While English nationalism has recently become a subject of significant scholarly consideration, relatively little detailed research has been conducted on the emigrant and imperial contexts, or on the importance of Englishness within a global British identity. This article demonstrates how the importance of a global English identity can be illuminated through a close reading of ethnic associational culture. Examining organizations such as the St George's societies and the Sons of England, the article discusses the evolving character of English identity across North America, Africa, Southeast Asia and the Antipodes. Beginning in the eighteenth century, when English institutions echoed other ethnic organizations by providing sociability and charity to fellow nationals, the article goes on to map the growth of English associationalism within the context of mass migration. It then shows how nationalist imperialism – a broad-based English defence of empire against internal and external threats – gave these associations new meaning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The article also explores how competitive ethnicity prompted English immigrants to form such societies and how both Irish Catholic hostility in America and Canada and Boer opposition in South Africa challenged the English to assert a more robust ethnic identity. English associationalism evinced coherence over time and space, and the article shows how the English tapped global reservoirs of strength to form ethnic associations that echoed their Irish and Scottish equivalents by undertaking the same sociable and mutual aspects, and lauded their ethnicity in similar fashion.


This co/autoethnography uses our lens as university faculty to examine how engaging in a year-long self-study with mentors nurtured a complicated third space where we could together begin to reimagine our roles as teacher educators. Two secondary faculty members and a doctoral assistant used co/autoethnography to revisit a collaborative self-study with mentors to better identify both the individual and programmatic complexities that arise when a third space is opened and we are invited to reinvent our perspectives and responsibilities as co-teacher educators. We ask two questions: What happens when faculty facilitate a third-space teacher education program with mentor teachers? How does this third space influence the teacher education practices in an urban teacher residency program? We present a series of tensions about our work together as teacher educators in the third space. They include professional into authentic relationships, authority into collaboration, collaborative agency into individual agency, and apprenticing to master teacher into apprenticing within a collective. Following findings about each tension, we discuss how we as faculty navigated each tension. Finally, we consider the implications of our work for all field-based teacher education programs.


Many phenomena in crystalline metals such as friction, nano-indentation and ductile fracture are plasticity-driven and poorly understood. The physical complexity is further increased by the inherently multiscale nature of contact and fracture [1]. This study is aimed at a realistic numerical treatment of plasticity during nanoscale scratching of crystalline metal. The principal mechanism of plasticity is dislocation nucleation and motion. Nucleation is an atomic nanoscale phenomenon and is often localised at interfaces, crack tips, etc., while dislocation motion is a microscale phenomenon occurring within grains in a polycrystalline microstructure [2]. The molecular dynamics (MD) method is able to accurately predict dislocation nucleation, however the time and length scale limitations [3] of MD do not permit for the description of the motion of entire dislocation networks. The latter are computed much more efficiently [4] with the discrete dislocation dynamics (DD) method where the details of the atomistic core are eliminated from consideration. We present a method to extend to 3D the coupled atomistics and discrete dislocations (CADD) method [5, 6, 7]. To date, CADD has been restricted to plane strain problems with straight disloca- tions. In 3D CADD, the solid is split into two regions (e.g. Figure 1(a)): the MD region, where highly non-linear deformations (i.e. dislocation nucleation) and complex defect interactions are expected that require atomic resolution, and the DD region, where plastic behaviour due to dislocation motion can be computed at much lower cost. To couple these regions, the MD/DD interface (see Figure 1(b)) uses a layer in the MD region where approaching dislocations are detected and a layer in the DD region where fictitious pad atoms serve as boundary conditions for the MD region. An iterative solution permits for the tracking of dislocation lines that span the MD and DD regions, with minimal spurious forces due to the interface coupling. We apply the 3D coupling scheme to the simplest problem - motion of a straight edge dislocation under a uniform applied shear. The results will be used to show capabilities and limitations of the method, and will guide the extension to more complex problems.


Hydropower development of the Mekong Basin is proceeding at an increasingly rapid pace. Hydropower has already affected the natural and social environments of the Mekong, and threatens to cause further devastation for local livelihoods as hydropower projects increase in size and number. This article builds upon scientific knowledge of the environmental effects of Mekong hydropower development to consider what impacts these environmental changes will have on local livelihoods. Attention is focused on how hydropower development will affect crucial renewable resources, and how this will affect the production of food and income for millions of the basin"s inhabitants. This study contends that the food and economic security of the majority of the local population is inextricably intertwined with the integrity of the natural environment. Therefore, continued hydropower development will have a devastating impact on the livelihoods of millions of the basin"s inhabitants. More sustainable alternatives are desperately required.


Recent studies recognized distinct stromatolite provinces in Hamelin Pool, Western Australia, each with morphologically distinct stromatolite structures paired with characteristic shelf physiography. In the present paper, we couple detailed lithofacies mapping with Hamelin Pool bathymetry and consider physiography as a control of sedimentation processes, including stromatolite development. Bathymetric transects, derived from a high-resolution bathymetry map with depths from 0 to 11 meters, allow calculation of slope gradients in the provinces. As in other settings, bathymetry is linked to energy regimes, which in turn appear to be coupled with variations in stromatolite morphologies and associated lithofacies as follows: (1) low-gradient ramps with low-energy settings are associated with sheet mats and elongate-clustered stromatolites that exhibit regular spatial patterns, possibly indicative of self-organization; (2) low gradients coupled with high-energy settings resulting from strong winds result in seif stromatolites with pronounced directional bands; (3) medium to steep gradients coupled with medium to high energy are associated with individual and merged stromatolites, often with thin basal necks; (4) headlands and promontories where the topography deflects currents are associated with elongate-nested stromatolites; and (5) medium- to high-energy slopes typically found at promontory edges and shelf margins are dominated by blocky pavement. Observations linking stromatolite morphology to physiography in a modern microbial system provide insight into the long-lived debate about biology versus environment in controlling stromatolite morphology. When physiography leads to a high-energy regime, environmental controls are the main factor determining stromatolite morphology. In contrast, when physiography promotes a low-energy environment, the response of biological communities becomes the main driver of macroscale stromatolite morphology.


Ghrelin is an appetite-stimulating hormone produced mainly in the stomach and duodenum. Poor ghrelin control is often caused by obesity-related hyperinsulinemia, which fails to suppress ghrelin and results in excess appetite and higher body fat storage that perpetuates even greater fat accumulation. High intensity exercise has been shown to acutely decrease plasma acylated ghrelin concentrations in healthy weight individuals. However, the evidence for how exercise affects ghrelin in obese individuals is currently lacking. PURPOSE: To compare the effects of high intensity interval exercise on acute plasma acylated ghrelin levels in obese and non-obese males. METHODS: Eighteen subjects with a mean age of 29.8 yr. (± 7.6) were assessed for body fat percent (BF%), acylated ghrelin and hunger. Subjects included 9 nonobese men (BF% mean= 13.7 ± 3.6) and 9 obese men (BF% mean = 31.7 ± 4.7) who agreed to participate in this study. Using a crossover design, participants were randomly assigned to an exercise or control condition, with each subject acting as their own control. The exercise trial consisted of participants cycling at high intensity intervals for 20 minutes (not including the 5 minute warmup and cool down) at a rate of 65% to 85% of their heart rate reserve on a cycle ergometer followed by 60 minutes of rest. The control trial consisted of 90 minutes of rest. Blood samples (3-4ml) were collected at baseline, 0.5, 1, and 1.5 hours post-intervention. Acylated ghrelin concentrations were determined from plasma. Hunger was assessed using a 10-point Likert-type scale while blood samples were being drawn. Group means for plasma ghrelin concentrations between groups were analyzed using an independent t-test. The effect of exercise on ghrelin was analyzed using paired t-test. The relationship between perceived hunger and ghrelin was assessed using Pearson correlations. RESULTS: Baseline plasma ghrelin levels were significantly higher in the non-obese group when compared to the obese group (t = 3.43, p = .036). While exercise was effective in reducing plasma acylated ghrelin levels in the non-obese group (t = 2.34, p = .047), no significant changes were found in acylated ghrelin in the obese group between baseline or any time point following the exercise intervention. CONCLUSIONS: The low resting levels of plasma ghrelin concentrations exhibited by the obese subjects, when compared to non-obese subjects, may result in long fasting periods that lead to hypoglycemia and a hyperinsulinemic response at the next eating opportunity. Furthermore, the lack of reduction in ghrelin following exercise may result in an overconsumption of energy. Both the sustained ghrelin with associated excess energy intake and the hyperinsulinemia may result in sustained or increased fat storage in obese individuals. INDEX WORDS: Ghrelin, Obesity, Exercise Effect of Acute High Intensity Interval Exercise and Energy Balance on Plasma Acylated Ghrelin Concentrations


One of the main objectives of the Civil Procedure Rules is the early settlement of cases. Under the new regime, civil litigators must now consider settlement at a very early stage or risk penalisation at costs stage. Therefore, all civil practitioners need to understand the new settlement procedures now. Written by the author of The Law and Practice of Compromise, this title has been designed with busy practitioners in mind. It provides a clear explanation of part 36 of the Rules and offers guidance and advice consistent with the philosophy underlying the reforms. Relevant practice directions, forms and precedents are also included to help practitioners when drafting offers to settle for different circumstances. * A core text which will bring practitioners up to date with the practical implications of the new settlement procedure * Contains relevant practice directions, forms and precedents * Written in line with the spirit of the new Rules


ABSTRACT Background: Systematic evaluations of knowledge translation interventions in nursing homes to improve practice are scarce. There is also a lack of studies focusing on creating sustainable evidence-based practice in the setting of residential dementia care. Methods: The aim of this paper is to describe a model for implementing national evidence-based guidelines for care of persons with dementia in nursing homes. The secondary aim is to outline the nursing home staff experiences during the first year of the implementation process. The intervention had a participatory action research approach. This included educational activities such as: (i) thematic seminars introducing national guidelines for dementia care, (ii) regular unit-based seminars; and (iii) later dissemination of information in reflective seminars and several days of poster-exhibitions. Areas of practice development were selected on each of the 24 units, based on unit-specific needs, and a quality improvement strategy was applied and evaluated. Each unit met ten times during a period of eight months. Data for this study were extracted from the reflective seminars and poster presentations, analyzed using a qualitative content analysis. Results: Findings showed that implementation of guidelines were perceived by staff as beneficial for both staff and the residents. However, barriers to identification of relevant sources of evidence and barriers to sustainable implementation were experienced. Conclusions: One of our assumptions was that dementia nursing homes can benefit from becoming knowledge driven, with care practices founded in evidence-based sources. Our findings show that to be partly true, even though most staff units found their efforts to pursue and utilize knowledge adversely impacted by time-logistics and practical workload challenges.


