Introduction: Several diagnostic tests are used in children suspected for asthma, but the accuracy of these tests to diagnose asthma is unclear. Aim: We aimed to assess the diagnostic accuracy of reported respiratory symptoms and clinical tests to diagnose asthma in school-aged children under investigation for asthma. Methods: We studied cross-sectionally children aged 6-16 years referred to 2 pulmonary outpatient clinics with suspicion of asthma. All children underwent clinical evaluation including spirometry, fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), skin prick tests, and bronchial provocation tests (BPT) by exercise, methacholine, and mannitol. Symptoms were reported in a parental questionnaire. Asthma was diagnosed by the physicians based on medical history, clinical examination, and all clinical test results. We calculated sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value and area under the curve to assess the diagnostic accuracy of symptoms and clinical tests. Results: Of the 111 participants, 68 (61%) were diagnosed with asthma. The combined sensitivity and specificity to diagnose asthma was highest for wheeze without colds ((sensitivity/specificity) 0.76/0.65), wheeze (0.87/0.51), wheeze triggered by pollen (0.59/0.79) and more than 3 attacks of wheeze (0.49/0.88). Of the diagnostic tests, the area under the curve was highest for FeNO (0.81) and BPT by exercise (0.79) and lowest for FEV1 (0.52) and FEV1/FVC (0.58). Conclusion: This study, which needs validation in a larger sample, suggests that specific questions about triggers and severity of wheeze, FeNO and BPT by exercise are more useful to diagnose asthma in school-aged children than spirometry, skin prick tests and other BPTs.


Background. Administrative data and ICD‐9‐CM diagnostic codes are frequently used in research efforts to evaluate risk adjusted patient outcomes, particularly mortality. Varying ICD‐9‐CM sampling algorithms have been used to identify stroke patients. Objectives. This study evaluates the effects of different sampling strategies (one high sensitivity and one high specificity) on modeling stroke mortality as a performance indicator. Research Design. Risk adjustment models were developed for two stroke cohorts identified using differing ICD‐9‐CM algorithms. Standard mortality ratios were calculated in a validation sample as network performance measures and compared across the two stroke samples. Subjects. VHA inpatients with stroke during years 1997 (model development) and 1998 (model validation) were selected from the Patient Treatment File based on cerebrovascular diagnostic codes. Measures. Patient mortality within 30 days of admission. Results. The model development and validation for each stroke sampling method produced consistent results: c‐statistics 0.74 to 0.75, R2 0.07 to 0.09, concordance 73% to 74%. However, ranking differences in network performance varied by 5 or more positions for 7 of the 22 patient networks. Conclusions. These findings highlight a potential problem when using administrative data to assess stroke mortality. In the absence of an agreed upon definition of stroke patients, results of provider profiling will vary depending on the ICD‐9 algorithm used.


Different from the dominant view of treating fuzzy reasoning as generalization of classical logical inference, in this paper fuzzy reasoning is treated as a control problem. A new fuzzy reasoning method is proposed that employs an explicit feedback mechanism to improve the robustness of fuzzy reasoning. The fuzzy rule base given a priori serves as a controlled object, and the fuzzy reasoning method serves as the corresponding controller. The fuzzy rule base and the fuzzy reasoning method constitute a control system that may be open loop or closed loop, depending on the underlying reasoning goals/constraints. The fuzzy rule base, the fuzzy reasoning method, and the corresponding reasoning goals/constraints define the three distinct ingredients of fuzzy reasoning. While various existing fuzzy reasoning methods are essentially a static mapping from the universe of single fuzzy premises to the universe of single fuzzy consequences, the new fuzzy reasoning method maps sequences of fuzzy premises to sequences of fuzzy consequences and is a function of the underlying reasoning goals/constraints. The Monte Carlo simulation shows that the new fuzzy reasoning method is much more robust than the optimal fuzzy reasoning method proposed in our previous work. The explicit feedback mechanism embedded in the fuzzy reasoning method does significantly improve the robustness of fuzzy reasoning, which is concerned with the effects of perturbations associated with given fuzzy rule bases and/or fuzzy premises on fuzzy consequences. The work presented in this paper sets a new starting point for various principles of feedback control and optimization to be applied in fuzzy reasoning or logical inference and to explore new forms of reasoning including robust reasoning and adaptive reasoning. It can be also expected that the new fuzzy reasoning method presented in this paper can be used for modeling and control of complex systems and for decision-making under complex environments.


Macroeconomic models that omit the shadow economy systematically mis-forecast and mis-measure the effect of fiscal - in particular tax- policy on economic activity and tax revenue. We add an informal sector to the Bank of Greece DSGE model and use the actual package of fiscal consolidation implemented in Greece over the period 2010-2015 to evaluate the role of the black economy. In the data, official Greek GDP declined by about 26%, budget deficits proved larger and more persistent and tax rates increased by much more and tax revenue by much less than predicted. The model replicates the official output decline but implies a true output decline that is less than two thirds of that in recorded output. The discrepancy is even more pronounced for employment. The model also implies that the size of fiscal adjustment and the drop in economic activity could have been considerably milder had the informal sector been curtailed (it instead increased by about 50%). The underground economy seems to have been a key factor in Greece's failure to achieve orderly debt consolidation while avoiding economic depression.


Abstract The purpose of this paper is to describe how the material culture of the indigenous hunters and fishermen of the Udehe in the Far East of Russia have been transformed by outside influence, from an autonomous and already sophisticated culture to a dependent and modernized one. The discussion centres around the means of water transport, two kinds of dugout boats (the bat and omorochka) because they were and still are essential for hunting and fishing, which are the main economic activities of Udehe. The author demonstrates how this one part of material culture has changed in manufacturing and use, and what has changed in the everyday life due to this transformation.


Upper Palaeozoic collisional movements along the Ibero-Armorican arc were accommodated on oblique strike-slip ductile shear zone systems. In north-central Portugal, these shear zones are coincident with long linear belts of high temperature, low pressure metamorphism and S-type granitic plutons. A model is presented in which crustal thickening subsequent to collision was followed by anatexis at depths of 12–15 km; this was achieved by a combination of (i) increased heat flow, (ii) lowering of melting temperatures caused by fluxing of hydrous fluids, and (iii) a heterogeneous assemblage of greywackes and pelites which encouraged local high ductility contrasts. Shear zones are proposed as the most important influence in controlling the site of development of such belts; anatexis of metasedimentary crust and emplacement of the resulting S-type plutons within these zones took place without an appeal to crustal rifting or an asthenospheric heat source.


Relying on a figure that makes us feel loved, safe and protected is a basic necessity of human beings with repercussions in all the aspects of psychological development. Early Intervention is based on knowledge and detection of risk factors and intervention in creating and strengthening protective factor of development. When early relationship between mother and child is altered due to the characteristics of the child, the mother or the context, and insecure attachment is developed, preschool teachers may become secure attachment figures influencing all the fields of present and future development. In this article there are some detection indicators of possible altered affective relations as well as conduct proposals to generate secure affective connections between children and their teachers.


Article type: Original Article Background: The social information processing model is one of the most upto-date cognitive models in the field of interpersonal interactions. This socialinteraction-based model can be successfully used to investigate the reasons for emotional and behavioral problems and prevent them in children and adolescents. Objectives: The present study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of the social information processing model in predicting behavioral disorders in children. Materials and Methods: The present study used a descriptive correlational regression analysis. The study sample comprised 100 primary school students selected from different districts in Isfahan, Iran (2015-2016), using random multistage cluster sampling. Data collection tools included the Achenbach child behavior checklist and social stories by Bryan and Turcasia. The stepwise multivariate regression was used to analyze the data. SPSS software version 18 was also used for statistical analysis of the study. Results: The results indicated that the social information processing model can significantly predict behavioral disorders (p≤0.0001). In other words, behavioral disorders were more prevalent in the students with lower social information scores. Conclusion: The social information processing model was found to predict child behavioral disorders.


The types of apparatus used to produce liquid sheets are classified according to the manner in which the energy is imparted to the liquid. The factors influencing the development, stability and manner of disintegration of a liquid sheet are examined more particularly with flat sheets produced from the single-hole fan-spray nozzle and the spinning disk. The development of the liquid sheet is influenced by the liquid properties. As the working pressure is raised the width of the sheet increases, but this development is hindered by high surface tension. It is shown that the effect of a surface-active agent on the development is only influential where the surface is not expanding or changing rapidly. Consequently its effect is more pronounced as the liquid moves farther away from the orifice. Increase of viscosity at the same pressure causes the region of disintegration to move away from the orifice, and high viscosity maintains the sheet undisturbed by air friction. Density has little effect on the area of the sheet. The effect of turbulence in the orifice is shown to be responsible for at least two types of disturbance in the sheet which results in holes being formed near the orifice. The depth of the disturbance in the sheet has to be equal to the thickness before disruption occurs. Similar disruption through the formation of holes can be caused by suspensions of unwettable particles. Wettable particles in low concentration, irrespective of their size, have no effect on the manner of disintegration. The most placid, stable and resistant sheet is obtained with a liquid of high surface tension, high viscosity, low density, giving low turbulence in the nozzle. Such a sheet will disintegrate when the velocity is raised and disintegration can occur through air friction. The easiest sheet to disintegrate is obtained with a liquid of low surface tension, low viscosity, low density and with low turbulence in the nozzle. Disintegration will occur near the nozzle at low velocities through waves caused by air friction. Disintegration through the formation of holes in the sheet can occur at low velocity with liquids of high surface-tension, low viscosity and high density where turbulence obtains in the nozzle. The formation of ligaments or threads is a necessary stage before the production of drops. Threads can be formed directly from any free edge or in the boundary. A free edge is formed when equilibrium exists between surface tension and inertia forces. In the spinning disk, at low flow rates, where the sheet is in contact with the surface of the disk, drops are formed at the ends of threads which break down into a limited number of sizes. At high flow rates a free edge of liquid exists outside the periphery of the disk with the formation of more irregular threads and a wider spectrum of drop sizes results. Where perforations occur in the sheet, expansion of the hole by surface tension occurs very regularly so that the holes remain nearly circular until they coalesce forming long threads. These long threads quickly become unstable and break down into drops. Threads being approximately uniform in diameter produce uniform drops, but the irregular areas of liquid which occur when a number of holes expand towards each other produce a wide variety of drop sizes. When the velocity of the sheet in the atmosphere is high, air friction causes slight variations in the sheet to develop rapidly into major wave disturbances, and these can result in holes being blown through the sheet so that disruption starts before the formation of a leading edge. With liquids having visco-elastic properties the sheet disintegrates through the formation of waves, but the rapid increase of viscosity, as the rate of shear is reduced, prevents further break-up of the threads into drops and a web of fine threads only is produced.


