Abstract Purpose: The majority of individuals with disabilities live in low- and middle-income (LAMI) countries; typically these individuals receive limited, if any, communication rehabilitation services. The present study investigated the experiences of eight augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) professionals who had provided instructional support for AAC service delivery in LAMI countries. Method: An online focus group was used to explore the training experiences of eight AAC professionals. Result: A thematic analysis of the focus group discussion resulted in four major recommendations when providing training for AAC service delivery in LAMI countries: (a) investigate learner needs, (b) provide contextually relevant instructional content, (c) use engaging instructional activities and (d) assess the impacts of instructional activities. Conclusion: The instructional recommendations of the focus group participants are discussed within a theoretical framework of recommended best practices in supporting adult learning. The information shared by the focus group participants will benefit others providing instructional support for AAC service delivery in LAMI countries.


Each member of a group receives a signal about the unknown state of the world and decides upon a utility-maximizing recommendation on the basis of that signal. The individuals have identical preferences. The group makes a decision that maximizes the common utility function assuming perfect pooling of the information in individual signals. An action profile is a group action and a recommendation from each individual. A collection of action profiles is rational if there exists an information structure under which all elements in the collection arise with positive probability. With no restrictions on the information structure, essentially all action profiles are rational. In fact, given any distribution over action profiles it is possible to find an information structure that approximates the distribution. In a monotone environment in which individuals receive conditionally independent signals, essentially any single action profile is rational, although some collections of action profiles are not.


Excerpt] "In the past decade, London emerged as the forum of choice for "libel tourists"—strategic, often foreign, plaintiffs who bring defamation actions in a jurisdiction with plaintiff-friendly libel laws, even if they and the defamatory material at issue lack a substantial connection with that jurisdiction. England's defamation laws and procedures make it significantly easier for claimants to commence and prevail in libel actions than do the laws and procedures of many other countries, particularly the United States. As a result, English courts have entertained several high-profile defamation cases involving foreign parties who have only tenuous connections to England, such as disputes between a Saudi billionaire and a U.S. journalist; a Russian businessman and a U.S. magazine; and a French director and a U.S. publisher. Cases like these have cemented London's reputation as the "libel capital of the world." The establishment of that notorious title, reflecting the notion that England does not value free expression as highly as other countries, has helped ignite a movement to reform English libel laws and procedures. On March 15, 2011, the U.K. Ministry of Justice unveiled a draft bill entitled the Draft Defamation Act 2011, proposing a substantial overhaul of English libel laws as well as the procedures applied in libel actions. The Draft Act aims to combat the perception that England is a refuge for libel tourism by, among other reforms, requiring English courts to determine whether England is the most appropriate forum in which the action should be heard before exercising jurisdiction. The Draft Defamation Act comes less than one year after the enactment of the Securing the Protection of Our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage ("SPEECH") Act of 2010 in the United States. The SPEECH Act prohibits U.S. courts, both state and federal, from recognizing or enforcing defamation judgments rendered by a foreign court unless that court applied a standard that was as protective of free speech as a U.S. court would have applied. In the context of libel tourism, this means that a libel tourist cannot force a U.S. author or publisher to comply with a foreign judgment unless a U.S. court finds that the judgment comported with First Amendment principles. This Note analyzes the efficacy of the Draft Defamation Act and its impact on the enforcement of English defamation judgments in U.S. courts. Specifically, it proposes that the Draft Act's procedural clauses will effectively reduce the prevalence of libel tourism in England. Moreover, this Note argues that, in light of the Draft Act's reforms as well as longstanding principles of international comity, U.S. courts should not narrowly construe the SPEECH Act to require exact congruence between U.S. and English defamation laws. Finally, this Note presents evidence suggesting that England's problem of libel tourism could be supplanted by the new phenomenon of privacy tourism. Thus, in addition to modifying and enacting the Draft Defamation Act, English policymakers should consider reviewing and possibly reforming English privacy laws. This Note proceeds in four sections. Section II provides a background to issues related to libel tourism, including its prevalence in England and the U.S. response to it. Section III reviews the Draft Defamation Act's procedural clauses related to libel tourism. Section IV analyzes the Draft Act's potential to eradicate libel tourism and its effect on U.S. courts' construction and application of the SPEECH Act. Section IV also proposes modifications to the Draft Act, including the adoption of a defamation-specific choice-of-law rule. Finally, Section V explores the interplay between English defamation and privacy laws, considering whether This notes is available in University of New Hampshire Law Review: https://scholars.unh.edu/unh_lr/vol9/iss3/7 the Draft Act's aim to eliminate libel tourism inadvertently opens the door to the development of privacy tourism.


Abstract Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an innovative approach to learning that teaches a multitude of strategies critical for success in the twenty-first century. Students drive their own learning through inquiry, as well as work collaboratively to research and create projects that reflect their knowledge. From gleaning new, viable technology skills, to becoming proficient communicators and advanced problem solvers, students benefit from this approach to instruction.


Abstract in Undetermined
Regional Aesthetics: Locating Swedish Media maps more than two hundred years of Swedish media. It ranges from written travelogues in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries via feature films, documentaries, TV programmes, literature and press to contemporary video activism on the Internet. The nineteen contributors navigate the reader through a variety of media landscapes by advocating an interdisciplinary approach to "the communication of place" that mixes in-depth analyses of specific phenomena with a general understanding of modern media representations. Accordingly, this is a book that recurrently combines textual close readings with historical contextualizations in new ways.


AIM
To compare the preparation quality of two rotary systems and NiTi-hand files in oval root canals, and to evaluate the effect of canal dimensions on the preparation.

METHODOLOGY
Ninety roots with oval root canals were selected. The middle third was cross sectioned at two levels and photographed. The maximum and minimum diameters of the root and canal were recorded. Teeth were distributed in three groups (n = 30) using stratified randomization, and prepared under simulated clinical conditions with Mtwo, ProTaper, or NiTi-hand files. The pre- and post-preparation photographs were traced and superimposed, the thickness of dentine removed was measured and the ratio of prepared canal outline was calculated. The impact of preparation system and canal dimensions on the quality of the preparation was evaluated using regression analysis.

RESULTS
With regards to the ratio of prepared canal outline, no statistical significant difference was found between Mtwo (0.75 [95%CI: 0.69; 0.81]) and ProTaper (0.75 [95%CI: 0.69; 0.80]), but both systems performed significantly better than NiTi-hand files (0.65 [95%CI: 0.60; 0.71]). In six root canals in Mtwo-group (20%), and eight root canals in ProTaper-group (27%), the minimal thickness of dentine-wall after preparation was less than 0.5 mm. In contrast to the maximum diameter of the root canal, the minimum diameter influenced the quality of the preparation (P = 0.0006).

CONCLUSIONS
No instrumentation technique was able to circumferentially prepare the oval outline of root canals. Nevertheless, instruments with greater taper (ProTaper and Mtwo) were more efficient than NiTi- hand files, but this was, in some cases, at the expense of remaining dentine-wall thickness.


Commission of Enquiry Some of the most interesting recommendations of the Commission of Enquiry Into the Companies Act deal with the introduction and characteristics of shares without par value. Although for most South Africans shares without par value will be somewhat novel, they have been utilised by corporations in America for over fifty years. It was the state of New York which, in 1912, first provided for the issue of shares without par value. Today all the states of America with the exception of Oklahoma and Nebraska permit and regulate the issue of no-par value shares.


Species composition, nocturnal activity and population dynamics of mosquitoes in the Aras Valley of Turkey are studied. Seven New Jersey light traps were activated two nights per month at different sampling sites showing various habitats such as riverside, orchard, roadside, village, wooded area, agricultural area and pasture in 30 km^{2} area. The night was divided into 6 equal nocturnal periods (1800-2000 h, 2000-2200 h, 2200-2400 h, 2400-0200 h, 0200-0400 h, 0400-0600 h), and the specimens were collected in consecutive 2 hours. From June to September 2006, 2415 specimens representing 6 species were collected. The most dominant species was Oc. dorsalis (72.13% of total specimens) followed by Cx. pipiens (12.05%) and Cx. theileri (9.44%).


We report here the discovery of Miocene, Pliocene, and early Pleistocene shallow-marine carbonates on Mayaguana Island (southeastern Bahamas) that have so far not been observed on any other Bahamian island. Spanning more than 17 m.y., but <12 m thick, this stratigraphic succession only occurs along the northern coast of the island, indicating that the Mayaguana Bank underwent minor subsidence throughout the late Cenozoic and was tilted toward the south during the Quaternary. In addition to considerably extending the stratigraphic record of the Bahamas Islands, our findings demonstrate that these carbonate banks were at different elevations and subsided at different rates during the Neogene. The young age of the tilting event detected on Mayaguana further shows that parts of the southeastern margin of North America have recently undergone tectonic activity a long way from its actual boundary with the Caribbean plate.


A common understanding of sustainable production principles and the identification of sustainable manufacturing practices among practitioners are key starting points in studying how manufacturers are making their operations more sustainable. However, there is a lack of insight in the literature connecting conceptual sustainable production principles, and the practices reflecting these principles. Using semi-structured interviews founded on the sustainable production principles posed by the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, this paper presents an outlook of how companies in different industries carry out manufacturing practices related to the sustainability production principles. Results showed that the majority of sustainable manufacturing practices remain strongly centered on the environmental dimension of sustainability, with the greatest number of practices emanating from principles concerning energy and material conservation, and waste management. Similarly, reactive sustainable manufacturing practices prevailed over proactive sustainable manufacturing practices, as most of the practices aimed to comply with regulatory and market pressures. Quality and environmental management systems were acknowledged as important tools for putting sustainable production principles into practice; while Swedish environmental and social regulations were found to drive sustainable manufacturing practices. This study connects sustainable production principles with sustainable manufacturing practices and opens the way for further studies on a global or sector-specific scale.