Two-phase flow dynamics of a marine propulsion reactor-of the steam generator in particular-subjected to heaving acceleration were studied on a small-scale rig simulating the primary and secondary circuits of those of N. S. Mutsu. To impart the heaving acceleration, the rig was mounted on a suspended platform oscillated in vertical direction by hydraulic device. Heaving acceleration applied to this rig proved the responding variations of circulating flow, of evaporator steam void fraction and of downcomer water level to be proportional in amplitude to that of the acceleration. The circulating flow was found to pulsate with phase lag behind the heaving acceleration indicative of a second order lag function. Constriction of flow channel downstream of the evaporator-producing resistance against flow amounting to 1.15 times that of the entire loop-proved to amplify significantly the responding pulsations of circulating flow. The pulsations were conversely appreciably diminished by the insertion of a second channel constriction upstream of evaporator-producing 2.7 times loop resistance. When devoid of heaving acceleration, with insertion of flow constriction downstream of evaporator, circulating flow was indicated to be controlled by density wave oscillation, whereas upon application of heaving acceleration, the flow came to be controlled by the external acceleration.


We define the complexity of the problems that the Assumption-Based TMS (ATMS) solves. Defining the conjunction of the set of input clauses as a Boolean expression, it is shown that an ATMS solves two distinct problems: (l) generating a set of minimal supports (or label) for each database literal; and (2) computing a minimal expression (or set of maximal contexts) from the set of minimal supports. The complexity of determining the set of minimal supports for a set $x$ of literals with respect to a set $X$ of clauses is exponential in the number of assumptions for almost all Boolean expressions, even though a satisfying assignment for the literals occurring in $X$ can be found in linear time. Generating a minimal expression is an NP-hard problem. The ATMS algorithms can be used with many control mechanisms to improve their performance for both problems; however, we argue that manipulating the label set (which is exponential in the number of assumptions) requires considerable computational overhead (in terms of space and time), and that it will be infeasible to solve moderately large problems without problem restructuring.


Purpose of the article: The purpose of the article is to present some partial results from the specific research, which was focused on the area of business performance in the Czech Republic. These results are supported by theoretical foundation from economic and social performance of enterprises. The paper starts with these two terms "economic" and "social performance", then paper presents main typical indicators, which are used in mentioned areas.
Methodology/methods: First of all we used the documentary analysis based on secondary data. The main sources for this analysis were foreign journals and books. The research data were used from Czech Statistical Office, and from the research on which we were participated during the doctoral studies. On the basis of these data we will analyze the development of key economic and social indicators, which are monitored on a selected sample of companies.
Scientific aim: The main aim of this paper is to perform a thorough literature search, applied to the Czech area and finding, which indicators from these two areas are the most monitored. The aim is to find whether exist relationship between economic and social performance.
Findings: Performance plays an important role in management of enterprises. We can also say, that performance includes a lot of areas, but actually we are interested in the social and economic. In many cases, the performance is very crucial competitive advantage in the market. Due the performance monitoring the enterprises can find the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) – the set of measures focusing on critical areas of organizational performance.
Conclusions: Based on the paper will be notified of the need to monitor both economic and social indicators that could affect not only performance of the enterprise itself, but also on their activities within the competitiveness.


We have recently demonstrated that a single dose (200 J/m2) of UVB radiation abrogates the capacity of mouse epidermal Langerhans cells (LC) or splenic adherent cells (SAC) to present keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) to Ag-specific, MHC-restricted CD4+ Th1 cells. In the present study we determined whether such Th1 unresponsiveness represented long-lasting immunologic tolerance. To address this question, Th1 were preincubated with KLH-pulsed UVB-LC or UVB-SAC, then isolated and restimulated with unirradiated APC (LC or SAC) plus KLH or with exogenous rIL-2 in the absence of APC. Preincubation with KLH and UVB-LC or UVB-SAC rendered Th1 unresponsive to subsequent restimulation with APC and KLH. In addition, such Th1 were defective in their autocrine IL-2 production, but could respond normally to exogenous rIL-2, indicating that unresponsiveness was due to functional inactivation and not to cell death. Th1 unresponsiveness was Ag-specific, MHC-restricted, and long lasting (greater than 16 days). In addition, it appears that Th1 unresponsiveness is not due to the release of soluble suppressor factors from UVB-LC or UVB-SAC because supernatants from such cells had no effect on Th1 proliferation. Addition of unirradiated allogeneic SAC during preincubation prevented the induction of unresponsiveness by UVB-LC or UVB-SAC, suggesting that UVB interferes with the capacity of LC or SAC to deliver a costimulatory signal(s) that can be provided by allogeneic SAC. We conclude that UVB can convert LC or SAC from immunogenic to tolerogenic APC.


Among transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD)-based composites, TMD/graphene-related material and bichalcogen TMD composites have been widely studied for application toward energy production via the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, scarcely any literature explored the possibility of bimetallic TMD hybrids as HER electrocatalysts. The use of harmful chemicals and harsh preparation conditions in conventional syntheses also detracts from the objective of sustainable energy production. Herein, we present the conservational alternative synthesis of MoWSx via one-step bipolar electrochemical deposition. Through bipolar electrochemistry, the simultaneous fabrication of composition-graded MoWSx hybrids, i.e., sulfur-deficient MoxW(1-x)S2 and MoxW(1-x)S3 (MoWSx/BPEcathodic and MoWSx/BPEanodic, respectively) under cathodic and anodic overpotentials, was achieved. The best-performing MoWSx/BPEcathodic and MoWSx/BPEanodic materials exhibited Tafel slopes of 45.7 and 50.5 mV dec-1, together with corresponding HER overpotentials of 315 and 278 mV at -10 mA cm-2. The remarkable HER activities of the composite materials were attributed to their small particle sizes, as well as the near-unity value of their surface Mo/W ratios, which resulted in increased exposed HER-active sites and differing active sites for the concurrent adsorption of protons and desorption of hydrogen gas. The excellent electrocatalytic performances achieved via the novel methodology adopted here encourage the empowerment of electrochemical deposition as the foremost fabrication approach toward functional electrocatalysts for sustainable energy generation.


The chirality of a compound affects its biochemical and pharmaceutical properties. It was found that the binding affinity between vitamin D receptor (VDR) and its ligand depends significantly on the chirality of the ligand. To elucidate the reason for this dependence, we here investigated the specific interactions between VDR and two types of ligands with different chirality, using ab initio fragment molecular orbital (FMO) calculations. The FMO results reveal that the part of ligand with different chirality interacts strongly with the imidazole ring of histidine side-chain in VDR, and that the binding affinity between VDR and the ligands depends on the protonation state of the histidine. This finding indicates the possibility that ligands with different chirality can assign the protonation state of VDR histidine residues existing near the ligand.


Andrew D. Barton,* Andrew J. Pershing, Elena Litchman, Nicholas R. Record, Kyle F. Edwards, Zoe V. Finkel, Thomas Kiørboe, and Ben A. Ward Abstract Changes in marine plankton communities driven by environmental variability impact the marine food web and global biogeochemical cycles of carbon and other elements. To predict and assess these community shifts and their consequences, ecologists are increasingly investigating how the functional traits of plankton determine their relative fitness along environmental and biological gradients. Laboratory, field and modelling studies are adopting this trait-based approach to map the biogeography of plankton traits that underlies variations in plankton communities. Here, we review progress towards understanding the regulatory roles of several key plankton functional traits, including cell size, N2-fixation and mixotrophy among phytoplankton, and body size, ontogeny and feeding behaviour for zooplankton. The trait biogeographical approach sheds light on what structures plankton communities in the current ocean, as well as under climate change scenarios, and also allows for finer resolution of community function because community trait composition determines the rates of significant processes, including carbon export. Although understanding of trait biogeography is growing, uncertainties remain that stem, in part, from the paucity of observations describing plankton functional traits. Thus, in addition to recommending widespread adoption of the trait-based approach, we advocate for enhanced collection, standardisation and dissemination of plankton functional trait data.


