We evaluated the utility of a focussed, short-duration research program for investigation of two rare species that occur within an urban bushland remnant, with application for improving conservation management and translocation outcomes. Conospermum undulatum Lindl. is listed as Threatened and Macarthuria keigheryi Lepschi is listed as Vulnerable under the (Australian) Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The C. undulatum population lacked evidence of juvenile plants, indicating either lack of a suitable germination cue or failure of seedling establishment. The M. keigheryi population was browsed heavily by feral rabbits where exposed and thrived when sheltered within unpalatable vegetation from rabbits. Seeds of M. keigheryi were rapidly removed in an ant cafeteria-style experiment, although seeds of the related Macarthuria australis and an 'outgroup' species, Gompholobium tomentosum, were removed at equally high rates. Seed viability was high in M. keigheryi, but variable in C. undulatum. Germination rates, in untreated fresh seed, were 11% for C. undulatum and 0% for M. keigheryi and increased to 27 and 3%, respectively, when treated with gibberellic acid. Maximum strike rates for cuttings of 33 and ~75% were obtained for C. undulatum and M. keigheryi, respectively. Cutting-grown plants of M. keigheryi flowered and seeded profusely in the nursery within 7 months, providing a highly effective seed-orchard resource for research and conservation seed banking. Genetic fingerprinting (AFLP) indicated that the C. undulatum population at Perth Airport was not genetically distinct from nearby C. undulatum populations, despite its relatively high variability in leaf morphology. All C. undulatum populations contained moderate to high levels of genetic variation, with the percentage of AFLP markers polymorphic ranging from 48.6 to 64.9%, and heterozygosity from 0.167 to 0.202. Overall, the knowledge gained from this program of short duration will enable informed management and will underpin successful population enhancement through future translocations.


A distributed non-hierarchical metacognitive architecture is one in which all meta-level reasoning components are subject to meta-level monitoring and management by other components. Such metacognitive distribution can support the robustness of distributed IT systems in which humans and artificial agents are participants. However, robust metacognition also needs to be context-aware and use diversity in its reasoning and analysis methods. Both these requirements mean that an agent evaluates its reasoning within a "bigger picture" and that it can monitor this global picture from multiple perspectives. In particular, social context-awareness involves understanding the goals and concerns of users and organisations.

In this paper, we first present a conceptual architecture for distributed metacognition with context-awareness and diversity. We then consider the challenges of applying this architecture to autonomic management systems in scenarios where agents must collectively diagnose and respond to errors and intrusions. Such autonomic systems need rich semantic knowledge and diverse data sources in order to provide the necessary context for their metacognitive evaluations and decisions.


A Comparative Study Based on Patient-Specific Fluid-Structure Interaction Modeling of Cerebral Aneurysms by Tyler M. Brummer The Team for Advanced Flow Simulation and Modeling (T*AFSM) at Rice University has been developing techniques to address the computational challenges involved in fluid-structure interaction (FSI) modeling. The Stabilized Space-Time FSI (SSTFSI) core technologies, in conjunction with an array of special techniques, is used in a comparative study of patient-specific cerebral aneurysms. Ten cases, from three different locations, are studied, half of which were ruptured. The study compares the wall shear stress, oscillatory shear index, and the arterial-wall stress and stretch, with the original motivation of finding significant differences between ruptured and unruptured aneurysms. Simpler approaches to computer modeling of cerebral aneurysms are also compared to FSI modeling.


The anthelmintic activity of methanolic, aqueous and hydroalcoholic extracts of flower of Mallotus phillipensis was assessed invitro using larvicidal activity on L3 stage larvae of Haemonchus contortus. Phytochemical analysis was done using standard techniques and the acute oral toxicity of the extracts were studied in rats as per OECD guidelines 420. Freshly collected faeces from infected goats were cultured using modified Veglia's method and the larvae were collected after 12 days for performing larvicidal activity. Extracts were diluted using distilled water to provide final concentrations of 50, 25, 12.5 and 6.25 mg/ml and Albendazole and ivermectin served as positive control whereas distilled water served as negative control. Phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of phenolics, tannins and saponins in all extracts and the effect of the extracts could be due to these components. The methanolic extract caused death of larvae even at 6.25 mg/ml whereas the aqueous extract showed activity only at 50 mg/ml. The larvae showed initial increase in wriggling movements and then showed contractions and death. None of the extracts showed any toxicity reaction during the entire 14 days of observation. From the study it could be found that the methanolic extract of flower of Mallotus phillipensis possess potent anthelmintic property and the isolation of molecule from the same can lead to the synthesis of a novel anthelmintic.


Parallel computing on a cluster of workstations and personal computers has very high potential since it leverages the existing hardware and software. Parallel programming environment offers the user a convenient way to express parallel computation and communication. A lot of work has been done in synthesizing distributed memory parallel machines from a cluster of workstations. However, such a parallel environment is not supported on a network of DOS machines. POENDOM, Parallel Operating Environment on a Network of DOS Machines — provides a master process for job mapping and configuration management and several slave processes for job spawning on client nodes in coordination with the master process. The MPL ( Message Passing Library) provided by POENDOM can be used to develop coarse grained parallel applications which can be executed in POENDOM environment. MPL supports message passing interfaces for point-to-point communication, collective communication, and for synchronization among different nodes working on the same problem. MDF ( ulti-DimensionalFiles) library provides interfaces which deal with special files called multi-dimensional-files, suitable for writing parallel programs using the data parallelism paradigm. The emulated parallel machine of POENDOM consists of a master (host) node and several slave (remote) nodes. The master node accesses a user specified configuration file and distributes the tasks to slave nodes. On task mapping, master node and slave nodes will collectively solve the problem. This paper presents the design and implementation of POENDOM which includes master and slave processes. It also discusses MPL and MDF libraries.


In this master's thesis, atomistic simulations of displacement controlled compression were performed on nanopillars consisting of pure iron. The main part of the work has been put into developing compression simulations of nanopillars with initial dislocations. The purpose of these simulations has mainly been to see if the addition of dislocations prior to deformation of the material, would visibly affect the material properties. Three models of the pillar were developed with different number and positions of dislocations. The simulations were performed both at room temperature and at 15K in order to see how the different temperatures would affect the dislocation behaviour and the overall results. During the work with the thesis, it was also decided to include simulations with different strain rates. All the simulations in this thesis were performed with the simulation tool/code LAMMPS (Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator) [2] with help from NTNU's supercomputer Vilje [3]. The dislocations were inserted using the program Atomsk [4], and the result was visualized in the analysis software Ovito [5]. In addition to performing atomistic simulations, a part regarding experimental compression testing of micro sized iron pillars were included. The goal of this part of the thesis was to get a better understanding of the experimental tests which the pillar simulations are based on. The experimental testing was performed in close collaboration with PhD student Anette B. Hagen. The results showed that the insertion of dislocations into the simulated pillar did not visibly affect the mechanical properties of the sample. Neither the number nor position of dislocations seemed to have any influence on the stress-strain curves acquired from the simulations. The strain rate however was discovered to have the most influence on the stresses measured during the simulations, both with regard to the magnitude and the quality of the results. The dislocation mechanisms observed corresponded well with existing literature as the dislocations showed different behaviour at different temperatures and different strain rates.


Contemporary debates and controversies about online encyclopaedias especially in light of the Wikipedia phenomenon are rife and they have come to prevail in both mainstream media and among some new media scholars (e.g. Benkler, 2006; Jenkins, 2006, Featherstone and Venn, 2007). They either point to longstanding issues about relevance and credibility, reliability and objectivity, authority and authorship or to contradistinctions between technologically enabled commons based peer production and the legacy of professional and proprietary encyclopaedism. Such debates raise important issues surrounding not only the relationship between media technology and knowledge, but the relationship among encyclopaedias, information retrieval and critical media literacy. Encyclopaedias, can be considered as intermediary forms within a more general attempt to represent and mediate the subjective ordering, preservation, assimilation, and interpretation of existing knowledge and culture into specific cultural contexts. Such knowledge and, thus, subjectivity are dependent upon specific institutions, genres, technologies and practices (cf. Foucault, 1989; Nunberg, 1996). Continuing ongoing research on the production and textuality of online encyclopaedias in recent years, this paper attempts to map mainstream public perceptions regarding the legitimacy of encyclopaedias today. Based on assumptions that 'journalism exists to enable citizens to better understand their lives and their position(s) in the world' (Richardson, 2007) values and perceptions documented in the mainstream press may be considered as framing contexts for encyclopaedias' reception as well as conditioning processes around the symbolic interpretation of knowledge and media literacy. Through the deployment of a longitudinal content analysis (2007-2008) and a critical discourse analysis of comparisons between Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica featuring in the mainstream UK and US press (a total of 206 articles), the paper argues, that notions of authority and authorship, objectivity, neutrality and accuracy feature alongside questions of institutional agency and symbolic power in the social production of knowledge. Paper prepared for the Fifth Anniversary Conference of the Department of Media and Communications, 'Media, Communication & Humanity', London School of Economics and Political Science, London, 21-23 September 2008.


