ABSIRAC 1 In Sicily the Africa-Europe convergence is testified by the timespace migration of a complex Chain-Foredeep system. The convergence took place from the Oligocene to the Pleistocene, involving several paleogeographic domains: the Sicilide Units, characterised by oceanic crust, which represents part of the Tethys, the continental crust Panormide domain, the thinned and oceanic-type crust Imerese-Sicanian (Ionian) domain, and the Ibleo-Saccense African margin. Recent interpretation of off-shore seismic lines shows that the advance of the frontal part of the chain stopped during the Early Pleistocene; on the other hand new onshore geological data indicate an accretionary wedge under sub-critical conditions affected by internal deformation due to the activation of deep transpressive crustal structures. The recognition of wide sub-horizontal overthrusts truncated by out-of sequence thrust systems permits the deformational events related to a thin skinned-type tectonic context to be distinguished from more recent thick skinned-type tectonics which involves the crustal levels. An interpretative model is proposed which takes in account the structural evolution, the times and the modalities of the orogenic advancement, passing from Messinian-Early Pliocene critical wedge to Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene sub-critical conditions.


The Virtual Design Team (VDT) is an object-oriented, discrete event simulation of a multidisciplinary design team in action. The VDT models a design task as a network of design and design coordination activities to be performed by one or more subteams and their managers. The prototype version of the VDT described in this paper focuses on design coordination activities involving the joint participation of several subteam managers. Subteam managers are modeled as agents who pay attention to items in an inbox according to defined attention rules, process the items in a length of time determined by processing time rules, and direct communications to other agents through an outbox. Agents are located in professional, corporate, and team hierarchies from which they inherit behavioral characteristics. Information processing technologies used by the team affect the richness, quantity and timing of information passing between agents. Within this framework, we can model the impact of organizational structure and alternative information processing technologies on the duration of the overall design task.


There's an epidemic sweeping the nation Symptoms include: *Acute embarrassment at the mere notion of 'making a fuss' *Extreme awkwardness when faced with any social greeting beyond a brisk handshake *An unhealthy preoccupation with meteorology Doctors have also reported several cases of unnecessary apologising, an obsessive interest in correct queuing etiquette and dramatic sighing in the presence of loud teenagers on public transport. If you have experienced any of these symptoms, you may be suffering from VERY BRITISH PROBLEMS. VERY BRITISH PROBLEMS are highly contagious. There is no known cure. Rob Temple's hilarious new book reveals all the ways in which we are a nation of socially awkward but well-meaning oddballs, struggling to make it through every day without apologising to an inanimate object. Take comfort in misfortunes of others. You are not alone.


It is well recognized that organizations play a central role in generating inequality in employment outcomes between women and men. Women are often disadvantaged relative to men when they enter firms either because they are more likely to enter into lower paying positions or into roles that offer less advancement opportunities. What is less well-understood are the mechanisms though which women may be able to overcome these disadvantages. One theoretical solution to this problem is for women to undertake less typical career paths within the firm and move to more fecund jobs and job ladders that offer more opportunity for advancement. However, there is a risk to moving atypically, as erratic careers are often viewed negatively. We investigate this question with monthly observations of 53,311 exempt U.S. employees at a West Coast Fortune 500 tech company over an eight year period, from 2008 to 2015. We first demonstrate that jobs disproportionately staffed by women are, on average, of lower pay and lower advancement opportunities within the firm. We find, erratic career mobility, defined as a sequence of atypical job moves, results in differential outcomes for women and men. Specifically, women who move erratically are promoted faster than similarly erratic men. However, this effect is the opposite for performance appraisals. More erratic mobility by women results in lower performance appraisals than similarly erratic men. Mobility is therefore a double-edged sword for women - we refer to this as the dilemma of mobility.


We present FixML, a system for automatically generating feedback on logical errors in functional programming assignments. As functional languages have been gaining popularity, the number of students enrolling functional programming courses has increased significantly. However, the quality of feedback, in particular for logical errors, is hardly satisfying. To provide personalized feedback on logical errors, we present a new error-correction algorithm for functional languages, which combines statistical error-localization and type-directed program synthesis enhanced with components reduction and search space pruning using symbolic execution. We implemented our algorithm in a tool, called FixML, and evaluated it with 497 students' submissions from 13 exercises, including not only introductory but also more advanced problems. Our experimental results show that our tool effectively corrects various and complex errors: it fixed 43% of the 497 submissions in 5.4 seconds on average and managed to fix a hard-to-find error in a large submission, consisting of 154 lines. We also performed user study with 18 undergraduate students and confirmed that our system actually helps students to better understand their programming errors.


The nature and behavior of CO2 in rhyolitic melt at low to moderate pressures was examined using a variety of experimental and analytical techniques. The results are applicable to and critical for understanding the inventory of carbon in the mantle, the growth and evolution of atmospheres, and the processes governing magma degassing. In this study, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was calibrated against vacuum extraction/manometry and used to measure solubilities and diffusivities of CO2 in rhyolitic glasses. The difference in 13C/12C ratios between coexisting CO2 vapor and CO2 dissolved as CO2 molecules in rhyolitic melt was also determined experimentally and measured using vacuum extraction and mass spectrometry. Together, these data establish a basis with which to interpret the interaction of carbon dioxide with silicic systems.

The solubility behavior of CO2 in rhyolitic melt, studied at 750-850°C and pressures up to ~ 1500 bars, obeys Henry's Law. Only molecular CO2 was observed in the glasses under these conditions, but both CO2 molecules and CO3(2-) ions have been detected in a single CO2-bearing rhyolitic glass quenched from much higher pressure (25 kbars) by other workers, suggesting that the reaction CO2 (melt) + O2- (melt) = CO3(2-) (melt) is favored in rhyolitic melts as pressure increases. Using the CO2 solubility data, a thermodynamic model was developed to describe CO2 solubility in rhyolitic melt as a function of temperature and pressure. The solubility of CO2 in rhyolite is approximately 30% lower than that in basalt, in which all dissolved CO2 has been detected as CO3(2-). CO2 and water solubility data can be used to interpret volatile contents of silicic eruption products. Modeled CO2-H2O vapor saturation curves permit estimation of minimum entrapment pressures of rhyolitic melt inclusions.

The diffusive behavior of CO2 in rhyolitic melt was examined through a set of experiments conducted at 450-1050°C and 550-1050 bars in which the silicate glasses were not allowed to fully equilibrate with CO2 vapor. CO2 concentration profiles, determined by FTIR spectroscopy, were fit to an analytical solution of the diffusion equation assuming constant DCO2. DCO2 has a strong, direct correlation with temperature but is only weakly responsive to changes in pressure. The observed Arrhenius relation between diffusivities and temperature over a 600°C interval was used to calculate the activation energy for CO2 diffusion. The relation between the size of a CO2 molecule and its activation energy derived from the experimental results mimics the positive correlation reported for noble gases, suggesting that the diffusive behavior of CO2 in the melt is similar to that of other neutral species. CO2 diffusivity in rhyolitic melt is lower than bulk water diffusivity (at 0.2 wt% total water) for temperatures below 1050°C but is higher at higher temperatures. CO2 diffusivity in rhyolitic melt is similar to that in basaltic melt, but the activation energy for CO2 diffusion in rhyolite is somewhat lower. These diffusion results can be applied to an evaluation of diffusive transport of CO2 in magmas, diffusional fractionation of CO2 and H2O, and growth rates of CO2-rich bubbles in magmas.

The effect of increasing water content on CO2 solubility in rhyolite was examined through another set of experiments involving variable proportions of CO2 and H2O in the vapor phase. Under the conditions of the experiments, which are relevant to degassing of common silicic magmas near the earth's surface, Henry's law is obeyed for both water and carbon dioxide in rhyolitic melts. Thus, the amount of CO2 dissolved in a rhyolitic melt saturated with H2O-CO2 vapor at a given pressure and temperature will be lower than if the vapor were pure CO2 by a factor equal to the ratio of the fugacity of CO2 in the mixed vapor to the fugacity of CO2 in pure CO2 vapor at the same conditions. This is essentially a dilution effect. The same is true for the amount of water dissolved in the melt, except that it is the amount of molecular water that is lowered proportionately to the fugacity of water by this dilution effect. There is no evidence of an enhancement of CO2 solubility in mixed H2O-CO2 systems over systems in which only CO2 is present, as has been reported previously for significantly higher pressures. Further work will be needed to confirm reported non-Henrian behavior at elevated pressures and the implied significance for solubility mechanisms under these conditions, but in the meantime, it appears that efforts to model high level crustal and volcanic phenomena are considerably simplified by the validity of Henry's law for the major volatile species.

The isotopic partitioning of 13C between CO2 vapor and coexisting dissolved CO2 was measured through rhyolite-CO2 experiments at 800-1200°C and 250-1444 bars. The abundance and isotopic composition of CO2 dissolved in the glass were determined by stepped heating and the yields were checked against IR spectroscopic analysis. The 13C/12C of coexisting vapor was determined by direct sampling. No detectable isotopic fractionation between CO2 vapor and CO2 molecules dissolved in rhyolitic melt was observed. These results are very different from those for the system basalt-CO2, in which degassing leaves behind CO3(2-) depleted in 13C dissolved in the melt. The 13C/12C ratios of natural rhyolitic samples offer potential for a direct measurement of the carbon composition of the source region of this magma type.


