Aim: This study was designed to assess the utilization of plants with anti-diabetic properties and to conduct preliminary phytochemical analysis and moreover, to assess the anti-diabetic potential of selected plants used to treat and manage Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among the residents of Pakuri (St. Cuthbert's Mission) in Guyana.

Methodology: The leaves of sour sop (Annona muricata L.), pear (Persea americana Mill.) and Mocou-Mocou (Montrichardia arborescens L. Schott) underwent phytochemical testing and a-amylase Inhibition testing to determine their anti-diabetic properties.

Results: This study showed that the leaves of pear, sour sop and mocou mocou contained different chemical constituents including alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins and tannins but the absence of amino acids (proteins), carbohydrates and glycosides. The a-amylase inhibitory studies performed demonstrated that the extracts of A. muricata in ethanol and chloroform had significant inhibitory potential.

Conclusion: Considering the promising potential of phytochemicals and the anti-diabetic activity of these species of plant extracts in anti-diabetic drug development, in vivo experiments and clinical trials are required for efficacy and safety evaluation. Also, the anti-diabetic phytochemicals may be used in combination with existing orthodox drugs, thereby, reducing the dose of synthetic anti-diabetic drugs, which will help in addressing the toxicity and cost-related issues in chronic use during the management of diabetes mellitus (DM).


The role of the prosecutor and the exercise of prosecutorial discretion can have an enormous impact on the outcome of criminal proceedings. The exercise of prosecutorial discretion is, however, often secretive and misunderstood. There have been concerns that a lack of accountability and transparency can result in a fertile bed for corruption. Australia has acknowledged this and taken steps to address the issue, but these measures have not come without their own costs.

The concern is that these measures may, if anything, hamper the administration of justice and result in an inefficient criminal justice system. Indeed, these concerns have been noted by Singapore who has hesitant to replicate the Australian position for fear of the inefficiency in the criminal justice system that would inevitably occur.

Accountability and transparency is thus weighed up against the efficient administration of justice. Both are necessary in a functioning criminal justice system, yet each comes at the expense of the other. This can be demonstrated by Professor Herbart Parker's ‗Two Models of Criminal Processes' – the Due Process and Crime Control models.

How then does one balance the two competing interests? As this paper will argue, there is no perfect system and a careful examination of a community's cultural values and the objectives of criminal justice system will be necessary to find the appropriate equilibrium in the balancing act of prosecutorial discretion.


The lithium-ion battery technology is rooted in the studies of intercalation of guest ions into inorganic host materials developed ca. 40 years ago. It further turned into a commercial product, which will soon blow its 25th candle. Intense research efforts during this time have resulted in the development of a large spectrum of electrode materials together with deep understanding of the underlying structure-property relationships that govern their performance. This has enabled an ever increasing electrochemical yield together with the diversification of the technology into several subfamilies, tailoring materials to application requirements. The present paper aims at providing a global and critical perspective on inorganic electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries categorized by their reaction mechanism and structural dimensionality. Specific emphasis is put on recent research in the field, which beyond the chemistry and microstructure of the materials themselves also involves considering interfacial chemistry concepts alongside progress in characterization techniques. Finally a short personal perspective is provided on some plausible development of the field.


Animals visit flowers to access resources and by moving pollen to conspecific individuals act as pollinators. While biotic pollinators can increase the seed set of plants, other flower visitors can reduce seed set directly by damaging vital reproductive organs and indirectly by affecting the way the plant interacts with subsequent flower visitors. It is, therefore, vital to understand the varied effects of all visitors and not only pollinators on plant fitness, including those visitors that are temporally or spatially rare. We document the first known case of flower visitation by small mammals to Crotalaria cunninghamii (Fabaceae), a plant species morphologically suited to bird pollination. During a rain-driven resource pulse in the Simpson Desert in 2011, the rodents Mus musculus (Muridae) and Pseudomys hermannsburgensis (Muridae) visited flowers to remove nectar by puncturing the calyx. We investigated the effects of this novel interaction on the reproductive output of C. cunninghamii. Compared with another recent resource pulse in 2007, plants flowering during mammal visitation had five times as many inflorescences per plant, 90% more flowers per inflorescence, and two to three times more nectar per flower, but this nectar was 30% less sugar rich. Concurrently, rodent plagues were up to three times larger during this rain-driven resource pulse than during a previous pulse in 2007. Up to 75% of flowers had evidence of small mammal florivory, but this was not necessarily destructive, as up to 90% of fruit had the remains of florivory. Through a series of exclusion experiments, we found that small mammal florivory did not directly reduce seed set. We conclude that rain-driven resource pulses led to a unique combination of events that facilitated the novel florivory interaction. Our findings emphasize the dynamic nature of biotic interactions and the importance of testing the role of all visitors to pollination services.


Youth from low-income, urban backgrounds face significant challenges to maintaining a positive developmental trajectory. Dangerous neighborhoods and stressed relationships are common in these settings and threaten adaptation by weakening the natural assets that undergird resilience. African American girls in these contexts face specific, multiple risks, including gender stereotyping, violence, and sexual exploitation. The commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is a multibillion-dollar industry victimizing over 1 million children around the globe. The typical victim in 1 city in the southeastern United States is an African American girl 12-14 years old. There has been little research investigating the characteristics of girls placed at risk for CSEC and even less research on the personal perspectives of these girls. Methods: Over 3 school terms we provided preventive intervention groups for 36 African American middle school girls who were placed at risk because they lived in neighborhoods with high rates of interpersonal violence and CSEC. Two group leaders and a process recorder took detailed notes on each group session. Our focus on group conversations over a period of weeks increased the probability of recording spontaneous, open comments by the children and is a promising method with this population. The data were analyzed qualitatively and resulted in an account of the girls own views of the environmental challenges and personal experiences that may influence their development. Results: The girls language during the group sessions contained 4 themes: difficulty forming trusting relationships, frequent peer aggression, familiarity with adult prostitution, and sexuality as a commodity. Conclusion: Our research shows how girls placed at risk for CSEC view their own lives. These children described violence and sexual exploitation and cited limited supports to protect them from these risks. Understanding the perspectives of these girls should generate future research and intervention strategies to support their coping and resilience.


The purpose of this study was to explore factors that contributed to the development of self-compassion among highly self-compassionate women varsity athletes. More specifically, the research question was: how did women varsity athletes with high self-compassion perceive they became self-compassionate? To purposefully sample participants, 114 women varsity athletes completed the Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003b). Ten athletes with high self-compassion scores then participated in individual interviews and a follow-up second interview. Data were analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis (Smith & Osborn, 2003). Analysis produced three main themes that contributed to the development of self-compassion: (a) role of parents (seeking and receiving help from parents, parents teaching self-kindness, parents putting experiences in perspective); (b) gaining self-awareness; and (c) learning from others (peers, siblings, coaches, sport psychologists). These findings provide insights into the ways in whic...


Despite the frequency of official debt restructurings, little systematic evidence has been produced on their characteristics and implications. Using a dataset covering more than 400 Paris Club agreements, this paper fills that gap. It provides a comprehensive description of the evolving characteristics of these operations and studies their impact on debtors. The progressive introduction of new terms of treatment gradually turned the Paris Club from an institution primarily concerned with preserving creditors' claims into an instrument to foster development in the world's poorer nations, among other objectives. Our study finds that more generous restructuring conditions involving nominal relief are associated with an acceleration of per capita GDP growth and with a reduction in poverty and inequality. We also find that countries receiving nominal relief tend to receive lower aid flows subsequently, the opposite being the case for countries receiving high reductions in the net present value of their obligations, but no nominal haircuts.


Many banks currently use the loss distribution approach (LDA) for estimating economic and regulatory capital for operational risk under Basel's advanced measurement approach. The LDA requires the modeling of the aggregate loss distribution in each operational risk category (ORC), among others. The aggregate loss distribution is a compound distribution resulting from a random sum of losses, where the losses are distributed according to some severity distribution, and the number (of losses) is distributed according to some frequency distribution. In order to estimate the economic or regulatory capital in a particular ORC, an extreme quantile of the aggregate loss distribution has to be estimated from the fitted severity and frequency distributions. Since a closed-form expression for the quantiles of the resulting estimated compound distribution does not exist, the quantile is usually approximated using a brute force Monte Carlo simulation, which is computationally intensive. However, a number of numerical approximation techniques have been proposed to lessen the computational burden. Such techniques include Panjer recursion, the fast Fourier transform and different orders of both the single-loss approximation and perturbative approximation. The objective of this paper is to compare these methods in terms of their practical usefulness and potential applicability in an operational risk context. We find that the second-order perturbative approximation, a closed-form approximation, performs very well at the extreme quantiles and over a wide range of distributions, and it is very easy to implement. This approximation can then be used as an input to the recursive fast Fourier algorithm to gain further improvements at the less extreme quantiles.


