Two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) as an emerging nanomaterial exhibits unique physicochemical properties, making it suitable candidate for a wide spectrum of applications. However, due to its poor functionality, the processability of this nanomaterial is low. In this work, we report on a straightforward and scalable approach for the functionalization of h-BN by nitrene [2 + 1] cycloaddition at room temperature. The triazine-functionalized h-BN (Trz-BNs) showed a high reactivity toward nucleophiles, through which post-modifications are performable. The post-modification of Trz-BNs by L-cysteine was studied using cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry. Taking advantage of the scalable and straightforward functionalization as well as ability of triazine functional groups for the controlled post-modifications, Trz-BNs is a promising nanoplatform for a wide range of future applications.


Effie Gray was at the centre of Victorian England's most scandalous love triangle, involving two giants of the art world. In 1854, refusing to tolerate her increasingly abusive first marriage to John Ruskin, the leading art critic of the time, she requested an annulment. Later she was able to rebuild her self-esteem and reputation and to find happiness with the painter John Everett Millais, Ruskin's acclaimed protege. Suzanne Fagence Cooper has gained exclusive access to Effie's extensive and previously unseen letters and diaries to reveal the reality behind this great Victorian love story. A major critical reassessment of the Victorian art world, the book addresses the careers of Ruskin and Millais from a new angle, with Effie emerging as a key figure in the artistic development of both men. Effie, her sisters and daughters appear in many of Millais' most haunting images, embodying Victorian society's fears about female sexuality and freedom. "The Model Wife" is a compelling portrait of the extraordinary woman behind some of the most beautiful and celebrated pre-Raphaelite paintings.


As the complexity of applications grows with each new generation, so does the demand for computation power. To satisfy the computation demands at manageable power levels, we see a shift in the design paradigm from single processor systems to Multiprocessor Systems-on-Chip (MPSoCs). MPSoCs leverage the parallelism in applications to increase the performance at the same power levels. To further improve the computation to power consumption ratio, MPSoCs for embedded applications are heterogeneous and integrate cores that are specialized to perform the different functionalities of the application. With technology scaling, wire power consumption is increasing compared to logic, making communication as expensive as computation. Therefore customizing the interconnect is necessary to achieve energy efficiency. Designing an optimal application specific Network-on-Chip (NoC), that meets application demands, requires the exploration of a large design space. Automatic design and optimization of the NoC is required in order to achieve fast design closure, especially for heterogeneous MPSoCs. To continue to meet the computation requirements of future applications new technologies are emerging. Three dimensional integration promises to increase the number of transistors by stacking multiple silicon layers. This will lead to an increase in the number of cores of the MPSoCs resulting in increased communication demands. To compensate for the increase in the wire delay in new technology nodes as well as to reduce the power consumption further, multi-synchronous design is becoming popular. With multiple clock signals, different parts of the MPSoC can be clocked at different frequencies according to the current demands of the application and can even be shutdown when they are not used at all. This further complicates the design of the NoC.Many applications require different levels of guarantee from the NoC in order to perform their functionality correctly. As communication traffic patterns become more complex, the performance of the NoC can no longer be predicted statically. Therefore designing the interconnect network requires that such guarantees are provided during the dynamic operation of the system which includes the interaction with major subsystems (i.e., main memory) and not just the interconnect itself. In this thesis, I present novel methods to design application-specific NoCs that meet performance demands, under the constraints of new technologies. To provide different levels of Quality of Service, I integrate methods to estimate the NoC performance during the design phase of the interconnect topology. I present methods and architectures for NoCs to efficiently access memory systems, in order to achieve predictable operation of the systems from the point of view of the communication as well as the bottleneck target devices. Therefore the main contribution of the thesis is twofold: scientific as I propose new algorithms to perform topology synthesis and engineering by presenting extensive experiments and architectures for NoC design.


In this thesis, we propose different probabilistic latent variable mod-
els to identify and capture the hidden structure present in commonly
studied genomics datasets. We start by investigating how to cor-
rect for unwanted correlations due to hidden confounding factors in
gene expression data. This is particularly important in expression
quantitative trait loci (eQTL) studies, where the goal is to identify
associations between genetic variants and gene expression levels. We
start with a na¨ ive approach, which estimates the latent factors from
the gene expression data alone, ignoring the genetics, and we show
that it leads to a loss of signal in the data. We then highlight how,
thanks to the formulation of our model as a probabilistic model, it is
straightforward to modify it in order to take into account the specific
properties of the data. In particular, we show that in the na¨ ive ap-
proach the latent variables "explain away" the genetic signal, and that
this problem can be avoided by jointly inferring these latent variables
while taking into account the genetic information. We then extend
this, so far additive, model to additionally detect interactions between
the latent variables and the genetic markers. We show that this leads
to a better reconstruction of the latent space and that it helps dis-
secting latent variables capturing general confounding factors (such
as batch effects) from those capturing environmental factors involved
in genotype-by-environment interactions. Finally, we investigate the
effects of misspecifications of the noise model in genetic studies, show-
ing how the probabilistic framework presented so far can be easily ex-
tended to automatically infer non-linear monotonic transformations of
the data such that the common assumption of Gaussian distributed
residuals is respected.


Background: Perioperative surgical site infection (SSI) after pediatric spine fusion is a recognized complication with rates between 0.5% and 1.6% in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis and up to 22% in "high risk" patients. Significant variation in the approach to infection prophylaxis has been well documented. The purpose of this initiative is to develop a consensus-based "Best Practice" Guideline (BPG), informed by both the available evidence in the literature and expert opinion, for high-risk pediatric patients undergoing spine fusion. For the purpose of this effort, high risk was defined as anything other than a primary fusion in a patient with idiopathic scoliosis without significant comorbidities. The ultimate goal of this initiative is to decrease the wide variability in SSI prevention strategies in this area, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes and reduced health care costs. Methods: An expert panel composed of 20 pediatric spine surgeons and 3 infectious disease specialists from North America, selected for their extensive experience in the field of pediatric spine surgery, was developed. Using the Delphi process and iterative rounds using a nominal group technique, participants in this panel were as follows: (1) surveyed for current practices; (2) presented with a detailed systematic review of the relevant literature; (3) given the opportunity to voice opinion collectively; and (4) asked to vote regarding preferences privately. Round 1 was conducted using an electronic survey. Initial results were compiled and discussed face-to-face. Round 2 was conducted using the Audience Response System, allowing participants to vote for (strongly support or support) or against inclusion of each intervention. Agreement >80% was considered consensus. Interventions without consensus were discussed and revised, if feasible. Repeat voting for consensus was performed. Results: Consensus was reached to support 14 SSI prevention strategies and all participants agreed to implement the BPG in their practices. All agreed to participate in further studies assessing implementation and effectiveness of the BPG. The final consensus driven BPG for high-risk pediatric spine surgery patients includes: (1) patients should have a chlorhexidine skin wash the night before surgery; (2) patients should have preoperative urine cultures obtained; (3) patients should receive a preoperative Patient Education Sheet; (4) patients should have a preoperative nutritional assessment; (5) if removing hair, clipping is preferred to shaving; (6) patients should receive perioperative intravenous cefazolin; (7) patients should receive perioperative intravenous prophylaxis for gram-negative bacilli; (8) adherence to perioperative antimicrobial regimens should be monitored; (9) operating room access should be limited during scoliosis surgery (whenever practical); (10) UV lights need NOT be used in the operating room; (11) patients should have intraoperative wound irrigation; (12) vancomycin powder should be used in the bone graft and/or the surgical site; (13) impervious dressings are preferred postoperatively; (14) postoperative dressing changes should be minimized before discharge to the extent possible. Conclusions: In conclusion, we present a consensus-based BPG consisting of 14 recommendations for the prevention of SSIs after spine surgery in high-risk pediatric patients. This can serve as a tool to reduce the variability in practice in this area and help guide research priorities in the future. Pending such data, it is the unsubstantiated opinion of the authors of the current paper that adherence to recommendations in the BPG will not only decrease variability in practice but also result in fewer SSI in high-risk children undergoing spinal fusion. Level of Evidence: Not applicable.


The education of disabled children in Tasmania, as in many other places, is characterized by a lack of co-ordination, ad hoe decision making and reactiveness. These dysfunctions could be remedied if there were, among teachers and administrators, a general orientation to the application of systems concepts.
This orientation is nothing more than a particular way of thinking about problems and finding solutions to them. The systems approach permits decision makers to examine, analyse and plan solutions for problems found in the field of special education.
The first chapter of this paper is a description of the development and structure of special education provisions in Tasmania. The history is largely responsible for the present unco-ordinated situation which is so much in need of a more rational approach.
The paper then proceeds to a discussion of the nature of systems. A system can be thought of as a set of objects and the relationships among them, all operating together for the benefit of the whole. Within each system is a number of sub-systems while each system is itself a sub-system of a bigger and more complex system. The parts of a system and its dimensions (closed/open, static/dynamic) are discussed along with a brief mention of models of systems.
There are various types of systems, each being able to fulfull a certain purpose or meet a particular goal. They range in complexity from simple taxonomies, through hierarchies, transformation operations and branching systems to the concept of the feedback loop and reflect, in order, an increasing capacity to promote understanding of the real world of people.
For a systems approach to be taken in special education, there are underlying assumptions which need to be identified and problem solving implications of which a practitioner needs to be aware. Some of these are discussed in Chapter III, along with some dysfunctions which Wolfensburger regards as typically present in those special education provisions which lack a systems approach.
Having used illustrations mainly from his own experience in Tasmania to suggest that special education would benefit from a greater orientation to systems, the writer describes five applications of systems approaches in Australia and the U.S. Some of these applications are already functioning while others are blueprints easily transferred to the real world. They include a system of principles, a decision making model and the development of curricula.
Chapter V is a description of two specific management techniques using systems concepts (PPBS and PERT) and thoughts on how they were used/could have been used/could be used to improve the management of special education in this state.
The writer's conclusion is that, despite some excellent field work in Tasmania, the education of disabled children is marred by a lack of cohesion and a lack of planning. This situation could be changed by the adoption of systems concepts. Some very reoent developments give cause to hope that this is happening.


