Due to rapid urban development and increasing population, urban areas are facing more challenges in the area of sustainable development. In order to make sure that these cities are moving toward sustainable development, it is very important to highlight the human activities as significant elements in terms of energy metabolism. This paper employed the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach to analyze the energy metabolic pattern of Qatar from ecological, social, and economic dimensions. MuSIASEM has been introduced for the first time late 90's, and it is trying to answer the questions of how and why humans use resources? how this use depends on and affects the stability of the ecosystems embedding the society? Therefore, this study aimed to track and record level of energy sustainability in Qatar, describe and analyze the energy and GDP flow in Qatar using MuSIASEM. Energy consumption per capita in Qatar reached 17,418 kg of oil equivalent in 2014, while the rate in US is 6793 kg of oil equivalent. That makes Qatar one of the biggest energy consumer around the world, and that's has negative impacts on our society e.g., CO2 emissions per Capita in Qatar reached 37.78 metric tons in 2013. A case study of Qatar was considered instead of the capital and largest city (Doha) because all the urban areas and human activities in Qatar are connected with Doha, especially with the small area of Qatar 11,627 km2. Thus, Qatar is the suitable study's area compared with the mega cities around the world. In addition, all the previous studies which used MuSIASEM as methodology focused on countries which import energy, but Qatar exports and produces energy, and that makes the study unique and valuable. The study investigated historical pattern changes of human activities in Qatar with focusing on working hours in line with Gross Domestic Product, then evaluated the possible results, so that the detailed metabolic patterns can be identified and appropriate development policies can be prepared to help decision makers with the implementation of Qatar Vision 2030 which consider sustainable development as fundamental pillar. The results investigated the correlation and interactions between Gross Domestic Product, added value, human activities, energy consumption, energy intensity, exosmotic energy metabolism, and future economic transition in Qatar. To make the results systematic and organized, it have been subdivided hierarchy into three levels: Level n studied The whole society of Qatar, Level n-1 studied both of consumptive sector (hose hold) and productive sector (work sector), Level n-2 focused on the subdivisions of work sectors and house hold typologies. Speaking of data resources, the economic and social data of study have been provided by Ministry of Statistics and Development Planning, While the electrical data has been provided by Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (KAHRAMA). World Bank, and International Energy Agency (IEA) provided all the date related to energy consumption. Other data like human time, energy intensity, and exosmotic metabolic rate have been calculated through some equations which will be explained in the study.


Australasian Computer Music Conference - July 2014

 Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne

 ABSTRACT

 Momentum is an ongoing, cumulative music composition project first conducted throughout
2012. For 366 consecutive days I recorded and collected sounds and musical material,
sculpting and layering them utilizing digital and electronic manipulation and processing. I
invited contributions to the project, and more than 60 people from around the world
collaborated on Momentum, providing sounds to be included in the project.

 Each day a small audio snapshot of the work appeared online alongside a blog, sharing
information on sound sources and compositional approaches. Momentum is presented in 12
movements (one for each month of the year 2012), and has since gone on to encompass a 30
minute album, created cumulatively over one month in Istanbul, a 4 day and night live
performance version for the Melbourne Fringe Festival, and an ongoing, online community
sound art collective. The work-in-progress was (and remains) accessible via several online
sources, and the audio is free to listen to, download and re-purpose within the confines of a
non commercial Creative Commons License.1 I continue to invite feedback, comments,
audience participation and derivative works via the music site SoundCloud2, bandcamp3, my
blog4, email, Facebook5 and Twitter6.

 This presentation will focus on one specific area of my research, that of harmony with
audience, encompassing the participatory nature of Momentum, and the open and transparent
way in which each of the projects was created. The joining together of sounds, sonic
environments, experiences, skills, artists and audience throughout each of the Momentum
projects promoted dialogue, feedback and collaboration.


We propose a new type of amplitude modulator for integrated optics based on phase-controllable coherent perfect loss (CPL) from a resonant cavity. Temporal coupled-mode theory is employed to derive a simple set of equations that describe the device operation, and finite-difference time-domain simulations are used to verify these equations. Two examples of CPL modulators are described with this formalism: a ring resonator and a 1D photonic crystal cavity. We show that internal resonator loss, and thus critical coupling, are not strict requirements for CPL operation. These devices are simple to design and can act as compact switches and modulators for integrated optics.


Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, including magnetite (Fe3 O4 ), are widely used in applications such as targeted drug delivery, magnetic resonance imaging, tissue engineering, gene therapy, hyperthermic malignant cell treatment, and cell membrane manipulation. These nanoparticles are particularly interesting for in vivo and in vitro applications since they do not exhibit magnetic behavior once the magnetic field has been removed. In the current work, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles were produced using a flame synthesis method, which provides significant advantages over other material synthesis processes such as solgel processing, chemical vapor deposition, and laser ablation. Flame synthesis allows control of particle size, size distribution, phase and composition by altering flame operating conditions. Flame synthesis is further capable of commercial production rates with minimal post-processing of the final product materials. This study focuses on the interaction of flame synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles with porcine aortic endothelial cells and compares the results to those obtained using commercially available iron oxide nanoparticles. The materials characteristics of the flame synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles, including morphology, elemental composition, particle size, were analyzed by electron microscopy (TEM, ESEM, EDS), and Raman Spectroscopy. The data verified production of a heterogenous mixture of hematite and magnetite nanoparticles, which exhibit superparamagnetic properties. Monodisperse iron oxide particles of 6–12 nm diameter and aggregated clusters of these 6–12nm nanoparticles have been synthesized. Nanoparticle biocompatibility was assessed by incubating flame synthesized and commercially available iron oxide nanoparticles with endothelial cells for 24 hours. Both alamar blue and Live/Dead cell assays showed no significant toxicity difference between flame synthesized and commercially available nanoparticles. Cells exposed to both types of nanoparticles maintained membrane integrity, as indicated by minimal lactase dehydrogenase release. Endothelial cells imaged by ESEM and confirmed by EDS demonstrated that uncoated flame synthesized nanoparticles are ingested into cells in a similar manner to commercially available nanoparticles. These data suggest that flame synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles are comparable to commercially available nanoparticles for biological applications. Flame synthesis has the advantage of a relatively simple synthesis process with higher purity products and lower time and energy manufacturing costs. Future work will include functionalizing the nanoparticle surfaces for specific biological applications, including specific cell targeting and bioactive factor delivery.Copyright © 2008 by ASME


Let k be an uncountable algebraically closed field and let Y be a smooth
projective k-variety which does not admit a decomposition of the diagonal. We
prove that Y is not stably birational to a very general hypersurface of any
given degree and dimension. We use this to study the variation of the stable
birational types of Fano hypersurfaces over fields of arbitrary characteristic.
This had been initiated by Shinder, whose method works in characteristic zero.

 Comment: 14 pages; final version, published in EPIGA


The Authors evaluate the effect of a Surface Acoustic Wave device (NanoVibronix Inc. Elmsford, NY, USA) on the symptomatology of Trigeminal Neuralgia. 59 subjects completed the trial. This was a double-blinded randomized control trial that measured subjective pain relief as measured by VAS and subjective results measured by the reduction of use of breakthrough narcotic medications. There was a significant reduction in subjective pain reported as well as in the number of uses of breakthrough opioid medications. There was trending towards an increase in quality of life scores. The investigational device had no adverse events or complications and was deemed both safe and efficacious.


A drastic improvement on the technical and the administrational sector follows some global trends. E-government with location based applications have been initiated and launched in most developed countries and conducted in different stages of implementation. These projects greatly influence the Land administration sector witnessing the general truth; about eighty percent of all information is spatially referenced. E-application at privilege of client interaction has opened new ways of co-operation between the public and the private sector in the area of electronic Land Administration too. Spatial data are produced on various levels with different contents and different standards. Especially land administration projects will only be successful when all the players in the game follow the same rules. Hence, Land Information System (LIS) in corporation with relevant stakeholders can play a dramatic role in e-land administration of the country. Creation of seamless set of parcel data, based on country's administrative hierarchy; Divisional Secretary Divisions (DSD) was the greatest achievement for successive LIS, in which all the parcel related information could be easily mapped for user interaction. Land parcel, being the key object in LIS should be graphically created through a suitable survey method. As the responsible organization for land surveying in the country, the Survey Department is conducting the task with well accurate field surveys. Field surveying for parcel based cadastre has been conducted in years back with resulting many progressive areas while a complete survey has been done in Moratuwa and Ratmalana Divisional Secretariats. Hence, in this paper, while discussing the LIS for whole the country, Moratuwa Divisional Secretariat will be taken as the project area. Moratuwa is situated next to the capital city; Colombo, and it is one of the populated and built-up areas in the country. The area is almost flat and 3-10m average Mean Sea Level (MSL) height depicted in the vicinity. The state land administration is governed by the Divisional Secretary and infrastructure development is mainly handled by the Local Authority; Moratuwa Municipality Council (MMC). A design or creation will not be a product, until it is published for customer use. Hence, the proceedings need to be attended are numerous for making the LIS to be an effective and efficient product for its customers. The paper will further discuss on the follow up actions for developing the system architecture, middle ware interface, web Application etc. This article may be very useful for those who wish to develop location based applications related in effective land administration towards the sustainability of the country. Keywords: Land Information System, Land Administration, Cadastre, Land Parcel


When dealing with challenges such as providing fire protection while considering cost, mechanical and thermal performance and simultaneously addressing increasing regulations that deal with composition of matter and life cycle issues, there are no quick, one-size-fits-all answers. Packed with comprehensive coverage, scientific approach, step-by-step directions, and a distillation of technical knowledge, the first edition of Fire Retardancy of Polymeric Materials broke new ground. It supplied a one-stop resource for the development of new fire safe materials.