How the Higher Education Academy (HEA) Fellowships might influence academic
identities is the focus of this study. Increasingly, Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in
the United Kingdom have their Continuous Professional Development frameworks
accredited by the HEA to support academic staff in obtaining an HEA Fellowship. HEIs'
attention to the HEA Fellowships needs to be understood against the volatile HE policy
landscape, and growing influence of the university league tables. To strengthen
institutional reputations for teaching and learning, universities stimulate academics'
engagement with the HEA Fellowships through different means, including revised
policies for probation and promotion. The emerging literature has investigated the
influence of the HEA Fellowships on teaching and related practice. This study provides
an original contribution by exploring how the HEA Fellowships might offer new ways in
which to conceive and support being an academic in HE and how they might develop
academics' career pathways. The aim of this study is to explore the influence of the
HEA Fellowships on academics' identities.
An interpretive approach to the research guided its design. The data was collected
using in-depth interviews with academics (n=15) at two universities with similar policies
for probation and promotion, but different reputations for teaching and research. The
data was analysed using thematic and narrative analysis.
The findings suggest that the influence of the HEA Fellowships needs to be understood
against the institutional setting, in particular the institutional mechanisms and policies
that stimulate engagement. The HEA Fellowships, in combination with the institutional
requirements for probation and progression, result in different academic identity
trajectories, confirming and strengthening, as well as reconstructing and renegotiating
teaching and research identities. Hereby a marked difference was found between
academics that moved on to a teaching career pathway in comparison to those on a
research pathway.
This study concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for academic
developers, leaders and policy makers. These include the delivery of HEA accredited
professional development, the allocation of resources, and development opportunities
for academics on teaching career pathways.


Routine electroencephalogram (rEEG) is an important investigation in suspected seizures but can be normal in people with epilepsy. The diagnostic yield of rEEG varies considerably according to the patient group studied. We aimed to estimate the diagnostic yield of rEEG in a real-world cohort of adults with active epilepsy—a population not previously reported. This single centre study evaluated neurophysiology findings for adults with prolonged inpatient video EEG (vEEG)-confirmed active epilepsy, who had at least one prior rEEG. Sixty-eight patients had a total of 171 rEEGs, of which 93 (54.4%) were normal, 42 (24.6%) found non-specific abnormalities and 36 (21.1%) captured interictal epileptiform abnormalities (IIEAs). Serial rEEGs revealed a 22.1% yield of IIEAs on the first test, with the cumulative yield peaking at 33.8% on the fourth rEEG. This study adds to existing evidence regarding the limited diagnostic usefulness of serial rEEG in patients with active epilepsy.


Book synopsis: University libraries around the world have embraced the possibilities of the digital learning environment, facilitating its use and proactively seeking to develop the provision of electronic resources and services. The digital environment offers opportunities and challenges for librarians in all aspects of their work - in information literacy, virtual reference, institutional repositories, e-learning, managing digital resources and social media. The authors in this timely book are leading experts in the field of library and information management, and are at the forefront of change in their respective institutions. University Libraries and Digital Learning Environments will be invaluable for all those involved in managing libraries or learning services, whether acquiring electronic resources or developing and delivering services in digital environments.


This paper applies an economic calculus to knowledge to address one of the most strategically important questions firms face – deciding which activities are more economically organised in a unified firm rather than in two autonomous firms. The conceptual and empirical framework presented here proposes that specialisation leads to differences in cost and technical efficiency of knowledge-based factors of production between adjacent stages in a value chain. These divergent costs and technical efficiencies in turn shape the economics of inter-firm boundary location. A number of dimensions are suggested as being useful for distinguishing between the tacit, codified and encapsulated forms of productive knowledge inputs. Knowledge, so classified, is substituted for labour and capital as factors of production in the traditional microeconomic isocost-isoquant model. This paper applies 'an economic calculus to knowledge' [Simon, (1999), p.34] by using "…marginal rates of substitution between one form of knowledge and another" [Simon, (1999), p.24].


Modern innovations have enhanced the significance of competent, satisfied and committed workforce. However, these innovations have caused numerous potential challenges for university librarians. University librarians are expected to be highly competent, satisfied and committed employees to serve users in their information needs. However, previous researchers indicated that acquired skills of Pakistani university librarians are not matching with modern professional demands. This has given birth to numerous questions, such as ineffective performance, poor attitude of university librarians towards the attainment of required skills, negligence of professional values, compatibility between LIS curriculum and job market, perplexing levels of satisfaction and commitment of librarians, limited training opportunities due to undefined areas of required skills etc. Modern librarianship demands university librarians to achieve high level of skills under different areas such as emotional intelligence, cognitive abilities, leadership, communication, collection management and technology management. Thus, in the perspective of Pakistani university librarians, the current exploratory study examines; 1) association of acquired competencies with job satisfaction and organizational commitment; 2) difference between the acquired and required competencies that further prompted to training needs assessment. The present research study employed cross-sectional survey methodology involving 225 samples, randomly selected from the population of 540 Pakistani university librarians. The survey response rate was calculated as 82%. The UniLIBCQ, as structured questionnaire was utilized to collect data on acquired and required competencies, job satisfaction and organizational commitment of Pakistani university librarians. The psychometric properties of UniLIBCQ were established through Cronbach alpha and exploratory factor analysis. In terms of Pakistani university librarians, descriptive analysis indicated that perceived and desired levels of acquired and required competencies are moderate. Based on findings of correlation analysis, all six variables are positively and significantly correlated with JS and OC. Similarly, regression analysis showed that all acquired competencies have significantly predicted JS and OC and thus all research hypotheses (H1-H12) are supported. Further, stepwise multiple regression analysis showed emotional intelligence and collection management competencies as the strongest predictors of JS and OC. Further, findings of the paired sample t-test showed that difference between all dimensions is significant, however in terms of resource sharing are insignificant. Thus, fifteen hypotheses are supported, while one is rejected (H24). Additionally, training needs analysis determined that less than fifty percent of librarians need training to enhance their current level of skills. In Pakistani perspective this study was the first attempt to investigate empirically the theoretical links of competencies with job satisfaction and organizational commitment. In addition, this study is significant as it explored certain training areas. The concerned Pakistani authorities may organize training programs for university librarians to manage gaps in the levels of acquired and required competencies. It may further prompt to high levels of satisfaction and commitment because findings indicated a positive and significant association between the study constructs. It is established that competencies, JS and OC are three important variables that positively and significantly affect workers' performance. The findings of this study are also significant for other organizations that are interested to enhance workers' performance trough JS and OC. It is concluded that enhancing level of competencies may produce highly satisfied and committed librarians and probably augment their performance.


As artists, poets should naturally want to distance themselves from what they regard as mere fashion - which is to say that fashion influences those who would shed it almost as deeply as those who would cling to it. At present it seems fashionable to deride the personal in poetry. We have approached a juncture where contemporary American poetry is collectively congratulating itself for having escaped the malignant confines of a personal poetry, especially as practiced by the so-called confessional poets - currently, our most widely spanning and therefore most meaningless pejorative. A poetry of self-confrontation is seen to be a product, if not the cause, of the excesses of a narcissistic culture. Further, a strictly personal poetry is seen to be aesthetically incorrect: if the Marxists are right and our consumer society created an ethos of the self out of a need for ever more selfish consumers, then any poetry dealing with the personal only strengthens the stranglehold our greed has on us. Our newest truism is that a less private, more public poetry is less apt to be given to narcissism, sentimentalism, self-promotion, etc. A more public poetry will lead us away from all of these things. In the meantime the introspective had better watch their step. No doubt genuine change in the arts occurs slowly, maybe too slowly for those of us mired in the present moment to comprehend. That so many voices are clamoring against the personal suggests, among other things, how strong a pull the personal still has on poetry. And arguably, of the various kinds of discourse, poetry is actually blessed, not cursed, with a small (the sophists would say elite) audience; for if poetry has one custodial function in our culture right now, it may be to preserve the potential for genuine community that eludes more massive forms of communication. You can't talk back to a TV, a poet-friend once said to me. True, you can't talk back to a poem either. But when you listen to a poem or read a poem, you listen as part of a small group or you read by yourself and not as an indistinguishable member of a tyrannical majority. The individual called the poet depends on the fact that other individuals called readers are out there. However, even in our most revolutionary poetry, L = A = N = G = U = A = G = E poetry, what we have (arguably) instead of a public poetry is a poetry that could not possibly be more subjective, a poetry that chooses the most private of all aesthetic paths, absolute stylism. What really has changed in American poetry in the last thirty years or so is not so easy to talk about. It may have less to do with poetry eschewing the subjective than with its tiring of postured ways of behaving subjectively in poems and its rejecting specious alchemical formulas for the private life. In reading new books by Jorie Graham and Chase Twichell, it becomes clear to me that the dynamics between poetry and personality have changed somewhat. Both poets use post-modernist strategies of artistic self-consciousness - like David Letterman knocking on the camera lens to see if anyone at home is really at home - but they do so only out of the hyper-earnest desire to be more honest about poetry's status as artifice. Though both poets aspire to a more public role for the poetry, by and large they are still cartographers of the interior. Their poetry is characteristic of one current branch of mainstream poetry, a poetry of lyric detachment. These poets view human experience less as dramatic participants or as agonized soliloquists and more as detached observers. It is poetry's very capacity to distance us from experience that attracts - and frustrates - these poets and paradoxically impassions them with responsibility. There is a suprapersonal, yet pained restraint in their treatment of the qualms of the inner life and the unpredictabilities of a deterministic world. On the one hand, detachment becomes a necessary evil. On the other hand, as the essential flipside of involvement, it actually facilitates worldly engagement. …


