Polyhydroxybutyrate is the most important type of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), which is naturally synthesized by several microorganisms. Production of PHB in plants is based on the consumption of acetyl-CoA as an initial substrate, therefore oil palm being an oil crop serve as potential target due to its high flux of acetyl-CoA during the oil synthesis stage. In oil palm, mesocarp is the specialized tissue for oil synthesis. Targeting the expression of PHB genes in mesocarp tissue requires the mesocarp-specific regulation of these genes by a mesocarp-specific promoter, since accumulation of PHB in other tissues may have deleterious effects on the plant. Pervious efforts have resulted in isolation of promoter sequence of the oil palm mesocarp-specific metallothionein-like gene (designated MSP1) and preparation of the gene construct carrying PHB genes (pMS29 vector) to drive the specific expression of PHB genes (phbA, phbB, and phbC) in mesocarp tissue.

Analysis of the specificity and strength of MSP1 and evaluating the expression pattern of the PHB genes in oil palm mesocarp tissue in a transient expression system will provide insight information prior to the stable transformation and supports time-saving strategy and more targeted and precise use of the technique.

In this study, expression of PHB genes under the regulation of MSP1 was evaluated in a biolistic-based transient assay in transiently transformed oil palm mesocarp and leaf (control) tissue slices. Transcriptional and translational analysis of PHB genes was carried out by Reverse-transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) and western blot techniques. RT-PCR analysis revealed that the engineering of PHB biosynthetic pathway genes under the regulation of MSP1 in transformed mesocarp tissue has resulted in successful transcription of phbA and phbB genes; however the phbC gene failed to produce any transcription product. In addition, RT-PCR analysis in non-transformed (non-bombarded) mesocarp tissues showed that there is no endogenous expression of PHB genes, indicating that the expression of PHB genes in transformed mesocarp tissues is the result of the PHB pathway engineering. Furthermore, no expression level of PHB genes was detected in leaf tissue slices after bombardment.

Western blot analysis using polyclonal antibodies specific for phbB and phbC genes in transformed mesocarp tissues confirmed the successful translation of phbB mRNA transcript into protein product, however clearly revealed the failure in translation of phbC gene. Western blot analysis of phbB and phbC gene products in transformed leaf tissues revealed that regulation by MSP1 did not result in translation of these genes. Further analysis in non-transformed tissues showed that phbB and phbC gene products do not exist in mesocarp and leaf tissues prior to the transformation. As a conclusion, although engineering of PHB biosynthetic pathway genes in mesocarp tissue did not result in an entirely functional pathway, it resulted in transcription of phbA and phbB genes and successful translation of phbB gene. This demonstrated that bacterial genes irrespective of their source and functions can be transcribed and translated in plant tissues under the regulation of plant tissue-specific promoters.

The tissue-specificity and strength of MSP1 was evaluated via transient reporter assays of GUS and GFP reporter genes in different oil palm tissues, including mesocarp, leaf, and root. The constitutive CaMV35S promoter was used as a reference in all analysis. Histochemical GUS assay showed the expression of GUS driven by MSP1 in transformed mesocarp tissue slices, while no expression of GUS gene was detected in transformed leaf and root tissue slices. Using the CaMV35S promoter, GUS expression was observed strongly in all transformed mesocarp, leaf, and root tissue slices. Quantitative analysis of GFP driven by MSP1 in transformed tissues revealed that GFP was expressed dominantly in mesocarp tissue slices (2.7 times more than it was expressed in leaf, and 86 times more than root), however there was some expression level of GFP directed by MSP1 in transformed leaf and root tissues. Comparative analysis of GFP expression, driven by the CaMV35S and MSP1 promoters showed that the CaMV35S promoter has the stronger activity with the average of 1.4 times more than the activity of MSP1 in transformed mesocarp tissue. This result indicated that although MSP1 is a strong promoter and has a great tendency to up-regulate the gene expression in mesocarp tissue, but the promoter does not behave in a hundred percent tissue-specific manner.


The U.S. Federal Judiciary maintains a system called PACER, "Public Access to Court Electronic Records." PACER is the public gateway into the electronic repository for all documents filed in federal court. In lieu of appropriating funds for operating the system, Congress permitted the Judiciary to collect fees. Through the web, for a per-page fee, members of the public may access documents that have traditionally been part of the free public record. The fees have persisted for decades, even though Congress intended for the Judiciary to move away from user fees to a "structure in which this information is freely available to the greatest extent possible."
This paper argues that the Judiciary has erected a fee structure that forecloses essential democratic ends because the fees make public federal court records practically inaccessible. The per-page fee model inhibits constitutionally protected activities without promoting equally transcendent ends. Through this fee system, the Judiciary collects fees at ever-increasing rates and uses much of the revenue for entirely different purposes. In this era, the actual cost of storing and transmitting digital records approaches zero. Hence, PACER should be free.
This paper examines the public's interest in free electronic access to federal court records and considers the relative strength of legal and policy arguments to the contrary. Part I performs an accounting of the true costs of a free-access regime. Part II details the benefits of free electronic access to federal court records. Part III argues that, in the tradition of Richmond Newspapers, free access to electronic court records is a constitutionally necessary element of the structure of our modern Judiciary.


The international response to acts of maritime piracy around Somalia requires a credible foundation in international law. Naval patrols from nearly every world power lack accurate and well-reasoned jurisdictional mandates necessary to carry out their duties effectively. They want for this essential legal complement because their states fail to thoroughly asses the relevant international laws that ought to guide such conduct. After the lives lost and the millions spent to recover surviving hostages, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea will be the most significant victim of this oversight. Its articles on piracy and supporting commentary prohibit the exercise of jurisdiction over suspected pirates by any state other than that which apprehends them. Yet capturing naval ships transfer suspects to other states as a matter of standard practice, and undermine the convention's status as a codification of customary international law in doing so. The Note reasons that transfers of suspected pirates are legally permissible, but should not remain the default practice. It argues for a comprehensive assessment of the legal forces that factor in the piracy problem, and for revision of the convention in order to facilitate an effective front-line response to the pirate scourge.


Abstract Ferric precipitates in the water column at the San Telmo acidic mine pit lake in the Iberian Pyrite Belt, southwest Spain, have been studied by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and other complementary techniques. These Fe(III) precipitates were recovered from sediment traps which were left at different depths (25, 35, 40 and 100 m) in the lake for several months. Seasonal variations in the water chemistry were recorded to link the mineralogical findings to vertical and temporal changes in aqueous composition. The results indicate that schwertmannite is the first Fe(III) mineral to crystallize after the oxidation of Fe(II), in agreement with previous studies. Schwertmannite is kinetically favoured in comparison to other Fe(III) minerals, and it buffers the pH at 2.6-3.0. It is metastable, and alters to a (H3O+)- and (K+)-bearing jarosite (containing 58 mol.% H3O+ and 42 mol.% K+ on average) at lower pH (e.g. at pH 2.2-2.5 in the summer season), either in the water column (during settling) and/or in the benthic sediments, in a time period of weeks to months. The extent of hydronium substitution at the alkali site in the jarosite reflects the higher activity of free aqueous protons in solution (10-2.2 to 10-3.0) in comparison to the activities of K+ (10-4.5) and Na+ (10-3.2). Microscopic examination of mixed schwertmannite-jarosite precipitates found in the water column suggest that some textural and compositional features of metastable schwertmannite (e.g. the internal 'pincushion' arrangement and incorporation of trace amounts of Mg, Al, As and Pb) are conserved in the jarosite during the early stages of the mineralogical transformation, but many of these relics are lost in the later stages of crystal growth. Despite the hydronium-rich nature of the jarosite solid solution, this material is also an important sink for K+, which decreases in concentration with decreasing pH unlike most of the other major cations in the water column (notably Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Al3+, Fe3+, Cu2+, Zn2+). In addition to the release of Fe3+ to the aqueous solution, the conversion of schwertmannite to (H3O+, K+)-bearing jarosite consumes protons and thus may represent an additional pH control at San Telmo and other acidic mine pit lakes of the area.


The overall aim of this study was to explore the reciprocal impact of health policy on public health nursing and public health nursing on policy. This study uses a new approach to considering public health nurses' engagement in policy: one which puts public health nurses, as actors in the policy process, at the centre of the investigation. The overall philosophical lens through which the research was conducted was critical social theory and the methodology was a grounded theory influenced research design. The study adopted a three stage data collection and analysis process: primary data (questionnaires and interviews), detailed policy analyses of two specific White Papers and secondary data (extant documents). The data were collected and analysed through a grounded theory approach in order to answer four research questions: 1. What do public health nurses know about policy, specifically in relation to two English Department of Health White Papers: Creating A Patient-Led NHS (DOH 2005) and Our Health, Our Care, Our Say (DOH 2006)? 2. How do they engage in the policy process? 3. What affects their implementation of policy? 4. Is there a policy-practice gap? A triangulated approach to data collection and analysis was used. Primary data were collected through questionnaires and follow up telephone interviews with public health nurses (health visitors and school nurses) in four PCTs and one social enterprise in five different geographical areas of England. Further data from detailed policy analyses using frameworks by Popple and Leighninger (2008) and Walt and Gilson (1994) were also considered. Finally, secondary data from extant documents including newspapers, websites and organisational documents were reviewed. At the end of the research process, it was possible to answer the four research questions. In addition to this, new knowledge and theory emerged around three main themes: i) A proposal for a new combined framework for policy analysis which leads to a comprehensive and analytical account of policy content and context combined with a detailed consideration of the role of public health nurses as actors in the policy process. ii) Theories as to why and how public health nurses lack influence in the policy process. iii) Analysis of the effect of lack of resources on inhibiting practice innovation in response to policy agendas. Consideration of these theories led to several recommendations for practice. Throughout the research process, there was continued interaction between the three phases of data collection, analysis and theory development.


