed there is also a problem with competing outcomes, especially among the elderly, who have a higher risk of dying from many different diagnoses. For example, if an individual is diagnosed with prostate cancer at the age of 70, and dies from stroke at 80, the death certificate will probably certify that the cause of death was stroke but the diagnosis of prostate cancer is not mentioned because it is not regarded as an underlying or contributory cause of stroke.
The Cox proportional hazards model is increasingly used in mortality studies. The model is appropriate under specific assumptions. The hazard function must be proportional over time, and there should be a linear relationship between the log hazard and each covariate. If those assumptions are tested it should be reported, but this is not always done.

In this issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health , Jorgensen and collegues report on the mortality of Danish nurses (6). The cohort consisted of 18 000 nurses who were followed for 18 years. They found an increased all-cause mortality among those who worked evening and night shifts. They also demonstrated significantly increased cardiovascular mortality for those working the night shift. Cancer mortality was increased by 15%, which, however, was not statistically significant. They also found increased mortality associated with working times for diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and dementia, but these results were based on a small number of cases. This study strengthens the evidence of a connection between shift work and all-cause mortality. It also provides support for an association between shift work and mortality of cardiovascular disease.

The mechanisms responsible for the association between shift work and disease are probably complex and influenced by genetics, lifestyle, sleep, social stress, and disturbed circadian rhythms (7). Further epidemiological studies and experimental studies are needed to explain the causal pathways. One issue would be to find a better variable measuring the circadian phase. Shift work is not a valid proxy since previous studies have shown that shift workers do not always have a phase shift of the circadian rhythm (8, 9). Another problem to investigate would be whether the body is more sensitive or vulnerable as a result of shift work at certain ages.

Although there are still unsolved issues regarding the association between shift work and disease, we know enough to take preventative action. This work must be strengthened and extended to more employees who work shifts or have other "unsocial" working hours.

References
1. Taylor PJ, Pocock SJ. Mortality of shift and day workers 1956-68. Br J Ind Med. 1972;29:201-207. https://doi.org/10.1136/oem.29.2.201
2. Knutsson A, Hammar N, Karlsson B. Shift workers' mortality scrutinized. Chronobiol Int. 2004;21:1049-53. https://doi.org/10.1081/CBI-200035942
3. Vyas M, Garg A, Iansavichus A, Costella J, Donner A Laugsand LE, et al. Shift work and vascular events. BMJ. 201245:e4800. Published online 2012 Jul 26. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e4800
4. McMichael AJ, Spirats R, Kupper LL. An epidemiological study of mortality within a cohort of rubber workers, 1964-72. J Occup Med. 1986;18:165-168. https://doi.org/10.1097/00043764-197603000-00009
5. Travis RC, Balkwill A, Fensom GK, Appleby PN, et al. Night work and breast cancer incidence. Three prospective studies and meta-analysis of published studies. Result of meta-analysis. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2016 Oct 6;108(12). pii: djw169.
https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djw169
6. Jorgensen JT, Karlsen S, Stayner L, Hansen J, Andersen ZJ. Shift work and overall and cause specific mortality in the Danish nurse cohort. Scand J Work Environ Health – online first. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3612
7. Knutsson A. Health disorders of shift workers. Occup Med. 2002;53:103-8. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqg048
8. Koller M, Harma M, Laitinen J, Kundi M, Piegler B, Haider M. Different patterns of light exposure in relation to melatonin and cortisol rhythms and sleep of night workers. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-079X.1994.tb00092.x
9. Roden M, Koller M, Pirich K, Vierhapper H, Waldhauser F. The circadian melatonin and cortisol secretion pattern in permanent night shift workers. Am J Physiol 1993;265:R261-7.


In 1910 Ivar Bang reported that concentrated solutions of guanylic acid formed a gel. It took half a century before Gellert et al. in 1962 discovered the structural motif, a guanine-quartet, to be the basis for guanylic acid gelation. This chapter starts with a historical overview and gives credit to Ivar Bang and several other pioneers in the field. Then the basic principles of guanine self-assembly are explored, either for individual molecules like guanosine and its derivatives, or for guanine-rich oligonucleotides and G-rich DNA-sequences. Finally, we show how these guanine-based nanoarchitectures are visualised by surface techniques like scanning tunnelling microscopy or atomic force microscopy.


This project contributes to the understanding of how the thalamus, a major structure in the mammalian brain, develops. This is done through the creation and application of neuroinformatics tools to biological data. The thalamus is a paired structure located ventro-caudally in the vertebrate forebrain which constitutes the most important part of the diencephalon. Its main roles are the relay of sensory information from the body to the brain, and the modulation of this information based on feedback it receives. Internally it is subdivided into nuclei, big cell clusters that belong to separate pathways. The parcellation of the thalamus into nuclei starts embryonically, where multiple genes with combinatorially overlapping expression patterns help differentiate the fate of newly formed cells. Based on nuclei counterstain and gene expression in situ data from the Allen Developmental Mouse Brain Atlas, this project provides insights on how the mouse thalamus is parcellated at E13.5. To do so, methods are proposed to extract cell density information from reference datasets and single gene expression information. A workflow is described to unify the data from the two methods into the same anatomical space. A method to calculate levels of co-expression between pairs of genes is then developed, providing a way to categorise pairs of genes based on their co-expression relationship in a specific brain region: no co-expression, potential, or existent. The tools implementing the methods are then applied to the combinations of several genes involved in different developmental aspects of the thalamus at E13.5 (Gbx2, Ngn2, Olig2, Otx2, Cdh8 and EphA4), to understand where cells co-express or might coexpress each pair. The results indicate that the more restricted nature of co-expression patterns of gene pairs is more useful to understand nucleogenesis than individual gene expression patterns, which might be too wide or too specific. Finally a subdivision of the developmental thalamus at this age is proposed based on the regions in common, and these subdivisions are linked to the adult thalamus.


Many conservation projects fail because local stakeholders share a disproportionate burden of the cost arising from a no-take zone compared to benefits accruing to global and national stakeholders and more powerful groups. Conflicts arising from the establishment of marine protected areas are usually caused by outside interests colliding with local interests and priorities. Ensuring fishers who will lose access to fishing grounds will be able to negotiate and obtain benefits in return for their losses is key to gaining their support to no-take provisions of a marine protected area. The case of establishing an offshore marine protected area in the Tubbataha Reefs, in the center of the Sulu Sea, Philippines, offers a practitioners' perspective in reconciling competing interests based on the sharing of costs and benefits that all stakeholders consider satisfactory and equitable. User fees from diver groups and grant payments from outside donors that supported local livelihoods and park operations offer lessons in cost and benefit sharing. The experience highlights the importance of generating stakeholders' agreements based on cost and benefit-sharing as a platform for conservation actions.


Finite element (FE) analysis is a powerful engineering tool which can be used to solve a heat transfer problem in a complex geometry and assembly. In this paper FE modelling of a cook-off experiment apparatus is presented. The experiment apparatus is used to represents a cook off analysis for a propellant charge inside an unconfined 7.62 mm brass cartridge case surrounded by a hot barrel which is naturally cooled by convection. A 2D axisymmetric FE analysis based on a 3D CAD model of the actual experiment apparatus assembly is carried out. The kinetic parameters of the propellant are applied into the analysis in the form of tabular data as the heat generation input. It is shown that by using proper input parameters for the apparatus and decent curve fitting of kinetic parameters for the propellant inside the cartridge case, a good agreement with the time to cook-off data from experimental results can be achieved. The time to cook off in a hot barrel is important and critical for operational success.