Abstract Little is known about the predictors of adherence in a dance context. The aim of this study was to investigate adherence to a dance talent programme using a multidisciplinary set of variables representing psychological correlates of adherence, maturation and physical factors relating to dance talent. Psychological (passion, motivational climate perceptions, eating attitudes), physical competence (vertical jump height, handgrip strength, hamstring flexibility, external hip rotation, aerobic fitness), and maturation-related (age of menarche) variables were gathered from female students enrolled on a dance talent programme. Participation behaviour (adherence/dropout) was collected from the talent programme's records approximately two years later. Logistic regression analysis of 287 participants revealed that greater levels of harmonious passion predicted greater likelihood of adherence to the programme, and greater ego-involving motivational climate perceptions predicted less likelihood of adherence. Neither measures of physical competence nor maturation distinguished adhering from dropout participants. Overall, the results of this study indicate that psychological factors are more important than physical competence and maturation in the participation behaviour of young talented dancers.


perspective not only because good relationship. Beside that students have to look at the candidate who has a broad knowledge about Indonesia, political science, and leadership. Nowadays students of Islamic boarding school indirectly they don't get their right to participate in the election well as civilians who care and realize about politic. Generally in many years they influenced by the elite of the boarding views school to get political education. It caused by the patron client culture that relatively high, until they loose their right of politic. Electors' perceptions especially students about regional election are varieties because they still confuse between their right of politic and their relationship with their teachers or decide their right of election. The students' confusion is caused by three factors. Firstly because it's all about the pursuance to the teacher, until unrespectable impression and confusion are not easy to annihilate.
Secondly at the time of election where symbols of parties and figures are confusing them, they also confuse to elect one of them. And the third: a lot of students who didn't know about political parties that they have to elect.
From problems above can be concluded that students' behaviors in legislative election are very influenced by patron client culture, especially the factor of candidate close relationship with his endorsers. Therefore the writer wanted to know about students' behavior in legislative election in detail, and about patron client culture.
The writer use qualitative approach and descriptive method in this research. The techniques collecting data are: observation, interview, and documentation. After checking of the data validity, the data was analyzed by supplying data also the analysis and taking conclusion.
From the data that collected (1) can be concluded that students of Baitul Arqom Islamic boarding school behavior pattern in legislative election process is related by their knowledge about the election is low reputed because their political experience limited in the boarding school only. In the behavior of election they prefer to support the elite of the boarding school who follows as candidate because students think they have good religion knowledge beside they have good relationship in boarding school circles. Students' tendencies behavior in deciding their choice in election is based on the emotional relationship especially close relationship between the candidate and them. (2) Factors that influenced students of Baitul Arqom in electing legislative candidate are because the leader of political party has high integrity and good character and their sensitivity to society. Moreover factor of students' relationship with the candidate will give big influence to their election behavior. However patron client culture in the boarding school will influence students' political views in election.
From the research result can be concluded that students' of Islamic boarding school behavior in election is influenced by the patron client culture based on their good relationship in the boarding school circles. In other hand, factor that has big influence students of Baitul Arqom Jember in electing political party is their close relationship with the candidate of legislative.
From the result of this research students hoped to learn more about political science beside religion science, because however as human is political being. Therefore with the understanding about political science hoped that students can decide their choice more wisely and have future.


ABSTRACT Since soil organic matter (SOM) buffers against impacts of climatic variability, the objective of this study was to assess on-farm distribution of SOM and propose realistic options for increasing SOM and thus the adaptation of smallholder farmers to climate change and variability in the interior northern savannah of Ghana. Data and information on spatial distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC), current practices that could enhance climate adaptation including management of organic resources were collected through biophysical assessments and snap community surveys. Even though homestead fields were more frequently cultivated, higher amounts of SOC (15 ± 2 g kg−1) were observed in homesteads when compared to the periphery cropped sections in bushes (SOC = 9 ± 1 g kg−1). Possibly, a combination of household wastes, droppings of domestic animals that are mostly reared in a free-range system, manures applied to crops and cultural norms of chieftaincy, which cause short-term fallowing of homestead fields could account for the differences in SOC. Use of organic resources for soil amendment among farmers was low (31% of interviewed farmers) due largely to ignorance of fertilizer values of manures and residues, traditions for bush-burning and competing use of organic resources for fuels. Our findings suggest a need for effective management practices, training and awareness aimed at improving management of organic resources and, consequently, increasing SOC and resilience to climate-change-induced risks.


A polarimeter has been built for use with the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA), on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii. SCUBA is the first of a new generation of highly sensitive submillimetre cameras, and the UK/Japan Polarimeter adds a polarimetric imaging/photometry capability in the wavelength range 350 to 2000 μm. Early science results range from measuring the synchrotron polarization of the black hole candidate Sgr A* to mapping magnetic fields inferred from polarized dust emission in Galactic star-forming clouds. We describe the instrument design, performance, observing techniques and data reduction processes, along with an assessment of the current and future scientific capability.


The dynamics of gamma-ray burst (GRB) jets during the afterglow phase is most reliably and accurately modeled using hydrodynamic simulations. All published simulations so far, however, have considered only a uniform external medium, while a stratified external medium is expected around long duration GRB progenitors. Here, we present simulations of the dynamics of GRB jets and the resulting afterglow emission for both uniform and stratified external media with ρext∝r−k for k = 0, 1, 2. The simulations are performed in two dimensions using the special relativistic version of the Mezcal code. Common to all calculations is the initiation of the GRB jet as a conical wedge of half-opening angle θ0 = 0.2 whose radial profile is taken from the self-similar Blandford–McKee solution. The dynamics for stratified external media (k = 1, 2) are broadly similar to those derived for expansion into a uniform external medium (k = 0). The jet half-opening angle is observed to start increasing logarithmically with time (or radius) once the Lorentz factor Γ drops below θ−10. For larger k values, however, the lateral expansion is faster at early times (when Γ > θ−10) and slower at late times with the jet expansion becoming Newtonian and slowly approaching spherical symmetry over progressively longer timescales. We find that, contrary to analytic expectations, there is a reasonably sharp jet break in the light curve for k = 2 (a wind-like external medium), although the shape of the break is affected more by the viewing angle (for θobs ⩽ θ0) than by the slope of the external density profile (for 0 ⩽ k ⩽ 2). Steeper density profiles (i.e., increasing k values) are found to produce more gradual jet breaks while larger viewing angles cause smoother and later appearing jet breaks. The counterjet becomes visible as it becomes sub-relativistic, and for k = 0 this results in a clear bump-like feature in the light curve. However, for larger k values the jet decelerates more gradually, causing only a mild flattening in the radio light curve that might be hard to discern when k = 2. Late-time radio calorimetry, which makes use of a spherical flow approximation near the non-relativistic transition, is likely to consistently overestimate the true energy by up to a factor of a few for k = 2, but likely to either overpredict or underpredict it by a smaller factor for k = 0, 1.


Background: High-risk intravenous injection errors are fatal to patients and bring great harm. Thus, it is of vital importance to identify the causes of such errors and establish a preventive system and safety culture among the health care professionals to prevent systematic injection errors in the hospital. Objective:The purpose of the present study was to identify the causes of and problems associated with high-risk intravenous injection errors from the perspective ofhealthcare providers. Methods and Material:A focus-group interview was carried out with 13 health care professionals (7 nurses, 3 doctors, 3 pharmacists) who work at a university hospital in Daejeon City and have work experience in and knowledge of high-risk intravenous injection. Results: Three causal categories responsible for errors emerged: human-related, injection procedure-related, and environmental factors. Specifically, lack of knowledge and awareness of high-risk medications, carelessness in controlling the speed and drip of fluids, injecting the wrong fluid, unclear verbal prescriptions from doctors, inappropriate medication management, a shortage of medicators, and a lack of injection experience were identified as the most common problems responsible for nurses' errors when administering high-risk intravenous injections. Conclusion: Our results may serve as baseline data for establishing a safety culture around high-risk intravenous injection administration.


Objective: Operating rooms (OR) generate a large portion of hospital revenue and waste. Consequently, improving efficiency and reducing waste is a high priority. Our objective was to quantify waste associated with opened but unused instruments from trays and to compare this with the cost of individually wrapping instruments. Methods: Data was collected from June to November of 2013 in a 550-bed hospital in the United States. We recorded the instrument usage of two commonly-used trays for ten cases each. The time to decontaminate and reassemble instrument trays and peel packs was measured, and the cost to reprocess one instrument was calculated. Results: Average utilization was 14% for the Plastic Soft Tissue Tray and 29% for the Major Laparotomy Tray. Of 98 instruments in the Plastics tray (n = 10), 0% was used in all cases observed and 59% were used in no observed cases. Of 110 instruments in the Major Tray (n = 10), 0% was used in all cases observed and 25% were used in no observed cases. Average cost to reprocess one instrument was $0.34-$0.47 in a tray and $0.81-$0.84 in a peel pack, or individually-wrapped instrument. Conclusions: We estimate that the cost of peel packing an instrument is roughly two times the cost of tray packing. Therefore, it becomes more cost effective from a processing standpoint to package an instrument in a peel pack when there is less than a 42%-56% probability of use depending on instrument type. This study demonstrates an opportunity for reorganization of instrument delivery that could result in a significant cost-savings and waste reduction.