Abstract The paper describes an eventual combination of discrete-event simulation and genetic algorithm to define the optimal inventory policy in stochastic multi-product inventory systems. The discrete-event model under consideration corresponds to the just-in-time inventory control system with a flexible reorder point. The system operates under stochastic demand and replenishment lead time. The utilized genetic algorithm is distinguished for a non-binary chromosome encoding, uniform crossover and two mutation operators. The paper contains a detailed description of the optimization technique and the numerical example of six- product inventory model. The proposed approach contributes to the field of industrial engineering by providing a simple, but still efficient way to compute nearly-optimal inventory parameters with regard to risk and reliability policy. Besides, the method may be applied in automated ordering systems.


Feature-based attention is often described as being global, although it is unclear if this only occurs in situations that support a broad window of spatial attention or whether this is a more obligatory phenomenon. Leonard et al. (in press, JEP:HPP) have shown that capture by a peripheral distractor that shares a target feature (i.e., contingent capture) is reduced as the distance of the distractor from the locus of spatial attention increases. These results suggest a strong interaction with spatial attention. If feature-based effects are interactive with spatial attention, changes in the distribution of spatial attention should modulate the magnitude of feature-driven capture. The current experiments include manipulations that should theoretically alter the spatial distribution of attention during task performance. The task required the identification of a single target-colored letter in a rapid serial visual presentation stream of other task-irrelevant letters. A manipulation of the frequency of nearby distractors might be expected to alter the distribution of spatial attention, and accordingly we found that capture effects were reduced when there was a higher frequency of proximal distractors. Other experiments further examine this interaction using different manipulations of task difficulty and similar-distractor frequency. Overall, the general pattern of results supports the hypothesis that spatial attention is critical in mitigating contingent attentional capture, supporting an interactive rather than purely global model of feature-based attention. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Studies of tyrosine phosphorylation in the human duodenum have indicated that proliferating cells in the middle portion of the duodenal crypt were devoid of this feature, suggesting that tyrosine kinase activation is not a dominant factor in crypt cell proliferation, and that consequently tyrosine phosphatase activity may be a more critical factor in crypt cell development. We investigated the expression of the leukocyte common antigen-related receptor (LAR) family of tyrosine phosphatases. A flow cytometry system was used to examine cells from the surface, mid-portion, and lower part of the crypt. Individual cell populations were immunostained with anti-LAR antibodies using phycoerythrin-conjugated anti-CD3 to discriminate between epithelial cells (CD3−) and intraepithelial lymphocytes (CD3+). Epithelial cells expressed LAR throughout the crypt. Expression of LAR was maximal in the mid-portion of the crypt with lower expression at the top of the villi. Intraepithelial lymphocytes expressed low levels of LAR at the tips of the villi with stronger expression extending towards the base of the crypt. These findings were confirmed by immunohistochemistry on paraffin-fixed sections. Of note, peripheral blood lymphocytes expressed less LAR than IEL. These observations suggest the possibility that tyrosine phosphatase LAR may be of importance in the regulation of crypt cell proliferation. Moreover, as the extracellular domain of LAR has homology with adhesion molecules, the finding of this molecule on IEL could suggest a possible functional role in homing of this unique lymphocyte.


Mammalian telomeres stabilize chromosome ends as a result of their assembly into a peculiar form of chromatin comprising a complex of non-histone proteins named shelterin. TRF2, one of the shelterin components, binds to the duplex part of telomeric DNA and is essential to fold the telomeric chromatin into a protective cap. Although most of the human telomeric DNA is organized into tightly spaced nucleosomes, their role in telomere protection and how they interplay with telomere-specific factors in telomere organization is still unclear. In this study we investigated whether TRF2 can regulate nucleosome assembly at telomeres. By means of chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and Micrococcal Nuclease (MNase) mapping assay, we found that the density of telomeric nucleosomes in human cells was inversely proportional to the dosage of TRF2 at telomeres. This effect was not observed in the G1 phase of the cell cycle but appeared coincident of late or post-replicative events. Moreover, we showed that TRF2 overexpression altered nucleosome spacing at telomeres increasing internucleosomal distance. By means of an in vitro nucleosome assembly system containing purified histones and remodeling factors, we reproduced the short nucleosome spacing found in telomeric chromatin. Importantly, when in vitro assembly was performed in the presence of purified TRF2, nucleosome spacing on a telomeric DNA template increased, in agreement with in vivo MNase mapping. Our results demonstrate that TRF2 negatively regulates the number of nucleosomes at human telomeres by a cell cycle-dependent mechanism that alters internucleosomal distance. These findings raise the intriguing possibility that telomere protection is mediated, at least in part, by the TRF2-dependent regulation of nucleosome organization.


The objective of this study was to determine antibiotic resistance patterns and specific resistance genes in Gram-negative enteric bacteria recovered from 42 different drinking water sources servicing 2 rural villages in south-western Uganda. These water sites were prone to contamination by both human and cattle activity. Of the 52 isolates examined, 26 carried antibiotic resistance genes with 25 being ampicillin resistant, 21 carrying the blaTEM gene, and no isolate carrying genes coding for extended-spectrum â.lactamases. Twelve isolates were tetracycline resistant and these bacteria carried between 1 and 3 different tet genes, with the tet(A) gene the most common. Six isolates carried the macrolide resistance mef(A) and/or the macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B resistance erm(B) genes. Four isolates carried the sul1 gene, and 4 isolates carried the sul1 and int1 genes indicating the presence of Class 1 integrons. The Ugandan isolates in this study had lower than expected carriage rates of antibiotic and multi-drug resistance genes, carriage of Class 1 integrons and lacked genes coding for extended-spectrum â.lactamases as compared to antibiotic resistance carriage in clinical African isolates.


This research demonstrates the potential of novel technology for space-based remote sensing of the topside ionosphere-plasmasphere, supported by ionospheric imaging, which can augment and enhance our current understanding of the Earth's plasmasphere. The research was conducted in two phases. The first was the development of a technology demonstrator 'TOPCAT' that installed a dual-frequency GPS receiver dedicated for topside ionosphere-plasmasphere imaging into a Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The novelties of TOPCAT were that it was designed from commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components and was installed on-board the CubeSat 'UKube-1', greatly reducing development and launch costs of the instrument. The successful launch of TOPCAT for space-borne remote sensing of the topside ionosphere and plasmasphere could provide the necessary proof of concept for the installation of a constellation of CubeSats – a possible next phase that may be implemented in the future. Thus, in its first stage, the thesis discusses the development of TOPCAT, together with design challenges encountered from constraints imposed by CubeSat technology. The discussion also includes the series of qualification tests performed to successfully qualify TOPCAT as a space-worthy payload design that can remotely image regions beyond the ionosphere. The second phase of research was the validation of the Multi-Instrument Data Analysis System (MIDAS) for the topside ionosphere and plasmasphere. A tomography algorithm originally developed for the ionosphere, MIDAS uses total electron content (TEC) measurements from differential phase of GPS signals, and inverts them to derive the electron density of the region. The thesis investigates the extension of MIDAS to image regions beyond the ionosphere by validating the algorithm for the topside ionosphere and plasmasphere. The process was carried out by first reconstructing a simulation by Gallagher et al. [1988] to verify the quality of the images. This was followed by the use of real GPS phase data from the COSMIC constellation to reconstruct the topside ionosphere-plasmasphere, and the qualitative comparison of the images with previous independent observations obtained through COSMIC and Jason-1 missions. Results showed that MIDAS can successfully reconstruct the undisturbed (quiet) topside ionosphere-plasmasphere using COSMIC data. However, imaging the storm-time topside ionosphere-plasmasphere requires better data coverage (i.e. more receivers) as the resolution offered by COSMIC was not sufficient to reconstruct fast-evolving structures – thereby emphasising the need for more data sources providing high resolution global coverage, such as a constellation of CubeSats with LEO-based GPS receivers.