Terrestrial carbon (C) cycle models applied for cli- mate projections simulate a strong increase in net primary productivity (NPP) due to elevated atmospheric CO2 concen- tration during the 21st century. These models usually neglect the limited availability of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), nutrients that commonly limit plant growth and soil carbon turnover. To investigate how the projected C sequestration is altered when stoichiometric constraints on C cycling are considered, we incorporated a P cycle into the land surface model JSBACH (Jena Scheme for Biosphere-Atmosphere Coupling in Hamburg), which already includes representa- tions of coupled C and N cycles. The model reveals a distinct geographic pattern of P and N limitation. Under the SRES (Special Report on Emissions Scenarios) A1B scenario, the accumulated land C uptake be- tween 1860 and 2100 is 13 % (particularly at high latitudes) and 16 % (particularly at low latitudes) lower in simulations with N and P cycling, respectively, than in simulations with- out nutrient cycles. The combined effect of both nutrients re- duces land C uptake by 25 % compared to simulations with- out N or P cycling. Nutrient limitation in general may be biased by the model simplicity, but the ranking of limita- tions is robust against the parameterization and the inflex- ibility of stoichiometry. After 2100, increased temperature and high CO2 concentration cause a shift from N to P limita- tion at high latitudes, while nutrient limitation in the tropics declines. The increase in P limitation at high-latitudes is in- duced by a strong increase in NPP and the low P sorption capacity of soils, while a decline in tropical NPP due to high autotrophic respiration rates alleviates N and P limitations. The quantification of P limitation remains challenging. The poorly constrained processes of soil P sorption and biochem- ical mineralization are identified as the main uncertainties in the strength of P limitation. Even so, our findings indicate that global land C uptake in the 21st century is likely over- estimated in models that neglect P and N limitations. In the long term, insufficient P availability might become an impor- tant constraint on C cycling at high latitudes. Accordingly, we argue that the P cycle must be included in global models used for C cycle projections.


This paper analyses comovement in housing prices across the Euro area. We use techniques based on the concepts of fractional integration and cointegration. Our results indicate that all the individual log-real price indices display orders of integration which are above one, implying long memory in their corresponding growth rates. Further, looking at the cointegration relationships, we observe that the series for the Euro area is cointegrated with those of Belgium, Germany and France. Focusing on the individual countries, we find cointegration relationships between Belgium and Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, Germany and Spain, Germany and Ireland, France and Spain, and Ireland and the Netherlands. Other bilateral cointegration relationships can either clearly be rejected or the results are ambiguous. Finally, prices in Germany seem to move in the opposite direction from other countries, which may be related to capital flows associated with current account imbalances.


This paper intends to examine the existence of asymmetric effect of public debt on private investment in Malaysia. As Malaysia's public debt has been rising in recent years the question has been raised on whether the persistently high debt level can negatively affect private investment or otherwise. This study, which uses non-linear autoregressive distributed lags (NARDL) estimation with data from 1980 to 2016, shows some evidence of asymmetrical effect in private investment–public debt nexus in both the long- and short-run. There are evidences of long-run asymmetry between private investment and total public debt, external debt, and federal government debt. In the short run, asymmetric relationship exists between private investment and domestic debt, external debt, and federal government debt. The findings also conclude that, in both long-run and short-run, higher public debt crowds out private investment, which is in line with the crowding-out effect hypothesis. Hence, policy-makers are advised to maintain public debt at a healthy level to ensure private investment is not being crowded-out.


This article examines the relationship between workplace transformation (or restructuring) and the well-being of employees, in terms of both psychological and physical health, at a large manufacturing corporation in the United States. While the previous literature has been largely divided over the issue - some researchers providing unqualified enthusiasm and others equally strong criticism of workplace changes - we found, after decomposing workplace transformation into five distinct dimensions of intensity, autonomy, team-work, skilling and computing, that certain components were harmful while others were beneficial to the employees. Furthermore, some effects of reengineering varied between managers and non-managers. Overall, increases in workplace intensity were associated with the largest increases in stress and symptoms of poor health. The data were produced by a longitudinal (two-wave) survey questionnaire of over 1000 employees and were analyzed by means of a structural equations model.


Abstract : Within a few months of the September 11 terrorist attacks upon our nation the Office of Homeland Security was created and ultimately a National Strategy for Homeland Security was written. In The National Security Strategy of 2002 President Bush formalized the protection of the homeland as the military's highest priority mission. Protecting the homeland often requires military capabilities to manage crises and mitigate the consequences of an attack or natural disaster. The United States National Security Strategy addresses the complexities and challenges our military faces in its role securing the homeland. The two viable options that will be explored in this paper are the status quo which can be maintained with respect to the Army's role in homeland security-with its attendant risks-or revisions can be made to the Posse Comitatus Act and the Army's force structure in order to deal more effectively with an increased role in domestic emergencies. This paper will document the historical background and legal parameters of the PCA along with its impact on Army domestic operations and offer realistic recommendations for modifying the Act and changing Army force structure to help achieve part of the overall vision set forth in the National Security Strategy.


We have developed a simulation model that accepts instructions in unconstrained natural language, and then guides a robot to the correct destination. The instructions are segmented on the basis of the actions to be taken, and each segment is labeled with the required action. This flat formulation reduces the problem to a sequential labeling task, to which machine learning methods are applied. We propose an innovative machine learning method for explicitly modeling the actions described in instructions and integrating learning and inference about the physical environment. We obtained a corpus of 840 route instructions that experimenters verified as follow-able, given by people in building navigation situations. Using the four-fold cross validation, our experiments showed that the simulated robot reached the correct destination 88% of the time.


Analyzing the security of Wearable Internet-of-Things (WIoT) devices is considered a complex task due to their heterogeneous nature. In addition, there is currently no mechanism that performs security testing for WIoT devices in different contexts. In this article, we propose an innovative security testbed framework targeted at wearable devices, where a set of security tests are conducted, and a dynamic analysis is performed by realistically simulating environmental conditions in which WIoT devices operate. The architectural design of the proposed testbed and a proof-of-concept, demonstrating a preliminary analysis and the detection of context-based attacks executed by smartwatch devices, are presented.


The North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal is a relatively new banana production area, for which there is an absence of local norms, specifically for choice of cultivar and population density. Three cooperative split-plot banana cultivar/density trials were established in December 1991, January 1992 and February 1992 on farms at Eshowe, Nkwaleni and Mposa, respectively. These sites represent Phillips' (1973) Bioclimatic Groups 2,10 and 1 respectively, and have widely divergent climatic potential, ranging from cool, to warm, to hot subtropical. Each randomised trial block, 0.92 ha in extent, comprised five replications of five cultivar main plots, each of which was split into three density sub-plots. The five cultivars planted represent those registered at the time of planting, viz. 'Dwarf Cavendish', 'Williams', 'Grand Nain', 'Valery' and 'Chinese Cavendish'. Sub-plots were planted at 1 666, 2 105 and 2 500 plants ha" and tissue culture plants were used to establish all three trials. The field trials were evaluated over three full cropping cycles and culminated in October 1996. Morphological differences such as pseudostem height and circumference, leaf length and width, number of functional leaves at flowering and harvest, as well as phenological differences such as monthly leaf emergence rates, emergence-to-harvest intervals and harvest cycles, were evaluated. The yield component data comprised measurements of bunch mass, number of hands per bunch and number, length and mass of fingers on the third hand. Productivity was expressed as tonnes per hectare per annum (t ha' an"). Each cultivar and density treatment was evaluated independently. However, it was the evaluation of the cultivar/density interaction which formed the basis of the recommendations for the three different Bioclimatic Groups. At the relatively cool Eshowe site, 'Williams' proved to be the most productive cultivar (471 ha' an") over all densities. The highest production (49.8 t ha" an") was achieved from a density of 2 500 plants ha", but due to lower costs per hectare, the intermediate density of 2 105 plants ha" generated the highest gross margin. When the cultivar/density interaction was evaluated, the combination producing the highest gross margin was 'Williams' at 2 105 plants ha". This substantiated the independent evaluations and is consequently the recommended combination for Bioclimatic Group 2. However, the faster cycling of 'Chinese Cavendish' could conceivably result in this cultivar outperforming 'Williams' in future ratoons. At the warmer Nkwaleni site, 'Grand Nain' (57.8 t ha" an") proved to be the most productive cultivar. The density of 2 500 plants ha' was the most productive (64 t ha" an") and also generated the highest gross margin. However, the cultivar/density interaction indicated that 'Williams' at 2 500 plants ha', was the highest producing combination yielding the highest gross margin, and is consequently the recommended combination for Bioclimatic Group 10. At the hot Mposa site, 'Chinese Cavendish' (54.21 ha" an") proved to be the most productive cultivar. The density of 2 500 plants ha" outproduced (57.4 t ha" an") the lower densities and also generated the highest economic returns. However, when the cultivar/density interaction was evaluated, 'Chinese Cavendish' at the lower density of 2 105 plants ha" realised the highest gross margin and is consequently the recommended combination for Bioclimatic Group 1.


The aim of this article is to analyze the relationship between a fund's Morningstar rating and 1) its subsequent performance and 2) its rating and subsequent inflows or outflows of funds. The authors distinguish between actual and expected predictability as perceived by investors. This study is the first to analyze a prolonged investment period on the German market after Morningstar implemented essential changes in its rating methodology in 2002. The empirical findings suggest that the Morningstar rating has a limited ability to predict future fund quality for the German fund market and that the Sharpe ratio may be a better forecasting tool than the Morningstar rating, although neither is ultimately reliable. Furthermore, the fund flow performance relationship strongly depends on overall market movements. Highly rated funds suffered much greater outflows than lower-rated funds, especially during bear markets. An event study reveals, however, that investors do perceive rating changes as new information. German investors seem to react later than American investors, suggesting they are less influenced by Morningstar ratings in their allocation decisions.