A small molecule inhibits mutated forms of myosin that cause cardiac hypertrophy [Also see Report by Green et al.] A young athlete collapses and dies during competition. Autopsy reveals an enlarged heart with thickened walls in which the cardiac muscle cells are in disarray and surrounded by fibrotic tissue. Until 1990, the cause of such sudden death was unknown. This devastating condition, called familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), was eventually linked to a mutation in myosin (1), the heart's molecular motor. Today, more than 300 separate HCM-causing mutations have been identified throughout the myosin molecule. On page 617 of this issue, Green et al. (2) describe a small molecule that binds to myosin and inhibits its activity, delaying the onset and progression of the disease in a mouse model. The study offers hope that a "simple" remedy for HCM may be possible.


Objectives This report is an update of a Comparative Effectiveness Review (CER) published in final form in May 2010 on the benefits and harms of radiotherapy (RT) to treat patients with head and neck cancer (CER No. 20). RT modalities included two-dimensional RT (2DRT), three-dimensional conformal RT (3DCRT), intensity-modulated RT (IMRT), and proton-beam RT (PBT). In this CER update we included 3DCRT, IMRT, PBT, and stereotactic body RT (SBRT). We used the same Key Questions as for CER No. 20, asking whether any of these modalities is more effective than the others (1) in reducing normal tissue toxicity and adverse events, and improving quality of life (QOL); (2) in improving local tumor control, time to disease progression, and survival; or (3) when used in certain anatomic locations or patient subpopulations; and, finally, whether (4) there is more variation in patient outcomes with any modality secondary to user experience, treatment planning, or target volumes. The main finding of CER No. 20 was that late xerostomia was reduced and QOL domains related to xerostomia were improved in patients treated with IMRT compared with those who received either 3DCRT or 2DRT. Evidence was insufficient to draw conclusions on survival or tumor control, adverse events other than late xerostomia (e.g., mucositis, dysphagia, skin toxicities, or osteoradionecrosis of the jaw), whether patient and tumor characteristics affected relative outcomes, or whether physician experience and treatment characteristics affected relative clinical outcomes such as survival or treatment-associated adverse events. Data sources A medical librarian searched MEDLINE®, Embase®, and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Registry for English-language articles. The overall search was performed for a period dating 12 months before the final literature search in CER No. 20 (September 28, 2009) through April 2013. For SBRT, the literature was searched for the period January 1, 1990, through April 2013. The search was updated May 1, 2014. A search of the gray literature included clinical trial registries and information from manufacturers if available. Review methods We sought only comparative studies that reported clinical outcomes and QOL among our populations of interest. In preparing CER No. 20, we found noncomparative studies to be uninformative due to substantial heterogeneity in methods and populations, so we excluded them from the update. Data were abstracted for each Key Question by one reviewer, with independent data verification. The study limitations of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and other comparative studies were assessed using the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) criteria. The strength of the body of evidence for specific outcomes was assessed according to the latest guidance in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality "Methods Guide for Effectiveness and Comparative Effectiveness Reviews." Results In two searches, we identified 7,130 unique titles and screened 284 in full text. Of the latter, 14 unique studies (N=1,781) in 15 reports met the inclusion criteria, including one RCT (N=60). In the updated search, we identified a second citation to an RCT. However, the latter included the same patients as the previously identified RCT. Therefore, it was not double-counted in the total number of patients; however, because it reported additional, different outcomes, it was reviewed. In 13 unique studies (14 reports, including the RCT), 3DCRT and IMRT were compared. One study compared 3DCRT and SBRT; none compared IMRT and SBRT. As in CER No. 20, no evidence was identified on PBT. Key outcomes of therapy included overall survival, local control, adverse effects, and QOL. According to USPSTF criteria, the RCT was deemed fair quality, whereas the other 13 studies were graded as poor quality. Conclusions New evidence on the comparative effectiveness of RT modalities for head and neck cancer is limited and heterogeneous for each comparison of 3DCRT versus IMRT or SBRT. We did not identify any evidence for PBT. New moderate-strength evidence enhances the CER No. 20 finding of reduced late xerostomia with IMRT compared with 3DCRT, with no relative change in other conclusions on adverse events or QOL. New evidence was insufficient to draw conclusions about the relative effects of IMRT and 3DCRT on overall survival or locoregional tumor control. New evidence is insufficient to draw conclusions on the comparative effectiveness of 3DCRT or IMRT versus SBRT or PBT.


ABSTRACT Nitrogen-fixing microbial populations in a Douglas fir forest on the western slope of the Oregon Cascade Mountain Range were analyzed. The complexity of the nifH gene pool (nifH is the marker gene which encodes nitrogenase reductase) was assessed by performing nested PCR with bulk DNA extracted from plant litter and soil. The restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of PCR products obtained from litter were reproducibly different than the RFLPs of PCR products obtained from the underlying soil. The characteristic differences were found during the entire sampling period between May and September. RFLP analyses of cloned nifH PCR products also revealed characteristic patterns for each sample type. Among 42 nifH clones obtained from a forest litter library nine different RFLP patterns were found, and among 64 nifHclones obtained from forest soil libraries 13 different patterns were found. Only two of the patterns were found in both the litter and the soil, indicating that there were major differences between the nitrogen-fixing microbial populations. A sequence analysis of clones representing the 20 distinct patterns revealed that 19 of the patterns had a proteobacterial origin. All of the nifH sequences obtained from the Douglas fir forest litter localized in a distinct phylogenetic cluster characterized by the nifH sequences of members of the genera Rhizobium, Sinorhizobium, and Azospirillum. The nifH sequences obtained from soil were found in two additional clusters, one characterized by sequences of members of the genera Bradyrhizobium,Azorhizobium, Herbaspirillum, andThiobacillus and the other, represented by a singlenifH clone, located between the gram-positive bacteria and the cyanobacteria. Our results revealed the distinctness of the nitrogen-fixing microbial populations in litter and soil in a Douglas fir forest; the differences may be related to special requirements for degradation and mineralization processes in the plant litter.


It has become fashionable to hold that "cultural work of [a] fundamental kind was often done by exactly those popular forms that . . . have seemed the weakest of 19th-century [American] cultural life" (Fisher 5). This "redefinition of literature and literary study . . . sees literary texts not as works of art embodying enduring themes in complex forms, but as attempts to redefine the social order"(Tompkins xi).[1] This view would seem to require, and indeed its proponents typically incorporate, both a redefinition of "sentimentality"[2] from a regrettable predilection for the mawkish to an effective "strategy" for bringing about salutary societal change, and the populist assumption, calmly ridiculed by David Bromwich (passim but particularly ch. 5), that only popular works, as opposed to those of "high" culture, can challenge a politically-repressive status quo. Freckles (1904), the prodigious best seller by Gene Stratton-Porter (1863-1924), provides a complicating counter example.[3] This novel, derided or ignored by critics then and now, dramatizes assumptions about class, gender, and sexual identity that are at best ambiguous, at worst retrograde. How or whether novels in fact change the way their readers think, for good or for ill, is of course beyond our knowing.[4] Stratton-Porter assumed, however, that the proper purpose of novels was moral edification and spiritual uplift[5] and insisted that elite critics were wrong to dislike her sentimentality: "All the world loves sweets! . . . I am a molasses person myself," she said (qtd. in Meehan 159-60).[6] The plot summary and excerpts of her novel given here may allow readers to come to their own judgments about this matter. In the closing pages of the novel that is essentially his story, Freckles discovers that he is in fact the wealthy Terence Maxwell O'More, of Dunderry House, County Clare, Ireland.[7] In the year or so from the novel's opening where he appears at a lumbering camp in Indiana, Freckles, a nineteen-year old "waif" three months out of a Chicago orphanage that was his home since infancy, has come a very long way indeed. He soon earns the respect of all and the love of many, not least that of the Angel, the sixteen-year-old daughter of a prominent local businessman, a girl of wealth and social standing, a young woman whose virtues and abilities are manifold and marvelous. But he is haunted by the belief that his parents, after cutting off his right hand, abandoned him. He in fact lost his hand in an accident, his parents perishing in desperate attempts to save the beloved child from their burning home. Freckles's courageous nature and impressive verbal vivacity are on display as soon as he arrives at the Limberlost camp. When trying to speak to the Boss, he is rebuffed by the camp cook who has noticed his missing hand, Freckles astonishes that cook by saying, "If you will be having the goodness to point him [the Boss] out, we will give him a chance to do his own talking" (1:12). Where, one might ask, did Freckles learn to produce such a tone of aristocratic, haughty disdain? Listening to Freckles's appeal for employment, McLean, the Boss, "scarcely could repress a start. Somewhere back of accident and poverty had been an ancestor who used cultivated English" (1:15). Stratton-Porter would agree with the Boss. It is basic to her characterization of Freckles, at the core of her conception of human nature and development, that traits acquired by an ancestor are inherited by his or her descendants. Freckles's rhetorical verve is in his genes. Similarly, Freckles's love of singing and his talent for it are taken as proof of the obsolete, Lamarckian thesis. Speaking with Stratton-Porter's authority, the Angel, Freckles's beloved, tells him that "the little training you had from that choirmaster won't account for the wonderful accent and ease with which you sing. Somewhere in your close blood is a marvelously trained vocalist; we every one of us believe that, Freckles. …


Digitalization exacerbates the problems faced by the existing system for taxing corporate profit in an international context. It does so by making it much easier for all aspects of a company to be spread around the world: its shareholders and creditors, its operations and its consumers. As many of these problems ultimately stem from the fact that the existing system taxes companies in the location of their mobile factors, this article argues that a more direct and satisfactory response to these problems would be to move to a system in which companies are taxed where their immobile factors are located. The article considers two such possibilities: the location of shareholders and that of consumers. It also considers two specific issues which arise particularly in the context of digital companies, namely two sided markets and free usage.