Lifelong learning has been linked by policymakers to economic and social wellbeing. This paper introduces the concept of training brokerage as an efficient way of meeting the needs of learners, industry and education and training providers. It presents findings from a study of the features, processes and outcomes of training brokerage arrangements within the Australian agricultural and natural resource management sectors. The purpose of the study was to identify and promote effective brokerage arrangements and models. The study used multi‐method, multi‐site techniques, comprising a telephone survey, case studies of good broking practice and stakeholder participation through workshops and a reference group. Training brokers act as facilitators or intermediaries in identifying and matching training needs and opportunities. They have close links with industry, and extensive networks that include reputable training providers. Brokers work with others to identify training needs and engage participants, and to identify, negotiate and plan appropriate training. Evaluation and further training are a key part of the process. Effective broking activity is underpinned by a series of ten generic principles. Brokerage has implications for the agricultural sector in developed and developing countries, in terms of improving the match of training provision to training needs, communication, coordination and collaboration across regions and industries. It also has broader implications for facilitating participation in client‐driven lifelong learning, particularly for disenfranchised learners.


This paper describes a new Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer with the capability to measure diffuse reflectance (DR) from 5000 to 500 cm−1 (2 to 20 µm) in addition to the normal transmittance measurements. The instrument has a true simultaneous double beam measurement mode and a high speed single beam mode. The system also takes advantage of many data manipulation and display features due to the built-in computer and 2.5 million word storage system. One of the objectives of this work was to produce a practical instrument which includes the DR capability; another was to introduce the qualitative and quantitative measurements of DR in the infrared to the analytical community. DR has been commonly available in the visible and near ir spectrum, but until this new instrument, has not been available in the ir. A brief survey of the background and history of DR and emittance measurements in the ir is given. The design details and operation of the instrument are generally examined. Brief examples are provided for a few transmittance, trace analysis, and microsampling applications, and a variety of DR results are shown. The addition of diffuse reflectance as a tool in the infrared opens new avenues for investigation and application in many fields.


Abstract Background: Entering occupational therapy (OT) students have established beliefs, informed by sociocultural backgrounds. Understanding how students define and understand disability, and the relationships these understandings have to disability bias, can guide curriculum design decisions to integrate meso and macro level perspectives of disability into clinical reasoning. Aim/Objective: This study's aim was to explore incoming occupational therapy students' (n = 67) understandings of disability and their attitudes towards it. Material and method: An online survey was used to collect data on students' attitudes and definitions of disability. Mixed research methods were used to analyze students' definitions of disability (content analysis) in relation to disability attitudes (Disability Attitudes Implicit Association Test). Results/Finding: Findings reveal students enter curriculums with vast differences in understandings of people with disabilities and these may provide a basis for and contribute to differences in attitudes of disability. Conclusions: OT students have established beliefs of disability as individualized or more socially constructed and these influence disability biases. Significance: Students' education has considerable influence in shaping attitudes and ways of interacting with people with disability. Understanding students' assumptions as they enter a program is a first step to evaluate how curriculum design may influence development of student clinical reasoning strategies.


The aim of the study was the identification and characterisation of coagulase-positive Staphylococcus bacteria obtained from food matrices by mass spectrometry and molecular methods. A total of 46 coagulase-positive Staphylococcus isolates were collected from different foodstuffs. The Staphylococcus isolates were identified by MALDI-TOF MS and confirmed by the presence and sequence analysis of the Staphylococcus protein A gene. Staphylococcal enterotoxin genes were also investigated by multiplex PCR. Based on the identification of strains by the MALDI-TOF MS technique and spa-typing, all strains were identified as Staphylococcus aureus. Based on their MS peak profiles, the isolates matched the spectra of three S. aureus reference strains in the Bruker MALDI Biotyper database, with identification scores higher than 1.999 in the case of all 46 (100%) isolates. The isolates showed great genetic variability. Twenty spa types were identified, from which most lineages are capable of colonizing humans. Fifty percent of the strains harboured at least one of four enterotoxin genes (seg, seh, sei, and ser), but none of the classical enterotoxin genes could be detected.


When a long ascending tone with a temporal gap in the middle and a short continuous descending tone cross each other, a long continuous ascending tone and a short descending tone are often perceived with a temporal gap in the middle. This is an illusory phenomenon because the physical temporal gap of the ascending tone seems to be transferred to the descending tone perceptually. This phenomenon was named ''the gap transfer illusion.'' Many related stimulus patterns were compared which confirmed the robustness of this illusion. An onset and a proximate termination tended to be connected to each other perceptually, forming an auditory event. The proximity of the temporal dimension seemed more important than the proximity of the frequency dimension. When onsets had no proximate termination, the illusion disappeared. Several new phenomena to which the same idea can be applied were found.


Consumer-centered software applications nowadays are required to be available both as mobile and desktop versions. However, the app design is frequently made only for one of the two (i.e., mobile first or web first) while missing an appropriate design for the other (which, in turn, simply mimics the interaction of the first one). This results into poor quality of the interaction on one or the other platform. Current solutions would require different designs, to be realized through different design methods and tools, and that may require to double development and maintenance costs. In order to mitigate such an issue, this paper proposes a novel approach that supports the design of both web and mobile applications at once. Starting from a unique requirement and business specification, where web-- and mobile--specific aspects are captured through tagging, we derive a platform-independent design of the system specified in IFML. This model is subsequently refined and detailed for the two platforms, and used to automatically generate both the web and mobile versions. If more precise interactions are needed for the mobile part, a blending with MobML, a mobile-specific modeling language, is devised. Full traceability of the relations between artifacts is granted.


[1] Wind-driven changes in the path of warm Bering/Chukchi waters carried by the Alaska Coastal Current (ACC) through Barrow Canyon during late summer are described from high-resolution hydrography, acoustic Doppler current profiler–measured currents, and satellite-measured sea surface temperature imagery acquired from mid-August to mid-September 2005–2007 near Barrow, Alaska. Numerical simulations are used to provide a multidecadal context for these observational data. Four generalized wind regimes and associated circulation states are identified. When winds are from the east or east-southeast, the ACC jet tends to be relatively strong and flows adjacent to the shelf break along the southern flank of Barrow Canyon. These easterly winds drive inner shelf currents northwestward along the Alaskan Beaufort coast where they oppose significant eastward intrusions of warm water from Barrow Canyon onto the shelf. Because these easterly winds promote sea level set down over the Beaufort shelf and upwelling along the Beaufort slope, the ACC jet necessarily becomes weaker, broader, and displaced seaward from the Beaufort shelf break upon exiting Barrow Canyon. Winds from the northeast promote separation of the ACC from the southern flank of Barrow Canyon and establish an up-canyon current along the southern flank that is fed in part by waters from the western Beaufort shelf. When winds are weak or from the southwest, warm Bering/Chukchi waters from Barrow Canyon intrude onto the western Beaufort shelf.


Background: Fat grafting is a growing field within plastic surgery. Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) and stromal vascular fracture (SVF) may have a role in fat graft survival. Our group previously demonstrated a detrimental effect on ASC survival by the lidocaine used in tumescent solution. Sodium bicarbonate (SB) buffers the acidity of lidocaine. The purpose of this study was to determine whether SB buffering is a practical method to reduce ASC and SVF apoptosis and necrosis seen with common lidocaine-containing tumescent solution. Methods: Human patients undergoing bilateral liposuction for any indication were included in this study. An internally controlled, split-body design was utilized. Tumescent liposuction on one side of the body was conducted with tumescent containing lidocaine. On the opposite side, liposuction was conducted by adding SB to the tumescent. Tumescent solution and lipoaspirate pH were measured. Lipoaspirate from each side was processed for SVF isolation and ASC culture. The number of viable ASCs was counted and SVF apoptosis/necrosis was examined. Results: The pH of the SB-buffered tumescent was significantly higher than that of the standard tumescent, an effect also seen in the lipoaspirate. Adipose-derived stem cell survival in the SB-buffered lipoaspirate was approximately 53% higher. However, there was no significant difference in SVF apoptosis and necrosis between the groups. Conclusions: The acidic standard tumescent solution commonly used in liposuction diminishes ASC viability from lipoaspirates. Sodium bicarbonate buffering tumescent solution can enhance ASC viability, but does not affect SVF apoptosis and necrosis. We recommend buffering tumescent with SB to potentially improve fat graft take. Our findings advocate for further research investigating mechanisms and optimal harvest techniques that maximize SVF/ASC survival and the clinical effect on overall fat graft viability.