Abstract Background Essential tremor (ET) is disease with both motor and non-motor features. Notable among the non-motor features is cognitive impairment. While this impairment has been attributed to cortico-thalamo-cerebellar pathway pathology, it is likely that a more complicated involvement of brain structures underlies cognitive function in ET. Objective To evaluate the brain microstructural changes of both white matter and grey matter in ET using region of interest based diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and to correlate these changes with cognitive function assessed during detailed neuropsychological testing. Method Thirty-five non-demented ET patients with a range of cognitive function (Clinical Dementia Rating = 0–0.5, mean age = 57.5 ± 16.7 years, age range = 23–76 years) underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation and brain magnetic resonance imaging, including DTI. DTI findings were reported as fractional anisotropy, average diffusion coefficient, these values were evaluated for 32 ROIs. Cognitive domains included attention, visuospatial functions, executive function, verbal memory, visual memory, and language. Domain Z-scores were calculated each cognitive domain and compared for each brain region. Results Microstructural changes in prefrontal cortical areas (dorsolateral, ventrolateral), paralimbic and limbic structures (posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus, hippocampus), basal ganglia (substantia nigra, putamen, caudate nucleus) and white matter bundles (corpus callosum, anterior thalamic radiation, longitudinal fasciculus, frontooccipital fasciculus, etc.) correlated with specific domains of cognitive function in ET patients. Conclusion These data suggest that not only the cerebello thalamocortical pathway, but numerous other brain structures are related to level of cognitive performance and possibly underlie cognitive dysfunction in ET.


Background: Short-term forecasts of infectious disease burden can contribute to situational awareness and aid capacity planning. Based on best practice in other fields and recent insights in infectious disease epidemiology,


This paper describes a system for identification execution of programs using execution events of the programs. This system is based on a model of program execution for security purposes, and is implemented on the Microsoft Windows platforms using an operating system technique called DLL (Dynamic Linked Library) replacement. Compared to other related works, this paper has two key contributions: It describes a systematic way to retain all system DLLs made by application programs dynamically and in real-time on the Microsoft Windows platforms. It also presents a new model of program execution, in which frequencies of program execution events are considered in addition to their patterns. Our experiment data indicate improved results.


In order to explore future air quality in Europe at the 2030 horizon, two emission scenarios developed in the framework of the Global Energy Assessment including varying assumptions on climate and energy access policies are investigated with an ensemble of six regional and global atmospheric chemistry transport models. A specific focus is given in the paper to the assessment of uncertainties and robustness of the projected changes in air quality. The present work relies on an ensemble of chemistry transport models giving insight into the model spread. Both regional and global scale models were involved, so that the ensemble benefits from medium-resolution approaches as well as global models that capture long-range transport. For each scenario a whole decade is modelled in order to gain statistical confidence in the results. A statistical downscaling approach is used to correct the distribution of the model projection. Last, the modelling experiment is linked to a hind-cast study published earlier, where the performances of all participating models were extensively documented. The analysis is presented in an exposure-based framework in order to discuss policy relevant changes. According to the emission projections, ozone precursors such as NOx will drop to 30% to 50% of their current levels, depending on the scenario. As a result, annual mean O3 will slightly increase in NOx saturated areas but the overall O3 burden will decrease substantially. Exposure to detrimental O3 levels for health (SOMO35) will be reduced down to 45% to 70% of their current levels. And the fraction of stations where present-day exceedences of daily maximumO3 is higher than 120 μg m-3 more than 25 days per year will drop from 43% down to 2 to 8%. We conclude that air pollution mitigation measures (present in both scenarios) are the main factors leading to the improvement, but an additional cobenefit of at least 40% (depending on the indicator) is brought about by the climate policy.


We examined, by historical and empirical means, relations among text (positive, negative), mode (Ionian, Phrygian), and medium (organ, vocal) in settings of a popular Christian melody from the baroque era. A descriptive analysis of 51 representative settings indicated that baroque composers tended to link Ionian settings of the melody to a "salvation" text and Phrygian settings to a "condemnation" text. They also set vocal pieces more frequently in the Ionian mode and organ pieces in the Phrygian mode. A series of experiments confirmed that contemporary adult and child listeners linked reward texts to the Ionian mode and punishment texts to the Phrygian mode, with the internal cadence structure of the settings affecting such links. Moreover, adult listeners associated these texts differentially with organ and vocal settings.


The hydration behavior of the calcium aluminates as a function of the glass content, the curing temperature, and the water-solid ratio was investigated. In order to keep them from influencing the results, the free-lime content and the surface area of all samples were kept constant, whenever possible. Samples were hydrated with a water-solid ratio of 10/1 for periods of 1 to 90 days. Three curing temperatures were studied; 2°C, 25°C, and 50°C. Samples were hydrated in tightly sealed polyethylene containers to prevent reactions with atmospheric carbon dioxide. The hydration was followed by X-ray diffraction and thermal analysis. Only two samples, Hexacalcium Tetra-alumino Magnesium Silicate and Tricalcium Magnesium Dialuminate, were successfully prepared in an amorphous form. These compounds were used to investigate the effect of glass content on the hydration behavior. Results indicate that when the glass content is increased a corresponding increase is found in the percent combined water. Samples hydrated at 25°C were influenced by changes in the glass content to a greater degree than were those hydrated at either 2°C or 50°C. The effect of the water-solid ratio on the hydration behavior of the calcium aluminates was studied using the compounds; Hexacalcium Tetra-Alumino Magnesium Silicate/ and Dodecacalcium Hepta-Aluminate. In general, samples that were hydrated with large water-solid ratios reacted more completely than did those hydrated with small water-solid ratios. The presence of sufficient water to theoretically hydrate the samples to completion did not guarantee that the sample would do so. The curing temperature influenced the hydration behavior to a greater degree than did the glass content or the water-solid ratio. Increasing the curing temperature not only increased the rate of hydration, but, in some cases, also changed the hydration products.


Introduction Academic journals are a major medium through which research findings are published. Through publication in such journals, researchers communicate their methodologies and findings. The modern process of scholarly communication relies heavily on books, monographs, and conference proceedings, but most commonly on academic journals (Oluronsola 2001). The journal is fundamental to scholarly communication. In addition, the status conferred by publication in highly-rated journals is essential to the career of academics. Journals have remained essentially unchanged in form and function since their beginning. Science as we know it is scarcely imaginable without the scholarly journal. It is of immense important to note that, through journal, researchers and academics access important information about recent developments in their field. Studies by Olurunsola and Opaleke (1997) reveal the importance of publishing in scholarly journals for promotion and tenure. The primary function of academic journal is to report on original research, making it available to the rest of the scholars within the discipline, many are published by professional associations or universities. The Concept and History of Academic Journals Koepf (2001) describes journals as having a "serious look." Articles are written by scholars within specific disciplines, the language used is specific to the discipline covered. It assumes some knowledge on the part of the reader. Kronick (1976) maintains that a journal is usually addressed more limited audience than a newspaper does and is not as firmly bound to events of the day. Milne (1999) defines scholarly communication as "the social phenomenon whereby intellectual and creative activity is passed from one scholar to another." This can be formal or informal. Formal communication usually involves journal articles. According to Yahaya (1993), a journal refers to those periodicals created by any of the following: * A constituted body: an educational institution, ministry, board, bureau, council, commission, library, center, academy, division, or department. * A specialized group: scientists, historians, educators, economists, archaeologists, linguists, folklorists, medical doctors * An interest group: student associations, religious group, trade union. Abba (2004) describes journals as periodicals issued by academic communities for a particular purpose or audience. This paper considers academic and scholarly journal to be the same: publications dealing with matters of current interest to groups such as faculty members. The history of academic journals can be traced to the 16th century AD. Wells (1999) reports that until the late seventeenth century, communication between scholars depended on personal contact and meetings arranged by learned societies (e.g. the Royal Society of London). As the membership of these society increased, it was harder to attend the meetings, and proceedings circulated as a record of the meeting. The proceedings became a place to publish papers that had not been presented at the meeting. Thus, the beginning of what we now recognize as scholarly journals. Ornstein (1963) states that, "on January 5, 1665, Denis de Sallo published the first western scholarly journal, titled Journal des scavans ." MacDonell (1999) argues that the Journal des scavans was not regarded as publication of academic community until 1903 when it came under the auspices of Academic inscriptions et Belles-lettres of the Institute de France. According to Ornstein (1963) the major objectives of the Journal were: * Publish current events in academia * Provide obituaries of famous men. * Catalogue and short description of books * Publish experiments in physics and chemistry, observations of astrological phenomenon. * Print decisions of tribunals and Universities. …


When Joseph Weissmann divorced his wife, he was seventy eight years old and she was seventy-five...He said the words 'Irreconcilable differences', and saw real confusion in his wife's eyes. 'Irreconcilable differences?' she said. 'Of course there are irreconcilable differences. What on earth does that have to do with divorce?' Thus begins "The Three Weissmanns of Westport", a sparkling contemporary adaptation of "Sense and Sensibility" from the always winning Cathleen Schine, who has already been crowned 'a modern-day Jewish Jane Austen' by "People's" Leah Rozen. In Schine's story, sisters Miranda, an impulsive but successful literary agent, and Annie, a pragmatic library director, quite unexpectedly find themselves the middle-aged products of a broken home. Dumped by her husband of nearly fifty years and then exiled from their elegant New York apartment by his mistress, Betty is forced to move to a small, run-down Westport, Connecticut, beach cottage. Joining her are Miranda and Annie, who dutifully comes along to keep an eye on her capricious mother and sister. As the sisters mingle with the suburban aristocracy, love starts to blossom for both of them, and they find themselves struggling with the duelling demands of reason and romance.