Multielement nematic liquid-crystal devices have been used by others and ourselves for closed-loop adaptive control of optical wave-front distortions. Until recently the phase retardance of available devices could be controlled rapidly in only one direction. The phase retardance of the dual-frequency device can be controlled rapidly in both directions. Understanding the dynamics of the phase retardance change is critical to the development of a high-speed control algorithm. We describe measurements and experiments leading to the closed-loop control of a multielement dual-frequency liquid-crystal adaptive optic.


In this paper we critique the increasingly prominent claims of punishment naturalism – the notion that highly nuanced intuitions about most forms of crime and punishment are broadly shared, and that this agreement is best explained by a particular form of evolutionary psychology. While the core claims of punishment naturalism are deeply attractive and intuitive, they are contradicted by a broad array of studies and depend on a number of logical missteps. The most obvious shortcoming of punishment naturalism is that it ignores empirical research demonstrating deep disagreements over what constitutes a wrongful act and just how wrongful it should be deemed to be. But an equally serious shortcoming of punishment naturalism is that it fails to provide a credible account of the social and cognitive mechanisms by which individuals evaluate both crime and punishment, opting instead for explanations that are either specific and demonstrably wrong or so vague as to be untestable. By way of contrast we describe an alternative approach, punishment realism, that develops the core insights of legal realism via psychology and anthropology. Punishment realism, we argue, offers a more complete account of agreement and disagreement over the criminal law and provides a more detailed and credible account of the social and cognitive mechanisms that move people to either agree or disagree with one another on whether and how much praise or punishment a given act deserves. The differences between these two empirical accounts also entail contrasting implications for how those interested in maximizing social welfare and public satisfaction with the law should approach questions of crime and punishment.


Relative stretching of the cauda equina over the posterosuperior border of the sacrum can be found in all patients who have Grade-III or IV spondylolisthesis at the lumbosacral junction. We identified twelve patients, all less than eighteen years old, who had cauda equina syndrome after in situ arthrodesis for Grade-III or IV lumbosacral spondylolisthesis. In all twelve patients, posterolateral arthrodesis had been done bilaterally through a midline or paraspinal muscle-splitting approach. Nothing in the operative reports suggested that the cauda equina had been directly injured during any of the procedures. Five of the twelve patients eventually recovered completely. The remaining seven patients had a permanent residual neurological deficit, manifested by complete or partial inability to control the bowel and bladder. If dysfunction of the root of the sacral nerve is noted preoperatively in a patient who has lumbosacral spondylolisthesis, decompression of the cauda equina concomitant with the arthrodesis should be considered. An acute cauda equina syndrome that follows a seemingly uneventful in situ arthrodesis for spondylolisthesis is best treated by an immediate decompression that includes resection of the posterosuperior rim of the dome of the sacrum and the adjacent intervertebral disc. In addition, posterior insertion of instrumentation and reduction of the lumbosacral spondylolisthesis should be considered.


The celebrated PPAD hardness result for finding an exact Nash equilibrium in a two-player game initiated a quest for finding approximate Nash equilibria efficiently, and is one of the major open questions in algorithmic game theory.

We study the computational complexity of finding an e-approximate Nash equilibrium with good social welfare. Hazan and Krauthgamer and subsequent improvements showed that finding an e-approximate Nash equilibrium with good social welfare in a two player game and many variants of this problem is at least as hard as finding a planted clique of size O(log n) in the random graph G(n, 1/2).

We show that any polynomial time algorithm that finds an e-approximate Nash equilibrium with good social welfare refutes (the worst-case) Exponential Time Hypothesis by Impagliazzo and Paturi, confirming the recent conjecture by Aaronson, Impagliazzo and Moshkovitz. Specifically it would imply a 2O(n1/2) algorithm for SAT.

Our lower bound matches the quasi-polynomial time algorithm by Lipton, Markakis and Mehta for solving the problem.

Our key tool is a reduction from the PCP machinery to finding Nash equilibrium via free games, the framework introduced in the recent work by Aaronson, Impagliazzo and Moshkovitz. Techniques developed in the process may be useful for replacing planted clique hardness with ETH-hardness in other applications.


This topic is closely related to the problem of the "unipolar concentration on Tokyo" (Tokyo ikkyoku shuchu), i.e. the domination of the Tokyo Metropolitan Region not just in population or manufacturing distribution but in the geography of the service sector of the Japanese economy, particularly of financial and producer services. Are there limits of urban growth in a global city like Tokyo ? The author's hypothesis on the problem "agglomeration economies" vs. "agglomera-tion diseconomies" is like follows: Although the agglomeration advantages in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area seem to be overused (from the Western point of view) and are supposed to be at a point of depreciating through an increasing amount of agglomeration disadvantages, they will continue, though not as dramatic as before, also in the future. The hypothesis is based on the following considerations: 1. Tokyo?s metropolitan stability, efficiency and quality of life, 2. Japanese "mental maps", values and behaviour, 3. making full use of what is technically possible for the sake of strengthening the agglomeration economies, 4. the "unipolar concentration on Tokyo" as a problem of political decision-making: a laissez-faire phenomenon or possibly a result of politcal priority - made for what purpose ? by whom ? With regard to the theory of agglomeration this paper shows that neoclassical concepts are not convincing, and that "regional factors" must not be neclected. Due to the complexity of the topic interdisciplinary research is regarded to be necessary in areas such as economics, business management, politics, sociology, human geography, psychology, architecture and engineering, culture and history.


In 1957 the UK Design Centre launched the first annual Designs of the Year Awards to identify and promote the very best of British design. For the next 30 years, the awards celebrated designed objects in all forms, from the domestic - cutlery, glassware, textiles and furniture - to the communal - street lights, signage and public seating - and everything in between, including fitted kitchens, schooners, bicycles and electronics. This beautifully designed book introduces and illustrates the quirky breadth of the awards. Iconic objects by Robin and Lucienne Day, Kenneth Grange and David Mellor sit alongside such retro classics as the Barbican basin, the ZX81 personal computer and Globoot wellies.


Local governments can provide services with their own employees or by contracting with private or public sector providers. We develop a model of this "make-or-buy" choice that highlights the trade-off between productive efficiency and the costs of contract administration. We construct a dataset of service provision choices by U.S. cities and identify a range of service and city characteristics as significant determinants of contracting decisions. Our analysis suggests an important role for economic efficiency concerns, as well as politics, in contracting for government services.


The Ontong Java Plateau (OJP) in the western equatorial Pacific is the largest submarine plateau on Earth (~1.86 X106 km2). Despite its immense magnitude and significance to our understanding of mantle processes, submarine sedimentation, and tsunami risk in the western equatorial Pacific region, the plateau remains enigmatic. In October 2014, scientists aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute's RV Falkor (FK141015) mapped for the first time the seafloor surrounding Ontong Java Atoll (Solomon Islands) and Nukumanu Atoll (Papua New Guinea), situated atop the OJP.
We use new multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data to (i) characterise the submarine flanks of these atolls and detect volcanic features distinct from the carbonate atolls themselves, (ii) understand how erosional processes have influenced the morphological development of the atolls over geological timescales, (iii) identify regions vulnerable to slumping and slope incision, and (iv) model the impact of tsunamis generated by submarine slope failures. In the context of the Ontong Java and the Nukumanu atolls, a tsunamigenic submarine landslide could cause inundation of these low-lying inhabited atolls (max. elevation of Ontong Java ~13 m, and Nukumanu ~2 m).
The irregular morphology and distinctive boomerang shape of the Ontong Java Atoll suggest extensive submarine erosion, sector collapse of an antecedent subaerial volcanic edifice, or morphology of the original volcanic island. Sizeable lobate aprons (~4 km across) on the southern and eastern flanks and bights around the entire atoll indicate active erosional processes and submarine mass wasting, potentially providing energy and sediment downslope to Kroenke Canyon. Multibeam sonar reveals that the steep flanks (30-50° in the upper 500 m) of Ontong Java and Nukumanu atolls are characterised by slump scars and have hummocks at the base of the atoll slope - evidence for submarine mass wasting. In addition, we observe evidence for submarine slides on Ontong Java Atoll as convex contour lines directly downslope from bights in the atoll rim.
Atolls are prone to submarine landslides and/or edifice failures, due to over steepening of flanks (especially in regions of high carbonate production), sediment instabilities, erosion of the slope toe, and earthquakes, all of which can cause tsunamis. The location of these atolls in the western equatorial Pacific Ocean makes them vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis related to circum-Pacific subduction zones. High-resolution bathymetric maps are essential to understand of how catastrophic wave energy propagates shoreward across the plateau, to identify regions prone to slope failure, and to assess potential tsunami risk to island communities.


