Background Since June 2009 we have routinely tested MSM in the drop-in clinic for Mycoplasma genitalium (MG), Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) infections using nucleid acid amplification tests (NAAT) in both first void urine (FVU) and an anal swab from the same patient. In addition, a throat sample was tested for NG. The prevalence and sites of infection of these pathogens was determined in a retrospective study. Methods We included 2408 MSM who have been registered for 4314 new visits from June 2009 to December 2012, of whom 188 (7.8%) patients representing 589 visits were HIV-positive. Two third were asymptomatic and asked for a self-taken anal swab, in addition to a throat sample taken by a nurse. One third was examined by a physician, who performed the sampling. A FVU was collected. Results 372/4265 (8.7%) were positive for N. gonorrhoeae using a targeted NAAT (porA gene), 428/4314 (9.9%) were positive for C. trachomatis using COBAS® TaqMan® CT Test, v2.0 (Roche), and 223/4222 (5.3%) were positive for M. genitalium using an in-house real-time PCR. The prevalence of any positive test in HIV-negative and HIV-positive patients was 19% and 34%, respectively. Out of all positive samples in HIV-positive, FVU identified only 16% (13/82) CT, 19% (13/67) MG and 19% (13/67) NG. In HIV-negative, FVU identified 36% (122/335) CT, 34% (52/153 MG and 32% (94/293) NG. Conclusion Our results supports that the MSM population carry a high burden of extra-genital STIs and that testing the ano-rectum and oro-pharynx, especially in HIV-positive, will identify a significantly higher percentage of infected patients than testing FVU alone. In addition to N. gonorrhoeae and C. trachomatis, anal M. genitalium may be a risk factor for HIV transmission.


SYNTHESIS OF HYBRID INOSITOL GLYCAN ANALOGUES by Sudi Sabet A 2010 study by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has projected that one of three US adults could have diabetes by the year 2050. More than 90% of the diagnosed cases are Type II diabetes, a condition characterized by insulin resistance. In search of new antidiabetic drugs, a class of natural, phosphorylated, inositol-containing pseudosaccharides called inositol glycans (IGs) has been studied for years. These compounds have insulin-mimetic activity in insulin-sensitive cells and can stimulate processes such as lipogenesis and glucose transport. Due to the heterogeneity of IGs, it is very difficult to isolate them from their natural sources, and the potent synthetic ones are complex structures demanding lengthy and laborious chemistry. It has been observed that a hybrid IG, an inositol-containing disaccharide conjugated with a non-carbohydrate fluorophore, exhibits relatively high insulin-mimetic activity. We propose the generation of a library of similar hybrid IGs (HIGAs), via a relatively short synthetic pathway, in which each HIGA is prepared from the attachment of the phosphorylated inositol core to a readily available non-carbohydrate piece. The ability of each HIGA to activate insulin-sensitive cells will be assayed to identify the ones with maximum insulin-like response. The active HIGAs would be further studied in future research as potential pharmaceutical agents for treatment of diabetes.


This paper addresses parallel prefix adder synthesis which aims at minimizing the total switching activity under bitwise timing constraints. This problem is treated as synthesis of prefix graphs which represent global structures of parallel prefix adders at technology-independent level. An approach for timing-driven area minimization of prefix graphs has been already proposed which first finds the exact minimum solution on a specific subset of prefix graphs by dynamic programming, then restructures the result for further reduction by removing restrictions on the subset. In this paper, a switching cost of each node of a prefix graph is defined, and an approach to minimize the total switching cost is presented where our area minimization algorithm is extended to be able to calculate the switching cost using Ordered Binary-Decision Diagrams(OBDDs). Furthermore, a heuristic is integrated which estimates the effect of the restructuring phase in the dynamic programming phase, to improve the robustness of our algorithm under severe timing constraints. Through a series of experiments, the proposed approach is shown to be effective especially when timing constraints are not tight and/or there are comparably a large number of nodes with very low switching costs.


Mixed-layer illite-smectite (I/S) in recent massive sulfide deposits from a seamount near the East Pacific Rise has been studied by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM, TEM). The I/S fills pore space between quartz and sulfides, and XRD and TEM analyses indicate that the I/S contains ∼25%-45% smectite, with R1-type ordering (ISISIS). Microprobe and analytical electron-microscope analyses indicate a rectorite-like composition, K being the dominant interlayer cation. The occurrence of the I/S within a hydrothermally precipitated sulfide deposit, the pore-filling texture, and the internal structure of the I/S are all consistent with direct precipitation from hydrothermal solutions. Direct precipitation of I/S from solution has two important implications. First, some sericite in ancient volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits may have similarly originated as hydrothermal precipitates rather than as alteration products, with implications for mobility and transport of Al. Second, direct precipitation of R1-ordered I/S from fluid implies that during diagenetic evolution of smectite to illite, the sequence of smectite → random I/S → ordered I/S → illite may not be followed.


Cancer/testis (CT) antigens are potential immunotherapeutic targets in cancer. However, the expression of particular antigens is limited to a subset of tumors of a given type. Thus, there is a need to identify antigens with complementary expression patterns for effective therapeutic intervention. In this study, we searched for genes that were distinctly expressed at a higher level in lung tumor tissue and the testes compared with other nontumor tissues and identified members of the VCX/Y gene family as novel CT antigens. VCX3A, a member of the VCX/Y gene family, was expressed at the protein level in approximately 20% of lung adenocarcinomas and 35% of squamous cell carcinomas, but not expressed in normal lung tissues. Among CT antigens with concordant mRNA and protein expression levels, four CT antigens, XAGE1, VCX, IL13RA2, and SYCE1, were expressed, alone or in combination, in about 80% of lung adenocarcinoma tumors. The CT antigen VCX/Y gene family broadens the spectrum of CT antigens expressed in lung adenocarcinomas for clinical applications. Cancer Res; 74(17); 4694–705. 2014 AACR.


The media was once filled with images of encroaching deserts and starving populations. Attention has since shifted to other issues, but the problems remain. Desertification is acute not only in familiar desert regions such as the Sahara, but in regions such as the Sahelian and other drylands which comprise nearly thirty-five percent of the earth's total land area. Mr. Danish analyzes the Desertification Convention of 1995, discussing both the Convention's efforts to address the environmental degradation and the Convention's impact on international notions of the state, crafting large-scale responses, and generating centralized regulation. This Convention employs a "bottom-up " approach; it focuses on local developmental issues and the marginalized peoples living in the threatened areas. It provides increased international recognition for non-governmental organizations and local land users by obligating states to channel authority and resources to them. The article presents an overview of the Convention and analysis based on international environemental legal norms. The author illustrates that, despite donor fatigue and reticence on the part of developed nations, the "bottom-up " approach in conjunction with creative financing methods will provide a more effective means for dealing with a growing environmental crisis.


This article studies a security design problem featuring flexible information acquisition. To raise liquidity, a seller issues a security backed by her asset in place at the price she proposes to a buyer. Before deciding whether to accept the offer, the buyer can acquire costly information about the underlying asset. This case differs from the existing literature on security design, in that the buyer has the full flexibility of choosing not only the amount of resources to spend in information acquisition, but also how to allocate them, depending on the shape of the security. Debt is shown to be the unique optimal security for the seller, as its payoff is the least sensitive to the value of its underlying asset. This minimizes the buyer's incentive to acquire information and mitigates the resulting adverse selection. I do not assume monotonicity of the feasible securities nor impose various distributional assumptions on information structures. Instead, I identify conditions for general information costs that support the results.


The alternative splicing of pre-messenger ribonucleic acids is an important mechanism of proteomic diversity and plays a significant role in determining a protein's structure, function and localisation. Because of its ubiquity as a mechanism (affecting most human genes) and its broad functional role (in development and physiology), it is expected to make an important contribution to the evolution of trait complexity. Here, we consider the evolutionary consequences of this key cellular mechanism, which are being uncovered by important developments in genomic technology and methodology.

Key Concepts

Alternative splicing is a key cellular process driving phenotypic diversity and functional innovation.
Gene duplication and other molecular processes can interact with alternative splicing in highly complex ways to drive genome evolution.
Gene regulation, including alternative splicing, is thought to account for the extraordinary divergence in traits between closely related species given the small degree of molecular divergence between orthologous protein sequences.
Nonsense-mediated decay (with its conserved machinery and targets across large evolutionary time spans) can act as a quality control mechanism on alternative splicing to guard the cell against potentially deleterious gene products.
In studies of the evolutionary landscape of alternative splicing (in multiple tissues across hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary time span), the identity of the species is the primary source of the variability in overall alternative splicing patterns, whereas tissue type is the main source for overall gene expression patterns.

Keywords:

alternative splicing;
genome;
evolution;
transcriptome;
proteome;
complexity;
gene duplication;
nonsense-mediated decay;
splicing regulatory elements;
neo-functionalisation;
sub-functionalisation


I propose that the Guillermo del Toro film, Pan's Labyrinth (2006) follows the narrative outline of Joseph Campbell's hero's journey as experienced through the biological process of onset of menstruation in its young protagonist. I suggest a reading of the film that takes into account the visual and mythological symbolism of the figure of Pan, as well as the cultural context of menstruation in mythology and religion. I offer interviews from the director that support this interpretation, but ultimately I value a folk interpretation, or a "viewer's hunch" that the strange and fertile symbolism of the film represents a coming-of-age struggle intimately familiar to women.