The region of Caucasian spa resorts is now one of the most important tourist regions of Russia. Before the collapse of the USSR 7% of the total number of health facilities of this country was situated in this region. The favourable natural recreation conditions, their concentration in a relatively limited territory, the considerable potential of health-resorts and the efficiency of therapeutic treatment provide good perspectives for the further development of a health-resort complex among Caucasian spa towns. But this region also faces numerous problems which could affect its future development. The ecological situation of the region is of special interest from the economic-geographical point of view. Over the last 30 years the total population of the region has considerably increased, because of the development of non-resort activities. During this period the industrial zones in the spa resorts and other towns of the region have also expanded considerably. The industrialisation of this region has initiated a conflict of interests between economic growth, resort development and acceptable living conditions. The bad ecological situation in the region of the Caucasian spa resorts was partly a result of the peculiarities of the regional planning system of the Soviet Union and Russia, namely of the poor track record of the realisation of regional and urban planning. Recent scientific and planning studies suggest a complex of environmental protection measures, which will provide opportunities for the stabilisation of the ecological situation and for the restoration of the region of Caucasian spa resorts region in the future. In this event the region of the Caucasian spa resorts could then be held up as a model of environmental protection among resort and recreation areas, and not only in Russia. Although the region of the Caucasian spa resorts does not directly border on the former Soviet Republics (Georgia), it is located directly in the centre of the northern Caucasus, where the political situation in a series of former autonomous subjects of the Russian Federation, especially in the Chechen Republic is rather pronouncedly incalculable and explosive. For the present, the implementation of the new health-resort concept will only be possible with capital investment (domestic and foreign) and modern technology from abroad. But the limitation factor in this case is the unstable geo-political situation in the Northern Caucasus and the corresponding bad investment climate in this part of Russia.


BACKGROUND: The use of in vitro fertilization is increasing. The incidence of adverse outcomes is greater for women who undergo in vitro fertilization, potentially leading to intensive care unit admission. This study aimed to assess the etiology and course of intensive care unit admission in women who underwent in vitro fertilization compared to those who did not, with specific focus on intensive care unit admission due to postpartum hemorrhage. METHODS: In this retrospective study, medical records of patients admitted to the intensive care unit during pregnancy or the peripartum period at 2 medical centers (2005–2016 at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY, and 2005–2013 at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel) were analyzed. Demographic, past medical and obstetric history, and details regarding delivery and intensive care unit stay were collected, as was information regarding mode of conception (in vitro fertilization versus non–in vitro fertilization) for the current pregnancy. The primary outcome measure was difference in etiology of intensive care unit admission between in vitro fertilization and non–in vitro fertilization groups. Secondary outcome measures included differences in prepregnancy characteristics, incidence, severity, and management of postpartum hemorrhage, as well as incidence of other clinical major morbidity events and delivery-related complications. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to study the relationship between in vitro fertilization and the odds of having been admitted to the intensive care unit due to hemorrhage. RESULTS: During the study period, there were nearly 192,000 deliveries, with 428 pregnant and peripartum women admitted to the intensive care unit. Of the 409 cases analyzed, 60 had conceived following in vitro fertilization and 349 had conceived without in vitro fertilization. The non–in vitro fertilization group was more likely to have multiple medical comorbidities, and the in vitro fertilization group was more likely to have multiple gestations. The groups also differed in etiology of intensive care unit admission; more women in the in vitro fertilization group were admitted due to a pregnancy-related complication. Intensive care unit admission for postpartum hemorrhage was more frequent in the in vitro fertilization group (60.0% vs 43.1%, P = .014), with a 2-fold increase in the incidence of hemorrhagic shock. Logistic regression analysis revealed a 2-fold increase in the odds that intensive care unit admission was due to hemorrhage in women undergoing in vitro fertilization, a finding that was not statistically significant when multiple gestation was added to the model. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients admitted to the intensive care unit, patients with different modes of conception had dissimilar etiologies for intensive care unit admission with intensive care unit admission due to hemorrhage greater in those with in vitro fertilization. Higher rates of multiple gestation pregnancies may explain this difference. Differences in pregnancies conceived via in vitro fertilization versus without in vitro fertilization may affect the obstetric intensive care unit case mix.


markdownabstractSummary

Although there are quite a few soldiers who write autobiographies about their deployment experiences, a comprehensive profile does not exist that provides reliable, quantifiable insight into 21st century soldier-authors that exceeds the Anglo-American view, especially when it comes to (self-published) books.
This study makes up for these deficiencies by studying all non-fiction, autobiographical books, first published between 2001 and 2010 in Dutch, English or German in the US, the UK, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands that (mainly) deal with the deployment experiences of military personnel in Afghanistan and are intended for the public at large.

It provides answers to four questions:
1. Who are the soldiers who write autobiographical books about their deployment in Afghanistan?
2. Who are their publishers?
3. What do they write about?
4. Why do they say they write?

To answer these questions, this study uses statistical analysis in combination with qualitative descriptive coding techniques to provide a cross-cultural analysis of five different Western countries. It is an interdisciplinary study, using and combining theories and methods from five different fields: sociology, history, literature, psychology and anthropology. One of the conclusions from this research is that in the countries studied there is a very strong relationship between the number of soldiers that have been deployed to Afghanistan and the number of books produced. For every 6,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, one extra mission-related autobiographical book is published. Another main conclusion is that the soldier-authors of these books are only partly (when it comes to branch of service and gender) representative of the average soldier. Particularly noticeable is that where the average soldier is deployed with his own unit, the average soldier-author is often (50%) individually deployed. This result was predicted by what is called in this study the 'fringe writer hypothesis'.
In some countries, the majority (Germany) or even all military autobiographies (the UK, Canada) are published by publishers that invest at their own cost and risk in these books ('traditional publishers'), in other countries (the US, the Netherlands) there is also a large self-publishing market for military books. Most military autobiographies are still published with traditional publishers, which are hardly ever specialized military publishers, but normally general publishers. These traditional publishers are looking for the traditional soldier: a soldiers who has been deployed more than once, preferable with his or her own unit, is a professional, not a reservist, with a junior rank and a kinetic background. This ideal commercial writer, however, neither exactly resembles the average soldier, nor the average soldier-author. Whether a soldier-author's book will have a positive or a negative plot can be reasonably predicted by looking at two author characteristics. Authors who still work for the Ministry of Defence when their book is first published generally write positive plots, and kinetic soldiers predominantly write negative plots.
The research into plots confirmed Harari's revelatory plot thesis, which predicts that the majority of contemporary military autobiographies either has a disenchantment plot or a growth plot. At the same time it showed that Fussell's disillusionment thesis (that military autobiographies have predominantly disenchantment plots) is no longer valid in the 21st century Afghanistan autobiographies that are written by professional soldiers, instead of conscripts.
The specific choice of plot is country-dependent and related to that country's strategic narrative on war in general, and on the mission in Afghanistan in particular. In a nowadays pacifist country like Germany, the disenchantment plots prevail, for example, whereas in a militarily ambitious country such as the UK growth and action plots dominate.
Almost all soldier-authors researched offer some kind of motivation why they write. Four main reasons can be distinguished: getting recognition, enabling change, helping others or helping themselves. What is striking is that intrapersonal reasons (such as helping others or enabling change) are far more common than personal reasons such as helping yourself. Self-help motives in general are mostly given by individually deployed soldiers.
The study ends with some recommendations for further research, that include validating the results found in this study by looking at other countries, non-military autobiographies books and by researching the illustrations found in these books.


The paper describes Opsis, a view mechanism applied to graph based process modelling languages of type Petri net. A view is a sub model which can be mechanistically constructed from another model by application of a perspective which: identifies all parts of the original model that are contained in the submodel; identifies and transforms all parts that constitute the interface to other sub models; adds new link relations to describe the behaviour of the sub model in interaction with the other sub models. Sub models are more easy to grasp and can be limited in scope to some well defined aspects of a global model, such as the view point ofa single role player. Composition of sub models is achieved through a merge operation on interface elements of sub models. The intended use of Opsis is: 1) process evolution-changes can be localised to certain views, which largely reduces the complexity of applying change; and 2) process reuse-libraries can contain reusable fragments of type view that can be combined using the composition operators.