Background Research suggests that HD-patients benefit from intensive rehabilitation. The aim of the programme at Vikersund Rehabilitation Centre is to help participants maintain or improve physical function and quality of life and obtain a functioning healthcare system at home. Aims To present the multidisciplinary rehabilitation programme for HD-patients at VKB. Methods We provide a description of the different professions that collaborate at VKB, what outcome measures and treatments they use on the HD-patients and how they work together. Results The multidisciplinary approach ensures appropriate support to the individual patient and family according to needs and personal objectives. On arrival each patient get a contact person who is responsible for the patient during the stay and who collaborates with the patient and a family member to define objectives for the programme and the continuation of training and assistance after returning home. The contact person is a member of the multidisciplinary team that consists of physiotherapists, occupational therapist, speech therapist, social worker, nurses, doctors and a neuropsychologist. A family therapist and the kitchen chef give advice on psychosocial issues and nutrition. All members of the team do their own assessments of the patients. Members of the team meet every morning to transfer patient knowledge. Conclusions At Vikersund Rehabilitation Centre HD-patients come to meet others with HD, learn about the disease and get intensive rehabilitation for a limited period of time. The centre focuses on life at home for each patient and helps them make contact with local professionals. In our experience the patients in the programme benefit both from the training at the rehabilitation centre and from the additional help they get at home. The contact person is crucial in coordinating the support in the local community. Advice from the multidisciplinary team is highly valued by the family and local healthcare workers.


The purpose of this study is to analyze the land use/land cover dynamics change in relation to urban sprawl during 1990, 2002 and 2014 of Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast in West Africa and develop urban structure type (UST) classification using oriented based image analysis (OBIA) method of Abidjan, the capital of Cote d'Ivoire in West Africa. This was done by using the maximum likelihood classification algorithm and postclassification change detection procedure. The spatial-temporal land use/ land cover dynamics change in relation to urbanization sprawl was assessed based on a series of Landsat images for 1990, 2002 and 2014. Afterwards, Spot 5 image from 2013 was used for UST classification through process trees method. The results revealed urban area expansion as major land use change for the periods 1990-2014 and the overall accuracy and kappa of the classification averaged 97.5 % and 0.96 respectively for the three years. However, there was an important increase in urban area between 2002 and 2014 compared to 1990-2002. Also, The result of UST classification revealed a disproportion in all classes' areas coverage with 2.97% of industrial area, 3.21% of public services, bare soil are of 2.03%, informal, medium and high level residences areas covered 0.28%, 7.83% and 3.2% respectively, and they were surrounded by 70.35% of vegetation area and 10.13% of water body with an overall accuracy estimated to be 62%.


View‐angle consistency in bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF), optical thickness and spherical albedo is examined for marine water clouds over a region of the northeastern Pacific using six years of fused Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) data. Consistency is quantified by the root‐mean‐square of relative differences between MISR‐measured BRF and their plane‐parallel values and variation of plane‐parallel retrieved optical thickness and spherical albedo across multiple view‐angles. Probability distribution functions of consistency show that, for example, these clouds are angularly consistent within 5% in BRF, optical thickness and spherical albedo 72.2%, 39.0% and 81.1% of the time, respectively. We relate angular consistency to the spatial variability of nadir‐BRF, thus allowing us to potentially identify, with a prescribed confidence level, which MODIS microphysical retrievals within the MISR swath meet the plane‐parallel assumption to within any desired range in view‐angle consistency.


The presence and role of melatonin in plants are still under debate owing to difficulties of identification and quantification. Accordingly, although it has been frequently proposed that melatonin acts as an antioxidant in phototrophic organisms, experimental data on its physiological role are scarce. This study describes the use of a rapid and simple new method for quantification of melatonin in the marine macroalga Ulva sp., organisms routinely exposed to tide-related environmental stresses and known for their high tolerance to abiotic conditions. The method was used here to show that exposure to oxidative stress-inducing environmental conditions (elevated temperature and heavy metals) induced a rise in melatonin level in the algae. Addition of exogenous melatonin alleviated the algae from cadmium-induced stress. Interestingly, although the algae were taken from a culture growing free floating and kept under constant photoperiod and water level, they exhibited a semi-lunar rhythm of melatonin levels that correlated with predicted spring tides. The correlation can probably be interpreted as reflecting preparation for predicted low tides, when the algae are exposed to increasing temperature, desiccation, and salinity, all known to induce oxidative stress. Given the simplicity of the described method it can easily be adapted for the study of melatonin in many other phototrophic organisms. These results provide, for the first time, experimental data that support both an antioxidant role for melatonin and its semi-lunar rhythm in macroalgae.


INTRODUCTION: There is great interest in establishing resources and therapies to be used in an attempt to provide a process of muscle repair better and shorter. Two features commonly used to facilitate the healing process are the therapeutic ultrasound and laser power, however, are still scarce and sometimes contradictory scientific evidence to determine with certainty the parameters and methodology necessary to acquire these goals. OBJECTIVES: Thus, the objective of present study was to evaluate the effect of therapeutic ultrasound (US) and low level laser GaAlAs 660 nm on the proliferation of C2C12 myoblasts. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The myoblasts were cultivated in culture medium of Eagle modified by Dulbecco, containing 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) and induced to differentiate by addition of 2% horse serum for 96h. Subsequently, cells were irradiated with US (20%, 3 MHz, and intensities of 0.2 and 0.5 W/cm2 for five minutes) or with LLL (output power of 10 mW, density of 3 and 5 J/cm2 for 20 seconds). The non-irradiated cells serve as controls. Three independent experiments were performed for each condition cited. Cell proliferation was evaluated after 24h and 72h using the MTT method. RESULTS: The results were statistically analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA/Dunnet) to verify differences between control cells (untreated) and US/LLL treated groups. The results showed no significant differences in viability and cell proliferation between LLL or US treated cells and control cells after 24h and 72h. Furthermore, it was observed no increase in the number of cells within the evaluation period after treatment, confirming the process of cell differentiation, as expected. RESULTS: In conclusion, US and the LLL, employed under the parameters described does not alter C2C12 proliferation.


Passive diffusion samplers (PDS) composed of a vial with a solution of distilled water and ethylene glycol have an affinity to capture tritium oxide (tritiated water vapour, HTO) from surrounding air through an orifice in a lid. In order to ascertain the effectiveness of such samplers for tracking changes in the HTO air concentrations attributable to variations in tritium emission rates, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) measured the HTO concentrations in air for one year on a bi-weekly basis at various distances along four directions from an operating radioluminescent light manufacturing facility. The collected data demonstrate that the PDS are low cost and low maintenance means for reliable monitoring of airborne HTO emissions. The data indicate a rapid decrease of atmospheric HTO concentrations with increasing distance from the facility in all directions. A strong correlation (r=0.89) was found between reported releases of HTO from the facility and the HTO air concentrations observed at the monitoring locations. Distribution of HTO around the facility correlated strongly (r=0.99) with local wind distribution.


The present study will focus on ways in which the plurilingualism principles set out in the National Framework for Languages (Scotland) are, or could be, translated into classroom practice, and the nature of professional education which teachers believe has supported their competence in these areas, or could help to develop competence in future.The National Framework for Languages or NFfL (SCDE Languages Group, 2018) takes a broad view of what constitutes languages education, encompassing not only the teaching of modern foreign languages (MFLs) in primary and secondary schools, but also the teaching of Gaelic and teaching through the medium of Gaelic (GME), and providing support for bilingual learners, in the process of acquiring English and, potentially, other languages (including sign languages). Languages education is therefore not only considered to be formal, direct provision (e.g. a 'French lesson') but also both formal and informal support for the use of diverse languages across the curriculum, for a variety of educational purposes. As is stated in Curriculum for Excellence (Scottish Government, 2018), all teachers have a broad responsibility for language development across the curriculum; and, in the light of the 1+2 languages policy (Scottish Government, 2012), all primary teachers will, from 2021, be expected to be able to teach at least one other language in addition to English (or Gaelic in the case of GME).Theoretically, the study draws on existing thinking around teacher agency, in the context of the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence (Priestley, Biesta & Robinson, 2016), and in the field of language policy and planning (Hornberger & Johnson, 2007; Johnson & Ricento, 2013). Although these traditions have developed separately, both place teacher agency in an ecological context, in which the enactment of policy is understood to take place simultaneously at diverse levels of an education system, with ripple effects inwards and outwards and over time. Both traditions view teachers' understandings of policy, and the scope and limitations to the action they can take as policy changes and develops, as critical to effective implementation. Thus this study will adopt an ecological perspective on teachers' understanding of the Framework principles, which draw on several different policy initiatives and on how teachers enact these principles in their classrooms.Framed within a broader understanding of language use in education, the present study will also draw on Vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural psychology which posits that language use and other semiotic tools can be perceived as mediating artefacts between the social world and the development of an individual's inner thinking. For teachers, this may refer to their day-to-day interactions or conversations with their colleagues, mentors and other professionals in the wider school community, also known as professional dialogue. In agreement with Littleton and Mercer (2013) and Warwick et al. (2016), we argue that the dialogic space created by teachers plays a pivotal role in enhancing their instructional practices and in promoting teacher professional learning. Another dimension of our project is to study teacher professional learning as reflective practices. Kramarski and Kohen (2016) argue that it can be particularly powerful and even transformative when teachers learn by thinking back and articulating the acquisition of knowledge and strategies. As will be outlined later on in this paper, we intend to ask the participants to reflect on their teaching practice and to use concrete examples to demonstrate their understanding of the plurilingualism principles.Research questions:1. How do teachers relate the plurilingualism principles set out in the NFfL to their current and future classroom practices?2. What kind of professional education do they consider most valuable in developing the competences they need to do this effectively?MethodBroadly speaking, the study draws on the work of Florian and others (Florian & Rouse, 2009; Florian & Linklater, 2010; Florian, 2012) who developed the Framework for Inclusive Pedagogy – work which inspired the NFfL – and subsequently investigated its implementation in Scottish schools. Their schools-based research reflects a social constructivist approach which has many similarities to the ecological model outlined above. Florian & Spratt (2013) stress the value of open-ended qualitative research in the early stages of the investigation as a way of acknowledging and valuing diverse perspectives on practice, avoiding the imposition of the researchers' own views and values. The method they adopted (Florian & Spratt, op.cit.) – of observing a lesson and following this up with a semi-structured interview with the teacher in question (a well-established method dating back at least to the work of Brown, 1975) – is replicated here. Three data collection methods will be employed in this study: 1) Short questionnaires inviting open-ended responses has been circulated to student teachers and language professionals. Submission of questionnaire data was voluntary and there was no penalties or other consequences if participants chose not to submit or wished to withdraw from the study. 2) With the goal of diversifying observation contexts, we have selected three teachers who all agreed to invite the researcher to observe one lesson of theirs in March 2019. During the observation, the researcher will take hand-written field notes to create a record of the event; no structured observation schedule will be used as, in each case, the classroom actualisation of NFfL principles cannot be determined in advance, and lessons are likely to be very diverse; the main purposes served by the fieldnotes are (a) to serve as an aide-memoire for the researcher, during the subsequent interview and (b) to contextualise research findings in the analysis, reporting and dissemination stages. 3) Following the observed lesson, the researcher and the teachers will conduct semi-structured interviews, lasting 30-60 minutes. The data collected via each of these instruments will be analysed qualitatively, using the plurilingualism principles in the NFfL as an analytical frame. Given the exploratory nature of this study, however, a grounded theory approach is also relevant as the researchers cannot know at this stage how participants understand and interpret the NFfL principles.Expected OutcomesIn this initial, small-scale study, our goal is to explore existing understandings of what plurilingualism principles set out in the NFfL 'look like' in the classroom, from the perspectives of newly qualified teachers whose teacher education has not been directly influenced by the NFfL. The responses of the participants will constitute baseline data against which the outcomes of subsequent interventions, based on the NFfL, in initial teacher education and professional development for languages teachers, can be measured. There are several expected outcomes from the research: (1) findings will deepen our understanding of language teacher education in culturally and linguistically diverse settings; (2) findings will directly influence our own provision for languages education on the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including the establishment of a benchmark position for teachers' understandings of how the plurilingualism principles are enacted in the classroom; (3) findings will contribute to the Scotland-wide study and will therefore benefit our collective understanding of the diverse needs of ITE students and how these can be met; we will similarly benefit from the findings of studies in other institutions; (4) findings will explore the experience and practice of educators who draw on their own as well as their students' multilingual and multicultural repertoires in the learning process; (5) findings will advance understanding more generally of ways in which teachers enact plurilingualism principles underpinning languages education in the classroom, and of the kind of professional education that they see as most supportive.


