Objectives
Previous studies have defined dietary patterns for comparison with microbiome features using factor analysis from food frequency questionnaires. In this study, we applied a new tree-based method to directly define dietary patterns from 24-hour food records. We aimed to determine if these patterns corresponded with microbial features.

Methods
Daily fecal samples and daily 24-hour food records (ASA24-2016) were collected from 32 healthy adults over 17 days. Dietary patterns were derived using all reported foods for each subject. Foods were arranged into a tree structure using USDA food groups. Tree-based weighted Unifrac food distances (QIIME 1.9.1) were used for principal coordinate analysis to define five dietary patterns. Each pattern was named after its most influential food groups. Average microbiome composition was determined from metagenomic sequencing. Dietary patterns were compared with subjects' average microbiome composition using correlation analysis. Spearman correlations were corrected for multiple comparisons within each taxonomy level. Constrained redundancy analysis (RDA) was used to determine the explanatory power of dietary patterns.

Results
Four of the five most discriminatory dietary patterns (DPs) were associated with microbial taxa (A). DP1 was positively correlated with an unclassified family in the order Burkholderiales and negatively correlated with the species Lachnospiraceae bacterium TF01-11. DP3, DP4, DP5 were most representative of a western diet. DP3 was negatively correlated with family Pasteurellaceae. DP4 was positively correlated with family Erysipelotrichaceae and negatively correlated with family Sutterellaceae. DP5 was positively correlated with members of class Bacteroidia including two specific Bacteroides speciesHMSC073E02 and HMSC067B03. Constrained RDA using the five dietary patterns revealed a gradient of Phylum Bacteroidetes along an axis driven by DP3, DP4, and DP5 (B).

Conclusions
The dietary patterns derived using our tree-based method reveal relationships between diet microbial taxa. In agreement with previous studies, our tree-based patterns show that the western diet corresponds to increased Bacteroidetes, demonstrating the utility of this method.

Funding Sources
Funding for this study was provided by General Mills.

Supporting Tables Images and/or Graphs


In a continuously changing external environment, the learning organization can provide a competitive advantage. However, the concept has been largely criticized for the lack of guidelines and tools on how it could be developed. This undermines the opportunity for the development of the learning organization. This paper aims to contribute toward the debate on its creation by proposing a Learning Organization Atlas Framework approach. This framework comprises of the facets of the learning organization that characterize them, a Learning Organization Grid for the analysis and benchmarking of organizations, a Learning Organization Atlas that can be used for developing models of them, and a Learning Organization Road Map that includes the intentions of the organization and the strategies to achieve those intentions. With the framework and its four elements, we propose a method for modeling the learning organization and organizational change by providing embedded flexibility. The next level for research is in identifying the influence between different facets, strategy selection, and development of guidelines for models of learning organizations.


Yield production was investigated in the winter oilseed rape variety Capricorn by comparing crops grown under standard husbandry conditions in three seasons (1991, 1992 and 1993 harvest years). Also investigated were the effects of the phytotonic imidazole fungicide prochloraz on the physiology of yield production. Prochloraz was applied in autumn, spring and summer in all possible combinations (eight treatments), except in the second season (1992), when the autumn application was omitted. Crop growth and development were studied in detail using stratified sampling in 20 cm layers. Detailed growth analysis between flowering and final harvest was restricted to untreated controls and plots receiving all three prochloraz applications. Solar radiation interception was measured using tube solarimeters arranged to correspond with layers of the profile obtained in sampling.

The qualitative pattern of growth and development was the same in all three seasons regardless of variations in environmental conditions, and could be divided into the four distinct but overlapping stages described in previous studies. Potential yield (pod number) was determined at flowering and was almost constant between seasons. It did not limit final yield and can never be fully realised. Final seed yield was dependent upon the amount of solar radiation intercepted in Stage IV (seed development), and was manifested in the extent of pod and seed losses and seed growth during this period. The efficiency of radiation use varied between seasons.

The main role of leaves was the development of the reproductive framework, and rapid leaf senescence occurred at flowering, particularly in Stage III (pod development). Losses of potential pods and seeds were continuous from flowering onwards but were severe in Stage III. Pod retention was determined by the availability of assimilates which depended on radiation interception and intra-plant competition for assimilates. Regulation of this was probably under hormonal control. Dry matter production was unaffected by the flower canopy except when radiation levels were unusually low during Stage III. Final yield was not affected by such effects. Seed number per pod is determined genetically, but modified during development by assimilate availability according to position in the canopy and the number of competing pods.

Seed growth occurred mainly in Stage IV and depended upon the extent of photosynthesis, largely in pods and branches. Seed yield was independent of growth up to flowering, and no remobilisation of dry matter occurred to support seed-filling. When open canopies were produced, leaf retention (largely at the base of the pod canopy), radiation interception by leaf, and therefore, assimilation by leaf, were all increased. Under such circumstances, assimilate production by leaf at the base of the pod canopy may have contributed up to 20% of the dry matter (seed) produced in Stage IV. Pod and seed retention were improved throughout, but particularly higher in the canopy, because seeds that were growing well were more likely to be retained.

Disease development in all treatments was monitored using detailed assessments throughout each season. The main fungicidal effects of prochloraz were on light leaf and pod spot and stem canker. Disease incidence was reduced in all seasons, but severity was reduced only in 1993. However, disease severities were generally very low, and these fungicidal effects probably had little or no effect on yield. Large losses of potential yield were caused by severe sclerotinia infection combined with high temperatures, a high soil moisture deficit, and possibly lodging (1992). Sclerotinia was controlled by iprodione in 1993. Disease data were used to form a model to estimate the expected yield losses caused by sclerotinia infection. Heavy infections of stem canker in 1993 did not seriously affect yield.

Prochloraz increased seed yield by up to 16% in 1991 through increased pod numbers largely in the upper and middle regions of the pod canopy. Seed number per pod was increased slightly, largely due to higher retention in lower pods, while 1000-seed weight was not affected. Effects were negative in 1992 and inconclusive in 1993. Prochloraz increased crop growth from March onwards in 1991, and the differences in green area and dry matter components were maintained to final harvest. There was no effect on harvest index. Leaf senescence was delayed by prochloraz so that during Stage IV (seed development), leaf area index in the pod canopy and just below was greater in treated plots, and the proportion of radiation intercepted by leaf was slightly increased. Total radiation interception was increased due to the increased green area index mainly due to increased pod and stem areas in the top and middle of the canopy. Prochloraz delayed crop senescence and therefore reduced the decline in efficiency in late Stage IV. Total assimilate production in Stage IV was increased partly because of continued assimilate production for longer in all organs including retained leaf. This enabled more pods to be supported throughout the canopy. By prolonging assimilatory activity in the organs at the base of the canopy, prochloraz probably modified the pattern of assimilate movement between layers of the canopy. Seed numbers per pod in lower pods and pods higher in the canopy would, therefore, have been maintained. Reasons for the failure of prochloraz to elicit a similar response in 1992 and 1993, and the nature of the phytotonic effect are discussed.

The findings are discussed in relation to the development of an oilseed rape ideotype for maximising yield production.


In recent years, returns of adult sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka to the Columbia River Basin have reached numbers not observed since the 1950s. To understand factors related to these increased returns, we first looked for changes in freshwater production and survival of juvenile migrants. We then evaluated productivity changes by estimating smolt-to-adult return rates (SAR) for juvenile migration years 1985–2010. We found SAR varied between 0.2 and 23.5%, with the highest values coinciding with recent large adult returns. However, the largest adult return, in 2012, resulted not from increased survival, but from increased smolt production. We evaluated 19 different variables that could influence SARs, representing different facets of freshwater and ocean conditions. We used model selection criteria based on small-sample corrected AIC to evaluate the relative performance of all two- and three-variable models. The model with April upwelling, Pacific Northwest Index (PNI) in the migration year, and PNI in the year before migration had 10 times the AICc weight as the second-best-supported model, and R2 = 0.82. The variables of April ocean upwelling and PNI in the migration year had high weights of 0.996 and 0.927, respectively, indicating they were by far the best of the candidate variables to explain variations in SAR. While our analyses were primarily correlative and limited by the type and amount of data currently available, changes in ocean conditions in the northern California Current system, as captured by April upwelling and PNI, appeared to play a large role in the variability of SAR.


The choice of reliable reference genes as an internal control is inevitable to obtain accurate results. Here we present an assessment of 7 reference genes (18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, ACTB, GAPDH, TUBA1, YWHAZ, and SDHA) to normalize gene expression data in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas (HNSCCs). We attempted to determine a reliable set of reference genes to use in the normalization of gene expression data in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas (HNSCCs) and normal mucosal tissues. Malignant and non-malignant tissue samples were collected from 12 patients with primary untreated HNSCC. geNorm and NormFinder software packages were used for data evaluations. Results obtained by geNorm indicated that average expression stability values (M) of all candidates genes were smaller than 1.5 (accepted M value for geNorm), showing that all the evaluated genes can be employed as HKGs, although GAPDH and ACTB were reported to be the most stable. Similarly, NormFinder results were in agreement with geNorm's results. GAPDH and ACTB are considered to be most suitable reference genes to evaluate novel gene expression in the tissues several of HNSCCs.