Cystathionine β-synthase (CBS) is a key regulator of sulfur amino acid metabolism, taking homocysteine from the methionine cycle to the biosynthesis of cysteine via the trans-sulfuration pathway. CBS is also a predominant source of H2S biogenesis. Roles for CBS have been reported for neuronal death pursuant to cerebral ischemia, promoting ovarian tumor growth, and maintaining drug-resistant phenotype by controlling redox behavior and regulating mitochondrial bioenergetics. The trans-sulfuration pathway is well-conserved in eukaryotes, but the analogous enzymes have different enzymatic behavior in different organisms. CBSs from the higher organisms contain a heme in an N-terminal domain. Though the presence of the heme, whose functions in CBSs have yet to be elucidated, is biochemically interesting, it hampers UV-vis absorption spectroscopy investigations of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) species. CBS from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yCBS) naturally lacks the heme-containing N-terminal domain, which makes it an ideal model for spectroscopic studies of the enzymological reaction catalyzed and allows structural studies of the basic yCBS catalytic core (yCBS-cc). Here we present the crystal structure of yCBS-cc, solved to 1.5 Å. Crystal structures of yCBS-cc in complex with enzymatic reaction intermediates have been captured, providing a structural basis for residues involved in catalysis. Finally, the structure of the yCBS-cc cofactor complex generated by incubation with an inhibitor shows apparent off-pathway chemistry not normally seen with CBS.


The aim of this study was to examine the prescribing practices of nurse independent prescribers caring for patients with diabetes.

Medication management is an area of care in which nurses, caring for patients with diabetes, are involved. Prescribing should optimise the role of these nurses. Although nurses in the United Kingdom have virtually the same independent prescribing rights as doctors, there is limited evidence concerning the extent to which nurse prescribing is used to treat diabetic patients, the medicines and conditions for which these nurses prescribe, and nurses' level of experience or training.

In this study, data were derived from a national questionnaire survey. The findings were based on replies from a random sample of 409 nurse independent prescribers who self-completed a written questionnaire.

The results showed that the majority (62.6%) of participants worked in general practice. Nurses with specialist training prescribed more frequently (p = 0.015). The majority (51.8%) of nurses prescribed between one and five items a week for patients with diabetes. Monitoring equipment, oral antidiabetic drugs, and insulins were the products most often prescribed. A lack of continuing professional development and clinical knowledge were the biggest factors which hampered prescribing.

It was concluded that nurses are using independent prescribing to prescribe medicines for patients with diabetes. However, in order that this role is optimised, it is important that nurse independent prescribers have the appropriate specialist knowledge and are able to access continuing professional development.


Current optical data storage is challenging to increase its memory capacity and data transfer rate for realizing high-quality image and rapid service in the coming digital, multimedia and network era. To actualize more effective and simple data storage, a novel parallel near-field optical system has been proposed using vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) microprobe arrays. The new parallel optical system is based a multibeam recording head consisting of a VCSEL array with apertures of nanometer size as a near-field wave exit. We have developed some candidates for the parallel recording head, including the direct aperture formation on the VCSEL emitting surface and the preparation of microprobe arrays with flat-tip structure. The new flat-tip microprobe array has advantages for improving the optical efficiency and stabilizing the contact head system with optical media since it is prepared from semiconductor materials of high refractive index. Silicon nano-aperture probe array has been prepared successfully with the aperture size of 150 to 500nm using micro-fabrication techniques. We have also investigated the integrated microprobe array by the direct fabrication of flat-tip probes on the substrate of bottom emitting VCSEL arrays. Finally the reading mechanism has been studied theoretically using a finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulation and an optical feedback effect of semiconductor lasers for the integrated microprobe VCSEL array. We believe this nano-aperture VCSELprobe array is sufficiently effective to be applied to the parallel recording head for the near-field optical data storage of a high data capacity and fast transfer rate.


Book Summary: Interest in Mathematics and Science Learning is the first volume to assemble findings on the role of interest in mathematics and science learning. As the contributors illuminate across the volume's 22 chapters, interest provides a critical bridge between cognition and affect in learning and development. This volume will be useful to educators, researchers, and policy makers, especially those whose focus is mathematics, science, and technology education. Chapter Summary: The primary purpose of this chapter is to explore the process whereby students transition from a short-term, situational interest in mathematics or science to a more enduring individual interest in which they incorporate performance in mathematics or science into their self-definitions (e.g. "I am a scientist"). We do so by examining the research related to domain identification, which is the extent to which students define themselves through a role or performance in a domain, such as mathematics or science. Understanding the process of domain identification is important because it can contribute to an understanding of how individual interest develops over time. The means through which students become highly domain identified involves many factors that are internal (e.g. goals and beliefs) and external (e.g. family environment and educational experiences) to them. Students who are more identified with an academic domain tend to demonstrate increased motivation, effort, perseverance (when faced with failure), and achievement. Importantly, students with lower domain identification tend to demonstrate less motivation, lower effort, and fewer desirable outcomes. Student outcomes in a domain can reciprocally influence domain identification by reinforcing or altering it. This feedback loop can help explain incremental changes in motivation, self-concept, individual interest, and, ultimately, important outcomes such as achievement, choice of college major, and career path. This dynamic model presents possible mechanisms for influencing student outcomes. Furthermore, assessing students' domain identification can allow practitioners to intervene to prevent undesirable outcomes. Finally, we present research on how mathematics and science instructors could use the principles of the MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation to enhance students' domain identification, by (a) empowering students, (b) demonstrating the usefulness of the domain, (c) supporting students' success, (d) triggering students' interests, and (e) fostering a sense of caring and belonging. We conclude that by using the MUSIC model, instructors can intentionally design educational experiences to help students progress from a situational interest to one that is more enduring and integrated into their identities.


The public pays large sums of money to watch skilled motor performance. Notably, however, in recent decades motor skill learning (performance improvement beyond baseline levels) has received less experimental attention than motor adaptation (return to baseline performance in the setting of an external perturbation). Motor skill can be assessed at the levels of task success and movement quality, but the link between these levels remains poorly understood. We devised a motor skill task that required visually guided curved movements of the wrist without a perturbation, and we defined skill learning at the task level as a change in the speed-accuracy trade-off function (SAF). Practice in restricted speed ranges led to a global shift of the SAF. We asked how the SAF shift maps onto changes in trajectory kinematics, to establish a link between task-level performance and fine motor control. Although there were small changes in mean trajectory, improved performance largely consisted of reduction in trial-to-trial variability and increase in movement smoothness. We found evidence for improved feedback control, which could explain the reduction in variability but does not preclude other explanations such as an increased signal-to-noise ratio in cortical representations. Interestingly, submovement structure remained learning invariant. The global generalization of the SAF across a wide range of difficulty suggests that skill for this task is represented in a temporally scalable network. We propose that motor skill acquisition can be characterized as a slow reduction in movement variability, which is distinct from faster model-based learning that reduces systematic error in adaptation paradigms.


Quantitative estimates of the rates and azimuths of Phoenix plate convergence with the Antarctic Peninsula have been derived from plate rotation calculations for two periods in the Late Cretaceous and early Tertiary (83.0–67.7 and 61.1–53.4 Ma). Published marine magnetic anomaly identifications and 'flow lines' interpreted from gravity anomaly maps were used in simple spherical geometry calculations to derive Phoenix–Pacific stage rotations. These were combined with published Pacific–Antarctic rotation data to determine contemporaneous Phoenix–Antarctic stage rotations. The results indicate a significant change in azimuths of relative motion between the Late Cretaceous and early Tertiary. Late Cretaceous, and perhaps earlier, oblique subduction probably caused migration of fore-arc slivers along the margin, resulting in variations in width of the accretionary prism. Comparison between synthetic magnetic profiles and a 900 km long magnetic profile across ocean floor produced at the Antarctic–Phoenix ridge during the early Tertiary establishes the time of a major decrease in spreading rate, and hence also in convergence rate, as chron C23r (52.3 Ma). The associated change in subduction dynamics may have caused the dextral transtensional deformation observed in the George VI Sound region and initiated uplift of blueschist facies rocks now exposed on Smith Island. The calculated convergence history does not provide a simple explanation for the occurrence of high-Mg# andesite lavas on Alexander Island, which were erupted more than 20 Ma before the Antarctic–Phoenix ridge arrived at the margin. The existence of these lavas implies either earlier subduction of another ridge or slab break-up beneath Alexander Island.


