Objective Non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants (NOACs) require dose adjustment for renal function. We sought to investigate change in renal function over time in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and whether those on NOACs have appropriate dose adjustments according to its decline. Methods We included patients with AF enrolled in the Outcomes Registry for Better Informed Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation II registry treated with oral anticoagulation. Worsening renal function (WRF) was defined as a decrease of >20% in creatinine clearance (CrCl) from baseline. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved package inserts were used to define the reduction criteria of NOACs dosing. Results Among 6682 patients with AF from 220 sites (median age (25th, 75th): 72.0 years (65.0, 79.0); 57.1% male; median CrCl at baseline: 80.1 mL/min (57.4, 108.5)), 1543 patients (23.1%) experienced WRF with mean decline in CrCl during 2 year follow-up of −6.63 mL/min for NOACs and −6.16 mL/min for warfarin. Among 4120 patients on NOACs, 154 (3.7%) patients had a CrCl decline sufficient to warrant FDA-recommended dose reductions. Of these, NOACs dosing was appropriately reduced in only 31 (20.1%) patients. Compared with patients with appropriately reduced NOACs, those without were more likely to experience bleeding complications (major bleeding: 1.7% vs 0%; bleeding hospitalisation: 2.6% vs 0%) at 1 year. Conclusions In the US practice, about one-fourth of patients with AF had >20% decline in CrCl over time during 2 year follow-up. As a result, about 3.7% of those treated with NOACs met guideline criteria for dose reduction, but of these, only 20.1% actually had a reduction.


Xax is a browser plugin model that enables developers to leverage existing tools, libraries, and entire programs to deliver feature-rich applications on the web. Xax employs a novel combination of mechanisms that collectively provide security, OS-independence, performance, and support for legacy code. These mechanisms include memory-isolated native code execution behind a narrow syscall interface, an abstraction layer that provides a consistent binary interface across operating systems, system services via hooks to existing browser mechanisms, and lightweight modifications to existing tool chains and code bases. We demonstrate a variety of applications and libraries from existing code bases, in several languages, produced with various tool chains, running in multiple browsers on multiple operating systems. With roughly two person-weeks of effort, we ported 3.3 million lines of code to Xax, including a PDF viewer, a Python interpreter, a speech synthesizer, and an OpenGL pipeline.


A variety of radionuclides continue to be investigated and/or clinically used for different therapeutic applications in nuclear medicine. The choice of a particular radionuclide with regard to appropriate emissions, linear energy transfer, and physical half-life is dictated to a large extent by the character of the disease (eg, solid tumor or metastatic disease) and by the carrier used to selectively transport the radionuclide to the desired site. An impressive body of information has appeared in the recent literature that addresses many of these considerations. This article summarizes and discusses the many recent advances and the progress in the clinical applications of therapeutic radionuclides in relatively new and developing areas, such as radioimmunotherapy, peptide therapy, intravascular therapy to prevent restenosis, radiation synovectomy, and bone malignancy therapy. Projections are made as to the future directions and progress in these areas. The crucial issue of a reliable, year-round supply of new and emerging therapeutic radionuclides in quantities sufficient initially for research, and then for routine clinical use, is a very worthy goal which, in the United States, remains to be achieved.


Condition monitoring is a highly effective prognostic tool for incipient insulation degradation to avoid sudden failures of electrical components and to keep the power network in operation. Improved operational performance of the sensors and effective measurement techniques could enable the development of a robust monitoring system. This paper addresses two main aspects of condition monitoring: an enhanced design of an induction sensor that has the capability of measuring partial discharge (PD) signals emerging simultaneously from medium voltage cables and transformers, and an integrated monitoring system that enables the monitoring of a wider part of the cable feeder. Having described the conventional practices along with the authors' own experiences and research on non-intrusive solutions, this paper proposes an optimum design of a Rogowski coil that can measure the PD signals from medium voltage cables, its accessories, and the distribution transformers. The proposed PD monitoring scheme is implemented using the directional sensitivity capability of Rogowski coils and a suitable sensor installation scheme that leads to the development of an integrated monitoring model for the components of a MV cable feeder. Furthermore, the paper presents forethought regarding huge amount of PD data from various sensors using a simplified and practical approach. In the perspective of today's changing grid, the presented idea of integrated monitoring practices provide a concept towards automated condition


Gene fusions can serve as key drivers in the development of various cancers and represent important therapeutic targets and diagnostic biomarkers. Due to high detection of candidate fusions from RNA-sequencing data, there is a recognized need to build tools that will make reasonable and automated predictions to identify clinically or biologically relevant fusion events in a tumor sample. We developed a computational pipeline which scores and prioritizes all detected fusion transcripts within a sample to determine which fusions are likely driver events in the tumor. Specifically, the pipeline implements a categorization scheme that bins all scored fusion events into Low, Medium and High Confidence levels based on threshold read support levels and a DriverScore metric, which is derived from a binary classification algorithm using specific features, such as reading frame, breakpoint region, kinase domain and transcript isoform. We systematically analyzed 3200 fusion candidates from a previously published cohort of 500 paired tumor-normal samples sequenced with the Tempus xT assay. We found that 1.7% and 20.1% of fusion candidates were categorized in the High and Medium Confidence levels, respectively, while 78.2% of fusion events were deprioritized as Low Confidence calls. Of the 35 clinically-relevant fusions, 27 (77.1%) were captured in our prioritized set (High/Medium Confidence), including National Comprehensive Cancer Network actionable gene rearrangements involving RET, STAT6 and FUS, while the remaining 8 were assigned as Low Confidence due to an out of frame fusion transcript and insufficient read support. The frequency of prioritized fusions varied by cancer type, with prostate and breast cancer having the highest frequency of prioritized fusions. In addition to well-established canonical fusions, we also sought to characterize novel fusions, identifying a subset of 21 novel prioritized fusions which were also observed in The Cancer Genome Atlas tumor samples. Within this subset, 3% of fusion candidates contained a druggable domain such as a tyrosine kinase or Ras-binding domain, signifying the potential of categorization to enable novel fusion drug target discovery. Overall, our analysis highlights the utility of using an automated prioritization tool to detect known canonical fusion drivers and explore novel fusion drug targets and biomarkers. Citation Format: Sumaiya A. Islam, Robert Huether, Emily Kudalkar. Identification of novel druggable fusions enabled through the use of an automated RNA fusion prioritization pipeline [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 5474.


The thesis examines the intricacies of the global AML/CFT framework focusing largely on the three jurisdictions of United Kingdom, Uganda and South Africa. These jurisdictions were selected to test the hypothetical model on which this study was undertaken. While appreciating the importance for states to embrace global prohibition regimes to deal with overlapping interstate issues such as money laundering, these regimes often tend to overlook practical realities in member countries they are implemented. Since the global AML framework is implemented through the compliance of individual states, its efficacy would depend on the propensity of individual states to harness it.
There is anecdotal evidence to corroborate the thesis that the current global AML/CFT framework is not compatible with the regulatory environment across the majority of LDCs. Thus, this presupposes that it cannot be applicable globally. LDCs are saddled by general systemic failure, lack of economic and social infrastructure; lack of physical and human resources, corruption and its corruptive effective on regulatory institutions and national governments. Even with the best intent, in the foregoing precarious environment, desired AML laws cannot effectively work as expected. Also, by design or default, soft law instruments (for example the FATF forty plus nine recommendations are not easy apply, let alone enforce globally.
The study proposes the need for countries to undertake desired reform programmes before they can countenance the adoption of the global AML/CFT framework. Since money laundering crimes are jurisdictional problematic—not amenable within the realm of individual states, it is imperative to introduce a global AML court. It is also imperative for states to consider adopting hybrid measures such as mutual recognition paradigm in Europe to ease their co-existence on overlapping global regulatory challenges. States should also explore the possibility of harnessing norms of CIL as opposed to prescribing regulatory regimes every time there is a crisis. However, it needs to be noted that the envisaged global AML/CFT regimes cannot crystallize into norms of CIL, unless they are willingly embraced by countries and not imposed.


Trained generative models have shown remarkable performance as priors for inverse problems in imaging -- for example, Generative Adversarial Network priors permit recovery of test images from 5-10x fewer measurements than sparsity priors. Unfortunately, these models may be unable to represent any particular image because of architectural choices, mode collapse, and bias in the training dataset. In this paper, we demonstrate that invertible neural networks, which have zero representation error by design, can be effective natural signal priors at inverse problems such as denoising, compressive sensing, and inpainting. Given a trained generative model, we study the empirical risk formulation of the desired inverse problem under a regularization that promotes high likelihood images, either directly by penalization or algorithmically by initialization. For compressive sensing, invertible priors can yield higher accuracy than sparsity priors across almost all undersampling ratios, and due to their lack of representation error, invertible priors can yield better reconstructions than GAN priors for images that have rare features of variation within the biased training set, including out-of-distribution natural images. We additionally compare performance for compressive sensing to unlearned methods, such as the deep decoder, and we establish theoretical bounds on expected recovery error in the case of a linear invertible model.


The relationship of nanocomposite dispersion to dispersion techniques and other processing parameters was studied. Examining all permutations of the various factors in the laboratory is a challenging task. In this paper, we propose to map a correlation between inputs and output via a self-adaptive scattered data approximation method. The proposed greedy algorithm, sequential function approximation (SFA), reveals the multidimensional behaviour of the system, provides the sensitivity of each input and presents the combination of inputs that is most suitable for a specific output. In this research, we have collected data from various research institutions and applied it to SFA. The results show that SWNT weight percent, sonication time, SWNT modification and high shear mixing time are key factors that affect the dispersion. This text discusses SFA, the data and the results in detail. This work serves as a proof of concept for functional mapping to be applied to polymer processing.


