Aquatic snakes are a diverse group that represent multiple evolutionary transitions from a terrestrial to an aquatic mode of life. Current systematics of aquatic snakes identifies four independent lineages (file snakes, Acrochordidae; homalopsid snakes, Homalopsidae; sea kraits: Laticaudinae and 'true' sea snakes, Hydrophiinae), species of which are represented on almost every continent. Despite their widespread distributions, this group of snakes is under−represented in the scientific literature with many fundamental questions about their ecology and biology still unanswered. In Chapter 2 of this thesis, I review the current scientific literature on the spatial ecology of aquatic and semi−aquatic snakes and assess both the horizontal (i.e. geographic movements) and vertical (i.e. dive patterns) patterns in their movement. I also assess what is currently known about the intrinsic (e.g. food, predator avoidance, reproductive state, ontogenetic shifts, philopatry and homing) and extrinsic (e.g. temperature, salinity, lunar and tidal cycles) factors that drive movement and space use in this group of snakes and identify key knowledge gaps. Chapter 2 also reviews the current knowledge on natural and anthropogenic threats these animals face and how movement affects their susceptibility to these threats. Incidental trawl capture represents a major threat to sea snake populations throughout their global distribution where they often represent a large proportion of bycatch in artisanal and commercial trawl fisheries. Recent global assessments have highlighted the need for data regarding the distribution patterns and spatial ecology of sea snakes to better understand their interactions with trawl fisheries throughout their range.

This dissertation focuses on 'true' sea snakes, which are found in tropical waters of South East Asia, Australia and the Pacific Islands. Data obtained using multiple techniques were used to define the distribution patterns, spatial ecology and physiology of true sea snakes within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP), Australia. These data were used to explore and better understand how sea snakes are distributed and utilise space throughout the GBRMP over multiple spatial (i.e., geographic to regional) and temporal (i.e., diel to seasonal) scales. In Chapter 3, data from baited remote underwater video stations (BRUVS) were used to estimate geographic−scale distribution patterns of three species of sea snake (Aipysurus laevis, Hydrophis curtus and H. ocellatus) over 14˚ of latitude within the GBRMP. A total of 2471 deployments of BRUVS were made in a range of locations, in sites open and closed to trawl fishing. Sightings of sea snakes were analysed alongside six spatial factors [depth, relative distance across (longitude) and along (latitude) the GBRMP, proximity to land, proximity to the nearest reef and habitat complexity] to determine the factors that most strongly influenced the distribution and abundance of sea snakes. The results showed a strong latitudinal effect on the distribution of all three species, with the highest densities and diversities occurring in central and southern GBRMP locations, while the northern Great Barrier Reef (GBR) was relatively depauperate in terms of both occurrence and diversity. Shallow inshore areas were identified as key habitats for A. laevis and H. curtus, whereas deeper offshore habitats were most important for H. ocellatus. No significant difference was found in the mean number of snakes sighted per hour between sites open and closed to trawling. Overall, sea snakes displayed 'patchy' geographic distribution patterns in the GBRMP. Inshore waters of the central GBR were one area that all three species had high abundances, indicating that this area is particularly favourable for sea snake populations on the GBR.

In Chapter 4, the movement patterns and three−dimensional home ranges of two species of sea snake (Hydrophis curtus and H. elegans) were examined at multiple temporal scales using passive acoustic telemetry. Over a diel period, monitored snakes exhibited a clear diel pattern in their use of space, with individuals displaying restricted movements at greater depths during the day, and larger movements on the surface at night. Hydrophis curtus generally occupied space in deep water within the bay, while H. elegans were restricted to mud flats in inundated inter−tidal habitats. The overlap in space used between day and night showed that individuals used different core areas; however, the extent of areas used was similar. The space use patterns of monitored sea snakes were also evaluated alongside environmental parameters to determine what factors influenced the spatial ecology of sea snakes in nearshore habitats. Presence, movement and three−dimensional home range metrics calculated from monitoring data were tested against environmental (water temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind speed, accumulated rainfall and tidal range) and biological (snout−vent length) factors on daily and monthly temporal scales to identify key environmental drivers of movement and the use of space. A generalised linear mixed model (GLMM) framework using Akaike information criterion (AIC) indicated that tidal reach and atmospheric pressure strongly influenced the daily presence and movements of tagged individuals, respectively. Accumulated rainfall significantly influenced the volume of space used on a monthly timescale.

In Chapter 5, the data obtained from passive acoustic telemetry was used to determine how sea snakes select habitats based on habitat type, depth and proximity to sources of freshwater within a nearshore environment. A hierarchical Bayesian model was used to estimate if individuals were selecting habitats significantly more or less than random on a population− and individual−level. Composition of diet was also assessed using regurgitate from captured individuals. Selection of habitats by the two species differed with H. elegans displaying an affinity for mudflat and seagrass habitats less than 4 km from sources of freshwater and depths less than 3 m. Hydrophis curtus selected for slightly deeper seagrass habitats (1 – 4 m) further from freshwater sources (2 – 5 km). Data from regurgitate showed H. curtus displayed some level of intraspecific predation. Both species prominently selected seagrass areas indicating these habitats provide key resources for sea snakes within nearshore environments. Any degradation or loss of these habitats may have significant consequences for local sea snake populations. Understanding the habitat requirements of sea snakes is essential to defining how natural and anthropogenic disturbances may affect populations and is necessary to inform targeted management and conservation practices.

This thesis also explored the physiological basis of movement patterns in sea snakes and examined how environmental factors may affect their susceptibility to trawl fishing. In Chapter 6, laboratory observations showed that sea snakes displayed shorter dive durations and surfaced more frequently as water temperature increased. Animal−borne accelerometers were used to provide the first estimates of movement−associated energy expenditure in free−roaming sea snakes and explore diel and seasonal patterns in metabolic rates. The energy requirements of sea snakes estimated in the field showed a doubling of metabolic rate from the cooler dry season to the warmer wet season, which potentially increases their susceptibility to fishing activities that occur in summer months. In bimodally respiring animals like sea snakes, the up−regulation in cutaneous respiration is an important mechanism that can potentially prolong dive durations during periods of stress. This mechanism is important and can potentially allow sea snakes to prolong their dive durations when caught in trawl nets and increase their chances of survival. Results of this thesis showed that sea snakes may not have much control over the amount of oxygen they uptake cutaneously, which may impede their chances of survival once caught in fishing gear.

The use of spatial closures (e.g. Marine Protected Areas; MPAs) is effective in reducing the exposure of bycatch species to fishing activities in the GBRMP, and may be useful in managing fishing−related mortality in sea snakes. However, identifying important habitats for sea snakes is critical to ensure that MPAs function effectively. In Chapter 7, I examined the importance of protected, shallow coastal habitats as possible refuge sites for sea snakes in the GBRMP. Extensive boat−based surveys were conducted to investigate the assemblage and abundance of sea snakes within a protected, shallow coastal bay adjacent to trawl fishing grounds. Hydrophis curtus and H. elegans were the most commonly encountered species within the bay. Based on the age structure of these two species the bay was primarily used by juveniles. Temporal trends in age structure showed that H. curtus may use Cleveland Bay as a nursery ground with gravid females entering the bay in summer months to give birth. In contrast, H. elegans appears to use the bay more consistently through the year with approximately 30% of individuals being adult. This chapter also showed that shallow tidal habitats, which are too risky to undertake trawl fishing, are regularly used by sea snakes and may provide refugia for vulnerable life stages of sea snakes. The identification and protection of such habitats may further mitigate risks to sea snake populations from trawl fishing.


Post-secondary educators are increasingly experimenting with the possibility of blending or replacing traditional lecture-based instruction with student-centered instruction. Although some studies have been completed, much remains to be learned about when and why student-centered instruction works and the effectiveness of specific approaches. The goal of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a student-centered instructional approach on students' engagement and achievement in a transformed electrical circuits course compared to the same course taught in a traditional lecture-based format. Two hundred and forty-three students participated in the study. Three surveys were administered during the semester, and participants' demographic information, prior learning outcomes, and course outcomes were collected after the semester was over. The results indicated that students in the student-centered section were significantly more engaged and achieved higher learning outcomes than students in the lecture-based section. The specific instructional strategies and technologies used in the student-centered section are discussed.


This thesis attempts to explore and analyses environmental training (ET) in
Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom. It discusses the relationships of
ET with environmental education, human resource development, learning,
training and strategic planning. The main goal of the research was to assess
which were the most commonly used ET protocols or 'best practices' that can be
used and adapted in a variety of organisations.
The research was based on a detailed literature survey and drew on the results
from a postal questionnaire survey of 94 different organisations of varying size,
age and having a variety of quality accreditations. The respondents were mostly
from the 36-45 age group, males, first degree holders, specialised in business
administration, middle managers and had spent 1-5 years in their organisation. A
total of 28 variables were analysed using Chi-Square and Spearman Correlation
and are discussed in the text. The 'best practices' of ET in organisations surveyed
were identified as: those possessing environmental policies and training policies;
conducting training needs assessments using a combination of methods such as
discrepancy, democratic, diagnostic and analytic; including ET in their human
resource development plan; delivering ET by external consultants and involving
trainees in their environmental management system. In addition, these
organisations delivered at least 1-5 ET courses per year, used in house courses and
lectures, conducted ET evaluations and are committed to ET in the near future.
From the 'best practices' identified by the research and face to face interviews
with the staff of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, Peninsular
Malaysia, a SWOT analysis, Objective Oriented Project Planning and a Logical
Framework (LOGFRAME) were used to formulate a strategic human resource
development plan for the Department.