In asthma, supine posture and sleep increase intrathoracic airway narrowing. When humans are supine, because of gravity fluid moves out of the legs and accumulates in the thorax. We hypothesized that fluid shifting out of the legs into the thorax contributes to the intrathoracic airway narrowing in asthma. Healthy and asthmatic subjects sat for 30 min and then lay supine for 30 min. To simulate overnight fluid shift, supine subjects were randomized to receive increased fluid shift out of the legs with lower body positive pressure (LBPP, 10-30 min) or none (control) and crossed over. With forced oscillation at 5 Hz, respiratory resistance (R5) and reactance (X5, reflecting respiratory stiffness) and with bioelectrical impedance, leg and thoracic fluid volumes (LFV, TFV) were measured while subjects were seated and supine (0 min, 30 min). In 17 healthy subjects (age: 51.8 ± 10.9 yr, FEV1/FVC z score: -0.4 ± 1.1), changes in R5 and X5 were similar in both study arms (P > 0.05). In 15 asthmatic subjects (58.5 ± 9.8 yr, -2.1 ± 1.3), R5 and X5 increased in both arms (ΔR5: 0.6 ± 0.9 vs. 1.4 ± 0.8 cmH2O·l-1·s-1, ΔX5: 0.3 ± 0.7 vs. 1.1 ± 0.9 cmH2O·l-1·s-1). The increases in R5 and X5 were 2.3 and 3.7 times larger with LBPP than control, however (P = 0.008, P = 0.006). The main predictor of increases in R5 with LBPP was increases in TFV (r = 0.73, P = 0.002). In asthmatic subjects, the magnitude of increases in X5 with LBPP was comparable to that with posture change from sitting to supine (1.1 ± 0.9 vs. 1.4 ± 0.9 cmH2O·l-1·s-1, P = 0.32). We conclude that in asthmatic subjects fluid shifting from the legs to the thorax while supine contributed to increases in the respiratory resistance and stiffness.NEW & NOTEWORTHY In supine asthmatic subjects, application of positive pressure to the lower body caused appreciable increases in respiratory system resistance and stiffness. Moreover, these changes in respiratory mechanics correlated positively with increase in thoracic fluid volume. These findings suggest that fluid shifts from the lower body to the thorax may contribute to overnight intrathoracic airway narrowing and worsening of asthma symptoms.


Crowdsourcing—a form of collaboration across organizational boundaries—provides access to knowledge beyond an organization's local knowledge base. There are four basic steps to crowdsourcing: (a) define a problem, (b) broadcast the problem to an audience of potential solvers, (c) take actions to attract solutions, and (d) select from the set of submitted ideas. To successfully innovate via crowdsourcing, organizations must complete all these steps. Each step requires an organization to make various decisions. For example, organizations need to decide whether its selection is made internally. Organizations must take into account interdependencies among these four steps. For example, the choice between qualitative and quantitative selection mechanisms affects how widely organizations should broadcast a problem and how many solutions they should attract. Organizations must make many decisions, and they must take into account the many interdependencies in each key step.


In June 1993, a small working group of the Hague Conference on Private International Law concluded that it would be desirable to negotiate a convention on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in civil and commercial matters. The suggestion was quickly taken up by the Hague Conference and the scope of the future treaty was extended to the question of personal jurisdiction in international civil and commercial matters. With this extended scope, a considerable number of countries, including the United States, showed great interest in the negotiations of the proposed Convention. At the beginning of the new millennium, however, negotiations began to stall. As of today, the scope of the proposed treaty has been radically scaled back to the enforcement of forum selection clauses and the recognition and enforcement of judgments based on such clauses. There are a number of reasons for the - at best temporary - setback of the larger jurisdiction and judgments project. One of the larger issues has been a clash between the legal cultures of the United States and that of continental Europe. In this book I argue that negotiators from the United States on the one hand and from continental Europe on the other arrived at The Hague with very different jurisprudential assumptions. I attempt to trace these assumptions both regarding the treatment of transnational litigation in general and with respect to personal jurisdiction in particular. I argue that, because of these differences in outlook, negotiating a treaty in this area requires time and significant cross-systemic education before lunging into narrow issues of personal jurisdiction and recognition of judgments can prove beneficial. I also add a case study to demonstrate that, absent such cross-systemic education, both the lack of a treaty and the presence of a treaty that is not based on such education can lead to unexpected and unsatisfactory results for all states involved. Thus, on a more general level, this book intends to contribute to our understanding of the process of making and applying law for transnational litigation involving the United States on the one hand and continental Europe on the other.


User demand for seamless connectivity has encouraged the development of alternatives to traditional communications infrastructure networks. Potential solutions have to be low-cost, easily deployable and adaptive to the environment. One approach that has gained tremendous attention over the past few years is the deployment of a backbone of access points wirelessly interconnected, allowing users to access the wired infrastructure via wireless multi-hop communication. Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN) fall into this category and constitute a technology that could revolutionize the way wireless network access is provided. However, limited transfer capacity and interference resulting from the shared nature of the transmission medium will prevent widespread deployment if the network performance does not meet users' expectations. It is therefore imperative to provide efficient mechanisms for such networks. Resource management encompasses a number of different issues, including routing. Although a profusion of routing mechanisms have been proposed for other wireless technologies, the unique characteristics of WMNs (i.e. fixed wireless backbone, with the possibility to embed multiple interfaces) prevent their straight forward adoption in WMNs. Moreover, the severe performance degradations that can result from the interference generated by concurrent data transmissions and environmental noise call for the development of interference-aware routing mechanisms. In this thesis, we investigated the impact of interference on the network performance of wireless mesh networks. We designed algorithms to associate routers to gateways that minimize the interference level in single-channel and multi-channel networks. We then studied the performance of existing routing metrics and their suitability for mesh networks. As a result of this analysis, we designed a novel routing metric and showed its benefits over existing ones. Finally, we provided an analytical evaluation of the probability of finding two non interfering paths given a network topology.


Introduction: Radiation-induced dermatitis (RID) is a common adverse effect of radiation therapy, in spite of skin-sparing effect of megavoltage. Approximately 90% of the patients who received radiation therapy may develop skin reaction of any grade during therapy, leading to therapy delays, diminution of patients' health state, and quality of life. It has been noticed by many authors that there are several topical agents available which may be used for the prevention of RID. In this study, we used topical Aloe vera gel for the treatment of high-grade radiation dermatitis. Materials and Methods: This prospective study was conducted on 85 patients of head and neck, breast, and cervical cancer during 2015–2016. All the patients have received external beam radiotherapy by cobalt-60, at least 46 Gy (dose completed with high-dose rate brachytherapy in cancer cervix). According to the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group skin reaction grading, patients with Grade III and Grade IV skin reaction were advised to use A. vera gel on irradiated area thrice daily with routine skin and nursing care. Results: In this study, head and neck cancer patients were 42%, breast 23%, and cervical 35%. Sixty-seven percent were female and 33% were male patients. The median age of the patients was 43.3 years (range, 25–70 years). The prescribed radiation doses were 46–70 Gy, 2 Gy per fraction, for treatment duration of 32–52 days, using a field size of 80–380 cm2 according to the treatment site. Of 85 patients, 65 were treated with concurrent weekly chemotherapy. Grade III (65.8%) and Grade IV (34.1%) dermatitis occurred in the 5th week of radiotherapy, which causes treatment delay, ranging 2–10 days, according to the severity and patient-related factors. It has been noticed that after application of A. vera gel, dermatitis completely recovered within 3–7 days. The recovery time was prolonged in operated versus nonoperated patients of head and neck cancer. Conclusion: Rapid cell division in the skin leads to RID. 35%–40% of dose is received by the skin despite skin-sparing effect of megavoltage, and it increases in parallel opposing field. Till date, no treatment is available which can prevent RID. In our observational study, it was noticed that A. vera gel was effective in fast recovery of high-grade RID without any adverse reaction. This single-institution study is not large enough to justify its standardized use; further studies are required to establish A. vera gel as a treatment measure for RID.


Senn (2002) defines a cross-over design as one in which each subject receives all treatments and the objective is to study differences among the treatments. The name cross-over comes from the most common case in which there are only two treatments. In this case, each subject crosses over from one treatment to the other. It is assumed that there is a washout period between treatments during which the response returns back to its baseline value. If this does not occur, there is said to be a carry-over effect.


At the end of December 2010, Taiwan had eight Real Estate Investment Trusts funds listed on the regular and or over-the-counter (OTC) stock markets, and these serve as the main research targets for studying the correlation between rate of return and all economic indexes. This investigation uses Stata SE11 for correlation coefficient analysis, and found that "Construction Index", "Price Index", "Rental Index", "Interest rate of ten-year Central Government Bond" and "Construction Stock Index" were positively correlated with the rate of return of the eight real estate investment funds.


This article explores residential aged care facilities (RACFs) as places of dying and death, and the role these spaces and places have in the construction of self identity for dying residents.  It argues that RACFs, rather than being static places where events such as dying and death occur, are places that shape these experiences. They are social institutions where the construction of self identity for dying residents arises out of the individual experience within the setting, most specifically the experience of social interaction. Drawing on ethnographic work in two Australian facilities the article explores how macro level influences such as economic, social and political discourses intersect with micro level experiences of dying for those approaching death as well as family members and health professionals who support the dying.