IZA DP No. 12301 APRIL 2019 The Long-Term Consequences of the Irish Marriage Bar A Marriage Bar is the requirement that women in certain jobs must leave that job when they marry. Ireland had a Marriage Bar in place until the 1970s. In 2014/2015, women participating in the The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing were asked for the first time in a nationally-representative survey specific questions about their experience of the Marriage Bar. In this paper, we use the information from the TILDA respondents for two purposes. The first is to investigate the extent of the Marriage Bar in Ireland. Our analysis suggests that the Marriage Bar was widespread and not confined to specific sectors or occupations (such as the Civil Service). The second purpose is to investigate the long-term consequences of the Marriage Bar. We do so by comparing the outcomes of women who were affected by the Marriage Bar with the outcomes of women who were not affected by the Marriage Bar. Regression analysis shows that women affected by the Marriage Bar have shorter working lives, lower individual income but higher wealth at present, more children and more educated children. However, there are no statistically significant differences in the current health status of the two groups of women. The differences in long-term outcomes do not appear to be confounded by the endogeneity of marriage, education, employment and occupational choices. JEL Classification: J71, J78, J24


In this article we focus upon the spatiality of the artistic circle Les XX, in Belgium and in Europe. We study the installation of the circle's members in both Brussels and the context of the city's local artistic geography. One zone seems to have been a focus of the group's creative and social life: the suburb of Ixelles, in particular, the neighborhood around the rue de l'Abbaye. This area was home to many artists, including Anna Boch, whose villa became a sort of second home to Les XX. Through cartographic analysis and the description of this environment, we bring into the question the possible existence of an artistic neighborhood in Brussels at the turn of the 20th century.


The variability of wind and solar energy technologies is perceived as a major obstacle to employing otherwise abundant renewable energy resources. Based on the available geographically dispersed data for the Western U.S. (excluding Alaska), we analyze the extent to which the geographic diversity of these resources can offset their variability. First, we determine the best match to loads that can be achieved with wind power and photovoltaics with no transmission limitations and then impose large-scale transmission limitations to capture regional specifics of load matching with renewables. Without energy storage and assuming unlimited energy flows between regions, wind and PV can meet up to 80% of loads in the Western U.S. while less than 10% of the generated power is curtailed. Limiting hourly energy flows by the aggregated transmission line carrying capacities decreases the fraction of the load that can be met with wind and PV generation to approx. 70%. The fraction of curtailed energy does not increase with the onset of transmission limitations.


Tryptic peptides of citraconylated fragment alpha1-CB3 and chymotryptic peptides of fragment alpha1-CB3 of bovine corneal collagen were prepared, isolated and characterized. Their amino acid compositions were consistent with the amino acid sequence of fragment alpha1-CB3 from calf skin collagen. Two glycoside sites were identified in bovine corneal fragment alpha1-CB3, one of them being the first located in the overlap region of collagen. The results are related to the uniformly narrow collagen fibres found in cornea and essential for its transparency.


In his prime, Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950) was the most celebrated man in Western ballet--a virtuoso and a dramatic dancer such as European and American audiences had never seen before. After his triumphs in such works as The Specter of the Rose and Petrouchka, he set out to make ballets of his own, and with his Afternoon of a Faun and The Rite of Spring, created within a year of each other, he became ballet's first modernist choreographer. Then, still in his twenties, he began to go mad. For six weeks in early 1919, as his tie to reality was giving way, Nijinsky kept a diary--the only sustained daily record we have, by a major artist, of the experience of entering psychosis. In some entries he is filled with hope. He is God; he will save the world. In other entries, he falls into a black despair. He is dogged by sexual obsessions and grief over World War I. Furthermore, he is afraid that he is going insane. The diary was first published in 1936, in a version heavily bowdlerized by Nijinsky's wife. The new edition, translated by Kyril FitzLyon, is the first complete and accurate English rendering of this searing document. In her introduction, noted dance critic Joan Acocella tells Nijinsky's story and places it in the context of early European modernism. Joan Acocella is the dance critic for The New Yorker. She is the author of Mark Morris and Creating Hysteria: Women and Multiple Personality Disorder


This study concerns different final thesis models in the research on teacher education in Europe and their orientation towards the academy and the teaching profession. In scientific journals, 33 articles support the occurrence of three models: the portfolio model, with a mainly teaching-professional orientation; the thesis model, with a mainly academic orientation; and the action research model, related to both orientations. All models had some relationship with both orientations. The study discusses these findings, the different models' possibilities to integrate both major orientations as well as how a final thesis can be used to integrate theory and practice in higher education programmes.


A fungal protein binds to a host cell wall component to allow the fungus to escape immune responses. One of the major driving forces of evolution is the constant arms race between plants and animals and the microbial pathogens that infect them. The fungus Cladosporium fulvum causes leaf mold on tomato plants. One of the ways tomato plants sense infections by C. fulvum is by detecting chitin, a component of fungal cell walls. In response, the fungus has evolved strategies to evade detection. De Jonge et al. have now identified one such mechanism in C. fulvum, mediated by the effector protein Ecp6. Secreted Ecp6 is able to bind to chitin oligosaccharides that are released upon degradation of the fungal cell wall and sequester them so that they are not detected by tomato chitin receptors. Proteins with domain structure similar to Ecp6 are conserved throughout the fungal kingdom, which suggests that chitin sequestration may represent a general mechanism used by fungi to evade immune detection. R. de Jonge, H. P. van Esse, A. Kombrink, T. Shinya, Y. Desaki, R. Bours, S. van der Krol, N. Shibuya, M. H. A. J. Joosten, B. P. H. J. Thomma, Conserved fungal LysM effector Ecp6 prevents chitin-triggered immunity in plants. Science 329, 953–955 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text]


In learning, persons ascribe the causes of their success or failure to factors such as ability, effort, difficulty of the test or luck. Their motivation for similar learning tasks depends not only on whether they experienced success or failure but also on the particular factors to which they attribute their failure or success. The purpose of the study was to compare teachers' and students' attributions regarding mathematics achievements in a Kenyan secondary school. The study also compared teachers' and students' evaluation of the achievement scores, their levelss of satisfaction with the scores, and their expectations regarding future mathematics achievements. The study was also to determine if there are gender differences in teachers' and students' attributions regarding mathematics achievements. The sample for the study comprised 140 form four students (80 girls and 60 boys) and Mathematics teachers from Senior Chief Koinange high school in Kiambu District. Twenty students were randomly selected from each of their respective streams and all their mathematics teachers took part. Teacher and student questionnaires were used to collect data. Statistical analysis was carried out using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Chi-square and t-tests were used at p< 0.05 level of significance. The study found that there are no significant differences in the teachers' and students' attributions to success. They both attributed success to the students more than any other cause. In the case of failure, teachers and students had a similar attribution pattern in that they both attributed failure to themselves and to each other. There were no significant differences in the teachers' and students' evaluations of the mathematics scores. Teachers had higher expectations regarding future performance and students were more satisfied with the scores than the teachers. From the findings of the study it is recommended that teachers need to review the approach they use to teach Mathematics. They have to avoid biased interaction in the classroom so as to help students to form attributions which increase their motivation to learn. Future research in the country can include parents' attributions and other factors like sibling influence, parental influence, career preference and school performance which may affect performance in mathematics.


In many unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings reinforced concrete (RC) slabs or ring beams maintain the integrity of the building when subjected to seismic loading and redistribute forces between different URM piers. In addition, RC slabs and ring beams contribute to the global stiffness and overturning capacity of the building by acting as horizontal coupling elements between URM piers. This paper reviews current design approaches concerning the consideration of the contribution of RC slabs and ring beams to the global overturning capacity of buildings with URM piers. Numerical simulations of composite spandrels consisting of RC beam and URM spandrel are performed and the results are compared with experimental evidence from own full-scale tests on composite spandrels. Finally, different wall configurations of URM buildings with RC slabs are analysed and conclusions concerning the design and analysis of such buildings drawn.