Domestic violence is a national health problem and involves virtually every sector of society, regardless of ethnicity, social status, religion, sexual orientation, or gender (Caetano, Field, Ramisetty-Mikler, & McGrath, 2005; Durose, Harlow, & Lagen, 2005; Shaver, Lavendosky, Dubay, Basu, & Jenei, 2005). It may include physical, emotional, psychological, and sexual aspects (Carlson, 2005; Dutton, Kaltman, Goodman, Weinfurt, & Vankos, 2005; Sackett & Saunders, 1999). Annually, more than 1.3 million women and 800,000 men are victims of domestic violence (Tjaden & Thonnes, 2000). However, these statistics only reflect victims who self-reported; it has been suggested that the numbers of victims who do not report are far greater (Felson, Ackerman, & Gallagher, 2005; Fugate, Landis, Riorden, Naureckas, & Engel, 2005; Szinovacz & Egley, 1995). Often, by the time victims present at counselors' offices, some time has passed since the precipitating domestic violence incident. Many of these clients have already encountered law enforcement and emergency room personnel. Research has indicated victims encounter health care providers and social workers with limited knowledge about domestic violence. Moreover, these professionals may express negative attitudes (e.g., viewing the victim as weak or at fault) towards victims (Shields, Baer, Leininger, Marlow, & DeKeyser, 1998). Thus, counselors may play an important role in educating professionals who are the first point of contact for many domestic violence victims. This article briefly presents an overview of domestic violence. Next, a description of the role of front-line workers, specifically law enforcement and emergency room personnel will be discussed. Finally, a helping paradigm is recommended that counselors can use to work with front-line workers from a consultee-centered perspective. Domestic Violence Terms such as family violence, intimate partner violence, interpersonal violence, and spousal abuse have all been used when referring to domestic violence. "Domestic violence constitutes the willful intimidation, assault, battery, sexual assault or other abusive behavior perpetrated by one family member, household member, or intimate partner against another" (The National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC), (2008). For this article, we will use the NCVC definition when referring to domestic violence. An essential feature of domestic violence is Walker's Cycle of Violence (COV), (1979). Walker identified a general pattern involving how domestic violence repeats within relationships. The COV is comprised of (a) the tension-building phase, (b) the acute battering incident, and (c) the honeymoon phase. During the tension-building phase, strain builds within the couple. There may be verbal, emotional, or physical abuse. Once the tension reaches a crescendo, the acute battering incident occurs. Following the incident, the couple moves into the honeymoon phase. Abusers realize they have gone too far, apologize, and promise the battering will never happen again. Victims become drawn back into the relationship by abusers' sincere apology and behavior. The honeymoon phase fades, and the couple moves into the tension-building phase to begin the cycle again. The COV may help front-line workers to understand the reasons why victims may stay with abusive partners in spite of the dangers. Those Impacted by Domestic Violence Walker (1979) described battered women as those who are repeatedly subjected to any forceful physical or psychological behavior by men with the goal of controlling them without regard for women's personal rights. Battered women may include wives or those in any form of intimate relationships with men. While we recognize that this definition is limited to women, it is still one of the most insightful descriptions. This definition can be expanded to include gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) individuals, as well as men. …


Back to 2008, Nakamoto combined the distributed ledger technology with cryptography and gave origin to what is now known as blockchain technology. The blockchain technology allows for a trustworthy record of transactions among anonymous without the need of a neutral central authority. The blockchain contains all the transaction history and each transaction is tamper-proof, publicly auditable (traceable) and no-reversible. The first application of the blockchain technology is Bitcoin: a digital currency that combines together the characteristics of money with those of a payment system. This dual nature is explained by the fact that Bitcoin is money expressed as a string of bits sent as a message in a fully decentralized network composed of millions of users with computers and devices connected among each other. In this chapter we analyze the dual nature of Bitcoin both as payment system and money.


Hymenolepis nana is the most common cestode infection in the world. However, limited information is available regarding its impact on affected populations. We studied the epidemiology and symptoms associated with hymenolepiasis among children 3-16 years old in 16 rural communities of the highlands of the Cusco region in Peru. Information on demographics, socioeconomic status, symptoms as reported by parents, and parasitological testing was obtained from the database of an ongoing Fasciola hepatica epidemiologic study. A total of 1,230 children were included in the study. Forty-five percent were infected with at least one pathogenic intestinal parasite. Giardia spp. (22.9%) was the most common, followed by Hymenolepis (17.4%), Fasciola (14.1%), Ascaris lumbricoides (6.1%), and Strongyloides stercoralis (2%). The prevalence of Hymenolepis infection varied by community, by other parasitic infections, and by socioeconomic status. However, only years of education of the mother, use of well water, and age less than 10 years were associated with Hymenolepis infection in the multivariate analysis. Hymenolepis nana infection was associated with diarrhea, jaundice, headaches, fever, and fatigue. Children with > 500 eggs/g of stool were more likely to have symptoms of weight loss, jaundice, diarrhea, and fever. Hymenolepis nana infection and age were the only factors retained in the multivariate analysis modeling diarrhea. Hymenolepiasis is a common gastrointestinal helminth in the Cusco region and is associated with significant morbidity in children in rural communities. The impact caused by the emergence of Hymenolepis as a prevalent intestinal parasite deserves closer scrutiny.


The use of untreated household greywater for home garden irrigation is an increasingly common phenomenon in the water-stressed Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, particularly among the poor. Most decentralized systems to date have proven to be relatively costly with doubts over their long-term financial viability. This paper describes some decentralized approaches to treating greywater and reducing health risk. It examines financial and social obstacles to wider greywater system uptake, and policy and regulatory incentives that are needed to allow water-stressed communities to use their greywater legally and with controlled risks. Comments are also included on the implications of the 2006 WHO guidelines for the safe use of wastewater, excreta and greywater. Policy makers also need to commit to either encouraging or discouraging greywater use as part of water resource optimization and demand management measures.


Humans have been creating and using algorithms for thousands of years [1] , but never before have the effects of algorithms been so pervasive in our everyday lives and the functioning of the economy as a whole. Recent developments in technologies relating to computer processing power, data storage, and arti cial intelligence have enabled the adoption of increasingly sophisticated algorithms that are reshaping competitive landscapes across industries, raising many new questions about competition and antitrust in the process. This article focuses on three areas of antitrust where the use of algorithms has drawn scrutiny from both enforcers and practitioners around the globe: collusion, mergers, and algorithm self-preferencing.


Android is one of the most popular platforms for developing mobile applications. However, its framework relies on programming conventions and styles to implement frameworkspecific concepts like activities and intents, causing problems such as reliability, readability, understandability, and maintainability. We propose to extend Java to support Android framework concepts explicitly as built-in language features. Our extension called Android Java will allow Android programmers to express these concepts in a more reliable, natural, and succinct way.


HIV-1 entry into cells involves formation of a complex between gp120 of the viral envelope glycoprotein (Env), a receptor (CD4), and a coreceptor. For most strains of HIV, this coreceptor is CCR5. Here, we provide evidence that CD4 is specifically associated with CCR5 in the absence of gp120 or any other receptor-specific ligand. The amount of CD4 coimmunoprecipitated with CCR5 was significantly higher than that with the other major HIV coreceptor, CXCR4, and in contrast to CXCR4 the CD4-CCR5 coimmunoprecipitation was not significantly increased by gp120. The CD4-CCR5 interaction probably takes place via the second extracellular loop of CCR5 and the first two domains of CD4. It can be inhibited by CCR5- and CD4-specific antibodies that interfere with HIV-1 infection, indicating a possible role in virus entry. These findings suggest a possible pathway of HIV-1 evolution and development of immunopathogenicity, a potential new target for antiretroviral drugs and a tool for development of vaccines based on Env-CD4-CCR5 complexes. The constitutive association of a seven-transmembrane-domain G protein-coupled receptor with another receptor also indicates new possibilities for cross-talk between cell surface receptors.


This paper focuses on the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, through which certain guarantees of the Bill of Rights have been applied to the states, and the Equal Protection Clause, through which certain forms of discrimination have been held unconstitutional, from the perspective of the Black Americans who were the Amendment's original intended beneficiaries. My thesis is that while it was a good idea to subject the states to at least some federal standard and to require at least a modicum of formal equality, the history of the Amendment's jurisprudence remains a story of too little, too late. It has never righted the wrongs it promised to address, and it is unlikely, without more, that it will ever do so. Blacks remain economically disadvantaged; the overwhelming majority of Americans live in segregated neighborhoods; and, as Justice Ginsburg noted in her concurring opinion in Grutter v. Bollinger, racial bias remains pervasive. There are nice markers now, but the Black Heritage Trail has not led to equality. Therefore, for the same reason it was a good idea to subject the states to a federal standard, it would be a good idea to subject the United States to an international standard. For the same reason it was a good idea to require a base line of formal equality, it would be a good idea to require courts to apply a contextualized and historicized conception of "equality" in a globalized world. Drawing on international human rights treaties already ratified by the United States, such a conception of equality would recognize racism not only as a factor in colonialism (and neo-colonialism) but also in the ongoing economic subordination of Black Americans.


Background
Updated survival outcomes of young recipients receiving young or old deceased donor kidneys are required when considering accepting a deceased donor kidney.

Methods
We examined outcomes in 6448 European kidney allografts donated from younger (≥20-<50 years) and older (≥50-<70 years) deceased donors when transplanted into very young (≥20-<35 years) or young (≥35-<50 years) adult recipients. Outcomes of first kidney transplantations during 2000-13 and followed-up to 2015 were determined via competing risk, restricted mean survival and Cox regression methods.