Executive Summary (English Version)

Funding from IRCC to Service Provider Organizations throughout Canada (except Quebec) has enabled 412,390 newcomers to access settlement services in the last year (IRCC, 2017d). Stakeholders of the settlement sector agree that the settlement outcomes of immigrants "will have significant and long-term impacts on the cohesion and strength of Canadian society" (OCASI, 2011, p.2).
IRCC, as one of the largest stakeholders of the successful integration of immigrants, has expressed its commitment to working with immigrant serving agencies "to build a client-centered approach" for program design and delivery of settlement services (OCASI, 2010, p.4). At the same time, IRCC values rigorous academic research focused on immigration and settlement to better inform evidence-based policy.
Upon close examination of settlement policy, we find that there is a significant gap between recent empirical findings and current settlement service models. IRCC funded settlement services conceptualize and thereby treat immigrants as discrete individual units. However, empirical studies demonstrate that a fundamental dimension of the settlement process is experienced at the relational, social, and family levels. The Integration Trajectories of Immigrant Families project unveils new findings on the family as a key unit of analysis for settlement. This evidence provides a unique opportunity to
improve the current settlement service framework.
This position paper directly targets decision-makers for settlement policy. Three overarching orientations for action were identified:

• Need to complicate the current conceptualization of immigrants as individuals
• Need to incorporate a holistic family approach in settlement policy and services
• Need to draw on empirical evidence that recognizes and lends support to settlement workers' first-hand observations and experience-driven insight

Through ongoing consultations with two prominent settlement agencies in the Greater Toronto Area, empirical knowledge combined with settlement practitioner observations were translated into a holistic evidence-based, client-centered framework for settlement services: A Family Approach.
Incorporating a Family Approach in the settlement sector implies a re-thinking of the framework behind program design, policy, settlement funding, outcome measurement, and service delivery, which are currently using an individualistic approach. We urge IRCC to adopt five key practical recommendations for the implementation of a Family Approach in settlement services:

1. Inscribe the Family Approach as an explicit framework/method of the Needs Assessment and Referral program and the Information and Orientation program service agreements
2. Add a section on the family in the Needs Assessment and Referral iCARE reporting platform, with markers to identify family needs
3. Coordinate settlement needs at the family level by linking family members' files in iCARE to reflect the inter-connectedness of needs and collect social capital measures
4. Enhance the recognition of family needs through the expansion of paracounselling support services, inclusive family programs, and social networking programs
5. Adopt an inclusive and flexible definition of family across settlement policy RCIS Working Paper No. 2018/1

The purpose of these recommendations is to empower immigrant families of all forms to acquire social supports for settlement and to provide both settlement organizations and IRCC with a family-level representation of newcomer settlement needs for future evidence-based policy-making. Incorporating a Family Approach would result in services that better address newcomers' settlement realities by taking into account the family, in all its forms, and to develop prevention of domestic violence and intergenerational conflict.


This paper studies a model where student effort and talent interact with parental and teachers' investments, as well as with school system resources. The model is rich, yet sufficiently stylized to provide novel implications. It can show, for example, that an improvement in parental outside options will reduce parental and school effort, which are partially compensated through school resources. In this way, by incorporating the behavioral responses of parents, teachers and policymakers, the paper provides a rationale for the existing ambiguous empirical evidence on the effect of school resources. The paper also provides a novel microfoundation for peer effects, with empirical implications for welfare and different education policies.


High symmetry epitaxial quantum dots (QDs) with three or more symmetry planes provide a very promising route for the generation of entangled photons for quantum information applications. The great challenge to fabricate nanoscopic high symmetry QDs is further complicated by the lack of structural characterization techniques able to resolve small symmetry breaking. In this work, we present an approach for identifying and analyzing the signatures of symmetry breaking in the optical spectra of QDs. Exciton complexes in InGaAs/AlGaAs QDs grown along the [111]B crystalline axis in inverted tetrahedral pyramids are studied by polarization resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy combined with lattice temperature dependence, excitation power dependence and temporal photon correlation measurements. By combining such a systematic experimental approach with a simple theoretical approach based on a point-group symmetry analysis of the polarized emission patterns of each exciton complex, we demonstrate that it is possible to achieve a strict and coherent identification of all the observable spectral patterns of numerous exciton complexes and a quantitative determination of the fine structure splittings of their quantum states. This analysis is found to be particularly powerful for selecting QDs with the highest degree of symmetry (C3v and D 3 h ?> ) for potential applications of these QDs as polarization entangled photon sources. We exhibit the optical spectra when evolving towards asymmetrical QDs, and show the higher sensitivity of certain exciton complexes to symmetry breaking.


Mobility in conjunction with communication facilities in the form of mobile telephony seems to be one of the major technology trends observed throughout the last decade. Many experts and analysts expect that the arrival of mobile services such as mobile commerce, location-based services, multi-media messaging, and mobile gaming in the third generation of mobile networks will be the next step in this success story. However, protecting service providers from fraud and mobile users from new threats such as identity theft or other attacks on privacy and security matters is equally challenging. Historically, cryptography has been used to protect information in the digital world from eavesdropping or tampering. In future person-to-person and person-to-service interaction scenarios cryptography will be of at least equal importance. However, the situation today is not people-centric but more application-centric, i.e. for each application new security measures are defined and implemented. As an example one may just consider that almost any access control in the Internet is managed through simple account/password schemes different for each application. But passwords are known to be a generally weak security measure in many practical settings. From the user perspective the account/password approach additionally leads to numerous login accounts an individual has to manage - something which is inconvenient and as a consequence often error-prone. Cryptographic measures can be applied but shifting towards such mechanisms especially in mobile settings is often hard to implement since people cannot easily carry around their personal cryptographic keys, let alone memorize them or input them when needed. Therefore, we believe that some kind of personal security assistant or device is needed that safely keeps a user's security-sensitive data and enforces the user's security-related interests. Otherwise, people will be forced to use traditional weak protection mechanisms that are applicable without strong cryptographic measures - a situation we do not think is desirable in the digital age of tomorrow. Smartcards are devices that could be used to solve at least some of the problems mentioned. They are tamper-resistant, can safely store information, are able to perform unobserved (cryptographic) operations, and can be conveniently carried around. As such they seem to be ideal candidates for personal security modules. However, it is yet unclear how smartcards can be empowered to actually play the role of true personal and ubiquitous security modules. Furthermore, the smartcard alone is not sufficient to act as a security module since it lacks reasonable user interfaces such as a display and input facilities. Thus, suitable terminals are needed that allow users to communicate with their smartcards, i.e. personal security modules are comprised of suitable terminals and personalized smartcards that work together in order to fulfill the users' needs. Henceforth, this thesis will contribute approaches, architectures, protocols, and systems how smartcards can be put in place to become true security modules for people in the digital age. The most visible contributions of this thesis are as follows: The JiniCard framework for the integration of off-the-shelf smartcards into local environments. It enables smartcards that have traditionally played the role of passive servers to become truely active entities after they are inserted into suitably configured card terminals. Users could carry around their smartcard, insert them into available readers and make immediate use of their security services. The approach is centered around the idea to dynamically instantiate ``software substitutes'' for resource-limited devices such as smartcards. The so-called Personal Card Assistant approach solving the problem of smartcard usage in a ``hostile'' environment. It is comprised of an off-the-shelf personalized user terminal - such as a PDA - that cooperates with a personal smartcard. The personal terminal is used instead of terminals considered to be public, i.e. it acts as a ``trust amplifier'' for its user. The advantage is that mobile users communicate with their smartcard through their own mobile terminal which they possibly consider much more trustworthy than other unknown components. The personal terminal and the smartcard are linked together using cryptographic measures such that no device is usable without the other. The WebSIM system that integrates into the Internet the SIM smartcards found in all GSM mobile phones. In this approach people now can use mobile phones as ``wireless smartcard readers'' which are reachable from the Internet by means of a small HTTP Web server implemented in the SIM. This approach allows among others to perform security-critical operations such as authentication to be initiated from a remote context, e.g. from an Internet shop. Hence, smartcards become Internet nodes that encapsulate security services a mobile user offers to peers. The SIMspeak platform allowing for the execution of mobile code within a smartcard. This approach was motivated by the need for end-to-end secure communication between a service provider and its customer and the ability to easily create electronic signatures on small devices. It allows a service provider to ``rent'' persistent storage on a user's personal smartcard, e.g. to store cryptographic keys used to send end-to-end encrypted mobile code from the provider to the user's smartcard. The smartcard then becomes the most active component in a personal security module and uses available terminals to communicate with its user. This approach essentially shifts as much security-critical components and computations as possible from less trustworthy components into the secure context of the smartcard. This approach leads to new trust models for smartcard issuers which can be particularly well applied in the context of electronic signature creation in mobile scenarios. These results can be used independently from each other but equally well composed into more general security solutions. As such they can be considered as building blocks enabling the composition of suitable personal security modules meeting the personal security demands of the future. Summing up, this thesis provides solutions to the question how smartcards can become true personal security modules. It does this by proposing concrete architectures and protocols all of which have been prototypically implemented to yield meaningful proofs-of-concepts.


