Written communication skills are one of the most assessed criteria in higher education contexts, especially in humanities disciplines, including teacher education. There is a need to research and develop an assessment grading tool (i.e. criteria sheet or rubric) that would assist students in pre-service teacher education programs to better understand and practice written communication and to assist markers when grading academic essays that include this criterion. When rubrics are used the criterion that covers the written communication skills part of the task is often too general to truly assist students to know what they must do in order to obtain the grade to which they aspire. Using substantive conversation in focus group discussions, we defined written communication and designed a criteria sheet using a model known as the Continua model of a Guide to Making Judgments (GTMJ). We found that this tool not only had the potential to help students to better understand key features of good written communication in an academic context, but also to assist assessors to focus on standards descriptors or 'threshold' qualities of written communication when grading students' academic essays.


This dissertation describes a set of research projects that were conducted between 2012 and 2014 in order to answer the question how do computational ideas alter our understanding of place? Each project was produced in the context of the performing arts and included plays, dance performances and film and installation work. For each project new software and hardware systems were created as a means of exploring different types of mediated communication. These systems include a scalable depth-camera based tracking system for performance on stage, a tool for manipulation of live-streamed video incorporated into stage performance, a method of tracking biometric data of performers live during the performance and a game-engine for creating interactive environments. Collectively these experiments establish a framework for the discussion of the nature of the shifts caused by applying computational ideas to space. Finally, the results lay the foundation for further theoretical work concerning the creation of cultural artifacts that exist somewhere between the material and immaterial, the influence of computation on the nature of modeling, and the impact of ubiquitous computing on contemporary notions of performance and play.


Electric power generation and transportation sectors are considered as main sources of gas emission today. Renewable energy and Electric Vehicles (EV) show potential as promising solutions for emission reduction and energy cost saving. However, the integration of renewable energy generation into the electric grid can be difficult, because of the source intermittency and inconsistency with energy usage; uncontrolled EV charging can also impose more burdens on power systems. Those situations can be improved through coordinated charging of EVs and optimized operation of distributed generators (DG) that not only mitigates fluctuations in generation and supply, but also reduces energy cost and the emission of pollutants (CO2, SO2, and NOx). Emerging smart grid also brings new options for Distribution System Operator (DSO) toward efficient and sustainable operation of the network. One of these options is the use of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) including DG, EV, and Demand Response (DR). Operating DER has several advantages for DSO such as having DER close to load centers which reduces total network power loss. Since DSO has several energy sources to satisfy the electric load demand in the network, it is necessary to deploy optimal scheduling for efficient usage of available energy resources. In this paper we discuss a stochastic scheduling in the distribution network considering uncertainty in renewable energy generation. The proposed model can be used to analyse the effect of using DGs and EVs on emission and operation costs of the network. Results clearly shows that cost saving could be achieved with proper planning and coordination of various DERs.


The notion of indirect separability is exploited to derive a new multistage demand system. The model allows a consistent parameterization of demand relations at various budgeting stages and it fulfills the requirement of flexibility while satisfying separability globally. Two propositions are derived to characterize flexible and separable functional forms, which lead to the specification of a flexible and separable translog (FAST) demand system. The model is particularly attractive for modeling large complete demand systems and is illustrated with an application to Canadian food demand.


Abstract Ammonoid mass occurrences of Late Triassic age were investigated in sections from A şağlyaylabel and Yukarlyaylabel, which are located in the Taurus Platform-Units of eastern Turkey. The cephalopod beds are almost monospecific, with > 99.9 % of individuals from the ceratitic genus Kasimlarceltites, which comprises more than hundreds of millions of ammonoid specimens. The ontogenetic composition of the event fauna varies from bed to bed, suggesting that these redeposited shell-rich sediments had different source areas. The geographical extent of the mass occurrence can be traced over large areas up to 10 km2. Each of the Early Carnian (Julian 2) ammonoid mass occurrences signifies a single storm (e.g. storm-wave action) or tectonic event (e.g. earthquake) that caused gravity flows and turbidity currents. Three types of ammonoid accumulation deposits are distinguished by their genesis: 1) matrix-supported floatstones, produced by low density debris flows, 2) mixed floatstones and packstones formed by high density debris flows, and 3) densely ammonoid shell-supported packstones which result from turbidity currents. Two-dimensional calculations on the mass occurrences, based on sectioning, reveal aligned ammonoid shells, implying transport in a diluted sediment. The ammonoid shells are predominantely redeposited, preserved as mixed autochthonous/parautochnonous/ allochthonous communities based on biogenic and sedimentological concentration mechanisms ( = in-situ or post-mortem deposited). This taphonomic evaluation of the Kasimlarceltites beds thus reveals new insights into the environment of deposition of the Carnian section, namely that it had a proximal position along a carbonate platform edge that was influenced by a nearby shallow water regime. The Kasimlarceltites-abundance zone is a marker-zone in the study area, developed during the drowning of a shallow water platform, which can be traceable over long distances.


Directional wave-field decomposition for heterogeneousanisotropic media with in-stantaneous response is establishedfor both the acoustic and the electromagnetic equations.We derive a sufficient condition for ellipticity of thesystem's matrix in the Laplace domain and show that theconstruction of the splitting matrix via a Dunford-Taylorintegral over the resolvent of the non-compact, non-normalsystem's matrix is well de ned. The splitting matrix also hasproperties that make it possible to construct the decompositionwith a generalized eigenvector procedure. The classical way ofobtaining the decomposition is equivalent to solving analgebraic Riccati operator equation. Hence the proceduredescribed above also provides a solution to the algebraicRiccati operator equation.The solution to the wave-field decomposition for theisotropic wave equation is expressed in terms of theDirichlet-to-Neumann map for a plane. The equivalence of thisDirichlet-to-Neumann map is the acoustic admittance, i.e. themapping between the pressure and the particle velocity. Theacoustic admittance, as well as the related impedance aresolutions to algebraic Riccati operator equations and are keyelements in the decomposition. In the electromagnetic case thecorresponding impedance and admittance mappings solve therespective algebraic Riccati operator equations and henceprovide solutions to the decomposition problem.The present research shows that it is advantageous toutilize the freedom implied by the generalized eigenvectorprocedure to obtain the solution to the decomposition problemin more general terms than the admittance/impedancemappings.The time-reversal approach to steer an acoustic wave eld inthe cavity and half space geometries are analyzed from aboundary control perspective. For the cavity it is shown thatwe can steer the field to a desired final configuration, withthe assumption of local energy decay. It is also shown that thetime-reversal algorithm minimizes a least square error forfinite times when the data are obtained by measurements. Forthe half space geometry, the boundary condition is expressedwith help of the wave-field decomposition. In the homogeneousmaterial case, the response of the time-reversal algorithm iscalculated analytically. This procedure uses the one-wayequations together with the decomposition operator.


Despite being widely used, face recognition models suffer from bias: the probability of a false positive (incorrect face match) strongly depends on sensitive attributes such as the ethnicity of the face. As a result, these models can disproportionately and negatively impact minority groups, particularly when used by law enforcement. The majority of bias reduction methods have several drawbacks: they use an end-to-end retraining approach, may not be feasible due to privacy issues, and often reduce accuracy. An alternative approach is post-processing methods that build fairer decision classifiers using the features of pre-trained models, thus avoiding the cost of retraining. However, they still have drawbacks: they reduce accuracy (AGENDA, PASS, FTC), or require retuning for different false positive rates (FSN). In this work, we introduce the Fairness Calibration (FairCal) method, a post-training approach that simultaneously: (i) increases model accuracy (improving the state-of-the-art), (ii) produces fairly-calibrated probabilities, (iii) significantly reduces the gap in the false positive rates, (iv) does not require knowledge of the sensitive attribute, and (v) does not require retraining, training an additional model, or retuning. We apply it to the task of Face Verification, and obtain state-of-the-art results with all the above advantages.


Government formation in multiparty systems is of self-evident substantive importance, and the subject of an enormous theoretical literature. Empirical evaluations of models of government formation tend to separate government formation per se from the distribution of key government pay-offs, such as cabinet portfolios, between members of the resulting government. Models of government formation are necessarily specified ex ante, absent any knowledge of the government that forms. Models of the distribution of cabinet portfolios are typically, though not necessarily, specified ex post, taking into account knowledge of the identity of some government 'formateur' or even of the composition of the eventual cabinet. This disjunction lies at the heart of a notorious contradiction between predictions of the distribution of cabinet portfolios made by canonical models of legislative bargaining and the robust empirical regularity of proportional portfolio allocations – Gamson's Law. This article resolves this contradiction by specifying and estimating a joint model of cabinet formation and portfolio distribution that, for example, predicts ex ante which parties will receive zero portfolios rather than taking this as given ex post. It concludes that canonical models of legislative bargaining do increase the ability to predict government membership, but that portfolio distribution between government members conforms robustly to a proportionality norm because portfolio distribution follows the much more difficult process of policy bargaining in the typical government formation process.