The loss of rail network infrastructure and rail service throughout the U.S. has in most instances resulted in the modal shift of rail freight to truck. Rail freight converted to truck may have significant impact on pavement maintenance costs and activities due to the increased highway traffic volumes. This study investigated three short-line rail routes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and determined the potential impact of diverting rail freight flows to truck. A freight flow analysis was undertaken to illustrate the new truck flows by highway classification and usage. The highway route current conditions and asset management techniques were documented. A pavement maintenance model was created to determine the incremental maintenance costs per ton-mile if additional freight moved over various classes of highway and the resulting impact on highway funding.


Using more than 200 genera and 431 species that comprise the 77 families of decapod crustaceans inhabiting Chilean waters, we attempted to reveal the underlying zoogeographical pattern of these taxa by comparing areas in terms of the number of shared species, genera, and families. To this end, the coasts and oceanic islands were divided into sixteen areas, encompassing most of the Nazca plate including Easter Island, Salas and Gómez Island, the Desventuradas Islands, and Juan Fernández Archipelago, as well as the underwater mountains of Salas & Gómez and Nazca (5 areas), the western coast of South America from Arica to Cape Horn (ca. 18°S-56°S; 10 areas), and the Antarctic peninsula and adjacent areas (1 area). The four resulting dendrograms coincided, showing six province: a) Chile-Peru (18º-42ºS); b) Magellan (42º-56ºS); c) Antarctica, including the Antarctic peninsula and the Scotia Arc archipelagos; d) Juan Fernández Archipelago (33º40'S; 79º00'W), including the Desventuradas Islands (ca. 26º20'S, 80ºW); e) Easter Island (27º09'S, 109º25'S); and f) the underwater mountains of Salas & Gómez and Nazca (ca. 25ºS; ca. 75ºW-100ºW). The dendrogram based exclusively on families inhabiting these diverse geographic areas identified two large clusters: the first encompassing the oceanic areas over the Nazca plate and the second the continental (10) and Antarctic (1) areas. In addition, decapod crustacean species of the southern tip of South America extend from the southeastern waters of the Pacific Ocean on one side of the Strait of Magellan to the southwestern waters of the Atlantic Ocean, reaching the Kerguelen Islands at the boundary of the Indian and Antarctic ocean.


It is well known that drilling a hole ahead of crack tip is one of the most common techniques to prevent crack propagation in structures subjected to fatigue load. An adequate size crack stop hole is necessary to convert a sharp crack into a blunt notch there by preventing crack propagation. However, fatigue cracks typically occur at locations where drilling a crack-stop hole of required dimensions may not be possible due to geometrical constraints. In such situations, the crack may initiate again from the hole within its service life. Hence, there is a need to strengthen undersized crack-stop holes. In the present study, a combination of crack-stop hole and carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) overlays under static loads are studied numerically using finite element analysis (FEA) to evaluate its potential as a viable repair technique. A steel plate with an initial central crack subjected to static tensile loading is considered. A hole is modelled ahead of a crack tip and CFRP patches are applied on either side of the crack. The numerical analysis is performed using general purpose FEA ANSYS to evaluate the stress intensity factor at notch tip (NSIF). The material behaviour is assumed to be elastic in case of linear analysis and as a multi linear isotropic hardening material type for nonlinear
analysis.


We introduce a method to classify imagery using a convo- lutional neural network (CNN) on multi-view image pro- jections. The power of our method comes from using pro- jections of multiple images at multiple depth planes near the reconstructed surface. This enables classification of categories whose salient aspect is appearance change un- der different viewpoints, such as water, trees, and other materials with complex reflection/light response proper- ties. Our method does not require boundary labelling in images and works on pixel-level classification with a small (few pixels) context, which simplifies the cre- ation of a training set. We demonstrate this application on large-scale aerial imagery collections, and extend the per-pixel classification to robustly create a consistent 2D classification which can be used to fill the gaps in non- reconstructible water regions. We also apply our method to classify tree regions. In both cases, the training data can quickly be generated using a small number of manually- created polygons on a map. We show that even with a very simple and standard network our CNN outperforms the state-of-the-art image classification, the Inception-V3 model retrained from a large collection of aerial images.


We present a symbolic execution-based technique for cross-checking programs accelerated using SIMD or OpenCL against an unaccelerated version, as well as a technique for detecting data races in OpenCL programs. Our techniques are implemented in KLEE-CL, a tool based on the symbolic execution engine KLEE that supports symbolic reasoning on the equivalence between expressions involving both integer and floating-point operations. While the current generation of constraint solvers provide effective support for integer arithmetic, the situation is different for floating-point arithmetic, due to the complexity inherent in such computations. The key insight behind our approach is that floating-point values are only reliably equal if they are essentially built by the same operations. This allows us to use an algorithm based on symbolic expression matching augmented with canonicalisation rules to determine path equivalence. Under symbolic execution, we have to verify equivalence along every feasible control-flow path. We reduce the branching factor of this process by aggressively merging conditionals, if-converting branches into select operations via an aggressive phi-node folding transformation. To support the Intel Streaming SIMD Extension (SSE) instruction set, we lower SSE instructions to equivalent generic vector operations, which in turn are interpreted in terms of primitive integer and floating-point operations. To support OpenCL programs, we symbolically model the OpenCL environment using an OpenCL runtime library targeted to symbolic execution. We detect data races by keeping track of all memory accesses using a memory log, and reporting a race whenever we detect that two accesses conflict. By representing the memory log symbolically, we are also able to detect races associated with symbolically-indexed accesses of memory objects. We used KLEE-CL to prove the bounded equivalence between scalar and data-parallel versions of floating-point programs and find a number of issues in a variety of open source projects that use SSE and OpenCL, including mismatches between implementations, memory errors, race conditions and a compiler bug.


Large tumours involving the face cause disfigurement that creates a scenario of difficult mask ventilation and intubation. Awake fibreoptic intubation may not be feasible in all patients with difficult mask ventilation due to various reasons. In addition, surgical manipulation of tumours involving the face can elicit trigeminocardiac reflex and result in haemodynamic instability. We report a case of a large orbital lesion extending upto upper lip with intracranial extension in an uncooperativepatient managed with induction of anaesthesia with paediatric face mask. Intubation was achieved with videolaryngoscopy. Repeated surgical stimulation of mandibular and maxillary nerve resulted in trigemino cardiac reflex requiring vagolytic therapy.


Abstract The interwar period witnessed the emergence, diffusion and international adoption of population forecasting in the form of the cohort-component projection methodology. The interaction of population structure by age and sex and age-sex specific rates of the components of population change, mortality, fertility and migration, was used to indicate the most likely future course of national populations. However, right from the beginning the demographic approach was challenged by a revival of the belief that the future course of population is governed by a law. The belief was based on the (re)discovery of a homeostatic model, the so called law of logistic population growth. The logistic approach to population forecasting was advocated by the American geneticist Raymond Pearl, who introduced it in the 1920s. It replaced the 19th century Malthusian law of geometrical population growth. The decade of the 1920s witnessed the confrontation of the "logistic law" and "demographic" approaches. This article discusses the background and context of the confrontation of the two approaches, the issues at stake and the outcome of the contest. The debate on the method of forecasting population was initially a debate between biology and demography. The controversy was played out in conferences, articles and books, on the sidelines of the field where the technical innovations were made. The cohort-component method was easily applied in planning. It provided detailed insights into the factors accounting for the dynamics of population, and yielded details on the future population by age and sex.


Problem. The purpose of this study was to uncover the main factors that contributed to the apathy of youth to the regular services in the Hialeah Spanish Church. The congregation was established in the late 1960's, more than 50 years before this project. Several generations have been born and grown in the church since; yet, the church had never faced the generational challenges it was facing at the moment this project was implemented. There was a clear disconnection between the younger generations and the church activities, including Sabbath divine services. They frequently met in the church's parking lot during the worship services avoiding integrating themselves into the program. Parents and church leaders were very concerned because they did not find ways to motivate and integrate this younger generation not only to the general programs and ministries of the church, but even more challenging, to the "Divine Service," the main worship service on Saturdays. It seemed as if they were disengaged from each other as if they belonged to different worlds, separated by unsurmountable barriers. Furthermore, leaders recognized that the church is failing to maintain church attendance after youth become independent from their parents. The research helped find and clarify factors contributing to that issue and facilitated the development of a strategy to motivate these young people to integrate to church life. The results can help other congregations with similar challenges. Methodology. This is a qualitative study that through a survey sought to find the factors why young people avoided the worship services including the main Sabbath service, and to develop a strategy that helped create a positive relationship between the parties in tension so that the youth would become actively involved in the church. Participants contributed in a group interview and took part in a discussion that initially included one question: What are the reasons why young people from the Hialeah Spanish church avoid the regular worship services and rather get together at the church's parking lot? Other secondary questions based on the participant's responses to the main research question were asked during the focus-group discussion to fully understand the phenomenon. Permission was requested from the participants to tape the group discussion, assuring them the information would be kept confidentially. Important comments selected were read to the participant to confirm clarity and precision. After the interview, ideas and concepts were analyzed, coded, and main themes and factors associated with the phenomenon were underlined. Once the survey took place, the resulting ideas and concepts were analyzed and the most important themes associated with this research were identified. Such ideas and concepts constituted the core foundation in the preparation and implementation of the strategy that was applied so that the youth would connect with the spiritual activities of the Hialeah Spanish Church. Results. The interview process was completed on January 2011 and provided specific details regarding the factors producing apathy towards church's services in this group of young Hispanics. Factors included: lack of youth integration in leadership positions in the church, need of contextual changes in the Adoration or Divine Service liturgy, and the creation of a more contextualized Youth Ministry. These factors provided the groundwork for the proposal of a strategy to create a positive relationship between the current leaders of the church and the youth. The research findings also provided valuable information that can be used by many other Hispanic churches in the North American Division dealing with the same challenges and concerns. After the implementation of the project, dozens of young people who we used to struggle with because they stayed in the parking garage were now inside the church during worship services, actively participating from the pews, several of them frequently in the platform. Additionally, many young people who were not attending church started coming. Conclusion. When I look back and meditate on God's blessings to our church I realize that only the Holy Spirit, working in our hearts, can help us craft a church that reflects the principles of the New Testament church, the church of the apostles. When we focus on the cultural, generational and contextual differences that the Hispanic church faces in North America, we need to recognize that the task is almost impossible. Nevertheless; we also need to admit that the church under the influence of the Holy Spirit has been able to endure and survive the most horrendous crisis that history has presented. When the Spirit of Christ dwells in the believer's heart, the church finds the answers to the fiercest attacks from Satan. This work presents the realities Hispanic Ministries are facing in North America. It is real that we are losing our youth. In addition, it is true that the weight of culture and traditions separate us from these younger generations. However, it is also true that there are many church leaders looking for the way of keeping these generations integrated in the life of the church. If the church is the body of Christ, and He is the head, we have nothing to fear. We are all part of the Kingdom of God. This study shows that when we look for God's direction for His church and with a clean conscience, we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us; we can find practical and beneficial ways to keep our children in the church. When we ask them to serve in leadership positions, and we allow them to express themselves, the church moves closer to them. When we keep them in mind, when we design our Worship Service in a way that they feel connected with the liturgy, we can keep them on our side. When we minister to them in their context, and put down those cultural and traditional fences that separate us from their realities, we can win their hearts. When all these components are combined, we can say that we are fulfilling the mission that Christ commanded us to do. The church can really be the body of Christ. We cannot afford to lose our children. God should be praise and worshiped from generation to generation.