The multiple fundamental frequency detection problem and the source separation problem from a single-channel signal containing multiple oscillatory components and a nonstationary noise are both challenging tasks. To extract the fetal electrocardiogram (ECG) from a single-lead maternal abdominal ECG, we face both challenges. In this paper, we propose a novel method to extract the fetal ECG signal from the single channel maternal abdominal ECG signal, without any additional measurement. The algorithm is composed of three main ingredients. First, the maternal and fetal heart rates are estimated by the de-shape short time Fourier transform, which is a recently proposed nonlinear time-frequency analysis technique; second, the beat tracking technique is applied to accurately obtain the maternal and fetal R peaks; third, the maternal and fetal ECG waveforms are established by the nonlocal median. The algorithm is evaluated on a simulated fetal ECG signal database ({\em fecgsyn} database), and tested on two real databases with the annotation provided by experts ({\em adfecgdb} database and {\em CinC2013} database). In general, the algorithm could be applied to solve other detection and source separation problems, and reconstruct the time-varying wave-shape function of each oscillatory component.


Should the broker include VAT in the sum insured and should it procure an increase in the sum insured immediately upon being instructed to do so?
There has been a steady stream of decisions over the past few years concerning the duties of insurance brokers towards their clients. The decision in Luxor Paints (Pty) Ltd v Heritage Insurance Brokers (WLD 26 April 2006 (case no 04/18159) unreported) adds usefully and practically to the list of these duties.


The provision of tools to focus user interaction in analysing data to come to a decision is the core principle of a decision supporting system. This became the inherent characteristic of decision support systems to counter the cognitive overload issues associated with management information systems arising from their proficiency in gathering and collating into larger and larger reports. A similar issue arises in online shopping systems where increased catalogues become less useful without an ability to use that data to decide upon a purchase. With this in mind we argue that it is necessary now to investigate the optimum decision support tools which may be provided in online shopping systems in order to clarify for the management of these systems how best to help customers analyse and synthesise product data to form a purchase decision. In this paper we propose to investigate the methods of supporting the consumer decision by experiment and survey manipulating the methods of decision support provided and measuring the effects on the consumer decision process. This research in progress outlines the extant theories of consumer decision formation, appropriateness of strategies and the validity of supporting particular strategies. We submit that particular analyses methods should be employed and outline a laboratory experiment which we have designed to test the hypotheses formed.


North Korea's gross and systematic violations of human rights violate international law, including contravention of the treaties that North Korea itself has ratified (i.e., the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women). Nevertheless, a surprising dearth of legal scholarship exists with respect to arguably the worst human rights situation in the world. This Article analyzes possible tribunals to provide a measure of redress for the victims of these heinous violations once the international community takes notice. While contemplating other possibilities, such as the International Criminal Court and South Korean courts after Korean reunification, this Article suggests a hybrid tribunal as the most promising forum for trying the alleged violations of human rights by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Since the inception of the ICC in July of 2002, which presently has over 100 signatories, certain shortcomings (notwithstanding its strengths) have surfaced. With problems such as insufficient staffing, limited resources, and several jurisdictional hurdles, the ICC may not provide the best forum — although it may provide a rather good one — for addressing the egregious behavior of a rogue state like North Korea. Shortcomings in domestic law, sovereignty issues, and the perception of foreign influence among an ill-informed populace provide additional barriers to the legitimate working of an international court like the ICC. The solution, as articulated by this Article, is the composition of a hybrid tribunal that combines aspects of international and domestic courts in an attempt to increase legitimacy in pursuing justice and to build the capacity of a renewed domestic system, while providing a workable and less expensive alternative to other, less effective international justice options. By combining the knowledge, expertise, and work of both domestic and international personnel, hybrid tribunals can solve the problems of distance, access to witnesses and evidence, slow prosecution, and the high cost of the ad hoc tribunals of the past, while still achieving a comparable level of deterrence. Hybrids contemplate the concomitant goals of respecting sovereignty, yet resolving to prosecute criminals in situ for violating universal norms.A comparative analysis of prior precedents around the world also strengthens the case this Article makes. With a destroyed infrastructure and legal system, as well as the lack of a legitimate judiciary, a closer look at the former Yugoslavia provides insight into a possible Korea of tomorrow, one that might be recovering from a highly destructive conflict. A hybrid tribunal in Yugoslavia attempted to correct Kosovo's devastated judiciary by incorporating domestic actors and by aiming to increase legitimacy, decrease bias, and enhance capacity. Cambodia, another East Asian country that suffered under the yoke of oppressive Communist dictators and saw gross, systematic violations of the human rights of its people, provides another analogous situation. Similar to the apathy regarding North Korea presently, the international community and the UN focused on Cambodia's sovereignty, while a farcical trial of the regime's leader provided little redress for the Khmer Rouge's victims. Examples such as these provide the international community with lessons from antecedent hybrid tribunals regarding the most appropriate methods of implementing international justice.If the tragic climax of Korea's instability results in another full-blown war, then international participation in any sort of redress must avoid the substance and taint of "victor's justice." However, if the Koreas unite peacefully, producing and utilizing any sort of tribunal so as to avoid an accusation of imperialism would remain challenging at best. The end product should be a hybrid tribunal that would ideally combine the strengths of a domestic court with the contributions of an international court to enhance legitimacy, build domestic capacity, reduce costs, and help bring a measure of justice. As a lack of commitment by the international community has stymied the process of providing justice in many previous cases, we must stay committed to adequately providing a remedy that the victims of this rogue state so desperately need.


Fourth generation (4G) wireless technology are expected to be based on worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) systems. However, high peak to average power ratio (PAPR), a main drawback in mobile WiMAX using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), are solved in some solutions for many years. Especially, such wireless systems with large number of sub-carriers lead to undesired problems for practical applications. In this investigation, we present the PAPR reduction performance with two different PAPR reduction schemes: partial transmit sequence (PTS) and selective mapping (SLM). These methods are analyzed in terms of complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF) under different models. Simulations results show that the proposed schemes reduce the PAPR of the transmit signals considerably.


The conventional method for spectrum analysis is the discrete Fourier transform (DFT), usually implemented using a fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm. However, certain applications require an online spectrum analysis only on a subset ofM frequencies of an N-point DFT ðM < NÞ. In such cases, the use of single-bin sliding DFT (Sb-SDFT) is preferred over the direct application of FFT. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a concise overview of the Sb-SDFT algorithms, analyze their performance, and highlight advantages and limitations. Finally, a technique to mitigate the spectral leakage effect, which arises when using the Sb-SDFT in nonstationary conditions, is presented.


An open access network approach allows for sharing optical layer resources like fibers and optical spectrum among different services and operators at the same time. In a field trial the feasibility of such a concept has been demonstrated. Flexible access nodes are implemented including amplification and dispersion management to generate a transparent and reconfigurable optical ring network. The optical technologies as well as measurements results of the field trial are presented. Various services having different modulation formats, multiplexing techniques and data rates are simultaneously operated over the open access network.


This paper explores opportunities for supporting the orchestration of innovation ecosystems, hence contributing to a fundamental capability in the networked world. We present analysis, evaluation and interpretation toward the objective of decision support and insights for transforming innovation ecosystems with a case study of EIT ICT Labs, a major initiative intended to turn Europe into a global leader in ICT innovation. Towards this, we use a data-driven, relationship-based and network centric approach to operationalise the 'innovation ecosystems transformation framework'. Our results indicate that with coordinated and continuously improved use of visual and quantitative social network analysis, special characteristics, significant actors and connections in the innovation ecosystem can be revealed to develop new insights. We conclude that the IETF transformation framework can be used to develop shared vision and to support the orchestration of innovation ecosystem transformations.


Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Kashmir handicraft products have earned worldwide fame for their attractive designs, functional utility and high-quality craftsmanship. In the absence of other manufacturing industries in the state, handicrafts have remained a key economic activity from time immemorial and engage approximately 374,000 artisans. Crafts like shawls, crewel work, namdha, chain stitch, wood carving, papier machA©, costume jewellery, kani shawls and the carpets hold a significant share in the overall production and exports of the state. Carpet weaving is an essential craft, both at national and state levels, in its overall contribution to employment and revenue.


Title: Burnout, coping and engagement in the hospitality industry. Key terms: Burnout, coping, hospitality industry, waiters, waitrons, bartenders, exhaustion, cynicism, professional efficacy, occupational stress. Extensive research on burnout in different occupational fields has taken place internationally. However, no studies on waitrons in South Africa have been performed, while this is an occupational group seemingly facing high emotional strain in interaction with customers. The aim of this study was to determine the relationships between burnout, coping, engagement and health in the hospitality industry. In doing so the researchers would be able to advise the industry on how they could help in preventing burnout among waitrons as well as enhancing their work engagement. A random sample using a survey design was used. The sample consisted of 150 waitrons in restaurants and coffee shops in Potchefstroom, Northwest Province. The Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, the Cybernetic Coping Scale and the General Health Questionnaire were administered. The reliability of the measuring instruments was assessed with the use of Cronbach alpha coefficients. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Correlations and multiple regression analyses were used to assess the relationship between burnout, coping, engagement and general health. Findings indicate that in terms of burnout, the health of waitrons is predicted by their perceptions of accomplishment, having an avoidant coping strategy or favouring symptom reduction as coping strategy. Also, the interaction of their emotional exhaustion with the coping strategy of symptom reduction, as well as their feelings of accomplishment in interaction with having an accommodative coping strategy, predicted health. Findings indicate that in terms of engagement, experiencing high levels of energy in their work, being dedicated to their work, and not having an avoidant coping strategy or avoiding addressing the symptoms of stress was related to waitrons' health. Recommendations for future research were made.


