The determination of optimum crop management practices for increasing soybean production can provide valuable information for strategic planning in the tropics. However, this process is time consuming and expensive. The use of a
dynamic crop simulation model can be an alternative option to help estimate yield levels under various growing conditions. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the performance of the Cropping System Model (CSM)-CROPGROSoybean and to determine optimum management practices for soybean for growing conditions in the Phu Pha Man district, Thailand. Data from two soybean experiments that were conducted in 1991 at Chiang Mai University and in 2003
at Khon Kaen University were used to determine the cultivar coefficients for the cultivars CM 60 and SJ 5. The CSM-CROPGRO-Soybean model was evaluated with data from two experiments that were conducted at Chiang Mai University.
The observed data sets from farmers' fields located in the Phu Pha Man district were also used for model evaluation. Simulations for different management scenarios were conducted with soil property information for seven different soil series and historical weather data for the period 1972–2003 to predict the optimum crop management practices for soybean production in the Phu Pha Man district. The results of this study indicated that the cultivar coefficients of the two soybean cultivars resulted in simulated growth and development parameters that were in good agreement with almost all observed parameters. Model evaluation showed a good agreement between simulated and observed data for phenology and growth of soybean, and demonstrated the potential of the CSM-CROPGROSoybean model to simulate growth and yield for local environments, including farmers' fields, in Thailand. The CSM-CROPGRO-Soybean simulations indicated
that the optimum planting dates from June 15 to July 15 produced maximum soybean yield in a rainfed environment. However, the planting date December 15 produced the highest yield under quality irrigation. Soybean yield was slightly
improved by applying nitrogen at a rate of 30 kg N ha)1 at planting. Soybean yield also improved when the plant density was increased from 20 to 40 plants m)2. The results from this study suggest that the CSM-CROPGRO-Soybean model can be a valuable tool in assisting with determining optimum management practices for soybean cropping systems in the Phu Pha Man district and might be applicable to other agricultural production areas in Thailand and southeast Asia.


By 2020, current food production methods will be unable to meet the food demands of the growing world population. As high-productivity lands become more scarce and food demand increases, people will increase the cultivation of lands that were once considered too fragile for intensive use. Large populations will depend on hillside agricultural production for their livelihoods. Although sloping lands are sensitive to erosion, nondegrading land uses do exist. These alternative uses support local economic development while protecting watershed stability. To prepare for 2020, policies must evolve that address the needs of hillside inhabitants while promoting land use systems that are appropriate to the physical and economic conditions of these areas. To support the sustainable use of hillsides, policies must be compatible with population distribution, economic incentives, and physical conditions. With supportive policies, direct improvements in production, reduced environmental degradation (downslope and downstream), and improved welfare conditions will provide needed economic and social benefits to these often neglected areas.


Software developers all over the world use Stack Overflow (SO) to interact and exchange code snippets. Research also uses SO to harvest code snippets for use with recommendation systems. However, previous work has shown that code on SO may have quality issues, such as security or license problems. We analyse Python code on SO to determine its coding style compliance. From 1,962,535 code snippets tagged with 'python', we extracted 407,097 snippets of at least 6 statements of Python code. Surprisingly, 93.87% of the extracted snippets contain style violations, with an average of 0.7 violations per statement and a huge number of snippets with a considerably higher ratio. Researchers and developers should, therefore, be aware that code snippets on SO may not representative of good coding style. Furthermore, while user reputation seems to be unrelated to coding style compliance, for posts with vote scores in the range between -10 and 20, we found a strong correlation (r = -0.87, p < 10^-7) between the vote score a post received and the average number of violations per statement for snippets in such posts.


In this paper, a novel scheme is suggested for identifying the location of short-circuit faults that occur in distribution system. The proposed genetic algorithm and graph theory–based method is designed such a way that it splits electrical distribution system into protection zones containing buses, protection relays with measuring devices. Proposed methodology also decreases the calculation burden in dealing with large number of data sets. Genetic algorithm– based heuristic search method is used to place measuring devices at optimal location, and it is carried out in MATLAB. A new signal processing technique named dual tree complex wavelets transform is used for feature extraction, and support vector machine–based machine learning classifier is used for pattern recognition. IEEE33 bus radial distribution system and IEEE13 bus feeder test systems are tested for validating the proposed methodology and all the simulation work carried out in MATLAB Simulink.


Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common primary intraocular tumor in adults. Up to 50% of UM patients will develop metastases. We present data of 175 metastatic UM patients diagnosed in the Netherlands between July 2012 and March 2018. In our cohort, elevated lactate dehydrogenase level (LDH) is an important factor associated with poorer survival (Hazard Ratio (HR) 9.0, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 5.63–14.35), and the presence of liver metastases is negatively associated with survival (HR 2.09, 95%CI 1.07–4.08). We used data from the nation-wide Dutch Melanoma Treatment Registry (DMTR) providing a complete overview of the location of metastases at time of stage IV disease. In 154 (88%) patients, the liver was affected, and only 3 patients were reported to have brain metastases. In 63 (36%) patients, mutation analysis was performed, showing a GNA11 mutation in 28.6% and a GNAQ mutation in 49.2% of the analyzed patients. In the absence of standard care of treatment options, metastatic UM patients are often directed to clinical trials. Patients participating in clinical trials are often subject to selection and usually do not represent the entire metastatic UM population. By using our nation-wide cohort, we are able to describe real-life treatment choices made in metastatic UM patients and 1-year survival rates in selected groups of patients.


Coherence degradation in the soliton pulse-compression process and supercontinuum generation in the presence of amplified spontaneous emission are studied with numerical simulations. We have developed a new simulation method to study the quality of a pulse train and use numerical simulations to present three ways to suppress its coherence degradation. We point out that a simple measurement of the pulse train's power spectrum does not fully represent the quality of the pulse train because it does not contain detailed information on noise.


Aims: To investigate the effect of two yoga-based relaxation techniques, namely, cyclic meditation (CM) and supine rest (SR), using the six letter cancellation task (SLCT). Materials and Methods: The subjects consisted of 208 school students, (132 boys, 76 girls) in the age range of 13 – 16 years. The subjects were assessed on SLCT before and immediately after both yoga-based relaxation techniques. Results: After both practices, the total and net scores were significantly increased, although the magnitude of change was more after CM than after SR in the net scores (14.5 versus 11.31%). The net score change in the CM session was significantly larger than the change in the SR, whereas, there was no significant change in the wrong cancellation score. After either practice, the total and net scores were significantly increased, irrespective of gender and age. Conclusions: Both CM and SR led to improvement in performance, as assessed by SLCT, but the change caused by CM was larger than SR.


The quantification of isoprene and monoterpene emissions at the ecosystem level with available models and field measurements is not entirely satisfactory. Remote-sensing techniques can extend the spatial and temporal assessment of isoprenoid fluxes. Detecting the exchange of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) using these techniques is, however, a very challenging goal. Recent evidence suggests that a simple remotely sensed index, the photochemical reflectance index (PRI), which is indicative of light-use efficiency, relative pigment levels and excess reducing power, is a good indirect estimator of foliar isoprenoid emissions. We tested the ability of PRI to assess isoprenoid fluxes in a temperate deciduous forest in central USA throughout the entire growing season and under moderate and extreme drought conditions. We compared PRI time series calculated with MODIS bands to isoprene emissions measured with eddy covariance. MODIS PRI was correlated with isoprene emissions for most of the season, until emissions peaked. MODIS PRI was also able to detect the timing of the annual peak of emissions, even when it was advanced in response to drought conditions. PRI is thus a promising index to estimate isoprene emissions when it is complemented by information on potential emission. It may also be used to further improve models of isoprene emission under drought and other stress conditions. Direct estimation of isoprene emission by PRI is, however, limited, because PRI estimates LUE, and the relationship between LUE and isoprene emissions can be modified by severe stress conditions.


Hypovitaminosis D, a frequent condition in adults, is accompanied by adverse skeletal and non-skeletal events. The objective of the present article was to propose an update on the indications and use of vitamin D testing and supplementation in adults. Among healthy middle-aged adults, the serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) target concentration is 50 nmol/L. Natural intakes (sun exposure and diet) are sufficient, and there is no indication for systematic blood test or supplementation. In middle-aged adults who are either sick or dependent or frail, natural intakes are generally insufficient but should be encouraged. In this population, the loading phase of the supplementation targets a 25(OH)D concentration of 75 nmol/L, and the pattern of supplementation (200,000 to 400,000 IU orally over 2 months) depends on the measure of circulating 25(OH)D (which is not reimbursed outside the scope defined by the French national authority for health). In adults over 65 years of age, the loading phase of the supplementation should be systematic and targets a concentration of 75 nmol/L (pattern of 300,000 IU orally over 3 months). Regardless of age, the loading phase should be followed by a long-term maintenance phase of supplementation to maintain the 25(OH)D concentration above the target. A measure of serum 25(OH)D is useful after 9 months of supplementation to adjust the frequency or dosage of supplements if necessary.


