As an emerging discipline, neuroeconomics faces considerable methodological and practical challenges. In this paper, I suggest that these challenges can be understood by exploring the similarities and dissimilarities between the emergence of neuroeconomics and the emergence of cognitive and computational neuroscience two decades ago. From these parallels, I suggest the major challenge facing theory formation in the neural and behavioural sciences is that of being under-constrained by data, making a detailed understanding of physical implementation necessary for theory construction in neuroeconomics. Rather than following a top-down strategy, neuroeconomists should be pragmatic in the use of available data from animal models, information regarding neural pathways and projections, computational models of neural function, functional imaging and behavioural data. By providing convergent evidence across multiple levels of organization, neuroeconomics will have its most promising prospects of success.


Aconitum in Europe is represented by ca. 10% of the total number of species and the Carpathian Mts. are the center of the genus variability in the subcontinent. We studied the chloroplast DNA intergenic spacer trnL(UAG)-rpl32-ndhF (cpDNA) variability of the Aconitum subgen. Aconitum in the Carpathians: diploids (2n=16, sect. Cammarum), tetraploids (2n=32, sect. Aconitum) and triploids (2n=24, nothosect. Acomarum). Altogether 25 Aconitum accessions representing the whole taxonomic variability of the subgenus were sequenced and subjected to phylogenetic analyses. Both parsimony, Bayesian and character network analyses showed the two distinct types of the cpDNA chloroplast, one typical of the diploid and the second of the tetraploid groups. Some specimens had identical cpDNA sequences (haplotypes) and scattered across the whole mountain arch. In the sect. Aconitum 9 specimens shared one haplotype, while in the sect. Camarum one haplotype represents 4 accessions and the second – 5 accessions. The diploids and tetraploids were diverged by 6 mutations, while the intrasectional variability amounted maximally to 3 polymorphisms. Taking into consideration different types of cpDNA haplotypes and ecological profiles of the sections (tetraploids – high‑mountain species, diploids – species from forest montane belt) we speculate on the different and independent history of the sections in the Carpathians.


There have been many changes in professional services since Egon Zehnder founded his executive search firm nearly four decades ago--not the least of which has been a shift in the way professionals pay themselves. When he started, compensation everywhere was strongly tied to seniority. Today, partners at most professional services firms are paid according to the size of their client billings and their ability to bring in new clients. But Egon Zehnder International, which now has 57 offices worldwide, has stuck with the old-fashioned way to pay. In addition to giving partners base salaries and equal shares in a percentage of the profit, the firm apportions another fraction of the profit based only on length of tenure as partner. Yet the firm attracts outstanding consultants, and its turnover rate is low. The reasons, the author says, are simple: the firm's approach to compensation forces it to hire team players--consultants who get more pleasure from the group's success than from their own advancement. And the seniority-based system requires the firm to find people who want to stay for the long haul. Call the system a relic, says Zehnder, but don't call it nonsense. It works. In this article, the author describes the extremely intensive interview process used to hire the right kind of people. By the time the interviews are over, he says, potential hires know that people in the firm's Boston office think and act the same way as people in its Brazil offices--and that they themselves must think and act that way if they are to succeed at the firm.


We surveyed the classes on women's studies in different editions in the LCC (from the 1980 to the 2010 edition) to determine what the main classes consisted of and how they changed over that period. We broke down the main subtopics on women's studies, doing a statistical analysis at the class and subclass level, and then selected several typical examples for in–depth examination. The goal was to show the relationship between the disciplinary development of women's studies and classes on this topic in the LCC. We found that studies about women historically interweaved with family and marriage, but its development should have its own avenue. We found six patterns in the revising of classes associated with women's studies: synthesis, analysis, new creation, expansion, class name change, and removal. Through the comparison and analysis of classes with the additions and revisions to LCCs, supplemented by the bibliographic records from the LC online catalog, we determined that: historic revisions of a certain class show its disciplinary development; synthesis, analysis, comparison, and deduction played important roles in revisions and reflected the discipline's self–understanding on a subject; and a threshold, in terms of number of titles (or "sub–subtopics"), can be established for the creation of a new class. We concluded that a well– systematized classification system facilitates predictions concerning new directions in a discipline. Also, revisions of classification, based on the development of a discipline, will influence that discipline's future development.


Group A beta-haemolytic streptococcus (Streptococcus pyogenes; SGA), the most frequent cause of bacterial pharyngitis, can determine a wide range of infections, from minor clinical forms to severe infections, sometimes fatal. Some people are diagnosed as Streptococcus pyogenes carriers, when the presence of the bacterium is detected by culture or by a rapid test from pharyngeal exudate, in the absence of the characteristic symptomatology of acute pharyngitis and of the immunological response of the host. The prevalence of the carrier state varies from very small percentages (< 0.49%) to 25%, according to age (most frequent at school age), geographic and populational area, the epidemiological context etc. The SGA transmission risk from a carrier is very low; children have the greatest risk for Streptococcus pyogenes colonization, especially after a close contact for more than four hours with another colonized person. Although the complications' risk is low, carriage can be an important source for invasive infections caused by SGA in immunosuppressed persons by various reasons, especially children. In children with persistent positive cultures for Streptococcus pyogenes, there have been noticed higher rates of neurological symptoms (ex.: choreiform movements, behavioral modifications). The identification of streptococcal carrier state is a challenge for clinicians, due to the difficulty to distinguish between a carrier and a child with acute pharyngitis, especially when the patient presents a viral pharyngitis at the same time with the streptococcal carrier state – in this situation, the detection of the host's immunological response has an important role in diagnosis. Most experts don't recommend antibiotherapy for eradicating the streptococcal carrier state, but a careful attention must be paid for assessing the situation and for identifying the high-risk individuals, for whom adequate and effective treatment strategies must be realised, in this time of increasing antimicrobial resistance.


The capital markets play important roles in the economy growth of the market. A well functioning market insures that both corporation and investors get or receive fair prices for their securities. It examine the impact of capital market on the Nigeria economy and also examine how stock exchange market has contributed to the economic growth which aims at studying the second tier securities market. The secondary data employed for this research work were sourced from the statistical bulletin of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) 2008. The ordinary least square is used for all variables in order to determine the linear relationship between the independent and independent variable. Using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Multiple regression models were adopted in this research work with the result from this regression model show that the R 2 for model one and two are 0.840, 0.888, which implies that 84% and 88% variation in the dependent variable can be attributed to the variation in the independent variable, Also R 2 ADJUSTED OF 0.799 and 0.874 implies that 79% and 87% show a minimize error from the coefficient of determinant (R 2 ). In conclusion, it has been observed that this ensures that valuable projects will be financed and negative value project will be rejected. Most importantly will argue that integration into the world capital market will accelerate the growth process.


Many corpus-based natural language processing systems rely on using large quantities of annotated text as their training examples. Building this kind of resource is an expensive and labor-intensive project. To minimize effort spent on annotating examples that are not helpful the training process, recent research efforts have begun to apply active learning techniques to selectively choose data to be annotated. In this work, we consider selecting training examples with the tree-entropy metric. Our goal is to assess how well this selection technique can be applied for training different types of parsers. We find that tree-entropy can significantly reduce the amount of training annotation for both a history-based parser and an EM-based parser. Moreover, the examples selected for the history-based parser are also good for training the EM-based parser suggesting that the technique is parser independent.


The dissection of molecular networks vital to cellular life can provide important hints about optimal network design principles. However, these hints can become conclusive only if one can determine that natural selection has molded a network's structure. I illustrate the importance of thorough studies of network evolution with two recent examples, one from genome-scale networks, the other from small transcriptional regulation circuits.


The development of information technology over the last three decades has revolutionized everyday activities in a domain that can be referred to as personal information management. The personal information environment in which this management takes place consists of both digital and nondigital information artifacts, which a user employs systematically. Interfaces of digital information technology employ analogies for nondigital affordances and nondigital methods of handling information artefacts. Ethnographic studies of nondigital information management have established two poles toward which personal information management strategies tend to gravitate: systematization of documents kept in topically organized folders and keeping documents in chronologically organized piles. Interfaces of digital information technologies provide affordances for both types of strategies. Affordances that make possible dealing with digital information artifacts provide means for finding objects without caring about their location; this is an essentially new feature, unavailable in the nondigital world. Context-sensitive technologies on mobile platforms add opportunities for everyday search such as allowing for finding objects within the information layer of augmented reality and satisfying users' need for services in addition to simply finding information. Everyday search practices have been most affected by technology that analyzes data on users' behavior and displays certain degree of agency while providing personalized recommendations and offering objects that the user did not know about or did not look for.
Text in Russian
DOI: 10.25285/2078-1938-2019-11-1-152-165


The article intends to draw attention to methodological issues identified in literature when assessing group interdependence relations at the workplace. The development of two different methodologies for assessing intragroup interdependence — a group-referent scale and a social network analysis instrument — is described. First, a workgroup interdependence scale was subjected to exploratory factor analysis and three interdependence dimensions (task, outcome, and functional interdependence) were identified. Subsequently, a number of social network analysis measures (density, centralization, reciprocity, fragmentation) were calculated and association between these variables and the different workgroup interdependence dimensions means were analyzed. Data were collected from 78 teams of different organizations. The results suggest that social network measures are moderately correlated to workgroup interdependence dimensions means and, depending on the form of interdependence considered, social network variables are differentially related to the data collected by the intragroup interdependence scale. Methodological and conceptual implications for team interdependence research are discussed.


