Education of America,s school children always has been and always will be a hot-button issue. From what should be taught to how to pay for education to how to keep kids safe in schools, impassioned debates emerge and mushroom, both within the scholarly community and among the general public. This volume in the pointunterpoint Debating Issues in American Education reference series tackles the topic of school discipline and safety. Fifteen to twenty chapters explore such varied issues as child abuse reporting, corporal punishment, student uniforms, zero tolerance policies, and more. Each chapter opens with an introductory essay by the volume editor, followed by pointunterpoint articles written and signed by invited experts, and concludes with Further Readings and Resources, thus providing readers with views on multiple sides of school discipline and safety issues and pointing them toward more in-depth resources for further exploration.


There are occasions when an existing concrete bridge deck needs local strengthening to improve its serviceability under current traffic loading. The use of steel plates bonded to the surface as additional reinforcement can sometimes be an economically attractive solution. An example of the use of this technique to improve the working load capacity of a group of bridges at a motorway interchange is described. Full-scale loading tests on one of the bridges before and after strengthening demonstrated that the required improvements had been achieved. Results of associated laboratory tests are also given, with some indication of where further research may lead to improvements in performance for future applications. Until the long term durability of bonded joints in this type of construction has been established the technique is not recommended for general use but can be considered for certain applications. Exposure tests are being carried out to determine whether there is likely to be any deterioration of bond efficiency with time. (Author/TRRL)


Motivated by applications to sensor, peer-to-peer, and ad-hoc networks, we study the problem of computing functions of values at the nodes in a network in a totally distributed manner. In particular, we consider separable functions, which can be written as linear combinations of functions of individual variables. Known iterative algorithms for averaging can be used to compute the normalized values of such functions, but these algorithms do not extend in general to the computation of the actual values of separable functions.The main contribution of this paper is the design of a distributed randomized algorithm for computing separable functions based on properties of exponential random variables. We bound the running time of our algorithm in terms of the running time of an information spreading algorithm used as a subroutine by the algorithm. Since we are interested in totally distributed algorithms, we consider a randomized gossip mechanism for information spreading as the subroutine. Combining these algorithms yields a complete and simple distributed algorithm for computing separable functions.The second contribution of this paper is an analysis of the information spreading time of the gossip algorithm. This analysis yields an upper bound on the information spreading time, and therefore a corresponding upper bound on the running time of the algorithm for computing separable functions, in terms of the conductance of an appropriate stochastic matrix. These bounds imply that, for a class of graphs with small spectral gap (such as grid graphs), the time used by our algorithm to compute averages is of a smaller order than the time required for the computation of averages by a known iterative gossip scheme [5].


Urban sprawl represents one of the major soil-related threats in any given environment. It is ecologically and aesthetically desirable to use land efficiently for sustainable urban development. The process of urban development inevitably affects the ecological balance of any environment. Land evaluation for such development will help to resolve the problems of efficient allocation of lands for the purpose they are best suited. Thus, this study assessed the suitability of an 89 ha of land for urban land use and development, in a forested ecosystem of southwestern Nigeria. This involved semi-detailed soil survey and land evaluation. About 37% of the total area studied belong to Urban Land Use Capability (ULUC) class Ao, possessing negligible physical constraints to urban development and sustained urban use. Fifty-five percent of the land has slight erosion problems by particle movement, therefore belonging to ULUC class Bo, while about 8% (classified as ULUC class Cdw) has high water table with poor drainage and flooding as major physical constraint for development. These are indications that ULUC studies should form part of the basic information for engineering designs and construction, land owners' and policy makers' decision making process to enhance environmental stability and sustainability. Keywords: urban land use; sustainable development; land evaluation, land capability classification


The analysis and design of bracing systems for complex frame geometries can prove to be an arduous task given current methods. AISC's Appendix 6 from the 2010 Specification for Structural Steel Buildings affords engineers a means for determining brace strength and stiffness requirements, but only for the most basic cases. This paper aims to shed some light on common aspects of certain bracing systems that lie well outside the scope of Appendix 6 as well as explain why the corresponding structures can be unduly penalized by Specification equations that were never derived for such use. Subsequently, a practical computational tool is proposed that can be used to accurately assess bracing demands while removing the interpretations needed by design engineers to "fit" their frames into the limited scope of AISC Appendix 6. The software tool is described in detail and several benchmark cases are presented to provide validation. Individual beams and complete framing systems are evaluated via the proposed software and compared to refined test simulations. Finally, recommendations are articulated governing the use of this new software as a means to accurately and safely assess bracing demands in complex bracing configurations.


The objectives of this research are (1) to describe and to explain the correlation between the need for achievement, self–esteem, locus of control, habit in studying , parents' support and learning environment in the class as their contribution to the underachievement students, (2) to find a set of variables from among those that are under study, that are most efficient in explaining of underachievement students. This study is descriptive correlational in nature. The study was undertaken in 8 (eight) general high schools in Medan that constituted the sample of the study. The research subjects are all underachievers that totaled to 114 students. The data were colleted through surveys using questionnaires, scales, inventories, and formats that are administered to student. The data obtained through surveys were analysed using a descriptive technique and multiple-regression with Stepwise. The results of analysis are drawn: (1) the underachievers were found to be low in need for achievement, self-esteem, tend to be internal in locus of control, have poor learning habit, low parental support, and poor learning environment in the class was found to be moderately strong with a multipe R of 0,544 (p≤0,05), with an effective contribution of 29,6%. (2) the most efficient set of independet variable in predicting of the underachievement students consisted of parental support, need for achievement, learning enviroment in class, and locus of control, wict could explain 27,40% of the variance in the underachievement students. Based on the conclusions drawn, some suggestions are proposed as folows: (1) through appropriate design of learning environments, in faciliting the inculcation of impedent learnes that are able not only to respond convergent question, but also have the habit to explore alterntive solutions, and even to reshape problems before attempting to solve them, with the full backing of appropriate school culture, (2) the existence of one or more factors other than those that are invetigated in this study that could explain of underachievers which should be further pursued


Named Entity Recognition (NER) aims to classify each word of a document into predefined target named entity (NE) classes and is nowadays considered to be fundamental for many Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks such as information retrieval, machine translation, information extraction, question answering systems and others. This paper reports about the development of a NER system for Bengali and Hindi using Support Vector Machine (SVM). We have used the annotated corpora of 122,467 tokens of Bengali and 502,974 tokens of Hindi tagged with the twelve different NE classes, defined as part of the IJCNLP-08 NER Shared Task for South and South East Asian Languages (SSEAL). An appropriate tag conversion routine has been developed in order to convert the data into the forms tagged with the four NE tags, namely Person name, Location name, Organization name and Miscellaneous name. The system makes use of the different contextual information of the words along with the variety of orthographic word-level features that are helpful in predicting the different NE classes. The system has been tested with the gold standard test sets of 35K, and 38K tokens for Bengali, and Hindi, respectively. Evaluation results have demonstrated the overall recall, precision, and f-score values of 85.11%, 81.74%, and 83.39%, respectively, for Bengali and 82.76%, 77.81%, and 80.21%, respectively, for Hindi. Statistical analysis, ANOVA is performed to show that the improvement in the performance with the use of language dependent features is statistically significant over the language independent features for Bengali and Hindi both.


Abstract To assess the relationship between marsh area and relative abundance of tidal marsh bird species, we surveyed birds on 86 circular plots in 40 salt and brackish tidal marshes in Connecticut. We measured marsh area in two ways: the amount of contiguous marsh vegetation not interrupted by broad barriers (>500 m of open water or >50 m of upland habitat) and by narrow barriers (>30 m of open water or >10 m upland). We determined the relationship between marsh area and the relative abundance of particular species (mean number of individuals per survey plot) with linear or logistic regression. When the broad barrier definition was used, we found that all three species of short grass meadow specialists, Willets (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus), Seaside Sparrows (Ammodramus maritimus), and Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows (A. caudacutus), were less abundant or absent in survey plots in smaller marshes. The Seaside Sparrow and Willet also showed a significant tendency to be less frequent in smaller marshes when the narrow barrier definition was used. In contrast, species that used a wider range of wetland types, as in the Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola), Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris), and Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana), were equally frequent on plots in marshes of different areas. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that fragmentation of marsh systems with artificial habitat causes a decline in the density of short grass meadow specialists in the remaining patches of appropriate habitat.


In the contemporary scene, psychological researchers seeking alternative (qualitative) research strategies are turning increasingly toward interpretation theory. However, other strategies are also available, and one of these is descriptive science. Descriptive practices as the basis for the clarification of meanings have received less emphasis because of several epistemological assumptions about meaning that have appeared in the literature of interpretive science. Based upon the work of contemporary transcendental philosophers, especially J. N. Mohanty, this article argues that a descriptive scientific perspective can respond to some of the hermeneutic arguments about meaning and that solid findings can be established descriptively. It is argued that both description and interpretation are legitimate but that they are tied to different conditions and interests.


The computational demands of computer vision tasks based on state-of-the-art Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) image classification far exceed the energy budgets of mobile devices. This paper proposes FixyNN, which consists of a fixed-weight feature extractor that generates ubiquitous CNN features, and a conventional programmable CNN accelerator which processes a dataset-specific CNN. Image classification models for FixyNN are trained end-to-end via transfer learning, with the common feature extractor representing the transfered part, and the programmable part being learnt on the target dataset. Experimental results demonstrate FixyNN hardware can achieve very high energy efficiencies up to 26.6 TOPS/W ($4.81 \times$ better than iso-area programmable accelerator). Over a suite of six datasets we trained models via transfer learning with an accuracy loss of $<1\%$ resulting in up to 11.2 TOPS/W - nearly $2 \times$ more efficient than a conventional programmable CNN accelerator of the same area.