As the Internet has enhanced the collection and provision of citation, usage and access metrics, the challenge lies neither in the technology nor the method, but in constructing databases that deliver services of value to the scholar. However, the development of metrics has hitherto been driven by the needs of external research assessment (governments and funders), while publishers and libraries have focused on their own needs (e.g. journal impact and usage factors). Scholars often criticize research assessment and the use of particular metrics as a zero-sum game whose undesirable consequences far outweigh the benefits. However, this is not to be confused with a general prejudice against metrics, which are principally compatible with the scholarly recognition and rewards system. But it does indicate that current metric information services often do not serve the needs of scholars. The question everybody should be asking is: What kind of metric information services would serve scholars?The argument proceeds in six steps. First, the problematic and controversial nature of assessment metrics is discussed. Second, the limited value of current metric information services is outlined. Third, the notion of metrics as research information services is clarified. Fourth, some examples of such services are offered. Fifth, the potential value is sketched from the perspective of a postdoc. Sixth, it is indicated that societies and publishers could begin building more metric information services since tried-and-tested technology and methods are available already. Services mentioned: Journal impact factor, journal usage factor, GoPubMed, SSRN CiteReader, RePEc LogEc, RePEc CitEc, SPIRES, Harzing POP, Webometrics, ISI Web of Knowledge, Scopus, Google Scholar, Citebase, CiteSeer X, CERIF


This paper addresses questions regarding the prospering field of Bionik in Germany. Its starting point is the wide spread assumption that universal functional principles exist in nature and that these 'solutions' can be transferred into technological objects. Accordingly, advocates of Bionik herald the advent of a better world with more sustainable and efficient products of engineering. The so-called 'functional surfaces' occupy a special place within this contemporary version of biomimesis. Shark-skin-inspired swim suits, self-cleaning facade paints with lotus effect or drag reducing Dolphin-Skins for aircraft-wings are expected to improve the quality of life for everyone. It seems that skin and shell of living systems return as revenants to our technological world and live their afterlives as lively surfaces of everyday objects. This paper argues however, that understanding this attention to 'natural engineering solutions' in contemporary Bionik, one needs to focus on a different kind of afterlife. For baring the historicepistemological roots allows fathoming direct connections to two widely influential historical concepts within the history of science in the 20th century: Biotechnik, a very popular bio-philosophical concept from the Weimar Republic of the 1920s and Bionics, an in many ways similar endeavor that emerged during the second wave of Cybernetics in the USA from around 1960. Both historical concepts share a certain proximity to a distinct holistic-systemic style of thinking that emerged during the 20th century and still resonates with the movement of Bionik in contemporary Germany. Based on the example of the lotus effect, I want to address three aspects of the afterlife of this holistic-systemic heritage in contemporary Bionik. First, the assumption that the best engineering solutions can be found in nature conceals the specific discursive and non-discursive complexity that forms the basis of all technological objects. Second, the holistic-systemic heritage of Bionik directly correlates with its epistemological bias towards visual evidence and its enthusiasm for 'functional surfaces'. Third, the rhetoric of Bionik paradoxically oscillates between a counter-modern demotion of human creativity and autonomy and a fascination for modern scientific instruments and practices.


Background: The importance of interprofessional learning to provide quality patient care has resulted in the increasing use of asynchronous computer mediated conferencing in healthcare programmes within universities. The asynchronicity based on typed-written discussions in a virtual learning environment which provided flexibility in learning was used to increase opportunities for nurses and other allied healthcare professionals to participate in interprofessional learning in higher education. However, successful online learning relies on discursive practices in the virtual learning environment, embedded within discursive exchanges in practice are power relations in nursing language use; which had a negative impact on interprofessional learning and working relationships amongst nurses, between nurses and other allied healthcare professionals. This paper presents an analysis of the discursive practices of registered nurses in interprofessional learning based on asynchronous computer mediated conferencing. It aimed to ascertain if power relations were implicit in nursing language. Methods: Fairclough's critical discourse analysis was used to analyse eight hundred and ninety typewritten online messages created in a 100% text-based online learning module at Master's level in a University in North England between September 2004 and September 2009. Although the messages were created by 9 registered nurses and 4 other allied healthcare professionals undertaking interprofessional learning to learn about the issues surrounding e-learning in healthcare settings, this paper is part of a larger study focused on the messages by the nurses. Results: Nurses' messages tended to appear as the first few responses in the discussion threads and their language was formal and objectifying. The genres resembled those found either in written assignment within higher education or in nursing documentation within practice. The virtual learning environment was an alternative social space for clinical practice where dominance of nurses was created, maintained and reinforced. Conclusions: Existing literature highlighted the incidents of problematic issues of interprofessional learning. In contrast, this paper explains the way nurses, through discursive practices, construct themselves in relation to their nursing and allied healthcare colleagues. Nurses need to be aware of the power-relations embedded in their language use and future research could usefully focus on the discursive aspect of interprofessional learning.


Top gas recycling has been suggested as a method for reducing blast furnace fuel rates and thus reducing carbon emissions from the ironmaking process. Three methods of top gas recycling are numerically investigated using a mathematical model to predict the furnace performance at fixed blast volume and constant coke, ore and pulverised coal compositions with varying recycle volumes. For each recycling method, a first calculation sequence is performed varying recycle volume at fixed ore : fuel ratio, and also a second sequence at fixed average liquid metal outflow temperature. Simple replacement of normal blast gases with recycled top gas is predicted to cause the production rate to decrease and the fuel rate to increase. Likewise, oxygen enriched blast replacement has similar effects, although the severity is less as the blast oxygen rate is maintained in this case. Both of these methods reduce furnace efficiency. Hot reducing gas (HRG) replacement, where CO2 is stripped from the recycled gas, leads to an increase in production of up to 25 % with a simultaneous decrease in fuel rate of 20 % at fixed metal temperature. These calculations show that top gas recycling could be used to increasing furnace efficiency while decreasing carbon emissions thus making a positive contribution to efforts to prevent global warming.


Background: Whilst large vessel vasculitis (LVV) predominantly occurs in isolation, associations with other infectious and non-infectious diseases have been reported. Limited data describing associations with various autoimmune diseases (AI), including spondyloarthritis exists. The aim of this study was to characterize the association of LVV and spondyloarthritis or its associated diseases (SpAD). Methods: A single centre, retrospective study of patients ≥50yrs with first presentation LVV between 01.06.2008-01.06.2015 was performed. Patients were categorized according to SpA or associated disease, other AI or idiopathic LVV (iLVV). Clinical, laboratory and imaging findings were compared. Kaplan-Meyer survival analysis, with relapse taken as the primary end-point, was performed. Results: LVV was confirmed in 62 pts, of who 16/62 (26%) had SpA or associated disease. In these patients, LVV presented earlier (59.2 SpAD vs. 68.1 AI and 70.3yrs iLVV; p=0.01) and occurred predominantly in spring compared to autumn and winter in non-SpA patients, was associated with more centralised pattern of distribution (p=0.05) and was more likely to exhibit a refractory course (p=0.05). Overall relapse rates were similar across groups. Smoking-status influenced age of onset in all groups, being associated with earlier onset. Conclusion: A clear association between LVV and SpAD exists. LVV associated with SpAD has a particular phenotype characterised by earlier onset, thorax-limited disease and increased risk of a refractory course. Given on-going LVV treatment trials further genetic and pathophysiological characterization appears warranted, to evaluate potential variation in treatment response and optimize future care.


This paper presents a novel method of multi-spatial light modulator (SLM) holographic image display that enables wide angle reconstruction of images of real world objects. The image data are delivered by means of digital holography. The capture and display systems are arranged in a circular configuration. In order to support the proper information flow between the multi-sensor capture and multi-SLM display systems we perform analysis using the Wigner distribution function. We also consider a mismatch of the capture and display configurations as well as the visual perception of the displayed image. Experimental results based on the reconstruction of real world scenes are presented that demonstrate the validity of the theoretical solutions. A single camera is used to record the digital holograms, where the object is rotated between captures, and these holograms are then displayed on a circular configuration of SLMs. The results show the limitation of multi-SLM holographic displays in terms of visual perception. These problems arise from the limited angular distribution of the SLMs on a display circle and the presence of gaps between the SLMs.


With the increase of mandatory arbitration agreements in consumer contracts, private arbitration firms emerged to administer arbitration proceedings between consumers, credit card companies, financial institutions, and debt-collection entities. Because of the enormous market for consumer arbitration services, firms have strong financial incentives to ensure clients remain satisfied with their services. Despite conflict of interest concerns, lawsuits alleging that firms violated ethical and contractual obligations to provide neutral arbitration proceedings have been largely unsuccessful because firms escape liability under the doctrine of arbitral immunity. After providing a history of arbitral immunity, this Note focuses on a novel approach taken by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera that challenges a firm's immunity on the grounds that the city is acting in a civil law enforcement capacity and only seeking equitable relief. This Note discusses the merits of San Francisco's approach, its possible replication in other states, and the ultimate need for comprehensive legislative reform.


Background Only a minority of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection develops severe liver fibrosis, a process that may be controlled by human genetic factors. Objective To investigate the role of 384 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located in 36 candidate genes related to the fibrogenesis/fibrolysis process. Methods Patients with chronic HCV infection were gathered from two French cohorts (prospectively and retrospectively). The overall sample consisted of 393 HCV-infected subjects without known risk factors for fibrosis progression, including 134 patients with severe liver fibrosis and 259 without severe fibrosis. Results Only two SNPs in strong linkage disequilibrium (LD) in the interferon γ receptor 2 gene (IFNGR2) were significantly associated with liver fibrosis in both the prospective and the retrospective samples. The strongest association (p=8×10−5) was observed with the G/A SNP rs9976971 with an OR of severe fibrosis for AA versus AG or GG subjects at 2.95 (95% CI 1.70 to 5.11). This effect was higher (p=9×10−7) when taking into account the time of follow-up, and the hazard ratio of progression towards severe fibrosis for AA patients was 2.62 (1.76 to 3.91). Refined sequencing and analysis of the IFNGR2 region identified two additional variants in strong LD with rs9976971. No haplotypes derived from this cluster of four variants provided stronger evidence for association than rs9976971 alone. Conclusions This identification of a cluster of four IFNGR2 variants strongly associated with fibrosis progression in chronic HCV infection underlines the role of IFNγ in the development of liver fibrosis that may pave the way for new treatments.