The task of generating network-based evidence to support network forensic investigation is becoming increasingly prominent. Undoubtedly, such evidence is significantly imperative as it not only can be used to diagnose and respond to various network-related issues (i.e., performance bottlenecks, routing issues, etc.) but more importantly, can be leveraged to infer and further investigate network security intrusions and infections. In this context, this paper proposes a proactive approach that aims at generating accurate and actionable network-based evidence related to groups of compromised network machines. The approach is envisioned to guide investigators to promptly pinpoint such malicious groups for possible immediate mitigation as well as empowering network and digital forensic specialists to further examine those machines using auxiliary collected data or extracted digital artifacts. On one hand, the promptness of the approach is successfully achieved by monitoring and correlating perceived probing activities, which are typically the very first signs of an infection or misdemeanors. On the other hand, the generated evidence is accurate as it is based on an anomaly inference that fuses big data behavioral analytics in conjunction with formal graph theoretical concepts. We evaluate the proposed approach as a global capability in a security operations center. The empirical evaluations, which employ 80 GB of real darknet traffic, indeed demonstrates the accuracy, effectiveness and simplicity of the generated network-based evidence.


We show that bringing intermediate layers' representations of two augmented versions of an image closer together in self-supervised learning helps to improve the momentum contrastive (MoCo) method. To this end, in addition to the contrastive loss, we minimize the mean squared error between the intermediate layer representations or make their cross-correlation matrix closer to an identity matrix. Both loss objectives either outperform standard MoCo, or achieve similar performances on three diverse medical imaging datasets: NIH-Chest Xrays, Breast Cancer Histopathology, and Diabetic Retinopathy. The gains of the improved MoCo are especially large in a low-labeled data regime (e.g. 1% labeled data) with an average gain of 5% across three datasets. We analyze the models trained using our novel approach via feature similarity analysis and layer-wise probing. Our analysis reveals that models trained via our approach have higher feature reuse compared to a standard MoCo and learn informative features earlier in the network. Finally, by comparing the output probability distribution of models fine-tuned on small versus large labeled data, we conclude that our proposed method of pre-training leads to lower Kolmogorov-Smirnov distance, as compared to a standard MoCo. This provides additional evidence that our proposed method learns more informative features in the pre-training phase which could be leveraged in a low-labeled data regime.


The Twenty-First Century has presented new challenges to the traditional ways that free speech in America has been encouraged and protected. While the right to express one's opinions has become increasingly problematic in society at large, it is particularly imperiled in the very places that pride themselves as being open marketplaces of ideas – on college and university campuses.
Today we're faced with numerous campus speech codes that substantially limit First-Amendment rights. They are ubiquitous and often cavalierly invoked. For civil libertarians the good news is that not one of the few such codes that have been tested in court has been found constitutional; the bad news is that few have been tested. Moreover, the current codes come with new catch-phrases like "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces" and "cultural appropriation" – all calculated in one way or another to shelter students and others from the honest give-and-take of discussion and debate about topics that might be controversial.
Those with opinions that might challenge campus orthodoxies are rarely invited, and often disinvited after having been scheduled, or shouted down or otherwise disrupted. When protestors embroil visiting speakers, or break in on meetings to take them over and list demands, or even resort to violence, administrators often choose to look the other way. Students have come to take it for granted they will face little or no discipline for such disorderly conduct.
The so-called heckler's veto, once rarely invoked, is now commonplace. In popular parlance, the term is used to describe situations where hecklers or demonstrators are able to silence a speaker with little or no intervention by the law. In many cases the police arrest the speaker (not the heckler) for disturbing the peace. Although a number of courts have backed them up, case law over the years regarding heckler's vetoes has been mixed: some decisions say that the speaker's actions cannot be pre-emptively stopped for fear that hecklers will interrupt, but others assert that in the face of impending violence, authorities can quell the hecklers by forcing the speaker to stop.
The latter-day dilution of free speech has been generated at least in part by the rise of postmodernism. While encompassing a broad range of ideas, that phenomenon is generally defined by skepticism, irony, or distrust towards traditional narratives, ideologies, and Enlightenment rationality, including various perceptions of human nature, morality, social progress, objective reality, absolute truth, and the whole concept of reasoned discourse. Instead, postmodernism asserts that knowledge and truth are products of unique social, historical, or political interpretations.
On the other hand, postmodernism itself is difficult to define because to do so would violate its proponents' premise that there are no definite terms, boundaries, or absolute truths.
Over the past few years scholars of note have come to espouse distinctly opposing views regarding the rights and responsibilities of colleges and universities toward their students regarding freedom of speech on campus.
This article traces the evolution of the case law surrounding hecklers' vetoes, examines the erosion of free speech over the past half-century (particularly analyzing the debates among scholars about the causes and effects of postmodernism), and suggests ways by which speech can be protected on the contemporary campus without offending traditional Constitutional principles.


Several methodologies measure leaf greenness intensity and relate it to crop N status. There is no evidence, however, of the utility of this variable to detect N deficiencies in corn (Zea mays L.) under S deficiency. The objective of this work was to evaluate the potential of two indexes based on leaf greenness intensity to detect N deficiencies in corn under different levels ofS. Two experiments at Balcarce, Argentina (Bce I and Bce II), and one at 9 de Julio, Argentina (9dJ), were conducted during the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 seasons with different levels of N and S. Weekly measurements of greenness index (GI) were performed, and whole-plant samples were taken at four developmental stages to determine crop N and S accumulation. No N x S interaction was found in any measured variable. Nitrogen increased dry matter N and S accumulation, grain yield, and GI. Sulfur fertilization resulted in increased S accumulation in all experiments, and grain yield at Bce II and 9dJ. This nutrient also increased GI during several crop stages in all experiments. A nitrogen sufficiency index (NSI) was related to its relative yield (R 2 : 0.67, 0.63, 0.43, 0.67 for stages V5-V8, V9-V11, V13-V14, and V15-V18, respectively) under different S levels. On the other hand, a new index called relative greenness index (RGI), proposed for situations that could present S deficiencies, was also related to its relative yield (R 2 : 0.67, 0.81, 0.63, 0.82 for stages V5-V8, V9-V11, V13-V14, and V15-V18, respectively) under different S levels. The regression lines of both indexes were coincident for all sample dates. It was concluded that crop N status can be characterized under different levels of S through the NSI. Future research, however, should test these results under a wider range of S levels.


Introduction: The increasing drug resistance of bacteria against different antibiotics is a cause of development of antimicrobial compounds. The aim of this study was to investigate the synthesis and evaluation of antibacterial effects of 2amino-5-nitrothiophene derivatives against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Strains. Materials & Methods: As the first stage, 2amino-5-nitro-thiophene derivatives were synthesized. The structures of the synthesized compounds were confirmed by means of IR, 1 H NMR and 13 C NMR measurements. In the second phase, these compounds were evaluated for antimicrobial effects by Agar Well Diffusion Method against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Strains. Then, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of these compounds were evaluated. Findings: According to our finds, reaction of malononitrile, aryl isothiocyanate and bromonitromethane in the presence of sodium ethoxide in ethanol led to preparation of compounds 4a-e. The antibacterial effects showed that all the compounds had inhibitory effects against Staphylococcus aureus. Discussion & Conclusion: Our investigation concluded that the structureactivity relationship (SAR) results indicated that the compound 4a showed a potent antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, while this combination proved no effects on Escherichia coli. 4c and 4d compounds demonstrated an inhibitory effect on Escherichia coli strain, while the compounds 4b and 4e indicated similar effects on both the bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli). Meanwhile, efficacy of the compounds4b and 4e against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli was the same.


Speaking anxiety is not a new phenomenon that needs to be faced by second language learners. The feelings of nervous, stress and uneasiness to speak using a language that is different from their mother tongue has somehow trigger their anxiety and affect their perceptions towards learning the language, in fact it is a nature part of life (Woodrow, 2006). English is not a new language need to be learned by Malaysian students. It has become the second official language after Malay Language. Therefore the demand to the need of knowing to use the language especially in communication is very high. Students managed to get excellent results in examination but fail to demonstrate the knowledge they have through speaking skills. It is believed the factors that may cause the anxiety rooted from their experience learning the language in the classroom. Previous research (Choy & Troudi, 2006) agreed with the fact that classroom is a place that could trigger most anxious feelings out of the students. The purposes of this study are. to investigate the factors that cause speaking anxiety in the English classroom and to observe variation of anxieties that each schools in the institution {flight have. Coping strategies are recommended to overcome the issue. This stddy is participated by two hundreds of students from PTPL College, Shah Alam. The findings from this study show that students are concerned on the tasks and activities related to
speaking, the application of grammar and their self-beliefs in learning English. Students from School of Business Management & Professional (SBMP) have been identified to experience speaking anxiety the most compared to other three schools. A very useful and practical recommendation for teachers to help students to overcome speaking anxiety was obtained. It was suggested that for futher studies on this issue, teachers' perspectives should be put into consideration.


Do schools reduce or perpetuate inequality by race and family income? Most studies conclude that schools play only a small role in explaining socioeconomic and racial disparities in educational outcomes, but they usually draw this conclusion based solely on test scores. We reconsider this finding using longitudinal data on test scores and four-year college attendance among high school students in Massachusetts and Texas. We show that unexplained differences between high schools are larger for college attendance than for test scores. These differences are arguably caused by differences between the schools themselves. Furthermore, while these apparent differences in high school effectiveness increase income disparities in college attendance, they reduce racial disparities. Social scientists concerned with schools' role in transmitting inequality across generations should reconsider the assumption that schools either increase or reduce all disparities and should direct attention to explaining why high schools' effects on specific outcomes and groups of students appear to vary so much.


