Live feed are still necessary for the rearing of larval stages of several fish species, especially marine ones. Compared to Artemia, copepods are of superior quality. This is based on a suite of traits like size, movement, and nutritional value. Copepods are for example usually high in protein and fatty acids. Essential fatty acid profiles reflect to a large degree the fatty acid supply, which provides the opportunity to manipulate fatty acid profiles of, amongst others, copepods. By manipulating nutrient supply of the algae Rhodomonas salina we were able to double essential fatty acid concentrations in naupliar and copepodit life stages of the copepod Acartia tonsa. However, this lead to growth depression rather than to increased growth rates in a series of consumer species, including larval fish. The reason for the growth depression is likely to be mineral deficiencies occurring along with the nutrient manipulation of the algae.


Numerical solution of a general rate-equation model of an erbium-doped fiber amplifier highlights several important features of the device. A difference in strong-signal gain between copropagating and counterpropagating signal pump schemes in the presence of pump excited-state absorption is predicted, and this is confirmed by experimen. The detriment in the noise figure previously associated with counterpropagating schemes for only small-signal conditions is shown to be similar for strong signals, corresponding to a power-amplifier operating regime. In addition, a correction to the noise figure is given for the limit of a low-gain amplifier.


Europeans can be proud as they look back on fifty years of peaceful integration. Nowadays many people worldwide see the European Union as a model of how states and their
citizens can work together in peace and freedom. However, this achievement does not automatically mean that the EU has the ability to deal with the problems of the future
in a rapidly changing world. The European Union must continue developing its unity in diversity dynamically, be it with regard to energy issues, the euro, climate change or new types of conflict. Indeed, self-assertion and solidarity are key to the debates shaping our
future. "Europe in Dialogue" wishes to make a contribution to these open debates. The analyses in this series subject political concepts, processes and institutions to critical scrutiny and suggest ways of reforming internal and external European policymaking so that it is fit for the future. However, "Europe in Dialogue" is not merely trying to encourage an intra-European debate and makes a point of including authors from non-EU states. Looking at an issue from different angle or from afar creates a shift in perspective which,
in turn, renders Europe's development more meaningful as it engages in critical dialogue with other societies.


Background: Cancer as a global problem can affect different aspects of a patient's life. The number of people of all ages suffering from cancer is increasing. Psychological problems and reduction in quality of life are the most important issues among cancer patients. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effect of life review with spiritual approach on the life quality in cancer patients. Materials and Methods: This clinical trial study was performed on 80 cancer patients in Kashan. Patients were randomly assigned to the two equal groups: the experimental and control groups. The quality of life questionnaire, EORTC QLQ - C30, was completed for both groups before the intervention. Then, six sessions of individual counseling on life review therapy with spiritual approach were held for the experimental group. One week after the last session, the quality of life questionnaire (EORTC QLQ - C30) was completed for both groups again. Results: The mean quality of life scores changed from 27.5 in pretest to 75 in posttest for the experimental group, and from 33.75 in pretest to 21.87 in post-test for the control group. According to the results, the quality of life in the experimental group has significantly increased after the implementation of life review. Conclusion: Life review therapy with spiritual approach can improve quality of life in cancer patients. Therefore, this treatment can be used as an effective way to improve the life quality of these patients.


This paper provides both theoretical and algorithmic results for the l1-relaxation of the Cheeger cut problem. The l2 -relaxation, known as spectral clustering, only loosely relates to the Cheeger cut; however, it is convex and leads to a simple optimization problem. The l1-relaxation, in contrast, is non-convex but is provably equivalent to the original problem. The l1-relaxation therefore trades convexity for exactness, yielding improved clustering results at the cost of a more challenging optimization. The first challenge is understanding convergence of algorithms. This paper provides the first complete proof of convergence for algorithms that minimize the l1-relaxation. The second challenge entails comprehending the l1-energy landscape, i.e. the set of possible points to which an algorithm might converge. We show that l1-algorithms can get trapped in local minima that are not globally optimal and we provide a classification theorem to interpret these local minima. This classification gives meaning to these suboptimal solutions and helps to explain, in terms of graph structure, when the l1-relaxation provides the solution of the original Cheeger cut problem.


Antagonists of excitatory neurotransmitters are effective in limiting ischemic damage to the brain and spinal cord, but use in clinical stroke may be limited by side effects. Agonists of inhibitory neurotransmitters, such as γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), may provide similar neuroprotection with less severe side effects. This study examines the effect of an agonist and antagonist of the GABA-A receptor on neuronal ischemic damage. Methods Either muscimol (a GABA-A agonist) or bicuculline (a GABA-A antagonist) was administered intravenously to groups of rabbits exposed to reversible spinal cord ischemia induced by temporary occlusion of the infrarenal aorta. The duration of occlusion for individual animals was varied, providing a range of ischemia for each experimental group. The group PM represents the duration (in minutes) associated with 50% probability of resultant permanent paraplegia. Neuroprotection was demonstrated if a drug prolonged the P50 compared with the control group. Results The P50 of the control group was 26.3±2.0 minutes. Treatment with intravenous muscimol at 5 mg/kg significantly prolonged the P50 (32.4±1.3; P=.01). Treatment with intravenous bicuculline at 0.1 mg/kg significantly shortened the P50 (20.6±1.5; P=.03). The physiological and apparent behavioral effects of the drugs at these doses did not appear substantial. Conclusions Pharmacological manipulation of the GABA-A receptor may offer another avenue of therapy for central nervous system ischemia, possibly with less severe associated physiological side effects than other effective drugs.


Evidences of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic human settlements in sub-Saharan West Africa are relatively uncommon, poorly or not even dated, and come from surface sites or secondary stratigraphic context. The discovery, within the international research programme "Palaeoenvironment and human settlement in West Africa", of an impressive Pleistocene sedimentary sequence with numerous archaeological levels in the sector of Ounjougou (Dogon Country, Mali), is thus of great importance, insofar as it allows us to set up a first chrono-cultural reference framework for the West African Palaeolithic. Although the exact chronological position of a Lower Palaeolithic human settlement has yet to be specified, the recurrent Middle Palaeolithic occupation, between the end of marine isotope stage 5 and the beginning of stage 2, reveals an astonishing cultural diversity. This could indicate an important repopulating activity, following climatic and environmental changes during the Upper Pleistocene. Particularly, the appearance of the Levallois reduction technique in Sahelian West Africa, possibly prior to the emergence of the Saharan Aterian, leads us to reconsider the question of the origin of this reduction concept introduction in sub-Saharan West Africa. More generally, the Palaeolithic sequence in the sector of Ounjougou shows the intrusion of more southern and/or eastern cultural influences.


Innovative approaches to putting asset allocation into practice

 Building on more than 15 years of asset-allocation research, Paul D. Kaplan, who led the development of the methodologies behind the Morningstar Rating(TM) and the Morningstar Style Box(TM), tackles key challenges investor professionals face when putting asset-allocation theory into practice. This book addresses common issues such as:

 How should asset classes be defined?

 Should equities be divided into asset classes based on investment style, geography, or other factors?

 Should asset classes be represented by market-cap-weighted indexes or should other principles, such as fundamental weights, be used?

 How do actively managed funds fit into asset-class mixes?

 Kaplan also interviews industry luminaries who have greatly influenced the evolution of asset allocation, including Harry Markowitz, Roger Ibbotson, and the late Benoit Mandelbrot. Throughout the book, Kaplan explains allocation theory, creates new strategies, and corrects common misconceptions, offering original insights and analysis. He includes three appendices that put theory into action with technical details for new asset-allocation frameworks, including the next generation of portfolio construction tools, which Kaplan dubs "Markowitz 2.0."


In this paper, we present DKS(N, k, f), a family of infrastructures for building Peer-To-Peer applications. Each instance of DKS(N, k, f) is a fully decentralized overlay network characterized by three parameters: N the maximum number of nodes that can be in the network; k the search arity within the network and f the degree of fault-tolerance. Once these parameters are instantiated, the resulting network has several desirable properties. The first property, which is the main contribution of this paper, is that there is no separate procedure for maintaining routing tables; instead, any out-of-date or erroneous routing entry is eventually corrected on-the-fly thereby, eliminating unnecessary bandwidth consumption. The second property is that each lookup request is resolved in at most log/sub k/(N) overlay hops under normal operations. Third, each node maintains only (k-1) log/sub k/(N) + 1 addresses of other nodes for routing purposes. Fourth, new nodes can join and existing nodes can leave at will with a negligible disturbance to the ability to resolve lookups in logk(N) hops in average. Fifth, any pair key/value that is inserted into the system is guaranteed to be located even in the presence of concurrent joins. Sixth, even if f consecutive nodes fail simultaneously, correct lookup is still guaranteed.


Coronary stents have become a very popular treatment for cardiovascular disease, historically the leading cause of death in the United States. Stents, while successful in the short term, are subject to high failure rates (up to 24% in the first six months) due to wall regrowth and clotting, probably due to a combination of abnormal mechanical stresses and disruption of the arterial blood flow. The goal of this research was to develop recommendations concerning ways in which stent design might be improved, focusing on the problem of pressure wave reflections. A onedimensional finite-difference model was developed to predict these reflections, and effects of variations in stent and vessel properties were examined, including stent stiffness, length, and compliance transition region, as well as vessel radius and wall thickness. The model was solved using a combination of Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (WENO) and Runge-Kutta methods. Over 100 cases were tested. Results showed that reasonable variations in these parameters could induce changes in reflection magnitude of up to ±50%. It was also discovered that the relationship between each of these properties and the resulting wave reflection could be described simply, and the effect of all of them together could in fact be encompassed by a single non-dimensional parameter. This parameter was titled "Stent Authority," and several variations were proposed. It is believed this parameter is a novel way of relating the energy imposed upon the arterial wall by the stent, to the fraction of the incident pressure energy which is reflected from the stented region.