Results
The 10-year cumulative incidence of graft failure was lowest in very young {22.0% [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 19.1-24.9]} and young [15.3% (95% CI 13.7-16.9)] recipients of younger donor kidneys and highest in very young [36.7% (95% CI 31.9-41.5)] and young [29.2% (95% CI 25.1-33.2)] recipients of older donor kidneys. At the 10-year follow-up, younger donor kidneys had a 1 year (very young) or 9 months (young) longer mean graft survival time compared with older donor kidneys. Graft failure risk in younger donor kidneys was 45% [very young adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 0.55 (95% CI 0.44-0.68)] and 40% [young aHR 0.60 (95% CI 0.53-0.67)] lower compared with older donor kidneys. A 1-year increase in donor age resulted in a 2% [very young aHR 1.02 (95% CI 1.00-1.04)] or 1% [young aHR 1.01 (95% CI 1.00-1.01)] increase in the 10-year risk of death.

Conclusions
Younger donor kidneys show survival benefits over older donor kidneys in adult recipients ages 20-50 years. Updated survival outcomes from older deceased donors are necessary due to advances in transplantation medicine and the increasing role these donors play in organ transplantation.


In Siberia, the bluegrass genus (Poa) comprises 43 species and 61 subspecies in 12 sections. Diverse modes of speciation, including polyploidy and hybridization, have led to reticulate evolution and adaptive radiation. Cladistic methods that ignore hybridization and reticulate evolution may not be appropriate for morphological data. The number of morphological characters suitable for bluegrass analysis is limited, a majority does not have clear adaptive significance, and the character states cannot be readily polarized, rendering phylogenetic reconstruction very difficult in this group. Other methods of estimating phylogenetic relationships should be used to test hypotheses about relationships and hybridization. Biochemical and molecular data, as well as karyological, phytogeographical, and other lines of evidence should be combined to establish an explicit and testable hypothesis of the sequence of character state changes acquired during biotic differentiation.


In the centuries leading up to the Industrial Revolution, Western Europe gradually pulled ahead of other world regions in terms of technological creativity, population growth, and income per capita. We argue that superior institutions for the creation and dissemination of productive knowledge help explain the European advantage. We build a model of technological progress in a preindustrial economy that emphasizes the person-to-person transmission of tacit knowledge. The young learn as apprentices from the old. Institutions such as the family, the clan, the guild, and the market organize who learns from whom. We argue that medieval European institutions such as guilds, and specific features such as journeymanship, can explain the rise of Europe relative to regions that relied on the transmission of knowledge within closed kinship systems (extended families or clans).


Stride is a declarative and reactive domain specific programming language for real-time sound synthesis, processing, and interaction design. Through hardware resource abstraction and separation of semantics from implementation, a wide range of computation devices can be targeted such as microcontrollers, system-on-chips, general purpose computers, and heterogeneous systems. With a novel and unique approach at handling sampling rates as well as clocking and computation domains, Stride prompts the generation of highly optimized target code. The design of the language facilitates incremental learning of its features and is characterized by intuitiveness, usability, and self-documentation. Users of Stride can write code once and deploy on any supported hardware.


Using suitable coupled Navier-Stokes Equations for an incompressible Newtonian fluid we investigate the linear and non-linear steady state solutions for both a homogeneously and a laterally heated fluid with finite Prandtl Number (Pr=7) in the vertical orientation of the channel. Both models are studied within the Large Aspect Ratio narrow-gap and under constant flux conditions with the channel closed. We use direct numerics to identify the linear stability criterion in parametric terms as a function of Grashof Number (Gr) and streamwise infinitesimal perturbation wavenumber (making use of the generalised Squire's Theorem). We find higher harmonic solutions at lower wavenumbers with a resonance of 1:3exist, for both of the heating models considered. We proceed to identify 2D secondary steady state solutions, which bifurcate from the laminar state. Our studies show that 2D solutions are found not to exist in certain regions of the pure manifold, where we find that 1:3 resonant mode 2D solutions exist, for low wavenumber perturbations. For the homogeneously heated fluid, we notice a jump phenomenon existing between the pure and resonant mode secondary solutions for very specific wavenumbers .We attempt to verify whether mixed mode solutions are present for this model by considering the laterally heated model with the same geometry. We find mixed mode solutions for the laterally heated model showing that a bridge exists between the pure and 1:3 resonant mode 2D solutions, of which some are stationary and some travelling. Further, we show that for the homogeneously heated fluid that the 2D solutions bifurcate in hopf bifurcations and there exists a manifold where the 2D solutions are stable to Eckhaus criterion, within this manifold we proceed to identify 3D tertiary solutions and find that the stability for said 3D bifurcations is not phase locked to the 2D state. For the homogeneously heated model we identify a closed loop within the neutral stability curve for higher perturbation wavenumubers and analyse the nature of the multiple 2D bifurcations around this loop for identical wavenumber and find that a temperature inversion occurs within this loop. We conclude that for a homogeneously heated fluid it is possible to have abrup ttransitions between the pure and resonant 2D solutions, and that for the laterally heated model there exist a transient bifurcation via mixed mode solutions.


Atherosclerosis begins at the fragile blood vessel endothelia, which may be the Achilles' Heel of the circulation. The endothelia are thin cell sheets vulnerable to injury, yet from their cell membranes come fatty acid metabolites (prostanoids, other eicosanoids) that coordinate vessel wall homeostasis and help protect against atherosclerosis. Oxidation products of fatty foods threaten endothelial integrity, and dietary fatty acids protected by dietary antioxidants can slow or perhaps even reverse atherosclerosis. Eicosanoid messenger molecules, generated from 20-carbon fatty acids associated with membrane phospholipids, are among the major factors ensuring vessel wall homeostasis. Among their functions is to help control blood vessel tone, retard platelet aggregation, and discourage white blood cells and platelets from adhering to the vessel wall. Eicosanoid balance is delicately poised between anti-inflammation and pro-inflammation, with the dietary intake of fatty acids and antioxidants influencing this balance. The 2-series metabolites from arachidonic acid are quantitatively the most abundant, while the 1-series (from DGLA) and the 3-series (from EPA) counterbalance the 2-series and enhance atherosclerosis protection and heart disease prevention. Dietary long-chain, unsaturated fatty acids also benefit the blood vessel wall by enhancing cell membrane fluidity and regulating membrane receptors. Inconsistent clinical results with the dietary fatty acids may be related to dose. High doses of any one of the n-3, n-6, or n-9 FAs may create deficiencies of others. For consistent, effective nutritional support against atherosclerosis, a diversified intake of fatty acids should only be undertaken in conjunction with a generous intake of antioxidants. (Alt Med Rev 1996;1(3):148-167.)


Consumer sensory evaluations of oven-roasted goat and sheep m. longissimus dorsi samples were conducted in two series to determine the acceptability of chevon from indigenous South African goats to consumers. Chevon samples were from goat carcasses of known description. In series I, castrate and female goats and female sheep, all with 2 – 6 permanent incisors, were compared. Castrate males were significantly heavier and yielded heavier carcasses than the female goats. Nonetheless, the two groups did not differ significantly in carcass and meat characteristics. Cooking losses from mutton samples were significantly higher than losses from chevon from female goats only. In series II, male kids (milk teethed), old does (8 permanent teeth) and sheep (2 – 6 permanent teeth) were compared. Does were heavier at slaughter, but the mean carcass weight did not differ significantly from that of the kids. There were no significant differences between the does and kids in carcass tissue composition and sarcomere lengths. The pHu of does was significantly higher than that of kids. Cooking losses from mutton and chevon samples in series II did not differ significantly. Amongst the consumer characteristics, level of education was the most important determinant of consumer acceptance of the sensory attributes and intended frequency of consumption in both series. Population group was a significant factor in the judgement of the more diverse meats of series II only. Sensory evaluations indicate that all meat types were highly acceptable to the consumers who on average were willing to eat any of the meats at least once a week. The study indicated that chevon from indigenous South African goats is acceptable to consumers and may be as acceptable as mutton, provided that the meat is from goats of about two years of age or younger.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of dental caries in 192 children, 96 born prematurely and 96 at full term, in a regional hospital in Brazil. Mean age at clinical examination was 40.72 months in the full-term group (G1) and 30.44 months in the premature group (G2). The children were divided in two age subgroups: 0 to 3 and 4 to 6 years. Statistical results (Student's t and Kruskal-Wallis tests) showed that dmft was 0.43 for G1 and 0.01 for G2 in the 0-3 age subgroup, and 1.7 for G1 and 1.1 for G2 in the 4-6 age subgroup. Differences were significant between G1 and G2 only in the 0-3 age subgroup (p = 0.047). Caries evaluation showed that, of the 96 children in G1, 75 were caries free, while in G2, 84 did not have the disease. These differences were not significant (p = 0.088). The lower mean dmft found in the 0-3 age subgroup in G2 may be attributed to routines established by the hospital's neonatology staff, such as frequent dental visits and preventive instructions about oral habits, oral hygiene and diet. After this age, with the completion of the primary dentition, values increased and became similar between the G1 and G2 groups. Results also suggested a highly skewed distribution since most caries were found in only a small number of children.