This paper derives conditions under which the introduction of a third-party agent solves the renegotiation-proofness problem of Moore and Repullo (1988)-type mechanisms, without introducing the potential for other agents to collude with the third-party. The key novelties of our mechanism are: (i) the introduction of a third-party agent only off-equilibrium and with some probability; (ii) the fact that both its existence and its identity are unknown to the other agents. We show that under these conditions, which are satisfied in many empirical applications, a hidden third-party agent can restore the implementation of the efficient allocation. If this agent does not observe the state of the world, we provide a sufficient condition for implementation to succeed.


ABSTRACT This article explores linguistic-cultural ideologies and educational policies as they emerge and are negotiated in everyday life in a bilingual school setting located in the geopolitical spaces of Sweden. Taking sociocultural theory and discourse analysis as points of departure, we focus on empirical examples of classroom interaction and locally established formal policing. Linguistic-cultural ideologies and educational policies that frame life at the school are investigated by employing nexus analytical methods, focusing on social (inter)actions through which a number of locally and nationally relevant discourses circulate. Our findings indicate that refocusing ideology and policy research from the lens of a practiced perspective allows the situated and distributed nature of everyday life to inform issues related to bilingualism as well as their relations to wider societal discourses. Furthermore, our analysis highlights the crucial role of educators in (re)locating bilingual education in its societal contexts as well as making these connections visible in classrooms.


General Relativity (GR) is Einsteins' theory of gravity whereby the motions of
bodies are explained due to their following geodesic paths (the shortest distance
between two points) in a curved four dimensional space-time. The curvature being
attributed to the presence of mass
As such there is no explicit force present in this theory, contrary to Newtons' law
of gravity. However in the limit of GR (where the field is both weak and static and
bodies are travelling with velocities slow compared to that of light), then Newtons'
law is recovered in the approximation.
GR has explained all gravitational phenomena extremely well (eg solar system),
that is until one considers the measured motions of galaxies. The galaxies are
rotating too quickly to be consistent with GR/ Newton.
An explanation for this discrepancy has originally been suggested, concerning the
presence of extra mass, of as yet an unknown nature. However, to date not a hint
of this `Dark Matter' has been detected.
A second explanation is that of Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND), whereby
at a certain very small acceleration, the actual gravitational physics deviates from
that described by Newton. The MOND proposal seems to fit extremely well with
observations without the need to invoke the presence of DM.
The main problem with the MOND concept is that it does not fit in with the
standard GR.
ii
The following work details an exploration into the novel assumption that the
presence of mass is not only responsible for the curvature of space-time but also
for a local expansion of space-time.
By introducing an expansion factor at the very beginning of standard GR analysis,
one �nds an extra term appears which is consistent throughout. With the inclusion
of this extra term, one can, in the weak, static and slow velocity limit, �nd a direct
link to the MOND phenomenology. It is found that the extra term is negligible for
small systems (eg Solar) yet it is the dominant term for large systems (eg galaxies).
The work is published in Physical Review D. `Gravitational Theoretical Development
Supporting MOND'.


Productive Dustiness The idea that biological productivity in the surface ocean is limited by a lack of available iron has been widely accepted, but it has been difficult to show that this effect might have operated in the geological past. Martínez-García et al. (p. 1347) investigated the isotopic composition of foraminifera-bound nitrogen in samples from an Ocean Drilling Project sediment core and found millennial-scale changes in nitrate consumption correlated with fluxes in the iron burial and productivity proxies over the past 160,000 years. Hence, in the Southern Ocean the biological pump was strengthened when dust fluxes were high, which explains a significant part of the difference in atmospheric CO2 concentrations observed to occur across glacial cycles. Nitrogen isotopes in foraminifera show the role of iron fertilization on atmospheric carbon dioxide during the last ice age. John H. Martin, who discovered widespread iron limitation of ocean productivity, proposed that dust-borne iron fertilization of Southern Ocean phytoplankton caused the ice age reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). In a sediment core from the Subantarctic Atlantic, we measured foraminifera-bound nitrogen isotopes to reconstruct ice age nitrate consumption, burial fluxes of iron, and proxies for productivity. Peak glacial times and millennial cold events are characterized by increases in dust flux, productivity, and the degree of nitrate consumption; this combination is uniquely consistent with Subantarctic iron fertilization. The associated strengthening of the Southern Ocean's biological pump can explain the lowering of CO2 at the transition from mid-climate states to full ice age conditions as well as the millennial-scale CO2 oscillations.


The work of Richard J. Bernstein has achieved a groundbreaking synthesis of the analytical and continental modes of thought. Countering the highly technical metaphysical and epistemological puzzles of analytic philosophy in the early 1960s, Bernstein offered a model of philosophy in a democratic society as the work of the engaged public intellectual. Working within the tradition of American pragmatism, he also changed that tradition by opening it to the international intellectual currents of phenomenology, deconstructionism, and critical theory. These essays by leading philosophers and social thinkers pay tribute to Bernstein and reflect the themes that have engaged him throughout his career.Pragmatism, Critique, Judgment opens with a group of essays that examine the place of philosophy in a democratic society; included in this section are Richard Rorty's exploration of the legacy of American pragmatism and Jrgen Habermas's reconsideration of ethics in philosophy. The essays in the second section examine postpositivist social critique and include Jacques Derrida's consideration of the philosophical paradoxes of the death penalty. The third group of essays considers the theme of radical evil, and includes discussions of Bernstein's nuanced reading of Hannah Arendt. The book ends with a biographical essay based in part on a series of conversations with Bernstein himself.


The main objective of this study is to test the effect of thermal aquatic exercise on motor symptoms and quality of life in people with Parkinson's Disease (PD). Fourteen participants with diagnosis of idiopathic PD completed the whole rehabilitation session and evaluation protocol (Hoehn and Yahr in OFF state: 2–3; Mini Mental State Examination >24; stable pharmacological treatment in the 3 months prior participating in the study). Cognitive and motor status, functional abilities and quality of life were assessed at baseline and after an intensive rehabilitation program in thermal water (12 sessions of 45 min in a 1.4 m depth pool at 32–36 ∘C). The Mini Balance Evaluation System Test (Mini-BESTest) and the PD Quality of Life Questionnaire (PDQ-39) were considered as main outcomes. Secondary assessment measures evaluated motor symptoms and quality of life and psychological well-being. Participants kept good cognitive and functional status after treatment. Balance of all the participants significantly improved (Mini-BESTest: p<0.01). The PDQ-39 significantly improved after rehabilitation (p=0.038), with significance being driven by dimensions strongly related to motor status. Thermal aquatic exercise may represent a promising rehabilitation tool to prevent the impact of motor symptoms on daily-life activities of people with PD. PDQ-39 improvement foreshows good effects of the intervention on quality of life and psychological well-being.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the efficacy of the combination of interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) and daily low-dose cytarabine (ara-C) in the treatment of patients with early chronic-phase chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) (within 1 year of diagnosis). Improving the degree of hematologic and cytogenetic response in patients with Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)-positive CML may improve prognosis. Both IFN-alpha and ara-C induce cytogenetic responses as single-agent therapy in CML.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
One hundred forty patients with Ph-positive early chronic-phase CML received subcutaneous injections of IFN-alpha 5 megaunits/m2 daily and ara-C 10 mg daily. Their median age was 46 years; 53% had good-risk disease, 33% had intermediate-risk disease, and 14% had poor-risk disease. Their results were compared with those of patients receiving IFN-alpha with or without intermittent ara-C (7 days/mo).

RESULTS
A complete hematologic response (CHR) was achieved in 92% of patients. A cytogenetic response was seen in 74%: it was major in 50% (Ph-positive < 35%) and complete in 31% (Ph-positive 0%). With a median follow-up of 42 months, the 4-year estimated survival rote was 70% (95% confidence interval, 61% to 79%). Significant side effects included fatigue (43%; grade 3/4, 11%), weight loss (19%; grade 3/4, 11%), muscle and bone aches (20%; grade 3/4, 7%), oral ulcers (4%), diarrhea (6%), and neurologic changes (27%, grade 3/4, 6%). The median dose of IFN-alpha was 3.7 megaunits/m2 daily, mainly because of reductions for myelosuppression (70% of cases); the median ara-C dose was 7.5 mg daily. Prognostic risk groups were predictive for response to the IFN-alpha plus ara-C combination. The incidence of CHR was higher with IFN-alpha plus daily ara-C compared with IFN-alpha plus intermittent ara-C and IFN-alpha alone (no ara-C) (92% v 84% v 80%, P = .01), as were the incidences of cytogenetic response (74% v 73% v 58%; P = .003) and major cytogenetic response (50% v 38% v 38%; P = .06). The median time to achievement of major cytogenetic response was significantly shorter than that for previous IFN-alpha regimens (7 v 10 v 12 months; P < .01). However, with the present follow-up, the survival and time to blastic transformation were similar.