When we speak of clouds these days, it is as likely that we mean data clouds or network clouds as cumulus or stratus. In their sharing of the term, both kinds of clouds reveal an essential truth: that the natural world and the technological world are not so distinct. In The Marvelous Clouds, John Durham Peters argues that though we often think of media as environments, the reverse is also just as true - environments are media. Peters defines media expansively as elements that compose the human world. Drawing from ideas implicit in media philosophy, Peters argues that media are more than carriers of messages: they are the very infrastructures combining nature and culture that allow for human life to thrive. Through an encyclopedic array of examples from the oceans to the skies, The Marvelous Clouds reveals the long prehistory of so-called new media. Digital media, Peters argues, are an extension of early practices tied to the establishment of civilization such as mastering fire, building calendars, reading the stars, creating language, and establishing religions. New media do not take us into uncharted waters, but rather confront us with the deepest and oldest questions of society and ecology: how to manage the relations people have with themselves, others, and the natural world. A wide-ranging meditation on the many means we have employed to cope with the struggles of existence - from navigation to farming, meteorology to Google - The Marvelous Clouds shows how media lie at the very heart of our interactions with the world around us. Peters' book will not only change how we think about media but will provide a new appreciation for the day-to-day foundations of life on earth we so often take for granted.


What makes you a successful cooperator? Using data from the British television game show "Golden Balls" we analyze a prisoner's dilemma game and its pre-play. We find that players strategically select their partner for the PD, e.g., they bear in mind whether contestants lied. Players' expectations about the stake size strongly influence the outcome of the PD: The lower the stakes, the more likely players successfully cooperate. Most interestingly, unilateral cooperation is encouraged by mutually promising not to defect and shaking hands on it, but a mere handshake serves as manipulating device and increases successful defection.


The relationship between Criminal Law and European Human Rights Law (EuHRL) is a complicated one. It is well-known that human rights and Criminal Law are deeply linked, for the simple reason that Criminal Justice System as a whole, namely substantive criminal law and the criminal process, "violates" human rights and ontologically affects basic freedoms: liberty and security, right to respect for private and family life, freedoms of expression and association, and so on; all rights protected by the European Convention of Human Right (ECHR) and the European Court of Strasbourg (ECtHR). Therefore, even if the Convention, compared to other international Covenants on human rights, is particularly 'poor' in criminal provisions , it is obvious that a 'judge of human rights' constantly deals with criminal law. All human beings have fundamental rights that should be protected by criminal law. The problem, however, is that within the criminal justice system, offender's and victims' human rights -- more often than not -- conflict with each other, and therefore must be balanced. This paper is aimed at answering the question on why does that relationship between domestic Criminal Law and EuHRL appear so complicated, and often unresolvable.


Significance Consider a skill you would like to learn, like playing the piano. How do you progress from "Chopsticks" to Chopin? As you learn to do something new with your hands, does the brain also do something new? We found that monkeys learned new skilled behavior by generating new neural activity patterns. We used a brain–computer interface (BCI), which directly links neural activity to movement of a computer cursor, to encourage animals to generate new neural activity patterns. Over several days, the animals began to exhibit new patterns of neural activity that enabled them to control the BCI cursor. This suggests that learning to play the piano and other skills might also involve the generation of new neural activity patterns. Learning has been associated with changes in the brain at every level of organization. However, it remains difficult to establish a causal link between specific changes in the brain and new behavioral abilities. We establish that new neural activity patterns emerge with learning. We demonstrate that these new neural activity patterns cause the new behavior. Thus, the formation of new patterns of neural population activity can underlie the learning of new skills.


Multidimensional WSNs are deployed in complex environments to sense and collect data relating to multiple attributes (multidimensional data). Such networks present unique challenges to data dissemination, data storage and in-network query processing (information discovery). In this paper, we investigate efficient strategies for information discovery in large-scale multidimensional WSNs and propose the Adaptive Multi-Dimensional Multi-Resolution Architecture (A-MDMRA) that efficiently combines "push" and "pull" strategies for information discovery and adapts to variations in the frequencies of events and queries in the network to construct optimal routing structures. We present simulation results showing the optimal routing structure depends on the frequency of events and query occurrence in the network. It also balances push and pull operations in large scale networks enabling significant QoS improvements and energy savings.


Research on networks for challenged environments has become a major research area recently. There is however a lack of true understanding among networking researchers about what such environments really are like. In this paper we give an introduction to the ExtremeCom series of workshops that were created to overcome this limitation. We will discuss the motivation behind why the workshop series was created, give some summaries of the two workshops that have been held, and discuss the lessons that we have learned from them.


Additive manufacturing (also known as rapid prototyping, shape metal deposition or near net manufacture ) is becoming an important option for low volume production of complex parts. Much of the recent effort has been devoted to laser based processes using powder feedstock and 3D printing techniques; these techniques are well suited to producing smaller complex structures in a wide range of materials. The current paper describes a technique for cold wire GTAW deposition of titanium alloys using robotic welding and integrated post weld machining; the approach is suitable for producing much larger parts. The techniques involved and resultant weld quality will be discussed.


Knowledge sharing is one of sub issues in knowledge management. This research aims to investigate the relationship among informal knowledge sharing, attitude to avoid sharing risk and Trust. The data collected from 439 respondents. Statistical power analysis was run to reject type 1 and type 2 statistical errors and to get practical significations on hypotheses test results. Instrument validity of this research tested using discriminant validity and convergent validity. Instrument of this research has good reliability score. This research use first order Partial Least Square (PLS) technique to test research model. Attitude to Avoid Sharing Risk have negative correlation with Informal Knowledge Sharing. Attitude to Avoid Sharing Risk have negative correlation with Trust. Trust has a positive correlation with Informal Knowledge Sharing. This research does discussion using descriptive data and individual character of respondents. This research use extraversion and openness to experiences, two of basic individual characters, to explain unsupported hypotheses. Two interesting findings are identified first respondent concern on sharing risk is one of key factors in informal knowledge sharing behaviors. Second, individual characteristics will influence overall sharing behavior.


Ranking is a ubiquitous phenomenon in human society. On the web pages of Forbes, one may find all kinds of rankings, such as the world's most powerful people, the world's richest people, the highest-earning tennis players, and so on and so forth. Herewith, we study a specific kind—sports ranking systems in which players' scores and/or prize money are accrued based on their performances in different matches. By investigating 40 data samples which span 12 different sports, we find that the distributions of scores and/or prize money follow universal power laws, with exponents nearly identical for most sports. In order to understand the origin of this universal scaling we focus on the tennis ranking systems. By checking the data we find that, for any pair of players, the probability that the higher-ranked player tops the lower-ranked opponent is proportional to the rank difference between the pair. Such a dependence can be well fitted to a sigmoidal function. By using this feature, we propose a simple toy model which can simulate the competition of players in different matches. The simulations yield results consistent with the empirical findings. Extensive simulation studies indicate that the model is quite robust with respect to the modifications of some parameters.


This paper examines the extent to which tax and benefit policy changes introduced in the period 2001-11 had a poverty- or inequality-reducing effect. We assess whether the period was indeed a "missed opportunity" for policy changes to make a difference to poverty reduction since the Lisbon Treaty, given the general lack of improvement shown by poverty indicators. Our analysis uses the tax-benefit model EUROMOD and covers seven diverse EU countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy and the United Kingdom. We apply the Bargain and Callan (2010) decomposition approach, extending it by separating the effect due to structural policy changes and the indexation effect. We find that the latter was typically more effective in alleviating poverty and inequality than changes to the structure of policies. In fact, most of the structural changes that governments introduced, especially in the 2007-11 crisis-onset period, had poverty and inequality-increasing effects. We find considerable variation between countries in how different policy instruments have been adjusted, and in the effects of these adjustments by income, by age and by household composition, showing the importance of understanding them together, rather than discussing just some in isolation.


Using behavioral, structural, and functional imaging techniques, we demonstrate contrasting effects of vocabulary knowledge on temporal and parietal brain structure in 47 healthy volunteers who ranged in age from 7 to 73 years. In the left posterior supramarginal gyrus, vocabulary knowledge was positively correlated with gray matter density in teenagers but not adults. This region was not activated during auditory or visual sentence processing, and activation was unrelated to vocabulary skills. Its gray matter density may reflect the use of an explicit learning strategy that links new words to lexical or conceptual equivalents, as used in formal education and second language acquisition. By contrast, in left posterior temporal regions, gray matter as well as auditory and visual sentence activation correlated with vocabulary knowledge throughout lifespan. We propose that these effects reflect the acquisition of vocabulary through context, when new words are learnt within the context of semantically and syntactically related words.


Background An association between primary hyperparathyroidism (PHP) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has been noted; however, a causal relation between these disorders has not been confirmed. Patients/ Methods We report five patients (three men, two women) meeting El Escorial criteria for ALS who also had PHP. In three patients, the diagnosis of PHP was made during the laboratory evaluation for motor neuron disease, and in one patient, the diagnosis of PHP preceded the onset of weakness by 5 months and in another by 2 years. Serum calcium levels in all five patients were elevated, ranging from 11.2 to 12.8 mg/dL (normal, <10.4 mg/dL), as were levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH). Results All five patients underwent parathyroid adenoma resection with subsequent normalization of serum calcium and PTH levels. Each patient had progressive weakness resulting in death 1 to 3 years following parathyroidectomy. Conclusion Resection of parathyroid adenomas in patients meeting El Escorial criteria for ALS did not alter the course of ALS. PHP and ALS appear to be coexisting but unrelated disorders.


