Since 1947, the Central Intelligence Agency has secretly worked to subvert foreignpowers and even overthrow enemy governments to further United States influence abroad. The vast array of CIA black "ops" (operations)--including covert acts against Saddam Hussein and international terrorists, secret Afghan missions, the overthrow of Guatemalan leaders, assassination plots against Castro and others, domestic and foreign narcotics conspiracies, underground Mafia relations, and even controversial plans to dupe top U.S. officials-has stretched its influence far beyond its original purpose. A member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, Dr. John Jacob Nutter reveals that the U.S. has become too enamored with covert action; that black ops have become U.S. foreign policy; and that the CIA has developed into a policy maker, dangerously independent of the government that created it. Nutter explains the many and varied types of covert action-subsidies, graymail, propaganda, psychological and economic warfare, military support, paramilitary operations, coups d'etat, and assassinations-and provides detailed examples of success and failure undertaken in the name of "national security." Unusual and exclusive, The CIA's Black Ops is a courageous and unprecedented declassification of foreign exploits and domestic secrets, covering clandestine activities from the birth of special operations to today's underground actions--many operations so covert that government officials don't know (or don't want to know) they are taking place. A well-recognized expert on terrorism and covert operations, John Jacob Nutter is a historical researcher and former assistant professor at Michigan State University, specializing in covert action, international politics, and guerrilla warfare. He has appeared on numerous news programs including National Public Radio and CNN.


Abstract: We explored the relationship between amphibian declines and climate variations in Colorado (U.S.A.), Puerto Rico, Costa Rica–Panama, and Queensland (Australia) through two sources of data: output from the National Center for Environmental Prediction "reanalysis system" and area‐averaged station data. The reanalysis system merges observations from airplanes, land stations, satellites, ships, and weather balloons with output from a weather‐forecast model to create global fields of atmospheric variables. Station data consisted of temperature and precipitation measured with thermometers and rain gauges at fixed locations. Temperatures were near normal in Colorado when the amphibian declines occurred in the 1970s, whereas in Central America temperatures were warmer than normal, especially during the dry season. The station data from Puerto Rico and Australia indicated that temperatures were above normal during the period of amphibian declines, but reanalysis did not show such a clear temperature signal. Although declines occurred while the temperature and precipitation anomalies in some of the regions were large and of extended duration, the anomalies were not beyond the range of normal variability. Thus, unusual climate, as measured by regional estimates of temperature and precipitation, is unlikely to be the direct cause of amphibian declines, but it may have indirectly contributed to them. Previous researchers have noted that the declines appear to have propagated from northwest to southeast from Costa Rica to Panama and from southeast to northwest in Queensland, Australia. Wind has the potential to transport pathogens that cause amphibian mortality. The mean direction of the near‐surface winds tended to parallel the path of amphibian declines from July–October in Central America and from May–July in Australia. The wind direction was highly variable, however, and the propagation rate of amphibian declines was much slower than the mean wind speed. In addition, the most likely pathogen is a chytrid fungus that does not produce desiccation‐resistant spores. Thus, if wind is involved in the propagation of amphibian declines, it is through a complex set of processes.


Rats were trained to press a lever for electrical stimulation of the brain. After extinction of the habit, fear-producing stimuli (a buzzer or electrical shock to the feet) recalled the rat to the lever, although its lever pressing on these occasions never produced further intracranial stimulation. Operant levels of the lever-pressing habit were also greatly increased for long periods following the fear-producing stimuli. The phenomenon is most striking in rats trained with tegmental electrodes and is almost completely absent in rats trained with electrodes in the hypothalamus. This suggests that electrical self-stimulation in some sites may be caused by an activation of mechanisms underlying normal fear and escape.


This work describes the development of a framework for numerical simulation software, using the finite volume method. A major guideline has been flexibility. The framework is written in C++, making strong use of its object-oriented capabilities. Outlined are the benefits, as well as the pitfalls related to object-oriented programming, if used for numerical simulations. The text explains that flexibility has not only been tried to achieve in terms of software design, but also with respect to the numerical approaches used. The field of application in the scope of this work is computational fluid dynamics. Thus a brief overview over the necessary equations and the employed numerical techniques is given. Furthermore a number of example computations can be found in this text. An important part of this work deals with a novel approach for unstructured mesh generation. The approach is based on multi element type grids and uses level-sets as input to describe the geometry. It is well suited to create anisotropic layers, such as boundary layer grids for fluid dynamics problems. Furthermore it can deal with moving and even topologically changing geometries. In the scope of this work it is limited to two-dimensional problems.


Abstract This paper investigates interspeaker variation in the mid and low short vowels of Jewish Montreal English, analyzing the Canadian Shift in both production and perception. In production, we find that young women are leading in the retraction of /æ/ and the lowering and retraction of /ε/. We furthermore find that across speakers, the retraction of /æ/ is correlated with the lowering and retraction of /ε/, providing quantitative evidence that the movements of these two vowels are linked. The trajectory implied by our production data differs from what was reported in Montreal approximately one generation earlier. In contrast to reliable age differences in production, a vowel categorization task shows widespread intergenerational agreement in perception, highlighting a mismatch: in this speech community, there is evidently more systematic variation in production than in perception. We suggest that this is because all individuals are exposed to both innovative and conservative variants and must perceptually accommodate accordingly.


Tropical forests store a larger amount of carbon (C) than boreal and temperate forests. However, the determination of above ground biomass and C stocks in tropical ecosystems usually relies on a combination of remote sensing data together with ground data to develop models that predict forest biomass. One of the major determinants of above ground C stocks that cannot be determined in the field is wood density (ρ) and tropical ecosystems usually contain a high diversity of tree species, with a wide range of wood densities in comparison with temperate forests.

Summary of the data chapters

This thesis aimed to understand the importance of accounting for the intra and interspecific variation of the ρ with changing environmental conditions on the calculation of the above ground C on tropical forests. Not including this variation of ρ could misestimate the C reservoirs on these ecosystems. In total, this thesis includes four data chapters. The first data chapter that is Chapter 2 comprises a novel method to study the ρ within and between tree species at different study sites in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu across different forest types. Chapter 3 and 4 studied the variation of ρ with elevation (within and between tree species) from a low to mid montane tropical forests in Papua New Guinea and in range from lowland to montane tropical forest in Australia on respectively. Additionally, Chapter 4 also examined the variation of above ground biomass with increasing elevation. Chapter 5 investigated the importance of including ρ on the estimations of the coarse woody debris residence times. The study was conducted along an altitudinal gradient in a tropical forest in Australia to observe the variation of the decomposition of the wood with the decreasing of mean annual temperature. The aim of using altitudinal gradients as sampling design was to understand the potential effects of climate change on the forest dynamics.

Description of the data chapters

Traditional methods for both field core extraction and laboratory processing for determining the ρ of trees are generally time consuming and costly. Some trees are very hard to core and the field and the laboratory equipment required to obtain accurate numbers are expensive. There is also the risk of sample damaging during the process of collecting and transporting the core samples. Because of all of the listed inconveniences, a fast, cheap, nondestructive and efficient field method to determine wood density would help the researchers to facilitate biomass census on tropical forests and with special emphasis those located in remote areas. Chapter 2 develops a field-based method to determine ρ that relies on a non-destructive ultrasonic technique. We tested the technique on living trees, from different ecosystem types and under a range of climate conditions. The results suggest a positive relationship between ρ and ultrasonic velocity with a coefficient of variation of 0.66 for intraspecific variation of ρ and 0.81 for interspecific variation of ρ. Due to interferences with the ultrasonic pulse velocity, measurements should be conducted in dry weather when temperatures are less than 30 °C. Potential improvements of this technique would include reducing the size of the transducers of the instrument and the development of conversion factors for measurements carried out above 30°C.

Few studies have described ρ values for trees located on remote forests of Papua New Guinea. Besides, studies of the quantification of the intraspecific and interspecific variation of ρ in relation to environmental variables are scarce for tropical forests and inexistent for Papua New Guinea. Thus, in this thesis study site elevation was chosen as an environmental gradient for the study of the climatic effects on the variation of ρ. Therefore, chapter 3 reports the ρ values from the most common sun-exposed and shaded tree species in the YUS Conservation Area, Papua New Guinea over an elevation range from 1800 m to 3050 m above sea level. Besides, one key focus of this chapter is the study of intra-specific variation of ρ with elevation (temperature). The results indicate ρ was negatively related to elevation for sun-exposed trees but with a positive ρ /elevation relationship for shaded species. Both within and across species, tree size was found to be a significant covariate in models attempting to explain individual tree variations on ρ: a positive relationship between ρ with 1/DBH provided the best model fit. The results of this study have important implication for future studies on ground-based tropical forest biomass estimates for tropical montane forests.

Australian forests are located in a World Heritage Area and little is known about their role of carbon reservoirs and how they will respond to the effects of climate change. Chapter 4 presents a study along an elevational gradient from 50 m to 1500 m in North Queensland on the a) plot above ground biomass, basal area and tree diameter variation, b) the intra and interspecific variation of wood density for common species along the elevation range and c) the tree growth rates variation according to tree diameter and species. This study also included the effects of soil fertility as potential cause of ρ variability. The results indicated that tree forest strata, diameter and growth rates were related. Sun-exposed trees that had bigger average diameters presented bigger growth rates than smaller trees. In addition, results suggested a relationship between forest strata and ρ. For sun-exposed trees, wood density decreased with elevation and the inverse case was for shaded trees. A multi-level statistical analysis of the dataset explained that soil fertility in addition to site elevation were significant drivers of tree wood density variation.