This thesis describes a study of hypertrophy in rat liver and presents data on the effects of hypertrophy on liver mRNA populations. Results are presented on : i. The effects of partial hepatectomy on liver polysomal Poly(A)+RNA populations. ii. Effects of adrenalectomy on liver polysomal Poly (A)+ RNA populations. iii. Effects of glucocorticoids on the liver polysomal Poly(A)+RNA populations of adrenalectomized rat livers. Liver mR,NA was prepared from total polysomal 'RNA and ' was fractionated on O1igo(dT)-cellulose to obtain polysomal Poly(A)-containing species. The purified mRNA was extensively characterized under denaturing and non-denaturing conditions. The diversity and complexity of mRNA populations were examined by cDNA hybridization and unique DNA hybridizations. Differences between the populations were also compared by heterologous hybridization to total and fractionated cDNA and unique DNA preparations. Normal liver was found to contain 12,400 diverse Poly(A)+RNA sequences when analysed by cDNA hybridization and 29,000 sequences when analysed by unique DNA hybridizations. These results compare favourably with those of others and illustrate the well documented findings that analysis by unique DNA hybridization tend to produce values 2 to times greater than those derived by cDNA hybridization. Reasons are discussed for believing that the latter method produces underestimates. Analysis of mRNA populations of liver responding to partial hepatectomy showed little change when compared with normal rat liver. Both cDNA and unique DNA hybridization revealed a total complexity similar to that of the intact tissue. Heterologous hybridizations, however, showed that in the later stages of the hypertrophy phase of regeneration some changes + in the relative abundances of the Poly(A) RNA species could be detected. Complementary DNA hybridization analysis of the mRNA population of adrenalectomized rat liver revealed a massive change in the complexity such that total number of sequences obtained was reduced to one quarter. This unlikely result was found to be repeatable but is thought to reflect the changes in the low abundance, high complexity class of mRNA species. Thus, the large number of sequences which appear to disappear from the mRNA population of the adrenalectomized rat liver have probably just become much rarer and are therefore difficult to detect by Rot hybridization. These concepts are supported by unique DNA hybridizations which revealed substantial but very much smaller differences in the complexities of the two mRNA populations. Within 4-6 hrs of the treatment of adrenalectomized rats with glucocorticoids, the mRNA complexity became very similar to that of normal rat liver. Prolonged treatment with glucocorticoids did not result in a significant increase in the mRNA complexity. The possible significance of these findings is discussed.


Cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of death and a considerable disease burden, especially in low to middle income countries. With increasing urbanization and epidemiologic transition, there is a significant increase in the prevalence of life-style related risk factors which contribute to the global burden of cardiovascular disease and in particular heart disease. With growing evidence highlighting the catastrophic physical and financial effects of heart disease and its associated risk factors, there is a need to detect heart disease via preventive or screening programs in a cost effective manner. There are several diagnostic tests available, among these the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG). Previous studies have examined the ECG in epidemiological studies in high income countries and reported moderate sensitivity and high specificity. However, there is a paucity of studies from low to middle income countries and in resource poor locations. The aim of this thesis was to systematically examine the 12-lead ECG in two diverse resource poor communities- Soweto in South Africa (from the Heart of Soweto study) and Alice Springs (from the Heart of the Heart study) in the Northern Territories, Australia. ECG analysis was undertaken in those deemed free of heart disease and in those with common forms of heart disease using the Minnesota code and the Sokolow Lyon voltage criteria (to measure left ventricular hypertrophy). As well as obtaining a 12-lead ECG, comprehensive clinical assessments were performed including anthropometric measurements, blood pressure measurements, heart and lung sounds, recording of any clinical symptoms such as angina, breathlessness, oedema, dizziness and palpitations. Echocardiography was obtained on the majority of participants and this allowed analysis with electrocardiographic data to be made. Where applicable, blood tests and other diagnostic tests were performed as well as documentation of previous medical history. The results in this thesis present data from two locations where there has previously been a paucity of contemporary data available. This study evaluated more than 2,700 ECGs for the purpose of describing ECG characteristics and data in those with established disease and confirmed heart disease-free participants. Using echocardiography to confirm individuals free of heart disease in Sowetans, a total of 387 ECGs were analysed. Of these, 27% demonstrated major ECG abnormalities (defined as Q waves, ST segment changes and conduction abnormalities) and 42% demonstrated minor ECG abnormalities (namely tall R waves, inverted T waves and ST elevation). These findings suggest in this population, further delineation is required between these normal physiological variants (that is minor abnormalities) and abnormal characteristics associated with underlying cardiac pathologies. Specifically examining those with heart failure (n=756), major ECGs abnormalities were evident in 91% of ECGs and 97% of ECGs demonstrated minor abnormalities. Further analyses across a broad spectrum of conditions including heart failure and cardiomyopathies (n=1927) revealed a high proportion of ECGs with major ECG abnormalities (54%) including LVH (as measured by Sokolow Lyon > 38mm), bundle branch blocks and major Q waves and ST/T wave changes. All of these ECG characteristics have previously been identified as important prognostic markers in those with diagnosed heart disease. Although no distinctive ECG characteristics were associated with specific conditions, but rather an increased prevalence of major abnormalities across the spectrum from coronary artery disease to dilated cardiomyopathy with valve disease was observed. A corresponding decline in cardiac dysfunction was also evident in echocardiographic parameters. Analysis of ECGs from Australian Aboriginals (n=340) validated the commonly applied Caucasian parameters in this cohort with no deviation from the currently used parameters. In those with heart disease (n=70), rheumatic heart disease and valve disease were common and major ECG abnormalities evident in nearly half of these ECGs. To determine if the ECG was a valid method of detecting underlying heart disease, sensitivity and specificity was calculated using the echocardiogram as the gold standard. Calculating the sensitivity in the African cohort revealed a sensitivity of 88% and specificity of 48% while the Heart of the Heart study revealed a sensitivity of 54% and specificity of 71%. Based on these findings the 12-lead ECG has a limited ability to detect underlying heart disease with a high rate of false negatives. Clinically, these data demonstrate the complexity of disease in this cohort and suggests that the presence of major ECG abnormalities strongly supports underlying heart disease and should be further investigated by echocardiography but given the high number of ECG abnormalities in those deemed heart disease free, the 12-lead ECG has a limited ability to detect underlying heart disease in these resource poor settings.


A finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) scheme in Cartesian coordinate system is developed to analyze the guided-wave properties of a class of two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals formed by square or triangular arrays of metal posts. With the application of the periodic boundary condition, the computing domain can be restricted to a unit cell. A modified Yee's grid is introduced to calculate the dispersive characteristic in the case of triangular lattice. As examples, several classic structures are analyzed, numerical results are compared with the results from other methods, and the agreement is found to be very good. This method can also be extended to the three-dimensioned (3D) case.


BACKGROUND
Establishing a person's identity in postmortem scenarios can be a very difficult process. Dental records, fingerprint and DNA comparisons are probably the most common techniques used in this context, allowing fast and reliable identification processes. However, under certain circumstances they cannot always be used; sometimes it is necessary to apply different and less known techniques. In forensic identification, lip prints and palatal rugae patterns can lead us to important information and help in a person's identification. This study aims to ascertain the use of lip prints and palatal rugae pattern in identification and sex differentiation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total of 100 subjects, 50 males and 50 females were selected from among the students of Subharti Dental College, Meerut. The materials used to record lip prints were lipstick, bond paper, cellophane tape, a brush for applying the lipstick, and a magnifying lens. To study palatal rugae, alginate impressions were taken and the dental casts analyzed for their various patterns.

RESULTS
Statistical analysis (applying Z-test for proportion) showed significant difference for type I, I', IV and V lip patterns (P < 0.05) in males and females, while no significant difference was observed for the same in the palatal rugae patterns (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION
This study not only showed that palatal rugae and lip prints are unique to an individual, but also that lip prints is more reliable for recognition of the sex of an individual.


We studied the prevalence of polymorphisms in genes XRCC2 and XRCC3 in stomach cancer patients who lived in North Eastern Turkey. A total of 61 cancer patients and 78 controls were included in this study. Single nucleotide changes were studied in XRCC2 and XRCC3 genes at locus Arg188His and Thr241Met. Blood samples were taken from the patients and controls, and DNA was isolated. The regions of interest were amplified using a polymerase chain reaction method. After amplification, we used restriction enzymes (HphI and NcoI) to digest the amplified product. Digested product was then run through gel electrophoresis. We identified changes in the nucleotides in these specific regions. It was found that the Arg188His polymorphism of the XRCC2 gene was about 39% (24 out of the 61) among cancer patients. However, only 15% (12 out of 78) of the control group indicated this polymorphism. We also observed that 18 of the 61 cancer patients (29%) carried the Thr241Met polymorphism of the XRCC3 gene whereas 11 of the 78 (14%) individuals in the control group had the polymorphism. Our results showed a significant difference in polymorphism ratios between the cancer patients and health control group for the regions of interest. This result clearly showed that these polymorphisms increase the risk of stomach cancer and might be a strong marker for early diagnosis of gastric cancer.


PURPOSE
To prospectively compare full-field digital mammography (FFDM) with screen-film mammography (SFM) for cancer detection in a screening population.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
At two institutions, 4,945 FFDM examinations were performed in women aged 40 years and older presenting for SFM. Two views of each breast were acquired with each modality. SFM and FFDM images were interpreted independently. Findings detected with either SFM or FFDM were evaluated with additional imaging and, if warranted, biopsy.