Diane Casey IMPLEMENTATION OF A CULTURAL DIVERITY PROGRAM IN A URBAN CATHOLIC MALE HIGH SCHOOL 2003/04 Dr. Theodore Johnson Master of Art in School Administration The purpose of this study is to create and implement a cultural diversity team of high school students. These students with a faculty leader will spearhead student activities and events around the topic of diversity. The students will be selectively chosen by the intern to be involved in the leadership and implementation of this project. This program is intended to increase cultural awareness of students; staff, faculty and administration so that they can put into practice the skills to confront prejudice and discriminatory behavior in themselves and others. The high school students will develop and demonstrate critical thinking skills in the area of youth diversity. This program is warranted due to a more diverse population in the school. The method of implementing this program is to work with the Youth Diversity Leadership Program of Temple University. The members of the Diversity Program will do three days of training for approximately 25-30 students from Northeast Catholic High School. Once the training is finished there will be three more days of coaching and technical assistance to prepare the 25 students to lead workshops with their peers. The project on creating and implementing a cultural diversity team will take place at Northeast Catholic High School in Philadelphia. The population will consist of high school students who were selectively chosen to represent various ethnic backgrounds. The gathering of information will consist of a survey that is created by the intern. The survey will pinpoint attitudes that are present within the school in regards to cultural diversity and cultural sensitivity. The intern will use observation and faculty input to figure out who would benefit from the training, and what group would utilize the learned skills to influence participation in issues of cultural diversity. The information will be collected and analyzed on an ongoing basis. The survey will be collected and deciphered to reflect the present attitudes on diversity, bigotry and racial differences. Observation and the use of a rubric for behavioral traits will assist in determining who will be a part of this project.


Matching fluids used in microwave imaging are often lossy to reduce the reflections from the system enclosure. To enable the use of low-loss matching fluids, we investigate the use of absorbing metasurfaces as the enclosure. This has the potential to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of the data, thus, enhancing the achievable image accuracy. The presented example has the following limitation: as opposed to design and simulation of the physical structure of the metasurface enclosure, it uses two impedance boundary conditions on top of a metallic-backed substrate. Thus, the angular dependency of a practical absorber is not completely taken into account by this model. At the conference, we'll also consider a microwave imaging metasurface enclosure via design and simulation of a physical structure.


This study investigates the relationship between teacher's presentation and children's understanding of the number line within an English primary school that follows the curricular guidance presented within the National Numeracy Strategy (DfEE, 1999a).

Following an exploratory study, which guided the development of a questionnaire, the preparation of a pilot study, and the initial investigation with the trainee teachers, the study was re-conceptualised to consider the way in which teachers within each year group of a primary school used the number line and the ways in which their children conceptualized and interpreted it.

Using a mixed methodology, the theoretical framework of the study draws upon methods associated with case study, action research and ethnography and involved the use of questionnaires, teacher observations and interviews with selected children. Analysis of the questionnaire data is mainly through the use of descriptive statistics that lead to discussion on children's embodiments of the number line, their interpretations of what it is and their accuracy in estimating magnitudes.

The results of the study suggest that conceptualising the number line as a continuous rather than discrete representation of the number system that evolves for the notion of a repeated unit was less important than carrying out actions on the number line. It is suggested that this emphasis caused ambiguity in the way teachers referred to the number line and restricted understanding amongst the children that focused upon the ordering of numbers and the actions that could be associated with this ordering. The results also suggest that children's conceptions of magnitude on a segmented 0 to 100 number line neither meet objectives specified within the National Numeracy Strategy nor confirm hypothesised models that suggest a linear or logarithmic pattern of accuracy.

The number line is seen to be a tool but its use as a tool becomes limited because teachers, and consequently children, display little if any awareness of its underlying structure and its strength as a representation of the number system.


Abstract The concept of coordinated stasis, manifest as a pattern of long intervals of concurrent taxonomic and ecologic persistence separated by comparatively abrupt periods of biotic change, has been challenged in recent studies that claim a lack of prolonged persistence of taxa and associations. A key problem has been the difficulty of distinguishing faunal change owing to localized, short-term environmental fluctuation or patchiness from that indicating regionally pervasive, long-term evolutionary or ecological change. Here, we use an extensive database from the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group of the Appalachian Basin to test for taxonomic and ecologic persistence within this ecological-evolutionary subunit, a succession of purported relative stability. Replicate samples collected from many localities and stratigraphic horizons over a wide geographic area allow us to address the effects of small-scale environmental variation and localized faunal patchiness while exploring basin-scale variation in faunal composition within and between the formations of the Hamilton Group. Observed stratigraphic distributions of fossils are consistent with a scenario in which all taxa are present from bottom to top of the Hamilton Group, and absences result only from sampling failure. Although small-scale variation in faunal composition indeed does occur, there is no more variation among formations than occurs within them. Assemblages from different formations, whether they are defined by taxonomic or ecologic composition, are statistically indistinguishable according to several independent metrics, including ANOSIM and a maximum likelihood estimation that evaluates stratigraphic turnover using Bayesian "Information Criterion." Simulated data sets indicate that test results are most consistent with species-level extinction of 2.6% per Myr within the Hamilton Group, far lower than the Givetian rate of 11.5% per Myr generic extinction derived from a global database. Such faunal persistence over the ∼5.5 Myr encompassed by this unit is consistent with the pattern of coordinated stasis. Earlier studies showing greater amounts of temporal turnover in Hamilton Group faunas are likely influenced by their smaller geographic scale of analysis, suggesting that regional studies done elsewhere may yield similar results.


Advancements in healthcare and medicine have greatly increased lifespan. Normal aging is accompanied by deterioration of key physiological processes, including sleep and cognition. Understanding the mechanisms by which these functions go awry with age is a critical step in identifying novel therapeutic strategies to improve quality of life for the elderly. One of the most prevalent complaints in the elderly is the deterioration of sleep/ wake patterns, difficulties staying awake and reduced vigilance. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms controlling these states in the brain. Mouse models are ideally suited to address this question because they share many similarities with human biology and afford the ability to manipulate molecular pathways in vivo. In Chapter 2, we use polysomnography and conditional mutant animals to explore the molecular underpinnings involved in the maintenance of wakefulness. Our results indicate that the activitydependent transcription factor cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) is critical in forebrain neurons for the maintenance of wakefulness. Interestingly, aging also reduces the ability to sustain wakefulness in the elderly. In Chapter 3, we use polysomnography in young and aged mice, combined with a novel statistical approach to closely examine how aging impacts the microstructure of sleep and wakefulness. We show that aging specifically impairs the ability to sustain long episodes of wake and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Another major health concern for older individuals is the decline of cognitive function. In Chapter 4, we use object-based memory paradigms to investigate memory formation in aged mice. Objectbased tasks are ideally suited for these studies because they circumvent the confounding alterations in motor function and stress response that accompany aging. We show that aging impairs the consolidation of memories related to the location of objects in space. Our findings indicate that the hippocampus, a brain region critical to spatial memory, is particularly vulnerable to aging. Taken together, our findings outline the molecular pathways involved in the regulation of sleep and wake and lay the groundwork for further understanding of how these systems are altered in the aged brain. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Neuroscience First Advisor Ted Abel


Technologies are creating learning opportunities that challenge traditional educational institutions. Students use mobile technologies outside the classroom but aren't allowed to use them inside. Learning through mobile devices, known in literature as mobile learning (m-learning), highlights the acquisition of context-oriented contents. One of the promising technologies to be used for this goal is a variant of barcodes; quick response codes (QR-codes). In the suggested learning system, QR codes will allow an automatic authentication on moodle platform by the student through his profile and his mobile device. These codes enclose the necessary information to connect the context-oriented materials and the learning places. Each student follows guidelines with the instructions of the learning places to visit, informing about the QR codes to decrypt. The detected information is sent to the moodle platform asking for the context-oriented learning material. A case study will be conducted to show the degree of efficiency and effectiveness of its use and relevance in the teaching-learning process.


Summary
Seasonal changes in incident irradiance and underwater light penetration at Loch Leven from 1968 to 1971 are discussed in relation to the photosynthetic behaviour and crop density of phytoplankton.

Light extinction was highest in the blue and lowest in the orange spectral regions, a pattern typical of other turbid waters. Euphotic depth varied between 1·2 and 7·4 m and was on average c. three times the Secchi disc transparency. Underwater light extinction depended chiefly on phytoplankton crop density (estimated as chlorophyll a). Despite the shallowness and wind-exposed situation of the loch there was no evidence of appreciable light extinction due to sediment disturbance. Possible causes of variability in the relationship between the minimum vertical extinction coefficient (k min) and the concentration of chlorophyll a are discussed.

The value of ks, the increment in kmin per unit increment in algal concentration, was estimated from field data as 0·0086 In units per mg chl a/m2 and from laboratory spectroradiometer data as 0·0079 In units per mg chl a/m2. These ks values imply theoretical upper limits for the amount of chlorophyll a in the euphotic zone (Σn max) of 430 and 468 mg chl a/m2, respectively. Observed euphotic chlorophyll a contents (Σn) were sometimes close to these upper limits.

Typical photosynthesis/depth profiles are described. Profile area is shown to be related to the logarithm of the ratio between surface-penetrating irradiance (Io') and the irradiance (Ik) defining the onset of light-saturation of photosynthesis. Standardized profiles, plotted on a common scale of 'optical depth', are used to illustrate the relatively minor influence of variations in Io' and Ik on hourly rates of photosynthesis per unit area.

The saturation parameter (Ik) generally increased as photosynthetic capacity (Pmax) increased; the temperature-dependence of Ik is explained by the temperature-dependence of the enzyme-controlled (dark) reactions of photosynthesis, which control Pmax.

A spring peak in the ratio between surface penetrating irradiance (Io') and Ik is interpreted as a result of a lag in the seasonal increase in water temperature with increase in surface irradiance.

The gradient (K') of the linear light-limited region of the photosynthesis-irradiance curve showed little variation and had an average value of 0·31 mg O2/mg chl a.h per 1 W/m2 (PAR).