At low temperature and in the presence of CF3COOH, SO2 undergoes Diels-Alder additions with (E)-1-acetoxybutadiene (8d) giving a 1:10 mixture of diastereomeric 6-acetoxysultines (9d + 10d). The Van't Hoff plot for equilibria 8d + SO2 reversible arrow 9d + 10d led to Delta H-r = -7.0 +/- 0.3 kcal/mol, Delta S-r = -42 +/- 3 cal . mol(-1) . K-1. At 20 degrees C, 8d underwent a slow cheletropic addition with SO2 giving 2-acetoxysulfolene (11d, Delta Hr congruent to -11.5 kcal/mol), the structure of which was established by single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies. (E)-Chloro (8e) and (E)-bromobutadiene (8f) did not undergo Diels-Alder additions with SO2, even in the presence of protic or Lewis acid promoters. Low yields of 2-chloro- (11e) and 8-bromosulfolene (11f) were obtained at 20 degrees C. The structure of 11e was confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The potential energy hypersurfaces of the Diels-Alder and cheletropic additions of SO2 to butadiene (8a), (E)-piperilene (8b), (E)-1-methoxy- (8c), (E)-1-acetoxy- (8d), and (E)-1-chlorobutadiene (8e) were studied by ab initio quantum calculations at the MP2/6-31G* level. In agreement with the experiment, 6-substituted sultines 9X and 10X were less stable than the corresponding 2-substituted sulfolenes 11X for X = Me, OAc, Cl. With X = OMe, the two diastereomeric 6-methoxysultines (9c, 10c) and 8-methoxysulfolene (11c) were calculated to have similar stabilities. This is attributed to a stabilizing thermodynamic anomeric effect or gem-sulfinate/methoxy disubstitution effect in 9c, 10c. Such effects were not detected for sulfinate/acetoxy (9d, 10d) and sulfinate/chloro (9e, 10e) disubstitutions. The relative instability of 8-acetoxy- (11d) and 2-chlorosulfolene (11e) compared with their cycloaddents is attributed to repulsive interactions between the SO2 moieties and the 2-substituents. The Alder endo mode of [4 + 2] cycloaddition of SO2 is predicted to be faster than the "anti-Alder mode" of additions for dienes 8X, X = Me, OMe, OAc, Cl. The resulting diastereomeric sultines 9X and 10X, respectively, exist as equilibria (energy barrier: ca. 5-6 kcal/mol) of two conformers 9X reversible arrow 9X, 10X reversible arrow 10X. In general, the conformers 9X, 10X with pseudoaxial S=O group are preferred (conformational anomeric effect of the sulfinate moiety). Repulsive interactions between pseudoaxial S=O and polar cis-6-substituents (e.g.: X = OMe, OAc) in 9X may render conformers 9X (with the S-O and 6-X groups in pseudoequatorial positions) as stable as conformers 9X. The calculations predict the existence of conformational anomeric effects of 2-3 kcal/mol for the gem-sulfinate/methoxy (9c, 10'c) and gem-sulfinate/acetoxy disubstitution (9d, 10'd).


Tight control on the selectivity of nanoparticles' interaction with biological systems is paramount for the development of targeted therapies. However, the large number of synthetically tunable parameters makes it difficult to identify optimal design ``sweet spots'' without rational guiding principles. Here we address this problem combining super-selectivity theory (SST) with analytical models from soft matter and polymer physics into a unified theoretical framework. Starting from an archetypal system, a polymersome functionalized with targeting ligands, we use our model to identify the most selective combination of parameters in terms of particle size, brush polymerization degree and grafting density, as well as tether length, binding affinity and ligands number. We further show how to combine multivalent interactions into multiplexed systems which act holistically as a function of the density of more than one receptor type, so as to achieve binding only when multiple receptors are expressed above a threshold density. We show that theory can be used to effectively fit experimental data and, hence confirming its suitability. We thus propose the design of "bar-coding" targeting approach that can be tailor-made to unique cell populations enabling personalized therapies.


A study of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's acquisition, "The "Kearsarge" at Boulogne", by Edouard Manet (1832-1883). During the American Civil War, when Union forces blocked Confederate ports, the Confederacy countered by waging guerrilla warfare on Union merchant shipping. One of the most skilled Confederate raiders was the sloop-of-war "Alabama". On the 19th June 1864, the USS Kearsarge and the CSS Alabama fought off the coast of Cherbourg, France. The Alabama sank less than two hours after the first shot was fired. The battle captured the attention of the French people, and Manet, who as a teenager had served in the French navy, raced to Boulogne to see the victorious Kearsarge. He painted a depiction of the battle (which he did not witness), now in Philadelphia, as well as a portrait of the Kearsarge, now in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This volume contains essays about the Metropolitan's picture and five additional seascapes painted by Manet in Boulogne during the summer of 1864. Related works by other artists, photographs and newspaper articles are also included.


Recently, we have shown that high molecular weight polymers inhibit cortical granule exocytosis at total osmolalities only slightly higher than that of sea water (Whitaker, M., and J. Zimmerberg. 1987. J. Physiol. 389:527-539). In this study, we visualize the step at which this inhibition occurs. Lytechinus pictus and Strongylocentrotus purpuratus eggs were exposed to 0.8 M stachyose or 40% (wt/vol) dextran (average molecular mass of 10 kD) in artificial sea water, activated with 60 microM of the calcium ionophore A23187, and then either fixed with glutaraldehyde and embedded or quick-frozen and freeze-fractured. Stachyose (2.6 osmol/kg) appears to inhibit cortical granule exocytosis by eliciting formation of a granule-free zone (GFZ) in the egg cortex which pushes granules away from the plasma membrane thus preventing their fusion. In contrast, 40% dextran (1.58 osmol/kg) does not result in a GFZ and cortical granules undergo fusion. In some specimens, the pores joining granule and plasma membranes are relatively small; in other cases, the exocytotic pocket has been stabilized in an omega configuration and the granule matrix remains intact. These observations suggest that high molecular weight polymers block exocytosis because of their inability to enter the granule matrix: they retard the water entry that is needed for matrix dispersal.


Background: Pain assessment and management are essential parts of nursing care and two of the most fundamental patient rights. It is unethical to let a patient suffer from pain without taking appropriate measures to relief his or her pain.
Objective: This study aims to explore the ICU staff nurse's knowledge and attitudes towards pain and pain management at King Saud Medical City (KSMC) in Saudi Arabia. The pain management knowledge and attitudes of ICU nurses at KSMC has not been explored in previous research.
Methods: A descriptive cross sectional design was utilized using a self-reporting questionnaire tool to obtain information from ICU nurses about their knowledge and attitudes towards pain and pain management. The questionnaire was distributed to 289 nurses employed in King Saud Medical City (KSMC), which is one of the biggest tertiary hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 204 nurses responded to the questionnaire (71% response rate).
Results and conclusion: The results showed sever lack of knowledge and poor attitudes among ICU nurses towards pain management when dealing with ICU patients, 60% of the knowledge questions were answered incorrectly by more than 50% of the nursing staff participated in the study, 65% of attitude questions were answered incorrectly by more than 50% of the nursing staff. This study has uncovered both knowledge and attitudes gaps among ICU nurses.


The Effects of Direction of Grouping, Type of Stimuli, and Class Level on Cognitive Equivalence Transformations by Christopher A. Joseph, Doctor of Philosophy Utah State University, 1973 Major Professor : Dr. David R. Stone Department: Psychology The major purpose of this investigation was to study the structure, attributes , and supplemental aspects of equivalence classifying of words and pictures made by sixth graders, freshmen college students and junior and senior college students . A particular point of interest was whether or not increasing or decreasing the size of th e groups results in different types of equivalence classifying. Other minor goals were to determine the effects of direction of grouping, type of stimuli, and class level on unique reasons produced and recall of stimuli. The results of the study support the thesis that there is a cognitive developmental progression which supports the works of Piaget, Bruner, Vinacke and others. Children, compared to college levels, use a less efficient grouping structure, lower level simple association and concrete and perceptual grouping attributes, lower quality responses, and more specific reasons for grouping. College levels, compared to six grade , use more representational grouping attributes , have higher quality responses, and have a more general xxiv level of specificity. In addition, decreasing grouping structure results in a high level of cognitive performance in all aspects of grouping . There were no main effect differences between the words and pictures. However, there were significant interaction effects involving directions, stimuli, and class levels . There were more stimuli recalled and unique reasons produced by the college students . More pictures than words were recalled by all groups. One implication of the results is that decreasing the size of groupings apparently results in a higher level of cognitive functioning. One reason ventured for this result is that decreasing group size results in more divergent thinking and allows the individual to contemplate more possibilities for his groupings. Increasing group size is related to convergent thinking in which the subject is hindered by a previous set. Another implication is that there is a cognitive development a l progression which results in an increasingly more sophisticated ability to deal with the compl ex stimuli of the environment. Also, there is some evidence that different grade levels handle pictures differently than they do words. More study is needed to clarify the role of different forms of stimuli in classifying. From this study it is clear that there are no main effect differences between words and pictures . However, there certainly appear to be some interaction effects, and these need further clarification . xxv