BACKGROUND
There is a renewed interest in unicompartmental knee arthroplasty. The present report describes the minimum ten-year results associated with a unicompartmental knee arthroplasty design that is in current use.

METHODS
Sixty-two consecutive unicompartmental knee arthroplasties that were performed with cemented modular Miller-Galante implants in fifty-one patients were studied prospectively both clinically and radiographically. All patients had isolated unicompartmental disease without patellofemoral symptoms. No patient was lost to follow-up. Thirteen patients (thirteen knees) died after less than ten years of follow-up, leaving thirty-eight patients (forty-nine knees) with a minimum of ten years of follow-up. The average duration of follow-up was twelve years.

RESULTS
The mean Hospital for Special Surgery knee score improved from 55 points preoperatively to 92 points at the time of the final follow-up. Thirty-nine knees (80%) had an excellent result, six (12%) had a good result, and four (8%) had a fair result. At the time of the final follow-up, thirty-nine knees (80%) had flexion to at least 120 degrees . Two patients (two knees) with well-fixed components underwent revision to total knee arthroplasty, at seven and eleven years, because of progression of patellofemoral arthritis. At the time of the final follow-up, no component was loose radiographically and there was no evidence of periprosthetic osteolysis. Radiographic evidence of progressive loss of joint space was observed in the opposite compartment of nine knees (18%) and in the patellofemoral space of seven knees (14%). Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed a survival rate of 98.0% +/- 2.0% at ten years and of 95.7% +/- 4.3% at thirteen years, with revision or radiographic loosening as the end point. The survival rate was 100% at thirteen years with aseptic loosening as the end point.

CONCLUSIONS
After a minimum duration of follow-up of ten years, this cemented modular unicompartmental knee design was associated with excellent clinical and radiographic results. Although the ten-year survival rate was excellent, radiographic signs of progression of osteoarthritis in the other compartments continued at a slow rate. With appropriate indications and technique, this unicompartmental knee design can yield excellent results into the beginning of the second decade of use.


Administration of 2-methoxyethanol to pregnant rats on day 12 of gestation induced ventral duplication of the autopod, presumably via its oxidative metabolite, methoxyacetic acid. Morphological observations indicate that the limb bud periderm is severely damaged by methoxyacetic acid so that large patches of this structure are actually missing during an extended period of limb bud development. A high concentration of methoxyacetic acid (10 mM) was found in the extraembryonic fluid and we postulate that the damage to the periderm was initiated from this extraembryonic exposure. The ventral duplication of the autopod is thought to arise through an attempt by the embryo to repair the periderm lesion.


In this paper, we present the results of our experimental effort in one form of impulsive manipulation: tapping. Our previous work studied the mechanics of tapping a planar object which then slides on a support surface, coming to rest due to friction. This work addresses the practical issues in creating a system which uses this mode of manipulation. We begin with the design of tapping devices-end effecters designed to deliver an impulse to an object, and report some of the issues we have found to be important in their design. Our next step was to perform single-tap experiments in order to fit and evaluate the models of impact and sliding. These experiments have shown that objects rotate less than predicted; we have found that the addition of a scaling factor for the torque due to friction enables the models to predict object motion reasonably well. In order to do positioning experiments, we developed a number of planning methods (or feedback control strategies) to compensate for errors in modeling, parameters, and actuation. These planning methods were successfully used to demonstrate a positioning task. We also have experimentally demonstrated that tapping can be used to position an object more precisely than the manipulator can position the tapping device. We offer some sensitivity analysis in support of this result.


Developing a verifying compiler—a compiler that proves that components are correct with respect to their specifications—is a grand challenge for the computing community. The prevailing view of the software engineering community is that this problem is necessarily difficult because, todate, the resultant verification conditions necessary to prove software correctness have required powerful automated provers and deep mathematical insight to dispatch. This seems counter-intuitive, however, since human programmers only rarely resort to deep mathematics to assure themselves that their code works. In this work, we show that well-specified and well-engineered software supported by a flexible, extensible mathematical system can yield verification conditions that are sufficiently straightforward to be dispatched by a minimalist rewrite prover. We explore techniques for making such a system both powerful and user-friendly, and for tuning an automated prover to the verification task. In addition to influencing the design of our own system, RESOLVE, this exploration benefits the greater verification community by informing specification and theory design and encouraging greater integration between nuanced mathematical systems and powerful programming languages. This dissertation presents the design and an implementation of a minimalist rewrite prover tuned for the software verification task. It supports the prover with the design and implementation of a flexible, extensible mathematical system suitable for use with an industrial-strength programming language. This system is employed within a well-integrated specification framework. The dissertation validates the central thesis that verification conditions for well-engineered software can be dispatched easily by applying these tools and methods to a number of benchmark components and collecting and analyzing the resulting data.


HINNE WAGENAAR [*] A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF DR. K. BEDIAKO'S THEOLOGY FROM A FRISIAN PERSPECTIVE Introduction One of the central themes in the theological work of Dr. K. Bediako, director of the Akrofi-Christaller Memorial Centre for Mission and Applied Theology in Akropong, Ghana, is the relationship between African Christianity and the pre-Christian heritage, i.e. the African Traditional Religions. In all his books and articles, Bediako basically struggles with this same subject. In several places he expresses this by quoting E. Fashole-Luke from Sierra Leone: "The main thrust of African Christian scholarship has been the argument that 'conversion' to Christianity must be coupled with cultural continuity." [1] For Bediako, this interaction between Christianity and the cultures of Africa marks a new creative stage in Christian theology. Reflecting on his own theological development he writes: My own studies in the formative stages of modern African theology brought me to the conclusion that the issue of identity lies at the heart of the process by which the Christian theological enterprise is actually carried forward. As it emerged in the post-missionary context of African Christianity in the 1950s and 1960s, the question of identity entailed (...) confronting constantly the problem of how 'old' and 'new' in African religious consciousness could become integrated in a unified vision of what it meant to be Christian and African (...) African theology, therefore, by becoming something of a dialogue between the African Christian scholar and the perennial religions and spiritualities of Africa was thereby a struggle for an appropriate Christian discourse which would account for and hold together the total religious experience of Africans in a coherent and meaningful pattern. Identity itself thus became a theological concern and the formulation of theological questions were linked as the inevitable by- product of a process of Christian self-definition. [2] In this article I want to analyse how Bediako develops such a 'unified vision.' I will try to understand Bediako's theological paradigm in which African Christians 'can be authentic Africans and true Christians'. Important then is, of course, Bediako's appraisal of the pre-Christian past. In the second part of this article, I will apply Bediako's African theological attitude to the European history of mission. And even more specifically, I want to raise some basic questions related to my own Frisian identity and culture. Reading about the encounter of Western Christianity with African cultures, many questions rise to the surface concerning the first centuries of Christianity in Western Europe, particularly about the attitude to the indigenous cultures and traditional religions of the Germanic tribes and so to the traditions of my own Frisian people! In this way, I will try to meet Bediako's challenge, for he suggests that it may be worth exploring whether African Christian thinking may have some relevance to the present task of theology in the West. Several times Bediako compares his own findings with the European history of mission and suggests, for example, how important it may be to study Bede's History of the English Church and People from a missiological point of view. I will engage in the discussion by raising some basic questions as to the theological attitude in Western Europe to the European pre-Christian past. I. African and Christian 1. European Ethnocentrism African theology emerged in the post-missionary context of the 1950s and 1960s when African theologians started to reflect on their own context of being Christian and being African. The basic emotion behind this movement was the outrage about the negative attitude of the missionaries towards African cultures and religions. It became necessary for African theologians to study African religions, African traditions and African cultures. …


Hart Crane, prodigiously gifted and tragically doom-eager, was the American peer of Shelley, Rimbaud, and Lorca. Born in Garrettsville, Ohio, on July 21, 1899, Crane died at sea on April 27, 1932, an apparent suicide. A born poet, totally devoted to his art, Crane suffered his warring parents as well as long periods of a hand-to-mouth existence. He suffered also from his honesty as a homosexual poet and lover during a period in American life unsympathetic to his sexual orientation. Despite much critical misunderstanding and neglect, in his own time and in ours, Crane achieved a superb poetic style, idiosyncratic yet central to American tradition. His visionary epic, The Bridge, is the most ambitious and accomplished long poem since Walt Whitman's Song of Myself.Marc Simon's text is accepted as the most authoritative presentation of Hart Crane's work available to us. For this centennial edition, Harold Bloom, who was introduced to poetry by falling in love with Crane's work while still a child, has contributed a new introduction.


