In the Northern Territory (NT), all children in youth detention are Aboriginal and their numbers have been steadily growing over the past decade. This article examines the transcripts of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory (2016-17) (hereafter the Royal Commission) to uncover processes and discourses of exclusion of Aboriginal children who have been rendered by the state surplus to humanity. It draws attention to the state's practices in youth detention and the justifications of guards and detention managers before the Royal Commission as premised on notions of Aboriginal children's disorder and deviance. This characterisation, and the ensuing harmful state practices, have taken on a new intensity since the federal govern ment introduced racially discriminatory policies and practices in 2007 in order to restrict the rights of Aboriginal people living in remote NT communities and town camps.


Hyperbaric oxygen exposure rapidly induces lipid peroxidation and cellular damage in a variety of organs. In this study, we demonstrate that the exposure of rats to 4 atmospheres of 100% oxygen for 90 min is associated with increased levels of lipid peroxidation products [malonaldehyde (MDA) and 4-hydroxyalkenals (4-HDA)] and with changes in the activities of two antioxidative enzymes [glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and glutathione reductase (GR)], as well as in the glutathione status in the lungs and in the brain. Products of lipid peroxidation increased after hyperbaric hyperoxia, both GPX and GR activities were decreased, and levels of total glutathione (reduced+oxidized) and glutathione disulfide (oxidized glutathione) increased in both lung and brain areas (cerebral cortex, hippocampus, hypothalamus, striatum, and cerebellum) but not in liver. When animals were injected with melatonin (10 mg/kg) immediately before the 90-min hyperbaric oxygen exposure, all measurements of oxidative damage were prevented and were similar to those in untreated control animals. Melatonin's actions may be related to a variety of mechanisms, some of which remain to be identified, including its ability to directly scavenge free radicals and its induction of antioxidative enzymes via specific melatonin receptors.


"If you're interested in developing for this burgeoning platform, there is no one better able to get you up-to-speed. From the Foreword by Rob Tiffany, mobility architect, Microsoft Completely revised and updated for .NET Compact Framework 2.0 and 3.5, Visual Studio 2008, and Windows Mobile Smart Phones, Programming .NET Compact Framework 3.5, Second Edition, teaches you how to write highly effective applications for handheld wireless devices with small screens, limited memory, and finite battery life. This book is the definitive tutorial and reference for the .NET Compact Framework and Windows Mobile. If youre interested in developing for this burgeoning platform, there is no one better able to get you up to speed than industry veterans, master programmers, and teachers Paul Yao and David Durant. With this book you will learn how to Use each of the ten API sets available for Windows Mobile; when to use each; and, especially, when to use Win32 and the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 and 3.5 Write programs that make the most of a Windows Mobile devices limited battery life Efficiently invoke Win32 APIs from the .NET Compact Framework Write exceptional, data-driven applications using data bindingand .NET controls Manage device data with the object store, file I/O, and the registry Work with databases using ADO.NET and LINQ Synchronize mobile data with remote databases and the remote API Make a mobile device work with the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Create graphical output on Windows Mobile devices If you want to learn Windows Mobile development but only have limited experience with the .NET Framework, this is the only book you need.


A numerical method, PEI (Pile behavior in Expansive soil upon Infiltration) developed at the University of Ottawa can be used as a tool for the prediction and interpretation of the mechanical behavior of piles in expansive soils taking account of the influence of matric suction changes associated with water infiltration. This program is employed in back analyses of the in-situ single pile test results for a case study at the Colorado State University (CSU) field test site, which has expansive soil deposits. Four single piles were drilled into the expansive shale of the Pierre Formation west of Fort Collins, Colorado. The piles were 350 mm in diameter and were installed to a depth of 7.6 m. During installation, slope indicator-type VS embedment strain gauges were embedded on the piers at a depth of 1.8 m, 3.1 m, 4.3 m and 5.5 m below the ground surface. Water content variations of the surrounding soil along the pile depth were measured periodically from 1995 to 2004, in addition to other measurements, which include pile axial force distribution and pile head displacement. Extensive analysis regarding this case study with respect to the mechanical behavior of pile associated with changes in water content is available in the literature. In this paper, this case study is illustrated in an innovative way to understand the influence of matric suction on the mechanical behavior of the pile using the program PEI. In addition, in-situ measurements of both pile head displacements and pile axial force distribution are compared with the results of numerical simulations using the PEI. Analyses of the results show that measured in-situ and numerical results are in good agreement. The results of this study are of significant interest for the practicing engineers who routinely design pile foundations in expansive soils.


Pyrite FeS2 has outstanding potential as an earth-abundant, low-cost, nontoxic photovoltaic, but underperforms dramatically in solar cells. While the full reasons for this are not clear, one certain factor is the inability to understand and control doping in FeS2. This is exemplified by the widely accepted but unexplained observation that unintentionally doped FeS2 single crystals are predominantly n type, whereas thin films are p type. Here we provide a potential resolution to this "doping puzzle," arrived at via Hall effect, thermopower, and resistivity measurements on a large set of FeS2 single crystals and films that span five orders of magnitude in mobility. The results reveal three main findings. First, in addition to crystals, the highest mobility thin films in this study are shown to be definitively n type, from both Hall effect and thermopower. Second, as mobility decreases an apparent crossover to p type occurs, first in thermopower, then in Hall measurements. This can be understood, however, in terms of the crossover from diffusive to hopping transport that is clearly reflected in resistivity. Third, universal behavior is found for both crystals and films, suggesting a common n dopant, possibly sulfur vacancies. We thus argue that n-type doping is facile in FeS2 films, that apparent p-type behavior in low mobility samples can be an artifact of hopping, and that the prevailing notion of predominantly p-type films must be revised. These conclusions have deep implications, both for interpretation of prior work on FeS2 solar cells and for the design of future studies.


The size-change abstraction (SCA) is an important program abstraction for termination analysis, which has been successfully implemented in many tools for functional and logic programs. In this paper, we demonstrate that SCA is also a highly effective abstract domain for the bound analysis of imperative programs.
We have implemented a bound analysis tool based on SCA for imperative programs. We abstract programs in a pathwise and context dependent manner, which enables our tool to analyze real-world programs effectively. Our work shows that SCA captures many of the essential ideas of previous termination and bound analysis and goes beyond in a conceptually simpler framework.


As a result of their increasing affordability and applicability, surveillance technologies are now in widespread use across the workplaces of field sports. In an example of this, ubiquitous monitoring is now an established part of the elite football academy context. Elite players are tracked by GPS, recorded on video and have their physiological outputs recorded as a matter of routine. Clearly, the elite football space is one where the conditions for a regime of surveillance are ripe. It is therefore un-surprising that the surveillance mechanisms mentioned are now heavily integrated into the everyday life of both professional and academy players. Surveillance technologies then, would appear to be playing an important and increasingly normalised and accepted role in enhancing athlete movement and performance proficiency – particularly within the field sports workplace setting (Aughey, 2011). In recent years, there has been increasing scholarly debate concerning the application of surveillance technologies in high performance sport settings. While some researchers (e.g. Williams & Manley, 2016) have highlighted their problematic and constraining impacts, others (e.g. Collins et al., 2015) have emphasised the clear performance and learning benefits that they provide. In this paper, we attempted to move beyond a binary stance that reduces the effects of surveillance technologies in sports settings to being either beneficial or, instead, limiting. In so doing, we utilised Sewell and Barker's (2006) 'ironic' framework as our theoretical lens. Their writing specifically considers how, paradoxically, the parallel discursive formations of care and coercion act simultaneously to shape individual's perceptions in relation to the application of surveillance technologies.


A marine ecosystem model, that had previously been calibrated in a one-dimensional (1D) mode against observations at three time-series and process-study sites simultaneously, is coupled to a three-dimensional (3D) circulation model of the North and Equatorial Atlantic. Compared to an experiment with a previously employed subjectively tuned ecosystem model, the new 3D-model does not only reduce the model-data misfit at those locations at which observations entered the 1D optimization procedure, but also at an oligotrophic site in the subtropics that had not been considered in the 1D calibration. Basin-scale gridded climatological data sets of nitrate, surface chlorophyll, and satellite-derived primary production also reveal a generally lower model-data misfit for the optimized model. The most significant improvement is found in terms of simulated primary production: on average, primary production is about 2.5 times higher in the optimized model which primarily results from the inclusion of a phytoplankton recycling pathway back to dissolved inorganic nitrogen. This recycling pathway also allows for a successful reproduction of nonvanishing surface nitrate concentrations over large parts of the subpolar North Atlantic. Apart from primary production, the parameter optimization reduces root-mean-square misfits by merely 10–25% and remaining misfits are still much larger than observational error estimates. These residual misfits can be attributed both to errors in the physical model component and to errors in the structure of the ecosystem model, which an objective estimation of ecosystem model parameters by data assimilation alone cannot resolve.


The literature on decentralization is inconsistent to explain the effectiveness of fiscal decentralization on local governance. Based on the descriptive data on revenue and expenditure decentralization from 51 Nepali municipalities, this study found empirically significant positive relationship between revenue decentralization and municipal performance. However, regression results showed an insignificant association between fiscal transfer and municipal overall performance. The study suggests that devolving power to tax is associated with better municipal performance than downloading expenditure responsibilities to municipalities through fiscal transfers.