The primary goal of this study was to investigate the interaction effects of 22°C local muscle temperature on the recovery of specific evoked and voluntary contractile properties in intact human plantar flexors at 1-. 5-. and 10-minutes after high intensity, isometric exercise. The secondary goal of this study was to validate previous studies and add to the body of knowledge about the main effects of recovery from fatigue with homeostatic temperature and the main effects of local hypothermia on unfatigued muscle on evoked and voluntary contractile properties in intact human plantar flexors. Twelve subjects were tested for muscle voluntary and evoked contractile properties prior to fatigue (i.e. pre-fatigue), fatigued using intermittent, high-intensity, isometric contraction, and then retested at 1-. 5-. and 10-minutes post-fatigue conditions under localized hypothermic and normothermic conditions. Voluntary properties of the plantar flexor muscles were monitored by measuring the force of a maximal voluntary isometric contraction, as well as muscle activation derived from the interpolated twitch technique (ITT) and integrated electromyographic (iEMG) activity. Evoked contractile properties included the force and temporal characteristics of a maximal twitch and titanic contraction of the plantar flexor muscles. Data were analyzed with a 2-way repeated measures ANOVA for main effects of a) hypothermic and normothermic conditions, b) prefatigue and at post-fatigue intervals, and c) interactions between hypothermic and normothermic pre- and post-fatigue intervals. During recovery from high intensity-intermittent fatigue there was a general augmentation of evoked properties of the plantar flexors with a deceleration and decrease of the force of voluntary properties. Hypothermia had little effect on all but the temporal characteristics of the plantar flexor muscles, which were slowed by cold. The effect of cold on the rate of recovery of the plantar flexor muscles was generally not significant. Thus it may be concluded that local muscle hypothermia does not impair recovery of voluntary and evoked contractile properties of the plantar flexors from high intensity exercise.


The greatest concern facing renewable energy sources like wind is the uncertainty in production volumes as their generation ability is inherently dependent on weather conditions. When providing forecasts for newly commissioned wind farms there is a limited amount of historical power production data, while the number of potential features from different weather forecast providers is vast. Bayesian regularization is therefore seen as a possible technique for reducing model overfitting problems that may arise. This work investigates Bayesian Neural Networks for one-hour ahead forecasting of wind power generation. Initial results show that Bayesian Neural Networks display equivalent predictive performance to Neural Networks trained by Maximum Likelihood. Further results show that Bayesian Neural Networks become superior after removing irrelevant features using Automatic Relevance Determination(ARD).


Based on the highly praised second edition of The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, this is the only concise guide to ancient Greek and Roman literature available in paperback. Complete with translations of all Greek and Latin words, it is ideal for anyone interested in the classical world and its literary heritage. In addition to accounts of the lives and works of key authors, entries on important characters, plot summaries, and details of the development of such literary forms as comedy and tragedy, the Companion also offers comprehensive historical, political, social, and artistic background information.


Dieback, largely attributed to the fungal plant pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi, is characterized in the northern jarrah forest by multiple deaths of many plant species, including the dominant, Eucalyptus marginata (jarrah), a species of great commercial importance. The wide host range of the pathogen has major implications for the biodiversity of the ecosystem. The first records of dieback in the jarrah forest were made in the 1920s.

Despite the magnitude and long history of the impact in the jarrah forest, little is known about the vegetation changes that result from dieback. In this dissertation, I develop a model of vegetation change related to dieback by examining the vegetation of a range of dieback sites and relating the patterns identified to the current distribution of P. cinnamomi. The study is the first explicit investigation of floristic and structural patterns on dieback sites in the jarrah forest.

Substantial floristic differences were found between dieback and unaffected vegetation. The patterns are strongly correlated with the age of the original dieback event. There was little difference, however, in the mean number of species I quadrat between dieback and unaffected vegetation. The time since the inception of dieback was estimated using aerial photography. The oldest dieback sites located had been affected prior to 1951. Of the species found less frequently on these old dieback sites, 64% had not previously been associated with P. cinnamomi infection. Some of these were assessed for their susceptibility in glasshouse pathogenicity tests. New records of susceptibility were made at the species, genus and family levels. Several species regarded as being highly susceptible to infection by P. cinnamomi were found as frequently on old dieback sites as in unaffected vegetation. Many of the species found more frequently on dieback sites were probably present at the time of the initial dieback event. Others, mostly annuals, may have been introduced from nearby vegetation types with open canopies, such as granite outcrops. If plant invasions have occurred following dieback, the small differences in species richness between dieback and unaffected vegetation may hide a great reduction in species richness due to dieback.

Structural changes following dieback may have a profound effect on some species regardless of their susceptibility to infection. A spatial association with trees on dieback sites was demonstrated for a range of species. The apparent reliance of some understorey species on tree cover is discussed in relation to current theories of patch dynamics.

Two methods were used to isolate P. cinnamomi from dieback sites. In situ Banksia grandis baits were more effective at detecting P. cinnamomi than ex situ baited soils, especially when P. cinnamomi was apparently rare.

P. cinnamomi was frequently isolated from creek edges with a long history of dieback and from active dieback fronts but was rarely found on sloping dieback sites affected prior to 1980. It is not clear if the P. cinnamomi present on pre-1951 dieback sites has persisted there since the initial dieback event or been re-introduced from active dieback fronts upslope.

Very few highly susceptible species appear to be totally eliminated by the pathogen at the time of the initial dieback event. The mass deaths at that time are followed by a period of recolonization of susceptible species with highly germinable seed. The survival of the new cohort of these species is a function of the time taken to produce another crop of seed.

Susceptible species may persist on the pre-1951 dieback sites because of highly germinable seed, young reproductive age, copious seed production and animal dispersal. The rarity of P. cinnamomi on these sites must greatly contribute to their persistence.

Pathogenicity testing in excised stems indicated that resistance to the movement of P. cinnamomi in plant tissue develops in jarrah populations on many dieback sites, although it is unlikely to be integral to regeneration. Evidence of resistance in other spec1es investigated could not be found.

The key elements in the model of vegetation change developed in the thesis are (i) the on-going occurrence of P. cinnamomi on dieback sites, (ii) the susceptibility of plant species to infection by P. cinflamomi, (iii) the sensitivity of plant species to structural changes, (iv) the proportion of a plant population killed, (v) the capacity of plant species for rapid recruitment after dieback, (vi) the time taken for plant species from germination to reproduction, and (vii) the capacity of plant species to invade. Stochastic factors such as fire, logging, climatic perturbations, and diseases caused by other pathogens, cannot be quantified and easily incorporated into the model.

Predictions are made about the future vegetation of dieback sites, contingent on intervention by forest managers. An epidemic - recovery cycle, involving concomitant fluctuations in pathogen and host populations, has been hypothesized by some authors for sites affected by P. cinnamomi. There is evidence of such a cycle on a small scale. On a larger scale, epidemics on dieback sites in the jarrah forest may be isolated in space and time.

The importance of long-term ecological studies of jarrah forest vegetation to our understanding of natural forest processes and the effects of dieback is stressed.


Crimes of War--Iraq provides a comprehensive legal, historical, and psychological exploration of the war in Iraq from the same editorial team whose 1971 Crimes of War was a landmark book about Vietnam and the revelation of American war crimes. The editors apply standards of international criminal law, as set forth at Nuremberg after World War II, and by subsequent developments regarding individual responsibility and accountability. These principles have to do with the waging of aggressive war, attacks on civilian centers of population, rights of resistance against an illegal occupation, and the abuse of prisoners. Explorations of psychology and human behavior include levels of motivation and response in connection with torture at Abu Ghraib; the phenomenon of the atrocity-producing situation in both Vietnam and Iraq (in which counter-insurgency, military policies, and angry grief could cause ordinary people to participate in atrocities); the behavior of doctors and medics in colluding in torture at Abu Ghraib; emerging testimony of American veterans of Iraq concerning the confusions of the mission, and the widespread killing of civilians; and accounts of broadening unease and psychological disturbance among men and women engaged in combat.


In Escherichia coli, damage to the chromosomal DNA induces the SOS response, setting in motion a series of different DNA repair and damage tolerance pathways. DNA polymerase IV (pol IV) is one of three specialised DNA polymerases called into action during the SOS response to help cells tolerate certain types of DNA damage. The canonical view in the field is that pol IV primarily acts at replisomes that have stalled on the damaged DNA template. However, the results of several studies indicate that pol IV also acts on other substrates, including single-stranded DNA gaps left behind replisomes that re-initiate replication downstream of a lesion, stalled transcription complexes and recombination intermediates. In this study, we use single-molecule time-lapse microscopy to directly visualize fluorescently labelled pol IV in live cells. We treat cells with the DNA-damaging antibiotic ciprofloxacin, Methylmethane sulfonate (MMS) or ultraviolet light and measure changes in pol IV concentrations and cellular locations through time. We observe that only 5–10% of foci induced by DNA damage form close to replisomes, suggesting that pol IV predominantly carries out non-replisomal functions. The minority of foci that do form close to replisomes exhibit a broad distribution of colocalisation distances, consistent with a significant proportion of pol IV molecules carrying out postreplicative TLS in gaps behind the replisome. Interestingly, the proportion of pol IV foci that form close to replisomes drops dramatically in the period 90–180 min after treatment, despite pol IV concentrations remaining relatively constant. In an SOS-constitutive mutant that expresses high levels of pol IV, few foci are observed in the absence of damage, indicating that within cells access of pol IV to DNA is dependent on the presence of damage, as opposed to concentration-driven competition for binding sites.