Background : Untreated HIV/AIDS leads to severe immune depletion with opportunistic  infections and other co-morbidities. Highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) enhances immunity by sustained HIV- viral suppression, increase in CD4+ cell count and immune restoration. HAART reduces risk of neutropaenia, anaemia and accompanied decrease in incidence of opportunistic infections. Objective s: To study the CD4+ cell response in patients with severe HIV/AIDS disease over one year period while on HAART. Design : Observational, descriptive, longitudinal study. Setting : Kisumu District Hospital (Medical outpatient clinic, medical and surgical wards), Nairobi Rhematology clinic and The Mater Hospital between July 2001 and March 2007. Subjects : Four hundred and sixty three consenting patients were screened for the study. Intervention : The 103 patients included received HAART within one to four weeks and appropriate treatment for the opportunistic infections and other co-morbidities. Various HAART combinations including combivir/efavirenz, stavudine/lamivudine/nevirapine and triomune 30/40 (fixed dose combination of stavudine, nevirapine and lamivudine) were used. Some delayed HAART because of the co- morbidities which had to be managed first (severe anaemia, hepatitis and meningitis). Main outcome measures : CD4+ cell increase, new clinical events. Results : Four hundred and sixty three patients (256 males and 207 females) were screened. One hundred and three patients (55 males and 48 females) were included and 360 (201 males and 159 females) patients were excluded. Mean age was 37.9 ± 9.0 years range of (15-70). The mean CD4+ cell counts over the study period were 141.7 ± 176.5 (1-1022), 192.4 ± 198.5 (3-1275), 221.2 ± 178.0 (3-1300), 247.2 ± 197.7 (1-1401) and 268.6 ± 189.9 (1-1390) cells/µl at 0,3,6,9 and 12 months respectively. Nine patients had higher CD4+ cell counts > 350 cells/µl (433-1022) at baseline and higher HIV-viral RNA range between  51,830-1million copies/µl. The patients had multiple co-morbidities, namely, had tuberculosis, sepsis, cryptococcus meningitis, herpes zoster virus, four had non- Hodgkinfs lymphoma, oral candidiasis, hepatitis B virus, pneumocytis jiroveci pneumonia and HIV with renal dysfunction. Seventy (68%) patients had . 2 opportunistic infections. Mean AST, ALT and haemoglobin levels were 127.8 ± 79.8 IU/L, 157.2 ± 50.1 IU/L and 9.1 ± 4.3 g/dl respectively. No patient tested positive for anti-HCV antibodies. Conclusion : The majority of patients had advanced HIV infection at baseline. There was a slow but steady increase in CD4+ cell count over one year. However only 30(29.1%) of patients achieved immune restoration. Seventy three (70.9%) of patients still had immune depletion with low CD4+ cell counts at one year of receiving HAART. Patients with low CD4 + cell counts at baseline had a steady increase of CD4+ cells over the first six months and this emphasises the need to initiate HAART early in public health policy strategy. Expedited HAART initiation should be done in  patients with CD4+ cell counts < 350 cells/µl. Delayed HAART, at low CD4+ cell counts, is associated with poor immune recovery/restoration.


Randomized controlled trials of good quality are a recognized means to robustly assess the efficacy of interventions in clinical practice. A systematic identification and appraisal of all randomized trials involving fresh frozen plasma (FFP) has been undertaken in parallel to the drafting of the updated British Committee for Standards in Haematology guidelines on the use of FFP. A total of 57 trials met the criteria for inclusion in the review. Most clinical uses of FFP, currently recommended by practice guidelines, are not supported by evidence from randomized trials. In particular, there is little evidence for the effectiveness of the prophylactic use of FFP. Many published trials on the use of FFP have enrolled small numbers of patients, and provided inadequate information on the ability of the trial to detect meaningful differences in outcomes between the two patient groups. Other concerns about the design of the trials include the dose of FFP used, and the potential for bias. No studies have taken adequate account of the extent to which adverse effects might negate the clinical benefits of treatment with FFP. There is a need to consider how best to develop new trials to determine the efficacy of FFP in different clinical scenarios to provide the evidence base to support national guidelines for transfusion practice. Trials of modified FFP (e.g. pathogen inactivated) are of questionable value when there is little evidence that the standard product is an effective treatment.


This article presents an assessment of 25 trucking work settings designed to examine whether the environmental attributes of these settings influence eating patterns of truckers who are at risk for excess weight gain. Findings corroborate evidence that these work settings represent healthy food deserts. From restaurants and vending machines to the social/information environments and their surrounding communities, only meager opportunities exist for healthful eating practices. This article aims to place underserved truckers and warehousing-sector employees firmly within the discourse of workplace health promotion and calls for multistakeholder wellness strategies that encompass the intertwined risk factors linked with the transportation work environment.


This project deals with development of a cutting tools and machining parameter
selection system for milling processes and named TnP system. The developed system
has been divided into six modules. The first and second modules are concerned with
blank and machine selection. The third module deals with feature descriptions with
some basic dimensioning functioned as input to automate operation selection in the
fourth module. The fifth and sixth modules are regarding the cutting tools selection,
cutting parameters selection and generation of process plan sheet.
The whole system is developed by using Visual Basic.net as Graphical User Interface
(GUI) and Structure Query Language server (SQL server) as supporting data storage
and retrieval system. The integration of user interface and database has been
implemented using program coding written in Visual Basic.The specialty of the developed system is that it automates the selection of cutting
tools and cutting conditions of milling operations. In addition, the user or process
planner is able to modify and enhance the generated result from the system to meet
their individual requirements. A test run has been included to demonstrate the
potential and application of the developed system.


It is conventional wisdom that Sweden's economic growth internationally seen was unusually rapid 1870-1970 and then very slow. In this paper Sweden is compared with three country groups viz. sixteen industrialised countries, six countries at the same income level as Sweden 1970, and European small industrialised countries. It is shown that as to relative growth another periodisation is relevant. 1890-1950 with Sweden's industrial break-through and the world wars where Sweden was non-belligerent showed an exceptional growth. Then, already from the 1950s growth was slow internationally seen. It is hypothesised that this was due to institutional factors related to the so-called "Swedish Model".


Glucocorticoids contribute fundamentally to the maintenance of basal and stress-related homeostasis in all higher organisms. The major roles of these steroids in physiology are amply matched by their remarkable contributions to pathology. Glucocorticoids influence about 20% of the expressed human genome, and their effects spare almost no organs or tissues. For many years we thought that the numerous actions of glucocorticoids were mediated by a single receptor molecule: the classic glucocorticoid receptor (GR) isoform α, a complex, multifunctional domain protein, operating as a ligand-dependent transcription factor. The GR gene, however, encodes two 3′ splicing variants, GRα and GRβ, from alternative use of two distinct terminal exons (9α and 9β), and each variant mRNA is translated from at least eight initiation sites into multiple GRα and possibly GRβ isoforms, amounting to a minimum of 16 GR monomers and 256 different homo- or heterodimers. The translational GRα isoforms may be produced variably in target tissues, have varying intrinsic transcriptional activities, and influence different complements of glucocorticoid-responsive genes. It is likely that expression and functional differences might also be present between the putative GRβ translational isoforms. The presence of multiple GR monomers and dimers in different quantities with quantitatively and qualitatively different transcriptional activities suggests that the glucocorticoid signaling system is highly stochastic.


What does it mean to be non-binary in the 21st Century? Our gender identity is impacted by our personal histories; the cultures, communities and countries we are born into; and the places we go and the people we meet. But the representation of contemporary non-binary identities has been limited, until now. Pushing the narrative around non-binary identities further than ever before, this powerful collection of essays represents the breadth of non-binary lives, across the boundaries of race, class, age, sexuality, faith and more.

Leading non-binary people share stories of their intersecting lives; how it feels to be non-binary and neurodiverse, the challenges of being a non-binary pregnant person, what it means to be non-binary within the Quaker community, the joy of reaching gender euphoria. This thought-provoking anthology shows that there is no right or wrong way to be non-binary.


Oxcarbazepine (OXC) induces cytochrome CYP3A4 activity, lowering female sex steroid concentrations. To date, similar effects on corticosteroid concentrations have not been reported. The observation of an adolescent boy with Addison's disease requiring high hydrocortisone replacement doses while on OXC for epilepsy led us to investigate effects of OXC on CYP3A4 induction and steroid metabolism. Six young epileptic men on OXC monotherapy and six controls collected 24-h urines and had blood taken for steroid analysis. Accelerated cortisol elimination was confirmed by greater relative 24-h urinary 6-hydroxycortisol/cortisol excretion (4.67 (1.25) µg/day vs controls 2.32 (0.5) µg/day, p=0.001). Patients on OXC had lower serum oestradiol and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate levels, but only tendencies remained after age adjustment. This study shows that OXC-induced CYP3A4 activity increases cortisol elimination. The effect is small in subjects with healthy adrenals. However, caution is warranted for patients with adrenal failure on high doses of OXC where choosing an alternative anticonvulsant may be advisable.


Lower Early Cambrian rocks of the Pedroche Formation in the Sierra de Cordoba consist of well-exposed mixed facies with abundant fossil assemblages showing long stratigraphical ranges. These assemblages include diverse Ovetian archaeocyaths, trilobites, small shelly fossils, calcimicrobia, trace fossils, and stromatolites. For the ostracod-like Cambriidae it is the first record from the Iberian Peninsula. Cordubiella pedrochensis n.gen. n.sp. comes from two sections of the lower Pedroche Formation: the Arroyo de Pedroche 1 sec- tion, and the Arroyo Pedroche 2 section. The material was collected in the zone of Lemdadella perejoni, of lower Ovetian age and below the Eoredlichia FAD. It supplements both biostratigraphic and palaeobiogeographic distribution of the Cambriidae, which may be an important tool for the international correlation in the middle Lower Cambrian.