Dendritic cells(DC) are professional antigen presenting cells bridging the innate and adaptive immune systems by detecting pathogen- and- damage associated molecular pattern(PAMP, DAMP) molecules. This triggers maturation and migration to regional lymph nodes where they stimulate T lymphocytes. In tissues normally exposed to relatively high level of PAMP molecules, such as the liver, DC have a higher threshold to stimulation and therefore maintain an immature phenotype under conditions that would stimulate DC at other sites. In these studies we tested the hypothesis that interleukin-6(IL-6)/Signal Transducer and Activation of Transcription-3(STAT3) activity increases the activation/maturation threshold of hepatic and bone marrow(BM) DC towards innate immune signals. Results show that liver nuclear STAT3 activity is significantly higher than other organs and is IL-6-dependent. Hepatic DC in normal wild-type(IL-6+/+) mice are phenotypically and functionally less mature than DC from IL-6-deficient(IL-6-/-) or STAT3 inhibited IL-6+/+ mice, as determined by surface marker expression, pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion, and allogenic T-cell stimulation. IL-6+/+ liver DC produce IL-6 in response to exposure to PAMPs, but resist maturation compared to IL-6-/- liver DC. Conversely, exogenous IL-6 inhibits LPS-induced IL-6-/- liver DC maturation. Oral antibiotic depletion of commensal gut bacteria in IL-6+/+ mice decreased portal blood endotoxin levels, lowered IL-6/STAT3 activity and significantly increased liver DC maturation. BM derived IL-6+/+DC with elevated STAT3 activity are also significantly less mature than IL-6-/- BMDC. The reduced maturation was especially pronounced when IL-6+/+ BMDC when cultured in elevated IL-6 conditions. IL-6 neutralization increased BMDC maturation. Blocking STAT3 activity increases maturation in IL-6+/+ BMDC but not in IL-6-/- BMDC, which have low basal STAT3 activity. Compared to IL-6-/- BMDC, IL-6+/+ BMDC significantly resisted maturation in response to low concentrations of the PAMP molecules. At higher concentrations of these same ligands stimulation of both IL-6+/+ and IL-6-/- BMDC induced maturation.In Conclusion, gut-derived bacterial products, by stimulating hepatic IL-6/STAT3 signaling, inhibit hepatic DC activation/maturation. Elevated IL-6/STAT3 activity raises the threshold needed for DC to translate triggers of innate immunity into adaptive immune responses. Manipulating gut bacteria or IL-6/STAT3 activity may therefore be an effective strategy to alter intra-hepatic immune responses.


PURPOSE
Exercise training alters protein abundance in the muscle of healthy individuals, but the effect of exercise on these proteins in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) is unknown. The aim of this study was to determine how exercise training alters the skeletal muscle proteome in patients with T2D.

METHODS
Biopsies of the vastus lateralis were obtained before and after 4 wk of exercise training in six patients with T2D (54 ± 4 yr; body mass index (BMI), 29 ± 2) and six age- and BMI-matched control subjects (48 ± 2; BMI, 28 ± 3) studied at the baseline. The proteins were identified and quantified using normalized spectral abundance factors by multidimensional high-resolution mass spectrometry.

RESULTS
Of the 1329 proteins assigned at the baseline, 438 were present in at least half of all the muscle samples; of these, 15 proteins differed significantly between the patients with T2D and control subjects (P < 0.05). In the diabetic patients, the exercise training altered the abundance of 17 proteins (P < 0.05). Key training adaptations included an increase in proteins of the malate-aspartate shuttle and citric acid cycle, reduced the abundance of glycolytic proteins, and altered the abundance of cytoskeleton proteins.

CONCLUSION
The data from this study support the ability of exercise training to alter the abundance of proteins that regulate metabolism and cytoskeletal structure in patients with T2D. These findings open new avenues for future research.


IMPORTANCE
Controversy remains about whether depression can be successfully managed after acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and the costs and benefits of doing so.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the effects of providing post-ACS depression care on depressive symptoms and health care costs.

DESIGN
Multicenter randomized controlled trial.

SETTING
Patients were recruited from 2 private and 5 academic ambulatory centers across the United States.

PARTICIPANTS
A total of 150 patients with elevated depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory [BDI] score ≥10) 2 to 6 months after an ACS, recruited between March 18, 2010, and January 9, 2012.

INTERVENTIONS
Patients were randomized to 6 months of centralized depression care (patient preference for problem-solving treatment given via telephone or the Internet, pharmacotherapy, both, or neither), stepped every 6 to 8 weeks (active treatment group; n = 73), or to locally determined depression care after physician notification about the patient's depressive symptoms (usual care group; n = 77).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Change in depressive symptoms during 6 months and total health care costs.

RESULTS
Depressive symptoms decreased significantly more in the active treatment group than in the usual care group (differential change between groups, -3.5 BDI points; 95% CI, -6.1 to -0.7; P = .01). Although mental health care estimated costs were higher for active treatment than for usual care, overall health care estimated costs were not significantly different (difference adjusting for confounding, -$325; 95% CI, -$2639 to $1989; P = .78).

CONCLUSIONS
For patients with post-ACS depression, active treatment had a substantial beneficial effect on depressive symptoms. This kind of depression care is feasible, effective, and may be cost-neutral within 6 months; therefore, it should be tested in a large phase 3 pragmatic trial.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01032018.


Introspection mechanisms are employed in agent architectures toimprove agent performance. However, there is currently no approach tointrospection that makes automatic adjustments at multiple levels inthe implemented agent system. We introduce our novel multi-levelintrospection framework that can be used to automatically adjustarchitectural configurations based on the introspection results at theagent, infrastructure and component level. We demonstrate the utilityof such adjustments in a concrete implementation on a robot where thehigh-level goal of the robot is used to automatically configure thevision system in a way that minimizes resource consumption whileimproving overall task performance.


This dissertation, comprised of three essays, explains and evaluates local government structural changes from a public finance perspective. The first essay examines the determinants of the rapid growth of special districts, while the next two essays estimate the effects on property values of school district consolidation and village dissolution in New York State, respectively. Together, the three essays contribute to our understanding of the causes and consequences of local government structural changes in the United States. By bring together two central trends in state and local public finance, namely, the expansion of state-imposed tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) and the rapid growth of special districts, the first essay looks into the hypothesis that TELs are partly responsible for the increase of special districts over the last several decades. To eliminate the possible omitted variable bias, I employ a combination of fixed effects, regional time trends and approximate measures of fiscal conservativeness. Based on a national data set of counties over the period 1972-2007, I find TELs, on average, increase the use of special districts (circumvention effects), whereas TELs don't force local governments to cut their intergovernmental fiscal transfer to special districts in the same county area (deterrent effects). The estimation results are robust to multiple tests of common trends assumptions, five alternative measures of TELs, alternative model specifications and different empirical strategies. This results confirm the theory that special districts have been extensively created by local general-purpose governments as an institutional strategy to circumvent the fiscal constraints imposed by TELs. The second essay explores the impacts of school district consolidation on property values in upstate New York from 2000 to 2012. This research, conducted in collaboration with Professors William Duncombe and John Yinger, adds a time dimension to research on the property-value impacts of consolidation. By combining propensity score matching and double-sales data to compare house value changes in consolidating and comparable school districts, we find that it takes time either for the advantages of consolidation to be apparent to homebuyers or for the people who prefer consolidated districts to move in. In addition, the long-run impacts of consolidation on house values are positive in low-income census tracts but negative in highincome census tracts. This result suggests that high-income households are particularly attached to the benefits, such as close contact with teachers, of small districts. Streams of institutional, economic and fiscal factors recently have been converging and substantially changing the landscape of local government in the United States. Dissolution, an old and new approach, has increasingly been used and therefore drawn much public attention nowadays. The third essay provides the first study investigating whether village dissolution, as a form of general-purpose government reorganization, affects the attractiveness of local communities. In New York, voters in several villages voted to dissolve the village and hence to shift all government services to the town government in which the village is located. I show that village dissolution does not alter the amount people are willing to pay inside the (eliminated) village boundaries, but that the price of housing declines in areas of the town outside the village (TOV). Presumably, residents in the TOV areas are upset with the negative externalities of village dissolution. THREE ESSAYS ON THE LINKS BETWEEN LOCAL GOVERNMENT STRUCTURAL CHANGES AND PUBLIC FINANCE


Much has been written about women of the English Renaissance, but few examples of women's writing from that era have been readily available until now. This remarkable anthology assembles for the first time 144 primary texts and documents written by women between 1550 and 1700 and reveals an unprecedented view of the intellectual and literary lives of women in early modern England. The writings range from poetry to philosophical treatises, addressing a wide array of subjects including law, gender, education, motherhood, medicine, religion, life-writing, and the arts. Each selection is paired with a beautifully reproduced facsimile of the text's original source manuscript, allowing a glimpse into the literary past that will lead the reader to truly appreciate the care and craft with which these women writers prepared their texts. This essential anthology is a captivating guide to the legacy of early modern women's literature and its authors that must not be overlooked.