Arranging some magnets can intensify its magnetic field, as known as Halbach array. Magnets can be considered as a 3 dimensional array of magnetic dipoles. Optimizing these magnetic dipole directions, magnets can be more stronger. This article shows how to ditermine these directions, and how to magnetize ferromagnetic material with that directions.


Use of the double ring infiltrometer to measure soil water infiltration in center pivot irrigation systems isn't an accurate approach; because the real conditions of infiltration under center pivot sprinklers is different from what happens in the double ring. In this study the infiltration parameters were evaluated in real conditions of a center pivot system. For this purpose a single ring with drainage equipment was used which could measure both infiltration and runoff rates during experiments. Field tests were carried out at agricultural research station of Tabriz University that soil texture of field was sandy loam. Treatments of experiments were two types of sprinkler (Ldn, I-wob), three operation pressures (15, 20 and 25 psi) and two sprinkler heights (1.6 and 2 meter) with three replications. The results showed that the average amounts of infiltration rate and cumulative infiltration in the double ring method were double of the mentioned amounts in the single ring method. Therefore the consideration of double ring method amounts in design phase causes a significant runoff in operation. The maximum amounts of infiltration rate and cumulative infiltration were obtained in irrigation with operation pressure of 25 psi and sprinkler height of 1.6 meter. The model of Kostiakov had the maximum amount of determination coefficient (R 2 ) and the model of Green- Ampt had the minimum amount of standard error (SE) in fitting with the measured infiltration data in real condition of a center pivot system in the field.


In this paper, a depth-graded C/W multilayer mirror with broad grazing incident angular range, consisting of three multilayer stacks, each of which has different period thickness d and the layer pair number, was designed and fabricated by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering. For calculating the definite performance of such a mirror, the saturation effects of the interfacial imperfection, such as interface roughness and diffusion, were emerged. The reflectivity of the mirror was measured by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) instrument at Cu K? radiation (? = 0.154 nm), the measured reflectivity was about 30% in a broad grazing incident angular range (0.55---0.85 deg.). By the fitting data, the thickness of each layer is almost same as the one designed and the roughness in the multilayer is about 0.85 nm, which is larger than the prospective value of 0.5 nm.


Recent studies have investigated the continuous functions in terms of inverse optimality. The continuity is a primordial structural property which is exploited in order to link a given piecewise affine (PWA) function to an optimization problem. The aim of this work is to deepen the study of the PWA functions in the inverse optimality context and specifically deal with the presence of discontinuities. First, it will be shown that a solution to the inverse optimality problem exists via a constructive argument. The loss of continuity will have an implication on the structure of the optimization problem which, albeit convex, turns to have a set-valued optimal solution. As a consequence, the original PWA function will represent an optimal solution but the uniqueness is lost. From the numerical point of view, we introduce an algorithm to construct an optimization problem that admits a given discontinuous PWA function as an optimal solution. This construction is shown to rely on convex liftings. A numerical example is considered to illustrate the proposal.


Lean is and will still be one of the most popular management philosophies in the Industry 4.0 context and simulation is one of its key technologies. Many authors discuss about the benefits of combining Lean and simulation to better support decision makers in system design and improvement. However, there is a lack of reviews in the domain. Therefore, this paper presents a four-stage comprehensive review and analysis of existing literature on their combination. The aim is to identify the state of the art, existing methods and frameworks for combining Lean and simulation, while also identifying key research perspectives and challenges. The main trends identified are the increased interest in the combination of Lean and simulation in the Industry 4.0 context and in their combination with optimisation, Six Sigma, as well as sustainability. The number of articles in these areas is likely to continue to grow. On the other hand, we highlight six gaps found in the literature regarding the combination of Lean and simulation, which may induce new research opportunities. Existing technical, organisational, as well as people and culture related challenges on the combination of Lean and simulation are also discussed.


The theory of the strict topology β on C*(X) has recently been extended to a completely regular setting by Sentilles. Here it is shown that equality of the separable and τ-additive Baire measures on X is a sufficient condition for (C*(X), β) to be a strong Mackey space. As a consequence, the Conway-LeCam Theorem for paracompact spaces is extended to the completely regular case. A locally convex topology βe on C*(X) is considered; βe is strong Mackey, and the dual space is the space of separable measures. Results of Dudley, Granirer, and Leger and Soury on convergence in the space of measures are unified and extended in this context.


This article examines two competing historical formations that expatriate missionaries and Papua New Guineans respectively have used to create connections between local ethnic groups and "the ancient Jews" of the Bible. In part through 1970s publications analyzed here, missionaries introduced redemptive and repetitive historicist models that established Melanesian ethnic groups as generically and iconically Jewish. The article then examines the ways in which Guhu-Samane Christians in rural Papua New Guinea take up these missionary narratives in order to produce indexical, genealogical connections to biblical Jews. Ancient Jews have become "figures" of Guhu-Samane history through interpretive discourses in which local people discover the prophetic revelations of their Jewishness that anticipate a future Christianity. Guhu-Samane Christians thus particularize their relationship to Christianity by taking up the history of another group, a Christian historical imagination that runs counter to secular forms of history that orient around issues of autonomous identity.


How streaming services and internet distribution have transformed global television culture. Television, once a broadcast medium, now also travels through our telephone lines, fiber optic cables, and wireless networks. It is delivered to viewers via apps, screens large and small, and media players of all kinds. In this unfamiliar environment, new global giants of television distribution are emerging-including Netflix, the world's largest subscription video-on-demand service. Combining media industry analysis with cultural theory, Ramon Lobato explores the political and policy tensions at the heart of the digital distribution revolution, tracing their longer history through our evolving understanding of media globalization. Netflix Nations considers the ways that subscription video-on-demand services, but most of all Netflix, have irrevocably changed the circulation of media content. It tells the story of how a global video portal interacts with national audiences, markets, and institutions, and what this means for how we understand global media in the internet age. Netflix Nations addresses a fundamental tension in the digital media landscape - the clash between the internet's capacity for global distribution and the territorial nature of media trade, taste, and regulation. The book also explores the failures and frictions of video-on-demand as experienced by audiences. The actual experience of using video platforms is full of subtle reminders of market boundaries and exclusions: platforms are geo-blocked for out-of-region users ("this video is not available in your region"); catalogs shrink and expand from country to country; prices appear in different currencies; and subtitles and captions are not available in local languages. These conditions offer rich insight for understanding the actual geographies of digital media distribution. Contrary to popular belief, the story of Netflix is not just an American one. From Argentina to Australia, Netflix's ascension from a Silicon Valley start-up to an international television service has transformed media consumption on a global scale. Netflix Nations will help readers make sense of a complex, ever-shifting streaming media environment.


This paper describes the framework used in a study to formulate the requirements for the design and implementation of a knowledge sharing for project-based education. Green Open Access Information is popular among researchers to access information in sharing their knowledge. The purpose of Green Open Access Information is to make the full text of the peer-reviewed research output of scholars/scientists and their institutions visible, accessible, harvestable, searchable and useable by any potential user to access the information from the Internet. Knowledge sharing is widely recognized that it can promote the competitive ability of scholars and it has been the focus of research for this century. Recently, there has been a growing interest in examining the factors that participation of OAI or knowledge sharing. The OAI has been conceived to support scholars sharing needs in making research projects. The study uses the Framework for knowledge sharing for the approach to investigate the initial requirements. The artifact addressed in the framework - readiness - is highlighted in this paper. Readiness in this work refers to major goal within objective or approaches that are significant to the OAI. This includes the readiness to participate the OAI, willingness to participate in making research articles available on the internet, and the success factors. Using multiple data-gathering techniques, the study identifies the readiness factors that support the plan for participation of the OAI. It outlines the vision statement, goals and objectives needed to define the make research articles available on the internet by the Scholars; the context to participate the OAI by the Knowledge Sharing Community; and the knowledge sharing expressed by the participation of OAI.