The Campania Volcanic Zone (CVZ), located on the eastern margin of the Tyrrhenian Sea, is a region characterized by active tectonics and large ignimbrite eruptions starting from 290 ka. A reconstruction of the three-dimensional architecture of the ignimbrite deposits and faults of the CVZ (Campania Plain and Bay of Naples) was made by means of the interpretation of an integrated geological geophysical database. This reconstruction, based on several geological sections combined into two fence diagrams and isopach maps showing the distribution of ignimbrites, reveals: (i) a regional fault pattern characterized by NE-SW, NNE-SSW, NW-SE and E-W structures active over the last 290 ka during ignimbrite eruptions; (ii) a location of the ignimbrite vents over the whole CVZ in correspondence to NE-SW and NW-SE faults; (iii) volcano-tectonic subsidence along normal separation faults that produced asymmetric basins. Furthermore, we have established the tectonic evolution of the CVZ from the emplacement of the ignimbrite deposits, and infer the presence of a WNW-ESE trending extension associated with NNE-SSW normal faults, E-W transfer faults and the reactivation, as transtensional faults, of the NE-SW and the NW-SE structures. The results of this study conflict with the occurrence of a caldera at Campi Flegrei and Naples Bay.


We have studied the nanoscale structure and unoccupied electronic states in FeSe1-xTex by a combined analysis of Se K, Te L1 and Fe K-edges X-ray absorption measurements. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) results show that iron-chalcogen (Fe-Se and Fe-Te) distances in ternary FeSe1-xTex are similar to those measured for binary FeSe and FeTe. The local Fe-Se/Te distances determined by different absorption edges fit well in the characteristic Z-plot of random alloys, providing unambiguous support to the inhomogeneous nanoscale structure of the ternary FeSe1-xTex system. X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectra reveal a gradual evolution of the unoccupied valence electronic states as a function of Te-substitution in FeSe1-xTex. The Fe 3d-Se 4p/Te 5p hybridization is found to decrease with Te-substitution, accompanied by an increase in unoccupied Se 4p states and a decrease in unoccupied Te 5p states. The results are discussed in the frame of local inhomogeneity in the FeSe1-xTex system driven by random alloying of Se/Te atoms.


The Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2016, v.8.2) acknowledges that gifted and talented students are diverse and require educational provisions that meet their special needs. However, without professional learning in gifted education, teachers are ill-equipped to understand, identify and provide for gifted students. This paper reviews the literature in the field to argue for consideration of a 'gifted dimension' as an elaboration of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL, 2011). As all teachers will teach gifted and talented children, it is important to define the elements of quality teaching that are inclusive of high ability students in the Australian context and contribute to a professional learning agenda for all teachers.


This gorgeous photographic coffee table book reflects the entire history of Olympic sailing, with spectacular photographs celebrating heroes such as Paul Elvstrom and Ben Ainslie, fabulous locations, legendary classes - and the never-ending struggle of an Olympic sailor to make his mark. Sections cover: - An overview of the three eras of Olympic sailing (early years and yachting; modern dinghy racing and Elvstrom; the new professional era and Ainslie) - Origins - how sailing came to be in the Olympics - The struggle - training, teamwork, trials, selection, hope and heart-aching near misses - Legendary classes and boat designers - those that made an enduring impact - The new era - including the 49er, Laser, 470 and Europe, enabling fast and furious sailing - Fabulous locations - including Mexico, Montreal, Sydney, Athens and China - Icons, gold and glory - celebrating great Olympians, whose titanic struggles, outstanding achievements and logic-defying victories live on in the popular memory and add to the 'draw' of the Olympic legacy Featuring awe-inspiring images from the best sailing photographers in the world, each with an enlightening and entertaining commentary, this stunning book is a true celebration of this amazing sport through the years.


Abstract This study presents the first crystal-structure determination of natural MgCO3·5H2O, mineral lansfordite, in comparison with previous structural works performed on synthetic analogues. A new prototype singlecrystal X-ray diffractometer allowed us to measure an extremely small crystal (i.e. 0.020 mm × 0.010 mm × 0.005 mm) and refine anisotropically all non-hydrogen atoms in the structure and provide a robust hydrogen-bond arrangement. Our new data confirm that natural lansfordite can be stable for several months at room temperature, in contrast with previous works, which reported that such a mineral could be stable only below 10°C.


Design rationale is an effective way of capturing knowledge, since it records the issues addressed, the options considered, and the arguments used when specific decisions are made during the design process. Design rationale is generally captured by identifying elements and their dependencies, i.e. in a structured way. Current retrieval methods focus mainly on either the classification of rationale or on keyword-based searches of records. Keyword-based retrieval is reasonably effective as the information in design rationale records is mainly described using text. However, most of the current keyword-based retrieval methods discard the implicit structures of these records, resulting either in poor precision of retrieval or in isolated pieces of information that are difficult to understand. This ongoing research aims to go beyond keyword-based retrieval by developing methods and tools to facilitate the provision of useful design knowledge in new design projects. Our first step is to understand the structured information derived from the relationship between lumps of text held in different nodes in the design rationale captured via a software tool currently used in industry, and study how this information can be utilised to improve retrieval performance. Specifically, methods for utilising various structured information are developed and implemented on a prototype keyword-based retrieval system developed in our earlier work. The implementation and evaluation of these methods shows that the structured information can be utilised in a number of ways, such as filtering the results and providing more complete information. This allows the retrieval system to present results that are easy to understand, and which closely match designers' queries. Like design rationale, other methods for representing design knowledge also in essence involve structured information and thus the methods proposed can be generalised to be adapted and applied for the retrieval of other kinds of design knowledge. Copyright © 2002-2012 The Design Society. All rights reserved.


The Brownian motion of a polystyrene bead trapped in a time-sharing optical tweezers (TSOT) is numerically simulated by adopting Monte-Carlo technique. By analyzing the Brownian motion signal, the effective stiffness of a TSOT is acquired at different switching frequencies. Simulation results confirm that for a specific laser power and duty ratio, the effective stiffness varies with the frequency at low frequency range, while at high frequency range it keeps constant. Our results reveal that the switching frequency can be used to control the stability of time-sharing optical tweezers in a range.


Gain narrowing in optically pumped thin films, both neat and undiluted, of luminescent conjugated polymers with different molecular structures was demonstrated. These results indicate that the polymers studied have large cross sections for stimulated emission, that population inversion can be achieved at low pump energies, and that the emitted photons travel distances greater than the gain length within the gain medium. The use of simple waveguide structures is sufficient to cause low gain narrowing thresholds in submicrometer-thick films.


The aim of this article is to explore the predicament of one man in difficult circumstances, in order to produce a psychosocial analysis that could contribute to a social psychological understanding of agency. After a brief review of the problem of dualism in theorizing agency and relevant developments in theories of self, and a critique of assumptions about unitary rational subjects, we emphasize the effects of unconscious conflict on choice and agency. We also identify the importance of including people's biographically motivated investments in specific discursive positions. Vince, a middle-aged, working-class man from the north of England, the subject of our case study, had already been faced with difficult choices in order to hold on to a job that was bad for him. Now the choice appeared to be taken out of his hands by an illness without a discernible organic base and with no prospect of improvement that, for 5 months, had forced him to be on sick leave. Our approach in this paper, based on interpretation of material from two interviews, is to detail the multiple and contradictory meanings of Vince's job to him. In each of three areas - the daily experience of the job, the meaning of having a respectable job, and Vince's relationship with his boss - we illustrate the power of a psychosocial analysis to escape the limitations of both voluntaristic and deterministic accounts of individual action. In conclusion we define the agent of choice in Vince's case as the divided psychosocial subject of unconscious conflict; a subject located in social realities mediated not only by social discourses but by psychic defences.