Mantle DynamicsThe great debate about how Earth's interior operates to shed internal heat and shape the surface began with disagreements over whether the upper and lower mantle always remain separate, like oil and water, and ended when seismologists imaged Earth's cold, brittle surface scum, the tectonic plates, and saw some of them diving all the way into the lower mantle. For the past decade, geoscientists have been focusing on the opposite question: whether plumes of hot, buoyant rock from the lower mantle are rising to the surface to fuel volcanic hot spots. On page [1388][1] of this week's issue of Science , eight researchers weigh in with the most detailed seismic imaging yet beneath the world's most iconic hot spot, the island of Hawaii. The quality of the data and the apparent Hawaiian plume's resemblance to theorists' expectations have won some cautious support for the work.

 [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/326/5958/1388


Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory joint disease that impacts on all aspects of peoples' lives, including their sexual relationship. Healthcare professionals appear reluctant to address this area of patient care. The lack of evidenced based research to identilS' key issues and barriers may be a contributing factor to this reluctance. This project aimed to explore ways in which RA affects the sexual relationships and sexual function of patients and partners of people with RA,
and to investigated levels of and barriers to communication between couples and with healthcare professionals.
A mixed method approach was adopted comprising of semi-structured interviews and validated questionnaires. Semi structured interviews were used to collect detailed participant led data and questionnaires were used to collect demographic and relationship data, disability was assessed in the patient group. M interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA) was used to analyse the qualitative data with the aid of ATLAS-ti while questionnaire data was analysed using descriptive statistics (SPSS). For the majority of participants, RA had a negative impact on their sexual relationships. Five superordinate themes emerged from analysis and synthesis
of the data sets.
1. Getting to know a changing body.
2. Am I still attractive?
3. It's not the be all and end all.
4. No longer swinging from the chandeliers.
5. Learning new ways of living and loving.
The meaning of these superordinate themes was developed thrther through the creation of the ASBLA model. Adjustment was central to 'Getting to know a changing body', self-image was explored through 'Am I still attractive', maintaining balance was essential to 'It's not the be all and end all. Limitation was the main element of 'No longer swinging from the chandeliers' while 'Learning new ways of living and loving required acceptance.
Four key factors were identified as having the potential to mediate the effects of RA on sexual relationships, knowledge, understanding, communication and commitment. Communication between patients, partners and healthcare professionals was limited. Reasons for ineffective dialogue varied.


ABSTRACT Middle Devonian carbonates (250-430 m thick) of the eastern Great Basin were deposited along a low energy, westward-thickening, distally steepened ramp. Four third-order sequences can be correlated across the ramp-to-basin transition and are composed of meter-scale, upward-shallowing carbonate cycles (or parasequences). Peritidal cycles (shallow subtidal facies capped by tidal-flat laminites) constitute 90% of all measured cycles and are present across the entire ramp. The peritidal cycles are regressive- and transgressive-prone (upward-deepening followed by upward-shallowing facies trends). Approximately 80% of the peritidal cycle caps show evidence of prolonged subaerial exposure including sediment-filled dissolution cavities, horizontal to vertical desiccation cracks, rubble and ka st breccias, and pedogenic alteration; locally these features are present down to 2 m below the cycle caps. Subtidal cycles (capped by shallow subtidal facies) are present along the middle-outer ramp and ramp margin and indicate incomplete shallowing. Submerged subtidal cycles (64% of all subtidal cycles) are composed of deeper subtidal facies overlain by shallow subtidal facies. Exposed subtidal cycles are composed of deeper subtidal facies overlain by shallow subtidal facies that are capped by features indicative of prolonged subaerial exposure (dissolution cavities and brecciation). Average peritidal and subtidal cycle durations are between approximately 50 and 130 k.y. (fourth- to fifth-order). The combined evidence of abundant exposure-capped peritidal and subtidal cycles, transgressive-prone cycles, and subtidal cycles correlative with updip peritidal cycles indicates that the cycles formed in response to fourth-to fifth-order, glacio-eustatic sea-level oscillations. Sea-level oscillations of relatively low magnitude (< 10 m) are suggested by the abundance of peritidal cycles, the lack of widely varying, water-depth-dependent facies within individual cycles, and the presence of noncyclic stratigraphic intervals within intrashelf-basin, slope, and basin facies. Noncyclic intervals represent missed subtidal beats when the seafloor lay too deep to record the effects of the short-term sea-level oscillations. Exposure surfaces at the tops of peritidal and subtidal cycles represent one, or more likely several, missed sea-level oscillations when the platform lay above fluctuating sea level, but the amplitude of fourth- to fifth-order sea-level oscillation(s) were not high enough to flood the ramp. The large number of missed beats (exposure-capped cycles), specifically in Sequences 2 and 4, results in Fischer plots that show poorly developed rising and falling limbs (subdued wave-like patterns); consequently the Fischer plots are of limited use as a correlation tool for these particular depositional sequences. The abundance of missed beats also explains why Milankovitch-type cycle ratios ( 5:1 or 4:1) are not observed and why such ratios would not be expected along many peritidal-cycle-dominated carbonate platforms.


The research investigates on the fate of the Jewish-owned Cultural Heritage during WWII in Italy and In the particular in Florence and its Province. Starting from the Report of the Anselmi Commission published in 2001 and of the publication of L'Opera da Ritrovare in which is listed the heritage still missing from WWII, the research addresses the issues left pending regarding the management, the transfer, the appropriation, the protection and the looting of the artworks and artistic objects owned by the Italian and foreign Jews during the war.
The anti-Jewish legislation. Especially under the Social Italian Republic, had a drastic effects on the property rights and assets. When the Nation provisions were applied from the beginning of 1944, the confiscation orders listed everything: not only silverware, real estate, land, carpets, household objects and personal effects, but also artworks & valuable objects. But in many cases the provisions have acted quite outside the law, engaging pillages and forced appropriation of artworks, for the most part, subsequently proved untraceable. The decisions made the institutions and local public bodies, as the Florentine Head of Province and Prefecture, not only flew in the dace of individual rights but also revealed the clear temptation to become an accomplices of the illegality, or even to act for their own personal advantage.
To understand the complexity of this political and cultural climate, the research plan was to predicate upon a precise choice: to consult as many sources as possible in order to throw light on events that involved both individuals and institutions. Crossing the data of the documentation conserved in the Central Archive of the State and in the Florentine public archives with that of the Jewish community and of the heirs of the persecuted, the study re-frame the fate of art and book collections collected in Florence and its Province.
Every single collection that the research investigated had a really personal story of taste, value and fate during and after the war. What they have in common is the fact that the all the collections were transferred from the right owners to others possessors – Fascists, Nazis, or common people, inside and outside the city. The result of the investigation through various archival funds shows clearly the right responsibilities amongst individuals and the institutions. In the frame is fundamental the role of the Superintendence of the Galleries of Florence, that while through inefficient regulatory instruments, tried to limit the misappropriation of the many important collections conserved in the Jewish and 'enemy subjects' house.
The looting that took place in Florence are not limited in the cases that I'm presenting in this research. The information do not reflect the full scale of the seizures that occurred with regard to the cultural Jewish property; many objects of lesser artistic value, quite untraceable yesterday like today, were transfer in/out the city for all the duration of the war and post. The caution becomes necessary when listing the property that has definitely been lost or recovered. The investigation, especially in the criminal trials' funds, demonstrates that it is determinant do supplementary analysis of acts of despoilment where the ultimate fate of the material seized is still unknown.
The research on the Florentine case, due to its complexity, pretend to became a model to be apply in the rest of the country where the attention is not yet focused on this issue.
Based on a massive archival investigation through different funds of many archives and on the consolidated international guidelines, the research provides a new prospective of the Italian Shoah studies and in the Nazi Era Looted Art field.


PCR amplification plays a central role in the measurement of mixed microbial communities via high-throughput sequencing. Yet PCR is also known to be a common source of bias in microbiome data. Here we present a paired modeling and experimental approach to characterize and mitigate PCR bias in microbiome studies. We use experimental data from mock bacterial communities to validate our approach and human gut microbiota samples to characterize PCR bias under real-world conditions. Our results suggest that PCR can bias estimates of microbial relative abundances by a factor of 2-4 but that this bias can be mitigated using simple Bayesian multinomial logistic-normal linear models. Author summary High-throughput sequencing is often used to profile host-associated microbial communities. Many processing steps are required to transform a community of bacteria into a pool of DNA suitable for sequencing. One important step is amplification where, to create enough DNA for sequencing, DNA from many different bacteria are repeatedly copied using a technique called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). However, PCR is known to introduce bias as DNA from some bacteria are more efficiently copied than others. Here we introduce an experimental procedure that allows this bias to be measured and computational techniques that allow this bias to be mitigated in sequencing data.


The upregulation of alpha 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (α7 nAChRs) are putatively reported to play a role in in vivo cortical spreading depression-elicited neuroprotection. In this study, a reliable in vitro spreading depression model was created for studying this phenomenon. In contradiction to previous studies, it was, however, shown that functional α 7 nAChRs are down-regulated upon chronic depolarisation with KCl, although the activity of this receptor subtype remained essential for the preconditioning mechanism. Evidence was provided for a differential mechanism underlying protection against NMDA-mediated and hypotonic-shock induced cell loss. Non-pharmacological upregulation of the α 7 nAChRs in pure neuronal cortical cultures by means of a recombinant adenovirus led to the increased cell death subsequent to an excitotoxic glutamate insult. In addition, in order to study the relationship between α7 nAChRs and its function-dependent regulator Ric3, a novel anti-Ric3 antibody and a recombinant adenovirus expressing the ric3 gene were created. Ric3 was found to be expressed in many important brain structures, including hippocampus, perhinal cortex, thalamic and hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus, structures implicated in both cognitive and emotional behaviours. Interestingly, Ric3 was also expressed in the choroid plexus, a non-neuronal cell type not known to α 7 nAChRs, indicating additional roles for this protein. The recombinant constructs expressing ric3, α 7 nAChRs and dual ric3/ α 7 nAChRs were all validated in vitro.