Multinational corporations (MNCs) in the West have introduced voluntary codes of conduct (CoC) in global supply chains to promote the application of international labour standards and labour rights in their suppliers' factories. Previous studies on CoC implementation have addressed various problems of its effectiveness but they are limited to a rather narrow context of business relationships between MNCs and factory-based suppliers. My research examines CoC implementation in a wider global supply chain and domestic institutional context. It aims to: firstly, assess how CoC is implemented throughout the multi-layered clothing supply chain and, secondly, identify structural and institutional constraints which hinder the effectiveness of CoC. The thesis employs qualitative analyses of 398 web-based documents from the 75 largest clothing brands and retailers in US and UK markets. It also provides data from 62 in-depth and semi-structured interviews of garment factories managers, workers, vendors, labour auditors and local officials in Vietnam, as well as representatives from UK retailers and campaign groups. The thesis analyses various sets of relationship among these actors and in two dimensions of the environments in which CoC operates: global supply network structure and domestic employment relations system. My thesis makes three original contributions. Firstly it challenges the presumed logic of CoC aimed at supporting workers, because it shows evidence from the workers' perspective that CoC not only fails to support workers' needs but also faces resistance from them in non-complying factories in Vietnam. Secondly, I argue that the oversimplified assumption of principal-agent control model between MNCs and suppliers' factories, which underpins the CoC arrangement, fails to recognise the complex structure of supply network with interdependent operations and multi-level flow of commands. Finally, my thesis exposes the weakness of market initiatives like CoC: when their pledges to improve working conditions and promote workers' rights clash with economic and socio-political priorities of the local government, the latter prevails. Taking the business and institutional dimensions together I have developed a framework for a more comprehensive assessment of CoC and similar voluntary initiatives that can be applied by other researchers in similar contexts.


Mechanisms leading to fatigue have been the subject of immense research investigation. However, the exact mechanisms causing the development of fatigue, remain largely unknown and fiercely debated. Herein we identify plasma metabolites and neuromuscular factors associated with exercise-induced fatigue, and assess potential nutritional strategies which may help delay the onset of fatigue. The role of individual metabolites in the development of fatigue were assessed using metabolomic profiling of plasma during a constant endurance cycling bout in Chapter 3. Analyses revealed important associations between fatigue-onset with free fatty acids, tryptophan and glucose. The contribution of central- and peripheral fatigue mechanisms during isoenergetic constant and self-paced cycling trials was assessed in Chapter 4. Central fatigue was similar following each protocol, but total fatigue was shown to be greater following self-paced cycling. Importantly, the serotonin precursor tryptophan has been implicated in the onset of fatigue, and tryptophan is displaced from albumin when lipid concentrations iincrease; this may explain the association between increased lipid concentration and fatigue observed in Chapter 3. Therefore, using a branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) supplement, we manipulated the free-tryptophan (unbound) passage across the blood brain barrier (Chapter 5). We observed greater endurance capacity with the BCAA compared to a placebo, although this was independent of changes in central fatigue. In an attempt to mitigate the decrease in blood glucose concentrations in endurance cycling (observed in Chapter 3), a mixed-carbohydrate comprising starch and disaccharides was ingested before and immediately after a prolonged cycling bout(Chapter 6). We hypothesised that this mixed-carbohydrate beverage would minimise hypoglycaemia when compared to an isocaloric glucose beverage and improve overall performance. Although blood glucose and insulin were significantly different between conditions, there were no differences in exercise performance or fatigue markers between conditions. The significance of these findings and future directions of research are discussed in Chapter 7.


&NA; Restorative justice, when trauma informed, has a great potential to effectively contribute to sustainable peace in post conflict settings. An evidence based example of a programme illustrating such effect is community based sociotherapy in Rwanda. This article documents what this programme has achieved in terms of restorative justice, following the closure of Gacaca, the community based justice system that was in operation in Rwanda nationwide from 2005 to 2012. In total, 155 respondents to 23 focus group discussions and 39 individual interviewees, including former participants of sociotherapy, leaders on sector and district level and government representatives at national level, participated in outcome studies that inform this article. The majority of respondents indicated that sociotherapy generates a process of genuine healing and reconciliation, resulting in peacebuilding at family and community level, as well as wider social change. The challenge is how to scale-up sociotherapy interventions without losing trauma informed characteristics.


This paper describes a direct comparison of apparent ages derived from 3H/3He, chlorofluorocarbons (CCl3F and CCl2F2), and 85Kr measurements in shallow groundwater. Wells chosen for this study are completed in the unconfined surficial aquifers in late Cenozoic Atlantic Coastal Plain sediments of the Delmarva Peninsula, on the east coast of the United States. Most of the apparent tracer ages agree within 2 years of each other for recharge dates between 1965 and 1990. Discrepancies in apparent tracer ages usually can be explained by hydrological processes such as mixing in a discharge area. Recharge rate calculations based on apparent tracer age gradients at multilevel well locations agree with previous recharge estimates. High recharge rates on the Delmarva Peninsula result in nearly complete dissolved-gas confinement in the groundwater. The remarkable agreement between the different tracer ages indicates negligible mixing of waters of different ages, insignificant dispersion, minimal gas loss to the atmosphere, and insignificant sorption-desorption processes at this location.


Objectives: We compared the inpatient rehabilitation model (IRM), provided by the physiatrist, physical therapist, rehabilitation nurse and clinical psychologist, with the home exercise model (HEM), provided by the physiatrist for the rehabilitation of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Patients and methods: One hundred and twenty eligible adult patients [60 RA (mean age 51.8±11.7) and 60 AS (mean age 39.7±10.4)] requiring rehabilitation treatment who had not received physical therapy (PT) in the past two years were included in this study. Participants were randomly allocated into two groups IRM or HEM. The primary outcome was one of the following measures from baseline to 15 months: Disease Activity Score of 28 joints (DAS28) and Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) scores for patients with RA and scores of Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) and Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI) for patients with AS. Outcome assessors were blinded. General estimated marginal means of multivariate comparisons were performed for both "within-subjects" and "between-subjects" for statistical analyses. Results: Mean disease duration of patients with chronic RA and AS were 8.5±6.4 (median 7) and 8.7±7.8 (median 6) years, respectively. Changes of DAS28 and HAQ scores were better in the IRM group than the HEM group. While most of the patients with RA used combined disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, none of the patients used anti-tumor necrosis factor agents for disease control. BASFI and BASDAI score improvements were not different in both groups. Inpatient rheumatologic rehabilitation programs improved physical function and disease activity in patients with RA and AS. However, statistically significant changes were detected in the DAS28 and HAQ scores of RA patients. Conclusion: Since patients' functioning is a central aspect of the rheumatic diseases, and remission is rare for these diagnoses, rheumatologic rehabilitation programs should be applied to all of these patients. Inpatient care was useful for patients with RA in contrast to patients with AS. It might be related to more resting periods in inpatient care as opposed to the usual care or ineffective drug therapy for continuing disease process in patients with AS.


In an effort to bolster national security following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Transportation Security Administration began utilizing what became commonly referred to as "airport body scanners" — imaging devices capable of creating photo-like images of airline passengers' bodies. The controversial technology spurred several lawsuits, scathing media attention, and public outcry labeling the technology as an invasion of privacy and an encroachment upon the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. Soon thereafter, the overwhelming attention led numerous major airports to replace the controversial scanners with less invasive scanners. In the meantime, this same invasive technology has been taken to the streets in the form of Z Backscatter Vans (ZBVs) — covert, unmarked vans capable of roaming the streets while simultaneously emitting X-rays that create photo-like images of adjacent vehicles' interiors. American Science & Engineering, the ZBV's manufacturer, admits the ZBV "looks like an ordinary delivery van," and is "designed for covert use." Not surprisingly, unlike its controversial presence in airports, backscatter X-ray technology onboard these street-roving vans has gone largely undetected. This Comment aims to change this dangerous status quo. Much like other undetected dangers and social issues, raising awareness and garnering the attention of the public will be key in achieving the ultimate goal: stripping ZBVs of their covert nature. Although the Food and Drug Administration regulates the manufacturers of electronic radiation emitting products sold in the United States, it does not regulate their use. Therefore, ZBVs are free to roam the streets as unmarked and unregulated white delivery vans without any notice to the public of their X-ray capabilities. This Comment proposes a simple solution to prevent covert, unconstitutional use: label the sides of ZBVs with "Mobile X-ray Unit." Through public awareness and regulation, we can more adequately protect our Fourth Amendment rights by preventing surreptitious use of "one of the most intrusive technologies conceivable."


Restoring landscapes can bring economic, environmental, and social prosperity to people and the planet. In the Sidhi District of India's Madhya Pradesh state, the opportunity is massive. By adapting the popular Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM) to measure ecosystem services, livelihood benefits, land tenure, gender, and social inclusion and by mapping the social landscape, we uncovered that diverse potential.


The popularity of Python programming language has surged in recent years due to its increasing usage in Data Science. The availability of Python repositories in Github presents an opportunity for mining software repository research, e.g., suggesting the best practices in developing Data Science applications, identifying bug-patterns, recommending code enhancements, etc. To enable this research, we have created a new dataset that includes 1,558 mature Github projects that develop Python software for Data Science tasks. By analyzing the metadata and code, we have included the projects in our dataset which use a diverse set of machine learning libraries and managed by a variety of users and organizations. The dataset is made publicly available through Boa infrastructure both as a collection of raw projects as well as in a processed form that could be used for performing large scale analysis using Boa language. We also present two initial applications to demonstrate the potential of the dataset that could be leveraged by the community.