Freshwater fish biodiversity is a precious natural asset in terms of economic, cultural and scientific interest. And yet, the inland freshwater ecosystem in Malaysia is declining at a far greater rate than terrestrial ecosystems in the tropics. What happened, and what is being done to address the crisis? This paper extracts findings from the latest literature and explores overarching issues pertaining to freshwater ichthyology in Malaysia. Various schools of thought on biogeography and some basic data are first discussed to characterise Malaysia's fish species distribution and diversity. Subsequently, fish research and conservation concerns are explicitly raised and discussed to reveal concerns affecting the research movement and freshwater habitat quality. It is hoped that this short review provides vital information to consolidate and drive effective national policies and programs for safeguarding the country's freshwater


Background: Coronary artery disease and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) are the major causes of death, worldwide. Risk assessment for patients with ACS is necessary to minimize morbidity and mortality. The global registry of acute coronary events risk score (GRS), the in thrombolysis myocardial infarction (TIMI) risk score (TRS), and the TIMI risk index (TRI) have been used for patients with ACS to evaluate their risk. We showed at our study the value of pre-admission TRI, TRS, and GRS in occurrence prediction of no-reflow (NRF) Phenomenon after primary PCI for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients; and its impact on the in-hospital outcome for those patients. Patients and Methods: Our study included 319 patients presented with STEMI and managed by primary PCI. For all patients, we recorded a detailed history, clinical examination as well as Killip class, electrocardiogram, and echocardiography. TRI as well, TRS, and GRS were calculated for all patients. We observed all patients during their PCI at the catheterization room to monitor the result of the intervention. NRF was defined as TIMI flow grade less than III or TIMI flow Grade III with myocardial blush grade less than or equal to II. Then, we followed the patients during their hospitalization period to record any associated complications and mortality. Results: We found NRF patients older than reflow patients, thus regarding age. They were more males. Killip Class III-IV was found to be more common in NRF patients. TRI as well, TRS and GRS showed higher values among the NRF patients. As well, in-hospital major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) and mortality were more common in NRF patients. Conclusion: We found that the high TRI values were related to the occurrence of NRF, in hospital MACE, and mortality.


Sequence alignment of hemoglobins of the trematodes Paramphistomum epiclitum and Gastrothylax crumenifer with myoglobin suggests the presence of an unusual active site structure in which two tyrosine residues occupy the E7 and B10 helical positions. In the crystal structure of P. epiclitum hemoglobin, such an E7-B10 tyrosine pair at the putative helical positions has been observed, although the E7 Tyr is displaced toward CD region of the polypeptide. Resonance Raman data on both P. epiclitum and G. crumenifer hemoglobins show that interactions of heme-bound ligands with neighboring amino acid residues are unusual. Multiple conformers in the CO complex, termed the C, O, and N conformers, are observed. The conformers are separated by a large difference (∼60 cm–1) in the frequencies of their Fe-CO stretching modes. In the C conformer the Fe-CO stretching frequency is very high, 539 and 535 cm–1, for the P. epiclitum and G. crumenifer hemoglobins, respectively. The Fe-CO stretching of the N conformer appears at an unusually low frequency, 479 and 476 cm–1, respectively, for the two globins. A population of an O conformer is seen in both hemoglobins, at 496 and 492 cm–1, respectively. The C conformer is stabilized by a strong polar interaction of the CO with the distal B10 tyrosine residue. The O conformer is similar to the ones typically seen in mutant myoglobins in which there are no strong interactions between the CO and residues in the distal pocket. The N conformer possesses an unusual configuration in which a negatively charged group, assigned as the oxygen atom of the B10 Tyr side chain, interacts with the CO. In this conformer, the B10 Tyr assumes an alternative conformation consistent with one of the conformers seen the crystal structure. Implications of the multiple configurations on the ligand kinetics are discussed.


This dissertation deals with the design and the characterization of novel reconfigurable silicon-on-insulator (SOI) devices to filter and route optical signals on-chip. Design is carried out through circuit simulations based on basic circuit elements (Building Blocks, BBs) in order to prove the feasibility of an approach allowing to move the design of Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) toward the system level.
CMOS compatibility and large integration scale make SOI one of the most promising material to realize PICs. The concepts of generic foundry and BB based circuit simulations for the design are emerging as a solution to reduce the costs and increase the circuit complexity.
To validate the BB based approach, the development of some of the most important BBs is performed first. A novel tunable coupler is also presented and it is demonstrated to be a valuable alternative to the known solutions.
Two novel multi-element PICs are then analysed: a narrow linewidth single mode resonator and a passband filter with widely tunable bandwidth. Extensive circuit simulations are carried out to determine their performance, taking into account fabrication tolerances.
The first PIC is based on two Grating Assisted Couplers in a ring resonator (RR) configuration. It is shown that a trade-off between performance, resonance bandwidth and device footprint has to be performed. The device could be employed to realize reconfigurable add-drop de/multiplexers. Sensitivity with respect to fabrication tolerances and spurious effects is however observed.
The second PIC is based on an unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer loaded with two RRs. Overall good performance and robustness to fabrication tolerances and nonlinear effects have confirmed its applicability for the realization of flexible optical systems.
Simulated and measured devices behaviour is shown to be in agreement thus demonstrating the viability of a BB based approach to the design of complex PICs.


Artificial reefs have been constructed and deployed globally to enhance the productivity of aquatic habitats. In April 2013, two artificial reefs were deployed in Geographe Bay, Western Australia for the purpose of enhancing recreational fishing opportunities. These reefs are designed to create varied complex spaces and habitats, as well as to create shallow water upwelling to drive nutrients up into the water column. The deployment of artificial reefs in Australia has recently become the subject of specific focus of policy makers and regulators. Monitoring costs to meet legislative requirements can be prohibitive, however, a potential method to reduce these costs is to utilise volunteers from the general public to collect data (i.e. citizen science). Thus, the overall objective of this project was to determine whether recreational fishers could potentially provide an effective means for monitoring artificial reefs.

A small number of recreational fishers were provided with underwater video cameras and asked to record footage of artificial reefs and nearby natural reefs. Unfortunately, only limited amounts of data were received due to the lack of participation, unseasonal weather and the short timeframe of the project. However, enough videos were received to undertake a preliminary analysis of the differences in the characteristics of the fish faunas of the two types of reef. The results demonstrated that artificial reefs had much higher levels of mean and maximum abundance, number of species and ecological group affinities. However, multivariate statistical analyses did not detect any differences between the fish faunal compositions between artificial and natural reefs. This was due to the dominance of the labrid Coris auricularis and the large amount of variability between replicates.

Given the limited data provided by the above citizen science program, a literature review on other similar projects to evaluate the effectiveness of the citizen science components of the pilot project was completed and provided a set of key recommendations. These included enhancing the methods of contacting and recruiting volunteers, providing simplified and consistent instructions and consistent communication and engagement with volunteers.

Finally, Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV) systems, constructed from readily available materials, were deployed randomly around the Busselton artificial reef to test the applicability of this method for future use as a citizen science artificial reef monitoring tool. The video footage was analysed to determine whether there was a difference in fish assemblages between artificial reef modules and the surrounding area, i.e. videos observing areas in which artificial reef modules were, and were not, observed in the camera's field of view. The results demonstrated that mean number of species and the number of benthic and epibenthic species were greater on footage recorded when the camera faced the modules. There was also a difference in the faunal composition. The footage observing artificial reef modules also exhibited 52.63% more recreational target species than surrounding areas. It was concluded that the BRUV technology employed here could be used, by citizen scientists, to monitor the fish faunas of artificial reefs. However, as this study has also demonstrated that there were significant differences in the characteristics of the fish faunas recorded depending on the direction the camera was facing, consideration is needed to design an unbiased and robust quantitative monitoring regime.

It is concluded that recreational fishers did not provide an effective means for monitoring artificial reefs during this project. This result, however, is a consequence of a lack of data stemming from an absence of volunteer engagement in a limited pilot project with a short time frame and unseasonal weather. This does not exclude the potential for using citizen scientists to monitor artificial reefs, following some changes in the methodology, technology and management of citizen science protocols, and thus it is possible to utilise recreational fishers as an effective means for monitoring artificial reefs. This project was subjected to restrictive and limiting factors but more importantly, discovered ways to overcome these issues by provided key recommendations on technology, methodologies and community engagement that should be followed to increase the effectiveness of using recreational fishers to provide sound scientific information in the future.


"Law in Civil Society" advances a new and comprehensive theory of how legal institutions should be reformed to uphold the property, family, and economic rights of individuals in civil society. In so doing, it offers a powerful challenge to the dominant legal theories and practices espoused by liberalism, positivism, natural law, and critical legal thought. Winfield argues against the prevailing assumptions of legal philosophers who dogmatically embrace formal or historical conceptions of law. True law, he contends, must be constructed within the context of the different spheres of rights and ultimately can only exist within a civil society committed to self-determination and community. Working from these fundamental premises, he analyzes in detail a rich array of important legal issues: fair access to legal representation, the rationale for jury trials, appropriate distinctions between civil and criminal legal procedures, the controversies pitting common law versus codification and adversarial versus inquisitorial systems of trial, and the relationship between civil society and the state. Much inspired by Hegel's Philosophy of Right, Winfield's study offers the most convincing critique yet of that renowned philosopher's work and, in the process, provides a more complete and coherent conception of law than Hegel himself articulated. Provocative and highly instructive, the book should attract scholars, teachers, and students in legal and political philosophy and anyone else with an abiding interest in the foundations of Western law.