BACKGROUND & AIMS
We studied the role of protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR(2)) and its activating enzymes, trypsins and tryptase, in Clostridium difficile toxin A (TxA)-induced enteritis.

METHODS
We injected TxA into ileal loops in PAR(2) or dipeptidyl peptidase I (DPPI) knockout mice or in wild-type mice pretreated with tryptase inhibitors (FUT-175 or MPI-0442352) or soybean trypsin inhibitor. We examined the effect of TxA on expression and activity of PAR(2) and trypsin IV messenger RNA in the ileum and cultured colonocytes. We injected activating peptide (AP), trypsins, tryptase, and p23 in wild-type mice, some pretreated with the neurokinin 1 receptor antagonist SR140333.

RESULTS
TxA increased fluid secretion, myeloperoxidase activity in fluid and tissue, and histologic damage. PAR(2) deletion decreased TxA-induced ileitis, reduced luminal fluid secretion by 20%, decreased tissue and fluid myeloperoxidase by 50%, and diminished epithelial damage, edema, and neutrophil infiltration. DPPI deletion reduced secretion by 20% and fluid myeloperoxidase by 55%. In wild-type mice, FUT-175 or MPI-0442352 inhibited secretion by 24%-28% and tissue and fluid myeloperoxidase by 31%-71%. Soybean trypsin inhibitor reduced secretion to background levels and tissue myeloperoxidase by up to 50%. TxA increased expression of PAR(2) and trypsin IV in enterocytes and colonocytes and caused a 2-fold increase in Ca(2+) responses to PAR(2) AP. AP, tryptase, and trypsin isozymes (trypsin I/II, trypsin IV, p23) caused ileitis. SR140333 prevented AP-induced ileitis.

CONCLUSIONS
PAR(2) and its activators are proinflammatory in TxA-induced enteritis. TxA stimulates existing PAR(2) and up-regulates PAR(2) and activating proteases, and PAR(2) causes inflammation by neurogenic mechanisms.


A novel formulation technique to manufacture large hollow carrier particles of nanoparticulate drugs for inhaled drug delivery is developed in the present work. The large hollow carrier particles, whose shells are composed of nanoparticles aggregates, are manufactured via the spray drying of nanoparticulate suspensions under a predetermined operating condition. The large and hollow features of the carrier particles (dg ≈ 10 μm; ρe ≪ 1 g/cm3) are purposely formulated to produce carrier particles that have high flowability and high therapeutic efficacy, which are crucial for a successful drug delivery to the lungs. Polyacrylate and silica nanoparticles of various sizes (5−150 nm), without loaded drugs, are used as the model nanoparticles. The focus of the present work is to investigate the effects of size, chemical nature, and feed concentration of the nanoparticles on the morphology and degree of hollowness of the spray-dried carrier particles. The chemical nature of the nanoparticles, not the size, is obs...


The General Scheduling Problem (GSP) generalizes scheduling problems with sum of cost objectives such as weighted flow time and weighted tardiness. Given a set of jobs with processing times, release dates, and job dependent cost functions, we seek to find a minimum cost preemptive schedule on a single machine. The best known algorithm for this problem and also for weighted flow time/tardiness is an O(loglog P)-approximation (where P denotes the range of the job processing times), while the best lower bound shows only strong NP-hardness. When release dates are identical there is also a gap: the problem remains strongly NP-hard and the best known approximation algorithm has a ratio of e+\epsilon (running in quasi-polynomial time). We reduce the latter gap by giving a QPTAS if the numbers in the input are quasi-polynomially bounded, ruling out the existence of an APX-hardness proof unless NP\subseteq DTIME(2^polylog(n)). Our techniques are based on the QPTAS known for the UFP-Cover problem, a particular case of GSP where we must pick a subset of intervals (jobs) on the real line with associated heights and costs. If an interval is selected, its height will help cover a given demand on any point contained within the interval. We reduce our problem to a generalization of UFP-Cover and use a sophisticated divide-and-conquer procedure with interdependent non-symmetric subproblems.

We also present a pseudo-polynomial time approximation scheme for two variants of UFP-Cover. For the case of agreeable intervals we give an algorithm based on a new dynamic programming approach which might be useful for other problems of this type. The second one is a resource augmentation setting where we are allowed to slightly enlarge each interval.


The financial sector is currently undergoing a major transformation, brought about by the rapid development and spread of new technologies. The confluence of 'finance' and 'technology' is often referred to as 'Fintech', typically describing companies or innovations that employ new technologies to improve or innovate financial services. 'Fintech' developments are seen across all areas of the financial sector, including payments and financial infrastructures, consumer and SMElending, insurance, investment management, and venture financing. This note on distributed ledger technology (DLT) and blockchains is part of a series of short notes that explore new trends and developments in Fintech and analyze their potential relevance for WBG activities. Forthcoming notes in this series will cover marketplace lending, 'InsureTech', and other topics. This note outlines the mechanisms, origins, and key characteristics of DLT; the difference between 'public' and 'private' DLT; the technology's main advantages, challenges, and risks; relevant examples of DLT applications (with a focus on financial sector applications); and a brief overview of activities by governments, multilateral organization, and other stakeholders in this space. Finally, this note proposes next steps for the World Bank to study and evaluate areas where DLT could potentially be integrated into World Bank financial sector operations.


Attentional deficits, the inability to sustain attention and concentration, are a common symptom of many psychological disorders (i.e. AD/HD, Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, PTSD, GAD, etc.). Previous studies examined the relationship between Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Format (MMPI-2-RF) and measures of attention (Conner's CPT, WAIS III) specifically only with patients with AD/HD or traumatic brain injuries. This study set to explore the clinical utility of patterns on the MMPI-2-RF of people with attentional deficits, as measured by the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB) Attention Module. The final sample consisted of sixty-one adults (37 women, M age = 20.8 years, age range: 18-48 years) from a General Psychology course or a client of the Learning Diagnostic Clinic (LDC). Participants were administered the MMPI-2-RF, the NAB-Attention Module, and a demographic survey. Results indicate a significant negative correlation between some of the MMPI-2-RF scales and the NAB-Attention scales. Significant negative correlations were found between Demoralization (RCd), Cognitive Complaints (COG), Helplessness/Hopelessness (HLP), Inefficacy (NFC), and Disaffiliativeness (DSF) with the NAB Attention Index score (ATT). This suggests that participants experiencing attentional deficits also report insecurity and a sense of worthlessness in their mental abilities, which may alternatively affect their self-worth and sense of belonging with other people.


Inferring gene regulatory networks (GRNs) from time-course expression data is a major challenge in systems biology and comprehensive understanding of its dynamics is difficult. Most temporal inference methods for the dynamics of GRNs assume linear dependencies among genes but this strong assumption of linearity among genes does not truly represent the dynamics of the GRNs which are inherently nonlinear. Other parametric and non-parametric methods for modeling nonlinear dynamical systems such as the S-systems and causal identification structure (CSI) have been proposed for modeling time-course nonlinearities in GRNs; however, these methods are statistically inefficient and analytically intractable especially in high dimensions. To overcome these problems, we propose an algorithm based on optimized recurrent neural network (RNN) and dynamic Bayesian (DBN) network called RNN-DBN. The inference algorithm for our DBN is based on nonlinear state space Elman recurrent neural network. Results on Drosophila Melanogaster nonlinear time-course benchmark dataset shows our method outperforms the G1DBN inference method based on linear model assumptions. The algorithm is further applied to time-course ovarian cancer dataset. The results show that the expression levels of three of five significant hub genes (flap structure-specific endonuclease 1, kinesin family member 11 and CDC6 cell division cycle 6 homolog (S. cerevisiae)) were decreased by oxaliplatin, but remained constant with cisplatin platinum drugs. These may therefore be potential drug candidates for ovarian cancer.


Infusions of anti-α4β7 monoclonal antibody did not affect plasma viral rebound in HIV-infected individuals who stopped antiretroviral drug therapy. Targeting α4β7 in HIV Nonhuman primate models can be useful in the development of new approaches to treating HIV infection. Sneller et al. conducted a human therapeutic trial based on promising results of a single nonhuman primate study in which treatment with an anti-integrin monoclonal antibody led to sustained suppression of SIV plasma viremia. The human clinical trial did not reproduce the positive effects reported in the animal study. These results illustrate that embarking on human therapeutic trials based on findings from a single animal study should be undertaken cautiously and only after careful consideration of factors, such as reproducibility of the findings in animals and the potential risks associated with the experimental intervention. Despite the substantial clinical benefits of antiretroviral therapy (ART), complete eradication of HIV has not been possible. The gastrointestinal tract and associated lymphoid tissues may play an important role in the pathogenesis of HIV infection. The integrin α4β7 facilitates homing of T lymphocytes to the gut by binding to the mucosal addressin cell adhesion molecule-1 (MAdCAM-1) expressed on venules in gut-associated lymphoid tissue. CD4+ T cells with increased expression of α4β7 are susceptible to HIV infection and may be key players in subsequent virus dissemination. Data from nonhuman primate models infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) have suggested that blockade of the α4β7/MAdCAM-1 interaction may be effective at preventing SIV infection and may have beneficial effects in animals with established viral infection. To explore whether these findings could be reproduced in HIV-infected individuals after interruption of ART, we conducted an open-label phase 1 clinical trial of vedolizumab, a monoclonal antibody against α4β7 integrin. Vedolizumab infusions in 20 HIV-infected individuals were well tolerated with no serious adverse events related to the study drug. After interruption of ART, the median time to meeting protocol criteria to restart therapy was 13 weeks. The median duration of plasma viremia of <400 copies/ml was 5.4 weeks. Only a single subject in the trial experienced prolonged suppression of plasma viremia after interruption of ART. These results suggest that blockade of α4β7 may not be an effective strategy for inducing virological remission in HIV-infected individuals after ART interruption.