Keeping babies warm and sweet after birth has been a long-held goal for those that care for the newborn, particularly very preterm babies. Add to this, adequate oxygenation and it would seem that the baby is set up for an uneventful passage through the special-care baby unit. Recent innovations have included continuous positive airways pressure, and prophylactic surfactant administration with the transitional care processes. As the urgency to lock in these measures at resuscitation increases there is an even greater anxiety that the baby is passed to the hands of the neonatal team sooner. Such pressure has always been there but are we now missing an important aspect of transition already accepted as being desirable in the term infant?

Yao et al demonstrated nearly 40 years ago that the premature infant differed from the term infant in the need for delay in clamping the umbilical cord.1 If half of the placental–fetal blood pool in the preterm lies in the fetus as opposed to two-thirds in the term infant, there is a significant volume and stem cell loss involved in immediate clamping of the cord for high-risk preterm deliveries. Given the significance of this observation in managing the problems of the preterm infant it is surprising that protocols for the delivery of high-risk preterm infants do not deal with this concern.

To date no studies have been sufficiently powered to answer important questions about immediate and long-term outcomes for preterm babies in whom there has been a delay in clamping the umbilical cord. The accumulated data from 10 randomised controlled trials that have been summarised in the Cochrane review by Rabe et al 2 support the premise that there are significant …


: The most contentious aspect of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) concerned its amnesty-granting powers. In return for perpetrators providing full disclosure about their crimes, the TRC was authorized to release them from both criminal responsibility and civil liability. This essay takes up the thorny question of how such a commission might be morally justified. Part 1 discusses the political circumstances that led to the creation of the TRC. Part 2 provides a critical survey of some previous attempts to justify the commission's work. Part 3 offers a new justification, grounded in Adam Smith's notion of sympathy; after outlining some of the benefits of sympathy for political reconciliation, I argue that the work of a South African–style truth commission can promote sympathy between former enemies.


The study presented is focused on the influence of carbon addition on properties of the Fe-Mn-Si type intelligent materials with basic composition of Fe64Mn30Si6 (wt. %). Three alloys were prepared, starting from elemental powders, with 0, 0.1, and 0.3 wt. % of carbon, at corresponding silicon content reduction. For the synthesis, the mechanical alloying, sintering, and annealing were applied. Further process involved deformation and subsequent heating in a furnace. High temperature X-ray diffraction patterns, obtained at room temperature and up to 600°C, showed evolution of α′, γ, and ε phase peaks. The study revealed that a small carbon addition (of 0.1 wt. %), could increase shape recovery stress, even up to 1.8% after one cycle of training. The higher carbon content leads to a deterioration of the property. Also, relative density differences are observed between the sintered Fe64Mn30Si6 (wt. %) alloys with before/after annealing with/without mechanical alloying involvement.


Coffee prices reached their lowest levels in 30 years in 2001 (and in 100 years in real terms). In almost all coffee producing countries, such prices are unable to cover production costs and have led to serious social and economic problems, including increased poverty, indebtedness and abandonment of coffee farms. The heavy reliance on coffee renders APC vulnerable to markets downturns and to the competitive pressures that exist in the industry. The coffee crisis has actually been "brewing" for some time now, but has recently percolated as the reality of far reaching structural changes in global coffee production and marketing are being recognized. While there are strategies that could be taken by the coffee industry to improve on the current situation, these are unlikely to result in a quick recovery of world prices or farms' profitability. Coffee farmers face at least two distinct sets of problems associated with prices; the outright price level and volatility. Historically, coffee prices have been among the most volatile of all commodity prices. Cyclical price volatility, particUlarly within the crop season, can be managed through price risk management instruments. However, the secular price trend requires other longer-term elements, such as diversification or improvements in quality and productivity. The paper concludes that debt within the financial structures of industry players is a result of the crisis and to solve the coffee crisis strategies focussed on raising and stabilizing incomes of coffee producers is the ultimate goal and not increasing production statistics.


We present LamiFold, a novel design and fabrication workflow for making functional mechanical objects using a laser cutter. Objects fabricated with LamiFold embed advanced rotary, linear, and chained mechanisms, including linkages that support fine-tuning and locking position. Laser cutting such mechanisms without LamiFold requires designing for and embedding off-the-shelf parts such as springs, bolts, and axles for gears. The key to laser cutting our functional mechanisms is the selective cutting and gluing of stacks of sheet material. Designing mechanisms for this workflow is non-trivial, therefore we contribute a set of mechanical primitives that are compatible with our lamination workflow and can be combined to realize advanced mechanical systems. Our software design environment facilitates the process of inserting and composing our mechanical primitives and realizing functional laser-cut objects.


The Gregory B. Jarvis Hydroelectric Project is located in Upper New York State on the West Canada Creek. Existing facilities include a non-overflow concrete gravity dam, 65 feet long and 82 feet high. Project development plans called for the installation of an intake structure and a 15 foot diameter penstock through the existing dam, and a 2-unit, 9 MW powerhouse, located 200 feet downstream of the dam. Tunneling through the dam for the installation of the penstock and construction of the intake structure had to be performed while maintaining normal operations of the Hinckley Reservoir. A large permanent bulkhead frame with guides, and bulkhead panels were installed using underwater construction techniques at the upstream face of the dam to facilitate the tunneling and concrete placement operations.


We report a case of an isolated double gastric rupture, resulted from blunt abdominal trauma, that we successfully repaired by primary closure. A 18-month-old girl injured in a motor vehicle accident was admitted to our hospital where the plain X-ray and the CT findings revealed the presence of free abdominal air. An immediate performed exploratory laparotomy disclosed two full-thickness ruptures of the stomach (on the greater curvature and the posterior wall). The ruptures were closed primarily by a two-layer closure. Twenty-four hours post-operatively the patient developed delayed shock as a result of chemical peritonitis. On the 8th postoperative day the girl developed septic shock and gastrorrhagia. She underwent a gastroscopy which revealed stress-ulcer, and was treated conservatively in the children intensive care unit of our hospital. She was discharged home on 20th postoperative day. At 3-month follow up, she was doing well with normal growth and eating a regular regimen about her age. Gastric rupture following blunt abdominal trauma is rare, with a reported incidence of 0.02-1.7%. The morbidity and mortality are directly related to the number of associated injuries, the delay in diagnosis and the development of intraabdominal sepsis. In this paper we emphasise the need for early diagnosis and the aggressive surgical treatment as a key to decreasing the mortality and morbidity from this relatively rare injury, especially in this age group of children.


A new link in the chain of events that cause cells with damaged DNA to pause in the cell cycle until the DNA is repaired or to undergo apoptosis is described by Hirao et al. This DNA damage-induced checkpoint requires activation of the transcription factor p53. The authors' analysis of checkpoint function in mouse cells lacking the protein kinase Chk2 indicates that Chk2 is required for stabilization of p53 in response to DNA damage. They also show that Chk2 can directly phosphorylate p53. Failure of this checkpoint pathway may result in cancer if cells harboring damaged DNA are allowed to replicate without first repairing their DNA. The accompanying Perspective by Carr discusses in greater detail the molecular aspects of checkpoint control and cell-cycle arrest. Hirao, A., Kong, Y.-Y., Matsuoka, S., Wakeham, A., Ruland, J., Yoshida, H., Liu, D., Elledge, S.J., and Mak, T.W. (2000) DNA damage-induced activation of p53 by the checkpoint kinase Chk2. Science 287: 1824-1827. [Abstract] [Full Text] Carr, A.M. (2000) Cell cycle: Piecing together the p53 puzzle. Science 287: 1765-1766. [Abstract] [Full Text]


The idea of virtual realities has a long and complex historical trajectory, spanning from Plato's concept of the cave and the simulacrum, to artistic styles such as Trompe L'oeil, and more recently developments in 3D film, television and gaming. However, this book will pay particular attention to the time between the 1980s to the 1990s when virtual reality and cyberspace were represented, particularly in fiction, as a wondrous technology that enabled transcendence from the limitations of physical embodiment. The purpose of this critical historical analysis of representations of virtual reality is to examine how they might deny, repress or overlook embodied experience. Specifically, the author will contend that embodiment is a fundamental aspect of immersion in virtual reality, rather than something which is to be transcended. In this way, the book aims to challenge distorted ideas about transcendence and productively contribute to debates about embodiment and technology.


Energy efficiency is becoming a key issue in the development of thermal management devices. To this end, thermal performance of plate fin and pin fin heat sinks incorporating a solid-liquid phase change material (PCM) has been evaluated, under periodic power inputs simulating actual heating conditions. Experiments were performed using Wood's metal (50Bi/27Pb/13Sn/10Cd, melting point: 70.0/spl deg/C) under forced convection in a wind tunnel, and also with an integrated fan. A periodic on/off power of 35 W and constant air velocities in the range of 0.5 /spl sim/ 1.5 m/s were examined. Three different periodic power patterns were utilized. A thermal stabilization period was observed during the phase change from solid to liquid, during which the temperature rise was arrested. The resulting extended operating period, prior to reaching a prescribed maximum temperature, resulted in an improvement in the allowable passive thermal operation time of the heat sinks. The experiments for fan-cooled heat sinks showed that energy savings by using PCM heat sinks were in the range of 5.4 /spl sim/ 12.4%. Computational predictions were performed using an implicit enthalpy-porosity approach, and were in good agreement with experimental data.