During 1948–9, Israeli leaders placed considerable importance on the country's efforts to secure membership in the United Nations (UN). Israel's foreign relations at the time, however, were complicated not only by the country's lack of UN membership. Israel was also at war with its Arab neighbours, and the newly created state was thus without clear borders and faced with several unresolved political problems with clear international ramifications: the future status of Jerusalem and the growing Palestinian refugee problem. Despite this, and despite the international pressure these unresolved issues triggered, Israel succeeded in securing UN membership in May 1949, which entailed a de facto international recognition of the new state. How might a political achievement of such magnitude be explained? Looking in greater detail at how Israel argued for its admission to the UN, and how it successfully countered the arguments voiced internationally against its application for membership, this article shows how Israel was able to achieve its goal of UN membership without making any concessions on its positions on territory, Jerusalem, or the question of the Palestinian refugees. In essence, it was able to do this by holding the Arab–Israeli peace process hostage to its UN admission.


Packed with more than 300 sample scripts and an extensive collection of library functions, this essential scripting book is the most thorough guide to Windows scripting and PowerShell on the market. Youll examine how Windows scripting is changing the face of system and network administration by giving everyday users, developers, and administrators the ability to automate repetitive tasks. Plus, this is the first time that VBScript, Jscript, and Powershell are all covered in a single resource.


BACKGROUND
A number of shoulder girdle injuries are associated with acute anterior glenohumeral dislocations. In the present study we evaluated the prevalence of neurological deficits, greater tuberosity fractures, and rotator cuff injuries in a population of unselected patients who presented with a traumatic anterior glenohumeral dislocation.

METHODS
A prospective trauma database was used to record the demographic details on 3633 consecutive patients (2250 male patients and 1383 female patients with a mean age of 47.6 years) who had sustained a traumatic anterior glenohumeral dislocation between 1995 and 2009. On the basis of these data, we assessed the prevalence of and risk factors for ultrasound-proven rotator cuff tears, tuberosity fractures, and neurological deficits occurring in association with the dislocation.

RESULTS
Of the 3633 patients who had a dislocation, 492 patients (13.5%) had a neurological deficit following reduction and 1215 patients (33.4%) had either a rotator cuff tear or a greater tuberosity fracture. A dislocation with a neurological deficit alone was found in 210 patients (5.8%), a dislocation with a rotator cuff tear or a greater tuberosity fracture was found in 933 patients (25.7%), and a combined injury pattern was found in 282 patients (7.8%). Female patients with an age of sixty years or older who were injured in low-energy falls were more likely to have a rotator cuff tear or a greater tuberosity fracture. The likelihood of a neurological deficit after an anterior glenohumeral dislocation was significantly increased for patients who had a rotator cuff tear or a greater tuberosity fracture (relative risk, 1.9 [95% confidence interval, 1.7 to 2.1]; p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of rotator cuff tear, greater tuberosity fracture, or neurological deficit following primary anterior glenohumeral dislocation is greater than previously appreciated. These associated injuries may occur alone or in combined patterns. Dislocations associated with axillary nerve palsy have similar demographic features to isolated dislocations. Injuries associated with a rotator cuff tear, greater tuberosity fracture, or complex neurological deficit are more common in patients sixty years of age or older. Careful evaluation of rotator cuff function is required for any patient with a dislocation associated with a neurological deficit, and vice versa.


A photoemission electron microscope is used to detect thin carbon layers on the surface of an electroformed MIM sample. At the hot spots in the microslit electrons are emitted that impinge on the anode electrode cracking adsorbed hydrocarbons. Optical micrographs show a brownish layer, and STM images reveal disordered areas between patches with hexagonal symmetry and atomic separation in graphite.


The expulsion of runaway electrons (REs) during different types of tokamak instabilities is analysed by means of a Cherenkov probe inserted into the scrape-off layer of the FTU tokamak. One such type of instability, the well-known tearing mode, is involved in disruptive plasma termination events, during which the risk of RE avalanche multiplication is highest. The second type, known as anomalous Doppler instability, influences RE dynamics by enhancing pitch angle scattering. Three scenarios are analysed here, characterised by different RE generation rates and mechanisms. The main conclusions are drawn from correlations between the Cherenkov probe and other diagnostics. In particular, the Cherenkov probe permits the detection of fast electron expulsion with a high level of detail, presenting peaks with 100% signal contrast during tearing mode growth and rotation, and sub-peak structures reflecting the interplay between the magnetic island formed by the tearing mode, RE diffusion during island rotation and the geometry of obstacles in the vessel. Correlations between the Cherenkov signal, hard x-ray emission and electron cyclotron emission reveal the impulsive development of the anomalous Doppler instability with instability rise time in the microsecond scale resolved by the high time-resolution of the Cherenkov probe.


Abstract Council Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing lists in Annex I the stunning interventions currently allowed in the EU, together with the related conditions under which those interventions can be implemented. The regulation allows the Commission to amend Annex I, listing additional stunning interventions, provided they ensure a level of animal welare at least equivalent to that ensured by the one already approved. EFSA was requested to perform such assessment with regard to the implementation of the low atmospheric pressure stunning (LAPS) system on broiler chickens. The ad hoc Working Group (WG) set up by EFSA performed the assessment in three main steps, i.e. checking the data provided against the criteria laid down in the EFSA Guidance (EFSA AHAW Panel, 2013); running an extensive literature search, followed by data extraction and performing a judgemental ranking exercise based on expert opinion. As main outcome, the LAPS intervention was found to be able to provide a level of animal welfare not lower than that provided by at least one of the currently allowed methods. The overall assessment of EFSA is valid ONLY under the technical conditions described in the submission and for broiler chickens, intended for human consumption, weighting less than 4 kg. Deviations from these conditions might have different consequences for animal welfare which were not assessed in this exercise. The LAPS method may, in addition to commercial slaughter, be suitable for depopulation, respecting the technical conditions defined in the present conclusions. The WG considers that a revision of the present version of the EFSA Guidance could be beneficial.


Conceptual color metaphor/metonym (CCMM) and our semantic frame of color are motivated through the embodied co-occurrence of color experience as light (RGBu) and as pigment/substance (RYBu [CYM where C= cyan M = Magenta]). Conceptual perceptive mapping establishes a cognitive mechanism to accommodate the positive and negative connotations in relation to both conventional and non-conventional color items. Fifty participants assessed 143 items in four color tasks, involving the eleven universal basic color concepts. The items were divided between the visual and the linguistic aspects: color metaphor and color metonym. This paper investigates the results in the strictly hue dimension in comparison with the conceptualization of temperature warm/cool and brightness light/dark. Furthermore, the presence of a linguistic and a visual 'afterimage' effect is analyzed. CCMM theory helps explain how individuals conceptualize and categorize opponent polysemic association functions in the parallel signal/symbol cognitive processing of color and color language.


Background: As with many Indigenous groups around the world, Aboriginal communities in Canada face significant challenges with trauma and substance use disorders (SUD). Treatment for intergenerational trauma (IGT) and SUD is challenging due to the complexity of both disorders. There is strong evidence that strengthening cultural identity, incorporating traditional healing practices, encouraging community integration, and inviting political empowerment can enhance and improve mental health and substance use disorders in Aboriginal populations.
Methods: The purpose of this study was to explore whether the blending of Indigenous traditional healing practices and the Western treatment model Seeking Safety, which is used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and SUD, resulted in a reduction of IGT symptoms and SUD. Twelve Aboriginal men and 12 Aboriginal women were recruited into this study—all of whom resided in Northern Ontario and self-identified as having experienced IGT and SUD. The Indigenous Healing and Seeking Safety (IHSS) group (conducted as sharing circles) were offered twice a week over 13 weeks. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews as well as an end-of-treatment focus group. A qualitative thematic analysis was performed to depict themes.
Results: Out of the 24 Aboriginal people who entered the program, nine women and eight men completed the program. Analysis from the qualitative thematic data identified four core themes. Furthermore, the sharing circles and the presence of Elders and Aboriginal helpers increased the benefits of the blended approach.
Conclusion: Evidence from this qualitative study suggests that it could be beneficial to incorporate Indigenous traditional healing practices into Seeking Safety to enhance the health and well-being of Aboriginal people with IGT and SUD. This implementation project, if replicated, has the potential to enhance the health and well-being of Aboriginal peoples. The use of blended implementation can be an important option for clinicians and health-care professionals when working with Aboriginal populations. Only the qualitative results will be discussed in this article; quantitative results will be published separately.


Thin films and coatings widely used in different branches of modern technology are not appropriate for thermal nondestructive testing because of time limitations imposed on conventional front-face flash methods. Instead of taking temperatures directly at the pulsed heating region, as is traditionally done, it is suggested that the temperature be measured at any distance from the centre of the heating spot. Since this method does not require specific instrumentation, its realisation is very easy. The expression derived for the thermal diffusivity does not require knowledge of sample thickness, depth of absorption of the incident beam, or of radiative or convective losses. Application of the method requires only measurements of temperature excursion with time, on either side of the sample. This is an important improvement where applications to thin films are considered or where access to the sample is possible from one side only. The method is equally suited to opaque, transparent, and semitransparent materials. Applicability of the new method to thin metallic and dielectric films is discussed. Accuracy of the method is checked by comparison of the results obtained for different samples with finite-element calculations.


Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) consists of a collection of wireless mobile hosts without the required intervention of any existing infrastructure or centralized access point such as base station. The dynamic topology of MANET allows nodes to join and leave the network at any point of time. Wireless MANET is particularly vulnerable due to its fundamental characteristics such as open medium, dynamic topology, distributed cooperation and constrained capability. In this paper we simulate the blackhole attack which is one of the possible attacks on AODV routing protocol in mobile ad hoc networks by the help of network simulator (NS-2). The simulation results show the packet loss, throughput, and end-to-end delay with blackhole and without blackhole on AODV in MANET. We analyzed that the packet loss increases in the network with a blackhole node. We also observed that the throughput and end-to-end delay decreases in the network with a blackhole node.


The viability of ICT for the enhancement of human livelihoods is an idea that needs no overemphasis. The potential of ICT in the improvement of lives is a human-given that is yet to be fully realized in developing countries in general and Kenya in particular. One of the major challenges to the realization of the power of ICT potential in human livelihoods is the relative unawareness of the majority of the populace about the role ICT in socio-economic and cultural environment. The cooperative movement in Kenya is one of the nationally organized institutions available for all cadres of persons. Its agenda is usually based on locally determined proposals whose aims are to empower citizens to realize their socio-cultural and economic capacities using locally available/generated resources. It is believed that people within a specific geographical or institutional locality have similar perceptions about how to resolve common issues in their lives. Often, cooperative societies bring together various classes of people regardless of their socio-economic status and their agenda would be one only-to share ideas, suggest and implement viable practices that are likely to bring development and uplift economic status of members. The various forums they organize for education purposes are often devoid of political, ideological or socio-cultural emotivism that may derail focus. In this paper I suggest that the principles upon which the cooperative movement in Kenya is built could harness awareness regarding the power of ICT in improving livelihoods. I identify ways and means by which a cooperative society may enhance its capacity to incorporate ICT for livelihoods in theory and practice within its operations for efficient and effective achievement of its objectives.


RNA interference (RNAi) is a widespread silencing mechanism that acts at both the posttranscriptional and transcriptional levels. Here, we describe the purification of an RNAi effector complex termed RITS (RNA-induced initiation of transcriptional gene silencing) that is required for heterochromatin assembly in fission yeast. The RITS complex contains Ago1 (the fission yeast Argonaute homolog), Chp1 (a heterochromatin-associated chromodomain protein), and Tas3 (a novel protein). In addition, the complex contains small RNAs that require the Dicer ribonuclease for their production. These small RNAs are homologous to centromeric repeats and are required for the localization of RITS to heterochromatic domains. The results suggest a mechanism for the role of the RNAi machinery and small RNAs in targeting of heterochromatin complexes and epigenetic gene silencing at specific chromosomal loci.


The Blackmouth catshark, Galeus melastomus , Rafinesque, 1810 (Carcharhiniformes; Scyliorhinidae), is a common, although at present discarded, by- catch of the bottom trawl fisheries in the Strait of Sicily. Given its ecological interest, data gathered in experimental bottom trawl surveys were analysed in order to describe its distribution and main biological traits. The Blackmouth catshark was sampled almost exclusively on the upper slope (200-800), showing the highest frequency of occurrence (69-100%), biomass (BI; 10-85 kg*km-2) and density (DI; 54-506 N*km-2) indexes in the deeper (501-800m) grounds. Individual size (total length, TL, mm) were between 70-590 and 90-510 in females and males, respectively. The sex ratio (SR) was around 0.5. The SR by size showed a gradual decrease till 450 mm class size, followed by an increase up 1 after 500 mm. Virginal/immature specimens represented the bulk of the samples in both females (77%) and males (65%); the length at 50% of sexual maturity (Lm50%) and corresponding maturity range (Lm25% - Lm75% ) was 433 (423-443) and 380 (366-394) mm, respectively.


Welcome to JCDL 2008! Authors from 27 countries submitted technical papers to the conference this year. A large number of reviewing and organizing volunteers then worked hard to bring this meeting together. Thanks to their efforts we have assembled a program that should keep you busy at the conference. For the first time we also decided to expose ourselves to the realities of digital information by distributing the proceedings as USB memory sticks. The materials you find on your stick will also be available on the ACM Digital Library.

Over the past decades, joint efforts of computing and library communities worldwide have resulted in information technologies way beyond online catalogs and scanned materials. The result has been a raised level of attention to the incorporation of digital video, geographically anchored information, economic models of digital publishing, novel user interfaces to online resources, and a number of further aspects that broadened the notion of librarianship.

The World-Wide Web added additional dimensions. Large interlinked document networks, citizen authorship, extreme rates of content production, and the internationalization of the Web 'collection' are some of the additional challenges the Web contributed to our field.

The 117 full papers and 61 short papers we received this year covered all of these aspects. The submissions demonstrated that the interdisciplinary spirit of Digital Libraries as an academic and industry discipline is vibrantly alive.

We could, of course, accept but a small fraction of the submissions. The program committee selected 33 of the full papers and 21 of the shorts. The acceptance rate was thus 28% for full papers, and 34% for short format submissions.

Our program this year also includes a room full of posters and demonstrations, as well as panels and three invited keynote speakers. Tutorials, workshops, and the Doctoral Consortium frame the core program, making for a very full experience all around.


Information modeling has become an increasingly important topic for researchers, designers and users of information systems. In the course of the last three decades, information modeling and knowledge bases have become essential, not only with regard to information systems and computer science in an academic context, but also with the use of information technology for business purposes. This book presents 29 papers selected and upgraded from those delivered at the 25th International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases (EJC 2015), held in Maribor, Slovenia, in June 2015. The aim of the conference is to bring together experts from different areas of computer science and other disciplines, including philosophy and logic, cognitive science, knowledge management, linguistics, and management science, with a view to understanding and solving problems and applying research results to practice. Areas covered by the papers include: conceptual modeling; knowledge and information modeling and discovery; linguistic modeling; cross-cultural communication and social computing; environmental modeling and engineering; and multimedia data modeling and systems. The book will be of interest to all those whose work involves the development or use of information modeling and knowledge bases.


Intricate mechanisms discriminate between friends and foes in plants. Plant organs deploy overlapping and distinct protection strategies. Despite vulnerability to a plethora of pathogens, the growing tips of plants grow bacteria free. The shoot apical meristem (SAM) is among three stem cells niches, a self-renewable reservoir for the future organogenesis of leaf, stem, and flowers. How plants safeguard this high value growth target from infections was not known until now. Recent reports find the stem cell secreted 12-amino acid peptide CLV3p (CLAVATA3 peptide) is perceived by FLS2 (FLAGELLIN SENSING 2) receptor and activates the transcription of immunity and defense marker genes. No infection in the SAM of wild type plants and bacterial infection in clv3 and fls2 mutants illustrate this natural protection against infections. Cytokinins (CKs) are enriched in the SAM and regulate meristem activities by their involvement in stem cell signaling networks. Auxin mediates plant susceptibility to pathogen infections while CKs boost plant immunity. Here, in addition to the stem-cell-triggered immunity we also highlight a potential link between CK signaling and CLV3p mediated immune response in the SAM.


For some years I have together with my colleagues used the design lab as a shorthand description of open collaborations between many stakeholders sharing a mutual interest in design research in a particular field. We see the design:lab as a suitable and coherent format for design research organized as a participatory inquiry. Initially we did not put too much thought into calling this format a laboratory, and many colleagues have reacted to the label as foreign and awkward to design. In this article I will develop what I see as useful in this label, namely the emphasis on a transparent, delimited process that is potentially scaleable.


We report concentration data for the trace element titanium (Ti) in magmatic quartz in eight samples of leucogabbronorite, anorthosite, olivine ferrodiorite and quartz anorthosite from the Main and Upper Zones of the Bushveld Complex. The results, obtained by electron microprobe analysis, were used with Ti-in-quartz geothermometers (TitaniQ) to constrain the solidus temperatures of these rocks. Magmatic quartz is present sporadically in the mafic cumulate rocks of the 2950 m Bellevue borehole (Northern Limb), and commonly occurs as intercumulus, triangular patches, typically between cumulus feldspars and pyroxenes, suggesting that it crystallized late, from trapped interstitial melts. Quartz grains in rutile-bearing samples (implying TiO 2 activity = 1) yield Ti concentrations of 48 to 106 ppm that constrain the solidus temperatures of the Bellevue cumulate rocks at T= 677 to 767oC, using a calibration of the pressure-sensitive geothermometer at 3 kbar, thought to represent the emplacement pressure of the mafic cumulate rocks. These results imply a mean solidus temperature for Bushveld cumulate rocks of approximately 732 ± 31oC (n = 7). Cathodoluminescence imagery (CL) of quartz from the studied samples reveals a variety of textures that correlate with Ti content, and hence temperature. These include rim-to-core (RC) zoning, homogeneous CL intensity and some samples show irregular patches of variable CL intensity. The observed zoning can be interpreted as intercumulus quartz grains that crystallized from their rims inward towards their cores.


In this work, we present two new electron acceptors, TriPDI and Fused-TriPDI, in which three perylene diimide (PDI) moieties are tethered to a benzotrithiophene (BTT) core via either single bonds (TriPDI) or ring-fusion (Fused-TriPDI). TriPDI connects three PDIs to BTT via carbon–carbon single bonds, resulting in a rotatable and highly twisted skeleton. Instead, Fused-TriPDI, made through oxidative ring-fusion of TriPDI, exhibits good structural rigidity and planarity, as well as effective conjugation between PDI and BTT. As a result, the fused molecule shows up-shifted energy levels, and enhanced absorption and charge mobility over the unfused one. The polymer solar cells (PSCs) with a PTB7-Th:Fused-TriPDI blend show the best power conversion efficiency of 6.19%, which is around three times higher than that with PTB7-Th:TriPDI.