How best to summarize large and complex datasets is a problem that arises in many areas of science. We approach it from the point of view of seeking data summaries that minimize the average squared error of the posterior distribution for a parameter of interest under approximate Bayesian computation (ABC). In ABC, simulation under the model replaces computation of the likelihood, which is convenient for many complex models. Simulated and observed datasets are usually compared using summary statistics, typically in practice chosen on the basis of the investigator's intuition and established practice in the field. We propose two algorithms for automated choice of efficient data summaries. Firstly, we motivate minimisation of the estimated entropy of the posterior approximation as a heuristic for the selection of summary statistics. Secondly, we propose a two-stage procedure: the minimum-entropy algorithm is used to identify simulated datasets close to that observed, and these are each successively regarded as observed datasets for which the mean root integrated squared error of the ABC posterior approximation is minimized over sets of summary statistics. In a simulation study, we both singly and jointly inferred the scaled mutation and recombination parameters from a population sample of DNA sequences. The computationally-fast minimum entropy algorithm showed a modest improvement over existing methods while our two-stage procedure showed substantial and highly-significant further improvement for both univariate and bivariate inferences. We found that the optimal set of summary statistics was highly dataset specific, suggesting that more generally there may be no globally-optimal choice, which argues for a new selection for each dataset even if the model and target of inference are unchanged.


Workload and complexity measures are, as of today, often imprecise and subjective. Currently, two commonly used workload and complexity measuring formulas are Monitor Alert Parameter and the "Bars", both using the same measurement variables; amount of aircraft and time. This study creates formulas for quantifying ATC complexity. The study is done in an approach environment and is developed and tested on Stockholm TMA by the creation of 20 traffic scenarios. Ten air traffic controllers working in Stockholm TMA studied the complexity of the scenarios individually and ranked the scenarios in reference to each other. Five controllers evaluated scenario A1-A10. These scenarios were used as references when creating the formulas. The other half of the scenarios, B1-B10, ranked by another five controllers, was used as validation scenarios. Factors relevant to an approach environment were identified, and the data from the scenarios were extracted according to the identified factors. Moreover, a regression analysis was made with the ambition to reveal appropriate weights for each variable. At the first regression, called formula #1, some parameter values were identical. Also, some parameter weights became negative in the regression analysis. The basic requirements were not met and consequently, additional regressions were done; eventually forming formula #2. Formula #2 showed stable values and plausible parameter weights. When compared to a workload measuring model of today, formula #2 showed better performance. Despite the small amount of data samples, we were able to prove a genuine relation between three, of each other independent, variables and the traffic complexity.


We present a new approach for personalizing Web search results to a specific user. Ranking functions for Web search engines are typically trained by machine learning algorithms using either direct human relevance judgments or indirect judgments obtained from click-through data from millions of users. The rankings are thus optimized to this generic population of users, not to any specific user. We propose a generative model of relevance which can be used to infer the relevance of a document to a specific user for a search query. The user-specific parameters of this generative model constitute a compact user profile. We show how to learn these profiles from a user's long-term search history. Our algorithm for computing the personalized ranking is simple and has little computational overhead. We evaluate our personalization approach using historical search data from thousands of users of a major Web search engine. Our findings demonstrate gains in retrieval performance for queries with high ambiguity, with particularly large improvements for acronym queries.


Transcript of letter from Charles Moore to Josephus Moore, in which Charles has copied and forwarded a message from Captain C. C. Allen regarding the pervasive thievery in Izard County, Arkansas, and that Moore would do well not to return. He also discusses some local news, including further arrests of a gang of horse thieves.


Historically, building design has been manageable without the help of special planning and
management techniques, whereas in construction there have been clearer, more easily
realisable benefits. As buildings become technically more complex and design teams more
specialised and fragmented, the need to plan and co-ordinate the design process with
greater accuracy is becoming increasingly important. Traditionally building design work
has been planned in a perfunctory manner, often in the belief that this creative and iterative
process cannot be analysed and planned in detail. This situation has been perpetuated by a
lack of understanding of design information flow and dependency and the availability of
suitable planning techniques.
ADePT (Analytical Design Planning Technique) has been developed in this research and
permits a more sophisticated approach to the planning of building design work to be taken.
This prototype methodology uses Design Structure Matrix Analysis (DSMA) to examine a
Design Process Model (DPM) of the building design process. The synthesis of these two
techniques produces a powerful but easily understood tool to assist in the planning and
management of complex, multi-disciplinary building design problems.
Traditional design programming is time consuming and reliant on a planner's experien'e,
with each task and link often being defined afresh at the beginning of each new project.
The Design Process Model, constructed from data flow diagrams, eliminates much of this
subjectivity by generically representing the tasks involved, and the information flowing in
the design of any building in a consistent, re-usable manner.
The unsuitability of traditional planning tools also contributes to the development of
unrealistic design programmes; design is an inherently iterative activity and techniques
such as network analysis, are unable to represent this type of relationship. ADePT
overcomes these failings by using DSMA to analyse the DPM to reveal how to most
efficiently order inter-dependent tasks based purely on the optimal flow of design
information. ADePT can also incorporate the impact of external influences such as
construction programme, materials procurement or resourcing demands to be superimposed
on this idealised design programme, allowing their influence on the optimal
design task order to be assessed.


This thesis explores how the newly adopted Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the first international treaty to regulate the trade in conventional arms, can address the issue of the illegal and irresponsible proliferation of small arms and lights weapons (SALW) and improve peace and security. By far the most commonly used weapons in modern conflicts, SALW and their effects mainly on intrastate conflicts, I argue, are the most important issues for the ATT to address. Being one of the prime sources of fuel for, and even cause of, the new trend of increasingly deadly and destructive intrastate conflicts today, controlling the largely illegal and internationally unregulated SALW market would be a crucial step to improving peace and security. The thesis uses Security Dilemma theory to describe how arms and their proliferation pose threats to peace and security, while international law and regime theory is used to identify how legal action and structures of cooperation (regimes) can offer solutions to these problems. To determine to what extent the ATT can address these issues, the thesis uses a case study approach together with a content analysis of the ATT text to identify the relevant legal provisions and how they can operate in the context of the theoretical framework. The findings of this study suggest that the most important aspect of the ATT is that it imposes prohibitions on any arms transfer that risks being used to commit acts of genocide, human rights abuses and other violations of international law, or that risk leading to diversion. These provisions could be used to stop the irresponsible kinds of arms transfers that facilitate these crimes. The effects of the ATT are however largely dependent on the will of states, which will determine the effectiveness of the treaty. Nonetheless, as this thesis shows, the ATT provides tools and a legal platform that could, if utilized, have a substantial impact on these issues. Title: Stopping destructive arms proliferation How the Arms Trade Treaty can improve peace and security by introducing the first international regulations on transfers of


With Mussolini вЂTMs Italy, R.J.B. Bosworth—the foremost scholar on the subject writing in English—vividly brings to life the period in which Italians participated in one of the twentieth centuryвЂTMs most notorious political experiments. Il DuceвЂTMs Fascists were the original totalitarians, espousing a cult of violence and obedience that inspired many other dictatorships, HitlerвЂTMs first among them. But as Bosworth reveals, many Italians resisted its ideology, finding ways, ingenious and varied, to keep Fascism from taking hold as deeply as it did in Germany. A sweeping chronicle of struggle in terrible times, this is the definitive account of ItalyвЂTMs darkest hour.


Monocular visual excitability was studied psychophysically by determining the threshold intensity for a small (40-min) brief (5-msec) "test" flash centered within a larger (3°) "conditioning" flash, both presented at 7° of arc in the temporal half-field. Interval between flashes was varied from −200 (test flash preceding onset of conditioning) to +1500 msec (test flash following), nine combinations of conditioning flash intensity and duration being used as parameters. For all combinations, threshold rose between −200 and −100 msec (before the start of the conditioning flash), reaching a maximum increment when the onsets of the two flashes were synchronized. When test was superimposed upon conditioning flash in time (positive intervals), threshold declined to approach an asymptote near the end of the latter flash. Following termination of the conditioning flash, threshold returned to resting level. The maximum rise in threshold, as well as the time taken to achieve an asymptote, varied with both intensity and duration of the conditioning flash. When a rough estimate of the photochemical contribution to these threshold changes was subtracted from the raw data, residual threshold increments were obtained and attributed to neural processes. On the basis of time course, it is suggested that these neural processes involve central (geniculocalcarine) as well as peripheral (neuro-retinal) factors.