O'odham Creation and Related Events, As Told to Ruth Benedict in 1927 in Prose, Oratory, and Song by the Pimas William Blackwater, Thomas Vanyiko, Clara Ahiel, William Stevens, Oliver Wellington, and Kisio. Edited by Donald Bahr, Foreword by Barbara Babcock. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2001. Pp. xxvii + 227, foreword, acknowledgments, introduction, bibliography, index. $45.00 cloth) The desert landscape of southern Arizona is home to the Akimel and Tohono O'odham, also known as the Pimas and the Papagos, both well-studied by anthropologists, linguists and ethnomusicologists. O'odham Creation and Related Events (OCRE) is a very significant addition to work on the O'odham, for it is a previously unpublished body of oral literature collected in Sacaton, Arizona in 1927, primarily from narrators William Blackwater and Thomas Vanyiko, by Ruth Benedict. OCRE began as a collaboration between Donald Bahr and John Bierhost, but the latter, who found the papers, had to leave the project. The completed edition, a collection of songs, stories, and ritual speeches relating to the O'odham creation stories, is probably the most complete of the published O'odham mythologies (Russell 1908, Saxton and Saxton 1973, and Bahr et al. 1994). Especially noteworthy is that the stories are usually accompanied by information about the source. At times, the contributions of the two principal narrators, Blackwater and Vanyiko, are presented in OCRE in a "duet" (or "duel") type format. In this and other ways, Bahr has given a structure and a context to Benedict's manuscript. The book's organization into five chapters is Bahr's, as are the chapter titles, the chapter introductions, and the supplementary notes and textual comments-these are mostly about mistakes in O'odham words and names, but they also include ethnobotanical material (using Rea 1997 as a resource), and they make significant comparisons with previously published collections. Bahr's own knowledge of O'odham oral literature-a life's work-is a valuable and essential component of OCRE. Of the book's five sections-1) The Rafter Hauled: The Long Telling of Ancient Times; 2) Pieces Left Out; 3) Pieces Afterward, on War; 4) Coyote Tales; 5) Oratory-the first two are devoted to stories set in the Edenic time before "normal" marriage and procreation. The stories in "The Rafter Hauled" relate how creation proceeded from nothingness to the Pimas before the Apache wars, and the stories begin with Earth Doctor (and later, with Elder Brother): "In the beginning there was darkness. Darkness spun round upon itself and from it was born Earth Doctor. He went west, south, east, north, up, and down, looking everywhere, but there was nothing" (5). Stories in the second section, "Pieces Left Out," speak of ancient times in which Earth Doctor and Elder Brother play minor roles or none at all, and include versions (here told by Blackwater) of the rafter stories. Section two also presents, with an editor's synopsis, "The Feud," an important story that does not exist in any other record of O'odham storytelling but which, as Bahr notes, bears a similarity to the Popol Vuh, not in its mythic elements but in such elements as the ball-play, the self-immolation, and the brothers and their transformations: "'I will make myself into a lizard and fasten myself to this stick of wood. When you get home, throw it on the ash pile.' They knew he was wise, and they took the wood in and threw it on the ash pile [or outdoor fire]. …


Based on an inter-activity analysis of a village economy of the grain - plough culture of Ethiopia, this paper is a critique of some of the premises of current rural development programmers in the country and approaches to reforms in agrarian policy Contrary to these premises, the paper argues, final demand injections may be superior to transfer injections as means of raising the incomes or the marketable surplus of rural economies in the culture. Final demand injections may also be more effective in those terms when directed at home activities rather than farming and at traditionally less traded grain types rather than those observed as the main traditional exports of the economy. Furthermore, it is a strong possibility that the same injections are a viable substitute to projects of technological intervention should these be not feasible in a locality. The agronomic bas characterizing such projects at the moment also seems to be unjustified. Results supporting the case for final demand injections imply that technological interventions may be more effective when directed at home activities rather than farm activities and at less known crops of a rural economy rather than at traditional major "exports "


Abstract The author argues that the deterioration of the natural environment in China provides a persuasive reason to reorient China's economic growth towards a more sustainable path. Reconciling the development and environment imperatives needs to become an urgent priority for the Chinese government in order to avert the cascading implications that will arise in terms of social unrest, loss of further development opportunities as well as deepening income inequality. This paper thus examines the inter-relationship between the current ecological challenge in China and the need for economic sustainability. It evaluates the extent of environmental damage in China and focuses on the environmental impact on development and social inequality. The paper then examines the recent legislative measures that have been taken by the Chinese government to address the problem of inefficient environmental monitoring. The author suggests that further reform is needed to achieve an economically and ecologically just pathway for China's future. The paper therefore demonstrates that the environment–development challenge in China is mainly a challenge of governance. Resolving it will contribute to better environmental justice and development.


Soft-partition-weighted-sum (Soft-PWS) filters are a class of spatially adaptive moving-window filters for signal and image restoration. Their performance is shown to be promising. However, optimization of the Soft-PWS filters has received only limited attention. Earlier work focused on a stochastic-gradient method that is computationally prohibitive in many applications. We describe a novel radial basis function interpretation of the Soft-PWS filters and present an efficient optimization procedure. We apply the filters to the problem of noise reduction. The experimental results show that the Soft-PWS filter outperforms the standard partition-weighted-sum filter and the Wiener filter.


Background Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder. Systemic inflammation increases the risk of atherosclerosis and ischaemic heart disease (IHD). Objective To examine the impact of IBD, including its duration and treatment, on the risk of IHD. Methods In a nationwide population-based cohort of 4.6 million Danes aged ≥15 years, we compared people diagnosed with IBD during 1997–2009 (n=28 833) with IBD-free individuals. Subjects with IHD were identified in the National Patient Register. Using Poisson regression, we estimated the incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for IHD with 95% CI with adjustment for age, gender, socioeconomic status, calendar year and use of drugs for comorbidities. Results A markedly increased risk of IHD was seen within the first year after IBD diagnosis (IRR=2.13 95% CI 1.91 to 2.38). During 1–13 years of follow-up after IBD diagnosis, the risk of IHD was 1.22 (95% CI 1.14 to 1.30). The risk of IHD was lower among patients with IBD using 5-aminosalicylic acids (IRR=1.16; 95% CI 1.06 to 1.26) than among non-users (IRR=1.36; 95% CI 1.22 to 1.51) (p=0.02), in particular among oral corticosteroid users, used as a proxy for disease severity. Likewise patients treated surgically or with thiopurines and tumour necrosis factor α antagonists tended to have reduced IRRs for IHD. Conclusions The risk of IHD was highest in the first year after IBD diagnosis, possibly owing to ascertainment bias. The increased long-term risk of IHD in IBD may be related to chronic inflammation, and interventions reducing the inflammatory burden may attenuate this risk.


Abstract Prior research on the fear of crime among the elderly has shown that elders are more afraid of being a victim of crime than are younger persons and that such fears may vary depending upon where people reside. This study compares the level of fear of criminal victimization of elders living in three adjacent southwestern communities. White elders live in an age-restricted community within two of the studied communities. The third community is not age-restricted, and the elders who reside there are primarily of Mexican heritage. This study found that Mexican heritage elders expressed more fears associated with crime and victimization than did white elders. In studying gender differences, this study found no significant differences between the expressed level of fear of crime between male and female respondents. Nonetheless, most elders will undertake a variety of reasonable measures to protect themselves when they are home or go out, a finding that is consistent with previous research that studied white elders.


This study is centered on the perception of Foundation Phase educators in the Nzhelele West Circuit in the province of Limpopo of Curriculum 2005. The implementation of Curriculum 2005 created much uncertainty among these teachers. The study took the form of a survey of published and unpublished sources, questionnaires, interviews and observations. Respondents were made up of stakeholders affected by the introduction of the new curriculum. Recommendations have been made about how the new curriculum should have been planned, developed and implemented to make foundation phase educators feel confident and able to help in the interpretation and implementation of the curriculum so as to help achieve the developmental goals of the South African Education System.


Mussolini, in the thousand guises he projected and the press picked up, fascinated Americans in the 1920s and the early '30s. John Diggins' analysis of America's reaction to an ideological phenomenon abroad reveals, he proposes, the darker side of American political values and assumptions.Originally published in 1972.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


Despite their very low surface gravities, the surfaces of asteroids and comets are covered by granular materials – regolith – that can range from a fine dust to a gravel-like structure of varying depths. Understanding the dynamics of granular materials is, therefore, vital for the interpretation of the surface geology of these small bodies and is also critical for the design and/or operations of any device planned to interact with their surfaces. We present the first measurements of transient weakening of granular material after shear reversal in microgravity as well as a summary of experimental results recently published in other journals, which may have important implications for small-body surfaces. Our results suggest that the force contact network within a granular material may be weaker in microgravity, although the influence of any change in the contact network is felt by the granular material over much larger distances. This could mean that small-body surfaces are even more unstable than previously imagined. However, our results also indicate that the consequences of, e.g., a meteorite impact or a spacecraft landing, may be very different depending on the impact angle and location, and depending on the prior history of the small-body surface.


This ethnography explores contemporary narratives of "Han-ness," revealing the nuances of what Han identity means today in relation to that of the fifty-five officially recognized minority ethnic groups in China, as well as in relation to home place identities and the country's national identity. Based on research she conducted among native and migrant Han in Shanghai and Beijing, Aqsu (in Xinjiang), and the Sichuan-Yunnan border area, Agnieszka Joniak-Luthi uncovers and discusses these identity topographies. Bringing into focus the Han majority, which has long acted as an unexamined backdrop to ethnic minorities, Joniak-Luthi contributes to the emerging field of critical Han studies as she considers how the Han describe themselves—particularly what unites and divides them—as well as the functions of Han identity and the processes through which it is maintained and reproduced. The Han will appeal to scholars and students of contemporary China, anthropology, and ethnic and cultural studies.