INTRODUCTION I was beholden to no one but God, Zion [Baptist Church], and [my wife] Grace. My church made me free, so much so that in Philadelphia, I was called "the Lion of Zion." --Leon H. Sullivan, 1998 (1) In recounting the history of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, there are some locations that cannot be left out of the story. Montgomery, Birmingham, Selma, and Lowndes County, Alabama; Jackson and Greenwood, Mississippi; Albany and Atlanta, Georgia, are places that are essential to the story of "the Movement." While many would add Philadelphia, Mississippi, the site of the horrible murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner at the beginning of the "Freedom Summer" campaigns in June 1964, it is likely that few would make room for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the list of cities that contributed to the end of apartheid, American style. Adding the "City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection" to the overall story of the Civil Rights Movement, however, would allow historians and other researchers to address a perspective that has arisen among some researchers of the most important movement for social change in the United States in the 20th century. Some historians and social scientists have raised the issue of the "unfinished business" or "lost promise" of the Civil Rights Movement. These authors suggest that rather than pursuing issues of "economic justice" that were associated with the Communist Party and the organized labor movement in the 1930s and in World War II, the NAACP and other civil rights organizations decided to pursue the desegregation of public education and accommodations and black voting rights. These authors note that it was only in the last years of his life that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., took up the issue of economic and employment discrimination with his support of the Memphis sanitation workers' strike and the "Poor People's Campaign" in 1967 and 1968. With the advent of the Black Power Movement, the civil rights coalition splintered and demands for economic justice were drowned out in the cries for Black Power, Chicano Power, Women's and Gay Liberation; and the rise of "identity politics" in the 1970s. (2) The public career of Rev. Leon H. Sullivan, the pastor of Zion Baptist Church in Philadelphia, not only involved direct connections with civil rights campaigns launched by the NAACP and Dr. King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), but also focused on economic justice issues for African American workers, the expansion of black business enterprises, and the internationalization of the social justice and economic empowerment issues closely associated with the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. In the wake of the launching of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, African American ministers in Philadelphia organized a boycott of businesses that refused to hire black and other minority workers. Between 1960 and 1963 the "Selective Patronage Campaign" led by Rev. Leon Sullivan and the "400 Ministers" was successful in opening up employment opportunities for black workers in hundreds of businesses that previously hired "whites only." But what happened in Philadelphia inspired boycotts in New York City and in other northern cities, and the movement for economic justice for decades. "As a result of the success of the selective patronage program in Philadelphia," Sullivan recalled, "I came to know Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as an associate and friend." More importantly, "the concept of selective patronage became the 'economic arm' of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference" with the launching of "Operation Breadbasket" in 1967 under the leadership of Rev. Jesse Jackson, who subsequently organized People United to Save Humanity (PUSH). (3) The successful boycott led to an increase in employment opportunities for African Americans in Philadelphia, but the problem soon arose of the lack of availability of black workers with the skills and training needed by local industries. …


The article names the key difficulties that arise when contemplating the problem of European identity and indicates the ways of overcoming those difficulties. All difficulties are grouped into two categories: conditional difficulties, resolved when approaching European identity from a certain point of view or introducing some additional concepts, and fundamental difficulties constitutive of European identity, therefore, they are permanent as well as their defiance. Identifying geographical European definition is in the first category of difficulties as well as the issue of cultural diversity, the role of Christianity, rejection of European identity because of moral motives and certain epistemological principles. European geographical boundaries are posing the relativity of this understanding: on the one hand, they can be drawn consulting climatologic criteria of determination of geographical boundaries, but on the other hand, indefiniteness of European boundaries only emphasize the true meaning of European identity – it is of spiritual, not of geographical nature. The absence of cultural variety and the unifying narrative raises a more complex problem, but it can be solved by creating a certain new narrative which could take root in the European history of the latter century and could use a special kind of a hermeneutical key – "a memory dialogue", empowered by the most characteristic European mentality feature – the ability to transcendent itself ("trans" function). The role of Christianity in European identity is also problematic, but it can be determined without approaching Christianity as an original system of values or truths, one of many systems in the world and in Europe, instead it can be seen as a way of thinking, enabling the aforementioned ability to transcendent oneself. Difficulties of moral character while speaking about European identity, are overcome when we discontinue interpreting European history from the positions of the claimant exceptionally, but from the perspective of ethical requirement to take historic responsibility. Whereas principal denying of the European identity which we find in Jacques Derrida's works is simplex: it reflects the moment of a steady crisis characteristic only to this identity, but does not take into account its other constituent - the reality of substance. Fundamental difficulties in aiming to determine European identity stem from the very essence of the sought identity, it is revealed in its particular dynamics of combining the substance and the on-going crisis of this substance. But, precisely this original configuration, expressed through the concept of "an open substance" has to be considered for the definition of European identity. Historically it can be demonstrated that this special identity rose not by accident, it corresponds to the structure of sameness of a human individual perceived as a person: Europe became what it is for the philosophical anthropology internalised by its people.


This article addresses the rubric of "memory and materiality" by considering how works of literature held within individual minds might have contributed to material changes in the world at large. For a good proportion of both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the most important relationship between literature and millions of English-speaking people was created by one particular pedagogical regimen: the memorization and recitation of short poetic pieces. I take as my test case a single work from the schoolroom canon—Charles Wolfe's 1817 poem, "The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna"—and examine the various ways in which lines and phrases from these verses were explicitly or implicitly cited by people caught up in the bloody turmoil of the American Civil War, the conflict which first witnessed the widespread development of state-sponsored practices to commemorate the corpses of common soldiers. I argue here that the presence of Wolfe's poem in the minds of ordinary individuals played its part in creating the social expectations that led to the establishment of the National Cemeteries in the United States, and thus, in due course, the mass memorialization of World War I.


Examines how animals interact and relate with people in different ways. Using a comprehensive range of examples, which include feral cats and wild wolves, to domestic animals and intensively farmed cattle, the contributors explore the complex relations in which humans and non-human animals are mixed together. Our emotions involving animals range from those of love and compassion to untold cruelty, force, violence and power. As humans we have placed different animals into different categories, according to some notion of species, usefulness, domesticity or wildness. As a result of these varying and often contested orderings, animals are assigned to particular places and spaces. Animal Spaces, Beastly Places shows us that there are many exceptions and variations on the spatiality of human-animal spatial orderings, within and across cultures, and over time. It develops new ways of thinking about human animal interactions and encourages us to find better ways for humans and animals to live together.


Studies have demonstrated differences in temperature tolerance between two Pomacea species, Pomacea canaliculata and Pomacea maculata. To determine whether the trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS) genes in the two species exhibited different expression profiles at different temperatures, we cloned the full-length cDNA of TPS in the two Pomacea species and analyzed the expression profile of TPS across a temperature gradient through real-time quantitative analysis. The TPS gene of both P. canaliculata (denoted by PcTPS) and P. maculata (denoted by PmTPS) contained 1908 bp and 1914 ORFs encoding 635 and 637 amino acids, respectively. The genes have a classical polyadenylation signal sequence AATAAA and poly(A), as well as two highly conserved motifs of the TPS protein family in deduced amino-acid sequences. Across the temperature gradient (from 3°C to 42°C), the onset temperature (Ton) or maximal temperature (Tmax) for inducing TPS expression in P. maculata was 3°C lower than that in P. canaliculata, and Ton was highly consistent with the upper temperature limits of the range of the two Pomacea species. All results revealed that the cloned genes were inducible TPS gene. Moreover, in terms of gene-expression level, P. maculata was more susceptible to cold temperature than P. canaliculata. The Ton (or Tmax) of TPS could represent the differences in temperature tolerance of the two Pomacea species. The study also provided useful molecular information on the ecological adaptability of invasive apple snails against extreme environmental stress.


Recent advances of kernel methods have yielded a framework for nonparametric statistical inference called RKHS embeddings, in which all probability distributions are represented as elements in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space, namely kernel means. In this paper, we consider the recovery of the information of a distribution from an estimate of the kernel mean, when a Gaussian kernel is used. To this end, we theoretically analyze the properties of a consistent estimator of a kernel mean, which is represented as a weighted sum of feature vectors. First, we prove that the weighted average of a function in a Besov space, whose weights and samples are given by the kernel mean estimator, converges to the expectation of the function. As corollaries, we show that the moments and the probability measures on intervals can be recovered from an estimate of the kernel mean. We also prove that a consistent estimator of the density of a distribution can be defined using a kernel mean estimator. This result confirms that we can in fact completely recover the information of distributions from RKHS embeddings.