This paper presents an assessment of the cost of water scarcity in Cyprus, today and in the next 20 years, taking into account the effect of projected climate change in the region. It focuses on the residential sector, accounting also for tourism and industry. Using a simple demand function, total scarcity costs in Cyprus are computed for the period 2010–2030, and three scenarios of future water demand are presented. The central estimate shows that the present value of total costs due to water shortages will amount to 72 million Euros (at 2009 prices), and, if future water demand increases a little faster, these costs may reach 200 million Euros. Using forecasts of regional climate models, costs are found to be about 20% higher in a climate change scenario. Compared to the loss of consumer surplus due to water shortages, desalination is found to be a costly solution, even if environmental damage costs from the operation of desalination plants are not accounted for. Finally, dynamic constrained optimization is employed and shows that efficient residential water prices should include a scarcity price of about 40 Eurocents per cubic meter at 2009 prices; this would constitute a 30–100% increase in current prices faced by residential consumers. Reductions in rainfall due to climate change would raise this price by another 2?3 Eurocents. Such a pricing policy would provide a clear long-term signal to consumers and firms and could substantially contribute to a sustainable use of water resources in the island.


GERGINOVA, N., E. IVANOVA, K. BOZHANCHEV, S. GENEVA and A. TACHEV, 2013. Survey and health assessment of new cosmetic product based on natural ingredients. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., Supplement 2, 19: 204–207 The modern trends in cosmetics are orientated towards searching for the use of more natural products. The purpose of this research is to analyze the qualities of a new cosmetic product (hand-made cosmetics), made entirely of natural products. For the creation of the product, a set of classical technologies was used: gradually adding the raw material, mixing and dissolving until a stable and homogenized product is created. The order in which the compounds were added is based on their physicochemical properties. The product has passed the standard quality tests: pH of 10 g.kg –1 water solution, thermo stability, homogeneity and a microbiological analysis. The cosmetic product includes ingredients used in our and some other less popular national medicines. For the base of the mixture were used ostrich oil (Oleum Struthio) and beeswax (Cera fl ava). Their healthy effect was enforced with almond oil (Oleum Amygdalae) and wheat germ (Oleum Tritici germinis). The characteristic aroma was achieved with the use of cinnamon oil (Oleum Cinnamoni) which further strengthens the bioactive effect. The nature of the used substances does not require additional use of emulators and preservatives. Due to the non-specifi c purposefulness of the components, the vaseline is expected to have a wide variety of effects such as: protection, anti-wrinkle, anti-scratch and moisturizing effect. It can also help for prevention of skin irritation, scar removal and skin nutrition.


OBJECTIVES
Smoking cessation is an essential part of cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention. At the Center for Tobacco-Dependent (CTD), clients are screened to identify and reduce cardiovascular (CV) risk factors. In our study we have focused on the role of the CTD in reducing global CV risk.

METHODS
1,334 CTD patients aged 25-64 years (52.2% men, mean age 44±12 years, Fagerström Test for Cigarette Dependence 6±2) were included in a retrospective cross-sectional survey. Medical history, blood samples and physical examination were analysed. Blood pressure, weight and exhaled CO were measured at each visit (12-months-follow-up). Patients' CV risk was scored. CO-verified abstinence according to CV risk and prevalence of detected CV risk factors were examined.

RESULTS
Among patients who had attended at least their first visit and a visit after one year, 37.9% (506/1,334) had stopped smoking. Among patients with a SCORE of <5%, the success rate was 44.3% (254/574) and 41.2% for patients at high CV risk (105/255, p=0.41). There was a trend towards a lower success rate among patients with CVD, but this difference was not significant. The smoking cessation rate among low and high CV risk patients at the baseline visit was identical (46.2%, resp. 47.3%, p=0.81). 3.1% (42/1,334) of patients were referred to a specialist for hypertension. 62.5% (223/357), without a prior history, were found to have dyslipidemia.

CONCLUSIONS
High CV risk patients have the same chance to stop smoking as low risk patients.


We present a high-precision mass model of the galaxy cluster MACSJ0416.1-2403, based on a strong-gravitational-lensing analysis of the recently acquired Hubble Space Telescope Frontier Fields (HFF) imaging data. Taking advantage of the unprecedented depth provided by HST/Advanced Camera for Survey observations in three passbands, we identify 51 new multiply imaged galaxies, quadrupling the previous census and bringing the grand total to 68, comprising 194 individual lensed images. Having selected a subset of the 57 most securely identified multiply imaged galaxies, we use the LENSTOOL software package to constrain a lens model comprised of two cluster-scale dark-matter haloes and 98 galaxy-scale haloes. Our best-fitting model predicts image positions with an rms error of 0.68 arcsec, which constitutes an improvement of almost a factor of 2 over previous, pre-HFF models of this cluster. We find the total projected mass inside a 200 kpc aperture to be (1.60 +/- 0.01) x 10(14) M-circle dot, a measurement that offers a three-fold improvement in precision, reaching the per cent level for the first time in any cluster. Finally, we quantify the increase in precision of the derived gravitational magnification of high-redshift galaxies and find an improvement by a factor of similar to 2.5 in the statistical uncertainty. Our findings impressively confirm that HFF imaging has indeed opened the domain of high-precision mass measurements for massive clusters of galaxies.


This article investigates the effects of temporary employment at labour market entry on subsequent individual careers, drawing on data from the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) from the period 1991 to 2007. The results show that German temporarily employed entrants suffer from higher initial wage penalties and risks of temporary employment cycles but that all differences compared to entrants with permanent contracts diminish after five years. The integration scenario works more effectively in the UK, where disadvantages are less pronounced and employment losses are primarily related to further education. Moreover, these tendencies vary by education groups and gender. Disadvantages of initial temporary employment are weaker for women in Germany, while gender differences in the UK apparently have less impact. Across borders, temporary contracts are associated with greater initial but vanishing wage penalties and temporary employment cycles for tertiary graduates.


Modern mobile phones can capture and process high quality videos, which makes them a very popular tool to create and watch video content. However when watching a video together with a group, it is not convenient to watch on one mobile display due to its small form factor. One idea is to combine multiple mobile displays together to create a larger interactive surface for sharing visual content. However so far a practical framework supporting synchronous video playback on multiple mobile displays is still missing. We present the design of "MobileVideoTiles", a mobile application that enables users to watch local or online videos on a big virtual screen composed of multiple mobile displays. We focus on improving video quality and usability of the tiled virtual screen. The major technical contributions include: mobile peer-to-peer video streaming, playback synchronization, and accessibility of video resources. The prototype application has got several thousand downloads since release and received very positive feedback from users.


Concrete is the most widely used material in structural engineering. However, when exposed to Australia's climate, concrete can suffer stress, shrinkage cracking and deterioration. These harsh environmental conditions include excessive heat, moisture, alkalinity, and high humidity (hygrothermal environment). Thus, there is a need to determine and investigate new materials that has the potential to replace concrete in severe environmental conditions.

Epoxy is a commercially available polymer that has historically been used for crack repair and coating due to its known high strength and durability properties. However, epoxy- based polymer concrete is uneconomical and inconvenient for large civil infrastructures. The use of fillers practically reduces the price of epoxy based polymer and has been found to improve the mechanical properties. However, little research has been done to understand the effect of filers on the temperature sensitivity and durability of epoxy based polymers. This project analyses the effect of light-weight particulate filler has on the thermomechanical and durability properties of epoxy resin, with respect to simulated environmental conditions.

To achieve the research objectives, the project was divided into two studies. Study 1 was conducted to determine the optimal filler content, with respect to elevated temperature, that had no significant reduction in the compressive strength of the epoxy resin. Compression testing from room temperature to 80◦C and physical observations were con- ducted. Study 2 aimed at evaluating the six-month durability of the optimal mix selected from Stage 1 at different simulated environmental conditions. The samples were exposed to either air, saltwater, water or hygrothermal environment. Changes in the compressive strength, appearance, dimensions, weight and microscopic structure were observed at pre-set intervals.

From Study 1 it was concluded that the optimal mix design was determined to be the 60:40. There was an overall decrease of 90.2% and 96.4% in peak stress and Youngs modulus respectively. Minimal voids were present on the specimens and compressive failure was an evenly distributed shear failure. While the 40:60 specimens had an overall decrease of 85.2% and 92.1% in peak stress and Youngs modulus respectively, the mixture can create issues in actual application due its low workability, voids and brittle compressive failure.

From Study 2 it was concluded that the optimal mix design meets six month durability ex- posed to simulated environmental conditions. Dimensions remained consistent and there was no more than 0.3% water absorption. With the increase of duration all specimens had an increase in peak stress, with air having a 38% increase.

For the specimens exposed to the water and salt-water environments the same trends were presented with the increase of duration. Therefore the salt had no effect on the durability of the specimens. For the specimens exposed to the hygrothermal environment, the elevated temperature resulted in post curing. After 7 days exposure, the peak stress had an increase of 20%, which was 12% higher than the specimens exposed to the other environments. Therefore the filler had no adverse effects on the durability of the specimens.