In semiarid landscapes, the linkage between runoff and vegetation is a par- ticularly close one. In this paper we report on the results of a long-term and multiple-scale study of interactions between runoff, erosion, and vegetation in a pinon-juniper woodland in New Mexico. We use our results to address three knowledge gaps: (1) the temporal scaling relationships between precipitation and runoff; (2) the effects of spatial scale on runoff and erosion, as influenced by vegetation; and (3) the influence of disturbance on these relationships. On the basis of our results, we tested three assumptions that represent current thinking in these areas (as evidenced, for example, by explicit or implicit assump- tions embedded in commonly used models). The first assumption, that aggregated precip- itation can be used as a surrogate for total runoff in semiarid environments, was not verified by our findings. We found that when runoff is generated mainly by overland flow in these systems, aggregated precipitation amounts alone (by year, season, or individual event) are a poor predictor of runoff amounts. The second assumption, that at the hillslope and smaller scales runoff and erosion are independent of spatial scale, was likewise not verified. We found that the redistribution of water and sediment within the hillslope was substantial and that there was a strong and nonlinear reduction in unit-area runoff and erosion with in- creasing scale (our scales were slope lengths ranging fro m1mt o 105 m). Thethird assumption, that disturbance-related increases in runoff and erosion remain constant with time, was partially verified. We found that for low-slope-gradient sites, disturbance led to accelerated runoff and erosion, and these conditions may persist for a decade or longer. On the basis of our findings, we further suggest that (a) disturbance alters the effects of scale on runoff and erosion in a predictable way—scale relationships in degraded areas will be fundamentally different from those in nondegraded areas because more runoff will escape off site and erosion rates will be much higher; and (b) there exists a slope threshold, below which semiarid landscapes will eventually recover following disturbance and above which there will be no recovery without mitigation or remediation.


Many of the residential neighbourhoods in this country including those that are planned fall short of providing the right configuration and the desirable environment for people walking. This is largely due to the lack of concern for the needs of pedestrians and a greater emphasis on cars. It consequently leads to a poor understanding of what it takes for an area to support walking which explains the conditions and predicaments that pedestrians in this country have to put up with. However, the fact remains that people do need or want to walk based on the endless complaints and issues raised concerning the subject. Besides, walking is important not only for individuals but for the community and the environment at large and therefore should be encouraged and given due consideration.
Thus, the study aimed to identify the essential forms of walkable neighbourhoods in the context of this country. 'Essential forms' in this case refer to basic physical forms, qualities or characteristics that the residential neighbourhoods in this country necessarily or fundamentally must have in order for them to effectively support walking. The identification and understanding of these essential forms is necessary in the creation of truly walkable neighbourhoods.
This study was conducted through literature reviews, a survey and a direct evaluation of the physical environment; and how it meets the criteria for pedestrian accessibility. The analysis of case studies was mostly quantitative but also supported by qualitative analysis. Evaluation was conducted on the various neighbourhood physical components that have direct implication on pedestrian accessibility.
Putrajaya was chosen as a case study because it is an area in the country where clear attempts to create walkable environments have been made. However, it is not truly representative of the residential developments in Malaysia in general. Therefore, Bandar Tun Hussein Onn (BTHO), Cheras was also chosen to represent the more standard residential neighbourhoods. It was found that though Putrajaya is meticulous and consistent in ensuring good permeability and connectivity for pedestrians as well as pedestrian's safety and comfort, it is less consistent in meeting the right scale and proximity for pedestrians. Where as the BTHO neighbourhoods give little consideration to pedestrians but have an overall friendlier scale and structure which fundamentally contributes to good accessibility for pedestrians. However, the fact remains that there are many important features introduced in Putrajaya that contribute positively to pedestrian accessibility that the rest of the country can emulate or learn from. Based on the case studies and a review of planning documents as well as other literatures, the study drew key implications of findings and subsequently identified the essential forms of walkable neighbourhoods with regard to this country.


Increasingly the international community attempts to improve local public infrastructure in developing countries by creating more participatory local governance and social capital. We report on a randomized field experiment conducted in 24 communities (16 treated and 8 control) in rural Sudan. We offer a clearer theoretical statement of how these programs might alter the political landscape of the recipient villages. We measure norms using lab-in-the-field techniques and we measure network density with a survey of our 475 lab subjects. We appraise the participatory character of local governance and civic participation with a survey of 576 households. The program did not affect either networks or norms, but civic participation and the participatory nature of local governance increased. Thus we attribute the increase in citizen participation not to social capital growth but to more open local governing institutions.


In Waves of Knowing Karin Amimoto Ingersoll marks a critical turn away from land-based geographies to center the ocean as place. Developing the concept of seascape epistemology, she articulates an indigenous Hawaiian way of knowing founded on a sensorial, intellectual, and embodied literacy of the ocean. As the source from which Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) draw their essence and identity, the sea is foundational to Kanaka epistemology and ontology. Analyzing oral histories, chants, artwork, poetry, and her experience as a surfer, Ingersoll shows how this connection to the sea has been crucial to resisting two centuries of colonialism, militarism, and tourism. In today's neocolonial context—where continued occupation and surf tourism marginalize indigenous Hawaiians—seascape epistemology as expressed by traditional cultural practices such as surfing, fishing, and navigating provides the tools for generating an alternative indigenous politics and ethics. In relocating Hawaiian identity back to the waves, currents, winds, and clouds, Ingersoll presents a theoretical alternative to land-centric viewpoints that still dominate studies of place-making and indigenous epistemology.


In this article, I break from the usual liberal critiques of modern policing, and instead attempt to lay the theoretical and practical groundwork for a positive vision of police authority. Liberal theories of policing rightly worry about police discretion or state coercion given the history of racially discriminatory policing. That emphasis tends to produce negative accounts of police authority that emphasize curtailing police discretion. Equally important, however, is to define the nature of legitimate police authority under the Fourth Amendment. While Fourth Amendment doctrine is nominally about a citizen's reasonable expectations of privacy, the Court's current approach appears to equate the reasonableness of police conduct with evidence that, whatever the police actually do, they are professional, experienced, and well trained. The Courts' reasonableness-as-professionalism doctrine is, however, a fiction: it is a fiction that we know what good policing is; a fiction that graduation from the academy and exposure to crime on the street certifies the police as professional; and a fiction that professionalism requires an authoritarian and forceful stance towards suspects to maintain order and investigate crime.Rather than relying a disappearing privacy doctrine to fight the Court's Fourth Amendment doctrine, liberals must interrogate what skillful policing really entails. The proper response to the current Court's fictional Fourth Amendment reasonableness doctrine is realism about skillful, legitimate policing. Realism requires that lawyers, and the academy, interrogate what training officers actually receive; what experience individual officers have; and to consider whether the officer's training and experience matches our standards for skillful, legitimate policing.Legitimate policing has two components, normative and empirical. The normative component establishes police authority as based in reason, not might. Normatively legitimate police authority is egalitarian, not subordinating. The empirical component focuses on the mutual exchange between citizen and police officer of respect for the dignity of the other. Following the work of Tom Tyler, I suggest that empirically legitimate policing induces compliance out of obligation not fear. The goal of policing (and of the Fourth Amendment's reasonableness doctrine) should be to promote police-citizen encounters that develop along lines of consensus not coercion.


The introduction of single-sex classes within co-educational schools is a strategy adopted by some schools to enhance the learning experiences of either the girls or the boys depending upon the educational climate of the time. In a period dominated by the 'what about the boys?' debate, this strategy is currently being introduced and advocated in a number of schools in an attempt to raise boys' achievement. This article explores the value of introducing single-sex classes within co-educational schools, and in doing so, it draws upon the perspectives of girls and boys involved in one such initiative. The article concludes that girls-only classes may have positive effects for girls. However, curriculum-as-usual boys' classes do nothing to challenge the problematic macho male cultures inherent in schools; indeed, it may be the case that they actually exacerbate them.


"Graphics Films" is the first retrospective monograph on one of the hardest-working men in contemporary creative culture. For more than 15 years, Mike Mills' works in the fields of design and film have determined the visual landscape of our times. "Graphics Films" is a painstakingly produced document of Mills' career to date, including many never-before-seen examples of his works in graphic design, installation, publications and film projects. Past projects by Mills include music videos for Air ("Sexy Boy"), Blonde Redhead ("Top Ranking"), Yoko Ono ("Walking on Thin Ice") and Bran Van 3000 ("Afrodiziak") and album cover designs for the Beastie Boys (the "Root Down" EP), Sonic Youth ("Washing Machine"), Air ("Moon Safari" and "Kelly Watch the Stars") and others. He has designed graphics and textiles for Marc Jacobs and created the identity for X-Girl Clothing, and has exhibited his unique graphic installations worldwide, with solo shows at Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York and Colette in Paris, among others. In 1996 Mills cofounded The Directors Bureau, a multidisciplinary production company, with Roman Coppola. Since then, he has directed an impressive slew of music videos and films including "The Architecture of Reassurance" (2000) and "Paperboys" (2001), both of which were official selections at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2004 he completed his first feature film, "Thumbsucker" (starring Keanu Reeves and Tilda Swinton), and he is currently at work on his second.


The goal of this research was to explore the relationships between four parenting dimensions (academic involvement, structure, cultural stimulation, and goals) and child personality development. Many theories, such as social learning, attachment theory, and the psychological resources principle assume that parenting practices influence child personality development. Most of past research on the associations between parenting and child Big Five traits specifically has used cross-sectional data. The few longitudinal studies that examined these associations found small relations between parenting and child personality. We extended this research by examining the long-term relations between four underexplored parenting dimensions and child Big Five personality traits using bivariate latent growth models in a large longitudinal dataset (N = 3,880). Results from growth models revealed a preponderance of null relations between these parenting measures and child personality, especially between changes in parenting and changes in child personality. In general, the observed associations between parenting and child Big Five personality were comparable in magnitude to the association between factors such as SES and birth order, and child personality—that is, small. The small associations between environmental factors and personality suggest that personality development in childhood and adolescence may be driven by multiple factors, each of which makes a small contribution.