In recent years, Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) has been applied to collect aerial images for mapping, disaster investigation, vegetation monitoring and etc. It is a higher mobility and lower risk platform for human operation, but the low payload and short operation time reduce the image collection efficiency. In this study, one nadir and four oblique consumer grade DSLR cameras composed multiple camera system is equipped on a large payload UAS, which is designed to collect large ground coverage images in an effective way. The field of view (FOV) is increased to 127 degree, which is thus suitable to collect disaster images in mountainous area. The synthetic acquired five images are registered and mosaicked as larger format virtual image for reducing the number of images, post processing time, and for easier stereo plotting. Instead of traditional image matching and applying bundle adjustment method to estimate transformation parameters, the IOPs and ROPs of multiple cameras are calibrated and derived the coefficients of modified projective transformation (MPT) model for image mosaicking. However, there are some uncertainty of indoor calibrated IOPs and ROPs since the different environment conditions as well as the vibration of UAS, which will cause misregistration effect of initial MPT results. Remaining residuals are analysed through tie points matching on overlapping area of initial MPT results, in which displacement and scale difference are introduced and corrected to modify the ROPs and IOPs for finer registration results. In this experiment, the internal accuracy of mosaic image is better than 0.5 pixels after correcting the systematic errors. Comparison between separate cameras and mosaic images through rigorous aerial triangulation are conducted, in which the RMSE of 5 control and 9 check points is less than 5 cm and 10 cm in planimetric and vertical directions, respectively, for all cases. It proves that the designed imaging system and the proposed scheme have potential to create large scale topographic map.


Institutional interaction and complexity are crucial to environmental governance and are quickly becoming dominant themes in the international relations and environmental politics literatures. This book examines international institutional interplay and its consequences, focusing on two important issues: how states and other actors can manage institutional interaction to improve synergy and avoid disruption; and what forces drive the emergence and evolution of institutional complexes, sets of institutions that cogovern particular issue areas. The book, a product of the Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change research project (IDGEC), offers both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Chapters range from analytical overviews to case studies of institutional interaction, interplay management, and regime complexes in areas including climate change, fisheries management, and conservation of biodiversity. Contributors discuss such issues as the complicated management of fragmented multilateral institutions addressing climate change; the possible "chilling effect" on environmental standards from existing commitments; governance niches in Arctic resource protection; the relationships among treaties on conservation and use of plant genetic resources; causal factors in cross-case variation of regime prevalence; and the difficult relationship between the World Trade Organization and multilateral environmental agreements. The book offers a broad overview of research on interplay management and institutional complexes that provides important insights across the field of global environmental governance.


The American death penalty is disappearing. Death sentences and executions have reached the lowest levels seen in decades. Public support for the death penalty has declined. More states have abolished the death penalty or imposed de facto moratoria. Even the states formerly most aggressive in pursuit of death sentences have seen death sentences steadily decline. Take Virginia, which has the highest rate of executions of any death penalty state, and which has executed the third highest number of prisoners since the 1970s. How times have changed. There are now two or fewer trials a year in Virginia at which a judge or jury even considers imposing the death penalty. Still more surprising, over one half of those trials in Virginia now result in a life sentence (11 of 21 cases from 2005 to present at which there was a capital sentencing hearing resulted in a life sentence). Why is this happening and in Virginia of all places? In this study of the decline in the Virginia death penalty, I examine every capital trial since 2005, a group of 21 trials, and I compare those to a group of twenty capital trials from 1996 to 2004. The law on the books has not meaningfully changed in ways that would make it harder to obtain death sentences in Virginia. However, in 2004 regional capital defense resource centers were created to handle capital cases. From 1996 to 2004, the crucial sentencing phase at which the judge or jury decided whether to impose the death penalty was typically cursory, averaging less than two days long. In the more recent trials, the average was twice that — four days — and still more striking was the increase in numbers of defense witnesses called, greater use of expert witnesses, and the added complexity of sentencing proceedings. Only seven counties have imposed death sentences in the past decade in Virginia. The changed understanding of effective mitigation, together with improved defense resources, may help explain the decline. I examine additional data from North Carolina and Florida, situating the role of other factors such as national trends in homicide rates, and conclude by describing heightened Eighth Amendment concerns with the scattered state of the American death penalty.


Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive malignancy of the pleural surface, predominantly caused by prior asbestos exposure. There is a global epidemic of malignant pleural mesothelioma underway, and incidence rates are predicted to peak in the next few years. This article summarises the epidemiology and pathogenesis of malignant pleural mesothelioma, before describing some key factors in the patient experience and outlining common symptoms. Diagnostic approaches are reviewed, including imaging techniques and the role of various biomarkers. Treatment options are summarised, including the importance of palliative care and methods of controlling pleural effusions. The evidence for chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery is reviewed, both in the palliative setting and in the context of trimodality treatment. An algorithm for managing malignant pleural effusion in malignant pleural mesothelioma patients is presented. Finally new treatment developments and novel therapeutic approaches are summarised. This article on mesothelioma describes pathogenesis, symptoms, diagnostic approaches and treatment options http://ow.ly/cjkb305aQGz


In order to investigate the effects of fuel discharge rate and initial fuel temperature on flame pulsation characteristics of vertical spill fire, a series experiments under continuous leakage conditions are conducted on a specially designed experimental setup, transformer oil is selected as the fuel. Results show that the vertical spill fire burning area can be divided into three parts. Both the main flame and the flash flame are involved in the flame pulsation behavior, and the essence of the flame pulsation of the vertical spill fire is the periodic alternation of the diffusion flame and the premixed flame. Flame pulsation frequency shows a linear negative correlation with the fuel leakage rate, it decreases from 3.56 Hz (4.98 ml m−1s−1) to 2.439 Hz (15.93 ml m−1s−1), and it a positive correlation with the initial fuel temperature. As the fuel discharge rate increases, the pulsation amplitude increases while the flame transient spread rate decreases, both of them have no significant correlation with the initial fuel temperature. The ratio of the average flame pulsation amplitude to the maximum pulsation amplitude is between 0.57 and 0.76. The flame transient spread rate shows a negative correlation with the fuel discharge rate, the maximum flame spread velocity reaches 3.17m/s and 2.85m/s in the growing phase and shrinking phase respectively. Due to the entrainment effect of the flame plume, the flame transient spread rate in the shrinking phase higher than that in the growing phase. Analyzed the diffusion process of fuel vapor and the heat transfer mechanism of vertical spill fire, the control of fuel leakage rate and initial temperature on the flame pulsation characteristics is mainly manifested in its influence on the fuel evaporation and diffusion process and the length of preheating area. This work provides data supplement on the flame spread of liquid fuel spill fire.


A strong pumping effect was observed with plasma operation on the toroidal graphite bumper limiter in TFTR. The pumping effect was induced by conditioning the limiter with a short series (10-20) of low density deuterium or helium initiated discharges. The decay constant for gas fuelled Ohmic discharges was reduced from before conditioning to a minimum of after conditioning, which corresponds to a reduction in the global recycling coefficient from about 100% to less than 50%. Coincident with the low recycling conditions, low current neutral beam fuelled discharges showed global energy confinement times which were enhanced by a factor of two over the values obtained with an unconditioned limiter. Two models are proposed for the observed pumping effects: (1) a depletion model, based on pumping of hydrogenic species in the near-surface region of the limiter after depletion of the normally saturated surface layer by (carbon and helium) ion induced desorption; and (2) a co-deposition model, based on adsorption of hydrogenic species in carbon films formed by material sputtered from the limiter during conditioning.


Although humans are found to be hardwired for being influenced by referent others from the same social realm (Cialdini and Trost, 1998), our literature review indicates that conventional technology adoption models (such as the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, UTAUT) in Information Systems literature often implicitly assume that user beliefs are independent of what others say or do. Social information and communication are treated as external variables and are not considered directly. Moreover, the picture that these models paint is predominantly cognition-based with little colour of emotion except for Computer Anxiety (Compeau and Higgins, 1995). Although the technology adoption literature does have one research stream on non-instrumental outcomes, such as enjoyment (Davis, Bagozzi and Warshaw, 1992) and flow (Webster, Trevino and Ryan, 1993), its focus is mainly on human-computer interaction (Agarwal, 2000). Emotion-related topics that are ample in the organizational transformation literature are relatively less explored in extant technology adoption literature. The adoption of a new information technology at work invokes a series of changes in work procedures and relationships, which may be a hotbed of negative emotions such as anxiety and powerlessness. We draw on social information processing theory (Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978) and stress and coping theory (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984) to examine how case managers of one non-for-profit health resource coordination institute in Canada could be influenced by one another via seeking social support in order to regain the sense of control and/or to regulate the negative emotion aroused by the coming of a new information technology. Interviews with thirteen case managers were conducted to understand the role of communication in their emotional and behavioural response to the adoption of a new technology. At the end of the paper we propose an alternative conceptual model that incorporates communication and user emotion to enrich the existing understanding of technology acceptance.


This article presents the first tight bounds on the time complexity of shared-memory renaming, a fundamental problem in distributed computing in which a set of processes need to pick distinct identifiers from a small namespace. We first prove an individual lower bound of Ω(k) process steps for deterministic renaming into any namespace of size subexponential in k, where k is the number of participants. The bound is tight: it draws an exponential separation between deterministic and randomized solutions, and implies new tight bounds for deterministic concurrent fetch-and-increment counters, queues, and stacks. The proof is based on a new reduction from renaming to another fundamental problem in distributed computing: mutual exclusion. We complement this individual bound with a global lower bound of Ω(k log (k/c)) on the total step complexity of renaming into a namespace of size ck, for any c ≥ 1. This result applies to randomized algorithms against a strong adversary, and helps derive new global lower bounds for randomized approximate counter implementations, that are tight within logarithmic factors. On the algorithmic side, we give a protocol that transforms any sorting network into a randomized strong adaptive renaming algorithm, with expected cost equal to the depth of the sorting network. This gives a tight adaptive renaming algorithm with expected step complexity O(log k), where k is the contention in the current execution. This algorithm is the first to achieve sublinear time, and it is time-optimal as per our randomized lower bound. Finally, we use this renaming protocol to build monotone-consistent counters with logarithmic step complexity and linearizable fetch-and-increment registers with polylogarithmic cost.