Interactions between mixed depth, underwater light extinction and phytoplankton productivity are discussed; comparisons are made with other shallow, optically deep lakes.


In devices consisting of a large number of coupled resonators, the coupling coefficients are unlikely to be identical throughout the ensemble, owing to statistical fluctuations in the fabrication process, the surrounding environment, or the device operation process. We describe how the frequency spectrum of such a disordered device differs from that of earlier models that assume a perfectly ordered lattice of resonant elements. Based on simulations for a large number of nominally identical resonators perturbed by disorder in the coupling coefficients, we describe the change in the density of modes (resonances) using both Hermitian and non-Hermitian coupling pathways, following recent experimental demonstrations. The band-edge zero-group-velocity state is highly sensitive to disorder, and applications that rely on band-edge effects, such as ultraslow light and group-velocity dispersion compensation, may be strongly impacted.


VEGF-A induces different responses in neural microvessel endothelia depending on whether it comes from the blood or the parenchyma. In the microvessels that deliver nutrients to and remove wastes from tissues, a single layer of endothelial cells separates the blood from the parenchyma. This endothelial barrier consists of a sheet of polarized cells, with the apical surface of the cells facing the vessel lumen (luminal) and the basal side facing the parenchyma (abluminal). Vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) typically promotes vessel permeability. However, Hudson et al. found that VEGF-A did not promote permeability of microvessels in the brain or eye when intravenously injected into mice, but did increase permeability when injected directly into the brain or eye. This suggested that VEGF-A induced permeability only when presented to the abluminal side of neural microvessels. Primary neural microvessel endothelial cells (MVECs) retain their intercellular junctions, apicobasal polarity, and barrier function in culture. In neural MVECs isolated from the retina or brain of rat, mouse, or pig, VEGF-A induced permeability only when administered to the basal side of the MVEC monolayer. Whereas VEGF receptor 1 (VEGFR1) was distributed predominantly on the apical surface of rat brain MVECs, VEGFR2 was distributed predominantly on the basal surface. Intact mouse hippocampal microvessels also exhibited this polarized distribution of VEGFR1 and VEGFR2. In contrast, both receptors were abundant on the luminal surface of lung microvessels. A VEGFR2-specific inhibitor blocked VEGF-A–induced permeability in cultured brain MVECs. The kinases Akt and p38 are two of the many downstream signaling components activated by VEGF signaling in endothelial cells. Basal, but not apical, application of VEGF-A induced phosphorylation (activation) of p38 in cultured rat brain MVECs. In contrast, apical, but not basal, application of VEGF-A or a VEGFR1-specific ligand induced phosphorylation (activation) of Akt. Neither apical nor basal application of a ligand selective for VEGFR2 induced phosphorylation of Akt. In vivo, intravenous injection of VEGF-A induced phosphorylation of Akt in retinal lysates, but injection directly into the retina (abluminal application) did not. Intravenous injection of VEGF-A induced the accumulation of phosphorylated p38 in lung microvessels, but not in microvessels of the membrane surrounding the spinal cord. Additional experiments indicated that apical application of VEGF-A protected cultured rat brain MVECs from staurosporine-induced apoptosis. These results imply a model in which VEGF-A at the basal surface of neural microvessel endothelia signals through VEGFR2 to induce vascular permeability, whereas VEGF-A at the apical surface signals through VEGFR1 to promote cell survival. N. Hudson, M. B. Powner, M. H. Sarker, T. Burgoyne, M. Campbell, Z. K. Ockrim, R. Martinelli, C. E. Futter, M. B. Grant, P. A. Fraser, D. T. Shima, J. Greenwood, P. Turowski, Differential apicobasal VEGF signaling at vascular blood-neural barriers. Dev. Cell 30, 541–552 (2014). [PubMed]


Grouping is a vital precursor to object recognition. The complexity of the object recognition process can be reduced to a large extent by using a frontend grouping process. In this dissertation, a grouping framework based on spectral methods for graphs is used. The objects are segmented from the background by means of an associated learning process that decides on the relative importance of the basic salient relationships such as proximity, parallelism, continuity, junctions and common region. While much of the previous research has been focussed on using simple relationships like similarity, proximity, continuity and junctions, this work differentiates itself by using all the relationships listed above. The parameters of the grouping process is cast as probabilistic specifications of Bayesian networks that need to be learned: the learning is accomplished by a team of stochastic learning automata.
One of the stages in the grouping process is graph partitioning. There are a variety of cut measures based on which partitioning can be obtained and different measures give different partitioning results. This work looks at three popular cut measures, namely the minimum, average and normalized. Theoretical and empirical insight into the nature of these partitioning measures in terms of the underlying image statistics are provided. In particular, the questions addressed are as follows: For what kinds of image statistics would optimizing a measure, irrespective of the particular algorithm used, result in correct partitioning? Are the quality of the groups significantly different for each cut measure? Are there classes of images for which grouping by partitioning is not suitable? Does recursive bi-partitioning strategy separate out groups corresponding to K objects from each other?
The major conclusion is that optimization of none of the above three measures is guaranteed to result in the correct partitioning of K objects, in the strict stochastic order sense, for all image statistics. Qualitatively speaking, under very restrictive conditions when the average inter-object feature affinity is very weak when compared to the average intra-object feature affinity, the minimum cut measure is optimal. The average cut measure is optimal for graphs whose partition width is less than the mode of distribution of all possible partition widths. The normalized cut measure is optimal for a more restrictive subclass of graphs whose partition width is less than the mode of the partition width distributions and the strength of inter-object links is six times less than the intra-object links. The learning framework described in the first part of the work is used to empirically evaluate the cut measures. Rigorous empirical evaluation on 100 real images indicates that in practice, the quality of the groups generated using minimum or average or normalized cuts are statistically equivalent for object recognition, i.e. the best, the mean, and the variation of the qualities are statistically equivalent. Another conclusion is that for certain image classes, such as aerial and scenes with man-made objects in man-made surroundings, the performance of grouping by partitioning is the worst, irrespective of the cut measure.


Plant-derived smoke has been known to play an important role in distribution and growth of vegetation. Using a proficiently designed furnace, we extracted smoke from the leaves of four plant viz. Helianthus annuus,Aloe vera,Ginkgo biloba, and Cymbopogon jwarancusa. Smoke dilutions obtained from these plants were obtained in different concentrations to identify potential lettuce growth promoting smoke solution. Results revealed that smoke obtained from G. biloba significantly enhanced the lettuce seed germination. This solution was then partitioned into ethyl acetate, dichloromethane, n-hexane, chloroform and ether fractions. Ethyl acetate fraction was found to be potent to enhance seed germination. This fraction was subjected to column chromatography and spectroscopic techniques to obtain compound 1. This compound was identified as hydroquinone using 1D and 2D NMR techniques. At low concentrations (5, 10, and 20 ppm), compound 1 enhanced the lettuce seed germination; however, higher concentrations inhibited its growth as compared to control.


Article examines the economic, environmental, social, and political factors involved in the closing of Auberry Elementary School in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Fresno County after the 2010–2011 school year. The closing of the school serves as a window onto the shifting landscape of the relationship between the private sector and the public good not only in Auberry but throughout California and the United States.


The sensors present in modern premium cars deliver a wealth of information. We will in this work illustrate one way of making better use of the sensor information already present in modern premium cars. More specifically, we will show how a far infrared (FIR) camera can be used to enhance the estimates of the vehicle ego-motion and indirectly the road geometry in 3D. The FIR camera is primarily intended for pedestrian detection. The solution is obtained by solving a suitable sensor fusion problem, where we merge information from proprioceptive sensors with the FIR camera images. In order to illustrate the performance of the proposed method we have made use of measurement sequences recorded during night-time driving on rural roads in Sweden. The results illustrate that the FIR images can be used to improve the ego-motion estimation, especially during night time driving.


The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right of a criminal defendant to have the assistance of counsel, and much has been said and written about the fundamental need, and the frequent failure, to ensure adequate counsel for all persons accused of crimes. However, far too little attention has been paid to the role and impact of defense counsel in the ultimate conclusion of the criminal process - sentencing. Especially since the enactment of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, considerable scholarly attention has been given to the roles at sentencing of judges, prosecutors, and even probation officers. But still lacking in the legal literature has been assessments of defense counsel's effect on sentencing outcomes or explorations of whether differences in the quality of defense representation may be thwarting the goals of sentencing reform. This Article starts the project of closely examining the impact of defense counsel on sentencing outcomes. Part I notes the lack of attention given to defense counsel's role and impact in sentencing, and explains the importance of exploring the effect differences in defense counsel may have on sentencing outcomes. Part II utilizes the Federal Sentencing Guidelines as a focal point for discussing the array of challenges that modern sentencing schemes create for defense counsel. This Part highlights how the sheer bulk of sentencing law created by the Guidelines heightens the importance of sophisticated legal knowledge and skilled advocacy, while also increasing the risk of mistakes throughout the processes of plea bargaining, sentence calculations, and final sentence determinations. To best represent clients, defense lawyers have to tailor effectively their negotiations, mitigation arguments, and even repackage work relationships into the Guidelines context. As revealed throughout Part II, prosecutors, probation officers, and judges have many official and unofficial opportunities to make discretionary decisions that directly impact federal sentencing outcomes, and these decisions can be greatly influenced by the efforts of defense counsel at every stage of the federal sentencing process. As a result, from the very beginning of representation in a Guidelines world, the caliber and performance of defense counsel can have a dramatic impact on both the broad outline and detailed particulars of the ultimate sentencing outcome. These important insights in turn suggests that poor defense representation or differences in the quality of defense counsel may create considerable risks of disparities and other unfair sentencing outcomes under the Guidelines. Part III maps out the challenges for sentencing reformers in trying to fully assess and remedy these concerns by noting the complex realities that will necessarily attend efforts to measure and minimize the potential for differences in defense counsel to impact federal sentencing outcomes. The article urges researchers, and in particular the U.S. Sentencing Commission, to undertake empirical studies in order to try to gauge the impact of defense counsel on the sentencing process. In sketching out an agenda for future research and potential reforms, this Article closes with a call to action for all policy-makers and academics concerned with sentencing systems to focus needed attention on defense counsel's role and impact on sentencing outcomes.