Background: It has been acknowledged that personal reusable water bottles pose hazards, such as disease-causing organisms, associated with poor water bottle hygiene practices. Currently, there are no recommended frequencies or procedures, or guidelines for personal water bottle cleaning and sanitation. Likewise, there is little information on outbreaks or cases of illness arising from poor personal water bottle hygiene. This may be due to lack of awareness and non-reporting of cases. Therefore, the importance of knowledge, attitudes and practices around reusable water bottles cannot be over emphasized. This research study will ascertain if water bottle hygiene practices among post-secondary education students are adequate to avoid consumption of drinking water with growth of multiple pathogenic microbes like Escherichia coli, Salmonella species, Pseudomonas species, Vibrio cholera and viruses. Method: 83 participants were surveyed using an in person administered survey method. The survey was conducted on British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) student sample using the Survey Monkey platform and was delivered in person via an iPad at a survey stand. Chi-square tests were used to analyze the survey data using NCSS version 12 statistical package. Tables and bar charts were used to explain and give interpretation to p-values from the chi-square tests. Results: There were found to be no associations between knowledge level around reusable water bottles and either gender or hygiene practices. However, the survey data did show an association between gender and hygiene level. The female participants were more likely to clean their water bottles more frequently than the male participants. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, a health promotion initiative targeted toward male students is recommended to achieve behaviour change in cleaning practices with reusable drinking water bottles. Moreover, despite the study findings showing a high level of knowledge among participants, this did not translate to better water bottle hygiene practices, as there was no statistical association between knowledge level and hygiene practice. Therefore, more frequent cleaning of reusable water bottles should be encouraged, highlighting the appropriate cleaning agents and method to be used.


The perceptual task of speech quality assessment (SQA) is a challenging task for machines to do. Objective SQA methods that rely on the availability of the corresponding clean reference have been the primary go-to approaches for SQA. Clearly, these methods fail in real-world scenarios where the ground truth clean references are not available. In recent years, non-intrusive methods that train neural networks to predict ratings or scores have attracted much attention, but they suffer from several shortcomings such as lack of robustness, reliance on labeled data for training and so on. In this work, we propose a new direction for speech quality assessment. Inspired by human's innate ability to compare and assess the quality of speech signals even when they have non-matching contents, we propose a novel framework that predicts a subjective relative quality score for the given speech signal with respect to any provided reference without using any subjective data. We show that neural networks trained using our framework produce scores that correlate well with subjective mean opinion scores (MOS) and are also competitive to methods such as DNSMOS, which explicitly relies on MOS from humans for training networks. Moreover, our method also provides a natural way to embed quality-related information in neural networks, which we show is helpful for downstream tasks such as speech enhancement.


Abstract During the last decade an implicit conceptual framework for internal control and corporate risk management has arisen from risk management practice and policy within UK companies. An explicit conceptual framework for risk management is now emerging and is expressed in the Turnbull Report. In this paper, we develop a diagrammatic representation for the conceptual framework for internal control, risk management and risk disclosure. We consider the recent practical and policy developments in the disclosure of risk-related information in order to establish the current state of the art of corporate risk disclosure. Thus, we focus only on the disclosure aspect of the conceptual framework for internal control. We use a questionnaire survey to canvas the attitudes of UK institutional investors towards risk disclosure in relation to their portfolio investment decisions. Our empirical findings indicate that institutional investors do not generally favour a regulated environment for corporate risk disclosure or a general statement of business risk. The respondents agree that increased risk disclosure would help them in their portfolio investment decisions. However, for other aspects of the risk disclosure issue they are more neutral in attitude. Further, we found that the variation in the attitudes of institutional investors appears to be associated with the characteristics of the funds they manage as well as with their investment horizons. Further, we find that institutional investors' perceptions of corporate governance are related to their investment horizons, among other factors.


Five intense (category 3 or greater) hurricanes occurring in 1635, 1638, 1815, 1869, and 1938 have made landfall on the New England coast since European settlement. Historical records indicate that four of these hurricanes (1635, 1638, 1815, and 1938) and hurricane Carol, a strong category 2 storm in 1954, produced significant storm surges (>3 m) in southern Rhode Island. Storm surges of this magnitude can overtop barrier islands, removing sediments from the beach and nearshore environment and depositing overwash fans across back-barrier marshes, lakes, and lagoons. In a regime of rising sea level, accumulation of marsh, lake, or lagoon sediments on top of overwash deposits will preserve a record of overwash deposition.

We examined the record of overwash deposition at Succotash salt marsh in East Matunuck, Rhode Island, and tested the correlation with historical records of intense storms. Aerial photographs taken after hurricanes in 1954 and 1938 show overwash fans deposited at the site. Analysis of 14 sediment cores from the back-barrier marsh confirmed the presence of these fans and revealed that 4 additional large-scale overwash fans were deposited within the marsh sediments.

The four overwash fans deposited since the early seventeenth century at Succotash Marsh matches the historical record of significant hurricane-induced storm surge. These fans were most likely deposited by hurricanes in 1954, 1938, 1815, and either 1638 or 1635. Radiocarbon dating of two prehistoric overwash fans indicated that these were deposited between A.D. 1295– 1407 and 1404–1446 and probably represent intense hurricane strikes. In the past 700 yr, at least 7 intense hurricanes struck the southern Rhode Island coast and produced a storm surge that overtopped the barrier at Succotash Marsh.


Approximately 50% of residents in aged care are malnourished and dementia compounds this problem. This malnourishment problem has long been recognised, yet the translation of knowledge into the provision of person-centred, evidence-based nutrition care has not occurred. We present an ethnographic case study, conducted by an inter-disciplinary team, which examined care practices regarding food and fluids in one aged care home. We conducted a facility document audit, detailed observations of 7 residents with dementia, and interviews with 7 family- and 11 staff-members. We identified a range of barriers preventing evidence-based, person-centred nutrition care. For example, body mass index of residents was not monitored and prompts to encourage eating and drinking were often ineffective. Staff did not appear to have a 'big picture' view of the relationship between nutrition and hydration and key clinical health indicators; they viewed eating and drinking as tasks to be completed rather than social activities to be enjoyed. However, staff were aware of the key food and fluid issues experienced by residents and some beneficial care practices, such as small group dining. Why the presentation/topic will be of interest to conference participants:
The study identifies barriers to person-centred care and highlights the importance of ongoing education to facilitate nutritional health and quality of life for people living with dementia in the aged care setting. Education and a focus on translation of research into practice will facilitate implementation of best practice nutrition care. Findings suggest that aged care home staff need to be supported to build on their existing knowledge around effective food and fluid care practices. The numerous ideas staff expressed for changing care practices can be leveraged by facilitating staff networking, to work and learn together to implement evidence-based change. This is relevant to clinical and organisational leaders and other members of the Tasmanian aged care workforce who are striving to overcome the healthcare challenges presented by an ageing population with a high prevalence of dementia and at a high risk for being malnourished.


Abstract The EFSA Panel on Plant Health performed a pest categorisation of 'Blight and blight‐like' for the EU territory. Blight is a major disease of citrus. Similar 'blight‐like' diseases are also known (e.g. declinio, declinamiento) and are addressed simultaneously with Blight in the present categorisation. The causal agent(s) remain(s) unknown and the potential role of a recently identified citrus endogenous pararetrovirus (Citrus Blight‐associated pararetrovirus, CBaPRV) remains to be established. Transmissibility and ability to produce consistent (although poorly specific) symptoms have been demonstrated and a combination of indirect approaches is used, with limits, for diagnosis. There are large uncertainties on the biology of the causal agent(s) and on the epidemiology of the disease, including the transmission mechanism(s) responsible for the observed field spread. Blight has been reported from North, Central and South America, Africa and Oceania but is not known to occur in the EU. It is listed in Annex IIA of Directive 2000/29EC. It has the potential to enter, establish and spread in the EU territory. The main entry pathway (citrus plants for planting) is closed by existing legislation and entry is only possible on minor pathways (such as illegal import). Blight is a severe disease and a negative impact is expected should it be introduced in the EU, but the magnitude of this negative impact is very difficult to estimate. 'Blight and blight like' satisfies all criteria evaluated by EFSA to qualify as a Union quarantine pest. It does not meet the criterion of being present in the EU to qualify as a Union regulated non‐quarantine pest (RNQP). Since the identity of the causal agent(s) of the Blight and blight‐like disease(s) and the existence and efficiency of natural spread mechanism(s) remain unknown, large uncertainties affect all aspects of the present pest categorisation.


As a British infantry officer in the Royal Gurkha Rifles Emile Simpson completed three tours of Southern Afghanistan. Drawing on that experience, and on a range of little-known case studies ranging from Nepal to Borneo, War From The Ground Up offers a distinctive perspective on contemporary armed conflict: while most accounts of war look down at the battlefield from an academic perspective, or across it as a personal narrative, the author looks up from the battlefield to consider the concepts that put him there, and how they played out on the ground. Simpson argues that in the Afghan conflict, and in contemporary conflicts more generally, liberal powers and their armed forces have blurred the line between military and political activity. More broadly, they have challenged the distinction between war and peace. He contends that this loss of clarity is more a response to the conditions of combat in the early twenty-first century, particularly that of globalisation, than a deliberate choice. The issue is thus not whether the West should engage in such practices, but how to manage, gain advantage from, and mitigate the risks of this evolution in warfare. War From The Ground Up draws heavily on personal anecdotes from the frontline, related to historical context and strategic thought, to offer a re-evaluation of the concept of war in modern conflict.