Introduction Inhaled therapy is widely used as mainstay treatment in chronic respiratory conditions, however the environmental impact of inhalers is rarely considered when prescribing inhalers. A recent BTS position statement "encourages all prescribers and patients to consider switching pMDIs to non-propellant devices whenever they are likely to be equally effective."(1) Little is known about Patients' or Physicians' perspectives on making such a switch. Methods A survey was carried out to assess the importance of three factors to consider, if changing to a different but equally effective inhaler – cost, carbon footprint and ease-of-use. Information about the typical costs and carbon footprints of inhalers was provided. 50 patients already using regular inhalers were randomly recruited via Respiratory Clinics at a district general hospital and Pulmonary Rehabilitation sessions. Responses were rated on a 5-point scale from not important to very important. The same survey was also completed by 50 medical professionals who regularly prescribe inhalers. Results 80% of patients surveyed rated the ease-of-use as important or very important consideration when changing inhalers. The 'cost' and 'carbon footprint' of the inhaler were equally important to patients (3.4 out of 5); only 14% of patients indicated that carbon footprint was of no importance to them. Physicians rated ease-of-use even higher than patients, with 96% deeming this as an important or very important factor. Physicians rated carbon footprint slightly less importantly (3.2) than cost (3.4) and also lower than patients rated carbon footprint. 14% of physicians thought that carbon footprint was of no importance. Conclusions Patients and Physicians agree that ease-of-use is the most important factor when choosing a new inhaler. This appears to contradict the fact that overall patients make fewer errors using DPIs(2), while the majority of inhalers prescribed in the UK are pMDIs(3). The data suggests that patients rate carbon footprint more importantly than physicians. The carbon footprint of inhalers is an important factor for the majority of patients, which should encourage physicians to discuss this consideration with patients prior to commencing or changing inhalers. Abstract P280 Table 1 Comparison of the importance given by patients and physicians to consideration of cost, carbon footprint and ease-of-use when changing inhalers


Using the theoretical concept of 'policy entrepreneurs' in public policy, this study draws on interview data from six key figures in a controversial city debate, to examine the impact, role, and characteristics such entrepreneurs have in policy making in city politics. This paper begins by providing an overview of public problems and the concept of policy entrepreneurs in relation to their role in the agenda setting process of policy formation. A historical summary of the case in study is then provided. Research is based on an in-depth analysis of data collected during one-on-one oral interviews in August 2004 with six key leaders about their role in the Ten Commandments Monument debate. Numerous characteristics of policy entrepreneurs are examined [as identified by Anderson, 2003, Baumgartner & Jones, 1993, Birkland, 2001, & Kingdon, 1995]. The interviews suggest that such variables as persistence, a willingness to invest in resources, value systems, expertise, opportunity, and influence contribute to the effectiveness of policy entrepreneurs. Some unexpected characteristics emerged as significant including belief system and occupation. Analysis of interview results also highlights the fact that all respondents were not proactive with respect to the Ten Commandments issue; rather they were reactive.


The article focuses on Johann Caspar Lavater (1741–1801), the Enlightenment-era thinker, pastor and writer, art collector and physiognomist, whose work and activities affected thinking from Zurich to America and Russia, including the Baltic countries. Of Lavater's Estonian acquaintances, Johann Burchard VII, the Tallinn Town Council pharmacist, is the one that primarily emerges from the article. The famous Swiss maintained a correspondence with the latter for over ten years, and in 1792, gifted him a miniature portrait of himself (now in the Estonian History Museum). In addition to the miniature portrait after Johann Heinrich Lips (?), there were two graphic portraits of Lavater in Estonia that were associated with Georg Friedrich Schmoll (Tallinn City Museum, University of Tartu Library) as well as a masterful oil portrait by August Friedrich Olenhainz (Art Museum of Estonia's Kadriorg Art Museum). The article examines all of these against the background of Lavater's successful book of the day "Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beforderung der Menschenkenntnis und Menschenliebe" ("Physiognomic Fragments for Furthering the Knowledge and Love of Man", 1775–1778) and in regard to Lavater's discussions about people and the art of portraiture. An attempt is made thereby to see Enlightenment-era portrait art through the eyes of Enlightenment-era people – Lavater and his audience. While the author of the article is convinced of the impact of Lavater's physiognomic research on the portraiture of the day (on the artists, clients, viewers) and also more indirectly on the history of art, she emphasis that, for Lavater, portrait art was primarily a tool for his physiognomic research and even if Lavater's teachings lost their popularity after his death and were relegated to the periphery of science, Lavater should not be excluded from the history of art and culture in the Baltic countries.


We present a Very Large Telescope/Focal Reducer and Low Dispersion Spectrograph #1 (VLT/FORS1) imaging and spectroscopic survey of the Wolf-Rayet (WR) population in the Sculptor group spiral galaxy NGC 7793. We identify 74 emission-line candidates from archival narrow-band imaging, from which 39 were observed with the Multi Object Spectroscopy mode of FORS1. 85 per cent of these sources displayed WR features. Additional slits were used to observe H II regions, enabling an estimate of the metallicity gradient of NGC 7793 using strong line calibrations, from which a central oxygen content of log(O/H) + 12 = 8.6 was obtained, falling to 8.25 at R 25 . We have estimated WR populations using a calibration of line luminosities of Large Magellanic Cloud stars, revealing ∼27 WN and ∼25 WC stars from 29 sources spectroscopically observed. Photometric properties of the remaining candidates suggest an additional ∼27 WN and ∼8 WC stars. A comparison with the WR census of the LMC suggests that our imaging survey has identified ∼80 per cent of WN stars and ∼90 per cent for the WC subclass. Allowing for incompleteness, NGC 7793 hosts ∼105 WR stars for which N(WC)/N(WN) ∼ 0.5. From our spectroscopy of H II regions in NGC 7793, we revise the global Hα star formation rate of Kennicutt et al. upward by 50 per cent to 0.45 M ⊙ yr ―1 . This allows us to obtain N(WR)/N(O) ∼ 0.018, which is somewhat lower than that resulting from the WR census by Schild et al. of another Sculptor group spiral NGC 300, whose global physical properties are similar to NGC 7793. Finally, we also report the fortuitous detection of a bright (m v = 20.8 mag) background quasar Q2358-32 at z ∼ 2.02 resulting from C IV λ1548-5 redshifted to the λ4684 passband.


Videre: Journal of Computer Vision Research (ISSN 1089-2788) is a quarterly journal published electronically on the Internet by The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02142. Subscriptions and address changes should be addressed to MIT Press Journals, Five Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142; phone: (617) 253-2889; fax: (617) 577-1545; e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com. Subscription rates are: Individuals $30.00, Institutions $125.00. Canadians add additional 7% GST. Prices subject to change without notice.


Room-temperature upconversion laser operation has been demonstrated at 456, 482, 512, 649, and 799 nm in the ytterbium-sensitized thulium system in BaY2F8. With 960-nm titanium–sapphire laser pumping, cw operation of the 649- and the 799-nm upconversion laser transitions is observed. We believe that this is the first observation of laser emission on the 799-nm transition from 1G4 and the 512-nm transition from 1D2 in a bulk-crystal sample. At reduced temperatures cw or quasi-cw laser operation is obtained on the 456-, the 482-, and the 512-nm transitions. Room-temperature diode-laser pumping has been demonstrated for the 456-, the 512-, and the 649-nm transitions.


A gene encoding a RING zinc finger ankyrin repeat protein (MjXB3), a putative E3 ubiquitin ligase, is highly expressed in petals of senescing four o'clock (Mirabilis jalapa) flowers, increasing >40,000-fold during the onset of visible senescence. The gene has homologues in many other species, and the Petunia homologue is strongly up-regulated in senescing Petunia corollas. Silencing the expression of this gene in Petunia, using virus-induced gene silencing, resulted in a 2 d extension in flower life. In Mirabilis, a 2 kb promoter region, 5' upstream of the MjXB3 gene, was isolated. The promoter sequence included putative binding sites for many DNA-binding proteins, including the bZIP, Myb, homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-Zip), MADS-box, and WRKY transcription factors. The construct containing a 1 kb promoter region immediately upstream of the MjXB3 gene drove the strongest expression of the beta-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene in a transient expression assay. In Petunia, GUS expression under the control of this heterologous promoter fragment was specific to senescing flowers. The Mirabilis promoter GUS construct was tested in other flower species; while GUS activity in carnation petals was high during senescence, no expression was detected in three monocotyledonous flowers--daylily (Hemerocallis 'Stella d'Oro'), daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus 'King Alfred'), and orchid (Dendrobium 'Emma White').


Across the international higher education spectrum access represents a significant issue. The literature is replete with analyses of access in various higher education systems. Low and inequitable patterns of participation in higher education are particularly prominent in developing countries. This dissertation is a case study of the higher education system of the state of Antigua and Barbuda, former British territories of the Caribbeanregion, Focusing on the issue of access and equity of access this study addresses the trends related to participation in higher education in this twin-island state of the Caribbean region, and analyzes factors that affect participation in this country. The study explores the role of government and institutional bodies in enhancing the rate and quality of participation in higher education in these territories, and seeks to determine factors affecting the state of preparedness of this country to participate and survive in the modern global social and economic order. The study finds that increased and more equitable rates of participation in higher education would be achieved by strengthening and reorganizing aspects of the primary and secondary education levels. Creating an integrated and carefully articulated higher education system, which caters to a wide cross section of the inhabitants of the twin island state, and which contains mechanisms for admissions for second chance candidates, would also serve to promote access to and equity in the higher education system of this country. © Copyright by Elsie Hewlett-Thomas, 2009 All Rights Reserved


Through what Joyce described as their "style of scrupulous meanness," the stories present a direct, sometimes searing view of Dublin in the early twentieth century. The text of this Norton Critical Edition is based on renowned Joyce scholar Hans Walter Gabler's edited text and includes his editorial notes and the introduction to his scholarly edition, which details and discusses Dubliners' complicated publication history. "Contexts" offers a rich collection of materials that bring the stories and the Irish capital to life for twenty-first century readers, including photographs, newspaper articles and advertising, early versions of two of the stories, and a satirical poem by Joyce about his publication woes. "Criticism" brings together eight illuminating essays on the most frequently taught stories in Dubliners-"Araby," "Eveline," "After the Race," "The Boarding House," "Counterpoints," "A Painful Case," and "The Dead." Contributors include David G. Wright, Heyward Ehrlich, Margot Norris, James Fairhall, Fritz Senn, Morris Beja, Roberta Jackson, and Vincent J. Cheng.