Winged bean is an indeterminate, climbing, perennial legume that needs
support to achieve high yields. The major constraint to large scale production of
winged bean is the need for trellising which incurred an additional cost of
production. After harvesting of young or mature pods plants can be cut and the
pollarded root stock produces a ratoon crop. Ratooning, a new technique for
seed production of winged bean, can reduce the initial expenditure on support
structures. Therefore, these studies on the effects of support systems and
ratooning on growth and seed production of winged bean were conducted under
humid tropical field conditions to document some experimental evidence.
Results from the first experiment revealed that when compared to unsupported
control, support height of 1 and 2 m caused a significant increase in leaf area index (LAI), net photosynthesis, relative growth rate (RGR), nodule activity,
solar radiation interception (SRI), pattern of dry matter accumulation and
partitioning and consequently the seed yield of winged bean. Plants grown on a
support height of2 m had enhanced leaf growth, pod number and total dry matter
yield when compared to those on support height of Im and unsupported plants.
In the subsequent experiment, the root stock of the main crop was cut off
at 126, 140, 154 and 168 days after germination (DAG) and the ratooned crops
maintained for the next two crop cycles (126 days/crop cycle). The results
suggested that ratooning of winged bean at 126 or 140 DAG would lower the
investment expenditure on support structures and produced the highest
cumulative seed yield per unit area per unit time.


Insurance benefit design has important implications for consumer welfare. In this article, we model insurer behaviour in the Medicare prescription drug coverage market and show that strategic private insurer incentives impose a fiscal externality on the traditional Medicare program. We document that plans covering medical expenses have more generous drug coverage than plans that are only responsible for prescription drug spending, which translates into higher drug utilization by enrolees. The effect is driven by drugs that reduce medical expenditure and treat chronic conditions. Our equilibrium model of benefit design endogenizes plan characteristics and accounts for asymmetric information; the model estimates confirm that differential incentives to internalize medical care offsets can explain disparities across plans. Counterfactuals show that strategic insurer incentives are as important as asymmetric information in determining benefit design.


Objectives. To determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity among grade 1 learners, taking into account age, gender, race and school socioeconomic profile. Methods. The study is based on the baseline prevalence of overweight and obesity as part of the ongoing 6-year longitudinal NW Child Health Integrated Learning and Development (NW-CHILD) study. Stratified random sampling was used to identify 20 schools from four educational districts across all five quintiles of schools in the North West Province (NWP) of South Africa (SA). A total of 816 (419 boys, 397 girls) grade 1 learners with a mean age of 6.80 (standard deviation 0.39) years participated in the study, including 567 black learners, 218 white learners and 31 learners from other race groups. Standard anthropometric techniques and international body mass index (BMI) cut-off points for children were used to determine overweight and obesity. Results. A combined prevalence of overweight and obesity (Ow/Ob) of 11.1% was found, of which 7.5% were overweight and 3.6% obese. Although 7-year-old children showed a significantly higher prevalence of overweight (10.5%) than 6-year-old children (6.3%; p<0.05), obesity levels were more prevalent among 6-year-old children (4.7%) than 7-year-old children (2.3%). Although not significant, a higher prevalence of overweight (9.3 v. 6.4%) and obesity (4.3% v. 3.3%) was found in girls than boys. For the whole sample, white children displayed a significantly higher prevalence of Ow/Ob compared with black children (19.7% v. 8.8%; p<0.05), and the prevalence of Ow/Ob was higher in 4th- (18.1%) and 5th- (21.2%) quintile schools (which are associated with higher socioeconomic status (SES)) than in quintile 1 to quintile 3 schools (5.1%, 8.7%, 6.1%, respectively; p<0.05). Conclusions. More than 10% of grade 1 learners in the NWP of SA were overweight or obese, with the prevalence being significantly lower in lower SES schools and among black children. Prevention strategies are needed to combat overweight and obesity, and the associated negative consequences of these health risks. Obesity levels in black children should also be monitored because of continuing economic transition, and taking into account increasing overweight and obesity in black South African adults.


The majority of information gained in astrophysics is deduced from the analysis and interpretation of electromagnetic radiation received with ground or space based telescopes. Analyzing the radiation received from astrophysical objects provides us information about the source, but also about the medium in between the source and the observer. This makes radiative transfer analysis one of the most fundamental techniques in astrophysics.

Up to now, radiative transfer approaches often have been limited either in the number of dimensions or in the applied geometry. But high spatially resolved images obtained at different wavelengths for example with the Very Large Array (VLA), the Herschel Space Observatory, and now the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), reveal the complex nature of both the structure and the dynamics. Hence, when trying to analyze such complex structures and dynamics with simple (spherical) models, misleading results could occur. This requires detailed three dimensional radiative simulations, which are now computationally feasible.

In my work I have developed a framework called Pandora that combines existing three dimensional radiative transfer codes (RADMC-3D for a self-consistent determination of the dust temperature and LIME for non-LTE line modeling) with a post-processing routine (using MIRIAD) and optimization algorithms (MAGIX).

I have employed Pandora to model the thermal dust and free-free continuum as well as selected molecular lines of the intensively studied high-mass star-forming region Sagittarius B2 (Sgr B2). This prominent giant molecular cloud is the most massive region with ongoing star formation in the Galaxy. It is located at a distance of 8.5 kpc (Reid et al. 2014), close to the Galactic supermassive black hole. The whole complex contains a total gas mass of 10^7 Msun, distributed in a large envelope of 22.5 pc in radius (Lis & Goldsmith 1989). The high densities (> 10^5 cm^{-3} and temperatures (~ 50-70 K) in Sgr B2, together with its proximity to the Galactic Center make Sgr B2 an interesting environment of extreme star formation, different to typical star forming regions in the Galactic disk, but similar to active galactic centers that dominate star formation throughout the Universe at high redshifts.

Despite the large mass reservoir, star formation seems to be mainly occurring in the two hot molecular cores Sgr B2(N) and Sgr B2(M). These two sites of active star formation are located at the center of the envelope occupying an area of around 2 pc in radius. They contain at least 50 high-mass stars with spectral types ranging from O5 to B0, and constitute one of the best laboratories for the search of new chemical species in the Universe.

I successfully reconstructed a very likely three-dimensional dust density distribution, recovering continuum structures spanning two orders of magnitude in frequency (10 GHz - 1 THz) and four orders of magnitude in spatial scales (0.02 - 45 pc). Covering a wide range in frequencies at all spatial scales is crucial to successfully constrain the many free parameters and obtain a meaningful model. Some of the main highlights of this work are: (i) The density field of Sgr B2 can be reasonably well fit by a superposition of spherical symmetric density cores with Plummer-like profiles of varying index . (ii) To reproduce the spectral energy distribution, I have to locate Sgr B2(N) along the line-of-sight behind the plane containing Sgr B2(M). (iii) The derived star formation efficiency are significantly different for both cores. For Sgr B2(N) it is rather low (5 %), while for Sgr B2(M) the SFE is very high (50 %). This indicates that most of the gas in Sgr B2(M) has already been converted to stars or dispersed.

In addition to the continuum studies, I have investigated the line-of-sight velocity field towards Sgr B2(M) using Pandora.


The fast depletion of oil reserves has steered the petroleum industry towards developing novel and cost-effective enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques in order to get the most out of reservoirs. Engineered water–polymer flooding (EWPF) is an emerging hybrid EOR technology that uses the synergetic effects of engineered water (EW) and polymers to enhance both the microscopic and macroscopic sweep efficiencies, which mainly results from: (1) the low-salinity effect and the presence of active ions in EW, which help in detachment of carboxylic oil material from the rock surface, wettability alteration, and reduction in the residual oil saturation; (2) the favorable mobility ratio resulting from the use of a polymer; and (3) the improved thermal and salinity resistance of polymers in EW. Various underlying mechanisms have been proposed in the literature for EW EOR effects in carbonates, but the main driving factors still need to be understood properly. Both polymer flooding (PF) and EW have associated merits and demerits. However, the demerits of each can be overcome by combining the two methods, known as hybrid EWPF. This hybrid technique has been experimentally investigated for both sandstone and carbonate reservoirs by various researchers. Most of the studies have shown the synergistic benefits of the hybrid method in terms of two- to four-fold decreases in the polymer adsorption, leading to 30–50% reductions in polymer consumption, making the project economically viable for carbonates. EWPF has resulted in 20–30% extra oil recovery in various carbonate coreflood experiments compared to high-salinity water flooding. This review presents insights into the use of hybrid EWPF for carbonates, the main recovery driving factors in the hybrid process, the advantages and limitations of this method, and some areas requiring further work.