CONCLUSION
The combination of IFN-alpha plus daily low-dose ara-C seems to be promising for the treatment of CML. High rates of CHR and cytogenetic response were observed with acceptable toxicity and a lower daily dose of IFN-alpha compared with our previous studies.


various advantages and ill effects of reservation policy are affecting Indian Education system and employment sector. Due to disturbance created by reservation system in education and job sector in the society, people are marginally divided into two groups i.e. people who are in favor or non-favor of reservation which accelerates the other causes which are associated with negative effect of reservation to further worse the situation. So, survey is conducted with teachers and students to detect main causes of reservation and their point of view. Statistical t-test is conducted on surveyed dataset to filter the high impact factors of reservation out of all factors taken and interpreted graphically. Further, Apriori Association rule mining applied using data mining tool to study the interdependence of main causes behind growing impact of reservation and finding the possible solutions to make system unbiased. Improvement in Apriori algorithm is proposed and Comparison of of proposed and existing techniques in terms of parameters candidate generation, number of cycles performed and minimum support done using graphs to obtain faster results thus reducing the repeatedly database scan. KeywordsAprioi algorithm, Association Rules, Statistical test, reservation, data mining


Predictive mycology aims at predicting fungal development in foods and raw products. For 25 years, most of the studies concerned food pathogenic bacteria. Recently, there is a growing concern about food contamination by moulds, especially strains responsible for mycotoxins production. This paper advocates the use of specific models for describing germination and growth of fungi.


Objectives: In Russia, smoking prevalence has historically been high in men and relatively low in women. Female smoking prevalence is predicted to rise but assessment of changes has been limited by the lack of comparable data. Changes in the prevalence of smoking in Russia between 1996 and 2004, and whether theses changes differed by sociodemographic groups, were investigated. Design: Repeated national interview surveys in 1996 (731 men and 868 women) and 2004 (727 men and 864 women) aged 18 years or more. Main outcome measure: Prevalence of current smoking. Results: The age standardised prevalence of smoking in 1996 and 2004 was 61% and 63%, respectively in men and 15% and 16%, respectively in women (both p values > 0.4). In men, the prevalence of smoking seemed to decline in those with university education (from 51% to 40%, p  =  0.085). Among women, smoking appeared to increase in those with university education (from 10% to 17%, p  =  0.071) and low levels of self-reported material deprivation (from 11% to 18%, p  =  0.053). There was a pronounced increase in prevalence among women living in villages (from 8% to 14%, p  =  0.049); the strong urban/rural gradient seen in 1996 became considerably weaker by 2004. Conclusions: Overall smoking prevalence in both men and women in Russia remained stable between 1996 and 2004 but, given the sample size, a moderate increase in female smoking cannot be ruled out. In men, smoking increased among the least educated and declined in the most educated. In women the opposite appeared to occur, in addition to an increase in smoking in rural areas. More long term monitoring of smoking patterns in Russia, especially among women, using sufficiently large surveys, is required.


We have studied the cellular expression and functional conservation of the human La autoantigen across species by introducing genes encoding human La antigen into cultured murine cell lines. In transfected murine fibroblasts and lymphoid cell lines human La was expressed as a predominantly nuclear antigen, with a typical pattern of nuclear speckling. Radiolabeled human La was of the predicted molecular mass (48 kDa) when expressed in murine cells and was associated intracellularly with murine 60 kDa Ro antigen. Under certain conditions of cell lysis the association between human La and murine Ro was disrupted, whereas human La and human Ro complexes remained intact, suggesting the possibility of species-specific protein interaction between La/Ro antigens. Expression of human La from the genomic gene construct was associated in some transfectants with the presence of additional high molecular weight bands reactive with anti-La monoclonal antibodies. Cell surface La determinants were not detected on any of the transfected cells. Human La protein associated with many of the same radiolabeled RNAs as the murine La antigen in transfected murine cells, indicating intact RNA-binding function of La protein across species. The findings indicate that despite 23% non-identity within the primary structure of human and murine La, the human molecule is functionally highly conserved across species.


The specific targeting of either tumor cells or immune cells in vivo by carefully designed and appropriately surface-functionalized nanocarriers may become an effective therapeutic treatment for a variety of diseases. Carbohydrates, which are prominent biomolecules, have shown their outstanding ability in balancing the biocompatibility, stability, biodegradability, and functionality of nanocarriers. The recent applications of sugar (mono/oligosaccharides and/or polysaccharides) for the development of nanomedicines are summarized in this review, including the application of carbohydrates for the surface-functionalization of various nanocarriers and for the construction of the nanocarrier itself. Current problems and challenges are also addressed.


This paper describes a portion of a larger research project to develop a heuristic and set of psychometric scales to carefully and broadly consider and measure beliefs in environmental knowledge, values, ethics, and support for environmental protection. The project was intended to help answer questions concerning their relationship, and to facilitate dialogue and research concerning these complex and contested topics. The heuristic: 1) provides a set of terms and concepts to distinguish a broad range of environmental values and ethics (twelve types of environmental ethics are defined) 2) can be used to increase self-awareness of environmental values and ethics 3) supports value clarification efforts by those in conflict mediation by helping to identify divergent and convergent environmental beliefs 4) supports researchers, by providing philosophically based methods to systematically distinguish different aspects of environmental values and ethics. The heuristic contains seven general primary steps that explore twelve different dimensions of beliefs about the environment, from belief in capacity to suffer, a variety of value beliefs, moral obligations, and support for environmental protection. The results of the development of twelve psychometric scales to measure these beliefs are also provided. A preliminary test of the reliability of the scales with three intentional groups (n=191) found that they varied in their reliability from 0.79 to 0.91, with the eleven scales predicting the twelfth (Willingness to Protect the Environment, Legally) with an ANOVA (adjusted r2) of 0.73.


A multi-dimensional combustion code implementing the Conditional Moment Closure turbulent combustion model interfaced with a well-established RANS two- phase flow field solver has been employed to study a broad range of operating conditions for a heavy duty direct-injection common-rail Diesel engine. These conditions include different loads (25%, 50%, 75% and full load) and engine speeds (1250 and 1830 RPM) and, with respect to the fuel path, different injection timings and rail pressures. A total of nine cases have been simulated. Excellent agreement with experimental data has been found for the pressure traces and the heat release rates, without adjusting any model constants. The chemical mechanism used contains a detailed NOx sub-mechanism. The predicted emissions agree reasonably well with the experimental data considering the range of operating points and given no adjustments of any rate constants have been employed. In an effort to identify CPU cost reduction potential, various dimensionality reduction strategies have been assessed. Furthermore, the sensitivity of the predictions with respect to resolution in particular relating to the CMC grid has been investigated. Overall, the results suggest that the presented modelling strategy has considerable predictive capability concerning Diesel engine combustion without requiring model constant calibration based on experimental data. This is true particularly for the heat release rates predictions and, to a lesser extent, for NOx emissions where further progress is still necessary. © 2009 SAE International.


Spirulina, chlorella, and dunalliella are unicellular algae that are commercially produced worldwide. These algae are concentrated sources of carotenoids (especially provitamin A carotenoids) and other nutrients, such as vitamin B12. Their health benefits as a complementary dietary source for macro and micro nutrients have been studied and confirmed in various populations. The safety of human consuming these algae and products derived from these algae by humans has been widely studied. It is generally concluded that these algae and its products are safe if cultivated properly in a non-contaminated environment, and if consumed in moderation.


The theme of this dossier of the Journal of Borderlands Studies is the transboundary landscape of the Schengen border. The Schengen border refers to the common external border of those European countries that signed the Schengen Agreement (1985/1990), which in 1999 became integrated in European Union (EU) legislation. The aim of the agreement is to create a zone of free movement, the so-called Schengen area, between the signatories and to harmonize the area's external border-control arrangements. It now comprises most of the EU member countries, excluding the United Kingdom, Ireland, Romania, and Bulgaria but including the non-members Norway, Iceland, and Switzerland. Besides Romania and Bulgaria, the Schengen area currently borders with Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Turkey, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia (FYROM), and Albania outside the EU. Russia had become a neighbor of the area in 2001, when Finland joined the agreement. A more dramatic shift took place with the extension of the land area that occurred with the addition of new member states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia) in December 2007 (see DeBardeleben 2005, 6-8).


The phenomenon of "raiding," i.e., the unlawful establishment of control over the property or governing boards of an enterprise, as well as the seizure of its shares, has been reported in all countries of the world for many decades. This phenomenon has the most dangerous forms in the states with the underdeveloped economy and legal system, particularly in Ukraine. The paper aims to determine the areas for counteracting and overcoming corporate raiding in Ukraine and to provide proposals for improving the legislative framework for reliable protection against attacks on the enterprises' property.The information in the paper, including the geography of raider attacks, indicates a greater vulnerability of enterprises in the most economically developed regions, with extensive transport infrastructure and the prospects for various industries and sectors of the economy development. The state should take some steps to increase the level of enterprises protection against raider attacks. Thus, to improve the quality of preventing and combating corporate raiding, this paper argues the need to develop and adopt the Corporate Property Protection Code of Ukraine. The introduction of the raider attacks register will be an effective measure to warn potential investors and counterparties about the dangers of cooperation with certain companies. The state register should be bilingual (Ukrainian and English) and contain information on the attempts and cases of raider attacks on property and corporate business rights. Also for further innovations in starting a business, Ukraine must pay attention to New Zealand's and Finland's experience.