Several empirical studies show that a substantial fraction of the changes in growth rates of real activity can be explained by lagged aggregate stock return variations in the U.S. as well as in other G-7 countries from the 1950s to the 1990s. However, the results presented in Binswanger.[International Review of Economics and Finance 9 (2000) 387] indicate that this traditionally strong relation has disappeared in the U.S. in the early 1980s. This paper shows that a similar breakdown occurred in Canada, Japan and in an aggregate economy consisting of the four European G-7 countries. The results provide evidence in favor of the hypothesis that speculative bubbles during the 1980s and 1990s were an international phenomenon. © 2003 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. All rights reserved. JEL classification: E44, G12


The aflatoxins were discovered in toxic peanut meal causing "turkey X" disease, which killed large numbers of turkey poults, ducklings and chicks in the UK in the early 1960s. Extracts of toxic feed induced the symptoms in experimental animals, and purified metabolites with properties identical to aflatoxins B1 and G1 (AFB1 and AFG1) were isolated from Aspergillus flavus cultures. Structure elucidation of aflatoxin B1 was accomplished and confirmed by total synthesis in 1963. AFB1 is a potent liver carcinogen in rodents, non-human primates, fish and birds, operating through a genotoxic mechanism involving metabolic activation to an epoxide, formation of DNA adducts and, in humans, modification of the p53 gene. Aflatoxins are unique among environmental carcinogens, in that elucidation of their mechanisms of action combined with molecular epidemiology provides a foundation for quantitative risk assessment; extensive evidence confirms that contamination of the food supply by AFB1 puts an exposed population at increased risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Molecular biomarkers to quantify aflatoxin exposure in individuals were essential to link aflatoxin exposure with liver cancer risk. Biomarkers were validated in populations with high HCC incidence in China and The Gambia, West Africa; urinary AFB1–N 7-Guanine excretion was linearly related to aflatoxin intake, and levels of aflatoxin–serum albumin adducts also reflected aflatoxin intake. Two major cohort studies employing aflatoxin biomarkers identified their causative role in HCC etiology. Results of a study in Shanghai men strongly support a causal relationship between HCC risk and the presence of biomarkers for aflatoxin and HBV infection, and also show that the two risk factors act synergistically. Subsequent cohort studies in Taiwan confirm these results. IARC classified aflatoxin as a Group 1 human carcinogen in 1993, based on sufficient evidence in humans and experimental animals indicating the carcinogenicity of naturally occurring mixtures of aflatoxins, aflatoxin B1, G1 and M1. Aflatoxin biomarkers have also been used to show that primary prevention to reduce aflatoxin exposure can be achieved by low-technology approaches at the subsistence farm level in sub-Saharan Africa. Also, in residents of Qidong, China, oral dosing with chlorophyllin, a chlorophyll derivative, prior to each meal led to significant reduction in aflatoxin–DNA biomarker excretion, supporting the feasibility of preventive measures to reduce HCC risk in populations experiencing unavoidable aflatoxin exposure. The systematic, comprehensive approach used to create the total aflatoxin database justifies optimism for potential success of preventive interventions to ameliorate cancer risk attributable to aflatoxin exposure. This strategy could serve as a template for the development, validation and application of molecular and biochemical markers for other carcinogens and cancers as well as other chronic diseases resulting from environmental exposures.


The gist of the study was to examine the relationship between resource management strategies and learners academic performance in national examination in public primary schools in Makindu District, Makueni County, Kenya. The study had two fold objectives namely to: i) analyze the physical and human resource management strategies that enhance learners' academic performance; ii) assess the relationship between resource management and learners performance. The study was premised on Hunts (2007) theory on project management. A descriptive survey design was adopted. A combination of Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were s used to draw 25 head teachers, 200 teachers and 25 chairpersons of Parents Teachers Association(PTAs), yielding a total sample of 250 respondents. Interview schedules and questionnaires were used to collect data from chairpersons and headteachers/teachers, respectively. Quantitative data from questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistical generated by statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 20. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. Qualitative data from interviews were analyzed through interview transcription and thematic analysis and used mainly to support the data generated through statistical analyses. The major findings were that resources were managed effectively in most schools using various strategies. In addition, there was a positive and significant correlation between the effectiveness of resource management strategies and learners' academic performance in national examination. The overall result indicates that the human resource management techniques that focus sharply on the learner and teacher translate positively to pupils' enhanced academic performance in national examinations The researcher recommended that schools managers should involve teachers and learner in decision making process and management strategies that enhance learners academic performance in national examinations in the study locale of Makindu District, Makueni County, Kenya.(281 words).


MARIN, M. 2018. Breeding of the Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus in southern Chile. Marine Ornithology 46: 57–60. Here I review the current knowledge of the breeding status of the Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus in Chile and provide new data on the population at Isla Noir in the Región de Magallanes. Breeding numbers on Isla Noir are approximately six times greater than previously reported for the entire country, including all offshore islands except for the Diego Ramirez Archipelago, for which information is sparse. Here, I also describe the nests and eggs of this species found in Isla Noir, as well as feeding behavior, including consumption of carrion but also active hunting in penguin colonies. Only the Southern Giant Petrel, and not the Northern Giant Petrel M. halli, has been seen within Chilean fiords and nearshore waters.


INTRODUCTION This paper investigates the causes of FDI flows to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The subsequent analysis of foreign direct investment (FDI) in MENA intersects two approaches in International Business and International Economics. New Institutional Economics (NIE) investigates the locational determinants of FDI in host countries. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) have particularly targeted geographical regions for investment and operations to take advantage of regional economic integration. Traditionally, macroeconomic factors have been regarded as the most important determinants for location decisions and investment activities by MNEs. These location factors include market potential and size, economic growth rates, income per capita, relative labor unit costs, exchange rates, inflation rates, and relative natural endowments (Cavers, 1974; Cheng & Kwan, 2000; Dunning, 1980). Primarily, following the seminal works of North (1981, 1990) and Rumelt, Schendel and Teech (1991), economists and international management scholars found macroeconomic factors may provide only a partial explanation of FDI location and that more attention should be focused on the influence of institutions on FDI decisions (Disdier & Mayer, 2004; Dunning, 2006; Hall & Jones, 1999; Henisz, 2000; Jensen, 2003; Knack & Keifer, 1995; Mauro, 1995; Mayer, 2001; Madambi & Navarra, 2002; Rodrik, Subramania & Trebbi, 2004; Sethi, Guisinger, Ford & Phelan, 2002). According to Wan and Hoskisson (2003), institutional theory extends transaction cost theory by adding the institutional dimension. In developing countries, institutions are particularly important because institutional immaturity or ineffectiveness raises transaction costs and risk levels for foreign investor (Child, et al., 2003; Mayer, 2004; Uhlenbruck, 2004). These dual determinants of FDI, macroeconomics and institutions, are now known as the New Institutional Economics approach to FDI. NIE can be defined as an expansion of macroeconomic determinants of FDI to include socio-political interactions and the evolution of institutions. Institutions, which may be seen as the rules of the game and their associated implementation mechanisms, can be both formal and informal and are developed endogenously in response to limitations in human capacity to process information (Sugden, 1986; Williamson, 2000; Zinnes, Eilat, Sachs,2001). NIE operates in terms of hierarchy, market and participation principles as manifested by the state, the private sector, and civil society (Williamson, 1975; Williamson, 2000, Picciotto, 1997). According to Lin and Nuggent (1995) NIE has been influenced by five strands of thought: theories of collective action, transaction cost economics, theories of the evolution of norms and rule-making, the economics of imperfect information, and property rights economics. FDI flows to specific geographical regions or to host countries within geographical proximity have increased due to the larger markets created by economic integration (Buckley, Clagg, Forsans & Reilly, 2005; Lee, 2005; Mirza & Giroud, 2004). The commonalities of history, culture and geography have driven the formation of regional free trade agreements and regional political organizations. Hossain and Naser (2008), for example, indicate that the six Middle East countries which formed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), historically had common religious, social and cultural identities. The GCC also serves as a political and economic policy-coordinating forum for its members. According to Abed (2003) MENA, countries share a common cultural and institutional heritage, along with common economic and social challenges. Regionalism occupies the space between the contradictory pulls of globalization and nationalism. Rugman and Verbeke (2004) showed that the operations of MNEs are more focused on regional rather than global markets. New Institutional Economics (NIE) is now increasingly regarded as a valid explanation of location factors determining FDI in regions as diverse as Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia and Sub Saharan Africa (Grosse & Trevino, 2005; Trevino & Mixon, 2004; Manaim, 2007; Raminez, 2006; Zhang, 2001; Akinkugbe, 2005; Mengistu & Adams, 2007). …


Understanding learning and information needs of youth could provide planners with information required to address the needs of youth in a community. Using data collected from 220 and 250 male and female youth through Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and a questionnaire survey respectively, this study investigated the information and learning needs of youth in Uzoagba, a rural community in southeastern Nigeria. Two categories of youth could be identified based on their information practices. They are those under 12 where education, health/ HIV/AIDS and income dominate. Another is the group of those above 12 where the issues that dominate their needs are income/employment and education. In summary, youth want to remain healthy to develop their personal efficacy through education and then be usefully integrated into wider social and economic life. Meanwhile, they are concerned about how to participate in generating income to achieve this ultimate aim, and to assist their families and community.