These are exciting times for geographers, with stimulating possibilities being offered to the discipline by various bodies of poststructural, especially deleuzian, theory. There is, however, a dearth of empirical studies utilising these opportunities, particularly in Australian geography. King Island, located in Bass Strait, is used in this article to broach some theoretical potentials. First, we introduce deleuzian theory. Second, we view King Island through three geographic representations and respective mappings. Third, we discuss the implications of lived practices, which constitute various (major and minor) geographies on and of King Island, for existing perspectives on spatial relations and linear flows between local and global scales. Lastly, we explore some recent treatments of space inflected through the work of Deleuze and Guattari, consolidating some spatial concepts and relations gleaned from King Island's cartographic moments and movements.


INTRODUCTION
From October 1992 to September 1993 clinical observations of the civil population of Cienfuegos revealed the presence of epidemic neuropathy (EN) reaching about 2,000 patients. The clinical manifestations were not uniform. Although numerous studies have been carried out in our country, none have established the characteristics of EN 'the peripheral form'.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We studied the first 50 patients assisted by the neurological services of the clinical surgical hospital Dr. Gustavo Aldereguia Lima of Cienfuegos diagnosed of EN 'peripheral form' according to the procedure established by Ministry of Public Health of Cuba. A clinical history was made for each patient consisting of: General data, history of toxic, nutritional, malabsorption factors and chronic illnesses; symptoms and a neurological examinations. Laboratory test, in a group of patients, were done in sera, urine, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), gastric juice and neurophysiological studies that included computerized evoked potentials and electroencephalograms registers.

RESULTS
Upon analysis of the clinical history, nutritional factors was common to all the patients associated to toxic and malabsorption. The clinical forms were neuropathy (NP) 48%, myeloneuropathy (MNP) 42% and myelopathy (MP) 10%. Retrobulbar optic neuropathy was observed in 42% of the patients and auditory neuropathy in 22%.

CONCLUSIONS
The clinical characteristics of NP, in our cases, indicated that this disease fundamentally affects the sensorial neurons and the sensitive peripheral nerves, bilaterally, symmetrically, distally and predominantly in lower limbs. The pathological process has been associated with a distal axonopathy. However, clinic signs of myelopathy can be found up to 40% frequently combined with neuropathy or in isolated form, and seems to affect the posterior and lateral columns of the spinal cord, mainly at thoraciclumbar level. Neuropathy of central nervous system is unknown since no patient has died of EN.


One of the most vexing human rights issues of our time has been how to protect the rights of individuals and communities worldwide in an age of globalization and multinational business. Indeed, from Indonesian sweatshops to oil-based violence in Nigeria, the challenges of regulating harmful corporate practices in some of the world's most difficult regions long seemed insurmountable. Human rights groups and businesses were locked in a stalemate, unable to find common ground. In 2005, the United Nations appointed John Gerard Ruggie to the modest task of clarifying the main issues. Six years later, he had accomplished much more than that. Ruggie had developed his now-famous "Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights," which provided a road map for ensuring responsible global corporate practices. The principles were unanimously endorsed by the UN and embraced and implemented by other international bodies, businesses, governments, workers' organizations, and human rights groups, keying a revolution in corporate social responsibility. Just Business tells the powerful story of how these landmark "Ruggie Rules" came to exist. Ruggie demonstrates how, to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem, he had to abandon many widespread and long-held understandings about the relationships between businesses, governments, rights, and law, and develop fresh ways of viewing the issues. He also takes us through the journey of assembling the right type of team, of witnessing the severity of the problem firsthand, and of pressing through the many obstacles such a daunting endeavor faced. Just Business is an illuminating inside look at one of the most important human rights developments of recent times. It is also an invaluable book for anyone wanting to learn how to navigate the tricky processes of global problem-solving and consensus-building and how to tackle big issues with ambition, pragmatism, perseverance, and creativity.


Making History Count introduces the main quantitative methods used in historical research. The emphasis is on intuitive understanding and application of the concepts, rather than formal statistics; no knowledge of mathematics beyond simple arithmetic is required. The techniques are illustrated by applications in social, political, demographic and economic history. Students will learn to read and evaluate the application of the quantitative methods used in many books and articles, and to assess the historical conclusions drawn from them. They will also see how quantitative techniques can open up new aspects of an enquiry, and supplement and strengthen other methods of research. This textbook will encourage students to recognize the benefits of using quantitative methods in their own research projects. The text is clearly illustrated with tables, graphs and diagrams, leading the student through key topics. Additional support includes five specific historical data-sets, available from the Cambridge website.


Much of the data found on the world wide web is in numeric, tabular, or other nontextual format (e.g., weather forecast tables, stock market charts, live sensor feeds), and thus inaccessible to non-experts or laypersons. However, most conventional search engines and natural language processing tools (e.g., summarisers) can only handle textual input. As a result, data in non-textual form remains largely inaccessible. Conceptto-text generation refers to the task of automatically producing textual output from non-linguistic input, and holds promise for rendering non-linguistic data widely accessible. Several successful generation systems have been produced in the past twenty years. They mostly rely on human-crafted rules or expert-driven grammars, implement a pipeline architecture, and usually operate in a single domain. In this thesis, we present several novel statistical models that take as input a set of database records and generate a description of them in natural language text. Our unique idea is to combine the processes of structuring a document (document planning), deciding what to say (content selection) and choosing the specific words and syntactic constructs specifying how to say it (lexicalisation and surface realisation), in a uniform joint manner. Rather than breaking up the generation process into a sequence of local decisions, we define a probabilistic context-free grammar that globally describes the inherent structure of the input (a corpus of database records and text describing some of them). This joint representation allows individual processes (i.e., document planning, content selection, and surface realisation) to communicate and influence each other naturally. We recast generation as the task of finding the best derivation tree for a set of input database records and our grammar, and describe several algorithms for decoding in this framework that allows to intersect the grammar with additional information capturing fluency and syntactic well-formedness constraints. We implement our generators using the hypergraph framework. Contrary to traditional systems, we learn all the necessary document, structural and linguistic knowledge from unannotated data. Additionally, we explore a discriminative reranking approach on the hypergraph representation of our model, by including more refined content selection features. Central to our approach is the idea of porting our models to various domains; we experimented on four widely different domains, namely sportscasting, weather forecast generation, booking flights, and troubleshooting guides. The performance of our systems is competitive and often superior compared to state-of-the-art systems that use domain specific constraints, explicit feature engineering or labelled data.


Traditional statistical analyses of interviewer effects on survey data do not examine whether these effects change over a field period. However, the nature of the survey interview is dynamic. Interviewers' behaviors and perceptions may evolve as they gain experience, thus potentially affecting data quality. This paper looks at how interview length and interviewer evaluations of respondents change over interviewers' workloads. Multilevel models with random interviewer effects are used to account for the clustering of cases within interviewers and individual interviewer characteristics in the 1984, 1988, and 2000 National Election Studies. The 1984 and 1988 NES released sample in four replicates, minimizing the confound between order in an interviewers' workload and sample composition. We find that over the course of the studies, both measures change significantly. Interviewer prior survey experience also was significantly negatively related to the length of the interview. These findings have implications for interviewer training prior to and during studies, as well as suggesting future research to reveal why these behaviors and perceptions change.


New York artist Vija Celmins has made many images of the night sky--paintings, drawings and prints of gorgeous richness. In "The Stars," she and her collaborator, the essayist and translator Eliot Weinberger, devote an artist's book to the theme. Celmins created three celestial prints for the project, which she also designed. One print, inspired by the worn binding of an early twentieth-century Japanese book, becomes the volume's mottled deep-blue cover; the second and third prints are images of the night sky, one of them negative--dark stars on a pale ground. For the text, Weinberger assembled a catalogue of descriptions of the stars drawn from around the world, and from an array of historical, literary and anthropological sources. This mythopoetic charting of the night sky evokes the vastness of the human imagination's response to a space itself vast and unknowable. Appearing in English and also in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese and Maori, the text supplements Celmins's images visually as well as verbally. "The Stars" was originally a limited-edition "livre d'artiste" published this year by the Library Council of The Museum of Modern Art.


The "learning with errors" (LWE) problem is to distinguish random linear equations, which have been perturbed by a small amount of noise, from truly uniform ones. The problem has been shown to be as hard as worst-case lattice problems, and in recent years it has served as the foundation for a plethora of cryptographic applications. Unfortunately, these applications are rather inefficient due to an inherent quadratic overhead in the use of LWE. A main open question was whether LWE and its applications could be made truly efficient by exploiting extra algebraic structure, as was done for lattice-based hash functions (and related primitives).
 We resolve this question in the affirmative by introducing an algebraic variant of LWE called ring-LWE, and proving that it too enjoys very strong hardness guarantees. Specifically, we show that the ring-LWE distribution is pseudorandom, assuming that worst-case problems on ideal lattices are hard for polynomial-time quantum algorithms. Applications include the first truly practical lattice-based public-key cryptosystem with an efficient security reduction; moreover, many of the other applications of LWE can be made much more efficient through the use of ring-LWE.