Neuronal input is required for maintenance of epithelial progenitor cells in the mouse salivary gland. Innervation by the peripheral nervous system has been implicated in the development of several organs that form by branching morphogenesis, including mammary and prostate glands, but the precise nature of the interaction between neurons and branching epithelia is not clear. Knox et al. report that innervation by the cholinergic parasympathetic submandibular ganglion (PSG) is required for maintenance of epithelial progenitor cells in the mouse embryonic submandibular gland (SMG). Denervated SMG explants produced fewer branches than did intact explants and exhibited reduced expression of epithelial progenitor cell markers. The branching defect was phenocopied by treating intact SMG explants with any one of several agents that interfere with acetylcholine (ACh) signaling: an irreversible muscarinic (M) receptor inhibitor, the competitive muscarinic antagonist atropine, a drug that depletes ACh stores, or a small interfering RNA targeting the M1 receptor. Because ACh signaling through M1 induces the release of heparin-binding epidermal growth factor (HBEGF) in prostate epithelia, the authors tested the effect of HBEGF on SMG explants. Isolated SMG epithelia cultured with HBEGF, with the ACh analog carbachol (CCh), or with HBEGF plus CCh showed increased branching relative to untreated controls, and treatment with an EGF receptor (EGFR) antagonist prevented the increased branching induced by CCh. Gene expression studies indicated that both M1 and EGFR signaling were required to maintain epithelial progenitor cells in an undifferentiated state. CCh treatment increased expression of progenitor cell markers in cultured denervated adult SMGs, suggesting that CCh might be able to induce regenerative growth. The authors also noted that treating embryonic prostate explants with the EGFR antagonist and M1 inhibitor decreased progenitor cell marker expression, implying that this mechanism might be applicable to other branched organs. A Perspective by Rock and Hogan considers these results in the context of other types of branching morphogenesis and explores the possible implications of these findings for stimulating regeneration in patients whose salivary glands have been damaged by radiation therapy. S. M. Knox, I. M. A. Lombaert, X. Reed, L. Vitale-Cross, J. S. Gutkind, M. P. Hoffman, Parasympathetic innervation maintains epithelial progenitor cells during salivary organogenesis. Science 329, 1645–1647 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text] J. R. Rock, B. L. M. Hogan, Branching takes nerve. Science 329, 1610–1611 (2010). [Summary] [Full Text]


We consider the problem of segmenting text documents that have a two-part structure such as a problem part and a solution part. Documents of this genre include incident reports that typically involve description of events relating to a problem followed by those pertaining to the solution that was tried. Segmenting such documents into the component two parts would render them usable in knowledge reuse frameworks such as Case-Based Reasoning. This segmentation problem presents a hard case for traditional text segmentation due to the lexical inter-relatedness of the segments. We develop a two-part segmentation technique that can harness a corpus of similar documents to model the behavior of the two segments and their inter-relatedness using language models and translation models respectively. In particular, we use separate language models for the problem and solution segment types, whereas the inter-relatedness between segment types is modeled using an IBM Model 1 translation model. We model documents as being generated starting from the problem part that comprises of words sampled from the problem language model, followed by the solution part whose words are sampled either from the solution language model or from a translation model conditioned on the words already chosen in the problem part. We show, through an extensive set of experiments on real-world data, that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art text segmentation algorithms in the accuracy of segmentation, and that such improved accuracy translates well to improved usability in Case-based Reasoning systems. We also analyze the robustness of our technique to varying amounts and types of noise and empirically illustrate that our technique is quite noise tolerant, and degrades gracefully with increasing amounts of noise.


Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a childhood syndrome characterized by short attention span, impulsiveness and hyperactivity, which often leads to learning disabilities and various behavioral problems. For the treatment of ADHD, medication and cognitive-behavior therapy has been applied in recent years. Although psychostimulant medication has been widely used for many years, current findings suggest that, as the sole treatment for ADHD, it is an inadequate form of intervention, in that parents don't want their child to use drugs and the effects are limited to the period in which the drugs are physiologically active. On the other hand, EEG biofeedback treatment studies for ADHD have reported promising results not only in significant reductions in hyperactive, inattentive and disruptive behaviors, but also in improvements in academic performance and IQ scores. However, it is too boring for children to finish the whole treatment. The recent increase in computer usage in medicine and rehabilitation has changed the way health care is delivered. Virtual reality (VR) technology provides specific stimuli that can be used in removing distractions and in providing environments that get the subjects' attention and increase their ability to concentrate, and VR technology can hold a patient's attention for a longer period of time than other methods, because VR is immersive, interactive and imaginary. Based on these aspects, we developed the Attention Enhancement System (AES) using VR technology and EEG biofeedback for assessing and treating ADHD children as well as increasing the attention span of children who have attention difficulties.


The Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) is built from tens of millions of names represented in more than 130 million authority and bibliographic records expressed in multiple languages, scripts and formats. VIAF does not replace the source authority data, but creates something new built upon the relations mined from it. A common use of VIAF is in the creation of new 'local' authority records for authors based on information already in VIAF about the entity. VIAF can also be used as an authority file in its own right, for instance OCLC is now using VIAF as part of its identification of works and expressions. In a series of automated steps these names are linked and combined into VIAF clusters. Ambiguity occurs at several stages in VIAF, from the initial matching to cluster creation. VIAF's approach to managing this gives us a great deal of flexibility to deal with additions, deletions and changes to the underlying authority data. VIAF's approach to clustering has several rather novel aspects. The clustering itself proceeds in multiple stages in what could be called progressive refinement. It uses fairly loose matching to bring in candidates and then gradually brings them into the finished clusters using the information that can be gleaned from the rough groupings to make more informed decisions than could be made a priori. Another aspect is that all the information from all the records is used during the clustering. This results in a more fluid view of identity than hand-built authority files provide, while giving VIAF the ability to react to refinements in the clustering algorithms and new data on a regular basis. Finally, just the scale of VIAF provides opportunities the library community has not previously had to analyze and use authority data in machine processing. The problems and approaches used by VIAF may have implications in the use of linked data for other information services.


We study optimal control in large stochastic multi-agent sys- tems in continuous space and time. We consider multi-agent systems where agents have independent dynamics with additive noise and con- trol. The goal is to minimize the joint cost, which consists of a state dependent term and a term quadrati ci n the control. The system is de- scribed by a mathematical model, and an explicit solution is given. We focus on large systems where agents have to distribute themselves over a number of targets with minimal cost. In such a setting the optimal con- trol problem is equivalent to a graphical model inference problem. Exact inference will be intractable, and we use the mean field approximation to compute accurate approximations of the optimal controls. We conclude that near to optimal control in large stochastic multi-agent systems is possible with this approach.


How to Organize Yourself will help you to dramatically improve the way you work. With great tips on how to determine your goals, prioritize your tasks and manage your time, it also includes practical advice on how to: focus on the things that produce results; overcome distractions; build positive work habits; avoid information overload and make effective use of technology. Now in its fifth edition, new content covers the latest software advances that can help you get organized, how to deal with the ubiquitous presence of smartphones and how to adapt to the ever increasing scope for interruption and procrastination in our 24/7 lives. How to Organize Yourself will enable you to take control of your workload, reduce stress and fatigue, and free up time for the things that really matter.The creating success series of books...With over one million copies sold, the hugely popular Creating Success series covers a wide variety of topics and is written by an expert team of internationally best-selling authors and business experts. This indispensable business skills collection is packed with new features, practical content and inspiring guidance for readers across all stages of their careers.


Aktionsart is defined as the modification of verb meaning by morphological means. The article claims that languages in which aktionsarten are derived by preverbs form a Sprachbund. The central area of the Sprachbund is occupied by Slavic languages. The Sprachbund includes Yiddish, Lithuanian, Hungarian, and to a lesser extent German and Romani. English and Romance don't have any aktionsarten. In the discussion of the aktionsarten in the area Russian is taken as the language of reference. The development of aktionsarten may follow various paths. In Yiddish most aktionsarten were developed under the influence of Slavic. In Hungarian, on the other hand, no direct Slavic influence can be identified but borrowing from German played a role in the development of aktionsarten. Language contact and parallel development have brought about very similar aktionsart systems in genetically unrelated languages. At the same time, languages may differ in the number of aktionsarten, in the range of base verbs for which the derivation is possible, and in the productivity of aktionsart-formation.


The purpose of this document is to discuss whether it is reasonable for a chiropractor to advertise that he/she treats a specific condition such as temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders or jaw pain on their website. Certain questions need to be posed as a means to come to an educated and reasonable conclusion. These questions range from chiropractic college curriculums and training, post graduate education, to the evidence in the literature. A chiropractor should be able to use his/her website to advertise this particular area of expertise as an appropriate way to inform the public of your service.


This paper studies the patterns of farmers' crop choices for a multiple-crop portfolio, where production risk considerations and rainfall uncertainty are likely to be critical factors. Our analysis employs plot-level panel data from Ethiopia, combined with seasonal and yearly rainfall variability (from 30 years of meteorological data corresponding to the survey villages). Using the single index approach, our results indicate that the combined riskiness of crop portfolios at a household level responds negatively to annual rainfall variability, while seasonal rainfall variability has less consistent impact. Farmers are more likely to select less risky crops with less return, even when intercrop interactions are taken into account. Moreover, development policies designed to enhance accumulation and risk taking should take into account the importance of such exogenous factors as weather in ex-ante risk taking.