This paper assumes a set of n mobile sensors that move in the Euclidean plane as a swarm. Our objectives are to explore a given geographic region by detecting and aggregating spatio-temporal events of interest and to store these events in the network until the user requests them. Such a setting finds applications in environments where the user (i.e., the sink) is infrequently within communication range from the field deployment. Our framework, coined SenseSwarm, dynamically partitions the sensing devices into perimeter and core nodes. Data acquisition is scheduled at the perimeter in order to minimize energy consumption while storage and replication takes place at the core nodes which are physically and logically shielded to threats and obstacles. To efficiently identify the perimeter of the swarm we devise the Perimeter Algorithm (PA), an efficient distributed algorithm with a message complexity of O(p + n), where p denotes the number of nodes on the perimeter and n the overall number of nodes. For storage and replication we devise a spatio-temporal in-network aggregation scheme based on minimum bounding rectangles and minimum bounding cuboids. Our trace-driven experimentation shows that our framework can offer significant energy reductions while maintaining high data availability rates.


There has recently been a resurgence in interest in techniques for effective programming of multi-core computers. Most programmers find general-purpose concurrent programming to be extremely difficult. This difficulty severely limits the number of applications that currently benefit from multi-core computers. There already exist many concurrent solutions for the class of regular applications, which include various algorithms for linear algebra. For the class of irregular applications, which operate on dynamic and pointerand graph-based structures, efficient concurrent solutions have so far remained elusive. Dataflow analysis applications, which are often found in compilers and program analysis tools, have received particularly little attention with regard to execution on multi-core machines. Operating on the theory that the Actor model, which structures computations as systems of asynchronously-communicating entities, is a more appropriate method for representing irregular algorithms than the shared-memory model, this work presents a concurrent Actor-based formulation of the IFDS, or Interprocedural Finite Distributive Subset, dataflow analysis algorithm. The implementation of this algorithm is done using the Scala language and its Actors library. This algorithm achieves significant speedup on multi-core machines without using any optimistic execution. This work contributes to Actor research by showing how the Actor model can be practically applied to a dataflow analysis problem. This work contributes to static analysis research by showing how a dataflow analysis algorithm can effectively make use of multi-core machines, allowing the possibility of faster and more precise analyses.


Recent years have seen the discovery of numerous new hominid species, and the hominid evolutionary tree is now commonly drawn as a complex bush. In his Perspective,
 White
 raises a cautionary note, arguing that some fossils may be so distorted that assignment to a new species is premature. Furthermore, natural variation among species must be taken into consideration. The author concludes that it is too early to say whether many more hominid lineages are waiting to be found and recognized in Africa, or whether just a few hominid species expanded their ranges and invaded new habitats.


The quality of many beverages and food products is compromised by the presence of low molecular weight aldehydes. Aldehydes are commonly formed during storage by the oxidation of lipids or are introduced as migrants from polymeric packaging material. The objective of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of three aldehyde scavenging agents, blended into poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) films, in removing an aliphatic series of aldehydes from an acidified aqueous model solution (pH 3.6) during storage. Aldehyde concentration in solution was determined by an improved high performance liquid chromatography method involving the formation of aldehyde-hydrazine complexes by 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine. Storage of 25 μM mixtures of acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, butyraldehyde, valeraldehyde, and caproaldehyde in contact with PET films blended with 5% poly(m-xylylene adipamide) (nylon MXD6), Dsorbitol, or α-cyclodextrin reduced the concentration of each aldehyde in solution by 21 to 90% after 14 days of exposure. D-sorbitol and α-cyclodextrin aldehyde scavenging PET films were the most effective treatments for the reduction of aldehydes from solution showing similar average reductions for the five aldehyde species of 11.4 and 13.8 μM, respectively. PET films blended with nylon MXD6 were less effective in removing aldehydes from solution showing an average reduction of 8.4 μM for the five aldehyde species. However, nylon MXD6 proved to the most efficient aldehyde scavenging agent tested. D-sorbitol and α-cyclodextrin blends include 45 and 17 times more aldehyde scavenging sites then nylon MXD6 blends, but only showed 26 and 39% improvements in aldehyde scavenging ability when compared to nylon MXD6 blends. Aldehyde scavenging films demonstrated selective scalping preferring smaller molecular weight aldehydes, such as acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, and butyraldehyde, more than larger aldehydes, valeraldehyde and caproaldehyde. Partition coefficients for smaller aldehydes were 3 to 6 times greater for aldehyde scavenging films then control film.


Background and Purpose: Measures to detect important effects related to physical therapy interventions must be able to detect an important change. The purpose of this study was to select the most responsive physical functioning measures for multiple sclerosis (MS) using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) as a framework. Subjects: The participants were 120 people with MS who were ambulatory from a population-based sample. Methods: Physical functioning was assessed by quantitative clinical measures of activities (n=5) and body functions (n=7) and by self-reported performance in self-care, mobility, and domestic life domains in the activities and participation component of the ICF at baseline and 2 years later. A participant's perception of change and a change in Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores were used as external criteria in the analysis of the receiver operating characteristic curve and the minimally important change score. The minimal detectable change was calculated as distribution-based responsiveness. Results: According to the external criteria, 51% of the participants showed deterioration as measured by their own perceptions compared with the 26% of the participants who showed deterioration as rated by the clinician. Regardless of the external criterion applied, the measures most responsive to deterioration were self-reported scores in self-care, mobility, and domestic life; distance walked and change in heart rate during a 6-minute walk test; 10-m walk test speeds, stride length, and cadence; repetitive squatting; and Box and Block Test scores. Discussion and Conclusion: The results show the relative responsiveness of different measures in the subsample who deteriorated and provide data that can facilitate the interpretation of score changes in people with MS who are ambulatory for future studies and in clinical practice.


ABSTRACT The statutory inclusion of modern foreign languages (MFL) into the Key Stage 2 curriculum in England in 2014 aimed to raise the language skills of younger learners in preparation for their secondary education. This change to the curriculum has occurred at a time in which the linguistic diversity within primary schools across the country has been consistently increasing. This study used interpretative phenomenological analysis to qualitatively examine the impact of the curriculum change on teachers implementing it in multilingual classrooms in Greater Manchester. Six teachers with varying experience in teaching MFL participated in semi-structured interviews focussing on different aspects of the curriculum change. This paper focuses on the teaching of MFL, as well as on teachers' perceptions of English as an additional language (EAL) pupils' aptitude for language learning in comparison to their monolingual peers. The superordinate themes identified from the data included the inconsistent delivery of MFL in primary schools, and the role of multilingual classrooms as opportunities for augmented MFL provision. The findings from this study will have implications for teachers, head teachers and policy-makers regarding the effectiveness of the initial implementation of MFL into the primary curriculum, with specific reference to the EAL school population.