RESULTS
Patients in the study underwent 152 biopsies, which resulted in the diagnosis of 35 breast cancers. Twenty-two cancers were detected with SFM and 21 with FFDM. Four were interval cancers that became palpable within 1 year of screening and were considered false-negative findings with both modalities. The difference in cancer detection rate was not significant. FFDM had a significantly lower recall rate (11.5%; 568 of 4,945) than SFM (13.8%; 685 of 4,945) (P <.001, McNemar chi(2) model; P <.03, generalized estimating equations model). The positive biopsy rate for findings detected with FFDM (30%; 21 of 69) was higher than that for findings detected with SFM (19%; 22 of 114), but this difference was not significant.

CONCLUSION
No difference in cancer detection rate has yet been observed between FFDM and SFM. FFDM has so far led to fewer recalls than SFM.


AMPA glutamate receptors (GluR) are hetero-oligomeric proteins and multiple combinations of subunits are expressed in the same neuron. The different combinations have been implicated in different types of neuronal activity, for example, receptors formed from GluR1/GluR2 subunits increase in response to neuronal activity and are important for mediating long-term potentiation, a process implicated in learning and memory. Receptors formed from GluR2/GluR3 subunits are involved in controlling basal neuronal excitability. Shi et al. used cultured neurons and organotypic slice preparations to express various AMPA GluR subunits and modified subunits or portions thereof. The delivery of the proteins was monitored by fusion with green fluorescent protein, the inclusion of a point mutation that altered their electrophysiological properties, or both. Based on the results from expression of the various combinations of proteins, two independent pathways for delivery of the receptors to the cell surface were identified. The GluR1-containing receptors, including GluR1/GluR2 receptors, were not inserted in the plasma membrane unless the synapses were stimulated or unless activated calcium-calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II was also expressed. GluR2 homo-oligomers or GluR2/GluR3 hetero-oligomers were constitutively inserted into the membrane, and the endogenous receptors were continuously endocytosed. Trafficking of GluR-containing receptors depended on the binding domain for PDZ group 1 proteins, and trafficking of the GluR2/GluR2 or GluR2/GluR3 receptors depended on the GluR2 PDZ group II binding domain and interaction with N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor (NSF). The independence of the trafficking pathways was confirmed by expression of the COOH-domains of GluR1 or GluR2, which showed only selective inhibition of the cognate receptor's delivery. These two independently regulated pathways contribute to the control of synaptic activity. S.-H. Shi, Y. Hayashi, J. A. Esteban, R. Malinow, Subunit-specific rules governing AMPA receptor trafficking to synapses in hippocampal pyramidal neurons. Cell 105, 331-343 (2001). [Online Journal]


Droplet heat transfer in between parallelly located superhydrophobic plates is examined. The thermal field inside the droplet is predicted by adopting the experimental conditions. The influence of plates spacing (heights) on the thermal response of the droplet fluid is investigated. Particle injection velocimetry (PIV) is used to validate the velocity predictions. We demonstrated that predictions of flow velocity are in agreement with those of the PIV results. The heating of the droplet in the absence of the top plate gives four circulation cells in the droplet. Once the top superhydrophobic plate is introduced, the flow structure alters, and the number of the circulating structures reduces to two. Lowering the height of the plates increases the droplet Laplace pressure while modifying the fluid flow and thermal behavior. The Bond number is lower than one for all the cases considered; hence, demonstrating that the Marangoni force affects the formation of the circulation cells. The cells redistribute the heated fluid in the droplet interior, which is clearly apparent for the plates with small heights. Temperature enhancement in the droplet bottom section is attributed to the flow current formed due to heat diffusion. The Nusselt number corresponding to the bottom plate increases as the plate heights reduces; however, the opposite is true for that corresponding to the top plate.


New technologies for manufacturing 3D Stacked ICs offer numerous opportunities for the design of complex and effcient embedded systems. But these technologies also introduce many design options at system/chip design level, hard to grasp during the complete design cycle. Because of the sequential nature of current design practices, designers are often forced to introduce design margins to meet required specications, resulting in sub-optimal designs. In this paper we introduce new design methodology and practical tool chain, called PathFinding Flow, that can help designers to easily trade-off between different system level design choices, physical design and/or technology options and understand their impact on typical design parameters such as cost, performance and power. Proposed methodology and the tool chain will be demonstrated on a practical case study, involving fairly complex Multi-Processor System-on-Chip using Network-on-Chip for communication medium. With this example we will show how High-Level Synthesis can be used to quickly move from high-level to RTL models, necessary for accurate physical prototyping for both computation and communication. We will also show how the possibility of design iteration, through the mechanism of feedback based on physical information from physical prototyping, can improve design performance. Finally, we will show how we can move in no time from traditional 2D to 3D design and how we can measure benets of such design choice.


This paper discusses a multirate filterbank-based extended infomax algorithm for real-world signal separation, i.e., convolved mixtures separation. Since convolution in the time domain corresponds to instantaneous mixing in the frequency domain, polyphase subband projection naturally becomes an efficient alternative to the Fourier transform based frequency domain approach. The online implementation proposed is featured by a simultaneous inverse channel identification in the frequency domain and signal filtering in the time domain. It is shown that an over-representation structure reduces aliasing between different bands and results in more accurate inverse channel estimates. Therefore, it provides better performance than the Fourier transform based structure in the measures of both separation and distortion. The performance limitation of the method is also evaluated in terms of the Wiener solution.


Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a complex mental disorder that straddles the line between psychosis and neurosis. As such, questions about the moral and legal responsibility of persons with BPD are especially vexing. Persons suffering with borderline personality disorder typically are impulsive and suffer from impaired volition. They also lack a stable sense of self. Nonetheless, persons with borderline personality disorder often hold long-term, stable preferences—often related to discontinuing particular problematic behaviors—and have a degree of capacity that we argue creates prima facie conditions for holding them ethically and legally responsible. However, this limited capacity often falls short in smoothly accommodating day-to-day relationships. We argue that while a certain degree of accommodation is appropriate for persons with BPD, the diagnosis of BPD does not by itself provide sufficient grounds for voiding responsibility for criminal acts. Using a hierarchical theory of autonomy recognizing first- and second-order volition, we propose a sliding scale be used to ascertain the degree to which a person with BPD should be exculpated weighing the graveness of the act against an estimation of the congruence of second- and first-order volitions.


Economists sometimes assume that strictly regulated housing markets near mountains and oceans are expensive because they are costly places to build, not because they are nice places with productive firms and workers. U.S. data show this convenient assumption to be false. Housing supply has grown more in supply-constrained markets than elsewhere over recent decades, indicating constraints are correlated with demand growth. Supply constraints are highly correlated with productivity proxies such as historical education levels, immigration, and national employment growth in locally prevalent industries. The correlation between constraints and productivity growth invalidates common uses of constraints as part of instrumental variables for home prices. The relationship between supply constraints and price volatility is much weaker after accounting for observable demand factors.


Campaign finance programs, such as New York City's, limit the influence of private money on candidates and come at a relatively modest cost to taxpayers. Campaign finance reform programs, thus, increase the extent to which elections are truly competitive. During a fiscal crisis, we therefore have an even greater need for campaign finance reform and the meaningful democratic elections that reform fosters to ensure that voters generally, rather than special interests, dictate how scarce resources should be allocated. Reform is also necessary to give voters the confidence that their elected officials represent them, and not just wealthy donors, particularly in a time of crisis. This essay argues that campaign finance reform programs, like the one in New York City, can bring concrete, real benefits to our political system by diminishing the influence of special interests, making our elective process more competitive and democratic.


The criminal law has at least two goals: to provide a degree of protection to a variety of individual and collective interests, and to communicate to those to whom it applies that those interests are protected. The question I consider is whether the criminal law should be used to advance the second goal independently of its use in advancing the first. Drawing on what I refer to as non-comparative egalitarianism, I argue that it should not. After developing a general argument for this claim, I turn to considering its implications for the criminalization of hate speech, focusing specifically on a line of argument found both in the Supreme Court of Canada's s.2 jurisprudence as well as Jeremy Waldron's recent book, The Harm in Hate Speech. I also briefly consider a structurally similar, but broader argument – recently defended by Alon Harel – which suggests that there is a constitutional duty to criminalize conduct that would, if engaged in, interfere with a person's dominion over how her life goes, regardless of whether criminalization would or would not drive down the actual incidence of the targeted conduct. I claim that egalitarians should not recognize any such duty.


The base excision repair (BER) pathway recognizes and repairs most nonbulky lesions, uracil and abasic (AP) sites in DNA. Several participants are embryonic lethals in knockout mice. Since the pathway has never been investigated during embryogenesis, we characterized the first three steps of BER in zebrafish extracts from unfertilized eggs, embryos at different developmental stages, and adults. Using a 45-mer double-stranded substrate with a U/G mispair at position 21, we showed that extracts from all stages are capable of performing BER. Before 3 days postfertilization (dpf), aphidicolin-sensitive polymerases perform most nucleotide insertion. In fact, eggs and early stage embryos lack DNA polymerase-beta protein. After the eggs have hatched at 3 dpf, an aphidicolin-resistant polymerase, probably DNA polymerase-beta, becomes the primary polymerase. Previously, we showed that when the zebrafish AP endonuclease protein (ZAP1) level is knocked down, embryos cease dividing after the initial phase of rapid proliferation and die without apoptosis shortly thereafter. Nevertheless, extracts from embryos in which ZAP1 has been largely depleted process substrate as well as extracts from control embryos. Since apex1 and apex2 are both strongly expressed in early embryos relative to adults, these data indicate that both may play important roles in DNA repair in early development. In brief, the major differences in BER performed by early stage embryos and adults are the absence of DNA polymerase-beta, leading to predominance of replicative polymerases, and the presence of backup Mg(2+)-dependent endonuclease activity in early stage embryos. The switch to normal, adult BER occurs fully when the embryos hatch from the chorionic membrane and encounter normal oxidative stress.