The modeling and design of electrostatically actuated resonant switches (EARS) for earthquake and seismic applications are presented. The basic concepts are based on operating an electrically actuated resonator close to instability bands of frequency, where it is forced to collapse (pull-in) if operated within these bands. By careful tuning, the resonator can be made to enter the instability zone upon the detection of the earthquake signal, thereby pulling-in as a switch. Such a switching action can be functionalized for useful functionalities, such as shutting off gas pipelines in the case of earthquakes, or can be used to activate a network of sensors for seismic activity recording in health monitoring applications. By placing a resonator on a printed circuit board (PCB) of a natural frequency close to that of the earthquake's frequency, we show significant improvement on the detection limit of the EARS lowering it considerably to less than 60% of the EARS by itself without the PCB.


The purpose of this study is to develop a technique for reducing
the number of false positives affecting lung nodule
computer–aided detection in computed tomography (CT) images.
Contiguous 2D regions of interest found on segmented
lung areas from sections of a CT scan are merged to form
volumes of interest (VOIs). Feature vectors are then computed
by submitting each VOI to the 3D ranklet transform,
i.e., a non–parametric, orientation–selective and multi–resolution
transform developed and evaluated herein. Finally, a
support vector machine classifier is used to discriminate VOIs
containing nodules from those containing normal tissue. The
proposed approach is evaluated on data consisting of 25 nodules
marked by experienced thoracic radiologists and 1048
non–nodules randomly selected within the segmented lung
volume of healthy patients. By achieving 96% of sensitivity
at 1% of false positive fraction, leave–one–out performances
seem to be promising.


During the last decade membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology has grown up to be state of the art in municipal wastewater treatment. Since 1999 the Erftverband has designed, tendered and commissioned three MBR for municipal wastewater treatment in Germany, with capacities from 3,000 to 45,000 m3/d. The Erftverband was one of the pioneers in the full scale application of the technology regularly hosted training and information workshops for plant designers and operators from all over the world.

Operating Large Scale Membrane Bioreactors for Municipal Wastewater Treatment provides hands-on information on many aspects of MBR technology based on more than ten years of practical experience in the operation of MBR plants with hollow-fiber microfiltration units. It gives details on process configuration, investment and operation costs based on case studies and also in comparison to data from conventional activated sludge (CAS) treatment processes. The book contains the most recent research findings as Erftverband has been collaborating on many of the major European research projects dedicated to MBR technology.

Actual process data from all treatment steps of the plants (mechanical pre-treatment, bioreactors, filtration, membrane cleaning) gives an insight into the long-term performance of the MBR plants and into the possible do's and dont's of full scale applications and the potential for further process optimisation. It is a good source of practical advice on tendering and construction, plant management and operation.

Operating Large Scale Membrane Bioreactors for Municipal Wastewater Treatment is essential reading for practitioners and researchers, providing information on many aspects of MBR technology, including actual process data, graphs and pictures that illustrate the challenges of MBR design and operation.

ISBN: 9781843393054 (Print)

ISBN: 9781780401409 (eBook)


ABSTRACT A sequence of limestone and chert in the central portion of the Durham Sub-basin of the Deep River Basin of North Carolina is unusual for these continental beds. At the best outcrop an 8.8 m section of typical red-brown mudstone and sandstone contains continuous but wavy-bedded layers of impure limestone from 1 to 20 cm thick. They are dark laminated micrite which is non-porous, pelletoidal, chemical, and lacustrine in origin. Void-filling medium crystalline calcite spar has eliminated most of the original pore spaces. There may be a caliche fabric overlay on this limestone, which was originally a calcareous tufa. A few beds of chert up to 60 cm thick are associated with the limestone. The chert is of two types. One is a dense dark gray chert which is medium crystalline chalcedony with a very finely crystalline quartz. It is probably an inorganic precipitate and is comparable to the silica gel being. deposited in certain lakes in South Australia. The second is a light brown porous chert which has replaced some of the previously mentioned limestone. Calcite nodules of typical caliche fabric were formed around the periphery of this Triassic lake which had Mg/Ca ratios of less than 7 and a fluctuating pH of 6.5-10.5. The lake was a playa which formed in a warm to hot climate with a mean annual temperature of about 20° C and a seasonally distributed rainfall of 100 to 500 mm. These playa and caliche deposits lie in the center of the Durham Sub-basin within a Late Triassic sequence which contains both fluvial and lacustrine strata. The latter also contain both gray and red lacustrine shales which contain fish scales, ostracods, and conchostracans. The Newark strata were probably deposited during a time of cyclic climate that ranged from dry to moist and back again. The coals of the Sanford Sub-basin and some of the lacustrine shales of the Durham Sub-basin were deposited during the wet parts of the cycles. The lacustrine limestones and chert were deposited, and the caliches formed, during the dry parts of the cycles.


Consider a gambler who observes a sequence of independent, non-negative random numbers and is allowed to stop the sequence at any time, claiming a reward equal to the most recent observation. The famous prophet inequality of Krengel, Sucheston, and Garling asserts that a gambler who knows the distribution of each random variable can achieve at least half as much reward, in expectation, as a "prophet" who knows the sampled values of each random variable and can choose the largest one. We generalize this result to the setting in which the gambler and the prophet are allowed to make more than one selection, subject to a matroid constraint. We show that the gambler can still achieve at least half as much reward as the prophet; this result is the best possible, since it is known that the ratio cannot be improved even in the original prophet inequality, which corresponds to the special case of rank-one matroids. Generalizing the result still further, we show that under an intersection of $p$ matroid constraints, the prophet's reward exceeds the gambler's by a factor of at most $O(p)$, and this factor is also tight.
 Beyond their interest as theorems about pure online algoritms or optimal stopping rules, these results also have applications to mechanism design. Our results imply improved bounds on the ability of sequential posted-price mechanisms to approximate optimal mechanisms in both single-parameter and multi-parameter Bayesian settings. In particular, our results imply the first efficiently computable constant-factor approximations to the Bayesian optimal revenue in certain multi-parameter settings.


Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a form of mechanical circulatory support that can be lifesaving in people with potentially reversible heart or lung injuries. ECMO is nearly always used urgently, when all other treatment options for cardiopulmonary injury have failed and high mortality is otherwise expected. Standard ECMO treatment involves venous drainage from the femoral vein or left atrium with artificial extra-circulatory oxygen exchange. Return to the body is through the same veins (veno-venous) or arterial system via the femoral artery or ascending aorta (veno-arterial). Compared with cardiopulmonary bypass circuit, ECMO is transportable, smaller, closed to the atmosphere, and can treat a patient for several days to weeks. Neurological consequences of severe respiratory failure and its different management strategies in adults are likely common but uncharacterized and poorly described in the reviewed literature. Development of severe respiratory failure (SRF) occurs in 20–25% of patients with isolated severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and is associated with a threefold increase in mortality, or patients remaining in a vegetative state.1 It has been attributed mostly to aspiration, infection, neurogenic pulmonary edema, and release of pro-inflammatory mediators into the systemic circulation causing ultrastructural damage in type II pneumocyte.2 This decreases the pulmonary tolerance of subsequent mechanical stress due to mechanical ventilation. Actually, some data suggest that the main feature of ALI/ARDS in brain-injured patients is the presence of a poor oxygenation (reduced PaO2/FiO2 ratio) accompanied by a moderate increase in the elastance of the respiratory system even though these patients had a normal chest X-ray. Ventilatory support for such patients could be difficult with a lot of challenges to keep optimal oxygenation and acceptable level of blood carbon dioxide. It involves the application of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) to recruit collapsed alveoli, improve arterial oxygenation, and reduce elastance of the respiratory system. Although improving oxygenation is a key factor for optimizing O2 delivery to the brain, clinical studies provide contradictory information on the use of PEEP in patients with acute lung injury (ALI) complicating severe brain injury. Furthermore, we tend to use higher tidal volumes in patients with acute brain injury because mild hypocapnia is a key factor in the clinical management of raised intracranial pressure, which is a frequent abnormality in such patients;3,4 this would be an injurious ventilator strategy and may present a further relevant inflammatory stimulus. Moreover, it has been shown that the use of high tidal volumes for the first 48 h after ICU admission is associated with the development of ventilator-induced lung injury.4 In addition, one of the recognized methods in improving oxygenation in SRF patients is the use of prone position, because it improves the lung mechanics and augments oxygenation. Studies have demonstrated that patients with unstable intracranial pressure (ICP) have higher ICP in the horizontal position sideways. Therefore, the recommended position for this patient cohort is a 30-degree head-up tilt combined with a straight head position.4 Furthermore, TBI patients who require ECMO support for their SRF will need full anticoagulation, as the circuit poses considerable derangement in the hemostatic system with increased platelet consumption and a higher risk of intracranial bleeding. There have been several reports of ECMO without anticoagulation therapy, but so far with no evidence or good literature to support this notion.5 Although some controversy and difficulties exist, it seems that multiorgan clinical approach instead of single-organ approach represents the optimal way in clinical management of patients with ALI/SRF and TBI.