Abstract In this work we used publicly available raw RNA-seq data to elucidate mechanisms of flax fiber biogenesis by measuring expression of cell-wall related genes (cellulose synthase, cellulose synthase-like and chitinase-like genes) in stem of flax (Linum usitatissimum cv. Bethune). Using public RNA-sequence data we have quantified and characterised the expression of the specific cell-wall genes in the top, middle and bottom parts of the Bethune flax stem. The most prominent findings are: Secondary cell-wall cellulose synthase (CesA) genes are expressed differentially in phloem and xylem in all parts of Bethune stem, in contrast with primary cell-wall cellulose synthase genes. Total expression level of cellulose synthase-like (Csl) genes is tissue invariant (although, CslG and CslE are differentially expressed) and smaller than the total expression of cellulose synthase genes. The CslD2D3 subgroup dominates total expression of CslD genes in both xylem and phloem. Expression levels of all expressed chitinase-like (Ctl) genes are tissue dependent in all parts of stem. Total expression level of chitinase-like genes is much higher than expression of cellulose synthase and cellulose synthase-like genes in both tissues.


The UNESCO's latest interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger has identified nearly 2,500 languages endangered out of the 7000-odd languages spoken across the world. With as many as 197 endangered languages among its 600 plus tongues spoken, India tops the list. Further, among the worst hit are the tribal languages. In a country that boasts of linguistic and cultural diversity, language attrition of this scale is arguably a major democratic setback, if not failure. With the death of a language, we lose the life force of a community -its secret practices, future interpretation of extant literature, environmental knowledge, ancestral world views, and cultural heritage. Alarmed by the UNESCO's 2010 revelation about the country's threatened voices, the Govt. of India has put in place the Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages of India (SPPEL) in 2013 for the revitalization of endangered languages and for a reverse language shift (RLS). The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), a research and teaching institute of Govt. of India, is overseeing the implementation of the SPPEL (http://www.sppel.org). Under the scheme, Central Universities have been entrusted with the documentation of 500 vulnerable languages that are spoken by less than 10, 000 people each, called "potentially endangered" language by the UNESCO. While critiquing the strategies adopted by SPPEL and allied agencies towards language revitalization (LR) on grounds of pragmatics, this paper argues that the active involvement of an endangered speech community is indispensable in any long-term effort towards preservation and promotion of its language as any LR programme, to be truly successful, requires the convergence of both 'top down' and 'bottomup' approaches and practices, lamentably absent in India. Besides identifying the gap areas in the existing LR strategies, this paper also discusses a conceptual framework namely PPP model that can be designed and implemented by governments or public agencies/institutions, and private stakeholders for the protection, preservation, and promotion of endangered languages in India.


While effects of public policy are one of the foundations of organizational theory, less explored is how these effects may depend on other external environmental factors. We focus on how policy is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition to understand the growth of banking in the U.S. states, 1896-1978. Three characteristics of banks—simultaneous production and distribution, pooled intra-organizational coordination, and agency relationships—result in a trade-off between centralized and dispersed growth strategies. Which strategy prevails depends on how policy enabling branching interacts with technological, economic, and cultural environments. Our findings contribute to understanding the contingent effects of policy on organizations and the rise of large corporations in the twentieth century.


The study aims at introducing the influence of disclosure in financial statements on the economical Jordanian firms in the presence of international accounting standards. It also aims at introducing the role of the variables of the study. To achieve these goals, the questionnaire has been carefully studied and developed. The reliability and the consistency coefficient have been checked, too. After collecting questionnaires, they have been coded, entered into a computer to be statistically processed by using SPSS. Here are the results of the study in accordance with its questions and hypothesis.  Disclosure and openness affect the fairness of the financial statements.  Commitment to international accounting standards creates a balance between the interests of the administration and the interests of share holders and commercial partners.  Commitment to disclosure in accordance to international accounting standards attracts new investors.  The information resulted through disclosure helps the manager to make correct financial decisions.  Commitment to international accounting standards supports control and questioning in companies.  Disclosure makes accurate, independent and objective information available.  Commitment to international accounting standards creates the confidence in the accounting and auditing profession in the corporations.


We study an SIS epidemic model over an arbitrary fixed network topology where the n agents, or nodes of the network, have partial information about the epidemic state. The agents react by distancing themselves from their neighbors when they believe the epidemic is currently prevalent. An agent's awareness is weighted from three sources of information: the fraction of infected neighbors in their contact network, their social network, and a global broadcast of the fraction of infected nodes in the entire network. The dynamics of the benchmark (no awareness) and awareness models are described by discrete-time 2n-state Markov chains. Through a coupling technique, we establish monotonicity properties between the benchmark and awareness models. Particularly, we show that the expectation of any increasing random variable on the space of sample paths, e.g. eradication time or total infections, is lower for the awareness model. In addition, we give a characterization for this difference of expectations in terms of the coupling distribution. In simulations, we evaluate how different sources of information affect the spread of an epidemic.


Personal jurisdiction is a mess, and only Congress can fix it. Courts have sought a single doctrine that simultaneously guarantees convenience for plaintiffs, fairness for defendants, and legitimate authority for the tribunal. With these goals in conflict, each new fact pattern has pulled precedent in a different direction, robbing litigants of certainty and blunting the force of our substantive law. Solving the problem starts with reframing it. Rather than ask where a case may be heard, we should ask who may hear it. If the parties are from the same state, that state's courts are open. If not, the federal courts are. But today's law, thinking about places instead of persons, sows unnecessary confusion by obliging federal courts to follow state jurisdictional rules. This is a mistake, and something we can change. Following the invitation of a recent Supreme Court plurality, this Article suggests a system of nationwide federal personal jurisdiction, relieving federal courts of their jurisdictional dependence on state borders. In a federal forum, the court usually has undoubted authority over the parties--whose convenience can be addressed through well-crafted venue rules, backstopped by due process guarantees. Because our procedural rules have grown up in dependence on state jurisdiction, the Article goes on to draft legislative language addressing the new system's consequences for venue, choice of law, appeal rights, and other related issues. The Article's goal isn't to defend one specific proposal, but to encourage a variety of new proposals and, eventually, to change the direction of the debate. Scholars should spend more time thinking about the jurisdictional rules we would write for ourselves--which the Constitution actually lets us do, at least for federal courts. Only Congress can fix personal jurisdiction; we should start telling it how.


A major concern in recent decades is that teachers are equipped with pedagogical knowledge through pre-service teacher education programs but know nothing about how to put pedagogical knowledge into their own teaching scenarios. Hence, an increasing attention has been attached to teachers' contextualized understanding of pedagogical knowledge for effective teaching. Reflection has often been recommended as an instrument for constructing teachers' context-specific knowledge of teaching. This self-study has identified an approach of reflection by which I, as a beginning Chinese language teacher-researcher, employed to develop contextualized understanding of a generic pedagogical model known as Quality Teaching (QT). The essence of such reflection, named as tensionfocused reflection, is to reflect on and then manage tensions arising from implementing the generic pedagogical model in my own teaching. Tension-focused reflection enhanced my contextualization of QT in Chinese language classroom by prompting deep thinking about the contextual restrictions for implementing QT, the subjectspecific usefulness of QT, and the consequences of such implementation on subject-specific practice. Yielded by such thinking was my contextualized application of QT that was useful for my teaching Chinese as a foreign language. While unfolding the process of developing and applying tension-focused reflection, this self-study also confirmed the value of teacher reflection for beginning teachers' development and encouraged teachers' innovative approaches of reflection which meets their own needs.


In this work, we present the four-component quadratic vibronic coupling model for the description of the Renner–Teller effect (RTE) in the presence of the spin–orbit coupling. The interaction of the two potential energy surfaces emerging from the cationic 2Π states of singly ionized linear triatomic molecules is described by the quadratic coupling constant c for the genuine RT repulsion and the second parameter, d, for a nonconstant spin–orbit coupling varying with the bond angle of the triatomic. The emergence of a linear RT constant in the presence of the spin–orbit operator was originally shown by Poluyanov and Domcke (2004 Chem. Phys. 301 111–27) and is based on the application of the Breit–Pauli Hamiltonian in combination with nonrelativistic wavefunctions. In contrast to this methodology, we generate the diabatic RT Hamiltonian in a 4-spinor basis where the symmetry transformation properties of the electronic and vibrational wavefunctions completely determine the RT matrix structure. Explicit access to highly correlated wavefunctions is not required in our approach. In addition, the four-component vibronic coupling model takes into account the full spatial orbital relaxation upon the inclusion of the spin–orbit coupling and is therefore well suited for heavy systems. The third parameter, p, accounting for a possible pseudo-Jahn–Teller interaction is not considered here, but it does not introduce a principal difficulty. As the initial systems for this study, we considered the BrCN+ and ClCN+ cations and determined the c and d parameters by a numerical fit to accurate adiabatic potential energy surfaces obtained by the relativistic Fock-space coupled-cluster method. New values for the computed linear RT parameter d amount to 14.7 ± 0.5 cm−1 for ClCN+ and 73.2 ± 0.7 cm−1 for BrCN+.