ABSTRACT Larnier, S., Almar, R., Cienfuegos, R., Lejay, A., 2014. On the use of the Radon transform to estimate longshore currents from video imagery. In: Green, A.N. and Cooper, J.A.G. (eds.), Proceedings 13th International Coastal Symposium (Durban, South Africa), Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 70, pp. 023–028, ISSN 0749-0208. In nearshore applications, the estimation of longshore currents is of primary importance since it controls the alongshore sediment transport and coastal evolution. Direct estimation of longshore currents using in-situ instruments is difficult and costly, especially under highly energetic wave climates. Low cost remote sensing systems based on video observations constitute a promising alternative when the drifting sea foam left after the passage of breaking waves is visible. In this paper we describe a method based on longshore timestacks that necessitates less data than approaches using the full video frames. Our approach uses the Radon transform applied on the time series derived from timestacks to produce an estimate of the longshore component of nearshore surface currents detected from the foam signature in video images. The Radon transform can be used to separate the wave crests from the drifting foam part. The identification of the longshore drift is enhanced with both a temporal and a spatial filters. The corresponding sinogram from the Radon transform is computed in order to find the angle of the alongshore drifting that is further converted into the longshore component of the surface currents. For the estimation of longshore currents, our approach is first tested using synthetic timestack examples created using anisotropic Gaussian random current fields. Comparisons between estimates derived by our algorithm and manual operator detection from videos are performed showing good agreement. These videos come from a field campaign conducted in the Mataquito River mouth area in the Maule region (Chile). Field test comparisons were also made against in situ current meter from the 2008 Truc Vert experiment in Aquitaine (France). It was taking place during an energetic event.


The Xiaolangdi Hydraulic Engineering Operation can affect the coastline evolution to some extent by changing the flow and sediment condition in the Yellow River. The results showed one-year lag in the response of the Yellow River estuary coastline to the flow and sediment condition. The flow and sediment in the Yellow River sharply declined (even exhausted) in the 1990s, showing a negatively increased status for the shortage of flow/sediment supply. The erosion rate of spit in the estuary was 0.45 [km/a] in 1995– 2003. The land area erosion rate was 14.9 [km2/a] in the late 1990s, and the bending and complexity degree of the coastline remained at a high level. The flow/sediment regulation of the Xiaolangdi Hydraulic Engineering optimized the flow/sediment allocation after 2002. The spit in the estuary considerably extended, resulting in a land-forming rate 1.24 times higher than that under the natural flow/sediment condition. In addition, the coastline tended to be straight and smooth. The Xiaolangdi Hydraulic Engineering should regulate the flow/sediment within 0.02 [t/m3] and the incoming sediment coefficient to about 0.01 [(kg·s)/m6] in the Lijin station, which is about 20 billion [m3] of flow and 300– 400 million [tons] of transported sediment, to drive the coastline development in the positive direction.


This aim of this article is to critically examine how the concept of culture is used in Sweden to explain the "failure" or the difficulties that Muslim immigrant families are experiencing with regards to their integration into the dominant society. Whereas, the Swedish society is often represented as 'modern', 'progressive', and 'democratic', immigrants with Muslim backgrounds are predominately described as 'traditional', 'authoritarian' and 'pre-modern'. There is a widely held idea within Swedish social work research that immigrant families and the white mainstream Swedish society are situated within two different value systems with different world-views regarding family and gender relations. Due to this entrenched binary opposition, Orientalism becomes constitutive to social work research and practices.


This paper is concerned with the issue of whether U.S.-style judicial supremacy satisfies the standards of political morality that fall under the rubric of "the rule of law." There are a number of questions that arise in this connection that will be discussed: (1) What, exactly, is the rule of law (hereinafter, RoL)? (2) How does RoL connect with other standards of normative political morality relevant with respect to evaluating judicial and other legal practices? (3) Is there any reason to think that judicial supremacy is in conflict with the relevant RoL standards? (4) Assuming an affirmative answer to (3), what does this tell us about whether judicial supremacy is morally justified? I take the procedural/functional conception of F.A. Hayek as my working conception of RoL and consider whether judicial supremacy runs afoul of the relevant principles. Although this paper is specifically concerned with an ostensible tension between judicial supremacy and the relevant RoL principles, the most important part of the analysis is a gesture in the direction explicating the real moral issue and how it goes beyond RoL considerations.


The objective of the study is to compare the ranking of funds based on returns achieved, with alternative rankings based on both risk-adjusted performance measures and on safety-first selection criteria. This will allow an assessment of the value of such measures and whether they offer any additional information to the investor. In addition it will contrast the applicability of this type of analysis to property-based and equity-based funds. Each fund would be ranked on each of the risk-adjusted measures and on each of the safety-first measures. A correlation analysis would be undertaken on the rankings of the funds across the different measures. The results would be tested for their robustness to changing the key parameters by appropriate sensitivity analysis of the results.


In recent years increased emphasis has been placed on improving seat comfort in automobiles. This is partly due to research showing that prolonged driving is associated with increased risk of musculoskeletal disorders, but largely because driver comfort is now viewed as an increasingly important aspect of the competitive marketing of vehicles.

Driving is firmly cemented as a major part of most people s daily life across the world and people are now spending more time in their vehicles than ever before. As urban congestion continues to rise, commuting distances and durations will progressively increase, subjecting drivers to the risks of long duration driving more often. Consequently the automotive industry has invested in designing seats that perform better under increased usage durations and ergonomics has played a vital role in the design of new seats. However, the ability to design a successful seat relies heavily on the capacity to accurately evaluate the comfort of a vehicle seat and one major issue that has been highlighted with the current state of automotive ergonomics research is the standardisation of comfort evaluation techniques.

This research aimed to tackle these issues by investigating the effects of long duration driving on discomfort and the range factors associated with driver discomfort. Furthermore, the ultimate goal of this research was develop and evaluate a novel objective measure of driver discomfort that focused on driver seat fidgets and movements (SFMs) with the aim of standardising discomfort evaluation within the automotive industry.

Three laboratory studies and one field observation were conducted to address these aims whereby subjective and objective evaluations of discomfort were conducted during long term driving (ranging from 60 - 140 minutes). The results determined that a measure of driver SFMs can be effectively implemented into long duration driving trials to evaluate the effects of long term driving and vibration exposure on driver discomfort and subsequently used to make accurate predictions of overall discomfort. Large positive correlations have been determined between measures of SFMs and subjective ratings of overall discomfort (r2 > 0.9, P < 0.05) and the SFM method has been successfully repeated under a range of driving conditions.

Driver seat fidget and movement (SFM) frequency is shown to significantly increase congruently with subjective ratings over the duration of a long term drive as drivers seek to cope with increased discomfort. It is proposed that drivers will record movements in the vehicle seat when discomfort reaches a threshold that is consciously or unconsciously perceived and as the duration of driving accrues, drivers will reach this threshold with increased frequency. A measure of both SFM frequency and total accumulative SFMs have been shown to accurately predict discomfort ratings and provides the basis for discomfort evaluations to be made via remote monitoring, removing the need for subjective assessment.

During a long term drive, there becomes a point upon which improvements in seat design become ineffective as extended duration driving will result in discomfort regardless of how well the seat has been designed. It was shown that drivers will move in the vehicle seat to cope with increased discomfort and in addition, another method of combatting the negative effects of long term driving was investigated. Subjective and objective evaluation determined that breaks from driving will reduce discomfort both immediately and upon completion of a long term drive. Furthermore, these benefits were increased when drivers left the vehicle seat as discomfort was reset when drivers took a 10 minute walk. Walking during a break from driving can be considered the ultimate SFM. Drivers are recommended to plan breaks from driving when conducting a long duration journey in order to minimise discomfort and when taking a break, drivers should take a walk rather than remain seated in the vehicle.


Generating theory from research settings requires researchers to adeptly engage with the social intricacies of the field. They need to develop a contextual understanding by gaining in ‐ depth insights into the setting, while retaining a critical distance from it. Researchers must practice this along the entire research journey, from site selection, through data collection and analyses, to theory development and explanation. However, contextual expertise has been assumed rather than actively considered as a critical component in organization and management studies. We lay out steps for understanding the nature of contextual expertise, offer systematic advice for research projects and outline methodological practices across the research process to choose, capture, comprehend, convey, and confirm contextual specificities. The growing social complexity of research settings renders the development of contextual expertise increasingly important for the generation of enriched and more diverse theory. It also has implications for organization and management studies as a scientific community.