The coarse woody debris (CWD) pool of a forest in composed mainly by death trees, large branches and death leaves. The nutrients that are confined on the death material return to the ecosystems to be reused by living organisms. Throughout this cycle, CWD provides food and habitat to living organisms and increases forest biodiversity. The pace that CWD might degrade can be related to environmental variables (i.e. soil fertility, forest mature stage). However, due to the imminent consequences of climate change on actual and future forest dynamics, this study has focused on the effects of mean annual temperature of the CWD residence times. Thus, Chapter 5 examines coarse woody debris residence time (τ), for different tree species (and therefore with different wood traits) - ranging from low to hard woods – along an elevation gradient from 102 m above sea level (MAT = 23.7 °C) to 1500 m above sea level (MAT = 16.7 °C) in a tropical forests in Australia. The aim was to understand the effects of elevation (temperature) on the chemical and physical decay of CWD. Results suggested that wood density together with Carbon:Nitrogen ratio enable prediction of the variation in τ within decay classes and tree species along an elevation gradient. In addition, τ decreased with increasing decay status of the wood, with temperature also playing an important role, as τ increased with increasing site elevation. The study also suggested the importance of further studies of the effects of seasonal variations in climate in short term field studies, as a single wet season reduced the observed τ of the CWD faster than two wet season and a dry season.


Abnormalities in the expression, structure, or activity of proto-oncogene products contribute to the development and maintenance of the malignant phenotype. For example, c-erbB-2 encodes the HER-2 receptor (also known as c-erbB-2 or c-neu) that is overexpressed, amplified, or both in a number of human malignancies including breast, ovarian, colon, lung, prostate, and cervical cancers. In addition to deregulation of cell-surface HER receptors, cancer cells often show excessive activation and/or nonattenuation of growth factor--inducible signaling components, as well as their downstream transcription factors. Current approaches to target HER-2 pathways include downregulation of HER-2 by the adenovirus 5E1A, antisense phosphothionate oligonucleotides, ribozyme, and targeting tyrosine kinase using specific inhibitors. Because growth factors regulate the proliferation of cancer cells by activating receptors on the surface of cells, one obvious approach to control cell proliferation is to interfere with the growth factor receptor-mediated autocrine/ paracrine growth stimulation by antireceptor-blocking monoclonal antibodies. Therefore, a large number of scientists are attempting to control the growth of cancer cells using agents that inhibit one or more of the above steps of growth factor action. Recently completed clinical trials established the usefulness of a humanized form of 4DS monoclonal antibody, trastuzumab (Herceptin; Genentech, Inc, South San Francisco, CA), against some forms of breast tumors overexpressing HER-2 receptors. Using in vitro models, recent studies have shown that HER-2 overexpression may not be a prerequisite for invasion of breast cancer cells, as HER-2 activation by heregulin, which binds to HER-3 or HER-4 and transphosphorylates HER in noninvasive breast cancer cells, could lead to increased motility, enhanced gelatinolytic activity, and invasion. Furthermore, these ligand-driven phenotypic changes were completely suppressed by trastuzumab, which also blocked interactions between HER-2 and HER-3 receptors in heregulin-treated breast cancer cells, and inhibited the phosphatidylinositol-3' kinase-dependent pathway, but not the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. These phenotypic effects of anti-HER-2 monoclonal antibody are of special interest, because they point to potential therapeutic effects of trastuzumab in inhibiting the invasion and metastasis of breast cancer with low receptor expression.


In the process of postal containerized transport, some appropriate equipment should be applied for handling, transportation, storage, sorting and other aspects of the good due to the limitations of the compartment size, dynamic conditions, costs and other factors. According to the characteristics of the post containerized transport , three vertical displacement with left, middle and right position are setted on van body and a lateral shifting device is setted in the front and rear sides of the columns. The container can be shifted and positioned by the row box shifting program and the device consisted of vertical displacement, vertical position, horizontal shifting, vertical positioning and the rail system. The container loading and unloading in logistics distribution and the job requirements of containerized logistics transportation is meet ed . The container shift is controlled by programmable logic controller (PLC) without artificial participation. The influence factors of human error are avoided.


This research is mainly concerned with producing fabrics suitable for raincoats, which is considered the main protection garment beside hoods, ponchos ....etc. which used to provide protection to the body from rain showers .All samples under study were produced of polyester yarns 50, 70 and 100 denier .Three weft sets were used 60, 80 and 100 picks /cm and three fabric structure (plain weave 1/1, twill 1/4 and satin 5). Samples were coated using P.V.C in order to produce a waterproof, moisture vapor permeable laminated fabrics and having perforation to provide ventilation to the user. Their influence on the performance of the end-use fabric and the achieved properties were studied. On the other hand physic-chemical properties including, tensile strength and elongation, abrasion resistance, water permeability, water repellency, tear resistance, thickness and weight were evaluated according to the final product needs. Some more results were reached concerning structures and materials. Most samples have achieved the expected results. [G. E. Ibrahim Designing and Producing Fabrics Suitable for Being Used as Waterproof Raincoats. Journal of American Science 2011; 7(10): 529-544].(ISSN: 1545-1003). http://www.americanscience.org.


Capital market being a vital institution which facilitates economic development. It is true that so many parties are interested in knowing the efficiency of the capital market. The small and medium investors can be motivated to save and invest in the capital market only if their securities in the market are appropriately priced. The information content of events and its disseminations determine the efficiency of the capital market. That is, how quickly and correctly security prices reflect these information show the efficiency of the capital market.The term market efficiency is used to explain the relationship between information and share prices in the capital market. The three forms of market efficiency are weak form, semi – strong form and strong form. A market is considered as weak form if current prices fully reflect all information contained in historical prices. Thus, no investor can devise a trading rule based on past price patterns to earn abnormal return. A market is semi-strong efficient, if stock prices instantly reflect any new publicly available information. A market is said to be strong form efficient, if prices reflect all types of information whether available publicly or privately.It is usually believe that the markets in developing and less developed countries are not efficient in semi-strong form or strong form. In the developed countries, many research studies have been conducted to test the efficiency of the capital market. In India, very few studies have been conducted to test the efficiency of the capital market.The weak form of efficient market hypothesis also known as Random Walk Hypothesis states that at a given point of time, the size and direction of the next price change is at random.Hence, this paper has made an attempt to analyse whether prices in National Stock Exchange follow a random walk process as required by market efficiency.


Wireless Trondheim is today mainly a service for nomadic and mobile broadband in other words, for use outside the home. The major goal of this study was to examine the market potential and the ability to use wireless broadband offered by Wireless Trondheim, as the primary internet access in the home. The study started with an introduction to the Wireless Trondheim, before introducing the different types of broadband technologies available in the Norwegian market. This study further looked into some successful city-wide Wi-Fi based network initiatives in the Europe, specifically City of Luxembourg and City of Westminster in London. Their objectives, business models, pricing strategies and broadband networks were examined. It provided us with a good insight about the market strategies these wireless cities are using and the achievement they have made. However, it was difficult to inspect how much these networks were used for internet connection at home. To justify the goal of this study, a quantitative random sampling method through structured web-based questionnaire was carried out. The respondents or targeted population was those residents in Trondheim who do not have free access to Wireless Trondheim's network. A number of hypotheses were observed in order to understand the market of wireless broadband. Questionnaire emphasized on the inhabitant's awareness and willingness towards the wireless broadband subscription. The satisfaction level regarding the coverage provided by Wireless Trondheim and the amount of people using their network as the primary access at home was examined. Results indicated that more than half of the respondents did not have access to the Wireless Trondheim at home. One-fourth of the respondents had access to both wireless broadband and other types of connection interfaces, such as fixed or mobile broadband. Majority of the respondents reported that they did not use Wireless Trondheim to connect internet at home. More than half of the respondents were not satisfied with the coverage provided to them. Also very few people knew about the wireless broadband offer, leading to the fact that minority was willing to buy a wireless broadband subscription. However, it is important to remember that majority of the respondents were living outside of Midtbyen. Hence, only few of these had coverage provided by Wireless Trondheim. However, results were divided into two categories according to the respondent's residential status. It was clear in the end that in addition to increase the coverage, marketing on the wireless broadband service is highly needed to increase the demand


In many kinds of buildings, the ventilation system constitute a well known source of broadband noise. Traditionally, duct born noise is attenuated using passive resistive silencers which produce a high level of attenuation over a broad frequency range. However, they tend to become large and bulky if designed for low frequency attenuation. The active noise control (ANC) technique is known for its ability to produce high levels of attenuation in the low frequency range even with a relatively moderate sized ANC system. Accordingly, a combination of active- and passive techniques, i.e. the construction of a hybrid active/passive silencer, provides a duct silencer solution of manageable size which also covers the low frequency range. However, adequate levels of attenuation are not likely to be obtained if the installation of the ANC system is not designed to account for the physical factors that may degrade its performance. This thesis focuses on applying ANC in ventilation systems, with particular emphasis on analyzing the limiting effect of some of these physical factors on the controller, and installation design for the purpose of reducing the influence of them. The degrading factors of particular interest include: flow induced noise in the microphone signals, acoustic feedback between the control loudspeaker and reference microphone, and standing waves and higher order acoustic modes inside the ducts. With respect to installation design, focus is also placed upon industry requirements for the ANC system. This has led to a module based approach, in which the microphones and the loudspeaker are installed in separate modules based on standard duct parts. This thesis is comprised of six parts. The first and third parts analyze the influence of flow-induced noise on the adaptive digital controller theoretically, through simulations and experiments. The second part describes investigations of several microphone installations intended to reduce flow induced noise. Further, results of measurements conducted in an acoustic laboratory according to an ISO-standard are presented. The attenuation produced by the ANC system was approximately 15-25 dB between 50-315 Hz, even for airflow speeds up to 20 m/s. The fourth part focuses on the possibility of using a passive silencer in combination with ANC, to reduce acoustic feedback and standing waves, while the fifth part investigates the possibility of using a passive silencer to reduce standing waves in the duct when the ANC system is not installed near the duct outlet. In ducts of larger dimensions, higher order acoustic modes may be in the frequency range adequate for ANC. The final part presents initial investigations concerning the feasibility of dividing a duct of large dimension into two more narrow ducts to remove higher order acoustic modes in the ANC frequency range, and the feasibility of applying single-channel ANC in each duct.