The discovery rate of pricing factors has increased substantially in the last decades. Whereas the number of factors discovered was about one per annum in the period 1980 – 1991, it has risen to about 18 per year in the last decade (Harvey, Liu, & Zhu, 2016). This thesis investigates whether the proposed factors co-skewness and co-kurtosis are in fact priced in equity markets, and how sensitive the pricing of these factors are to the portfolio sorting methodology. Just as the market beta represents an asset ́s co-variance with the market, relative to the variance of the market, the higher-order co-moments, co-skewness and cokurtosis, are analogous to non-linear variations of the market beta. Given the esoteric nature of these concepts, we also include a more ad-hoc measure of skewness, FMAX, which is a proxy for lottery demand. We review the pricing of higher-order co-moments with new methods of portfolio sorting. Intuitively, the choice of test assets should not matter, as a pricing model should price all assets, not just subsets of assets. However, Daniel and Titman (2012) show that sorting on a single factor (HML in their case) effectively eliminates most of the variation independent of that factor. Furthermore, we apply the latest adjustments to the CRSP data supported in the asset pricing literature. More specifically, we use univariate, triple-sorted and industry portfolios in our analysis. To illustrate the effect of the portfolio sorting, we also include the more widely known factors SMB (size), HML (value) and the excess market return in our analysis. We utilise a Fama-MacBeth regression methodology to find the risk premia for the market, SMB, HML, co-skewness, co-kurtosis and FMAX, in the different portfolio settings. Moreover, we follow up on the study by Chung, Johnson and Schill (2006) and check whether co-skewness and co-kurtosis proxy for the SMB and HML factors. Our results indicate that all the aforementioned factors are sensitive to the portfolio sorting methodology. Co-skewness and co-kurtosis does seem to add some explanatory power (adjusted R-squared) to the Fama-French model and CAPM, but do not appear to be priced factors. Moreover, we find limited evidence of the SMB and FMAX factors being priced. The only factor that exhibits some consistency across sorting methodologies is the HML (value) factor.


Since time immemorial, education has been an important instrument for social and economic transformation. Presently higher education in India is experiencing a major transformation in terms of access, equity and quality. This transition is highly influenced by the swift developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) all over the world. The introduction of ICTs in the higher education has profound implications for the whole education process especially in dealing with key issues of access, equity, management, efficiency, pedagogy and quality. At the same time the optimal utilization of opportunities arising due to diffusion of ICTs in higher education system presents a profound challenge for higher educational institutions. In this backdrop, the paper addresses the opportunities and challenges posed by integration of ICTs in various aspects of higher education in the present scenario. [


The Browne review combined with the current economic conditions has provided a catalyst for change in the funding arrangement, for the higher education sector in the
United Kingdom (UK). Consequently, Institutions will place a greater focus on their supply chain to offer services that best fit their requirements, during the construction
and refurbishment of their physical assets. The construction industry will need to offer innovation, value for money and other benefits associated with the collaborative procurement movement, which has been gathering pace since the 1990s. This has resulted in the insertion of a multitude of collaborative features into construction contracts. Literature explored in the paper relates to collaboration and its associated
contractual procedures. Reflective practice in the higher education estates and property sector relates the literature to real life experience of primary supplier side
stakeholders. The research uses a postmodern philosophical paradigm that expands the existing knowledge base using an inductive approach; and a case study strategy with its foundations in an ethnographic study of lived experiences over a cross sectional time horizon. The data source comprises of three interviews with senior management that have independent viewpoints of the same socially constructed
artefact. The data's narrative identifies mixed perceptions when it comes to contractual mechanisms achieving their desired benefits. The deliverable of the research is a preliminary method to classify and select contractual mechanisms based on three-dimensional reasoning in relation to risk, motivation and implementation. The value of the research is in the method it provides, which will facilitate further research into the perceived appropriateness of contractual procedures.


The Sumatra Earthquake of December 26, 2004, and the tsunamis that it generated, were events of unprecedented magnitude. Because of the number of populated areas that were exposed to the disaster, the immediate and long term effects of the tsunamis are being considered as one of the most significant in the history of mankind. This post-tsunami field campaign, undertaken in some of the hardest hit areas in southwestern Thailand, presented the research team with the unique opportunity to collect perishable damage data, with the aim of increasing the effectiveness of post-disaster damage assessment activities. The data collected will help decision makers better understand the nature and immediate effects of the event, and will support future research to improve disaster response using satellite remote sensing technology. High-resolution satellite images collected before and after the tsunamis were used for the first time to support post-tsunami reconnaissance efforts, and this data may ultimately help develop a preliminary tsunami damage scale.


Thin film evaporation is an efficient phase change heat transfer style, and could achieve ultra-high cooling rate if it was applied for cells vitrification. In this paper, an experimental study for prostate cancer cells vitrification was done. The cells ultra-high speed freezing method was based on thin film evaporation of liquid nitrogen. In order to examine the feasibility of the new method, the comparison experiments, in which the other two generic approaches of cell cryopreservation were used, were done. The methods were respectively the equilibrium freezing method and the open pulled straws vitrification method. At the same time, the influences of the concentration of cryoprotectant on cooling rate and cell survival rate were analyzed. The results showed that the ultra-high speed freezing method based on thin film evaporation can obtain higher cooling rate and better cell survival rate than the other two conventional cryopreservation methods. It preliminarily proved the feasibility of this method applied to the cells vitrification process. In addition, both the cooling rate and the cell survival rate are affected by the concentration of the cryoprotectant in the cell suspension. The cooling rate decreases with the concentration of the cryoprotectant increasing, but cell survival rate increases first and decrease afterwards with the increase of the concentration of the cryoprotectant, in which an optimum value exists. This study will promote the practicality of the new ultra-fast cell freezing method.


The school finance reforms (SFRs) that began in the early 1970s and accelerated in the 1980s caused some of the most dramatic changes in the structure of K–12 education spending in U.S. history. We analyze the effects of these reforms on the level and distribution of school district spending, as well as their effects on subsequent educational and economic outcomes. In Part One, using a newly compiled database of school finance reforms and a recently available long panel of annual school district data on per-pupil spending that spans 1967–2010, we present an event-study analysis of the effects of different types of school finance reforms on per-pupil spending in lowand high-income school districts. We find that SFRs have been instrumental in equalizing school spending between lowand high-income districts and many reforms do so by increasing spending for poor districts. While all reforms reduce spending inequality, there are important differences by reform type: adequacy-based court-ordered reforms increase overall school spending, while equity-based court-ordered reforms reduce the variance of spending with little effect on overall levels; reforms that entail high tax prices (the amount of taxes a district must raise to increase spending by one dollar) reduce long-run spending for all districts, and those that entail low tax prices lead to increased spending growth, particularly for low-income districts. In Part Two, we link the spending and reform data to detailed, nationally-representative data on children born between 1955 and 1985 and followed through 2011 (the Panel Study of Income Dynamics) to study the effect of the reform-induced changes in school spending on long-run adult outcomes. These birth cohorts straddle the period in which most of the major school finance reform litigation accelerated, and thus the cohorts were differentially exposed, depending on place and year of birth. We use the timing of the passage of court-mandated reforms as an exogenous shifter of school spending across cohorts within the same district. Event-study and instrumental variable models reveal that a 20 percent increase in per-pupil spending each year for all 12 years of public school for children from poor families leads to about 0.9 more completed years of education, 25 percent higher earnings, and a 20 percentage-point reduction in the annual incidence of adult poverty; we find no effects for children from non-poor families. The magnitudes of these effects are sufficiently large to eliminate between two-thirds and all of the gaps in these adult outcomes between those raised in poor families and those raised in non-poor families. We present several pieces of evidence to support a causal interpretation of the estimates. C. Kirabo Jackson Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy 2040 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208 and NBER firstname.lastname@example.com Rucker Johnson Goldman School of Public Policy University of California, Berkeley 2607 Hearst Avenue Berkeley, CA 94720-7320 and NBER email@example.com Claudia Persico Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research 2040 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208 email@example.com


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE. Children with traumatic brain injuries often show impaired executive function (the ability to carry out goal-directed behavior). The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, a caregiver-report questionnaire, measures executive function in everyday activities. In this study, our goal was to use the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function to document changes in children's executive function in the first year after traumatic brain injury and identify child, family, and injury variables associated with greater dysfunction. We predicted that children with traumatic brain injury would have more executive dysfunction than children hospitalized for orthopedic fractures and that more severe traumatic brain injury would predict greater dysfunction. Children's premorbid functioning and family characteristics were expected to moderate their executive function. PATIENTS AND METHODS. Caregivers of children aged 5 to 15 years (330 mild-to-severe traumatic brain injury, 103 control orthopedic fractures) enrolled onto a longitudinal study of executive function. Caregivers completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function by telephone at baseline (obtained retrospectively) and 3 months and 1 year after the injury. RESULTS. Traumatic brain injury groups and controls showed no baseline differences in Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function scores. Three months after the injury, children with traumatic brain injury had more dysfunction than controls on the Global Executive Composite. One year after injury, all traumatic brain injury groups differed from the controls on the Behavioral Regulation Index, Metacognition Index, and Global Executive Composite. The working memory scale was the only scale to discriminate between the control group and all 3 traumatic brain injury severity groups at both 3 and 12 months after injury. Executive-function ratings remained stable from 3 to 12 months after injury. Across time points, preexisting learning/behavior problems, lower respondent education, and poor family functioning predicted greater Global Executive Composite dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS. Between 18% and 38% of the children with traumatic brain injury had significant executive dysfunction in the first year after injury, with greater dysfunction reported for children with more severe traumatic brain injury. Our findings support previous reports that preinjury learning and behavior problems, limited family resources, and poor family functioning adversely affect executive function. These results suggest a need for more systematic screening for executive dysfunction after traumatic brain injury to increase recognition of cognitive disability and improve access to appropriate services.