This thesis is an empirical and theoretical study of the causes in the rapid economic growth of selected East Asian economies (i.e. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand) during the years 1971-2000. Firstly, we set out a nonparametric estimations of the Total Factor Productivity Growth (TFPG) of the aforementioned countries. It can be concluded that the estimated TFPGs of these countries are higher than that of the US. This implies that the TFP gaps between the East Asian countries and the US have narrowed. An increase in productivity of human capital-augmented labour rather than an increase in that of physical capital is suggested to be a dominant factor in explaining the rising of TFP in the selected East Asian economies. Secondly, to quantify the extent to which the TFP gaps have narrowed, we estimate the relative TFP levels of the selected East Asian countries and the US. Both parametric and non-parametric estimations show that the US remains as the country with the highest TFP level. However, apart from South Korea, the rate of change in the US's TFP level was lower than the catching-up East Asian countries especially Japan. Thus, the economic growth miracle of the selected East Asia economies might be explained by the productivity convergence between the countries and the advanced country (i.e. the US) rather than just input accumulation. We construct a theoretical model to explore differences in TFP levels across countries using a framework based on interaction between labour unions, government policies, and TFP levels. Model simulation suggests that the presence of monopoly rights reduce the productivity level by 2/3. Moreover, an increase in the competition from substitute products helps tackle the resistance from insiders yielding higher productivity of the incumbent firms. Nonetheless, with a strong labour union of an industry, the introduction of new firms (with the same output) competing in the market may have an adverse effect on the firms' productivity level. Lastly, to promote an increase in the productivity level of a nation, a policy encouraging a wider choice of final products offered to consumers is recommended.


Using a rich new data source, we explore the selection of economics lecturers into the last UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise. Only some one-in-two (54%) of these lecturers were submitted to REF2014; 57% of men and 46% of women. The decision making of institutions is found to be well approximated by a simplified selection approach; focusing on working papers and higher quality journal publications. Our results also reveal sizeable conditional differences in the probability of selection, especially so in departments with higher research rankings. More than half of the variance in selection probability remains unexplained, revealing considerable idiosyncrasies in the management of submissions and uncertainty across the discipline in this research assessment process.


The point of parallel imports of pharmaceuticals is arbitrage between countries with different prices. For several years, an important issue in the European Union (EU) has been the evident conflict between differing price regulations in the member states, on the one hand, and the consequences of parallel trade, on the other. In the EU, so long as the manufacturer has placed the good on the market voluntarily, the principle of free movement of goods allows individuals, or firms within the EU to trade goods across borders, without the consent of the producer. In this context, the authors study the effects of parallel trade in the pharmaceutical industry. They develop a model in which an original manufacturer competes in its home market with parallel-importing firms. The two key hypotheses in their theoretical analysis are these: First, if the potential for parallel imports is unlimited, the manufacturer chooses deterrence, and international prices converge. Second, with endogenously limited arbitrage, the manufacturing firm accommodates, and the price in the home market falls as the volume of parallel trade rises. The authors test their hypotheses on data from the Swedish market for 1995-98. Before 1995, Sweden prohibited parallel imports of pharmaceutical products, but entry into the EU, on January 1, 1995, required Sweden to allow them. Simple empirical tests favor the accommodation hypothesis with a time lag. Using data from Sweden, the authors find that the prices of drugs, subject to competition from parallel imports increased less than those for other drugs between 1995 and 1998. Roughly, three-fourths of this effect can be attributed to the lower prices of parallel imports, and one-fourth to lower prices charged by the manufacturing firm. Econometric analysis finds that rents to parallel importers (or resource costs in parallel trade) could be more than the gain to consumers from lower prices.


It has generally been agreed that on a global basis, the majority of the
exploited fisheries are in declining phase and further increase in fishing
pressure will be detrimental to the stocks. The marine exploited fisheries in
India is also facing a similar crisis due to overcapitalization, over capacity,
over exploitation and the consequent reduced catch rates. At this juncture,
the only sunrise sector in future is mariculture, which can augment the income
from marine fisheries through coastal as well as open sea farming. It could be
seen that there was an increase of about 25 times in global aquaculture
production from 1970 to 2000, while the corresponding increase in capture
fisheries production was only about seven times. India has vast areas of suitable
coastal waters, lagoons and bays which can be utilized for mariculture.
Irrespective of India's vast potential, our mariculture production is only
about 80 to 100 thousand tonnes annually, almost entirely from shrimp culture.
It is time that India should focus much attention on mariculture to ensure
food and nutritional security to its growing populations. In this context, the
Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) is the pioneering
institution in the country which has initiated mariculture research and has
been developing appropriate mariculture technologies in India ( Devaraj et
al, 1999; Pillai and Menon, 2000; Pillai et al, 2003; Mohan Joseph 2004).


Objective: To correlate the histopathological grades of celiac disease using Modified Marsch grading system with serum IgA anti-tissue transglutaminase antibody levels.Study Design Prospective Cross-sectional studyStudy Place Department of Pathology, Al Nafees Medical College& HospitalDuration of Study May 7, 2015 To December 10,2015Methodology: Informed consent was taken from all the enrolled patients in written form depending upon inclusion and exclusion criteria. Endoscopic biopsy from all patients was processed routinely for histopathological analysis. Modified Marsch grading system was used for grading the morphological findings. Anti-Tissue transglutaminase (tTG) IgA antibodies were measured by the ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) technique. Both serological marker and biopsy data were correlated using Regression analysis test and Spearman rho test in SPSS version 20.Results: In this study 77 patients were included, out of which 55 were labeled as celiac disease patients. There were38.9%males and 61.1% females. By the Modified Marsch Grading System, there were 9.1% cases in Marsch 1 and 13% in Marsch 2 whereas Marsch-3a, Marsch-3b and Marsch-3c included 15.6%, 19.5% and 14.3% cases respectively. After correlation with tTG IgA Ab titers, 27.2% patients had negative serology. Total22% patients in both Marsch 1& 2 were serologically positive and had IgA tTG Ab titers > 11 units/ml whereas majority of patients with Marsch 3a had tTG IgA Ab titers between 11 to 100 units/ml. Marsch grades 3b and 3c strongly correlated with increasing values of serology as IgA tTG Ab titers > 100 units/ml.Conclusion: Celiac disease grades obtained by using Modified Marsch System significantly correlates with tTG IgA Ab titers


Recent social theory includes important insights into language which constitute a so far underdeveloped resource for sociolinguistics. But much of this theory stops short – theoretical frameworks and categories which socially locate language are not pushed in the direction of a theorisation of language itself, which limits their operational value in research. Sociolinguistics can draw upon social theory to produce more sophisticated theorisations of language which at the same time constitute contributions to social theory. My aim in this paper is to explore what it means to work in a 'transdisciplinary' way. I argue in particular for a transdisciplinary engagement with social theory in which the logic of one theory is put to work in the elaboration of another without the latter being simply reduced to the former. My focus is upon critical discourse analysis (CDA) which I here take to be a part of a broadly conceived sociolinguistics. I shall link this theoretical exploration to a concrete research focus by referring to a discourse analytical study of the current British ('New') Labour Government, with particular reference to its 'reform' of social welfare. I shall be drawing upon the theoretical framework developed in Chouliaraki and Fairclough (1999). I have referred to some of the social theory which I find it particularly fruitful to work with, but the paper is intended to suggest a way of working and is in no sense a closed list of theorists – on the contrary, I believe that we should be open to a wide range of theory.


The primary purpose of direct examination is to establish the essential proof of facts in support of a claim or defense. One of the first tasks an attorney should perform in starting or defending a case for trial is to prepare the jury instructions. In preparing the jury instructions you will set out the elements of your cause of action or defense. The jury instructions or court's charge should be your bible and road map.
The theme of your case is a one sentence explanation of your theory. A theory is a succinct statement as to why the plaintiff should win or why the criminal defendant is not guilty of the charged crime. Here is a sampling: This is a case about a broken promise; This is a case of self defense.
This article sets out how to authenticate a computer record, business record and the evidentiary foundations for admissibility. Also, how to take a witness on voir dire, leading questions, offers of proof, motion in liminie and expert witnesses.
The advocate should weave the theme throughout the trial to make your direct examination come alive, interesting and compelling.


This paper advances the theory of annuity demand. First, we derive sufficient conditions under which complete annuitization is optimal, showing that this well-known result holds true in a more general setting than in Yaari (1965). Specifically, when markets are complete, sufficient conditions need not impose exponential discounting, intertemporal separability or the expected utility axioms; nor need annuities be actuarially fair, nor longevity risk be the only source of consumption uncertainty. All that is required is that consumers have no bequest motive and that annuities pay a rate of return for survivors greater than those of otherwise matching conventional assets, net of administrative costs. Second, we show that full annuitization may not be optimal when markets are incomplete. Some annuitization is optimal as long as conventional asset markets are complete. The incompleteness of markets can lead to zero annu-itization but the conditions on both annuity and bond markets are stringent. Third, we extend the simulation literature that calculates the utility gains from annuitization by considering consumers whose utility depends both on present consumption and a "standard-of-living" to which they have become accustomed. The value of annuitiza-tion hinges critically on the size of the initial standard-of-living relative to wealth.