Hindered phenolics are the compounds which will act as an antioxidant compared to the general phenolic compounds. Especially BHT compounds are shown here and which modifications will be responsible for the enhancing and reducing the efficacy of the phenolic compounds. These moieties are easily avaliable materials which found mostly in the foods, fruits and vegetables and also in several suppliments. The free radical oxidation of organic substrates is inhibited by phenols.and also involved in recovering from several pathophysiological conditions.In this review mentioned the several phenolic compounds which exhibits the effect of scavenging free radicals in the several pathophysiological conditions and daily life processes.


The vast majority of today's daily newspapers feature descriptive brand names that are traditional holdovers from the 19th Century. Many include hyphenated names of acquired competitors and merged morning and evening editions, such as The San Diego Union-Tribune and the Moberly Monitor-Index & Democrat. In the mid- to late-1990s, newspapers faced the challenge of branding their online products. This study examined one dimension in the migration of U.S. daily newspapers to the Internet through a census and content analysis of URLs (Uniform Resource Locators). Because branding on the Web is so difficult, Kirsner advises that "newspapers ought to leverage the power of their long-established brands." (1) Furthermore, brand names are considered somewhat synonymous with URLs. (2) However, as they evolve their brand names into Internet URLs, the resulting problems are analogous with the problem of a company that "is burdened with the surnames of long-departed founders or with a descriptive technical name that no longer fits its product line." (3) Through an initial examination, the following typology of existing newspaper URL types was proposed: Static Brand URL: This URL type is essentially the same as the newspaper name. Spaces have simply been removed. Examples: lansingstatejournal.com and gadsentimes.com. Evolved Brand URL: This URL comprises a brand name that has evolved to become more Internet friendly with the name collapsed or shortened and "online" added. Examples: detnews.com and timesonline.com. Location Brand URL: This URL's principal component is a location, city, region or state, with all references to a "newspaper" dropped. Examples: mlive.com (Michigan), Ohio.com and Aloha.net (Hawaii). New Brand URL: This URL type abandons any reference to the original newspaper name or location, but refers to some new type of news service. Example: Newchoice.com. Other: This type seemed to comprise a small newspaper company's main URL or a small newspaper housed at an ISP. Examples: pioneergroup.com and cnhi.com. With these URL types in mind, the following research questions were posed: RQ1: In what proportions are the above URL types being used? RQ2: What traditional newspaper name components, such as "Chronicle" or "Tribune" are being dropped or collapsed the most? RQ3:What Internet terms, such as "online" or "live," are being used or added most frequently? RQ4: Is there a relationship between circulation size (availability of resources) and the URL type being used? Method A census and content analysis of daily newspaper URLs was conducted using a 1999 directory database from Editor & Publisher. (4) The database included names, URLs, average M-F circulation. Before coding, the file was cross-referenced and merged with a listing of links (2,000) maintained by the Newspaper Association of America. (5) National, special interest and business newspapers were excluded. The resulting list comprised 1,461 papers, 1,151 of which had URLs. Using detailed definitions and instructions, the URL type was coded by the author. Reliability of the coding process was ensured through a second individual coding a random sample of 112 (10%). A reliability index score of .962 was attained using the formula outlined by Perreault and Leigh. (6) The reliability of the coding process was judged to be high ([I.sub.r] > .90). The number of popular brand name and URL components was calculated through alphabetical sorting, as well as text string counts of the various terms. Findings RQ1: Newspapers with web sites (N = 1,151) comprised 79 percent of the total population of U.S. daily newspapers. The most popular URL type is the evolved brand URL (38 percent, N = 442) followed by static brand URL (32 percent, N = 366) and location brand URLs (23 percent, N = 263). …


The community hall in Mullaghbane village, Armagh was the setting for the launch of the Nerve Centre's and the Rural Development Council's (RDC) animation project. 'Rural Reanimation' has been funded under RDC's Peace II scheme which aims to foster creative opportunities around issues of cultural diversity in rural areas. The launch night (Thursday 13th November) was attended by a large crowd who saw for the first time this example of their children's creativity.The Mullabane project: 'A Townland Tale' uses animation and live footage of this isolated rural community to tell a local folklore tale set in the townland of Carricknagavna/Carraig Na nGamhna. This was part of a wider project also in association with RDC, which has fostered a sense of 'pride of place' among the community, alongside the placing of permanent stone markers denoting all of the townland names in the Parish of Forkhill.


Adlay (Coix lachryma-jobi L. var. ma-yuen Stapf.) has been used as a traditional Chinese medicine for dysfunction of the endocrine system. However, there have been few studies on the effects of adlay seed on the endocrine system. In the present study, both the in vivo and in vitro effects of methanolic extracts of adlay hull (AHM) on progesterone synthesis were studied. AHM was partitioned with four different solvents: water, 1-butanol, ethyl acetate, and n-hexane. Four fractions, namely, AHM-Wa (water fraction), AHM-Bu (1-butanol fraction), AHM-EA (ethyl acetate fraction), and AHM-Hex (n-hexane fraction), were respectively obtained. Granulosa cells (GCs) were prepared from pregnant mare serum gonadotropin-primed immature female rats and were challenged with different reagents, including human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG; 0.5 IU/ml), 8-bromo-adenosine-3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate (8-Br-cAMP; 0.1 mM), forskolin (10 μM), 25-OH-cholesterol (10 μM), and pregnenolone (10 μM), in the presence or absence of AHM (100 μg/ml). The functions of steroidogenic enzymes, including protein expression of the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR), cytochrome P450 side chain cleavage enzyme (P450scc), protein kinase A (PKA), and aromatase activity, were investigated. The expression of StAR mRNA was also explored by using real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction. In the in vivo study, AHM decreased plasma progesterone and estradiol levels after an intravenous injection of AHM (2 mg/ ml/kg). In the in vitro studies, AHM decreased progesterone and estradiol via inhibition of (i) the cAMP-PKA signal transduction pathway, (ii) cAMP accumulation, (iii) P450scc and 3β-HSD enzyme activities, (iv) PKA, P450scc and StAR protein expressions and StAR mRNA expression, and (v) aromatase activity in rat GCs. These results suggest that AHM decreased the production of progesterone via mechanisms involving the inhibition of the cAMP pathway, enzyme activities, and the protein expressions of P450scc and StAR in rat GCs.


The publication of some essential texts withheld from the public until recently makes a reassessment of the life and works of Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) not only practical at last, but essential. These include Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters of 2007, which released his prolific correspondence, mainly with his large family and especially his mother, from his schooldays in the 1860s through to her death in her eighties. This was followed in 2008 by Russell Miller's The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle, drawing upon this particular resource for the first time.
Also in 2007 came Andrew Lycett's Conan Doyle: The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes, which is the first biography able to call on the entire range of Doyle resources opened to researchers. Whereas several previous biographers - for example, Pearson in 1943 and Symons in 1979 - had restricted access to Doyle's censored remains, tending as a result to fall for repeating his own line on himself (as in his Memories and Adventures of 1924), Lycett has opened the whole case afresh, calling in all the evidence.


We demonstrate a delay line optical recognizer at 2.5 Gbit/s. Recognition is based on a coherent-to-chaotic light conversion followed by a fiber array correlation filter. Experimental evidence shows performance improvement in comparison with a classical scheme as far as phase noise is concerned. An experimental characterization of the recognizer is reported. Methods for improving the recognition error probability are suggested.


Data-intensive applications are increasingly designed to execute on large computing clusters. Grouped aggregation is a core primitive of many distributed programming models, and it is often the most efficient available mechanism for computations such as matrix multiplication and graph traversal. Such algorithms typically require non-standard aggregations that are more sophisticated than traditional built-in database functions such as Sum and Max. As a result, the ease of programming user-defined aggregations, and the efficiency of their implementation, is of great current interest.
 This paper evaluates the interfaces and implementations for user-defined aggregation in several state of the art distributed computing systems: Hadoop, databases such as Oracle Parallel Server, and DryadLINQ. We show that: the degree of language integration between user-defined functions and the high-level query language has an impact on code legibility and simplicity; the choice of programming interface has a material effect on the performance of computations; some execution plans perform better than others on average; and that in order to get good performance on a variety of workloads a system must be able to select between execution plans depending on the computation. The interface and execution plan described in the MapReduce paper, and implemented by Hadoop, are found to be among the worst-performing choices.