When studying history, it usually through the accounts of the achievements of some outstanding leaders, who were capable of grasping the defining elements of the complexity of situations they faced, like Julius Caesar, whose political career was a collection of successes that were the result of his deep understanding of the Roman society and of his sensitivity in appreciating the complex situations in the lands under his control. In this work we will focus on the early stages of Caesar's campaign in the Gallic war. By a Systems Thinking approach, we will retrace Caesar's thought process, thus showing that what Caesars faced in those years is no different from many situations that today's policy makers are required to manage. It is striking to see how many similarities there are between then and now, and how many lessons could be learned (re-learned?) and applied by our policy makers. Caesar's decisions and following actions were, in fact, the consequence of his deep and thorough understanding of the environment, and because of such systemic comprehension, he could achieve Rome's desired end-state: securing the northwestern borders. Rarely, modern day interventions, despite military victories, are able to generate the same kind of long lasting solutions.


Categorizing knowledge into different disciplines and units may block knowledge within separate "folders", which could limit its later retrieval and transfer to new contexts. To test this hypothesis, two experiments had been conducted. In one experiment, participants memorized a list of words with or without cuing which category these words belonged to. One week later, they were asked to recall all the positive adjectives, which required them to retrieve words that came from different categories. In the other experiment, participants read exactly the same story but embedded in two different subject domains or no context. A survey report was presented to test whether people from different contexts would have different transfer effect. The current study replicated previous results that successful transfer was hard to observe in the laboratory settings without explicit prompts. The memory test and transfer task in this study were too difficult and resulted into to the poor performance of the participants. The initial hypothesis had been neither supported nor rejected. To test the hypothesis, future studies


The Palestinian territories have been under foreign
military occupation since 1967 and this research is set to
examine the implication that this situation has had on the
built environment in the historic city of Nablus.
Nablus like many other towns and villages in the occupied
West Bank has been subject to strict planning policies and
regulations controlling development. These policies and
regulations restricted its ability to improve its built
environment, modernise and expand its service networks,
roads and infrastructure, and to accommodate the additional
needs arising from the pressure for growth and increase in
its population.
The purpose of the study therefore, is to examine the built
environment in Nablus and identify the indicators for its
decline particularly in the city centre. It also aims to
establish the main factors that have contributed to the
deterioration of its physical condition and the major
obstacles to its development.
The difficult political conditions and frequent military
clashes have had an adverse effect on the built environment
and prospects for development. The study findings show that
the Israeli occupation authorities have imposed major
changes on the institutional structures and legislation
that prevailed on the eve of the occupation. The Israeli
administration of the occupied Palestinian territories was
characterised by the centralisation of power, weakening of
local authorities and absence of any form of Palestinian
participation in decisions related to development.
The study concludes that the planning and regulatory
policies imposed by the Israeli Administration during the
occupation of Palestine have been a major cause of the
deterioration in the built environment in Nablus and
suggests that it has had a similar impact on other towns in
occupied Palestine.


The discovery of DNA technology is considered one of the most revolutionary and beneficial contributions to the modern industrialized world. Not only has it led to formidable advances in medicine and genetic biology, but, in the past ten years, DNA technology also has become an important tool to law enforcement personnel and the legal community. Since 1986, police officers and lawyers have used DNA to find, apprehend, convict, and exonerate criminals ranging from burglars to murderers. The creation of the first DNA criminal investigative database in 1995 in Britain further enabled law enforcement to better exploit the uses of DNA technology and effect more acts of justice. As many more countries develop similar databases and seek to create one international databank, however, legislatures must ensure that the advancement of this tremendously powerful tool will not overshadow the fundamental right of privacy.


Background: The role of flagellin glycosylation is not well understood. Results: The Burkholderia cenocepacia flagellin is glycosylated on at least 10 different sites. Conclusion: The presence of glycan in flagellin significantly impaired the inflammatory response of epithelial cells. Significance: Flagellin glycosylation reduces recognition of flagellin by host TLR5, providing an evasive strategy to infecting bacteria. Burkholderia cenocepacia is an opportunistic pathogen threatening patients with cystic fibrosis. Flagella are required for biofilm formation, as well as adhesion to and invasion of epithelial cells. Recognition of flagellin via the Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) contributes to exacerbate B. cenocepacia-induced lung epithelial inflammatory responses. In this study, we report that B. cenocepacia flagellin is glycosylated on at least 10 different sites with a single sugar, 4,6-dideoxy-4-(3-hydroxybutanoylamino)-d-glucose. We have identified key genes that are required for flagellin glycosylation, including a predicted glycosyltransferase gene that is linked to the flagellin biosynthesis cluster and a putative acetyltransferase gene located within the O-antigen lipopolysaccharide cluster. Another O-antigen cluster gene, rmlB, which is required for flagellin glycan and O-antigen biosynthesis, was essential for bacterial viability, uncovering a novel target against Burkholderia infections. Using glycosylated and nonglycosylated purified flagellin and a cell reporter system to assess TLR5-mediated responses, we also show that the presence of glycan in flagellin significantly impairs the inflammatory response of epithelial cells. We therefore suggest that flagellin glycosylation reduces recognition of flagellin by host TLR5, providing an evasive strategy to infecting bacteria.


Throughout American history, the government has used U.S. citizenship and immigration law to protect privileged groups from less privileged ones, using citizenship as a legitimate proxy for otherwise invidious, and often unconstitutional, discrimination on the basis of race. While racial discrimination is rarely legally acceptable today, profiling on the basis of citizenship is still largely unchecked, and has in fact arguably increased in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks on the United States. In this examination of the intersection between American immigration and constitutional law, Victor C. Romero draws our attention to a constitutional immigration law paradox that reserves certain rights for U.S. citizens only, while simultaneously purporting to treat all people fairly under constitutional law regardless of citizenship. As a naturalized Filipino American, Romero brings an outsider's perspective to Alienated, forcing us to look at constitutional immigration law from the vantage point of people whose citizenship status is murky (either legally or from the viewpoint of other citizens and lawmakers), including foreign-born adoptees, undocumented immigrants, tourists, foreign students, and same-gender bi-national partners. Romero endorses an equality-based reading of the Constitution and advocates a new theoretical and practical approach that protects the individual rights of non-citizens without sacrificing their personhood.


Abstract : This research deals with the solution of detection and estimation problems encountered in a variety of target tracking problems encountered in a Ballistic Missile Defense environment. We propose five broad classes of problems. The first problem deals with the guidance for interceptors tracking maneuverable targets. We need to forecast the time of intersection and the bearing angle of the target, and have to update them continuously. The second problem is the robust tracking of moving targets, especially with the tracks close to one another. Our approach avoids the data association lacunae of the existing methods. Next we deal with targets which can be handled via two-dimensional imagery. We analyze these aspects. First is the method of restoration of degraded images and videos. The second deals with the compression of images and videos by sub-band coding. The third deals with a new approach for handling wavelets and its use in image compression.


We present a new approach to model and classify breast parenchymal tissue. Given a mammogram, first, we will discover the distribution of the different tissue densities in an unsupervised manner, and second, we will use this tissue distribution to perform the classification. We achieve this using a classifier based on local descriptors and probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis (pLSA), a generative model from the statistical text literature. We studied the influence of different descriptors like texture and SIFT features at the classification stage showing that textons outperform SIFT in all cases. Moreover we demonstrate that pLSA automatically extracts meaningful latent aspects generating a compact tissue representation based on their densities, useful for discriminating on mammogram classification. We show the results of tissue classification over the MIAS and DDSM datasets. We compare our method with approaches that classified these same datasets showing a better performance of our proposal.


Comparison of Ethanol and Ionomycine for cleavage and development of blocked mouse two-cell embryo
Mohammad Reza Darabi1 , Maryam Baazm1 , Saeed Babaei 1 , Azindokht Nezhadi 2 , Alireza Shams3
ABSTRACT Introduction: One of the most important reasons of infertility between couples is arresting of embryos in certain stage of development like two-cell stage embryos. There are different methods for activating oocytes and embryos routinely used in fertility and infertility centers. In this study, the effects of ethanol and calcium ionophore on activating of arrested twocell stage embryos were compared. Methods: After superovulation, female and male mice were coupled and the positive vaginal plaque mice were killed. Their uterine tubes were washed in order to gather their two-cell embryos in M16 medium. Subsequently the two-cell embryos were divided randomly to four groups. The 1st (1st control) group were incubated without any exposure, and the other embryos were exposed to 4 °C for 24 h in order to arrest in two-cell stage. The 2nd group were incubated after low temperature exposure. The 3rd group were exposed to 0.1%
ethanol for 5 minutes and the 4th group to 10 µM calcium ionophore for 5 minutes and subsequently were incubated. Results: The mean percent of degenerated embryos was increased significantly with low temperature exposure between groups (P=0.005). Similarly the cleavage rate was significant between groups except between groups 3 and 4 (P=0.217). In addition, the developmental rate was significant between groups. The mean percent of hatched blastocyst were higher in group 3 compared to other groups but their differences were not significant (P=0.512). Conclusion: Due to ethanol and calcium ionophore exposure of arrested two-cell embryos the rate of cleavage and blastocyst formation rate were increased probably because of calcium ossilation produced by chemical activators. Comparatively ethanol is more effectively on cleavage and development than calcium ionophore
Key words: Ethanol, Calcium ionophore, Two-cell embryo, Infertility