Green fluorescent protein (GFP) is widely used as a non-invasive probe to monitor protein localization or to trace expression. The recently discovered red fluorescent protein is complementary to GFP and allows applications such as fluorescence resonance energy transfer. Terskikh et al. have generated a mutant of red fluorescent protein (E5) that changes its fluorescence from green to red over time. Because the rate of color conversion is independent of protein concentration, E5 can be used as a fluorescent clock to monitor the activation and down-regulation of gene expression in whole organisms. Terskikh, A., Fradkov, A., Ermakova, G., Zaraisky, A., Tan, P., Kajava, A.V., Zhao, X., Lukyanov, S., Matz, M., Kim, S., Weissman, I., and Siebert, P. (2000) "Fluorescent Timer": Protein that changes color with time. Science 290: 1585-1588. [Abstract] [Full Text]


A new technique for three-dimensional (3D) camera calibration for machine vision metrology using off-the-shelf TV cameras and lenses is described. The two-stage technique is aimed at efficient computation of camera external position and orientation relative to object reference coordinate system as well as the effective focal length, radial lens distortion, and image scanning parameters. The two-stage technique has advantage in terms of accuracy, speed, and versatility over existing state of the art. A critical review of the state of the art is given in the beginning. A theoretical framework is established, supported by comprehensive proof in five appendixes, and may pave the way for future research on 3D robotics vision. Test results using real data are described. Both accuracy and speed are reported. The experimental results are analyzed and compared with theoretical prediction. Recent effort indicates that with slight modification, the two-stage calibration can be done in real time.


The most common approach for modeling and solving routing and scheduling problems in a dynamic setting is to solve, as close to optimal as possible, a series of deterministic, myopic models. The argument is most often made that, if the data changes, then we should simply reoptimize. We use the setting of the load matching problem that arises in truckload trucking to compare the value of optimal myopic solutions versus varying degrees of greedy, suboptimal myopic solutions in the presence of three forms of uncertainty: customer demands, travel times, and, of particular interest, user noncompliance. A simulation environment is used to test different dispatching strategies under varying levels of system dynamism. An important issue we consider is that of user noncompliance, which is the effect of optimizing when users do not adopt all of the recommendations of the model. Our results show that (myopic) optimal solutions only slightly outperform greedy solutions under relatively high levels of uncertainty, and that a particular suboptimal solution actually outperforms optimal solutions under a wide range of conditions.


Brazil is a country with one of the most unequal income distributions in the world. Even so, Brazilians' preoccupation with the body and beauty is remarkably palpable and present in contemporary everyday life. The country occupies a leading position when it comes to cosmetic interventions and consumption of cosmetic products. Beautiful bodies are being produced, maintained and cared for not only by plastic surgeons but also by the work of nurses, facial- and body-therapists, hairdressers, manicurists, pedicurists, maids, sellers of beauty products and of an enormous variety of treatments that combine grooming with caring. In this article, I argue that the context of social inequality that so pervasively characterizes Brazilian society sets the stage for the production of bodies and beauty. By focusing on the ways women, acting from distinct socioeconomic contexts, relate to and participate in the production of beautiful bodies, I explore the dynamic entanglements of beauty, vanity, visibility and social inequality. As will be shown, different forms of body work are used to gain visibility and to stress and/or erase social differences.


A comprehensive study of a force detected single-spin magnetic resonance measurement concept with atomic spatial resolution is presented. The method is based upon electrostatic force detection of spin-selection rule controlled single-electron tunneling between two electrically isolated paramagnetic states. Single spin magnetic resonance detection is possible by measuring the force detected tunneling charge noise on and off spin resonance. Simulation results of this charge noise, based upon physical models of the tunneling and spin physics, are directly compared to measured AFM system noise. The results show that the approach could provide single spin measurement of electrically isolated qubit states with atomic spatial resolution at room temperature.


The reaction of cis-1-methyl-2,3-diphenylaziridine (2) with racemic 4-benzyl-4-methyl-2-phenyl-1,3-thiazole-5(4H)-thione (rac-1b) in toluene at 100-105°C gave a single spirocyclic [2+3] cycloadduct (rac-5). Its structure and relative configuration was established by X-Ray crystallography. Starting with enantiomerically pure (R)-1b and (S)-1b, the enantiomers (4R,5R,7S,9R)-5 and (4S,5S,7R,9S)-5, respectively, were formed in a regio- and stereoselective 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of the in situ generated (E,Z)-configured N-methyl-1,3-diphenylazomethine ylide (4).


Herbert Ponting was the first professional photographer to work in Antarctica. Selected by R.F. Scott to record and document the British Antarctic Expedition (1910-13), Ponting produced over one thousand still photographs, generally considered the finest work of his career, a pioneering and acclaimed cine-film, 90° South: With Scott to the Antarctic, and a successful book, The Great White South. His images of the ultimately tragic enterprise are vivid constructions of the realities of Antarctica and the expedition, as he perceived them.

The images are used to illustrate many books about the expedition, but are seldom examined in any detail. This thesis aims to address this deficiency by studying relevant literature produced by Ponting and other writers, followed by an analysis of Ponting's role as 'camera artist' on the expedition, and a detailed examination of images. A visual semiotics methodology is used, based on a combination of discourse analysis (Gee 1990, 2005) and visual analysis (Kress & van Leeuwen 2006). There are 38 illustrations in the thesis.

Ponting's focus is on the beauty of Antarctica, the nobility of the venture, the fineness of the men. He had a keen sense of his audience, which would in the first instance be a British one, and discourses of cultural pride flow through much of the work, a visual language which contemporary audiences would have associated with their inherited ways of being, behaving, and valuing. Interwoven themes, however, allude to darker aspects. His landscapes have resonances of the awe and power associated with the concept of the sublime. Photographs of exhausted and injured men evoke reminders of the transience of life.

A connecting theme throughout the work is Ponting's expression of his own personal and professional role. A complex man who wanted close relationships, yet resisted them, he remained something of a loner, his sense of personal identity strongly merged with the professional one. In the years after Antarctica, he remained fixated on the expedition, dedicated to keeping alive the public's memory of it and its tragedy. But his achievements went beyond this. His work was an intrinsic part of that promotion of Antarctic science which was the expedition's most substantial legacy. Ponting increased contemporary knowledge of the Antarctic environment and topography, and made a direct contribution to the life sciences through his substantial depiction of wildlife in photographs and film.

Ponting skillfully used techniques such as composition, lighting and tone to construct images which have stirred strong responses in viewers from his own time to the present. His place in the history of camera art is a specialised one, closely associated with Antarctica, but the best of his images endure as works of art in their own right. His work was seminal, paving the way for other fine photographers of the polar region.


ABSTRACT Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) are often used to estimate important biotic ligand model (BLM) parameters, such as metal-binding affinity (log K) and capacity (Bmax). However, rainbow trout do not typically occupy metal-contaminated environments, whereas yellow perch (Perca flavescens) are ubiquitous throughout most of North America. This study demonstrates that dynamic processes that regulate Cu uptake at the gill differ between rainbow trout and yellow perch. Rainbow trout were more sensitive to acute aqueous Cu than yellow perch, and toxicity was exacerbated in soft water relative to similar exposures in hard water. Whole body Na loss rate could account for acute Cu toxicity in both species, as opposed to new Cu uptake rate that was not as predictive. Time course experiments using radiolabelled Cu (64Cu) revealed that branchial Cu uptake was rather variable within the first 12 h of exposure, and appeared to be a function of Cu concentration, water hardness, and fish species. After 12 h, new branchial Cu concentrations stabilized in both species, suggesting that metal exposures used to estimate BLM parameters should be increased in duration from 3 h to 12+ h. In rainbow trout, 71% of the new Cu bound to the gill was exchangeable (i.e., able to either enter the fish or be released back to the water), as opposed to only 48% in yellow perch. This suggests that at equal exposure concentrations, proportionally more branchial Cu can be taken up by rainbow trout than yellow perch, which can then go on to confer toxicity. These qualitative differences in branchial Cu handling between the two species emphasize the need to develop BLM parameters for each species of interest, rather than the current practice of extrapolating BLM results derived from rainbow trout (or other laboratory-reared species) to other species. Data reported here indicate that a one-size-fits-all approach to predictive modeling, mostly based on rainbow trout studies, may not suffice for making predictions about metal toxicity to yellow perch—that is, a species that inhabits metal-contaminated lakes around northern Canadian industrial operations.


BACKGROUND
Statins (3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors) reduce cardiovascular risk through mechanisms that might affect the development of dementia.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate whether statin use is associated with a lower risk of dementia compared with never use of lipid-lowering agents (LLAs).

DESIGN
Cohort study of community-dwelling adults 65 years and older. The analysis included 2798 participants free of dementia at baseline.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Using Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, we estimated the risk of incident all-cause and type-specific dementia associated with time-dependent statin therapy compared with never use of LLAs. The primary analyses incorporated a 1-year lag between exposure and outcome. Secondary analyses included the final year of exposure and modeled statin use as current use vs nonuse to simulate a case-control approach.

RESULTS
Compared with never use of LLAs, ever use of statins was not associated with the risk of all-cause dementia (multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.08; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.77-1.52), Alzheimer disease alone (HR, 1.21; 95% CI, 0.76-1.91), mixed Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia (HR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.44-1.72), or vascular dementia alone (HR, 1.36; 95% CI, 0.61-3.06). In contrast, in secondary analyses, current use of statins compared with nonuse of LLAs was associated with HRs of 0.69 (95% CI, 0.46-1.02) for all-cause dementia and 0.56 (95% CI, 0.35-0.92) for any Alzheimer disease.