"Drs. Niles-Yokum and Wagner have written a comprehensive and accessible overview of aging services in the United States, from the evolution of a formal aging network through the older Americans Act to innovative new programs aimed at disaster preparedness, lifelong learning, and spiritual growth. This book should be required reading for every student in gerontology and should be a resource for even the most seasoned professional." Kate de Medeiros, PhD Associate Director, Center for Aging Studies, and Research Scientist University of Maryland, Baltimore "This comprehensive, well written book is accessible to readers at all levels from those just beginning to learn about the field of aging to those with decades of experience. . . [It is] an excellent resource for students, not only of gerontology, but also allied health, business administration, health education, healthcare management, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, public administration, public health and social work. In fact, it should be required reading for all American citizens, so they know where they need to plan ahead, how they can step up to the plate to advocate for better elder services and where to mind the gaps." Sharon B. Buchbinder, RN, PhD Former Professor and Chair Department of Health Science Towson University, Towson, MD Revised and updated to include the most current information concerning later-life care, this seventh edition provides students and practitioners with a detailed overview of federal, state, and local programs and services for older people with cognitive, physical, and social needs. It also examines new and emerging needs and interests of older adults and what measures are being taken to address them, including civic engagement, religion and spirituality, and arts and humanities programs. An ideal source for students and educators in a variety of disciplines-from gerontology to nursing to public health-this guide offers a historical perspective on the evolution of programs and services for older Americans. It also cites a wealth of important changes in legislation, health care, lifestyle, and other areas concerning older adults that have occurred since the publication of the previous edition. This guide covers various aspects of each program or service, including: Historical evolution of the Aging Network Both enacted and proposed relevant legislation Essays by experts in the field Challenges faced by older adults, professionals, and policymakers New sources and relevant websites Discussion questions for classroom use


Double-diffusive instabilities are often invoked to explain enhanced transport in stably stratified fluids. The most-studied natural manifestation of this process, fingering convection, commonly occurs in the ocean's thermocline and typically increases diapycnal mixing by 2 orders of magnitude over molecular diffusion. Fingering convection is also often associated with structures on much larger scales, such as thermohaline intrusions, gravity waves and thermohaline staircases. In this paper, we present an exhaustive study of the phenomenon from small to large scales. We perform the first three-dimensional simulations of the process at realistic values of the heat and salt diffusivities and provide accurate estimates of the induced turbulent transport. Our results are consistent with oceanic field measurements of diapycnal mixing in fingering regions. We then develop a generalized mean-field theory to study the stability of fingering systems to large-scale perturbations using our calculated turbulent fluxes to parameterize small-scale transport. The theory recovers the intrusive instability, the collective instability and the γ-instability as limiting cases. We find that the fastest growing large-scale mode depends sensitively on the ratio of the background gradients of temperature and salinity (the density ratio). While only intrusive modes exist at high density ratios, the collective and γ instabilities dominate the system at the low density ratios where staircases are typically observed. We conclude by discussing our findings in the context of staircase-formation theory.


Using 109 Malaysian local authorities as the sample, this paper examines the type and extent of financial information disclosed digitally. This study further examines whether council size, performance and social obligation affect digital reporting. The results show that 64.2% maintain websites and out of this, 15.7% local authorities provide some disclosure on financial statements digitally. The results also show that performance and social obligation do influence the digital reporting practices among the local authorities. Further investigations reveal that lack of information technology facilities, inadequate specialised staff and lack of enforcement are among the factors deterring local authorities to disclose their financial information digitally. The results increase the body of knowledge by providing a continuous insight on the type and extent of information disclosed digitally by the Malaysian local authorities.


We discuss antibunching of photons in terms of the distributions of waiting between successive photoemissions and compare it with definitions of antibunching based on the two-time intensity correlation function. We illustrate our results for photon sequences emitted by parametric oscillators. Curves are presented to illustrate the behavior.


Cerebral aneurysm disease has extremely high mortality and morbidity, which can be efficiently treated by implanting a vascular stent. However, due to relatively poor flexibility and biodegradability, current vascular stents still cause some life-threatening complications. Thus, it is of great significance to develop new biodegradable cerebral stents (BCSs) with enhanced flexibility for improving the prognosis of cerebral aneurysm disease. In this work, a flexibility-enhanced BCS architecture has been investigated and designed. Both numerical simulation and experiments have been performed to demonstrate the potential clinical application of the proposed BCSs. First, the effects of the structural parameters on the flexibility have been analyzed by finite element simulation. Then, the mechanical properties of the proposed BCSs have been characterized via both numerical simulation and experiments and compared to those of two representative commercial stents for demonstrating the flexibility and radial stiffness of the proposed design. The knowledge from this work provides a new design methodology.


We examine the transmission of economic shocks both from the rest of the world into the ASEAN region, as well as the transmission of such shocks from the rest of the row and ASEAN into a typical AMS. The approach we take is three-pronged. First, we will look into the trade and financial linkages of a "typical" AMS. By "typical", we mean representative AMSs, e.g., Singapore for a developed country, Philippines or Indonesia for ASEAN5 economies and Vietnam for the CLMV (Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar, Vietnam) economies. We look at trade and financial linkages between these typical AMSs, the ASEAN as a whole, and the rest of the world. Second, we employ a specialized type of vector autoregression (VAR) model to decompose the shocks into trade shocks, financial shocks, and commodity price shocks. This we do for the typical AMS in relation to ASEAN and the rest of the world. By decomposing the shocks into their constituent components, we hope to glean important insights on, among others, which component shocks are more important for the typical AMS. Third, we estimate a global projection model in order to analyze how key macroeconomic variables (GDP, inflation, unemployment rate, interest rate, and exchange rate) are interrelated across regions (e.g., U.S., EU, Japan, China) and how these shocks are transmitted across these regions, and from these regions into ASEAN and a typical AMS. This way, we hope to trace how a shock originating from the U.S., for example, will impact EU's, Japan's, China's, and eventually ASEAN's, and a typical AMS's GDP, inflation, unemployment, interest rate, and exchange rates. We then conclude with an analysis of the implications of these on how to manage the economic shocks in an integrated region, as well as the implications for macroeconomic policy coordination in the region


Changing the Code Easily and efficiently expanding the genetic code could provide tools to genome engineers with broad applications in medicine, energy, agriculture, and environmental safety. Lajoie et al. (p. 357) replaced all known UAG stop codons with synonymous UAA stop codons in Escherichia coli MG1655, as well as release factor 1 (RF1; terminates translation at UAG), thereby eliminating natural UAG translation function without impairing fitness. This made it possible to reassign UAG as a dedicated codon to genetically encode nonstandard amino acids while avoiding deleterious incorporation at native UAG positions. The engineered E. coli incorporated nonstandard amino acids into its proteins and showed enhanced resistance to bacteriophage T7. In a second paper, Lajoie et al. (p. 361) demonstrated the recoding of 13 codons in 42 highly expressed essential genes in E. coli. Codon usage was malleable, but synonymous codons occasionally were nonequivalent in unpredictable ways. Thirteen codons could be removed from all essential ribosomal protein-coding genes across 80 Escherichia coli strains. Engineering radically altered genetic codes will allow for genomically recoded organisms that have expanded chemical capabilities and are isolated from nature. We have previously reassigned the translation function of the UAG stop codon; however, reassigning sense codons poses a greater challenge because such codons are more prevalent, and their usage regulates gene expression in ways that are difficult to predict. To assess the feasibility of radically altering the genetic code, we selected a panel of 42 highly expressed essential genes for modification. Across 80 Escherichia coli strains, we removed all instances of 13 rare codons from these genes and attempted to shuffle all remaining codons. Our results suggest that the genome-wide removal of 13 codons is feasible; however, several genome design constraints were apparent, underscoring the importance of a strategy that rapidly prototypes and tests many designs in small pieces.


In this important and urgent message to pastors, G. Lloyd Rediger emphasizes the necessity of integrating fitness of body, mind, and spirit in order to attain fulfillment of personhood and calling. Not immune from the debilitating unfitness that is endemic in America, pastors must be fit if they are to facilitate God's purposes in the world. Rediger stresses that clergy need to reinvent a healthy pastoral role based on this holistic approach.


Analysis is presented for 15 months of data taken with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope for 11 non-blazar active galactic nuclei (AGNs), including seven FRI radio galaxies and four FRII radio sources consisting of two FRII radio galaxies and two steep spectrum radio quasars. The broad line FRI radio galaxy 3C 120 is reported here as a γ-ray source for the first time. The analysis is based on directional associations of LAT sources with radio sources in the 3CR, 3CRR, and MS4 (collectively referred to as 3C-MS) catalogs. Seven of the eleven LAT sources associated with 3C-MS radio sources have spectral indices larger than 2.3 and, except for the FRI radio galaxy NGC 1275 that shows possible spectral curvature, are well described by a power law. No evidence for time variability is found for any sources other than NGC 1275. The γ-ray luminosities of FRI radio galaxies are significantly smaller than those of the BL Lac objects detected by the LAT, whereas the γ-ray luminosities of the FRII sources are quite similar to those of FSRQs, which could reflect different beaming factors for the γ-ray emission. A core dominance (CD) study of the 3CRR sample indicates that sources closer to the jet axis are preferentially detected with the Fermi LAT, insofar as the γ-ray-detected misaligned AGNs have larger CD at a given average radio flux. The results are discussed in view of the AGN unification scenario.


Parameter servers (PSs) facilitate the implementation of distributed training for large machine learning tasks. In this paper, we argue that existing PSs are inefficient for tasks that exhibit non-uniform parameter access; their performance may even fall behind that of single node baselines. We identify two major sources of such non-uniform access: skew and sampling. Existing PSs are ill-suited for managing skew because they uniformly apply the same parameter management technique to all parameters. They are inefficient for sampling because the PS is oblivious to the associated randomized accesses and cannot exploit locality. To overcome these performance limitations, we introduce NuPS, a novel PS architecture that (i) integrates multiple management techniques and employs a suitable technique for each parameter and (ii) supports sampling directly via suitable sampling primitives and sampling schemes that allow for a controlled quality-efficiency trade-off. In our experimental study, NuPS outperformed existing PSs by up to one order of magnitude and provided up to linear scalability across multiple machine learning tasks.


In recent years the way we produce new media has changed dramatically. Interactive nonfiction narratives have transformed the processes of producing, distributing and showing documentaries, and especially the processes involved in how the viewer relates to the text. One of these new media forms of narrative expression is "interactive documentary". In this work, first, we explore the evolution of the documentary genre as an expression form, then we analyse the current state of development of the interactive documentary. Second, we analyse five representative projects from different critical perspectives: production, interface, content and modalities of representation. Finally, we outline a set of issues that emerged from the analysis performed that need to be resolved.