: In this guide, we introduce researchers in the behavioral sciences in general and MIS in particular to text analysis as done with latent semantic analysis (LSA). The guide contains hands-on annotated code samples in R that walk the reader through a typical process of acquiring relevant texts, creating a semantic space out of them, and then projecting words, phrase, or documents onto that semantic space to calculate their lexical similarities. R is an open source, popular programming language with extensive statistical libraries. We introduce LSA as a concept, discuss the process of preparing the data, and note its potential and limitations. We demonstrate this process through a sequence of annotated code examples: we start with a study of online reviews that extracts lexical insight about trust. That R code applies singular value decomposition (SVD). The guide next demonstrates a realistically large data analysis of Stack Exchange , a popular Q&A site for programmers. That R code applies an alternative sparse SVD method. All the code and data are available on github.com.


This work aims to study the behavior of the western margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet during a period of pronounced ice retreat roughly 10,000 years ago, after the end of the last glacial period. It explores the efficiency of subglacial erosion, the spatial dynamics of ice retreat, and the rates of ice retreat. To address these questions, I use the radionuclides 10 Be and 26 Al, which form in rocks due to the bombardment of cosmic rays, only after the rocks have been exposed from underneath retreating ice. These nuclides can be used as a geologic dating technique to explore exposure history. Before applying this dating technique to address geological questions, it was critical to first perform methodological development. My work in the University of Vermont's new Cosmogenic Nuclide Laboratory served to improve the precision and efficiency of the pre-existing laboratory methods. New methodological advances ensured that samples from Greenland, which contained only low concentrations of 10 Be and 26 Al, could be used to yield meaningful results about ice behavior. Cosmogenic nuclide dating was applied at two sites along the ice sheet margin in centralwestern Greenland. At both of these sites, I collected paired bedrock and boulder samples in a transect normal to and outside of the present-day ice sheet margin. Samples were collected from a variety of elevations at numerous locations along the transects, thus providing three-dimensional coverage of the field area. After isolating the mineral quartz from the rocks, and isolating the elements Be and Al from the quartz, isotopic analysis was performed using accelerator mass spectrometry to quantify the relative abundances of the radionuclides against their respective stable isotopes. The southern study site, Ilulissat, is located on the western coast of Greenland at a latitude of 69N. Much previous work has been conducted here due to the presence of one of the largest ice streams in the northern hemisphere, Jakobshavn Isbrae. My work in Ilulissat demonstrated that subglacial erosion rates were high during previous glacial periods, efficiently sculpting and eroding the landscape. Ice retreat across the land surface began around 10,300 years ago, and the ice sheet retreated behind its present-day margin about 7,600 years ago. Ice retreat occurred at a rate of about 100 meters per year. My work in this area suggests that retreat in the large ice stream set the pace and timing for retreat of the neighboring ice sheet margin. The northern site, Upernavik, is located on the western coast of Greenland at a latitude of 73N. Little research has been conducted here in the past. Unlike in Ilulissat, my work here shows that the ice sheet did not efficiently erode the landscape, especially at high elevations, during previous glacial periods. This is likely because the ice was thinner, and therefore had a colder base, than the ice in Ilulissat. My work suggests that ice cover was lost from this area very rapidly, likely at rates of about 170 meters per year, in a single episode around 11,300 years ago. Comparison between the two study sites reveals that ice characteristics can vary appreciably over relatively small distances.


Detecting 3D objects from a single RGB image is intrinsically ambiguous, thus requiring appropriate prior knowledge and intermediate representations as constraints to reduce the uncertainties and improve the consistencies between the 2D image plane and the 3D world coordinate. To address this challenge, we propose to adopt perspective points as a new intermediate representation for 3D object detection, defined as the 2D projections of local Manhattan 3D keypoints to locate an object; these perspective points satisfy geometric constraints imposed by the perspective projection. We further devise PerspectiveNet, an end-to-end trainable model that simultaneously detects the 2D bounding box, 2D perspective points, and 3D object bounding box for each object from a single RGB image. PerspectiveNet yields three unique advantages: (i) 3D object bounding boxes are estimated based on perspective points, bridging the gap between 2D and 3D bounding boxes without the need of category-specific 3D shape priors. (ii) It predicts the perspective points by a template-based method, and a perspective loss is formulated to maintain the perspective constraints. (iii) It maintains the consistency between the 2D perspective points and 3D bounding boxes via a differentiable projective function. Experiments on SUN RGB-D dataset show that the proposed method significantly outperforms existing RGB-based approaches for 3D object detection.


Abstract. Mobile Mapping is widely used for collecting large amounts of geo-referenced data. An important role plays sensor fusion, in order to evaluate multiple sensors such as laser scanner and cameras jointly. This requires to determine the relative orientation between sensors. Based on data of a RIEGL VMX-250 mobile mapping system equipped with two laser scanners, four optional cameras, and a highly precise GNSS/IMU system, we propose an approach to improve camera orientations. A manually determined orientation is used as an initial approximation for matching a large number of points in optical images and the corresponding projected scan images. The search space of the point correspondences is reduced to skylines found in both the optical as well as the scan image. The skyline determination is based on alpha shapes, the actual matching is done via an adapted ICP algorithm. The approximate values of the relative orientation are used as starting values for an iterative resection process. Outliers are removed at several stages of the process. Our approach is fully automatic and improves the camera orientation significantly.


In this dissertation, I will trace masculine representation from the moment of national trauma inflicted by 9/11 up through the present, wherein post-traumatic and posthuman masculinity has been used as coping mechanisms for unrealistic expectations of gender. In particular, I aim to discuss film, television, and graphic novels as overlapping visual media, rather than as independent genres, because filmmakers and graphic novelists alike are concerned with story telling through cinematic techniques, including mise-en-scene and framing; camera and composition techniques such as depth of field, zoom shots, point of view shots, and high/low shots; dialogue (whether auditory in film or conveyed in speech balloons); and scene pacing in various constructions of editing, panel arrangement, or panel size. The changing perceptions of masculinity as represented through the techniques I've stated in graphic novels and cinema can be tied to major changes in American culture. The texts show both the costs imposed on men and the societies affected by their actions. In other words, they show where the hyper-masculine response to 9/11 has brought us. The immediate post-9/11 representation of masculinity returned to the historical manly stereotype, confirmed once again by the American ideology of justified military aggression and violence. This aggression goes hand and hand with the revitalized John Wayne hyper-masculinity that appeared in our post-9/11 culture, as we clung to gender archetypes and social constructions as a way to grieve, as a way to move forward, and as way to reinvent the America that we had let become so feminine and weak. But hyper-masculinity was not the only response to national trauma and perceived emasculation. I plan to show that despite the revival and re-construction of certain masculine ideals, many men felt the negative effects of being forced into gender normative behavior.


The present work reports multiple collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC‐ICP‐MS) measurements of the isotopic compositions of Hf and Pb in the first 3 km of the deep core retrieved by the Hawaii Scientific Drilling Project. The measurements cover all the samples from the standard geochemical reference set, glasses from the deep hole, and replicates from the pilot hole. Both Hf and Pb are less radiogenic in Mauna Loa compared to Mauna Kea. The transition between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa lavas in the deep core is progressive for εHf and 208Pb/204Pb, but a sharp discontinuity is observed for 208Pb*/206Pb*. There is no correlation between the alkalinity of the samples and isotopic composition. In detail, the Hf isotope compositions of samples from the pilot hole are not all identical to those of the HSDP‐2 core for samples retrieved from a similar depth, suggesting that steep topography existed at the time of emplacement or that a different eruptive sequence was recorded. The strong correlation between 208Pb*/206Pb* and 3He/4He (He data from M. D. Kurz et al. (Rapid helium isotopic variability in Mauna Kea shield lavas from the Hawaiian Scientific Drilling Project, submitted to Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, 2002)) requires the episodic incorporation of a component that resembles the basalts erupted by either Kilauea or the Loihi eruptive centers (this component is referred to as K/L). The data suggest that some 500 kyr ago, Mauna Kea was tapping a mantle source similar to that tapped by Kilauea today. Isotopic variability of Pb and He cannot be accounted for by radiogenic ingrowth in a closed system, but requires the mixing of mantle source components with distinct outgassing histories. The time series of isotopic and concentration data in Mauna Kea samples spanning about 350,000 years of age indicate the recurrence of geochemical patterns in the melting column. Ignoring the most recent alkalic samples, we find that the dominant fluctuations of εHf and 207Pb/204Pb correspond to a period of 50,000 years. For La/Yb, Zr/Nb, 87Sr/86Sr, 206Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/206Pb, and 208Pb/206Pb, a dominant period of ca. 18,000 years is obtained. Once provision is made for the existence of harmonics, the consistency between the isotopic spectrum of the pilot hole and the HDSP‐2 core is very good. The input of the K/L component does not seem to be periodic. We use these recurrence intervals in conjunction with the upwelling rate deduced from buoyancy flux and seismic evidence of the maximum dimension of scatterers to constrain the radius of the Hawaiian plume conduit to be in the range of 10–50 km and the upwelling velocity to be in the range of 0.13–3 m/yr. Plausible vertical length scales of heterogeneities in the conduit are 6.5–160 km.