In this thesis I report on the unique novel possibilities offered by combining pulsed laser deposition (PLD) film growth of high temperature superconductors with angle integrated and angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (PES and ARPES). The originality of the procedure rests on the in situ preparation and transfer of samples, hence by-passing the usual cumbersome cleaving or scraping practices to obtain high quality surfaces suitable for photoemission studies. Photoemission spectroscopy is one of the major experimental techniques to analyze the electronic structure that holds the key to understanding the properties of the high Tc cuprates (copper oxides) for which a complete microscopic theory still needs to materialize. In chapter 1, I introduce these complex copper oxide materials. The vast majority of ARPES measurements on the cuprate superconductors have so far been limited to the easily cleavable Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x (BSCCO-2212) single crystals. In chapter 2, I present the principle of an ARPES measurement, and show as an example (obtained in the "traditional way" of cleaving single crystals) a crossover in the electronic response at a special temperature T+>Tc in overdoped samples. In chapter 3, our unique laser ablation set-up, built on site at the Wisconsin Synchrotron Radiation Center (SRC), is introduced. This is followed by reports on film characterization such as transport, crystal and surface properties which enables the optimization of growth parameters. From here on to the end of the thesis, we show that instead of being a competing technique to cleaving samples, in situ growth of films appears to be a complementary one. In particular, our results show that preparing cuprates which contain oxygen chains, like Re-Ba2Cu3O6+x (RBCO-123; R=Y, Nd), for the surface sensitive ARPES measurements is very difficult due to a material intrinsic loss of oxygen near the surface. This, in turn, curbs the photoemission signal near the chemical potential due to the loss of superficial conductivity (chapter 3). Among the cuprates studied, La2-xSrxCuO4 (LSCO) and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x films, however, both exhibit a sharp Fermi step in angle integrated photoemission spectra, indicating a conducting behavior at the surface. Moreover, thanks to using film samples, we were able to study ultra thin cuprates, down to about 1 unit cell (UC), and we were able to induce epitaxial strain in the samples which can remarkably enhance superconductivity. In chapter 4, combining core level, angle integrated valence band photoemission, and x-ray diffraction, we demonstrate that a structural phase transition occurs in the early growth of BSCCO-2212 films on SrTiO3 (STO) substrates, transforming the precursor Bi6O7 natural reactive buffer layer into the BSCCO-2212 structure. This is qualitatively different from the initial growth of YBCO-123 characterized by nucleation of well separated islands. Chapter 5 then presents the main success of our method: the first ever ARPES data on the low energy electronic structure of any high Tc superconductor under strain. In particular, we confirm that the Fermi surface (FS) of LSCO evolves with doping, but changes even more significantly with strain. More specifically, the FS becomes electron-like for in-plane compressed samples (for all doping values x studied, 0.1<x<0.2) whereas the FS of non-strained samples are hole-like (except for doping values exceeding x≈0.22). This result is very surprising since the associated reduction of the density of states near the Fermi level (due to the vanishing of the saddle point) does, according to many existing models, not favor the increase of Tc observed in our films. Our data indicate in particular that the van-Hove singularity is not crucial to produce high critical temperatures, and thus that carriers from all over the Fermi surface contribute to superconductivity, since Tc-enhancing compressive strain transfers carriers from the so-called "hot spots" to the "cold spots". We briefly discuss some implications of our analysis on emerging microscopic models. Chapter 6 summarizes the main achievements and discusses future possibilities of the new procedure.


Each year, Israel's young men and women are drafted into compulsory military service and are required to engage directly in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This conflict is by its nature intensely complex and is played out under the full glare of international security. So, how does Israel's education system prepare its young people for this? How is Palestine, and the Palestinians against whom these young Israelis will potentially be required to use force, portrayed in the school system? Nurit Peled-Elhanan argues that the textbooks used in the school system are laced with a pro-Israel ideology, and that they play a part in priming Israeli children for military service. She analyzes the presentation of images, maps, layouts and use of language in History, Geography and Civic Studies textbooks, and reveals how the books might be seen to marginalize Palestinians, legitimize Israeli military action and reinforce Jewish-Israeli territorial identity. This book provides a fresh scholarly contribution to the Israeli-Palestinian debate, and will be relevant to the fields of Middle East Studies and Politics more widely.


The Eulerian gyrokinetic turbulence code GENE has recently been extended to a full torus code. Moreover, it now provides Krook-type sources for gradient-driven simulations where the profiles are maintained on average as well as localized heat sources for a flux-driven type of operation. Careful verification studies and benchmarks are performed successfully. This setup is applied to address three related transport issues concerning nonlocal effects. First, it is confirmed that in gradient-driven simulations, the local limit can be reproduced-provided that finite aspect ratio effects in the geometry are treated carefully. In this context, it also becomes clear that the profile widths (not the device width) may constitute a more appropriate measure for finite-size effects. Second, the nature and role of heat flux avalanches are discussed in the framework of both local and global, flux-and gradient-driven simulations. Third, simulations dedicated to discharges with electron internal barriers are addressed. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3567484]


Cooperative multi-agent systems (MAS) are finding applications in a wide variety of domains, including sensor networks, robotics, distributed control, collaborative decision support systems, and data mining. A cooperative MAS consists of a group of autonomous agents that interact with one another in order to optimize a global performance measure. A central challenge in cooperative MAS research is to design distributed coordination policies. Designing optimal distributed coordination policies offline is usually not feasible for large-scale complex multi-agent systems, where 10s to 1000s of agents are involved, there is limited communication bandwidth and communication delay between agents, agents have only limited partial views of the whole system, etc. This infeasibility is either due to a prohibitive cost to build an accurate decision model, or a dynamically evolving environment, or the intractable computation complexity.
This thesis develops a multi-agent reinforcement learning paradigm to allow agents to effectively learn and adapt coordination policies in complex cooperative domains without explicitly building the complete decision models. With multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL), agents explore the environment through trial and error, adapt their behaviors to the dynamics of the uncertain and evolving environment, and improve their performance through experiences. To achieve the scalability of MARL and ensure the global performance, the MARL paradigm developed in this thesis restricts the learning of each agent to using information locally observed or received from local interactions with a limited number of agents (i.e., neighbors) in the system and exploits non-local interaction information to coordinate the learning processes of agents. This thesis develops new MARL algorithms for agents to learn effectively with limited observations in multi-agent settings and introduces a low-overhead supervisory control framework to collect and integrate non-local information into the learning process of agents to coordinate their learning. More specifically, the contributions of already completed aspects of this thesis are as follows: (1) Multi-Agent Learning with Policy Prediction: This thesis introduces the concept of policy prediction and augments the basic gradient-based learning algorithm to achieve two properties: best-response learning and convergence. The convergence property of multi-agent learning with policy prediction is proven for a class of static games under the assumption of full observability. (2) MARL Algorithm with Limited Observability: This thesis develops PGA-APP, a practical multi-agent learning algorithm that extends Q-learning to learn stochastic policies. PGA-APP combines the policy gradient technique with the idea of policy prediction. It allows an agent to learn effectively with limited observability in complex domains in presence of other learning agents. The empirical results demonstrate that PGA-APP outperforms state-of-the-art MARL techniques in both benchmark games. (3) MARL Application in Cloud Computing: This thesis illustrates how MARL can be applied to optimizing online distributed resource allocation in cloud computing. Empirical results show that the MARL approach performs reasonably well, compared to an optimal solution, and better than a centralized myopic allocation approach in some cases. (4) A General Paradigm for Coordinating MARL: This thesis presents a multi-level supervisory control framework to coordinate and guide the agents' learning process. This framework exploits non-local information and introduces a more global view to coordinate the learning process of individual agents without incurring significant overhead and exploding their policy space. Empirical results demonstrate that this coordination significantly improves the speed, quality and likelihood of MARL convergence in large-scale, complex cooperative multi-agent systems. (5) An Agent Interaction Model: This thesis proposes a new general agent interaction model. This interaction model formalizes a type of interactions among agents, called joint-even-driven interactions, and define a measure for capturing the strength of such interactions. Formal analysis reveals the relationship between interactions between agents and the performance of individual agents and the whole system. (6) Self-Organization for Nearly-Decomposable Hierarchy: This thesis develops a distributed self-organization approach, based on the agent interaction model, that dynamically form a nearly decomposable hierarchy for large-scale multi-agent systems. This self-organization approach is integrated into supervisory control framework to automatically evolving supervisory organizations to better coordinating MARL during the learning process. Empirically results show that dynamically evolving supervisory organizations can perform better than static ones. (7) Automating Coordination for Multi-Agent Learning: We tailor our supervision framework for coordinating MARL in ND-POMDPs. By exploiting structured interaction in ND-POMDPs, this tailored approach distributes the learning of the global joint policy among supervisors and employs DCOP techniques to automatically coordinate distributed learning to ensure the global learning performance. We prove that this approach can learn a globally optimal policy for ND-POMDPs with a property called groupwise observability.


ABSTRACT An array of three-dimensional bedforms is present on bedding planes within a 20-35-cm-thick medium-grained sandstone unit in the braided-fluvial South Bar Formation (Pennsylvanian), near Sydney, Nova Scotia. The unit is near the top of a 4.7-m-thick channel sandstone and is attributed to a late stage of fill prior to the abrupt abandonment of the channel. The bedforms comprise radially symmetric mounds and intervening curvilinear hollows, and they contain concordant strata. They closely resemble hummocks and swales but are identified as three-dimensional antidunes based on their fluvial setting and the ubiquitous presence of well-defined current lineation, oriented parallel to unidirectional paleocurrent indicators within the channel fill. The antidunes secreted vertically in paleoflo s with mean depth and velocity of about 0.12 m and 1.0 m/s. Antidune bedforms are rare in the stratigraphic record, because such conditions are seldom maintained long enough to accrete a preservable set of strata. Three-dimensional antidunes such as these could easily be mistaken for hummocks and swales and the environment misidentified as storm-influenced if the nature and relationships of current lineation were not observed, or if incomplete exposure did not permit recognition of shallow-water origin.