Neurons in the brain protect themselves from excessive activity in part by a mechanism through which an influx of calcium ions activates potassium channels, which then cause hyperpolarization of the nerve cell, thus inhibiting further action potentials. The identity of this potassium channel is not known, but the current it conducts is called the slow afterhyperpolarization current (IsAHP). Tzingounis et al. identified a new key component of the mechanism by which calcium influences the channel: the neuronal calcium sensor family member known as hippocalcin. The authors interpreted results from kinetic analysis of IsAHP in the presence of various calcium buffers to indicate that IsAHP responded primarily to general changes in calcium concentration within the cell, as opposed to large rapid changes in calcium concentration in the immediate vicinity of calcium channels. The latter is characteristic of other potassium channels that exist together with calcium channels in large complexes in which the calcium sensor is bound to or part of the potassium channel. Instead, the sAHP channels appeared to be regulated by a diffusible calcium sensor, so the authors suspected hippocalcin. They found that, indeed, hippocampal slices from hippocalcin knockout mice lacked IsAHP, whereas expression of hippocalcin in cultured neurons enhanced IsAHP. Hippocalcin contains a "myristoyl switch," a mechanism by which a conformational change induced by calcium binding causes exposure of a myristoyl moiety that causes hippocalcin to bind to the plasma membrane. A mutant lacking the myristoylation site failed to increase IsAHP. The authors therefore propose that hippocalcin senses global changes in the concentration of intracellular free calcium and relays that information back to the plasma membrane. Brown et al. point out in commentary that elucidation of the mechanism by which hippocalcin actually regulates the sAHP channel, be it direct or through another messenger molecule (hippocalcin is known to bind phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate), may be possible only when the so-far-elusive molecular identity of the sAHP channel itself is resolved. A. V. Tzingounis, M. Kobayashi, K. Takamatsu, R. A. Nicoll, Hippocalcin gates the calcium activation of the slow afterhyperpolarization in hippocampal pyramidal cells. Neuron 53, 487-493 (2007). [Online Journal] D. A. Brown, B. Lancaster, M. M. Shah, Hippocalcin: A new solution to an old puzzle. Neuron 53, 467-468 (2007). [Online Journal]


This paper presents the structure and properties of a total stream model that simulates the dynamics of small, flowing—water ecosystems in the northwestern United States. Conceptually, the model is hierarchically structured, consisting of 7 basic processes: periphyton dynamics, grazing, shredding, collecting, invertebrate predation, vertebrate predation, and detrital conditioning. These processes are subprocesses of 3 echelons of higher level processes: detritivory; herbivory; primary consumption; predation; and the total ecosystem. The model has 14 state variables in the 7 basic processes, and is conceptualized in discrete time with a basic time step corresponding to 1 day. Behavior of the stream model relative to different schedules of energy inputs and to the practice of clear—cut logging was investigated and related to contemporary theory of lotic ecosystems. In general, model behavior indicated that the regulation of biological processes in streams is complex, the mechanisms of which vary seasonally and from process to process. If a process is regulated by food supply, its annual production tends to increase as predation increases, while mean biomass may or may not be affected appreciably. In contrast, an increase in predation tends to decrease both mean biomass and annual production in processes regulated primarily by predation and such life history phenomena as insects emergence. The stream model provided the stimulus that led to a mathematical expression for the rate of production at the level of the entire ecosystem, and model behavior suggests that this rate tends to remain constant along a continuum from small, first—order streams with no tributaries to larger rivers which eventually drain into the sea.


This paper explores the key elements of success in the interdisciplinary teaching of neuroscience, using the example of two undergraduate seminars offered by the Mind, Brain, and Behavior (MBB) program at Harvard University. These elements include students' and facul- ties' disposition for boundary-crossing, their intellectual breadth and ability to cope with unan- swered questions in science, and the particular organization of the curriculum which was de- signed to keep the students at the crossroads of many competing theories and to stimulate a search for synthesis. An institutional commitment to developing interdisciplinary curricula in neuroscience in the form of the MBB Interfaculty Initiative also serves as an important founda- tion for interdisciplinary teaching and learning. The two MBB seminars provide models of inte- grative curriculum in neuroscience, as instructors in the classroom reenact the actual interdisci- plinary debate that defines the field of neuroscience itself. Founded on a belief in the inherent unity of the mind and the brain, neuroscience tries to find the connecting tissue between psycho- logical and biological theories of the mind/brain. Keeping the search for a unified theory central to the discussion in the classroom, asking students to test the explanatory limits of each contrib- uting discipline, and discussing the shortfalls of current integrative mind/brain thinking, in- structors in both seminars are able to spark an interdisciplinary dialogue of the most compelling nature.


We present new results on the kinematics, thermal and ionization state, and spatial distribution of metal-enriched gas in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of massive galaxies at redshift ∼3, using the Eris suite of cosmological hydrodynamic "zoom-in" simulations. The reference run adopts a blastwave scheme for supernova feedback that produces large-scale galactic outflows, a star formation recipe based on a high gas density threshold, metal-dependent radiative cooling, and a model for the diffusion of metals and thermal energy. The effect of the local UV radiation field is added in post-processing. The CGM (defined as all gas at R > 0.2 Rvir = 10 kpc, where Rvir is the virial radius) contains multiple phases having a wide range of physical conditions, with more than half of its heavy elements locked in a warm-hot component at T > 105 K. Synthetic spectra, generated by drawing sightlines through the CGM, produce interstellar absorption-line strengths of Lyα, C ii, C iv, Si ii, and Si iv as a function of the galactocentric impact parameter (scaled to the virial radius) that are in broad agreement with those observed at high redshift by Steidel et al. The covering factor of absorbing material declines less rapidly with impact parameter for Lyα and C iv compared to C ii, Si iv, and Si ii, with Lyα remaining strong (WLyα > 300 mÅ) to ≳ 5 Rvir = 250 kpc. Only about one third of all the gas within Rvir is outflowing. The fraction of sightlines within one virial radius that intercept optically thick, NH I>1017.2  cm-2 material is 27%, in agreement with recent observations by Rudie et al. Such optically thick absorption is shown to trace inflowing "cold" streams that penetrate deep inside the virial radius. The streams, enriched to metallicities above 0.01 solar by previous episodes of star formation in the main host and in nearby dwarfs, are the origin of strong (NC II>1013 cm-2) C ii absorption with a covering factor of 22% within Rvir and 10% within 2 Rvir. Galactic outflows do not cause any substantial suppression of the cold accretion mode. The central galaxy is surrounded by a large O vi halo, with a typical column density NO VI ≳ 1014  cm-2 and a near unity covering factor maintained all the way out to 150 kpc. This matches the trends recently observed in star-forming galaxies at low redshift by Tumlinson et al. Our zoom-in simulations of this single system appear then to reproduce quantitatively the complex baryonic processes that determine the exchange of matter, energy, and metals between galaxies and their surroundings.


Innocence can be defined in a narrow, even technical way: Freedom from specific guilt; the fact of not being guilty of that with which one is charged; guiltlessness. But innocence can also take on a larger meaning that extends beyond technicality into morality: Freedom from sin, guilt, or moral wrong in general; the state of being untainted with, or unacquainted with, evil; moral purity. This broader definition conveys a larger idea that is more powerful and evocative than the former's narrow literalism. Innocence has played an important role in three lines of judicial decisions addressing claims of workplace discrimination: Remedies decisions, decisions reviewing affirmative action in public employment, and decisions reviewing affirmative action in private employment. From the Supreme Court's perspective, the innocent third parties in these workplace discrimination cases are the white and male co-workers of the African-American and women workers who have been the victims of discrimination. The Supreme Court has repeatedly relied on the innocence of white and male workers to deprive African-American and female discrimination victims of complete relief from discrimination. This essay argues that the Supreme Court's innocence jurisprudence in the workplace discrimination cases represents a subtle bait-and-switch of one definition of innocence for the other. The white and male co-workers of the victims of discrimination are innocents only in the sense that they satisfy the narrower definition: Freedom from specific guilt. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court has afforded these innocents protection appropriate only for those who satisfy the broader, moral definition of innocence. Thus, the Court's workplace discrimination decisions minimize discrimination and its victims while emphasizing the purported plight of innocent co-workers. This misuse of the power of innocence has deprived the victims of discrimination of complete justice. The central issue became how best to resolve a manufactured struggle between the victims of discrimination and their co-workers over jobs, promotions, and wages rather than how to eliminate the vestiges of discrimination from the workplace. The Court's answer, dictated by its re-shaping of the question, has been to constrain the lower courts and other branches and levels of government from preferring the victims of discrimination over their innocent co-workers in the assignment of burdens and benefits in the workplace. This essay discloses how the Supreme Court has wielded the power of innocence in its workplace discrimination cases. But it also responds to the Supreme Court's subtle bait-and-switch of one form of innocence for another with a resounding fuhgeddaboutit! This essay recruits America's favorite TV mob family - the Sopranos - to help in the assessment of what it means to be innocent. Fictional New Jersey crime boss Tony Soprano, his wife Carmela, his oldest child Meadow, and only son Anthony, Jr. (AJ) challenge the role that innocence plays in the resolution of disputes over workplace discrimination and help us to understand that innocence, as defined in the only manner that befits the white and male co-workers of the victims of discrimination, is and should be irrelevant to the resolution of these disputes. In the process, the Sopranos offer a competing vision of what it means to genuinely and fully remedy workplace discrimination. It's an offer we can't refuse.


Sport is a potent unifying force and a potentially powerful tool in bridging societal divides. As such, the increasing frequency of professional athletes leaving their home nations and continents to access employment opportunities abroad portends positively for greater cultural understanding in our global community. This paper argues, however, that in America's professional sporting context, internationalization of sport plays an additional, unsavory, role - it serves as a means of manipulating leagues' racial compositions. Research reveals that American sports team and league power brokers have long believed in-stadium spectators - a substantial majority of whom are Caucasian - exhibit preferences for seeing Caucasian players participate in the games they attend. Research further reveals that teams often responded to such preferences by discriminating in favor of Caucasian players when constructing their rosters. Such racial employment discrimination is unlawful under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and exposes the perpetrating organization to liability. To the extent, therefore, that teams and leagues seek to manipulate racial composition, they are incentivized to do so indirectly. This paper argues that regulation of international entrants through international player restrictions provides that indirect vehicle. Specifically, this paper asserts that where inclusion of international players would decrease the proportion of a league's players of color or maintain the league's racial status quo, internationalization is encouraged. Where, on the other hand, inclusion of international players would increase the proportion of a league's players of color, internationalization is discouraged or restricted. Through examining the racial compositions and international player policies of America's five premier professional sports leagues - the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, and Major League Baseball - this paper contends that international player restrictions effectuate unlawful racial discrimination and should, therefore, trigger scrutiny under American anti-discrimination law.