Title of Dissertation: EXAMINING TRANS-SYMBOLIC AND SYMBOL-SPECIFIC PROCESSES IN POETRY AND PAINTING Sandra Michelle Loughlin, Doctor of Philosophy, 2013 Dissertation Directed By: Professor Patricia A. Alexander Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology There is a growing interest in multiliteracies and the processes by which nonlinguistic and multisymbolic compositions are understood. However, as indicated by Unsworth (2008), there is currently no "trans-disciplinary" theoretical framework robust to these examinations. This study investigated the degree to which the Trans-Symbolic Comprehension framework (TSC; Loughlin & Alexander, 2012; Loughlin et al., 2013) might serve this purpose. The TSC posits that every act of comprehension, text or otherwise, entails both trans-symbolic and symbol-specific processes. Trans-symbolic comprehension processes are general processes that are necessary for understanding information encoded in a variety of compositional forms (e.g., text, paintings, musical score, physical formula), while symbol-specific processes are particular to a given symbol-system (e.g., text-specific processes). This study used the symbol systems of language and visual array to determine the viability of the TSC framework. Offline and online comprehension processes measures were administered before, during, and after studying a poem and a painting to capture the comprehension processes used by 12 English and 12 Art education majors. Verbal protocol analyses of these data resulted in the identification of 7 poem and 8 painting comprehension processes, which manifested in 48 associated subprocesses. The 48 comprehension subprocesses were then compared to determine degree of transsymbolism. It was determined that a significant portion of the comprehension processes and subprocesses were shared; that is, iterative manifestations applied to both poem and painting. However, processes that did not appear to iterate were also identified (e.g., inferring mood). The discovery of these apparent trans-symbolic processes and symbolspecific processes is in line with the predictions of the TSC framework. Implications of this study for education research are discussed, specifically with respect to the burgeoning literature on nonlinguistic literacies. Preliminary implications for educational practice are also drawn in relation to the growing praxis of teaching literature, including poetry, through visual art in middle and high schools, and ongoing policy efforts to expand this type of instruction. EXAMINING TRANS-SYMBOLIC AND SYMBOL-SPECIFIC PROCESSES IN POETRY AND PAINTING


Honey bees depend on flower resources (nectar and pollen) to supply individual and colony needs. Although behavioural studies already assessed optimum foraging patterns of bumblebees, honey bees foraging behavioural patterns have been poorly assessed. We used Sysirinchium palmifolium L. (Iridaceae), a low-growing, abundant and anthophilous grassland flower to test the hypotheses that Apis mellifera workers would i) spend more time, ii) visit a greater number of flowers, and iii) travel greater distances within patches of S. palmifolium which were newly opened or not been visited by other pollinators when compared to foraging on patches that were available to pollinators during its whole blooming period (only one day). In two different sunny days, we measured bee activities in an area opened for visitation during the whole anthesis (OP plot treatment) and another opened for visitation only half of anthesis (CL plot treatment). We observed bees spending more time, visiting more flowers and travelling more in S. palmifolium CL treatment than the OP plot treatment. Previous studies already showed bees alter their foraging behaviour in the lack of resources. Honey bees are able to remember the period of the day when resources are usually the higher, they probably detect the most promising period to gather resources on S. palmifolium flowers. Since A. mellifera is a pollinator with a wide-distribution and is considered an important cause of changes on native pollinator communities, we support additional studies evaluating its foraging behaviours to better understand how it explores flower resources.


This paper utilizes the experimental and numerical results obtained during quenching of stainless steel (SS) probes in carbon nanotube (CNT) nanofluids to arrive at an optimum CNT concentration and bath temperature for maximum quenching heat transfer rate. The individual effect of CNT concentration and bath temperature on the quenching heat transfer rate has recently been published by the authors. The objective of this work is to study the combined effect of CNT concentration and bath temperature on the heat transfer rate during quenching. For this purpose, CNT nanofluids were prepared by suspending chemically treated CNTs in de-ionized (DI) water without any surfactant at 0.50 and 0.75 wt. % of CNTs. Cylindrical quench probes made of SS 304L with a diameter of 20 mm and an aspect ratio of 2.5 were quenched in the CNT nanofluids by maintaining at 30, 40, and 50°C using an external water bath. The recorded time-temperature data during quenching were used as input and the heat flux and temperature at the quenched surface were estimated based on the inverse heat conduction (IHC) method. The computed boiling curves during quenching were used in conjunction with the boiling curves published in literature to arrive at an optimum CNT concentration and bath temperature for maximum heat transfer rates. The computational results showed that the peak heat flux during quenching of SS probes in CNT nanofluids increased when the CNT nanofluid was maintained at 40 than at 30°C and it started decreasing with further increase in the bath temperature irrespective of the CNT concentration. The enhanced heat transfer performance of CNT nanofluid at a slightly higher temperature during quenching is attributed to the enhanced Brownian motion of CNTs in nanofluid.


The USDA Forest Service's Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program and the Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) program maintain networks of sample locations providing coarse-scale information that characterize general indicators of forest health. Tree mortality is the primary FIA variable for analyzing forest health. Recent FIA inventories of New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia reveal that the current rate of mortality, expressed as percent of basal area of live trees, is 1.01. The Virginia Pine (Pinus virginiana) and Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida) forest types, growing along the ridges of the Appalachian Mountains, had high rates of mortality compared to the average rate for the study region. By diameter class, mortality rates were above average in the two smallest diameter classes and the largest diameter class. Counties with above-average mortality were concentrated in northern New York, the southern half of Pennsylvania, and in a patchwork pattern in West Virginia. The top five mortality species/species groups were American elm (Ulmus americana), balsam fir (Abies balsamea), black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), aspen (Populus grandidentata and P. tremuloides), and Virginia pine. The FHM program used crown density, foliage transparency, and crown dieback as indicators of forest health. The most current FHM results indicate that 97.3% of hardwood sample trees in New England and 97.5 in the three Mid-Atlantic states had crown density of greater than 20%. In terms of foliage transparency, 98.9% of the hardwood sample trees in New England had foliage transparency of 30% or less. For the Mid-Atlantic states, 92.5% had foliage transparency of 30% or less. Also, 95.8 and 98.1% of the hardwood sample trees had crown dieback of 20% or less in the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions, respectively.


Covid-19 abruptly impacted the labor market with the unemployment rate jumping to 14.7 percent less than two months after state governments began adopting social distancing measures. Unemployment of this magnitude has not been seen since the Great Depression. This paper provides the first study of how the pandemic impacted minority unemployment using CPS microdata through April 2020. African-Americans experienced an increase in unemployment to 16.6 percent, less than anticipated based on previous recessions. In contrast, Latinx, with an unemployment rate of 18.2 percent, were disproportionately hard hit by Covid-19. Adjusting for concerns of the BLS regarding misclassification of unemployment, we create an upper-bound measure of the national unemployment rate of 26.5 percent, which is higher than the peak observed in the Great Depression. The April 2020 upper-bound unemployment rates are an alarming 31.8 percent for blacks and 31.4 percent for Latinx. Difference-in-difference estimates suggest that blacks were, at most, only slightly disproportionately impacted by Covid-19. Non-linear decomposition estimates indicate that a slightly favorable industry distribution partly protected them being hit harder by Covid-19. The most impacted group are Latinx. Difference-in-difference estimates unequivocally indicate that Latinx were disproportionately impacted by Covid-19. An unfavorable occupational distribution and lower skills contributed to why Latinx experienced much higher unemployment rates than whites. These findings of early impacts of Covid-19 on unemployment raise important concerns about long-term economic effects for minorities.


Motivated by the observation that a given signal $\boldsymbol{x}$ admits sparse representations in multiple dictionaries $\boldsymbol{\Psi}_d$ but with varying levels of sparsity across dictionaries, we propose two new algorithms for the reconstruction of (approximately) sparse signals from noisy linear measurements. Our first algorithm, Co-L1, extends the well-known lasso algorithm from the L1 regularizer $\|\boldsymbol{\Psi x}\|_1$ to composite regularizers of the form $\sum_d \lambda_d \|\boldsymbol{\Psi}_d \boldsymbol{x}\|_1$ while self-adjusting the regularization weights $\lambda_d$. Our second algorithm, Co-IRW-L1, extends the well-known iteratively reweighted L1 algorithm to the same family of composite regularizers. We provide several interpretations of both algorithms: i) majorization-minimization (MM) applied to a non-convex log-sum-type penalty, ii) MM applied to an approximate $\ell_0$-type penalty, iii) MM applied to Bayesian MAP inference under a particular hierarchical prior, and iv) variational expectation-maximization (VEM) under a particular prior with deterministic unknown parameters. A detailed numerical study suggests that our proposed algorithms yield significantly improved recovery SNR when compared to their non-composite L1 and IRW-L1 counterparts.