In December 1992, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against eight major domestic airlines and the Airline Tariff Publishing (ATP) Company in order to reduce opportunities for collusion in the industry. The lawsuit ended with consent decrees limiting the ability of airlines to communicate surreptitiously through the shared fare database. This paper measures the effects of the litigation and its settlement on industry performance, comparing changes in outcomes between market segments that were more and less likely to be affected by the ATP case. Prices fell in response to the investigation but increased following the settlement, while the number of tickets sold in affected markets declined. The importance of multimarket contact also declined and then recovered. The ATP case had at best a temporary effect on airline collusion.


The mid-infrared (mid-IR, 2.5 to 10 μm wavelengths) is a strategically important spectral band for an array of applications such as thermal imaging, chem/bio sensing, spectroscopy, infrared countermeasures, and free space communications. Mid-IR photonics have emerged as an active area of investigation in recent years, largely spurred by the rapid progress of cascade laser sources, uncooled detectors, and specialty mid-IR optical fibers. The 27 papers of this feature issue focus on the leading enabling material technologies for mid-IR photonics, and encompass recent advances in both active (lasers and detectors) and passive (fibers and waveguides) components. Linear and nonlinear photon-matter interactions in the mid-IR are also covered.


The goal of this paper is to summarize the best available evidence comparing tissue adhesives and tradition suture in the repair of traumatic lacerations in children. As providers caring for children, we want an efficient method of laceration repair that has the best cosmetic outcome. We want a repair without complications and to minimize the amount of pain and anxiety experienced by our patients and families. Numerous peer-reviewed, published studies have found that when used appropriately tissue adhesives are faster, less painful, and more economic than traditional suturing. Patients have fewer complications, reduced risk of infection, and excellent cosmetic outcomes. Overall the evidence suggests that using a tissue adhesive is a cheaper method of laceration repair and results in greater satisfaction for both the patient and the practitioner. Based on these comparisons, an evidenced based decision should be made.


A review with twenty-nine refs. on the authors' current research. Protein design and mimicry combines elements of synthetic org. chem. with structural and functional aspects of biol. relevance in a unique way. Due to progress in this interdisciplinary research field, access to mols. featuring some essential properties of native proteins appears to be within reach, enabling the complex mechanisms in mol. recognition processes to be deciphered. Since its introduction by the authors, the template approach in protein de novo design (Template Assembled Synthetic Proteins, TASP) has experienced a broad conceptual diversification. Starting from today's state-of-the-art in protein design, we present here some ongoing work in the Lausanne labs. focusing on the use of regioselectively addressable templates and TASP scaffolds for addressing fundamental questions in peptide assembly, protein folding and mimicry. It is shown that the developed concepts can ideally reconcile evolutionary and rational design principles for creating mols. of biol. and therapeutic interest. [on SciFinder (R)]


The purpose of this Stage 1: "integrated Development Framework for the North East Border Region" is to bring together development proposals from a range of sources in one document as a contribution to integrated development in the region. Development is a dynamic process therefore we see this document a Stage 1 in process leading to a strategic plan for the development of the region. We see this document as a snap-shot of the proposals and development possibilities identified in the region at this time. It is imperative, we feel, to present this document to advance the preparation process for the next round of EU structural funds and EU Initiatives (INTERREG) this year. We accept that this document is not totally inclusive or comprehensive, but it does reflect the large number of proposals sourced from the voluntary and statutory sector. If the document stimulates agencies (Governmental and Non-Governmental) to further develop their proposals for inclusion in Stage 2 then it will serve a valuable purpose. However we (the ad-hoc drafting group for this document) expect that this framework will be a reference document for the development in the region and will become a foundation on which projects will be built for the development of the region. We also expect that this document prepared, on our own initiative and in our own time, will stimulate others to progress the preparation to Stage 2 and ultimately to a Strategic Plan for the region.


With rapid growth in unhealthy diet behaviors, implementing strategies that improve healthy eating is becoming increasingly important. One approach to improving diet behavior is to continuously monitor dietary intake (e.g., calorie intake) and provide educational, motivational, and dietary recommendation feedback. Although technologies based on wearable sensors, mobile applications, and light-weight cameras exist to gather diet-related information such as food type and eating time, there remains a gap in research on how to use such information to close the loop and provide feedback to the user to improve healthy diet. We address this knowledge gap by introducing a diet behavior change framework that generates real-time diet recommendations based on a user's food intake and considering user's deviation from the suggested diet routine. We formulate the problem of optimal diet recommendation as a sequential decision making problem and design a greedy algorithm that provides diet recommendations such that the amount of change in user's dietary habits is minimized while ensuring that the user's diet goal is achieved within a given time-frame. This novel approach is inspired by the Social Cognitive Theory, which emphasizes behavioral monitoring and small incremental goals as being important to behavior change. Our optimization algorithm integrates data from a user's past dietary intake as well as the USDA nutrition dataset to identify optimal diet changes. We demonstrate the feasibility of our optimization algorithms for diet behavior change using real-data collected in two study cohorts with a combined N=10 healthy participants who recorded their diet for up to 21 days1.


The Os isotopic system is a potential tracer of a recycled crustal component in mantle or volcanic rocks because of the significant contrast between Os isotope ratios of crust and mantle. However, the potential for crustal contamination overprinting this possible signal has hampered the utility of Os isotopic ratios. We explored the use of Os isotopes in chromian spinel (Cr-spinel) as a discriminator of primitive magma Os compositions in the Izu-Bonin arc, using beach sands as composite samples of the boninite and tholeiite magmas in three different islands. Cr-spinel is an early-stage crystal that preserves its isotopic composition even during later crustal contamination of the bulk rock. We found highly unradiogenic Os isotopic compositions in Cr-spinels from boninites, suggesting that they represent primitive magmas with slight or no Os contribution from the subducting slab during the generation of boninites in the infant arc stage (48–46 Ma). Conversely, the radiogenic Os isotopic ratios in Cr-spinels from tholeiites most likely reflect the contribution from a slab-derived component, because more oxidative conditions in the subarc mantle probably allowed Os to mobilize from the subducting slab during the transitional arc stage (45–41 Ma). Although shallow-level assimilation of crustal components with radiogenic Os may overprint the original Os signature of tholeiite magma during its ascent, Cr-spinel allows us to compensate such possibilities.


Washington's Banking To-Do List The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act might better be called the "Everything D.C. PolicyWonks and Consumerists Have Wanted For Ten Years, With Some Reform, And Regulatory Burden Act" For traditional banks, that's pretty much where it comes out: a potential avalanche of paper and costs. Nearly every aspect of a typical bank will in some way be impacted by Dodd-Frank, as this graphic demonstrates. Other aspects of the law, those dealing with systemic risk, for example, aren't even reflected here. These pages will also appear in interactive and substantially expanded form on www.ababj.com, updated as we publish print and online articles related to the law. This special ongoing resource will appear after Labor Day. Thanks to Pittsburgh-based PWCampbell and its client, Mars National Bank, Mars, Pa., for providing the photo used here. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "THE VAULT" Some "hit you in the wallet" issues Capital (Trust Preferred): BHCs under SIs billion-assets using trust preferred securities as Tier 1 capital will be "grandfathered" for what they already have, but generally banks prohibited from raising new Tier z via trust preferred. However, small BHCs subject to Fed's Small Bank Holding Company Policy Statement-generally those under $500 million--will have an exemption, subject to Fed policy. S&L HC capital: Fed can now set S&L HC standards. Revised or new "source of strength" rules will apply to BHCs and S&L HCs Counter-cyclical capital: Regulators to push for more capital during economic growth but require less during down-cycle, while maintaining safety & soundness. Capital standards: Regulators must set minimum leverage and risk-based ratios for depository institutions and holding companies within 18 months. FDIC Guarantee Program: Upon certain triggering events, FDIC must set up a widely available program to guarantee obligations of solvent insured institutions and HCs during severe economic distress. Aid not to include equity. Risk-retention rules for qualifying and nonqualifying mortgages and other loans coming. THE TELLER LINE Issues for front-line bankers FDIC deposit insurance: $250,000 limit becomes permanent and retroactive to Jan. 1, 2008. Transaction Account Guarantee, unlimited in size, extended two years, now mandatory and with no separate charge. THE BOARDROOM Issues for board-member monitoring, oversight, consideration, and action Risk Committee: Publicly traded BHCs of over $io billion must set up risk committees comprised of independent directors and one risk-management expert. Federal Reserve may require this of smaller BHCs too. Governance issues abound, including incentive pay disclosures to regulators. Sarbanes-Oxley 404 (b) exemption: Public firms with capitalization of less than $75 million permanently exempted from auditor attestation. Insider borrowing limits expanded to include extensions of credit relating to derivatives, repos, reverse repos, and securities borrowing and lending transactions. COMPLIANCE DEPARTMENT A selection or Deal-Frank's challenges, both new and familiar but in new digs Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection: Many consumer laws traditionally : handled by the Federal Reserve move to BCFP, including the "truth in" banking regulations, fair-lending, and most of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act [Reg E] but not the Community Reinvestment Act. …


In this paper, we analyze the performance of mobile real time services in a large-scale IEEE 802.11 multi-hop network. We present our field measurements with discussion of performance bottlenecks for VoIP services under mobile scenarios. We utilized our test bed which is located in Nebraska and supported by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), US Federal Railroads Administrations (FRA), and major US railroad companies. Our UNL-FRA test bed consists of 8 outdoor access point towers, which are deployed along 3.5 mile of BNSF railroad. Passive measurement approaches are taken to ensure the integrity of collected data and multi-layer stream based packet analyzer has been implemented to provide a global view of the entire performance of the monitored network from the physical layer to the application layer. Based on our analysis of collected data, we conclude that in a typical outdoor 802.11 environment similar to our UNL-FRA test bed, uncertain handoff latencies and lack of Quality of Service guarantee are main performance bottlenecks for real-time applications. Furthermore, we discuss the enhancement strategies to support mobility in high-speed railway networks. We believe our work is one of the initial efforts in wireless mobile network field measurement in terms of scale, methodology, and analysis.