South African democracy is perceived and evidenced to be under duress. This research questions how design, when underpinned by transdisciplinarity and abduction, can articulate and address this problem. The literature is reviewed to map how designed objects, processes, and philosophy enable and hamper notions of democracy. Within this literature, two concepts are identified as key to a South African context, and require further research - Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and cosmopolitanism. The African concept of Ubuntu, a subset of IKS, is argued to function as an authentic context, however, its ability to influence urban and diverse environments is questioned. Cosmopolitan theory, and Dewey's focus on experimentation, is argued to promote normative organisation, and its application to facilitate urban and dynamic participation is questioned. The Cape Town precinct - Long Street - provides a case study with which to unpack these two key concepts, and obtain empirical data to answer the research questions. Qualitative data is firstly obtained, from key informants who have the authority to influence the case study delineation. Based on this data, an Abductive instrument (Ai), based on Experience Design (XD) and Designing For Participation (DFP) methods, obtains quantitative data from public actors. Findings from the research include: political philosophy is increasingly enabled and countered by design; design is required to deconstruct and not fortify South African democracy; design is capable of operationalising decolonisation as a constructive, and not reductive, act; indigeneity is being reclaimed in urban contexts, and reinterpreted by design; reflective participation, and not historical assimilation, is a fundamental challenge for political studies; publics experiment with, and not on, themselves. The key implication of the research is designing critical representation, which is at the intersection of design, IKS, and cosmopolitanism. Here, empowerment is an indigenous imperative, design synthesises direct and representative democracy, and design intent is hyper-transparent.


Although tax simplification enjoys the attractiveness of being the opposite of complexity, it can have untoward effects as illustrated by the examples of a capitation tax, an international income tax regime that lacks rigorous base protection measures, and a system of negotiated tax liabilities. Moreover, complexity is not a problem for most taxpayers because most either benefit from complexity and have the capacity to deal with it or have simple compliance burdens. Small business taxpayers are the principal exception to this observation and tax system reformers need to develop simplification measures for those taxpayers without creating truck holes to be exploited by others. At the end of the day, simplification is only one of several tax policy criteria that must be taken into account in a balancing process. Tax expenditure analysis is often a helpful tool in this regard but it should not be viewed as a device for attacking tax expenditures solely because they add complexity to the tax law. On the other hand complex tax expenditures that have humanitarian objectives should not be sheltered from tax expenditure analysis solely because of their humanitarian ends. This point is illustrated by examples. Finally, we must accept that complex economies demand correspondingly complex tax regimes, and that the complexity will inevitably reside somewhere in the legal system where it will have to be endured. We most certainly should pursue the goal of tax system simplification but in doing so, we must thoughtfully balance simplification objectives against tax base preservation, tax burden distribution concerns, efficiency concerns, administrability, and political realities. The creation of institutional structures that ensure that simplification always receives appropriate consideration in this process would clearly constitute an important contribution. Compromise will, however, be the inevitable result. Consequently we should not have unrealistic expectations regarding the amount of simplification that can be achieved.


Judicial interviews with children in contested parenting proceedings are an uncommon and contentious practice in Australia and many other common law jurisdictions. While there has been some debate about the merits and risks of such a practice among professionals and academic commentators, there is little research on the views of children and parents. In this study, children and parents involved in contested and non-contested family law matters in Australia were asked to comment on this practice. A related paper explores the views of Australian judges on talking with children in chambers, and their experience of doing so (Parkinson, P. and Cashmore, J., 'Judicial Conversations with Children in Parenting Disputes: The Views of Australian Judges'). Children and parents had mixed views but most children said that it should be an option even if they did not want it for themselves. Children who had been the subject of contested proceedings were generally keen to talk to the judge even though most had been interviewed by an independent expert and had a child legal representative. Resident parents were, however, much more likely than non-resident parents to be in favour of children being able to talk with the judge, either alone or together with a counsellor or 'interpreter'. Both parents and children who were in favour of children talking directly to judges gave very similar reasons. They were related to children's right to be heard and acknowledged, the value of direct communication and the likely beneficial effect on the decision.


This essay seeks to define the current regime of national security, tracing a shift within the gender categories that subtend notions of justified (state) violence. It focuses on Israel's occupation, and in particular its violent control over the Gaza Strip, to examine the relations between war and enmity on the one hand and humanitarianism and subject-citizens on the other. I argue that security relies on a new mechanism of justifying violence, wherein the distinction between (feminized) civilians and (masculinized) aggressors is replaced with more "gender-blind" violence, which incorporates both humanitarian language and aberrant, thin disciplinary processes to form a subject whose killing is always already justifiable.


In contract law, standard interpretive doctrine instructs courts to give effect to the intentions of the parties. Efficiency is promoted, we are told, by reducing state intervention into autonomous private decision-making, particularly when contracting parties are sophisticated corporate entities that can presumably bargain for their interests. Enabled by rules adopted over the past several decades expanding the freedom to contract, private entities increasingly control every aspect of their engagement, including the substantive and procedural law governing disputes that arise between contracting parties. Alarmingly, the growing number of commercial agreements that mandate the application of law with little or no connection to the contracting parties systematically preclude private litigants from activating otherwise applicable domestic regulatory statutes, including laws designed to deter securities fraud, commercial racketeering, and anti-competitive behavior. Challenging the predominant scholarly account that has largely celebrated the enforcement of choice-of-law provisions from an efficiency standpoint, I argue that courts should police commercial agreements that seek an end-run around domestic regulatory law.


Organizations today face numerous challenges: worldwide competitors, changes in information technology, increased reliance on knowledge workers, and a shifting economic environment. Faced with the difficulty of securing advantage by traditional means, management has increasingly focused on employees as a key asset and driver of productivity. Many organizations have adopted the human capital theory, which holds that employees form an asset of the organization.Organizations will seek to maximize their human capital as a differentiator. Presumably, an organization that invests in its human capital will find itself rewarded with increased productivity and higher returns. But here is where the problem develops. Although it makes theoretical sense to label human capital as an asset, employees differ from other forms of assets. The organization has no ownership interest in the employees and the human capital that they represent. Instead, only the employment relationship secures the retention of human capital.Investment by an organization in its human capital, in its employees, leads to a paradox. And to date, proponents of the human capital theory, in their eagerness to create a new strategic role for the human resources department, have not addressed this paradox. A company that invests in its employees, providing those employees with new skills and knowledge, will find that it has increased the employee's value. This added value, however, does not necessarily correspond to increased value for the employer. Instead, gained skills and knowledge and experience will enhance the employee's mobility, permitting her to transfer the benefits of the organization's investment to a competitor. A company that invests in human capital without taking the steps to secure that capital will find its investment flowing to its competition. The employment relationship, the relationship that binds human capital to the organization, is an odd beast. For the most part, the employment relationship is governed not by contract, but by a complicated mix of common law and statutes, both state and federal. To preserve its investment in human capital, management needs to understand this peculiar area of the law.The law provides several tools to manage the employment relationship. The best tool to solve the problem of preservation and retention of the organization's human capital is the noncompete agreement. I conclude the article by discussing the drafting of an enforceable noncompete agreement. The noncompete agreement, carefully drafted and tailored to the employee's situation, will help firms to retain the benefit of investment in their workforce. Employees governed by a noncompete agreement are less likely to leave the company. Furthermore, in the event that the employee decides to leave, the noncompete agreement will prevent the employee from immediately taking his new skills and experience to a competitor.


This research is focused on information and communication phenomena
within one industrial organisation. From its intellectual situation
within the interpretive epistemological tradition the thesis seeks to
demonstrate the utility of the case study approach combined with the
style of qualitative analysis known as 'grounded theory' for scholars
interested in furthering their understanding of the information
dimension of complex organisations. More specifically, a preliminary
examination of the data set in conjunction with a theoretical position
which posited the socially and cognitive constructed nature of
organisations quite naturally led to the case study material being
interpreted through the prism of the cultural metaphor.
Chapter 1 provides an account of the methodological and research
design principles, issues and assumptions on which this research has
been predicated. Chapter 2 gives an overview of the data collected in
the form of brief summaries of the central themes which have been used
to analyse the case study organisation. The cultural perspective on
organisations is then presented in Chapter 3. Acquaintance with the
content of the cultural approach to Complex organisations is required
in order to facilitate the reader's understanding of Chapters 4-10 in
which the data are examined and analysed.
Chapter 4 gives a short introduction to the case study organisation at
which the research was conducted. Chapters 5-8 are detailed case
study analyses of four of the organisation's principal subsidiaries.
These are followed by a macro-organisational analysis which examines
the cultural and information/communication profiles that have been
developed for the subsidiaries within the total socio-organisational
context. Chapter 9's emphasis on the core categories omits some
important aspects of the organisation's culture (its strengths,
weaknesses, the issue of control and its relative stability) which are
dealt with in Chapter 10. Chapter 11 provides a description and
analysis of a new product launch conducted by the organisation: the
chapter seeks to evaluate the merits of using an approach which
emphasises information/communication and cultural variables for the
understanding and analysis of organisational behaviour.
Finally, Chapter 12 sets out some of the conclusions that can be drawn
from this research project. It takes a critical look at the research
design and methodology employed and introduces Kuhn's (1962) concept
of a paradigm which is used as a descriptive and analytical tool for
evaluating the cultural perspective. Some further conceptualisation
of the cases and the new product launch is attempted and process
models of complex organisations in general and organisational culture
in particular are derived and explained. The inter-relation of
information and communication phenomena and organisational culture is
further elaborated first normatively in the form of typologies and
second prescriptively in terms of the use value of culture for
information and communication studies. The conclusions are then
summarised and recommendations for further research are made.