The broom leaf beetle (Gonioctena olivacea) and the Honshu white admiral butterfly (Limenitis glorifica) have been introduced into New Zealand as biocontrol agents of the weeds Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius) and Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) respectively. However, neither agent has been successful yet. Larval predation of these species could be a factor affecting their success, and this hypothesis was tested using various predator-exclusion treatments. Survival of broom leaf beetle larvae increased c. five-fold by sleeving Scotch broom seedlings in fine mesh. In contrast, survival was unaffected by excluding either crawling predators using sticky barriers or larger predators using chicken wire. Survival of Honshu white admiral butterfly larvae increased c. ten-fold by excluding either crawling predators using sticky barriers or flying predators using a fine-mesh sleeve. Simultaneously excluding both crawling and flying predators resulted in a c. 23-fold increase in survival. These results suggest that larval predation could be limiting the populations of both broom leaf beetle and Honshu white admiral. Future biocontrol programmes could prioritise candidate agents accordingly.


We introduce the concept of "edge-native applications" that fully exploit the potential of edge computing and have a deeply symbiotic relationship with it. Such an application is custom-designed to take advantage of one or more of the unique attributes of edge computing such as (a) bandwidth scalability, (b) low-latency offload, (c) privacy-preserving denaturing, and (d) WAN-failure resiliency. The application may also contribute to scalability through adaptation to reduce offered load. We contrast edge-native applications with shallower uses of edge computing in a taxonomy that spans "edge-enhanced, device-native applications", "edge-accelerated, cloud-native applications", and "device-only applications". We close with a case study that illustrates these concepts in the context of cognitive assistance for automotive safety.


"Can we all get along?" asked Rodney King during the Los Angeles civil disturbance in April 1992. This essay attempts to shed light on interracial conflicts by focusing on (mis)in-terpretations in the legal and cultural realms. I would like to re-visit one event preceding the urban unrest by discussing "The Court Interpreter," a short story by Ty Pak, a Korean immigrant writer, alongside the legal scholarship surrounding the uprising. The story is a fictionalized version of the trial of Soon Ja Du, the Korean liquor storekeeper who killed fifteen-year-old Latasha Harlins, an African American. Harlins, suspected of walking away with a gallon of orange juice, attacked Du when the latter confronted her; the teenager was shot dead by the Korean woman. The incident took place only thirteen days after the beating of Rodney King by four white LAPD officers. Du was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to "probation with prison time suspended, a small fine [$500], and a requirement of community service" (Gotanda 379). The court ruling incensed the already wounded and antagonized African American community, and "Latasha Harlins soon became virtually synonymous with the 'black-Korean conflict'" (Lie & Abelmann 75). Pak adheres quite closely to these events. He, of course, changes the names of all the principals: Soon Ja Du becomes Moonja Joo and Latasha Harlins becomes Natasha Brook. Furthermore, because "The Court Interpreter" is presented from a limited first-person point of view, the narrator's perceptions must be distinguished from those of the author. There are times, however, when these two perspectives do conflate, as will be shown. The narrative is recounted by the title character, who has been asked to interpret for the Korean proprietor by her defense lawyer. The narrator deplores the shooting of the black teenager, but bristles at the way the national media and the African American press lump all Korean Americans together as abhorrent. He therefore decides to do his best to help the defendant during her trial by making her sound educated and eloquent; later, he believes his superb performance as court interpreter accounts for the lenient sentence received by his client. The fictional trial--as was Soon Ja Du's trial--is followed in the narrative by the controversial police-brutality trial in Simi Valley, with the not-guilty verdicts and the initial acquittal of the four white police officers accused of beating Rodney King, and by the ensuing eruption that ravages Los Angeles. Countless businesses are looted and burned, and the narrator's brother-in-law is killed while guarding a store during the uprising. (1) I find "The Court Interpreter" both illuminating and troubling, especially in its depiction of the tension between blacks and Koreans. The story magnifies the various obstacles to sound judgment, most notably with regard to people of color, and reveals traces of what legal scholar Lisa Ikemoto describes as the "master narrative": "white supremacy's prescriptive, conflict-constructing power, which deploys exclusionary concepts of race and privilege in ways that maintain intergroup conflict" (1582). (2) I would like to extract from Pak's narrative several issues of both legal justice and quotidian judgments made in a pluralistic society. How can we--as readers, viewers, or jurors--exercise judicious judgment amid media distortions and racial stereotypes? How can we avoid the burden of representation and knee-jerk identity politics? How can we avoid unfairly judging or being judged on account of skin color, gender, class, or language? How do we negotiate the subjective assessments that occur in the courtroom (and in the narrative) at every level--from the court interpreter, to the witnesses, to the attorneys, to the judge? Above all, how can we extricate ourselves from the ideological web of the master narrative? As the narrator's court interpretation makes all too clear, what passes for objective description is invariably subjective construal. …


In order to advance the micro-foundations of institutional theory, we explore how individuals within organizations experience and respond to competing institutional logics. Starting with the premises that these responses are driven by the individuals' degree of adherence to each competing logic (whether novice, familiar, or identified), and that individuals may resort to five types of responses (ignorance, compliance, resistance, combination or, compartmentalization), we develop a comprehensive model that predicts which response organizational members are likely to activate as they face two competing logics. Our model contributes to an emergent political theory of institutional change by predicting what role organizational members are likely to play in the organizational battles for logics dominance or in organizational attempts at crafting hybrid configurations.


The goal of this paper is to present a survey of the actual state of factoring in Czech Republic (2007-2014). Both theoretical and empirical analyses are applied. The paper is mainly based on the Czech literature and statistics. Conclusion: trends of the Czech factoring market principally follow the trends of the EU factoring market. In some respects, the Czech market still lags behind the average EU market penetration. At present, the Czech factoring market is growing; it has a favourable development perspective.


Most studies have found that, at the contextual level (e.g. degree programme) approach to study is stable over time (e.g. Busato, Prins, Elshout and Hamaker, 1998). At the situational level (e.g. a module) the results are possibly less equivocal, with studies reporting a decrease in deep approach at the end of the module (e.g. Newstead, 1998). Fazey and Lawson (2000) conducted a study that was contingent upon the use of a teaching approach that consistently raises expectations that a deep approach to learning is required and uses an assessment methodology that will reward such an approach. They found that students taught using this constructively aligned methodology, maintained their deep approach to study and significantly decreased their surface approach at the assessment period of the module. In a follow up study Lawson, Fazey and Fazey (2006) further explored this concept in a variety of subjects, finding that modules classified as being strongly aligned and fostering deep approaches to learning, had students who scored significantly higher on deeper approaches to learning and intrinsic motivation than those in modules with low alignment that fostered a surface approach. This present study looks at changes over time in students approaches to learning and motivational orientation. The results show changes over time in these student factors, related to teaching approach and alignment.


This article examines the effect of exposure to criminal violence on fear of crime and mental health in Mexico, a country that has experienced a dramatic rise in violent events resulting from the operation of drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). Data are drawn from more than 30,000 respondents to a national longitudinal survey of Mexican households. We use fixed-effects models which allow us to control for time-invariant individual and municipal characteristics affecting both exposure to violence and mental health. The results indicate a substantial increase in fear and psychological distress for individuals living in communities that suffered a rise in the local homicide rate even when exposure to other forms of victimization and more personal experiences with crime are taken into account. Because DTO killings occur in response to factors external to a specific neighborhood, they generate fear and psychological distress at a larger geographical scale. They also seem to create a generalized sense of insecurity, leading to increased fear of other types of crimes. We examine the effect of large surges in homicide and the presence of military and paramilitary groups combatting DTOs as these conditions may approximate those in conflict zones elsewhere in the world. We also explore differences in the relative sensitivity to homicide rates between sociodemographic groups.


In the character theory of finite groups the Burnside-Brauer Theorem is a well-known result which deals with products of characters in finite groups. In this paper, we first define the character products for table algebras and then by observing the relationship between the characters of a table algebra and the characters of its quotient, we provide a condition in which the products of characters of table algebras are characters. As a main result we state and prove the Burnside-Brauer Theorem on finite groups for table algebras.


Despite increasing recognition that combat veterans' mental health needs demand a specialized approach to sentencing and adjudication in criminal courts, this lesson has yet to reach family courts. In child custody disputes, evaluators and judges would greatly benefit from a differentiated approach to service-connected "invisible" wounds, which allows them to address the unique contextual factors surrounding each case, rather than applying a one-size-fits all approach to mental illness. Attributes of the proposed framework include: (1) avoidance of stereotypes and biases about military service and mental illness that often confuse custody appraisals and lead to error; (2) an expanded understanding of potential harm to the child posed by secondary trauma that need not be physical; (3) attributes of treatment programs oriented to trauma and tailored to gender differences; and (4) knowledge of comprehensive services available to veterans by virtue of earned entitlements that enable more responsive and effective interventions for all family members.