Abstract We investigate the impact of historically rooted domestic constructions of purpose and ambition on the patterns of discord and collaboration in the Franco-American relationship over the course of the postwar and post-cold war periods. We stress the importance and tenacity of domestic historical constructions for explaining and understanding the foreign policy strategies that would otherwise confound a power-based analysis. The Franco-American bilateral relationship, in particular, illustrates the persistence and tenacity of each nation's historically constructed foreign policy conception during the bipolar distribution of power during the cold war and the contested unipolarity of the post-cold war era. We conclude with an assessment of the salience and relevance of domestic elements of foreign policy role and purpose for explaining and understanding how their bilateral relationship has affected the European security order into the second decade of the twenty-first century.


Foundational to the monitoring of international goals on land ownership and rights are the household survey respondents who provide the required individual-disaggregated data. Leveraging two national surveys in Malawi that differed in their approach to respondent selection, this study shows that, compared with the international best practice of privately interviewing adults about their personal asset ownership and rights, the business-as-usual approach of interviewing the most knowledgeable household member(s) on adult household members' ownership of and rights to assets leads to (i) higher rates of exclusive reported and economic ownership of agricultural land among men, and (ii) lower rates of joint reported and economic ownership among women. Further, substantial agreement exists on agricultural landowners and rights holders, as reported by the privately-interviewed spouses. When discrepancies emerge, proxies for greater household status for women are positively associated with the scenarios where women attribute at least some land ownership to themselves.


In closed rabbit lines selected for prolificacy at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, genetic responses are predicted using BLUP. With a standard additive BLUP model and year-season (YS) effects fitted as fixed, genetic trends were overestimated compared to responses estimated using control populations obtained from frozen embryos. In these lines, there is a confounding between genetic trend, YS effects and inbreeding, and the role of dominance is uncertain. This is a common situation in data from reproductively closed selection lines. This paper fits different genetic evaluation models to data of these lines, aiming to identify the source of these biases: dominance, inbreeding depression and/or an ill-conditioned model due to the strong collinearity between YS, inbreeding and genetic trend. The study involved three maternal lines (A, V and H) and analysed two traits, total born (TB) and the number of kits at weaning (NW). Models fitting YS effect as fixed or random were implemented, in addition to additive genetic, permanent environment effects and non-inbred dominance deviations effects. When YS was fitted as a fixed effect, the genetic trends were overestimated compared to control populations, inbreeding had an apparent positive effect on litter size and the environmental trends were negative. When YS was fitted as random, the genetic trends were compatible with control populations results, inbreeding had a negative effect (lower prolificacy) and environmental trends were flat. The model fitting random YS, inbreeding and non-inbred dominance deviations yielded the following ratios of additive and dominance variances to total variance for NW: 0.06 and 0.01 for line A, 0.06 and 0.00 for line V and 0.01 and 0.08 for line H. Except for line H, dominance deviations seem to be of low relevance. When it is confounded with inbreeding as in these lines, fitting YS effect as random allows correct estimation of genetic trends.


The name, social economics, refers either to economics with a strong ethical dimension, or to one that is broader than the economics prevailing in American academic curricula and policy making. In either case, it is an alternative to the mainstream and, as such, is critical of the status quo.(2) Practitioners of the first kind accept ethics either as endogenous to the science -- as in Keynes' belief that economics is a moral science(3) -- or exogenous, in that ethics is separate from the mainstream but complementary to it in policy issues, as in the work of the Jesuit economist Thomas Divine, founder of the Association of Social Economics.(4) In either case, economics with an ethical dimension has interested members of the Association of Social Economics since its beginnings in the 1940s and is the glue that binds in membership such diverse social economists as American Institutionalists, Catholics, Marxists, deontologicalists and environmentalists. But, social economics as a broader kind of economics than that generally accepted, albeit without a strong ethical requirement, has by no means been neglected. It defines social economics in this paper. Social economists of this persuasion do not agree to the generally accepted limitations imposed on the science by the given ends, efficient scarce means, boundary delineation of Carl Menger of the 1870s and of Lionel Robbins of the 1930s. According to Lowe writing in 1935, "Something of the strictness of a natural law," comes out of this relationship of "disposing of scarce means for given ends" (Lowe, p. 42). Also, "Free exchange secures satisfaction by the domination of the economic man and of perfect competition in every sphere of social life, from the breeding of human beings through saving of material means up to buying and selling commodities and services" (Lowe, p. 70). Social economists, on the other hand, contend that one cannot explain the economic sector of society in so restricted a way; a study of "rational" economic behavior is not enough. Economics includes also, as an integral part of the discipline, excursions into the nature and history of social and political values, institutions, organizations and motivations. This broad perspective entails a working arrangement of economic theory with sociology and history, not unlike what presently exists in conventional economics between economic analysis and statistics. Academic economists who determine the curriculum of PhD programs and write the popular text books resist collaboration with sociology; moreover, connection with history is looked at as a subdiscipline of economics. But, persuasive arguments for change surface periodically, and there are such moves presently, for example, one under the leadership of the Swedish sociologist, Richard Swedberg. In one of his books (1990), he reports discussions of economists and sociologists who were invited to discuss disciplinary connections and mutual problems. Swedberg interviewed seventeen well known economists and sociologists to encourage greater interaction and communication between the two kinds of scientists. In another book, a biography of Joseph Schumpeter, he presented Schumpeter as a champion of this kind of broader economics, and in a third, compiled some of Schumpeter's economic sociological essays, including articles on fiscal sociology (for example, the tax state), theories of imperialism and social classes, and articles on American institutions responsible for development and decline (1991a). In the first volume, Swedberg showed the soundness of economists and sociologists cooperating, in the other two he put Schumpeter forth as a model for the way a practicing economist can use sociology. Schumpeter worked out solutions to economic problems with a division of labor in the social sciences very different from the conventional economics we have today. He accepted Max Weber's conception of the nature of economics. When Schumpeter was young he was heavily influenced by Max Weber's attempt to create a new and broad type of transdisciplinary economics, called sozialokonomik or "social economics. …


ABSTRACT This paper proposes a user interface for remote access of the National Library of Medicine's Visible Human digital image library. Users can visualize the library, browse contents, locate data of interest, and retrieve desired images. The interface presents a pair of tightly coupled views into the library data. The overview image provides a global view of the overall search space, and the preview image provides details about high resolution images available for retrieval. To explore, the user sweeps the views through the search space and receives smooth, rapid, visual feedback of contents. Desired images are automatically downloaded over the internet from the library. Library contents are indexed by meta-data consisting of automatically generated miniature visuals. The interface software is completely functional and freely available for public use, at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ .


To what extent do leaders of nonprofit organizations run for elected office? We address this question through an exploratory study using survey data from a random sample of 184 leaders of nonprofit human service organizations in the United States. Drawing upon theories of political ambition, we explore the factors that may shape nascent political ambition (propensity to run) as well as expressive political ambition (running for office). We find that nonprofit leaders are no more likely to run for office than the average citizen, but interest in running is much more common. We identify several individual-level and professional socialization factors associated with political ambition. Our study makes an important theoretical contribution by outlining a model of political ambition for the nonprofit sector that can be tested in future studies, and makes an important practical contribution by highlighting ways that associations and nonprofit industry groups might convert nascent ambition into expressive ambition.


Fucose (6-deoxy-L-galactose) is a monosaccharide that is found on glycoproteins and glycolipids in verte-brates, invertebrates, plants, and bacteria. Fucosylation, which comprises the transfer of a fucose residue to oligosaccharides and proteins, is regulated by many kinds of molecules, including fucosyltransferases, GDP-fucose synthetic enzymes, and GDP-fucose transporter(s). Dramatic changes in the expression of fucosylated oligosaccharides have been observed in cancer and inflammation. Thus, monoclonal antibodies and lectins recognizing cancer-associated fucosylated oligosaccharides have been clinically used as tumor markers for the last few decades. Recent advanced glycomic approaches allow us to identify novel fucosylation-related tumor markers. Moreover, a growing body of evidence supports the functional significance of fucosylation at various pathophysiological steps of carcinogenesis and tumor progression. This review highlights the biological and medical significance of fucosylation in gastrointestinal cancer.


Peter is looking for blueberries for his mother's birthday but he can't find a single one. Suddenly he feels a light tap on his shoe, and a strange and magical adventure begins. This is one of Elsa Beskow's best-known and best-loved books. Peter gets to explore the world of the blueberry and cranberry children from a miniature size, discovering lots about the natural world that he didn't know before.


The role of phytochrome in control of stem elongation by daily temperature alternations is unclear. The aim of this work was to study the involvement of phytochrome B in thermoperiodism in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), and the interaction with gibberellin (GA). The wild type and the phytochrome B defi cient, long-hypocotyl (lh) cucumber mutant were grown under alternating day (DT) and night temperature (NT) and either with or without an exposure to end-of-day far-red light (EOD-FR). Without EOD-FR, hypocotyl and internodes of the wild type plants were shorter under a low DT (19 °C)/high NT (25 °C) (negative DIF) compared with a high DT/low NT regime (positive DIF), while the number of leaves was reduced by 12%. EOD-FR enhanced elongation of hypocotyl and internodes. However, EOD- FR reduced the effect of alternating temperature on hypocotyl elongation. The lh cucumber mutant did not respond to EOD-FR treatments, but internode length was slightly increased by positive compared with negative DIF. The results suggest that phytochrome B is required for a maximum effect of daily temperature alternations on stem elongation in cucumber. Additional GA4 reduced the difference between positive and negative DIF, but it had a minor effect only on the difference between EOD-FR and EOD red light (EOD-R) in the wild type. Plants depleted for endogenous GA by the GA biosynthesis inhibitor paclobutrazol, did not respond at all to DIF or EOD treatments. When seedlings were treated with prohexadione-calcium, which blocks both biosynthesis and inactivation of GA4, response to applied GA4 was enhanced by EOD-FR. The present results suggest that, in cucumber, EOD-FR, and probably also positive DIF, enhances tissue sensitivity to GA4. In addition, catabolism of GA4 can be enhanced by negative DIF.