This research is part of the Socioeconomic Research & Monitoring Program for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS), which was initiated in 1998. In 1995-96, a baseline study on the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of proposed FKNMS management strategies and regulations of commercial fishers, dive operators and on selected environmental group members was conducted by researchers at the University of Florida and the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Atmospheric and Marine Science (RSMAS). The baseline study was funded by the U.S. Man and the Biosphere Program, and components of the study were published by Florida Sea Grant and in several peer reviewed journals. The study was accepted into the Socioeconomic Research & Monitoring Program at a workshop to design the program in 1998, and workshop participants recommended that the study be replicated every ten years. The 10-year replication was conducted in 2004-05 (commercial fishers) 2006 (dive operators) and 2007 (environmental group members) by the same researchers at RSMAS, while the University of Florida researchers were replaced by Thomas J. Murray & Associates, Inc., which conducted the commercial fishing panels in the FKNMS. The 10-year replication study was funded by NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program.

The study not only makes 10-year comparisons in the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of FKNMS management strategies and regulations, but it also establishes
new baselines for future monitoring efforts. Things change, and following the principles of "adaptive management", management has responded with changes in the management
plan strategies and regulations. Some of the management strategies and regulations that were being proposed at the time of the baseline 1995-96 study were changed before the
management plan and regulations went into effect in July 1997. This was especially true for the main focus of the study which was the various types of marine zones in the draft and final zoning action plan. Some of the zones proposed were changed significantly and subsequently new zones have been created.

This study includes 10-year comparisons of socioeconomic/demographic profiles of each user group; sources and usefulness of information; knowledge of purposes of FKNMS zones; perceived beneficiaries of the FKNMS zones; views on FKNMS processes to develop management strategies and regulations; views on FKNMS zone outcomes; views on FKNMS performance; and general support for FKNMS. In addition to new baseline information on FKNMS zones, new baseline information was developed for spatial use,
investment and costs-and-earnings for commercial fishers and dive operators, and views on resource conditions for all three user groups. Statistical tests were done to detect
significant changes in both the distribution of responses to questions and changes in mean scores for items replicated over the 10-year period. (PDF has 143 pages.)


Objective: To assess the feasibility of conducting a randomized controlled trial of occupational therapy predischarge home visits for people after stroke. Design: Randomized controlled trial and cohort study. We randomized eligible patients for whom there was clinical uncertainty about the need to conduct a home visit to a randomized controlled trial; patients for whom a visit was judged 'essential' were enrolled into a cohort study. Setting: Stroke rehabilitation unit of teaching hospital. Participants: One hundred and twenty-six participants hospitalized following recent stroke. Interventions: Predischarge home visit or structured, hospital-based interview. Main outcome measures: The primary objective was to collect information on the feasibility of a randomized controlled trial, including eligibility, control intervention and outcome assessments. The primary outcome measure was the Nottingham Extended Activities of Daily Living Scale at one month after discharge from hospital. Secondary outcomes included mood, quality of life and costs at one week and one month following discharge. Results: Ninety-three people were allocated to the randomized controlled trial; 47 were randomized to intervention and 46 to control. Thirty-three were enrolled into the cohort study. More people were allocated to the randomized controlled trial as the study progressed. One hundred and thirteen people (90%) received the proposed intervention, although there was a need for stricter protocol adherence. Follow-up was good: at one month 114 (90%) were assessed. There were no significant differences between the groups in the randomized controlled trial for the primary outcome measure at one month. The average cost of a home visit was £208. Conclusion: A trial is feasible and warranted given the resource implications of predischarge occupational therapy home visits.


A sol-gel route synthesized nanocrystalline hafnium carbide (HfC) and zirconium carbide (ZrC) for use in composite materials. The starting materials were zirconium and hafnium alkoxides and carbon was introduced by furfuryl alcohol. A block co-polymer surfactant homogenized the oxide and carbon components. Reduction to HfC and ZrC began at a low temperature of 1250°C and removal of the oxide phase was achieved at 1450°C. The carbide powder was nanocrystalline size less than 100nm. Production of HfC included a synthesis step that limited investigation of the sol-gel process. However, purchased alkoxides for zirconium allowed for detailed understanding of phase changes using X-ray Diffraction of the oxide and Raman Spectroscopy of carbon evolution. Morphology changes were observed using nitrogen gas sorption. Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy was used to image the carbide lattice, surface oxides and graphene-like carbons in the microstructure. While HfC synthesis demonstrated that shrinking core models apply, the ZrC results indicated that this type of nanoparticle carbothermal synthesis involved agglomeration and necking as a viable mode of mass transport in completing the carbothermal reduction. Understanding of this process allowed for the modest development of composites by sol-gel coating of powders. The sol-gel coating of ZrB2 was successfully applied to coat ZrC nanoparticles on the powder. Detailed refinement of carbon content in the sol-gel coating was necessary reduce the surface oxide intrinsic to the ZrB2 surface, while providing carbon for the sol-gel oxides. The sol-gel coating created a homogenous mix of ~200nm ZrC on the ZrB2 surface after heat-treatment at 1450°C. Densification of the ZrB2-5%ZrC powder was achieved by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1800°C, resulting in submicron sized ZrC particles at grain boundaries and triple points. The amount of carbon added to the sol-gel precursor dictated the porosity and thus some properties of the composites. Flexural strength of ~400MPa was obtained from the composites but no significant improvement of fracture toughness was observed. However, an improvement in hardness of about 20% was observed over monolithic ZrB2. The oxidation performance of the composites was improved by the addition of a sacrificial carbide phase. Sharp leading edge samples were oxidized at 3000°C and were compared to a traditional powder mixed composite. The finer and more homogenous distribution of ZrC caused gradual oxidation while maintaining leading edge stability. However, the powder mixed composite failed under the test. This illustrated the importance not only phase selection but also microstructural control. This indicated advantages in sol-gel processing of ceramic composites with improved densification, controlled grain size and improved properties.


Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have achieved state-of-the-art performance in many graph data analysis tasks. However, they still suffer from two limitations for graph representation learning. First, they exploit non-smoothing node features which may result in suboptimal embedding and degenerated performance for graph classification. Second, they only exploit neighbor information but ignore global topological knowledge. Aiming to overcome these limitations simultaneously, in this paper, we propose a novel, flexible, and end-to-end framework, Graph Smoothing Splines Neural Networks (GSSNN), for graph classification. By exploiting the smoothing splines, which are widely used to learn smoothing fitting function in regression, we develop an effective feature smoothing and enhancement module Scaled Smoothing Splines (S3) to learn graph embedding. To integrate global topological information, we design a novel scoring module, which exploits closeness, degree, as well as self-attention values, to select important node features as knots for smoothing splines. These knots can be potentially used for interpreting classification results. In extensive experiments on biological and social datasets, we demonstrate that our model achieves state-of-the-arts and GSSNN is superior in learning more robust graph representations. Furthermore, we show that S3 module is easily plugged into existing GNNs to improve their performance.


Direct voting by property owners is a widespread but controversial tool for resolving disputes over local collective goods. Direct voting has powerful advantages, in that it can harness the superior knowledge of many local minds, resolve controversies in a way that is perceived to be legitimate, and eliminate corrupt dealmaking. But it also has serious pitfalls, if local voters are poorly informed, or if they ignore external effects on other communities, or if the process is distorted by majoritarian or minoritarian bias. To capitalize on the advantages of local voting, and minimize the risks, this Article proposes that direct voting be limited to local property owners, in a one-owner, one-vote fashion. The issues chosen for resolution by direct voting should also be ones with uniform high stakes for property owners, and minimal spillover effects outside the voting community. Applications to controversies over the creation of local historic districts and the use of eminent domain for economic development are discussed.


Since 2004, a collaborative research program of the Alfaguara Project on blue whales off Isla de Chiloe, Chile, has produce important new information on present day conservation status of this population. This paper presents preliminary findings from 2007 and compares such data with that reported in previous years. Land-based monitoring in 2007 resulted in 36 days of observations with 262.85 h of land-based effort. The maximum number of individuals sighted from land ranged from 2 to 44, with an average of 18.14 individuals per day (SD=12.00 ; CI95% =14.08 22.20). Preliminary results on fifteen of seventeen photo-identification surveys conducted in 2007 resulted in the documentation of 123 blue whale groups comprising 156 individuals. The number of whales encountered does not include animals resighted on same day. Individual photo-identification of left and right side respectively, resulted in 80 individual blue whales, including seven between years and sixteen within year recaptures; and 74 individual blue whales, including nine between years and fourteen within year recaptures. The combined photo-indentification catalogue (2004-2007) is comprised of 143 individual blue whales (left-side) and 137 (right-side). A photoidentification recapture from different areas provides evidence that the blue whale feeding ground off southern Chile is extensive and dynamic. A recapture analysis of 2005 and 2006 whales shows an overall return rate of 10.8% (left side) and 11.4% (right side) highlighting the northwestern Isla de Chiloe as an important long-term feeding area for this population. Of the 80 individuals recorded this season, 56.8% (n=42) were recorded to be "skinny", including 5.4% (n=4) with ribs clearly visible. The 2007 proportions of skinny whales are the highest documented to date. It is unknown if these skinny whales represents any potential threat to this population. Therefore, it is essential that longterm photo-identification research continue to monitor this condition.


This paper assesses the validity of comparisons between the current financial crisis and past crises in the United States. We highlight aspects of two National Banking Era crises (the Panic of 1873 and the Panic of 1907) that are relevant for comparison with the Panic of 2008. In 1873, overinvestment in railroad debt and the default of railroad companies on that debt led to the failure of numerous brokerage houses, precursor to the modern investment bank. During the Panic of 1907, panic-related deposit withdrawals centered on the less regulated trust companies, which had only indirect access to the existing lender of last resort, similar to investment banks in 2008. The popular press has made numerous references to the banking crises of the Great Depression as relevant comparisons to the recent crisis. This paper argues that such an analogy is inaccurate. The previous banking crises in U.S. history reflected widespread depositor withdrawals whereas the recent panic arose from counterparty solvency fears and large counterparty exposures among large complex financial intermediaries. In historical incidents, monitoring counterparty exposures was standard banking practice and the exposures were smaller. From this perspective, the lessons from the past appear less directly relevant for the current crisis.