CONCLUSIONS
In this cohort study, statin therapy was not associated with a decreased risk of dementia. Methodological differences may explain why results of this cohort investigation differ from those of prior case-control studies. Additional investigation is needed to determine whether and for whom statin use may affect dementia risk.


In recent years restocking programmes have been widely promoted by NGO's and governments across Africa as a method of rehabilitating destitute pastoralists. Well planned restocking projects are advocated as environmentally, economically and culturally beneficial. The paper examines the evidence for the claims, along with the role of restocking in drought recovery.


Widely acknowledged to be one of Freud's greatest cultural works, when Totem and Taboo was first published in 1913, it caused outrage. Thorough and thought-provoking, Totem and Taboo remains the fullest exploration of Freud's most famous themes. Family, society, religion - they're all put on the couch here. Whatever your feelings about psychoanalysis, Freud's theories have influenced every facet of modern life, from film and literature to medicine and art. If you don't know your incest taboo from your Oedipal complex, and you want to understand more about the culture we're living in, then Totem and Taboo is the book to read.


During this auspicious period of growth in the construction industry, I need to congratulate the industry for standing up to the challenge. The ongoing investment in the sector - spearheaded by key multibillion-rand projects such as the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Gautrain as well as the increased infrastructure investment by government (Gauteng freeway projects, harbour and airport development, Eskom power stations, etc) - kept the growth rate of the sector at levels not seen for the last 25 years.


We examine to what extent variants of inflation-forecast targeting can avoid stabilization bias, incorporate history-dependence, and achieve determinacy of equilibrium, so as to reproduce a socially optimal equilibrium. We also evaluate these variants in terms of the transparency of the connection with the ultimate policy goals and the robustness to model perturbations. A suitably designed inflation-forecast targeting rule can achieve the social optimum and at the same time have a more transparent connection to policy goals and be more robust than competing instrument rules.


Suppose one wants to certify that a quantum channel is not entanglement breaking. I consider all four combinations of trusted and untrusted devices at the input and output of the channel, finding that the most interesting is a trusted preparation device at the input and an untrusted measurement device at the output. This provides a time-like analogue of EPR steering, which turns out to reduce to the problem of joint measurability, connecting these concepts in a different way to other recent work. I suggest a few applications of this connection, such as a resource theory of incompatibility. This perspective also sheds light on why the BB84 key distribution protocol can be secure, even with an untrusted measuring device, leading to an uncertainty relation for arbitrary pairs of ensembles.


Historically, the policy framework in Brazil has played a decisive role in shaping land use and changes in the rural landscape. Over the last three decades, the country has made impressive gains on socioeconomic, environmental and rural development policy fronts. Nonetheless, an overall analysis of Brazil's policy framework pertaining to land use shows contradictions and constraints that need to be addressed in the long run. One such contradiction is given by disparities in rural credit and finance policies, with greater amounts favoring large-scale farming as opposed to family farming, despite the key role of smallholders in food production and job creation, and still low resources allocated to programs promoting low-carbon agricultural practices. Another contradiction is the dichotomy between climate change policies and mainstream agricultural and rural development policies. Brazil's overriding challenge is harmonizing and effectively coordinating these different policy agendas at their various levels of implementation so as to effectively manage trade-offs. The question is what measures can be put in place to enable continued growth of agricultural production while also reducing its negative social and environmental costs? The answer lies partly in increasing support for implementing and up-scaling initiatives to promote low emissions agriculture and providing other economic incentives for adopting more sustainable use and conservation-oriented agricultural and land-use practices. Ultimately, reconciling agricultural production with conservation and rural livelihoods requires greater coordination and harmonization among sectoral policies at various levels of government. Achieving this goal requires the adoption of a combination of a value chain-based and territorial approach to land-use planning with more integrated farming systems in order to enable making improved decisions according to multiple trade-offs and impacts.


Times change and problems change, and the question for us is to define the respective roles of public and private law in dealing with our environmental problems. Private law, and especially the law of torts, has developed to meet the relatively novel brute facts and challenges of the modern petrochemical age. As we moved from a world filled with sticks and stones to one with processed hydrocarbons and enhanced radiation, our responsibilities to our neighbors, workers and trading partners likewise shifted. These developments tracked changes seen and documented in private law and torts at analogous historic moments when the law has moved, albeit slowly, to meet new challenges, such as the advent of industrialization, the automobile, franchising, and mass marketing. That tort law develops in incremental ways in response to a changing world is not news. Nor is it much debated that, under appropriate circumstances, such developments, including those involving environmental and toxic torts, have been consistent with the common law tradition. Nor is it disputed that tort law works.What is significant for our purposes is that what has animated these changes in tort law, and toxic tort law especially, is both different from what drives public law regulation of the environment, and instructive as to the importance of a continuing role for toxic tort litigation in a world increasingly dominated by public law. Indeed, it may well be that the processes and value of private law are superior in certain respects to public law as it relates to environmental regulations. Specifically, the tort litigation process embodies certain ideals and methods that we associate with better decisions of a certain type than the ideals and instrumentalities of the regulatory process would allow.The types of decision best left to tort certainly concern the one-on-one relations of everyday living. For example, a landowner should be allowed to sue an oil and gas operator for damages done to his or her property. In some instances, mass tort class actions may also be appropriate, such as where the polluted site sits under a discrete neighborhood. Subject always to the requirement of fairness and efficiency, the same result may be true when someone sells a dangerous substance to numerous public schools.These examples, and others discussed below, in each case produce a result that seems satisfactorily linked to the strengths of the tort process. Of course, an examination of the connection between a process, such as the tort system, and the legitimacy of its results is by no means novel. Much can and has been said about the relative merits of the civil justice process and public law administration in resolving various types of problems. Whether certain modes of mass tort adjudication, and extant case management problems, may undermine this superiority of tort is hotly debated and must be considered carefully. What we find is that much of this debate, about the forms and limits of tort, is being ignored in decisions about implied preemption and requested stays of civil law suits in favor of administrative forums. More important, few legislators or regulators take seriously enough the option of doing nothing or less in response to a problem that can be dealt with satisfactorily at common law. These shortcomings stem often from a lack of understanding about tort.


The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute was established by Government of India
on Feb 3rd 1947 under the Ministry of Agriculture and later joined the ICAR family in
1967/1971.During the course of 65 years journey the Institute has emerged as leading
global marine fisheries institute from a mere taxonomic and statistics mandate. One of the
major achievements of CMFRI over the entire span of existence is the development and
refinement of unique National Marine Fishery data base "Stratified Multistage Random
Sampling" method unique to India. With this methodology the Institute is maintaining
national marine Fisheries data base from 1950 with a landing of about 5,00,000 tons to
about 38,50,000 tons in 2012 comprising about 200 species along the entire coast covering
about 8000 km.
CMFRI, is one of the eight fisheries institutes under ICAR. Through its research and
development activities in marine fisheries during the last five decades has been able to
sustain the marine fish product through development and implementation of resource
management strategies and policy advisoie to the Govt. of India for fisheries governess.
The institute has been developing time series database on marine fish production from the
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the country, their biology, distribution, abundance,
fishery forecast, potential yield, stock assessment and in formulating management
measures for sustainable production. The institute developed and commercialized
Cadalmin™ GMe and Cadalmin™ GAe.


The state takeover of locally governed schools in predominately black communities has not disrupted the racial subjugation of black people in the United States. Using proportional analyses and the cities of Detroit, Memphis, and New Orleans as sites, the researcher finds that state takeover districts have not consistently disrupted the school-to-prison pipeline for black students in urban settings. Furthermore, the researcher found little evidence that would support broader and more intentional efforts to combat the over disciplining of black students in the United States Department of Education's proposed rules for implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act, the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. In fact, the legislation perpetuates strategies that have aided the creation of the school-to-prison pipeline and supplies only strong recommendations to replace strategies that have compounded the harm of the school-to-prison pipeline. This finding is important in the context of education reform, particularly as researchers begin to question the motives and results of contemporary education reform. Moreover, this work is important to the current scholarly discussions that consider the many civil rights that black communities are required to exchange for the prospect of better schools.


This article offers a new analysis of the financial characteristics of and the current marketplace for credit default swaps (CDSs) to determine where CDSs fit within the current tax regime and whether this result is sensible. The article begins by redefining CDSs by removing the framing of CDS parties as ''protection'' buyers and sellers. The article proceeds to discuss how CDSs contrast with insurance, guarantees, and notional principal contracts, and then how CDSs compare with options. Although options are often framed by reference to the ''rights'' of the holder, the article removes this frame and finds that the option holder's rights, like the terms of many other types of derivatives, simply demarcate the risk borne by the parties. After concluding that CDSs are best characterized as options, the article explains why open transaction treatment is suitable for CDSs and why current deductions for premiums paid are unwarranted.

This article also defines a new term - annuity-paid deep out-of-the-money derivative contracts (APDOs) - to describe a class of derivatives, a class that includes CDSs, for which the parties exchange one contingent payment for an annuity-like stream of payments. By defining this class of derivatives, the article identifies a derivative structure with a worldwide reach of even greater than the $58 trillion of notional amount of CDSs currently outstanding. Although CDSs are just one type of APDO, the analysis of the economics of CDSs also applies to APDOs referencing risk factors other than credit.