Despite its benefit in a wide range of applications, data mining techniques also have raised a number of ethical issues. Some such issues include those of privacy, data security, intellectual property rights, and many others. In this paper, we address the privacy problem against unauthorized secondary use of information. To do so, we introduce a family of geometric data transformation methods (GDTMs) which ensure that the mining process will not violate privacy up to a certain degree of security. We focus primarily on privacy preserving data clustering, notably on partition-based and hierarchical methods. Our proposed methods distort only confidential numerical attributes to meet privacy requirements, while preserving general features for clustering analysis. Our experiments demonstrate that our methods are effective and provide acceptable values in practice for balancing privacy and accuracy. We report the main results of our performance evaluation and discuss some open research issues.


A protected and warningly coloured butterfly can become a muellerian mimic of another species in two steps: (i) a major mutation converts the pattern of the less protected species to an approximate resemblance of the better protected (one-way convergence); (ii) after the spread of this mutant, the species, which now resemble each other sufficiently to be mistaken one for the other by predators, undergo mutual convergence, using whatever major or minor genetic variation is available to them. Although sometimes one or other step might occur alone, in general early theorists were mistaken in attributing muellerian mimicry to only one of these processes. By hybridizing races of Heliconius melpomene and races of H. erato (a pair of parallel mimetic species from the neotropics, held in mutual muellerian mimicry across wide inter-racial variations in colour pattern) we have shown that, as expected from the two-step theory, the races differ at a number (two to nine) of genetic loci, usually unlinked or loosely linked, including at least one mutant of major effect in each case. We describe the genetic constitution of eight races of H. melpomene (for 11 loci affecting colour pattern) and of eight races of H. erato (for up to 15 loci), and have started to identify the linkage groups. Map distances for those loci that are linked range from around 0.3 to zero in males, with no recombination in females. Muellerian mimicry is expected to produce total uniformity of pattern: universal exceptions to this are the existence of distinct mimicry rings flying within the same habitat, geographical variation within nearly all the more widespread species (divergence in the face of normalizing selection), and, in a few species, polymorphism or sexual dimorphism. Sympatric mimicry rings will, according to the two-step model of evolution, persist indefinitely if their patterns are so distinct that under no circumstances do predators mistake one for the other. Gradual mutual convergence is then impossible, although members of a weakly protected mimicry ring that can produce a mutation giving sufficient initial resemblance to a better protected ring can still be captured by it. Batesian mimics promote this by lowering the protection of the ring that they belong to, but their models can escape only in this way as normalizing selection prevents their gradual evolution away from the batesian mimic. If the rings are too distinct in pattern even this capture of species becomes impossible as no single mutant is able to bridge the gap between the two patterns, and the necessary two mutations will be extremely unlikely to occur together. The five principal sympatric mimicry rings of the mature neotropical rain forests are very distinct in their appearance. The capture of a species by another ring can produce geographical variation both in the species captured and in the capturing ring, whose pattern is somewhat altered by mutual convergence with the captured species in the second step of the evolution of the muellerian resemblance. We suggest that the striking differences between the races within H. melpomene, H. erato and other Heliconius species resulted from these effects of inter-ring capture. Distributional evidence suggests that this chiefly occurred in refuges formed by the contraction of the neotropical rain forests during the cool dry periods in the Quaternary; these, by differential extinction of elements of the flora and fauna of different refuges, could have produced long-term changes in the relative abundances of the mimicry rings, and hence (as the protection given to a ring is proportional to its abundance) somewhat different capture events in each refuge. Several existing species confirm that this mode of evolution occurs, by retaining a distinctive pattern in the absence of any other remotely similar species, but becoming mimetic in areas where they encounter a pattern somewhat like their own. The isolated populations of Heliconius hermathena show this particularly clearly; the effect can be discerned also in H. melpomene and H. erato. Although polymorphism in muellerian mimics is largely unexplained, in two species of Heliconius it may result from the existence of two or more similar but slightly differing 9sub-rings9 among their comimics in the family Ithomiidae, which show both spatial and temporal heterogeneity in their local distribution, which apparently is able to maintain a polymorphic equilibrium in the more uniformly distributed Heliconius. We have tentatively reconstructed the ancestral patterns of H. melpomene and erato by two independent methods: first, as dominant genes are much more likely to be incorporated than recessive ones during changes of pattern, the phenotype produced by the recessive alleles at all the known loci will be close to the ancestral pattern; secondly, species that are becoming mimics evolve more than those that are not, so that non-mimetic relatives of melpomene and erato will have a pattern close to ancestral. Both methods suggest, for both species, that the ancestor was a black butterfly with yellow (or possibly white) bars, and it may be that melpomene and erato have been comimics for a very long time. Previous climatic cycles in the Quaternary have apparently caused full speciation within two mutually mimetic evolving lineages, producing pairs of parallel mimetic species within the genus, of which melpomene and erato constitute one pair.


A sensitive and selective method was proposed to detect Cu2+ based on the electrochemiluminescence quenching of CdS/ZnS quantum dots (QDs). Herein, CdS/ZnS QDs were one-step electrodeposited directly on a gold electrode from an electrolyte (containing Cd(NO3)2, Zn(NO3)2, EDTA and Na2S2O3) by cycling the potential from 0 to -1.8 V. The prepared CdS/ZnS QDs exhibited excellent solubility and strong and stable cathodic ECL activity. Meanwhile, Nafion was used to immobilize CdS/ZnS QDs. The quenching effect of Cu2+ on the cathodic ECL of CdS/ZnS QDs was found to be selective and concentration dependent. The linear range for Cu2+ detection was from 2.5 nM to 200 nM with a detection limit of 0.95 nM. Furthermore, the designed method for the detection of Cu2+ can provide a reference for the detection of other heavy metal ions.


"The first two lectures place the alternative I defend -- a kind of pragmatic realism -- in a historical and metaphysical context. Part of that context is provided by Husserl's remark that the history of modern philosophy begins with Galileo -- that is, modern philosophy has been hypnotized by the idea that scientific facts are all the facts there are. Another part is provided by the analysis of a very simple example of what I call 'contextual relativity'. The position I defend holds that truth depends on conceptual scheme and it is nonetheless 'real truth'. "In my third lecture I turn to the Kantian antecedents of this view, explaining what I think should be retained of the Kantian idea of autonomy as the central theme of morality, and extracting from Kant's work a 'moral image of the world' that connects the ideals of equality and intellectual liberty. In this lecture I defend the idea that moral images are an indispensible part of our moral and cultural heritage. "In the final lecture I defend the idea of moral objectivity. I compare our epistemological positions in ethics, history, analysis of human character, and science, and I argue that in no area can we hope for a 'foundation' which is more ultimate than the beliefs that actually, at a given time, function as foundational in the area, the beliefs concerning which one has to say 'this is where my spade is turned'. In ethics such beliefs are represented in moral images of the world".


This research has designed and conducted to adapting Strategy Map and Balanced Scorecard techniques in the case of national technology strategy for evaluating the progress of National Iranian Nanotechnology Initiative (NINI). While conducting research, it realized that the layers of Strategy Map are in high accordance with National Innovation System (NIS) levels. Therefore, these two mentioned approaches combined by survey of experts. Integrating two approaches concluded us placing "Social Capital" at the bottom layer of the Strategy Map as the NIS infrastructure and economic development at its top layer as the NIS obtained.


For families living in Nepal's remote highland regions, chronic food insecurity and hunger are part of daily life. Their own agricultural production is low; imported food is expensive; and as men migrate to find work elsewhere, women are left to manage farms and households alone. Climate change is making the situation worse.

This case study explores the reasons why Nepal is so vulnerable to food insecurity, and describes what Oxfam and its partners are doing to help improve food security for women and men living in remote parts of highland Nepal. It explores some of the innovative programme activities that have been developed with these communities.

By linking emergency food distribution with support for local traders, and by using cash-for-work schemes to create micro-irrigation systems and seed banks, Oxfam's programme is contributing to immediate needs for food and improved incomes, while also prioritizing interventions that will support long-term food security in the region.

Recognizing the pressures that male migration places on women in these communities, the programme also supports women's capacity to lead and influence community development.