The international penal code of law is laid upon the territorial jurisdictions. However, countries try to extend the spatial domain of their penal laws to areas outside their sovereignty in several exceptional states meaning that in case a crime is perpetrated outside its jurisdiction a country knows its rules and courts as being qualified to try it. One such a case states that if a crime perpetrated abroad jeopardizes their essential and vital interests the type of the jurisdiction that is created under such a circumstance is called "protective jurisdiction". According to the nature and the intensity of the crimes dealt with based on the principle of protective jurisdiction, various countries do not accept any limitation and condition except the limitation of the examples of crimes subject to protective jurisdiction in regard of the international law for the execution of such an authority. The objective of the current research paper is the investigation of the crime examples subject to protective jurisdiction in the law of Iran, Egypt and France. The results obtained from the present analytical-descriptive study indicate that there are important crimes enumerated case-specifically among the crimes subject to protective jurisdiction in the statutory provisions exercised in countries like Iran, Egypt and France.


During its close approach to Earth, comet C/Hyakutake 1996 B2 was observed at extreme ultraviolet and x-ray wavelengths with the Rœntgen X-ray Satellite and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. The emission morphology was symmetric with respect to a vector from the comet's nucleus toward the sun, but not symmetric around the direction of motion of the comet with respect to interplanetary dust. A slowly varying emission and a large impulsive event that varied on time scales of 1 to 2 hours were observed. An interaction between the comet and the solar wind/solar magnetic field seems to be the most likely mechanism for the observed emission.


While Indonesia is experiencing a rapid land use transition due to export-oriented growth in agricultural products such as palm oil and natural rubber, there is no clear understanding of how shifts in farming practices influence gender-specific roles and preferences. In a partially matrilineal society on Sumatra where rice production for subsistence purposes, in an agroforestry landscape, is traditionally considered the women's domain and responsibility, 202 households were surveyed about their perceptions of gender-specific agricultural roles. Over time, rice fields have been converted to oil palm. Lowland women have increasingly significant roles in rubber agroforestry in addition to collecting firewood, medicinal plants and wild fruit for household consumption, whereas men are typically occupied in monoculture oil palm or rubber production. As land use patterns rapidly change, particularly in the lowlands, the responsibility of rubber agroforestry systems is shifting from men to women with consequences for gender division of labour and decision making.


Temperature and time changes of infrared spectra may be used for studies of kinetic processes. Since the measurements often require low temperatures within a wide temperature interval and the compounds used are subjected to rapid cooling, special infrared cells must be used in these cases. The requirements for such cells are to a certain extent satisfied by an infrared cell which may be used without entrance and exit optical windows and where a stream of cooling nitrogen vapor prevents atmospheric water vapor from condensing on the cooled cell. The simple design of this cell makes possible a rapid cooling of the sample either by immersing it into liquid nitrogen or by spraying the sample on a precooled disc. Such a cell was used for the measurement of the activation energy of the conformational transition in chlorocyclohexane. However, the cell cannot be used below — 150°C because below this temperature condensation of carbon dioxide on the sample pellets of the cell takes place.


eScholarship provides open access, scholarly publishing services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic research platform to scholars worldwide. Abstract: Research on microgrids in the U.S. has taken a somewhat different path than parallel efforts in Japan and Europe, and this distinction is often noted in international research forums. In general, reliability and power quality in North America is poor compared to other developed countries. For example, in the U.S., the average annual expected outage duration is a few hours, whereas in Japan, it is only a few minutes. Power quality problems in the U.S. are both large scale, such as the August 2003 blackout, and local, such as damaging voltage sags. Meeting the increasingly demanding requirements of a modern digital economy would then seem to offer a more daunting challenge for the U.S. than elsewhere, and certainly, concern that the existing power delivery system will prove inadequate for future gourmet requirements has been a motivating driver of U.S. research. This objective tends to translate into a desire for microgrids to seamlessly island when grid power is interrupted or its quality is inadequate, and to (also seamlessly) reconnect when normal service has been restored. In a sense, the microgrid is perceived as acting as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), and sometimes even as a competitor to existing UPS options. Nonetheless, this difference is often over-stated, and the other threads that motivate microgrid research also exist in the U.S., e.g. the desire to expand renewable generation and the need to increase the efficiency of fossil-fired generation by the useful local application of waste heat in combined heat and power (CHP) systems, Further, over time, the differences are blurring as concerns about climate change increasingly dominate objectives worldwide. This article describes the CERTS Microgrid, which is almost


Many modern statistically efficient methods come with tremendous computational challenges, often leading to large-scale optimisation problems. In this work, we examine such computational issues for recently developed estimation methods in nonparametric regression with a specific view on image denoising. We consider in particular certain variational multiscale estimators which are statistically optimal in minimax sense, yet computationally intensive. Such an estimator is computed as the minimiser of a smoothness functional (e.g., TV norm) over the class of all estimators such that none of its coefficients with respect to a given multiscale dictionary is statistically significant. The so obtained multiscale Nemirowski-Dantzig estimator (MIND) can incorporate any convex smoothness functional and combine it with a proper dictionary including wavelets, curvelets and shearlets. The computation of MIND in general requires to solve a high-dimensional constrained convex optimisation problem with a specific structure of the constraints induced by the statistical multiscale testing criterion. To solve this explicitly, we discuss three different algorithmic approaches: the Chambolle-Pock, ADMM and semismooth Newton algorithms. Algorithmic details and an explicit implementation is presented and the solutions are then compared numerically in a simulation study and on various test images. We thereby recommend the Chambolle-Pock algorithm in most cases for its fast convergence. We stress that our analysis can also be transferred to signal recovery and other denoising problems to recover more general objects whenever it is possible to borrow statistical strength from data patches of similar object structure.


This study examined the effect of E-bank service on E-Trust with E-Security approach. So this research discusses the issue based on Theoretical frame work of marketing and E-Banking. Then a questionnaire was designed to evaluate the variables and finally with certainty of Reliability and Validity of evaluation device, was administered among 260 customers of Iran Melli Bank. Results of the research model show that E-bank service affects E-trust on the whole. It was also revealed that each component of E-Banking affects E-trust; consequently the research hypotheses were confirmed. In the end, this research introduces ways for designing e-banking service from the point of view of security that can help banks with security and e-banking and consequently costumer orientation.


Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease with primary manifestation in the joints. Early management of RA will prevent further joint damage. The joint damages, result of uncontrolled disease activity, will decrease patient's quality of life.RA should be diagnosed earlier and followed by early treatment initiation, in order to prevent further damages. This study aimed to determine the pattern of joint involvement in RA in order to made earlier diagnosis and treatment initiation.Method: This research was conducted using descriptive study design. Data were obtained using interview of RA patients who coming to Rheumatology Clinic of Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital from August 2016 to October 2016. Collected data included number of joints involvement, duration of therapy, and duration of illness after diagnosed according to the criteria of ACR / EULAR 2010.Result: Ninety-seven RA patients were involved in this study. Subjects were dominantly women (87%), the highest age group was 45-49 years old (17.53%), duration of the disease 3 months (86%). Joint that frequently involved at the time when the diagnosis made was first proximal interphalangeal (49.50%), overall findings during the course of RA was the wrist joint (90.72%).There were different tendency of joint involvement between the gender, knee joints occured in 53,84% male subjects, while PIP joints were accounted for 52,38% infemale subjects.Conclusion: The first PIP was the most common joint involved in RA patients when the diagnosis made. The wrist joint involvement was dominantly found in overall course of RA. Knee joint involvement was majorly found in male RA patients, whereas female RA patients would suffer mostly from PIP joint involvement.Keywords: involvement pattern, joints, rheumatoid arthritis


Educational and instructional television programmes are vital to academic achievement. The success of any instructional programme will depend on the instructor's skill in encoding symbols that are meaningful to the audience and on their skill in decoding them. The question therefore is "are the target audience of these programmes exposed to it and if they do, of what use do the targets of these programmes put it. This is however what this survey study investigated using 250 students of Christ the King College and Queen of the Rosary College Onitsha as study groups. The objectives of this study were to find out whether the respondents are exposed to telematics, how often they watch it and also to find out whether exposure to the programme improved their academic performance. The findings revealed that respondents' academic performance was enhanced through constant exposure to telematics. The study suggested among others that special time should be made available in school curriculum for teachers to summarize and analyse contents of educational and instructional broadcast programmes which students had watched at home. This is with a view to ensuring better utilization of such programmes by students.


The provisional city is one of constant erasure and eruption. Through what Dana Cuff calls a "convulsive urban act," developers both public and private demolish an urban site and disband its inhabitants, replacing it with some vision of a better life that leaves no trace of the former structure. Architects bring their own utopian dreams to the process. In this book, Cuff examines those convulsions through two underestimated dimensions of architectural and urban form: scale and the politics of property. Scale is intimately tied to degree of disruption: the larger a project's scale, the greater the upheaval. As both culture and geography, real estate plays an equally significant role in urban formation.Focusing on Los Angeles, Cuff looks at urban transformation through the architecture and land development of large-scale residential projects. She demonstrates the inherent instability of very large sites. Having created perverse renditions of the very problems they sought to solve, for example, public housing projects that underwent upheaval in the 1940s and 1950s are doing so again.Cuff explores five cases that span the period from the 1930s, when federal support for slum clearance and public housing caused convulsions near downtown, to a huge 1990s' mixed-use development on one of Los Angeles's last remaining wetlands. The story takes us from the refined modernist architecture of Richard Neutra to the self-conscious populism of the New Urbanism. The cases illuminate the relationship of housing architecture to issues of race, class, urban design, geography, and political ideology.