∗Copyleft c ©T. H. Merrett, 2006, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2019. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and full citation in a prominent place. Copyright for components of this work owned by others than T. H. Merrett must be honoured. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers, or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or fee. Request permission to republish from: T. H. Merrett, School of Computer Science, McGill University, fax 514 398 3883. The author gratefully acknowledges support from the taxpayers of Québec and of Canada who have paid his salary and research grants while this work was developed at McGill University, and from his students and their funding agencies.


Earnings inequality in the United States has increased rapidly over the last three decades, but little is known about the role of firms in this trend. For example, how much of the rise in earnings inequality can be attributed to rising dispersion between firms in the average wages they pay, and how much is due to rising wage dispersion among workers within firms? Similarly, how did rising inequality affect the wage earnings of different types of workers working for the same employer—men vs. women, young vs. old, new hires vs. senior employees, and so on? To address questions like these, we begin by constructing a matched employer-employee data set for the United States using administrative records. Covering all U.S. firms between 1978 to 2012, we show that virtually all of the rise in earnings dispersion between workers is accounted for by increasing dispersion in average wages paid by the employers of these individuals. In contrast, pay differences within employers have remained virtually unchanged, a finding that is robust across industries, geographical regions, and firm size groups. Furthermore, the wage gap between the most highly paid employees within these firms (CEOs and high level executives) and the average employee has increased only by a small amount, refuting oft-made claims that such widening gaps account for a large fraction of rising inequality in the population.


Development of a shame-based identity, also known as toxic shame, can significantly interfere with an adult's ability to form an intimate relationship with another. As adults find peace from their past using transactional analysis and mental imagery, they learn to empower themselves to form healthy, intimate relationships. ********** Growing up in a shame-producing environment teaches lessons that extend far beyond the childhood years. Many individuals with this kind of upbringing enter adolescence and adulthood searching for acceptance and love, finding instead that acceptance and love are only illusions, at least as they understand them. Their searching, fueled by haunting memories, creates internal conflict that feeds the damaged monsters lurking in the dark recesses of their mind (Farmer, 1989; Kaufman, 1992). Echoing within the void that exists in their deepest inner core are voices. These voices are not audible in their head, but trigger memories or thoughts often linked to significant people in their past. The voices send hurtful, damaging messages of contempt, disdain, and condemnation. Yet the speakers of these cruel messages are shrouded from physical eyesight, and the messages are never spoken aloud because to do so would cause vulnerability. Powell (1998) stated a simplistic, yet profound thought when he said, "But if I tell you who I am, you may not like who I am, and it is all that I have" (p. 20). This fear of rejection ignites a never ending, scripted pattern that prevents shamed individuals from experiencing true intimacy with others. Shamed individuals hide their pain behind masks and create scripts to get others to react in prescribed ways. It is comforting for others to fit into the life game because these scripts often fill a void in their life as well (Powell, 1998). How do these shameful scripts get written? How do individuals learn to play this game, hide their pain, and keep their masks securely fastened in place? SHAME-BASED IDENTITY AND TOXIC SHAME Kaufman (1992) suggested that shame is one of nine innate affects. When some event creates shame in a young child, the shame amplifies the child's awareness and links whatever event activated the shameful feelings to any and all responses that follow the shame-producing event. "When sufficient shame is generated early in life through developmental failures, the growth process is disrupted, perhaps even blocked, and a secure, self-affirming identity fails to emerge" (Kaufman, 1992, p. 100). The development of a shameful identity is a four-step process. First, shame is induced in individuals through interpersonal interactions that lead to the generation of shame. Second, shame is internalized into and eventually consumes their inner core. Third, the internalization of shame creates a process of internally disowning parts of the self. Kaufman (1992) labeled this splitting. Finally, this splitting creates painful internal discrepancies that individuals attempt to correct, but without much success. Therefore, the self-hate associated with their disowned, fragmented self is experientially erased and removed from conscious awareness. Thus, a cycle or pattern is established that is repeated anytime the shame is triggered. This four-step process solidifies the formation of a shame-based identity that has its root in unconscious awareness and fuels a destructive pattern that prevents intimacy, promotes low self-esteem, or can lead to destructive behaviors (e.g., a variety of abuses and addictions). Bradshaw (1988, 1995) identified this cyclical concept as toxic shame and suggested it manifests itself primarily in two common forms. First, the toxic self attempts to be superhuman and strives for perfection (no mistakes), being totally self-sufficient (never needs help), righteous or authoritarian acting (superior), or patronizing. Second, toxic shame may take the opposite form, that is, negatively influencing self-esteem. …


We develop and solve the equations of multiple-wavelength ellipsometry for thin uniaxial nonabsorbing films. We show that the values of the thickness and the real refractive indices (parallel and perpendicular to the optical axis) of the thin film can be obtained by three measurements, at three different wavelengths, of the phase difference (between the filmed and bare substrate phase changes caused by reflection), provided that the refractive indices of both the incident medium and the substrate are significantly dispersive. We also show, in the case of a dispersive thin film, how to determine the indices of refraction in terms of wavelength up to any desired accuracy by making the appropriate number of measurements of the phase difference at different wavelengths.


In this paper, we first document some stylized facts about very short-term and long-term corporate yield spreads. We find that short-term spreads are sizable, and the correlations between many firms' short-term and long-term yield spreads are at times negative. We then develop a structural model that generates levels and correlations of short-term and long-term spreads that are more consistent with what we observe. The model allows for the possibility of payment delays when a firm's liquid asset position deteriorates. Payment delays generate sizable short-term debt spreads because the realized returns on short-term investments are very sensitive to an increase in the holding period. The presence of liquidity risk can also explain negative correlations between short- and long-term spreads because liquidity risk is imperfectly correlated with insolvency risk. Using firm-level data, we provide empirical evidence that liquid assets holdings help predict short-term spreads, but not long-term spreads.


This thesis explores how Germans born in the GDR during the 1970s engage with discourses about the east when discursively constructing their identities in contemporary unified Germany. Existing academic research into east Germanness has largely focused on the idea of a collective identity, and consists of two predominant lines of argument. The first suggests that eastern identities jeopardise German unity, implying that east Germanness cannot exist alongside Germanness. The second problematises the often negative representations of easterners in the popular sphere. Taking this discourse as its basis, however, it risks overlooking the ways that easterners themselves perceive the east. By taking a constructivist approach and adopting a qualitative, interpretive methodology, the thesis gains in-depth insights into the complex ways in which easterners themselves negotiate a sense of east Germanness. The research consists of twenty in-depth interviews which were designed around the theme of consumption, a social and discursive practice common to the GDR and unified Germany, but one which has changed dramatically since unification. The findings revealed that popular perceptions do indeed contribute to the participants' understandings. However, they presented a more differentiated and complex picture of the east, which enabled them to construct a form of east Germanness which better fits their understandings. Importantly, it appears that these perceptions are not represented in current discourses. Using generation to identify themselves as a unique group, the participants distanced themselves from negative perceptions of the east and identified with positive attributes of both the east and west. This group view themselves as engaged members of a capitalist society, who not only identify as both German and east German, but perceive their socialist upbringings to benefit them in unified Germany. Importantly, the characteristics that they attach to their identities appear to be typical of western society. Using the label of the 1970s generation, they maintain a sense of east Germanness but paint a new picture of it which is contextualised within western norms and values.


In Meeting Psychosocial Needs of Women with Breast Cancer, the National Cancer Policy Board of the Institute of Medicine examines the psychosocial consequences of the cancer experience. The book focuses specifically on breast cancer in women because this group has the largest survivor population (over 2 million) and this disease is the most extensively studied cancer from the standpoint of psychosocial effects. The book characterizes the psychosocial consequences of a diagnosis of breast cancer, describes psychosocial services and how they are delivered, and evaluates their effectiveness. It assesses the status of professional education and training and applied clinical and health services research and proposes policies to improve the quality of care and quality of life for women with breast cancer and their families. Because cancer of the breast is likely a good model for cancer at other sites, recommendations for this cancer should be applicable to the psychosocial care provided generally to individuals with cancer. For breast cancer, and indeed probably for any cancer, the report finds that psychosocial services can provide significant benefits in quality of life and success in coping with serious and life-threatening disease for patients and their families.


It has been long recognised that the civil law of limitation can operate in arbitrary ways resulting in irrational and unjust outcomes. Tort actions by survivors of childhood abuse are significantly so affected, particularly due to the complex psychological effects of child abuse and their interaction with statutory requirements for starting dates of limitation periods. This article examines the way that the Law Commission and the common law have addressed this problem, with focus upon the recent case of KR v Bryn Alyn Community (Holdings) Ltd. Further, it considers both international comparisons and human rights implications, concluding that an urgent solution is pressing.


Research supports the implementation of mentoring programs as potentially successful approaches to meeting the needs of at-risk students. This study examined a mentoring program entitled: LISTEN (Linking Individual Students To Educational Needs). The LISTEN mentoring program was a district-sponsored, school-based program in which at-risk, middle school students were identified by the school system and mentors were recruited specifically to assist these students with school performance or related issues. Mentors, in this study, were classroom teachers, school counselors, administrators, custodians, librarians, teaching assistants, retired teachers, and cafeteria employees. Archival data from the 2003–04 and 2004–05 academic years were analyzed. A statistically significant difference was found for all three of the study's criterion variables (GPAs, discipline referrals, and attendance records) between those measured in the 2003–04 academic year (pre-intervention) and those measured in the 2004–05 academic year (post-intervention). Forty-nine of the fifty-four LISTEN participants experienced academic achievement gains in all three areas of the study.