In the pressure infiltration of metal-matrix composites, molten metal is injected under external pressure into a porous preform of the reinforcing material. Equilibrium capillary parameters characterizing wetting for this process are summarized in plots of metal saturation versus applied pressure, also known as drainage curves. Such curves can be measured in our laboratory during a single experiment with an infiltration apparatus designed to track the rate of metal penetration into porous preforms under conditions characteristic of metal matrix composite processing (temperatures in excess of 1000 °C and pressures in the order of 10 MPa). For such measurements to be valid, infiltration of the preform with molten metal must be mechanically quasi-static, i.e., the metal must flow at a rate sufficiently low for the metal pressure to be essentially uniform across the preform at all times. We examine this requirement quantitatively, using a finite-difference model that simulates the unsaturated unidirectional ingress of molten metal into a ceramic particle preform of finite width. We furthermore present improvements in the experimental apparatus developed in our laboratory to measure the entire drainage curve in a single experiment. We confront numerical results with new experimental data for the copper/alumina system, to show (i) that pressurization rates sufficiently low for quasistatic infiltration can be produced with this apparatus, and (ii) that taking the relative permeability equal to the saturation yields better agreement with experiment than does the expression originally proposed by Brooks and Corey.


In order to be able to assess the future institutional relationship between the UK and the EU, this study organises the relevant facts systematically. This is done by using a framework in which two aspects are compared with each other: On the one hand, the extent of the Single Market access for the EU's current partners (incl. Norway, Switzerland and Canada), and on the other, the concessions agreed by these partners with the EU with regard to free movement of people, relinquishment of regulatory sovereignty (legal harmonisation with the EU) and payments to the EU. Here a clear reciprocity between give and take can be seen, which it is assumed will also be valid for the pending negotiations, particularly as the EU needs to prevent bandwagon effects in terms of other EU countries following the UK example to exit the EU. On this basis we discuss which concessions the UK might give and what extent of Single Market access the EU might grant in return, if it is to be guided by the existing integration models, and in addition takes into account the British trade deficit with the EU and the substantial political and military role played by the British. Although the UK would like to retain as broad access to the Single Market as possible, the political restrictions might mean that the UK can only offer medium level concessions overall: small regarding free movement of people, small to medium regarding payments to the EU, and medium to high regarding legal harmonisation with the EU. In this respect, there are clear parallels with the Swiss integration model, since Switzerland also gives the EU medium level concessions on average, and in return receives medium level access to the Single Market. However, in the case of the UK there would be a single overall agreement (rather than many individual agreements as in the case of Switzerland) and concessions would be distributed differently amongst the various categories.


Many machine learning problems come in the form of networks with relational data between entities, and one of the key unsupervised learning tasks is to detect communities in such a network. We adopt the mixed-membership stochastic blockmodel as the underlying probabilistic model, and give conditions under which the memberships of a subset of nodes can be uniquely identified. Our method starts by constructing a second-order graph moment, which can be shown to converge to a specific product of the true parameters as the size of the network increases. To correctly recover the true membership parameters, we formulate an optimization problem using insights from convex geometry. We show that if the true memberships satisfy a so-called sufficiently scattered condition, then solving the proposed problem correctly identifies the ground truth. We also propose an efficient algorithm for detecting communities, which is significantly faster than prior work and with better convergence properties. Experiments on synthetic and real data justify the validity of the proposed learning framework for network data.


The new interdisciplinary science of ALife has had a connection with the arts from its inception. This paper provides an overview of ALife, reviews its key scientific challenges and discusses its philosophical implications. It ends with a few words about the implications of ALife for the arts.


Abstract Ever since the emergence of economics as a distinct scientific discipline, policy makers have turned to economic models to guide policy interventions. If policy makers seek to enhance growth of an open capitalist economy, they have to take into account, firstly, the uncertainties, inefficiencies, and market failures faced by the agents in the economy, and, secondly, the activities, network structure, and interactions in the innovation and production system. The authors discuss ins-and-outs of developing and using (encompassing and empirically calibrated) agent-based models for (i) abductive theorizing about causes for empirical realities, and (ii) evaluating effects of policy interventions. To ensure that derived policies are suitable to intervene in the real world and not just the stylization of it, they discuss validity and operationalization of agent-based models as well as interpretation of simulation results.


The work described in this thesis is concerned with three areas relating to nueleophilic reactions of novel-polyfluorinated alkenes-. a) Very highly strained fluorinated epoxides have been synthesised from bicyclic internal alkenes using Ca(OCl)(_2). These molecules display an almost unprecedented therira.1 and chemical stability. b) Aromatic bifunctional nucleophiles have been reacted with a variety of perfluorinated alkenes and cycloalkenes to give high yielding heterocyclic compounds. These are discussed within a mechanistic framework which my rationalise the product structures. c) Additions of fluoride ion from CsF and TAS-F to fluorinated alkenes in a suitable solvent are shown to yield long-lived fluorocarbanions. N.m.r. observations indicate the systems are whollyin the form of the respective anions and are essentially static on then.m.r. timescale. Competition experiments for a deficiency of CsF are available and can render useful infornmtion on F(^-) affinities. The (^13) and (^19)F n.m.r. spectra of the anions display unusual chemical shift and coupling constant phenomena. The n.m.r. spectra are unchanged over a wide temperature range but at a distinct threshold temperature line broadening occurs. This is indicative of the onset of F exchange on the n.m.r. timescale, is specific to the M(^+)C(^-) system and. therefore, is a guide to the carbanion stabilities. High yielding trapping reactions with simple electrophiles are described but, in some cases F(^-) donation from the carbanion is preferred. This competing reaction is found for particular electrophiles and above the threshold exchange temperature as determined by n.m.r.


Contrastive representation learning has been outstandingly successful in practice. In this work, we identify two key properties related to the contrastive loss: (1) alignment (closeness) of features from positive pairs, and (2) uniformity of the induced distribution of the (normalized) features on the hypersphere. We prove that, asymptotically, the contrastive loss optimizes these properties, and analyze their positive effects on downstream tasks. Empirically, we introduce an optimizable metric to quantify each property. Extensive experiments on standard vision and language datasets confirm the strong agreement between both metrics and downstream task performance. Remarkably, directly optimizing for these two metrics leads to representations with comparable or better performance at downstream tasks than contrastive learning.
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In many real-world settings, a team of agents must coordinate its behaviour while acting in a decentralised fashion. At the same time, it is often possible to train the agents in a centralised fashion where global state information is available and communication constraints are lifted. Learning joint action-values conditioned on extra state information is an attractive way to exploit centralised learning, but the best strategy for then extracting decentralised policies is unclear. Our solution is QMIX, a novel value-based method that can train decentralised policies in a centralised end-to-end fashion. QMIX employs a mixing network that estimates joint action-values as a monotonic combination of per-agent values. We structurally enforce that the joint-action value is monotonic in the per-agent values, through the use of non-negative weights in the mixing network, which guarantees consistency between the centralised and decentralised policies. To evaluate the performance of QMIX, we propose the StarCraft Multi-Agent Challenge (SMAC) as a new benchmark for deep multi-agent reinforcement learning. We evaluate QMIX on a challenging set of SMAC scenarios and show that it significantly outperforms existing multi-agent reinforcement learning methods.


Unraveling the mystery of Eugene Atget's life and work (1857-1927) is easier said than done. Now considered to be one of history's most important photographers, Atget (1857-1927) was relatively unknown until well after his death. We know that he made his living selling his prints, mainly to architects, artists, and institutions, but his categorical, obsessive method of photographing Paris street by street (doorknob by doorknob in some cases) lacks clear explanation.Atget wrote in 1920, ""I may say that I have in my possession all of Old Paris."" Indeed, he knew the city like the back of his hand and had the pictures to prove it. He captured the historical, atmospheric Paris: churches, monuments, and buildings, as well as bars, shop windows, street-peddlers, and prostitutes. Traversing all of its layers, he immortalized the true spirit of Old Paris.Why did he choose to spend his life roaming the streets with his heavy camera equipment, systematically cataloguing everything Parisian? The answer, if it can be discovered, must be found in the pictures themselves. Whether he intended to or not, Atget has left us with an impeccable record of turn-of-the-century Paris, not to mention a huge collection of stunningly beautiful photographs. This new book features 200 of Atget's most impressive images, many of which have rarely been seen before. Take a trip back in time and immerse yourself in Atget's Paris.


KEYWORDS Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura, Xanthoidea, Xanthidae, Indo-West Pacific, new genera, new combinations. ABSTRACT Cycloxanthops angustus Rathbun, 1906, C. cavatus Rathbun, 1907, and Medaeus noelensis Ward, 1934, are three Indo-West Pacific small cryptic species of xanthid crabs with extensive distributions ranging from the western Indian Ocean to Hawaii and Polynesia. Their generic status has long been uncertain. Cycloxanthops angustus has several distinctive characters that exclude this species from Cycloxanthops or Neoxanthops as currently defined, including the relatively quadrate and flattened carapace; form of the carapace areolation; structure of the anterolateral teeth and a serrulate merus on ambu latory legs. Cycloxanthops cavatus has many basic differences in morphology such as the anterolateral margin of the carapace, its frontal margin and the distinctly sculptured dorsal surface; the fingers of the chelipeds short and not pigmented black, and the distal structure of first pleopod. Medaeus noelensis too possesses diagnostic features: the narrow and rectangular basal antennular segment that fits tightly into the orbital hiatus, the short carapace frontal margin that folds downwards and inwards and a special peeling tooth on the right chela for opening gastropods. This present study reappraises the taxo- nomic position of these three enigmatic species and shows that they are not related to the genera they are currently assigned. Consequently, three new monotypic genera are established Marratha n. gen., with M. angusta n. comb.; Jacforus n. gen., with/, cavatus n. comb.; and Danielea n. gen., with D. noelensis n. comb., and their relationship with each other as well as affiliated taxa are discussed.