Seeing a speaker's face enhances speech intelligibility in adverse environments. We investigated the underlying network mechanisms by quantifying local speech representations and directed connectivity in MEG data obtained while human participants listened to speech of varying acoustic SNR and visual context. During high acoustic SNR speech encoding by temporally entrained brain activity was strong in temporal and inferior frontal cortex, while during low SNR strong entrainment emerged in premotor and superior frontal cortex. These changes in local encoding were accompanied by changes in directed connectivity along the ventral stream and the auditory-premotor axis. Importantly, the behavioral benefit arising from seeing the speaker's face was not predicted by changes in local encoding but rather by enhanced functional connectivity between temporal and inferior frontal cortex. Our results demonstrate a role of auditory-frontal interactions in visual speech representations and suggest that functional connectivity along the ventral pathway facilitates speech comprehension in multisensory environments. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24763.001


Although distributed systems are widely used nowadays, their implementation and deployment is still a time-consuming, error-prone, and hardly predictive task. In this paper, we propose a methodology for producing automatically efficient and correct-by-construction distributed implementations by starting from a high-level model of the application software in BIP. BIP (Behavior, Interaction, Priority) is a component-based framework with formal semantics that rely on multi-party interactions for synchronizing components. Our methodology transforms arbitrary BIP models into Send/Receive BIP models, directly implementable on distributed execution platforms. The transformation consists of (1) breaking atomicity of actions in atomic components by replacing strong synchronizations with asynchronous Send/Receive interactions; (2) inserting several distributed controllers that coordinate execution of interactions according to a user-defined partition, and (3) augmenting the model with a distributed algorithm for handling conflicts between controllers preserving observational equivalence to the initial models. Currently, it is possible to generate from Send/Receive models stand-alone C++ implementations using either TCP sockets for conventional communication, or MPI implementation, for deployment on multi-core platforms. This method is fully implemented. We report concrete results obtained under different scenarios.


We describe a new proposal for a trap-door one-way function. The new proposal belongs to the "multivariate quadratic" family but the trap-door is different from existing methods, and is simpler. Known quantum algorithms do not appear to help an adversary attack this trap-door. (Beyond the asymptotic square-root-speedup which applies to all oracle search problems.)


Although the use of wind turbines has become necessary in many parts of the world, the actual developments in wind turbines do not concern countries where the average wind speeds are low. The paper introduces a new vertical axis wind rotor using a convergent nozzle for low wind speed areas. This paper brings a detailed theoretical and practical study of air concentrating nozzle and the optimum nozzle dimensions have been analysed in detail. A research programme involving wind tunnel tests of five different nozzle models has also been conducted. The length and the outlet area of the nozzle were changed periodically to see their effect on the increase of wind speed. The variation of the output speed with different values of input wind speed, different input areas of nozzle and different lengths of nozzle placed at different distances from the wind tunnel have been outlined in the paper. Results of additional study of the new rotor's performance characteristics using concentrating nozzles have also been outlined.


About the Department The English Department combines the traditional study of literature with current developments in rhetorical, cultural, and new media work. In addition to substantial courses in English, American, and Anglophone literatures, offerings include graphic novels, ecocriticism, Bollywood film, literacy studies, and medical discourse. English majors are not merely scholars and critics; they are producers and practitioners as well. Some students choose to complete the major with a Focus in Creative Writing, honing their craft in small workshops, while analytical courses incorporate both traditional essays and creative or non-traditional assignments, often using digital tools. In addition to providing an enduring humanistic education, the program fosters the analytical skills, effective writing, and intellectual adaptability essential to students' individual development, civic engagement, and personal and professional success beyond graduation. English majors complete the program skilled in the analysis and production of a variety of print, visual, and digital texts, and with the practical skills, critical consciousness, and creative insight necessary to face the pressing collective and individual challenges of our times. As a result, English graduates pursue a wide range of graduate programs and career paths, including law, publishing, business, education, communications, technology, government, philanthropy, and much more. As a complement to study in English, the Department strongly urges its students to obtain speaking and writing competence in a foreign language. A student who successfully completes a major in English at the University of Puget Sound is prepared to 1. Read perceptively and critically: a. recognize and characterize different literary and rhetorical styles b. apprehend the relationships between aesthetic form and content c. pursue connections between texts and their political, social, and cultural contexts 2. Write with clarity and sophistication: a. conduct scholarly research and write original, self-directed projects that integrate multiple texts b. analyze texts critically across genres and media c. respond appropriately to the unique demands of different writing situations 3. Speak persuasively and from a position of knowledge: a. approach literature from perspectives of both craft and analysis b. engage ethically with a diversity of perspectives c. present academic research orally and engage in relevant scholarly discussion


The use of Ayurvedic medicines is popular in India and in recent times has become accepted in other countries. This paper discusses, in brief, the Ayurvedic concepts of adverse reactions to medicines, the need for pharmacovigilance of Ayurvedic medicines, challenges in introducing pharmacovigilance in Ayurveda, and some recommendations to successfully implementing these activities. Pharmacovigilance is the science and practice related to the detection, assessment, understanding, and prevention of adverse effects of drugs or any other possible drug-related problems. The objective of the present article is to review the recent trends and challenges posed in the practice of pharmacovigilance of herbal drugs, especially in the Indian context and to shed light on the importance of pharmacovigilance practice in establishing and maintenance of rational use of these drugs. There is increasing awareness of the need to develop pharmacovigilance for herbal medicines. Applying standard pharmacovigilance techniques (WHO guidelines) presents additional challenges, related to the ways in which herbal medicines are regulated, used, named, and perceived. Proper reporting of suspected adverse drug reactions to herbal medicines is currently the main method of detection. However, there is under-reporting for herbal medicines, since users do not seek professional advice about their use of such products, or report adverse effects. Herbal medicine practitioners are not recognized as reporters to spontaneous reporting schemes. Several other conventional pharmacovigilance tools, such as prescription-event monitoring and the use of computerized health record databases, are currently of little use for evaluating the safety of herbal medicines although modified methods have been developed. This process of pharmacovigilance of herbals in India has come a long way since its initiation. The promotion of the systematic and rational use of drugs requires the reporting of adverse events possibly caused by herbal and traditional medicines also


Sport is considered a high-risk environment for athletes sustaining injury. Athletes are known to experience negative psychological responses to injury, which can destabilise identity. For athletes, identity is typically constructed around participation in sport, and after injury this identity can be threatened. Within equestrian sport, the addition of a partner athlete also at risk of injury presented a unique circumstance for investigation. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the psychological responses of elite young riders (YR) to the injury of their horses. Five riders competing internationally at YR level for dressage, show jumping and eventing were interviewed about their experiences when their horse suffered serious or career-ending injuries. Interview questions explored athletes' careers, initial reactions to injury, coping mechanisms and return to elite competition. Thematic analysis revealed that riders re-evaluated their identity as elite athletes and experienced a significant sense of loss when their horses became injured. This appraisal of loss led to YR's experiencing denial and guilt at the onset of injury akin to personal injury in athletes. As riders perceive the horse as part of the 'athlete' package, they are at heightened risk of injury-related psychological stress when compared to other individual athletes. Riders reported mixed views on common sources of social support, suggesting a need for pre-emptive coping education in addition to intervention resources within equestrian sport to minimise the psychological impact of injury, particularly at YR level.


Objectives Although published reports have not demonstrated a positive correlation between the number of residual spiral ganglion cells (SGCs) and word recognition scores in patients with unilateral multichannel cochlear implants, this study was designed to retest this hypothesis in patients with bilateral multichannel cochlear implants. Materials and Methods From a pool of 133 temporal bones, all subjects with bilateral multichannel cochlear implants who were deafened bilaterally by the same etiology were studied. A total of 12 temporal bones from 6 subjects were identified and processed after death for histology. The SGCs were counted using standard techniques. The differences between left and right SGC counts as well as the differences in word recognition scores were calculated for each subject. Correlation analysis was performed between the differences of SGC counts and the differences of word recognition scores. Results Differences in SGC counts were highly correlated with the differences in word recognition scores (R = 0.934, p = 0.006). Conclusion This study suggests higher residual SGCs predicted better performance after implantation in a given patient. The results also support attempts to identify factors which may promote survival of SGCs.


Carbonaceous material (CM) is commonly associated with gold and sulfides in metasediment-hosted orogenic gold deposits. The role of CM in Au deposition is controversial; CM has been proposed to contribute to gold deposition by reducing Au bisulfide complexes, or by facilitating sulfidation, which destabilizes Au in bisulfide complexes with resultant Au deposition. Integration of petrographic observations, thermodynamic models, and geochemical data from metasediment-hosted orogenic gold deposits in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and West Africa reveals genetic links between sulfides, CM, and mineralization. The results are consistent with the coexistence of CM and pyrite as a consequence of their codeposition from ore fluids, with a minor proportion of CM originally in situ in the host rocks. Au is deposited when pyrite and CM deposition decreases H 2 S concentration in ore fluids, destabilizing Au(HS) 2 – complexes. Most CM in gold deposits is deposited from CO 2 and CH 4 in ore fluids. These findings are applicable to similar deposits worldwide.