This paper proposes to analyze the early thinking of Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof (1859–1917) in light of the so-called liberal/communitarian debate. In the early 1980s, the debate was launched: On the liberal side were proponents of a liberal self bearing rights, irrespective of identity (John Rawls) and on the communitarian side, champions of communities with prerogatives and purposes (Michael Sandel). But this debate has become in recent years a dialogue, each side challenging the other to assimilate its claims, be they ontological, political, or ethical. This paper argues that, a century earlier, Zamenhof was involved in a similar dialogue between liberalism and communitarianism, inventing a movement that could potentially balance human rights with notions of the good espoused by different communities. The political potential of Esperanto, however, was undermined (though not collapsed) by the Declaration of Boulogne, which eschewed deliberative debate and abjected religious and ethical ideals.


British regional policy has emphasised 'locally-bounded' innovation processes dependent upon regional knowledge bases, downplaying the role of global inter-linkages and inter-dependencies. Consequently, regional policy tends to stress the importance of endogenous capacity through the promotion of regional specialisation and competitiveness by constituting the region as the site of innovation drawing on the social, institutional and knowledge assets that are spatially embedded in particular places. These regions are seen as simultaneously competing in the global economy, although the focus on the concentration of innovation processes obscures the distribution of knowledge across regions and countries in the globalising, knowledge economy. This research project is designed to address these issues by using global commodity chain and global production network approaches to explore the life sciences industry in a less-favoured region (Scotland) where the policy emphasis on local capabilities and capacities raises a number of concerns. In particular, it will consider how innovation processes and knowledge operate across different locations and especially how they are both concentrated and dispersed throughout the commodity chain. Thus it will question why certain places are less 'successful' at attracting and embedding such processes than others, especially less-favoured regions suffering from the effects of industrial restructuring and uneven development.


Phytophthora cinnamomi is a soil-borne plant pathogen that causes dieback, a disease that devastates many native vegetation ecosystems in Australia, particularly in south-west Western Australia. Feral pigs have long been implicated as vectors in the spread of this introduced plant pathogen due to their contact with infested soil and foraging habits. This study aimed to investigate the potential for feral pigs to disseminate P. cinnamomi and to determine their role in the spread of dieback.

Feral pigs trapped in three sampling areas within the northern jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) forest of south-west Western Australia were sampled for the presence of P. cinnamomi. Faecal (n=208) and soil samples (n= 140) were collected from trapped pigs. In addition, 374 faecal and 36 soil samples were also collected from sites frequented by feral pigs. Phytophthora cinnamomi was not recovered from any of the faecal or soil samples. However saprophytic pathogens such as Mucor and Fusarium spp. were detected in the faeces and Pythium spp. was also detected in the soil samples, suggesting that feral pigs can act as vectors for the spread of soil-borne pathogens.

Stomach contents from 100 feral pigs trapped across the three sampling areas were analysed to investigate the proportion of P. cinnamomi susceptible plant matter present in the feral pig diet. A high frequency of plant material (85%) was found in the pig stomachs, of which 25.8% consisted of subterranean plant structures such as roots and tubers. Underground fruiting bodies of ectomycorrhizal fungi belonging to the genus Rhizopogon were also a significant food item. There was no statistically significant preference detected for food items by pigs between the three sampling areas, regardless of sex and/or month of capture. However, older and larger pigs consumed significantly more bark (p= 0.0002).

To further investigate the potential for P. cinnamomi to survive passage through the pig digestive tract a feeding trial was undertaken. Phytophthora cinnamomi inoculated millet (Panicum miliaceum) seeds, pine (Pinus radiata) plugs, and Banksia leptophylla roots were fed to pigs and subsequently recovered after passage. The viability of P. cinnamomi inoculated plant materials post digestion ranged from 25.5% to 98.3%. Detection for P. cinnamomi presence in the materials via qPCR confirmed a decrease in P. cinnamomi DNA with increasing time to passage. These investigations demonstrated that plant material infected with P. cinnamomi can remain viable following passage through the pig digestive tract suggesting that the plant material may provide protection for P. cinnamomi against the adverse conditions of the pig digestive tract. Subsequently, plant infection trials using infected pine plugs passaged through the pig digestive tract highlighted that material passaged 7 days after initial consumption was capable of infecting healthy susceptible plants. This provides evidence that feral pigs have the ability to act as a vector for P. cinnamomi through the ingestion of infected plant materials.

A species-specific fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) assay was developed to enable the examination of P. cinnamomi within plant tissues. The probe was found to be specific for P. cinnamomi when tested against other Phytophthora, Pythium and enteric bacteria species. Using the FISH assay, the location of P. cinnamomi structures were detected within a variety of plant materials such as millet seeds, pine sections and root samples. Phytophthora cinnamomi structures such as hyphae and chlamydospores were found in the epidermal layer of millet seeds and within the axial rays of pine that were recovered after passage from the feeding trial. This aided understanding of how viable P. cinnamomi were able to survive passage within these plant materials. In addition, the FISH assay was also successfully applied to both laboratory-cultured and naturally infected plant roots enabling detection of the pathogen in the intracellular and intercellular spaces of roots. The assay has proven to be a useful tool in the detection of P. cinnamomi structures within plant tissues.

In conclusion, this study provides evidence that, whilst the potential consequences of pig-vectored dispersal of P. cinnamomi are high, the likelihood of feral pigs dispersing the pathogen through transport of infested soil is low. Investigations of their diet composition and the passage of viable P. cinnamomi has established the additional threat that feral pigs could spread ingested P. cinnamomi within organic substrates. This study has also highlighted the fact that there is still much to be learned about the interaction between the feral pig and the plant pathogen. Further research is therefore required to ensure that appropriate management decisions for both species can be made.


ABSTRACT The linear, double-helical structure of DNA was initially recognized as beautiful, as well as being informative about the mechanism of heredity. Recently, branched DNA molecules have been used to produce nanoscale objects, crystals and machines, all the products of a new field: structural DNA nanotechnology. The inspiration for much of this work has been art, starting from the notion that Escher's woodcut Depth was analogous to a molecular crystal of branched DNA. The article describes how connecting branched molecules together with the "sticky ends" used by genetic engineers has led to 3D crystals, and how Dalí's Butterfly Landscape illuminates the relationship between wrappings of DNA and the crossings in knots or links. Disparate aesthetic patterns are related to branched DNA motifs and constructions.


PACT (Programming ∧ Algorithms ⇒ Computational Thinking) is a partnership between
researchers in the Department of Computer Science at Maynooth University and teachers at
selected post-primary schools around Ireland. Starting in September 2013, seven Irish
secondary schools took part in a pilot study, delivering material prepared by the PACT team
to Transition Year students. Three areas of Computer Science were identified as being key to
delivering a successful course in computational thinking, namely, programming, algorithms
and computability. An overview of the PACT module is provided, as well as analysis of the
feedback obtained from students and teachers involved in delivering the initial pilot.


The blue crab spawning stock in Chesapeake Bay sustained a severe and persistent decline beginning in 1992. As part of the effort to enhance the spawning stock, the spawning sanctu- ary in lower Chesapeake Bay was enlarged to over 240 000 ha. This marine reserve and corridor pro- hibits exploitation of mature females en route to or in the spawning grounds during the summer spawning season (1 June to 15 September). To assess the effectiveness of the sanctuary, we tagged terminally molted, mature females inside and outside the sanctuary during 3 sanctuary seasons (2002 to 2004). Crabs were captured throughout the bay and its tributaries, measured, tagged, and released on site. Recaptures of tagged crabs were reported by commercial and recreational fishers. Probabil- ity of recapture for crabs released outside the sanctuary was 6.3, 5.2, and 2.8 times the probability of recapture for crabs tagged inside the sanctuary in 2002, 2003 and 2004, respectively. Consequently, a significant proportion of adult female blue crabs remains in the sanctuary to spawn and is not cap- tured by the fishery. Hence, the marine reserve and corridor for the blue crab spawning stock in Chesapeake Bay is an effective means of protecting females migrating to or residing in the spawning grounds. This investigation serves as one of the few empirical tests to date of the effectiveness of a marine reserve designed to protect spawning stock.


Plasmon-resonant gold nanorods, which have large absorption cross sections at near-infrared frequencies, are excellent candidates as multifunctional agents for image-guided therapies based on localized hyperthermia. The controlled modification of the surface chemistry of the nanorods is of critical importance, as issues of cell-specific targeting and nonspecific uptake must be addressed prior to clinical evaluation. Nanorods coated with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (a cationic surfactant used in nanorod synthesis) are internalized within hours into KB cells by a nonspecific uptake pathway, whereas the careful removal of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide from nanorods functionalized with folate results in their accumulation on the cell surface over the same time interval. In either case, the nanorods render the tumor cells highly susceptible to photothermal damage when irradiated at the nanorods' longitudinal plasmon resonance, generating extensive blebbing of the cell membrane at laser fluences as low as 30 J/cm2.