Learners benefit from collaboration because it triggers effective interaction processes such as externalization, elicitation and negotiation of knowledge. In order to communicate effectively, learners need to have a certain representation of their peers' knowledge. We refer to the process of building and maintaining a representation of the peers' knowledge as peer knowledge modeling. The present thesis aim at making contributions to the fields of computer support collaborative learning and work (CSCL, CSCW) on three main levels. First, as an empirical contribution, we investigate the process of peer knowledge modeling in the context of CSCL. Our main research question inquires the effects of a socio-cognitive support, providing co-learners with cues about their peer's prior knowledge, on collaborative learning outcomes and processes. In an empirical study (the KAT experiment), university students (N=64) participated in a remote computer-mediated dyadic learning scenario. They were provided (or not) with a visual representation of their partner's prior-knowledge level through a Knowledge Awareness Tool (KAT). Results showed that the KAT enhances co-learners' collaborative learning gain. This effect appears to be mediated by the positive effect of the KAT on participants' accuracy in estimating their peer's knowledge. Analyses on the process level showed that participants of the KAT condition produce more elaborated utterances. KAT condition dyads' interactions are more focused on knowledge negotiation, whereas the control condition dyads are mainly focused on task completion. The KAT seems to provide a sensitizing metacognitive support, structuring and regulating the collaboration by helping co-learners to cope with their knowledge gaps and discrepancies. Second, as a methodological contribution, we examine the affordance of dual eye tracking techniques as an innovative methodology to investigate, on a deeper level, the socio-cognitive processes underlying collaboration. We introduce DUET (DUal Eye-Tracking), a method using a multimodal technique to collect rich data featuring peers' synchronized gaze patterns, verbal interaction and potentially activities. We examine the main research applications of DUET and exemplify them with analyses conducted in the context of the KAT experiment. DUET method appears to be a promising technique to investigate collaborative processes on a deep level. Finally, as a third computational contribution, we built upon micro-level analyses of the verbal referencing process to introduce and test REGARD, a computational model allowing to automatically detect verbal references and locate the specific object of reference. The results of the test show a reasonably good accuracy of the REGARD algorithm to detect and associate verbal references to objects of reference. We discuss the design and research application of the REGARD model for the field of CSCL, CSCW and more generally HCI.


Product lifetime is an essential aspect of dynamic material flow analyses and has been modeled using lifetime distribution functions, mostly average lifetimes. Existing data regarding the lifetime of electronic equipment (EE) are based on diverging definitions of lifetime as well as different temporal and regional scopes. After its active use, EE is often not disposed of immediately, but remains in storage for some time. Specific data on the share of EE that is stored and the time they remain in storage are scarce. This article investigates the service lifetime, storage time, and disposal pathways of ten electronic device types, based on data from an online survey complemented by structured interviews. We distinguish between new and secondhand devices and compute histograms, averages, and medians of the different lifetimes and their change over time. The average service lifetime varies from 3.3 years for mobile phones to 10.8 years for large loudspeakers, the average storage time from 0.8 years for flat panel display televisions to 3.6 years for large loudspeakers. Most service lifetime histograms are positively skewed and show substantial differences among device types. The storage time histograms, being more similar to one another, indicate that the storage behavior is similar for most device types. The data on disposal pathways show that a large proportion of devices are stored and reused before they reach the collection scheme.


Sediment core logs from six sediment cores in the Labrador Sea show millennial-scale climate variability during the last glacial by recording all Heinrich events and several major Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles. The same millennial-scale climate change is documented for surface water δ18O records of Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (left coiled); hence the surface water δ18O record can be derived from sediment core logging by means of multiple linear regression, providing a paleoclimate proxy record at very high temporal resolution (70 years). For the Labrador Sea, sediment core logs contain important information about deepwater current velocities and also reflect the variable input of ice-rafted debris from different sources as inferred from grain-size analysis, the relation of density and P wave velocity, and magnetic susceptibility. For the last glacial, faster deepwater currents, which correspond to highs in sediment physical properties, occurred during iceberg discharge and lasted from several centuries to a few millennia. Those enhanced currents might have contributed to increased production of intermediate waters during times of reduced production of North Atlantic Deep Water. Hudson Strait might have acted as a major supplier of detrital carbonate only during lowered sea level (greater ice extent). During coldest atmospheric temperatures over Greenland, deepwater currents increased during iceberg discharge in the Labrador Sea, then surface water freshened shortly thereafter, while the abrupt atmospheric temperature rise happened after a larger time lag of ≥ 1 kyr. The correlation implies a strong link and common forcing for atmosphere, sea surface, and deep water during the last glacial at millennial timescales but decoupling at orbital timescales.


The image of the intruder is central to human organ transplantation rhetoric. The external, fleshy other crosses a supposedly definitive and divisive line by traversing and settling inside the epidermal layer of an other's self. While transplant teams make a putative claim that grafting is essential to the continued survival of critically ill patients, they also stress the dangers of rejection, wherein the originary body attacks the unfamiliar presence of an other's organs. The organicity of the rejection process—that the body resists incorporating organs from an other—seemingly shows how the skin marks the limit of the self, making the peaceful cohabitation of self and other an impossibility. The immune system is figured as an army always ready to attack any outside intrusion that may threaten the integrity, and therefore the survival, of the self. Here, outsiders pose risks and should be managed, surveilled, and even destroyed for the sake of protecting the sanctity of the wholesome, healthy body. Yet, in order for the transplant recipient to survive, there must be a repression of this system of defence; it must be weakened to let the other do its life-saving work of pumping vitality into the otherwise waning body. Highly toxic immunosuppressive pharmaceutics prevent the immune system from performing its militaristic duties, allowing the organ of an other to labor away at its everyday functions of keeping the other/self alive. In this article, I examine three contemporary films that bring together histories of transnational racism and ethical quandaries regarding organ donation: Miguel Sapochnik's Repo Men (2010 Sapochnik , M. (Dir.) ( 2010 ). Repo Men [DVD]. USA: Universal. ), David Moreau's The Eye (2008 Moreau , D. (Dir.) ( 2008 ). The Eye [DVD]. USA: Lionsgate. ), and Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things (2002 Frears , S. (Dir.) ( 2002 ). Dirty Pretty Things [DVD]. UK: Miramax. ). These films are diverse in genre and diegesis, and yet, I argue, they all share a preoccupation with how the biotechnological imperative to cut through bodily borders is intimately tied to state control, surveillance, and protection of geopolitical boundaries. The Eye and Repo Men are popular Hollywood productions designed to appeal to a mass audience through their emphasis on the spectacle of fear, stereotypical gendered and raced characterizations, and gory, violent visualities. The Eye is an American adaptation of a Hong Kong production (Pang and Chung 2002 Pang , D. and Chun , O. P. ( 2002 ). Gin gwai (The Eye) [DVD]. Hong Kong : Palm Pictures . ), which was originally concerned less with romantic self-discoveries and more with the deeply disturbing (and very scary) ways in which transplants haunt our imaginaries. In contrast, Dirty Pretty Things attempts to paint a more complex picture of precariously legal migrants in London through the social realist genre. Using a grainy visual effect to emphasize the lack of "gloss," and thus the focus on reality, in these migrants' lives, the film nevertheless borrows from Hollywood sensationalism with its images of bloody body parts, scenes of violence toward women, and largely stereotypical national and racialized representations. However, Dirty Pretty Things is the sole film on which this article focuses that is, arguably, driven by a political agenda. It is openly concerned with the politics of race and gender in contemporary Britain—a subject that has been of some interest to Frears throughout his career—and with transnational inequalities. Although the other two films may not offer overt political messages, I suggest that slippages between bodily and geopolitical borders open up a critical and political space where the viewer can engage with the intersecting issues of biotechnologies and transnational migrations. I further argue that all three films convey a politics of belonging deeply invested in ethics, and thus in a concern with hospitality. Organ donation is currently carrying the weight of cultural anxieties not only regarding divisions between self and other, but also concerning national boundaries of belonging and whether "different others" are to be welcomed or expulsed.


In modern applications, large graphs are usually applied in the simulation and analysis of large complex systems such as social networks, computer networks, maps, traffic networks. Therefore, graph mining is also an interesting subject attracting many researchers. Among them, frequent subgraph mining in a single large graph is one of the most important branches of graph mining, it is defined as finding all subgraphs whose occurrences in a dataset are greater than or equal to a given frequency threshold. In which, the GraMi algorithm is considered the state of the art approach and many algorithms have been proposed to improve this algorithm. In 2020, the SoGraMi algorithm was proposed to optimize the GraMi algorithm and presented an outstanding performance in terms of runtime and storage space. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm to improve SoGraMi based on connected components, called CCGraMi (Connected Components GraMi). Our experiments on four real datasets (both directed and undirected) show that the proposed algorithm outperforms SoGraMi in terms of running time as well as memory requirements.


Although consumers make new demands and seek added value through mobile shopping (m-shopping), consumers are reluctant to shop using a mobile device because of growing concerns over the quality of a mobile shopping system. As the popularity of m-shopping has grown to be a new marketing channel, research into the quality of the m-shopping system is still in its infancy. The objectives of this study are pursued through developing a comprehensive research framework used for exploring the identified factors affecting the adoption of m-shopping in Taiwan. This study integrated the information system (IS) success model to explore various relationships between m-shopping quality and its effects on customer satisfaction and purchase intentions. Data were collected using a self-administered survey. The proposed model was then estimated using the partial least squares (PLS) regression. The results fully supported the proposed model. Discussion of the implications and suggestions for further research are also provided.