A case study is presented evaluating uncertainty in Resonance Ultrasound Spectroscopy (RUS) inversion for a single crystal (SX) Ni-based superalloy Mar-M247 cylindrical dog-bone specimens. A number of surrogate models were developed with FEM model solutions, using different sampling schemes (regular grid, Monte Carlo sampling, Latin Hyper-cube sampling) and model approaches, N-dimensional cubic spline interpolation and Kriging. Repeated studies were used to quantify the well-posedness of the inversion problem, and the uncertainty was assessed in material property and crystallographic orientation estimates given typical geometric dimension variability in aerospace components. Surrogate model quality was found to be an important factor in inversion results when the model more closely represents the test data. One important discovery was when the model matches well with test data, a Kriging surrogate model using un-sorted Latin Hypercube sampled data performed as well as the best results from an N-dimensional interpolation model using sorted data. However, both surrogate model quality and mode sorting were found to be less critical when inverting properties from either experimental data or simulated test cases with uncontrolled geometric variation.A case study is presented evaluating uncertainty in Resonance Ultrasound Spectroscopy (RUS) inversion for a single crystal (SX) Ni-based superalloy Mar-M247 cylindrical dog-bone specimens. A number of surrogate models were developed with FEM model solutions, using different sampling schemes (regular grid, Monte Carlo sampling, Latin Hyper-cube sampling) and model approaches, N-dimensional cubic spline interpolation and Kriging. Repeated studies were used to quantify the well-posedness of the inversion problem, and the uncertainty was assessed in material property and crystallographic orientation estimates given typical geometric dimension variability in aerospace components. Surrogate model quality was found to be an important factor in inversion results when the model more closely represents the test data. One important discovery was when the model matches well with test data, a Kriging surrogate model using un-sorted Latin Hypercube sampled data performed as well as the best results from an N-dimensiona...


High level assembly plans prescribe the sequence in which parts come together along with their motions. At each stage of assembly, the stability of subassemblies is an important concern. The authors address the problem of the gravitational stability of assemblies of frictionless rigid bodies. Solution methods to the problems of determining if an assembly is stable, and finding a stable orientation for a given for a given assembly are proposed. The solution methods for the two problems compute constrained motions of individual parts that decrease the gravitational potential energy, in order to determine the stability and search for stable orientations. Linear programming is used to obtain numerical solutions. The problem of finding a stable orientation is formulated as a maximin problem. The solution to this problem is the first general method for automatically determining stable orientations. The program to solve the two problems takes as input a geometric model of the assembly and information related to grounding constraints. Preliminary results are presented.


A rigorous, closed form solution for the hydraulic head, sharp interface shape, and position in a confined aquifer bordered on one side by a static interface with intruded sea water and on another side by a constant head boundary is obtained in terms of the Dupuit‐Forcheheimer model. Linear and nonlinear differential equations governing the hydraulic head variation with the horizontal coordinate contain a sink term, which is assumed to have a constant strength over the unintruded part of the catchment and linearly decreasing strength through the section overlying the interface. Solutions of the two equations are conjugated. For the length of the freshwater zone a quartic is obtained and solved. An explicit solvability condition is presented. The interface equation includes the commanding freshwater head, seawater level, density contrast between saline and fresh water, aquifer thickness and conductivity, and intensity of smeared losses, which model abstraction from the aquifer.


Nowadays, design and optimization of chemical engineering processes are carried out using process simulators. However, the accuracy of the obtained results strongly depends on the choice of an appropriate thermodynamic model. In most of the cases, chemical engineers need information about phase equilibria of multicomponent systems for which few or no data are available. It is thus essential to dispose of a reliable thermodynamic model (i) predicting the equilibrium properties without the preliminary use of experimental data; (ii) yielding accurate results in both the sub-critical and critical regions. In order to meet these challenges, the predictive thermodynamic model PPR78 is developed since 2004. This equation of state combines the model proposed by Peng and Robinson in 1978 with classical Van der Waals mixing rules involving a temperature-dependent binary interaction parameter kij(T). These kij coefficients are predicted by PPR78 from the mere knowledge of chemical structures of molecules within the mixture. Today, the PPR78 model is able to represent the fluid phase behaviour of any fluid containing alkanes, alkenes, aromatic compounds, cycloalkanes, permanent gases (CO2, N2, H2S, H2), mercaptans and water. In order to test the predictive capabilities of the PPR78 model, fluid phase behaviour of synthetic petroleum fluids including natural gases, gas condensate, crude oils etc. were predicted. In many cases, the PPR78 model allows a fine prediction of fluid phase behaviours with an accuracy close to the experimental uncertainty.


Purpose – By analysing the experience of homelessness, this chapter aims to understand how individuals experience involuntary life changes in uncertain contexts and analyses the role of consumption, in terms of possessions and practices, along the process.

Methodology/approach – This study adopts a phenomenological approach, focusing on the homelessness experience. It involves an 18 month quasi-ethnography study in a charity that supports the homeless individuals, where interviews about their retrospective biographical accounts were performed. The data was analysed using existential phenomenological procedures.

Findings – Informants' pathways to homelessness reveal a four-stage process of forced self-transformation (initial self, forced negotiation, transition, transformed self) which takes place across two stressful situational contexts: the triggering events for transformation (i.e. that led informants to lose their home) and the persisting state of uncertainty (i.e. further survival living in the streets).

Social implications – In the current postmodern times there is greater uncertainty surrounding individuals' life changes. The consequences of the current economic crisis have threatened individuals to lose their homes. By having a better understanding of the way individuals experience this type of loss, the study brings new information about how to support them.

Originality/value of chapter – This study highlights contexts where Van Gennep's transformational routine may not be suitable in the current postmodern times, and provides an alternative transformational routine that takes into account the uncertainty that accompanies involuntary transformations.


A phytoplasma associated with a rapid lethal wilt of ornamental palms in Cairns was detected by nested and real time PCR. Leaf death progressed from older to younger leaves, culminating in meristem rot. With a maximum 16SrRNA gene sequence similarity of 96%, this phytoplasma is most closely related to, but not a member of, the novel taxon 'Candidatus Phytoplasma noviguineense'. The next most closely related sequences all belonged to phytoplasmas in the 16SrIV and 16SrXXII groups. 'Ca. P. noviguineense' and members of these groups are implicated in devastating diseases of coconut overseas and have never been recorded before in Australia. A key symptom in Cairns is shared with these exotic coconut diseases: dead leaves hang down, skirt like, before eventually falling. Phylogenetic trees comparing 16SrRNA and three ribosomal protein gene sequences against those of known candidatus phytoplasma species, plus other variants, confirmed the uniqueness of this phytoplasma. It was first detected in late 2017 in a Dypsis poivreana within the Cairns Botanic Gardens, (CBG). In 2018, it was also found in a Euterpe precatoria just outside the CBG and in a coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) and an Alexandrea palm (Archontophoenix alexandrae), about 2 km south east of the CBG. Later investigations up to March 2019 detected the phytoplasma in more dying palms. These were a Verschaffeltia splendida and a Brassiophoenix drymophloeodes in the CBG, a Euterpe sp. about 600m west of the CBG, a Phoenix sp. 1.5 km west of the CBG, and a Carpentaria palm (Carpentaria acuminata) about 3 km south of the CBG. Detections at six separate locations suggests a capable insect vector is also present. During these investigations, a total of 33 other palms tested negative for phytoplasma, strongly suggesting this phytoplasma could be a causal agent of serious disease, rather than just an occasional phloem inhabitant.


Fumagillin (dicyclohexylammonium) is an antibiotic with well-known microsporicidal activity widely used to control Nosema disease caused by Nosema apis in honeybees. Its use is permitted by law in Argentine and USA, but not in the EU countries, apart from specific cases under veterinary authorization. So far, the optimal dosage of this active ingredient in controlling Nosema ceranae has not been determined. The aim of the present work was to assess the efficiency of different fumagillin dosages on Apis mellifera colonies affected by different N. ceranae intensity. For this purpose, during April and May of 2007, in an apiary located near the Mar del Plata city (Buenos Aires Province, Argentine), forty eight A. mellifera colonies reared in Langhstroth hives, each containing 8 to 10 adult bee combs, were used in order to evaluate the effectiveness of different doses of fumagillin. The colonies were divided into those with mild or semi-severe disease intensity, based on the number of Nosema spores estimated in a sample of 60 returning bees (arb, spores abundance in returning bee). Then the colonies were randomly distributed forming 6 experimental groups (3 with mild intensity: one untreated left as control and the other two treated with 102 mg of fumagillin in two and three doses, respectively; 3 with semi-severe intensity: treated with 102 mg of fumagillin in two and three doses, and with 120 mg of fumagillin in four doses, respectively). Each dose was administered at intervals of 7 days. Before and during each administration, for a period of 35 days, the number of frames covered with adult bees was recorded in each hive and a sample of 100 workers per colony was collected from the hive entrance in order to determine the abundance (arb) and prevalence (prb) of spores. This alternative parameter (prb) was calculated by examining a sub-sample of 10 bees, crushing the propodeum of the bees in 0.5 ml distilled water, taking a drop of suspension and observing 20 fields under a optic microscope (450x) for spore absence (0) or presence (1); then the estimation of spores prevalence (prb) was recorded as percentage of spore presence in the 20 observed fields, and the average of two estimates were used. Moreover, spores from 5 randomly selected colonies were molecularly characterized to confirm the Nosema species. The sequencing results showed a 98% of homology with N. ceranae. The results obtained allow to establish that the efficiency of fumagillin in controlling Nosemosis type C caused by N. ceranae is affected by the intensity of the disease rather than from dosage or way of application. The best result was obtained when colonies were affected by a mild intensity and the drug was administered in two weekly doses of 51 mg per hive.