This dissertation considers mechatronic systems driven by piezoelectric ultrasonic motors (PUM). The focus is set on optimal system design and sensorless position control. Mechatronic industry faces the challenge to deliver ever more efficient and reliable products while being confronted to increasingly short time to market demands and economic constraints driven by competition. Although optimal design strategies are applied to master this challenge, they do not entirely respond to the given circumstances, as often only local criteria are optimised. In order to obtain a globally optimal solution, the many subfunctions of a mechatronic system and their models must be interrelated and evaluated concurrently from the very beginning of the design process. In this context PUM have been used increasingly during the last decade for various positioning applications in the field of mechatronic systems, laboratory equipment, and consumer electronics where their performances are superior to conventional electromechanical drive systems based on DC or BLDC motors. The position of the mobile component must be controlled. In some cases open-loop control is a solution, but more often than not sensors are used as feedback device in closed-loop control. Sensors are expensive, large in size and add fragile hardware to the device that compromises its reliability. Thus, not only the superior performance is not fully exploited but also the economical feasibility of the PUM drive system is jeopardised. Replacing sensors by advanced control techniques is an approach to these problems that is well established in the field of BLDC motors. Those sensorless control strategies are not directly transferrable, because of the fundamentally different working principles of PUM. Hence, the research of sensorless closed-loop position control techniques applicable to PUM and their validation with digitally controlled functional models is the very topic of this thesis. We propose a dedicated design methodology to this statement of the problem. A core model of the mechatronic system is conceived as general and simple as possible. It then develops for the different interrelated views reflecting the mechanical, electromechanical, drive electronic, sensorial and digital control functions of the global system. Each one becoming more specific and detailed in this process, the different views still enable mutual constraint adjustments and the dynamic integration of results from the other views during the design process. Starting with the stator of the PUM, a view describes the mechanical displacement. An electric equivalent model is written such that power input from the drive electronics is related to the mechanical energy transmitted to the mechanics. The resulting differential equations are solved by the finite element method (FEM). Position feedback configurations in the mobile part of the PUM are modelled analytically in order to be implemented in digital control and their electrical implications are updated to the stator model. In this way, sensors do not necessarily materialise physically any more, but are distributed among the mechanical configuration, the drive electronics and the digital controller. With respect to the sensor data, the controller is not simply receiving finalised data on the measured system parameter, but rather implements the sensor itself in software. Finally, the position detection performance obtained with the aforementioned design methodology was evaluated with the example of mechatronic locking devices actuated by custom-made as well as OEM motors. Functional models of motors, electronics and digital controllers were used to identify the limits of the proposed methods, and suggestions for further research were deduced. These results contribute to the development of robust sensorless position controllers for PUM.


Following the "Internet Revolution", the creation of online religions (religions mainly existing in the virtual world) gave birth to so-called "parody" or fake cults.  One of these "religions", the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has started as a (an atheist) parody mocking (monotheistic) religious institutions, mostly established and spreading in the Informational circuits of the WorldWideWeb. In a few years, it has not only mimicked most of the features of a traditional religion, but the "pirates"-followers of the CFSM also look for the recognition of their cult as "official religion". Moreover, while online religions and especially "fake cults" are most of the times used by scholars as examples of a shift from "reality" to "virtuality" caused by the Internet, the CFSM exemplifies, quite the reverse, a process of social "materialization" of this previously "virtual" cult.


Bacterial diseases have been reported to be the major limiting factor in shrimp production. The use of natural products such as antimicrobials has been reported as a solution to the problem. The crude extract of a red seaweed Laurencia snyderiae obtained from the Persian Gulf was evaluated for shrimp growth performance and to determine in vivo efficacy of this seaweed in the prevention of shrimp Vibriosis. The ethanol extract from L. snyderiae (EELS) that was fed to the Artemia instar I for their enrichment was found to be non toxic to them. Shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei juveniles were fed with these enriched Artemia at 0 mg mL (Control group), 200 mg mL, 400 mg mL and 600 mg mL for 30 days. The results obtained showed a significant increase (p<0.05) in survival rate in treatment groups compared with that in the control group. Shrimps fed with enriched Artemia showed a significant improvement in growth parameters when compared to those in the control group. When these juvenile shrimps were exposed to Vibrio harveyi (after 30 days) they showed notably lower mortality than the control. These results indicate that EELS has a good potential in promoting growth and antibacterial activities against V. harveyi that is useful in shrimp aquaculture.


Resonant tunneling devices and circuit architectures based on monostable-bistable transition logic elements (MOBILEs) are promising candidates for future nanoscale integration. In this paper, the design of clocked MOBILE-type threshold logic gates and their application to arithmetic circuit components is investigated. The gates are composed of monolithically integrated resonant tunneling diodes and heterostructure field-effect transistors. Experimental results are presented for a programmable NAND/NOR gate. Design related aspects such as the impact of lateral device scaling on the circuit performance and a bit-level pipelined operation using a four phase clocking scheme are discussed. The increased computational functionality of threshold logic gates is exploited in two full adder designs having a minimal logic depth of two circuit stages. Due to the self-latching behavior the adder designs are ideally suited for an application in a bit-level pipelined ripple carry adder. To improve the speed a novel pipelined carry lookahead addition scheme for this logic family is proposed.


In natural populations of a coral reef fish (the bluehead wrasse, Thalassoma bifasciatum), males with the highest daily mating success produce the fewest sperm per mating, and this is reflected in significantly lower fertilization rates. The average amount released by males in pair-mating was 3.3 x 106 spermatozoa, resulting in a fertilization rate of 96%. Sperm released per spawn declined with increasing mating success, so that females mating with the most successful males had less than 93% of their eggs fertilized. It is unlikely that high mating-success males are physiologically incapable of increasing sperm production, because younger males with different mating strategies have absolutely larger testes and higher daily sperm output. Feeding experiments suggest that high-success males are diverting energy from gamete production to other fitness-enhancing activities such as mate guarding. Females incur the cost of low sperm release by having fewer of their eggs fertilized. There are no obvious compensatory benefits to females from mating with high-success males.


This study was designed to determine whether black journalists who work at black newspapers in Texas felt the Civil Rights movement had affected their industry. Although black newspapers lost an exclusive market for talent that now must be shared with majority-owned newspapers, this report concludes that the operation of black newspapers virtually was unaffected by the Civil Rights movement. It is recommended that this research serve as a starting point for a continuing examination of black newspapers. It would be particularly beneficial if more information could be gathered from people who have worked at now-defunct black newspapers.


Ferritins are ubiquitous, highly-conserved proteins that constitute one of the most important components of the cellular machinery devoted to the management of iron levels. Various ferritins have been described in vertebrates, though their exact functions and phylogenetic relationships remain to be established. Our attempts to properly annotate two ferritin subunits isolated from the Asian sea bass Lates calcarifer, prompted us to investigate the evolutionary relationships among vertebrate ferritins and their relationships with non-vertebrate homologs. We carried out a detailed screening of mined ferritin sequences by examining the regulatory elements and gene structures. Subsequently, we performed comprehensive phylogenetic analyses involving the various metazoan and vertebrate ferritin chain types, respectively. Our analyses suggest that a single ferritin chain duplicated in the early vertebrates and that the various ferritin chain types in vertebrate and non-vertebrate species evolved independently through lineage-specific duplications. Notably, this includes the mitochondrial ferritin found only in insects and mammals that we show to result from two parallel lineage-specific duplications followed by convergent events of mitochondrial targeting. Regarding the various cytosolic ferritin chains in vertebrates, our results suggest a scenario of a duplication at the base of vertebrates followed by more recent duplications in teleosts and amphibians. This scenario implies that the light chain in mammals is orthologous to the middle chain in teleosts, in contrast to previous claims of a paralogous relationship coupled with differential gene loss. We hypothesise that the extensive differences in sequence and function between these two orthologous chains may have been driven by the adaptation of tetrapods to terrestrial environments, which involved changes in the dynamics of iron uptake and storage. Altogether, our analyses clarify the evolutionary relationships among vertebrate ferritins and pave the way for the interpretation of functional adaptations within an evolutionary framework.


SYNOPSIS During the first decade and a half after Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, the country struggled to adequately fund its primary health care system. Despite a nearly 10fold increase in the size of the economy, Nigeria in 2014 was still spending only US$11 per capita on health care—equal to only 6% of total government expenditure and far below regional norms and the nation's own stated aspiration. As a result, Nigerian citizens were paying 69% of their medical expenses out of pocket, and the cost discouraged many from seeking treatment. A new National Health Act, adopted in 2014 after a decade of delay, raised hopes for a solution by stipulating that at least 1% of the government budget go into a new fund to improve basic services provided at the thousands of primary health care clinics located throughout the country. However, owing to Nigeria's longstanding neglect of primary health care, there was a real risk that the fund might never become reality. To demonstrate the viability of the program and press for its implementation, the federal health ministry, led by Minister Isaac Adewole, developed operational procedures that spelled out crucial steps to ensure financial accountability and transparency, won international backing for a pilot project that would validate the system, and built a support coalition that spanned the government and civil society. The effort took three years, but in 2018 the Nigerian legislature passed an appropriations bill that for the first time included the 1% allocation for the fund— significantly boosting the resources available to improve the quality and accessibility of primary health care services across Nigeria. Even more significantly, in September 2019, the government declared the fund a statutory allocation that it would automatically renew every year, and clinics in three states began receiving the new resources in November 2019.