Key Points for Family Court Community:
•Qualified veterans with mental health conditions like PTSD are eligible for counseling and treatment services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Increasingly, these programs include the full spectrum of counseling services for children and other family members.
•Family courts can take advantage of the VA's programs to supplement custody arrangements and parenting plans in the same way civilian criminal courts are using the VA in sentencing arrangements.
•It benefits all family law practitioners to evaluate themselves for common biases against military families and their children. When unchecked, these biases often lead to incorrect conclusions about negative consequences on such children and the cause of the consequences.
•It is vital for family law practitioners to understand the consequences of the deployment cycle on all family members and the special considerations that arise when families must adjust to the return of a servicemember-parent who has been injured mentally or both mentally and physically.
•A recovery perspective is helpful in assessing the parenting skills of combat veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder since most parents with this condition can, and do, recover in a relatively short period of time, if provided with the proper supports, including continued access to their children.
•In conceptualizing potential harm to children from combat veteran parents with diagnosed Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, aside from physical violence, custody courts and evaluators should also consider the possibility of Secondary Traumatic Stress and proven methods to guard against it.
•In considering treatment for combat veterans within the context of child custody cases, courts, custody evaluators, and attorneys should account for gender differences in treatment programs as well as differences in programs intended specifically for trauma survivors. Generic counseling or counseling targeted at general problems of anger management, substance abuse, or Interpersonal Violence is not likely to address the underlying problems facing traumatized combat veterans.


The Dependable Warmer During the middle of the Eocene, about 40 million years ago, a transient warming event interrupted the long-term cooling trend that had been in progress for the previous 10 million years. Bijl et al. (p. 819; see the Perspective by Pearson) constructed records of sea surface temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentrations across the warming period. It appears that vast amounts of CO2 were injected into the atmosphere, and a sea surface temperature increase of as much a 6°C accompanied the atmospheric CO2 rise. Elevated concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide played a major role in a global warming event during the Middle Eocene. The long-term warmth of the Eocene (~56 to 34 million years ago) is commonly associated with elevated partial pressure of atmospheric carbon dioxide (pCO2). However, a direct relationship between the two has not been established for short-term climate perturbations. We reconstructed changes in both pCO2 and temperature over an episode of transient global warming called the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO; ~40 million years ago). Organic molecular paleothermometry indicates a warming of southwest Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs) by 3° to 6°C. Reconstructions of pCO2 indicate a concomitant increase by a factor of 2 to 3. The marked consistency between SST and pCO2 trends during the MECO suggests that elevated pCO2 played a major role in global warming during the MECO.


This paper describes aspects of sustainability linked to four long-term organic ley/arable rotations split between two contrasting sites in Northern Scotland. The two sites (one in Aberdeen and the other near Inverness) started their organic conversion in 1991, with one rotation being common to both sites (50% grass / clover), while the Aberdeen site also had a 67% grass / clover rotation and the Inverness site a 38% grass / clover rotation. By measuring physical and financial outputs, and changes in soil properties and weed populations, the trials described here aimed to compare the productivity and sustainability of different organically-managed crop rotations. This paper outlines some of the key findings of these experiments.


MXR transport activity was measured in living gills with Calcein-AM and quantified by computerised image analysis. Simultaneously, we detected MXR protein expression with an antibody C 219 detecting evolutionary conserved amino acid sequence of various MXR transporters. Shore crab adapted to 10%o and 33%o seawater according to the natural salinity range were studied for MXR transport activity and for protein expression in gills and digestive glands. Animals adapted to low salinities had a 30% higher transport efficiency possibly due to membrane up folding inferring that these efflux pumps maybe also involved in osmo-regulation. Animals were exposed to AAF (0.01M), a specific model inducer of the transmembrane P-glycoprotein involved in MXR transport over a period of 3 days and showed a 50% induction of transport activity in gills at both salinities. Additionally, animals were starved for 4 weeks, re-fed once, and samples taken after 4, 8, 12, 24 and 48 hours according to cell differentiation of the digestive gland. In the digestive glands MXR proteins appeared in differentiating blister cells 8 hours after re-feeding as immuno-localised with the AB C219. Simultaneously, food supply induced a complete breakdown of MXR transport activity in gills after 8 h. MXR-like transporters, presumably P-gp, appear to exist in shore crab as transport can be specifically induced by a model inducer. Furthermore, gills and hepatopancreas appear to perform a sort of physiological job sharing in which hepatopancreas overtakes xenobiotic elimination during periods when gills are involved to serve enhanced oxygen demands during digestion and active ammonia excretion.


This paper explores the possibility of incorporating remote sensing information in modeling house values in the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A. In particular, a Landsat ETMimage was utilized to derive environmental character- istics, including the fractions of vegetation, impervious surface, and soil, with a linear spectral mixture analysis approach. These environmental characteristics, together with house structural attributes, were integrated to house value models. Two modeling techniques, a global OLS regression and a regression tree approach, were employed to build the relationship between house values and house structural and environmental characteristics. Analysis of results indicates that environmental characteristics gener- ated from remote sensing technologies have strong influ- ences on house values, and the addition of them improves house value modeling performance significantly. Moreover, the regression tree model proves as a better alternative to the OLS regression models in terms of predicting accuracy. In particular, based on the testing dataset, the mean average error (MAE) and relative error (RE) dropped from 0.202 and 0.434 for the OLS model to 0.134 and 0.280 for the regression tree model, while the correlation coefficient between the predicted and observed values increased from 0.903 to 0.960. Further, as a nonparametric and local model, the regression tree method alleviates the problems with the OLS techniques and provides a means in delineating urban housing submarkets.


We present a novel generative framework for learning parts-based representations of object classes. Our model, Factored Shapes and Appearances (FSA), employs a highly factored representation to reason about appearance and shape variability across datasets of images. We propose Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling schemes for efficient inference and learning, and evaluate the model on a number of datasets. Here we consider datasets that exhibit large amounts of variability, both in the shapes of objects in the scene, and in their appearances. We show that the FSA model extracts meaningful parts from training data, and that its parameters and representation can be used to perform a range of tasks, including object parsing, segmentation and fine-grained categorisation.


This article presents a framework to facilitate and optimize the management of field operations for bike-sharing companies. The study focuses on two modules based on artificial intelligence: the prediction module forecasts bikes availability at station-level using machine-learning and the rebalancing module provides optimal rebalancing operations and routes using constraint programming. The evaluation on 9 months of data collected from a real bike-sharing network notably highlighted the superior forecasting accuracy of the Multilayer Perceptron algorithm


Background: There is growing evidence that excess generation of highly reactive free radicals, largely due to hyperglycaemia causes oxidative stress, which further exacerbates the development and progression of type 2 diabetes and its complications. Objectives: In this study, the level of oxidative stress was compared with glycaemic control in type 2 diabetic patients. Method: Fifty confirmed type 2 diabetic patients, aged between 25 and 70 years were used for the study. 20 patients with good glycaemic control served as positive control while 20 apparently healthy non-diabetic age-matched individuals served as negative control. The FBS, MDA and HbA1 c were determined in fasting blood samples using standard methods. Results: Patients with poor glycaemic control had significantly raised MDA and HbA1c (P =0.0001) when compared with non diabetics However, those with good glycaemic control only had a significant increase in the MDA when compared to non diabetic. (P =0.0001).).The MDA level when compared to fasting blood sugar (FBS) and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) showed a positive correlation.( r= 0.77; P = 0.0001 and r=0.69; P = 0.0001 respectively) Conclusion: This study showed that both glycaemic control and lipid peroxidation are factors to be monitored or evaluated in the management of type2 diabetics to avoid the development of diabetic complications.


Low population densities make it difficult to design efficient networks of schools in rural areas. The most common solution is to operate small schools with children in multiple grades in each classroom, even though this solution may not be the least expensive. School consolidation proposals are difficult to implement because communities may have emotional bonds with their local schools and the impacts on secondary services, such as student transportation, are difficult to evaluate. In rural areas, particularly in Brazil, reductions in the costs associated with school operations and student transportation could allow boards of education to allocate more resources to improve educational practices and teaching materials. This paper presents a methodology for optimizing the location of schools and student transportation in rural areas. This methodology is based on two mixed-integer programming models, which are used sequentially. The first one deals with the school location and sizing problem, and the second one deals with the school bus routing and shift programming problem. The methodology was applied with data from Barao de Grajaú, which is in the northeast region of Brazil, and provided savings in operating costs of 10% to 17%.


Mobile ad hoc network security is a new area for research that it has been faced many difficulties to implement. These difficulties are due to the absence of central authentication server, the dynamically movement of the nodes (mobility), limited capacity of the wireless medium and the various types of vulnerability attacks. All these factor combine to make mobile ad hoc a great challenge to the researcher. Mobile ad hoc has been used in different applications networks range from military operations and emergency disaster relief to community networking and interaction among meeting attendees or students during a lecture. In these and other ad hoc networking applications, security in the routing protocol is necessary to protect against malicious attacks as well as in data transmission. The goal of mobile ad hoc security is to safeguard the nodes' operation and ensure the availability of communication in spite of adversary nodes. The node operations can be divided into two phases. The first phase is to discover the route (s) path. The second phase is to forward the data on the available discovered routes. Both stages need to protect from attacks; so many protocols have been proposed to secure the routing and data forwarding. This is a review study to mobile ad hoc protocols for securing routing as well as protocols for securing packets forwarding. Furthermore, it will present the characteristics and the limitations for each protocol and attributes.