In this report, we describe the MetVed model developed to estimate emissions from residential wood combustion (RWC) at high spatial-temporal resolution. The model uses a downscaling method approach, which builds on bottom-up principles and derive a wood burning potential for each grid based on the housing type, size and heating technology, energy demand and outdoor temperature of each grid. The model builds on the combination of several databases with information at high level of detail. The databases contain geo-localised information about dwelling number and type, energy consumption statistics, fireplace and stove locations, and the available technology for residential heating. The datasets are combined and the dependencies between the different variables are analysed. MetVed includes the time variation for RWC based on the heating degree concept combined with time-variation from consumer statistics, and the vertical distribution based on the RWC shared in apartment buildings versus houses. The results from the MetVed-model have shown to improve the accuracy of dispersion modelling results when compared with predictions based on previous emission inventories.


There is little direct evidence of the fitness effects of changes in malaria gametocyte sex ratio. Gametocyte sex ratios in haemospororin parasites (phylum Apicomplexa) are usually female skewed. However, in some cases and especially in Haemoproteus parasites, less female–biased and even male–biased sex ratios are encountered. The 'fertility insurance hypothesi' tries to explain these biases as an evolutionary strategy to facilitate gamete encounter. Thus, the hypothesis predicts that, if there is a reduction in gametocyte density (intensity of infection) or other factors preventing gametes from meeting, a change to a higher proportion of male gametocytes may be favoured. By contrast, a change in sex ratio may be caused by other non–adaptive mechanisms, for example differential survival of the gametocytes of each sex. We study within–host changes in Haemoproteus majoris sex ratios following an experimental reduction in the density of the parasites in the blood in a breeding population of blue tits (Parus caeruleus). Medication with the antimalarial drug primaquine induced a significant reduction in Haemoproteus gametocyte infection intensity in two different breeding seasons and under two different doses of medication. Sex ratios became male skewed following the experimental treatment in agreement with the predictions of the'fertility insuranc' hypothesis. Also in support of the hypothesis, a significant change towards male–biased sex ratios emerged for non–medicated birds in one year, probably owing to the natural immune reduction of the density of the parasites in the blood. The alternative possibility that changes are caused by different lifespans of gametocytes is not supported by changes in sex ratios in control hosts, where new production and release of gametocytes occur.


This study attempts to explore the effect of human territorial behaviour on shaping the Arab-Muslim built environment in the past, present and future. Also, the study establishes a continuity between the traditional and contemporary Arab-Muslim built environment, the case of Saudi Arabian neighbourhoods. To achieve these objectives the study starts by a critical review of the existing body of theoretical knowledge about human territorial behaviour phenomena in order to rationalise it and match it with the dynamic nature of the Arab-Muslim built environment. The thesis sees human territoriality as a spatial behaviour and traces it to its roots in the behavioural sciences, mainly Psychology and Sociology, and design as the art of space making. It proposes the human territorial behaviour phases (Allocation, Attainment, Maintenance, and Abandonment) in parallel to the built environment space design cases/stages (Nesting, Stringing, and Clustering).The study, then, reviews the historical knowledge about the traditional Arab-Muslim built environment, and investigates the origin and process of Arab-Muslim territoriality, and its effect on the built environment. This study looks at the Islamic law (Sharicah) ownership system and built environment easement rights as parameters for defining the Traditional Arab-Muslim built environment's various territorial types (Public and jurisdictional, semi public, semi private, and private and personal space). This distinction verified the common belief that the Arab-Muslim built environment is a result of its resident's continuous territorial encroachment on the available public spaces.The study not only depends on the theoretical and historical critique review, but also depends on analysing aerial photos of the Saudi built environment dated from 1935 until now. This analysis leaves little space for speculation about the process by which the Saudi built environment was formed and transformed. The study ends up with the possible notions which might be suggested by way of re-establishing a sense of continuity between the past, present, and future effect of human territorial behaviour upon the Arab-Muslim built environment in the case of Saudi Arabia towns. This is achieved through the re-introduction of the traditional Fina concept into the contemporary built environment as a means for realising its forgotten transformation characteristics at the street scale. This release is seen as a way of recycling the contemporary city spaces and governed by the designer, the neighbourhood local authority, and the city municipality.


Introduction The Physiological Profile Assessment (PPA) is used in research and clinical practice for assessing fall risk. We compared PPA test performance between people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and healthy controls, determined the fall-risk profile for people with MS and developed a reference database for people with MS. Methods For this study, 416 ambulant people with MS (51.5 ± 12.0 years) and 352 controls (52.8 ± 12.2 years) underwent the PPA (tests of contrast sensitivity, proprioception, quadriceps strength, reaction time and sway) with composite fall-risk scores computed from these measures. MS participants were followed prospectively for falls for 3 months. Results The MS participants performed significantly worse than controls in each PPA test. The average composite fall-risk score was also significantly elevated, indicating a "marked" fall risk when compared with controls. In total, 155 MS participants (37.3%) reported 2 + falls in the follow-up period. Frequent fallers performed significantly worse than non-frequent fallers in the contrast sensitivity, reaction time and sway tests and had higher PPA composite scores. Conclusions In line with poor PPA test performances, falls incidence in people with MS was high. This study provides comprehensive reference data for the PPA measures for people with MS that could be used to inform future research and clinical practice.


Turbulence is argued to play a crucial role in cloud droplet growth. The combined problem of turbulence and cloud droplet growth is numerically challenging. Here an Eulerian scheme based on the Smoluchowski equation is compared with two Lagrangian superparticle (or superdroplet) schemes in the presence of condensation and collection. The growth processes are studied either separately or in combination using either two‐dimensional turbulence, a steady flow or just gravitational acceleration without gas flow. Good agreement between the different schemes for the time evolution of the size spectra is observed in the presence of gravity or turbulence. The Lagrangian superparticle schemes are found to be superior over the Eulerian one in terms of computational performance. However, it is shown that the use of interpolation schemes such as the cloud‐in‐cell algorithm is detrimental in connection with superparticle or superdroplet approaches. Furthermore, the use of symmetric over asymmetric collection schemes is shown to reduce the amount of scatter in the results. For the Eulerian scheme, gravitational collection is rather sensitive to the mass bin resolution, but not so in the case with turbulence.


Aims: Firemen must have appropriate physical fitness in order to do their tasks perfectly and perform their special function under different and critical conditions with the least mortality. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the correctness and capability of Iranian male firefighters' functional tests proportionate to their cardiovascular fitness. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was performed in 2010. 25 newly employed firemen with the age range of 23-36 were selected voluntarily by available sampling, from among 90 employment applicants of four firefighting stations of Tehran. Iran and Hong Kong's index functional tests were held in standard condition and the temperature of 19-21 centigrade degrees. The firefighters' aerobic power was evaluated by direct method of respiratory gas analysis. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and linear regression were used for data analysis. Results: Firefighters' VO2 max had a weak correlation with Index tests of Hong Kong (R=0.23 and SEE=0.03) and Iran (R=0.03 and SEE=0.15) that was not statistically significant (p>0.05). Conclusion: Although having the threshold aerobic power is the desirable level for evaluation of firefighters' cardiovascular fitness in this hazardous career, the studied population lacks appropriate physical fitness considering the special function in relief missions and firefighting. Revision and editing of the components of firefighters' functional tests is recommended.


This project was developed as a demonstrator for the E-Learning in Physical Science for Sport. Its purpose is to demonstrate the sort of application that can be developed to support Physics teaching using examples from sport.
A virtual world has been created using OpenGL in which the user can move around and fire arrows from a bow. The trajectory in 3-D space is plotted in real-time and can be halted at anytime allowing the user to examine the components of its velocity vector. The user's freedom to move in three dimensions means he can reposition himself close to the arrow to view its velocity vectors. There is an option to include air resistance. Two dimensional graphs of height against time and force against stretch are also plotted. All possible plots have deliberately been avoided to enable students to engage in their own graph drawing. My view is that students should be using pen and paper alongside the application to fully engage and understand the principles being demonstrated. The package has been evaluated in the classroom by several teachers who have indicated what material could usefully be added. Their comments and our responses will be discussed. The developed program will be demonstrated and will be available for participants to try. The design and implementation of the package will be outlined and some general points on available development tools suitable for educational graphics will be discussed and examples shown. Particular techniques used, such as collision detection and shadows, will be described.


Abstract Numerous studies have argued that bilingualism has effects on cognitive functions. Recently, in light of increasingly mixed empirical results, this claim has been challenged. One might ponder if there is enough evidence to justify a cessation to future research on the topic or, alternatively, how the field could proceed to better understand the phantom-like appearance of bilingual effects. Herein, we attempt to frame this appearance at the crossroads of several factors such as the heterogeneity of the term 'bilingual', sample size effects, task effects, and the complex dynamics between an early publication bias that favours positive results and the subsequent Proteus phenomenon. We conclude that any definitive claim on the topic is premature and that research must continue, albeit in a modified way. To this effect, we offer a path forward for future multi-lab work that should provide clearer answers to whether bilingualism has neurocognitive effects, and if so, under what conditions.