In recent years, it has become apparent that the design and maintenance of pavement drainage extends the service life of pavements. Most pavement structures now incorporate subsurface layers. Part of the function of these subsurface layers is to drain away excess water, which can be extremely deleterious to the life of the pavement. To assure the effectiveness of such drainage layers after they have been spread and compacted, simple, rapid, in-situ permeability and stability testing and end-result specification are needed. This report includes conclusions and recommendations related to four main study objectives: (1) Determine the optimal range for in-place stability and in-place permeability based on Iowa aggregate sources; (2) Evaluate the feasibility of an air permeameter for determining the permeability of open and well-graded drainage layers in situ; (3) Develop reliable end-result quality control/quality assurance specifications for stability and permeability; and (4) Refine aggregate placement and construction methods to optimize uniformity.


This book brings together several essays of one of the most productive and outstanding Chicano scholars, Francisco A. Lomeli. Even though teh book only gives a hint of the topics dealt with and covered by Professor Lomeli, it has tobe seen as a tribute to his fruitful career. The articles selected offer a broad view of his writings on the origins of Chicano/a literature and criticism and on Chicano/a authors, and they can serve as a countless source of information on Chicano Studies for future generations of researchers.


Simplified models of continental lithospheric extension demonstrate that the strength of the lower crust is an important factor in the evolution of rifting. When the lower crust is strong, both the crust and the mantle lithosphere should extend in the same place. When the lower crust is weak, however, the upper crust can mechanically decouple from the lithospheric mantle during extension. Two distinct styles of extensional decoupling can be recognized. Diffuse decoupling occurs when the lower crust flows laterally in response to topographically induced pressure gradients. Offset decoupling occurs when stretching of the upper crust is horizontally displaced from mantle lithospheric stretching. We show that diffuse decoupling is expected for a range of possible crustal mineralogies, but that offset decoupling only occurs for extremely weak mineralogies.


Earthquake is one of the major natural calamity. So prediction of the reach of earthquake event to the various locations could result in minimizing the disaster due to it. This system contains the design of sensor system and the techniques used for detection and processing of the received signals in real time. In this system, an earthquake which is also known as a tremor or temblor is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. In this system, we use various sensors to detect the earthquake and alert us. Early warning systems can play an important role in reducing the negative impact of these catastrophic events on densely populated areas and in mitigating the damage to strategic structures and lifelines.


We present an agent-based model of manipulating prices in financial markets through spoofing: submitting spurious orders to mislead traders who observe the order book. Built around the standard limit-order mechanism, our model captures a complex market environment with combined private and common values, the latter represented by noisy observations upon a dynamic fundamental time series. We consider background agents following two types of trading strategies: zero intelligence (ZI) that ignores the order book and heuristic belief learning (HBL) that exploits the order book to predict price outcomes. By employing an empirical game-theoretic analysis to derive approximate strategic equilibria, we demonstrate the effectiveness of HBL and the usefulness of order book information in a range of non-spoofing environments. We further show that a market with HBL traders is spoofable, in that a spoofer can qualitatively manipulate prices towards its desired direction. After re-equilibrating games with spoofing, we find spoofing generally hurts market surplus and decreases the proportion of HBL. However, HBL's persistence in most environments with spoofing indicates a consistently spoofable market. Our model provides a way to quantify the effect of spoofing on trading behavior and efficiency, and thus measures the profitability and cost of an important form of market manipulation.


This zooarchaeological study examined animal economies practiced by local communities against the context of the expansion of the caravan trade in eastern Africa during the nineteenth century. Specific objectives were to establish whether: a) animal economies in areas crossed by caravan trade routes were transformed as a result of expanding trade and the demand for supplies; b) new herd management strategies were adopted by local communities to ensure production of surpluses for exchange; and c) the expansion of this trade caused subsistence stress for local communities. The study area is the Lower Pangani River Basin, north-eastern Tanzania.

The three studied riparian island settlements of Ngombezi, Old Korogwe and Kwa Sigi are mentioned in the nineteenth-century European accounts as caravan halts in the Lower Pangani. These were identified through archaeological survey and oral interviews - using the nineteenth-century accounts as a guide to their likely locations. Excavation exposed evidence for human settlements dating to the late seventeenth or early eighteenth centuries AD, and materials recovered include over 30,000 pieces of animal bone, 39,000 potsherds, 4,020 local and imported beads, metal objects, worked bones, remains of flintlock muskets and coins.
The analysis of the faunal remains indicates that domestic livestock, a wide range of wild animals, and locally caught fish, were all being consumed at these settlements. The proportion of wild fauna in the assemblage suggests their significant contribution to the diet. At Ngombezi where the longest dated sequence was revealed, such a consumption pattern of mixing domestic and wild resources is not significantly different from that of the pre-nineteenth-century levels, suggesting that the integration of these settlements into the caravan trade network had limited effects on food procurement strategies and consumption patterns. There is a general lack of evidence that young animals were slaughtered, which would be indicative of consumption pressure on domestic stock, as the majority of domestic stock was slaughtered after reaching maturity age - over 3 years for cattle and over 2 years for sheep and goat. These major findings contradict arguments made by historians that the caravan trade had a transformative effect on communities lying along the main trade routes in the region, though additional research at other sites is needed to strengthen this argument.


Background Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a worldwide problem, and it is practiced by many communities in Africa and Asia as well as immigrants from those areas. This practice results in short- and long-term health consequences on women's health. Like many other developing countries, FGM is widely practiced in Ethiopia, especially among Somali and Harari ethnic groups. Despite intensive campaigns against FGM in Ethiopia, since 2011, it has been practiced in the aforementioned communities. There is no recent information as to whether these campaigns have an impact on the attitude and practice of the community regarding FGM. This qualitative research was aimed at exploring the attitudes of Somali and Harari people between 18 and 65 years toward FGM. Methods A purposive sampling technique was used to recruit 64 (32 in each region) participants. Data were collected from October to December 2015 in Somali and Harari Regions. Results The findings showed that there was a strong support for the continuation of the practice among female discussants in Somali region, whereas male discussants from the same region and the majority of the participants from Harari region had a positive attitude toward the discontinuation of the practice. Marriageability was the major reason for practicing FGM in Somali region, whereas making girls calm, sexually inactive, and faithful for their husbands were mentioned in Harari region. Although young men in both the regions prefer to marry uncircumcised girls, the study showed that there are some differences in the attitude toward the FGM practice between the people in the two regions. Conclusion The findings show that there is an attitudinal difference between the people in the two regions, which calls for behavioral change communication using women-centered approach and culturally appropriate strategies. As young people in both the regions had the intention to marry uncircumcised girls, there has to be a strong advocacy and multisectoral collaboration to stop FGM in both the regions.


We consider the problem of searching m branches which, with the exception of a common source s, are disjoint hereafter called concurrent branches. A searcher, starting at s, must find a given "exit" t whose location, unknown to the searcher, is on one of the m branches. The problem is to find a strategy that minimizes the worst-case ratio between the total distance traveled and the length of the shortest path from s to t. Additional information may be available to the searcher before he begins his search.

In addition to finding optimal or near optimal deterministic online algorithms for these problems, this paper addresses the "value" of getting additional information before starting the search.


If current and former smokers aged 55 to 74 who smoked a pack a day for 30 years, or an equivalent amount, received low dose computed tomography screening, about 12 000 deaths from lung cancer could be avoided each year in the United States, a study published online in Cancer on 25 February has found.1

The number of people potentially saved by screening is about 7.6% of the lung cancer deaths each year in the US. About 443 000 Americans die each year from lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death.

Researchers from the American Cancer Society based their study on results from the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial conducted from …


I INTRODUCTION In the past, when a nonpublic corporation sought shareholder approval for a fundamental change (such as a merger), it would provide a notice of the meeting stating its purpose and, if applicable, a statement regarding dissenters' appraisal rights. That is all the Model Business Corporation Act (MBCA) required, (1) and corporations generally paid little attention to a so-called "duty of disclosure" requiring them to provide additional information to shareholders, if such a duty even existed. Of course, in the case of public corporations subject to the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) proxy rules, federal law mandated extensive disclosure. (2) Times have changed. Now, even corporations that are not subject to the SEC's proxy rules may have to provide robust disclosure under state law. Indeed, in some cases, state law requires public corporations to provide even more disclosure than is mandated by the SEC's proxy rules. (3) This change has taken place primarily as a result of the development of the corporate common law, although there have been some statutory developments, including those under the MBCA. The development of disclosure requirements through decisional law rather than through statutory prescriptions highlights the important question of when corporate law should be codified legislatively and when it should be left to case-by-case judicial development. The American Bar Association's Committee on Corporate Laws ("the Committee") confronted this question when considering disclosure requirements as part of its continuing evaluation of the MBCA. II HISTORICAL CONTEXT Historically, corporate statutes provided little guidance on the disclosures required when seeking shareholder approval. There was the notice of meeting, stating the meeting's purpose so that shareholders were alerted to the subject matter to be considered. If the matter triggered appraisal rights, the shareholders would have to be informed of those rights and the procedure to assert them. Little more was required under these statutes. Similarly, corporate statutes typically did not mandate that information about the corporation be provided to shareholders on a regular basis, except in situations where corporate action required shareholder approval. Rather, shareholders were left to rely on their inspection rights and, beginning in 1960, the ability under the MBCA to request the corporation's available, recent financial statements. (4) It was not until 1978 that the MBCA required the corporation to provide annual financial statements to shareholders. (5) This state corporation-law disclosure regime can be contrasted with the federal securities-law regime under which public companies--by statute and SEC regulations--are required to provide detailed information on a regular basis and in connection with shareholder actions. For example, companies subject to the SEC's reporting requirements must electronically file with the SEC an annual report, quarterly reports, and current reports covering specified events. Companies subject to the SEC's proxy rules are required to provide annual reports with financial statements and certain other information to shareholders. If corporate action is being taken by shareholders--including election of directors, approval of equity-compensation plans, or approval of fundamental changes like amendments or mergers--additional information, including transaction-specific information, is required. Beginning about thirty years ago, the courts--especially in Delaware--began to focus on the inability of shareholders to effectively exercise their voting franchise if they were not given adequate information. This translated into a duty for directors, operating under traditional standards of care and loyalty, to ensure that shareholders received adequate disclosure so that they might properly exercise their voting rights on an informed basis. …