We carried out an intensive sampling survey in ancient Lake Ohrid (Macedonia/Albania), covering all seasons, to determine total species number, relative species abundances and spatial distribution of Ostracoda. We identified 32 living species that belong to seven families (Candonidae, Ilyocyprididae, Cyprididae, Leptocytheridae, Limnocytheridae, Cytherideidae, and Darwinulidae) and 15 genera (Candona, Fabaeformiscandona, Candonopsis, Cypria, Cyclocypris, Ilyocypris, Eucypris, Prionocypris, Bradleystrandesia, Herpetocypris, Dolerocypris, Amnicythere, Paralimnocythere, Cytherissa, and Darwinula). Six additional species were identified from empty carapaces and valves. Dominant families in Lake Ohrid were Candonidae and Limnocytheridae, representing 53% and 16% of all species, respectively. Prevalence of species flocks in these two families confirms the "young" ancient status of the lake. Amnicythere displays a preference for oligo-haline to meso-haline waters, but some species are found in saline environments, which suggests Lake Ohrid has a marine history. Recent studies, however, indicate fluvial/glaciofluvial deposition at the onset of Lake Ohrid sedimentation. Candona is the most diverse genus in Lake Ohrid, represented by 12 living species. Paralimnocythere is represented by five living species and all other genera are represented by one or two species. Reports of Candona bimucronata, Ilyocypris bradyi, Eucypris virens, Eucypris sp., Prionocypris zenkeri, Bradleystrandesia reticulate, Herpetocypris sp. 2, and Dolerocypris sinensis are firsts for this lake. Living ostracodes were collected at the maximum water depth (280 m) in the lake (Candona hadzistei, C. marginatoides, C. media, C. ovalis, C. vidua, Fabaeformiscandona krstici, Cypria lacustris, C. obliqua and Amnicythere karamani). Cypria lacustris was overall the most abundant species and Cypria obliqua displayed the highest abundance at 280 m water depth. Principal environmental variables that influence ostracode distributions in Lake Ohrid are water depth and conductivity. In general, species richness, diversity and evenness were greater in waters <60 m deep, with highest values often found in the littoral zone, at depths <30 m. Candonids, however, displayed highest diversity in the sublittoral (30–50 m) and profundal (50–280 m) zones. The most frequent species encountered are taxa endemic to the lake (14 living species), which have a wide depth range (≤280 m), and display higher abundance with greater water depth. Non-endemic species were rare, limited to water depths <50 m, and were found mainly in the north part of the lake where anthropogenic pressure is high. Several cosmopolitan species were encountered for the first time, which suggests that these widespread species are new arrivals that may replace endemics as human impacts increase.


The usual stereotype of the player of video games is that as young and male. That players become older and video games abide in peoples´ lives is still a new perspective on video games. This is the starting point of our research project "Cultures of gaming. Towards the biographical meaning of games and online-games" which focuses the meaning of games and video games in a biographical viewpoint. We are comparing the experiences and reflections in different age groups with a main focus on players that are approximately 60 years or older. By using the method of biographical interviews we are centring the context between play, video games, the use of technology and the life story. In our lecture we discuss some results of the analysis of the biographical interviews. First we point out the role of the different modes of speaking about games by showing some typical patterns that were frequently used by the interviewed persons by talking about games. The second top is about the relation between games and biography showing some examples how games become important for life history. The third point deals with the different evaluations of games and the preferences that were expressed by the interviewed persons. In a final step we ask in how far the adoption of technology plays an important role - especially for older people - for their open-mindedness towards video games.


A complex adaptive system (CAS) is a network of communicating, intelligent agents where each agent adapts its behavior in order to collaborate with other agents to achieve overall system goals. Further, the overall system often exhibits emergent behavior that can not be achieved by any proper subset of agents alone. A graphical simulation library called Operational Evaluation Modeling for Context-Sensitive Systems (OpEMCSS) has been developed to simulate CAS. This simulation library includes a classifier event action block that is a forward chaining, expert system controller. The classifier event action block employs evolutionary rule induction methods to discover rules during system design that achieve CAS agent self-organization and adaptation. A part production system is discussed that includes a workflow manager agent that employs the classifier event action block.


Eggs were collected from 120 Shaver Brown hens for a period of 56 days in order to determine their oviposition time, sequence of laying, lag time, laying intensity and egg weight. The hens were subsequently divided into three classes on the basis of their laying performance namely: good layers, intermediate layers and poor layers and the physical
conditions of these classes were appraised. Results showed that the hens had a bimodal sequence size of 4 and 6 with the longest egg sequence of 56 eggs. The interval between successive eggs ranged from 24.00 hours 1.0 minute to 29.00 hours 24 minutes. The laying intensity was 77.37 percent. The mean egg weight was 60±0. 86g and the egg
weight tended to decrease from the first to the last egg in a sequence. The peak of lay was between 6am and 7am followed closely by 9am and 10am. About 83.88, and 0.19 percent of the eggs were laid before 12noon and after 4pm, respectively. Observations made on the physical characteristics of the hens revealed that for good layers, the comb and
wattle were smooth, eyes were bright and the beak and shank were bleached. The vent was moist and enlarged with flexible pubic bone, soft abdomen and worn feathers. Intermediate layers had almost the same features except that the beaks, eye rings and shanks showed some degree of bleaching. For poor layers, the wattles and combs were dry,
eyes dull, abdomen was fairly soft while the vent was fairly moist. The pubic bones were thick and relatively close together and their feathers worn. Keywords : Shaver Brown Hens, laying characteristics, humid environment. Agro-Science Vol. 5 (2) 2006: pp. 25-32


Abstract. Methods to radiometrically calibrate a non-imaging airborne
visible-to-shortwave infrared (VSWIR) spectrometer to measure the Greenland
ice sheet surface are presented. Airborne VSWIR measurement performance for
bright Greenland ice and dark bare rock/soil targets is compared against the
MODerate resolution atmospheric TRANsmission (MODTRAN®)
radiative transfer code (version 6.0), and a coincident Landsat 8
Operational Land Imager (OLI) acquisition on 29 July 2015 during an
in-flight radiometric calibration experiment. Airborne remote sensing
flights were carried out in northwestern Greenland in preparation for the
Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2) laser altimeter
mission. A total of nine science flights were conducted over the Greenland ice sheet,
sea ice, and open-ocean water. The campaign's primary purpose was to
correlate green laser pulse penetration into snow and ice with
spectroscopic-derived surface properties. An experimental airborne
instrument configuration that included a nadir-viewing (looking downward at
the surface) non-imaging Analytical Spectral Devices (ASD) Inc. spectrometer
that measured upwelling VSWIR (0.35 to 2.5 µm) spectral radiance
(Wm-2sr-1µm-1) in the two-color Slope Imaging
Multi-polarization Photon-Counting Lidar's (SIMPL) ground instantaneous
field of view, and a zenith-viewing (looking upward at the sky) ASD
spectrometer that measured VSWIR spectral irradiance
(W m−2 nm−1) was flown. National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) traceable radiometric calibration procedures for
laboratory, in-flight, and field environments are described in detail to
achieve a targeted VSWIR measurement requirement of within 5 % to support
calibration/validation efforts and remote sensing algorithm development. Our
MODTRAN predictions for the 29 July flight line over dark and bright targets
indicate that the airborne nadir-viewing spectrometer spectral radiance
measurement uncertainty was between 0.6 % and 4.7 % for VSWIR wavelengths
(0.4 to 2.0 µm) with atmospheric transmittance greater than 80 %.
MODTRAN predictions for Landsat 8 OLI relative spectral response functions
suggest that OLI is measuring 6 % to 16 % more top-of-atmosphere (TOA)
spectral radiance from the Greenland ice sheet surface than was predicted
using apparent reflectance spectra from the nadir-viewing spectrometer.
While more investigation is required to convert airborne VSWIR spectral
radiance into atmospherically corrected airborne surface reflectance, it is
expected that airborne science flight data products will contribute to
spectroscopic determination of Greenland ice sheet surface optical
properties to improve understanding of their potential influence on ICESat-2
measurements.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To determine the amount of chemotherapy delivered compared to amount of chemotherapy scheduled by calculating relative dose intensity (RDI) and to identify factors associated with nonadherence of scheduled treatment regimens for patients with early-stage breast cancer (ESBC).

DESIGN
Retrospective, descriptive, correlational study.

SETTING
Two community hospital cancer centers in northern Michigan.

SAMPLE
77 patients with ESBC receiving adjuvant chemotherapy.

METHODS
The RDI Calculator™ was used for data collection. A worksheet was developed for each patient and included characteristics, treatment information, and RDI calculations. SAS®, version 19.2, was used for multivariate analyses based on logistical regression analyzing relationships among dependent and independent variables.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Dependent variables were RDI prescribed and RDI received. Independent variables included chemotherapy regimen, clinical characteristics, planned dose, and schedule.

FINDINGS
The average RDI was 86.6%. The average RDI was 86.7% for patients younger than age 65, and 85.5% for those 65 and older. The most common reasons for dose reduction or dose delay were treatment toxicity, chronic disease risk factors, age, unplanned versus planned treatment dose, institution (different standards of care), patient preference, and weight.

CONCLUSIONS
Meeting treatment goals of RDI for patients with ESBC has been shown to increase the disease-free survival rate and positively affects overall survival.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Nurses have the unique opportunity to case manage patients with ESBC throughout the spectrum of care. One of the key areas of focus is education of the patient and her family members from the time of diagnosis throughout treatment and rehabilitation.