This study builds on option-pricing theory to explain business bankruptcy based on a sample of 139 matched pairs of bankrupt and control U.S. firms for the period 1983-94. Our results indicate that the primary option-motivated variables, such as firm volatility, play an important role in predicting default, one, two and three years prior to bankruptcy. When the model is extended to account for the probability of default on interest payments due at intermediate times prior to debt maturity (either due to voluntary equityholder default or due to cash flow problems), related profitability and cash-flow/liquidity variables are shown to have incremental predictive power, while the primary option variables remain statistically significant. Our theory-driven model has significant explanatory power and prediction ability in all years tested.


Haplophyllum telephioides Boiss., Rutaceae, is an endemic herb which generally grows at the steppe region in Central Turkey. Its aerial parts in flowering stage are used by local people against influenza virus due to its antimicrobial effect. The main purpose of this study was to examine the morphology, anatomy and histology of the vegetative and reproductive organs of the H. telephioides, which are used in popular medicine, thereby, contributing to the pharmacognostic evaluation of the species. The species was studied morphologically in detail. New morphological features were described for them, such as the dimension of leaf, sepal and fruit, size of filament, anther and pistil, and diameter of the ovary. In addition, some deviating features were found in relation to previous published descriptions for the species, such as plant height and petal length. The anatomy of plant parts such as stem, leaf, sepal, petal, filament and pistil, were studied using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Stem has incipient utaceae urkey secondary growth. The leaf is amphistomatic and the mesophyll is equifacial. Stomata are anomocytic and sunken. In micromorphological studies, it is determined that the leaf is coated by a thick cuticle and above epicuticular wax. Schizogenous glands were found in all vegetative and reproductive organs. The structural features herein found can assist the diagnosis of H. telephioides. © 2016 Sociedade Brasileira de Farmacognosia. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. This is an open he CC access article under t


Aims: The observation of propagating magneto-hydrodynamic kink waves in magnetic structures and measurement of their properties (amplitude, phase speed) can be used to diagnose the plasma conditions in the neighbourhood of the magnetic structure via magneto-seismology. We aim to reveal properties of the chromosphere/transition region above the sunspot penumbra using this technique.
Methods: Hinode SOT observed a sunspot as it was crossing over the limb, providing a unique side on view of the atmosphere above a sunspot. The presence of large spicule-like jets is evident in Ca ii H images. The jets are found to support transverse wave motions that displace the central axis of the spicules, which can be interpreted as the kink wave. The properties of a specific wave event are measured and used to determine the magnetic and density stratification along the structure. In addition, we measure the width of the spicule and the intensity profile along the structure in order to provide a test for the magneto-seismological results.
Results: The measurements of the wave properties reveal an initial rapid increase in amplitude with height above the solar surface, followed by a decrease in amplitude. The magneto-seismological inversions suggests this initial increase corresponds to large changes in density and magnetic field strength. In addition, we provide the first measurements of spicule width with height, which confirm that the spicule under goes rapid expansion. The measured rates of expansion show good agreement with the results from the magneto-seismology. The observed rapid variations in plasma parameters are suggested to be partly due to the presence of a gravitational stratified, ambient atmosphere. Combining width measurements with phase speed measurements implies the observed decrease in wave amplitude at greater heights can be explained by wave damping. Hence, we provide the first direct evidence of wave damping in chromospheric spicules and the quality factor of the damping is found to be significantly smaller than estimated coronal values.


In this paper, we present a robust control algorithm of an innovated structure of linear switching synchronous motor dedicated to monitoring of automated elevators. This control algorithm is based on the pulse width modulation technique imposing currents sum of a continuous value and a value having a shape varying in phase opposition with the variation of the inductances. This control technology can greatly reduce vibration of the entire system due to the strong fluctuation of the torque developed by the actuator, generally characterizing switching synchronous motors. A modelling program taking in account of system interactions is developed. This program is validated following the implementation and the simulation of the control model in the simulation environment Matlab-Simulink. Simulation results are with good scientific level and encourage subsequently the industrialization of the global system.


Concerns about the sexual health of women who identify as other than heterosexual have been highlighted in numerous research reports, yet access to information, advice and services remains limited within Northern Ireland. In response to this, a group of young women have produced a sexual health resource ("The L Pack") specifically for those who identify as lesbian or bisexual. This article discusses the issue of lesbian sexual health and the rationale for the production of The L Pack. Drawing upon discussions with the young women involved and the various partners, it outlines the participatory process of producing information for young women by young women, the meaning and value of this and the nature of learning for all involved. Illustrating feminist and related principles through practice examples, the article outlines how the project moved from a focus on individual learning to one where the young women involved gained the knowledge, skills and confidence to take their learning to their peers and others.


Although pseudo-orthogonal carrier interferometry (PO-CI) multi-carrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) could transmit doubled data streams, it highly depends on the modulation type. Through theoretical inter-code interference analysis, this paper puts forward that PO-CI/MC-CDMA systems could be de-spread ideally only with BPSK modulation. When complex modulation types are considered, PO-CI/MC-CDMA fails in de-spreading while simulation results of QPSK and QAM demonstrate this limitation. However, pulse amplitude modulations (PAMs) are found to be more suitable for the systems. The acceptable bit error rate (BER) performance of high rank PAMs is revealed by simulation too. Therefore, if the spectrum efficiency requisition is high, PAM is proposed to be the optimal modulation type for PO-CI/MC-CDMA systems.


BACKGROUND
Fear acquisition and extinction are central constructs in the cognitive-behavioral model of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which underlies exposure-based cognitive-behavioral therapy. Youths with OCD may have impairments in fear acquisition and extinction that carry treatment implications.

METHODS
Eighty youths (39 OCD, 41 healthy controls [HC]) completed clinical interviews, rating scales, and a differential conditioning task that included habituation, acquisition, and extinction phases. Skin conductance response (SCR) served as the primary dependent measure.

RESULTS
During habituation, participants with OCD exhibited a stronger orienting SCR to initial stimuli relative to HC participants. During acquisition, differential fear conditioning was observed for both groups as evidenced by larger SCRs to the visual conditioned stimulus paired with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (CS+) compared with a CS-; OCD participants exhibited a larger SCR to the CS+ relative to HC participants. The absolute magnitude of the unconditioned fear response was significantly larger in participants with OCD, compared with HC participants. During extinction, OCD participants continued to exhibit a differential SCR to the CS+ and CS-, whereas HC participants exhibited diminished SCR to both stimuli.

CONCLUSIONS
Participants with OCD exhibit a different pattern of fear extinction relative to HC participants, suggestive of greater fear acquisition and impaired inhibitory learning.


Biofouling caused by the deposition or growth of microorganisms on the membrane surface is one of the major concerns in nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) processes. Assimilable organic carbon (AOC) has been a useful index to assess the growth potential of bacteria. In the case of drinking water, the AOC assay method has been widely applied to estimate growth or regrowth potential of bacteria in distribution and storage systems. However, studies on AOC measurement for high salinity water samples such as brackish water and seawater are rather scarce. The objective of this research is to investigate the influence of water salinity on the conventional AOC assay method. AOC samples with different salt concentrations were prepared by varying NaCl concentration from 0 to 35,000 mg/L, while the acetate concentration was held at 100 μg/L. The number of cells produced in water samples was measured by the heterotrophic plate count (HPC) method using R2A agar. The result showed that the cell production of Pseudomonas fluorescens strain P17 and Spirillum strain NOX decreased with increasing salinity. Especially, the growth of Spirillum strain NOX was noticeably influenced by water salinity. To further observe the relation between acetate concentration and cell production in high salinity water, organic-free saline water samples were prepared by spiking NaCl in deionized (DI) water. The organic-free saline water samples were enriched with acetate of which concentration was varied to be 0–1,000 μg/L (as acetate). Also, P. fluorescens strain P17 was adjusted to high total dissolved solids (TDS) condition prior to being injected into the saline water samples. The result demonstrated that the amount of microorganisms increased with increasing acetate concentration. Although AOC measurement of saline water using Spirillum strain NOX seemed unacceptable, it was suggested that P. fluorescens strain P17 has the possibility to be used in measuring AOC in saline water. Moreover, the yield factor was altered as a result of reflecting salinity impact as the growth number of P. fluorescens strain P17 was unstable with high saline condition.


The effect of ball milling and the addition of carbon on the physico-chemical properties as well as the OER performance of the Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3 (BSCF) perovskite is investigated. We show that the ball milling process can significantly enhance the BSCF OER activity. This higher activity is associated with the formation of an amorphous surface layer produced during the ball milling process, as identified by XRD and TEM. The addition of carbon followed by ultrasonication confirms that carbon acts as a reducing agent to functionalize BSCF but is not necessarily needed during the OER, as identified by X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Our work thus demonstrates that there are at least two different physicochemical methods to enhance the OER activity of BSCF: (i) generating a surface layer with a short range order and/or (ii) modifying the BSCF electronic structure. Further study shows that these two methods can be superimposed to furthermore improve the OER activity of BSCF. The processed BSCF delivers higher mass activity than a benchmark commercial IrTiO2 catalyst, demonstrating the importance of catalyst processing parameters to functionalize highly active OER catalysts.