Abstract. We present the results of idealized numerical experiments to examine the difference between tropical cyclone evolution in three-dimensional (3-D) and axisymmetric (AX) model configurations. We focus on the prototype problem for intensification, which considers the evolution of an initially unsaturated AX vortex in gradient-wind balance on an f plane. Consistent with findings of previous work, the mature intensity in the 3-D model is reduced relative to that in the AX model. In contrast with previous interpretations invoking barotropic instability and related horizontal mixing processes as a mechanism detrimental to the spin-up process, the results indicate that 3-D eddy processes associated with vortical plume structures can assist the intensification process by contributing to a radial contraction of the maximum tangential velocity and to a vertical extension of tangential winds through the depth of the troposphere. These plumes contribute significantly also to the azimuthally averaged heating rate and the corresponding azimuthal-mean overturning circulation. The comparisons show that the resolved 3-D eddy momentum fluxes above the boundary layer exhibit counter-gradient characteristics during a key spin-up period, and more generally are not solely diffusive. The effects of these eddies are thus not properly represented by the subgrid-scale parameterizations in the AX configuration. The resolved eddy fluxes act to support the contraction and intensification of the maximum tangential winds. The comparisons indicate fundamental differences between convective organization in the 3-D and AX configurations for meteorologically relevant forecast timescales. While the radial and vertical gradients of the system-scale angular rotation provide a hostile environment for deep convection in the 3-D model, with a corresponding tendency to strain the convective elements in the tangential direction, deep convection in the AX model does not suffer this tendency. Also, since during the 3-D intensification process the convection has not yet organized into annular rings, the azimuthally averaged heating rate and radial gradient thereof is considerably less than that in the AX model. This lack of organization results broadly in a slower intensification rate in the 3-D model and leads ultimately to a weaker mature vortex after 12 days of model integration. While azimuthal mean heating rates in the 3-D model are weaker than those in the AX model, local heating rates in the 3-D model exceed those in the AX model and at times the vortex in the 3-D model intensifies more rapidly than AX. Analyses of the 3-D model output do not support a recent hypothesis concerning the key role of small-scale vertical mixing processes in the upper-tropospheric outflow in controlling the intensification process. In the 3-D model, surface drag plays a particularly important role in the intensification process for the prototype intensification problem on meteorologically relevant timescales by helping foster the organization of convection in azimuth. There is a radical difference in the behaviour of the 3-D and AX simulations when the surface drag is reduced or increased from realistic values. Borrowing from ideas developed in a recent paper, we give a partial explanation for this difference in behaviour. Our results provide new qualitative and quantitative insight into the differences between the asymmetric and symmetric dynamics of tropical cyclones and would appear to have important consequences for the formulation of a fluid dynamical theory of tropical cyclone intensification and mature intensity. In particular, the results point to some fundamental limitations of strict axisymmetric theory and modelling for representing the azimuthally averaged behaviour of tropical cyclones in three dimensions.


Mineral value chains consist of material from multiple sources, several processing streams, and transportation systems that combine to generate various saleable products. These sources of material can be mineral deposits, stockpiles or material purchased from external vendors. Typically, there is a high level of uncertainty associated with these sources of material, which propagates through the mineral value chain. Uncertainty in material types/grades can be modelled and used in the assessment of risk in mining plans. This uncertainty can also be incorporated during optimization in stochastic frameworks. This paper presents an approach that first utilizes a set of scenarios derived from stochastic simulations of the different sources of material to perform risk analysis and then applies a simultaneous stochastic optimization framework to develop a robust mine plan for a multipit gold complex. The scenarios include stochastic simulations of initial stockpiles and incorporate the uncertainty of external material by means of Monte Carlo simulations over historical data. The analysis allows for potential risks associated with mine plans to be clearly quantified, particularly the extraction schedule's ability to meet key project targets on a yearly basis. The implementation of a stochastic optimization framework generates a mine plan with feasible additive consumption and expected NPV 10% higher than a base case plan.


Kelly Ann Watson: Molecular mechanism of the interaction between Lgl/Tomosyn homolog, Sro7, and the Rab GTPase Sec4 in Polarized Exocytosis (Under the direction of Patrick Brennwald) Polarized exocytosis requires the proper localized delivery, docking and fusion of secretory vesicles with sites of active growth on the plasma membrane. Members of the Tomosyn/Lgl/Sro7 family play important roles in vesicle trafficking and cell polarity in eukaryotic cells. The yeast homolog, Sro7, is thought to act as a downstream effector of the Sec4 Rab GTPase to promote SNARE assembly during Golgi to cell surface vesicle transport. Here we report the identification of a Sec4 binding site on the surface of Sro7 that is contained within a cleft created by the junction of two adjacent β-propellers which form the core structure of Sro7. We combined in vitro results with in vivo suppression studies and in silico modeling to validate the Sro7-Sec4 docking interaction interface. Close examination of this docking model suggests a structural basis for the high substrate and nucleotide selectivity in effector binding by Sro7. Analysis of the surface variation within the homologous interaction site on Tomosyn-1 and Lgl-1 structural models suggests a possible conserved Rab GTPase effector function in Tomosyn vertebrate homologs. Additionally, overexpression of either Sro7 or the Exocyst complex component Rab effector, Sec15, results in the formation of a cluster of post-Golgi vesicles within the cell. We describe a novel assay that recapitulates post-Golgi vesicle clustering in vitro utilizing purified Sro7 and vesicles isolated from late secretory mutants. We made use of this assay to analyze the effects of Sro7 mutants in which conserved charged patches on Sro7 were mutated to the reverse charge and found that one of the charge reversal mutant proteins, Sro7-iv R189D,R222D, had a specific defect in clustering vesicles both in vivo and in vitro. We show that this mutation acts by effecting a conformational change in Sro7 from a " closed " to " open " structure, suggesting a novel function for this conformational switch in Sro7 to coordinate Rab-dependent membrane tethering with regulation of SNARE assembly prior to membrane fusion.


Legislation is the primary vehicle for the realization and execution of policy objectives.

An awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the existing framework of laws facilitates the implementation of new policies. This paper examines the fundamental agricultural legislation in the United States to determine implicit or explicit legislative methods which have been enlisted in pursuing policy goals. The analysis reveals legislative conflicts and contradictions which are counterproductive to efficient policy implementation and suggests that effect agricultural regulation has been hampered by the tendency of legislators to rely too heavily on out-moded laws to solve current problems. Each major piece of legislation administered by the United States Department of Agriculture is discussed in terms of its stated policy objectives, its potential ancillary uses, its formal structure and legislative mechanisms, and its impact in achieving policy goals. For reasons of convenience, the classification of Acts into policy groups corresponds generally to those headings used in the Compilation of Statutes published by the United States Department of Agriculture. However, it is recognized that the multiple purposes of each Act makes these categories inaccurate.

This paper considers only those Acts which are directly relevant to the agricultural process and does not encompass environmental and commercial legislation which may indirectly affect agricultural activities.


John Milton was celebrated and denounced in his own time both as a poet and as a polemicist. Today he is remembered first and foremost for his poetry, but his great epic Paradise Lost was published very late in his life, in 1667, and in his own time most readers more readily recognised Milton as a writer of prose. This superbly annotated new book is an authoritative edition of Milton's major prose works, including Of Education, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates and the Divorce tracts, as well as the famous 1644 polemical tract on the opposing licensing and censorship, Areopagitica.


Krueger & Funder (K&F) focus on an important problem, but they offer a political rather than a scientific remedy. "Balance" is not our problem; systematic, scientific research is. Only that sort of research will ever lead social psychology out of its current malaise that focuses on positive and negative aspects of human behavior.


ABSTRACT From the extensive fossil record of insects found in the Early Miocene of the Rubielos de Mora basin (Teruel Province, Spain) a single, well-preserved specimen of the subfamily Eucoilinae Thomson, 1862 (Hymenoptera: Cynipoidea: Figitidae) has been identified. The palaeoentomological site of Rubielos de Mora is a Konservat-Lagerstätte constituted by lacustrine oil-shales. The specimen is the first fossil Eucoilinae from a Tertiary outcrop and it represents a new genus and species of a family (Figitidae Thomson, 1862) extremely scarce in the fossil record: Palaeogronotoma nordlanderi n. gen, n. sp. The genus belongs to Gronotoma group (Diglyphosemini Belizin, 1961 tribe) and it is closely related to the genus Gronotoma Förster, 1869, from which mainly differs in the antennal configuration, which is especially well preserved, although other diagnostic characters are studied in this paper.


The research explores the mechanisms in the formation and consolidation of a new regime which combines democratic and authoritarian features; it has emerged as result of democratization processes affecting different world areas in recent years. The study analyses a case of great international significance, post-communist Russia: here internal factors strongly prevail in front of the external variables of democratic imitation and contagion, thus showing to what extent Russia differs from other political contexts.
The study intends to examine the strategies used by this regime to solve internal conflicts and become stable in spite of the democratizing pressures coming from outside. Indeed, the literature about political transformations has shown the problems in analyzing these polities together with the need to examine their peculiarities more in depth.
 In this perspective, the first section focuses on the dynamics of State-building in Russia as a fundamental process in tracing the specific characteristics of the current regime: particularly, it is suggested that the State dimension comes out as crucial in determining the level of political and social pluralism accepted in post-Soviet Russia.
This argument is worked out in the second section, which analyses the main mechanisms used by the incumbents to limit and control pluralism within the two arenas of political competition and civil society, from where the major threats to the status quo are supposed to come. The main hypothesis is that the leadership interventions in these spheres during the last ten years have shaped a regime which can be characterized as a new type of authoritarianism: with respect to traditional authoritarian forms a certain degree of political contestation is accepted, visible in the presence of a multiparty system, semi-competitive elections and of the several representatives of civil society. Yet, this diversity is curbed basically in two different ways: from one hand the incumbents provide support to political and social actors who sponsor government politics (see the party of power and pro-Kremlin movements). From the other they use some non coercive forms of control and restriction (in legislation, in political elections) against those actors who promote values and priorities opposed to the official ones.