Abstract: Rapid changes in technology have forced many organisations to upgrade their technology function in order to be more effective and able to compete with others. This includes accounting processes and its related data. As evidence, the changes in technology have replaced manual accounting processes to more automated tasks which reflected in the evolvement of Accounting Information System (AIS). AIS is defined as an application of technology and computer in performing accounting processes. The upgrade of AIS requires huge investment including money and human resources. Nevertheless, an accurate condition of AIS effectiveness is rather difficult to be concluded due to multidimensional nature of effectiveness itself. Inconsistent measures of AIS effectiveness were reported in literature review as a result of variation in effectiveness definition as well as lack of theory grounding. The measurement is continuously debated and a comprehensive measure is yet to be established. Therefore, this study offers multiple methods demonstrating qualitative and quantitative method in order to investigate a comprehensive measure of AIS effectiveness measurement and fill the research gap within AIS field. The objectives of this study are, (i) to investigate the dimensions criteria of AIS effectiveness; (ii) to develop a comprehensive measure of AIS effectiveness. Thus, in depth interviews were held with top management of accounting department in the Malaysian Federal Government. As a result, the measurement of AIS effectiveness is proposed based on user satisfaction that is classified into three main characteristics (i.e. perceived system quality, perceived information quality, and perceived benefit/usefulness of the system), consisting of 13 items. The proposed measurement is quantitatively examined through a survey conducted among accounting personnel (middle and lower management) in the Malaysian Federal Government. This study found only 10 items that are significantly reliable and valid to represent the three dimensions based on user satisfaction to measure AIS effectiveness.


Within the context of an aging population, sheltered housing providesa safe and sociable environment. The facilities offer communal living, supported independence and choice to participate in activities. Existing studies have shown that gardens can offer older people physiological, psychological and social benefits (Alves and Sugiyama 2006). Yet there is limited research into how the design of gardens in sheltered housing developments is considered. Methods Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the University of Brighton's School Research Ethics and Governance Panel. A qualitative approach was used to help investigate and understand the planning process using an interpretivist epistemology and a constructivist ontology. Results Three semi-structured interviews were then conducted with the managers of sheltered housing developments. The five key themes of the findings were: considerations when planning a garden how residents use the gardens well-being identity and social interaction the managers' involvement Seven sub-themes were also found: variety of plants the elements accessibility space gardeners and contractors security finances Conclusions The findings discuss the individual needs and choices of residents, as well as exploring the role managers can play in providing opportunities for residents to utilise their gardens However, they also reveal potential barriers to planning a garden. Participation in the research enabled the housing managers to reflect on how they enhance the gardens for their residents. The findings inform occupational therapists involved in planning o safe, therapeutic outside environments.
Alves S, Sugiyama T (2006) Literature review on the benefits of access to outdoor environments for older people, Available at http://www.idgo.ac.uk/useful_resources/for_other_researchers.htm


With outsourcing comes a perceived tension between the competitive pressures faced by domestic firms and the effect that outsourcing has on domestic workers. To address this tension, we present a general-equilibrium model with an oligopolistic export sector and a competitive import-competing sector. When there is a minimum wage, an outsourcing tax might be desirable and the usual profit-shifting objectives of an export subsidy are mitigated, perhaps completely, because it might lead to higher unemployment. Also, increased international competition has no affect on the level of outsourcing, but the direction of its effect on unemployment and national income depends on the relative factor intensities of the two sectors. Under wage flexibility, an outsourcing tax cannot be justified and the profit-shifting motive is the same as in a model without outsourcing. Further, if export subsidies are not possible due to WTO regulations, it is optimal to subsidize rather than to tax outsourcing. Finally, the effect of increased foreign competition on welfare depends on the relative factor intensities of the two sectors.


The article studies homelessness in the city of Pilsen, but instead of the traditional perspective, which works with the common definition of a 'homeless person', it introduces and defines the relational concept of the poorest class. The advantages of this class concept are that: (1) it does not rule out the possibility of the construction of a notion of home by members of this class; (2) it provides more information about social practices generally; (3) it focuses on the agent-individual, avoiding the reification of a homeless person in the form of a homogeneous group. Using the concepts of active agency and space-time the article aims to describe time-space mobility, everyday practices, and the production of places of the observed agents. This study draws on the theories of Pierre Bourdieu and Michel de Certeau and on the space-time theories of David Harvey, Thorsten Hagerstrand, and Michel Foucault. It works with ethnographic data and puts forth the idea that unlike dominant places, which are strategically produced and can be ascribed one dominant meaning and associated practice, in the case of tactically produced places there are always multiple meanings and thus a myriad of associated practices. These specific places are 'heterotopias'. The article describes the (re)production of one heterotopia and in doing so offers an empirically based conceptualisation of such a place.


Ever since the acorn woodpecker was observed and described by Spanish explorers, its behavior--particularly the unique habit of caching acorns in specialized storage trees or granaries--has impressed observers. Acorn woodpeckers are also one of the few temperate zone species in which young are reared communally in family groups. This demographic study investigates the complexities of acorn storage and group living in acorn woodpeckers at Hastings Reservation in central coastal California. It is one of the most thorough studies of any avian social system to date.


A terrestrial laser scanner was used to measure the three-dimensional structure of forest stands in the Swiss National Park, eastern Switzerland. Spatially coincident hemispherical photographs were taken at each sampling point and the position of each point was determined using differential GPS. A scanner model was derived in order to determine the expected number of laser shots in all directions, and these data were compared with the measured number of laser hits to determine directional gap fraction at nine sampling points. Directional gap fraction distributions were determined from the digital hemispherical photography and compared with distributions computed from the laser scanner data. The results showed that the measured directional gap fraction distributions were similar for both hemispherical photography and terrestrial laser scanner data with a high degree of precision in the area of overlap of orthogonal laser scans. Unlike hemispherical photography the laser scanner data offer semi-automatic measurement of gap fraction distributions, plus additional three-dimensional information about tree height, gap size distributions and foliage distributions.


Abstract: The anomalodesmatan family Laternulidae represents a group of bivalves with a very few well-known taxa and many more poorly known taxa. Laternula rostrata (G. B. Sowerby, 1839) and L. anatina (Linnaeus, 1758) occur in close proximity to each other in and along the margins of mangroves of Kungkrabaen Bay, Thailand. Laternula rostrata resides in soft to sandy sediments often within the interstices of mangrove roots located in more open portions of the mangrove mud flat. Laternula anatina lives deeper in the mangrove in more protected environs. Laternula anatina is a smaller bivalve that has a variable shell outline, sometimes a wrinkled shell appearance, thicker periostracum, and frequently extensive umbonal erosion. Both species have high concentrations of external shell spinules anteriorly and closer to the umbos (i.e., in juvenile shell) reflecting functionality in retaining an infaunal position. The larger L. rostrata is thinner shelled and more fragile; has more distinct and longer shell spinules composed of flattened lathes; a glossy external appearance; a longer umbonal slit; and a deeper pallial sinus. Additionally, L. rostrata has a saddle-shaped lithodesma; a lithodesma is absent in L. anatina as is typical of most laternulids. Shell microstructure of both is prismatonacreous, typical of the group, but the prismatic layer is thin and appears truncated into small blocky and/or granular columns in transitional zones. The bulk of the shell is tightly packed sheet nacre. The growth lines in L. rostrata, more pronounced but fewer in number than in L. anatina, appear as shallow rolling "hills" in both the shell and chondrophore. The differences in shell microstructure in these two species are specific to the taxa but based on different habitats and burrowing depths, albeit within the confines of a tropical mangal, could represent biomineralization events that reflect environmental adaptations. Variations in the thickness of the microstructural shell layers of four species of laternulids is compared and we speculate on possible functional and/or environmental relevance of these differences.


Tumor-induced metabolic stress associated with cachexia suppresses the antitumor immune response in mice. Cachexia is a disease characterized by muscle wasting and weight loss and is common in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and colorectal cancer (CRC). Patients with PDAC respond poorly to immunotherapy. Tumor secretion of the inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) is associated with cachexia. Using mouse models and patient samples, Flint and Janowitz et al. found that the failure of immunotherapy in some patients might be caused by the effects of tumor-secreted IL-6 on an intricate axis connecting the liver, the brain, and the immune system. Compared with caloric-restricted control animals without tumors, mice that were cachectic or caloric-restricted and had PDAC or CRC had lower plasma concentrations of glucose and ketones but higher concentrations of the stress hormone corticosterone and the inflammatory cytokine IL-6. Cachectic patients with PDAC also had low plasma ketone and high plasma corticosterone and IL-6. Ketones are produced in the liver through activation of the transcription factor PPAR-γ. Compared with control mice, the abundance of PPAR-γ in the liver was decreased in tumor-bearing mice and further decreased in tumor-bearing mice with cachexia or caloric restriction. Intravenous injection of recombinant IL-6 into control mice or a neutralizing antibody to IL-6 to precachectic tumor-bearing mice indicated that tumor-secreted IL-6 was critical in suppressing hepatic ketogenesis. Transcriptional and histological analyses of tumors from precachectic and cachetic mice revealed that innate and adaptive immune cell infiltration was decreased in cachectic tumors, a phenomenon that was also induced by food restriction in precachectic tumor-bearing mice. Glucocorticoids are used pharmacologically as immune suppressants. Implanting precachectic (freely feeding) tumor-bearing mice with corticosterone-releasing subcutaneous pellets decreased intratumoral T cell infiltration, whereas injecting mice with the glucocorticoid synthesis inhibitor aminoglutethimide inhibited the fasting-induced increase in corticosterone production and improved intratumoral immune infiltration in fasting mice. The growth of PDAC tumors in mice that were implanted with corticosterone-releasing pellets was not affected by various immunotherapies, whereas the growth of tumors in mice implanted with placebo pellets was prevented by immunotherapy. These findings show that tumor-induced changes to liver metabolism trigger stress hormone production and immunosuppression. Targeting this axis—by blocking IL-6 or corticosterone signaling, for example—might enhance immunotherapy in PDAC and CRC patients. T. R. Flint, T. Janowitz, C. M. Connell, E. W. Roberts, A. E. Denton, A. P. Coll, D. I. Jodrell, D. T. Fearon, Tumor-induced IL-6 reprograms host metabolism to suppress anti-tumor immunity. Cell Metab. 24, 672–684 (2016). [PubMed]