This study explores the differences in expertise and investment philosophies among private and professional investors (mainly in Switzerland) in the management of their personal investment portfolios. It uses the valuable five-step adult skill acquisition model developed by Hubert L. Dreyfus (2004) to characterize the investment 'experts' and establishes key findings and suggestions from their investment behaviour, criteria and strategies for the 'ordinary' investor. The notion of what constitutes 'expertise' in general but especially in the area of financial investment (stock market) was found to be under-researched.
A comprehensive review of the existing literature was conducted to form the theoretical basis for the research and to establish an initial hypothesis. This conceptual framework defines the organization of the study and identifies its challenges, concepts and ideas. A research design framework could then be developed to identify strategies for inquiry (research methodology) and data generation methods. These formed the basis for an extensive online questionnaire, which was answered by 550 participants. In regard to the three research questions developed, this survey was followed by diverse analyses and discussions that delivered key findings and answers for my research.
One of the main foci and accomplished result of this research was to develop a method to identify and characterize the experts amongst the asset managers, institutional investors and private investors and to formulate their expert recommendations into a feasible investment process for the benefit of the ordinary investor. A key finding was that education, financial qualification and experience contribute significantly to informed investment decisions, i.e. diversification of assets, rebalancing of portfolios or passive investing. As hypothesized, the professional investors exhibit superior investment behaviour. However, every fourth private investor also demonstrated characteristics of an expert.
A descriptive and statistical analysis of the expert group characterized them as highly educated, experienced, and diversified. They invest for more than 7 years in passive managed funds rather than single shares, with an expected average return of around 7%. Their preferred asset classes are shares, corporate bonds and commodities and they view the knowledge and size of a company as well as the industry as the most important investment criteria. In addition, they favour asset allocation, value investing and fundamental analysis as imperative investment strategies/applications.
The main practical contribution of this study is the recommendations for general investors drawn from the experts' knowledge and experience. These include: 'educating oneself' to become an informed investor or expert; qualification or re-qualification of financial advisers; knowing who you are by developing your risk-profile; investing for the long-term if disposable funds are not needed for short or mid-term purchases within a well-diversified portfolio; being wary of the cost, and thus reducing the total expense ratio as much as possible; not stock picking or timing the market; investing in passive funds within superior asset classes; controlling emotions when investing; rebalancing ones portfolio when required (keeping the asset class ratios in control) and continually investing additional disposable funds according to the concept of value averaging (increasing the value of your portfolio periodically). The limitations of these findings are also discussed and the possible directions for future research is outlined.


We study the design of minimum variance portfolio when asset returns follow a low rank factor model. Using results from random matrix theory, an optimal shrinkage approach for the isolated eigenvalues of the covariance matrix is developed. The proposed portfolio optimization strategy is shown to have good performance on synthetic data but not always on real data sets. This leads us to refine the data model by considering time correlation between samples. By updating the shrinkage of the isolated eigenvalues accounting for the unknown time correlation, our portfolio optimization method is shown to have improved performance and achieves lower risk values than competing methods on real financial data sets.


This 2007 third edition continues to be a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the business, practice, law, and practical use of project finance. It covers the complete project finance structure, from conception to negotiation to debt closing, and from project difficulties to successful restructuring. The book continues to be accessible to those with little experience in project finance, while maintaining the insight and detail of previous editions that has made it a valuable reference for the experienced lawyer, manager, banker, contractor, and government official. This edition focuses on a real-world, practical approach to project finance, without the overuse of case studies and economic theory. Yet the contract forms, detailed glossary, index, and project finance bibliography make it a complete text.


Earthworms play an important role in the maintenance of soil ecosystem services. Their presence and activity are influenced by agricultural practices as fertilization. The objective of this research was to identify earthworm species and to quantify their abundance and biomass in a field experiment where different fertilization strategies were applied for a period of 12 years. The experiment was carried out under a semiarid Mediterranean climate, in a fallow year of a rainfed cereal system. Fertilization strategies were based on pig slurries from fattening pigs (PE) and from sows (PM) at different fresh doses distributed in six treatments: three treatments only included PE (one rate was 30 t ha−1 yr−1 applied at pre-sowing, and the other two treatments received 40 and 60 t ha−1 yr−1 applied at cereal tillering), two treatments only included PM (60 and 90 t ha−1 yr−1 applied at cereal tillering) and the last, it combined PE and PM (30 t ha−1 yr−1 of PE at pre-sowing plus 90 t ha−1 yr−1 of PM at cereal tillering). Fertilization included a mineral fertilization treatment (0−FM) acting as a control. There were no variations in the abundance and biomass of earthworms registered according to the type of fertilization. Two earthworm species were identified. The endogeic species Koinodrilus roseus was the most abundant (80%−100%). The anecic species Nicodrilus trapezoides was not detected in plots receiving the two highest doses of PE at cereal tillering. The absence of N. trapezoides can be considered as a bioindicator of PE over-fertilization.


Neighborhoods are designed to contribute towards establishing and maintaining community bonds. Gated communities, a recognizable form of housing developments in the Gulf Region, have an impact on neighborhoods and cities' livability-namely on the quality of life of residents. In the city of Doha, gated communities are widely diffused and considered as one of the most common types of housing, which greatly influence residents' social interactions. This research study aims to investigate the sense of community in Al-Ein compound in Ein Khaled neighborhood. Oral and Visual data was collected through (A) in-depth interviews with residents and (B) site visits, observation and photographs of the compound's physical settings. The findings reveal that the sense of community measured in Al-Ein compound is high due to the robust community's ties and connections among residents. Also, the findings provide guidelines to policy makers, urban planners and designers for the implementation of residential compounds' settings in Doha.


Size measurement methods have played a key role in helping to solve real-world problems of estimating, supplier/customer disputes, performance improvement and the management of outsourced contracts. We would like to say that estimating and managing a project's effort, staffing, schedule, cost, risks, quality and other factors is crucial. Yet all these are measures of input. Process management is enabled by feedback loops. So it is also necessary to measure the output from the software process. This starts with measurement of the size of the requirements. To solve a problem, it is necessary to measure its size, in order to assess the various solution options, calculate the relative costs, compare the benefits, before finally committing to one preferred approach.


Promoting Previously Unthinkable Ways-Some Restorative Learning Tasks in Northern Ireland The restorative task in Northern Ireland is deeply entwined with civic, public and political life and the extent to which we can acknowledge our violent past, permit ourselves to take risks, meet in a human manner and discount apparently rational reasons we have been given to distrust others. It is to transgress the historical boundaries of asymmetric relationships with state authority and the more recent conflicted history of deep mutual antagonism in our midst and let the reconciling part in each of us fly more freely, without being smothered by the politics of reason, important though politics is (See Wright, 1987, xi-xv).In Northern Ireland so many of one's friends and significant others are members of one's own cultural, political or religious traditions and the pressure on more newly arrived citizens is to follow this pattern also. These patterns, aligned with an historical ambivalence to violence that has excused 'my violence as provoked' but has rejected 'your violence as 'unacceptable', now means that the restorative task is about opening people up to trust those they have previously seen as 'the enemy' and about establishing agreed public institutions that serve all equitably and new and agreed law and order structures that effectively criminalise violence and end any ambivalence about it.Restoring an openness to those previously seen as my enemy in an ethnic frontier area as well as an openness to those who are new citizens, demands that: citizenship, not group identity, is established as the primary point of identification; people find relationships and civic and political structures that enable all to deal more openly with the legacy of the past; core values are established at the heart of public and civic life about treating one another equitably, appreciating the diversity each brings and promoting our mutual interdependence (Eyben et al, 1997);and that public, civic and political society spaces empower people to create a more civil society.The restorative task is to empower the voices and actions of people of all ages who wish to take risks, equipping them with the knowledge that virulent circles of pessimism, avoidance, communal deterrence and local essentialism can be dissolved through building ease with different others, supporting people in making change a lasting reality and in promoting commitments between people and groups that establish and sustain 'process-structures' within the society that address "both the symptoms and causes of historic polarisation…support constructive change…and bring together strategic, often improbable, alliances' (Lederach,2007)" The restorative task is not just one for children and young people but for all ages and institutions. The need for citizenship education for children and young people needs couched within a wider inter- generational commitment to see one another as equal citizens of one place and not primarily as members of opposed identity groups.Building a more restorative culture in society is to: build a new practice that works critically and reflectively within existing traditions and institutions; enable people to transgress traditional boundaries and meet; support existing organisations re-envision their role in the light of a new and agreed political dispensation; and set free initiatives that are transformative because of their inclusive structures or the focus of their work.There is a Madagascan image that eggs, once hatched, soar (Atran, 2010). Reconciliation practice over many years has been incubating relationships between unexpected people so that they, with others, can soar above distrust and fear. It is important that these relationships are now used in the practical task of restoring equity, promoting trust and securing agreed, commonly owned and non-partisan civic, public and political structures within which people of all ages can move more freely and at ease with different others. Derick Wilson June 2010


Risk management and assessment techniques are increasingly being used to project public health risks at hazardous wastes sites. Few studies have quantitatively evaluated the environmental risk at a site and what role that risk plays in specifying site remediation plans. Such a study, referred to as a biota study, was performed for a Superfund Site, where PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) are the primary compound of concern. The biota study was conducted using a four-phased approach that combined a small data base of field results with a food web depicting organism interactions. It was then possible to assess the relative concentration of PCBs at each trophic level and determine if site conditions presented a significant environmental risk to the ecosystem. The biota study demonstrated that environmental risk concerns would be addressed if site remediation plans were based on public health risks alone. The integration of a literature review with a focused field program, proved to be a cost-effective approach for evaluating environmental risk.