Leaf area index (LAI) is an important variable for climate modeling, estimates of primary production, agricultural yield forecasting, and many other diverse studies. Remote sensing provides a considerable potential for estimating LAI at local to regional and global scales. Several spectral vegetation indices have been proposed, but their capacity to estimate LAI is highly reduced at moderate‐to‐high LAI. In this paper, we propose a technique to estimate LAI and green leaf biomass remotely using reflectances in two spectral channels either in the green around 550 nm, or at the red edge near 700 nm, and in the NIR (beyond 750 nm). The technique was tested in agricultural fields under a maize canopy, and proved suitable for accurate estimation of LAI ranging from 0 to more than 6.


. In the present contribution we briefly discuss some facts about euclidean wormholes, present new results and indicate some unsolved problems.


We propose an Ensemble of Robust Constrained Local Models for alignment of faces in the presence of significant occlusions and of any unknown pose and expression. To account for partial occlusions we introduce, Robust Constrained Local Models, that comprises of a deformable shape and local landmark appearance model and reasons over binary occlusion labels. Our occlusion reasoning proceeds by a hypothesize-and-test search over occlusion labels. Hypotheses are generated by Constrained Local Model based shape fitting over randomly sampled subsets of landmark detector responses and are evaluated by the quality of face alignment. To span the entire range of facial pose and expression variations we adopt an ensemble of independent Robust Constrained Local Models to search over a discretized representation of pose and expression. We perform extensive evaluation on a large number of face images, both occluded and unoccluded. We find that our face alignment system trained entirely on facial images captured "in-the-lab" exhibits a high degree of generalization to facial images captured "in-the-wild". Our results are accurate and stable over a wide spectrum of occlusions, pose and expression variations resulting in excellent performance on many real-world face datasets.


Throughout American history, several aspiring presidents have had their candidacies challenged for failing to meet the Constitution's eligibility requirements. These challenges began in the 1880s with the dispute over Chester A. Arthur's eligibility, and they continued into the twentieth century. Recently, presidential eligibility challenges have become much more prominent. In addition to being contested in the court of public opinion, these challenges have recently been contested in the courts of law as well. Although none of these challenges have ever been successful, they have worked to sap presidential campaigns of valuable resources and have threatened the campaigns of several ambitious men. This Essay examines several famous presidential eligibility challenges. It looks at the historic challenges confronted by Chester A. Arthur, Charles Evans Hughes, Barry Goldwater, George Romney, Christian Herter, and Lowell Weicker, and at the more modern challenges faced by John McCain, Barack Obama, and Ted Cruz. The literature on presidential eligibility traditionally has focused on discerning the meaning of the the Constitution's Eligibility Clause, which enumerates the age, residency, and citizenship requirements that a U.S. president must satisfy before taking office. By contrast, very little of it examines how a challenge to a candidate's eligibility impacts a presidential campaign. Nor does the literature offer many solutions for what Congress can do to respond to these challenges. This Essay seeks to fill this gap. It also offers a modest proposal. It calls on Congress to pass legislation defining exactly who qualifies to be a natural born citizen or, in the alternative, to implement procedural rules that would expedite presidential eligibility challenges for review to the U.S. Supreme Court.


Abstract. Water consumption has been exceeding as the world population increases. Therefore, it is very important to manage water resources with care as it is not an endless resource. The Water loss in regional scale is the key phenomena to accomplish this goal. One of the main components of this phenomenon is evapotraspiration (ET) due to being one of the most important parameter for the management of water resources. Until recent years, evapotranspiration calculations were performed locally, using data obtained from weather stations. But for a successful water management, regional evapotranspiration maps are required. Different approaches are used to compute regional ETs. Among them, the direct measurement methods are not cost-effective and regionalized. For costeffective and regional ET mapping, Surface Energy Balance Algorithm (SEBAL) is the most known and effective technique. In this study, EvaMapper Toolbox which is based on SEBAL approach are developed for regional evapotranspiration mapping in MATLAB. By this toolbox, researchers can apply SEBAL technique which has a very complex structure to their study area easily through entering regional parameter values.


From 1975 through 1993, five US presidents were granted fast-track trade negotiating authority by the Congress. This authority has enabled them to submit legislation implementing trade agreements to Congress under procedures that assure an up-or-down vote, without amendments, within a limited time period. Congress sets guidelines for the substance of negotiations and requires notification and consultation at key stages. The assurance of prompt congressional action on the results makes it possible for US trade negotiators to speak credibly for the United States.The fast track procedure has proved a remarkable success, making possible the completion of four major trade agreements: the multilateral Tokyo and Uruguay Rounds, the Free Trade Agreement with Canada, and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In 1994, however, this authority lapsed, and President Bill Clinton has lacked the ability to deliver on trade-negotiating commitments such as the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Congress is expected to consider his specific fast-track renewal proposal this coming fall.In this timely analysis, Destler analyzes experience with fast-track procedures since their enactment. He comes out strongly in favor of fast-track renewal but argues for changes in the process to curb abuses and ensure that Congress retains the ability to decide on major new trade liberalizing initiatives.


We implement a method to estimate the direct effects of foreign-ownership on foreign firms' productivity and the indirect effects (or spillovers) from the presence of foreign-owned firms on other foreign and domestic firms' productivity in a unifying framework, taking interactions between firms into account. To do so, we relax a fundamental assumption made in empirical studies examining a direct causal effect of foreign ownership on firm productivity, namely that of no interactions between firms. Based on our approach, we are able to combine direct and indirect effects of foreign ownership and calculate the total effect of foreign firms on local productivity. Our results show that all these effects vary with the level of foreign presence within a cluster, an important finding for the academic literature and policy debate on the benefits of attracting foreign owned firms.


In 2011, 19.2 million households in the United Kingdom had access to the Internet. Online social networks (OSN) such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo and YouTube have proved to be the most popular Internet activity (Office of National Statistics, 2011). 49% of these users have updated or created an OSN profile and are making over 24 million visits a month (Dutton, 2009). These websites are often directed at a broad market i.e. people without disabilities. Unfortunately people with disabilities, especially those with physical impairments, often have a greater risk of experiencing loneliness than people without a disability as a result of their mobility, access and or communication impairments.

Conventional communication methods such as face-to-face communication, telephone communication and text message communication are often difficult to use and can limit the opportunities for people with disabilities to engage in successful socialisation with family members and friends (Braithwaiteet al, 1999). Therefore people with disabilities can often see online communication, especially OSNs, as an attractive alternative.

Previous studies such as Braithwaite et al(1999), Ellis and Kent (2010) and Dobransky and Hargittai (2006) suggests that OSNs are opening a new world to individuals with disabilities. They help these individuals, especially those exhibiting lifelong physical challenges to carry out social interaction which they would otherwise not be able to do within the analogue world. However due to inaccessible features presented in the technology for example features requiring JavaScript, hard-coded text size and Captcha (AbilityNet, 2008; Cahill and Hollier, 2009 andAsuncion, 2010) access to OSNs is often difficult.

The overarching purpose of this PhD research is to understand the experiences and challenges faced when people with the physical disability cerebral palsy (cp) use OSNs. It is estimated that 1 in 400 children born in the UK is affected by cp (Scope Response, 2007). The disability can present itself in a variety of ways and to varying degrees. There is no cure for cp, however management to increase social interaction especially through technological innovations is often encouraged (United Cerebral Palsy, 2001; Sharan, 2005 and Colledge, 2006). Previous studies such as AbilityNet (2008), Cahill and Hollier (2009), and Boudreau (2011) have explored mainstream OSNs use from the perspective of users with disabilities, i.e. blind and visually or cognitively impaired, but have placed great emphasis on investigating inaccessibility of OSNs without involving these users.

Other studies such as Manna (2005) and Belchiorb et al (2005) have used statistical methods such as surveys and questionnaires to identify Internet use among people with unspecified disabilities. Conversely Asuncion (2010) has taken a broader approach involving OSN users using high-level taxonomies to classify their disabilities, and Marshall et al (2006) focused on a specific disability type, cognitive impairments, without considering the variety of limitations present within the disability. Other studies such as Pell (1999) have taken a broader yet more specific approach and looked at technology use, especially computer and assistive technology among people with physical disabilities, where only 7 out of 82 surveyed had cp. Whereas Braithwaiteet al (1999) focused on individuals with disabilities, where most were classified has having a physical disability. However the study does not explicitly look at OSNs but rather at online social support within forums for people with disabilities.

Studies such as these have not involved the users; defined what constitutes disability or focused on cp without encompassing other disabilities, making it impossible to identify the requirements of OSN users with cp.

Initially this PhD research explored the experiences and challenges faced when individuals with cp use OSNs. Fourteen interviews were carried out consisting of participants with variations of the disability. The study identified the reasons for OSN use and non-use and also discovered key themes together with challenges that affected their experiences. This work was followed by an in-context observational study that examined these individuals context of use. The study identified the OSNs and assistive technology used, tasks carried out and users feelings during interaction. As a result of these studies it was determined that changing OSNs prevented and or slowed down these users ability to communicate online.