Chemical and biological studies were carried out on two plants, Garcinia parvifolia (Guttiferae) and Ploiarium alternifolium (Theaceae). The chemical investigations covered xanthones, benzophenones, anthraquinones, and triterpenes.
The stem bark of Garcinia parvifolia and Ploiarium alternifolium were investigated and this resulted in the isolation of ten known compounds. These compounds were isolated using common chromatographic techniques and were identified by using spectroscopic experiments such as NMR, MS, IR and UV.
Detailed chemical studies on Garcinia parvifolia have yielded two triterpenoids, stigmasterol and β-sitosterol, three xanthones, 6-deoxyjacareubin, daphnifolin and rubraxanthone, one benzophenone, isoxanthochymol and one alkaloid, caffeine. Meanwhile, investigations on Ploiarium alternifolium have afforded three anthraquinones, ploiariquinone A, emodin and 1,8-dihydroxy-3-methoxy-6-methyl-anthraquinone.
The larvicidal test was carried out towards the larvae of Aedes aegypti. The crude chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of Garcinia parvifolia were weakly active against the larvae of Aedes aegypti with LC50 values of 204.26, 194.96 and 236.44 μg/ml respectively while the crude chloroform extract of Ploiairum alternifolium was weakly active against the larvae of Aedes aegypti with an LC50 value of 159.12 μg/ml.
The antimicrobial assay was carried out towards four pathogenic bacteria, Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus choleraesuis and Bacillus subtilis. For the microbes MRSA, P. aeruginosa and S. choleraesuis there were no inhibition by all the crude extracts of Garcinia parvifolia. The crude chloroform and methanol extracts of Ploiarium alternifolium showed no activity towards the microbe S. choleraesuis.
Cytotoxic tests were performed using HL-60 Cell Line. The crude hexane, chloroform and ethyl acetate extracts of Garcinia parvifolia were considered to be active against the HL-60 cell line with IC50 values of less than 30 μg/ml. The rude chloroform extract of Ploiarium alternifolium was also considered to be active against the HL-60 cell line with an IC50 value of 23.3 μg/ml. The crude methanol extract of Ploiarium alternifolium showed the most significant activity with an IC50 value of 5.2 μg/ml.
The antifungal activity testing of the plant extracts were carried out against the fungi Candida albican, Aspergillus ochraceaus, Sacchoromyces cerevisiae and Candida lypolytica. No activity was observed for all the crude extracts.


This paper provides an outline of the changes in linguistics that gave rise to historical pragmatics in the 1990s and that have shaped its development over the twenty years of its existence. These changes have affected virtually all aspects of linguistic analyses: the nature of the data, the research questions, the methods and tools that are being used for the analysis, as well as the nature of the generalizations and findings that result from these investigations. We deal with the changes in terms of shifts in thought styles and discuss seven different turns: the pragmatic turn, the socio-cultural turn, the dispersive turn, the empirical turn, the digital turn, the discursive turn and the diachronic turn. We also deal with some long-standing, recent or emerging interfaces where historical pragmatics interacts with other disciplines and we discuss some future challenges, such as the multimodality and fluidity of communication and the problem of combining big data with pragmatic micro analyses.


Changes in the cell envelope composition of mycobacteria cause major changes in cytokine profiles of infected antigen presenting cells. We describe here the modulation of inflammatory responses by Mycobacterium abscessus, an emerging pathogen in cystic fibrosis. M. abscessus is able to switch from a smooth (S) to a rough (R) morphotype by the loss of a surface glycopeptidolipid. R variants are associated with severe clinical forms and a 'hyper‐proinflammatory' response in ex vivo and in vivo models. Using partitioning of cell surface components we found that a complex fraction, more abundant in R variants than in S variants, made a major contribution to the TLR‐2‐dependent hyper‐proinflammatory response induced by R variants. Lipoproteins were the main TLR‐2 agonists in this fraction, consistent with the larger amounts of 16 lipoproteins in cell surface extracts from R variants; 15 out of 16 being more strongly induced in R variant than in S variant. Genetic interruption of glycopeptidolipid pathway in wild‐type S variant resulted in R phenotype with similar induction of lipoprotein genes. In conclusion, R morphotype in M. abscessus is associated with increased synthesis/exposure at the cell surface of lipoproteins, these changes profoundly modifying the innate immune response through TLR‐2‐dependent mechanisms.


An analytical method has been developed for determining the minimum thickness for simply supported, rectangular glass plates subjected to uniform normal pressure environmental loads such as wind, earthquake, snow, and deadweight. The method consists of comparing an analytical prediction of the stress in the glass panel to a glass breakage stress determined from fracture mechanics considerations. Based on extensive analysis using the nonlinear finite element structural analysis program ARGUS, design curves for the structural analysis of simply supported rectangular plates have been developed. These curves yield the center deflection, center stress and corner stress as a function of a dimensionless parameter describing the load intensity. Results are included for plates having length-to-width ratios of 1, 1.5, 2, 3, and 4. The load range considered extends to 1000 times the load at which the behavior of the plate becomes significantly nonlinear. Over the load range analyzed, the analysis shows that the ratio of center deflection to plate thickness for a plate of length-to-width ratio of 4 is less than 70 to 1, whereas linear theory would predict a center deflection about 1200 times the plate thickness. The stress is also markedly lower than would be predicted by linear theory. These analyticalmore » results show good agreement with the analytical and experimental work of others.« less


Encouraging collaborative software design through the use of Multi-touch interfaces has become increasingly important because such surfaces can accommodate more than one user concurrently, which is particularly useful for collaborative software design. This study investigated the differences in collaborative design among groups of students working in PC-based and Multi-touch table conditions to determine the potential of the Multi-touch table to increase the effectiveness of collaboration during software design.
The literature includes several interesting studies reflecting the role of Multi-touch tables in enhancing collaborative activities. Research has found that Multi-touch tables increase group interaction and therefore increase the attainment of group goals. Although many research efforts have facilitated collaboration among users in software design using Unified Modelling Language (UML), these studies examined distributed collaboration and not face-to-face collaboration. However, existing research that studied facilitating co-located collaborative software design has some limitations such as using technologies that prevent parallel design activities.
Collaborative software design using Multi-touch table has not been widely explored. A structured literature review revealed that no Multi-touch collaborative UML design tool is available. Thus, a Multi-touch enabled tool called MT-CollabUML was developed for this study to encourage students to work collaboratively on software design using UML in a co-located setting. Eighteen master's level students enrolled in the Software Engineering for the Internet module were selected to participate in the study. The participants formed nine pairs. The experiment followed a counterbalanced within-subjects design where groups switched experiment conditions to ensure each group used the Multi-touch table and PC-based conditions. All collaborative UML diagramming activities were video recorded for quantitative and qualitative analysis.
Results show that using the MT-CollabUML tool in the Multi-touch table condition enhanced the level of collaboration among the team members and increased their shared contribution. It also increased the equity of participation; the individuals contributed almost equally to the task, and single-person domination decreased in the Multi-touch condition. Results also show that the Multi-touch table encourages parallel-participative design where both group members work in a parallel manner to accomplish the final agreed-upon design. The analysis of verbal communication shows that both experiment conditions encouraged subjects to use collaborative learning skills.


Abstract. Accurate measurement of water vapor in the climate sensitive region near the tropopause turned out to be very challenging. Unexplained systematic discrepancies between measurements at low water vapor mixing ratios made by different instruments on airborne platforms have limited our ability to adequately address a number relevant scientific questions on the humidity distribution, cloud formation and climate impact in that region. Therefore, during the past decade, the scientific community has undertaken substantial efforts to understand these discrepancies and improve the quality of water vapor measurements. This study presents a comprehensive intercomparison of airborne state-of-the-art in situ hygrometers deployed onboard the DLR (German Aerospace Center) research aircraft HALO during the Mid-Latitude CIRRUS (ML-CIRRUS) campaign conducted in 2014 over central Europe. The instrument intercomparison shows that the hygrometer measurements agree within their combined accuracy (±10 to 15 %, depending on the humidity regime), total mean values even agree within 2.5 %. However, systematic differences on the order of 10 % and up to a maximum of 15 % are found for mixing ratios below 10 parts per million (ppm) H2O. A comparison of relative humidity within cirrus clouds does not indicate a systematic instrument bias in either water vapor or temperature measurements in the upper troposphere. Furthermore, in situ measurements are compared to model data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) which are interpolated along the ML-CIRRUS flight tracks. We find a mean agreement within ±10 % throughout the troposphere and a significant wet bias in the model on the order of 100 % to 150 % in the stratosphere close to the tropopause. Consistent with previous studies, this analysis indicates that the model deficit is mainly caused by a blurred humidity gradient at tropopause altitudes.


In internal reflection spectroscopy effective thickness is defined as the thickness of material required to give a spectrum of the same contrast in a transmission measurement as that obtained via internal reflection. Simple expressions for effective thickness are given for bulk materials and for thin films which are useful as guide lines in determining the optimum conditions required to record internal reflection spectra. Depending on angle of incidence and index of refraction, the effective thickness for bulk materials may be much greater or much less than the wavelength of light. Similarly for thin films the effective thickness may be much greater or much less than the actual thickness.