Empowerment has been put forward by industrial psychologists as a beneficial goal for both business and employee alike. The enrichment of life at work has been propounded by some as a means to improve morale, productivity and quality of working life.
The study examines the extent to which information technology (IT) might facilitate the empowerment of office workers and the enrichment of life at work for these workers.
Particular reference is made to the staff of ESB, the Irish electricity utility, which is undergoing radical organisational change.
The study relates aspects of information technology and office work to their cultural, corporate and environmental context in a synthetic way.
A survey was carried out among staff at the company using specifically designed written instruments in the form of questionnaires. This survey concludes that:
- bodily discomfort is reported by a proportion of Respondents who use computer terminals;
-there is some frustration at the inadequacy of certain software products;
-electronic mail is generally perceived in a favourable light, for example in facilitating communications -people feel they would be less well-informed without E-mail;
-word processing products are perceived as useful, while database products are less
widely used;
-Respondents do not use more exotic forms of I T such as videoconferencing;
-most people feel they could not do their job as well without a computer;
-IT is seen as enhancing productivity and reducing tedium;
-there was improvement in the quality of life at work and in the job satisfaction of many Respondents, though not all.
Finally, some recommendations are offered which may enhance the empowering and enriching ability of I T.


Introduction: Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) are sounds that originate in cochlea and are measured in external auditory canal and provide a simple, efficient and non-invasive objective indicator of healthy cochlear function. Olivo cochlear bundle (OCB) or auditory efferent system is a neural feedback pathway which originated from brain stem and terminated in the inner ear and can be evaluated non-invasively by applying a contralateral acoustic stimulus and simultaneously measuring reduction of OAEs amplitude. In this study gender differences in TEOAE amplitude and suppression of TEOAE were investigated. Method and Materials: This study was performed at Akhavan rehabilitation centre belonging to the University of Social welfare and rehabilitation sciences, Tehran, Iran in 2011. 60 young adults (30 female and 30 male) between 21 and 27 years old (mean= 24 years old, SD=1.661) with normal hearing criteria were selected. Right ear of all cases were tested to neutralize side effect if there is any. Results: According to Independent T-test, TEOAE amplitude was significantly greater in females with mean value of 24.98 dB (p-value <0.001) and TEOAE suppression was significantly greater in males with mean value of 2.07 dB (p-value <0.001). Conclusion: This study shows that there is a significant gender difference in adult's TEOAE (cochlear mechanisms) and TEOAE suppression (auditory efferent system). The exact reason for these results is not clear. According to this study different norms for males and females might be necessary.


ABSTRACT Ny-Ålesund is an international research settlement where the thermodynamics and chemical composition of the air are monitored. The present work investigates the effects of micrometeorological conditions, mesoscale dynamics and local air pollution on the data collected at two different locations around the village. Daily filter measurements of sulphur dioxide and non-sea salt sulphate from the temporary Ny-Ålesund station and permanent Zeppelin mountain station have been analysed along with meteorological data. The influence of different factors representing micrometeorological phenomena and local pollution from ships has been statistically investigated. Seasonal variation of the correlation between the data from Ny-Ålesund and Zeppelin stations is revealed, and the seasonal dependence of the relative contribution of different factors has been analysed. The median concentrations of SO42- measured in Ny-Ålesund increased significantly on days with temperature inversions in winter. In spring, concentrations of SO2 and SO42- were higher than normal at both stations on days with temperature inversions, but lower on days with strong humidity inversions. In summer, local ship traffic affects the SO2 data set from Ny-Ålesund, while no statistically significant influence on the Zeppelin data set has been observed. The pollution from ships has an effect on SO42- values at both stations; however, the concentrations in Ny-Ålesund were higher when local pollution accumulated close to the ground in days with strong humidity inversions.


Several approaches exist to model the evolution of dynamical systems with large populations. These approaches can be roughly divided into microscopic ones, which are usually stochastic and discrete, and macroscopic ones, which are obtained as the limit behaviour when the populations tend to infinity and are usually deterministic and continuous. We study the dynamics obtained by both approaches in systems with one deterministic equilibrium. We show that such dynamics can exhibit rather different behaviour around the deterministic equilibrium, in particular, the limit behaviour can tend to an equilibrium while the stochastic discrete dynamics oscillates indefinitely. To evaluate such stochastic oscillations quantitatively, we propose a system of differential equations on polar coordinates. The solution of this system provides several measures of interest related to the stochastic oscillations, such as average amplitude and frequency.


States are increasingly resorting to raising the minimum wage to boost the earnings of those at the bottom of the income distribution. In this paper, we examine the effects of minimum wage increases on the health of the children of immigrants. Their parents are disproportionately represented in minimum wage jobs, typically have less access to health care and are a growing part of the U.S. labor force. Using a difference-in-differences identification strategy and data drawn from the National Health Interview Survey from the years 2000 - 2015, we examine whether children of low-educated immigrants experience any changes in health or access to care when the minimum wage increases.


This Article highlights the role of capture in providing a normative foundation for regulatory review of administrative action, which at the federal level is conducted by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). It also establishes a reform agenda to help bring the practice of review in line with its anti-capture justification. There are two traditional justifications for OIRA review: that centralized review facilitates the exercise of presidential authority over agencies; and that bureaucratic tendencies toward overzealousness require a centralized checking response. Both of these justifications are problematic, however. The normative desirability of maximizing presidential power is subject to debate, and OIRA's contribution to increasing presidential control is minimal. Bureaucratic incentives can lead to both over- and underregulation, raising doubts about the need for a systematic check focused solely on the former. An anti-capture function for OIRA provides a more promising ground for regulatory review. OIRA has four important features that, in principle, can facilitate an anti-capture role: its generalist nature; its coordination function; its use of cost-benefit analysis; and a tradition of independent leadership. There are, however, elements of OIRA review that undermine its anti-capture potential, most importantly the near exclusive focus on the review of agency action. The failure of an agency to act can be just as detrimental to social well-being as overzealousness, and special interests may seek deregulation, delay, and weak regulation as often as over-regulation. This Article proposes a specific mechanism for OIRA to engage in review of agency inaction by examining petitions for rulemakings filed with agencies. This procedure cabins OIRA's inaction review powers within a fairly limited field, making the task workable, and takes advantage of information held by parties outside the government.


Cancer-associated fibroblasts enhance cancer progression when activated by tumor cells through mechanisms not yet fully understood. Blocking mammary tumor cell–derived lysyl oxidase-like 2 (LOXL2) significantly inhibited mammary tumor cell invasion and metastasis in transgenic and orthotopic mouse models. Here, we discovered that tumor-derived LOXL2 directly activated stromal fibroblasts in the tumor microenvironment. Genetic manipulation or antibody inhibition of LOXL2 in orthotopically grown mammary tumors reduced the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA). Using a marker for reticular fibroblasts, it was determined that expression of α-SMA was localized to fibroblasts recruited from the host tissue. This marker also revealed that the matrix present in tumors with reduced levels of LOXL2 was more scattered compared with control tumors which exhibited matrices with dense, parallel alignments. Importantly, in vitro assays revealed that tumor-derived LOXL2 and a recombinant LOXL2 protein induced fibroblast branching on collagen matrices, as well as increased fibroblast-mediated collagen contraction and invasion of fibroblasts through extracellular matrix. Moreover, LOXL2 induced the expression of α-SMA in fibroblasts grown on collagen matrices. Mechanistically, it was determined that LOXL2 activated fibroblasts through integrin-mediated focal adhesion kinase activation. These results indicate that inhibition of LOXL2 in tumors not only reduces tumor cell invasion but also attenuates the activation of host cells in the tumor microenvironment. Implications: These findings reveal new insight into the mechanisms of fibroblast activation, a novel function of LOXL2, and further highlight the importance of generating LOXL2-targeted therapies for the prevention of tumor progression and metastasis. Mol Cancer Res; 11(11); 1425–36. ©2013 AACR.


This article examines the equal opportunities policies of a local authority which were intended to improve the representation of black women managers. It reports the types of initiatives and proportions of black women employed in different grades over time; and discusses the organisational context, contrasting the views of personnel and line managers, and EO specialists, with those of black women who had achieved senior positions. These latter accounts illustrated how inequalities were sustained despite, and at times in articulation with, an EO policy which was relatively successful in formal terms. Findings are discussed with reference to two criticisms made of EO policies: inadequate implementation, and a failure to redress the effects of social inequalities or challenge white, male work norms. The article suggests that increasing formal controls or the range of initiatives is insufficient: better ways of understanding and challenging the role of organisational structures, cultures and politics in sustaining inequality is needed.