Abstract. This study evaluates a new spectral aerosol optical depth (AOD) dataset derived from Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) measurements over land. First, the data are validated against Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) direct-sun AOD measurements and found to compare well on a global basis. If only data with the highest quality flag are used, the correlation is 0.86 and 72% of matchups fall within an expected absolute uncertainty of 0.05 + 20% (for the wavelength of 550 nm). The quality is similar at other wavelengths and stable over the 13-yr (1997–2010) mission length. Performance tends to be better over vegetated, low-lying terrain with typical AOD of 0.3 or less, such as found over much of North America and Eurasia. Performance tends to be poorer for low-AOD conditions near backscattering geometries, where SeaWiFS overestimates AOD, or optically-thick cases of absorbing aerosol, where SeaWiFS tends to underestimate AOD. Second, the SeaWiFS data are compared with midvisible AOD derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) and Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR). All instruments show similar spatial and seasonal distributions of AOD, although there are regional and seasonal offsets between them. At locations where AERONET data are available, these offsets are largely consistent with the known validation characteristics of each dataset. With the results of this study in mind, the SeaWiFS over-land AOD record is suitable for quantitative scientific use.


The author outlines three scenarios for the future of industrial relations in Europe. The first – perhaps the most realistic – projects continuing erosion of national industrial relations systems and conditions of employment, in line with current trends. The second envisages that "elite reform" from above will succeed in re-engineering industrial relations and workers' protection according to an ideal social policy agenda – an unlikely prospect given the overriding importance of financial considerations and globalized competition. The third scenario centres on a counter-movement from below which presents trade unions with the daunting challenge of mobilizing the discontented far beyond their traditional constituency.


We put forward an experimentally feasible scheme for heralded entanglement generation between two distant macroscopic mechanical resonators. The protocol exploits a hybrid quantum device, a qubit interacting with a mechanical resonator as well as a cavity mode, for each party. The cavity modes interfere on a beam-splitter followed by suitable heralding detections which post-select a hybrid entangled state with success probability 1/2. Subsequently, by local measurements on the qubits a mechanical entangled coherent state can be achieved. The mechanical entanglement can be further verified via monitoring the entanglement of the qubit pair. The setup is envisioned as a test bench for sensing gravitational effects on the quantum dynamics of gravitationally coupled massive objects. As a concrete example, we illustrate the implementation of our protocol using the current circuit QED architectures.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether application of criteria for remission in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may result in underestimation of foot joint involvement among patients in a clinic setting.

METHODS
RA patients (n = 123) were assessed at baseline and 6 months after commencement of a response-driven combination disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) protocol. Remission was assessed using disease activity measures (the 28-joint Disease Activity Score using the erythrocyte sedimentation rate [DAS28-ESR], Simplified Disease Activity Index [SDAI], and Clinical Disease Activity Index [CDAI]) as well as Boolean-based criteria for remission (the 1981 American College of Rheumatology [ACR] preliminary criteria and the 2011 ACR/European League Against Rheumatism [EULAR] provisional criteria). The prevalence of foot synovitis and the mean swollen/tender foot joint count in RA patients meeting any of these remission criteria were estimated by hurdle (mixed distribution) regression.

RESULTS
In patients who received 6 months of combination DMARD treatment, application of the 1981 ACR criteria and the newly proposed 2011 ACR/EULAR criteria, each utilizing full joint counts (which includes assessment of the feet), classified the least number of patients as being in remission (8-10%), and evidence of foot synovitis was minimal among these patients. In contrast, ongoing foot synovitis was present in a substantial proportion of patients (>20%) meeting the 28-joint count criteria for remission, including the DAS28-ESR, SDAI, CDAI, and 2011 ACR/EULAR criteria (clinical practice setting or clinical trials). Furthermore, applying the 2011 ACR/EULAR composite remission criterion of a SDAI score ≤3.3 to define remission did not adequately capture the resolution of foot synovitis (i.e., residual foot involvement was still detected in a substantial proportion of patients classified as being in remission by this definition).

CONCLUSION
Although the DAS28-ESR, CDAI, and SDAI have been validated for assessment of remission in RA, this study shows that the performance of these 3 disease activity measures, which do not provide a direct assessment of the foot, in detecting foot synovitis is poor, in contrast to that of the 1981 ACR and 2011 ACR/EULAR remission criteria utilizing full joint counts. Thus, patients may be at risk of ongoing damage if treatment decisions are made solely on the basis of criteria that omit foot joint assessment.


This is the fourth installment of the five-part saga on the Umbral Transfer-Matrix method, based on Gian-Carlo Rota's seminal notion of the umbra. In this article we describe the Maple packages USAP , USAW , and MAYLIS . USAP automatically constructs, for any specific $r$, an Umbral Scheme for enumerating, according to perimeter, the number of self-avoiding polygons with $\leq 2r$ horizontal edges per vertical cross-section. The much more complicated USAW does the analogous thing for self-avoiding walks. Such Umbral Schemes enable counting these classes of self-avoiding polygons and walks in polynomial time as opposed to the exponential time that is required by naive counting. Finally MAYLIS is targeted to the special case of enumerating classes of saps with at most two horizontal edges per vertical cross-section (equivalently column-convex polyominoes by perimeter), and related classes. In this computationally trivial case we can actually automatically solve the equations that were automatically generated by USAP . As an example, we give the first fully computer-generated proof of the celebrated Delest-Viennot result that the number of convex polyominoes with perimeter $2n+8$ equals $(2n+11)4^n-4(2n+1)!/n!^2$.


Aims. Spectral line emissivities have usually been calculated for a Maxwellian electron distribution. But many theoretical works on both galaxy groups and clusters and the solar corona consider modified Maxwellian electron distribution functions when fitting observed X-ray spectra. Here we examine the influence of high energy electron populations on measurements of metal abundances. Methods. A generalized approach proposed by ourselves is used to calculate the line emissivities for a modified Maxwellian distribution. We study metal abundances in galaxy groups and clusters in which hard X-ray excess emission was observed. Results. We found that for modified Maxwellian distributions the argon abundance decreases for the HCG 62 group, the iron abundance decreases for the Centaurus cluster, and the oxygen abundance decreases for the solar corona with respect to the case of a Maxwellian distribution. Therefore, metal abundance measurements are a promising tool for testing the presence of high energy electron populations.


In September of 2008, The Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) of The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) conducted eligibility testing of a previously unknown archaeological site adjacent to the Salado Creek Greenway near the Voelcker Ranch, located in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. 41BX1788 was found by a local resident after the construction of piers for a pedestrian bridge associated with the Salado Creek Greenway. The primary purpose of testing was to determine if any intact cultural deposits or features remained that would be impacted by further bridge construction. CAR excavated a 1 x 1-meter test unit and found no features or intact deposits that merit further investigation. Due to the mixing of modern materials with prehistoric deposits caused by multiple processes, CAR suggests that the archaeological deposits have low research value and the site does not warrant nomination to the National Register of Historic Places or designation as a State Archaeological Landmark. We recommend that bridge construction proceed as planned. The archaeological investigations were conducted under Texas Antiquities Permit # 5030 with Steve A. Tomka as Principal Investigator. All collected artifacts and project associated documents are permanently curated at the Center for Archaeological Research.


Abstract : On a weekly basis, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) processes over one million packages destined to overseas locations. All international shipments being sent from the United States are subject to federal export laws. The USPS has extensive export compliance policies and screening procedures to ensure that customers comply with federal export laws. Compliance policies and screening procedures are expensive and time consuming, and can negatively affect the efficiency of international mail delivery services. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) has defined, developed, and successfully implemented an innovative approach for export screening that has drastically improved its efficiency, effectiveness, and accuracy. Having benefited from using concepts of operational resilience management to improve the security and resilience of USPS products and services, the USPIS team conducted its new export screening project using a structured and repeatable approach based on the CERT Resilience Management Model (CERT-RMM), developed by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. This report describes how the CERT-RMM enabled the USPIS to implement an innovative approach for achieving complex international mail export control objectives. The authors also discuss how this USPIS application of CERT-RMM might be equally applicable to other shipping and transportation sectors that are tasked with meeting export control objectives.


The influence of globalization in telecommunication companies has greatly increased the level of competition in the industry and they are forced to be competitive to survive. Different types of strategies are put in place in order to be profitable and competitive. All these strategies are directed to attract, retain and maintain customers for continuous profitability. However, majority of them hardly measure the impact of their strategic innovation on their customers. The paper seeks to explore the influence of competitive strategies embarked upon by selected telecommunication companies in Nigeria on their performance. The paper also examines how competitive strategies could be implemented for improved customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty. Three null hypotheses were postulated to test the relationship between lower prices and customer satisfaction, uninterrupted trunk services and customer loyalty, and customer complaint handling and retention. Only customers using telephone service were selected as respondents from Lagos State. The state was stratified in to 20 local government council area and questionnaires were distributed to 125 respondents in each of them. The completion rate of the questionnaire in each of them is between 103 and 110. Survey research design was adopted to carry out the study. A structured questionnaire was designed and validated through the construct validity and tested for confirmation using the KMO measure of sampling adequacy. It was also made reliable using Cronbach's Alpha test. From the study, findings revealed relationship between competitive strategies and customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty. The findings revealed that there is a relationship between competitive strategies, its constituents and performance of telecommunication companies. It is recommended that universal mobile telecommunication services (UMTS) operators should adopt the culture of competitive strategies since it can impact on their performance for achieving competitive advantage.