The sheer complexity of evolutionary systems biology requires us to develop more sophisticated tools for analysis, as well as more probing and biologically relevant representations of the data. My research has focused on three aspects of evolutionary systems biology. I ask whether a gene's position in the human metabolic network affects the degree to which natural selection prunes variation in that gene. I estimated the selective constraint (the ratio of non-synonymous to synonymous nucleotide substitutions) on 80.2% of the genes in the metabolic network using a maximum likelihood model of codon evolution and compared this value to the betweenness centrality of each enzyme. Second, I have focused on the evolution of metabolic systems in the presence of gene and genome duplication. I show that increases in a particular gene's copy number are correlated with limiting metabolic flux in the reaction associated with that gene. Finally, I have investigated the proliferative cell programs present in 6 different cancers (breast, colorectal, gastrointestinal, lung, oral squamous and prostate cancers). I found an overabundance of genes that share expression between cancer and embryonic tissue and that these genes form modular units within regulatory, proteininteraction, and metabolic networks. This despite the fact that these genes, as well as the proteins they encode and reactions they catalyze show little overlap among cancers, suggesting parallel independent reversion to an embryonic pattern of gene expression.


In this study, three aluminium samples produced by wire + arc additive manufacture (WAAM) are inspected using ultrasonic phased array technology. Artificial defects are machined using a centre drill, ø3 mm, and electro-discharge machining (EDM), ø0.5-1 mm, in a cylindrical through hole topology. The sample was first inspected by a single element wheel probe mounted on a KUKA robot in order to investigate the feasibility of using a conventional ultrasonic transducer approach. Unfortunately, the wheel probe was found to be unsuitable for scanning of the WAAM specimens and ultrasonic phased arrays were employed next. The setup included 5 MHz and 10 MHz arrays (128 elements) in direct contact with the sample surface using both conventional and total focusing method (TFM) imaging techniques. Using FIToolbox (Diagnostic Sonar, UK) as the controller, a phased array aperture of 32 elements was used to perform a focussed B-scan with a range of settings for the transmit focal depth. All the reflectors (including those located near the WAAM top surface) were successfully detected by a combination of conventional phased array and TFM, using a range of settings and setups including bottom surface inspection, application through a Plexiglas wedge and variation of the scanning frequency.


Rose gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Diplolepidini) are well-known gall-inducing insects on Rosa species, and their galls support species-rich communities. During this investigation, gall samples of Diplolepis fructuum and D. rosae, which are the two most common rose gall wasps in Turkey, were collected in Gumushane, Tokat, Sivas, and Erzincan provinces. Fifteen species associated with D. fructuum and 12 species associated with D. rosae were reared. These community members are mostly primary and secondary parasitoids, along with seed- and gall-tissue?feeders. The association between Aximopsis collina and D. rosae was determined here for the first time. In D. fructuum galls, Pteromalus bedeguaris, Eupelmus urozonus, and Torymus bedeguaris, and in D. rosae galls, P. bedeguaris and Periclistus brandtii were the most common inhabitants among the community members excluding the gall wasps. Additionally, approximate emergence dates of the community members are given.


This article discusses how two decades of economic reforms have intensified popular unrest and redefined the composition, interests and political attitudes of China's ever more complex social strata. It then analyses some of the fundamental domestic and international issues facing Beijing in the course of those reforms and the social problems that have accompanied economic growth. The Communist Party has responded to the challenges generated by these problems and been forced to undertake more active political reforms or face an even greater loss of its authority. The article explains how the Party under the slogan the "three represents" cast its lot with the emerging beneficiaries of its economic reforms in the belief that only continued rapid development can mitigate the most pressing social problems and ensure stability.


Over the past twenty years, the existence of Attention Deficit Disorder has been documented through hundreds of scientific studies. Schools play a vital role in the early in the early identification of children which ADHD and, in many cases; school personnel coordinate efforts among teachers, parents, physicians, and community resources in the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with ADHD (Sloan, Jensen & Hoagwood, 1999). In their research, (Satterfield and Cantwell 1981) viewed the classroom teacher as the major determining factor in whether a student with ADHD succeeds or fails in the classroom. Despite the documented importance of close coordination between physicians and school personnel, in practice the level of communication varies greatly, This paper will examine the personal experiences of well-intentioned teachers, guidance counselors, special educators, psychologists, physicians, school administrators, and parents, and through personal interviews about the quality, quantity, and consistency of their communication present new evidence of the patters of communication and offer recommendations to strengthen these ties.


Special building occupancies, those with a high interior relative humidity, have a specific set of performance requirements to control condensation for exterior window and curtain wall systems. High levels of humidity, if not properly accommodated by glazed exterior wall systems, can result in condensation on and within glazing systems and adjacent construction. The performance of glazing has typically been viewed and analyzed based on overall system performance that generally results in a set of values that do not apply to project specific applications. With this approach, important aspects of a system, as applied to specific buildings, are often overlooked. In this circumstance, the result too often is unacceptable levels of condensation. Unfortunately, many within the design, manufacture, and construction communities do not fully understand the importance of treating each building for the unique set of conditions that it is, and the resultant consequence of not analyzing and treating each humidified building as a unique set of materials, systems, and environmental conditions. Similarly, the analysis methods and tools necessary to predict and prevent condensation are even less familiar within the design and construction industry. As a result, deficient systems and materials may often be installed in these applications, resulting in failures ranging from minor inconvenience to complete loss of service. There are, however, methods that can be used to reduce or eliminate such problems. This paper describes methods and procedures that can be utilized to understand and identify the performance levels required for high humidity spaces and analysis methods (including computer modeling) to predict performance of systems and materials, and this paper also describes both active and passive technologies that have been successful in meeting these needs. Passive design, through the use of high performance glazing, and active technologies, such as heat tracing and heated glass, are considered. Benefits, risks, and appropriate uses of each are identified. Examples are included to illustrate these approaches.


We introduce a new approach for tracing the origin submerged entry nozzle precipitates (clogging) in continuous casting processes using stable oxygen isotopes. The isotopic signatures of possible oxygen sources are compared with the isotope ratios in the precipitates. We use infra-red laser fluorination in combination with continuous flow gas mass spectroscopy to determine the oxygen ratios in the highly refractory, alumina-rich precipitates and possible oxygen sources. Our isotope data indicate that atmospheric oxygen is not the major source of oxide precipitates in the submerged entry nozzles. Also process oxygen from the converter can be excluded to be source of oxygen in clogging. A possible origin of oxygen in alumina-rich precipitates from olivine from refractory material is discussed.


The Rukwa rift is a 300-km-long half-graben basin that lies along the central part of a 1000-km-long continental transform in the East African Rift. The basin contains Carboniferous to Quaternary sedimentary strata ∼11 km thick. Within the basin, maximum extension has been directed nearly normal to the border fault, even though this border fault has been dominated by dextral strike slip. However, extension and subsidence in the Rukwa rift are not explained by releasing-bend or oblique-extension fault geometries. We interpret the orientation of the extension as a local stress rotation symptomatic of a low- friction, "weak" strike-slip border fault. Structural and morphologic features suggest that an along-strike contrast in the frictional strength of the border fault controls the location of this extension. Subsidence and extension normal to the border fault in the Rukwa rift occur along a weak transform fault segment, as an along-strike accommodation of drag and local shortening against an adjacent strong segment. Thus, three-dimensional strain is accommodated differently along the strike of the border fault as a function of the frictional strength of the fault zone.


The only place where Neogene–Quaternary rocks crop out for the entire Tuscan Archipelago in the Northern Tyrrhenian Sea is the island of Pianosa. In particular, the Miocene deposits record the depositional and tectonic evolution of the Northern Tyrrhenian region during this time period. These deposits are subdivided into two successions separated by a low-angle unconformity. The older, middle Burdigalian succession represents a calciturbidite shallow marine system, whereas the younger late Tortonian–early Messinian succession comprises a continental alluvial system that evolves upwards into a lagoonal–marginal marine environment. Here we present sedimentological, palaeontological and petrographical data that support a new stratigraphic and palaeogeographical framework for reconstructing the opening of the Northern Tyrrhenian back-arc basin. The early Miocene succession records a pre-rift marine depositional phase followed by a late Burdigalian–Langhian erosional phase. This was followed by a period of synrift continental-marginal deposition, as recorded by the late Miocene succession, terminated by an important phase of uplift, probably induced by the start of magmatic activity in the Tuscan Archipelago area.