The unprecedented volume and rate of transient events that will be discovered by the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) demand that the astronomical community update its follow-up paradigm. Alert-brokers—automated software system to sift through, characterize, annotate, and prioritize events for follow-up—will be critical tools for managing alert streams in the LSST era. The Arizona-NOAO Temporal Analysis and Response to Events System (ANTARES) is one such broker. In this work, we develop a machine learning pipeline to characterize and classify variable and transient sources only using the available multiband optical photometry. We describe three illustrative stages of the pipeline, serving the three goals of early, intermediate, and retrospective classification of alerts. The first takes the form of variable versus transient categorization, the second a multiclass typing of the combined variable and transient data set, and the third a purity-driven subtyping of a transient class. Although several similar algorithms have proven themselves in simulations, we validate their performance on real observations for the first time. We quantitatively evaluate our pipeline on sparse, unevenly sampled, heteroskedastic data from various existing observational campaigns, and demonstrate very competitive classification performance. We describe our progress toward adapting the pipeline developed in this work into a real-time broker working on live alert streams from time-domain surveys.


The effects of treatment in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the consequences of delayed therapy represent important areas for research. The concept of a 'window of opportunity' is now well established and considerable attention has been paid to when it might close. However, in order to study how long the window of opportunity lasts, the timing of its opening must be precisely defined. An analysis of definitions of 'onset' in clinical studies reveals imprecision and heterogeneity, making accurate assessment of this important concept of the 'window of opportunity' very difficult. In this paper we propose that, in clinical trials in early RA, data on durations since onset of symptoms and onset of joint swelling as well as disease duration based on fulfilment of classification criteria should be routinely presented.


Abstract. According to Gottfredson and Hirschi and their general theory of crime (1990), self-control - defined as the degree to which individuals are vulnerable to temptation - is a relatively stable, universal trait that accounts for individual differences in criminal, deviant, and reckless behavior. Self-control is said to develop in early childhood, while the family is still the most important socializing agent. Thus, the absence of self-control and subsequent deviant activity are a result of familial factors. Using a large, nation-wide sample of Canadian children, this study examines the effect of parenting on children's self-control while considering the role of such factors as parental composition and household size. Analyses reveal that self-control varies by family structure, whereby children living with two biological parents report higher levels of self-control than children in reconstituted and single parent families. However, this relationship is offset, in part, by parental monitoring. Overall, regardless of family structure, it is evident that a nurturing, accepting family environment is positively associated with self-control. Keywords: self-control; adolescence; family structure; parental behavior Introduction Gottfredson and Hirschi's assertion that their general theory of crime explains "all crime, at all times and, for that matter, many forms of behavior that are not sanctioned by the state" (1990:117) has proven to be one of the most controversial claims made by criminologists in recent years. According to Gottfredson and Hirschi, self-control, defined as the degree to which individuals are vulnerable to temptation, is a relatively stable, universal trait that accounts for individual-level differences in criminal, deviant, and reckless behavior. Indeed, they use the term synonymously with criminality, or the propensity to commit crime, giving an indication of how large the role of self-control is thought to play in the commission of criminal acts. Later, they soften their assertions about the primacy of self-control; age, gender, and race are also said to be important determinants of criminal activity (Hirschi and Gottfredson, 1995). Nevertheless, self-control is thought to be the primary social characteristic that leads to crime and delinquency. To be sure, Gottfredson and Hirschi express in no uncertain terms, low self-control is "the individual-level cause of crime" (1990:232). Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) argue that their theory of crime is general in that it accounts for a multitude of criminal and noncriminal behaviors that transcend cultural boundaries. They define crime as any act of "force or fraud undertaken in the pursuit of self-interest" (1990:15). Crime, then, is not restricted by definition to those activities that violate the laws of a particular society at a particular point in time. The authors contend that, because their definition of crime does not follow cultural, behavioral, or legalistic guidelines, the general theory is valid across time and space. That is, low self-control is the primary cause of all types of crime and deviance, at all times and in all cultures. Furthermore, self-control is said to develop in early childhood, while the family is still the most important socializing agent. The absence of self-control, the authors contend, is therefore a result of familial factors. It is this aspect of the general theory that is the focus of the present investigation. While the contention that low self-control leads to criminal and analogous acts has received much empirical attention, the claim that the family is the source of low self-control has to date been of less interest to criminology researchers. As will be discussed in further detail, research that has sought to test this latter proposition is contradictory and offers only a modest degree of support for the general theory. Self-Control Central to the general theory of crime is the assumption that humans have an innate tendency to seek immediate gratification of desires. …


The conventional design of steel beams considers that any deformation of a member due to applied load must be a combination of the four rigid body modes (axial deformation, major axis bending, minor axis bending and twisting) i. e. the member retains its cross sectional shape without distortion. In a hot rolled member the warping stresses which arise due to violation of the assumption that plane sections remain plane can often be neglected. In thin walled sections, however, these warping stresses are typically of the same order of magnitude as the primary bending stresses induced in the member by the applied loading and therefore cannot be neglected. In addition, if plane sections do not remain plane, the cross section distorts when a load is applied.
The first part of this Thesis presents a method of analysis for any open unbranched thin walled section which considers both rigid body movement and cross section distortion (including local
buckling). The method is such that the four rigid body modes are automatically identified and separated from the remaining cross section distortion modes. The second part of this Thesis develops a finite difference method of analysis, in conjunction with the theory of part I, to
consider the behaviour of a member subject to any arbitrary loading condition and end restraint. Both first order linear problems and second order elastic critical buckling problems are solved, including the interaction of local buckling, overall buckling and cross section distortion.


Purpose of reviewTuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a multiorgan genetic disease caused by mutations in the TSC1 or TSC2 genes. TSC has been recognized for many years as an important cause of severe neurological disease with patients suffering from epilepsy, developmental delay, autism, and psychiatric problems. During the last year, there have been enormous advances in basic and translational research pertaining to TSC. Recent findingsIn this review, I discuss the basic science findings that position the TSC1 and TSC2 genes as critical regulators of the mammalian target of rapamycin kinase within mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1. In addition, I will discuss the development of new animal models, translational data, and recent clinical trials using mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 inhibitors such as rapamycin. SummaryThe past few years have seen spectacular advances that have energized TSC-related research and challenged existing symptomatic treatments. Although it remains to be seen whether use of mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 inhibitors will revolutionize the care of patients with TSC, the application of basic and translational research towards a specific clinical disorder emphasizes the potential and promise of molecular medicine.


The hyper-emotion theory attributes psychological illnesses to emotions of aberrant intensity, which in turn prompt better reasoning about their causes. Two experiments in which participants drew their own conclusions from syllogistic premises tested this prediction. Individuals from the same populations as the experimental participants rated the believability of likely conclusions. One experiment compared patients with depression with controls, and the other experiment compared students scoring high on anxiety with controls. Controls tended to draw believable conclusions and not to draw unbelievable conclusions, and this belief bias was greater for invalid inferences. The clinical groups were better reasoners than the controls, and did not show belief bias. As our hypothesis predicted, they drew many more valid conclusions concerning their illness than controls drew valid believable conclusions. But, contrary to the hypothesis, they refrained from drawing invalid conclusions about neutral topics more than controls refrained from drawing invalid unbelievable conclusions.


The rise in popularity of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook has been paralleled by the rise of unwanted, disruptive entities on these networks- — including spammers, malware disseminators, and other content polluters. Inspired by sociologists working to ensure the success of commons and criminologists focused on deterring vandalism and preventing crime, we present the first long-term study of social honeypots for tempting, profiling, and filtering content polluters in social media. Concretely, we report on our experiences via a seven-month deployment of 60 honeypots on Twitter that resulted in the harvesting of 36,000 candidate content polluters. As part of our study, we (1) examine the harvested Twitter users, including an analysis of link payloads, user behavior over time, and followers/following network dynamics and (2) evaluate a wide range of features to investigate the effectiveness of automatic content polluter identification.


Over the last two decades, banal and everyday nationalism have been the main theoretical and methodological approaches for studying how nations are reproduced 'from below'. The present article advances this literature by paying close attention to racially-differentiated subjects and, more precisely, to subjects who are perceived to look different from, but sound like the national majority group. Building on the feminist attention to the corporeal, I argue that face-to-face encounters with the simultaneous embodiment of (somatic) strangeness and (linguistic) sameness generate a sense of surprise which interrupts the reproduction of the nation. This, in turn, allows for the 'troubling' of the very identity category (nation) which both banal and everyday nationalism avoid interrogating directly. I support and illustrate this argument by focusing on the case of the children of migrants born and raised in Italy and their personal experiences in mundane settings. The article discusses the implications of this short circuit in the banal and everyday processes of national reproduction in terms of potential openings of the nation to more inclusive forms.