We present a domain-specific imperative language, Bek, that directly models low-level string manipulation code featuring boolean state, search operations, and substring substitutions. We show constructively that Bek is reversible through a semantics-preserving translation to symbolic finite state transducers, a novel representation for transducers that annotates transitions with logical formulae. Symbolic finite state transducers give us a new way to marry the classic theory of finite state transducers with the recent progress in satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) solvers. We exhibit an efficient well-founded encoding from symbolic finite state transducers into the higher-order theory of algebraic datatypes. We evaluate the practical utility of Bek as a constraint language in the domain of web application sanitization code. We demonstrate that our approach can address real-world queries regarding, for example, the idempotence and relative strictness of popular sanitization functions.


Objective To compare school performance at age 5 years in children born at full term (39–41 weeks gestation) with those born at early term (37–38 weeks gestation), late preterm (34–36 weeks gestation), moderately preterm (32–33 weeks gestation) and very preterm (<32 weeks gestation). Design Population-based cohort (UK Millennium Cohort Study). Participants Seven thousand six hundred and fifty children born in 2000–2001 and attending school in England in 2006. Methods School performance was measured using the foundation stage profile (FSP), a statutory assessment by teachers at the end of the child's first school year. The FSP comprises 13 assessment scales (scored from 1 to 9). Children who achieve an average of 6 points per scale and at least 6 in certain scales are classified as 'reaching a good level of overall achievement'. Results Fifty-one per cent of full term children had not reached a good level of overall achievement; this proportion increased with prematurity (55% in early term, 59% in late preterm, 63% in moderately preterm and 66% in very preterm children). Compared with full term children, an elevated risk remained after adjustment, even in early term (adjusted RR 1.05, 95% 1.00 to 1.11) and late preterm children (adjusted RR 1.12, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.22). Similar effects were noted for 'not working securely' in mathematical development, physical development and creative development. The effects of late preterm and early term birth were small in comparison with other risk factors. Conclusions Late preterm and early term birth are associated with an increased risk of poorer educational achievement at age 5 years.


1. This paper reports the results of experiments on competition for transport by hamster jejunum in vitro between carnosine (β-alanyl-l-histidine) and other peptides and amino acids. Carnosine was chosen because this dipeptide is taken up intact with very little hydrolysis, which simplifies interpretation of the results. 2. Jejunal uptake of carnosine was inhibited by equimolar glycylglycine, glycylglycylglycine, glycylsarcosine, glycylproline, methionylmethionine and prolylhydroxy-proline but not by the equivalent free amino acids, or by a mixture of β-alanine and histidine. Inhibition of carnosine uptake by glycylproline was shown to be competitive. It is suggested that carnosine and the dipeptides inhibiting its uptake enter the mucosal cells by a common mechanism which is independent of the entry mechanisms for amino acids. Uptake of carnosine was not inhibited by N -acetylglycylglycine or by glycylglycine amide, suggesting that these substitutions prevent glycylglycine utilizing the dipeptide-uptake mechanism. 3. Carnosine uptake was not inhibited by equimolar lysyllysine or α-glutamylglutamic acid, nor did lysyllysine and α-glutamylglutamic acid affect uptake of each other. Though these results are compatible with the existence of multiple dipeptide-uptake systems in the intestinal mucosa, the evidence at present available is insufficient to permit any conclusion on this point.


This paper analyzes the distribution of net wealth, its relationship with income and the factors that influence the household position within the wealth distribution in Chile. The research draws on microdata from the Survey of Household Finances 2014. We de.ne net wealth as the difference between assets and debts without considering pension wealth. The results show that wealth is unequally distributed among Chilean households. In fact, 73% of wealth is owned by the richest quintile. In addition, we show that to finance partial or totally the main residence with a subsidy has a significant effect on the probability of a household being above the lowest wealth quintile and that inheritances significantly increase the probability of belonging to a higher quintile of wealth. In terms of income we show that, even though it has a significant effect in the wealth position of a household, the relationship between income and wealth is weak.


Variability on decadal and longer timescales is of great interest in climate research due to it's socio-economic impacts, potential for predictability and masking of anthroprogenic global warming. Observational evidence of multidecadal variability in the North Atlantic exists in the sea surface temperature (SST), often referred to as the Atlantic Multidecadal Variability (AMV), and also in the atmosphere, for example seen in sea level pressure variations associated with the North Atlantic Os- cillation (NAO). Observational oceanic data on these timescales is mainly restricted to the surface, does not extend past the last 145 years and becomes quite sparsely sampled in the higher latitudes in the earlier years. Hence, to increase our understanding of climate variability on these timescales it is essential to turn to both proxy and model data. The first part of this thesis focuses on an annually-resolved proxy record (1818- 1967) of Mg/Ca variations from a North Pacific/ Bering Sea coralline alga. Not only does the algal Mg/Ca have a very strong connection to the local winter SST and a lagged relation to the Aleutian Low it also it has a correlation of -0.87 with the winter NAO and 0.60 with the AMV index on decadal timescales. The link can explain the coherence of decadal North Pacific and AMV, as suggested by earlier studies using climate models and in the limited observational data. The second part of the thesis focuses on the ocean general circulation model, NEMO to better understand AMV. For this purpose the model was forced only with the atmospheric patterns associated with the NAO, both from the observed NAO index and from a 2000 year long white NAO index. Focusing on key ocean circulation patterns, we show that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circula- tion (AMOC) and sub-polar gyre (SPG) strength have a red noise response but no dominant timescale, providing no evidence for a oscillatory ocean-only mode of variability. The time derivative of both the AMOC at 30◦N and SPG strength show a strong, almost linear relation to the NAO for timescales longer than 86 and 15 years, respectively. The different response characteristics are confirmed by constructing simple statistical models that show AMOC and SPG variability can be reconstructed by integrating the NAO index by the previous 53 and 10 winters, respectively. Alternatively, the AMOC and the SPG strength can be reconstructed with auto-regressive (AR) models of order seven and five, respectively. A closer look at the ocean model response of the 2000 year long ocean model integration shows three distinct timescales of variability. The first, an interannual timescale with variability shorter than 15 years, can be mainly related to Ekman dynamics. Secondly, the multidecadal timescale, 15-65 years, is mainly concentrated in the SPG and is controlled by temperature variability. Finally, the centennial timescales, with variability longer than 65 years, can be attributed to the ocean being in a series of quasi-equilibrium with the forcing. The statistical models presented in this thesis to reconstruct the AMOC and SPG strength on multidecadal and longer timescales can be useful for prediction and model inter-comparision.


Changes in thyroid function may occur during treatment with amiodarone. A double blind prospective trial of amiodarone and placebo was performed in 37 patients in the subacute phase of myocardial infarction. Though none of the patients assigned to receive placebo developed any antibody, six of 13 patients treated with amiodarone developed antithyroid microsomal antibodies. There was no difference in triiodothyronine and thyroxine concentrations between the two groups, but a significant difference in concentrations of thyroid stimulating hormone was noted on day 30 (p less than 0.05). Six months after the withdrawal of amiodarone autoantibodies could not be detected and concentrations of thyroid stimulating hormone were normal. These antibodies have not previously been reported to develop during short term treatment with amiodarone. They could have an important role in the detection of early thyroid changes in patients given amiodarone.


Multiple meta-analyses have now documented small positive effects of teacher professional development (PD) on pupil test scores. However, the field lacks any validated explanatory account of what differentiates more from less effective in-service training. As a result, researchers have little in the way of advice for those tasked with designing or commissioning better PD. We set out to remedy this by developing a new theory of effective PD based on combinations of causally active components targeted at developing teachers' insights, goals, techniques, and practice. We test two important implications of the theory using a systematic review and meta-analysis of 104 randomized controlled trials, finding qualified support for our framework. While further research is required to test and refine the theory, we argue that it presents an important step forward in being able to offer actionable advice to those responsible for improving teacher PD.


Although molecular simulations are useful tool for material design, it is not straightforward to apply the technique to polymeric materials due to the long relaxation time. The widely used strategy to overcome this difficulty is 'coarse-graining'where a set of slow variables is chosen and the other state variables are statistically embedded into the time evolution of the chosen variables. However, there has not been any established method in this coarse-graining procedure, and thus, semi-empirical models have been proposed for each specific problem. This review showcases such models to clarify the position of each model in the context of the coarse-graining.


It is necessary to clearly separate the functions of the state from those of the settlement. The definition of "democracy" should not do without the definition of "self-government". A true self-government is an association of owners of the given territory, within the boundaries of the settlement. These owners are to govern in this territory. The government in the person of federal and regional officials should be a defender of one's rights, including the rights of property.The whole system of power, both local and state, should be an infrastructure serving for the citizen. But we do not adhere to the position of self-government as the main principle of power, still keeping to autocracy, its main contraposition. The Constitution of the Russian Federation defines the state as a bearer of law and order, giving the municipalities the right and the obligation to represent the citizens' public interests. So the legislation excludes the direct participation in entrepreneurship for both of them. Violation of this principle inevitably leads to the system corruption. The state official should always remember that he is not appointed to dispose of the property of settlements and individuals as he thinks fit. He should be aware that he is to consider the matters of order. This order, defined by Russian national consciousness as justice, should be supported by the state. And the municipal deputies and officials should remember that they are the executors of the citizens' will.