Molecular dynamics simulates the movements of atoms. Due to its high cost, many methods have been developed to "push the simulation forward". One of them, metadynamics, can hasten the molecular dynamics with the help of variables describing the simulated process. However, the evaluation of these variables can include numerous mean square distance calculations that introduce substantial computational demands, thus jeopardize the benefit of the approach. Recently, we proposed an approximative method that signifi- cantly reduces the number of these distance calculations. Here we evaluate the performance and the scalability on two molecular systems. We assess the maximal theoretical speed-up based on the reduction of distance compu- tations and Ahmdal's law and compare it to the practical speed-up achieved with our implementation.


In short and intermediate germ insects, only the anterior segments are specified during the blastoderm stage, leaving the posterior segments to be specified later, during embryogenesis, which differs from the segmentation process in Drosophila, a long germ insect. To elucidate the segmentation mechanisms of short and intermediate germ insects, we have investigated the orthologs of the Drosophila segmentation genes in a phylogenetically basal, intermediate germ insect, Gryllus bimaculatus (Gb). Here, we have focused on its hunchback ortholog (Gb'hb), because Drosophila hb functions as a gap gene during anterior segmentation, referred as a canonical function. Gb'hb is expressed in a gap pattern during the early stages of embryogenesis, and later in the posterior growth zone. By means of embryonic and parental RNA interference for Gb'hb, we found the following: (1) Gb'hb regulates Hox gene expression to specify regional identity in the anterior region, as observed in Drosophila and Oncopeltus; (2) Gb'hb controls germband morphogenesis and segmentation of the anterior region, probably through the pair-rule gene, even-skipped at least; (3) Gb'hb may act as a gap gene in a limited region between the posterior of the prothoracic segment and the anterior of the mesothoracic segment; and (4) Gb'hb is involved in the formation of at least seven abdominal segments, probably through its expression in the posterior growth zone, which is not conserved in Drosophila. These findings suggest that Gb'hb functions in a non-canonical manner in segment patterning. A comparison of our results with the results for other derived species revealed that the canonical hb function may have evolved from the non-canonical hb functions during evolution.


Modern deep reinforcement learning methods have departed from the incremental learning required for eligibility traces, rendering the implementation of the λ-return difficult in this context. In particular, off-policy methods that utilize experience replay remain problematic because their random sampling of minibatches is not conducive to the efficient calculation of λ-returns. Yet replay-based methods are often the most sample efficient, and incorporating λ-returns into them is a viable way to achieve new state-of-the-art performance. Towards this, we propose the first method to enable practical use of λ-returns in arbitrary replay-based methods without relying on other forms of decorrelation such as asynchronous gradient updates. By promoting short sequences of past transitions into a small cache within the replay memory, adjacent λ-returns can be efficiently precomputed by sharing Q-values. Computation is not wasted on experiences that are never sampled, and stored λ-returns behave as stable temporal-difference (TD) targets that replace the target network. Additionally, our method grants the unique ability to observe TD errors prior to sampling; for the first time, transitions can be prioritized by their true significance rather than by a proxy to it. Furthermore, we propose the novel use of the TD error to dynamically select λ-values that facilitate faster learning. We show that these innovations can enhance the performance of DQN when playing Atari 2600 games, even under partial observability. While our work specifically focuses on λ-returns, these ideas are applicable to any multi-step return estimator.


The long code is a central tool in hardness of approximation, especially in questions related to the unique games conjecture. We construct a new code that is exponentially more efficient, but can still be used in many of these applications. Using the new code we obtain exponential improvements over several known results, including the following: 1) For any ε >; 0, we show the existence of an n vertex graph G where every set of o(n) vertices has expansion 1 - ε, but G's adjacency matrix has more than exp(logδ n) eigenvalues larger than 1 - ε, where δ depends only on ε. This answers an open question of Arora, Barak and Steurer (FOCS 2010) who asked whether one can improve over the noise graph on the Boolean hypercube that has poly(log n) such eigenvalues. 2) A gadget that reduces unique games instances with linear constraints modulo K into instances with alphabet k with a blowup of Kpolylog(K), improving over the previously known gadget with blowup of 2Ω(K). 3) An n variable integrality gap for Unique Games that survives exp(poly(log log n)) rounds of the SDP + Sherali Adams hierarchy, improving on the previously known bound of poly(log log n). We show a connection between the local testability of linear codes and small set expansion in certain related Cayley graphs, and use this connection to derandomize the noise graph on the Boolean hypercube.


Spectral enhancement is a technique for selectively boosting portions of the seismic signal with distinguishable frequency content. It is often applied to seismic data in order to boost the high frequency content of the data, which can be masked by underlying low frequency signal. The practical application is to improve the vertical resolution of events thereby improving interpretability. Here we compare three different methods of spectral enhancement that are regularly applied to 3D post stack seismic data. We are particularly interested in the effectiveness of each technique in enhancing real signal in the data, as well as the efficiency of each process at this task.


Nowadays, the problem of environmental pollution, in particular water bodies, is an urgent problem. According to this, new methods of ecological monitoring of water bodies are being actively developed. But most of them are based on remote monitoring of large areas of open water surfaces. However, due to the almost total obstruction of a large number of places on the coast because of the dense vegetation there — not all of these methods might be efficient enough. In such conditions, the most effective method is hand sampling. Nevertheless, the possibilities of this approach are greatly limited by the number of samples taken and their further logistics.
Therefore, it is important that basic information on the state of the water samples is available immediately at the sampling site, and only suspicious samples are sent to stationary laboratories for deeper studying. One of the methods that allows you to quickly get information about a sample state and take action as fast as possible is control in an express mode. Chemical and optical methods are usually used for control in an express mode. However, both of them have certain disadvantages.One of the possible solutions to this problem is the compact nuclear magnetic spectrometer developed in our laboratory. The only thing necessary for its operation is the presence of particles with nonzero magnetic moments. This requirement is always satisfied in the researches of water bodies, because water contains protons with the greatest magnetic moment. It is also worth noting that research using nuclear magnetic resonance is non-destructive.
The state of the medium can be determined using the measured values of the relaxation constants T1 and T2. If the measured values differ from the values corresponding to the standard state of the medium, impurities may be present in the medium and in this case additional study of the medium is necessary. In addition, in a small-sized nuclear magnetic spectrometer, we have implemented the ability to register a signal not only from protons, but also from some other nuclei. This allows in some cases at the site of sampling to establish the cause of the deviation in the medium (to classify the impurity). It is very important for decision-making about the use of this medium.


The study examined the software selection practices of two federal university libraries in south east Nigeria. Specifically, five purposes and research questions guided the study. It was a descriptive survey study that used disproportionate stratified random sampling technique to select eighty (80) samples out of two hundred and forty seven (247) library staff. The study used structured questionnaire and observation checklist as the instrument for data collection. Eighty (80) copies of questionnaire were distributed to the respondents and seventy two (72) of them returned. This represented a return rate of ninety percent (90%). The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency tables, simple percentages and mean scores. And the decision rule for research question one items was based on fifty percent (50%) benchmark for either availability or non-availability percentage values while that of research question two to five was based on whether the item"s value for mean score was equal to or above the criterion mean for acceptance or otherwise rejected. In addition, the findings of the study revealed that: eight library software packages as Tin-lib, X-lib, Lib-plus, GLAS, Resource-mate, Koha (open source), Alice for WINDOWS and Greenstone are available in the libraries; selection practice methods such as quantitative, intuitive, decision analysis, political, technological and experiences from seminar approaches were employed in the selection practices of the libraries; and selection practices processes such as criterion dependent, library requirement dependent, technological advancement dependent, library development and growth dependent, software evolutionary trends dependent, and among others were effective in the selection practices of their libraries. It further revealed that: problems as financial barriers (funding), insufficient infrastructure, political barriers, inadequate planning and communication, among others affected their software selection processes and strategies like adequate funding, planning and communication as well as involvement of top management, use of reliable data, consultation with previous users, adherence to selection criteria, and among others were appropriate for enhancing their software selection practices. With respect to the above findings, the study recommended the selection of software package(s) that will sustain the operations and services of the libraries and the adoption of methods and processes most appropriate for the libraries.


Strip profile control during rolling is required to assure the dimensional quality of rolled thin strip is acceptable for customers. Throughout rolling, the strip profile is controlled by using the advanced shape control rolling mill, such as the combination of work roll crossing and shifting during asymmetrical rolling, the one of the valuable methods to control the strip profile quality in rolling process. In this paper, the influences of cold rolling parameters such as the crossing angle and axial shifting value of work rolls on the strip profile are analysed. The strip shape control is discussed under both symmetrical and asymmetrical rolling conditions. The obtained results are appropriate to control the rolled thin strip profile in practice.


The LSP-2000 (Laser System Processor-2000) laser process system for forming a specified surface profile of arbitrary topology on curvilinear surfaces, as well as precision laser processing of large three-dimensional items, has been developed, created, and investigated. This system implements not only processing regimes (cutting, welding, ablation), but also the measurement of the actual geometry of three-dimensional objects with an arbitrary surface shape. A brief description is presented of the main technical decisions and the experimental results of the certification of the LSP-2000 system. The measurement error in the start-stop regime does not exceed 2μm, and the processing error when the actuator moves along an arbitrary continuous contour is no more than 20μm, The working speed for surface microprofiling exceeded 9m/min. The time of continuous operation in the automatic regime has reached more than 15hr in the temperature range from +18to+30°C.