The people of early Iron Age Cyprus worshipped at sanctuaries where a sacred tree was the focus of their rituals. The tree was closely associated with a goddess thought to inhabit the natural landscape in which the fields and settlements grew, and in which the people lived and worked.

This thesis explores why the tree of life was the central symbol of Cypriot Iron Age rituals, covering the period from the end of the Bronze Age to 500 B.C. Although the tree of the goddess has been studied as an artistic motif, and ceramic material from Cyprus has been studied scientifically, material carrying the motif has never been studied within a fully contextualised archaeology that queries its prevalence in Cypriot material culture, its role within the sanctuaries and necropolises of the city kingdoms and the meanings the material carried in those places. This research project addresses the complex, abstract, iconography of the Geometric and Archaic material in a methodical and theoretical manner, and with respect to the local and regional landscape settlement contexts from which it was recovered. The study takes a fresh, postcolonial approach and follows contextualizing, multiscalar methods towards an improved understanding of cultural structures, meanings and individual events. Old concepts of race and fixed groups are discarded in favour of a more nuanced approach that sees individual identities as constantly changing and material culture as both a driver and an indicator of social hybridisation.

This research also serves as a vehicle to study a controversial transitional phase in East Mediterranean history, when the ancient agricultural empires gave way to the poleis and colonial systems of the maritime networks. Although the emergence of a 'great divide' between east and west has been postulated for this period, the alliances and cultural exchanges that preceded this transformation have not yet been adequately explored in mainstream academic histories. This research focussing on Iron Age Cyprus illuminates regional interaction between African, Levantine and Aegean cultures, and shows that the island existed within a continuous and contiguous cultural milieu that stretched from the Nile to Athens.


Exploring policies and systems for assuring academic integrity and deterring plagiarism in different higher education institutions was the subject of a three-year project funded by the European Union (EU). The research for Impact of Policies for Plagiarism in Higher Education Across Europe (IPPHEAE), completed in November 2013, was conducted by teams at five higher education institutions from UK, Poland, Lithuania, Cyprus and Czech Republic. The research included an EU-wide survey of higher education institutions across 27 EU member states. Separate reports were prepared for the countries surveyed, each containing details of findings and recommendations for what could and should be done to improve academic quality and integrity at national, institutional and individual levels. An EU-wide comparative study provided an assessment of the maturity of policies and processes for academic integrity in each country, based on the data collected and the research conducted for each national report.This paper presents selected comparisons of results from the research, especially looking at evidence for maturity of policies, consistency of approach, examples of good practice and highlighting where serious effort is needed to strengthen current policies and practices.


This course is a global-oriented survey of the history of architecture, from the prehistoric to the sixteenth century. It treats buildings and environments, including cities, in the context of the cultural and civilizational history. It offers an introduction to design principles and analysis. Being global, it aims to give the student perspective on the larger pushes and pulls that influence architecture and its meanings, whether these be economic, political, religious or climatic.


Background Arthritis (compression) gloves are frequently provided to people with inflammatory (IA) or rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the NHS, to help reduce swelling and alleviate hand pain by providing compression and improving circulation. However evidence for their effectiveness is limited.1 Objectives Nested within a randomised controlled trial (RCT) testing the effectiveness of intervention (compression) gloves with control gloves (fitted at least one size too big) in people with RA and IA, this qualitative study aimed to explore patients' perspectives on the effect of the arthritis gloves on their hand pain and function. Methods Once randomised, participants were provided joint protection and hand exercise booklets and fitted with either the intervention or the control glove(s) by a trained occupational therapist.2 Both gloves had similar thermal qualities but control gloves did not apply compression. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 participants, purposively selected from each group (n=20) following 12 weeks of glove wear. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed by three researchers using thematic analysis with a critical realist perspective. Results Participants' perspectives on the effects of the arthritis gloves had three emergent sub-themes. These were1 Usage: both groups predominantly used the gloves for activities such as wearing them outdoors to keep hands warm, night-time wear to help with sleep, and doing light domestic activities (e.g. dusting). Gloves were not used for cooking or washing-up or for personal activities of daily living (e.g. toileting, grooming) "What didn't help as such, obviously was with washing etc. and toileting because I had to keep taking them off and putting them back on again";2 Symptomatology: while some reported that gloves helped to keep their "hand pain in check" others said that gloves had no effect on their hand pain or that they'd found "it's made them worse". Participants from both groups frequently mentioned the warmth element of the gloves, as a positive attribute to help with their symptoms;3 Aesthetics: participants had opposing views on the appearance of the arthritis gloves. Some felt that the intervention gloves "look a bit ugly with the seams outside" or stated that they "would not want to wear that colour" but did not think they were obtrusive. Most noticeably, patients seemed to view the arthritis gloves as ordinary everyday gloves, rather than a medical device "if it was cold I wore them outside". Conclusions Trial participants reported experiencing similar effects from wearing either the intervention or control gloves, with varied perspectives on whether or not gloves affected hand pain and/or function. Overall, patients did not reflect on the compressive but rather the thermal qualities of the gloves, as warmth was the main effect perceived. References [1] Hammond, et al. Clin Rehabil201630:213–24 [2] Prior, et al. Rheum2017(Supp1) Acknowledgements This project was funded by the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit Programme (PB-PG-0214–33010). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Purpose

Exploitation of project opportunities may bring more benefits than stipulated in the initial business case, and even stakeholder benefits that nobody thought of at the project initiation. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a new research area for megaprojects, i.e. the phenomenon of project opportunity exploitation as a means to increase the project benefits.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a single case study of an infrastructure megaproject, i.e. the construction and operation of a 50+ years old American bridge. Data cover information regarding 60+ years old historical documents, newspaper articles, interviews and video-recordings.

Findings

The findings of this paper are as follows: exploiting all opportunities created by the project and increasing project benefits require involvement from many categories of stakeholders; stakeholders get more involved in exploiting the opportunities created by the project when they are proud of the project; for some of the project-related opportunities, it might take a long time before they can be exploited (and related benefits achieved); and celebrating achievements of the project stimulate stakeholders to exploit opportunities created by the project and contribute to further project benefits.

Research limitations/implications

Only few interviews were conducted. Interviewees were biased as all were very proud of the bridge. This is a single case study of a "rare species", not representing most megaprojects.

Practical implications

To enhance project opportunity exploitation and increased benefits, the project owner (team) must continuously communicate about the project, also after project execution.

Originality/value

This study contributes to a gap within the literature on the phenomenon "project opportunity exploitation". This is a very rich case study and of a "rare species".


Jeffrey et al. explored the role of the nuclear-localized dual specificity phosphatase (DUSP) isoform known as phosphatase of activated cells 1 (PAC-1, which is encoded by the DUSP2 gene) in regulation of leukocyte activity and a mouse model of autoimmune arthritis. Surprisingly, cells from Dusp2—/— mice showed decreased induction of inflammatory arthritis (delayed onset of symptoms and diminished histological and clinical features). Stimulated macrophages and bone marrow-derived mast cells (BMMCs) from the Dusp2—/— mice exhibited reduced gene expression and secretion of inflammatory mediators. In addition, the cultured BMMCs from the mutant mice exhibited greater apoptosis and decreased cell survival. Only phosphatase-active forms of PAC-1 rescued the cytokine production phenotype of the mutant cells, and overexpression of a phosphatase-inactive mutant in wild-type cells acted as a dominant-negative inhibitor of cytokine production. Despite in vitro evidence that mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) of the p38 and ERK are substrates of PAC-1, the activity of these two MAPKs was decreased in the Dusp2—/— mast cells and macrophages. In contrast, phosphorylation of the MAPK c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) was increased in the Dusp2—/— cells. Reporter gene assays indicated the PAC-1 deficiency reduced gene expression by at least two transcriptional regulators, the NFAT-AP1 complex and Elk1. Pharmacological inhibition of JNK in the PAC-1 deficient cells rescued ERK phosphorylation and Elk-mediated transcription, suggesting that the JNK pathway negatively regulates the ERK pathway, such that when JNK activity is high, ERK activity is suppressed. These results have implications for (i) conclusions based on in vitro enzyme assays because the specificity of PAC-1 in vitro did not appear to match its in vivo activity and (ii) therapeutic targeting of PAC-1 as a specific modulator of MAPK signaling in immune cells, especially for treatment of autoimmune disease. K. L. Jeffrey, T. Brummer, M. S. Rolph, S. M. Liu, N. A. Callejas, R. J. Grumont, C. Gillieron, F. Mackay, S. Grey, M. Camps, C. Rommel, S. D. Gerondakis, C. R. Mackay, Positive regulation of immune cell function and inflammatory responses by phosphatase PAC-1. Nat. Immunol. 7, 274-283 (2006). [PubMed]