ABSTRACT Russia is in the middle of a broad modernization of its strategic and nonstrategic nuclear forces, including both new programs and some that have been underway for many years. As of early 2017, the authors estimate that Russia has a military stockpile of roughly 4,300 nuclear warheads assigned for use by long-range strategic launchers and shorter-range tactical nuclear forces. Of these, roughly 1,950 strategic warheads are deployed on ballistic missiles and at heavy bomber bases, while another 500 strategic warheads are in storage along with some 1,850 nonstrategic warheads. In addition to the military stockpile for operational forces, a large number of retired but still largely intact warheads await dismantlement, for a total inventory of around 7,000 warheads. The modernizations, combined with an increase in the number and size of military exercises and occasional explicit nuclear threats against other countries, contribute to growing concern abroad about Russian intentions. These concerns, in turn, drive increased defense spending, nuclear modernization programs, and political opposition to reductions in Western Europe and the United States.


The aim of the study was 1) to evaluate the association of maternal serum levels of placental GH and IGF-I with fetal growth, and 2) to establish reference data for placental GH, IGF-I, and IGF-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) in normal pregnancies based on longitudinal measurements. A prospective longitudinal study of 89 normal pregnant women was conducted. The women had, on the average, seven blood samples taken and three ultrasound examinations performed. All had normal umbilical artery pulsatility indexes during pregnancy and gave birth to singletons between 37 and 42 wk gestation with birth weights above -2 SD. Placental GH levels were detectable in all samples from as early as 5 wk gestation and increased significantly throughout pregnancy to approximately 37 wk when peak levels of 22 ng/ml (range, 4.64-69.22 ng/ml) were reached. Subsequently, placental GH levels decreased until birth. The change in placental GH during 24.5-37.5 wk gestation was positively associated with fetal growth rate (P = 0.027) and birth weight (P = 0.027). Gestational age at peak placental GH values (P = 0.007) was associated with pregnancy length. A positive association between the change in placental GH and the change in IGF-I levels throughout gestation was found in a multivariate analysis (r(2) = 0.42; P < 0.001). There was no association between placental GH and IGFBP-3 levels. The change in IGF-I throughout gestation (P = 0.039), but not placental GH, was significantly positively associated with placental weight at birth. We found a significant association between placental GH and fetal growth. In addition, we found a highly significant association between the increase in placental GH and the increase in IGF-I. The gestational age at peak placental GH levels was associated with pregnancy length.


Policy access biases worry social policy scholars because they generate Matthew effects that exacerbate socioeconomic divides. Yet, access biases in many social investment policies, like training during unemployment, remain under-researched. Such access biases may be detrimental to a critical objective of social investment: to improve and uplift workers with precarious economic prospects. We focus here on access bias in training provided by public employment services against lower-educated workers. They are vulnerable to unemployment and fractured employment and should thus be targeted for training. While there is burgeoning attention on access biases in training against disadvantaged youths and non-citizens, fewer studies have focused on similar access bias against lower-educated workers. We highlight that access bias against such workers may stem from their lower willingness and demand for training, as well as policy design, informal eligibility criteria and caseworkers' creaming practices. We suggest, however, that greater availability of training opportunities may ease this access bias against lower-educated workers. Using the Finnish Income Distribution survey data (2007–2012), we find evidence of training access bias: primary-educated workers are significantly less likely to participate in training than upper secondary and vocationally educated workers. Concurrently, our results show that availability of training is not significantly associated with the extent of training access bias against primary-educated workers. With a Nordic welfare model that prioritizes training to remedy labour market vulnerability and stresses that access to benefits and services is based on need, Finland represents a least likely case to find such access bias in training. We therefore consider these results worrying: if it is found here, it may be prevalent in countries with other welfare models.


This report presents an analysis of Transit Energy Consumption in Great Falls, MT. An analysis was made of the existing transit system, planned systems, and the transit planning process in that region. Separate studies were made of Construction Energy Consumption and of the DOT Capital Grant Application Process and the type of energy analysis used in that process. The analysis of the current and planned systems was directed at finding the source and amount of energy consumed for each of several factors in operation - such as traction power, control power, and in maintenance and construction.


While it is understood that cities generate the majority of carbon emissions, for most cities, towns, and rural areas around the world no carbon footprint (CF) has been estimated. The Gridded Global Model of City Footprints (GGMCF) presented here downscales national CFs into a 250 m gridded model using data on population, purchasing power, and existing subnational CF studies from the US, China, EU, and Japan. Studies have shown that CFs are highly concentrated by income, with the top decile of earners driving 30%–45% of emissions. Even allowing for significant modeling uncertainties, we find that emissions are similarly concentrated in a small number of cities. The highest emitting 100 urban areas (defined as contiguous population clusters) account for 18% of the global carbon footprint. While many of the cities with the highest footprints are in countries with high carbon footprints, nearly one quarter of the top cities (41 of the top 200) are in countries with relatively low emissions. In these cities population and affluence combine to drive footprints at a scale similar to those of cities in high-income countries. We conclude that concerted action by a limited number of local governments can have a disproportionate impact on global emissions.


We consider the maximum vertex-weighted matching problem (MVM), in which non-negative weights are assigned to the vertices of a graph, and the weight of a matching is the sum of the weights of the matched vertices. Vertex-weighted matchings arise in many applications, including internet advertising, facility scheduling, constraint satisfaction, the design of network switches, and computation of sparse bases for the null space or the column space of a matrix. Let m be the number of edges, n number of vertices, and D the maximum degree of a vertex in the graph. We design two exact algorithms for the MVM problem with time complexities of O(mn) and O(Dmn). The new exact algorithms use a maximum cardinality matching as an initial matching, after which the weight of the matching is increased using weight-increasing paths.Although MVM problems can be solved exactly in polynomial time, exact MVM algorithms are still slow in practice for large graphs with millions and even billions of edges. Hence we investigate several approximation algorithms for MVM in this thesis. First we show that a maximum vertex-weighted matching can be approximated within an approximation ratio arbitrarily close to one, to k/(k + 1), where k is related to the length of augmenting or weight-increasing paths searched by the algorithm. We identify two main approaches for designing approximation algorithms for MVM. The first approach is direct; vertices are sorted in non-increasing order of weights, and then the algorithm searches for augmenting paths of restricted length that reach a heaviest vertex. (In this approach each vertex is processed once). The second approach repeatedly searches for augmenting paths and increasing paths, again of restricted length, until none can be found. In this second, iterative approach, a vertex may need to be processed multiple times. We design two approximation algorithms based on the direct approach with approximation ratios of 1/2 and 2/3. The time complexities of the 1/2-approximation algorithm is O(m + n log n), and that of the 2/3-approximation algorithm is O(mlogD). Employing the second approach, we design 1/2- and 2/3-approximation algorithms for MVM with time complexities of O(Dm) and O(D2m), respectively. We show that the iterative algorithm can be generalized to fi nd a k/(k+1)-approximate MVM with a time complexity of O(Dkm). In addition, we design parallel 1/2- and 2/3-approximation algorithms for a shared memory programming model, and introduce a new technique for locking augmenting paths to avoid deadlock and related problems.MVM problems may be solved using algorithms for the maximum edge-weighted matching (MEM) by assigning to each edge a weight equal to the sum of the vertex weights on its endpoints. However, our results will show that this is one way to generate MEM problems that are difficult to solve. On such problems, exact MEM algorithms may require run times that are a factor of a thousand or more larger than the time of an exact MVM algorithm. Our results show the competitiveness of the new exact algorithms by demonstrating that they outperform MEM exact algorithms. Specifically, our fastest exact algorithm runs faster than the fastest MEM implementation by a factor of 37 and 18 on geometric mean, using two different sets of weights on our test problems. In some instances, the factor can be higher than 500. Moreover, extensive experimental results show that the MVM approximation algorithm outperforms an MEM approximation algorithm with the same approximation ratio, with respect to matching weight and run time. Indeed, our results show that the MVM approximation algorithm outperforms the corresponding MEM algorithm with respect to these metrics in both serial and parallel settings.


Abstract The Carboniferous in Britain is diverse and this is reflected in the clay mineral assemblages. Several factors affecting the assemblages are identified including climate, rates of weathering and erosion, source rocks in the hinterland, preservation of palaeosols, whether the source rocks are nearby or distant, sorting during transportation, the presence of altered volcanic ash-falls in the depositional environment and the extent of burial diagenesis. There are temporal and geographic variations in the clay mineral assemblages in the mudrocks as a result of these controls. There are also clay-rich rocks that differ from the normal mudrocks and a knowledge of the clay mineralogy of these is a necessary prerequisite to a full understanding of their origins. Mudrocks falling in this category, and described below, include bauxitic clays, flint clays, fragmental clay rocks, tonsteins and K-bentonites and various palaeosols.