We evaluate the nanosecond temporal evolution of tens of thousands of positive discharges in a 16 cm point-plane gap in high purity nitrogen 6.0 and in N2–O2 gas mixtures with oxygen contents of 100 ppm, 0.2%, 2% and 20%, for pressures between 66.7 and 200 mbar. The voltage pulses have amplitudes of 20 to 40 kV with rise times of 20 or 60 ns and repetition frequencies of 0.1 to 10 Hz. The discharges first rapidly form a growing cloud around the tip, then they expand much more slowly like a shell and finally after a stagnation stage they can break up into rapid streamers. The radius of cloud and shell in artificial air is about 10% below the theoretically predicted value and scales with pressure p as theoretically expected, while the observed scaling of time scales with p raises questions. We find characteristic dependences on the oxygen content. No cloud and shell stage can be seen in nitrogen 6.0, and streamers emerge immediately. The radius of cloud and shell increases with oxygen concentration. On the other hand, the stagnation time after the shell phase is maximal for the intermediate oxygen concentration of 0.1% and the number of streamers formed is minimal; here the cloud and shell phase seem to be particularly stable against destabilization into streamers.


Abstract:
 Benthic macroinvertebrate community composition is used to assess wetland and stream condition and to help differentiate the effects of stressors among sites. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) barcoding has been promoted as a way to increase taxonomic resolution and, thereby, to increase the sensitivity of bioassessment metrics. We compared the ability of several commonly used bioassessment metrics calculated with data derived from morphology and from DNA barcoding to detect differences in stream condition of 6 paired sites in southern California with relatively subtle impacts to habitat. At each site, we sampled an upstream (reference) reach and a downstream (impact) reach with armored stream banks. We counted and identified ∼600 organisms/ sample based on morphology (generally to species, but to genus for midges). We then extracted mitochondrial (mt)DNA from each individual and sequenced the ∼658-base pair (bp) barcoding region of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. Most (91%) organisms yielded sequences >350 bp in length, but high failure rates for all taxa collected from 1 stream required that we exclude it from analysis. Sixteen metrics calculated with morphological data showed subtle but not significant differences in community composition between armored and unarmored reaches. The statistical power of 10 of the 16 metrics was substantially higher when calculated with DNA than with morphological data, and we were able to discern differences between armored and unarmored reaches with the DNA data. These differences were associated with increased taxonomic richness detected for midges, mayflies, noninsects, caddisflies, and black flies when DNA data were used. Our results suggest that identifications based on DNA barcoding have the potential to improve power to detect small changes in stream condition.


Most studies addressing translucent network design targeted a tradeoff between minimizing the number of deployed regenerators and minimizing the number of regeneration nodes. The latter highly depends on the carrier's strategy and is motivated by various considerations such as power consumption, maintenance and supervision costs. However, concentrating regenerators into a small number of nodes exposes the network to a high risk of data loss in the eventual case of regenerator pool failure. In this paper, we address the problem of survivable translucent network design taking into account the simultaneous effect of four transmission impairments. We propose an exact approach based on a mathematical formulation to solve the problem of regenerator placement while ensuring the network survivability in the hazardous event of a regenerator pool failure. For this purpose, for each accepted request requiring regeneration, we determine several routing paths along with associated valid wavelengths going through different regeneration nodes. In doing so, we implement an M : N shared regenerator protection scheme. Simulation results highlight the gain obtained by reducing the number of regeneration nodes without sacrificing network survivability.


Food insecurity is a global threat. The nature of food and the means of its production make food insecurity a uniquely complex problem, with social, political, economic, and ethical dimensions. Serious efforts to promote food security and sustainability must respond to the complexities of the challenge. The Middle East is particularly susceptible to food insecurity. Middle Eastern states have attempted to address food insecurity through food subsidies, export bans, price ceilings, and other policy measures. In addition, Arab countries, particularly GCC states, which lack the arable land and water resources necessary to produce food sustainably, have also pursued other avenues such as acquisition of long-term agricultural land rights overseas. While the logic of these land acquisitions is clear, their sustainability is not. The acquisition of agricultural land to produce food exclusively for the benefit of acquirer countries is legally and politically risky. It is not difficult to envision scenarios in which yields generated on overseas land would be wholly or partially expropriated, subjected to export bans, or otherwise intercepted, particularly in events of local or global food shortage and political or social unrest. More immediately, overseas land acquisitions by some Arab countries are detrimentally impacting the food (and water) security of other Arab countries. For example, Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, are believed to have acquired agricultural land or land use rights in the Sudan and other Upper Nile countries. These acquisitions (and those by non-Arab countries and private parties) in Nile Basin countries directly threaten Egypt's water supply, and consequently its food production capability. In addition to being flawed in a practical sense, these Nile River-related land (and water) acquisitions present risks and interesting legal questions, such as whether state parties that share a common and vital resource like the Nile River may contract out access to the resource to third parties for profit, to the detriment of other states. Such scenarios, particularly where a third-party sovereign benefits from a shared natural resource at the expense of one or more states with direct and assertable rights of access, raise questions about the nature and limits of sovereignty, including the doctrine of permanent sovereignty over natural resources. This article proposes the establishment of a multilateral food security waqf (Islamic trust) as a vehicle for effectively and ethically combining and deploying capital and other resources for investment in agriculture and the financing of essential activities such as research, technological innovation and transfer, agricultural production capacity building, and enhanced access to access to finance, including by small farmers, small and medium enterprises, and other parties across the food supply chain. The waqf structure (rather than a conventional conduit, such as a fund or corporation) is proposed primarily to mitigate the political and legal risks (real and perceived) that tend to deter investment in the region, particularly on a multilateral basis and for regional benefit. Further, the waqf, subject to the environmental protection and equitable investment principles of Shari'ah, provides a more ethically sustainable and effective mechanism for multi-party food security investment.


The use of online psychotherapy has revealed to be fundamental in order to ensure continuity of psychotherapeutic treatments. These would have otherwise been interrupted due to the restrictions established to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last decades there has been a progressive diffusion of new technologies. Telemedicine has been largely and internationally recognised as a valuable tool in psychotherapeutic practice. Nevertheless in Italy there is still widespread ideological prejudice on the use of videoconference in online psychotherapy. The author therefore investigates and tries to elucidate the historical roots of this negative attitude towards technological innovation. In the case of video conference, digital devices play exclusively a supportive role by enabling communication between psychotherapist and patient without, however, modifying the conscious and non conscious content expressed in the rapport. In this paper it is underlined how, in order to understand the role of sensibility and corporeality in online psychotherapy, it is necessary to comprehend the distinction between body as object and body ad subject as postulated in the Human Birth Theory by Massimo Fagioli.


&NA; We examined the ability of the Computer Science Applications (CSA) accelerometer to predict energy expenditure during treadmill walking and stair stepping in nine children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis (CF) (mean age 12.1 yr, SD + 2.8) and ten healthy controls (mean age 10.8 yr, SD + 2.2). The accelerometer was attached above the hip and interfaced with a heart rate monitor worn on the chest. Oxygen uptake (VO2) was simultaneously measured using a MedGraphics metabolic cart. The subjects walked at speeds ranging from 2.0 to 4.5 mi.hr‐1 and stepped on 4 and 8 inch blocks at cadences of 100 and 120 beats.minute‐1. For subjects with CF, the average validity correlation between accelerometry and VO2 was 0.84 for treadmill walking and 0.97 for stair stepping. Using linear regression, accelerometry explained 62% of the variability in VO2 during walking and 87% during stair stepping. Standard errors of the estimate for predicting VO2 using accelerometry ranged from 16.8 to 167.2 m102.min‐1. Results for the control group were similar and there were no statistical between‐group differences in physiological responses or accelerometry values. Our data demonstrate the validity of the CSA accelerometer for estimating VO2 in children and adolescents with CF during treadmill walking and stair stepping. Findings suggest that accelerometry holds promise as an objective exercise monitor for pediatric patients with CF.


This research attempts to investigate the effects of heteroscedasticity and periodicity in a Panel Data Regression Model (PDRM) by extending previous works on balanced panel data estimation within the context of fitting PDRM for Banks audit fee. The estimation of such model was achieved through the derivation of Joint Lagrange Multiplier (LM) test for homoscedasticity and zeroserial correlation, a conditional LM test for zero serial correlation given heteroscedasticity of varying degrees as well as conditional LM test for homoscedasticity given first order positive serial correlation via a two-way error component model. Monte Carlo simulations were carried out for 81 different variations, of which its design assumed a uniform distribution under a linear heteroscedasticity function. Each of the variation was iterated 1000 times and the assessment of the three estimators considered are based on Variance, Absolute bias (ABIAS), Mean square error (MSE) and the Root Mean Square (RMSE) of parameters estimates. Eighteen different models at different specified conditions were fitted, and the best-fitted model is that of within estimator when heteroscedasticity is severe at either zero or positive serial correlation value. LM test results showed that the tests have good size and power as all the three tests are significant at 5% for the specified linear form of heteroscedasticity function which established the facts that Banks operations are severely heteroscedastic in nature with little or no periodicity effects. Keywords—Audit fee, heteroscedasticity, Lagrange multiplier test, periodicity.