An orientation experiment was carried out in a spatially immersive virtual environment. The task of subjects was to navigate with 6 degrees of freedom flying method through a predefined route guided by visual cues. Simultaneously they should keep the model oriented in upright position as well as possible. In the experiment we had three different implementations of auditory artificial horizon, and for the reference the subjects accomplish the task also without the auditory support. According to the results the auditory artificial horizon helps subjects to keep the model oriented during the task.


ABSTRACT A fed-batch, anaerobic culture system was developed to assess the behavior of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in a rumen-like environment. Fermentation medium consisted of either 50% (vol/vol) raw or sterile rumen fluid and 50% phosphate buffer. Additional rumen fluid was added twice per day, and samples were removed three times per day to simulate the exiting of digesta and microbes from the rumen environment under typical feeding regimens. With both types of medium, anaerobic and enteric bacteria reached 1010 and 104 cells/ml, respectively, and were maintained at these levels for at least 5 days. When a rifampin-resistant strain of E. coli O157:H7 was inoculated into medium containing raw rumen fluid, growth did not occur. In contrast, when this strain was added to sterile rumen fluid medium, cell densities increased from 106 to 109 CFU/ml within 24 h. Most strains of E. coli O157:H7 are unable to ferment sorbitol; therefore, we assessed whether the addition of sorbitol as the only added carbohydrate could be used to competitively exclude E. coli O157:H7 from the culture system. When inoculated into raw rumen broth containing 3 g of sorbitol per liter, E. coli O157:H7 was displaced within 72 h. The addition of other competitive sugars, such as l-arabinose, trehalose, and rhamnose, to rumen medium gave similar results. However, whenever E. coli O157:H7 was grown in sterile rumen broth containing sorbitol, sorbitol-positive mutants appeared. These results suggest that a robust population of commensal ruminal microflora is required to invoke competitive exclusion of E. coli O157:H7 by the addition of "nonfermentable" sugars and that this approach may be effective as a preharvest strategy for reducing carriage of E. coli O157:H7 in the rumen.


All requests, questions, and comments should be directed to: James G. McGann, Ph.D. Senior Lecturer, International Studies Director Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program The Lauder Institute University of Pennsylvania Telephone: (215) 746-2928 Email: email@example.com 2015 Copyright: All rights reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the University of Pennsylvania, Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program.


Although overt racism has diminished, there remain vast racial and ethnic disparities in the United States. Many households are isolated from these disparities simply by where they live. Contact theory hypothesizes that under certain conditions, individual contact with minorities can decrease prejudice. Using a nationally representative sample from the 2000 General Social Survey, this paper explores contact, residential segregation, and anti-minority prejudice in American households. We employ linear regression techniques to analyze the characteristics of White respondents in White households by perception of community composition, region, city size, education, and household type, to identify prejudice against minority groups. Results indicate strong regional effects, with higher levels of prejudice in the South when compared to other regions. Anti-Hispanic prejudice is higher in the Northeast than in the South. Contact theory is not supported, except to show that the effect of more contact is greater on anti-Black prejudice in the Northeast than in the South. Following prior research, education was associated with lower prejudice, and age exhibited a positive relationship with prejudice. We also discuss the general implications of our findings.


The principal aim of the research described in this thesis was to develop a technique
of non-invasively measuring the oxygen saturation within the retinal vasculature of human
subjects (retinal oximetry). The evaluation of a hyperspectral fundus camera used to acquire
retinal images in different wavelengths of visible light, and the image analysis techniques
used to perform retinal oximetry are described.
Validation of the oximetry techniques was performed using an artificial eye
containing human blood of known oxygen saturation: the calculated oxygen saturation was
compared to the gold standard measurement. The mean differences between the calculated
and measured oxygen saturations were small.
Hyperspectral imaging/oximetry of normal subjects was performed to characterize the
oximetric features of the retinal vasculature. The mean oxygen saturation (± SD) of the
temporal retinal arterioles and venules were 110.8% (± 11.8%) and 27.7% (± 3.2%)
respectively.
The application of the retinal oximetry technique was explored in patients with retinal
arterial and venous occlusion to determine whether oximetric changes in the retinal
vasculature could be detected. Variation in measured oxygen saturation of the retinal
arterioles and venules respectively were apparent, and corresponded with angiographic
features of retinal capillary loss.
The techniques were applied to patients with asymmetrical primary open angle
glaucoma to determine whether oximetric changes could be detected. The mean oxygen
saturation of the temporal retinal venules were significantly higher [44.8% (± 24.2%)] in the
more advanced glaucomatous eyes compared to normal subjects. Hyperoxia of the retinal
venules suggests reduced oxygen consumption as a consequence of inner retinal dysfunction
in glaucoma. However, because of the small sample size, further research on a larger
population of subjects is required to support this finding.
Hyperspectral imaging could be used to detect oximetric abnormalities in the retinal
vasculature in patients with retinovascular occlusion and glaucoma.


The story of the birth of our solar system has been worn smooth through years of retelling. It starts billions of years ago with a black, slowly spinning cloud of gas and dust. The cloud collapses, forming our sun at its heart. In time, the eight planets, along with lesser worlds such as Pluto, emerge from leftover gas and debris swirling about our star. This system of sun and planets has been whirling through space ever since, its motions as accurate and predictable as clockwork.


OBJECTIVE
To conceptualize and measure community contextual influences on population health and health disparities.

DATA SOURCES
We use traditional and nontraditional secondary sources of data comprising a comprehensive array of community characteristics.

STUDY DESIGN
Using a consultative process, we identify 12 overarching dimensions of contextual characteristics that may affect community health, as well as specific subcomponents relating to each dimension.

DATA COLLECTION
An extensive geocoded library of data indicators relating to each dimension and subcomponent for metropolitan areas in the United States is assembled.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
We describe the development of community contextual health profiles, present the rationale supporting each of the profile dimensions, and provide examples of relevant data sources.

CONCLUSIONS
Our conceptual framework for community contextual characteristics, including a specified set of dimensions and components, can provide practical ways to monitor health-related aspects of the economic, social, and physical environments in which people live. We suggest several guiding principles useful for understanding how aspects of contextual characteristics can affect health and health disparities.


Si/SiOx composite materials have been explored for their commercial possibility as high-performance anode materials for lithium ion batteries, but suffer from the complexity of and limited synthetic routes for their preparation. In this study, Si/SiOx nanospheres were developed using a nontoxic and precious-metal-free preparation method based on hydrogen silsesquioxane obtained from sol-gel reaction of triethoxysilane. The resulting Si/SiOx nanospheres with a uniform carbon coating layer show excellent cycle performance and rate capability with high-dimensional stability. This approach based on a scalable sol-gel reaction enables not only the development of Si/SiOx with various nanostructured forms, but also reduced production cost for mass production of nanostructured Si/SiOx.


ABSTRACT The authors explore perceived sound properties of acoustic guitars built with foamed polycarbonate soundboards rather than spruce or cedar. The research seeks to establish the extent to which polymer acoustic guitars are an acoustically credible alternative to wood instruments. Data are generated through participation by members of the public (n = 320) in blind listening tests. Remarkably, participants are found unable to distinguish much beyond a 50% success rate whether sound originates from wood or polymer acoustic guitars. The findings challenge deeply rooted ideas about traditional material-instrument relationships and champion the use of design as a driver for instrument innovation and artistic engagement.


This course explores social, economic, and political developments and events and their impact on the lives of different groups in Canada since 1914. CHC2DF is taught in French.


Abstract Fear acquisition and extinction have been demonstrated as core mechanisms for the development and maintenance of mental disorders, with different contributions of processing cues vs contexts. The hypothalamic peptide oxytocin (OXT) may have a prominent role in this context, as it has been shown to affect fear learning. However, investigations have focused on cue conditioning, and fear extinction. Its differential role for cue and context fear acquisition is still not known. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo (PLC)-controlled design, we administered an intranasal dose of OXT or PLC before the acquisition of cue and context fear conditioning in healthy individuals (n = 52), and assessed brain responses, skin conductance responses and self-reports (valence/arousal/contingency). OXT compared with PLC significantly induced decreased responses in the nucleus accumbens during early cue and context acquisition, and decreased responses of the anterior cingulate cortex and insula during early as well as increased hippocampal response during late context, but not cue acquisition. The OXT group additionally showed significantly higher arousal in late cue and context acquisition. OXT modulates various aspects of cue and context conditioning, which is relevant from a mechanism-based perspective and might have implications for the treatment of fear and anxiety.


The alleged success of former president (and current prime minister) Vladimir Putin in recentralizing the Russian Federation requires critical appraisal. A number of limitations to the reunification project, as Putin initially conceived it almost a decade ago, are emerging. A growing number of Russian and international scholars assert that center–regional relations did not change all that much during Putin's presidency and that the mono-polar system of power within most regions remains intact, which not only impedes democratic accountability in the federation but also makes the federal center's supervision over regional elites problematic. Publicly, those elites express almost ritual loyalty to the Kremlin, yet informal room for bargaining between Moscow and the provinces still exists, as does financial asymmetry within the federation, just as in the 1990s.