This paper investigates Fresnel diffraction from plane-wave gaussian beams truncated by circular apertures. Kirchhoff's integral has been evaluated analytically and (analytical) expressions are derived, in terms of infinite series, for the irradiance and total power of the diffracted field. Some graphs are presented for Fraunhofer conditions. The results obtained greatly reduce the labor of numerically computing the irradiance and the power.


Using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Supernova Survey-II (SDSS-II SN Survey), we measure the rate of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) as a function of galaxy properties at intermediate redshift. A sample of 342 SNe Ia with 0.05 < z < 0.25 is constructed. Using broadband photometry and redshifts, we use the PÉGASE.2 spectral energy distributions to estimate host galaxy stellar masses and recent star formation rates (SFRs). We find that the rate of SNe Ia per unit stellar mass is significantly higher (by a factor of ∼30) in highly star-forming galaxies compared to passive galaxies. When parameterizing the SN Ia rate (SNRIa) based on host galaxy properties, we find that the rate of SNe Ia in passive galaxies is not linearly proportional to the stellar mass; instead an SNRIa∝M0.68 is favored. However, such a parameterization does not describe the observed SNRIa in star-forming galaxies. The SNRIa in star-forming galaxies is well fitted by SNRIa = (0.41 ± 0.15) × 10−10M0.72 ± 0.15 + (0.65 ± 0.25) × 10−3SFR1.01 ± 0.22 (statistical errors only), where M is the host galaxy stellar mass (in M☉) and SFR is the SFR (in M☉ yr−1). We show that our results, for SNe Ia in passive galaxies, are consistent with those at higher redshifts (favoring SNRIa∝M) when accounting for the difference in the ages of our galaxies. This suggests that the rate of SNe Ia is correlated with the age of the stellar population. The MLCS extinction parameter, AV, is similar in passive and moderately star-forming galaxies, but we find indications that it is smaller, on average, in highly star-forming galaxies. This result appears to be driven by a deficit of the reddest (AV > 0.15) SNe Ia in highly star-forming galaxies. We consider that the high levels of dust in these systems may be obscuring the reddest and faintest SNe Ia.


Gadgets are novel products that have software applications loaded into hardware and software platforms. Their development and marketing costs companies hundreds of millions of dollars, yet the failure rate in the marketplace is very high. Central to gadget marketing is the notion that, when consumers are reached via technologically and socially influential people, the rate and speed of adoption of new innovations increases. The seminal research of Bruner & Kumar (2007a) defined a scale for Gadget Lovers, those technologically and socially influential people. Shoham & Pesamaa (2013) later extended the Gadget Loving research. Both studies did not include cultural dimensions. Research from a number of authors support that cultural factors have an influence in the process of adopting innovations. This Thesis proposes and quantitatively tests an extension to the Gadget Loving model that includes cultural dimensions. Following mainly Tolba & Mourad (2011), the extended model proposed in this Thesis adds Individualism and Uncertainty Avoidance as the two key cultural antecedents to Gadget Loving. The quantitative research is focused in Sweden and Finland. The results of this Thesis provide strong support for Individualism being a key antecedent to Gadget Loving. Only weak support is found for Uncertainty Avoidance at p<0.1.


Executing formal operation contracts is an important technique for requirements validation and rapid prototyping. Current approaches require additional guidance from the user or exhibit poor performance for underspecified contracts that describe the operation results non-constructively. We present an efficient and fully automatic approach to executing OCL operation contracts which uses a satisfiability (SAT) solver. The operation contract is translated to an arithmetic formula with bounded quantifiers and later to a satisfiability problem. Based on the system state in which the operation is called and the arguments to the operation, an off-the-shelf SAT solver computes a new state that satisfies the postconditions of the operation. An effort is made to keep the changes to the system state as small as possible. We present a tool for generating Java method bodies for operations specified with OCL. The efficiency of our method is confirmed by a comparison with existing approaches.


As 3D video is explored as a hot research topic in the last few decades, free-viewpoint TV (FTV) is no doubt a promising field for its better visual experience and incomparable interactivity. View synthesis is obviously a crucial technology for FTV; it enables to render images in unlimited numbers of virtual viewpoints with the information from limited numbers of reference view. In this paper, a novel hybrid synthesis framework is proposed and blending priority is explored. In contrast to the commonly used View Synthesis Reference Software (VSRS), the presented synthesis process is driven in consideration of the temporal correlation of image sequences. The temporal correlations will be exploited to produce fine synthesis results even near the foreground boundaries. As for the blending priority, this scheme proposed that one of the two reference views is selected to be the main reference view based on the distance between the reference views and virtual view, another view is chosen as the auxiliary viewpoint, just assist to fill the hole pixel with the help of background information. Significant improvement of the proposed approach over the state-of –the-art pixel-based virtual view synthesis method is presented, the results of the experiments show that subjective gains can be observed, and objective PSNR average gains range from 0.5 to 1.3 dB, while SSIM average gains range from 0.01 to 0.05. Keywords—View synthesis, Gaussian mixture model, hybrid framework, fusion method.


Mutually reactive, fluorogenic molecules are presented as a simple and novel technique for in-solution biosensing. The hypothesis behind this work was that aggregating droplets into close proximity would cause rapid mixing of their contents. To take advantage of this effect, a novel pair of fluorogenic redox molecules were designed to remain in lipid-stabilized oil droplets but mix once aggregated. First, the hydrophobic cyanine dye 1,1'-dioctadecyl-3,3,3'3'-tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate (DiI) was reduced with sodium borohydride to form a nonfluorescent analog (HDiI). Hydrophobic quinone derivatives were then screened as oxidizing agents, and it was found that p-fluoranil oxidized nonfluorescent HDiI back to fluorescent DiI. Next, HDiI and p-fluoranil were loaded into NEOBEE oil nanodroplets of average diameter 600 nm that were stabilized by a monolayer of 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC), 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine (DSPE)-polyethylene glycol (PEG), and DSPE-PEG-biotin. Addition of streptavidin caused aggregation of droplets and the appearance of red fluorescent aggregates within 30 min. Next, Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis was used to record the fluorescence of the droplets and their aggregates. By integrating the fluorescence emission of the tracked droplets, streptavidin could be detected down to 100 fM. Finally, the droplets were reformulated to sense for vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a biomarker for tumor metastasis. Using anti-VEGF aptamers attached to DSPE-PEG incorporated into the nanodroplet monolayer, VEGF could also be detected down to 100 fM.


EXPLORING THE SOCIAL DETERMINATNS OF SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE AND HIGH-RISK SEXUAL BEHAVIORS Abstract 1 – A multi-level assessment of disproportionate population sex ratios and high-risk sexual behaviors among STD clinic patients Abstract 2 – A multi-level assessment of neighborhood vacancy rates and high-risk sexual behaviors among STD clinic patients Abstract 3 – Residential segregation and gonorrhea rates in U.S. metropolitan statistical areas1 – A multi-level assessment of disproportionate population sex ratios and high-risk sexual behaviors among STD clinic patients Abstract 2 – A multi-level assessment of neighborhood vacancy rates and high-risk sexual behaviors among STD clinic patients Abstract 3 – Residential segregation and gonorrhea rates in U.S. metropolitan statistical areas By River A. Pugsley, MPH A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2012 Director: Kate L. Lapane Professor and Chair Department of Epidemiology and Community Health Abstract 1: A multi-level assessment of disproportionate population sex ratios and high-risk sexual behaviors among STD clinic patients1: A multi-level assessment of disproportionate population sex ratios and high-risk sexual behaviors among STD clinic patients Low male-to-female sex ratios in a population may influence high-risk sexual behaviors, such as multiple sex partners and inconsistent condom use, which facilitate the transmission of STDs. This study used multi-level modeling to assess whether population sex ratios were associated with these two individual-level behaviors. All analyses were stratified by gender. Interview data were collected from patients (N = 9,203, 48% male) attending participating STD clinics. Interviews included information on socio-demographics and sexual behavior, including number of sex partners in the previous 3 months and condom use at last sex. The sex ratio per census tract was obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau. There was no association between sex ratio and multiple sex partners or condom use for either men or women. That is, we found no evidence that a shortage of men in census tracts was associated with increased engagement in high-risk sexual behavior. Abstract 2: A multi-level assessment of neighborhood vacancy rates and high-risk sexual behaviors among STD clinic patients2: A multi-level assessment of neighborhood vacancy rates and high-risk sexual behaviors among STD clinic patients The "broken windows" theory posits that physical neighborhood deterioration, and its association with reduced social cohesion, can lead to changes in individual behaviors. Thus individuals living in neighborhoods with high levels of deterioration may be more likely to engage in high-risk sexual behaviors. This study used multi-level modeling to evaluate the extent to which high residential vacancy rates increased the likelihood of individuals having multiple sex partners. Interview data, including data on patient demographics and sexual behaviors, were collected from patients (N = 6,347, 52% male) attending participating STD clinics in the Richmond, Virginia area from 2008-2010. Neighborhood vacancy rates were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau. Fifty-one percent of men and 36% of women reported having 2 or more sex partners in the previous 3 months. Men who lived in census tracts with high vacancy rates were slightly more likely to report multiple sex partners (53.9%) compared to men who lived in low vacancy tracts (49.7%). In multi-level models, there was no association between high vacancy rates and having multiple sex partners among either women (OR = 0.98; 95% CI: 0.79, 1.20) or men (1.18; 95% CI: 0.99, 1.42). That is, we found no evidence that increased neighborhood deterioration, as measured by high residential vacancy rates, was associated with increased risk of having multiple sex partners among STD clinic patients. Abstract 3: Residential segregation and gonorrhea rates in U.S. metropolitan statistical areas3: Residential segregation and gonorrhea rates in U.S. metropolitan statistical areas The residential segregation of black populations, often in areas of high economic disadvantage and low social status, may play a crucial role in the observed racial inequities in STD rates. An ecological analysis of 2005-2009 average gonorrhea rates was performed across 277 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). The black isolation index and Gini index of income inequality were used as proxy measures for racial and economic residential segregation respectively, derived from 2005-2009 U.S. Census estimates. We used logistic regression modeling to produce estimates of odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between a high black isolation index and Gini index, both independently and in combination, on gonorrhea rates in MSAs. Effect measure modification was assessed by calculating the relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI) between the two indices. Compared to MSAs with low levels of racial segregation, MSAs with high levels of racial segregation had increased odds of high gonorrhea rates (adjusted OR 5.54; 95% CI: 2.29-13.44). Adjustment for potential confounders did not noticeably impact the relationship between the Gini index and gonorrhea, with higher levels of income inequality predicting higher gonorrhea rates (adjusted OR = 2.47; 95% CI: 1.21-5.03). In combined models, the influence of racial residential segregation on gonorrhea rates was stronger than that of income inequality-based segregation; there was no evidence of additivity or a multiplicative interaction. Residential segregation by race or income equality may be a key component in the perpetuation of high rates of gonorrhea and other STDs among black populations in the U.S.