The high-temperature (HT) Water Gas Shift (WGS) reaction has considerable
technological relevance for lowering CO content during the conversion of natural gas
or liquid hydrocarbons to hydrogen. Conventional HT-WGS catalysts based on
oxides of iron and chromium are well established industrially. However, it is crucial
to remove any impurities present such as Cr6+, S or N during the catalytic process. In
particular, Cr6+ is regarded as a Class I carcinogen and its presence is restricted by
EU legislation. Even though Cr6+ is reduced during the catalytic process, caution
must still be taken to eliminate any further impurities. Hence, it is desirable to
identify alternative promoters and develop a Cr-free HT-WGS catalyst.
This thesis presents results obtained using atomistic simulation techniques to
investigate the effect of Cr3+ and possible alternative dopants in three important iron
oxide materials, Hematite (α-Fe2O3), Maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) and Magnetite (Fe3O4).
The starting point is to develop an understanding of the structural properties and
distribution of Cr3+ on the bulk and surface material of hematite. The critical stage of
understanding the role of Cr3+ provides the basis from which criteria for novel
dopants can be assessed. Al3+ and Mn3+ are proposed as the promising candidates on
the basis of this study. The research has been extended to other complex iron oxides,
such as maghemite and magnetite.
In summary, the role of chromium in the HT-WGS reaction has been investigated to
establish criteria for effective, alternative promoter dopants. This investigation has
provided a detailed insight into the atomic level behaviour of Cr3+, Mn3+, Al3+
impurities in three major iron oxide phases. The alternative dopants predicted in this
study have been the subject of parallel experimental studies conducted by Johnson
Matthey. The results of this study are already benefiting the design of more efficient
iron-oxide catalysts for the HT-WGS reaction.


Objectives The aim of this systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and controlled trials (non-RCTs, NRCTs) is to investigate the effectiveness and related costs of case management (CM) for patients with heart failure (HF) predominantly based in the community in reducing unplanned readmissions and length of stay (LOS). Setting CM initiated either while as an inpatient, or on discharge from acute care hospitals, or in the community and then continuing on in the community. Participants Adults with a diagnosis of HF and resident in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. Intervention CM based on nurse coordinated multicomponent care which is applicable to the primary care-based health systems. Primary and secondary outcomes Primary outcomes of interest were unplanned (re)admissions, LOS and any related cost data. Secondary outcomes were primary healthcare resources. Results 22 studies were included: 17 RCTs and 5 NRCTs. 17 studies described hospital-initiated CM (n=4794) and 5 described community-initiated CM of HF (n=3832). Hospital-initiated CM reduced readmissions (rate ratio 0.74 (95% CI 0.60 to 0.92), p=0.008) and LOS (mean difference −1.28 days (95% CI −2.04 to −0.52), p=0.001) in favour of CM compared with usual care. 9 trials described cost data of which 6 reported no difference between CM and usual care. There were 4 studies of community-initiated CM versus usual care (2 RCTs and 2 NRCTs) with only the 2 NRCTs showing a reduction in admissions. Conclusions Hospital-initiated CM can be successful in reducing unplanned hospital readmissions for HF and length of hospital stay for people with HF. 9 trials described cost data; no clear difference emerged between CM and usual care. There was limited evidence for community-initiated CM which suggested it does not reduce admission.


A large number of today's systems use interactive touch surfaces as the main input channel. Current devices reduce the richness of touch input to two-dimensional positions on the screen. A growing body of work develops methods that enrich touch input to provide additional degrees of freedom for touch interaction. In particular, previous work proposed to use the finger's orientation as additional input. To efficiently implement new input techniques which make use of the new input dimensions, we need to understand the limitations of the input. Therefore, we conducted a study to derive the ergonomic constraints for using finger orientation as additional input in a two-handed smartphone scenario. We show that for both hands, the comfort and the non-comfort zone depend on how the user interacts with a touch surface. For two-handed smart-phone scenarios, the range is 33.3% larger than for tabletop scenarios. We further show that the phone orientation correlates with the finger orientation. Finger orientations which are harder to perform result in phone orientations where the screen does not directly face the user.


In the years since the September 11 attacks, scholars and commentators have criticized the emergence of both legal developments and policy rhetoric that blur the lines between war and terrorism. Unrecognized, but equally as damaging to democratic ideals — and potentially more devastating in practical effect — is the expansion of this trend beyond the context of terrorism to a much wider field of non-war emergency situations. Indeed, in recent years, war and national security rhetoric has come to permeate the legal and policy conversations on a wide variety of natural and technological disasters. This melding of disaster and war for purposes of justifying exceptions to ordinary constitutional and democratic norms is particularly apparent in governmental restrictions on the flow of its communications in disasters, as limitations on information flow that might be warranted in cases of thinking enemies in times of war are invoked in disaster scenarios lacking such thinking enemies. The extension of wartime transparency exceptionalism into non-thinking enemy disasters — reflected in both legislation and official rhetoric — risks the illegitimate construction of enemies by government, the unwarranted transformation of public spaces into warzones from which the public can be more easily excluded, and the inappropriate reliance on notions of the "fog of war" to justify communication failures and overbroad access restrictions. Only by consciously disaggregating dissimilar forms of emergencies and removing the rhetoric of war from disaster decisionmaking can the government make appropriate determinations about the provision of information in times of community or national crisis.


Objectives. To determine whether demographic, clinical and immunological features may predict the outcome in juvenile SSc (JSSc). Methods. Clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with JSSc collected from paediatric rheumatology centres worldwide were analysed. First, univariate tests identified those features significantly related with fatal outcome, and then multivariate logistic regression analysis was applied to determine the predictors of mortality. Results. One hundred and thirty-four patients from 40 centres were eligible for the analysis. Sixteen patients died and a rapidly fatal course was observed in most of them: 4/16 died within 1 yr after diagnosis and 10/16 within 5 yrs. At the moment of diagnosis, patients with poor outcome showed a significantly higher frequency of internal organ involvement, particularly cardiac, respiratory and gastrointestinal systems. No significant difference emerged for entity of skin, vascular and musculo-skeletal involvement, nor for auto-antibodies profile and laboratory tests. Multivariate analysis showed the following factors to be significant predictors of mortality: fibrosis on chest X-rays [odds ratio (OR) 11.2], raised creatinine levels (OR 22.7) and pericarditis (OR 41.3), while a short disease duration at diagnosis conferred protection (OR 0.3). Conclusions. All patients with JSSc and fatal outcome were affected by the diffuse form of the disease, and most of them showed a very rapid progression and early signs of internal organ involvement. This suggests that, in children, SSc may have two possible courses: a rapid development of internal organ failure leading to severe disability and eventually to death, or a slow course of the disease with lower mortality.


Tomosyn is a 130-kDa cytosolic R-SNARE protein that associates with Q-SNAREs and reduces exocytotic activity. Two paralogous genes, tomosyn-1 and -2, occur in mammals and produce seven different isoforms via alternative splicing. Here, we map the structural differences between the yeast homologue of m-tomosyn-1, Sro7, and tomosyn genes/isoforms to identify domains critical to the regulation of exocytotic activity to tomosyn that are outside the soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive attachment receptor motif. Homology modeling of m-tomosyn-1 based on the known structure of yeast Sro7 revealed a highly conserved functional conformation but with tomosyn containing three additional loop domains that emanate from a β-propeller core. Notably, deletion of loops 1 and 3 eliminates tomosyn inhibitory activity on secretion without altering its soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive attachment receptor pairing with syntaxin1A. By comparison, deletion of loop 2, which contains the hypervariable splice region, did not reduce the ability of tomosyn to inhibit regulated secretion. However, exon variation within the hypervariable splice region resulted in significant differences in protein accumulation of tomosyn-2 isoforms. Functional analysis of s-tomosyn-1, m-tomosyn-1, m-tomosyn-2, and xb-tomosyn-2 demonstrated that they exert similar inhibitory effects on elevated K+-induced secretion in PC12 cells, although m-tomosyn-2 was novel in strongly augmenting basal secretion. Finally, we report that m-tomosyn-1 is a target substrate for SUMO 2/3 conjugation and that mutation of this small ubiquitin-related modifier target site (Lys-730) enhances m-tomosyn-1 inhibition of secretion without altering interaction with syntaxin1A. Together these results suggest that multiple domains outside the R-SNARE of tomosyn are critical to the efficacy of inhibition by tomosyn on exocytotic secretion.


We describe a novel approach to optimizing matrix problems involving nuclear norm regularization and apply it to the matrix completion problem. We combine methods from nonsmooth and smooth optimization. At each step we use the proximal gradient to select an active subspace. We then find a smooth, convex relaxation of the smaller subspace problems and solve these using second order methods. We apply our methods to matrix completion problems including Netflix dataset, and show that they are more than 6 times faster than state-of-the-art nuclear norm solvers. Also, this is the first paper to scale nuclear norm solvers to the Yahoo-Music dataset, and the first time in the literature that the efficiency of nuclear norm solvers can be compared and even compete with non-convex solvers like Alternating Least Squares (ALS).