In this paper, we study the problem of controlling a group of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to provide convoy protection to a group of ground vehicles. The UAVs are modeled as Dubins vehicles flying at a constant altitude with bounded turning radius. We first present time-optimal paths to provide convoy protection to stationary ground vehicles. Then, we propose a control strategy to provide convoy protection to ground vehicles moving in straight lines. The minimum number of UAVs required to provide perpetual convoy protection, in both cases, are derived.


Differentiation and speciation without extended isolation appear to be common among migratory animals. Historical oversight of this is probably due to temporal distortion in distribution maps and a tendency to consider that lineages had different historical traits, such as being sedentary or much less mobile. Mobility among cyclic migrants makes population isolation difficult, and diminished levels of intraspecific differentiation occur in avian migrants (I term this "Montgomery's rule"). Nevertheless, many lineages have differentiated despite increased mobility and a high propensity for gene flow, conditions that speciation theory has not addressed adequately. Populations of seasonal migrants usually occur in allopatry and sym- patry during a migratory cycle, and this distributional pattern (heteropatry) is the focus of a model empirically developed to explain differentiation in migratory lineages. Divergence arises through disruptive selection from resource competition and heterogeneously distributed cyclic resources. Heteropatric speciation is a type of ecological speciation in which reproductive isola- tion increases between populations as a byproduct of adaptation to different environments that enhances breeding allopatry and allochrony despite degrees of sympatry that occur during the nonbreeding period in migration cycles. Mating or pair bonding in nonbreeding areas is rare. Patterns such as leapfrog migration and limited morphological divergence suggest that dif- ferentiation is driven by these ecological factors rather than by sexual selection or nontemporal changes in the resource base itself, although the additional presence of either of the latter would have additive divergent effects. Migratory lineages provide a largely neglected series of natural experiments in speciation in which to test predictions stemming from this model and others focusing on ecological speciation.


The accurate quantification of uncertainties in regional sea‐level projections is essential for guiding policy makers. As climate models do not currently simulate total sea level, these uncertainties must be quantified through summation of uncertainties in individual sea‐level components. This summation depends on the correlation between the components, which has previously been prescribed or derived from each individual component's dependence on global mean surface temperature. In this study, we quantify, for the first time, regional correlations between sea‐level components based on regional climate change projections. We compute regional sea‐level projections consistent with climate projections from an ensemble of 14 Earth System Models. From the multi‐model spread, we estimate the uncertainty in the regional climate's response to greenhouse forcing. To quantify the total uncertainty, we add the uncertainty in the response of sea‐level components to this regional climate change. This approach reveals how regional climate processes impose correlations between sea‐level components, affecting the total uncertainty. One example is an anti‐correlation between North Atlantic sterodynamic change and Antarctic dynamic mass loss, suggesting a teleconnection established by the large‐scale ocean circulation. We find that prescribed correlations, applied in the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, lead to a global overestimation in the uncertainty in regional sea‐level projections on the order of 20%. Regionally, this overestimation exceeds 100%. We conclude that accurate uncertainty estimates of regional sea‐level change must be based on projections of regional climate change and cannot be derived from global indicators such as global mean surface temperature.


Current speech synthesis methods typically operate on isolated sentences and lack convincing prosody when generating longer segments of speech. Similarly, prevailing TTS evaluation paradigms, such as intelligibility (transcription word error rate) or MOS, only score sentences in isolation, even though overall comprehension arguably is more important for speech-based communication. In an effort to develop more ecologically-relevant evaluation techniques that go beyond isolated sentences, we investigated comprehension of natural and synthetic speech dialogues. Specifically, we tested listener comprehension on long segments of spontaneous and engaging conversational speech (three 10-minute radio interviews of comedians). Interviews were reproduced either as natural speech, synthesised from carefully prepared transcripts, or synthesised using durations from forced-alignment against the natural speech, all in a balanced design. Comprehension was measured using multiple choice questions. A significant difference was measured between the comprehension/retention of natural speech (74% correct responses) and synthetic speech with forced-aligned durations (61% correct responses). However, no significant difference was observed between natural and regular synthetic speech (70% correct responses). Effective evaluation of comprehension remains elusive.


"The HIV/AIDs pandemic is a global crisis with consequences that will be felt for decades to come. Thirty-nine million people are currently infected with the virus, including more than 25 million from Sub-Saharan Africa. Many millions are affected in different ways. The ability of households and communities to ensure their own food and nutrition security is increasingly being threatened. With the most detailed evidence base yet assembled, this review systematically maps our growing knowledge of the interactions between HIV/AIDS and food and nutrition security, pointing to where and how future policy needs to change to remain relevant and effective." "Authors' Abstract


In the split-ergative pattern of case-marking in Hindi, the A-role argument typically receives ergative marking with verbs that have perfective inflection. Longitudinal data from three children acquiring Hindi (ranging in age between 1;5–3;2) and their caregivers reveal that ergative case-marking is produced infrequently. Since ellipsis of A-role arguments is rampant and children and adults rarely talk about completed events in the past, the conditions requiring the production of ergative case do not often occur. Nevertheless, children acquire the split-ergative case-marking system with little difficulty. In doing so, they may rely on multiple probabilistic cues to verb transitivity and grammatical aspect in the input: the perfective morpheme, the presence of overt O-role arguments, and the use of specific light verbs.


In studies on Near Death Experiences (NDE) data has been collected by using the recently developed scaling methods, the scale developed by Ring and the Greyson NDE Scale. In order to illustrate the problems in the empirical study of NDEs, my intention is to compare the Greyson NDE-scale with the most common theories on NDEs. After series of modifications the final scale consisted of a questionnaire consisting of sixteen different questions, that yielded into four different areas, Cognitive components, Emotional components, Paranormal components, and Transcendental components. In the end the theory that has the most likely possibility to explain NDEs in the future must be the Dying Brain theory, but one should not disclose the different features of the Afterlife theory (but without the origin explanation).


Portal to everything to do with reading and fiction books in the library, write reviews, make book trailers, have a talk about books here


Global illumination algorithms are regarded as computationally intensive. This cost is a practical problem when producing animations or when interactions with complex models are required. Several algorithms have been proposed to address this issue. Roughly, two families of methods can be distinguished. The first one aims at providing interactive feedback for lighting design applications. The second one gives higher priority to the quality of results, and therefore relies on offline computations. Recently, impressive advances have been made in both categories. In this report, we present a survey and classification of the most up‐to‐date of these methods.


One of the challenging problems in the brain imaging research is a principled incorporation of information from different imaging modalities in association studies. Frequently, data from each modality is analyzed separately using, for instance, dimensionality reduction techniques, which result in a loss of mutual information. We propose a novel regularization method, griPEER (generalized ridgified Partially Empirical Eigenvectors for Regression) to estimate the association between the brain structure features and a scalar outcome within the generalized linear regression framework. griPEER provides a principled approach to use external information from the structural brain connectivity to improve the regression coefficient estimation. Our proposal incorporates a penalty term, derived from the structural connectivity Laplacian matrix, in the penalized generalized linear regression. We address both theoretical and computational issues and show that our method is robust to the incomplete information about the structural brain connectivity. We also provide a significance testing procedure for performing inference on the estimated coefficients in this model. griPEER is evaluated in extensive simulation studies and it is applied in classification of the HIV+ and HIV- individuals.


INTRODUCTION The problem addressed by this project is that help-seeking situations are not well understood and at the same time, the design of help functionalities has proceeded without the benefit of such knowledge. The consequence is that the standard help features present on most digital library systems, are often not very effective (Xie, 2006; Xie & Cool, 2009) and particularly not helpful for novices. The first steps of the project were to identify the types of problems novice digital library users experience for which they require help and to better understand the nature of these help-seeking situations. We conducted a user study (Xie & Cool, 2009) in order to identify the Help Seeking Situations (HSSs) encountered by novice users of digital libraries (see section "The User Study"). In this paper we examine the HSSs identified in the study (op. cit.) and propose a set of principles and guidelines for the design of help systems for a digital library (DL) that are intended to address those specific HSSs. Some of the design principles that we discuss here have been proposed also by other researchers or used in previous user-interfaces. What this paper does is to validate and connect those principles with specific help-seeking situations encountered by users observed and categorized in our user study. In order to design a usable help system it is necessary to understand what lead users to use help. The user study that we conducted (op. cit.) identifies the kinds of situation that cause users to consult an online help system. The same study also illustrates the cases in which users failed to find the help information they needed. Understanding of users' Help Seeking Situations allows the designer to put effort and resources in the areas that will result in the highest pay-off for users. In our user study we identify 15 Help Seeking Situations (HSSs). The HSSs and the corresponding user interface features are listed below (see Table 1). For each situation in the list of HSS, the design features that would be relevant are listed. PREVIOUS WORK Previous research has evaluated a variety of help features in different types of Information Retrieval (IR) systems. Our approach is to study users first, in order to understand the help-seeking situations that give rise to help-seeking interactions and then, based on those situations, propose a set of design principles and guidelines to build online support systems. Several collections of design guidelines and principles for the design of user interfaces have been proposed. For example, Shneiderman offers a list of principles in his book (Shneiderman, 1997). Other examples are the MITRE design guidelines (Smith & Mosier, 1986) and similar documents from Apple (Apple Inc., 2009), Microsoft (Microsoft n.d.), and Yahoo (Yahoo!, 2010). The latter is an example of a growing trend to publish user interface design patters, in this case for web pages. These documents present recommendations to application developers. Their dual purpose is to make user interfaces more usable as well as the, sometimes conflicting, purpose of specifying the look and feel expected in the corresponding environment. The guidelines proposed by these documents may be the result of the experience, taste, and, in some cases, user studies performed by the corresponding organizations. The document from Apple emphasizes the need to "involve users in the design process", "analyze user tasks", "build prototypes" and "observe users". It encourages developers to "see where people have difficulty using [their] product and then use that information to improve [the] product". This is not unlike this paper, were we describe the specific problems that novice users of a digital library encounter when trying to use the help system, and then propose guidelines to design better help systems. The principles we propose here are based on observations of how novice users behave when seeking help while using digital libraries. …


Crystalline Ge was induced space selectively inside a borosilicate glass by 800 nm, 250 kHz femtosecond laser irradiation. Micro-Raman spectra and x-ray diffraction analysis confirmed that the laser-induced crystals were cubic Ge. A periodic structure consisting of Ge crystalline lines was inscribed in the glass sample by continuously moving the focal point of the laser beam. Large third-order nonlinear optical properties and ultrafast response time were observed from the crystallization region owing to highly optical nonlinearity of Ge crystals. These results may find some applications in fabrication of functional optical and photonic devices, such as optical circuits.