An examination of the role of seminary education in the shaping of ministry leaders at the start of the twenty-first century, in light of criticism against seminaries regarding their lack of relevance for the practice of ministry. Author's leadership definition and selected perspectives regarding the leader-becoming process are examined, along with their implications for the relationship between faculty members and students. Useful approaches for faculty to utilize in supporting the leader-shaping process are also explored.


The accumulated stress in subduction zones is discharged with earthquake and aseismic activity; the latter is hosted in rheological complex regions, characterized by high pore fluid pressure, and is often accompanied by repeated earthquakes and earthquake swarms. The spatiotemporal analysis of seismic activity can reveal the presence of aseismic transients associated with large earthquakes. Here we study 20 years of seismicity prior to and after the M w 8.3 earthquake that occurred in A.D. 2015 in central Chile. We identified several earthquake swarms before the main shock and repeating aftershocks at the border of the main slip area. Spatial clustering of the seismic activity shares similar orientation with the main fracture zones observed on the outer rise of the subducting Nazca plate. Our findings suggest that the fracture zones enclosing the rupture are playing a major role in accommodating the pre and post–main shock stress evolution. We further recognize how fracture regions have acted as barriers to the propagation of large earthquakes in the region.


The conventional wisdom is that cartels are bad. In particular, cartels that merely lead to lower production levels and higher prices are thought to be exclusively detrimental to social welfare. This is reflected in the fact that most capitalist societies have declared such so-called hard core cartel arrangements illegal per se. In this paper, we question this rather rigid approach to hard core cartels. In a simple but fairly general setting, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a hard core cartel that is beneficial for firms and society at large. We consider both strong (with side payments) and weak (without side payments) hard core cartel contracts and find that (i) both strong and weak welfare-enhancing cartels exist when at least one firm makes a loss on part of its sales in competition, (ii) a welfare-enhancing strong cartel exists whenever there is a difference in unit costs at competitive production levels, and (iii ) a welfare-enhancing weak cartel exists when this difference is sufficiently large.


The widespread use of mobile phones and the Internet in China, particularly in cities and urban areas, has speeded up the adoption of ICT technologies in rural areas. However, the digital divide between urban and rural areas and between different parts of the country is huge. The Chinese Government's 11th 5-year Plans have earmarked 'Building of new typed rural areas or communities' as one of its priority programmes. The aim of one of the components - 'rural informatization' – is to deliver information services to rural communities using ICTs. In order to support this programme of China - an important Member Country of CABI's, CABI has conducted a situational analysis to investigate the readiness of Chinese farmers' adoption of ICTs. The situation analysis has looked at the politic and policy environment, farmers' education levels, ICT adoption rates, the state of ICT infrastructure, rural information services models, and rural information systems. This paper describes an analysis of the general situation of the ICT/e-learning readiness for farmers in China, illustrating some examples of how ICTs have been utilised to deliver information and training in rural China.


Radiogenic isotope ratios can be used as a kind of petrogenetic "DNA" to identify the source components of magmas. Technical advances allowing us to measure isotopic compositions at the sub-crystal scale have led to the realisation that many magmatic rocks are isotopically heterogeneous. Crystals traditionally regarded as phenocrysts grown from the host magma have now been shown to be wholly or partly out of isotopic equilibrium with the glass or groundmass in which they are contained. Many of these crystals are likely to be recycled from earlier cumulates. Combining these fingerprinting techniques with the other approaches described in this issue offers an unprecedented opportunity to understand the processes and timescales through which magmas are assembled, differentiated and delivered to sites of eruption or emplacement.


The aim of this study is to integrate the Protection Motivation and Habit theories to highlight and supplement the shortcomings of previous research. A systematic random sampling technique was employed to generate a sample of 1537 universities and colleges of MENA; a web questionnaire was emailed to the institutions, different analytical methods were used to analyse the data. The results show that (1) Protection Motivation Theory is valuable to apply specifically since it introduces the concept of coping appraisal, and (2) that Habit Theory is a suitable framework that can be employed to shed further insight on sustainable behaviour in higher education institutions. The findings both strengthen and expand previous knowledge on sustainable behaviour in higher education. Contrary to our expectations, habit does not moderate the relationship between all the dimensions of the cognitive process and the intention to adopt sustainability by decision makers. Keywords Sustainability, Protection Motivation Theory, Habit Theory, Higher Education, Decision makers.


The increasing P2P network traffic on the Internet has leaded to the problem of network congestion. In the consequence of the diversification of the P2P business and protocol, research on the management of P2P traffic has many problems to resolve. Prediction of the P2P traffic is the kernel problem in the P2P traffic management. Based on the existed P2P traffic characters, this paper structures a P2P traffic model, gives a traffic prediction algorithm bases on wavelet-analysis, and proves the accuracy of the algorithm. Simulation experiment figures that the algorithm has a high prediction precision and a superior real-time performance.


A big-picture look at how the latest trends in information management and technology are impacting business models and innovation worldwideWith all of the recent emphasis on "big data," analytics and visualization, and emerging technology architectures such as smartphone networks, social media, and cloud computing, the way we do business is undergoing rapid change. The right business model can create overnight sensationsthink of Groupon, the iPad, or Facebook. At the same time, alternative models for organizing resources such as home schooling, Linux, or Kenya's Ushihidi tool transcend conventional business designs. Timely and visionary, Information, Technology, and the Future of Commerce looks at how the latest technology trends and their impact on human behavior are impacting business practices from recruitment through marketing, supply chains, and customer service.Discusses information economics, human behavior, technology platforms, and other facts of contemporary lifeExamines how humans organize resources and do work in the changing landscapeProvides case studies profiling how competitive advantage can be a direct result of innovative business models that exploit these trendsRevealing why traditional strategy formulation is challenged by the realities of the connected world, Information, Technology, and the Future of Commerce ties technology to business and social environments in an approachable, informed manner with innovative, big-picture analysis of what's taking place now in information strategy and technology.


Background: Main of agriculturists in Singburi was cultivated rice and major pesticides' use is chlorpyrifos; however, farmers are applied bio-extracts to eliminate pest and trend to be organic farming. Hence, organic farmers may become lower risks from pesticides rather than non-organic farmers. Aim: To determine biochemical and hematological status between organic and non-organic farmers, Bang Rachan district, Singburi, Thailand. Materials and Methods: Farmers were separated into organic farmer group (N = 35) and non-organic farmer group (N = 45). Individual data for pesticide exposure were included, and pesticide-exposed relating symptoms were recorded. All demographic data of participants were documented before blood collection. Serum samples were analyzed for butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) activity, liver function test, kidney function test, and lipid profiles. Each ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid-whole blood was determined for complete blood count (CBC). NaF plasma was analyzed for determine fasting blood glucose. All biochemical parameters were principled according to enzymatic assays and CBC was automatic analyzers. The data were represented in average ± standard deviation, and difference of biochemical and hematological status of two groups was statistically tested by unpaired t-test (P < 0.05). Results and Discussion: Blood glucose and lipid profiles of non-organic farmers were higher than reference ranges and significantly difference with other groups. Mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) and MCH concentration values of non-organic farmers were lower than reference range and interpreted as anemia. Conclusions: Non-organic farmers were suchronic pesticide exposure with normal BuChE values and no related symptom; therefore, subclinical symptoms were disturbed biochemical and hematological status; and prediabetes, dyslipidemia, and anemia appeared.


The presence of gender stereotypes in many aspects of society is a well-known phenomenon. In this paper, we focus on studying such stereotypes and bias in Hindi movie industry ( Bollywood ) and propose an algorithm to remove these stereotypes from text. We analyze movie plots and posters for all movies released since 1970. The gender bias is detected by semantic modeling of plots at sentence and intra-sentence level. Different features like occupation, introductions, associated actions and descriptions are captured to show the perva-siveness of gender bias and stereotype in movies. Using the derived semantic graph, we compute centrality of each character and observe similar bias there. We also show that such bias is not applicable for movie posters where females get equal importance even though their character has little or no impact on the movie plot. The silver lining is that our system was able to identify 30 movies over last 3 years where such stereotypes were broken. The next step, is to generate debiased stories. The proposed debiasing algorithm extracts gender biased graphs from unstructured piece of text in stories from movies and de-bias these graphs to generate plausible unbiased stories.