Applications of spray drying and spray congealing to improve poorly water soluble drug dissolutionA. A. Elkordy 1, E. Essa 2, A. M. Faheem 31 Faculty of Applied Sciences, Department of Pharmacy, University of Sunderland, Sunderland, Uk, 2 Faculty of Pharmacy,Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, University of Tanta, Tanta, Egypt, 3 School of Biomedical Sciences, Department of Pharmacy, University of Ulster, Coleraine, UKPurpose.To enhance the dissolution of ibuprofen, a model poorly water soluble drug, via spray drying and spray congealing technologies.Methods.Drug particles were formulated in absence and presence of a hydrophilic surfactant, poloxamer 407 (1:1w/w drug:surfactant) by: (i) spray drying with 40:60 ethanol:water as a solvent and (ii) spray congealing by melting the components at 90oC using Mini Spray Dryer B-290. Formulations were evaluated using drug content analysis, dissolution testing, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), FT-IR spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).Results.Spray drying and spray congealing of ibuprofen with poloxamer 407 produced formulations with uniform drug distribution. Spray dried products containing poloxamer 407 better enhanced ibuprofen dissolution compared to pure and spray congealeddrug. A burst release was observed after 5 minutes of 100mg drug release, 82±1.1, 90±0.2, 21±2.6, 38±1.7 and 36±0.6% of ibuprofen released from spray dried drug, spray dried drug with surfactant, spray congealed drug, spray congealed drug with surfactant and pure drug, respectively. Spray drying produced amorphous materials which resulted in faster dissolution rate compared to started crystalline material; this was confirmed by DSC data. Poloxamer 407 improved the wetting ability of drug particles and this prevented aggregation and increased surface area of particles when exposed to aqueous dissolution medium. This also could explain the burst drug release of spray dried products in the presence of surfactant. The low dissolution rate for drug particles prepared by spray congealing may be explained by: (i) formation of strong melt-solidified bonds and (ii) formation of a new polymorph as demonstrated by DSC (there were two endothermic peaks) and FT-IR (appearance of a new peak at 1548 cm-1) results. SEM of pure ibuprofen exhibited drug crystalline structure. Whilst, SEM of spray dried ibuprofen with and without surfactant showed particles with irregular porous surface, the surface of spray congealed particles was nonporous and wrinkled.Conclusion.Spray drying of ibuprofen with or without poloxamer 407 significantly enhanced drug dissolution rate compared with pure drug. Spray congealing showed formation of a new polymorph. This polymorph was responsible for poor dissolution of spray congealed drug.


BACKGROUND
Dermatophytic infections have been known to impact negatively on health and well-being of children. This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence, clinical types as well as the etiologic organisms of dermatophyte infection among primary school children aged 5-16 years in Oke-Oyi community in Kwara state.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A 4-months descriptive cross-sectional survey was carried out among 602 children aged 5-16 years in Oke-Oyi community, in Kwara state.

RESULTS
The prevalence of clinically suspected dermatophytoses lesion was 29.9% (180/602). Dermatophyte accounted for 5.0% (30/602) on Sabouraud dextrose agar culture, while non-dermatophyte molds represent majority of isolate i.e., 15.4% (93/602). Tinea capitis is the commonest clinical type, followed by Tinea coporis and then Tinea pedis. Multiple infections are noted in nine respondents. Three species of dermatophytes belonging to only two of the three genera of dermatophytes were responsible for human infection in the area studied, of which Trichophyton mentagrophyte is the commonest, followed by Microsporum audouinii and Trichophyton verucossum. Among the non-dermatophytes, Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida albicans predominate.

CONCLUSION
This study demonstrates that the prevalence of dermatophytoses in the school studied was significant. Control efforts should target this vulnerable group to reduce its prevalence.


Abstract Rare-element class, beryl type, beryl-columbite-phosphate subtype pegmatites of the Velasco district from the Pampeana Pegmatite Province, Argentina, contain varieties of green, yellow, and aquamarine beryl. The major and trace element chemistry and dimensions of the unit cell parameters of beryl from ten pegmatites from the Velasco district were used to identify differences among beryl types, determine chromophore elements, and determine the relative degree of fractionation of the pegmatites. Concentrations of Rb, Li, Cs, and Na in all beryls analyzed are among the lowest measured in pegmatitic beryl of similar colors worldwide. Within and among individual pegmatites, an increase in Li and Cs contents and decrease in Na/Li ratios in the order green beryl → yellow beryl → aquamarine suggest that green beryl formed in the early stages of crystallization of the pegmatites while yellow beryl and aquamarine formed from more evolved fluids in the late stages of crystallization. The chemical variations from green beryl to yellow beryl to aquamarine reflect crystallization during melt fractionation and/or crystallization of Fe-Mn phosphate minerals. Beryl from the El Bolsoncito and El Principio pegmatites, with the highest Li and Cs and some of the lowest Fe + Mg contents in the studied beryl, reflects the highest degree of evolution among the Velasco pegmatites. Within individual pegmatites Cr contents in beryl decrease in the order green beryl → yellow beryl, and green beryl → aquamarine, consistent with Cr being a chromophore element for green beryl. Niobium contents increase from green to yellow beryl, and from green beryl to aquamarine, indicating that Nb tends to concentrate in late forms of beryl. The absence of a systematic change in the size of unit cell parameters a and c with varying compositions and the small size of the c parameter reflect the extremely limited incorporation of Li, Na, and Cs in the mineral. A compilation of beryl compositions worldwide shows the highest degree of fractionation for the Tanco, Koktokay No. 3, Minas Gerais, Kaatiala, Namivo, Bikita, Czech Republic, and Greer Lake pegmatites.


The objective of this study was to determine whether Acylation Stimulating Protein (ASP) is generated in vivo by human adipose tissue during the postprandial period. After a fat meal, samples from 12 subjects were obtained (up to 6 h) from an arterialized hand vein and an anterior abdominal wall vein that drains adipose tissue. Veno-arterial (V-A) gradients across the subcutaneous adipose tissue bed were calculated. The data demonstrate that ASP is produced in vivo (positive V-A gradient) With maximal production at 3-5 h postprandially. The plasma triacylglycerol (TAG) clearance was evidenced by a negative V-A gradient. It increased substantially after 3 h and remained prominent until the final time point. There was, therefore, a close temporal coordination between ASP generation and TAG clearance. In contrast, plasma insulin and non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) had an early (1-2 h) postprandial change. Fatty acid incorporation into adipose tissue (FIAT) was calculated from V-A glycerol and non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) differences postprandially. FIAT was negative during the first hour, implying net fat mobilization. FIAT then became increasingly positive, implying net fat deposition, and overall followed the same time course as ASP and TAG clearance. There was a direct positive correlation between total ASP production and total FIAT (r = 0.566, P < 0.05). These data demonstrate that ASP is generated in vivo by human adipocytes and that this process is accentuated postprandially, supporting the concept that ASP plays an important role in clearance of TAG from plasma and fatty acid storage in adipose tissue.


With software-as-a-service becoming mainstream, more and more applications are delivered to the client through the Web. Unlike a desktop application, a web application is split into browser-side and server-side components. A subset of the application's internal information flows are inevitably exposed on the network. We show that despite encryption, such a side-channel information leak is a realistic and serious threat to user privacy. Specifically, we found that surprisingly detailed sensitive information is being leaked out from a number of high-profile, top-of-the-line web applications in healthcare, taxation, investment and web search: an eavesdropper can infer the illnesses/medications/surgeries of the user, her family income and investment secrets, despite HTTPS protection; a stranger on the street can glean enterprise employees' web search queries, despite WPA/WPA2 Wi-Fi encryption. More importantly, the root causes of the problem are some fundamental characteristics of web applications: stateful communication, low entropy input for better interaction, and significant traffic distinctions. As a result, the scope of the problem seems industry-wide. We further present a concrete analysis to demonstrate the challenges of mitigating such a threat, which points to the necessity of a disciplined engineering practice for side-channel mitigations in future web application developments.


Flexibility within multinational companies (MNCs) has become increasingly transnational in character. Strategies of inter-firm benchmarking, outsourcing and cross-national or internal 'coercive comparison' are increasingly used by MNCs to enhance local performance by placing plants in competition with each other, forcing subsidiaries to gradually raise their level of flexibility, and eroding employees' working conditions. This Policy Brief argues the need to extend the entitlement of employee participation bodies at the European level to cover corporate strategies of transnational flexibility. In particular, it is argued that by monitoring the management of flexibility at the transnational level, EWCs could improve their capacity to act upon the causes – rather than being subsequently confronted with the effects – of company restructuring as it results principally from MNCs' strategies of increasing flexibilisation. Policy recommendations


The complicated patterns of modal structure and attenuation observed in sound propagation through a range‐dependent shallow‐water environment are used to investigate and visualize the mechanisms of mode coupling and stripping. Broadband experiments have been carried out at the geologically known AGS site in the past few years. This presentation reports on a recent experiment which provides significantly more acoustic data along different propagation tracks and, consequently, permits high resolution of physical processes in range. A mode‐filtering technique is used to construct modal structure from the data, while modal attenuation is obtained from spectral ratios. The evolution of modal structure is determined as a function of frequency and range. This is examined in view of environmental parameters along a selected propagation track. Numericalsimulations are carried out using interpolations of the known geoacoustic environment and employing the KRAKEN normal mode and RAM parabolic equation models. Result...


This document pulls together all of the work conducted under WP3 (EU 6th Framework Programme - Work Programme 3). The document is split into a number of sections. The first section provides an introduction. We then provide an overview of the distribution of ICTs and indicators of social capital and quality of life across the European Union in 2002 as a background to the subsequent analysis. We then concentrate on the integrated dynamic modelling work carried out up to the second expert seminar in February 2005. As we discuss above, following that seminar the project's approach and analysis focus evolved into a series of discrete topics. Subsequent sections contain these topic reports together with their conclusions and recommendations. We provide an overview of the decision support tool which is an online tool and therefore not suitable for 'reporting' in full in this document. Readers should note that there is no overarching conclusions section with recommendations as this is contained in a separate Deliverable, D14.