ABSTRACT Alternate therapies are needed for treatment of secondary bacterial pneumonia following influenza. The immunomodulatory peptide P4 has shown promise in mouse models of primary pneumococcal infection. Mice infected with influenza virus and then challenged with Streptococcus pneumoniae were treated with a combination of P4 peptide and intravenous immune globulin. Survival was improved from 20% to 80% in treated mice relative to controls. Clinical cure correlated with increased clearance of bacteria and decreased lung consolidation. Greater trafficking of professional phagocytic cells to the site of pneumococcal infection coupled with enhanced opsonophagocytosis as manifest by decreased surface display of Fcγ receptors (FcγR) on neutrophils and macrophages were associated with P4 peptide treatment. This suggests that the mechanism of action for improved clearance of bacteria engendered by P4 is through improved uptake by phagocytes mediated by IgG Fc-Fcγ receptor interactions following antibody-mediated opsonophagocytosis of bacteria. Antibody-based therapies, when coupled with immune modulators, such as P4 peptide, may be an effective tool together with antibiotics in our armamentarium against severe pneumonia.


In December 1991 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics--born in violent revolution and dominated for more than six decades by highly authoritarian rule--was dissolved by its constituent republics. The causes for this remarkable event will be probed for many years to come. Our understanding of it may never be complete. Nevertheless, it is evident even now that part of the story lay in a conscious redirection of policy by specific individuals. Those at the center of political and economic power understood the flaws in their system well enough to initiate a process of reform, but one that triggered a more massive transformation than they had intended. The process has left enormous turmoil in this wake. Political power has dissipated in all the new states emerging from the fragmented former USSR, and all are struggling to establish some constitutional order. They do so under conditions of severe austerity as they seed to reconstruct their once integrated, highly concentrated, internationally isolated economy into independent instruments of national viability. With no detailed blueprint available, and with only fractured mechanisms of policy control at their disposal, these new nations are being carried along by the inertia of state enterprises and by a spontaneous process or regeneration at the grass-roots level. This book, which analyzes Gorbachev's foreign economic strategy, provides a window for understanding the disintegrative forces that stymied his reforms and eventually defeated him, undermining the country he sought to preserve. Gorbachev was committed to ending Soviet isolation from the world economy and at the same time saving Soviet socialism. Ironically, it is the destructionof Soviet socialism and the emergence of new post-Soviet states, that has begun to break down the isolationist barriers erected over the last seven decades. This book documents the incredibly complex legacies that Russia and the other new post-Soviet states face as they see to integrate themselves into the global economy.


The microbial communities of high-latitude ecosystems are expected to experience rapid changes over the next century due to climate warming and increased deposition of reactive nitrogen, changes that will likely affect microbial community structure and function. In moist acidic tundra (MAT) soils on the North Slope of the Brooks Range, Alaska, substantial losses of C and N were previously observed after long-term nutrient additions. To analyse the role of microbial communities in these losses, we utilized 16S rRNA gene tag pyrosequencing coupled with community-level physiological profiling to describe changes in MAT bacterial communities after short- and long-term nutrient fertilization in four sets of paired control and fertilized MAT soil samples. Bacterial diversity was lower in long-term fertilized plots. The Acidobacteria were one of the most abundant phyla in all soils and distinct differences were noted in the distributions of Acidobacteria subgroups between mineral and organic soil layers that were also affected by fertilization. In addition, Alpha- and Gammaproteobacteria were more abundant in long-term fertilized samples compared with control soils. The dramatic increase in sequences within the Gammaproteobacteria identified as Dyella spp. (order Xanthomonadales) in the long-term fertilized samples was confirmed by quantitative PCR (qPCR) in several samples. Long-term fertilization was also correlated with shifts in the utilization of specific substrates by microbes present in the soils. The combined data indicate that long-term fertilization resulted in a significant change in microbial community structure and function linked to changes in carbon and nitrogen availability and shifts in above-ground plant communities.


The development of theory about private equity during the last decades follows the pattern of economic development. While buyouts have found their origin in restructuring we observe more recently a trend of facilitating growth, where the firm and financier follow a path of acquisitions. A traditional valuation analysis approaches the investment problem from the perspective of a single transaction. New trends ask for an expanded valuation framework, not only to evaluate individual acquisitions but to shape the strategic thinking process. This address describes a framework for applying real options and game theory to strategy planning and valuation. It treats an acquisition strategy as a package of corporate real options, actively managed by the firm in a context of competitive responses or changing market conditions. Combining the quantitative options models developed in finance with game theory principles from economics and the qualitative insights from strategic management theory provides a richer framework that helps us better understand the restructuring of fragmented markets.


The expansion of higher education in Britain has led to concerns about the undermining of its quality and the sources of the finance for the expansion. The argument that expansion is necessary because of the demand for highly skilled labour is not obviously supported by the evidence an increasing proportion of graduates ends up in unemployment or underemployment. A preferred hypothesis is that higher education acts simply to 'screen' job applicants and adds no (or very little) value of its own.
A range of interest groups stand to gain from government funding of higher education, and public choice theory suggests that their contributions to the debate should be viewed cautiously. These considerations bring in to question the wisdom of the expansion of higher education, suggesting that it may be a misdirection of public resources.

But does higher education need to be funded from public sources? The question is whether social rates of return exceed private rates of returns. The evidence suggests that private returns to education are in excess of social returns, especially at the university level, thus undermining the case for public funding of higher education.
Even a considerable shift of the cost burden from the state to individuals should not be regarded as a disincentive to investing in higher education, given the high private margin of profitability.
Equitable access to higher education could be ensured by income contingent loans. Realistic tuition fees paid by students will help ensure that those who enter higher education will put considerable pressure on institutions to ensure appropriate standards and 'high quality' programmes. These would be more effective than government supported quality control initiatives.


Tubulin, an essential cytoskeletal protein, assembles into various morphologies by interacting with cellular factors. Spermine, an endogenous polyamine, promotes and stabilizes tubulin assemblies. Yet, the assembled structures and their formation pathways are poorly known. Here we show that spermine induced tubulin to assemble in vitro into hierarchical architectures, based on a tubulin conical-spiral (TCS) subunit. Using solution X-ray scattering and cryo-TEM, we showed that with progressive increase of spermine concentration, tubulin-dimers assembled into a tubulin helical-pitch (or a short TCS), TCSs, TCS that stacked into tubes through base-to-top packing, antiparallel bundles of TCS tubes in a quasi-hexagonal symmetry, and eventually twisted hexagonal bundles of inverted tubulin tubules. Time-resolved experiments revealed that tubulin assemblies formed at low spermine concentrations were precursors of the assemblies formed at higher spermine concentrations. The results provide insight into the variety of morphologies that tubulin can form, and contribute to our understanding of the fundamental interactions that control the composition and construction of protein-based biomaterials.


In this essay, I review Department of Homeland Security immigration enforcement tools and what I feel is the unnecessary havoc that they wreak on immigrant communities. In the process, I describe the resistance to these policies by immigrants and their supporters who have attempted to disrupt the enforcement tools. Immigrants and their supporters are attempting to raise awareness of better strategies to resolve whatever problems are perceived to exist. I also argue that the disruptive tactics by immigrants and their supporters have actually helped to push the Obama administration into engaging in disruptive innovation of its own with respect to how to approach certain classes of removable immigrants.Administrations and officials who engage in these enforcement approaches need to be held accountable to fair-minded, humanistic-thinking Americans. These actions have occurred on our watch, and we should not stand by idly. Thus, I also submit that we should devise methods of holding officials accountable, perhaps by creating a public oversight group along the lines of citizen oversight panels of police departments that would focus on the anti-humanitarian effects of immigration enforcement.


The search for microeconomic foundations of non-Walrasian outcomes in labor and product markets has spawned many studies of contracting. This paper emphasizes the role of contracts for market equilibrium -- for many raw materials and basic industrial commodities -- in which long-term contractual arrangements and spot markets coexist. Our principal goals are two -- (i) to explain the existence of contracts and the equilibrium fraction of trades carried out under contract, and (ii) to consider the impact of demand and supply shocks on spot prices when market trades also take place through long-term contracts. We find that the relative importance of contracting depends on, inter alia, the variance of the spot price and the sources of underlying fluctuations. Consistent with the findings of previous macroeconomic studies, we find that contracting and price rigidity are more likely the more important demand shocks are relative to supply shocks. We adapt our static model of contract price and quantity determination to discuss the adjustment of contract prices. Finally, we discuss three important applications of our multiple-price modeling structure -- to (i) analyses of the effects of changes in vertical market structure on market equilibrium in commodity markets (with specific reference to petroleum and copper), (ii) models of the optimal degree of contract indexation,and (iii) aggregate studies of "sticky prices" in macroeconomics.