The prerequisites of language acquisition and language development remain disputed in the field of language studies. Most children go from uttering their first words in their first years, to fluent readers and writers of their native language, which usually occurs at school entry. However, it is viewed that language skills begin to develop in children's first years, when the home is the main environment in which they thrive. Therefore, the effects of home literacy activities, such as storybook reading, have been foregrounded in numerous language studies. This essay will give an overview of the discussion. First, theories of child language acquisition and development will be reviewed, An emphasis will be on the socialization perspective, in which it is viewed that children adopt the immediate behaviors of their culture, and therefore the language which is reflected there within. Secondly, home literacy will be introduced and discussed. Home literacy consists of reading activities which are considered as being either formal or informal. Formal literacy experiences are claimed to have more extensive effects on emergent literacy, while informal literacy activities, such as shared book reading have been found to have greater effects on oral language skills. Lastly, classic literature, nursery rhymes, and poetry in English will be looked at in relation to their various characteristics which have been found to positively influence general language skills. According to numerous researches within the field of child language development, exposure to literature and poetry can have a great influence in shaping the child's language skills, which are further developed when the child reaches school years.


The work presented in this paper focuses on the comparison of well-known and new fault-diagnosis algorithms in the robot domain. The main challenge for fault diagnosis is to allow the robot to effectively cope not only with internal hardware and software faults but with external disturbances and errors from dynamic and complex environments as well. Based on a study of literature covering fault-diagnosis algorithms, I selected four of these methods based on both linear and non-linear models, analysed and implemented them in a mathematical robot-model, representing a four-wheels-OMNI robot. In experiments I tested the ability of the algorithms to detect and identify abnormal behaviour and to optimize the model parameters for the given training data. The final goal was to point out the strengths of each algorithm and to figure out which method would best suit the demands of fault diagnosis for a particular robot.


The conventional capital asset pricing model (CAPM) has come under severe attack for its failure to reflect investor behavior. This paper describes financial decision-making under uncertainty in formal mathematical terms as a generalized higher-moment capital asset pricing model. It develops that model through the Taylor series expansion of the logarithm of expected financial returns. This mathematical expedient treats the conventional two-moment CAPM and a four-moment variant (expressed in terms of mean, variance, skewness, and kurtosis) as convenient, mentally tractable special cases of a generalized higher-moment model.
This paper then explores the theoretical implications and legal applications of higher-moment asset pricing. In prospect theory, perhaps the best known expression of behavioral economics, a "fourfold pattern" of decisionmaking under uncertainty predicts risk-seeking behavior in particular circumstances. Skewness preference arises in a wide variety of economic settings. Diverse bodies of financial regulation address transactions that strongly resemble legalized gambling, ranging from prize-linked savings to initial public offerings. Over time, cycles of misperception of risk and return consistent with the "disposition effect" of behavioral finance generate systematic gaps between hypothetical investment returns and actual returns realized by investors.


Objective In the past two decades, approximately 1000 reports have been published regarding associations between genetic variants in candidate genes and risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). Study results are inconsistent. We aim to provide a synopsis of the current understanding of genetic factors for CRC risk through systematically evaluating results from previous studies. Design We searched PubMed and Google Scholar to identify papers that investigated associations between genetic variants and CRC risk and published through 25 December 2012. With data from 950 papers, we conducted 910 meta-analyses for 267 genetic variants in 150 candidate genes with at least three data sources. We used Venice criteria and false-positive report probability tests to grade levels of cumulative epidemiological evidence of significant associations with CRC risk. Results Sixty-two variants in 50 candidate genes showed a nominally significant association with CRC risk (p<0.05). Cumulative epidemiological evidence for a significant association with CRC risk was graded strong for eight variants in five genes (adenomatous polyposis coli (APC), CHEK2, DNMT3B, MLH1 and MUTYH), moderate for two variants in two genes (GSTM1 and TERT), and weak for 52 variants in 45 genes. Additionally, 40 variants in 33 genes showed convincing evidence of no association with CRC risk in meta-analyses including at least 5000 cases and 5000 controls. Conclusions Approximately 4% of genetic variants evaluated to date in candidate-gene association studies showed moderate to strong cumulative epidemiological evidence of an association with CRC risk. These genetic variants, if confirmed, may explain approximately 5% of familial CRC risk.


The Autostereoscopic Multiview 3D Display is robustly developed and widely adopted by both home and professional users however Multiview 3D content generation remains a great challenge. This paper proposes a novel method for Multiview 3D content generation and it describes the necessary steps for Holoscopic 3D image rendering for autostereoscopic Multiview 3D display. The Holoscopic imaging technology mimics the imaging system of insects, such as the fly, utilizing a single camera, equipped with a large number of micro-lenses, to capture a scene, offering rich parallax information and enhanced 3D feeling without the need of wearing specific eyewear. In addition a 3D pixel mapping/conversion algorithm has been developed that is supported by the Multiview 3D display.


Clearing snow from roofs causes serious injuries annually. The aim of this study was to describe injury mechanisms, injury panorama, and injury incidence in connection to this activity. A specific aim was to study the association between snow depth and injury incidence. A total of 95 people were injured during four study periods. The risk of injury is strongly associated with snow depth, and the incidence varied up to 10-fold between the studied winter seasons. The majority of injuries (91; 96%) occurred during leisure time and only four people were injured in the occupational setting. The most common injury mechanism was falling off roofs or ladders of residential homes. Nearly 60% sustained moderate or serious injuries (Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale [MAIS] 2–3), and fractures accounted for almost half of all injuries. Because roofs of single-family homes in Sweden usually do not require snow removal for heavy snow loads, these injuries may have been both unnecessary and avoidable. Further education is required to advise the public on the risks associated with snow removal from roofs.


We present a simple and general framework for feature learning from point cloud. The key to the success of CNNs is the convolution operator that is capable of leveraging spatially-local correlation in data represented densely in grids (e.g. images). However, point cloud are irregular and unordered, thus a direct convolving of kernels against the features associated with the points will result in deserting the shape information while being variant to the orders. To address these problems, we propose to learn a X-transformation from the input points, which is used for simultaneously weighting the input features associated with the points and permuting them into latent potentially canonical order. Then element-wise product and sum operations of typical convolution operator are applied on the X-transformed features. The proposed method is a generalization of typical CNNs into learning features from point cloud, thus we call it PointCNN. Experiments show that PointCNN achieves on par or better performance than state-of-the-art methods on multiple challenging benchmark datasets and tasks.


Indoor sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are ubiquitous, resulting in detectable concentrations in indoor air, often at concentrations above regulatory screening levels. Because of these indoor sources, the detection of a site-related VOC in a potentially affected building at a concentration above the regulatory screening level does not necessarily indicate a vapor intrusion impact. At sites where the subsurface and indoor sources of VOCs exhibit different isotope signatures, compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) may be used to distinguish between vapor intrusion and indoor sources of the same VOCs. Although CSIA has been validated and accepted as an effective tool for distinguishing between different sources of VOCs in groundwater, we are not aware of prior application of CSIA to identify the source of VOCs in indoor air. In order to evaluate the utility of CSIA to distinguish between vapor intrusion and indoor sources of VOCs, we have conducted a preliminary study at Hill AFB. The results indicate that there are measurable differences in δC values between TCE in the subsurface at Hill AFB and indoor sources of TCE. The δC values for the three source area soil gas samples ranged from -25.3‰ to -24.4‰, δC values for four groundwater samples collected from the off-site plume ranged from -23.8‰ to -20.6‰, δC values for seven soil gas samples collected from above the off-site plume ranged from -23.7‰ to -5.2‰. These results show a pattern of C enrichment away from the source area. In contrast, the δC values for the four indoor source samples ranged from -26.6‰ to -25.5‰, lower values than any of the subsurface samples. These preliminary results support the hypothesis that CSIA of indoor air samples can be used to distinguish between vapor intrusion and indoor sources of the same VOC.


Neural Processes (NPs) are a popular class of approaches for meta-learning. Similar to Gaussian Processes (GPs), NPs define distributions over functions and can estimate uncertainty in their predictions. However, unlike GPs, NPs and their variants suffer from underfitting and often have intractable likelihoods, which limit their applications in sequential decision making. We propose Transformer Neural Processes (TNPs), a new member of the NP family that casts uncertainty-aware meta learning as a sequence modeling problem. We learn TNPs via an autoregressive likelihood-based objective and instantiate it with a novel transformer-based architecture. The model architecture respects the inductive biases inherent to the problem structure, such as invariance to the observed data points and equivariance to the unobserved points. We further investigate knobs within the TNP framework that tradeoff expressivity of the decoding distribution with extra computation. Empirically, we show that TNPs achieve state-of-the-art performance on various benchmark problems, outperforming all previous NP variants on meta regression, image completion, contextual multi-armed bandits, and Bayesian optimization.