Numerous studies have analysed farm planning decisions focusing on producer risk preferences. Few studies have focussed on the farm planning decisions in an integrated croplivestock farm context. Income variability and means of managing risk continues to receive much attention in farm planning research. Different risk programming models have attempted to focus on minimising the income variability of farm activities. This study attempts to identify the optimal mix of crops and the number of animals the farm needs to keep in the presence of crop production risk for a range of risk levels. A mixed integer linear programming model was developed to model the decision environment faced by an integrated crop-livestock farmer. The deviation of income from the expected value was used as a measure of risk. A case study is presented with representative data from a farm in the Swartland area. An investigation of the results of the model under different constraints shows that, in general, strategies that depend on crop rotation principles are preferred to strategies that follow mono-crop production practices.


For over a century, America's nutrition authorities have heralded milk as "nature's perfect food," as "indispensable" and "the most complete food." These milk "boosters" have ranged from consumer activists, to government nutritionists, to the American Dairy Council and its ubiquitous milk moustache ads. The image of milk as wholesome and body-building has a long history, but is it accurate? Recently, within the newest social movements around food, milk has lost favor. Vegan anti-milk rhetoric portrays the dairy industry as cruel to animals and milk as bad for humans. Recently, books with titles like, "Milk: The Deadly Poison," and "Don't Drink Your Milk" have portrayed milk as toxic and unhealthy. Controversies over genetically-engineered cows and questions about antibiotic residue have also prompted consumers to question whether the milk they drink each day is truly good for them. In Nature's Perfect Food Melanie Dupuis illuminates these questions by telling the story of how Americans came to drink milk. We learn how cow's milk, which was associated with bacteria and disease became a staple of the American diet. Along the way we encounter 19th century evangelists who were convinced that cow's milk was the perfect food with divine properties, brewers whose tainted cow feed poisoned the milk supply, and informal wetnursing networks that were destroyed with the onset of urbanization and industrialization. Informative and entertaining, Nature's Perfect Food will be the standard work on the history of milk.


Abstract Two full factorial experiments were designed. The first one had three disintegrants (corn starch, cation-exchange resin, and waxy maise starch) at four different concentrations (0, 5, 10, and 15%), and three levels of compression pressure (1000, 3000, and 6000 psig.) with aspirin. The second experiment had four different medicaments (aspirin, MgO, Mg trisilicate, and salicylamide), three levels of pressure, and corn starch at the four concentration levels. Mean pore diameter, porosity, and disintegration time were the measured parameters. Mean pore diameters were measured in an air permeability apparatus and calculated from: Dried corn starch with 2% moisture was compared to regular corn starch containing 11% moisture. The effect of colloidal silicon dioxide was also studied. Broad generalities as to the effect of the variables on the measured parameters could not be made because of the complexities and interactions of the variables; i.e., disintegrant concentration effect on mean pore diameter varied with the medicament used, the pressure level, and even the specific disintegrant. Neither the effect on mean pore diameter nor porosity was found to be the mechanism of action of starch and other disintegrants in disintegrating tablets under the conditions of these experiments.


The 'Manual of Practice for Steel Penstocks' is being written under the supervision of the Hydropower Committee of the ASCE Energy Division. The committee felt a comprehensive design document was needed for the design, fabrication and maintenance of penstocks. Questionnaires were sent to various organizations soliciting feedback on the need for a penstock code and requesting data on codes currently in use. The response indicated that a comprehensive penstock code was needed. The individuals that make up this committee are from a broad cross-section of the steel pipe engineering and construction community. The completed Manual will be published in an 8 1/2 inch × 11 inches format, bound in a soft cover. Current plans call for the manual to be available from ASCE about Jan. 1, 1992.


Sarah Ashwin was interviewed by Tatiana Karabchuk, Associate Professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow. The conversation took place during the international conference "Embeddedness and Beyond: Do Sociological Theories Meet Economic Realities?" (Moscow, 25–28 October 2012), at which Prof. Ashwin co-chaired the mini-conference "Gender and Work Transformation" (with Prof. Roberto Fernandez of MIT). Prof. Ashwin described her background and professional trajectory, and explained how her research interest in Russia, specifically in Russian workers' movements, developed. Prof. Ashwin shared her early impressions of Russia during the 1990's and described her time working in Kemerovo, the administrative center of Kemerovo Oblast located in the major coal mining region of the Kuznetsk Basin in Russia. It was there she collected empirical data for her PhD dissertation on mineworkers and trade unions during the economic transition under Boris Yeltsin. Additionally, Prof. Ashwin devoted several comments to her current research interests which cover feminist movements and gender relations in Russia. Finally, Prof. Ashwin referred to several scholars working on gender relations, within and outside of the Russian context, and made some helpful reading recommendations for newcomers to this field of study.


Silicon-based lasers have long been sought, since they will permit monolithic
 integration of photonics with high-speed silicon electronics and thereby
 significantly broaden the reach of silicon technology. Among the various approaches
 that are currently being pursued to overcome the intrinsic limitations of Si as an
 efficient light source, intersubband transitions in Si-based quantum well structures
 offer a rather feasible alternative that conveniently circumvents the indirect-band
 nature of Si. Various approaches for achieving lasing action based on intersubband
 transitions within the group-IV materials are reviewed. Relevant theories are
 presented in detail. Challenges facing the valence band approach, which has not so
 far been successful, are analyzed, and proposals that bring the intersubband process
 to the conduction band are discussed.


In the first half of the twentieth century, and perhaps still today, one of Canada's most recognizable cultural exports was the Mountie, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer, wearing the signature red coat of his dress uniform and sitting astride his trusty steed. From its founding as the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) in 1873, to its 1920 re-formation as the RCMP, and through to the present, the Canadian federal police force has assumed in literary and popular culture the symbolic weight of national icon and the image has circulated widely, across media and around the world. Starting with the late nineteenth-century colonial press and continuing through the turn-of-the-century fiction market, interwar radio and film, and postwar television and commodity culture, the Mountie has appeared, both earnestly and satirically, at the centre of national mythologies about Canadian liberal democracy. At his most typical, the Mountie is an officer of the law who is part of a rational organization but also a refined gentleman and a unique, special individual. He represents a physically, intellectually, and morally upright and seductive, yet civilized, male hero distinct from the wilder masculinities of American popular culture heroes. Indeed, the fictional Mountie is at the centre of some persistent English-Canadian nationalist mythologies, notably that the West was conquered by a central authority whose "decency and paternalism" is also registered in Canada's "careful and fair treatment of Aboriginal peoples, particularly in comparison with the treatment meted out by the law and order forces of the United States" (Dawson 25). Across a range of twentieth-century cultural forms, from novels to radio to film and television, the Mountie therefore functioned at home and abroad as a metonym for the narrativization of Canada as the "Great White North" settler colony: he is at the vanguard of white civility, in the sense of both a pan-British set of "manners and behaviours that must be learned and performed" in the settler territory (Coleman 21) and a transimperial masculinity disseminated throughout the empire, much like late nineteenth-century immigration handbooks, "to appeal to the imperial imaginations of men [and boys] in the metropole and to guide their gendered performances as the masculine colonizers of the Canadian North West once they arrived" (Henderson 18). This romanticization of invadersettler colonialism and the violent annexation of indigenous territories achieved widespread dissemination in early twentieth-century popular and pulp Northwesterns, adventure stories of a frozen northern territory in which Mounties replace the heroic sheriffs of American Westerns, and exoticized locales such as the Yukon offer the local colour of dogsleds, mad trappers, drunk gamblers, and foolish gold prospectors. Laurie York Erskine's eight Renfrew of the Mounted novels (1922 to 1941) and their adaptation into eight Renfrew B films (1937 to 1940) are relatively late arrivals in this popular genre that proliferated in the early twentieth century. Northwesterns, of which Mountie fictions are a significant part, often took serial form, whether as novels first serialized in magazines or as a series of novels featuring the same protagonist. As well, by the 1930s Mountie fiction was being adapted into Hollywood films and American network radio serials, a multimedia saturation of Mountie narratives across Canada, the United States, and Britain, lasting for at least three generations, in which Renfrew of the Mounted featured prominently. Erskine, an American who published his Mountie novels simultaneously in the United States, Canada, and Britain, is a good example of an enormously popular writer who has fallen through the cracks of Canadian literary criticism for a variety of predictable reasons: he was neither Canadian nor did he live in Canada; he produced Mountie novels at the tail end of that genre's literary golden age and respectability; and he published first in adventure pulp magazines and then in serial novels marketed as genre fiction for men and boys. …


Climate scenarios offer one way to identify and examine the land management challenges posed by climate change. Selecting projections, however, requires careful consideration of the natural resources under study, and where and how they are sensitive to climate. Selection also depends on the robustness of different projections for the resources and geographic area of interest, and possibly on what climate projections are available for a region. Rather than a misguided attempt to identify the "most accurate" climate scenario, managers are strongly encouraged to explore variability through the use of multiple climate scenarios. Considering a range of possible future climates facilitates the identification of management strategies to help ensure resilience of natural resource systems across a broad set of potential conditions. Downscaling climate projections increases the spatial resolution of climate information and can make projections more relevant to natural resource managers by allowing decision-makers to better visualize what these different futures imply locally and regionally. The following series of questions describes key concepts that end-users of climate projection products should understand to appropriately interpret downscaled climate projections, including various sources of uncertainty. The selection used for each component of a downscaled climate projection has implications for interpreting the resulting climate scenario. Understanding the merits and limitations of the downscaling method employed is also important since downscaling approaches vary in their dependence on observed data availability, computational requirements, and in resultant uncertainty owed to biases of the method or the spatial scale of the downscaling.