AZIZAH AL-HIBRI is Professor of Law at the University of Richmond. She is also President and founder of Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights. Muslim countries are the bete noire of the Human Rights Movement. Problems in these countries range from a denial of democratic rights to restrictions on speech, movement, and education. A drastic example comes from Afghanistan, where the Taliban, in their pursuit of "the perfect Islamic state," have exiled women from public life. Less known is the damage the Taliban are also inflicting on Afghan men. An eyewitness recounts from Kabul the following story, which captures the texture of human rights violations there and the miseries to which they give rise: "Recently, a man was arrested for not growing a beard. His wife and infant child were left unattended at home. The woman finally had to leave her house, with the infant in her arms, to purchase a loaf of bread. She was detected by the Talibans and was beaten mercilessly because her flowery skirt showed accidently from under her chador. The woman lost her sanity. She ran home, where she was boiling meat, and splashed hot water on her assailants. They killed her on the spot, in front of her child." Incidents like this one, as well as the rape laws in Pakistan which punish the victim, the Algerian civil war which continues to claim the lives of thousands of men and women, and the personal status codes (family laws) which reduce the woman to a ward, all have caused many in the West to ask: "Why is Islam so violent, so different, and so oppressive?" In fact, it is this concern about Islam which underlies many of the recent discussions in the West about "the clash of civilizations" and makes the West less hesitant about the use of force in Muslim countries. This same concern has also led Western non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to support efforts for the secularization of laws in Muslim countries, particularly personal status codes, and the establishment of Western-style democracies. These efforts will be frustrated, and improvements in the human rights situation will be delayed in Muslim countries, so long as action for change is not based on a proper understanding of the nature of the problems and the people involved. Thus, it is important to remember that all three Abrahamic religions were revealed, and most other religions originated, in the East. Muslims take spirituality very seriously and would be willing to put up with a great deal of pain and suffering rather than abandon this fundamental disposition. Additionally, many Muslims have an intuitive belief that it is not religion which is at fault, but those in power. Consequently, they continue to search for the spiritually acceptable solution. In the meantime, Western NGOs offer no more than lightly-modified Western secular solutions, sometimes thinly disguised with religious rhetoric. Origins of the Crisis The roots of the human rights crisis in the Muslim world are ancient. They are also directly related to the issue of democracy and political legitimacy. Political legitimacy in the Muslim state was lost soon after the death of Prophet Muhammad and the four rightly-guided khalifahs (caliphs). At that historical moment, the Umayyad Dynasty rose to power not through free bay'ah (the form of voting practiced then) but by the combined use of sheer force and deceit. Soon thereafter, they further marginalized the will of the people by establishing a hereditary monarchy. Muslim scholars who argued throughout the ages that such a system was antithetical to basic Islamic principles suffered severe retribution. Ultimately, most scholars, weary of the oppressive state machinery and committed to the stability of the Muslim society, opted to abandon the sphere of politics and turn their attention to other matters. With the decline of Islamic democracy based on the twin principles of bay'ah and shura (consultation), authoritarianism became increasingly entrenched and patriarchal thinking flourished. …


This paper proposes a new multimodal architecture for gaze-independent brain-computer interface (BCI)-driven control of a robotic upper limb exoskeleton for stroke rehabilitation to provide active assistance in the execution of reaching tasks in a real setting scenario. At the level of action plan, the patient's intention is decoded by means of an active vision system, through the combination of a Kinect-based vision system, which can online robustly identify and track 3-D objects, and an eye-tracking system for objects selection. At the level of action generation, a BCI is used to control the patient's intention to move his/her own arm, on the basis of brain activity analyzed during motor imagery. The main kinematic parameters of the reaching movement (i.e., speed, acceleration, and jerk) assisted by the robot are modulated by the output of the BCI classifier so that the robot-assisted movement is performed under a continuous control of patient's brain activity. The system was experimentally evaluated in a group of three healthy volunteers and four chronic stroke patients. Experimental results show that all subjects were able to operate the exoskeleton movement by BCI with a classification error rate of 89.4±5.0% in the robot-assisted condition, with no difference of the performance observed in stroke patients compared with healthy subjects. This indicates the high potential of the proposed gaze-BCI-driven robotic assistance for neurorehabilitation of patients with motor impairments after stroke since the earliest phase of recovery.


Mobile off-line payment enables purchase over the counter even in the absence of reliable network connections. Popular solutions proposed by leading payment service providers (e.g., Google, Amazon, Samsung, Apple) rely on direct communication between the payer's device and the POS system, through Near-Field Communication (NFC), Magnetic Secure Transaction (MST), audio and QR code. Although pre-cautions have been taken to protect the payment transactions through these channels, their security implications are less understood, particularly in the presence of unique threats to this new e-commerce service.

In the paper, we report a new type of over-the-counter payment frauds on mobile off-line payment, which exploit the designs of existing schemes that apparently fail to consider the adversary capable of actively affecting the payment process. Our attack, called Synchronized Token Lifting and Spending (STLS), demonstrates that an active attacker can sniff the payment token, halt the ongoing transaction through various means and transmit the token quickly to a colluder to spend it in a different transaction while the token is still valid. Our research shows that such STLS attacks pose a realistic threat to popular offline payment schemes, particularly those meant to be backwardly compatible, like Samsung Pay and AliPay.

To mitigate the newly discovered threats, we propose a new solution called POSAUTH. One fundamental cause of the STLS risk is the nature of the communication channels used by the vulnerable mobile off-line payment schemes, which are easy to sniff and jam, and more importantly, unable to support a secure mutual challenge-response protocols since information can only be transmitted in one-way. POSAUTH addresses this issue by incorporating one unique ID of the current POS terminal into the generation of payment tokens by requiring a quick scanning of QR code printed on the POS terminal. When combined with a short valid period, POSAUTH can ensure that tokens generated for one transaction can only be used in that transaction.


Campaigns are complex exercises in the creation, transmission, and mutation of significant political symbols. However, there are important differences between political communication through new media and political communication through traditional media. I argue that the most interesting change in patterns of political communication is in the way political culture is produced, not in the way it is consumed. These changes are presented through the findings from systematic ethnographies of two organizations devoted to digitizing the social contract. DataBank.com is a private data mining company that used to offer its services to wealthier campaigns, but can now sell data to the smallest nascent grassroots movements and individuals. Astroturf-Lobby.org is a political action committee that helps lobbyists seek legislative relief to grievances by helping these groups find and mobilize their sympathetic publics. I analyze the range of new media tools for producing political culture, and with this ethnographic evidence build two theories about the role of new media in advanced democracies-a theory of thin citizenship and a theory about data shadows as a means of political representation.


In heated greenhouses, large amounts of energy are used to optimize climate conditions (temperature, humidity). In conventional tomatoes production, the estimated annual energy consumption is 320 kWh m-2 in France, with large differences across regions, 400 kWh m-2 in Brittany and 240 kWh m-2 in the South (ADEME, 2007). In Switzerland, it varies between 245 and 500 kWh m-2 according to the regions. With increasing energy prices and environmental concerns, growers have to find solutions to reduce their energy use and to improve the energy efficiency. Several axes could be used to achieve this goals, one of them is climate management. Within the working group "Energy saving and neutral production" of the Cost Action FA 1105 "BioGreenhouse", a review on the potential for energy saving in heated greenhouse thanks to climate management was done. Basically, there are two ways to reduce energy consumption: related to temperature control and to humidity control. The energy saving potential of lowered day and night temperature set points, temperature integration (TI) and screen management will be presented in relation to the effects on production. In Switzerland, three trials from 2006 to 2008 in tomato crops showed that an energy saving potential of 15 to 30% could be achieved with TI compared to the standard temperature treatment. An energy saving between 23 and 30% with screens management based on external temperature and light intensity compared to a management according to the sunrise was obtained. To reduce energy consumption related to humidity control, dehumidification with heat recovery was studied. A traditional dehumidification (ventilation and heating) was compared with dehumidification with a heat pump in tomatoes crop. In 2013, 15% energy saving was achieved with the dehumidifier and in 2014 reached 25%. No difference in plant growth, yield and fruit quality was measured.


The Precambrian granulites of Enderby Land, Antarctica, were
metamorphosed at temperatures as high as 900 °C and then underwent slow
isobaric cooling at about 10 kb pressure. The mafic and pelitic
granulites are characterised by the presence of retrograde reaction
coronas, a variety of exsolution assemblages in clinopyroxenes and
compositional zoning in minerals. The recognition of staggered closure
temperatures of cation exchange for different mineral systems permits
the use of geothermometers and geobarometers to evaluate the P-T
cooling paths of these granulites.
The pelitic rocks contain coexisting spinel-quartz, sapphirine-quartz,
hypersthene-sillimanite-quartz and osumilite on a regional
scale. Osumilite is present in a variety of mineral assemblages, most
of which have not previously been reported. These assemblages have
been used to construct theoretical P-T diagrams for the stability of
osumilite in the K2O-Mg0-Al2O3 -SiO2 and K2O-FeO-Mg0-Al2O3 -SiO2 chemical
systems.
Secondary cordierite has developed by a variety of mineral reactions
on cooling of these higher temperature-pressure equivalents of coexisting
garnet and cordierite. Available Fe-Mg partition data for garnet-cordierite
would imply equilibrium at temperatures of 500-600 °C, which is
inconsistent with both mineral compatibilities in these rocks and
temperature estimates based on other geothermometers. It is suggested
that the garnet-cordierite Fe-Mg exchange reaction may be dependent upon
PH2O. An experimental study to test this possibility has proved
inconclusive, but theoretical considerations indicate that this exchange
reaction cannot be considered applicable as a quantitative geothermometer
because of our current lack of understanding.
Study of the mafic granulites from Enderby Land demonstrates the
control of differing bulk rock compositions upon the variety of reactions
involved in the development of garnet with cooling through the pyroxene
granulite-eclogite transition. Data obtained from the staggered
closure temperatures of cation exchange in different mineral systems
supports the proposal for a curvature to the pyroxene granulite-eclogite
transition at low temperatures. The formation of garnet in metamorphosed
quartz tholeiite dykes is consistent with previous descriptions of the
continuous reaction of plagioclase feldspar with orthopyroxene and opaque
oxide to produce garnet and clinopyroxene or quartz. The disappearance
of plagioclase feldspar in the more mafic, quartz-free rocks involves
a different series of reactions in which garnet and an aluminous clinopyroxene
are formed. At still lower temperatures a second generation of
plagioclase feldspar may form through exsolution from aluminous clinopyroxene.
This feldspar would eventually react at still lower temperatures
to form a Ca-rich garnet and kyanite.
A marked compositional dependence to the garnet-clinopyroxene Fe-Mg
exchange reaction is evident from this study of the Enderby Land
granulites, and an experimental investigation of this effect has been
carried out. The results of this study reconcile previous inconsistencies
in the temperature and pressure dependence of the Fe-Mg distribution
coefficient for coexisting garnet-clinopyroxene determined in previous
experimental studies of simple systems, complex basalt, garnet peridotite
and grospydite compositions. The derived geothermometer yields similar
estimates for garnet-clinopyroxene equilibration for neighbouring metamorphic
rocks of different composition and different KD values. In
addition, temperature estimates using this geothermometer are more
consistent with independent temperature estimates based on other geothermometers
than previous estimates which did not correct for the
Ca-effect.
Application of this geothermometer to the temperature of equilibration
of garnet-peridotite and eclogite xenoliths in kimberlites has
revealed inconsistencies in our current concepts of strongly silica-undersaturated
basalt magma petrogenesis.