Research on employee recruitment has shown that an organization's corporate social performance (CSP) affects its attractiveness as an employer, but the underlying mechanisms and processes through which this occurs are poorly understood. We propose that job seekers receive signals from CSP that inform three signal-based mechanisms that ultimately affect organizational attractiveness: job seekers' anticipated pride from being affiliated with the organization, their perceived value fit with the organization, and their expectations about how the organization treats its employees. We hypothesized that these signal-based mechanisms mediate the relationships between CSP and organizational attractiveness, focusing on two aspects of CSP: an organization's community involvement and pro-environmental practices. In an experiment (n 180), we manipulated CSP via a company's web pages. In a field study (n 171), we measured CSP content in the recruitment materials used by organizations at a job fair and job seekers' perceptions of the organizations' CSP. Results provided support for the signal-based mechanisms, and we discuss the implications for theory, future research, and practice


There is active, current speculation about the relationship between trauma and psychosis. However, little is known about the information-processing mechanisms underlying the development of trauma-related intrusions in this area. Our account highlights the role of contextual integration, i.e. the need for experiential information to be effectively integrated into a temporal and spatial context in order to facilitate voluntary recall. Drawing on existing models of both posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psychosis (Brewin, 2001; Ehlers and Clark, 2000; Garety et al., 2001; Morrison, 2001), we propose a contextual integration account of trauma-related intrusions. It is argued that the strength of contextual integration, which occurs during encoding, influences the frequency and nature of subsequent intrusive experiences. Consequently, individual differences in schizotypal personality traits, which are known to be associated with levels of contextual integration, are also related to the phenomenology of trauma-related intrusions. Whilst intrusions can be seen to occur within a range of disorders, it is argued that contextual integration may be one key variable in understanding the relationship between an experienced trauma and any consequent psychiatric symptomatology. Implications for clinical interventions aimed at trauma-related psychosis are discussed, along with research aimed at developing the empirical basis for such interventions.


This study examines the role of reputation on decision making under ambiguity. Drawing on social cognition and behavioral theories, we propose that a firm's reputation exerts dual pressures on its decision making under ambiguity. On the one hand, a firm's reputation increases its aspirations for future performance and promotes its engagement in risky strategies to achieve them. On the other hand, preserving the already established reputation requires a firm to deliver consistent performance over time, which promotes greater use of risk reduction strategies. Our analyses of the U.S. venture capital firms' investments in the clean energy sector from 1990 to 2008 demonstrate that while reputable firms are more likely to invest in the emerging sector, they also employ risk reduction strategies more extensively. The sector's legitimation further influences these firms' investment decisions both directly and through its interaction with firm reputation.


This thesis contributes to economic growth and long-run economic development literature which continues to be the most exciting, challenging and admissible sub-areas of economics. Growth and development is multi-faceted as it is not just concerned with the growth at aggregate levels but it also includes the elemental changeover of the economy, for instance, social, institutional, sectoral and structural transformations. This leads to the rich cluster of questions and various new econometric methods and approaches to find their answers. Some of these questions such as sources of growth pattern differences among countries, the factors responsible for the differences in progress of a nation and the impact of financial development and remittances on economic growth are the subjects of present work. The suitable modelling techniques are adopted to recognize the sources and causes, and also to explain the underlying factors and variables responsible for such growth variations and differences across countries.

This dissertation comprises of three chapters addressing three different aspects related to growth and development of the countries.

In second chapter, the sources of growth are determined around growth regime changes using DEA- Malmquist Productivity Index technique combined with the derived structural breaks in growth series. The variant of unified Fit and Filter methodology is applied, which allows to detect large number of breaks in growth series which get excluded in case of filter based methods or statistical techniques. This approach helps to determine the structural breaks in the growth series firstly, by identifying true breaks in the volatile growth series, generally related to developing countries and secondly, by detecting the false breaks in relatively smooth growth series, usually associated with developed countries. Moreover, the productivity growth is decomposed into efficiency change, technological progress, capital deepening and human capital accumulation using DEA-Based Malmquist Productivity Index approach. The results suggest importance of efficiency changes for both positive and negative structural breaks in growth series. Besides, they also highlight the positive role of factor accumulation on growth accelerations.

A two-stage (DEA and regression) analysis of the determinants of Nation's progress is conducted in the third chapter. Nation's progress of a country is an essential element in growth theory, and its measurement is not exclusively based on economic factors but also on social, environmental and human welfare variables. The aim of this study is to examine the influence of the potential economic, institutional, demographic and geographic determinants on the progress of a nation. The performance of a nation is measured as an estimated efficiency score within which it transforms a given number of endowments such as human and physical capital into national well-being and general human welfare. The economic, environmental and human well-being yardsticks, namely GDP per capita, persons employed, carbon dioxide emission and availability of clean water with proper sanitation facilities are used to measure the nation's progress. The estimated bias adjusted performance scores in stage 1 are regressed on the potential covariates. Simar and Wilson's double bootstrap procedure is used, which allows valid inferences in the presence of an unknown serial correlation in the efficiency scores. The second stage results reveal that the considered covariates play a significant role in the progress of a nation.
In fourth chapter, a panel of 103 countries including developed and developing economies over the period 1980-2014 is used to study the role of financial development, remittances and their interaction terms on economic growth and total productivity. The results suggest positive role of financial development (FD) and remittances (REM) on economic growth. Moreover, the interaction terms (FD.REM) support the substitution hypothesis, which suggest the relaxing role of remittances in case of weak financial markets in receiving countries. However, the role of financial development and remittances on productivity growth is insignificant. Furthermore, the state of development of the countries also influences the corresponding roles of remittances, financial development and their interaction terms on economic growth.


The dynamical behavior of pulse and traveling hole in a one-dimensional system depending on the boundary conditions, obeying the complex Ginzburg-Landau (CGL) equation, is studied numerically using parameters near a subcritical bifurcation. In a spatially extended system, the criterion of Benjamin-Feir-Newell (BFN) instability near the weakly inverted bifurcation is established, and many types of regimes such as laminar regime, spatiotemporal regime, defect turbulence regimes, and so on are observed. In finite system by using the homogeneous boundary conditions, two types of regimes are detected mainly the convective and the absolute instability. The convectively unstable regime appears below the threshold of the parameter control, and beyond, the absolute regime is observed. Controlling such regimes remains a great challenge; many methods such as the nonlinear diffusion parameter control are used. The unstable traveling hole in the onedimensional cubic-quintic CGL equation may be effectively stabilized in the chaotic regime. In order to stabilize defect turbulence regimes, we use the global time-delay auto-synchronization control; we also use another method of control which consists in modifying the nonlinear diffusion term. Finally, we control the unstable regimes by adding the nonlinear gradient term to the system. We then notice that the chaotic system becomes stable under strong nonlinearity.


The Northwest Florida Expeditions of Clarence Bloomfield Moore. DAVID S. BROSE and NANCY MARIE WHITE (eds.). Classics in Southeastern Archaeology Series, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, 1999. 536 pp., illus., tables, biblio, index. $49.95 (paper), ISBN 0-8173-0992-6. Reviewed by Jason A. Gardner This impressive collection is the sixth in a series of nine volumes published by the University of Alabama Press detailing C. B. Moore's archaeological explorations in the Southeast. These once difficult-to-find works include articles from the Journal of the Academy Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and several extra articles from other journals that published the results of his expeditions. The volume under review here is one of three dealing with Moore's Rorida explorations and covers five seasons of work that spanned 17 years, from 1901 to 1918. David S. Brose and Nancy Marie White, the volume's editors, have themselves spent many years working in northwest Rorida and their introduction puts C. B. Moore and his work in a proper historical and archaeological context. Though at times disapproving of Moore's thoroughness and overall antiquarian attitude, they give him due respect since his work provided a critical foundation of work that was to come. Additionally, the comparison of Gordon Willey to Moore was unnecessarily critical, and I'm certain he never viewed the years he spent with Richard Woodbury surveying C. B. Moore sites as just a "final graduate student project" (pp. 9). (One can consult Willey's novel Selena as testament to the profound influence those years had on the young archaeologist.) Overall, however, Brose and White are to be applauded for "stage setting" this important figure in southeastern archaeology. As with other volumes in the series, Brose and White provide a table of Moore's sites along with their Rorida State site numbers, if known. They point out that there is a rich database of archaeological information in Moore's notes, collections, and even the sites that still exist, if any interested researchers wanted to track them down (and many have). Brose and White also provide a list of archaeological sites explored by Moore that can be accessed by the public, with helpful directions included. Included is a generalized cultural chronology for northwestern Rorida, with a few diagnostic artifacts to give the reader a sense of the diverse sites visited by Moore. The first of the five reprinted works is "Certain Aboriginal Remains of the Northwest Rorida Coast, Part I." Here, Moore details his investigations of 16 mounds in the winter of 1901, beginning, actually, at three sites in far eastern Baldwin County, Alabama, on Bear Point, which extends into Peridido Bay. From Bear Point, Moore continues east into northwestern Rorida proper, where he describes in varying detail his work along Santa Rosa Sound as well as Pensacola, Escambia, East, Blackwater, and Choctawhatchee Bays. Moore devoted most of this report (44 out of 77 pages) to the sites with the most elaborate finds, and in this work they were the cemetery at Point Washington and the Mound at Walton's Camp. True to form, the artifacts from these sites are illustrated throughout. The next report reprinted in the volume is "Certain Aboriginal Remains of the Northwest Rorida Coast, Part II." This report is a continuation of the previous work, performed over a period of four months in 1902. A great deal more ground was covered, or rather uncovered, in this field season. Moore explored 52 sites that included mounds and burial areas, picking up where he left off and heading east to St. Andrew's Bay and continuing down the coast exploring the other bay systems and Gulf-side areas until he reached Cedar Keys. This report is understandably longer (about 230 pages), and this time Moore more or less divides his descriptions up evenly among the sites. It appears, though, he gave the sites with distinctive cut-out figurines (which Brose and White say Moore had become particularly interested in) a bit more coverage. …