Wine has already been investigated for its potential nutritional quality, such as high amount of
phenolic compounds. Phenolic compounds, well-known as natural antioxidants, are reported due
their radical scavenging capacity.
In the present work, the bioactive ingredients of nine Austrian wines (four red wines: Zweigelt,
Blaufrankisch, Syrah and Cuvee; two white wines: Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay; one rose
Blaufrankisch; and two grape juice: red and white) have been quantified and the antioxidant activity
has been evaluated.
Among the bioactive compounds the total amount of polyphenols, flavonoids, catechins, and
proanthocyanidins, were studied and analyzed by standardized photometric methods. The
antioxidant activity was determined by the DPPH· radical scavenging method as well as by ABTS
assays. The results of the antioxidant capacity were expressed using the term EC50 and Trolox
equivalents.
As expected, red wines have higher phenolic content (Total polyphenols: 2211,76 mg gallic acid
equivalents (GAE)/l, Flavonoids: 1418,39 mg catechin equivalents/l, Catechins: 635,36 mg catechin
equivalents/l, 82,15 mg cyanidin equivalents/l for Cuvee) and antioxidant activity (DPPH: EC50 = 0,21 ml
sample/mg DPPH and Trolox equivalents = 1,1 ml sample/mg Trolox; ABTS: EC50 = 2,50 ml sample/l ABTS and
Trolox equivalents = 0,7 ml sample/mg Trolox) than rose Blaufrankisch (Total polyphenols: 315,44 mg GAE/l,
Flavonoids: 76,78 mg catechin equivalents/l, Catechins: 9,05 mg catechin equivalents/l, Proanthocyanidins: 1,69
mg cyanidin equivalents/l; DPPH: EC50 = 2,52 ml sample/mg DPPH and Trolox equivalents = 13,2 ml sample/mg
Trolox; ABTS: EC50 = 109,22 ml sample/l ABTS and Trolox equivalents = 31,1 ml sample/mg Trolox), white wines
(Total polyphenols: 333,76 mg GAE/l, Flavonoids: 74,02 mg catechin equivalents/l, Catechins: 14,27 mg catechin
equivalents/l, Proanthocyanidin: 1,07 mg cyanidin equivalents/l; DPPH: EC50 = 2,74 ml sample/mg DPPH and
Trolox equivalents = 14,3 ml sample/mg Trolox; ABTS: EC50 = 83,33 ml sample/l ABTS and Trolox equivalents =
23,7 ml sample/mg Trolox for Chardonnay) and grape juice (Total polyphenols: 710,35 and 110,22 mg GAE/l,
Flavonoids: 313,56 and 8,28 mg catechin equivalents/l, Catechins: 133,64 and 1,06 mg catechin equivalents/l,
Proanthocyanidin: 11,63 and 6,93 mg cyanidin equivalents/l; DPPH: EC50 = 1,34 and 15,02 ml sample/mg DPPH
and Trolox equivalents = 7 and 78,7 ml sample/mg Trolox; ABTS: EC50 = 319,77 and 650 ml sample/l ABTS and
Trolox equivalents = 5,6 and 184,9 ml sample/mg Trolox for red and white, respectably). The relationship
between the phenolic contents and the antioxidant activity in each sample was also checked. The
results gave a slightly tendency (R > 0,8 for DPPH assay and R > 0,6 for ABTS assay).
Finally, it was observed that Cuvee wine has the highest antioxidant capacity for each method used
and that the content of phenolic compounds in Austrian wines is very similar to Chinese wines and
lower than those in the Italian wines.


Background: In the Netherlands, there has been a strong increase in diversity among students in recent decades. Even though access for previously underrepresented groups based on economic status, ethnicity or culture has been realised to a certain extent, differences in student performance between groups persist. Research shows that teacher performance influences student achievement and that this influence is more pronounced for 'non-western students'. This creates a need for reflection on the way teachers cope with their increasingly diverse student population. This paper explores the attitudes of Dutch teachers in higher vocational education towards their diverse student population and the translation of these attitudes into teaching practice. Methods: Twenty-five teacher teams at two universities of applied sciences participated in this research. The teams came from a broad range of programmes that educate students for different future professions. A mixed method methodology was used to gather data, in which the qualitative method was most substantial. Focus group interviews on diversity and student achievement were held with each teacher team. Additionally, a questionnaire was distributed to all 274 participants, which was completed by 215 teachers. Data from the questionnaire were analysed using SPSS. In order to analyse the qualitative data we used AtlasTI. Because we applied a grounded approach, allowing teachers to form their own ideas on both diversity and student achievement, we used a similar approach in the first analytical phase. In a second phase, we compared the concepts arising from the grounded theory approach with concepts from the literature. Results and conclusions: Around 40% of the teachers repudiated the influence of diversity on student achievement and did not take student diversity into account in their teaching practice. Problems regarding the student achievement of students or groups thereof are considered as something that the students, the educational institution or society at large should cope with, not teachers themselves. Of the teachers, 60% recognised diversity among students, but mainly based on students' shortcomings and perceived problems. A minority of this 60% not only recognised but also understood diversity's effect on student achievement. Teachers do not always translate this understanding into their teaching practice. They feel they lack the skills, knowledge or time to do so. Teachers seemingly translate their understanding of diversity into their didactic and pedagogical approaches only when these conditions are met.


Purpose: The ability to maintain standing balance with a moving base of support and while making rapid postural adjustments is important for independence in various functional activities. Clinical tests and measures have not addressed this ability in children with disability. This pilot study examined the feasibility and reliability of the Four Square Step Test (FSST) as a test of dynamic balance in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Method: Four children with CP (Gross Motor Function Classification Scale levels I-II) were tested on the FSST by 3 assessors on the first occasion (interrater reliability) and repeat-tested by 1 assessor after 2 weeks (test-retest reliability). Six children with typical development (TD) were tested on a separate occasion to explore any between-group difference in performance. Results: The FSST was easy to setup, required no specialized equipment, could be completed in 5 minutes, and might be carried out by clinicians with limited experience in pediatric therapy. It demonstrated excellent interrater reliability (ICC = 0.832) and test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.979) in children with CP. Compared with FSST times for children with TD (mean = 9.12 ± 2.67 seconds), times for children with CP (mean = 18.38 ± 9.02 seconds) were significantly slower (p = 0.019, Mann-Whitney U = -2.345). Conclusions and Recommendations: The pilot study provides initial evidence on the potential usefulness of the FSST as a test of dynamic standing balance in children with CP. This warrants further investigation of the clinimetric properties of the FSST using an adequate sample size.


New research led by scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have found a drug target that suggests a potent way to kill colon cancers that resist current drugs aimed at blocking a molecule found on the surface of cells. Drugs that target the epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR, have been used for a number of cancers. But these drugs called EGFR inhibitors, such as cetuximab, have not been very effective against colon cancer. The new study, however, shows that drugs that target the closely related receptor ERBB3 would probably be much more effective than EGFR inhibitors at treating most colorectal cancers, said David Threadgill, adjunct professor in the department of genetics at UNC and lead author of the study. He also is a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and a professor in the genetics department at North Carolina State University. The study is published online August 17, 2009 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The researchers genetically blocked ERBB3 in a mouse model of colon cancer and in human colon cancer cell lines. "If you genetically remove ERBB3, as you would if you were pharmacologically targeting it, then the mice rarely develop colon cancer," Threadgill said. In the human colon cancer cell lines that are resistant to EGFR inhibitors, cell death increased dramatically when ERBB3 was genetically removed. "So ERBB3 is essential for preventing colon cancer cells from dying," Threadgill said. Now Threadgill is testing a pharmacologic inhibitor to get the same anti-ERBB3 effect they achieved with genetics. "If we can use an inhibitor to block ERBB3, then it should be a very potent anti-cancer therapeutic," he said. More broadly, the study suggests a new path for developing anti-cancer drugs. Many cancer therapeutics, such as EGFR inhibitors, target proteins that are kinases-enzymes that initiate a cascade of signals that tell cells to reproduce. But ERBB3 is a pseudo-kinase; it functions only by binding with other proteins that have kinase activity. This study shows that targets that historically hadn't been considered because they don't have the typical activities of a kinase can be equally if not more important in supporting cancer cells," Threadgill said. Other UNC co-authors are Ming Yu, a former graduate student in the department of genetics and the Program in Oral Biology; Christina Pannicia, former undergraduate student in biology; and Daekee Lee, formerly of the genetics department and now of Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Republic of Korea. Other co-authors are Eunjung Lee, Hyunok Kim and Kyoungmi Kim of Ewha Womans University; and Jonathan M. Kurie and Yanan Yang of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute, the National Science Foundation, and the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation.