Focus on Grammar, now in a new edition, maintains the proven pedagogy that makes it the most popular contextualized grammar series worldwide. Its unique four-step approach takes students from context to communication - blending content, reading, writing, listening, speaking and critical thinking in a complete program, and preparing students to understand and use English more effectively. Centered on thematic instruction Focus on Grammar allows students to interact with grammar in realistic contexts and moves them beyond controlled practice to authentic communication. New features include: * Updated high-interest readings in multiple genres that expose students to the form, meaning, and use of grammar in natural contexts.* Key vocabulary is taught, practiced, and recycled throughout each unit, to ensure acquisition.* Fully redesigned grammar charts and notes that provide greater clarity.*Explicit pronunciation activities to improve fluency and accuracy.*Expanded listening tasks allow students to develop a range of listening skills.* Flexible, ongoing assessment - including unit reviews, diagnostic and achievement tests, and test-generating software - allows students to monitor their own progress and teachers to track students' mastery. (Test and test-generating software available in the Teacher's Resource Pack)


We used global positioning system (GPS) radiocollars on female white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ) to document details of onsets of migrations, rates of travel, patterns of travel, durations of migrations, and distances traveled by 8 deer in spring and 4 deer in autumn in northeastern Minnesota in 1998, 1999, and 2001. In spring, deer migrated 23–45 km during 31–356 h, deviating a maximum 1.6–4.0 km perpendicular from a straight line of travel between their seasonal ranges. They migrated a minimum of 2.1–18.6 km/day over 11–56 h during 2–14 periods of travel. Minimum travel during 1-h intervals averaged 1.5 km/h ( SD ¼ 0.6, n ¼ 27). Deer paused 1–12 times, averaging 24 h/pause ( SD ¼ 29, n ¼ 43, range 19–306 h/pause). Deer migrated similar distances in autumn with comparable rates and patterns of travel. A difference of 1.9- to 7.5-fold in duration of migrations by deer migrating the same distances suggests that much of the variation in durations may be independent of migration distance.


Understanding the generalization of deep neural networks is one of the most important tasks in deep learning. Although much progress has been made, theoretical error bounds still often behave disparately from empirical observations. In this work, we develop margin-based generalization bounds, where the margins are normalized with optimal transport costs between independent random subsets sampled from the training distribution. In particular, the optimal transport cost can be interpreted as a generalization of variance which captures the structural properties of the learned feature space. Our bounds robustly predict the generalization error, given training data and network parameters, on large scale datasets. Theoretically, we demonstrate that the concentration and separation of features play crucial roles in generalization, supporting empirical results in the literature. The code is available at \url{https://github.com/chingyaoc/kV-Margin}.


Multifocal motor neuropathy is an immune mediated disease presenting with multifocal muscle weakness and conduction block. IgM auto-antibodies against the ganglioside GM1 are detectable in about 50% of the patients. Auto-antibodies against the paranodal proteins contactin-1 and neurofascin-155 and the nodal protein neurofascin-186 have been detected in subgroups of patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. Recently, auto-antibodies against neurofascin-186 and gliomedin were described in more than 60% of patients with multifocal motor neuropathy. In the current study, we aimed to validate this finding, using a combination of different assays for auto-antibody detection. In addition we intended to detect further auto-antibodies against paranodal proteins, specifically contactin-1 and neurofascin-155 in multifocal motor neuropathy patients ' sera. We analyzed sera of 33 patients with well-characterized multifocal motor neuropathy for IgM or IgG anti-contac-tin-1, anti-neurofascin-155 or -186 antibodies using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, binding assays with transfected human embryonic kidney 293 cells and murine teased fibers. We did not detect any IgM or IgG auto-antibodies against contactin-1, neurofascin-155 or -186 in any of our multifocal motor neuropathy patients. We conclude that autoantibodies against contactin-1, neurofascin-155 and -186 do not play a relevant role in the pathogenesis in this cohort with multifocal motor neuropathy.


Attrition from traditional pre-registration nursing programmes in the United Kingdom continues to be substantial and, once qualified, new staff nurses experience a number of challenges in adapting to their new role. A possible solution, strongly favoured by the current government, is to second existing healthcare assistants onto pre-registration programmes. The premise is that, because of their previous caring experience and exposure to work in the National Health Service, secondees will be more committed to complete training and will undergo role transition more effectively. This paper presents an in-depth, qualitative study concerning the role transition of newly qualified staff nurses who had previously been employed as healthcare assistants. Uptake of the scheme had been substantially lower than anticipated, with only a small number of secondees eventually returning to their original wards. Secondees, their ward managers, percerptors and clinical practice facilitators were interviewed and the data were analysed employing the sequence for qualitative data analysis described by Miles and Huberman (1994). Findings suggest that healthcare-assistant secondment may not offer a ready solution to increasing the qualified nursing workforce. Contributory factors include: the length of time required for each newly qualified practitioner to qualify via the secondment route; the degree of commitment required on the part of secondees and university staff; the apparently limited benefits of previous healthcare-assistant experience; and personal costs to the secondees. Secondees described how they had been afraid of not completing the course successfully because of the public nature of failure if they were obliged to return to their original workplaces in the same role as before. This additional pressure has not been anticipated by proponents of secondment schemes and may help to explain why so few eligible candidates applied for secondment.


Professor Michael examines regulatory programs in which the federal government leaves many compliance decisions up to the regulated entities themselves. Drawing on prior research and theory in the area, he concludes that such "cooperative implementation" is feasible if three principles are observed: (1) regulatory standards are written to leave discretion in methods of compliance and that discretion is within the competence of the regulated entities; (2) there are economic incentives to offset the additional costs to these entities; and (3) the entities self-report their own compliance, the agency closely monitors the program, and the agency maintains a residual program of traditional surveillance and direct enforcement. Next, Professor Michael examines existing programs which fall within the definition of "cooperative implementation "programs. These programs include voluntary and mandatory programs of self-enforcement and self-reporting in workplace safety and health, air and water pollution control, food safety, and transportation safety. In each instance, those programs that conform most closely to the three principles are more successful. Moreover, those programs that were not wholly successful failed to satisfy one or more of these principles. The Article concludes with general recommendations on how to expand the use and ensure the success of cooperative implementation.


It is an old adage in physiology that structure reflects function. In the brain-stem reticular activating system (RAS) there reside three nests of cells making peculiar chemicals known as the biogenic amines, viz. noradrenaline, dopamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5HT). What is more, the ramifications of these cells are distributed over the whole extent of the cerebral cortex. What is their function?


An experiment was conducted using 105 Merino hoggets to measure the change in tissue glycogen concentration over a 48-h period following an exercise regime. The exercise regime consisted of a 2-km run repeated four times with a 15-min break between each run. After exercise the hoggets were split into treatment groups and fed three different levels (fasting, maintenance and three times maintenance) of the same ration. A subset of each group of hoggets was killed at -24, 0, 12, 24 and 48 h from the time of exercise and samples taken from the liver, skin, rumen, duodenum, colon, kidney, M. semimembranosus, M. semitendinosus, M. longissimus thoracis et lumborum, M. psoas major, M. triceps brachii and M. subscapularis. Exercise caused a reduction in glycogen concentration in the liver and all muscles but not in the kidney, skin, duodenum, or colon tissues. After exercise the most significant changes in glycogen concentration were in the liver, muscle and skin. Metabolisable energy intake influenced the change in the liver and muscle tissue but not in the skin. It was concluded that glycogen concentration increased in liver before muscle and that this effect may contribute to the slower rate of glycogen concentration in muscle for ruminants compared with monogastric animals. Skin may also compete with muscle for glucose during the repletion phase in Merino sheep but the exact nature of this effect remains uncertain.


The New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) is exhausted and the `free flow of information' doctrine has been brought back to life, despite persistent inequalities in global communication and the failure to significantly democratize the international communications system. This article maps the rise, fall and resuscitation of the free flow of information doctrine. It also presents evidence illustrating that people's access to basic communications technologies and services has increased significantly, although persistent gaps remain and new axes of inequality are emerging. The article also illustrates how NAFTA and the WTO agreements covering telecoms and computer services facilitate efforts to realize the economic value of information by shielding a range of new technologies and services from the reach of telecommunications policies and expanding the free flow of information doctrine. Based on distinctions between the technical and communicative dimensions of democracy, I argue that both agreements, and the history of NWICO and the `free flow' debates in general, envision and construct a transnational politics of limited democracy. The idea of `communicative democracy' is offered as a standpoint from which to critique these developments and as a normative basis for policy analysis.


ABSTRACT The increasing number of protest activities urges political and social philosophers to analyze the meaning and function of protest in modern democracy. Its focus on conflictive social relations makes radical democratic theory the most promising approach currently at hand for such an endeavor. It allows us to comprehend today's form of protest as a critique of the current shape of modern democratic order (and not as interest politics or as a struggle for rights). Accordingly, radical democratic theory has established itself in academic discourses and is widely and well received by political activists. Notwithstanding its critical potential, I argue that radical democratic thought is not in a position to conceptually grasp the differentia specifica of a democratic order and to sufficiently determine the meaning of protest for democracy. A democratic and social theory of political protest in modern democracies is, therefore, still waiting to be developed.


Summary Immigration, immigration policies and education of immigrants alter competence levels. This study analysed their effects using PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS data (1995 to 2012, N=93 nations) for natives' and immigrants' competences, competence gaps and their population proportions. The mean gap is equivalent to 4.71 IQ points. There are large differences across countries in these gaps ranging from around +12 to −10 IQ points. Migrants' proportions grow roughly 4% per decade. The largest immigrant-based 'brain gains' are observed for Arabian oil-based economies, and the largest 'brain losses' for Central Europe. Regarding causes of native–immigrant gaps, language problems do not seem to explain them. However, English-speaking countries show an advantage. Acculturation within one generation and intermarriage usually reduce native–immigrant gaps (≅1 IQ point). National educational quality reduces gaps, especially school enrolment at a young age, the use of tests and school autonomy. A one standard deviation increase in school quality represents a closing of around 1 IQ point in the native–immigrant gap. A new Greenwich IQ estimation based on UK natives' cognitive ability mean is recommended. An analysis of the first adult OECD study PIAAC revealed that larger proportions of immigrants among adults reduce average competence levels and positive Flynn effects. The effects on economic development and suggestions for immigration and educational policy are discussed.