A new report from L2GP estimates, that while Syrian humanitarian actors were responsible for delivering 75% of the humanitarian assistance in 2014, they received only 0.3% of the direct and 9.3 % of the indirect cash funding available for the overall Syria response. Despite their crucial role, Syrian NGO's struggled to get their most basic costs covered in the sub-contracting and partnership agreements they have with international agencies. While international actors are all committed to transparency, 30% of the known funding remains unknown in terms of which humanitarian actor actually received the funding. Private remittances and assistance from diaspora groups were found to play a crucial role in day-to-day survival but it remained impossible to estimate their exact volume. (Less)


At the present stage of human development, food is one of the most acute problems. Over the past 30-40 years, the growth rate of population in many countries of the world is ahead of the growth rate of agricultural production, which leads to acute shortage of food. This is especially true of developing countries, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of the population of the planet that is under-eating and starving. According to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), in the world now about half a billion people are constantly hungry and twice asleep. Insufficient consumption affects children in particular. Nearly 300 million children in Asia, Africa and Latin America are lagging behind in physical and mental development as a result of poor nutrition. Every day from hunger there are about 12 thousand people dying. According to FAO, food products around the world are produced in general enough to feed the entire population of the Earth. However, the main reason for the global food crisis is not that products are distributed among countries irrelevant to the population, although such a problem exists. Researchers believe that the food crisis is caused by the coincidence of demographic, environmental and energy problems with the effects of adverse weather conditions, as well as a colossal increase in military spending. Investigated the interconnection between the dynamics of population growth and world food production volumes with the areas of agricultural land and the possible influence of projected changes in agricultural land use on increasing the cost of agricultural land is substantiated. It was investigated that the average national land rent in Ukraine would increase by 25.5%. This in turn will lead to an increase in the value of agricultural land in Ukraine. Keywords : land cost, expert appraisal, agricultural land, deficiency, world food production.


Abstract. Thermokarst lakes are typical features of the northern permafrost ecosystems, and play an important role in the thermal exchange between atmosphere and subsurface. The objective of this study is to describe the main thermal processes of the lakes and to quantify the heat exchange with the underlying sediments. The thermal regimes of five lakes located within the continuous permafrost zone of northern Siberia (Lena River Delta) were investigated using hourly water temperature and water level records covering a 3-year period (2009–2012), together with bathymetric survey data. The lakes included thermokarst lakes located on Holocene river terraces that may be connected to Lena River water during spring flooding, and a thermokarst lake located on deposits of the Pleistocene Ice Complex. Lakes were covered by ice up to 2 m thick that persisted for more than 7 months of the year, from October until about mid-June. Lake-bottom temperatures increased at the start of the ice-covered period due to upward-directed heat flux from the underlying thawed sediment. Prior to ice break-up, solar radiation effectively warmed the water beneath the ice cover and induced convective mixing. Ice break-up started at the beginning of June and lasted until the middle or end of June. Mixing occurred within the entire water column from the start of ice break-up and continued during the ice-free periods, as confirmed by the Wedderburn numbers, a quantitative measure of the balance between wind mixing and stratification that is important for describing the biogeochemical cycles of lakes. The lake thermal regime was modeled numerically using the FLake model. The model demonstrated good agreement with observations with regard to the mean lake temperature, with a good reproduction of the summer stratification during the ice-free period, but poor agreement during the ice-covered period. Modeled sensitivity to lake depth demonstrated that lakes in this climatic zone with mean depths > 5 m develop continuous stratification in summer for at least 1 month. The modeled vertical heat flux across the bottom sediment tends towards an annual mean of zero, with maximum downward fluxes of about 5 W m−2 in summer and with heat released back into the water column at a rate of less than 1 W m−2 during the ice-covered period. The lakes are shown to be efficient heat absorbers and effectively distribute the heat through mixing. Monthly bottom water temperatures during the ice-free period range up to 15 °C and are therefore higher than the associated monthly air or ground temperatures in the surrounding frozen permafrost landscape. The investigated lakes remain unfrozen at depth, with mean annual lake-bottom temperatures of between 2.7 and 4 °C.


Studies suggest that, within the hierarchical architecture, the topological higher level possibly represents the scenarios of the current sensory events with slower changing activities. They attempt to predict the neural activities on the lower level by relaying the predicted information after the scenario of the sensorimotor event has been determined. On the other hand, the incoming sensory information corrects such prediction of the events on the higher level by the fast-changing novel or surprising signal. From this point, we propose a predictive hierarchical artificial neural network model that examines this hypothesis on neurorobotic platforms. It integrates the perception and action in the predictive coding framework. Moreover, in this neural network model, there are different temporal scales of predictions existing on different levels of the hierarchical predictive coding architecture, which defines the temporal memories in recording the events occurring. Also, both the fast- and the slow-changing neural activities are modulated by the motor action. Therefore, the slow-changing neurons can be regarded as the representation of the recent scenario which the sensorimotor system has encountered. The neurorobotic experiments based on the architecture were also conducted.


Using data from a longitudinal surveillance study from rural South Africa, we investigated the odds of sexual debut, pregnancy and HIV infection of 15- to 19-year-old adolescents by parental survival. Using descriptive statistics and logistic regressions, we examine the relative risk of orphans compared with non-orphans to have ever had sex, being pregnant and being HIV infected, adjusting for age, sex, socio-economic status, education, being employed and residency. Of 8274 adolescents, 42% were orphaned (one or both parents died). Over 80% of adolescents remained in school, but orphans were significantly more likely to lag behind in grade for age. Female adolescent maternal (aOR 1.32, 95% CI 1.07–1.62), paternal (aOR 1.26, 95% CI 1.06–1.49) and dual (aOR 1.37, 95% CI 1.05–1.78) orphans were significantly more likely than non-orphaned females to have ever had sex; among males it was only paternal (aOR 1.27, 95% CI 1.05–1.53) orphans. Maternal (aOR 1.49, 95% CI 1.03–2.15) and dual (aOR 1.74, 95% CI 1.11–2.73) female orphans relative to non-orphaned females were significantly more likely to be HIV infected; male paternal (aOR 3.41, 95% CI 1.37–8.46) and dual (aOR 3.54, 95% CI 1.06–11.86) orphans had over three-fold the odds of being infected. There was strong evidence that death of mother for girls was associated with increased vulnerability to earlier sexual debut and HIV infection, while fathers appeared to play a significant role in both their son's and daughter's lives.


The ESCA (Ecological Status of Coralligenous Assemblages) index was developed to assess the ecological quality of coralligenous habitat using macroalgae as a biological indicator. The aim of this study was to evaluate the response to human-induced pressures of macroalgae and sessile macro-invertebrates shaping the coralligenous habitat and to integrate their sensitivity into the ESCA index. Coralligenous assemblages were sampled at 15 locations of the NW Mediterranean Sea classified into three groups: i) marine protected areas; ii) low urbanized locations; and iii) highly urbanized locations. A sensitivity level value was assigned to each taxon/group on the basis of its abundance in each environmental condition, the data available in the literature and the results of an expert judgement survey. The index that includes the totality of the assemblages (named ESCA-TA), calculated using both macroalgae and sessile macro-invertebrates, detected the levels of human pressure more precisely than the index calculated with only macroalgae or with only invertebrates. The potential for assessing the ecological quality of marine coastal areas was thus increased with the ESCA-TA index thanks to the use of a higher variety of descriptors.


Like Stephen Krashen's important work in The Power of Reading, Story Proof collects and analyzes the research that validates the importance of story, story reading, and storytelling to the brain development and education of children and adults. Accomplished researcher and storyteller Kendall Haven, establishes the need for understanding the research findings in neural psychology and brain development and the value of a common definition of story if one is to fully grasp the importance and necessity of story to the development of the human mind. To support his case, he reviews a wealth of research from storytellers, teachers, and others who have experienced the power of story firsthand. The author has collected anecdotal experiences from over 100 performing storytellers and from 1,800 story practitioners (mostly teachers) who have made extensive use of stories. He has read more than 150 qualitative and quantitative research studies that discuss the effectiveness of stories and/or storytelling for one or more specific applications (education, organizational management, knowledge management, medical and narrative therapy, etc.). Forty of these studies were literature reviews and comparative studies including analysis of over 1,000 studies and descriptive articles. He has also gathered research evidence from his own story performances for total audiences of over 4 million and from conducting story writing workshops with 200,000 students and 40,000 teachers.


Tree-ring data from Virginia indicate that the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island disappeared during the most extreme drought in 800 years (1587-1589) and that the alarming mortality and the near abandonment of Jamestown Colony occurred during the driest 7-year episode in 770 years (1606-1612). These extraordinary droughts can now be implicated in the fate of the Lost Colony and in the appalling death rate during the early occupations at Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America.


Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been performed to study the rehydration of compact and unfolded cytochrome c ions in the vapor phase. Experimental studies have shown that the compact conformations adsorb many more water molecules than unfolded ones when exposed to water vapor. MD simulations performed with up to 150 water molecules reproduce the key experimental observations, including a partial refolding caused by hydration. According to the calculations it is more energetically favorable to hydrate the compact conformation in the initial stages of hydration, because it is easier for a water molecule to interact simultaneously with several polar groups (due to their proximity). The protonated side chains are not favored hydration sites in the simulations because they have "self-solvation" shells which must be disrupted for the water to penetrate. For both conformations, the adsorbed water molecules are mainly located in surface crevices.