We describe a new pled laser deposition (PLD) system that is linked to an angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) chamber at the Synchrotron Radiation Center (SRC) in Wisconsin, USA. We also discuss our first results on epitaxially grown YBa2Cu3O7-(delta ) (YBCO) films. The core level photoemission data indicate that a Ba-oxide layer is the dominant surface layer. We were not able to reproducibly detect a sharp fermi edge in the photoemission spectra and thus conclude that the surface layer is non-metallic, probably due to oxygen loss at the surface. The absence of screening of the Y and Ba core levels is a further argument for this conclusion. Further experiments with ozone treated film surfaces are currently under way.


Although numerous studies of diversity have been conducted in cassava, there is no comprehensive assessment of global genetic diversity. Here we draw on previous studies and breeders' knowledge to select diversity sets from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) genebanks and breeders' germplasm, as well as elite germplasm and landraces from eastern, southern and central (ESC) Africa to make a global assessment of diversity in cassava, using a SNP based GoldenGate (Illumina Inc.) assay. A synthesis of results from genetic distance and ADMIXTURE analysis essentially revealed four populations (i) South American germplasm characterised by relatively higher genetic diversity with hypothetical ancestral founder genotypes from Brazil, (ii) a smaller group of African introduction germplasm which is more distantly related to all other germplasm, (iii) West Africa germplasm dominated by IITA breeding lines, containing sources of cassava mosaic disease resistance, and IITA genebank accessions from West Africa, both characterised by slightly lower diversity, and (iv) a less cohesive group of African germplasm, termed 'Other', with moderate levels of diversity and a majority of germplasm from ESC Africa. This study highlights opportunities for heterosis breeding, purging of duplicates in genebanks and the need for conservation of ESC Africa landraces.


The general purpose of a scientific publication is the exchange and spread of knowledge. A publication usually reports a scientific result and tries to convince the reader that it is valid. With an ever-growing number of papers relying on computational methods that make use of large quantities of data and sophisticated statistical modeling techniques, a textual description of the result is often not enough for a publication to be transparent and reproducible. While there are efforts to encourage sharing of code and data, we currently lack conventions for linking data sources to a computational result that is stated in the main publication text or used to generate a figure or table. Thus, here I propose a data citation format that allows for an automatic reproduction of all computations. A data citation consists of a descriptor that refers to the functional program code and the input that generated the result. The input itself may be a set of other data citations, such that all data transformations, from the original data sources to the final result, are transparently expressed by a directed graph. Functions can be implemented in a variety of programming languages since data sources are expected to be stored in open and standardized text-based file formats. A publication is then an online file repository consisting of a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) document and additional data and code source files, together with a summarization of all data sources, similar to a list of references in a bibliography.


Objective The study aimed to characterize cancer-related concerns among women with a new diagnosis of gynecological cancer from a developmental life stage perspective. The study compared the degree of cancer-related concern between young women (45 years or younger), middle age women (46–64 years), and older women (65 years or older). Materials/Methods Data from women (N = 243) with a condition diagnosed as primary gynecological cancer who were participating in a randomized control trial were analyzed. Women completed a measure that assessed the degree of concern in 12 cancer-related domains (physical functioning, cancer treatment, emotional functioning, sexual functioning, disease progression/death, own well-being, partner well-being, relationship with spouse/partner, body image, relationship with others, employment, and finances). Multivariate comparisons were made between the 3 age groups on the cancer-related concerns. Results There were age group differences in overall cancer-related concern and specific cancer-related domains. Young women reported the greatest cancer-related concern (P < 0.001). They reported greater concern over emotional functioning (P < 0.001) and sexual functioning (P < 0.001) compared to the middle- and older-age groups. Older women reported less concern over the impact of cancer on finances (P = 007). There were no differences between age groups in concern over physical impairment, cancer treatment, disease progression/death, own well-being, partner well-being, relationship with spouse/partner, body image, and relationship with others. Conclusions Age may play an important role in the impact of a gynecological cancer diagnosis in domains of functioning, specifically emotional functioning, sexual functioning, and finances. Other cancer-related areas may represent more universal degree of impact. Professionals may benefit from considering the impact of cancer from a developmental life stage perspective.


In this work, Zn2Al-layered double hydroxide (LDH) that modified with Ponceau 4R (E 124) as food coloring, (Zn2Al-LDH/Ponceau) was synthesized and characterized  using different techniques including, X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. Zn2Al-LDH/Ponceau was then applied for Cd2+ removal from aqueous solution. The response surface methodology (RSM) approach using central composite design (CCD) was applied to develop a mathematical model and optimize process parameters for Cd2+ removal from aqueous solution using a chemically modified Zn2Al-LDH/Ponceau. The optimal conditions to remove Cd2+ from aqueous solution were found to be initial Cd2+ concentration of 76 mg.L-1, pH value of 4.22, adsorbed amount of 0.04 g, temperature of 30.3 °C, and the contact time of 46 min. The isotherm and kinetics and thermodynamics of the adsorption were investigated in detail. The obtained results suggested the adsorption of Cd2+ onto Zn2Al-LDH/Ponceau follow Langmuir isotherm and the kinetic data are in good agreement with the Elovich kinetic model. In addition, the results of thermodynamic parameters indicated that the adsorption process was instantaneous nature and exothermic.


Due to the fact that collocations have been considered as one of the main concerns of both EFL learners and teachers for many years, the present study has dealt with this issue in a three-dimensional way. First, it compared the efficiency of teaching collocations both through web-based concordancing practices and through traditional methods. Second, it investigated and compared the impact of implicit and explicit collocation teaching on the students` learning. Third, it examined the effect of L1 (Farsi) on collocation learning; in other words, the effect of congruent (those collocations which have equivalent in Farsi) and non-congruent collocations. Fifty-four EFL students participated in this study. At the beginning, the researchers gave the participants a Michigan test to select those with the same level of proficiency. There were two treatments: A and B, the former investigated the effect of concordancing and traditional approaches, and the latter examined the implicit and explicit collocation teaching. In both treatments, learners were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. There were both a pre-test and a post-test to determine the effect of treatments. Subsequently, after obtaining the data, some statistical analyses (t-Tests) were performed. The results indicated that concordancing approach was highly efficient in teaching and learning collocations, and participants' scores learning collocations through this method were higher than learners' scores  in traditional method (especially in learning non-congruent collocations that the difference was significant); in addition, learners' performance in the group receiving explicit instruction of collocations was meaningfully better than those receiving implicit instruction through mere exposure. Key words: Collocation Learning; Web-based Concordancing; Traditional Method; Explicit Instruction; Implicit Instruction; L1


A broad range of genotypes of Medicago sativa, and annual medics including M. polymorpha, M. tornata and M. littoralis were inoculated with strains of Sinorhizobium meliloti or S. medicae of differing effectiveness for symbiotic N2 fixation then sown at 4 field locations. Dry matter production over 2 seasons was strongly related to plant density, which in turn was related to symbiotic effectiveness. Eighteen months after sowing at Esperance, Western Australia, lucerne inoculated with strain WSM922 showed 79% higher plant density and 43% more production than control strain CC169. At Broomehill, no significant differences existed in dry matter production between lucerne cultivars inoculated with strains WSM922, WSM826 and U45. Across all lucerne genotypes, inoculation with WSM922 outyielded those inoculated with CC169 by 99%. At Jerramungup, the difference in yield between these 2 inoculant strains was 44%. Results were consistent with those previously obtained under controlled conditions and emphasised the necessity to remain aware of the symbiotic requirements of newly produced cultivars. An analysis of nodule occupancy at 1 site using PCR-RAPDs revealed the dominance of a particular rhizobial strain (WSM922) in uninoculated plots which had become colonised over 3 seasons. The necessity for separate inoculant species of Sinorhizobium in Australia to satisfy the symbiotic requirements of the acid and alkaline groups of medics was reaffirmed.


The territory of the European Union is made up of a rich and wide-ranging universe of languages, which is not only circumscribed to the "state languages". The existence of multilingualism is one of Europe's defining characteristic and it should remain so in the constantly evolving model of Europe's political structure.Linguistic rights have been dealt with under Community law through various viewpoints. The linguistic regime of the European Union is essentially of a legal nature. As a consequence of the legal regime of the languages there is a graduation between them. The building of political and economic Europe based on the "state language" concept affects the European linguistic diversity itself.Nevertheless, the express legal recognition to the European linguistic diversity takes place in a new context: the context of the opening of the European Union to fundamental rights. The respect for the linguistic diversity is shaped as an aim of the Union, identifying a sphere of action. A sphere of action that has to materialise itself with specific measures.We will see if there is enough legal basis to say that linguistic rights do form part of the general principles of law. If linguistic rights are considered as general principles under Community law, when do they have to apply?


We study the power of different types of adaptive (nonoblivious) adversaries in the setting of prediction with expert advice, under both full-information and bandit feedback. We measure the player's performance using a new notion of regret, also known as policy regret, which better captures the adversary's adaptiveness to the player's behavior. In a setting where losses are allowed to drift, we characterize —in a nearly complete manner— the power of adaptive adversaries with bounded memories and switching costs. In particular, we show that with switching costs, the attainable rate with bandit feedback is Θ(T2/3). Interestingly, this rate is significantly worse than the Θ(√T) rate attainable with switching costs in the full-information case. Via a novel reduction from experts to bandits, we also show that a bounded memory adversary can force ****Θ(T2/3) regret even in the full information case, proving that switching costs are easier to control than bounded memory adversaries. Our lower bounds rely on a new stochastic adversary strategy that generates loss processes with strong dependencies.