This paper investigates communication problems facing teachers when they interact with students and parents from migrant backgrounds, and explores the need for quality language services in educational settings. According to a questionnaire-based survey of 142 elementary schoolteachers, about 20–25 per cent of respondents frequently experienced difficulties in communicating with students and parents who lacked Korean language proficiency. However, the teachers usually managed without outside assistance largely because of the lack of language support services. Effective communication is needed through the delivery of more language services to support children's learning, school education and parents' meaningful participation in both. Most teachers surveyed supported more effective language services in their schools, but were not very vocal in advocating for professional interpreting services. Instead, they tended to emphasise other forms of language and cultural training for multicultural students and their parents. This response may derive from their lack of experience with professional interpreting services, and a lack of awareness of the limited resources available for quality service provision or the influence of assimilation policies. The findings also indicate that teachers do not consider the interpreting and translation skills of language service providers as highly as cross-cultural mediation skills, understanding of the education system or interest in individual students' needs. The results call for further research into what would constitute best practice in educational interpreting to effectively mediate cultural differences between schools and multicultural families, and address the needs and concerns of teachers, students and parents from multicultural backgrounds.


Profit management is a policy which is done to affect the level of company profitability or a form of management intervention in presenting the financial statements that can flatten, raise and lower of the profit/loss statement. Technical implementation is done by taking advantage of opportunities, making accounting estimates, changing the method of accounting, shifting the cost and revenue period, hence the company's profit can be smaller or larger as expected. Factors motivating earning management among others are bonus plan, long-term debt contract or debt covenant, political and taxation motivations, and the placement of company's management.
This paper is a case study of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) that is The National Electricity Company (PLN). PLN shows its undergoing losses due to lower electricity rates compared to the basic cost of supply. That is way the government provides a financial aid or subsidies through the state budget subsidies which the amount is very big, for example in 2014 and 2015, respectively around IDR 103.3trillion and IDR 101.2trillion. Accounting records on the financial aid can be carried out by the following alternatives: (a). as operating income and (b). as additional to government's shares subscription. The second alternative depends on interpretation, the definition used, accounting estimation opportunity and expected financial reporting objectives. Recording as operating income as it is conducted so far in which PLN gained the profit in the amount of IDR 3.2trillion in 2014 and had loss in the amount of IDR 29.52013 trillion in 2015. If the financial aid is recorded as additional to government's shares subscription, the PLN suffered IDR 100.1trillion losses in 2014 and IDR 130.7trillion in 2015.
From earning management point of view, the recording of subsidies as operating income provides a positive perception that PLN has been successfully in managing the company in a better financial performance. On the contrary, if the recording of subsidies is consider as an addition to share subscription, the perception would appear that PLN is in unhealthy of financial performance and management fails to manage the company.
These conditions provide a challenge or impetus of management to seek for more realistic efforts to improve its financial performance, instead of expecting state budget subsidies. In addition, tariff adjustment effort will be easier to disseminate to consumers because the burden of the loss was very high. For comparison, in other countries such as TNB and Petronas in Malaysia, they are not a record in statement of income (loss) about the subsidies on operating revenues.
This paper suggested that the alternatives that are used in recording the financial aid or subsidies of the state budget must be based on policy on using a definition that does not violate the applicable accounting standards. The important one its implications for public perception able to decrease the impact on decision-making relating to the public interest, the interests of the company's internal matters, and responses of the parties that are lack of full understanding of the information related to the financial statements. It needs a formulation from state-owned enterprises policy on earning management which having eligible reliability and relevance. Hence the financial statements can be presented fairly, beneficial and sustain to both internal and external parties of the company.


Raising environmentally conscious citizens is crucial to promote environmentally sustainable actions. Environmentally themed children's literature is one tool to develop lifelong environmental responsibility. Ecocritical analyses of children's literature in the United States primarily examine single works, and the few existing large-scale environmental content analyses suggest conflicting historical trends. This study examines several environmental content variables (characters, plot, and overall message) found in 735 Caldecott and Newbery medal winning children's books in the United States from 1922-2016. It analyzes the total quantities of environmental content found in these books, as well as how the frequencies of the content changed over time. We found that less than 50% of the books contained environmental content and that there were dominant content types prevalent in both samples. Additionally, 15 of the 19 variables showed significantly (α=0.05) lower levels from 1956-2016 compared to 1922-1956 levels. The limited quantities and scope of environmental content found in these children's books might not support broad environmental understanding, especially for children growing up after 1956. These findings suggest that U.S. children's literature may not be optimized to develop environmentally responsible citizens, which is concerning considering the environmental challenges we face today.


Bronchodilators are central in the treatment of of airways disorders. They are the mainstay of the current management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and are critical in the symptomatic management of asthma, although controversies around the use of these drugs remain. Bronchodilators work through their direct relaxation effect on airway smooth muscle cells. at present, three major classes of bronchodilators, β2-adrenoceptor (AR) agonists, muscarinic receptor antagonists, and xanthines are available and can be used individually or in combination. The use of the inhaled route is currently preferred to minimize systemic effects. Fast- and short-acting agents are best used for rescue of symptoms, whereas long-acting agents are best used for maintenance therapy. It has proven difficult to discover novel classes of bronchodilator drugs, although potential new targets are emerging. Consequently, the logical approach has been to improve the existing bronchodilators, although several novel broncholytic classes are under development. An important step in simplifying asthma and COPD management and improving adherence with prescribed therapy is to reduce the dose frequency to the minimum necessary to maintain disease control. Therefore, the incorporation of once-daily dose administration is an important strategy to improve adherence. Several once-daily β2-AR agonists or ultra-long-acting β2-AR-agonists (LABAs), such as indacaterol, olodaterol, and vilanterol, are already in the market or under development for the treatment of COPD and asthma, but current recommendations suggest the use of LABAs only in combination with an inhaled corticosteroid. In addition, some new potentially long-acting antimuscarinic agents, such as glycopyrronium bromide (NVA-237), aclidinium bromide, and umeclidinium bromide (GSK573719), are under development, as well as combinations of several classes of long-acting bronchodilator drugs, in an attempt to simplify treatment regimens as much as possible. This review will describe the pharmacology and therapeutics of old, new, and emerging classes of bronchodilator.


This paper establishes a bridge between linear logic and mainstream graph theory, building on previous work by Retor\'e (2003). We show that the problem of correctness for MLL+Mix proof nets is equivalent to the problem of uniqueness of a perfect matching. By applying matching theory, we obtain new results for MLL+Mix proof nets: a linear-time correctness criterion, a quasi-linear sequentialization algorithm, and a characterization of the sub-polynomial complexity of the correctness problem. We also use graph algorithms to compute the dependency relation of Bagnol et al. (2015) and the kingdom ordering of Bellin (1997), and relate them to the notion of blossom which is central to combinatorial maximum matching algorithms. In this journal version, we have added an explanation of Retor\'e's "RB-graphs" in terms of a general construction on graphs with forbidden transitions. In fact, it is by analyzing RB-graphs that we arrived at this construction, and thus obtained a polynomial-time algorithm for finding trails avoiding forbidden transitions; the latter is among the material covered in another paper by the author focusing on graph theory (arXiv:1901.07028).


In this paper we present a new version of OntoGen system for semi-automatic data-driven ontology construction. The system is based on a novel ontology learning framework which formalizes and extends the role of machine learning and text mining algorithms used in the previous version. List of new features includes extended number of supported ontology formats (RDFS and OWL), supervised methods for concept discovery (based on Active Learning), adding of new instances to ontology and improved user interface (based on comments from the users).


Natural killer (NK) cell development in the bone marrow is not fully understood. Following lineage commitment, these cells appear to advance through a series of developmental stages that are beginning to be characterized. We previously reported a selective deficiency of NK cells in a C57BL/6 mouse with a transgenic construct consisting of the cDNA for the Ly49A major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class 1-specific inhibitory receptor driven by the granzyme A gene. This mouse has few NK cells in peripheral tissues with relative preservation of other immune cells, including T and B cells. Herein we demonstrate that these mice have an accumulation of NK cells with an immature phenotype in the bone marrow, consistent with a block at a previously proposed stage in normal NK-cell development. The phenotype is associated with transgenic insertion into Atf2, the gene for the basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factor family member ATF-2. Although analysis of Atf2-null NK cells shows no defect, the transgenic mice express abnormal truncated Atf2 transcripts that may mediate a repressor effect because ATF2 can heterodimerize with other bZIP molecules. The defect is cell intrinsic, suggesting that certain bZIP molecules play significant roles in NK-cell development.


In March, singer Willie Nelson and his wife, Annie, put on a benefit concert to raise funds for a stem cell program at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. The concert raised $250,000, which was used to create a professorship named for Annie and Willie Nelson. The first Nelson Professor is Eric Olson, chairman of the Department of Molecular Biology. The JCI spoke with Olson about the award, his career, and his musical inclinations.

JCI: How were you selected for this award?

Olson: As a developmental biologist, I have a natural interest in stem cell biology, and my lab has initiated some interesting projects on the control of stem cell fates. Second, I love country music, and I think I'm a bigger fan of the genre than any of my colleagues. Since I love Texas and country music and Willie Nelson is an icon of both, being named the Willie Nelson Professor is about as cool as it gets.

JCI: What will this prize money be used for?