Abstract. The advancements of information technologies as applied to the most diverse fields of science define a breakthrough in the accessibility and processing of data for both expert and non-expert users. Nowadays it is possible to evidence an increasingly relevant research effort in the context of those domains, such as that of cultural heritage protection, in which knowledge mapping and sharing constitute critical prerequisites for accomplishing complex professional tasks. The aim of this paper is to outline the main results and outputs of the MONDIS research project. This project focusses on the development of integrated knowledge-based tools grounded on an ontological representation of the field of heritage conservation. The scope is to overcome the limitations of earlier databases by the application of modern semantic technologies able to integrate, organize and process useful information concerning damages to built heritage objects. In particular MONDIS addresses the need for supporting a diverse range of stakeholders (e.g. administrators, owners and professionals) in the documentation and monitoring of damages to historical constructions and in finding related remedies. The paper concentrates on the presentation of the following integrated knowledgebased components developed within the project: (I) MONDIS mobile application (plus desktop version), (II) MONDIS record explorer, (III) Ontomind profiles, (IV) knowledge matrix and (V) terminology editor. An example of practical application of the MONDIS integrated system is also provided and finally discussed.


This study identifies how audiences use nonverbal cues to judge specific character traits in political figures. Participants assessed pictures that showed the example politician making eye contact with another person with highest scores. His hand positions received the lowest character-trait scores. Findings show that participants associated direct eye contact and smiling with characteristics such as intelligence, good leadership, and caring, but not morality or honesty. In fact, no nonverbal cue affected evaluations of morality. However, those who judged the candidate as moral from nonverbal cues had a greater likelihood of voting for him.


Los Angeles has long been identified as a fragmented city, by nature of its cosmology and those constructed perceptions that constitute it in the collective imaginary. In an effort to articulate, interrogate and understand such a place, we have come to rely on its representations to function as mediators of meaning, delivering through their simulation of the city an experience of the real, lived Los Angeles. As a result, the relationships between the real and the representation become skewed, altering the processes by which we engage with the everyday. To better understand the implications of this dialectic, I examine four representations of the city: Disneyland, David Hockney's "Domestic Scene, Los Angeles," David Gebhard and Robert Winter's A Guide to Architecture in Southern California and the BBC "One Pair of Eyes" installment "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles." By analyzing representations of Los Angeles produced in a range of media, it becomes possible to discern the complex relationships between the real and envisioned Los Angeles, and to recognize the constructive force that emerges out of this discursive space. Department Architecture


Seven centimetre-thick volcanic ash-fall layers interbedded within the thick Carboniferous successions of the Cantabrian Zone in northern Spain were dated by U–Pb zircon laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry across an interval ranging from Visean to Kasimovian, thus covering most of the Carboniferous period. All these ash layers occur in fossiliferous successions, allowing us to insert the radiometric data within a well-constrained biostratigraphic framework. Considering the analytical uncertainty, the obtained ages match the ages inferred from the conodont biostratigraphy established in the Mississippian succession (which hosts the oldest two ash layers, Visean in age), and the fusuline and mega- and microflora data from the strata hosting the Moscovian and Kasimovian (Westphalian–Stephanian) tonsteins. The age of a Langsettian tonstein along with data provided by several papers stating that in the Cantabrian Zone Langsettian floras were contemporaneous with lowermost Moscovian fusulines suggest that Langsettian floras could have been younger in Spain than in other areas. Our absolute ages provide new constraints not only for the correlation of the Carboniferous successions of the Cantabrian Zone with time-equivalent reference successions in other parts of the world but also for calibrating the Carboniferous global chronostratigraphic units based on marine fossils with the West European regional units. Supplementary material: Stratigraphic position and biostratigraphic information on the studied ash-fall layers, analytical methods and geochronological results are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3768701


The ability of many filamentous fungi, such as Aspergillus niger, to secret a high level of homologous proteins has led to their consideration as hosts for the production of heterologous proteins. However, the levels of some secreted heterologous proteins have often been low. Although many strategies have been developed to improve the level of secreted heterologous proteins, further studies into the remaining bottlenecks are required. One common strategy used to improve secreted protein production from filamentous fungi is to express the target protein under the control of a highly-induced native promoter. One major bottleneck in the secretion of heterologous proteins is caused by the folding of proteins within the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Recent studies have shown that expressing some heterologous proteins could subject A. niger to ER-stress. In this study, A. niger was subjected to different environmental conditions and ER stress responses were examined under each of these environmental conditions to further investigate the regulation of the gene encoding glucoamylase (glaA). Treating A. niger with dithiothreitol (OTT), a reducing agent that causes the formation of unfolded proteins, caused the down-regulation of transcription of the glaA but not the gene encoding the non-secreted protein y-actin. The OTT-treated fungal cells also showed evidence of induction of the UPR because expression of bipA was up-regulated and splicing of hacA, the gene encoding the transcription factor responsible for induction of the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR), occurs allowing the production of an active HacA protein. This is the first study to show clearly by nuclear run-on studies that the transcriptional down-regulation effect occurs at the level of transcription, rather than mRNA stability, and is found to be mediated through the promoter of the glaA gene (PglaA) in a region more than 1.192 kb upstream of the translational start.

As a preliminary attempt to investigate if the transcriptional downregulation effect was mediated through HacA (i.e. part of the UPR), the ER stress was induced through antisense technology to lower the level of POI in the ER of A. niger. Although the transcription of glaA was attenuated in that strain of A. niger, UPR was not evident, suggesting that the transcriptional down-regulation mechanism is controlled differently from the UPR.

Furthermore, activation of the ER-Associated Degradation (ERAO) mechanism in OTT-treated A. niger cultures was demonstrated by detecting transcriptional up-regulation of the putative gene encoding the RpnG, a homologue of the yeast Rpn7p subunit of the 26S proteasome.


Listeners have long been inspired to interact with music and create new representations of popular releases. Vinyl offered many opportunities to reappropriate chart music, from scratching and tempo manipulation to mixing multiple songs together. More recently, artists could engage their audience to interact with their music by offering mix-stems online for experimentation and sharing. With the extended processing power of mobile devices, the opportunities for interactive music are dramatically increasing..

This paper presents research that demonstrates a novel approach to interactive digital music. The research looks at the emergent format of the album app and extends existing paradigms of interactive music playback. The novel album app designed in this research presents a new opportunity for listeners to engage with recorded content by allowing them to explore alternative takes, renditions of a given song in multiple genres, and by allowing direct interaction with embedded mix-stems. The resultant audio remains true to the artist and producer's studio vision; it is user-influenced, but machine-controlled. The research is conducted in collaboration with artist Daisy and The Dark and was funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.


The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of treatment based on
acceptance and commitment to increase the quality of life in patients with breast cancer.
Materials & Methods: For this purpose, in a quasi-experimental study, 30 women with breast cancer in
Omid Hospital, Urmia Iran were randomly selected and divided into two groups (n = 15) and control
(n= 15). The experimental group received 8 sessions of 90-minute intervention based on acceptance and
commitment, but the control group did not receive any intervention. In order to collect data, Quality of
Life Questionnaire was used. Analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data.
Results: The results showed that the treatment of quality of life ACT increased significantly in the posttest
and components of ACT increased quality of life in the experimental group. The intervention
however did not affect mental and environmental health of the experimental group.
Conclusion: It was concluded that the group therapy based on acceptance and commitment could
enhance the life quality of patients with breast cancer


The skills of making informed observations, synthesizing those observations, and communicating them effectively are central to the naturalist. Developing university courses that optimize instruction in these skills simultaneously can, however, be a challenge. Here we describe a program at Santa Clara University comprised of two integrated co-requisite courses, Writing Natural History (ENVS 142) and The Natural History of Baja (BIOL/ENVS 144). Lectures through the 10-week winter quarter expand students' knowledge of the ecosystems and biodiversity of the Baja Peninsula and help them to develop descriptive writing skills. The courses culminate in a ten-day expedition to the Baja Peninsula and Isla Espiritu Santo in the Sea of Cortez, where students explore local ecosystems and journal about their experiences. The result is a program in which students expand their skills in natural history and develop their own voices as writers and natural historians. We describe the structure and philosophy of this program and provide details on associated lecture topics, logistics, exercises, and readings.


This article explores the pedagogical strategies of applying anthropology in the field of Education, particularly in the initial training courses for teachers. It shows a way of doing applied anthropology by anthropologists who work as non-anthropologists but use their anthropological training and knowledge in their work. This study presents anthropology as a productive discipline in promoting different perspectives for the analysis and understanding of the social phenomena which, used in the classroom, facilitates students in training as educators to critically approach the fundamentals of Education as much as the processes of teaching and learning. Ultimately, this article points out how the shifts in Education students' perspectives instigated by the use of anthropology in the classroom might eventually lead to changes in education policies.


Maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) is a heterogeneous single gene disorder characterized by non-insulin-dependent diabetes, an early onset and autosomal dominant inheritance. Mutations in six genes have been shown to cause MODY. Approximately 15-20% of families fitting MODY criteria do not have mutations in any of the known genes. These families provide a rich resource for the identification of new MODY genes. This will potentially enable further dissection of clinical heterogeneity and bring new insights into mechanisms of beta-cell dysfunction. To facilitate the identification of novel MODY loci, we combined the results from three genome-wide scans on a total of 23 families fitting MODY criteria. We used both a strict parametric model of inheritance with heterogeneity and a model-free analysis. We did not identify any single novel locus but provided putative evidence for linkage to chromosomes 6 (nonparametric linkage [NPL]score 2.12 at 71 cM) and 10 (NPL score 1.88 at 169-175 cM), and to chromosomes 3 (heterogeneity LOD [HLOD] score 1.27 at 124 cM) and 5 (HLOD score 1.22 at 175 cM) in 14 more strictly defined families. Our results provide evidence for further heterogeneity in MODY.


The story of Jackie Robinson valiantly breaking baseball's color barrier in 1947 is one that most Americans know. But less recognized is the fact that some seventy years earlier, following the Civil War, baseball was tenuously biracial and had the potential for a truly open game. How, then, did the game become so firmly segregated that it required a trailblazer like Robinson? The answer, Ryan A. Swanson suggests, has everything to do with the politics of "reconciliation" and a wish to avoid the issues of race that an integrated game necessarily raised. The history of baseball during Reconstruction, as Swanson tells it, is a story of lost opportunities. Thomas Fitzgerald and Octavius Catto (a Philadelphia baseball tandem), for example, were poised to emerge as pioneers of integration in the 1860s. Instead, the desire to create a "national game"-professional and appealing to white Northerners and Southerners alike-trumped any movement toward civil rights. Focusing on Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Richmond-three cities with large African American populations and thriving baseball clubs-Swanson uncovers the origins of baseball's segregation and the mechanics of its implementation. An important piece of sports history, his work also offers a better understanding of Reconstruction, race, and segregation in America.


Soil salinity has become one of the major problems affecting crop production and food security in Mesopotamia, Iraq. There is a pressing need to quantify and map the spatial extent and distribution of salinity in the country in order to provide relevant references for the central and local governments to plan sustainable land use and agricultural development. The aim of this study was to conduct such quantification and mapping in Mesopotamia using an integrated, multiscale modeling approach that relies on remote sensing. A multiyear, multiresolution, and multisensor dataset composed of mainly Landsat ETM+ and MODIS data of the period 2009-2012 was used. Results show that the local-scale salinity models developed from pilot sites with vegetated and nonvegetated areas can reliably predict salinity. Salinity maps produced by these models have a high accuracy of about 82.5-83.3% against the ground measurements. Regional salinity models developed using integrated samples from all pilot sites could predict soil salinity with an accuracy of 80% based on comparison to regional measurements along two transects. It is hence concluded that the multiscale models are reasonably reliable for assessment of soil salinity at local and regional scales. The methodology proposed in this paper can minimize problems induced by crop rotation, fallowing, and soil moisture content, and has clear advantages over other mapping approaches. Further testing is needed while extending the mapping approaches and models to other salinity-affected environments.


Organizations across the world have recognized the importance of strategy formulation in improving service delivery. Good practices in strategy formulation and implementation are among the key pillars of competitive advantage and organizational sustainability. Studies indicate that most managers rightly make effort to formulate strategies, but little investment is made to implement those strategies properly. Therefore, the study explored the effects of strategy implementation practices on performance of Postal Corporation in Kakamega County (Kenya). Based on the study, this paper presents and discusses the research findings on leadership as one of the strategy implementation practices on organizational performance. The researcher anchored the study on cross sectional survey research design which emphasized on collection of data at a particular point in time rather than over a period of time. The target population of the study was one hundred and thirty two (132) top and middle-level management staff of Postal Corporation drawn from Kakamega, Lugari, Khwisero and Khayega branches. Stratified sampling method was used to sample ninety-nine (99) respondents. Structured questionnaires were then used to collect the data from the sampled managers to which only seventy-six (76) responded. The received questionnaires were sorted, classified; data was then coded and analysed by descriptive statistics (percentages, mean and standard deviation). Inferential analysis was done by multi regression analysis where the result of R square was 0.476 indicating that 47.6% of the performance could be predicted from the study variables. The study found that leadership significantly affected the performance of Postal Corporation in Kakamega County as indicated by a p value of 0.043, which was within p<0.05 level of significance. In light of the findings, the researchers recommended that a related study be conducted in a wider spectrum of both public and private institutions to determine the consistency of the results.


Amyloid-beta (Abeta) peptide, a cleavage product of the amyloid-beta protein precursor (AbetaPP), has been reported to be detected in the intracellular compartment. Most studies reporting the presence of intracellular Abeta are based on the use of immunohistochemistry. In this study, the presence of AbetaPP and Abeta was assessed by applying immunohistochemistry in postmortem human brain tissue samples obtained from 10 neurologically intact subjects, the youngest being 2 years of age, one aged with mild cognitive impairment, 14 neurologically diseased, and in one brain biopsy sample obtained from a subject with normal pressure hydrocephalus. Intracellular immunoreactivity was detected in all ages independent of the disease state or existence of extracellular Abeta aggregates with all antibodies directed to AbetaPP, with three Abeta antibodies (4G8, 6E10, and 82E1), clones that are unable to distinguish Abeta from AbetaPP. These results suggest that it is AbetaPP rather than Abeta that is detected intracellularly when using the antibodies listed above. Furthermore, the staining results varied when different pretreatment strategies were applied. Interestingly intracellular Abeta was detected with antibodies directed to the C-terminus of Abeta (neoepitope) in subjects with Alzheimer's disease. The lack of intracellular immunoreactivity in unimpaired subjects, when using antibodies against neoepitopes, may be due to a lack or a low level of the protein that is thus undetectable at light microscopic level by immunohistochemistry method. The staining results and conclusions depended strongly on the chosen antibody and the pretreatment strategy and thus multiple antibodies must be used when assessing the intracellular accumulation of Abeta.


This paper investigates the degree to which recent digital Open Education literature is aligned to social justice principles, starting with the first UNESCO definition of Open Educational Resources (OER). A critical analysis of 19 texts was undertaken to track dominant and alternative ideas shaping the development of Open Education since 2002 as it broadened and developed from OER to Open Educational Practices (OEP). The paper begins by outlining the method of texts selection, including defining the three principles of social justice (redistributive, recognitive and representational justice) used as an analytical lens. Next the paper sets out findings which show where and how the principles of social justice became lost within the details of texts, or in other digital agendas and technological determinist debates. Finally, a new social justice aligned definition for Open Education is offered. The aim of the new definition is to provide new language and a strong theoretical framework for equitable education, as well as to clearly distinguish the field of Open Education from mainstream constructivist eLearning.


We study the supervisory control of nondeterministic discrete event dynamical systems (DEDS's) with driven events in the setting of prioritized synchronization and trajectory models introduced by Heymann (1990, 1991). Prioritized synchronization captures the notions of controllable, uncontrollable, and driven events in a natural way, and we use it for constructing supervisory controllers. The trajectory model is used for characterizing the behavior of nondeterministic DEDS's since it is a sufficiently detailed model (in contrast to the less detailed language or failures models), and serves as a language congruence with respect to the operation of prioritized synchronization. We obtain results concerning controllability and observability in this general setting.<<ETX>>


William Deedes is a national institution. Over the course of a career spanning seventy years, 'dear Bill' has become one of the most respected and admired journalists of the last century. This is his story, told with his characteristic modesty, insight and wit. Cutting his teeth at the "Morning Post", Bill Deedes was sent off to cover the Abyssinian war, thereby gaining him a reputation as a fearless war reporter and also inadvertently providing Evelyn Waugh with the inspiration for Scoop's hero, Henry Boot. Kept on after the "Telegraph" merger, Bill rose through the ranks until he was called into politics, taking his place as a member of Harold Macmillan's Cabinet. Soon however the "Telegraph" called again and made him editor - a position he held for several years. Today he continues to write for the "Telegraph" as well as work tirelessly for charity. Now updated and revised, including recent photographs, "Dear Bill" is an extraordinary memoir which provides a unique and idiosyncratic perspective on matters political and social, British and global, for the greater part of the twentieth century and beyond.


Three main criteria should govern a privatisation plan: speed, fairness, and efficient control. From this view we derive our optimum scheme, though we recognise that in most countries it needs modifying to existing circumstances. 1. Privatisation should be by gift, not sale. But distribution by gift does not require distribution through vouchers. 2. To ensure efficient control of restructuring, there should be holding companies, each being the chief owner of enterprise drawn from a range of industries. Citizens should be given shares in each holding company. The holding company should be charged to restructure its enterprises and then sell all (or at least 50 per cent) of its shares within a 10-year period. The final pattern of owners would include citizens, workers, foreigners, and pension funds, but provision would be made for some 'stable core' of owners - either interlocking ownership among firms, or major holdings by foreigners, banks or holding companies. 3. For smaller companies a different approach would suffice, involving direct sale or leasing. 4. If mass unemployment is to be avoided, it is crucial to create a mass market in housing. The only way to do this quickly is to give all houses to their existing tenants.