Since the 1980s, many Jeremianic scholars have spent much time on the study of the various contentious issues in order to resolve them. However, there has been no unanimous agreement yet. One of these contentious issues is the relationship of the prophet Jeremiah to ancient Africa and Africans which is the main focus of this article. The author of the book Jeremiah made references to Ancient Africa and Africans about 53 times in the Septuagint, and 67 times in the Masoretic Text. This indicates that the prophet Jeremiah is very familiar with ancient Africa and Africans. Using a historical–biographical and theological method of reading Jeremiah, this article examines the portrayal of ancient Africa and Africans in the book of Jeremiah. It is also part of an investigation of the African presence in the Old Testament which, to Africans, is an important moral and self–lifting scholarly exercise. It is also gratifying information in itself to know that Africa and Africans have participated in the drama of redemption which has not been recognised as such by either Eurocentric scholars or by the majority of Africentric scholars themselves. While in the Pentateuch references to Africa and Africans appear more than 577 times, in the Major Prophets there are about 180 references. What this means is that not only the author of the book of Jeremiah, but biblical authors in general are very familiar with ancient Africa and Africans, and deliberately took time to identify them. The continued recognition by scholars and non–scholars of Africa and African presence in the Bible has great implications for Christianity in Africa.


Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of sevoflurane-based sedation technique for colonoscopy in geriatric patients as compared with that using propofol. Materials and Methods: Sixty elderly patients, who were scheduled for colonoscopy, participated in this controlled prospective study and were randomly allocated into two groups; P and S. The patients were sedated using either propofol in P group or sevoflurane in S group. Complications (including apnea, the need for airway intervention, occurrence of general anesthesia [GA], hemodynamic instability and others), the fentanyl requirement and the times of the procedure, recovery, and discharge were recorded in both groups. Results: The patients in P group had more frequent apnea attacks, need for airway intervention and occurrence of GA compared to the patients in S group. However, both groups were comparable regarding the other measured variables. Conclusion: For geriatric colonoscopy, sevoflurane can provide safe and effective sedation alternative to propofol.


This paper analyses the foundations, possible applications and the effects of tourism taxation in Spain. The article begins with an analysis of the economic and environmental reasons for taxing tourism, which would seem to call for taxes based on the principle of benefit, for either revenue or corrective purposes. Subsequently, we describe the praxis of tourism taxation in Spain, with special mention being given to the now repealed Balearic ecotasa. Finally, the effects of two fiscal modifications with revenue or corrective objectives are studied through the use of an applied general equilibrium model developed for the Spanish economy. We thus see that a 10% tax on lodging brings in significant public receipts, increases social welfare and has no effect on the environment. On the other hand, an increase of VAT rates on tourism-related sectors could have the same effects on tourist expenditure but at the costs of greater impact for Spain's economy.


From the Publisher:
This book is a hands-on tutorial for Access users who want to learn Access by working through solid examples. It will show the reader how to use Access and how to develop solid databases from start to finish. The focus of the book will be Access databases on the desktop but will have two chapters on implementing Access in a networked or client/server environment.

Key topics include understanding relational databases and the Access 2002 architecture; designing, building, and maintaining full-feature, robust database applications; implementing Data Access Pages; working with Visual Basic for Applications and the Visual Basic Editor; and publishing Access content to the WWW or a company's intranet.


Microsoft Research hosted the 2016 WSDM Cup Challenge based on the Microsoft Academic Graph. The goal was to provide static rankings for the articles that make up the graph, with the rankings to be evaluated against those of human judges. While the Microsoft Academic Graph provided metadata about many aspects of each scholarly document, we focused more narrowly on citation data and used this contest as an opportunity to test the Article Level Eigenfactor (ALEF), a novel citation-based ranking algorithm, and evaluate its performance against competing algorithms that drew upon multiple facets of the data from a large, real world dataset (122M papers and 757M citations). Our final submission to this contest was scored at 0.676, earning second place.


Recurrent neural network models with an attention mechanism have proven to be extremely effective on a wide variety of sequence-to-sequence problems. However, the fact that soft attention mechanisms perform a pass over the entire input sequence when producing each element in the output sequence precludes their use in online settings and results in a quadratic time complexity. Based on the insight that the alignment between input and output sequence elements is monotonic in many problems of interest, we propose an end-to-end differentiable method for learning monotonic alignments which, at test time, enables computing attention online and in linear time. We validate our approach on sentence summarization, machine translation, and online speech recognition problems and achieve results competitive with existing sequence-to-sequence models.


The purpose of this study was the investigation of thin-walled stressed-skin sheet pyramids for use as structural elements in lightweight roof systems. Exploratory tests were carried out on commercially produced glass reinforced polyester (GRP) hexagonal- base pyramids to determine the behaviour of thin-sheet units under load. The units were found to act mainly in the large deflection and post-buckled ranges. A review of the relevant literature was made, with much of the information originating from the field of aeronautical engineering. The calculation of the critical buckling load of the trapezoidal plates under uniformly distributed load at the apex and base was carried out using the method of collocation. Several effective width formulas developed for simply supported buckled rectangular plates in compression were applied to the results of tests on a full-scale hexagonal-base unit. To these was added a formula for the effective width of a buckled plate, proposed by the author. This formula took into account the geometry of the trapezoidal plate. Ultimate load tests were carried out on four GRP pyramids to determine the accuracy of the effective width formulas when applied to practical structures containing variations in thickness and mechanical , properties. The results of tests on individual pyramids were used to develop a method of analysis for structures composed of many pyramids by assuming that the pyramidal elements were equivalent pin-connected skeleton space frames. The analysis was then carried out by established methods developed for such skeleton structures. The results of this approximate method of analysis applied to the pyramidal structures were compared with the results of tests on two prototype structures, a stressed-skin space grid and a stressed-skin barrel vault. Conclusions were drawn, and suggestions were made for future research into some of the problems encountered.


As the new materials and technologies are increasingly applied to construction of civil infrastructures such bridges, dam and tunnels, the need for structural monitoring systems, maintenance and restoration becomes more important and vital. Bridges are widespread in every society and affect its human, social, economical and cultural aspects. Measurements and monitoring of the structural deformation of highway bridges have an essential role in structural safety. This paper investigates an integrated monitoring system for estimation of the deformation behavior of one of the important reinforced bridges in Egypt. The applied data for analysing the deformation of any structure from geodetic observations are the coordinates of several monitoring points distributed on the structure itself. The coordinates of these points are calculated with respect to control fixed points. So any deviations in the control points coordinates between the two successive epochs of observations will affect the values of structural deformation. To overcome this shortage, applying the multi-parameter transformation will be studied in this paper for structural health monitoring of bridges. Statistical tests using F-Fisher criterion with a confidence level of 98% of the geodetic observations for bridge deformation values are also presented. The results of the practical measurements, analysis of the interesting deformation technique and traffic flow around the studied highway bridge are also presented. The resulting structural deformation values from statistical tests provide a significant improvement of understanding and prediction the structure deformation values of highway bridges.


Sentencing practice and reform has in recent years assumed a high political profile in many jurisdictions. Changing public attitudes about the relative seriousness of different offences, evidence of inconsistent governmental concerns about the escalating costs of criminal justice, and support for a return to more traditional conceptions of justice in the wake of loss of faith in individualistic rehabilitative responses to offending, have all given sharper focus to the reformist agenda. This text brings together case-studies of legislative sentencing reform initiatives in the USA and Canada, Australia, Sweden, and England and Wales alongside three essays by leading international authorities on the impetus for and dynamics of change. The picture that emerges is complex. Changing sentencing policy is a highly political process in which, as these case studies show, options are judged to be acceptable as much for their presentational as their substantive characteristics. Contributors: Rod Morgan, Chris Clarkson, Tony Bottoms, Arie Freiberg, Nils Jareborg, D. A. Thomas, Andrew von Hirsch, Richard S. Frase, Anthony N. Doob, Andrew Ashworth, Michael Tonry


The playwrights composing for the London stage between 1580 and 1642 repeatedly staged plays-within and other metatheatrical inserts. Such works present fictionalized spectators as well as performers, providing images of the audience-stage interaction within the theatre. They are as much enactments of the interpretive work of a spectator as of acting, and as such they are a potential source of information about early modern conceptions of audiences, spectatorship and perception. This study examines on-stage spectatorship in three plays by Philip Massinger, head playwright for the King's Men from 1625 to 1640. Each play presents a different form of metatheatrical inset, from the plays-within of The Roman Actor (1626), to the masques-within of The City Madam (1632) to the titular miniature portrait of The Picture (1629), moving thematically from spectator interpretations of dramatic performance, the visual spectacle of the masque to staged 'readings' of static visual art. All three forms present a dramatization of the process of examination, and allow an analysis of Massinger's assumptions about interpretation, perception and spectator response.


With the prominence of one-name couples (Brangelina, Kimye) and famous families (the Smiths, the Beckhams), it is becoming increasingly clear that celebrity is no longer an individual pursuit-if it ever was. Accordingly, First Comes Love explores celebrity kinship and the phenomenon of the power couple: those relationships where two stars come together and where their individual identities as celebrities become inseparable from their status as a famous twosome. Taken together, the chapters in this volume interrogate the ways these alliances are bound up in wider cultural debates about marriage, love, intimacy, family, parenthood, sexuality, and gender, in their particular historical contexts, from the 1920s to the present day. Interdisciplinary in scope, First Comes Love seeks to establish how celebrity relationships play particular roles in dramatizing, disrupting, and reconciling often-contradictory ideas about coupledom and kinship formations - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/first-comes-love-9781628921229/#sthash.9IScvoXP.dpuf


To perform a scientific speech in fifteen minutes is sometimes more demanding than to have a longer lecture especially with regard to make the audience capture the most central messages. The use of rethoric tools can help the speeker to make a good performance and the audience to learn something from the lecture. This article aim at presenting a selection of rethoric tools to be used in the short scientific speech.