We examine the Norwegian preferential beef import from Botswana and Namibia, which is administered under two different quota-schemes. The General System of Preferences (GSP) quota of 2,700 tons is allocated to Norwegian importers on a first-come, first-served (FCFS) basis and the EFTA/SACU quota of 500 tons is allocated through an auction. In addition, the quotas are administered through firm-specific allocations within Botswana and Namibia. We investigate which stakeholders benefit from the way the two quotas are allocated by analyzing price data collected from different levels of the value chain. Our main findings are that the exporting and importing firms benefit most from the trade, and that the specific quota allocation method impacts whether exporters or importers have the most bargaining power. We also find evidence that the Norwegian government obtains some profits. Finally, we argue that the preferential beef trade is justifiable in the light of Norwegian development objectives. However, there is a potential risk that the exporters seem to become too dependent on the Norwegian preferential trade.


This thesis explores the relationship between contemporary art and kastom in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Since the mid-1980s indigenous paintings, drawings, tapestries and sculptures have become prominent features of the urban visual landscape. By way of ethnological survey, this thesis examines current modes of production, circulation and reception to reveal the changing socio-cultural capital of these objects. Based on two periods of extended fieldwork, this research relies on participant observation, semi-structured interviews, studio and exhibition visits, written surveys and informal discussions for its primary data.
Focusing on a core group of practicing artists who primarily belong to either the Nawita Contemporary Arts Association or the Red Wave Vanuatu Contemporary Arts Association, this thesis highlights the influences of island affiliation, kin networks and social relations upon the structure of the local artworld. Within the pluralistic matrix of town, artists adopt kastom as thematic content for their work. Representations of the chiefly body, dance routines, marriage ceremonies and traditional stories highlight the means by which makers creatively assert their cultural identity. Similarly, depictions that incorporate stylised icons and codified motifs convey the knowledge, status and entitlement held by different artists. When presented to local audiences, these visual cues are regarded as prideful celebrations of the unique characteristics of the nation.
This thesis concludes that just as kastom is not a static entity, nor is the category of contemporary art. In Port Vila, a space of rapid social change, deeply embedded values and beliefs intertwine with the forces of modernity to redefine notions of indigenous heritage. Within this framework, artists in the capital interrogate the realities of their lived experiences to present images and forms that reflect the ever-evolving circumstances particular to their corpus and careers.


Objective To evaluate the influence of intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) location on stroke outcomes. Methods We included patients recruited to a UK hospital-based, multicentre observational study of adults with imaging confirmed spontaneous ICH. The outcomes of interest were occurrence of a cerebral ischaemic event (either stroke or transient ischaemic attack) or a further ICH following study entry. Haematoma location was classified as lobar or non-lobar. Results All 1094 patients recruited to the CROMIS-2 (Clinical Relevance of Microbleeds in Stroke) ICH study were included (mean age 73.3 years; 57.4% male). There were 45 recurrent ICH events (absolute event rate (AER) 1.88 per 100 patient-years); 35 in patients presenting with lobar ICH (n=447, AER 3.77 per 100 patient-years); and 9 in patients presenting with non-lobar ICH (n=580, AER 0.69 per 100 patient-years). Multivariable Cox regression found that lobar ICH was associated with ICH recurrence (HR 8.96, 95% CI 3.36 to 23.87, p<0.0001); similar results were found in multivariable completing risk analyses. There were 70 cerebral ischaemic events (AER 2.93 per 100 patient-years); 29 in patients presenting with lobar ICH (AER 3.12 per 100 patient-years); and 39 in patients with non-lobar ICH (AER 2.97 per 100 patient-years). Multivariable Cox regression found no association with ICH location (HR 1.13, 95% CI 0.66 to 1.92, p = 0.659). Similar results were seen in completing risk analyses. Conclusions In ICH survivors, lobar ICH location was associated with a higher risk of recurrent ICH events than non-lobar ICH; ICH location did not influence risk of subsequent ischaemic events. Trial registration number NCT02513316.


The European Union's newly enacted comprehensive regulation for industrial chemicals, known as REACH, draws heavily on three decades of experience in the United States under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Much of that experience has been negative, inasmuch as TSCA is widely regarded as a disappointment among US environmental laws, and so REACH deliberately reverses many of the legislative choices that Congress made in TSCA. REACH also takes advantage of important new regulatory concepts that were not available to the framers of TSCA thirty years ago. The passage of REACH has sparked renewed interest in reforming TSCA, and the reformers will undoubtedly look to REACH for ideas. This article contends that, while many aspects of REACH can fairly be understood as the Anti-TSCA, on closer examination REACH follows many of TSCA's fundamental approaches to chemicals regulation. The fundamental similarities offer a unique opportunity to develop a synthesis of the two regulatory regimes, which could form the practical basis for updating TSCA. While reform based on a synthesis of TSCA and REACH would be evolutionary rather than revolutionary, it could nevertheless greatly improve chemicals regulation in the US. This article offers principles for such reform. The article concludes with a discussion of the global impact of national regulatory systems like REACH.


Army Nurses of World War One: Service Beyond Expectations. 2006. Lorraine Luciano and Casandra Jewell (Eds). Army Heritage Center Foundation, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Producer and Director: Anthony V. Rotolo. Narrator: Lisa Stofko. (DVD, 52 minutes $24.95), (book, 267 pages, $14.95), (DVD and book set $34.95). www.armyheritage.org As part of The Army Heritage Foundation's series, Voices of the Past Speak to the Future, editors Lorraine Luciano and Casandra Jewell reconstructed the experiences of two nurses deployed as part of the United States Army Nurse Corps during World War I. Luciano and Jewell use two different media to illustrate the stories of these nurses: a book and a film documentary, employing the diaries, letters, photographs, newspaper clippings, and other primary source documents of nurses Elizabeth Lewis and Emma Weaver to create the landscape of experiences that typify World War I military nursing. Luciano and Jewell's book begins with brief yet thorough prologue and introduction sections. These components provide the reader with the context necessary to understand the role of the featured nurses who served overseas during World War I with the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). Following the initial sections are more than 250 pages of prose and excerpts from primary data, effectively illustrating the compelling stories of Lewis and Weaver. The reader is enticed by the chronicles of these nurses and can easily overlook the way in which the introduction ends abruptly and lacks a segue into the subsequent section that features Lewis's letters. Elizabeth Lewis, a young nurse from New England serving in the AEF, wrote letters home to her sisters and mother describing her experiences with Base Hospital Unit #9, which arrived in France in August of 1918. Although her wartime nursing experience was short in duration, ending after the 1918 Armistice, Lewis's written correspondence is rich in detail and description offering insight into how a young woman transitioned into a military nurse. Lewis voices her concerns about breaching censorship regulations and worrying mom, and these themes come to the forefront of nearly all of her letters to her sisters. These letters, often quite graphic in their description of personal safety, speak to how Lewis establishes herself amidst a military routine. In a time of unrestricted submarine warfare, Lewis matter-of-factly describes the identification disc she wears that would identify her if injured. In Lewis's letters to her mother, however, she is instead reassuring minimizing the threats of war. Spelling and grammatical errors found throughout the text, although a likely distraction to the lay reader, for scholars, paradoxically, add to the richness of the data provided and add evidence of the authenticity of the transcription. Photos and scanned images of letters, photographs, and ephemera throughout the entire book are of excellent quality. Emma Weaver, the second featured nurse, is Lewis's more mature counterpart. Nurse Weaver volunteers for service with the AEF at the age of thirty-nine and has the foresight to record her wartime experiences in a diary. Upon her return to the United States, Weaver turns her journal into a memoir wherein she contemplates the nature of war, provides rich detail of her care of wounded and gassed soldiers, and offers the reader a perspective on morale among service people usually reserved only to those possessing vast life experience. These data possess depth and breadth that few young nurses could offer. Although the editors profess this to be a project done for a lay audience, they miss the opportunity to provide the reader with an analysis of how these firsthand accounts reveal prominent issues reflective of the World War I era, such as gender, rank, standards for entry into service that changed with demand for personnel, and race. Some, if not all, of these topics might have been presented in a way as not to be beyond the reach of the audience. …


Abstract Objective The 6 item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6) is a screening tool for psychological distress with robust psychometric properties; however, information is lacking on such properties of the scale on its Bangla version. The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Bangla version of the K6 scale in young people. Method A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted between August 2017 and April 2018 among 718 students aged 13-24 years (45% females) from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Psychological distress was assessed using the Bangla K6. The survey was repeated in a week. Statistical software AMOS 25 and Stata SE 14 were used to conduct the analyses. Results The Bangla K6 scale demonstrated an acceptable internal consistency with high Cronbach alpha. Principal component analysis confirmed a single-factor structure of the scale. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the one-factor structure of the scale with adequate fit to the survey data. Test-retest reliability was acceptable with good reliability coefficients. Receiver operating characteristic analyses showed good prediction of depressive symptoms by the Bangla K6 scores. Discussion This study provides an initial support for the Bangla K6 scale as an acceptable instrument to assess psychological distress of Bangla-speaking young people. More research is needed to understand our ability to identify vulnerable individuals, whose native language is Bangla and who are in need of mental health support.