Infant and toddler aquatic programs provide an opportunity to introduce young children to the joy and risks of being in or around water. Generally, children are not developmentally ready for swimming lessons until after their fourth birthday. Aquatic programs for infants and toddlers have not been shown to decrease the risk of drowning, and parents should not feel secure that their child is safe in water or safe from drowning after participating in such programs. Young children should receive constant, close supervision by an adult while in and around water.


The advancement of triplet–triplet annihilation based upconversion (TTA-UC) in emerging technologies necessitates the development of solid-state systems that are readily accessible and broadly applicable. Here, we demonstrate that thiol–ene click chemistry can be used as a facile cure-on-demand synthetic route to access elastomeric films capable of TTA-UC. Photopolymerization of multifunctional thiols in the presence of a thiol-functionalized 9,10-diphenylanthracene (DPA) emitter results in covalent DPA integration and homogenous crosslinked polymer networks. The palladium(II) octaethylporphyrin (PdOEP) sensitizer is subsequently introduced into the films through solution immersion. Upon excitation at 544 nm, green-to-blue upconversion is observed with compositional tuning resulting in an optimal upconverted emission intensity at 1.0 wt% DPA and 0.02 wt% PdOEP. The effectiveness of thiol–ene networks to function as robust host materials for solid-state TTA-UC is further demonstrated by improved photostability in air.


ABSTRACT The matricellular protein SPARC (secreted proteome acidic and rich in cysteine) is known to bind collagens and regulate fibrillogenesis. Cleavage of SPARC at a single peptide bond, increases the affinity for collagens up to 20-fold. To investigate if this specific cleavage has pathological relevance in fibrotic disorders, we developed a competitive ELISA targeting the generated neo-epitope on the released fragment and quantified it in serum from patients with lung cancer, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and healthy subjects. Furthermore, the ability of SPARC to protect fibrillar collagens from proteolytic degradation was investigated in vitro, potentially adding a new collagen chaperone function to SPARC. The fragment was significantly elevated in lung cancer patients when compared to healthy subjects measured in a discovery cohort (p = 0.0005) and a validation cohort (p < 0.0001). No significant difference was observed for IPF and COPD patients compared to healthy subjects. When recombinant SPARC was incubated with type I or type III collagen and matrix metalloproteinase-9, collagen degradation was completely inhibited. Together, these data suggest that cleavage of SPARC at a specific site, which modulates collagen binding, is a physiological mechanism increased during pathogenesis of lung cancer. Furthermore, inhibition of fibrillar collagen degradation by SPARC adds a new chaperone function to SPARC which may play additional roles in the contribution to increased collagen deposition leading to a pro-fibrotic and tumorigenic environment.


The effect of cross-sectional data discrepancies on the effectiveness of radiation shielding design has been investigated in this paper. The MCNP code with cross-sections from ENDF/B-V and ENDF/B-VII has been used to determine the gamma ray dose equivalent, H*(10), behind a lead glass shield enclosing a slow neutron source. It is observed that the radiative capture gamma ray dose behind the shield is higher when ENDF/B-V cross-sections are used compared to that produced by ENDF/B-VII cross-sections. The discrepancy is due to absence of energetic primary gamma rays when ENDF/B-VII is used. The results show that shielding design using ENDF/B-VII cross-sections could underestimate the shield by a fair margin and compromise safety. It is therefore necessary to consider more than one release of ENDF/B when using lead glass for shielding slow neutron capture gamma rays. The discrepancies need to be addressed in the next releases.


This paper assesses the current state of law and economics, standard and behavioral, and proposes an additional element to the basic belief-desire apparatus of economic theory in order to create a more unified theory of behavior. The first part of the paper assesses the current status of standard economic theory. While standard models have had their successes, a large and growing body of empirical evidence reveals that people often fail to live up its rational-actor ideal. In response, economists usually stick with standard consumer theory and attempt to explain the anomalous results by referring to some overlooked input (e.g., some new belief) or by applying the old models in new ways (e.g., multiple-selves accounts). But there are some cases that standard approaches just can't explain, and they don't seem to have the resources needed to expand their explanatory reach. Behavioral economics, the focus of the second part of the paper, is not without problems of its own. Chief among these is that it has not coalesced into a unified theory of behavior. This is problematic because there are inconsistent (and irreconcilable) behavioral explanations for particular bits of behavior; it is also difficult to figure out how behavioral and standard accounts fit together. The root of the problem, though, is not that behavioral models are under-theorized, but that they are under-motivated. Behavioral economists often fail to draw a distinction between empirical evidence and what it is evidence for. This sort of curve fitting approach explains why behavioral explanations are less than satisfying, and also helps explain why behavioral economics has not coalesced into a unified theory. The usual methods for accommodating the empirical evidence regarding economic theory share the following feature: they take the basic economic account as canonical. Accept, reject, or tinker with the functional forms, most economists, standard and behavioral, confine themselves to thinking about the particular elements of common sense (namely, desires and beliefs) that originally inspired economic models. There is, however, another approach. Economic theory (and its successors) might be too distilled - after all, there is much more to our common-sense theory of behavior than the claim that people act to get what they want. Recognizing this possibility allows us to see that we can look for additional resources in common sense to enhance economic models in a top down instead of bottom up way. The third and final part of the paper discusses one such approach based on Frederic Schick's work on understandings. Drawn from the well of common-sense psychology, the concept of understandings presents an additional element to the basic belief-desire apparatus that underlies economic theory. The idea, in a nutshell, is that people normally consider their circumstances from a particular perspective and, as a result, they act on proper subsets of their beliefs and desires that reflect their take on their situations. This approach can be readily integrated into standard economic theory and is capable of shedding crucial light on many of the situations that give standard accounts trouble (and give rise to behavioral alternatives). As such, it is a step in the direction of a more unified theory of human behavior.


Cost-efficient and sustainable electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is highly desired in the search for clean and renewable energy sources. In this study, we develop a new one-step synthesis strategy of novel composites based on Ni and molybdenum carbide embedded in N- and P-dual doped carbon matrices using mainly chitosan biopolymer as the carbon and nitrogen source, and molybdophosphoric acid (HMoP) as the P and Mo precursor. Two composites have been investigated through annealing a mixture of Ni/chitosan and HMoP with two unlike carbon matrices, melamine and graphene oxide, at a high temperature. Both composites exhibit similar multi-active sites with high electrocatalytic activity for OER in an alkaline medium, which is comparable to the IrO2 catalyst. For this study, an accurate measurement of the onset potential for O2 evolution has been used by means of a rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE). The use of this method allows confirming a better stability in the chitosan/graphene composite. This work serves as a promising approach for the conversion of feedstock and renewable chitosan into desired OER catalysts.


A nanostructure DNA biosensor based on pencil graphite electrode modified with polypyrrole, single wall carbon nanotubes and ds-DNA (PGE/PP/SWCNTs/DNA) was suggested for the determination of ciprofloxacin. The proposed sensor was characterized using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods. Guanine and adenine signals were used as the sign for investigating the interaction between ciprofloxacin and DNA at the surface of PGE/PP/SWCNTs/DNA. On the other hand, a docking simulations investigation was used for confirming the interaction between DNA and ciprofloxacin. The PGE/PP/SWCNTs/DNA demonstrates a wide dynamic range (0.008–30.0 μM) with an ultrasensitive detection limit of 4.0 nM for the determination of ciprofloxacin using the differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) method. PGE/PP/SWCNTs/DNA showed a good ability for the analysis of ciprofloxacin in drug and urine samples.


In recent years, there is a big demand for live streaming service over the Internet. As one of the service model, peer-to-peer (P2P) live streaming has been utilized. In the system, it is important to decrease inter-AS (Autonomous System) traffic volume and content delivery delay because the larger volume leads to higher transit cost of ASes and this system treats the live contents, respectively. Therefore, as a conventional peer selection algorithm that tries to decrease them, Minimum Physical Hop (MPH) has been proposed. In MPH, to decrease inter-AS traffic volume, a newly joining peer selects a providing peer with the minimum physical hop count, which is the minimum number of ASes between the providing peer and the newly joining peer. Furthermore, to decrease content delivery delay, if there are several such candidates, it selects a providing peer with the minimum logical hop count, which is the number of Origin Streaming Servers (OSS) or peers passed from an OSS to the peer, from the candidates. However, MPH shows high inter-AS traffic volume when the number of joining peers is large. When we use MPH, candidates for providing peer with large logical hop count tend to swarm in ASes without an OSS while those with small logical hop count do in ASes with an OSS because of the peer selection policy of MPH. As the number of joining peers becomes large, the logical hop counts of the candidates for providing peer in every AS increase. As a result, in the former ASes, the logical hop counts of all the candidates for providing peer reach the upper bound frequently, and the newly joining peer cannot often find its providing peer in the AS, and consequently have to select providing peers in different ASes. In this paper, we improve MPH in order to further decrease the inter-AS traffic volume. In the improved algorithm called Improved Minimum Physical Hop (IMPH), we try to decrease the volume by distributing providing peers with one logical hop count to many ASes. As a result of the evaluation, we show that IMPH achieves to reduce the inter-AS traffic volume by at a maximum of 38% compared to MPH under uniform peer generation distributions.