From Library JournalThis collection of essays, reviews, speeches, and interviews details the interaction among a number of Southwestern women writers, including Katherine Anne Porter, Eudora Welty, Zora Neale Hurston, Flannery O'Connor, Anne Tyler, Alice Walker, and Josephine Humphreys. Occupation, gender, and region conspire to join these authors in kinship, and, like family members, they offer criticism, support, admiration, and understanding to one another. This anthology will be useful both in the college classroom and for the general reader. It is sure to enlighten, entertain, inspire, and delight. - Dorothy Golden, Georgia Southern Univ., Statesboro


Integration of international learning experiences into sustainable agriculture (SA) educational programs represents a unique and effective approach to help students improve their global awareness and citizenship, intercultural communication, problem-solving skills, and career development. While there are challenges to establishing international educational activities in emerging SA programs, the benefits of providing students with a global perspective to the worlds' food systems far exceed those challenges. This paper formalizes key considerations and diverse approaches for developing student-centered international educational opportunities for sustainable agriculture that have been assembled from literature research and from the collective experiences of the authors. A holistic approach is described, beginning with developing strong international partnerships built on reciprocity and understanding the diversity of international learning opportunities and development considerations; establishing learning outcomes and assessment; and appreciating current opportunities and challenges. While many of the experiences and examples come from land-grant universities (LGUs), enhancing a global perspective to all types of SA programs at various institutions is vital for preparing future food system leaders to advance sustainable agriculture in the global community. The information in this paper is valuable for SA educators interested in developing new international educational opportunities and also may stimulate further communication about shared pedagogical strategies related to international SA education.


1. Fresh and decomposed Mougeotia sp. (a filamentous green alga) and Elodea nuttallii (a vascular plant) were offered as food to three species of aquatic macroinvertebrates (Lymnnea peregra, Asellus meridianus and Endochironomus albipennis) to test: (i) if filamentous algae are preferred to aquatic higher plants (hereafter, called 'macrophytes') and (ii), as is known for higher plants, if decomposition also results in greater palatability of filamentous algae. 2. Compared with the alga, the macrophyte in both states was of higher nutritional value. Conditioning improved the nutritional value of both food types, but especially of the macrophyte. 3. Both fresh alga and fresh macrophyte were eaten little by all animals except A. meridianus feeding upon the macrophyte. Consumption was higher for both plants in their decomposed state. However, L. peregra consumed more decomposed macrophyte than the decomposed alga. Both decomposed plants were eaten most by E. albipennis followed by A. meridianus and L. peregra. 4. Digestibility of both plants, but especially of the macrophyte, increased significantly after decomposition. The assimilation efficiencies of all animals on the fresh E. nuttallii were higher than on fresh Mougeotia sp. After decomposition, the efficiency increased significantly only on the alga. Consequently, both decomposed plants were assimilated with similar efficiency by all test animals. 5. Amongst aquatic macrophytes, the increase of their consumption and digestibility upon decomposition has hitherto been known only for vascular plants but not for filamentous algae. [KEYWORDS: Macrophytes; lake; biomanipulation; herbivory; defenses; zwemlust; stream]


This study pharmacologically characterizes a novel behavioral response as a potential in vivo model of serotonin (5-HT)1A receptor-mediated activity. In rats restrained in horizontal cylinders, the selective 5-HT1A agonist, 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino) tetralin HBr (8-OH-DPAT), dose-dependently (0.04-10.0 mg/kg s.c.) elicited spontaneous tail-flicks (STFs). This action was mimicked by other ligands possessing high affinity and high efficacy at 5-HT1A sites: RU 24969 [(5-methoxy-3-(1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridin-4-yl)-1H-indole], lisuride, (+)-lysergic acid diethylamide and 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine hydrogen oxalate. The response could not be elicited by CGS 12066B [7-trifluormethyl-4-(4-methyl-l-piperazonyl)-pyrrolol- [1-2-a] quinoxaline dimaleate], mCPP 1-(3-chlorophenyl)-piperazine-2-HCl, TFMPPm-trifluromethylphenylpiperazine HCl, MK 212 [6-chloro-2-(l-piperzinyl)pyrazine], quipazine and DOI (+-)-2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenyl-2-aminopropane HCl, which act in vivo as agonists at 5-HT1B, 5-HT1C and/or 5-HT2 receptors, or by the 5-HT3 agonist, 2-methyl-5-HT. p-chloroamphetamine, which releases endogenous 5-HT, also evoked STFs; in contrast, d-amphetamine, a preferential releaser of catecholamines, was inactive, as were agonists and antagonists at alpha-1, alpha-2, beta-1, beta-2, dopamine D1 and D2 sites. 8-OH-DPAT-elicited STFs were blocked by the 5-HT1/2 antagonist, methiothepin, but not by the 5-HT1C/5-HT2 antagonists, mianserin, ritanserin and ICI 169,369 [2-(2-dimethylaminoetheylthio)-3-phenylquinoline] nor by the 5-HT3 antagonists, GR 38032F [(1,2,3,9-tetrahydro-9-methyl-3-[(2-methyl-1H-imidazol-l-yl)methyl]-4H- carbazol-4-one HCl], ICS 205,930 [(3 alpha-tropanyl)-1H-indol-3-carboxylic acid ester] and MDL 72222 [(1 alpha H, 3 alpha, 5 alpha H)-tripan-3-yl-3,5- dichlorobenzoate]. beta-Blockers with 5-HT1A affinity i.e., (-)-alprenolol, (+/-)-isamoltane and, stereoselectivity, (-)-but not (+)-pindolol, blocked the action of 8-OH-DPAT. Spiperone and spiroxatrine, D2 antagonists with high 5-HT1A affinity, also inhibited 8-OH-DPAT-induced STFs. Selective beta-blockers and D2 antagonists with low 5-HT1A affinity were inactive. 5-HT1A partial agonists, the pyrimidinylpiperazines, buspirone, gepirone and ipsapirone, the halogenated phenylpiperazine, LY 165,163 [1-(2-(4-aminophenyl) ethyl-4-(3-trifluoromethylphenyl)-piperazine], and the benzodioxane, MDL 72832 [8-(4-(1,4-benzodioxan-2-yl-methylamino)-butyl-8-azaspiro-(4 ,5)-decane- 7,9-dione] did not elicit STFs and antagonized the effect of 8-OH-DPAT.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Objective A new double-lumen balloon catheter was being developed for the treatment of cerebral aneurysms. The purpose of this study is to report our initial experience of a double-lumen balloon catheter for the treatment of wide-necked aneurysms. Materials and Methods Seventeen patients (mean age, 63 years; range, 45-80 years) with wide-necked, with or without a branch-incorporated aneurysms, (10 ruptured and 9 unruptured) were treated with balloon-assisted coil embolization using a double-lumen balloon catheter (Scepter C™ or Scepter XC™) for 7 months after being introduced to our country. Locations of the aneurysms were posterior communicating artery (n = 7), anterior communicating artery or A2 (n = 7), middle cerebral artery (MCA) bifurcation (n = 3), basilar artery tip (n = 1) and anterior choroidal artery (n = 1). The initial clinical and angiographic outcomes were retrospectively evaluated. Results Coil embolization was successfully completed in all 19 aneurysms, resulting in complete occlusions (n = 18) or residual neck (n = 1). In one procedure, a thrombus formation was detected at the neck portion of the ruptured MCA bifurcation aneurysm near to the end of the procedure. It was completely resolved with an intra-arterial infusion of Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor (Tirofiban, 1.0 mg) without any clinical sequela. There were no treatment-related events in the remaining 18 aneurysms. At discharge, functional neurological state improved in 11 patients (10 patients with ruptured aneurysm and 1 with unruptured aneurysm presenting with mass symptoms) and 6 patients with unruptured aneurysms had no newly developed symptoms. Conclusion In this preliminary case series, the newly developed double-lumen Scepter balloon appears to be a safe and convenient device for coil embolization of wide-necked aneurysms.


Volume 7 of Walter Spink's monumental and still controversial study of the famous Ajanta caves considers the many connections between the Bagh caves and its "sister site", Ajanta, particularly emphasizing the leading role that Bagh plays in the crucial matter of Buddhist shrine development and the transition from the aniconic to iconic forms of worship. He also explains the relationships between certain caves and solstices, as well as changing technologies, especially in the development of the door fittings in the monks' cells.


Standard & Poor's Governance Services and the Corporate Governance Forum of Turkey (CGFT) at Sabanci University in Istanbul monitored and assessed corporate response to regulation and market circumstances by conducting the survey over four successive years, with the objective of providing a comparative insight into the disclosure practices of Turkish companies. Laws and regulations concerning corporate governance and their enforcement have been drastically improved during these years. The new legal and regulatory framework includes Corporate Governance Guidelines issued in 2003, directives related to audit and accounting standards and practices issued in and after 2003 by the Capital Markets Board of Turkey (CMB), a new Banking Law, and directives issued by the Banking Regulatory and Supervisory Agency.

This report summarizes the finding of the fourth survey and provides an insight into the impact of the regulatory changes on disclosure. The data collected are used for further research by CGFT researchers, to analyze the relationship between disclosure and transparency, disclosure and performance, and disclosure and firm characteristics.