Proteinase-Activated rreceptor-2 (PAR2), a G-protein–coupled Receptor, activated by serine proteinases, is reported to have both protective and proinflammatory effects in the airway. Given these opposing actions, both inhibitors and activators of PAR2 have been proposed for treating asthma. PAR2 can signal through two independent pathways: a β-arrestin–dependent one that promotes leukocyte migration, and a G-protein/Ca2+ one that is required for prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production and bronchiolar smooth muscle relaxation. We hypothesized that the proinflammatory responses to PAR2 activation are mediated by β-arrestins, whereas the protective effects are not. Using a mouse ovalbumin model for PAR2-modulated airway inflammation, we observed decreased leukocyte recruitment, cytokine production, and mucin production in β-arrestin-2−/− mice. In contrast, PAR2-mediated PGE2 production, smooth muscle relaxation, and decreased baseline airway resistance (measures of putative PAR2 "protective" effects) were independent of β-arrestin-2. Flow cytometry and cytospins reveal that lung eosinophil and CD4 T-cell infiltration, and production of IL-4, IL-6, IL-13, and TNFα, were enhanced in wild-type but not β-arrestin-2−/− mice. Using the forced oscillation technique to measure airway resistance reveals that PAR2 activation protects against airway hyperresponsiveness by an unknown mechanism, possibly involving smooth muscle relaxation. Our data suggest that the PAR2-enhanced inflammatory process is β-arrestin-2 dependent, whereas the protective anticonstrictor effect of bronchial epithelial PAR2 may be β-arrestin independent.


The only existing techniques to study the composition of a liquid or to detect anomalies and specific compounds in aqueous solutions are cumbersome tools, available only for expert users. By use of a cross-sensitive array of polymeric sensors, the dimensions of an electronic tongue system can be terrifically reduced, up to the creation of a portable device. Incorporating hexacyanoferrate(II) anions ([Fe(CN)6]4-) in polypyrrole membranes allows the films to achieve sensitivity towards monovalent anions and cations, with quasi-Nernstian slopes, during potentiometric characterizations. Literature research and many experiments brought to the ability of depositing film in an extremely reproducible way, on top of electrode with a diameter of 250um. The polymer membranes can be selectively deposited on conductive surfaces, by a potential-driven technique known as electro-polymerization. Cation sensitivity is obtained applying a constant potential on a working electrode, while response towards negative ions can be achieved sweeping the potential between a negative and a positive value during the polymer deposition: in the latter case, the incorporated anions are expelled during the negative side of the cycle, while the polymer is grown during the positive one. An electrochemical characterization by cyclic voltammetry shows the different effect of soaking films in reference solutions (0.1M KCl) in the case of presence of large anion in the film, and this difference is reinforced by SEM analysis of the polymer surface. The polymer membranes behavior in aqueous solutions is strongly dependent on the electrode surface on top of which they are deposited and on the volume sample in which they are immersed. The best surface on top of which the best potentiometric responses are obtained has been studied, and resulted in sputtered platinum electrode, while a too rough surface, as in the case of carbon screen printed electrodes, strongly influences the membrane response. All the acquired knowledge about polymeric sensitive films towards ionic salts was used to fabricate an electrochemical transducer that is able to classify and distinguish three different commercial beverages, and four brands of mineral waters. With the use of an array made of four sensors, two sensitive towards chloride anions, and two towards potassium and sodium, an accuracy of 95% was obtained in the first case, while for mineral waters the sensor was able to classify correctly each brand two times out of three. Moreover, a 3D cell to be used in an automated system was successfully designed and fabricated, in order to considerably increase the experimental throughput. The achieved results are an advanced starting point for the creation of a self-standing device, able to target many industrial application fields, and that is competitive with the existing technologies.


This thesis analyses the changing role of central government strategy units in the devolved UK polity using a lifecycle model. At each stage of the lifecycle the units develop a different aim, undertake different tasks and follow different working approaches. At different stages agency, in the person of the Prime/First Minister, existing structures, or culture and attitudes, particularly around the concept of a corporate centre, form the main influence on change. Following through the lifecycle, it becomes apparent that such central strategic units have a defined life trajectory tending towards their demise through bureaucratic capture or ideological marginalisation. Divergence or convergence between the units is primarily based on leadership style rather than pre-existing structures or constitutional arrangements. Adopting a lifecycle approach, more commonly associated with the business world, provides an alternative conceptual approach to examining the maintenance of governmental organisations. It is a logical progression from the borrowing of business ideas on management and organisation generally categorised as New Public Management. It provides a more appropriate framework of analysis in a situation whereby government is less dependent on traditional polarised ideological positions and instead adopts a strategic, managerial approach to government. As governmental organisations copy the modes of operation of large corporations, the tools of the business world add additional insights into formation, development, change and decline in such organisations not clearly revealed by more commonly adopted political science models.


This study aimed at investigating the attitude of Muslim students towards the use of certain English idioms and proverbs. Thirty Muslim students were asked to express their reactions and feelings towards two categories of English idioms and proverbs: the first category included idioms and proverbs containing the names of animals that are prohibited in Islam, and the second category contained culturally inappropriate idioms and proverbs. The results of data analysis revealed that idioms and proverbs belonging to the first group were found by the majority of the participants to be rather offensive, while culturally inappropriate idioms and proverbs were less offensive. This indicates that religion is the main influential factor in the reaction of Muslim students towards English idioms. Non-Muslim English teachers may find the results of this study useful in gaining awareness about the attitudes of Muslim students towards the use of religiously and culturally-loaded idioms and proverbs and taking precautions in using such idioms in the classroom environment.


By analyzing the pottery found at a well-known archaeological site, Hilgeman constructs the long-awaited timeline for the rise and decline of this ancient society.Located near present-day Evansville, Indiana, the Angel site is one of the important archaeological towns associated with prehistoric Mississippian society. More than two million artifacts were collected from this site during excavations from 1939 to 1989, but, until now, no systematic survey of the pottery sherds had been conducted. This volume, documenting the first in-depth analysis of Angel site pottery, also provides scholars of Mississippian culture with a chronology of this important site. Angel is generally thought to have been occupied from before A.D. 1200 to 1450, but scholars have been forced to treat this period as one chronological unit without any sense of the growth and decline of the society that occupied it. Using radiocarbon assays and an analysis of its morphological and stylistic attributes of pottery, Sherri Hilgeman is able to divide the occupation of Angel into a series of recognizable stages. She then correlates those stages with similar ones at other archaeological excavations especially nearby Kincaid making it possible to compare Angel society with other native cultures of the lower Ohio Valley. Through this important contribution to native pottery studies, Hilgeman opens a window into the lifeways of prehistoric Angel society and places that society in the larger context of Mississippian culture. "


Since benzene itself is not crystalline at ordinary temperatures the study of the benzene nucleus or ring has had to be referred to certain of its derivatives. The most hopeful line of attack appeared to be in the direction of the fully substituted derivatives, such as C6Cl6, or else by way of compounds such as naphthalene and anthracene which contain more than one ring. The results so far obtained, however, have only shown that the ring is centro-symmetrical, a fact confirmed by the recent examination of crystalline benzene itself, that its approximate width (given by the difference in lengths of the naphthalene and anthracene molecules) is 2∙49 A., and that there exist in the nucleus two periodicities of about 1∙28 and 2∙66 A. If the ring be supposed to consist of six carbon atoms of diameter 1∙54 arranged as in the diamond pattern, then periodicities of 1∙26 and 2∙52 would exist, the width of the ring itself being 2∙52. If, on the other hand, the benzene nucleus is a plane ring of six carbon atoms of diameter 1∙42, such as occurs in the graphite structure, then the periodicities would be 1∙23 and 2∙46, the width of the ring being 2∙46 (fig. 1). The experimental observations ( loc. cit .) could not definitely decide between these alternative structures, and no other criterion was found which would distinguish with certainty between a puckered and a plane ring. One of the chief difficulties encountered in the study of these various benzene derivatives was that the unit cell invariably contained more than one molecule, a fact which necessarily complicated any structure determination by introducing the question of relative orientations.