Previous work within human-computer interaction and other disciplines such as software engineering and management science, change is often discussed during software development and is restricted to identifying scenarios and tools that assist change management within information technology (Jarke and Kurkisuonio, 1998). Studies such as these have not considered change deployment or its affect on
users, though within HCI such an understanding is limited.

Other disciplines i.e. psychology and social sciences have looked at change deployment. Theorists such as Lewin (1952), Lippett (1958) and Griffith (2001) attempt to offer solutions. However no one theory or approach is widely accepted and contradictions, adaptations and exclusions are continually being made. Conversely Woodward and Hendry (2004) and By (2007) have attempted to contend with these difficulties specifically stress as a result of change, believing that if change agents are aware of what an affected individual is thinking during the on set of change it will help to minimise or prevent damage. Studies such as these have focused on software development or organisational change from the perspective of developers or employees, they have not considered OSNs or individuals with cp.

To fill this gap a longitudinal OSN monitoring and analysis study was carried out. The study identified how OSN changes are introduced, their affect on users, and the factors that encourage change acceptance or non-acceptance. The study was divided into three studies: two studies investigating realworld examples of OSN change by observing the actions of change agents (Twitter.com and Facebook.com) and their users reactions to the change process. A third study that asked OSN users about their experiences of OSN change was also carried out.

A by product of these studies was a unique way of displaying OSN change and user acceptance on a large scale using a infographic and an inductive category model that can be used to examine OSN change. The findings from the five studies were then distilled alongside identified change management approaches and theories to develop an five-stage process for OSN change for change agents to follow.

The process defined the requirements for OSN change including the change agent responsibilities before, during and after the change.


The canonical function of eEF1A is delivery of the aminoacylated tRNA to the A site of the ribosome during protein translation, however, it is also known to be an actin binding protein. As well as this actin binding function, eEF1A has been shown to be involved in other cellular processes such as cell proliferation and apoptosis. It has long been thought that the actin cytoskeleton and protein synthesis are linked and eEF1A has been suggested to be a candidate protein to form this link, though very little is understood about the relationship between its two functions. Overexpression of eEF1A has also been shown to be implicated in many different types of cancers, especially cancers that are metastatic, therefore it is important to further understand how eEF1A can affect both translation and the organisation of the actin cytoskeleton. To this end, we aimed to determine the effects of reduced expression of eEF1A on both translation and its non canonical functions in CHO cells. We have shown that reduced expression of eEF1A in this cell system results in no change in protein synthesis, however results in an increased number of actin stress fibres and other proteins associated with these fibres such as myosin IIA, paxillin and vinculin. Cell motility and attachment are also affected by this reduction in eEF1A protein expression. The organisational and motility phenotypes were found to be specific to eEF1A by transforming the cells with plasmids containing either human eEF1A1 or eEF1A2. Though the mechanisms by which these effects are regulated have not yet been established, this data provides evidence to show that the translation and actin binding functions of eEF1A are independent of each other as well as being suggestive of a role for eEF1A in cell motility as supported by the observation that overexpression of eEF1A protein tends to be associated with the cancer cells that are metastatic.


High-performance I/O systems depend on prefetching and caching to deliver good performance to applications. These two techniques have generally been considered in isolation, even though there are significant interactions between them: a block prefetched too early may cause a block that is needed soon to be evicted from the cache, thus reducing the effectiveness of the cache, while a block cached too long may reduce the effectiveness of prefetching by denying opportunities to the prefetcher. Using both analytical and experimental methods, we study the problem of integrated prefetching and caching for an I/O system with multiple disks.
In a theoretical analysis, we consider algorithms for integrated prefetching and caching in a model abstracting relevant characteristics of file systems with multiple disks. Previously, the "aggressive" algorithm was shown by Cao, Felten, Karlin, and Li to have near-optimal performance in the single disk case. We show that the natural extension of the aggressive algorithm to the parallel disk case is suboptimal by a factor near the number of disks in the worst case. Our main theoretical result is a new algorithm, "reverse aggressive," with provably near-optimal performance in the presence of multiple disks.
Using disk-accurate trace-driven simulation, we explore the performance characteristics of several algorithms in cases in which applications provide full advance knowledge of accesses using hints. The algorithms tested are the two mentioned previously, plus the "fixed horizon" algorithm of Patterson et al., and a new algorithm, "forestall," that combines the desirable characteristics of the others. We find that when performance is limited by I/O stalls, aggressive prefetching helps to alleviate the problem; that more conservative prefetching is appropriate when significant I/O stalls are not present; and that a single, simple strategy is capable of doing both.
We also consider three related problems. First, we present an optimal algorithm for a restricted version of the single disk prefetching and caching problem. Next, we propose an approach to the integration of prefetching and caching policies with processor and disk scheduling policies. Finally, we show the NP-hardness of a problem of ordering requests to maximize locality of reference.


This paper considers a modification of the standard Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model of epidemic that allows for different degrees of compulsory as well as voluntary social distancing. It is shown that the fraction of population that self-isolates varies with the perceived probability of contracting the disease. Implications of social distancing both on the epidemic and recession curves are investigated and their trade off is simulated under a number of different social distancing and economic participation scenarios. We show that mandating social distancing is very effective at flattening the epidemic curve, but is costly in terms of employment loss. However, if targeted towards individuals most likely to spread the infection, the employment loss can be somewhat reduced. We also show that voluntary self-isolation driven by individual's perceived risk of becoming infected kicks in only towards the peak of the epidemic and has little or no impact on flattening the epidemic curve. Using available statistics and correcting for measurement errors, we estimate the rate of exposure to COVID-19 for 21 Chinese provinces and a selected number of countries. The exposure rates are generally small, but vary considerably between Hubei and other Chinese provinces as well as across countries. Strikingly, the exposure rate in Hubei province is around 40 times larger than the rates for other Chinese provinces, with the exposure rates for some European countries being 3-5 times larger than Hubei (the epicenter of the epidemic). The paper also provides country-specific estimates of the recovery rate, showing it to be about 21 days (a week longer than the 14 days typically assumed), and relatively homogeneous across Chinese provinces and for a selected number of countries.


In June 2008, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Medical Commission Chairman, Professor Arne Ljungqvist, wrote a BJSM editorial related to the 2nd World Congress on Sports Injury Prevention.1 In this, he announced their intentions to organise a 3rd World Congress on 'prevention of sports-related injuries and disorders' under the auspices of the IOC in 2011. This is now reality. The IOC World Conference on Prevention of Injury and Illness in Sport takes place in Monaco, 7–9 April 2011, and in this issue you can enjoy the conference abstracts ( see page 310 ).

The inaugural World Congress on Sports Injury Prevention was organised by the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre at the Holmenkollen Park Hotel in Oslo, Norway, in June 2005. During three beautiful midsummer days, more than 500 delegates gathered for the first time to focus on how sports injuries may be prevented. This was a hallmark event, signifying a significant shift in interest from a treatment focus towards prevention.

Three years later the second congress attracted over 700 participants from 55 counties, this time in Tromso, Norway. Although the weather well above the Arctic Circle was somewhat cooler, the second congress followed the successful format of the first, with a multidisciplinary perspective on sports injury prevention. The congress had been firmly established as a venue for scientists and practitioners to share new research and discuss the potential for prevention across injury types …


Current knowledge about the downstream migration of sexually mature European eels (Anguilla anguilla) remains incomplete, particularly in still water habitats such as lakes and wetlands subject to water level management. However, for the management of this endangered species, it is important to understand migration dynamics, and contribution to the breeding stock. This study aimed to assess the parameters that trigger and guide the migration of silver eels in the largest floodplain lake and associated wetlands in France (the sluice regulated Grand-Lieu Lake). A telemetry survey of 50 acoustic and PIT-tagged female silver eels was performed during the 2015–2016 migration period. We deployed a novel telemetric approach, using receivers to delimit several restricted virtual boxes to determine the instantaneous location of individuals and to transform simple discrete telemetric data into presence/absence data. The low numbers leaving the lake centre are probably explained by the lack of orienting water flows or other environmental clues, but whilst the fate of 34% (17/50) of the tagged eels is unknown, 18% (9/50) were caught by commercial fishermen. Modelling showed that detections were not clearly associated with environmental factors typically involved in riverine migrations (e.g. current velocity, atmospheric pressure and temperature) but they were particularly associated with higher and increasing water levels and, for eels exiting the lake, a sharp increase when sluice gates were opened to an effective gap of >75 cm. It is concluded that management of water levels and sluice gate opening during the migration period might aid escapement of silver eels.


Abstract Racial trauma describes the emotional trauma and associated psychiatric reactions, such as distress and compromised well-being, which arise from perceived incidences of racism. It is an emerging psychological paradigm that is intimately linked to state-based policy measures such as child removal. Racial trauma is also deeply institutionalised in Australia's education system as a consequence of the focus on dominant (white Standard Australian English speaking) culture, language, literacy and numeracy standards. Despite receiving little recognition in mental health work or the education sector, the effects of such trauma are profound and can account for the high rates of suicide and social dysfunction that we see in remote Indigenous communities as well as the low academic achievement and English language acquisition rates in Aboriginal students. This paper presents a literature review related to publications that scrutinise the relationship between racism in policy and schools and racial trauma, drawing on some research findings by one of the authors. It suggests alternative Indigenous pedagogies that can both mitigate and remove racial trauma from the school environment and lead to successful academic outcomes and well-being for Aboriginal students.