Mangroves provide an array of benefits to coastal communities, but in spite of their many values, mangroves in Asia continue to be converted to other land uses and sustainable financing for their protection has not been forthcoming. This publication was prepared for the 'Income for coastal communities for mangrove protection' project (2015-2016) which aimed to develop a low-cost mechanism enabling public and private entities to responsibly promote mangrove conservation, carbon emissions reduction and sustainable development through the provision of incentives to local communities.


The ability to follow gaze (i.e. head and eye direction) has recently been shown for social mammals, particularly primates. In most studies, individuals could use gaze direction as a behavioural cue without understanding that the view of others may be different from their own. Here, we show that hand–raised ravens not only visually co–orient with the look–ups of a human experimenter but also reposition themselves to follow the experimenter's gaze around a visual barrier. Birds were capable of visual co–orientation already as fledglings but consistently tracked gaze direction behind obstacles not before six months of age. These results raise the possibility that sub–adult and adult ravens can project a line of sight for the other person into the distance. To what extent ravens may attribute mental significance to the visual behaviour of others is discussed.


Keratins are the characteristic structural proteins of the highly cornified epidermis of the skin, feathers, and hoof. Keratin proteins provide the structural basis for the unique properties of the biomaterial horn and its protective function against a wide range of environmental factors. Hoof horn is produced through a complex process of differentiation (keratinization) of epidermal cells. Formation and biochemical binding of keratin proteins and synthesis and exocytosis of intercellular cementing substance (ICS) are the hallmarks of keratinization. It is finalized by the programmed death of the living epidermal cells, i.e., cornification, that turns the living epidermal cells into dead horn cells. The latter become connected by the intercellular cementing substance. The functional integrity of hoof horn essentially depends on a proper differentiation, i.e., keratinization of hoof epidermal cells. Keratinization of hoof epidermis is controlled and modulated by a variety of bioactive molecules and hormones. This process is dependent on an appropriate supply of nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, and trace elements. Regulation and control of differentiation and nutrient flow to the epidermal cells play a central role in determining the quality and, consequently, the functional integrity of hoof horn. Decreasing nutrient supply to keratinizing epidermal cells leads to horn production of inferior quality and increased susceptibility to chemical, physical, or microbial damage from the environment. A growing body of evidence suggests that hormones, vitamins, minerals, and trace elements play critical roles in the normal development of claw horn and correct keratin formation.


ABSTRACT Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer mortality in women worldwide, yet few suitable animal models currently exist for study of this disease. Virtually all cases of cervical cancer in women are caused by specific types of genital human papillomavirus (HPV). In this study, we investigated naturally occurring genital PVs in female cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) without breeding contact for at least 3.5 years. Exfoliated cervicovaginal cells from 19 of 54 animals tested positive for at least one PV. Seven different PVs were identified, including four novel genotypes and two genotypes (RhPV-d and RhPV-a) previously identified in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Four PV types were associated with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), which resembled human CIN by endoscopy, cervical cytology, histology, and immunohistochemistry. The presence of CIN was highly associated with PV infection (P < 0.0001). The most prevalent virus type was RhPV-d, which was identified in 60% of animals with CIN. An RhPV-d genome sequenced from a high-grade CIN lesion was found to be phylogenetically related to the highly oncogenic HPV16. Transfer of cervical cytobrush samples from donor animals naturally carrying RhPV-d resulted in new infections in 4 of 12 previously virus-free animals and abnormal cytology and histology in 1 of 4 infected animals after 18 weeks of infection. Experimental transmission was confirmed by E1^E4 reverse transcription-PCR products and RhPV-d sequence identity with the donor variant. These findings identify key similarities between macaque and human oncogenic PVs which should prove useful in the study of viral persistence, carcinogenesis, and therapeutic development.


This chapter identifies some of the most important theoretical debates within the sociology of work and employment. It provides an historical context by introducing the key theoretical approaches that marked the birth of sociology. The chapter shows the importance of this theoretical canon for developments in a discipline that span over two hundred years. Yet it also highlights absences from the canon, and identifies some of the most important theoretical ideas for the contemporary sociological understanding of work and employment that have emerged since. The chapter starts and ends by pointing readers to the contested meaning of the very concept of work. It concludes by reflecting on the purpose of social theorising.


Rhetorical figures, which are frequently applied in advertisements, can add literary flavor to the texts, gratify audiences' aesthetic needs, and deepen their impression. In advertisement translation, it is very common that the rhetorical figures applied in the original text are replaced with new ones in the translation. This research focuses on rhetorical figures' function of enhancing audiences' memory and discusses the realization of this function in translation. The psychological studies on human needs are referred to in the analyses, especially aesthetic needs, for the use of rhetorical figures provides audiences with aesthetic pleasure and gratifying their aesthetic needs involves their emotion and enhances their memorization. To have aesthetic needs is universal across cultures; however, the ways to satisfy such needs may vary due to linguistic and cultural differences. The flexible treatment of rhetorical figures in advertisement translation mirrors such differences in terms of needs gratification, and investigation in this regard can reveal the linguistic and cultural nuances and provide translators with practical guidance.


Issues affecting inclusion of young children with disabilities over the last 25 years are discussed. A brief history of early childhood inclusion is followed by a discussion of definition, terminology, and models for inclusive services. A summary of synthesis points derived from the research literature focuses on critical outcomes for children with disabilities, the role of specialized instruction, collaboration among professionals, necessary organizational supports, and benefits for typically developing children. Two recent directions affecting the implementation of inclusion, assessment of quality and Response to Intervention (RTI), are discussed. In addition, factors that may affect early childhood inclusion in the future are summarized.


Bike sharing provides an environment-friendly way for traveling and is booming all over the world. Yet, due to the high similarity of user travel patterns, the bike imbalance problem constantly occurs, especially for dockless bike sharing systems, causing significant impact on service quality and company revenue. Thus, it has become a critical task for bike sharing operators to resolve such imbalance efficiently. In this paper, we propose a novel deep reinforcement learning framework for incentivizing users to rebalance such systems. We model the problem as a Markov decision process and take both spatial and temporal features into consideration. We develop a novel deep reinforcement learning algorithm called Hierarchical Reinforcement Pricing (HRP), which builds upon the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient algorithm. Different from existing methods that often ignore spatial information and rely heavily on accurate prediction, HRP captures both spatial and temporal dependencies using a divide-and-conquer structure with an embedded localized module. We conduct extensive experiments to evaluate HRP, based on a dataset from Mobike, a major Chinese dockless bike sharing company. Results show that HRP performs close to the 24-timeslot look-ahead optimization, and outperforms state-of-the-art methods in both service level and bike distribution. It also transfers well when applied to unseen areas.


Chloride Concentration and Blow-Through Analyses for Concrete Bridge Decks Rehabilitated Using Hydrodemolition Elizabeth Ashleigh Roper Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, BYU Master of Science The objectives of this research were 1) to investigate the effects of hydrodemolition treatment timing on chloride concentration profiles in concrete bridge decks for depths of concrete removal below the top mat of reinforcing steel and 2) to investigate factors that influence the occurrence of blow-throughs in concrete bridge decks when hydrodemolition is used. The research results are intended to provide engineers with guidance about the latest timing of hydrodemolition that can maintain a chloride concentration level below 2.0 lb of chloride per cubic yard of concrete at the levels of both the top and bottom mats of reinforcing steel, as well as about conditions that may indicate a higher probability of blow-through during hydrodemolition. The scope of this research included a questionnaire survey of hydrodemolition companies to summarize common practices in the field, numerical modeling of chloride concentration to investigate hydrodemolition treatment timing on typical Utah bridge decks, and structural analysis to investigate factors that influence the occurrence of blow-throughs during hydrodemolition. While some survey respondents indicated that certain parameters vary, the responses are valuable for understanding typical practices and were used to design the numerical experiments. The numerical modeling generated chloride concentration profiles through a 75-year service life given a specific original cover depth (OCD), treatment time, and surface treatment usage. The results indicate that, when a surface treatment is used, the concentration at either the top or bottom mat of reinforcing steel does not reach or exceed 2.0 lb of chloride per cubic yard of concrete after hydrodemolition during the 75 years of simulated bridge deck service life. The results also indicate that, when a surface treatment is not used, the chloride concentration at the top mat of reinforcement exceeds 2.0 lb of chloride per cubic yard of concrete within 10, 15, and 20 years for OCD values of 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 in., respectively. The numerical experiments generated results in terms of the main effect of each input variable on the occurrence of blowthroughs and interactions among selected input variables. For each analysis, blow-through can be expected when the calculated factor of safety is less than 1.0. The factor of safety significantly increases with increasing values of transverse rebar spacing and concrete compressive strength and decreasing values of depth of removal below the bottom of the top reinforcing mat, orifice size, and water pressure within the ranges of these parameters investigated in this experimentation. The factor of safety is relatively insensitive to jet angle. For both case studies evaluated in this research, the blow-through analysis correctly predicted a high or low potential for blow-through on the given deck.