"Kenrick writes like a dream."-Robert Sapolsky, Professor of Biology and Neurology, Stanford University; author of A Primate's Memoir and Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers What do sex and murder have to do with the meaning of life? Everything. In Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life, social psychologist Douglas Kenrick exposes the selfish animalistic underside of human nature, and shows how it is intimately connected to our greatest and most selfless achievements. Masterfully integrating cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, and complexity theory, this intriguing book paints a comprehensive picture of the principles that govern our lives. As Kenrick divulges, beneath our civilized veneer, human beings are a lot like howling hyenas and barking baboons, with heads full of homicidal tendencies and sexual fantasies. But, in his view, many ingrained, apparently irrational behaviors-such as inclinations to one-night stands, racial prejudices, and conspicuous consumption-ultimately manifest what he calls "Deep Rationality." Although our heads are full of simple selfish biases that evolved to help our ancestors survive, modern human beings are anything but simple and selfish cavemen. Kenrick argues that simple and selfish mental mechanisms we inherited from our ancestors ultimately give rise to the multifaceted social lives that we humans lead today, and to the most positive features of humanity, including generosity, artistic creativity, love, and familial bonds. And out of those simple mechanisms emerge all the complexities of society, including international conflicts and global economic markets. By exploring the nuance of social psychology and the surprising results of his own research, Kenrick offers a detailed picture of what makes us caring, creative, and complex-that is, fully human. Illuminated with stories from Kenrick's own colorful experiences -- from his criminally inclined shantytown Irish relatives, his own multiple high school expulsions, broken marriages, and homicidal fantasies, to his eventual success as an evolutionary psychologist and loving father of two boys separated by 26 years -- this book is an exploration of our mental biases and failures, and our mind's great successes. Idiosyncratic, controversial, and fascinating, Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life uncovers the pitfalls and promise of our biological inheritance.


The promotion of cycling and walking for everyday physical activity not only promotes health but can also have positive effects on the environment.
This booklet summarizes the tools and guidance developed to facilitate this shift: the methodology for the economic assessment of transport infrastructure and policies in relation to the health effects of walking and cycling; systematic reviews of the economic and health literature; and guidance on applying the health economic assessment tools and the principles underlying it.
This methodology and user guide will be of key interest to professionals at both national and local levels: transport planners, traffic engineers, and special interest groups working on transport, walking, cycling or the environment, as well as health economists, physical activity experts and health promotion experts.


GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) is a federal program designed to promote college access and success for students from low-income backgrounds. Although some literature has examined K–12 outcomes, little research has explored the extent to which GEAR UP achieves its intended postsecondary objectives. The present study used a difference-in-differences design with a sample of 17,605 students to explore the impact of GEAR UP Iowa on college enrollment and persistence. The findings indicate that GEAR UP Iowa promotes the college enrollment of high school graduates by 3 to 4 percentage points, whereas it appears to have no effect on college persistence. Results are similar regardless of students' socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, sex, and K–12 special education status.


By controlled experiments that simulate marine conditions, it is shown that accelerated weathering and mineral authigenesis occur during the combined process of digestion, ingestion and excretion of sediment by worms. Previously characterized synthetic mud, composed of finely ground, low-grade metamorphic slate dominated by highly crystalline chlorite and muscovite, was unchanged in control tanks over a 20 week time scale, but was significantly different in faecal samples from an experimental tank populated with the annelid Arenicola marina. Chlorite was preferentially destroyed during digestion and both chlorite and muscovite underwent peak broadening with a skew developing towards higher lattice spacings. Neoformed minerals with very high d-spacings and a mineral with 0.75 nm basal lattice spacing (possibly berthierine) were detected in the cast samples. It is postulated that the lowered pH microenvironment in the guts of organisms may accelerate mineral dissolution and precipitation processes during ingestion. These results show that macrobiotic activity significantly accelerates weathering and mineral degradation along with mineral authigenesis. Neoformed minerals produced in this way would be likely to form the precursors of diagenetic clay mineral cements and thus have an impact on sandstone reservoir quality.


We propose a new approach to studying the relationship between a very high dimensional random variable and an outcome. Our method is based on a novel concept, the supervised distance matrix, which quantifies pairwise similarity between variables based on their association with the outcome. A supervised distance matrix is derived in two stages. The first stage involves a transformation based on a particular model for association. In particular, one might regress the outcome on each variable and then use the residuals or the influence curve from each regression as a data transformation. In the second stage, a choice of distance measure is used to compute all pairwise distances between variables in this transformed data. When the outcome is right-censored, we show that the supervised distance matrix can be consistently estimated using inverse probability of censoring weighted (IPCW) estimators based on the mean and covariance of the transformed data. The proposed methodology is illustrated with examples of gene expression data analysis with a survival outcome. This approach is widely applicable in genomics and other fields where high-dimensional data is collected on each subject.


There is a growing utilization gap between modern hardware and modern programming languages for data analysis. Due to power and other constraints, recent processor design has sought improved performance through increased SIMD and multi-core parallelism. At the same time, high-level, dynamically typed languages for data analysis have become popular. These languages emphasize ease of use and high productivity, but have, in general, low performance and limited support for exploiting hardware parallelism. In this paper, we describe Riposte, a new runtime for the R language, which bridges this gap. Riposte uses tracing, a technique commonly used to accelerate scalar code, to dynamically discover and extract sequences of vector operations from arbitrary R code. Once extracted, we can fuse traces to eliminate unnecessary memory traffic, compile them to use hardware SIMD units, and schedule them to run across multiple cores, allowing us to fully utilize the available parallelism on modern shared-memory machines. Our evaluation shows that Riposte can run vector R code near the speed of hand-optimized C, 5–50× faster than the open source implementation of R, and can also linearly scale to 32 cores for some tasks. Across 12 different workloads we achieve an overall average speed-up of over 150× without explicit programmer parallelization.


Recent randomized experiments have found that seemingly "small" social-psychological interventions in education—that is, brief exercises that target students' thoughts, feelings, and beliefs in and about school—can lead to large gains in student achievement and sharply reduce achievement gaps even months and years later. These interventions do not teach students academic content but instead target students' psychology, such as their beliefs that they have the potential to improve their intelligence or that they belong and are valued in school. When social-psychological interventions have lasting effects, it can seem surprising and even "magical," leading people either to think of them as quick fixes to complicated problems or to consider them unworthy of serious consideration. The present article discourages both responses. It reviews the theoretical basis of several prominent social-psychological interventions and emphasizes that they have lasting effects because they target students' subjective experiences in school, because they use persuasive yet stealthy methods for conveying psychological ideas, and because they tap into recursive processes present in educational environments. By understanding psychological interventions as powerful but context-dependent tools, educational researchers will be better equipped to take them to scale. This review concludes by discussing challenges to scaling psychological interventions and how these challenges may be overcome.


The prevalence of obesity among 18- to 24-year-olds has steadily increased. Given that the majority of young American adults are enrolled in colleges and universities, the higher education setting could be an appropriate environment for health promotion programs. Historically, health and fitness in higher education have been provided via activities-based education (APE) courses with a shift toward conceptually based (CPE) courses. The purpose of this retrospective pre–post study was to assess health and behavioral outcomes associated with a combination APE–CPE course, an APE course, and a CPE course. The ecological model and social network theories were considered within the context of this assessment. Paired t tests were used to examine pre–post changes for body mass index, body composition, and self-reported physical activity behaviors using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) among 61 students in the three self-selected learning conditions. No significant change in total duration of exercise was observed in any of the groups; however, significant changes were observed in specific IPAQ subscales within each of the three groups. Days spent exercising vigorously (+34%, p = .02) and duration spent engaged in moderate exercise (+87.2%, p = .02) increased in APE and CPE participants. Days spent walking (+11.3%, p = .04) and walking time (+65%, p = .03) increased in CPE participants. Body fat percent (-11.8%, p = .04) decreased in APE participants; however, days spent engaged in vigorous exercise also significantly decreased (-31.6%, p = .00). Differences in outcomes between APE, CPE, and APE–CPE courses were observed. This study provides information to young adults selecting between health and fitness courses, as well as to higher education providers. Effective health promotion courses for college students can potentially reduce premature morbidity and mortality associated with obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.


Zirconium produces cosmogenic Kr through spallation reactions with cosmic rays. Meteoritic zircons (ZrSiO4) therefore possibly contain a significant amount of cosmogenic Kr in addition to other cosmogenic nuclides. Detection of cosmogenic nuclides from meteoritic zircons would make it possible to determine precise cosmic ray exposure (CRE) ages without knowing the whole rock chemistry because of the robust nature of zircons and limited target elements that produce cosmogenic nuclides in a zircon crystal. Herein, we report the noble gas compositions of zircons separated from the Estherville mesosiderite in addition to those of the silicate and metal parts. The zircons contain cosmogenic noble gas nuclides, and more importantly, cosmogenic 81Kr (t1/2 = 2.29 × 105 years) was successfully detected in the zircons. The 81Kr‐Kr exposure age of the zircons was calculated to be 76 ± 5 million years (Ma). This age corresponds to the CRE ages obtained from cosmogenic 3He and 21Ne (82 ± 8 and 88 ± 9 Ma, respectively) of the silicate part and the previously reported 36Cl‐36Ar age of the metal part (77 ± 9 Ma). The consistent CRE ages using different dating methods demonstrate that the 81Kr‐Kr dating using meteoritic zircons is a new promising tool for determining the CRE age of meteorites. Moreover, based on the 81Kr‐Kr age of the zircons, the production rates of cosmogenic 3He and 21Ne in a meteoritic zircon were estimated to be (15 ± 2) × 10−9 and (0.69 ± 0.04) × 10−9 cm3 STP g−1 Ma−1, respectively.