The role of elevated plasma epinephrine concentrations in the regulation of plasma leucine kinetics and the contribution of beta-receptors were assessed in man. Epinephrine (50 ng/kg per min) was infused either alone or combined with propranolol (beta-blockade) into groups of six subjects fasted overnight; leucine flux, oxidation, and net plasma leucine forearm balance were determined during 180 min. Constant plasma insulin and glucagon concentrations were maintained in all studies by infusing somatostatin combined with insulin and glucagon replacements. Plasma leucine concentrations decreased from baseline during epinephrine infusion by 27 +/- 5 mumol/liter (P less than 0.02) due to a 22 +/- 6% decrease in leucine flux (P less than 0.05 vs. controls receiving saline) and to an increase in the metabolic clearance rate of leucine (P less than 0.02). Leucine oxidation decreased by 36 +/- 8% (P less than 0.01 vs. controls). beta-Blockade abolished the effect of epinephrine on leucine flux and oxidation. Net forearm release of leucine increased during epinephrine (P less than 0.01), suggesting increased muscle proteolysis; the fall of total body leucine flux was therefore due to diminished proteolysis in nonmuscle tissues, such as splanchnic organs. Nonoxidative leucine disappearance as a parameter of protein synthesis was not significantly influenced by epinephrine. Plasma glucose and FFA concentrations increased via beta-adrenergic mechanisms (P less than 0.001). The results suggest that elevation of plasma epinephrine concentrations similar to those observed in severe stress results in redistribution of body proteins and exerts a whole body protein-sparing effect; this may counteract catabolic effects of other hormones during severe stress.


This paper presents a new dataset, B-SHARP, that can be used to develop NLP models for the detection of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) known as an early sign of Alzheimer's disease. Our dataset contains 1-2 min speech segments from 326 human subjects for 3 topics, (1) daily activity, (2) room environment, and (3) picture description, and their transcripts so that a total of 650 speech segments are collected. Given the B-SHARP dataset, several hierarchical text classification models are developed that jointly learn combinatory features across all 3 topics. The best performance of 74.1% is achieved by an ensemble model that adapts 3 types of transformer encoders. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that builds deep learning-based text classification models on multiple contents for the detection of MCI.


The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how various optimization methods
 from Operations Research can be applied to a Business Jet Airline Rostering
 Problem (BJARP). Business Jet Airlines are sometimes also referred to as
 Fractional Jets. Customers buy a share of an airplane, contrary to regular
 commercial airlines, where they buy a ticket for a certain pre-scheduled flight.
 Fractional shareholders (customers) can request customized flight(s) on a short
 notice. The BJARP deals with the scheduling of pilots for expected demand
 over a planning period, while satisfying various rules and regulations.
 Methods guaranteeing optimal solutions are studied and developed in order to
 achieve insight into the problem. The problem is modeled as a Binary Integer
 Problem and as a Multi-Commodity Network Flow Problem. Both models
 provide optimal results for very small problem sizes within a short time. Even for
 medium-sized problems and definitely for any problem sizes derived from real-
 life problems, the models cannot be solved. We demonstrate how the problem
 sizes grow drastically.
 Methods which do not guaranteeing optimal solutions are applied. A Simulated
 Annealing heuristic is implemented. This provides quick and fairly good
 solutions to problems of all sizes. The heuristic is not stable; the quality of each
 solution can vary greatly. To counteract this, a Matheuristic method inspired
 partly by Column Generation is applied. Instead of a "usual" Sub Problem, the
 Simulated Annealing is used when needed to generate new columns to be added
 to the master problem. Due to formulation, columns are greatly intertwined -
 choosing one column can easily rule out choosing many other columns and vice
 versa. The consequence hereof is that the master problem is only solvable to
 a certain problem size. A Column Management Scheme is utilized in order to
 iii
 keep the size of the column pool under a certain limit. In effect this enables
 solving real-life problem sizes.
 Finally the performance of the Simulated Annealing and the Matheuristic
 is compared. We show that even though the Matheuristic "builds" on
 Simulated Annealing, this solution approach is a great improvement with
 regards to solution quality. When compared on stability issues, the Matheuristic
 outperforms the Simulated Annealing.
 The conclusion drawn from this project is that the use of a Matheuristic
 approach makes it possible to solve real-life problem sizes with quite good
 solution results. In future work, improving on the Simulated Annealing
 embedded in the Matheuristic or exchanging it with another heuristic approach,
 would most likely render even better results.
 Keywords: business jet airline rostering problem; BJARP; business jet airline;
 fractional management; fractional ownership; mathematical modeling; mathematical
 programming; optimization; heuristic; matheuristic; hybrid heuristic; integer pro-
 gramming; column generation; multi-commodity network flow; crew scheduling; crew
 rostering; workforce scheduling


The increase of summer temperatures and a prolonged growing season increase the potential for agricultural land use for subarctic agriculture. Nevertheless, land use at borderline ecotones is influenced by more factors than temperature and the length of the growing season, for example soil quality, as the increasing lengths of dry periods during vegetation season can diminish land use potential. Hence, this study focuses on the quality of the soil resource as possible limiting factor for land use intensification in southern Greenland. Physical and chemical soil properties of cultivated grasslands, reference sites and semi-natural birch and grassland sites were examined to develop a soil quality index and to identify the suitability of soils for a sustainable intensification and expansion of the agriculture. The study revealed that soils in the study area are generally characterized by a low effective cation exchange capacity (CEC eff ) (3.7 ± 5.0 meq 100 g −1 ), low pH CaCl 2 (4.6 ± 0.4) and low clay and silt content (3.0 ± 1.0% and 38.2 ± 4.7%, respectively). Due to the high amount of coarse fraction (59.1 ± 5.8%) and the low amount of soil nutrients, an increasing threat of dry spells for soils and yield could be identified. Further, future land use intensification and expansion bears a high risk for concomitant effects, namely further soil acidification, nutrient leaching and soil degradation processes. However, results of the soil quality index also indicate that sites which were already used by the Norseman (980s–1450) show the best suitability for agricultural use. Thus, these areas offer a possibility to expand agricultural land use in southern Greenland.


Abstract. Temporal drying of upper soil layers of acidic methanogenic peatlands might divert the flow of reductants from CH4 formation to other electron-accepting processes due to a renewal of alternative electron acceptors. In this study, we evaluated the in situ relevance of Fe(III)-reducing microbial activities in peatlands of a forested catchment that differed in their hydrology. Intermittent seeps reduced sequentially nitrate, Fe(III), and sulfate during periods of water saturation. Due to the acidic soil conditions, released Fe(II) was transported with the groundwater flow and accumulated as Fe(III) in upper soil layers of a lowland fen apparently due to oxidation. Microbial Fe(III) reduction in the upper soil layer accounted for 26.7 and 71.6% of the anaerobic organic carbon mineralization in the intermittent seep and the lowland fen, respectively. In an upland fen not receiving exogenous Fe, Fe(III) reduction contributed only to 6.7%. Fe(II) and acetate accumulated in deeper porewater of the lowland fen with maximum concentrations of 7 and 3 mM, respectively. Both supplemental glucose and acetate stimulated the reduction of Fe(III) indicating that fermentative, incomplete, and complete oxidizers were involved in Fe(II) formation in the acidic fen. Amplification of DNA yielded PCR products specific for Acidiphilium-, Geobacter-, and Geothrix-, but not for Shewanella- or Anaeroromyxobacter-related sequences. Porewater biogeochemistry observed during a 3-year-period suggests that increased drought periods and subsequent intensive rainfalls due to global climate change will further favor Fe(III) and sulfate as alternative electron acceptors due to the storage and enhanced re-oxidation of their reduced compounds in the soil.


Department Website: https://voices.uchicago.edu/coed/about-minor/ Minor in Education and Society Courses in the Education and Society minor explore how people learn and teach as well as the complex relationships between education and the communities and societies it is situated within. Courses are theory-driven yet also provide important insights into the social contexts of education, strategies for strengthening educational practice, and levers for reducing inequality. The minor spans a diverse set of course listings because education as a discipline spans the life course and happens in many contexts: in the schoolhouse, the family, communities, workplaces, and political arenas. Psychological, social, economic, political, and cultural factors influence educational trajectories and outcomes ranging from individual health and income to forms of social inequality and trajectories of economic development. The interactions among educational organizations and other institutions shape the possibilities for innovation and intentional reform. To understand the intersection of educational institutions and the broader societies, these courses cross boundaries among theory, research, policy, and practice. This minor is focused on education topics from a theoretical and methodological perspective. College students in any field of study may complete a minor in Education and Society. The flexibility of this course of study complements majors in any of the disciplines.