Investigates the use of Euclidean invariant features in a generalization of iterative closest point (ICP) registration of range images. Pointwise correspondences are chosen as the closest point with respect to a weighted linear combination of positional and feature distances. It is shown that, under ideal noise-free conditions, correspondences formed using this distance function are correct more often than correspondences formed using the positional distance alone. In addition, monotonic convergence to at least a local minimum is shown to hold for this method. When noise is present, a method that automatically sets the optimal relative contribution of features and positions is described. This method trades off the error in feature values due to noise against the error in positions due to misalignment. Experimental results suggest that using invariant features decreases the probability of being trapped in a local minimum and may be an effective solution for difficult range image registration problems where the scene is very small compared to the model.


Background There is limited evidence describing methods and challenges for implementing anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury prevention programs (IPP) in a "real-world" context. Objective Evaluate the effects of a ACL IPP workshop on elite-division youth soccer coaches' behavioral determinants to implement a ACL IPP, and describe coaches' subsequent ACL IPP implementation compliance. Design Descriptive study. Setting Elite-division youth soccer club. Participants A convenient sample of 34 soccer coaches (age=34.6±9.1 yrs) of elite-division youth soccer club teams. Interventions We administered a workshop aimed at increasing coaches' behavioral determinants to implement a ACL IPP. Coaches were provided with instructional materials following the workshop. Main outcome measurements Coaches' behavioral determinants regarding ACL IPP using pre/post-workshop surveys and coaches' subsequent rate and fidelity of implementation of the ACL IPP during the following soccer season. Results Wilcoxon signed-rank tests indicated the workshop increased coach attitude toward; conducting a ACL IPP (P=.020), substituting a ACL IPP for a warm-up (P=.007), and improving player cutting and landing technique by implementing a ACL IPP (P=.001). The workshop increased coaches' perceived behavioral control; coaches felt more comfortable in their ability to teach their team a ACL IPP (P=.002) and more confident leading a ACL IPP if given instructions (P=.025). The workshop increased coaches' intent to implement a ACL IPP the next season (P<.001); for 15 minutes (P=.008) and 20 minutes (P=.011) prior to the start of a training session. Only 53% of the club's teams implemented the ACL IPP, with implementers demonstrating high variability in program fidelity. Conclusions ACL IPP workshops can effectively increase coach attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and intent to implement a ACL IPP. However, amplification of behavioral determinants does not appear to directly translate to high-level implementation compliance. Future research should investigate supplementary strategies to facilitate optimal ACL IPP implementation to improve compliance.


The mitigation of climate change demands a decarbonisation of the energy supply of industrialized countries by 2050. This requires fundamental changes of the energy system, high efficiency improvements and a transition to 100% renewable energy supply. A successful transition will need an extremely high acceptance of the general public to be achieved in the given time frame. The necessity of new production, transmission and storage facilities can only by analyzed by highly complex analytical models, which usually are proprietary. In general it is not transparent how the results are derived. To increase the public trust in the results of the underlying modeling, the University of Flensburg is developing the open source model renpass (renewable energy pathways simulation system), for the techno‐economic simulation of the future development of the German and European electricity system. This model is supposed to be made available to the general public to scrutinize the assumptions and results of the planning process for the German 'Energiewende,' the transition to a 100% renewable electricity supply. The open source energy model has the goal to fulfill the requirements of full transparency and the possibility to image 100% renewable energy target systems as well as today's system and all stages of the system transition on a high regional and time resolution basis. The data input, the simulation as well as the optimization and the output are described. In the end the application possibilities especially for the 'Energiewende' in Germany are described and an outlook on future development is given. WIREs Energy Environ 2014, 3:490–504. doi: 10.1002/wene.109


From the Naval Academy to the POW camps of Vietnam to Capitol Hill and possibly to the White House -- one of America's most remarkable menIn 1998, at the dedication of the National Prisoner of War Museum in Andersonville, Georgia, former Attorney General Griffin Bell, a Democrat, introduced Senator John McCain, the featured speaker and a Republican, with these words: "We often hear people now say, where are our heroes, where have all our heroes gone? Well, Senator McCain is an authentic, living American hero."So begins Robert Timberg's gripping and penetrating biography of Senator John McCain, the man who may someday be President of the United States. In "John McCain: An American Odyssey, " Timberg provides a riveting account of McCain's remarkable life -- from his rambunctious childhood and his madcap escapades as a U.S. Naval Academy midshipman to his grim experiences as a combat pilot and POW in Vietnam, where he was held prisoner by the North Vietnamese for five and a half years. Most importantly, the author illuminates Senator McCain's postwar evolution into one of our country's most distinguished political leaders and a formidable presidential candidate. Inspired by the success of "The Nightingale's Song" (selected by "The New York Times" as a "Notable Book of the Year" in 1995 and by "Time" as one of that year's five best nonfiction books), "John McCain: An American Odyssey" probes more deeply into the life of this hugely colorful, straight-talking American original. It is a rich and captivating portrait of one of America's most fascinating and provocative public figures -- a man who has captured the imagination of millions of Americans and who will continue to be a most prominent figure on the American political landscape.


The Brooklyn Museum was one of the first North American institutions to collect and exhibit African material culture as art rather than artifact. Today the museum's collection numbers more than six thousand pieces and is noted for its artistic quality and educational value, as well as a breadth and depth that would be impossible to achieve today. Major works from all areas of sub-Saharan Africa are included in the collection's vast holdings, while the figurative sculpture and masks of Central Africa constitute its most significant focus. More than 130 of those pieces are featured in this large-format compendium, which includes essays by the museum's emeritus curator of African art and a leading scholar on the subject. Taking readers through a cultural exploration of the continent, the collection encompasses regions from Western Sudan and the southwestern Congo to the Equatorial Forest and southern Africa. Carefully photographed and presented in luminous color, these pieces create a stunning introduction to the rich traditions of African art and culture.


The modified drilling and blasting pattern included two rows of cut holes drilled at intermittent locations in a blasting round, i.e., two rows of cut holes were drilled after every 10–12 rows of production holes. The burden and spacing for cut holes were 0.4 and 0.5 m, respectively, and for production rows the blast geometry was 0.7–0.8 m burden and 0.9 m spacing. In the same round, rows of cut holes drilled at intermittent locations were blasted in zero delay and the production rows were detonated subsequently with 25 ms delay interval against the cut rows. The pattern worked effectively where area of blast patch in comparison to length of free face was very high (≥10 : 1). The pattern, in addition to control of flying of blasted fragments and misfire, yielded loose muck profile due to multiple collision of blast waves generated from production holes detonated in the same delay timing.


Purpose: In a substantial population of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), expression and activation of EGF receptor (EGFR) have been reported and is regarded as a novel molecular target. A growing body of evidence has shown the signaling crosstalk between EGFR and integrins in cellular migration and invasion. NEDD9 is an integrin signaling adaptor protein composed of multiple domains serving as substrate for a variety of tyrosine kinases. In the present study, we aimed at elucidating a role of NEDD9 in the signaling crosstalk between EGFR and integrins. Experimental Design: Using NSCLC cell lines, we conducted immunoblotting and cellular migration/invasion assay in vitro. Next, we analyzed metastasis assays in vivo by the use of xenograft transplantation model. Finally, we retrospectively evaluated clinical samples and records of patients with NSCLCs. Results: We showed that tyrosine phosphorylation of NEDD9 was reduced by the inhibition of EGFR in NSCLC cell lines. Overexpression of constitutively active EGFR caused tyrosine phosphorylation of NEDD9 in the absence of integrin stimulation. By gene transfer and gene knockdown, we showed that NEDD9 plays a pivotal role in cell migration and invasion of those cells in vitro. Furthermore, overexpression of NEDD9 promoted lung metastasis of an NSCLC cell line in NOD/Shi-scid, IL-2Rγnull mice (NOG) mice. Finally, univariate and multivariate Cox model analysis of NSCLC clinical specimens revealed a strong correlation between NEDD9 expression and recurrence-free survival as well as overall survival. Conclusion: Our data thus suggest that NEDD9 is a promising biomarker for the prognosis of NSCLCs and its expression can promote NSCLC metastasis. Clin Cancer Res; 18(22); 6326–38. ©2012 AACR.


Triggered by globalisation and the increasing media convergence enabled by digital communication technologies, fansubbing has become one of the most observable aspects of Chinese participatory culture, both domestically and internationally. Informed by concepts drawn from the science of complexity and drawing on social self-organisation theory (Fuchs 2002), this study adopts a systems perspective and the method of netnography (Kozinets 2010) to bring to light the dynamics of collective identity formation in The Last Fantasy (TLF) fansubbing group, one of the most influential fansubbing networks in China. In particular, this study aims to reveal how TLF?s fansubbers deploy digital technologies to facilitate their daily subtitling activities, build and maintain their relationships, and express a collective voice in relation to the specific media context in China. Findings from this study are used to evaluate the role played by amateur translation, as exemplified by fansubbing activities carried out by TLF?s fansubbers, in China?s participatory culture. It is hoped that this study will enrich our understanding of the phenomenon of amateur translation in an increasingly networked society.