Investigations of Anomalous Earthquakes at Active Volcanoes Ashley Elizabeth Shuler This dissertation investigates the link between volcanic unrest and the occurrence of moderate-to-large earthquakes with a specific type of focal mechanism. Vertical compensatedlinear-vector-dipole (vertical-CLVD) earthquakes have vertical pressure or tension axes and seismic radiation patterns that are inconsistent with the double-couple model of slip on a planar fault. Prior to this work, moderate-to-large vertical-CLVD earthquakes were known to be geographically associated with volcanic centers, and vertical-CLVD earthquakes were linked to a tsunami in the Izu-Bonin volcanic arc and a subglacial fissure eruption in Iceland. VerticalCLVD earthquakes are some of the largest and most anomalous earthquakes to occur in volcanic systems, yet their physical mechanisms remain controversial largely due to the small number of observations. Five vertical-CLVD earthquakes with vertical pressure axes are identified near Nyiragongo volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Three earthquakes occur within days of a fissure eruption at Nyiragongo, and two occur several years later in association with the refilling of the lava lake in the summit crater of the volcano. Detailed study of these events shows that the earthquakes have slower source processes than tectonic earthquakes with similar magnitudes and locations. All five earthquakes are interpreted as resulting from slip on inwarddipping ring-fault structures located above deflating shallow magma chambers. The Nyiragongo study supports the interpretation that vertical-CLVD earthquakes may be causally related to dynamic physical processes occurring inside the edifices or magmatic plumbing systems of active volcanoes. Two seismicity catalogs from the Global Centroid Moment Tensor (CMT) Project are used to search for further examples of shallow earthquakes with robust vertical-CLVD focal mechanisms. CMT solutions for approximately 400 target earthquakes are calculated and 86 vertical-CLVD earthquakes are identified near active volcanoes. Together with the Nyiragongo study, this work increases the number of well-studied vertical-CLVD earthquakes from 14 to 101. Vertical-CLVD earthquakes have focal depths in the upper ~10 km of the Earth's crust, and ~80% have centroid locations within 30 km of an active volcanic center. Vertical-CLVD earthquakes are observed near several different types of volcanoes in a variety of geographic and tectonic settings, but most vertical-CLVD earthquakes are observed near basaltic-to-andesitic stratovolcanoes and submarine volcanoes in subduction zones. Vertical-CLVD earthquakes are linked to tsunamis, volcanic earthquake swarms, effusive and explosive eruptions, and caldera collapse, and approximately 70% are associated with documented volcanic eruptions or episodes of volcanic unrest. Those events with vertical pressure axes typically occur after volcanic eruptions initiate, whereas events with vertical tension axes commonly occur before the start of volcanic unrest. Both types of vertical-CLVD earthquakes have longer source durations than tectonic earthquakes of the same magnitude. The isotropic and pure vertical-CLVD components of the moment tensor cannot be independently resolved using our long-period seismic dataset. As a result, several physical mechanisms can explain the retrieved deviatoric vertical-CLVD moment tensors, including dipslip motion on ring faults, volume exchange between two reservoirs, the opening and closing of tensile cracks, and volumetric sources. An evaluation of these mechanisms is performed using constraints obtained from detailed studies of individual vertical-CLVD earthquakes. Although no single physical mechanism can explain all of the characteristics of vertical-CLVD earthquakes, a ring-faulting model consisting of slip on inwardor outward-dipping ring faults triggered by the inflation or deflation of a shallow magma chamber can account for their seismic radiation patterns and source durations, as well as their temporal relationships with volcanic unrest. The observation that most vertical-CLVD earthquakes are associated with volcanoes with caldera structures supports this interpretation.


The amount of data is growing fast with the advance of data capturing and management technologies. However, data from different source are often isolated and not ready to be analyzed together as one data set. The effort of connecting pieces of isolated data into a unified data set is time consuming and often costly in terms of cognitive load and programming time. To address this problem, here we proposed an approach using machine learning to augment human intelligence in the data unification process, especially complex categorical data value unification. Many aspects of useful information are extracted from supervised machine learning models, then used to amplify intelligence of human experts in various aspects of the data unification process. An empirical study is performed applying the proposed methodology to the field of Asset Performance Management, specifically focus only on the performance of equipment asset. The experiments show that machine learning helps experts in the unification standard generation, unified value suggestion, batch data unification. We conclude that machine learning models contain valuable information that can facilitate the data unification process.


Trade can allow countries to overcome local or regional losses (shocks) to their food supply, but reliance on international food trade also exposes countries to risks from external perturbations. Countries that are nutritionally or economically dependent on international trade of a commodity may be adversely affected by such shocks. While exposure to shocks has been studied in financial markets, communication networks, and some infrastructure systems, it has received less attention in food-trade networks. Here, we develop a forward shock-propagation model to quantify how trade flows are redistributed under a range of shock scenarios and assess the food-security outcomes by comparing changes in national fish supplies to indices of each country's nutritional fish dependency. Shock propagation and distribution among regions are modeled on a network of historical bilateral seafood trade data from UN Comtrade using 205 reporting territories grouped into 18 regions. In our model exposure to shocks increases with total imports and the number of import partners. We find that Central and West Africa are the most vulnerable to shocks, with their vulnerability increasing when a willingness-to-pay proxy is included. These findings suggest that countries can reduce their overall vulnerability to shocks by reducing reliance on imports and diversifying food sources. As international seafood trade grows, identifying these types of potential risks and vulnerabilities is important to build a more resilient food system.


STUDY DESIGN
Interrater reliability.

OBJECTIVES
(1) To examine the interrater reliability of an existing clinical prediction rule (CPR) to predict the success of lumbar stabilization exercises (LSE), and (2) to examine the interrater reliability of 4 clinical tests that may be useful in determining the need for LSE.

BACKGROUND
Physical therapists commonly use LSE to manage patients with low back pain. The clinical efficacy of LSE is unclear. A CPR has been previously suggested to identify patients most likely to benefit from LSE. The passive lumbar extension test, lumbar extension load test, active straight leg raise test, and active hip abduction test are 4 clinical tests that may also suggest the need for LSE. The reliability of these tests has not been established sufficiently.

METHODS
Thirty patients with low back pain, who participated in a larger randomized clinical trial, underwent all tests by 2 independent examiners. Kappa coefficients with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to establish the interrater reliability of the CPR and individual tests.

RESULTS
The interrater reliability of the CPR was excellent (κ = 0.86; 95% CI: 0.65, 1.00). The interrater reliability of the individual items making up the CPR, as well as that of the passive lumbar extension test, was substantial (κ = 0.64-0.73 and κ = 0.76, respectively; 95% CI: 0.46, 1.00). The interrater reliability of the active straight leg raise test (κ = 0.53; 95% CI: 0.20, 0.84) and lumbar extension load test (κ = 0.47; 95% CI: 0.14, 0.78) was moderate. The interrater reliability of the active hip abduction test was poor (κ = -0.09; 95% CI; -0.35, 0.27).

CONCLUSION
With the exception of the active hip abduction test, all other clinical tests can be considered sufficiently reliable for clinical use. The relatively small sample size likely contributed to the fairly wide confidence intervals around some of the reliability indices.


Language socialization, the process by which individuals acquire identity markers associated with particular communities of practice, continues throughout life (Ochs 2000; Garrett and Baquedano-Lopez 2002); food often plays an important role creating environments where socialization can take place (e.g. Ochs and Shohet 2006). This paper considers the process by which some people, while learning to knit, are also socialized into identity as "knitter", a process marked and facilitated by shared food consumption. Examining data gathered through participant-observation within two knitting groups, coupled with data drawn from a large on-line survey of the knitting community at large, I argue that food and language are mutually constitutive of the socialization experience for knitters, not simply due to co-occurrence, but because they indirectly index ideologies which underpin different knitting identities; that is, knitting and food are both semiotic resources in the expression of broader identities which have ideological and social coherence. Among some groups of knitters, this is a broader identity of service, sacrifice, and community building; among others, it is an identity associated with values of self-expression and feminism. Keywords: adult language socialization; discourse; ideology; knitters; food


Separation of powers matters. Accordingly, each branch of the federal government should remain faithful to its institutional role. However, in the 2007 case of Leegin Creative Leather Products v. PSKS, Inc., the Supreme Court betrayed this founding principle. In Leegin, the Court disturbed nearly 100 years of antitrust jurisprudence by overruling Dr. Miles Medical Co. v. John D. Park & Sons Co. The issue before the Court centered on this question: should minimum resale pricing agreements between manufacturer and distributor be considered per se illegal? Dr. Miles said yes; in Leegin, the Court said no. This disagreement is hardly remarkable. The Court frequently reverses its prior precedent. The twist in Leegin, though, is that Congress expressly endorsed the Dr. Miles rule. In passing the Consumer Goods Pricing Act of 1975, Congress clearly indicated its policy preference that the practice of vertical price-fixing should remain unlawful. It is axiomatic that responsibility for framing economic policy for the nation rests with Congress and the President, not the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, in the field of antitrust, because of the Sherman Act's broad generalities, the Court has always had more leeway to fill in the blanks left open by Congress. But this freedom to fill the void when faced with legislative silence does not give legitimacy to the Court taking the next step, namely substituting its own judgment over a contrary judgment of Congress. And this next step is exactly the path the Court traveled down in Leegin. The Article explains the mistakes made by the Court in embarking on this journey. Moreover, the Article discusses the perils that follow when the Court decides it is accountable to no other branch but itself.


I discuss the two distinct approaches one might use in defining an economic recession based on different key economic factors. The paper will also look at the historical data of the United States during the early 2000s recession, and discuss the similarities and differences of economic factors that were seen. It argues that the United States is indeed in a recession based on both definitions. However, one method is indeed superior to the other when one is identifying the timing of the current recession. I will compare and contrast the levels of economic factors, which are used in defining a recession, between the two methods. These factors will include unemployment levels, interest rates, output, lending habits of the banking system, GNI, and the quarterly growth of GDP. Further, the paper will convey the effects of a recession on the financial markets, most importantly those of the stock market. Finally, it will show the attempts of the Federal Reserve to reverse the recent events through monetary policy, and demonstrate the acts of reversal of the government through fiscal policy. It will disclose that the U.S. government must correct the credit and financial markets before it can amend unemployment, housing crisis, and output through production, among other things.