Olson: The intention is to enhance the UT Southwestern stem cell program in general, not just my lab. I expect we will use the funds to purchase equipment, support core facilities, and catalyze new projects not yet ready for NIH support.

JCI: Tell us about the research your lab does.

Olson: My lab uses muscle cells as a model to understand the basic mechanisms of development and differentiation. Understanding how a stem cell becomes a specialized cell is a holy grail for developmental biologists. Recently, we've come up with some interesting ideas about how to discover small molecules that may influence the behavior of stem cells as well as [ideas about] how epigenetic mechanisms may participate in stem cell decisions.

JCI: Where do you stand on the controversies surrounding stem cell research?

Olson: I certainly believe embryonic stem cells have great potential in regenerative medicine. But right now, it's mostly just potential. A lot of groundwork needs to be laid. Regarding the ethical issues, I will say that I have solid religious beliefs and try to attend church regularly with my family. In that context, I do not believe stem cells equal human life, and I do not accept the position that using human stem cells to improve human life is unethical. On the contrary, it seems unethical to arbitrarily deny therapies that could potentially improve the human condition. The fact is that if and when embryonic stem cells are shown to cure diabetes or Parkinson's or spinal cord injury — pick your disorder — then the demand will be so great that no politician will be able to stand in the way. In the meantime, there is a lot of interesting science to do.

JCI: What do you consider your greatest scientific accomplishment?

Olson: The greatest accomplishment has been the discovery of numerous master regulators of muscle development. Over the past 20 years, we have discovered many transcription factors that control the fate, differentiation, and patterning of cardiac, skeletal, and smooth muscle cells. We have delineated evolutionarily conserved pathways that control muscle gene expression during development and disease. The realization that many developmental regulatory mechanisms are also deployed in the adult heart during pathological remodeling kindled my interest in [exploiting] our understanding of muscle development to develop novel drugs to treat cardiovascular diseases. Several years ago, I cofounded Myogen Inc., which [translates] basic science into drugs. This has allowed me to do something practical with the science from my lab.

JCI: Can you describe your typical day?

Olson: I'm up by 6:00 a.m. and usually deal with mail from the day before, e-mails, and administrative paperwork before dropping one or more of my three kids off at school on the way to the lab. The first thing I do when I get to work is make the rounds looking for results someone may have generated the night before. Most of my day is spent talking with students and postdocs and working on papers. As a department chair, I also have administrative responsibilities, but I have a great staff that carries much of that load. I usually leave the lab by 6:00 p.m. to either drive kids in car pool or work out and get home in time for dinner with the family.

JCI: Are you a fan of country music?

Olson: I am indeed a fan of country music and have attended many Willie Nelson concerts. I also love the blues and rock and roll. In my spare time, what little there is, I play guitar and harmonica in a group called the Transactivators with friends from my department. Inspired by the Willie Nelson Professorship, we are working on a new tune called "Mama, don't let your stem cells grow up to be cowboys".

JCI: At the end of your career, what do you hope to have accomplished?

Olson: My long-term goals are to create a blueprint for development of cardiac, skeletal, and smooth muscle cells and to use that knowledge to improve human health. Along the way, I hope to populate the field with outstanding, independent trainees and the next generation of scientific leaders.


ABSTRACT In this study, I draw upon the concept of a statement (l'énoncé), Foucault's fundamental discursive unit, as developed in The Archaeology of Knowledge, extending and applying the concept to a group of children's multimodal discourse operations on the playground, and thereby developing the concept of a multimodal statement. I do this by focusing on Foucault's semiotic grounding of the statement, which he describes as being constituted by a group of signs. My analytical approach involved developing a form of multimodal transcription that enabled the isolation of individual multimodal statements within a focal discursive event. In later stages of analysis, I identified the signifiers (from across multiple modes) that comprised the students' multimodal statements, and found that these multimodal statements were discursive practices that created a network of nodal point signifiers drawn from multiple modes. Through these multimodal discourse processes, the students created subjective positions as part of a local discursive formation, which I refer to as a multimodal discursive microformation: a social semiotic web of subjectification that the children produced.


Naturalistic driving (ND) methods may be particularly useful for research on young driver crash risk. Novices are not safe drivers initially, but tend to improve rapidly, although the pace of learning is highly variable. However, knowledge is lacking about how best to reduce the learning curve and the variability in the development of safe driving judgment. A great deal has been learned from recent naturalistic driving (ND) studies that have included young drivers, providing objective information on the nature of crash risk and the factors that contribute to safety critical events. This research indicates that most learners obtain at least the amount of practice driving recommended and develop important driving skills. Unfortunately, most learners are not exposed during training to more complex driving situations and the instruction provided by supervising parents is mostly reactive and may not fully prepare teens for independent driving. While supervised practice driving is quite safe, crash rates are high during the first six months or so of independent driving then decline rapidly, but remain high for years relative to experienced drivers. Contributing factors to crash risk include exposure, inexperience, elevated gravitational-force event rates, greater willingness to engage in secondary tasks while driving, and social influence from peer passengers. The findings indicate the need and possible objectives for improving practice driving instruction and developing innovative prevention approaches for the first year of independent driving.


This thesis contains three self-contained essays surrounding the theme of the effects of the availability, consumption, and overall misuse of alcohol, as well as the participation in other risky behaviours associated with alcohol consumption. Chapter Two explores the effect of the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) on alcohol consumption amongst young adults in the United Kingdom (UK). Excessive alcohol consumption among young people is a major public health concern. How alcohol availability influences individual decisions, whether it be the decision to start drinking, or the decision to increase the quantity consumed and the subsequent effect this has on individual health outcomes is highly policy relevant. This chapter examines one particular source of variation in availability, the minimum legal drinking age. Using the General Household Survey (1998-2007), we use a regression discontinuity design (RDD) to estimate the impact of the MLDA in the United Kingdom on alcohol consumption among young adults. There is a discrete jump of 7.3 percentage points in alcohol consumption at the minimum age cut-off across various model specifications. However, we find no evidence to suggest that the MLDA has an effect on binge drinking (the consumption of 8+ units in one period). This has important policy implications for the regulation of alcohol in both an on-premise and off-premise setting. Chapter Three seeks to investigate how attractiveness influences alcohol consumption, binge drinking and a variety of other adolescent risky behaviours. We use linear probability modelling and mediation analysis to estimate the influence of "beauty", reported by the interviewer, on behaviours related to under-age drinking, smoking, and teenage sexual activity. Furthermore, we use information on popularity (self-defined friendship groups) to investigate its mediating effect with respect to attractiveness and risky behaviours. We find, that the relationship between popularity and attractiveness explains a large proportion of risky behaviour and attractiveness variation. This is particularly notable for girls. In addition, we demonstrate marked effects of teenage attractiveness on these behaviours. More attractive individuals are more likely to engage in under-age drinking, but markedly less likely to smoke or to be sexually active. In a series of robustness checks we argue that these effects do not reflect potential con-founders such as the risky behaviour(s) of peer groups, personal grooming or the socio-economic background of the adolescent. Furthermore, we find that attractive individuals are more likely to have consumed alcohol, than those of modal attractiveness, and those teenagers deemed less attractive are less likely to have consumed alcohol. We estimate that attractive respondents are 6.6 percentage points more likely to have consumed alcohol, than those who were described as unattractive. Throughout we reject concerns that interviewers either vary in their judgement of attractiveness and/ or they may receive a non-random selection of respondents in terms of attractiveness and propensity to engage in risky behaviour. We use school and interviewer fixed effects, as well as information on how respondents present themselves in the interview process through their appearance (personal grooming) and behaviour (self-esteem and personality) to test and verify our results. Our results provide intriguing evidence on the growing literature surrounding the effect of "attractiveness" on labour market outcomes. While attractiveness is associated with higher wages in later life through channels such as confidence, our evidence suggests that attractiveness is also related to earlier consequential life decisions. Chapter Four examines changes in alcohol consumption across the life-course using a large number of waves of a cross-sectional survey, the Health Survey for England (HSE). The decomposition of trends in alcohol volume and heavy drinking measures into age, period, cohort and demographic effects offers an important perspective on the dynamics of change and has the potential for the prediction of problematic drinking and alcohol attributable disease. This study investigates the changing attitudes to drinking in the UK, focusing primarily on the rates of abstention, which have been increasing amongst young adults, as well as changes in heavy drinking episodes documented by the respondent. In the UK, no study to date has documented patterns among cohorts of the late 1990s and 2000s, who are now in the primary age of risk for heavy episodic drinking and the development of alcohol use disorders. We therefore explore changes in abstention and heavy episodic drinking across the life course. We expand on the existing literature by researching a more recent period of time, in which there has been changing attitudes to drinking amongst young adults. Furthermore, we analyse this relationship further by including additional covariates such as price, which incorporates the Alcohol Duty Escalator (2008-2014) and Gross Domestic Product within the age-cohort analysis. We find evidence to suggest that young adults are more likely to identify as abstainers relative to young adults from previous cohorts. However, we find that amongst those who identify as drinkers drink more than their older counterparts. While increasing in abstention rates in the UK is a welcome result, policy makers need to be wary of the increase in heavy drinking. This thesis provides compelling new evidence surrounding how behaviours and attitudes to alcohol have changed over time. It investigates how young adults respond to alcohol purchasing restrictions through the MLDA, how alcohol consumption, amongst other risk taking behaviours, is affected by attractiveness, and finally how consumption and attitudes to alcohol consumption has changed over time relative to their older counterparts.