Illicit trade in tobacco is a substantial and growing problem in the U.S., causing loss of tax revenue, damage to public health, and threats to public safety. Decisions about enforcement against ITTP involve tradeoffs among competing objectives. Good policy design can improve the terms of those tradeoffs but cannot eliminate them. We examine questions about the allocation of enforcement resources against ITTP, and its distribution across activities, individuals, and organizations: in particular, whether and how to differentially target ITTP that involves violence or support for terrorism. We consider the problem of developing effective strategies for enforcement, applying both lessons from experience with markets for illicit drugs and theoretical insights about enforcement targeting and dynamic concentration. We show that targeted enforcement and focused deterrence are more efficient than unfocused enforcement, and that – when other policy changes increase the potential rewards to illicit activity – enforcement resources applied earlier (before illicit markets have grown) will have greater impact than enforcement resources applied later (and therefore to larger markets). We discuss additional considerations, ranging from real-world complications left out of the simple models to examination of how insights from behavioral law and economics may modify conclusions based on a theory of deterrence designed for homo economicus.


Pyrazine diazohydroxide (PZDH) is a novel antitumor agent that forms DNA adducts via the reactive pyrazine diazonium ion. In a recent Phase I study of PZDH, we identified a recommended Phase II dose of 100 mg/m2/day x 5, given as a 5-min i.v. bolus with the cycles repeated every 42 days (N. J. Vogelzang, et al, Cancer Res., 54: 114-119, 1994). There was a moderate negative correlation between serum chloride concentration and logarithm platelet nadir, suggesting the hypothesis that PZDH is activated in an acidic environment, leading to more toxicity in acidotic patients. Therefore, the University of Chicago Phase II cooperative network conducted two Phase II studies of PZDH in renal cancer (15 patients, 2 with liver metastases) and in 5-fluorouracil-refractory colorectal cancer (14 patients, 13 with liver metastases) to determine efficacy in each disease and to correlate safety and tolerance of the drug with PZDH pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics and with arterial blood gas measurements. There were no responses seen in either tumor type. The primary toxicity of PZDH was myelosuppression with neutropenia (absolute neutrophil count, < 1000/microl) and thrombocytopenia (<50,000 cells/microl), seen in 41 and 24% of all cycles, respectively. Other grade 3 and 4 toxicities were rare. Pharmacodynamic analysis revealed no significant correlation between plasma levels at 5, 60, and 120 min; WBCs; absolute neutrophil and platelet count nadirs; and initial serum chloride or blood pH levels. The colorectal patients experienced significantly more thrombocytopenia than did the renal cancer patients (median platelet nadir after cycle 1 was 151 x 10(3)/microl for renal patients versus 76 x 10(3)/microl for colon patients; P = 0.04), suggesting either that prior 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin reduced bone marrow reserve or that colorectal patients with liver metastases experienced more PZDH toxicity. Regression analyses revealed a possible relationship (P = 0.06) between serum pH and thrombocytopenia (i.e., for each increase of 0.03 in pH, there was a 34% increase in the platelet nadir), but there was no relationship between serum chloride and thrombocytopenia. Curiously, an increase in alkaline phosphatase was associated with an increase in the platelet nadir (P = 0.02). If PZDH continues to be developed as an antineoplastic agent, further studies of these relationships are suggested.


This paper explores the history of sit-down strikes from the New Deal Era and beyond and traces their influence on the substance of modern labor law. It argues that, even as the sit-down strikes proved essential to the development of a meaningful system of labor rights, the strikes also had a very different effect. As this paper undertakes to demonstrate, legal and political attacks on labor rights that were originally aimed at the sit-down strikes metastasized into a more general campaign to prohibit a range of militant strike practices, even those bearing little outward resemblance to the original sit-down strikes. The resulting consequences for organized labor have been quite grave, as this dynamic has helped eviscerate the right to strike and, in effect, deprived labor of weapons it desperately needs to mount any meaningful challenge to the entrenched power of employers in the workplace. In this way, the reaction to the strikes helps to account for the dire state that organized labor finds itself in today. Bringing this out is important not so much because it reveals some simple legal formula for rebuilding labor rights but, to the contrary, because it speaks to the tremendous difficulties that await any such effort. Indeed, this paper argues, the reactionary legacy of the sit-down strikes suggest inherent, perhaps insuperable, limits that may appertain to the right to strike in liberal society. In addition to offering this account of how the sit-down strikes shaped modern labor law, this paper also demonstrates that the strikes were more extensive and enduring than students of labor history commonly assume.


Recent market changes in power systems with high renewable energy penetration highlighted the need for complex profit maximization and hedging strategies against price volatility and generation uncertainty. This work proposes a dynamic model to represent sequential decision making in this current scenario. Unlike previously reported works, we consider uncertainties in both strategic (long-term) and operational (short-term) levels, all considered as path-dependent stochastic processes. The problem is modeled as a multistage stochastic programming model in which the correlations between inflow forecasts, renewable generation, spot and contract prices are accounted for by means of interconnected long- and short-term decision trees. Additionally, risk aversion is considered through intuitive time-consistent constraints. A case study of the Brazilian power sector is presented, in which real data was used to define the optimal trading strategy of a wind power generator, conditioned to the future evolution of market prices. The model provides the trader with useful information such as the optimal contractual amount, settlement timing, and term. Furthermore, the value of this solution is demonstrated when compared to state-of-the-art static approaches using a multistage-based certainty equivalent performance measure.


This paper concerns the recent and most representative work performed at Onera on the application of flow control technologies to high-lift systems of aircraft wings. Two different objectives are considered. First, keeping present architecture, flow control could either enhance the aerodynamic performance (mainly mean and stall lift coefficients) or simplify the mechanisms (flap gap or size). Secondly, a drastic geometry simplification, very attractive for aircraft manufacturers, like slot or even slat suppression, leads to a strong depletion of aerodynamic performance. In that case, the objective of flow control is to retrieve as much as possible the reference airfoil performance. Various flow control devices, from simple mechanical or fluidic vortex generators to pulsed blowing, are considered. Combined numerical and experimental studies are presented and the efficiency of the control is discussed.


This volume brings together 12 articles originally presented at a workshop held in 1995 at Queen Elizabeth House, under the auspices of the Cross Culture Centre for Research on Women at the University of Oxford. The contributions represent a wide variety of subjects, approaches, time periods and cultural areas. Topics range from the manufacture and trade of beads, to their different forms of consumption and their symbolic meanings, "with gender the overall theme" (p. vii). The authors come from an equally large number of disciplines: Literature, Archaeology, Design, Folklore, Anthropology, History and Women's Studies. Articles span a broad sweep of time from prehistory to the present and cover a wide array of geographical units: cities, regions, countries and even continents throughout the world.Lidia Sciama provides an interesting overview of bead production, trade and consumption in the introductory essay. She draws attention to the major role of beads as a trade item in all parts of the world since prehistoric times. Glass blowing and bead manufacture have generally been considered a male occupation. Sciama points out that in Europe, although men were responsible for blowing and cutting glass canes to make beads, women would polish, finish and thread them and prepare them for shipment. In certain parts of West Africa, however, women are the principal bead makers. Trade in beads appears more gender specific: whether in Europe or Africa, men were usually responsible for their commerce. Beads have been used in most parts of the world, by both men and women, as a form of body adornment. Sciama explains this widespread use of beads as an efficient way of expressing beauty (the skin has always been considered the first canvas and art object), fertility (beads resemble ovaries, nipples and female genitals) and power (the magical properties of beads are used to acquire power and maintain health). She concludes that beads are of great significance at all levels of society and are "closely associated both with individual and group identity" (p. 17). Sciama's essay goes beyond a simple presentation of the articles in the book; it provides a good survey of recent bead research, including David Graeber's (1996) fascinating work on beads, money and regimes of value.In Europe, Venice has always been at the centre of glass bead production which was generally assumed to be a male occupation. In her survey of the history of bead manufacturing from the Middle Ages to the present, Francesca Triviality pays special attention to the role of Venetian women in the industry. Like most European medieval guilds, that of bead makers was based on the principal of male heredity and craft skills were passed down as property from man to man. Female labour was used much more, however, than indicated in official records. Bead stringing was usually done by women and they were also involved in the distribution and sale of beads at the local level. Men kept responsibility for the more lucrative long distant trades.The following three articles deal with beads in Africa. Margaret Carey provides an overview of African beadwork. Gender roles in the manufacture of beads vary according to the materials being used (metal beads are usually made by men whereas shell beads are made by women), the uses made of the objects (royal regalia is made by men; jewellery for females by women) and the groups involved. Beads are used as status markers, as a vehicle in social intercourse (courtship and weddings), as markers of rites of passage and as expressions of sociopolitical protest. Joanne Eicher's article focusses on the Kalabari Ijo of Nigeria. Here, for both men and women, beads are considered valuable objects and they are kept in containers under lock and key. At death, they are transferred to the closest relatives; the oldest woman in each lineage supervises these treasures which serve as expressions of family genealogy and identity. Ann O'Hear concentrates on the red stone beads called lantana made by the Yoruba in the city of Ilorin, Nigeria. …