St. Louis Fed President James Bullard discussed two views of future policy rate increases: the FOMC's scenario and the market-based scenario. The former suggests a gradual pace of rate increases over the next several years, while the latter is much shallower—only a few increases over the forecast horizon. He cited evidence to back both views. For the FOMC scenario, he cited strong labor markets, waning international headwinds and inflation measurements moving closer to the 2 percent target. For the market-based scenario, the evidence included slow real GDP growth and low inflation expectations. Bullard spoke at the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum's City Lecture in Beijing.


This brief is based on Information and Communication Technologies for Development and Poverty Reduction: The Potential of Telecommunications, ed. Maximo Torero and Joachim von Braun (Johns Hopkins University Press and IFPRI, 2006) "The variety of views about ICTs reveals that their role in development is unclear, especially without convincing evidence of their impact—and little research has been conducted on the direct and indirect links between ICTs and poverty reduction. A new book, Information and Communication Technologies for Development and Poverty Reduction: The Potential of Telecommunications, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press for IFPRI, addresses several pressing questions surrounding ICTs. How do ICTs affect economic development in low-income countries? How do they affect poor people in these countries and in rural areas in particular? What policies and programs facilitate their potential to enhance development and the inclusion of poor constituents? The book presents researchers' findings related to five critical questions. (1) What link exists between ICT growth and economic growth? (2) Do weak institutions block effective use of ICTs? (3) Have ICTs been adapted to low-income countries, and have they had an impact on SMEs? (4) Does household access to ICTs remain constrained? (5) Can ICTs play a role in providing pro-poor public goods and services?" from Text


Introduction: Early identification of patients with unexpected clinical deterioration is a matter of serious concern. Previous studies have shown that early intervention on a patient whose health is deteriorating improves the patient outcome, and machine-learning-based approaches to predict clinical deterioration may contribute to precision improvement. To date, however, no systematic review in this area is available. Methods: We completed a search on PubMed on January 22, 2017 as well as a review of the articles identified by study authors involved in this area of research following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines for systematic reviews. Results: Twelve articles were selected for the current study from 273 articles initially obtained from the PubMed searches. Eleven of the 12 studies were retrospective studies, and no randomized controlled trials were performed. Although the artificial neural network techniques were the most frequently used and provided high precision and accuracy, we failed to identify articles that showed improvement in the patient outcome. Limitations were reported related to generalizability, complexity of models, and technical knowledge. Conclusions: This review shows that machine-learning approaches can improve prediction of clinical deterioration compared with traditional methods. However, these techniques will require further external validation before widespread clinical acceptance can be achieved.


In present study by virtue of the importance of the fiscal statement contents and illiquid items ignored by the merchant the depreciation contents relation with abnormal return of the shares and future benefits are examined in order to influence the items under consideration of the investors to take related decisions; 94 companies were selected from the accessible universe in five years (2006-2010) to have the data necessary for the study in order to achieve the goal & with the base of keeping attention to the manufacturing & nonmanufacturing companies in the whole industries of stock market except banks & insurance companies. The simple and multivariable regression statistical techniques Chow and Hausman Test were used to test the hypotheses. The significant test was conducted for the paradigms by using the 'F' and 'T' statistics. The study findings show local high inflation have affection on the both variable results & makes no relation for first variable,for future benefits shows parallel movements.


At first glance Leonard Meldert's Primo libro a cinque (1578) seems to represent a synthesis of the composer's activity at the court of Guidubaldo II Della Rovere, Duke of Urbino—where the composer arrived in 1573—and his private service, beginning late in 1574, to the duke's brother, Cardinal Giulio Della Rovere, to whom his madrigal collection is dedicated. But a deeper investigation of the book's structure and content reveals that it tells another story. Almost all of the pieces were composed either in Pesaro for Guidubaldo—or, rather, for Guidubaldo's beloved daughter-in-law Lucrezia d'Este from Ferrara—or in Fossombrone or Urbino for Cardinal Giulio, and the selection of texts appears consistent with the literary tastes of the Urbino court (where the young Tasso, too, lived for a while and staged, for the first and only time, his pastoral comedy Aminta ). But the inner structure of the book appears, surprisingly, to be modeled according to a sort of autobiographical plan. The twenty madrigals are clearly divided, by modal as well as literary strategies, into three sections: the outer ones, in cantus durus , set conventional happy love scenes to music; the central one, in cantus mollis , presents an incredible series of texts expressing deep suffering due to a bad situation (the composer forced to silence, an angry "signore" ignoring the composer's words, etc.). The importance given to the affect of suffering is partly explained by Meldert's dedication letter, in which he says that Guidubaldo's death in September 1574 left him without "speranza di protezione" (without any hope of protection) and that some time elapsed before he was able to recover thanks to the patronage of Cardinal Giulio. Thus the three parts of the book may respectively refer to a) an initial happy period with Guidubaldo, b) a second period of uncertainty under the new duke Francesco Maria II (who dismissed his father's musical chapel along with many of his former servants), and c) a third newly felicitous period in the cardinal's service. Moreover, a philological study of the texts chosen by Meldert reveals that during the troubled and painful period he was probably trying to establish connections with other musical circles (in particular that of Antonio Londonio in Milan) in an attempt to redirect his life and career. Taking this data as my starting point, in this paper I will reconsider the common view of the relations between a madrigal book and its patron/dedicatee as well as the new idea of "authoriality" (i.e., authorial presence) that is reflected in a musical publication of the second half of the sixteenth century.


Abstract This paper aims to investigate the occurrences and characteristics of visual dialogues in urban spaces. In order to systematically examine the specific elements of visual dialogues the analysis draws on a corpus of more than 25.500 digital photographs taken in selected neighbourhoods in the cities of Essen, Bochum, Duisburg and Dortmund. The article discusses several approaches to the concept of "dialogue" and "dialogism" and distinguishes between a "narrow", i. e. interactional approach and a "wide", i. e. more fundamental approach to utterances and texts. In this more fundamental perspective on dialogism, utterances and texts are not the sole product of one individual speaker but full of references to pre-utterances and pre-texts, recontextualiations, polyphony as well as invitations for responses. The analysis reveals that the majority of visual dialogues in urban spaces are best explained within the framework of the latter approach, a previously inaccessible point of view in linguistic landscape studies.


Since the birth of modern computer architecture, computer performance has witnessed an exponential growth, driven mainly by increased transistor density. In the last decade, performance advancement has become increasingly difficult as computers are limited by power budgets due to problems with heat dissipation. As transistor technology continues to advance, full utilization of the available silicon is becoming ever challenging. As a result, new avenues of design exploration have emerged to track down alternative routes for continued performance enhancement. One such research field concerns heterogeneous computer architectures, where cores that excel at different areas of computation are combined on a single chip in order to provide performance scaling and the assignment of process workloads to optimally suited hardware. The SHMAC project applies heterogeneous research in a single ISA environment, where various hardware is deployed in a matrix of interchangeable tiles, with the only general purpose processor tile being an ARMv4T compliant Amber processor core. While programs and operating systems have been proven to successfully run on the processor core, their practical use is limited by the available memory space as the core does not feature a memory management system. This thesis introduces a memory management unit into the Amber processor, enabling virtual memory support at the hardware level. The final contribution is Vilma; an ARMv4T compliant core featuring a memory management unit, verified using hardware simulation and an assembly test suite.


Al Qaeda and allied groups continue to pose a threat to the United States. Although it is less severe than the catastrophic proportions of a 9/11-like attack, the threat today is more complex and more diverse than at any time over the past nine years. Al Qaeda or its allies continue to have the capacity to kill dozens, or even hundreds, of Americans in a single attack. A key shift in the past couple of years is the increasingly prominent role in planning and operations that U.S. citizens and residents have played in the leadership of Al Qaeda and aligned groups, and the higher numbers of Americans attaching themselves to these groups. Another development is the increasing diversification of the types of U.S.-based jihadist militants, and the groups with which those militants have affiliated. Indeed, these jihadists do not fit any particular ethnic, economic, educational, or social profile. Al Qaeda's ideological influence on other jihadist groups is on the rise in South Asia and has continued to extend into countries like Yemen and Somalia; Al Qaeda's top leaders are still at large, and American overreactions to even unsuccessful terrorist attacks arguably have played, however inadvertently, into the hands of the jihadists. Working against Al Qaeda and allied groups are the ramped-up campaign of drone attacks in Pakistan, increasingly negative Pakistani attitudes and actions against the militants based on their territory, which are mirrored by increasingly hostile attitudes toward Al Qaeda and allied groups in the Muslim world in general, and the fact that erstwhile militant allies have now also turned against Al Qaeda. This article is based on interviews with a wide range of senior U.S. counterterrorism officials at both the federal and local levels, and embracing the policy, intelligence, and law enforcement communities, supplemented by the authors' own research.