This paper is concerned with the question of how activity mediated by shared representations-notations that are manipulated by more than one person during a collaborative task-might constitute knowledge construction activity. The paper begins with a brief review of theoretical perspectives on how representations mediate collaborative knowledge construction, to identify the kinds of events we would look for as evidence of knowledge construction in via a representational medium. Then the paper draws on data from a prior study in which participants collaborated via a graphical representation as well as a verbal "chat" tool, to identify instances of such events and illustrate ways in which the activity of two individuals can be coupled and joined into a larger cognitive (and sometimes knowledge construction) activity distributed across the persons and representations they are manipulating.


Isoprene is a non-methane hydrocarbon that is emitted by certain plant species. This compound affects the chemistry of the troposphere because it is oxidized by the hydroxyl radical and its oxidation products are precursors for the photochemical production of ozone. In 1992, we conducted a study on the controls of isoprene emission from a temperate deciduous forest. We draw upon data from this field experiment, and the literature, to describe the biological, chemical and physical processes that control the synthesis, emission and atmospheric lifetime of isoprene. Isoprene biosynthesis is associated with photosynthesis. Once produced, isoprene molecules diffuse through the stomata and laminar boundary layer of leaves to reach the atmosphere. Then isoprene molecules are transported by turbulence through the plant canopy and into the atmosphere's boundary layer. The ultimate fate of isoprene is controlled primarily by chemical oxidation and deposition to the surface. Emission rates of isoprene from leaves can be predicted by an algorithm that is a function of light energy and leaf temperature. Scaling of isoprene fluxes from the leaf to canopy scale is accomplished by linking the leaf algorithm to a canopy micrometeorological model. Field tests of the scaling model indicate that it can successfully estimate canopy-scale isoprene flux densities, as long as the biomass of isoprene emitting plants is used as a driving variable.


textabstractAlcohol and illicit drug use have adverse health effects and also influence health as a result of intentional and unintentional accidents. International emergency room studies show that substance use and injuries are related. Despite this, emergency room studies on alcohol and illicit drug use in the Netherlands do not provide recent and complete data. Therefore, the focus of this thesis will be twofold. First, methodological aspects of assessing substance use among emergency room populations are studied. Second, this study provides recent data on substance use prevalence rates and patient characteristics among emergency room populations in the Netherlands. Data were collected in four different emergency rooms in different regions in the Netherlands; including two university hospitals and two general hospitals. This thesis concludes that the main methodological issues involved in emergency room studies are the characteristics of the alcohol and illicit drug!
 use measures, and sample selection bias. Alcohol and illicit drug use prevalence rates and patient characteristics in the present studies are comparable to international findings, with variations between the different regions in the Netherlands. Alcohol was reported by 10 to 18% of the patients and illicit drug use was admitted by 2 to 8% of the emergency room patients, with both groups more likely to be males, excessive drinkers and with combined use of substances. The results of our studies indicate that: interventions could be initiated at the emergency room, and should focus more on a patientâ?Ts alcohol use than on illicit drug use because alcohol use is easier to detect, less region specific, more prevalent, and for which more effective interventions are available.


Objective: To compare the clinical outcomes between Transurethral Enucleation with Bipolar system (TUEB) and monopolar resectoscope enucleation of the prostate (mTUEP) for treating Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) in a prospective randomized trial with 12 months of follow-up.
Methods: The study randomized 114 consecutive patients with BPH into either a TUEB (n=59) or mTUEP (n=55) treatment group.
Results: Significant differences were seen in the resection weight per unit time (0.76 ± 0.14 vs. 0.82 ± 0.23 g/min, P=0.04) and blood glucose levels (6.20 ± 1.35 vs. 5.34 ± 1.32 mmol/L, P=0.00) perioperatively, favoring TUEB over mTUEP. Patients in the mTUEP group showed statistically significant increases in postoperative blood glucose compared with their preoperative baseline (5.63 ± 1.54 vs. 6.20 ± 1.35 mmol/L, P=0.04), but still within normal limits. There was no statistically significant difference in operative time, intraoperative blood loss, resection rate, or serum sodium and haemoglobin levels.
Conclusion: TUEB was shown to be a safe and highly effective technique for relief of Bladder Outlet Obstruction (BOO). The clinical efficacy of TUEB is sustainable for up to 1 year of follow-up. Our single-center results show that TUEB has the same efficacy as monopolar TUEP for the surgical treatment of symptomatic BPH, which is potentially associated with a low rate of complications and a high efficiency of enucleation.


INTRODUCTIONIn the wake of 9/11, the liberty-security conundrum in Canada and the United States, as in most liberal democratic states, has once again come to the forefront of political life. With the quick passage of antiterrorist legislation,1 both countries have allowed for increased governmental surveillance and detention powers to thwart potential terrorists within their respective states. By having provisions such as "preventive arrest" and "sneak and peek," executive discretion has essentially taken precedence over judicial review. Reminiscent of the early Cold War years when the communist threat was perceived as emanating not only from the Soviet Union but also from subversives within, both countries have instituted measures that ultimately violate individual freedoms, from the right to privacy to the right to due process, in the name of national security. Redoubling the impact of policing on citizens, antiterrorism in the wake of 9/11, just like anticommunism in the immediate post-World War II years, has become a domestic affair.This does not mean to say that it is also not a bilateral affair. Canada quickly passed its antiterrorist legislation not only to arrest and prosecute terrorists at home, but also to allay American fears about their northern border being an unguarded, porous barrier to terrorists. With nearly 86 percent of Canadian exports going to the United States in 2003, amounting to almost 27 percent of Canada's gross domestic product (GDP), any semblance of "fortress America" would come at a great economic cost to Canada. The smart border declaration and action plan, signed in Ottawa on 12 December 2001, was negotiated to reconcile the Canadian priority for open borders with the American priority for security. The "secure flow of goods and people," and at the same time a "secure infrastructure" and better "coordination and information sharing," have become the principles governing border cooperation in the post-g/11 world. For some groups in Canada, like the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE), these measures, amounting to a sort of "comprehensive incrementalism" in border management simply do not go far enough to ensure uninterrupted access to American markets. Indeed, the CCCE talks about reinventing the border between the two countries and strengthening information-sharing. This will allow for successful risk management on both sides and the movement towards a common screening of travelers directed to entry points to North America as opposed to the Canadian-American border.2 Given the spectre of Ahmed Ressam, an asylee from Algeria living in Montreal who was captured by US officials with a trunk-load of explosive material as he crossed from British Columbia to Washington in December 1999, allegedly to blow up the Los Angeles airport, the notion of Canada being soft on terrorists needs to be eradicated if the border is to remain open.For other groups in Canada, like the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Labour Congress, border cooperation in the post-g/11 world has gone too far and information-sharing has proved dangerous for Canadian citizens. They argue that the detainment, deportation, and torture of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen of Syrian descent, on a stopover in New York as he was returning to Canada in September 2002, must be considered in the context of the kinds of integrated border measures, information-sharing, and institutional arrangements that (may) have compelled Canadian officials to pass on to American authorities their information (and, as it turned out, false information) about Arar's connection to terrorism.3 These groups point out that increased border cooperation generates greater pressure to harmonize policies between the two countries, thus undermining Canada's ability to decide issues on its own. Reg Whitaker calls these two positionsthe first, a demand for greater integration with the United States, leading to support for American foreign policies; and the second, a demand for lesser integration, leading to the questioning of further security cooperation"made in Canada" debates about the bilateral relationship. …


The role of instruction in the field of interlanguage pragmatics has been regarded as having a positive effect on learners' pragmatic development. However, most of the interventional studies conducted have only reported the immediate effects of instruction. Considering the need to examine the longterm effects of pragmatic instruction, this chapter analyses the effectiveness of an inductive-deductive teaching approach to develop learners' ability to mitigate requests, not only after immediately receiving instruction, but also four months later. Findings from learners' responses in the three tests distributed throughout the study showed that learners employed (i) a greater amount of request mitigators, as well as (ii) a variety of internal and external modifiers, immediately after the instruction and four months later. These results indicate that the positive instructional effects were sustained over time.


Due to the rapid development of economy, China has been facing severe water shortage and water pollution problems. This paper discusses three strategies developed for the urban water resource management in China, which is essential for the sustainable development of its economy. These strategies include setting high priority for demand control and water conservation, controlling pollution from the sources and increasing investment for wastewater treatment; and developing untraditional water resources, such as rainwater harvesting, wastewater reclamation, seawater utilization, etc. It is hoped that these strategies may not only solve the water shortage and water pollution problems at low capital and operational costs, but also meet the present and future needs on water resources in China.


Evidence suggests that catchment state variables such as groundwater can exhibit multiyear trends. This means that their state may reflect not only recent climatic conditions but also climatic conditions in past years or even decades. Here we demonstrate that five commonly used conceptual "bucket" rainfall‐runoff models are unable to replicate multiyear trends exhibited by natural systems during the "Millennium Drought" in south‐east Australia. This causes an inability to extrapolate to different climatic conditions, leading to poor performance in split sample tests. Simulations are examined from five models applied in 38 catchments, then compared with groundwater data from 19 bores and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment data for two geographic regions. Whereas the groundwater and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment data decrease from high to low values gradually over the duration of the 13‐year drought, the model storages go from high to low values in a typical seasonal cycle. This is particularly the case in the drier, flatter catchments. Once the drought begins, there is little room for decline in the simulated storage, because the model "buckets" are already "emptying" on a seasonal basis. Since the effects of sustained dry conditions cannot accumulate within these models, we argue that they should not be used for runoff projections in a drying climate. Further research is required to (a) improve conceptual rainfall‐runoff models, (b) better understand circumstances in which multiyear trends in state variables occur, and (c) investigate links between these multiyear trends and changes in rainfall‐runoff relationships in the context of a changing climate.