Whether it's the Internal Revenue Service or the local police department, every person's life is affected by how public organizations handle information. New technologies are inundating us with data-agencies collect, store, analyze and disseminate information. How organizations manage this information is crucial to their effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability. It is becoming more difficult for public organizations to formulate clear messages. Political pressure from elected officials and public scrutiny make the task of managing communication even more daunting. By helping students see how communication networks must be treated within larger psychological, cultural, and mechanical contexts, Graber presents ways to construct effective channels so information is transmitted to the appropriate audiences, linking policy decisions and feedback from citizens. Blending the best of theory and practice, "The Power of Communication" helps both students and practitioners turn a flood tide of information into an asset, rather than a menace, to good government.


Proposes a new algorithm of estimation and compensation of the error effect for rounding in the case of implementation of division and square root using the Newton-Raphson method. The authors analyze the error of the hardware system to confirm the condition of the implementation with respect to this algorithm. Next, they describe in detail how to compensate the error by using this algorithm. Finally, they show that the hardware components for this algorithm, the direct rounding mechanism in the recode circuit and the sticky digit generating circuit, can be realized simply by improving the redundant binary representation multiplier. The number of increasing cycles for this new algorithm is only one, and the rounding result using this algorithm satisfies IEEE Standard 754 rounding perfectly. >


Students in majors with higher average quantitative GRE scores are less likely to attend graduate school while students in majors with higher average verbal GRE scores are more likely to attend graduate school. This sorting effect means that students whose cognitive skills are associated with lower earnings at the bachelor's level are the most likely to attend graduate school. As a result, there is a substantial downward bias in estimated returns to graduate education. Correcting for the sorting effect raises estimated annualized returns to a Master's or doctoral degree from about 5% to 14.5% and 12.6% respectively. Estimated returns to professional degrees rise from 14% to 20%. These findings correspond to a large increase in relative earnings received by post graduate degree holders in the United States over the past 20 years.


The Portuguese community is one of the largest diasporic groups in the Greater Toronto Area and the choice of retention and transmission of language and culture to Luso-Canadians is crucial to the development and sustainability of the community. The overall objective of this study is to learn about the factors that influence Luso-Canadian mothers' inclination to teach Portuguese language and cultural retention to their children. To explore this topic I employed a qualitative research design that included in-depth interviews conducted in 2012 with six LusoCanadian mothers. Three central arguments emerged from the findings. First, Luso-Canadian mothers interviewed posses a pronounced desire for their children to succeed academically, and to provide opportunities that their children that they did not have. Second, five of the mothers attempt to achieve this mothering objective partly by disconnecting from their Portuguese roots, and by disassociating their children from the Portuguese language and culture. Third, the disconnection they experience and enact is influenced by the divisions evident in the Portuguese community in the GTA that divides regions and hierarchically ranks dialects, and groups. I conclude that the children in these households inevitably bear the prospects of maintaining a vibrant Portuguese community in the GTA and I propose that actions by the community in ranking dialects influence mothers' decisions about transmitting language and culture to their


As tile field of Genetic Programming (GP) matures and its breadth of application increases, the need for parallel implementations becomes absolutely necessary. The transputer-based system recently presented by Koza ([8]) is one of the rare such parallel implementations. Until today, no implementation has been proposed for parallel GP using a SIMD architecture, except for a data-parallel approach ([16]), although others have exploited workstation farms and pipelined supercomputers. One reason is certainly the apparent difficulty of dealing with the parallel evaluation of different S-expressions when only a single instruction can be executed at the same time on every processor. The aim of this paper is to present such an implementation of parallel GP on a SIMD system, where each processor can efficiently evaluate a different S-expression. We have implemented this approach on a MasPar MP-2 computer, and will present some timing results. To the extent that SIMD machines, like the MasPar are available to offer cost-effective cycles for scientific experimentation, this is a useful approach.


Epidemiologic, experimental, and clinical studies suggest that potassium is an important regulator of blood pressure. Surveys conducted in widely divergent geographic locations indicate higher prevalence of hypertension in populations ingesting diets low in potassium. Amelioration of hypokalemia lowers blood pressure in mineralocorticoid-induced hypertension in rats and in essential hypertensive patients receiving thiazide diuretics. We observed that in normotensive subjects ingesting normal amounts of sodium, short-term potassium depletion increases the mean arterial pressure from 90.9 +/- 2.2 mm Hg to 95.0 +/- 2.2 mm Hg (P less than 0.01). Furthermore, acute sodium loading increases blood pressure in potassium-depleted subjects but it had no effect in subjects ingesting normal amounts of potassium. Preliminary studies indicate that short-term potassium depletion also elevates blood pressure in hypertensive patients. Potassium supplementation lowers blood pressure in hypertensive patients ingesting normal amounts of sodium. Blacks appear to be more sensitive to the hypotensive effects of potassium. The mechanism of potassium-induced changes in blood pressure is not well understood. Potassium depletion consistently induces sodium retention. The hypertensive effects of potassium depletion and hypotensive effects of potassium supplementation are not observed when sodium intake is kept low. Direct vasoconstrictive effects of hypokalemia may contribute to the pressor effect of potassium depletion. The role of altered vascular sensitivity to vasoactive hormones and alterations in divalent cation metabolism in mediating the potassium-induced changes in blood pressure require further study.


"Bright Radical Star" traces the evolution of frontier Iowa from arguably the most racist free state in the ante-bellum Union to one of its most outspokenly egalitarian, linking these mid-westeners' extraordinary collective behaviour with the psychology and sociology of race relations. Personalities from a variety of political cultures - Yankees and New Yorkers, Pennsylvanians and Ohioans, Southerners from Virginia and Maryland and North Carolina, immigrant Irishmen, Germans, Scandinavians - illuminate this saga, which begins in 1833 with Iowa officially opened to settlement, and continues through to 1880, the end of the pioneer era. Within this half-century, the number of Iowans acknowledging the justice of Black civil equality rose dramatically from a handful of obscure village evangelicals to a demonstrated majority of the Hawkeye State's political elite and electorate. How this came about is explained by Robert Dykstra, whose narrative reflects the precepts and methods of social, legal, constitutional and political history. Based largely on use of local resources, the book also offers quantitative analysis of Iowa's three great equal rights referendums, one held just before the war, one just after, and one at the close of Reconstruction. The book is designed to appeal to American historians, especially to historians of the frontier, the Civil War era, and African-American history; sociologists and others interested in historical perspectives of race relations in America should also find it useful.


Following the Appraisal framework, this paper explores the role of authorial voice in 80 English and Spanish film reviews, half professional and half consumer-generated. The analysis focuses on Engagement, a dialogic category that concerns the relation between what is being stated and other actual or potential view points. The realizations of the Engagement sub categories in there views were submitted to a quantitative analysis, whose results reveal: firstly,a pervasive high frequency of disclaimers (i.e. the sub categories of Deny and Counter), for which an explanation is proposed in terms of the importance of counter-expectation in the film reviews; and secondly, a number of distributional differences among the sub categories, depending on the language and the review type. These differences are discussed in detail.


For the first time, high-resolution carrier imaging has been carried out on (110)/(100) pFETs and nFETs with scanning spreading resistance microscopy (SSRM). The S/D of (110) pFETs shows less lateral distribution than that of (100), strongly indicating 2D-channeling effect of boron I/I. Direct evidence has been shown that As out-diffusion under NiSi made conductive paths that degrade junction leakage on (110) nFETs. The Si:C influences on S/D profiles are also directly observed. We also succeeded in a full-FIB sample-making for the first time, showing the high potential of SSRM technology for further scaled devices.


Research has shown that mathematics achievement in students is influenced by psychological factors such as mathematics anxiety. Weaknesses among students in learning mathematics in particular will affect the efforts of various sectors in making Malaysia a fully developed nation by 2020. The purpose of this study was to determine mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement among secondary school students in Selangor, Malaysia. The research examined the differences in mathematics anxiety according to gender as well as the differences in mathematics achievement of students based on the level of mathematics anxiety. The study involved195 Form Four students (86 male and 109 female). The instrument used to measure differences was adapted from the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scale. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to determine the mean, frequency, t-test and one-way ANOVA. The findings of the study indicated that there is mathematics anxiety among secondary school students. The t-test showed that the mean difference between mathematics anxiety and gender is not significant. The ANOVA test showed that there were significant differences in achievement based on the level of mathematics anxiety. Thus, math anxiety is one factor that affects student achievement. Therefore, teachers should strive to understand mathematics anxiety and implement teaching and learning strategies so that students can overcome their anxiety.


Written for a series of case studies titled "In the Humanities Classroom," this contribution describes an undergraduate course on ancient rhetoric at Berkeley, in which Professor Ramona Naddaff was accused by a male student of demeaning women during a lecture and of causing him trauma in the process. He threatened to bring charges against her to campus authorities, claiming the support of fellow students. In her lecture, she had discussed the classical figuration of rhetoric—persuasive speech—as violence and sometimes rape. In a discussion the following week, some students requested the use of "trigger warnings" before the utterance of words like rape. The instructor and her teaching assistant Katharine Wallerstein individually give their views of this disconcerting experience and comment on the difficulties of teaching critical thinking in the current political and cultural climate. They conclude that the language of personal rights and the demand for self-protection tend to come at the expense of teaching and learning alike.