Most populous of all African nations, Nigeria has one of the highest urban growth rates in the world but with associated rates of poverty. Approximately half of the total population in Nigeria resides in urban areas, and projections indicate that more than 60 per cent will live in urban centres by the year 2025. Hence, rapid processes of urbanisation, linked with poverty, offers distinct challenges for the contemporary and future society.

With such a high percentage of unemployment, the establishment of small scale, low cost businesses could provide an opportunity for the urban poor, especially those habiting informal settlements. However, the prevalent culture in Nigeria is to seek employment either in large government or private organisations. Unfortunately, the existing public and private workplaces have not been able to expand to provide employment for the growing population, which has mainly resulted from rural-urban migration. Home-based enterprises have played a major role in developing low-income communities around the world. However, in certain slum areas in Nigeria, there seem to be barriers to this kind of development.

Drawing on recent empirical studies conducted by the authors into Nigerian informal settlements, this paper suggests that there is a need for a more robust approach towards the re-orientation of the unemployed and lower-income groups towards entrepreneurship. It argues for more effective capacity-building among communities, as well as greater security in housing through tenancy agreements, and access to water and electricity; which could all encourage the establishment of home-based enterprises as the first step towards an entrepreneurial society. Such an approach would suggest that the particularities of places are given due attention, which challenges some of the presuppositions of place-blind methods.


Currently, this region is battling against highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus H5N1 and the virus has been isolated in non-poultry birds in various countries in Middle East as well as in the European and African continents. These developments have ignited global fears of an imminent influenza pandemic. The adoption of a vaccination policy, targeted either to control or to prevent infection in poultry, is generally discouraged. Nevertheless, the need to boost eradication efforts in order to limit further spread of infection and avoid heavy economic losses, and advances in modern vaccine technologies, have prompted a re-evaluation of the potential use of vaccination in poultry as an additional tool in comprehensive disease control strategies. Hence, several types of vaccines are available and some of them have been tested experimentally and/or used in commercial farms. DNA vaccines have been shown to be an effective approach to induce antigen-specific cellular and humoral immunity. However, the low immune intensity in clinical trials limits the application of DNA vaccines. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) or stress proteins are highly conserved molecules that act as chaperons. Among the HSPs, HSP70 family is well characterized protein that showed potent adjuvant effects on the innate and adaptive immune responses. In this study, we developed DNA vaccine based on H5 gene, and enhanced the DNA vaccine potency with Mycobacterium tuberculosis heat shock proteins 70 (HSP70) as adjuvant. Hence, a series of DNA plasmids encoding H5 and NP from Malaysian H5N1 (A/Ck/Malaysia/5858/2004) were constructed and then fused with HSP70. The H5, NP, H5-HSP70 and NP-HSP70 recombinant proteins were expressed in Vero cells. We further investigated the ability of the pcDNA3.1/H5 and pcDNA3.1/H5-HSP70 constructs in inducing H5 specific antibody responses in SPF chickens. pcDNA3.1/H5 and pcDNA3.1/H5-HSP70 were administered to 10 days old SPF chickens in three doses of 100 μg by the intramuscular route, two weeks apart. Chickens were bled every week and H5 specific antibody was measured using hemagglutination inhibition (HI) test. The ability of the constructed plasmids in inducing the expression of H5 and H5-HSP70, respectively, in chickens was examined by RT-PCR. In vivo expression was confirmed based on detection of H5 RNA transcripts in muscle and spleen of chickens inoculated with the constructed DNA vaccines. The HI test was carried out using H5 antigen from a low pathogenic avian influenza virus (LPAIV), A/Duck/Malaysia/8443/2004 (H5N2). Sequence analysis of H5 genes of H5N1 and H5N2, respectively, that was used in this study showed nucleotide and amino acid identity of more than 87%. In addition, all the chickens immunized with pcDNA3.1/H5 and pcDNA3.1/H5-HSP70 showed HI titer in week three after the first immunization. The HI titer was more prominent from first booster onwards in the chickens immunized with pcDNA3.1/H5-HSP70. This study demonstrated that chickens immunized with HSP70 based H5 DNA vaccine developed higher antibody titer compared to chickens immunized with H5 alone. However, the increase in HI antibody titer was not significantly different (P > 0.05). As expected, the control chickens inoculated with pcDNA3.1/HSP70 and pcDNA3.1 showed no evidence of HI antibody responses. In conclusion, we have demonstrated for the first time that HSP70-based H5 DNA can improve the induction of humoral immune response in chickens and is a promising candidate of DNA vaccine for AIV infection. Further studies are required to explore the role of HSP70 as genetic adjuvant for DNA vaccine in chickens.


Bestselling Programming Tutorial and Reference Completely Rewritten for the New C++11 Standard Fully updated and recast for the newly released C++11 standard, this authoritative and comprehensive introduction to C++ will help you to learn the language fast, and to use it in modern, highly effective ways. Highlighting todays best practices, the authors show how to use both the core language and its standard library to write efficient, readable, and powerful code. C++ Primer, Fifth Edition, introduces the C++ standard library from the outset, drawing on its common functions and facilities to help you write useful programs without first having to master every language detail. The books many examples have been revised to use the new language features and demonstrate how to make the best use of them. This book is a proven tutorial for those new to C++, an authoritative discussion of core C++ concepts and techniques, and a valuable resource for experienced programmers, especially those eager to see C++11 enhancements illuminated. Start Fast and Achieve More Learn how to use the new C++11 language features and the standard library to build robust programs quickly, and get comfortable with high-level programming Learn through examples that illuminate todays best coding styles and program design techniques Understand the rationale behind the rules: why C++11 works as it does Use the extensive crossreferences to help you connect related concepts and insights Benefit from up-to-date learning aids and exercises that emphasize key points, help you to avoid pitfalls, promote good practices, and reinforce what youve learned Access the source code for the extended examples from informit.com/title/0321714113 C++ Primer, Fifth Edition, features an enhanced, layflat binding, which allows the book to stay open more easily when placed on a flat surface. This special binding methodnotable by a small space inside the spinealso increases durability.


Agreement problems constitute a fundamental class of problems in the context of distributed systems. All agreement problems follow a common pattern: all processes must agree on some common decision, the nature of which depends on the specific problem. This dissertation mainly focuses on three important agreements problems: Replication, Total Order Broadcast, and Consensus. Replication is a common means to introduce redundancy in a system, in order to improve its availability. A replicated server is a server that is composed of multiple copies so that, if one copy fails, the other copies can still provide the service. Each copy of the server is called a replica. The replicas must all evolve in manner that is consistent with the other replicas. Hence, updating the replicated server requires that every replica agrees on the set of modifications to carry over. There are two principal replication schemes to ensure this consistency: active replication and passive replication. In Total Order Broadcast, processes broadcast messages to all processes. However, all messages must be delivered in the same order. Also, if one process delivers a message m, then all correct processes must eventually deliver m. The problem of Consensus gives an abstraction to most other agreement problems. All processes initiate a Consensus by proposing a value. Then, all processes must eventually decide the same value v that must be one of the proposed values. These agreement problems are closely related to each other. For instance, Chandra and Toueg [CT96] show that Total Order Broadcast and Consensus are equivalent problems. In addition, Lamport [Lam78] and Schneider [Sch90] show that active replication needs Total Order Broadcast. As a result, active replication is also closely related to the Consensus problem. The first contribution of this dissertation is the definition of the semi-passive replication technique. Semi-passive replication is a passive replication scheme based on a variant of Consensus (called Lazy Consensus and also defined here). From a conceptual point of view, the result is important as it helps to clarify the relation between passive replication and the Consensus problem. In practice, this makes it possible to design systems that react more quickly to failures. The problem of Total Order Broadcast is well-known in the field of distributed systems and algorithms. In fact, there have been already more than fifty algorithms published on the problem so far. Although quite similar, it is difficult to compare these algorithms as they often differ with respect to their actual properties, assumptions, and objectives. The second main contribution of this dissertation is to define five classes of total order broadcast algorithms, and to relate existing algorithms to those classes. The third contribution of this dissertation is to compare the expected performance of the various classes of total order broadcast algorithms. To achieve this goal, we define a set of metrics to predict the performance of distributed algorithms.