REAL-TIME EVALUATION OF VISION-BASED NAVIGATION FOR AUTONOMOUS LANDING OF A ROTORCRAFT UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE IN A NON-COOPERATIVE ENVIRONMENT Dale D. Rowley Department of Mechanical Engineering Master of Science Landing a rotorcraft unmanned aerial vehicle (RUAV) without human supervision is a capapability that would significantly broaden the usefulness of UAVs. The benefits are even greater if the functionality is expanded to involve landing sites with unknown terrain and a lack of GPS or other positioning aids. Examples of these types of non-cooperative environments could range from remote mountainous regions to an urban building rooftop or a cluttered parking lot. The research of this thesis builds upon an approach that was initiated at NASA Ames Research Center to advance technology in the landing phase of RUAV operations. The approach consists of applying JPL's binocular stereo ranging algorithm to identify a landing site free of hazardous terrain. JPL's monocular feature tracking algorithm is then applied to keep track of the chosen landing point in subsequent camera images. Finally, a position-estimation routine makes use of the tracking output to estimate the rotorcraft's position relative to the landing point. These position estimates make it possible to guide the rotorcraft toward, and land at, the safe landing site. This methodology is implemented in simulation within the context of a fullyautonomous RUAV mission. Performance metrics are defined and tests are carried out in simulation to independently evaluate the performance of each algorithm. The stereo ranging algorithm is shown to successfully identify a safe landing point on average 70%-90% of the time in a cluttered parking lot scenario. The tracking algorithm is demonstrated to be robust under extreme operating conditions, and lead to a positionestimation error of less than 1 meter during a 2-minute hover at 12 meters above the ground. Preliminary tests with actual flight hardware are done to confirm the validity of these results, and to prepare for demonstrations and testing in flight.


Diagnosis systems for evaluating driver's attention level have become very important in the last years and have gained an increasing attention from automotive manufacturers; indeed, traffic crashes represent worldwide one of the main public health problems and many accidents are demonstrated to be due to drivers' hypovilance. In this work a driving simulator and specific test tools were developed to validate the possibility of monitoring the drivers' attention level and capability.The driving simulator is equipped with a fixed cockpit and a single front screen. The cockpit reproduces the man-machine interface of a typical medium class car with automatic transmission, i.e. the driver interacts with the simulator by means of the throttle and brake pedals and the steering wheel. The pedals are endowed with passive feedback systems, whereas an electric motor applies an active feedback torque on the steering wheel.From the software point of view, the simulator is managed by four PCs connected by a LAN. Two of them are dedicated to the simulation of vehicle dynamics and for data logging, while the other two run the graphical scenario software. This includes a motorway area connected to an urban area with an autonomous traffic.The vehicle model was built with a block architecture in the Matlab/Simulink environment and is run in real-time by using the xPC Target toolbox. A specific block, consisting of an in-house developed 14 d.o.f. model, was set up to represents vehicle dynamics.The driving simulator is currently employed in experimental campaigns acquiring about 60 signals of driver's input and vehicle quantities. In order to evaluate the drivers' attention level, two specific tests were developed, which aim at measuring the drivers' reaction time and ability in sudden events such as a brake manoeuvre or a sudden lateral skid.In the paper the driving simulator hardware and software are presented. The tests procedures, which were developed to investigate the driver's attention, are also discussed with reference to some tests.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Ever since Descartes singled out the ability to use natural language appropriately in any given circumstance as the proof that humans — unlike animals and machines — have minds, an idea that Turing transformed into his well-known test to determine whether machines have intelligence, the close connection between language and cognition has been widely acknowledged, although it was accounted for in quite different ways. Recent advances in natural language processing, as well as attempts to create "embodied conversational agents" which couple language processing with that of its natural bodily correlates (gestures, facial expression and gaze direction), in the hope of developing human-computer interfaces based on natural — rather than formal — language, have again brought to the fore the question of how far we can hope machines to be able to master the cognitive abilities required for language use. In this paper, I approach this issue from a different angle, inquiring whether language can be viewed as a "cognitive technology", employed by humans as a tool for the performance of certain cognitive tasks. I propose a definition of "cognitive technology" that encompasses both external (or "prosthetic") and internal cognitive devices. A number of parameters in terms of which a typology of cognitive technologies of both kinds can be sketched is also set forth. It is then argued that inquiring about language's role in cognition allows us to re-frame the traditional debate about the relationship between language and thought, by examining how specific aspects of language actually influence cognition — as an environment, a resource, or a tool. This perspective helps bring together the contributions of the philosophical "linguistic turn" in epistemology and the incipient "epistemology of cognitive technology" It also permits a more precise and fruitful discussion of the question whether, to what extent, and which of the language-based cognitive technologies we naturally use can be emulated by the kinds of technologies presently or in the foreseeable future available.


Mediterranean temporary ponds (MTPs) are crucial breeding sites for local amphibians, a faunal group in decline in the Mediterranean mainly due to wetland destruction. Although the disappearance of len- tic habitats in other regions of the world has been ameliorated by the creation and restoration of wetlands, these tactics remain untested in Mediterranean wetlands. To evaluate the amphibian colonization dynamics of artificial MTPs in the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula, we monitored two artificial MTPs (one in a high- diversity area and the other in a low-diversity area) over 2 years. We selected reference wetlands at each area, and amphibian communities of man-made MTPs were compared to those of reference wetlands. We found that, beginning in the first year, artificial MTPs were a valuable habitat for regional amphibian fauna. Posteriorly, we focused on the reproductive success of the natterjack toad, Bufo calamita. Using a drift fence equipped with pit-fall traps, we measured the abundance of both reproductive adults entering the pond and post-metamorphic individuals exiting the pond. Using mark-recapture methods, we analyzed the time and energy costs associated with reproduction in the artificial MTPs. We observed a highly variable colonization dynamics between sites, between hydroperiods, and within hydroperiods, and these dynamics often depended on meteorological factors. Our results suggest that even at a short timescale, native amphibian species such as B. calamita can benefit from wetland creation in the Mediterranean region.


In the Stranja Mountains of southeastern Bulgaria, native populations of Cicer montbretii Jaub. & Spach were found on the edge of a road in an oak forest near the village of Gramatikova (42°1'38″N; 27°36'49″E) at an elevation of about 125 m. C. montbretii, a perennial species, is the only wild Cicer sp. native to Bulgaria. At the time of collection, necrotic lesions were observed on the stems, leaflets, and pods of several plants, and these lesions were reminiscent of those induced by Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Labrousse. The teleomorph (sexual stage) of A. rabiei, Didymella rabiei (Kovachevski) v. Arx (syn. Mycosphaerella rabiei Kovachevski), was discovered in 1936 on overwintered chickpea residue in southern Bulgaria. The fungus is heterothallic and requires the pairing of two compatible mating types for development of fertile pseudothecia. Both mating types of A. rabiei were isolated previously from naturally infected, cultivated chickpeas (C. arietinum L.) from northeastern and southern Bulgaria (1), and the teleomorph, Didymella rabiei (Kovachevski) v. Arx, developed on naturally infested chickpea debris from both regions when it was incubated at appropriate environmental conditions. Isolations were made from lesions on the leaflets, stems, pods, and seeds of C. montbretii by surface disinfecting tissue in 0.25% NaOCl for 5 min, drying on paper hand towels, and placing small pieces of tissue on 2% water agar and Difco potato dextrose agar. Plates were incubated at 22 to 24°C under fluorescent lights with a 12-h photoperiod. A. rabiei was isolated from all foliar tissues of the plant, including seeds. Koch's postulates were fulfilled by inoculating the foliage of chickpea PI 458870 and reisolating the fungus from lesions that developed on the leaflets and stems. Six Bulgarian isolates of A. rabiei from C. montbretii were paired with compatible mating type tester isolates of A. rabiei, MAT1-1 (ATCC 76501) and MAT 1-2 (ATCC 76502), following the procedure of Kaiser and Kusmenoglu (2). Both mating types were found among the six isolates. Two were MAT 1-1 and four MAT 1-2. The teleomorph did not develop on the small amount of naturally infested chickpea residue tested. Therefore, in Bulgaria, both cultivated and wild chickpeas are infected naturally by A. rabiei and both mating types have been isolated from these hosts. D. rabiei will likely be found in native stands of C. montbretii in Bulgaria as more samples of overwintered infested debris are examined for the teleomorph. This is the first report of A. rabiei causing blight of a wild Cicer sp. References: (1) W. J. Kaiser. Can. J. Plant Pathol. 19:215, 1997. (2) W. J. Kaiser and I. Kusmenoglu. Plant Dis. 81:1284, 1997.


"Bahasa Indonesia" is still developing and many foreign words have been adopted in enriching Indonesia language. Now days there is a new code that is gives a contribution to the development of Indonesian language. It is called Bahasa Binan (gay language). The writer?s experience was that when she read gay magazine she did not understand the meaning of certain words, which are applied in the magazine. She experienced difficulty in understanding and translating the words. Like other languages, gay words also undergo a linguistic process, which is called word formation processes. Therefore, through this study the writer wants to find out the word formation process of gay words and the most common word formation process of gay words in "GAYa NUSANTARA" magazine. For the theory of Morphology and word formation theory the writer used Yule?s classification (1996), as the major theory. This theory is supported by Indonesia word formation theory by Chaer (2003). The writer gets the data from "GAYa NUSANTARA" magazine the edition of January 2004-May 2004. The data is translated both in Indonesia and English, and then analyzed it based on Yule?s classification. The finding shows that from the 59 gay words, which are found in "GAYa NUSANTARA" magazine are divided into two big patterns those are Yule?s word formation processes and gay?s word formation processes. The most frequent word formation process, which is form the gay words is multiple processes with, and the lowest are clipping and acronyms.