The purpose of this study was to examine the potential of a High School Health Science Career Academy to support African American students' science career trajectories. I used three key theoretical tools--critical science agency (Basu, 2007; Calabrese Barton & Tan, 2008), power (Nespor, 1994), and cultural production (Carlone, 2004; Eisenhart & Finkel, 1998) to highlight the intersections between the career trajectory implied by the Academy (its curriculum, classroom activities, and clinical experiences) and the students' pursued career trajectories. Data was collected over five months and included individual student interviews, group interviews, parent and administrator interviews, field notes from a culminating medical course and clinical internship, and Academy recruitment documents. The results of this study suggest that participants pursued a health science career for altruistic purposes and the Academy was a resource they drew upon to do so. However, the meanings of science and science person implied by the Academy hindered the possibility for many participants' to advance their science career trajectories. While the Academy promised to expose students to a variety of high-status health care roles, they were funneled into feminine, entry-level positions. This study adds to previous underrepresentation literature by contextualizing how identity-related factors influence African American students' career attainment.


This paper describes the innovation processes used in a partnership between a company that provides asset integrity and maintenance management consulting services in the energy sector and a university. The challenge faced by the company is to make their in-house expertise more readily available to a worldwide audience. A longitudinal embedded case study has been used to investigate how installable desktop software applications have been redesigned to create a new set of cloud hosted software services. The innovation team adapted an agile scrum process to include exploratory prototyping and manage the geographical distribution of the team members. A minimum viable product was developed that integrated functional elements of previous software tools into an end-to-end data collection, analysis and visualisation product called AimHi which uses a cloud-hosted web services approach. The paper illustrates how the scrum software development method was tailored for a product innovation context. Extended periods of evaluation and reflection (field trials), prototyping and requirement refinement were combined with periods of incremental feature development using sprints. The AimHi product emerged from a technology transfer and innovation project that has successfully reconciled conflicting demands from customers, universities, partner companies and project staff members.


Wedging of the scoliotic inter-vertebral disc (IVD) was previously reported as a contributory factor for progression of idiopathic scoliotic (IS) curves. The present study introduces a theoretical model of IVD's role in IS pathogenesis and examines if, by reversing IVD wedging with conservative treatment (full- and night-time braces and exercises) or fusionless IS surgery with staples, we can correct the deformity of the immature spine. The proposed model implies the role of the diurnal variation and the asymmetric water distribution in the scoliotic IVD and the subsequent alteration of the mechanical environment of the adjacent vertebral growth plates. Modulation of the IVD by applying corrective forces on the scoliotic curve restores a close-to-normal force application on the vertebral growth plates through the Hueter-Volkmann principle and consequently prevents curve progression. The forces are now transmitted evenly to the growth plate and increase the rate of proliferation of chondrocytes at the corrected pressure side, the concave. Application of appropriately directed forces, ideally opposite to the apex of the deformity, likely leads to optimal correction. The wedging of the elastic IVD in the immature scoliotic spine could be reversed by application of corrective forces on it. Reversal of IVD wedging is thus amended into a "corrective", rather than "progressive", factor of the deformity. Through the proposed model, treatment of progressive IS with braces, exercises and fusionless surgery by anterior stapling could be effective.


Rising tuition fees and pressures on public funding caused by austerity have increased the need for efficiency in English higher education. Merging has been suggested as a way of increasing efficiency, but little is known of merging effects in higher education. Using a panel of data on all English universities and containing more than 20 incidences of merger, this paper uses frontier estimation techniques to assess the productive efficiency of higher education institutions in England. In a second stage various econometric techniques are applied to assess the effect of merging on subsequent efficiency.
The findings suggest that merging institutions are significantly more efficient, on average, than non-merging ones. However, once other possible factors of efficiency and the two-way relationship between efficiency and merger (specifically, merger might lead to greater efficiency, but efficiency itself might lead to a higher propensity to merge) are taken into account, it appears that any efficiency gains from merger are short-lived (possible lasting only 2 years). Various caveats of the analysis are discussed.


VENTURER was one of the first three UK government funded research and innovation projects on Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) and was conducted predominantly in the South West region of the country. A series of increasingly complex scenarios conducted in an urban setting were used to: (i) evaluate the technology created as a part of the project; (ii) systematically assess participant responses to CAVs and; (iii) inform the development of potential insurance models and legal frameworks. Developing this understanding contributed key steps towards facilitating the deployment of CAVs on UK roads. This paper aims to describe the VENTURER Project trials, their objectives and detail some of the key technologies used. Importantly we aim to introduce some informative challenges that were overcame and the subsequent project and technological lessons learned in a hope to help others plan and execute future CAV research. The project successfully integrated several technologies crucial to CAV development. These included, a Decision Making System using behaviour trees to make high level decisions; A pilot-control system to smoothly and comfortably turn plans into throttle and steering actuation; Sensing and perception systems to make sense of raw sensor data; Inter-CAV Wireless communication capable of demonstrating vehicle-to-vehicle communication of potential hazards. The closely coupled technology integration, testing and participant-focused trial schedule led to a greatly improved understanding of the engineering and societal barriers that CAV development faces. From a behavioural standpoint the importance of reliability and repeatability far outweighs a need for novel trajectories, while the sensor-to-perception capabilities are critical, the process of verification and validation is extremely time consuming. Additionally, the added capabilities that can be leveraged from inter-CAV communications shows the potential for improved road safety that could result. Importantly, to effectively conduct human factors experiments in the CAV sector under consistent and repeatable conditions, one needs to define a scripted and stable set of scenarios that uses reliable equipment and a controllable environmental setting. This requirement can often be at odds with making significant technology developments, and if both are part of a project's goals then they may need to be separated from each other.


This paper presents the algorithms which power Google Correlate[8], a tool which finds web search terms whose popularity over time best matches a user-provided time series. Correlate was developed to generalize the query-based modeling techniques pioneered by Google Flu Trends and make them available to end users. Correlate searches across millions of candidate query time series to find the best matches, returning results in less than 200 milliseconds. Its feature set and requirements present unique challenges for Approximate Nearest Neighbor (ANN) search techniques. In this paper, we present Asymmetric Hashing (AH), the technique used by Correlate, and show how it can be adapted to fit the specific needs of the product. We then develop experiments to test the throughput and recall of Asymmetric Hashing as compared to a brute-force search. For "full" search vectors, we achieve a 10x speedup over brute force search while maintaining 97% recall. For search vectors which contain holdout periods, we achieve a 4x speedup over brute force search, also with 97% recall.


Clay minerals are abundant in soils and sediments and often contain Fe. Some varieties, such as nontronites, contain as much as 40 wt.% Fe2O3 within their molecular structure. Several studies have shown that various Fe-reducing micro-organisms can use ferric iron in Fe-bearing clay minerals as their terminal electron acceptor, thereby reducing it to ferrous iron. Laboratory experiments have also demonstrated that chemically or bacterially reduced clays can promote the reductive degradation of various organics, including chlorinated pesticides and nitroaromatics. Therefore, Fe-bearing clays may play a crucial role in the natural attenuation of various redox-sensitive contaminants in soils and sediments. Although the organochlorinated pesticide p,p−-DDT is one of the most abundant and recalcitrant sources of contamination in many parts of the world, the impact of reduced Fe-bearing clays on its degradation has never been documented. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the extent of degradation of p,p−-DDT during the bacterial reduction of Fe(III) in an Fe-rich clay. Microcosm experiments were conducted under anaerobic conditions using nontronite (sample NAu-2) spiked withpp−-DDT and the metal-reducing bacteria Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. Similar experiments were conducted using a sand sample to better ascertain the true impact of the clay vs. the bacteria on the degradation of DDT. Samples were analyzed for DDT and degradation products after 0, 3, and 6 weeks of incubation at 30°C. Results revealed a progressive decrease in p,p−-DDT and increase in p,p−-DDD concentrations in the clay experiments compared to sand and abiotic controls, indicating that Fe-bearing clays may substantially contribute toward the reductive degradation of DDT in soils and sediments. These new findings further demonstrate the impact that clay materials can have on the natural attenuation of pollutants in natural and artificial systems and open new avenues for the passive treatment of contaminated land.