This study investigates the effect of cultural intelligence of front-line service employees on foreign guests' perceptions of service quality. This relationship has not hitherto been investigated. The literature suggests that culture and interactions between customers and employees affect service quality. The literature also shows that, in cross-cultural encounters, attitudes and behaviours are important aspects of cultural intelligence, employee performance and service quality. It also points to interrelationships between these constructs. A theoretical model was developed which suggests that in these encounters, cultural intelligence is likely to affect service quality through employee
performance. A novel methodological approach consisting of a pilot study and two stages of empirical research were undertaken in international hotels in Karbala, Iraq. The first, qualitative stage was in the form of interviews to gain an insight into the service
interactions. Thematic analysis of the data supported the theoretical model and pointed to additional causal relationships. The model was tested in the second quantitative stage. A self-report cultural intelligence questionnaire was administered to a sample of local
employees (N=201). A new job performance questionnaire was designed and administered to hotel managers (N=53) to assess these employees' performance. A SERVPERF
questionnaire was also given to foreign guests (N=469) who were served by these employees. The dimensions of these measures were determined by principal components
analysis (SPSS 22), and their adequacy was estimated using confirmatory factor analysis (Lisrel 8.8). The model was tested using hierarchical multi-regression analysis. The findings showed that employee performance mediated the relationships between cultural intelligence and service quality. Another main contribution is the development of an employee performance scale for use in service encounters. The study adds to the crosscultural
service literature and to research methodology design. Its implications for management and employee training were discussed, as well as its limitations. Further
research was also suggested.


In the past 10 years, the service sector has been a significant contributor to overall economic growth in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Uzbekistan, and Viet Nam. Sector growth has been supported by strong industrial growth in some while in others the critical factors have been liberalization, structural reforms, government support, and foreign investments. In order to increase the labor productivity of the sector and realize its potential to contribute to inclusive growth, these countries must address gaps in human capital and the higher costs of setting up new businesses and of doing business that stifle entrepreneurship and private enterprise. These impediments also stand in the way of developing the industry sector and of broader economic growth and development. Policy reforms that ease those impediments will help to achieve balanced growth in which the service and industry sectors support and reinforce each other. As services tend to be more labor intensive, they can foster inclusive growth by serving as an engine for creating jobs.


Abstract. In situ high resolution aircraft measurements of cloud microphysical properties were made in coordination with ground based remote sensing observations of a line of small cumulus clouds, using Radar and Lidar, as part of the Aerosol Properties, PRocesses And InfluenceS on the Earth's climate (APPRAISE) project. A narrow but extensive line (~100 km long) of shallow convective clouds over the southern UK was studied. Cloud top temperatures were observed to be higher than −8 °C, but the clouds were seen to consist of supercooled droplets and varying concentrations of ice particles. No ice particles were observed to be falling into the cloud tops from above. Current parameterisations of ice nuclei (IN) numbers predict too few particles will be active as ice nuclei to account for ice particle concentrations at the observed, near cloud top, temperatures (−7.5 °C). The role of mineral dust particles, consistent with concentrations observed near the surface, acting as high temperature IN is considered important in this case. It was found that very high concentrations of ice particles (up to 100 L −1 ) could be produced by secondary ice particle production providing the observed small amount of primary ice (about 0.01 L −1 ) was present to initiate it. This emphasises the need to understand primary ice formation in slightly supercooled clouds. It is shown using simple calculations that the Hallett-Mossop process (HM) is the likely source of the secondary ice. Model simulations of the case study were performed with the Aerosol Cloud and Precipitation Interactions Model (ACPIM). These parcel model investigations confirmed the HM process to be a very important mechanism for producing the observed high ice concentrations. A key step in generating the high concentrations was the process of collision and coalescence of rain drops, which once formed fell rapidly through the cloud, collecting ice particles which caused them to freeze and form instant large riming particles. The broadening of the droplet size-distribution by collision-coalescence was, therefore, a vital step in this process as this was required to generate the large number of ice crystals observed in the time available. Simulations were also performed with the WRF (Weather, Research and Forecasting) model. The results showed that while HM does act to increase the mass and number concentration of ice particles in these model simulations it was not found to be critical for the formation of precipitation. However, the WRF simulations produced a cloud top that was too cold and this, combined with the assumption of continual replenishing of ice nuclei removed by ice crystal formation, resulted in too many ice crystals forming by primary nucleation compared to the observations and parcel modelling.


Sport product dimensions play role in influencing purchase behaviour. However, it has no clear knowledge on how these dimensions influence students. Thus, this study explores the relationship between the dimensions sport product towards purchase behaviour among PHE students of FOE. Moreover, this study investigates the most influential sport product's dimension that affects purchase behaviour among PHE students of FOE. Quantitative analysis of data obtained through questionnaires based on a model designed by Wong, et al (2007). Questionnaires were distributed to 200 of PHE students of FOE in UiTM Campus Section 17. Reliability analysis test (Cronbach Alpha), descriptive statistic as well as regression test were used to analyze the data. This study revealed that there is a relationship between Sport Product Dimensions and Purchase Behaviour. Moreover, this study found out that cost is the strongest attribute that influences purchase behaviour. This study contribute knowledge and benefit for both sport product's designer/manufacturer with needs and wants of the purchaser so that they can influence customers' purchase behaviour by properly designing their product which can improve their marketing strategies.


Background SARS-CoV-2 infections are frequently milder in children than adults, suggesting that immune responses may vary with age. However, information is limited regarding SARS-CoV-2 immune responses in young children. Methods We compared receptor binding domain–binding antibody (RBDAb) titers and SARS-CoV-2–neutralizing antibody titers, measured by pseudovirus-neutralizing antibody assay in serum specimens obtained from children aged 0–4 years and 5–17 years and in adults aged 18–62 years at the time of enrollment in a prospective longitudinal household study of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Results Among 56 seropositive participants at enrollment, children aged 0–4 years had more than 10-fold higher RBDAb titers than adults (416 vs. 31, P < 0.0001) and the highest RBDAb titers in 11 of 12 households with seropositive children and adults. Children aged 0–4 years had only 2-fold higher neutralizing antibody than adults, resulting in higher binding-to-neutralizing antibody ratios compared with adults (2.36 vs. 0.35 for ID50, P = 0.0004). Conclusion These findings suggest that young children mount robust antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 following community infections. Additionally, these results support using neutralizing antibody to measure the immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccines in children aged 0–4 years. Funding CDC (award 75D30120C08737).


Persistent rapid up and down frequency chirping modes with a toroidal mode number of zero (n = 0) are observed in the JET tokamak when energetic ions, in the range of several hundred keV, are created by high field side ion cyclotron resonance frequency heating. Fokker–Planck calculations demonstrate that the heating method enables the formation of an energetically inverted ion distribution which supplies the free energy for the ions to excite a mode related to the geodesic acoustic mode. The large frequency shifts of this mode are attributed to the formation of phase space structures whose frequencies, which are locked to an ion orbit bounce resonance frequency, are forced to continually shift so that energetic particle energy can be released to counterbalance the energy dissipation present in the background plasma.


Abstract. The presence of a satellite disturbs the ambient plasma. The charging of the spacecraft creates a sheath around it, and the motion of the satellite creates a wake disturbance. This modification of the plasma environment introduces difficulties in measuring electric fields and plasma densities using the probe technique. We present a study of the structure of the sheath and wake around the Astrid-2 microsatellite, as observed by the probes of the EMMA and LINDA instruments. Measurements with biased LINDA probes, as well as current sweeps on the EMMA probes, show a density enhancement upstream of the satellite and a plasma depletion behind the satellite. The electric field probes detect disturbances in the plasma potential on magnetic field lines connected to the satellite. Key words. Space plasma physics (spacecraft sheaths, wakes, charging; instruments and techniques)


As the Internet has exploded over the past fifteen years, recently reaching over a billion users, dozens of national governments have tried to control the network by filtering out content objectionable to the countries for any of a number of reasons. A large variety of different projects have developed tools that can be used to circumvent this filtering, allowing people in filtered countries access to otherwise filtered content. In this report, the authors describe the mechanisms of filtering and circumvention and evaluate ten projects that develop tools that can be used to circumvent filtering. These tools were evaluated in 2007 -- using both tests from within filtered countries and tests within a lab environment -- for their utility, usability, security, promotion, sustainability, and openness. The report was completed in 2007 and released to a group of private sponsors. Many of the findings of the report are now out of date, but we present them now, as is, because we think that the broad conclusions of the report about these tools remain valid and because we hope that other researchers will benefit from access to the methods used to test the tools. The authors find that all of the tools use the same basic mechanisms of proxying and encryption but that they differ in their models of hosting proxies. Some tools use proxies that are centrally hosted, others use proxies that are peer hosted, and others use re-routing methods that use a combination of the two. The authors find that, in general, the tools work in the sense that they allow users to access pages that are otherwise blocked by filtering countries but that performance of the tools is generally poor and that many tools have significant, unreported security vulnerabilities. Responses from developers of the tools in question are included in the report.


This new edition of Ann Lewis's widely acclaimed text has been substantially revised and updated to take into account the recent revisions to the National Curriculum and the guidance of the Code of Practice. It provides: *an analysis of the issues and practicalities of implementing the National Curriculum at primary school level *an exploration of the main trends concerning the education of children with learning difficulties *guidelines on safeguarding a broad curriculum, assessing children's learning and helping all children gain access to the National Curriculum Related issues such as the grouping of children, the role of the special needs coordinator, resources, record keeping and the legal position are also examined. These areas are explored in the light of classroom practice, evidence about the impact of the National Curriculum to date and wider research evidence and policy analysis.