This chapter aims to disentangle the causal complex underpinning Indonesia's 'green revolution' in order to assess which aspects of it are, in principle, replicable in other parts of the world and which aspects are not. More in particular this study focuses on the question which elements of the transition in Javanese rice farming are useful for Sub-Saharan African economies, where comparable transitions in crop productivity have not occurred (yet). The main argument is that specific historical and ecological conditions make it unlikely that Indonesia's green revolution will be replicated in (parts of) Africa, but that Indonesian agricultural policies contain some important lessons for African governments that aspire to promote broad-based rural development.


This paper is devoted to study the conversion of renewable energy resources into electrical energy in a standalone hybrid power generation system. The hybrid system consists of a 230 kW wind turbine, a 30 kW micro-turbine and solar heaters of double-parallel flow. Solar heaters are being used to partially preheat the air entering the combustion chamber of the micro-turbine in order to decrease the amount of fuel consumption. The dynamic behavior and simulation results are being discussed to extract the maximum energy obtained from a variable speed wind power generation system. The hybrid model has been simulated under several wind speed conditions. A supervisory controller is designed that was able to manage between the maximum energy captured from the wind turbine and the generated energy by the microturbine to meet the load demands and wind power fluctuation due to wind speed variation. Solar heaters saved amount of fuel on average 15.4 U.S. Dollars/hr monthly according to the data provided in the year 2013.


When harsh cuts were introduced in the Swedish welfare state in an agreement between the centre-right government and the opposition Social Democrats in 1992, there were astonishingly few disagreements between the political parties as to which social groups should carry the burdens of the cuts. The conventional wisdom on welfare state retrenchment would lead us to expect a clash of interests, especially considering the strength of interest groups in Sweden and the different constituencies of the five parties included in the agreement. This paper explains why that did not happen. It argues that the role that key officials played in shaping the 1992 retrenchment agreement in Sweden was decisive in averting potential political conflicts. In a crisis, politicians depend on advice from officials as politicians need complex information, often under pressure of time. This paper argues that key state officials, through their advice, defined both the character of the crisis and the range of possible solutions. As the number of options was restricted, key officials were able to define what cuts were reasonable. Within this framework, politicians looked for practical solutions and, to a large extent, disregarded conflicts of interest. This paper also suggests that the content of such advice depends on what is called the loyalty of key officials, which depends on the terms of their employment.


Phosphodiesterases are key enzymes in cyclic-nucleotide signalling pathways, regulating the levels of cAMP and cGMP in the cell. Cyclic nucleotides play an important role in regulating progression of the complex parasite life cycle. There are four Plasmodium PDEs, PDEα-δ. PDEβ has proved refractory to deletion and is predicted to be essential in asexual blood stages. PDEs α, γ and δ have been successfully disrupted in previous studies, which revealed stage-specific roles for PDEγ and PDEδ in the mosquito. PDEβ is a promising drug target due to the proven ability to create specific inhibitors for individual human PDEs (e.g. Viagra inhibits human PDE5), the established safety record of current inhibitors and the predicted essential nature of PDEβ in P. falciparum blood stages. The lack of useful reagents; knockout strains, tagged lines and recombinant proteins, has severely limited progress in this field.
Conditional genetic disruption (required to study essential genes) is notoriously difficult in P. falciparum. This project has attempted to generate a conditional knock-out using the destabilisation domain system and the novel DiCre system, which involves recombinase-mediated genomic excision of the target DNA upon introduction of a drug. A PDEβ haemagglutanin (HA) tagged line has been successfully generated and used to investigate the cellular biology of PDEβ, including, the subcellular localisation and cyclic nucleotide specificity of PDEβ, which until now has remained speculative.
A small library of PDE inhibitors generated by Pfizer has been evaluated using a parasite growth inhibition assay and a PDE assay, with compounds active at sub-micromolar concentrations against the parasite and the protein. These assays have used wild type parasites and also a PDEα KO line which has no obvious phenotype in blood stage parasites.


Caching frequently accessed data items on the client side is an effective technique to improve performance in a mobile environment. Classical cache invalidation strategies are not suitable for mobile environments due to the disconnection and mobility of the mobile clients. One attractive cache invalidation technique is based on invalidation reports (IRs). However, the IR-based cache invalidation solution has two major drawbacks, which have not been addressed is previous research. First, there is a long query latency associated with this solution since a client cannot answer the query until the next IR interval. Second, when the server updates a hot data item, all clients have to query the server and get the data from the server separately, which wastes a large amount of bandwidth. In this paper, we propose an IR-based cache invalidation algorithm which can significantly reduce the query latency and efficiently utilize the broadcast bandwidth. Detailed simulation experiments are carried out to evaluate the proposed methodology. Compared to previous IR-based schemes, our scheme can significantly improve the throughput and reduce the query latency, the number of uplink request, and the broadcast bandwidth requirements.


Feature importance estimates that inform users about the degree to which given inputs influence the output of a predictive model are crucial for understanding, validating, and interpreting machine-learning models. However, providing fast and accurate estimates of feature importance for high-dimensional data, and quantifying the uncertainty of such estimates remain open challenges. Here, we frame the task of providing explanations for the decisions of machine-learning models as a causal learning task, and train causal explanation (CXPlain) models that learn to estimate to what degree certain inputs cause outputs in another machine-learning model. CXPlain can, once trained, be used to explain the target model in little time, and enables the quantification of the uncertainty associated with its feature importance estimates via bootstrap ensembling. We present experiments that demonstrate that CXPlain is significantly more accurate and faster than existing model-agnostic methods for estimating feature importance. In addition, we confirm that the uncertainty estimates provided by CXPlain ensembles are strongly correlated with their ability to accurately estimate feature importance on held-out data.


Aim: To facilitate care delivery and injury prevention by investigating the nature and outcomes of ocular trauma presentations to a tertiary care center serving an estimated 1.3 million people. Patients and methods: This is an observational case series, retrospectively analyzed, of all patients that presented to the tertiary care center for management of ocular trauma between 01/01/2006-31/12/2006. Data collected included: patient's clinical findings, major diagnoses, initial and final visual acuity, whether the injury was work related, whether protective eyewear was worn, and whether the patient required surgery or admission to hospital. A final BCVA < 6/12 was defined as significant visual deficit. Eligible patients were identified prospectively by researchers. Patients underwent standardized clinical assessment. De-identified clinical data was entered into a Microsoft Access database retrospectively and analyzed by separate, blinded researchers. Descriptive statistical analysis was then performed in Microsoft Excel. Analysis based on an ordinal regression model and risk factor analysis was performed in SAS.Results: There were 214 cases of ocular trauma in 197 individuals (17 bilateral injuries). Patients were mostly male (83%) with average age 35. The majority of cases were closed globe injuries (92.1%) with no significant final visual deficit (88.3%). Open globe injuries (7.9%) were more likely to have visual deficit (i.e., 47% with final BCVA < 6/12) (p < 0.01). In total, 13.1% required surgery and 12.1% required admission to hospital. Eye protection was worn in 7.9% of all cases, and 19.1% of work related cases. Nearly one quarter of cases (22.4%) were work related. Open globe injuries were more likely to occur at work. Open globe injuries at work were caused by a metal projectile in 85.7% of cases. Thirty percent of workers suffered a burn, with final BCVA < 6/12 in 10% of burns.Conclusions: While the vast majority of ocular trauma is superficial with low morbidity, trauma persists as a significant cause of visual impairment. Most vision impairing injuries occur at work, where metal projectiles and burns are common, preventable causes of significant vision loss, which could be targeted in prevention efforts.


In early development, the cortex of the mammalian brain is built layer by layer, from the inside out. But before that occurs, the neural epithelium consists of only a single layer of stem cells. Mangale et al. (see the Perspective by Grove) have now determined that in mice the gene Lhx2 determines cortical identity for cells at these earliest stages. Lhx2 establishes whether cells give rise to the cortical hem, which is now seen to function as an organizer of hippocampal development. V. S. Mangale, K. E. Hirokawa, P. R. V. Satyaki, N. Gokulchandran, S. Chikbire, L. Subramanian, A. S. Shetty, B. Martynoga, J. Paul, M. V. Mai, Y. Li, L. A. Flanagan, S. Tole, E. S. Monuki, Lhx2 selector activity specifies cortical identity and suppresses hippocampal organizer fate. Science 319, 304-309 (2008). [Abstract] [Full Text] E. A. Grove, Organizing the source of memory. Science 319, 288-289 (2008). [Summary] [Full Text]


This multimedia resource offers you all the how-to step-by-step guidance you need to perform all of the latest and best techniques in foot and ankle surgery. The complete, lavishly illustrated volume is made even better with a state-of-the-art companion web site! Large full-color intraoperative photos, diagrammable illustrations, dedicated website, and companion DVD demonstrate procedures. This concise, accessible multimedia resource shows you what you need to know and how to do it all. The result is a detailed, easy-to-use reference that no orthopedic surgeon should be without. This is a title in the "Operative Techniques" series.


The study of stable isotopes surviving in human bone is fast becoming a standard response in the analysis of cemeteries. Reviewing the state of the art for Roman Britain, the author shows clear indications of a change in diet (for the better) following the Romanisation of Iron Age Britain—including more seafood, and more nutritional variety in the towns. While samples from the bones report an average of diet over the years leading up to an individual's death, carbon and nitrogen isotope signatures taken from the teeth may have a biographical element—capturing those childhood dinners. In this way migrants have been detected—as in the likely presence of Africans in Roman York. While not unexpected, these results show the increasing power of stable isotopes to comment on populations subject to demographic pressures of every kind.