All organisms maintain a strict redox environment, crucial for cell physiology, by preserving the pro-oxidant compounds generated during cell metabolism and from antioxidant system elements. In pathophysiological conditions, the redox environ‐ ment is altered, causing oxidative stress, cell damage, and eventually cell death. In this chapter, we review the elements involved in the redox environment, including the oxidant, antioxidant, and glutathione systems. In addition, we summarize the physicochemical bases of the redox environment and the biological functions of the glutathione cycle. Finally, we propose a redox environment regulation model that considers some regulated variables that are actively involved in maintaining the re‐ dox environment: reactive oxygen species, reactive nitrogen species, and the redox couple GSH 2 /GSSG.


A total of 11 killer yeasts were studied with the aim of finding a yeast strain that could be added to a lactic starter for the production of fermented vegetables. Growth and production of toxins by the killer yeasts were first analyzed in Yeast and Mold broth (YM) at two pH levels and in the presence or absence of organic acids. All killer yeasts were sensitive to those acids in acidified media (pH 3.5). Two of them were selected for further analysis in a vegetable juice medium (VJM). Killer activities against two target yeasts (Saccharomyces unisporus Y-42 and Saccharomyces bayanus Y-43) previously isolated from spoiled fermented vegetables were then determined using well diffusion assay. Killer yeasts were grown on VJM using variable conditions; 3 temperatures, 5 salt concentrations and 5 pH levels. Fungicidal properties and synthesis of killer factors are strongly dependant on growth conditions as well as on the killer yeast strain used. Production of killer toxins by Hansenula anomala ATCC 36903 was optimal when incubated at 20°C to 30°C in VJM having a pH range between 3.5 to 4.5 and supplemented with sodium chloride at concentration of 2 to 4%. Those results suggest that Hansenula anomala ATCC 36903 could be a suitable addition to a lactic starter to help control secondary fermentation in fermented vegetables.


The polarization-corrected temperature (PCT) method is used to quantitatively estimate rainfall associated with typhoons over Taiwan. The satellite rainfall retrieval algorithms for TRMM/TMI (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission/TRMM Microwave Imager) have been developed according to rain types to improve the accuracy of the rainfall estimation. Measurements from precipitation radar (PR) are used to classify the rain types into three kinds including convective rain, stratiform rain with bright band and stratiform rain without bright band. Finally, rainfall retrievals are verified using PR near-surface rain rate (PR_RR), which is regarded as the "correct value." Data from typhoons during 2001 to 2006 are used to set up the rain rate retrieval equations. First, cloud-free areas are identified using infrared satellite images as cases of no-scattering condition and the PCT equations are set up for Taiwan. Second, from the statistical analyses of the PCT values with no-rain status, the rainfall threshold of 270 K is derived. Finally, the rain rate retrieval algorithms are set up using coincident PCT values and PR_RR for different rain types. Data from typhoons occurring from 2007 to 2008 are used for verification. The results show that the estimated values for convective and stratiform rain with bright band rain areas have better accuracy when the PCT method was used. For the stratiform rain without bright band, we find that the PCT method is not suitable. Applying this approach to estimate the rain rates associated with Typhoon Haitang (2005), the PCT method shows to have more reasonable rain rate estimation than the SIL (scattering index on land) method, with or without rain type classification. In addition, using 85 GHz data only, the PCT method shows higher rain rate retrieval resolution than the SIL method. Overall, we recommend that the PCT method can be used for quantitative precipitation estimation.


The limits of markets as mechanisms for constraining socially suboptimal behavior are well documented. Simultaneously, conventional approaches toward the law and regulation are often crude and ineffective mechanisms for containing the social costs of market failure. So where do we turn when both law and markets fail to live up to their social promise? Two possible answers are culture and ethics. In theory, both can help constrain socially undesirable behavior in the vacuum between law and markets. In practice, however, both exhibit manifest shortcomings. To many, this analysis may portend the end of the story. From our perspective, however, it represents a useful point of departure. While neither law nor markets may be particularly well suited to serving as "the conscience of the Square Mile", it may nevertheless be possible to harness the power of these institutions to carve out a space within which culture and ethics – or, combining the two, a more ethical culture – can play a meaningful role in constraining socially undesirable behavior within the financial services industry. The objective of this article is to explore some of the ways which, in our view, this might be achieved. This exploration takes place across two dimensions. In the first dimension, we hold constant the core internal governance arrangements – corporate objectives, directors' duties, board composition, committee structures and remuneration policies – within financial institutions. We then examine how the law and markets might be leveraged to engender a more ethical culture in two important areas: bilateral counterparty arrangements and socially excessive risktaking. More specifically, we examine how 'process-oriented' regulation – backed by a credible threat of both public enforcement and reputational sanctions – might be employed with a view to reframing personal ethical choices and fostering a more ethical organizational culture within financial services firms. Intuitively, we would expect the success of this strategy to be a function of the incentives generated by existing internal governance arrangements. Lamentably, however, many of these arrangements give primacy to the financial interests of shareholders and managers over those of other stakeholders including, perhaps most importantly, society. In the second dimension, therefore, we examine how we might cultivate a more ethical culture through reforms of the core governance arrangements of financial institutions.


Abstract. Soils are highly complex physical and biological systems, and hence measuring soil gas exchange fluxes with high accuracy and adequate spatial representativity remains a challenge. A technique which has become increasingly popular is the eddy covariance (EC) method. This method takes advantage of the fact that surface fluxes are mixed into the near-surface atmosphere via turbulence. As a consequence, measurements with an EC system can be done at some distance above the surface, providing accurate and spatially integrated flux density estimates. In this paper we provide a basic overview targeting scientists who are not familiar with the EC method. This review gives examples of successful deployments from a wide variety of ecosystems. The primary focus is on the three major greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). Several limitations to the application of EC systems exist, requiring a careful experimental design, which we discuss in detail. Thereby we group these experiments into two main classes: (1) manipulative experiments, and (2) survey-type experiments. Recommendations and examples of successful studies using various approaches are given, including the combination of EC flux measurements with online measurements of stable isotopes. We conclude that EC should not be considered a substitute to traditional (e.g., chamber based) flux measurements but instead an addition to them. The greatest strength of EC measurements in soil science are (1) their uninterrupted continuous measurement of gas concentrations and fluxes that can also capture short-term bursts of fluxes that easily could be missed by other methods and (2) the spatial integration covering the ecosystem scale (several square meters to hectares), thereby integrating over small-scale heterogeneity in the soil.


The ability to culture oocytes and embryos in an individually identifiable manner facilitates the study of the relationship between follicle param- eters and oocyte development, in order to identify markers of competent oocytes. The aim of this study was to examine the predictive value of intrafollicular steroid concentrations and granulosa cell transcript abundance on the ability of immature bovine oocytes to develop to the blastocyst stage in vitro. Individual follicles (n = 214, 11 replicates, 49 animals) were dissected from the ovaries of slaughtered animals. Following measure- ment of diameter, follicles were carefully ruptured under a stereomicroscope and the oocyte was recovered and individually processed through maturation, fertilization, and culture on the cell adhesive Cell-Tak (20 oocytes/100 μL; Matoba and Lonergan 2009 Reprod. Fertil. Dev. 21, 160). Cleavage and blastocyst rates were assessed on Days 2 and 9, respectively. Follicular fluid was recovered and stored at -80°C until analysis for concentrations of the steroids estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone by RIA. Granulosa cells were collected from each follicle for analysis of gene expression by quantitative RT-PCR. Primers were designed for 7 target genes (AMH, CYP19A, ESR1, ESR2, FSHR, HSD3B1 and LHCGR) and 2 reference genes (PPIA and H2AZ). Transcript abundance of target genes in granulosa cells associated with embryos that cleaved and developed to the blastocyst stage (competent) and those that cleaved but failed to develop (incompetent) was examined. Mean steroid concentrations were compared by ANOVA and Spearman correlations, and logistical regression were used to test the relationship between follicle size and steroid con- centration and the ability of steroid concentration to predict developmental competence. Gene expression data were analyzed using the delta-delta CT (cycle threshold) method. Values were normalized to the average values of the reference genes and means were compared by the Student's t-test In total, 79.1% of oocytes cleaved after IVF and 28.3% developed to the blastocyst stage. The mean (±SEM) follicular concentrations of testosterone (62.8 ± 4.8 ng mL-1), progesterone (616.8 ± 31.9 ng mL-1), or estradiol (14.4 ± 2.4 ng mL-1 were not different (P ≥ 0.05) between competent and incompetent oocytes. Follicular diameter was negatively correlated with testosterone, progesterone, testosterone:estradiol, and pro- gesterone:estradiol (P ≤ 0.01) and positively correlated with estradiol (P ≤ 0.01). Logistical regression analysis showed that steroid concentrations or the ratio of steroids were not satisfactory predictors of oocyte competence. Transcript abundance of AMH, ESR1, ESR2, FSHR, and HSD3B1 was significantly higher (P ≤ 0.05) in granulosa cells associated with competent compared with incompetent oocytes. In conclusion, follicular steroid concentrations were not associated with oocyte development. In contrast, granulosa cell gene expression may be a useful predictor of oocyte competence. Supported by Science Foundation Ireland (07/SRC/B1156).