Abstract Following the earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan on 11 March 2011 and the ensuing damage to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex, a request by the U.S. Ambassador to Japan to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) resulted in deployment of a five-person team of subject matter experts to the U.S. Embassy. The primary purpose of the deployment was to provide the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo with guidance on health and medical issues related to potential radiation exposure of U.S. citizens in Japan, including employees of the U.S. Department of State at consulates in Japan and American citizens living in or visiting Japan. At the request of the Government of Japan (GOJ), the deployed health team also assisted Japanese experts in their public health response to the radiation incident. Over a 3-wk period in Japan and continuing for weeks after their return to the U.S., the team provided expertise in the areas of medical and radiation oncology; health physics; assessment of radiation dose and cancer risk, particularly to U.S. citizens living in Tokyo and the surrounding areas; food and water contamination and the acceptable limits; countermeasures to exposure such as potassium iodide (KI); the use of KI and an offered donation from the United States;, evacuation and re-entry issues; and health/emergency-related communication strategies. This paper describes the various strategies used and observations made by the DHHS team during the first 2 mo after the Fukushima crisis began.


BACKGROUND
Dental fluorosis occurs as a result of excessive total fluoride intake during tooth development. Some children may receive substantial intake from soft drinks, but few studies have reported fluoride levels in soft drinks. The authors examined the fluoride concentrations of 332 soft drinks.

METHODS
Soft drinks were purchased from Iowa grocery stores. To identify production sites, the authors recorded product details and batch numbers. After decarbonating the drinks, the authors assayed samples for fluoride content using a fluoride ion-specific electrode, and reported the results in parts per million, or ppm, using appropriate standards and duplicate assessments. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the findings.

RESULTS
The fluoride levels of the products ranged from 0.02 to 1.28 ppm, with a mean level of 0.72 ppm. Fluoride levels exceeded 0.60 ppm for 71 percent of the products. Results varied substantially by production site, even within the same company and for the same product. There were no substantial differences between flavors or between diet and regular soft drinks.

CONCLUSIONS
The majority of soft drinks had fluoride levels exceeding 0.60 ppm. Variation in fluoride levels probably is due largely to the different water sources used in production.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS
With no fluoride levels marked on the soft drink products or easily available from the manufacturers, it is not possible for clinicians or consumers to directly estimate fluoride ingestion from carbonated beverages. Therefore, to reduce the risk of dental fluorosis, dental and medical practitioners should be cautious about prescribing dietary fluoride supplements to preschool-aged children in nonfluoridated areas who consume large quantities of carbonated soft drinks.


Prepared by the Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering of ASCE This TCLEE Monograph provides guidelines for the seismic evaluation and upgrade of water transmission facilities, including aqueducts, tunnels, canals, buried pipelines, elevated pipelines and their appurtenances. Topics covered include the performance of these facilities in past earthquakes; geotechnical issues; performance criteria; risk analysis; analysis methods; and a series of case studies. The guidelines can also be used for the design of new water transmission facilities. The case studies cover seismic designs and retrofits for the Mokelumne Aqueduct, the Contra Costa Canal, the Borel Canal, buried pipes at fault crossings, and auxiliary water fire fighting systems. The case studies also examine post-earthquake operations, financial issues, and the benefits of seismic retrofits.


The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.


photoreactor using solar radiation. The effect of various parameters such as pH, initial concentration of pollutant, catalyst dose, oxidant, and time variation were studied. The determination of the best catalyst was studied amongst the four catalysts (TiO2, ZnO, PSA and SSA) .The kinetics of degradation of isooctane was also studied. The results showed that TiO2 was the best catalyst with a degradation rate of 57. Also, the optimum conditions for the degradation of the isooctane were; 50mg/L of initial concentration, pH 8 and catalyst dose of 4.0g/l. The kinetics analysis for the degradation of isooctane revealed that it follows pseudo – first‐ order reaction kinetics. The Langmuir – Hinshelwood model showed a better fitting with reaction rate and adsorption equilibrium constants of 3.0 mg/L.h and 1.53 × 10‐3 L/mg respectively and the regression was 0.979. Finally


"Successful Boxing" is the ultimate training manual for aspiring boxers. This indispensable resource shares tips and suggestions on how to improve skills and maximize performance. With inspiration and advice from World Champions Sergio Martinez, Saul Alvarez, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and a foreword by legendary World Champion Juan Manuel Marquez, using the information presented in this book will be just like receiving private sessions with a coach or top performer. These tips and training methods allow you to master the individual nuances of boxing to give you the winning edge.


Reading comprehension in adults is a rather neglected variable in the practice of psychological assessment. We propose a new screening instrument for adult reading comprehension based on a pragmatic definition of reading comprehension as the textual understanding of the text read. Using data from a calibration sample (n = 266) and a replication sample (n = 148) for cross-validation, we tested the model fit for the 1-PL model (Rasch-model; graphic model test, Anderson's Conditional Likelihood-Ratio test). Model fit was established and verified in the replication sample after the stepwise exclusion of three (out of 16) items. Correlations with a test for memory and the external criterion reading proficiency were in the expected direction. The comparison of a sub-group of putatively highly skilled readers (n = 59; University students and lecturers) and putatively low skilled readers (n = 122; participants undergoing psychological assessment for having their driving license reinstated after a ban) showed that a percent rank < 10 in the measure might indicate insufficient reading skills for practical purposes. Pending further research, the instrument seems to be a useful instrument for the screening of reading comprehension skills in adults.


The global ocean chlorophyll archive produced by the CZCS was revised using compatible algorithms with SeaWiFS. Both archives were then blended with in situ data to reduce residual errors. This methodology permitted a quantitative comparison of decadal changes in global ocean chlorophyll from the CZCS (1979–1986) and SeaWiFS (1997–2000) records. Global spatial distributions and seasonal variability of ocean chlorophyll were similar, but global means decreased over the two observational segments. Major changes were observed regionally: chlorophyll concentrations decreased in the northern high latitudes while chlorophyll in the low latitudes increased. Mid‐ocean gyres exhibited limited changes. The overall spatial and seasonal similarity of the two data records suggests that the changes are due to natural variability. These results provide evidence of how the Earth's climate may be changing and how ocean biota respond.


We previously reported that the chronic inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) synthesis increases cardiac tissue angiotensin-converting enzyme expression and causes cardiac fibrosis in rats. However, the mechanisms are not known. Transforming growth factorb (TGF-b) is a key molecule that is responsible for tissue fibrosis. The present study investigated the role of TGFb in the pathogenesis of cardiac fibrosis. The development of cardiac fibrosis by oral administration of the NO synthesis inhibitor N-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) to normal rats was preceded by increases in mRNA levels of cardiac TGFb1 and extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. TGFb immunoreactivity was increased in the areas of fibrosis. Treatment with a specific angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonist, but not with hydralazine, completely prevented the L-NAME–induced increases in the gene expression of TGFb1 and ECM proteins and also prevented cardiac fibrosis. Intraperitoneal injection of neutralizing antibody against TGFb did not affect the L-NAME–induced increase in TGFb1 mRNA levels but prevented an increase in the mRNA levels of ECM protein. These results suggest that the early induction of TGFb1 via the angiotensin II type 1 receptor plays a major role in the development of cardiac fibrosis in this model. (Hypertension. 1998;32:273-279.)


When examined collectively the trade and colonization charters that Tudor and Stuart monarchs issued demonstrate a developing English conception of world order based on trade monopolies and not on ecclesiastical premises or on the Grotian notion of freedom of the seas. There were therefore three early modern conceptions of how an international order might be created, not one, all of which affected European trade with the Americas and Asia. They all began with the assumption that the discovery of the several new worlds required developing rules of engagement to reduce if not to eliminate conflict among the European nations engaged in overseas exploration, settlement, and trade. As Koen Stapelbroek has pointed out, understanding the role of legal notions in the actual historical creation and gradually evolving function of a new kind of commercial-political entity, requires a distinctly non-doctrinal focus.'


Mary Hays believed that "in the intellectual advancement of women […] is to be traced the progress of civilization." This essay traces the trajectory of Hays's own "advancement," focusing on Robert Robinson's tutelage from 1781 to her initial encounters with Wollstonecraft. The rational culture of late-eighteenth-century radical Dissent encouraged Hays to venture into the masculine strongholds of Enlightenment understanding, but here, as in the larger world, the "insuperable barriers" of gender obtained. Despite these obstacles, Hays forged an identity as female autodidact in the 1780s, readying herself to embrace Wollstonecraft's "revolution in female manners." Hays's initial contribution was to urge a new cognitive freedom, the recognition that women, too, may aspire to "the emancipated mind [which] is impatient of imposition, nor can it, in a retrogade [sic] course, unlearn what it has learned, or unknow what it has known." Hays's unfinished transition from sheltered puritan to Nonconformist apprentice to ardent feminist provides the missing link in our appreciation of her collaboration with Wollstonecraft and Godwin in the 1790s. I show how Hays was transformed into the obvious candidate for public denunciation as chief living "unsex'd female" in Wollstonecraft's stead.


To manage the increasing amount of RDF data, an RDF repository should provide not only necessary scalability and efficiency, but also sufficient inference capabilities. In this paper, we propose a native RDF repository, System Π, to pursue a better tradeoff among the above requirements. System Π takes the hypergraph representation for RDF as the data model for its persistent storage, which effectively avoids the costs of data model transformation when accessing RDF data. In addition, a set of efficient semantic query processing techniques are designed. The results of performance evaluation on the LUBM benchmark show that System Π has a better combined metric value than the other comparable systems.