In this paper I focus on Baan Hadnaleng, a multi-ethnic village in northwest Laos which consists of two Mon-Khmer speaking groups, namely Khmu and Samtao. The village is unique in offering the possibility to trace processes of transcultural communication which are in other multi-ethnic villages in the region. Khmu, the more numerous and socially privileged group, are associated with Animism, while Samtao, the adapting and more disadvantaged group is associated with the religion of the state. Possibly partly due to this status-confusion Khmu and Samtao have established a communal social order in which they can benefit from impulses from each other and the outside, especially the state. I am thus concerned with three central, interwoven questions. Firstly, how are identities shaped in a multi-ethnic village, and which modes of transcultural communication are used? And what kind of structures do these strategies create? Secondly, what kinds of religious dynamics are to be seen? Thirdly, in which ways do processes like 'modernization', 'globalization' or 'mechanization' come into play and influence the structure of the multi-ethnic village?


The principle of the photothermoplastic method of hologram recording and the general requirements for photothermoplastic holographic recording media based on photoconductive polymer films are considered. The holographic recording media obtained by the authors based on carbazolyl- and ferrocenyl-containing oligomers doped with respective squarillium or merocyanine dyes are discussed. Some examples of practical application of such media in holographic interferometry are demonstrated.


Ideally, procedures and data structures on a shared-memory MIMD machine should be serialization-free and concurrently accessible to avoid (potential) performance-limiting bottlenecks. The fetch-and-add coordination primitive, in conjunction with "combining" interconnection networks, has been proposed as a means for achieving this goal. The first is essentially an indivisible add-to-memory and the second combines simultaneous requests to the same memory location.
In this thesis we address serialization-free memory and process management for a shared-memory MIMD machine with fetch-and-add and a combining network. To meet this goal we adopt a self-service paradigm for the operating system that permits each processing element (PE) to service its own requests (thereby avoiding central server bottlenecks). The success of this approach depends upon the use of concurrently accessible data structures to hold data shared among the PEs.
We begin by reviewing existing fetch-and-add based queue and multiqueue (a compressed queue) implementations that support concurrent queue insertion and deletion. We then extend these implementations to include a new operations (e.g., the removal of an interior queue item) and new data structure representations (e.g., linked lists).
Parallel memory allocation algorithms, many based on the modified queue and multiqueue data structures, are then given. These algorithms include parallel analogs to a number of existing serial algorithms such as Knuth's boundary tag method and the binary buddy system.
Next, we define a set of primitives that permit various task activities, such as creation and scheduling, to be done in parallel. Task-switching readers/writers and event primitives are given as well. In the readers/writers implementations, reader activity is fully parallel in the absence of writers. An important feature of both the readers/writers and event implementations is that tasks waiting for a resource can be resumed in parallel by multiple PEs.
We then demonstrate how high-level parallel programming constructs (e.g., parallel loops) may be implemented via the task primitives and the queue and multiqueue data structures.
Finally, we prove that one of the readers/writers implementations satisfies certain correctness criteria including freedom from deadlock and the mutual exclusion of readers and writers.


Community based resource management programmes are deemed to work best in an environment in which the groups are small in size and have face to face interaction. The argument is that benefits from natural resource management are significant when they are confined to a small group. Further, it is argued that rules governing natural resource management work best in an environment in which membership is localized and demographically small. This research examines a community-based programme, CAMPFIRE2, and shows that in certain instances local people do support increases in community membership. The research further argues that those implementing CAMPFIRE must intensify their efforts to make sure that these communities do not increase their membership, as evidence has shown that this can adversely affect the programme.


The Java EE 5 Tutorial is an introduction to programming server-side Java applications. This book takes a task-oriented, example-driven approach to show you how to build applications for the Java EE 5 platform. This book also describes the features and functionalities available with NetBeans 5.5.What's new in this edition? The author team have updated the existing chapters to reflect the changes to JSP, EJB, Servlets, and more. Also, the authors have added new chapters on the Sun Java System Application Server 9 as a deployment environment for server-side technologies.i? The web-tier technology chapters cover the components used in developing the presentation layer of a Java EE 5 or stand-alone web application. The web services technology chapters cover the APIs used in developing standard web services. The Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) technology chapters cover the components used in developing the business logic of a Java EE 5 application.i? The Persistence technology chapters cover the Java Persistence API, which is used for accessing databases from Java EE applications. The platform services chapters cover the system services used by all the Java EE 5 component technologies


Attitudes of Public Relations Professionals in Ukraine Toward the Problem of Bribery Liliya Velbovets Department of Communications Master of Arts in Mass Communications Ukraine, just as many other countries that were part of the former Soviet Union, is suffering from the problem of bribery. The public relations field in Ukraine is not immune to corruption, and bribery between public relations professionals and journalists is a well-known phenomenon. In the current qualitative study, the goal was to explore the attitudes of Ukrainian public relations professionals toward bribery and to create a guide for doing business in Ukraine. Through a semistructured survey, the researcher obtained the perceptions of Ukrainian public relations professionals toward bribery, including the definition of bribery, the differentiation between bribery and traditional gift giving in Ukrainian culture, assumptions regarding the situations in which bribery occurs, and the magnitude of the problem in Ukrainian society. The analysis of the responses showed a dual nature in the public relations professionals' attitudes toward bribery. The participants defined bribery as a negative action; however, they believed that bribery occurs regularly even though the participants indicated they had not personally participated in bribery transactions. The participants also reported that bribery occurs between public relations firms and clients. The participants also shared some positive attitudes toward bribery, indicating bribery is a method of achieving goals in business. Additionally, the participants indicated bribery is more common in smaller cities than in large cities, such as the capital. The findings of the study indicate that public relations education and professional training need to include an emphasis on ethical behavior, ensuring public relations professionals in Ukraine have a better understanding of the importance of ethics in the public relations profession.


While there is a large and growing number of studies on the determinants of corporate tax rates, the literature has so far ignored the fact that the behavior of governments in setting tax rates is often best described as a discrete choice decision problem. We set up an empirical model that relates a government's decision whether to cut its corporate tax rate to the country's own inherited tax and taxes in neighboring countries. Using comprehensive data on corporate tax reforms in Europe since 1980, we find evidence suggesting that the position in terms of the tax burden imposed on corporate income relative to geographical neighbors strongly affects the probability of rate cutting tax reforms. Countries are particularly likely to cut their statutory tax rate if the inherited tax is high and if they are exposed to low-tax neighbors.


This paper reports the damaging effects of magnetic iron-oxide nanoparticles (MNP) on magnetically labeled cancer cells when subjected to oscillating gradients in a strong external magnetic field. Human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells were labeled with MNP, placed in the high magnetic field, and subjected to oscillating gradients generated by an imaging gradient system of a 9.4T preclinical MRI system. Changes in cell morphology and a decrease in cell viability were detected in cells treated with oscillating gradients. The cytotoxicity was determined qualitatively and quantitatively by microscopic imaging and cell viability assays. An approximately 26.6% reduction in cell viability was detected in magnetically labeled cells subjected to the combined effect of a static magnetic field and oscillating gradients. No reduction in cell viability was observed in unlabeled cells subjected to gradients, or in MNP-labeled cells in the static magnetic field. As no increase in local temperature was observed, the cell damage was not a result of hyperthermia. Currently, we consider the coherent motion of internalized and aggregated nanoparticles that produce mechanical moments as a potential mechanism of cell destruction. The formation and dynamics of the intracellular aggregates of nanoparticles were visualized by optical and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The images revealed a rapid formation of elongated MNP aggregates in the cells, which were aligned with the external magnetic field. This strategy provides a new way to eradicate a specific population of MNP-labeled cells, potentially with magnetic resonance imaging guidance using standard MRI equipment, with minimal side effects for the host.


The famous double negation translation [16, 17] establishes an embedding of classical into intuitionistic logic. Curiously, the reverse direction has not been covered in literature. Utilizing a normal form for intuitionistic logic [20], we establish a small model property for intuitionistic propositional logic. We use this property for a direct encoding of the Kripke semantics into classical propositional logic and quantified Boolean formulae. Next, we transfer the developed techniques to the first order case and provide an embedding of intuitionistic first-order logic into classical first-order-logic. Our goal here is an encoding that facilitates the use of state-of-the-art provers for classical first-order logic for deter- mining intuitionistic validity. In an experimental evaluation, we show that our approach can compete with state-of-the-art provers for certain classes of benchmarks, in particular when the intuitionistic content is low. We further note that our constructions support the transfer of counter-models to validity, which is a desired feature in model checking applications.


This annotated bibliography examines thirty references to develop factors for consideration when implementing electronic health records (EHR) in South Africa. Factors are derived from experiences in developed and developing countries, including case reports from Brazil, Russia, China and India (BRIC). Sixteen contextual factors include clustering/collaboration, infrastructure/systems, trained/experienced staff, and open standards/software. Twenty-four positive experience factors include user participation and change management. Twenty-eight negative experience factors include inadequate support for resources (human, technical, financial, and training).


Microsatellite DNA markers are widely used in genetic research. Their use, however, can be costly and throughput is sometimes limited. The objective of this paper is to introduce a simple, low-cost, high-throughput system that detects amplification products from microsatellite markers by nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. This system is capable of separating DNA fragments that differ by as little as two base pairs. The electrophoresis unit holds two vertical 100-sample gels allowing standards and samples from a 96-well plate to be analyzed on a single gel. DNA samples are stained during electrophoresis by ethildium bromide in the running buffer. In addition, one of the gel plates is UV-transparent so that gels can be photographed immediately after electrophoresis without disassembling the get-plate sandwich. Electrophoresis runs are generally less than two hours. The cost per gel, excluding PCR cost, is currently estimated at about $2.60, or less than $0.03 per data point. This system has been used successfully with soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) microsatellite markers and could be a valuable tool for researchers employing markers in other species.