Background: The 22q13 deletion syndrome (Phelan–McDermid syndrome) is characterised by a global developmental delay, absent or delayed speech, generalised hypotonia, autistic behaviour and characteristic phenotypic features. Intranasal insulin has been shown to improve declarative memory in healthy adult subjects and in patients with Alzheimer disease. Aims: To assess if intranasal insulin is also able to improve the developmental delay in children with 22q13 deletion syndrome. Methods: We performed exploratory clinical trials in six children with 22q13 deletion syndrome who received intranasal insulin over a period of 1 year. Short-term (during the first 6 weeks) and long-term effects (after 12 months of treatment) on motor skills, cognitive functions, or autonomous functions, speech and communication, emotional state, social behaviour, behavioural disorders, independence in daily living and education were assessed. Results: The children showed marked short-term improvements in gross and fine motor activities, cognitive functions and educational level. Positive long-term effects were found for fine and gross motor activities, nonverbal communication, cognitive functions and autonomy. Possible side effects were found in one patient who displayed changes in balance, extreme sensitivity to touch and general loss of interest. One patient complained of intermittent nose bleeding. Conclusions: We conclude that long-term administration of intranasal insulin may benefit motor development, cognitive functions and spontaneous activity in children with 22q13 deletion syndrome.


Hypocotyls and shoot tips were used as explants in in vitro plant regeneration of broccoli (Brassica oleracea subsp.italica) cv. Green Marvel. The explants were excised from sterile germinated seedlings and placed on shoot induction medium containing basal salts of Murashige and Skoog (MS) and various concentrations of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and -naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). The highest percentage of hypocotyl explant producing shoot (96.67%) and the highest mean number of shoots produced per hypocotyl explant (6.03) were obtained on 3 mgL¹ BAP. Meanwhile, the highest percentage of shoot tip explant producing shoot (100%) and highest number of shoot produced per shoot tip explant (3.76) were recorded on 5 mgL¹ BAP. For rooting of shoots, NAA, indoleacetic acid (IAA) and indolebutyric acid (IBA) at 0, 0.2 and 1 mgL¹ were applied. Highest percentage of shoots with roots (100%) and highest mean number of roots produced per shoot (6.5) occurred on medium with 0.2 mgL¹ IBA, while the maximum root length (2.46 cm) was attained on MS medium without plant growth regulator (MSO). Plantlets were successfully acclimatized in potting medium containing peatmoss, perlite, and vermiculite (3:1:1).


Financial Management for Non-Financial Managers is an accessible, practical and easy to understand guide that will allow any manager to gain confidence in understanding financial matters, managing a budget and dealing with bankers, accountants and finance professionals. A source of invaluable expert advice on all the essential aspects of financial management, it covers: business structures, accounting and financial statements, analysis and ratios, planning, budgeting, product and service costing, setting selling prices, investment appraisal, finance and working capital, taxation and international transactions. Online spreadsheets and worksheets are included to accompany key skills and practices explained in the book.


SUMMARY Traditional wildlife hunting has been described mainly from studies of local practices and from the monitoring of urban bushmeat markets. However, the overall value chain connecting hunters to end consumers remains largely unknown, thus preventing any estimate of the actual socio-economic importance of the bushmeat sector. On the basis of existing literature, this paper provides an order of magnitude for the financial and economic benefits of the bushmeat commodity chain in Cameroon. The following conservative conclusions were arrived at: (1) The annual turnover of the bushmeat sector in the country is likely to be close to €97 million, i.e. 36% more than the official assessment derived from public accounts. (2) The bushmeat sector may contribute 0.17% to Cameroon's GDP (non-oil), as much as the mining sector. (3) Self-consumption of bushmeat in rural areas may amount to gross annual economic benefit of more than €142 million. However, bushmeat in a country like Cameroon needs to be managed so as to guarantee the food security of urban and rural populations, as well as maintain a substantial source of revenue for communities, all of this without depleting the resource. Achieving this goal requires policy makers to disassociate wildlife harvesting from 'poaching' and the extirpation of species. It is crucial to go beyond the dominant narrative of a (real but over simplified) notion of a conservation crisis, to address its important livelihood and welfare dimensions.


As the need for applying wireless sensors to military and civil applications increases, the design of a routing protocol with fault tolerance becomes an important issue in wireless sensor networks. Previously proposed approaches were only concentrated on crash (or power) failures. This paper describes a routing scheme that not only handles crash failures but patterned faults and data processing errors. The technique of multipath routing is utilized for detecting data processing faults so the reliability of data delivery can be improved. The scheme is also able to repair broken paths without invoking network-wide route discovery. The experimental results show that the protocol can efficiently detect and correct errors with little execution overhead.


Clara Davis and the Feeding of Young Children Parents often worry about their children's nutrition. Children under six engender particularly high parental anxiety, because of their young age and their naturally variable eating habits. In the 1920s, pioneering Midwestern pediatrician Clara Davis set out to determine if young children instinctively know what to eat, in her "self-selection of diet experiment." Davis offered newly weaned infants, aged seven to nine months, a wide variety of nutritious, unmixed meats, grains, vegetables, and fruits. She allowed them to eat whichever foods they chose, in whatever quantity they wanted, without adult guidance or interference. She measured the amounts eaten carefully, even weighing bibs to subtract the amount spilled, and calculated the children's intake of calories, carbohydrate, fat, and protein. The study period lasted six to twelve months. The children tended to eat widely varying amounts from meal to meal, often displaying "food jags" during which they ate considerable quantities of a favored food. Overall they ate a wider variety and greater amount of foods than pediatricians of the day thought advisable, without any of the "pickiness" that plagued parents and pediatricians then as now. Furthermore, all the children grew and developed well and were quite healthy. Subsequent research has confirmed Davis' findings, in shorter, smaller-scale studies, some of which are discussed. Comment is made about the ethical complexion of Davis' long term experiment from today's viewpoint. Davis was always quick to point out what she herself called "the trick" of her experiment, that the infants and toddlers only had foods of high nutritional value to choose from, and never saw any junk food.


Innovation is the foremost requirement of today's competitive era. Innovation refers to improving on an existing concept or idea using a stepwise process to create a commercially viable product. Food, clothing, and shelter are the basic needs of a human being. Clothing is made from textiles; with the help of textiles, the shelters are made more comfortable and attractive. Traditionally, fabrics are used for apparel and home furnishing purpose, but these days, application is diversifying in order to satisfy technical and protective functions. Camouflage fabrics are the ones most suitable for technical and protective purposes. Over the past few years, researchers have put emphasis on the development of camouflage fabrics for security measures for troops, and for activities intended to hide facts and mislead the enemy. Years of investigations have been invested into innovation in the manufacture of these fabrics which are providing the ultimate performance and reliability. In this review paper, an attempt is made to comprise principle, manufacturing techniques, properties and application. This paper also highlights the modern development and recent trends in the field of camouflage fabric. Camouflage and multispectral universal camouflage are the main areas of recent trends on camouflage fabrics. Camouflage fabrics are mostly used for hunting, survival prepper, tactical and military protective wears.


In this exciting re-reading of the classic work of Haggard and Kipling, Gail Ching-Liang Low examines the representational dynamics of colonizer versus colonized. Exploring the interface between the native 'other' as a reflection and as a point of address, the author asserts that this 'other' is a mirror reflecting the image of the colonizer - a 'cultural cross-dressing'. Employing psychoanalysis, anthropology and postcolonial theory, Low analyzes the way in which fantasy and fabulation are caught up in networks of desire and power. White Skins/Black Masks is a fascinating entry into the current debate of post-colonial theory.


A common approach in the literature, whether the investigation is about futures price risk premiums or biases in option-based implied volatility coefficients, is to use samples in which consecutive observations can be regarded as uncorrelated. That will be the case for non- overlapping forecast horizons constructed by either focusing on short time-to-maturity contracts or excluding some data. In this article we propose a parametric bootstrap procedure for uncovering futures and options biases in data characterized by overlapping horizons and correlated prediction errors. We apply our method to test hypotheses that futures prices are efficient and unbiased predictors of terminal prices, and that squared implied volatility, multiplied by time left to option expiry, is an unbiased predictor of terminal log-price variance. We apply the test to corn, soybean meal and Class III milk futures and options data for the period 2000-2011. We find evidence for downward bias in soybean meal futures, as well as downward volatility bias in Class III milk options. Importance of these results is illustrated on the example of premium determination for Livestock Gross Margin Insurance for Dairy Cattle (LGM-Dairy).


Drawing on their experiences as high school writing instructors, researchers, and teacher trainers, David Coker and William Lewis examine an often overlooked dimension of adolescent literacy: writing proficiency. The authors explore recent research on the skills and strategies students need in order to write with competence and describe analyses of interventions that help students attain writing mastery. They also address divisions and gaps in the field of writing research and instruction and offer suggestions for overcoming these rifts in order to advance understanding of adolescent writing development and effective writing instruction.