This paper aims to investigate the factors of successful e-tailing in China's retail industry. A single case study was undertaken in one of the top retailers in China. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected, including in-depth interviews and focus group interviews with key personnel in the organisation, and questionnaire survey with randomly selected customers of the retailer. A comprehensive combined model of success factors of e-tailing was developed and is presented in detail. Some unique and interesting factors associated Chinese e-tailing have been identified; and some useful practicable suggestions are also provided for Chinese retailers or any businesses who are embarking on e-tailing in China or/and planning to enter the China's retail market.


Introduction: Relaparotomy is biggest dilemma to the surgeon and critical to the patient to undergo second surgery within short span of time .It is challenging both physically and mentally to the patient. Aim: Aim of the study was to determine incidence of relaparotomy and its indication, management and outcome in the department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Family Planning (OBGYN & FP) in NRI Medical College & General Hospital at Guntur District. Materials and Methods: It is a retrospective observational study for the duration of 3 and ½ years. Total number of surgeries -7, 718. Total number of relaparotomy- 27 which include referral cases. Results: Incidence for relaparotomy was 0.34%. Most important cause for relaparotomy was haemorrhagic causes (44.4%), followed by burst abdomen (33.3%). Relaparotomy can increase morbidity, mortality (14.8%) of patients with increased hospital stay on an average of 27 days including Intensive Care Unit, further increasing the financial burden to the patient. Conclusion: Emergency relaparotomy is a life saving procedure. Good expertise in selection of primary surgery and right surgical technique, intra operative hemostasis, control of post operative infection can avoid relaparatomy


. The development, analysis and implementation of efficient and robust numerical techniques for optimization problems associated with partial differential equations (PDEs) is of utmost importance for the optimal control of processes and the optimal design of structures and systems in modern tech- nology. The successful realization of such techniques invokes a wide variety of challenging mathematical tasks and thus requires the application of ad- equate methodologies from various mathematical disciplines. During recent years, significant progress has been made in PDE constrained optimization both concerning optimization in function space according to the paradigm 'Optimize first, then discretize' and with regard to the fast and reliable so- lution of the large-scale problems that typically arise from discretizations of the optimality conditions. The contributions at this Oberwolfach workshop impressively reflected the progress made in the field. In particular, new insights have been gained in the analysis of optimal control problems for PDEs that have led to vastly improved numerical solution methods. Likewise, breakthroughs have been made in the optimal design of structures and systems, for instance, by the so- called 'all-at-once' approach featuring simultaneous optimization and solution of the underlying PDEs. Finally, new methodologies have been developed for the design of innovative materials and the identification of parameters in multi-scale physical and physiological processes.


This is a detailed study of the material lives of the middle classes in the pre-industrial era, a period which saw considerable growth in consumption. Lorna Weatherill has brought her highly important survey up-to-date in the light of new research. She provides a new introduction and bibliography, taking account of the latest academic writing and methodological advances, including computing, and offers further conclusions about her work and its place in current literature. Three main types of documentation are used to construct the overall picture: diaries, household accounts, and probate inventories. In investigating these sources she interprets the social meaning of material goods; and then goes on to relate this evidence to the social structures of Britain by wealth, status and locality. Breaking new ground in focusing on households and the use of probate inventories, Weatherill has provided a book which gives both a general account of the domestic environment of the period, and a scholarly analysis of the data on consumption patterns.


In this article, we attempt to answer some fundamental questions regarding the role played by the courts in the patent system by examining a set of patent cases in great detail. To this end, we have constructed a new database based on court docket reports for all patent cases filed in 1995 and 1997 and tracked the evolution of these cases (about 3700 cases) through to settlement or adjudication on the merits. The focus of this effort is on keeping track of a number of variables to understand the precise disposition of each case. We have also tracked different characteristics in order to estimate patent litigation costs in each case. For instance, we note the amount of time taken by each case through to final disposition. In addition, we have devised a new proxy for measuring costs - the number of documents filed by all the parties in each case - which we believe is more closely correlated with actual litigation costs than the traditional measures of time expended and the stage of termination in each case. Our results show that many more patent cases are adjudicated on the merits (either at the pre-trial stage through a grant of summary judgment or at trial) than is commonly thought. This work is one of the few scholarly efforts in empirical litigation scholarship that can actually estimate this amount because most other papers rely exclusively on the imprecise categorization of the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts to determine case outcomes. Our results demonstrate that in addition to the small number of patent cases going to trial (about 5%), another significant percentage of cases (about 8-9%) are resolved on the merits through summary judgment. Consequently, summary judgments are important in patent cases for determining patent validity and infringement, and the summary judgments related to patent validity occur earlier in the litigation compared to summary judgments related to patent infringement. This result is somewhat encouraging given the important role played by the courts in revoking patent rights improvidently granted at the outset by the PTO. Nevertheless, despite the fact that such rulings occur early in the proceedings compared to patent trials, we should still be concerned about the huge transaction costs associated with patent litigation because summary judgments in general, and summary judgment based on invalidity in particular, are expensive compared to summary judgments granted on other grounds. In addition, there is a significant difference in duration and number of documents filed in cases resolved through summary judgment for the 1997 filed cases compared to the 1995 filed cases. This is consistent with the changes brought about by the Markman decision that invigorated claim construction as a threshold legal issue in patent litigation. The increased importance placed on first construing the claims before addressing infringement or invalidity after Markman necessitates that significant resources be allotted to the step of claim construction before (or concurrent with) filing motions for summary judgment. Overall, our results show that transaction costs associated with patent litigation loom large, and rulings on the merits by the courts concerning patent validity, patent infringement, and remedies for infringement (i.e., injunctive relief or damages) are rare, expensive, and not pursued to completion by most litigants. Instead, most patent cases settle fairly quickly (about 12-15 months) after the filing of the complaint, thereby reducing the actual cost of patent litigation considerably. This work has significant implications for all civil litigation in general, and for recent efforts to reform the patent system by either improving patent quality through new administrative procedures at the PTO or for substantive patent law reform. Our results strongly suggest that patent litigation is largely a settlement mechanism, and hence, any proposed change in the patent laws should be analyzed in terms of the incentives generated for prompt settlement of patent disputes. In addition, entities and interest groups seeking cheaper and/or a greater number of patent rulings concerning validity and infringement will be wise to look elsewhere, perhaps at other patent institutions such as the PTO or at other alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms that complement the courts.


Background: Historically, nursing has struggled to introduce researchbased
interventions into routine clinical practice. Reasons for this difficulty
range from poor communication between clinically and academically based
nurses to limitations within organisations that obstruct the implementation of
new ideas.
Aims: To identify the barriers to research utilisation and the preferred
methods of research dissemination amongst breast care nurses (BCNs), to
develop a dissemination intervention for BCNs and to evaluate a
dissemination intervention for BCNs.
Method: The study was conducted in three stages. In Stage 1, a national
survey was conducted using the Barriers to Research Utilisation Scale
(Funk et al. 1991), questions about dissemination preferences and a
demographic questionnaire. In Stage 2, the Conceptual Framework for
Selecting a Targeted Experimental Dissemination Method based on social
interactionalist theory was developed. In Stage 3, a pre-test/post-test
randomised controlled design was used to evaluate the dissemination
method developed in Stage 2; the unit of randomisation and analysis were
hospital clusters of BCNs.
Sample: 263 BCNs from 13 regions within the U.K. comprised the sample
in Stage 1. In Stage 3, the sample consisted of 92 BCNs from 62 hospitals
in the north of England.
Analysis: In Stage 1 analysis was undertaken using descriptive and nonparametric
statistics. In Stage 3, analysis consisted of descriptive statistics
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and clustered regression techniques with estimation of robust standard
errors: clustered logistic regression for knowledge items, clustered linear
regression for knowledge scores, ologit for attitude and reported practice
items and clustered multiple regression for paired and multiple variable
analyses.
Findings: The results from the Barriers Scale revealed 'statistical analyses
not understandable', 'insufficient time on the job to implement new ideas',
'facilities inadequate for implementation', 'research not reported clearly and
readably' and 'no time to read research' as the greatest barriers to research
utilisation. Free text responses revealed additional problems with
communication and conditions within provider organisations and identified
facilitators for research utilisation and dissemination. These data led to the
selection and production of a targeted information booklet, entitled Exercise
and Breast Cancer: A Booklet for Breast Care Nurses, specifically designed
to be accessible, time efficient, understandable and relevant to the target
audience. In evaluation, the booklet was shown to overcome the perceived
barriers of the sample associated with accessing and understanding
research. A statistically significant increase in knowledge and changes of
reported practice and attitudes were found. Robust variables affecting
knowledge acquisition were identified as the promotion of health, promotion
of exercise and understanding of how exercise can reduce cancer-related
fatigue.
Implications: This study has demonstrated that printed materials can be
used as an effective dissemination method provided that they are developed
in line with the needs, values and context of a target audience. The
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Conceptual Framework can be followed to develop similar booklets on
different topics and could provide a purposeful contribution to the promotion
of evidence-based practice for all nurses.